7,200 Co-operative Societies, including Raffeisen Banks, and 407 Co-operative Dairies.

There are in Austria 1,916 Raffeisen Co-operative Banks, whose transactions for the year 1889 amounted to £17,200,000. In Würtemburg there are 1,223 such banks with a capital of £2,000,000. In Switzerland there are Co-operative Dairy and other societies in every Canton. In Denmark there is a Co-operative Dairy Society in every parish; there are 18 Cooperative Bacon-curing Societies, and there are innumerable societies for the breeding and rearing of cattle, horses, pigs, poultry, and for bee-keeping and fruit-growing, besi les the branches of the Royal Danish Agricultural Society which are established in every county. Bavaria has 1,751 Co-operative Banks and numerous other societies, returns for which are not yet published.

The Committee also refer, in passing, with approval to the democratisation of credit involved in the People's Banks

A modern discovery which has been likened, as a factor in production, to the discovery of steam.

EDUCATE, EDUCATE, EDUCATE!

So far they would centralise and unify, and after having thus provided for organisation they would set about educating the people in serious earnest :

We propose (1) a reform in the teaching in the Primary Schools; (2) the creation of a new type of Secondary Schools in two categories, to be called Practical Schools of Agriculture, and Practical Schools of Industry and Commerce; (3) the establishment of local Art Schools; (4) the promotion of Evening Continuation Schools and classes for youths and artisans engaged at work during the day: these to be in connection with the Practical Schools, the Art Schools, or the higher Technical Colleges in the towns or cities; (5) the establishment of higher Technical Colleges for Agriculture and Industry.

AGRICULTURAL BISHOP.

In order to get the local communities roused to a sense of the importance of taking action in this direction, they make a great point of the establishment of the Travelling Instructor, that kind of Agricultural Bishop to which I have alluded before. They say:

We recommend the appointment of a body of travelling experts, to act under the new Department, who should be trained and practical agriculturists of proved qualifications, or men qualified by a full course of instruction in agricultural science and practice at the Normal Agricultural College, to which reference will be made further on. The function of these experts would be (a) to conduct conferences and courses of lectures for the farming classes in their district, (b) to act as consulting advisers to the farmers of their district in the direct management of their holdings, (c) to superintend and assist in the agricultural course at the Primary Schools, and (d) to direct the cultivation of the Example Plots.

THEIR DIOCESE AND DUTIES.

Each Travelling Instructor would be allotted a district, the siz of which would be determined, after experience, by the new Department. He should reside in this district, moving about in it constantly, and becoming thoroughly familiar with every holding and every cultivator in it; by his knowledge, character, and tact he should acquire the respect and confidence of the farmers, so that they will freely consult him, and be ready to act on his suggestions. He would help in organising voluntary associations, and in all approved efforts that may be made in the locality to diffuse more active, brighter, and more productive social conditions amongst the people, such as the organisation of classes for the winter evenings which local committees may promote under the continuation Code, as is done in England; the introduction of rural industries; the getting up of local shows of agricultural and industrial produce. In all these matters his advice, and help so far as possible, should be at the service of the locality. We look, judging by foreign experience, to this class of

instructors as one of the most fruitful of all agencies in the work of regeneration.

EXAMPLE PLOTS.

We further propose the establishment of Example Plots which should be a feature of the scheme in every rural parish. These would be tilled under the direction of the Travelling Instructor, and would serve to illustrate his lectures. Following the foreign practice, the Example Plots should be furnished by the locality. There ought to be no difficulty in finding local farmers and landowners who will readily give a piece of land for the purpose. This is the custom abroad. The produce of the plot usually belongs to the farmer who gives the land.

Wherever a garden does not exist in connection with a National school, we propose that the Example Plot, under the direction of the Travelling Instructor already described, shall be available for the purposes of the agricultural course in the Primary School. This provision will enable the National Board, without extra expense, to make the agricultural course in all its rural Primary Schools more practical than it is. For assisting in or directing the agricultural course, the Travelling Instructors of the new Department would be at the service of the Board.

PRACTICAL SCIENCES SCHOOL.

