Review of Bevieus, ilspS. 



LEADING ARTICLES. 



63 



FROM SOME EUROPEAN MAGAZINES. 



THE ITALIAN REVIEWS. 



The death, in his eighty-ninth year, of 

 Cardinal Capecelatro, Archbishop of 

 Capua, the one-time friend of Newman 

 and one of the grand old men of Italy, 

 venerated throughout the country, has 

 called forth regrets from all parties. 

 Through all the troubles between Church 

 and State, Cardinal Capecelatro com- 

 bined perfect loyalty to Pope and King. 

 As a result many hoped to see him Pope 

 on the death of Leo XIII. ; he was the 

 favourite candidate both of the Italian 

 Government and of the German Em- 

 peror, but his great age stood in his 

 way. Both the Rassegna Nasionale and 

 the Niiova Antologia publish laudatory 

 articles, the latter one of special interest 

 by the Senator R. de Cesare. 



IS THE TAJ M.AH.\L ITALIAN? 



F. de ]\Iattei, also in the Antologia, 

 discusses an old theory that the Taj 

 Mahal at Agra was designed, not by a 

 Mohammedan, but by an Italian archi- 

 tect, a certain Geronimo Veroneo, who 

 died at Lahore in 1640. and whose tomb, 

 with the inscription, is still to be seen 

 at Agra. The main evidence for the 

 story is derived from the contemporary 

 narrative of a Portuguese missionary. 

 De Mattei admits that at present the 

 contention is not wholl)' proven, but he 

 trusts the day will come when Italians 

 may talx of Veroneo's Taj with as much 

 proud assurance as the\' now speak of 

 Giotto's Campanile. 



THE BALKAN TROUBLES. 



The reviews continue to be full of the 

 international situation, and, in spite of 

 much latent hostility towards Austria, 

 thev support their ally m demanding an 

 autonomous Albania, and no Servian 

 outlet on the Adriatic. The Vita Inter- 

 nazionnlc. the Pacifist organ edited by 

 Dr. Moneta. welcomes the renewal of the 

 Triple Alliance, as offering, with all its 

 drawbacks, the best guarantee of Euro- 

 pean peace. \\'riting in the Rassegna 

 Cuntciuforanca on the Peace of Laus- 

 anne, the deputy, F. Nunziante, declares 

 it to have been a satisfactory peace, if 

 scarcely as glorious as Italy had the 



right to hope for. Another deputy, A. 

 Torre, describes the outcome of the Bal- 

 kan alliance as most pleasing to Italy, 

 and satisfactory to all Europe save only 

 to Austria, who sees her road to the 

 .^gean blocked. The author remarks 

 incidentally that Italy might have had 

 Tripoli with Austrian consent as early 

 as igo8 had she chosen. The number 

 also contains a striking one-act play by 

 De Roberti, " II Rosario," which has en- 

 joyed a marked success at the Manzoni 

 Theatre at Milan. 



The Civilta Cattolica attacks the Ita- 

 lian Government for refusing the Ex- 

 equator to the new Archbishop of 

 Genoa on the ground of its being an in- 

 fringement of Papal rights under the 

 Law of Guarantees. Another article 

 urges the Centre Party in Germany to 

 agitate for the re-admission of the 

 lesuits. 



THE DUTCH REVIEWS. 



"The Defence of the Dutch Indies" 

 is the title of a ver\' interesting contri- 

 bution to De G'lds. The best kind of 

 defence for island possession is a naval 

 one, and the Dutch Indian colonies are 

 well grouped for defensive ]iurposes ; 

 where the island is large, as with Java, 

 and well populated, military strength 

 may be sufficient, or almost so, but with 

 smaller and sparsely inhabited places 

 a stronef navv is necessarv. So Holland 

 must increase her naval power, and must 

 have the best of ships and armaments, 

 super-Dreadnoughts, and all. In Java it 

 would be possible, and advisable, to 

 ]ia\e a nati\e arm\-. 



THE PANAMA CANAL A BOON TO HOLLAND. 



In another article the j^osition of 

 Curacao, in the Dutch Antilles, is dis- 

 cussed with respect to its future, when 

 traffic through the Panama Canal shall 

 be in full swing ; it should be a harbour 

 of call for vessels leaving for the canal 

 from such widely-different parts of the 

 globe as North and Central Europe, the 

 Mediterranean. South Africa and North. 

 East and South .\merica. Some of the 



