The Reviews Reviewed. 



227 



THE NATIONAL KEVIEW. 



The fditor of this magazine must l)e 'nap|iy at last. 

 He was shoutcil down by a national gathering of 

 Unionist a-;s<K-iations. But he who shouts longest 

 will shout last. .And Mr. Maxse has the imdoubtec! 

 satisfaition. such as it is, of having set the " new 

 stvle "' which the most notorious I'nionists are now 

 sedulously following. 



Here, for example, is Earl Percy writing on " the 

 great .\rmv reform imjiosture," and speaking of 

 l.ord Halilane iu ,1 way which makes us glad that 

 we no longer take our manners from our old or new 

 noliilit\. He is not content with declaring that our 

 soldiers are arm-d with a ritfe "' probably inferior 

 to anv in Kur(>[)e." that the system of registering 

 horses will dela\ moliilisation. and that the peace 

 establishment of our infantry is " dangerously 

 low." He charges Ijnd Haldane with " fal.se rea- 

 soning," ''subterfuge, intrigue and humbug," 

 antl that he " deliberately misled " the }:>eople. He 

 .ictually sinks to th •• littleness of jiutting within in- 

 \crted commas the military title of the present .See 

 retarv for War, thus: — "'Colonel" .Seel\ . 



To keep his pages further res<inant with termagant 

 rhi'toric, the editor prints Mr. F. R. .Smith's Bel 

 fast s|K'ech of July 12th. 



Even Mr. W. H. Mallock, denoimcing Syndical 

 ism as i)r()of of the intellectual bankruptcy of .Social 

 ism. cannot quite rise to the same level. He only 

 reaches this sort of thing: " Such doctrines are like 

 the stale dregs of beer which Socialists of the more 

 thoughtful kind have left in their abandoned 

 glasses ; and with these dregs the new Trade Union- 

 ists fuddle themselves and reel into the world mis- 

 taking inebriety for the illumination of knowledge." 



Dr: Brougham I.eech is ixjsitivelv calm in i)liad 

 ing for a Unionist camiJaign throughout the length 

 and breaflth of Ireland, and for Unionist candidates 

 at every bye and general election. 



" Egotistical Eighteen " varies the style of criii 

 cism of ri;cent and current literature by .scheduling 

 unrler " the blind sjx)t " (the foot-space three feet 

 from the batsm.in's l)lock) the writers whom " no 

 one reads." 



Mr. Maurice Low de.scrilies Mr. Bryan, who de- 

 noimces "fiosses. ' as "the most powerful lioss of 

 all," and antici|p.ites the eUvtion of a Radical to 

 carry out .1 Radi<'.d programme. 



.•\ pleasant relief from the din of [)olitics is given 

 by v.. Bruce Mitford in " Britain's five finest walk- 

 ing tours." The.se are the Lizard and Land's End, 

 the Nf)rth Devon coast, the Snowdon district, the 

 English Lakes, and the Trossachs and I.iich Awe. 



Sir. P. .'\irey, once an Australian M.P., pours 

 ■.corn on com[)ulsory ;irbiiration as a remedv for 

 labour troubles. 



The Canadian correspondent wartis the Quebec 

 hierarchy that their intellectual des|>f)iism will sooner 

 or later I>e attackerl anrl overthrown. He .savs ihc 



Erench-Canadian colleges are thronged with teachers 

 who would fail to win their degrees at McGill and 



Toronto Universities. 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



With the exception of a few ineptitudes, which 

 for the writers' sake a kinder editor would have 

 suppressed, the Jul\ niimU-r has an ajipetising bill 

 of fare. 



THE WOEFUL PLIGHT OF OUR COTTON TRADE. 



.\ gl(X)my prospect for our cotton industry is drawn 

 l)y Mr. Ellis Barker. .American ring spindles con- 

 sume 50 per cent, more raw cotton and produce 5c 

 per cent, more yarn than the English mule spindles. 

 Our annual total of cotton goods is now valued at 

 /|i 10,000,000, as against .America ^125,000,000. 

 English wages average ^200 a year, Ameri- 

 can ;£340. One English weaver can seldom tend 

 more than four plain looms, whereas an American 

 will manage twelve or twenty automatic looms. The 

 greater efficiency of .America more than offsets the 

 greater cost of labour and estalilishment, and results 

 in equal or greater cheapness. The moral is Tariff 

 Reform. The writer goes on to say: - 



l.arK-ashire li;is lost tlie Japanese market. It will pro- 

 bably li>Be the Cbiiieae market within a few years, and it 

 will eventually lose the Ituiian market as well unless the 

 Indian market is reserved to l.aiii-ashire under a system 

 of Imperial preferences. Tliat is its only hope. I.am-asliire 

 ran i-ompensate itself for tiie probable loss of tlie Chinese 

 market by i)referential arrariKements for her t-ottons not 

 only with India but with a.H the other British dominions 

 antl eoloniee. which, with their rapidl.v prowinp popula- 

 tion, are hound to be ever more valuable rustoiners- 



FOR A LEGAL MINIMUM WAGE. 



Mr. Ensor, L.C.C., wonders why underpayment, 

 which is the root of our social imrest, did not be- 

 come an orthodox subject of f.actory legislation. The 

 physiological minimum — the lowest amount com- 

 patible with animal efficiency- -and the trade inini- 

 mum — the highest a trade can bear- must both be 

 considered, the former as an element in the latter. 

 Parliament must fix no figures, hut leave that to dis- 

 trict boards. Foreign competition need not be 

 feared: "generally s^" Ving, our most regulated 

 trades face foreign cort-,'" '^n most successfullv." 



STERN MEASURES 1 U .THE CRIMINAL. 



Mr. W. S. Lilly pleads fgl.- retributive or vindic- 

 tive justice against the reiiirrent offender. He 

 .savs : — 



>8 Ob Quarter Seuiont should 

 of .'personal liberty for thr 



A third convirtion nt Aasites 



roAult in the oflemier's l.vss of fperso ^..., ,„ 



rcif 0/ )ii.' Ii/r. He should heldeported to some island 

 and rcduied to a state of indljstrial serfilom. in which 

 ho should earn his own subsistc/iee for it would he nioti- 

 Blrous that ho should be inaintJilti^'d at the expertse of the 

 romrnunity. Of course he shoyld be humanely troiited. 

 HufBcienlly fed. not over-worke«" and provided with the 

 means of mop;il anrl rellKious j \ilture- but a stern dis- 

 cipline should he enfor<ved. the rhief instruments of whii h 

 wnnld he the Insh and reduced rl tii>n8 for the niulinom. 



OTHER ARTJtvt.ES. 



Recent art sales, their hiige totals, and huge in 

 dividual prices, are discussed bv W. Roberts, who 

 reports four sales in Paris which produced over j 



