THE QUARTERLIES.
THE July number of the Edinburgh Review is the first issued under the editorship of Mr. Harold Cox, and it may be said at once, and as the highest praise, that it fully maintains the standard which was set up by the previous editor, Mr. Arthur Elliot. The principal innovation that has been introduced—and it is one which will, we fancy, be generally approved—is Vat a certain number of the articles are signed. Of another innovation, however, we cannot speak so favourably. In future those who wait anxiously each quarter for the clay
"when the next Review Spreads its light wino of saffron and of blue"
will find the saffron to cheer them as before, but will look in vain for the familiar blue. Most readers of the Edinburgh will grieve, we feel sure, at the substitution (for sufficient reasons, no doubt) of a paler and feebler tint for the rich sugar-paper cover which they have known so long. But, though they may shed a tear over the Edinburgh's new clothes, they will hasten to wipe it up when they go beneath the surface. The quality of the articles, both political and literary, could not be improved. The editorial upon "Contemporary Politics" shows that the sound Whig traditions are to be carried on. The subject, which Mr. Cox sets out and illustrates with much clarity of thought and style, is the public indifference to politics and the best means of bringing it to an end. The two remaining political articles, both of which are unsigned, deal with the King's visit to India and its important effects, and with the economic side of the Home Rule question.—Mr. J. 0. P. Bland contributes one of his authoritative articles upon "The Causes of Chinese Unrest." China, he says, suffers, and has for centuries suffered, from chronic disorganization, and of this the greatest and most deeply rooted cause is over-population and the desperate struggle for existence to which it leads. "During the long centuries of China's seclusion and contempt for the outer barbarian, ever since the time when the Great Wall was built to guard her in self-sufficient isolation, this grim struggle has been going on. . . . During all these centuries the cause of China's never-ending unrest, of civil wars, and ever-recurring anarchy, has been au fond a strife for food." Other potent causes of unrest mentioned by Mr. Bland are the absence of any living religion among the mass of the people, and their democratic philosophy which "makes loyalty to a leader the rarest of Chinese virtues." As to the future, Mr. Bland is a pessimist, and he frankly declares his conviction that no salvation can come from the present leaders of Young China.—The long anonymous article upon "Safety of Life at Sea" will also be read with deep interest. The writer draws many weightily expressed conclusions from the loss of the 'Titanic.' But the main motive of his argument seems to be to emphasize the present danger that, with an over-excited public; opinion, attempts may be made to impose regulations for the purpose of gaining safety against certain risks at the cost of increasing other and no less formidable risks. To avoid this danger it is necessary to proceed with care, and to investigate and consider fully all the aspects of the question of safety at sea.— Among the other articles, which we cannot find space to discuss, is an entertaining account of the state of "Zoology in the Time of Shakespeare," by Dr. Shipley, and a criticism of "Chauvinism in Music," by Mrs. Newmarch. Finally, wo must mention the extremely delightful paper by Mr. Gosse upon the I1Ltel de Rambouillet.
The Home Rule Bill supplies the subject for the only purely political article in the Quarterly Review, but two others, also anonymous, deal with questions of the hour, namely, Mr. Norman Angell's pacificist arguments and the recent decision in the case of Bannister v. Thompson. Mr. G. F. Abbott writes upon the Tripolitan War, and his views, founded as they are upon his personal observations, deserve to attract attention, though we are not always in agreement with them. Mr. Abbott's main thesis is the difficult position of the Italians, which he maintains is growing worse. "With every week that has passed since October 1911 the position of the invaders has grown weaker and that of the defenders stronger." This fact he attributes to the "inexplicable immobility" of the Italians at the beginning of the war. Had they at once pressed forward into the interior, Mr. Abbott believes that they could without difficulty have occupied what are now the centres of Turco-Arab resistance. As it is, however, the Arabs have been greatly reinforced both in men and in courage, and, in Mr. Abbott's opinion, there is grave danger of a Pan-Islamic rising all over Africa in consequence of the successful resistance to the Italians in Tripoli.—Tho most noticeable literary article is the reprint of the lecture upon "The Novel in The Ring and the Book" which Mr. Henry James delivered at the Browning Centenary celebrations in May. Mr. James explains in his fascinating manner how the theme of "The Ring and the Book" seems to him an ideal subject for prose treatment. We cannot resist quoting a characteristic sentence in which he describes the first impression which the poem creates upon the mind :—" The Ring and the Book' is so vast and so essentially Gothic a structure, spreading and soaring and branch- ing at such a rate, covering such ground, putting forth such pinnacles, and towers, and brave excrescences, planting its transepts and chapels and porticoes, its clustered hugeness or inordinate muchness, that with any first approach we but walk vaguely and slowly, rather bewilderedly, round and round it, wondering at what point we had best attempt such entrance as will save our steps and light our uncertainty, most enable to reach our personal chair, our indicated chapel or shrine, when once within."—Mr. Stephen Reynolds writes with enthusiasm upon "Joseph Conrad and Sea Fiction." While admitting that as narratives of events Mr. Conrad's novels some- times lack form and interest, Mr. Reynolds claims for them psychological unity. But it is, above all, in their expression of he emotions connected with the sea that the works are to be admired. "A Pole by birth, a naturalized Englishman, author, and various other things, Conrad is most of all and at heart a seaman, a master mariner, of the British merchant service."—From the remaining articles we may seleot for notice a study of the Russian drama, by Mr. George Calderon, and an appreciation of the work of Mrs. Humphry Ward, by the Rev. Alfred Fawkes. Mr. Fawkes considers that Mrs. Ward's novels have left their mark upon the thought even more than upon the literature of the age.
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