The Reviews Reviewed. 



577 



THE NATIONAL REVIEW. 



With the November number, the trenchant, 

 strident tone returns to the National Review. 

 Not merely does the editor in the Episodes for 

 the Month " sHng ink " with the freedom of 

 a Western editor, but there is plenty of 

 vigorous, not to say virulent, writing from 

 other pens. 



Mr. Cope Cornford has evidently gone to 

 school with Mr. Maxse, and proves to his own 

 satisfaction that Home Rule will lead to civil 

 war. 



"Scrutator" slangs "the Radical pluto- 

 cracy," to his own immense delight. He calls 

 his work " A Study in Hypocrisy." " Carefully 

 scrutinised, the rich Radical Ahabs who are 

 seeking to despoil Naboth of his vineyard cut a 

 pitiful figure." 



"Trafalgar" inveighs against the way in 

 which " the soul of the Navy " has suffered 

 during recent changes. The foundations of 

 tradition and authority are sapped, a dictator- 

 ship has been set up, favouritism is the secret 

 of success. Kept now in home waters, the Navy 

 men are exposed to the wiles of Socialism — and 

 matrimony ! " Matrimony among both officers 

 and men is largely on the increase." This is 

 " distinctly disadvantageous " from a Service 

 point of view. 



Sir R. Inglis Palgrave inveighs against the 

 proposed land tax. The total annual income 

 from the ownership of land in the United King- 

 dom is reported to be under 52 millions, and the 

 writer asks how can appropriation of this sum 

 meet all the expenses that land taxers would lay 

 upon the land ? 



Of a more serious turn is Mr. W. Morton 

 Fullerton's paper on the Triple Entente and the 

 present crisis. He argues that a confederation 

 like the German Empire tends to disintegrate 

 under a prolonged economic crisis or a lasting 

 European peace, whereas steady economic well- 

 being and a chronic state of military panic 

 favour the maintenance of German unity and of 

 a German national spirit. Thus Imperial Ger- 

 many longs with the same passion for both 

 peace and war. Hence a consistent foreign 

 policy is impossible. 



Commander Currey puts very forcibly a plea 

 for the mid-Scotland ship canal from the 

 Forth to the Clyde, vid Loch Lomond and 

 Loch Long. 



Mr. Maurice Low reports that the crops in 

 the United States are bumpers, prices are high, 

 and some 2,200 millions sterling will be added 

 to the country's wealth when the harvests are 

 gleaned. The business world has made up its 

 mind that the tariff must be lowered. 



THE ITALIAN REVIEWS. 



There seems to be no article of outstanding 

 importance in the Italian reviews this month. 

 In the Nuova Antologia we find a fine tribute to 

 our administration of India from the pen of 

 Prof. Luigi Villari. He suggests that for the 

 planning of the future government of Tripoli 

 Italy should learn from English colonial experi- 

 ence, especially by our rule in India, which he 

 describes as one of the political marvels of 

 modern times. He urges the importance of a 

 wise selection of officials, and admits that at 

 present Italy has no suitable personnel at her 

 command. In a somewhat technical article 

 R. Poli discusses " modern naval problems " as 

 they presented themselves to the members of the 

 first Congress of Italian naval engineers re- 

 cently held in Rome. 



Coenohium is always interesting as the 

 international organ of the intellectual contro- 

 versialists against orthodox Christianity. The 

 latest number opens with a " confession of 

 faith " by the well-known Protestant Pastor, 

 Wilfrid Monod, who asserts that a religious 

 reviv^al in Europe is dependent, first, on the 

 ruin of dogmatism, and secondly on the triumph 

 of Socialism. A long article gives a summary 

 of a recent learned Jewish work, Horodezki's 

 " Christianity and Judaism," and another 

 describes the modernistic novels of the Italian 

 theosophist, I, M. Palmarini. Finally there is 

 a very laudatory sketch of Canon Lilley, of 

 Hereford. 



The Civilta Cattolica contains a very sympa- 

 thetic appreciation of the late Vicomte de 

 Vogue, and a study of Prof. W. James' reli- 

 gious psychology, admitting his " scientific 

 honesty " while combating many of his views, 

 more especially concerning the connection 

 between sanctity and disease. 



The Rassegna Contemporanea publishes a 

 vivid sketch of Count Cagliostro in Rome, and 

 of his amazing hypnotic powers, supposed to be 

 taken from the contemporary journal of one of 

 his willing victims. 



In the Vita Internazionale , the fortnightly 

 Pacifist review, ably edited by Prof. Moneta, an 

 effort is made, both by him and by a well-known 

 woman-writer, Rosalia G. Adami, to widen out 

 the Pacifist movement so that Italian Pacifists, 

 applauding their country in Tripoli, may not 

 feel themselves excluded. Prof. Moneta writes 

 of intransigent Pacifists who " tread a solitary 

 and futile path," without influence or following, 

 and suggests instead the permeation of all 

 parties with counsels of moderation. The situa- 

 tion is undoubtedly a difficult one for Italian 

 Pacifists, but for the moment it is impossible to 

 allow that Italy has done otherwise than injure 

 the cause of peace. 



