500 



The Review of Reviews. 



THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW. 



FoKiiiGN aftliirs bulk largely in the November 

 number. Mr. J. Ellis Barker's article on Dr. Sun 

 Yat-Sen does not add much to our knowledge given 

 elsewhere of the Chinese patriot. 



GENKKALS' SAL.ARIES AND AR.MV EQUIP.MENT. 



Captain Battine's discussion of Britain, the Triple 

 Alliance, and the Peace of Europe, has as its moral 

 reform of our English army system. He says : — 



Iluliun administrative methods and ethics are not regarded 

 in England with much respect. But in return for this Jiudget 

 the Italian War Office can mobilise twelve complete army 

 corps, and can, besides, dispatch a thirteenth to conquer the 

 Turks in Tripoli. The British Parliament annually provides 

 twenty-eight millions sterling for Lord llaldane to spend. In 

 return for double the Italian War Budget our War Minister 

 cannot guarantee the rapid mobilisation of even two army 

 corps. Some patriots imagine that conscription, which they 

 prefer to call by some other name, would mend this state of 

 things, but while the little. army is starved in essential equip- 

 ment such as horses and motor transport which are needed for 

 contemporary warfare, a great deal of waste goes on in pro- 

 viding large incomes for generals — to the extent, it is alleged, 

 of j(^20,ooo a year. A remount costs £^o ; consequently, 

 ;f 20,000 a year buys fi\e hundred young horses, an increase to 

 our military strength hIucIi would give us incalculable advan- 

 tage in the opening stage of a European war. 



DID THE POWERS SANCTION ITALV's RAID ? 



A writer concealing himself under the letter " Y " 

 proclaims in the Italian war in Tripoli the knell of 

 the Triple 'Alliance. He quite confidently declares 

 that among the papers in the Italian Office were the 

 protocols of France and England acceding to her 

 occupation |of Tripoli. Germany could not reproach 

 Italy, because " she would be confronted with un- 

 pleasant disclosures which would not read well in 

 Constantinople." But the two German Foreign 

 (I)fhces knew very well that Italy was not merely 

 within her rights, but that she had proof of prior 

 sanction. He makes bold to declare that in the 

 days of Armaged'ion Italy will be with France and 

 England. 



EUROPEAN DIPLO.MACV EXPOSED. 



Mr. R. C. ■ Long writes with characteristic and 

 mordant ability on Germany's Mediterranean League. 

 .After very keen discussion of the recent windings of 

 the diplomatic skein, he concludes with this compre- 

 hensive indictment : — 



The diplomacy of all couiitiies has showii up equally ill, 

 whether we take Wilhclnislrasse, which held war impossible 

 after it had practically begun, or Sir Edward Grey, who 

 frivolously absenle<] himself on the ultimatum day — or retired, 

 moved by the higher patriotism of self-effacement ; or Ilakki, 

 who was playing poker h ith .Madame Nobilanl ; or Herr von 

 lagow's whole battery of counts and princes who did not know 

 what was happening in Rome; or Hussein, who knew still 

 less, and whom the Turks — resolved for once to lead Europe's 

 civilisation— threaten incontinently to shoot. The failings of 

 the aristocratic (^einian service have been repeatedly exposed 

 before the Ucichstag, but without remedy ; and the representa- 

 tives abroad continue to rise from the same class of illiterate, 

 drawling, monocled young men who stafl Great Britain':^ 

 emb.assies, and represent Imperial slalecrafl to tittering 

 foreigners. The diflVrence is tlial the Germans can talk some 

 languages ; and in.siead of the British mixture of eft'eminacy and 



boorish rudeness, rather pride theni.selves on tempering with 

 decent civility a certain .ff«?;tf^c«-roughness of mien. 



POSSIBLE AMERICAN PRESIDENTS. 



Mr. Hamilton Fyfe thinks the election of Mr. 

 ^\'oodrovv Wilson extremely probable if he were put 

 forward as a candidate. But as he has alienated the 

 bosses of his Party, the tjuestion is whether they will 

 allow him to be nominated. " Unless the American 

 ship of state should une.xpectedly glide into cahii 

 waters, Theodore Roosevelt will be found again at 

 her helm." Taft will be nominated, but few think 

 he will win. Failing Mr. Woodrow ^Vilson, Mr, 

 Harman would be a good ordinary kind of President 

 of tiie McKinley type; or Mr. Gaynor, the Mayor 

 of New York, who owes his notoriety to the fact that 

 an attetnpt was made on his life. There is something 

 of ro)al magnanitiiity told in this incident : — 



During his campaign the New Vork newspapers were alurosl 

 all against him. Daily he used to receive from sympathisers 

 information reflecting upon the private characters and public 

 records of the editors who attacked him. lie made no use of 

 these, except to sort them out and send them, after he had been 

 elected, to those whom they chicfl\_concerned. Even_in small 

 mailers his fairness is phenomenal. 



A "claim for the NOVEL," INDEED. 



Mr. H. G. Wells, evidently burning under the dis- 

 approval of proviticial librarians, the hostility of a few 

 influential people in London, the scurrility of the 

 Spectator, and the deep and obstinate silences of the 

 Westminster Gazette, lets himself go on the contem- 

 porary novel. This is the scope of the claim he is 

 making for it :^ 



It is to be the social mediator, the vehicle of understanding, 

 the instrument of self-examination, the parade of morals and 

 the exchange of manners, the factory of customs, the criticism 

 of laws and institutions and of social dogmas and ideas. Ii is 

 to be the hotne confessional, the initiator of knowledge, the 

 seed of fruitful self-questioning. We are going to write o( 

 wasted opportunities and latent beauties until a thousand new 

 ways of living open to men and women. Befoie we have done, 

 we will have all life within the scope of the novel. 



POINTS ABOUT HO.ME RULE. 



Mr. Sydney Brooks discusses somewhat discur- 

 sively several aspects of the Irish question. A Home 

 Ruler himself, he is doubtful as to how far the Iribli 

 people really care for Home Rule. The Irish 

 peasant is a Tory and a materialist. Having got tlie 

 land, he cai\s for little else. The Church does not 

 want Home Rule , for he is convinced that Home 

 Rule, so far from spelling Rome rule, would event- 

 ually spell Rome ruin. But without Home Rule 

 there seems no chance whatever of the Irish character 

 becoming strong and responsible. 



OTHER ARTICLES. 



Mr. Fdward Spencer inveighs against the abuse of 

 machinery, which is steadily turning the creative 

 intellect of man into a mere machine-tender. We 

 have given up standard for the sake of cheapness, 

 and power for the sake of cotnfort. Mr. W. S. Lilly 

 reiterates his frequent contention that the doctrine 

 of Rousseau is irreconcilable with the doctrine of 



