THE MAGAZINES.

THE Nineteenth. Century leads off with an article by Mr. J. A. R. Marriott on " The Logic of History." Taking for his text Mira.bean's dictum, "La guerre eat l'industrie nationale de le. Prusse," Mr. Marriott proceeds to analyse, and expand the application of, Bismarck's declaration that the war with France was the logical historical sequel of the war with • Where and Why Pnbtis Ownership has Failed. By Yves Guyot. Translated

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Austria. That his treatment of the subject is not marked by prejudice may he gathered from his frank admissions as to the geographical disadvantages of Germany's position, the strong motive supplied by her consciousness of greatness and belief in her world mission, and the substantial correspondence of her national sentiments with the triumph of Prussian policy during the past half-century. His historical survey is aimed at establishing the continuity of the Hohenzollern tradition, in spite of occasional set-backs, from the Treaty of Weatphalia in 1648 to that of Frankfort in 1871. As for the sequel, "if Bismarck was right in saying that Sedan followed logically upon Sadowa, Bernhardi may be not less right in insisting that a second Sedan must prepare the way for the defeat and dismemberment of the British Empire." He emphasizes the difference between the conservatism of Bismarck's later policy and the far-reaching ambitions of his successors. Yet the spirit is the same:— "The &hos of the Prussian polity, preserved inviolate through- out the ages, is War—war not merely as a means to political ambition and territorial aggrandisement, but as a moral discipline, almost as a spiritual inspiration. 'La guerre,' wrote Mirabeau, 'eat l'industrie natiouale de is Prusse.' It is much more than the national industry ; it is the national religion and the national life. Prussia, as Professor Hans Delbrttek expressed it tersely, is a Eriegsstaat. What beauty was to the Greek, holiness to the Hebrew, government to the Romans ; what liberty is to the Englishman, war is to the Prussian. No Englishman who fails to grasp this elementary truth can estimate aright the strength of the forces which in the present struggle are arrayed against him. Germany is fighting not merely for the existence of the Empire— that existence is threatened only by the criminal folly of Potsdam ; she is fighting not merely for geographical extension and economic expansion ; she is fighting for an ideal. That ideal seems to us wholly perverted and false, but it does not on that account cease to be an ideal, and it is, as a fact, the quintessence of Prussian morality. In this conflict, which is not merely the largest but the greatest the world has ever seen, there is, then, a moral issue at stake. For the Prussian defeat would mean, in the strictest sense, demoralisation. The whole moral foundation on which the national fabric has been built would be completely undermined. It is essential to the future peace and happiness of mankind that it should be. It is not less essential to the well-being of Germany herself. For this war represents not merely a clash of national ambitions, but a conflict of moral ideals. In the words of King George's noble message to the self-governing Dominions, we have 'to confront and overthrow an unparalleled assault upon the con- tinuity of civilisation.' That is why we can confidently count upon the moral support of the civilised world. Etecurus judicat orbis terrarum."

—This reading of the situation is further developed in the Bishop of Carlisle's paper on "The Inner Meaning of the War." In his words, " the real issues now at stake are not material and political, but moral and spiritual." The creed of Nietzsche, Treitschke, and Bernhardi, translated into actuality by German statesmen and generals, " is inspired by the spirit of force brutally exalted, not merely as the final, but also the true and moral, judge between nations." But the Bishop of Carlisle is careful to insist that we have no quarrel with the deceived German people :—

" Our foes are not the people deceived, but the deceivers of the people. With them we can hold no truce. They are the enemies of Christian civilisation, of moral progress, of spiritual enlighten- ment. They erect success as the standard of conscience, and prostitute citizenship to the lusts of militarism. They tear up solemn treaties as scraps of paper. They loathe the liberties of free and independent nations. They regard valour as the tool of ambition. A cannibal feeds on the blood of only one man at a time. These militarists batten on the blood of thousands. For them manhood is not a divinely imparted life, but a demoniacally invented war machine. For them God is a synonym for big battalions ; and, in their own profane expression, 'the sin of feebleness is the sin against the Holy Ghost.' I would fain believe that the spirit of infamous ambition which hatched this brood of evils has deceived its own nestlings ; and that these atheistic philosophers, and merciless oligarchs, and blind historians, and militarist rhetors, 'know not what they either teach or do.' But in any case the course of all those who believe in liberty, righteous- ness, and truth is plain. They could not have kept out of the war with honour; and until the spirit of immoral might is defeated they cannot without shame make peace."

