THE MAGAZINES.

WE welcome back M. Gabriel Monod to the Contemporary, from which he has been absent for a twelvemonth, not writing, as he says, simply because there has been nothing in French politics to write about. There is but little even now, if we may judge from his article, which is hardly up to his usual form, at least in interest for the student of politics. M. Monod gives us, however, a reasonable explanation of the strong current of Protectionist feeling which has set in in France_ It is due, he says, in the first place, to the severe competition which the French agriculturist, like the English, has had to meet, and which has greatly exasperated the food-growing peasantry. Their influence was checked for a long while by the vine-growers, who wanted Free-trade ; but the phylloxera came, and with it the import of cheap Spanish and Italian wine, before which the vine-growers gave way. Moreover, the whole country has learned to confuse patriotism with Protection, and a heavy tariff is regarded as a check to the prosperity of countries, notably Germany and Italy, which are using their commer- cial wealth to develop their military resources in antagonism to France. The Ministry, though Free-trader by conviction, eagerly seized on the desire for a high tariff to strengthen its own position, and has been left for a time long in the annals of the Republic, free from opposition, which will, however, M. Monod thinks, rise again the moment the full effect of the tariff has been felt, through the expiration of the Commercial Treaties, in raising the price of necessary articles of life.— Mr. Dunckley's analysis of M. de Laveleye's book on Demo- cratic Government, a book which ought to be well translated, brings out with force the fear which that writer entertains.

that democracy may extinguish liberty. It gives such awful strength to the central power :—

"The central authority, M. de Laveleye points out, is to-day, even in free countries, infinitely more powerful and more absolute than the Royalty of the Middle Ages. The mechanism of the Government was then so imperfect that it could not enforce the execution of its orders. There were then no functionaries everywhere at its disposal ready to compel obedience in the re- motest corners of the land. Wherever it went it found itself in the presence of powerful feudal families and free cities, which were able behind their walls to defend themselves by force against the enterprises of the Sovereign. Above all, it had not at its dis- posal the essential instrument of despotism—a standing army. To-day the State is supreme, and in some sense absolute. Deriving its power from the people, it is armed with their omnipotence, and, doing so much for them, it will soon leave nothing of a public kind to be done by themselves."

That is true, and is much too often forgotten, especially in England, where, as Mr. Dunckley puts it, people "no longer resist the intervention of Government, but rather invite it."

M. de Laveleye, though not altogether pessimist, has, one can perceive, only a faint hope.— Mr. George Russell's account of Archbishop Tait, though eulogistic as to his personal character, is not altogether appreciative as to his conduct in his great See. He finds him to have been throughout a Scotch Presbyterian, with a firm belief in Erastianism as a principle :—

"Throughout the interminable debates [on Colenso], he appears exactly as he was in old days at Balliol and Rugby, and as he re- mained to the end. He was, to all appearance, constitutionally incapable of conceiving of the Catholic Church as a spiritual society, essentially distinct from, though accidentally allied with, the State ; founded by our Lord Himself, and by Him endowed with a constitution, laws, and traditions of her own. This being so, of course it follows that he could not apprehend the English Church, or the South African Church, as being a part of that Universal Church, and having her share in that great birthright of self-governance. To Archbishop Tait's mind the Church of England seems to have been a Department of the State, like the Customs or the Police ; charged by law with the duty of main- taining such theological beliefs and moral practices as Parliament might, for the time being, approve ; and subject in every question, however momentous, of doctrine or discipline, to the authority of tribunals which by the mouth of their chief officer spoke of `the Inferior Persons of the Trinity.' It was this engrained Erastianism of the Bishop's mind that made him so wholly unsympathetic to those who were fighting the battle of the Faith in South Africa."

That is substantially true, but Mr. Russell perhaps overlooks too much that there is a side of the Anglican Church on which Dr. Tait expressed almost exactly the position which she has accepted as a matter of fact, if not of doctrine. It is a little hard, too, to blame the Archbishop for only acting as

a Peer of Parliament when ecclesiastical questions were in front. That has, ever since the Reform Bill, been the usual

course of the Episcopate, and though we regret its necessity, we are by no means sure that habitual deviation from it would not in the end make of the Bishops party leaders.—Mr. Shaw-Lefevre sends a most bright and interesting account of General Marbot, an officer who fought through all the Napo- leonic wars, and has left fall memoirs. Nothing comes out so strongly in them as the weak point of all French armies in almost all ages, the absolute refusal of the highest officers to take orders from each other :-

" They would not recognise any right of seniority among their ranks. None would serve under any other, however grave the crisis. In the retreat from Moscow, Junot would not come to the aid of Ney, near Smolensk; had he done so, the pursuing army would have been destroyed, and the French army saved. Later, Saint-Cyr refused to serve under Victor ; and when Oudinot retook command of the Second Corps, Victor, rather than be under his command, separated from him with his men."

These jealousies lasted into the Second Empire, and supplied the main reason why Napoleon III., who knew himself to be

no General, felt it indispensable to be with the Army, which his presence only embarrassed and impeded.

