brothers and sisters is a respectable woman, but she has separated herself from her family and his daily experience is the weakness and evil behavior of his kindred. He literally lives for them with never a selfish thought, and in the end dies for one of them, and by sheer goodness redeems more than one from sin, and in death remains a blessed influence in their lives. The chorus of the drama is composed of his social superiors upon whom the author lavishes agreeable humor, endowing them with ability to perceive Peter's spiritual and moral grandeur, and also to see the turpitude of the villain. E. P. Dutton & Co. Mr. Harry James Smith has adopted the heathen theory that everything human should be known by the human being and consequently his new book "The Enchanted Ground," includes some passages for which a well conducted newspaper would substitute the perfectly well understood asterisk. After these passages, the hero feels it his duty to relate their substance to his betrothed whose education has not fitted her to receive unexpurgated confessions, and she naturally takes measures to avoid hearing any more, whereupon he devotes himself for two months to making interesting material for further revelations. Then his guardian angel sends to his rescue an ugly, unprepossessing girl so intent on keeping her sister from accepting the Terentian theory of life that she begs him to help her in keeping the ignorant child from plunging into sin, and while serving her and at the same time devoting himself to the redemption of a genius almost ruined by dipsomania he gathers strength and wisdom enough to put aside his sin. Meanwhile, his betrothed discovers that her father, her model of all the virtues, sinned in the days of his youth, and in the same moment learns of the hero's repentance and works meet for repentance, and decides that she ought to forgive him. The reader's agreement with her depends upon his standards of action. Artistically the story is well managed. Houghton Mifflin Company. A woman with "furrish eyes," "apple-dash pink in her cheeks," and "honey lights in her hair;" a "tantrum of thunder"; a man with "a lean-cut chin which seemed to balk," and "a tingle of red" in his eyes, these are specimens of the verbal jewels to be found in "The Cave Woman" by Miss Viola Burhans, but one forgives these venial errors in finding that the book is not Mallock and water as its title seems to indicate. The hero, going into a cave during a thunder shower with the classic intention of avoiding the rain, is followed almost immediately by a woman similarly minded, and the story opening with their whimsical talk in the darkness, continues with a description of his efforts to discover her among three women whom he encounters in the outer world to which she insists upon returning alone without revealing her name. Incidentally, it reveals his preceding literary and journalistic struggles in both of which he plays a highly creditable part, but the author keeps the reader's attention centered on the question "Which is she?" until in a final scene the two strands of interest are cleverly intertwined, and produce a story both diverting and artistic. Excision of its verbal eccentricities and a slight pruning of its too verbose conversations would improve it, but as it stands it is an agreeable story, promising an even better successor. Henry Holt & Co. SEVENTH SERIES No. 3453 September 10, 1910 FROM BEGINNING IV. V. VI. The Lost Voice. By J. George Scott CONTENTS The Strength and the Weakness of the Third French Republic. In the Steerage. By An Old Etonian TIMES 657 663 TIMES 670 IX. The Oldest Inhabitant. SATURDAY REVIEW 692 OUTLOOK 694 NATION 697 PUNCH 700 ACADEMY 700 XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. Presents. By Coldstreamer The Tendency of Modern Russian Literature. A PAGE OF VERSE From the Portuguese. By E. Nesbit . In Exile. Translated by L. Cranmer-Byng 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 per annum. 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. FROM THE PORTUGUESE. When I lived in the village of youth It was always sunshine and summer, Dreams in the eyes of maidens, When I lived in the village of youth The new shawl, the new comb, the new fan, The new rose, the new lover. Now I live in the town of age And they from the village of youth The new shawl, the new comb, the new fan, The new rose, the new lover. Once we had all these things- The Thrush. E. Nesbit. CORYDON AND PHYLLIS. All among the pleasant valleys in the merry May Corydon came courting Phyllis. "Will you love me, say, Will you, as of old you usèd? Ask for yea or nay, my dear: but never answer nay." On a bank of daffodillies, laughing as she lay, From muddy road to muddy lane In all those miles of mist and wet. IN EXILE. BY TU-FU. (A.D. 712-770) Through the green blinds that shelter me Two butterflies at play Four wings of flame whirl joyously Around me and away; While swallows breasting to the shore Ripple the waves they wander o'er. And I that scan the distant view Of torn white clouds and mountains blue Lift to the north my aching eyes; 'Tis there 'tis there the city lies! Chang-an arise! arise! Translated by L. Cranmer-Byng. The English Review. THE STRENGTH AND THE WEAKNESS OF THE THIRD FRENCH REPUBLIC. Sieyes was asked what he had done during the Reign of Terror. His answer was, "J'ai vécu"-"I have kept myself alive." Ask the Third Republic for proof of its strength, and its reply is, "I have kept alive for more than thirty years." The achievement is no small one. The Monarchical Constitution of 1791 lived, nominally at least, for two years (1791-1792). The First Republic in all its varying forms, each of which marked a revolution, dragged out a precarious existence for less than eight years (1792-1799), The rule of Napoleon lasted, though not without interruption, for fifteen years. The restored Bourbons kept on the throne for sixteen years (1814-1830). The Orleanist Monarchy endured with difficulty for eighteen years (1830-1848). The Second Republic lived for less than three years (1848-1851). The renovated Imperialism of Louis Napoleon just equalled the eighteen years of the Orleanist régime (1852-1870). The