596 



The Revlewr of Reviews. 



December 1, 1906. 



THE REVUE DE PARIS. given to American themes and writers, hut the list 

 In the first September numher of the Bmip de Paris "^ contributors shows a number of British and Euro- 

 Victor Berard, the editor, refers to the recent meet- P^^^ *»» well as American names, 

 ing of the King and the Kaiser. 



FRANCE AND ENGLAND. 

 France, he writes, need not he disquieted by the 

 reconcilation of the King and the Kaiser. Edward 

 VII. has always been loyal in his desire for a closer 

 friendship between England and France. At the 

 present moment immediate interest is centred in 

 Morocco. Both by written engagements and vital 

 interests England is connected with the French- 

 Moroccan affair. If any enirnif is possible between 

 London and Berlin we may be sure that Edward 

 VII. will not do anything without France. Morocco, 

 Tripoli. Egypt, and Mesopotamia are four spheres of 

 influence where the pacific and civilising activity of 

 Europe is fettered only by the rivalry of European 

 Powers; an equitable arrangement might assign to 

 each its responsibility and its part in the work. 



GERMANY AND TURKEY. 

 In the same number the editor concludes his 

 article on Arabia. The liberation of Egypt, he writes, 

 .seems to be one of the aims of Turkish policy. The 

 Sultan has never been reconciled to the English oc- 

 cupation, and though he has maintained territorial 

 limits and political conditions, he is in the humour 

 for wishing to change these conditions. If the Kaiser 

 and the .Sultan do not want war, the Akabah railway 

 might, in the hands of the English, become the in- 

 strument of a more mischievous policy than Ottoman 

 power. The Sultan under German protection, and 

 the Ottoman peoples under the influence — that is the 

 result of the Turkish Empire after fifteen years of 

 Abdul Hamid's rqiime- 



INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. 



Alfred Droz. writing in the second September num- 

 ber, discourses on Intellectual Property. He says 

 people cannot fail to be struck by the increase in 

 value of certain masterpieces, and they ask whether 

 the artist or his heirs should not participate in the 

 benefits accruing from such rise in value. Millet, for 

 instance, sold his " Angelus " for a small sum, and 

 yet extraordinary prices have been paid for this pic- 

 ture. A\'ould it not be fair to give some of it to the 

 artist or his living representatives? It has been sug- 

 gested that a syndicate be formed of artists who 

 would engage to sell all their works, and it would 

 be stipulated by each artist that whenever a work 

 of his changed hands the syndicate must intervene 

 and see that some portion of the profit paid by a 

 new purchaser be retained for the artist's heirs. 



PUTNAM'S MONTHLY. 



In October Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons will begin 

 the re-issue of Pi.fnaiii's ilonfhhi. a magazine started 

 by the late Mr. George P. Putnam in 18o3. AVith 

 the new rutnain's Mitnflihi will be incorporated the 

 New York Critic, which was founded in 1881 and 

 pulilished by Messrs. Putnam since 1898. In the first 

 issue of this publication all the contributions were 

 printed anonymously. Among the writers were in- 

 cluded George William Curtis with his " Potipliar 

 Papers " and " Prue and I." James Russell Lowell 

 with his •' Fireside Travels," and " Moosehead Jour- 

 nal," Thoreau with his "'Cape Cod," etc., besides 

 contributions in verse by Longfellow, Stoddard, 

 Lowell. Stedman. and others. In 18o7 the magazine 

 suspended publication owing to the commercial panic 

 of that year. In the new issue precedence will be 



THE ITALIAN REVIEWS. 



The Xunva Antntnijia has undertaken to introduce 

 George Meredith to the Italian public through a 

 translation — with some slight cutting down — of 

 " Diana of the Crossways.'' Hitherto, it appears. Mere- 

 dith has been ignored by Italian literarj- critics, and the 

 only one of his novels translated has been " Sandra 

 Belloni, " which once appeared as a feuillftun. In the 

 same number E. Cecchi writes with much enthusiasm 

 and no little discrimination of the author's life and 

 work, describing him as a writer " of pure fantasy, 

 improbable, legendary, mythological," and his mar- 

 vellous art as '"a triumph of invention" and "a 

 splendid reflection of the drama of Shakespeare.^^ 

 The critic selects " The Ordeal of Richard Feverel " 

 for detailed description as being the most charac- 

 teristic of the novelist's works. The anonymous 

 writer " XXX " displays some anxiety lest with the 

 intrnfr coidialr between England and France and the 

 renewed friendly relations lietween England and Ger- 

 many, Italy should be left out in the cold. He ex- 

 presses the hope that the appointment of so dis- 

 tinguished an ambassador to the English Court as 

 the Marquis di San Giuliano will inaugurate a new 

 period of full sympathy and international under- 

 standing. The >."ditor, Maggiorino Ferraris, discusses 

 the familiar problem: what to do with our boys. 

 After condemning both the kind of education given 

 to the middle classes in Italy, and the lack of educa- 

 tion provided for the poorer classes, he suggests that 

 young Italians should be encouraged to complete their 

 education abroad, for preference in England, Ger- 

 many, or the United States. Of life in England he 

 gives many details, all of a flattering nature, and 

 recommends a sojourn among us, both for the de- 

 velopment of character and the acquisition of indus- 

 trial and commei'cial knowledge. 



That the movement for the emancipation of women 

 in Italy is growing in a remarkable degree may be 

 judged from an ably-written and sympathetic article 

 in the Birista il' Italia (August). The author, A. 

 Marghieri, who incidentally displays an intimate 

 knowledge of the agitation in England, declares him- 

 self opposed to the sudden wholesale enfranchisement 

 of the sex by means of universal suffrage, as has been 

 proposed in the Italian Chamber, but pronouncing 

 himself in favour of a scheme by which women over 

 twenty-five might be eligible for the franchise either 

 on a property or on an educational qualification. 



The Cii-ilfii Catfulica publishes some melancholy 

 figures concerning suicides, intended to show- at once 

 the growth in the practice of suicide throughout the 

 nineteenth century and its comparative rarity in 

 Catholic countries. Thus Spain and Ireland are both 

 at the bottom of a list in which Saxony, Denmark, 

 and Prussia all take a deplorably high place. The 

 increase of suicide in both France and Italy during 

 the last thirtj- years has, however, been very marked. 

 In the whole of Europe for the years 1870-1900 the 

 suicides have been calculated at over 1.000,000. Ger- 

 many alone being responsible for 300.000. It ha^ 

 never been so frequent save in the decadent ages ot 

 the later Roman Empire. 



A sketch of the life and work of Giuseppe Giacosa. 

 the well-known dramatist, appears in the JJo.s.frg/m 

 Xa-ionalc. Those who are able to appreciate Italian 

 poetry will find in the same number a very instruc- 

 tive study by G. Lesca of Arturo ^raf, the most 

 melancholy and forceful poet of contemporary Italy. 



