THE MAGAZINES.

OF the many articles written on the relationship of Liberalism and Labour, none is more illuminative than that by Mr. Master- man in the new .Nineteenth Century. After a survey of the atti- tude of the old Labour Trade-Unionist Members, he passes to the advent of the new Labour Party, whose energy and driving- power are derived from the little group "whose aim is not so much the welfare of Trade Unionism as the advancement of a definite policy of social reform leading in the direction of Collectivism." These men, says Mr. Masterman, have never

been, and have never pretended to be, Liberals. "The Labour men on the Liberal side are convinced Radicals The Labour men on the Opposition side are in the main Socialists, who repudiate the Liberal Whips, and are not allowed to support in public a Liberal candidate, many of whom have been fought by the local Liberals of their constituencies, and who desire above all things to emphasise their independence of both the historic parties." Again, while the one section desires to keep Labour representation as that of a class, the

other desires to create a party which shall endorse a pro- gramme. The latter section—who wish to create a "Social

Reformist" party—have with them the younger members of the Trade-Union organisations, but have no wish to confine their policy to questions affecting Trade-Unionism, or their membership to those who work with their bands. They would welcome recruits from all classes of society who will adopt their programme. Without venturing to predict the issue of the conflict with certainty, Mr. 3Iasterman is clearly of opinion that the future lies with the "Social Reformists " ; and that unless the Liberal Party satisfies their demands—the feeding of school-children, graduated Income-tax, better housing for the urban worker, and more direct access to the land in the country—it will dwindle and fall into impotence. In conclusion, he states his belief that Tariff Reform can only be killed if the Government can find themselves able to make large advances in the work of social betterment. "At present with their immense majority they are committed to a gigantic 'straddle' to satisfy their extreme right while keeping the extreme left loyal. They will be compelled at last to choose between offending some of their more conservative supporters, or the disappointing of the desire for reform which they themselves have in part created amongst the labouring population. And the choice, when it comes, will decide their fate for a genera- tion." Mr. Masterman's forecast rests on the assumption that the two-party system is irrevocably broken up, and will by no means convince all his readers. But his survey of the present situation is at once acute and instructive.—By way of contrast one may note Mr. J. Ellis Barker's pessimistic article on the future of Great Britain, in which he predicts that unless she abandons the fetish of Free-trade, reconstitutes her agriculture, and makes her population "warlike and prepared for war," she must go the way of all the great commercial States of the past, from Phoenicia to Holland. We have seldom read a cruder statement of the view that might is right than is

to be found in this strange paean of Bismarckian materialism. —Mr. Archibald Hurd in his paper on "The Government and the Navy" maintains that the latest changes are a normal development of the naval policy initiated under the Unionist Government two years ago, adding that it is no discredit to the Board of Admiralty that they will result in further economies. Hence his conclusion :— "Presuming that the Government adheres to its pledges—and there is no justification for a conviction before trial—the nation may remain calm even in face of the continued increase of the German Fleet. We have before us—approximately in 1910 and onwards—a serious struggle for our naval supremacy, but we have a lead. In the meantime those who realise that the Fleet is England's all in all' can do more patriotic service by supporting the Cabinet against assault by a section of its least statesmanlike and most irresponsible supporters than by raising a premature cry of " It is only fair to add that the article was written before the announcement that the 'Dreadnought '—which Mr. Hurd pronounces to be the ship of the future, and to embody, in the opinion of "all nations," the lessons of the war in the Far East—was to be attached to the Home Fleet.—Under the title of "A Liberal's Plea for Compulsory Service" Mr. G. G. Coulton gives a concise description of the Swiss system and its advantages. Not the least valuable part of the article is that which summarises the answers which he received from representative men of all parties on the influence of compulsory service on the trade, physique, and temper of the country. Social Democrats are at one with Conserva- tives in their support of the principle, and in the assertion that a citizen Army, officered by citizens, is the best safeguard against Jingoism.—Mr. Charles Dawbarn contributes an interesting paper on the growth of " Feminisme " in France ; and amongst the miscellaneous papers we may notice a genial appreciation of the Frenchwomen of the Salons by Mrs. Hylton Dale.

