The Reviews Reviewed. 



533 



THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW. 



The May number contains several good articles, 

 but none of special eminence. One or two have been 

 separately noticed. 



THE CENSORSHIP. 



Mr. John Pollock reviews the history of the Censor- 

 ship, and is notsparing in his condemnation. Hesays: — 



The dramatic censorship is not an ancient institution in Great 

 Britain. It was imposed by a modern Act of Parliament on an 

 unwilling coimlry by a corrupt Minister for corrupt ends, it has 

 been kept alive'for ends hardly less corrupt, it works nothing 

 but mischief, and serves no purposes but those of injustice 

 and vice. 



What is more certain is that the Act, introduced on May 20th, 

 1737, and receiving the Royal Assent on June 21st, which, with 

 the astuteness characteristic of Walpolc, purported merely to 

 amend the Vagrant Act of Queen Anne, set up a preliminary 

 censorship of the drama, substantially as it exists to-day, with 

 the express oliject of preventing abuses in public morals from 

 being dealt with on the stage. 



Mr. Pollock appeals to the Liberal Government, by 

 abolishing the Censorship, to prove that Liberalism 

 and libert\- are not strangers. 



" THK NEW STYLE " OF TORY RHETORIC. 



Mr. Howard Gritten offers the alternative of " A 

 Revolution or the Unionist Party," and tries to stave 

 off revolution and advance the interests of the Unionist 

 Party by such choice expressions as these : — 



If there is anything to be said for the violent Socialist and his 

 fellow-criminal, the .Syndicalist, it is that they are at any rate 

 more downright than the extreme Radical. They leave us 

 in no manner of doubt as to thiir intentions ; whereas that 

 degenerate cross-breed, the Radical-Socialist, nervous of boldly 

 coining out into the open, skulks behind the more audacious 

 fighters, with whom in reality he secretly sympathises. Which 

 is the more dangerous, the tiger, or the snake? 



This truculent writer appeals to the moderate 

 l.-berals to secede, and has kindly provided ihem with 

 a title— Liberal-Constitutionalists— with the prospect 

 that, •• like the Liberal Unionists, they would in time 

 coalesce with the United Moderate Party." 



PROSPECTS IN THE BALKANS. 



.Mr. II. Charles Woods discusses the situation in 

 Albania and in Macedonia. Of the first province he 

 says it remains to be proved whether, with the bad 

 means of < nmmunication and the diverse influences at 

 work, the Ghegs and the Tosks will really be able to 

 carry out a joint insurrection against the Government, 

 which, if it takes place at all, will certainly have 

 important consequences for Europe as well as for 

 Turkev. Of the other province he says the future 

 entirely depends on the attitude of the Turks towards 

 the Christian population. If the authorities endeavour 

 by more or less liberal and fair government to regain 

 the sympathy of the population, and to carry out the 

 promiNCS of 1908, then .Macedonia may still remain an 

 integral part of the Ottoman Kmpire. Otherwise the 

 future will depend on agreement or non-agrccment 

 between the great Powers most interested. 



OTHER ARTICLES. 



Mr. Walter Sichcl writes on " Ilic Strike and the 

 Stricken." and denounces the halting Government and 

 the self-stvled leaders of Labour. But he applauds 



Mr. Walsh and another, who said ' we ai^e citizens first 

 and Trade Unionists afterwards," then the innocent 

 sufferers, and the ministering capitalists who relieved 

 their sufferings. He demands the repeal of the Trade 

 Disputes Act, and the training of every son in some 

 trade or handicraft. E. Bowen Rowlands presses for 

 a radical modification of our State prison system, so as 

 to include the indeterminate sentence, improved classi- 

 fication of prisoners, and State control of juvenile 

 criminals. Mrs. .\lec Twecdie insists on the application 

 of the principles of eugenics so as to prevent the multi- 

 plication of the feeble-minded and the criminal popu- 

 lation. Maurice Hewlett contributes a quaint " Lai of 

 Gobertz." Mr. Francis Gribble brings to light some 

 old letters in which the actor Talma reveals his court- 

 ship of Pauline Bonaparte, sister of the Emperor. 

 Both parties in this illicit romance had very smirched 

 records. Professor Gerothwohl compares English and 

 French attitudes towards poetry, with most interesting 

 examples from both literatures. 



THE CORNHILL MAGAZINE. 

 The May number is lull of good things, most of 

 which have been separately noticed. .Aliss Ella C. 

 Svkes tells of her experiences when she went out for 

 the Colonial Intelligence League for Educated Women. 

 Feeling that she would amass more information if she 

 went as a home-help instead of an honorary delegate, 

 she took fi\e posts in four provinces. She thinks 

 Canada is a land of opportunity for the young, strong 

 and resourceful. Sir Henry Lucy's " Sixty Years in 

 the Wilderness " are crowded with incident and 

 anecdote. He gives a very striking picture of the 

 charming composure with which, in the course of a 

 dinner at a London club, General Boulanger received 

 telegram after telegram, which were discovered to have 

 been the news of his downfall. Sir Henry also describes 

 a visit to Arabi Pasha at Colombo, of whom he says, 

 of England " he spoke with unfeigned respect and 

 affectionate regard, which, if not real, were well 

 assumed " (sic). 



A Clergyman's Welcome to Disestablishment. 



Kkv. Fk.vncis E. Powell, writing in ihe A'iriffcY/M 

 Ci/ifury for May, gives a series of reasons why some 

 of the clergy will weU-ome Disestablishment. His 

 contentions are common to liberationist platforms. 

 The only peculiarity is that they are advanced by an 

 Anglican clergym.-in. He insists that both Church 

 and State are weakened through Establishment : — 



Let the Church meet the changing circums'unccs by a 

 voluniatv act of sacrifice which would do more for her permanent 

 welfare than an unwarrantable struggle, waged in, what cannot 

 but appear to outsiders, the spirit of any worldly concern 

 fl;hling for its own, to preserve endowments which arc sure to 

 be wrung from her sooner or later. A well-known I.ibour 

 leader avowed to a frieixl of the writer that the masses ha<l so 

 far lost faith in the siniirily of the Chiiich that only some 

 great act of sacrifice on lier part wonid lead them to treat her 

 claim seriously. Arc oiir leailers capable of inspiring the 

 Church with this noble spirit ? 



The sacrifice that he proposes is the renunciation 

 of the tithe. 



