THE MAGAZINES.

M. ALFRED DE BILINECII'S paper on "The Turkish Revolu- tion" in the September Nineteenth Century derives an added interest from the fact that he served for several years in the Turkish diplomatic service. His article is so comprehensive that we can only briefly note some of its main features. To begin with, he attributes the chief credit for the reorganisation of the Young Turkey Party to Prince Sabah-.ed-Din, Haraid's own nephew, " who, at the early age of 'thirty, has gained undying glory as the prime agent in the destruction of one of the most, infamous, and yet most deeply-rooted, political systems in the world." The immediate cause of the uprising, however, was the revolt of the, army in Macedonia. The position of the Turkish soldier became at last intolerable to him, " when he was brought into contact with his fellow subjects, most of them his co-religionists, of the Macedonian Gendarmerie, whose treatment, under European supervision, formed such a contrast to his own." M. de Bilinski insists on

* Readings on the Purgatorio of Dante : Chiefly Based on the Commentary of Benvenuto da hnota. With Test and Literal Translation by the Hon. William Warren Vernon. With an Introduction by the late Church. 2 vols. Third Edition, Revised. London : Methuen and Co. lsa. ash] the national character of the present movement, as oompared with the upheaval of 18/6, and its admirable freedom from excesses or reprisals. He also insists that it is an Ottoman, not an Islamic, movement, and sees in this fact a guarantee for the permanent and harmonious association of the Turks and Armenians. The Turks, he points out, have already; disavowed the "sanguinary anti-Armenian policy of Yildiz," and he goes so far as to forecast the possible emigration of the Russian Armenians to Turkey. Even the Kurds, the complacent instruments of the anti-Armenian policy, and•the Albanians will, according to M. de Bilinski's roseate -antici:. pations, ultimately settle down to the modern conception of citizenship set before them by the Constitutional Government of Turkey. The Balkan nationalities he regards as a more serious factor in the probleni of Turkish reorganisation, for' "ss their well-being grows under the new Turkish rule, their national aspirations will develop in strength and impatience." They will, he admits, never become a source of strength to Turkey, but for the present he believes they wilt not be in a position to imperil her sovereignty. Nor does he anticipate insuperable difficulties in the attitude of the Syrians, Arabs, or Egyptians. As for the Great Powers, Raissia and Germany will make a virtue of necessity, while Austria, Italy, and above all France, will lend loyal support to the Ottoman Empire in its new phase. As regards Great Britain, while cordially admitting the sincerity of her goodwill to 'the new regime, M. de Bilinski commits himself strongly to the dis- putable view that the regeneration of Turkey inevitably means our surrender of Egypt. This view assumes an identity of aims between the Young Turks and the Egyptiau Nationalists which is far from being supported by the attitude of the former. But the strangest feature in this very interesting survey of the situation in Turkey is the writer's extraordinary view of the Sultan. He is firmly convinced' that "if he only lives long enough, Abd-ul-Hamid is destined to become the beat sovereign Turkey has ever had, after having certainly been the worst." Curiously enough,- while refusing to admit that the fundamental traits of human character can be modified in the case of the Balkan nationalities, he enthusiastically asserts the con- trary of the "crowned Machiavelli of modern times."-- The aim of Mr. Edward Dicey's paper on " A Novel Phase of the Eastern Question" is to point out how "the Sultan's coup d'état"—a strange description of the upheaval in Turkey —" is calculated to create serious embarrassment for England in Egypt." The general tone of the article may be best inferred from the statements that "England has now ruled. Egypt for well-nigh a quarter of a century under a regime which seemed purposely adapted to render the administration of the country by foreign and alien rulers distasteful to the Egyptian population," and that Lord Cromer "per- sistently set his foot down against any kind of concession which might impair his own absolute autocracy in Egypt." Mr. Dicey deplores the line taken by Sir Edward Grey at his recent interview with the delegates of the Egyptian Nationalist Party, and apparently advocates the acceptance by England of a compromise under which the Nationalists would consent not to agitate for the early withdrawal of the British troops from Egypt on condition of some form of Parliamentary self- government being immediately introduced into Egypt, as being an integral province of Turkey. But there is so much hedging and reservation in the definition of his attitude that it is hard to find in the article any clear purpose beyond the desire to discredit the regime of Lord Cromer.—Sir Godfrey Lagden utters a warning note to those politicians and publicists who advocate the encouragement of Asiatic immigration into our tropical protectorates in Africa. They cannot, he argues, be held available for the expanding millions of both Africa and India, and it is undesirable as well as unnecessary to "obtrude gratuitously a foreign element which requires to be governed by imported experts and its own peculiar penal codes, and thus kindle race problems in addition to those already existing." There are few authorities on this thorny subject whose experience entitles them to a more attentive hearing than Sir Godfrey Lagden.

