France and Italy ERECENT news from France and Italy makes bad ii reading for those who hoped that each month would mark a further stage towards disarmament. France is evidently...

THE CHIMNEYS OF TATT'LETON. A Story of Old Lancashire. By Laurence Pilkington. (Warne. 7s. 6d.)-- is hardly- a " story " ,- it is rather a series of sketches and...

A LITTLE LESS THAN GODS. By Ford Madox Ford. (Duckworth. 7s. Od.)-This is a tale o;f the Hundred Days as seen by a young Englishman who sympathized with Napoleon. A number of...

The Magazines I>- The Nineteenth Cenfury Sir Charles Petrie tells us we are now beginning to take more interest in foreign affairs after a spell of apathy during late years....

I THE ACTOR. By Horace Annesley Vacliell. (Cassell. 7s. 6d.)-Though Mr. Vachell has done better work, there is much vivacity and charm in this study of Valentine Godden, a "...

Fiction KALEIDOSCOPE. By Eleanor Farjeon. (Collins. 7s. 6d.)-In her preface, Miss Farjeon describes the ways in which a man's memoirs- may be written for him or by him. They...

LORD PETER VIEWS THE BODY. By Dorothy - Sayers. (Gollancz. 7s. 6d.)-" 'Always my unfortunate - appearance,' moaned Lord Peter . . . ' Would it invite confidence more, d'you...

Att and Artists AXi!0ONX tie minor arts that have llourrished in 'nglailad, miniature painting has an honourable place. It is intereding, and unusual to have tilc fact...

IODINE FOR LIVESTOCK rTO the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,-My letter to the Spectator of September 7th, in reference to the use of iodine in animal nutrition, has brought...

SAINT FRANCIS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sui,-I have just read the reference to my unpretentious brochure on " St. Francis " in your issue of October 27th, for which I...

NATIVE RACES AND THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,-The increase of the liquor traffic in the various Native Territories is causing serious alarm. Sir...

IMPORTED STOCKS AND FRUIT TREES [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,-In the Spectator of November 24th, Sir W. Beach Thomas called attention, in his Country Life notes, to...

Radium and Cancer IT is now high time to tell tIhe story of radlitimn, in its relation to canecr---at this hour lby Iar the iuiost hopeful new fact of cancer research in the...

The Week in Parliament IX moving the second reading of the Local Government (Scotland) Bill, Sir John Gilmour wvisclv did not attempt to emulate Mr. Chamberlain's remarkable...

Windmill TO live in a windmill, even in a windmill on the plains, T is surely to become well acquainted with the wind. To live in one on a high crest of land that has little in...

A TRIBUTE TO R. H. HUTTON [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,-Your Centenary issue is extraordinarily interesting, but I was a little disappointed not to find included in it...

POINTS FROM LETTERS THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATf. Since the hand of Death struck into my life, I have found inr poems such as " In Memoriam," " The Blessed...

ENGLAND'S GREEN BEAUTY [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIn,-I read with great interest of the Leicester conference of different societies with a view to the preservation of...

SWANS AND THEIR YOUNG [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.I SIR,-On visiting my Irish home, Mfyross Wood in the County Cork the other day, I was delighted to find a pair of swans...

On Tuesday with historic ceremonial Dr. Lang was: enthroned as ninety-fifth Archbishop of Canterbury.- All critics agree that his sermon was a noble utterance. The sense of it...

Pola Negri, the famous filrin vanly, has p)ersuade(d Mr. Bernard Svhmw to let hier lilm hllis play, ('aetar and Cleopatra. lie is, we tlijink, tlh omilY author wh1o has...

We muchi rerect to recor(l t 1h (dct at of Sir .Jolin Murray, liead of tiie fantouis 1pibhishuiiig firm. 'I'hue liepubhie of Letters has fortimately notlilj ig h)t resl)ect for...

Marshal Lyautey, the great administrator of the 1Frencli Protectorate in Morocco, is a most welcome v-isittor to London. -It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that Englishmen...

