THE MAGAZINES.

VARIETY rather than quality is the mark of the new Nineteenth Century. Sir Henry Blake answers his question, " How is Civil War to be Averted P " in a manner irreconcil- able with the holding of a Conference. " In the present position the alternatives are a general election or armed resistance in Ulster. Which will be adopted can only be known when the completed Bill has been submitted for the Royal assent. But if this Bill be withdrawn there is ample room fora Conference between opposing forces, out of which might come an arrangement short of an Irish Parliament that would give to Ireland her practical desires, and restore to Dublin her position as a centre in which grave issues affecting Irish legislation may be decided, with the comfort- able knowledge that the accepted outcome will be supported by the revenue of the United Kingdom." Sir Henry Blake differs Coto coelo from the Spectator on the question of petitioning the King, but we gladly acknowledge in him a courteous antagonist. He scouts the idea that a dangerous precedent is involved, on the ground that "it is hardly con- ceivable that a similar position can again arise. The promised reform of the Second Chamber will restore the Constitution at present in abeyance." Many things may happen before that reform is realized.—Sir Bampfylde Fuller contributes "A Psychological View of the Irish Question," in which, after advancing a good many excellent arguments for the mainten- ance of the incorporating Union, he light-heartedly acquiesces in what he admits to be a counsel of despair on the ground that Home Rule appears to be the only course which will afford the people a government which they can respect. A Parliament of Irishmen, he continues, will doubtless be amusing if inefficient. His method of dealing with the Ulster question is even more extraordinary. It is " indescribably mean" for England to desert Ulster, but " modern politics are inconsistent with

chivalry." Will the Orangemen fight P Sir Bampfylde Fuller evidently thinks not : "the Ulsterman is respectable, and respectability makes a man timid." Yet he finds it impossible to believe that the Protestants of Ulster will con- sent to come under a Dublin Parliament, and foresees the establishment of a Belfast Parliament leading to a violent rioting, which the British Government will probably be com- pelled to suppress with military force. " This will bring home finally to all parties the absolute necessity of a compromise " —Ulster retaining her Parliament and Dublin hers, while the three other provinces are to be also endowed with local parlia- ments and ministries of their own to deal with education, local government control, land laws, labour laws, the sale of intoxicating liquor, even the grant of franchise to women ! —Mr. J. M. Kennedy, who undertakes to tell us " What the Workmen Think," brushes aside the claims of any Labour papers to speak for more than groups and coteries. The principal causes of unrest are the rise in the cost of living and the "gradual disappearance of a human relation- ship between masters and men." Later on, however, we find that the root of the evil is Free Trade, which is responsible for the establishment of Trusts. The average workman would follow "an undoubted aristocrat" with enthusiasm; he has no real enthusiasm for Socialism or for Mr. Lloyd George. "The British working classes are composed of the most con- servative types of men in existence, comparable only with Russian moujiks or Chinese mandarins," and the decline in the power of the trade unions "is an instructive example of the need they feel for adequate leadership and of the readiness they unfortunately but inevitably show to follow leaders of whose policy they entirely disapprove, simply because there is no one else for them to follow"; in other words, the average British workman is at heart a thoroughgoing Conservative, but as the main problem of his existence is economic, "he is compelled to follow Liberal and Socialist banners because there is no Conservative one." We gather that if only the Conservatives would concentrate on Protection the problem of Labour unrest might be finally solved. — Captain Trapmann, who describes himself as "an Englishman with the Greek Army," describes the recent phases of war in the Balkans under the heading of " The Shortest and Most Sanguinary Campaign on Record." His enthusiasm for the Greeks and their achievements is legitimate enough ; but his abuse of the Bulgarians transcends in violence and extravagance anything that has yet appeared in any British journal or magazine. Captain Trapmann's claim to be regarded as an accurate historian may be judged by his assertion, "I estimate that during the past nine months the Bulgarians have done to death between 450,000 and 500,000 peaceable inhabitants, men, women, and children, Turkish and Greek."

