THE MAGAZINES.

Mu. EDGAR CRAMMOND, whose remarkable statistical papers we have had occasion to notice more than once of recent years, has a striking article on "' High Finance' and the Danger of Premature Peace" in the Nineteenth Century. He believes that the immensely powerful financial interests in the United States and in this country are being used, in con- junction with other influences, to compel an immediate and in- conclusive peace, and that the pessimists in this country are unconsciously playing the game of Germany and facilitating a settlement on the basis of the status quo ante Wiliam It is the aim of his article to prove the danger of such a settlement, and concurrently the urgent need of Germany to bring it about, as shown in her war wastage in men, the approaching • The War Lords, By A. G. Gardiner. Loudon: J. X. Boat and Sous. Els. act.]

depletion of her food supplies, the loss of her foreign trade, the increasing shortage of her supplies of war material—though here he admits the data to be obscure—and the shock to her internal credit. The whole scheme of German war finance was based upon the complete and speedy success of German arms—i.e., within a year or fifteen months—and Mr. Cram.

mond is of opinion that the prolongation of the war through another winter will destroy Prussian militarism. He does not minimize the appalling amount of suffering and destruction which it has brought on the world :-

" In twelve months Prussian militarism has caused the death or maiming of nearly nine millions of men and the destruction of about .Q10,000,000,000 of the world's wealth. If Germany had been the winner of this war she would have known how to make the losers pay. The question which it is very much in the power of the British people to decide is whether Germany is to be punished or whether she is to be allowed to escape the penalty of her crime against the world, because her punishment cannot be accomplished without inflicting further enormous losses upon certain great financial interests. It is our duty to sweep aside all influences and considerations which stand in the way of the destruction of Prussian militarism, At an immense cost we have transformed our industrial organisation from a commercial basis to a war basis, and we are only just beginning to reap the full benefit of this tremendous effort. Our greatest danger now is that we may allow ourselves to be bluffed' into a premature and inconclusive peace. We hold the winning position, and all we have to do is to stand fast with our Allies."

The article will be regarded by some critics as too optimistic, but the figures given are worth attentive study, and Mr.

Crammond's warnings are well needed. We may note a very interesting supplement to the article in the Morning Post of September 1st, in which Mr. Crammond examines the figures of the German losses put out last week.— Of the two articles on " Our Relations with the United States," that by Sir John Macdonell urges the establishment of an Anglo-American Tribunal in prize cases at once, "thereby proving as nothing else could prove our readiness to act fairly and equitably to neutrals." He notes that the chief decisions which can be invoked in favour of belligerents' rights are those of United States Courts during the Civil War, " decisions which, it may be assumed, will not be lightly disregarded by American lawyers," and suggests that the admission of the United States Government that in the altered circumstances of commerce and with new forms of warfare the old rules must be somewhat modified, should be made the basis of an agreement between both countries as to

the modifications required by the change of circumstances in the old rules as to contraband and blockade.—Sir Francis Piggott discusses the new Proclamation making cotton con- traband of war, denies that the critics of our Government

have won a victory, and notes, as we have done in these columns, the strong belief of the Americans in the virtue of strict precedent and technical terms.—Mr. Ellis I3arker, in a long article headed " How America Became a Nation in Arms," finds useful lessons for ns in the present crisis. To summarize his contentions very briefly, the North "muddled through" and saved the United States through one-man government—which was implied in the Constitution of the Republic—and conscription. But while admitting that Lincoln saved the Union, he denies him more than moderate ability. He was "a man of sterling character, and a great citizen," but "scarcely a statesman of the very first rank." We differ profoundly from this estimate of the greatest of all

Americans. And when Mr. Ellie Barker declares that, since war is a one-man business, Great Britain now needs a Dictator for her salvation, we may remind him of what Lincoln himself said on the subject in a letter to General Hooker, on his appointment to command the Army of the

Potomac

" I have heard, in such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the army and the Government needed a dictator. Of course, it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who gain successes can sot up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship. The Government will support you to the utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor less than it has done and will do for all commanders. I much fear that the spirit, which you have aided to infuse into the army, of criticising their commander and withholding confidence from him, will now turn upon you. I shall assist you as far as I can to put it down. Neither you nor Napoleon, if lie were alive again, could got any good out of an army while such a spirit prevails in it. And now beware of rashness. Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories."

