the age-limit. No one will pretend that these allowances will suffice to give the unskilled classes the procreative temperance of the " idle rich"; and the only escape from the conclusion that all eugenists fear seems to lie in the bold assertion that the birthrate of these classes is already the physiological maximum. That is an obvious exaggeration; and even if it were true, the fact of the lower death-rate remains. The final balance has, then, to be established between an undoubted physical gain to many children and a number of other effects, all disadvantageous to the community as a whole-decreased saving, a fresh load of taxation, more bureaucracy, lower productivity, friction in the home, weakening of parental responsibility, and multiplication of the least fit. To say this is not to assert that the prosperity of the nation is based on the starvation of children, but that it is better to regulate the family by the income than the income by the family. America is a standing denial of the major premise of the scheme: that modern industry, well organized and operated in the right spirit, is unable to support the worker and a reasonable family in comfort and to accumulate the necessary capital for further progress as well. We have fallen astern in that respect; and while humanitarianism and social organization have been removing nature's grim corrective of excessive fertility, those whom that corrective formerly reached have not yet learned prudential restraint. Nobody questions the obligation so to order society that the children brought into the world may be well cared-for and their mothers not overstrained by domestic cares, but it does not follow that their arrival must be regarded as an uncontrollable event to be dealt with by the methods appropriate to street accidents. Let us rather see to it that the world into which they come preserves the qualities that have made for progress in the past; that there is in it room and encouragement for self-restraint, self-improvement, selfreliance and enterprise; and let us not abandon these virtues, and with them the fundamental institution of the family, for the endowment of uncontrolled fertility and the economics of a besieged city. Man shall not live by bread alone. C. HARRIS RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOKS HENRY JACKSON, O.M., Vice-Master of Trinity College and 66 In an address presented to Henry Jackson on his eightieth birthday, which is reproduced in this memoir, there occurs this sentence: The College, which you have served and adorned so long, . . . is happy above all that in possessing you it possesses one of the great English worthies." In no more fitting words could be summed up the character of the man, as it emerges from these pages. A teacher who made his pupils think for themselves, a keen reformer, a scholar, Henry Jackson became a great influence in Cambridge and national life not for any of these things, but because he possessed the large heart, the wise mind of a really great Englishman. In the letters printed here, one reads again and again of his kindness, his generous hospitality in his rooms at Trinity, where one could hear the best conversation in England," and his wise " suggestions " (he did not like to give "advice") which helped so many of his friends. His interests, again, were exceptionally wide. He wrote a book on his interpretation of points in "Edwin Drood," and he constantly discussed modern novels and poetry with his friends as eagerly as he would take up an obscure passage in Aristotle. He was a keen supporter of equal opportunity for women, and, although himself Professor of Greek, carried on a long fight for the relaxation of the statute making Greek compulsory. About all that he said and wrote there played his large and tolerant humour, and it was perhaps this humorous attitude which most endeared him to his innumerable friends. Cambridge is immensely the poorer for the loss of his broad humanity, and this book will be treasured as a worthy memoir of him. FRANCIS JENKINSON, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and University Librarian. A Memoir by H. F. STEWART, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. Ios. 6d. net. Another Fellow of Trinity is here remembered, one who did not bulk so large in worldly affairs as Henry Jackson; but who combined in his personality most of the finer shades of the gentle scholar and scholarly gentleman." The memory of Francis Jenkinson," writes Mr. Stewart," deserves celebration, because of the richness and the swift success of his intellectual adventure, and, most of all, for the extreme beauty of his character." His work as Librarian was immensely valuable to the University, and in his leisure hours he was a keen naturalist; but he is remembered as one who always looked far and brought out the best in his acquaintances, and in whose presence any coarse or unkind word died. One of his little nieces once said that she thought her uncle was Christ, and his Christ-like spirit was a source of inspiration to all those with whom he was associated. Mr. Stewart includes various stories of Jenkinson's love for children and for birds and beasts. All children adored him, for he kept always something of the child-like spirit. This memoir and that of Henry Jackson illustrate two of the best types of University don. ABRAHAM LINCOLN: THE PRAIRIE YEARS. BY CARL SANDBURG. In Two Volumes; with 105 Illustrations and many Cartoons, Sketches, Maps and Letters. Jonathan Cape. 42s. net. These two massive volumes of nearly a thousand pages in all, are full of information about Abraham Lincoln's life in the years before he was called to the Presidency. If the author has included some material which appears rather superficial to the English reader, it must be remembered that in America, Lincoln, in memory, has become something even larger than he was in life, and the inclusion of details of his habits, his stories and his idiosyncrasies in a biography may do something to restore a just estimate of his character, which was in reality sufficiently great to dispense with a halo. We see Abraham Lincoln in these volumes not only in all the rugged strength which brought him to the leadership of a great nation, but as a plain man, fond of his joke, fond of telling humorous stories in the middle of election campaigns, and bringing humour into his speeches even on subjects where he felt strongly, such as negro slavery. There is a story of Lincoln's first meeting with a man "named Pullman, who was experimenting and trying to find out whether the travelling public cared to sleep while travelling, and, if so, what sort of accommodations they liked." Lincoln bought half a berth for fifty cents, and went off to sleep, when the man who had paid for the other half brought Pullman to see that the tall man was curled up and occupying most of both halves. When Pullman awakened Lincoln