THE ENGLISH ESSAY.* Mn. ERNEST BUYS has evidently faced or evaded many difficulties in making his selection of English essays of the last half century. Hardly might a more...

IT is a laudable custom to give books as Christmas presents. But if it is difficult to decide whether Aunt Emily shall have a hot-water bottle or an air-cushion, it is perhaps...

LONDON: DECEMBER 2nd, 1922.

of French literature is so strong that the victim of it is often compelled to communicate his pleasure. The reader feels that Mr. Stuart Henry writes from real enthusiasm for...

TnE English reader of these political reminiscences will hardly be able, we should think, to feel any hate for the ex-Kaiser. To the judicious reader he must be rather an object...

issued testifies to their popularity with the reading public, and the writing ,of them is doubtless a source of much satisfaction to their distinguished authors. These facts are...

Tins book is more worthy than its catchpenny title would suggest of the attention of people who like an autobiography in spite of, not because of, its indiscretions. Lady Susan...

" is guilty of no exaggeration when it FIFTY - ONE YEARS OF VICTORIAN LIFE.* Fon once, a " jacket " is guilty of no exaggeration when it claims for Fifty-One Years of Victorian...

dangerous ways of tampering with a book. Year after year in the bookshops we open a new edition of some favourite author and close it hurriedly, carrying away an aesthetic...

CHINESE FURNITURE.* A FEW pages of introduction and some fifty plates constitute Mr. Herbert Cescinsky's admirable book on Chinese cabinet work, but the quality of both the text...

THERE is a use in illustrations even if they do not illustrate. Nothing displayed to us so clearly the essential qualities of Alice in Wonderland as did Mr. Rackham's charming,...

Percival. (Herbert Jenkins. 7s. 6d. net.) All who have the collector's temperament will find themselves very pleasantly tempted and encouraged by the reading of this little...

Mn. Joing AUSTEN is, as the titles of these books tell us, a decorator. We are not quite sure what exactly a decorator of Mr. Austen's variety is, though we are familiar enough...

FOLK-LORE, MYTHS AND FAIRY TALES. THE savage who believes the sun to be an extremely fine pomegranate was wholly in the right ; the philosopher who taught that the sun was five...

Lang. Illustrated by W. Russel Flint. 2 vols. (The Riccardi Press. £8 18s. 6d.) These beautiful books do an excellentservice to the dilettante who delights in such things. They...

Charles Dickens's Christmas Stories do not all belong, we venture to think, to the immortal part of Charles Dickens. Every age has its own sentimentality. Sentimentality should...

that they will always have until railways . disappear. The illustrations from old prints and pictures are excellent.

(Constable and Co. 21s. net.) Many people will welcome this carefully-abridged edition of Don Quixote, that formidable romance. The illustrations are attractive and always in...

Edward Fitzgerald. With Decorations by "Fish." (John Lane. 21s. net.) Christmas without a new illustrated edition of the Rubiliyat is as unlikely as a man without sin. But there...

is well known to readers of Country Life. The atmosphere of heartiness and energy breathed by the verse is somewhat exhausting, but taken individually the poems are not bad...

The book of which this is a revised edition was originally published twelve years ago. It is a book well worth reissue. Mr. Ponting's style is undistinguished and he often, more...

(Macmillan. 10s. net.) A white cover spattered with silver stars and drops that may be ear-rings. Inside is a picture of a coy young woman hold- ing a lily in on hand and a rose...

WE have learnt to be shy of attempts to combine instruction and entertainment in books for children but Miss Netta Syrett is unusually successful in Magic London (Thornton...

stories is, Miss Toksvig says, the work of his English, and we presume Victorian, translators. She has therefore rewritten some of the stories in the easy, colloquial style of...

net.)—MOONSHINE AND CLOVER. (Same author, publisher, and price.) In these two volumes Mr. Laurence Housman has reprinted fairy-tales from four previous volumes ; but the tales...

6d. net.) There is little story in most modern fairy tales and these are no exception to the rule. All the same, the slight stories are pretty and would amuse a child of five or...

