Lady Malmesbury has devoted two very interesting chapters to the work done in the Intelligence Department during her husband's tenure of office. Space forbids our discussing them, though they give a better idea of the duties falling on that office than anything we have ever seen elsewhere. We must reserve such space as remains for a question of vital importance to the subject of this memoir. Did or did not the Intelligence Department supply correct information as to the strength of the Boers, as to the probable action of the Orange Free State, and as to the strategical questions involved? Did the Intelligence Department neglect its duty in the matter of the preparation and supply of maps of the probable theatre of war? Into these questions Lady Malmesbury enters at length, and in a most convincing way proves the case in favour of the Department. If it were only her own conclusions that were in issue, her readers might be disposed to consider them as the affectionate tribute of a wife to a loved and honoured

was

wills to read; and there is the verdict of that sober Commission on the War presided over by Lord Elgin, that the information supplied was "1emarkably accurate," and that the outcry as to maps "not altogether well informed." Lady Malmesbury gives, on page 340, a list of the papers supplied to Government on the subject of the Boers between June 1896 and September 1899; and as to the question of maps, can any reasoning being suppose that a body so ill provided with staff and with funds as was the Intelligence Department could have supplied accurate maps of a practically unsurveyed tract of country twice as large as France ? All that it was possible to do with the means at its disposal the Department and its Chief had done. The details are to be found in Lady Malmesbury's Memoir.

That Ardagh suffered acutely under the accusations levelled at his Department in the Press we can well understand. Loyally and steadfastly he kept silence, nor, as Lady Malmesbury says, even to himself did he pose as a martyr. But it was not till the War Commission had brought the truth to light that he could speak his mind, and then it is not of his own treatment that he complains. On 4th November 1900 he writes:

"Now we must go to work and set our house in order, recognising that our two Army Corps formed a totally inadequate insurance against the risks which we have to guard against. The Press and the public write and howl

THE Protectorate of Northern Nigeria appears to be emerging from the obscurity which surrounded it for some years after the Government took over the Administration from the Niger Company in 1900. Sir Frederick Lugard's success in gaining control of the whole of this vast territory without sensational military operations, and with little of the bloodshed usually associated with conquest, made Nigeria an unfruitful subject of copy for the Press, and in the absence of any startling events the majority of Englishmen had little opportunity for gathering a knowledge of the country. Lately, however, the decision to build a railway to Kano has drawn the attention to Northern Nigeria of that increasing body of Englishmen who are interested in our Empire; and the persistent energy of the Cotton Association has led us to look upon this, our latest Protectorate, as a possible source for the supply of raw cotton so necessary to the industry of Lancashire. One result of the attention lately drawn to Nigeria is that the Universities have begun to regard the political service there as a career which may possibly attract the undergraduate. But there is nowhere much information to be had as to the conditions and the climate which men may expect to find there. It is in the hope of throwing some light upon

that this

It is not

these conditions article is written. my intention here to discuss the commercial future of Northern Nigeria, nor am I about to describe the kind of work that falls to a political officer there. I will confine myself solely to the question of climate and conditions, speaking particularly of life in the upcountry provinces. It is to be remembered that the Northern Territories of Nigeria are quite distinct from the Coast; that it sometimes takes men two months from the time of their arrival at the mouth of the Niger to reach the station where they enter upon their work; that the wet season is a shorter one than farther south; that the country is not, like the Coast, a forest country; and that the natives are quite distinct in character and feature from the ordinary negro. For these reasons none of the many descriptions of life on the West Coast of Africa are applicable to life up-country, and there may, therefore, be room for the following attempt to give an impression of that life based upon personal experience. My own experience of the country has been chiefly gained in Bornu, which is a large province lying to the south-west of Lake Chad, but it may be taken that the conditions of life there are very much the

same as those which prevail in all the up-country provinces.

