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THE REVUE DES DEUX MONDES.

IT must be admitted that neither number of the Revue des Deux Mondes for November is of surpassing interest or importance; indeed, an ill-natured reviewer would probably call them both dull.

THE UNSELFISHNESS OF FRANCE.

To the first November number M. Fouillée contributes a very charming and well-informed study of the genius of the French nation, both in other ages and to-day. The most typical quality of the French of to-day is, he thinks, a certain ideal of generosity, and he adds, truly enough, that it is not from an excess of love and devotion for ideals that nations go wrong nowadays. On the contrary, scepticism, prosaic utilitarianism, financial corruption, the narrow politics of parties and interests, the selfish struggle of classes-such are the evils which must everywhere be combated in the name of ideals. If France should renounce her worship of the ideal, of the spirit of unselfishness, she would lose without any possible compensation that which has always formed her true moral strength. This kind of declaration is too vague, but if M. Fouillée means that France sorely needs the creation of a healthy public opinion, he is unquestionably right. The average Englishman judges France by the novels of the boulevards, by Panama, and by the scenes in the Chamber which the newspapers report with gusto, and he has not the faintest notion of the real France, energetic, frugal, prudent, highly moralised, highly cultivated, which lies below the surface scum.

GERMANY'S BURDEN.

Count Benedetti concludes his interesting observations on Cavour and Bismarck, which he began in the second October number of the Revue. He attributes the crushing growth of German armaments to Prince Bismarck, who inconsiderately broke up the good understanding which subsisted between the Courts of Berlin and St. Petersburg, and drove Russia into the arms of France, a providential agreement which, Count Benedetti thinks, is the sole pledge, at the present hour, of the peace and security of Europe. These views are particularly interesting in view of Bismarck's recent

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revelations" in the Hamburger Nachrichten and elsewhere, and the significant debate in the Reichstag which followed. Count Benedetti is evidently expectantperhaps it would not be doing him an injustice to say hopeful-of disaster for Germany, staggering under the weight of her enormous military budgets, honeycombed with socialism, and split up by a widespread spirit of particularism which not all the Emperor's flamboyant appeals to the memory of his grandfather can crush.

SHOULD THERE BE AN AGE LIMIT FOR STATESMEN? With Count Benedetti's paper may be bracketed an able article by M. Valbert on the Prince de Metternich and Bismarck. M. Valbert thinks that if some modern Plutarch were to arise and write full biographies of the two men, Metternich and Bismarck, whose careers he has delicately sketched within the limits of an article, he would come to the conclusion that the greatest statesmen are wrong to remain too long in power; that the years of prosperity and triumph are followed with fatal certainty by the period of difficulties and mistakes. Metternich made serious mistakes because he ended by believing himself infallible; Bismarck has made serious mistakes because his personal hatreds have

had an excessive influence on his public actions. It is, as Count Prokesch von Osten said, the faculty which Bismarck lacks—the power of distinguishing things from persons.

LA NOUVELLE REVUE.

THE November numbers of the Nouvelle Revue contain noticeably less than usual that calls for comment. The revived interest which French people are taking in the little kingdom of Greece finds expression in two articles which may be bracketed together.

THE IMPORTANCE OF GREECE.

The first, entitled "In Greece," by M. Stephanopoli, the editor of the Messager d'Athènes, is in the first November number; the other article, which is in the second November number, is called "Young Greece," and is by Mdlle. Bovet. To give place aux dames, Mdlle. de Bovet is attracted by the piquancy of the contrasts in Greece. The country, she tells us, is extremely young and at the same time fabulously old, and she apparently went to see it a thing that has occasionally been done before. Mdlle. de Bovet's style is somewhat luxuriant, even for the glorified guide-book sort of article, and the reader is irritated by her habit of constantly dragging in bits extracted from the classical dictionary. M. Stephanopoli's article is of a different kind. He has something to say, and says it well. He endeavours to show that Hellenism is a real force, and declares that Turkey has all along recognised the fact, as is shown by her efforts to win the sympathies, or at least to secure the benevolent neutrality, of Greeceefforts in which the Ottoman Government received the assistance of France and Russia, who urged Greece to behave with prudence and moderation. M. Stephanopoli is convinced that England's machinations throughout the Armenian troubles would have been more successful if Lord Salisbury had realised from the first the importance of Greece and the Greek populations of Turkey in the great problem of the Eastern Ques tion. He is enthusiastic over the splendid resources of Greece. In that case it is perhaps permissible to inquire why she does not pay her debts. M. Stephanopoli has an answer ready. Poor little Greece, he says, had to spend so much in fomenting the Cretan insurrection of 1865, and then the Russo-Turkish War came and she had to arm for her own protection, while her efforts to get Epirus and Thessaly assigned to her by the Berlin Congress were thwarted by the infamous interference of England. Naturally, "Greeks" are at a considerable discount in the City.

