THE MAGAZINES.

THE magazines of the month are hardly as interesting as usual; in particular they contain few articles on China which'are decidedly nutritive. The most readable, perhaps, is that by "An Old China Resident" in the Contemporary Review, which tells us, among other facts, that Japanese officers are instruct- ing the Chinese Army, but it ends with a most impracticable proposal. The writer, who regards partition as opposed to evolution, and therefore impossible, would govern all China in future through a Joint Central Cabinet, consisting one-half of Chinese and one-half of foreigners nominated by the eight Powers, with orders to govern "in the interest of all nations." Who is to make the Chinese obey the orders ofthatCabinet, or keep the two colouls from differing on every Point, 'is -not stated. An international army would be required, and inter- national taxation for its maintenance. That is to liay, Europe combined is to attempt to govern China and- keep' on governing it. The plan would not work for a week, and will not, we fancy, be so much as attempted.— The paper by Mr. E. H. Parker, again, tells us little except that the "Boxers" are probably members of a very old secret society, which may be a fact, but does not explain either their sudden activity. or the adoption by the Chinese Government of their views.'

We are not convinced even by " the Right Hon. Professor Max Miiller," who in the Nineteenth Century contends that Confucius acknowledged a supreme and single God, though his religion is intended only to inculcate good behaviour. A real monotheist is never content with purely ethical teaching..---i- Mr. Stead sends to the Contemporary a eulogium upon Count Mouravieff, in which he declares, without, however, producing any evidence, that the Count prevented war over Fashoda by convincing the French Ministry that they were unprepared. Thanks to him "Mr. Chamberlain and the Kaiser were balked of their prey." He asserts, also, that Europe would have insisted upon demanding arbitration between Great Britain and- the Transvaal but for the German Emperor. It is hardly necessary to point out that statements of this kind, even if derived from Russian sources, require other proof than Mr. Stead's belief' that they are true.—Mr. W. Larminie's essay on the "Evidence of Design in History" is really an argument that as a good deal of history is surprising—e.g., the strength of Carthage—history must be overruled for a purpose. We also believe in this over- ruling, but our belief is not increased by the fact -that Constantinople has a unique position in the physical wcirld, or that Alexanders, Cresars, and Napoleons have appeared "just when they were required to carry through gigantic changes." Mr. Larminies effort to trace design in detail reminds us of nothing so much as the old attempts to deduce future history from obscure texts in the book of Daniel, a prophet who, whatever else he may have foreseen, certainly never dreamed of the existence of America. Even the argument that the "design" is to produce great civilisations is a very bold one, for it assumes that the establishment of an Empire like China is a direct result of Almighty will. Is that probable ? That there is a purpose at work we may all admit, but the attempt to trace it only lands us in a labyrinth of guesses, among which Mr. Larminie's do not strike us as unusually convincing.—The best paper in the Contemporary is that of Mr. Poultney Bigelow, who in "What I Saw in Kansas" shows how completely Mr. Croker, the New York "boss," has mastered the Democratic party in America, and how little the real " people " have to do with the election. —Perhaps the most instructive is Miss Sellers's on "Old- Age Pensions in Denmark." It appears from her account that in Denmark a respectable aged person over sixty, who has never been convicted of crime, and has for the ten years previous never received poor relief, is either admitted into an alms- house or receives in Copenhagen E6 19s. a year, or in a trading town 27 15s., or in a village E3 us. 10d. These allowances mean "short commons," but the Danes infinitely prefer them to poor relief, and the pensioners appear in the main to be cheerful and contented. They are, in fact, though frightfully poor—their pocket-money being id. a week—treated with much consideration, and left in a great degree independent, the principal restrictions being that they must not frequent beerhouses or in any way cause scandal. The total cost is 2384,109 distributed among 54,288 persons, which, it is asserted, is leas than their maintenance as paupers would have cost. The account is well worth reading, but our total impression is that in England the system would be indefinitely more costly. The law, however, has universal approval in Denmark, and is shortly to be improved, first by fixing a standard of poverty—e22 a year, pension included—

above which no one shall have a right to relief, and secondly by increasing the pensions with increasing age. Physical incapacity to work is to be reckoned as so many years of age, but the advocates of the system resist the abolition of the distinction between reputable and disreputable poor. The latter are left to bear the stigma of being paupers, which in Denmark is very keenly felt.