—Sir Alfred Sharpe pleads for the adoption of a definite forward policy policy in the Balkans by the Quadruple Entente on the basis of liberal concessions to Bulgaria. His postscript takes a more optimistic view of the formation of a Balkan League than the latest news seems to warrant Captain B. N. Bennett describes his recent experiences in Serbia in a most interesting paper. We may specially note his remarks on hospital management, with regard to which ho offers some practical suggestions, and on the good treatment of the Austrian prisoners. Like Sir Alfred Sharpe, he insists on the need of a liberal treatment of Bulgaria in view of the incalculable importance of her intervention on the aide of the Allies.—We may also mention Mr. Roderick Jones's personal impression of General Botha, in which his human as well as his statesmanlike qualities are well brought out; Sir Harry Johnston's clever but to us wholly uncon- vincing symposium on God and Humanity "; and the Abbe Dimnet's study of Mine. de Steel in the light of recent events.

In the Contemporary Review Sii John Macdonell, disclaim- ing the idea of joining in the speculations now common as to the terms of the peace at the close of this war, turns his attention to the past. The result of his survey of "modern treaties of peace" is not reassuring ; modern treaties are not only necessarily more complex, but in many ways they mark a declension from earlier standards. But while he pronounces no nation to be free from reproach in exacting hard terms from a vanquished foe, he expressly declares that, "with the exception of those treaties terminating wars in which Prussia was unsuccessful, no nation has so consistently from the days of the Great Elector pressed her demands on the conclusion of peace as she has done." Sir John Macdonell concludes on a note of despondency:— "The world seems to havo moved back. There are new perils without new safeguards—at all events, those provided by treaties of peace. There is the conflict between the desire for territorial expansion and largo empires and the aspirations of nationalities leading to political Particularism. There is the exaltation of the State as an end in itself, and not as a stage in the development of a higher organisation embracing several States, and, one far-off day, perhaps embracing all, There is the importa- tion of the racial element into political relations, with a revival of feelings not unlike what existed when `enemy' and 'alien' wore synonymous. The growth of industrialism, which pro- mised peace, has brought with it envy and jealousy : States need to be' protected' against each other, as if international trade were not a benefit to all concerned, but a victory to some and an injury to others. While science and literature and art are becoming cosmopolitan ; while capital and labour observe no frontier lines, political Particularism tends to be more pronounced. We look in vain for constructive treaties of peace.; those which form new ties between countries and uproot the causes of war. To do this not only should they renew severed engagements, they should provide for the open discussion and pacific settlement of future difficulties, for partial disarmament—the real test of a sincere peace—and for common action as to matters of interest to both nations. Modern treaties of peace are so often of the nature of truces. It is no wonder if they rarely fulfil the expectations of the victors, if arrangements which they seek to establish are seldom durable, and if treaties are in truth written in water. Generally framed with reference to passing exigencies and in order to obtain the maximum of advantages to the conqueror, they are monuments of the limited foresight of diplomacy.'

--In "The Coming Taxation" Mr. J. A. Hobson regrets that the Government yielded to the temptation to finance the opening period of the war as much as possible by borrowing and as little as possible by additional taxation. But while granting that compulsory economy by process of taxation is desirable and necessary, and accepting the principle of lowering the Income Tax exemption limit, he is averse from applying this extension of direct taxation to wage-earners so long as other sources remain unexhausted. "The political utility of bringing home a sense of responsibility by means of direct taxation must clearly be subordinated to the economic disutility of imposing a tax which, by its incidence, damages the vital efficiency of the worker or his family." He would only consent to it if it were applied in substitution of certain indirect taxation—i.e., breakfast-table duties. In conclusion, he asserts that " the aggregate income of the working classes, large in itself, presents no such reservoir for revenue as some politicians fondly imagine.... Any attempt to encroach upon the subsistence or efficiency wages is as suicidal a policy as would be the endeavour to let down the plant, machinery, and other fixed capital of a going concern."—The paper on "Herr Chamberlain and the War," by Mr. J. M. Robertson, M.P., is a striking piece of invective directed against that denationalized Englishman who has become

Borassis ipso Borusslor. It may amuse Mr. Robertson to learn, if he does not know it already, that in the notice of " Herr " Houston Chamberlain in Who's Who it is stated that he intended to enter the British Army, but was " incapable of standing the English elimate "1 Mr. Robertson's analysis of

his pamphlet Whole to Blame for the War ? is a most trenchant exposure of the methods of one who avows as his guiding principle the maxim of "Pascal, the genuine German Lorrainer," that " too much truth paralyses the under- standing." "Herr" Houston Chamberlain's lies about the composition of " Kitchener's armies" prompt Mr. Robertson to the remark that at least " we may comfort ourselves by saying that the worst of our publicists have never sunk to such eanaillerie as that; and that we have gained by the transference of one caitiff to the German flag."—Professor Wrightson'ti paper on "Home Production of Food in War Time, and After" should be read in connexion with the recently published Report of the Milner Committee. Since he wrote the price of wheat per quarter has dropped from Ns. and 60s. to 45s. On the whole, his conclusions are somewhat negative. He gives at best a tentative support to the proposal for breaking up grass-lands, and is sceptical as to the likelihood of our being able to increase the yield of existing arable land. —Mr. J. R. van Millingen hails the annexation of Cyprus last November as opening a new vista of progress and prosperity. In his view, commercial as well as strategical considerations call upon us to consolidate our position in the island.

