John Buchan's Latest Novel Mr. John Buchan has set himself to work out a theory in writing what is rather a series of romances ending with a splendid chapter of history than an ordinary novel—"The Path of a King" (Hodder and Stoughton, 8s. 6d. net), The things we call aristocracies and reigning houses," his Scholar maintains, in the prologue, "are
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last Places to look for master-but they have been too long' in possession. they have been cosseted and comforted and the devil has gone out of their blood. Don't imagine that I undervalue descent. It is not for nothing thet a great man leaves posterity. But who is more likely to inherit the fire—the elder son with his flesh-pots or the younger son with his fortune to find? Just think of it? All the younger sons of younger sons back through the generations! We none of us know our ancestors beyond a little way. We all of us may have kings' blood in our veins. The dago who blacked my boots at Vancouver may be des-conded by curious ways from Julius Caesar. Think of it! The spark once transmitted may smoulder for generations under ashes, but the appointed time will come, and it will flare up in the world. God never allows waste. And we fools rub our eyes and wonder when we see genius come out of the gutter."
To establish this doctrine Mr. Buchan shows us the working of heredity in a series of stories, many of them interwoven with episodes and with characters borrowed faithfully enough from history, each of which is a complete and highly polished romance in itself. He begins with one Biorn, the young son of a Northland king, Ironbeard, who is left stranded on a Frankish shore after an unsuccessful raid and then, through a long genealogy, most of the descendants of Biorn who come into his picture begin life in adversity, and carve their way either to fame or to fortune. Johan the Outlaw, for instance, founds an English family from which comes the immensely rich wife of a Flemish merchant. The illegitimate son, on whom all her hopes are based, dies, and a despised daughter becomes the an-ce stress, generation after generation, of a knight who dies magnificently in Cathay, of another who fights under the banner of Joan of Are, of a younger son who voyages with Columbus, of an adventurer, who escapes on St. Bartholomew's night, after doing something to avenge the victims, and settles in England. A_ wastrel who is involved in the schemes of Titus Oates and a spy of Marlborough among the Jacobites play each his part, and then the strain crops up again on the other side of the Atlantic, where an Indiana clodhopper, one Abe Linkhorn, loses a curious gold ring which has been found in the possession of each successive hero since the boy Biorn first were it on his arm. The story of the life and death of the boy Linkhorn who became the great President Lincoln is one of the hest pieces of work that Mr. Buchan has done—it brings the record to a close—but throughout the book he is consistently happy, writing of adventure with the strength and the fine power of description that seldom fail him, and getting every possible scrap of colour and of sentiment out of the romance and the history in which the desfendants of the King are involved. The book has a grip which is quite unusual in what is really a series of stories each complete in itself and if there is no common ground for comparison between this and such a novel as "Greenmantle," it is at least possible to say that the one is as much out of the ordinary as the other, and as fine a piece of work, Tuere is considerable regret among Americans here, says the "Japan Gazette," that Dr. David Jayne Hill did not permit his name to be passed upon for the post of Ambassador to Japan, considering his high reputation in diplomatic associations. As it was, his nomination was very nearly effected. It is learned that Tokio actually received a communication from Washington, suggesting his name and in the usual diplomatic manner asking whether the choice would be persona grata to Japan. However, before Tokio could coa-sider the suggestion, another communication from Washington was received withdrawing the. suggestion at Dr. Hill's instance.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.