CONTENTS OF VOL. XLVII PAGE ✓ THE DEFENCE OF the Empire and THE MILITIA BALLOT. By Sir George THE MILITARY WEAKNESS OF ENGLAND AND THE MILITIA BALLOT. By THE VOLUNTEERS. By Colonel J. G. B. Stopford OUR INDIAN TROOPS. By Sir Henry Howorth THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONSPIRACY AGAINST BRITISH RULE. By the Rev. Dr. Wirgman THE CONTINUITY OF CATHOLICISM. By Dr. St. George Mivart THE PRINCE OF JOURNALISTS. By Herbert Paul THE GHOST OF DR. HARRIS. By the late Nathaniel Hawthorne CLIMATE AND THE ATMOSPHERE. By the Rev. John M. Bacon CAN SENTENCES BE STANDARDISED? By Montague Crackanthorpe THE JEWS IN FRANCE. By Paul Bettelheim THE WAR RELIEF FUNDS. By the Rev. C. G. Lang THE COMMON MULE. By R. B. Townshend. THE TINKERING OF HYMNS. By J. Cuthbert Hadden THE CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED' AT THE WAR OFFICE. By the late General Sir George Chesney. (With an Introduction by Spenser THE MILITIA. By Sir Herbert Maxwell THE MILITIA BALLOT. By Viscount de Vesci OUR PRACE TRAINING FOR WAR. GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY? By Colonel Lonsdale Hale. DR. MIVART ON THE CONTINUITY OF CATHOLICISM. By the Rev. Father THE GEORGICS OF VIRGIL, BOOK II., LINES 458-542. By Lord Burghclere 275 THE NEW MYSTICISM IN SCANDINAVIA By Miss Hermione Ramsden Swinton HARMONIC LITERATURE. By Joseph H. Choate, junior ANCIENT EGYPTIAN CERAMIC ART. By Henry Wallis SOME STRAY SHOTS AND A MORAL. By R. B. Townshend . THE PROBLEM OF THE MIDDLE EAST. By Sir Thomas Gordon SCRIPTURE AND ROMAN CATHOLICISM, By Dr. St. George Mivart. WOMEN WORKERS: HOW THEY LIVE: HOW THEY WISH TO LIVE. By IN DEFENCE OF SIR DAVID CHALMERS. By Lady Chalmers THE STORY OF THE BULWER-CLAYTON TREATY. By Benjamin Taylor PROPER PRECAUTIONS FOR IMPERIAL SAFETY. By Sir George THE INSUFFICIENT PROPOSALS OF THE WAR OFFICE. By H. O. Forster ARE WE MISLED ABOUT THE FLEET? By H. W. Wilson. THE BOERS AND THE NATIVE QUESTION. By the Rev. Dr. Wirgman WESTMINSTER ABBEY. By the Queen of Roumania MR. RUSKIN AT FARNLEY. By Mrs. Ayscough Fawkes THE AUTOCRAT OF THE DINNER TABLE. By Herbert Paul EXCAVATIONS IN THE ROMAN FORUM. (With a Plan.) By Giacomo Boni 637 AMERICAN PUBLIC OPINION OF THE WAR. By H. H. Bowen MARKSMANSHIP OLD AND NEW. By W. A. Baillie-Grohman THE PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA OF TITIAN. By Claude Phillips WOMAN'S BRAIN. By Alexander Sutherland A CHAT ABOUT JANE AUSTEN'S NOVELS. By the Earl of Iddesleigh THE TRUE STORY OF THE PRISONER OF CHILLON. By the Baronne A. WOMEN'S CLUBS IN AMERICA. By Margaret Polson Murray IMPERIAL FEDERATION AND SOME NEGLECTED COLONIAL TIES. By John (1) A VOICE FROM NATAL. By F. S. Tatham (2) THE NATIVE RACES. By the Rev. J. S. Moffat THE CAVALRY RUSH TO KIMBERLEY AND IN PURSUIT OF CRONJE. By the late Captain Cecil Boyle. (With an Introduction by Sydney Douglas TYCHO BRAHE. By Arthur Ponsonby THE COPYRIGHT BILLS, 1900. By Lord Thring THE INTELLECTUAL AWAKENING OF CHINA. By Professor Robert K. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY No. CCLXXV—JANUARY 1900 In this last year of the nineteenth century the country is brought face to face with a great and grave alternative which has been long approaching it, and which cannot now be further evaded or ignored. We must either contract the boundaries of our Empire or we must expand our military forces until they are sufficient to defend from all aggression the vast inland frontiers over sea, which our Navy cannot reach; and this we must do without dangerously depleting these islands of their second line of defence. It is not, one may trust, very doubtful which course the nation will choose when the necessity of the choice is brought home to it, for 'Little-Englandism' is as unpopular a creed as it deserves to be. But how best to act upon its choice and carry it out into speedy and effective action is a question of extremest moment. The South African War, with its severe strain upon our present military resources, is rapidly convincing thoughtful men-both soldiers and civilians-that we are coming too near the breakingpoint of our world-wide responsibilities. It is an object-lesson which he who runs may read,' and which it seems the obvious duty of the press to take care that the public shall read and seriously consider. That lesson can yet be learned in time, and is, in brief, the absolute necessity of amplifying our defensive military system until we stand as an armed and drilled, though not necessarily a conscript, nation amongst all the other armed and drilled nations of the world, if we would hold and hand down our Empire as it now exists through the twentieth century. It is the purpose of the two following articles, contributed by a soldier and a civilian respectively, to point out how, without VOL. XLVII-No. 275 B resorting to conscription, the essential and necessary strength may be attained by the revival of our ancient constitutional military system-the ballot for the Militia-which is still only suspended from operation year after year by Parliament. These articles will be followed in due course by other contributions to the discussion of this vital matter. JAMES KNOWLES, Editor Nineteenth Century. THE DEFENCE OF THE EMPIRE THE building up of the British Empire is one of the marvels of the world's history. There is no parallel to be found in the records of the past. The process of expansion, the methods of government applied to successively acquired possessions, the conspicuous success achieved, all are alike unique. To our mixed descent and the strong infusion of the blood of the most daring of the seafaring adventurers of Northern Europe we doubtless owe our roving instincts and our masterful proclivities. The long struggle for continental dominion imported into England by William the First and continued during many centuries, had only just terminated with the loss of Calais, when the great seamen of Elizabeth began to point the way to expansion across the seas, and to lay the first foundations of colonial dominion. The stern naval contest with Holland followed, and civil war checked the outward impetus, until the genius of Cromwell arose to restore the shaken prestige of England, while Blake taught nations to whom the very name of Englishmen was a strange sound to respect its honour and its rights.' Reaction quickly supervened, and the thunder of Dutch guns was heard by the citizens of London; but the disastrous reign of Charles the Second added New York, Antigua, Montserrat and St. Kitt's to the possessions of the Crown, together with Tangier, soon to be discreditably abandoned. The accession of William the Third involved the nation in a French war, which was generally unsuccessful and did not further the interests of national expansion. Onwards, until the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, England was involved in a series of contests which left her with new territorial outposts and with the prestige of such great naval victories as those of Malaga, Cape Passaro, Finisterre and Belleisle, but did not settle between her and France the great stake of colonial supremacy. Between 1756 and 1815 this tremendous issue was fought for and decided. In its later phases, the |