as appears from another passage in the Duke of Devonshire's memoir, the King, if left to himself, would have gone at least as far as Pitt. 'Pitt told me that when he showed the King the words in the speech about the Militia, he said he wished they had been stronger, but saw the necessity of acquiescing.'

Lord Holland continues:

'On Tuesday, Novr 18, the King open'd the Parliament. He was much admired, but thought to have too much studied action, & it was observed that he laid the accent on the first syllable of állys and revenues, which is after the Scotch pronunciation.'

The King's peculiarities of pronunciation, which are here ascribed to the strong contagion of the Scotch, were more probably caught from Quin the actor, whose method of declamation is known to have been peculiar, and who boasted on this very occasion that he taught the boy to speak.'

Lord Holland's account of his peerage, and of the difficulties that beset the uphill path of his ambition, is a frank display of character. It shows him on the same level as Bubb Doddington-tout pour la trippe. Equally frank is his handling of the question of those monstrous gains at the Pay Office, which were afterwards brought up in judgment against both father and son.

"The sudden and great rise of stocks has made me richer than ever I intended or desir'd to be. Obloquy generally attends money so got, but with how much reason in all cases let this simple account of my gains shew. The Government borrows money at 20 per cent. disct. I am not consulted or concern'd in making the bargain. I have as Pay Master great sums in my hands, which, not applicable to any present use, must either lye dead in the Bk, or be employ'd by me. I lend this to the Government in 1761. A peace is thought certain. I am not in the least consulted, but my very bad opinion of Mr Pitt makes me think it will not be concluded; I sell out, & gain greatly. In 1762 I lend again; a peace comes, in which again I am not consulted, & I again gain greatly.'

The best of these pages is the light they throw upon that animosity, unbridled and indiscriminate, against Pitt which Lord Holland bequeathed to his son as a

ready-made weapon against another Pitt. Some years after the date of this memoir, the Duke of Grafton, in allusion to a speech made by Lord Chatham at a Cabinet Council, said, 'It made us all feel how small we were.' Henry Fox, on the contrary, felt in no sense diminished by the side of Pitt. That he resented his genius and mistook his aims, goes without saying; what is more remarkable is his attitude as a Whig towards the popular basis of Pitt's influence.

'Pitt... attends to that nonsensical thing, undeserv'd popularity with the dregs of the people; & is afraid lest his health should not be drank on Ormond Key & Smock Alley by popish feagues and beggars.'

Lastly, when Pitt fell, Lord Holland-who was of those who took short views of things-opined that he would never rise again, and predicted, with that confidence in posterity which the small share with the great, that when his own memoir came to be read, it would be an allowed truth that Mr Pitt, who has made so great a figure these four years, was what Lord Winchilsea four years ago said he was, a very silly fellow.'

·

It is obvious, on the other hand, that Pitt must have sorely tried the temper, both of the King and of his colleagues. A genuine dictator, able, as Johnson put it, to set the State in motion, he exalted power above prestige, and treated middling men, even of the highest rank, with no more than a moderate share of deference and consideration. Though many, like the Duke of Devonshire, were convinced that neither war nor peace could be made without him, Pitt's wavering attitude on the subject of Lord Bute was another cause of perplexity. At one time, as we see from the following passage, Pitt drew a sharp distinction between the function of a favourite and that of a minister:

'The Duke of Newcastle saw Mr Pitt the day before, [who] told him that he was unacquainted with what was doing, and didn't imagine His Grace was much more informed, that there had been often favourites, but that the nation would never suffer them to be both favourites and ministers, instanc'd King William, as great a Prince as ever fill'd the throne, had favourites, D. Portland and Lord Albemarle, but then they confined themselves within the circle of the court, and

didn't interfere as ministers; but in the present case, not to lay any stress on the country he belongs to, it would never be borne, and he for one would never consent to lend a helping hand to make him one.' (Devonshire House MSS.)

But when it was proposed that Bute should be drawn out into the open as a responsible minister, then it turned out that Pitt 'would never have anything to do with Lord Bute as a minister, and that he would not go on if he could have no access to the King but through Lord Bute.'

