THE QUARTERLIES.
"Tan Political Predicament" is the title of the article in the Edinburgh which deals with current affairs, and it exactly describes the situation. "An unfortunate or trying position" is " Webster's" definition of the word "predicanpnt," and it is impossible to deny that the Tariff Reformers have had a great deal to do with bringing it about. The writer of the article seems to tram up the whole business very fairly. In nothing will reasonable men more heartily agree with him than in his "profound dissatisfaction" with the House of Commons, not this particular House, but. the House as it has come to be.—On economical politics we have a well- reasoned article, " The Right to Work." One difficult question is asked : Who are to have this right ? All workers ? That would be difficult to apply. Solicitors, parsons, novelists ? Yet why limit it to the handicrafts ? Other employments, not less neces- sary to the well-being of the State, are more precarious.—A kindred subject is treated in "The Cost of Living of the Working Classes," an article of great interest, though the part of the field which it covers is necessarily small. Blue-books and not a few private inquiries have touched but the fringe of the matter. Still, something has been done. As the writer says, after pointing out some defects, "we are at the beginning of the investigations, though the beginning is substantial."—The cost of living suggests tariffs, and accordingly we have an informing article on the recent tariff developments in the United States. There, we need hardly say, the conjunction of the two words " Tariff " and "Reform" does not mean quite the same as it means here.- World-politics, in the widest sense, are handled in a review of Lord Cromer's book on "Ancient and Modern Imperialism." Is European rule over Asiatic peoples beneficial? Can it be made permanent ? The second question no man can answer. We can only see that the conditions of modern life, the spread of educa- tion, the growth of knowledge, and, to mention one concrete example, the printing press, are adverse to permaneney.—The other articles are "English Piosody," "The State and the Freedom of English Universities," "The Principles of Heredity," "Modern Developments in Ballad Art," "Mary Stuart "—since when, we would ask, has "the martyr's aureole" shone round Mary's head ?— and "Our Tudor Kings."
Previous page
