THE MAGAZINES.

Evening Post, Issue 51, 29 February 1908, Page 13

THE MAGAZINES.

The new Nineteenth Century has two articles on tho German Eraperor. Tie first, which deals with his foreign poJjcy, is^frpin tfie pen of Mr. J. Ellis Barker, and we find the same •difficulty in reconciling premisses with conclusions as in former articles by the same writer. The- main purport of threofourths of this paper is to exhibit the greatness, efficiency, prosperity, and vigilance of Geimany, and concurrently the stagnation, slackness, and inefficiency of England. Then comes the conclusion Ihat "whatever the cost may be, the German challenge must be accepted." To judgo from Mr. Ellis Barker's figures and argnments, England must be doomed to defeat in any case. But we aio allowed somo consolation in the admission that the inevitable Armageddon must bo delayed until Germany's big ships and her lanal arc ready. As he puts it, "during iho next five or six yeais Germany cannot afioid to go to war with Great Britain, but when her Dreadnoughts and her cana) are finished, matters will be different." — Dr Louis Ellund, on the other hand, treats of the Kaiser's, lolations to social reform, and finds in this sphere of his varied activities tho surest proof of his benevolence and patriotism. He also extols the tolerance of his utterances oil' religious matters, and adds: "Had his political speeches boon equally temperate, and just to tho point, as it were, theio would havo been far less controversy concerning his personality and alleged ambitions." Mr. lari Malcolm docs excellent Eervice in his detailed survey of the gradual surrender of the Government to the forces of disorder w Ireland. Nothing is more remarkable in this recital than the extraordinary and contemptible utterances of -Mr. Cherry, the Atlpniey-Gencvat tor Ireland, which Mr. Malcolm does well to- qnate. As for Mr. Picdmond's reference to the emptiness of the gaols in Ireland, Mr. Malcolm pertinently observes that Mr. PicrliiKind ' forgets " that if the Magistrates and juries of a large part of lieland sided uith law instead of with crime many prisons woi.ld bo inconveniently crowded."' Mr. Malcolm ends with a vigoious appeal to the Unionist Party to bestir itscit on behalf of thore Irishmen who' aro now being pcitecutcd and ruined under tho eyes, or Ms Majesty's Government. 'Ihe strategic and commercial advantages of a l'orth and CJydo L'unal aifc set foith in the National Kc\iew in a short paper by "R.N.," who inclines, on tho whole, to the high-level route b?tween Grangcmouth ana Yoker. The ideal route from every point of view is that traversing the same line of counliy on the sea-level, but tho cost of excavation would be just double, — i.o , twenty instead of ten millions. — Ihe experiences 'of "a lady-in-waiting to the wife of one of the iirst Hindu Piincc-K in Inch:'," contributed by Miss Mildiod Isemonger under thu title of "As Others fc'ee Uf," form cxtraoidinar;ly iitercsting reading. Here arc Mirs for our own prospeiity, if v.a let the eflccte laces aic our enemies, t'no strong one, oui fuonds- — s,o long es wo s.ho\v oui selves sliong- And that i 3 where the mnial ucs. We should do belter often, ior our own prospeiity, if \so lut the Jaws of limure take their course, and sweep away tho unfit, but for our honour wo cannot. We have inherited our responsibility and must keep it. Wo cannot, it' wo would, reinstate thofe rulois who, thiough their own or their parents' sins, me incapable of holding the leins of power; we cannot crea'e in the weak Bengali the cpirit of uprighLiens by which alone a republic stands. Those whom we protect we must rule, and it is not to be believed that the disinterested toil, the brave Kclf-saciifice, the lives that have been gi\eu by many of the llowcr of our lace to establish justice and peace in India, should have been spent in vain. And yet so much is lost by tho vulgar anoganco of tho few. Such inciderits as occur too often when a ciowd of pleaouro-eeeking touri&ta rushes out to

