The Reviews Reviewed. 



469 



THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW. 



The Contemporary for October is a good all- 

 round number. Several articles have been 

 separately noticed. 



DR. DILLO.V ox FOKEICX AFF.MRS. 



Dr. Dillon thinks that M. Sazonoff's visit 

 will be largely concerned with the Persian 

 problem, and suggests that Sad-ud-Douleh 

 might be the strong man which both I'owers 

 would find it wise to appoint. He deals faith- 

 fully with the scandal of " the Yankee 

 Panama," and says if the Panama Canal Act 

 remains on the statute book of the United 

 Stales, international covenants with Washing- 

 ton will have lost all binding force. It will 

 shake all faith in arbitration and treaties, and 

 will make one feel that huge armaments are 

 the only trustworthy guarantees of territorial 

 integrity and of peace. Morocco he describes as 

 a heavy drag on France, who mistakenly con- 

 ceived it as another Algiers. To reduce to order 

 tribe after tribe piecemeal will involve a huge 

 army of occupation. Italy, Dr. Dillon thinks, 

 will certainly renew her membership of the 

 Triple Alliance. 



UNCONsnoi's 



HUMOUR OF THE ANTI-HOME- 

 RULER. 



Mr. .Ashton Hilliers describes Ireland on the 

 eve of Home Rule. He does not spare the 

 ludicrous inconsistencies of the Irish opfwncnts 

 to Home Rule. He says: — 



There you have them — the relics, the leavings of what 

 was once a dominant aristocracy, decrepit now, bank- 

 rupt in statesmanship and brains, ruined by its biKOtry 

 and want of foresight. So loyal, that it is going (so it 

 s.iys) to rise in arms against its king and his laws (such 

 of them as it doesn't like), so divorced from the facts of 

 its environment that it keeps on relating the same old 

 incompatible tarradiddles, assuring you in the same 

 breath that the country is seething with sedition, yet 

 absolutely peaceful; armed to the teeth, yet thinking of 

 nothing save the newly-found prosperity; abhorring the 

 very words " Home Rule," yet awaiting, finger on 

 trigger, the op|>ortunity to shoot; crimeless, yet always, 

 day in, d.iy out, corqmitting ineffective attempts to 

 murder. (»h, mv brothers, wheresoever light and lead- 

 ing may l>e, they are certainly not with you ! Hut let no 

 man say th;it the comic Irishman is extinct. 



The fact is obvious that with comparatively unim- 

 portant exreptions, Ireland, outside flel/asi and the 

 Protestant districts adjacent, is practically free from 

 crimes of violence. This can be verified by reference to 

 the charges of the Judges on circuit. 



BAD BUSINESS AT THE POST OFFICF,. 



.\Ir. G. P. Collins calls attention to what he 

 conceives to be the bad managt^ment of the 

 trading dcp.iriments of the .Slate, notably the 

 telegraph service, which is being worked al .in 

 annual loss of over a million. He reckons that 

 the sum paid by the telephone company as 

 royalties for the right to trade in telephone 



business should go direct to the Exchequer, and 

 not be entered to the credit of the State tele- 

 phone service. So readjusted, the account 

 shows an annual loss of ;^340,286. Even allow- 

 ing the royalties of the telephone company to 

 be reckoned in the telephone account, the de- 

 partment shows no profit. He presses for an 

 economy in management that will resist the 

 pressure of interests and of the popular desire 

 for cheapness. 



WHAT THE TARIFF COSTS AMERICA. 



Mrs. Ashton Jonson wages ruthless war from 

 .'\merican experience against Protection as a 

 panacea for Labour unrest. One manufacturer 

 she quotes as showing that the tariff compelled 

 the American people to pay six millions a year 

 for shoes more than they otherwise would. 

 Further, Protection is being demanded by shoe 

 manufacturers. English samples were shown 

 by them as costing 5s. 6d., impossible of dupli- 

 cation in .'\merica under gs. 6d. Cashmere 

 hose, which in London would cost 3s., could 

 not be bought under 8s. or los. The .American 

 consumer pays just about double what his 

 English cousin does. She quotes Miss Tarbell 

 to show the pernicious effects of the Tariff 

 League, which is perfectly organised to bring 

 the influence of almost unlimited wealth to bear 

 in the support of the protected interests. 

 " .Xothing but a revolution can bring about a 

 reversal of the tariff policy." 



OTHER ARTICLES. 



H. A. L. Fisher gives a vivid sketch of 

 Corsica and its Napoleonic reminiscences. He 

 remarks th.it the French Clovernment have put 

 up no tablet to m.irk any of the homes or houses 

 of the great Napoleon, though he is held in 

 adoring memory by the Corsican people. Pro- 

 fessor Sanday thinks that the prosf>ects of 

 Christian reunion in 1912 have been advanced, 

 not merely by the positive negotiations so far 

 approved by the Established Church and the 

 United Fre<; Church of Scotland, but also by 

 the milder temper with which Welsh Disestab- 

 lishment has been discussed. Rev. E. C. E. 

 Owen laments the defectiv<; teaching in the 

 modern side of English public schools. Rev. 

 W. C. Stewart contributes an apprecintinn of 

 Lafcadio Hearn. 



Mr. Maurice Low quotes in the National a 

 salutary remark from the New ^'l)rk Sun : — " The 

 Monroe Doctrine Is but painicd lighining unless 

 behind it and every application, amplification, 

 amendment and corollary of it stand the .Army 

 and Navy of the Ignited States, the whole power 

 of the United .States, and behind that the sub- 

 stantial majority of American public opinion. 



