4IO 



The Review of Reviews. 



April to, 1906. 



THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW. 



The March number has in it many articles. 



"THE UPEUSH OP THE SUBLIMINAL." 

 A subtle and suggestive paper on reriTalism and 

 mysticism is contributed by Mr. W. R. Alexander. 

 Taking Wesley's Journal as a classic record of rerivals. 

 he tests the theory that conversion may be explained 

 as the irruption of the subliminal self, which he takes 

 to consist of personal experiences which have passed 

 normally through consciousness and of sub-conscious 

 phases of hereditary tendencies. He is not prepared 

 to allow that the working hypothesis of the subliminal 

 can explain away the idea of mystical knowledge or 

 direct intuition. There is a conception of a higher 

 control which is not a reminiscence. One shrewd re- 

 mark is made that in all thought as such there is an 

 element of loss. The directness and fo7ce of sensation 

 is sacrificed. 



THE UNEMPLOYED. 



Mr. G. P. Gooch, M.P., gives a general survey of the 

 situation with regard to the unemployed. He com- 

 mends the slow and costly experiments of the London 

 Central Committee, but urges the appointment of a 

 general system of Labour Bureaux with telephonic com- 

 munication, and advocates afforestation as the most 

 promising form of employment for the unemployed. 

 To discriminate between the unemployed and the un- 

 employable, he advocates that vagrancy should be 

 made a punishable offence in fact as well as in law. 

 He would send them to a loafers' colony like that of 

 Merxplas in Belgium. 



WTI.\T OF THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE? 

 An Italian, writing on the foreign policy of Italy, 

 declares that the Triple Alliance is likely rather to be 

 transformed than to be terminated. In the great duel 

 which he expects between England and Germany most 

 European Powers would prefer to side with England, 

 which does njyt. dominate the Continent. He expects 

 that the Triple Alliance will be renewed, but will be- 

 come a compact that binds its members ever less 

 closely, which will allow, in fact, for Italy's faithful- 

 ness to the traditional friendliness of Great Britain 

 and her new rapprochement with France. 



OTHER ARTICLES. 



Professor Macaulay Posnett kills the slain again by 

 denouncing Mr. Chamberlain's scheme for unifying the 

 Empire as federation in fiscal anarchy. Mr. H. C. 

 Thomson insists on our Imperial responsibility for the 

 removal of Chinese labour. Count S. C. de Soissons 

 describes the German drama of to-dav. 



THE MONTHLY REVIEW. 



Mr. Walter Frewen Lord, criticising the recent change 

 of Government, says Disestablishment is the most likely 

 mistake for the Liberals to make in dealing with the 

 Church. As for the Army, it remains to be seen 

 whether Mr. Haldane can make one man do the work 

 of ten. As, however, he probably will not attempt to 

 do so. the Tories have nothing to hope from War Office 

 blunders. " There is, perhaps, a small cloud on the 

 serene War Office horizon — Japan." 



Sir Edward Grey will probably hold his own. and 

 although " no stranger freak of politics was ever 

 known " than that which gave the control of India to 

 Mr. Morley, he, too. is not likely to give the Tories an 

 opening. More probably that opening will be found in 

 the many rocks ahead at the Colonial Office.. 



THE NEW EDUCATION BILL. 

 Mr. B. G. Evans gives a foretaste of the coming 

 Education Bill. Its keynote will b? the nationalisation 

 of education, and Mr. Birrell has formed high ideals 

 of what national education in England should be. The 

 absurdly unequal education rates must be equalised. 

 All religious instruction will probably be placed outside 

 the official school curriculum. 



THE WORK OF A LADIES' SETTLEMENT. 



A verj- interesting paper by A. Greig deals with the 

 work of a ladies' settlement, at which she served for a 

 few weeks about Christmas time. It was in one of the 

 most uncivilised and Hooligan slums in London — a 

 revelation to the writer, who says: "If others can be 

 induced to give their services for three or four weeks 

 occasionally, as I did. my story will not have been 

 written in vain." Part of the work of the settlement 

 consisted in combating the spirit clubs to which nearly 

 all factory girls seem to subscribe, paying most of their 

 weeklv savings expressly in order to have an occasional 

 " bust up." In this slum not to get drunk occasionally 

 was to be out of the fashion. Part of this lady's duty 

 was also to read to factoi-y women and girls during the 

 dinner-hour, some twenty of whom squatted on the 

 floor of their work-room while she did so, there being 

 nowhere else for them to go except the nearest public- 

 house. 



Other articles deal with the Officer question, with 

 the life-story of the late Harold Parsons (" A Servant 

 of the Crown ")—a very well-written paper bv Mr. 

 Theodore A. Cook — and with the Lord Lovelace-Byron 

 controversy, to which Mr. Roland Prothero contributes 

 his view, of course bearing out Mr. John Murray. 



THE OLD "GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE " REVIVED. 



In mid-February the fii'st number of the revived old 

 Gentl mans Magazine was issued. Mr. A. H. Bullen, 

 the publisher and new editor, opens the new series 

 with a brief history of this magazine, which dates 

 from February, 1731. The facts are well known. 



In addition to being the oldest of our magazines, we 

 are told that it was the first paper to institute Prize 

 Competitions. Messrs. Chatto and Windus acquired 

 the magazine in May. 1S6S, and from 1870 to 1905 

 Mr. Joseph Knight, editor of Notes ami Q\teries, 

 contributed the Table Talk of Sylvanus Urban. The 

 magazine has now been acquired by Lord Northcliffe, 

 and it is intended to restore the features which 

 distinguished it in the first half of the last century. 

 The first number contains a paper on the Pepysiau 

 Treasures, and this is followed by some Recollections 

 of George Gissing. 



School this month is so full of interesting matter that 

 it is difficult to particularise. Harrow, by Mr. 

 Warner, occupies the place of honour in the series 

 '■ Our Schools " ; its picturesque situation and earlier 

 beginnings give a tone of romance which helps to make 

 a delightful paper. Dr. Paton's earnest cry for a con- 

 cordat between Church and State, with a practical 

 suggestion for the formation of a "Sunday Institute" 

 for our scholars, is very good. He points out that, 

 with regard to our Sunday schools, we must progress 

 if we would continue to be helpful, that rooms often 

 vacant at night should be utilised, and elder boys, 

 who are born leaders, interested and made respon- 

 sible. A red-hot " sermon " on superannuation, and 

 papers on various educational systems in other coun- 

 tries, make up a remarkably good number. 



