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THE REVUE DE PARIS.

THE November numbers of the Revue de Paris are scarcely up to their usual level, the editors apparently relying on a posthumous fragment of Guy de Maupassant and on a few pages containing a fine and poetical study of the sea by Pierre Loti, than on anything more solid.. M. Leroy-Beaulieu sums up briefly the reign and personality of the late Tzar of Russia, and Gaston Paris continues his account of the Provençal poet Frédéric Mistral.

THE INCOME TAX.

French readers must find almost a painful interest in Funck Brentano's exhaustive article on the Income Tax, for it is the one means of raising public money against which the whole nation has determinately set its face, from the peasant, whose worldly goods are kept and added to in the traditional old stocking, to the wealthy stockholder, whose income fluctuates from day to day. The partizans of what would be to so many an odious and inquisitional tax point to the excellent results achieved by its means in Great Britain, Germany, and Italy. According to M. Brentano, the tax, whilst causing the greatest inconvenience and annoyance, will make no real difference to the wealth of the whole country, and he points out triumphantly that in neither of the three countries already quoted has it solved the social question. Making a comparison between the rich man and the beggar, he points out that cach on the whole pays out what he gets in. In place of the impôt direct, M. Brentano, if we understand him truly, would prefer to see everything in the way of actual production taxed rather than individual incomes at one per thousand; thus the workman who earned £40 a year would pay 10d., the small shopkeeper who turned over £600 a year about 5s., and the great barrister or famous artist making his £20,000 a year, £20.

M. Brentano carefully avoids pointing out the fact that, directly or indirectly, the French citizen, especially the landowner and peasant proprietor, is already exceedingly heavily taxed, and looks forward with horror to any increase of what is significantly called abroad imposition.

THE FRENCH NAVY.

M. Loir discusses at some length the armament of the naval reserve. Thanks mainly to the efforts of Admiral Gervais, the French navy is now in an extraordinarily efficient position; each summer everything is put on a war footing, and both men and officers become thoroughly familiarised with their work; during the winter months all is arranged on a reduced level, but can again be brought up to full strength in an incredibly short time. M. Loir considers that the naval war of the future will take place in the Mediterranean.

GENERAL GRANT'S GERMAN SYMPATHIES.

In an article headed "General Grant and France," Mr. Theodore Stanton attempts to disprove the generally credited idea that the great American soldier considered himself during the Franco-Prussian War the enemy of France and the moral ally of Germany; even Victor Hugo mentioned him with horror in his "L'Année Terrible"; and yet, according to Mr. Stanton, there was literally a great deal of smoke without fire in the whole idea; so far from disliking France, Grant was only prejudiced against the Bonapartes. The often reiterated assertion that he had sent telegrams of felicitation to the German Kaiser after each Prussian victory in 1870-71 is, asserts Mr. Stanton, an absurd fiction.

LOTTERIES. AND ART.

In the same number M. Serre makes an eloquent plea in favour of a larger yearly grant to the galleries and museums of France, holding up as an example Great Britain, who subsidises her National Gallery to the tune of £32,000 a year; and Germany, who allows the State galleries £20,000 a year; whilst in France the Louvre, Luxembourg, Versailles, and St. Germains divide between them the miserable income of £6,500! This is the reason why no important additions to French galleries are ever made, save in the way of private gifts by public-spirited donations. Many foreign schools are still unrepresented in the Louvre, which, it seems, lacks a Turner to this day. M. Serre proposes an issue of lottery bonds similar to that which met with so prompt a success during the Exhibition of 1889, and points out that in this fashion a really large sum might be raised to form a permanent art fund.

THE NEW AMERICAN TARIFF.

In the second number two novelists, the late Guy de Maupassant and Pierre Loti, are given the first place, being followed by M. Brewaert, who discusses in a hopeful spirit the new American tariff. In it he sees a promising future for the French exportation trade; for where under the M'Kinley régime one hundred and seventy-seven millions of francs duty were paid by Americans on French goods, some fifty millions will be knocked off. On foreign works of art they will in future pay no duty at all-a joyful piece of news for the many Parisian artists who regard Chicago as a Land of Promise, flowing with milk and honey.

