THE MAGAZINES.

IN the Nineteenth Century Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, M.P., replies to the article by Mr. Hoare in the last number on " The Impotence of Socialism." Setting aside mere invective, of which there is a good deal in the article, we may note the statements that modern Socialists do not appeal to the lower, but the higher, strata of the working classes, the intellectual middle classes and professional men ; and that their methods are those of the scientific experimenter,—i.e., the process of evolution as opposed to revolution. Dismissing Mr. Hoare's Socialist programme as imaginary, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald gives the chief points in the Independent Labour Party programme :—

" (1) An eight hours day ; (2) a workable Unemployed Act; (3) old-age pensions; (4) abolition of indirect taxation, and the gradual transference of all public burdens to unearned incomes ; (5) a series of Land Acts aimed at the ultimate nationalisation of the land ; (6) nationalisation of railways and mines ; and (7) democratic political reforms."

The main concern of Socialism, however, is "national

organisation": the necessary revenues are to be found by a " scientific imposition of burdens upon incomes," or, as he puts it, by the State's exploration and development of the rich mine of untapped wealth to be found in unearned incomes. For the rest, and in illustration of the large assumptions which characterise the article, we may note the writer's contention that,

"as the expansion of State activities—as, for instance, the nationalisation of railways—will put greater facilities at the disposal of trade and will improve the physique and intelligence of the people, the State expenditure of these parts of the national income will be productive, whereas at present it is largely unpro- ductive. This will cheapen production. Prices will drop as the cost of production falls, and a greater total of the national income will therefore fructify amongst the more poorly paid classes."

Finally, to reassure his readers as to the sanity, moderation,

• Eugene Delacroix. By Dorothy Bossy. London: Duckworth and Co.

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and opportunism of modern Socialism—which is merely "a theory of social transformation brought about by a readjust- ment of social functions "—the writer dismisses the formid- able doctrines associated with that creed—i.e., class war, Haeckel's Monism, &c.—as " the private opinions of one or

two men who happen to be Socialists."—Sir Roper Lethbridge essays to prove from the examination of Lord Randolph Churchill's speeches that he was an advocate of pure and unadulterated Tariff Reform of the Chamberlain brand. Sir Roper Lethbridge's trump card is the Blackpool speech of January, 1884, and we readily admit that it forestalls with singular accuracy almost every one of the arguments used by Mr. Chamberlain twenty years later. The speeches which he delivered at Sunderland and Stockton in 1887 are interpreted by Mr. Winston Churchill as indicating that his father had totally changed his views on fiscal policy. Sir Roper Leth- bridge prefers to regard them as due to the conviction that he could not raise the banner of Tariff Reform in the form to which he was inclined without endangering the Unionist Alliance.—Mrs. John Massie utters a " Woman's Plea against Woman Suffrage." The article substantially endorses- the views put forward in our own editorial columns. Woman.

would renounce the privileges held by virtue of her woman- hood for a dubious gain. Again : " If the majority of women. were opposed to the majority of men on a matter of policy leading to an outbreak or a revolution, then, though they- would be responsible for the situation, they could neither fight nor be fought." Lastly, we may note Mrs. Massie's concise statement of an argument which is of peculiar significance at the present day :—

"The question is not one of intellectual capacity ; it is one of particular capacity for a particular kind of work. The prophets of ill are saying that the English race is degenerating, and plain truth is crying out that infant mortality is terribly high. Women (if we may so say) are the `manufacturers' of England's sons and daughters. Is this the time to lay upon women extraneous and unnecessary burdens, which must tend to restrict and reduce their capacity for their special and particular and transcendently important function ? "

—The Rev. Richard Free (Vicar of St. Clement's, Fulham) sets out at length his objections to the establishment of Ladies' Settlements connected with the Anglican Church. These are summed up in the statement that their tendency is to militate against the cohesion and efficiency of the Church. Mr. Free admits that the Ladies' Settlement is a.

