17 DECEMBER 1904, Page 21

The Merry Multifteet and the Mounting Multieorps. Created by Richard

Johnson, Mast and Block Maker (retired). Put into Writing by Thomas O'Cluny. Illustrated by W. Heath Robinson. (J. M. Dent and Co. 2s. 6d)—An amusing jeu d'esprit not innocent of satire upon War Office and Admiralty management. Mr. Johnson—a very seedy-looking gentleman with a short pipe, who appears in an early illustration—invented or discovered a kind of electricity-magic by which the ships in a fleet could to all appearance be doubled, and the men of an army corps multiplied a hundredfold. The French Fleet was chasing ours in warlike earnest in the Channel, the German Army was in lodgings at Cromer, and our troops were mostly in India and South Africa. But Mr. Johnson being summoned to council by the Prime Minister, the situation was saved. Told with Irish humour and vivacity, the farcical absurdities carry the reader along with