JACQUES D'UZÈS.

The Duchesse d'Uzès, who was, it will be remembered, Boulanger's faithful if indiscreet friend, and who, in addition to many social gifts and charming qualities, is a really fine sculptress, has allowed some of her late son's letters from the Congo to be published; these show the young Duke in a pleasant light, and prove touchingly the cordial relations which existed between mother and son. The young man, for he was only four-and-twenty when he died of dysentery at Kabinda, on the African coast, was leading an expedition through the Congo, and intended to make his way to Egypt through Abyssinia. French Government, as a testimony to his good will aud budding reputation as an explorer, have named one of their new warships Jacques d'Uzès.

Some Christmas Cards.

The

EVERY year Christmas cards are improving, and for the old-fashioned pictorial variety you cannot do better than see the selection which Messrs. Raphael Tuck and Co. send out, some of their designs being of great beauty. Particularly successful are the Goupilgravures, after pictures by popular artists, Mr. Dendy Sadler, Mr. W. S. Coleman, and others. From Messrs. C. W. Faulkner also comes a pretty batch of cards, many of which are done by some process similar to the Goupilgravure. Both these and the small pictorial calendars are well worth asking to see. The same firm also publishes a tear-off "Shakespearian Calendar" (1s.), and a new indoor game. entitled "Malletino." For unassuming good taste, apart from display, the series of "Private Society Christmas Cards," published by Messrs. John Walker and Co., cannot be beaten. Many are printed in old English style and without pictures, giving very much the impression of distinction. Some of the best of these are also reproduced by some heliogravure process.

SOME ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINES.

McClure's Magazine.

WITH its issue for November this magazine finishes its third half-year and its third volume. Published at fifteen cents a number, it has rapidly made a place for itself in a country which already produces what are in many respects the best illustrated magazines of the day. More than once over here we have taken a leaf out of the American book, and have started rivals to Harper's and the Century. But the cheap magazines, of which the Strand was the prototype, were distinctively British, and it is encouraging to see that an American journal, not only on avowedly similar lines, but drawing much of its matter from our own Idler, should have so soon have achieved popularity. But although McClure's Magazine by no means relies only on British enterprise for its contents, its publication of papers which are appearing in our own magazines prohibits it having a regular circulation in London. And so English readers, unless

they care to subscribe the dollar and a half a year to have the magazine sent through

MR. S. S. MCCLURE, OF

the post, must miss much that is most notable in American monthly journalism-such, for instance, as the Napoleon series and the collection of true stories from the archives of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, both of which begin in this November number.

The Pall Mall Magazine.

THE best illustrated magazines this Christmas are the Pall Mall Magazine and the English Illustrated Magazine. The Pall Mall Magazine is excellently printed and admirably illustrated. It opens with a somewhat remarkable

poem by Hamilton Aïdé, but it is somewhat overweighted by a long article on "Notable Portraits of the Queen and Royal Family." Judging from the pictures, her Majesty was a great deal better looking at the age of six than she has ever been since. "Q" contributes a very touching story entitled "The Bishop of Eucalyptus" -a young Congregational minister from Cornwall, whose utter innocence led him to spend the last days of his life

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MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE.'

in a house with a harlot in a western mining village, without ever suspecting that his landlady was other than a virtuous lady, held in high respect by her neighbours. Mr. W. W. Astor describes a passage in Captain Kidd's career. Mr. Hitchins has a copiously illustrated paper on "Street Scenes in Cairo." Walter Besant gives us another instalment of his admirable papers on London, this time dealing with Westminster. Lord Roberts, in his paper on "The Rise of Wellington," criticises and eulogises his hero's conduct in the Peninsular war. He blames him, however, for lack of sympathy, and for his harsh and ungenerous reference to the officers and men who served him.

