183 



The Reviews Reviewed. 



THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. 

 The Quarterly Review for January is a very good 

 number, containing a map of the Fiji Islands, and 

 nine signed articles out of the thirteen which make up 

 the contents of the number. The articles on Turkey, 

 " The Growth of Expenditure on Armaments," and 

 " Home Rule Finance " are noticed elsewhere. 



THE FUTURE OF THE CROWN. 



Dr. Baty opens with a very interesting article 

 describing " The History of Majority Rule." It is 

 more than purely historically interesting because the 

 writer concludes with a speculation as to the eftect 

 which the Parliament Bill will have upon the position 

 of the Crown. Dr. Baty, like most writers of his school, 

 exaggerates enormously the effect of the Parliament 

 Bill, and then goes on to base upon his exaggerated 

 estimate the prophecy that in future the Crown will 

 more and more be irresistibly drawn into the vortex 

 of party politics. He says : — 



The juslice of the King is the sole safeguard of the minority 

 in the coming days when a permanent majority of strikers seems 

 a probable feature of liritish politics. How can that juslice be 

 invoked without response? The Crown has become, by the 

 acts of Liberals, a vital force of the near future. 



NEW LIGHT ON GEORGE SAND. 



One of the most interesting articles in the number 

 is an account of George Sand written in the light of 

 her latest published correspondence. The writer is 

 unsparing in his delineation of her innumerable love 

 affairs, but he is lull of appreciation of her genius. 

 She and Balzac, he says, raised the French novel to 

 its height : — 



It was she, and 'not Balzac, who stirred the problems of 

 Ibsen and Toht'>y in advance, urging the freedom of woman 

 to \x noble, and the social reparation that springs from the 

 scn^e of fraternity. Stic was the /Kolian lyre of her times, i^ 

 has been said ; the echo of the century in its most generous 

 aspirations. The widest love and faith and hope were her 

 portion. She lived by admiration, and looked to the triumph 

 of the gootl, the fair, the true. Able to console and inspire, 

 she well may continue to propagate the sense of the divine 

 within us. And it were ungrateful to look narrowly uijon her 

 shortcomings. 



THE FUTURE OF FIJI. 



Sir Everard ImThurn, writing on " Fiji as a Crown 

 Colony," concludes his paper by saying : — 



There arc go</<l and strong reasons why the Islands should 

 not at present be annexed to cither of these Dominions {Aus- 

 tralia anil New Zealand], despite their geographical position 

 and community of commercial interests ; but it seems that 

 the time has cimic when every effort should he ni.ade to assist 

 the development and growth of the Pacific Crown 'Colony 

 towards the point at which it might safely be allowed to pass 

 out of ihe Crown Colony stage, and to join that united 

 " Dominion of Australasia " which seems certainly destined 

 one day to represent the liritish Kmpirc in the western portion 

 of the Pacific < )cean. 



AN ANGLICAN VIEW OF THE REFORMATION. 



Professor J. P. Whitney, writing on "The ICli/.a- 

 bethan Reformation," thus sums up his conviction 

 that all is for the best : — ■ 



If the Elizabethan leaders erred in one direction more than 

 in another, it was in tenderness towards Puritanism ; political 

 interest, religious sympathies, sometimes pressed them to 

 compromise. Had they gone further in that direction, their 

 own problems would have been easier, but their children 

 would have suffered. It was a sound instinct which led the 

 leaders to see that a more elaborate and eflicient administration, 

 a code of law, was needed ; but it was an equally sound 

 instinct that led the bulk of Churchmen to reject the 

 " Reformatio Legum." 



A CRITIC OF BERGSON. 



Mr. Sydney Waterlow writes with some severity 

 upon " The Philosophy of Bergson." He doubts the 

 correctness of Bergson's account of the nature of our 

 minds ; and he maintains that Bergson's answer to 

 the question whether the universe contains any other 

 things in addition to our minds is ambiguous and 

 devoid of illumination. Reading Bergson, says Mr. 

 Waterlow, is like watching a conjurer toss glittering 

 balls. The charm of his philosophy he thinks lies in — 

 the conviction he always expresses that it is not arduous 

 thought, but living and acting, that gives us the key to reality. 

 This thesis, so consoling to all who are too tired to think, is 

 the background of his philosophy ; it even, as we may note, in 

 conclusion, underlies his attempt to define the essence of the 

 comic. 



THE AMERICAN STEEL CORPORATION. 



Mr. Edward Porritt contributes an elaborate article 

 in which he describes the present position of the most 

 comprehensive and magnificently equipped manufac- 

 turing undertaking that the world has ever seen. The 

 Steel Corporation, which has a total capitalisation of 

 over two hundred and eighty millions sterling, con- 

 trols the supplies of nearly all the raw materials of all 

 kinds needed at its hundred of works in eighteen or 

 nineteen States ; and wherever it does not possess 

 that control it insists that it shall be supplied at 

 twenty per cent, lower rates than those charged to 

 any other competitor. It has an army of 236,000 

 employe's. Since 1907 it has professed a desire to 

 establish a six days working week, hut one-third 

 of the men employed in steel works in the United 

 States work seven days, one-fourth of the whole work 

 twelve hours a day. One half of the iron and steel 

 workers only earn 9d. an hour. 



The quarterly review called the Qiifsf, edited by 

 Mr. G. R. S. Mead, like the Iliblurt Journal, is a 

 standing proof of a thoughtful but limited public 

 which has not lost the habit of serious thinking. In 

 the current number twenty i>ages are devoted to an 

 article by Mr. L. A. Compton-Rickett on the doctrine 

 of "Die to live" in Hegelianism ; Mr. Harold 

 Williams writes on " Personal and Ab?.tract C"oncep- 

 tions of God"; and the Rev. K. C. .AndersGn 

 discusses whether the New Testament Jesus is 

 historical. Mr. R. Hopkyns Keble writes a curious 

 essay entitled i* The Unbelievable Christ," .Mr. F.ric 

 C. Taylor writes on Henri Bergson, and the Rev. 

 G. W. .Mien has an appreciative paper concerning 

 Mary Everest Boole. 



