LITERARY CHAT.

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 6, 1 March 1900, Page 69

LITERARY CHAT.

By Danvers Hamber

Frederic Villiers, whose first despatches from the Transvaal appear in this number of Thk New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, is a charming fellow when you know him thoroughly. Meeting him for the first time one would not be favourably impressed by his air of hauteur. Really this is a veneer caused by a nervous shyness. Below that thin and rather icy surface are all the qualities that make the man. (rood humour, courage, sympathy, wit, steadfastness, and a love of nature he has in plenty. As a raconteur he excels, for his travels on land and over seas have provided him with a wealth of anecdote, and he has the natural ability to tell a stoiy well. Frederic Villiers was born in London in 1852. I think his first experience as a war artist was in 1876, when he went to Servia for the Graphic. From then till now he has had a busy life in foreign countries. He was with the Russians in Turkey in 1877, and watched the battles of Saitschar, Alexinatz and Mount Yavor, and was present at the Passage of the Danube, the fighting at Biela, was with that idol of the Russian soldier, General Skobeloff, at Plevna, and shared in the horrors and the perils of the Shipka Pass. Next year he was in Afghanistan, and depicted the fighting at Gadamuck and the Bazaar Valley. In 1882 he saw the Bombardment of Alexandria. He was on board the tiny gunboat Condor, whose commander, Lord Charles Beresford, spiritedly cannonaded Fort Marabout, and caused the Admiral, Sir Beauchamp Seymour, to hoist that memorable signal — " Well done, Condor!" He was present at the fighting at El Magfar, witnessed that magnificent cavalry charge in the moonlight at Kassassin, and took part in that silent night march, and subsequent crowning victory over Arabi Pasha at Tel-el-Kebir. In the following Vol. I.— No. 6.— 37

year he was specially invited by the Tsar, Alexander 111., to be present at his Coronation in Moscow. In 1884 he went to the Eastern Soudan, and, with General Graham's stall, saw tho battles of El Tob and Taraai. In the same year ho went with Admiral Sir William Hewitt on tho special mission to King John of Abyssinia, and afterwards went up the Nile. In 1886 Frederic Villiers was with General Sir Herbort Stewart's Desert Column, saw " Fuzzy Wuzzy " break the British .square at Abu Kloa, and gazed upon tho fanatical valour of tho Soudanoso at Gubat. In 1886, attached to the Sorvian Army invading Bulgaria, ho was present at the battle of Pirot, and saw all the sevore fighting in the Nishava Valley. His next trip was to Burma; this was followed by a journey across Canada, a long lecturing tour, and a visit to tho Chicago Exhibition. In 1894 he was with the Japaneso Army, and took part in tho battle of Ping Yang, tho capture of Port Arthur and other victories. In 1895 he was lecturing, and in 189(i again in Moscow a witness of tho Coronation of Nicholas 11. This led to another locturing tour, brought to a conclusion when Kitchener's Khartoum Expedition sot out upon itH journey. And now Frederic Villiora is in South Africa, and our readers will have tho benefit of his letters, graphically describing the stirring events which have occurred, and have still to happen before Lord Roberts puts his hand upon Pretoria. + Mr. F. Makion Crawford's latest work, Via Crucis, published by Maemillan and Co., is a romance of the period of the Second Crusade. Some historical personages are pourtrayed with the author's usual skilful and fanciful touch. The descriptions of tho pageantry of

the time are admirably done, as are the stirring accounts of the encounters in which the Crusaders and others take part. The story makes delightful reading, and therefore is bound to be a popular novel. Naturally books concerning South Africa are being produced with some rapidity just now. Fisher Unwin has lately published a fourth edition of Mr. George McCall's South Africa, a valuable work. The History of the Great Boer Trek, written by the late Hon. Henry Cloete, LL.D., and edited by his son, W.Broderick Cloete,M.A., published by John Murray, tells of the British Government's desire to do right, and of the Boer's determined law-breaking and oppression. The author was High Commissioner for Natal when that colony was founded. H. Marshall and Son have published an historical sketch of The Transvaal. Boers, by "Africanus." The little work abounds in knowledge, and it is written in a spirit of impartiality, and therefore commends itself to all who are interested in the Transvaal question. Majuba, Bronker spruit, etc., is the title of a book written by Ha mis h Hendry, and published by Grant Kiehards. It contains well written and vivid accounts of our former battles with the Boers. — *■ The Prince de Ligne, His Memoirs Letters and Miscellaneous Papers, is the name given to Miss Katherine Prescott Wormeley's selections and translations from the Prince's works. The book, handsomely got up in two volumes, is published by W. Heinemann. The Prince was ever a soldier before a diplomat. A stern father he had, who married him without his consent while he was still a youth. On being appointed colonel of his father's regiment, the young Prince wrote : " Monseigneur, I have the honour to inform your Highness that I have just been appointed colonel of your regiment. I am, with profound inspect, etc." Here is the father's reply : " Monsieur, after the nnsfortu.no of having you for a son, nothing

