THE MAGAZINES.

PROFESSOR J. H. MORGAN writes at considerable length on " T he Cons titu tional B,evolution" in the new Nineteenth Century. As we have had occasion to notice before, though his sympath lest are in the main strongly with the Liberals, he is far from being an uncompromising partisan. The opening portion of his article deals at length with usurpations of the Executive— legislative, judicial and financial—and the growing tendency towards administrative autocracy in the various Departments, a tendency which he attributes only in part to, the' conflict of the two Houses. Professor Morgan, it is true, denounces the Referendum vigorously enough, and declares that, com- pared with such revolutionary proposals, the Veto Bill ,is " conspicuously studious in its moderation and conservative in its design." But it is clear that he has grave doubts as to the efficacy of this measure in restraining the preten- sions of the Lords :— "Altogether it may be pretty safely asserted that while the • Finland To-Day. By George Renwick. London; T. Maier Unwia. [10a. 6d. net.] pbwer of the Lords'

ords to reject is abolished, their power to revise will be enormously increased, and whenever the Government is in a hurry to get its legislation through they may be able to dictate what terms they please. The Government will have every reason to agree with its adversary quickly. Under these circum-

stances we think the pace of legislation is likely to be slow, and its contentiousness inconsiderable. The danger is that the extremists on the Government side, impatient at such small results, will clamour for such an abbreviation of the temporary period as to abolish it altogether. In that case we -shall be brought to the brink of a counter-Bevolution. From all that has been said above, we think it must be admitted that there is no finality in the proposals of either party. The only way out of the impassFwill be, sooner or later, to agree on the substitution of a new Second Chamber for the existing House of Lords."

He concludes by reiterating his conviction that a Second Chamber is absolutely necessary. Professor Morgan, in other viOrds, is a strong Preambulist; and it is amusing to compare, his views on the-House of Lords with those expres.sed by the. Lord Advocate last Saturday.—Mr. Harold Wyatt's paper, "God's Test of' War," is a great deal better than its sensational title. There is sound sense in the caveat he enters With regard to the Arbitration Treaty with America :--

."Two nnmilitary peoples, threatened by the -same danger,

speaking the same language, and largely even now of the same . blood, may well find it expedient to unite such forces as they possess for their common defence against great armed nations., But to infer from the advisability of such a union that the reign of everlasting peace upon earth is about to begin, and that -what remains of their military spirit may therefore soon be suffered to lapse, is the very negation of human reason, and the surest method of securing their common downfall."

Lord Brassey writes on the Navy Estimates of 1911-12 in a

vein of tempered optimism. He deprecates the practice .of " building ships earlier than is necessary in order to have them ready when they are wanted." Money may thus be wasted,and we may fail to take advantage of the newest ideas. KO anticipates a reaction against the worship of mammoth dimensions—nautical Jumbomania it might be ealled—and condemns the policy of scrapping armoured ships and cruisers, not twenty years old, in sound condition and still fit for certain services. And, finally, he admits that " estimates must be framed by comparisons of naval strength and pro- gress, and at the present juncture mainly with Germany." In an interesting passage from a memorandum on the pOlitical condition written by Prince Hohenlohe so far back as 1847 he shows how naval weakness was in former times a moving cause of the discontent then universal amongst patriotic dermans.--:=Mr. Ian Malcolm writes pleasantly on the "Humours of English Elections." We have only room for one of his budget of good stories. Apropos of the use of the word " colour " to denote political creed, he tells how a can- vasser rang the door-bell of a small house and was answered by -a diminutive child, who said that her father was out " ' And what " colour" is your father, my dear P' - After a short pause she replied, Well, I think he used to be ginger, but he's very bald no w?"---Bishop Welldon, in a most interest- ing paper, discusses the making of the Authorised -Version with the special view of emphasising the fact that it was a revision of successive revisions, and was carried out with wonderful literary care and skill.--Lastly, we may note a brilliant and deeply suggestive essay on " Our debt to Latin Poetry as distinguished from Greek," by Professor R. Y. Tyrrell. His remarks on Lucietius are especially illuminative, but the most remarkable passage in a fascinating taper is 'the following "From the earliest dawn of letters to the incipient decay in the Silver Age we meet with formal attestations, and from good authorities too, that men who are now to us mere names once had the fame of a Milton or a Tennyson. Nepos refers to a poet of whom he, a responsible critic, is able to say, ' I can well affirm that he is our most brilliant poet sine° Lucretius and Catullus.' Of whom is he speaking? Of one Julius Calidus, of whose existence we .should have been unaware but for this passage. Tibullus, who ought to know, tells us that no one—not even Virgil, it seems—' came nearer to the immortal Homer' than one Valgius. But for the caprice of time 'we might now be quoting from Calid and Valge as from Lucan and Virgil."

