THE MAGAZINES.
Tniz two most readable articles in this month's Nineteenth Century are "A Nation of ' Amateurs," by Mr. George Brodrick, the Warden of Merton, and "The Breed of Man," by Dr. Rely Hutchinson Almond, which read together make an entertaining contrast. Mr. Brodrick makes a plea for more thorough technical training in every branch of English professional life, from, presumably, the Prime Minister and Lord Chancellor downwards. Dr. Almond, on the other hand, would have us devote less time to book learning and specialising in different branches of knowledge, and more to the physical perfection of the human animal. We cannot think that Dr. Almond would look with any favour on the German clerk, our rival in the paths of commerce, " shrinking from no drudgery and satisfied with very few holidays," as Mr:Brodrick tells us in terms of eulogy. But with regard to his original accusation, Mr. Brodrick, we think, is too sweeping in his list of professions for which a special training is appro- priate. By all means devise a means to train the soldier (Neptune himself, as Mr. Brodrick points out, provides suffi- cient training for the sailor), the lawyer, the teacher, and the farmer, but it is extremely doubtful whether any copy of the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politigues will be of use in training the p ilitician, or whether anything but the intricate school of experi- ence will avail for the diplomat. It is curious that Mr. Brodrick has confined his remarks to the training of men, for where among male professions shall we find anything like the want of training which women suffer from in the great Profession which claims the majority of their sex? This thought reminds us of Mr. Herbert Spencer's prediction that thousands of years hence the student of the remains of our educational system will exclaim: "This must have been the course for celibates, for there is here no preparatory training for those who are to be parents." And it is to the parents, perhaps, that Dr. Almond may look for some solution of his problem. For in spite of the innate love of " stuffiness " in the human boy, the child who has been brought up hygienically will insist on healthy conditions continuing to surround him through life. —Other articles which we should like to have space to dwell on are Sir Henry Blake's acount of his tour in China this spring, and Mr. Oman's pieces justificatives for Thackeray's entertaining account of the sauve qui peut of the Belgians in the Waterloo Campaign. No lover of Vanity Fair will forget the delightful picture of "Mon homme h moi" imbibing beer in the kitchen after describing the total slaughter of the English at Quatre Bras. In the first article cif the Contemporary Mr. J. B. Robinson gives us his views on the coming South African settlement. The problem," he tells us, "that we have to solve is an easy one, but it requires tact, judgment, courtesy, and good feeling. There is no easier race to govern than the Dutch in South Africa." Though we cannot help feeling that Mr. gOinecm is too optimistic in this last opinion, it is reassuring to be told, on the authority of a man who has lived in South Africa so long that "the notion that we might have a second Ireland in the Transvaal is absurd." The second half of Mr. .Robinson's article, in which, leaving the question of the settlement, he touches on the native question and the liquor trade under Transvaal rule, is interesting reading, and his account of Mr. Kruger consuming enormous quantities of sweets at the Bloemfontein Conference is very curious. Mr. Robinson's opinion as to the parti pris of both sides at the Conference differs widely from that of Mr. J. A. Hobson, who, under the title of "The Proconsulate of Milner," makes a vitriolic attack on the High Commissioner. As a sample of Mr. Hobson's ideas of fairness in attack we give the following quotation, which he makes from Sir Alfred Miler's writings on Egypt, with his, Mr. Hobson's, comment in brackets :— " • As a true-born Briton, I, of course, take off my hat to every. thing that calls itself Franchise, Parliament, Representation of the People, the Voice of the Majority, and all the rest of it. But as an observer of the actual condition of Egyptian' (I had almost written • South African') • Society, I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that Popular Government, as we understand it, for a longer time than anyone can foresee at present, out of the question. The people neither comprehend it nor desire -it. They would come to singular grief if they had it. And nobody, except a few silly theorists, thinks of giving it to theta.'" It is impossible to imagine anything more unfair than to give a quotation of a man's opinion of a political situation in
one place, and then deliberately misapply it to another and totally different country and state of affairs.—We have not left ourselves as much space as we should like to coMment
on Dr. John M. Creed's most interesting and able article, "A. Colonist's Views on Army Reform." His scheme for an organisation of a system of land transport in peace time is very suggestive. It is interesting to notice Dr. Creed's belief that the system of cubicles in barracks so strongly advocated in these columns would be attractive to a higher class of recruits than can generally be obtained in the Army. Of the three articles on "The Far Eastern Crisis" in the new Fortnightly, by far the most interesting and suggestive is the very able unsigned plea for a treaty with Russia. The writer asserts that Russia's eastward expansion has been automatic and inevitable, that it began in the reign of Elizabeth, and can- not, therefore, be historically ascribed to any nefarious designs on our Indian Empire. But now that Russia has reached the limits of homogeneous Empire, her vital aims in the Far East are changed from those of expansion to those of development within her own frontiers. Dismissing Prince Ukhtomsky'a dreams of Pan-Mongolism as chimerical, the writer holds that not only does Russia not desire disturbance of the status quo south of the Great Wall, but that she fears nothing so much. In conclusion, he regards the present as a heaven-sent opportunity for Lord Salisbury to secure the integrity of China proper for a specific term by an understanding or treaty with Russia. In this we most heartily agree.—Apart from this, a fine feast of pessimistic reading will be found in the current number. Mr. W. S. Lilly's paper on "The Burden of Empire" is one long jeremiad. Our Army is "the most expensive and the least efficient" of all those of the Great Powers. Our Navy is little better—he un- generously dismisses Mr. Goschen as "a respectable financier who has acquired a certain mastery of Parliamentary tongue fence"; the ruin of English agriculture stares us in the face; the "sense of duty, the feeling of obligation to God and man, has become extinct in our Parliamentary life " ; "our so-called governors do not govern, they gamble " ; the "habit of unveracity " amongst politicians engenders ignorance and cowardice, and this at a time when "the great nations of Europe, which are our rivals, hate us with all their heart, and with all their soul, and with all their mind, and with all their strength." As we look around, "we see a throng of weak Parliamentary rhetoricians who dare lie and cannot rule." This delirium of pessimism is most mischievous, and causes in healthy minds a reaction which militates against a serious and reasonable handling of our national problems. —In the article on "Our Military Prestige Abroad," by Captain Gambier, R.N., there is at least none of this vague screaminess, the pith of his indictment being the positive statement—he says it is an "open secret, the common knowledge of every clerk in the Foreign (Nice" —that ettremelT humiliating negotiations passed between
