THE MAGAZINES.

ARTICLES in magazines on South Africa seem now all a little belated, but we would recommend one in the Contem- porary Review by Mr. E. Garrett, Member of the Cape Assembly, as vigorous, full of facts, and, above all, good- tempered. Its total result is that war cannot be per- manently avoided unless the Dutch in South Africa are to rule a Dutch Republic and to keep the English in their present position, which in Cape Colony is that of a minority, impoverished by severe Protective laws, and in the Transvaal is precisely that of the Jews in the Middle Ages, allowed to grow rich, but deprived of all rights as citizens and expected to submit quietly to squeezing. We extract a set of figures which during the war will be useful to our readers for reference :— "Total Whites. 'Dutch." English.'

Cape Colony with Bechuanaland

... 460,000

265,200 194,800 Basutoland ... 650 300 350 Orange Free State

... 93,700

78,100 15,600 Natal with Zululand ... 52,000 6,500 45,500 Transvaal ... ... 203,650 80,000 123,650m Rhodesia ... ... 10,000 1,500 8,500m

820,000 431,600 388,400 (m -= nearly all adult males)."

If adult males, however, were alone taken into account there would be a large English majority in South Africa. It will be observed that Mr. Garrett says nothing of the natives, whose total number is probably five times that of the whites, though they are not distributed in the same way.—The paper by the Rev. C. Usher Wilson in the Nineteenth Century on the same subject does not impress us so much, though he substantially agrees with Mr. Garrett ; but the number is an interesting one. Mr. Swinburne sends a sonnet on the Dreyfus case, the last lines of which are too violent, but the whole is full of sense as well as melodious sound.—Two writers, Mrs. Batson and the Hon. Percy Wyndham, discuss what is practically the same question,—namely, whether the labourer will continue on the land. Mrs. Batson thinks he will not unless he can get possession of the soil, because education develops an independence which nothing else will satisfy; while Mr. Wyndham thinks he will when he discovers that wages in the country are nearly as good as in town, and expenditure is less. Mr. Wyndham omits the element of chances in life, which are decidedly better in town, and assumes that the agriculturist is an unskilled labourer, which as regards a considerable proportion is unfair; but his figures strike us as much more accurate than is usual. Both papers are worth reading,—as is one which few will glance at, "A Tibetan Poet and Mystic," by the Rev. Graham Sandberg. Mr. Sandberg himself rather despises his subject, and most Englishmen will pronounce the teaching he quotes un- intelligible rubbish; but any one who will read his extracts carefully will gain an unusually good idea of the central thought of Buddhism,—the belief that medita- tion can bring you exemption from all the ills of the flesh. The teaching will never be acceptable to the energetic sons of Japhet, but it has moulded for ages the inner thoughts of millions of Asiatics. There is a truth, too, in it of a kind,— namely, that the mind can, if it will, gain complete control over the body. Whether it is wise or right to do it at such a price as the Mystic necessarily pays—the renunciation not only of all pleasures, but of all duties—is a different matter. Christianity would, we think, pronounce meditation in the Mystic's sense a grossly selfish expenditure of time given to us for other ends than a victory over the body which pro- duces no unselfish consequence. We do not recommend the article to the ordinary reader, because it will bore him to death, but to a few it will be found very acceptable.—There are no less than three ecclesiastical papers. In one on "The New Reformation" Mrs. Humphry Ward again pleads, with perhaps a needless display of learning—needless, we mean, for her argument—that the Church should be widened until it can admit all who reverence Christ, even if they reject all the distinctive Christian dogmas,—a petition which will never be granted. She might as well plead for the admission of non-resistance men into the Artillery. A Christian Church which does not accept the revelation of a future life as a dogma incapable of dispute seems to us a Church built upon nothing. We would widen the Church as far as possible, but there are limits beyond which there is only vacuity, and we think Mrs. Ward approaches them. The Rev. Dr. Cobb argues, temperately and with much learning, that Disestablishment is now almost inevitable, because the Archbishops have " bluntly " laid it down that nothing is lawful in the Church of England but what is expressly per- mitted by the Act of Uniformity. Why is it inevitable if the laity think that decision wise? They can secure a priesthood of their own opinion. We are not in favour of their doing so, but of their consenting to a large comprehension; but the threat of Disestablisliment is meaningless until they will it. They are not sacerdotalists. And Mr. George Russell sends a paper angrily repudiating "this brand new Papacy at Lambeth," which is hardly fair, considering the anxiety with which the Archbishops—or the Archbishop, as Mr. Russell repudiates the Northern Metropolitan as a mere " intruder " —disclaim anything like compulsory jurisdiction. The Papacy does not exactly advise its clergy. All three papers should be read carefully by those who are curious as to the trend of the many minds within the Church.

