with an entire observation of impartiality, and is written in a clear style, which makes it valuable and readable, in addition to its intrinsic importance as a chapter of history.

George Trumbull Ladd writes shrewdly on "The Mental Characteristics of the Japanese." He finds a varied contradictoriness in the distinguishing traits of this peculiar race-a contradictoriness which he traces to the existent situation in which the old ethnic convictions and impulses of the Japanese are covered over by "a thin crust of modern Western civilization." "United in a few controlling social and political sentiments, almost to the last man, the Japanese are yet unable to form and hold together for more than a few months any consistent governmental policy, or to prevent their political parties from an endless splitting up and internal strife over minor points that should be compromised through the power of dominating conceptions and principles. Obviously and traditionally polite to the verge of obsequiousness, they appear capable of the most extreme insolence; flinging away life for trifles in their readiness to display a self-sacrificing courage, they are when judged by Anglo-Saxon standards—often guilty of the most culpable meanness and cowardice. Having the most delicate æsthetical sensitiveness in certain directions, they are in other directions surprisingly oblivious to all sense of proportion and propriety. Out of the noblest sentiments and impulses, originate with them some of the most hideous of crimes. But all this is understood when once we agree to take the point of view suggested by ethnic psychology."

The literary feature of this excellent number is the first installment of George Meredith's new novel, "The Amazing Marriage "—a title which would fit handsomely the yellow backed novel of the cheap news stands. The very first paragraph, which is a long one, gives liberal promise of the marvelous eccentricities of style that endear Meredith to one part of the reading world, and make him a laughing stock with the rest.

M'CLURE'S.

ROM the January McClure's we have reviewed two articles, Miss Ida M. Tarbell's chapter in the life of Napoleon, and Miss Beatrice Harraden's account of the birth of her famous story, "Ships that Pass in the Night."

The many of us who have become enamored of Mr. Kipling's jungle tales will be glad to see a new one in this number, "Letting in the Jungle," in which Baloo, the bear, Bagheera, the panther, Hathi, the wild elephant, Mowgli, the wolf-child, and the rest of the jungle folk, raze to the ground the village near their forest, with great slaughter and flight of the despised men, who smoke pipes, and otherwise "play with their mouths."

Mr. E. J. Edwards contributes a short article on Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst, in which he sketches the reformer's relations with the political parties, with the Senate Investigating Committee, and more especially with Mr. Goff. Mr. Edwards tells us that it was most largely due to Dr. Parkhurst's influence that Mr. Goff refused the mayoralty candidacy, on the grounds that an acceptance might prevent a union of all the elements opposing Tammany, and because it was believed that Mr. Goff could be of better service as a renovator in the office of Recorder.

Mr. Edwards, who is no contemptible critic of political and executive ability, calls Dr. Parkhurst "the moral ruler of New York, and pays a high tribute to his pru

dence, foresight and energy as an organizer of the great movement which has recently defeated Tammany.

THE

THE COSMOPOLITAN.

HE January Cosmopolitan begins with two notable contributors in "Ouida," who writes a chapter in the "Great Passions of History" series which this magazine is presenting, and in the late Professor Charcot, who tells of the achievements of a still greater scientist,-M. Louis Pasteur. Whatever one's tastes and convictions may allow them to think of Ouida's novels, no one can deny her charm of style and richness of thought; her retelling here of the tragic story of Paola and Francesca is rather the best of the "Great Passions."

Professor Charcot is-or rather his article is, for the Professor is dead-uniformly enthusiastic over Pasteur's career. He records the long list of the latter's scientific triumphs, won by the keenest insight, and the most unwearied energy and tenacity, and culminating in the inoculation cure for rabies.

"Certainly there is none to whom our suffering humanity owes a greater debt of gratitude. His services to it in the past and in the future are incredible. His labors have been so vast that one is disposed to doubt that they are the work of a single brain, and not the contribution of several generations. He is certainly the glory of his native land, but he is more, he is also the glory of the close of the nineteenth century, and if it was still the usage to bestow upon an age the name of a single man, ours might justly be called the Age of Pasteur."

