Alice in Plunderland. By Loris Carllew. (Eveleigh Nash. ls. net.)—Alice,
while waiting for her father outside the House of Commons, recognises, as she thinks, her old friend the White Rabbit; in reality it is a Whity-brown Rabbit, a Welsh Rabbit, in fact, the best of all guides to the region of Plunderland into which he takes her. He begins by throwing Truth, an old woman who is hopelessly trying to see her father in party newspapers, down a well—really a sewer-grating--and so he goes on. It is an amusing "skit," vigorously illustrated. We expect to have our political food highly flavoured just now. Aeroplane Patents. By Robert M. Neilson. (Constable and Co. 4s. 6d. net.)—The author does not profess to discuss patent law technically; but he supplies some hints to the inventor as to what he should do to secure himself, as far as this may bo done, from loss. But the details which he gives make us feel that this same proviso, "as far as may be," means much. It cannot but be the fact that the majority of these patents mean loss to the people who take them out. It is enough to look at the figures. Between 1860 and 1880 fifty patents were taken out ; between 1880 and 1900 ninety. In 1908 the number rose to three hundred. In 1909 and the first eight months of the current year more than one thousand applications for patents were received. All these were for the aeroplane proper,—i.e., for the flying machine heavier than air.
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