OTHER ARTICLES.

Among other articles in the first November number the following may be mentioned. The recollections of General Oudinot are brought to a close. We are given a dramatic glimpse of the Emperor at Bautzen, who had not closed his eyes for seventy-two hours, being seized in the midst of the battle with an irresistible drowsiness and calmly resting for an hour on a portion of the field amid a perfect hail of bullets. That hour's sleep cost him dear. Ney, left without precise instructions, lost all the fruits of a most admirable strategic combination.

The second November number is remarkable for some letters which passed between George Sand and the Abbé Rochet. The good abbé talks mainly of religion, at which George Sand frankly shrugs her shoulders. The letters are not to be compared in importance or interest with the Pagello revelations.

LA REVUE DE PARIS. THE first number of the Revue de Paris is as literary and personal in character as the second is social and political. Perhaps the most notable paper is the curious medical analysis of the genius and character of Emile Zola.

GEORGE SAND AND ALFRED DE MUSSET.

The complex and brilliant personality of George Sand, who has sometimes been called the French George Eliot, though probably no two women of genius ever more truly differed the one from the other, has retained a lasting hold on those of her countrymen and women who are interested in literary matters. Only this autumn the burning controversy as to what were the relations between Madame Sand and Alfred de Musset has been reopened with the aid of an aged Italian doctor named Pagello, who is known to have been the somewhat unworthy cause of perhaps the most poignant drama of jealousy the world has ever known, and which provoked from the pens of two great writers some of their finest work. Dr. Pagello has allowed the curiosity of an interviewer to get the better of his discretion; but with the exception of acknowledging that he once kissed and has now told, he has very little new to say. There is no doubt that he, in his quality of medical man to de Musset, played an ugly part, and George Sand proved once more how unreasoning is the passion of love. The friends and family of the great novelist are now publishing in the Revue de Paris the letters written at the time of the

quarrel by Madame Sand to de Musset, and these long epistles certainly deserve to take a place among the cpistolary literature of the world, for in each of them the writer reveals herself as woman, as worker, as friend, as lover. Immediately following on this curious correspondence are published some exquisite verses addressed at various times by de Musset to Madame Sand, and which form a fitting epilogue to this portion of their story as told by themselves.

A WARNING TO TURKEY.

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Of special interest at the present moment is letter which bears every sign of being authentic, addressed by Fuad Pacha, a one-time Minister of Turkey, to the Sultan the day before his death, which occurred on February 11th, 1869. In it the famous Turkish statesman seemed to have a prevision of all the misfortunes which lay in wait for the Ottoman Empire. Those who are now absorbed in the Armenian question must be referred to the letter, which occupies many pages itself; but one or two passages of this striking epistle may be quoted :

The voice which comes from the tomb is always sincere. Your Empire is in danger; our neighbours are not what they were two centuries ago; they have all gone forward, we alone have gone back. Your Majesty's Empire will be condemned to extinction unless within the next few years you can acquire as much monetary influence as has been acquired by Great Britain, as much knowledge as is possessed by France, and as many soldiers as the Emperor of Russia can command. Our splendid Empire contains all the elements necessary to surpass every other European Power, but in order to accomplish this object one thing is absolutely necessary -we shall have to change all our political and civil institutions. And then, somewhat later:

Among our foreign allies you will always find Great Britain the most powerful and the most to be considered; her friendship is as faithful and solid as are her institutions; she has bestowed on us immense assistance, and we cannot and we shall not be able to do without her help in the future. . . . I would prefer to lose many provinces rather than to see the Sublime Porte abandoned by England.

