28. At Paris, after seven days' trial, Mme. Caillaux was acquitted of murdering M. Gaston Calmette. (See ante, Chron., March 16.)
30. Belgrade taken by the Austrians. Partial mobilisation by Russia. (See For. Hist., Chaps. II. and III.)
—A painting of "An Interior with Figures," by P. de Hoock, realised 8,200 guineas at a London auction sale.
—Lieut. Gran (Norway) flew from Cruden Bay, near Aberdeen, to Stavanger, 400 miles, in 4 hrs. 10 min.
31. The London Stock Exchange was closed by order of the Committee, and the Bank rate raised to 8 per cent. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. IV.)
1. The Endurance, with Sir Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition, left the Thames on her voyage to the South Polar regions.
—The Bank rate was advanced to 10 per cent.
—The National Penny Bank suspended payment.
—Mobilisation ordered of the German and French armies.
—Germany declared war on Russia and France.
2. Russian troops crossed the East Prussian frontier; German invasion of Luxemburg and France.
—Prayers offered for the nation in churches and chapels throughout the United Kingdom.
—The Admiralty called out the Naval Reserves. Patriotic demonstration before Buckingham Palace.
—Partial Moratorium decreed in the United Kingdom by Royal Proclamation.
3. Announcement of the abandonment of Cowes Regatta by special desire of the King.
—German ultimatum to Belgium.
—Royal Proclamations issued authorising the Admiralty to requisition British ships, prohibiting the use of wireless by British merchant vessels, and forbidding the export of numerous articles described as warlike stores.
—The German Embassy left Paris, the French Embassy Berlin.
—Sir E. Grey's statement in the House of Commons. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. IV.)
4. Order in Council declaring it expedient that the Government should take control of the railways of the United Kingdom.
—British ultimatum to Germany. British Army mobilisation ordered by Proclamation.
—Resignation of British Ministers. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)
—German invasion of Belgium.
5. Earl Kitchener of Khartoum appointed Secretary for War.
—The German mine-layer Königin Luise, a converted liner, sunk by H.M.S. Amphion and the Third Torpedo Flotilla.
5. French troops entered Belgium.
6. Vote of Credit for 100,000,000l. and vote of 500,000 men for the Army passed by the House of Commons, after a statement by the Prime Minister.
—Austria-Hungary declared war against Russia.
—H.M.S. Amphion struck a mine in the North Sea and sank; a paymaster and 150 men were lost.
—Bank rate reduced to 6 per cent.
—The Prince of Wales and the Queen appealed for subscriptions for a National Relief Fund.
7. Reopening of British Banks after the extended Bank Holiday.
—Issue of Government notes for 10s. and 1l.
—Montenegro declared herself at war with Austria-Hungary.
8. Bank rate reduced to 5 per cent.
—British Expeditionary Force landing in France.
9. H.M.S. Birmingham sank the German submarine U 15 in the North Sea.
10. State of war between France and Austria-Hungary.
—Lord Islington appointed Under-Secretary for the Colonies, vice Lord Emmot, appointed First Commissioner of Works; and Dr. Christopher Addison, M.P., appointed Parliamentary Secretary of the Board of Education, vice Mr. C. M. Trevelyan resigned.
—Completion of the purchase of the Crystal Palace.
12. Declaration of war by Great Britain on Austria-Hungary. Proclamation under Defence of the Realm Act, establishing a kind of martial law in Great Britain.
—Announcement that Turkey had purchased the German warships Goeben and Breslau.
14. The Austrian Lloyd liner Baron Gautsch struck a mine off Lussin, Dalmatia, and sank; 150 persons drowned.
15. The Panama Canal formally opened.
—Proclamation by Grand Duke Nicolas of Russia to Poles. (See For. Hist., Chap. III.)
16. Japanese ultimatum to Germany.
—Arrival at Avonmouth of General Huerta, ex-President of Mexico. Entry of the Carranzist General Obregon into Mexico City.
17. The Belgian Court and Government removed from Brussels to Antwerp.
—French Fleet cleared Adriatic up to Cattaro.
18. Germans entered Tirlemont.
19. French reverse in Lorraine.
—Russians defeat Germans at Stallupönen, East Prussia.
20. Death of Pope Pius X. (See Obit.)
—Belgian Army retired to Antwerp.
—At the bye-election for Wicklow (W.) Mr. J. T. Donovan (N.) was returned unopposed, vice Mr. E. P. O'Kelly (N.)
20. At Sydney, N.S.W., the President of the British Association, Professor Bateson, delivered the Presidential Address. (See post, Science.)
21. German occupation of Brussels.
—Day of Intercession for the War.
22. Funeral of Pope Pius X.
23. War began between Japan and Germany.
23-26. Four days' battle in France. (See For. Hist., Chap. V.)
24. Fall of Namur.
25. Parliament reassembled. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)
26. Destruction of Louvain.
—The American steamer Admiral Sampson sank after collision with the British steamer Princess Victoria; ten persons drowned.
—The German light cruiser Magdeburg went ashore at the entrance of the Gulf of Finland, and was blown up. A Russian attack had resulted in some loss of life.
27. First British wounded arrived at Folkestone.
—Further Parliamentary Papers published containing additional details of breach with Germany.
28. It was announced in Parliament that Indian troops were on their way from India.
—British Naval victory in the Bight of Heligoland. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)
29. Apia in Samoa surrendered to a British Expeditionary Force.
31. Arrival of the Queen of the Belgians and her children at Dover.
—Russian defeat in East Prussia.
1. The King received the Belgian Mission to the United States. (See For. Hist., Chap. VIII.)
—Announcement that, by order of the Tsar, St. Petersburg would be known for the future as Petrograd.
—It was reported at Petrograd that Lieut. Sedoff, leader of the Suvorin Polar Expedition, had died and been buried in Kronprinz Rudolf Land.
—At Llandaff, the Bishop's palace was burnt down; many of the valuables, pictures, and books were saved.
3. The French Government left Paris for Bordeaux. (See For. Hist., Chap. I.)
—The election of the Pope resulted, at the third ballot, in favour of Cardinal Della Chiesa, who took the title of Benedict XV.
—The steam drifter Linsdell, and shortly afterwards H.M.S. Speedy, struck mines off the east coast and sank; eight lives lost.
5. H.M.S. Pathfinder was sunk by a mine (or, more probably, a submarine) off the east coast; 259 killed, 16 wounded. The Wilson liner Runo, from Hull for Archangel, met a similar fate; about twenty-five lives lost.
5. A collision occurred outside Cannon Street between two outgoing trains; eight persons were injured.
7. Announcement that the German cruiser Nürnberg had cut the cable between Fanning Island and British Columbia.
9. The armed merchant cruiser Oceanic, late White Star Line, wrecked off the north coast of Scotland; no lives lost.
—At Doncaster, the St. Leger resulted as follows: Mr. J. B. Joel's Black Jester, 1; Sir J. Thursby's Kennymore, 2; Sir J. Thursby's Cressingham, 3; time, 3 min. 23.8 sec.
10. A troop train was derailed at the Hex River Pass, South Africa; eight persons were killed, eighty-six injured—one fatally.
—Russian advance checked at Allenstein, East Prussia.
11. Pope Benedict XV. issued an appeal for peace.
—Minimum height of recruits raised by War Office to 5 ft. 6 ins. and chest measurement to 35½ inches.
