THINGS WARLIKE.

The leading English magazines reflect the war spirit almost as clearly as the daily and weekly papers. The Contemporary alone among its fellows has in its March number no article dealing directly with the present conflict, but even so it does not entirely ignore things warlike. Colonel F. N. Maude contributes an instructive paper on military training and modern weapons. After giving a sketch of the development of tactics he suggests that sound military principles, founded on the experience of | past wars, have been overlooked except by the German staff, a few Austrian and British officers and General de Gallifet. He has little confidence in modern tactics which leach soldiers to escape death by finding cover, and prefers the old plan of taking the punishment and so winning the battle. He does not pin his faith to modern rifles which, used as they are, at long range, kill fewer men than the old muskets. Mobility, courage, and discipline are, in his judgment, even more important than length of range, rapidity of fire, and accuracy of weapon. "Discipline in the troops and ruthless energy in the leader in the prosecution of his designs" are, he holds, the principal factors that determine success. A table given by Colonel Maude shows that the heaviest loss per hour ever suffered by modern troops in battle was at Kesselsdorf, when each hour recorded the fall of 17 per cent, of tho Saxons. The next heaviest was at Rosbach, when the Prussian troops swept away 10 per cent. of the French in each hour of combat. At Colenso the dpfeatcd lost nnlv 1 per -

cent., and at Magersfontein 0.7 per cent, per hour. The Nineteenth Century has no less than five articles counected with the j war, and three of them distinctly favour compulsory military training. Mr. Sidney Low sees in recent events the breakdown of voluntary enlistment. He describes the regular troops and reservists left in England as a body of boys, invalids, raw recruits, clerks, and other non-combatants, and the lame ducks of the battalions whose effective members are in South Africa. The army has, lie contends, collapsed numerically in less than sixteen weeks after the outbreak of war with two little states, the united population of which is less that that of Birmingham. Lord Northbrook, whose statesmanship was proved in an Indian Viceroyalty, shows that there were only about 24,000 regulars left in the United Kingdom, and that an effort should be made to consolidate a force of 100,000 militia, organised, officered, and equipped up to the regular /standard. The Rev. G. S, IVeaney, Vicar of Christchurch, Greenwich, urges that compulsory drill would change hobbledehoys from "larrikins" into decent, disciplined citizens. Lord Denman expresseß a firm belief in the future of mounted infantry. One good mounted infantryman he considers worth at least three foot soldiers. The fifth of the war articles is by Earl Nelson, and treats of the various Patriotic Relief Funds. There is a sixth contribution which though not directly concerned with the conflict in the South is pertinent to warfare and to Africa. The writer, Mr. T. R. Threlfall, predicts a holy war in North .Africa, and describes the source of thi3 growing, danger to both French and British interests. At Jerabub, an oasis in the Libyan Desert, resides a Mussulman prophet, The Senoussi, who has been sending out missionaries and gaining converts all over the Dark Continent. His followers number millions, and their chief strength is in the Hinterland of Tunis. They obey their chief implicitly, and Mr. Threlfall believes that he will proclaim himself Mahdi, and at the head of Mussulman Africa, declare a jehad, or holy war, against the European Powers. Owing to pressure of &pace, the rest of this article is held over until next Saturday.