11 OCTOBER 1902, Page 24

C URRENT LITERAT ETRE.

THE INTERNATIONAL QUARTERLY.

The International Quarterly. Edited by Frederick A. Richard- son. (T. Fisher Unwin. 55. net.)—We wish that Mr. Richardson had given us some little notion of the lines on which it is pro- posed to conduct this new venture. That he is silent may be due to the same motive which has forbidden, it would seem, the ap- pearance of the usual "No. 1." Fate must not be challenged as if the existence of a "No. 2'. were assured_ Meanwhile we cannot trace any plan. That an American writer should deal with British rule in Egypt is all right, and it is a great satisfaction to find him admiring it. But then a Russian should have been engaged to write about the " Native States of India." Sir W. Lee' Warner's paper is excellent ; but we do not see where the "inter- national" comes in. The same might be said of M. Marc Debrit's characterisation of the first Napoleon, a very formidable indictment which the ridiculous people who bow down before the "Martyr of St. Helena" would do well to consider. Then there is Professor Tyrrell's "Cicero." We have read it with the greatest pleasure. Cicero was not brutal enough to come up to German ideals as conceived by Dr. Mommsen, but he deserves all that Professor Tyrrell says in his praise. But why "international ? Dr. Max Nordau is more to the point when he writes about Zionism.

But why Abelard and Heloise ? The new quarterly has our best wishes. Perhaps we shall understand more about it in time.