And then, towards the end of this very curious andif authentic-valuable document:

The Sublime Porte must never tolerate any intrigues having for object that of preaching an alliance between the Armenians and the Ortho lox Church. Still, our best policy will always be that of placing the State above all religious questions. In future, our great Empire should belong neither to the Greeks, nor to the Slaves, nor should one religion or one race necessarily predominate. The Empire of the East will only keep itself upright by the fusion and union of many peoples.

This letter, which was written by Fuad Pacha at Nice, was sent to the then Sultan, but a copy was kept by his descendants, who have now judged it advisable to publish it.

In the second number of the Revue a considerable space is devoted to a long series of letters addressed by George Sand to Sainte-Beuve.

FRENCH PRAISE OF TRADES UNIONISM.

Of more immediate value is M. de Rousier's very impartial discussion of British Trades Unions. He seems to have studied the subject not only carefully, but with the utmost thoroughness, and on the whole his report is entirely in favour of Trade Unionism. Indeed, he evidently ascribes to it and to the efforts of those who have practically organised the great Trades Unions, all the bettering of the condition of English workers during the last thirty-eight to forty years, although he admits that other things have contributed to the present shorter hours and higher wages. He was also very much struck by the fact that on the whole the Unions and the principles of Trade Unionism are popular in the country, and he pays a very high tribute not only to those men who have built up the unions, but also to most of the labour leaders.

PALL MALL MAGAZINE.

THE Christmas number of the Pall Mall Magazine is a most sumptuous edition. Besides the usual profuse and high-class pictures in black and white, and a highly ornate coloured plate for frontispiece-Alice Havers' "Sally in our Alley"-there are in one article-Mr. Frederic Whyte's on “The Queen of Cities "—a number of coloured representations of Constantinopolitan life mingled with the letter-press. The country house selected for the topographical sketch is Blickling Hall in Norfolk, the early home of Anne Boleyn, which Rev. A. H. Malan depicts with pen and camera. Mr. J. H. Rollason contributes a curious study in silver nefs or pieces of plate shaped as ships, used to hold wine or other delicacies, the workmanship of the seventeenth century. The best private collection is that of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, which is here pictured and described in detail, the article having been revisel by H.R.H. himself. "A Cornet of Horse" gives an account of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, the training at which is said to be so severe as to leave few pleasant memories in the minds of its alumni. Mr. Theɔ. A. Cook tells the story of the settlement of St. Augustine in Florida by the Spaniards, and shows how vain was the effort of the Spanish colony. He draws from the failure of Spain the morals: spread free government, loyal independence, free and enterprising trade; keep down the death-rate and send up the birth-rate. Mr. J. Holt Schooling's graphic analysis of our mortality bills claims special notice. Marion Ellistou contributes a singularly touching Christmas dream of Angels Unawares, which will cause more tears of sympathy than the most of similar sketches.

SOME ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINES.

The Leisure Hour.

THE Leisure Hour devotes four pages to the reproduction of an autograph letter of Mrs. Browning. There is an illustrated paper devoted to Nottingham and its industries. Miss Belloc, whose pen is very busy this month, contributes a paper about the "Future Kings of Europe," which is copiously illustrated with portraits of the little people who will some day sit on the throne. There is a brief paper on the Toys and Games in the past, from which it would seem that three thousand years ago the children had dolls, peg-tops, tip-cat, balls, and swings which differ very little from those which amuse our children to-day.

The Lady's Realm.

THE Lady's Realm for December gives the place of honour to a charmingly illustrated paper by Mrs. Haweis, entitled The Empress Frederick and Friedrichshof," which is illustrated, not merely by portraits, but by two sketches by the Empress herself. Miss Belloc's interesting paper on M. Worth is noticed elsewhere. "D." has a paper entitled "The Return of Dodo," and Sarah Tooley, who does not append her portrait above her signature, as the other writers do, discourses concerning Brighton's society.

