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and Play, The Smoking Room, Cynicism, The Quiet Man, In Swimming, Brawn and Character, do not in the least assort; they are merely subjects on which he has something to say, and he says it honestly, with no effort to be any one but himself, and thus he makes a book to delight all but the egotist. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

"As the Hague Ordains" is so admirably imagined that one closes it with virtuous satisfaction, firmly convinced that one has learned something of Russia and of Russian feeling. The heroine, a Russian, partly English by descent, goes to Japan early in the war to nurse her husband, a captive Russian officer. She has lived in the United States, in England, in Rome, and in Japan, and has an open and impartial mind. Her Russian acquaintances call her "Japanski"; her Japanese friends wonder at her just appreciation of their words, acts, and motives, and she becomes an invaluable element in the life of the strange little Matsuyama community of prisoners, guards, interpreters, Red Cross nurses, and Japanese outsiders.

Her

woful wrath over the inefficiency of certain Russian officers; her dark hints of St. Petersburg tragedies and intrigues: her affectionate compassion for the Russian sovereigns; her vast contempt for the Grand Dukes Cyril and Serge; her sympathetic admiration of really patriotic Russians and enjoyment of the love affair which she fosters in the war prison; and her unselfish devotion to others make her a rare heroine. Such fiction as the Russo-Japanese war has hitherto produced has been violently partisan, and almost without exception Japanese in sympathy, and this book instantly takes rank as far above anything preceding it and worthy to be classed

with the best fiction of the FrancoGerman war. Henry Holt & Co.

In size, scope, detail, number and variety of characters, length of period covered, construction, and style, "Alicefor-Short" reminds the reader strikingly of Dickens, and it is high praise for Mr. William De Morgan to say that the comparison does not instantly place him at a disadvantage. Real with the intense reality of Dickens at his best, his characters certainly are not, but for his second-best they might easily be mistaken. The irresistible touches of low comedy, the confidential asides to the reader, the long, lazy paragraphs which cumber the narrative and yet grow to seem essential to its fascination, are all quite in the master's own manner. Alice-for-short, a quaint little damsel of six, makes her first appearance with a broken-beer-jug in her hand, and Mr. Charley, the well-to-do, would-be artist whose affected Bohemianism furnishes the setting of the story, rescues her from the rage of a thirsty mother. At the end of five hundred and fifty pages, Alicefor-short is a lovable young woman of twenty-five, and Mr. Charley a sadder man by reason of the wisdom which a manoeuvering model has taught him. Between lies an intricate sequence of episodes each with individuality and flavor of its own-in which Mr. Charley's sisters and brothers from Hyde Park play their part with his Soho friends, and with the nondescript group of acquaintances brought upon the scene by the model. The element of supernaturalism is adroitly introduced into the story, linking its midVictorian fortunes with those of a century earlier. The success of so usual a venture as this of Mr. De Morgans will be an interesting test of the taste of our time. Henry Holt & Co.

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SEVENTH SERIES
VOLUME XXXV.

No. 3286 June 29, 1907.

CONTENTS.

Vol. COLIII.

1.

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The Second Hague Conference. By Sir Thomas Barclay

FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 771

The Story of "Maga" and the Blackwoods. By J. P. C.

PALL MALL MAGAZINE 778

The Enemy's Camp. Chapter XX. (To be continued)

MACMILLAN'S MAGAZINE 785

London Clubs: Past and Present. By Arthur Griffiths

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FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 791

GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE 802

A Ramble in the Abruzzi : 1.—Sulmona Market. II.-Scanno.
By Helen H. Colvill
The Mills of Justice. By Reginald Turner

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MACMILLAN'S MAGAZINE 809
SPECTATOR 815

OUTLOOK 817
PUNCH 820

V.

VI.

VII.

The Bad Men of America

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COUNTY GENTLEMAN 821

PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY

THE LIVING AGE COMPANY,

6 BEACON STREET, BOSTON.

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.