Sending a child to sleep at the beginning and waking him up at the end is a favourite device to cover clumsy scene-shifting and inconsequent talk. In the present instance the...

an aunt who was the caretaker of an old manor-house, and she used to roam about the deserted rooms with a feeling of awe and w I I • er. Then she came to know the family, who...

Mr. Cape has conspired to publish all the most delightful story books. In The City of Wishes we read of how Johnny Crane and Ethel were waiting in the nursery for an unpleasant...

6d. net.) This is one of the more " old-fashioned" children's books : its price is low, its contents indeterminately varied and there are all manner of illustrations. Mr. Heath...

ESKIMO TWINS. By Lucy Fitch Perkins. (Jonathan Cape. Os. each.) The Cave Twins is the fourth and latest volume of the charm- ing" Twin Series," of which half a million copies...

(John Ball and Son. Bs. 6d. net.) "An allegory of life with fairy interludes" is the author's description of her book. Children like " good " books. They have an instinctive...

net.) A more delightfully fantastic book cannot be imagined. Both in the story and the illustrations Mr. Lofting walks in that perilous region just within the borders of the...

7s. 6d.) A pretty little anthology of poems and verses for children, illustrated by bright-coloured pictures whose only merit is that they may please. It is a little startling...

net.) The original illustrations of Alice in Wonderland so took our hearts and have, through familiarity, become so insepar- able from the tale, that it is with great...

These gentleand amusing fairy plays could be understood by the smallest children. They are easy to act and their mild morality will do no harm.

Rabbit" books. It contains eight nursery rhymes illustrated by pleasant pictures of animals.

An amusing picture book. The drawings have humour and pleasant colour. But why can we not have something in England of the quality of Giro giro tondo ?

net.) A laboured fantasy of a typical fairy-story Court, in which most of the characters are named after musical terms. The illustrations seem designed for the Worst kind of...

is. 6d. net.) A small book, in which animals are anthropomorphized in facile limericks and other verse-forms. The illustrations are probably too childish to appeal to any normal...

19 Furnival Street, E.C. 4. 2s. 6d. net.) These religious stories record events in the life of Christ as seen by children in Galilee in those days. Quotations from the Bible are...

of the country and green lanes pleasurably before a London child at Christmas. Its effect would be pleasantly soothing, read before bedtime.

eighteenth issue of this annual shows no falling oft in quality or variety. There are twelve colour-plates, each of which might well have been from an annual of last century.

the Caldicott tradition. Mr. Brooke, author of Johnnie Crow's Garden, is, of course, something of a nursery celebrity.

6d. net.) The woods and fields of Sussex make a pleasant back- ground to this story of the Brownies, the younger sisters of the Girl Guides. There is a most attractive motif...

and Co. 3s. 6d. net.) A good present for a child interested in missionary work. The accounts of native life are misleading and biased ; but the book, if inaccurate, is exciting.

the text by Maud Tindal Atkinson. (Daniel O'Connor. 7s. 6d.) A well selected and comprehensive book. The illustrations are strictly in the dull tradition of such work.

without sentimentality. The variations on the themes of well-known nursery rhymes are the best things in an agreeable book.

of those stories for nice mild little girls. There is no plot, but the incidents in the life of a lonely little girl in Rhodesia are sympathetically described. There are some...

Cat " of the title, a cat with a violet nose, indigo eyes, pale 'blue ears, a front legs, a yellow body, orange back legs, and Ei red tail, is the hero of four of the stories.

A FEW decades ago G. A. Henty and Jules Verne represented the archetypal adventure book, just as Marryat and Fenimore Cooper did before them. Henty gave his heroes minor parts...

is illustrated by clearly drawn and attractively coloured pictures.

20s. net.) Mr. Rackham goes on for ever, but he never makes a sudden sally and never sparkles anywhere. The memory cannot - distinguish one book that he has illustrated from...

7s. 6d.) The history of the cargo-carrying vessels from the Phoenician period up till now as given in this short book is exceedingly interesting, although the author's English...

net.) This unabridged edition, with many illustrations, although quite clearly printed, occupies less than five hundred pages. Mr. Ambrose Dudley, the illustrator, has...

