THE MAGAZINES.

IN the Nineteenth Century Mr. Sidney Low endeavours to make' England "wake up to the important changes and organic modifications which our Constitution is undergoing from day to day. With pardonable complacency he points to the justi- fication furnished by recent political history of his comments eight years ago on the steadily increasing power of the Cabinet. "Ministerial omnipotence," as he puts it, "has become almost an accepted phenomenon." But the theme of his present paper is not merely the autocracy of the Cabinet in legislation and in administration. The most significant Constitutional change in the last few years, in his view, is the growth of the inner Junta or Cabal,—the irresistible outcome of unwieldy Cabinets of nineteen or twenty. From this he passes to a consideration of the restraining influences, the various "checks and balances," of our Constitutional machinery, and in particular to the relations of the Crown to the Cabinet Junta. As against the contentions of Mr. Sidney Lee, Mr. Low holds that the important functions attributed to the Crown thirty years ago by Mr. Walter Bagehot have not diminished in im- portance, but rather the reverse ; indeed, that Parliamentary impotence has perhaps tended to encourage "a feeling that the constitutional theory of government by the King in Council' might well become more of a reality," especially in view of the possibility of the group system replacing the party system. The sting of the article lies in the postscript, in which Mr. Low calls attention to Lord Rosebery's recent statement, d propos of Lord Kitchener, that "it is in the power of the Sovereign to summon any Privy Councillor to any Cabinet for any particular purpose." In view of Lord Rosebery's position and experience, Mr. Low plausibly argues that he cannot be regarded as accepting "the theory that the Prime Minister's office is one of 'absolute political power,' with the Sovereign's function limited to that of unauthoritative criticism. On the contrary, it would appear that he is prepared to accord to the Crown a share in the actual conduct of administration such as few champions of royal prerogative during the past century would have ventured to claim." We have read the article with much interest, but without being able to discover whether the writer welcomes or dreads the growth of the power of the Sovereign which he indicates as the logical corollary of the growth of the oligarchical principle in the Cabinet.—Mr. Herbert Paul argues in a really brilliant article that the study

of Greek would not suffer if it were made voluntary. The influence of Greek on the culture of civilised communities, be contends, "is greater now than it has ever been before, and if the study ceases to be compulsory, it will be because no compulsion is needed, because Greek is a sixth sense." The article is full of felicitous illustrations and witty comments, and, mirabile dictu, contains an appreciative reference to Mr. Eipling.—" The Political Testament of Fuad Pasha "— never before published in English—addressed to Abd-ul-Aziz in 1869 on the day before Fuad's death, is a remarkable docu- ment, inspired by a tolerance and broad-minded liberalism worthy of the author of the Haiti Humayun of 1856.— Mr. Charles Bright contributes an informing paper on "The Present Position of Wireless Telegraphy." His main object is to indicate the "great service which can be performed by tetheric telegraphy in connection with purely social messages such as have received no encouragement from the cable companies until the moment—possibly a coincidence— when wireless telegraphy began to be at all dangerous.' " For this class of message "deferred rates" should be charged, —i.e., rates suitable for messages of a non-urgent character, such as can be held over till night if necessary. In conclusion, Mr. Bright holds that the threatened competition of wireless telegraphy augurs nothing but good for the general public by "waking up" the cable companies, and forcing them to reduce their rates, "just as the electric light was the means of pro- ducing the incandescent gas-mantle."—We may also note Miss Pauncefote's pleasant paper on Washington, 'the American Elysium for elderly people, who elsewhere give up all going out to the young."

