The Reviews Reviewed. 



97 



THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. 



Must of the articles in the June number have been 

 separately noticed. The editor compares the two 

 democratic candidates for the presidential chair- 

 Champ Clark and Oscar Underwood. 



Mr. P. I. Lcnno.x presents the historical aspect of 

 Irish Home Rule, and declares that there can scarcely 

 be a doubt that, coming in the train of beneficent legis- 

 lation on the tenure of land, on labour, and on agri- 

 cultural, scientific, and university education, it will 

 tend to promote the peace, prosperity, and happiness 

 of the Irish people. 



Mr. F. H. Blackwell traces the progress of the 

 woman's suffrage movement, and shows how it i.s 

 demanded by the logic of industrial evolution. He 

 says : — 



The indicalions are that llicre are few kinds of work from 

 Hl-ich tlic ftinalc .-ex is absolutely dtbarred either by nature or 

 law or cdstotn. Thtre are about 5,000,000 female breadwir.ners 

 in the I'nited S'.alci above the age of sixteen years. Of the 

 303 occupations classified in the Twelfth Census women are 

 represented in all but nine. I', is suiprising to note that they 

 are found among pilots, baggMgemen, brakenien, conductors, 

 engineers, firemen, >wi-cKnien, yardmen, flag-men, ship carpen- 

 ters, locfcts, bbcksuuth?, machinists, boiler-u.akets, charcoal, 

 cok; and lime burners, slaleis, and well-borers. This is a 

 woudiifj! trausmui.i.ion over which neither man nor woman 

 his conitol. 



.Mr. BLvkudl insists that tlie structure of American 

 politics has grown too large for its present restricted 

 basis. Safety lies in broadening the base, and allowing 

 woman to take her place by the side of man in govern- 

 ment a.-^ in hume life and industry. 



Mr. |. G. Hibbcn, in his inaugural address as Presi- 

 dent of the Princetown University, outlines his 

 philosophy of education. 



THE ITALIAN REVIEWS. 



The interest of the June Xuova Antologia lies in its 

 excellent historical articles. Professor V. Cian, of 

 Pavia, contriiiutes an important series 01 hitherto 

 inedited letters addressed by Charles Albert of .Savoy 

 to his Minister of the Interior, I.uigi des Ambrois, 

 during the years 1844-47, letters which testify to the 

 keen personal interest taken by the King in all the 

 details ni government. The article, with its apprecia- 

 tion of the King's character, is well worth studying liy 

 those who arc interested in the always fascinating 

 subject of the growth of United Italy. A further corre- 

 sponilence is put together by G. C. Faccio with the 

 object of throwing light on the secret negotiations 

 carried on between Cavour and Cardinal .\nlonelli in 

 1S60, in the hope of solving the Konian Question. 

 .\nother article of historical, rather than literary, value 

 discusses Silvio Pellico's famous "' Lc Mie I'rigioni " 

 as an instructive psychological document. The author, 

 G. U. O.xilia, is far from doing justice to Pellico's 

 sublirrc Chnstiyn resignation, and pronounces him to 



have been morbid, over-scrupulous, and fatally weak. 

 That the narrative of his sufferings should have had 

 such an instantaneous and world-wide success he 

 regards as due to the special circumstances of the case 

 rather than to its intrinsic merits, a judgment which is 

 scarcely likely to meet with general concurrence either 

 in Italy or abroad. Mention must also be made of some 

 lively letters from the great actress, Adelaide Ristori, 

 describing both her dramatic triumphs abroad and her 

 patriotic an.xieties as to events in Italy. Finally, there 

 is a very appreciative account of Lady John Russell, 

 based on her recently-published Ufe and diaries, with 

 grateful recognition of her life-long devotion to the 

 cause of Italian Unity. 



The Chnlla Cattoli'ca describes, in a lengthy article, 

 the oppression with which the inhabitants of Russian 

 Poland are being threatened as regards the use of the 

 Polish language in the Roman Catholic churches. The 

 Tsar's government is once more attempting to enforce 

 the law that only Russian may be used for prayer and 

 preaching, a measure which is aimed both at Polish 

 national sentiment and religious liberty. A period of 

 at least petty persecution seems to lie before the 

 unhappy Poles, the vast majority of whom are Roman 

 Catholics. 



In the Rassegiia Contcmporanea F. Olivero devotes 

 some pages to the praise of recent Irish lyrics, note- 

 worthy, he declares, for their melancholy, their 

 patriotism, their tender love of Irish woods and lakes, 

 and their vivid realisation of Celtic legendary lore. 

 A. Agresti contributes a sympathetic account, with 

 some admirable illustrations, of the Kelmscott Press, 

 and corrects some misconceptions concerning the 

 personalities of the founders of the pre-Raphaelite 

 movement. M. Pietravalle exposes the utter inade- 

 quacy of Italian hospitals, both as regards number 

 and efficiency, in proportion to the needs of the popu- 

 lation, and demands a thorough re-organisation of the 

 free medical service of the country. It is enough to say 

 that in Southern Italy there is but one hospital bed to 

 every 1,47.5 inhabitants, and that, in a country 

 "■ infested with tracoma,'" there are but ten small eye 

 hospitals and fifteen special ophthalmic wards in 

 general hospitals. Finally, a biographical sketch of the 

 Danish critic, George Brandes— one of the greatest 

 living authorities on Shakespeare— adds to the interest 

 of an excellent number. 



Under the title, " A Christian Antigone." Maria 

 Barbano writes charmingly, in the Rassegna Xazionale, 

 of Eugenie de Guerin, and more especially of her 

 friendship with that somewhat weird genius, Barbey 

 d'.\i:rcvilly. An article on " Lamennais and the Holy 

 .See " revives ancient e( desiastical controversies. 

 A. Gulinelli describes the " Agony of Persia," and 

 attributes European interference to financial causes. 

 He asserts the days ot Persia to be numbered. 



Emporium contains a beautifullv illustrated article 

 on Cambridge, and another on the work of Henri 

 le Sidaner. 



