Iteview of Revieua, I12OJO6. 



The Reviews Reviewed. 



397 



I 



THE AMERICAN REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



I quote elsewhere tlie brief characler sketch of 

 Aladyin, the Russian peasaut-bora Democratic leader. 

 There is a very interesting and copiouslv illustrated 

 sketch of Rio de Janeiro d propos "of the meeting of 

 the Pan-Anierican Coufei-enoe at that city and of the 

 United States of Brazil, of which it is at present the 

 capital. There is an appreciative sketch of Dr. 

 Hodgson, the well-known Comiiiissioner for Education, 

 who is now retiring from office. From an article on 

 Alcohol, in trade, we learn that in 1901 the world 

 used 515 million gallons. Germany used one-fifth, 

 Great Britain only one-thirteenth. Alcohol can be 

 produced from od. to 18d. per gallon. The railroads 

 and the rate question, on which it is said the future 

 of a community depends, are treated of at length bv 

 Mr. P. S. Fiske. 



THE NATIONAL REVIEW. 



The NaUonal Review is cheerful reading for Libe- 

 rals, but it can hardly be recommended as pleasant 

 holiday literature for Conservatives. 



The only important article to non-politicians is Mr. 

 Adolphe Smiths scathins report upon the state of the 

 Chicago dockyards, which he exposed long before " The 

 Jungle" was written. Mr. Smith is very sceptical as 

 to the reform of the evil system b.v the packers. He 

 a sks : — 



Have they not proved their ahsolut* callousness and in- 

 difference? Can we afford to imperil the health of count- 

 ^■■^^5 millions of persons by trusting them again ^ Let them. 

 ,iny case, commence by pulling down the block buildings 

 it. are five and six stories high, and where " liglit and 

 are sacrificed to increase the capacity of the plants." 

 t them build model slaughter-houses in the technical 

 use of the term. Let them provide an isolation station. 

 •.Here there shall be quarantine pens for animals susi>ected 

 if sickness, a, quarantine slaughter-house for such animals, 

 Mtfl a destructor well removed from the general business. 

 " 'len these, the very first and elementary steps of reform, 

 ve been taken, then the Ohicigo packers may begin to 

 :k about restoring confidence in tlieir industry and theii" 

 ^ 'id intentions. 



Mr. E. W. Morris writes on the Opsonic Treatment 

 ind Tuberculosis. Mr. R. M. Horne Payne writes 

 -fUiiibly upon the .\rt of Investment, and Mr. Roberts 

 Lxpounds " the ups and downs of picture prices." 



THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. 



The July number is rich in historic articles. Re- 

 ff-rence has been made elsewhere to Mr. Dunlop's 

 account of Irish origins, and to a survey of the legis- 

 lation conceived in the interests of children. 

 EX^CLESIASTICAL PROBLEMS. 

 Mr. R. S. Rait laments that we have still to wait 

 ill- dispassionate discussion of the real value of the 

 Kiiosian Reformation and of Knox's share in bring- 

 I'X it about. And was it necessar.v. he asks, that it 

 . luld be of so extreme a character? He also regrets 

 that recent writers have not done justice to " the 

 genuine humility of the man, which stands in striking 

 contrast to the arrogance of the prophet. A thought- 

 ful writer discusses the origin and nistorical basis of 

 the Oxford Movement, and concludes with the stigges- 

 tloii that revelation is not "once for all."' but con- 

 tinuous and eternal. The appeal to origins must not 

 Ignore the needs and intelligence of the present. The 

 Report of the Commission on Ecclesiastical Discipline 

 is surve.ved in another paper, which hopes that the 

 recommendations will be carried out as the.v stand. 

 The reform of the macliinerv must go side by side 

 with the correcting of irregularities. "On the other 

 liand," the writer adds, " we do not doubt that, 

 unless the irregularities are correcrte<l and the rule of 



law is restored in the Church, revolutionary changes 

 must inevitably ensue." 



NOETHUMBEBLAND. 

 The history of Northumberland, seven volumes of 

 which are being brought out by a county committee, 

 is surveyed with loving local patriotism. The writer 

 says : — 



In no other part of England can the history of the past 

 be so well read on the face of the country as in Northum- 

 berland. Few other counties have won, as it has done, tlie 

 love of those who- dwell in it. As its history carries us 

 back to the sources of our civilisation, so do the character 

 of its i>eople, the subtle charm of its wild scenery, the life- 

 giving freshness of its sweeping winds, seem to carry us 

 back to the realities of things, to the consideration of the 

 real forces of nature, of the" real power of man. 



OTHER ARTICLES. 

 The first year of the Boer War i? traced anew in 

 the dr.v light of German criticism. Among many 

 faults pressed home by the reviewer are the British 

 general.s' want of experience of manoeuvres on a large 

 scale during time of peace, their unwillingness to 

 make large sacrifice of life in order to attain their 

 ends, and the forgetfulness of the fact that no amount 

 of bravery will make up for lack of skill. The over- 

 whelming" success of the bloc in the French general 

 election is attributed largely to the enormous official 

 influence and popular programme of the Government. 

 The writer maintains that beneath all the apparent 

 indifference "there are far more Catholics in France 

 than the people think." The naval progress of 

 England in the Mediterranean is followed bv another 

 writer down to the acquisition of Gibraltar. There is 

 a grouping of a number of subjective writings under 

 the title of -'The Literature of Egoism," and Mr. W. 

 Lewis Jones explores the relations of Geoffrey of 

 Monmouth and the legend of Arthur. 



THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW. 



The interest in the August number is. as usual, pre- 

 dominantly humanitarian. Papers dealing with the 

 peace of the world and the perils of the flesh-cater 

 have claimed separate notice. Mr. C. G. Fall, con- 

 tinuing his account of ■The Waning Prestige of 

 Germany." suggests that the Kaiser may have been 

 as busy as a bee, as vigorous as a horse^ as alert as 

 a flea, but an unsatisfactory manager of foreign 

 affairs. The writer suggests that Russia and Eng- 

 land might yet succeed in burying the hatchet. He 

 asks : — ■ 



It the Tsar, whose heart seems to be right, and who has 

 had Sisyphean difficulties to deal with, and an old effete 

 system to overcome, succeeds, witli the help of others, in 

 establishing a legislative Government, is there a man living 

 who is lilselier to have a greater name in history? 



'• lijnota " pertinently suggests that it is about time 

 English women received the same privileges as the 

 Finnish women are now possessed of, and as the 

 Duma claimed for Russian women generally. 



Dr. John Knott takes up the cudgels in defence of 

 F. J. Gall and phrenology. He maintains that — 



(iall laid the foundations of our present knowledge oi the 

 central nervous s.vstem with immeasurably less assistance 

 from the works of his predecessors than had Newton in 

 the case of astronomy. Lavoisier in that of chemistry, or 

 Faraday in that of electricity. 



Mr. Arnold Smith, discoursing on education and 

 ethics, looks to the peisonal influence of the teacher 

 rather than to the learning of moral precepts b.v rote 

 for the development of the scholar's character. Mr. 

 \\ . M. Leadman glorifies the place that Oscar Wilde 

 will yet obtain in literature. Mr. J. Hudson pro- 

 nounces a centenary eulog.v on H. K. White, the 

 martvr student. 