"The Coming Social Revolution," by Mr. J. H. Balfour- Browne, K.C., in the National Review, should be read in connexion with Mr. Masterman's paper noticed above. Mr.

Balfour-Browne sees no hope of political or economic salvation in a Collectivist Government. In his view, though we may be whipped with whips by the capitalist, we should be scourged with scorpions by the Co-operative Commonwealth. As regards the future of Liberalism, he anticipates an inevitable cleavage between moderates and extremists, and holds that for the former the only chance of success in resisting the progress of Socialism is to become members with the Unionists of a great Constitutional party. But his criticisms are not directed against the Liberals alone. He condemns a want of principle in the debilitated ranks of the Unionists as well as in the plethoric ranks of the Government majority. "Each of these residual products is too apt to coquet with the forces which are marching to the conquest of private property through legislation." The editor, we may add, puts this point rather more strongly on another page when he says : "To do any good, we have to beat both Labour and Liberalism."—Baron Wallis, for the last fifteen years Governor-General of the Congo State, contributes a paper on "The True Situation on the Congo," which is at best a very mild piece of whitewashing, being almost exclusively confined to amiable assurances of the humane intentions of his Government. He attributes the decline of the population mainly to the sleeping sickness, repudiates the insinuation that the Judges take their instructions from the Government, but has not a word to say on the suppression of the evidence given before the Court of Inquiry. Finally, he claims that Belgian national sentiment, excluding the few discordant voices of an insignificant minority, "will not tolerate that a few isolated criminals shall be confounded with the glorious army of its citizens who have shed their blood in Africa, and who are consecrating their efforts to a work of civilisation." —The editor's "Episodes of the Month" are as stimulating and unconventional as ever. He bewails the "ineffable in- eptitude" of the Opposition in the Commons, and finds his mouth watering at the thought of the mincemeat to which the Fourth Party would have reduced the present Ministry. For the moment the only two Unionist leaders of whom he seems to have any hope are Mr. Austen Chamberlain—who has recently appeared on the same platform as Mr. H. H. Marks —and Mr. Walter Long. Finally, we may note one delightful sentence in which he observes that "there is something to be said in favour of the Second Ballot, even though it is advo- cated by Mr. Winston Churchill."—The gist of the article on "The Fiscal Problem" is that the temporary withdrawal from the arena of Mr. Chamberlain, so far from being a reason for "damping down" Tariff Reform, should rather stimulate its supporters to redoubled efforts.—Mr. A. C. Benson offers some sensible suggestions with a view to rendering sermons more interesting. In particular, he recommends a wider use of the biographical method. "Why," he asks, "is it justifiable to attempt to spin a sermon out of the meagre and attenuated records of the life of St. Matthias or St. Jude, and not to preach about Gordon or Father Damien ? "

The sketch of M. Clemenceau which Mr. Laurence Jerrold contributes to the Contemporary Review is vivacious, but abounds in left-handed compliments, all the more remarkable in that the writer claims personal friendship with the French

Premier. Thus Mr. Jerrold observes that Mr. Clem enceau's total unscrupulousness in politics is one of his charms, throughout lays stress on his eel-like dexterity in extricating himself from embarrassing situations, and admires him neither for his con- duct nor his character, but for his unfailing sense of the picturesque.—Under the heading "Naval Scares" Lord Eversley writes with tempered optimism of our Admiralty policy. As to the maintenance of our naval supremacy he has little doubt ; but at the same time he utters a gentle pro-

