THE MAGAZINES.
THE Nineteenth Century for May contains many papers of a certain interest, though none of the first rank. The two attacks on Russia with which it commences do not impress us. We doubt entirely Mr. Sidney Low's theory that the Russian peace proposal is dictated by pure hypocrisy, the Russian Government merely desiring five years of peace in order to finish the railroads, which it intends to use as instruments of war. Russia wishes to strengthen herself, as every other State does, and is no more to be blamed for her railroads than we are to be blamed for our enlarged Fleet ; and the proposal for a Peace Conference came, we are convinced, from an impulse in the mind of the Czar primarily humanitarian, secondarily dictated by a certain half-formulated dread of a military ascendency, which would threaten the autocracy as much as the civil welfare of the State.—Dr. Reuter's article, again, though justified as a protest against the menace to Finnish freedom involved in the recent decrees about Finland, assumes too completely that the pledges given to that State are to be read as informal treaties. They seem to us rather declarations of policy, which an unwise Government might alter, with great loss no doubt, and with liability to a just charge of tyranny, but without dishonour.—The paper on "The Ethics of War," by the Rev. Father Ryder, will meet with large acceptance, for its object is to justify war whenwaged on reasonable grounds ; but it hardly meets the argument of those who believe that war is wrong. They will not be con- vinced by the statement that "a State is an imperial entity, not a human personality." Father Ryder might as well say that a trading company may do acts not lawful to an individual because it is an entity, and not a human personality. What is a State or a company except a collection of individualsi- Mr. E. Robertson's paper on "The Church of England as by Law Established" is a very lucid and temperate argument in favour of the legal right of Parliament to make laws for the Church. It will not convince those who deny that right, because they appeal to what they think a higher law ; but it will furnish strong arguments to those who believe that the Church of England as at present organised is, and is intended to be, subject to the civil power. That power, in fact, creates and regulates the "spiritual power "—that is, the power of the Bishops—which the clericals declare to be the only• "lawful" authority. If the State can make a Bishop entitled to clerical obedience, so it can make a Court.—" The In- fluence of Women in Islam," by Mr. Justice Ameer Ali, is a list of the women who, especially under the Abbasid Khalifs, have exercised great influence over a Mussulma,n community. It is interesting as a statement of little-known and important facts, but is too entirely eulogistic. Of its main thesis, that women are often reverenced in Mahommedan countries, no proof was needed. Mussulmans, like Christians, have mothers, wives, and daughters, and, being human, are liable to be governed by them. Mahommedanism deprives women of many rights, but does not deprive them either of their brains or their beauty.—The Hon. W. Gibson calls attention, in a paper far, too short, to the increased vigilance with which the Roman Congregations are watching Catholics who wish to modernise apologetical arguments. Those Congregations, he maintains, dread, and so far as they can, condemn, whatever savours of originality, and wish argument to be as consistent and unalterable as faith: As ' they cannot secure this he expects from them "extraordinary activity" in the repressive direction.—Perhaps the most useful article in the number is that on "The Jackeroo," by the Ree. A. C. Yorke. A Jackeroo is the Australian equivalent of the Indian " griffin " or American "new chum," the young man without experience, and Mr. Yorke's object is to show that the fate of the educated youngster newly arrived in Australia is usually a melancholy one. The following paragraph sums up his advice :— "That which I do wish to convey clearly is—(l) that the colonial labour market is abundantly supplied ; (2) that it is more than prob- able the only way of obtaining employment for your son will be that of paying a heavy premium ; (3) that the payment of a premium .does not ensure wholesome moral control in every case ; (4) that in the back blocks of the 'Never-never' country there are terrible risks, which may bring more shame upon your name than a sweaty-shirt and dirty hands ; and (5) that, in the face of such difficulties and risks, you will probably do far better by finding for your son- any honest employment, no matter how uncongenial to English conventionalties, in this old country."
