414 



The Review of Reviews. 



April 10. ISHX. 



THE NATIONAL REVIEW. 



Professor W. J. Ashley, writing on "Trade Unions 

 and the Law," regrets on the whole the trend of re- 

 cent judicial decisions involving trade unions, chiefly 

 because they seem to militate against trade union com- 

 bination to improve working conditions, which he con- 

 siders defensible ' if once we accept the principle of 

 unionism." -Mr. J. Holt Schooling's paper on •■ Our 

 Position ill Foreign Markets " is,- of course, an ably 

 written plea for Protection: — 



If our rivals in -trade . . . have thus ousted us during 

 the last quarter of a rentur.v from all the principal mar- 

 liets. while these rivals were .attainine maturity as world- 

 traders, what will be our further loss of trade-jjosition in 

 auother twenty or twenty-five years, our rivals being adults 

 J? rowing in strength? 



SOME l,E(i.\L SCiND-S-l*. 



• A Practising Barrister'' says that the apiwintuient 

 of Mr. Fletcher Moulton to a Judgeship in the Court 

 of Appeal calls a tention to the urgent need for drastic 

 legal reforms. Lord Loreburn has litre his opportu- 

 nity, but he begins his reign by a flagrant piece of 

 political jobbery. The reforms suggested are : the oOO 

 clerical appointments in the Supreme Court to be open 

 to public competition, the qualifications of many of 

 those recently nominated to these clerkships being such 

 as to shock even tlie public's ' not too fine sense of 

 decency"; a judicial day longer than five hours: to 

 work the Judges for their £.5000 a year as hard is a 

 K.C. would have lo work to earn a like salary; re- 

 gular Saturday sittings; reform of the circuit system 

 —an old giievance. afresh exposed; shortening of the 

 time allowed for judges' travelling, that time having 

 been fixed in day^ of slow railways; and abolition of 

 the expensive system of ■ judges' lodgings." These 

 much-nepr'ed ri't'orni.s would relieve the estimates of at 

 least ie'i.OOtl. and probably more. 



Legal scandals in a way form the subjec-t of Pro- 

 fes.sor Churtou Collins" paper on the Mei-stham and 

 Crick Tunnel tragedies. His point is that the Pre.ss 

 conducted valuable researches and elicited new infor- 

 mation, of wliicli the detective force appeared unable 

 to avail itself. The police, in fact, seem to him to 

 have been red-tapcish and not alive in either of these 

 two cases. 



C.\N WE TRUST THE -\DMliULTY? 

 Mr. Arnold White replies naturally " Yes," and bases 

 his replv on the recognition of the importance of gun- 

 nery, aiid on the fact that, if the retired executive 

 officers and others presumably able to judge are against 

 the present system of naval education, their predeces- 

 sors were also equally opposed to other reforms which 

 have turned out very well. Sir John Fisher recognises 

 that a small, well-organised fleet, thoroughly prac- 

 tised in gunnery, will certainly beat a mammoth flotilla 

 whose gunnery is weak. Turn out Sir John, as the 

 critics would do. and there is no one to take the place 

 of 



a First Se,-i Lord whose individuality has been felt uot only 

 b.v the Navv but In the public in a manner that is without 

 precedent with a Permanent Official who does not write in 

 the magazines or spe;\k in public. 



In any case, reform is begun, and the clock cannot 

 be put back. 



THE UNITED SERVICE MAGAZINE. 



The United Service Magazine for March contain.s a 

 good deal of common sense. One writer urges that to 

 increase the burden of armament is now almost out of 

 the question. The best policy is to see that we get 



full value in every sense for our money. Captain 

 Green. R.A.. gives" an interesting .study on cominon 

 sense rersii.s the bogus imifoim, and in advocating 

 a workmanlilie accoutrement throws interesting side- 

 light on the origin of the present antiquated survivals. 

 Colonel \'erschoyle repeats the plea for higher pay for 

 oificer-, who can properly instruct and lead their men. 

 An ex-Xon.-Coni enlarges on the fact that 65 per 

 cent, of London unemployed are ex-soldiers, and urges 

 that military or naval service of some kind should be 

 a sill qua Hon of all public service. But the most 

 important paper of the month is Captain Cecil 

 Battine's 'summary of the description of tlie campaign 

 ending at Paardeburg. published by the German Gene- 

 ral Staff, and translated by Colonel Waters. We may 

 be grateful, indeed, to have so calm and judicial and 

 courteous a criticism of a crucial stage in our military 

 development. 



THE GRAND MAGAZINE. 



There is not auj^hing particularly new in what Dr. 

 Josiah Oldfield and other medical men have to tell 

 us about -Health. Strength, and Beauty" in the 

 opening paper of the Giaml Magazine. The old adage, 

 ■ Diet curesi more than the doctor," that we used to- 

 write in our copy-books, sums up most of it ; '" Don't 

 eat too much." most of the rest. Common sense fills 

 in the chinks; and that is ali. 



The moral of Mr. Beckles WiUson's paper on ' How 

 the Empire should be Colonised ' is that the Colonies 

 must not be so fastidious about their immigrants, and 

 that there is not, after aU. a large residuum of popula- 

 tion which can really be classed as "undesirable," and 

 which the Colonies are justified in desiring to keep 

 out. Mr. Morley Roberts, I notice, does not c|uite 

 agree with him. 



In answer to the question, • Is the British Army 

 fit to fight?' Dr. Miller Maguire replies emphatically 

 that It is not, and that as now constituted it is a 

 .snare instead of a safeguard to the State; while Mr. 

 Howard Hensraan replies as emphatically, on the au- 

 thority of a number of the leading military men of the 

 day, that it was never so good as it is to-day ; if we 

 have no army, we have at least a remarkably fine imi- 

 tation. 



••BIRRELLIGIOIS" EDUCATION. 



Mr. Herbert Paul, M.P.- in the yindeenth Ventuiii 

 reminds us that Charles Kingsley held the logical 

 view that secular education alone should be given 

 by the State. It is. however, he concludes, thoroughly 

 unpopular and hopelessly unpractical, because it means 

 that nine-tenths of the children in this counti-y would 

 grow up without any religious training at all- He 

 quotes a hrin mot: — 



A witty lawyer is reported to have observed that the 

 education of the future would he neither religious nor irre- 

 ligious, but Birrelligious. 



Julie Sutter of Germany "and England." 



Sneial Seri-ice for March publishes an interesting 

 sketch with portrait of Miss Julie Sutter, the well- 

 known authores-s of " A Colony of Mercy " and " Bri- 

 t-ain's Xext Campaign." This excellent lady was once 

 described as ' Julie' Sutter of Hesse Darmstadt." In 

 view of the active and useful work she has done in 

 founding philanthropic experiments on the German 

 model in England, she should henceforth be known as 

 •'Julie Sutter of Germany and England.' 



