THE MAGAZINES.

IT /9 not of much use now to notice magazine articles on Ireland, for events carry us beyond their standpoint in the discussion ; but we may say that Mr. Courtney, in the Contemporary Review, fearing all things for Ireland from Home-rule, fears

little for Great Britain. If, however, Home-rule is to be granted, he would prefer the Colonial scheme, with all the privileges which such a scheme would involve, including that of fixing the tariff. He has a lingering liking for the separation of Ulster from Ireland, which we believe to he impossible, but in the end concedes everything with the melancholy prophecy that the total result will be to throw Ireland back in the path of civilisation.

The Irish answer to that, of course, is that Ireland does not care, but would rather be barbarous than united any longer to Great Britain. Mr. Laing and Mr. Michael Davitt, discussing the Expro- priation scheme, agree in accepting one, but differ as to the amount to be paid. Mr. Laing thinks that 2128,000,000 would do,while Mr Davitt reduces this amount to £60,000,000. The latter estimates

the just rental of Ireland at £5,000,000, and would only allow twelve years' purchase upon this amount. He forgets that the great reason for paying anything is the Land Act, and that, as under that Act we abolished free contract, and placed a legal maximum upon rent, we are bound to see that rent paid, so far as law can enforce payment. We note that Mr. Davitt desires to " muni- cipalise" the land on which cities are built ; that he would deal "in an exceptional manner with the tenure under which the occupiers of grazing-lands hold the land off which millions

of Irish people have heretofore been driven ;" and that he thinks Ireland so overtaxed, that the whole burden of com- pensating should fall upon England. As Mr. Davitt's opinions will weigh heavily with a native Irish Parliament, they should be weighed by all who are considering the question, and especially by all economists, by all owners of house property in Irish towns, and by all grazing farmers in Ireland. The most interesting paper in the number is Mr. Holman Hunt's art autobiography, entitled "The Pre-Raphaelite Brother- hood," in which he narrates the history of his own art education, and his connection with Rossetti and Millais. It is full of matter, the most interesting details, perhaps, being those which refer to the malignant hatred at first excited by the pre-Raphaelites, a hatred now scarcely intelligible. It was so bitter, that no post ever reached Mr. Hunt without anonymous insults ; and the Brotherhood had,

with the exception of the Spectator, literally no defender in the Press. The autobiography is to be continued, and will, when finished, be a complete chapter in the history of modern art. It is strange to read of struggles so severe, and of neglect so utter,

and then mark to-day the prices fetched by the works of the Brotherhood at every art auction. Mr. Petersen-Studnitz's account of the Constitutional struggle in Denmark is full of interest ; but we can perceive no hint how it is to end. The Court interpret the Constitution one way, and the people another, —the Court holding that the words of the document are binding, and that the assent of the Upper House alone, which is elected by the wealthy, is legally essential to its acts; but force still remains upon the unpopular side. The writer admits that no insurrec- tion is possible, lest the independence of Denmark should disappear, yet without an insurrection the Government cannot be defeated. It has force on its side, the troops, the police, and the Courts, and the people must have patience. It is a little difficult to understand why the Court care to fight the people so bitterly ; but we presume from this paper that they sincerely dread a great, and perhaps injudicious, redaction of taxation, the Danish peasantry desiring economies which the Treasury regards as impossible.

The Irish papers in the Nineteenth Century are not of special interest, though Mr. Lecky writes powerfully against the con- cession of Home-rule, from which he expects the complete indus-

trial ruin of Ireland ; and Mr. R. Barry O'Brien contributes a sketch of three attempts to rule Ireland justly—that of King

