29 JANUARY 1916, Page 15

KINGSLEY'S FORECAST OF THE PRESENT DAY. [TO THE EDITOR OF

THE spscreres.-i

SIR,—" Death ! Death ! Death ! . . . War among man and beast, war on earth, war in air, war in the water beneath.

. Oh Thou who didst die to destroy death, when will it all be over ? " This " exceeding bitter my " which Kingsley puts into the mouth of Hereward the Wake's mother finds surely an echo in 1916, as do also the old patriot's stirring words : " These are times in which good Englishmen must not sleep. . . . I will watch and my wife-shall pray, and so will the work be well parted between us."—I am, Sir, &c.,