12. The Annual Report of the Development Commission showed that grants had been recommended during the year by that body of 767,387l., of which 472,793l. was intended for the development of agriculture and rural industries. Special grants had been made for veterinary research work for the improvement of live stock. The Commission repeated its warning that it would be obliged to cut down or abandon several of its most beneficial schemes unless Parliament aided it after 1915.
—The Spreewald, an armed German merchant cruiser, with two German colliers, was captured in the North Atlantic by H.M.S. Berwick. (The capture was announced Sept. 23.)
13. The King received Cardinal Mercier at Buckingham Palace. In the afternoon His Eminence, standing on Cardinal Bourne's balcony, blessed 10,000 Irishmen passing beneath in procession.
—The German cruiser Hela was sunk in the North Sea by the British submarine E 9.
14. At Lebanon, Missouri, a train broke through a bridge and fell into the river; over thirty-five persons were reported drowned.
—The German merchant cruiser Cap Trafalgar was sunk off the east coast of South America by the British armed cruiser Carmania (a converted Cunard liner).
—The Australian submarine AE 1 was lost by some unknown accident while returning from patrol work; thirty-five officers and men were lost.
15. The Stock Exchange issued a list of trustee securities with minimum prices, below which its members were forbidden to deal in them.
17. H.M.S. Fisgard II., formerly the Invincible, flagship at the battle of Alexandria in 1882, now fitted up as a floating repair shop, sank in a gale off Portland Bill while being towed; twenty-one of her crew were drowned.
18. Prorogation of Parliament. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)
18. Near Astoria, Oregon, the United States merchant steamer Francis H. Leggett foundered in a gale; seventy lives were lost.
—A South African force occupied Lüderitzbucht, German West Africa.
19. The Pacific Mail steamer Ortega, 8,000 tons, Capt. D. R. Kinneir, bound from Valparaiso to Liverpool, escaped from a German cruiser into the Straits of Magellan, through Nelson Strait, a dangerous and quite unsurveyed passage—a daring feat of seamanship.
20. At Zanzibar, H.M.S. Pegasus, while at anchor, was surprised by the German cruiser Königsberg, and disabled; thirty-four of her crew were killed and sixty-one wounded; the Königsberg escaped.
—German bombardment of Rheims Cathedral. (See For. Hist., Chap. I.)
22. Two Parliamentary seats were filled, by arrangement, without opposition. At Hartlepool Sir Walter Runciman (L.) was returned, vice Sir Stephen Furness (L.), deceased; at Bolton Mr. A. H. Gill (Lab.), deceased, was succeeded by Mr. A. H. Tootil (Lab.).
—At 6 A.M., H.M.S. cruiser Aboukir was torpedoed by a German submarine in the North Sea and sank; H.M.S. cruisers Cressy and (two hours later) Hogue suffered the same fate while standing by to save life. The total loss was sixty-two officers and 1,397 men; the saved numbered 917.
—British air raid on Düsseldorf; Flight-Lieut. C. H. Collet dropped three bombs on the Zeppelin sheds, approaching within 400 feet; an attack on the sheds at Cologne was frustrated by fog; all five aviators returned safely. (See Eng. Hist. Chap. V.)
—Madras shelled by the German cruiser Emden; little damage.
24. An attempt was made to wreck the up Folkestone boat express train at Hither Green; no harm was done.
—First Indian troops landed at Marseilles.
26. At Cambridge, the Rev. Edmund Courtenay Pearce, M.A., Fellow and Dean of Corpus Christi College, was elected Master of the College, vice Colonel R. T. Caldwell, LL.D., deceased.
27. First bombs dropped on Paris by a German aeroplane; an elderly gentleman was killed and a little girl badly wounded.
—The Albanian Senate proclaimed Prince Burhan-ed-Din, a son of Abdul Hamid, ruler of the Principality.
28. Announcement of the surrender of Duala (Cameroons) to an Anglo-French force.
29. Announcement that four British ships had been sunk by the German cruiser Emden in the Indian Ocean, and a fifth, the collier Buresk, captured.
1. Announcement that the Rev. Canon George Wilfrid Blenkin, Vicar of Hitchin and sometime Fellow and Chaplain of Trinity College, Cambridge, was appointed Dean of St. Albans, vice the Very Rev. Walter J. Lawrance, D.D., deceased.
—In the King's Bench Division, a compulsory winding-up order was made for the National Penny Bank. The Government enabled the Bank of England to render assistance, whereby depositors were paid 5s. in the pound at once. The management of the Bank was officially declared (Nov. 5) to have been unsatisfactory.
1. Announcement that seven German merchant steamers and a gunboat had been captured by H.M.S. Cumberland off the Cameroons.
2. The Admiralty announced that a minefield for defensive purposes had been laid in the North Sea.
—On the Highland Railway, the mail train caught fire; the guard was injured and sixty mailbags destroyed.
—On the arrival of the steamship Komagata Maru from Vancouver at Budge Budge, near Calcutta, with British Indians who had been refused admittance to British Columbia, some of the emigrants attempted to walk to Calcutta instead of proceeding direct by train to the Punjaub. Eventually they fired on the police, killing one and wounding others, and were fired upon by troops; sixteen rioters and two spectators were killed. (See For. and Col. Hist., Chap. V.)
5. Exactly two months from its commencement, the National Relief Fund reached 3,000,000l.
6. Off Schiermonnikoog, H.M.S. Submarine E 5 sunk the German destroyer S 179; most of the crew of the latter were reported saved.
—President Poincaré visited Sir John French's headquarters and exchanged congratulatory telegrams with the King.
7-8. The bombardment of Antwerp began at midnight.
9. Fall of Antwerp. (See For. Hist., Chap. IV.)
—Announcement that three British naval airmen had destroyed a Zeppelin at Düsseldorf.
10. Death of the King of Roumania. (See For. Hist., Chap. III.)
11. Two German aeroplanes flew over Paris soon after midday, dropping twenty bombs, of which one struck Notre Dame; three persons killed, fourteen injured.
—The Russian cruiser Pallada was sunk, with all her crew, in the Baltic by a German destroyer; two German destroyers sunk by the Russians.
11-12. Bombardment of Arras.
12. Warning by the Mayor of Gravesend regarding hostile aircraft.
13. The Prime Minister received a deputation of women protesting against a possible revival of the Contagious Diseases Acts, in view of the evils that had arisen in the neighbourhood of certain camps.
—Announcement of Maritz's rebellion in South Africa.
14. The first Canadian troops arrived at Plymouth.
—Fire at the Monfalcone Shipbuilding Works, near Trieste; a large cruiser building for the Austro-Hungarian Government was destroyed.
15. Announcement that H.M. cruiser Yarmouth had sunk the German liner Markomannia near Sumatra, and captured the Greek steamer Pontoporos. Both had been coaling the Emden—the latter compulsorily.
15. Near Bucharest, two English M.P.'s, Mr. Noel Buxton and Mr. C. R. Buxton, were shot at and wounded by a Young Turk while proceeding to King Carol's funeral; they recovered.
—H.M.S. Hawke was sunk by a submarine, and H.M.S. Theseus attacked, in the northern waters of the North Sea. The number saved was seventy, leaving 524 killed and missing.
16. On the Didcot-Newbury line, in the evening, at a level crossing, a goods train struck a motor-car containing ladies returning from a concert at Churn Camp; one lady killed, two injured.
17. Four German destroyers, with all their crews but thirty-one, were sunk in the North Sea by H.M.S. Undaunted and four destroyers, the Lance, Lennox, Legion, and Loyal; one British officer and seventy-four men wounded.
