ALFRED AUSTIN, who succeeded Tennyson as Poet Laureate of England, was born at Headingley, near Leeds, May 30th, 1835. Graduating at the University of London in 1853, he was called to the bar four years later, but has been identified with literature and journalism rather than with law. He was field correspondent of the London Standard during the Franco-Prussian War, and when the National Review was founded in 1883 became its editor. He is the author of several volumes of verse, and as Poet Laureate is adding with meritorious industry to his metrical productions. It is as a writer of prose essays and newspaper articles, however, that he has done his most effective work in his generation.