SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1884. No. 613, New Series. THE EDITOR cannot undertake to return, to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscript.

I is particularly requested that all business letters regarding the supply of the paper re, may be addressed to the PUBLISHER, and not to the EDITOR.

LITERATURE,

Temples and Elephants: the Narrative of a
Journey of Exploration through Upper
Siam and Lao. By Carl Bock. (Sampson
Low.)

An address which Mr. Bock prints from the Muang Fang, and carry off valuable bronze princes to the King, and his Majesty's reply, Buddhas, it was equally natural that the though dashed here and there with some evi- priests should resent such poaching, even on ordently European or American commonplaces, their unoccupied preserves, and that the feeling on both sides. Neither does native art spirits, should attribute various mischances to gives a curious and pleasant picture of the people, always in dread of offending the appear to suffer from European influences. In his proceedings. And the fine of fifteen a great palace recently finished, European rupees which the authorities at Lakhon tried national style; and, excepting the silver-work official, and taken up his residence in the elements combine harmoniously with the to impose on him for having chastised a high and the bronze statuary (which, however, halls of justice because the rest-house was out seems nearly extinct), there is not, by the of repair, does not seem exorbitant to say author's account, much native art that is nothing of the spiritual damage done. The worth preserving. The people, he says, show King, to whom he afterwards recounted his a great aptitude for European music. Their troubles, was inclined to attribute them to silver-work is handsome, following traditional the inefficiency of his interpreter; at all patterns and ideas only, as apparently do the events, his readers will not greatly regret painters. Their figure-drawing, anímal and delays to which they owe much amusing human, is full of life and vigour; but when description of native life, habits, traits of the author asked a native artist why they character, and curious customs-not the least "always made caricatures instead of exact re- quaint among these being a proposed cerepresentations of their subjects, and particularly mony of reconciliation between the traveller of the elephant, of which they had plenty of and the offended authorities and no one will examples to copy from, he replied that they complain that his account of the executions were not allowed to make a true picture of the he witnessed, or of the disposal of the bodies elephant: that was left to the farang to do." of the dead, is not sufficiently realistic. We It would be curious to compare the feeling do not know whether a traveller is to be expressed in this "not allowed" with that excused when, in the cause of anthropological which dictated the conventionalism of ancient science, he investigates the private domestic Egyptian and mediaeval European art. Euro- details of life through chinks of the lattice. pean costume has hardly begun to supple- Another successful, and perhaps more serious, ment the national, which Mr. Bock describes fraud was the production of zoedone on various as very becoming. That of the lacons (actresses, occasions when his native friends had called or dancing girls), however, is mysterious: they for champagne! are "all dressed alike, in complete Scotch dress, the head covering being a crown in the form of a pradchedee."

THE narrative before us, as compared with the writer's work on Borneo, labours under two disadvantages he was unacquainted with the language of the country; and, in return for the facilities extended to him by the King, he undertook, he tells us, "to refrain from any political allusions." To this rule the writer adheres with some rigidity. Thus we should have liked to hear what he learned as to the relations to each other, and to Siam and Burmah, of the tribes on the northern frontier. Again, he has no doubt felt himself precluded from speaking freely on questions of internal administration; but we can read something between the lines, and for the rest we may reflect that but for the assistance afforded him the book might not have been written at all. He is mistaken in supposing that no European has "traversed any portion of the same ground." Since Gen. McLeod's journey in 1837, not to mention Mr. Cushing, Mr. Colquhoun went as far as Zimmé in 1879, though his promised account of the journey has not yet appeared. Still, the author no doubt saw much that was new; and though hampered, as he complains, at every turn, especially among the Laos, by the jealousy and reticence of both officials and people, and also, we may suspect, by inefcient interpreters, his record is full of

interest.

