England as a body so illiterate as they now are relatively to the rest of the community. Never did we stand more in need of schools of the prophets' in which learning might find a home whence light might radiate among the large numbers of very imperfectly educated parish priests in town and country. Never did our younger clergy stand in such grievous need of recognised and authoritative counsel, instruction, and direction. Never was it more necessary that they should be brought to see that there are gifts even higher and nobler than mere fluency of speech or the faculty of serving tables,' and other careers of usefulness for the stewards of the mysteries of God besides those which a narrow and selfish congregationalism is wont to extol most loudly.

Let it be conceded mournfully but frankly that our cathedrals have not done for us what we had a right to expect from them. The question still remains, Who is to blame for the shortcoming?

Be it as it may, some of us are deeply convinced that in the immense reserve of moral and intellectual force still at our disposal in these same cathedrals—which only needs to be set free to exercise its influence far and wide-lies the hope of such a future for the Church in England as may fear no comparison with the glorious annals of her past. Tied and bound by all sorts of shackles, deans and chapters have felt that their strength was to sit still, and all the while they have been mocked by the cry that calls them to be up and doing. A canon is solemnly led to his stall-what a horribly suggestive word! -but he no sooner gets there than he finds he has a halter round his neck and that he is tied to the manger. A dean is lifted on to the box-seat and expected to drive his four-in-hand; but where are the reins? Reform? Of course we want reform. But may God's providence protect us from such nostrums as are, at the best, words without knowledge. Reform? Yes! But it is more life and fuller that we want in these venerable foundations which, after all that has been done to extinguish their potentialities, are not yet slain.

Reform? Yes! But let that reform be entered upon intelligently, earnestly, humbly. Intelligently: for you cannot hope to reform that about which you know too little. Earnestly: for the task before you is to rescue from greedy and ignorant spoilers those resources which the nation has a right to claim should be used for the moral, intellectual, and spiritual elevation of every class and every order. Humbly: for if disdain to sit awhile in the disciple's seat, before you presume you to occupy the teacher's chair, your attempts at reform will be nothing better than the antics of an empiric, only not ludicrous because the issues at stake are so momentous. Beginning by denouncing blindly that which you have never loved, and going on to dream of the degradation of that which you have never learnt to understand, you will end by petulantly endeavouring to destroy.

AUGUSTUS Jessopp.

THE NEW WINTER-LAND

NORTH AFRICA-or, to be more exact, French North Africa-has been called The New Winter-Land.' Of the thousands of Anglo-American health-seekers and pleasure-travellers who annually betake themselves to the Riviera, Italy, or Egypt, to name only the three favourite goals of those persons fortunate enough to escape London fogs and New York'thaws,' many hundreds are each year choosing rather to go to French Barbary. The climate, at its best, is superior to that of Italy or the Riviera: the leading resorts are as easily reached as those in Sicily or Central Italy: travelling in the country is at once cheaper and more novel in point of interest; and the maximum of occidental sunshine may be safely calculated upon. French guidebook writers are fond of comparing Algeria with Egypt. The comparison is even more wide of the facts than similar estimates habitually are. Neither in climate nor in anything else, except certain obvious Arabic resemblances in costume and customs, does the foremost colony of France suggest the old land of the Pyramids. The only portion of it which can with justice be mentioned comparatively is the oasis of Biskra in the Ziban, where, indeed, the typical 'Orient' is to be seen and enjoyed. The Moorish Orient is to be found in many places, particularly in Tunis and throughout Tunisia, in Constantine, in Tlemçen; but nowhere, from Tangier on the Atlantic to Susa on the Syrtean Gulf, is there any town really like Cairo or any stretch of country resembling that of the reaches of the Nile.

