The magazines, like the newspapers, are, on the eve of a general election, full of election manifestos. Such are The Docility of an ' Imperial' Parliament, The Common Sense of Home Rule, A Nonconformist's View of the Election, British Interests in the East, all of which, inserted in the April number of the Nineteenth Century, and contributed respectively by Messrs. Lowe, Wilson, Justin McCarthy, Rogers and Grant Duff, are overtly or covertly designed to prejudice the opinions and therefore the votes of the electors, To Mr. Lowe, the late Prime Minister is wordy, Delphic, alliterative and bombastic; his policy is vulgar, pretentious, ostentatious and grievous; his language is pompous, inflated, inane, vague, dangerous, and degrading. Surely such a wealth of vituperative adjectives has never before been lavished on anything less terrifying than the devil and all his works.
Mr. Wilson is eloquent over the violence which would characterise the men and measures of an Irish Parliament under a system of Home Rule. He sees in his mind's eye a rapidly widening breach between Great Britain and Ireland with a war of well-nigh extermination to make an end of it. On the other hand, Mr. McGarthy, who evidently does not care whether an Irish federal constitution is or is not to lead to disruption, traverses all his opponents' facts, denies the cogency of all his arguments, and would dearly like to try the experiment. It is an exper ment in its way to try to swallow the barrel of a loaded rifle while pulling the trigger with your toe, but the result is so little satisfactory that it discourages experiment made purely for experiment sake. Mr. Guinness Rogers makes sure of a revolution in English feeling brought about by Lord Beaconsfield's personal government and its manifold outcome, and expressed all the more emphatically that the Nonconformists are now a united body pledged to the Liberal side by interest and sentiment. Finally Mr. Grant Duff finds that for the last half-dozen years the true interests of England in Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Russia, Persia and Afghanistan have been pushed aside to make room for a policy of ostentation and bunkum. Those interests, according to him, are comprised in the tranquillity and prosperity of these countries, whereby they would be enabled to develope their internal resources and enter more largely into commercial dealings with us. In addition we have only to desire that Constantinoble shall not fall into the hands of any power likely to use the position for the purpose of domineering over the Mediterranean, that transit across the Isthmus of Suez shall be uninterrupted, and that "the frightful scrape into which Lord Beaconsfield and Lord Salisbury have got us" may be got out of as quickly and cheaply as possible, So much for political articles. Dr. Carpenter contributes an admirable popular "article to the same magazine on The Deep Sea and its Contents, Several mouths ago, when Sir Wyville Thomson's account of the Challenger expedition was published, we gave a summary of the conclusions so far established, and we do not find much, or indeed anything, of importance in the article before us which then escaped notice.
—Mrs. Lathbury's paper on Agnosticismand Women deserves a passing notice as it is founded on a complete bat very common misconception. She regards the disbelief which forces itself on most men who are led to study the phenomena of nature and of human history as though it were a positive quantity, whereas it is in reality negative. What such men say to the orthodox is, "Prove your solution of life problems to be the correct one, and we will accept it but so long as it rests on assumptions which we consider arbitrary, we. will not receive it as true, though we will not deny that it may contain truth!" Itis the negative aspect of their opinions that must for ever prevent them from being propagandists. Doubtless it is true that agnosticism, to adopt Mrs. Lathbury's term, is unsatisfying to women just as it is to men. But the emotional side of woman's nature is so highly developed, that few women will at any time be found without a religious creed of some sort, If it be true that philosophical doubt soon as it infects women will render them less devoted to works of merey, the fact is to be deplored, but conscience or intellect, call it what we may, cannot be forced by fear of consequences into a real conformity with a proposed standard. Let us at least be honest. If we believe, let us profess our belief; if we disbelieve, let us not through any fear of consequences display outward signs to which nothing inward corresponds. This is hypocrisy than which nothing can be more despicable.—By Lord Dunraven's Days in the Woods one feels transported to the scenes of forest life and hunting expeditions among the Indians which he graphic cally describes. Nothing that we have lately read gives so much as this paper the sense of revelling in the wildness of nature.—In a powerful article Sir John Adye points out how the British Indian army has been steadily deteriorated by the exclusion of natives of high rank from commands in it, The palmy days of the Indian army were those during which large bodies of troops were sometimes despatched on hazardous enterprises under the independent command of a native leader; and it was nol thought an offence to a European soldier to send him to fight under a black commandant, Those were the days of Clive. The system was changed in 1796, and since then from time to time further modified until now all power, responsibility, honour and reward are monopolised by English officers.
The best article in the April Macmillan is a very amusing paper headed Backsheesh, in which the squeezing and bleeding inflicted upon any person secking to obtain a concession of any kind from the Turkish Government are described from personal experience. It does not matter how obviously beneficial the enterprise for which encouragement is sought may be, it is delayed at every stage until the utmost penny has been extracted from its promoters. Nordoes it matter how obviously hurtful the concession would prove to the country, it will be considered and granted, provided the requisite amount of argument is paid over to the right people. In every respect the Sultan, the Cabinet, and the Government Departments rule Turkey as though it were a conquered country to be squeezed dry in all ways both direct and indirect. The paper is, as we have said, very amusing, yet not without a tinge of sadness.—As downright heavy reading commend us to Mr. Freeman's article on the English shire and the English Ga (German gau.) It explains various apparent anomalies in topographical nomenclature, and is an excellent soporific.—A very slender and unsatisfactory article on the Into Professor Adam Sedgwick, by the Bishop of Carlisle, stands as worth something in the absence of a biography of that remarkable man; a paper by an English owner of a great Irish estate in which the secret of making money out of contented tenants, and escaping sudden death for no less than forty years is fully set forth and an appreciative review of Mr. Arnold's lately published Light of Asia, being the life and teaching of Gautama, Prince of India and founder of Buddhism, fill up most of the remaining pages. he Inst-mentioned article is specially worthy of study. It yoes far to account for the growing tendency on the part of religiously minded people to adopt " form of religion which is Buddhism in all but name, hand with its Memoirs, the essence of which was distilled by the Reowe des Deux Mendes on the 1st December, and duly re-distilled in these columns nearly four months ago.—We are introduced by an "Eastern Statesman," himself probably an Armenian, to the Armenian Question, which appears destined to be as important a one in our complicated relations with Russia and Turkey as any of the others, Bulgarian, Greek and on, which defy the solving powers of Weatern diplomacy. The political and religious history of Armenia is sketched in a masterly manner, and the sympathy of English Protestants is entrapped by a parallel between the form of Christianity held by the Armenians and the Anglican form. In a word, the Armenians desire autonomy or whatever else may deliver them from the abominable oppression of the Turkish Government, which promises within a few years either to extinguish the Armenian nationality or to force people and province together into the hand of Russia.—Biblical students will read with interest M.¥. Lenormant's latest contribution to prediluvian history. The Genealogies between Adam and the Deluge is a paper far too technical, and too bristling with unfamiliar facts and citations to be subjected to brief analysis. It establishes analogies of the most striking character between the ancient Hebraic traditions of primeval times, and the traditions derived from Assyrian, Persian, Indian and Egyptian records, and embalmed in astronomical and calendarial systems.—
Professor Newman gives a brief and popular account of the orthodox doctrine of Personal Property, Debt and Interest suggested by Mr. Ruskin's rhodomontades against what he calls usury. The writer, following the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.