was talking; and the subject, like a piece of iron on the anvil, seemed to glow under his strokes and under those to which his eagerness and force excited the mind of his companion. He never usurped the conversation, but his talk was so interesting that all wished to listen, while all felt they would be so well understood that they need not fear to speak.

'Sweet discourse, the banquet of the mind,'

was a perpetual feast in his house; and human nature, as well as the stores of learning, provided the viands.

His position, first as a contributor and later as editor of the Quarterly Review, brought him into contact with many of the active minds of his time, and led to numerous friendships. One of the first of these friends was Lord Brougham, whose powers he classed with those of Thackeray and Macaulay, above all the other men of their time with whom he had come in contact. Many passages in his writings show his admiration of Brougham :

'Enough to say that, though those who may hereafter take a view of his life and actions will, in estimating his achievements, dwell upon his vast powers as an energetic orator and upon his qualities as a statesman, a scholar, a philosopher, and a philanthropist, there will yet be no one branch of his exertions which will prove his great services to his country more than his unremitting labours for the amelioration of our laws. He is among the small band of illustrious men who have left the impress of their minds upon the age in which they have flourished; and a people educated, a popular literature diffused, and a cumbrous and expensive law made cheap and plain, will carry with them to the remotest generations the name of Brougham.' (Q.R., vol. 105, p. 526.)

Elwin used to mention that a paper by Cheselden,* on the visual impressions of a youth born blind, who gained his sight by an operation when thirteen years of age, was the only treatise which he had heard mentioned in Macaulay's presence which the historian had not read. He thought, however, that Macaulay's astonishing memory, full of innumerable facts and passages from literature, often prevented him from expressing his own original thoughts and opinions, and thus perhaps obscured rather than displayed his individual quality and the real powers of his mind. Now and then in a small company his individuality had appeared, and made his hearers regret that he did not habitually give out more thought and less reading.

Of all the men of letters who were his contemporaries, the

one for whom Elwin felt most affection was Thackeray. They became intimate, and Thackeray gave him the gold pen with which he had written most of Vanity Fair.' In a review of 'The Newcomes' Elwin has expressed his opinion of Thackeray as a novelist :

The

Happy harmless fable-land," exclaims Mr. Thackeray. fable-land of his creation is more than this. Those who have traversed it leisurely have found it as healthful as it is beguiling and it is through its more sterling qualities that he has won for his book a loving admiration in many a home where genius alone would have been faintly welcomed. It is a proud privilege to have been able, month by month, for nearly two years, to interweave his fictions into the daily existence of his readers, and bring his mimic characters into competition with the living world, till, forgetting they were shadows, we have followed their fortunes and discussed their destinies and conduct as though they had been breathing flesh and blood.' (Q. R., vol. 97, p. 377.)

Thackeray has left a memorial of his friend in the Roundabout Paper' On Screens in Dining-rooms,' which followed that on 'Thorns in the Cushion ' :—

'A grandson of the late Rev. Dr. Primrose (of Wakefield, vicar), wrote me a little note from his country living this morning, and the kind fellow had the precaution to write "No thorn" upon the envelope, so that, ere I broke the seal, my mind might be relieved of any anxiety lest the letter should contain one of those lurking stabs which are so painful to the present gentle writer. Your epigraph, my dear P., shows your kind and artless nature; but don't you see it is of no use? People who are bent upon assassinating you in the manner mentioned will write "No thorn" upon their envelopes too.'

Elwin wrote four essays on three great soldiers, Sir William Napier, Sir Charles Napier, and Lord Raglan. He had a warm admiration for Sir William Napier, whom he knew, and in whose stirring conversation he delighted. It was impossible to know Sir William without contracting an equal regard for his heroic brother Sir Charles, whose career formed the subject of two reviews. Elwin's essays often contain passages drawn from his own observation of life or recollections of conversation. His account of Sir Charles Napier preserves a reminiscence of the battle of Meanee taken from the lips of an old soldier who had fought on that famous day; and the article on Lord Raglan contains so much information from private sources that it is in great part an original contribution to historical literature.

After Elwin resigned the editorship of the Quarterly Review in 1860 he sometimes wrote articles for it, the last of which appeared in 1885. It is one of the advantages of solid

periodical publications that they tend to draw forth from unexpected places literary ability and sound knowledge which but for such opportunities would remain undeveloped or unknown. This kind of opportunity first made Elwin a writer, and his subsequent close connexion with the Quarterly Review developed his literary powers. Such was his rigid criticism of himself that, but for the fact that he had pledged himself to produce a particular essay by a definite day, it is probable that he might have passed through life without making the admirable additions to English literature which he has left in this Review. He sometimes thought of revising and republishing some of these essays, and with two or three he made considerable progress late in his life; but, while nearly every addition which he made was of value, and every alteration an interesting variation, the absence of any definite period of publication made it certain that the revision would never attain completeness. His reviews, as they appeared, are in fact finished and elaborate essays, and when they are reprinted and thus made more accessible to the reading world, they will occupy a high and permanent place in English literature.