test against the growing worship of speed and size in battle- ships, and, following up a suggestion of Captain Mahan's, ex- presses the hope that an international agreement may be come to for a proportional reduction or limitation of the "proposed monstrous construction" programmes of the leading naval Powers.—The most noteworthy part of M. Paul Sabatier's article on "The Religious Movement in France" is his endorse- ment of the very striking anonymous appeal to the Pope of a, group of French Roman Catholics. The document runs as follows "In lifting our voice towards your Apostolic throne, Holy Father, we, who respect even divisions which we deplore, would separate ourselves from those mischief-making Catholics whose blindness has brought us into an abyss. History, which will judge between us and them, will condemn their lack of Christianity as much as their lack of judgment. At the same time we are resolved not to be confounded with those accommo- dating Catholics whose complaisant language or equivocal silence is not what should be expected from their sense of religion or from a clear-sighted patriotism. We are moved by our love of the Church of which, after all, there is no more reason to despair in our country than elsewhere. We are equally moved by the sacred interests of France, as noble a country to-day as she has been in the past. And if it be true that the vote of the bishops under the Concordat, when they found themselves confronted by a law of their own country, has drawn from you the cry—intended as a reproach, but which will remain their finest eulogism, They have acted like Frenchmen !' know, Holy Father, that the real France, which does not join leagues, or agitate, or intrigue, which thinks and works, was on that occasion absolutely in accord with her bishops. The most wonderful of all the daughters of olden France, whom our little children invoke on their knees and whom you will shortly elevate into a saint to be prayed to in the churches— Joan of Arc—was moved to tears when she heard the archangels descended from heaven to tell her of 'the great pity that there was for the kingdom of France.' Forgive us, Father of all Christians, if we have dared to speak to you, while there is yet time, of the great pity which is at this moment in tho souls of the chiefs of our dioceses and the best of the faithful, in the souls of our wives, our daughters, and our mothers, in the souls of all who understand that the concerns of Catholicism are with us bound up with the destinies of our great country and of a civilisation which will never deny the principles of the French Revolution, but which derives its origin from a more distant and a loftier source, from the Gospel and from the very heart of Christ."

This appeal has been furiously denounced by the extreme Romanists in France and Italy as "silly and insolent gibberish," "the work of a handful of fools," or as "a Jewish- Freemason-Huguenot intrigue." M. Sabatier himself has no doubt of its genuineness, and while regretting that the signatories preferred to remain anonymous, understands their disinclination to incur ostracism by coming out into the open : "Catholics they are ; Catholics they intend to remain. In their soul and conscience they feel their right to remain in their mother's house, and own their duty not to abandon it to the strangers and bastards who have invaded it. What matter the names or position of those who have penned these pages, if what they have written be tho truth ? People are shocked, it seems, by the praises which they have received from the organs of the Left. Perhaps those who believe in the infallibility of that sign would do well to remember that one, a certain Jesus of Nazareth, scandalised exceedingly the purists of his day by eating with publicans and people of bad life and even by not repelling their homage."

Canon Hensley Henson writes a forcible paper on "Letters of Business." His contention is that if letters of business were acted upon, the result would only be to illustrate in a most unfortunate way the discrepancy between the national and the Convocational points of view, to bring the representative insti- tutions of Church and State into open conflict, and to lend the stimulus and encouragement of Convocational approval to the lawless proceedings of the Ritualists. Hence his con- clusion :—" Our strength as a Church is to sit still. There are forces at work which, if but they be given time enough, will silently but surely correct the obscurantist tendencies which at the moment are dominant in the hierarchy." He looks to the revival of the now depressed Low Church Party as a way

out of present difficulties ; "but for the resurrection of the

Low Church Party, as for the decay of sacerdotalism, we want time, not 'Letters of Business.'"

