ledge that the life of workmen, expected to work eighteen hours a day, as is the case in some manufactories of the North of France, without any interval of rest, is more than human nature can endure. There are few manufactories where they are not required to work for at least twelve hours, including Sundays! It is stated that after four years of this over-work, the whole generation is worn out, and becomes incapable of really productive labour. But when the necessity of rest reaches an overpowering degree, it is not taken on Sundays, but, with perverse opposition, on Mondays; "faire le lundi," as they call it, which means intoxication, gambling, and the wages of the week squandered. "L'ouvrier qui fait le lundi" is usually noted as a bad workman; and yet is there not some excuse for occasional rebellion against such unremitting slavery?

An interesting letter from the Comte de Martimprey calls attention to the alarming consequences of the military law as affecting miners. Sixty-four thousand out of a total of one hundred and six thousand miners will be called to serve in case of war-men from twenty to forty-five years of age, the strongest and ablest workmen. Out of the forty-two thousand remaining, half are Belgians or Italians, who will be recalled by their respective governments, to whom a large proportion will submit.

Only about thirty-two thousand, therefore, will remain for the work of the mines, including old men, children, and even women.

The largest amount which can be expected from them does not exceed five millions of tons, and the least which will be required, according to calculation, for the railways, the navy, and all war necessities, will be seventeen millions of tons, setting aside all consumption of coal in manufactories and private homes.

To produce the twelve millions deficient would require sixty thousand miners. Consequently, with arithmetical precision, it is proved that the mining population cannot be incorporated into the army; for without coal modern warfare is impossible, and no coal can be had without miners.

We can recommend "Mon Roman," by Mdlle. Louise Mussat, as a pretty story of French life, suitable for family reading.

"Les Soldats Français dans les Prisons d'Allemagne" is an interesting account of the sufferings of French prisoners during the war, by Le Chanoine Guers.

Correspondence.

The name and address of Correspondents must always be sent (not necessarily for publication), and the Editor cannot undertake to communicate with the writers or return their letters under any circumstances.

SIR,

TO THE EDITOR OF 'MURRAY'S MAGAZINE.'

Will you allow me to call your attention to a common error into which the writer of the very interesting article, "Mary Howitt, Quaker and Catholic," has fallen, viz. that the Quakers are rapidly dying out? No doubt during the first half of this century the decline in numbers of the Society was very rapid; but for a good many years past the accessions by "convincement" have been every year so greatly in excess of the secessions that, notwithstanding a very low marriage rate and very low birth rate, and some emigration, there is yearly a steady though slight increase in their numbers in Great Britain. In Ireland the great majority of the Quakers are Unionists, and the conditions of life are not easy to them in the South and West; and the Society is dwindling through emigration to England and America. In the United States the Quakers are increasing in number somewhat rapidly, especially in the South and West, and mainly through accessions from other religious bodies.

I am, &c.,

A QUAKER.

Our Library List.

ADVENTURES IN EQUATORIAL AFRICA, AND IN THE COUNTRY OF THE CANNIBALS AND DWARFS. By P. B. DU CHAILLU. Maps and Illustrations. (Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. Murray.) Public interest in Africa has exhibited an extraordinary revival during the past twelve months, and the expectation of what Mr. Stanley has to tell us respecting the Darkest Continent has been skilfully and judiciously fostered. Mr. Du Chaillu has of recent years been turning his attention to a field far removed from that in which his earliest renown was won, and many of us have half forgotten that no African traveller has raised a greater storm of controversy than he did on the first publication of his 'Equatorial Africa.' The dust of that controversy has now subsided, and we only mention it to recall his early discoveries, and to note the fact that the narratives and discoveries for which he was so fiercely assailed, have one by one been confirmed by subsequent travellers. Gorillas, cannibals, dwarfs, mountain ranges-all are now accepted as undisputed facts. Mr. Du Chaillu's original work has been out of print many years, and we can strongly recommend this abbreviated edition of his two journeys.

THE RAILWAYS OF AMERICA. THEIR CONSTRUCTION, Development, Management, AND APPLIANCES. With 200 Illustrations. (Murray.) The success attended by Mr. Acworth's articles on the Railways of England, which first appeared in the pages of this Magazine, and which have subsequently been enlarged, illustrated and published in a volume, has demonstrated how wide an interest is taken by the general public in railways and their management. The sumptuous volume of which the title is given above, deals with the American Railways, but in a manner quite different from that adopted by Mr. Acworth. He has, so to speak, individualized each Railway Company, sketching its history, and bringing out in strong relief the features which make it differ from its fellows and competitors. In the American work, on the contrary, each department of railway construction and management is dealt with separately by a specialist: thus feats of railway engineering-railway management-safety in railroad travelpassenger traffic-freight traffic-locomotives-strikes, &c. &c., are in turn fully discussed. The illustrations throughout are remarkably good. We must demur to the author's treatment of English railways, the allusions to which are so meagre and inadequate as to cause a wish that

they had been omitted altogether. On the other hand, a new and very interesting feature in this volume is a chapter on the earnings of the American railroads, dividends, rates, &c., which will be very valuable to investors.