—Severe earthquake in Greece and Asia Minor; thirty-three miles of railway in Asia Minor damaged, and 3,000 peasants reported killed.
—The Japanese cruiser Takahichio was sunk by a mine in Kiao-chao Bay; about 254 persons believed lost.
—In Camberwell and Deptford a number of shops, belonging, or believed to belong, to Germans, were wrecked by a mob.
18. H.M.S. submarine E 3 reported sunk on the North Sea coast.
19. Announcement that a "Distinguished Service Medal" had been instituted for non commissioned officers and privates in the Royal Marines, and for petty officers, men and boys in the Royal Navy.
—At Marquise, near Boulogne, a train with Belgian refugees was partly telescoped by a following goods train; thirty-one killed, eighty-one wounded.
—Attempted rising in Portugal. (See For. Hist., Chap. IV.)
20. Announcement that the Tsar had decided to prohibit for ever the Government sale of alcohol in Russia.
—In Montreal, a block of nine houses, with three shops, was blown up, probably by Austrians; four killed, including three of the perpetrators. The occupants were chiefly Russians.
21. Trafalgar Day. The tributes at the Nelson column included mementoes of the Aboukir and Hawke. Crowds of people visited the square.
—Extensive arrests of Germans and Austrians in London and many English towns.
22. Announcement that German and Austrian merchant ships must leave the Suez Canal.
23. Announcement that Dr. Arthur Berriedale Keith, D.Litt. Edin., D.C.L. Oxon, had been appointed Regius Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in Edinburgh University, vice Dr. Julius Eggeling, resigned.
24. H.M.S. Badger rammed (and was believed to have sunk) a German submarine off the Dutch coast.
—President Poincaré and Earl Kitchener were unanimously elected Lord Rector of Glasgow University and Lord Rector of Edinburgh University respectively.
26. The French liner Amiral Ganteaume, with 2,500 refugees on board, bound from Calais to Havre, was torpedoed twelve miles off Cape Grisnez by a German submarine, and sank; four engine-room hands were killed. The cross-Channel steamer Queen (S.E. & C.R.) took off the passengers, but about twenty were killed, chiefly in trying to jump aboard her in a panic.
—Importation of sugar into the United Kingdom prohibited.
—An Anglo-French force entered Edea, Cameroons.
27. News of the risings headed by General Beyers in the Western Transvaal and by General De Wet in the Orange Free State.
—The steamer Manchester Commerce struck a mine near Tory Island, off the north-west coast of Ireland, and foundered; thirty of the crew were saved; the captain and thirteen were lost. The Admiralty consequently warned shipping to pass by Skerryvore and the Hebrides.
—Closing by order of several entrances to the Thames.
—Announcement that Mrs. Carman had been released on bail after a disagreement of the jury in her trial for murder. (See ante, June 30.)
28. Completion of the piercing of Moutier-Granges tunnel, on the line between Delle and Berne, Switzerland, saving thirteen miles on the route from Paris to Milan via, the Lötschberg.
—Announcement that the Germans had invaded Angola.
—At Sarajevo, sentence was pronounced on the persons convicted of conspiring to murder the Archduke Francis Ferdinand and the Duchess of Hohenberg. (See Chron. June 28, and For. Hist., Chap. III.) Four were sentenced to be hanged, three, including the actual murderer, who was too young for the death penalty, to twenty years' penal servitude, and seven others to shorter terms.
—At Penang, the German cruiser Emden sank the Russian cruiser Zhemchug and a French destroyer; eighty-six lives lost; three officers and 112 men injured.
29. Resignation of Prince Louis of Battenberg. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)
—Bombardment by Turkish warships of Black Sea ports. Turkey thus entered into the war.
30. The British hospital ship Rohilla (late a P. & O. liner) proceeding from Leith to the Continent to fetch Belgian wounded, went ashore just south of Whitby, having probably struck a mine; after great difficulties, the last set of survivors were rescued on November 1, after thirty-six hours' exposure to heavy seas. About seventy-five lives were lost; the saved numbered 146.
—Lord Fisher of Kilverstone appointed First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, vice Prince Louis of Battenberg, resigned.
—The German cruiser Königsberg bombarded by H.M.S. Chatham in the Rufigi River, East Africa, and her exit prevented by sinking colliers.
30. The Morning Post published the letter written by the German Emperor to the late Lord Tweedmouth when First Lord of the Admiralty, assuring him that the German Navy was not intended to challenge British Naval Supremacy. (See A.R., 1908, Pt. I., p. 58.)
31. Gallant charge of the London Scottish near Ypres.
—The cruiser Hermes, seaplane carrier, was sunk at 10.30 A.M. in the Straits of Dover while returning from Dunkirk; twenty-two killed, seven wounded.
1. Sea-fight off the Chilean coast; H.M.S. Good Hope and Monmouth sunk. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)
—The German Emperor reported to have had a narrow escape from bombs dropped by a British airman at Thielt.
—Foreign Office statement of repeated provocations offered by the Porte to the Powers of the Triple Entente, culminating in attacks on Russia and project of invasion of Egypt. (See For. Hist., Chap. III.)
2. British reverse in German East Africa. (See For. and Col. Hist., Chap. VII.)
—Municipal elections throughout England and Wales. By arrangement, contests were avoided almost everywhere.
—Admiralty announcement of restriction of navigation in the North Sea and on the North of Scotland and of Ireland, owing to indiscriminate scattering of German mines.
—Bombardment of the Dardanelles forts by an Anglo-French Squadron.
—Bombardment of Akabah by H.M.S. Minerva.
3. United States elections; large Republican gains.
4. The German cruiser Yorck struck a mine (or was sunk by a British submarine) off Jahde Bay and sank; about half the crew drowned.
5. British declaration of war with Turkey; Cyprus annexed to Great Britain by Order in Council.
—Military execution in the Tower of Karl Lody, convicted of espionage by court-martial, November 2.
—The Earl of Annesley and Flight-Lieutenant C. Beevor, R.N., shot down near Ostend while crossing in an aeroplane from Eastchurch to France.
6. At Edinburgh, William Drummond Dick, recently a coal importer at Berlin, sentenced to five years' penal servitude for attempting to sell coal to Germany.
7. Surrender of Tsingtau. (See For. Hist., Chap. VI.)
—Admiralty announcement of the occupation of Fao, at the mouth of the Shatt-el-Arab. (See For. Hist., Chap. V.)
9. Ministers at the Guildhall. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)
—The Lord Mayor's Show included contingents from the Canadian, Newfoundland, and New Zealand troops, and also from the Honourable Artillery Company, the London Scottish, and other London Territorial Regiments, and the Officers' Training Corps of the City of London School.
9. M. Rodin presented to the British nation twenty of his statues, recently exhibited in London, as a token of admiration for its heroes.
—Announcement that the German cruiser Emden was sunk by H.M.A.S. Sydney of the Australian Navy, on November 9, while attempting to destroy the wireless station at the Cocos or Keeling Islands, and that the German cruiser Königsberg had been discovered on October 30 (see that date).
11. Opening of Parliament. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)
—H.M.S. Niger torpedoed in the Downs, two miles off Deal; all the officers and crew saved; four men injured.
