I imagine Mr. AGATE’S picture of young-man life in the Manchester of the nineties to be very much like the real thing.  Relaxation was not wholly remote from it.  Cotton and commandments were broken with equal facility.  Also you may be impressed by the number of Germans in it.  Finally, after telling us, sometimes engagingly, sometimes verbosely, all he can remember about Lancashire, Mr. AGATE brings his hero to Town, levers him along, year after year, and gets (almost on his last page) to his big situation.  I won’t spoil it. Responsibility, which might better have been called “Garrulity,” is a novel containing boredom and charm in about equal proportions; not to mention promise for the days when its author has learned to discipline his too-ready pen.

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From the early part of 1915 until the end of 1917 Admiral Sir REGINALD BACON commanded at Dover, and from the preface to The Dover Patrol (HUTCHINSON) we can gather that he is smarting under a considerable sense of injustice and injury.  Of the merits of his case—­he frankly describes his dismissal as brutal—­I do not pretend to judge, but can safely assume that the other side have something to say for themselves, if they care to.  However, you are not to suppose that this is a bitter book.  Most generous are the praises which the Admiral bestows upon his subordinates; his venom he reserves for just the chosen few who, no doubt, can bear it.  Apart from personal recriminations, of which some of us must be more than tired, these two portly volumes are of real historical value.  You will find in them not only a record of actual achievements, often carried out under desperately difficult conditions, but also of projects which for one reason or another were never fulfilled.  “Why don’t we try to land on the Belgian coast?” was a question our amateur strategists were never weary of asking.  Well, here is their answer.  Here, too, are countless photographs, charts, plans and diagrams—­a really wonderful collection.  Even if you are not in the least interested in Sir REGINALD’S grievances you will find him a writer who has a lot of useful things to say and knows how to say them.

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AN EFFECT OF THE CRIME WAVE.

[Illustration:  Both. “HM!  HE LOOKS RESPECTABLE—­]

[Illustration:  —­STILL, ONE NEVER KNOWS.”]

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“The normal average amount of clothing required in a temperate climate such as ours is:  One pound weight of clothing to every one stone weight of the body....  Thus the clothes of a child weighing 3 stones should be 3lb., and for a man or woman weighing 10 stones the clothes should weigh 10lb.  This is a definite statement; at any rate, disprove it who can.”—­Sir JAMES CANTLIE in “The Daily Mail."

We gave instructions to our Mathematical specialist to work out the figures, and his report is that he finds them substantially correct.