270 



The Review of Reviews. 



September 1, ^906. 



biological and medical aid© than the Anglo-Saxon move* 

 ment has aJwaya been able to win- From the time of 

 Aristophanes downwards, whenever they have demonstrated 

 before the masculine citadels, women have been roughly 

 bidden to go home. And now. here in Germany, where of 

 all countries that advice has been most freely given, women 

 are adopting new tactics; they have gone home. "Yes, it is 

 true," they say in effect. " the home ia our sphere. Love 

 ajid marriage, the bearing and the training of children — 

 that is our world. And we intend to lay down the laws 

 of our world." 



11.^ — The Disabilities of English Women. 



In the same review Lady Gro\e sets forth the 

 present Disabilities of the Women of England". She 

 shows that, excepting in Society, women are un- 

 justly handicapped in almost every department in 

 life. I ha^•e not room to go over the oft-told tale, 

 but the following extract will suffice: — 



The inequalities at present existing in the laws relating 

 to divorce, heredity, lunacy, slander and libel, contracts, 

 litigation, criminal and company laws prove that women 

 are invariably at a disadvanatge when confronted with any 

 of the difficulties of life. 



They are arbitrarily shut out from spheres of in- 

 fluence in which thev might do the State much 

 service : — 



This " sphere of usefulness * is no imaginary phrase, as 

 will be seen from a summary of what the Local Authorities 

 (Qualification of Women) Bill proposes. It will enable elec- 

 tors to place directly-elected women on education authori- 

 ties, and to secure their services in other matters of local 

 government, such as the housing of the poor, the looking 

 after public lodging-houses, the management of the female 

 side of lunatic asylums, the regulation of the employment 

 of children, provision for the pre\entIon of cruelty to 

 children, the supervision of industrial schools (containing 

 children from three years of age), the supervision of mid- 

 wives and of baby-farms, of homes foi* inebriate women, of 

 police-courts ajid police-court waiting-rooma (outside the 

 metropolis), and generally to secure their co-operation in 

 matters relating to the public health. 



Could women ask to be allowed to do anything more 

 womanly, more sane, more profitable to themselvee and 

 those they are willing to serve than to fulfil the offices above 

 enumerated? 



That they have done it well is not only not disputed, but 

 pjeans of praise are raised by all intelligent, honest men 

 who have worked on public bodies with women. 



THE CONGO HORRORS. 



Mr. Harold Spender, in the Contemporary, re- 

 views the report of King Leopold's Commission and 

 the consequent debate in the Belgian Parliament. 

 He calls special attention to the report presented 

 by Professor Cattier, who showed that in 1896 

 King Leopold set aside from the Congo State a 

 large area, about ten times the size of Belgium and 

 two and a-half times the size of England, as the 

 Doinaine de la Coitronne. The Professor found 

 that the total revenue of the King's domain 

 from 1896 to 1905 must have amounted to 

 ^2.800.000 : — 



Now, how has the King apent that money? Here. Profes- 

 sor Cattier made some interesting disc-oreries. He found 

 out, by a search through official records, that it has been 

 largely invested in real eat.ate in different parts of Bel- 

 gium. His inciuiries have been restricted by expense to a 

 few districts, but even then the results dug out in Brussels 

 .xnd Ostend cover twenty-one pages in his hook. The pur- 

 chases include hotels, villas, houses, woods, lands, fields, 

 gardens and st.-ihles. It almost looks .as if King Leopold 

 aimed at using the proceeds of the Congo for turning Bel- 

 gium into his private estate. 



Besides these purchases, the proceeds of the Domaine de 



la Couronne are being directed to the following objecta: — 

 (1) construction of the Palace of Laeken at the cost, when 

 completed, of thirty million francs; (2) construction of the 

 Arcade of the Cinquantenaire (celebrating fifty year« of 

 Belgian independence) at Brussels: (3) construction of a 

 " Coloni.al School" at Terveruen ; (4) a Press Bureau. 



"Worse and worse!" The fourth and last is a most im- 

 portant aJid significant item. It explains much. By an in- 

 genious arrangement the profits wrung from the tortured 

 millions of Africa have been used in filling the Belgian 

 and Continental Press with inspired glorification of the 

 '* moral and material regeneration " of the Congo. 



There is, in addition, a deficit of four millions in 

 the "estimate" of the Congo State, so altogether 

 there is a sum unaccounted for of seven millions 

 sterling. " Massacre in Africa seems to go hand in 

 hand with robbery in Europe." 



HOW TO DEAL WITH THE ANARCHIST. 



The writer of " Musings Without Method " in 

 Blackwood's Magazine has no maudlin sentiment 

 ,a,bout the anarchist, nor is he under any illusions 

 as to the soundest method of dealing with him. 

 Indiscreet persons have, tried to encourage him by 

 declaring his bomb-throwing exploits to be merely 

 " political crimes." There is no such thing as a 

 political crime. What is known by that name is 

 merely an ordinary crime with less than ordinary 

 justification in its motive: — 



If a man is driven by the pangs of hunger to steal a loaf, 

 or by some motive of personal jealousy or private revenge 

 to kill his neighbour, he is punished without pity or senti- 

 ment. If. on the other hand, a weak-brained scoundrel 

 is persuaded to throw a bomb, which slays a hundred in- 

 nocent persons, because he pretends to disapprove of king- 

 ship, his act is instantly dignified with the name of " politi- 

 cal crime." 



The sooner this term is abolished from the 

 vocabularies of statesmen and judges the better for 

 the peace and sanity of Europe. 



EXCLUDE THE ANARCHIST. 



England is largely responsible for this confusion 

 of words and deeds : — 



Cannot you hear the Pecksniff of the State thanking God 

 for his own enlightenment, and declaring that, so long as 

 he can keep open house, no man shall suffer for an opinion, 

 even though the opinion finds expression in dynamite or 

 a dagger.^ 



Those whom Russia and Germany. It.aly and France con- 

 demn as l.aw-bre.a.kers are marked out in London for res- 

 pectful consideration. 



Our neighbours may be pleased to be thus saved 

 much trouble, but it is not our business to act as 

 the police of Europe: — 



Tliough we do not breed anarchists, we give them a wilt- 

 ing shelter: and if the anarchists reward our hospitality 

 by flinging elsewhere the bombs which they make in Lon- 

 don, we are in a sense accessor.^ to their crimes. 



Believing, as do many, that personal vanity is 

 the ruling motive for anarchists' crime, the writer 

 would try them in silence and without a name. The 

 anarchist would be merely X or Z ; he should get 

 no publicity in the press : he should make no melo- 

 dramatic speeches in the Courts. Then, thinks 

 BJachn'ood, he would soon cease to be so fond of 

 throwing bombs. 