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The Woman at Home.

THIS is a double number with some notable features. The first is a series of nearly forty pages devoted to the Daughters of Victoria." Katherine Lee writes on the Empress Frederick"; Sarah Tooley on "Princess Alice, Princess Helena, and Princess Louise"; and Miss Belloc writes on "Princess Beatrice." Ian Maclaren finishes the story of" Kate Carnegie" by marrying Kate to the Free Church minister, a destiny to which she was obviously destined from the first chapter. A paper on "The Home of our Commander-in-Chief" gives us plenty of inside views of Lord Wolseley's town house, and some pleasant gossip concerning Miss Wolseley, who seems to be a very capable and attractive young lady. There are also facsimiles of two poems by Charlotte Brontë on the death of her sisters, Emily and Anne.

Harper's.

Harper's Christmas Number opens with an interesting sketch of a Middle English Nativity play by John Corbin, and a Christmas carol by Nina Frances Layard. The chief feature in the number, however, is a charming sketch of President Kruger by Mr. Poultney Bigelow, which is noticed at considerable length elsewhere. Mr. Remington has a very brightly-written and vivid narrative of "How the Law got into Chapparal by the Aid of the Texas Rangers." It is well illustrate l, and is a very instructive account of the way in which a settled society is evolved from a condition of lawless auarchy. There is the usual modicum of fiction, and an interesting story of how tame ducks can be trained to act as decoys. W. D. Howells writes at some length on Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Dr. William W. Jacques explains how he proposes to extract electricity direct from coal. At present we only utilize two and a half per cent. of the energy obtainable and waste ninety-seven and a half per cent. He thus describes his discovery :My discovery is that if the oxygen of the air be caused to combine with carbon, not directly as in combustion, but through an intervening electrolytic carrier, the stored-up

energy of the carbon may be converted directly into electrical energy, and not into heat. Crudely speaking, my invention consists in generating electricity by causing the oxygen of air to combine with coal beneath the level of a suitable liquid.

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Strand.

THE Strand for December has no very eminent article, but keeps up its reputation for novel and curious subjects. Mr. W. G. Fitzgerald gives an interesting account of Brock's pictures in fireworks at the Crystal Palace and elsewhere. These gigantic pictures, about 600 ft. long and some 40,000 sq. ft. in area, and costing for the first appearance £350, and for subsequent discharges £50 each, came in, it seems, during the FrancoGerman war, and sprang from imitation of incidents in that campaign. 'Campaign buttons," buttons bearing a candidate's portrait or motto on each, a favourite feature of the American presidential struggle, are discussed in a lively paper by Mr. George Dollar. There is a taking description of an ingenious toy railway, one hundred feet long, in a clergyman's garden at Windsor, which has stations, signal-system, tunnels, steam rolling-stock, and everything else complete. It ought to prove a valuable educational device worthy of wider vogue. A second paper on idols contains much curious matter, but to tell over the religious beliefs of myriads of our fellow-subjects in the style of a comicrecital which is here adopted scarcely accords with the higher courtesies of public life. The second paper on leaders of the Bar supplies a good deal of interesting chat about Mr. Asquith, Mr. Jelf, Mr. Willis, Mr. Inderwick, Mr. Bigham and Mr. Bompas, the latter gentleman being described as "the perpetual candidate for any and every sort of post."

Pearson's.

THE December issue is a strong number. Mr. Sherard's "White Slaves" in Bradford requires special mention, as do Mrs. Griffith's account of Dr. Bose's Electric Eye and Mr. Brand's inquiry into the connection between civilisation and suicide. Mr. Arthur Woodward gives a vivacious description of many of the chief aerial railways of the world, which are nearly all made by Englishmen. The longest span occurs on the Pinerolo ropeway in the Italian Alps, and is little short of a mile in length. Among the most famous are those at Hong-Kong, Gibraltar, and Cape Town. Mr. T. E. Pemberton portrays with graphic truth the Leicestershire Trappist monastery; and the almost unknown land of Nepaul, jealously secluded from contact with Europeans, is vividly sketched by Miss F. Billington. Mr. Dudley Heath illustrates the Queen's hobby for collecting miniatures, and J. Malcolm Fraser serves up several interesting curiosities in the way of fancy dress. Mr. J. F. Sullivan's "education board" in rhyme and picture is too exaggerated, not to say clumsy, to be effective as a skit on School Board extravagance. Mr. Harry Furniss sketches the Bohemian Club with pen and pencil. Mr. Joyce Garraway has contrived to gather together quite a number of pictures by royal artists.

