Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/125

 us. ni.FKB.li, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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which might have produced excellent results, was never carried out, though the Master of Christ's College, Cambridge, spoke of it as likely to "fill the nation with philosophers." It was probably hindered by some person or persons in authority, whose powers of thwarting the development of natural science are not dwelt upon.

Among the letters of Henry Gouldney to Sir John Bodes is a most interesting document which is reproduced in facsimile, but is, we believe, on a smaller scale than the original. Its title is ' The Humble Address of the People called Quakers from their yearly meeting in London, the 26th Day of the Third Month called May, 1716.' It is well composed, but, we must confess, more flattering in the passages relating to what they called "unnatural rebellion" than we should have anticipated. We believe it to be a docu- ment of the greatest rarity, unknown to almost the whole of the Quakers of the present day.

John Tomkins, who wrote many of the letters, had a wider range of thought than the majority of the correspondents. His account of the great storm of November, 1703, which must have been of tropical violence, should be consulted by modern meteorologists. It is not improbable that some passages in it give a better description of that tremendous gale than can be found elsewhere.

IN The Fortnightly Mr. J. L. Garvin's political article bears the title ' From Reval to Potsdam,' and is largely concerned with the building and control of the Bagdad Bailway. Mr. Swift MacNeill in ' Foreign Policy and Parliamentary Control ' points once more to the predominance of the Cabinet in these latter days which is beginning to attract general attention. Mr. William Archer has an interesting account of ' The Portuguese Bepublic,' more favourable than some we have recently read, and very properly including some of the history which led to the Revolution. ' The Kaiser's Conquest,' by Bri- tannicus, points out that the German Emperor has returned to that style of speech which at the end of 1908 led to a period of discretion and reserve, and that the consequent campaign against him has failed this time to reveal a " determined popular opinion." ' Tolstoy's Last Days,' by Zinaida Vengerowa, is an exaggerated article which does not impress us in the least. Mrs. Woods adds here to her Cornhill articles one on ' Round Table Mountain ' ; and " G." gives an alarming account of the prevalence of ' Anarchist Propaganda in England.'

At the end of the number we find two articles concerned with ancient Greece, for Mr. C. G. D. Roberts's ' Heliodore of the Myrtles ' gives a pretty picture of the lady as the chief love of Meleager, and Walter Lennard's fifth section ' In Search of Egeria ' introduces the amorist talking Sappho with a French lady. This section is obviously the work of an expert scholar, and, looking through the advertisements in this number, we notice that these clever studies are now revealed as by TMr. W. L. Courtney.

IN The Cornhill for February Mr. Stephen Gwynn, M.P., has a lively article on ' Electioneer- ing in Ireland,' and Mrs. Woods's " Pastel " is ' By the East Coast,' beginning with Beira, and ending with Zanzibar. As usual, Mrs. Woods gives us a good deal of information in a pleasant style: Prof. G. H. Bryan in ' The Wastage of

Men, Aeroplanes, and Brains ' points out that- flying in the air " has been developed in a one- sided way, and this on the most dangerous side." The conditions of stability have not been suffi- ciently considered by aviators largely innocent of mathematics. Mr. Marmaduke Pickthall has an excellent short story, ' The Tale of a Camp/ in which the servants of a party touring in Palestine take advantage of the conceit of the missionary who leads it, and make him do much of their work. The talk of the servants is par- ticularly vivid, but we should be glad to know what a " khawajah " is. Mr. F. E. Dugdale writes on ' Blue Jimmy : the Horse Stealer,* who was once famous in the West of England. Nineteen times he was brought before a judge, and the eighteenth trial, in 1822, was so lucky an escape for him that the wonder is he pursued his thieving after it. Unfortunately for him, he had the same judge on his last two appearances in court, and recognized in 1825 that his fate was sealed. Mr. A. C. Benson's study of ' Bishop Wilkinson ' retains the remarkable level of interest which his series of people who have in- fluenced him has had from the beginning. His subject in this case is a fine example of spirituality with whom *' personal relation with God " was wonderfully vivid. The new chapters of ' The Lost Iphigenia ' are both lively and arresting. We are rather disappointed with the literary competitions, which seem so far to afford little scope for critical power and much for mere industry.

The Nineteenth Century has abundance of politics, with which we do not care to deal. Sir R. Anderson tackles ' The Problem of the Criminal Alien,' and suggests as an expert what common sense no doubt suggested to a good many persons lately that an alien anarchist living by crime ought to be allowed to go free only in virtue of a permis de sejour. He also thinks that the posses- sion of a revolver without a magisterial licence should be made a criminal offence, in order to put a stop to armed burglars. Dr. T. B. Hyslop writes with ample experience of lunatics on- 1 Post-Illusionism and Art in the Insane,' hinting obliquely at the Post-Impressionists. While his over-use of scientific words endorses his ex-

rrience as a doctor, we do not gather that he inclined to admire symbolism or anything beyond photographic representation (which is hardly art) in the sane, and there are several " question -begging " adjectives in his clever dis- course. Canon Beeching on ' The Revision of the Prayer Book ' explains a question on which some misconception exists. Mr. Stephen Gwynn has a striking paper on ' The Writings and Opinions of General Sir W T illiam Butler,' a man who was admirable alike as soldier and writer. Of the remaining articles, that by the Abbe" Ernest Dimnet is by far the most interesting. He writes English with remarkable force and point, and explains the curious position held by the very able group who bring out the daily paper, Action FranQaise. Royalist, but not at one with official Royalism, this paper has a great influence on anti-Republic journalists outside Paris. The Abb<* contrasts this lively source of abuse, protest, and insolence with the inertness of the Radical majority in France. But, after all, it is always the defeated and dissatisfied minority that makes most of the epigrams and complaints.