Some years ago, before we had occupied the Northern Territories of Nigeria, it was thought that the climate of the North would be found healthy and stimulating. The few men who had visited these territories saw in the dry air and cool, wholesome nights of the North, an escape from the mists and exhalations that corrupt the air of the Coastal countries, a prospect of healthy living not hitherto associated with any portion of West Africa. It would not be right that one who has been continuously resident in the Northern Territories should be over-ready to confirm these optimistic forecasts. That the climate is in itself healthier than that of the Coast, neither I nor any other will be likely to deny. But it is fair to point out that it is far from being sufficiently wholesome to balance the hard and comfortless conditions of life which, in the present absence of transport and means means of communication, prevail there. There are a few persons of such fortunate constitution that they can live in the country for long periods without suffering, but the majority begin to feel spent and bloodless if their stay is prolonged beyond one year. Others get ill during the first years of service and become afterwards acclimatised: and these know by the memory of many weary fever - stricken days at what cost England will inherit the buildings of her fancy in this fascinating Protectorate,

It was, indeed, natural that the first view of the country

should lead to optimism. The climate will not distress the traveller whose visit lasts a few months only, and it is difficult even for those who have felt its treachery to understand why it produces its melancholy effects. The nights, save in April and part of May, are cool and clear. The air is dry. As compared with the Coast, the mortality among natives is so small as at once to attract the notice of boys brought up-country as servants. There is a passable breed of horses to encourage regular exercise, and an opportunity in most districts for the use of rifle and gun. Here is full material for an attractive dream,-a land divided, by a vast desert on one side, and by a malarial belt on the other, from the prying eyes of Nonconformists and Radical politicians, a faërie tract to red tape impenetrable, altogether outside the spectacled purview of Mr Cocker, and yet giving promises of as good health as we may hope for in countries under his immediate observation. But these fair promises are found false in the event. There must be some treachery in the air, some power in the sun that searches out our weaknesses. There is a gloomy contrast often observable between the energy of a newcomer during his first six months and afterwards.

The day begins well. About five o'clock comes a faint blue flush and the chill of dawn for even in the tropics the Dawn is cold when she rises from "Tithonus'

frozen bed." A quarter of an hour later and the stars take on the wan pallor of candles in twilight, and presently comes the first appearance of the sun himself. It is pleasant to be up and on the road at this cool hour. The sun, that is to be soon our inflexible tyrant and enemy, begins with as gentle promises of moderation and restraint as any early Cæsar of them all. But by nine o'clock he begins to reveal the terror of himself, and by eleven he becomes unbearable. Over this country Apollo gives the reins to Phaethon every day, and every day his chariot overturns to burn the population black, and take his revenge in fever and sunstroke upon the white skins that will not take his colouring.

In December, January, and February, the innumerable army of dust-atoms blown from the desert by the Harmattan do not a little to mitigate the fierceness of the sun: but never believe the fiction that there are any days on which we may safely dispense with the protection of a sun-helmet. During these months the mornings are often very cold, and such a thing as a coating of ice on water is not unknown. But it grows very hot as the day advances, and a man may get sun-fever in January nearly as easily as in April. The cold weather is welcome to Europeans, but it would be more so if we had proper houses. If we are trekking during the cold months we long for some better protection from the chilly nights than tent or tem

porary straw hut can give : nor indeed are the mud houses at the district headquarters, with their open doors and window - holes, the best of shelter from the searching dusty wind. The dry air and dust - laden Harmattan make the cold weather something of a purgatory to men whose skin is tender and easily affected. Cracked lips and raw red spots too often give the lie to conventional expressions of satisfaction with the cold weather. Still, these are not fever months, and if one's work does not take one out in the searching chills of dawn, it is probable that this will prove to be the healthiest period of the year. There is something cheering and pleasantly reminiscent of English winters, in sitting over a fire at night with a novel or another white man for company.

Towards the end of February the weather begins to grow hotter, and by the beginning of April a temperature of 110° in the shade is a daily commonplace. This heat is the prelude to the rains, which have long ago begun to fall in districts near the Coast, but seldom fall in the North until the end of April or the beginning of May. Nature anticipates the rain in the most intelligent way. Green sprouts appear on the bare baobab trees, and the little bushes begin to look less parched and miserable a good two weeks before the arrival of the first tornado. They are calling the rain," the Hausas say. Meanwhile water grows more