IN the Young Woman the chief feature for December is Miss Friederichs' sketch of " Home Life at Hawarden,” in the illustrated article on Dorothy Drew and Her Mother. William Clarke devotes some three or four pages to singing the praises of Mr. Harold Frederick, There is also a sketch of Shan F. Bullock, who is about to write a new story entitled "The Charmer," which is to appear in the Young Man next year.

The Century.

THE December number of the Century is one which appeals more to American than British readers, but which has also plenty of interest for both. The principal paper is Horace Porter's recollections of campaigning with Grant, in which he bears witness to Grant's remarkable coolness in trying times. Mr. Smythe holds out roseate prospects for California, looking forward to its development by small in place of large owners. Incidentally he observes that Americans in the East and Middle States know more of Europe than of California-another proof that the sea unites, does not divide. Mr. W. A. Coffin weaves together the souvenirs of a veteran collector, of the name of Avery, with pictures and autographs from many famous artists, among whom may be mentioned Meissonier, Munkacsy, Menzel, Rosa Bonheur, and Cruikshank. Miss H. E. Smith recalls the story, with appropriate portraits and pictures, of a group of American girls belonging to a wealthy family early in the century. The ancient devices of girls' education possess a quaint interest to-day, notably the backboards to improve the figure, and the weights carried on the head to develop a stately carriage. Miss A. S. Lewis asks, what language did Jesus speak? and answers Aramaic,

Scribner.

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THE Christmas Scribner is admirable. The first place is given to an article by Cosmo Monkhouse upon Sir John Millais," which is copiously illustrated, with excellent reproductions of many of Millais's most famous pictures. The article was written before Sir John Millais died. Mr. Monkhouse declares that for a period of nearly fifty years Millais has sustained his reputation as the greatest painter of the day. I cannot say that I can congratulate the editor upon the innovation made upon the printing of Kenneth Graham's charming account of a child's first visit to a circus in blue and gold. It is a novelty, and that is all that can be said for it. There is an amusing attempt to describe the impressions of one of the raiders in Holloway Gaol, who professes to tell us what the Honourable Reggie Blake thought about it. Bobby White will be credited with these three pages, which are very vivid and life-like. There is a good paper by Agues Repplier on "Little Pharisees in Fiction," which can be recommended to the attention of Sunday-school teachers and others. Fiction is very strong, and at least two of the stories deal with Borderland subjects. There is one gruesome story about a square diamond, which had the power of summoning its former possessor when it was closely examined. As this gentleman had the faculty of turning himself into a wolf upon occasion, the diamond was not a possession to be coveted.

The Windsor.

THE December Windsor is a good number, with plenty of varied reading. An ex-member of the Government gives an interior view of "A Day in the Life of a British Statesman," along with a choice assortment of Downing Street gossip. He tells us that "Lord Salisbury writes almost everything with his own hand. Mr. Balfour dictates to a shorthand clerk." Mr. Bright is described as having been "the laziest of mankind at official work," but "an ideal hand at receiving deputations." Mr. T. Artemus Jones initiates the reader into some of the mysteries of the Press Association and Reuter. Mr. Robert Donald tells the story of the London School Board and its work.

New England Magazine.

A SKETCH of John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians, with many quaint reproductions of pages from his books and letters, takes the first place in the very excellent November number of the New England Magazine. The writer, Mr. de Normandie, declares him a modern saint, with a missionary spirit and earnestness as wise as St. Paul's, and a charity and sympathy as sweet as St. Francis d'Assisi; and prophesies that he will be regarded as one of the most commanding figures in early American life. A New England village amid the Southern Pines of North Carolina-"one of the two areas where consumption is unknown"-is affectionately described by B. A. Goodridge. Pinehurst, as it is called, is a model village, owned and laid out by Mr. Tufts of Boston in 1895, as a sanatorium for people of refined tastes and small means.