Lord Percy has a long and admirably written paper in the National Review on " Germany's War of Liberation " in 1813. While duly insisting on the magnitude of the services rendered by Stein in promoting the rebirth of the Prussian nation after the dark year of Jena, Lord Percy is especially concerned with the great achievement of Scharnhorst, after repeated rebuffs and disappointments, inputting into practical shape the modern conception of the "nation in arms." The institution of universal service on a permanent basis, enforced in 1814 and 1815, "was the result of the experience gained by six years of shame and three years of terrible fighting, and on that law and ordinance and on that experience not only is the German army based to-day, but the army of every other Great Power except England." Germany's resolve to spare no effort or sacrifice in the fulfilment of her destiny and in preparing for what a day may bring forth has, Lord Percy maintains, every historical precedent on its side. The volun- tary system, per contra, has " invariably failed on every emergency, both on the Continent and in Great Britain," while armies like the Territorials have "always melted like snow." We admit the force of Lord Percy's historical parallel, but we could wish that he had abstained from disparaging the Territorials as well as the Territorial system. We prefer the atti- tude of Lord Methuen, who, after a tour of inspection, expresses his admiration in the Nineteenth Century for the fine spirit that has kept the Territorial Army alive in depressing circumstances. As he puts it, "If one cannot report as great efficiency as is equired, still there is a force in being that should be en- couraged by our country."—In "Welt Politik : Germany

and Great Britain," we have an exhaustive examination 1 " Watchman " into Germany's aspirations after expansion and the possibility of reconciling them with the mainten- ance of peace. This possibility he regards as remote, the only " unpromising alternatives " to collision being the adoption of a drastic change in our fiscal policy or an all-round settlement between Great Britain, Gern1any, and France. This would involve a " rectification " of France's eastern frontier, by which she would get Metz and the country west of the Vosges in return for the French Congo, Ubangi, Bagirmi, and Waclai ; the surrender by, Great Britain of Walfisch Bay and the belt between the Benue River and the Cameroons to Germany in return for the tract between Uganda and Tanganyika ; and the surrender by France and England of their preferential claims in the Belgian Congo. It is right to add that the article shows no animus towards Germany, and readily acknowledges the Kaiser's recognition of the supreme importance of preserving peace with honour in Enrope.—The most interesting thing in Mr. Maurice Low's

" American Affairs " is a saying of the United States's best diplomatist—the late Mr. John Hay—which he quotes a propos

of President Wilson's interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine.

" What is the Monroe Doctrine ? ' I once asked Mr. John Hay when be was Secretary of State. What is it ? ' he replied with a smile. ' It is anything that any President or any Congress or the American people may care to make of it, and fortunately we do not have to be more specific than that." In connexion with the unbecoming behaviour of the Canadian mob in the Thaw case, Mr. Low raises an interesting point :-

"One may ask whether the time has not come to define legal ethics ? Can a lawyer without wrench to his conscience take a fee to overthrow society? Is it permissible for a lawyer to enable a murderer to escape his just punishment? Of guilt or innocence there is no question. Thaw's lawyers are not engaged to defend an innocent man. Their sole business is to make a sport of the law."

—Mr. Austin Dobson discourses delightfully on "Streatham

Place" ; Mr. T. Comyn Platt contributes a pleasant pen- portrait of Sir Edward Carson, in which he lays stress on his sincerity, fortitude, ingrained kindheartedness, and modesty ; and Lord Willoughby de Broke discusses the Unionist posi- tion in a vein of alternate shrewdness and perversity. What he says about the folly of attempting to outbid Mr. Lloyd George in his land campaign is excellent ; his attitude towards Lord Loreburn's proposal is that of the veriest party back. At the same time we are glad to have his assurance that " the Unionist Party, ever since it was formed, has stood for the policy that its name denotes," a view which some Tariff Reformers have frankly disavowed.—We deal with Mr. Maxse's allegations against Lord Murray elsewhere.

In the Contemporary Sir Edward Cook discusses "Lord

Loreburn's intervention " in an article which is perhaps the wisest contribution yet made to the controversy from the Liberal side. Taking as his basis a statement made by the late Duke of Devonshire in 1893 as to the conditions under which Home Rule for Ireland might be possible, he puts the case for and against the Conference with his habitual fairness, and while admitting that so far each side has proceeded on party lines, finds hopeful augury in the currents of feeling and opinion set in motion by Lord Loreburn's letter. For himself, it is pretty clear that he would consent to the exclusion of Ulster by an arrangement giving the four north-eastern counties local administrative self-government with control of education, land, and police. Sir Edward Cook's final tribute to Lord Loreburn is in signal and dignified contrast to the chorus of acid criticism with which his letter was greeted by many stalwart provincial

Radicals:— "I was reading some correspondence the other day between a wise man and a famous woman who devoted a long life to publics service. No statesman, they agreed, and no man or woman who had once been able to serve the State should ever go into complete retirement. The ex-Lord Chancellor is clearly of the same opinion. At a moment of critical pause he has ingeminated the word Peace! Peace ! He has used the position of detachment which retirement from office gives to make an appeal to the quiet and sober judgment of the people and their party leaders. Whether he succeeds or whether he fails, his intervention has done a service to the State."

