20 FEBRUARY 1909, Page 26

SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.

[Under this heading leo notice such Books of the week as have not bests reserved for review in other forms.]

Hungary of To-day. By Members of the Hungarian Govern- ment and Others. Edited by Percy Alden, M.P. (Evoleigh Nash. 7s. 6d. net.)—That this is an interesting volume we need hardly say,—let us imagine what we should think of a book to which the members of the British Cabinet should contribute. It is not less obvious that all the contentions are not to be taken for granted. It is an ex parte statement. We certainly find in it various things. which the editor, who is doubtless a Home-ruler, can scarcely approve of. Dr. Julius de Vargha, for instance, writes " Hungary : its Peoples, industries, and Finances," and tells us that as "the Magyars form an absolute majority over all other races com- bined," and have also "superiority in point of wealth, culture, and social development," their supremacy over other nationalities is justified. But how is the majority made up ? The Magyars are 45.4 per cent.; add to this all who speak Magyar, and we get 52 per cont. Then Croatia is excluded, and so we get 61.6 per cent. Surely Slays who for business purposes have learnt Magyar should not be made to swell the numbers of the dominant race. Then, again, we read that " not only in the past, oven to-day the Magyars display an excess of toleration." That would not be universally accepted. Hungary, we see, has a population of 17,000,000 and 1,100,000 electors ; in Great Britain and Ireland the figures are 44,538,718 and 7,514,481.