THE MAGAZINES.

NONE of the larger magazines is very exciting this month.. We do not care particularly, for instance, about Mr. H. W. Wilson's diagrams in the Nineteenth Century showing the increase of European armaments, and giving a pessimistic view of the British position. Nobody doubts that Europe has armed itself perhaps beyond its strength, but the figures- prove nothing without evidence as to resources in men, in money, and in willingness. We very much doubt if Europe is wasting more on the means of killing than it wasted in the Middle Ages, which we survived without destruction ; and as to the growth of cities exercising "a deadly effect upon the- physical vigour of the race," it is all nonsense. Rome con- quered the world, and there is no capable recruiting officer in England, France, or Germany who would not delight in regiments of Londoners, Parisians or Berliners. We back a London costermonger to thrash any yokel any day with his fists, and if you give them both rifles the. Londoner will march round the peasant, and fire twice for his once. Why, one-fourth of all the non-commissioned officers in the British Army are Londoners by birth. City life produces many bad consequences, but cowardice or inactivity in men between twenty and thirty it does not pro- duce.—Lord Napier of Magdala's account of the conquest of the Caucasus is very interesting indeed, and will help to- clear people's ideas as to the difficulties of war in the Himalayas, but we think he exaggerates the extent of our recent success. We shall see, but Lord Napier does not allow- enough for Schamyl. If the Himalayan tribes had possessed a leader as trusted and as competent as Schamyl was—and, his absence was an accident—we should have come to sad grief. It is a very good paper, though, for all that.— Mr. Henniker Heaton rather bewilders us with his wilder- ness of suggestions for postal improvements. There are fifty of them : some of them useful, as, for example, that there shall be a parcel post to the United States ; some dangerous, as, for example, that postmen shall be- authorised to deliver sums of money; and some of them absurd, as, for example, the post for perishable food and the delivery of naturalists' specimens at a halfpenny a packet. Why on earth should we give that preference to the " bug. and beetle men," and what is the definition of "a naturalist's specimen" P Is it to include a stuffed camel, to be delivered safely by the postman P—Mr. S. F. Van Oss has put together the drawbacks to the "limited company" system very well, indeed, showing very carefully how under that system a "promoter" may cheat; but he does not allow for the fact that it has enormously increased the volume of business, or for the other and much bigger fact that the right to. venture a particular sum in business and no more is an inherent right in a member of a free community. Why)

should a man who is willing to risk his thousand pounds in pin, making be compelled to risk his whole remaining property ? In the interest of his possible creditors ? The creditors know to a penny the amount of capital responsible for their payment, or can know if they like. The fact that small traders are eaten up by limited companies is regrettable, but they are eaten up also by big single capitalists; and the State is interested first of all in the consumer, who, as Mr. Van Oss admits, pays the company 10 per cent. where he pays the

small trader 20 per cent. Every system has its evils, but none of them are worse than the subjection of the community to what Charles Kingsley once called the "dilatory jobbing" of the little trader.—" Fox-hunting and Agriculture," by Mr. G. F. Underhill, is practically a plea for the exclusion of the non-subscriber from fox-hunts, which we should think nearly

impossible, except through a general feeling that to join in a pleasure and not pay for it was "bad form ; " and we do not understand Mr. Sidney Peel's account of Nicholas Culpeper. Does he or does he not consider that astrologer-physicist a rather rascally quack P It is simple nonsense to write of a man as a great physician, of whom the following paragraphs are true :—

" Yet upon all this solid foundation of knowledge was imposed a strange medley of quackery. A work published posthumously in 1660 was entitled, Art's Masterpiece, or the Beautifying part of Physic, whereby all defects of nature in both sexes are amended, Age renewed, youth continued, and all imperf,ctions fairly reme- died. Never was such a comprehensive compendium of attractive medicines. There were potions to make the body fat or loan, recipes to smooth wrinkles and raze out the marks of the small- pox, cures for scales and even lice in the eyebrows, all sorts of ointments, unguents. and dentifrices, and last, but not least, Pomanders for the Pestilence. Another work was entitled, An Astrological Judgment of Diseases, which cannot fairly be accused of possessing any medical value. Pure quackery all this, but thoroughly well suited to the mental habits of those amongst whom Culpeper laboured."