Between the indiscriminate adoption of everything foreign, arguing a lack of originality, if not of self-respect, in Japan, and the almost equally indiscriminate exclusiveness of (tina-though China may be found to have taken notes more extensively than is comonly supposed-Siam appears to have chosen ajuste milieu. Mr. Bock describes the King attached, like his father before him, to European society and culture, having been educated by an American lady, but as by no ans under European dictation. Thus, hile establishing post-offices and telegraphs, gradually abolishing slavery, and instituting me sanitary legislation, he is a sincere though enlightened Buddhist, his creed occuying, as is usual with its votaries, a large pare in his life. He is thirty years of age, has forty-two children. Mr. Bock says hing about palace intrigues or succession utes. Possibly the safety is in numbers, the mentions two other princes with families pectively of 106 and 95 children; but the amber of sons capable of succeeding to the throne is, from want of sufficient rank on the mother's side, relatively small.

Mr. Bock writes fluently on some of the more abstruse points of Buddhist doctrine; but, whatever we may think of his conclusions, his account of the various religious ceremonies and observances he witnessedand he saw a good deal-are full of interest and value. Everywhere, but especially among the Laos, side by side with Buddhism, and apparently without clashing, we see the older nature-worship, and not only prayer, but thanksgiving, addressed to the spirits of the rocks, streams, and such like. He describes, too, a state of possession, called phee-ka, akin to the evil eye; persons so affected, though not considered to be responsible, are banished, sometimes en masse, from the community, and obliged to form a settlement elsewhere. A superstition, common among widely different races-viz., the dislike to pronouncing a name is perhaps traceable here in the custom of giving an infant an unattractive name, such as pig-dung or goosedung, in order "that the spirits may not take a fancy to it." Later on, this name is discarded for another.

How far the mass of the people has as yet benefited by the enlightened principles held at head-quarters the writer tells us little as regards Šiam proper. In the Lao country, which is still practically under the native chiefs, a good deal of oppression prevails. One energetic official there, a Cingalese by birth, had brought a buggy and pair of horses up into the jungle, and even talked of establishing a cab-stand; but the people generally are, the writer says, utterly idle and spiritless, gambling is universal, and drunkenness very common. He suggests that their energies might be stimulated by the promotion of trade; and he considers that a railway might easily be made from Bangkok up the fertile valley of the Menam to Raheng (300 miles), the country presenting no physical difficulties, and Chinese labour being always available. This plan has some bearing on the question, recently under discussion, of a trade route through Burmah and the Shan country to Yunnan; for, notwithstanding the disadvan- Towards the northern frontier, although the tages of Bangkok as a port, the railway would people seemed very prosperous, Mr. Bock at once attract a good deal of the traffic which observed many ruined towns, the result of the other route proposes to accommodate, and wars recent and remote, the remains indicawhich, so far as it came within his notice, ting a style of art higher than that which Mr. Bock represents as very considerable. It prevailed farther south. We gather (but, as is to be regretted that his attention had not before observed, he is reticent on the subject) been directed to this scheme, as he could have that constant fighting goes on between the described, with special reference to a railway, Ngious or Shans, backed by Burmah, and the the difficult country north of Zimmé (which Laos, dependents of Siam. That the Shan place, by-the-way, he spells variously Cheng-customs should approximate to the Burmese mai or Kieng Mai). Although the hindrances is not surprising, but Mr. Bock finds that in placed in his way by the Chows and Phyas physique also their resemblance to the Burmese of Upper Lao were very annoying, they were is much closer than to the nearly allied Laos. hardly, from the native point of view, without excuse. If it was natural that he should desire to excavate the ruined temples of

Most Englishmen will sympathise with his wish that Siam should be strong and prosperous. And in any rectification of frontiers

that may take place in these parts it should
be remembered that, as Mr. Colquhoun has
pointed out, the western frontier of Anam
does not extend beyond longitude 102° 30',
for any rapprochement of the frontiers of
Anam and Burmah is now more than ever
undesirable.
COUTTS TROTTER.

The New Lucian: being a Series of Dialogues of the Dead. By H. D. Traill. (Chapman & Hall.)

