tlfvieic of Heiieics, 1/8106. 



The Revleivs Reviewed. 



191 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AND AFTER. 



liOBD DUEHAMS PRECEDENT FOE SOUTH AFEICA. 



Miss A'iolet R. Markham recalls Lord Durham's plan 

 of CaaadiiUi SettliMiient in 1841 as iuauguratiug our 

 Colonial policy of ■ Trust the people," and as initiating 

 the motlorn ideal of the Empire as a free confederation 

 of sister States. The pi^ecedent is extensively quoted 

 for the settlement of South Africa to-day. But the 

 writer fears that Lord Durham's " unqualified assertion 

 ■of British supremacy and the supreme necessity of 

 establishing the latter on an impregnable basis," to- 

 gether with the conditions lie imposed for securing 

 these emls, is not equally well remembered. Lord 

 Durham proposed the legislative union of Upper and 

 Lower Canada, " which would give responsible govern- 

 ment on the basis of a clear English majority " : — 



What reason is there to think that the suggested liaiid- 

 iug over of power to the Boer majority in the Orange 

 Kiver Colony will not, in Lord Durham's words, " be used 

 against the'policv. or the verv existence of any form of 

 British Government"? Federation of the various Colonies 

 is the ultimate hope of South Africa, as it was in Canada. 

 Will Lord Elgin see to it that in the former country 

 British interests and a British minority are safeguarded 

 during the period of transition with a vigilance equal to 

 that displayed by Lord Durham in Canada? 



PEAS.\NT OWNERSHIP IN SUSSEX. 

 Mr. Wilfred Scawen Blunt, writing as a Conserva- 

 tive on tlie possibilities of peasant ownership in Sussex, 

 lias no complaint to find with the existing system of 

 land tenure in Sussex. There is no rack-renting, and 

 there is an imimemorial custom of compensation for 

 improvements. To ie-e.stab!isli peasant holdings other 

 small industries should bo C-ncouraged. Mr. Blunt 

 reckons that in the Su.ssex weald a family can live by 

 plain unaided agriculture on a holding of not less 

 than twenty acres. Five acies a man can cultivate 

 •by his own unaided spade lalK)ur. Milk and chicken 

 farming aie the subsidiary industry which he recom- 

 mends. He would limit elementary schooling to four 

 years at most, so that at tvelve the boy can begin 

 iii.s agricultural training. Girls, instead of being 

 taught to despise all unladylike duties, should be 

 •trained hardy enough and roii^li enough to do country 

 wi.'rk. 



.\IH. (:L.\DSTciXE as M.\NU.\I. I .IBK.MilAN. 

 Mrs. Drew tells the story of the origin and progress 

 jjI Mr. Cladstone's library at St. Deiniol's, Hawarden. 

 She tells how her father's library fille<l one room after 

 jitiother until he devised the idea of a country home 

 for purposes of study and researoh, and in 1891) two 

 large iron r()oni.s were erected on the ci-est of Hawar- 

 <len Hill. ^- Then the travel of the books began " : — 



Twentv-seven thousand were carried up the hill. Anyone 

 who lia's himself moTed a few hundred books from one 

 room to another in the same house will appreciate the 

 sheer hard manual labour tliat Mr. Gladstone put into 

 this migration of his library from one house to another. 

 Each \)unk be took down from one house to another. Each 

 hook he took down from the shelves, and each packet he 

 strapped up with bis own band.,, and no vehicle was ever 

 •illowed to leave the Castle without its consignment of book 

 bundles. Arrived at their destination, they were laid upon 

 the floor in the order in which they came, and Mr. l;bal- 

 stone unaided save hv his valet and sometimes one of his 

 daughters when honie from Cambridge, unstrapped and 

 lifted and sifted and placed the volumes one by one in 

 the bookcases prepared to receive them. His babits 

 "savoured more of serious handiwork in the arrangement 

 of a library than of lordly survey .and direction. And, 



"lie adds "'wliat man who really loves his books delegates 

 *o anv other human lieing. as long as there is breath in 

 n.is hody. the office of introducing them into their homes? 



MOKK PLEAS FOE ENTENTES. 



Late Chief Comiiii.v^ioner Yate, writing on England 



-. uid Russia in Persia, says that 



a joint undertaking by such Powers as Germany, France, 

 Russia and England should surely work out for the peace 

 of the world and the good of all coucerued. while the pro- 

 posed rapyrochement between ourselves and Russia would. 

 it" is hoiied. be speedily brought about by ;uiy such joint 

 undertaking, and have its effect not only in the Middle 

 East but throughout the world generally. 



Speaking of the Bagdad railway, he says: — 



Wherever the line is to enter the Bagdad province, and 

 that according to the plan in the Standard is somewhere 

 to the north of Mosul, from there the British Government 

 should take ch.-irge and should hold the charge from that 

 point downwards to the head of the Persian Gulf. 



More marvellous still, Dr. Vambery concludes an 

 article on " Constitutional Tartars," by solemnly re- 

 buking these who say uncivil things calculated to make 

 bad blood between England and Russia: — 



We know that there is a desire for a graceful arrange- 

 ment and a mutu.^l understanding between the two rival 

 Powers in Asia, an entente which would be not only in the 

 interest of the two countries, but also of the peace and 

 cultural efforts of mankind. 



THE PALL MALL MAGAZINE 



The June mimber of the Pall Mall Magazine opens 

 with an article on " The Mj'stery of Edwin Drood," by 

 Charles Dickens's daughter, Kate Pei"ugini. 



Everyone who has read " Edwin Drood " would 

 naturally like to know how Dickens intended to end 

 the story. His daughter asserts that Edwin Drood 

 was undoubtedly mtirderetl by his uncle Jasper, but 

 we are left to our own iiiiaginataons or speculations to 

 unravel the mystery. 



Mr. .J. P. Colliiiis contributes an interesting article 

 on Mr. Napier Hemy and his work. When he was nine 

 years old, Mr. Hemy's father went out to Australia, 

 and perhaps it was then that the artist caught his 

 passion for the sea. Once he tried his vocation in a 

 Dominican monastery, but happily soon forsook the 

 cloister for painting. 



The picture "'Pilchards" was painted from studies, 

 the .actual painting taking ten days, but the accumula- 

 tion of the studies fourteen years. Mr. Hemy thinks 

 many artists make the mistake of not getting enough 

 material together. 



Another of Mr. Hemy's pictures, " The Calvary," 

 took twenty years to paint, but this work the public 

 declines to buy. It is a study of mediseval Flanders. 



In another article Mrs. John Van Vorst gives us a 

 picture of Shopping in New York. In the large de- 

 partment stores the credit system is in vogue, and 

 perhaps this serves to whet the appetite. The Ameri- 

 can woman si-enis to spend a great part of her day in 

 shopping, and her purchases are mainly articles of 

 dress. It is evidently a strenuous occupation, for all 

 the large stores are provided with an emergency hos- 

 pital. 



■'From Paleolith to Motor Car '' (Clarion- Press) is 

 the title of a book written by Mr. H. Lowerison for 

 the instruction and a.musement of the lads whom he 

 is educating in his own original fashion somewhere in 

 tile Eastern counties. It is a good idea well worked 

 out. Mr. Lowerison tells the whole history of the 

 progressive evolution of modern England in a series of 

 stories, each linked on to some relic, or ruin, or land- 

 mark in the immediate neighbourhood of his school. 

 "If youth but knew," sighed "Kappa" in the Wi'sf- 

 iiiitistcr Gazette. But here Mr. Lowerison takes caro 

 that youth shall know. All educators who wish to 

 make English history intoresting and real to their 

 |iiipils should get this book. 



