FRONTISPIECE. By Sir Edward J. Poynter. MIDNIGHT, DECEMBER 31ST, 1900. By Stephen Phillips A NEW CENTURY AND AN OLD RIDDLE. By Mrs. Chapman ENGLAND'S PEASANTRY-THEN AND Now. By the Rev. Dr. Jessopp THE ADMIRALTY AND SUBMARINE BOATS. By Edmund Robertson ON SPION KOP. By L. Oppenheim. SCIENTIFIC USE OF HOSPITALS. By Sir Michael Foster THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN SOCIETY II. By Lady Ponsonby 'THE SOURCES OF ISLAM.' By the Moulvie Rafiüddin Ahmad HOOLIGANISM. By John Trevarthen. A DAY OF PURIFICATION. By Henry Jephson THE NICARAGUA CANAL QUESTION. By Robert Bromley CONTENTS OF VOL. XLIX (1) A LIBERAL VIEW. By Sir Wemyss Reid (2) A CONSERVATIVE VIEW. By Sidney Low THE CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF INDULGENCES. By the Bishop of Newport THE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK IN THE TRANSVAAL. By Arthur B. Markham CLEARING NATAL. By L. Oppenheim SHAM versus REAL HOME DEFENCE. By Colonel Lonsdale Hale OUR ABSURD SYSTEM OF PUNISHING CRIME. By Robert Anderson A PLEA FOR THE SOUL OF THE IRISH PEOPLE. By George Moore THE ROMAN CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF INDULGENCES. By Herbert Paul 'PI-PA-KI, OR SAN-POU-TSONG.' By Professor Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett 307 THE HIGHER GRADE BOARD SCHOOLS By Sir Joshua Fitch WHAT WERE THE CHERUBIM? By the Rev. Dr. A. Smythe Palmer OFFICIAL OBSTRUCTION OF ELECTRIC PROGRESS. By Professor J. A. THE SOURCES OF ISLAM. By the Rev. W. St. Clair-Tisdall THE CIVIL LIST. By Edmund Robertson CHURCH REFORM. WHY NOT BEGIN WITH THE PARISH? By the Lord THE SOUTH AFRICAN HOSPITALS COMMISSION. By Frederick Treves SHAM versus REAL HOME DEFENCE. By Dr. A. Conan Doyle THE ADMIRALTY versus THE NAVY. By H. W. Wilson THE DRAMA IN THE ENGLISH PROVINCES. By Henry Arthur Jones IMPERIAL CIVIL SERVICE: A SUGGESTION FROM AUSTRALIA. By Professor SOME AMERICAN IMPRESSIONS OF EUROPE. By Philip Alexander Bruce . LEADERS OF OPPOSITION BEFORE AND AFTER 1832. By T. E. Kebbel ROMNEY'S PORTRAITS AT THE GRAFTON GALLERY. By Robert C. Witt (1) MILITARY TRAINING SCHOOLS FOR LADS. By Sir Herbert (2) A MILITARY PROVIDENT FUND. (3) ARMY NURSING. By Miss Ethel McCaul THE MODESTY OF ENGLISHWOMEN By Mrs. William Mahood THE BACTERIA BEDS OF MODERN SANITATION. By Lady Priestley BRITISH COMMUNICATION WITH EAST AND SOUTH AFRICA. By Evelyn Cecil COMPANY LAW REFORM. By R. Gervase Elwes ROBERT BROWNING THE MUSICIAN. By Miss A. Goodrich-Freer ENCYCLOPEDIA MAXIMA. By Herbert A. Giles THE FIRST QUEEN OF PRUSSIA. By W. H. Wilkins AN ADVANCED VIEW OF THE CHURCH CRISIS. AUGUSTIN RODIN. By the Count de Soissons 'AUSTRALIA FOR THE WHITE MAN' AGAIN. By Gilbert Parker IS LAW FOR THE PEOPLE OR FOR THE LAWYERS? By His Honour Judge Emden. THE RECENT ANGLO-ROMAN PASTORAL. By Viscount Halifax OUR BOER PRISONERS: A SUGGESTED OBJECT LESSON. By Mrs. John THE NATIONAL THEATRE. By Frank R. Benson RELATIONSHIP OF HOSPITALS TO MEDICAL SCHOOLS. By Sir Samuel Wilks 781 ASTRONOMICAL LABORATORIES. By Arthur R. Hinks THE HOUSING PROBLEM. By the Rev. Canon Barnett THE NOVELS OF ANTHONY TROLLOPE. By Walter Frewen Lord SOME REAL LOVE LETTERS. By Mrs. Chapman • A LAND OF WOE. By the Countess of Meath THE RECRUITING QUESTION: