tremely beneficial to the average man or woman, but from the vibration; and though lightness, rigidity, and strength have been long since gained, no real attention has been paid to comfort until within the last year.

However, there is not much doubt that this danger will be removed in the near future, for all the makers are now striving to annihilate vibration, either by means of a spring frame, as in the most successful, the Whippet, or by means of very clastic tires, or, best of all, by a combination of the two. The new tires are of two sorts; the object of both, however, is to kill vibration at the point of contact—that is, the point at which it starts. The first and theoretically the most perfect is the Pneumatic, which consists of a hollow canvas tube about the size of a garden hose, having a rubber tube inside, and inflated in the same way as a football. Its special merit is the elasticity which extends entirely round the tire. The Pneumatic has become very popular with racing men, as, owing to this elasticity, greatly increased speed has been obtained on it. But on a road machine it is less satisfactory, both because it is liable to burst and because of the difficulty of repairing it. The Cushion is simply a large rubber tire with a hollow core. Although it deadens vibration almost completely, there is no real elasticity about it, and the rougher usage it is put to, the more the vibration increases. Already several new varieties and modifications of these tires have been introduced.

Cycling, like everything else nowadays, must be practical, and this practical spirit has worked itself out in carrier tricycles, which have been taken up to a large extent by tradesmen, not for their saving of time, but because a machine, costing nothing to keep, worked by one boy, is infinitely cheaper than a man, boy, horse, and cart. The carrier has also been adopted very satisfactorily by the Post Office in the country and some parts of London, while bicycles are used almost all over the world for the delivery of telegrams. Water cycles have also been constructed, but have not proved conspicuous successes. For years cyclists have served as couriers and message carriers in the Continental armies, while in England, mainly through the unceasing advocacy of their advantages by Colonel A. R. Savile, cycling sections have been formed

in many volunteer regiments, a Volunteer Cyclists' Corps has been organised, an appropriation has lately been granted by the Government for the purchase of machines and their introduction into the regular army, and volunteer sections have been formed among the regulars at Walmer and other points. There is plenty of enthusiasm on the subject in the army-in fact, far more than among cyclists themselves. There is no doubt cycles would be very useful in case of war, to transport bodies of infantry so mounted from one point to another, provided the roads were rideable. But the prevalent idea that cyclists would form independent battalions, able to traverse deserts at lightning speed, ford rivers, charge cavalry, or even defend themselves against it, or descend on the foe like the fiery Hun, has not yet been, and probably never will be, realised.

Cycling has also produced a literature of its own, its more important papers being the Cyclist and Wheeling, and in America the Bulletin of the League of American Wheelmen. A large number of books have been already written on the sport. There is but space to mention some of the more notable. One of the first serious efforts was Mr. Charles E. Pratt's American Bicycler, brought out about 1879. Among what might be called the standard works of reference are Dr. B. W. Richardson's Tricycle in Relation to Health and Recreation, Dr. Oscar Jenning's La Santé par le Tricycle; Cycling, by Lord Bury and George Lacy Hillier in the Badminton Series, Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle, by Karl Kron, and Around the World on a Bicycle, by Thomas Stevens. It cannot, however, be said, interesting as is the subject of touring, that it has been treated in a remarkably successful manner from a purely literary point of view. Books, for example, like In the Cevennes with a Donkey, Scrambles among the Alps, An Autumn Holiday on French Rivers, An Unknown River, The Adventures of a Phaeton, have yet to be produced by cyclists. That there are even greater possibilities in cycling than in walking, climbing, boating, and driving, we have endeavoured to show. Pictures of cycling subjects have also been made, and at least two illustrated cycling papers are published: Radfahr Humor in Germany, and Bicycling News in England. Science and archæology have been enlisted in the service of cycling by the formation of the Society of Cyclists, which considers these

subjects in their relation to the wheel. And road-making has been looked after by the Roads Improvement Association, which shows its scope by its name. It is a very worthy but, most unfortunately, a not at all prosperous body.

