16 DECEMBER 1882, Page 21

Tha most notable paper in a good number of the

Army and Navy Magazine is " By Hook or Crook." It tells how an unscrupulous ne'er-do-well, by personating the almost idiotic son of a very stupid and ultra-Tory peer, secures for him a commission and for himself a thousand pounds. Does the author, who signs himself " Ignotus," and who writes smartly, mean to say that some such fraud as this has actually been perpetrated P If not, what moral does his story point P Articles on the Gatling gun and the armoured train are appropriate, though slight ; and so is Major King Harman's account of "Tho Afghan Campaign of 1878-1880." "French claims on Madagascar" is a good summiog-up of a bad case.