14. Death of Earl Roberts at St. Omer. (See post, Obituary.)
—The Royal Society medals were awarded as follows: Royal Medal to Prof. Ernest W. Brown, F.R.S., for astronomical investigations, chiefly in the lunar theory, and to Prof. William J. Sollas, F.R.S., for palæontological researches; the Copley Medal to Sir Joseph Thomson, for discoveries in physical science; the Romford Medal to Lord Rayleigh, for his numerous researches in optics; the Davy Medal to Prof. William Jackson Pope, for researches on stereo-chemistry; the Darwin Medal to Prof. E. B. Poulton, for researches in heredity; and the Hughes Medal to Prof. John S. Townsend, F.R.S., for his researches on the electric behaviour of gases.
16. Official announcement of nine awards of the Victoria Cross—the first in the War.
17. Announcement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the new war taxation and war loan. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)
—The Prince of Wales appointed A.D.C. to F.M. Sir John French.
—At Amiens, fifteen bombs were dropped by German aeroplanes; a gasholder exploded; one man killed, one injured.
—German bombardment of Libau; Russian bombardment of Trebizond.
—Turkish defeat on the Shatt-el-Arab, (See For. Hist., Chap. V.)
18. The Russian Black Sea battleship division engaged the Goeben off Sebastopol; she retired seriously damaged.
19. Riot among German prisoners in camp near Douglas, Isle of Man; five killed, one fatally injured. The jury at the inquest exonerated the authorities, in view of the riotous conduct of the prisoners.
—Funeral of Earl Roberts in St. Paul's.
—Announcement that the Rev. John Pentland Mahaffy, D.C.L., had been appointed Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, vice Dr. Traill, deceased.
—Announcement that Dr. Walter Ramsden, Senior Demonstrator of Physiology at Oxford University, was elected Johnston Professor of Bio-Chemistry at Liverpool University, vice Dr. Benjamin Moore, resigned.
20. Turkish bombardment of Tuapse.
21. British raid on the Zeppelin airship factory at Friedrichshafen. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)
—Basra occupied by British. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)
23. The German submarine U 18 was rammed and sunk by a British patrol vessel off the north coast of Scotland; she subsequently rose, surrendered, and foundered; one man killed.
—The German destroyer S 124 was sunk by collision with the British steamer Anglo-Dane off Falsterbro.
—The Cunard freight steamer Malachite, from Havre to Liverpool, was shelled four miles off Havre by a submarine and sunk; the crew landed in their own boats.
—The U.S. troops evacuated Vera Cruz.
24. First Indian soldier recommended for the V.C.—Havildar Gangna Singh, a Dogra, 57th Wilde's Rifles.
26. H.M.S. battleship Bulwark blew up at Sheerness at 7.35 A.M.; about 750 lives were lost.
—The British merchant steamer Primo was sunk off Cape Antifer by a German submarine; crew saved.
27. Announcement that Dr. C. S. Loch had resigned the secretaryship of the Charity Organisation Society, which he had held since 1875.
—Earthquake in Western Greece and the Ionian Islands; at Leucadia, twenty-three persons reported killed, fifty injured; great damage also at Corfu.
—At the Central Criminal Court, in the trial of Lord Alfred Douglas for libelling Mr. Robert Ross, the jury disagreed; a nolle prosequi was entered December 10.
29. December 4. The King visited the front in France. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)
30. At the bye-election for Londonderry City, due to the death of Mr. D. C. Hogg (L.), Sir James Dougherty (L.) was returned unopposed. His opponent, Mr. J. P. Goode, a "Federal Imperialist," was disqualified on the informality of his nomination papers.
2. At the Cleckheaton Chemical Works, Heckmondwike, seven lives were lost by a lyddite explosion.
3. Riot among interned Belgian soldiers near Zeist, Holland; the guard fired, killing seven and wounding twenty-two.
3-8. Great Austrian defeat in Serbia.
4. Mr. James Cosgrove (N.) returned unopposed as M.P. for Galway (E.), vice Mr. John Roche, deceased.
5. War precautions in the English Channel.
—At Riardo, between Rome and Naples, a passenger train for Naples was partly telescoped by a following goods train; eleven persons were killed or mortally injured, about fifty less seriously injured.
5. The German mercantile cruiser Prince Eitel Friedrich sank the British steamer Charcas about seventy miles south of Valparaiso; the crew were landed.
—French air raid announced on the Zeppelin sheds at Freiburg-im-Breisgau.
5-6. Heavy gale; serious floods in Wales.
7. Defeat and death of General Beyers in South Africa. (See For. and Col. Hist., Chap. VII.)
—The Rev. L. R. Phelps elected Provost of Oriel College, Oxford, vice Dr. L. Shadwell, resigned.
—Severe storm on the United States coast from Maine to North Carolina; many wrecks.
8. Off Barrow, the oil-tank steamer Vedra stranded and exploded; thirty-four persons were lost, two saved.
—In the King's Bench Division, an action by Sir John Brunner and Sir Alfred Mond against Mr. R. T. Palmer, a Leicester manufacturer, who, being excited by the war, had written addressing them as "German swine," was settled by an apology and payment of costs.
—British naval victory off the Falkland Islands. (See For. Hist., Chap. V.)
9. At the Parliamentary bye-election for King's County (Tullamore), due to the death of Mr. E. Haviland Burke (N.), Mr. E. J. Graham (I.N.) was returned by 1,667 votes, Mr. P. F. Adams (N.) receiving 1,588.
—At the Durham Assizes, before Mr. Justice Shearman, Nicolaus Emil Hermann Adolf Ahlers, recently German Consul at Sunderland and a naturalised Englishman, was convicted of high treason and sentenced to death, he having incited and assisted German reservists in England to join the German forces after the declaration of war. (The conviction was quashed on December 18 by the High Court.)
—The Edison Works at West Orange, New Jersey, burnt down; estimated damage $5,000,000.
10. Lieut.-Gen. Sir James Wolfe Murray appointed Chief of the Imperial General Staff, vice Lieut.-Gen. Sir Charles Douglas, deceased.
11, 12. Suspension of the London tramway service owing to an accident at a generating station.
12. On board the s.s. Batavier V., at Tilbury, for Rotterdam, a box which broke during shipment contained a young German lieutenant, Otto Koehn, who was attempting escape to Germany and had been interned at Dorchester.
—Announcement that Russia had declined the Christmas truce suggested by the Pope.
13. In the Dardanelles the British submarine B 11, Lieut.-Com. Holbrook, torpedoed and sank the Turkish battleship Messudiyeh.
14. Serbian army re-entered Belgrade.
16. German bombardment of Hartlepool, Scarborough and Whitby. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)
17. Egypt was proclaimed a British Protectorate, and Lieut.-Col. Sir Arthur Henry MacMahon, G.C.V.O., appointed British Commissioner.
—During a performance in the 86th Street Theatre, New York, five lions escaped; one was eventually killed in the street, the rest recaptured; the police had fired on them, wounding three persons.
—The Austro-Hungarian naval cadet training ship Beethoven was reported to have struck a mine near Trieste and sunk, with the loss of all on board.
18. The Khedive Abbas II. of Egypt deposed; Prince Hussein Kamel Pasha, a son of the ex-Khedive Ismail, appointed Sultan of Egypt.
—Meeting of the Kings of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, at Malmö.
19. The Donaldson (cargo) liner Tritonia, from Partington (Manchester Ship Canal) for St. John, N.B., struck a mine off the North of Ireland; the crew escaped.
20. Herbertshire Castle, Denny, Stirlingshire, was burnt down in the early morning; two young girl visitors and a lady secretary lost their lives.
21. The United States Supreme Court decided that Harry Thaw must be extradited from New Hampshire to New York (A.R., 1913, Chron., Aug. 17.)