Jndi<i for some pngcant, and treats the native Princes at bost as 'part of tho show,' do untold harm. Wo live' in a vulgar age, but let us not bo more vulgar that wo can help " The liishop of Carlisle urges tho revision of Canon Law as a peremptory need. There is not, he declares, a clergyman in the world who oboys the Canons of 1603 in thuii integrity. And this "mischevious picking and choosing" will go on, to the great detriment of tho Cnurch of Englano, so long as th<. Canons remained unrcvised. Wo notu with satisfaction tho Bishop's final plea that, whenever revision takes place, a strong body of laymen should be amongst the revisers, '"because most of tho Church's troubles in the past have been due to the absence of laymen in the counsels and administration of the Church, and one- of the greatest hopes for the Church in tho futiu - e depends on their presence in its coun?c:3 and their power in its adminihtration." — Sir Rowland Blennorhastett discusses "Tho Foreign Policy of Queen Victoria" in a critical spirit, attributing the deterioration of our position on the Continent largely to the polity of "graceful concession" to Germany approved by the late Queon, the higjO fatal instance, in his opinion, being our acquiescence in tho spoliation of Denmark in 1864. The editor of the Contemporary Review has provided his readers with a sensation in the shape of Mr. Jnck London's article on "Revolution." According to Mr. London, there aio now seven million men enrolled as revolutionists who, in accordance with tho conditions of to-day, aro fighting with all their miqhl for the conquest of the wealth of the world and for tho complete overthrow of existing society. .He contemplate!* this movement, not with alarm, but enthusiasm. This revolution ; " not sporadic, but at once organised, ntellectual, , passionate, and romantic. And Mr. London frankly avows that he belongs to this army. To quote his own words — '"I am a revolutionist. Yet lam a fairly sane and normal individual. I speak, and I think, of those assassins in Russia as 'my j comrades.' So do all th© comrades in | America, and all the 7,000,000 comrades I in the world. Of what worth an organised international i evolutionary movement, if our comrades are not backed up tho world over. Tho worth is shown by the fact thai wo do back I up the assassination by our comrades in Russia. They are not disciples of Tolstoy. Nor are we. We are revolutionists." For the rest, the article is a fierce indictment of the capitalist class and tho bourgeois mind. If assartions were argument, all would bo over but the shouting, in which Mi. London excels. We may perhaps be forgiven for suggesting that the article should have for .its sub-title "The Call of the Wild Man."— Lord Welby analyses che American panic, and assigns ceuscr substantially the same as those given by Mr. Taft in his recent speech,— viz., extravagance, tho consumption of capital by recent wars, unduly hastened "developments," and over-trading, often fraudulent in its methods. But he is not pe&simistic as to th» future. — Mr. F. A. M'Kenzio formulates a berious and detailed indictment of the Japancno administration in Korea. While exempting Prince Ito from censure, and crediting him with good and humane intentions, ho asserts that his policy of conciliation has been largely neutralised by the harshness and cruelty of his ftiisi&tants and the barbarity of tho Japanese army under Genera' Hasegawa, whom he accuses of attempting to wipe out a countryside.— Mr. Benjamin Aitken, writing on "The Coming Ifamino in India," gives a painful picture of the callousness ,-\nd ipqjfi'eronco erf tbn n<v tivo supciintendent3 and ' assistants of the relief r:tmps. x On tho genera) question of the relations of famines to British rule, the following passage is worth quoting:— "Two of 'the most distinguished natives of India have unblushingly made and repeated the statement that beforo tho British ocui- ' pation o$ this country famines wore [ neither as frequent nor as disastrous as they have been since. Such a statement cannot .be mads without eoilournOFE which is distressing to think of ; and it is an evidence of tho discernment and magnanimity of the heads of tho people that only two responsible men have said this. Nativo and European eyewitnesses have described the famines of pie-British days with details of horror which would not be trua of any famine that 1 have fleeu. And wt may understand thai tho accounts are true fiom what wo know about famines 'in Persia, China, and similar couutiies at tho present day But there is another, wider respect in which the evil of faminoa has been much mitigatod under British rule Modern famines in India last one year, and next year things arc as if the famine had not- been, But mention is made in t)i3 Mahabharat and tv subsequent records ns rorclit as the latei Mughal period of famines which continued for live, seven, ten, end even twelve yoaife. That was no. 1 bcciuno tho rains failed year after year, but because ' < ;he populntirin was gone, and bccnuse neither cattle, implements, nor seed ua3 available, to start cultivation again. In those days, that is, for untold centuries, ,i, severe famine meant wholesale de% autation, and it took years for people to gather again and to find means to cultivate the ground. But such a catastiophe is no longer possible. No sooner docs the rain fail after a drought than tho Government sup-, pliec Iho peoplo with bullocks and seed land all else necc.-sary to resume their j occupation." — We may also note a fhort article on "Natal and tho Zulus," by Mr. R. 0. 'Hawkin, in which he quotes from the Report of the Native Affairs Commission appointed by tho Natal Gov- i eminent last \ear pas-seges admitting tint 1 the unrest among the Zulus is largely due to the faulty and unsympathetic iystem of native admin<»tiution. Ho notes th.'it the (.'ommir-sior took evidenco from over live thousand native."., that its conclusions wore intensely unpopular in Natal, and da lares that v ppcttks mudi for tho f;iir-minded:iers of the Commissioners that they s.hould havo so loundly condemned the policy of their own Colony. Mr. Plawkin, it should bo added," is no r.ontinicntal negrophil, does not minimise the seriou3 dangers of natho, rising?, and ir; clearly opposed to the maintenance of thu system of hereditary chieftainship. Perhaps tho most interesting article in tho Albany ia Profe&sor Tyn oil's appieciation of Rir Jticliard Jcbb. Nothing could be better done The nun and his work have justice done to them, ana the story is illustrated by- sonic brilliant anecdotes. Ht-io is this most elegant of compliments paid to tho eminent music Lib, Sir Charles Stanford. Jebb had borrowed from him a koy to tho Fellows' garden, and had forgotten to return it. lio excuses himself by expressing a fear that the now OrpheujJ would tako away the tree*, : — "No domilum vates auferat ips.e nemus." Tho writer of this notice adds a recollection of his own. Mathematical experts used tu> prophesy witti the nicest accuracy tho nlai'oa of their pupils among the Wranglei'3 ; the classic-id were always cautious. But it wa3 confidently predicted of Jebb whilo he was still at school (tho Chart orhnuio) ihat ho would be Senior Classic, — and ho was. — MiArthur J. Pentj mala"? an attack 'in "The Fallacies of Collectivism " But when he begins by conceding "a minimum wage law, ohl-ago pensions,' out-of-work pensions," as "le forms of urgent necessity," we aie inclined to murmur:

"Kon. lali auxilio." — A remarkable . contribution to the Socialistic controvcisy is "Abbe's Theory of Industry " We are far from accepting it, but it was this work of an able and remarkably disintrested man. Ho earned eight hundred thalcrs as his share in thu profits of an invention in the making of lenses, but he could not bring himself to think that they belong to him. It was his lifo problem to find out whose they were. That he did find out we do not say. This, however, may be affirmed, that if all seekers for truth sot out in this apirii, their searches would bo moro profitable. Tho most interesting article in the January United Service Magazine — Captain H. P. Osborne's "Napoleon's Diplomacy Prior to tho Spanish War" — tells with no Uttlo power tho astonishing story of how Napoleon duped the fccblemindecJ King of Spain, the Queen, f lic Queen's lovor Godoy, and Prince Fer dinand, severally and collectively. Na poleon's diplomacy always tendod to I>b false and tortuous, but in this particular case he surpassed his own normal diplomacy as much as that normal diplomacy surpassed that of the rest of the world in ingenuity and vntruthfninoss.—Another interesting article is Ah-. Sheppard's "Tno Case of Grouchy." We must, however, protest against Ihe conclusion that if Grouchy had not been a stupid man, and h<td been .capable of carrying out t lio orders of his chief, the battle of Waterloo would h|ve ended in disaster to tho Allies. Possibly this is a 'conclusion which the paper strategist and tactician may feel obliged to como to, but it leaves out of account the hundred chances of war. Again, it is surely conceivable that evon ;f; f Grouchy had done what he was expected to do, the Duke of Wellington might havo found means of meeting a situation, undoubtedly poriloui for him which have not occurred to students of the bottle. — An interesting paper is "The Misfortune at Rt. Cast, 1758," in which is reported one of the raids on the French coast organised by the elder Pitt, which ended in disaster. Gcorgft IT., we are told, set no great store upon these raids. "We shall brag," he said, "of having burnt their ships, and they of having driven us away." Hero Is another example, not only pf flecrqe II. "s good sense, but of his p'owcr cf expression. It is one of tho conventions of history to represent Georgo 11. as a course, fat-headed fool, with no quality except that of pluck. As a niattfi* of fact, he had a remarkable power of expression. It may he. remembered thaf he called Chatham "that trumpet of sedition,"' ani described thp grcnt 1-ord Chesterfield ns "a littlo teatsblo scoundrel." Coarsefibred imbeciles do not possess the sense ot style vinibk in such expressions as these. — Spectator.