As to cycling clubs, whenever two or three cyclists are gathered together a club is at once started. In this country, with the exception of those at the Universities,which are not in a very flourishing condition at present, the London, the largest, the Pickwick, the oldest in the world, and the Stanley, which gives the annual show of machines, though numbered by thousands they are of very small importance. A general cycling club-house has recently been opened at 8, Queen Anne's Gate. In America cycling clubs have the same standing and importance as any others, and among them are many wealthy and influential organisations. Even now cycling has probably a greater number of practising votaries than any other sport. Certainly it is far more widely spread over the world. Racing, the decay of which is only temporary, will in the future be again revived either under proper management, or as a successful speculation like horse-racing, or, let us rather hope, it will hold a position equal to that of cricket. The next generation, thanks to the wheel, will know the roads of Europe much more thoroughly than that which is passing away and lamenting the loss of stage coaches. There is no doubt that cycling will become more and more closely associated with the practical business of life. It may play its part in warfare and strife. In literature and in art it will be properly represented. And yet there is no reason to forget that it is with us to-day, and that we may add a new pleasure and a new zest to our lives by taking it up at once.

J. AND E. R. PENNELL.

CONTINENTAL COMMENTS

ΤΗ

Paris.

HE French public, it must be admitted with regret, does not take much interest in the domestic affairs of its neighbours. From time to time, however, it becomes excited about some event or other. Such has been the case with regard to Mr. Parnell. There is not a single French paper which has not commented upon the subject more than once. Thanks to Mrs. O'Shea, Mr. Parnell is better known at the present moment on this side of the Channel than his illustrious and energetic predecessor O'Connell ever was.

I know that most of the English papers have been much scandalised by the articles which we have published upon this subject, and that I myself have been severely censured. Writing upon the same subject in an English Review, I do not hesitate, however, to repeat in general terms that French opinion is right, and that all over the Continent a similar opinion has been held. Not that the French people are more immoral than other nations. I have travelled a good deal, and think I am an impartial critic. My deliberate conviction is that of all the great cities of Europe Paris has the least vice, and the least debauchery. But we have one fault. We brag about our vices and like to pass ourselves off in our conversation and our books as the most corrupt of men. True, we have one virtue, though it is only negative: we are not hypocrites. Here you have, then, in a word, the profound difference which separates French opinion from English opinion upon certain subjects. Our code, like yours, condemns adultery; it is even more severe. Society in France, as in England, highly esteems private virtue; public rewards are even accorded to it by the Academies, and at the municipal fêtes. But we do not think that

a statesman who has broken the Seventh Commandment is therefore for ever dishonoured, and incapable of directing public affairs. Moreover, Freethinkers as we may be, we recollect the words of the Bible respecting the woman taken in adultery: "He that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her."

The divorce case certainly did not appear to us to reflect much credit upon Mr. Parnell, and we consider that the Irish leader came out of it shorn of some of his glory. But when, immediately after the verdict, the Nonconformist and other papers covered their faces and uttered their loud cries of indignation a reaction at once set in, and, without absolving Mr. Parnell, people turned against the Puritans who had said nothing before the trial, though the facts were public, and who were simply scandalised at the scandal. Hypocrisy, it has been said, is homage rendered to virtue. We also render homage to virtue as often as possible, but it is by more direct means.

Now comes Mr. Gladstone. If ever an English statesman has been popular in France it is the " Grand Old Man." Our fathers cordially detested Palmerston, who returned the compliment with interest, and Lord Beaconsfield was always an enigma to us. But Gladstone, the defender of the oppressed, the indefatigable champion of progress, has admirers almost everywhere in France, and often enthusiastic admirers. In the present case, however, his warmest friends have been, with few exceptions, the first to criticise him. What should Mr. Gladstone have done in this matter? He should have played the part of the diplomatist. Instead of issuing his edict of excommunication in the letter to Mr. Morley, he should have asked some intimate and clever friend-Lord Rosebery, who knows something of negotiations, or Philip Stanhope, who can say the right word in the right manner-to go and have lunch with Mr. Parnell. Over a cigar, the ambassador could have said: "You have just been re-elected leader of the Irish party. splendid proof of confidence, but the fools and hypocrites have to be reckoned with. Why should you be worried by them? Go away on some pretext or other and pass the winter at Nice or Cannes When you come back in the spring everything will have blown. over." Had the matter been put in this way it is ten to one that

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