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the same wonderful behavior, which downward, and finally plunges headwas recorded.

Since then I have every year watched for the upward night-flight of the swifts; but as the flights occurred at a rather inconvenient time for observation, there were often several successive evenings on which nothing of the kind was seen. Often, also, the birds would fly away towards the horizon, though when they did this late in the evening their course was generally an upward one. They were, however, no less inclined to ૧ lofty flight on a cloudy night than on a clear one; and I often saw them vanish into the clouds. But this never happened when the air was very thundery.

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It is convenient to watch the swifts from a somewhat elevated spot, SO that they may be kept within view as continuously as possible, since, if they pass out of the field of vision at a distance, it is almost impossible to find them again. It is also desirable have a support to lean upon, for without this the constant gazing towards the zenith becomes very tiring, especially if field-glasses are used. It is not often that the birds can be seen during the whole of the upward flight; they generally swing around in wide circles for some time, and pass out of sight towards the horizon, after which the repeated cry, swee ree, first indicates their return. The whole incident, as it generally occurred, may be described as follows:

The sun has set, and most of the small birds have retired for the night, though the sparrows are still noisy in the creepers on the house. Most of the swifts are flying low over the meadows, but some are in the sky; and of these a few are chasing others, and performing those magnificent swoops by which it appears that the males drive the females to their nests. Certain it is that the pursuing birds (always acting singly) chase particular individuals, whose course they follow at a greater altitude, but always with the intention of finally descending in a falcon-like stoop at the lower bird, who, anticipating the attack, swerves

long. The swishing sound produced by the descending swifts can be heard at a considerable distance. The pursuer mounts again, almos vertically, and renews the assault. This goes on for some time, and when it ceases many of the swifts have already retired to the nests. The others begin to pursue each other in noisy groups, at about the level of the housetops, and this game is kept up for a quarter of an hour or longer, the birds traversing a wide area, and being sometimes out of sight for several minutes. Then they continue the same sport at a higher level, no longer descending so low as the roofs.

At about forty minutes after sunset (whether in June or July) the group of swifts begins to whirl round and round like a mob of rooks; but again and again the cluster breaks up in a pursuit and a mad noisy rush across the sky. Yet the birds are gradually attaining a higher position, and their screaming becomes the less noticeable. Their wings have often a tremulous motion, reminding one of the flight of an ascending skylark. Still, there is no deliberate upward flight-only a succession of swoops and rushes terminating at increasing distances from the ground. The birds keep fairly together, and not one descends to the houses; but it may be that the cluster is joined by another group, coming you know not whence. Dusk is beginning to fall, and even the sparrows are silent; but the cries of the swifts can yet be faintly heard. The birds may now be easily lost sight of altogether, especially if there be no white fleecy clouds high overhead to throw into relief the whirling black dots in the sky. Now is the time to use a field-glass or a small telescope, and, having once found the birds with it, to keep them within the field as long as possible. The peculiar skylark-like motion of the wings is now almost continuously maintained, and the birds, instead of whirling round in a cluster, seem to prefer to lie head to wind. Against the loftiest white clouds their move

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Gambling for Bibles.-On Tuesday, in accordance with the annual custom, there occurred at the ancient town of St. Ives, in the County of Huntingdon, a ceremony which, if not absolutely unique, is as curious a relic of ancient times as may be found in a march of many days. On first thought it seems that the sight of six little boys and six little girls dicing in a parish church to win a prize of a Bible must be unique, both in the past and in the present. It is certainly unique enough at present, but for the satisfaction of historical accuracy it must be said that, nected with the Church of St. Lawrence, at Reading, there existed at one time a dicing ceremony for the encouragement of good maidservants. But the rattle of the dice has SO long ceased at Reading that St. Ives can claim to stand alone in the present. The queer old custom started in this way: As far back as the year 1675 a bequest of fifty pounds, invested in land, was made by an eccentric Dr. Robert Wild, of Oundle, Northamptonshire, for the purpose of distributing six Bibles yearly among twelve children. It was stipulated that six boys and six girls should cast dice for the Bibles during divine service every Whitsun Tuesday morning. When the custom was first carried out in 1693 the dice were rattled on the altar. This was done for many years; but about half a century ago the incongruity of the thing was too much for the reigning vicar, and during his time and ever since the throwing has been done on

an ordinary table placed in the centre aisle.

