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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. x. DEC. 6, im

sends an inquiry which may be studied with ad- vantage, ' Are the Public Schools a Failure ?' The Baron thinks they are not, and a perusal of what he says is heartily to be commend_ed. 'The Weak Spot in the American Republic,' which appears in the Nineteenth Century, is that the country is becoming dependent upon foreigners, for its vital strength. It is striking to find Mr. Weston, the writer, main- taining that what the United States were to the nineteenth century Canada will be to the twentieth. Mr. Sidney Low writes shrewdly on ' The Tangle of London Locomotion.' It is a great question, and our councils are still so dense and belated that in creating new arteries they tinker and show no more energy than so many Mrs. Partingtons. It is a curiously significant fact that Shaftesbury Avenue, one of the latest of our great thorough- fares, counts already among the most congested. Mr. Oswald Crawfurd writes on 'The Drama of the Future.' We fail, however, to obtain any strong illumination upon its nature. Mr. Charles L. Eastlake describes the ' Changes in the Pronunciation of English.' It is an important subject that cannot be adequately discussed in one magazine article, or even in many. Not a few of the pronunciations which are disappearing are due to affectations which are strangely prevalent in such matters. We will attribute to the com- positor the fact that there is on p. 994 a misquota- tion from Pope. "Great Anna, whom these realms obey," should be " Great Anna, whom three realms obey." The question as to the pronunciation of anyina pectoris is not quite settled by the line mentioned in Terence. The article, if not always quite accurate, is interesting. It might be in- definitely expanded. In his 'Ignoble Use of the Classics the Hon. Boyd Winchester, formerly United States Minister in Switzerland, dwells upon the results attending the practice of reading or learning the classics for purposes of educational drill. We remember the time when weariness of school tasks induced us to dispute the claims to poetry of the

stateliest measure Ever moulded by the lips of man.

Mrs. W. Kemp-Welch has a suggestive article on 'The Woman-Headed Serpent in Art'; and Lord Burghclere gives a translation of the third book of Virgil's ' Georgics,' describing the murrain. A Christmas number of the Pall Mall con- tains naturally a considerable amount of fiction, which, though good in its class, does not come under our supervision. It contains also many attractive illustrations, more than one of which is tastefully coloured. The opening paper consists of ' A Dream of Fair Women,' a study by L. van der Veer of the work of the French painter Jean Jacques Henner. Many lovely pictures of women, chiefly of a Jewish type, are reproduced. Henner's characteristic treatment of flesh is capitally pre- served in the ill ustrations. ' Seven New Cathedrals ' are illustrated from photographs and designs. Of these one only, Berlin, is wholly foreign, though we can scarcely claim New York as English. Truro, Westminster, Brisbane, Cape Town, and Liverpool are dealt with, though no design is given of the last named. In ' The King at Home ' views of Sandringham are presented by special permission. Old English Christmas customs are depicted. Perhaps the most interesting paper in the number is the ' Taming of Garden Birds,'

showing the manner in which, by kindness, the shyness of birds is overcome, and they are induced to feed from the hand or the mouth. ' Bishop Stubbs and the Rolls Series,' by the Rev. W. H. Hutton, arrests attention in the Comhill. It deals with the volume of introductions to the Rolls Series recently issued by Messrs. Longman an all-important work, a review of which is stand- ing over in our own columns. It is pleasant to find Mr. Hutton calling Dr. Stubbs the greatest of our historians since Gibbon. Lord Welbypays a tribute to Stephen Spring Rice, a worthy member of a distinguished family. Under the title of 'Nine- teenth Century Studies' Mr. Sidney Low deals with Kossuth, of whose romantic career a stimulating account is given. No. IV. of ' Prospects in the Professions ' is occupied with the Army. The paper is in all respects accurate and judicious. Mr. W. J. Fletcher, in ' The Police Work of the Navy,' carries us back to the desperate deeds of the buccaneers. In Longman's Mr. Lang concerns himself prin- cipally with cricket, but devotes some space to old ballad literature and to the new edition of 'The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.' He also deals witn the death of George Douglas Brown. That original novelists are seldom great readers is a fact Mr. Lang stoops to chronicle. ' A Brilliant Feat of Arms is concerned with the memorable siege of Basing. The interest in Mr. Clarke-NuttaH's 'A Botanical Discovery and its Possibilities' is principally scientific. 'The Disentanglers ' is con- cluded. In the Gentleman's Dr. Yorke-Davies has a long and instructive article on ' The Feeding of the Soldier : the Lesson of the Great Boer War.' (Miss ?) J. Quigley depicts ' Summer Days in Brittany.' Mr. J. Forbes Gray describes the origin and early days of the Edinburgh. His paper is in- teresting, but he vexes the soul by using a split infinitive.

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