6. The Royal College of Music announced that Sir Ernest Palmer had made a gift to the College by establishing "The Ernest Palmer Fund for Opera Study."

8. Mr. George Eastman, of New York, distributed 3,000,000l. for higher education, of which about 1,700,000l. was intended for the University of Rochester.

9. Mr. James B. Duke announced that he had created a trust fund of 40,000,000 dollars for establishing a University in North Carolina, to bear his name.

He

10. Mr. Frank Dicksee elected President of the Royal Academy. is the eleventh President since the incorporation of the Academy on the 10th December, 1768.

11. One of the worst fogs experienced for a long time in the London district disappeared after two days.

19. The Freeman's Journal (Dublin), which was founded 161 years ago, appeared for the last time.

23. An aeroplane travelling from Croydon to Paris crashed to the ground near Purley, and its seven passengers together with the pilot were killed.

24. Pope Pius XI. inaugurated the "Holy Year" with the usual ceremonial of opening the Holy Door into St. Peter's.

27. Severe gales swept over the British Isles. Rain fell almost incessantly and many parts of the country were flooded.

29. The number of unemployed persons on the registers of Employment Exchanges was 1,272,600, being 13,023 less than on December 31, 1923.

31. The severe gales continued; they were accompanied by heavy rain, causing much damage in many parts of the country, and in particular flooded the Thames Valley.

The Times drew attention to the declining birth-rate in 1924—19·4 per 1,000 as against 19-7 in 1923 and 204 in 1922.

The number of visitors to the Zoological Gardens during the year 1924 was 2,057,146, an increase of nearly half a million on 1923.

In regard to the weather, the year 1924 was very wet, with deficient sunshine and very little Summer. At the Rothamsted Experimental Station, the record of rainfall was 36-505 inches, being 7.957 inches above the average for 71 years; and of the quantity of sunshine, 1516 4 hours, being 501 hours below the average.

In regard to human beings, The Times reported that 1924 was even healthier than 1923, although the average death-rate was slightly higher, 12 per 1,000 of the population, as compared with 11.8 for 1923.

RETROSPECT

OF

LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART IN 1924.

LITERATURE.

(Books marked with an asterisk are specially noticed at the end of this section.) THE following analysis of books published in the United Kingdom during 1924 is taken from the Publishers' Circular, by kind permission of the Editor, Mr. R. B. Marston. As regards book production 1924 established a new record, exceeding the figures for 1913 by 327. The increase is chiefly localised under the headings of Fiction (to which reprints contributed largely), Biography, Travel, and Religion. For new books apart from new editions, however, 1913's record is still unbeaten.

CLASSIFIED ANALYSIS OF BOOKS PUBLISHED DURING THE YEAR 1924.

A number of literary monthlies made their appearance during the year. Perhaps the most notable among them was The Transatlantic Review, edited by Mr. F. M. Ford (Ford Madox Hueffer), which boasted some illustrious contributors; but the representatives of modern schools seem to depend for their effects upon unorthodox typography. The Northern Review set out "to rescue Scottish arts and letters from the slough of Kailyardism," and contained poetry, drama, addresses, and general articles befitting that aim. Another assurance of "regional" literary activity was The Voyager, published at Bristol. Several new magazines bore witness to the interest taken in contemporary poetryamong them The Decachord, to be issued bi-monthly if public support permits; The Poetry Magazine, hailing from Northallerton in Yorkshire, the work of a company of lovers of poetry, whose zeal, at least, deserved applause; and a quarterly extra of The Poetry Review entitled Poetry of To-day. Artwork, a quarterly, assembled valuable articles by distinguished practical exponents of the arts and crafts. In the interests of religious unity Sir Henry Lunn revived his "Constructive Quarterly, The Review of the Churches, which sought to encourage the co-operation of the different bodies in social reform as a more immediate end than doctrinal agreement.

