THE MAGAZINES.

THE Nineteenth Century opens with a paper on "The Key of Empire," by Mr. J. A. It. Marriott. After examining the case for Federal Home Rule and showing that its application to Ireland must only lead to disintegration, Mr. Marriott con- • Sams Recollections. By T. Teigamenth-Share, N.A. Loudon: Hutchin- son and Co. Lles. net.] eludes that only those who are prepared to maintain intact the legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland can be trusted to conserve the principle of Imperial unity. And for the maintenance of the Union. he adds, we must look primarily to the grim determination of North-eastern Ireland. On the general situation he observes that if opposition to Home Rule has weakened in England, so also, and in far greater ratio, has the enthusiasm for it in Ireland. The solid progress of Ireland in prosperity, he points out, has been due either to Unionist legislation or to Sir Horace Plunkett, " who, though abused by all parties, has off his own bat,' done more for the economic prosperity and social regeneration of Ireland than all the politicians since the passing of the Act of Union—and, perhaps, before it." That the concession of Home Rule would arrest the development now so happily in progress is, according to Mr. Marriott, with few exceptions, the opinion of the best business brains and the sanest thinkers in Ireland The article is a very good antidote to the lachrymose gush of Mr. Harold Spender in the Contemporary.—Mr. J. H. Whitehouse, the Liberal Member for Mid-Lanark, writes on Britain and Germany much on the same lines as those fol- lowed by Mr. Noel Buxton, M.P., in the Contemporary. He admits faults on both sides, but clearly indicates that in his opinion the balance of misunderstanding and misrepresen- tation is on our side. Thus, while reprobating the practice which obtains here of "printing cheap and lurid stories of invasion either of or by this country," he seems to be wholly unaware that such stories. mutatis mutanclis, are exceedingly numerous in Germany. However, let this pass ; we are all at one in desiring to remove misunderstandings and promote a better mutual knowledge. How is this to be attained ? Mr. Whitehouse advocates a special mission to Berlin to discuss the possibility of the mutual limitation of shipbuilding. "The fact that this suggestion has not been accepted by Germany is not a sufficient reason for going no further." He is also deeply dissatisfied with the present system, under which Parliament is kept without knowledge of foreign policy and without the opportunity of exercising influence, and wishes to see it modified.-1 much more serious and important article is that of Mr. E. D. Morel on " The National Interest in the Franco-German Dispute." It is impossible within the space at our disposal to deal fully with all the issues raised by this paper. It must suffice to say that Mr. Morel regards the Morocco affair as the culminating point in a long series of international incidents in which French diplomacy has been invariably hostile to us and our interests, and states that it " reveals the Entente as an instrument under which the whole national strength of Britain can apparently be placed at the disposal of French colonial and financial ambitions, if those ambitions are interfered with by another Power."— Mr. Charles Mallet answers the question, "What do Liberals mean by House of Lords' Reform ? " in a thoughtful and temperate manner. The Parliament Act, he maintains, is no temporary makeshift. "But if the subordination of the Second Chamber be a principle definitely settled, another question far less important but far more difficult remains "- viz., Is a new or a reconstructed Second Chamber needed ? In an eloquent passage he emphasizes the conservative con- siderations which even Liberals may entertain, and pleads for the retention of the hereditary principle with something like passion. Coming to practical suggestions, Mr. Mallet advocates the passing of a simple Bill by the present Administration, "first, limiting the right of voting (not necessarily the right of attendance) to such Peers as were summoned by the Crown for life to act and vote as Lords of Parliament ; and, secondly, empowering the Crown to add to them a certain number of Life Peers." Mr. Mallet frankly admits that there is no enthusiasm, no strong popular hacking, to be expected in the Liberal ranks for any legislation on the subject, but holds that the simplest pro- posal, embodied in a short Bill, for rendering the revising body efficient and impartial would probably stand the best chance of success.—Of the remaining articles the most noteworthy is Mr. Norman Pearson'', on " The Idle Poor." His main thesis is that "the real danger to the labouring classes lies not 'those but below them ; not on the extortions of the so-called idle rich, but in those of the idle poor." In support of this contention he quotes freely from the 39th Report of the Local Government Board, and the Report of the

Poor Law. Commission, and strongly urges free resort to deten- tion as the only effective way of dealing with the vagrant and loafer.

