THE MAGAZINES.

THE magazines, like the newspapers, are a little choked np by the war. The Nineteenth Century has eight, and the Contemporary Review four, articles almost directly inspired by events in South Africa, and deriving from them most of their interest. The first four papers in the Nineteenth Century, for example, are all devoted to plans for increasing the British military forces, either at present or in future. Sir Henry Howorth, for instance, protests, almost with fury, against the decision not to employ native troops from India,

alleging with truth that Indian cavalry are exactly the force required. As all Indian soldiers are Volunteers, and all are under perfect discipline, there is no reason whatever against their employment except the prejudice which it might excite among white Colonists. That prejudice, however, is exceed- ingly strong, and any offence to it might induce the Boers, and after them the British, to appeal to the native tribes in South Africa, and thus lead to a frightful war of races. It is better, at all events for the present, not to run such a risk. It is, however, a little annoying that the world does not recognise the amazing self- denial of the British in the matter. A wave of the Queen's linger would bring to our aide nearly a hundred thousand black soldiers, Basntos, Zulus, and Kaffirs, thirty thousand of them, moreover, being cavalry with seasoned horses and a thorough knowledge of the country. It is right to abstain from seeking such aid, but a little hard that when we can have it for the askiag, and reject it, we should be accused of secretly desiring it.--Sir George Clarke, Mr. Sidney Low, and Colonel Stopford all alike seek to introduce compulsory military service into England, at least for her own defence. The Swiss system is evidently the ideal with them all, and all apparently believe that the people would consent to compulsory military training. We agree, granted certain pressure ; but we doubt if the pressure has as yet been realised, and believe that for the present the country will prefer to add fifty thousand men to the regular Army, even although the addition should increase the military Budget by five millions a year. We are not without hope, however, that with a great extension of the Reserve system, so that it covers Regulars, Militia, and Volunteers, the inter- ests of the Empire and those of the taxpayers can be recon- ciled. Opinion upon the whole subject, however, will be much more solid before this war is done. — The Rev. Dr. Wirgman, Canon of Grahamstown, adds something to the evidence now slowly accumulating that the Boers have intended war since 1881, — Mr. Reitz, for instance, having even then smiled assent when Mr. Schreiner suggested that certain steps then proposed must end in war between the Republics and Great Britain. The Canon looks forward to a federated South Africa under the British flag, and dwells much on the numbers of British farmers now scattered through the different Colonies in that region. He says they are all loyal and as good fighters as the Boers, which we do not doubt, but we wish he had given their numbers. People at home are too apt to think of the British in South Africa as if they were all traders, speculators, or miners.—Mr. R. B. Townshend actually succeeds in writing a light article on the war, recording his experiences with " the common mule." He likes the mule very much, as the best and hardiest animal for transport, the beast, among other qualities, being possessed of quite exceptional health. Mr. Townshend admits fully his liability to stampede, particularly in twilight, but declares that this can be provided against by fitting every mule with a sort of cap which can, when necessary, be pulled over his eyes. He then stands stock still. In South America the great cavalladas of mules are managed by putting a grey mare at the head of each troop, whom the mules will follow for ever and never desert.—The .Nineteenth Century has one or two papers unconnected with the war of considerable interest. One is a very remarkable narrative by the late Nathaniel Hawthorne of his seeing a ghost in the Boston Athenayum. He repeatedly saw, he says, an old clergyman, Mr. Harris, a habitue of =the club, sitting in the reading-room in his accustomed seat weeks after his death. But for a doubt of which we cannot rid ourselves, that Mr. Hawthorne was practising his art as novelist, and using his quite exceptional powers of inventing mysteries to test his friend's credulity, we should pronounce the story the least explicable of all that have recently been circulated. Only, why should a ghost appear for no pur- pose, and how did it happen that Mr. Hawthorne, as he admits, neither touched nor addressed the apparition ? —" The Continuity of Catholicism " would be more interesting if it were not pretty clear that Mr. Mivart is gliding rapidly away from the Catholic faith. No dignitary of that Church would admit that a convinced believer could have written the following sentence : "Instead of proclaiming that to be true which has been believed Semper, ubique, et ab omnibus, we may confidently affirm that whatever has been so believed is most probably false." Mr. Mivart produces a formidable list of changes which, he says, have occurred in Catholicism—especially one as regards the taking of interest, which was officially condemned by Popes and Councils as usury—but his argument as to the altered view of the Scriptures seems to us to break down. He himself states that the present Pope endorsee the old be- lief that the whole of Scripture is at all events so far inspired as to be incapable of error, which is a proof of continuity, not of discontinuity. The fact that Dr. Hogan thinks otherwise only shows, from the Papal point of view, that eminent divines are capable of misbelief.—Mr. Herbert Paul sends an appreciation of Dean Swift as "the Prince of Journalists," which is remarkable both as a piece of admirable writing and for its definiteness of view. He believes, as we should do, that the Dean really hated and despised humanity, and had as little religious belief as was well possible to a man who lived by the Church. His savage bitterness was in truth almost incompatible with belief in anything except himself.—Mr. P. Bettel- heim seems to think that Anti-Semitism in France has been developed partly by worship of the Army and partly by the Clericals, who wished to turn the Radical hatred of the Church into a new channel, and therefore directed it against Jews and Protestants. That seems to us rather a thin explanation. There is no necessary con- nection between worship of the Army and hatred of Jews, and the Clerical party has not heretofore had much influence over Radical opinion.—The paper by the Rev. J. M. Bacon is an attempt to show how greatly the humidity of the upper strata of the atmosphere depends on the character of the soil above which it hangs, and how greatly, also, it may influence weather. The present writer is not scientific enough to venture an opinion on Mr. Bacon's investigations, but they certainly indicate, with many other records, that the next great advances in meteorology will result from inquiries into movements in the upper air, and that one day the Mr. Scott of his time may have to plead for a service of captive balloons as essential to any complete accuracy in framing "forecasts."