—M. Charles Yriarte adds little to our knowledge of Mei6o- ttier, except that be was vain and extravagant ; and Mr. Orpen's argument that the Colonies would like their delegates, Agents- General or others, to be seated in Parliament, with voices but no votes, is a little unpractical. Nothing stops any repre- sentative colonist from saying anything he has to say quite as effectively as he could say it in Parliament. We are entirely in favour of giving rank and consideration to the Agents-General, but the true representation of the Colonies in the English sense is impossible. The people do not intend to be governed from Melbourne any more than from Washington. They are influenced from Melbourne, but influence is best exercised through Ambassadors, who deal with Governments, not with the people.

Two political articles in the Contemporary Review, one

signed " Politicus" and the other "Tearem, M.P.," are well worth reading. Both are too fierce in tone, and their writers ignore the other side too completely, but the authors of both have definite opinions, and are not afraid of expressing them. Politicus " thinks that sooner or later the United States will take Cuba, Porto Rico, and St. Domingo, will be deeply concerned with Nicaragua and the Canal, and will develop a great naval power. The Continent will then hate her, perhaps resist her ; she will look round for an ally, and her natural ally is Britain, which has identical interests with her own in China. English statesmen ought, therefore, to seize this opportunity. We think so too, though we believe that at this moment the men who govern the United States have no idea of annexations.—" Tearem's " idea is that our statesmen in the Foreign Office are imbeciles, and have so managed that Russia has obtained in China all she wanted, and a grievance against England besides.

We ought, he thinks, to have defended Port Arthur with the assistance of the Japanese, and we ought now to increase our

Army in order to garrison and defend Wei-hai-wei. Other- wise the acquisition of that port was a mere coup de th&itre designed to "save the face" of a Government in trouble. 4‘ Tearem, M.P.," declares, by the way, that Lord Salisbury gave a written order to the Admiralty to withdraw its ships from Port Arthur; and if he believes his own story, should call in Parliament for a copy of that docament.—Mr.

Turner's paper on bicycling is, if anything, over sensible. His decision is that bicycling is healthy, provided that novices are sound, that they increase distances gradually, and that un- less professionally examined and reported healthy they do not go m for fast racing. Fast racing finds out the weak places and often seta up chronic ill-health. With those reserves bicycling is good, especially as a remedy for bloodlessness in young girls.—Mr. Richard Heath says that Evangelicalism has waned because it was the creed of the middle classes, and was spoiled as a creed for the people by their prejudice against the Revolution. That Evangelicalism was the creed of a class is partly true, but it has waned, we imagine, from a change in the direction of thought, and not from any prejudice against what the middle classes thought disorder. The moment the Deity was assumed to be benevolent, Calvinism, which was the backbone of Evangelicalism, began to lose its hold.—Canon C. R. Robinson, who has much experi- ence of West Africa, tells his readers that one great buttress of slavery is the use of slaves as coins, and that another is their value as porters. We do not exactly see why cattle or horses should not be coins, pending the introduction of stamped metal, and paid porters are surely as good as slaves :

"The Hausas are by far the most numerous, as they are also the most civilised, of all Central African races. From the time of the first Ashanti war, the use of Hausa troops, led by English officers, has familiarised the public with their name. Though Hanealand, or the country inhabited by the Hausas, does not come within two hundred and fifty miles of the coast, Hausa traders are con- stantly to be met with at various points on the west coast. These traders are, as a rule, by no means anxious to enlist as soldiers, but when, as the result of a sufficient money inducement, they do enlist, they make soldiers superior to all other African races, and worthy to be compared with the very best of our native Indian troops. As regards physical strength, it is doubtful whether they have any rivals whether in Africa or elsewhere. On one occasion six of my Hausa porters came to me to complain that the loads assigned to them were too light for them to carry ; might they be allowed, they said, to carry two, and so earn the wages of two men ! The weight of the single loads to which they objected was DO lb. Having satisfied myself as to their ability to carry 1S0 lb., I acceded to their request, and during the next stage of our journey, which was about a hundred miles, they carried this weight, marching from ten to fourteen miles a day. The other West African races whom I have employed as porters were never willing to carry more than 60 lb., and constantly grumbled at having to carry even this."

—Mr. D. Boulger, who has for years made a study of the sub- ject, thinks that the aim of Great Britain in China should be to train, influence, and defend the better classes in the Valley of the Yangtse Kiang. Englishmen should form an army of native troops, small, but expansible, who should be paid for by Chinese merchants as Gordon's army was. A soldier is wanted to do on the Yangtse what Sir H. Kitchener has done on the Nile.

