THE EDINBURGH REVIEW.
Tau concluding article in the July number of the Edinburgh Review is an emphatic condemnation of the Budget, all the more forcible because the writer goes far in his general approval of the Government's conduct of affairs. The fact is that the "Mountain" in the Cabinet has triumphed again. It was prophesied some time ago that Messrs. Lloyd George and Churchill would propose a Socialistic scheme, that their colleagues would reject it, that they would thereupon resign, and that the next swing of the pendulum would bring them, not the Imperialist Liberals, to the top. The first item of the prediction is fulfilled; but the colleagues did not reject, and the two political steeplechasers did not get the fall they were said to be riding for.—It is pleasant to turn to the article on "South African Union." There have been generosity and courage here, and good sense and moderation there; "nothing has so much impressed the Boer leaders with a sense of admiration as this policy of confidence." Of course there will be difficulties ; problems of race and language are not to be solved in a moment. But the future looks hopeful. And England will not miss her reward. "In the event of a European war South Africa would stand as one man with the rest of the Empire," said a speaker who had had the reputation Of being an irreconcilable. But all this, let it be remembered, would not have been but for the war.—There is an article on "The Navy" which we cannot discuss here ; we are quite at one with the writer when he says that the "desire of the oversee dominions to take part in the naval defence of the Empire will most likely soon have an important effect on international politics."—A kindred subject is treated in "International Prize Law and the Declaration of London." Perhaps the most important point of difference between the British and the Russo-German attitude is the right of a belligerent to destroy a prize which it is not convenient to take into port. We deny the right in tote. It is not possible either to guard against abuse, or to provide a remedy.—In foreign politics we have "The Problem of Hungary." It is well observed that the "Constitutional liberty" which is the Magyar ideal is "that of the ancient democracies which made of the demos itself a privileged class, leaving out of its account the herd of the unfree." How universal suffrage can be made to fit in with this may be seen in the description of Count Andrisssy's Bill. " C'est un instrument do domination," says the Journal des Debats.—" Frontiers Ancient and Modern" dwells ohieity on two debatable lands, past or present, the Caucasus and Afghanistan. —The other articles are "The Mystical Element in Religion," "The Naturalist Transition in French Fiction," "Fallacies and Superstitions." "Modern Dutch Painting," and "Richard Jefferies."
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