The Reviews Reviewed. 



505 



THE DUTCH REVIEWS. 



Thk ilcstri]>tion i)(' a jinime\ to " 'I'lu- Land of ilic 

 White Elephant, " wliicli appears in Vrm^rn dcs Tijih 

 provides some entertaining reading. The writer went 

 from Singapore l)y steamer, and he made good use of 

 his powers of perception. At the only possil>le 

 hotel in Bangkok he had to pay about 18s. a day. 

 He speaks of the railway from Bangkok to ineet tl-,o 

 line which will connect with the Straits line, the people, 

 the dwellings, and so forth. Trade is almost entirely 

 in the hands of Chinese. Tiie gaming table is a 

 source of revenue, and the King cannot afford to put 

 down the gambling houses until the tribute to be i)aid 

 to foreign countries is a thing of the past. Dutch 

 engineers are doing good work in the country ; but 

 the influence upon artistic handwork caused by the 

 demand for labour in the British saw mills and other 

 concerns is unfavourable. 



.Among the many good things to be found in De 

 Gids the contribution entitled "Slavery as an Indus- 

 trial System," will probably attract most attention. 

 It is a review of a book of Ethnological Researches, 

 and there are two reasons for the interest that may 

 be aroused: firstly, the subject itself; secondly, the 

 fact that the book is written in English by a Dutchman 

 and published at the Hague. .As the reviewer says, 

 the book has been written in English so that it shall 

 reach a wider circle of readers. That is the most 

 plausible explanation, at any rate. 



' The .Army " is the title of a serious contribution 

 to De Tijdspicgel. It opens with a quotation from the 

 utterances of a French officer concerning the French 

 army, " the army is disorganised," and the writer asks 

 if those words could not be applied with truth to the 

 Dutch army. Another French quotation, to the efifect 

 that a wave of madness seems to have passed over 

 the military, is also applied to the army of Holland. 

 The writer then sets forth the conditions existing at 

 present, the attempts at military evolution and so forth, 

 and concludes with an expression of belief that those 

 who are endeavouring to bring about true im[)rove- 

 ment rtal evolution will finally prevail. 



In order to convey a proper idea of Rlsnicr it 

 would be necessary to reproduce many of the illus- 

 trations from the current issue. There are two " art " 

 articles, one bcuig a continuation of the description 

 of the Exhibition of Dut<h Painters in I'aris, and the 

 'iihcr a biographic.d sketch of the recently-deceased 

 1 ainter, Jo/.ef Israels. Both contain several repro- 

 ductions, and both are distinctly interesting. Jo/.ef 

 Israels was ill and stayed at Zandvoort, a fishing 

 village, for some time in 1855, his sojourn and the 

 reading of (ioeilie's works creating within him a 

 predilection for nature studies and landsca[)e painting. 

 Prior to that time he had gained fame as a painter of 

 what may be tc.iiied the historical bramh of art. 

 The article on the French rule in Holland a century 

 ago is well deserving of mention. It contains 

 [lortraits and other illustrations. Napoleon's bad 

 hanilwriting and equally bad spelling are recorded. 



It is said that he often had great difficulty in reading 

 what he had set down on paper, and it is also a 

 tradition that he wrote his name Bonaparte, instead 

 of Buonaparte, because he did not know how to spell 

 it accurately. 



THE SPANISH REVIEWS. 



Niicslro Tiempo opens with a long article on 

 Morocco and the interests which Spain has in that 

 country. The writer points out the economic dis- 

 advantages to Spain of having a commercial com- 

 petitor like France, and gives details in support of 

 the contention that Spain should have the main hold 

 on Morocco. Another v< ry readable article is that 

 on what happened in and to .Avila from 1808 to 

 1814. Avila is an ancient city about seventy-one 

 miles from Madrid, with a record of bravery forgotten 

 liy most people. 



Professor Adolfo Posada, the well-known writer on 

 sociology, has paid a visit to the .Argentine Republic, 

 resulting in articles in various Spanish reviews. In 

 the present i.'sue of Espiiua Modcrua he has a paper 

 on Socialism in .Argentina, in which he gives many 

 interesting details. Professor Ferri, the friend of 

 I.oir.broso, stated, during a journey in .Argentina 

 three years ago, that Socialism was an artificial flower 

 in that country; there was no reason for its existence, 

 for Argentina did not suffer from the industrial and 

 other troubles that engendered Socialism in other 

 lands. This statement raised a storm of protest 

 among Socialists and those who fancied they were 

 Socialists, while it soothed the middle class. Never- 

 theless, Soci.dism does e.xist in .Argentina. The 

 second contribution to this review is an account of 

 the arsenal at Seville. 



Ciiidad de Dios has several contributions of the 

 usual thoughtful and thorough character. " The 

 Philosophy of Life and of Intellectualism " dissects 

 modern philosophical notions and shows how they 

 differ from the ancient and how they fail to satisfy 

 the needs of life. Teodoro Rodriguez, who has 

 shown such a grasp of social and economic problems, 

 continues his articles on State Intervention in Econo- 

 mic Questions, its effects, advantages, disadvantages, 

 and limits. 



A writer in La Ltclura discusses the question of 

 the ideal in politics and education. Man is a reason- 

 ing creature, always having an ideal and always 

 trying to realise it ; as he realises one ideal he forms 

 a higher one, so he is always striving. Education 

 and politics shoukl therefore go together, assuming 

 that politics do not consi^t entirely in getting the 

 better of the opposite party, but in constant entleavour 

 to do what is l)esi for all. The centenary of the 

 birth of Theophile tJautier is the subject of another 

 contribution, in which the great French writer's life 

 is sketched and his woik discussed. There is a 

 continuation of the analytical biography of U'alt 

 Whitman. 