FOR SIX DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, THE LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage, to any part of the United States. To Canada the postage is 50 cents

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Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office or express money order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks, express and money orders should be made payable to the order of THE LIVING AGE Co.

Single Copies of THE LIVING AGE, 15 cents.

THE ADVENTURERS.

Over the downs in sunlight clear Forth we went in the spring of the year:

Plunder of April's gold we sought,
Little of April's anger thought.

Caught in a copse without defence Low we crouched to the rain-squall dense:

Sure, if misery man can vex,
There it beat on our bended necks.

Yet when again we wander on Suddenly all that gloom is gone: Under and over, through the wood, Life is astir, and life is good.

Violets purple, violets white, Delicate windflowers dancing light, Primrose, mercury, muscatel, Shimmer in diamonds round the dell.

Squirrel is climbing swift and lithe, Chiff-chaff whetting his airy scythe, Woodpecker whirrs his rattling rap, Ringdove flies with a sudden clap.

Rook is summoning rook to build, Dunnock his beak with moss has filled,

Robin is bowing in coat-tails brown, Tomtit chattering upside down.

Well it is seen that every one
Laughs at the rain and loves the sun;
We too laughed with the wildwood
crew,

Laughed till the sky once more was blue.

Homeward over the downs we went Soaked to the heart with sweet content;

April's anger is swift to fall,
April's wonder is worth it all.

Henry Newbolt.

The Spectator.

THE VISIT.

When the Snowdrop goes to Town
In her little grandmotherly bonnet,
With only a ribbon of light

By a miracle fastened upon it,
She takes for the world to wear
Such a charm in the lappel of duty
As gives of the earth and the air,

And consoles by its Puritan beauty.

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"We children every morn would wait For Catharine, at the garden gate; Behind school-time, her sunny hair Melted the master's frown of care, What time his hand but threatened pain,

Shaking aloft his awful cane.

So here one morn we two did wait
For Catharine at the garden gate.
To Dave I say, 'There's sure to be
Some coral isle unknown at sea,
And if I see it first-'tis mine!
But I'll give it to Catharine.'
'When she grows up,' says Dave to me,
'Some ruler in a far countree,
Where every voice but his is dumb,
Owner of pearls and gold and gum,
Will build for her a shining throne,
Higher than his, beside his own;
And he who would not list before,
Will listen to Catharine, adore

Her face and form; and,' Dave went

on

When came a man there pale and wan, Whose face was dark and wet, though

kind;

He, coming there, seemed like a wind Whose breath is rain, yet will not stop To give the parched flowers a drop: 'Go, children, to your school,' he said; 'Alone, for Catharine is dead.'"

William H. Davies.

THE SECOND HAGUE CONFERENCE.

In a few days the second Hague Conference will open its proceedings. Eight years will then have elapsed from the date of the signature of the Plenipotentiaries of the Convention and Declarations which resulted from the proceedings of the first Hague Conference, viz.:

I. A Convention for the pacific settlement of international disputes.

II. A Convention relating to the laws and customs of war by land.

III. A Convention for the adaptation to maritime warfare of the principles of the Geneva Convention of the 22nd August, 1864.

IV. And three declarations on the following matters:

(a) Prohibition of the launching of projectiles and explosives from balloons or by other similar new methods.

(b) Prohibition of the use of projectiles the only object of which is the diffusion of asphyxiating or deleterious gases.

(c) Prohibition of the use of bullets which expand or flatten easily in the human body, such as bullets with a hard envelope, of which the envelope does not entirely cover the core, or is pierced with incisions.