Foreign politics are always a strong point in the National Review, and prominence is naturally given this month to Tripoli. The writer, who veils his identity under the pseu- donym of " Tobruk," is a thorough-going thick-and-thin supporter of Italy. According to him Italy has "shown her- self observant of the most old-wOrld international decorum in her manner of declaring war." Her political justification is ample. "It was no pirate's stroke, but the climax of a series

of ineluctable events and the outcome of a considered poliCy. If the final act was precipitated it was not the fault of Italy."

The writer, we may add, is animated by a most ferocious anti- Semitism, which we regret to see rampant in the pages of the Review, which so generously espoused the cause of Dreyfus. He sees the malign influence of Jews and crypto-Jews every- where. At the same time be takes his stand on the starkest materialism. The historic association of Italy with Tripoli is well brought out, and has no doubt been overlooked ; but no good is gained by virulent abuse of Jews, Young Turks, and pacificists.—Professor Stephen Leacock reveals the serious side of his equipment in a paper on " The Great Victory in Canada," but the humorist peeps out in his satirical portraits of the outgoing Ministry, e.g. :— " The debonair Mr. Fisher presided over Agriculture and the Weather, becoming, in the Liberal mythology, the God of the Harvest, just as Mr. Pugsley had become the God of Wharves and Bridges and Sir Frederick Borden, from his repulse of the Fenians of 1866, the God of Scientific Warfare."

On the alleged alliance between the Conservatives and Nationalists Professor Leaeock is especially interesting:— "Crosswise through the fight ran the struggle of the French Canadian Nationalists against the supremacy of Laurier and in protest against the policy of defending Canada by sea. In the. Province of Quebec they placed a dozen candidates in the field. They fought not in affiance with the Conservatives, but side by side with them, seeking a common object in the overthrow of the Government. Alliance, indeed, was scarcely possible. A portion of the Nationalist creed, it is true, might well command the sympathy of the Conservatives, with whose party traditions it is in intimate accord. The desire to retain unimpaired the rights, the privileges, and the nationality' of the French Canadians is in keeping with the best teachings of the Conservative school. Sir John A. Macdonald saw in it, in his day, the only prospect of a united Canada. The demand for honest Government is one that commands everywhere at least a nominal assent. But the claim of the Nationalists that Canada needs no form of maritime defence, whether local or imperial, is as unpatriotic as it is illogical. It can only be held either on the theory, obviously silly, that no foreign nation could ever quarrel with us, or on the theory of a parasitic subordination to the United States. Alliance between the two parties there was none, as Mr. Henri Bourassa, the fervid protagonist of the Nationalist movement, took pains to declare on the very morrow of the victory. But they at least hunted in couples, the Conservatives in most cases leaving the Nationalist candidates unopposed. The fact that the Nationalists succeeded in electing only one candidate entirely belonging to their party removes them from being an active factor in the new Parliament."

We may note that Professor Leacoek fully endorses the tribute paid in the same issue in Mr. Maxwell Macartney's study of Mr. R. L. Borden to the sterling honesty of the Conservative leader.

—Mr. Maurice Low in his monthly summary of American affairs admits that the result of the Canadian elections was "not only a smashing surprise, but also a heavy blow to American pride. No one, I think, anticipated it—least of all the Administration." It has seriously damaged Mr. Taft's prestige and his party's prospects. The recent launch of the Rivadavia,' the largest battleship afloat, built

for the Argentine Government at Quincy, Mass., is described by Mr. Low as significant for two reasons : first, because it shows the capacity of American shipbuilders to turn out war vessels and also because it is perhaps the beginning of South America as a factor in the great naval problem.—" Our Sentimentalists and our Sea Power " is the title of a paper by " Ignotus." He regards the .Agadir affair and the invasion of Tripoli as conveying salutary lessons on the need of strengthening our Navy, multi- plying our bases and docks, and appeals to the Lords to refuse

to ratify the Declaration of London. —Sir Arthur Griffith Boscawen urges the Unionist Party to take up the housing problem in earnest, declare war on the slums, and demand a million a year at least from the State in order to render the working of existing Housing Acts really effectual.