Besides Mr. Garrett's article mentioned above, the Con- temporary Review offers one by Sir Robert Stout on New Zealand, which is, we think, the best in any magazine for October. It is a review of all recent legislation in New Zealand by an essayist who really understands what is going on there. In principle, it would seem clear that New Zealand has become a Collectivist Colony. The people regard the State as benign, invest it with all powers, and look to it to remedy every evil. The hours of labour, the wages of labour, the terms of apprenticeship, and, in fact, every detail of industrial life, are all regulated by law, and the majority show a fixed determination to adhere to this system, and to push it, yet further. The Universities are created and supervised by the State, and the religions difficulty does not exist, for the simple reason that the people will hear of no opposition to the State, even from churches. Even the Roman Catholics are cowed, and yield to the all-prevailing sentiment. What the result will be it will probably take a full generation to tell, for as yet the symptoms are divergent. The people are happy and contented, but though agriculture flourishes exceedingly, manufacturing industry declines. "The values of our exports of manufactured goods (including flax) were as follows : 1888, £253,919; 1893, £358,455; 1897, £204,252; 1898, £194,783. Our trade has increased, though it has not made great strides, but the increases in the exports have come from pastoral and agricultural operations, and these are little affected by labour laws." Whatever the result, however, Sir Robert Stoat does not believe that the people will alter their method, though they may make experiments of a different kind. The State, in fact, has become for them a kind of Deity which can do no wrong. It will be a most curious experiment to watch, and one which should afford invaluable object-lessons.—Mr. Phil Robinson, in an essay headed "Among Old Acquaintances," • continues his delightful gossip about natural history, this time chiefly concerning himself with the ways of little birds, which, when carefully watched, are often eccentric. Imagine a pair of tits building a nest at the bottom of a piece of old iron pipe stuck in the ground, seventeen inches long and four inches in diameter, rearing a family there till they could fly, and then howking them out one by one, presumably on their

own backs. Anyhow they did it in some way, and were seen doing it, though the feat seems almost impossible, and must be &puzzler for doctors with theories of ventilation.—The Contemporary gives us also a most gruesome sketch of the interior of a workhouse as seen from inside the infirmary ; an aspiration for a national Church in India, to be formed by pooling the missionary bodies (which will not happen) ; a rather viewy paper on "the obscure causes of crime," which causes are mental diseases, especially epilepsy; and a most curious suggestion by Mr. J. B. Carruthers. He wants the State to provide an army of "plant doctors," men of science who shall investigate and cure the diseases of plants which he contends cast the nations millions a year.

