THE MAGAZINES.

IN the new Nineteenth Century—an excellent number, with no lack of topical contributions—Mr. Herbert Paul, whose return

to the House of Commons will sensibly add to the illumina- tion of its debates, writes incisively on the lessons of the General Election. A note of exultation is not unnaturally observable in his comments, which are disfigured by some personal gibes at the fallen Members; but most of his criti- cisms are sound, as well as caustically expressed. Epigrams abound, the best, perhaps, being the definition of Retaliation as "a weapon with a blunt point and a sharp handle," and the reflections on the disinclination of the English people to impose new taxes :—

"The only new tax I have heard suggested which obtained any degree of popular favour was to fine the Tariff Reform League £5,000 a fallacy. For the mischievous absurdity that we can `tax the foreigner' a million sterling would hardly be too much. As for the idea that work can be found for the unemployed by restricting trade, it is perhaps the greatest affront ever offered by a public man to the intelligence of his fellow-countrymen."

Mr. Paul refuses to be scared by the bogey of Socialism, and points to the result of the Burnley election and the failure of the Social Democratic Federation in support of his view, adding that "the idea that Government will adopt a platform

on which many have stood, and on which none have got in, savours of Bedlam," and asserting his belief that while the Trade-Unionists " have neither sympathy nor affinity with Continental Socialism, they will be invaluable coadjutors in social reform."—Mr. Robert Donald, the editor of the Daily Chronicle, contributes a sympathetic study of Mr. John Burns, "the workman-Minister." He notes that the

demands which Mr. Burns formulated on behalf of the unemployed in his speech from the dock in 1886, when he was tried and imprisoned for rioting in Trafalgar Square, have most of them been since granted, largely by his own efforts. Of late, as Mr. Donald observes, Mr. Burns " has lived between two fires : the upholders of the vested and other interests which he attacks unsparingly, and a section of Socialists who, with little following and less influence, brand him as a renegade and a traitor. The worst which the extreme Labour party can say of Mr. Burns is really a compliment. His offence is that, instead of remaining a storm-centre of agitation, he has become a practical states- man."—Of the other serious articles, the most instructive is Mr. W. F. Bailey's pessimistic survey of the native question in South Africa based on two visits in 1896 and 1905. Mr.

Bailey has consulted representatives of the three sections of opinion to be taken into account—the British, the Dutch, and the mineowners—and discusses in detail the four chief solutions of the problem, viz. : (1) the extension of the Cape Colony system, which grants the coloured man the same social and political rights as the white man, as he shows himself, or becomes, qualified ; (2) the grant of different social rights and separate political representation from that accorded to the whites; (3) segregation in reservations ; (4) the denial of all political rights whatever. None of these solutions, in Mr. Bailey's view, is satisfactory. South Africans as a body will never consent to the first; the second has no elements of per- manence; there are serious economic objections to the third; and as to the fourth, Mr. Bailey points out that the progress of the Kaffir in education and his substantial contribution to the revenue of the South African Colonies render its continued enforcement impracticable. Hence he is driven to the con- clusion that the question will only be solved by the operation of

the inexorable law of the survival of the fittest, history teach- ing us that the natural rights of man are only conceded when the people who demand them have sufficient force to compel their surrender. In other words, Mr. Bailey contemplates as inevitable the coming of a native war against Boer and Briton, which will hasten the solution of the great question of the future : Is South Africa fitted by nature and circumstances to be a white man's land?—Professor John W. Taylor, of the Birmingham University, writing on the declining birth- rate, strongly supports the Bishop of London, and vigorously combats the views put forward in a recent number of the Nineteenth Century by Dr. Barclay in defence of the limita- tion of families as a normal concomitant of advancing civilisa- tion. On the contrary, Professor Taylor holds that the declining birth-rate is due to artificial prevention, and that this state of affairs is slowly bringing grievous physical, moral, and social evils on the whole community.—Amongst other articles, we may note Mrs. Arthur Strong's interesting plea for an official registration of private art collections, and Mr. C. Vernon Magniac's account, at once amusing and instructive, of his visit with Captain O'Connor to the Court of the Tashi Lama at Shigatse.

