THE QUARTERLIES.
Quarterly says its last word on the present crisis in its article on " The Appeal to the Nation." Little need be said about it. By the time that this notice meets our readers' eyes the issue will be practically settled. The House of Lords question must, however, in any case remain open, and what the writer has to say about it must continue to interest. One notable point is that the House had better go altogether than remain as a sham. The revolutionary party could receive no greater blow than the free career which the abolition of the House of Lords would give to the Peers.—The two articles, Sir H. H. Johnston's "Rise of the Native," and " What the Poor Want," by Mr. Stephen Reynolds, are of more than usual interest. Sir H. H. Johnston raises what is beyond doubt the most important of all questions, especially for Britain, with her three hundred millions of non-European subjects. He includes in his view the whole Empire ; but we shall not go beyond India. He thinks that the Mohammedan.; under the new system have a larger representation than their numbers warrant, but that it is their due. Seventy-five per cent. of their adult males can write or read in Hindustani or kindred languages, and ten per cent. speak English ; for Hindus the corresponding figures are twenty per cent. and three. A few educated Hindus contrive to give their race a prominence which it does not possess, and claim for it a power which it could not exercise to the general good. Is it true that English manners are so bad in comparison with Irish and Scottish ? Do street boys shout after Indian students in " London, Cambridge, Oxford Birmingham, or Man- chester" ?—Sir Charles Dilke ably vindicates the political action of William Bentinck (afterwards Governor-General of India) in the years 1813-14 when Napoleon was at Elba.—Of the other articles, we may mention "Ancient Jerusalem," by Dr. Burney, an illumi- nating account of the present state of our knowledge of this subject, with a special appreciation of the work of Professor George Adam Smith ; and Mr. W. S. Lilly's interesting panegyric on " Democracy in Switzerland."
The Edinburgh's pronouncement on the question of the day is contained in "The House of Lords and the Budget." We still think that the Lords would have done well to pass the Bill, but we have always felt that it was a matter of policy rather than of principle, an act to be judged by the result. Till that result is definitely known judgment must be suspended. But it is quite clear that if there is enough transfer of votes to bring about a modification of the Government's financial policy, the Lords will have something to say for themselves.—The Referendum is vigorously condemned in another article by a 'enter who evidently disagrees with Mr. W. S. Lilly's opinion that Switzerland shows a model democracy. The Swiss, the Edinburgh Reviewer would have us think, have seriously injured their Constitution by this new device. Of course it has disadvantages. But it is a remedy against three evils : the tendency of democracy to result in bureaucracy, the danger of a House of Commons getting out of touch with its constituents, and the embarrassment of the average elector by the multiplicity of questions which he has to decide by a single vote. A is for Fre&trade, and to secure it he votes for Home-rule for Ireland, Disestablishment, and Confiscatory Taxa- tion. B is a teetotaler ; if ho can only get Prohibition, there is nothing that ho is not willing to lose.—" Industry and Employment " is written in a spirit of optimism which can scarcely fail to cheer the most depressed reader. The English workman is better paid, better fed, and does more work in shorter hours than any other in the world. If there are unem- ployed, it is as a rule because there must always be unemployable. Some occupations are variable, and are in consequence better paid. In these there must be slack times, for which provision ought always to be made, and often, thanks to the benefit societies and Trade-Unions, is made. Of course there are difficulties and dangers. Industry may be crippled by legislation ; the sharpened national conscience brings with it an economic difficulty. There are problems to be solved, but "there never has been an age, there never has been a country, in which the prospects of a successful solution have been greater."—Of articles of general interest there is an admirable specimen in " The Tyranny of the Nile." If we lived in a country where everything we had or hoped for depended on a river, what manner of men should we be ?—" L'Empire Liberal " is an able appreciation of M. Emile 011ivior's apology for himself.—Wo must not omit to mention "The Tercentenary of the Telescope." In 1610 Galileo observed with his new- made instrument the moons of Jupiter, the ring of Saturn, and the phases of Venus, " fundamental discoveries," to be not inappropriately celebrated in the year of Halley's Comet.
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