5i8 



The "Review of Reviews. 



JOAN OF ARC'S LETTERS. 



■J'liE Cvinliill lor iMa_\ ( uiitains a pa]X-r by the 

 Comtcs.sc d'Oilliamson, in which she tells of a visit to 

 the Count dc Maleissye, a descendant of Joan of Arc's 

 brother. Her host points out that Joan's father was 

 not a vulgar peasant, but a notability in his village. 

 He is mentioned in a charter dated October 7th, 1423, 

 and is qualified as the Senior of his village. The Senior 

 was in charge of the taxes, and was supposed to supply 

 his fellow-citizens with bread, wine, and other goods, 

 and to verify the weights and measures. He possessed 

 forty acres of land. His income was £200. The Count 

 granted that when she started on her mission Joan 

 stated, " I do not know an A from a B." But he 

 urged, " It is most likely that she learned to sign her 

 name, and perhaps to read and write, during the winter 

 of 1430, when in the midst of the outbreak of intrigues 

 which condemned her to a painful inaction." She said 

 also : " I sometimes begin with a cross, and then it 

 means that my orders are not to be executed." When 

 summoned to sign her abjuration, she traced a cross 

 in signing it. She signed " Jehanne." The writer, who 

 was very sceptical to begin with, was, when .she read 

 the letters, convinced. Charles du Lys obtained these 

 letters from the town of Rheims, and they were pro- 

 vided as late as 1789 with a special room in the chateau. 

 During the Revolution everything that had belonged 

 to Joan disappeared — sword, banner, tapestry — every- 

 thing except these three letters. The Marchioness, 

 finding it too great a risk to carry the letters away 

 with her, confided them to the earth, digging a deep 

 hole in which she hid them. Mr. Andrew Lang, in a 

 note, says that these letters are universally recognised 

 as perfectly authentic. As to Joan's signature, it is not 

 printed with a stamp, but written with her own hand. 

 It is impossible, however, to be certain that she did 

 not write with her hand held and guided by some clerk. 



GREAT ADVANCE OF THE GERMAN WOMAN. 



The common notion of our (ierman sister has too 

 often been demarcated by the Kaiser's famous " three 

 K's " — Kiichc, Kinder, Kirche. She has been regarded 

 as essentially the Hausfrau. This, however, is shown 

 by Hugo Miinsterberg in the Atlantic Monthly to be an 

 impression wholly out of date. He tells how only last 

 year, in a meeting of leading professors, a young 

 woman stood up and opposed the prevailing sentiment, 

 and quietly but firmly turned the meeting to her side. 

 " It was distinctly the influence of woman's oratory 

 over a large group of important men. Twenty years ago 

 that would have been entirely impossible in Germany." 

 Shortly afterwards, he was present at a great banquet 

 to a leading jurist. The best-known professors of law 

 made speeches, and the guest of honour told how he 

 had devoted his life to the idea thai one nation ought to 

 have one law. Then a young woman arose, with a 

 champagne glass in her hand. She brilliantly interpreted 

 the speaker to mean that there should be one law only, 

 the same law for men and women, and that the women 

 must therefore have the same rights as the men in 



public life. " In all my life in the Fatkerland I had 

 never before heard a woman making a toast at a public 

 dinner." The girls' school of Germany imtil recently 

 stood immeasurably below the boys' school. Now the 

 girls' chances are not inferior to those of boys. In every 

 family it seems beyond discussion that the daughter 

 shall prepare for a definite line of acti\'ity. About ten 

 million women are breadwinners in Germany, three and 

 a half million women in industrial work and business, 

 and " 738,000 women are independent owners and heads 

 of establishments." The number of women students at. 

 the universities this year is about 2,400. 



NEW GLEAMS OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. 



In the Bocik Moiilhly for April Jlr. James Milne 

 records some new gleams of Stevenson, which Sir 

 Sidney Colvin recently gave in a lecture-talk. 



Stevenson and Sir Sidney Colvin lived together at 

 Hampstead. Stevenson, said Sir Sidney, was always 

 at high pressure about a thing, denouncing it or 

 admiring it. His spirits and his imagination overflowed 

 like a great river. If he was well he was tremendously 

 well; but, as we know, it was not often that he was well. 



Sir Sidney told a story- of Stevenson once having a 

 frock-coat and a tall hat. They were going to the Royal 

 Academy together, and Stevenson sallied forth wearing 

 the frock-coat and tall hat, or, rather, he did not wear 

 the tall hat, but, because it hurt his head, carried it in 

 his hand. As they marched down Regent Street, 

 Stevenson, who had been studying Milton, declaimed 

 in a strong Scotch voice passages which had taken his 

 memory. Probably it was a relief to Sir Sidney, having 

 regard to the procession, not to say pageant, which 

 they made, when the gates of Burlington House 

 enfolded them. With regard to Stevenson's writings, 

 Sir Sidney noted that there was no slack bit of execu- 

 tion in any of them — a fact which could not, perhaps, 

 be put to the credit of any other English writer except 

 Charles Lamb. 



The April Bonknian is a Spring Double Number, a 

 large portion being devoted to the new spring publica- 

 tions. To many readers, however, the article on Robert 

 Louis Stevenson by Mr. Neil Munro will constitute its 

 cliief attraction. In the years which have elapsed since 

 his death in Samoa in 1894, Stevenson's place with 

 readers, writes Mr. Munro, has been each year more 

 durably established. Save in the great gift of health, 

 the stars that shone on his nativity were all propitious. 

 Fate never drove him to the necessity of banking down 

 his fires periodically to boil a domestic pot ; he could 

 afford to be deliberate and fastidious in the selection 

 and in the execution of his ta.sks. Notwithstanding 

 his ill-health there is seldom the sTightest indication 

 of the invalid in his works. It is more in the essay than 

 in verse or novel that his individuality and charm as 

 man and writer are best revealed. According to Mr. 

 Andrew Lang, he was the master British essayist of the 

 later nineteenth century by reason of his vivacity, 

 vitality, his original reflections on life, and his persona! 

 and fa.scinaling style. 



