Review of Reviews, l/S/06. 



The Reviews Reviewed. 



193 



taken evei-y means to let it be known last month, both 

 in Egypt and Turkey, that the Sultan must fight it 

 out alone with England, expecting nothing from the 

 Fatherland. Mr. Dicey thinks the present Mini.stry 

 could not have acted more vigorously aJid patriotically 

 than they did over the Anglo- Turkish dispute, and 

 sees every reason to hope that the Sublime Porte has 

 learnt its lesson so well that not for some time will 

 it seek to convert a nominal into a real supremacy in 

 Egypt. He insists that our military occupation being 

 at the bottom of tlie Egyptian question, we should 

 make it more apparent than has lately been done Miat 

 Eg^pt is really in the military occupation of a British 

 Army. Lord Oromer realised this, but lately we have 

 been forgetting it. If we are not to have a recur- 

 i-ence of last month's performances, we must make the 

 British Army in Egypt much more prominent again." 



GOOD HOUSEKEEPING. 



The second number deepens the impression made by 

 the first. The intelligent, educated housewife which 

 our schools are turning out by thousands will find here 

 ,iust that combined appeal to her intelligence and to 

 her housekeeping instincts which magazinedom has 

 hitherto not supplied. President Roosevelt's opening 

 paper on the duties and dignities of home life has 

 claimed separate notice. There is an excellent sugges- 

 tion developed by H. S. for decorating doors and walls 

 with photogi-aphs of scenery in a tasteful and inex- 

 pensive way. A little moulding, a little glass and a 

 little time are apparently all that is necessary to 

 utilise our photographs ajid beautify our homes. But 

 there is no end to the devices and discoveries of 

 value for the enrichment of homo life, for decoration 

 indoors, for gardens in window and balcony, for sew- 

 ing and embroidery, for cookei"y, for the care of 

 babies, wives and husbands, for handicrafts, for 

 library, etc., etc. A panel of educated Australasian 

 matrons would probably pronounce this magazine just 

 t/i« thing for new homes to peruse and profit by. 



THE REVUE DES DEUX MONDES. 



Paul Leroy Beaulieu, who contributes to the Mevue 

 des Deux Mondes of May 1st an article on France in 

 North Africa, deals with Algeria and Tunis. 



FEANCE IN NORTH AFRICA. 

 The French, he writes, may have made mistakes 

 occasionally, but on the wliole their work in North 

 Africa is worthy of all praise. France has never de- 

 sired Morocco; on the contrai-y, she realises that her 

 colonies should be limited by her resources and means 

 of action, and an excessive extension of occupation 

 may dislocate a colony rather than consolidate it. To 

 have a legitimate and preponderating influence in 

 Morocco, and to see to it that no hostile feeling gets 

 established there to displace it, ought to sufiice. 

 France may devote her efforts to a real and inoffensive 

 pacific penetration without any responsibility of estab- 

 lishing order, and she should set about connecting the 

 detached parts of her African Empire by raiUvays. 

 She should make that occupation effective by a positive 

 and visible chain connecting Algeria with the French 

 Soudan. Trans-Saharan railways are a strategic, poli- 

 tical, administrative, and economic necessity. 



LA REVUE. 



M. Finot opens the first May number of La Bei-ue 

 with his article on French Money and Russian Friend- 

 ship. He is followed by Mr. W. T. Stead, who pleads 

 for the creation of a. Budget of Peace in aji article on 



France, England, and the Hague Conference, believing 

 that it would be preferable to prepare for peace instead 

 of sowing the seeds of war. 



LET US OBEATE A BUDGET OF PEACE. 

 It goes without saying, writes Mr. Stead, that one 

 franc out of eveiy thousand francs put at the disposal 

 of war would not suffice to eliminate the elements of 

 defiance, rivalry, and jealousy which are the causes of 

 so many disasters in the world ; but we may believe 

 that such a sum, in preventing the over-heating of 

 international relations, would have the same beneficial 

 result; as we would get if we lubricated with oil the 

 machinery of a steam-engine. A little oil judiciously- 

 applied where the friction is excessive prevents the 

 danger of explosion ; and in a similar manner we may 

 believe that the wise application of this small sum 

 will in a short time sensibly appease the state of irri- 

 tation and inflammation of public opinion which makes 

 quarrels and discussions degenerate so easily into wars. 



THE CANTINBS SCOLAIBES. 

 In La Eerue of May 15th Madame Moll-Weiss 

 describes the system, showing how it began in a very 

 modest way with meals for poor children, but 

 gradually extended its field of operations to include 

 many otlier children able to provide some of the 

 materials and pay a small fee. The chief aim of her 

 article, however, is to point out defects or weak places 

 which might be remedied. In certain schools, for in- 

 stance, the children do not wash their hands before 

 the meal ; tien the teachers are hampered by insuffi- 

 cient utensils for both the cantine and the table. The 

 tables are not laid nicely, and they have surfaces 

 which cannot be easily cleaned. The children are also 

 inconveniently crowded together. No knives and 

 forks are provided, and altogether an opportunity for 

 forming an element of taste and propriety in the chil- 

 dren is lost. Very often, too, the food is not of the 

 right nourishing quality. 



COUNT TOLSTOY: AUTOBIOGEAPHIOAL. 

 In tlie same number we have a translation of some 

 new autobiographical notes, in which Count Tolstoy de- 

 scribes his earliest recollections of his parents and 

 other members of his family. He refers to a previous 

 autobiography, in which he divided his life into four 

 periods : First, the period of innocent and happy child- 

 hood, then a terrible period of twenty years of coarse 

 depravation, followed by another period of eighteen 

 years from the time of his marriage to his moral re- 

 surrection, and lastly, the present period, which has 

 lastetl about twenty years, the period in which he 

 hopes to die, the period in which he realises all the 

 importance of the past life, a period which he does not 

 desire to be other than it is save for the evil habits 

 which have become incorporated in him during the 

 preceding periods. To-day he proposes to re-write his 

 autobiography, especially the periods of adolescence 

 and youth, and in the present number we have the 

 period of childhood. 



The Hiirhingrr nf TAiiht for June contains articles 

 on Rev. John Page Hnpp.s, Robert Browning, Susan 

 B. Anthony, and a large quantity of well-culled in- 

 formation. It makes up an interesting number. 



The Youi\q Man's Ma.'inzinc (N.Z.) continues its pro- 

 gress merrily. Each number seems better than the 

 previous one. Robert Browning is getting a fair 

 amount of attention. Both this magazine and the 

 Harhinqer nf Liqlit devote considerable space to a 

 study of the man and his work-s. Of course the point 

 of view is very diff'erent. Nevertheless, the glimpses 

 are exceedingly interesting. 