THE NEW SPIRIT. BY HAVELOCK ELLIS. (George Bell & Sons.) Mr. Havelock Ellis has written an interesting and significant book, which it is quite easy to ridicule, but which certainly deserves a fair hearing. To illustrate what he believes to be the leading tendencies of the present day, he gives us a study of five writers of this century, who seem to him the best exponents of these ideas. They are Diderot, Heine, Walt Whitman, Ibsen, and Tolstoi. Apparently these writers are chosen because they all agree in a hatred of shams, in looking facts in the face, and in demanding provision for the healthy satisfaction of animal wants. Mr. Ellis regards this as part and parcel of the scientific spirit, and Diderot is chosen because he initiated this spirit. Of these essays, which present vivid pictures of the thought and personalities of the men, those of Walt Whitman and Tolstoi are the most interesting. The author may be right in the importance which he attaches to Tolstoi and Ibsen. He has not made out his case for Ibsen; but Tolstoi, besides being a great artist, is an undoubted force at the present day. It does not follow that the Russians, because they are seemingly so backward, may not represent a progressive factor in modern ideas; but Mr. Ellis does not help us to see how much in Tolstoi (or Ibsen) is due to the conditions of their country and how much is useful for the West. The same fault is felt throughout the book. Mr. Ellis's object is simply to call attention to those elements which impress him most in modern life-the scientific spirit, the rise of women, the growth of democracy with their consequences. But in tracing these principles through his authors he makes them more or less his own, and he sometimes states his case with exaggeration and without proper limitations. Because England is ceasing to stand alone in commerce, he declares that she is becoming "a museum of antiquities and a Holy Land for the whole English-speaking race." He prophesies and welcomes the advent of women not merely to equal power with men, but to supreme power. If men were to abdicate to-morrow in favour of women, would women accept the offer? Mr. Ellis thinks that no social advancement can be now expected from the exhausted male sex, though he leaves that sex in sole possession of genius, which one would think as necessary for practical revolutions as for works of art. Again, the purity of the natural instincts is an important truth, but it needs qualifying. We should be happiest if we could arrange things so as to satisfy these instincts with as little need as possible to think about them for themselves. Mr. Ellis writes with force and insight; but, whether from brevity or want of caution, he leaves with regard to these subjects an impression which he would probably not himself desire to produce.

GOLF. BY HORACE G. HUTCHINSON. (Longmans, 1890. Badminton Series.) The last of the Scottish invasions of England is the spread of Golf. In the new volume of the Badminton Library the lover of golf will find a perfect encyclopædia of the game. To Mr. Hutchinson, himself a first-class player, who writes the bulk of the book, both learner and skilled player may entrust themselves for guidance through all the details of the art, so easy in appearance, so hard in reality. Mr. Andrew Lang leads off with a chapter on the history of golf, which contains much interesting information. Mr. Lang thinks that James II., as Duke of York, may have brought the game to England. Golf is, it seems, a democratic game. James had a shoemaker for partner in a foursome against two Englishmen. Is it because golf is democratic that it is so popular at the present day? Very interesting is the chapter on some celebrated golf-players, where the enthusiast may enjoy the triumphs of the heroes of the game,-of Allan Robertson, the two Tom Morrises, and Jamie Anderson, and read the record of the great living amateurs. Lord Wellwood seems to think that ladies should play by themselves, and on a shorter round. The book is excellent reading. All the writers seem to have taken for their principle Mr. A. J. Balfour's remark that, " even games are not to be regarded as wholly serious." Mr. Balfour's own chapter on the Humours of Golf is as entertaining as his speeches in Parliament. The caddie is, of course, an inexhaustible source of amusement.

RULERS OF INDIA: THE MARQUESS OF DALHOUSIE. By SIR WILLIAM WILSON HUNTER. (Oxford: Clarendon Press.) If all the volumes of the new series of 'Rulers of India' are on the same level of excellence as the inaugural volume which the editor, Sir W. W. Hunter, writes on Dalhousie, they will be of great public service. The narrative is written with the grasp and lucidity which come of intimate knowledge and reflection, and both the work and the character of Dalhousie are traced in firm and impressive outlines. During his years of rule (1848-1856) Dalhousie at once extended the limits of the Indian Empire and unified it. He added to it, partly by conquest (Punjab and Lower Burma), partly by annexation where the native succession had failed. But he was far more than a conqueror, and by initiating many great institutions, the railways, the cheap post, the telegraph, free ports, and in part the present system of education, he began the work of drawing India into one nation. Sir W. Hunter speaks with weight on all Indian questions, and his estimate of Dalhousie's work in the Punjab in its connection with the two Lawrences, and his eulogy of the military policy of the "great Proconsul" (as Sir W. Hunter calls him, by the phrase already appropriated to Hastings) will be read with great interest.