Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/579

 10 s. XL jtfNE 12, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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IN The Nineteenth Century Mr. Harold Cox criticizes from his own peculiar standpoint ' The Budget of 1909.' Sir Horace Plunkett, one of the most genuine of Irish reformers, writes on ' Mr. Birrell's Irish Land Bill.' Mr. Ernest Rhys has a pleasant and well-informed ' Tribute to Swinburne,' and Mr. G. G. Greenwood in ' The Vindicators of Shakespeare : a Reply to Sir Edward Sullivan ' makes a vigorous rejoinder to the orthodox position concerning Shakespeare's personality and works. We welcome ' Copyright at Home and Abroad ' by Mr. W. M. Colles, as discussion of the subject is wanted to arouse interest. The present laws are wholly inadequate, and in some important details quite uncertain. ' Personal Recollections of Abdul Hamid II. and his Court' by Prof. Vambery are sure to attract keen attention. The Professor was accorded more liberties than many of the Sultan's Court a just tribute to his learning. ' The Future of the Public House' by the director of a brewery, Mr. E. Barclay, is a piece of special pleading which does not impress us.

Is The Fortnightly Mr. Gosse's ' Swinburne : Personal Recollections ' supplies the most brilliant article of the month. Mr. Gosse is a delightful penman, but he carries personal portraiture (backed by inferences of his own which do not always command our assent) to a point which suggests bad taste. Mr. Sidney Lee's 'French Culture and Tudor England,' and Mr. Clodd's ' Pre- Animistic Stages in Religion ' are both interesting contribu- tions to subjects much canvassed to-day. Of ' British Finances and the Budget' Mr. Ellis Barker gives a one-sided and obviously prejudiced view, descending to rumour concerning two members of the present Cabinet which seems to us wild and worthless. Mr. Sydney Brooks rightly dwells, in 'British and American Ambassadors,' on the admir- able representatives of oratory and culture which have come to this country from the United States. is a striking plea for the writers " who buffet the holiday cheek of life" by revealing unpleasant truths. A birthday article regarding 'The Dis- ciple of Destiny ' deals with the work of Mr. Hardy, our one surviving novelist of acknowledged great- ness. Mr. VV. S. Durrant discovers in 'Jude the Obscure ' the finest of the Wessex novels, but does not deal very satisfactorily with Mr. Hardy's affinity to Greek thought, possibly because he seems to have a somewhat restricted view of Greek drama. Mr. T. W. Rolleston's ' Two Makers of Modern Ireland ' is concerned with Swift and Berkeley, and may, we suppose, appeal to those who know little about two admirable writers. To us the article appears to be largely repetition of familiar matter.
 * The Novelist's Allegory,' by Mr. John Galsworthy,

IN TheCornhUl 'Leaves from the Diary of a Tramp,' introduced by Mr. Stanley Weyman, is an effective article, but we cannot say that we sympathize entirely with the tramp's position as here stated. Mr. W. E. Norris has a pleasant story, 'The Girl with One Talent.' Canon Vaughan, in ' A Forgotten Botanist of the Seventeenth Century,' adds another to his excellent articles in the byways of natural history. Mr. Edmund Candler's account of ' Wild- fowl and Parlakimedi ' is a well written record of sport in a largely unspoilt corner of India. Mr. Austin Philips in 'Old Sandy' has a charming story of the old type of schoolmaster and the new. Mr. Lang is both instructive and entertaining con- cerning ' Anti- Jacobite Conspiracies.' 'The Rise

oi Moulai Abd El Hafid' by Mr. L. J. Brown will interest a good many readers at the present juncture. The verse, 'Sarah Wilson,' by Mr. W. W. Gibson, is a study of an old woman past work which reads well, but would have gained, we think, by reduction of its sixteen stanzas.

The National Review has two vivid, posthumous papers by Ouida on ' The Woman Problem the first on the question, ' Shall Women Vote ? ' and the other on 'Love ver-nis Avarice.' They are by no means so wild as some of her earlier fugitive writings. Lord Cranworth has a brief but pointed and sensible article on ' The Decay of the English Village.' '"Society" and Politicians ' is a tirade against modern slackness and self-advertisement which seems to us amply justified, and well ex- pressed, though it misquotes the famous description of Catiline. On the other hand, Mr. Montagu Wood on ' The Disabilities of an Oxford Career ' is not adequate, and his obvious attempts at fine writing do not please us. Mr. Charles Whibley on ' Copyright ' says what a great many authors and friends of literature are thinking. The law, we believe, merely gave forty - two years from publication, because the year of its enactment was 1842 ! Why English people cannot take the same trouble about such matters as their continental neighbours we do not understand. Independently of party, our rulers ought to revise the copy- right law thoroughly. Their continued indiffer- ence shows how the country loses by the working of the party system, which only promotes party measures.

The Burlington Magazine opens with an important article entitled ' Unanswered Questions about the Norfolk Holbein.' It brings a severe indictment against the Trustees of the National Gallery, and says, amongst other things, that "it is an open

secret that the unique Fragonard Room from

Grasse, now among the treasures of Mr. Pierpont Morgan's collection, might have been obtained by the National Gallery as a gift." It is further stated to be notorious that "the administrative system at Trafalgar Square, such as it is, works with exces- sive and increasing friction." Another editorial announces that the Merton Abbey tapestries which Messrs. Morris have brought to a fine pitch of perfection are likely to be given up from lack of public support. M. Andre" Perate begins some interesting ' Notes on the Portrait Collection in Paris' of a hundred women which is being well attended daily. There are three reproductions of pictures in this show. 'An Art Gallery for Johannesburg' introduces us to fine specimens of Mr. Wilson Steer's work. His 'Corfe Castle,' which is reproduced, is already regarded by com- petent critics as masterly. ' Notes on some Portraits of Tudor Times ' exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club show that the Club has, as usual, gathered much that is choice and interesting. The collection includes a possible Holbein, figured in the frontis- piece. Works by Jan Steen and Hoppner, now oeing shown in London, supply three charming illustrations of one picture by the former and two by the latter. The art notes include reference to the Claren-Altar investigations at Cologne, which, as last week's Athenceurn shows, have made a number of critics look ridiculous. The Salon of the Societe des Artistes Francais is said to be mediocre and appallingly dull.