THE MAGAZINES.

WE cannot help thinking that even the serious magazines begin to suffer from the multitude of the new aspirants for public favour. We do not mean that their circulation diminishes, for we know nothing about that, and rather believe that every new publication which succeeds creates a new constituency for itself; but the supply of ability gradually becomes too much distributed. We can point to half-a-dozen well-known and successful writers who, but for the new ven- tures, would be expressing themselves in the older magazines ; and there are probably dozens more whose efforts, if concen- trated, would make the older publications seem alive with thoughts. The half-crown magazines are still, to our thinking, the best, and there are good contributors who never leave them; but it cannot be denied that they grow duller. The Contemporary Review, for example, is this month decidedly heavy. We have read Mr. St. Loe Strachey's paper on "The Peers and the House of Commons" with some interest, because he has put the new point that, legally, succession to a peerage need not compel an eldest son, say, for illustration, Lord Hart- ington, to quit the House of Commons. He is not, Mr. Strachey contends, a Peer until he has received his writ of summons, and as he need not apply for the writ, he might remain a

Member of the House of Commons all his life. We suppose that is legally accurate, though we are not sure, as we fancy the Sovereign could order the writ to issue, without the con- sent of the Peer in expectancy, which would be an intolerable position for a great politician ; but would the refusal to take up the coronet be morally right ? That is to say, would it be right to claim the immense social advantages, and even political position, attaching to an undisputed claim to a peerage, and yet refuse to the House of Lords, through whose existence these advantages arise, the benefit of your presence and help ? Mr. Strachey ignores the claim of the Upper House altogether. He may say the claim of the country is the higher one, which is indisputably true ; but then, the country should affirm that by formally repudiating the present restrictions. The logical rule for a democratic State is that to be chosen a representative, super- sedes any other national claim to a man's service, a principle .actually conceded in the case of jurymen; but the rule remains to be affirmed in the case of Peers. Our own compromise would be to reduce the working House of Lords to a hundred Members, to be chosen by the Peers, without limitations on choice, so that they might seat Judges or Generals if they pleased, and to leave all Peers not chosen eligible for election to the Commons.—Mr. Arnold White's paper, too, on "The Russian Jew," is at all events -curious in its evidence that Russians really dread, and with reason, the superior intellectual capacity of the Jew, who if enfranchised would defeat them in every walk of life, even agriculture, as is proved by a great experiment in °hereon, where a Jew agricultural colony has completely succeeded ; but the remainder of the papers are not of interest.—Mr. Bigelow's attack on Prince Bismarck is too exaggerated to be in any way convincing. There is much to be said against the Prince's internal government, but he not only made Germany possible, he kept her in peace for twenty years, yet left her the most powerful State in Europe. That was his

object, and to say that success in such an object under the conditions was achieved by an incompetent man, is too great a strain on one's belief.—Vernon Lee's queer rhapsody,

called "The Friendships of Baldwin," seems to us, to speak with brutal plainness, well-written nonsense. The whole discussion rests on the assumption implied in the following paragraph :—

" 'But all this,' added Baldwin suddenly, 'may surely exist apart from such personal feeling as you advocate. Cannot we admit at once that people are prose, good prose or bad, and take them with the same calmness with which we read a book ? You Bee I am still tormented by the doubt whether we human creatures are not always in danger of preying upon one another, unless deliberately chained up with the chain of indifference; whether friendship, when it does not mean mere dull jogging side by side, must not imply, as Emerson seems to have thought (and Emerson is the great expert of friendship), not merely the absorption of one by the other, but the actual exhausting one other of all that can please and profit, even as we exhaust the air of the oxygen

which we require It is certain that there comes a moment when the charm of pursuit, of discovery, of the unknown, must end. Or rather when the qualities which come under our notice are merely such as we do not care for, because we had quickly -discovered and enjoyed those for which we could care; when we get to know the residuum, which, to us, is trash It is terrible to feel that one has burned up or out another soul ; there is a reuse of awful humiliation in this recognition when we do recognise. It seems an insult to all one's better feelings. Infinitely rather the bitterness of seeing that oneself has been exhausted by another, that one has done all one's poor little tricks, sung all one's poor little songs.'"

