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The Review of Reviews. 



November 1. 190€. 



BUCKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, 



The opening paper in Blackwood's, on Abdul Hamid 

 of Turkey, has lieen separately notiied. It remains to call 

 attention to one of the eharmini; and amusing papers in 

 much lighter vein which are a specialtyi of Blackivond'x — 

 "A Man's Bete Noire," and to Mr. Walter B. Har- 

 ris's unearthings from an old volume of the Memoirs 

 of " A Gentleman of Rank." Travel papers are re- 

 presented by " A Trek in the Kalahari," and another 

 paper deals with Staghounds — past and present. 



THE NEW SPIRIT IN INDIA. 



Sir C H. T. Crosthwaite, the writer of this paper, 

 which is in large part an admiring criticism of Mr. 

 Morley's Indian policy, does not believe that it is 

 " a new spirit." It is merely the old and oft-express- 

 ed desire of the educated classes in India for positions 

 of more power and influence. They resent their ex- 

 cltision from English society ; the exclusive nature of 

 the Civil Service, which, however, is open to them, 

 and other things in their lot which are not as they 

 would have thera. But it is mischievous to let it be 

 .supposed that this discontent, of which every Anglo- 

 Indian must be aware, is anything new. The demand 

 of the educated Indians is. not so much for a change 

 in the form of Government as in the personnel. If 

 they could do so, the writer doubts whether they would 

 establish " popular " government in India. What 

 they ^vant is more of the higher office in the State, 

 carrying power and handsome emoluments : — 



They have no wish to destroy autocracy or bureaxicracy. 

 They do desire to be the autocrats and the bureaucr.ata. 



The upshot of the article is that no much greater 

 advance towards popular government or towards dis- 

 pensing with the services of Englishmen is possible, 

 and it is better to make that clear at once to all 

 concerned. 



becoming obsolete. The farmer migrates fo the cheap 

 suburbs of Barnstaple and Bridgwater, with poor 

 results to the half-educated rustics. 



THE CORNHILL MAGAZINE. 



In the September number of the Cornh'iU Maga- 

 zine Mr. W. A. Shenstone surveys our knowledge of 

 the origin of life. He begins with the experiments 

 of the great Italian, Francesco Redi, about 1670. 

 and e^•en those of some of Redi's predecessors, and 

 ends with Mr. Burke, whose discoveries, he says, 

 teach us no clear lesson, and convey no new know- 

 ledge about the origin of life. 



Count Alvise Zorzi concludes his article on Rus- 

 kin in Venice. He says if Ruskin were alive now and 

 could revisit Venice, he could not fail to be satis- 

 fied with the restoration of the Ducal Palace, the 

 vork done in the church of the Frari and other 

 churches (the Campanile of St. Mark's excepted), and 

 the treatment of many palaces : and he thinks A'^enice 

 ought to \ote a majestic monument to Ruskin to 

 record all the benefits he conferred on the citj* by 

 his writings. 



In ■' The Face of the Land " Mr. F. Warre Cornish 

 .sets forth in a charming manner the characteristics 

 of the different counties of England. The land, he 

 says, has its own face, as well as the sea and the 

 sky, but the sea and the sky tell their story in ex- 

 pan.ses of colour, light and shade. On the land the 

 deities are iunumerable^the Erdgeist, the Will of the 

 Wisp, elves, pixies, goblins: some to hurt, some to 

 lielp, some both to hurt and to help. But these are 

 invisible natures, and yet "they have shaped and 

 coloured for our delight the visible features of our 

 beloved England. Mr. Cornish regrets that in 

 Somersetshire, for in.stance. the pride of living in 

 the house where one's grandfather lived is fast 



THE EMPIRE REVIEW. 



The opening article in the Empire Review, on 

 ■' The Meeting of the Monarchs," has claimed sepa- 

 rate notice. One paper deals with the extension of 

 Canadian trade : two travel articles respectively with 

 the Victoria Falls, by Mrs. Page (not as well writ- 

 ten as her earlier papers), and on the West Coast 

 Sounds of New Zealand — unfortunately a feeble ar- 

 ticle; the interesting Sea-Dyak Legends are con- 

 tinued; and Mildred Ransom has a temperately-writ- 

 ten "Plea for Civic Rights for Women," pointing 

 out once more the many anomalies in their legal posi- 

 tion as compared with that of men, and especially 

 insisting on the desirability of their municipal rights 

 and duties being extended. Mr. Haldane's Army 

 scheme is criticised from two standpoints, one much 

 more favourable than the other. 



SMALL GEAZING FARMS IN AUSTRALIA. 



There is an interesting paper on the question of 

 small grazing farms in Australia, and whether they 

 can be made to pay or not. By ' small " the writer 

 means about 2500 to 3000 acres. After an experience 

 of twenty years, his conclusion is that, in general, 

 given sufficient capital, they can be made to pay. 

 He cannot recall a single instance of a man having 

 started wool-growing on a small area of suitable coun- 

 try and not having succeeded in making a living. 

 Drought, for various reasons, often presses far less 

 heavily on the small than on the very large grower. 

 As to what the writer considers "sufficient capital," 

 he says, for a 3000 acre block, lit to carry 2000 sheep, 

 a man wants £1500. Moreover, the successful small 

 grazier must not gamble on the sheep-market and 

 must start clear of debt. He warns those ''simple 

 people who advocate putting the ' unemployed ' on 

 the land " that sheep-farming requires capital ae 

 much as any other business, and that Australia can- 

 not afford to give away land for nothing to the '' un- 

 employed '' while thou-sands of her own practical 

 busnmen are eager to purchase or rent every acre 

 the Crown has available. 



THE GRAND MAGAZINE. 



Many readers will be interested in Mr. A. Wallis 

 Myers' setting-off of the advantages of golf and lawn 

 tennis one against the other. To keep thoroughly fit, 

 if I read him aright, he thinks both are desirable. He 

 insists that golf ia not an expe_nsive game, except 

 while you are learning and smasning up your clubs. 

 IS SMOKING INJURIOUS.' 



■The other article of chief interest is the moot 

 point of the importance of smoking. Most people 

 will tliink that the noes have it. Dr. Robert Bell, 

 in his contention that smoking is not injurious, of 

 course qualifies his statements by saying it must not 

 be carried to excess, and as a notion of what he con- 

 siders excess says that anything more than two 

 ounces of cigarettes a week, no smoke to be inhaled, 

 or two ounces of tobacco for pipe smoking, if pre- 

 ferred, or four ounces of cigars. This many smokers 

 will consider verv modest. Naturally also he will 

 have nothing to say in favour of young people smok- 

 ing. 



Dr. Brudenell Carter, in contending that smoking 

 is injurious, makes one interesting point : — 



\ great American University instituted a comparison be- 

 tween its smoking: and its non-smoking students, with the 

 results that the latter were easily first in everything, in 

 games as well as in studies, and I think this result might 

 safely have been foretold. 



