CURRENT LITERATURE.
THE JOURNAL OF THE C.I.V. IN SOUTH AFRICA.
The Journal of the C.I.V. in South. Africa. By Major-General W. H. Mackinnon, Commandant of the Corps. (J. Murray. 6s.) —Though not a work which pretends to brilliancy or originality, the book before us is of considerable interest. It is a plain, straightforward diary of the daily doings of the C.I.V. kept by the man most competent to keep it, the officer commanding the regiment in the field. The style of the book is clear and soldierly, said there is no rhetoric or "slopping over" of any sort. The volume is sure to be liked by the men who fought under General Mackinnon, for its entries will serve as excellent pegs on which to hang their individual reminiscences. The regiment must in many ways have been very like the Volunteer regiments formed during the American War. General Grant used to say that, one of the advantages of such a force was that no matter what trade he might want in a hurry, he could always find representatives of it among his men. The C.I.V. were as useful to General Roberts. On one occasion extra doctors were wanted. They were found among the rank•and-file of the C.I.V. On another the authorities asked by wire for a lawyer to prosecute for the Crown at Johannesburg. In "a few minutes" Private Mosley, a cyclist, was caught up and sent off, the Colonel laconically telegraphing : "Barrister despatched?' The aforesaid barrister was afterwards regularly appointed as Crown Prosecutor. No doubt if Lord Roberts had wired for an electrical engineer, a bookbinder, or a literary man to edit an official gazette, the C.I.V. would have instantly forwarded him "on apnro'."
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