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Ihe Review of Reviews. 



June 1, 19.'i. 



mission on tlie part of our civilisation. The first of 

 this t«rios of pictures we reproduce in this issue. It 

 is entitled " Why Ha.st Thou Forsaken Me:-" and 

 vividly pictures the horrors of the battlefield, the un- 

 told misery and tlie want and woe that ever follow in 

 the footsteps ot war. Among the early subjects in this 

 series of art prints will be • But the Son of Man Had 

 No Place to Ifest His Head," ''As It AVas in the Be- 

 ginning," and " The King is Dead, Long Live the 

 King '" Such prints cannot fail to prove real educa- 

 tors, stimulating thought and arousing the blunted 

 moral s<'nsibilities of our greed-engros-swl civilisation. 



THE CORRESPONDANT. 



In the C'nrespondant of March 10th there is an ar- 

 ticle by Paul Mimande. on the '' Legislative Elections 

 in the French Colonies." 



GOVERNMENT IN THE FRENCH COLOXIES. 



The writer points out many serious defects in the 

 present .--ystem of government, and suggests two sys- 

 tems, either of which, he thinks, would be suitable. 

 In the fii-st the capital sub.sidises the colony and main- 

 tains the pfisoimd of the different services. The local 

 administration is diiected by a governor, who is as- 

 sisted by a colonial council composed of notables and 

 of the heads of the services, and able to transform 

 itself by the addition of supplementary members into 

 an administrative tribunal. The chief centres have 

 mixed municipalities composed of members nominated 

 by the capital and of membei's elected bv the inhabi- 

 tants, and presided over by a magistrate. 



The second sy.stem is that of self-government. In 

 this case the representative of the State becomes a 

 sort of diplomatic agent, with a right to \ eto mea- 

 sures in violation of the Constitutional laws of the 

 capital. The colony is absolute master nf its budget: 

 it elects a little local parliament, the governor choos- 

 ing the ministers as indicated by the majority; it 

 maintains its own officials and police ; it receives no 

 subsidy of any kind; and it lives the life of a quasi- 

 independent State. 



EDUCATION IN FRANCE. 



To the same number J. B. Piolet contributes an ar- 

 ticle on the .New Free Sch<x)ls m France. By the laws 

 of July, lyOl, and .July, 1904, we are told, no fewer 

 than iO.OOO schools «ere closed in 19.io, and during 

 the pres<^nt nearly GOO more have been closed. Why 

 spend forty to fifty million francs in creating free 

 Kciiools, and eighteen to twenty million francs annu- 

 ally for their maintenance, to destroy them by a 

 simple legislative act? Is it worth while to begin the 

 worK over again when the same late may overtake 

 all the energy spent upon it.' More iver, did the free 

 instruction give such results as might rea-sonably 

 ha%'e been expected? At the Lyons Congress in 1904 

 Auguste Isaac said that the elementary education 

 provided bv the State was unsatisfactory: — "The 

 impartiality of the modern .State i« an illusion: the 

 neutralitv of the State school is a chimera." 



The writer discus-ses in tlie present article Jean 

 Hornet's idea of " The Free School of To-morrow," 

 as set forth in a brochure bearing this title. >L Hor- 

 net would found a.ssociations of parents (including 

 mothers), doctors, profe.ssors, business men. workmen, 

 etc., to administer the schools, and in the normal 

 schools he would give a proper training to such 

 teachei-s as understand their mi.ss'on and know how 

 to fulfil it. The schools would no hniger be quite 

 fiee, for everywhere it has been found that, with 

 g'atuitous instruction, assiduitv in attending the 

 schools has diminishetl. Tlie writer tliinks the finan- 

 cal problem can be sohed. hut he does not seem quite 

 so sure about the recruiting of suitable teachers. 



POLAND AND BELGIUM. 



In the second March number Rene Henry writes on 

 Poland : Her Soitows and Her Hopes, which he de- 

 scribes as the nation without a State, the nation 

 which has been proving for more than a century that 

 nations disappear only when they abandon themselves 

 and consent to die. He finds the same conviction 

 and the same irritation in Poland which exist in 

 Hungary. The Hungarians say they would have ob- 

 tained s;itisfaction from the Emperor of Austria were 

 it not that he is encouraged in his resistance by the 

 Gennan lOmperor. In like manner the Poles believe 

 that thej would have obtained as complete autonomy 

 as FinlaiKJ if the German Emperor was not behind 

 the Tsar. , 



The subject of another interesting article forms 

 a .striking contra.st to the woes of Poland. Comte 

 Henri <le Hoissieu writes on Belgium, the first Euro- 

 pean State to institute a ^Minister of Industry and 



Labour. 



THE GRAND .MAGAZINE. 



In the (iiiiiitl Mugnziiie Mr. Horace Xewte, writing 

 on •■ Playwriting as a Profession." give.s the aspiring 

 playwright much wholesome if, probably, unpalatable 

 advice. Whatever he may do, he is hardly likely to 

 coin money : more kiclvs than halfpence seems the lot 

 of most playwrights. Till I read this article I did not 

 realise tliat the vice of playwriting was so common. 

 SUCCESS IN THE ARMS'. 



As in success on the stage, so in success in the 

 army, those writers frank enough to do so admit that 

 luck, .sheer luck, is a large element. Thoroughness 

 iii-st. says one nniter, health secondly (even firstly), 

 and thirdly ambition. Lord Playfair says "oommon- 

 sense, tact and good fortune," and adds, underlining, 

 that "the greatest of these is good fortune." "Inte- 

 rest and the possession of ample means." says another 

 eminent soldier, are highly potent factors in army 

 success : — 



A well-known general officer was some years ago asked 

 how lie had achieved such srreat success in his professlou. 

 aa he had never appeared to ove work himself. The blunt 

 reply was: — " What fool could not get on in the Army who 

 had £5000 a year!" 



JURIES AND JUSTICE. 



A lawyer and a layman discuss fhe question whether 

 juries ensure justice or not; and most readers will 

 pixibably think that the lawyer — the Xoes — has it. 

 Lack of responsibility of jurymen, popular distrust 

 of them, frequent disaoreement of juries, their 

 liability to be unduly influencetl by a clever advocate, 

 the mischief resulting from juries being swayed by 

 local and personal interests- -those are the lawyer's 

 chief arguments ag:un.st jurvinen. Generally speak- 

 ing, he believes a fairer verdict likely to be obtained 

 from a judge than from a jury, and cites Sir George 

 Lewis as being of the same opinion. The defence 

 article is r.ither on the lines of '■ what has endured so 

 long must be good." 



WHY IS HOME DULL? 



Dora D. Chapman, writing oii this subject, attii- 

 butes the desire of so many women to escape from 

 the monotony of ordinary home life to the dull, dead 

 level to which housekeeping has been reducetl by 

 means of stores, and all sorts of modern scientific 

 appliances, saving one all thinking. It was ranch 

 more interesting to do your own preserving, bacon- 

 curing, spinning and herb drying, than to buy jams, 

 bacon. Hnen and dried herbs at the stores. Specious 

 reasoning; but a hou.se which is kept like a home, 

 which many English houses are not. will afford scope 

 for a fairly energetic woman even now. .And a really 

 domestic woman will be domestic, the stores notwith- 

 standing. 



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