The thanks of the reader, and of all students, are specially due to Lord Stavordale, whose knowledge and pains have cleared an easy way through the allusions with which the letters are thickly set. At one point only -and that a small one-he seems to go astray. Lord Stavordale accuses Walpole-who relates that Lady Sarah used to appear in the garden at Holland House in a fancied habit making hay,' in order to be seen by the King as he rode by-of a love of gossip and a disposition to be smart. This is almost as if one were to complain that Socrates had a tiresome habit of asking questions; for all those-and they are most readers of English-who love Walpole's gossip, will exclaim, felix culpa; while to say that he had a 'disposition to be smart' is to admit the least of the truth. Walpole undoubtedly aimed at being witty, but it is also true that he generally hits. Among those that sparkle deliberately and by profession, he draws a blank as rarely as any; and we only regret that his awful example should so effectually have deterred Lord Stavordale from sharing the risks of the same attempt. Pending a denial from those who should know, we see nothing unlikely in the incident, and we confess that the lengths to which Leigh Hunt's disposition carried him seem to us far more outrageous; for he did not scruple to suggest that Lady Sarah was the original Lass of Richmond Hill, and that George III wrote the ballad.

The two volumes have been lavishly adorned with photogravures, most of them, it is true, from familiar pictures; but of the company of Sir Joshua's ladies, with their old-world air of breeding and grace, we never tire.

Art. XIV. THE WAR AND ITS LESSONS.

1. South Africa Despatches (1901). (March 8, May 8, July 8, August 8, September 8, October 8.) London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1901.

2. The Great Boer War. New edition, completed to October 11, 1901. By A. Conan Doyle. London: Smith Elder, 1901.

3. Impressions of a Doctor in Khaki. By Francis E. Fremantle. London: John Murray, 1901.

4. A Retrospect on the South African War. By Lieut.-Col. E. S. May. London: Sampson Low, 1901.

5. Words by an Eye-witness. By Linesman.' Edinburgh and London: Blackwood, 1901.

6. Notes and Reflections on the Boer War. By Maj.-Gen. H. M. Bengough. London: Clowes, 1900.

IF the South African War be not the most important conflict in the history of England, it is assuredly the one which has produced by far the largest literature. To the flow of books dealing with it there is seemingly no end. Nor is this anything but an unmixed good. Much of the war literature possesses high merit, and, studied with discretion, it should enable the nation to obtain an intelligent idea of the task which its soldiers have been called upon to accomplish, and to pronounce a discriminating verdict on the army's performance. Not that we can look for the inner history of the campaign as yet, or that any of the presentations of events now before us can be regarded as final. The war cannot be fully understood, nor the obstacles to British success thoroughly comprehended, until more light has been shed upon the political direction at home, and until the relations of War Ministers and Cabinets to the various Commanders-in-Chief have been accurately detailed.

The groundwork of any history of the war in its later phase must be the despatches from the Commander-inChief. In his 'Great Boer War,' Dr Doyle has made use of this material, supplementing it from the letters of newspaper correspondents and officers. The merit of the earlier editions of his work has been generally recognised; and the enlarged edition gives an outline of events up to a recent date, which is as accurate as such an outline can

be made with such material as exists, and which is at the same time written with picturesqueness and spirit. If we want psychological details of the conduct of our troops in the face of danger and death, Dr Fremantle and 'Linesman' can supply them. The Doctor's work in the hospitals and ambulances enables him to give evidence with authority as to the good behaviour of the private soldier, and incidentally to lay bare certain flagrant defects in the Army Medical Corps, while to his own profession it will prove of the highest value as a record of a surgeon's experiences in the field. 'Linesman's' work is of a different character; it deals almost entirely with the soldier in battle, in bivouac or on the march, and that mostly in Natal, during the earlier period of the campaign. But it is written with admirable fire and spirit, and from the purely literary point of view is one of the most striking works which the conflict has produced.

The beginning of a new year affords a good oppor tunity to take stock, as it were, of the progress which has been accomplished since the date when, in November 1900, Lord Roberts laid down his command and returned home, in the full belief, which he did not hesitate publicly to express, that the war was over. It is with the events of the thirteen months which have elapsed since that date that we shall have principally to deal, and our endeavour will be to ascertain, if possible, the reasons why the struggle has been continued so far beyond the anticipations of our ablest British general. The period in question may be divided into the following sections, viz. (1) the South African summer, from Lord Roberts departure (November 1900) to the failure of the peace negotiations (February 1901); (2) the winter, to September 15, the end of the period of grace fixed by the proclamation of August; (3) the recrudescence of Boer activity, from that date to the present time.

Before the date of Lord Roberts' departure, a considerable number of troops had been allowed to return. Among these were the City Imperial Volunteers, the Household Cavalry, a battery of horse artillery, and several of the colonial contingents. As the strength of the units remaining had not been fully maintained by constant strong drafts, the efficiency of the force had greatly