The Reviews Reviewed. 



499 



of Devcn^hire's Life is noticed elsewhere. Gambetta's 

 War CfPce in 1 870-1 is described at length, and 

 whatever were its technical difficulties, it breathed 

 into France the determination to 'do the impossible." 

 The effort was " magnificent." A sketch is given of 

 the collapse of the first coalition against France in 

 1793-4. The hi^tory of the Inns of Court is told by- 

 one who considers that they held a unique position 

 of honour, not only in this country, but throughout 

 the world. Fogazzaro and Modernism form the 

 subject of another paper, in which surprise is ex- 

 pressed that a man like Fogazzaro, styled " an 

 excellent father, a convinced believer, a perfect 

 gentleman," whose lifework was to " translate truth 

 and goodness into beauty," was censured, silenced, 

 and almost put to the ban by the Church. 



THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW. 

 Besides the articles on the " Canadian Elections 

 and After," " The Chinese Revolution," and Dr. 

 Dillon's on the "Political Situation," referred to else- 

 where, the CoiiUmpomry Rn'iciv for November con- 

 tains a long review, by Mr. G. W. E. Russell, of the 

 late Duke of Devonshire's Life, and another literary 

 article commemorating the centenary of Mrs. Gaskeli. 



EXGI.AND AND GERMANY. 



Mr. Noel Buxton, M.P., reviews the present 

 relations between England and Germany, with special 

 reference to the situation created by the Moroccan 

 question. Dealing with the obstacles to an Anglo- 

 German rapprochement, he says that it is becoming 

 increasingly clear that German competition would 

 not be stopped by defeat, and that if we hit German 

 industry by the destruction of her^property or credit 

 we should be among the chief sufferers, Germany 

 being one of our greatest customers — some of the 

 contentions in concielc form of the Carnegie Peace 

 Foundation Congress members. As to (Germany's 

 colonial ambitions, he says that it is hardly realised 

 in London that they are stoutly opposed in Germany. 

 The great German newspapers denounce the main- 

 tenance of colonies quite in the style of Disraeli, 

 chiefly on account of their cost. There has probably 

 never been a liritish anti-colonial feeling at all 

 approaching in intensity German anti-colonial feeling 

 to-day. It is nevertheless unwise to assume that 

 Ciermany's polity will be dominated by the anti- 

 colonial jjarty. Far better is it to consider it a 

 problem for the world to satisfy " the just demands 

 of the great new Power" as regards expansion, .^s 

 Mr. Buxton says, the countrymen of Mr. Kipling 

 cannot well londemn colonial ambition, and to hem 

 Germany in, if she wants colonies, is worthy neither 

 of British fair [)lay nor of practical expediency. 



HIE F.ioirrv ci.ub in Ireland. 



Mr. Harold .Spender's account of his journey about 



Ireland with the Eighty Club, in order to study the 



Home Rule movement, occupies a good many pages. 



He s'ems to have been greatly impressed by the 



islanders of Arran, who assured him that they would 

 be so loyal to England, if England would but trust 

 them. 



FK.MINISM AND POLITICS. ■ * 



Mrs. Billington-Greig asserts that there is no true 

 feminist organisation or feminist programme in 

 England at present ; feminism being defined by her as 

 " a movement seeking the reorganisation of the 

 world upon a basis of sex-equality in all human 

 relations," rejecting every differentiation between 

 individuals on the ground of sex alone. Feminism 

 has been narrowed down into a mere struggle for the 

 political vote. But, says the writer, the real work of 

 feminism lies outside politics. There are arguments, 

 of course, in favour of the concentration of women's 

 energies into the attainment of political influence 

 through the vote, but Mrs. Billington-Greig thinks, as 

 others think who have watched women's suffrage at 

 work in British colonies, that many young suffragists 

 vastly over-estimate what the vote can do for them. 

 "So far has the political aspect of reform obsessed 

 the modern woman's imagination that it is necessary 

 to emphasise the work that waits for the workers in 

 other spheres," — such, for in.stance, as " equal pay 

 for equal work," the right of married women to 

 economic independence, the right of women to 

 apprenticeship and training, and numerous questions , 

 of criminal law amendment, divorce, etc. The writer 

 pleads, therefore, for a reconsideration of the whole 

 feminist position. 



THE LOST BEAUTY IN DAILY LIKE. 



Mr. Henry Holiday says the world has loved 

 and possessed beauty in its life and work for full 

 six thousand years — throughout history, so tar as we 

 know, but not in the last century. This ousting of 

 beauty is all due to commercialism, to industrialism, 

 to buying cheap and selling dear, to middlemen, to 

 turning crafts into trades. Could we not, he suggests, 

 recapture a little of the lost beauty in daily life? 

 Could we not manage so that there should be 

 peo])le picturesque enough to figure in a royal pro- 

 cession who are not soldiers? Could not the pro- 

 fessions, crafts and trades, also have their own 

 picturesque garb ? The women's procession on the 

 Saturday before C!oronation week was so admirably 

 designed and organised as to be a step, if but a small 

 step, towards the beautifying of our hopelessly ugly life. 



OTHER ARTICLES. 



The Bishop of Carlisle (Dr. Diggle) writes ujjon 

 the Training of the Clergy, outlining what he con- 

 siders their ideal physical, intellectual, moral, and 

 spiritual training : — 



" For liinf; conlurics," lie concludes, " ihc CInircli li.is ko|il 

 far away from the world, li;is dwell in a world, sometimes a 

 very worldly world, of ils own ; anil now, in turn, the world 

 ki eps far away freni the Cliurcli. Can tlicy ever be brought 

 into touch? Will the world ever look for inspiration and 

 guidance to the Church? Will the Church ever become a 

 trusted teacher to the world? The answers to these questions 

 larycly depend on Ihc character and power of the Church's 

 ministers." 



