THE MAGAZINES.

'I'RE indefatigable Mr. Ellis Barker is again to the fore in the Nineteenth Century with a long article on "The Parliamentary Position of the Irish Party." We have only space to indicate very briefly the line of his argument. He admits that the instinctive desire of the Nationalists for Home-rule is per- fectly natural, but "while political Home Rule is, at least at present, impossible on political-strategical grounds, economic Home Rule will, with the advent of Tariff Reform, be im- possible for all time." Hence as Free-trade, not the potato famine, has driven five and a half million Irish people out of Ireland and ruined the country, Mr. Ellis Barker

• appeals to the Irish Nationalists to change their policy quickly, and support the cause of Union and of Tariff Reform, "which will mean the re-creation of Irish agriculture." Under Tariff Reform "Ireland may again become Great Britain's granary and nourish 10,000,000 people." Has Mr. Ellis Barker ever spent a summer in the West of Ireland? —Sir Andrew Fraser writes on "The Press Law in India." "No alteration of the Press Law," he argues, "will deal at once adequately and promptly with such crimes" as the murder of Mr. Jackson. "The improvement of the Press Law will tend to prevent the spread of this terrible evil, but it will not remove the evil which already exists." Sir Andrew Fraser attributes the rise of seditious newspapers written in English to the Vernacular Press Act passed under Lord Lytton's Government in 1878, and repealed in 1881 without any im- portant improvement of the Press. The difficulty of the present situation is the fixing of responsibility. Moreover, the existing law contains no provision for stopping the issue of a seditious newspaper after conviction. Subject to these alterations, and provided that the provisions of the Penal Code and the preventive measures contained in Section 108 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were firmly and consistently enforced, Sir Andrew Fraser is inclined to believe that the law would prove adequate to deal with the offences at which • it is aimed.—Colonel Henry Pilkington finds in the raising of the Irish Volunteers in 1778-79 a valuable and fruitful example on which we might rely at the present day. The essence of the scheme is that it should "provide by private endeavour from the resources of individual patriotism against the ruin which seems inevitable unless a supreme effort be made within the possibly very brief period of respite which yet remains." The movement must aim at the rapid enrol- ment of a million men, and Colonel Pilkington suggests that • some of the most distinguished senior officers on the active list should resign their commands and commissions to direct

• this national movement. Colonel Pilkington, we may add, dis- misses the Territorial Army as "well meant and well meaning, but totally insufficient and inefficient," a piece of exaggeration which will not help his cause or bring him converts.—Sir William White has a long and interesting article on the naval situation, in which he strongly deprecates the practice of introduoing party politics into the discussion of naval affairs. The mischief originated, he contends, in the issue of

• the Cawdor Memorandum, which involved a violation of the principle laid down by Lord Spencer in 1892,—viz., that the choice of naval members of the Board should be solely deter- mined by professional standing and recognised ability. For the rest, Sir William White impartially condemns Mr. Blatchford, Mr. Balfour, and Mr. McKenna for ministering to an alarmist view of our position. He holds that we have an amply

sufficient lead of Germany, and should have no difficulty in retaining it if we make proper use of our time and resources. He saddles both parties with responsibility for the enlarge- ment of the German programme of 1900,—the Unionists by the 'Dreadnought' policy, the Liberals by "rubbing in" the obsolescence of nearly one-half of the effective German battleships. And he warmly repudiates the view that Germany is secretly stealing a march on us. "Her rivalry is open and honourable ; our duty is to maintain naval supremacy what- ever Germany may do, and this duty can be fulfilled."

In the National Review Mr. H. W. Wilson takes stock of the naval situation, and discusses the measures required. Foremost amongst these, in his opinion, is an organic law, based on the German Navy Act of 1900, fixing the strength of the British Navy by reference to Germany, and providing ships, docks, guns, ammunition, stores, and men automatically.