There are some interesting articles in the National Review, but the editorial comments on the General Election are unconvincing. The editor explains the Unionist dacicle as due primarily to the hideous mismanagement of the Boer War, secondly to Mr. Balfour's tactics ; and his elaborate and exhaustive indictment of Unionist inefficiency rather takes the sting out of his assertion that the Liberals floated into power on an ocean of lies. For the rest, the editor commits himself to the view that Mr. Balfour is incapable of restoring the Tory democracy, and that, failing Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Walter Long ought to be asked to reorganise the Unionist Party. As for his attitude towards the new Administration, it may be estimated by his monstrously unjust reference to Mr. Birrell as " one of the most poisonous politicians in the present Cabinet, who has more lies on his conscience than any other living Englishman."—We are not disposed to accept Mr. Keir Hardie as an entirely authoritative or dispassionate inter- preter of the aims and policy of the Labour Party. None the less, his paper deserves attentive perusal, especially his classification of the candidates and his analysis of the Labour vote. Mr. Keir Hardie, who claims that experience proves that candidates standing on a distinctly independent basis can unite both Conservative and Liberal working men in their support, declares that the new party will discuss such questions as Protection v. Free-trade on their own merits, and not with a view to the extent to which they affect the interests of this or that party. The constructive policy of the party will, he asserts, be largely determined by the exigencies of the unem- ployment problem, which is due to the world-wide phenomenon of increased production coupled with decreased demand for workers, and he anticipates the first conflict between the new Government and the Labour Party will arise over the legisla- tion required to restore freedom of action to the Trade-Unions. Finally, he predicts that at the next General Election the real contest of the future will be entered upon. " On the one side will be rallied the Labour Party, including in its ranks the genuine reformers of all classes, and on the other will be the defenders and upholders of the existing order of things."— The articles on foreign policy both deal with Germany. " Ignotus" traces the history of the Kaiser's crusade against the entente cordiale, the origin of which he finds in the funda- mental differences as to the character and aim of German policy between Bismarck and his master which led to the dismissal of the Chancellor. The moral of the episode, as interpreted by "Ignotus," is practically identical with that so often insisted on in these columns. We should welcome friendly relations with Germany, but we must receive all her advances and expressions of goodwill with some reserve until she has given practical proof of the praiseworthy sentiments she professes.—" Mystification : a Bismarckian Indictment of Recent German Policy," is a translation of an article which appeared in Die Zukunft from the pen of Herr Maximilian Harden, a German publicist who has been imprisoned for lose-majeste. Herr Harden bitterly condemns the "imbecile bungling of German amateur diplomatists," who have driven France once more into the arms of England. The conduct of German policy since Bismarck's retirement has been a failure, because " we [i.e., the Germans] have striven too impatiently for the position of the predominant Power in the world ; we have often talked too loud ; we have put our fingers into too many pies ; we have been disturbers of business and order ; and too frequently, after an eager onset, we have had to draw back." It is not that Herr Harden objects to a policy of aggressive expansion; what he complains of is that Germany has shown her hand all along,„ instead of occupying herself with unostentatious preparation._ —" An Irish Nationalist," writing under the heading " Home Rule Rome Ruin," maintains that the estrangeMent between clergy and laity in Ireland is making rapid headway owing to the spread of education, the greed of the priests, the anti-Ultramontane teachings of the Gaelic League, and the secularist leanings of the Irish Parliamentary Party.. Hie. conclusion is, therefore, that the time is ripe for a Los von. Rom movement in Ireland, and that " the bells which celebrate the reopening of the old House in College Green will also toll the knell of the supremacy of Rome in Ireland."—Mr. Maurice Low, writing on " American Affairs," gives an Interesting analysis of the relations between the President and Congress. That serious friction exists, notably in regard- to the Canal question, Mr. Low does not deny ; but he conveys the impression that if the President has lost much of the con- fidence of the politicians, he is as popular as ever with the country. Advocates of Retaliation may be recommended to study Mr. Low's interesting account of Mr. Root's efforts to- avert the impending tariff war with Germany. " For the first time the United States, which has put up the tariff bars. against all the world, is now having the bars put up against_ herself, and naturally she does not like it Rowland Blennerhassett contributes a glowing eulogy of Mr. Walter Long as an honest, firm, and fearless administrator, and predicts that, if health and strength remain, he is destined to fill some of the highest offices of State.

