Mr. Stead publishes in the Review of Reviews a letter
from Mr. Rhodes, written in 1890, in which he embodies his aspirations for the Anglo-Saxon race. He hoped that it would rule the world, enforce universal peace, and make mankind happy by justice and enlightenment. To secure this end, however, it must wake to a consciousness of its mission, give up thinking of domestic reforms, and federate itself under a constitution like that of the United States, which admits a maximum of Home-rule, even if federa- tion involved a Republic in Great Britain. The capital of such a world-State would be alternately Washington and London. To hasten the accomplishment of this purpose he would found a society organised like that of the Jesuits to capture the very rich, thus enabling them to relieve them. selves of the harassing duty of deciding " among incompetent relatives," and by gradually accumulating the wealth of the world, to master it within a hundred years. Mr. Rhodes probably abandoned this project, which is in itself dreamily absurd, the selfishness of the many and the judgment of the few being equally opposed to it ; but it reveals in a striking way the dreamy side of a man who, having done big things, had become possessed by the Anglo-Saxon idea, as the Julian Emperors were possessed by the Roman. It reveals, too, how genuine was his bourgeois faith that wealth can always rule mankind. The wealth of France was almost entirely in the hands of the nobles and clergy just before the Revolution sent them in batches to the guillotine.
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