— Mr. Arthur Paterson, the Secretary of the Social Welfare Association for London, writing under the heading " War Funds : Co-ordination or Chaos ? " pleads for a more thoroughgoing representation of the voluntary charitable societies in London and the provincial cities. These societies, of which be names ten of the most important, " have not been included or officially recognised as yet by the Cabinet Com- mittee as separate factors in the forces which the Government has assembled to prevent or alleviate distress during the war." It is not enough, he maintains, to make use of the centralized voluntary associations through the local citizens' committees : they deserve to be placed upon the headquarters staff. He accordingly suggests " that a committee should be formed with a chairman appointed by the Government, on which should be represented the chief central voluntary organisations concerned, and which should act as a co- ordinating force to bring to the Government, and so to the nation, all the resources and all the patriotism which animate, as the Cabinet Committee would be the first to acknow- ledge, the Charities of this country."—Mr. Robertson- Scott's plea for State sugar factories as one of the oppor- tunities of the war is dealt with in another column, but we may briefly notice his vindication of the correctness of Holland's attitude (" Our Nearest Neutral Neighbour and the War ") a.nd his protest against the alleged tactlessness of the Censor- ship and other evidences of an inability to appreciate the difficulties of a State which is labouring with an honest determination to maintain a neutrality upon which her national existence may depend. Mr. Robertson-Scott makes no effort to minimize these difficulties, but firmly believes that we possess, and, if we act with wisdom and con- sideration, that we shall retain, the sympathies of the most influential people in the Netherlands. He is, however, careful to qualify this statement by adding : "never was there more virtue in an ' if.' "—Sir Thomas Barclay contributes an "unsentimental study" of "The Floating Mines Curse." He concludes that Germany is making a use of these weapons altogether outside the authorization given by the Hague Convention, and, therefore, contrary to the law of naval war. But he frankly acknowledges the difficulties in the way of enforcing this law in a war in which practically all the great military and naval Powers, except the United States and Italy, are engaged.—We must content ourselves with a bare mention of Professor Foster Watson's interesting study of the humanists of Louvain, of Professor J. H. Morgan's essay on Treitschke, and Mr. G. G. Coulton's drastic exposure of the controversial methods of certain. leading pacifists.

The October number of the National Review contains a long article by the editor on " The War against the Huns," the first section being devoted to an onslaught on the operations of the Press Bureau as directed by Mr. F. E. Smith and Mr.

McKenna. Two more sections treat of " The German Jew and the German Empire" and "A Semitic Symposium," subjects dealt with in thorough accordance with the remark in the editorial "Episodes of the Month " : " Unless we mistake the signs of the times and the temper of our countrymen . . . public opinion is fairly aroused, and there is a wide- spread determination that while emancipating Europe from the German yoke, we must emancipate the Metropolis from the yoke of the German Jews." In the succeeding sections the editor gives a vivacious summary, with quota- tions, of the diplomatic correspondence contained in the White Paper and its annexes. We observe that Mr. Winston Churchill has again fallen out of favour with the editor, owing to his scheme of turning sailors into soldiers.