" The introduction of two American boys into the conven- tional Public School of fiction has pleasantly varied the formula that all writers of school stories seem to observe....

net.) Stephen was washed off a trawler and found himself in the midst of the Atlantic beside an upturned boat. He righted the boat, got into her and was soon picked up by a...

first year at Dartmouth with this excellent instructor. A rhyme describes the functions of the letters in the usual way, as A for the Admiral.. . ." A small note beneath gives...

net.) So long as solitary red-coated North-West Mounted Police- men tracking cattle thieves across uninhabited prairies and fighting hordes of howling Injuns have any appeal to...

philanthropic landowner lets a troop of Scouts have the run of a part of his estate, much as a few very philanthropic landowners have done in real life ; they fell trees and...

MARTEN, SCHOOLBOY. By Charles Turley. (Heinemann. Os. net.) This reprint of a well-known school story is to be com- mended. Mr. Turley writes uncommonly well and his story,...

soldier somewhere about the year 1803, was pressed for the Navy and shipped off to Ceylon. There he took part in the for- gotten campaign against the King of Candy and was...

villain of this story is one of the most repulsive and cruellest bullies of whom we have ever read. He reforms at the end and the reader shuts the book with a sense that poetic...

net.) THE BOYS OF DYALL'S HOUSE. By Richard Bird. (Blackie. 5s. net.) Mr. Bird is a most skilful compounder of school stories. His new book is as ingenious and amusing as ever....

net.) White Calf, as an infant, was found lying asleep between the horns of a white buffalo which a hunter had shot. He grew up among the Red Indians of North-Western Canada...

a north country school, told with quiet humour. Nothing very unusual happens, but for that very reason the tale is perhaps more true to life than many more thrilling school...

still encountered among English people." To correct some of these, Mr. Lee has written an elementary but most informative and pleasantly written little book on daily life in...

Hopkins. (Constable. 10s. 6d. net.) A tale of experiences on a whaler in the 'seventies. There is a good measure of adventure and hazard, and accounts so excit- ing and well...

Finnemore's short stories of adventure in the China seas, in Sicily, Burma, the Australian bush and in Russia, are exciting and well told. The title-story might be a description...

5s. net.) We have here a superlative example of fine writing. "Good- bye, my blade—good-bye." This is the address of a dying man to his sword. The story might be vaguely...

net.) THE GREENWAY HEATHENS By R. A. H. Goodyear. (Nisbet. 5s. net.) This is a school story for young boys made upon the ordinary pattern, but better reading than most of its...

2s. (id.) As a book of instruction for scoutmasters The Summer Camp should be very useful. It describes the preliminary work necessary before a camp can be pitched, and gives...

is an English boy who comes fresh from East Africa to an English school and introduces his chums to some novel kinds of amusement. The attempts of a Chinaman to steal Jim's...

Avery is a spirited writer and the descriptions of games in the Prefects' Patrol are very well done. The relation of the fags to their awe-inspiring masters, the Prefects,...

net.) A tale of the early colonization of America with enough bloodshed and adventure to fill ten books. It is simply written except for the conversations. These are mainly in...

5s. net.)—HOW TOM MADE GOOD. By St. John Pearce. (Ward, Lock and Co. 4s. Od. net.) Two spirited stories of public school life. Each leads up to an exciting climax around a hero...

Thorkel is a story about Norse boys in the year 1000. The language is picturesque. The ships and the feasts are well described, and really appear before the mind's eye. The boys...

Darton and Co. 7s. (Id. net.) A child will put up with a deal of dullness in the books he reads if the subject is exciting, and any healthy boy will probably read through with...

LONG gone are the days when uncles at the Christmas book- shop announced that they "only "wanted a book for children. Those were the people whose own youth was nourished on...

