SOME BOOKS O THE WEEK.
[Yolks in lkis adroit diet nal necessarily preclude sidneinent review.] Tam QUARTERLIES.—The Quarterly Review for October opens with a notable article by M. Henri Welschinger on "The Private Papers of M. Thiers." The extracts which he publishes for the first time include Thiers's instructions for the removal of Napoleon's remains from St. Helena and his letter to an elector supporting the candidature of Louis Napoleon_ for the Presidency—a letter which explains why Thiers was allowed to return from exile as early as 1852, and to live unmolested under the Second Empire. Mr. H. G. Hutchinson tries to make our flesh creep in an article on World Congestion and the Real Armageddon." The hypothesis is that the world can only support six thousand million people, and that this total will lie reached in 1921. He discusses the possi- bilities inherent iu this alarming prediction, which assumes that the population's rate of increase is constant, and that the productive capacity of the soil is fixed. Mr. Hutchinson will, at any rate, comfort those who are concerned about the depopulation of Europe try the war. An important article describes " The Bagdad Rail- etay Negotiations," which were almost completed on the eve of the war, The concessions made by us to Germany are explained and defended. Another article sketches a possible " Final Settle. snent in the Balkans" from the pro-Bulgarian standpoint, which still has a few persevering advocates in this country. Serbia, accord. ing to this anonymous writer, is to be deprived of Monastir. Mr. Arnold Wright's account of "A New India : the Malay States" is well worth reading. The progress of the Malay States within the last generation is one of the marvels of modem history. Mr. J. E. G. de Montmorency. writing on National Education, predicted that " if Mr. Fisher's Bill fails, it will be because of the financial muddle that mars it." His gloomy forecast has coma true, for the Bill has been 'at least postponed.---The Edinburgh Review for October contains several articles of great interest. Mr. H. IV. Steed in " What is Austria f " discloses the fact that on July 20th, 1914, Count Mensdorff, the Austrian Ambas- sador in London, bluntly asked him to use his influence in the British Press to defend Austria. " Serbia must be punished; but if the Press will give the lead, British public opinion will remain friendly to us, and the conflict may be localised." Mr. Steed with equal bluntness refused to " help Austria to commit suicide," and warned Count Mensdorff that Russia would stand up for Serbia. that Germany would attack France, and that Great Britain would intervene on behalf of Belgium "I have the assurence that you will not intervene." replied the Count. Mr. Steed soya that he told the Foreign Office at once of this amazing con- versation, but found it convinced of Germany's desire for peace. Mr. David Hannay dim tr -e " The War and the Naval Offensive " temperately but candidly, and concludes that it was a . capital crror not to expedite the construction of merchant ships as soon as the gravity of the submarine menace became apparent in the first winter of the war. Mr. J. St. Loe Strachey 's! article on "The -Vital Element its Poetry" illustrates the eseential importance of this element without seeking to define what is, like the vitamins in food, a necessary but as yet indefinable thing:-
" It will remain one of the secrets of existence. But that is no reason why we should not try to fathom the mystery. If we do not succeed, the search will `be sure to justify itself in our discoveries by the way. In seeking the Philosopher's Stone men became chemists. It was through the study of astrology that astronomy was horn. . . . In the same way, though we may never be able to define precisely, the vital element in poetry, may not the search lead no to a fuller mastery of the benign mysteries of verse ? "
Mr. Strachey in his examples and comments plays havoc with the orthodox judgments of the literary historian, in regard, for example to Thomson, Adam Lindsay Gordon, and Thomas Moore. Mies Rose Kingsley's historical sketeh of "The Order of St. John of Jerusalem " and Dr. Freeberg Wright's account of "The Letts " are timely and interesting.
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