We note with regret the death on February .13bh of
Sir James Knowles, the founder and proprietor of the Nineteenth Century, which he edited with great ability for thirty years. Sir James Knowles, who began life as an architect and prospered in that profession, was sincerely interested in art and letters, and added to a remark- able journalistic flair a gift of editorial persuasiveness which enabled him to enlist practically every one of note amongst his contributors. Though his prime object was to make his review interesting, and to reflect all sides rather than adopt a partisan attitude, there were occasions when he focussed sane political opinion—as, for example, on the Channel Tunnel question—with overwhelming force. Sir James Knowles, it should also be remembered, was the first to suggest the idea of the Metaphysical Society " for the free discussion of Christian evidences by those ranged on the side of faith and unfaith," the earliest members of which were Lord Tennyson, Dean Stanley, Tyndall, Huxley, James Martineau, Bagehot, Froude, Frederic Harrison, Cardinal Manning, and Mr. Gladstone.
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