Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/225

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i is. iv. SEPT. 9, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


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of the United States earn more and live better than the skilled British artisans." This position of affairs is, as might be expected, put down to Free Trade. Mr. Mann " has, perhaps, without knowing it, killed Free Trade." Then comes the moral : "If we double the wages of our workers and they 'can be doubled under a Tariff we shall destroy the worst of our social diseases and improve and elevate the race." Without ex- pressing any opinion as to this opinion or conjec- ture, we may point out that this sort of reform does not seem yet to have got much hold of the working-man. Mr. Morton Luce has an interesting article on ' The Hybrid Art,' i.e., the art which partakes both of prose and poetry, with special reference to ' The Agonists ' of Mr. Hewlett. Mr. Luce is now revealed as the author of a book of verse which made some stir, ' Thysia.' Miss Gertrude Kingston in ' Some Ordinary Observa- tions on Extraordinary Occurrences ' deals with the mixture of futility and apparently genuine and pertinent matter to be found in various super- normal revelations. She describes some seances which she has attended, but her science concerning the subject is more verbose than satisfactory. In ' The Ethics of Medical Practice ' Prof. J. A. Lindsay defends the doctors against the aspersions of a writer in the July number of The Nineteenth Century. It is difficult to speak fairly of a whole profession, but we think the ordinary man is justified in complaining of the charges of specialists. So many guineas, as a friend said to us, do not go well with talk about self-sacrifice and suffering humanity.

Mrs. A. M. W. Stirling has an excellent article about a real character, the fourth Earl of Albe- marle, ' A Master of Horse.' ' The Speech of the Roads,' by Mr. D. MacRitchie, President of the Gypsy Lore Society, discourses various forms of jargon and cant as well as the genuine Romani language. Mr. E. Beresford Chancellor has a good subject in ' Architectural Masterpieces of London,' of which the man in the street knows hardly anything. We think, however, that the educated man knows more than the writer implies. The verdict that ten out of twelve of this class, taken at random, could probably only connect Wren with St. Paul's, and mention no other London architect and building, is contradicted by our own experience.

IN The Cornhill Sir James Yoxall, M.P., dwells on the waste of ' Parliamentary Time,' and the futility of many debaters. Any one even with a casual knowledge of the House of Commons will be able to verify his conclusions. Mr. Andrew Lang in c Shakespeare or X. ? ' shows that Mr. George Greenwood's arguments in his book ' The Shakespeare Problem Restated ' are not so irrefragable as some people think them. While the extant facts concerning the man from Stratford are far from satisfactory, the theory suggested by Mr. Greenwood involves also grave difficulties. 'The Shakspere Allusion -Book,' 2 vols., 1909, should certainly be consulted by all who attempt to investigate the question. ' Something to be Forgotten,' by Mr. Claude E. Benson, is a horrible but effective story of a Beast-God in South America. Mr. Gosse has a lively and striking account of a visit to ' A Danish Poet,' Frederik Paludan-Miiller. This is the second of his papers concerning a visit to Den- mark in 1872, and We hope that he may in time


produce enough to form a book on his Danish friends.

In ' An Airship Voyage ' Mr. H. Warner Allen gives an account of a journey from Moisson to the Army Balloon Factory, South Farnborough. Mr. A. C. Benson had no particular intimacy with ' Bishop Wordsworth of Lincoln,' a much older man than himself. All the same, he describes his career and character in a striking way. The examination paper this month is by Canon Beeching on Dr. Johnson, the questions set by Mr. Godley on Tennyson being answered.

The Fortnightly is, naturally, full of the Parlia- ment Bill and the results of its being passed.. There is also an article on ' Sir Eldon Gorst and his Successor in Egypt,' by W., which seems; to be more judicial than some recent outbursts, on the subject. Sir Eldon is credited with a want, of dignity, an irritability of temper, and an. indifference to the show which appeals to Oriental minds ; and it is considered that these handicaps delayed recognition of the success of his policy^ which was coming to him in full measure when he- fell ill. Mr. James Milne indulges in too much, sentimental verbosity in ' The Scottish Emi- grant's Farewell.' He wishes that the Scotchi could by a rearrangement of land be induced to. stay in their native country. There are three- articles of interest on French writers. M. Augustia Filon in ' Racine in the Dock ' discusses a life- of the French poet by one of his descendants, and finds it unduly critical. Mr. Francis Gribble, whose writing is always bright and entertaining, has a lively article on ' Theophile Gautier ' ; and Mr. Arthur Ransome introduces M. ' Remy de Gourmont ' as " a writer whose books are read! in every country but ours." M. de Gourmonfc, has certainly a wide range in his books. He has: written novels, literary and philosophical criti-- cism, comment on contemporary events, and] scientific work. K. L. Montgomery's ' Some- Writers of the Celtic Renaissance ' refers to the young Irish school whose success deserves more recognition in England than it has hitherto received. Of the two short stories, ' The Kite- Flyer ' is not so much a tale as a moving little picture ; ' A Runaway Affair,' by Walter Lennard, is poignant.

IN the September number of The Burlington Magazine the usual editorial articles do not appear* an omission, we suppose, due to well-earned holidays. The frontispiece shows in colour a fine Spanish carpet of the fifteenth century, one of several discussed by Mr. A. van de Put. The important ' Inventory of the Arundel Collec- tion,' by Miss Mary L. Cox, is continued. Mr, P. M. Turner seeks to discover the painter of ' A Galiot in a Gale,' purchased for the National Gallery in 1895, and catalogued as the work of the elder Cotman. He makes out a good case for Copley Fielding as the painter, and shows by an illustration the likeness between the picture and another by Copley Fielding in the Kunsthalle of Hamburg. In ' Some Approximations ' Sir Martin Conway gives the result of comparing photographs of many ages and countries gathered from all sorts of quarters, and sometimes even cut out of books. He is an indefatigable buyer of reproductions of works of art, and tells us that he once bought 2 cwt. at a time of sale cata- . logues.