Except as witnessing the passing of two famous novelists, French and English, and the appearance of a dramatic masterpiece on the greatest of French heroines, 1924 did not promise to be a significant date in the history of imaginative literature. To the resources of future historians in other departments it made, however, copious additions. Biography, autobiography, and cognate works were overwhelmingly abundant, despite an evident and unregrettable slackening in the production of unofficial character studies of contemporaries. Exceptionally numerous and handsome were the volumes devoted to description and travel, albeit they included no work of serious exploration. Poetry and the drama provided several works of real distinction, and fiction maintained a high level of achievement and promise without revealing any unmistakable genius. In its material aspect general book production showed undeniable advance, several presses and publishing houses adding considerably to their laurels in this respect. The book trade itself enjoyed

unusual prosperity.

The centenary of the death of Byron was celebrated with a somewhat unexpected piety, and called forth several studies, rather of the poet's personality than his work. Mr. Samuel C. Chew presented Byron in England; Mr. Harold Spender had the congenial theme of Byron and Greece; Mr. Harold Nicolson combined irony and admiration in Byron : the Last Journey; and Mr. J. D. Simon pronounced a favourable verdict in Byron in Perspective. Statesmen were not so prominent as usual in the year's biography. Mr. John Budan's Lord Minto, a memoir of the fourth Earl, Governor-General of Canada and Viceroy of India, depicted the personality and career of an attractive and enlightened servant and ruler of the Empire. In * General Botha, Earl Buxton portrayed the soldier-statesman with the skill arising from the intimacy that existed between South Africa's Premier and its Governor-General. The Life of Lord Wolseley, by Major-General Sir F. Maurice and Sir George Arthur,

claims its place here as the record of a career whose greatest victories were perhaps won in Whitehall. A figure of rare significance and worth was the subject of Thomas Burt, planned as an autobiography but supplemented by chapters by Mr. Aaron Watson. Brigadier-General J. H. Morgan evaded the late Lord Morley's ban on a set biography with the intimate reminiscences and conversations recorded in his John, Viscount Morley. Mr. J. Saxon Mills paid due tribute in David Lloyd George: War Minister, and the Earl of Birkenhead compiled a series of rather slight but interesting sketches in Contemporary Personalities. Sir James Marchant's* Dr. John Clifford, C.H.: Life, Letters, and Reminiscences made an unexpectedly benign figure of the doughty preacher-politician. Illustrious scientists were the subjects of several volumes. After an interval of ten years, Professor Karl Pearson issued the second volume of his Life, Letters, and Labours of Francis Galton, dealing with the discursive but important researches of Galton's middle life. The fourth Lord Rayleigh gave a concise and engaging account of his father's achievements in John William Strutt, Third Baron Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S. A great naturalist and polemist was the hero of Mr. Percy F. Bicknell's The Life of Fabre. Professor Gilbert Murray and Mr. Ramsay MacDonald joined Mr. George Glasgow in a tribute to a much regretted scholar and Philhellene in Ronald Burrows: A Memoir, and Mr. H. G. Wells in The Story of a Great Schoolmaster described what was lost to education by the death of Sanderson of Oundle.

To historical biography Miss Kate Norgate contributed a spirited account of Richard the Lion-Heart. Professor Huizinga added to the Great Hollanders Series a brief study of Erasmus, a subject more adequately treated in Dr. Preserved Smith's Erasmus. A Study of His Life, Ideals, and Place in History; while Dr. and Mrs. Allen issued the fifth volume of their great edition of the Letters, Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami. In John Donne, Mr. Hugh I'Anson Fausset provided a biography and critical study that has long been needed. Mr. Arthur Irwin Dasent's Nell Gwynne (1650-87) was of larger scope than the title suggests, ranging over her whole period and environment. Mrs. Edith Hinkley's Mazzini: the Story of a Great Italian, while excellent in many respects, covered quite familiar ground. The chief figure of Mrs. Rosita Forbes' El Raisuni, the Sultan of the Mountains (more familiar as Raisuli) does not yet, in spite of rumours, belong to past history; but these interviews with the brigand chief revealed him as an important factor in politics that were of pressing interest throughout the year. Authors were well to the fore in biography. Mr. D. A. Wilson's second volume, Carlyle to "The French Revolution," introduced its hero to London and Edinburgh and corrected many false impressions as to his relations with the men of distinction with whom he then associated. Patrick Bramwell Brontë, by Miss Alice Law, F. R.S.L., stirred up vigorous controversy over his part in the composition of Wuthering Heights. Mr. J. A. Steuart's "revelations" of the youthful errors of his subject in Robert Louis Stevenson seemed to excite resentment in many quarters. W. H. Hudson: A Portrait, by Mr. Morley Roberts, did not pretend to be a full-dress biography, but revealed by disconnected talks and incidents something of that elusive personality. The Life of Olive Schreiner was