There is probably some exaggeration in this, but it is, we believe, a fact that of the lads who choose a Colonial career the proportion-who fail, and as, the phrase runs, "go under," either fronr ill-luck, or incompetence, or drink, is rather larger than theproportion who in England are ruined by the same causes, Mi. Knowles, -who thirty years ago invented the theory described in the words "brain waves," now asks whether the successful experiments in wireless telegraphy do not make his theory; at all events, more possible than before. We are not sure. That mind does occasionally communicate with mind without visible means of communication is, as we hold, certain, but that it does so by physical impact upon anything is in no way proved, and is, in our judgment, highly im- probable.
Mr. Courtney in the Contemporary Review urges his readers in singularly temperate and well-reasoned words, not to readers, entirely hopeless as to the effect of the Czar's Peace Conference. There is, he thinks, a tendency towards peace in the trend_ of modern affairs, or rather to greater intervals between wars; and_ there is at least one instance of an agreement to be peaceable being kept. England and America have adhered for eighty years to the arrangement forbidding armed vessels to be kept on the Great Lakes, with the result that alongthe vast Canadian frontier there are no fortifications: The paper is a most impressive one, but its force is a little injured towards the end by a suggestion that by and by it maybe found possible to neutralise Scandinavia and Holland, or even Spain and Italy. We fail entirely to see the advantage of, neutralising minor States while the Great Powers may still fight, and even if the dream could be realised, should still diead 'its effect on the neutralised populations. Would not they lose their best qualities The Belgians have been neutralised for a long period mow, and we fail to recognise in the beings who govern the Congo Free State the ancient heroes of the Low Countries.—Mr. Goldwin Smith is sceptical al to the advantages of Imperialism in America, holding that the States have sufficient evils to contend with at home, and that the government of dependencies 'will probably increase them, and equally sceptical as to the continuance of Anglo-Saxon friendship,- which, again, he hints may result in an insurrec- tion of the world against so predominant a power. We disagree, but it is well that Englishmen should read the warnings of_ so. able an advocatus diaboli.—A Catholic who distrusts modern Catholicism ventures to doubt whether a Catholic. University is now possible anywhere, the tendency of the Church being to suppress thought altogether :— " The outcome of these tendencies is the strict obligation imposed upon. Catholics of taking not only their religion, but their science, politics, and sociology, from a band of over-zealous and under- educated men whose only excuse for folly is their good intentions. No views, theories, or truths, however well established, are allowed to be taught which are not approved by these irresponsible writers ; and every Catholic pedagogue who trespasses their commands is instantly rendered useless and harmless by ecclesiastical censures." All efforts to found a truly Catholic University in any country have hitherto failed, the Ultramontane party having always found the professors, especially of science, far too liberal. The essayist tries to establish his position by an account of the recent controversy in the United States, the accuracy of which we cannot gauge, and by quoting illustrations of the mad-, ness of superstition in which some Catholic dignitaries indulge. The instances given reveal a side of Ultra- montamsm little known to Englishmen, which if it pre- vailed would certainly stifle not only heretical thought, but thought itself. Still, the insensate folly of individuals hardly condemns a Church, and as there have been great Catholic Universities it seems not impossible that there should be another. It is to be noted that the writer, or writers, of this fierce paper profess fervent Catholicism, and end it by appealing to the faithful not to be driven by the excesses of Ultramontanism out of the true fold.—The reminiscences of Meissonier, by Verestchagin, are most interesting, constituting, as they do, an estimate of one artist by another. The Russian evidently does not quite believe in the Frenchman, the general effect of his judgment on the reader being that Meissonier was as perfect a painter as a man can be who has no soul. He notes, by the way, as one cause of the dislikes that Meissonier inspired, that he very often from sheer absence of mind forgot to recognise his friends. The peculiarity, once recognised, ought to have been forgiven, but it was not.—These are instructive articles, but the regular readers of the Contemporary will perhaps be still more attracted by papers on "The French Clergy" and on the condition of "the Prussian rural labourer.' In the former, the Abbe Bourrier declares that the tyranny of the Bishops, the publication of the new dogma of infallibility, and the slow pene- tration of lay thought into the ecclesiastical caste have begotten among the younger clergy of France a desire for reform which includes a reform of doctrine. They wish to' be allowed to marry and to maintain a certain freedom of thought,—in short, to become "Protestants under 'Catholic forms." The Abbe writes temperately, and says he only states what he knows ; but his main evidence is the great success of the monthly journal, Le Chrertien Franrais, which he edits, and in which these ideas are advocated. It is a most curious and suggestive paper. So is that on "The Prussian Labourer." The writer, Mr. Richard Heath, asserts that in Prussia 37 per cent, of the soil is held in great estates, worked by men whose average wage is only Is. 2d. a day, who live mainly on rye bread, who are always changing their employment, but always badly housed, and who are in sexual matters notoriously immoral, the percentage of illegitimate births rising high, and the regular rule being to marry only after the women have become mothers. The Church upon this point has no authority, and, indeed, little upon any other. The total result is that the people, sick of their misery, are emigrating in vast numbers, either stress the sea or into the industrial districts ; while the landlords, threatened by their departure and by the reduced price of cereals, are sinking loaded with mortgages into poverty. The picture is evidently drawn by a fanatic for peasant proprietorship, but it is worth the attention of those who believe that in Prussia under a well-disciplined system of life all is progressive.