MR. TRAILL, although he may plead modern fashion, and such fellow-culprits as Mr. Mallock and Mr. R. L. Stevenson, must yet be considered very bold in the title he has chosen for his book of dialogues. In the first place, he is too ruthlessly ruffling the feelings of the new criticism, which likes to regard each thing as a thing by itself, and denies the old platitude about the repetitions of history; and then he compels a comparison between the classicised dead and a living modern, in which he is as sure to get the worst of it as, no doubt, he will get the best when some future writer of dialogues or recapturer of rhymes comes forward with "the new Traill." For Lucian, as Mr. Traill would be the first to allow, is not one of those forgotten worthies whose name may be lightly taken in vain, as though it stood picturesquely for dead dialogues, as Priscian stands for dead grammar, or Galen for dead physic. His volumes lie conveniently near the easy-chair, with Aristophanes and Molière and "the little edition: of Rabelais," and they are even better thumbed. To wish, therefore, to replace them, or even to stand on the same shelf, is no mean ambition, and one not easily to be gratified; for what criticism is, in its way, so searching and beyond appeal as that of the dressing-gown and slippers? And in the case of a new Lucian, whatever ideas he may be supposed to have gained during his seventeen hundred years' converse with the Shades, unless there is the old penetrating humour, the old full-throated laughter at gods and men, the old ease and charm and vivacity of style, the verdict must be "that 'tisn't the genuine thing."

Now it may at once be said that these are not the qualities which claim recognition in Mr. Traill's writing. At bottom, Mr. Traill is not a humourist; he is far too much of the moral and political philosopher for that; his dialogue is too "bearded," as Lucian would say; he is earnest, didactic, satirical, witty, but he is not a humourist. And then, again, Mr. Traill's dialogue wants ease and fluidity. There is too much of the stoccado and passado and standing on distance, not enough sweet touches and quick venews of wit, snip-snap, quick and home. The conversation has all the finish of a carefully played game of chess, and produces the same effect on the bystanders. In other words, there is hardly a soul among all the speakers who can talk. And once more-and this is the most fatal objection to Mr. Traill's claim on Lucian's mantle-he can be dull. Let anyone read, if he can, the dialogue between Burke and Mr. Horsman, and say if its dulness does not provoke a yawning too deep for tears.

No; if Mr. Traill wishes for the justification of a prototype, a better title would have been "the new Lyttleton" or "the

แ

new Landor." Lord Lyttleton, in the
Preface to his Dialogues of the Dead, speaks
of this form of writing as "perhaps one of
the most agreeable methods that can be
employed of conveying to the mind any
critical, moral, or political observations."
Now this sentence might stand as a very exact
description of Mr. Traill's dialogues. They
are full of observations, and observations
which fall into these three classes; and they
are the observations of an acute and practised
mind, and they are expressed for the most
part not only agreeably, but with great force
and brilliance. Of quotable good things in
the ways of epigram and parody there are
scores, and many deserve the still higher
praise of being still better in their context.
"I have noticed," says Lord Westbury, that
the definitions of Churchmen are often as
animated as lay invectives." "Amnesty,
after all," says Lord Beaconsfield, "is only
the Greek for forgetfulness;" and so on.
The most interesting and best sustained of
the dialogues is that which occupies the place
of honour in the volume-Lord Westbury and
Bishop Wilberforce. Of the rest, the political
are better than the literary. The points made
in the latter are so small or so well worn that
they scarcely seem worth the pains they have
evidently cost. This remark does not apply
to "Plato and Landor," which is a satire on
the neo-Hellenism of the day, which Mr.
Traill—that is, Landor-puts on a level with
an equally popular if more barbarian cult.
"Lan. You seem to have often conversed
with new comers from my country. Have you
ever heard any of them let fall the name of
Jumbo?

"Pla. I do not remember to have done so.
The word is unfamiliar to me. Yet stay; I
seem to recall it. Is it not the name of a bar-
barian god?

itself it is the name only of an idol;" &c.
"Lan. Associated with Mumbo it is. By
This dialogue contains some very choice abuse

of the young poets (if such there be) whom
Punch symbolised by the name of Mawdle,
and side by side with this a most flattering
testimonial to the author of the Strayed
Of the political dialogues the best

Reveller.

save a man.

by point Lord Campbell's Life of him has ruined the interest of the present work.

