4i6 



The Review of Reviews. 



AprH to, 1906. 



THE COKRESPONDANT. 



Cmler the title of ■ The Struggle of the Churches," 

 an anonymous writer publishes, in the first February 

 number of the Cnrrespondant, an article on the Gene- 

 -al Election in England, in which he explains to 

 French readers the religious question in connection 

 with the Education Act of 1902. 



GERMAN niPERIALISM IN FIOTIOX. 

 In the same number there is a notice, by Baron E. 

 Seilliere, of the novels of Freiherrin Frieda von 

 Biilow. This lady is the daughter of a distinguished 

 diplomatist who for some time represented his country 

 in Smyrna. Altogether Freiherrin ron Billow's educa- 

 tion has been a very cosmopolitan one. She has lived 

 in tlie recent German institutions in Africa among the 

 founders of the Women's Union for the Care of the 

 Sick in the Colonies, and has written a number of 

 novels in which she records her impressions of German 

 colonial life in East Africa besides a number of Euro- 

 pean novels. The Colonial novels include ''Stories of 

 German East Africa,'' The Consul," " Ludwig von 

 Posen.'' "In the Land of Promise," and "Tropical 

 Madness."' 



THE ITALIAN REVIEWS. 



The i?(j.5S<v;na Xazionale (February 1st) gives the first 

 place to a number of fine poems on the volcanoes of 

 Italy, by Mgr. Morabito. the Bishop of Mileto, whose 

 splendid services on behalf of the victims of the 

 C'alabrian earthquake have brought hnn prominently 

 before the Italian public. The poem.s are published 

 on behalf of the building fund of his ruined seminary. 

 E. Cantono describes the programme of the Catholic 

 party, which is asserting itself more and more both in 

 Miunicipal and political elections, and promises to do 

 much in the cause of true progress. The main points 

 are the development of municipal autonomy as against 

 the prevailing tendency to State centralisation, the 

 insertion in all municipal contracts of clauses securing 

 % minimum wage. Sunday rest, and insurance against 

 accidents, and regulating the hours of labour. In 

 economic matters the party favours a reduction of 

 taxation on food, the taxation of unearned incre- 

 ments, and the principle of a progressive income tax. 

 It differs from the Socialists mainly in not demanding 

 the State feeding of school children, and by a more 

 reserved attitude as regards the municipalisation of 

 public services. 



The Eiiista d'ltnlia devotes a long article to the 

 philosophy and plays of Mr. Bernard Shaw, whose 

 fame, it appears, is just penetrating into Italy. The 

 writer suggests, somewhat unkindly, that controver- 

 sies excited by Mr. Shaw turn much less on fundamen- 

 tal ideas than on his neglect of those external techni- 

 calities of the stage to which the British public is 

 accustomed. An admirable summary by V. Rossi of 

 the life and art of Vittore Carpaccio is founded on the 

 sumptuous volume recently issued by P. Molmenti and 

 G. Ludwig. It is interesting to read that the revival 

 in Italy of Carpaccio's reputation, after being in 

 abeyance throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth 

 centuries, is due partly, at least, to the English pre- 

 Raphaelite school and its education of public taste. 



The Nuoia Antnlogia begins the publication of a 

 series of letters written by the Italian ambassador at 

 Washington, describing his recent journey through the 

 Southern States with a view to encouraging Italian 

 immigration to those fertile regions. The ever-in- 

 creasing Italian colony in New York presents a diffi- 

 cult social problem, and as fifty per cent, of the im- 

 migrants are peasants and accustomed to a hot cli- 



mate, it is felt that the Southern agricultural States 

 offer a far more suitable field for them than the 

 crowded cities of the East. Biographical sketches of 

 two English celebrities by two ladies will attract 

 attention. Fanny Zampini Salazar writes (February 

 Isti somewhat gushingly of the late Lady Currie as 

 poetess and ambassadress, while Olivia Rossetti contri- 

 butes (February 1.5th) a thoroughly well-informed 

 article on the career of John Burns, pointing out the 

 importance of the recent Liberal triumph from a 

 Labour as well as a Free Trade point of view. Pro- 

 fessor Cesare Lombroso denounces the exceptionally 

 bad government of Spain, where the people are satu- 

 rated with violence, as the reason why discontent in 

 the Peninsula runs, not to Socialism.' but to Anar- 

 chism. Anarchists, he declares, seldom belong to the 

 criminal type, and are men of moral life imbued with 

 an excessive altruism, which drives them into mis- 

 taken violence. The article will certainly do nothing 

 to placate the Professor's many adversaries. 



Besides its usual fully illustrated articles on medi- 

 aeval and modern art. Emporium publishes (Tebruarv) 

 the first of a series of articles of the highest interest 

 on the newly-opened Museo Chiossone at Genoa. The 

 late E<loardo Chiossone devoted his many years' resi- 

 dence in Japan to the collection of paintings and en- 

 gravings by all the greatest Japanese artists, many 

 of them unrepresented in Europe till now, and the col- 

 lection of his treasures, now throw open to the pub- 

 lic, affords a unique opportunity for studying Japanese 

 art. Another article deals with the triumphs of Mr. 

 L. Burbank. the great Californian horticulturist, who 

 claims not only to have improved existing fruits, but 

 to have created new ones. 



THE NOUVELLE REVUE. 



The first February number opens with some Unpub- 

 lished Letters by Charles Baudelaire, and these are 

 continiied in the second number. He was one of the 

 first critics who discovered the engraver Meryon. 



MADAME DE WABEXS AMJ ROUSSEAU. 

 Pierre Queutin-Bauchart contributes to the first 

 number an interesting article on Mammas in Litera- 

 ture — namely, Madame de Warens, whose name is as- 

 sociated with Rousseau. George Sand associated with 

 Alfred de Musset. and '" Elvire " associated with Lam- 

 artine. Of the three Madame de Warens alone played 

 the part of a real mamma. Having no children of her 

 own, she felt the need of some little one to cherish, 

 to protect, to guide, to caress, and Jean Jacques was 

 .voung, and had known no affection in his childhood. 

 'To me.'' writes Rousseau with emotion, "she was the 

 tenderest of mothers." 



FEAN'CE AXD VENEZUELA. 

 In the second number F. A. de Larochefoucauld 

 writes on Venezuela. In twenty-five years, he says, 

 there have been tliree diplomatic ruptures between 

 France and Venezuela. The first lasted from 1881 to 

 1887. the second from 1896 to 1902. and the third, 

 he thinks, may also last six years. The writer, who 

 was in Caracas in 1881, describes his experiences of an 

 earthquake which took place early in that year. 



A NE\r ■• MOSQOTTO OF THE SEA." 

 Albert de Pouvourville describes the French new 

 naval engine of destruction de.signed by the Comte 

 Recope. Iti s a submarine in which petroleum and a 

 motor take the place of coal and steam, making it pos- 

 sible to reduce by one-third the dimensions of a boat 

 of the same destructive value. Only one torpedo is 

 carried, the most powerful yet invented, and the vedet 



