THE MAGAZINES.

Or the war articles in the Nineteenth Century, that of Mr. Robert Machray on "Resolute Russia" deserves special attention for the candour with which the disheartening features of the situation are faced. At the same time, the writer draws reassuring omens from the spirit of the nation. Mr. Machray deals first with the military position as it has developed since the loss of Galicia in May-June. His conclusions are, briefly, that, while the Austro.German offensive has been checked, it still continues; and that, while the Russian retreat also continues, the Russian Army remains unbroken. While admitting that the Central Powers have paid dearly for their great offensive, he does not hesitate to reckon the total Russian losses at fully five millions. The significance of the political situation, as he interprets it, is in the fact that up till now the bureaucratic class, and not the Duma, has had the management of the war, apart from the armies in the field, and that recent drastic, changes have been largely due to the dissatisfaction felt with this management. Though the demands of the Dame, have not been fully granted, and its sittings have been suspended by Imperial Ukase, he evidently believes that there is a consensus of public opinion in favour of puttin,g fresh blood into the Administration and reassembling the Duma.—Of the IWO articles on National Service," that by Sir C. Kinloch-Cooke is a frank plea for compulsory military service. The writer lays special stress on the example of Australia, and contends that analogies drawn from previous campaigns are valueless. Victory cannot be obtained by following old lines and pursuing old methods. Our allies have staked their all, and we must do the same. Sir Henry Blake admits the existence of a strong and natural feeling in England against conscription, but holds that voluntaryism, while it may give us all the men we require, has not done so yet. He contends that the power of conscription has come down to us intact through the centuries, and that "when the Government, which alone knows all the facts, thinks fit to inform the country as to the actual position, as to which it is now practically in the dark, a demand for the power of compulsion for the duration of the war will be readily granted if the necessity for such a course is demonstrated."—Sir Francis Piggott, writing on "The Ligeance of the King,' exposes the defeats of our naturalization laws— defects which he admits are common to the naturalization laws of all countries. He regrets that power was not taken to cancel certificates of naturalization early in the war, and pleads for a speedy effort, on the coming of peace, to harmonize the laws of the friendly nations on the questions of nationality and naturalization.—Miss Edith Sellers writes vigorously on the manufacture of loafers amongst refugees by our undiscriminating generosity ; Monsignor Canon Noyes defends the neutrality of the Vatican, while Mr. R. B. C. Sheridan impugns it as alike a slur on Christendom and a danger to the Roman Church.—We may also note Mr. Edmond Holmes's interesting study of German and English ideals of life. and. education, and Professor Dicey's remarkable paper on "Wordsworth on the Revolution," showing that, whatever hopes were inspired in him by the "Joy of the Revolutionary Dawn," he had not a word to say in favour of the Terrorists or in extenuation of their crimes. Modern critics, Professor Dicey notes, find it hard to reconcile Wordsworth's abhorrence of the Terror with his hope that the earth might "march firmly towards righteousness and peace." But, he adds, "this tremendous hopefulness constitutes, in fact, more than half the strength of Wordsworth, and is a virtue which in times of trouble is of inestimable value to any man destined to guide mankind."

In the Contemporary Review Mr. Theodore Cooke Taylor, the Liberal M.P. for the South-Eastern Division of Lancashire, discusses the burning question of "Restriction of Output."

Mr. Taylor condemns the theory of restriction as false in logic, retrograde economically, and bad morally. He allows that some of the causes of restriction are inherent in our present industrial system, and to that extent unpremeditated. But over and above these causes there exist a propaganda and a machinery aiming at artificial, nay, compulsory, restriction of output, and it is against these deliberate methods that the article is directed. We have not space to summarize his arguments, but may quote one passage in which he goes to the root of the matter :— " It is said, if the theory be an error, private ownership of capital is responsible, and that under State ownership it would disappear. Put to the man who stints his work and compels his fellows to do the same, it matters not whether his employer be an individual or a State. If stinting work will get higher wages in one case it will in the other, and accordingly will be practised. It is no answer to say that men would refrain from acting to their own advantage if the State were their employer. It is not true of State employees to-day and it would not be true if we were all State employees to-morrow, The chief truth to get into the worker's mind is that to restrict output will not eventually improve but worsen his position. In some trades, deliberate restriction of output is being carried so far that, while it makes the product dear, it actually lowers the workman's money wages. The workman thus loses both as wage-earner and consumer."

Mr. Taylor writes not as an enemy of Trade Unions, but as one who cordially admits their value when devoted to the legitimate end of improving the workers' lot. But he contends that the best Trade Unionists discourage restriction of output, and recognize that, so far from raising the standard of life, it lowers it. He sees no true remedy for the evil in Collectivism. The only two ways are the spread of the altruistic spirit and the unification of the interests of employers and employed, and be maintains that both principles are combined in the methods of profit-sharing and co-partnership.

