SERIA LUDO.
feria Ludo. By a " Dilettante." (Longmans and Co. 5s. net.)—These jeer d'esprit appeared some twenty-odd years ago, and are now republished for the first time. Some might have been left with advantage in oblivion ; others we are glad to make or renew acquaintance with. In 1880 also there was a South African question, and politicians who thought the honour of our flag a sentimentality :— " What's bunting that a nation should Have thought or care about it ? 'Heath any flag a place is good,
But none the wurse without it."
There were Army questions also, as, for instance, Why do British officers forbid their men to appear out of uniform, but shun it themselves as if it were a thing to be ashamed of ? The "red- coat" puts this question. Curiously enough, at that time the Duke of Cambridge instructed commanders of regiments to enjoin upon their officers "the propriety, as well as the necessity, of their wearing uniform throughout the day." Many other things were in that day very much as they are in this. The " Diletp tante's " rhymes are often curiously appropriate to the present.
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