THE MAY MAGAZINES.

Tim Nineteenth Century this month affords its readers pleasant relief by eschewing party politics, save in one article on " The Political Scene," by Colonel G. B. Hurst. Mr. Austin Hopkinson pleads in an ingenious essay for " The Aristocrat." Mr. Frederick Eggleston examines " The Problem of the British Common- wealth " with reference to the last Imperial Conference, which, he thinks, evaded most of the issues with which it was summoned to deal. Mn Eggleston does not think that the Dominions really want to be responsible for their own defence and their own foreign pplicy. Sir Arthur Keith, our leading anthropolo- gist, discusses " The Origin of the Scottish People " in the light of recent discoveries in early graves. He is convinced that the people of Central Scotland and the Highlands are the descen- dants of those who first occupied the country after the Ice Age, and that they are of the same stock as the Scandinavians and the primitive Irish. The Norse immigrants of the early Christian era thus introduced no new physical type.. Immigrants of Mediterranean or Iberian stock reached Scotland from the south, but NI ere comparatively few. Sir Arthur Keith disposes of the old Pictish controversy. He says that he may claim descent from a Pict, but that he has been variously described as of Saxon, Celtic and None type. Ho infers that " Pict, Celtic, Scot and Lowland Saxon are all descendants of the same Nordic stock." " They have been separated by space and time, acquiring different tongues, different traditions and different habits," but they have a common origin. Mr. Anthony Collett's interesting paper on " Water-springs in English Life " shows how the sites of villages were determined in relation to springs rather than to running water, especially along the terraces below the downs. Where, as in the north and west, springs were very numerous, the villages were smaller and more scattered than in the south. The old settlements along rivers were always placed well above flood-level, unlike modern Thames-side bungalows. Mr. Collett opens a new field of study, to those who will use their eyes as they go about the country, and who will occasionally refer to a geological map. Mr. G. S. Street, in an article on " Byron Reconsidered," says that he has been convinced against his will that the charge made by Lady Byron was well founded. Mr. Brockwell describes - " The Herbert Home Foundation, Florence "—an old palace filled with art treasures which the late Mr. Home bequeathed to the • city of his adoption. Mr. C. H. P. Mayo writes well on " The Romance of Mathematics," and Mr. J. W. Gordon discusses " Bacon's Philosophical Writ- ings " in a very lucid paper. Captain Swinton makes a belated appeal for reconsideration of the London University site, which he would transfer to Holland, Park ; he does nob give- much thought to the needs of the students, many of whom have to go from one college to another for- their lectures. We may mention, too, Mr. B. I. Evans's essay on " The Persistent Image in Shelley ," and a controversial paper by the. Dean of Wells on the much-debated " Westminster Burglary " of 1303, when the. King's Treasury was rifled and the monks *tune under grave suspicion.

The Fortnightly has a thoughtful article, entitled " Is There a New Diplomacy ? " The writer examines the methods adopted by the Council of the League of Nations and concludes that it has done well whenever it has given full publicity to its efforts to settle disputes—as in the case of the Aaland Islands, but not in the case of Upper Silesia. Diplomacy by conference and formula, he says, has failed, but there is no need to revert to the old practice, which was based on the assumption that a State can never openly yield a point in a negotiation, though a private person might do so. He quotes Bagehot as saying : I am disposed to deny entirely that there can be any treaty, for which adequate reasons cannot be given to the English people, which the English people ought to make." Mr. Maxwell M. H. Macartney writes on " Karl's Death and Hungary " ; he thinks that the Magyars will now have less difficulty than before in electing a monarch. Mr. Swift MacNeill, in an article on The Prime Minister and the Prerogative of Dissolution," contends that it is for the Cabinet, not for the Prime Minister alone, to tender advice to the Crown as to the exercise of the prerogative of dissolving Parliament. In the present case, it may be doubted whether the distinction is of any practical value. Baroness Wrangel, the mother of the General, describes her sufferings under the Bolsheviks and her escape from Petrograd. Members of the Labour Party should read her account of what they believe to be the Com- munist Paradise. Mr. Archibald Hurd aonsiders " Sea Power and Air Power : the Conflict of Claims." Nowhere save in this country, he remarks, is there any campaign against navies. Mrs. Aria continues her reminiscences of Irving. Sir Home Gordon's article on " The Decay of Fast Bowling" is timely and interesting. He attributes our loss of the Test matches mainly to our lack of fast bowlers, and he maintains, with a good deal of evidence from past seasons, that a really fast bowler is far more effective in England than in Australia..

Just as a fresh comet occasionally is introduced as a surprise to readers of morning papers, so the new great fast bowler will appear unheralded, but within a fortnight be appreciated by the whole community."

In the Contemporary Mr. Stephen Graham commends America as Material for Literature." " The love of America for America is growing. America ceases to be a ship merely anchored on the Hudson. The New England tradition is pass- ing." " Puritanism is ceasing to be characteristic of America." " America is so strongly conscious of her own growth and development that she resents the critical." Mr. Graham's views are always diametrically opposed to those of other writers, yet he has seen a good deal of America. Mr. T. C. Taylor, who has successfully applied the principle of profit-sharing in his own woollen mills, speaks plainly on " The Labour Crisis." The way to kill " ca' campy " is, he says, the way of sacrifice.