The Fortnightly Review has three articles dealing with Cuba. The first is a very pleasantly written description of Havana. When the American troops get there they will find stately

palaces with wide courts and marble columns, for all the world like Roman villas,—a curious contrast to Boston, New York, and Chicago. It is not a large but a rich and luxurious city of the Latin type. This article by Richard Davey gives an appalling account of the cruelties formerly [practised on the negroes by the planters :—

"In former times their treatment of their slaves was notoriously cruel, and I shall never forget the contrast between the splendid hospitality which I myself enjoyed on a Cuban plantation, and the horrid sights which I witnessed in its coffee-fields, where the negroes were whipped by the overseers for the most trivial offences. An appalling incident occurred, too, during my stay, which can never be effaced from my mind, and which I discovered by the merest chance, for I was to have been kept in total ignorance of its occurrence. A strikingly handsome young mulatto had escaped into the woods, and had been recaptured. For nearly a week he was tortured every day regularly for two hours, and in the presence of all the other hands, and, needless to say, in that of his master. I chanced one afternoon to go for a walk, accompanied by one of the children of the family, a lad of twelve years, who thoughtlessly asked me to come and see what they were 'doing to Pedro.' They were flaying him alive with pincers, burning him with hot wires, and rubbing his wounds with saltpetre ! The poor wretch, who was shrieking desperately and writhing in agony, was tied hand and foot to the stump of a tree. The strangest part of it all was that the niggers, for whose intimidation this diabolical torture, which eventually ended in slow death, had been devised, did not seem to be particularly im- pressed by its horror, for they were laughing and shouting like so many fiends. Needless to say I left that Hacienda somewhat hurriedly. The house slaves, however, were treated with extreme indulgence, petted and spoilt to their heart's content, and a more idle, vicious, happy-go-lucky lot I never came across in all my life. The house on this plantation was a very fair specimen of its class. It was enormous, built of stone with spacious verandahs, and although but one story high, the rooms were so prodigiously lofty that the external appearance was quite majestic. Its wide, inner courtyard, numerous saloons, billiard-room, and corridors were luxuriously furnished in excellent taste, and were cool and. delightful. The garden was a veritable paradise. I wish I had the space to describe the many pleasant days I passed there, marred alone by the dreadful incident above alluded to. The drives in the flower-laden woods, the turtle fishing in the lovely lake, whose deep, broad waters were surrounded by a forest of orange-trees, scarlet magnolias and peacock acacias, their grace- ful foliage surmounted by towering groups of cocoa palms, and whose placid surface was white, yellow, and pink with water- lilies."

Mr. Davey does not say when this incident occurred, but, we presume, not very many years ago. His account of the beau- tiful scenery near Matanzas is also interesting.—Another Cuban article, "The Mournful Case of Cuba," is worth read- ing. We quote from it the following terrible description of the reign of terror in the island :—

"The barbarous extermination of non-combatants by the Spaniards is as bad as the Armenian massacres ; for scarcely a day passes without some report of brutal assassinations of inno- cent, defenceless people. On June 1st, 1896, Simon Yruri, a prominent citizen of Jaruco, in Havana province, was arrested merely on suspicion of being a rebel sympathizer, and publicly shot in the square of the town by order of General Melquizo. This execution aroused general indignation when it was known that Melquizo had ordered it on his own authority without con- sulting the Captain-General, who is the only official empowered to order such executions. On the following day a detachment of Spanish troops commanded by Colonel Ochoa, near Jarmo, captured a boy of fifteen named Juan Rodriguez, who was so ill that he could hardly move without assistance. The unhappy creature was dragged from his home near Castiguas and butchered on the Tapaste road for the sole crime of being a cousin of a leader in the rebel army. On June 4th Lorenzo Medina, a native of the Canary Islands, and Juan Toledo—bcth well known and esteemed at Jarmo - were arrested on unknown charges, and, although promised a prompt release, were brutally murdered. According to a special telegram from Key West, in the New York Herald of July 23rd, the Spaniards captured some rebel hospitals at Isabel and Magdalena, in Ihe province of Matanzas. Two doctors named Roig and Izquierdo, surgeons of the Cuban army, in charge, were both put to the machete ; while the helpless sick and wounded were murdered in their beds, and the building afterwards burned over their heads to conceal the barbarous butchery. In the third week in January, 1896, another Cuban hospital, in the Siguanea Mountains near Cienfuegos, was cap- tured by Spanish troops. The Cuban soldiers defending the sick and wounded made a heroic fight as long as their ammunition lasted, but were finally massacred. Dr. Soler, the surgeon, came out, waving a white flag, and bearing the insignia of the Red Cross, to ask for mercy ; but was shot down and despatched by the machete. A sick American raised the Stars and Stripes ; but the work of Spanish bayonets was short and bloody. Not a prisoner was takes, and not even women nurses ware spared ! Then the Spaniards set fire to the hospital, which was burned down over the bodies of the victims."

