THE MAGAZINES.

THE publishers of Fraser's Magazine announce that in July their periodical will pass under the editorship of Principal Tulloch, of St. Andrew's, and that various improvements will be intro- duced, including a serial story by the author of Lorna Doone. They believe that in spite of the new and vigorous magazines which have sprung up on all sides, there is still room for Fr f ser, which will be, we imagine from the prospectus, the representa- tive in politics of the Whigs, and in ecclesiastical affairs of those Liberals who recognise the supernatural, and adhere to the policy of Established Churches. There should be room for such a monthly. The present number, which closes with a brief farewell from Mr. Allingham, is full of good papers, all too short, except the interesting one on " Ausonius," the poet of Valentinian's iron age. One on " Indian Budgets and Indian Deficits," though too pessimist, is full of suggestive facts ; another, on "The Revival of the Warlike Power of China," is entirely new ; and a third, headed, " Some Fifty Years Ago," is a curiously frank criticism on the early volumes of Fraser. The paper on China should be read attentively. Most persons are aware that the Chinese army has been improved, but few know that China has now navy-yards, arsenals, and a fleet, her officials having built near Shanghai two steam-frigates of nearly 3,000 tons, and five gunboats ; and at Foochow fifteen vessels, eleven of which are over 1,000 tons' displacement. These boats have been found to be so efficient, that in the south piracy is nearly suppressed.

The Fortnightly this month offers no paper of the first mark, the best being Mr. Barham Zincke's carefully thought-out pre- diction that territorialism will disappear in England, owing to the unprofitableness of land when cultivated on the English system ; and that it will be replaced by peasant proprietorship, which he defends, not because it produces more, but because it yields to the agricultural labourer a true home-life. At present he pos- sesses no property beyond a very little rude furniture, and at some time or other of his life always swells the great volume of pauperism. Mr. Zincke believes that America-will destroy the profit of grazing, as it has of the wheat-culture, and that when this is perceived, the change in the method of cultivation will be rapid, though he cannot indicate the means, declaring the farmer and the labourer alike unable to buy the land. His ob- servations are acute—one in particular, on the extinction of society in country districts, is profound—but we doubt if he has sufficiently- studied the position of the very small farmer. Many large landlords say that he holds on very well, and that in spite of rent he may yet, by exces- sive thrift and close attention, be able to make an en- durable living. His grand difficulty is the rate of wages, which has not yet settled itself. Mr. Grant Duff gives us a study of " Lord Chesterfield's Letters," seeking to show that, apart from their immoral teaching on one subject, they are full of sense and reflectiveness, and show the value of that systematic training for statesmanship which, in England, is so much neglected. Mr. Fox Bourne offers an interesting, though rather superficial, account of the condition of Malta, where over-population and a corn-law together seem likely to produce a catastrophe ; and the friends of the late Mr. James Macdonell, whose recent early death has been such a loss to journalism, publish a brilliant paper by him, on " Paris under the Restoration." It is full of the happiest sentences and descriptions, but, of course, does not add much to the general knowledge of the period. This is a striking description of the departure of Charles X. :—

" From his starting-point at Rambouillet to that port, the distance, as the crow flies, may be about one hundred and sixty or one hun- dred and seventy miles ; but the ex-King went with royal slowness of pomp, and it took him almost a fortnight to reach the place of em- barkation. He went, accompanied by his family, by the members of his household, by his guards, and by the commissioners of the new Sovereign, who, in truth, were his only real protection. He went at a foot-pace, sometimes through pitying, and sometimes through sullen crowds ; but he met with no insult, although most of the people would have lynched the Prince de Polignac and his colleagues. He was saved from injury by the popular comprehension of the maxim which he himself had denounced, that the King reigns, but does not govern. Perhaps the King's stately slowness was partially caused by a hope that Britanny and La Vendee would be fired by the memory of Charlotte and Cathelincau, and would have time to strike for the throne of St. Louis ; but in the main it was doubtless a pure token of the King's respect for his office. One of his attendants was so shocked by the refusal of the people of Dream to treat it with equal respect, that he went out of his mind. At Laigle other attendants found that the King could not dine, because the hotel in which he lodged had only round tables, and no tables, therefore, of which his Majesty could take the head. But the democratic carves were speedily cut away by Royalist saws, and the extemporised rect- angles allowed the King to dine without a fatal loss of dignity. The little fair-haired Duc de Bordeaux and his sister, meanwhile, added an infantile pathos to the wreck of royalty, for they had been taught to bow to the people in their better days, and, thinking that the pro- cession to the coast was nothing more than a stately pageant, they cast their small, smiling gestures among the silent crowd that lined the highway, and made tears start to the eyes of the rough Norman folk. Poor little remnants of a great dynasty, they were shedding their childish bounties for the last time among their own people."

The remaining papers, including the one by " Verax " on" Mr. Dillwyn's Motion," are decidedly thin, not excepting Mr. Dale's, on " Liberal Candidates at the Next Election," though he makes a point when he alludes to the necessity of strong men in Parlia- ment, to meet the great agricultural change which is coming upon us. Only, are strong Radicals the best men to meet and regulate that change ?