The victory of England in the Australian Test Match by 675 runs was the most decisive ever gained in thcse matches. The judgment of Mr. Chapman both in the use of his bowlers...

* Sir Otto Beit, loud(etCr of tlhe lipit M1lemorial Fellowship for Medical Research, has gi vi the mnagnificent suni of £50,000 to King Edward's Hospital Fund for London ior...

All dog-lovers will rejoice to hear that a means of ' immunizing dogs from distemper-has been found. Since l923 investigations into the cau"e and cure of distemper have been...

Last Saturday the new coinage of the Irish Free State was issued. The -values correspond to those of our own coinage, but the name of each unit is in Erse. On one side there is...

TILE OLDEST CATTLE. In the Christmas show held this week in Birmingham and visited by the Duke and Lv2hess of York on Tuesday last, is one of the best exhibits seen for many...

NE\w RABBIT TRAtPS. The offer of a prize for the best humane rabbit trap has so stirred interest that the better part of three hundred different snares have been entered and...

FT ND JO FOOT-ANSD-MtO-TII. One of the immediate economic results will be immensely to enhance the value of puppies. The difference between the value of a young dog that has...

DE:CEMBER PRIMROSES. Xche warmest November of recent years left many relics of summer or anticipations of spring in its wake. Perhaps the most notable is the flowering of the...

A SQUIRREL CENSUS. An attempt is being made to make a census of the grey squirrel, which is driving out our native red squirrel-so it is said-and doing much harm to our birds....

MO -r, SINA .* * * MIORE: SNAWRING. The habit and practice of snaring seem to be generally on the increase. In a district where rabbits are singularly few I saw snares of the...

A * * * A SQUIRREL'S CRIMIE. Opinions seem to vary on its destructiveness. Among the very best naturalists it was ever my fortune to meet was Mr. Beebe, once of the Bronx Zoo....

Country Life FIELD DOGS. A favourite dog in Britain is called the Field Spaniel. Henceforth the Field has a right to be associated with all varieties of dog. Five years ago it...

THE CONSECRATION OF BISHOPS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,-Professor Relton's claim (Spectator, November 10th) or support of the Bishops " in their efforts to restore...

LORD BIRKENIHEAD [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SiR,-You referred to Lord Birkenhead in the opening paragraphs of your issue of December 1st. Even his friends and...

THE LATE SIR JOHN MURRAY [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,-Much has been written of the late Sir John Murray, KC.V.O., in relation to his position as head of the great...

JINKING [To -the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,-In a recent article in the Spectator, the writer (Mr. Bassett Digby) (November 10th), says:-" 'Jinking,' it has been suggested,...

MR. HUTTON'S HANDWRITING [To the Elditor of the SPECTATOR.] SiR,-With reference to Hutton's handwriting, there are many amusing tales that could be told. The Wordsworth...

In and Out of Toyshops A GREAT deal bas been written about tlhc ugliness A of modern tovs an(l their effect on nursery aestheticism. Googly-eycd (lolls, according to...

The League in Large The Origin, Structure and Working of the League of Nations. By i'. Howard-Ellis. (Allen and Unwin. 21s.) As far as mere magnitude goes, this is by far...

Tim Healy Letters and Leaders of My Day. By Tim Healy, K.C. 2 vols.! ('l'lhornton Butterworth. £2 2s.) TM II EALY has written these reminiscences to l)Iease himself. That is...

A Great Italian Novelist The Old and the Young. By Luigi Pirandello. Translated by C. K. Scott Moncrieff. 2 vols. (Chatto and Windus. 7s. Gd. I each.) I TILAT prince of...

111 MOP RS UNRE.CONCILETl): A talc of 'Modern Japan. By Sherard Vines. (Wishart. 7s. (Id.)--- In this really brilliant tragi-coniedy 'Mr. Sherard Vines acts the part of...

