THE MAGAZINES.

THE Nineteenth Century devotes much of its space this month to politics. The doyen of Imperial statesmen, Sir Charles Tupper, in a paper on "The Unity and Defence of the Empire" urges the building and subsidising of an Imperial line of steamers by a joint effort of the Imperial and the Colonial Governments. Such a fleet would promote trade and personal intercourse, and would also be available as reserve cruisers to keep the trade routes open in time of war.—Two articles bring heavy artillery to bear upon the Budget. Sir Felix Schuster, whose high position in the banking world entitles his opinion to all respect, discusses the question: "Are the Death Duties an Economically Sound Form of Taxation ? " He thinks, on the whole, that they are not, and that, taken in conjunction with the super-tax on income, they represent a thoroughly vicious and uneconomic form of impost. "A new class of taxpayer has been created, a numerically small class, and the great number of voters do not share the burden—or, at any rate, only to a small degree." He would apparently prefer an increased Income-tax to the Death-duties, since in his eyes the latter involve a shrinkage of the national capital. We agree entirely with Sir Felix Schuster in his general argument, if it is directed against the increased Death-duties taken in conjunction with the other items of the present Budget, but we are inclined to think that it fails if directed against any form of Death-duties. Even assuming that they are invariably paid out of capital, if the capital utilised is not excessive it will be replaced annually by the natural process of economic expansion. In his Table II. he gives two sets of figures from 1897 onward, one set showing the taxable income, which is regularly and largely expanding, and the other showing the capital amenable to Death-duties, which fluctuates. For example, in 1899 the latter was 292 millions, and in 1907 only 282 millions, though the taxable income rose between those years from 564 millions to 640 millions. But surely the depreciation of Consols in the last ten years would largely affect the Death-duties figures; and, more- over, the bulk of the great recent fortunes, the result of which appears in the Income-tax figures, have not yet been assessed to Death-duties. Would it not be possible, we wonder, for some able statistician to get out the approximate figures of annual automatic replacement of national capital P—Mr. S. Rosenbaum, who calls himself "Statistician to the Tariff Com- mission," contributes a paper on "The Budget and Social Revolution." Many of his criticisms are sound and acute. He points out, for example, that graduation, if, on the principle of the present Government, it is carried to the uppermost limits of income, involves the possibility of total confiscation of very high incomes. He also points out that "selective" taxation—the idea that special types of property may be selected for special taxation—ignores the fundamental truth that it is persons, not things, who pay taxes.—Of the other contents of the number, we would note Mr. W. Frewen

Lord's truculent but amusing definition of "The Creed of Imperialism," the conclusion of Professor Vambery's interesting recollections of the deposed Sultan of Turkey, and Miss Rose Bradley's "Frere Jacques," a charming study of Corsica.

