78 



The Review of Reviews. 



THE ENGLISHWOMAN. 



The Engiislmwiiian for January is aglow with the 

 hope of approaching enfranchisement. Mrs. Fawcett's 

 paper has been separately noticed, as also has Miss 

 Brailsford's account of the seven sisters of John 

 ^\'esley. The Board of Trade report on women 

 workers' budgets is taken to prove that the girl who 

 lives at home is almost invariably better off than the 

 same girl living in lodgings, and to point the need 

 for hostels and municipal lodging-houses. R. F. 

 Cholmeley discusses the vexed question of day schools 

 versus boarding schools, manifestly in favour of the 

 day school. 



Mr. Charles Russell treats of some aspects of 

 female criminality, and argues that the future should 

 lie in the direction of long periods of detention, in 

 combination with the most educative and humanising 

 influences. A plea is raised for the abolition of 

 orphanages and, as in other countries, the mainten- 

 ance of the home and help given there to the widow. 

 The new German insurance code creates a system 

 of insurance benefits for widows and orphans. 



Lina Eckenstein enjoys herself in a rapid excur- 

 sion through the early centuries of the Christian 

 era to show the freedom given to woman as apostle 

 and prophet. B. L. Agnew discusses the prospects 

 and training of women librarians. Miss A. R. 

 Hutchinson recalls a sixteenth century fe'ministe, 

 Marie de Gournay, adopted daughter of Montaigne 

 and editor of his essays. She brought out a pamphlet 

 entitled "L'Egalite des hommes et des fenimes," 1622. 



THE ENGLISH REVIEW. 



I CONGRATULATE Mr. Austin Harrison upon his 

 courage in reducing the price of the En^^lish Review 

 from 2s. 6d. to is. It will be very interesting to note 

 how far the public responds to this appeal to the 

 nimble shilling. 



The new number is a very good one, opening with 

 a posthumous poem by Richard Middleton, whose 

 death has just occurred at Brussels at the early age of 

 twenty-eight. He was a singer with new music and a 

 good message. .Mr. Frederic Harrison continues his 

 delightful gossipy papers, " .Ymong My Books.'' He 

 is still meandering among the classics. The centre of 

 the magazine is as usual devoted to fiction. Mr. Henry 

 N'ewbolt begins a new study of English Poetry. i\Ir. 

 Walter Sickert writes on " The Old Ladies of Etching- 

 needle .Street." 



Mr. Haldane Macfall publishes a ferocious blast 

 against the Puritans and the theatre, but even he is 

 compelled to admit that there is a healthy I'uritanism 

 which teaches us to discipline our powers and to curb 

 our senses. Surely the excessive Puritanism which 

 Mr. Haldane Macfall dislikes is one of the most 

 remote dangers threatening the world at the present 

 lime. After abusing the Puritan up hill and down 

 dale, he admits that the influence of the Puritan is 



prodigious, his initiative enormous, his power great, 

 and that it is the Puritanical part of the community, 

 without question, that is most eager to know and 

 understand and to achieve. Therefore the Puritan 

 is worth convincing. It is to be feared that Mr. 

 Haldane Macfall will not do much in convincing him 

 by this paper. It is the Puritan, as he but dimly 

 sees, who is the only hope of the theatre. The 

 theatre, left without the Puritan, has degenerated into 

 mere flummery of leg-shows, pantomime, and Dear 

 Old Charlieism. 



In the brief article, " The Play of the Month," 

 "S. O." appeals to the artists and intellectuals of 

 London to take some co-operative and decisive action 

 against the appointment of Mr. Brookfield as Examiner 

 of Plays. It will be interesting to see whether the 

 artists and intellectuals will move, being thus adjured, or 

 whether it will not be left to the much berated Puritans 

 to bring the matter before the attention of the 

 Government. 



Seribner's Seral-Jubilee. 



The January number marks the twenty-fifth anni- 

 versary of Scribners. It presents a striking roll of 

 eminent contributors, together with portraits of its 

 three most famous — Robert Louis Stevenson, George 

 Meredith, J M. Barrie. Royal Cortissoz describes 

 Edwin A. .Abbey's last mural paintings with striking 

 illustrations. Kermit Roosevelt tells how he secured 

 for the National .Museum specimens of the mountain 

 sheep of the Mexican desert. Elmer Roberts gives 

 an account of the oft-described Labour Exchanges in 

 Germany. Francis Rogers declares that the American 

 speaking voice is not inherently nasal or unmusical, 

 but is certainly crude and uncultivated. Its dis- 

 agreeable qualities are due to generally slovenly 

 utterance and neglect of the mere technique of speech. 

 The best speech in England and America is practic- 

 ally the same. 



The Nineteenth Century and After. 

 We regret to notice that the Nineteenth Century is 

 becoming more and more after, and less and less up 

 to the dale of the twentieth century. At any rate, I 

 was only able to obtain a copy of the January 

 number on the second of this month, and as we go 

 to i)ress on the same day I am unable to give any 

 notice of its contents. 



In the Ilil'l-ert Q^iiarlerly Journal, which api)eared 

 after we had gone to press, there are two articles 

 which ought specially to be mentioned— Sir Oliver 

 Lodge's article on " Balfour and Bergson " and Mr. 

 L Ramsay Macdonald's re[)ly to Professor Henry 

 iones on "The Corruption of the Citizenship of the 

 "Working: Man." 