Why on earth should friendship, or love either, exhaust instead

of replenishing the total of qualities we like or love ? man's friends, if they are worth having, do not drain him of more than they give him ; nor do true friends ever get to the end of each other's mental resources. It is acquaintances who do that ; and even then it is they who dry up, not the others who are dried.—" Pitt's War Policy" contains little that has not been acknowledged for half-a-century ; and Mr.

Courtney's paper, "Shady Truths," is a very dry—for him, inexplicably dry—reassertion of the old proposition that

4' saving, not spending, makes work." Of course it does, if by " spending " is meant consumption of the things bought; but if it is not, then saving and spending are pretty nearly identical in effect, and distinguishable only as irrigation from a stream and irrigation from a reservoir are distinguishable.

In the Fortnightly Review, Mr. J. E. Redmond, M.P., argues at much length that Mr. Balfour's Bill for Local Government in Ireland is inadmissible, the restrictions it contains being " insults " to Irishmen. They assume, in fact, that precautions are necessary in Ireland which are not necessary in England or Scotland; and that is equivalent to an assertion that Irishmen are inferiors. There is, of course, no reply to the statement, except the fact that for a time the difference in the countries exists. Is Mr. Redmond insulted if, when he speaks in a McCarthyite borough, he is guarded by the police, though in an English or Scotch borough such a precaution is unnecessary ?—Mr. Theodore Bent gives an

interesting account of Bechuanaland, the vast Sahara, large as France, with oases, which we have recently annexed in South Africa. He believes it may be valuable some day, but not until it is worth while to sink artesian wells. Of the few natives inhabiting it, some eighty thousand in all, the most interesting tribe is the Ba-mangwato, whose chief, Khama, is perhaps the most noteworthy African alive. He is a Christian, and governs as a wise despot with the full assent of his people, whom he has preserved, chiefly by conciliating the British Government, from their deadly enemies, the Matabele :—

"Khama pervades everything in his town. He is always on horseback, visiting the fields, the stores, and the outlying kraals. He has a word for every one ; he calls every woman, my daughter,' and every man, my son ;' he pats the little children on the head. He is a veritable father of his people, a curious and unaccountable example of mental power and integrity amongst a degraded and powerless race. His early history and struggles with his father and brothers are thrilling in the extreme, and his later development extraordinary. Perhaps he may be said to be the only Negro living whose biography would repay the writing."

Khama utterly prohibits the manufacture and consumption of beer, and insists on the observance of Sunday, preaching him-

self on that day, and expecting his people to attend. His people are still naked savages, even the women wearing only a loin-cloth ; but the chief himself is dressed like a European, and acts on principles indicated in the following little story :

—"In manner the chief is essentially a gentleman, courteous and dignified. He rides a great deal, and prides himself on his stud. On one occasion he did what I doubt if every English gentleman would do—he sold a horse for a high price, which died a few days afterwards, whereupon Shama returned the purchase-money, considering that the illness had been acquired previous to the purchase taking place." A " Negro " of that sort is certainly a remarkable figure.—M. Delille sends a criticism on M. Paul Bourget, the great French novelist, which strikes us as less incisive than his criticisms usually are, He is apparently struggling with a latent contempt to which he will not give clear voice, and thus produces a blurred im- pression. He thinks the novelist might succeed as a philosopher.

We have noticed "Amateur Christianity," by Mr. Mallock, elsewhere; and of the remaining essays, the only one which

strongly interests us is Miss March-Phillipps's account of a model lodging-house for dockers, of which she is the proprie- tress. It is a sort of club, with sleeping-rooms, used by steve- dores, grain-men, coolies, labourers, sailors, cattle-drivers, hawkers, firemen, and the like; and Miss Phillipps, without overstrict governing, has made of it a civilised place, which those who frequent it heartily like. No liquor is allowed, and the men, rough as they are, have ceased to require a " chucker-out,"

and acquiesce willingly in the exclusion of bad characters. Miss Phillipps, however, is not optimist, discerning clearly

the grand intellectual vice of this kind of labourer, his utter levity. He has not an idea of to-morrow, never saves even

when earning 10s. a day, and would not on any consideration work on tleneral Booth's farm. He, in fact, absolutely refuses any " dull " form of life, and life without drink and crowds he esteems dull :—

