296 



The Review of Reviews. 



Septfmber 1, 190S 



paired, another has broken down in the Bay of Along, 

 while those which ought to complete the squadron can- 

 not take the sea for several years. When they are 

 ready, it will be difficult to know what to do with 

 them, there being no naval base for the fleet. The 

 natives fonu the only serious defensive force of Indo- 

 China. The native soldiers have been trained accord- 

 ing to European methods, but France has taken no 

 pains to secure their loyalty. Tliere will be no lack 

 of arms when the natives care to fight against France. 

 In the second June number the writer returns to 

 the subject, and shows that France has done every- 

 thing to make a small empire out of a large one. 



THE END OF THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE. 



In an article on " The Birth and Death of the 

 Triple Alliance " which Alexander Ular has contributed 

 to the second June number, the writer notes the 

 radical transformation which has taken place in the 

 principles which govern the management of affairs 

 between the Congress of Berlin and the Algeciras Con- 

 ference, the cradle and the tomb of the Triple AJ- 

 lianoe. Nothing illustrates so well the gi-eat change 

 in the character of European politics as the position 

 of the reporters tweuty-six years ago and to-day. At 

 the time of the Congress of Berlin the press was 

 considered the natural enemy of diplomatists, and 

 Bismarck would turn in his grave if he knew how 

 his successors and their colleagues treated the news- 

 paper correspondents at Algeciras. 



As to the Alliance itself, the union of Austria and 

 Germany was a very natural aiTangement between 

 two German dynasties, and one not likely to cause 

 disquiet to the rest of Europe, except, perhaps, to 

 Russia. It was the admission of Italy which gave the 

 Alliance its formidable character. The conditions 

 under which the Alliance came into existence are clear 

 enough. Germany required two instruments — one 

 directed against Pan-Slavism and the other against 

 regenerated France. The consequences have been 

 fatal for everybody, and it is to be hoped that in 

 future it will not be the immediate interests of the 

 reigning dynasties but the real interests of the people 

 which will determine the character of international re- 

 lations. 



THE REVUE DE PARIS. 



In the two June numbers of the Revue de Paris 

 Francois Simiand writes on the condition of the 

 workers in mines in France. 



THE LOT OF THE FRENCH MUfER. 



Public indignation, says the writer, is always vented 

 against insufficient precautions and inhumane econ- 

 omies which have fatal results, but public feeling takes 

 on another tone when the victims are the victims of 

 their labour. The work of civilisation may bring its 

 risks, but every means should be applied to reduce 

 those risks. We little know what a mine is like and 

 what is the life of a miner, and we are surprised to 

 learn that a considerable proportion of the workers 

 in mines are not miners at all. Out of 171,600 workers 

 in the French coal mines in 1904, 11,000 were boys 

 from thirteen to sixteen years of age. and 9400 from 

 sixteen to eighteen, and 6100 were women or girls, so 

 that only 145,100 were men over eighteen. 



The miner has had to work hard to have fixed 

 hours of labor, but his wages seem to be anything 

 but stable. Every time there is a new settlement as 

 to wages, he is at the mercy of a power against which, 

 in his isolation, he can do nothing. But it is not 

 only with i-eference to his wages and the conditions 

 of his work that he feels the weight of a distant 

 anonymous power, in relation to which his personal 



desires and legitimate independence as an individual 

 count absolutely for nothing. The miner population 

 is more isolated than an.y other. The people are 

 massed together in great dwellings in artificial cities 

 close to their work, and it is difficult or impossible 

 for the miner to have the feeling of being at home at 

 the end of the day from the interference of his em- 

 ployer. His house belongs to the company, he burns 

 the coal of the company, the doctor and the chemist 

 belong to the oompauy, his children are taught in 

 the schools of the company before taking up the 

 work in the mine, and women and girls all serve the 

 company. Even the church belongs to the company. 



THE NOUVELLE REVUE. 



Leo Claretie, who writes on the Hungarian crisis 

 in the first June number of the Noui-elle Bevue, bases 

 his article on unpublished notes by Count Albert 

 Apponyi. 



IS HUNGARY TO BE HUNGARIAN? 



Hungary, writes the Count, has always been con- 

 sidered an independent kingdom, a sovereign state, a 

 nation, even though it had contracted a permanent 

 alliance with the other countries, under the sceptre 

 of the same dynasty. But Austria has never aban- 

 doned the idea of founding, with all these countries, 

 Hungary included, a unified Empire, and it is the 

 antagonism of these two fundamental ideas which has 

 produced innumerable convulsions during the past 

 four centuries. The compromise of 1867 seemed to 

 have put an end to the dream, but to-day we are 

 obliged to admit tliat it was a vain illusion. The law 

 guaranteed unity of command and organisation of the 

 whole aniiy of the two countries, but the Emperor 

 has made German the language of command and the 

 Austrian arms the arms of Hungary, in defiance of 

 the recognised principle of Hungarian independence 

 and of the laws which proclaimed the Hungarian lan- 

 guage the State language of Hungary, and promised 

 the use of the Hungarian colours and arms in all 

 State institutions in Hungary. 



^Tiat nation in its national military life would 

 sacrifice its money and its children for anti-national 

 military institutions? At last a crisis arrived, and 

 there was a strong opposition for a year and a-half. 

 1903-4. After upsetting two Ministries, a sort of 

 compromise was efi'ected, and there was a six months' 

 truce. But the discontent was not appeased, and the 

 resignation of M. Tisza was the ending of the first act 

 of the drama. The last scene of the second act was 

 the Parliamentary debate in February of the present 

 year, and the third act has only just began . 



THE DUTCH REVIEWS. 



The article which takes the premier place in the 

 current issue of De G-ids is Mr. G. Busken Huet's 

 essay on " The Swan Knight and His Mother." This 

 is the story of Lohengrin, made known to most of us 

 through Wagner's opera of that name. The author 

 enters into the history of this legend, showing that it 

 dates back .several centuries ; he gives us many in- 

 teresting details of the variations of Lohengrin and 

 Parsifal, as they are to be seen in folk-lore, and he 

 concludes with a few instances of the curious notions 

 that prevailed among primitive peoples concerning the 

 birth of children. In order to prevent the evil spirits 

 from injuring the child, parents appear to have pre- 

 tended that the woman had also given birth to some 

 small animal, evidently with the belief that the dumb 

 creatures would be selected as the prey and that the 

 child would thereby escape. 



Prof. Kuiper continues, in Onze Eeuw, his chatty 

 articles on Hellas, Old and New, dealing with Delos 