Mr. Wilson deals very effectively with the ignorance and presumption of those who make Nelson say, in the terms of a recent cartoon in the Westminster Gazette : "We used not to talk in my days about 'two keels to one,' or two-Power standards and 10 per cent. margins.'" These words, Mr. Wilson remarks, "are put into the mouth of the great leader who wrote: Only numbers can annihilate, and it is annihilation that the country wants V This argument is used by those who ought to know—if they do not know—that by an official British Return the British strength in battleships at the opening of the Trafalgar campaign stood at 175 ships of the line to a French force of 50 A century ago 'we did not talk about a two-Power navy.' We built it."—The article on the elections signed "Pro Patriti," maintains that a "stalemate," by comparison with former conditions, is splendid for Unionists and fatal for the Government ; and that there is no majority on the aggregate voting—no Constitutional mandate—to justify a Constitutional change. The writer accordingly appeals to Mr. Asquith as a man of sense to drop heroics, and call a Conference of both parties to reform the House of Lords by consent. For the future, and by way of making ready for another General Election, Tariff Reformers are passionately entreated to formulate a definite programme of social reform in order to sweep Lancashire and Yorkshire and the boroughs as they have already swept the shires.—Mr. Maurice Low in his "American Affairs" pays a handsome tribute to the ability of Mr. George von L. Meyer, the Secretary of the United States Navy. Mr. Meyer, it seems, had a good record as business man, Ambassador, and Postmaster-General before he went to the Navy Department, but, unlike his predecessors, has not succumbed to the paralysing influence of a bureau- cratic regime. We also note an interesting reference to the late Frederic Remington, an almost self-taught American artistwho proved that an American does not necessarily have to go to Paris to develop his genius.—Mr. F. S. Oliver reviews Professor Shield Nicholson's brilliant Project of Empire in an admirably written paper ; and "J. M. S." contributes a singularly delicate and graceful appreciation of the late Lord Percy, full of interesting personal touches and illuminating anecdotes,—notably those bearing on his travels. Here, for example, is a piece of fine yet discriminating eulogy "He had the three greatest merits which a companion can have, being perfectly unselfish, never dull, always ready to be silent." The writer notes acutely of his poems that, charming as they were, "his short, happy, and busy life never yielded the experiences which wring from the poet his best verses.

He is gone with his best speech unspoken, his best book unwritten, his best song unsung."

M. Yves Guyot's paper on the relations between the French Senate and Chamber of Deputies in the Contemporary will be read with interest at this juncture. M. Guyot holds that the

authors of the Constitution did not foresee that the Senate would gain strength at the expense of tlie Chamber of Deputies owing to the weekThess of ate Deputies themselves. The personnel of the Senate, as he shows, is superior to that of the Chamber of Deputies, and the Deputies have abandoned

their real role of legislators, looking to the Senate to repair and control their errors, "thus putting themselves under the leadership of that Assembly, and giving it the most prominent role " :— " The Deputies have bound themselves over to vote in favour of illusory projects, the dangers of which they fully understand at heart; but they vote, telling themselves, and telling those who call their attention to the dangers of their action, It doeseb

mean anything; don't attach any importance to it. The Senate will arrange all that!' ' The Senate will arrange all that!' Such is the consecrated sentence."

—Another article deserving attentive study is that of Bipin Cha,ndra. Pal on "The Forces behind the Unrest in India." His main contention is that the "so-called unrest" is not really political, but is essentially an intellectual and spiritual upheaval, "part of the general awakening of Asia, which is rising up in a determined protest against the intellectual and moral, no less than the commercial and political, domination of Europe." The European Renaissance has been exhausted ; the world is on the threshold of a new Renaissance inspired by "the recovered thoughts and ideals of the long-neglected East." "India is struggling not only

for her own salvation, but for that of modern humanity." Though Bipin Chandra Pal for the most part remains in a

sphere of nebulous generalities, and only hints at assassina- tions and bomb-throwing under the mildest euphemisms, we now and again come across a penetrating remark. For example, after noting that the religious and social reaction was quite independent of the Congress movement, he says :—

"This reaction in Indian society found a powerful ally in the reactionary policy of the Government, which, frightened by the natural results of the new illumination which they had themselves introduced into the country, now proceeded to advance backward, undoing, as far as possible, their own previous work. Higher English education vas now distinctly discouraged as the fruitful parent of political malcontents."

