THE MAGAZINES.

Mn. HAROLD Cog's article on " The Denial of Self-Govern- ment" heads the contents of the new Nineteenth Century.

The pith of the article can be put into two sentences : moderate men are unrepresented under the two-party system, and they never will he represented until they quit their

armchairs and organise themselves. These points are driven home and illustrated with the cogent argument and pointed anecdote in which Mr. Cox excels. A propos of the tyranny

of the caucus, he tells a delightful story :-

" A stranger, writing not long ago to the author of this article, plaintively asked whether the law could not be so amended that electors might be permitted to vote against, as well as for, candidates. In my division,' he said, ' both the candidates are such unutterable idiots that I want to record my conviction that neither of them is fit to sit in the House of Commons.' He went on to add that if this could be done the party caucuses would be compelled to choose better men. No such liberty as my corre- spondent asks for is enjoyed by any elector. He must take what is offered to him, either in men or in policy."

Mr. Harold Cox is a firm believer in proportional representa- tion, but he is under no illusion as to the obstacles in the way of its introduction. " If ever proportional representation is to become the law of the country, it must be because the moderate voter, who is now denied the right of self-govern. ment, claims his rights and insists on having them in spite of party managers?' But the whole article abounds in wise sayings, among which we may especially single out the following :—

" The real evil of national doles is not the cost to the taxpayer, but the harm done to the recipient."

" The main interest of the extremists, who dominate the Liberal Party, in Free Trade is to utilise it as an electoral lever with which to secure other objects By the action of these extremists the whole party has been forced to adopt a policy which involves the showering of gratuitous favours upon electors whose votes are worth winning, and therefore Liberals have placed themselves out of court when they attack Tariff Reform on account of the moral dangers it will introduce into English political life. They have abandoned principle for the sake of expediency, and, since they have no principle to fight for, there is no reason why they should not refer the mere question of expediency to a Royal Commission."

—Ameer Ali's survey of the Constitutional experi- ment in India is decidedly appreciative. He cordially welcomes the new system without indulging in any un-

reasoning optimism. It will not allay the " unrest " or con- ciliate the irreconciables, but it will satisfy the aspirations of the mass of the population, and " the forces interested in the peaceful development of the country and the maintenance of law and order essential to that end, are very much stronger than any other."—Mr. Morel makes two excellent points in his article on " Belgium, Britain, and the Congo." The first is that to manage the Congo on twentieth-century lines Belgium must pay. At present in the British and German dependencies in tropical Africa the annual grants-in-aid exceed half-a- million, while the direct contribution by native labour towards the upkeep of the Administration is £326,899. In the Congo, the area and population of which are less than those of the

dependencies mentioned above, there is no grant-in-aid, while the direct native contribution amounts to £839,900. Mr. Morel's other point is that, in spite of the more warlike

character of the tribes within their dependencies, England, France, and Germany maintain order, in proportion to the area and population, with more like one-third than a half of the number of native soldiers employed by Belgium, and what is equally significant, pay them five times as welL Mr. Morel sums up his case as follows :—

" This nation is pledged to the hilt to secure for the Congo races just government. Just government is not securable by fine phrases, but by specific measures. Just government for the Congo is impossible unless the people responsible for its administration is prepared to staunch the wounds which have been inflicted and begin the indispensable work of reconstruction. And that is out of the question without national sacrifices, without a grant-in-aid or loan for administrative purposes ; without the adoption of a policy based upon the open door for the development of com- mercial relations, the abrogation of slave labour, i.e., the so-called ' labour-tax ' for revenue purposes, a substantial decrease in the parasitical horde of soldiery, and recognition of native rights is land."

—Mr. William O'Brien's article on "The New Power in Ireland " was mainly written from the lugubrious point of

view of an extinct political volcano. There is, however, a lively epilogue on his own resurrection in which he castigates the " Bosses " with the utmost gusto, fulminates against the Budget, and appeals to the English Press to keep the ring and let the All-for-Ireland party and the " Molly Maguires fight it out without interference.—A brief reference may be made to Canon Vaughan's charming paper on his name- sake, the Silurist, and to Miss Sydney K. Phelps's instructive account of "The Home Workers of London."