Here Mr. Cooke Taylor writes not as a theorist but as a practical man of business who has applied the principles be advocates for upwards of twenty years in his own firm. In this context we may note Mr. Seebohm Rowntree's paper on "Home Problems after the War," in which he forecasts the formidable industrial difficulties with which we shall be faced at its conclusion, and indicates the means of dealing with them, through a strong Central Committee, empowered to initiate schemes of housing, afforestation, and reclamation of lands, the making of new roads, and the clearance of slum areas. In conclusion, Mr. Rewntree has some weighty remarks on our wasteful expenditure on drink and gambling. As regards the latter he writes :— "How serious and widespread the evil of gambling is may be gathered from the following quotation of J. M. Hogge's 'Betting and Gambling.' He writes We have at least 20,000 bookmakers turning over upwards of .250,000,000 annually, and making, according to Sir Robert Giffen, probably 45,000,000 profit in a nefarious calling which resorts to all the wiles and cunning the wit of man is capable of.' 'When bookmakers can pay fines of £75,316 in three years, in the Metropolitan Police area, besides costs, it is apparent that the present tines are inadequate. . . I am not now condemning either intemperance or gambling on ethical grounds. I sin judging them as unproduotive."

We are glad to welcome in Mr. Rowntree so vigorous an opponent of the activities of the bookmaker, and, presumably, of the dynasty of "Captain Coe." We should like very much to know, however, whether he thinks it consistent with a true sense of public duty to invest money in the Star, the most efficient of betting newspapers—a journal in which the incentives to betting by means of tips and prophecies are of a particularly flagrant kind.—Colonel Maudo's paper on "The General Situation in, Russia" is marked by his usual invincible optimism. He interprets the Russian rally in the south-eastern angle of the Eastern theatre of war as the prelude to a Russian invasion of the plains of Hungary at Christmas, and considers it probable that the present offensive by the Southern group of the Russians will finally decide the conduct of Roumania and Bulgaria. "This really crushing defeat endured by the Austrians in the TarnapolTrembolowa district must finally remove all fears from the minds of Balkan statesmen (or politicians) of a great AustroGerman offensive to clear the way to Constantinople," Mr. Machray's article in the Nineteenth Century should be read as a useful antidote to these roseate predictions of Germany's collapse and disintegration.—We may also notice Mr. Hawkin's study of " Germany and South Africa," in which he only partly tells the terrible story of the extermination of the Hereros ; Mr. A. Yusuf All's record of "India's Services in the War"; Dr. Holland Rose's intereating historical survey of the imitation of Napoleon's methods by the Germans ; Mr. Harley's picture of "The Resurrection • of Poland" ; and a genial appreciation of the novels of Mr. William de Morgan by Mrs. Sturge Gretton.

In the Fortnightly, which is a particularly good number, Mr. Weigall makes a very interesting study of "German Logic—and its Results." The dire disease from which the Germans are suffering is the cancer of logic. This has made them pay attention to nothing but facts, and given them a desire to see only material things as they are, with nothing between them and materialism. "We enjoy our beefsteak because wo shut our eyes to the manner in which it is obtained; the Germans enjoy it because they have learnt how to look at the slaughterhouse with complacency." It is the same with all the unpleasant fads of life. Accept them, says the German ; they are there; do not pretend they do not exist. The paradox of life is denied; the so.called facts are faced, and logical deductions drawn from them. If there are only facts, and no such things as honour and humanity, then broken treaties, massacre, and poisoning follow as a matter of course. If you make war, you are out to destroy; why, then, trouble about the particular way in which it is done According to Mr. Weigall, the adoption of this standard of materialism had made its mark on the nation before the war. "It is a fact that in Germany there are some forty-three cases of rape recorded to every one case in England ; twelve eases of incest to one in England ; five times as many illegitimate children ; and twenty times as many petitions for divorce. . . There have been about a hundred and forty murderous assaults in Germany to every one in England."—Mr. Archibald Hurd takes for his text some foolish remarks by a foolish author, Mr. F. W. Hirst, who in 1913 wrote of the six naval panics between 1847 and 1913, the object being to show that in each case the " panic " was unnecessary, and merely resulted in waste of money. The typical instance was the building of the Dreadnought,' whieb, according to Mr. Hirst, was merely the outcome of a plot of the armament firms to get larger orders. Mr. Hurd shows that this revolution in shipbuilding had an enormous effect on our race with Germany. The adoption of the new style stopped German shipbuilding for a year and a half, till the design became known. The ' Dreadnought ' rendered previous ships obsolete, and, as Count Reventlow has admitted, made thirty years instead of fifteen the time which it would take Germany to build her Fleet. Instead of being inspired by panic, it was a great stroke of policy. Something of the extent to which Germany had wormed her way into the affairs of Italy is shown by Signor Ezio Gray, an Italian of English descent. Financial, commercial, political, educational, and scientific influence was aimed at and largely achieved. One form of corruption was for German firms to supply military stores at half the ordinary price. It was by thus supplying ventilators to forts that the defences on the eastern front were examined by German spies. Enormous, too, was the power of the Banco, Commerciale. This German undertaking was ready to lend money to any manufacturer, and the worse his credit the more he came into its power. Germans were appointed to the directorate of borrowing companies, which had to promise to use only German electric machinery,and in fact became bound band and foot. At the same time the Bence sent the savings deposited in it to finance undertakings in Germany. Signor Gray even goes so far as to tell us that in the summer of 1914 labour troubles were stirred , up by German agents, and that one German company at Prato paid its workmen to go on strike. We are promised further revelations of the way in which Germany dealt with her ally in a subsequent article, "written, I trust, from the trenches, whither my rights, even more than my duty, as an Italian citizen call me to give my personal help in the war which Italy and her allies are waging in the cause of eivilization."—" The Soldier in his Letters" is shown 'us by Mr. Milne, and a deeply moving portrait it is, with so much heroism, unselfishness, and kindness in it.