It is the will to give and the fact of giving to one's workers more than one is compelled to give." Captain E. N. Bennett writes dolefully on " The Future of British Agriculture." He thinks that a direct subsidy of, say, £2 an acre on all fresh land growing wheat and oats would prevent the further reduction of the arable area, and that it would be a sound national invest- ment. Mr. Harold Buxton describes a visit to Transcaucasia, where chaos reigns. In regard to the Bolshevik denial of " self- determination " to Georgia he says, " One can't altogether blame Russia ; it is for her a matter of economic necessity." Such an excuse put forward by an advanced Radical or Labour politician should be noted. It is wholly at variance with the usual Party tirades against British rule in Ireland, India and elsewhere. But the Bolsheviks, apparently, may do anything without alienating their admirers. " Austriacus " laments the ill-fate of the ex-Emperor Charles, who was, he thinks, more sinned against than sinning. Lady Grogan tries to arouse sympathy for the Bulgars under the Peace Treaty. She passes over in silence the atrocious deeds of which they were guilty towards the Serbs and Greeks and, indeed, towards British prisoners. It is possible, however, that the Reparation Com- mission at Sofia is overstaffed. Dr. Hagberg Wright gives an interesting sketch of the history of the University of Padua, which L9 celebrating its seventh centenary. Mr. F. W. Buckler, in an ingenious but unconvincing article on " The Historical Antecedents of the Khilafat Movement," argues that the Mogul Emperor at Delhi was regarded by Indian Moslems as the Caliph and that the East India Company, in overthrowing the Moguls, compelled the Indian Moslem to look to Constantinople. buch a view is unhistorical ; it has been invented, not by Mr,

Budder, to support a political agitation.. Mrs. S. A. Barnett writes with enthusiasm on " Co-operative Education."

The Duke of Northumberland, in the National Review, surveys the German and • Bolshevik policies in an instructive article entitled " Quern Deus Vult Perdere." He says that the Liberals controlling the Coalition Government refuse " to recognize plain facts, partly because they are frequently unpleasant, but more especially because they conflict with the Liberal outlook on life." They ignored Germany's preparations for war and now they ignore her dealings with Moscow and. with international finance. " The Foreign Office, to do them justice, have not been blind to the danger but have been too weak to resist the Prime Minister." " Centurion " reviews the actions of Mr. Lloyd George as " The Man who Lost the Peace." He points out that even before the War Russia was not one of our important markets, and that the results of the trade agreement with the Bolsheviks have been infinitesimal. "Genoa is a mere mirage, and a very costly and time-wasting mirage." Mr. E. P. Hewitt

writes on " The Die-Hard Movement and the Coalition.". Lord

Hugh Cecil's speech in the debate on Sir W. Joynson Hicks' motion of want of confidence in the Government is printed in full. Lord Eustace Percy contributes an admirable article on " Foreign Policy : Wanted—an Administrator," the essence of which is that the Cabinet secretariat and other departments and persons are trying with little success to fulfil many of tho duties which should be performed by the Foreign Office, and that the hopeless confusion into which our foreign policy has fallen is the outcome of this lack of system. Lord Curzon is blamed for undoing most of the reforms carried out by Sir Edward Grey in 1906, and for trying to decide all questions by himself, just as he used to do at Simla. All that the public can see is that wo have now no coherent or intelligible foreign policy, but it series of improvisations by the Prime Minister and his yourig men.

Mr. H. O'K. Webber gives an interesting account of " The Birth of the Johannesburg Strike." Three-fourths of the white miners employed underground are, he says, young Boers of the " poor white " class. The fall in the price of gold made it impossible to continue paying them very high wages for super. vising the native miners who actually do the work :-

" It is incredible but nevertheless true that the native workers, who under the regulations are not permitted to commence work until a white man has inspected their working places,' fre- quently had to wait in idleness for hours at the bottom of the shaft until the white gentleman chose to turn up."

General Smuts asked the union leaders to let their men inspect the " working places overnight, so as to avoid this waste of time, but he met with a curt refusal.

Blackwood's has some capital papers on travel, sport and the " little wars " that occasionally trouble our administrators. Mr. Farrer describes his shooting experiences in East Africa, Colonel Vickery an expedition against a desert chief in Kordofan, " Fulanain " the strange folk of the Euphrates marshes. Mr. Bernard Darwin recalls the story of Elwes, the eighteenth.

century miser whom Mr. Boffin pretended to admire. Mr.

Howell's paper on " Henry : the Record of a Faithful Slave " is an amusing account of a cheap car, in which he explored Somerset during his leave for a total expenditure, apart from hotel bills, of about £300. Mr. J. A. Strahan recalls recent " Easters in Ireland " and points out that he foretold two years ago the split that has come in the Sinn Fein ranks.

The London Mercury prints a translation of Signor Benedetto Croce's essay on Maupassant. Like Tolstoy, Croce regards the great Frenchman as " essentially moral, appearances to the contrary notwithstanding," because " he was born a poet and, in pouring out poetry with facile creative power, he consumed his short life." Mr. St. Lee Strachey contributes a long paper on " The Vicissitudes of Blank Verse," giving numerous examples of English verse in iambics, hexameters, dactylics, trochaics, sapphics and other unrhymed metres, and asking readers " whether they missed the verbal echo half as much as they thought they would." It is curious to note that all the new poems in this month's number are in rhyme.