CIRCUS PARADE. By Jim Tully. (Knopf. A7s. Gd.)- This story is an account-of American circus life, by a young writer who, we are told, has had personal experience of it'...

More Books of the Week (Continued from page 887) liXss Proctor has a happy faculty of serving ul) udiftivilt matter in a popular forn without taking the substance out of it....

THlE LOVERS OF THE MARKET PlACE,. By Richard Dchan. (Butterworth. 7s. 6d.)--Vijgorotis, vivid, pas- sionate, and sentimental as ever, Richard Delian gives us another...

In Bulls, Blunders and IHowlers (Brentano's. 6s.). Mr. Walter Jerrold has made a collection of twisted sayings "Irishisms," historical malaprol)isms, schoolboy howlers, and so...

Drinking Through The Ages British Taverns. By Lord Askwith. ( Rol it lodge. I 0-3. fid. ) A r1.1 --iIousil ill Pompeii fornis the promising Irontispiece of Lord Askwith's...

The Autobiography of Mussolini My Autobiography. By Benito Mussolini. (Hutchinlsoll, :30.) " I WANT to be the simple servant of the State "-a worthy head of a strong...

Mr. Britten was inIsp)iretd by the recent comments of Mr. IBaldwin onl the raritv of the occasions on which iilisutrs; ol the iwo Countries meet. In-the House of Commons on...

Mr. Britten, the Chairman of the Naval Affairs Corn- mittee in the United States House of Representatives, has surprised his countrymen by independently requesting Mr. Baldwin...

The, Government rightly interpreted feeling in this country in ignoring President Coolidge's Armistice Day pronouncement. But what was manifestly a distorted picture of the...

A Violent earthquake occurred in Chile last Saturday. Nearly 200 people were killed and the town of Talca inl particular- was almost demolished. Among the chief buildings there...

Mr. Brand reminds as that the British Treasury shipped £242,000,000 in 'gold to the Uhited States to pay for goods purchased there, and that this', translated into the figures...

The Message proves that Mr. Coolidge has been alarmed by recent expenditure. He describes the cost of national defense as " stupendous," and reminds Congress that a special...

On Tuesday President Coolidge sent What may be his last Message to Congress. Let us say at once tnat it makes much more agreeable reading for Englishmeii than his Armistice Day...

Safeguarding Figures Some WE have published recently many letters on Safeguarding, and impartial readers may well have felt as bewildered when they had made an end of reading...

[APPLIED ARTS AND IIANDCRAFrs. ROYAL IIOirICuLTURAL HALL.] The sixth exhibition of Applied Arts and Hlandcrafts at the Royal Horticultural Hall, Westminster, differs from...

[TIF. LEICESTER GALLERIES, LEICESTER SQUARE.] There is a triple bill at the Lei ester Galleries, caricatures by Mr. Max Beerbohm, landscapes 'bv M. Verge Sarrat,'and drawings...

The Cinema ["' UNDERGROUND AT TIlE MARB3LE AiCIc PAVILIONSHIRAZ" AT TIlE EMPIRE TihEATIRE, S1111 IN(GING FOOL" AT TIlE REGAL; AND 1I101ME-TOWNIEWS' AT TilE PICCADILLY...

[POrrERY. NVALKER S GAI.LLIY, AND MESSRS. P. ANN D. COLNAGII 'S.] Mr. and Mrs. Charles Vyse are showing at Walker's Gallery some hundred and seventy pieces of pottery,...

Art [THE NEW ENGLISH ART CLUB. NEW BURLINGTON GALLERIES.] ALTHOUGH there is a total absence of anything exciting in the seventy-eighth exhibition of the New English Art Club,...

-Doughty- "I - - ? - - -- -.- - - - - I --- -i The Life of Charles M. Doughty. By D. G. Hogarth. (Oxford University Press. 18s.) TuosE who have read that unique and...

~:-Shikar and - Travel - IT is often said that the reading public loves books on travel and sport, and the abundant supply of such seems to confirm the truth of the remark. And...

