THE MAGAZINES.

THE Nineteenth Century for August has some very good papers. The one which will be looked at first is, we doubt not, the essay headed " Why are our Brains Deteriorating ? " by Colonel H. Elsdale, C.R.E. His answer is an unpleasant one. It is substantially that modern life makes calls upon the receptive faculties so incessant that the creative faculties are partially paralysed. So much is demanded of us in the way of acquiring, especially by the system of examinations, that there is no nerve-power left to produce original thought. Moreover, a nervous impatience is growing on us, shown in the popularity of short books, short stories, and intellectual pemmican generally, which is fatal to deep thought of any kind. And lastly, there is the influence of democracy, which tends to a general levelling, and the suppression of indi- viduality, which, again, is essential to high manifestations of brain-power. There is a good deal of unpleasing truth in the argument, which has struck all those who affirm a certain degeneracy in the mental life of to-day; but Colonel Elsdale has not given himself space enough to consider the facts on the other side. One of these is the remarkable deepening of the human reservoir, so that there are ten minds which may develop original power where there was one ; and another is the distinct increase in the perceptive power of the race, which must in the end increase the power of generalisation, which is the basis of originality. Half the force of thinkers used to be wasted in gathering facts to think about. The paper is well worth reading, but is injured, as we have hinted, by that want of thoroughness, of room for complete thought, which is becoming the distinctive note of the magazine article.—Miss Frances H. Low puts the case against the Women's Congress very cleverly indeed, but not quite fairly. The managers were too tolerant of the fools who nowadays injure every cause, and especially of the fools whose inner motive seemed to be a kind of spite against men. They were never happy except when proving that men are unjust, or stupid, or feeble. One of them, for instance, made it a great grievance that wives are not paid in cash for their services in keeping house, quite forgetting that they are paid by their enjoyment of a full half of all the wealth of the world, which they do not create. The true grievance, that women have not quite suf- ficient liberty as to their mode of spending their share, is obscured or forgotten when such exaggerated claims are put forward. Miss Low, however, forgets the number of really sensible papers a hich were read in the Congress, and the general enlargement of view which will arise from discussion' The audience was often disillusioned by seeing its secret thoughts paraded and made ridiculous. — Sir Lintorn Simmons puts the case of the Russophobes very well. It is, briefly, that Russia is always arming with the object of conquering China, or perhaps all Asia, and that British capitalists ought not therefore to lend her money. Does he think debtors usually the masters of their creditors P Apart from that, Sir Lintorn Simmons answers himself, for he admits fully that nothing Europe can do will prevent Russia from mastering China. China herself may prevent it by becoming reinvigorated, but nothing else can. That

is quite true, and seems to humble thinkers like ourselves good reason for not wasting energy on the impossible.—

Colonel Sir G. S. Clarke argues that the effective power of fleets is becoming limited. We cannot exert so much pressure with ships as we could. There are no more colonies to seize, and the Continental Powers can communicate and trade by railway. To be effective we must have an army competent to strike. That is true ; but need the army be a great one ? Is not Sir George Clarke's thoughtful argument equivalent to saying that a fortress can never dominate a plain, because the garrison of the fortress must always be shut up P As a matter of fact, the fortress has always in history dominated the plain, because it can wait its opportunity. So can the maritime power which is beyond attack at sea. If Russia in 1855 could have neglected the descent of a minute army upon her furthest coast she could never have been defeated, but then she could not neglect it. A bullet is nothing.in size compared with a human body, but you must cut it out or die. The maritime power holds the bullet. We quite admit the army to be a necessity, but maritime power, in giving to that army mobility, now as ever makes that army indefinitely more effective.—Mr. E. Robertson, Q.C., states the case for the Transvaal at first very neatly, but in the end spoils his argument by a wish to make party hits. It is nonsense to say that the English liquor laws create a monopoly identical with the dynamite mono- poly. There is in England no restriction on the manufacture of alcohol, and Mr. Robertson's friends are always complain- ing that the competition in selling it is only too severe. Is anybody in Johannesburg complaining that there are too many dynamite shops P The real argument on the Kruger side is that it was intended to make the Transvaal in all but appearance independent, and that an independent State is not bound to give any constitutional privileges whatever to foreigners. There is no breach of international law if we confine voting power to families with sixteen quarterings. But for the Convention, and the real, though vague, rights of the Queen, the Boer position as to the franchise would be, on international precedent, unanswerable.

