Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



291 



THE GERMAN SOCIALIST PARTY. 

 The Sozialislisthe Monatshefte of F'ebruary 15th is 

 t a German election number. Herr Eduard Bernstein 

 and other writers discuss from various points of view 

 the significance of the recent General Election, as shown 

 in the enormous increase in the party elected to the 

 new Reichstag, as well as in the Socialist vote. Having 

 twenty-nine more members than in 1903, the Social 

 Democratic Party, with 110 members out of a total of 

 397, ought to be able to make its influence felt. This 

 brilliant success is attributed to the extensive growth 

 of industrialism in Germany and the consequent 

 increase of the working classes, the splendid organisa- 

 tion and propaganda work of the party, the growth of 

 the press, etc. But Herr Bernstein adds'a note of 

 warning. Numbers, he says, are not everything, and 

 it does not necessarily follow that the no Social 

 Democrats will have more influence in the Reichstag 

 than the 43-51 members of the previous Reichstag, ur 

 the 81 of 1903. Against the 287 members of the other 

 jiarties the no are still a minority. Cases in Austria 

 and France are cited to prove that a party with a 

 Mnaller number of members has often had more 

 influence in Parliament than a larger one. 



SOCIALISM AGAINST MOB SWAY. 

 In the Sociahsl Revitw for February the labour 

 unrest occasions certain disciplinary remarks that 

 might surprise srime readers. The recent railway 

 -trike could only do little, we are told, because it had 

 no purpose. It was an outburst : — 



A blalani crowd has wriUfn nolhinc but F.MI.URE in history 

 every time that it began to write anytning. We accuse not the 

 crowd. Our hearts beat for ihcm, our energies and our capaci- 

 ties are theirs, they are worthy of all good that can come to 

 them. , Wc accuse their spokesmen, the Rev. Mr. Kettledrum- 

 mcls, who preach the good gospel nonsensically to then:. 

 We want no more peasant wars which end in the darkness of 

 rout, no more Chartist movements led by charlatans Into wil- 

 derne&ses. The duly of the Socialist is to sec that the unrest 

 does not spend itself in a vain, if heroic-looking, beating of the 

 air. All the teni|)l:iiion offered to our movement is to shout, to 

 talk of rtvoluiidn, to get giddy with the giddiest, to belittle 

 'verylhing that has been done and censure everybody who has 

 .id the courage to do it. That pays — for a day. That is 

 " advanced "—so long as the temper is at boiling point ; it gets 

 'he cheers and the enthusiasm of ihe meeting. It even wins .1 

 !■ w victories— at (irsi, and they are Pyrrhic ones. But It is 

 I'oor fighting. 



THE SPEAKER'S COACH. 



Mr. Oaki.kv Will I \.m.s describes in the March Pall 

 Mall the Slate roach of the Speaker. It weighs two 

 irms one hundred weiglit and several pounds, yet it is 

 Mj well hung and balanced that one able-bodied man is 

 able to draw it. Its origin is obscure. It is commonly 

 stated to be Spc.iker I.enthall's, and therefore dtiles 

 ba< k to the time of the Commonwealth. Its style anrl 

 decoration is said to be undoubtedly Jacobean. The 

 workmanship is probably Flcmi.sh. The panels arc 

 lillerl in with rii^h paintings, evidently of a much later 

 il.ile. They arc attributed to Cipriani. On one of the 

 doors is a figure i)resenling a sheaf of documents 



legibly labelled " Magna Charta " and " Bill of Rights," 

 to a patron who may be either the Genius of History or 

 — possibly George III. The interior is upholstered in 

 red vehet, and it is designed to seat five persons. The 

 privilege of horsing the Speaker's coach on State 

 occasions belongs to the brewers, Messrs. Whitbread 

 and Company. It is used some four or five times in a 

 centurw on Coronation and similar ceremonies. 



THE SOUVENIRS OF M. DE FREYCINET. 



In the mid-February issue of the Revue des Deux 

 Mondes M. Henri Welschinger has an article on the 

 \ oltime of " Souvenirs " recently published by M. de 

 Freycinet. 



The book deals with a period of about thirty years, 

 1848-1877 — that is to say, it gives the life-story of M. 

 Freycinet from the age of nineteen to the time when 

 he joined the Dufaure .Administration as Minister of 

 Public Works. Presumably a second volume will 

 record the events of his subsequent career, but it may 

 here be remarked that he has represented the Depart- 

 ment of the Seine in the Senate for thirty-six )ears ; 

 he has been twice Minister of Pui)lic Works, four times 

 Minister for Foreign Affairs, si.x times Minister of War, 

 and four times President of the Council. The most 

 important historic events which figure in the book are 

 the Revolution of 1848, the Coup d'Etal of 1851, the 

 Frant o-German War, the National Assembly of 1871, 

 and the foundation of the Republic. 



In a few lines M. Freycinet describes the situation 

 of the Government and of the country in the six 

 weeks which preceded the fall of the Empire. The 

 weakness of the Emperor, the inter\ention of the 

 Empress, the culpable compliance of the Foreign 

 Minister, the falsification of the Ems telegram, the 

 lack of serious preparations, the inferiority of the 

 French artillery, the incoherence of the early opera- 

 lions, the transport disorder, etc.— all foretold th? 

 disasters to follow. Besides numerical inferiority and 

 inclTicicncy in the command, the French army sufTered 

 from in.suilicient training, and the inexperience of the 

 recruits compared with the drilled reservists of Ger- 

 many—in a word, a general lack of discipline. The 

 man who has not been broken by discipline in limes 

 of peace lends himself lo it with dilTiculty in times of 

 war. lie says in conclusion : " Discipline does not 

 mean p.issive obedience. Soldiers must be convinced 

 of the necessity and utility of obedience. Military 

 discipline should be human and just. It i> ihe absericc 

 of those moral virtues which form the soul ol a nation 

 - discipline, respect, union, faith in un ideal and in a 

 religion, the love of one's country— the consent to 

 pacririic oneself— which makes disasters inevitable.'' 



"TiiK keynote ol the recent carni\als has been the 

 gradual triumph of woman, whi<-h culminated last year 

 in the birth of the first Queen ( arnival," So .savs Miss 

 Isa Gibson in the Ma.ch h'oynl. i-; she dex riljcs ih' 

 Carnival ut Nice. 