In all Primary Schools a course of rudimentary science, illustrated by experiments and object lessons, should be given. For the superintendence of this course in the schools of that district, the science-teacher of the neighbouring Practical School should be available. In rural districts this science course should include elementary botany, and in urban schools it might include, instead of botany, elementary mechanics, while in all cases it should be subject to variation as the necessities of the local industries might suggest. Local geography should be given a prominent place. In fishing districts a knowledge of the local coast-line, with shoals. fishing-grounds, etc., should be imparted with the aid of charts.

Drawing should be a compulsory subject in all Primary Schools, and the course should include both freehand and industrial drawing, such as plans and designs for simple articles of manufacture, and maps of areas actually measured, e.g., of the school-yard. Manual instruction should be introduced in all these schools, the degree and character of which must be determined by circumstances. The ultimate principle of such instruction should be the imparting of handiness tu the children.

PRACTICAL SCHOOLS FOR GIRLS.

The Practical Schools for girls, besides drawing and an adaptation of the general scientific course of the boys' schools, would teach, in urban districts, for example, dressmaking, staymaking, millinery, embroidery, artificial flower-making, lace-making, and perhaps painting on porcelain, wood-carving, type-writing and shorthand, domestic economy, housekeeping, cookery, domestic hygiene and first help in sickness. In rural districts, besides the three last items and the general course, they would teach the care of stock, the management of poultry, dairying, botany, the rudiments of chemistry and physics, and perhaps some rural industry such as hand-weaving and spinning.

The beginnings of a School Museum illustrative of the local industries, vegetation, minerals, etc., which the children might help in collecting, under the direction of the science teacher, ought to be made in connection with each Primary School.

Secondary Schools of the most modern form, like French technical schools of this grade, should be Practical Schools of Agriculture, and Practical Schools of Industry and Commerce.

The necessity for readjusting the educational machinery of Ireland to the needs of the new time was asserted last month very strongly by a deputation from the Board of Elucation Commissioners, which waited upon Lord Cadogan to urge that something should be done to improve the technical education of the Irish people. Their memorial suggested that the Earl should appoint

a Commission to do what, in fact, had already been done by the Recess Committee:

The Board think that these important ends could best be attained by the appointment of a Commission to report on how manual instruction and the teaching of elementary science and art should be introduced into primary schools in Ireland.

IGNORANCE THE ROOT OF ALL THE MISCHIEF.

The lack of instruction, the lack of intelligence, the lack of training, in short, on the part of our rural population is exposing us to being weakened and defeated in detail all along the line. As we lost the butter trade to Denmark, and much of the iron trade to Germany and Belgium, so we shall lose everything unless we recognise in time that in the keen competition of modern industry the ignorant have no chance. It is alleged by some that efforts made by county councils to provide technical education have failed. But this is chiefly owing to the fact that the children who ought to come forward to take their place in the technical schools have never been allowed to remain long enough in the primary schools to be able to take advantage of the more advanced

instruction.

WHY THE SCHOOL AGE MUST BE RAISED.

It is no use letting children leave the primary schools between ten and eleven, and then expecting them, when they are fifteen or sixteen, to take their places in the secondary schools. The gap is too great, the gulf is as wide for practical purposes as that which lay between Dives and Lazarus. We must give up the absurd folly of attempting to establish a system of technical education until we have improved our primary schools. The first thing to be done is to raise the school age. Sir John Gorst brought forward this proposal in his Education Bill, which failed, but which must occupy a prominent place in the Education Bill of next year. This will depend upon the use that is made by the Minisfriends of education and of progress this recess. ters at present seem very much inclined to abandon their educational proposal and to substitute for it a mere subsidy bill, increasing the grant to denominational schools.

WORK FOR THE RECESS.

If this be so, a great opportunity will be lost, for which men will have to pay dear. If, however, the educationalists throughout the country, and public-spirited and inteiligent men and women everywhere, will but utilise this recess for bringing pressure to bear upon the Government, we can rely upon it that next Session will not open without some attempt being made to improve our primary education, to make it more practical, and better adjusted to the needs of the classes for whom it was instituted. But it is no good saying what ought to be done next Session unless we are prepared in the recess to express our opinion in the right way in no uncertain terms.

