THE MAGAZINES.
ONE of the most interesting and suggestive articles in this • month's Contemporary Review is that which contains the three papers of "General" Booth, Miss Cobb, and Mr. Randall
• Davidson, on the Salvation Army. " General " Booth's paper is a clear and succinct account of the origin, progress, and method of his "Army?' His tone is full of enthusiasm and confidence, but is entirely free from cant and arrogance. During the seventeen years of the existence of the "Army," "We have had," he says, "to learn and unlearn a great deal," and "we do not pretend as yet to have finished our education." Accord- ingly, they "continually seek to learn, from foes as well as friends." "The system of government is absolutely military." "The corps is under its captain, the division under its major, and the whole Army under its General, with no hope for any one of successful agitation against superior authority." The mili- tary organisation was adopted after the trial and failure of a variety of other plans ; and this organisation is undoubtedly one of the main secrets of the success of the movement. Miss Cobbe and • Mr. Randall Davidson both write as sympathisers, cordially acknowledging the good points of the movement, but indicating at the same time some serious blots which are likely to destroy it. The resemblance of the Salvation Army in its constitution to the great Religious Orders, and to the Society of Jesus especially, is obvious. Mr. Davidson points out how the rigid autocracy of the Jesuits has from the first been an element of weakness and corruption, both intellectual and moral, in the wonderful ,Society founded by Loyola. But the Jesuit and other Religious Orders possessed certain antidotes against internal dissolution which are wanting to the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army has no defined body of doctrine, no Sacramental system, no ecclesiastical organisation ; and the probability is that it will gradually go to pieces, after its present leaders have passed away. Meanwhile it has demonstrated the need of greater freedom and elasticity, and even of the dramatic element, in presenting Christianity to the masses. The three papers are all well worth reading. Mr. Rae's article on "Co-operative Agriculture in Germany" is a very useful contribution to one of the most pressing questions of the time, at least in this country. The Co-operative system, applied to agriculture, seems to have answered, on the whole, very well in Germany, wherever it has been fairly tried. The Co-operative system referred to is the equitable sharing of profits and risks by proprietors and tenants. Mr. Lilly continues his studies on. the Middle Ages. His subject this month is the pontificate of Hildebrand, which he treats, of coarse, from an Ultra,montane point of view. Mr. Lang has an appreciative and well.svritten article on the "Poems of William Morris." Mr. Boyd Dawkins contributes an
interesting paper on the British lion,—not the metaphorical representative of British pluck, but the extinct quadruped which once inhabited Great Britain. Mr. Fremantle's paper on" Church and. Democracy at Geneva" is disappointing. He thinks that Genevan Calvinism has proved a success, and draws the in- ference that "the Christian Church does not necessarily lose its characteristic by being without obligatory forms, creeds, articles, liturgies, and subscriptions. Some of these things are good, some bad, some indifferent, none essential." But what is the "characteristic" of a Church which is " without " the various things enumerated by Mr. Fremantle? To talk of the " characteristic " of such an amorphous abstraction is like talking of the characteristic of a man without legs, arms, head, or trunk. And we imagine that the one abstraction would be quite as useful as the other. Mr. Sheldon Amos's article on "Egypt and. England " is opportune. He upholds the policy of the Government.
The Fortnightly Review is solid this month, but dry, and hardly up to its general level. Mr. Freeman leads off with his "Impressions of America." They are, on the whole, decidedly favourable. The thing which most sur- prised him at first, but did not surprise him at all on reflection, was how little America differed from England. The difference appeared to him less than that between England and Scotland. He found himself at home in the United States, and naturally therefore writes of his American friends in a vein which is likely to please them. Colonel Osborn always writes well, and has an intimate knowledge of Indian affairs. Hie careful criticism of Sir Richard Temple's rosy picture of our Administration in India is well worth reading and pondering over. So also is Mr. Rathbone's "Great Britain and the Saes Canal." The upshot of Mr. Rathbone's argument is that the value of the Suez Canal to this country, both commercially and from a military point of view, is immensely overrated. Certainly it is not easy to answer his argument that, however useful the Canal might be to us for military purposes in the event of troubles in India, it would be practically quite useless in case of war with any of the European Powers. It would be too perilous, he argues, to send troopships through the Canal in such a contingency.