A serial novel begins in this number from that writer of capital stories, W. Clark Russell, who calls it "A Three-Stranded Yain." Albion W. Tourgée continues his "Story of a Thousand," being the record of his regiment's experience in the War, and there is a short story by François Coppée, "The Christmas Bethrothal," while the enterprising and versatile Mr. Edward W. Bok undertakes to tell why the young man of to-day doesn't go to church. He considers it rather less the fault of the young man than of the preacher, to whom he gives some suggestions of what young men would care to hear, and he waives the question whether the church, aside from the preacher, is appropriately fulfilling its mission.

IN

LIPPINCOTT'S.

N the January Lippincott's there is but little beyond the complete novel, "The Waifs of Fighting Rocks," by Captain Charles McIlvane, and the several short stories.

Elizabeth F. Seat, writing on "Christmas Customs and Superstitions," gives the menu of an old-fashioned Yule Tide dinner. It seems rather formidable, with our degenerate present day digestive apparatus:

"First course, sixteen full dishes: a shield of brawn, with mustard; a boiled capon; boiled beef; a rosted chine of beef; a neat's tongue, rosted; a pig, rosted; baked chewets; a goose, rosted; a swan, rosted; a turkey, rosted; a haunch of venison, rosted; a kid with a pudding inside a pasty of venison; an olive pye; a couple of capons; a custard.'

"To these add 'sallets, fricases, quelque choses, and devised paste, as many dishes more to make the full service thirty-two dishes,' which the housewife is admonished is as much as can conveniently stand on one table and in one mess, and after this manner you may proportion your second and third courses, holding fullness in

one-half of the dishes, and show on the other which will be both frugal in the splendor, contentment to the guest, and pleasure to the beholder.'"

Calvin D. Wilson tells about shooting and eating "The Ducks of the Chesapeake," and celebrates the charms of the aristocratic canvas-back. He has his readers know that, even at the shore, where the backwoods pot hunters shoot them, these royal birds bring from $5 to $6 per pair. By the time they reach London $25 a pair must be paid for them. Such notabilities as the Prince of Wales and Bismarck have received them direct from Havre de Grace as presents. Ward McAllister two years ago ordered one hundred pair of canvas backs from the shore at a cost of $5.25 a pair. One famous New York hotel advertises on its bill of fare a service of canvas backs for two for $25. It really seems a pity to kill such valuable creatures as this.

IN

THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

IN another department we have reviewed Sir Edwin Arnold's article in the January number on "The Triumph of Japan." "Some Historic Landmarks of London," by John Gennings, is an illustrated article of much interest; the Tower, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's and the Church of All Hallows, are among the landmarks described. Modern London life (in the East End) is sketched in an article by Miss Moody, who writes. from personal experience in mission work.

In "The World's Debt to Chemistry," Prof. H. B. Cornwall, of Princeton, describes many practical applications of the science, showing the relations of chemical discovery to industrial progress.

Prof. R. G. Moulton, of the University of Chicago, contributes to the "Required Reading" of the Chautauqua course a study of Scott's "Monastery," which is exhaustive and critical without being dry.

"Famous Revivalists of the United States" (illustrated by portraits of a dozen of them) discusses the personalities of the foremost men now engaged in evangelical work in this country. The writer, Mr. S. Parkes Cadman, has performed his task with discrimination and sympathy.

NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE.

HE January New England Magazine, true to home

which attempts to enumerate the educational advantages and beauties of that sturdy old New England town.

Helen Leah Reade writes on Radcliffe College in a clear and discriminating article, and recommends earnestly that any money which can be obtained should be applied to the establishing of scholarships or fellowships in that institution. Every year promising students are turned away because they cannot themselves afford to bear the whole expense of education at Cambridge. As to the excellent work done by this institution, Miss Reade points out that of twenty-two girls who last June were graduated as the first class of Radcliffe, ten received their degrees magna cum laude and three cum laude. Nearly two-thirds of the students live in Cambridge or Boston, a somewhat significant fact in an estimate of the influence which the Annex exerts.

