THE MAGAZINES.

Is the Nineteenth Century the Prince di Teano writes on "The -Roman Empire : a Lesson on the Effects of Free Trade." He does not intend, he tells us, to take part directly in the Tariff Reform discussion, but there is no mis- taking his meaning. Briefly put, his argument is this : the Empire brought about a system of universal Free-trade, and Italian agriculture was ruined. But there are many other causes to be considered. For centuries before the Empire was thought of the agrarian question continued to be the insoluble problem of Roman politics. The vast flood of wealth which poured into Italy, with the development of luxury which followed, was another cause. Parks and mansions dis- possessed the cultivator. The younger Pliny, who was not in the front rank of the rich, had some seven country houses. And then there was the enormous slave population which followed on the conquest of the world. The free cultivator could not stand before a competition so unfair. Of course Free-trade brings about individual hardships. There will always be such cases as that of the Italian flower-grower who complained that he was undersold by Egyptian roses. But this is very different from the conten- tion of the Prince di Teano.—Mr. James G. Hutchinson takes us with him at least in the negations of his "Workman's View of the Remedy for Unemployment." He will have nothing to do, for instance, with Tariff Reform. He makes here a good point in stating the fact that the " dumping " of semi-manufactures often enables our traders to complete the manufactured article with excellent results. The case of Luton and straw-plait is strictly relevant. His great remedy is diminishing the drink bill. It stands on an average at 6s. 10d. per week for every working-class family ; cut it down to 2s. 4d., and there will be sixty millions or so to spend on useful things, and a proportionate increase of employ- ment. He recognises, however, that this would not do much for casual labour. That evil must be attacked in other 'ways. It is a very interesting essay, even if it does not always convince us.—Mr. Mitra gives a history of the relations between the Indian Government and the Press,' English and vernacular. It looks like a record

of change and vacillation; but then an outsider knows, or ought to know, that only the man on the spot can judge of what is possible. Mr. Mitra is evidently doubtful whether the new legislation will be of much use. "It is difficult to be hopeful of complete success." Well, no law has ever had a "complete success." We can only hope for a modus vivendi. One of the chief obstacles to that is to be found in the utterances of ignorant or interested demagogues

at home.—Mrs. Humphry Ward in her "Women's Anti- Suffrage Movement" recalls the "Appeal against Female Suffrage" issued in the Nineteenth Century in 1889, prints the manifesto of the newly constituted League which has the same purpose in view, and adds the speech made by herself at the meeting which adopted this manifesto.

In naval matters the National Review is always a potent force on the right side. This month there is a vigorously written defence of Lord Charles Beresford by Mr. H. W.

Wilson, from which we may quote the following passage:—

"What are the charges against him? Not that he is an incom- petent officer, a bad commander-in-chief. Every officer and man who has served under him would instantly give that story the lie. But this is not even alleged. It would not be denied even at the Admiralty that he handles fleets brilliantly, and that he has this supreme quality in a leader, of teaching his subordinates their work. Other admirals have manceuvred well, but have not permitted their junior officers to learn the art of manceuvring ; they have kept their plans a dark secret, with the result that if they had fallen in battle their captains could not have known or carried out their intentions. Lord Charles's plan is the plan of Nelson. It is seriously alleged that Lord Charles is insubordinate? In what, then, does this insubordination lie ? In rebuking very properly Sir Percy Scott for a most improper signal ? In refusing to shake hands under very peculiar circumstances with the First Sea Lord? If so, and if this constitutes indiscipline, why did not the Admiralty Board act forthwith ?"

