tli^vieic of Rerietc^, If'.'/'J'J 



The Reviews Reviewed. 



5°5 



THE TREASURY. 



The Treasunj in its April number has an article on 

 '■ Pictures of the Passion at the National Gallery," 

 n ritten by Mr. Francis E. Hiller, who is anxious that 

 pictures should Ije h>olve<l at and studied with some 

 method, so as to make them profitable and enjoyable 

 — hence the present selection of Lenten subjects. 

 After the Nativity and the Crucifixion, the subject 

 ill the life of C'luist wliich has appealed most strongly 

 to painters is tlie Last Supper. Yet the only picture 

 representing this subject is a very small one. believed 

 to have been paiiite<l by lircole de Roberti. It dates 

 from the fifteentli century. Mr. Frederick Rogers, 

 who writes on the attitude of the Labour Party 

 tn the Church, says it would be a mistake to regard 

 the Labour party in the House of Commons as a 

 solid phalanx with a definite Socialist policy. He 

 thinks the essentials of religion are more largely pre- 

 sent in the Party than the essentials of Secularism. 

 The Church ought to ti-y to understand the ideals 

 of the Labour Party, and. though the Labour Move- 

 n;ent may be leavenetl with Nonconformist thought, 

 it is probable that it will be more in sympathy with 

 tlie national ideas of the Church. 



SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE. 



Scribner's for Apiil is a good number, opening with 

 a paper on " The Waters of Venice," by Arthur 

 Symons, with colour and black and white illustrations. 

 It is an old subjpct, hut freshly treated. There is a 

 most interesting paper (to any who care for such a 

 subject) on the Caribou and his Kindred bv Ernest 

 Thompson Seton. charmingly illustrated. The Cari- 

 bou, the writer says, " is to the northern Indians 

 what the seal is to the Eskimo and the buffalo was to 

 the Plains Indians — it is their staff of life. 

 Tl>ey must follow and hunt it successfully or die." 

 The Caribou, of course, is the American reindeer, 

 of which there are four well-marked species, though 

 ten less well-define<l species are often enumerated. 



THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW. 



The April Fnrf nightly, although d sfigured as usual 

 by two articles inspired by the intense distmst of 

 (rermany, which is so hateful a note in this otherwise 

 excellent periodical, is a capital number. The article 

 " A French Archbishop," by Constance Elizabeth 

 Maud, is the mast charming pen-picture of an ideal 

 prelate that I have ever read. Mrs. John Lane's 

 social paper on ' .Vfternoon Calls ' is another bright 

 ;t!id characteristic article. 



THE LEGION OP FROXTIERSMEX. 

 Mr. Roger PococU informs iis that a fresh addition 

 i^ being made to the anufnl forces of the British Em- 

 liire in the shape of a Legion of Frontiersmen which 

 "Mr. Haldane has •sanctioned : — 



The Legion received the approval of His 5faje5t.v"s Gov- 

 ernment on Feltruarj- 15th. 1906. There were 620.000 qualified 

 men in the Empire, of wlioni a twentieth part would malie 

 a Legion of Frontiersmen. In return for the henefits which 

 i-rise from admitt.Tnce to the Leerion, an annual subscrip- 

 tion has to be paid as follows: — Members pledeed t-o ser- 

 v.oe, lOs. 6d. ; Members qualified hut not pledged. £1 Is.: 

 Honorary members, £2 Zs. 



Mr. Pocock says : — 



A new kind of tree which we have planted, we do not 

 know in which direction its branches will spread, or in 

 wiiat direction they will fail to grow. Neither ('o weknow 

 what manner of fruit will ripen. It mav be an Intelligence 

 Department in the field which will render the best service. 

 or the Guide Corps, or the Scouts, the squadrons for Si>ecial 

 Service, or a whole Arra.v Corps. .\11 this may fail, and yet 

 the Legion be justified as a new tie biiidinsr the nations of 

 the Empire. 