Mr. J. G. Leigh, the author of a pessimistic article on the outlook in Samoa in the January Fortnightly, is, in virtue of his prophetic achievements, awarded the place of honour in the May issue. The new article is in great measure an impeachment of the Berlin Act and of the Chief Justice of Samoa's interpretation of it. Mr. Leigh, however, is hopeful of the results of the appointment of the Joint High Com- mission, and assigns to Germany—the great offender in the past—the credit of initiating this effort to meet present and future exigencies. The best feature in the Commission, in his opinion, is the power conferred upon it, immediately on arrival, of assuming complete, if provisional, government of the islands, and he especially applauds the condition, adhered to by Germany, that no measure taken by the Commission should be valid unless unanimously agreed upon.—Mr. Nisbet Bain's article, "Finland and the Tsar" attributes the recent action of the Russian Government to the suspicion and dislike of the Slavophil party, regards the Manifesto of February 15th as a mortal blow to the liberties of Finland, and does not hesitate to describe the Czar as "the docile and credulous dupe of a reactionary camarilla." Of the present posture of affairs he gives anything but a pleasing picture :— " At the present moment the Finlanders are living under some- thing very like a reign of terror. The preventive otnsorship ' has been rigorously enforced against the daily and weekly. press ; agents provocateurs are scouring the country, insidiously endeavoturing to work upon the feelings of the people and hurry them into indiscre- 'nous ; Bobrikov's emissaries are industriously (and in vain, happily) endeavouring to corrupt those whom they cannot coerce. All that the Finlanders can now do is to protest at home, and educate public opinion abroad. Even in Russia they already possess the sympathies of the more liberal and enlightened portion of the community. Every day that passes brings with it fresh proofs that in St. Peters- burg itself there is a strong feeling of indignation at the reactionary campaign now being carried on against the autonomy of Finland. The pastor of the Swedish church in the Russian capital has received a number of calls from eminent Russians, perfect strangers to him, who have expressed their horror and regret at the coup d'etat in Finland. The Finnish book-mart at the same place has been visited daily by Russians desirous to buy the works of the celebrated Finnish publicists, Danielsson and Mechelin, in order to study the Finnish question for themselves. Nay, in select circles in the Russian capital, speeches, universally applauded, have been made in favour of Finland ; and it has been proposed, I am told, to send an address of sympathy to the Estates of Finland, in the name of the Russian aristocracy I " —" Milesius," writing on "The Lessons of the Irish County Council Elections," contends that the Nationalists have exercised conspicuous toleration, and even generosity, and that the Unionists who have been returned by a clear majority of Nationalist votes "would be the first to deny that their elections were Unionist triumphs." He makes an excellent point by quoting the testimony of the leading Unionist journals to the business capacity and integrity of the Nationalist candidates, but he is hardly correct in describing the Daily Express nnder its new direction as "the principal organ of the Irish landlords." " Milesius " concludes an ably written paper by gaily endorsing the lament of the Belfast Newsletter (Unionist), that "the new system of Local Govern- ment is to be used as a political machine for the achievement of Home-rule " ; contending that "the Tory Cabinet can scarcely put the official seal of finality on this measure Lord Salisbury surely will, by a measure of Home-rule, relieve the loyal minority from ostracism from public life in Ireland"; and adds the menace "that if Home-rule be not granted, the loyal minority will soon join the ranks of their fellow-country- men, and Ireland, with one voice, will demand the restoration of her native Parliament." Most certainly Lord Salisbury will do nothing of the kind.