lawful offspring of the practical spirit of the age. None the less he contends that, as a matter of actual results, the

Settlement ideal is irreconcilable with the parish ideal, and that the system leads to friction, overlapping, and competi- tion, and, indirectly, tends " to foster the heresy of the superiority of the unmarried clergy to the married."—We may also note Miss Rose Bradley's charming sketch of an East End child, " Matty of Spitalfields"; Mr. William Schooling's adverse criticism of the Public Trustee as com- pared with the similar facilities offered by first-rate insurance companies; and Sir Godfrey Lagden's suggestions as to the enlistment and payment of native labour. Sir Godfrey is no believer in the sovereign efficacy of piece-work ; but he strongly supports Sir Harry Johnston's view that payment- should be in hard cash and not in trade goods.

The National Review for March appears in new type and a new cover. The larger type is an excellent innovation, but we cannot honestly say we prefer the piebald blue and yellow- cover to the old dress of unmitigated yellow. But though

the outside of the National is changed, there is no change in its interior. With much of its outlook, political and economic, we find ourselves in acute conflict, but its independence, its

sincerity, its fearlessness, and its enterprise must always- command respect. The editor, whatever we may think of his- views, wields a style of extraordinary clearness and vigour. He may be violent, but he is never mean or cowardly or- underhanded. Strongly partisan in its editorial columns, the National is always ready to give a hearing to " the other side," and thus we find in the current number a,- paper on "The Red Flag of International Socialism," in which the virtues of that creed are sounded in trumpet tones by Mr. H. M. Hyndman. He claims the Hull vote-

as indicating not capture but conversion of the Trade- Unions, and throughout his article adopts a tone of jubilant.

complacency,—has not a book of his been translated into. Japanese for use in the Socialist schools of Japan? " The•

difficulty of realising Socialism in our own day manifestly arises no longer from our social surroundings, but solely from our own lack of comprehension of them." Again, it is quite a mistake to suppose that Socialists attend only to the material wants of humanity, or wish to destroy family life, or to suppress individualism. Under the "red flag" morality, art, science, music will be brought home to the masses, and true indi- vidualism will for the first time become possible for the race. Lastly, as the "old supernatural creeds have long ceased even to pretend to guide," Socialism provides for all Socialists "a great material religion." Altogether, this is a most energetic piece of "red-flag " wagging.—" The Coming Liberal Debacle" is a curious performance. It is signed by "A Radical Stalwart," but there are very few passages iu it that might not have been written by a Tariff-Reforming Tory Democrat, and - the article ends with the significant words :—

" The Labour Party offers Socialism, the Conservatives promise Tariff Reform ; the future is between the two. A Liberal Govern- ment that professes its chief business is to maintain Free Trade, in other words, to keep things as they are, is out of date ; and the coming clebdcle will see not only the downfall of the most dis- appointing Ministry of modern times, but the utter disintegration of a Party that has outlived its usefulness."

—M. Andre Mevil, a French publicist, in "An Unpublished Page of International Diplomacy," finds in the Russo-Japanese

War the fruit of the sinister policy inaugurated at Simonoseki by Germany, whose profound concern for the integrity of China was only "a convenient formula for entangling Russia in a disastrous policy of which France was made the accomplice." The moderating influence of General Kuro- patkin and Count Lamsdorff is clearly insisted upon, but the extreme expansionists, notably Admiral Alexeieff and

M. Bezobrazoff and his financial group, according to M. Mevil, played into the hands of the Germans with fatal alacrity.—Mr. Garvin writes with melancholy gusto on " Cobdenism and its Cancer." Our " whole industrial organism shows a feeble and a weakening pulse," and we are faced with

a Kraoh—blessed word !—without the recuperative stamina possessed by America or Germany. Mr. Lloyd-George's speech on Monday forms an effective comment on some of the most dismal forebodings of Mr. Garvin's fiscal jeremiad.— We much regret to note the editor's vehement protest against the Unionist Party being implicated in any responsibility for the Congo agitation, his attack on the Congo Reform Associa- tion, and his moat misleading and unwarrantable attempt to represent Lord Cromer's attitude in this context as "Mind your own business ! " These comments were clearly written before the debate in the Lords, in which Lord Cromer's con- demnation of the maladministration of the Congo Free State exceeded in severity those of any other speaker.

