SOME OF THE MAGAZINES.

THE Contemporary for this month contains another most amusing- though sardonic paper by Julian Hawthorne upon the Saxon Switzerland, but the place of honour is fittingly assigned to Mr. Grant Duff, who sums up the chief results of his Indian tour upon his mind. These appear to be, firstly, that India is useful to England by enlarging the national tone of thought, by creating a class of skilled politicians who, on their return to England, increase the avail- able reserve of power—a reserve to be used if men of the imperial temper come to be required—by furnishing a market which would

not otherwise exist, as India without us would tear herself to

pieces, and by increasing our consideration among foreign nations. Secondly, that whatever our gains or losses from India, we cannot drop it now, for we could not compensate the material interests we have created, or fulfil the pledges we have given. Thirdly, that India, as at present constituted, is a source of weakness to us in military administration, by making a proper organisation of our Army too difficult, and supplying in return a -wretchedly bad school of campaigning, as bad, now that the native armies are destroyed, as Algeria. Fourthly, that travel in India encourages the English politician, because he sees how much material order has advanced, how able Indian Civilians are, and low immense is the distance between the mass of the people and ourselves. Fifthly, that we are producing a great and good effect in India, the Codes, for example, begetting new ideas, so that "in a generation or two their morality will become the morality of India," the English language becoming the lingua franca of the Peninsula—an immense gain—and the English educa- tion diffusing the idea of scientific method, and the English rule entirely altering the instinctive demands of the governed upon their governors, so that the old way of native rule will by-and-by seem intolerable. Sixthly, that government in India has only just begun, the Mutiny first revealing our full strength, and that at least a hundred years must elapse before the experiment can be judged. Seventhly, that Anglo-Indian harshness, instead of increasing, is decreasing ; that the governors take more interest in the governed, especially their art ; and that there are signs of a new interest in Indian history and usages. Eighthly, that the competition system works well in all ways ; and ninthly, that although the natives of India are extremely untruth- ful, they can be cured of untruthfulness by good govern- ment and sound example, the vice having its origin in centuries of servitude. All these conclusions strike us as sound, and the fifth, in particular, as of very high importance. There can be no doubt that the English in India, like the Romans in Europe, are substituting the idea of Law for the idea of unrestrained volition, and that this is an enormous service for conquerors to render. In the height of the Mutiny the great province of Rohilkhund, when it elected its native ruler, and was completely free of white faces, made a pact with him that he should observe the English laws. He could not have kept it, and they could not have coerced him, but their new ideal was shown in that act. Mr. Grant Duff has defended each of his conclusions with much force, though in too few words, and has evidently in his own mind formulated a policy of this kind. Govern India strongly, but steadily, through competition-wallahs, and go on, confident that in a century you will have effected such a change that you may perceive how vast is the good you have done, and, perhaps the strength you have acquired.

The Fortnightly is not specially attractive this month, but Professor Tyndall on "Materialism and its Opponents," Dr. J. Bridges on the English policy in China, and the editor's paper .on "Diderot," make the number one of sufficient interest. Dr. Bridges' account of our recent transactions with China, in particular, is a most masterly statement of the Chinese side of the case, impaired only by too great readiness to believe in Chinese moral utterances. There can hardly be a doubt that the Mandarins, if left free, would not prohibit the opium trade, but would, by taxing the import and levying an excise duty on cultivation, raise a great revenue for themselves,—a revenue to which they would have, no doubt, a moral right, if they had not abandoned it by treaty. Dr. Bridges, moreover, throughout his argument assumes that China has a right to limit our intercourse with her because it may shatter her organisation—a right we should distinctly deny—and he confuses British demands on China too often with demands only made by traders in Shanghai. He snakes, however, some points very powerfully, particularly when he exposes our almost tra- ditional habit of telling falsehoods about our "commercial expeditions," a practice in which we are nearly as bad as the Russians. We never sent a "commercial expedition" into Asia yet without orders to glean political information, and if possible, serve political ends ; and our cool immorality on this point, im- morality now so customary that to tell the blank truth would seem cynical, is positively sickening. The only defence for it is that it deceives nobody, and that we are silly as well as wrong.