Nor can it be said that the whitewashing is successful. It is true that Lord Campbell has been convicted of inaccuracies in quoting Lord Lyndhurst's speeches, of insufficient know. ledge of his domestic, and sometimes of his political, life. There is no doubt that Campbell did set down a good many things in malice against Lyndhurst which were not true, and extenuated a good many things in his favour. But to convict Campbell of unfairness is not to find a verdict of acquittal in Lyndhurst's favour. The charge against him is that he changed his political creed to suit his interests or his convenience, and was a self-seeker pared to sacrifice his party to himself.

pre

In either proving or refuting this charge, we are met by the initial difficulty that he himself "upon principle destroyed almost every letter or paper of a confidential nature which could have thrown light upon his official life or his relations with the leaders in society or politics." We are also informed that, unlike most men of that day, he never wrote a letter if he could help it. But he knew, or had a strong suspicion, that Campbell was writing his Life, and that it would be a stinging indictment. What is our opinion of a person who, knowing that charges are hanging over his head, or are likely to be brought against him, sets to work to destroy his papers? Surely, that he had something to conceal. But when he exercises a selection in so doing, and preserves some (but a very few) which are, so to speak, evidences to character, and destroys others, the inference is that those destroyed were in some way damaging. However, whatever the inference to be drawn, the fact remains that there are scarcely any papers to help us. We have, then, to fall back upon other

evidence.

There are three chief episodes in Lynd hurst's career which laid him open to the charges specified. The first is when he first got into Parliament by the aid of the Tory Government. It is admitted that the of Watson when indicted for high treason in cause of his so doing was his successful defence

written is "De Morny-Gambetta-Blanqui." 1817. Now it is singular, to say the least of
Mr. Traill by his title has appealed to it, that Copley, as he then was, should have
Caesar; and, at that highest tribunal, it is been selected in such a case if he was not
not constitutional politics, it is not merely known as a Liberal. In those days, as, in-
"a high degree of truth and seriousness," it is deed, in these, no one thought of selecting
not even a faculty for epigram, which can
for his counsel in a political, or quasi-
Still, it is but poor justice to
political, case a man who was not supposed
There remains to
to be more or less of the same political
colour. The Hunts were defended by
Brougham and Brandreth by Denman, be-
cause they were the leading Whigs
and advocates of the day. It is true
that Copley's leader in Watson's case was
Wetherell, that most bigoted of Tories. But
why? Because Wetherell was then breathing

say this, and this only.
praise the extraordinary cleverness of a great
deal of Mr. Traill's book, and its very con-
of interest.
range

siderable

H. C. BEECHING.

The Life of Lord Lyndhurst. By Sir Theodore
Martin. (John Murray.)
WHITEWASHING never has been, and probably
never will be, a very successful process from
the literary point of view. When the white-
washing of one character has to be done at
the expense of blackening another, it is still
less likely to be successful. Controversial
writing is generally dull. Even Milton could
not produce a readable work when he answered
an opponent point by point. The attempt to
whitewash Lord Lyndhurst by refuting point

vengeance on the Government for having passed over his claims to the Solicitor-Generalship. Nor was this Copley's first appearance as a defender of Radicals. He had gained his name by a successful defence of a Luddite on circuit. But, before he would have been employed to defend the Luddite, he must have been known or reputed as a holder of advanced opinions. The evidence that he was so does not rest on Campbell alone. Scarlett charged him with it in the House of Commons; there

reform which the Government proposed. He the author's plan. This is certainly matter had promised a Bill for Chancery Reform, but for regret. The author has written largely on he took good care to throw out that brought | folk-lore in general at various times, but his in by his opponents. In Opposition he stifled knowledge is derived almost entirely from their Charitable Trusts Bill, but himself books, and he seems seldom to think of concarried a similar measure through the Lords firming what others have written by reference as Chancellor, though it was dropped in to personal investigation into the modern the Commons. He took good care to be survivals of customs once popular. converted on the subject of the Corn Laws, so as to retain his office; and after the loss of office made violent attempts to gain it again by coalescing with the Protectionists. These are the chief, but not all, the instances which could be produced of Lyndhurst's political tergiversation. It is true that they may all be attributed to honest changes of conviction; but, if so, he is to be congratulated on their singular seasonableness.