and complained, the reply came: "My dear sir, a contract is a contract. I have paid you fifty cents for half this berth; and, as you see, I am occupying it. There's the other half," pointing to a strip about six inches wide. "Sell that and don't disturb me again." This story illustrates another side to this book, that it contains a great deal of American history and of the people who were developing America during those years, whether they were the men who helped Lincoln to establish the United States or his opponents. It gives us, too, much of the social history of the time: the religious and political controversies, the growth of the great " Wheat Belt," and the general development of industrial America as we know it to-day. FALSE DAWN. By AL. CARTHILL. Blackwood. IOS. 6d. net. "The Lost Dominion," by the author of the present volume, was a challenging contribution to the mass of contemporary literature on India, which showed the author to be a man of decided opinions and literary force. In this book he discusses the causes which render a society susceptible to revolutionary ideas, and as an illustration of his theories he considers the origin of present-day Communism, and the conditions which favour its growth in society as now constituted. Particularly apposite just now is the author's consideration of the development of the Trades Unions and the reasons for their present association with politics in such matters as the coal problem. Whilst his book is a reasoned analysis of the causes tending to encourage revolutionary thought, he does not neglect some practical advice, as when he suggests that extremists must not be neglected wholly on account of the insignificance of their number. That is the mistake all constituted authorities make. I believe the beginning of CzechoSlovakia was the meeting in a certain room at Prague of five men." THE SHIP UNDER SAIL. By E. KEBLE CHATTERTON. Illustrated. Fisher Unwin. IOS. net. In an age when the sailing ship is rapidly becoming a vessel of antiquarian interest, it is valuable to have a comprehensive record, such as this, of the evolution of the ship under sail from the earliest times to the present day. Mr. Keble Chatterton's book is full of detailed information, much of it technical, but written in such a way as to be easily intelligible to the layman. All those who have loved sails at sea, however amateur may be their acquaintance with them, will find in this record much that is illuminating. Not only does the author deal with the alterations in rig and hull through the centuries, but he discusses also the conditions of sea life. The volume is illustrated with diagrams and illustrations, mostly of contemporary date, and many from the collection of Nautical Prints in the Pepysian Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge, formerly in the possession of Samuel Pepys. A MIRROR TO FRANCE. By FORD MADOX FORD (Ford Madox Hueffer). Duckworth. 8s. 6d. net. France, for Mr. Ford, begins with the left bank of the Seine and ends with the Mediterranean; or, perhaps, it is the other way about, for to him all civilisation, even such crumbs of it as he allows to have fallen on these islands, began in Provence and spread to the barbarous northern regions. In this book, in which he holds up to France his personal mirror of tastes and feelings, he gives rein to his love of French, and particularly of Provençal, culture, that fine flower of chivalry which flourished around the Château d'Amour, and of which some flavour still scents the air of Avignon, Beaucaire and Arles. This is the main purpose in a book which he calls " a purely personal record, 'the most will-less impressionism," and this thread joins all his varied impressions of French life. He discusses all sorts of subjects; the virtue of the French saving instinct; the French attitude towards officials; politics; the impossibility of forming a limited company in France; the joys and sorrows of the French postal system-but, ever and again, he returns to the "Age of Romance." DISARMAMENT. By Professor P. J. NOEL BAKER. Cassell Professor of International Relations in the University of London. Professor Baker has undertaken this work "because there is so very little else in published print on the topics with which it deals. It is a straightforward attempt to estimate the importance of disarmament in national and international policy at the present day, and to face the difficulties, both technical and political, which will certainly arise in the practical discussions of the subject now shortly to begin in the Preparatory Disarmament Committee of the League of Nations." The author considers the reasons for disarmament, special difficulties due to modern conditions, various unsuccessful proposals made, suggests principles for a general scheme, and then considers in detail the abolition of land, naval, aërial, and chemical warfare; with a final chapter on the control of potential war production. The book should prove of great value to all students of the subject, and is written for general reading. LAST MEMORIES OF A TENDERFOOT. By R. B. TOWNSHEND. With Illustrations. John Lane. 12s. 6d. net. "A Tenderfoot in Colorado " and " The Tenderfoot in New Mexico" gained appreciation from discerning readers of travel books, because they showed a knowledge, both wide and deep, of the country described. The late R. B. Townshend was no tourist, but a man of wide experience of life in the West when it was still "Wild." In this last volume of his reminiscences will be found much that is of absorbing interest, such as the account of the Snake Dance ceremonial of the Hopi Indians of Arizona, and chapters describing his more recent visits to Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico, as an old-timer" able to record the immense changes in the life of those districts in the last fifty years. KENT RECORDS: The Twysden Lieutenancy Papers, 1583-1668. 66 Edited with an Introduction by GLADYS SCOTT THOMSON, M.A. These Records are drawn from papers and manuscript books of Sir Roger Twysden and other members of his family, and are of particular historical interest as showing the importance of the County Lieutenancy customs and precedents in determining the relations of the Crown with the local government of the country. During the period covered by these papers the method of appointment of Lieutenants and Deputy-Lieutenants became of extreme interest to the county gentry in fighting the claims of the Crown to over-ride the common law of England, and the gradual establishment of the lieutenancy on a stable footing was the result. Apart from their historical importance these papers have considerable social value, as throwing light on the politics and private quarrels of the day. DEAD MEN'S TALES. By BENNET COPPLESTONE (F. Harcourt Kitchin). Blackwood. 7s. 6d. net. Having devoted some attention to pirates and buccaneers in fiction, 6 |