The Contemporary Review for August would be a somewhat poor number were it not for the first paper, which will attract all readers who care to understand something of Hindoo thought. It is an essay on "Race and Religion in India" by Dr. Fairbairn, and is full of close observation and subtle thought. We could

not fairly describe or discuss it in the space we can give to it here, but we may remark that Dr. Fairbairn while travelling in India became fully conscious of two facts which often escape the Anglo-Indian. One is the immense difference between the religion of the Indian peoples and their meta- physic, though the one springs from the other ; and the second is embodied in the following extract :—

" The mixture of races in India is greater than in Europe ; the differences in blood, in descent, in character, and in custom are even more marked, and they have been preserved and emphasised by the most inexorable caste regulations and distinctions. It would seem, therefore, impossible to discover a common mind amid this immense variety ; but the remarkable thing is the identity of intellectual attitude to the problems of existence which distinguishes man in India, the species of spiritual kinship which holds all classes together even where the ethnical stock is most distinct. There is a most singular unity of thought, which persists all the more that there are such infinite degrees of difference in the subtlety of the mental process and the refinement of the rational result."

Dr. Fairbairn thinks the cause of this is the identity of the subconscious Hindoo mind, which is the creation of collective experience. We should rather attribute it to the great age of Hindoo society, which has given time for ideas to filter

down to the very bottom, and to the propagation of those ideas by an upper clue immensely superior to the lower classes in iniellectual force. Similarly the lowest people in Egypt seem to have been thoroughly penetrated with ideas derived from the hieratic class, a diffusion of conviction which it must have taken ages upon ages to accomplish. —" The Reform of China," by Kang Yen Wei, the Em- peror's reforming adviser, is a very curious paper. It professes to be an account of the recent revolution in Pekin, but it is really a hotch-potch of facts, sugges- tions for reform, usually benevolent, but almost always vague, and lamentations over China. We gather that the Dowager-Empress prevailed because she was supported by the Army, but we gain no light as to the question why she was supported by the Army against the Emperor, whose legal rights were never called in question. Kang Yen Wei confirms the story that it was intended to put the Emperor to death, and that be was saved by the Ambassadors' inter- vention. He confirms also the impression that the reformers have nothing Chinese to suggest, and only propose to copy 'Western devices. Kang Yen Wei, for example, wants more revenue, and hie first idea for its creation is an issue of paper money. This is a paper to be read by all interested in China, though it will, we fear, diminish confidence in the practical wisdom of the reformers, while increasing the impression of their disinterestedness. We cannot recommend anything else in the number.—We have no clear idea whether the essay on "The Seven Senses of Fishes" is a bundle of acute thoughts on the powers which fishes seem to possess—for instance, that of finding their way—or is a farrago of dreamy nonsense. We rather incline to the latter theory ; at least we cannot conceive how the brain of a fish can be "a substitute for the loadstone." The idea is, we suppose, that the fish has in its brain something which is attracted by the magnetic neks, and therefore urges the fish's body towards them, but is that anything better than words P—" Arms and the Gentleman," a furious attack upon the bona-fides of Heralds' Offices, and "The Anglo-Indian Creed," an assault on the tendency of Anglo-Indtan officials to resent external criticism, are too bitter to do more than amuse. Is it true, by the way, that all Anglo-Indians think Mussnlmans superior to Hindoos ? They used to think precisely the contrary, and even now we fancy we read pretty frequently high praises of Sikhs, Ghoorkas, and Rajpoots for other than military qualities.

Of the two articles on the Transvaal question in the new Fortnightly we prefer the tone and temper of Mr. Bryden's words of warning to the premature hallooing of "Diplo- maticas." Mr. Bryden, writing as a Conservative and Imperialist, makes it his aim to set forth what, in his opinion, a policy of armed intervention really means. To this end he analyses the populations and efficient combatants of the various States of South Africa, and summarises his statistics in the following table :— " AVA/LABLE SOUTH AFRICAN FORCES—BRITISIT AND DIITCR.

British. Dutch.

Cape Colony ...

17,000 50,000

Orange Free State ...

1,000 18,000

Transvaal ...

3,000 22,000

Natal ...

6,000 1,500

British Bechuanaland

500 500

Rhodesia

2,000 800

Imperial troops in South Africa at the present time, say 10,000

Total ... ...