press as

"Ben

Our space is exhausted; and, as it is impossible to take up all the points of interest in a work like this, we may assure the reader who wants a general compendium of Shaksperian folk-lore that he will be safe if he procures Mr. Dyer's book. HILDERIC FRIEND.

birds, insects, and fishes, one could have
wished that Miss Phipson's admirable work on
The Animal-Lore of Shakspeare's Time had
been at hand. If, however, Mr. Dyer's volume
has been as slow in its progress through the
some other volumes of a similar
nature, he may justly plead that his work
was finished before these appeared. One
other general remark before passing to notice
a few particular cases. The reader is fre-
quently very much confused, in turning to the
foot-notes, on finding that many of the figures
have fallen out or been misplaced. This is
especially noticeable in the early chapters,
which seem, in various ways, to betoken lack
of careful revision. Such a phrase as
Jonson ... describes to come ""
(p. 5), is cer-
tainly awkward; and it is curious to read that
according to one theory, the old tree [Herne's
Oak] was blown down, August 21, 1863."
So we could wish for a more grammatical
structure than that displayed in the following
sentence (p. 227): "The canker rose referred
to by Shakespeare is the wild dog-rose, a name
occasionally applied to the common red poppy.'
Typographical errors are far too frequent." According to an erroneous notion formerly
The word "remarks" is lost on p. 41; current, it was supposed that the air, and not
a whole line has disappeared from p. the earth, drizzled dew-a notion referred to in
240; on p. 126 we read of Browne's
'Romeo and Juliet' (iii. 5):-
"British Pastorals;
"" sometimes we have
"Lucrece," at other times "Lucreece," and and in 'King John' (ii. 1):—
"Spenser" is sometimes called "Spencer"
'Before the dew of evening fall'"' (p. 86).
(e.g., p. 224). Prof. Skeat will not probably
assent to "barley being merely the beer-But as the earth doth weep, the sun being set'"'
"And so, too, in the Rape of Lucreece':-
plant" (p. 200), nor can I admit that Love-in-
Idleness is more accurately written Love-in-Idle
when standing for "one of the many nick-
names of the pansy or heart's-ease-a term
said to be still used in Warwickshire" (p. 215).
I have heard Love-in-idlesse, and Love-in-
idleness, but not Love-in-idle one of Dr.
Prior's "idle" fancies. On p. 143 we have
the curious misprint-

the fact, though he names no county in
which the word lives. Respecting Shrove-
tide football matches (p. 383), it is interest-
ing to note that a game was played in the
streets of Nuneaton only last year, when the
shops were closed and subscriptions collected
from the townsfolk to repair any damage
that might be done to property. Fairies
of old wore green dresses (p. 16), which The Secret Service of the Confederate States
may account for the fact, referred to in
in Europe. By James D. Bulloch. In
recent numbers of Notes and Queries, that
2 vols. (Bentley.)
green was not formerly regarded as a fashion-
able or popular colour for articles of dress.
Prof. Skeat does not share our author's doubts
(p. 39) respecting the well-known word
"aroint," but tells us we must put it down
to the credit of our Scandinavian neighbours.
Mr. Dyer would have done well to have
followed the recognised authorities in matters
of etymology in preference to quoting the
words of authorities on Shakspere's works
alone. Dyce, Steevens, and others have their
own special field as interpreters and com-
mentators, but they are often weak in other

“The flower that like's thy face, pale primrose." Let us now glance for a moment at a few of the questions discussed in Mr. Dyer's volume. The later chapters do not call for special notice, although it may be remarked that it is hardly sufficient to say of the curfew bell (p. 489) that it "is still rung in some of our old country villages" when such towns and cities as Exeter, Buckingham, Towcester, Newton Abbot, Bicester, Hastings, and many others still keep its tongue going; and in some instances, as at Bicester, for example, there are peculiarly interesting customs connected therewith. I recently heard the proverb (p. 443) "While the grass grows the steed starves" very aptly employed by a Devonian. "He laid out his money in such a way that it will for years bring in no return. Why not put it out for immediate profits, and notstarve the horse while the grass is growing'?" said my friend. In connexion with the chapter on punishments, we may mention that a little book on Punishments in the Olden Time, by Mr. Andrews, might have been consulted and referred to. In Sussex, our farming folk still employ the term "bilboes" (p. 408) -a kind of stock or fetters-when speaking of a wooden pole fixed to a frame for securing the heads of cattle to be milked, or of sheep that are to be confined. Parish does not notice this in his Sussex Glossary, but I find that Halliwell has a reference to

matters.