The Contemporary gives prominence to an interesting paper on the British Army by Major von Heydebreck, which is taken from an official Report issued by the German General Staff. The writer, after passing in review the schemes of reorganisation associated with the names of Mr. Brodrick and Mr. Arnold-Forster, and adversely criticising the latter, describes and highly commends that of Mr. Haldane, subject to the proviso " if it can be practically carried out in all its details." The writer also considers the tactics, materiel, and personnel of the Regular Army, and has "no hesitation in pronouncing the British army equal in quality to most Con- tinental armies." His references to our Generals—notably to Sir Ian Hamilton and Sir John French—are highly laudatory,

and he concludes by observing that the British Army, trained on the lines of the best modern tactical theories, "now com- mands the respect even of the great armies of the Continent." —M. Jean Finot, a French journalist who was in Lisbon at the time of the recent assassinations, contributes a striking study of the events which led up to that catastrophe. Briefly

put, his explanation amounts to this : that discontent with the Monarchy is centuries old, that the King had absolutely lost touch with his people, and that Senhor Franco, the only man capable of saving the situation, though personally honest and financially incorruptible, adopted methods which only pre- cipitated the inevitable catastrophe. " Dictators do not suit our age." He notes the inexplicable popularity of Queen Maria Pia, in spite of her arrogance and extravagance, and the unjustifiable unpopularity of Queen Amelie. The latter,

however, has the reputation of being "a clerical," a serious charge in Portugal. M. Finot notes the icy indifference shown

by the people after the assassinations, but asserts that the crime did not lie at the door of any party. As for the future, he draws no reassuring auguries from the humiliating haste with which the young King broke with the regime of his father and Franco. In this haste to make excuse for regicide he perceives a very disquieting symptom, and is clearly inclined to believe that a Republic is the only issue to this " Monarchy in chaos."—" My Profession of Faith " is from the pen of Father Petroff, a prominent priest of the Orthodox Russian Church, recently unfrocked for insubordination by the Archbishop of St. Petersburg. The keynote of this profession is his vigorous protest against what he calls the " Caesaro-Papism " which paralyses and degrades the Russian Church. M. Paul Sabatier in his essay on " Modernism " repeats the argument developed in his Jowett Lectures,—viz., that the Roman Catholic revival is moving towards a " profound trans- formation which, far from being the negation of the past of the Roman Church, will be the splendid opening out of her better self." There is, he contends, no analogy, no connexion, between Protestantism and Modernism. "The modernists are Catholics who accept the whole heritage of their Church, and, far from revolting, aspire only to use their strength in its service : far from complaining of their punishment, they wish their bondage to be succeeded by active and joyous obedience."

