374 



The Review of Reviews. 



October 1, li06. 



THE PEACE MOVEMENT. 



In the JVestmirister Review Mr. Herman Schef- 

 fauer writes on the powers preservative of peace. 

 He pleads for agreement between Britain and Ger- 

 many to act as a determinant of war and pTeser\'a- 

 tive of peace among neighbouring nations. A close 

 friendship of this kind would, he maintains, form 

 a union of such impregnable strength as to be able 

 to dictate and obtain that policy and state of uni- 

 versal peace which all nations conceive to be indis- 

 pensable. Britain and Germany are natural allies. 

 Cohesion of race ought to tell: — 



It 13, therefore, not in a formal alliance with a semi- 

 barbarous, newly-ciTilised Oriental Power nor in the inter- 

 change of courtesies between herself and a Latin people, 

 foreign in temperament, race, religion, ideals, form of 

 government, and genius of language, nor in a remote in- 

 dependent Transatlantic Power that England has to seek 

 her natural ally, but in her own hemisphere, in a race 

 and nation more closely related in all essential and signi- 

 ficant points. 



The sea power of England and the land power 

 of Germany opposed would be futile. United they 

 would form the most potent workman in the crusade 

 of peace. 



In the Westminster Review also, Mr. Harry Hodg- 

 son, writing in view of the coming Hague Confer- 

 ence, denounces the arbitration treaties that have 

 been so numerously signed as sham agreements, for 

 they apply only to questions of a juridical character 

 or interpretation of treaties. They explicitly ex- 

 clude vital interests, independence or honour of con- 

 tracting parties. These excluded elements are 

 generally those on which international rupture oc- 

 curs. He prefers this practical idea : — 



To make resort to arbitration by the nations a success. 

 there should be a capable, impartial and stable judicial 

 authority. It is the f;u.t that no such reliable authority 

 exists that makes statesmen shy of arbitration. But the 

 nations have not yet made an intelligent attempt to form 

 such an authority. The -personnel of the Arbitration Court 

 ought to have permanent existence, and not be subject to 

 the choice of the disputants, as is the method with the 

 Court of the Hague, since such choice inclines to par- 

 tiality. Each contracting nation should choose a man, or 

 more if necessary, as a member of the Court. When ar- 

 ranging the scheme, the representatives of the nations 

 should solemnly pledge their respective governments and 

 peoples to select a man with the single purpose of secur- 

 ing high character, capacity and impartiality. It should 

 be agreed that the men elected shall each renounce the 

 special claim which his nation has on him, and shall by 

 his election enter into meml>ership of all the contracting 

 nations, and that thenceforward to the end of their lives 

 their bond and obligation shall be to all these nations 

 alike. Each man elected should be required to make a 

 solemn pledge to do his utmost to free himself from the 

 influence of party interests, and to make it his sole regard 

 to promote the well-being of the nations by the impartial 

 and wise conduct of the Court. A neutral language should 

 be chosen for the official use of the Court. The spreading 

 use of Esperanto in several nations in recent years proves 

 that such a language, suitable for all purposes, can be 

 acquired without great difficult.v. Each contracting nation 

 should bind itself to submit to the Court every matter of 

 difference between it and the other contracting nations 

 which they fail to settle diplomatically; and they should 

 agree to jointly maintain the Court's authority. 



Such a scheme, he argues, might be started by 

 any two of the great military nations. 



THE TSAR'S CASE AGAINST THE DUMA. 



The Petersburg correspondent of the North 

 American Review thus states one side of the Russian 

 controversy which seldom finds expression in the 

 English press : — 



The Tsar's case is this. He granted certain concessions 

 to his people and loyally means to abide by them. But 

 the politicians who have come to speak in the name of 

 the nation are not contented with these. They want not 

 merely more power, but all power. They do not even ask 

 for it. but act as though they might take as much as 

 they wanted without anybody's leave. They demanded a 

 Constitutional Assembly. It was refused. And now they 

 themselves usurp the functions of a Constitutional As- 

 sembly bv throwing existing governmental institutions into 

 the melting-pot and moulding new ones. Now. tins is a 

 breach of compact. Either, then, the Duma will abide by 

 the terms of the contract, or else the contract will be 

 annulled. It seems most probable that the Duma w-ill not 

 be satisfied with the modest role assigned to it by the Em- 

 peror For it already attempts to wield full legislative 

 powers and claims other rights besides. It began by dis- 

 tributing their functions to each section of the new 

 Dolltical machine; itself took tlie lion's share; the Coun- 

 cil of the Empire got nothing at all. while the Tsar was 

 degraded to tlie rank of a figurehead, a waiter at the 

 banquet he gave to his subjects. 



"Reign, but rule not!" we;e the stage instructions given 

 to the Tsar. He was not permitted to exercise even such 

 prerogatives as are jealously preserved by the most eon- 

 stitutional of rulers. He was commanded to pardon 

 criminals, including murderers who had taken human 

 lives en masse without ruth, with calm deliberation. He 

 heard it publicly proclaimed that those men were not 

 criminals but heroes, that their release viae an act not of 

 mercv but of justice, that it was not requested but de- 

 mand'ed, and that it must be done at once. His Ministers, 

 who according to the terms of the compact were to be re- 

 sponsible to him alone, were condemned by the Duma to 

 lose their seats, his former Ministers were excluded by the 

 Labour party from the benefit of the amnesty, and an 

 amendment was laid before the Duma to have them im- 

 peached for obeying the Tsar's orders at a time when 

 the Tsar's authority was unrestricted. Agrarian reform 

 was demanded on lines which, in the opinion of many 

 liberal-minded politicians, would shake the foundations of 

 private property, open the door to State Socialism, and 

 bring about national bankruptcy within a twelvemonth. 



To the Court party all this smacks of Jack Cadeism, not 

 of parliamentary government. That being the view adopted 

 hv the Tsar and his influential friends, it is but natural 

 to anticipate the dissolution of the Duma during the long 

 rece'iS, and the creation of another assembly more faith- 

 fully reflecting the conflicting views of the nation. Mean- 

 whiie, terror continues to reign in vast districts of the 

 Empire Men are being condemned to death by secret 

 tribunals and being killed hv wandering bands. Trains are 

 being fired at. derailed, held up. 



THE EDUCATION BILL. 



The " Edinburgh's ' Three Blots. 

 The Edinburgh Review says: — 



When everything has been said about the principle of 

 the Bill, there are, it must be admitted, provisions in it 

 which it is difficult to account for. except on the unworthy 

 supposition that the Government is afraid of the extreme 

 and violent section of the Nonconformists amongst its sup- 

 porters. 



The refusal to allow teachers in the transferred schools 

 to continue the denominational teaching, when they are 

 willing to do so. on the appointed days, will cause irrita- 

 tion in everv transferred school. It will create a local 

 grievance, arid cause the greatest inconvenience in almost 

 every part of the country. And we are quite unable to see 

 what cotmterbalancing good will be efi'ected. Again, it iB 

 greatly to be regretted that the House of Commong nas 

 decided, though by a very small majority, thai education 

 shall only be compulsory when secular; and that attend- 

 ance, when only religious instruction is given, shall not be 

 required. 



A third and very peculiar provision in the Bill is that 

 which introduces a plebiscite by ballot amongst parente 

 to decide the question of " extended facilities." 'We can- 

 not conceive a provision less calculated to work well, or 

 more open to objection in principle. 