The anonymous Peer who writes on "The House of Lords and Lord Lansdowne " in the National Review spoils a good case by his somewhat fulsome tone. What- he says of the high average of ability and the "intellectual wealth" of the Upper House is fully justified, and though an avowed and whole-hearted Conservative, he shows a generous appreciation of the Liberal leaders. But while we share the writer's high estimate of the industry, versatility, and urbanity of Lord Lansdowne, we cannot endorse his eulogy of the Opposition leader's tactics in dealing with specific measures or the phrase he uses in regard to the Old-Age Pensions Bill. The words " He [Lord Lansdowne] allowed the Bill to pass" are, to say the least, unhappily chosen.—Mr. J. L. Garvin takes the recent Free-Trade Congress as the peg on which to hang an orotund discourse on " The Cult of Cant." The opening sentence is delicious :—" Like the well-known optimism accompanying advanced stages of hopeless disease, an infatuated complacency seems often to possess the advocates of doomed causes." The foreign delegates at the Congress are compared to dodos and the tailors of Tooley Street, and the iniquity of regarding Herr Barth as a repre- sentative German politician or economist is impressively denounced. The native members of the Cobden Club are " petrified pedants." " In the meantime," says Mr. Garvin, "facts pursue their passionless way,"—and that is precisely

why Free-traders are content to listen to the ornamental objurgation of Mr. Garvin with amused equanimity.— M. Feibelmann writes on " Belgium in the Grip of Germany." We are bound to say that the writer's facts hardly justify his alarmist conclusions. One may admit, with M. Feibelmann,

the existence of a racial antagonism between the Walloons, "who are, intellectually speaking, Frenchmen," and the Flemings, who in language and temperament are more closely

akin to the Germans. This is not, however, enough to warrant his statements as to the gradual Germanisation of Belgium. The specific evidences of this danger he finds in the introduction of a Bill into the Belgian House of Representatives rendering

Flemish compulsory in several classes of Government schools, —a Bill which has not yet been passed, and may possibly be

rejected ; the systematic emigration of Germans into Belgium, who after all have only risen from forty-five thousand to a

hundred thousand in twenty years; the enterprise of German merchants and bankers ; the existence of a certain amount of

propagandist literature ; and an indiscreet editorial in the KOInieche Zeitung. These evidences scarcely warrant an appeal to the Powers who guaranteed the independence of Belgium to go to the length of warning Germany not " to abuse her force to make Belgium a mere province of the Empire."— Mr. W. T. R. Preston, the special representative of the Government of Canada in the Far East, writes an interesting paper on "The Future of Japan," in which he strongly vindicates Japan's national self-assertion as at once necessary and legitimate. He concludes by appealing to all who may read his paper for justice to Japan :— " It is our duty as a nation and an Empire to leave nothing undone to silence the unjust prejudices that are being aroused against Great Britain's staunch ally in the Par East The question of the future is whether Japan, having accepted the ideas and institutions of the West, shall be allowed to remain the friend of the West or be forced into bitter antagonism. The Christian world has too much at stake to survey with indifference the acts of any section of the community which may give occasion of an unfriendly spirit on the part of the East towards the West. We can ill afford to ignore the teachings of our own messengers— `Peace on earth and goodwill toward men.' Let us as a people, brought up in an atmosphere of British fair play, be loyal to the highest ideals of life in our attitude towards this Far Eastern ally. Until Japan abandons the high honour that so far has marked her dealings with the Christian West, we should courageously oppose the concert of interested forces which are so persistently endeavouring to place her institutions in a false light before the world?'