For Sedate Children Ir is never quite fair to give a child a Christmas present with an ulterior motive: to help it with its arithmetic, for example, or to improve its morals....

On Tuesday morning the King appointed a Council of State to conduct business (luring his illness, and lie was able to sign the document. The members of the Council of State are...

In the House of Commons on Monday Sir Austen Chamberlain, explained the Government's attitude in regard to Reparations and the cvaeutation of the Rhlincland. Ile said that a...

Sir Austen's interpretatiorv seems to clash with the following declaration signed on June 16th, 1919, by Mr. Lloyd GeQrge, President Wilsorn and M. Clemcnceau 'The Allied and...

Week News of the WAT HEN we write the King's illness has lasted for NV' seventeen days, and the last days have, of course, been filled with particular anxiety, as everyuu wU...

Sir Austen went on to say that on the other hanei policy yvas nojt less important than law, and that the Government would welcome the early evacuation of the Rhineland,...

- NEW GOVERNMENT LOAN. | Briefly stated, the new Government Jbohan, which, of- course; is for an unlimited amount, takes the form of the offer of 4' Peer cent. Treasury...

Financial Notes REACTIONARY MA-RKETS. ANXIETY concerning the King's health has been a paramount influence on the Stock Exchange during the past week and there are few...

Books of the Some Week IN America's Ambassadors to England (1785-1928): A Narrative of Anglo-American Diplomatic Relations, by 1Heckles Wilson (Murray, 21s.), Mr. Beckles...

The - venerable building which the Queen reopened O(; November 22nd is fully and ably described by the architect, Sir John W. -Simpson, in a little book, Some Accotut of tite...

The Un^kno.i aQuantity, by Gilbert Mauge, translated from the French by Shane Leslie (The Fortune Press, lOs. 6d.), is a unique little book. Mr. Leslie writes a dedicatory...

Inner or Southern Mongolia, which now forms the border. land between Russian and Chinese influence and wlhiell includes much of the Gobi desert, is well described in Mr. Owen...

Mr. James Greig is to be warmly congratulated on the conin pletion of The Farington Diary, the eighth volume of which, covering the years 1815-1821, has just appeared...

One of the three novels to be recommended to the Frenchc committee for the Feniina-Vlie H1eureuse Prize, 1927-28, is Hanging .Iohnn?/, by Myrtle -Johnson, in which our reviewer...

Thomas Hardy's remark that the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay was one of the only two great things in America seems to have been taken a little over-seriously by publishers...

Letters to the Editor WhIAT IS WRONG WITH BRITISH AGRICULTURE? [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR;] SIR,-.Mr. Boving's panacea for agricultural depression is summed up in the...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SiR,-T4he article by Mr. J. 0. Boving entitled " What is Wrong with British Agriculture ? " in your issue of November 24th so exactly confirms...

Books for Little Children Ev'EN babies of a year old love books-at least books with *pictures in them. One of their first intellectual pursuits is to find Mummy and Daddy, and...

The Muse in the Nursery Tll.1TI., pretty Muse though she be, is seld(oni at her hest when some poet l)eckons her to approach the nursery. The fault is probably with the poets:...

Merlin and Vivien A Storyteller's Holiday. By George Moore. 2 vols. (Heinc- mann. 21s.) THE storyteller's holiday is a busman's holiday, for Mr. Moore spends his leisure...

Scrutamini Sacripturas A New Commentary on Holv Scripture including the Apocrypha. Edited by Charles Gore, H. L. Goudge, and Alfred Guillaume. (S.P.C.K. 16s.) The Cambridge...

Joints of Cunning Workmanship Collected Poems. By A. E. Coppard. (Cape. 5s.) UNLIKE the ordinary volume of collected poems-ordinary may seem a strange word to use in this...

The House of Rothschild The Reign of the House of Rothschild. By Count Cori4 Translated from the German by Brian and Beatrix Luna. (Gollancz. 25r.) TiuE most dramatic part of...