24. A German aeroplane dropped a bomb on Dover, missing the Castle; little damage.
24, 25. A German aeroplane dropped bombs on Nancy; two persons killed, about twelve injured.
25. British air and sea raid on Cuxhaven,
—German aeroplane over Sheerness; the airman was shot at, and probably killed.
27. A British destroyer wrecked near St. Andrews; all hands saved.
28. Sudden storm in southern England; at Clapham a house was blown down, killing one person and injuring others.
29. At Edinburgh, Kate Hume, aged seventeen, of Dumfries, was convicted of forging and altering two letters purporting to relate German outrages on her sister; she was released on probation.
30. German aeroplane raid on Dunkirk; four aeroplanes dropped seventeen bombs intended for military buildings, but they fell in the market-place and streets; fifteen killed, thirty-two wounded, including many women.
—The Prussian casualty lists, numbering 112, gave the total of killed, wounded and missing as 771,073. The eighty-three Saxon, eighty-five Würtemberg, 130 Bavarian, and thirteen naval casualty lists increased this total by over 500,000. Some estimates, however, put the total German losses much higher.
There is an undoubted temptation in reviewing the Literature of 1914 to consider it from two obvious points of view: that published, or already in the Press, before the declaration of war with Germany, and that issued afterwards. But, although the outbreak of war caused a momentary pause in the operations of many publishers, it did not affect the flow of volumes already announced, though it has doubtless seriously reduced future commitments.
In dealing with the first half of the year, our attention is drawn to a more than usually numerous list of important works of mental and artistic culture. The students of History, too, relax nothing of their strenuous ardour, and writers upon Theological questions abound. It will be obvious therefore that in the present brief survey only a certain portion of all the multitudinous literary activities of the year can be noticed.
To begin with an appealing human interest,—many books of Biography have been issued, showing how unabated is the world's concern in the life-stories of great men and women. Much critical attention has been given to the celebration of the Roger Bacon sept-centenary on June 10 at Oxford, and the contributory papers of British and Foreign savants are accordingly printed by Mr. Milford. The Life and Works of the "Admirable Doctor" as given by Mr. J. D. Bridges, is also edited by Mr. H. Gordon Jones (Williams & Norgate). In connexion with the notice of the famous Schoolman it is interesting to note that another distinguished Oxonian, Mr. Allen, the well-known editor of the "Letters of Erasmus," has published his Lectures on that great antagonist of the later Schoolmen, under the title of The Age of Erasmus (Oxford, Clarendon Press; London, Milford). This is conveniently supplemented by Father Hartmann Grisar's Luther (Kegan Paul), and by a study of Calvin, by H. Y. Reyburn, B.D. (Hodder & Stoughton). Here too might be mentioned the work of another distinguished Roman ecclesiastic—the Rev. Horace Mann, D.D., whose Lives of the Popes has arrived at its tenth volume, carrying their history up to 1198 (Kegan Paul). Other famous Ecclesiastics dealt with in sympathetic vein are Saint Augustin, by Louis Bertrand (Constable), translated by Vincent O'Sullivan; and two authors deal with the famous "Clement of Alexandria"—first the Rev. R. B. Tollinton, B.D., Rector of Tendring (Williams & Norgate); also Dr. John Patrick, in The Croall Lectures for 1899-1900 (Blackwood). Messrs. Lee Warner continue the edition of Vasari's Lives which is edited and translated by Mr. Gaston du C. de Vere, now in its seventh volume, and a Study of Boccaccio by M. H. Hauvette, one of the leading writers on that great medieval master, is published by M. M. Armand Colin (Paris).
Turning to a later period, we get the late Paul Janet's important work on Fénelon, translated and edited by Victor Leuliette (Sir Isaac Pitman), and the joint-lives of John and Sarah, Duke and Duchess of Marlborough (1660-1744), by S. J. Reid (Murray). Suitably following this, comes The Life of Charles, Third Earl Stanhope, begun by his great-great-granddaughter, Miss Ghita Stanhope, and continued by Mr. G. P. Gooch (Longmans). Coming to studies and lives of eminent statesmen of modern times, we have The House of Cecil, by G. Ravenscroft Dennis (Constable), a Life of Sir John Lubbock (Lord Avebury), by H. G. Hutchinson (Murray), a few brief monographs on Mr. Joseph Chamberlain,—one of these contributed by Lord Milner and others,—and, above all, we have the brilliant continuation, by Mr. Buckle, of the late Mr. Monypenny's Life of Benjamin D'Israeli (Murray). Mr. Henry James's Notes of a Son and Brother (Macmillan) has naturally attracted attention, and there have been two books on Tolstoy, one, which is authoritative, by his son, Count Ilya Tolstoy, translated by J. Calderon (Chapman & Hall). Mr. Francis Gribble has attempted the Life of the aged Austrian Emperor (Nash), and to balance the interest we are drawn to a sketch of another great Ruler, the Tsar Nicholas II., translated from the Russian, and issued by Mr. Hugh Rees. We are never weary of books on the great French Masters, so that a study of two of them,—Balzac and Flaubert, by another eminent Frenchman, M. Emile Faguet (Constable), is welcome. Two authors have also been attracted to the writings of Paul Verlaine: Mr. Stefan Zweig, translated by O. F. Theis (Boston, Luce & Co.; Dublin and London, Maunsell), and a small monograph is offered by Mr. Wilfred Thorley (Constable). In Italian Literature we notice the continuation of the Crispi Memoirs (published in their translated form, by Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton), and a volume on Cavour and the Making of Modern Italy (Putnam), 1816-61, by Pietro Orsi. Coming nearer home we welcome the Memoirs of Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, by himself (Methuen), which, as might be expected, are excellent reading, and we also note various unauthoritative monographs and sketches of prominent modern Generals and Statesmen, such as brief Lives of Lord Kitchener, Sir John French, President Poincaré, General Joffre, and several of Lord Roberts. Perhaps the greatest Biographical sensation of the year has been provided by Mrs. Parnell's Life of her husband, Charles Stewart Parnell (Cassell). Among studies of celebrated women there are notices of the Brontës, of Lady Hester Stanhope, and a valuable work on The Life and Times of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, by A. E. P. B. Weigall, Inspector-General of Antiquities for the Government of Egypt (Blackwood). Colonel Haggard's Remarkable Women of France, is also a fascinating volume (Stanley Paul).
The realm of Philosophy in the publications of the year is, as usual, largely dominated by distinguished foreigners. Every writer is haunted by recollections of Bergson, who, it must be confessed, has won a large and serious audience in this country. Dr. G. R. Dodson writes on Bergson and the Modern Spirit (Lindsay Press); Mr. Bertrand Russell and Mr. H. Wildon Carr publish their discussion of The Philosophy of Bergson (Cambridge, Bowes & Bowes); Miss Stebbing, however, in her Pragmatism and French Voluntarism takes up the Professor's gage (Cambridge University Press) and questions his conclusions. We welcome a volume from yet another distinguished Frenchman, Professor Boutroux's Natural Law in Science and Philosophy, in the authorised translation by F. Rothwell (Nutt). Then there are translations of famous German philosophers, Kant, by Lord Redesdale (Lane), Essays on Nietzsche by that distinguished scholar and critic, Georges Brandes (Heinemann), and Mr. Meyrick Booth's translation of Eucken's Essays (Fisher Unwin). From Italy we are delighted to have Professor Aliotta's work, The Idealistic Reaction against Science, as translated for us by Agnes McCaskill (Macmillan), and The Greek Problems of Professor Bernardino Varisco, translated by R. C. Lodge (Allen). Professor Burnet of St. Andrews likewise turns to the study of the Ancients, in his Greek Philosophy, from Thales to Plato in this first issue (Macmillan), as also does Mr. Carritt in his Theory of Beauty (Methuen). From the Cambridge University Press we have Mr. C. D. Broad's Perception, Physics and Reality. Sir Bampfylde Fuller publishes his Life and Human Nature with Mr. Murray, and Messrs. Longmans issue an important work by Dr. Coffey, Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at Maynooth College, entitled Ontology, or the Theory of Being. The fourth and last volume of his History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century is offered by Mr. Merz (Blackwood).