Dr. Dillon, writing in the Fortnightly, dismisses the possibility of the Russian Empire being governed by the

Duma as not to be seriously entertained. The prospect of the administration of a complex State, which covers one- sixth of the earth, by a Parliament without tradition or experience certainly does not seem to promise hopeful results. The writer asks us to consider the probability of success of a Parliament sitting in Paris trying to govern the whole of Europe outside Russia with a part of North Africa thrown in. He says :—" Intensify the difficulty by making the minds of the majority of its members a perfect blank on most topics that interest mankind, while the political convictions or sentiments of the few who lead them are socialistic, republican, anarchistic, revolutionary, absolutist, or self-seeking." Dr. Dillon thinks that the outcome of the Russian chaos will be the self-government of the various provinces, and that to such a solution all things are tending. The patriotism of three centuries ago is evaporating, and the Russian of to-day "reeks not whether the Poles, the Letts, the Lithuanians, the Esthonians, and the Little Russians follow the example of the Finns and shake off their allegiance to the Empire." The utter impossibility of local Governors getting the bureaucracy of St.

Petersburg to pay attention to their needs causes a great straining of the bonds that tie the Empire together, and Dr. Dillon concludes by observing that "the important point for Europe is that almost every symptom of the present moment points towards the dismemberment of the Russian E mpire."— The article by Mr. Wells on "Socialism and the Middle Classes" is interesting, but disappointing from a certain vagueness. We are not quite sure if this vagueness results from a desire not to scare people by the suggestions of a concrete attempt to bring about a new heaven and a new earth, or from a difficulty of formulating an inspiration in the terms of practical reform. The main charge brought against the present state of things is that of "social incoherence and waste." Mr. Wells sees that to realise his desires he must

convert the middle classes. He points out how attractive his reorganisation ought to be to the architects, engineers, and scientific organisers, for "enormous rebuilding, remaking, and expansion" must take place. Likewise his ideal, he thinks, ought to be welcome to the doctors and philanthropists. We gather that the writer considers that what he calls the old " proprietary " ideal of the family is giving way, and a new conception of the rights of the rising generation is taking shape, and that this emanCipation will tell in favour of Socialism. Mr. Wells realises that the dead weight of the English con- servative instinct is against change. Also that true Socialism is prejudiced by the belief that it means general expropriation,

or "the encouragement of stupid little municipal authorities of the contemporary type in impossible business under- takings."

The paper in Blackwood by Mr. A. H. Grant describing a winter at Kabul with Sir Louis Dane's Mission is full of interest

and graphic description. The uniform consideration with which the Mission was treated gives a pleasant impression of the courtesy of the Afghans. From the Amir downwards, every one appears to have behaved with the greatest friendliness; and though, of course, the members of the Mission were most strictly guarded by their hosts, no trouble seems to have been spared to make their stay pleasant. An incident of the signing of the Treaty by the Amir is recorded which shows that the old traditions of Persian scholarship are still alive among Anglo-Indians. The Treaty was engrossed in duplicate on parchment, and when the Amir was about to sign an attendant upset the ink over one of the copies :—

" 'After all,' said the Amir with a smile, it's the contents of the Treaty which we care about, not its looks. This is only a mole on its face.' Whereupon Sir L. Dane, with great felicity, quoted the words of Haflz, would give all Samarkand and Bokhara for the Indian-dark mole on the face of my lady-love.' This being a very well-known verse, was received with great applause.'

How the incident would have rejoiced the men of the last generation who brought back editions of Hafiz and Sa‘di to their homes in England, and who chanted to themselves

" Agur an Turki Shirazi."----The Dean of St. Patrick's, the Rev. J. H. Bernard, writes on "Dean Swift in Dublin," and

shows how Swift impressed himself on Ireland and made his personality felt. Swift was like those unstable chemical

compounds which explode on receiving a jar. An amusing instance of this is given. The Primate Bonner, with whom Swift was at perpetual war, made some proposal for lowering the value of the gold coin :—

