Revieir of R'Vieirs, lllijOe. 



THE REVIEWS REVIEWED 



THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. 



This admirable Review is now published on the 7t.h 

 and 21st of each month. Tlie English-speaking woild, 

 therefore, can now boast a fortnightly review in fact 

 as well as in name. It will be very intere.sting to 

 note how the experiment succeeds. 



GOLDWTN SMITH ON BRITISH INDIA. 

 Mr. Goldwin Smith writes a well-balanced article 

 on British Empire in England: — 



British Empire in India is in no danger of being brouglit 

 to an end by a Russian invasion. It does not seem to be 

 in mucli danger of being brougiit to an end by internal 

 rebellion. Yet it must end. Such is the decree of nature. 

 In that climate British children cannot be reared. No race 

 can forever liold and rule a land in which it cannot rear 

 it< children. In what form the end would come it has 

 hitherto been impossible to divine. " B.v accident " was the 

 only reply which one who had held high office in India 

 cotild make to such a question on that subject. Since this 

 reawakening of the East, a more definite source of possible 

 disturbance may be said to loom. In eucoui-aging Japan to 

 go to war. Lord Lansdowne may have done sometiiing which 

 was far from his intention, and of which he did not dream. 

 He may have inadvertently pressed the button of fate. 



GEORGE MACDONALD. 



Louise Collier Willcox pays a high tribute to G. 

 Macdonald, whom she styles "■ A Neglected Novel- 

 ist '': — 



The rare beauty of Macdonald's novels is their gift of 

 wide horizon and repose. From the clever, mannered, ner- 

 vous, swiftly moving stories of our own day. to turn back to 

 his work is like coming out of the heated glare of the theatre 

 into the blessed sunlight and the open meadows. In the 

 attitude towards tlie visible world we find Macdonald's was 

 the mystic's consciousness — the great love of space, the sense 

 of spirit in the winds and storms, the love of trees and 

 flowers, shade and sunshine, stars, waves, even the black 

 interstellar spaces as the habitation of spirit, the visible gar- 

 ment of the Creator. 



MR. ROOSEVELT'S PLEDGE. 



■■ Q ■' writes on Mr. Roosevelt's right to accept a 

 nomination, despite the fact that he voluntarily gave 

 the following pledge: — 



" On the 4th of March nest I shall have served three and 

 one-half ye.a-s, and this three and one-half years constitutes 

 my first term. Tlie wise custom wliich limits the President 

 to two terms regards the substance and not the form. Under 

 no circumstances will I he a candidate for or accept an- 

 other nomination." 



While Governor of the State of New York and harassed by 

 ■ the unremitting etTo:ts of politicians to suhmerKe him in 

 the Vice-Presidential office, he declared with all the emplia- 

 sis at his command: "Under no circumstances could I o- 

 would I accept the nomination for the Vice-Presidency. " 

 Later, he added, " My position in regard to the Vice-Presi- 

 dency is absolutely unalterable." 



Yet he became Vice-President, and in all proba- 

 bility, his pledge notwithstanding, be will be forced 

 to accept a thiid term of office for the Presidency, 



THE LATEST VISION OF THE HEBREW. 

 The Rev. H. P, Mendes, in an article entitled 

 'Palestine and the Hague Conference," says: — 



Let the approaching Hague Conference open the question 

 of the reconstitution of the Hebrew nation by the great 

 Powers of to-day, even as Belgium and other nations have 

 been reborn with independence. 



Then he thinks if the Hague Permanent High Court 

 be transplanted " to Zion, dear and hallowed in the 

 eyes of all the Catholic, Protestant, Greek-Church, 

 Mohammedan and Jewish worlds, the religious or sen- 

 timental environment will not be without force," For 

 " out of Zion will go forth law, and the word of the 

 Lord from Jerusalem." 



THE CORNHILL MAGAZINE. 



The October number of the dtriiliiU Maijazine has 

 for frontispiece a reproduction of a newly-discovered 

 portrait of Charlotte Bronte. It is a water-colour 

 drawing from life made in 1850 by Charlotte Bronte's 

 friend, Paul Heger of Brussels. Recently it ^yas ac- 

 quired by the trustees of the National Portrait Gal- 

 lery. 



Mr. Arthur C. Benson has an article on the Ethics 

 of Reviewing. As a writer of books and a publisher 

 of more than one of them anonymously, he maj- be 

 said to have some experience of critics. He thinks 

 we have a good many reviewers at work, but review- 

 ing is a trade rather than an art. M'hat we have 

 not got (he says) is a race of wise and artistic critics, 

 alive to originality, delicacy, and quality. If we had 

 a development of artistic literature there might be 

 a development of artistic criticism. When Mr. Ben- 

 son was a reviewer himself once, he read everything 

 he reviewed. His difficulty lay, not with books ot 

 merit and character, but with the vague, unequal 

 amateur books that needed to be read more than 

 once in the hope of finding a salient feature or tan- 

 gible point. 



In an article on the Tides, Mr. Frank T. Bullen 

 endeavours to make clear the distinction between 

 the oceanic currents and the regular ehli and flow of 

 the tide. 



THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW. 



Tlii' October number supplies Liberals with reading 

 much to their mind. Perhaps the most notable paper 

 is that, noticed elsewhere, by Miss F. Hayllar, who 

 applies the science of child study to the elimination of 

 the religious difficulty. Of higli importance is W, S. 

 Blunt's account of the new Egyptian nationalism. 



LIBERALISM AND SOCIALISM. 

 Mr. Chiozza Mone.y, M.P., discusses the relations 

 of Liberalism and Socialism in the light of the Master 

 of Elibank's cry of warning. Mr. Money maintains 

 that, wherever two or three men are gathered to- 

 getln'r for mutual help. Socialism is in the midst of 

 them. He recalls that Professor Dicey recognised the 

 perifxi of 186,5-1900 as the perio<l of Collectivism. 

 This Mr. Money would describe as the period of Vu- 

 conscious Socialism. " The twentieth century begins 

 i>, periotl of Conscious Socialism.'' To renounce its 

 Socialism would be to destroy the Liberal party. He 

 says, if the Liberals imagine that they can exist 

 merely by flourishing the Free Trade flag, they are 

 mistaken. Liberalism can only be a power by leading 

 the nation along the path of sane Collectivism, 



