Revific of Reviews, 1121/06. 



The Revietvs Reviewed. 



5° 3 



THE WORLD'S WORK AND PLAY. 



There is much interesting matter in the September 

 number. Mr. Sheridan Jones' policy for use of the 

 Crown hinds, Dr. Martin's account of China trans- 

 formed, and Mr. J. P. Fox's appreciation of the 

 single rail suspended railway, have been separately 

 noticed. 



A NAVY THAT HAS FOUND ITS SOUL. 



Mr. Arnold White describes from his experience 

 in the recent manoeuvres the flagship as the brain 

 of the fleet. He says: — 



The discovery of its soul by the Navy during the List 

 four years has already doubled the strength of the fleet 

 by improved gunnery efficiency, and within the last two 

 months has quadrupled the control of the Admiral over 

 distant ships through improvements in the range and re- 

 liability of wireless telegraphy. This naval renaissance is 

 mainly the work of flagships. 



The quarter-deck, he says, once sacred to the Ad- 

 miral, is now devoted to tlie physical drill, which is 

 one of the things that has revolutionised the modern 

 navy. The Swedish syet^em has been adopted, and 

 the general effect of the new tniining has, he says, 

 been to increase the alertness and improve the health 

 of the ship's company. Mr. Arnold White approves 

 the omission of one " Dreadnought '' from the con- 

 struction programme. He sa^vs we shall have four 

 "Dreadnoughts" ready to fight befoie a single 

 foreign "Dreadnought" is launched, and if the 

 "Lord Nelson" is, as some affirm, equal to or better 

 than the " Dreadnought," '' England will have ten 

 'Dreadnoughts' at sea not very long after the Hague 

 Conference has ended in smoke." In view of the 

 enormous i-esponsibility, naval and national, that 

 rests upon the admiral, he suggests that there should 

 be a spar© admiral, with a dormant command, ready 

 to succeed to the command in case of the death of 

 the commander-in-chief. 



800.000,000 BRICKS A TEAE FEOM ONE FIELD. 

 Mr. Frank Burt describes the gigantic clayfield 

 stretching for miles at Peterborough. In 1879 de- 

 posits of Oxford clay, seemingly inexhaustible, were 

 discovered covering an area of many square miles, 

 with a depth varying from 60 ft. to 232 i^. There is 

 now more than a million sterling invested in capital, 

 and over three thousand operatives are employed. 

 The Oxford clay is easily workable, the oil in it pro- 

 motes combustion. The clay dug up by the steam 

 digger — 1^ cwt. at each throw- i.s tipped into a mill, 

 reduced to powder, the mould filled, pressure of one 

 hundred tons applied, and the brick is turned out. 

 A single machine will make many thousands of bricks 

 a day. One acre of clay 100 ft. deep will yield as 

 many ae eighty million bricks. This industry has 

 rapidly developed the city of Peterborough. Al- 

 ready it is predicted that Peterborough will become 

 one of the largest and most important centres of in- 

 dustry in. the Midlands. 



FEATERNITr BEFORE SOCIALISM. 



Mrs. Havelock Ellis describes a Cornish experi- 

 ment in cottages. Twenty years ago she resolved 

 to put into practice the ideals of Morris that fel- 

 lowship is heaven, of Goethe that we should live in 

 the Whole, the Good, and the Beautiful, and of 

 Kant, that every human being should be an end in 

 himself. She rented five cottages at from £4 to £5 

 a year, and let them furnished from 12s. Cd. to £3 

 3e. a week, according to the season. She confesses 

 to being disillusioned b.y "the man who loiters, and 

 the woman who plays in the name of service." She 

 says : — 



When I began this work I was, as I said before, a 

 r Socialist. Ae I write I cannot honestly call myself that 



or any other " ist." I have proved more and more every 

 year of my venture that though every man should have 

 an e<iual opportunity with every other man. it is the 

 bigger vision that it is the imperative thing in both em- 

 ployer and employed. Mere material well-being cannot 

 make a working man into a better democrat any more 

 than wealth of necessity turns a millionaire into an enemy 

 of the people. " It takes a soul to move a body even to a 

 cleaner sty," said Mrs. Browning, and in any democratic 

 experiment there must be mutual comprehension of the 

 fraternal idea, or it will ever be a case of parasite and 

 host. 



She has not yet made the bank interest on the 

 capital sunk. But she has gained an experience thiit 

 is pricele.ss. " Self-mastery first, self-giving next" is, 

 she says, essential. 



OTHER ARTICLES. 

 The drainage system of North London, which it has 

 taken more than five years to complete, is pro- 

 nounced by one writer the most perfect in the world. 

 Mr. Percy Collins gives an interesting account of 

 how to protect orchards from the ravages of insects 

 From Mr. Evelyn Stuart's sketch one learns that 

 Algeciras, noted in diplomacy, is famous also as one 

 of the chief centres of the making of corks. The 

 work of the Drawing Society in encouraging drawing 

 in schools is described by Robin C. Baily under the 

 heading of " Rearing a Nation of Artists." There 

 is much else that Ls bright and readable. 



EAST AND WEST. 



The practical-minded W^eetern will perhaps feel 

 about the August number that there is more of East 

 than West in evidence. The subjects dealt with have 

 been Eastern pre-occupations rather than Western. 

 Miss E. M. Caillard deals in devout metaphysics con- 

 cerning the ideal, the real and the actual. Mr. Er- 

 nest Horwitz treats of Vedanta and Christianity, de- 

 claring that Vedanta will never take the place of 

 Christian principle, and that all missionary efforts 

 to make Hindu converts to Christianity is a national 

 insult. Mr. Manohar Lai describes the main features 

 of Vetlanta philosophy, and claims that Emerson 

 often spoke pure Vedanta. Mr. Abdul Alajid de- 

 nounces afresh the affront offered to Islam by the un- 

 founded story of the burning of the Alexandrian Lib- 

 raiy. Mr. Rama Prasad Chanda extols the import- 

 ance of the sttidy of Indian social history. Between 

 the school of abstract doctrine, of equality, frater- 

 nity and liberty, and the school of Shastric injunc- 

 tions, he urges as the middle cour.se for the party 

 of reform the hi-storic method of social action. 



A gleam of the West seems to break through in 

 Baroness Rosenberg's " Humour in Religion." But 

 by ■■ humour" she means only a sense of the relative 

 proportio!) of life. She rightly thinks that a saving 

 sense of humour would minimise the innumerable sec- 

 tarian divisions and create between diffeient religions 

 a deeper tolerance. Pandit Jwala Datt .Toshi has a 

 novel recipe for strengthening the permanence of the 

 British Indian Empire — to raise a militia of six mil- 

 lions of fighting men, glad to fight in the heart of 

 Europe itself to win for their King-Emperor a Raj 

 oVer the whole world ! " Can we not get permission to 

 fight under the banner of our lord, the Sovereign, 

 and begin work in right earnest; first of all by crush- 

 ing his avowed enemies, and then seeking a living 

 anywhere outside the British dominions that might 

 suit us Ijest in the world?" Feeling tributes are 

 paid to the late Vicereine of India. Mr. Morley. as 

 Secretary of State for India, is pro)ioiince<l by the 

 editor to l>e a right man in the right place. He 

 has come to the conclusion that there is no general 

 desire in India for any radical constitutional reforms. 