William, that of Lord Melbourne, and that of Mr. Gladstone— which incidentally brings out the fact that once, from 1835 to 1840, Ireland was well ruled. It was in the hands of a strong man, who loved justice, Mr. Thomas Drummond :— " Even-banded justice in all departments was the distinguishing feature of the Drammond Administration. With one band the in- sulting Orange displays were put down ; with the other the savage faction-fights of the South. In one case, a territorial grandee was deprived of the commission of the peace because be had, at a public dinner, proposed a toast 'commemorative of a lawless and disgrace- ful' conflict in which Papist peasants had been butchered by Orange bigots ; in another, a police officer was severely rebuked because he had failed to charge and disperse a turbulent Catholic mob. Centres of popular lawlessness were broken up, and strongholds of Ascendency undermined. Partisan Judges were restrained, and the 'wings' of a venal and oppressive magistracy 'clipped.' The horrible struggle between the owners and the cultivators of the soil was dealt with in a fashion new alike to tenants and landlords. On the one hand, agrarian offenders were arrested, tried, convicted, and punished with little difficulty, and without public disapprobation ; on the other, landlords were censured for acts of oppression, and boldly told to dis- charge the 'duties' as well as exercise the 'rights of property.' The tithe war, which had fiercely raged in Ireland up to Drummond 's arrival, was arrested, and the atrocious practice of sending out military and police to shoot down Papist peasants for refusing to pay tithes to Protestant parsons was completely abandoned. Information was gathered in from all quarters, and every form of opinion taken into account. The popular leaders were frequently 'consulted' and always 'considered,' and the doors of Dublin Castle thrown wide open to all corners without distinction of politics, creed, or class."

The result was that Ireland was content, and that wheu, in 1840, he died, the people lamented him as much as his superiors. Dr. Augustus Jessopp's plan for the reform of the Established Church has at least the merit of boldness. He would proceed upon the lines of the Public Schools Acts, vest the property and patronage of the Church in each district in a governing body partly nominated and partly elected by "habitual attend-

ants" at public worship ; allow this body to fix the salaries, keep up buildings, and appoint and dismiss the clergy, whose

freehold rights should be abolished for ever :—

" Imagine a postman or a Prime Minister, a clerk in the Custom House or the captain of a man-of. war, an assistant in a draper's shop or your own gardener, having an estate for life in his office, and being able to draw his pay to his dying day, though he might be for years blind, and deaf, and paralysed, and imbecile,—so incapable, in fact, that he could not even appoint hia own deputy, or so indifferent that he cared not whether there vera any deputy to discharge the duties which he himself was paid to perform. Imagine any public servant being thrown into prison for a fl Trent misdemeanour, or worse than a misdemeanour, and coming back to his work when the term of his imprisonment was over, receiving the arrears of pay which had accrued daring the time he was in gaol, and quietly settling down into the old groove as if nothing had happened. Imagine any public ser- vant being suspended from his office for habitual drunkenness, sus- pended say for two years, and out even requiring to be reinstated when the two years were over, but gaily taking his old seat and returning to his desk and his bottle, as irremovable from the emolu- ments of the first as he was inseparable from his devotion to the last."

The governing body would be, of course, trustees, and com- pellable by law, on petition from the parish, to do their duty ; while the parishioners, if aggrieved, would in the last resort have an appeal from them to the Bishops. We doubt if Dr. Jessopp quite sees how completely his scheme would laicise the Church, or how very near it would bring Episcopacy to Presbyterianism. His paper is, nevertheless, well worth study, and shows how rapidly men's minds are drifting away from the old moorings. We have noticed Professor Huxley on "The Evolution of Theology" elsewhere, and Mr. Herbert Spencer has a most thoughtful paper on the effect of heredity in causing difference of species, his proposition being that the functional over-use or disuse of any organ may be transmitted in an increasing ratio to descend- ants. Certainly, some alterations, such as the diminished size of the human jaw, are not explained by the great Darwinian theory, as they diminish rather than increase the capacity of survival. Mr. Darwin's secondary theory of sexual selection seems to us, however, to explain more than Mr. Spencer's, the latter, in truth, assuming a continuous action without an im- pelling motive. Lord Ebrington shows that at the recent election, one hundred English Liberals never named Ireland, and that only fourteen suggested Home-rule as a possible solution of the problem, the conclusion being that no such plan has ever been before the electors. Lord Penzance finishes his paper against Free-trade, which comes to this, that as regards luxuries, at all events, Protection gives the people work and a safe market., and nobody suffers except those who can afford to pay. He would tax French manu- factured wools, for example, in order to give the market to English manufactured wools, which are quite as good. That is to say, he would tax England to give a bounty to the English wool manufacture. How in the world can that enrich England, even if it did not, as an inevitable consequence, diminish the French demand for some article with which we pay France for her wools ? The theory of the plan is absurd, and in practice Lord Penzance would find that he had only destroyed the tendency of our wool manufacture to rival and surpass that of France. He would have taxed all consumers in order to send all producers to sleep.