The Contemporary Review gives prominence to a valuable article on " The King and the Constitution." The main aim of the writer, who signs himself "A. Loyal Subject," is

to explain the genesis of the fantastic and mischievous myth commonly believed on the Continent, and especially in Germany, that King Edward, and not the Cabinet, is the decisive factor in framing the foreign policy of Great Britain. He shows how this mistaken view has been confirmed by servile, ill-informed, or thoughtless scribes at home, as well as by the fact that the King has not been accompanied on his recent tours by the Foreign Secretary, and notes that " journals boasting of an immense circulation speak of Sir Edward Grey as ably seconding his Sovereign.' " The succeeding paragraphs are worth quoting, as they emphasise a doctrine laid down in our own columns years ago :— "The fact is that even the great services which His Majesty is in a position to render to the cause of peace are endangered by such an inversion of parts. The King may be our Diplomat- King. but kings are only available as diplomatists when they are associated with the policy of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Even if the policy of Ministers had been originated by His Majesty, the more necessary it would be, in the interest of the Crown itself, that no credit should be claimed for the Sovereign. Credit cannot be claimed when a policy succeeds without discredit attaching to the originator when that policy fails. If the exclusive responsibility of the Minister is impaired, it is disastrous for the King."

It is right to add that the writer entirely acquits King Edward himself of any desire to exert the powers attributed to him by "anonymous servility." Not the least interesting portions of the article are the extracts from Mr. Gladstone's writings in which this misconception of the position of the Sovereign is discussed and exposed.—Mr. Edwin Pears's narrative of the Turkish Revolution is marked by intimate

first-band knowledge of the country and its people acquired in a long residence in Constantinople. His view of the future is hopeful, though not without sonic misgivings. We quote with pleasure his comment on the especial sympathy for England shown by the revolutionists from the beginning :-

" This honour is not only worth noting, as showing that people struggling for liberty and parliamentary institutions still look naturally to England, but as suggesting that though wo have worried the Porte more than all other nations combined about reforms for Armenia and Macedonia, the popular instinct recog- nises that wo have not done so in order to gain territorial or other advantages, but because England sympathises, and is expected to sympathise, with people struggling to be free."

Though satisfied of the good judgment and moderation of the Committee of Union and Progress, Mr. Pears sees elements of danger in its loosely compacted Constitution, its lack of

a recognised head, and the fact that the majority are civilians.—Mr. A. D. Webster, writing on " Our Timber Supplies," maintains that the afforesting of waste and other lands in the British Islands on a large scale is not only practicable, but would prove profitable to the country generally, and his figures certainly make out a strong prima- facie case for his contention. While inclining personally

to State ownership of forest property, Mr. Webster indicates his belief that planting timber is a profitable field of industry for individual enterprise.—Mr. Edmund Gosse's apprecia- tion of Tolstoi deals exclusively with his achievements as a man of letters. For the rest, he clearly agrees with Tour- guenief, who on his deathbed besought his illustrious com- patriot to abandon philosophy and ethics and return to literature.

Turkey, Germany, and the Navy take up a good deal of the space of the Fortnightly Review, which this month gives its readers many excellent articles. " Viator" writes

an interesting summary of the Turkish Revolution. He

shows how completely the Powers were taken by surprise. None of their Blue, Yellow, or Green Books gave any information pointing to a change. Fetid Pasha, indeed,

was decorated with the Order of the Black Eagle by the German Emperor just before he fell among the ruins of the old corrupt system. " Viator " thinks that the advent of universal suffrage in Austria, together with the disorganisa- tion of Russia, and the violent revolutionary movements on the shores of the Black Sea, all tended to facilitate revolt in Turkey. He also says that although the Young Turks are friendly towards all the Powers, there is no question that their intense patriotic feeling will make them averse from any European control.—Mr. Angus Hamilton quotes in a paper on " Turkey : the Old Regime and the New" portions of the

Constitution of 1876, which enable us to judge how great has been the sudden leap from despotism to the new form of govern- ment. The writer utters a warning when he says that the primary cause of the action taken by the Army was the bad treatment it had received at the hands of the Sultan. Pro- fessional grievances count strongly, and "popular movements are never satisfactorily championed by military pronuncia- mientos," though in the present case there is no reason to doubt the patriotism of a large proportion of the Turkish soldiers.— An article written some months ago by Captain von Herbert throws further light on the Turkish situation. The writer says that the question of the succession to the throne is having far- reaching effects. The candidate favoured by Kamil Pasha the present Grand Vizier, is a Turkish Prince of unblemished character, though only distantly related to the Sultan. That Kamil was working for this end may have been

the reason of the attempt to get rid of him when he was Governor of Smyrna in 1907. An account of this strange

conspiracy is given by Captain von Herbert, who was present at the time. The emissaries of the Constantinople carnarilla managed to tamper with all Kamil's telegrams, and at last succeeded in getting an order for his recall. Fortunately Kamil got wind of this, and at once proceeded to the British

