interesting light upon what has been termed the Monte- negrin mystery. According to this statement, King Nicholas, when he saw his country and army were going to be overwhelmed...

with the result, of course, which we have now chronicled week by week for nearly two months, that the Allies have greatly increased their strength relatively to that of the enemy.

ON the Western front there is little to report, except that there has been a good deal of liveliness in the air. That liveliness, however, in no way supports the panicky...

beginning to come in. Thursday's papers publish a War Office communiqud stating that Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien reports that on January 24th our troops advanced to Mbuyuni,...

Serbian bands, are still holding out, it is to be feared that their chance is a small one, for it is reported that Skutari has already been occupied by the Austrians. Still, it...

weather, the relief of Kut-el-Amara has not been accomplished. Further, it appears that our hopes here were unduly encouraged by a blunder in an India Office announcement....

was exceed- ingly good, but this time not from the Bukovina or the Strypa lines—from which places, indeed, wo have heard little— but from the Caucasus. The Russians have driven...

we may note that a Scotland Yard notice appeared in Thursday's papers which stated that the increase in the offensive protection against hostile aircraft recently provided in...

case.

place in the House of Commons on Wednesday, and will only mention here that on the whole the Government made out a very good case, not only as regards their vigilance and the...

place in the House of Lords on Tuesday. Most of the criticism was directed to showing that the Bill did not go far enough. Lard Weardale made the only speech in opposition to...

made an important statement on the dilution of labour. The Govern- ment, he said, " after the most careful consideration," were con- vinced that the employment of more unskilled...

-Mr. Boner Law has so admirably played in the conduct of the Bill. He overwhelmed all technical and pedantic objections by the broad and simple retort that compulsion was proved...

to a War Office statement, last Sunday at one o'clock in the morning in bright moonlight and dropped bombs. The German wireless announcement says that the point attacked was...

of the Trading with the Enemy (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill. It removes the anomalies of Company law, as revealed in the Continental Tires case, by giving the Board of Trade...

made by Unionist supporters of the Government—one by Mr. Leverton Harris, and the other by Mr. Pollock, the Chairman of the Contra- band Committee. Mr. Leverton Harris laid...

to do anything which is really unfair to neutrals, or which would provoke an outburst of anti-British feeling, are determined not to allow neutral traders—for that is what it...

for compulsion, the whole scheme would have been a failure without Mr. Asquith's pledge. Yet there had also been a notable wave of patriotism. The best proof of this was that...

debated on the report stage and the third reading. Mr. Pringle and others seemed to think that though Mr. Asquith had pro- mised that no compulsion should be applied to labour,...

Govern- ment, expressed himself as grateful for the tone of the speeches. Vehement attacks on the Foreign Office in the Press, he pointed out, did no good. They diverted the...

by a majority of 900,000—the voting being by card— passed a resolution justifying the action of Great Britain, and pledging the support of Labour in the vigorous prosecution of...

Government should prohibit the export of wood pulp has called forth some very interesting information in regard to the resources of the British Empire in the provision of the...

warfare. The British steamer Lambert' when off Falsterbo was forced to sail two hundred yards inside Swedish territorial waters owing to her draught. Two German torpedo-boat; a...

debate took place on the Government's policy. The Prime Minister received general support in his statement of the deter- mination of Sweden to remain strictly neutral. According...

is that it is what he does that matters, not what he says. He is breezily indifferent as to whether his deeds square with his words, and he troubles very little as to the...

ridiculous charges, or rather insinuations of suspicion, against Sir Eyre Crowe have again made their appearance. Those who have the honour of Sir Eyre Crowe's acquaintance...

Tues- day, when Mr. Warwick Brookes, the Unionist and Coalition candidate, was returned by a majority of 376 over the independent candidate, Mr. Pemberton Billing. Mr. Billing...

1,796,000 to 219,000 condemned conscription. The Star's comment on this is as follows: "The resolution, while inter- esting as an expression of opinion, does not of course bind...

that of Mr. Gilmour, who dealt with Mr. Ramsay MacDonald with the gloves off. The Daily Chronicle of Thursday describes how, "standing on a chair, he rapped out sentence after...

8th, 1911.

THE BLOCKADE DEBATE. IHE debate in the House of Commons on the blockade, and the explanatory speeches made by Sir Edward Grey, Lord Robert Cecil, and the other defenders of the...

which proposes to give a regular status to the members of the Volunteer Training Corps, is postponed till next Session is very disappointing news. The Irish parties felt them-...

legomena to the economics of war contained in the preceding article we desire to make a personal confession. Experience of the war hasleft us as absolutely convinced as we were...

/h HER.E seems to be a lingering doubt and anxiety in the minds of some of the more extreme Tariff Reformers that somehow or other Free Traders, however patriotic in intention,...

