snarl is unpleasant, and one would not like to be within reach of his teeth. But "A Confederate" is innocent of all such arts: he is as honest in his boisterous bark as he is innocuous with his only half-developed teeth. The prodigious and quite unconscious solemnity of his style can have but one origin, which very soon displays its unmistakable marks. The portentous dignity with which each sentence opens, the feeble dribble with which it ends, tell us as plainly as if we could hear it of the bungling construing of Lower Fifth, which seeks to render classical idioms into English of a style which is reckoned grand only because it is not familiar, and which duly betrays itself in the first stilted efforts of the schoolboy essay. We can honestly congratulate "A Confederate" on not having left these echoes long behind him. He will forget them all too soon. In the meantime, let no severe indignation be spent on his refreshing exuberance. Fairly judged, it shows a healthy energy of political conviction, and, at the worst, affords food for amusement, not for anger. To quote one of its choice sentences, "Blessings are often disguised it will be realised before very long that the Confederacy is a case in point." We assure "A Confederate" that we have already realised it: a good joke in politics is a genuine blessing in disguise.

His confidences are delightful. A crisis in party politics had arisen. Mr Chamberlain

and all his works were "to be relegated to the background." The danger is described in a sentence which must be read in its native innocence of composition and punctuation: "It was not improbable for up to that time-and after for that matter-no feverish excitement had been displayed, certainly in high quarters on behalf of Tariff Reform." The Unionist Party had to be educated. "But, however that may be, there were at any rate three ['A Confederate' and two companions] young and ardent politicians [we don't call ourselves 'politicians' after we have cut our wisdom tooth] who determined to leave nothing to chance." They-the youthful three-had to make history. "The time had come to strike, and to strike hard.' Like all great movements, their task was difficult. But consequences did not daunt them. They met "over the dinnertable." One may trust that the advancing evening found them nowhere else. It was at a private house: mark well that no gaudy and fashionable Savoy or Ritz restaurant harboured the mighty trio! One-doubtless "A Confederate"-had brought with him "a plan of campaign." As one might have guessed from his later composition, "it was rough." But it grew into shape, just as the three grew into fifteen. into fifteen. "The Confederacy started on its way rejoicing." Their thorough enjoyment is contagious, and we would not lessen it by a jot or a tittle.

"This in short is a correct account of the founding of the

representation on a strange entity, hitherto unknown to our electoral machinery, "The Central Local Association." The poor electors are not, as "A Confederate" mercifully admits, altogether to blame. "They cannot learn without a teacher, . . . and the Confederacy undertakes the task." Once properly enlightened, they must, in case of a relapse into independence, submit to the vengeance of the dread conclave. "Its arm is far reaching, its blow may descend anywhere." But all this "is merely the foundation of its policy." We shall see what we shall see. They are to be "a force that nothing will turn aside." We have only, it seems, as yet felt "a policy of peaceful persuasion.' But "The Confederacy has decided to stay its hand no longer, and before the new year is many months old it will strike."

Will they not temper mercy with their giant's strength? Some day-it may be hoped many a year hence "A Confederate" will learn that old nerves are easily perturbed, and that the slumbers of his seniors may be sadly broken by nightmares. In the buoyant exuberance of his youth will he not tell us how to shelter ourselves from his thunderbolts, and snatch a brief slumber in peace?

Let us plead something in extenuation, if not in excuse, before this all-powerful conclave which is to shape our destinies. Unfortunately we have, all of us, constituents who, unaccountably, may think

that we are answerable to them for our action in Parliament. Some of us have, perhaps, studied the question of Fiscal Reform even before "A Confederate" had begun those studies that have taught him the refreshing unconventionalities of his style. We have, with such reasoning powers as we possess, come to certain conclusions pointing to the necessity for a serious review of our Fiscal system, and we have seen these reasons vastly strengthened by the disastrous action of the present Government. We have hitherto found ourselves guided by the trusted leader of our party along a path which coincides with our own conclusions, and we have full confidence that our path will be his until he reaches his goal, and beyond it. Should new developments arise, we count ourselves responsible only to our constituencies and to our leader for any action we may take. And however much we may admire and envy the high spirits and complacent selfconfidence of the " young and ardent [but nameless] trio," we fear that any interference between us and our constituencies would have to be indulgently, but very firmly, rejected; and that any outside suggestions would go to swell the contents of our waste-paper baskets.

