C URRENT LITE RAT ETRE.
THE QUARTERLIES.
The Anglo-Saxon Review. (John Lane. 21s.)—The print, binding, and illustrations of this magnificent quarterly are as good as ever, and continue to reflect great credit on all engaged in its production. The most interesting illustration is a picture of Lady Hamilton by Tischbein, a German portrait painter of her period. The face is not idealised, and one cannot help thinking it must have been a good likeness. There are also reproductions of an intaglio and of an Italian miniature of Lady Hamilton. rhey are both interesting. The letterpress is as usual quite up to the beat magazine average, and there is a pleasant mixture A history, belles-lettres, criticism, and fiction. Mr. Andrew Lang is always entertaining when he deals with the supernatural, and his critical chaff of Mrs. Piper and her spirits is specially amusing. We may note also the account of "The Bluidy Advo- cate Mackenzie," whose portrait by Kneller illustrates the article. Mr. S. Lane-Poole, we may add, writes, and, as always, interest- ingly, on Sir Harry Parkes in China.
In the new Edinburgh Review the first place is given to an able and impartial summary of "The War in South Africa," which draws special attention to the lack of preparation for a war on a large scale in which both the Government and the War Office were found a year ago. Its writer asserts, as of knowledge, in regard to the deficiency of ammunition when war was declared, that "if in October last we had been involved in a war with a European Power, and if the Navy as well as the Army had required ammunition, national disaster would have been in- evitable." He calculates that the new Colonies will require a garrison of at least fifty thousand men for some years. An article on the General Election lays stress on the failure of the Opposition, and the need that the Government should not there- fore think that the country is not keenly anxious to see them alive to the great questions which have to be settled,—prominent among them the new modelling of the Army and the overhauling of the Navy. I well-balanced article on "The Sick and Wounded" draws attention to the shortcomings of our medical service, and suggests for imitation such a system as that of the Germans, who contrive to keep a large majority of civil doctors in touch with the Army. Another aspect of "world-politics" is noticed in the article on "China and International Questions," which reviews the events of the past six months, and argues that the interests of Europe would be best served by "a China preserving her territorial integrity, possessing a strong Government and a pure adminis- trative system, with order maintained in every province, and as open to legitimate foreign trade as most countries now are." We are not told how it is to be attained. The miscellaneous contents of the number include an interesting study of Byron, a biography of Helmholtz, a criticism of M. Rostand's plays, historical articles on Italian unity, Burnet's Scotland, and Citsar's Gaul, and a sound discussion of the economic and social aspects of "municipal trading."
The Quarterly is a particularly interesting number. Among Ole political articles, that on the General Election is the most important. We are glad to see that the Quarterly takes our view as to the attacks on Mr. Chamberlain. It also very properly denounces the folly of assuming that all who voted for Liberals were dead to the interests of their country, if not actual traitors. The stand which has been made on all sides against the new vlec tioneoring methods is one of the most encouraging symptoms uf the general sanity and good taste which still prevail in English
politics. Stress is laid on the fact that the first duty of the Government is to ensure us "absolute security at sea—which we no longer enjoy." The South African article reviews the history of attempts to federate South Africa, due to Sir George Grey, Lord Carnarvon, and Mr. Rhodes, and iterates the warning that federation, to be satisfactory, must come from within. "The Chinese Crisis" is regarded in a pessimistic light by a well. informed writer, who urges that our policy should be the preserva- tion of the eighteen provinces, if the other Powers will support us ; otherwise we, too, must adopt a "sphere," and stick to it. A writer on "The Coming Presidential Election" reviews the history of the past four years in the United States, but declines to predict the result of the voting. Among the general articles that on "Malaria and the Mosquito" will be read with great interest, as the first popular and complete account of the remark- able discoveries which have lately thrown so much light on the nature of one of the worst scourges of humanity. A historical essay on Morocco is timely, in view of the probable movements of France. An unusually ,good set of literary articles includes essays on Lamb and M. Anatole France, an account of Longinus, in which some reason is shown to restore the treatise on the Sublime to him of Palmyra, and a welcome protest against the vulgarity, and worse, of much that pretends to be "English patriotic poetry."
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