In the Nineteenth Century Signor Giovanni dalla Vecchia writes hopefully of the future of his country. He thinks she is slowly prospering, that her tendency to violent crime is the result of centuries during which violence was considered the only refuge, and that the assassination of King Humbert will moder- ate parties. We wish we could believe it all—Mr. Bradley Martin, jun., as an American, defends American expansion, not only because it will secure fresh markets and increase the power of the nation, but because it will prevent the perpetual direction of American thought towards internal questions. The nation, he thinks. from "too continuous self-contemplation becomes melancholy and morbid."—Mr. W. J. Fletcher sends an account of "The Traditional British Sailor," which, though it contains nothing original, is well worth reading. His lot seems always to have been exceptionally hard, and there grew up an extraordinary dislike to serve in the Royal Navy, which was only met at first by enormous bounties, and latterly by the use of the pressgang.—The most interesting paper, however, is on the "Statistics of Suicide." The popular idea that the rate of suicide has increased is true :— " MEAN ANNUAL RATES OF SUICIDE PER 1,000,000 OF THE POPULATION.

184140. 1861-70. 1871-80. 188144. 1885-88.

Saxony 223 ... 281 ... 325 ... 370 ... 333 Den mark 260 ... 283 ... 266 ... 249 ... 259 Switzerland

— ... 240 ... 233 ... 220 Prance 98 ... 129 ... 161 ... 189 ... 212 Prussia 116 ... ]27 ... 153 ... 193 ... 204 Bavaria 66 ... 85 ... 107 ... 136 ... 144 Belgium 54 ... 61 ... 81 ... 107 ... 116 Sweden 65 ... 80 ... 86 ... 96 110 England & Wales — ... 66 ... 70 ... 74 ... 78 Norway 105 ... 82 ... 70 ... 68 ... 66 Scotland — • • — • • • — ... 52 ... 60 Italy — 27 ... 37 ... 48 ... 48 Ireland

(21) (22)"

The very curious freedom of Ireland from suicide is attributed by the writer, Mr. R. A. Skelton, to emigration, which enables the miserable to break with their past. Of all occupations the Army tends most to suicide, the number being 210 per million even in England, in Germany 550, and in Austria (1882) 1,209. Mr. Skelton thinks the reason is that the soldier values his life less than the citizen, but we fancy the truth is that the conscripts or recruits to whom non-commissioned officers take a (liplike find their lives very unhappy. It must be remem- bered, too, that almost every one except the soldier can change most of the conditions of his life, if it be only by emigre - tion. Against this, however, we must set the fact that suicide is much more prevalent in town than country, the South- Eastern counties of England presenting an inexplicable ex- ception. It seems proved by the figures that the tendencies to suicide and insanity have no relation, and that the most frequent age is from fifty-five to sixty-five. The very old, however, constantly commit suicide, 243 persons killing them- selves at seventy-five against 100 who commit the offence at all ages. Mr. Skelton distrusts all preventives, except a decrease of misery and discontent, but he has evidently not examined religious statistics. Suicide, rare among Jews, is almost unknown among Mahommedans, who attribute every- thing to the direct will of God, and will not even insure their houses.

The Fortnightly enjoys the rare and not unwelcome distinc- tion of conMining no article on the war in South Africa. Of the purely political papers the most readable is the unsigned contribution entitled "A Lead for Liberalism," by an extremely candid and somewhat cynical friend of the Opposi- tion. The writer tells us several things that we have heard before—e.g., that "Liberalism is waiting for the appearance of the dynamic personality which not one of its present leaders possesses"—and deviates at times into entertaining inaccuracy, as when he says that "Liberalism is perishing of the deadly respectability which is imposed upon the Liberal party by its strangely characteristic bondage to Baronets,—Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Sir William Harcourt, Sir Edward Grey, Sir Henry Fowler, Sir Wilfrid Lawson." Now, as a matter of fact, only two of these five politicians belong to the in- criminated order. He is on much firmer ground in his really able nnnlysis of the attacks on Mr. Chamberlain- " It is the supreme compliment to the power of a public man when the demoniac theory of him is adopted by his opponents "—and argues with considerable plausibility that Lord Salisbury by opposing a General Election in July, and removing the principal stumbling-blocks from the path of Liberal foreign policy, has rendered incalculable service to the Opposition.—Mr. Whates's "rough balance-sheet" of the successes and failures of the out-going Government will not escape the notice of Unionist candidates. It is, on the whole, fairly done, though some of the "successes "—e.g., "establishment of good relations with Germany and finally with Russia on the China question "—are perhaps of the unhatched chicken order. Mr. Whates does well to emphasise one point in connection with our South African troubles. "There has been," he observes, "no European intervention; and how difficult it may have been for Lord Salisbury to prevent it is one of the secrets of diplomacy."—A first instalment of General Gordon's notes on his campaigns in China in 1862-64 will be read with interest at the present juncture. It is noteworthy that he gives fall credit to the American, Ward, for creating the "Ever-Victorious Army" in 1860.—Mr. John F. Taylor's article on " Sipodo and Bernard-1858 and 1900," is intended to show that in resenting the attitude of the Belgians over the trial and acquittal o Sipido—he is called Sipodo throughout the article—British withers have no right to be wrung in view of the enthusiasm displayed in London over the abortive prosecution of Bernard, accused in 1858 of plotting against the life of Napoleon III. That may be, but we are not aware that the Prince of Wales ever planned or carried out a cowl, oretat.—"Diplomaticus " writes judiciously on "The Coming Settlement in China" "The Yellow Peril," he contends, "if there be such a thing, can never come from a strong China conscious of its responsi- bilities and its dignity. Russia herself has only to gain by the vicinity of such a Power, for she would then have a better guarantee of the inviolability of her frontier than she has now. The real Yellow Peril resides in a weak, ignorant, and corrupt