—Miss Edith Sellers, writing "For Ratepayers and Old- Age Pensioners," describes in detail the valuable results of the Whyteleafe experiment for providing homes for old married couples. Briefly put, the experiment, which had its origin in the gift of a house in East Dulwich by Miss Faraday, has shown that the more respectable among the old people who are in the workhouse, or on their way there, might all be provided with good homes and live in comfort at the cost of 3s. 81d. a week each, in addition to their old-age pensions, whereas in London workhouses they cost 13s. 81d. a week. Incidentally Miss Sellers insists vigorously on the utter inadequacy of the Old-Age Pension Act to provide for the

needs of the very poor who stand alone. " For them it is the veriest fiction. Before it was passed they went to the workhouse when too feeble to earn their own daily bread; and now that it is in force they are either there already or they are drifting there surely and inevitably."—Sir W. F. Barrett, F.R.S.,

one of the founders of the Society for Psychical Research, welcomes Sir Oliver Lodge's Presidential Address at the British Association for its candour and fearlessness in stating the conclusions to which he had been led after thirty years' investigation of psychical phenomena. Sir William Barrett is careful to define his own position with regard to the per- sistence of personality after death :—

" Exception might be taken to the dilemma put by Sir Oliver: 'Either we are immortal beings or we are not,' as 'immortal' usually denotes imperishable, but the etymological meaning was probably intended by Sir Oliver. It does not follow that life beyond the grave confers immortality, and obviously no con- ceivable experimental evidence can demonstrate this fact. All that psychical research can possibly hope to prove is (1) that life and consciousness can exist without a material body and brain such as we have here ; and (2) that the communicating intelligence is the survival in the Unseen of an individual who once lived on earth. Evidence that has been growing in abund- ance and quality during recent years justifies, in my opinion, belief in the first statement. The proof of the identity of that intelligence with a deceased person is a very different and far more difficult matter, so that many who accept the former hesitate to accept the latter statement."

—Mr. March Phillipps writes on "The Two Ways of Build- ing "—the mediaeval method, when there were no architects, as we understand the term, but when building was the outcome of craftsmanship, i.e., disciplined and organized labour; and the Renaissance system, which meant building in a special manner

and involved the creation of a new order of official to take charge of the operations. Holding, as be does, that the difference between a master-mason and an architect is the difference between creative and imitative art, Mr. March Phillipps hails the reviving vitality in every department of craftsmanship as not only a fulfilment of the democratizing

tendency, but as an earnest of the efflorescence of creative art. —Dr. Dillon's monthly commentary on foreign affairs deals largely with Mexico, in regard to which he clearly inclines to the view that General Huerta is the homme ngcessaire—the

only man in the country at present fitted to stamp out anarchy and re-establish order. Touching on affairs in the Balkans, Dr. Dillon observes, " Bulgaria has now no friend," a bold

saying in view of the rapid shifting of the Balkans kaleido- scope.—Mr. Robert B. Batty urges as an indispensable preliminary to temperance reform that the supply of intoxi- cants should be forbidden to minors under eighteen.

In the Fortnightly " Curio" discusses the prospects of the autumn campaign. He thinks that the Cabinet, distracted and divided about Ulster, are reckoning on Mr. Lloyd George

to get them out of the mess by turning the attention of the country to a land campaign. Here, again, the Government forces are divided, some wanting a much more Socialist policy than others. So much is this the case that it is not unlikely that the campaign may be merely one of denunciation of landlords, with little suggestion of a constructive policy. According to "Curio" here lies the chance of the Unionists. A slight development of Lord Lansdowne's proposals would give the party something to go upon in the country. The great question, no doubt, and the most difficult one, is that of

labourers' wages. " Curio " would solve this by Wages Boards and a reform of the present system of rating.—" A Liberal Unionist " discusses the land question, and points out that it will soon have to be decided by the country whether the problem is to be settled on Socialist or individualist lines. The Liberal Government tend towards the Socialist solution, as they dread the conservatism of small freeholders.