In "A Chapter of Alaska," C. E Cabot tells some interesting things about the habits of the seals. "The male seals begin to land in May, the whole herd following in increasing numbers, staying until November, when they return to the deep waters and remain until the next spring. During these months on land, if the mothers are

killed in their brief absences from their young necessary to obtain food for themselves, the young seals perish. The males while on land partake of no food, subsisting entirely on the store of fat and oil laid up in their blubber through the winter season, when they annually return to feed in the open waters between the islands and the main land. It is in these waters alone that an amount of food is found of fish and of marine life necessary to sustain them for the ensuing season. Some conception of the vast quantity of animal life which exists in these waters may be obtained from the knowledge that each of the five million seals that leave the islands to feed requires at least six pounds of fish per day,-thirty million pounds of food daily for all. It is on their passage through and near these straits that the seals have been wantonly slaughtered by raiders who hunted them in vessels.

"The full-grown male seal weighs between two and three hundred pounds; the full-grown female, about eighty pounds. Never more than one seal is produced at a birth, its weight being about five pounds."

IN

THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.

"Co

N another department we have quoted from Mr. J. M. Ludlow's review of Benjamin Jones' book on operative Production."

Havelock Ellis makes a map of France, but, instead of geographical localities, he marks thereon only the names of men-in all, over one hundred and fifty of the most illustrious Frenchmen of the last five centuries. He tells us about the distribution of these names in an article which he calls "The Genius of France." A man's name is placed on the map not necessarily at his birthplace, but where there is reason to believe he had sent down his deepest ancestral roots. Those geniuses of mixed ancestry, like Dumas, George Sand and Zola, and all Parisians, are omitted. One of the striking generalities which Mr. Ellis is able to make from this data is the almost total absence of men of genius from the interior of France. This historiographer of genius finds that the great names on the map range themselves into certain well-defined groups: The Breton group, the large Norman group, the Flemish group, etc., and these he takes up and discusses in turn.

Professor John Trowbridge, writing on "The Want of Economy in the Lecture System," realizes the innate fondness in the human breast for lecturing and for being lectured. He sees, however, a distinct loss in the clearly intellectual classes of lectures. "The necessity of attending at least one course of lectures may be said to have haunted the Puritan conscience as late as 1866," but now there are few towns in America in which courses of serious lectures are attended. What is needed, Professor Trowbridge thinks, is accompanying laboratory work, some practice in looking up cases, or some method of investigation. "A lecture in science, with illustrations and experiments, requires at least two hours of preparation on the part of the professor. In the course of this arduous work, the latter is doing exactly what the student who is to hear the lecture should do in order to appreciate it. The professor does all the work, and the minds of his listeners, not being prepared as his has been, are not in a receptive state, and the amount of instruction that is assimilated is vanishingly small."

The important purely literary feature of this month's Atlantic is the short story which begins it, by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, which she calls "A Singular Life." Following this there is an essay of very philosophical quality by John H. Denison, on "The Survival of the American Type."

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THE FORUM. HE discussion of the "Baltimore plan" of currency reform by Mr. Hepburn, Philip Gilbert Hamerton's autobiographical notes, Chancellor Canfield's study of alleged Western discontent and Mr. W. R. Thayer's "New Story-Tellers and the Doom of Realism," are reviewed in another department.

Col. Theodore A. Dodge, writing on "The Death of the Czar and the Peace of Europe," takes an optimistic view of the immediate future. He says: "There is no safety in predicting any turn in a game in which a youthful monarch holds a strong hand; but, though many rumors have been running around about the new Czar, Nicholas II, there seems no probability of his undertaking any inflammable rôle. Russia has so much more to gain by peace than war. Barely a third of her army has the new small-bore rifle, and it will be two years before the other regiments are so equipped. Her revenues are none too great. Russia needs her money for the trans-Siberian railway; and she ought not to blow it out of the mouths of big guns. No doubt there is tension in many of the international relations; but that is always present; and diplomats are growing more reasonable. It is probable that what has been said of the character of Nicholas is in the main true; and this should lead him to follow in the footsteps of his illustrious father and make Russia still the dictator of peace."

