LAND AND Vv' A T E R 
September 11, 1915. 
Balkan writers, and only on one occasion does he give way 
to an excusaMe exaggeration about the first Balkan war, 
when he tnininn-.' ■> tlie importance of the Bulgarian eugage- 
nionts in Tl'-rare, and asserts that the main Turkish anriies 
fought at Kunianova. This is an error. But in the main, 
both on the historical and the modern sides, the book ii. 
absolutely reliable and a very lucid statement of Serbian 
liistory, politics, and ideals. 
"The Origin of Artillery." Bv Meut-Colonel H. \V. I., llime. 
(Longmans.) Cs. uet. 
Colonel Hinie is not informing us about higli explosives 
and 42crn. guns, but is taking us back to the earliest origins 
from which modern artillery descended. The invention of 
gunpowder, therefore, is the centre of his inquiry. There is 
an impassable gulf fixed between the military epochs l>efore 
and the epochs succeeding th« invention of a missile pro- 
pelled by an instantaneous explosion. The ancient Greeks 
were experts in the use of such horrors as burning sulphur, 
charcoal, pitch, incense, &c., and " Greek fire " became a 
commonplace of ancient warfare. The go-called "sea-fire" 
used by the Greeks of Constantinople in the seventh century 
A. p. was, the author conjectures, a calcium phosphide 
mixture squirted from a syphon. But not until the thirteentii 
century, he insists, was gunpowder invented or used in any 
country. He brings reasons to show that Arabs, Indians, and 
Chinese did not invent anything of the kind. It was Roger 
Bacon, an Englishman, who discovered gunpowder, and 
described the ingredients and their proportions in the cryptic 
anagrams of his book " De Secretis." "He was driven to 
employ cryptic methods by fear of the Inquisition." 
CV.lonel Hinie tells of the invention of cannons by a 
German monk in 1313. thoir manufacture in Ghent, their use 
at the battle of Crecy, and many interesting facts about fire- 
arrows, fire-pikes, rockets, round-shot. &c.. down to the time 
when shells were first used at the siege of Gibraltar (1779). 
Tlie book embodies long and accurate research, and, scientific 
as it is, reads like a romance. 
" The Prtlitlcal Ecoaomy of War." By F. W. Hhst. Dent. Si. net. 
Mr. Hirst calls his book "the political economy of 
war," but it is more especially concerned with the political 
economy of the present war viewed in the light of the greater 
wars of recent history. He considers from a scientific point 
of view some of the searching financial questions which are 
perplexing the man in the street to-day. If the countries at 
war seem to be comparatively prosperous now, that is 
because " an immensa factitious stimulus is given to labour 
at the time "; but " when that stimulus is withdrawn (after 
the war) an augmented quantity of labour is left to compete; 
in the market with a greatly diminished quantity of capital." 
He considers the cost of armaments in peace time, and quotes 
a calculation that "the European working man of the present 
day has to work a whole month in the year to defray the cost 
of war and armaments ; and in mo.st countries he has to work 
a week or two longer to pay interest on national debt." He 
considers the case of armament firms, and points out that 
" war is the ultimate aim of private armament firms," and 
that " there is a large class which has a direct pecuniary 
interest m war." He considers the question of indemnities. 
and points out that Japan found it cheaper to waive an 
indemnity from Russia rather than continue the war to exact 
It. Uar debt, war finance, debt conversion, and the par- 
ticular effects of the present war— here is a multitude of 
profoundly important questions which Mr. Hirst broaches 
with expert skill. 
"The Secret Memoirs of Count Tadaiii Havaihi 
by A. .M. Pooley. (Nash.) lOs. Gd. net.' 
G.C.V.O." Edited 
From Mr. Pooley's introduction we gather that altliouMi 
he family of the late Count Hayashi was%trongly opposedTo 
he Pubhcai.ou of these confidential memoi.s. the Count 
himself had definitely intended that they should be publiS 
In any case, Mr Pooley may be cougVatnlated ou bringing 
forXJi? 1 '"""P-^V '\^ P'-^^"^'"g « ^>ook full of int^°rest 
IZ l\ ''tono ■ ^^'' ^^^""'°'^^ ^'^--^ ^"tten at various 
times between 1902 and 1908, and the most significant page 
give the whole histoiy of the negotiations for the Angb 
Japanese Alliance, carried on l^tween Hayashi. as JapaiSe 
ilinister in London, and Lord Lansdowne. There a^ o, « 
or two outstanding feature, of the.se negotiations whlcTi a e 
iriea ,n the air that Germany might become a partner in the 
alliance, which would thus have become a triple alliance 
Secondly, and more important, Japan was evidently wave in. 