Briefly, this is how the ceremony is performed nowadays: At about nine o'clock in the morning the vicar or his curate appears with the church wardens in the centre aisle. Some ordinary little table is procured from a neighboring cottage; then in file six nice little boys and six nice little girls, who take up positions near the table. The signal is given, and three boys begin competing with three boys and then half the girls compete with the other half in like manner. Each competitor throws the dice three times, and the church wardens keep the counts. The unsuccessful six then go on trying until they win, and although one might become a very old "boy" or "girl" before that happened, fortune is never known to have frowned on any of the dicers for longer than five years. The successful six, who are presented, according to the price stipulated, with seven-shilling Bibles, strongly bound in leather, are expected to attend divine service in the evening, when the vicar, of course, improves the occasion. Near the church is situated a patch of land still known as "Bible Orchard." The Church of All Saints, in which the ceremony takes place, is an interesting structure and contains a great quantity of Norman work, the original building having been erected by the abbots of Ramsey, who also constructed the ancient bridge which still crosses the sluggish bosem of the Ouse.-St. James's Budget.

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PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY

THE LIVING AGE COMPANY, BOSTON.

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FOR SIX DOLLARS remitted directly to the Publishers, THE LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage.

Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, cr by post-office money order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks, and money-orders should be made payable to the order of THE LIVING AGE Co.

Single copies of THE LIVING AGE. 15 cents.

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From The Contemporary Review. THE SOUTH AFRICA BUBBLE.

The collapse of the South Africa Committee is not only a fact of imperial importance, but is also a very curious conundrum in contemporary history. The historian of the reign will certainly want to know how it came about that a great investigation begun with such protestations should have ended in a ridiculous fiasco.

The main points of that part of the history which is already public must be shortly stated in order to make intelligible what requires to be said as regards its more recent and hidden chapters.

The concession of self-government to the Transvaal after the Majuba campaign was gall and wormwood to the whole Tory party. It was part of a policy with which the present colonial secretary was understood to agree. At the time of the advent of the present government to power, there very naturally arose a demand among their followers for what may be roughly called a jingo policy in South Africa. Mr. Rhodes was the premier of the Cape Colony, and had, on the whole, full command of the ministry and the Parliament. A charter had been granted to the British South Africa Company, by which, in consideration of the supposed security for a sane and righteous policy, obtained, by adding to the Board of the Company the Duke of Fife, the Duke of Abercorn, and Earl Grey, powers of government of the most extensive kind were placed in the hands of what was not merely a commercial but actually a speculative ring of capitalists. The supposed securities, on the faith of which that charter had been granted by a previous administration, had been rendered, in fact, nugatory by the internal arrangements of the Company.

Mr. Rhodes had been delegated to conduct their business in South Africa, not merely with the fullest power as a managing director, but actually with a formal power of attorney which made him the absolute master of all the resources, in men, money and influence, which the Company could command in Africa. By this device, magnificent in

its audacious simplicity, he became the emperor of Charterland-the unquestioned master of the obedience of Doctor Jameson, who was the formal administrator, of Dr. Rutherford Harris, who was the company's secretary at Cape Town, and of all the other employés, such as Mr. Stevens, who acted in the absence of Doctor Harris. It happened that, in his private capacity, Mr. Rhodes also controlled other undertakings of great wealth and influence, such as the Goldfields Company.

In the Transvaal Republic, the mixed community of foreigners, for convenience called the Uitlanders, had grown with the growth of the mining industry, and by the summer of 1895 the mushroom city of Johannesburg contained a large and prosperous non-Dutch population.

As early as 1892 they had discussed their grievances against the Boer government, and had formed an association known as the National Union, with the view of obtaining reforms by the usual methods of constitutional agitation from President Krüger and the Raad. The grievances were real and the Boers were obstinate. Moreover, the Boers were in no mind to be dispossessed of the government of their own country by the votes of these immigrants, to whom the Transvaal is merely a sort of gambling-stand, and whom the Boers, rightly or wrongly, credited with as little public spirit and as little morals, commercial or otherwise, as a community can well have. The leading spirit of the Union, in the time preceding the summer of 1895, was one Mr. Charles Leonard, a lawyer, who was making a large income in Johannesburg by his profession, and no doubt intended to make himself a home and a career in that country. He may be described as the Gracchus of the little revolution. He gave evidence before the committee as to the grievances, and he made it clear that before the inception of what is now usually called the Jameson Plan, in the middle of 1895, the capitalists were not particularly interested in the Union. His words were (on May 14, 1897): "Up to 1895, no capitalist was ever seen on our platform; indeed, that was one of our grievances."

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