The Contemporary Review is quite up to its usual mark, though it contains no very startling essay. Anglo-Indians will read Dr. Dollinger's, on " The British Empire in India " with curiosity, to see what the great Neo-Catholic has to say ; but the description contains nothing new, and is only remarkable for its marvellous accuracy in the statement of facts. Dr. Dellinger is one of those who believe that the government, or, at least, the mental cultivation of Asia, is passing to the European Powers, and that their division of the supremacy may possibly be peaceful. He notes, however, with surprise, the one move- ment which interrupts their advance :—

" If we look simply at the strong expansive force of the Arabian religion, which is extending itself now almost as rapidly and as vigor- ously by the peaceful methods of persuasion as formerly by the sword, we are in presence of an historical enigma. In Africa it advances like a torrent ; whole tribes in the interior, who yesterday were idolaters or fetish-worshippers, are to-day believers in the Koran. In Sierra Leone, on the north-western coast of Guinea, there is a Moslem high-school, with 1,000 pupils. In China the Mussel- mans have already become so numerous that they were able recently to venture on an insurrection. In Tonkin there are 50,000 of them. Among the Malays in the islands of the Indian Archipelago they have, for the first time in our day, made hosts of proselytes. From Sumatra, Islam has spread to Java, and the whole population of nearly 8,000,000 have now for the first time—under the Dutch Government—become Mahometan. The greater part of Sumatra, and at least half of Borneo and Celebes, are won over to Islam. Wherever in the Indian Archipelago a formerly heathen population is under Dutch rule, Isiah:a makes gigantic strides ; while Christianity, in spite of the missionaries and missionary societies, advances very little, if it does not actually lose ground."

His explanation of this movement, the ease with which Mahoramedans now visit Mecca, is very superficial, and he seems to overlook the intense attraction which the simplicity of the Mahommedan theology, which is in essence loyalty to a despotic God, and the social equality established by Ma- hommed, have for Asiatics. Let Christianity make the bond free, as it did once, and as Mahommelanism does in India, and we should soon have another tale to tell. Karl Blind's account of "Conspiracies in Russia" is too wanting in philosophic impartiality to be useful, but it is a striking narrative, and shows how early the Revolutionary party had begun to think that their hope lay in murder, and that the entire Imperial House must be slaughtered out. It shows, too, how complete their failure hitherto has been, though they nearly snatched a momentary, and probably premature, victory, on the death of Alexander I., when the very Guards were doubtful in whose name to strike, and Nicholas, appointed heir by his father's order, and with his elder brother's consent, nevertheless took the oaths to that elder brother. Canon Westcott continues his eloquent- sketch of Origen and his philosophy,—a philosophy which, should the notion of Restora- tion ever take a strong hold of the Christian world, will one day be studied word by word. He describes Origen's system with too great an economy of words, but still intelli- gibly, till it is seen to be a great thought, which rose in the mind of a man who could not rid himself of some Oriental dreams—who, for instance, believed in metempsychosis, the reincorporation of souls, but limited the possibility of such re- incorporation wholly to the human form, or one yet higher. No rational being could even temporarily sink into a brute. This is a remarkable paragraph, on Origen's effort to reconcile destiny and free-will :—

" In the third book Origen discusses the moral basis of the system. This lies in the recognition of free-will as the inalienable endowment of rational beings. But this free-will does not carry with it the power of independent action, but only the power of receiving the help which is extended to each according to his capacity and needs, and therefore just responsibility for the consequences of action. Such free-will offers a sufficient explanation, in Origen's judgment, for what we see, and gives a stable foundation for what we hope. It places sin definitely within the man himself, and not without him. It preserves the possibility of restoration, while it enforces the penalty of failure. God said,' so he writes, " Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Then the sacred writer adds, And God made man : in the image of God made he him." This therefore that he says, "In the image of God made he him," while he is silent as to the likeness, has no other meaning than this,—that man received the dignity of the image at his first creation ; while the perfection of this likeness is kept in the consummation (of all things) ; that is, that he should himself gain it by the efforts of his own endeavour, since the possibility of perfection had been given him at the first In the beginning,' he writes, when God created what he pleased to create—that is, rational natures—He had no other cause of creation beside Himself—that is, His own goodness.' And the rational crea- tures which he made were all alike, for there was no cause for difference, but they were inalienably endowed with freedom of will ; and this freedom of will led either to their advance through imitation of God or to thier declension through neglect of Him ; and hence came the present order, which, in all its diversities, is still guided by Infinite Righteousness. Evil, it follows, is negative, the loss of good which was attainable : the shadow which marks the absence, or rather the exclusion of light. The creation of finite rational beings by the free act of God involved the creation of a medium through which they could give expression to their character. Such a medium is matter in its boundless, subtle modifications. While, therefore, the expression of character will be dependent upon matter within certain limits, yet man, for example, is still capable of receiving and giving utterance to a divine revelation as a spiritual being, in accordance with the laws of his present organisation."