In discussing the question, "May a Man Conduct His Business as He Please?" Col. Carroll D. Wright puts several others: "The employer or the employe may firmly believe that there is nothing in his conduct which warrants the interference of the public; but, if the public is subjected to great loss, to great inconvenience, to paralysis of trade, should not the individual who precipitates the difficulty be held responsible and accountable to the power which enables him to conduct his business or to perform his labor at all? And especially, when organized capital asks of the State peculiar privileges, under special acts or charters, and at the same time asks that individuals contributing capital be relieved from responsibility of the person, does not the question which has been suggested come with still greater force? And is not the answer that the State shall interfere made with greater emphasis?"

Mr. Price Collier contributes a comparative study of the reading habits of Englishmen and of Americans. “England has nothing like the number of averagely wellread men that one finds in America; but America has nothing like the number of thoroughly well-read, widelytraveled, highly trained men in politics, and in all the professions, that one finds here. In America there is a widespread education of the hare; in England there is, confined to narrow limits, the education of the tortoise, and there is a fable that the world is poised upon the back of a tortoise !"

Mr. Glen Miller has no fear least polygamists should control the new State of Utah; the community, he says, is now in complete harmony with American thought and institutions.

A Brahman and a missionary discuss Christian missions in India from their respective points of view. Their articles form a continuation of the debate started in the Forum some months ago, and it cannot be said that the bewildered reader is much better able now than at first to form a judicious opinion as to the matters in controversy.

Dr. Jane Elizabeth Robbins, head worker in the New York College Settlement, in an article on "Charity that Helps and other Charity," records a number of instances

Mgr. Satolli contributes an exhaustive study of the Catholic school system in Rome, discussing under separate heads the elementary and high schools, other scholastic institutions, the discipline and results attained, and the expenses for instruction. Mgr. Satolli shows that the Papacy spends annually, for the maintenance of its school system in Rome, upward of 1,000,000 lire, and that under the wise direction of the Cardinal Vicar and the special commissioners appointed for the purpose the educational requirements of all classes of people in the Italian capital are provided for in Catholic schools.

Writing of Dr. Holmes and his work, Senator Lodge seems chiefly impressed by the wonderful flexibility and versatility of the poet-scientist's mind. Dr. Holmes had one marked personal trait, which Mr. Lodge does not overlook. "He was in the best sense a citizen of the world, of broad and catholic sympathies. But he was first and before that an American and a citizen of the United States, and this fact is at once proof and reason that he was able to do work which has carried delight to many people of many tongues, and which has won him a high and lasting place in the great literature of the English-speaking people."

Adjutant-General Ruggles makes the following recommendation concerning an increase of our standing army : "It thus appears that 5,500 men should be immediately added to the present enlisted force of 25,000, which would bring it to the standard of 30,500, or 500 in excess of that at which, after reduction, it was established twenty-four years ago. These men would be combatants. The cost of additional men is moderate. The cost of a private soldier for pay, subsistence and clothing is $272 per year. For this increased force there will be required an inconsiderable number of additional officers to replace those who were discharged as supernumeraries in the reduction of 1870. They can be furnished by the promotion of faithful officers of long service who have grown gray in the lower grades, and by filling the few vacancies at the foot of the list from graduates of the Military Academy, by promotion of worthy men from the ranks, or by appointments from civil life."

Sergius Stepniak, considering the probable effect of the Czar's death on the peace of Europe, affirms that the danger of war lies with Germany, rather than with Russia, whose alliance with France is now stronger than

ever.