'When the sun sets, the air doth drizzle dew; '

(p. 60).

Is it quite fair to say that Shakspere and
others were labouring under a delusion? In
the Bible we read of the dew falling, and it is
a fact that in the East "the heavy dews of
summer, which modify the climate so remark-
ably, differ from ordinary dew in the manner
of their deposition, being in great part precipi-
being deposited on the earth" ("Observations
tated in the air in the form of mist before
on the Climate of Jerusalem" in the Quarterly
Report of the Palestine Exploration Fund for
January 1883). This will in great measure
account for the language of Holy Writ, and
for the not exactly "erroneous" idea so long
maintained. We are told (p. 158) that at
Chetwode, near Buckingham, an old custom
of levying a tax on the cattle found on the
estate during certain days is still kept up.
This is scarcely correct. The estate has now
passed out of the hands of the Chetwodes, and
the "Rhyne Toll" is, in consequence, a thing
of the past. On the other hand, our author
often uses the past tense, in speaking of folk-
lore, where the present would be equally
correct. Thus in Sussex they still burn er
steep senna leaves and inhale the smoke or
vapour in order to kill the worm which is
there said to cause toothache; in Devonshire
you are still supposed to lose a drop of blood
every time a sigh is given; while in South
Wales a friend of mine frequently makes up
and sells "love philtres to a maiden" (p.
248). In Kent a peascod with nine peas is
laid, not on the lintel (p. 223), but on the
door itself, and he who enters without swing-
ing it down is the favoured suitor. I strongly
suspect this was the old custom, but that
writers mistook the meaning of the words
(6 over the door." For what could be divined
by the peascod merely lying on the lintel?

TIME enough has elapsed for the waves of political strife, which raged so fiercely round the greatest civil war that our century has yet witnessed, to have subsided; yet we must still wait on for an impartial history of the struggle. Meanwhile, the deeds of the rival fleets and armies, and the actions which they fought, are being chronicled, and the past year has brought a goodly addition to what we may term the literature militant of the period. The series of handy little duodecimos published by Messrs. Scribner detail the chief events of the war, naval and military, as two goodly sized volumes now under notice viewed from the Northern side, while the form a contribution from the Southern point

of view.

were

This book is written, the author tells us, from a sense of duty, to furnish a truthful account of the circumstances under which the fleet of "commerce-destroyers" built and equipped for the Confederate States. The main narrative is drawn up from original papers in the author's possession and from his intimate personal knowledge; and interwoven with it are brief descriptions of the cruises of the various vessels and their tragic or ill-starred ends, which are chiefly taken from works already published. A summary of the celebrated controversy which arose out of the recognition of the "insurgents" as belcloses the work, with such frequent references ligerents and ended with the Geneva Award and quotations from the Blue-Books and like documents that we may be pardoned for suggesting that the author, as a naval officer. has forgotten our sailor-hero Blake's advice not to meddle with politics. The losses inflicted by these cruisers on the United States merchant navy are full of warning to us showing the ease with which a few swift vessels can command the highways of commerce at will by stationing themselves "in the forks of the road."

