THE WORLD IN THE CR,IICIBLE.•
Sea GILBNIIT PARKER'S well-earned inclusion in this year's list of Birthday Honours synchronized with the appearance of a carefully considered and statesmanlike volume, which shows what service may be rendered to the common cause by the pen of a facile and lucid writer. Of late years Sir Gilbert Parker has inclined to utilize his literary skill as a publicist rather than as a story-teller, and his intimate knowledge of the new Englanda beyond the seas has served him in his later to as good advantage as it aid in his earlier r61a. In the first ten chapters of The World in the Crucible' he analyses the deeper causes of the war, which he naturally finds in the trend of German policy during the last thirty years—We may here call attention to the appearance of a new cheap edition of ProfessorRoland Usher's admirable study of Pan.Germanisat,' first published in 1918, in which an accomplished American historian surveys the whole field of the "world-policy" initiated by Bismarck in 1884: nothing better Las ever been written on this subjects—Sir Gilbert Parker usefully reminds us that the present war was engineered by Prussia for other reasons than the natural desire to obtain a "place in the sun." He says, truly enough :— "Through lack of political ability, through want of creative faculty, the German Imperial organization constantly tends towards disintegration. The one cure for this internal disorder which the German people have ever yet been able to discover is external adventure. War,' says Treitschke, 'is the only remedy for ailing nations.'. . The German people have always been incapable of great acts for the common interest except under the irresistible pressure of external conditions, as in 1818; or under the leadership of powerful personalities, who can inflame the national spirit, arouse the enthusiasm of the masses, and vitalise nationality. In other words, it is admitted by the most prominent of German etatesmen and teachers that German unity is a feeble plant which has to be forced in the hot-bed of war."
In the second half of his book Sir Gilbert Parker deals with some incidents and lessons of the war so far as it had gone up to the end of last year. In his final chapter he discusses the • (I) Tb. 1v,idisth. Crusibls. By Gilbert Parker. Leaden John Murray. glanot.)—(2) Pan-fiermanism. By Noland 0.11sher. Fourth Edition. London: Constnblo and Co. [la net.1—(8 A General Sada elite European War, Ma Fird Plow. By llilnire Belloc. London T. Nelson and Sons. (ft. mal- t) Ti, Too Maps of Surer, By the some author. London C. Arthur Pearson. net.]—(5) no War Ina ifs Imam. By John Oman. Cambridge at the niversIty Prem. Pe. not.1—(6) TA* War and the Balkans. By Noel Buxton and C. It. Buxton. London , George Allen md Unorin. De. ed. net..]— 71 German Cultare, Past and Present. lip E. Belforb Bar. Bans publisbem. 4s. dd.]—(8) Belgian Democracy its Early History. By limri Pirennes b,aa,?afad by J. V. Saunders. London Loasmans and Co. for the lianchaster Unixeraity Press. (44. bd. net.]
probable outcome of the war, and tries to suggest some answer to the important (though perhaps as yet scarcely urgent) question of how our own Empire will emerge from the huge melting-pot into which it has so suddenly been flung. He enlarges on the valour of our men, and the literal Hell in which they are daily being tried, with the true novelist's power of imaginative reconstruction of a scene or an action. He concludes by reminding us that, if we win—as we intend to do—our Empire will be increased by vast new territories and will stand in need of reconstruction on a gigantic scale, " This struggle has taught the world that the British Empire is a reality ; that wherever the Flag flies the spirit of responsibility for the well-being of all exists, and manifests itself in the hour of danger as in the days of peace." After the war a new and still graver responsibility will rest upon every one of us ; and we are proud to believe with Sir Gilbert Parker that we shall fitly face the stern duty of seeing that in future our Empire is never again exposed to such a danger as its component parts all over the world are now joyfully toiling together to avert.
Mr. Hilaire Belloc, who has week by week been assiduously explaining the principles of the military art as exemplified in the operations of the present war, now issues the first volume of what is ultimately to become A General Sketch of the European War.. As in his contributions to the weekly Press, he aims at eliminating picturesque detail, and pre- senting the main outlines of strategy and tactics in their simplest form. This method is perhaps a trifle too reminiscent of the schoolmaster, and his habit of recapitulation presupposes very little intelligence on the part of the reader, although it is, as a rule, the persons of abnormal intelligence to whom Mr. Belloc appeals. The real defect of Mr. Babe's method is that it lacks interest. We should have thought it a very difficult task to write a dull account of the famous retreat from Mons, but Mr. Belloc's diagrammatic and pontifical manner has enabled him to succeed in doing so. Yet we do not see that his work has any compensating advantages as compared, let us say, with the simple and enthralling narrative of Mr. John Buchan. Mr. Belloc also reprints some articles written in the earlier months of the war. How ephemeral this kind of work must be is shown by the fact that in The Two Maps of Europe' he still seems to think that an Allied victory will leave Turkey in possession of Constantinople. But though we feel constrained to point out certain obvious defects in Mr. Belloc's methods of presenting the war to the public, it must not be supposed that we fail to recognize and give Lim credit for the fine work he has done and is doing as a military critic. He has a real understanding of the art of war. Though it is not his function to "tell the doubtful battle where to rage," be can most effectively tell us what were the conditions that made it rage or refrain from raging in particular places. Mr. Belloc is a true scholar of the field.
The War and its Issues5 is described by its author as "an attempt at a Christian judgment." Mr. Oman tells us that it originated in "the impulse to think out my own relations to the present crisis," and was written without thought of pub- lication. His conclusion is that the war can hardly fail to restore us to seriousness, and may also give us sincerity and the power to overthrow "the old idolatries."
Mr. Noel Buxton and Mr. C. ft Buxton, who are intimately acquainted from one standpoint with Balkan problems, con- tend in The War and the Bake/m.1 that the Allies ought to dictate their terms to all the Balkan States in an absolutely precise form. They give reasons for believing that such a course would lead to Balkan co-operation against the Germanic Powers.
We have beard so mush lately of Eultur—which is by no means synonymous with the corresponding English word —that many readers will turn eagerly to Mr. Belfort Bax's account of German Culture, Past and Present? It is a some- what disappointing book, the greater part of which is a rehash of the author's well-known work on German society at the close of the Middle Ages. Less than twenty pages are devoted to modern German culture, and they are by no means worthy of Mr. Bax'a reputation.
It was a graceful thought to select an English translation of Professor Pirenne's excellent historical account of Belgian Democracy. for the centennial number of the "University of Manchester Publications." The eyes of the whole intellectual world have been drawn to Belgium by recent events, and although Professor Pirenne's work ends in the seventeenth century, we may fairly include it in this article. Mr. Saunders has made a readable translation, and the book has been seen through the press by Professor Tout.
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