The students of Psychology have no doubt been excited by Sir Oliver Lodge's grave and ex cathedra assertion of proofs of Life after (so-called) Death. Other minds seem to move in the same direction, and Dr. Mooney debates the subject of Re-incarnation from the medically scientific point of view that many, who would be sceptical of other attitudes, could accept. How You Live Again is the book's title (Manchester, The Pons Press). The Proceedings of the Society for Psychological Research are published by Mr. MacLehose of Glasgow.
In Sociology we get so much that is useful that it is quite impossible to follow the list of publications. Among those which, however, call for notice is the work of a distinguished French contemporary, La Formation de l'Anglais Moderne, by Paul Decamps (Armand Colin). Another brilliant foreign writer, Signor Guglielmo Ferrero, offers us a comparative study of Ancient Rome and Modern America (Putnam). Social Work in London (1869-1912), being a History of the Charity Organisation Society, is edited by Dr. Helen Bosanquet (Murray). Jewish Life in Modern Times is also worth mention (Methuen).
The reference to Jewish life carries us very naturally to the East and, to Bible Literature. Mr. Claude Montefiore's Judaism and St. Paul (Max Goschen) seems to offer a link between the Old Testament and the New, and is a most valuable—if not absolutely convincing—contribution to the Pauline problem. New Testament Criticism: its History and Results, by J. A. M'Clymont, D.D. (The Baird Lectures for 1910-11) (Hodder and Stoughton), is but one of a host of Theological publications of importance. On the same subject we also get The New Testament in the Twentieth Century, by the Rev. Maurice Jones, B.D. (Macmillan). The Westminster Version of the Sacred Scriptures has now published its third volume of New Testament text. This sustains the high level of Scholarship which we have come to expect from its learned editor, the Rev. Cuthbert Lattey, S.J. It is published by Messrs. Longmans.
Among the notable Theological volumes of the year it is only possible to notice one here and there, and among these must be included one or two issues of Texts, such as The Epistles of St. Paul from the Codex Laudianus, by E. S. Buchanan (Sacred Latin Texts) (Heath, Cranton & Ouseley). The history of this valuable MS., which dates from the ninth century, is briefly that it was stolen from Wurzburg when it was sacked by the Swedes in 1631, and was purchased by Archbishop Laud, who gave it into the keeping of the Bodleian Library. Irenæus of Lugdunum is presented to us by F. P. Montgomery Hitchcock, with Foreword by Professor Swete (Cambridge University Press). The Religious Philosophy of Plotinus and Some Modern Philosophies of Religion, by the Dean of St. Paul's (The Lindsay Press), is a book few thoughtful readers will care to miss, also not a few will like to read the late Father Benson's impressions of Lourdes (Lond., Herder). Dr. Skinner, Principal of Westminster College, Cambridge, publishes a learned work on the controversy concerning The Divine Name in Genesis (Hodder and Stoughton), and Dr. H. J. Wicks traces The Doctrine of God, in the Jewish Apocryphal and Apocalyptic Literature during the two centuries before Christ and the first century A.D. (Hunter & Longhurst); Dr. Oesterley, Warden of the Society of the Apocrypha, London Diocese, also edits The Books of the Apocrypha (R. Scott). One of the things not to be overlooked is the printing of a Lecture on The Spiritual Message of Dante, delivered in Harvard University (1904), by Dr. Boyd Carpenter (Williams & Norgate). The Canticles of the Christian Church, Eastern and Western, in Early Medieval Times, by J. Mearns (Cambridge University Press), is attractive to those who care for literary antiquities and survivals. Much of the year's output has again been devoted to the discussion of Mysticism, but exigencies of space will not permit individual reference to books or writers.
Archæological research has been actively pursued during the year, and the various Surveys of India, Ceylon, and Nubia have published monographs, also The Egyptian Exploration Fund has launched its new venture—The Journal of Egyptian Archæology,—and continues the issue (Part X.) of The Oxyrhynchus Papyri. The particular rolls now edited under the learned supervision of Dr. Grenfell and Dr. Hunt are among the most famous of their discoveries—including, as they do, parts of an extra-Canonical Gospel, and fragments of the two famous Lyric Poets, Sappho and Alcæus. This discovery, needless to add perhaps, has provided one of the literary sensations of the year, and goes far to justify the importance of the work of research in that cradle and tomb of almost all Antiquity—Egypt.
The British Museum has done admirable work in cataloguing its collection of Egyptian Scarabs, as also in dealing with accounts of the Egyptian and Assyrian Sculptures in its possession (British Museum). These last are profusely illustrated, and are edited by Dr. Wallis Budge. The Palestine Exploration Fund issues its Annual for 1912-13. Coming nearer home, we are glad to welcome The Bronze Age in Ireland, by Mr. George Coffey, Keeper of the Irish Antiquities in the National Museum, and Mr. E. C. R. Armstrong's Irish Seal-Matrices and Seals—both works issued by Messrs. Hodges & Figgis, of Dublin. Professor Haverfield writes on Roman Britain in 1913 (Brit. Acad. Supp. Paper) (Milford).
Anthropology, likewise, has made great strides throughout the year. Much attention has been given to aboriginal tribes and their customs, both in Northern and Central Africa, in Nigeria, also in Northern Australia, where Mr. Baldwin Spencer (Special Commissioner for Aboriginals in the Northern Territory) continues the investigations he formerly pursued with his friend, the late Mr. Gillen, to whose memory the work is dedicated (Macmillan).
As was mentioned last year, the output of Oriental literature grows apace. Much of this is due to the awakening of China, India and the East generally. The part the Chinese are taking in this renaissance of Oriental culture is indicated by the first issue of a Chinese Review (monthly), owned, edited and printed (in London) entirely by Chinamen. Interest, too, in Oriental literature has been fostered largely in English University circles, and under the enlightened and scholarly direction of the British Museum. Oxford, Cambridge and London vie with one another to produce scholarly editions of Eastern Texts or Dissertations on the ancient Religions of India, Assyria, Egypt. Mohammedanism too is not overlooked, or the Literature of Modern Persia. For particular details of the principal Oriental Literature dealt with, the publications of the British Museum, as well as of the before-mentioned Universities, are the surest guide.