The meaning of the recent elections is discussed by the chairmen of the Congressional committees. Chairman Babcock holds that the people voted to restore the Republican party to power because they believed that party stood for good money, protection, reciprocity and American prosperity. Chairman Faulkner, on the other hand, is confident that McKinleyism is a thing of the past, that tariff reform has been advanced, and that protection, for protection's sake, has secured few, if any, converts.

T

THE NEW REVIEW. HEODOR BARTH has an article on "The Three Chancellors," which is really devoted to a eulogy of Caprivi, a narrative of his four years' rule, and explanations as to his overthrow. Speaking of the late Chancellor, Mr. Barth says: "Such a type of character is, I think, peculiar to Germany. A sense of duty, fostered by military and bureaucratic traditions, developing itself nobly and purely under the influences of a laborious life and scanty means; a mental adaptability which enables its owner to master the intricacies of every kind of work, without loss of independence and originality of thought; a lofty standard of honor from which all the temptations of personal gain and petty ambition glance off harmlessly; and a philosophic indifference to outward show-this peculiar combination of qualities is hardly to be met with out of Germany, but even here it rarely reaches such a perfect development as in the case of Count Caprivi."

A WAR CORRESPONDENT'S STORY.

Mr. Montagu describes the experience of a war artist chiefly during the Russo-Turkish war. The article concludes with an interesting anecdote: "As a Pasha in remote corners of Anatolia, I have assumed with equal success a very different rôle. A scarlet fez, a many-colored turban, a sash of cardinal red, containing a goodly display of weapons, together with an escort of dashing, if rather dirty, irregulars, whose spears glittered in the sunlight, giving one an importance undreamt of in prosaic England. I had a curious rencontre once with another Pasha, whose brilliant personal get-up and that of his retinue threw myself and followers completely into the shade. As we passed each other that mighty man salaamed to his saddle-cloth, while I, in a moment of forgetfulness, saluted. Then a strange far-away look came into that Pasha's face, as, with a broad grin and an Irish accent, he said: 'Eh, but yer forgot to salaam, Montagu, yer forgot to salaam !' and the next moment I had discovered that magnificent horseman to be my old friend Edmund O'Donovan, the brilliant 'Special' of the Daily News, who, it will be remembered, afterward lost his life while representing the interests of that paper with the army of Hicks Pasha in Egypt."

A PLEA FOR MUNICIPAL PAWNSHOPS.

Mr. Robert Donald transfers from London, of which he is editor, to the New Review his cogent plea for municipal pawnshops. He says: "The following shows the different treatment extended to poor borrowers in the leading capitals of Europe. A loan of 2 shillings 6 pence for one week pays interest per annum as follows: Paris, 0; Madrid, 6; Brussels, 7; Berlin, 12; London, 260."

"There are

The extent to which the poor of London are plundered by the pawnshops justifies Mr. Donald's plea for an improvement. This, he thinks, can best be done by putting all the pawnshops under the municipality. many reasons why pawnshops would be more economically managed under municipal control than under private ownership. There would be a decided advantage in having branches all over the city. Valuable articles pledged in one quarter would pay for small loans in poor districts. The smallest pawns do not pay the pawnbroker, even although he does charge his 100 per cent. Supervision would not be ess expensive under the County Council than at present. The officers would require to be well paid, as the success of the institution would mainly depend on their loyalty to the system and their method of valuation. There would be considerable scope for economy in the matter of rent. It would not be necessary to have anything like six hundred pawnshops."

THE

THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.

HE Contemporary Review for December is somewhat too metaphysical to be a popular number. Emma Maria Caillard's paper on "The Knowledge of Good and Evil," and Professor Seth's second paper on "The Theory of the Absolute" may be very valuable but they are "caviare to the general."

THE CARRYING TRADE OF THE WORLD.