THE Government have at last determined to take active measures to deal with what is called the dilution of labour, and Commissioners have been appointed and are already sitting...

T NETHER a whole nation can go mad is an interesting subject of speculation, and not a new one. It may well be that not all Germans are mad ; but if we give them the benefit of...

those who agree with the policy of Down Glasses during the War " should send us, not for publication, but only for registration and reference, their names and addresses. If...

I T is said that a certain eminent Doctor of Divinity once summed up a debate on some knotty theological problem in the following terms : " Well, gentlemen, speaking for myself,...

T O most readers of the present generation Artemus Ward is little more than a name, and even those of their elders who read and enjoyed his work in their youth are apt to regard...

broke out, I spent nearly all my Easter and summer holidays in systematic inquiries among Radicals and Socialists in Belgium, France, and Switzerland on the subject of Universal...

[TO THE EDITOR OP TILE " SPECTATOR."] think the enclosed extracts from a letter written by an American friend are likely to interest your readers.—I am, " The Book of France I...

[To THE EDITOR OF TUB " SPECTATOR. "] Sm,—As a constant reader of your journal, and my professional career having for many years kept me in close touch with everything...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In your last issue you refer to an interjection from a member in the House of Commons during the course of T. Edmund Harvey's speech on...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Sne,—With the passing of the Army Bill presumably sufficient soldiers will eventually be available both for home defence and foreign...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPEOFITOR."1 Sra,—In a note appended to a letter in your issue of January 8th you state that the amount annually expended by the nation on drink is...

[To THE EDITOR op' Tar. " SPECTATOR. "[ . . SIR, —In a stray copy of your paper I have just read the letter of a would-be employer of women for farm-work. One can understand...

remedy to cheek an evil which tho following incident reveals ? I was travelling a few days ago • on one of our big railways, and in a full third-class compartment. After we had...

[To ms EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.1 Sin,—Perhaps few even of those who may be reckoned students of history realize how fortunate the late and present Governments have been in...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE '' SPEOTATOIL1 Sin,—In your issue of December 4th you refer to Mr. Lincoln's distinction between the deserting soldier-boy and the " wily agitator "...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:'] SIR, —A writer in your issue of January 8th asks what is " the origin of the superstition that pig's flesh will go bad if the pig is killed...

[TO MR EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR. " ] notice in a recent number of the Spectator which, owing to the kindness of the Victoria League, comes every week, that, so many of your men...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR."] Sur„—Wendell Phillips, the great slavery abolitionist of Boston, Massachusetts, whose effective use of historical allusion in public speaking...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR. " J Sm,—There is a great national loss taking place, which can be easily and inexpensively prevented, and that is the damage done to trees by...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.1 Sra,—Writing when growing - armaments were the only indica- tions of coming war, Mr. Price Collier good-naturedly recorded of the English...

CONFESSIONAL Low), I have stumbled through the years Of fitful hope that came and fled ; And I have drained the cup of tears, And—seen Love lying dead. Oh, I have paced the...

of Scottish descent, and have therefore a vein of superstition which leads me to consult the sorter at various times. Dipping into Vergil for a 1916 prophecy, I opened on the...

PRESIDENT : LORD DESBOROUGH. Hos. SECRETARY : PERCY A. HARRIS, Esq. HEAD OFFICES : Judges Quadrangle, Royal Courts of Justice (Carey Street entrance). The aims and objects of...

THE spscreres.-i SIR,—" Death ! Death ! Death ! . . . War among man and beast, war on earth, war in air, war in the water beneath. . Oh Thou who didst die to destroy death,...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "" SPECTATOR."' S111,—It is quite clear that we shall have to pay new taxes. Can you not see your way to urge a tax of a penny in the shilling or of 10 per...

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

SHAKESPEARE.* ME Birmingham Shakespearean Library contains nearly ten thousand volumes relating to the great Englishman whom Voltaire, who was pedantically wedded to the rigid...

TO iThe prriator No.. 4,570.] FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 1916. REGISTERED FOR I GRATIS. [TRANSMISSION ABROAD

THE YOUNG IRISHMEN-* Me. ST. JOHN ERVINE as a playwright is one of the ornaments of the Irish Theatre ; has also written two remarkable novels; he is a membertof an Ulster...

LONDON: JANUARY 29th, 191G.

and a scholiast the difference is absolute. No ingenuity can discover any resemblance anywhere. On the one side are wit, humour, fancy, and an exuberant vitality ; on the other...

THERE is something repellent to the mind of ordinary English people in the idea of an ordained woman. It is not very easy to say why a woman should enter neither the Army nor...

IN Memories of a Publisher Mr. 0. H. Putnam takes up the story of his life from the close of his military career in 1865 to the present year. As he has no diary on which to...

of interest and significance connects the pile of books relating to Indian subjects which lies - before us. Tessimiats and optimists alike admit that the -" unchanging East" is...

whom what Mr. Hudson calls " the life and conversation of animals " is a matter of lively interest, and those for whom the animal world may be said hardly to exist. The latter...