could more keenly affect me than the misfortune of having you for a colonel." The severe retort did not undo the young Prince, .who vivaciously responded : " Monseigneur, neither the one nor the other is my fault. It is to the Emperor that you should complain for the second misfortune." A week or two before 'Xinas Messrs. Harper Brothers published Mr. H. B. MarriottWatson's latest novel The Princess Xenia. The plot, if somewhat complicated, is of courageous design. The story is of a young man with a short purse, but plenty of daring. As an economic place to live in he selects the capital of a German Duchy, with a population of seventy-thousand all told. Here he is found by an heir-hunting lawyer, who informs him that through the death of a will-less uncle, he inherits the vast sum of four and a-half million sterling. Almost at once he determines to use his wealth for the betterment of the" population of the Duchy generally. His first movement towards progress leads him to a band of thoroughly up-to-date revolutionists, and, at his next, he meets and falls violently in love with the heroine — the beautiful Princess Xenia. Of course he compromises himself, and, in putting things right, the author leads Christopher Lambert into many exciting adventures, much peril, and plenty of embarrassing situations. The end of the story is appropriate. Mr Marriott- Watson has written a most readable work, and New Zealand has once again to feel proud that he is one of her sons. Like many another writer, he has used Robert Louis Stevenson's style as his model, and, undoubtedly, he has to be congratulated upon the truthfulness of the imitiation. There is much picturesque writing in The Princess Xenia, the dialogue is generally good, and sometimes brilliant, therein savouring somewhat of Anthony Hope. «. Advanced Australia is the title given to a book written by Mr. W. J. Galloway, an English M.P., who travelled through Aus-

tralasia a short time back. The work is practically a reprint of the articles the Manchester M.P. wrote for an English provincial paper. One statement, that " New Zealand is the most progressive community, from the the democratic standpoint, of the Antipodean group," none of us can take exception to. It is different, however, with the assertion that " Sydney, and not Melbourne, is the principal city and actual Metropolis, of Australia." Very few Victorians will fall in with that view, though, no doubt it is an article of belief with many ardent and patriotic JNew South Welshmen _ Mr. Galloway, in a postcript, writes of the Australian Commonwealth Bill. The clause providing for the establishment of a Federal High Court of Australia comes in for very strong disapproval, and the author warns the Imperial Government that, if they assent to this clause, they will loosen one of the bonds of the Empire — the judicial prerogative of the Crown. An English contemporary, in referring to the question, says, " Mr. Galloway raises a very timely warning. But we imagine that Mr. Chamberlain, when the time comes to deal with the subject, will find out that this clause in the Commonwealth Bill is mainly the work of one or two prominent Colonial lawyers — such as Mr. Syinon, Q.C., of Adelaide — who, naturally, wish to divide the large fees of the Final Appeal Court. We do not believe that the great bulk of Australians desire to be denied the right of appeal to the Imperial Privy Council." Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are now to be obtained at most booksellers for the modest sum of sixpence. Admirably printed in bold type, and with the whole of the well-known illustrations by John Tenniel, no family ought to be without these nursery requisites. And, indeed, older folks than children can enjoy Lewis Carroll's whimsicalities, his exquisitely frolicsome play upon words, and his curious word coining. To laugh is good, and the man who can make everybody laugh deserves

a statue in Westniinstor Abbey. Somo people cry, however, when reading Low is Carroll's nonsense, only the other day I read of a little boy who always criod whon ho looked at the picture of the Mock Turtle. L mentioned Lewis Carroll's name in order to say something of the Lewis Carroll's Scrap Book, published by T. Fisher Uuwin, It contains a selection from the unpublished writings and sketches of Lewis Carroll, together with reprints Prom scarce and unacknowledged work. The work is compiled and edited by Lewis Carroll's nephow — Stuart Dodgson Colliugwood — who, if lie has not chosen the best of titles, presonts a most interesting, amusing, and eminently readable volume. One or two quotations I must make. The iirst is the introduction which the author gave, illustrating " the advantago of introducing the human element into the hitherto barren region of mathematics." Tho extract reads, " It was a lovely autumn evening, and tho glorious effects of chromatic aberration were beginning to show themselves in tho atmosphere as the earth revolved away from the great western luminary, when two linos might have been observed wending their weary way across a plain superficies. Tho elder of the two had, by long practice, acquired the art, so painfu.l to young and impulsive loci, of lying evenly between her extreme points; but tho younger, in her girlish impetuosity, was ever longing to diverge and become an hyperbola — or some such romantic or boundless curve. They had lived and loved ; fate, and the intervening superficies, had hitherto kopt them asunder) but this was no longor to bo : a linp had intersected them, making the two interior angles together less than the two right angles. It was a moment never to be forgotten, and, as they journeyed on, a whisper thrilled along the superficies in isochronous waves of sound, " Yes ! we shall at length meet if continually produced."' Hero is anothor gem, "Plain superficiality is the character of a speech, in which any two points being taken, tho speaker is found to lie wholly with regard to those two points." One does not laugh at these exquisite follies, ouo " chortles."