The first article in the Contemporary Review is, of course, upon the war, and is a powerful paper by Mr. J. A. Hobson intended to prove that the Rand was before the war entirely in the hands of a group of international capitalists, chiefly Jews, who owned diamond mines and gold mines producing £24,000,000 a year, and wished to acquire sovereignty in the Transvaal, and thus prevent its inhabitants, Dutch or British, from using the mineral wealth of the State as a national asset. They utilised for this purpose British Imperialism and British philanthropy, and are still using them. Mr. Hobson does not explain in any way how a British conquest of the Transvaal is to benefit these plutocrats, who could have bought from the Volksraad any labour laws they liked, and his whole argument is marred by his hatred of capitalists as persons with different hearts and consciences from other people; but his paper is a powerful one, and undoubtedly describes one factor in the South African situation.—Mr. Carman, on the other hand, maintains that a British Radical is bound to approve the war as one waged to restrain an oligarchy and restore to a population its natural rights. He ends with a strong defence of the British Empire as the one Power which secures to its subjects those primary rights without which no people can grow to the orderly freedom which is the Radical ideal.—" The officer" who writes on the war pleads first of all for " concentration," attributing all the present failures of the campaign to an ill-judged dis- persion of our forces, mainly for " political " reasons. He is probably right, but we must wait for fuller information to be certain. The " political" reasons may have been unanswerable, though we confess we can ourselves see no cause for the attempt to relieve Kimberley except the wish to protect Mr. Rhodes and his colleagues from pecu- niary loss.—Few of the remaining articles of the number are of special interest, but the evidence collected by Mr. Win- ston showing that American working men are, as a whole, opposed to Socialism, and determined to seek improvement in the conditions of labour without a social revolution, is of much importance. We think he proves his case.—Miss Alice Zimmern, too, gives a most interesting account of the different

attempts made in London to provide " Ladies' Dwellings " which shall be comfortable and cheap, and yet shall pay. Many such dwellings now exist in which a lady can live and enjoy a certain measure of privacy and comfort for a rent of, usually, £50 a year, and others are planned or building in which the rent will be far less. Broadly speaking, the accommodation for ladies who earn £120 a year is not bad, certainly not inferior to that enjoyed by poor professional men, but the needs of those who earn less are imperfectly pro- vided for. As a first step towards permanent improvement a kind of census is being taken, by which it is hoped to ascertain the average means and usual requirements of a great number of ladies, so that those who are intent upon providing lodgings for them may know accurately what accommodation it is indispensable to provide. The difficulty seems to be to secure more than one room for each lodger, which is not sufficient except when two sisters or two friends

live together.