Mr. Maurice Low in "American Affairs" notes the steady growth of the pro-British sentiment in the States. Incidentally he quotes an excellent comment from the New York Sun on Sherman's famous remark " War is Hell" : "If General Sherman were alive, he would Lave to apologise to Hell. He was unjust to that amiable region. The war of his time was but an innocent, harmless killing game. It has grown to that aerial triumph of German culture over Antwerp."—We may also note Lord Redesdale's

interesting reminiscence of St. Petersburg in 1863.4, culmina- ting in the reception by Lord Napier—then British Ambassador at the Russian capital—of Lord Russell's instructions to inform Prince Gortcbakoff that England would not interfere on behalf of Denmark. We give the sequel in Lord Redeadale's words :—

" The next day I was in the Chancery when Lord Napier came back from Tsarskoe Selo. He beckoned me into his private room. ' Well,' I asked, what did the Prince say ? "It was not a pleasant interview,' answered my chief. When the Prince had read the telegram he folded it up and handed it back to me, say- ing, "Afars, milord, je mete de cote la supposition quo l'Angleterre lasso jemais la guerre pour une question d'honncur." Pretty words for an English Ambassador to listen to Lord Napier was deeply moved, as well be might be. They were indeed pretty words,' and in them I think we may see what lay at the bottom of all Prince Gortchakoff's subsequent foreign policy—especially in Central Asia—until he was finally checkmated by Lord Beaconsfield at the Berlin Congress in 1818. On that morning of February 1864 the Prince's well-known keenness for an alliance with England died the death ; in his estimation England need no longer be taken into account. Bismarck had now a free hand. His carefully laid schemes, of which the war in the Duchies was only an instalment, were all to bear their fruit. Austria was to bo crippled, France to be humbled and dismembered, Germany to be a naval Power of the first magnitude. This is how the keel of tho first Dreadnought was laid at St. Petersburg in the month of February 1864. The Baltic and the North Sea are united as Siamese twins. Germany, possessed of ports and a huge navy, is straining every nerve to wrest the trident from the hands of Great Britain, and the tragedy of 1914, which sooner or later was bound to come, is even now upon us. Black is the ingratitude of mankind ! There is no statue of Lord Russell, the great benefactor, standing in the famous avenue Unter den Linden in Berlin."

Dr. E. J. Dillon in the Contemporary Review discusses at great length the reasons why Russia went to war. His aim is largely to reassnre persons of a " Hamletesque " temperament who are beset with misgivings as to the honesty of Russia's motives, and the danger of substituting a Russian for a Prussian hegemony of Europe, and to show that Russia has throughout acted with forbearance and with an optimistic belief in the stability of peace. In fine, " Russia is now fighting not for the realisation of ambitious schemes, but for the sacredness of treaties and the guaranteed rights of the small States of Europe, and against a carefully planned attempt to Prussianise the Con- tinent." He admits that her policy has been marred by gric roes blunders in the past, but holds that she has redeemed her errors by her proclamation to the Poles, that the war has already drawn Tsar and people more closely together, and rallied to the national standard enemies of the Russian Government hitherto implacable.—Mr. Thomas Okey writes in a judicial strain on "Italy and the War," admitting the steadily growing volume of national resentment against Germany, which has now overshadowed even the traditional aversion from Austria, but allowing full weight to the strong current of Conservative opinion, fortified, at the opposite political pole, by the official Socialists, against any breach of neutrality. The financial condition of Italy, again, is another factor making for caution, and Mr. Okey, in conclusion, can only pronounce with certainty that if Italy does take part in the conflict " it will not be on the side of the hated Tecleschi."—The Bishop of Carlisle writes on the deceitfulness of war as illustrated by the delu- sions of the martial idolater. As he goes on to point out, the appalling danger of the present situation arises from the strange fact that vast numbers of thoroughly patriotic Germans honestly believe in the teachings of Nietzsche and Bernhardi. "It is at the fires of this misguided enthusiasm that the militarist junta in Berlin has lighted its torches of aggression and greed : thus deceiving the people into being dupes of their shameless designs and treacherous tyrannies."—Dr. Giovanni Pioli contributes a sympathetic appreciation of Pope