PART VI.-WHAT SHOULD WE DO? The Irish Nationalists are so busy with preparations for their great convention that they have bestowed but little attention so far upon the proposals of the Recess Committee. Ministers have dispersed far and near in search of a well-earned holiday. But in November the Cabinet will meet to decide upon the programme of the coming Session, and it is then that pressure should be brought to bear upon Ministers to make some effort to carry out the beneficent and far-reaching measure of

reform and regeneration that is recommended by the Recess Committee.

The moment is propitious. Lord Cadogan can assure them of the unanimity and earnestness with which the Education Commissioners have urged the administration to take measures, calculated at improving the technical or, as it would be better to call it, the practical education of the people. The names of the members of the Recess Committee are a sufficient proof of the consensus of opinion in favour of such a programme of Homestead Rule for Ireland. Ministers have great advantages in attempting to deal with this question.

The one distinguished success that has been achieved in recent years in Ireland was won by Mr. Balfour's policy in dealing with the congested districts. Ministers stand committed to deal with Irish local government and with Irish education. Mr. Gerald Balfour has already established a fair reputation in dealing with Irish questions. Here is one that offers him better results than any that can accrue from further tinkering of the much tinkered Land Act.

But the success which has attended the deliberations of the Recess Committee in Ireland justifies us in asking whether something of the same kind could not be attempted in England. Lord Winchilsea has for some years been as a voice crying in the wilderness as to the urgent necessity for some combined action on the part of the agriculturists in order to rescue British rural life from the catastrophe which has almost overwhelmed it. In a fortnight's time the British Produce Supply Association will begin operations in Lincoln and Long Acre:

A district within a radius of twelve miles around Sleaford will be in charge of an experienced organizer, working with the co-operation of a Committee, on which the central Association will always be represented; and three or more distinct lines of communication," running to Sleaford through the chief towns and villages from the limits of this radius, will be recognised. Along these routes collectors will travel every morning to receive the small produce from the farmers and labourers, and will convey it to the stores at Sleaford, whence it will be dispatched in special trucks the same day to the London depôt or elsewhere, full advantage being thus taken of those reduced charges which the railway companies have declared their willingness to make for consignments in bulk. Then, too, along these lines of communication separators will be provided at a number of different stations for the convenience of farmers willing to supply cream for buttermaking.

This is but a beginning, and it only touches one corner of the comprehensive scheme recommended by the Recess Committee. But as Lord Winchilsea has so manfully made this beginning, why should not all the solid and progressive interests in Great Britain unite, as the Recess Committee did in Ireland, to devise the best method by which prosperity may be restored to the much depressed rural industries of England?

A Recess Committee, with, let us say, the Prince of Wales at its head, and with Lord Winchilsea as secretary, ought to be able to command the services of the best men interested in our rural life. Every one agrees that something should be done. But there is great lack of definite decision and simultaneous action on parallel lines throughout the land. To achieve this most desirable end, what machinery is so natural, so simple, and so obvious as that set in motion by the Recess Committee? In the territorial aristocracy in each county we have those who should be the natural leaders of our rural life. Are we to appeal to them in this crisis in vain?

in Germany," which has gone into a second edition, continues to occupy the press. The Daily News pooh-poohs Mr. Williams as an alarmist, the Daily Chronicle naturally takes the other side, and the discussion goes on in a more or less desultory fashion in the other papers.

CORRESPONDENCE WITH LORD ROSEBERY.

An interesting correspondence has taken place between Mr. Davidson, of Messrs. Davidson and Co., Old Broad Street, whose house is the oldest firm of general importers of hardwares, metals and dry goods into Brazil, and Lord Rosebery. Mr. Davidson fully confirms what Mr. Williams says as to the steadily increasing extent to which he and his partners are becoming dependent on foreign goods. He says:

We have in several cases been instrumental in causing home manufacturers to enter into competition with foreigners, but in many notable instances we have found our efforts unavailing, and have been forced to ally ourselves with makers on the Continent. We have always found ourselves well served abroad, not only as regards the qualities of the articles furnished, but likewise by reason of the extremely intelligent manner in which our wishes have been interpreted. Then we have found freights abroad much lower. In a word, we have been gradually forced into extending our foreign connections, at the expense of our home friends, to our infinite regret.