The Fortnightly has the most readable paper among the magazines this month, in the shape of Mr. Child's bright, per- sonal, and rather pert sketch of "Society in Paris." The bitter little portrait of the Dec de Broglie, indeed, almost deserves a harder word. Society there, if Mr. Child may be trusted, is certainly not in a good state, the great ladies doing

exactly what they please, unrestrained by any fear of Divorce Courts or of public opinion, and the great gentlemen giving themselves up to every variety of frivolity. Of course, such a society must have money in order to enjoy, and the millionaires of the Continent, especially the Jews, rise in it, both to place and consideration. They love social distinction, and besides the Rothschild brothers, whose position is that of Princes, and is inevitable, there is a much more numerous class : —

"The next grade of Jews includes the Foulds and Sterns, whose settlement in Paris dates back to Lords Philippe's time ; the Cahen d'Anvers family, whose fortunes helped those of Napoleon III. at a critical moment ; the Kceuigevrarters, the Bischoffsheims, the Gold- schmidts. Then follows a mass of Israelites hailing from Frankfort, Munich, Constantinople, Odessa, and the Levant, financiers, stock- operators, commission merchants, who have arrived for the most part since the Franco-German War, and whose names are Saly-Stern, Bann, Leon Fould, Hirsch, Osmond°, Er]anger, Gunzbourg, Epbrussi. These new dynasties have established themselves in Paris in fine dwellings, and within the past six or seven years they have under- taken to win social prestiee, and above all to conquer the Faubourg Saint-Germain. Their tactics have been comparatively simple. The first step was for the men to get elected members of a swell,' club, the Cercle des Champs Elysees, for iustance. This was not difficult ; the aristocratic gamblers who frequent the clubs are always glad to get some new and rich ponte upon whom to prey. Club life enabled the Israelite, whether he was Count or Baron or not, to form a circle of titled acquaintances, and amongst these acquaintances it was pos- sible to find some needy aristocrat, a prince even, who would under- take to patronise the parvenu for a handsome and welcome pecuniary consideration. The degenerate Faubourg counts several persons of both sexes who are ready to make capital out of their name and in- fluence, and to draw up invitation lists and endorse social missives for those who are obliging enough to calm the impatience of milliners and tailors in a discreet manner. Then again, thanks to their wealth, the new Jewry acquired race-horses, shooting grounds, and the right of hunting the stag and the wild boar in the forests of the State, and with such bait they tempted the Christians further into the trap, at the same time filling the newspapers with reports of their cynegetic exploits recorded at the rate of so much a line." .

One wonders what it is these men seek, for, after all, the life to be led is not a pleasant one, very like a daily hunt after some quick-footed insect, which always escapes, and is only a nuisance when captured at last :—

"The existence of the members of Tout-Paris is no sinecure. In order to participate in what the newspapers call La haute vie,' when they do not call it Le high-life,' one must know as many people as possible, pay eight or ten visits in an afternoon, go to three or four houses every night ; for otherwise one falls out of the move- ment,' and nothing is more humiliating than to hear people talking about things that one has not seen. A proof that one has fine social relations is to be seen at several houses every day. Then one mast follow the picture exhibitions, have particular information about all that is going on, say one's little say on every subject, decide affirm, pass judgment on the last new play, the latest novel, or the forth- coming scandal. scandal. This demands much hard and daily work, for it is astonishing how vast Tout-Paris is, and how many people there are of the same condition in life."