Mr. Mulhall has one of his fascinating papers from which an endless number of statistics can be gleaned of really remarkable interest. For instance, speaking of the mercantile marine, Mr. Mulhall says: "The main facts to be borne in mind in connection with the carrying trade on the high seas are these: 1, That we possess 56 per cent. of the carrying power of the world; 2, that the trade between Great Britain and her Colonies is growing much more rapidly than the general commerce of the world; 3, that our seamen carry more merchandise per man than those of other nations, and four times as much as the British seaman of 1860; 4, that our annual loss by shipwreck is only half that of other nations, as compared with tonnage afloat."

Passing on he considers the railways, in which Mr. Mulhall says: "The life of a locomotive is fifteen years, during which time it will run 240,000 miles, carry 600,000 tons, or 1 000,000 passengers, and earn $300,000; its ordinary power is 300-horse, and its first cost $10,000. The number of locomotives at work is 110,000, representing an approximate value of $1,000,000,000, while that of the shipping of all nations is about $1,100,000,000.

He calculates that the railways give employment to 2,394,000 people, while shipping only employs 705,000.

WALTER PATER.

Mr. Edmund Gosse's character sketch of Walter Pater, whom he knew intimately and whom he reveres highly, is a very brilliant and interesting piece of literary workmanship. He says: "Pater, as a human being, illustrated by no letters, by no diaries, by no impulsive unburdenings of himself to associates, will grow more and more shadowy. But it has seemed well to preserve, while still they are attainable, some of the external facts about a writer whose polished and concentrated work has already become part of the classic literature of England, and who will be remembered among the writers of this age when all but a few are forgotten."

OTHER ARTICLES.

An anonymous writer tells the story of Caprivi's fall. The writer says that the cause was entirely a personal one, and was owing to the susceptibility of the emperor to any encroachments upon his resolutions The Cologne Gazette had insisted that Count Eulenberg must go, before the Emperor had announced his decision on the subject. The article was not inspired by Caprivi, but the Chancellor saw that the Emperor did not wish to shut the door definitely on Eulenberg's policy, to which Caprivi could not consent. Seeing this, he thought it better to retire at once, and therefore he declared that he could not disapprove of the article in question, although he had had nothing to do with it. Thereupon he resigned, and Prince Hohenlohe took his place.

W. M. Conway tells with a graphic pen the story of the fall of the mountain of the Plattenbergkopf in the Canton of Glarus, which buried part of the village of Elm in September, 1881. One hundred persons were buried beneath the falling mountain. Karl Blind sets forth in a brief paper the reasons for believing that the French have no foundation in truth or in treaty right for their claim to Madagascar.

66 WHY I AM NOT AN AGNOSTIC."

Professor Max Müller maintains that he is not an Agnostic, and cannot call himself one. To him the purely mechanical theory of the evolution of the universe from protoplasm without a directing mind is unthinkable. He says: "I cannot help seeing order, law, reason or Logos in the world, and I cannot account for it by merely ex post events, call them what you like-survival of the fittest, natural selection, or anything else. Anyhow, this Gnosis is to me irresistible, and I dare not therefore enter the camp of the Agnostics under false colors. I am not aware that on my way to this Gnosis I have availed myself of anything but the facts of our direct consciousness, and the conclusions that can be logically deduced from them. Without these two authorities I do not feel bound to accept any testimony, whether revealed or unrevealed.

"If Agnosticism excludes a recognition of an eternal reason pervading the natural and the moral world, if to postulate a rational cause for a rational universe is called Gnosticism, then I am a Gnostic, and a humble follower of the greatest thinkers of our race from Plato and the author of the Fourth Gospel to Kant and Hegel."

SEND THE SKELETON BACK TO THE CUPBOARD.

