Hrileu of Rei'iewt, 1111/06. 



The Reviews Reviewea. 



5°5 



THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW. 



Except for the vei'V interesting paper on '■ Pecksniff 

 and His Prototype," by one Mr. S. C. Hall, a writer and 

 critic the Independent Iteciew this month has not a 

 really striking article. Mr. J. L. Hammond has an 

 appreciation ot Charles James Fox in consideration 

 of his centenary to be celebrated this month. Mr. 

 H X Brailsford contributes the first of a series of 

 articles on Sir Edward Grey's Foreign Policy treat- 

 ing so far of Russia and Macedonia only. He says 

 that it is important to know whether our future 

 policy will be that of the Cronstadt visit and the 

 March loan, which helped the Tsar to browbeat the 

 Duma, or that of the Prime Minister's historic 

 '■Vive la Duma!" which "made a new epoch in our 

 relation.s with the Russian democracy." For this 

 same speech I notice that Blackwood's Maoazine has 

 nothing caustic enough to say about the Prime Minis- 

 ter. 



Lady Trevelyan writes on the caise for Women's 

 Suffrage, a very temperate, well worded article, but 

 making singularly little of the hardest case of all — 

 that of the votele&s woman income-tax payer. She 

 says that from the returns gathered from fifty consti- 

 tuencies, it is found that about 82 per cent, of the 

 whole number of women who would be enfranchised 

 would belong to the working-class. Of course one of 

 the great arguments against suffrage has been that 

 the woman's vote would be an upper class vote, and 

 therefore reactionary. 



Mr. F. Sheehy-Skelfington's article on " Michael 

 Davitt's Unfinished Campaign " is a depressing 

 paper, at least from an Irish standpoint. The Castle 

 and the Clergy, he says, are drawing closer together, 

 and that Irish National Democracy, prophesied by 

 Mr. Davitt a year before his death for 1910, certainly 

 cannot come so soon. But that it will come the writer 

 has no doubt, in spite of his gloom. 



THE CORRESPONDANT. 



An anonymous writer opens the Correspoadani of 

 August loth with the first instalment of an article 

 on the Monroe Doctrine and Pan-American Policy, 

 I'l prnpos of the liio .Janeiro Conference. 

 PAN-AMERICAN POLICY. 



The United States, says the writer, has resolved to 

 establish its leadership in the entire American con- 

 tinent, and since the disappearance of the imperial 

 ritjime in Brazil no Power in South America is 

 strong enough to resist the Yankees. The applica- 

 tion of the Monroe Doctrine to South America is 

 not without interest to Europeans, since the Ameri- 

 cans ha\e tliought they could take part in the Algeci- 

 ras Confer<>nce and meddle in an affair exclusively 

 European, and have tliey not already interfered in 

 other affairs which have nothing whatever to do with 

 the New World, such as the case of the Jews at 

 Kishineff, the question of Asia Minor, etc.? This 

 protecting power of the United States over the 

 South .American continent is not one of principle, but 

 of interest, for the Americans require new markets 

 The Chinese have boycotted them, and Japan does 

 not like their " humbug, bluff, puff, fuss." The Latin 

 Republics of South America are rich, and as the\ 

 have so few indu.stries of their own will be excel- 

 lent marlcpts for American manufactures. 

 POI.ITICAI, BRIGANDACtE. 



Fenelon Gihon di.scu.sses the question of the wealth 

 of the French Congrcrations, and denounces the 

 liquidation of this wealth as a scandalous abuse of 

 power. .\s an instance of the manner in which it 

 is carried out the case of the monasterv of the Grande 

 Chartreuse may be cite<l, Ever.yone knows the im- 



portance of the buildings and other property of this 

 institution. First, the property was put up in three 

 lots, with the following result : — 



At the Civil Tribunal of Grenoble the Chartreuse 

 was awardetl 501,000 francs in June last, whereas in 

 1897 its value was registered as 10,697,500 francs. In 

 the hands of the liquidator, therefore, there is a de- 

 preciation of over 10,000,000 francs. 



The pastoral mountains, constituting the second 

 lot found a purchaser for 47,000 francs. 



The third lot. put up at 80,000 francs, received a 

 single bid of 100 francs. 



The three lots were then put up together at the 

 price already reached, and a further bid of 1000 

 francs realises the sum of only 629,000 francs for 

 this important and wealthy monastic institution. The 

 writer may well characterise the proceedings as 

 shameless political brigandage. 



THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. 



The August number of the Atlantic M(jnthhj prints 

 some notes of Emerson's on Father Taylor a Metho- 

 dist preacher. The Rev. Edward T. Taylor was 

 known as the sailor preacher, for he was for over 

 tliirty vears the preacher at the Seamen's Bethel 

 in Bo.ston. Though the seamen were the main object 

 of his mission, crowds filled his church. 



Mrs. Wharton's novels are the subject of another 

 article bv Mr. Henry Dwight Sedgwick. He says the 

 business of Mrs. Wharton's dnimatis persona is to 

 portray an effective episode, and he characterises this 

 business as one requiring "cleverness as distinguished 

 from originality, poetic feeling, humour, insight, ro- 

 mance, energy, or power." He regards " The House 

 of Mirth " with all its achievement as a promise of 

 more important novels to come. 



Mr. A. C. Benson contributes a short essay on 

 Vulgarity. He distinguishes two leading types of 

 this moral fault— superficial vulgarity having as its 

 chief component self-satisfaction, and a more disfigur- 

 ing fault, namelv, an inner vulgarity, of soul which 

 may co-exist with a high degree of mental and social 

 lefi'nement. The latter is seen to perfection among 

 wealthv aristocracies. Such people have no respect 

 for energy, intellect, superior attainments, nobleness 

 of character, except in so far as these qualities tend 

 to social importance. This vulgarity of soul results in 

 tyranny and oppression ; in nations it produces civil 

 war, and ultimately it was the cause of the French 

 Revolution. 



THE ITALIAN REVIEWS. 



■ The ^-aova Anfolofjia for August contains several 

 articles of special interest to English readers. Of the 

 recent inter-Parliamentary conference held in Lon- 

 don, one of the Italian delegates writes in a strain 

 of almost lyric enthusiasm. Its importance, he as- 

 serts, went 'far bevond anything that had ever been 

 anticipated bv the most fervid promoters of the 

 gathering, and it may well mark the inauguration 

 of a new period in international politics. These ef- 

 fects he considers to le largely due t.o Sir Henrv 

 Campbell-Bannerman, who had the courage to "hold 

 language that a very few .ve.-irs ago could only have 

 fallen from the lips of a humanitarian philosopher 

 or a Utopian dreamer," and the effect of which he 

 deKcribes as "thrilling and unforgetable." Thanks 

 to "C.-B.'s" speech, .500 deputies, convened from all 

 parts of the world, and belonging to twenty separate 

 le'rislative chambers, were bound togetlier by a single 

 ideal, nrad pledged to a I'ow faith of fervent liberal- 

 ism, sane democracy and rapid social progre>ss." 

 (^■livia .\grosti Rossetti ivrites appreciatively of Hoi- 



