THE MAGAZINES.

IT is perhaps a reflection on the quality of the serious contri- butions to the November Nineteenth Century that the longest and most fascinating paper it contains is that of Mr. Bosworth Smith on "Owls." The writer's main aim has been to vindi- cate the character of the owl, and he has made out a strong case for the encouragement and protection of a singularly interest- ing though much maligned bird. As Mr. Bosworth Smith shows by his admirable anthology of literary allnsions, the owl has fared singularly ill at the hands of authors. Sir Walter Scott, characteristically enough, is one of the few poets who have a good word for him. The paper is rich in observation and anec- dote,—witness the two touching instances of the owl's domestic affection on pp. 770 71.—Mr. Lionel Phillips discusses "Mam- moth Trusts and Municipal Trading" in a judicial spirit. As regards the former, he lends his support to the view often maintained in our editorial columns, that the creators of Trusts are not immortal, that their successors are in- variably men of inferior ability, and that in a majority of cases they must inevitably end by illustrating the old tag, via consili expert mole ruit snot "The fate of Trusts will hang upon their management, and not upon the amount of capital at their command." He also pronounces strongly against the creation of oppressive monopolies in articles of which the world has a serious need, holding that such action courts legislative interference. In regard to municipal trading, Mr. Phillips adopts an attitude of moderate antagonism, approving the compromise adopted in certain German cities, where the net profits are shared between the concessionaire and the Corporation as trustees for the inhabitants.—Sir Harry Johnston's article on "The Native Labour Question in South Africa" deserves close attention. He advocates, under clearly defined restrictions, the recruiting of native labour from Central Africa as the only satisfactory means of ensuring the development of South Africa. The cardinal features of his scheme are the establishment of a Government Labour Bureau employing competent and well-paid agents of undoubted personal repute ; a carefully organised and humane system of trans- port ; housing in separate huts, as opposed to the barrack system; and regular and restricted hours of labour. It should be noted that Sir Harry Johnston's objection to white labour is largely physiological or climatic. "Europeans are too expensive, too unruly, too much given as a race to abuse of alcohol, and so influenced by generations of comfort and care in a sheltered life as to be singularly prone to suffering from extremes of heat and cold, from the malaria of the wastes, from the enteric of the towns."—Mr. Montague Crackanthorpe was the only English member of the Com- mission appointed by the International Congress of Compara- tive Law in 1900, and charged with the duty of investigating the principles which should guide the Judiciary when pronouncing a criminal sentence. He now contributes a most interesting selection from the answers furnished to the questionnaire framed by the Commission by English and American Judges,—Lord Justice Mathew, Mr. Justice Channell, Lord Brampton, amongst others. To these answers Mr. Crackanthorpe contributes an instructive commentary of his own, together with some general observations on the four factors which influence a modern Judge in passing sentence,—viz., the objective aspect of crime—crime as a material fact; the offender's moral responsibility ; the personal characteristics of the offender ; and the desirability of passing an exemplary sentence which shall strike terror in a particular neighbourhood or stop the spread of a novel class of crime. In particular be illustrates the reductio ad absurdum of the first factor

by the sentence in a recent case of wife-murder,—a sentence which, if it had been passed in France, would have caused an ex- plosion of self-righteous indignation on this side of the Channel. In conclusion, Mr. Crackanthorpe sympathetically examines the suggestions made by the Prison Commissioners and Sir Robert Anderson respectively with regard to the treatment of habitual offenders and professional criminals, and strongly approves of the policy of segregation for inveterate criminals and of indeterminate sentences for juvenile offenders recom- mended by the former.—We may also notice Mr. Rees's interesting comparative survey of the conditions of life amongst the working classes of the West and the East (in- cluding Russia and Persia). The pith of the article lies in the author's dgliberate expression of opinion, based on the opinion of various experts, that in India no social reform is of any avail unless it develops from within; further, that social

reform shows no such signs of development as industrial reform, which the British people and Government can and

ought to promote, while they are, on the other hand, bound by the most solemn pledges to refrain from interfering directly or indirectly with the customs of the people, between which and their religion no line of distinction can be drawn.