English Illustrated Magazine. THIS magazine is this month chiefly devoted to fiction. There is

one article, "London to New York by Steerage," by Frederick A. Mackenzie, which describes how the writer crossed the Atlantic for 36s. Mr. Baillie-Gröhman tells some of his hunting adventures in the Rockies. The magazine is disfigured by the insertion of a page of advertisements devoted to cod-liver oil and Sunlight Soap in the very midst of the reading matter. A magazine of the standing of the English Illustrated should surely be able to prevent this defiling of its pages by the introduction of advertisements in the middle of a story. The magazine cannot either be congratulated upon its glaring

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THE Cosmopolitan for November is well up to the average. The first place is given to the reproduction of the portraits of some famous women, American and English. The paper on "The Great Passions of History' is devoted to Agnes Sorrel, the mistress of Charles VII. The paper on "The Art Schools of America and the Public Library Movement" describes the effort of the Western Republic to provide itself with the appliances of civilisation. The paper on "The Public Control of Urban Transit," which is noticed elsewhere, describes the fund by means of which great things might have been done had it not been squandered away by corruption.

The Century.

THE Century produces its Christmas number in a very ugly back. It is copiously illustrated with full-page pictures of Christmas subjects, beginning with Van Dyck's Madonna of the Donors, and bringing us down to Van Uhde's Appearance of the Angels to the Shepherds. Besides Mr. Sloane's first instalment of "The History of Napoleon Bonaparte," the magazine contains an admirable article upon Crispi, by Mr. Stillman, and is illustrated by an excellent portrait of the Italian statesman. There is a pleasant paper describing "Life in Old Maryland," and there is, of course, the usual quantity of fiction. Rudyard Kipling's story, "A Walking Delegate," is a rather poor skit upon trades union agitators, cast in the form of a parable, in which the horses on a Vermont farm are in vain incited to strike by a disreputable nag from Kansas. The horses are made to talk Yankee, and the horse from Kansas is well-nigh kicked to death-a fate which, apparently, Mr. Kipling would accord to the trades union agitator.

Scribner's Magazine.

THE great feature of Scribner this month is the reproduction of nine of the best known pictures of Mr. Watts and eight of his portraits of famous men. The number is strong in poetry; Mr. Rudyard Kipling's poem being given the place of honour. Miss Kimball's "A Modern Sir Galahad" and Mr. Lampman's "A Woodcutter" are above the average. The "Mantle of Osiris" is an interesting story, the writer of which believes he has solved the mystery of how the ancient Egyptians were able to move great masses of stone by the hypothesis of a metal which he calls the mantle of Osiris, which, when placed beneath any weight, destroyed the power of gravitation, and enabled them to lift it as if gravitation had almost ceased to exist. He points out, that if such a metal could be discovered, the problem of perpetual motion would be solved. It would only be necessary to hang a heavy wheel with half of its diameter excluded from the power of gravity by a sheathing of the mantle of Osiris, and one side of the wheel would constantly be descending heavy and ascending light.

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A LITERARY YEAR-BOOK. FOR the last five years there has been published, at Eger in Bohemia, an interesting annual called Literarisches Jahrbuch. It is edited by Alois John, who is now a well-known writer on German Bohemia, especially the Eger country. An attractive article in the present number is one entitled "The Home of Walther von der Vogelweide," by A. A. Naaff. This has long been a bone of contention, and it is doubtful whether the famous minstrel's real birthplace will ever be discovered, but the writer makes a brave attempt to identify it with German Bohemia. Wherever it was, it is certain that Walther was a wanderer, that he went to Vienna, Thuringia, Meissen, and many other courts, and that he died and was buried at Würzburg. He may have been in the Tyrol, but whether he hailed from Bozen or Sterzing is not of so much importance. The fact remains that he had a marked influence on the minstrels of the Tyrol and the intellectual life of the country, and in the splendid monument which the Tyrolese have erected to his memory they do themselves great honour.

The editor not only describes a people's opera, "The Monk of Kreuzenstein," by Professor R. Thoma, but publishes his ideas for an Eger people's play. Dr. S. Günther writes a geological study of the Egerland; Carl Eggermann discusses the Prague Society for Science and Art in connection with the national literature of German Bohemia; Dr. Johannes Bolte has unearthed a Meisterlied by Heinrich Wolff on Wallenstein's death; and there are quotations from Goethe's Diaries relating to his various visits to north-west Bohemia.

