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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. AUG. 10, 1907.
AMONG the August reviews, The. National Review
takes a high place. We look to it with certainty
for incisive writing. It does not "wobble," and
we like its outspokenness even where we do not
share its views. There is a great deal that seems
to us worth saying in a view of politics ' From Out-
side' by Gallio. 'A Missing Chapter in "The
Garden that I Love " ' once again charms us by its
ease and meditative brightness. Sir Home Gordon
has some severe comment on the present state of
- County Cricket ' which is worth careful study.
But his list of counties which might be made second class is absurd. What may be called con- cealed professionalism ought to be shown up, and that speedily. Mr. A. Maurice Low is well in- formed about 'American Affairs'; and the Rev. R. L. Gales supplies food both for amusement and reflection in 'More Dicta of the Poor.' Mr. St. Loe Strachey deals pungently with ' The Problems and Perils of Socialism, referring to the example of ancient Rome; and there are some other in- teresting articles in what is an excellent number.
The Fortnightly opens with an expose by Calchas of the disintegrating forces of the Liberalism of to- day. Mr. G. W. Forrest follows with information concerning ' The State of India, 1 and some sugges- tions which are backed by ample knowledge of the country. Mr. E. V. Heward in ' Mars : is it a Habitable World?' deals with a question where so much is taken for granted that it does not interest us deeply. The so-called " canals " are, as he shows, by no means above suspicion. ' Our Posi- tion of Naval Peril,' by Excubitor, is reassuring, and states that " at every point the Channel Fleet alone, with fourteen battleships, is superior to the High Sea Fleet of Germany, which comprises all Germany's naval resources ready and fit for war, and, in addition, we have the Atlantic and Home Fleets, with their attendant squadrons of armoured cruisers." Mr. J. M. Sloan on ' Robert Burns and Charles Dickens ' hardly reaches the standard of literature we expect in The Fortnightly. His article is wordy, and establishes no new points; while it misspells the name of Dickens's biographer. As a matter of fact, both writers gradually freed them- selves from a common inheritance of eighteenth- century English, which made in one case heavy Augustan verse, in the other a cumbrous amplitude of style starred not, as later, with full stops, but with semicolons. Rowland Grey in ' Society ac- cording to Maria Edgeworth ' is much more enter- taining. Prof. F. S. Boas has an interesting subject in 'A Defence of Oxford Plays and Players' by one Gager, which exists at Oxford, and has never been printed or even described, though its date alone (some dozen years after 1580) makes it of interest. Sir H. H. Johnston is all too brief on 'The Dis- posal of Africa,' but ' Foreign Affairs : a Chro- nique,' is a satisfactory, and by the ordinary reader in this country much-needed summary.
IN The Nineteenth Century Canon Lewis speaks with excellent insight and knowledge concerning ' The Present Condition of the Evangelicals.' This article will, we hope, be widely read and taken to heart. Mr. Frederic Harrison in a gloomy mood compares ' Paris in 1851 and in 1907,' finding much to denounce in the latter. Parisian art is, it appears, in a poor way. Rodin's 'Penseur' is "a corpulent athlete, crumpling himself up in an ungainly atti- tude," and there is a morbid love of the new and the ugly. Dr. Jonathan Hutchinson describes a
most interesting experiment in education in
'Museum Examinations.' The museum offers the
material for questions of all kinds. We hope this
practical form of education may have ample trial.
Miss Gertrude Kingston supplies a rare thing,
thoughtful consideration of the stage, in ' Some
First-Night Fallacies '; and Annette Hullah has ' A
Plea for the Budding Artist,' which shows some of
the difficulties attending success, or even a chance
of it, in the musical profession.
IN The Cornhill Mr. G. W. E. Russell has an attractive study of ' Freddy Leveson, ' though his ultra- Whig point of view leads him to some odd judgments. Dr. Fitchett makes much of 'Cawn- pore' in his study of the Mutiny cities of India, and has new information of the N ana's end, which does not, however, amount to much. Experts on the period will treat all such stories with due caution. Mr. W. A. Shenstone in ' The Electric Theory of Matter ' has a subject which may almost be described as popular, if science ever reaches that stage. Mr. Stephen Gwynn is both witty and wise in dealing with ' The Pursuit of Perspiration,' and suggests, half in jest, woodchopping as good exer- cise. The present reviewer has tried it, and remarks that it needs more care than might be supposed. The wood may fly up and remove some of your eyebrow. Mr. A. C. Benson continues his "Causerie " entitled 'At Large,' discussing a ques- tion often put : Is a man who is not an expert in theology entitled to discuss modern religion? Mr. Benson says, Yes, being led to the subject by some reviews of his own books. The rest of the number is well varied.
The Surlinffton Magazine has an article on Claude by Mr. Roger Fry, with a fascinating series of reproductions of Claude's drawings. This is an article which any man with a taste for art should enjoy. Mr. Francis M. Kelly deals with ' Bruges and the Golden Fleece Celebrations,' and Mr. Lionel Cust with 'The New Van Dyck at the National Gallery,' of which a reproduction is included. He writes that the national collection is poor in Van Dycks, and that the present picture is "a superb piece of painting." Two illustrations show speci- mens of the work of the Florentine School in the Jarves Collection of Yale University. The notes on current artistic matters should not be neglected, for they show, as usual, admirable taste and a wide scope of interest.
H. HEMS ("Funeral and Right of Way"). See
4 S. xi. 213, 285, 374, 433; xii. 96, 158; 5 S. x. 49, 197.
COLVILL SCOTT (" London is populated by 5,000,000 of people, mostly fools"). You have not got the quotation right. Carlyle's phrase was "twenty- seven millions, mostly fools " (in ' Latter- Day Pam- phlets,' Nos. V. and VI.), and referred not to Lon- don only, but to the population of Great Britain and Ireland.
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