Ropieu of Heiieicii, f0j3/06 



THE REVIEWS REVIEWED 



THE AMERICAN REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



South aud West bulk largely iii the special ai tides 

 of the February number. Mr. R. W. Woolley tells the 

 story of the remarkable development ot the ports on 

 the jlexican GulL JSeAV Orleans, he says, now ranks 

 second only to Xcw York amongst American exporting 

 ports, and Galveston is third. The growth of Sontli- 

 West Texas Ls glowingly described. Cattle ranches 

 containing from 100,000 to 500,000 acres are verj- com- 

 mon. In one case two million acres and hunareds of 

 thousands of cattle are owned by one woman. But 

 these vast holdings are being broken up, and Texas is 

 bec-oniing a great fruit and vegetable garden. Its semi- 

 arid stretches of country have been irrigated by artesian 

 wells. Cotton, sugar and rice are among the chief 

 products. California comes in for laudatory mention 

 by Mr. Hamilton Wright, as a State that is being 

 built up by organised effort. There is a California 

 Promotion Committee, which combines some 152 Cham- 

 bers of Comimerce and public bodies of like character 

 in an endeavour to secure evei->' possible advantage 

 for the State by means of publicity. "Every Cali- 

 fomian is a born advertiser." There is an annual 

 State banquet, at which members of the League 

 gather for a special trip. Sometimes they will urge 

 special attention to making the home town attractive. 

 Chambers of Commerce and advancement associations 

 take up the movement, and in a few months a marvel- 

 lous change is wrought in many of the cities. What 

 organised national effort can do with a view to plac- 

 ing at the disposal of manufacturei-s and agriculturists 

 the latest developments of modern science is suggested 

 by Mr. Pritchett in his sketch, noticed elsewhere,, of 

 the German Royal Testing Office. 



THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. 



Most of the papers in the January number are of 

 exclusively American interest. Mr. Reeves' account 

 of State Insurance in New Zealand, and Mr. Colqu- 

 houn's description of the Chinese Press of to-day, 

 have claimed separate notice. Baron Louis de Levay 

 describes the resolute efforts made by recent legisla- 

 tion to check emigration from Hungary. Senor Ra- 

 feal Reves, President of Colombia, contributes a 

 eulogy "of Mr. Limantour, Mexico's great Finance 

 Minister, who has e.stabli.shed his country's credit on 

 a basis that even President Diaz's death would not 

 shake. Miss F. C. Sparhawk pleads for the abolition 

 of the Reservation system for the Indian, and his 

 absorption in the general population. Wayne Mac- 

 veagh jubilates over the victory for honest ]x>litics in 

 Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. The London Cor- 

 respondent, writing on Mr. Balfour's resignation, n^ 

 marks that it iis possible that the combined Minis- 

 terial forces will have a majority of nearly 150 over 

 the Fnionists ! 



The Scottish Historical lleview for January opens 

 with the first instalment of an interesting article, by 

 Mr. Andi'ew Lang, on the Portraits and Jewels of 

 Mary Queen of Scots. He Ls amazed that so few 

 really genuine portraits of the Queen exist, and he 

 notes how few of the generally accepted portraits 

 portray her beauty. "What stood between the artists 

 and her beauty? Their own limitations." 



THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. 



Tha Quarterly Rrvicw. renewing its youth, is now 

 becoming an illustrated magazine! Only one article 

 is illustrated in the January number — Mr. H. Stuart 

 Jones's " Art under the Roman Empire " — but it is so 

 admirably done that next number the experiment may 

 well be repeated and extended. Tjie chief topical 

 articles are dealt with elsewhere. 



JOHN BUENS AND THE UNEMPLOYEL. 



The Quarterly looks askance at all propiwalt; to 

 found labour colonies or to deal with the unemployed 

 on new lines. It says : — 



Improvement must come from a better organisation of 

 industry, not on revolutionary lines, but on tho=e of our 

 present economic order, which, whether we like it or not. 

 seem inextricably bound up in our industrial destiny. 



It has some faint hope that John Burns may see 

 this also. It says: — 



If Mr. Burns can be brought to see that the Socumst, 

 millenuium and the universal employment of labour by 

 the State are not practical politics, he may conceive it 

 liis duty to bid the country rest content with the guaran- 

 teed maintenance which the Poor Law gives to desstitution, 

 to repress stsrnly, not only labour colonies, but also all 

 other opportunities for dependence, and to endeavour the 

 framing of practical measure,s for developing the mobility 

 aud efficiency of labour, and for increasing the absorl>ent 

 properties of the normal channels of industry. He, at 

 least, sees tlie hopelessness of devising new forma of de- 

 pendence. Will he see that the curtailment of those wliich 

 already exist is the first step towards reform? 



THE ENGLISH ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE. 



In the February issue of the English lUustrated 

 Magazine Mr, J, Loughmore, a journalist, de.soribes 

 his experiences as an inmate of various workliouses 

 in London and in the provinces. He says: — '• Though 

 the cost per pauper to the ratepayer is. in London, 

 double the general average of the rest of the countrv-, 

 the lot of the provincial pauper is much more enviable 

 than that of his London confrere." He apptmds a 

 week's dietary in the workhouses of Portsea Island 

 Workhouse and St. Pancras, and shows that the milk, 

 broth, gruel, soup, etc.. in the fornier amount+nl to 

 24V pints again.st 17 pints in St. Pancras. while the 

 solid food in the former was 12 lbs. 2 oz., against 

 8 lbs. 2 oz. in the latter. His worst experience's of 

 all were in St. George"s-in-the-East, and Paddington 

 Workhouse is described as a comparatively decent 

 establishment with courteous officials. 



Undi-r the title of •'Lost Lombard Street" Mr. J. 

 Tavenor Perry contributes an article on ancient 

 Chelsea, in the days when it was intersected by a 

 stream which was used to fill the canals of the Dutch 

 gardens of Chelsea Hospital. 



The January number of the Maru'Iuster Quartrrhi 

 is very readable and fresh. William Canton and tJie 

 dream-(Thildren of his books form the subject of a 

 charming appreciation by Mr. S. Bradbury. Mr. A. 

 W. Fox deals faithfnlly with the votaries of literary 

 cant. The story of Hans Christian Andersen is told 

 again by Mr. W. V. Burgess. Albeit Xicliolson gives 

 a character sketch of .John C'rozier, of Riddings, of 

 the Blencathra Hounds. 