—Mr. Richard Davey's article on "Cardinals, Consistories, and Conclaves" is so stuffed with facts as to procedure, costume, ceremonial, &c., as to be almost indigestible. It is interesting to learn that "during the first day [of the election of a Pope], and late in the morning of the following, many privileged persons, such as the Ambas- sadors, especially those of the Powers who have the right of veto; are allowed to visit their Eminences. Some days, how- ever, often elapse before voting begins or any serious business is done. It is possibly owing to the intricacy of the ceremonial that this system of ballot is, as a rule, so exceedingly im- partial, and that the man who enters the Conclave as Pope usually leaves it as Cardinal—a very old Roman saying indeed, said to date from the time when Sixtus V. entered the Con- clave an apparent invalid and left it a hale and hearty Pontiff." —Of the remaining articles, we may note Miss Tuckwell's denunciation of the evasion of the Factory Acts in the fruit- preserving trade ; Mr. Harold Hedge's interesting proposal that what is wanted in elementary schools is educated ladies and gentlemen as teachers ; Baron Pierre de Coubertin's further instalment of his "France since 1814," in which Louis Philippe, Guizot, Thiers, and Palmerston are the chief actors ; and " Diplomaticus's " somewhat complacent demonstration of the "Vanishing of Universal Peace." The number also contains the opening chapters of a novel by Mr. Maurice Hewlett, un- fairly handicapped, according to the injudicious rule of the Fortnightly, by being printed in smaller type than the rest of the contents.
The most attractive feature in a strong number of the National Review is Mr. Leslie Stephen's paper on "The Browning Letters." The whole question of the claim of men of genius to posthumous privacy is here discussed with admirable sanity and elevation of sentiment. We have only room for one quotation, but the whole paper deserves to be read and re-read. After drawing a distinction between the demand for truth which is perfectly justified, and the demand for all the knowledge which has any bearing whatever upon the history of the person concerned—a demand which leads to a more or less factitious enthusiasm—Mr. Stephen con- tinues :—
The bad results of this are too familiar to be insisted opon. Everybody agrees that the interviewer, contemporary or posthumeus, is capable of becoming an intolerable nuisance, and is a specific for the encouragement of morbid tendencies in poets. Literature is, in all cases, a demeralising occupation, though some people can resist its evil influences. It is de- moralising because success implies publicity. A poet has to turn himself inside out by the very conditions of his art, and suffers from the incessant stimulants applied to his self-conscious- ness. The temptation is inevitable, and is, of course, the stronger and the stronger and the more corrupting as the right to satisfy a vulgar curiosity is more generally admitted. Formerly, if a man wanted to talk about himself, he wrote an autobiography, to be published posthumously, and there was therefore some safeguard, in so far as he was not to be directly conscious of the effect pro- duced. Now, the autobiography is being superseded by the 'reminiscences,' in which every one is invited to explain what a genial and charming creature he is ; how thoroughly he appreciates his contemporaries, and how superior he is to any desire for popular praise. If reminiscing is not a name for hypocritical attitudinising, it shows, as I am glad to believe, what charming and excellent people many of our contemporaries still are in spite of all the cor- rupting influences to which they are exposed."