Mr. Charles Lowe's account of the German Press, in the Nineteenth Century, is terribly unfavourable. He says that, with the exception of the Cologne Gazette, it has little intelligence, little news, and little independence. It is dependent for information on " Wolff's Bureau," the Ger- man Reuter, which may be considered almost a Govern- ment institution, and it is forced by the official system into an attitude of almost slavish obedience to the higher bureaucracy. General Caprivi is disposed to let it alone, but Prince Bismarck used it almost at will, sometimes apparently bribing not only with information, but with cash. The greater part of the Press is, moreover, in Jewish hands, and the Jews are almost of necessity not favourable to the German system, and therefore less patriotic than the mass of the community.

Mr. Lowe does not hold out much hope of improvement, and evidently considers that the Press is and will remain in Germany but a minor factor, partly from its own defects, and partly because opinion does not in reality govern.—Lord de Vesci, in " Hibernia Pacata," accepts the principle of Local Self-government in Ireland, but would temper it by a sugges- tion which seems to us unusually dangerous. Everybody admits that there must be a controlling power over the Local Councils, and, says the writer,-

" It would be better that all cases of alleged neglect of duty or misconduct on the part of a Council or Union board should be brought before the two Judges of Assize when going circuit, with whom might sit for the purpose the county Chairman of Quarter-Sessions, or a Queen's Counsel of a certain standing."

Surely the Judges are sufficiently exposed to popular criticism without imposing on them this most invidious duty.—Sir George Chesney's paper on the War Department is practi- cally a plea for its reorganisation upon the Indian system, —that is, under a Secretary of State for War, with a Council consisting of heads of departments each responsible for his own work. The views of these great officers should, he thinks, be published, as well as those of the Secretary of State. That last suggestion will be rejected by any Cabinet whatever, as wholly inconsistent with Ministerial responsibility ; but for the rest, Sir George Chesney's plan, worked out in some detail and with great knowledge, is one for the Parliamentary government of the Army. We have advocated that for years, but have rather less hope of seeing it carried than we had

when we began. The passive resistance of the Crown and those interested in the present system, seems insuperable. —Of the remaining articles in the number, the pleasantest

is perhaps Sir Herbert Maxwell's, on " Gardens." The most important, however, are Mr. Champion's "The Labour Platform at the Next Election," and Lord Ribblesdale's account of a long conversation with Mr. Parnell daring a railway-journey. Mr. Champion declares that the Labour party will fight for a new Charter of Five Points, which are

these :—" (1), The Eight-Hour Day ; (2), the Land for the People ; (3), the Abolition of the Workhouse ; (4), Taxation of large incomes and inheritances ; (5), Protective labour legisla-

tion." No. 1 we all understand ; No. 2 would take the shape of large expropriations of land, to be worked on a co- operative system ; No. 3 means the pensioning of artisans, without payments by the artisan himself, the necessary money being found out of the poor-rate, supplemented by the profit derived from No. 4; No. 5 is an extension of the Factory Act, with an immense increase in the inspecting staff. Wise or unwise, and we think the third and fourth ex- cessively unwise, these are definite proposals capable of being debated. Mr. Champion, however, exaggerates the power of the working class to carry them, dealing with that class, as he does, as a unit. It is not a unit at all, even about the eight-hours working-day. The moment proposals so wide pass out of dreamland and into the hands of Parliamentary draftsmen, the most violent differences of opinion will manifest themselves in every class, the workmen included.—Lord Ribblesdale found Mr. Parnell, in August, 1887, entirely devoted, in his conversation at least, to the economic question in Ireland. He even thought "resolute government without Home-rule a practicable policy if you get rid of Irish representation in the House of Commons, and have an able and courageous administrator in Ireland with a strong executive under him—no Irishmen—who would settle the land and develop the resources of the country, such as butter-factories, woollen trade, harbours and fisheries. Success would have to depend upon the material improvement of the conditions of the Irish people ander such an administration, and upon the extent and volume of such material improve- ment He also spoke of Government forestry. Govern- ment was to employ labour in extensive trenching, draining, and planting, and he desired to see railway rates compulsorily lowered for the inward carriage of fish and the outward carriage of agricultural produce." We fancy Mr. Parnell was intent on keeping to safe subjects, but he clearly con- sidered that the poverty of Ireland was the first cause of its discontent.

The Fortnightly is not as interesting as usual. The sensa.