As Professor Tyrrell happily puts it, " Thus does.fame scatter with indifferent hands the laurels of triumph and-the poppies of eblivion.'1.

In the National Review' )ffr. Lovat 'Fraser answers. the qualition;' "Why 'help- the Baghdad' Railway? "- with an emphatic alegative. —He..niaintains first of.tiall that nothitte, has occurred to alter the position with which we were confronted in 1903,—nothing, at least, which ahead 'albeit' our attitude 44 the project. Sir Edward Grey's -state.' meat on March 8th—viz., that Great Britain had iio' desire to stop Germany making her railway to Basra, but that she should not emerge on the -Persian Gulf- without our consent, as we had rights there which 'we meant to maintain— is convincing. Unfortunately, he could not tell the HouSe that these rights are simultaneously being made the subject of barter, which is the real cause of the 'rejoicings 'in the German Press." Mr. Fraser is anxious to 'know -whether the" Indian ' 'Government are being consulted, and expresses the belief that Indian opinion-is dead against any arrangement involving mutual control by Great Britain and Germany of -any section of the line. He meets -the argument that it is Our -duty to help -to open up a derelict country by observing that --we have vast derelict countries awaiting development within our Empire. He also dismisses the " short-cut-to-•India holding that the Baghdad line is not a good alternative mail. route. His examination of the merits of the two possible - termini of the railway, Koweit and Basra, is Valuable, because! he has been there, and it-leads him to the conviction that "by permitting* the construction of a great harbour at Koweit where under special treaties we have at present the sole, decisive -voice, we should be giiing hostages to fortune and undermin- ing our supremacy in the Gulf." Hence his conclusion that. we should keep entirely out of the scheme, maintain abso-. lute neutrality, stand firm on piug treaty rights, and keep. clear -of unnecessary entanglements with Germany-.---Mr. H. W. Wilson analyies the House of -Lords' Debate on the' Declaration of-London, and subjects the argumenth of •Lord Loreburn and-Lord Morley to damaging criticism. He makes' a good point when he asks if, as these advecates of the Declaration insist, our enemies 'are ready to-disregard 'the rulings and preeedente which bear on contraband, &e., ivhat - security have we -that they will not, in the same way, dis- regard the rules of the Declaration when it suits their- purpose P--." The' Case for Woman's Suffrage " is a• verbatina• report of Lord Selborne's speech before the Conservative' and Unionist Women-lir Fra.neliise Ansociation on March 9th, and is a "sporting" retort to the chargethat Lord Selborne is the victim of a. boycott whenever -he speaks on thigr subject. The speech is like all. Lord Selborne's. utter- ances, straightforward and unaffected; but we cannot say that it shakes our opposition to Woman Suffrage. He meets the argument that women do not want the vote by-asserting that it was .one of the stock .arguments of the old Tories against the enfranchisement . of the other sex by the Reform Bill. 'Yes, but did the unenfranchised men ever form an Anti-Suffrage League P Again, while we may admit that women care more for the sacredness of the home than men, we • see no reason to agree with Lord Selborne that they care: more deeply than men for, the future of the country.-- " Ignotus " writes an interesting paper, based on the disclosures of recent memoir writers, on the part taken -by the -Empress - Eugenie in bringing about the cataclysm of 1870. His verdict is that she has been much maligned ; that her motive throughout was patriotic ; that she foresaw what was needed by France and used all her efforts to strengthen the French - army; and that she only urged on the war because she had been persistently deceived by statesmen and war ministers as to the state of France's preparedness.—We may also note Mr. Morton Fullerton's reading of the fall of. M. Briand and the accession to power. of the Monis Ministry It is briefly this : that M. Briand, though the necessary man, resigned rather than incur . the suspicion of Cresari,sua; that M. Monis, though elevated to power by M Briand's enemies, is continuing his policy, and that the cordial co-operation of M. Delcasse and M. Cruppi, and M. Paul Cambon in London, affords the .best guarantee that the Radical conspirators will not haVe matters all their own way.

