SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this headins les notice such Books of the week as hays not been reserved for review in other forms.] The Report of the Conference on Nationalities and Subject Races, held in London last year (P. S. King and Son. Ss. 6d. net), offers the reader a large quantity of interesting, if somewhat controversial, matter. Papers are printed on behalf of eight " oppressed " nationalities, namely, Egypt, Finland, Georgia, India, Ireland, Morocco, Persia, and Poland ; and protests are also made against slavery and forced labour in Africa and South America. Among the writers we may mention Ice names of Professor Gilbert Murray, Mr. Nevinson, Mr. Cunninghame-Graham, Mr. Chester- ton, and the late Sir Charles Dilke. It must be confe:s that the chief reflection that arises from the perusal of these many lectures and speeches is that nothing is easier than to talk nonsense on the subject of nationality. The amount of question begging and invalid generalization and loose thinking of every sort to be found in this volume is astonishing. It must not be inferred from this that there are not many very real grievances exposed in it, and many very true analyses offered of particular situations. But when the writers abandon specific instances of oppression and begin to talk at large upon " nationalism " their reason seems almost invariably overwhelmed by a rush of prejudice and feeling. The one thing that one would have supposed certain about the theory of government is the impos- sibility of generalizing with regard to it. But this the supporters of "nationalism" are prepared to do with the utmost naiveté.
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