5. The appointments were announced of the Rt. Hon. John Atkin. son, Attorney-General for Ireland, to be a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, and of Mr. J. H. Campbell, Solicitor-General for Ireland, to be AttorneyGeneral for Ireland.

- President Roosevelt's Message to Congress was delivered (see Chap. II.). It was devoted largely to urging the necessity that the national Government should have some effective control over trusts and corporations.

An extraordinary and disastrous accident occurred at Charing Cross Station, where, owing to the fracture of a tie-rod, two bays of the roof at the southern end fell, bringing down a portion of the party-wall between the station and the Avenue Theatre, where workmen were engaged on reconstruction. Altogether six men were killed and from thirty to forty persons injured.

6. In the Reichstag, the Imperial Chancellor, Prince Bülow, described the foreign situation as by no means satisfactory. Germany, he said, had now to reckon with a profound dislike prevalent in England; and there had only quite recently been any symptoms of improvement.

7. For the vacancy for the New Forest Division of Hampshire, caused by the succession of the Hon. J. Scott-Montagu (C.) to his father's barony (Montagu of Beaulieu), Mr. H. F. Compton (C.) was returned by 4,539 votes against 4,340 for Sir R. Hobart (L.).

9. A large number of "Resignation Honours" were announced. They included Viscounties for Lord Tredegar and Sir M. HicksBeach; Baronies for Mr. C. T. Ritchie, M.P., Sir W. H. Walrond, M.P., Sir H. Meysey-Thompson, M.P., Sir H. de Stern, Sir A. Harmsworth, Mr. E. B. Faber, M.P., and Mr. W. H. Grenfell, M.P.; and the K.C.M.G. for Mr. Henniker Heaton, M.P.

The appointments were also announced of Sir A. Hardinge, K.C. B., K.C.M.G., Minister at Teheran, to be Minister at Brussels; Mr. C. Spring Rice, Councillor to the Embassy at St. Petersburg, to be Minister at Teheran; Sir G. Bonham, Bart., to be Minister at Berne; and of Mr. H. J. Bell, C. M.G., Administrator of Dominica, to be Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief in the Uganda Protectorate.

Mr. Balfour, addressing his constituents in East Manchester, offered an explanation of the circumstances under which he had resigned office.

10 (Sunday). Sir H. Campbell- Bannerman was received in the evening at Buckingham Palace by the King (who had been paying a visit to Lord Alington at Crichel, Dorset, while the Cabinet-making was in progress) and received His Majesty's approval of the Ministry so far as yet constituted (including appointments to all the principal offices) (see English History, Chapter V.).

11. The gift was announced of Trentham House by the Duke of Sutherland to the Staffordshire County Council for the purposes of higher education.

The King held two Councils at Buckingham Palace; at the first the out-going Ministers gave up their seals of office, and at the second

the members of the new Ministry took the oaths of office and several of them were sworn of the Privy Council.

12. There was issued an Admiralty minute overriding the favourable verdict of a Court-martial held at Gibraltar in regard to the stranding of H.M.S. Assistance in Tetuan Bay, and censuring several officers on that and other ships for neglect of seamanlike precautions on that occasion.

Under Rugby Union football rules Cambridge beat Oxford at Queen's Club.

15. It was reported that the Porte had formally notified its acceptance of the final draft of the financial control scheme as submitted by the Ambassadors of the Powers.

16. News from St. Petersburg pointed to a state of general revolt in the Baltic provinces.

M. Rouvier, the French Premier, made a courteous but firm statement in the Chamber of Deputies in regard to French rights and interests in Morocco, in view of the approaching International Conference.

The New Zealand Rugby football team sustained their first defeat since arriving in this country, being beaten at Cardiff by Wales by 1 try to 0.

18. The appointment was announced of Lieut.-General Sir W. G. Nicholson as Quartermaster-General of the Forces and Third Military Member of the Army Council.

It was announced that Mr. H. Labouchere, after representing Northampton for over twenty-five years, being now seventy-four years old, would not seek re-election.

Mr. Balfour delivered an important speech in Leeds, mainly on the fiscal question.

20. There was announced the gift by Mr. George Herring of 100,000l., to be administered by the Salvation Army for carrying out a scheme for the establishment of a substantial number of the unemployed as small peasant proprietors, the whole amount advanced to be ultimately repaid by the Salvation Army to King Edward's Hospital Fund.

There was published at the Daily Mail office the "Queen's Christmas Carol," an anthology of poems, stories, essays, drawings and music, by forty-nine British authors, artists and composers, in aid of the Queen's Unemployed Fund.

Speaking at a luncheon at Sydney, Vice-Admiral Sir W. Fawkes, the new Commander-in-Chief of the Australian station, said that King Edward wished him to assure the Australian people of his affectionate interest, his regret that he had never been able to visit Australia, his gratitude for their services in South Africa, and his hope that they would do all that was possible for their own defence.

21. The new Prime Minister, accompanied by most of his colleagues, addressed a great Liberal meeting in the Albert Hall, and gave a general sketch of the aims of the Government (see English History, Chapter V.).

21. A telegraphic despatch was published from Lord Elgin (Colonial Secretary) to Lord Selborne intimating that the Government had decided that recruiting and importation of Chinese coolies should be stopped, pending a decision as to the grant of responsible government to the colony.

At the Central Criminal Court, Hugh Watt, formerly M. P. for a division of Glasgow, was found guilty of having attempted to procure various persons of shady character to murder his wife, who had obtained a decree nisi for his divorce, on account of his misconduct with Lady Violet Beauchamp, but refused to have the decree made absolute. Watt was thus prevented from marrying his paramour, who had been divorced from her husband, Sir Reginald Beauchamp. He also would have gained materially, under a deed of settlement, from Mrs. Watt's death. Thus adequate motives for the crime were held to be shown. Watt was sentenced to five years' penal servitude.