Mr. Harold Spender discusses the proposed at:biti-ation treaty with the United States in a paper headed "Petice on Earth " in the Contempirttry. Rio :vievr. is hopeful, but his roseate -.interpretation of Germany's attitude is somewhat discounted by Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg's - recent- utterance. Mr. Spender is careful: to warn us against counting on the approval of, the ..A.mericani - Senate, though, as . -an' uncompromising Horne Rulei, he argues that the United Staten will bp, 'mare inclined 10_, enter into closer ties with England because she is giving

justice to Ireland. In other words, Tammany will be propitiated by the sacrifice of Ulster.—Professor Sanday writes on " The Primitive Church and the Problem of Reunion." He traces the growth and progress of that movement in the last forty years .both on the side of scholarship as well as that of practical effort, and notes that whereas at the Pan-Anglican Congress in 1908 the question of reunion was only one subject among many, at the Edinburgh World's Missionary Conference in 1910, although it was nominally only one subject among a number, it really dominated the whole assembly. At the same time he reluctantly finds it necessary to warn his readers against hasty plans, as " there are no short cuts in matters of the greatest moment. There is an immense desire for reunion the whole world over; and yet as matters stand it must be felt to be impossible." The first indispensable stage, in his opinion, is for students and scholars working among their books to concentrate on a scientific reconsideration of the questions of the origin, history, and validity of Holy Orders, and of the validity of Sacraments.—Mt. F. M. Cutlack writes incisively and frankly on " the _German National Idea." The gist of his article is that if Germany is aggressive, she has good cause in her tremendously rapid growth to power and prosperity. " When we examine the modern German and find how he is energetic, bold, self-confident, exultant, and, above all, successful, we must in all humanity make allowance for some high-spirited jubilation." The German, continues Mr. Cutlack,

believes in the ultimate arrival at any selected goal of the plodder who plods with an aim; he believes in victory by weight of numbers; he believes whole-heartedly, and without any sense of humour whatever, in the righteousness of everything that is his and of every work he does. . . •. His training is valuable in that it teaches him to work hard, but immeasurably more valuable in that it teaches him to enjoy it. Work Is his national sport—other he can scarcely be said to have any.. . He is not only patriotic, but he is self-consciously patriotic. . . . He feels to-day that he is destined for something great; that, whatever chances and changes may come about, they cannot be unfavourable to him ; that, whether he has to fight or not, he will in any case continue to advance to a position ordained for Shim. He has become an Imperialist in the broadest sense. The dreams he has-of the unfolding years are not bloody; he does not want war; but he believes that his national worth is important to the world's future, and he is ready to fight if he must."