The chief practical value of Mr. T. M. Healy's article on " Ireland and the Budget " in the National Review resides in its dissection of the land clauses. Mr. Healy's knowledge of the intricacies of the subject of Irish land law has long been

acknowledged to be unrivalled, and his criticisms derive an added weight from this fact. " The taxes on land," says Mr. Healy, " are the real sorrow for Ireland. Any one can do without whisky or tobacco If the peasant drinks or smokes, he must pay for his pleasures like every one else ; but the soil and its resources are the tools of his trade, and should no more bear death duty or stamp tax, than do the implements of the British artisan." The protest of Ireland against the Budget, Mr. Healy maintains, is " no exudation of Party strife. It arises not only from poverty, but from an insistence on international compact,"—the guarantee of " exemptions and abatements " in the Treaty of Union, to say nothing of the fact that it was enacted,

when Griffith's valuation was established seventy years ago, so as to encourage improvements and reclamation, that the land valuation should be unalterable. "Once introduce a

system of short periodic valuations with mulcts for unearned increment, site value, development duty, or other Georgian delicacies, and farmers will in sheer apprehension abandon making improvements or reclamation." The Budget, in short, has almost made the Irish forget old-age pensions, " the first unselfish Act passed by England for Ireland since the conquest of 1172 Why could not the Chancellor allow the Irish poor even a year to think well of England ?"

The whole article is written in this mordant vein, and with a great deal of literary ability. The quotations are worthy of note, e.g. : " Bad as are the taxes on whisky and tobacco, they have not advanced death's pale flag on any cottier's croft."

Very few English politicians would have introduced a quotation

from Romeo and Juliet into a discussion of the liquor clauses. —" Ignotus " in " Ministerial Mendacity" devotes himself to an examination of the facts and figures stated and cited in the election speeches of Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Winston Churchill,—" the Dioscuri of deception," as the writer calls them. There is rather too much of this ornamental abuse in the article, but certainly " Ignotus " has got hold of a good

instance of exaggeration in a speech delivered by the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer at Peekham, where he informed the audience that,

" according to the official return of our battleships, we had 70 battleships built within the last ten years, and we had an over- whelming preponderance before that; the Germans had 38.' The truth is that in the last ten years we have laid down, not 70 but 36 battleships and Invincibles,' and the Germans not 38, but 28 ships of the same types. 36 to 28 are very different odds from 70 against 38."

—The most striking article in the number is that entitled " The Emerging Soul of England," by Sir Francis Young- husband. These reflections on the situation are expressed with a moderation that is most impressive. At the same time they are inspired by a quiet intensity of feeling and a sincere love of country which shine through every sentence. Sir Francis Younghusband sees reason for anxiety, but none for despair. The spirit of the nation is alive and healthy, but it is threatened by the poison of Socialism, by legislation which penalises success. The genius of the nation can only develop on lines of personal initiative. The immediately urgent measure is the reconstruction of the House of Lords on demo- cratic lines, so as to include representatives of the Colonies and India. On the subject of the hereditary principle Sir Francis

Younghusband notes that the phrase "the accident of birth '' is unscientific, for birth is not an accident:— "It is not by mere accident that only the offspring of racehorses win the Derby and that the offspring of carthorses never have a chance. And it is not by accident that among the sons of five hundred peers a larger number of men with ruling capacity are found than among the sons of five hundred commoners. The Radicals themselves admit this, for th have chosen to lead the House of Lords, not one of their recent creations, but an hereditary peer. They have always sent hereditary Peers to rule India. And their choice of the first Governor-General of South Africa would seem to be based on the hereditary principle."

We have not space to follow Sir Francis Younghusband in his recommendations as to a constructive Unionist policy.

