LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 166, 13 July 1907, Page 10

LITERARY.

In the "Empire Review" for June the lengthy critical account of the proceedings of the Imperial Conference, by the editor, Sir Clement Kinloch-Cooke, is concluded. Some forty pages are devoted to the subject. He holds the view that the Conference, while the immediate results may not have been considerable, marks a distinct advance on anything previously achieved. There is a good article by Sir Charles Elliott on the sedition in India. The writer makes no effort to minimise the seriousness and extent of the mischief, but devotes himself to probing the complex causes thai have produced the present dangerous state of affairs. Edward Dicey, in touching on foreign affairs, has something to say on The Hague Conference, France and Morocco, Ententes Cordiales, and Egypt. In the first-named .case Mr. Dicey apparently does not hold in high estimation the English determination to force the disarmament issue at the Conference. •'Politeness," he affirms, '-forbids my saying any more on this subject than that we all know what name is usually applied to those 'who step in where angels fear to ■tread.'" The advice on Indian and colonial investments by "Trustee" completes the issue. In the "Cornhill Magazine" for June the author of "Elizabeth"and her German Garden' , concludes "Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther." while Mr A. E. \y. Mason, M.A., contributes the customary instalment of "The Broken Road." Sir Henry Craik, X.C.8.. M.P.. writes on his visit "To Khartoum." a study of the New Sudan and its administrators. Mrs Richmond Ritchie contributes a "Blaokstiek Paper" on the work of Mabys, the Metropolitan Association for Befriending Iqung Servants, with reminiscences of Mrs Nassau Senior, who set it afoot. Mr Thomas Seecombe contributes a critical study of "Henry Fielding." and Mr C. R. L Fletcher, in "Wanted. More Knowledge," writes of old Sussex records and the unsatisfying glimpses they give into sevcnie.enth-century life. Of short stories Mr Maurice Hewlett concludes "The Countess of Picpus/' Mr W H. Adams contributes a West African story, "Arn.u, Virunique," and Mrs Ridley a pathetic sketch, ''The Man with the Scythe. , ' ,

Mr C. Stuart Ross compiled a book of reminiscences of early Otago on biographical lines. The incidents he relates are in the form of a chain of biography of some of Otago's better known early settlers. The book, which is entitled simply "Early Otago," affords interesting glimpses into the lives of the earlier settlers. We find the lives of such men as the Hons. Geo. McLean, Vincent Pyke, Messrs. Downie Stewart. George Reid, W. S. Fitzgerald, Captain Brown, Rev. Robt. Ewen narrated in the author's pages. The book is a valuable addition to the history of the province. Messrs. Jas. Wilkie and Co. are the publishers.

The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 ha 3 formed the subject of novels by several notable English writers, but no romance of moment dealing with this period has been published of recent years. Mr Percy Fitzgerald has, however, come on the scene with a novel in the settinp of

.Franco-German unrest and hostilities. He claims for his "Joijpbine's l'roub.^s,' , issued in Fisher UnwinV, Colonial library, that it is a faithful pictur? of the times It would almost skt tro:o the diction, as compared with this writer's later work, that it was written shortly after tiie li<;£ic days in Pa*is hi IS7O. As a !\;vi\ the book will not lnakp any gr-st claim on popularity. Josephine's tribu-k''.i-.rn and sorrowful fnd being, to say tl'e leiiit of it, not enlivening. But as presenting ;•. picture cl thf times this book may have, a more lasting life and r."»'.ue *han many a more spontaneously eiutpssiul novel. A CITY OF ROMANCE. "Venice/ , by Beryl de Sclincoart and Miij Svurge HenuiTson; illustrated Iα colours, by Reginald Harra.tr, A.K.W.S.; iO/ti (Chatto and Windus).

Jso city of the old world makes quite the appeal to the traveller that Venice does. Bveu to the unimaginative, there is romance in her every stone. Passing along her canals no effort is necessary to envelop every house with the atmosphere of by-gone days of mystery, intrigue and romance. It is indeed difficult and disappointing to acknowledge tha-t the d-ays oi grandeur have passed, that the glory has departed, that in pla.ee of a. high ambition there has come a time of sordid meanness, that indeed Venice is now but a dream city, whose magnificance is attested by numbers of indestructible monuments, and blurred eren by the prostitution of her ■arts in a greedy appeal to the tourist. The authors of the book which Messrs. Chatto and Windus have just added to their beautiful colour series have done something to resurrect for us the glories of the past, and to clothe in fitting language the story of the rise of this onceregal city. Their attention is first turned to the lagoons to which, even today, attaches much of the glory that has departed from her people. "All the languors, the fierce passions of Venice, iher vitality and her mysticism, are mirrored in the lagoons; there is no pulse of Venice that does not beat in them; in swift sequence, as in lighter element, they reflect the phases of her being. And the islands of the lagoon are, as it were, the footsteps oi young Venice. As she was passing into her kingdom, she set her feet here and there among the waters, and where she trod a life was born. Her roots are far back J in the past, far up upon the mainland, where still remain some fragments of the giant growth, which, grafted in the lagoons, was to expand there into a new fullness of beauty and life." It is one of the remarkable romances of history, how this people driven from the mainland, as they extended their -sway ov-er the small islets at the head of the Adriatic, obtained more than inspiration from their environment, drew, as it were, the breath of genius from the surrounding lagoons. As a nation of traders, Venice grew; from the eaat she drew her treasures, and her Argosies were known throughout Europe. With her trade, naturally grew a maritime power which made her respected, and behind all was an abiiity for good governance ■based on the shrewd coinmonsense which had reared her race of merchant princes. Venice -was a child of the sea. and this was picturesquely acknowledged annually, on the date of the ascension by I the rite of the Pasalizio del Mare, the wedding of Venice with the sea "Long after the fruits of the espousal had been gathered, when its renewal I had become no more than a ceremonious display, there stirred a pulse of pTesent life in the embrace. And in a j sense, the significance of the ceremony ; never can be lost while one stone re- ; mains upon another in the city of the sea." It is easier to understand the rise of this people, than to follow the causes that led to so disastrous a fall, "Pietro Oasola/' a Milanese pilgram of

the late fifteenth century, gives us a picture of "a city that is sumptuous, and rich, in all its dealings, yet, prevaded by a harmony and decorum that has J stamped itself on the face of each individual citizen." This was subsequent to the period when Venetian influence was writ large on the history of the crusades. "The crusades were a commercial speculation for Venice, but a speculation into which she infused all the vitality and fulness of her nature. And she became not merely a place of passage for the East, but a superb depository of relics to detain pilgrims on their outward way The narratives of the pilgrims with their enthusiasms, their details of relics, their records of ~\ enetian ceremonies, religious, commercial or domestic, coloured by their quaintly intimate personal impressions, form one of the most picturesque pages of Venetian chronicle." The writers, while they do adequate justice lo the history, and greatness of a now fallen power, do not overlook the attractions that the city still offers to those who enter ttts boundaries, no matter what the frame of mind in which they approach the subject. "'And if at times we may see the past in the present, at other times we may dream the present back into the past." There are hours on the lagoons when even in daylight the forgotten ages live again, and we may keep company with whom we will, "but in the heart of the city it is by night that we may lay hand on the pulse of her ancient life, and feel it warm to our touch, beating slow, but constant, ■behind the commotion, often the desecration, of later time." Mr. Barratt's pictures are admirable in sentiment and i execution, and are temperately reproduced. Tf a criticism may be offered'on a wholly delightful book, it is that the disisociation of illustration and text are too complete. Ea.ch in its way is excellent, hut there is no tie, however slight, of mutual dependence.