That most modern of all institutions, " Cook's," has, it
appears, reached its jubilee year. Its founder began his busi- ness in 1841 by taking about temperance trippers, and the firm is now perhaps the best-known organiser of travel on the globe, with resources which a few years ago enabled it to contract for the conveyance of a British expedition up the Nile. There is hardly a country in the world where the firm is not acknow- ledged and trusted, and we only wonder why explorers anxious to penetrate the interior of Africa do not, instead of hiring armies of Negro porters, pay a sum into " Cook's," and request to be personally conducted to Uganda or Timbuctoo. They would get there, if the fee were a good one, in perfect safety, and with a sufficiency of nice food all the way. Tourists are among the most unreasonable of human beings, but though Messrs. Cook must have despatched millions of them to their destinations, we scarcely remember a case of their being sued for failure to complete a bargain. More success- ful workers in a new field there neve were, and we suppose, on the whole, they have done got 1 in their generation. They have spoiled ordinary travel for those who can dispense with them ; but they have multiplied by ten the number of those who can attempt in that way to widen their education. A " Cook's tourist " is often not nice, but he must be a little wiser than if he had remained at home.
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