370 



The Review of Reviews. 



HOME RULE FINANCE: 

 A Dismal Prophet. 



Mr. Arthur Warren Samuels discu.sses the finan- 

 cial aspects of Home Rule in the Financial Review of 

 Reviews. His main criticism of the usual complaint of 

 England's robbing Ireland is given in this paragraph : — 



The contention that England has " robbed " Ireland of 

 /32 5,000,000 or made a profit of ;£'3 30, 000,000 out of the 

 Union depends upon the assumptions (<;) that Ireland was unre- 

 presented in the Imperial Parliament, (/<) that Ireland started 

 debt free in 1S17, and (c) that Ireland should, while sharing in 

 the security and all the advantages of the Empire, not have been 

 called upon to contribute to defence. 



Mr. Samuels then proceeds to argue that if Ireland 

 retains both customs and excise there will be an annual 

 deficit of £1,414,000 ; if she gives up customs and 

 retains excise a deficit of £5,280,000 ; if she gives up 

 both customs and excise a deficit of £7,516,000. To 

 these deficits must be added the increased charge of 

 £461,000 for extended Old Age Pensions, and £800,000 

 for State contribution to National Insurance, making 

 £1,061,000 of an addition to the deficits in each 

 category. 



A Sanguine Prophet. 



In the Fortnightly Review " An Outsider " describes 

 the dilTerence between Repeal and Federal Home Rule. 

 He is very sanguine as to the ease with which the new 

 Irish Government will meet its financial difficulties : — 



Ireland's annual income at present is, roughly, ten millions, 

 and doubts may have been expressed if it would be possible for 

 an Irish Parliament and Executive to run an efficient Home 

 Kule Government on that income. 



Denmark, in 1910, ran its Government, including monarchy, ■* 

 army, and navy, on a revenue of seven and a half millions, 

 Holland on less than six, and Switzerland on less than four. 

 But the Irish Government can neither economise nor utilise its 

 resources unless it is given the power both to raise and spend. 



For some time to come economies on a large scale in Irish 

 expenditure are, indeed, impossible. The scrupulous care that 

 Parliament takes of vested interest would prevent an immediate 

 reduction of ofiice, salary, or pension. Irelancl will doubtless 

 need some help from the British Treasury, either in a bulk sum or 

 a temporary annual allowance, to start housekeeping on her own 

 account — such help as the Financial Relations Reports show is 

 restitution, not alms ; but once fairly started the country can 

 easily live within its income. 



Mr. Herman Scheffauer, Special Commissioner, 

 describes his impressions of Ulster in the London 

 Magazine. The chief point he makes is that Ireland 

 must look to the younger generation for a final adjust- 

 ment of her manv differences. 



Golf! Golf! aU for Golf! 



In the Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Revieie Sir R. 

 Fulton laments our national absorption in sport : — 



As for the middle classes, they seem to have no object 

 whatever in life except the playing of golf, and in that they 

 live and move and have their being — they think of little else. 

 I heard the other niglit some satirical lines, which reproached 

 the English for their lack of devotion. They are very short, 

 and, if you will allow me, I will repeat them : 

 " I was playing golf the day 

 That the Germans landed j 

 All our men had gone away, 



And all our ships had stranded. 

 And the thought of Englaml's shame 

 Almost put me oiV my game ! " 



SLUM CHILDREN ON HOLIDAY. 



Mrs. Barnett contributes a delightful paper to 

 the April Cornhill on the Children's Country Holiday 

 Fund. Its charm consists in selections from the 

 5,280 letters that she has received from the twenty- ' 

 two thousand odd children that went out under the 

 Country Holidays Fund in the summer last year. 

 They are full of vivid glimpses through the child's 

 eyes of country life. The letters make much reference 

 to the meals. The regularity of the meals makes a 

 change which strikes the imagination. The letters 

 give also an idea of the generosity of the poor hostesses j 

 to the London children. Here are some of the children's 

 observations : — 



The trees seemed so happy they danced. 



The wind w-as blowing and the branches of the trees was 

 swinging themselves. 



The rainbow is made of raindrops and the sun, tears and 

 smiles. 



It was nice to sit on tlie grass and see the trees prancing in 

 the breeze. 



There were wasps wdiich was yellow and pretty but unkind. 



There was no strikes on down there but there was a large 

 number of wasps. 



I did not see a babbi. I mean to mind it all the time. 



The ladys girl dont mind the baby as much as me at home. 

 It stops in the garden. 



.Some of the regrets at leaving the country are very touching : 



" I wish I was in the country now." " I shall never go 

 again ; I am too old now." " I think in the fornight I had 1 

 more treats than ever before in all my life." "The blacking jj 

 berries were red then and small. They will be black now and i 

 big." "I wish I was with my lady's baker taking the bread ' 

 round." " I enjoyed myself very much, I cannot explain how ' 

 much. Please (iod next year I will come again. As I sit at 1 

 school I always imagine myself roaming in the fields and | 

 watching the golden corn, and when I think of it it makes 

 me cry." 



Father Hyaeinthe on Immortality. 



The Open Court for March contains a character 

 sketch of Father Hyaeinthe Loyson by the editor, to-, 

 which is appended a translation of Father Hyacinthe's 

 last discourse on " Marriage," delivered in 191 1, when 

 he was eighty-five years of age. At the close of this 

 lecture he said : — 



I h<ave drawn from my Christian faiih, from the meditolions 

 of the deepest philosophers, LeibniJz and Renouvicr amon^ 

 others, from the study of the moral laws of human naltire as 

 irrefragable as those of physical nature, the certainly that death 

 is not annihilaion but transformation. What disappears is the 

 phantom of man, the transitory being, the breath of a day. . . . 

 V'eF, this physical, and even to a certain point intellectual, 

 phantom has vanished into the black" whirlwind, but the 

 personality which thinks, which wills, which suflers, which is 

 exalted and which loves — I syear it by human nature, at least 

 such .as I bear within myself — this essential being is called to a 

 still higher training ; this being is immortal. 



Another sign of the popularity of the short story. 

 CasselVs Magazine, always bright, varied, and enter- 

 taining, has given more and more space to fiction, until 

 it has now blossomed into CasseU's Magazine of Fiction, 

 at 5d., claiming to be the largest magazine in the world, 

 with 256 big pages to support the claim. 