The National Review this month is a very interesting and varied number. In the "Episodes of the Month" the editor deals with the letter from Sir Clinton Dawkins to Herr von Gwinner published in last month's Nineteenth Century, and shows conclusively that it was a private letter which it was breach of confidence on the part of the German recipient to print. His restatement of the whole story is a useful reminder to readers who may have forgotten what came near being a grave British blunder. The editor makes an earnest appeal to Lord Rosebery to follow up his speech to • the Imperial Press delegates and his letter to the Times, with- a serious campaign. "Will he really take off his coat and work against the wreckers?" Incidentally he rescues from the Cambridge Review a delicious phrase descriptive of ourselves, —" the toothless ferocity of the Spectator." A man endowed with so ardent a gift of picturesque phrase should make his light shine beyond his University.—The most important article in the number is Mr. Pretyman's brilliant exposure of the new Land-taxes in "The Budget and the Land." He shows, to our mind unanswerably, that the new taxes work heavy injustice, will be costly and vexatious to collect, and will provide endless difficulties in the way of legal interpreta- tion. Real property as it stands bears far more than its share of taxation. It pays rates, Income-tax, and Death- duties on an inequitable assessment ; it pays Land-tax and Inhabited House Duty; and now it is to be compelled to pay four new taxes. It is sheer nonsense to argue that land differs from other forms of property because there is a steady development in its capital value. Almost the opposite is the case. In Mr. Pretyman's words, we are proposing to find money for old-age pensions by striking at the very roots of industry and employment.—The place of honour is given to an article on "Navy and Empire" by a writer who signs himself "Dreadnought." He argues that, as compared with Germany, we have an "accessible and defenceless coast, upon which are no repairing bases, and no adequate provision for supplies." In a war Germany could repair her ships six at a time, Britain five at a time, and before long the ratio will be fifteen to six. The writer has his own definition of the two- Power standard. To be useful, he says, it should mean "the maintenance of two fleets, the one superior in all arms to the foreign fleet next in order of strength, the other superior in all arms to the foreigu fleet next again in order of strength, together with a schedule of vessels required for the various duties involved in patrolling the waterways of the Empire." Needless to say, he does not find these conditions ful- filled. He is also very much concerned about the revival of privateering by the Hague Conference, and the making of food-stuffs contraband of war by the Declaration of London. His remedy is the complete reorganisation of the Board of Admiralty and a loan of 2100,000,000.—Of the papers of general interest, we would refer especially to Mr. Austin Dobson's delightful account of Mr. Cradock, the friend of Johnson and Goldsmith, who left some bulky memoirs behind him. Very interesting, too, are Miss Amphlett's sketch of life in a Pomeranian country house and Mr. William Satchell's practical advice to emigrants to New Zealand. Mr. M. T. Ferguson tells the story of the Morning Post and the late Lord Glenesk's connexion with it. It is too little realised what splendid work Lord Glenesk did, not only for his own paper, but for the whole of our national journalism. There have been few newspaper proprietors with anything like his wide culture and sense of public duty.

The first place in the Contemporary Review is given to Dr. August Weismann's address to the University of Freiburg on the occasion of the Darwin centenary. It is little more than a summary of the chief events of Darwin's life, but it is pleasant to read so cordial an appreciation from a great fellow-worker.—Mr. G. K. Chesterton contributes a typical paper on "The Moral Philosophy of Meredith." He falls foul of some critic who argued that Dickens divided men crudely into good and bad, while Meredith suspended judgment. He maintains that Meredith's . novels, on the contrary, are far more " moralities " than those of Dickens. "Micawher is not Improvidence, Sikes is not Brutalityii),4the is utterly naked and abstract sense in which Sir Willoughby Patterne is Selfishness." But this argument wholly misses the point of a perfectly sound criticism. No doubt it is quite easy to divide Meredith's men and women into good and bad, but this is the reader's judgment, not that of their creator. Dickens was content to make the badness of a bad man unrelieved badness; Meredith shows that a fault may have a dignity and nobility of its own. Sir Willoughby Patterne was Selfishness, but he is so logical and whole-hearted in his vices that he commands the unwilling respect even of the moralist. His fault has a borderline in common with virtue: the crude wickedness of the ordinary villain has not. Else- where Mr. Chesterton makes some acute remarks : "No man in our time ever came so near to this clean and well-poised Paganism as Meredith. He took the mystery of the universe lightly; and waited for the Gods to show themselves in the forest." The paper is full of Mr. Chesterton's humour,- e.g., "those unhappy religious differences which still divide Christians from Thugs."--,--Mr. Charles Lowe contributes a curious article on "The Franco-German War : its True Causes," in which he argues with some truth that the vera masa of the conflict was not any Machiavellian act of Bismarck, but the jealousy shown by France of German progress. He leaves a moral for the present time implied. —Among other articles, we would mention Mr. W. T. Stead's appreciative paper on "The Editors of the Empire at Home," Mr. Stanley Jevons's analysis of the policy of Trade-Unionism as one of the causes of unemployment, and Mr. J. E. G. de 'Montmorency's most interesting essay on "Literature and the People."