In the Contemporary Review Professor Dicey answers the- question, "Can Unionists support a Home-rule Government ?" with an emphatic negative, on the grounds that the Premier- and his colleagues constitute a Home-rule Government; that they do not, indeed, intend to bring forward a Honie-rule- Bill, but they do avowedly intend to pursue a policy of Home- rule,—which, in Professor Dicey's view, threatens far greater- injury to England; and that no Unionist can support such a. policy in view of the dangers with which it is fraught without. proving false to his principles. Professor Dicey, in view of his signal services to the cause of the Union, is entitled to a. most respectful hearing, but his paper bristles with disputable- and irreconcilable propositions. He owns that official Con- servatism has in the past excited grave distrust by its intrigues and understandings, but dismisses the " argument. from suspicion " on the ground that the blunders or the shallow disloyalty of 1884-85 were corrected in 1886, in spite of the Wyndham-MacDonnell negotiations of 1902-5. He admits. the fanaticism of Unionists, intolerant of differences of economical belief, which has excluded Mr. Arthur Elliot and Lord Hugh Cecil from Parliament, but falls back on the in- controvertible generality that " Unionism, which is a political, and not an economical creed, has never had any essential con- nection with either Protection or Free Trade." The deduction• is unimpeachable, that "common-sense and patriotism therefore dictate the sinking of all economical differences in obedience- to the will of the nation"; but, as a matter of practical politics,. what becomes of this argument in face of the avowed intention of Mr. Chamberlain and his followers to convert the Unionist into a Tariff Reform Party?—Mr. G. Shaw-Lefevre's paper on " Rival Navies," which is of a vaguely reassuring character as regards the maintenance of our naval supremacy, rests upon premisses which have by no means secured universal acceptance,—viz., that the only vessels now existing of real power and value for war purposes are those of the modern type of battleship, of great tonnage, armed with twelve-inch guns ; armoured cruisers of great speed, also heavily armed; and torpedo-destroyers. This is to hold that the lessons of the battle of the Straits of Tsushima are of universal applica- tion, and is a line of argument hard to reconcile with the writer's final observation that we are only at the beginning of invention, and that "some new discovery will again be made- which will render worthless, and even dangerous, all previous constructions." Mr. Shaw-Lefevre continues :- " The more money expended in this direction and the more- minds that are devoted to ship construction, the more certain it is that such discoveries will be made. Would it not be possible to devise some international arrangement under which a limit should be imposed on the armaments of the three Powers P The French and German navies are so nearly equal in strength of armament that it would seem to be possible to come to some- ar rangement. It would no doubt be conceded that England, by reason of its insular position, and its great possessions beyond-the seas, and its vast commerce, is entitled to maintain a navy at least- equal to those of the two other Powers combined., Meanwhile it has been, shown by the Board of Admiralty that the construction of 4 powerful vessels in each year will adequately meet the pro- grammes of France and Germany. It appears to follow logically and with financial precision that an expenditure of X6,500,000 a year on new constructions will provide these 4 powerful vessels in each year, and give us ample margin for other naval re- quirements."

—Mr. H. W. Massingham writes temperately, given his standpoint, on 't Victory and What to Do with it." His programme of constructive legislation contains little of a terrifying character, and his attitude towards the new Labour Party is neither obsequious .nor patronising As he well .pots .it, " contact with Parliamentary life will soon convince. it of the truth of the words with which M.

8eignobos concludes his broad review of contemporary political history in Europe : The actual direction of political life rests everywhere with intermediate parties, Parliamentarians or Liberal-Conservatives, parties of action, concerned with practical questions rather than with dogma.' In a word,

Liberalism; here as elsewhere, must direct ; Labour and Social Radicalism will largely . inspire."—Dr. Guthrie Rankin writes on " Nervous Breakdown" in a serious vein. Although experience seems to show "that wear-and-tear plus luxury is telling its story more rapidly than wear-and-tear plus un- suitable food and insufficient rest "—in other words, although the great majority of nervous breakdowns occur among the well-to-do classes—he asserts that the evil is spreading, and that the influence.of neurotic heredity .is already manifesting

itself in many children of all grades in society. Prevention, in his view, is the highest form of treatment, and amongst the means of checking what threatens to become a national calamity Dr. Guthrie Rankin suggests the cultivation of a more vigorous public sentiment which would make indulgence and luxury " bad form," and the enforcement of some sort of compulsory military service.

