THE MAGAZINES
TEE first article in the Nineteenth Century for November deals with " The Parliament Act and Second Chamber Reform." In it General Stone pleads urgently for haste. -" If-the Govern- merit postpones decisive action in respect to the Parliament Act and reform of the Second Chamber, the list oiipoitiviitk of saving the Constitution may disappear." It is not a quektion, he argues, of " restoring or retaining hereditary privileges of the Peers, but most emphatically the problem of safeguarding the rights and liberties of the people by providing a means to prevent a single chainber goveinment from exercising auto7 erotic powers and passing legislation in baste which: the country may bitterly regret." Two articles on China deal one with " The Anti-Christian Movement in China," and the other with " The Chinese Student at Work." The first empha- sizes the rankling sense of injustice which has embitteied China with regard to the West. Mr. 'Chirgwin, while allowing fok " the widespread effect of Red influence," will not admit that influence as explaining the essential problem. Mr. George Keeton writes to correct " an almost universal fallacy," i.e., " that the Chinese as a"race possess a pivdigioliS mental capac= ity." Long experience of Chinese students has brOught him to a diametrically oppoiite conclusion. He sees in them a " limited mental outlook " and -" little or .no originality." All those who are interested in : Old London _ should read " London Traffic in the Seventeenth Century " by Major, Norman Brett-James. He quotes a _provincial visitor who; arriving in London in 1698, writes of streets pestered with hackney coaches and insolent carmen, shops, and-taverns, noise, and such a cloud of sea coal that if there Were a'
resemblance of hell upon earth it is this volcano on a foggy
Mr. Robert Crozier Long in the Fortnightly Review writes of " Russia's Recovery Programme." " Russia, in spite of Com- munism, is recovering," he believes. "It is therefore advisable for Great Britain, at a time when she badly wants foreign customers, to prepare for selling to Russia on an extended scale." To prove his point and support his argument, Mr. Long sets before us Many rows of figures. " Shepherds' Meets,", by W. T. Palmer, is a charming description of yearly merry-' making among the Westmorland farmers. We had thought that the side of rural life here depicted-belonged wholly to the past. " Labour will eventually disown Socialism, as it has already sternly disowned Communism " predicts Mr. James Corbett in "A Transformed Labour Party." " Intel- lectuals behind the scenes," he assures us, " are convinced, that this change is already in progress." This, he believes, will mean the final destruction of the Liberal Party as a party, though Liberalism, in its true sense, will be infinitely strengthened as a power: Let us be warned in time, he urges, or " we shall all go down into the pit which the Red International has dug for us." " English Poot Law Relief," by Miss Edith Sellers, describes the im- pression made upon a French expert by our poor law institutions. In his opinion money is wasted here to little purpose. He could not see that destitution apart from any- thing else should be regarded as a claim upon ratepayers, the effect of such policy being, he thought, to equalize the worthy and unworthy and force into each other's society persons who must make one another unhappy.
The Contemporary contains a striking article by Sir Charles' Mallet on " Lord Grey and the Peace of Europe." Lord Grey's " illuminating " book is, he maintains, " The story of a sustained and single-hearted effort to keep the peace of Europe." " The lamps are going out all over Europe,'1 said Lord Grey to a friend in the Foreign Office in the dusk Monday, August 8rd, 1914. Sir Charles sees hope of theit being lit again : " Arbitration is no longer a Utopian theory.") The Pact, whatever its imperfections, has done so much.' But, he continues, " it would go far if Great Britain; as Lord Grey has suggested elsewhere, would make a public declaration to the world that there are only two things-for which hencefor- ward we will pledge ourselves to fight. The first is the defence, of our own country if we are attacked, and the other thing is the Covenant of the League and the principle and practice of arbi- tration." Mr. H. Wilson Harris describes " The Sixth Assem- bly " of the League of Nations. He points out " the striking contrast provided by the French and British Delegations both in their composition and in their general attitude towards the League. The French adopted, in a way to which no exception could be taken, a position of acknowledged leadership in the Assembly, and the British made no visible attempt in any way to emulate it." The English, Mr. Harris complains, " felt it necessary ".to make criticisms in depreciation of any extension of the League's activities, while the French at every point took a progressive Tine. Mr. A. T. Cadoux, in " The Combative Instinct and the Abolition of War " refuses to believe that this instinct, becomes fiercer if repressed. On the contrary he thinks it dieS out. When the muzzling order was taken off dog fighting _never went back to its old proportions. The muzzled years almost killed the instinct.
Blackwood contains a striking short story called " The Prevailing Ill " by Mr. Humphrey Jordan, and a delightful paper upon " Ben Jonson, the Man," by Mr. Charles Whibley.
The most interesting paper in a good number of the Empire Review is " The Early History of our Country." In it Mr. William Dale sets before his readers the divergent conclusions held. by scientific men of the present day in regard to the origin of man. • " In this argument the opinions of our leading scientists are laid before you much in the way that a judge presiding over a jury sums up the evidence and leaves - them to bring in their own verdict." We congratulate the " judge " on his clearness and impartiality.
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