We have noticed the most original paper in Fraser, Mr. Galton's, on "Twins," elsewhere ; but there is another readable article on "German Home Life," in which the authoress tries to show that German women are mostly big children, full of senti- ment and household cares,—well read, but helpless ; and a most valuable and interesting paper by a Negro, on "the Spread of Mohammedanism among the Negro Race." He believes that Mohammedanism does more for the Negro in his present state than Christianity, or, at all events, makes him more of a man :—

" Mohammedanism in Africa counts in its ranks the most energetic and enterprising tribes. It claims as adherents the only people who have any form of civil polity or bond of social organisation. It has built and occupies the largest cities in thb heart of the continent. Its laws regulate the most powerful kingdoms—Futah, Masina, Hausa, Bornou, Waday, Darfur, Kordofan, Senaar, &c. It produces and con- trols the most valuable commerce between Africa and foreign countries ; it is daily gathering converts from the ranks of paganism ; and it com- mands respect among all Africans wherever it is known, even where the people have not submitted to the sway of the Koran."

Not only, however, does the Mohammedan negro immediately organise society on an endurable principle, but he gives up many of his instincts, his irrational levity, and his love for dances. On the other hand :—

" Wherever the Negro is found in Christian lands, his leading trait is not docility, as has been often alleged, but servility. He is slow and unprogressive. Individuals here and there may be found of extra- ordinary intelligence, enterprise, and energy, but there is no Christian community of Negroes anywhere which is self-reliant and independent. Haiti and Liberia, so-called Negro Republics, are merely struggling for existence, and hold their own by the tolerance of the civilised Powers. On the other hand, there are numerous Negro Mohammedan communi- ties and States in Africa which are self-reliant, productive, independ- ent, and dominant, supporting, without the countenance or patronage of the parent country, Arabia, whence they derived them, their political, literary, and ecclesiastical institutions. In Sierra Leone, the Moham- medans, without any aid from Government—Imperial or local—or any contributions from Mecca or Constantinople, erect their mosques, keep up their religious services, conduct their schools, and contribute to the support of missionaries from Arabia, Morocco, or Futah, when they visit them. The same compliment cannot be paid to the Negro Christians of that settlement."

Mohammedanism, in fact, says Mr. Blyden, is the stage through which the negro will most beneficially pass to Christianity.

An article in Blackwood for August describing the present con- dition of the French Army excited great attention on the Continent and among ourselves. The writer argued that the French Army, though more numerous than in 1870, had scarcely been improved in organisation, that the Intendance was still wretchedly bad, and that the Ministry of War was still opposed to all innovation of a serious kind. The paper drew forth some official replies, but the French Ministry of War was either ashamed of its failures, or bigoted in its self-confidence, or pleased that the world should think France weak, and no con- vincing explanation was ever offered. The writer of that paper now offers a sketch of the condition of the French Army in 1870, so full of details of incompetence that it is painful to read and almost impossible to believe. He shows that in the most important fortress of the frontier, Strasburg, no adequate preparations were made ; the Ministry were content with stores on paper, most of which were useless ; and both the Intendant, M. de is Valette, and the General of Division, Ducrot, remonstrated with the central authority in vain, the Intendant- General, M. Blondeau, ending discussion with the remark that if facts were as represented, the Minister of War was the only per- son ignorant of them. So iron-bound was the routine, that when General Ducrot found only eighteen waggons instead of 144, and asked for the remainder, he was told that he must first show that he could find shelter for them, and the waggons were never sent till the war broke out. The number of men with the colours was always misrepresented, till, when the hour arrived, there were but 293,000, instead of 400,000; and the auxiliary army, which even General Niel had declared to be ready, never existed at all. As to food,—

'. The telegrams sent by the various commanders reveal the state of the supplies at the very commencement. On July 19, General de Failly telegraphed : 'I have nothing—not even money ; we require supplies of every kind.' On the 24th the Intendant of the 5th Division tele- graphed : 'Metz, which supplies the 3rd. 4th, and 5th corps, has no more biscuit or oats.' The same day the Intendant of the 3rd corps says : The 3rd corps leaves Metz to-morrow : I have no infirmiers, no workmen, no ambulance-waggons, no field-ovens, no carts, and not one intendant in two divisions.' On July 25, the Sous-Intendant at Mezieres sent word : 'There is neither biscuit nor salt-meat to day at Mdzieres or Sedan.' On the 28th, Marechal le Bumf telegraphed : 'We cannot march for want of biscuit.' On the 29th, General Ducrot telegraphed to Strasburg, from Reichshoffen, where be was with his division : 'The question of food is becoming more and more grave ; the Intendance gives us absolutely nothing ; everything is eaten up around us.' And all this, let it be borne in mind, took place in France itself, with the bases of supplies close to the army, and before one battle had been fought."

