who was recently Director of Military Operations—a very high position in which he had access to every source of information—has taken a gravely heroic course. In spite of his...

answering a question by Mr. Asquith—the Prime Minister, by the way, was absent on an occasion on which there was little excuse for his absence—announced that the question of...

would be public, and whether Cabinet Ministers and ex- Cabinet Ministers would be examined. Mr. Bonar Law thought the inquiry must necessarily be held in private. Sir Edward...

T HE sensation caused by the publication of the letter from Sir Frederick Maurice in the papers of Tuesday, charging the Prime Minister and Mr. Bonar Law with untruthfulness,...

Council, and as to the number of white troops in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Palestine, would seem to be capable of simple proof or disproof, but the words in which the Prime...

following words used by the Prime Minister :— "In Mesopotamia there is only one white division at all, in Egypt and in Palestine there are only three white divisions, the rest...

TO OUR READERS.—The shortage of paper has obliged us to adopt the policy, already adopted by many of our contemporaries, of refusing to allow the " Spectator " to be "on sale or...

on Tuesday week, ended in a retirement last Saturday. The Audtrallati cat-airy captured Es Raft on the plateau on Wednesday week, but a motinted. bri g ade watchin g the Jordan...

area in the North Sea, and this area is-the most • gigantic minefield which the imagination has ever conceived:possible. Its base runs between Norway and Scotland, and the...

to be an inquiry, aa - &Aida' froin'a debate, add' Moreover an inquiry Which satisfies the House of Commons. It is net enou g h for the Govern- ment to say that, as the proposal...

in April amounted to 111 ; 633 tons, as compared with 161,674 tons in March. Lord Pirrie explained at-the same time that the disappointing reduction was due ; first, to the fact...

move on Thursday that a Select Committee of the House should be appointed to inquire into the 'Maurice letter. As we write on 'Thursday morning iOe afto•at tbe iskttantagebf...

to' have weighed hiswords insufficiently ; he can expect no mercy. For that would prove that he took the rashest of all courses without verifying his facts. If, on the other...

to discuss precedents for in q uiriess-though we !mist say that we know of no precedent for such an accusation of untruth- fulness as General Maurice' has brought against the...

actiOn th'e' Government proposed to take in the case of Captain Redmond, the Membet for Waterford, who .was present at -the meeting . of the Irish 'Parliamentary - Party held in...

the Eiii6tny suffered his severe defeat south of Ypres on April 29th.. The Germans opened a • heaary' bortsbardnie:nt on the seine -teeter,' from Locre. to Ypres, on - Sistaiday...

correspondents about Germany's coming "peace offensive," the expected sequel to the failure of "the Kaiser's battle." The peace move might begin in full strength within two...

sand, gravel, and broken stone has been settled by Holland giving in, influenced, no doubt, by the thinly veiled threats of recent weeks. The transport of these materials, so...

week, told a journalist that he had found the Generals and their officers and men all very confident of victory. "I met no Pacifists and no pessimists among them. They could not...

be taxed more heavily, because if a brewer be taxed more heavily, he can make his profits only by corrupting the nation—by forcing more and more drink upon the people. This...

postal charges, Mr. Illingworth intimated on Monday that letters to soldiers serving abroad would still be carried at the present rate. Colonel Collins urged that this privilege...

appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, in place of Lord Wimborne, and that Mr. Edward Shortt had succeeded Sir H. E. Duke as Chief Secretary. Lord French as an Irishman and a...

allowed to drop. We have demanded State Purchase during the war because w e regard it as the first step to Prohibition for war purples. We are not teetotalers, and have never...

as a means of dissolving Russia into helpless fragments, has now overturned the Ukraine Government, set up a dictatorship under General Skoropadski as Hetman, and proclaimed...

again into the field of practical politics by the Reports of the English, Scottish, and Irish Committees. All the Committees are agreed that there is no point of financial...

that the Papal Nuncio at Vienna had taken action against the Prince-Bishop of Laibach for associating himself with the Southern Slav agitation. The Bishop, who is the head of...

April 5,1917.

THE HISTORY OF MR. LLOYD GEORGE'S FIRST AND LAST (?) ADMINISTRATION.-11. nth AMATEUR STRATEGIST AND THE SOLDIERS. T IIE main point to'retneinber in Mr. Lloyd George's rela-...

pledge to the people' of North-East Ulster, made on March 7th, 1917 " In the north-eastern portion of . Ireland you have 8.4i0pulation as hostile to Irish rule as the rest of...

THE PARIS SPEECH. We have quoted enough from the Paris speech to show the mind of the sophist in strategy. We have only to look to the Western Front to see its tragical...

O NE aspect of the intense excitement which has been caused by General Maurice's letter is the perplexity . of the public as to the right, or otherwise, of a soldier to take...

to her subject races have been immensey increased within the last few weeks by the drawing together of Italy and the Yugo-Slays. Until the present year the racial antipathies...

rl 1HE initials" V.N.1 1 '." stand for " Vereeniging Nederlandsch Fabrikaat " (Society for Dutch Manufacture), and by the authorization of this Society are placed upon goods of...

M OST men's experience of the toil of life begins with the effort to pay attention. Do we not remember in our earliest schooldays a weary struggle to keep the mind from...

[Letters of the length of one of our leading paragraphs arc often more read, and therefore more effective, than those which fill treble the space.] IRELAND AND OON SCRIPTION....

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") SIL—When, full of patriotism, the Ulstermen volunteered to fight for Britain, they did so under a direct pledge as to Home Rule. When they...

ITO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—Has it occurred to Mr. Brodrick that the question whether a certain group of people is or is not a nation can be decided only by that...