Mr. Noel Buxton, M.P., writes on " England and Germany': in the new Contemporary. The problem, he admita, is no longer negligible. In September both sides were prepared to act, and though 4 the secret was well kept in England in Ger- many the rumours were sufficient to produce a panic on the Berlin Bourse." Anglophil Germans, he tells 118, are reduced to

despair by Mr. Lloyd George's speech. They say, according to Mr. Buxton, " We criticise the method chosen by Kiderlia- Waechter, but the episode of Agadir was in principle just. We cautiously sound your Government and are assured of your acquiescence. Instead of asking our intentions you in• struct a Minister who is not your Foreign Secretary to tell us that, whether we mean to stop in Morocco or not, you will fight us if we do." Mr. Buxton quotes Sir Frank Lascelles, late Ambassador at Berlin, who "tells us that there is no necessary hostility, while the grievance that Germany feels is that she is 'denied by England a share in great international negotiations," and he asks, "Is this the cause for which diplomacy has brought us within sight of war?" It is pretty clear that Buxton in his heart of hearth is inclined to answer this question in the affirmative. But he makes some very serious admissions,

e.g., that the argument for rapprochement is based on con- venience and economy and that " German enmity to France

is a real fact and a far greater disturber of peace than any other international animosity." And his argument

that our commitments in regard to France are embar- rassing is a two-edged one, for, as he says, "if our duty to France compels us to support activities over which we have no control [i.e., Colonial finance and the monopolization of Colonial trade] and which may lead us to the brink of hostilities, it becomes a question whether the statesmen of fifteen years ago were not wise in decrying all connexion with European alliances and in taking

all the risks which isolation involves." In spite of this he appeals to the Government and in particular to the Foreign

Secretary to devise the way to a rapprochement. "It is a 'plain fact that in these matters the public has not a will of its

own. . . . The announcement of an agreement, a couple of royal visits, a few hints to the Press, and a speech by a popular Minister—these would turn the public mind, without shadow of doubt, from enmity to cordial attachment in three months." Could a greater number of absurdities be crowded into a, single sentence ? This is the opinion of the British people entertained by a Liberal and a so-called democrat ! We

have a very different opinion of the British people and of their instinct in the matter of national self-preservation. —Mr. J. A. Macdonald, the editor of the Toronto Globe, a

Liberal and a supporter of Sir W. Laurier, has an instructive paper on " The Canadian Elections and Afterwards." The most potent factor, he maintains, was not the economic argu- ment, but the vague prejudice against the United States. The real danger of the Nationalist movement headed by Mr. Bourassa is that "it perpetuates the racial and religious differences and animosities which were beginning to die ont." He notes that Mr. Borden appears recently to have abandoned the Conservative view on the Navy question—i.e., that Canada should contribute battleships and money—and yielded to the Nationalist demand that the whole question of naval defence should be referred to a plebiscite.

" With the Eighty Club in Ireland," by Mr. Harord Spender, is a triumph of the art of " slopping over." The Eighty Club in their perambulations were greeted with "songs, bagpipes, even fog signals," which Mr. Spender describes as forming part of "the poetry and pathos of a great Irish welcome," and some of the fog seems to have got into his pen. He admits the prosperity of the country, but finds that she is "worse off in fact." We are not "to leave well alone" because all is not welL With all the improvements,

"the main grim facts of Ireland still remain—the bad roads, the expensive railways, the starved schools, the neglected water- ways, the huge, expensive, embarrassing machinery of government. Dublin Castle, with all that it carries with it—an overstocked bench, a huge, superfluous police force, an incompetent' and sympathetic [sic] magistracy, a network of uncontrolled and con- flicting Boards—all the discredited and extravagant machinery, now defended by none except the olfice-holderAhemselves, still bleeds Ireland white."