Consulate and claimed protection as a native of Cyprus. The protection was given, and the fugitive put in communica- tion with the Sultan by means of the English Ambassador at Constantinople. What would have happened but for this intervention may be gathered when Captain von Herbert asserts that he himself saw the canvas bag on board the ship which was to have nominally conveyed Kamil to Constanti- nople. In reality he would have been taken no further than out of sight of land, and would then have been thrown over-

board in the canvas bag.—" H." sees no reason why we should not have an entente with Germany, while at the same

time maintaining our naval supremacy. We should recognise that Germany is expanding as we ourselves have done; but unless we attack her—which is unthinkable—we had better be friends.—Mr. Archibald Hurd in his paper on the attitude of the Colonies towards the Navy states what we may assume to be the Admiralty view of the question. His point is that for Canada and Australia to maintain small fleets of their own is. useless. They can merely be a gratification of vanity in time of peace, and a useless detached fragment in time of war. Mr. Hurd goes on to say that the Colonial plan

of Naval Reserves is of no practical value to the British Navy,—first, because we have no difficulty in getting an ample supply of men at home, and secondly, because in time of war small detached bodies of sailors away from the fleets

would be useless. What Mr. Hurd desires is for the Empire generally to contribute to the central Imperial Navy both money and men. To hasten this we must make the Colonies realise that their defence consists, not in patrolling their

coasts, but in beating the enemy in whatever water he may be. Blackwood contains the first canto of Mr. Courthope's

"The Hop Garden: a Modern Georgic." Those who like literary allusions, Biblical, classic, and Shakespearean, will find them in plenty. The author has supplied notes almost on the scale of a variorum edition, so that none of his points shall be missed.—" Vagrant" describes the life of an isolated official in Northern Nigeria, and the compensations which come with the hardships at a place a fortnight's journey from a centre, and with a post only once in three weeks. The writer seems to have been on excellent terms with the natives, and records one of their fables which is worthy of " Uncle Remus "

"A spider had occasion to borrow a sum of money. A journey round to the generously disposed brought him two thousand cowries each from the cat, the dog, the hyena, the leopard, and the lion. When pay-day came round, the spider remained at home to receive the visits of his creditors in a certain pre- arranged order. First came the cat to claim repayment of his loan. Hush said the spider, hear a noise outside—it is a dog come to see me : you must hide under this calabash for safety.' The cat was scarcely hidden when the dog coming in made a similar request for his money. Says Master Spider : There is a cat under that calabash,—take him and cohsider the debt paid.' No sooner said than done. Just then a snuffling and scraping was heard at the door. The third creditor, the hyena, had arrived."

And so the dog shared the fate of the cat, as did also the hyena when the leopard came, who in turn was set upon by ' the lion. During the fight which took place between the last two creditors both animals exhausted their strength, while the spider was busy at the fire :-

" Seizing a pot of boiling grease, he pours it over the clawing mass. Leopard and lion roll apart in their death agony, and the spider has only to straighten and clean up before resuming once wore the humdrum life of fly-catching. No wonder he is known as `Mai-wayo,' the crafty one."

—"The Labour Member's Experiment" is a good _story by " TJ1mus " of a Member of Parliament who in speeches in England denounced the English officers in India as being luxurious, lazy, and tyrannical. The father of an Indian officer challenges the Labour Member to go to India for three months in the hot weather, and do the same as his son is doing in a native cavalry regiment. The challenger offers

to pay the cost of the experiment, and Mr. Groves goes to India. We are given a description of the gradual enlighten-

ment of the M.P., and of the way in which he manfully carries out his part of the bargain. " And it is not all easy work, either. You go and smell a drain with the thermometer at 112 degrees in the shade," was his remark to one of the more rampant of his own party when he came home. This is

the comment of the Colonel:- " Really a very good chap. At first we hardly took him seriously, but he soon made us see that he meant it And he worked hard, too : he came out in the hot weather and did the whole routine, musketry included. I tell you, I wish some more of his sort would come out in the same way. They'd teach us something, and they'd learn a lot themselves."

—An unsigned article called " The Writing on the Wall " is a gloomy statement of the outlook in India. The one bright spot, the writer remarks, is the attitude of Englishmen, official and non-official alike, on the spot. But he says that an indication of the anxiety felt "is the fact that a business in

the insurance of pensions against default of the Government of India is beginning in London." The writer blames the Government for permitting sedition to be preached and written openly. He also regrets the appeal to the High

Court allowed in the recent legislation in sedition cases, as he regards the publicity thus secured to those who seek to inflame the native mind as most dangerous.

