THE MAGAZINES.

"The Truth about Dreyfus," by "Huguenot," the editor of the National Review has secured a paper of quite excep- tional interest Whether " Huguenot " can prove all his assertions we are unable to say, but of this we are sure,—the assertions are made in good faith, and if they are true the Dreyfus scandal is the greatest horror of modern times. "Iluguenot " pieces together the scraps of evidence that have come to light, and with the skill of a Sherlock Holmes or an Edgar Allan Poe makes a series of logical links which connect Esterhazy with the betrayal of the War Office secrets, and so entirely exculpates Dreyfus. But as in all logical arguments, what really matter are the premises. If they are the least unsound, the better the logic the worse the result. Bad logic might get a right conclusion out of unsound premises. It is absolutely impossible that good logic should do anything but lead us wrong if the premises are faulty. And as we have said, we have not the means of testing the facts adduced by "Huguenot." We only know that those who could test them—i.e., the French Government—have refused to do so. We recommend our readers, however, to study carefully this very remarkable paper, and we quote from it the following significant passage, though for the state- ments it contains we can, of course, take no responsibility. " Huguenot " declares that since the Dreyfus sentence the German Government has received a number of important secret papers in the same writing as the bordereau :— "Dreyfus cannot have written these, for he was already in prison. The defenders of Dreyfus have themselves a list of these documents, obtained evidently through some well-informed person ; for in the middle of April the Siecle, in an open letter to General Billot, gave details of several of them, among others signalising the plan of mobilisation of the Third Army Corps of Rouen, to which Esterhazy was attached in 1896 when he com- municated the plan to Schwartzkoppen. Now the Emperor William, by communicating to the French or European Press in facsimile any one of these documents of origin later than 1894, can, whenever he likes, tear across the web of lies with which the French War Office is now striving to hide its misdeeds. Perhaps the denouement will come in this way ; for the Emperor has, it appears, already authorised Schwartzkoppen, at the close of the last year, to communicate to Count Casella, for publication in the Shade, on April 8th last, many hints of the truth, and these hints were enough, in the elegant phrase of the Socialist paper, Les Droits de l'Homme, to cause the members of the Etat Majeur to 'sweat with fear.' How long will it be before William II. draws tight the noose into which all the leading French generals and colonels and nearly all the leading politicians of every party, save the Socialists, have so obligingly adjusted their necks I"

—A short, but very pleasant paper is Mr. Evelyn Ashley's account of his connection with Mr. Gladstone. Here is a curious story of the kindliness and large-mindedness of his subject :—

"While I represented the Colonial Office in the House of Com- mons, the complications in Zululand, and the question of its future, gave us great anxiety and presented many difficulties. The knot was suddenly cut, and half the question solved, by the death of Cetewayo. I was sitting on the Treasury Bench when the message announcing this was handed to me. I instantly ran into Mr. Gladstone's room waving the telegram and giving him the news. Poor old man, I am very sorry for him,' were the first words that fell from Mr. Gladstone, who had met Cetewayo and interviewed him the previous year in London. I own that for the first and last time in my life I allowed a cry of impatience to escape from me in Mr. Gladstone's presence, and replyinf, Well, Mr. Gladstone, you are the only man in England who is sorry,' I left the room. But I was wrong in my haste. It was but the personal sympathy which would have its play before the other public and national considerations had time to come into the field of vision."

Here is another story equally characteristic :— " One afternoon of November, 1808, in the Park at Hawarden, I was standing by Mr. Gladstone bolding his coat n my arm while he, in his shirt sleeves, was wielding an axe to cut down a tree. Up came a telegraph messenger. He took the telegram, opened it and read it, then handed it to me, speaking only two words, namely, Very significant,' and at once resumed his work. The message merely stated that General Grey would arrive that evening from Windsor. This, of course,implied that a mandate was coming from the Queen charging Mr. Gladstone with the forma- tion of his first Government. I said nothing, but waited while the well-directed blows resounded in regular cadence. After a few minutes the blows ceased and Mr. Gladstone, resting on the handle of his axe, looked up, and with deep earnestness in his voice, and great intensity in his face, exclaimed : My mission is to pacify Ireland.' He then resumed his task, and never said another word till the tree was down."