The essayist attributes much of the blame of the sad story to the Emperor himself, but an immense proportion of it was due, we imagine, to the system, common in many armies, of treating remonstrance as a kind of offence. Even now, free criticism of

a department such as an English general or admiral offers to his superiors without scruple would in France stop an officer's career. There is a feeling that a good officer will presume success, and do his work "without murmurs." There is a charm- ing paper on "The Dutch and their Dead Cities," places like Hoorn, where the few people still live in maisons de luxe, built by their richer ancestors ; and Medemblik, once the chief town of West Friesland, with a mint, great quays, and the finest ship-

' yards in Holland, but now reduced to 3,000 inhabitants ; and Stavoren, once the third city of the Hanseatic League, and now a ruined village ; and Kampen, and Harderwyk, and a dozen other towns, each of which had a history of nearly a thousand years, but are now abandoned to a few poverty-stricken citizens. The new chapters of the spirited tale of the Indian Mutiny called "The Dilemma" are full of spirit, but the author has shown a certain want of literary appreciation of the opportunity of the situation he had so skilfully prepared, in making so little as he has done of the death of Colonel Falkland. The interest of the reader had been so much excited in relation to Colonel Falkland, and the description of his gallant conduct of the defence of the Residency at Mustaphabad was so graphic, that the curt mode in which his death is mentioned, and the apparent heart- lessness of the little garrison, when delivered from its perils, towards their late chief, grate very painfully on the reader. Probably this may in many respects be a truer picture of military life than an ordinary novelist would have ventured to give us. We suspect that there is more of the soldier's than of the novelist's art in this portion of the story. But then that is in itself a severe criticism upon it. No novelist ought to interest his readers so deeply in a character which he is prepared to sweep out of sight with this brief military unconcern. This is the only grave fault we have yet observed in the artistic tactics of this lively tale.

The Cornhill still depends mainly upon its two novels, "The Hand of Ethelberta " and "The Atonement of Learn Dundas," both of which are far beyond ordinary magazine stories, though in the first interest is impaired by the impossibility of the plot, and in the latter, by the raspiness with which the authoress some- times brings out her clever epigrams. The only readable bit of padding is a paper on "Automatic Chess and Card-Playing," in which the writer starts with the assertion that an automatic chess-player is possible, if the necessary trouble were taken. It will neve4 of course, be taken, but he asserts, with Babbage to back him, that if it were taken, so that each probable move -were registered, the mechanical difficulty might be overcome. We will not contend on such a point, but we should have thought the occurrence of the knight's move would introduce a disturbing element, which no arrangement of springs could meet without disturbing other arrangements ; but, at all events, the difficulties are so great, that in practice no automatic chess-player has ever been attempted. In Kemplen's and Maeliel's machines the player was under the board, and played from a board on his lap, on which he repeated the moves on the visible board. On this latter board each piece contained a magnet, and under each square was a pith-ball attached by a small thread. When a piece was down, the ball of its square sprang up towards it, and when the piece was lifted dropped, the balls thus revealing to the player each move. The victories of M. Maelzel were due to the fact that he had trained himself to play rapidly, and that his opponent, who had not so trained himself, caught the infection, and was, besides, pressed by the impatience of the spectators. In the Crystal Palace automaton, the player is in the figure, and can see the actual board. He plays well, but his opponent, as in Maelzers ease, has to play with excessive rapidity. The writer suggests that the next automaton should be moved from a distance, either by reflecting beat from a mirror on the mechanism, or by electricity, the latter, we should fancy, being the more certain process. This would allow the figure to be constructed so as to make the illusion much more perfect.

Macmillan has little which interests us, but Mrs. Oliphant con- tinues her admirable story, "The Curate in Charge," in which she reminds us every month of her novel, The Athelings, now most undeservedly forgotten, but still, in spite of its sensational plot, one of the most attractive of all her stories ; and Mr. Wilson gives us a valuable opinion on the Turkish default, which amounts to this,—that unless Turkey can borrow, and borrow in Europe, she must pay her local creditors first for their claims on the unfunded Debt, and that consequently the Bondholders have no chance of receiving anything.

The Victoria Magazine, in the midst of its usual supply of stuff

more or• less rubbishy, has a very valuable article on Bosnia, from the pen of a lady who has lived there many years. The writer is studiously fair, and does not attempt to describe the Bosnian Christians as anything but a degraded people ; but no one can read the article without the conclusion—which always follows the perusal of any truthful report upon a Turkish province—" the Turks must go."