6 SEPTEMBER 1890, Page 23

THE MAGAZINES.

OF the many articles that appear in this month's magazines on the subject of the late Cardinal Newman, certainly the most interesting is that contributed to the Contemporary Review by Mr. Wilfrid Meynell. Probably because, as writing from within the fold of the Roman Catholic Church, he can treat of his subject with greater directness and freedom. Of Newman's early life he gives but a very brief sketch, chiefly derived from the pages of Mr. Mozley ; interesting, as showing a certain similarity of surroundings between him and Cardinal Manning, and as illustrating the old saying that no man is a prophet in his own country, or held in great honour by his own people. Although Mr. Meynell is quite ready to acknowledge the generous outburst of

praise and eulogy that was prompted by the death of one of the greatest and most saintly men of our time, he seems to us to be a little disposed to resent it. He does not question the genuineness of the feeling that inspired it, but he rather appears to ask why an admiration and sympathy that went so far did not go yet farther.—Mr. Rudyard Kipling continues to enlighten " Mr. Pagett, M.P.," as to the real state of affairs in India, and the utter ignorance of the travelled politician. For we imagine that it must be the same " Mr. Pagett, M.P.," to whom belong those delightful verses in the " Departmental Ditties." This time be is in- structed in prose, and made to understand bow vain and empty a thing is the talk of a National Congress movement in India.

—Mr. Freeman contributes a most interesting article on the subject of the old Phcenician city of Carthage, and draws a very curious and suggestive parallel between the position of Carthage in relation to her dependencies on the coast of the Mediter- ranean, and that of England with her possessions scattered over all the world, a parallel which, fortunately for the latter, will not bear a very close examination. It is curious, however, that Carthage, once the most powerful maritime community in the world, and occupying a position in the world's history not only extraordinary but unique, should have attracted so little atten- tion from historians. The life and surroundings of Hamilcar, that so fired the imagination of Gustave Flaubert, well merit to be rescued from obscurity by a more sober and prosaic writer. —Mr. Rae supplements former contributions on the subject of "State Socialism and Social Reform," the former of which he shortly describes as " aiming at the progressive nationalisation of industries with a view to the progressive equalisation of incomes." He reviews such attempts towards State Socialism as may be found in foreign countries, especially in the United States, and shows that, as a rule, joint-stock management of enterprise is less profitable to all concerned than private management, and that State management is even worse. From the report of the " Massachusetts Labour Bureau" for 1878, he quotes some figures which are worth repeating :-

" There were then (in 1S78) in the Commonwealth of Massa- chusetts, 10,395 private manufacturing establishments, employing in all 166,588 persons, and 520 joint-stock manufacturing estab- lishments, employing 101,337 persons; and the private establish- ments, while they paid a much higher average rate of wages than the joint-stock, produced at the same time not far from twice as much from the capital invested. The average wages per head in the private establishments was 474'37 dollars a year, and in the joint-stock was 383-47 dollars a year; while the produce per dollar of capital was 2.58 dollars' worth in the private, and 1-37 dollars' worth in the joint-stock."

Unfortunately, the promoters of State Socialism do not care to learn from the example of other countries, or they might fmd there even more important lessons than the one which Mr. Rae attempts to teach them.—Under the title of " Argentine Filibusterers," Mr. W. R. Lawson gives an excel- lent and vigorous account of the causes of recent troubles in that country.—Mr. Symonds treats of " The Dantesque and Platonic Ideals of Love." Dante's love of Beatrice was to him a sacred and holy thing, and as it appears in the same light to us, we emphatically do not like the company into which Mr. Symonds has introduced it, nor his comments thereon.

The Nineteenth Century is faithful to ex-Serjeant Palmer, whose testimony as to Tel-el-Kebir occurrences was rather rudely questioned the other day. He now discusses " The Wrongs of the Private Soldier." The wrongs really rather partake of the nature of small irritations than actual hard- ships, though, no doubt, there are many such wrongs that can be and ought to be remedied. Why does not some one say a word now on behalf of the officers, who mulct them- selves every year of no small sum for the better comfort and recreation of their men P—Prince Kropotkin shows how mutual aid is as much a law of nature among animals as mutual struggle, and tells some interesting stories of the good faith of birds towards each other.—In " How Art Kavanagh fought Richard the King," Miss Lawless gives us another of her vivid sketches of Irish history.—" Behind the Scenes in English Politics," by the late Mr. Nassau Senior, only shows that very little and very unreliable information is to be picked up there.—A proposal for the construction of a national safe, to the end that it may contain the treasures of this century, and be " A Pompeii for the Twenty-ninth Century," is Mr. Frederic Harrison's contribution. His idea is to pack in each century, in air-tight vaults under Stonehenge, the notable things and books of each century. It is a pleasing fantasy, but a thousand years hence men may be overburdened with the materials of knowledge. A simpler plan would be to issue an official Annual Register; describing everything, indexing everything of importance, and recording where everything is.—Mr. Wilde, writing " On Criticism," has strung together a series of laboured paradoxes, laboriously constructed by the inversion of familiar copy-book maxims. —Mr. Maurice Hewlett contributes a charming paper on " A Mediaeval Popular Preacher." Brother Bozon, one of the Franciscan Friars who landed in England in 1226, seems to have been a preacher of no mean power and imagination. Some of the stories with which he illustrated and enlivened his sermons are delightful, even if perhaps in some cases a little vulgar. But one story at least we cannot refrain from quoting :-

" A little child came upon a figure of our Lady standing in a minster, holding her Child in her arms. And taking it to be alive, the child offered Him of the bread which he held in his hand. And when he saw that He would not take it, he began to cry softly to himself and say : ` Little companion, share with me for the love of God.' Hereupon a voice answered from out the image, and said : ` Little companion, now I may not eat with thee, but soon thou shalt come to Me to eat and to play and to rest.' And after- wards, on the third day, some neighbours heard the voice and asked what it might mean ; and the child told them that his Play- mate had said that He would come and play with him. And presently the child fell sick, and died three days afterwards."