--The Bishop of Carlisle has a paper on the training of the clergy. While properly insisting on intellectual and moral training, he maintains—since utterance plays so large a part in the work of the ministry—that an examination in chest measurement, in vocal power and clarity, should be the first of all examinations for the ministerial calling. His remarks on affected enunciation are excellent. "Nothing is easier in reading than to lie histrionic and artificial ; nothing harder than to be siraple and natural. gore than this. Neither artificial reading nor artificial speaking carries conviction with it. It is necessary to speak naturally in order to persuade." —We may also briefly mention Mr. George Russell's very readable paper on " The Last of the Whigs "—the Duke of Devonshire—and a genial paper on Mrs. Gaskell by Annie Kimball Tuell.

In the Fortnightly Mr. Ellis Barker has much to say that is interesting about the Chinese revolution and Dr. Sun Tat Sen, with whom he is personally acquainted. A remarkable feature of the movement has been the willingness of Chinese residents abroad to contribute large sums of money to help on the emancipation of their country. This result has been achieved by the unwearied lahoprs of Dr. Sun Tat Sen, who for twenty years has been stirring his countrymen to activity at home and abroad. This patriot declares that it is a mis- take to suppose that the Chinese are in reality prejudiced against foreigners and new developments from without. Rather the obscurantist standpoint which we attribute to the Chinese is that of the Manchus, whose interest it is to keep the subject race as ignorant as possible. They have deliberately preVented and discouraged progress for fear lest with enlight- enment should come distrust, of the dominant caste. It is difficult not to be appalled by the vastness of the drama now taking place in which the condition of over four himdred million people is involved.—" Y " in writing of " The Knell of the Triple Alliance " takes much the same view of the situation created by the war in Tripoli as was taken by the Spectator a short while ago. The conclusion is that the new develop- ments make for peace. " Only four months have elapsed since she [Germany] went to Agadir in the full belief that she could browbeat France and cajole England, and now she finds that the cards have turned against her, and that the Ercles vein' is not exactly suitable to the occasion. Fortunately for her, perhaps, the desire for peace is so genuine and general that no one will seek to interfere with her efforts towards repentance and self-effacement."--Mr. Sidney Brooks declares that he finds considerable annoyance as a convinced. Home Ruler in discovering that there is great doubt if the Irish really in their hearts desire Home Rule. He proceeds to pile up the arguments which strengthen this doubt. For instance, why if the Irish really hate the Empire do they enter its army and fight its battles, why if authority in Ireland is alien and detested is it maintained entirely by a constabulary which is Irish, Roman Catholic, and Nationalist Why pose as a nation held down by force and then supply the recruits for their own subjugation ? But the most damaging assertion is that if Ireland were really in earnest she would not have to go begging for funds outside her borders. Mr. Brooks puts it in this way : If a million people in Ireland were sufficiently anxious for the cause to subscribe one shilling a year each to a party fund, fifty thousand pounds a year would be the result. But apparently they are not willing to do this, though they spend fourteen millions a year on drink and three on tobacco. There are other things which Mr. Brooks has the honesty to admit which are not hopeful for the success of Home Rule : one is the possibility of the esta- blishment of another Tammany Hall in Dublin ; and he recog- nizes that the Ulster , problem remains. The only hope Mr. Brooks has for Home Rule is that it will bring Irishmen face to face with themselves, and "the truculent vanities, the terrorism and chicanery, the hectic pretences, and malinger- ing `patriotism' that at present disfigure Irish life and politics," We are grateful to Miss Farjeon, who gives us a glimpse in 731ackwood of a forgotten Elizabethan minor poet. Nathaniel Downes not only published a volume of lyrics, but left for his descendants to publish many years after a highly enter- taining "Iournall," in which he describes his first entry into the world of literature. Na_t began life as a blacksmith's apprentice in Sussex, and he tells us that "the iron wold grow cold on the anuill whiles I didd string my rhymes. Then my master did beat mee." The incompatibility of art and craft seems to have become so complete that the apprentice took his gittern and set out for London " withouten a grote in nip pouch," singing as he went. At the 'Three Pigeons' at