Mr. Edward Clodd's recollections of George Meredith in the Fortnightly consist mostly of notes of conversations. Meredith regretted that people thought more of his prose than of his poetry, and said on one occasion : "Chiefly by that in my poetry which emphasises the unity of life, the soul that breathes through the universe, do I wish to be remembered: for the spiritual is the eternal. Only a few read my verse, and yet it is that for which I care most." Here is a vie* of Matthew Arnold: "Arnold is a poor judge : a dandy Isaiah, a poet without passion, whose verse, written in a surplice, is for freshmen and for gentle maidens who will be wooed to the arms of these future rectors." Though Meredith admired Tennyson's "marvellous singing power," lie pronounced his thought "thin," and said : "There is no suggestiveness which transcends the expression ; nothing is left to the imagination." Surely he had forgotten "Tears, Idle Tears."—Mr. John C. Bailey gives us an interesting study of "Meredith's Poetry." " He fully admits the obscurity and over-intellectualism of much of the verse, but instances the exquisite "Dirge in the Woods" as an example of pure poctry.—Mr. Francis McCullagh gives us some of the evidence which points to the fact that the late Sultan engineered the Constantinople mutiny of April13th. Already parts of the reports of the spies found at Yildiz have been published. They seem to be mostly entreaties for "money in profusion." Said Pasha (whose intrigues brought about the fall of his father Kiamil) is said to have told a newspaper reporter that Prince Burhaneddine Effendi "distributed money to the soldiers in order to make them mutiny. The sergeants received 215 each, the corporals £10, and the privates £5. Burhaneddine worked through the eunuch Nadir Effendi." We are told in corroboration of this that soldiers who were wounded during the mutiny and were taken to the hospital were found in possession of sums ranging from £10 to £20.—Mr. Sydney Brooks writes an article on "Great Britain, Germany, and the United States." His line is just that taken up by the Spectator a few weeks ago. He declares that if America does not want herself to command the sea, she would rather that sovereignty rested with us than with Germany. He says that there are signs of uneasiness growing in the States with regard to Germany and South America. But he doubts whether many people realise what Captain Mahan means by his article in Collier's Weekly when he warns his countrymen as to what might happen if Germany has a dispute with "some future Castro." That America would in any way take sides with us Mr. Brooks thinks impossible; but all the same, he says that opinion is becoming vaguely conscious that the German Fleet may mean trouble not only for England.

"A Gunner" describes in Blackwood the Bill which Lord

Roberts is about to introduce in the House of Lords. Readers of these columns are already familiar with the general ideas of the National Service League with regard to universal training. Any one, however, desiring to read a clear and well-reasoned exposition of the plan by which it is sought to enable every Englishman to do his duty towards his country is advised to ' study these pages.—Sir Arthur Fanshawe in his "Stray Stories from India" has collected many amusing episodes. Hem is one which illustrates the native's quickness in picking up English phrases, this time from some missionary centre. A friend of Sir Arthur's asked a Madras servant what his religion was, and received in reply the answer : "Beg pardon, Say, I'm a heathen." On being asked what he meant by " heathen," the Dian replied : "A worshipper of stocks and

stones." "'Oh, confound it,' ejaculated my friend, I can't keep a man like that in my -service.' To which came the• immediate rejoinder : Beg pardon, Sar, in your Highness's service no time to worship anything.' " We are given an amusing account of Sir Arthur's dining with the Jam of Jamnagar. The meal took place in a long corridor, the old Rajput chief sitting at one table and his guest at another ten yards off. At intervals the Jam sent his secretary, says the writer, "to ask whether everything was to my liking, but later he began to call out his own genial inquiries across the intervening space, inquiries which might perhaps have been embarrassing if other Europeans had been present: Sahib, is your Highness's stomach well-filled ? ' To which, with due gravity, I replied: By your Highness's favour my stomach is exceedingly well-filled.' Later he ventured on his one English phrase: Sahib, aro you Pappy ' " At the close of the entertainment the Jam drank Queen. Victoria's health in liquor which Sir Arthur Fanshawe says . reminded him "of the Irish Member's description of the House of Commons whisky, that it went down like a torchlight

procession." The next day before he left the Englishman received a splendid present of fruit, as well as some of the potent spirit, and at the bottom of the basket were some familiar-looking blue-paper parcels. These turned out to be packets of English candles. The Jam, it was believed, had at some time bought up cheap a large supply of these candles, which had formed part of the cargo of a ship wrecked on the Kathiawar coast, and was using them up for presents.—Mr.