We wish that Major Arthur Griffiths, whose article on " The Conduct of the War " stands first in the new Fortnightly, had acted on the excellent maxims laid down in the opening paragraph of his paper :—" Conclusions arrived at upon in- sufficient data may be falsified in the strong light of later, more exact knowledge It is unwise to justify, un- generous to condemn, while facts and details are more or less imperfectly known." It is true that he limits the application of these principles to the criticism of military operations actually in progress ; but we hold that it applies with at least equal force to the events of the last few weeks. As it is, everybody, with the exception of Colonel Baden-Powell, comes in for his impartial condemnation, and such phrases as "grave error," "madcap escapade," "terrible blunder," " this most unfortunate leader," may serve as specimens of the tone and temper of this injudicious article. Its effect, however, is considerably discounted by the excellent observation in the unsigned narrative of the progress of the war which concludes the number :—" Critical opinions which are based on informa- tion furnished by war correspondents, whose messages and even letters are sent home under strict surveillance, can only have superficial value. No sound criticism can be passed on military operations till after they have been examined by evidence which is rightly withheld till the close of the cam- paign." It is a pity the editor did not invert the order of these two articles.--By far the most valuable contribution to the number is Dr. Hillier's really statesmanlike survey of "The Issues at Stake in South Africa," a survey based on thirteen years' residence in Cape Colony. Dr. Hillier insists with great force on the long, intimate, and unsatisfactory contact of the Boers and the natives as one of the prime factors in the situation. The moral weakness of the Boers is the Nemesis of slave ownership. Their treatment of the natives has

injuriously reacted on themselves ; it has debased their language, demoralised their Courts of Justice, and fostered an arrogant caste-spirit, as in the planters of the Southern States of America. But Dr. Hillier is far from being a mere depreciator. We gladly quote the admirable passage which closes the first section of his paper :— " We have considered the vices, the partial, but let us hope only temporary demoralisation of the emigrant Boers; let us be just and even generous in estimating their virtues. We have to be friends hereafter. Let us remember that these men are not savages, though they may be contaminated by prolonged contact with savages. Au fond, they are of the same root-stock and with many of the same inherent qualities as ourselves. One practical illustration will show that at least in mental capacity the Boer has not degenerated. There are as yet throughout South Africa no medical schools at which a qualification to practise may be obtained. As a result of this all South Africans entering the medical profession, Dutch as well as English, must come to Europe to obtain the necessary education and qualifica- tion. Sons of Boers from every part of South Africa come to Europe yearly, and, for the most part, enter Scotch Universities. Here they come into competition with our own and other European youths, and their record at these Universities is a creditable one. Many of them are industrious workers, and their intellectual endowments are eqnal to those of their European fellows. The raw material of the Boer is full of potentiality."

The rest of the article lends itself equally well to quotation, but we must content ourselves with a bare reference

to Dr. Hillier's vindication of the courage of the Outlanders— he might have added to the names of those who have fought with the Imperial Light Horse that of Mr. Mony-

penny, who took part in the battle of Glencoe — his eminently judicial estimate of the difficulties of the Cape Dutch and of Mr. Schreiner ; his account of the good results achieved in the native reserves ; and his testimony to the loyalty of the German farmers in Natal and Cape Colony. The only weak point in the article is the passage in which he adduces the evidence of Mr. Hammond as showing that "the amelioration of conditions consequent upon good government will most materially enhance the value of the properties in the Witwatersrand district." The " amelioration of conditions," in the opinion of some of Mr. Hammond's colleagues, at any rate, depends on the cheapening or enforcing of native labour.—Of the remaining articles the most readable is Mr. Bailey's on "Stevenson's Letters." Mr. Bailey's remark that the use of slang is fatal to the permanent charm of letters seems to us entirely just, though at the moment one cannot help being delighted by such engaging phrases as "fifty jingling, tingling, golden, minted quid." Mr. Bailey's extracts are singularly well chosen.—Mr. J. G. Frazer's suggestion as to the origin of gender in language—viz., that it is the outcome of the practice of savage tribes where the men and women have a separate speech—is at once our- prising and ingeniously worked out, as one expects from the author of The Golden, Bough.—Mr. Joseph Jacobs's elaborate analysis of Who's Who yields some curious results, —e.g., the mean age of those who get into Ti'ho's Who is fifty-five, while three hundred out of every thousand mentioned in this publication have been educated at public schools. The Services have become more popular ; the clergy do not loom so large ; and, as a rule, commerce and adminis- tration are proving more attractive than art, science, or religion.—Miss Hannah Lynch writes on " • Fecondite ' versus the Kreutzner [sic] Sonata.'" It was bad enough when Tolstoi borrowed the title of Beethoven's noble work for his repulsive romance, but at least he spelled it correctly.