From some of his suggestions we profoundly dissent, but the spirit and temper of the article are admirable,—notably the statement that the most important need of all is the renewal and revitalising of our religion : " No political effort has weight, momentum or lasting effect which has not running through it the impulse and inspiration of religious feeling."

—The editor in his " Episodes of the Month " performs with the utmost gusto a war-dance over the corpse of what he characteristically calls the " Poisonous Parliament" of 1906.—" Watchman " discusses " German Commercial Tactics " in a spirit calculated to make our flesh creep. According to his account, the German " Commerce Defence League " is prepared to subsidise Free-trade in England handsomely from its reserve fund for ten years. " Given ten years of peace and Free Trade, and the British markets will be ours, and in a commercial sense Great Britain will be a dependency of Germany. It will be then too late for England

to strike a blow. Our fleet will before then be equal or superior to the British fleet, and if necessary we shall be able

to land our army and enforce our own terms."---Miss Alice Sedgwick sends a genial eulogy of the achievement of Anthony Trollops. With much that she says we cordially agree. But to call him the Du Manlier of fiction is a most unfortunate comparison, since Du Maurier had a note of fastidious distinction which Trollope lacked.

An article from Mr. E. T. Cook is always welcome, and that from his pen on " The Elections—and After " in the new

Contemporary is marked, in comparison with the effusions of most Liberal journalists, with a double dose of dry light. Mr. Cook's analysis of the elections is singularly detached and dispassionate :— "It has now become common form' in party polemics to repre-

sent every election as won by lies gulling folly I do not believe that democracy is so ignorant and perverse as the party politicians, the philosophers, and the Dean [of Westminster] make

out A General Election with us is a mild form of Saturnalia. It produces a good deal of humour ; also, in some of the critics, a plentiful lack of it. There is a much more charit- able, and, I suggest, a more philosophical, way of accounting for the awing of the pendulum than the theory of democratic perversion by alternate lies. That theory, which each party affects to believe, assumes that if the electors were less gullible and politicians more honest the country would always be on the same side. The real truth I take to be this : the average resultant of political forces in this country is Left Centre. Our system of representation gives exaggerated power, sometimes more and sometimes less, to the side which wins. Each party in turn thus tends to go further—now in the direction of reform, and now in that of reaction—than the balancing elector is prepared to go."

As regards the governing factors of the situation, Mr. Cook holds that while "a Liberal coalition may or may not be possible, an effective Tariff Reform coal4:on is impossible."

Writing before the King's Speech and subsequent develop- ments, Mr. Cook defends the Premier's interpretation of his Albert Hall speech. Whatever they may do in the future, Ministers could not have asked the Crown at this stage for guarantees. He pronounces strongly in favour of Budget first," and actually takes it for granted that the Budget, or a Budget, will be passed before March 31st. Finally, coming

to the question of reform, he holds that sooner or later the Liberal Party should adopt a definite policy with regard to a reformed Second Chamber :— " There is a serious strategic danger ahead of them if they do not. The Tories in that case, and perhaps in any case, would come forward with some plausible (though ineffectual) scheme of Reform, and might succeed in confusing the issue as if it were between the virtual abolition of the Second Chamber safeguard on the one hand and a real scheme of reform on the other. In that ease, I do not think any of us can feel sure that public opinion would not prefer the more moderate alternative."