" When the proclamation was made, Swift showed what he thought of it by hanging out a black flag from the tower of St. Patrick's, and causing a muffled peal to be rung on the bells. The Primate is said to have expostulated with the Dean for inflaming the populace against him ; but the remonstrance only provoked the scornful answer : 'If I were but to lift my finger they would tear you in pieces.' " The Dean's marginal comments on documents bear witness to his temperament. The following sentence is written on a lease : "This Basseuet was kin to the Scoundrel who sur- rendered the Deaneiy to that Beast Henry VIII." The Deanery appears to have contained several staircases, and in wet weather the Dean used these for taking exercise by running violently "up the great stairs, down one pair of back stairs

and up another." Perhaps this was done not only for exercise, but also for what we should now call letting off steam. In rela- tion to the question of Swift's marriage with Stella the Dean of St. Patrick's gives us a hitherto unpublished document. This is a letter from the Bishop of Meath to the Archbishop, dated July 27th, 1723, which has recently come to light at Christ Church, Oxford. In this letter the story of Vanessa's dis- covery of the marriage is related. Before this letter was found there was no contemporary allusion to a marriage.

In the Independent Review Mr. Brougham Villiers discusses "A Fiscal Policy for Labour." This policy, which emanates from West Ham, has the merit of being simple, and amounts to such a graduation of the Income-tax that no one could have

a larger income than about 2116,000 a year. At the same time, a revision of the Death-duties would hand over to the State everything above 2500,000. Mr. Villiers puts his finger at once on the weak place, and points out that the Treasury would only reap one golden harvest of the first magnitude.

As he does not object to the plan on principle, he suggests that the State must treat the products of such taxation, not as income, but as capital. Incidentally Mr. Villiers describes the money spent on the Army and Navy as "socially wasted."

Does he, we wonder, insure his house against fire, or does he consider that to do so would be waste P—Miss Constance Clyde writes an article of some suggestiveness on "The Demand for Pain." She points out how many things mankind has done involving pain, apparently for its own sake, amongst others the lives led by hermits and pilgrims. How unsatisfying and without interest Utopias, past and present, have been, because authors have failed to grasp the mysterious truth that human nature for fruition demands pain as well as happiness.— Mr. W. K. McClure, writing of consumptive patients, shows how difficult it is becoming for them to go to the good climates of Southern Europe. The scare caused by the discovery that consumption can be caught has made people dread contact with invalids suffering from this disease, and caused people to fall into the error of exaggerating the communicability of the complaint. The Riviera and Algiers are now practically closed, at least as far as hotels go, and only certain Swiss health resorts remain open. But all cases do not require Alpine cold, and the exclusion from the warm countries seems hard.

Socialism occupies an important place in the Monthly Review, as it does in most of the magazines. In the first article Mr. Strong writes generally of the Labour Party, and notes the fact that at the last Election no candidate who avowed him- self a Socialist pure and simple obtained a majority.—Mr. Mallock writes of "The Intellectual Condition of the Labour Party." But in truth the paper is an analysis of Ruskin's political economy, and to show that Ruskin was contradictory and inconsistent in his writings is not a difficult task. In

a concluding paragraph Mr. Mallock attributes Ruskin 's doctrines and their fallacies to the Labour Party.—Mr. Justice Phillimore has collected a large number of sporting terms which have passed into ordinary speech, and gives us their origins. Some of the words and phrases have travelled far from their land of birth, and as an instance of this may be noted "exchequer." This word comes from "shah," a varia-

tion of " shah " in the game of chess, intermediate stages being "cheek" and "chequer-board," The origin of the term "love" in tennis is said to be "rceuf," "the round 0 like

an egg chalked up by the marker," in fact the "duck's egg."—" The Walking Parson" records his experiences in a five-hundred-mile walk across Sweden. He notes the great politeness of the people. All Swedish boys, it seems, stop their play to take off their caps to a stranger. The cleanli- ness of the people, too, appears to be beyond praise. They begin young because at school, instead of musical drill, "the children are ranged round the room in baths, and when the music strikes up they begin to rub and scrub one another to its strains." Mr. Cooper wished to take some characteristic product of the country back to his wife and children, and con- sulted a Swedish gentleman as to what the country was specially noted for. "My companion thought a moment or two, and then replied: 'Explosives.'"