Mr. Cutlack's concluding remarks are well worth attentive study. A rapprochement with Germany, he admits, depends on something besides mutual understanding and goodwill. The building of warships and the improvement of our Army are not the causes of international animosity. If the French army had been as ready as Marshal Lebceuf declared it to be, there would probably have been no war in 1870. Mr. Frederick Ballard, writing on Rural Housing, advocates the grouping of detached houses on the village system, and gives an illustration of a cottage built under rural by-laws for £160. The annual cost works out as follows : " Charge for oapital and interest at Board of Agriculture rate, 44 per cent.

for 50 years ; 5s. a year ground rent ; £1 rates ; £1 repairs = £9 ls., or 3s. 6d. a vireek."-Weinay also-note Mr. Masefield's

reminiscences of J. M.- Synge, written in short explosive sentences. He confirms the view expressed by other writers of Synge's complete detachment from party. "He was the only Irishman I ever met who cared nothing for either the political or the religious issue. . . . The question was nothing to him. All that he asked for was to hear what it made people say and to see what it made people do."

The _Fortnightly Review contains a series of epigrams Of two verses each, by Mr. Thomas Hardy, called " Satires of Circumstance." These are as unpleasant and as poignant as one would imagine they would be alike from their title and their author. Mr. Hardy's familiar view of women is prominent here.—In an article dealing with "National Conservatism" "Emanon " asks why the swing of the pendulum has been arrested, especially in the great towns where it

generally shows itself. first. The answer, we are told, is that although election agents and party managers insisted on a

bold constructive poliCy—that is, Tariff Reform—the policy of Outbidding the other side is not one which really appeals to the elector. "Fin:1nm% would have liked a more cautions and Maehiavellian procedure. He would not have re- Pealed the corn tax aftei• the war, but would have taken. it off the colonies only, doubling it to foreigners. This 'could have been done without the flourish of Birmingham trumpets which so alarmed the Free Traders. —Mr. Arthur Baumann writes " A Tory Plea for the Parliament Bill." There is mach truth in his state- ment that the Lords entered into a great gamble over the Budget, being led on by the hope that' the popularity of Tariff Reform would save them. They took no heed, and "damned the consequences, and now the consequences have damned the Peers." The writer sees dearly that the creation of five hundred peers would not embarrass the Govern- ment. They would have a subservient House of Lords for some time, and the party chest would be filled by the prices of coronets. Mr. Baumann counsels patience, believing that the Government will turn itself out in the end " by the intemperate use of power for partisan purposes. But that event will be delayed for a generation, if the House of Lords commits the capital error of installing a pernianent Radical majority within its walls."--Sir George Arthur regrets that so little notice has been taken here of Lord Kitchener's memo- randum, which laid down the principles of Australian defence. He would have us apply these principles to ourselves, and warns us of the terrible danger of meeting the highly-trained soldiers of the Continent with our Territorial Forces. Sir George Arthur holds in very light esteem any but the most thorough training, and he considers that the Englishman needs a longer period to learn soldiering than the Australian, who from the local circumstances learns more easily.

" Auditor Tantum " discusses "Personalities in the Commons," and remarks upon the weakness of the Opposition. Speeches are too long, and the same thing is said over and over again ; The Front Bench gives no encouragement to the rank and file, and there is no feeling that a fight in deadly earnest is going forward.