Hannay has explored the history of pirates during the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries. In the former century there were two kinds of these unpleasant people. Besides the mere

plunderers there were sea-captains who held commissions• from "the King over the water," and who considered them-

selves to be levying real war. Of the character of the true pirates Mr. Hannay speaks with no respect. He says that they are quite fairly represented by Stevenson in The Master of Ballantrae, the romantic figures of Treasure Island being merely boy's-book puppets. A very curious incident is recorded of the piratical expeditions of Captain Avery of the Charles II.' in the Red Sea at the end of the seventeenth century. On one occasion the pirates fell in with a great Mogul ship taking a lady of the Imperial family on her pilgrimage to Mecca. The plunder was immense, and, although the lady and the ship were allowed to proceed after the robbery, the Mogul protested so forcibly and practically to the East India Company that the English Government were forced to interfere, and at length caught Avery and some of his men and brought them to trial. The jury seem to have considered a Mogul ship fair game, and acquitted them ; but they were tried again for the original seizure of the Charles II.,' and the end was in execution dock.

In the part of the English Review devoted to "The Month" Sir Edward Grey is denounced as "a Whig of the cold type that has always proved disastrous in British foreign affairs." Liberalism, we are told, demands "a certain glow of humani- tarian faith," and the writer longs for Mr. Gladstone's "splendid and rhetorical handling" of the Balkan problem.

Sir Edward Grey's "silence and sterility," and "the emptiness of his rare utterances," are also denounced. When the editors turn from foreign politics to the drama we find the great combat of Mr. Bernard Shaw and the Censor being fought over again.—Those interested in contemporary French novels will turn to the second of M. Camila Mauclair'a detailed studies, full of neatly poised generalisations and epigrammatic statements.—Mr. H. N. Brailsford regards our attempt to form foreign Alliances as a failure. He maintains that, although we looked upon our understandings

with France and Russia as merely peaceful and defensive, they were really not so. France was willing to be friendly so that she might " penetrate " Morocco, and Russia that she might partition Persia. The result has been to stir up the middle classes a Germany, and make them come into line with the official world in their dislike of ourselves.—A large

part of the magazine is devoted to stories of various sorts. Among them is a sad picture of a negro poet in a South American Republic by Mr. Cunningbarne Graham.—The

play What the Public Wants, by Mr. Arnold Bennett, is issued as a supplement to the magazine.

The most interesting article in this month's United Service Magazine is the detailed account of the Bulgarian Army by Mr. H. C. Woods. Here is Mr. Woods's summing up of his experiences :— "The army of Bulgaria is certainly one of the most efficient, if not the most efficient, of all the smaller European armies. It is, for its size, greatly superior to any force it is likely to encounter in the near future. This fighting machine vastly surpasses all expectation and cannot he too highly praised. I have been brought into contact with the Bulgarian Army during three different visits to the Near East. Between two of these visits a year had elapsed, whilst between my second and third stay in Bulgaria an interval of more than two years had occurred. On each occasion I have expected to find that I had overrated' the excellent quality of the Bulgarian Army. On the contrary, I have on each occasion been surprised to find that my former impressions were hardly good enough. The personnel of the army is excellent. After long marches the men, who are for the most part types of a healthy peasant race, show no signs of fatigue, or of discontent."

—Another interesting and well-written article is entitled "A Letter from a Self-Made General to his Son," by "Fantaasin." The article is on the model of Mr. Lorimer's

Letters frorn a Self-Made Merchant to his Son. Young officers who read it will not fail to gain a good many useful and suggestive ideas.