Benedict XV. :—

" He is not a scholar ; but his high capacity and brilliant gift for affairs, his clear and far sightedness and sagacity in judging men and things, helped by a marvellous memory, his diplomatic ability and aristocratic touch, make him tho man who can under- stand the full meaning of a situation, and grapple with it in the best way. He is not a bit of a devotee or a fanatic orthodox ; unlike Pius X., who could not utter a speech without beginning with original sin' and concluding with 'devotion to Madonna,' his speeches will rather sound like sober pronounce- ments of a religious statesman. Unlike Pius X., whose manners, in spite of the myth woven around this figure, entirely lacked signorilita and dignity, Benedict XV. will restore to the throne of Rome the regal manners of Leo XIII., without, it is strongly hoped, the worldly pomp and the parasitical adventurers and the scandals of his court. Mons. Della Chiesa's dislike of vulgar display or publicity, his genuine simplicity of life, his natural modesty and reserve, without the slightest taint of vanity or arrogance, are the best credentials that his will be a model court. Open-minded to a large extent, clear-minded even more, he will, above all, be a self-minded Pope; he will not judge the affairs by prosy, nor govern through, or be governed by, cliques and coteries. If Leo XIII. was a genial opportunist, and Pius X. a godly, stubborn pietist, Benedict XV. will be an honest diplomatist, a compromise. To speculate on the course of his pontificate would be idle; what only can be foreseen is that, while he will follow the conciliatory attitude of Pius X. towards Italy, he will even try a rapprochement with France ; that his internal reforms of the Catholic Church will be substantial, if not radical ; his behaviour towards religious liberalism and democracy will be rather nearer to that of Leo XIII. than to that of Pius X. ; and the precipitous rushing of the Church towards ruin will be power- fully restrained."

—Other articles dealing with various aspects of the war are Colonel F. N. Maude's strategical study, with special reference to the retreat from Mons, in which he draws optimistic con-

clusions from the adhesion of the French General Staff to the Napoleonic principle; Mr. Harold Spender's characteristic paper on "War and the Law," in which he plays his favourite role of the candid friend ; and Mr. Chiozza Money's reassuring

investigation of the effect of the war on British trade.—We may also note Mr. Francis Watt's picturesque impressions of provincial France in war time.

The Fortnightly contains an interesting study by Mr.

Sidney Whitman of the various mistakes made by Germany. These mistakes have arisen from the fact that the Germans are deficient in psychical insight :-

"Organisation, mechanics, ballistics, dynamics, armaments— in short, everything which could be attained by plodding intelli- gence and crafty cunning, had been brought to an unrivalled perfection—the application of intuitive insight has failed sig- nally all along the line. Never has mechanical intelligence been so devoid of psychical intuition as here ! . . . There is something false, something mendacious, something God-forsaken, which has its source in the gross materialism which has been slowly grow- ing up."

The effect of this deadening materialism has been to blind the Germans to essential things. They thought the Allies would conclude peace singly, and that the Bismarckian weapon of " terror " would daunt Anglo-Saxons and Russians.

On all hands the Germans have shown such failure of psychical comprehension that they have rushed into every kind of diplomatic blunder, including the American cam- paign of mendacity.—Mr. Boulger discusses the question of the Schelde. He blames both England and Belgium for not insisting in 1911 on the co-partnership of Holland and Belgium in the navigation of the river. In 1831, 1839, and 1S63, this joint ownership was recognized, as replacing the sole possession by the Dutch. In 1911 the Belgians should have summoned the guaranteeing Powers to place the matter beyond dispute :-

" The laxity of the Belgian Government in 1911 does not weaken the position assigned to the Schelde by the Powers in 1831. Ilolland possesses no exclusive sovereign rights over the Schelde. Belgium has a perfect right to request England, or France, or Russia to send her help by that river. . . . If the Dutch forts were to fire on such a squadron they would not merely commit an act of war, but they would be endeavouring, vainly, of course, to revive `those ancient privileges of Governments which had dis- appeared for ever,' as they were told in 1832."