Readers with a sense of humour will delight in the story placed first in Blackwood called "Expeditus," by Mr. St. John Lucas. After a prelude dealing with the traditions of fat abbesses whose holiness caused them to he loved and remembered, we come to the adventures of the Abbess of Saint-Ernoul. She is described as moving " with the gestures of a hobbled elephant, and her nose and eyes were almost hidden behind two vast rosy cheeks." But she was -entirely lovable, kind, practical, and energetic, and worshipped. by the poor, amongst whom her influence was immense. For this reason, perhaps, the mayor determined to put an end to the nunnery over which the Abbess ruled. How he advanced to the gates, tricolour sash and all, accompanied by policemen and sympathisers, and how the abbey gardener received the invaders with a hose, and how the intrepid Abbess tore up the order of the -Minister of the Interior, are things which must be read in Mr. Lucas's own words. The Abbess was much too practical not to realise that after such a catastrophe serious measures would be taken by the mayor, so when he summoned the garrison to surrender a. second time, bringing with him soldiers and a machine gun (to use on the gardener), he found the convent empty and the valuables removed. The sphere of the Abbess's activities now shift to Rome. Here she had always longed to go, not so much to see St. Peter's as the Colosseum. Nominally she and Sister Veronica, who went with her, were to arrange the details of a new French convent on the Aventine. Fipally, the two ladies stayed in a villa near Frascati, when the villages at hand were being ravaged by an epidemic. Medical help and the devoted nursing of the two Frenchwomen did a good deal, but the spirit of the people was depressed and they demanded relics for their consolation. The Abbess hurried off to the Vatican, where a Cardinal found her a box of bones, and these were sent at once to Sister Veronica, but without any explanation as to whose relics theywere, and the Abbess was pre- vented by a sudden illness from writing herself. Great was the doubt of Sister Veronica as to what she should do. Anonymous bones would not be aceepted by the people, who wished for the personal intervention of a Saint. As Sister Veronica re- surveyed the box she found a label on it with the word " Spedito." This at once was accepted as signifying Saint Pedito, and in his name miraculous cures began at once. ' When the Abbess found out what had happened she was over- come with laughter, telling. Sister Veronica that she had " created an active miraculous saint out of a—a luggage label." And the bones? "They were nobody's in particular," but came from the 'catacombs. But something bad to- be done. The Abbess was far too honest to wish to pass off the fictitious saint as a real one. Again the Vatican was consulted and proved equal to the occasion. *A scholar was set to work in libraries and he soon found a Roman soldier called Expeditus who became a Christian and

*was martyred in the Colosseum in the third century, "and an *expert osteologist recognised the marks of lion's teeth on the bones." The historical evidence became so convincing as to satisfy even the Abbess, and the villagers called the healthful wind which blew away the infection the " venticello di San "Pedito." The story is written with real humour, and the character of the Abbess is delightful throughout.—" Moira O'Neill." in reviewing " The Oxford Book of Italian Verse," has given us some charming translations of the 'verses she quotes. Here is a verse of the song of a maiden forsaken by her lover, who has gone to the Crusades, by Rinaldo d'Aquino, of the epoch of Dante :—

" Never can I forget my woe,

And comfort naught avails.

The ships are in the port below, Waiting to hoist their sails. The men are all for sailing To lands beyond the sea: And I alone am wailing, What will become of me ? "

We must also call attention to the translation of Michel- angelo's cry of the spirit in the great sonnet written at the end of his life, beginning :-

" Over a stormy sea a fragile boat Has borne me to the port for which all steer."

The whole review makes an interesting essay on Italian poetry, and gains greatly by the faithful translations, which are in themselves charming pieces of verse.--" Palabra Inglesa" 'is distinctly pleasant reading at this time of national self-depre- ciation. These words, it appears, are used in South America when a native wishes to assure some one that be will be as good as his word. Translated, " Palabra Inglesa. " means " This is an English promise." The saying has come from our fair dealing in trade, and from the experience the natives have had of our thoroughness in action as exhibited by engineers, planters, and others.—Miss Gertrude Bell's paper on Damascus is, like all her writings, full of archaeological information, human sympathy, and humour. Miss Bell was greatly impressed by her first sight of a young Christian recruit in the Turkish army, and the ideas of change the sight of him aroused were again awakened when she was able to discuss politics freely with native friends in the great houses of Damascus. Six years ago she could only allude to such things under her breath.

Mr. Stephen Phillips contributes to the English Review a sonnet on Shakespeare which, if it does not contain any very strikingly original ideas, has clear-cut thoughts expressed in harmonious language. We quote six lines which give the main idea of the work-

" Others conceive thee but as bland and mild, And with a cloudless, boundless human view ;

Yet wast thou most thyself in thunder-roll Of human challenge burled against the Powers; By furious fuel thy true fire was fed, By Lear outcast, Othello by the bed."