the work of her husband, Mr. S. C. Cronwright-Schreiner, executed as only a labour of love could be. This also applies to the companion volume, The Letters of Olive Schreiner, 1876-1920. The publication of Mr. Ford Madox Hueffer's Joseph Conrad: A Personal Remembrance followed close upon the novelist's death. Among other outstanding volumes devoted to literary figures may be mentioned Dr. Greville Macdonald's George Macdonald and His Wife; Mr. Thomas Beer's Stephen Crane, chiefly valuable for the Introduction by Joseph Conrad; and the Life and Last Words of Wilfrid Ewart, by Mr. Stephen Graham. * Anatole France: The Man and His Work, by Mr. James Lewis May, suffered, at least as regards the account of his later life, by being published before the death of the great master of irony, and the appearance of such intimate studies as M. Brousson's irreverent Anatole France en Pantoufles and M. Marcel le Goff's Anatole France à La Béchellerie. Mr. Charles E. Pearce filled a notable gap with his Sims Reeves: Fifty Years of Music in England, while Paul Bekker in his * Wagner sought to reveal the mind of the master by a close study of his works.

Political autobiography has been better represented in preceding years. The historian of war-time administration will have to refer to the Rt. Hon. Christopher Addison's Politics from Within, 1911-1918, devoted to his experiences as Under-Secretary to the Ministry of Munitions and in charge of the Ministry of Reconstruction. Dr. Addison's work, especially in its later stages, was not remarkable for impartiality, but his account of the national effort in the supply of munitions was excellent and inspiring. Two leaders of two mutually hostile parties fighting for the same cause published their reminiscences: Mrs. Millicent Garrett Fawcett, J.P., LL.D., in What I Remember, and Miss Annie Kenny in Memoirs of a Militant. Mr. Henry Wickham Steed described his Through Thirty Years, 1892-1922, as "the work of a journalist," but his intimacy with foreign politics, and the opportunities of seeing European history in the making afforded to an Editor of The Times, gave a definitely political character and importance to his two volumes, which, however, were slightly marred by a number of small slips of memory. Among legal memoirs may be mentioned Seventy-two Years at the Bar, the recollections of the veteran Sir Harry Poland, narrated in the form of conversations with Mr. Ernest Bowen-Rowlands, K.C., and The Years of My Pilgrimage, the life-story of the last Irish Lord Chancellor, the Rt. Hon. Sir John Ross, Bart. Several distinguished soldiers dedicated their leisure to similar ends. The Autobiography of General Sir O'Moore Creagh, V.C., G. C.B., described the honourable career of the recent Commander-in-Chief in India. General the Rt. Hon. Sir Nevil Macready, Bart., held a series of difficult posts as Adjutant-General to the Forces, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, and Commander-in-Chief in Ireland, and his Annals of an Active Life were correspondingly full of alarms and excursions, with no little light relief. Spun Yarn, by H.E. Admiral Sir Henry Woods Pasha, K.C.V.O., abundantly fulfilled the promise of this combination of British and Turkish dignities. More peaceful adventures, and wistful memories of a vanished social order, were happily recalled by the late Lord Willoughby de Broke in The Passing Years, a volume to which Mr. Moreton Frewen's Melton Mowbray provided the most suitable