" The Boers and the Zulus," by Sir B. Pine, though pleasantly written, contains little that is new, and no advice ; while the very important essay on "The New Bulgaria," by "An Eastern States- man," is one of those papers which require the authentication of a name. The writer appears to know his subject thoroughly, and to believe in the future of Bulgaria and its ultimate union with " East Ronmelia," and probably with part of Macedonia. "An Eastern Statesman " maintains that the Bulgarians like but dread Russia ; cordially like England, but are hopeless of her help ; and intensely detest Austria, because she intends to go to Salonica. He believes also that the massacres in Bulgaria were deliberate, and committed for strategical reasons :-

" In the early spring of 1876, the Governor of Philippopolis tele- graphed to Constantinople that there would soon be trouble in his province, but that he would guarantee the peace if he could have a reinforcement of one battalion of cavalry. This demand was repeated several times, but no attention was paid to it. It would have been easy to prevent an outbreak, but for some reason, it was rather en- couraged than otherwise. There has been much speculation as to the motives which led the Turkish Government to take this course, and those who see the hand of Russia in everything attribute it to the

influence of General Ignatieff ; but the probability is that the Turks foresaw that a war with Servis, was inevitable, and feared that, when it broke out, it would be followed by a rebellion in Ronmelia, which would cut the Turkish line of communication with the frontier. lit was thought better to encourage a weak insurrection before the war, and then put it down in such a way as to strike terror into the hearts of the people, and prevent any possibility of trouble afterwards."

He believes also as a certainty that Suleiman Pasha agreed, as he says, under orders from Constantinople, to extirpate the Bulgarians, whom he executed in heaps.

Earl Grey in the Nineteenth Century rather wastes his strength in his argument on the Colonies, in proving that it was unwise to abandon the power of forbidding injurious fiscallegislation in the Colonies. It is abandoned, and there is an end of it, His new sug- gestion, however, that the Agents for the free Colonies should be made Privy Councillors and members of a Committee of Privy Council for considering Colonial matters, and advising the Crown thereon, is worth attention. This Committee would have only advisory powers, and would not impair the respon- sibility of Ministers, but would, as Earl Grey believes, greatly increase the authority of the Central Government in vetoing injudicious legislation. We fear the innovation would impede the first wish of the Colonies, which is for final power in legislation, and would much rather see the Agents admitted into the Lords as ee officio Peers, as Bishops now are,. but the suggestion is at once novel and practical. Mr..

Myers finishes his criticism on Victor Hugo,—not, to our minds, a satisfactory one, as it does not explain the profound: impression Hugo's genius has made on France ; and Sir Henry Thompson gives us the first part of a paper on " Food and Feeding," in which he tells us little that is new,—though

states strongly the value of the haricot bean, and urges the necessity for greater variety in food than is usual in English middle-class households. Mr. J. Payn is exceedingly amusing in his account of his personal experience of criticism, and especially of amateur critics ; and Colonel G. Chesney gives us- his view of the Indian Services, in which we rejoice to see he

advocates strongly the use of Native engineers. Of all the absurdities of the foreign administration of India, the virtual exclusion of the race which built all that exists in India except our hideous barracks, from headships under the Department of Public Works, on the ground of incompetence, is the most absurd. Nor are we anxious to train native engineers in colleges. Let train them themselves as they like, and the men who built the Indian buildings and carried out the native irrigation will complete anything, except, perhaps, railways, that we require at their hands. Colonel Chesney fights, we think with good reason, for the direct employment of competent native agency selected on• the spot, without compelling such natives to enter a regular official hierarchy, which involves incessant removal to districts they understand almost as little as Europeans. This paper is well worth careful study, and especially some remarks made almost en passant on the best method of correcting the deficiency

of officers now complained of in the Native regiments. We should be inclined ourselves to go baqk to the old system, with the rider that no officer be employed outside his regiment, which should_ be his home and his life-work; but Colonel Chesney's suggestion would be cheaper, and involve no retrocession, a thing which the British administrator exceedingly dislikes. The last paper in the number—after one on the Odinic songs of Shetland, by Karl Blind, which is, we confess, entirely beyond us, and another, on the relation between paternal government and Toryism, and between both and Socialism, by Mr. J. Holyoake—is Mi. Gladstone's view of the claims of Greece. He believes that those claims would have been accepted at the Conference of Berlin, but for English resistance,—and would have included the whole of Thessaly, Epirus, and Crete, and that for the re- duced demand now put forward Greece is entitled to the ener- getic support of Great Britain.

The Cornhill has nothing noteworthy this month beyond the stories, except a pleasant sketch of village life in the Apennines, an account of the heroines of Spenser, almost as tedious as the " Faerie Queene," and an essay on the genesis of feathers, which is not, to our minds, convincing. If diet or the structure of the eyes has any great share in producing the brilliancy of feathers, why are not the hen-birds more brilliant? Why should

the male birds not be credited with a little aestheticism, too P The great paper in Macmillan is discussed elsewhere, and Black- wood is wholly readable, but without any paper of marked character.