The Contemporary Review has two articles of outstanding interest in Mr. Maccullah's paper on "The South African Natives" and Dr. 2tfacnamara's on "The London Education Problem." Mr. Maccullah has no difficulty in showing the serious danger of allowing things to drift in South Africa, in view of the broad facts that the coloured and the native races both continue to increase, and may one day enter seriously into competition with the white man. The great question, therefore, arises,—Is the Imperial Government willing, or does it intend, before many years to give the control of millions of natives entirely over to the British and Boer South Africans P Mr. Maccullah contends, and we do not dis- pute his contention, that the protest of the Outlander against the Boer treatment of the natives was, as a rule, economic rather than humanitarian. Yet it is obvious that if continuity of policy is to be secured, it is desirable that the views of leading men in South Africa must be consulted; in other words, that it is incumbent on the Imperial Government to devise some method of dealing with the native question which has in it the elements of permanence. Mr. Maccullah, we may note, is, like the late Mary Kingsley, a believer in the segregation of the races. His remedy is the formation, north of the Zambesi, of a "native reservation of more permanence than Basutoland or even the Bechuana Protec-

torate a great Native State regulated by British officials after the manner of India." As regards the supply of labour, he maintains that there would be little more difficulty in bringing Kaffirs from Zambesia to work on the Rand than there is in bringing them from the Transkei or Pondo- land. "Besides that, as time goes on and white men grow more used to regarding South Africa as their own land there will be less need for the native labour."—Dr. Mac- namara's article, though in great part a vindication of the ad hoe principle and a eulogy of the work done by the London School Board, is marked by the candour and clear- headedness which distinguished his contributions to the education debates in the House of Commons. His criticisms on the financial bearings of the proposal to confer autonomy on the Borough Councils are particularly telling. Instead of a uniform rate of la 2d., we might have a rate varying, according to boroughs, from 5d. to 4s. Not less effective is his objection to the alternative proposal of a composite Board—somewhat on "Water Board" lines—on the ground that it would owe its existence to delegated or secondary election. The present School Board has suggested the maintenance of the ad hoc principle, modified by admitting the co-optative element. Dr. Macnamara's own proposal is as follows :—

"Given that we are to municipalise' the control of London's Education, all Progressives are agreed that the County Council must have a majority of the membership of the Education Board for London. Most, I think, will agree also upon the fact that, with its present membership, the County Council could not spare the men. Let us therefore agree to elect a third member for each of the County Council Divisions, the idea being that the third man would stand as a County Councillor in order to fill a seat at the Education Board."

—There are points of contact between Mr. Bensusan's paper on Morocco and that of Mr. Harris in the National Review.

He agrees with Mr. Harris that the Sultan's Europeanising enterprise showed more enthusiasm than judgment, and that British influence is largely responsible for encouraging him to tread the path of reform. For the rest, Mr. Bensusan's paper resolves itself chiefly into a rather unconvincing attack on French diplomacy in Morocco,—he even goes so far as to suggest that the rising of Bu Hamara is, in fact, an expression of French disapproval of the reforms attempted by the Sultan at British instigation. He admits, however, that, next to the Moors, the French have the greatest claim on Morocco, and holds that if they require and obtain a protectorate over that State, "with the Grand Shareef of Wazzan as nominal head," the Mediterranean coast must be neutralised, and that Spain is the only Power that can be entrusted with the work by all the interested Powers,—a view repeatedly put forward by the Spectator.—Sir William Ramsay has collected the opinions of a number of representative men in different countries in regard to the value of a degree. Perhaps the most interesting answers are those "from a well-known German" and " a well-known English manufacturer as regards their preference for men who have taken degrees"

"The first states : 'We certainly attach importance to Univer- sity training, and where such a one has studied ; and whilst we would not eagage a young man who has not had full University training or that of a Technical High School at all, we should always give preference to one who had obtained the Dr. degree, because he has thereby proved his ability to work, and has acquired the necessary amount of knowledge and experience.' The Englishman's verdict is: 'I find a prejudice (among manu- facturers) against a degree-man as such. . . . But if accompanied by other personal gifts of tact and of discretion (which often have disappeared in the degree-getting) / would prefer a degree- man ; but until he has had experience and has shown that his presumed knowledge gives him a greater grasp I should not give him a higher salary.'"