General Botha prefaces his article on "The Boers and the Empire" which opens the Contemporary _Review with a wholly

unnecessary apology for his lack of literary skill. His paper is much better written than many which find their way into our leading reviews. With a great deal of what he says, especially his insistence on the need for a better mutual understanding between Boers and Britons, we find ourselves in entire agreement. We gladly accept his explicit assurance that during the recent visit of the generals to the Continent "not a single incident took place anywhere which ought reasonably to wound the sensibilities of the most patriotic British subject. For that fact I vouch as a man of honour, and my comrades' experience is identical with mine. . . . Wherever we travelled not only did we ourselves eschew politics, but we insisted on having them excluded by every one else with whom we came in contact as well." The keynote of the article is, however, that the Boer character is but very imperfectly understood by the British people. That the British character is even more imperfectly understood by the Boers is sufficiently shown by the fact that the Boer generals actually interpreted the results of the Conference at the Colonial Office as meaning that "no appeals for help would be listened to and that generosity would be compressed within the limits of legal obli- gation under the treaty."—Dr. Robertson Nicoll states the case of the Free Churches against the Education Bill with a lucidity that leaves nothing to be desired. His main points are that the claim of the Church of England in regard to their schools is identical with that of the Roman Catholics ; that this is a new claim on the part of the Church of England as a whole ; that it invades the Nonconformist conscience; and that Nonconformists must endeavour by every means in their power, including refusal to pay school rates, to render the Bill unworkable. , A good many of Dr. Robertson Nicoll's contentions have lost their point owing to amendments passed since his article was written. As for his statement that the Bill represents the claims of the Church of England as a

whole, it is rather amusing to find Mr. Herbert Paul in the game number, in the course of a characteristic war-dance on " the shuffled Government," declaring that "to talk of this Bill as demanded by the Church' is an impertinence. The Church of England demands no such Bill."—For sensa- tional reading (a feature unusual in the Contemporary) we

can cordially recommend the account given by Dr. Carlo Iberti of the marvellous inventions of his contemporary, Signor Pino, in the sphere of submarine work,—diving, salvage, exploration, photography. The picture of his boat— which walks along the sea-bed with two mechanical arms capable of performing all the operations possible to a pair of human limbs—is most impressive, while the vista of possibili- ties open to the new invention is alluringly displayed in the following passage :—

" Who can tell the value of all the precious artistic objects lying on the sea-bottom, for example, those statues—the master- pieces of great sculptors—which were wrested away from Athens and sunk in the Archipelago during the Pompeian wars—as we are told by Livy—and which Signor Pino has just been urged by the Greek Government to recover ? We can hardly realise the value of the Persian fleet wrecked in the Dardanelles, of the ships sunk in the Egyptian waters during the Napoleonic wars, of the Spanish steamer foundered in the Bahia de Vigo, and of thousands of other ill-fated ships. In order to get a very faint idea of the enormous importance of Signor Pino's invention, it may suffice to recall to mind the wreck of the great transatlantic steamer Bourgogne, which caused a loss of twenty-four million francs and contained sixteen million francs in zinc ; the steamer sunk off the coast of Holland with gold to the value of twenty-seven million francs ; the ship wrecked during the North-American war with five million dollars in treasure ; the vessel dashed to pieces in the Strait of Magellan° with ingots to the value of 625 million franca; the armoured ship victoria sunk in the waters of Tripoli with a large treasure in gold add modern ordnance ; the war-ship Blade Prince, wrecked during the Crimean war in the Bay of Balaclava with (according to the most reliable historians) forty millions in money, etc."

Mr. W. R. Lawson contributes a thoughtful article on "The Cunard Agreement," in the course of which he subjects " Morganeering " methods to a good deal of searching criti- cism. But the most striking observation is that which Mr.

Lawson makes at the close of his article :—" In the Cunard agreement we are committing ourselves to the principle of State ownership of commercial shipping. It may seem a very small step we are taking, and one easy to explain away officially, but it is a step—definite and possibly momentous Carried to its logical conclusion the Cunard agreement may justify State ownership and operation of ocean mail steamers." Mr. Lawson, for one, faces the contingency with equanimity, for, as he reminds us, "the Government of India builds, operates, and finances railways on a larger scale than Mr. Pierpont Morgan."