As regards the Mohammedans, the writer confidently predicts that the new awakening of a political consciousness in that community will lead gradually, not to a conflict, but to "an invincible coalition with the Hindu movement."----" Prison Life as it Affects Women" is a deeply interesting paper, based on the experiences of a visitor at Holloway Prison. The writer shows a benevolence untainted by sentimentalism : "It cannot be reiterated too often that prisons are not first- class hotels ; they are not even hydropathic establishments." The writer defends the rule of compulsory silence, and pleads

for more drastic treatment of parents convicted of cruelty to their own children. We have great pleasure in quoting the last paragraphs of "0. M. B.'s " article "Just after I had finished writing these few pages I read a sentence in Mr. Wells' last book which made me start up and inwardly protest. Capes says to Ann Veronica : Sooner or later we'll certainly do something to clean those prisons you told me about—limewash the underside of life.' I answered him in my thoughts : No, Mr. Capes, you wouldn't do an atom of good in prison. It takes another sort of man to do that. And if Ann Veronica went inside, the women would describe her by an expression they greatly love, and say she was a "brazen girl." They don't grasp subtle distinctions. In their eyes a girl who goes off with a man while his wife is alive commits sin. 'No better than us,' they would say. That's what we do when the

fancy takes us! Every human being is a new thing,' said Capes, and exists to do new things.' No, he doesn't. I wish he did ! He exists to do old things, and calls them by new names. But the names don't deceive people with no aptitude for metaphysics. The only way to clean either palace or prison is to clean the minds of the men and women who live there. And nothing can bring this about (when things have once gone wrong) except the conviction that there is a life to come, and a Power behind all life which cares for each of us individually and takes heed of what we say and do. Unless we can persuade our- selves and others of this we had much better keep away from prisons. Our work lies elsewhere."

—Lord Courtney discusses "The Political Prospect" in a vein of candid optimism. For instance, he observes that "the exaggerated majority of the last Parliament has been reduced so as to make it a more faithful representation of the

balance of the nation, but the verdict is more authoritative in being more real and it is incontestable." The Lords must be dealt with, but the passing of the Budget claims priority. As for the House of Lords, it is, however, -clear that Lord Courtney is quite as much desirous of reforming its constitu- tion as of limiting its powers. The possibility of creating Peers to swamp the eplitaititon he frankly admits to be an act of vtclerics, atone it ingrit''ultimately necessary under the compulsion of the tie. L' Fitt:many he is prepared to

accept Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's scheme, but con- fesses to the opinion that, "with an improvement of the character of each House, especially in the elected Chamber, the practical difficulty of co-ordinating their powers would largely disappear." Yet Mr. Asquith distinctly informed a heckler the other day that it was not the intention of the Government to improve the House of Lords. We may note, in conclusion, that Lord Courtney observes that" the Referendum

has been advocated with much intelligence and energy in the Manchester Guardian, but scarcely at all in any other journal." It is not for us to lay claim to intelligence, but certainly no journal has advocated the Referendum with mcra energy and persistence than the Spectator.—We may a'sa note a some-

what pessimistic article entitled "East and West," by Mr. E. A. Foord, who, while regarding Japanese civilisation as superficial, foresees incalculable dangers to Europe in the formation of a Chino-Japanese Alliance.

