300
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. n. OCT. 7, une.
partial, yet ;i really lively picture of a fine mind.
Mr. S. P. B. .Mais writes about the late Richard
Middleton, and, to our thinking, rather misses
some of Middleton's characteristic merits, while
he exaggerates others, and shows no critical
feeling for his author's weak points. M. Eca de
Queiroz wrote some fifteen years ago an article
on the Kaiser, which is given here in a translation,
and is well worth bringing forward again. Mr.
P. E. Matheson on ' Education To-day and To-
morrow ' seems to us at once too vague and too
minute. The first thing we have to come to is,
in our opinion, a revision of the fundamental
principles and assumptions which have, so far,
governed English education ; and the second thing
is a revision of educational administration ;
neither of which topics is adequately dealt with.
Dr. Courtney's parallel between Venizelos and
Demosthenes, which includes under its title
' Patriotism and Oratory ' some good observations
on other political orators, is the most attractive
of the articles of academic interest. Dr. Dillon on
' The New Situation ' ; Mr. Archibald Hurd on
' The British Empire after the War ' ; and Mr.
H. M. Hyndman on ' The Awakening of Asia ' are
the three most striking contributions towards a
knowledge of present international developments
and problems.
WE congratulate The Nineteenth Century, in its October number, on the fine piece of criticism entitled ' Faust and the German Character,' the work of Mr George Saunders. The analysis of ' Faust ' is clever, suggestive, and, in our opinion, true ; and we find ourselves in agreement with the writer in his conjectures as to the direct influence of the ideals set forth in ' Faust ' upon the forma- tion of the German character as this war has revealed it. M. Fernand Passelecq's article, ' Belgian Unity and the Flemish Movement,' should attract careful attention. We noticed some useful remarks about the error of taking linguistic affini- ties between peoples as implying resemblance of character and internal sympathy. Sir Malcolm Mcllwraith contributes an important and also delightful account of the recent improvements in the working of the Mohammedan Law Courts of Egypt. This includes an extract from El Mokattam of last June, giving details of the unre- formed procedure of the religious courts- How strange and entertaining some of these are may be gathered from one custom which we will quote : " Where a Cadi had, say, twenty cases to hear, he usually began by hearing, successively, the twenty
plaintiffs and then adjourned, to future sittings,
the hearing of the twenty defendants respectively." The article contains a short but noteworthy tribute to Lord Kitchener's services to Egypt in respect of the reform of judicial affairs. Lady Kinloeh-Cooke's 'A Visit to Paris on the Eve of the Revolution' consists of fourteen or fifteen letters written by Frances Julia Sayer on a visit to Paris during the summer of 1788. She was in the position to see most of the interesting things going on, to hear the opinions and forebodings, and share in the gaiety of the external life of the higher classes of French society at that time of crisis. The letters are full of good particulars. Sir Francis Piggott gives us the second instalment of his ' Belligerent and Neutral from 1756 to 1915 ' ; and our correspondent " Lewis Melville," a weighty and well-documented study of ' German Propaganda.' M. Eugene Tavernier has a fascinating subject in the life and
work of Vladimir Soloviev, and so far as this is
liossible within the limits of a magazine article
he does it justice. The articles more strictly on
military and social topics are fully on a level with
these, ^ind we may record with pleasure that this
new Nineteenth Century is one of the besi, and
should prove one of the most valuable, of its recent
numbers.
THE October Cornhitt contains, we think, no paper which is quite as good as the best things in the September and August numbers, but it has three sets of reminiscences which we found of interest, and an article called ' The Voice of the Guns,' by Mr. F. J. Salmon, which gives just the kind of detail that most of us want now and again to have made vivid to the imagination. The reminis- cences are, first, Sir Charles P. Lucas's account of the late John Llewelyn Da vies and the Working Men's College a good subject of its kind, and rendered the more attractive here by some unusual firmness in the writing. It was much it was a significant feat for one man to have accomplished both the practical, social work implied in Davies's activity as one of the Founders of the College, and the valuable translation of Plato's ' Republic.' Then there is Mr. Gathorne-Hardy's ' Ihlliol Memories ' various and rather sketchy, containing some goodstories and the text of a clever charade by Scott of the Lexicon. The third of these articles is a record of experience in the war: Lieut, the Hon. W. Watson-Armstrong's ' My First Week in Flanders,' very good stuff. Sir Frederick Pollock writes ingeniously and amusingly about ' War and Diplomacy in Shakespeare.' Lady Bagot contri- butes a simple and touching story of a military hospital ; Mr. Arnold Lunn a rather amusing schoolboy yarn called " ' Sweep ' Villers." Of Mr. Boyd Cable's ' The Old Contemptibles : the Rearguard,' we need merely say that his admirers will not be disappointed in it.
The Athenceum now appearing monthly, arrange-
ments have been made M'hereby advertisements of
posts vacant and wanted, which it is desired to
publish weekly, may appear in the intervening
weeks in 'N. & Q.'
to (E0msprmtoirts,
To secure insertion of communications corre-
spondents must observe the following rules. Let
each note, query, or reply be written on a separate
slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and
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ing queries, or making notes with regard to previous
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nut in parentheses, immediately after the exact
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munication " Duplicate."
S. K. and TWYFORD Forwarded.
M. P. " Meend" has been discussed at 11 S. vii. 363, 432. The RF.V. A. L. MAYHEW, at the latter reference, thinks it is derived from munita, Med. Lat. for immunitcM, a privileged district, one "immune" from seignorial rights.
