$58,446,852. In addition to this there was granted for local science and art museums in England and Wales, £748,194$3,621,258, besides an expenditure of £16,000-$77,440 for agricultural education in England and Wales-thus making the grand total of $61,145,550 in the shape of Parliamentary grants for "elementary education" alone in the three kingdoms. If to this sum we add the results of the School Board taxation and local contributions to "voluntary schools," amounting last year to £3,170,587, or $15,345,641, we have a grand total sum of seventy-six and a half millions of dollars expended for the promotion of elementary education in England and the sister kingdoms of Ireland and Scotland. If, further, we add to this the amount of miscellaneous expenditure for popular education in Ireland and Scotland (as I have done for England and Wales), the grand total expenditure for popular education in Great Britain and Ireland would reach a sum not far short of eighty millions of dollars! So much for the "elementary education," which the writer of "England as an Ally" declares is starved by England in order that she may build ships!

As in all matters of national concern in Europe under the control of the Government, the details of England's system of popular education are elaborated with unusual minuteness and care. It would seem that every conceivable subject which could be made practically available in furthering the education of youths, so as to fit boys and girls for their after life, and thus shape the destiny of those who have to earn their bread by industry or skill, has been provided for in the various yearly "codes" (with their schedules) prescribed by the "Lords Committee of the Privy Council on Education." Thus no less than the sum of £1,176,228-$5,631,919, was expended out of the Parliamentary grant of 1898-99 for instruction in various subjects, such as cookery, laundrywork, dairywork, needlework, cottage gardening, singing, and various other" optional subjects."

How is it, I might ask, that the average American can

not write about England and English national affairs without betraying the ill-disguised, but latent, hostility, of which the school histories of his boyhood sowed the seeds? He seems to make little effort to get rid of that feeling in his later years, even when dealing with intricate international questions affecting England. How different are the criticisms of such men as Captain Mahan, of the United States Navy, and others; and no less gratifying is the judicial fairness of Secretary Hay and Ambassador Choate in dealing with the delicate questions that often arise between the United States and England and her colonies.

WE

CEYLON: THE SCENTED ISLE*

BY DRAPER E. FRALICK

E yield, unresisting, to the magic of the far East, and the romances of our youth never entirely forsake us. In mature age, when the joyous dreams have been sobered by the hard practicalities of reality, we look back upon those fairy days with a sigh of satisfaction that we really lived then. We knew nothing of business in the East, then. All was a rose-tinted vision, arichly be dizened panorama of sultans, favorites, slaves, fountains, gardens, palaces, and the magical transformations worked by the genii. As for Ceylon, it took its place in our imaginations as part of this Eastern fairyland, for we had heard of its perfumed airs, and such things spell luxury and dreams to the young and impressionable. But, with the fading of our youthful dreams has come the knowledge of the commercial possibilities of our fairyland, and, though we who stay at home still associate Ceylon with spicy breezes, however different a tale those who live there may have to tell, yet now we think of Ceylon more as the place where the tea comes from than as an aromatic paradise.

As tea is a national beverage, an English institution, in fact, and as a great deal of it comes from Ceylon, Mr. H. W. Cave's book, "Golden Tips: a Description of Ceylon and Its Tea Industry," is doubly welcome. At the outset it may be said that the author has done his work admirably;

* Golden Tips: a Description of Ceylon and Its Tea Industry. By H. W. Cave. Published by Sampson Low, Marston & Co., London.

the book is well written and beautifully illustrated. It will interest the traveler, the seeker after the picturesque, and the prospective investor.

Tea culture in Ceylon has been active for only twenty years, the quality of the tea grown and the scrupulous care taken in handling it commending it to public favor. Mr. Cave gives a very interesting description (accompanied by illustrations) of the cultivation of tea and the pruning, plucking, rolling, fermenting, bulking, and packing processes. Everything is done to avoid handling the tea. "Indeed, from the bush to the tea-table such methods of cleanliness are observed as scarcely any other food manufacture can claim; and especially do these methods of Ceylon tea manufacturers. stand in contrast to those of China, where the primitive operations employed are such that the stomach would rebel against a detailed description."

Of the "golden tips," which give the title to the book, Mr. Cave relates some remarkable things, especially as regards prices. Tips alone would be far too strong for the teapot, though they are sometimes sold by themselves in London for as much as £10 to £35 per pound weight. He adds: "This statement will appear surprising to those who do not already know of the excitement caused by certain. auction sales of Ceylon tea about ten years ago. A parcel of this extraordinary tea was first sent from Gartmore Estate to Maskeliya. Its unusual character was very quickly recognized by the dealers, and bidding began at £1 Is. per pound, advancing smartly to £10 12s. 6d., at which price it was knocked down. Naturally, other planters followed suit with parcels of carefully chosen tips and before the excitement abated the fabulous sum of £35 per pound was obtained."

There are in Ceylon over a thousand tea gardens, varying in size from a hundred to a thousand acres.

For the traveler and sightseer Mr. Cave describes some of the natural beauties of the island, sorry that so many

travelers miss them because they are little known. He recounts the fascinations around Kanay. He gives an admirable description of Adam's Peak, the show place of Ceylon, and of Nuwara Eliya, which, in his opinion, possesses all the charms of Egypt, Brazil, the Alps, and the Scotch Highlands, "and a hundred other attractions, forming a combination of the most delightful conditions under which man can desire to live." The description may be a little flowery, but we have the added authority of Sir Samuel Baker's appreciation of Nuwara Eliya's health-giving and beautiful qualities.

Adam's Peak is a holy ground for Mohammedan, Buddhist, and Hindoo. Upon the top of the Peak is a mark resembling a footprint, which the Mohammedan alleges was Adam's, the Buddhist, Gautama's, and the orthodox Hindoo, Siva's. So all three make pilgrimages there, and Mr. Cave numbers them at thousands annually. They go "up the steep and rocky track, enduring privation and hardship for the good of their souls. Some of the very old people of both sexes are borne aloft on the shoulders of their stalwart sons; others struggle upward unaided, until, fainting by the way, they are considerately carried with all haste in their swooning condition to the summit and forced into an attitude of worship at the shrine to secure the full benefits of their pilgrimage before death should supervene; others never reach the top at all, but perish from cold and fatigue; and there have been many instances of pilgrims losing their lives by being blown over precipices or falling from giddiness induced by a thoughtless retrospect when surmounting especially dangerous cliffs."

It would be impossible to write of Ceylon at the present time without giving some attention to the Boer prisoners. Their encampment is described as beautifully situated, the location, according to the author, possessing many of the characteristics of their own country. Mr. Cave has it from "the prisoners of war themselves" that they are pleased with