DIARIES AND CALENDARS.

MESSRS. JOHN WALKER and Co. have sent us a selection of their very ingenious and useful loop-back pocket diaries, whose chief peculiarities are that, in the majority of cases, each shows a week at an opening, and that the pencil is held by a loop at the back of the binding, which cannot, as in most diaries, get torn away. The largest of these (No. 184, 8s.), bound in morocco, and beautifully finished, is full letter size, and with the capacity and convenience of a pocket-book; or the same can be had in Russia leather (No. 194, 10s.). Slightly smaller size, in the same material, is numbered 183 (6s. 6d.). A less bulky pocket diary are those with a leaf, 2 inches by 53. No. 67 (2s.), for instance, has no pockets, and is so slim that it will take up but little room. The No. 1 size is for the waistcoat pocket, and is very well arranged. It ranges in price from 6d., for a cloth limp plain binding, to 4s. for a Russian leather. The same publishers issue a very useful and handy tablet diary (3s. 6d.) for the desk, better than anything of the kind we have seen.

From Messrs. DE LA RUE and Co. (of Bunhill Row, E.C.) also comes a batch of diaries, pocket diaries, almanacs, many of which seem to be intended particularly to appeal to feminine taste. A series of desk almanacs, with or without glass as protection, is sure to be popular, some of them giving space for the noting of appointments, while one, rather elaborate, holds the racing fixtures for 1895. Of the pocket diaries the most convenient is No. 4121D (to hold letters); and a chronicle of events and a regular budget of papers could be kept in No. 3544C. Both the "Portable Diary and Memorandum Book" and "The Condensed Diary and Engagement Book "-intended for the purse-are well arranged and cheap; and the tiny finger-shaped condensed diaries are very fascinating. The little calendars and stamp cases, too, are pretty.

POETRY IN THE PERIODICALS. THERE is a beautiful poem by William Canton in the Contemporary Review entitled "The Shepherd Beautiful." It is suggested by the well-known picture in the Catacombs of a shepherd carrying on his shoulders a kid. The text seems to have been suggested by Matthew Arnold's verse :-

He saves the sheep,

The goats he doth not save,

So spake the fierce Tertullian.

The following is the last verse in Mr. Canton's poem:-

So limned they Christ; and bold, yet not too bold,
Smiled at the tyrant's torch, the lion's cry;

So nursed the child-like heart, the angelic mind,

Goodwill to live, and fortitude to die,

And love for men, and hope for all mankind.

One Shepherd and one fold!

Such was their craving; none should be forbid;
All-all were Christ's! And then they drew once more
The Shepherd Beautiful. But now He bore
No lamb upon His shoulders-just a kid.

THE writer of an article upon Mr. Joseph Howe, the Nova Scotia statesman, in the Canadian Magazine for November, quotes his centenary poem, which in some respects is not an unfitting pendant to Colonel John Hay's sonnet :

From the Queen of the Islands-then famous in story,
A century since, our brave forefathers came;
And our kindred yet fill the wide world with her glory,
Enlarging her empire and spreading her name.
Ev'ry flash of her genius our pathway enlightens,
Ev'ry field she explores we are beckoned to tread;
Each laurel she gathers our future day brightens ;
We joy with her living, and mourn with her dead.
Then hail to the day when the Britons came over,
And planted their standard, with sea-foam still wet;
Above and around us their spirits shall hover,
Rejoicing to mark how we honour it yet.

Harper's Magazine publishes a batch of verse by W. D. Howells, of which the following, on heredity, is one of the best:

That swollen paunch you are doomed to bear,
Your gluttonous grandsire used to wear;
That tongue, at once so light and dull,
Wagged in your grandam's empty skull;
That leering of the sensual eye
Your father, when he came to die,
Left yours alone; and that cheap flirt,
Your mother, gave you from the dirt
The simper which she used upon
So many men ere he was won.