Capt. Bulloch (whose name appears so often in official and other accounts as Bullock) at the outbreak of war was a retired officer of the United States Navy, and in private employ. He was immediately sent to Europe by the Confederate statesmen as their chief naval representative, to organise a naval force for the South, where resources for shipbuilding and the manufacture of war material were wholly wanting. He superintended the building of cruisers in England and France during the war, and twice ran the blockade. On the first occasion the following droll incident occurred, though at the time it might have proved hazardous. When lying-to in a dense fog off Warsaw Sound, to catch a glimpse of land, they heard

"a shrill, prolonged, quavering shriek.. None of us could conceive what it was, but all thought it as loud and as piercing as a steam

whistle, and that it must have been heard by any blockader within five miles of us. In a moment the sound was repeated, but we were prepared, and it was this time accompanied by a flapping and rustling noise from a hencoop in the gangway. It's the cock that came on board at Bermuda,' said someone."

An unhappy fowl at once paid the penalty, but it was the wrong one, and another crow set the whole roost cackling.

"At last the offending bird was caught. He died game, and made a fierce struggle for life; but Freemantle managed to catch him with a firm grip by the neck, and, fetching a full armswing, as if heaving a twelve-pound lead, the body fell with a heavy thud upon the deck, and we were again favoured with a profound

stillness."

Mr. Jefferson Davis, in his recent Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, has paid Capt. Bulloch a worthy meed of praise. He speaks of him as

66

an officer of the old navy, of high ability as a seaman, and of an integrity that stood the test under which a less stern character might have given way: In his office he disbursed millions; and, when there was no one to whom he could be required to render an account, paid out the last shilling in his hands, and confronted poverty without prospect of other reward than that which he might find in a clear conscience." A perusal of these volumes will fully bear out this splendid testimony, and will doubt less, to most readers, add a feeling of true admiration for the brave and energetic officer, whose straightforward simplicity in conducting matters of the most confidential and delicate nature is admirable, and whose reticence as to his own personal part in the events narrated is as much a matter of wonder as his freedom from narrow partisan bitterness of feeling. His circumspectness, too, in all negotiations is striking.

We find much keen and careful criticism of the parts played by the Governments of the United States and Great Britain, and of those of the other European States concerned in the vexed questions of belligerent rights and the duties of neutrals; but the sympathetic handling of the points at issue can cause offence to none even of those whose positions made them prominent actors on the Pederal side. There is a delightful absence of American mannerisms, and the narrative has an easy flow, carrying the reader's interest with it. The work undoubtedly contains much that will ever be of great value alike to the politician and the historian, to the international lawyer and the naval officer, the le matter of regret being the absence of an index, which is an indispensable adjunct to a book such as this, replete with facts and nes of historical mark, and demanding careful attention and study.

GEORGE F. HOOPER.

Fallacies: a View of Logic from the Practical
Side. By Alfred Sidgwick. "Inter-
national Scientific Series." (Kegan Paul,
Trench, & Co.)

YL SIDGWICK addresses the general reader
rather than the trained logician. His mission
not to the intellectually whole, but to them
that are in need of a physician. He is a
practitioner whose speciality is diagnosis. The
titioner cannot dispense with anatomy;

the art of detecting fallacies requires a pre-
paratory analysis which is not without
theoretical interest.

group

unsupported by, what is solid. Mill, while with creative ardour he added storey to 'storey, may seem to have bestowed too rare a glance upon the "dark foundations deep." A just general view, combining speculative doubt with scientific method, is presented by Mr. Sidgwick. He employs the inductive methods as guides and guards, though he is aware that "none of these is, except in an ideal sense, completely satisfactory."

66

. The resem

Between mere guesses, hypotheses, theories, empirical laws, and laws of nature,' there are only continuous differences of degree in certainty according to the nature and number of the tests they have stood, and the duration of their past invulnerability. of blance in uncertainty between a fanciful guess and a proved law may be less important than the difference in degree of certainty; but the fact cannot safely be hidden that the resemblance exists. The distinction often made between valid inductions and merely empirical laws' is then, strictly speaking, not absolute, though roughly useful; the line between them will not bear close inspection."