" The Future of Kingship," by " Celebes," in the Fortnightly is a striking article. The writer begins by considering the Portuguese tragedy, which he compares with the assassination of Alexander II. Both were acts of deep political signifi- cance, and therefore distinguished from the unmeaning brutality of most of these murderous attacks on rulers,— that, for example, on President McKinley, and that on King Humbert. He regards the dictatorship as having been the thing that Portugal wanted. " Celebes " goes on to draw some very striking conclusions bearing on his general thesis that kingship is not by any means " played out." Nowhere is this better known than in the land which owns the " mother of Parliaments."—Mr. Sydney Brooks in his "Last Chance of the Irish Gentry" emphasises the admirable appeal which Sir Horace Plunkett has made to them in his Noblesse Oblige. It is a subject which an outsider will do well to pass over with the briefest expression of sympathy. If Sir Horace Plunkett does not prevail, who can hope to do so P—and it is easy to offend.—Mr. Alfred Stead prefers what he is pleased to call "A Plea for a Sane Policy," which Britain is to follow with regard to Turkey. He must first persuade us that everything which has been told us for the last twenty years about Turkish rule at home and policy abroad is false.—In " The Significance of the Polish Question " Sir Rowland Blennerhassett does not attempt to defend on grounds of justice, or general morality, or even domestic gain, the policy of Prince Billow in expropriating Polish proprietors. His article is a sermon on the text of Clausewitz's apophthegm, " Posen is the shield that guards Prussia's head." To make Posen Prussian seems a necessity to Prussian statesmen. Do that, and their country will secure an independence of Russia which will set it at liberty to follow its own aims. And Britain, it is suggested, ought to look on with sympathy. But we do not quite follow the argument. Till Posen is Prussianised, Prussia must be on the best possible terms with Russia, so as to be able to count on " its neutrality, if not its goodwill, in its coming move for new harbours on the North Sea." And " this," we are told, " as far as England is concerned, is the significance of the Polish question." Why, then, should Prussia do anything which would tend to weaken the intimacy of this relation P—Dr. J. Beattie Crozier con- tinues his " Challenge to Socialism." " They [the Socialists] want to cut out at a stroke all the efficient factors of Civilisa- tion—War, Religion, Law, Government, Political Institutions, and Scientific Knowledge in general." That is a strong indict- ment, and there is much to be urged for it. But why " War" P We are no anti-militarists, but to put war on the same plane with religion, &c., seems strange. The other " efficient factors " we must always have,—but war P Is it to be as permanent as religion P—We must not forget, though we can but barely mention, Sir Walter Mieville's most interesting account, drawn from personal knowledge, of the Khedive, " Thewfik the Loyal." The story of his succession is one of the strangest of romances.

Perhaps the most interesting article in Blackwood is "In Rajputana," by Mr. Edmund Candler. It gives a striking description of the country and the people. The Rajputs, high and low, have an air of high breeding about them which we have to go among our Celtic compatriots to find. But of

all the things which Mr. Candler describes, that which will most attract the British reader is the Mayo College at Ajmere.

Here the young scions of the Race of the Sun are being educated in English fashion with the happiest results,— " certain crusted solar influences are being exposed to the solvent of Western ideals, while certain natural affinities are being given_ free play." "He's a rotter," said a young " sun- born " to the visitor, pointing to a lad, the future ruler of millions, who sat apart, not caring for the cricket match which absorbed every one else. There is something healthily democratic and un-Oriental about that.— Another Indian article is " The Irreconcilables of Yagkistan," otherwise the Zakka Khel. The writer belongs to the forward school. It is quite true that the story of our punitive expeditions in the past is somewhat humiliating. On the other hand, it must be remembered that to push forward our frontier would mean to have the same troubles over again elsewhere. The fact is that we are hampered by our obliga- tions of conscience. How would Alexander or Caesar, or even a "most Christian King," two hundred years ago have dealt with the case ? He would have laid the whole country absolutely waste. We pull down the "towers," which the Afridis build again. The effective way would be to cut down the trees and fill up the wells.—The "Unmethodical Maser" is still occupied with France, and the rest of Europe enjoys the respite. As long as he occupies himself and his readers with such brilliant pieces of work as his sketch of John Law of Lauriston, the great financier of the Mississippi scheme, he could not be better employed.—The late Professor Masson's " Memories of London in the 'Forties" are continued under the editorship of his son. This time they are occupied with the dining-places of sixty years ago, the Cock' among them,—the bird itself still stands over the door of a Fleet Street hostelry. Among other places described are the " Cigar Divan," haunt of great chess-players; the old Reading Room of the British Museum, with its curious sights and sounds; and the Scotch Church in Regent Square, once the scene of Edward living's "rise and fall," and then served by James Hamilton, a preacher always worth listening to, as the writer of this notice can testify. The Professor was dis- appointed with the London stage, but excepts Helen Faucit and Robson,—some must still remember that prince of tragi- comedians.—Mr. Charles Whibley has high praise for " American Literature," barring the humourists who "attain their effects by bad spelling." He excepts, however, from this ban Mark Twain,—he certainly might have added Artemus Ward.