Brentford he lighted on a merry party, one of whom was Peels in a mad humour. The country boy seems to have shown his wit and to have delighted the poet with his songs. On being asked to whom the love poems were addressed, }Vat had to invent, for he was not in love, and he gave the name of his blacksmith master's sister, which in the end was his undoing. Peele seems to have taken to the lad and gave him a home, and, of course, he fell in love with Annys Peele. His poems now become touched with a deeper feeling, and some quoted by Miss Farjeon make us wonder why they have never been included in any anthology, for instance the little poem beginning-

" A rogue is in her dimpled cheeks, an angell in her eie, The rogue doth make a mocke of me, the angell passes by."

The whole story is so characteristic of the time that it is well worth while to have it rescued from Time's wallet. Miss Farjeon tells us that the " Iournall " is very scarce ; surely it would be worth reprinting.---" System " is a humorous account by Sir J. George Scott of the efforts of a conscien- tious Colonel Cherryhinton, who tried to make a transport column of Burmese bullock wagons start in true military fashion.—An unsigned article gives us an insight into some of the problems which beset immigration into South America. For ourselves there is not much difficulty. Englishmen who go to the republics are chiefly the highly paid skilled men, and can take care of themselves ; it it much the same with the French. The case is different when it comes to the Italians, Spanish, and Portuguese. They seem to be treated very badly, as far as justice is concerned, and the Government officials and the employers- know that the unfortunate people have no redress, because the Monroe Doctrine falls like the shadow of the upas tree upon all remonstrance by the European Powers. Not long ago some Russian anarchists gave trouble in the Argentine, and the Government passed exceptional laws. These laws are now used by unscrupulous employers, who when they want to oppress their labourers denounce them as anarchists. The account given in this article of the South American population is deplorable : corruption and degradation in religion, morals, and politics are, we are told, universal. Among the few brighter things seem to be the German colonies, which carry out their own administration and impose their language on the natives.—An anonymous writer gives a very curious account of turtle fishing on the coast of British East Africa. The writer tells us that he believes he is the first white man who has seen the fishing in progress or who has written a description of it. The curious part of this fishing is the use made of the sucker fish, or " taza," as it is called locally. Two of these fish attached to lines are let loose in the water where there are turtles. The fish at once make for them and fasten themselves on to the shell by their suckers. The turtle is then played on the line from the boat till it is finally landed.

The November number of the United Service Magazine con- tains a very curious article entitled "Fighting Smugglers." In this "forgotten chapter of Cornish history" Commander Shore provides the raw material for some excellent boys' stories. The smuggling ships were regular little men-of-war. Their names occasionally were delightfully characteristic. Take, for example, the Happy-go-Lucky,' a lugger of eighty tons with thirty-five men. Of this Happy-go-Lucky' we hear a great deal in the article, and we sincerely commend her exploits to the judicious novelist of adventure. Though smugglers' gains were enormous, the Revenue officers also had occasional good hauls. For example, Captain Shore tells us that a tide-waiter at Falmouth once made an enormous seizure , of tea. "The officer," drily remarks the official report, "gets by this £3,000. This is the greatest seizure of tea ever known." It is amusing to note that the long-sighted smugglers saw that carrying on their free-trade operations by force of arms was a great mistake. One of them, we are told, remarked, " It was that taking up arms agin the Government that put an end to smuggling. Did they think Government couldn't play the same game ? "—Dr. Maguire contributes an interesting account of the military wisdom of Montecuccull—Another article that is well worth reading is the fourth instalment of a series entitled " The Conquest of Southern India." This instalment deals with Sir Eyre Coote's campaign against Hyder Ali,