—Mr. J. S. Arkwright, M.P., makes a formidable indict- ment of the Ministry in "The Parliamentary Breakdown,' especially when he condemns the drafts on the future with

which the present Government have been so alarmingly prodigal. But some of his charges are too easily retorted. Both parties use obstruction when they are in opposition and the "guillotine" when they are in power. No method of expediting business could be denied to a Minister who could affirm from his heart that he had never spoken or acted from a desire to embarrass an opponent.—Lieutenant- Colonel Pollock in "A Bolt from the Blue" draws a startling picture of a German invasion of England. It is well worth considering. Still, one may ask whether all these things could have been so absolutely unexpected, that, for instance, "merchant steamers were, though the British authorities knew it not, busy laying mines in the Straits of Dover and

also in the Thames."—Mr. A. G. Bradley contributes a seasonable article in " Carleton's Defence of Quebec." The

name of Guy Carleton must come next to that of Wolfe in the list of the bens meriti de republica in the matter of British North America. There is a curious confirmation of what Mr. Bradley says about the general ignorance of his name, in this country at least, in Messrs. Low and Pulling's excellent Dictionary of English History. The name appears "Guy Carleton [Lord Dorchester]." But when we turn to the reference we find "Dorchester, Dudley Carleton, Viscount (1573-1632)," and "Dorchester, Catherine Sedley, Countess of," but nothing about the Canadian hero.

In the Contemporary Mr. H. G. Wells gives an exposition of what he calls "My Socialism." He will have nothing to do with "philanthropic administrative Socialism." He disavows "the Socialism of revolt" and the "furtive Socialism of the specialist," though he handsomely allows that his own work of imagining a new world with a new order is easier than that of changing the old world. When we come to the con- structive part we do not meet with anything very definite. Some things and some people he condemns,—the negative side again. You must not play a game for pay,—the pro- fessional cricketer is banned. If you have money invested and draw the interest, you are a "social parasite,"—i.e..

you are de jure, but de facto you cannot help yourself

Give up the property, and it will fall into the hands of some more egoistic possessor. The woman who asserts independence of legal ties is in much the same position as the property-abjuring man. Marriage, therefore, or something like it—no ethical or religions element being allowed to intrude—is approved. Altogether, the article is highly

interesting. Fortunate Mr. Wells, who can always invent

worlds to conquer !—We turned with a certain eagerness to see what Mr. Harold Spender had to say on "Next Year's Finance." Old-age pensions, the Navy, education, not to count a somewhat vague scheme for insuring against un- employment, will require 212,000,000, diminished by the extinction of Debt to £10,000,000. Various methods of raising money are more or less summarily dismissed, and the remedy is thrift. Very good ; but Mr. Harold Spender's thrift is to be interpreted by the sentence: "If we cannot afford an expensive policy abroad we must avoid it." We are reminded of what we read many years ago in an election address attributed to a politician of this type : "It would be cheaper, and therefore more patriotic, to purchase the forbearance of our neigh bours."—In "Foreign Affairs" Dr. E. J. Dillon gives a deplorable "Picture of Latter-Day Persia,"—" no national defence, hardly any national sentiment, no safeguard for life and property anywhere "; and this unhappy people is the stake for which the Shah and his uncle, Zilli Sultan, are playing. Is the Shah better or worse than his predecessors ? All that Dr. Dillon can say is that he may be better, because "he has as yet bad little opportunity to show himself in his true colours." We are reminded of " Junius's " famous saying, "A man may be very bad without being degenerate."—Count Jos. Mailath undertakes the not very hopeful task of showing that the minor nationalities of Hungary have no reason to complain of Magyar supremacy. It seems to us just such an article as might have been written sixty years ago by a German impatient of Magyar aspirations.—There is a very interesting article on "The Abbe Loisy and Modernism," which we can but mention; and a warning from Mr. Edward Foord, who writes on "China and the Destruction of the Roman Empire," to the "pack of snarling jackal-like States calling themselves the Great Powers of Europe" that they had better be careful not to provoke the greatest nation in the world.

