THE QUARTERLIES.
Tan Edinburgh.—World-politios are represented in this number by an article which, with great ingenuity, compares the Peace movement of to-clay with the Holy Alliance of the first quarter of the nineteenth century. This combination started with a desire,
genuine so far at least as its author, Alexander of Russia, was con- cerned, to ensure the peace of the world ; it became an undisguised instrument of absolutist reaction. It is a fact full of hope that there is no possibility of such a degeneration in the Hague Con- ference. At the same time we see the difficulties of the problem.
How about the international police which is to enforce the de- cisions of the Peace Authority ? Could we have another Alexander proposing to march a hundred and fifty thousand of such police —all, by chance, of Russian nationality—to put down a republican movement in Spain?—It is something of a shock to turn from this to "Great Britain, Germany, and Limited War." This paper is an able review of Captain Mahan's Naval Strategy and Mr, Julian Cor- bett's Principles of Naval Strategy ; but we must be content with a very brief statement of the conclusions reached. The German Navy is not created to defend the German coasts, which no one thinks of attacking, nor to protect German trade, for which it must be inadequate. It may do something in preying on British com- merce, but not enough to justify an outlay which is seriously embarrassing the national finance. Its real purpose is to secure the command of the sea.—Home politics are represented by the article "Home Rule or a 'United Kingdom," necessarily written before the details of the Bill were known. Those details, however, do not allay the apprehensions of Unionists. What- ever Mr. Redmond may say now, we know what he really means. Nor could there be anything more significant than the rehabilitation of Parnell. "None of us will be satisfied," said Parnell, "until we have destroyed the last link which keeps Ireland bound to England."—There is an instructive survey of a history which conies next in interest to our own in "Canada during the Laurier Regime." We cannot but think that there was something more than the anxiety of manu- facturers about their profits that brought about the rejection of Reciprocity.—" Prehistoric Man" is an admirable review of the subject, somewhat unsettling, perhaps, in some of its conjectures. Can it be that the Mousterian cave-dwellers- the Mousterians are represented by the Neanderthal skeleton— were equals in intellectual capacity to presont-day man? The whole story of the succession of races is perplexing. How about the doctrine of development when s, gifted race such as the artistic Cromagnards, superior even to the Mousterians, were out- lived by the inferior Neolithic peoples ? We can but enumerate the other articles; "Cardinal Newman," "The House of Herod in History and Art," The Court of Star Chamber," "The 'Poetics' of Aristotle," "Laughter," "The International Map of the World."
In the Quarterly, the question of Welsh Disesta,blishment is
well, put in the article on "The Church in Wales." The Bill of this year as adumbrated by Ministerial statements is a shade bettor than that of 1909, but the difference is not much more than that between the brutal highwayman who strips the traveller of everything and the gentlemanly performer who leaves him his silver to go on with. As to the relative numbers of the Church and the sects some curious facts are given. The Welsh dioceses really stand high in the proportionate table of communicants in Eri gland and Wales. St. Asaph, for instance, is not far from the top. As for the figures of the disestablishers
they must be carefully verified. It is suspicious that they have always opposed a religious census. One remembers, too. that, when the Welsh monoglots were counted, children which could not speak at all wore duly reckoned. — Sir Arthur Markliam's "Coal Strike" is an able statement of a difficult subject, "A very considerable minority (of coalowners) have not treated their men fairly." The minimum-wage principle does not approve itself to him. "It gives a subsidy to the owner of the badly managed mines," But the question cannot be dis- cussed here.—A kindred matter is discussed in "Agricultural Labourers and Landowners," by Mr. R. E. Prothero. Of all regrets for the past that for the open-field system is as foolish as any. Lot any one look at a map of a parish as it was when the system was at work and the sight will be enough. Anything more wasteful of time and labour cannot be imagined. A. hundred strips of land belonging to thirty or forty owners, the strips of the owner lying sometimes as far apart as the size of the parish permitted. Who can wondor that agriculture practised under such conditions was unprogressive and unprofitable F—A social question of much importance is discussed in "Garden Cities, Housing, and Town-Planning," by Mr. Henry Vivian. What the writer says about house property, among other things, is especially worth reading.—A most adinirable literary essay is to be seen in Mr. J. C. Bailey's " Thackeray and the English Novels." The centenary year has called forth no filler tribute to the great man's genius.—We would also mention with special praise "The St. Lawrence," by Colonel Wood (of Quebec).—.--The other articles, making up a number of unusual excellence, are "The Younger Pitt," by C. Grant Robertson, "Beau Nash and Bath," "The Elizabethan Ago in Recent Literary History," by Professor Horford, " Cavour and the Making of Italy," by J. A. R. Marriott, "John Henry Newman," "The Wonderful Adventures of Dr. Cook "—a very convincing statement indeed—" Tho Face of the Earth," by the Rev. Professor Bonney, and "The Chinese Revolu- tion," by Sir Valentine ChiroL
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