The Reviews Reviewed. 



299 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AND AFTER. 

 Perhaps the most startling paper in the March 

 number is the alarm sounded by Mr. Chiozza Money. 

 M.I'., over the e.xit of people from these Isles. That 

 li IS been noticed elsewhere. 



HOLDING A N.\TION TO R.\NSO.M. 



Mr. i larold Cox finds the true meaning of the railway 

 strike last autumn and of the threatened coal strike 

 this spring in a deliberate purpose of the working-man 

 to hold the nation to ransom b\- the policy of the 

 general strike. There is no cham e of obtaining a fair 

 settlement of the wages question unless adequate 

 police and military protection is giving to the indi- 

 vidual working-man. He thinks the present Govern- 

 ment, in refusing to give this, will only enable the 

 Miners' Federation to fasten its hold upon the 

 n:uion's throat. " To-day it is a minimum wage we 

 demand. To-morrow it will be something else." 



THE PERIL OF HOME RULE. 



The note of alarm which runs through so much of 

 this number is vigorously sounded by Mr. Edgar 

 Oammond, who. after a formidable but most useful 

 array of statistics, points his moral thus :— 



I'be general tendency of Imperial finance williin the past 

 ilecide has Ix'cn to place the burden of expenditure for Iniperi.-.l 

 services more and more upon the shoulilers of the English and 

 Welsh Lixpajers. In 1900 England contributed 87 '05 per 

 icni. of the total Imperial expenditure ; she now contributes 

 'P"33 P<^' cent. .Scotland in 1900 contributed lO'S^ per cent. ; 

 she now contributes only 9*67 per cent. ; while Ireland's 

 meagre contribution of 2* 1 1 percent, in 1900 has been tnns- 

 fornicd into a deficiency of I '06 per cent. England and Wales 

 are already cinlributing far more towards the cost of Imperial 

 services than they should be required to provide on the basis of 

 taxable capacity, and any scheme of Federal Home Rule on the 

 lines which have already been suggested for .Scotland and Ire- 

 land would inevitably throw a still greater burden upon the 

 English and Welsh taxpayers in respect of Imperial services, 

 and at the same lime raise difficult questions which would ccr- 

 tiiinly lead to bitter controversy. 



IN FRIGHT OF FEMALE FRANCHISE. 



Another wail, almost of dismay, is raised by Mr. 

 Charles E. Mallet over the awful outlook for the 

 I,ilK-ral Part) . the n.ilion, and humanity at large if a 

 Woman's Suffrage Kill were passed thro igh the House 

 of Commons this session, ft would destroy the unity 

 of the party, sacrifice Home Rule, prcveni, Welsii 

 Disestablishment, frustrate One Man One Vote — and 

 all without a mandate from any General Eiec 'loii. 'Mr, 

 .Mallet imi)lores the Liberals to tielj) the (lovernment 

 <mt of Its present '•'ipossible position in one o( three 

 ways -postponement, referendum, vote aL'amst the 

 Woman's .Suifr.ige .\mendment. 



BEWARE ol- FRIENUSIIIP WI fll HERMANN ! 



Siaire also dominates .Mr. IJ. C. Lathbury's lament 

 over what he describes us the new foreign policy of 

 l^ngli^h Radicals, which, he thinks, is to renounc e the 

 Triple Entente lor friendship witii Germany. Mr. 

 Lathbury urges that Russia, Erance. and England all 

 desire as their chief interest the maintenance of pe.ice. 

 Germany ^vants pe.ice. it is true, but it is not her ciiief 



and only aim. So long as the three Powers are of one 

 mind it is impossible for Germany to go to war with 

 any one of the three. Mr. Lathbury closes by saying 

 that these Radicals are the sole inheritors of the policy 

 of Lord Beaconsfield — enemies of Russia and friend- 

 of Turkey. 



THE COLONIES OF PORTUGAL. 



Sir Harry Johnston resumes his congenial task of 

 making over again the map uf the world. This time he 

 offers Portugal his benevolent and disinterested advice ^ 

 of which this is the gist : — • 



If the Portuguese sold Guinea to the Erench ; the Con^o 

 province and Xorth Mozimbiijue (Ibo) to the Clermans ; 

 Zanibc/ia, Bcira and IJelagja Biy to the British, they 

 would still remain the recognised and cflfective rulers of an 

 empire of 500,000 square miles, a much larger area than they 

 actually possessed in 1870 ; while, in .addition, they should 

 have acquired a fund which would suffice to build a network 

 of light railw.ays over Portug.al itself and enable that land to 

 become the greatest fruit-producing region of Europe. 



CAN ACQUIRED CHARACTERS BE INHERITED ? 



Prince Kropotkin reverts to this much-discussed 

 question. W'eismann's attempt to prove the impossi- 

 bility of hereditary transmission of acquired characters 

 he [)ronounces to have failed. He insists that both in 

 plants and animals there is a germ-plasm scattered 

 all over the body. This germ-plasm is capable of 

 reproducing, not only those cells in which it is 

 lodged, i)ut also the cells of quite different parts of 

 the organism, 



THE " BACHELOR " GIRL. 



The Hon. Mrs. Wilson writes vivaciously on the 

 " Passing of the Chaperon." She feels there is a want 

 of honest out-speaking on all sides. She remarks : — 



New methods have produced a type of bachelor-girl — (I have 

 already used this phr.ase, but I can ihink of no other) — 

 previously unknown to us all. .\11 my sympathies are with her, 

 though she would not like this. She has unwillingly ere itcd 

 an iiiifitiSi' for herself. .She does not know that thougli she has 

 altered, men arc ever the same, that the idea oi purJak is a^ 

 strong in the West as in the East. The bride that is desirable 

 is the precious guarded jewel which has not sparkled for others. 

 There must be mystery where there is (o be romance. We can- 

 not blame men who feel this ; lhc>' are going b.ack to the old 

 piin-.eval instincts, of which the unwritten law of social life is 

 merely the shadow. 



OTHER ARTICLES. 



i\dmiral Sir Reginald Custance puts the naval case 

 for latifying the Declaration of London. The Rev. 

 E. (;. .Selwyn forecasts the future of the 0.\ford 

 .Mo\ement. Sir Godfrey Lagden declares the influence 

 of the piil)lic schools to make for the formation of 

 character, and for the development of the best national 

 (jualities. Miss Gerlriide Kingston would get out of 

 the dilhiully of the dramatic tensorship by forming a 

 Ministry of Fine Arts in the hope that the British 

 ( haracter would finally give the place to art that is at 

 present occupietl by sport. Mr. D. S. MacColl breaks 

 a l.mie with .Mr. Frederic Harrison over what is foul 

 ami beautiful in Rodin anil his art. Mr. \V. S. Lilly, 

 warmly commends .Mr. Ward's " Life of Cardinal 

 Newman." 