The most timely article in the Nineteenth Century is perhaps Mr. Godkin's, elsewhere criticised on the so-called "American view" of the Irish question. Mr. Arnold is extremely entertain- ing in his Rede lecture, a reply to Professor Huxley on the relative value of the humanities and science in education. For our parts, we heartily agree with him that it is far better not to know what becomes of the constituents of a wax taper under combustion, if you can only know it on condition of supposing that the best equivalent for " Canst then not minister to a mind diseased," is " Canst thou not wait upon a lunatic P "—the equivalent actually given to himself by one of the modern examinees. One of the most noteworthy articles in the number is signed, " Ameer Ali's Cry from the Indian Mahora- edans." The complaint is, that in every walk of life the Mahomedan is falling behind the clever and supple Hindoo, "With every avenue to public employment already jealously blocked up," says the writer of this well-written paper, "by an antagonistic and versatile race, it is almost impossible for a Mussulman candidate to obtain a footing in any Government office. In every walk of life, in every matter, whether it con- cerns the disposal of a post or the dispensing of State hospi- tality, the Hindoo has obtained an influence which he will not willingly share with another." "It is impossible for the Mussul- mans to compete successfully, or to keep pace with the Eurasians and the ilindoos, unless some extra assistance is rendered." It is a piteous cry, which both appeals to one's sympathies and portends some danger to our rule in India. The ques- tion is whether the evil is one which admits of political cure, Mr. Huggins has an interesting article on Comets, Lord Sherbrooke a good article on Parliamentary Oaths;. Lady Florence Dixie greets the advent of " Cetshwayo " (opinion appear to differ as much about the orthography of his name ae about his character) with a sympathetic article ; and Mr. Dicey discourses on "England's Intervention in Egypt," from the point of view of those who would like to see England assert herself there in. the future more energetically than she has done in the past, even to the extent of downright annexation.
Feaser has some interesting articles this month. We note especially the entertaining "Three Trips to Tartarus," and Mr. A. J. Wilson's severe review of Sir John Strachey's book on The Finances and Public Works of India from 1819 to 188L" This article should be read in conjunction with Colonel Osbortt's in the F ortnightly. Karl Blind's " Recollections about Garibaldi" will also repay perusal.
The "time" articles in Blackwood, "The Whigs' Last Chance" and "Our French Ally in Egypt," remind the reader of the Babel of barking at a dog-show. There ifs the deep, con- vinced bay of the mastiff, the growl of the aggrieved bull-dog, the curt snarl of the terrier smelling whole sewers' full of rats, the impertinent snapping of the ill-tempered pug, and the piti- ful whining of the puppy. All the dogs are barking at the same man, and up the wrong tree, with unanimous ardour ; and the apparent bad-faith that has become, unfortunately, a "note" of Tory literature; the bad-faith, we mean that reiter- ates the mythical "Perish, India:" and "Hands off :" phrases, and adorns the tale of Ministerial shortcomings with the calm assertion of facts that never occurred and blunders that were not made. "The Whigs' Last Chance" is an im- pudently transparent attempt to widen the alleged breach between the Whig and Radical sections of the Liberal party, and it abonnds in assertions as threadbare as they are un- founded and harmless. There is, however, a laugh to be had out of the yap-yap-yapping; it is when, in a long and strong paroxysm of the bark denunciatory we find the following charming sample of the combined information of the big and little bow-wows, The Yankee interlocutor of Martin Chuzzlewit, who calmly maintained that Queen Victoria lived in the Mint when she was at the Court of St. James, was hardly happier in his topography than the gentlemanly creature who imputes the "strong measure" of the Prevention of Crime Bill (which, however, "the blind and incurable vanity of the Prime Minister led him personally to seek to modify ") to "the assassinations of Lord F. Cavendish and Mr. Burke in broad daylight, and within, a few paces of Dublin Castle." The Raiders are ours, the 1' paces" are those of the seven-league-hooted imagination of a writer who knows nothing about Dublin. Bieeksvood's political articles are hound to