Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/28

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vi. JILY G, 1912.


Now there is a railway station there, " and the old place is much changed. The church has been rebuilt, the parsonage has been ' improved ' ; the very moors are not what they were when urrer, Ellis, and Acton Bell walked on them with their arms about each other's waists. But Haworth will always be known as the home of the Brontes."

Messrs. Jack deserve all praise for this delightful series. The sections include Philosophy and Religion, History, Science, Social and Economic, and Letters. The little volumes, printed in clear type on good paper and with neat cloth binding, should find a home where books are scarce, and .also a place in libraries by the side of larger works on corresponding subjects. Most oi the volumes contain a chronology and a list of works referred to We can only repeat what we have already said of " The People's Books " : " We have never come across a more wonderful sixpenny- worth."

IN this month's Fortnightly Review the most important literary contribution is Mr. Edmund Gosse's ' Rousseau in England in the Nineteenth Century.' a careful and detailed study of veerings in public opinion, operated to a more considerable extent than might have been supposed by articles in The Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews, though caused by deeper-going facts connected alike with external history and developments of national character. Mr. Gosse would evidently welcome a revival among us of interest in Rousseau, and to that end recommends a study of Mrs. Mac- donald's recent work on the subject. Lord


V clIKlH-L HJVJV/JV *- * BfTi T !_

on its appearance in an English edition. In it he sweeps the reader on, by rapid and trenchant sentences, ove.r the history of Napoleon as far as Marengo, studding the narrative with epigrams. There are two studies of women, both of the " adventuress " order : Mr. Francis Gribble's lively ' Napoleon and Mile. Montansier,' in which Napoleon's share is naturally very subordinate ; and ' The Princess Tarakanova,' by Prince Baria- tinsky, which sets out vividly the particulars of that tragic story, but provides no solution of its mystery. ' Romance versus Reality, directed against Mr. Bernard Shaw, though much of it borders on the trite, has several good remarks c q " There is no dramatizing of a society without a 'sympathetic grasp of its true ideals and suc- cesses " a sentence which expresses the secret of the failure of many a comedy. ' The Centenary -of the Battle of Salamanca ' consists of two vivid, humorous, and gallant letters from a young lieutenant who went through the action. He admired Scott, and phrases from ' The Lay of the Last Minstrel ' crop up oddly in the midst of his description. Sir Gilbert Parker's ' Life-Pieces in Arizona ' is a string of incident and character- sketches drawn with all that vigorous humour and that manner of good-fellowship which his readers have long since learnt to expect from him. The political articles concerned with external affairs treat of Lord Kitchener's work in Egypt (Sir George Arthur), the new Chinese Republic (Mr. Robert Machray), and Imperial policy and foreign relations (Mr. Archi- bald Hurd). Mr. Arthur Baumann's exposition of


Lord Hugh Cecil's book ' Conservatism ' should do good service in helping to disentangle the essential nature and function in the State of the principle of " Conservatism " though, as to his criticism of this particular writer, his avowed Erastianisni seems to us to have proved rather disabling. Mr. Benjamin Taylor's ' Labour and Socialism ' is a r6sum of the outstanding facts of industrial history during the last few years, and a com- prehensive review of the present situation.

The Cornhill Magazine begins a new serial by Mrs. Henry de la Pasture, of which the first chap- ters, if somewhat long drawn put, are graceful in the dialogue, and not deficient in humour. Dr. Fitchett's sketch of Sir John Jones's career ' A Peninsular Veteran ' is drawn from Jones's ' Autobiography,' of which twelve copies only were printed " for family perusal." Jones is a most heroic and amiable figure, well deserving renewed remembrance. It is grievous to think that his fighting career was cut short, and severe suffering entailed upon him by sheer callousness on the part of Wellington. Wellington, however, of whom many anecdotes are here related, does not always appear in so unfavourable a light. Another military study is ' The Hill,' by Taprell Dorling, a strong and vivid description of the way in which the Japanese, in the late war with Russia, got possession of the height which was the key to the position at Port Arthur. The ghastly exploit by which at last success was assured can, we think, hardly be paralleled in the history of war, for cool invention and bravery. Mr. Joseph Bridge contributes an amusing paper on ' Mi % . Pepys and his Office-boys ' ; and in ' A New Ascent,' by Mr. G. Winthrop Young, we have the account of a climb up the northern face of the Weisshorn. " The vivid and exquisite moments that make up the real character of a mountain climb escape," the writer tails us, " recollection."

Sir Henry Lucy's ' Sixty Years in the Wilderness' gives us first " the story of a great schism " that is, of Mr. Chamberlain's breaking away from his old party and then a series of ' Memories,' chiefly connected with political personages, bufc including a ghost-story, and an amusing account of the exploits on the moors of a London editor. Mr. Whetham's paper ' Electricity, Positive and Negative,' sets forth with admirable lucidity Sir Joseph Thomson's application of photography to the study of electrical discharges the latest triumphs of physics in the direction of discovering the relations between electricity and matter.


to (0msp0ntonts.


CORRESPONDENTS who send letters to be for- warded to other contributors should put on the top left-hand corner of their envelopes the number of the page of 'N. & Q.' to which their letters refer, so that the contributor may be readily identified.

M. L. R. BRESL.VR (" Oft in the stilly night "). The words are Moore's, and may be found in many albums of songs.

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT ("Fighting like devils for conciliation "). See 8 S. x. 273, 340, 404; xi. 13, 255, 371.