High - School Lectures. By M. E. G. Hewett. (Swan Sonnen- schein
and Co.)—In these utterances of an experienced and skilful Colonial teacher, there is so much to interest fellow
workers in the old country, that it is difficult to select one or more of the lectures for special commendation. There are also references to local affairs, and to the aspirations of women in regard to them, which might well be pondered by those who have the welfare of the Greater Britain at heart. This is specially the case with the lecture on "Politics and Women's Rights." Miss Hewett writes enthusiastically, but not in a wild or fanatical spirit, and her advice to the young is so brightly yet so earnestly given, that it would be pleasant to quote much of it; but as the earlier lectures deal with much that is elementary on the subjects of "Food," "Health," "Dress," and "Education," we must be restricted to a quotation from the one already referred to on "Politics," because it not only shows the writer's common-sense way of attacking difficult problems, but the clear way in which she expounds her ideas :— "In the first place, do not expect too much from Government, or think that it is to Government you must look for the reform of all abuses, or for protection from every wrong. In olden times that was the common idea, and Government interfered in the smallest details of life Now we seem inclined to run to the other
extreme, and hold that Government must not interfere with indi- vidual liberty, must not prevent a man from contracting himself out of his freedom into slavery ; that as long as some people, weak and powerless, choose to work twelve or fourteen hours a day for less than will support life, Government can say nothing, while it may say that none who are strong and willing and anxious to improve their position may work more than eight hours a day, at the work which familiarity has caused to make least strain upon them, in the factory or the workshop. Perhaps there is a mean between over-government and under-government, and the pre- sent oscillation between the two may help us to it. At any rate we ought to know wbere it is right that Government should interfere, if it be its duty to secure that no man interferes with the liberty of his fellows, injures them or himself, or fails to keep any contract he has entered into ; or whether it should go further, and, as a parent, provide food, clothing, and education for all under it."
It would be interesting to quote much that follows, especially a paragraph on the right treatment of a political representative ; but we must refer readers, and particularly those who are both young and thoughtful, to the little book itself, which is brimful of common sense and right feeling, brightly expressed.
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