LITERARY CHAT.

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, Volume I, Issue 7, 1 April 1900, Page 555

LITERARY CHAT.

By Danvers Hamber

Several books about Egypt and the Egyptians have made their appearance since the defeat of the Khalifa Abdallah by Sir Francis Wingate's force last November. Mr. Silva White in his Expansion of Egypt, published by Methuen and C 0. ,. gives a thoroughly accurate and carefully complete account of what Great Britain has done for the country since she stepped in and prevented the absolute ruin that threatened the land of the Fellah. It is reported that Nubar Pasha once said that Egypt's greatest needs were justice and water. Mr. White's book proves that the English gave the people justice, and that the water question is always receiving attention which is ever increasing. The author tells how the arduous work has been carried out, notwithstanding tremendous difficulties, and he shows how British perseverance surmounted the obstacles formed by the long continued system of bribery and corruption that bid fair to sap the fertile country of its vitality. Mr. White believes in Kgypt for the English, he will hear nothing of evacuation, for under British influence the country of the Pharoahs is indeed a land of promise. Mr. W. Basil Worsfold has written an entertaining work on Egypt entitled The Redemption of Egypt. It is profusely illustrated with beautiful reproductions, reflecting the highest credit on the publisher, George Allen. Like Mr. White, Mir. Worsfold is intensely patriotic, and seeing that Great Britain has done so much for Egypt, he says : " Those Englishmen who think it right to assume an apologetic air when they refer to the continued presence of England in Egypt are either ignorant of the facts, or raisin terpretjfche principles of inter-

national morality upon which consnros are based." The book is really a description of a recent travel through the country, and it must be said that Mr. Worsfold recounts his experiences and formulates his conclusions in excellent manner.

At the beginning of the year the Egyptian Exploration Fund published the Second Part; of the Oxyrhi/ncluts Papyri, oditud by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt. There its a wealth of material for the classical scholar, who will find that the decipherers of the papyrus havo performed their (ask most admirably. The difficulties they had to overcome and the merit of their work can be estimated by a careful examination of the photographs which are reproduced, showing the state of the original documents which had to bo interpreted. Those poor mortals of the nineteenth — or is it the twentieth ? — century who suffer from neuralgia or the tortures of toothache, and are continually being told that those afllictioiitt are entirely modern complaints, may perhaps find consolation here. The ancient Greeks suffered from ear-ache. A miscellaneous fragment of papyrus, evidently part of a collection of Greek medical prescriptions, contains a fow certain cures for ear-ache : " Dilute some gum with balsam of lilies, and add honey and rose extract. Twist some wool with the oil in round a probe, warm, and drop in " ; " Pound Myrrh and alum in equal quantities and insert"; "Hinge with warm onion juice." Down to the present day the heart of a boiled onion is said to bo a specific for &n excruciating oar-ache,

Mr. Alleyne Ireland, an American writer, has recently published through Messrs. Mactnillan and Co. a work which should be of great value to those politicians who are interested in the important question of colonisation. Without a doubt this is one of the questions of the day, and though Mr« Ireland's book Tropical Colonisation has as its motif the furtherance of American colonisation, it is a thoroughly independent study of the subject, and innst, therefore, commend itself to practical men of European nationalities. England, Germany, France, Russia and Austria are compelled to consider the colonial expansion policy very deeply just now, and as the main fields for future settlement lie in the tropics, Mr. Ireland's book is published at an opportune time. The author gained his personal experience in a British colony, British Guiana, and as aids to his own knowledge, has made a careful study of the history, and a close examination of the methods of tropical colonisation in other parts of the globe. In the result he has produced a highly interesting work, a book not only of value to the layman, bnt one to bo carefully studied by those high in authority in the colonial departments of all European governments. One chapter of the book, Trade and the Flag, commands the attention of the English-speaking public. Mr. Ireland states that " the British colonies and possessions are establishing their commercial independence of the United Kingdom, for (a) the United Kingdom is receiving a less proportion of their exports from year to year; (b) the United Kingdom is sending them a less proportion of their imports from year to year." Then again the author says •. " Daring the past twenty years the United States have been more important to the United Kingdom as a source of supply than the whole of the British Empire. Taking the British Empire as a whole — exclusive of the United Kingdom — we find that, man for man, the people of ' the United States are better customers of the United Kingdom than the people of the British Empire, each American buying annually 1.50d01. worth of English goods, and each colonial subject

1.02d01. worth." Dividing the British colonies and possessions into two classes, tropical and non-tropical, Mr. Ireland says that the last named export to the United Kingdom goods to the value of 23.18d01. per head of population, while the value per head of the exports of tropical colonies is only 6$ cents. The non-tropical colonies consume per head 12.32d01. worth of English goods, and the ti'opical colonies 71 cents.' worth per head per year. In concluding this chapter the author says : " There is no evidence in the above facts that trade follows the flnjr, in the sense that possession of a country produces any extraordinary development of trade between the dependency and the dominant country. On ihe other hand, when the alternative lies between possessing a given territory, or allowing it to pass to the control of a nation which will ere°t formidable barriers against the trade of foreign slates, possession is the only effective method of assuring a fair proportion of trade to the interested country."