—Mr. Richard Middleton's " Queen Melanie and the Wood- Boy" is so graceful and tender in feeling and expression that

we regret that the author has not worked out the idea more fully. As it stands, the poem breaks off suddenly.—Mr. Stephen Reynolds' article, called " The By-products of Tariff Reform," is a paper of quite unusual interest. Those who try to arrive at some definite idea of what is passing through the minds of English working people at the present time cannot fail to re- ceive much enlightenment from this detached yet sympathetic analysis. The change that has come about in the minds of working men during the last few years has been both great and marked. We have very little doubt that Mr. Reynolds is right when he says that the Tariff Reform controversy is responsible for the change; by its means working men have been taught the existence of economics, of which they were unaware before. Mr. Reynolds considers the bearing of this upon the spread of Socialism. He says :-

" I was present while some country working men, not trade unionists, were talking about their wage. ' We don't get our fair share,' said one. Certainly the master's got the capital and we haven't,' added another, ` and there wouldn't be no work for us without his capital.' Yes, we knows that. But 'tie us earns him the interest on his capital, and in sharing up the profits us gets too little for our labour, and he gets too much for his capital : and 't ought to be put a stop to.' Most people,' I remarked by way of a joke, ' would say you are talking Socialism.' To my astonishment he retorted : 'I knows we are. All of us working men are Socialists nowadays in things like that. Only I dare say we shall vote Conservative, us that's here, after that.' The others present nodded their approval. Ten years ago a conversation like that would have been impossible. It can only mean, not simply that the opinions of those men have changed, but that the opinions around them, of the class they belong to, whose feelings they share, have also changed One knows that it is so by a multitude of conversational touches too light and fleeting for recollection, except as a general impression. And it is within a remarkably short space of time that working people have become highly socialistic in money matters, though not, it may be noted, in other respects. The theoretical aspects of Socialism do not appeal to them, and they resent as much as ever State inter- ference in their private lives. Bureaucrats they mistrust : chill Fabian efficiency has no attractions for them. What they want is fair play between man and man."

Those who have acquaintance with working people, even if they have not Mr. Reynolds's exceptional opportunities of observation, will recognise the truth of these words. Mr. Reynolds ends his deeply interesting study with a warning that profound dissatisfaction is growing among the working classes with all political parties, and that should a leader arise the action of pent-up forces may be violent.—A few years ago the magazines were full of articles recommending various systems of diet as cures for all the ills of mankind, physical and moral. Of late there has been a lull, and we hope that " E. U. Pepsia," when be writes a pan of joy over his use of the stomach pump as a cure for gout, is not going to inaugurate a new campaign.

Though we must by no means be held to agree with every- thing it contains, one of the most interesting articles in the United Service Magazine for April is " The Case of a Democratic Army," a reply to " Ex-Non-Com.," whose article in favour of promotion from the ranks and other methods for producing a democratic army, appeared in the December number of the magazine and was noticed by us. The follow- ing appears to us to be sound and reasonable :-

"' Ex-Non-Corn.' proposes that all Officers should come through the ranks. Why ? What is the advantage to be obtained by service in the ranks ? What can an Officer gain by serving in the ranks that will benefit him as an Officer ? Service in the ranks tends, if anything, to unfit him. The principal thing a man in the ranks has to learn is to obey the many masters over him. He is a mere unit in the great machine—an intelligent unit, perhaps, but a pawn only, and he must necessarily remain so. No I Service in the ranks is to the man who intends to be an Officer mere waste of valuable time. His principal study is how to command and lead. By all means let the competition for a commission be open to any one, but be very sure the country gets the best value. Let the subjects of examination be varied, and the physical standard high, but don't make it a necessary qualification to have served in the ranks. There is no Officer I have ever met who would not be glad to welcome as a comrade the man he felt was his equal in the essential attributes of an honourable gentleman, whatever his birth or pecuniary condition."