Remerr of Reviercs, 1/10/06. 



Leading Articles. 



385 



IS THE KAFFIR LAZY? 



The Kaffir as a worker is considered by Mr. L. E. 

 Neame of Johannesburg, in the 'Empire Rn'ieiv. He 

 emphatically rebuts the old fallacy that the Kaffir 

 is incorrigibly idle. Neither is it true that the 

 natives possess the pick of the land. In British 

 South Africa 1.680,529 Europeans hold 694,303 

 square miles, while 4,652,662 natives hold only 

 220,470 square miles. The Government report 

 affirms that with all his shortcomings the native 

 " supports the whole economic fabric on his de- 

 spised and dusky back." Mr. Neame declares that 

 in the bulk the natives are workers, more regular 

 workers than ever they were before. They work in 

 their own way. on the land, instead of at once taking 

 up the employment that we might prefer to see them 

 adopt. With all their good qualities the Bantus 

 have no real ambition. They have reached a cer- 

 tain level, but Mr. Xeame contends it will be long 

 before they advance another definite stage. He 

 says : — 



Althongh the Kaffir cannot justly be condemned as "lazy." 

 it is Hot likely tliat there will for many years be any 

 great accession to their number in the labour market from 

 the British South African colonies. Some simple manual 

 training might hasten his advancement, but in any case 

 It will be verj- slow. Importation will continue to be 

 necessary, and whether the employer relies upon Mozam- 

 biques or Mongolians, tribesmen from beyond the Zambesi 

 or peasants from the Gangetic plain, does not. affect tile 

 problem. 



On the question of native education, the figures 

 that Mr. Xeame presents seem to suggest that we 

 by no means spend as much on training as we 

 should. The difference bet\veen the amount received 

 from the native in taxation and the amount spent 

 on his education is somewhat glaring, as set forth by 

 Mr, Xeame in the following table: — 



NAPOLEON'S TRAVELLING LIBRARY. 



One of the most interesting articles in the 

 Atlantic Monthly for July describes X'apoleon as a 

 Booklover. 



Mr. James VVestfall Thompson, the writer, tells 

 us what Xapoleon read in his youth, what books he 

 took out to Eg\pt in 1798, and what books formed 

 the travelling lihran,- which he ordered to be made 

 in 1808. Tlve Instructions which Xapoleon gave to 



M. Rarbier. his librarian, for his travelling library- 

 are thus summarised: — 



The proposed travelling library wa« to form about a 

 thou.sand volumes. The books were to be of small duo- 

 decimo size, printed in good type, and without margins, 

 in ori'er to save space. They were to be bound in morocco, 

 with flexible covers and limp hacks. The boxes for their 

 conveyance were to be covered with leather and lined with 

 green" velvet, and were to average sisty volumes apiece, in 

 two row.-? like the shelves in a library. , .v, . 



A catalogue was to accompany them, so arranged that 

 the Emperor could readily find any desired volume. The 

 distribution of subjects was as follows: forty volumes on 

 religion: forty on epic poetry; forty on the drama; suty 

 volumes of other poetry: sixty volumes of history: and 

 one hundred novels. •• In order to complete the quota, 

 ran the Instructions. ' the balance shall be made up of 

 liistorical memoirs." 



WHAT WAS EXPECTED OF THE LIBEAEIAN. 



The duties of the librarian were anything but 

 light: — 

 When Napoleon was dreaming of the East, he demanded 

 ■ a synopsis of the history of the campaigns which had 

 taken place in the vallev of the Euphrates and against the 

 Parthians. from that of Crassus down to the eighth cen; 

 tury. including in it those of .\ntony. Trajan, and Julian, 

 with maps showing the route which each army followed, 

 the ancient names and the new names of the countries 

 and chief cities, and an account of tlie geography ot the 

 countrv and of the historical records of each expedition. 

 all to' be drawn from the original sources. At another 

 time he demanded information about a Persian history ot 

 .\lexander the Great. 



READIXG UP FOR FUTUEE CAMPAIGSTS. 



As to the nature of Xapoleon's reading, the writer 



thinks that if Xapoleon's enemies could have looked 



into the bo.xes of books or seen the instructions sent 



to the librarian, especially after 1809, they might 



have anticipated the future more clearly, for 



Xapoleon always read up for a coming campaign. 



Mr. Thompson says : — 



This is particularly true ot the Russian campaign. From 

 December. 1811. Xapoleon's book-orders have the importance 

 of State secrets. In that month we find liim ordering 

 works giving information concerning the topography of 

 Russia, especially Lithuania, under the liead ot rivers, 

 roads, forests, marshes, and so forth; a detailed account 

 in French of the campaigns ot Charles XII. in PolaJid 

 and Russia; a history of Oourland: and anything which 

 could be found of an historical, geographical, and topo- 

 graphical nature about Riga. Livonia, and the other Baltic 

 provinces of Russia; the work of the English Colonel Wil- 

 son on the Russian army, translated from the English, a 

 manuscript copv ot which he remembers to have seen 

 either in the Bibliotheque Imperiale or in the cabinet of 

 the Emperor at the Tuileries; the account of the Russian 

 army bv De Plotho. Yet he is not too absorbed in the 

 midst of these instructions tn see that Montaigne s 

 " Essays "' are put in the box. 



Mr. Bosanquet on the Art of Bowling. 



Mr. B. J. T. Bosanquet contributes to the August 

 Pall Mall Magazine an article on the Art of Bowl- 

 ing. It is illustrated by • a series of photographs 

 specially taken to illustrate the various devices of 



the bowler : — 



.\ certain quickness from the pitch, or a certain decep- 

 tion as to the flight ot the ball through the air. are quali- 

 ties which go far towards giving the bowler tlie power to 

 dispose of a good batsman. The first of these two qualities 

 ma.y be said to be common to all good bowlers, and is 

 corimonly due to some natural peculiarity of action or 

 delivery, which is almost impossible of acquirement by less 

 gifted individuals. The second quality can be acquired. 

 but is more often natural, and in many cases unconscious. 



One often hears it stated that so-and-so is a good bowler, 

 but fails to get batsmen out This is generally due to the 

 absence of the quality which impart.s life and spin to the 

 ball. Without it the ball seems to pit<h dead, and to come 

 easil.y after pitching. 