Mr. A. 0. Biomson, who has given to the world an excellent. Life of his distinguished father, the late Archbishop of Canterbury, has also compiled a volume of Prayers, Public and Private, composed by his illustrious parent. Sometimes Dr. Benson's prose was terse and rugged, but generally ho wrote with a telling simplicity. There are some hymns in the collection, some are good and some are not good poetry, and it seems a rather unfilial act to preserve that one commencing with the following verse : Hushed the storms that lately raved, O'er the earth no armed roar ; Full upon the House of David Shines the Bright and Morning Star. This stanza shows that an Archbishop should be very careful when "dropping into poetry." Unlike Silas Wegg, he cannot inspire an immortal reputation as a poet by so doing.

At a time when wireless telegraphy is interesting scientists and puzzling the lesslearned portion of humanity, Mr. J. J. Fahie's Hist or// of Wireless Telegraphy, published by Messrs. Hlackwood, is issued at an appropriate moment. It will be startling news to the majority of readers to discover that the idea of wireless telegraphy is as nearly ancient history as is the system of the electric telegraph. The famous electrician, Professor D. K. Hughes— whose death has been announced since Mr. Kahie's book came from the press — wrote a letter to the author telling of some experiments he made over twenty years ago. He then succeeded in transmitting electric signals without connecting wires up to a distance of five hundred yards. The Professor avowed the results achieved to bo clue to actual aerial electric waves, which were undiscovered up to thai time ; but Sir George Stokes, who was one of the scientific witnesses of the tests, believed that they could be accounted for by known electro-magnetic induction effects. Professor Hughes was so disappointed at his failure to make Sir George Stokes believe, that he determined to say nothing about his discovery until he could give a perfect scientilic demonstration of the existence of aerial electric waves, 'ihe eminent Hertz, made public the result of his experiments about 1888, and then Professor Hughes thought it was too late to say anything about his own trials. What Hughes indicated, and Hertz improved upon, Marconi has perfected; yet it is practically certain that if Sir George Stokes had not thrown cold water on the aerial wave theory, the honour of being the discoverer of wireless telegraphy would have rested with the late Professor David Edward Hughes.

Mr. Harold Gorst, son of Sir John Gorst, is about to add to his literary laurels by the publication of a Life of Lord Bcacomficid. The work will be produced by Messrs. Blackie and Co., and will form a volume of the " Victorian Era Series," published by the well-known Edinburgh and London firm. Mr. Gorst will forestall Lord Rowton, whose

ciut.liori.sod life of tlio famous statesman, politician and novelist, is v long time in making its appearance. Of course Mr. Gorst is too young a man to bo able to write from a personal knowledge of Lord Hoaconsliold, and, therefore, his book must porforco bo somewhat lacking in interest. But he wields a, brilliant pen, and as he will have had the advantage of his father's reminiscences of the great Tory leader, the work is certain of appreciation. Mr. Gorst, who is one of the editors of a new weekly review, is also engaged upon a book dealing with England's interest in China.

Thk incorporated Society of Authors has inaugurated a scheme which is meeting wil.li ranch attention and consideration from authors .'it Home. The proposal is to raise a sum of money which shall be used in the payment of pensions, and thus do awuy witli the system of donations followed by the Society previously. The, pensions arc not to be less than C3O or more than £100 per annum, and they are not to be awarded to anyone! who is under the age of sixty. They will be given for life, but in certain circumstances may be discontinued if the Committee of the Society should consider such a course desirable. Of the money raised for this pension scheme two-thirds will be added to the capital of the pension fund, while the remainder may be devoted to the payment of pensions, or may be used in the purchase of annuities to provide for the pensions granted. Some well-known writers have expressed themselves in favour of the scheme, and amongst those who have already sent in subscriptions are Mr. Anthony Hope, who lias given £200, and Messrs. George Meredith, J. M. Barrio, Rudyard Kipling, Gilbert Parker, Douglas Fresh Hold and Sir Walter Bosant, who have each donated £100. Then a large number of literary men have promised annual subscriptions to the fund, ho there is no doubt that the object meets with general approval. The cordial response made by successful authors shows the " fellow feeling which makes us wondrous kind."