"I must allow that a personal knowledge of my lodgers is not altogether calculated to incline one to optimism. Love of excite- ment is a prevailing characteristic. Their lives are mean and ugly, yet self-indulgent, their work monotonous yet desultory, and they look for highly spiced pleasures and diversions, which, to the best of their ability, they seek in the street and in the favourite 'pub.' They are suspicious ; and if you are making a good thing out of them, you need not hope to pass unobserved. They are more in- clined to grumble at trifles than to be grateful ; and after paying their money they look upon allthey get as their right; and no false delicacy prevents their letting you know if there is anything they do not consider up to the mark. As a class, it is impossible to imagine any men more improvident. Of the hundreds who have passed through the house scarcely one who could be said to save has come under my notice, and attempts to establish a penny-bank have hitherto proved a failure. Even payments to a sick-club are the exception ; and yet, starvingly poor, as they are in bad times, a considerable quantity of money passes through their hands in imes of prosperity, enough in many instances, if averaged, to keep them in comparative comfort through the year. What they earn with one hand they fling away recklessly with the other, ap- parently oblivious that the following week may find them without a job and without a penny. A man may, and frequently does, tIke as much as 10s. in a day, and on the morrow, between eating and drinking and standing treat,' all will be gone. One old fellow, an Army pensioner, after planning for weeks beforehand how best to lay out his pension, and making any number of good resolutions, drew a sum amounting to nearly on a Monday, and by Wednesday had only Ss. remaining, and absolutely nothing to show for it. The will-power seems almost paralysed, and the utter want of perseverance, whether in business or pleasure, makes it hard to get any hold over them. Those are the excep- tions who do not drink more or less heavily ; a man will hold forth upon the degrading influence of drink, and pronounce it to be the ruin of body and soul, and then observe, I'm a drinker myself,' as coolly as another might say, I'm a cricketer."

That is a curious picture, and not the one usually drawn of Englishmen.

In the Nineteenth Century, we have been most interested in Mr. Wetnyss Reid's account of "The Liberal Outlook ; " but it is not very exciting either. Mr. Reid believes with all Glad- stonians that Mr. Gladstone will carry the elections, and that he will form a Ministry in which he himself will be nominally Premier, but the work of leadership in the Commons will be delegated to Sir William Harcourt, who "is not deterred by

any false pride from adapting himself to the prevailing mood of his party at any given moment." He is not so popular, thinks Mr. Reid, as Mr. Morley, but he will do; and the re- maining pests in the Ministry will be filled up by selections from a list which includes Mr. Morley, Mr. Labouchere, Mr. Campbell-Bannerman, Mr. Shaw-Lefevre, Mr. Fowler, Sir Charles Russell, and Mr. Bryce, with Lords Spencer, Kim- berley, Rosebery, Herschell, Sandhurst, and Houghton,—a curious list, which contains few men of originating power, and omits Mr. Asquith. The business to be done, continues the writer, will be, in the first place, Home-rule; but about its form Mr. Reid has no light to give, unless it is contained in the following sentences :— "As to the maintenance of the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament, about which we have heard so much, it is only neces- sary here to remind my readers that this supremacy is, in the nature of things, indestructible. The hand which has given is, in case of need, the hand which can take away. A Parliament created by statute can be destroyed by statute. But no real friend of either country will desire that the British Parliament shall undertake a kind of supervisorship of the Parliament in Dublin, and occupy itself in interfering in an irritating and wholly useless manner in the proceedings of that body."

Control without supervision, that is the ideal here marked out, and a more hopeless one it would be difficult to imagine. The thing exists in India; but then, in India there is no Ministry responsible to a local Parliament. And after Home- rule, what is to come ? I do not know,' frankly answers Mr. Wemyss Reid ; and it is better to take short views.' If he is right, the Election ought to be fought around the Home- rule Question alone.—Lord Meath's brief account of a Maori Meeting tells us little of the present position of that decaying people, whose grand grievance now seems to be that the white settlers upon their lands claim fixity of tenure ; but he adds one more testimony to the many which prove that it is a fine race which is passing away. The Maoris had a fancy for her Majesty's 65th, and "our landlord told us that during an engagement they cried out in their broken English, We going fire—Lie down, Icky-fifth: Although the Maoris were sometimes cruel and ferocious in war, they appear to have shown on other occasions marked chivalry and generosity towards their foes. I was told of a chief who, hearing that the British troops were in want of food, sent them an abundant supply, saying that he was a Christian, and that the Bible taught him to feed his enemies. In the famous attack on the Gote Pah, when the British troops were so disastrously repulsed, the wounded soldiers were treated by the Maoris with the greatest kindness, and instances are recorded of British wounded having been