Mr. Davidson deprecated a Royal Commission, fearing that it might occasion delay, and suggested as an a'ternative that Lord Rosebery should—

with the aid of that paramount influence you possess, endeavour to obtain, by means of the evidence of merchants and others engaged in foreign trade, the proofs of the evils the existence of which you so wisely recognise. This could be effected by the circulation of well-considered questions among English merchants, not only as to the cause of the said evils, but likewise as to their remedies.

Lord Rosebery replied, explaining that in his speech at Epsom he

Intended to arouse the attention of our commercial classes to the grave inroads which are being made on our commerce by foreign Powers, at any rate by one, owing to superior technical and commercial education, and if I may so express myself, to a more up-to-date system of pushing manufactured goods among foreign countries, and of adapting them to the wants of those countries. I observe, however, that many correspondents fully appreciate, like yourself, this view of the case. You think a Royal Commission would be a tardy method of inquiry. I quite agree that a Royal Commission of the ordinary kind would probably bury the question under a mass of irrelevant folios. What is really wanted is a small commission of inquiry to present in a compact form information which already exists, and to collect the testimony of men of experience like yourself as to the causes of and remedies for the evil. They ought to be able to complete their inquiry and report in six, if not in three months. I believe that their labours would at least equal in value most of the recent efforts of Parliament.

LORD SALISBURY'S SUGGESTION.

A correspondence has taken place between Lord Salisbury and the Secretary of the Associated Chambers

of Commerce as to the assistance which Consuls abroad can render to British traders. Lord Salisbury enters into some detail in his reply to the various criticisms of the Associated Chambers. But the only paragraph that needs to be quoted here is his emphatic eulogy of the commercial traveller. He says:

However, the work of the bona fide commercial traveller must continue to appertain to the sphere of private commercial enterprise, and cannot either legitimately or with advantage be usurped by the State, and it is Lord Salisbury's belief that in well directed activity of this description, to which Chambers of Commerce no less than private firms and mercantile associations can in various degrees contribute, will be found one of the surest means of promoting British commercial interests in foreign parts.

MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S EXHIBITION.

The British West Indian Colonies, in response to an appeal from Mr. Chamberlain, have sent to London a varied collection of goods "made in Germany" and elsewhere which are displacing British goods in the Colonial market. The collection is on view in the rooms of the London Chamber of Commerce. The contributory colonies are Trinidad, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Barbadoes, and St. Lucia. There are specimens of foreign-made apparel of various kinds for men, women and children, cotton goods, cordage and twine, hardware and cutlery, hats, boots, implements and tools, leather, silk, woollen and worsted goods, and refined sugar.

The Times says:

The present display brings before the public what is perhaps only the first of many facts which Mr. Chamberlain's useful inquiry will lay bare-namely, that foreign_manufacturers have obtained a footing in the markets of British colonies because, for one reason at least, they are willing readily to adapt themselves to the peculiar conditions of particular trades. The exhibition, which will no doubt assume much larger dimensions, is to remain open to the public until 5th September, and afterwards arrangements will be made to transfer its contents either wholly or in part to the provinces.

GERMAN ENTERPRISE IN JAPAN.

The Leisure Hour for September, writing on this subject, remarks:

66

It is really wonderful what pains a German will take to do a trade. The latest thing out in periodicals is the German Japanese Industrial Advertiser," distributed gratis throughout Japan, and found on the tables of the hotels and clubs, and scattered wholesale into the houses and huts. It is printed in the Japanese character, and in what is intended to be the Japanese language, containing, however, many screamingly funny mistakes, so that the merry Japs have taken to it as if it were & comic newspaper. Such mistakes are, however, pardonable, considering that it is printed in Berlin and shipped out in quires Fancy writing a descriptive article of a factory in Japanese! And there is to be an endless series of these, all of them dealing, of course, with the greatest factories on earth-that is, in Germany-puffs prodigious without an advertisement, for no further advertisement is required. Among other things is a long list of German shippers, with details of the goods they can supply, showing that everything under the sun is either made in Germany or can be had from Germany. Not only is the "Advertiser" moving along, but it is taking a crowd of satellites with ithandbooks, pamphlets, catalogues, calendars-in fact, a complete advertising battery. And there is a Chinese edition of all this coming soon.