A complete edition of the works of Pope had long been contemplated by Mr. Murray, who had purchased numerous books and manuscripts relating to the poet. As the Quarterly Review was almost a legacy from Lockhart to Elwin, so this edition of Pope was one from the Rt. Hon. J. W. Croker, who had undertaken it, but had got little further than making some collection of books and writing a few notes on the satires. An examination showed that the whole work had yet to be done. The rector of Booton laboured at it with indefatigable diligence, and brought to bear upon it his great knowledge of the period, and his vast ingenuity of research. He published five volumes, of which the first appeared in 1871-two of poetry and three of letters. After elucidating Pope's falsehoods and intrigues, about the publication of his letters, in a masterly introduction to the correspondence, which precedes the first volume of the poetry, Elwin arrives at the conclusion that 'there never was an author of equal genius who habitually practised such despicable deceptions for such paltry purposes. Some critics objected to the application of so rigid a moral standard to the actions of Pope. In a letter to a friend, March 23rd, 1871, Elwin wrote:—

'I know how ugly truth always looks at first sight. People can never tolerate it till they are used to it. I have not, in any one word I have written, considered whether it would be agreeable or disagreeable to public, or critics, or individuals. I have simply endeavoured

to express my own convictions, whatever they might be, as plainly as I could, and if I did not do this from principle it would yet be policy, for in authorship, as in all other things, the saying is true that "truth goes furthest.' As I have begun, so I shall go on. I write at my ease, because I have no fear of anybody before my eyes.'

As the work proceeded Elwin came to feel, with the author of 'Zeluco,' that tracing the windings of vice, and delineating the disgusting features of villany, are unpleasant tasks.' After completing the fifth volume he resolved to do no more, and left the edition to be completed by another hand. The remaining five volumes found a competent editor in Mr. Courthope, and this fine edition of Pope will probably satisfy all future students of literature. The sound criticism of the introductions, the varied learning and far-reaching research of the notes, become more and more remarkable the more carefully the work is examined.

The chief work of the concluding years of Elwin's life was the rebuilding of his parish church. He already possessed a wide knowledge of Gothic architecture, and he soon acquired all the details of building and of materials. He acted as his own architect, and in the end produced what is perhaps the most beautiful country parish church which has been erected in Norfolk since the Middle Ages. He also built a schoolhouse, with a comfortable residence for the teachers. He was the friend and adviser of every person in his parish, a comforter in every mental trouble, a generous helper in every physical need, and he was beloved and revered by them all.

For upwards of fifty years he discharged his duties as parish priest of Booton, declining more than one offer of preferment. He performed the services in his church for the last time on Sunday, December 31st, 1899. On the following morning, as he did not come down so soon as was expected, his servant went up to his room and found that he had passed away as he was dressing. He was buried on January 5th, 1900, in the churchyard of Booton, beside his beloved wife, who died in 1898. His parishioners filled the church and followed him to the grave, and many of them afterwards expressed their grief at his loss almost in the very words of Goldsmith :

' And to tell you my mind,

He has not left a wiser or better behind.'

ART. II. AN AGE OF EXTERMINATION.

1. Narrative of an Expedition to Southern Africa during the years 1836 and 1837. By Captain Cornwallis Harris. Bombay American Mission Press, 1838.

:

2. A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa. By F. C. Selous. London: Bentley, 1881.

3. Kloof and Karroo. By H. A. Bryden. London: Longmans, 1889.

4. The Encyclopædia of Sport. London: Lawrence and Bullen, 1898.

5. Elephant Hunting in East Equatorial Africa. Neumann. London: Rowland Ward, 1898.

By A. H. 6. After Big Game in Central Africa. By E. Foà. London: A. and C. Black, 1899.

7. Sport in Somaliland. By Count Potocki. (English edition.) London: Rowland Ward, 1900.

8. Fifteen Years' Sport and Life in the Hunting Grounds of Western America. By W. A. Baillie-Grohman. London: Horace Cox, 1900.

MAN

AN is a hunting animal. At first he slew for meat and clothing; then he slew for sport or trade; latterly he has taken to slaying, it would seem, for the mere passion of slaughter or trophy-hunting; and, his prolonged exertions in that direction having met with too great a success, a spirit of reaction is now apparent in many quarters. The desire to avert, if only for a space, the doom of the quadrupeds more particularly menaced by the hunter is a creditable one; but it must be confessed that some little vagueness marks the counsels of those who urge reform. A superficial examination of the measures most in favour, and of the difficulties that beset the reformer's path, is sufficient to lay bare the origin of this vagueness. The theatre of extermination is so vast, and the conditions of the problem are so varied, that no single measure or protective principle can adequately remedy the whole mischief. Each continent presents its own aspect of the question. In western Europe, for example, if we except the case, hereinafter noticed, of the Scandinavian elk, the big game will have been found to be doomed by the growth of cities and by the influence of agriculture on the earth's physiognomy. In Africa, the quest of ivory has doomed the elephant, and incidentally also the antelopes slain for the larder of the elephant hunters. The greed for meat and skins, coupled with certain results of railway enterprise, into which it is here unnecessary to enter,