In the Fortnightly we get the conclusion of Count Tolstoy's paper, " The End of the Age." The argument is supposed to be universal, and European countries and America are included in its application. We are, however, continually finding that all questions are looked at solely from the point of view of the Russian peasant. " Urban classes, the nobles, merchants,

doctors, scientists, writers, mechanics, etc.," receive but scant consideration ; the "agricultural peasant" is the only person who is to be considered. Communistic holding of land by the people, together with resistance to all coercive law, is the panacea for the ills of the world. It is curious to note how the Oriental attitude towards government is uppermost. All organised control in the State is regarded as entirely external, and existing for its own purposes, unconnected with the individual. Another noteworthy point is the frequent reference to "explosive bombs," even as illustrations to argu- ments in connection with London and New York ; they seem to be regarded as quite ordinary things by the writer. We are told that the Russian people clearly see that the cause of their calamities is obedience to power. Europe and America are not yet so enlightened, partly because of the blinding deceit of self-government ; but their eyes are to be opened too, for it is not only necessary "that men should understand that the State, the fatherland, is a fiction ; and that life and true liberty are realities but that men ought in the name of true life and liberty to free themselves from the supersti- tion of the State, and from its outcome—criminal obedience to men."—Lord Monkswell writes a most sensible paper entitled "To Make the Soldier a Civilian." The author points out what a short part of the life of a man who enlists is passed in the Army. Therefore what happens to the soldier when he returns to civil life is of great importance as an induce- ment to other men to enter the Army. Lord Monkswell says that although military authorities are loud in supporting the claim of old soldiers to be employed, they make but the smallest practical effort to render them employable. One effort was made by Lord Lansdowne during his ineffectual tenure of office as War Secretary. At Woolwich experi- ments were tried with classes for teaching trades to soldiers, but the attempt, Lord Lansdowne announced, was a failure. On inquiries being made by an expert in education, it was found that, with the most perverse ingenuity, the experi- ment had been so carried out that nothing but failure was possible. Many men go into the Army chiefly for, the sake of getting into the police afterwards, so that the after

eareor is an inducement to recruiting. Why should not the learning of trades in spare time, thus improving a man's future prospects, act in the same way 9—Mr. McD. Bodkin, while writing of "The Position of the Irish Party," alter- nately hectors and flatters the Liberals. It is, it seems, to be a choice between Protection and Home-rule, at least according to Mr. Bodkin. But then, as he tells us, he was well acquainted with' the feeling of England during Mr. Gladstone's last Parliament. Apparently he knows nothing of it now, for he says that the British public have no objection to Home-rule. We venture to think that even Mr. Bodkin would have admitted his cause was in a parlous state had he gone to election meetings in remote parts of England lately. There be would have found Liberal audiences listening eagerly for the candidate's declaration against Home-rule and cheering it loudly.—Those interested in social experiinents will . find it well worth while to read Miss Sellers's account of a loafers' reformatory in Austria. The institution appears to be carried on with the most admirable common-s ense and able administration. There seems a reasonable hope that after a sojourn at the reformatory the loafer comes to look upon work as a necessary evil. Time alone, of course, can settle how far the reformation goes.

It was with interest that we looked in Blackwood to see what particular form of "flattering unction" the writer of "Musings without Method" would lay to his soul after the defeat of Protection at the polls. Firstly, we are told that "in very few constituencies did Free-trade carry even a feather's weight," and that many electors voted against the late Government because it had done nothing for Protection Those who took part in the elections will be much amused by such reasoning. We are asked to believe that the whole result was attained by pictorial representations of Chinese labourers, and that Liberals talked of nothing but slavery. Though the brilliant writer of the " Musings " is a convinced anti- democrat, be seems in agreement with Mr. • Keir Hardie in one respect. Mr. Keir Hardie says that "between the two systems (Protection and Socialism) there is no halting place." But it is argued that a long time must elapse before England can be converted to Socialism, and during that time Pro- tection will have so revived the industries of the country that Socialism will no longer be desired. Incidentally, the writer refers to our system of government as absurd, saying that if we would understand science, literature, theology, or painting we consult experts, but when it is a case of government we consult the man in the street. It is doubtless quite easy to show the want of logic in our procedure. But what is the result of government by experts ? The bureaucracy of Russia.—A hitherto unpublished sketch by William Carleton gives a humorous picture of the rage for dramatic performances which took possession of the Irish in 1806. The favourite play was the Battle of Aughrim, and barns and kilns were used for the performances. At first the Orangemen had it all their own way ; but the Roman Catholics were not to be outdone in the dramatic world. They asked in one place to be allowed to join the play. This was agreed to, for the reason that the Protestant actors felt it was something like apostasy to enact the parts of their hereditary opponents. These last, viewing the matter in their own light, said " Well, they bate us at Aughrim, but with Tam Whiskey at our head we'll turn the tables and lick the thieves now." Thus, if it had not been for the interfere/lee of the audience, the battle scene would have resulted in real carnage. Finally a compromise was arrived at, and each party represented its opponents on the stage. Unfortunately, the floor of the barn collapsed before the battle scene had been reached, and the " Papishes," who sat together, were precipi- tated into a cow-stable beneath. No one was hurt, but a Protestant plot was suspected. To make matters right the battle was represented On the green outside, which resulted in " a desperate personal conflict between the actors, whose orange and green ribbons were soon dung off as false emblems of the principles which they had adopted only for the sake of ending the play in a peaceable manner."