DEAR

EAR MR. SMURTHWAYT,-You and I and every one else have been away at the sea or in the hills, and you, no doubt, have been doing your best to enjoy that kind of literature-fiction and the rest-for which the seaside is especially supposed to stimulate the taste. But while in August every one who reads at all is reading novels, publishers, on the other hand, are preparing for their autumn campaign, for the activity of September and October-still, I suppose, far the most important months of the year. Already, indeed, are indications, warning rivulets, forerunners of that huge flood, which, in a few weeks, will submerge all the booksellers' counters, and make sensible choice the most difficult of tasks. Since your commission to me you have been spared the necessity of that choice, and, faithful to my trust, I am sending you now all the good books that have come out this month, in order that, when the real rush, of which the present good books are mere symptoms, comes, you will be free to cope with it. First, for that little list you always like to see of the best-selling books :—

The Reds of the Midi: an Episode of the French Revolution. By Félix Gras. 3s. 6d.

Gathering Clouds: a Tale of the Days of St. Chrysostom. By Frederic W. Farrar, D.D. 7s. 6d.

Made in Germany. By Ernest E. Williams. 2s. 6d. The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns. Edited by Andrew Lang and W. A. Craigie. 78. 6d.

Sons of Fire. By M. E. Braddon. 2s.

Flotsam: the Study of a Life. By Henry Seton Merriman. 6s.

Shameful confession or excusable ignorance, I must say that the name and fame of M. Félix Gras had never before come my way. And yet Mr. Thomas Janvier, who introduces "The Reds of the Midi" (Heinemann, 3s. 6d.), writes of his "method" having "the largeness and clearness of the Greek drama," and of his having won popularity with "a public that judges by high standards;" and I learn too that he is the official head of the Félibrige, that society of Provençal men of letters which Mistral did so much to found and make famous. Certainly "The Reds of the Midi "-why not "The Reds of Provençe," by the way? for that would have been a name far more likely to convey the idea of the story to English readers-is an inspiriting and artistic piece of work. And we would judge that it loses little in the translation of Mrs. Janvier. Yes, M. Gras's "method" is certainly simplicity itself. He has a tale to tell of the French Revolution, the tale of one actor, a little iad from Avignon, who, anxious to avenge the wrongs his father has suffered at the hands of the hated "Aristos," joins the famous Marseilles batallion, and marches to Paris singing "The Marseillaise," and waking the Rhône valley with their cry, armes, citoyens! Aux armes ! " The boy lives to be an old man, and in his native village tells the tale of what he has seen to an audience of rustics. There is a deal of carnage in the book, but the result is eminently readable and enjoyable.

"Aux

Dean Farrar is one of those enviable authors of whom the public has never had sufficient. First one book of his and then another has a large success, and now that his "Gathering Clouds" (Longmans, 7s. 6d.) has appeared in a popular edition it achieves immediately a fresh circle of readers. "Made in Germany" has aroused so much

controversy that it is likely to go on selling; Miss Braddon's last novel, "Sons of Fire" (Simpkin, 2s.), comes out in cheap form just in time to find a place in the luggage of every holiday-maker who cares for her particular kind of sensational fiction; while Mr. Seton Merriman, after having produced excellent story after excellent story, has made himself the vogue with "Flotsam," a tale far inferior to most of its predecessors. It is sincerely to be hoped that he will not take this as a gauge of what goes down with the public. Such a novel as his "With Edged Tools" is much more likely to win him an enduring reputation.