Mr. Sydney Brooks's article in the Fortnightly on "The Venezuelan Imbroglio," though it contains nothing very new, is a good summary of the fatuous results attained by our policy. The writer attributes much of our administrative in- competence to tile fact that the Executive is chosen from a narrow class, and so the selection has a tendency to become "an affair of friends." Mr. Alger's mismanagement of the war with Spain did not gain for him promotion to the control of the foreign affairs of the United States. Apart from the question of how much wisdom is expected from Cabinet Ministers, there is nothing unreasonable in insisting that they shall know the temper of the country. We agree with Mr. Brooks, regarding the imbroglio, that "perhaps its most paralysing feature was the Premier's, and, presumably, Lord Lansdowne's, ignorance of the nature and extent of the German claims." Even if the Government would not inquire into popular feeling, they might have troubled themselves to find out what their ally was claiming. As the gallery said to Mr. Wopsle, "we don't expect acting, but you might jine your flats."—"Excubitor " writes a paper which recognise* fully the reforms Lord Selborne has initiated in naval education, but points out that one result of making all officers enter the Navy in the same way is to close the door against" the former shipwright apprentice, the son of the small tradesman, and the mechanically inclined offspring of families with no sea associations and small means." In the future the training of an officer before his pay suffices for his needs will cost from 21,000 to 21,200. "The front door of the Navy is thus closed to the poor man's son, and the sea Service falls into line with the Army." In the United States Navy a cadet receives 2120 a year, and from his entry costs his parents nothing. It is very important that in reforming our naval education we should not close all doors to those unpossessed of golden keys.—Mrs. Stopes writes a delightful study of Justice Shallow with the intention of showing that Shakespeare did not intend this character to be a caricature of Sir Thomas Lucy. The arguments appear to

us strongly in favour of this view. It seems unreasonable to suppose that after twenty years Shakespeare would have taken revenge, when he had introduced into the early play of Henry VI., Part I., a Sir William Lucy without any malice.

Mrs. Stopea points out that nothing could have been more unlike Justice Shallow than the real Sir Thomas Lucy. The latter was a rich man living in state, and paying visits to the Court. So vast was the difference that Shallow could hardly have been recognised as a portrait. Apart from historical questions, there is the great artistic improbability. Shallow is a type, not a mere individual portrait,—he exists now.

The present writer heard the account of the death of Old Double at an inn in a country town last autumn, only it was barley, not ewes.

Mr. Walter Harris in the National Review contributes a striking paper on "The Crisis in Morocco." Eighteen months

ago he predicted that the European propensities of the young Sultan might lead him into deep waters, and the prediction Luis been all too soon fulfilled. Mulai Alxl-ul-Aziz, as Mr.

Harris shows, is at once possessed by a laudable desire for reform and hampered by an ineradicable deference to tradition.

His Anglophil tendencies, again, are not tempered by discre- tion. But for this he is not, in Mr. Harris's view, altogether

to blame. British influence is responsible for starting him on the dangerous path of premature reform, in regard to which he occupies a position somewhat similar to that of the unhappy Emperor of China. —Sir Rowland Blennerhassett continues his interesting papers on the political evolution of modern Germany with an inquiry into the "Rise and Character of Prussian Power." In this he pays special attention to the powerful influence excited by the great political historians of the nineteenth century, from Niebuhr to Treitachke. To the last-named Sir Rowland Blennerhassett attributes a truly sinister pre-eminence in directing German hostility against England. He was the great prophet of German Anglophobia, and his influence was rendered all the more potent by the ardour of his convictions and the brilliancy of his style. Captain Mahan's essay on " The Monroe Doctrine" cannot be adequately dealt with in the space at our command. We must content ourselves for the moment by merely quoting the pith of his argument as given in the concluding para- graph :—

