THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.
The North American Review for July is chiefly composed of theories about China. No less than seven articles deal with the different aspects of this most urgent question of the moment. Mr. John Barrett writes on "The Duty of America," in which he seems to us to overstate very considerably the part which America can play in any settlement. He has much interesting information to give, but his style is too much that of the rhetorical lecturer to please. The omnipresent Mr. Demetrius C. Bonlger discusses "America's Share in the Event of Partition," and the President of the Anglo-Chinese College at Foochow in a very interesting article traces "The Causes of Anti Foreign Feeling." He is of opinion that missionary work has much to do with it, and he in- sists rightly upon "the tremendous responsibility which our missionary societies ineur in sending missionaries to China, and the solemn obligation under which such responsibility puts them to send to that distant, difficult, and dangerous field only the choicest men and women they can find." Zeal without tact and sympathy has been the parent of many disorders. He points out at the same time how much harm has been done to foreign prestige by acts of unmeaning brutality, such as the conduct of the French Fleet at Foochow in 1884, and the burning down of villages in Shantung by the Germans. A "Japanese Diplomat" expounds the Japanese view of the situa- tion with what seems to us unjustifiable optimism. Mr. T. P. O'Connor has a readable article on " Some Absurdities of the House of Commons," and there is a very academic discussion on the best way of choosing the President of the United States, by Mr. Walter Hawley and Mr. John Handiboe. For us the most interesting paper is one by Mr. H. G. Wells on the late Mr. Stephen Crane, a kindly and judicious appreciation of the man and his work.
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