LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2932, 18 November 1916, Page 13

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Sinn Fein. Concerning the exact meaning- of 'Sinn Fein/' C.N.O'D. writes as fol,ows:—"lt is evident that Air. J. L. iarvin knows no Gaelic, and it is squally evident that Air. Clement snorter, who corrects him, knows very Ijttle. This must not bo imputed to inem for blame. That language mainly nterests Irishmen and Scotsmen at Home, and' some philologists in other ;ountries. Will you allow one who mows a little Gaelic to air his knowedge by giving his ideas about the iranslation of "Sinn Fein"? At worst 30 can only lay himself open to correction by one who knows a little more. Sinn" certainly means 'we,' and 'fein' neans different things in different conlections. It may mean 'own,' 'even,' 'though,' etc. In the phrase 'Sinn Fein' it merely makes 'sinn' emphatio, ind the nearest translation is 'ourselves.' lam very doubtful if the phrase 'Sinn Fein amnain' is good Irish, to me it looks like 'bearlachar ; ' ' or writing Irish with the English idiom. . always lieard 'Sinn Fein, Sinn Fein"— i duplication of the words, to express 'ourselves alone.' But I speak under jorrection. By the way, the pronunciation of 'Sinn Fein amhain' is 'Shing Fane a-wawin.'" Stray Leaves. In Hoddo .and Stoughton's autumn list is a book to . which I am looking : orward with much interest. This is i volume of essays, "Men of Letters," ay the late Dixon Scott, who died at ;ho Dardanelles Inst year. Scott was i brilliant literary critic, and many of my readers may remember the delightful essays he contributed to "The Bookman." Besides studies of Barrie, Kipiing, Masefield, Wells, Shaw, Arnold Bennett, and others of his contemporlries, Mr. Scott's book contains essays in Meredith, Browning, Whitman, Morris, and others of an earlier generation. That ivitty writer, Max Beer3ohm, contributes, a prefatory chapter. "War," says a Greek poet, "is fain to take no evil man, hut ayo the best." The losses of British scholarship in this iwful war have been very largo. Relent casualty lists record tho deaths of Mr. ft. J. E. Teddy, Follow of Trinity Mege, Oxford, and of Mr. Gordon Sutler, a son of the Master of Trinity, Cambridge. Both were men of excepional ability. A favourite book of mine used to bo !alas it has long ago gone tho way >f so many "lent books") Mr. Francis iVarne Cornish's "Sunningwell," a liniplc story of life in a quiet English lathedral city,, but full of pleasant talk (bout books. The author, 1 am sorry o notice, died in August. Mr. Cornish, vho retired from tho Vice-Provostsliip if Eton last year, spent many years in leaching at his old school. He wa s a me classical scholar, and did a transition of Catullus for the Lock Claslical Library. He also wrote a life of lane Austen for Macmillan's "English Men of Letters" series. Lord George Hamilton, : who was a nember of-more than one Conservative Ministry, has written a book entitled 'Parliamentary Reminiscences and Rejections," which is to bo published by Mr. John Murray. Sir George Forrest, for many years irommently connected with the Indian Executive, has written an entirely new 'Life of Lord Clive," in which, so it S understood, he has incorporated tho Jesuit- of much painstaking research in >he official records of Calcutta. It is ;laimed_that_ the book will throw much nteresting light on episodes in Cliye's !areer of which previous biographers lave been ignorant. Charles Frohmann, the American ihoatrical manager,' who was one of she victims of the Lusitania outrage, vas a niaiiy-sided man, intellectually nuch above the averago of the every--lay imprassario. His "Life" has been yritten by a clever New York journnisfc, Isaac F: Marcosson, assisted by ;he dead mail's nephew, Daniel Froliuann, and the result is, it is said, a look of exceptional interest. Those popular novelists, Mr. and Mrs. Williamson, are now members of i "Disabled Scrvico Helpers' Association," working at Nice m aid of the English soldiers invalided on the itinera. Amongst the autumn announcements if Mr. Edward Arnold is a book which aught to contain many, good stories. This is-"The Reminiscences of Lord D'Brien," Chief Justice of Ireland, 'l'lio autobiography of Sir Rivers Wilson, tvho played, if I remember rightly, a brominent part in tlio Suez Canal negotiations, should be worth reading. Wilson waR afterwards president of the Canadian Grand Trunk Railway. Malta has sprung into renewed prominence owing to tho war, and the wonderful hospital work of whioh it has been the centre. A new book on the island, and its people, and on the war work being done there, has been written by Chaplain-Major Mackinnon. Tho title is Malta, the Nurse of the Mediterranean.' Hodders will publish this hook. A curious example of a woman's magnanimity is givon in a letter written, by Queen Adelaide (consort of William tho lourtli), to the Hon. W. Ashley, '''' r - Courville's recently published _ book on autographs. The Queen writes: rJ„A opo k® a^'o tn aparo me ,£9OO to send at Christmas to the different FitzClarcnce families. I should like to send it myself It will show them that I have not forgotten them nor their connection with the dear King." One may reasonably question (observes "The Times") if tho somewhat sordid history of George the Third's two eons and successors can show another such touch of splendid magnanimity. . Ono of tlia leading ' characters in Arnold Bennett's new novel, "Tho Lion's Share," which Cassells are pub- I lishing, has been identified as Miss! Christabol Pankburst._ The Suffragist agitator plays a prominent part in the novel, which also contains some lively piotur«s of Paris before the war.