be funny—they cannot help it—but their humour is apt to be monotonous, and this time it is, perhaps, " more so." We have laughed at the assertions that "Mr. Gladstone's active political life will hardly survive the present Parliament," and that "the rot has set in," as often as Mr. lelardcastle's servants laughed at the story of Grouse in the Guu-room,"—we really cannot laugh at them any more. Will not Blackwood oblige us with some brand-new facetise, during the holidays ? "Our French Ally in. Egypt" is as entertaining as the crack speech at a debating society where the members are very nearly "grown-ups" Here ie a splendid erample of the matter of Cassandra and the manner of Mr. Jefferson Brick "We are on the verge of ouch a conflict between Christendom and Islam as the world hats never known. The Egyptian thundercloud has overcast the firmament of the entire Moslem and Christian world ; while we, like mariners ignorant of the signs of the weather, have mistaken the brewing tornado for a slight squall. The question for British statesmen—if there are any [sly dog ! that's his sarcasm]—to consider, is, how the 611i-le of State is to be made snug, before it bursts upon us with its overwhelming fury!' What trope, what metaphor, what "a nice derangement of epitaphs I" Can one not hear the snip of the editorial scissors, as they, too, say "Blood !" and are quite of Jefferson Brick's opinion p A pleasant article on Sport in a German Forest Country," which tells us as little as we want to know about the "sport," and as ratech about the " cbuntry," is the pleasantest reading in the magazine. With some truth, there is a good deal of absurdity in the article entitled "Machine- made Soldiers," notably in the argument against the reform of the regimental mess system. "The young man who Ends he cannot get rid of his surplus cash at the garrison mess," and "will manage to get rid of it in some other place, and that, probably, a good deal more shady," is precisely that officer of the future who is to be discouraged, not encouraged. The " poor officer" who, under the present system, can live very comfortably for a sum not exceeding six shillings a day, if he is content with cold luncheon on ordinary days, and drinks good ale and claret in moderation," is precisely that officer whose position requires to be eased, and who, being presumably a valuable person meaning business, or he would not propose to servo his country at the price, has a right to have that part of d the Price which is represented by stringent and painful self-
erred reduced to the minimum. The writer is pleased to be
facetious about the "German School," and. to represent it look- ing on with spectacled complacency, "while Theory elbows Practice out of the road." How simply silly this is we realise by a brief and easy reminiscence of the "German School," as represented at Sadowa and Sedan. If, under any resem- bling circumstances, our Army of the future should illustrate the theory of the German school by the practice of the Ger. man Army, we shall not be particularly moved by the taunt that it is "machine-made."
The author of" John Inglesant " ought not to be indifferent to accuracy in small things. In his clever, short story in Mac- eaiaan, "The Baroness Helena von Saarfeld," he calls his heroine Madame la Baroness°, which is not French ; and the mysterious noble, Count von Rosen(e)au, which is not German. Sir Edward Strachey's paper on the preliminary hietory of the Franco-Prussian War strikes us as clear and graphic, although we cannot accept his ascription of nobility to the objects of Count Bismarck, and meanness and baseness to those of Napoleon III. Mr, Julian Hawthorne's story, "Fors tune's Fool," goes on well. He draws too much upon the Stage, not only for his incidents, but for his metaphor. Here is an in- stance :—" Wear mourning, and be solemn, for Time is stage manager of this terrestrial theatre, and gives us cues when we must weep or laugh?' A poem, "Death and Life, in Memo- seam, July 18th, 1881," by the late Doan Stanley, is the moat interesting and remarkable feature of Macmillan. These verses are to be felt, not analysed.
Cornhill is rather too ponderous, especially for a holiday month. "Talk and Talkers" is an alleviation to the deadly- lively nature of the number, but we entirely fail to detect the humour of" The Curse of the Catafalquea." Any fool would know that it is meant to be funny ; perhaps our foolishness surpasses the amount required for the enjoyment of the joke, and smothers it.
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