IN PEAISE OF OUR NEW NAVY. 



Mr. Archibald S. Hurd, who appears to have con- 

 stituted himself the literary elogist of the new regime 

 at the Admiralty, writes on 'Progress and Reaction 

 in the Navy." He is enthusiastic in his praise of the 

 present .system, ami especially defends its weakest 

 point — the new method of educting officers, the prac- 

 tical effect of which, some fear, will be the exclusion 

 of all but middle and upper class bo,y8 from the en- 

 gineering staff of the Navy. Mr. Hurd does not 

 share this fear. On the general question h« says : — 



The motto of the new Board of Admiralty is " the fighting 

 efficiency of the Fleet and its instant readiness for war," 

 and in all departments the naval organisation is being 

 tuned up to this pitch. A year or so ago rather more than 

 halt of the Fleet of men-of-war were out of commission and 

 unreadv for service. To-day every efficient man-of-war not; 

 undergoing large repairs in the dockyard is in commission. 



AN ITALIAN " JOHN INGLE.SANT.- 

 Mrs. Crawford describes with much delight Fogaz- 

 zaro's new novel '11 Santo" in an article entitled 

 ■■ .\ Saint in Fiction." She says: — 



There has recently been published in Italy a novel which, 

 both by the nature and the bitterness of the controversy it 

 has excited, can only be compared to the appeaiance in 

 England of "John Inglesant" a quarter of a century ago. 

 or yet, more precisely, to that of Robert Elsmere " some 

 few years later. No novel in Italy since "I Promessi 

 Sposi ■ has had so startling and sudden a success. 



She regards it as a hopeful sign. S',.e says : — 



Many 9.\Tiiptoms point to a revival of practical Chris- 

 tianity among the Catholics of Nortlieru and Central Italy, 

 not the least significant of these being the extraordinary 

 demand tor the cheap Gospels now l)eing issued iu tens of 

 thousands by the Society of St. .Jerome. To these signs of 

 the times must be added the reception accorded to the 

 novel before us. a reception which of itself guarantees 

 some measure of success to that spiritual awakening of the 

 nation which Antonio Fogazzarro, poet and patriot, dreams 

 of effecting. 



THE TEST OF THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

 Dr. Saleeby preaches a sermon from the text, " I 

 have come tliat .vou may have life and have it more 

 abundantly " : — 



We are now possessed, it seems to me. of a criterion of nil 

 religiim». They are all products or characters or appanages 

 of living creatures, living men. As she judges every other 

 character of every living thing. Nature judges them accord- 

 inc to their worth for her s ipreme purpose— fulness of life. 

 Selfish asceticism, seeking the eternal salvation of its own 

 paltry, becmse selfish, soul, will not enter into the rehg on 

 of tile future. It has scarcely any survival-value, and 

 Nature will have none of it. The morality inculcate! by 

 the religion of tJie future is such as best serves Natures un- 

 swerving desire — fulness of life. 



OTHER ARTICLES. 

 Mr. Saxon Mills, writing on Chinese Labour and 

 the Government, arrives at the uncomfortable conclu- 

 sion that " Ministers seom to have hit upon the worst 

 ptASsible policy — that which is least likely to do any 

 gcxxl, and most certain to create embarrassment and 

 irritation throughout the whole of South Africa." 

 Mr. Henry .Tames adds a description of his impres- 

 sions of Philadelphia to his pictures of New York 

 and Boston. 



The Harbinger of Light for March contains as a 

 supplement a lecture by Archdeacon Colley. It is 

 certainly a most remarkable story which he tells. Tha 

 number contains a character sketch of Madame d'Ea- 

 perance. Mrs. Bright continues her notes on Mr. P. 

 W. Stanford's seances, and Mr. W. F. Lord writes 

 on " N'oble I'lant of .Spirituali.sm." To those who are 

 interested in occultism it will prove decidedly inte- 

 resting. 