Your vanity and greed and lust
Are each your portion from the dust
Of those that died, and from the tomb
Made you what you must needs become.
I do not hold you aught to blame
For sin at second hand, and shame:
Evil could but from evil spring;

And yet, away, you charnel thing!

HERE is a little quatrain contributed by Clarence
Urmy to Longman's Magazine, on “Ghosts," to which
the most material of us sceptics can take no objection:-
Three ghosts there are that haunt the heart,
Whate'er the hour may be:

The ghost called Life, the ghost called Death,
The ghost called Memory.

IN the Nineteenth Century, Mr. Swinburne addresses a poem to "A Baby Kinswoman," a little girl whose mother is dead. The poem is full of suggestions that the mother still enjoys the sight of her child, that— Sweetest sight that earth can give, Sweetest light of eyes that live.

The poet suggests that the child is conscious of the presence of the departed

Thine above is now the grace;

Haply, still to see her face;

Thine, thine only now the sight,

Whence we dream thine own takes light.

Comfort, faith, assurance, love,

Shine around us, brood above,

Fear grows hope, and hope grows wise,
Thrilled and lit by children's eyes.

COLONEL JOHN HAY, in the Pall Mall Magazine, indites a sonnet," On Landing in England," which is well worth quoting as an American tribute to the motherland: Once more hail, England! Happy is the day When from wide wandering I hither fare,

Touch thy wave-warded shore and breathe thine air;
And see, again, thy hedges white with May.
Rich memories throng in every flower-gemmed way ;
Old names ring out as with a trumpet's blare;
While on, with quickened pulse, we journey where
London's vast thunder roars, like seas at play.
To thee, the cradle of our race, we come,

To warm our hearts by ancient altar fires;
Not breaking fealty to a dearer home,
Thy children's children, from whatever skies,
Greet the high welcome of thy deathless eyes,

Thou fair and mighty mother of our sires!

IN the Idler Mr. Rudyard Kipling contributes a poem on "The Story of Ung," a fable for critics. When in the glittering ice-fields thousands of years ago, Ung, the primeval artist, arose and fashioned pictures on bone, the tribesmen at first almost worshipped him, and then began to criticise him. Whereupon Ung departed in wrath to the cave of his father to complain of the ignorance and the injustice of the criticism of these early reviewers. The sage-father comforted the petulant son in verses which may be recommended to all the tribe of the criticised. The gist of the comfort is in the first

verse:

And the father of Ung gave answer, that was old and wise in the craft,

Maker of pictures aforetime, he leaned on his lance and laughed.

"If they could see as thou seest, they would do what thou hast done,

And each man would make him a picture, and—what would become of my son?"

To the Atlantic Monthly, Samuel V. Cole contributes the following sonnet entitled " Venice":

Only a cloud,-far off it seemed to me
No habitable city,-when, behold,
Came gradual distinctions in the fold
Of tremulous vapour shadowing things to be:
Forms whether of wave or air rose silently
O'er quiet lanes of water, caught the gold
Of the Italian sunset, and thus rolled
The veil from off the Bride of the Blue Sea.
Alas, the irrecoverable dream!

Cathedral, palace, all things, all too soon
Melted like faces in a troubled stream,
And, looking backward over the lagoon,

I saw the phantom city faintly gleam
As mist blown seaward underneath the moon.

I. THE ADDRESS TO ELECTORS AND THE PARISH COUNCILS ACTS.

HE Address to the Electors drawn up at Mr. Fowler's suggestion by the provisional committee of the National Social Union was issued last month, and widely circulated throughout the country. This Address, the text of which appeared in the REVIEW last month, is undoubtedly the most comprehensively signed manifesto ever issued by the representatives of the moral forces of the nation on the eve of local elections. Seeing the difficulties involved in attempting to formulate a decisive expression of opinion that would be at once general enough in its terms to secure the adhesion of men representing all portions of the Christian Church, and at the same time practical enough to be hailed as a useful campaign document by those engaged in the actual work of electioneering there is reason to be satisfied with this initial effort of the National Social Union. If English Christendom had been united under one form of Church government, the leaders of the English Church would naturally have drawn up this Address. Owing, however, to our unhappy differences, neither the Archbishop, the Cardinal, nor any of the heads of the Free Churches felt themselves in a position which would justify them in addressing the whole nation. Hence it was left to an outside body to formulate the convictions which are common to all who have thought seriously upon questions of local administration, and submit the Address so prepared to the heads of the Churches and the leaders of social reform for approval. The Address as drawn up has served two distinct purposes. First, it emphasised as no other thing has done this year the enormous importance of the first elections under the Parish Councils Act, and appealed to ministers without distinction of sect to use their position in order to impress upon their congregations the religious duty of taking an active interest in the election of the best available persons as members of the new boards. The Address when it was issued was prefaced by the following circular :