The article also contains an interesting record of the state of feeling between Mr. Gladstone and Lord Palmerston. Mr. Evelyn Ashley writes with zest and interest. Will not Mr. Mamie persuade him to give us some more of his re- miniscences ?—The National this month also contains the Prize Essay which was jointly offered by the Navy League and Mr. Masse for the best account of what would probably happen in case of a war between France and Russia and this country. The essay is rather sound and workmanlike than brilliant, but it works out certain naval problems in an in- teresting way.

The best article in the Fortnightly is "Cuba and her Struggle for Freedom" by General Lee, who till the war broke out was the American Consul in Havana. We trust that this article, which is written with no heat or violence and with great fairness to individuals, will be read by any persons—if there are any—who still believe that Spain haa acted fairly and reasonably to the Cubans, and that but for the Americans the islanders would be happy and contented.

Here is an account of General Weyler and his polio,/ "It was evident that the style of guerilla warfare, as practised by the insurgents, could be maintained for years, because a generous soil, tilled by the peasants who were in sympathy with the insurrection, produced the necessary food. It was then that General Weyler conceived the brilliant idea of destroying the peasant farmers to prevent their giving aid and comfort to the insurrectionists. This he hoped to effect by the issuing of his famous reconcentrado order,' whose terms compelled the old men, women, and children to leave their homes and come within the nearest Spanish fortified lines, pains being taken after they were driven from their little farms to burn their houses, tear up their plant beds, and drive off and confiscate the few cattle, hogs, and chickens that they were obliged to leave. The United States was naturally shocked at the brutality of this order, and saw, with great indignation, some 400,000 of these poor, innocent war victims forced away from where they could subsist themselves, to the Spanish lines where they could obtain nothing and within which nothing was tendered. As a consequence, over 200,000 (principally women and children and non-combatants) died from starvation, and starvation alone. History presents nowhere such an appalling record ; nor do the military annals anywhere furnish such a horrible spectacle, the result of a military order, based upon a supposed military necessity. General Weyler, if anything, is a soldier, trained to no other career, and one who believes that everything is fair in war, and every means justifiable which will ultimately write success upon his standards. He did not propose to make war with velvet paws but to achieve his purpose of putting down the insurrection if he had to wade through, up to the visor of his helmet, the blood of every Cuban—man, woman, and child—on the island. And yet, I found him—in official intercourse—affable, pleasant, and agreeable. He was always polite and courteous to me, and told me more than once that he wished I would remain in my position there as Consul-General as long as he did as Governor and Captain-General. He was small in stature, with a long face and square chin, and wearing side-whiskers and a moustache ; quick, nervous in his manner and gait ; decided in his opinions, he was loved by some and hated and feared by others."

—A few weeks ago a campaign of dinner parties was started for securing the return of Lord Rosebery to the leadership of the Liberal party. Now, apparently, there is to be a magazine campaign with the same objective. The Fortnightly has three articles all lead- ing up to the same suggestion,—i.e., that the post of leader wants filling, and that Lord Rosebery is the man to fill it.

We cannot profess to be very anxious to see the Liberal party well led, and therefore shall not break our hearts if Lord Rosebery once more becomes the leader of the party. At the same time,it is not a little amusing to see the Radical section of the party so intensely anxious to obtain a leader from among those whom they denounce as the "accidents of accidents," "titled noodles," "hereditary incapables," and the like. But, in truth, the ordinary men always find an affable Peer, and such Lord Rosebery is, very difficult to resist. The first County Council could never forget that Lord Rosebery asked them to call him "Mr. Chairman" and "Sir," when he might have been called "My Lord." Magnanimity such as this easily carries men off their feet.—The last article in the Fortnightly, that on Lord Salisbury's Russian policy, we have dealt with elsewhere.

An anonymous writer in this month's Blackwood reviews with a contemptuous pen the young lions of current fiction. After several palpable hits at the methods of self-advertise- ment usual among the minor lion-cubs—such as the formation

of dinner-clubs, with butter administered ad libitum in the after-dinner speeches, and the contribution of laudatory auto- biographies to cheap books of reference—the article passes to its subject proper with a description of the work of Mr.