FIR,—May I be permitted to congratulate you upon the vigour and pertinacity with which you continue in your attempts to make the nation realize the danger to our whole Empire...

[To THE EDITOR OF TEE" SPECTATOR."] Sin,—There is much talk just now about Church Reform of one kind and another. It seems to me that if every Christian observed the two...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE" SPECTATOR.") SIR,—With regard to the question of the reform of the Second Chamber, may I suggest that the function of a Second Chamber would properly be...

[To THE EDITOR OF TEE" SPECTATOR."] SIR,—" It is no use mincing words."—(The Prime Minister, on Ireland.) "There is no use in mincing words," I heard a statesman cry,— I do not...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTriOR."] suppose you will not accept any remonstrance. I am a regular reader of the Nation. There is always a market for malevolence, and the spleen...

(To THE Ernroa OF THE " SPECTATOR.") SI.R., — If your correspondent Mr. C. F. Ryder will inquire of his local surveyor of taxes, or even of the Clerk to the Income Tax...

Brodrick has done well to explain his objections to Zionism. He now states that his whole contention is (a) that the Jews are not a nation but a religious body, and (b) that...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE" SPECTATOR."] Sin,—The Spectator has ever shown a generous interest in dogs. and it seems natural to address to you some "Thoughts on the Cause of the...

[To THZ EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOH."1 SIM, — It may not he widely known that at the annual meeting of the Association of Poor Law Unions in England and Waled, held Iii London hi...

[TO THE EDITOR or THE " SFEOTATOR."] Soo—The sunken roads of the Somme (which are matched in all lands of similar soil conditions which have been tilled for many years) are...

THE PEACE OF SPRING. BEAUTIFUL on the mountains are the feet of Spring, which oometh Yearly the graves of last year's flowers to deck with new; Yearly the migrant swallow back...

How long, we ask, how long ? And there is none to say. Cold, cold is all the day, And sorrowful and dark ; With every dawn fresh troubles throng, And joy has passed away. But...

THE ACADEMY. Iv is inevitable that people who regard Art seriously, and to whom it is a very important part of their inner life, should in these days strain their eyes to see...

or initials, or with a pseudonym, or are marked " Communicated," the Editor must not necessarily be held to be in agree- ment with the views therein expressed or with the mode...

• Will tin Scottish Series in Eumania. By Yvonne IltzBoy. London: Joint Murray. L5s. net.j We have reason to be proud of the part that our women have played in the war. Like our...

JOSEPH CHOATE.* Ma. STRONG does not profess to have written a complete or, on the domestic and social side, an authorized biography of Mr. Choate, but within the limits laid...

Yvzs GUYOT has been moved by "the resurrection of an old eaytb "—the League of Nations—to examine afresh the history of European relations since the Tsar Alexander I. thought to...

IMPOSSIBLE PEOPLE.* THE title of Mrs. Wemyss's story is deliberately ironical. Joanna Templar and her husband John were " impossible " in the cant sense attached to the word by...

of the first acts of the first Revolutionary Assembly after the deposition of Louis Capet was the inauguration • Under One Roof. By Mary Cholmondeky. London : John Murray. [45....

Miss CHOLMONDELEY'S new book is a collection of studies of members of her own family—her father, her mother, her sister Hester, and the old nurse and friend known as "Ninny."...

Co. Is. 6d. net.)—Many of our readers who remember Mr. Ward Muir's lively sketches of the military hospital in which he has served almost since the outbreak of war will be glad...

G. W. Eybers. (Routledge. 21s. net.)— This well-edited collection of documents will be of great value to students of the complex history of South Africa. Some of the papers...

6d.)—This indispensable record of the year's books appears in its usual form- and with its accustotned promptitude. The prefa- tory analysis shows that the output for 1917 was...

Lane Poole and Christopher Stone. (Oxford University Press. 2s. 6d. net.)—This scholarly edition, printed in good clear type, contains of Gray not only the Odes and the Elegy,...

Richards. 30s. net. )—Mr. Legge seems to have kept a large common- place book for facts and fancies regarding the King and the Royal Family, and to have printed it in these two...

[Notice in this column does not necessarily preclude subsequent review." The third number of Lord Charnwood's excellent quarterly, Recalled to Life (John Bale, Sons, and...

Fisheries has issued a most instructive little pamphlet on The Capture of Eels, which may be had free of charge by any one who writes for it. The Committee is indeed so anxious...

Co. Os. 6d. net.)--This useitd teohnical handbook, dealing with a subject of great importance, includes an instructive chapter on margarine. The French chemist Mege-Mouries, who...

paper on the London Society's proposals for the improve- ment of the capital, including new main roads, new parks, the embankment of the south side of the river from Lambeth to...

Selections from the Poems of William Worthworth, edited by Mr. A. Hamilton Thompson (2s. 6c1. net), including some of the finest of the shorter poems and select passages from...

(Kegan Paul. 5s. net.)—Some devout Stevensonians Will be glad tohnow of this practical little guide to the Samoan tongue, translated from the German by Mr. Arnold B. Stook. It...

6d.)—An account of how a set of amateur nurses start a hospital in France, and are so ably led by their trained matron that, Instead of coming to grief as the follies of the...

to a new edition of twelve of his novels. The first volume, Conrad in Quest of his Youth (Hodder and Stoughton, Os. net), has an attractive and enthusiastic Prefsee by Sir J. M....

Navy, already published in quarto form, have now been reproduced on picture-postcards, which should be very popular.

in 1918 (3s. (id.), on a scale of one hundred and nine miles to an inch, is well printed, and will be convenient for reference. The belligerent and neutral countries are...