:

The National Social Union beg respectfully to submit the accompanying "Address to the Electors" to the consideration of all those who, whether in the Press, from the pulpit, or on the platform, can command the attention of their fellowcitizens.

The Address is an attempt to embody within brief compass gome of the most important considerations which, in the opinion of the leading representatives of the moral forces of the community, outside of party politicians and administrators, should be pressed home to the electors who, for the first time, will exercise the franchise under the Parish Councils Act.

In the midst of the anarchy of contending sects and rival parties, it has been found possible to elicit a virtually unanimous expression of opinion from men and women of all creeds and of all parties as to the plain and obvious duty of the good citizen at the coming elections.

It was

This clear and authoritative utterance may be said to represent one of the first and more promising efforts to make articulate the voice of the national conscience, a task which for two centuries has been abandoned in despair owing to the existence of sectarian differences and the anarchy of creeds. evoked by the appeal of Mr. Fowler, the author of the Parish Councils Act, for support against the tendency of some headlong partisans who seemed in danger of wrecking the success of the measure by their determination to exploit its provisions in the exclusive interests of their own party.

It will be seen that the Address deals chiefly, not to say

exclusively, with the elections to the Boards of Guardians, but the same general principles apply to all the Elections under the Parish Councils Act, and it was thought better to concentrate attention upon the election of the Guardians, because the full significance of the Electoral Revolution that has been wrought in the constitution of the Authorities charged with the relief of the poor has been very inadequately appreciated by the nation at large. It is hoped that ministers of religion may be able specially to direct the attention of their congregations to the pending elections on the first or second Sunday in December.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of Winchester, Durham, Peterborough, Carlisle, Chester, Southwell, and Gloucester and Bristol preferred, instead of signing the Address, to intimate their concurrence with its drift by the extracts from their charges or other utterances.

The Address was signed by the following among other representatives of the religious and social organisations of England:

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REV. J. WALFORD GREEN, D.D., President of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference.

REV. HENRY J. POPE, D.D., Ex-President of the Wesleyan
Methodist Conference.

REV. T. BOWMAN STEPHENSON, D.D., LL.D.
REV. DR. JAMES H. RIGG, Principal Westminster Training
School.

MR. J. BAMFORD SLACK, President Wesleyan Local Preachers"
Association.

REV. M. BARTRAM, President of the Methodist New Connexion. REV. SAMUEL WRIGHT, Ex-President United Methodist Free Church.

REV. JOHN WENN, President of the Primitive Methodist Conference.

REV. W. GOODMAN, Secretary of the Primitive Methodist Connexion.

MR. W. P. HARTLEY.

REV. J. WOOLCOCK, D.D., Ex-President Bible Christian Conference.

CONGREGATIONALISTS.

REV. GEORGE S. BARRETT, D.D., Chairman Congregational
Union.

REV. JOHN BROWN, D.D., Ex-Chairman Congregational Union
REV. U. R. THOMAS, Chairman-Elect, Congregational Union.
REV. A. M. FAIRBAIRN, LL.D.
REV. ROBERT BRUCE, D.D.
REV. ROBERT F. HORTON, D.D.
REV. JOSEPH PARKER, D.D.

PRESBYTERIANS.

REV. JAMES MUIR, D.D., Moderator of the English Presbyterian Church.

REV. WALTER MORISON, D.D., Ex-Moderator of the English Presbyterian Church.

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