The first article in the Fortnightly, which is unsigned, traces the possible effect on the Balkan Powers of the fall of Warsaw. The writer says that, whereas the Allies can only offer hypothetical extensions of territory taken from Turkey and Austria, the Central Empires can actually invade, and treat the invaded inhabitants as they treated the Belgians. But against the loss of prestige caused by the Russian retreat must be set the facts that the Russian armies are unbeaten, and that Russia shows no sign of demoralization whatever.—Mr.

Archibald Hurd discusses Germany's new policy, that of trying to persuade America that what she really wants is the freedom of the seas for all. The idea is of course alluring to people of the type of President Wilson, who doubtless aims at using his influence in the final settlement in this direction. Germany would of course keep the agreement as long as it suited her. America would keep her word, but when Germany broke hers, pass by on the other side as too proud to fight. Mr. Hurd says well

"Our ease at the judgment seat of history rests on the fact that our Fleet is the life-line of a maritime Empire, that it defends the freedom of the seas for us and for all law-abiding Powers, and that behind it stands no great standing Army to which it can give safe and rapid transport on any errand of aggression."

—The glimpses of Russian Poland shown us by Mr. W. F. Bailey are terrible in the extreme. The state of Poland is probably worse than that of Belgium, for in the latter country there was the possibility of flight to England or Holland. We are told that in Poland the only way of escape for the villagers—and they are taking it now—is to burn their villages with themselves inside their houses. Thus do they cheat those whom they call " the devils in grey." The story is here told of the plunder of the church of Czenstochowa, a place particularly holy in the eyes of the peasants on account of a sacred picture of the Virgin and Child. Before the German army arrived secret agents reported that the Kaiser had seen a vision of this Virgin and Child, and was commissioned to free the shrine from the Russians. In exchange for Polish support fresh jewels were offered for this shrine, but the refusal was prompt and emphatic. So it came about that when the German army did enter the place the church was desecrated, and a portrait of the Emperor with candles burning before it replaced that of the Virgin. The effect was to convince the peasants that the Kaiser is the representative of Satan, if not Satan himself in human form. In Germany a cheap postcard reproduces the stolen picture and bears the inscription : "The famous picture of the Virgin and Child captured from Czenstochowa

by our gallant array."—Mr. John Pollock gives a tragic account of the flight of refugees making for Kiev. Everything possible seems to be done to soften their hardships, but the numbers are so great that terrible

suffering is inevitable. The very practical step has been taken of posting people on the roads converging on the city, so that many of the refugees may be diverted to other towns and villages where they can be succoured better than in congested Kiev.—A very interesting paper on Zeppelins is contributed by Messrs. Grahame-White and Harry Harper. They believe that these airships as engines of destruction must have been a great disappointment to Germany. Practice has shown that they are so vulnerable to attack by gunfire and aeroplanes that they have to travel over England in darkness, which makes it impossible to damage a particular place with certainty. Also they have to fly at such a great height to avoid danger that they are unable to carry any heavy weight of bombs. To do real harm flight must be low and by daylight, but this means certain destruction.

Blackwood contains an article by an exchanged officer, who gives us an account of his journey from Cambrai to Wiirz- burg. This is a terrible indictment, not of individual Germans, though they show to the greatest disadvantage—all except one woman, and she bad lived in England—but of the inhumanity of the German people. The wickedness of the

whole thing is not so much that there was no proper pro- vision for wounded men—there was ample provision on the spot during the journey—but that food and care were deliberately withheld from the wounded prisoners. At Cambria the nurses of the hospital had been French, and so there the patients had received every care. Had it not been for the

food given to the prisoners before they started, it is (Moult to see bow they could have reached their journey's end alive. Part of this food had to be given to a greedy sentry, though of course he was fed at every station when food was denied to his charges. The German doctors seem to have been as bad as could be. Even the head of the Cambrai Hospital, who professed friendliness, wilfully misled the writer of the article, who was suffering from a head wound. which bad produced paralysis. On inquiry Dr. Schmidt assured the patient that he would travel in a bed in the ambulance train with plenty of food from the restaurant car. As a matter of fact, the officer travelled on straw spread on the board seat of a third-class carriage, with nothing to eat and very little to drink, a German officer remarking " Das ist salon far sin Englander." All along the line at the constant stopping.

