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A KNOWING OLD BIRD.

"Grey African Parrot ... every question fully answered; L10 or offers."
--_Weekly Paper._

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OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

(_By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks._)

We have had to wait four years for the concluding volumes of _The Life of
Benjamin Disraeli_ (MURRAY), but, as the engaged couple said of the tunnel,
"it was worth it," for in the interval Mr. BUCKLE has been able to enrich
his work with a wealth of new material. This includes DISRAELI'S
correspondence with QUEEN VICTORIA during his two Premierships, and the
still more remarkable letters that he wrote to the two favoured sisters,
ANNE, Lady CHESTERFIELD, and SELINA, Lady BRADFORD, during the last eight
years of his life. To one or other of them he wrote almost every day, and
from the sixteen hundred letters that have been preserved Mr. BUCKLE has
selected with happy discretion a multitude of passages which throw a vivid
light upon the political events of the time and upon DISRAELI'S own
character. Whereas the first four volumes of the biography might be likened
to a good sound Burgundy, thanks to these letters the last two sparkle and
stimulate like a vintage champagne. As we read them we seem to be present
at the scenes described, to overhear the discussions at the Cabinet, to
catch a glimpse of the actors _en deshabille_. Mr. BUCKLE says that
"Disraeli, from first to last, regarded his life as a brightly tinted
romance, with himself as hero." In one of his letters to Lady BRADFORD he
says, "I live for Power and the Affections." A poseur, no doubt, he was,
but not a charlatan. His industry was amazing and his insight almost
uncanny. "I know not why Japan should not become the Sardinia of the
Mongolian East," he writes in 1875. To the political student these Volumes
will be almost as fruitful a field as BURKE; for myself, I have found them
more fascinating than any novel.

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It seams a great pity that Mr. KIPLING'S _Letters of Travel_ (MACMILLAN)
contains nothing later than 1913. It would have been particularly
interesting to see how far the events of the great tragedy might have
modified or aggravated his scorn against those who do not see eye to eye
with him. In the pre-war KIPLING, as we have him here, "Labour" is always
the enemy, "Democracy" the hypocritical cant of cranks and slackers. What
do they know of En