Mr. Garvin's summary of the results of the elections in the Fortnightly is of course a brilliant piece of work, but, like all very brilliant journalism, disappointing. Striking generalisa-

tions given without balancing of evidence and with more than Papal authority are apt to become wearisome after a time. Perhaps the most memorable thing Mr. Garvin has to say is that Mr. Lloyd George's great mistake was his failure to realise the meaning of the demand for a strong Navy in England proper. That is to say, in the shires unaffected by mining or "the Celtic fringe" remain the purely English folk.—Mr. Belloc writes a very suggestive paper on Free- trade. In it he traces the effect during the last thirty years of the adoption of Protection by Germany and the United States, as well as of the retention of Free-trade by Belgium and Holland. In all these countries the increase of trade has been enormous, whichever system they have adopted. Here is what Mr. Belloc says :—

"One may sum up the whole argument as follows : Great Britain is asked to play a certain experiment with her import trade which experiment must (it is admitted) disorganise that trade, rearrange all the values based upon it, and diminish here, increase there, the various forms of internal production which are also based upon it. She is asked to play this experiment in imitation of two societies, the United States and Germany, which underwent the strain of such a transition, the one thirty, the other forty years ago, successfully stood that strain, and have increased their industrial power largely since they tried the. experiment. Without mentioning the fact that other com- munities under a consistent system of low tariffs have increased their wealth in an even greater proportion during the same period, one may contrast the amount and the nature of English imports with those of German and American imports at the present moment, and decide that the amount alone of British import makes the experiment exceedingly perilous, while the nature of that import makes it more perilous still; and one's conclusion in this respect is immensely strengthened by considering the insig- nificance of the import trade in the case of Germany and the United States when their experiment was tried, coupled with the nature of the import in either case."

Oliver Lodge, writing of "The Responsibility of

Authors," fears that the decision of the libraries in connexion with the circulation of certain books will mean a ban upon all that is unconventional. Milton is invoked, in Wordsworth's lines, against censorship. After all these heroics, what does it amount to ? Apparently that the libraries are to force upon unwilling customers books to which these customers object. Sir Oliver drags in the censorship of plays, remarking that "it has prevailed to stop some good work ; it does not avail to stop the foolish and the bad." A statement was made at the late inquiry into the subject that Mr. Thomas Hardy had refrained from writing a particular play because he

knew the Censor would not allow it to be acted. As if to justify this functionary, Mr. Hardy wrote a ballad on the subject of his unwritten play, which the English Review

published. The revolting nature of the ballad must have made all reasonable people who read it consider that in this instance at least the censorship had fulfilled a useful pur- pose.—Mr. Iwan-Thiller desires not a judicial separation between England and Ireland but a divorce. Ireland has so absolutely refused to be reasonable that we are to cast her off and let her know that "any attempt

on her part to contract alliances with foreign Powers would be treated as a cams belli." Loyal inhabitants would

remain subjects of the King, .and he protected like British subjects in a foreign country. ,This may be journalism, but it does not sound like statesmanship.

Mr. T. F. Farman gives in Blackwood an'account of what has been accomplished in flying during 1909. In one sense how little it seems, in another how enormous ! How little until last year there was to record since the mishap to Icarus. The writer points out that accidents due to the stoppage of the motor are most dangerous at a small distance from the

ground. At a considerable height there is every prospect of the pilot being able to steer his machine so that he can glide harmlessly to earth. Another curious point as yet unsettled is what will be the effect of great altitude upon the petrol motor. A stationary engine working in the Himalayas at thirteen thousand feet has been found to lose thirty per cent.

of its power. Will this reduction of force make Mount Everest still invincible ?— Mr. Andrew Lang enters into a spirited • defence of Betty Barnes, Warburton's cook, who has been accused of lighting fires with so many unique examples of the Elizabethan drama. Mr. Lang thinks that, when it comes to be considered, quite enough has been saved. What we have lost was probably like what has remained, and it would not be an advantage to us to have indefinite quantities of monstrous and appalling crimes, albeit interspersed with touches of great poetry. Mr. Lang insists that we should remember, when Betty Barnes is held up to obloquy, that what she burnt was not of the nature of Shakespeare's perfect work. Instead it was most likely only further examples of the poets who intoxicated themselves with horrors and in their ecstasies sometimes wrote marvellous things.—It is rather tanta- lising to find Colonel St. Quintin writing at length about the petty details of " Muttra and its Sport," and only as it were in a parenthesis, and as a matter of little account, describing a real " Mowgli " whom he had actually seen :—