(Blackie and Son. is. 6d.) OUR RAILWAYS. By J. G. Adams and C. A. Elliott. (Blackie and Son. is. 6d.) A pleasant little volume, which quite succeeds in suggesting the romance of...

at first sight to be inaccurate, for it seems to confuse the nest, eggs and song of a reed warbler with a bird whose white-barred head shows it to be a sedge warbler. Also, all...

net.) THE CAPTAIN OF THE FIFTH. By Elsie Oxenham. (Chambers. 5s. net.) A splendid tale for schoolgirls. It is competently written ; the chain of incidents is fresh and exciting...

net), and The King of the Snakes, by Rosetta Baskerville (S.P.C.K., 2s. net), are interesting little books, though too much mixed up with humanity to be, properly speaking,...

net), deals with the freakishness and not the homeliness of Nature. It is a valuable addition to Nature lore, and its descriptions and pictures of butterfly eggs, strange...

home. She is the sort of silly, tiresome, slangy little thing the recital of whose wearisome pranks could hardly serve for a pastime on the dreariest rainy day.

conscientiously, but they do not suffer overmuch from this soberness of tone. Her book would make a good present ; it is clearly printed, well bound, and adequately illustrated...

net.) "A new girl" is determined to get into a lower class than the one in which she is " placed " on coming to school. The efforts of a good and clever child to seem stupid and...

Son, 10s. 6d. net), Wild Kindred, by Jean M. Thompson (Jonathan Cape, Os. net), and More Nature Stories, by Waddingham Seers (Harrap, 4s. 6d. net), are all well-told stories of...

is laid at a school in Dornia—which is a sort of Ruritania somewhere in Central Europe. The adventures of the heroine are quite impossible but make pleasant reading. They bring...

Lady Middleton has written a graceful story of a young girl who imagines herself back in the days when her mother was a - child. She has many adventures in South Australia with...

touching tale" of true love rewarded is translated out of the medieval French by Mrs. Leighton. The coloured illustrations by Miss Brickdale are reminiscent of Lovat Fraser's...

THE KAYLES OF BUSHEY LODGE. By Vera Dwyer. (Milford. 6s. net.) "Bushey Lodge" is situated in a suburb of Melbourne. "It stood far back in a grassy space of ground well shaded by...

are not much alike. These dormitory adventures, however, whose interest consists in children letting themselves down out of a bedroom window—" by means of a rain pipe, a strong...

6d. net.) A vivacious tale of the friendships and quarrels of girls at school and at home.

to say that The Velveteen Rabbit, 1 that small, modest volume, is the most attractive of the children's books published this year. Other books may have more splendid bindings,...

Sunday-school prize. Miss Canfield shows, with much incidental wit and insight, that too great a care hi the upbringing of children may defeat its own ends, and suggests that...

(S.P.C.K. is. net.) A mildly written account of field-days and rallies in a fictitious troop of Girl Guides. Audrey became a Guide in the usual way, she enrolled ; but at first...

Os. net.) THE WHITE WITCH OF ROZEL. By E. G. Cowper. (Blaekie. Os. net.) The superstitions of the Guernsey folk enliven this attractive and well-written story of some young...

The rebel put the finishing touch to her rebellion by running away. Fortunately she met a friend in the train and got back just in time to save the school from burning down. It...

net.) The trio are entertaining. The book is written for edifica- tion. • The moral, very skilfully rubbed in, is that little girls should not be snobbish. It in no way spoils...

travels from St. Pancras to British East Africa. She goes to school in Nairobi, and, though she finds an unfamiliar atmosphere among her fellow-schoolgirls, she succeeds in...

5s. net.) A rather gloomy little book. Joyce, who is deeply attached to her grandmother,with whom she lives, becomes aware that age has enfeebled her mind. An angelic doctor, a...

99 Fetter Lane, E.C. 4; and published by ALFRED Ereasox for the SPECTATOR " (LIM184X1), at Chen Office. No. 18 York Street, Covent Garden, London, W i O t 2, Saturday, December...

we were going to press, the opening of Parliament. The Address was moved by Captain Brass, who won a notable Unionist victory at Clitheroe, and was seconded by Mr. Margesson....

had to defend this policy of boycott, and in our opinion he did so satisfactorily in spite of Labour cries of dissent. Surely the Labour Members do not think that if a Labour...