"A Dissident Unionist," writing in the Fortnightly, falls foul generally of the Government policy in home affairs. The only remedy he suggests is a policy of wrecking. The argu-

ment is that things are going remarkably well in South Africa, so well that even a Government of the existing Liberal leaders could not do much harm. In a Liberal Government the writer sees the only way in which what he calls "the rever- sion to Toryism" can be arrested. The chief outrage upon the feelings of this dissident Unionist is the Education Bill, the most extreme view being taken as to the support given to sectarian education out of public money. We sometimes wonder why there should be so much indignation now and so little before. In a small denominational country school in the past sometimes as much as six-sevenths of the total expendi- ture has been public money,—that is, Government grants. The payment of the remaining seventh cannot be said to create a

new departure. The advice given to the controversialists is wholesome. The writer says:—" In denouncing 'cleri-

calism ' and sacerdotalism,' the parson' and the priest,' Dr. Clifford and his friends have attacked the religious feeling of a large part of the nation instead of resisting political measures upon political grounds. What would they think if their opponents should reply to the terminology of Titus Oates by reviving that of Hudibras ' and sweetening the tone of the educational controversy by the ancient allusions to Little Bethel' and canting conventicles 'P "—Although Captain Gambier's article is called "Macedonian Intrigues and their Fruits," it is with the inner policy of the Sultan that the author mostly concerns himself. The article is picturesque and imaginative in its description of the Sultan sitting like a spider in the centre of his web and feeling the smallest vibration at the outskirts of it. According to Captain Gambier, the whole purpose of the Khalif is to organise the Mahommedan world so that at some future time—it may not

be for a hundred years—a lehad may restore Islam to a dominating position. To this end it is supposed that the millions which reach Yildiz Kiosk are used. The writer of this article seems to attribute to the Sultan knowledge of a mysterious kind as to what is passing in the remotest

parts of his Empire. Also we are told that a far- reaching distribution of pamphlets takes place,—they have been found in China, India, Zanzibar, and Khartoum. The question that a cryptic policy lies under the observed doings of this terrible and bloodthirsty despot would admit of a wide solution, but as it stands the article is decidedly interes-

ting.1--Mr. 0. Eltzbacher's paper on the German Emperor is worth reading now that the newspapers are telling us of the

preparations made for his reception by the English Court The writer emphasises the fact that the restless activity of the Emperor has had the effect of upsetting all the settled German policy of the reign of Bismarck. The Triple Alliance seems

to be little more than a name, and the keeping apart of France and Russia a failure. As regards ourselves a curious policy of alternate bullying and coaxing has been pursued—e.g., the antidote of a decoration conferred upon Lord Roberts and

other amenities to do away with the poison of the telegram to President Kruger. One of the dangers which we cannot over- look is the extraordinary swiftness of action and sudden turn- ing from one objective to another of this versatile ruler. The writer of this article considers that above all things the Emperor William is a soldier and sailor,—that is, he never loses hold for a moment of the importance of his Army and Navy.

These are always in his thought, and always being increased. The question remains at which Power will he hurl them sud- denly and without warning when they are ready. That would

seem to depend upon which policy was uppermost in his changing mind. Care for the instrument is never relaxed, though whom it is to be used against may not be certain

"In view of the Emperor's rapid and alarmingly frequent changes of mood, and the equally rapid and kaleidoscopic changes in policy, in view of the bitterness which has been engendered in his mind by the failure of his attempts at territorial aggrandise- ment and domestic legislation, and in view of the nearly absolute control which the German Emperor exercises, perhaps not de lure, but certainly de facto, over the foreign policy of Germany and over her Army and Navy, it appears not unlikely that William II. may some day act against some 'friendly' Power with the same sud- denness with which his great ancestor, Frederick the Great, acted against Austria, when he flung his armies into Silesia without any warning. It has been said that this country has nothing to fear from Germany The German Emperor placed himself un- reservedly on the side of the Turks in the Grieco-Turkish War, notwithstanding the fact that his own sister is married to the heir to the Greek throne."

The joint authors of "British Foreign Policy—Recon-

sidered" in the National Review, if not exactly in the position

of knocking in an open door, are at any rate fairly entitled to review with a certain amount of satisfaction the course which events have taken since the publication of their article a year ago. "To-day," they observe with pardonable com- placency, "we are engaged in the pleasing task of appealing

to an audience largely composed of converts." They pleaded for cordial co-operation with Japan, and the Anglo-Japanese Alliance is a fait accompli; while in regard to our relations

with Russia and Germany they advocated a readjustment of our attitude, which is now far more generally endorsed than when it was first put forward. After a very proper disavowal of any animosity towards the Germans, from whom, as they frankly admit, we have still a great deal to learn, the writers once more reiterate their conviction that so long as the German people follow their present guides, the British Government

should avoid any and every attempt to draw this country into intimate political relations with Berlin. Such a rapprochement

is irreconcilable with the furtherance of our truest interests, while in view of the methods deliberately practised by German

statesmen and publicists, it can only be compared to putting one's head in the lion's month. The alleged good services of the Kaiser to Britain in the past three years are critically examined, but the upshot of the whole business is very well put in the following passages :--