Tux purpose of America to Japan is excellent. It has been called forth by a volume of a similar kind published last year in Japan, and the object in each case has been to remove...

Haas non numero nisi serene might well be taken as a motto by Mrs. Goading, for though she sometimes tells us of wind and rain and even fog, the hours she counts are all...

the nine volumes of the Journal des Goncourt into one small book, and of making it readable mid amusing, must have presented many difficulties in execution. Mr. West...

WE do not wonder that the Rev. Mr. Westerdale was invited to publish the letters from the front which he wrote to his friends at home during the first seven months of the war,...

Tins O.T.C. never needed an apology less than at this moment, but for that very reason a history of its work is particularly opportune. Such a history, with a chronicle of...

in a subject without being exactly what can truly be called interesting books. French Canada is not exactly a history of Canada ; it is an account of French-Canadian society...

Professor Tinker's volume expresses his purpose better than the first. The salon plays but a small part in his book, because it has very little to do with his subject. In France...

SrscE the material for such a book as Life in a Railway Factory must be largely the product of personal experience, there are only two or three ways in which it can be got...

M. Gorky has to tell. From the first chapter, which describes the death of his father and the break-up of the home, to the last, there is little but a record of suffering,...

MOST readers take a lively interest in the curious intellectual problems so often presented by the study of astronomy. One of these may be summed up in the phrase used by the...

Castle. (Constable and Co. 6s.)—An agreeably written if somewhat rambling account of the everyday life of an English family during-the war. - It was no doubt a temptation to...

(1 Percival Marshall and Co. ls. net.)—Most of us take " Robert " (as Mr. Dilnot affectionately calls the police officer in his preface) very much, perhaps too much, for...

is. 6c1. net.)—We can warmly commend this collection of " letters from Switzerland, September to December, WIC." The writing is scholarly and thoughtful, and we quite endorse...

Arnold. 6s.)—Mr. C. S. Evans has chosen ten out of the twenty-four stories in William Morris's poem and has re-told them in prose for Mr. Edward Arnold's series of " Books for...

A. Blackwell, Oxford. 3s. 6d. net.)This is a collection of con- temporary ballads relating to the disecivery and colonization of America, and should prove most attractive to the...

Charlotte Brante: the Woman. By Maude Goldring. (Elkin Mathews. 2i. 6d. net.)—Once again Charlotte Bronta and her unfortunate love story—particularly the love story—are brought...

Is. net.)—This is the latest of an attractively printed series - of the 'translated sayings of various nations. Many are cosmopolitan, such as, " Three removes are as bad as one...

99 Finer Lane, London, B.O. I and Published by Amman EIMMOS for the " ariosatma" (limited), at their OMM, lie. I wellington street, in ' th e Predict of the Savoy, Strand, to...

Caribbean savage, and that Cymbeline, though mainly based on a story of Boccaccio, perhaps—although Sir Sidney Lee thinks to a " very slender " extent—owed its origin to an...

TuE two principal points which emerge from a reading of Dr. Dillon's book are that we must not expect a complete identity of view between Italy and the other members of the...

With the First Canadian Conlingenti has been published on behalf of the Canadian Field Comforts Commission, and is an agreeable medley of photographs, letters from the front,...

THE new number of the Quarterly Review is, if not " savage and tartarly," severely critical of the Government. The article on " British Diplomacy in the Near East " seeks to...

a rule, a wearisome creature, with a habit of rhapsodizing over the moods of Nature and an incurable love of soliloquy ; the gypsy of respectable country dwellers and honest...

THE LIEUTENANT AND OTHERS.* - Tits author of Sergeant Michael Cassidy, R.E., in the brief preface to his new volume of war sketches, expressly disavows any claim to be...

lJnwin. 6s.)—Of the great crowd of detective novels which are published in the course of a year, there are a few which, by reason either of their merits or of their faults, can...

Holmes. (William Heinemann. 3s. 6d. net.)—It is a rare pleasure for a reviewer to come across a novel which is wholly original, which breaks new ground, not only in its style or...

English under the title On Love, by Mr. Philip Woolf and Mr. Cecil Woolf (Duckworth and Co., 7s. 6d. net). The book is carefully edited with an introduction and notes and the...

[Notice in this column does not necessarily predude subsequent review.] Historic Jamaica. By F. Cundall. (Published for the Institute of Jamaica by the West India Committee,...

and Co. 2s. 6d. net.)—Many English people are trying to learn Russian. We cannot see that they can really learn the language from this small volume, which teaches nothing of...

Cray. (Hodder and Stoughton. 2s. net..)—We gladly draw attention to a popular edition of this most important book. Whatever sympathy one may have with the principle, " My...