We have read Canon MacColl's article in the current Fortniglitly on the Lambeth decision with great interest, but we cannot say that he convinces us that the decision of the Metropolitans as to the liturgical use of incense is bad law. His argument, however, is very learned and very curious, and though strongly urged, is most moderately and reasonably expressed. As we have said elsewhere, we wish that some plan could have been devised for allowing incense in churches where it has been used, and where the congre- gations, or all but a very small minority, are strongly in favour of its use. Since, however, the judgment of a competent authority has gone the other way, the Ritualists must submit until they can obtain a new decision. Ritualists cannot be judges in their own cause any more than other men, and must not claim only to obey decisions which they find to be good law. Meantime they enjoy the fundamental right of Englishmen to use all lawful means to yet get what they hold to be bad law altered or rescinded.---" Diplomaticas," while admitting that on the main issue of our dispute with the Transvaal— viz., our supremacy in South Africa—we have been right,, and shall be right, even to the shedding of blood, assails Mr. Chamberlain for his "policy of patience and endless talk," and his "extraordinary blunder in raising the question of suzerainty." It is, however, rather a large proposition that the "one thing to render peace certain was to imitate the attitude of Lord Salisbury in the Fashoda business,—to sit tight and mute, and make it clear that we should not sit thus long." According to "Diplomaticus," "it is a dismal joke that Mr. Chamberlain has been pictured by the peace party and by the creatures of President Kruger as rushing into war. The real pity is that he did not take his detractors at their word. Had he 'formulated his final proposals for a settlement' the day after the Bloemfontein Conference, peace would now be assured." The article is vitiated from end to end by the assumption that throughout the whole course of the negotia- tions Mr. Chamberlain has done everything off his own bat.

The article on "The Rennes Verdict and the Dreyfus Case" by an English officer is primarily an effort to limit the culpability to Esterhazy, Henry, and Du Paty, and in a minor degree to General Mercier. The author is apparently con- vinced that General Boisdeffre is in all respects a high- minded and honourable man. He makes a good point, how- ever, when he observes that "what is most remarkable, as a question of the substantial strength of truth, and the mode by which falsehood defeats itself, is the extent to which, at every stage, it was the efforts of the plotters to support their own case which gradually let out the facts." There is force, too, in his conclusion that " France in all ways is herself the great sufferer, and that on the very point on which her heart is set—her military power. Still more strangely it happens that by this iniquity she has almost certainly accomplished that which, without her aid, it would have taken Germany many more years to bring about. France has lost the sympathies of Alsace. Germany has gained them." —Miss H. C. Foxcroft finds an English parallel for the afaire in the Popish Plot. The English precedent, she argues, shows us that "a community may be vigorous at the core despite the ominous parasitical growth of a vicious political society, a Government at once feeble and corrupt, and a

demoralising Press Growth is often at work beneath what, to the untrained eye, appears mere putrefaction." We sincerely hope that Miss Foxcroft is a better prophet than M. Urbain Gohier.--" History in Advertisements" is the title of an entertaining paper by Mr Andrew Reid, who has collected a carious budget of announcements, mostly from the Mercurius Politicus, Mercurius Publicus, London Gazette, preceded it.

and Taller. Charles IL's appeal to the public to restore his lost dog is most amusing :—

" We must call upon you again for a Black Dog between a Greyhound and a Spaniel, no white about him, onely a streak on his Brest and Tayl a little bobbed. It is His Majesties own Dog, and doubtless was stomp, for the Dog was not born nor bred in England, and would never forsake his Master. Whosoever findea him may acquaint any at Whitehal, for the Dog was better known at Court than those who stole him. Will they never leave robbing His Majesty ? Must he not keep a Dog ? This Dog's place (though better than some imagine) is the only place which nobody offers to beg."