There is a tender touch of pathos in the description of the little child crying softly at his rejected charity, that is strange

in a wandering friar.—Sir J. Pope Hennessy is still exercised in his mind as to the question, " Is Central Africa worth having ?" Mr. Dicey answers the question in a more practical way when he expresses a fear that our new possessiOns may

induce us to throw away the substance for the shadow, and neglect our more important interests in Egypt and the Transvaal.

The Fortnightly Review contains little of much interest to the general reader. Mr. Barrie, in " Pro Bono Publico," contributes a most amusing skit on the subject of the prevalent mania for biographies and reminiscences. His supposed Society is to supply reminiscences at a moderate rate to intending autobiographists. Judging from the specimens given and the prices affixed to them, we can only say that they are extremely cheap, and infinitely superior to the more genuine article.—Neither Mr. Mallock in his account of Dr. Hettinger, nor Mr. Wallace on " Human Selection," has anything very striking to say.—Mr. Lanin, on " Sexual Morality in Russia," or rather, we should say, on the want of it, gives an account of a disagreeable phase of Russian life which produces a preposterously exaggerated effect. England or America might be shown to be grossly immoral, if all local immoralities were brought together in one repulsive picture.

—From Professor Dowden we have the account of " Goethe's Last Days" given by Dr. Weissenborn and the architect Coudray. In one of his conversations with his latest visitors, Goethe gives a prophetic opinion on French literature that is. worth quoting :—

" Victor Hugo,' said Goethe, possesses remarkable gifts ; without doubt he has renewed and quickened French poetry, but one cannot help fearing that if not he himself, yet his pupils and followers may go too far in the course they have ventured to pursue. The French nation is the nation of extremes ; it knows moderation in nothing. Endowed with great moral and physical strength, the French people might lift the world, if they could only find the centre ; but they never seem to know that if one would lift great weights, one must find the middle point. It is the only people on earth in whose history we can find the night of St. Bartholomew and the Feast of Reason, the despotism of Louis XIV. and the orgies of the sansculottes, and almost in the same year the capture of Moscow and the capitulation of Paris. Accordingly, we cannot but fear that in literature also, after the despotism of Boileau, licentiousness and the repudiation of all law may follow.' "

What would Goethe have said, could he have seen M. Zola, striving to wear the giant's robe that fell from Victor Hugo's shoulders ?

The most important contribution to the National Review is that of Mr. W. H. Wilkins, who deals with that difficult subject, "The Immigration of Destitute Foreigners," in a very temperate and well-reasoned article. He repeats the evidence that was laid before the Sweating Committee to the effect that on the same day that five hundred young English- men sailed from London as emigrants, seven hundred foreigners came in as immigrants. According to a calor:Lis- tion made by the Labour Correspondent of the Board of Trade, " of some twenty thousand tailors in the East End, fifteen thousand are foreigners—that is, persons not born in England—and of the remaining five thousand, nearly all are Jews born in England, who would generally be described as foreigners also. There are very few English engaged in the trade at all; they have all been driven out by Jews ; and of the few that remain, most are women." It would appear that during spring, summer, and autumn, some two hundred of these destitute aliens arrive every week at Tilbury alone, and pour into East London. The horrors of the sweater's market where these poor creatures are hired, and of the life that they passively submit to, must be well known to those who followed some of the evidence before the Sweating Committee. Hull, Grimsby, and South- ampton receive their quota also, and as fast as emigration goes out, the very scum of immigration floods in. English workmen can no more compete with these people than they can compete with the horses that drag our carts. Mr. Wilkins suggests the establishment of a Society which will aim at dis- couraging this immigration by the systematic insertion of advertisements and warnings in Russian, Polish, or Roumanian papers. But there are too many well-meaning and futile Societies already; and, moreover, these immigrants do not read the papers themselves, being induced to come here, for the most part, by agents who foster the sweating system for reasons of their own. The permanent difficulty will remain, that these poor folk all work, and never come on the rates. They expel English workmen from certain trades ; but then, is not that really a relief to English workmen P—Mr. Davies exposes, in " Electoral Blackmailing," the latest form of bribery and 'corruption.—Mr. Samuel Kennedy does his best to weaken our faith in Count Mattei by a singularly weak and ill-con- sidered defence of the Count's system of curing cancer.

The New Review offers a very varied programme. The Queen of Roumania contributes some graceful verses.—Mr. Monro tells " The Story of Police Pensions," and seems moderately content with the last result of the Police Bill.— Sir Charles Dilke adds a third part to his " Radical Pro- gramme," this time discussing taxation, the universal suffrage of both men and women, and the reform of the House of Commons by payment of Members and diminution in their number.

Blackwood's Magazine contains an excellent short story from A. Conan Doyle, "A Physiologist's Wife," a rather pathetic little tragedy or comedy, or both.—Mr. Wilfred Pollock gives an ingenuous account of a disappointment in treasure-seeking. —"As You Like It 1 l'Americaine " raises the first note of disapprobation that we have heard as to Miss Rehan's per- formance in that play. It is a very fair and honest piece of criticism, and with very much of it we are inclined to agree. But faulty though Miss Rehan's conception of the character undoubtedly was, the qualities of life and fire that she dis- played still seem to us to atone for very many more serious shortcomings.