Classics are yet, happily for us, under the fine inspiration of Professor Gilbert Murray, who though resting from the arduous labours of previous years, revises the proofs of Mr. R. T. Elliot's edition of The Acharnians of Aristophanes (Oxford, Clarendon Press; London, Milford), and, in collaboration with Miss Jane Harrison, affords his sympathetic approval to Mr. A. K. Thomson's Studies in the Odyssey (Oxford, Clarendon Press; London, Milford). Dr. A. S. Way continues his rendering of Sophocles in English Verse (Macmillan), and Mr. F. M. Cornford, in his Origin of Attic Comedy (Arnold), associates himself with Professor Gilbert Murray in ascribing the beginnings of Greek Comedy to the Ritual Drama. Zeus; A Study in Ancient Religion, by Mr. A. B. Cook, Vol. I., comes from the Cambridge University Press, and we welcome the theory of Miss Gladys M. N. Davis, Classical Scholar, late Royal University of Ireland, in her learned volume, The Asiatic Dionysos, that the origin of the Dionysos Cult was Asiatic rather than Egyptian (Bell). Coming to Roman Classics, the Loeb Classical Library (Heinemann) continues its translations, and Sir Robert Allison translates for us five of the Plays of Plautus (Humphreys).
In the department of English Prose Literature an especially fine harvest is to be gathered for 1914, though it is only possible in this brief notice to glean a sheaf or two from among the best-known writers. ex-President Roosevelt gives us History as Literature, and other essays (Murray); Mr. H. G. Wells tells us how An Englishman Looks at the World (Cassell); Mr. Wilfred Ward writes of Men and Matters (Longmans); Mr. A. C. Benson gives us Where No Fear Was, a book about Fear (Smith Elder). Then we have Mrs. Meynell's Essays (Burns & Oates), Mr. George Moore's Hail and Farewell (Heinemann), also The Towers of the Mirrors and other Essays upon the Spirit of Places, by Vernon Lee (Lane). Messrs. Dent publish Mr. Austin Dobson's Eighteenth Century Studies, and M. Maeterlinck's fine appreciation of so-called Supernatural phenomena in The Unknown Guest is rendered into English for us by Mr. Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (Methuen).
Much literary work of the year is devoted to the study of the great authors, The Sonnets of Shakespeare, by the Countess de Chambrun (Putnam), for example, or the Lectures on Dryden of the late Dr. Verrall, published by Mary de G. Verrall through the Cambridge University Press, which is likewise responsible for the issue of an interesting volume compiled with much industry by Mr. G. Waterhouse; The Literary Relations of England and Germany in the Seventeenth Century. The Cambridge History of English Literature, edited by Sir A. W. Ward and Mr. A. R. Waller, proceeds to its eleventh volume, treating of the Period of the French Revolution. We welcome the publication of Messrs. Batsford's Series of Fellowship Books edited by Mary Stratton, some of them being written by such distinguished modern men of Letters as Dr. W. L. Courtney—who contributes The Meaning of Life, and by Sir A. Quiller-Couch, who is responsible for the volume on Poetry. Lord Haldane publishes his collected addresses, The Conduct of Life, with Mr. Murray. The Life and Genesis of Arlosto is dealt with very ably by Dr. J. Shield Nicholson, Professor of Political Economy in Edinburgh University (Macmillan); and Italian Gardens of the Renaissance, by Julia Cartwright (Smith Elder), should not be missed.
At home Social and Political questions have been, for the time being, shelved. But before the war began, the drift of political interest—apart from Ireland—has tended chiefly towards the great Land Question. Thus we get The Ownership, Tenure and Taxation of Land, by the Rt. Hon. Thomas P. Whittaker, P.C., M.P., also Mr. Lennard's Economic Notes on English Agricultural Wages, both issued by Messrs. Macmillan, and to the serious student the unfinished but instructive and valuable Essays of the late Professor Seebohm—Customary Acres and their Historical Importance (Longmans)—will appeal. At the present moment, too, in view of rising prices and diminishing supplies, the publication by the Manager of the Dalmeny Experimental Farms, on the secret of successful Farming, or Greater Profits from Land, should merit attention (Edinburgh, The Edina Pub. Co.). Nor should the interesting Canadian experiences of Miss Binnie Clark, in Wheat and Women (Heinemann), be missed, especially in a day when the scarcity of male labour for the land is universally a disquieting factor in the economical situation. We welcome the edition of his father's Speeches given to us by Mr. Austen Chamberlain (Constable).
In Music the attention of writers seems to be more and more concentrated upon the study of technique, and its analysis. Dr. Coward, the famous Director of the Sheffield Choir, publishes Choral Technique and Interpretation (Novello); and Mr. Cecil Forsyth gives us a volume on Orchestration, contributed to the Musician's Library of Messrs. Macmillan, Stainer & Bell. Mr. W. Wallace also discourses of The Musical Faculty: its origins and processes (Macmillan). Two works are published upon The Music of Hindostan,—this first by A. H. Fox Strangeway (Oxford, Clarendon Press; London, Milford), and Indian Music by the Begum Fyzee-Rahamin, with a preface by F. Gilbert Webb (Will. Marchant, the Goupil Gallery).
Of the making of History books there seems no end! Apart from the editing and calendaring of the sources of British History as discoverable from the Rolls cared for in the Public Record Office,—of which a complete list is furnished by Messrs. Wyman,—there are endless enterprises and discursions into all periods of History, Ancient and Modern. In connexion with the mention of original sources, reference should be made to The Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission (Wyman) which publishes its seventh volume. The issue of the Great Roll of the Pipe, 31 Hen. II. 1184-1185, under the auspices of the Pipe Roll Society (St. Catherine's Press), is highly important, and we welcome a revised edition of Magna Charta, by Mr. W. Sharp McKechnie (Glasgow, MacLehose). The Reign of Henry V. is treated by Dr. James Hamilton Wylie, in a first volume (1413-15) issued from the Cambridge University Press. Professor Pollard gives us The Reign of Henry VII. from Contemporary Sources, as far as Vol. III. (Longmans). Two or three volumes on the Elizabethan Period call for mention: A History of England from the defeat of the Armada to the death of Elizabeth, Vol. I., by E. P. Cheyney, Professor of European History in the University of Pennsylvania (Longmans), and Elizabeth and Mary Stuart, by F. A. Mumby (Constable). New Light on Drake is offered by the researches of the Hakluyt Society, and we welcome particularly a treatise on The English Catholic Refugees on the Continent, 1558-1795, by the Rev. Peter Guilday, being a Thesis offered for a Doctor's degree to the University of Louvain (Longmans).
A study of Irish Priests in the Penal Times (1660-1760) is attractive reading (Waterford, Harvey), and also we are glad to follow Mr. G. V. Jourdan's Movement towards Catholic Reform in the early sixteenth century (Murray). The Scottish War of Independence, by Evan MacLeod Barron, is an admirable critical study of the subject (Nisbet). The Legislative Union of England and Scotland, by P. Hume Brown (being the Ford Lectures in Edinburgh University), Fraser Professor of Ancient Scottish History and Palæography in Edinburgh University, cannot be passed over (Oxford, Clarendon Press; London, Milford), and the fourth volume of Dr. Keating's History of Ireland, compiled and arranged by the Rev. Patrick S. Dinneen (Irish Texts Society: Nutt) has a warm welcome. This valuable edition of the famous seventeenth century MS. has been in progress during the last fourteen years, and its interest for modern readers is incalculable.
There are the usual number of books on Napoleon, whose campaigns and personality are without doubt especially interesting in the light of present events. Two writers deal with the campaigns of 1814—Mr. F. Loraine Petre, in Napoleon at Bay (Lane), and a French writer, Mr. H. Houssaye, whose book is translated by Brevet-Major R. S. McClintock (Hugh Rees). In this connexion, too, Mr. W. Alison Phillips' book, The Confederation of Europe: A Study in the European Alliance of 1813-23, is strangely apposite (Longmans). Messrs. Longmans are also responsible for the issue of two other important works of History, The Passing of the Great Reform Bill, by Mr. J. K. M. Butler, and for the latest volume of Sir George Trevelyan's History of the American Revolution. The volume is styled George the Third and Charles Fox. Another continuation of an important work issued by this firm is Vol. III., of Mr. Hill's History of Diplomacy in the International Development of Europe, in which the author deals with "The Diplomacy of the Age of Absolutism." This also has an appealing interest for us to-day.