ART WINTER NUMBERS.

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON AS AN ARTIST.

LAST month we called attention to the Art Annual, the winter number of the Art Journal which was devoted to the life and work of Mr. Marcus Stone. Since then we have received two other art winter numbers. The Studio has issued a second "extra," in continuation of the special "Studio Series" begun at Christmas, 1894, with "Christmas Cards and Their Designers," by Mr. Gleeson White. The new number is altogether excellent, but it is specially interesting for the Robert Louis Stevenson articles. The first is a description of Le Monastier, a mountain town in France, by Stevenson, who visited the place in 1878, and the illustrations are leaves from Stevenson's sketch-book. This is followed by a critical note on Stevenson as an illustrator, by Mr. Joseph Pennell. The other illustrated articles are Famous French Artists at Home, by Mr. Gabriel Mourey; Architectural Sketching, by Mr. Arnold Mitchell; Beautiful Modern Manuscripts, by Margaret Armour; the Samplers, by Mr. Gleeson White, etc. Mr. James Stanley Little's article is on the Ideal Life of a LandscapePainter. The November Studio is also a good number, an interesting feature being reproductions of some of Lord Leighton's studies.

THE ART OF MR. SANDYS.

The winter number of the Artist is a sympathetic "consideration" of the work of Mr. Frederick Sandys as a painter rather than as an illustrator. The writer (Mrs. Esther Wood) describes him as a Pre-Raphaelite in every essential quality, though he was in no way associated with the beginnings of the movement in England. She continues:

A classicist by nature and temperament, yet steeped in the same romantic mysticism that inspired the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he is stronger than any of them in the presentment of a dramatic crisis, though he has little of the brooding sensuous warmth that breathes from nearly all their paintings. He deals less than they with the subtle intimacies of passion, and more with its typical effects and expressions.

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THE MYSTERY."

"THE HISTORY OF THE

THE CONSPIRACY AND THE CONSPIRATORS.

"Annual" this year is no mere romance.

"The

M'History of the Mystery" is a political revelation

that would never have been permitted had it not been that the appointment of the Select Committee rendered further concealment impossible. Believing that all the facts were certain to come out in the worst possible manner both for the reputation of England and of Mr. Chamberlain, I have here endeavoured to set forth the truth in its right perspective, and to clear up the mystery which has hitherto appeared to be impenetrable as to the connection between Downing Street and Dr. Jameson, between Cecil Rhodes and Joseph Chamberlain.

The form into which I have thrown the narrative is that of a purely imaginative account of what might have been achieved if Johannesburg had been fortunate cnough to possess a great

editor, such as my heroine, Jeanne Lefloɔ. There is not much difficulty in disentangling the fact from fiction, or of seeing where I am writing from authentic documents and where I am relying upon my imagination. Jeanne Leflo the heroine, with her assistant Una Milson, and Signor Aurelio, are of course purely mythical personages. So are Holroyd and Max Liebnicht, Una's lovers. But, with these exceptions, there is hardly a person in the romance who is not easily recognisable under his pseudonym.

The following list of pseudonyms may be useful for readers of my History :

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The Leonards-The Rey

nards.

W. G. Schreiner-Mr. Lyndall. E. H. Garrett-E. Loftie. Mr. Beit-Mr. Weit. Mr. L. Phillips-Mr. Lionel. Colonel Rhodes Cecil. That which I make quite clear is that, whether rightly or wrongly, Mr. Rhodes and Dr. Jameson were firmly convinced that Mr. Chamberlain approved of the measures which were taken in advance in Bechuanaland to secure the success of the insurrection in Johannesburg; and that, although Mr. Chamberlain knew nothing of the actual raid, he stands in this matter side by side with Mr. Rhodes, who also was entirely unaware of the raid until the day it took place.

Mr. Hammond-Mr. Drummond.

- Colonel Captain Heaney - Captain Special.

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"NOT SUCH A BAD SKELETON, AFTER ALL!"

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