30 NOVEMBER 1912, Page 2

Mr. W. F. Monypenny, the second volume of whose "Life

of Lord Beaconsfield" was published on November 14th, died on Saturday last, after a short illness, at the age of forty- six. Apart from the tragic aspect of his premature death when only half through the great task he had handled with such success, his loss is to be deplored on personal as well as political grounds. He was not only a very able and admirably equipped journalist, but he was a fearless, upright, and honourable man. His record in South Africa was not merely that of an unflinching loyalist who upheld the British supre- macy with his pen, fought with the Imperial Light Horse, and endured the privations and perils of the siege of Ladysmith. He sacrificed his interests to his convictions over the question of Chinese labour, and cordially supported the grant of autonomy to the Transvaal. Lastly, since the revival of the Home Rule controversy, be had been one of the greatest journalistic forces on the side of the Union.