The edition of "The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns" (Methuen, 7s. 6d.), which appears on this list, is by far the best of those which are intended for popular use. Admirably printed, and with an excellent portrait of the poet as frontispiece, it contains a sensible introduction of some thirty pages, presumably from the pen of Mr. Andrew Lang alone, a glossary, indices of first lines and of names, and just sufficient notes at the foot of each page to save the reader any misconceptions as to the meaning of the text, or the nature of allusions. But you will also find the first two volumes of an edition of Burns (Jack, Edinburgh, 10s. 6d. each, net.) of a far more ambitious and expensive kind. The aim of the editors of this Centenary Edition, Mr. W. E. Henley and Mr. T. F. Her.derson, has evidently been to produce the definitive cdition of the poet, and certainly, if we can judge from these instalments-there are to be four volumes in all-their labour has borne the best of fruit. In the matter of notes and explanations they have restricted themselves, wisely enough, to" essentials;" their glossary, which appears on the margin of every page, is excellent; and the shape and size of the book, considering that its appeal is to the scholar, could not be improved. The cover alone perhaps invites hostile criticism. Other attractions that this edition boasts are a considerable number of etchings by Mr. William Hole, R.S.A., reproductions in facsimile of some of the original manuscripts, and a new study of Burns's life and work from Mr. Henley's pen. But for this last, alas! we have to wait till the appearance of the final volume.

I haven't a great deal of fiction to send you this month, but as recent parcels have not suffered from a lack of novels, you cannot complain. Miss Mabe! QuillerCouch's "The Recovery of Jane Vercoe and other Stories' (Arrowsmith, Bristol, 1s.) will not owe its success to any external attractions, for few books are less likely to invite the attention of the critical and fastidious in literature. But success it does deserve, of a surety. Miss Quiller-Couch (as befits a sister of "Q.") writes of Cornwall, and some of her short stories have a strong family likeness to those in Noughts and Crosses" and its successors; they have, too, the same length, and they can be said to deal with the same neighbourhood. Each story is good work, not perfunctory, with heart in it; and the collection is certainly eminently readable. I was seduced into buying Mr. Albert Kinross's "The Fearsome Island" (Arrowsmith, Bristol, 1s.) for your parcel by its provocative title, and, in part, by its dedication to Mr. Zangwill. I soon found, however, that it was a poor medley of horrors and wonders found on a remote island by a shipwrecked mariner of a past century-a mariner who writes in a villanously archaic style. Mr. Kinross may have been

emulous to repeat the kind of success Mr. Wells has made, or he may have dreamt the horrors of his island; but anyhow, the result is nothing to make a fuss about, and a good title has been wasted. By the way, you will be interested to see a version in French, made by Mr. Egerton Castle, of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Prince Otto" under the title of" Le Roman du Prince Othon " (Lane, 7s. 6d. net). In a "dédicace" of considerable length to Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., also in French, Mr. Castle deals freshly and interestingly with Stevenson's work. Mr. D. Y. Cameron has etched both title-page and frontispiece for this curious and handsome volume. I remember no other case in which an English novel has been translated into French by an Englishman. Finally, so far as fiction is concerned, you will find Mr. Silas K. Hocking's new novel," For Such is Life" (Warne, 3s. 6d.).

Mr. Alfred E. Knight's "Victoria, Her Life and Reign: an Illustrated Biography of the Queen (Partridge, 3s. 6d.), is the only volume I have to send you of biographical or historical interest. Although only a piece of book-making, it appears very opportunely, and no doubt you will be glad to have it for reference. Some of the illustrations it contains are interesting. There are three important books with a political and economic bearing, however, and of these the first volume of a series entitled "Select Documents Illustrating the History of Trade Unionism" is the most valuable. It deals with "The_Tailoring Trade" (Longmans, 5s.), is edited by Mr. F. W. Galton, and contains a preface by Mr. Sidney Webb, who would hardly lend his name to a book of this class unless its facts are absolutely to be relied upon. Mr. Theodore Dodd's "Administrative Reform-Local Government Board" (Henry, 1s.) is intended to point out how much can be done, here and there, in the way of reform without the necessity for an Act of Parliament. Then Sir Hugh Gilzean-Reid's Housing of the Poor: an Example of Co-operation' (A. Gardner, 1s.), is a most interesting description of what has been done in Edinburgh in providing homes for working-men and others.