A LTHOUGH the repercussion of events in Greece is not likely to be great whatever happens there, nothing during the week has caused such consternation as the execution of the...

ultimate sense the late British Government under the direction of Mr. Lloyd George were largely responsible for the ruinous Greek policy in Asia Minor. But if this fact suggests...

Tuesday morning, and within a few hours the condemned men were all shot. M. Gounaris, who was extremely ill with para-typhoid, was carried from his bed in a hospital and was...

FOR TILE 1NG SATURDAY, HOMER 2, 1921 - No. 4,927.] [ Rscuscsitso Li Al PRICE... I). NEWSPAPER. lir Post 71G. POSTAGE ABROAD 2

The " Spectator " will be sent from its offices, 13 York Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. 2, to any address in the United Kingdom or abroad for 30s., post free, per annum....

moved the Second Reading of the Irish Free State Constitution Bill. He said that he recommended the Bill "without any special fear as to the result, but also without any...

give too much publicity. It is the cardinal fact of the move- ment. Equally important is the oath administered to the unemployed by the organizers of the agitation. It runs as...

and stimulating trade. The plan is to introduce a Trade Facilities Bill, under which E50,000,000 will be available. It is also proposed to enlarge the Exports Credit Scheme, so...

ployment and the need for exceptional methods else- where. Here we may note two facts which show how those whom we may call the professional unemployed— that is, the men who are...

yet at the same time firmly, about his refusal to receive a deputation of the unemployed who had, recently flooded London. He had acted on the principle that a Prime Minister "...

recognized and had certain privileges. Under Clause 66 "the Irish citizen" had a right of appeal to the Privy Council. He hoped that every Member of the House would. approve of...

been excluded. Mr. Bonar Law then explained that the reason for this was that the Daily Herald was not expected to help the Government. He had not known, however, till it was...

in danger of being accused with some reason of " doping " those papers on which they depend for support. That there was no sinister motive in the Government's use of publicity...

the Beggars Bush Barracks. Before his execution he shook hands with the firing squad and bade them "Good-bye." To the military court which tried him he gave a strange rambling...

which Sir James Craig invited the co-operation of the Roman Catholic minority in the Northern Province and promised them the fullest consideration of their point of view. It is...

by Lord Carnarvon and Mr. Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings, near Thebes. It had been generally supposed that this famous valley had yielded up all its mysteries long...

but may here give the audacious comment of an irresponsible literary correspondent :— " Ismet Bey appears to be a fair and reasonable man with no desire to trick his fellow...

the distinguished poet and woman of letters. Great refinement both of conception and workmanship was the most remarkable quality of her work. The friend of most of the greatest...

holding of these views should be regarded as a crime, nor would we do anything to drive such expressions of opinion underground. They must, however, be most carefully noted. The...

inlaid boxes and alabaster vases. Beyond this again there was a third chamber which may be the actual tomb of the king. The name of the king was Tutankhamen of the XVIIIth...

read a letter from Lord Carson which will win the approval of all fair-minded people and show how cruel and unjust has been the misrepresentation from which Lord Carson has...

report a very decided change in Moslem feeling in regard to the Near East, and a consequent lessening of hostility to this country. The Times Peshawar corre- spondent attributes...

motor-cars in the United States is the subject of much comment in the Press and is responsible for the growth of "Safety Weeks" throughout the country. The latest of these has...

his versatile countryman, Mr. W. M. Hughes, one of the best cartooned figures at the Versailles Conference, holds the record for longevity in a Premiership. Mr. Hughes has been...

By EVELYN WRENCH. A MONG this week's letters to the Editor of the Spectator will be found a communication on the subject of "Anglo-American Friendship" from Mr. Victor S....

- United "States that Mr. " Pussyfoot" has a large following may have forgotten that at the time of the last referendum in 1919 in New Zealand the Prohibitionists were defeated...

be followed with interest not only here but in the United States and Canada, for failing any conspicuous political issue the fight between " Wets " and " Drys " will overshadow...

Court of South Africa, while entering a train, brings back memories of a dark page of history. It was Judge Gregorowski who presided at the trial of the leaders of the Reformers...