The politics, social and other, of the Albany are somewhat " red" this month. Miss Constance Clyde in her " Woman's Utopia" preaches Socialism. It must be owned, however, that she does so without any kind of truculence. We are not to think of it as a convulsion that is to turn the world upside down. It is to bring " a cessation of all strife between capital and labour "—as there is a cessation of strife between a man and a lion when one or the other is killed, it might be said— the "spirit of commercialism" is to be banished, and we are to be "ethically nearer to the citizens of mediaeval England than to our grandfathers of the nineteenth century," a few superstitions among them. Our apostle is almost afraid of various reactions which the mediaeval trend of Socialism may bring with it. We may become over-religions and believers in the divine right of Kings. Of course there will be changes. So "men will be chosen in marriage for worth and attractiveness only."—Next comes Mr. Erik Givskov with his " Taxation of Land Values," a thesis which we need not discuss here. We will only remark that, whatever the State may do in Mr. Givskov's country, it does not make railways and harbours or found Universities. It might be as well if the physician should know a little more about the patient for whom he is good enough to prescribe.—" George A. Birmingham" (the Rev. J. 0. Hannay) tells us what the " Sinn Fein" people really are. If only they can have their way, the Irish problem will be solved without any one being one penny the worse. Mr. Hannay does not feel quite certain whether the Irish people will understand the policy. The North Leitrim election seems to show that they are still a considerable way from doing so.— In " Current Events" the adverse results of the by-elections are attributed to the dissatisfaotionof voters who have nottgot what they wanted. The real cause, we take it, is the hostility of voters who fear to lose what they have got.---We mnst. mention a very appreciative essay on "Edward Lear," by Mr. Desmond MacCarthy.

The United Service Magazine for March contains an excel- lent article entitled "Materiel v. Personnel," by "Executive Officer." It is, in fact, an elaboration of the warning given in his last book by Sir Cyprian Bridge that there is a danger of our Navy trusting too much to new inventions and perfected forms of material rather than to the personal courage, resourcefulness, and seamanship of officers and men. No sane man, of course, would wish to neglect the use of essential improvements in material ; but we are certain that " Executive Officer " is right in insisting that in the last resort what gives victory is the man behind the gun, and that it is a capital error to instil into men's minds the notion that they cannot win, and ought not to be expected to win, unless they have the very last thing in naval equipment. History has shown again and again both on sea and land that the best men will win, even though they have not the best mechanical appliances. As a corollary to his main thesis, " Executive Officer " dwells, and, as we hold, rightly dwells, upon the need of remembering Nelson's signal : " Engage the enemy more closely." Attempts to get out of the way of the enemy's fire, and to rely upon long-distance shooting, are not the tactics which give victory, or which ought to be relied upon by the British Navy. We cannot afford to risk any tactics except those which are based upon the principle: " Go in and win." Again, we are with "Executive Officer" when he points out that the seaman who will win in a sea fight will be ho who will not be bound by the lessons of peace manoeuvres, but will dare at the proper time to break through the conventions of academic training as Rodney, Howe, and Nelson did.—" Some More Regimental Opinions," compiled by a " Commanding Officer," based on suggestions invited by him from officers and men of all ranks, at the end of their musketry and company training, as to further improvements in musketry, military training, dress and equipment, and other points of interest to the soldier, is an article worth notice. We cannot attempt to summarise the actual suggestions, or even the summary of these suggestions, but may quote " Commanding Officer's " last words :—" I do not think I could terminate my remarks more appropriately than by quoting the words of one of my privates, who for one of his suggestions' wrote: ' I don't find any fauld [sic] with field training' !"