39,500 92,300"

Mr. Bryden estimates that we should require, in addition to the British fighting men now in Africa, an army corps of at least fifty thousand suitably equipped. He also quotes with great force the words uttered by Mr. Selous at a public dinner only a year or two back. "We will suppose." he said, " that you have sent over a big army and crushed the Dutch. That would not give you the peace you wished for. Would you not, knowing the strong and deter- mined nature of these people, reasonably expect to have insurrections constantly cropping up in the future, and a general state of unrest and suspense before yon ? " Mr. Bryden thoroughly and completely endorses Mr. Selous's prophecy. Counsels of caution are always worth listening to, but in considering Mr. Bryden's figures we must not forget that if the total male population of South Africa is taken, the

British population outnumbers the Dutch. His figures are necessarily only guesses, and rest on the supposition that country people fight more readily than town people. That may be the case, but in the American Civil War the towns sent plenty of regiments to the front. We very much doubt if the Boers could put more than twenty thousand men into the field, and these twenty thousand, though individually brave, would be almost entirely on- organised.—Mr. Garvin contributes a thoughtful article on "Why is Unionism Unpopular?" The inducement to keep Unionists in power, he contends, "is diminished by the fact that Conservative statesmanship is Radical in legislation. The inducement to keep the Liberals out of power is diminished by the fact that Radical foreign policy, however unsound in opposition, is compelled to continuity in office." Mr. Garvin renders full justice to Lord Salisbury's achievements as a diplomatist :—" His burthen has been the heaviest that has rested upon the shoulders of any Premier since Pitt. He has had to avert the danger of war with the four other greatest Powers of the world,—with America, with Germany, with France, with Russia. He has not only preserved the peace; his Ministry has presided over a memorable restoration of Imperial prestige."—Mr. C. S. Bremner gives an interesting, and apparently impartial, account of the operations of nine building companies (philanthropic, semi-philanthropic, and commercial) and of the London County Council in housing the working classes. In conclusion, he brings a serious indictment against the railway companies for their refusal to extend such facili- ties to the working classes as may assist the "persistent dis- persion" rightly regarded by Mr. Charles Booth as the only remedy for overcrowding.—The railway companies are again an object of severe criticism in Mr. J. Allsebrook Simon's timely and amusing article on " Bicycles as Rail- way Luggage." There can be no better illustration, be rightly says, of the long-suffering patience of the British public than this case of the transport of bicycles. We are

as convinced as he is that the changes he advocates and the revision of the present monstrous bicycle rates—often extending to 50 per cent. of passenger fare—would result in advantage to the railways as well as to their passengers. —Baron Pierre de Coubertin, continuing his series of articles on "France since 1814," forms an appreciative estimate of the reign of Napoleon III. He begins: "Louie Napoleon reigned twenty-two years (1848-18.70), four years as Prince-President, eighteen years as Emperor. These are the facts, against which the fiction of formulas is powerless."

But he admits that after an aureum octennium the Emperor spent the interval between 1856 and 1870 in exhausting the

forces bequeathed to him and squandering the advantages he had gained.—M. Jules Claretie's genial address on Shakespeare and Moliere contains the following charming anecdote of John Kemble when he was entertained by the Com6die Francaise at a banquet in Paris