"His Majesty is a descendant of Mary, Queen of Scots, the en- chantress of history, of whom the great Sir Walter declared that

no one could think ill of her in hot-pre/NW It is certainly remarkable, if he possesses the powers which it is necessary to claim for him in order to maintain this thesis [that in him Britain has a discriminating but sincere and steady friend], that he should never have deemed it his duty to have exerted one of them in his own country in order to restrain the anti-English movement. The Kaiser's attitude towards this country is not affected by any conversations he may hold with English statesmen or by visits he may pay his Royal relatives in this country. He is simply governed by the size of his Navy, which prevents him as a serious statesman from adopting the less reserved demeanour of the mass of his subjects."

In a vigorous article entitled "Gunnery v. Paint" Mr. Arnold White advocates the adoption of a naval gunnery standard of efficiency which shall be an equitable means of comparison between different ships. To explain his title, we mayquote his assertion that the result of "the mandarin habit of promoting Commanders to the Captains' list because the ship is spick and span, and not because she shoots straight, has been to subordinate straight shooting to fresh paint." He further

asserts. that Admirals as a class do not make gunnery a primary consideration, that the lower deck receive little in- centive from the political Lords of the Admiralty to make themselves proficient in gunnery, and that those Captains who raise the standard of efficiency in this respect are discouraged and snubbed instead of being supported. We should be sorry to think all Mr. White's allegations were capable of substantia- tion, but we fear that as regards the treatment of the lower deck his is a true bill. One cannot get away from the fact that the only reward received by Petty Officer Grounds for being the best shot in the fleet for the year was Is. 9d. In any case, Mr. Arnold White is doing a valuable public service in insisting on a fuller recognition of what is admittedly a prime factor in naval efficiency.—Mr. Maurice Low in his monthly letter on American affairs takes a serious view of the possible outcome of the coal strike, but is by no means so pessimistic as Mr. Benjamin Taylor in the Nineteenth Century. The coal strike, he considers, has undoubtedly furthered the cause of Socialism ; but he refuses to believe that the Republic will be imperilled by any advanced step in Republicanism which these Socialistic tendencies may induce the American people to take.—Of Sir Horace Rumbold's significant tribute to the Emperor Francis Joseph we have already spoken.—Mr. F. H. P. Creswell, writing on "The Transvaal Labour Problem," supports, as against Sir Harry Johnston, the supplementing of the insufficient native supply in South Africa by the wholesale importation of white labour.

It is with sincere regret that we take leave in Blackwood of the brilliant papers entitled" On the Heels of De Wet," which have so long instructed and entertained us. We are glad to see that the series is to be published in a book, and those who have not read each number as it appeared are strongly advised to read the work as a whole. Seldom is it our good fortune to find such a combination of brilliant story-telling, convincing realism, and ruthless exposure of incompetence. The irony of this concluding paper is terrible. Had it not been for a faulty map of the frontier of our own Colony, Be Wet must have been caught.—Mr. Hugh Clifford's story of Jose Rizal is of great interest. This remarkable man was of pure Filipino blood, be was cultivated and learned, and had not only studied medicine in Spain, but had lived in most of the European capitals acquiring knowledge. The great end of all his studies was the uplifting of his race. Passionately patriotic, Rizal at the same time did not wish to stir up his countrymen against Spain. Rather he sought to make Spain reform her abominable colonial government. But to denounce the administration in such a priest-ridden country as the Philippines were while they belonged to Spain was considered "h-religious." Although Rizal was a sincere Roman Catholic, he fell under the ban of the local Church authorities. It did not matter that he invariably advocated moderation in reform ; the fact that he wished for reform at all caused the authorities to denounce him and his works as revolutionary. These works consisted of two novels of Filipino life, novels in form, but in reality, Mr. Clifford tells us, political pamphlets. Rizal was obliged to fly to Hong-kong. From this place of safety he was deliberately lured by General Despujols, who invited him to return and pledged his safety. When Rizal did return—in 1892—the perfidious General arrested him at once, and he was banished to Mindanao, a remote island inhabited by Mahom- medan Malays. With difficulty consent was obtained for the exile to practise his profession of medicine. "Presently the infidel and the stranger had become, in all but name, the un- crowned king of the land of his banishment." To him came the Filipino patriots from Manila under the pretence of consulting the ablest doctor. To his credit it is related that he still ad- vocated moderation, and tried to dissuade the emissaries of a secret society from rebellion. At this time an epidemic broke out in Cuba, and Rizal volunteered to go there as a doctor. The Government in Spain consented, and he left for Barcelona. After his departure an insurrection broke out, news of which reached Spain by cable before the ship carrying Rizal arrived. The Governor of Barcelona was the infamous General Despujols, who had already played the part of Mephistopheles. He now arrested Rizal on his arrival, and sent him back to Manila to be tried on a capital charge. Of the verdict there could be little doubt. The patriot was shot on the Luneta- the fashionable resort of Manila—in view of the assembled Spanish public. Only eighteen months later Dewey's guns shattered the Empire of Spain in the Southern Seas.— " German War," by "Linesman," is a powerful piece of description. The writer tells with inimitable force what be saw at the German Army Manceuvres. Though the