It is pleasant after that to read Mr. Kebbel on the "English Love of Sport," even if we do not share it. There is fresh air, at all events, in his breezy descriptions, even if we are unable to agree that hunting a fox to death with a pack of trained hounds is in any way an ennobling sport for Englishmen. The argument of the paper is, of course, a mere excuse for writing it; at least, we never yet met the man who doubted that the English lower classes were fond of sport. Sport ! they would hunt anything if they could, Mr. Kebbel included, if they got the chance. The dispute is not about that, but about this. Is that trait in the national character a fine one or a bad one, a proof of energy or a proof that barbarism is not extinct Hunting is, we suppose, a relief to the passion for physical excitement, but that might be found in the Swiss competitions as easily as in running-down brutes or shooting over-fed birds. We hardly understand "The Liberal Saturnalia," by a writer who despises all parties alike, and thinks the new Members will be merely coachmen, the new electors telling them where and when to drive ; and the heavy articles of the num- ber, two on" The Railway Problem," are very heavy indeed ; but we note that Mr. S. Laing, with his great experience of railways, is wholly in favour of strict Government control, to be exercised by a Government Department, with powers almost absolute, or restricted mainly by the fear of incurring Parliamentary censure. That is not, we imagine, the view of many Railway Chairmen. Captain H. M. Hozier sends an exhaustive account of "Lloyd's," from which we extract a statement that will, we think, be new to a majority of our readers :—

"As casualties may occur at any part of the world, every coast is divided into districts, and over each district a Lloyd's Agent watches, who telegraphs to Lloyd's immediately any casualty to shipping which

may occur within his district, as well as the arrivals of shipwrecked crews, or the floating ashore of wreckage. The information obtained from Lloyd's Agents is supplemented by Lloyd's Signal Stations. These are established at all important points on the great lines of maritime traffic, and are of enormous valise for the saving of both life and property from the perils of the seas. They are placed at out- lying points far away from harbours, and are connected telegraphi- cally with London. When a vessel comes ashore or is seen in distress from one of these bleak headlands where the signal stations are, the news of her danger is telegraphed at once to the point from which assistance may be derived, and aid is sent. Within the few years that the system of signal stations has been in full working order, many a vessel has been saved from destruction and her crew from death through the interposition of these stations. Their value is universally recognised, and many great landed proprietors helped in their establishment by granting freely, or only on nominal terms, the land which is necessary for the erection of a station."

The "Legend of Another World," in Macmillan, does not attract us so much as some other work by the author of "A Strange Temptation." We do not see it drift, unless it be simply this, that sin and misery are inevitable, and that it is use- less to resist. There is a fine picture, however, of the philanthro- pist who has obtained from Heaven the power to destroy the population of a world, and so stop evil, yet is human enough to save a child, and so unknowingly to secure the revival of all he has striven to suppress. Is it not the central idea of the writer that finite life and the tendency to sin are inextricably com- mingled ? That paper on "Present-Day Idealism" is, in our humble opinion, pretentious rubbish :— "Down, down, down the stolid eyes look ; but the battle still goes on—a deadly game of 'French and English,' with the 2Esthetic of Aceldama at one extremity of the rope, the Philistine of Billings- gate at the other, and the men of mind in the centre. Induction and deduction have travelled through the looking-glass ;' and, in full armour, are belabouring one another in good earnest with echoing blows of age-wrought steel. And yet it is a terrible jest. For Ormuzd fought it out long ago with Ahriman, and Adam had his skirmish with Satan ; and while the former won his spurs, the latter lost his Paradise :—

' —eternal tale Repeated in the lives of all his sons.'

It is the everlasting gladiatorial show in the arena of the soul of man ; all the principalities and powers of the material and the brutish and the things which are seen, in undying conflict with the senses of power and aspiration and tho evidence of things not seen. It is the hand-to-hand death-tussle of the Beast with the Angel. Down, down, down the stolid eyes look : surely the Beast is winning the day."

There is an idea in that paragraph, but it would not only be twice as clear, but twice as forcible, if expressed in English.