^!^!:!!lfl!g::!!^:^^^^^^ -'d an^agreen f 
with Russia. Hayashi, as a strcng Anglophile, was sent to 
I.ondcn. In the course of tlie negotiations he was much dis- 
turbed to hear that Count Ito was on his way to St. Peters- 
burg, possibly, as it was feared, to sound the Russian Govern- 
ment as to the alternative terms which she might offer. This 
project, however, was nipped in the bnd.- " I do not think," 
says the Count, " that our Government behaved well over it, 
especially in regard to sending Marquis Ito to St. Petersburt^ 
whilst I was negotiating with Lord Lansdowne. He oiifht 
not to have been sent whilst the negotiations with Great 
Britain were in progress She (Japan) has. indeed, 
won the sujjport of Great Britain, but she has lost the respect 
of Russia and of other European countries." 
It will be seen that the Count writes with great frank- 
ness; that he is not afraid of handling diplomatic secrets. Tha 
whole history is of great interest, and shows us very clearly 
one aspect at least of Japanese diplomacy a dozen years ago. 
VERSE. ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
OMAR, Hafiz, and their fellows owe much of their popu- 
larity in these days to the skill of their translators, who 
have given us not so much the literal rendering aa 
the original thought in English — which is a totally different 
thing, as appears from recently-published literal translations 
of Omar's quatrains. Much the same task of rendering the 
original thought has been accomplished in this slight volume 
of the poems of the Moorish King (" The Poems of Mu'tamid, 
King of Seville." John Murray. Is. net), whose life itself 
was almost an epic tragedy. His verse is not epic; his love- 
songs have all the fervour and passion of his race, while his 
lamentations in captivity are not altogether free of the note 
of self-pity. 
Still, while it is impossible to define what constitutes true 
poetry, there is no doubt that these verses — many of them 
contain it. There is ringing music in "The Faith of the 
King." which alone renders the volume worthy of note, and 
in every poem, however elight, is imagery and" colour. One 
may quote from " The Fountain " — 
The snx hath tempered it ; the mighty aim 
Polished the blade. ... 
and regret that space does not admit of further quotation. 
Though his works were far fewer, Mu'tamid might claim tha 
place in Moorish Spain that Hafiz held in Persian poetry and 
find few to dispute the claim. 
Has Mr. Gilbert Chesterton been inspired by these 
Eastern poets ? The question suggests itself on passing from 
this small volume to his slim book of verse, " Wine, Water, 
and Song " (Methuen, Is. net), which has just been published! 
One meets the same curious blending of pleasure in the good 
things of life and of mystical joy in the Hereafter. For 
example, take that little poem " The Rolling English Road." 
'The rolling English drunkard made the rollius English road: 
A reeUng road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire. 
It ends in this characteristic way : 
For there is gcod news yet to hear and fine things to be seen 
Before wo go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green. ' 
Once one begins quoting, it is difficult to forbear. All buft 
one of these poems have appeared before, and there is hardly 
one which does not contain some hauntfng phrase, couplet, or 
quatrain which will pass into common use. It ends with 
" Who Goes Home ? " Fortunately for Mr. Chesterton's repu- 
tation as a truth-teller, it has already been published, other- 
wise no one would believe him were he to state the plain facfc 
that this splendid Vale was written before the war : 
Men that are men again; who goes home' 
Tocsin and trumpeter ! Who goes home ' 
For there's blood on the field and blood on the foam. 
And blood on the body when Man goes home 
And a voice valedictory . . . Who is for Victory? 
>V ho IS for Liberty? Who goes home? 
A little shilling manual that ought to be in the hands 
ot every non-comnussioned officer is the N C 's Pochet 
Booh, issued by Messi-s. Forst^r Groom and Co , of 15 
Charing Cross, S.W. From map-reading to the construction 
of entrenchments, and from infantry drill to military 
engineering, this little volume condenses within its covers 
practically all that the N.C.O. needs to have at his finger-ends 
either in peace sen-ice or when campaigning. The same fir:n 
IS responsible for the production of Tactical Notes, another 
shilling manual dealing with the first principles of tactics and 
extremely useful to the junior officer. Both these volumes are 
well compiled, and the value of each is enhanced by a compre- 
hensive index which enables one to turn up the variou, 
departments of each subject treated on without difficulty 
Printed by the Vicxoau Uo.^ Paxl^^ru^^^^TTx^Tl^ii^^ri^;;;^;^^^ 