"I saw once in the Mission House at Agra a boy, apparently about thirteen years of age, who had been rescued from wolves. I was informed that he had been dug out of an earth, where he was found with some young cubs. It was believed that he was • about three years old at the time, and had been carried off when a little baby. At the time of his discovery he was going about on all-fours and could only utter some guttural sounds ; his body was covered with hair. The kind missionaries had had him about ten years when I saw him, and he was then walking upright and had no very great growth of hair on his body ; but he was unable to speak more than a very few words, and these indistinctly, although he seemed sufficiently acute to know what everything was and what he wanted, and had, so the niissionaries- told me, no savage instinct left in him. He seemed very pleased with and puffed away at a cigar, and tapped his chest and tried to express his wish for more. I believe the story of his discovery to have been quite true ; the facts seemed well authenticated and very widely known. He went by the name of the ' Wolf-boy."

The writer of the "Critical Attitude" in the English Review has, we are glad to see, taken the advice offered him by our- selves and others, as he acknowledges, and this month refrains from singing the praises of his own special and limited Pantheon. Instead of the usual laudations, the critic gives us his views as to what his functions should be. After deploring the falling away from grace of a certain author, and saying that instead of writing "the best short stories that are to be found in English literature, now, alas ! ii pontifie," the critic proceeds himself to " pontify " for twelve pages.-- Mr. Arnold Bennett has too strong an artistic sense to be a convincing political writer. His description of Brighton as typical of all the forces that he disapproves of in English politics is as picturesque as it is unconvincing. Like many other people, Mr. Bennett talks about the "Democratic Idea" when really he means the domination of Jaco- binism. His democrats, who only number a few thousand, are the inspirers of the politicians, goading them on to force reforms on an unwilling people. Mr. Bennett seems quite at a loss to account for the fact that "there is a numerous class of the conquered which, utterly careless of its own interest, always comes to the aid of the conquerors at a pinch." If he had been less of a dramatist and more of an observer, he might have perceived that all political parties make an appeal which, even if mis- taken, has elements in it of complete honesty. "Some of the astounding figures thrown on screens at midnight during the last fourteen days" may be accounted for by real belief in the genuineness of the appeal as well as by such expressions as : "Gullibility and hysteria—the two master-attributes of ignorance ; apathy—the consequence of brutalization ; lack of self-discipline--the consequence of discipline by conquerors."

In the first article in the February number of the United Service Magazine Lieutenant Dewar, R.N., deals with "Naval Strategy and the Forth and Clyde Canal." His criticism of the proposal seems to show that from the naval point of view the canal would not be of any very great use. In fact, he adopts the opinion of the Defence Committee communicated to the Canal Commission, but carries it further. Though the idea is, we admit, a very attractive one, it seems to us that

it will only be possible to carry it out if it can be shown to be worth undertaking on commercial grounds,—i.e., will pay its way.---Other interesting articles deal with the nucleus- crew system and with the Imperial German Naval Dockyard

at Kiel and Airship Attack.—One of the historical articles, always a feature of the United Service Magazine, is devoted to Prince Eugene of Savoy, and gives a very fascinating account of that great leader.—The other historical article, entitled "The Shenandoah Valley Cam- paign," contains, in our opinion, a very much exaggerated account of Lincoln's interference with the conduct of the campaign by the Federals. No doubt Lincoln interfered, but it was only because of the incompetence of the Generals. That he interfered for the sake of interfering, or because he thought ho was a heaven-born strategist, we hold to be entirely disproved by Hay's Life of the President.