The Albany Review has two informing articles on the upheaval in Turkey. That by Halil Halid, a member of the Young Turkey Party, is interesting from its historical retro- spect of the earlier stages of the movement, and from the writer's insistence on the impetus lent to its recent phases by propagandist literature. In particular he lays stress on the influence exerted by the plays, novels, and poems of Namik Kemal Bey—a writer who flourished in the "sixties "- which were secretly circulated by the adherents of the

reform movement :—

"Almost all the stories of N. Kemal Bey are based on the early history of the Ottoman Empire. The author in his stirring and unique style glorifies the deeds of the Ottomans of old. His ideas appeal to younger people, and more especially to those of them who serve in the army, with remarkable force. He teaches the soldier obedience to command, courage, self-sacrifice and respect for the law. Almost all young officers know by heart his poem on the damnation of tyranny,' in spite of the fact that it has for many years past been considered a crime by the autocracy not only to read Kemal's works but even to mention his name in public. In my opinion no one has contributed so largely as this poet-patriot to the work of preparing the Turkish youths for the struggle for liberty and a free constitution."

—The other article is from the pen of Mr. H. N. Brailsford,. who adopts a reasoned optimism in his forecast of future developments. He makes an interesting point in favourably contrasting the Turks with the Russian Reformers, on the

ground that the former are at a much less advanced stage of their economic development. "It is possible for the upper and middle class in Turkey, above all, for the officers who come mainly from the landowning families, to side with the revolution, because as yet there are no urgent economic issues to set class against class. The real reason of the comparative failure of the Russian revolution was simply the fact that the plain constitutional issue was complicated by social and agrarian questions." Mr. Brailsford tells a significant

anecdote of a Turkish officer whom he knew intimately in Monastir four years ago, and who used to say when they rode past a burned Bulgarian village : "It is we Turks, and not the Christians, who ought to have rebelled." Mr. Brailsford's satisfaction with the reforms in Turkey is not lessened by the fact that four Years ago he argued in the Independent Review that the policy of the Liberal Powers ought to be rather to promote a reform of Turkey at the centre than to concen- trate on the special local problems of Macedonia and Armenia. —We note the announcement that the Albany Review is to be discontinued after the present issue, but that it is hoped to resume publication at the New Year under the old title of the Independent Review and at the price of one shilling.

The United Service Magazine gives the place of honour to a decidedly alarmist article on "The Naval Danger in the Far East," by Mr. Percival A. Hislam. To make good his case, the writer deals largely in assumptions,—e.g. (1) the trans- ference of the Brazilian battleships to the Japanese, which would give them in 1911 a superiority in Dreadnoughts over any other nation in the world ; (2) " there will not be the

slightest reason why Japan should wish to renew her treaty with us in 1912 "; and (3) "the possibility of an alliance between Germany and Japan presents one of the greatest dangers to the British Empire that can be imagined." For the moment it is enough to say that Japan's policy of retrench- ment" announced this week largely discounts these speculative risks.—Major H. Bannerman-Phillips discusses the future of airships in war in a very different spirit. He dismisses invasion by airship as negligible, and sums up their uses as being mainly protective and for the most part confined to purposes of reconnaissance and transmission of information. --Captain C. B. Norman's exhaustive paper on the Turkish Army of to-day was written before the recent upheaval, which throws a curious light on his picture of Abd-ul-Hamid as a great financial and military reformer who labours day and night with unremitting attention and unflagging industry to promote the progress of his country. He is perhaps justified in saying in his postscript that nothing that has happened in the lastlew weeks has caused him to modify his opinion of the value of the Turkish officer or the high state of discipline of the Turkish soldier. Much more disputable is the assertion that " they have released the Sultan from the thraldom of the men who for so many years had held him a virtual prisoner, and who had systematically deceived him as to the real condition of the country."—We may also note an able criticism of the Territorial Artillery by " Expert," the pith of which is to be found in the following passage :-

"Mr. Haldane's bold scheme for creating a national army for home defence contains so much that is admirable, and it has made so good a beginning, that it is greatly to be regretted that the scheme should be marred by the one serious blot. The critics, many of them, no doubt have gone too far. In discussing the artillery arrangements few of them have detected the importance of what has been done towards perfecting the mobilisation arrangements for the expeditionary force. But the War Office is organising more batteries than are wanted for home defence and is organising them in a form in which they cannot hope to cope effectively with the highly trained artillery which an enemy landing in this country would bring on to the battlefield. That is the real fault of the scheme."