H. G. Wells. "A gloomy and powerful imagination" is the verdict pronounced on Mr. Wells, with the further informa- tion that in his lighter vein he is not a conspicuous success. The remembrance of many pleasant half-hours passed in reading Mr. Wella's short stories makes a protest necessary against this severe summing up,—and especially the thought of Mr. Hoopdriver in Mr. Wells's delightful comedy, The Wheels of Chance. In that work the creator of the dread hand- ling machines shows an almost Stevensonian sense of the pleasure that belongs to "The Song of the Open Road." The article, after dealing out hard measure to the individual roaring of the young lions, concludes with a serious warning

on the danger of listening to roaring, in the shape of fugitive fiction, at all.—Mr. R. Witt contributes to the same magazine an amusing account of Dar-es-Salaam in German East Africa. The officials provided by a paternal Govern- ment amount to one hundred and fifty-three in a population of under five hundred white men, and all the machinery of gevernment is provided on the same liberal scale :— " At East London and Durban a heavy bar has to be crossed before landing. At Beira you are carried ashore, balanced pre- cariously on the shoulders of a diminutive native. Here at Dar- es-Salaam nature and a paternal Government have conspired together to welcome the intending colonist or curious visitor with all comfort and convenience. Flights of concrete steps beauti- fully regular and perfectly preserved receive you, recalling memories of the Alster at Hamburg. You mount with a new sense of dignity, for there is nothing like them from Suez to Natal. Above and before you stands the magnificent Custom- house, which gives you pause."

It is sad to hear after this that the fine harbour is almost empty of shipping, and the Custom-house as desolate as Tadmor in the wilderness. For there is no trade, and the sagacious German as a rule establishes himself at Zanzibar, his "patriotism qualified by a distinct and ill- concealed preference for an alien administration."—We have

not much sympathy with the concluding article in the magazine, "The Yellow Peril." To our mind the Yellow Peril in this country is the peril of England becoming the prop and stay of the integrity and independence of the Chinese Empire.

The most interesting article in the Contemporary Review is "The Ruin of Spain," by Dr. E. J. Dillon. It is a descrip- tion of the misgovernment of Spain, and though it is much too passionate, as indeed are almost all articles on Spain, and its suggested solution of her difficulties is. we hope, impos- sible, it is a forcible statement of the Weyler side of the Cuban question. Dr. Dillon declares that the Government of Spain is hopelessly imbecile, that her statesmen produce nothing but words, that her elections are wicked farces, the Ministry of the Interior nominating any Deputies it pleases, and securing them a majority of fictitious votes—even prose- cuting honest voters on vamped-up charges—and that the political life of the country is steeped in corruption. The

late Liberal Ministry believed war to be impossible within a week of its breaking out—a fact admitted publicly by the Colonial Minister—made no preparation for meeting it, and when it arrived, invented stories of victory to keep the people quiet. They broke the hearts of the Generals who were-

trying to reconquer Cuba, and neglected every warning of American hostility until it was too late to act effectively. Dr. Dillon contends that the insurgents in Cuba are coloured people, that their crimes have been frightful, that General Weyler's severity fell only on guilty persons or avowed rebels, and that but for his recall he would have put down the rebel- lion. His suggestion for Spain, therefore, is that the Govern- ment should be superseded by a military despotism, and that the despot should be General Weyler. We need not say that we believe the choice would ruin Spain, if only by rendering peace impossible, and arousing horror throughout the civilised world; but there is much truth behind Dr. Dillon's fierce invectives, and reason for his belief that only a dic- tatorship for a time can remove the kind of paralysis which has fallen upon Spain, and prepare the people for a stronger and more honest administration. His suggestion that Cuba should have complete autonomy on condition of paying the Debt incurred on her behalf by her oppressors is, however, impracticable. The Cubans will not trust any arrangement which involves the retention of a Spanish garrison, and have not the means of paying the Debt even if they considered themselves responsible for it. We wonder, by the way, if the Sagasta Government, in its eagerness to avoid war, did give General Woodford assurances which, transmitted to Washington, made President McKinley believe up to the last minute that Spain would agree on financial terms to the evacuation of Cuba.—Mr. Stead sends a careful, and, we think, on the whole accurate, account of recent proceedings in China from the Russian point of view —he calls his paper "Russia and Mr. Chamberlain's Long Spoon "—admitting, however, at the end that the Russian Foreign Office was guilty of deception about Talienwan. He