tional article is one on "Crime in Paris," by M. Hugues le Roux, which is, in fact, an essay with illustrations to prove that the children of drunkards inherit homicidal tendencies. Their consciences are callous. Dr. Gamier, the consulting surgeon to the Police Depot, is fully convinced of this ; but the evidence is far from satisfactory, appearing to prove rather that the children of drunkards, if ill-treated and neglected, grow up bad. The fact that a child of six intimated his intention of killing his baby-brother, and was furiously hostile to him, is not exactly proof, especially as the father was not a drunkard, but a man who performed all his functions in life, and who, though friends habitually gave him too many sips, was never suspected even by his wife of drinking. The paper concludes with an account of the souteneurs, or " bullies," of Paris, whom the writer credits with some virtues, among others, fidelity to their victims. M. le Roux gives us the impres- sion of a man so overcome by the passion of pity, that he thinks all crime disease, and accepts as conclusive any facts which seem to favour his theory.—Mr. A. R. Wallace's account of " The Flowers and Forest§ of the Far West "contains in this section little that is new, though it is beautifully written ; and Vernon Lee's " An Eighteenth-Century Singer " (Vivarelli) tires us with its exaggeration of tone. Composers may be the equals of great poets, but a singer is only an executant of other men's thought, and can hardly be great except in his gift. The wild admiration of the last century for men and women with the gift of affording pleasure was due, we fancy, mainly to the absence of intellectual interests, and consequent liability to ennui.—Perhaps the best-written, and certainly the most important, contribution to the Fortnightly is the fol- lowing letter from Sir Frederick Roberts, Commander-in- Chief in India :- " SIR,—In an article entitled ' The Demoralisation of Russia,' which appears in the October number of the Fortnightly Review, my views on the existing and future relations between England and Russia in Central Asia are described as authoritative and optimistic ; ' and in another article entitled Peace or War ? ' pub- lished in the Contemporary Review for the same month, the Right Hon. G. Osborne Morgan, M.P., states that I, in common with such statesmen as the late Lord Lawrence, am perplexed how to defend India against the continued advance of Russia. I am not aware that my opinions on the points referred to have ever been laid before the public in an authoritative or any other form, and in my present position I have no intention of abandoning the reserve which official obligations impose on me. But this much I may perhaps permit myself to say without indiscretion. If by optimism is meant a full recognition of the danger to which our Eastern Empire is exposed, and a persistent advocacy of the timely preparation and reasonable precaution by which alone I believe these dangers can be adequately guarded against, I confess myself to be an optimist ; and if perplexity means the repeated expression of very decided views on a matter to which I have de- voted the most earnest attention during the past ten ears, I am certainly perplexed.—I am, Sir, your obedient Servant,

FRED. ROBERTS."

The best thing in the New Review is Carlyle's diary of an excursion to Paris, which is concluded in this number. It is very thin, querulous, and uninstructive, but the marvellous control of its author over words was never better illustrated. Here is a class painted with a very broad brush, but accurately too_ " Bronze-dealer next, manufacturer rather,—the greatest (sof- disant) de l'univers : Lord Ashburton in want of such things went in, I with him, and we walked through various long suites of pendules, statuettes, chandeliers, &c. &c.,—an ardent, greedy, acrid- looking person (he of rl'univers ') escorting us ; almost frantic with the desire to sell to a milord for money. A vehement lean creature, evidently of talent in his kind, and of an eagerness—I have not seen such an hungry pair of eyes. We bought nothing ; I would not have had a gift of anything I saw there,—the best de l'univers : tantis non egeo ! ' Out at last, and I decided not to enter any other, but to sit outside and smoke. Next place, a still finer bronze concern; indisputably de l'univers,—but I wouldn't enter ; sat smoking pleasantly in an old quaint street (Quartier du Temple somewhere) for three-quarters of an hour, and bought a glass of via ordinaire (1d.) in the interim, and another for cocher, who seemed charmed and astonished. That suited me better than bronzes. But Lord Ashburton did buy a pendule and some fire or hearth apparatus here, all being so extremely good, and the chief man of the establishment, whom I soon after saw at the Hotel Meurice delivering his goods, seemed to me again a decidedly clever, sagacious, courageous, broad, and energetic man. Mem. I had been in a Bookseller's (on Saturday), the cut of whose face indicated some talent, and a similar sincerity of greed and eager- ness. A reflection rose gradually that here, in the industrial class, is the real backbone of French society ; the truly ingenious and strong men of France are here, making money,—while the politician, &c, &c., class is mere play-actorism, and will go to the devil by-and-1y Assuredly,' as Mahomet says."

Blackwood has, among other papers, an exceedingly good account of a journey of twelve hundred miles up the Yangtse- Kiang, full of most nutritive description, and leaving on the mind the impression that China, besides being one of the

most original of civilised countries, must be one of the most beautiful. We must, however, confine our extracts to the following passage, which, we think, may raise in some fowl- breeders a new appreciation of Chinese skill in disciplining their feathered flocks :—

" During our stay at Hankow we visited a duck-farm. The process of keeping the ducks is very simple. A large wooden shed stands near the edge of the river, where the owner of the farm or an employee spends the night with his feathered friends. There must have been several thousands of ducks in the farm we visited- Before sunrise the door of the shed is opened, and out run the ducks, scrambling one over the other into the river, where they spend the day feeding. As soon as sunset approaches, from all parts of the river they come, for they wander far amongst the rushes and islands during the day, and there is still more hurry and scurry to get into the shed than there was to get out at dawn. The reason is simple. Immovable by the door sits the Chinaman,. a long cane in his hand, and woe betide the last duck to enter, for down on its back comes the long bamboo with a pain-inflicting thud. In this way punctuality is ensured amongst the ducks."

Children could hardly have learned their lesson better than the ducks.