" National rights, which are summed up in the word independ- ence, have as their correlative national responsibility. N ot to invade the rights of an American State is to the United States an obligation with the force of law; to permit no European State to infringe them is a matter of policy; but as she will not acquiesce in any assault upon their independence or territorial integrity, so she will not countenance by her support any shirking of their international responsibility. Neither will she undertake to compel them to observe their international obligations to others than herself. To do so, which has been by some most inconsequently argued a necessary corollary of the Monroe Doctrine, would encroach on the very independence which that political dogma defends ; for to assume the responsibility which derives from independence, and can only be transferred by its surrender, would be to assert a quasi suzerainty. The United States is inevitably the preponderant American Power ; but she does not aspire to be paramount. She does not find the true complement of the Monroe Doctrine in an undefined control over American States, exercised by her, and denied to Europe. Its correlative, as forcibly urged by John Quincy Adams at the• time of formulation, and since explicitly adopted by the national consciousness, is abstention from interference in questions terri- torially European. These I conceive embrace not only Europe proper, but regions also in which propinquity and continuity, or long recognised occupancy, give Europe a priority of interest and influence, resembling that which the Monroe policy asserts for America in the American continents and islands. In my appre- hension, Europe, construed by the Doctrine, would include Africa, with the Levant and India, and the countries between them. It would not include Japan, China, nor the Pacific generally. The United States might for very excellent reasons abstain from action ' in any of these last named quarters, in any particular instance : but the deterrent cause would not be the Monroe Doctrine in legitimate deduction."

—In this context we may call attention to the interesting collection of opinions on the subject given by Mr. Maurice Low in his monthly letter on American affairs. These include the views of the leading authorities on international law, and are all alike animated by the conviction that the Monroe doctrine is more than ever on its trial, and that the United States must move with rare skill and caution if the life of that doctrine is to be prolonged. Professor Woolsey speaks not for himself alone when he says that "where revolutions are frequent and a Constitutional President is but too often an unconstitutional dictator, the sense of national responsi- bility must, in whatever way, be driven home into the Latin.

American mind." — Professor Walter Raleigh's paper, " Concerning Gambling," shows him to be—in spite of his declaration that he is "purely academic "—one of the most unconventional and stimulating thinkers. As against the view—which the Spectator has never endorsed—that Wager- ing money on an uncertain event is intrinsically immoral,

he points out that there is one form of gambling not only not discountenanced by the laws of the country and the opinion of our fellows, but positively encouraged—viz., the practice of betting on one's own death—adding : -" I believe that men who abstain from this kind of hazard are very generally regarded, unless they are wealthy men, as being guilty of an immoral act."—We notice that in the "Episodes of the Month" Mr. Maxse restates with em- phasis his story of the German Emperor on the American yacht. The story was as follows :—

"We have the story from a credible American source. When cruising in the Hohenzollern this summer off the coast of Norway, the Kaiser saw the Stars and Stripes floating from a large yacht. He immediately sent a message on board announcing that he proposed to honour the American yacht with a visit, and subse- quently went on board himself, where he found a small family party, presumed to be Americans. His hosts were flattered and delighted at the honour, for the Emperor charms all men, but they were somewhat surprised at the violence of his attacks upon England. We were described as a decadent nation, and our Government as rotten, while the strongest abuse of all was reserved for King Edward, who was discussed in language which it is not possible for us to reproduce in these pages. The astonishment of the Americans was great, but still greater was the amazement of the solitary Englishman who happened to be of the party, and who had evidently been overlooked in the general introduction. He is probably the only Englishman who has ever seen the Kaiser in the rois of Anglophobe, and the experience ought to be of use to him, as he is said to be a member of our diplomatic service ! This extraordinary incident has been keenly canvassed in American society, upon which it has made a great impression."

This story has, Mr. Maxse tells us, been denied; but he

returned to the charge in January, and does so 'again this month, with the assurance that the truth of the story is beyond all possible doubt, and is no longer challenged from any competent quarter. Considering the publicity given to this strange story, it is difficult to imagine that if it were without foundation our Foreign Office would not, either officially or unofficially, have caused a contradiction to be put in circulation. The Foreign Office must know whether the story is true or not, for if true the British diplomatist would certainly have reported it, as in duty bound. The incident has certainly a very humorous side to it. We should very much like to hear the Kaiser's views on America when on a French or Russian yacht, and on Russia when, say, on a British vessel. The collection might be curious.