believes that the Russians were pressing, as they were bound to press, steadily towards the water ; that their policy was not hostile to Great Britain ; that they avowed their object openly—which is certainly true if M. Pa.vloff is to be accepted as their mouthpiece—and that they acted at last in a hurry because they feared that Great Britain and Japan in alliance would seize Port Arthur. Substantially that is our own argu- ment, though we do not think it necessary to attack either the Government or Mr. Chamberlain for taking a different view and feeling irritated at Russia's tergiversations.—The " vieit " of Mr. Claes Ericsson, a botanist, to the Philippines,

tells us nothing of present interest, his visit having really been to Palawan, which, though nominally Spanish, was really ruled by the Sultan of the Sala Islands. The only facts of Philippine importance mentioned are that even the Custom-house receipts of Manilla do not reach the Treasury, and that the native troops cannot be relied on, as they know literally nothing of their officers, not even their names.— Mr. Archibald Cowie, in a paper on "The Supply of British Seamen," draws a heavy indictment against the neglect of British merchant-sailors, who, he asserts, are often cruelly

treated, ill fed, and then punished for desertion. Dr. Clark Russell, the naval novelist, it will be remembered, is always saying the same thing, which is often, we fear, too true. The Consuls in foreign ports, and some Magistrates in our own Colonial ports, should have more power to investigate sailors' complaints, and to act as protectors, especially for apprentices, and some entirely new method should be devised of paying sailors' wages. At present they are constantly paid in lump

sums, and in foreign ports, where the sailors are robbed, and are practically without redress. In 1896 British seamen received in Continental ports 2383,108, of which only 257,585 was remitted home, leaving 2325,573 for Continental crimps. Much of this waste is, of course, voluntary, the service including a large proportion of drunken and vicious men ; but much is not, and the immense losses help to deter Eng- lishmen from the most useful of occupations.—The only light paper in the number is an amusing sketch by Mr. S.

Gwynn of "Bachelor Women," the educated ladies who are beginning to live alone either on money which they earn or money which they inherit. Mr. Gwynn neither objects nor approves, his object being rather to notice the social revolu-

tion which such ladies are producing, but we gather that he

thinks the new experiment is a little contrary to nature. At least, he says :—" Any of them would certainly have endorsed

the pronouncement of a charming lady who is no longer a bachelor. She described the amusements of her bachelor life and the interests of an artistic career with such zest that one

naturally asked if it had not been an effort to give it up. 'Ah, but you get so bored with it,' she said; you do so want some one to tell you not to do things."

The first article of the Nineteenth Century is by Mr. H. M. Stanley, M.P., and may be compressed into two lines. Great Britain ought to join the Triple Alliance, as a guarantee of the European peace :— "It comes to this, that loving peace as we do, we must consider whether our diplomacy does not need to be re- fashioned, directed to something more than temporary ex- pedients, to policies that will ensure, so far as is humanly possible, the permanent welfare of other nations as well as our own. The Triple Alliance, supported by the military and naval strength of Great Britain, backed by the moral support of the United States, and by the military and naval forces of Japan, appears to me the only way by which the peace of the world can be secured, this nightmare of war dispelled, and this eternal agitation effectually stopped. Naturally concessions must be made for the privilege of joining the Alliance, but we have much that may be given to it in return which will redound to the advantage of Germany. What these concessions shall be lies within the special province of diplomacy to determine. My object has only been to prove that our splendid isolation,' being wholly inadequate and powerless to preserve good relations with the European Powers, ought to be abandoned as a delusion and a snare."

We suppose that is Mr. Chamberlain's thought too.—Mr.

