Shall we live to see a House of Lords that
makes its mark?"--_Observer._
Some of them, we believe, are under the impression that they have done
so already.
* * * * *
OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.
(_By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks._)
Unless you can share with me the sad immunity of the forties, I must
despair of translating for you the emotion raised in my antique soul by
the wrapper of a new RIDER HAGGARD story bearing the picture of a Zulu
and the discovery inside that _Quatermain_ is come again! The tale that
has so excited me is called, a little ominously, _Finished_ (WARD,
LOCK), and I could have better loved a cheerier title. The matter is, to
begin with, an affair of a shady doctor, of I.D.B. and an abduction;
none of it, I admit, any too absorbing. But about halfway through the
author, as though sharing my own views upon this part of the plot,
exchanges (so to speak) the Shady for the Black, and transports us all
to Zululand. And if you need reminding of what H.R.H. can do with that
delectable country, I can only say I am sorry for you. Incidentally
there are some stirring scenes from certain pages of history that the
glare of these later days has rather faded--Isandhlwana and Rorke's
Drift among them; as well as the human drama of the feud between
CETEWAYO (terror of my nursery!) and the witch-doctor _Zikali_.
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