In the Monthly Review Mr. Rupeit Hughes writes a very interesting' account of a pilgrimage' to Canossa. It seems that lately the Italian Government have taken charge of the famous castle, and the ruin is now safe from further decay.. Canossa stands high up in the Apennines where they rise out of the Lombard Plain near Parma. The castle is perched on a crag amid arid mountains with 'an immense prospect stretched out before it. The fortress stands alone and impregnable. It was here that Pope Hildebrand retired in alarm when the news 'came that the Emperor, whom be was trying to subdue, was coming into Italy. The gate still exists where Henry IIL stood in penitent's dress for three days in the snow, and was refused admittance by the Pope. The window of the chapel remains where the final scene of the drama of humiliation took place :- " After the absolution the Pope proceeded to offer the sacrifice of the Mass. Taking the host in his hands and recalling the accusations made against him by Henry, he appealed from human testimony to divine : May God acquit me by His judgment this day, if I be innocent ; if guilty, may he strike me dead.' He ate the sacred wafer. Turning to Henry, he said : Take thou the body of God in thy hands, and do thou, my son, as I have done. If God avouch thy innocence thou wilt stop for ever the mouths of thy accusers.' It was the most colossal `bluff' that history records."

The Emperor dared not, and his abasement was complete. —The President of Magdalen offers a most temperate plea for "Ancient and Modern Classics as Instruments of Educa- tion." He does not want to prevent the growth of scientific education, and he points out how this modern knowledge trains the mind in observation and in reasoning from facts. But in the formation of character we should lose largely if literature were neglected. In literature Mr. Warren includes modern as well as ancient authors.

-A comparison between workmen's homes in London and Manchester is made by Mr. Ensor in the Independent Review. The differences are striking. In London families occupy a smaller number of rooms, two rooms in a tenement costing as much as a four-roomed cottage in Manchester. In London the streets are cleaned and the dirt kept within bounds. In Manchester the filth of the streets is only equalled by the polluted rivers and smoke-laden air. This latter curse is far worse than in London, and in many places it is impos- sible for vegetation to exist. It appears that the lower rents of Manchester, though they enable people to occupy more rooms, compel them to live in unhealthier surroundings owing

to less being spent on sanitation. Mr. Ensor found that while he was living in a working-class district of Manchester

small scratches on his hands took longer than the ordinary time to heal, but did so more rapidly after the ap- plication of carbolic, indicating microbe-laden air. Mr. Ensoi has very little good to say of the municipality of either town in its capacity of landlord, and is of the opinion that in Manchester there will be no abatement of smoke till the inspectors are employed by the Home Office, andnot by the smoke-producers on the Municipal Council.

Mr. 'G. L. Strachey has written a delightful article on Sir Thomas Browne, full of subtle criticism expressed with felicity. It is certainly true, as he says, that people who talk about the unnecessary and farfetched Latin adjectives of Browne's style show that they are out of sympathy with this great artist in words. The strange words were used with the most careful art to produce certain definite effects, and the following passage shows clearly that it was no contempt of the Saxon idiom as barbarous that made Sir Thomas Browne usually prefer words of Latin origin :- "Thus, when he wished to suggest an extreme contrast between simplicity and pomp, we find him using Saxon words in direct antithesis to classical ones. In the last sentence of Urn Burial we are told that the true believer, when he is to be buried, is as content with six foot as the moles of Adrianus.' How could Browne have produced the remarkable sense of contrast which this short phrase conveys if his vocabulary had been limited, in accordance with a linguistic theory, to words of a single stock ?"

The writer of the article compares Browne to Webster and

Blake ; but is not Botticelli a more kindred spirit ? Both were Christian mystics and humanists, both loved an elaborate and fantastically ornate style, but both delighted in the pomp and beauty of the world, and yearned after the mystery of the infinite.