places people came to jeer at the prisoners or to argue about the war. At one point of the journey a change of trains was made, and the writer had to do the best he could in a small compartment with four more of our wounded. Here is the officer's description of his fellow-travellers :-

" We were now five wounded men and two very corpulent sentries, and the problem of how to divide the available space presented some difficulty. Two of the men, like myself, were unable to travel in a sitting position. We had four seats (a compartment with a passage down the middle), one of which was occupied by the two sentries. The other three had to be given to those who could not sit up, and so the remaining two men had to lie on the hard floor. Although all these men had been very severely wounded, and were still in great pain, they had no thought for themselves, but insisted on doing everything that they could to settle me as comfortably as possible. . . A British Tommy's cheerfulness is irrepressible. The knocking about may have been severe, the situation may be desperate, and the outlook depressing, but you will nearly always find the British soldier cheerful in spite of all."

One of these soldiers, a young Irishman, was fearfully wounded and disfigured, but this did not prevent German soldiers from pulling him out so that they might look at him and laugh, while another tried to steal the officer's great-coat. The observation of Germany through the carriage window impressed the officer greatly. He says that those who have not seen it cannot imagine the seriousness and united force in the nation behind the Army. If we are to win, these same qualities must be developed here, He believes that the one thing which would impress Germany, much more even than a defeat, would he the adoption of universal service by us. The writer of this paper shows such calmness of observation and judgment that it is to be hoped he will give us more of his experi- ences in Germany.—We again follow the fortunes of The First Hundred Thousand," this time seriously installed in their trenches, and are shown something of the way in which artillery is worked. A German annoyance having to be cleared away, an artillery officer and a telephone worker appear on the scene and direct the fire of a distant battery on to a German trench close at hand.—The news " From the Outposts " tells us of a brilliant defence of a small fort on the borders of the Cameroon, where three Englishmen and forty-one native troops repelled time attack of sixteen Germans, four hundred natives, and four Maxims, but with heavy loss to the defenders, two of the Englishmen being killed. German procedure seems to be the same all over the world. What they cannot loot they destroy, and what they cannot destroy they defile.

—Sir J. George Scott writes about special constables, of the way they have been passed on from one job to another, and of their various activities.—The " Despatch Rider " continues his reminiscences, which end up with his being given a com- mission.

The _National Review has this month reached us so late (not till nearly midday on Thursday) that we are unable to do more than afford it bare notice. Mr. Maxse writes with his usual vigour and command of stinging and irritating epithets. Unfortunately he often contrives to say the right thing in the wrong way—a way that tends not to secure converts for a good cause, but to raise opponents to it. We say the with regret, though personally we cannot help obtaining a good deal of amusement from the explosion of Mr. Maxse's well-aimed hand-grenades. The American correspondent of the National Review writes as follows :—

"Neither Great Britain nor her Allies should cultivate false hopes. The impression seems to prevail among some Englishmen and some Frenchmen that eventually the United States will enter the war, driven into it because morality requires the sacrifice. That may be dismissed as idle. Despite American sympathies, despite the well-founded belief in the justice of the Allied cause, the Americans will not be moved by sentimental considerations, nor by what other people may regard as their moral duty. They have their own interests to serve. They are still faithful to the admonitions of Washington Europe has a seta primary interests,. which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must he unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.'"

The editor adds the following characteristic note :-

" We know nobody outside the offices of certain newspapers which live on 'Anglo-Saxon slobber who imagines anything se absurd.—Euivon, Rational Review."

We agree. No doubt, as the correspondent also says, there is no war party in America ; the people as a whole are most anxious to avoid having to draw the sword, and would suffer almost anything rather than do that. For this fact, however, there are many reasons, one of them being that they recognize how utterly unprepared they are both by land and sea. At the same time, they probably forget that if the Germans did win, the bill which would be

sent them for supplying the Allies with munitions would be one to which the indirect claims in the case of the 'Alabama' would be the merest trifle. "By supplying munitions to our enemies you prolonged the war by a year, and made us spend another £500,000,000. Kindly oblige with a cheque, which will be collected by the German Fleet in a fortnight from date." No doubt Americans who think about such things would reply: "But then Germany is not going to win, or, if she does, your Fleet, which will still be in being, will never let her act in this way." Possibly ; but we confess that if we were Americans we should prefer to be capable of defending our- selves, and not count, if the worst came to the worst, on Britain being still able to keep the Germans in order.