Mr. Cook's article may certainly be claimed as condemning in

advance the grotesque compromise adopted by Mr. Asquith. —Colonel Pedder's article on " Intensive Electioneering " affords an excellent illustration of Mr. Cook's remarks about those critics who take some aspects of the Election too seriously. It is one long and strenuous indictment—rising at momenta to a regular scream—of the " feudal screw " as applied to the " bucolic intelligence of awe-stricken rustics hat in hand " (the phrase is Mr. Cook's). Colonel Pedder tells terrible stories of the omnipotence of wealth ; the shameless tyranny of Primrose dames; the savage and un-Christian animosity of Tory parsons ; canvassing that amounts to "organised, insistent, and protracted persecution." He fully believes that the majority of the county labouring voters are in favour of the Liberal programme. " But they are gagged by the masters.' " How was it, then, that they voted Liberal in 1906 without being exterminated for their offence ?—Mr. Laurence Jerrold's paper on " Paris after the Flood" gives a brilliant and instructive account of the spirit in which Paris met this great visitation. Thus it is pleasant to read how " the ferocious anti-clerical mayor of Ivry and the rabid Romanist priest of Ivry simultaneously and suddenly discovered that the other was ' a thundering good sort,' and have sworn eternal friendship over their joint work of rescue." Mr. Jerrold notes that the heroic remedy against a recurrence of the disaster proposed by the Inspector- General of Roads and Bridges, M. Paul Haag—a canal passing by way of the fortification moats and connecting the two ends of the loop formed by the Seine in Paris—would be enormously expensive, and take ten years to carry out.— Mr. Ferdinand L. Leipnik, the editor of the Pester Lloyd, has a well-written paper on the future of the Ottoman Empire. In discussing the internal difficulties which confront the Turkish reformers he very rightly dwells on the dangers of internationalism in administration. But the great danger, in his view, is the substitution of a military hegemony inspired by a secret and irresponsible Committee for the theocratic despotism represented by the former Sultans. The foundation-stone of the Ottoman Empire cannot be truly laid until minor jealousies and personal ambitions are sub- ordinated to the higher interests of the Empire. When the Turks have chosen men whom they can trust, " they should free them from the tutelage of the Committee and put them under the Constitutional control of Parliament." In conclusion the writer dwells on the dangers of European greed :— " The Turks feel that they are lacking in economic resources and experience for commercial and industrial development. But long years of exile and the history of their country have impressed them with the fact that the economic progress of a vast Empire can only be entrusted to a nation which is willing to lend her sympathetic support without attempting political exploitation. Such a nation is Great Britain. The history of England has been the great teacher of all nations, Western as well as Eastern, and this valiant and honest people, who have fought against terrible odds to free their country from despotism, regard England as the classical leader of freedom. They are still in the midst of struggles. They are still in danger of becoming the victims of European greed, the more so as the report goes that Turkey is unprotected. Whither should they turn ? The future of the Ottoman Empire greatly, nay, entirely, depends upon the attitude which the British Foreign Office may assume towards the Turkish reformers."

—We may also note an illuminating article on "The German Press Bureau " by Mr. G. V. Williams. He does not deny its utility, but makes it quite clear that it is the inevitable outcome of a bad and servile journalistic system. The drawbacks are greater than the advantages, since domestic crises are inflamed by the wirepulling in newspaper circles carried on by the Wilhelm-Strasse. (This statement is well illustrated by the " Carnarilla " affair and the crisis provoked by the Daily Telegraph interview.)

Patriotic Germans recognise this fact, and would gladly see the Bureau dissolved, but " it is so much part and parcel of public life in Germany that much water will flow under the Spree bridges before it changes its character, still more before it is abolished. Before such a consummation is attained the German Press will have to raise its standing by sheer force of its own efforts."

Writing in the Fortnightly, Mr. Godden gives a most interesting account of what actually took place when England was governed by a single House. A few days after the Commons assumed sole and despotic power they established their High Court of Justice, which did away with trial