Under the heading of "Mr. Chaplin's Kite," Mr. Ernest E. Williams in the National Review sends a singularly un- convincing plea for a tax on corn. He thinks that because Mr. Chaplin's kite was not more howled at, the public approved. We think, on the contrary, that the kite fell flat because the majority of Englishmen are quite sure that no one in hb3 senses will ever tax corn. Again, Mr. Williams's chaff of the Spectator is quite good- humoured, but very little to the point.—Mr. Maurice Low, writing on "The Month in Atnerica," contends that England to-day has the best opportunity she has ever had of arriving at such a cordial understanding with the United States that from this time onwards the two countries will act in unison in whatever is of material interest to both, and will practically be allies where an alliance would be valuable. He points out that a new player—viz., the United States—has come into the Chinese game, and that if the United States is not an allyof England, then most assuredly she will be of Russia.—Mr. Low, we may remark incidentally, is convinced that the United States is in the Pacific "to stay," no matter whether a Republican or a Democrat sits in the White House.—It will "pay" us, he urges, to make some concession to the States to secure their adherence, and it will be easier for England to reach a satisfactory settlement with the present Administration, and during the next few months, than later on, or under a Democratic Administration. An in- teresting part of Mr. Low's letter is devoted to an explanation of the Democratising of the Germans in the States, who voted nearly solid on the Republican ticket in 1896.—The eternal afaire is dealt with by Sir Godfrey Lushington and Mr. F. C. Conybeare, the former continuing and completing his valuable summary, with comments, on the proceedings at Rennes, while Mr. Conybeare, in a paper headed "Sword and Cassock," traces the moat recent developments of the clerico-military reaction. The verdict, he argues, is a product of Jesuit "mentality," of the perinde ac cadaver maxim of Ignatius Loyola, and though he has hopes of a national resurrection in the splendid achievement of the Dreyfusard minority, the tone of the article is in the main pessimistic.—The Hon. J. MacGregor, a Member of the Legislative Council, New Zealand, describes the working of the system of compulsory conciliation and arbitration for the settlement of labour dis- putes in that Colony which became law five years. ago. He declares that there is undoubtedly less good feeling now between employers and employed than existed before the Act, and that outside the ranks of the Trade-Unions and their agents there are few who would advise any other country to run the risk of introducing such a system.—The Rev. H. Hensley Henson supports the Archbishops' judgment in a temperate and well-reasoned article. Incidentally he observes that- " Perhaps the most astonishing factor in the crisis has been the personal influence of the amiable, but visionary and Belt- willed nobleman who presides over the English Church Union. • . . Anyway, I would rather be wrong with Halifax than *right with Kensit, Walsh, and Harcourt,' has been said and written to me many times, and it represents a very general and, though illogical, not an unnatural attitude of mind. When the English Church Union promulgated a Belies of resolutions which seemed to me at the time, and seem to me still, after all that has been written in explanation and apology, fundamentally mis- taken, its action was preceded by an imposing religious function. The delegates, to the number of a thousand, more or less, came straight from receiving the Holy Communion to vote the resolu- tions prepared in advance by the Council. It was all one act, an act a religion. There was no pretence of conference, of free discussion, of deliberate decision. The resolutions were articles of belief, not conclusions of reason. How can you argue over decisions reached by way of devotional exercises ? This fanatical aspect of the controversy lies at the roots of Our present diffi- culties, and it is the special. contribution of Lord Halifax. His lordship's latest utterance is entirely in accord with all that have

—Mr. Alfred Lyttelton's paper on cricket reform is at once bold and sensible. "Records," as he happily pats it, "are the vulgarities of .the game," while one of the evil results of the boundary system is admirably expressed in the following sentence "Formerly natural selection ruthlessly eliminated the middle-aged and the obese ; now these unromantic figures monumentally occupy the playgrounds of the youthful and the agile."

Blackwood is as usual full of good reading, the most striking of the miscellaneous papers being that on London by a "constant Londoner,' who, unlike his kind, refuses to take London as a matter of course. His aim is to give one the Us; of the various districts of the Metropolis, contrasting modern with ancient associations. He humorously describes Bayswater as suggesting eternity, from its uniformity, im- mutability, and limitless monotony, and while in the main regretting the decay of dignity and distinction in the better quarters—his purview does not extend east of Temple Bar— admits that Piccadilly still has a stimulating significance, and St. James's a pleasant atmosphere of its own.—Mr. Stephen Gwynn gives a most interesting account of the admir- able work of the Congested Districts Board, in the form of a log of his experience in a three days' cruise on the ' Gran- naile,' the poetically named steamer of the Board, from Ballinakill Bay, via Cleggan, Clare Island, Blacksod Bay, to Inishbofin and Inishturk.—We nobe with pleasure the " Looker-on's " generous appreciation of the splendour of Mr. Stephen Phillips's verse.—The other literary article, "Fashion in Fiction," is a rasping analysis of the methods of the most widely circulated manufacturers of sensational and theological fiction.