A LTHOUGH we arc only too conscious of the normal difficulty of political negotiation between French- men and Englishmen, we desire for that very reason that both patience and...

TO OUR READERS. W E desire to thank the very large number of corre- spondents who have written to congratulate us upon the reduced price, the enlarged type of the Spectator and...

W E congratulate the Times on publishing, and Lord Montagu of Beaulieu on writing, two of the most valuable articles that have appeared in the public Press for a very long time....

the Conference at Lausanne is that so far it has presented some hopeful signs. To begin with, Great Britain, France and Italy have kept a more solid front than a few weeks or...

apt to be entertained with tales of the departed glories of the city. Twenty years earlier, he was told, it had been the centre of a gay and cultivated social life. The noble...

Zone at Chanak will trespass upon holy ground. Only a few miles away, at the foot of the hills which fall away to the low shore opposite Tenedos, stand the last relics of that...

Lab QUESTION OF A LEVY ON CAPITAL IN SWITZERLAND. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, — The Swiss Constitution presents a happy combination of Representative Government and...

of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,— ' A letter on these loans appeared in your issue of October 14th, p. 495, over the signature of Mr. Francis Moore. Commenting on this letter, you say,...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sm,—The figures officially published by the Secretary to the Proportional Representation Society show conclusively that if the system...

ANGLO-AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP.—SMALL MEANS TOWARD A GREAT END. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] you grant me space for a few simple and prosaic suggestions in relation to the...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—I enclose an extract from Borrow's Lavengro, dealing with Ulster. I thought it might interest your readers :— " Oh yes ! It is easier to...

thank your reviewer for pleasant words about my book : but he has made a slight mistake. He says he has given reasons against the Baconian authorship. May I tell him, so have I?...

reviewer, in his letter headed "The Elusive Image," which is published in your issue of November 25th, has treated Sir Sidney Lee with very great discourtesy. The sneer...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Business takes me to Dublin at certain intervals. After reading the article on "Ireland Revisited" in the last issue of the Spectator I...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—There is no parallel between the Balfour Declaration and Shylock's Bond: In the Bond Antonio signed away a pound of his own flesh,...

SIR,—May I point out that the first six lines of The Bride of Abydos supply what is wanted in fuller measure than the two lines quoted by Mr. Omond from Dryden's Albion and...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—You remember that some time ago you printed versions of the epitaph of a Maid-of-all-work who was " going Lo do nothing for ever and ever...

Labour. " Vote for — and get your rent back" is a big bribe to poor folk.—

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sia,—At a time when we are all laying in our store of Christ- mas delicacies, I would crave space to bring to your readers' notice an...

September 9th last you published an article on this subject, in which you included a letter received from me i nforming you that I had been appointed by the Mothers' Union as...

Qui facit per alium facit per se."—I am, Sir, &c., 74 New North Road, Huddersfield. GEO. T. Lowiz.

GALLAGHER'S. (A Ballad of the War.) ATTEND all ye who list to hear ould Ireland's trumpet blow I I sing a Free State feat of arms against the wily foe. 'Twas in the middle av...

f' THE LAST WALTZ "—GAIETY. "THE NINE O'CLOCK REVUE "—LITTLE. "An! you are cold ! You won't save yourself You don't realize the full, passionate, primitive thrill of life ! "...

OLD MASTERS. A LOAN collection of old masters is being exhibited at Messrs. Agnew and Son's galleries, 43 Old Bond Street, on behalf of Lord Haig's appeal for ex-Service men....

ESSAYS IN LIBERALISM.* 'Tins volume, consisting of lectures and papers delivered at the Liberal Summer School in 1922, though it necessarily partakes of the nature of Party...

A NEW TENOR. THE field of European opera lies fallow. The singers of the last generation have gone, leaving only a rumour of their fame —if gramophone records of painfully...

as inseparable from the general notion of fireworks—the publicity of their display and the invariable joyfulness of their occasion. The use of them solely in demonstrations of...