The first paper in Blackwood, "Disraeli the Younger," by Mr. Charles Whibley, is a very brilliant piece of work. He does not seem to have heard, or at any rate does not quote, " Dizzy's " excellent saying of himself, "I write in irony and they call it bombast." Of course, that was not wholly true, as Mr. Whibley in effect shows; but at the same time, as Mr. Whibley clearly realises, irony played a very large part in Disraeli's nature. Particularly good is the account of " Dizzy'a" proud Judaism :— "Oriental in his taste, as in his lack of it, he believed that the patriarchs had laid down the laws of government for all time, and he would twist the policy of England until it harmonised with the ideals of the Hebrew kings. His books, his speeches, his life were the acclamation of Jewish wisdom and Jewish grandeur. He pleaded the cause of his people without passion, but rather with that secure valiance which comes from the con- science of a just cause. Tancred's noble fantasy of the East, Alroy's unhappy devotion to a lost people, are but the loftiest ex- pression of his constant dream. To read his eloquent argument is to wonder that in any corner of the world the foolish man should cry ' Death ' to the Jew. All is race,' says Sidonia ; there is no other truth;' and every race must decay unless it lives in deserts and never mixes its blood.' The Jews, it is cer- tain, do not live in deserts, but they keep their bloed pure, and so, for good or evil, they have become the rulers of the world. In Coningsby ' Sidonia, the concretion of the Hebrew intellect, as fine a gentleman, as adroit a politician, as profound a scholar, as ever stepped into the pages of a novel, would prove by example that the most learned students, the astutest diploma- tists, the most powerful Ministers, and even many Marshals of France, are of Abraham's seed. So far the argument is orna- mental and extravagant ; but Disraeli insists upon the perfect emancipation of his people upon other and far more practical grounds. All the tendencies of the Jewish race, he declares, are conservative. How should a people, justly proud of its blood, ever patient in its observance of ceremonial, decline upon so ridiculous a doctrine as the equality of man ? In brief, the bias of the Jews is to religion, property, and natural aristocracy ; and it should be the interest of statesmen that this bias should be encouraged, and their energies and creative powers enlisted in the (muse of existing society.' "

—" Zaok's " story, "Dave," is a decided advance on his or her previous work. There is the same verbal skill and more power of touching the heart. It is almost impossible to end a ahort story adequately with a suicide for love which does not come off, but " Zack " has done it.—Sir Herbert Max- well's "Odd Volumes" is pleasant reading. His account of Lord John Russell's early book on London society is most curious. Of course Lord John criticised all the things that people now criticise and think special developments of the eighties and nineties.—The paper on that charming writer

and distinguished man, Sir Charles Murray, deserves also a. word of comment. It is a thoroughly sympathetic essay.

The "Episodes of the Month" in the National Review are always well done, but those for April are exceptionally interesting. Nothing could be sounder or better than the notes on the war. Mr. Maxse has been, in our opinion at any rate, inclined to undervalue rather than overvalue the im- portance of friendship between England and the United

States. On the war, however, he is not only sound and judicious, but distinctly sympathetic to the United States.

Nothing could possibly be better put than the following account of American opinion in regard to Cuba :—

"There is no more 'land-grabbing in the Cuban agitation in America than there is in the Armenian agitation in England, and the possibility that intervention might lead to the incorporation of Cuba in the Union by the desire of the Cuban people has had a- most prejudicial effect upon the strength of the movement. Any number of Americans of all shades of politics express the senti- ment, I would intervene like a shot if we could count on keeping clear of Cuba after Spain had been cleared out '; while others have said, I would not have anything to do with the movement for intervention if I thought it involved annexation." We have got territory enough,' is the average American's answer to any 'land grabbing' propaganda, and it may be affirmed as beyond question that public opinion is not ` ripe ' for the absorption of Cuba. The cry for a Free Cuba is a demand for the emancipation of Cuba from Spain, and not for its annexation to the United States. Unless we can get this firmly into our minds we shall misunderstand the whole movement. It is important that the movement should not be misunderstood, because it is liable to become irresistible and overflow such paper barriers as the niceties of International Law or the punctilio of the Constitution may

afford We think it is beyond doubt that were Great Britain in the position of the United States, she would have intervened between Spain and her unconquerable insurgents years ago, and by this time Cuba would be either under a whole- some ` Egyptian ' administration, or she would be governing herself as a free colony."