Life Among the Cannibals Hans Staden; the True History of His Captivity. Tiarislated I by Mr. Malcolm Lett.s. (The Broadway Travellers. lOs. (Ml.) -IN this era of gas...

On Mediterranean Shores-II. The Sphinx [Furtlier articles describing Herr Ludwiig's impiessions of the Near East w-ill appear in succeeding weeks under the title of In a...

" Spectator" Conference for Personal Problems Difficult Parents [The SPECTATOR Conference offers to readers a service of advice on personal problems in which they would like...

PETER WVALKERS. The favourable impression created by the Report of Peter W'alker (W\arrington) and Robert Cain and Sons, to which I referred last week, was strengthened by the...

FUR FARNIS. Some interesting statements were made at the recent statutory meeting of Consolidated Fur Farms, Ltd. The company was formed during the present year to carry on a...

CARRERAS. The market has become so accustomed nowadays to look for an uninterrupted series of record profits in the Tobacco industry, that the profit statement of Carreras,...

Divorce Law Reform I HAVE spent about a quarter of a century on the very discouraging and unpopular task of trying to reform the laws of marriage and divorce. Many of those who...

SAFEGUARDING [To' te Editor of the SIPECTArvro.] Sin.- -Years ago a friend of mine lamented the fact that Ireland imported so many commodities from other countries. "Why," said...

CRUELTY IN THE CATTLE MARKETS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.1 SIR,-Vvhile cruelty to animals in the streets would arrest the attention of the public and arouse their...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SuLt,---The articles by Mr. J. 0. Bovxing appearing in the last two issues of the Spiectator not only form together an admirable survey of the...

[To the Editor of the SPEC'TrATORI. Sin,-Will you allow me space to emphasize two points made by Mr. Boving in his article " What is Wrong with British AgricultureR " I-He...

Tales and -- Fantasy Fairy THERE was once upon a time, according to Hans Andersen, a writer who attracted stories: these were for ever rapping on his door. But after a while...

-- For Girls of All Ages I'HE schoolgirl stories of this year are much the same as they have always been. The same situations occur and recur: there are rescues from precipices...

Piccadilly Circus PICCADILLY Cireus glows, at the world's heart, a midnight rose. But what in all her beautv stirs, under the Moon0, her worshippers ? What is her mnessage ?...

Poetry The Poet Bewildened HE was an old-fashioned poetIn a small way. l-e loved metre and melody And the great sweet cadences That the late. revered lords of song Had...

Books for Boys THi title at once suggests adventure books, and the best of these this year is The Flying Squad, by Colonel Bishop, V'.C., and Major R. Stuart-Wortley (Harrap,...

Children's Annuals So far as reading is concerned, the little people are generally very conventional folk ! To be aeeeptal)le to ehildren a writer must pretend to take their...

A Watcher on the Sand-hills Bird Watching on Scolt Head. By E. L. Turner. (Country Life. lOs. 6d.) ONE of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalist Socicty's Scolt hLkad...

The Letters of a Modern Saint Octavia Hill. From Letterseditedlw E-l'jnil\ Soutliw\oodi Maluri(ce. * (Allen and Unwin. 7s. 6d.) TIlE light eame to Octavia Hil when she wa%'s...

An Archbishop, a " Highbrow,' and " The Man in the Street" tutychus, or The Future of the Pulpit. By Miss Winifred I III Holtby. (Kegan Paul. 2s. 6d.) l Il FEW wittier or...

Great Britain and Russia 7lHE sale of Soviet House, Moorgate, once the headT quarters of the Russian Trade Delegation (Arcos) is a melancholy reflection on the sorry state of...

The Root of Tragedy I1 Some Tribal Origins, Laws and Customs of the Balkans. I By M. E. Durham, F.R.A.I. (Allen and ULnwin. 20s.) I I WE sometimes fail in our appreciation...

Correspondence RECENT GERMAN LITERATURE. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,-A few years ago one remarked with a certain awe that one of the best-sellers on the German book...