by jury and re-established the discredited proceedings of the Star Chamber. In the first five weeks of its existence this Court condemned five people to death. Later the House of Commons passed an Act " compelling the entire popula- tion to take an ' engagement ' subscribing to a government without King or House of Lords. AU civil justice was to be denied to those refusing assent. The only amendment of importance admitted was that relieving women from persecu- tion." In its second year the omnipotent single Chamber passed an Act requiring " delinquents," " soldiers of fortune," and " papists " to leave London within three weeks. We are told that this caused the departure of thirty thousand people from the capital. In 1651 a Parliamentary Committee advised that the Cathedral churches " be surveyed, pulled down, and sold." During this time the Navy had been neglected, and allowed to fall into such a state that twenty ships of Blake's fleet refused to fight when he engaged the Dutch. This was the time of Van Tromp's broom, and he certainly swept clean, for Dutch sailors were able to land in Sussex and carry off cattle. Nor were accusations of corrup- tion wanting against Members of the House of Commons, and the entanglement of the public finances was complete. To provide money for the Navy, estates were arbitrarily con- fiscated and ordered to be sold. But so grinding was the tyranny and the scandal that people refused to bid for them. Fortunately for England, there was a statesman who, if he could not make his influence felt in the House, was yet able to overthrow it.—Mr. G. S. Street writes with enthusiasm of Bohemia, where he spent a holiday. He tells us that if we desire to find a land where the people are intensely and whofe-heartedly patriotic, we should not go to Ireland, but- to Bohemia. Every one now in all classes talks Czech. Mr. Street tells us that a peasant woman, recognising that he was a foreigner, wished him "Good morning" sulkily in German. He answered her in the tongue of the country, and she at once kissed his hand, not figuratively as in Austria, but actually. Tire people of Bohemia have a great advantage over the. Hungarians, for they are of one race,—Slays. Thus intense nationalism can be cultivated without oppressing your neighbour.—Mr. J. S. Franey's subject is " The Clergy and the Marriage Law," but he is chiefly occupied with the Marriage-law vagaries of Henry VIII., who passed these Acts so frequently for his own benefit that he was continually having to invent reasons for superseding the last law, as it generally interfered with the arrangements for his next matrimonial adventure. These laws mostly hinge on the deceased-wife's-sister question, and Mr. Franey blames the clergy for being too faithful to their "Protector and only Supreme Head."

In Blackwood " Scoto-Indian " paints a grim picture of India under a Bengali Government after the English have been successfully got rid of. The Council of the Confederated States of Hindustan meets in Calcutta to discuss the situation, and the rumours that Sikh and Gurkha armies are threatening the capital. The Ministers con- cerned prove conclusively that there is no danger, but on the break-up of the Council they make their way to the steamship office to take tickets for Europe. To repel the invasion from the direction of Nepal, General Feetajee con- centrates the flower of his army. He himself is a most diligent student of the art of war in books. When, however, the enemy arrives neither the General nor his troops are there to face them. The silent and abandoned guns are all that remain. The General by hiring a tug was with difficulty able to over- take the Europe-bound steamer, and thus to report personally to the President and War Minister, who were both on board. —An unsigned article gives a very interesting and detailed account of Sir Robert Calder, the unfortunate Admiral who failed to prevent the junction of the French fleets imme- diately before Trafalgar. Looked at in the light of history, it would seem that no charge of incompetence or cowardice can be brought against the AdmiraL Briefly, the case which came before the Court-Martial which tried Calder was this. He met the French fleet and attacked it, but owing to fog the action was indecisive. Neither side was greatly damaged; but Calder did not renew the attack, though he stayed near the enemy when the wind had shifted in favour of the English. Villeneuve was thus able to proceed on his way, and to effect the desired junction with his other forces. The censure of the Court-Martial compelled Calder's retire- ment; but after four and a half years (in 1810) he was reinstated and made Commander-in-Chief at Plymouth. It was a case of a man not being able to lay hold on a great occasion.— Sir Robert Anderson continues his interesting memories, and tells some curious things about the notorious "Jack the Ripper " murders. There is, it seems, no doubt that the police knew who was the author of these crimes, but evidence which could be used to bring the man who committed them to justice was unobtainable. The murderer was a Jew of low class, a sexual maniac; and be was afterwards shut up in a lunatic asylum. Sir Robert says :—" The only person who ever had a good view of the murderer at once identified him, in the asylum, but when he learned that the suspect was a fellow-Jew be declined to swear to him." We are given a remarkable tribute to the honesty and extreme accuracy of Le Caron, the famous spy on the Irish. He was actuated from motives of patriotism, and never received any pay from the Home Office. Sir Robert was anxious to be called as a witness before the Parnell Com- mission, but Sir Henry James refused to allow him to give evidence. He wished to corroborate Le Caron's account of his interview with Parnell when the latter admitted his con- nexion with the criminal party. Half-an-hour after the inter- view Le Caron gave Sir Robert details of the conversation, which he wrote down at the time. Sir Robert greatly regrets that the Government did not give the Times every assistance in their power in unmasking a great criminal conspiracy, for he contends that nothing puts a stop to crime like complete public exposure.—" Old Chum " gives a pitiable account of the London unemployed, among whom he went as one in the same plight for purposes of investigation. The worst of this fell disease is that none of the observers have any real remedy to offer. The Tariff Reform tag at the end of the present paper cannot be taken as a serious contribution towards the solution of the problem.