Mr. Manse appends to this some most valuable selections from Senator Proctor's speech on Cuba. Mr. Manse's

criticism on the action of the Government in the Far East is also clear and powerful. We have not space to quote it, but we agree with him when he points out how much wiser it would have been to allow Russia to go to Port Arthur with our goodwill than in spite of us. We should have either bowed her in or else barred her out. To let her go in and yet growl at her heels was foolish in the extreme.—We wish we had space to quote from Mr. March-Phillipps's article on "The Chartered Company," but all we can do is to say that it is of the utmost importance, and should be studied by every one interested in South Africa. The gist of the paper is the following passage :—

"In finishing, let me put the little cluster of facts I have been dealing with plainly before the reader's eyes. In 1891 Lord Randolph, at the invitation of Mr. Rhodes (who joined the party himself in the gold districts, by the way, and was managing director at the time), travels in Rhodesia. He is associated with two of the most celebrated mining authorities living. Their- opinion, a very adverse and unfavourable one as we can judge from Lord Randolph's allusions, is summarily suppressed by the Company, while Lord Randolph's letters are ridiculed and dis- credited. The warning, in consequence of this action of the Company, fails to reach the public, who, since then, have invested over twenty millions of pounds in Rhodesian gold syndicates. The Chartered Company shares to the extent of fifty per cent. in the profits of these syndicates."

Perhaps the most interesting paper in this month's Cos-

mopolie is " Qninze Joura Londres." We cannot but suspect that the writer has spent a good deal more than a fortnight,

if not in London, at any rate in England. An impressionist picture of London, its streets and its society, from the pen of a French woman would be less flattering, and if we may say so, less profound, than this. Maria Star says that we threw off our reserve at the Jubilee time, "que Yenthousiasme dont lea aujets de Sa Gmcieuse Majeste d4bordaient a cette minute, decouvrait le yrai fond de leur carautAre." But even a Jubilee fortnight is a short time in which to learn so much. The

City delights her, which, despite the " sonillures inevitables 41n charbon, trouve moyen de as faire eiegante, ordonnee, sgreable nun yeux." The " paternel " policeman gives her a sense of security. He is at the service of the passer-by, not, as is France, merely in the service of the Government. This delightful French woman has a good word for everything English, even our overweening respect for riches, which, she says, has killed envy,—a subtle excuse indeed. The English rich man gives away largely and is frankly admired for his generosity. The French look on a great public benefaction " un acte d'inquietude, une restitution, on une reolame." These lines at the end of George Meredith's new ode seem to ns to be fine :—

" Like a brave vessel under press of steam,

Abreast the winds and tides, on angry seas, Plucked by the heavens forlorn of present sun, Will drive through darkness, and with faith supreme,

Have sight of haven and the crowded quays."

Here is another quotation :—

" Broken at intervals, clipped, and barren in seeming it be." These words refer to the "jets of the songful ascending silvery-bright water-tree," not, as might seem, to the bulk of

the present poem.—M. Pressense, in his "Revue du Mois," has little patience with America's humanitarian pretensions, though he admits the Americans have behaved since February 15th with praiseworthy self-control. His great point is that Europe should remain impartial, but impar- tiality is not altogether an affair of Governments :—" Les =sympathies ne se commandent ni ne se defendent. II se forme parfois d'irresistibles courants qui entrainent aux

Ce qui serait deplorable, ce serait de faire

d'un duel entre deux nations, une guerre entre deux hemi- -spheres. Laissons la Providence trencher nn conilit

nix nous n'avons vie faire! "—Mr. Norman, in "The Globe

and the Island," takes the exactly opposite point of view. America is actuated by a religious and humanitarian motive. The fact that her hostility to Spain "has been fanned by people who desire to sell supplies at a high rate is deplorably natural and wholly insignificant." He quotes with admire.

ton Sir Frederick Pollock's letter to the Daily Chronicle

saying : "We are the other Great Power of the North American Continent, and we are as much concerned as the United States to forbid the interference of any foreign Power in American affairs."