We invariably look first in Blackwood for "The Junior Sub." He is the historian of the New Armies; be explains them for us, and by them is regarded as their true chronicler. This month we are introduced to the " specialists " who relieve the monotony of trench life by all sorts of activities. Here, for instance, is Second-Lieutenant Loobgair, a Highland chief at home :— "Last night he volunteered to go and listen for a suspected mine some fifty yards from the German trenches. Ho set out as soon as darkness fell, taking with him a biscuit tin full of water. A circular from Headquarters had suggested this device. The idea was that, since liquids convey sound better than air, the listener should place his tin on the ground, lie down beside it, immerse one ear therein, and so draw secrets from the earth."

Nothing was heard, and the only result was earache for the listener. The activities of the specialists in trench mortars and machine guns are by no means appreciated by their comrades. The former, for instance, goes about seeking a place from which he can discharge his projectile, but is warned off by those who do not appreciate the inevitable retaliation.

" W. J. C." writes some descriptions of Constantinople before the war, and gives a curious account of the performances of the 4 Gooben ' as early as 1912, when the great ship was deliberately used as an advertisement of German power, and to affect Turkish popular imagination. Almost miraculous powers soon were attributed to the ship, which was believed to be the only one of its kind in existence. We may suppose that the present disillusionment must be great.—" Stoke's ' Act," by Mr. J. H. Morgan, gives a dramatic account of the circumstances leading up to the introduction into military law of the principle of the First Offenders Act. The case happened a year ago. It was simply that of a sergeant utterly worn out having a sudden fit of nerves and running away. His record was an excellent one; but the case was clear, and the Court could do nothing but record their verdict and send it to Headquarters for confirmation. Then came an overwhelming German attack, and every single man had to be used, including the prisoner sergeant. The attack was repulsed with great loss, and the next thing the sergeant knew was that be was in hospital wounded. The Commander-in-Chief had been too busy to confirm the sentence, and during the time it had been held up the sergeant bad fought gallantly and earned the D.C.M. The result was "An Act to Suspend the Operation of Sentences of Courts-Martial."—" Arthur B.-W." writes an account of the destruction of the submarine 'E15.' The boat was stranded and the crew taken prisoner, and the fear was that the Turks might successfully float the submarine and use it. The writer of the present paper was a member of the crew of one of the two picket-boats which went at night to destroy the submarine. That any one should have returned from such an expedition seems incredible, but, although one of the picketboats was sunk, only dne man was lost. We have had so few first-hand accounts of naval exploits that this one is particularly welcome.

In the National Review there is a reassuring article by " Artillery" on "The New Armies from Within." In particular, we may note the writer's careful but candid examina tion of the officers, whom he divides into five classes.