23. A revolutionary outbreak on an extensive scale began in Moscow, where fierce fighting took place in several places between the troops and the insurgents.

25. The Prince and Princess of Wales spent Christmas Day as guests of the Maharajah Sindhia at Gwalior. The Princess arranged and presided over a Christmas tree for the children of the Gwalior sirdars.

29. Vigorous party speeches were made by the new Prime Minister at Dunfermline, and the ex-Prime Minister at the Queen's Hall, opening the Unionist campaign in London.

The Prince and Princess of Wales arrived in Calcutta.

30. Peerages were announced as having been bestowed on Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, M. P., Sir Arthur Hayter, M.P., the Hon. Philip Stanhope, M.P., Mr. C. H. Hemphill, K.C., M.P., Sir James Joicey, M. P., Sir William Wills, M. P., and Mr. C. H. Wilson, M.P. It was also announced that Lord Reay and Sir W. Foster and Messrs. J. E. Ellis, R. K. Causton, T. Shaw, K.C., E. Robertson, K.C., T. Burt and H. Labouchere, all M.P.'s, were to be sworn of the Privy Council.

Political speeches were made by Sir E. Grey, Foreign Secretary, Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. G. Wyndham and Lord Halsbury, who said that on the fiscal question he was a Chamberlainite before Mr. Chamberlain.

After a protracted and desperate struggle, involving terrible loss of life and great destruction of property, the Moscow insurrection was stamped out.

RETROSPECT

OF

LITERATURE, SCIENCE AND ART IN 1905.

LITERATURE.

No work of pre-eminent importance has marked the year, and no new author has burst upon the literary world. Many works have achieved a well-deserved success, and many authors have shown themselves masters of their craft. An unceasing demand from an increasing reading public has been met by a constant out-put of books, serious and frivolous; and quantity rather than quality seems to have been uppermost in the minds of publishers. Such strictures, however, do not apply to the domain of history, where fresh evidence appears of the interest aroused by its study. The number of competent writers devoted to historical research has grown with the facilities afforded for the inspection of original documents. Simultaneously the value of history in Universities and public schools has at length received recognition. The study of history, moreover, has induced its application to other branches of literature, including even science and theology. In the latter especially the historical method is applied with more fruitful results than were obtainable from mere verbal criticism. The war in the Far East not only produced a large number of books by eyewitnesses dealing with the campaign, but its events stimulated a desire to know more of the political and social conditions of the two nations struggling for supremacy. The subsequent upheaval of Russians of all classes against the bureaucracy, and ultimately against the autocracy, was a further incitement to publishers.

The impetus given to the study of national history by the late Lord Acton, and carried out with the assistance of the University of Cambridge, has been followed by Oxford, but, as will be seen, not wholly on the same lines. Among the fuller "lives" of men of mark, those of Charles Lamb, John A. Froude and the late Earl Granville call for special notice, as leaving nothing to be said by future biographers, and furnishing full materials for students of the events in which they were severally concerned. In this connection another department of literary labour shows persistent activity, and consequently may be presumed to

38

meet the popular taste. Men and Women of letters, English and foreign -men of action-statesmen-rulers of India-makers of Canada-and many other groupings-have their "series" of monographs which compress into a small compass the lives and criticise the work of the makers of history and literature. In almost all cases the work has been entrusted to competent writers, who have amply justified their selection. Less defensible, however, in view of the impossibility of writing frankly and fully about contemporaries, is the increasing flow of autobiographies and biographies of living persons.

In an indirect way we attribute to the wide-spread spirit of research the publication and republication of memoirs and diaries of past times. These are often valuable as supplementary to more condensed histories of the periods concerned. That the taste for such literature exists is witnessed not only by the steady out-put of such volumes, but it shows itself in quite a marked degree in the domain of fiction. Historical novels are greatly in favour with both writers and readers. There are two methods of treatment in vogue. One school takes historical characters, analyses their acts and explains their motives from some standpoint of its own, and endeavours to show the logical connection between the character it delineates and the course of events in which the characters move. The other school invents an imaginary personage or personages and places him or her among strictly historical surroundings, and endeavours to show their action and influence upon the conduct of the hero or heroine. The author himself is often carried away by his subject and occasionally makes the reader feel that he has succeeded in catching the spirit of the age delineated. In other respects there is little to describe as distinctive in the fiction of the year. There has been no falling off in the number of volumes weekly or daily put forth, but scarcely any new authors have made themselves conspicuous. The technical side of composition has undoubtedly improved, the weaving of plots has become more conventional, whilst the perverse habit of placing their men and women in surroundings, whether Park Lane or Poplar, of which the authors have no actual knowledge or experience, not infrequently destroys the illusions they wish to create.

ART.

Foremost among the makers of British art, Hogarth (Walter Scott) marks the gradual emancipation of our national school of painting from German and Dutch traditions. Professor Baldwin Brown seizes strongly upon this characteristic of Hogarth, and insists that it is as a painter and artist that he should be judged, rather than as a moralist or a satirist. Professor Baldwin Brown claims for Hogarth a range of imaginative power far beyond that of the popular Dutch painters of the preceding century; and whilst recognising in Hogarth's work a distinct Italian influence, he is at a loss to say whence it was derived, or through what channels it reached this essentially English painter.

Dr. Williamson has done well to place within the reach of a wider circle of readers his excellent monograph on Richard Cosway, R.A. (George Bell & Son), for the very excellent reason that it is the only