These Conventions and Declarations formed separate documents, which the States represented agreed to sign separately. Great Britain became a party to the three Conventions but not to the Declarations. Of other Powers, the United States Government, besides acceeding to the Conventions, has adopted the first of the Declarations, but not the second and third. All the other Powers have adhered to both the Conventions and the Declarations, except Portugal, who has abstained from the third Declaration, and Sweden and Norway and Switzerland, who have not yet ratified the second Convention. Turkey

is known to have ratified in extremis, but whether she has done so for all the Conventions and Declarations has not yet been made public; otherwise, she would not, it has been stated in the newspapers, have been qualified to receive an invitation to the second Conference. Why is not apparent.

Besides these Conventions and Declarations the first Conference left the following legacies to a second Conference, in the form of Resolutions and Vœux.

On the subject of military burdens and limitation of armaments both a resolution and a vou were adopted.

The resolution, which was carried unanimously, was as follows:

The Conference is of opinion that the restriction of military budgets, which are at present a heavy burden on the world, is extremely desirable for the increase of the material and moral welfare of mankind.

The vœu does not seem to have been adopted unanimously, but whether it was or not is immaterial, as the principle of it is covered by the resolution. It reads:

The Conference expresses the wish that the Governments, taking into consideration the proposals made at the Conference, may examine the possibility of an agreement as to the limitation of armed forces by land and sea, and of war budgets.

Another rou related to the immunity of private property at sea in war, a subject which the United States Government had brought up outside the programme of deliberations. The Conference taking a respectful interest in the question, but considering it beyond the scope of its pending work, "expressed the wish that the proposals which contemplate the declaration of the inviolability of private property in

naval warfare may be referred to a subsequent Conference for consideration."

On the much larger question of neutral rights and duties which are so allencompassing that they might form a programme for a Conference to the exclusion of all other matter, the Conference also adopted a vou, viz.:—

That the question of the rights and duties of neutrals be inserted in the programme of a conference in the near future.

The Conference also adopted vaur that:

the proposal to settle the question of the bombardment of ports, towns, and villages by naval forces be referred to a subsequent Conference for consideration.

That:

the questions with regard to rifles and naval guns, as considered by it, be studied by the Governments with the object of coming to an agreement respecting the employment of new types and calibres.

And, lastly, that:

taking into consideration the preliminary steps taqen by the Swiss Federal Government for the revision of the Geneva Convention, steps be shortly taken for the assembling of a special Conference having for its object the revision of that Convention.

The last of these vaur has been acted upon, a Conference having been held at Geneva in June-July, 1906, and a revised Convention, composed of thirtythree articles, adopted on July 6th, 1906.

Since 1899 practical effect has been given to all the three Conventions. Four cases have been heard before the Permanent Court of Arbitration, provided for in the first of the three. The other two have received application in

two wars-in our own in South Africa, and in that in the Far East. In the latter the provisions of the three Declarations also were observed, both Russia and Japan having ratified them long before the outbreak of the war.

All the three Conventions, it is understood, have given occasion to suggestions of improvement, and the Conference will probably consider as its first duty the discussion of any proposals for their amendment. In particular the procedure of The Hague Court will have to be carefully considered in connection with a number of modifications proposed by the judges who have sat in the different trials which have taken place before it. A point which may possibly also be brought forward is the cheapening of the procedure in cases of minor importance. In the Pious Fund case the five judges received each £1,000, to which must be added the fees and expenses of counsel, of staff, printing, &c. Compared with the small sums which were paid to Baron Lambermont as arbitrator in many cases of the same order, such costly procedure seems somewhat luxurious.

There is also the language question. Article 38 of the Arbitration Convention provides that

the Tribunal decides on the choice of languages to be used by itself, and to be authorized for use before it.

The Arbitrators in the Pious Fund case, while acknowledging the wisdom of this Article, called attention to the necessity of arriving at an agreement beforehand with regard to the language to be used before the tribunal. It was

absolutely necessary that the point be determined prior to the commencement of the labors of the tribunal, in order that the selection of the agent and counsel might be made with a view to their knowledge of the language in which the arguments before the Arbitrators were to be carried on, The ne

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