The writer of the present paper advocates the creation of peasant proprietors on the Irish system, and he too sees the necessity of improving the lot of the labourer. Mr. Rowntree's book on Belgium is quoted to prove how much more might

be done in England in the way of producing food. The writer advocates a great multiplication of freeholders who

would by merely paying rent become proprietors by means of State credit. What he does not explain is how the problem of buildings is to be solved. We are told that the same system should be applied to towns. If workmen could own their houses there will be an incentive to thrift which nothing else can supply.—Mr. Percy Martin writes of the condition of things in Mexico. The list given of probable candidates for supreme power is bewildering, and there seems little hope of any settlement. The American refusal to acknowledge a Government because it owes its existence to revolution is not likely to impress Mexicans, considering how the United States took advantage of revolu- tions in Cuba and the Philippines, and instigated and sup- ported the rebellion of Panama against Colombia. While Washington fulminates against revolutionaries, arms and ammunition from the United States are continually being sent to Mexico, with the possibility of their being used against the country which manufactured them. Mr. Martin brings the charge of precipitancy against President Wilson, and says :—

" No other Government deemed it necessary to withdraw its subjects and citizens from Mexico on account of the present administrative situation, and Dr. Wilson's panic diplomacy has not only wounded the susceptibilities of the Mexicans, but has entailed incalculable financial losses upon those nervous Americans who permitted themselves to be influenced by it, and who, no doubt—backed by the United States Government State Depart- ment—will have the effrontery to capitalize these losses and demand compensation from the Mexican Government at a future date" —The great naturalist, M. Henri Fabre, was at one time in correspondence with Darwin on the subject of the power show r by certain animals of returning to their homes when taken

away to a distance. M. Fabre, at Darwin's suggestion, carried

out a series of experiments upon mason bees, and he intended writing an account to the English man of science embodying

the results of the investigations. This final letter was never written, owing to Darwin's death. But M. Fabre has recorded the results reached in a paper cf great interest, written with that

charm of which only French men of scieuce appear to know the secret. The problem set was to ascertain whether bees which were taken and marked could be so puzzled as to lose their sense of direction on being liberated at a distance of a mile of two from home. Darwin suggested that the returning power might come from a realization of the direction in which they

were carried away from the nest. To neutralize this M. Fares put his bees, marked with paint, into a box, and not unq

walked first in one direction and then in another, but also t his box to a string and periodically whirled it round in the air so that the circular movement might interfere with a sem.,

of direction. All these methods of puzzling the bees were futile, and a considerable percentage reached home within short time, some taking only five minutes to cover two mile,.

But Darwin returned to the idea of confusing the bee's sense, and proposed to attach a small magnet to each insect for the

purpose, a proposition which causes M. Fabre to remart. humorously, " I take shelter behind the immense reputation

of the learned begetter of the idea. It would not be accepted as serious, coming from a humble person like myself. Obscurity cannot afford these daring theories." Needless to say, the bees refused to fly with a portion of a magnetized needle

gummed to their backs, and the problem of how a bee fintlb its way home remains obscure.

Mr. Noyes has written an impressive poem on war, which appears in Blackwood. It is called " The Winepress," and

deals with a situation which one fears must have been only too often repeated in one form or another during the late Balkan war. The soldier goes out to fight the Turks, and the horrors of battle are described in no timid way. Then comes the fratricidal campaign, and after a battle the soldier returns to find his woodcutter's but burnt and his wife and child massacred by those who had begun the war as his companions-in-arms_

Yet through all this the poet sees hope; an old mit.J slowly dying from barbarous treatment is made to say :-

" Conquered, we shall conquer ! They have not hurt the soul. For there is another Captain Whose legions round us roll, Battling across the wastes of Death Till all be healed and whole."