In Formal Logic it would be too much to
expect any theorem both new and important.
Our author's remarks have as much freshness
as the exhausted subject allows. On the
vexed question, what is the import of a pro-
position, he accepts none of the standard
views which Mr. Venn distinguishes at the
outset of his Symbolic Logic. Mr. Sidgwick's
view is rather one which Mr. Venn has placed
among the attempts to interpret terms in-
tensively instead of extensively; that (in Mr.
Venn's words) "we are to attach' [or some-
thing equivalent to this]" the
attributes connoted by the predicate to the
group connoted by the subject, without,
however, in general regarding the former as
any part of the essence or intension of the
latter. Mr. Venn does not "attach" any
meaning to this doctrine. It seems, however,
substantially identical with Mill's account of
the assertion made by a proposition-that "the
latter set of attributes [those of the predicate]
constantly accompany the former set" (those
of the subject); .. "that one phenomenon
always accompanies another phenomenon"
(Mill's Logic, i., chap. v., sect. iv.). Mr.
Sidgwick employs an appropriate symbol to
denote this relation between the two terms
that the former never is presented without,
or, in the writer's happy phrase, "indicates"
the latter.

The theoretical portion of the book is
subordinated to the practical object, the
detection of fallacies. One of the most suc-
cessful modes of procedure, which might have
been employed more largely with advantage,
is the discussion of real examples. Mr. Sidg-
wick attaches great weight to the process
termed "reduction to absurdity," or pushing
the argument home. In his classification of
fallacies, and, indeed, generally in his employ-
ment of logical terms, he seems to depart
somewhat needlessly from established use.
The difficulty of referring a given fallacy to
a definite class is well compared by him to the
interpretation of motives. His candid ad-
mission of the weakness of logic recommends
his modest appreciation of her power.
"There is an artificial rigidity about all defini-
tion, a false simplicity about analysis, a stand-
ing failure in all attempts to cram the universe
into labelled nut-shells.

There is something very fascinating in the
chaste simplicity of Mr. Sidgwick's symbol-
ism. It has not the florid exuberance of the
systems which affect a mathematical character.
But it may have in greater perfection than
those systems an essential feature of applied
mathematics, a certain sympathetic likeness
between the sign and the thing signified.
The symbol of indication is contrasted with
the symbol of "exceptive denial," importing
that the subject is sometimes presented with-
out the predicate. Both symbols equally obey
the beautiful law of "counter indication,"
which our author has copied from Mr. Maccoll.
The operation comprises contraposition in the
limited sense of that term, together with a
cognate unnamed process which the editor of
Mind has well explained. The operation
might be illustrated (as Mr. Maccoll suggests)
by the transposition of the members of an
equation; or, better perhaps as the relation
between the terms of a proposition is not of
the nature of an equation, not convertible-
by an inequation. For example, if x is greater
than y, then minus y is greater than minus x.
It will be observed that the power of the two
symbols is greatly increased by the use of
negative terms, such as not-S, which some
might prefer to designate by a minus sign pre-affected by Mr. George.
fixed or superposed. In view of this exten-
sion it may be doubted whether there is any
need of a third symbol to express "difference"
between the terms.

"No book in logic can be used as a vade mecum-carried in the pocket and consulted when in doubt whether to take a cab or not. practice, is to help us to know the dangers of "The most that logic can hope to do, for uncriticised belief.

The prettiness of Formal Logic has not seduced Mr. Sidgwick from the logic of reality and fact. He gives a clear and simple description of inductive philosophy as founded by Hume and built up by Mill. Hume hardly extended his view beyond the foundation, contemplating that marvellous substructure which has been compared to the piles upon which the city of Amsterdam rests-supporting, though

"The power of seeing finer shades of difference is, on the whole, the best and most lasting result of logical training, and affords most help in the rapid detection of fallacy."

It is probable that this good and lasting result will be produced by the practical logic of Mr. Sidgwick. He offers an antidote, not too compressed and quintessential for the vulgar palate, against popular errors, and in particular against the sophistry which so easily besets reasonings in social science. The students of Mr. Sidgwick will not be much

F. Y. EDGEWORTH.

NEW NOVELS.

The Canon's Ward.
& Windus.)
Susan Drummond.
(Bentley.)

Only Yesterday.

By James Payn. (Chatto
By Mrs. J. H. Riddell.

By William Marshall. (Hurst & Blackett.) The Touch of Fate. By Mrs. George Posnett. (J. & R. Maxwell.)