The National Review is hardly so strong a number as usual. The article by " Carltonensis " on Coalition or Re- construction is dealt with elsewhere.—Mr. Arnold White's paper on "The Cankers of a Long Peace," an attempt to see ourselves as others see us, is disfigured, as usual, by a certain blatancy of expression. There is, however, a good deal in his forecast of our two ultimate difficulties in Africa, "the pheno- menal fecundity of the Boers and the exhaustion of the mines," and he goes on to assert that "to maintain British sovereignty, either permanent military rule is essential or the presence on the spot of sufficient Anglo-Saxon voters to counterbalance the electoral and constitutional inferiority to which our race is now subjected." These difficulties can only be remedied, in Mr. White's view, by an adequate system of colonisation ; and he suggests that British settlements should be established in the Transvaal, Free State, Natal, and the Cape, in which settlers would be received and taught the agricultural processes best adapted to South Africa, but that no restriction should be placed upon their obtain- ing employment elsewhere. " From these settlements liquor and black labour should be excluded, while a village school and a clergyman supply the best elements of home life." More practical is the suggestion, already mooted in these columns, to retain the Reservists already in South Africa, many of whom are skilled mechanics, artisans, and tradesmen.—Major Masse, D.S.O., gives a succinct and interesting account of the recent final campaign against the Dervishes in which Sir Reginald Wingate's army, leaving Omdurman on November 13th, marched sixty miles in sixty-one consecutive hours, fought two decisive en- gagements, and destroyed the K halifa, his chief Emirs, and the last remnant of Dervish power, returning to Omdurman with a large convoy of prisoners on November 29th.—Mr. Bartley's impressions of South Africa are rather disappointing. There is nothing new in his article, and when he might have been interesting—as in the case of President Kruger and Mr. Reitz—he practises a tantalising reticence.—Mr. Maurice Low's monthly American article is chiefly devoted to the new or " open-door " foreign policy of the Administration, which be thinks will detach many Democrats in the South and West from their party. For the rest, Mr. Low endorses the sub- stantial. accuracy of Mr. Chamberlain's much - criticised speech on the new Triple Alliance, while admitting that its

phraseology was unlucky. "Mr. Chamberlain," he says, "only publicly voiced what every well-informed man knows to be the trutb."—Miss Honnor Morten in "The Hospital Chaos" subjects the voluntary system to a good deal of damaging criticism. By far the most serious part of the indictment is that which deals with what she calls "the domi- nation of professionalism, which puts the patient entirely in the hands of the expert." Miss Morten is careful to call none but professional evidence on her side, notably one appalling passage in which Sir William Priestley denounces the craze for unnecessary or experimental operations on women. We can not help feeling. however, that this is not an evil neces- sarily inherent in voluntaryism, and that there is a good deal to be said against the municipalisation or nationalisation of hospitals advocated by Miss Morten.

The war article in Blackwood contains, besides a good deal of searching criticism of our generals, a plea for common-

sense in the treatment of the rank-and-file, a protest against " sledge-hammer" tactics, and, above all, advocates the necessity of conforming to the new system of warfare in- vented by the Boers.—Another paper, on "British Policy in South Africa," vigorously opposes the notion of compro- mise. " We must," the writer sums up. "put forward all our strength ; and if there is some sense of indignity, a latent feeling that the occasion is not worthy of the effort, we at all events escape the imputation of being a strong Power oppressing a weak one. That idea has vanished. We are confronted in this war by a foe of unexpected strength and resources, under circumstances which render it of literally vital importance that we should prevail; and we most, at whatever cost, stick to it till we do."—The late Sir John Mowbray's genial Parliamentary reminiscences are com- pleted from his notes and letters by his daughter, and are chiefly noticeable for some interesting anecdotes of Mr. Bright, Lord Beaconsfield, and Mr. Gladstone. Of Lord Beaconsfield's gratitude to his old friends Sir John gives a pleasing instance, and he tells one most characteristic story of Lady Beaconsfield's devotion :-

" When in the Commons he was constantly at work, and gave himself little rest. He use to dine late at night, and very sparingly, always with a bottle of Beaune. Once, referring to this hasty dinner and assiduous attendance, I said to Lady Beaconsfield that I could not understand how he kept going. g Ah, but,' she answered, I always have supper for him when he comes home, and lights, lights, plenty of lights,—Dizzy always likes lights ; and then he tells me everything that has happened in the House, and then I clap him off to bed."

—The paper on "The Victorian Drama," with special refer- ence to Mr. Clement Scott's recently published magnum opus, is a brilliant piece of scarifying raillery, as well as a merci- less dissection of the inherent weakness of the histrionic

temperament. But the writer errs in making out that Dr. Farrar was Head-Master of Marlborough in Mr. Clement

Scott's schooldays. The Dean of Canterbury went to Marl- borough in 1871, and Mr. Scott, who was born in 1841, was then hardly in state pupillari.—We may also notice two admirable descriptive papers,—Mr. Hugh Clifford's on " Bush-Whacking " in the Malay Peninsula, and another by an anonymous writer on " A Cold Day in Mid-Canada."