China always simmering on the verge of anarchy and always suffering from complications with foreign Powers." " Diplomaticus," however, sees a serious obstacle in the way of the realisation of his ideal in the attitude of the German Emperor. There he may be right; he is certainly far less well- founded in his belief in the efficiency, as apart from the good intentions, of the Chinese Emperor.—No one should miss

Mr. W. B. Yeats's curious account of his experiences amongst the Irish witch doctors.- -,—As for Mr. William Sharp's panegyric of D'Annunzio's dramas, we have found it singularly unconvincing.—Mr. Lees has a good paper on "Some Writers on War," notably MM. Paul and -Victor Margueritte, authors of Le .Waastre.

"Ignotus," writing on " Japan and the New Far East in the National Review, agrees with " Diplomaticus " that what England desires is not only a strong but a reformed China, and he finds sufficient evidence of the existence of strength in the events of the last few months. Briefly summed up, his conclusions are that China is awakening ; that Pan-Mongolism is no worse than Pan-Slavism ; and that everything points to a Chinese-Japanese alliance, from which Japan must ulti- mately and largely profit. "China under Japanese tutelage," he argues, "would be far less dangerous to the world than a well- armed but ferocious and uncivilised China, guided by gentry of the type of Tungfuh-siang and Li-Ping-Heng." And, again, "the mere fact that the West is identified with missionary enterprise operates in favour of Japan. The Chinese have no such aversion to her as to ourselves."—Sir Rowland Blennerhassett in his very interesting article on "The Foreign Policy of the German Empire," on the other hand, urges that it would be better for us to cast in our lot with Russia and Italy than with any other European Power. Pan-Slavism, he contends, is not necessarily synonymous with hostility to England, while it is unquestionably a danger to Germany, and in support of this view he recalls the strong action taken by Bismarck in 1863 in regard to the suppres- sion of the Polish insurrection and the Slavophile policy of Wielopolski. Treating of the anti-English feeling in Germany at the moment, while admitting that England is herself a good deal to blame, Sir Rowland declares that it has become a positive mania, and adds :—" The attitude of the German mind, not alone to England, but to all foreign countries, is very much more narrow and much more vulgar than that of France in her worse days," in evidence of which he quotes Freiherr von der Goltz's amazing statement in the Rundschau for March that there is a general feeling in England in favour of an aggressive war for the purpose of ruining Germany. The gist of the article is that we must reconsider many of our accepted notions of foreign policy, that a firm understanding with Germany is impossible, and that as " splendid isolation" is only an incentive to attack, we must seriously consider the advisability of a closer understanding elsewhere,—with Russia and Italy for choice. —Mr. John Foreman, holding the probability of the Americans ever gaining the sympathy and acquiescence of the Filipinos to be very remote, submits a scheme which will enable the -United States to extricate herself with honour from a position which, in his opinion, may make her the laughing-stock of Europe. The scheme provides for the gradual withdrawal of the troops and the establishment of a Philippine Chamber of Deputies, the Americans to retain besides Guam one of the minor islands as a naval and mili- tary depot, and the control of the Customs as a guarantee for the repayment with interest of the twenty million dollars paid to Spain for the islands under the Treaty of Paris. America, as the protecting State, is to be further represented by a Resident and staff in Manila. and the Philippine Govern- ment is to have no power of making treaties with foreign Powers or of declaring war. The scheme in its essentials has been approved by Seflor Agoncillo, the High Commissioner of the titular Philippine Republic, but Mr. Foreman is con- fident that the force which will eventually compel the Americans to leave the Philippines to the Filipinos will come from the United States themselves. "Anti-Imperialism will remain the Party cry of the Democrats, but the majority of American electors, independently of Party theories, will not consent to a vast fruitless expenditure for permanently maintaining fifty thousand men in arms, to hold in forced subjection for years an unwilling population of six millions of Aaiatics, without glory or profit in return for the immense sacrifice of blood and treasure." — Mr. Maurice Low in his monthly American article pays a well- deserved tribute to the prescience of Mr. Hay in regard to the Chinese imbroglio, and applauds the selection of Mr. Rock. hill as an emissary of pacific diplomacy.—Mr. Provand's article on "The Coal Problem" is interesting for its analysis of