In the Fortnightly there is an article by Prince Alfonso de Bourbon which gives an account of the activities of the various anti-duelling leagues now at work in Europe. That such leagues should be wanted appears strange to Englishmen, to whom duels now seem as remote as, and far more absurd than, chain armour. Italy may be said to be leading the way, for the King himself has become a patron of the league in which Liberals and Churchmen are making common cause. Spain has been taking up the matter vigorously, not only by voluntary work, but by legislation. In France the propaganda has been difficult owing to the divisions caused by religious and political strife. General Picquart has issued a decree commanding that in the Army every one should be left free and not coerced into fighting, while at the end of his life even M. Paul de Cassagnac became one of a Court of Honour whose object was to arrange quarrels without resort to the methods of our barbarous ancestors. Austria has not been behindhand in the movement, nor has Germany.—Mr. Angus Hamilton, writing of "The Persian Crisis," takes the side of the Shah, and seems to imply that the inability of Orientals to work a democratic Constitution justifies the massacres by the despot. The text of some of the oaths to maintain the Constitution solemnly sworn by the Shah is given ; but while recording the breaking of these oaths Mr. Hamilton has no condemnation for the breaches of faith. He also thinks that it would have been prudent to have let the Shah "deal with recalcitrant subjects in the way he deemed to be fit," and he regrets "that the requirements of Anglo- Persian policy were not safeguarded from the intrusion of humanitarian instincts."—Sir Rowland Blennerhassett writes an interesting and suggestive paper entitled "Aspects of Strategy and Tactics." He points out how great a necessity in a commander is the possession of magnetic qualities, and in this respect instances Blucher, and the way he was able to make his exhausted army follow him to join Wellington at Waterloo. The vexed question of the education of naval officers is touched upon, and the developments of recent years criticised, the writer insisting that, above all things, the mental and moral qualities of leaders of men are those which a naval officer requires most. He thinks that the tendency now is to fill the mind with facts rather than to develop and strengthen it.

Blackwood contains the final portion of Mr. Hugh Clifford's 9triking story of the Malay Prince who was educated in England. The tragic ending seems the only solution possible, for Saleh had found life intolerable with his double point of view of East and West. Mr. Clifford raises the most important questions as to the education of our Oriental fellow-subjects. It is to be hoped that the story will be reprinted in book form, for its qualities of imagination and vivid portrayal make it more illuminating than a mere statement of views to those unfamiliar with the problem.—The charm and interest of Colonel Scott-Moncrieff's papers, "On an Indian Canal," are maintained in the third instalment. Canals not only help to avert famines by irrigation, but by their constructive works provide employment in time of dearth. We are given a striking account of the preparation of a camp for thirty thousand people within a month, and of its splendid and sympathetic management by two young English officials. In addition, help came from some native gentlemen of good position, one of whom specially devoted himself to the orphan children with success. When the scarcity was over and the people returned to their homes they were warm in their farewell greetings. One man said : "When we came we were afraid, but now if the Sirkar were to tell us to go to Kabul we would go." That a canal is a pacificator appears from the striking description of the irrigation of the Peshawar Valley, which has been made fruitful, and where. the one-time turbulent people now expend their energies in agriculture.—Mr.

Pickthall has become possessed of a diary which was kept by an inmate of a girls' school in Versailles in 1850, whose

Christian name—Yvonne—only has survived. As a study of a personality the diary is interesting. The various episodes recorded are intermingled with minute descriptions of dresses. The account of the writer's betrothal is curious. "Monsieur said, My little Yvonne, will you crown my life ? ' To which Mademoiselle responded, 'Perfectly, Charles, is it not arranged?' And then he embraced me with great propriety Ores convenable- anent) on both cheeks." But the great thing of life came to her in maternity, and although she may complain that her husband is tiresome when indisposed, though not so when really ill, in her children her happiness was complete.

Mr. Beaumont, the secretary of the Central Small Holdings Society, writes in the Albany Review a paper taking. stock of what has been done up to the present time by the County Councils in making a start with small holdings. It would seem from his correspondence that in some places people fear that their County Councils are not acting with promptness, and accusations are even made of a desire for the Act to prove inoperative. On the other hand, instances are given of counties like Kent where matters are in good working order and well advanced. Mr. Beaumont says that among the applicants for small holdings the " back-to-the-land " towns- man is conspicuous by his absence, the majority of the would- be tenants being country people born and bred.—Mr. James Hooper makes an inquiry into black magic, and especially into the wasting of waxen and clay images. This particular manner of destroying enemies seems to have been used from the earliest times and in all countries. Apparently the practice still goes on in Scotland to the present day. There exists in the Pitt-Rivers Museum at Oxford a clay image which was found in a burn in the Highlands. Magic persists more than people sometimes imagine. The present writer remembers an incantation in which a sheep's heart stuck full of pins was burnt in a village in Somersetshire, while in a neighbouring hamlet a black cat was burnt in the churchyard.—Mr. Jenks regrets the death of the late Prime Minister, as he fears that the attack on the House of Lords is slackening. The following sentences give a sample of his style of reasoning :—

