In this sum
I have included the recent grant that has been made for the extension of
the railway from Atbara to Khartum, the work on which is already on
hand. Well, against this large expenditure we have some assets to show.
We have, or shall have, 760 miles of railway, properly equipped with
engines, rolling stock, and a track with bridges in good order. I must
admit that the railway stations and waiting-rooms are somewhat
primitive, but then we do not wait long in the Sudan. [Laughter.] Well,
for this running concern I do not think that L3,000 a mile will be
considered too high a value. This represents two and a half millions out
of the money granted, and for the other quarter of a million, we have
2,000 miles of telegraph lines, six new gunboats, besides barges and
sailing craft, and--the Sudan. [Laughter and cheers.]

Of course the railway did not cost me L3,000 a mile to construct, and
many other heavy charges for warlike stores, supplies and transport on
our long line of communication, including sea transports of troops from
England and elsewhere had to be made; but however it was done the
result remains the same. We have freed the vast territories of the Sudan
from the most cruel tyranny the world has ever known, and we have
hoisted the Egyptian and British flags at Khartum, never, I hope, to be
hauled down. I have again to thank you, my Lord Mayor, for the great
honor done us on this occasion. I have only one regret which, I feel
sure, is shared by all present, and which has been given expression to
by Lord Rosebery and Lord Salisbury, and that is, that Lord Cromer, who
has supported me during the last two and a half years, is not here to
support me to-night and to receive in person the thanks to which he is
so justly entitled, and which, I am sure, you would willingly have
given. [Loud cheers.]

ANDREW LANG

PROBLEM NOVELS

[Speech of Andrew Lang at the annual banquet of the Royal Academy,
London, May 6, 1894. This speech on some of the aspects of modern
fiction was delivered by Mr. Lang in response to the toast "The
Interests of Literature," regularly proposed on these occasions. The
President of the Academy, Sir Frederic Leighton, said in introducing
Mr. Lang: "Your Royal Highness, My Lords and Gentlemen: Let us drink
to the honor of science and of letters. If of the latter it may be
affirmed without fear that few things are more often misapprehended
than their true relation to ar