Professor Oman's History of the Peninsular War proceeds to its fourth volume, 1811-12 (Oxford, Clarendon Press; London, Milford). The year has also produced one or two valuable studies of Greater Britain, chiefly continuations of previous undertakings, such as the sixth volume of Mr. Wyatt Tilby's The English People Overseas—South Africa, 1486-1913 (Constable), and Sir Charles Lucas's Historical Geography of the British Colonies, Vol. III., revised by Dr. A. B. Keith (Oxford, Clarendon Press; London, Milford). Mr. Milford also publishes The Oxford Survey of the British Empire, an invaluable work in six volumes, edited by Mr. A. J. Herbertson and Mr. J. R. Haworth. Several Historical studies of Ancient and Medieval London are issued, and to bring the subject to date we have Sir Laurence Gomme's important work (Williams and Norgate). With regard to Ancient History the year is somewhat a barren one, but we gladly welcome Mr. T. Lloyd's The Making of the Roman People (Longmans), and the first volume of Messrs. Hutchinson's History of the Nations, edited by Mr. G. W. Hutchinson, and supported by such eminent authorities in their various departments as Professor Flinders Petrie, Sir Richard Temple and Dr. Mahaffy.
The subject of History naturally leads to the more particular consideration of literature which deals with the countries prominently involved in the present European conflict,—France, Russia and Germany.
In addition to the studies of Napoleon already referred to, there is a considerable output of books dealing with the intricacies of the international situation, and with the echoes of 1870, as for example Mr. Vizetelly's My Days of Adventure,—treating of "The Fall of France, 1870-71" (Chatto & Windus), also the Correspondance du Duc D'Aumale et de Cuvillier-Fleury (1865-71), of which the fourth volume is issued by MM. Plon-Nourrit. Another interesting and important work bearing upon the situation is M. Reynaud's Histoire Génerale de l'Influence Française en Allemagne (Hachette), tracing the workings of French civilisation in Germany,—and the debt owed by this last-mentioned country to France.
Associated with the same subject must be mentioned French Civilisation in the Nineteenth Century (Fisher Unwin) by A. L. Guerard. It is delightful to greet Les Comedies-Ballets de Molière, edited by M. Péllisson (Hachette),—being the Ballets written for the Court of Louis XIV.,—also a Life of Saint-Säens, by J. Bonnerot (Durand), before turning to the literature concerning the political and philosophical outlook of Germany.
It may be remembered by occasional readers how much space in our columns the increasing flow of volumes on Germany has in the few last years occupied. This year, as might be expected, the mass of books is greater than ever, and some of the most informing ones come from that country itself. Every one is acquainted, at least by name, with the writings of Treitschke, whose Life and Works are now translated into English for the first time, and published by Messrs. Jerrold, and Allen & Unwin. The great Professor's Political Thought is further dealt with by H. W. C. Davis (Constable), who gives also extracts from the writer's now world-famous views upon England. Mr. Douglas Sladen also contributes a translation of The Confessions of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, and the Life of Frederick the Great, by the same notable author (Hutchinson). Two interesting books on German social and political life are given us by Mr. W. H. Dawson,—Municipal Life and Government in Germany (Longmans), and The Evolution of Modern Germany (Fisher Unwin), this last portraying the change in German thought since the days of Goethe, Kant and Schiller. One of the most amazing books of the time is Professor Morgan's translation of The German War-Book (Murray), a work which takes precedence of all other German military publications, being directly issued for the instruction of the German officer by the authority of the German General Staff. Professor Morgan's fine, critical Introduction and discussion of its Machiavellian principles is of great value. Among other important German publications we must take note of Prince Bülow's Imperial Germany, as translated by Marie A. Lewenz (Cassell). Other books, not by German authors, are also pressed upon us. Lord Roberts—whose opinion will be hailed and venerated by all right-thinking Britons—advised all who wished to understand the "present crisis" to read Germany and England, by Professor Cramb, and having an Introduction by the Hon. Joseph Choate (Murray). The Times likewise assures us that if any one wishes to understand the equity of our cause in the present war, he should read Pan-Germanism, by Dr. Roland G. Usher (Professor of History, Washington University, St. Louis) (Constable).
Russia likewise has had her share of attention, and the Life of Catherine the Great has again been studied, this time by Mr. E. A. Brayley Hodgetts (Methuen), also Mr. Maurice Baring has been moved to make us better acquainted with The Mainsprings of Russia (Nelson) in a popular handbook, as he has also contributed An Outline of Russian Literature to "The Home University Library" (Williams & Norgate). An Economic History of Russia is attempted by J. Mavor, Ph.D,; Professor of Political Economy in Toronto University (Dent); also Mr. N. O. Winter gives us The Russian Empire of To-day and Yesterday (Simpkin Marshall), and Madame N. Jarintzoff offers us papers on Russia as The Country of Extremes (Sidgwick & Jackson). Sir Claude Macdonald lends the authority of a Preface to With the Russians in Mongolia, by H. G. C. Perry Ayscough, and Captain Otter-Barry (Lane). A highly satisfactory tribute to the accessibility of the Russia of to-day lies in the first issue in England of Baedeker's Guide-book to Russia. With Teheran, Port Arthur and Peking (London, Fisher Unwin). Fridtjof Nansen likewise issues his impressions of a journey Through Siberia: the Land of the Future, translated by A. C. Chater (Heinemann).
Having thus briefly outlined the books which deal with the aims and characteristics of the countries now at war, it is necessary to glance at the mass of pamphlets to which the present situation has given rise. Naturally first among these come the inquiries and statements as to How the War Began. A Monograph on this subject is offered us by Mr. J. M. Kennedy, with an Introduction by Dr. W. L. Courtney (Hodder & Stoughton); then we have Why Britain Fights, by Dr. J. Madley (MacLehose); Why Britain is at War, by Sir Edward Cook (Macmillan); and, by no means least important, we welcome Why We are at War: Great Britain's case, by Members of the Oxford Faculty of Modern History (Oxford, Clarendon Press; London, Milford). Mr. Austin Harrison also has an opinion to offer on The Kaiser's War, introduced by a Foreword from his distinguished relative, Mr. Frederic Harrison (Allen & Unwin), nor can we omit from the innumerable list of Pamphlets to be read Dr. W. L. Courtney's Armageddon and After (Chapman & Hall). Mr. Sinclair Kennedy's The Pan Angles, with its advocacy of the federation of the seven English-speaking nations (Longmans), seems a suitable reply to the Pan-Germanism of which we hear so much. For those who wish to follow it clearly, The Times History of the War (illustrated) will be found useful (The Times Publishing Co.).
An important volume, bearing on the international situation, is issued by Messrs. Smith Elder: this is Italy's Foreign and Colonial Policy, a selection from the speeches delivered in the Italian Parliament by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Tommaso Tittoni (recently Ambassador at St. James's), disclosing, as the outline of his policy—fidelity to the Triple Alliance, together with friendship both for France and England. The book is translated by Baron Bernardo Quaranta di San Severino.