For many years the ordinary pleasure of breaking new ground, of exploration, of antiquarian research, of sport, severally attracted the great majority of those winter visitors who sought the Southern Mediterranean littoral. Of late there has been an immense access in the number of those who sojourn abroad for health. Still, a general ignorance prevails as to how to get to the French-African health resorts, how best to reach Algeria itself, how to conduct travel in uncivilised Barbary, and as to many other problems connected with moving to and fro. Even in Algiers itself, where hundreds go every winter either for a brief holiday or for the season, and go no further, or no further than the neighbouring tourist resorts in the Djurdjura or along the Atlas range, I have been surprised to find so many who were convinced that 'a wild country' lay to the south and

east, and even to the west: who thought that an escort would be needed to visit certain places, when, as a matter of fact, an escort would be as needless as in Marseilles or Paris; and who feared that ignorance of Arabic would be a fatal drawback.

But, with all the many advantages of Algeria-which, it may be as well to add here, comprises not only the great province of Algeria proper, but also the even more extensive provinces of Oran and Constantine there are likewise many disadvantages for those who go thither in the quest of health or for alleviation of confirmed disease. Physicians have too lightly offered their recommendations. There is, perhaps, only one place in the whole of French Africa where consumptive invalids can he sent with safety-the oasis of Biskra, in that part of the Northern Sahara known as the Ziban, where a divine climate can be enjoyed, without, for the invalid, the serious drawback of extreme domestic discomfort.

I am aware that this opinion will be gainsaid by many, particularly in Algiers. But each can judge only from his own experience. Bearing in mind how all-important for invalids are considerations not only of climate, but also of accommodation, food, and cheerful environment, I should say that persons who are actually ill-persons whose quest is alleviation of their disease rather than prevention-should not stay longer than a month or six weeks in Algeria, even with a season climatically at its best, except at Algiers or Biskra-and, for health's sake, preferably at Biskra. There are other delightful health resorts: Hammam R'Ihra, in the province of Oran; Hammam Meskoutine, in that of Constantine; the city of Tlemçen-to specify three only but they have marked disadvantages for those who do not wish to move about much and who prefer, if practicable, to stay in one place. Tlemçen, the most delightfully situated town in French Africa, as well as one of the most fascinating, and with a climate which at its best is the rival of any in Italy or the Riviera, is not only subject to considerable cold during January and even February, and to heavy rains when first the winter breaks, but is also ill supplied with pleasant accommodation. Even its best hotel is 'rougher' than the inns of Provence or the French midlands. The food is secondrate, and there is little variety and less delicacy. The bedroom accommodation is austere to the point of discomfort, and in midwinter the rooms are bitterly cold. 'Service 'is a convenience to be remembered merely; for, except in the most elementary way, it will not be experienced. At either Hammam R'Ihra or Hammam Meskoutine the visitor will have every comfort, and will be in the neighbourhood of strange and interesting country; but there is the drawback of an isolation which, at the first-named thermal resort in particular, cannot but be harmful to many. There is an element of profound depression in the North-African landscape which has to be reckoned with. Some do not experience it at all: to others it becomes a source

of discomfort, and worse. Even at Algiers, delightful city as it is, even to the resident in Mustapha Supérieur, there is apt to come this subtle sense of depression, after a few weeks have satiated the sense of novelty and first keen enjoyment. Those who do not experience

it at Algiers may realise it at Biskra: others at inland resorts, such as Hammam R'Ihra.

It is, perhaps, only in the Mustapha hotels that the confirmed invalid may expect to find all those domestic conveniences of diet and accommodation which are so essential to his or to her welfare. At one or two of these-notably at the high-set Hôtel St. George—the winter months can be spent with pleasure and comparative safety. But, whatever doctors may say, and enthusiastic authorities such as Sir Lambert Playfair, the invalid must be on his guard against a damp atmosphere, particularly in the late afternoons. Algiers—or at any rate Mustapha Supérieur is said to have a climate so dry that even during heavy rain articles not actually exposed to the falling wet retain their crisp dryness. Last winter was not a wet year, but I know that I felt the damp at Mustapha in a way that recalled the home counties rather than suggested North Africa. For those who can afford a villa on the extreme of Mustapha or at El Biar probably all is well, and Algiers and its climate and its resources suggestive of that unpermitted Eden' which Rossetti tells us lies secret somewhere on this earth.'

