of a personality which is everything that this sort of fiction requires.  Here unfortunately the matter ends. Belsize, who promises so much, has no adventures worth the name.  It is true that he rescues the Prince of Mingrelia, runs to earth a gang of highly-educated and aesthetic criminals, and does other things that we properly expect such men to do.  But there is no excitement about his methods.  Not to put too fine a point on it, the author of Belsize lacks the true imagination that makes the unreal seem real—­a very different thing from the imagination which merely clothes realities in a garment of mystery.  Notwithstanding this defect, The London Nights of Belsize should wile away an hour or so very pleasantly.

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[Illustration:  Delighted Patriot (after three days’ absence).  “NOT MUCH TO FEAR FROM U-BOATS IF WE CAN GROW FOOD AT THIS RATE!”

Voice from, above.  “PLEASE WOULD YOU THROW OVER OUR LITTLE BOY’S ZEPPELIN?”]

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If A Regimental Surgeon in War and Prison (MURRAY) does not create so profound an impression as it would have done two years ago, the reason must be that our capacity for disgust at Hunnish cruelty is exhausted by the demands already made upon it.  Captain DOLBEY was in the Mons retreat and assisted at what he calls “the Miracle of the Marne,” and in writing of these events he shows a real knowledge of both friend and foe.  Taken prisoner under circumstances entirely creditable to himself, he saw the inside of German prison-camps, and suffered the indignities and horrors for which these places have so justly become infamous.  His experiences are described with an almost judicial calmness.  In one case of childish revenge I trust that the sufferers were sustained by a sense of humour.  When the picture of a “Prussian family having its morning hate” appeared, the prisoners were punished by having their deck-chairs confiscated.  Mr. Punch, while deeply regretting this vicarious expiation of his offence, cannot help deriving some solace from the thought that he succeeded in penetrating the hide of these Teuton pachyderms.  When, for a change, Captain DOLBEY received a kindness from German hands he acknowledges it frankly.  He also makes one or two suggestions which I sincerely hope will be considered by those who are in a position to deal with them.  Altogether an illuminating book.

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