descriptive part of the paper is so good, the critical part is quite as interesting ; as an example we quote a passage on the disturbing element South African experience has brought into military affairs :—

• "During the last few years the inexactness of the science of war has been strangely illuminated, and the reminder has come as an undoubted shock to the scientists whose eager and unre- mitting work seemed to have met with its reward in the reduction of this unruly inexactitude to exact and manageable mechanism. It would be absurd to imagine more than this from the Boer cam- paign. In the minds of the German staff it has produced no such certainty as that which, I believe rightly, has been borne in on the minds of our own authorities. But it has produced doubt, and to men who have grown grey in seeking after certainty, whose very existence seems to depend upon the discovery of certainty, who believed that they had discovered it, doubt is the most uncomfort- able invader in the world. Hence Lord Roberts in the holy of holies of German war, the inventor, or rather the discoverer, of the new war."

Let us hope that Lord Roberts was equal to the situation, as he has been to all others in the field, and was duly impressed by the dazzling stage effects of lances and sabres. Let us hope that when he was called on by the Kaiser to admire them, Lord Roberts, the maker of real war, "sent him in a compliment to be knocked on the head at Ramoth Gilead." What seems to have impressed "Linesman" was the extraordinary thorough- ness of the Stuff work, and the regimental officer comes in for praise for his businesslike ways. Of the private soldier " Linesman " does not think highly. He praises his docility, endurance, and bravery, but in modern war something else is wanted—adaptability—" and the German soldier does not pos- sess it His mind is cast in a different mould from that of our own Atkins, a most malleable fellow, who in South Africa took to new conditions like a duck to water, and im- proved upon innovations to beat the innovator."

The Monthly Review contains the fourth article of a depress- ing series on the painters of Japan by Mr. Arthur Morrison. The learning is no doubt great and the detail ample, but we seem rather to be reading about fossils in a museum than about artists. Emotion is the end of art, and if it is not raised either artist or critic has failed. These papers are not essays, but a cata- logue of a collection of Japanese paintings.—Miss Sorabji writes an interesting study of "English and Indian." She takes the view so often expressed in the Spectator, that although our reign of security may be appreciated, its dulness is oppressive. The following conversation is given by the writer as an example :—

"I was talking once to an old Indian who had known some of 'the glories of the last Mogul. You can gather your wheat into your garners ; your houses and occupations are secure now,' said I. = Yes,' he replied, yes, there is all that.'—' What is there not I asked, curious.—' In the olden days,' he replied, the beggar by the wayside might become Prime Minister if the King but smiled upon But equally,' I made answer, might his head be cut off if he failed to appreciate the King's last joke.'—' We took our chance!' was the reply."

The paper is interesting, if slight, as it is an attempt to ex- plain the East.—The article on "The Horseman of the

Future," by Colonel G. J. Younghusband, is so sensible and self-evident in its conclusions that it makes one impatient to think that there was any necessity for its having been written.

Take, for instanoe, the Cavalry Regulations which demand that the recruit shall be over instead of under a certain weight and height ; or, again, the fact that it should be necessary to lay down in the new Regulations that efficient horsemastership is to be a reason for promotion. That the necessity of such and other like reforms should be gravely argued causes a feeling of despair.