In the present instance, while admitting that the publication of the Browning letters may be justified by their exceptional character, Mr. Stephen holds that they may "set a precedent eminently likely to be abused," and regrets that they were not carefully edited instead of being published in their entirety. —Mr. Arnold White, who writes on "The Coming Crisis in the Transvaal," makes out an extremely strong case for the Outlanders, contending that the recent petition LS an original, voluntary, and spontaneous document, "not instigated by the millionaires of Park Lane or Johannesburg." Above all, he continues— "Mr. Rhodes and his entourage have refrained from intervening in the affair. The time that Mr. Rhodes can spare from the affairs of Rhodesia and the politics of the Cape he devotes to the interests of the projected railway through Equatorial Africa. Mr. Rhodes' interven- tion in the affairs of the Transvaal IIitlanders has not been of a kind that leads them to desire its renewal. Mr. Rhodes, moreover, is the came of the racial fire that is now smouldering from Cape Point to the Zambesi, from Namaqualand to Beira. Mr. Rhodes has failed as completely in his Cape policy as he failed in the Transvaal, and the most considerate and effective means of helping South Africa still left to him is that he should continue to refrain from con- cerning himself with the interests of the eighty thousand ljitlanders who still suffer from the effects of his political enterprise."
Not the least instructive passage of the article is that which summarises the history of the franchise in the Transvaal, and shows how futile is the guarantee that a Government which has failed to keep faith in the past, will do so in the future.
Mr. Stillman's paper on "The Belligerent Papacy" gives a remarkable account of Crispi's efforts to conciliate the Church, and vigorously denounces the Society of Jesus as the evil genius of the Vatican. "it is the Vatican," says Mr. Stillman, "which fosters the scandal and monstrous wrong of the Dreyfus infamies, for which it makes the Catholic Church indirectly responsible ; and for the possible issue to France of a foreign war, or a revolution at home, the belligerent Vatican is directly responsible."—A notable paper is that of the Rev. H. C. Beeching on "A Few Fallacies in the Ritual Controversy." We have only space to call attention to Mr. Beeching's admirable handling of the fallacy that unity in creed must necessarily be accompanied by uniformity in Ritual, and his illuminative remarks on the degradation of confession by its mechanical use.—Lord Lytton, hereditarily interested in poetry, contributes a eulogistic appreciation of the Irish writer who veils his identity under the initials "A. E.," in whom he finds "music of a wild and irregular kind," and Mr. Evelyn Ashley sends an interesting Garibaldi reminiscence of 1860, when he was private secretary to Lord Palmerston.
Of the articles in Blackwood none is better reading than the unsigned paper on "The Gurkha Scouts," in which the origin of that corps and their splendid services with the Tirah expeditionary force are set forth with a wealth of illustrative and entertaining anecdote. Their share in the campaign is summarised as follows :—".With the exception of the fight on the Saran Sar, all or part of the scouts had taken part in every action between October 18th and December 28th. They were engaged thirty-one times by day and seventeen by night. And they had their reward. Eight men [out of a force numbering less than one hundred and fifty] received the Order of Merit for gallantry in action, and six obtained special promotion." It is pleasant to learn that several real friendships between the British " Tommies " and "Johnny Gurkhas" sprang up during the campaign, and that "some of the churns . keep up a correspondence to this day."—The first instalment of Mr.-Alexander MacDonald's " Fioncering in the Klondike" makes very lively reading. All three of the party were Scots- men, but not the least interesting figure in the narrative is the mastiff ' Dave.'—A short but sympathetic paper on the recently published Life of Mrs. Oliphant emphasises her detestation of cant, her hatred of small economies, and her admirably sane attitude in regard to her art and her achieve- ments. But it was perhaps hardly necessary to insist so freely in these pages on her financial indebtedness to her publishers.—The " Looker-on" remonstrates in a tone of un- necessary tenderness with Mr. Pinero for his recent dust-bin dramas, and the writer of an article on "Germany's Influence at Constantinople" blandly urges us to set aside all jealousy of or resentment at. the Kaiser's rapprochement with the Sultan, and to recognise in his "highly humanitarian" interest in the material prosperity of Turkey the "true remedy for the deplorable events of recent years, and for the misrule and poverty of the Ottoman Empire."—We have read with pleasure Moira CYNeill's pretty lines, " Cuttin' the Rushes," but wonder what Christopher North or the Ettrick Shepherd would say to the song, "His Daisy," written in the most un- compromising Whitechapel dialect.
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