When we have got out of the incident all the amusement that it is fitted to afford, is it not time to ask, Is this serious politics, and does it deserve the prolonged consideration of grown men ?

V.

WE sailed, Sir Garnet Wolseley, with thirty-six staff and special service officers, all volunteers, in the S.S. Ambriz on September 12, 1873, for Cape Coast Castle. Of that small group some were afterwards to go far and to become well known to the Army and the public. Colonel (afterwards General Sir John) M'Neill, Lieut.-Colonel (now Field - Marshal Sir Evelyn) Wood, who, like M'Neill, had already won his Victoria Cross, Major (now General Sir Baker) Russell, Major (afterwards General Sir Thomas) Baker, who was Quartermaster-General of the Army when he died, Captain (afterwards General Sir Redvers) Buller, Captain (now General Sir William) Butler, Lieutenant (now General Sir Frederick) Maurice, fresh from beating Sir Garnet Wolseley in the competition for Sir Edward Hamley's "Wellington Prize Essay," were all of the party. As Augustus Anson wrote to me before we started, we were "using the finest steel

of our army to cut brushwood"; but the magnet that had irresistibly attracted the steel was the Chief in whom we all had absolute and unbounded confidence, Sir Garnet Wolseley.

We all were anxious to make ourselves acquainted with everything relating to the country and the war, but we could not all have the books at the same time, and Sir Garnet asked Captain Huyshe, of the Rifle Brigade, D.A.Q.M.G., and myself to study the blue-books and reports, to put our notes into shape and read them to our brother officers. Every moment of our spare time was devoted to this work, under the most unfavourable conditions-tropical heat, a heavily rolling ship, the sickening smell of new paint, and the stench of bilge water, not to mention sea-sickness. The results of our work were two papers by me on "The Relations between Great Britain, the Protected States, and Ashanti, with the Causes of the Ashanti War," and a paper by Captain Huyshe on "The

Topography of Ashanti and the Protectorate of the Gold Coast." These papers we read on board ship, and, after our arrival at Cape Coast, sent home to Mr John Blackwood with a map by Captain Huyshe.1 They were published by Messrs Blackwood & Sons as a small post octavo volume, under the title of 'Fanti and Ashanti.'

This expedition brought me into touch with Mr Winwood Reade, the correspondent of 'The Times.' He was a small, fragile man, with a chest so narrow that it seemed impossible that it could contain a normal set of vital organs, yet his indomitable spirit carried him through all the hardships of the campaign. He was the author of that remarkable book, The Martyrdom of Martyrdom of Man,' in which his masterhand sketched in picturesque language the story of the ancient civilisations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. His hatred of priestcraft was only equalled by his horror of the institution of slavery.

still later journey to relieve Emin Pasha, were narrated in his books, 'In Darkest Africa' and 'Through the Dark Continent.' Before he started on this last expedition I sat next him at a dinner given by Sir William M'Kinnon, at which other interesting African explorers were present, and many questions connected with the Dark Continent were discussed. In later years he married that charming artist, Miss Dorothy Tennant, and sat in Parliament as Member for Lambeth.

The Ashanti campaign over, we embarked at Cape Coast Castle for England in March 1874. Previous to our embarkation I had suggested to Sir Garnet that I should write a narrative of the campaign, and he approved. I wrote to Mr John Blackwood saying that I proposed to write such a book, and that I should like to sell it outright, naming a sum to him. On my arrival in England I received a letter from Mr Blackwood accepting my proposals, and saying to me that the success of the book would largely depend upon its being brought out while the interest in the campaign was still fresh. As, under our agreement, the loss, if the book were a failure, would fall entirely on the publishers, I felt bound to use every effort to lose no time. There was was necessarily some delay incurred in obtaining

were