The article in Blackwood by "A Staff Officer" on "National

Strategy" is a brilliantly written and most able appeal for the co-ordination of our naval and military forces. The writer con- trasts the different views taken of the situation by the Admiralty and by the War Office. This is done by means of the papers issued in relation to the late Colonial Conference. "The Admiralty Memorandum on Sea Power, a brief, lucid, and unimpeachable statement of principle, clearly and vigor- ously affirms that the traditional role of the British Navy is the offensive, and rejects with scorn and contumely the very word 'defence.' Opposed to this we have the War Office theory : six hundred and forty thousand men in arms, of whom all but a hundred and twenty thousand are confessedly and deliberately organised for passive defence—that is to say, for a kind of warfare which our naval strategists refuse to contemplate for a moment" So here we seem to have two

contradictory theories of national defence. The writer-with- out hesitation adopts the naval point of view. He says that

England by her natural position is "poised like a bird of prey over the whole eastern shores of the European Con- tinent" To reach the open the ships of the Northern Powers must either take the risks of the Channel or steam round the North of Scotland consuming their stores of coal. An enemy might be forced to attempt this, and so we ought to .create harbour and coaling-station for ourselves on the Scottish coast. Natural situation gives us advantage in naval attaok, but to make the most of our gain we must be able to get at the fleets of the enemy. If these fleets lie in fortified harbours, how are we to get them out P The writer of the article reminds us that Nelson wrote a despatch in which he argued this point, maintaining that special ships were wanted for the work. To attack very strong coast forts with battleships worth a million each may be too costly. What seem to be wanted are numbers of small, light ships armed with the heaviest guns,—mere floating batteries. These the "Staff Officer" declares from his personal knowledge could reduce to rains almost all the naval arsenals of the Continent,

and capture the fleets they protected. To ensure the success of such operations we ought to be able to land a force of soldiers to co-operate with our Fleet. The writer of the paper has no belief in the Defence Committee of the Cabinet, which he calls an "Olympian imposture." Certainly the

thunderbolts prepared for use against the Boers at the outset of the war were of the nature of damp squibs. The writer points out that the great danger of secret committees is that they are liable to get into the hands of a fussy official whose lack of wisdom would at once be evident if his recommendations were made public. What is wanted is not a system, but a man; and we are told that in future that man will be Lord Kitchener.—" A Late Resident in Spain" writes of " Cosas de Espana." What a strange people Spaniards seem to be ! Some American ship-owners complained that their shipping was endangered by the dilapidated condition of the Malaga lighthouse. The answer came after two years that an earthquake which had taken place long ago was responsible. Soon after the light was extinguished altogether because it interfered with the fireworks ! The bulk of the article is devoted to a minute description of the revolting details of a bull-fight. Certainly Spain showed the world in her Imperial collapse that national depravity of taste is no foundation for a State.—The author of "On the Heels of De Wet" gives us in "A Side-Issue" another proof of his great artistic power. By his simple and unforced treatment of an episode of a night attack he brings home to us a situation terrible in its pathos.

In the Month2y Review some time ago Mr. Julian Corbett wrote a ruthless criticism of great ability, dissecting the old

system of naval education. He now examines the new plan and commends it, saying that it is a remedy really founded on the diagnosis of the disease. The new scheme recognises that the education of the public schools was not good enough, and so the Government undertakes to provide training from an

early date for the boys who are to be officers in the Navy. Mr. Corbett shows how important it is that the new Naval College should turn its face seawards, and says :— "The danger of the new 'Britannias' from this point of view is, that they may degenerate into mere naval public schools with

very little of the sea about them. Nothing is said of salt- water training As the thing stands at present there is nothing to show that shore athletics will not continue to be the main object of a cadet's existence."

—" The Riddle," by Mr. De La Mare, is, we suppose, a

symbol. The form of narration adopted is that of the Dor- mouse in Alice in Wonderland, except that the children do not live at the bottom of a well, but disappear into a chest. In spite of its obscurity, there is an undeniable charm of style in

the writing. We shall hope to see more of Mr. Be La Mare's work, for it undoubtedly shows signs of great promise.