Tan wrapper of this volume states that it is a collection of fifteen of Edward Thomas's latest papers, and therefore it is surprising, on looking inside, to find that five of...

to discover a classic of sport that needs reprinting, and Lord Willoughby de Broke is to be congratulated on an admirable edition of Colonel Cook's Observations on Hunting,'...

Year Book continues to be one of the wonders of the reference world. There is no annual of any shape or kind which manages to get so much miscellaneous and up-to- date...

Time Empire Annual for Girls contains some very good stories about just the pleasant, lively young people whom it is a pleasure to meet in everyday life, and who are so...

In The Empire Annual for Boys we have capital school and adventure stories interspersed with articles on games and swimming and other things of interest to boys, by various...

THE POOR MAN.* "YES, sir," says the haberdasher, "this is absolutely the latest ; in advance of the fashion, in fact," producing a ten- year-old necktie turned inside out. On...

This thick volume is something between a playbook and a workbook. It might perhaps be called a Hobby Book. Any big girl who is interested in making clothes or puddings —or how...

old- fashioned children's book. The stories are all directed by • way of sentimentality to edification, and will, we should think, entirely fail to please the modern child, who...

The latest volume of The Sunday at Home contains a great deal of good reading. The special articles are, we think, better than the stories. Opening the book at random, we came...

The Trustees of the British Museum have recently published five sets of cards illustrating the Nativity and the Epiphany. It is suggested that these should be used as Christmas...

Mrs. Strang's Annual for Children is a delightful collec- tion of stories, verses and pictures. Some of the stories are of the present day and relate the holiday and school...

6d. net.) The unfortunate boy who has never seen a copy of The Scout should be enriched with this massive tome of eleven hundred pages. The numberless stories of adventure and...

of most of the annuals. It is, we mean, without the juvenile detective element. There are no stories about who committed that breach of discipline and who is to be punished for...

school and adventure stories, articles on laying submarine cables and subjects of equal appeal to the boyish mind ; bright coloured illustrations, and cartoons by Mr. George...

adventure stories, school stories, and humorous stories are mixed with instructive articles on camping, photography, boxing, motor-cycles, botany, and travel.

stories in this annual would go into two categories— the pseudo-heroic and the sentimental. Orgies of cinema violence brought to a successful conclusion by super-boys alternate...

The Boy's Own Annual is poor as compared with the girl's. Tales of wild adventure alternate with sentimental school stories. There is far too much about great, stern...

( Notice in this column does not necessarily preclude subsequent review.) THE ROUND TABLE. (Macmillan. 5s. net.) The December issue of this admirable quarterly deals with...

be really useful in the Christmas holidays. It does not entirely depend for its attraction upon its fiction. A little play well worth the consideration of the schoolroom ;...

of the type that represents school life more as a setting for games than for work, and so may prove somewhat mis- leading to girls who have not gone to school as juniors. The...

of its fellow, it is nevertheless a wise and mellow collection. But can fishing compare with the glories and ardours of the chase ?

6s. net.) The editor of Fighting Ships has compiled a useful and interesting account of the Navy as it is, with numerous photographs. His technical descriptions are clear and...

tables of lessons recently sanctioned by the National Assembly and by Parliament will become optional in any church, in lieu of the tables in the Prayer Book. We have received...

to hounds. The -muses have always loved the hunting-field, and the literary standard of the collection is as high as the technical. We hope that only considerations of copyright...

By ARTHUR W. KTDDY. SPECULATIVE BUSINESS INCREASING. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, — The firmness of Government and kindred securities during the past week can be...

Standard Bank of South Africa, as Chairman for the ensuing year of the British Overseas Banks' Associa- tion, the Committee has paid a well-deserved compliment to one who for...

of the Report of the Shareholders' Committee of the Smithfield and Argentine Meat Company which was issued recently, there is one point which perhaps may be usefully emphasized....

I have already referred to certain indications of some revival in business activity, and these same indications are confirmed by the success which continues to charac- terize...

be reminded that their option of conversion into the 5 per cent. War Loan on the basis of £105 5s. 3d. of War Loan for every £100 of War Bonds is exercisable within fourteen...