The misfortune is that his excessive use of technical language lends only too ready a support to a danger which has always lurked in wait for Mr. Kipling obscurity. He has so regrettable a tendency to turbid expression, to want of a lucid statement of his thought, that he ought to be very careful to use the clearest vocabulary. In the noble poem of his youth, "The English Flag," this quality of hardness, of obscurity arising from excessive conciseness and too rapid allusiveness, interfered with our enjoyment. It would be easy to point to examples of the same error, pushed to a further exaggeration, in the present volume. We do not, however, desire to dwell unduly on this, although we regret it, since a third or fourth careful reading aloud will usually illuminate the poet's meaning, when it is not obscured in his mind, but by his language. To recall Mr. Swinburne's brilliant distinction, it is proper rather to say that he is dark than that he is clouded.

Once more, we are constrained to be disagreeable. We regret a tendency to forms of speech which are perfectly artificial, and therefore rococo:

When 'Omer smote 'is bloomin' lyre, He'd 'eard men sing by land an' sea; An' what he thought 'e might require, 'E went an' took-the same as me!

Who is supposed to say this? Tommy Atkins? If so, pray what does he know of Homer and the lyre and early Greek poetry? Or is it Mr. Kipling? If so, why does he not spell "Homer" with all its letters, like a man? Again, we are far indeed from pitting our knowledge of the British army against Mr. Kipling's, but we ask (merely for information) whether common soldiers are in the habit of using the words "hermaphrodite," "cosmopolitan," "procrastinator," and "chrysanthemum"?

Nothing is

impossible in these days of higher education, and if this is local color it is very interesting. But in that case we regret that these beautiful words should be misspelt "harumfrodite" and "cosmopolouse" and "procrastitute." These quaint forms seem to add nothing to the idea.

We will refrain from pouring any more drops of gall into "the cup that the Fleet Street forest," as Shelley might press is holding up in the enchanted say. What, after all, does it matter?for the public have determined that Mr. neither pick nor chose. But we have Kipling is delectable en masse, and will more hope of the poet than of the public. We compare him, not with any other writer, but with himself, and we cannot pretend that the load of 1896 hangs cent force and resonance, indomitable even with that of 1892. We see magnifihigh spirits, extraordinary knowledge, and sympathies of the finest temper, but we cannot disguise from ourselves that the artist has retreated. "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love."

settled, the grounds of quarrel would be as varied and as pressing as ever. It is customary to say that Europe has in the Turkish Empire a sick man on her hands, with all manner of heirs claiming the inheritance, but, in reality, there are four "sick" empires-Turkey, Persia, China, and Morocco-for whose heritages the European powers will certainly quarrel, and, perhaps,, wage actual war. The first of these will probably, though not certainly, fall in first, and will, when it does, excite the cupidity of every Western nation. The sultan still owns by perfectly legal tenure, which has been acknowledged by all governments, some of the fairest regions of the earth's surface. He has three valuable provinces in Europe besides his capital, supposed to be from its position the most valuable of Continental cities. He also possesses and governs directly the whole of the vast region stretching from Persia to the Mediterranean, and from the Sea of Marmora to the Persian Gulf, a region larger in area than any European State except Russia, and believed to be capable of supporting in comfort or luxury fifty millions of white men. He is owner of most of the islands of the eastern Mediterranean, while he is sovereign in Arabia, in Egypt, including the whole Nile Valley, in Barca, and in Tripoli to about the same extent, and in much the same way that the Emperor William is the sovereign in Germany. He is legally master of every road from Europe to southern Asia, and the two greatest rivers of the Eastern world-the Nile and the Euphratesflow from source to débouchure within his realm. If his throne falls not one of these provinces except Arabia could defend itself, and there is not one, except Arabia as before, which some great European State, with a huge army or a huge fleet, does not long to seize, while several command routes of the highest interest to all the nations which desire trade. It is inevitable, therefore, that if the prize falls in diplomatists, and possibly generals and admirals, should have much to do soon, while the probability that it will fall in is very

great. It may not, for the Ottoman race is a fighting race, which can still produce 500,000 brave soldiers, and they may find a leader equal to the situation; but the probability is the other way. Empires require revenues, and Turkey as a revenue-yielding empire is nearly ruined; its ruling class is hopelessly corrupt, its working population are at furious variance, and even its soldier class is stricken with that despondency which Asiatics always feel when they are fighting Europe. The wire which holds up the golden apple is wearing very thin.