England and the other Powers with reference to the appoint- inent of a Generalissimo of the Allied Forces in China, that our suggestion that the Pekin Relief Force should be com- manded by an Englishman very nearly shipwrecked the joint action of the Powers, and that Count Waldersee was appointed with the universal approval of Europe, but chiefly because he was not English. He finds further evidence of the decay of our prestige on the Continent in the reports of the various Military Attaches who accompanied the British and Boer forces in South Africa, especially that of the Italian General, Count Luchino dal Verme. The Count's criticisms are un- doubtedly very damaging—notably in regard to the wholesale surrenders and the inability or disinclination of the English to entrench—but Captain Gambier admits that he speaks in many places in terms of the highest praise of Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener, and of the gallantry of the men and officers.—Articles on education are seldom attractive, but there is both force and foresight in Mr. J. C. Tarver's well reasoned plea for the readjustment of the public-school system so as to meet the requirements of the new condi- tions created by the establishment of the Board of Edu- cation. We have not space to deal in detail with Mr. Tarver's suggestions, but may note his plea for the regularis- ing and official recognition of the public schools as places of preparation for the public services, and, as a corollary, his advocacy of Government inspection.
The editor of the National _Review supports the case for Cabinet reconstruction with so much vigour and good sense that it is to be regretted he should have impaired his advocacy by overstatement, and even violence, of expression. To say that during the last six years "British policy has united the foresight of the ostrich to the firmness of the jellyfish" is the most patent of exaggerations. The editor forgets Fashoda, Crete, and the part played by England during the Spanish- American War. But we entirely agree with Mr. Maxse when he defines the chief desiderata in regard to reconstruction as (1) to reduce the present numbers, (2) to lower their age, (3) to free the Premiership from the burden of carrying a Department, (4) to bring in some new blood as well as some young blood.—The author of the anonymous article on "The German Danger in the Far East" traces the gradual evolution of the Kaiser's policy of Asiatic adventure. He contends that while Russia places the maintenance of the dynasty and the political status quo in China above all other considerations, Germany not only believes the disintegration of China to be inevitable but intends to make it so; further- more, that partition will inevitably bring us into conflict with her in the Yang,tse Valley, and afford her the opportunity of translating into action the maxim Ote toi que je ?mite, which expresses the temper of the Germans towards England. It is interesting, we may note, to compare the attitude of this writer on the question of the expansion of German commerce with that of Mr. Benjamin Taylor's paper in the Fortnightly. The latter holds that the limits of German industrial competition with us have been already reached. Note, also, that the writer in the National defends the aggressive Colonial policy of Germany as the inevitable outcome of her transformation from an agricultural to an industrial Power. She is no longer self-supporting— eight millions of Germans depend on sea-borne im- ports for bread—and at the present rate of increase in her population, "the question of finding a home Under her flag for her surplus swarms will soon become a matter of life and death."— Mr. Bagot's interesting paper on "Vatican and Quirinal" starts from the main premiss that Italy must not be de-Catholicised, and urges that the best way to en- courage and protect the Roman Catholic religion is to combat the pretensions and intrigues of the Roman Curia. Curialism, not Clericalism, is his enemy, and he evidently thinks that the young King by his dignified refusal to indulge in any anti-Clerical reprisals is on the right path to secure Cavour's ideal of a Libera Chiesa in. Libera Stato ; in other words, that he is alive to the necessity of distinguishing between the Church and the Roman Curia.—Mr. Maurice Low in his valuable monthly resume of American politics deplores the serious diplomatic mischief wrought by Mr. Hay's temporary absence from his post owing to illness. He also lays great stress on the impolicy of having the representatives of the chief London papers stationed in New York instead, of Washington. Blackwood is stronger this month in the domain of belles. lettres and fiction than in that of politics and actualities, In the latter category, however, we may notice a short plea for the adoption of the offensive principle in regard to our military policy, a review of the work of the Unionist Administration, and an excellent account by Kr. Stephen Gwynn of the work done by the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society and the Congested Districts Board in the North of Ireland. The description of Mr. Morton's carpet-making factory at Killybegs is parti- cularly interesting and encouraging. Aptitude and industry are not wanting, but capital and, above all, public spirit are de. ficient. What is at once the essence and the best feature of the new movement is "that men of all creeds, religious or political, are brought together to work for a common end,—which is not the material advantage of the members co--operating, nor the material prosperity of the country, but a harmony among classes divided by longstanding and jealously guarded hates."
Mr. Hugh Clifford's story, "In the Heart of Kalamantan " —a tale of the "white man's burden" on the verge of Empire —is the first instance with which we are acquainted in which the possibilities underlying the use of the telephone have been turned to romantic, nay heroic, account.—There is comedy of a fresh and unexpected order in the sketch, "How an English Girl Taught a Pennsylvania Country School"; and the new serial, "Doom Castle," by Mr. Neil Munro, bids fair, from its brilliant opening chapters, to maintain the high reputation already won by the author of John Splendid.
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