A fine poem by Mr. William Watson appears in the English Review. It is called " In the Midst of the Seas," and is addressed to the poet's wife. Although somewhat less detached and more personal than is usual with Mr. Watson, the poem has that clearness of thought and language which makes it a pleasant contrast to so much of the very modern. verse we are accustomed to find in this Review. The object of Mr. Watson is not to conceal his meaning under a cloud of rather inharmonious words ; he sings with the lucidity which comes from power.—Mr. George Moore contributes a medley, being the vision of a novel he intended to write about Ireland. Picturesque characters, sloppy morals, and sad landscapes succeed each other, evoked by memory. The novel was never written because Mr. Moore could not face going home to Ireland to write Edmund Goose is much grieved at the decision of the circulating libraries. He is even indignant, and talks much of liberty, but he misses the point. If there should be liberty to publish and circulate books without legal censorship, should there not also be liberty for the libraries to conduct their business as they consider best for themselves, and as their customers desire ? Mr. Goose suffers from a confused mind. In his anxiety that a new Darwin should not be stifled he mixes up the desire of people to manage their own concerns with a censorship imposed by law.—Mr. Frederic Harrison gives his plan for a reformed Second House. It is a conservative plan, and, as he says, fully recognises the territorial element. During the time which must be occupied in making any change Mr. Harrison advises the House of Lords to consent to their functions being taken over by the Privy Council. The plan advocated is this. The new House is to consist of three hundred Members. Fifty of these are to be Peers elected by the whole Peerage, fifty are to be nominated by the King, and two hundred are to be elected by the County Councils. The boroughs are to have no representatives, their predominance being so great in the House of Commons. The fifty nominated by the King would be for life ; the others would be elected afresh for each Parliament. This new House would not interfere with finance, but provisions against "tacking" would be made. In the case of a deadlock, the two Houses would finally vote together.

The March number of the United Service Magazine con- tains three papers on strategy, one entitled " Strategy in a New Light," by Mr. E. W. Sheppard, another "The Strategy of the Future," by Captain the. Earl Percy, and the third " Strategy Begins at Home," by " Patrick

Perterras," which are well worth reading both separately and in combination. The best article of the three, to our mind, is Lord Percy's. It is an excellent example of what we have noticed so often in these columns,—namely, how well the modern British soldier writes. We cannot analyse it or criticise it in detail, but may roughly indicate its nature by noting that it discusses the eternal controversy between an enveloping and a piercing strategy. For ourselves and for what our opinion may be worth, we are in agreement with Lord Percy in thinking that the next development will be against the Moltke school,—a school which makes envelop- ment its chief object. At any rate, British commanders, who can never hope to smother their enemy with masses of troops, must perforce cultivate the strategy of dash,—the strategy of the light weight against the heavy weight, of the sudden blow between the eyes. But to accomplish this we must pay a very special attention to mobility and quickness of development in plans and decisions. We must cultivate the qualities of our defects. But are we sure that we are doing this, and not rather laboriously following in miniature the workings of the gigantic German model? Further light upon this 'problem may be drawn from the instalment of Major Bannatyne's "Surprises and Stratagems," in which he complains that our officers and men are not sufficiently trained in these arts. If that is so, then the sooner they are trained the better, for, as we have said, a small army must try to compensate for its lack of mass by agility, and surprises and stratagems are most important parts of military agility.