2. The second "sick man," the shah of Persia, is not quite in such an evil case as the sultan, because he has less internal hostility to dread. He could only be attacked from within by the tribes of his North-East frontier, and though one of them seated the present dynasty on the throne, they seem of late years to have lost their energy. The kingdom, however, is visibly perishing of slow decay. The provinces are full of ruined villages. The population is decaying so fast that experienced observers doubt if the country contains five millions of Persians, and those five millions live under sore oppression. The single object of the court and its agents is to make money; the army, a few regiments excepted, is almost worthless, and it is not doubted that if either Russia or England set themselves to the task, they could destroy the rotten fabric in one campaign. At the same time Persia is by nature exceedingly rich; everything will grow on its plateaus, and every mineral abounds in its mountains, while from its position its independence is of great importance both to Russia and to the owners of India. They have fought for influence over it for nearly a century, and there is little doubt that if a short period of anarchy should from any cause supervene in Persia, two great States, at all events, would do battle for the derelict empire, which covers three times the area of France, could support thirty millions of Russian peasants, and ought, under wise financial management, to produce a revenue of a pound a

head. The diplomatists will be very busy before Persia has been distributed, and the necessity for distribution may come at almost any hour.

3. The third sick man, the emperor of China, is in a different position from the other two. His huge empire, with its swarming population, is not exactly disorganized, and has many elements in it which tend to permanent cohesion; but it is so incapable of the peculiar exertions required for war, that it is unable to resist any violent assailant. The Japanese, if left to themselves, would have conquered the whole of it for a time; and it is not doubted that a Russian, English, French, or German corps-d'armée, once within the frontier, could march to Pekin, and dictate any terms its government might please. This weakness does not threaten the independence of China at present, because nobody exactly wants to undertake the task of governing three hundred millions of Mongols all hostile to their governors, and all given to secret plots and cruel massacres. But all European States want to gain from China naval stations, routes for railways, concessions for industrial enterprises, and, above all, special rights to sell goods to the largest market existing in the world. As the Chinese government grants nothing except to menace or offers of money, the pressure put upon it is always diplomatic, and the intrigues, quarrels, and threats of war at Pekin among the powers are almost worse than they are in Constantinople; are in fact worse, because as they do not involve quite such extreme dangers the diplomatists use more violence. Ambassadors will have much to do for many years before they have settled their relative position at Pekin, and are able to decide on what terms they can divide, not the provinces of China, but the grand commercial loot which the weakness of China enables them all to hope for.

4. There are able men who think that the position of the fourth sick man, the sultan of Morocco, is even more dangerous to the peace of Europe than that of the sultan of Turkey. Morocco, to

begin with, lies so near to Europe that its possession by any State might in a few years disturb the European balance. In a wonderfully fertile country the size of France, the sultan rules as many people as there are in Belgium by the undisguised use of a small but active predatory army. When a district fails to pay up, the sultan sends or leads a division into it, and when he retires the district has been ruined for ten years. Outside Tangier there is no order, no chance of obtaining justice, and no security either for merchants or their merchandise. The people are declining in numbers, the soldiers are losing their military qualities, and the governing class, with rare exceptions, is hopelessly corrupt and vile. It is believed that anarchy is inevitable within the kingdom, and naturally many powers would like to seize, if they could, so goodly a derelict. The Spaniards declare that Morocco is theirs in right of their history, and are always ready to send an army to maintain their claim. The French see clearly that if they could obtain Morocco they would possess an empire on the southern shore of the Mediterranean which might some day if its population increased rival that of India, and, even without that, give them command of the Mediterranean. The Germans, on the other hand, maintain that Morocco belongs to the strongest, and is the only space close to Europe where the increasing overplus of their population could find farms and homes, while Great Britain, though she does not want Morocco, is vehemently jealous lest the owner of Tangier should be able to close the Mediterranean, and, therefore, the shortest route to India against her. As all these powers think Morocco almost vital to their interests, are all on the spot with fleets, and can all land armies, diplomatists will, whenever anarchy arrives in Morocco, or the sultan affronts any single power, have more than enough upon their hands. There is, it is quite clear, little fear of their trade failing, as it is supposed the trade of ivory workers will shortly fail, for want of material upon which to work.