Amongst other interesting points are his expression of regret that the' recruited officers from the Universities and Public Schools, who' have almost invariably a sense of leadership, should—probably from modesty—have been inclined to forget the claims of the highly specialized branches of the Army i.e.', the Artillery and Engineers ; and his advice to all young men with experience or instinct of leadership not to enlist except in such organizations, as the 0.T.C., the Honourable Artillery Corps, and King Edward's Horse, when they are readily 'available for commissions. "There is a greater need," he observes, "of officers than of soldiers." But his final conclusion is decidedly cheering "Weighing now all the elements in the balance it will be found that the New Armies are stronger in the raw material of the rank and file, weaker in the officers and non-commissioned officers' ranks ; have suffered somewhat from the sloth and indifference of industrial England, and may suffer a great deal more if a sterner mood does not come to the nation's resolution; are handicapped by the short training they must put up with, but can overcome, and are overcoming, that handicap by harder work and quicker wits. The final conclusion is the hopeful one that I have already foreshadowed, that the Empire need have no fear that the New Armies will prove unequal to the glorious work set to their hands provided al ways they are not betrayed by their mates in the workshops of England."

—Mr. C. H. K. Marten sends a pleasant account of a "Harvest Camp in Norfolk," which solved' the problem which presented itself to many professional men of non-combatant age in the summer holidays—viz., how to do their "bit." —Mr. Maurice Low in "American Affairs" is chiefly concerned to enlighten English readers as to the true state of American sentiment, and finds the best expression of it in a recent issue of the New York Tribune. The Tribune admits that not a few Americans frankly favour intervention on the aide of the Allies, but maintains that this fraction of the American population is "not more numerous or politically more influential than that which is of Germanic origin, and is quite as intensely and devotedly German in its sympathies." What is essential for the English to remember is that "the very much larger fraction of the American public, which is frankly pro-Ally, is not the least influenced by an' personal or sentimental emotions." This view is amplified and explained in the following passage :— "Many Englishmen have said and feel that America should lend every aid to England because she IS fighting America's battle. This is the view of not a few Americans, but it is not the American point of view. The American point of view is that so far as the United States is able, it should resist every attack upon international law, and oppose to its uttermost extent all invasion of the rights of neutrals, whether by murder or arbitrary exercise of seapower. American foreign policy will be shaped by this opinion. It should not be misunderstood in England, because such misunderstanding will simply play into the hands of those who are seeking to destroy American sympathy for the Allied cause for German reasons."

In fine, according to Mr. Low, the country is quite content with Mr. Wilson's policy, and finds it sufficiently firm.—The editor, in "Some Studies in Frontbenchitie," continues his campaign against the "cult of incompetence" as illustrated by the appeal to "trust the Government" recently uttered by the Daily Telegraph. He finds, however, some slight consolation in the fact that, "thanks to the patriotism of a large and growing group of Liberal politioians who have been in practical contact with the war, compulsion is no party question."—Mr. Ian Colvin has an instructive article on "The Germans in England," which will form the introductory chapter to a book on the old Hanse merchants in England and the Merchant Adventurers.

One of the most interesting articles in the United Service Magazine for October is that entitled "Grenadiers: their History, Dress, and Equipment," by Lieutenant-General F. H. Tyrrell. He points out that the reintroduction of the grenade and the rehabilitation of the Grenadiers arise from very much the same causes which led to their first inception in the armies of the European Powers :— "The invention of the modern system of fortification by the famous Vauban, Chief of the French Engineer Staff under Louis XIV., introduced into European warfare a new phase of strategy in which the principal object of a campaign was the reduction of the enemy's fortresses. The wars became wars of sieges. The defenders of the fortresses in their ditches, places of arms, and covered ways were protected from the besieger's artillery and musketry. It was necessary to find means of dislodging them by searching out their places of concealment with missiles thrown by hand. Men bad to be specially trained to the use of these missiles; hence the introduction of the grenadier. When the independent companies which had been hitherto the administrative units in the new European Standing Armies were assembled in regiments, it became the practice to tell Off one of the companies as a Forlorn Hope or Enfans Pardus to take the lead and show the way in the most arduous services and most dangerous enterprises. This company was kept at an exceptional strength, and its captain usually acted as second in command to the colonel of the regiment. But when a company of Grenadiers was formed in each regiment it usurped the place of the Watts pordus and assumed their functions. The hand-grenade was a Spanish invention, dating from the middle of the fifteenth century. A which period the Spanish Royal Standing Army held the place of the Imperial German Army of to-day facas prinee,ps among the armies of Europe. Its use was for long confined to the scientifie branches of the Artillerists and Engineers who were then counted as civilian auxiliaries to the three combatant arms of the service, Horse, Foot, and Dragoons. We find the-hand-grenade mentioned in a military treatise as early as 1472 and meet with occasional mention of its use in siege operations during the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Great quantities of glass grenades were used by the Venetians in the famous siege of Candle by the Turks (1667-69), which lasted without intermission for three years, and in the course of which the resources of attack and defence were developed in a manner hitherto undreamed of in Europe."

—Another interesting article in this number is that on "The Boy Officer," by Colonel Holden Mackenzie,