"The conversation at table turned upon the tragic poets of both nations. With lively eloquence Kemble pointed out that Shakespeare was manifestly superior to Racine and Corneille. Under the influence of politeness—maybe of conviction—the French comedians were gradually giving way to him, when Michot the actor suddenly exclaimed, So be it; we are agreed ; but what do you say to Moliere ?' Smiling, Kemble replied, Moliere ? That is another question. Moliere was not a French- man.' Those present protested vehemently. ' No,' continued Kemble, `Moliere was a man. One day it pleased the Almighty to permit mankind to taste, in all their perfection and plenitude, the joys of which Comedy is the source. Forthwith He created Moliere, and said to him: " Go, depict men, your brothers, and amuse them ; if you can, make them better than they now are !" Then he cast Moliere earthwards. On what part of our globe's surface would he fall, to the north or the south—on this or that side of the Channel ? Chance allotted him to France; but he belongs as much to us as to yourselves. No people or age can claim him as its own ; he belongs to all time and to every nation.'" With the most sensational article in the National Review-. that on " The Rapprochement between France and Germany" —we deal elsewhere.—Mr. Yerburgh, M.P., taking as his theme "Our Duty towards China," advocates the policy of " Eg,yptianiaing " the Yangtse Valley, but is careful to disclaim any intention to interpret "control" in the Egyptian sense. "What I had before me," he says, "was the immense services rendered to that country by Lord Cromer, by Sir John Scott and Lord Kitchener. And in view of the admirable results that have attended Sir Robert Hart's administration of the Imperial Maritime Customs it seemed that the best way in which to help the Chinese would be to induce them to accept the assistance of Englishmen of high administrative and military capacity who would, if given permanency of tenure and a free hand, do for China what their fellow-countrymen have done for Egypt?! The three most pressing reforms in which we should assist the Viceroys in the Yangtse to secure are the reorganisation of the financial system—where the leakage is estimated at twenty.. five millions—by the employment of properly paid officials; the adoption of a code of mercantile law ; and the reform of the Army, Mr. Yerburgh writes temperately enough, but the burden he would impope upon us is, on his own showing, of Atlantean magnitude. To achieve these reforms one would need, not one, but three Gordons.—The Rev. Douglas Macleane's paper on "The Church as a Profession" will certainly provoke discussion. He contends that " the laity must be prepared to see an impoverished clergy asserting their sacerdotal and mystical character very much more firmly than in the easy-going past, or else recruited more and more from a lower social and intellectual class The fear is that in the slack-water periods of Church life, which succeed all movements, the attraction [exerted by the clerical office] may come to be felt chiefly by those to whom £180 a year and a house are not poverty, but affluence,"—Mr. Maurice Low in t' The Month in America" states that in regard to the Alaskan boundary question Mr, Hay has displayed the most conciliatory attitude, and charges Canada in advance with the responsibility for any serious consequences that may ensue from the present deadlock.—Major Leonard Darwin writes with admirable good sense on British expansion in West Africa ; and the Rev. W. H. Fitchett in " The Australian View of the South African Crisis" vindicates the keen interest which Australians feel in the maintenance of our suzerainty and the attitude which the Imperial Government has assumed in regard to the Outlanders.

Blackwood this month is strong in political articles, That on "The Position of the Government,7 which concludes the number, argues that "the Unionist Party have only got to hold together and their lease of office is secure. But if different groups and sections run about the country spreading a spirit of disaffection, and accusing their leaders of Popery. and pusillanimity, and socialism, and heaven knows what besides, the majority must crumble away—an event at which no one perhaps would profess more astonishment than those who had brought it about." The article is, however, necessarily imperfect from having been written before the publication of the Report of the Old-Age Pensions Committee. — The article on " A Boer War : the Military Aspect'.' resolves itself in great measure into an analysis of the difficulties and drawbacks by which Sir George Colley was beset, notably his lack of cavalry, and expresses the apprehension, not that the War Office will be over-confident, but rather that the country may recoil before imaginary dangers.—" The Loss of Moshi " is an excellent piece of condensed narrative describing our relations with the French in the hinterland of the Gold Coast, making it clear how narrow has been the margin on more than one occasion that has separated the two nations from open hostilities. The writer gives the French full credit for pluck and enterprise, but he does not mince his words is describing their treatment of the natives, and the evil results of their principle that the work of occupation and organisation should cost nothing. He holds, further, that the result of the recent Con- vention cannot be regarded as other than humiliating for us. " We promised protection to a country and a King [the intelligent and dignified Bokary], and we failed to make good our promise." For the rest, he holds that forced labour, con- trolled and regulated by the Government, is inevitable if the negro is to rise to a higher level, and argues for the abolition by partition of the neutral zone, which is now only a monu- ment of international jealousy.—" The Ghost Dance of the French" is an interesting summary, with comments, of M. le Vicomte Melchior de Vogue's novel, Les Morts qui Parlent. The writer contends that M. de Vogue, though a faithful delineator of French political corruption, is an ineffectual critic because he has no alternative to suggest. This seems

rather unjust, especially as, according to the writer, nothing is left in France except the residuum described by Carlyle : "The five nnsatiated senses, the sixth insatiable sense of vanity the whole themonic nature of man hurled forth to rage blindly without rule or rein ; savage itself, yet with all the tools and weapons of civilisation"? The writer declares that a real clerical revival in France is im- possible because of the old grudging hate of the tithepayer for the priest,—There is a pleasant sketch of the late Mr. John Cook, in which occurs a passage which deserves to be quoted. In his prime Mr. Cook was a man of iron frame :—

‘.‘ But when years of railway travelling, which averaged annually some 40,000 miles, produced certain alarming symptoms, he made a discovery that may be worth giving to the public. He found that the threatened trouble, something spinal, disappeared when he no longer sat with his back to the engine. He always here- after faced it, and that the principle is sound will be borne out by others whom he advised to do the same, the present writer included. All who are called upon to do much railway travelling will be wise to sit' facing' the horses."