the reasons of the advance in price, and of the distribution of the advance itself. Under the head of international competi- tion he gives a striking account of the operations of the. Dominion Iron and Steel Company at Sydney, Cape Breton. As regards the duration of our supply, the opinions of experts are irreconcilably at variance. Mr. Provand em- phatically condemns an export duty as a remedy for dear coal, and deprecates the proposed enhancement of railway rates; in his judgment the carrying rates are already too high, and are attributable to the use by our railways of plant and machinery which are obsolete. He concludes by strongly urging the appointment of a new Royal Commission as indis- pensable to the attainment of an accurate knowledge of the facts of the case, "in order that we may prepare for the future and avoid being taken by surprise."—Mr. Adrian Hofmeyr's "Reflections on the Future of South Africa" will repay attentive

perusal. While supporting conquest and annexation, he elo- quentlypleads for the abandonment of red-tape methods, for the making of liberal allowances, the utilisation, as far as possible, of former officials, and the recognition of equal rights for both languages. He contends that the Bond did great harm by its "sphinx-like silence." "There were Bond leaders who privately advised President Kruger to climb down and avert war. But they ought to have said this publicly." We gladly quote Mr. Hofmeyr's last piece of advice to England :— " Lastly, in any case appoint only the best man. Remember, the war has proved to be a much larger matter than was anticipated; and so the Battlement will prove to be a much more difficult matter than we anticipate, unless England makes the proper use of this, her grandest chance. You have sent your best men to fight there ; aye, to shed their blood there. Complete your great work by appointing your best men to rule there. Don't think anyone will do. Don't pitchfork anybody into a situation because he is somebody."

—The editorial notes are, as usual, one of the striking features of a strong number. From the summary of the recent operations in South Africa we may cite one excellent passage :—" In parenthesis we may note as a matter of some interest that whenever there is a peculiarly difficult job on hand Lord Roberts entrusts it to Lord Kitchener, and thus silences the stories of 'friction' which mendacious tongues and pens have spread. The attempt to discredit Lord Kitchener has been perhaps the most pitiful feature of the

whole campaign." Here there is good excuse for speaking strongly. In one or two other passages—notably those deal- ing with the attitude of the Kaiser and the Roman Catholic and Anglican Press—the editor has, we cannot help thinking, been betrayed into undue vehemence of expression.

The second and concluding instalment of Captain Haldane's narrative of his escape from Pretoria, to which the place of honour is given in the September Blackwood, is not less thrilling than the first. Apart from the recital of adventure, the paper is humorous and suggestive. Here, for example, is an interesting digression on dogs in war :— "I cannot but think that the use of dogs in war by us British, a dog-loving nation, has been unaccountably overlooked. I believe certain nations—the Germans and French—use them but we, who have our kennel-clubs, and every encouragement to breed the best and purest of the canine species, do not include these faithful friends among our war material. In India, where one suffers so much from rifle-thieves, without his dog there would be many a Court-martial on the owner of a stolen rifle. Tbere the dogs are chained to the arm-racks, sentries with whose vigilance no human being can compete. Often in Tirah the wily Afridi would bring his dog with him when bent on disturbing our rest by firing into camp. He knew right well that if the plucky little Ghoorka was engaged in stalking him, his four- footed friend would give him timely warning."

—The monthly war article, always well written, has some instructive remarks on the "wastage" inevitable in an invading army with long lines of communication, showing how men are swallowed up in a campaign, and an army of two hundred thousand can only muster fifty thousand combatants at the front—In "Musings without Method" the writer deals trenchantly with the Lafayette Legend, and in pessimist vein with the "indirect responsibilities" of Gutenberg,

winding up with an imaginary dialogue in the benign fields of Hades between the famous printer and a Yellow Editor.—Veteran devotees of the Royal and Ancient

Game will keenly appreciate the attitude of the anony- mous laudator temporis acti who humorously laments the vulgarisation of the "old, leisurely, and courteous pastime by the side of the sea," by the new rules and the influenee SoutEfon..-A propos of the feail fttlan.iey of the modern golfer, it may interest the writer to know that some players actually take phenacetin to steady- their nerves before a match F-TEe comparison between the giants of old and the champions a to-day is most ingeniously done:—Mr. Hanbury Williams's paper on wild-geese shoot- ihg in Manitoba, and Sir Herbert Maxwell's eulogy of "the Valley of Enchantment "-the Nomsdal-are in their different ways admirable examples of the literary sporting article for which Blackwood has long been famous.