rescued and succoured by their native enemies at the risk of their lives."—Surgeon T. H. Parke tells us, as an eye- witness, how General Gordon was really lost. The re- lieving force had reached Metemmeh on January 21st, 1885, and was there met by General Gordon's four steamers. Had one of those steamers been despatched at once to Khartoum with soldiers on board, it would have arrived on the 25th, when Gordon was still alive and Khartoum in safety. Sir C. Wilson, however, who was in command owing to Sir Herbert Stewart's fatal wound, did not move till

the 24th, and so arrived on the 28th, just two days too late.

The expedition had, in fact, been successful, but failed at the last moment through an error in judgment, probably caused by a desire to place success beyond all question.—Mr. M. W. Hazeltine gives us some account of New York society, but produces only a hazy impression that to succeed socially there, it is necessary to be very rich, though riches alone will not produce success ; and that the number of houses which make up society is still far from large.—Dr. Louis Robinson's paper, "The Meaning of a Baby's Footprint," is only an argument from the anatomy of a human foot, that it was originally intended to play the same part as a hand,— that, in short, it was the foot of a monkey, who somehow became a man. That is not very new, though some of the evidence may be creditable to Dr. Robinson's powers of observation. What is wanted now is some explanation of the mental and moral differences between men and monkeys.

The remainder of the fourteen papers are none of them good, except Mr. Wightman's description of the Charge of the Six Hundred at Balaclava, in which he shared, and which, though it contains nothing new, is a remarkable specimen of most spirited and racy English ; while Mrs. Mona Caird's "Defence of the Wild Women'" is very bad indeed. Its argument is that married women are not free, and it runs on in this style :—

" It is easy indeed to see the frightful peril to the well-being of the race that lies in the labour of women outside the home ; that peril can scarcely be exaggerated ; but if women demand the natural human right to take their share of the opportunities, such as they are, which the world has to offer— if they desire the privilege of independence (a privilege denied them, work as they will, within the home), by what right does society refuse their demand P Men are living lives and com- mitting actions day by day which imperil and destroy the well- being of the race; on what principle are women only to be restrained P Why this one-sided sacrifice, this artificial selection of victims for the good of society P The old legends of maidens who were chosen every year and chained to a rock by the shore to propitiate gods or sea-monsters seem not in the least out of date. Sacrifices were performed more frankly in those days, and nobody tried to persuade the victims that it was enjoyable and blessed to be devoured ; they did not talk about woman's sphere ' to a maiden chained to the rock within sight of the monster, nor did they tell her that the 'true woman' desired no other destiny. They were brutal, but they did not add sickly sentiment to their crime against the individual ; they carried out the hideous old doctrine of vicarious sacrifice, which is haunting us like an evil spirit to this day, in all good faith and frankness, and there was no attempt to represent the monster as an engaging beast when you got to know him."

That is rubbish, neither more nor less.

The two most noteworthy papers in Blackwood for May are the fierce attack on the civilisation of the United States, and the tale called "The Mathematical Master's Love-Story." The former, though marked by a certain screaminess of tone and exaggeration of statement—for example, there is another side to the Lynch-law question—is a useful paper, because it states a side of the social phenomena of the United States which is just now habitually concealed. The merit of the States is the freedom there enjoyed; the curse is the imperfect administration of ordinary justice ; and as we hear quite enough about the merit, it is well we should hear occasionally about the curse, more especially as we may shortly begin to experience it in this country also, where " opinion " already affects the judgment of Courts to a lamentable degree. In the story, Miss Beatrice Harraden displays a remarkable power of restrained pathos. It is impossible to read the narrative without a deep sigh, and it would be difficult to point out in it an exaggerated sentence, or even one which appeals to the reader to pump up his emotions. The incidents are left to produce their own impression, and it is a deep one.