" The average mind of the House of Lords is of a creeping type, which clings desperately to property and privilege, and has an insane jealousy of popular liberty and progress. Such a mind can be whipped to order; it is incapable of magnanimity How long are the mailed champions of popular rights to sit down before this pinchbeck castle, and, with solemn waggings of the head, to sigh out, 'Impossible ! beyond our strength ? '—when history, such as a child might read, offers the key to the solution of the difficulty."

If this be true, how is the utter collapse of the campaign

against the House of Lords in the country last autumn to be accounted for ?

There are two notable military articles in the August United 'Service Magazine. The first is "The Intellectual Preparation of the German Army for a War with England." The writer of this strikinv paper shows how the special Conditions that prevail in the German Army make that Army irtolipPd to war. He notes, too, that the die- eensichgatien from which the Army is now suffering in oertain quarters, owing to the rise in importance of the commercial and non-military classes, has a bad, not a good, effect. The German officer, he tells us, feels that he must be doing something to justify his existence. Another important point made by the writer, which we are afraid is only too true, is that "Bismarck is more now than ever the oracle, the demigod, the incarnate Providence, especially made man for the benefit of the Germans." The whole article is very striking, and we may perhaps be able to return to it on another occasien. If not, or rather, we should say, in any case, it is well worth careful study The second, "War in Enclosed Country," by "Fantassin," is a brightly written tactical study which we commend to the notice of all brigade and battalion commanders. The writer's point is that we do not sufficiently study the movement and handling of troops in enclosed country, though the knowledge to be gained thereby may prove absolutely essential to us should we ever have to meet an enemy in these islands. "If," he says, "we have realised and overcome the difficulties of working over enclosed country, and have learned how to reap the advantages it affords, there should be found on the threshold of such country for the army which attacks us the warning which Dante found over the gates of hell. If, on the other hand, we have not, then we shall possibly only be able to apply with truth to ourselves the ancient lament of David : How are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished.' " "Fantassin" has not merely studied the object of his paper in the abstract, but has taken part in those recent manceuvres of which the terrain has been enclosed country, and has on the spot and in action tried to think out the necessary problems. He puts the matter exceedingly well when he tells us that the watchword for action in enclosed country is decentralisation. To this we may add for our civilian readers that decentralisation is by no means the same thing as disorganisation or" go-as-you-please." Decentralisation without disorganisation is one of the most difficult things in the world to accomplish, but when accomplished one of the most effective. "Fantassin" not only points out how enclosed country helps the attack, but shows by descriptive examples bow and why this must be so. Needless to say, this does not mean that enclosed country will help the invader. On the contrary, if the invasion is properly met, it helps the home force, which is acting in a friendly country, and one which ought to be better known to him than to the enemy, who, necessarily somewhat bewildered by his new surroundings, is apt to stand on the defensive in practice, however much he may be attacking in theory. Incidentally "Fantassin" points out the enormous importance of a mobile reserve force which can be brought up rapidly to the weak spot. What " Fantassin " has to say about artillery is often very informing. He tells us, for example, how a company of infantry was the other day ordered to attack a battery in position. The gunners were duly warned, and were solely occupied in attempting to locate the company. Yet the infantry got within two hundred yards of them without being perceived simply by utilising the hedges and banks for cover. But, as he points out, this was not by any means due to the negligence or inefficiency of the artillery, but rather to the inherent difficulties of finding out what is going on in enclosed country.