—Mr. Grahame-White, writing about the use of aircraft in

war, points out that the effects of dropped bombs have not been very great so far. This, he thinks, is perhaps due to the fact that all the energies of the pioneers of the new science have been directed towards powers of flight and observation. In a few years' time the powers of offence may be developed in ways not thought of now.—Mr. Whelpley warns us that it is not only unnecessary but impolitic to court America. For one thing, he says, American public optnion is entirely familiar with the process of news published with the object of influencing opinion. Americans are therefore not at all likely to be taken in by clumsy German attempts at a procedure which has been reduced to a fine art by their own politicians and business men. Public opinion will measure the value of the German Press campaign more accurately if left to itself. —" A History of the 'War " forms a useful chronicle of military events.

Sir 'William Willcocks tells us in Black-wood that twenty- eight years in Egypt and three in Babylonia as an irrigation engineer have given him special opportunities for studying

the problems connected with the Garden of Eden, Noah's flood, Joseph's famines, Moses's crossing of the Red Sea, and Joshua's crossing of the Jordan. In the present article he gives us a large amount of detailed information respecting these events. His view of the Red Sea crossing is that a mistaken translation has placed the Israelite march in the wrong locality, and he gives good reasons for thinking the true locality to have been near the Mediterranean—in fact, in the Serbonian bog. Sir William Willcocks describes how not far off, in the shallow Lake Borollos, he was able to carry on his work by waiting for the east wind, which while it blew drove back the water of the lake so

that a dam could be made. A like opportunity may have been used by Moses. In the same way an actual occurrence suggested Joshua's passage of the Jordan. " A severe earth- quake dislodged a spongy shoulder of Mount Gilead and completely closed the Jordan Valley. The waters of Jordan were cut off for months, and as the lake which formed rose gradually, it eventually cut a passage across the lowest ground. As I stood on the opposite side of the river I recalled to myself the passage in Joshua."—Mr. Colin Campbell, describing his experiences with the Irish Ambulance in France in 1870, recalls incidents which have their counter- parts at the present time. ChiSteaudun, having been the scene of franc-tireur exploits, was ordered to be bombarded, but was spared, and incidentally the wounded in the hospital, on the payment of fifty thousand francs. Shortly after this a German soldier climbed upon the high altar of the church, and while so engaged was shot in the arm. Again the same threats were employed. This time it was impossible to raise the money, but the German General took five thousand francs as an instalment. When the wounded man was examined it was discovered that the bullet was one from his own revolver, which had gone off accidentally. All the same, the money was not returned.— Mr. Vale tells us in his own characteristic way about another of his walks. This time it is a Franco-Belgian one, and many places now made familiar by the war are described.—From Southern India comes a graphic description of the work of capturing elephants, some of which were driven for three hundred miles before the final enclosure was reached. The most curious part of the proceeding is the way in which the tame elephants behave, their calm and businesslike action making the whole thing possible.

The first article in the October number of the United Service _Magazine gives an excellent resume of naval operations up to date. The Admiral who writes it deals with the problem of international law caused by the sinking of the thirteen fishing-boats in the North Sea by two German cruisers. This action, he points out, shows not only a lack of humanity in the Germans, for hitherto it has always been the custom to allow the fishing industry to continue, but is directly against the Hague Convention, as the following articles show. To make prisoners of the crews was another breach of that Con- vention :- " Article 3, Chapter II. of Convention 11:-

`

Vessels employed exclusively in coast fisheries, or small boats employed in local trade, together with their appliances, rigging, tackle and cargo are exempt from capture.'

Article 6, Chapter II. of Convention 11 :—

• The captain, officers and members of the crew, if subjects or citizens of the enemy state, are not made prisoners of war, provided that they undertake on the faith of a written promise not to engage while hostilities last in any service connected with the operations of war.'

But it is evident that no conventions made in peace time are regarded as binding by Germany, and it is but fair to say that the German delegate, the late Baron Marshall Von Bieberstein, stated at the time that in the stress of war Germany would not feel herself bound by any conventions which might prove to be inconvenient."

—We have unfortunately no space in which to notice the rest of the articles in the magazine, but many of them ars well worth the attention of military readers.