Third Republic, if we exclude the years of disorder, intrigue and ambiguity which elapsed between 1870 and 1875, has already stood its ground for thirty-five years. This list of dates, stated broadly, is dry reading; but it has immense significance. The Third Republic shows a vital force unknown to any other French Constitution which has been framed during the last 120 years. The importance of this fact is enhanced by two considerations. The first is that the Republic has faced the gravest perils. The failure of the Republicans to save France from the German invaders, combined with all the horror excited by the massacres and the cruelty as well as by the ruthless. even though necessary, suppression of the Commune might well have been as fatal to the Third as were the insurrection of June 1848 and its conse quences to the Second Republic; the monarchical Conservatism of 1871 might have proved as irresistible as the Imperialism and the Conservatism of 1851. The popularity and the plots of General Boulanger, the discreditable close of Grévy's second Presidency, and the bitter animosities aroused by the Dreyfus case prove that the Republic has once and again stood in danger of destruction. The second consideration is that, since the Republic in 1875 became the formally acknowledged Constitution of France, it has neither been overthrown for a moment, nor been compelled to use those violent means of defence which are as deadly to the moral authority of any Government as even the appearance of weakThe Republic has never had recourse either to that state of siege which is organized martial law, or to that even more terrible procedure known in the Jacobinical slang of the great Revolution as "veiling the statue" of liberty or of law. The Commonwealth of France has weaknesses. but it has hitherto preserved both order and liberty. ness. The Republic has done more than merely exist. It has displayed that capacity for connecting itself with the permanent institutions of the country and for gradual development, to which Englishmen attach an even exaggerated importance, and sum up in the often misunderstood formula that the Constitution of England has not been made but has grown. Here at least English prejudice or experience coincides with scientific principle; things that grow are alive. Let me dwell for a moment on the two closely connected features of the existing French Constitution which I wish to make clear. The Republic is indeed from one point of view the creation of yesterday. We all know that had the audacity of French monarchists been greater or, as a foreign critic may well believe, their patriotism been less than it proved to be in reality, they might have forced on France a Bourbon or an Orleanist restoration which assuredly was hateful to a large portion of their fellow-citizens. Yet the Republic from another point of view rests on foundations laid during a century of arduous conflicts. One example illustrates the meaning and the truth of this assertion. Universal suffrage is an institution open to much criticism, and does not in itself possess any special sanctity. Its creation in 1848 might be considered little more than an accident. For universal suffrage was proclaimed by a Provisional Government, and that Government itself was elected by a mob of ruffians whose names are unknown, and was, as an Englishman would think, endowed with no moral right to revolutionize the electoral system of the country. But a change due in part to the temporary influence of a politician, Ledru Rollin, whose name is hardly remembered even by Frenchmen, has stood the test of time. Rash would be the innovator who, with the experience of the last sixty-two years before him, tried to abolish or undermine a mode of expressing the will of the nation which answers to the ideas of equality that have sunk deep into the minds of the French people. Third Republic, at any rate, is the final consecration in France of universal suffrage. The French Commonwealth rests then on a principle which, while it corresponds with national conceptions of equality, secures the support of those small landowners who are the most conservative element of French social life. The The Republic, again, has provided solutions, which are certainly ingenious and may possibly be final, of some political problems which have hitherto overtaxed the skill of constitution-makers. The makers of the existing Constitution have, in the first place, shown that it is possible to combine Presidential with Parliamentary government, or, in other words, have created an elected official who in his relation to Parliament fills the position of a constitutional king. This achievement has been long found a matter of extraordinary difficulty. The Fathers of the American Commonwealth created a powerful President, but they have not ensured harmony between the action of the elected Legislature and the elected Executive of the Republic. They gave up, whether consciously or not, the chance of forming that Cabinet which under a constitutional monarchy, is, as Bagehot years ago pointed out, the link which binds inseparably together the Parliament and the national Executive. The French statesmen of 1848 had before their eyes the experience both of England and of America. They were Parliamentarians. They intended the country to be ruled by a Parliamentary Cabinet. Their experience and their ability did not preserve them from tragic failure. They created, indeed, a strong President. For well-nigh three years he thwarted the action of the Legislature, and terminated a period of intrigue and conspiracy by the destruction of the Republic. And the victory of the President was sanctioned by the votes of the people. The Imperialism of Louis Napoleon was avowedly the protest against Parliamentary government. The founders of the Third Republic learned at least one lesson from the events of 1848 and the coup d'état of 1851. They gave to the President of the Republic a position of high dignity and a fixed, though limited, tenure of office, but they placed the election of the President in the hands, not of the people, but of the Houses of Parliament meeting together as one National Assembly. The experi |