—Miss Theodora Dehon has put together in an interesting manner the accounts of an incident of the Pretender's secret journey through France in 1715. The clever but unscrupulous English Ambassador, Lord Stair, finding that it was little use to depend on the public assurances of the French Government, organized his own system of detectives. The Regent, having promised that the Pretender should not be allowed to travel through France on his journey to the coast, took good care that nothing should be done to interrupt the journey. The story centres in a posting inn which was managed by a brave and capable woman. Here one of Stair's spies arrived at the same time as the Pretender. Fortunately for the latter, the spy made such an unfavourable impression on the post-mistress that when he made inquiries as to the route of the other guest, she determined to espouse the cause of the quiet-mannered gentleman she did not know, but whom she supposed to be carrying a large sum of money. With promptitude and resource she contrived the Pretender's escape in the disguise of an abbe. This could not have been done without the help of the local officials, and they were all ready to assist, because the Pretender, although he did not disclose his identity, held a passport from the Regent himself. The spy, one Dean, watched the inn, blunderbuss in hand, while these matters were being arranged, and the inference is that he intended to follow and shoot the man he was watching. It is possible that Lord Stair may have wished to take the matter into his own hands, finding that, though the Regent gave public orders for the Pretender's arrest, he secretly gave him credentials which secured his free passage.—Colonel MacMunn gives a very curious account of a family he took an interest in. It consisted of an Afghan wbo, having worked in Australia, there married a white wife, a poor white living on the edge of the bush. The husband was returning to Afghanistan, there to settle down as a trader in ready-made frock-coats, which, it appears, are much sought after by the local aristocracy as a mark of distinction. Colonel MacMunn kept in touch with the couple, and found that the wife was quite happy, being well treated by her husband, who was prosperous, and quite able to take her own part with the native women. But a speculation in gun-running was added to the more peaceful frock-coats, and others were concerned in the venture. A disaster occurred owing to the presence of a British ship of war on the look-out for illicit trade, and many people lost their money in this commercial enter- prise. The end was the natural one for the country, a vendetta and an ambush, immediately followed by a mournful procession across the border into India. It so happened that Colonel MacMunn was out with a party of soldiers when the camel laden with the white woman, her two children, and her husband's dead body were encountered. The original claim had been Masonic, and it was not neglected now, " and in the end it was arranged that she and her children should be installed on a small fruit and chicken farm in the Himalaya, and the children in due course properly educated."—Sir Hugh Clifford's story, " The Very Devil," ends with an explanation which the most ingenious would be unlikely ever to light upon. Two English officials, travelling in North Borneo with Chinese servants and also a Malay and a Sikh orderly, encamped for the night in some dilapidated huts. At dinner it was told them that the but used as a kitchen was in possession of a devil. The matter had to be inves- tigated, so the Englishmen went to look for themselves at the creature, who they were told was the daughter of Burong Garoda, which is the Roc of Sinbad. She nests in the tree beside the chasm into which the sea rushes when the crab who closes the mouth of it goes out in search of food, thus causing the tide. If this was the daughter, the mother devil would soon come to look for her, and what would happen then P The first Englishman looked into the dark hut, lighted by a candle, when there was a creaking of the roof-beams and something swung out of the blackness, dealt him a blow on the chin, and knocked over the light. Reinforcements, in the shape of a lantern. havin been brought, a second exploration was made. By the light of the lantern there was seen a horrible, bodiless, grinning face, with clenched teeth, suspended in mid-air, and twisting from side to side with astonishing contortions. This time both barrels of the gun were discharged, and there followed a creaking of the rafters and a flop on the floor. Then the mystery was solved, and the devil turned into a large python which was sleeping in the roof timbers and was swallowing a cat, all of which had gone down except its face.

The October number of the United Service Magazine con- tains an interesting article entitled "The Great Duke in India: the Siege of Gawilgarh," by Lieutenant-Colonel R. G. Burton, in which are grouped together some very interesting contemporary accounts of the Duke's appearance at that period. Here is one of them :— " A little above middle height, well limbed and muscular with little encumbrance of flesh beyond that which gives shape and manliness to the outlines of the figure; an erect carriage; a countenance strongly patrician, both in feature. profile, and expression, and an appearance remarkable and distinguished few could approach him on any duty or any subject requiring his serious attention without being aware of something strange and penetrating in his clear light eye."

The edited extracts from Pasley's Essay on the Military Policy and Institutions of the British Empire are continued. Chapter iii. deals with the war in Spain, and opens with some very memorable generalisations as to the conduct of war. One of these we may select:— "Never stand still in the pride of victory whilst anything more remains to be done. By so doing you may lose a kingdom, while you are exulting in the conquest of a province: like the improvi- dent chess player, who, from his eagerness to win a few pieces loses the game."