298 



The Review of Reviews. 



THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW. 



Much the best article in the Contemporary Review 

 for March is Mr. A. G. Gardiner's admirable sketch on 

 " The Social Policy of the Government," which is 

 noticed elsewhere. Sir William Collins describes the 

 work that was done at the International Opium Con- 

 ference at the Hague, which promises to be a landmark 

 in the attempt of Governments to abate the plague of 

 opium eating and smoking and the morphia habit 

 among the nations of the world. Mr. F. W. Hirst, of 

 the Economist, writes on " The Problem of Arma- 

 ments/' in which he gives a free rendering of the 

 views set forth by Baron d'Estournelles de Constant. 

 Sir William Ramsay writes an essay on the " Method 

 of Research in History." Mr. A. P. Graves discusses 

 " Celtic Nature Poetry." Mr. Harold Johnson waxes 

 enthusiastic over Bahaism as the birth of a world 

 religion. Mr. E. Vincent Heward describes the 

 " Romance of the Planetoids." 



SY.NDICALISM .\ND THE LABOUR UNREST. 



Mr. J. H. Harley, in a paper, tells the story of how 

 M. Georges Sorel, the high priest of Syndicalism, began 

 his revolutionary propaganda. He points out how it 

 developed into an advocacy of violence, and that 

 whatever truth there may be in Sorel's doctrines that 

 labour is to go forward separately in the power of its 

 own undivided strength, he ought at least to give them 

 some idea as to where they are going. What is to be 

 the end of it all ? He lights no beacon to illumine the 

 exceeding darkness of the future. M. Sorel begins by 

 decrying rational and ordered progress, but he is only 

 playing with fire. He advocates violence, but he cannot 

 tell us confidently where the violence may lead us. 

 The most interesting thing in the article is that in 

 which Mr. Harley traces the connection between 

 I'.ergson's philosophy and the outrages of the Syndi- 

 calists ; — 



In fact, Sorel practically reveals the nakedness of his Happy 

 Land when he define, the General .Strike in Bergsonian language 

 as an " undivided whole, and invites us to conceive the transi- 

 tion from Capitalism to Socialism .is a catastrophe of which the 

 details baffle.descriplion." 



All this is not very convincing ! Bui, if it does nothing else, 

 it reminds us of the danger of all depreciation of reason both in 

 philosophy and life. 



THE PORTUGUESE REI'UBLIC. 



Mr. Aubrey F. G. Bell writes a very well-informed 

 and very discouraging paper concerning the Portu- 

 guese Republic. He confirms the conclusion at which 

 most of us \\A\c reluctantly arri\ed, that the upset of 

 the Monarchy has done little or nothing for the 

 Portuguese : — 



The weakness of the Republic has been that it was based 

 upon these two extremes in education, the indifference or 

 (xpettations of the completely ignorant, and the generous or 

 interested but impractical dreams of doctrinaires. It was 

 abstract intellectuals produced by the University of Coimbra 

 who undertook, to govern Portugal after the fall of the 

 Monarchy. 



Its finances are in disorder, and beyond passing a 

 decree it has done nothing for education. It has 



rendered the religious difficulty more acute, and it has 

 weakened the principle of authority everywhere. Its -j 

 history has been full of strikes and disorders, which it -4 

 has repressed with ruthless severity, and even a 

 Republican journal declared in last December that the 

 Repubhc in fourteen months had done more harm than 

 fourteen )ears of Monarchical politics. 



THE NATIONAL REVIEW. 



As might be expected, Mr. Maxse is very sarcastic 

 concerning Mr. Haldane's mission, of the origin of 

 which he gives the following account : — 



The Kaiser deserves the entire credit of summoning Ilerr 

 Balin to his councils, who, in his turn, enlisted the services of 

 Sir Ernest Cassel, who conveyed the suggestion to our Govern- 

 ment that the presence of a British Minister in Berlin would be 

 welcome, and incontinently his Majesty's Ministers walked into 

 a transparent trap. It goes without saying tlial absolutely 

 nothing will come of this absurd episode, except the shedding 

 of an enormous mass of ink .ind the talking of a vast amount of 

 twaddle. 



Mr. Maxse rather bores us with his repetition of the 

 phrase of snobbery, jobbery, and robbery as applied 

 to the present Government, a phrase which he evi- 

 dently thinks is a masterpiece. Mr. Andre Mevil, in a 

 paper entitled '' Some flight on Agadir," goes over 

 the old ground. The only important thing in his article 

 is the menacing sentence with which it closes : — 



If the German Government does not change its methods, if 

 its clumsiness and ariogance arouses fresh incidents, France will 

 rise as one man, and the Fiench Government, whatever it may 

 think or whatever it may do, will be incapable of retarding for 

 a single hour the accomplishment of her destiny. 



The Hon. W. Ormsby Gore, M.P., states the Conser- 

 vative case concerning Welsh Disestablishment and 

 Disendowment. A na\al writer, reviewing the books 

 of Lord Charles Beresfortl and Admiral Mahan, pro- 

 poses that we should introduce a Navy Act providing 

 that in each of the four next 3'ears six Dreadnoughts, 

 eight cruisers, and twenty-four destroyers, besides 

 submarines, should l:e laid down. If the Germans 

 pro\ ide only two Dreadnoughts per annum we might 

 be content with fi\c. I should be well content if we 

 stuck to the standard of two keels to one. 



Mr. George Hookham cxainines Professor Bergson's 

 criticisms of Darwin. A Radical reviews the life of the 

 eighth Duke of Devonshire, and Mr. T. Comyn Piatt 

 writes a very pro- Italian paper on the situation in 

 Tripoli. He tells us that General Canava wisely refuses 

 to folk)w the Turkisli army into the heart of a waterless 

 desert. We can well believe him when he says that peace 

 will not be yet awhile. What good the waterless desert 

 is likely to be to the Italians he does not explain. He 

 says it would be sheer madness to advance further into 

 a country as useless as it is inhospitable. I agree with 

 him. but why on earth spend £.40,000 a day to occupy 

 the fringe of such a w orthless desert .' j 



Mr. W. Mallida) , in a charming paper, describes the 

 sea birds which nest in the Fame Islands, Mr. Charles; 

 Howard contributes a fancy sketch on the " Rise otj 

 Archie," a Labour man, but who Archie is I am toci 

 dull to divine. 