To be brief then-for I am not writing this paper for the incurable invalid so much as for the less exigent sunshine-seekerit would be better for the consumptive visitor to North Africa to sojourn at Biskra (and there at the Hôtel Victoria), where he or she will enjoy the driest climate in the country, with the delightful and stimulating air of the Sahara, with many fascinating objects and places to visit, with lovely and varied drives and rides easily practicable, and with a bright, ever-varying, and pleasant society. The only danger will be that which I may call the nostalgia for the familiar north. For at Biskra the visitor is in the Africa one dreams of amid oases of tall palms, set in a vast tract of mountain-frontiered desert. Here for weeks life slips by as a pleasant dream. One day there comes a sudden longing, then a gradual distaste. Thereafter, it is a matter of temperament whether 'Biskra weariness' is to be reckoned with as a passing indisposition or as a malady.

After Biskra I should recommend a short sojourn at the Hammam R'Ihra, if hill-air and the rheumatism-cure' be wanted, and if the place be found to suit. At Mustapha, again, the best hotels. for the invalid would be the St. George, the Splendide, and the Continental. Personally I like the situation of the Hôtel Splendide, but it is too exposed for delicate people, and is somewhat inconvenient for those who wish to visit or shop in Algiers; an inconvenience, indeed, common to the whole of Mustapha Supérieur. The

St. George has charming rooms facing seaward, with a pleasant terrace and sloping gardens; and, to many visitors, the additional attraction of an English, or mainly English, service-staff.

But now let me pass in rapid review the pleasantest winter resorts in French Africa, for others than those persons who, after all, should go nowhere without the explicit advice of specialist physicians.

First, let it be said at once that travelling in Algeria is no whit more inconvenient than, and as little perilous as, in France. Those who go thither from Spain will congratulate themselves on the change. There is no more difficulty in making the tour of French Africa than of Switzerland. Most localities of interest or importance can be reached by railway, or by railway and connected diligence; nor does the mule, or horse, or camel become needful, save on those expeditions in the Sahara regions which scarce ten in a thousand travellers undertake. As for the language, the tourist who can rub along' in France or Belgium or Switzerland will pay no severer penalties than are exacted from him in those countries. It is not necessary, so long as the ordinary routes are adhered to, to know a sentence of Moorish Arabic. French gold and silver money brought from Paris or Marseilles is the same coin as that which circulates in the steep alleys of Algiers and the bazaars of Tlemçen-in a word, throughout the country, from the Morocco frontier to G'hrardimaou, the outpost of Tunisia.1

On the whole, the expenses of living are much the same as those in the tourist-frequented parts of France: more than in Brittany, perhaps less than in Arles, Nîmes, and other Provençal towns. At certain hotels arrangements are easily made to the material modification of the nominal scale of charges: that is, if the projected stay be not restricted to two or three days only. At many table wine is not charged for. This Algerian vin ordinaire is commonly better than what one generally gets in France (though when not tolerable it is worse than any beverage in the whole civilised or uncivilised world), while inferior to the light white and red wines of Central Italy. At Mascara one may imbibe without a qualm, at Tlemçen too, and at other Oranian and Algerian towns and settlements. At Sétif, Constantine, even at Biskra, it is safer to take for granted that the wine is as little wholesome as it is palatable. For visitors content to take things as they come, the average pension-rate, away from Algiers, may be set down as ten francs per diem: it would be nearer the mark, however, to calculate at a daily pension-rate of twelve or twelve and a half francs. In almost no instance, however, I may add, will travellers gain in comfort or pocket by use of

1 Travellers bound for Tunis must bear in mind that throughout Tunisia FrancoTunisian money, distinct from that of Algeria, is used. Algerian notes in particular should be exchanged for French or Tunisian gold before departure from Algiers, or Constantine, or Bône. French or Algerian stamps and postcards are useless in Tunisia.