A POSTSCRIPT TO THE ARMY DEBATE. BY CO-OPERATIVE PROFIT-SHARING CANTEENS. By the Hon. John W. Fortescue 874 THE DISASTROUS NEW ARMY SCHEME. By R Yerburgh BRITISH PESSIMISM. By Andrew Carnegie. THE QUEEN VICTORIA MEMORIAL HALL IN INDIA. By the Viceroy of India 949 THE RELIGION OF THE BOERS. By the Rev. Dr. Wirgman THE NEXT CORONATION. By L. W. Vernon Harcourt THREE SCENES FROM M. ROSTAND'S L'AIGLON' By Earl THE EDUCATION BILL. By Dr. T. J. Macnamara THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. By L. A. Atherley-Jones OUR OFFERS TO SURRENDER GIBRALTAR. By Walter Frewen Lord MR. SARGENT AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY. By H. Hamilton Fyfe THE PRESSING NEED FOR MORE UNIVERSITIES. By Professor Ernest H. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AND AFTER No. CCLXXXVII-JANUARY 1901 XX XIX This Janiform head, adapted from a Greek coin of Tenedos at the request VOL. XLIX-No. 287 B MIDNIGHT-THE 31ST OF DECEMBER 1900 Lo! now on the midnight the soul of the century passing, And on midnight the voice of the Lord! 6 In the years that have been I have made an oblivion for anguish, And stillness in place of a cry ; I have lain round the knife as a numbness, on nerves as an ether, I am He that hath healed,' saith the Lord. 'I have fallen as a veil upon woe, as a slumber on sorrow, As a blank on the reeling brain. In the years that have been I have shown me a smoother of pillows, A closer of fixed eyes. In the years that shall be I will come as an healer to cities, In that day shall the Northern City, the country of iron, And the city of furnaces fade, the city of wheels, The girding city, the city of gongs and of hammers, And her in whose soul the iron hath entered, whose bosom Is filled with a fatal milk, Whose spirit fainteth in greyness of lead, and whose yearning Hath died in a phosphorus mist, I will lead out of hissing and venomous travail and vapour To a city spacious and clear. And I will abolish utterly smoke and confusion, On the wailing whistle of engines, the tunnelled shrieking, On the houses with windows as eyes that stare, yet see not I will make me a city of gliding and wide wayed silence, With life of a coloured peace and a lucid leisure Of smooth electrical ease; Of sweet excursion of noiseless and brilliant travel, And that blistering wind that maketh the heart to withdraw, Ye shall change it to balm, and the South-wind shall blow in your houses The rainy soul of the rose. And a charm ye shall take from the ebbing and flowing of ocean That shall make the night as the day. And the stored strength of the tides ye shall use for your labour, And bind it to tasks and to toil. Yet forget not the beauty of night in her coming and going, Forget not the sprinkled vault, Nor eve with her floating bird and her lonely star, Nor the reddening clouds of the eve; Forget not the moon of the poet, nor stars of the dreamer, Though ye live like to spirits in ease. 6 In the years that have been I have bound man closer to man, And closer woman to woman; And the stranger hath seen in a stranger his brother at last, And a sister in eyes that were strange. In the years that shall be I will bind me nation to nation. And shore unto shore,' saith our God. |