Of theology of the orthodox kind I have nothing to send you; but you will be interested in the latest volumes issued by the Theosophical Publishing_Society, Mrs. Besant's "The Path of Discipleship: Four Lectures delivered at Adyar, Madras, in December, 1895" (2s. net), and Mr. A. P. Sinnett's "The Growth of the Soul: a Sequel to Esoteric Buddhism'" (5s. net). Of similar interest is a little volume Mr. E. T. Sturdy has translated from the Sanskrit, "Nârada Sûtra: an Enquiry into Love" (Longmans, 2s. 6d.), in the hope that it will do something to combat the prevalent idea that "Indian religions and philosophies show marvellous ingenuity, but no heart, no love, such as Christ taught." The essence of this Sanskrit doctrine would seem to be that the nature of love is before and above all renunciation and self-sacrifice. The "independent commentary' with which the editor accompanies his translation is very full and ingenious.

Have you ever done any Alpine climbing? But whatever your answer may be to this question, I have no doubt you will read with avidity Mr. E. A. FitzGerald's "Climbs in the New Zealand Alps: being an Account of Travel and Discovery" (Unwin, 31s. 6d. net.), a large and sumptuous volume containing "the simple record of a journey of adventure, undertaken with definite purpose"-the climbing and exploration of certain virgin peaks in a country to which members of the Alpine Club, weary of Switzerland,

a

are

only just beginning to turn their attention. One has only to look at the photogravure and collotype illustra tions to this work, from photographs, and drawings by Mr. Joseph Pennell, Mr. H. G. Willink, and Mr. A. D. McCormick, to see how fascinating are its contents. Untrodden passes and unscaled summits led the travellers again and again into situations of the most deadly peril, and their story is as absorbing as anything of the kind ever written. And scientifically, the expedition was of the greatest value-a large map shows how extensive were its services to the geography of the district, while appendices, by Sir Martin Conway, Professor Bonney, and others, deal with the geology, flora, and fauna of the country, and with the necessary equipment for travellers desirous of emulating Mr. FitzGerald's exciting exploits. Mr. George Wherry's "Alpine Notes and the Climbing Foot" (Macmillan, Cambridge, 3s. 6d.) is a less ambitious volume on the same kind of theme, addressed rather to the "novitiate," although the chapters on "the climbing foot" and accidents have a higher value.

One sport I know you to be proficient in-that of fishing; so you will welcome a reissue in one volume of John Mayor's edition of "The Complete Angler" (J. C. Nimmo, 6s.), with a good photogravure portrait of Walton, seventyfour delightful wood-engravings, and seven full-page illustrations-rather dull, 1 must confess-after paintings by Mr. A. H. Tourrier. But although this last is the best edition I know of Walton and Cotton for the general reader, I send you also the first five of the monthly parts (Lane, 1s. each, net) of an edition which Mr. Le Gallienne is editing, and which, when completed, will certainly be one of the most charming books that has issued from the Bodley Head. The particular attraction, apart from the beauty of its type and the excellence of the paper on which it is printed, of this edition lies in the beautiful drawings by Mr. Edmund H. New, one of the Birmingham school of illustrators, the antiquated style of whose work suits admirably well the matter with which it goes. Mr. New has made a point of seeking out and showing in his drawings all the localities to which Izaak Walton refers. Mr. Le Gallienne, by the way, calls his edition "The Compleat Angler." His introduction will appear in the final section.

Do you remember the enthusiasm with which I sent you a couple of years ago-I believe it was in July, 1894 -a little volume, "The Invisible_Playmate," by Mr. William Canton? I quoted then, I think, some of the couplets from a poem it contained, such as

"She was a treasure; she was a sweet;

She was the darling of the Army and the Fleet." Mr. Canton has revived the dear little mite who was the heroine of that poem, and of the whole book, and the result," W. V.: Her Book, and Various Verses " (Isbister, 3s. 6d. net) makes a very charming volume of child-lore and life. The fancy and delicacy of the description of W. V.'s sayings and doings you, as a father, cannot fail to appreciate-for the book, I need hardly add, is one for fathers and mothers, not children. The winsome child was frightened at the fate that had once threatened King Robert the Bruce-" And if they had found him would they have sworded off his head? Really, father? Like Oliver Crumball did Charles King's?" On another occasion she was puzzled by the inscription on a noticeboard-"It was not 'The public are requested' this time, but Forbidden to shoot rubbish here.' Either big game or small deer she could have understood;-but Who wants to shoot rubbish, father?'"