Mr. H. D. Traill has a rather amusing paper entitled "About the Skeleton." He insists that in order to pay homage to realism our recent dramatists have been too determined to drag the skeleton from the cupboard. But he maintains realism is as much violated by the preposterous prominence of the skeleton as by its determined concealment by the older dramatists: "In each and all of them realism only prevails to the extent of creating the skeleton and letting him out of the closet. As soon as it comes to disposing of him realism at once gives way to idealism, with a marked preference for disagreeable ideals. The skeleton of the stage is allowed or encouraged to execute a dance of death among the dramatis personæ, dealing destruction with every caper of its fleshless limbs. The skeleton of real life is invariably locked up in the closet again with all possible despatch. But if this is so-if in causing the skeleton to execute the dance of death instead of locking him up again in the closet, he is acting in obedience, not to an inexorable law of truth, but to a mere principle of artistic selection, then how can he evade the awkward quest on-Is it so imperatively necessary to introduce a skeleton at all?"

THE DECAY OF BOOKSELLING.

Mr. David Scott maintains that unless things change for the better, bookselling in England will soon become an extinct art. People read newspapers, magazines, skim books from the circulating library, or use the free library. The result is that booksellers of the old sort are dying out. He suggests that as a means of reviving the almost extinct practice of buying books, publishers should bring out books at reasonable prices, as they do in France:

"Surely if novels can be published at popular prices, why not the better class of literature? A new class of book buyers would come into existence. The question naturally arises, 'How far should the net system be adopted?' My own opinion is that it should be applied to every copyright book. The non-copyright books can be left to take care of themselves and confided to the tender mercies of the free lances in the publishing trade

who fight for the honor of issuing them." His last suggestion is that the net price system should be generally adopted.

WANTED-AN IMPERIAL CONFERENCE!

Sir John Colomb discusses the moral of the recent Ottawa Conference from the point of view of one who is hostile to the claims of the British colonies to readjust the Imperial tariff for the protection of colonial industries, agriculture, of course, being the chief. What he asks is that an Imperial conference should be summoned to look after the first of all Imperial interests, naval supremacy: "The common welfare of the Empire demands the assured supremacy of the sea. To sufficiently satisfy that demand two things are required: 1. An adequate Imperial Fund. 2. The Imperial machinery to administer that fund which will command the confidence of all the contributing portions of the Empire."

TH

THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.

HE Fortnightly Review for December, the first issue for which the new editor, Mr. W. L. Courtney, is responsible, is a very creditable number. We notice elsewhere the foreign views of Lord Rosebery, Sir Evelyn Wood's "Reminiscences," and Dr. Roose on The Spread of Diphtheria."

66

R. L. STEVENSON'S GOSPEL. Mr. Stephen Gwynn contributes a critical study of Robert Louis Stevenson. He says: "Mr. Stevenson preaches in art the gospel of technical thoroughness, a lesson familiar enough in France, but necessary in England. Like all masters of technical skill, he has the desire to impart what is communicable in his own cunning -to found a school. And he has done it; one has only to look round and see that. He has done for English fiction what Tennyson did for English verse; he has raised the standard of contemporary workmanship; but, unlike Tennyson, he has done it by precept no less than by example. Admirable critic as he is, he is most instructive when he writes concerning his own work and methods."

THE DOWAGER EMPRESS OF CHINA.

Mr. M. R. Davies, writing on "Pekin, a Threatened City," in the course of a gossipy description of that dirty capital, refers as follows to the Dowager Empress: "Of course, she is swindled and humbugged right and left by her army of understrappers, but she has her way, or fancies she has, and this amounts to the same thing in the end, while it satisfies all parties. It would be interesting to know exactly how far her hand appears in recent actions. She is generally allowed to be an exceedingly clever and astute woman. She was at the head of affairs during the Taeping rebellion and during the war with France. It is said that she persists in ucing everything through the Emperor; that she seldom allows herself to be seen; that in receiving an audience she sits on one side of the screen, while the audience kneels on the other; that she has the choosing of the ladies of the harem, and makes them skip on occasion; that she sells appointments through the favorite eunuch of the court, and shares the proceeds with him. These are a few of the rumors diligently circulated about the influence and importance of the Empress Dowager. She probably inspires many of the Imperial comments on the official reports and acts."

THE METHODS OF MODERN HISTORIANS.

Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, in an article which is partly an essay upon modern historians, but which is chiefly a trib