R. B. Marston eagerly urges the formation of a reserve of wheat, the State keeping permanently ten million quarters, or,

say, four months' supply, in stock. This wheat must, of course, be changed every year, and, if possible, without dis- turbance of trade, to which ends Mr. Marston makes a really

clever suggestion :—

" Under my scheme the Government would only buy once, and would never sell, except to ward off famine. To keep good the corn it bought originally, I suggest it should have the same power that it has now over tea, tobacco, wine, &c.—viz. a control of entry—and that it should renew its reserve by taking the ship- ments of new corn arriving at our ports and giving the importer an order on the Government reserve for a corresponding quantity (value for value) of wheat imported twelve months previously. In this way the amount of new wheat taken off the market would be instantly replaced by the stored and improved year-old wheat out of the reserve. The Government, after completion of its first purchase, would never have to bother about the current price of wheat The basis of exchange would simply be the quality and quantity of bread an equal weight of the new wheat and of the wheat a year old would make ; and over a series of years this varies in best kinds of wheat on the average very little, if at all, although the price may be 25s. one year and 50s. the next." There is a very able defence of Lord Salisbury's policy in China by Mr. Holt S. Hallett, the drift of which is that we

ought to reform China, not destroy her, and that Lord Salisbury's policy helps to keep her alive; and an argu- ment by Bishop Barry in favour of encouraging the Bishops to compel greater adherence to the Prayer-book as regards services. We suspect, however, that he exaggerates the respect which would be paid to "temperate Episcopal admonitions." Our impression is that the kind of clergymen who are inclined to increase or decrease the amount of ritual demanded by the Prayer-book are disposed to respect the law when strictly applied, but regard Episcopal admonitions as causes of exasperation. They think the Bishops who reprove them "not quite sound."—Oddly enough, the only genuinely light article in the number is headed "The Catholi- cism of the British Army," which is not, as might be imagined, a sketch of military Romanism, but an account of a military chaplain's helps and difficulties. Captain Trevor is decidedly an optimist as to chaplains, asserting not only that their work is well done, but that the men like them. The general reader will, however, be more interested in the essayist's stories, which are excellent, than in his views, which are a little doubtful, at least if the chaplain's first duty is to make the bad better. Here is one of the stories :—

" It was a pouring wet December Saturday night in barracks, and a late after-order had been issued altering the hours of Divine Service on the following day. The battalion orderly sergeant at tattoo roll-call was reading the amendments 'to such,' as the/proclamations say, • as they might concern' by the light of a store lantern. His audience stood shivering and demonstrating the frailty of the Government great-coat. 'District after-order' he bellowed. Hours of Divine Service to- morrow. Denominations will p'rade as under : Chu'ch of England 10.30, Kautholics 8.15.' The rain beat down relentlessly as he turned over the page of the order book. He observed at a glance that the Presbyterians, Wesleyan's, and Primitive Methodists were all to parade at the same hour, so the rest of the information he imparted in précis form. Fancy religions ten o'clock. Eight turn. Dismiss.'

The most interesting paper in this month's Cormopolis is on "Lea Origines de in Criee italienne." M. Leopold Mabilleau thinks the various societies of " Braccianti " are at the bottom

of the trouble. These societies are something like our Trade- Unions. There are five or nix hundred centres, containing altogether about two hundred and fifty or three hundred

thousand members. They aro composed for the most part of the less skilled workmen, and arc, c2 course, Socialistic in their tendency. These societica have been recognised,

and from time to time subsidised, by the Government. The Ravenna Braccianti undertook in 1884. the draining of the marshes of Ostia. Sixty families, with a grant of land from the Government and a present of money (seventy thousand livres) from the King, settled on the marshes. Each family received an allotment, which they contracted to work for three years. The contracts were on the Metayer system, the Society of the Braccianti acting as proprietor. The scheme succeeded. Hence arose a violent agitation on the part of the Bracoianti and the Socialists to try a like experiment with all the " terres publiques" in Italy. This agitation pro- duced a widespread discontent, which was augmented by the rejection of a Bill modifying taxation for the Braccianti. —" Politischea in deutscher Beleuchtung " deals with Mr. Chamberlain's speech. The direct intention of the speech, according to " Ignotus," was to influence England's in- ternal politics and not her international position. It

seeks to prove to Englishmen the failure of her former foreign policy, and the fallacy of the idea of splendid isolation, to crash her cherished notion that she is the equal of Russia and could fight her alone, and to force upon the people this conclusion :—We must have allies.