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of the Magyars, whose aspirations to create a national State Lueger's Party have always done their best to frustrate. The triumph of Christian socialism is a menace to peace between the two sister States of the Dual Monarchy; for the principle of the Party is not, as its name suggests, to "live at peace with their neighbors," but to use every weapon at their command to foster feelings of rancorous and bitter hatred of their Magyar brethren.

The strength of Austria-Hungary depends upon the maintenance of internal peace between the two sister States, and it remains with Lueger and his comrades-who, for the time being, will be in the ascendant-to change their tactics and to come to an understanding with men who are, and always have been, ready to bury the hatchet and throw a veil over the injuries of the past. The dangers of pan-Germanism seem, for the present at least, to be evanescent; the complications that might have ensued by the return of a large number of nationalistic deputies are, to-day at least, nonexistent, though the Polish fraction may give some trouble; and the time is ripe for the Austrian Parliament to show its political maturity by bidding good-bye to ranting speeches and inkpot-throwing and resolving to live at unity with that State which, while always showing consideration for the interests of her neighbor, is determined to vindicate her own. The Outlook.

Speaking generally, the results of the first Austrian General Election based on universal suffrage must be satisfactory to Hungary by virtue of the failure of the new system, the perfection of which, from the point of view of universal justice, has so often been thrown in the teeth of the Magyars. The comparatively small proportion of nationalistic deputies returned, despite the overwhelming percentage of nonGerman races, must be a blow to those who are never tired of upbraiding the Magyars with unfair treatment of the non-Magyar races. Even under the present system, which is shortly to be exchanged for universal suffrage, the non-Magyar races are, in proportion quite as well treated in Hungary as the Slavs, who compose more than half the population, have been treated in Austria under the much boasted system of universal suffrage. From the Austrian point of view, the result of the elections is bitterly disappointing. In well-informed quarters it is considered probable-though we scarcely think it is likely that the Emperor will dissolve the new Reichsrath as soon as it assembles, for never has a new system proved a greater failure. Among the defeated candidates are the Minister for Public Instruction and Count Byland-Rheidt, Minister of the Interior, who himself introduced the new Suffrage Bill into Parliament. Such is the irony of fate!

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

"The Story of the Amulet," Mrs. E. Nesbit's new book, is not "Puck of Pook's Hill," but if one be too young to feel the magical ingenuity of that wonderful book it is not a bad substitute, and happy the child who reads of the

Psammead, (pronounced Sammy-ad), and Anthea, Robert, Cyril and Jane. These young folk found an amulet through which they could walk into the past, and they visited Babylon and prehistoric Egypt, and Britain, and

Gaul, and learned many things and saw many wonders. The story is admirable fooling, and entirely to the taste of those excellent children who perceive that mythology and history are as good as fairy stories. E. P. Dutton & Co.

Decidedly one of the most brilliant novels of the season is John Galsworthy's "The Country House." A story of the present day, the scene shifts from the country house, where the opening chapters find a party gathered for the week-end, to the races, and to London; the plot follows the infatuation of the Squire's oldest son for the wife of one of his neighbors; current conditions of divorce furnish the "problem"; the satire is serious and sharp, often painful, and the portraiture is remarkably well done, not only in the case of robust types like the Rector and the Squire, "whose essential likeness was as though a single spirit seeking for a body had met with those two shapes, and becoming confused, decided to inhabit both," but equally with Mrs. Pendyce herself, "that timid, and like a rose, but a lady every hinch, the love," as the old nurse describes her. G. P. Putnam's Sons.

Signore Fogazzaro's "The Woman" is neither political nor religious, but almost purely fantastic, although one suspects the author of malicious designs upon the self-complacency of those women who regard themselves as mystics when they are really nothing more intellectual than victims of hysteria. The heroine of "The Woman" having read more French pseudo science than her brain can bear, fancies herself the reincarnation of a woman who has loved unhappily and after astonishing and puzzling everybody about her, murders a man whom she chooses to fancy is the reincarnation of her former

lover. There are many humorous tigures among the minor personages of the story, and they are surprisingly like the minor persons of English fiction, chatterboxes, queerly dressed old ladies, and a recluse count, absolute governor of his castle and its domain, but the woman rules them all. In feeling and treatment, the book alternately suggests Mrs. Radcliffe and the theosophists, but its prolonged conversations would be impossible among Englishspeaking persons. J. B. Lippincott Co.

It was intimated, when the first volumes of Everyman's Library made their appearance, that, sooner or later, the complete works of several of the authors represented in the first instalment would be reprinted in the series. The agreeable promise has already been made good as regards the Waverley novels. Twenty-five of the charming scarlet-covered books, with their clear open page and decorative titles, contain Scott's prose writings complete. At a time when ephemeral and trashy fiction constitutes so large a portion of the output of the publishers' presses, it is an occasion for gratification that the stories of the prince of romancers can be bought in so attractive and enduring a form at the low price of fifty cents a volume. It is a happy circumstance also that they are not sold only by sets, as is the case with most editions of Scott, but may be bought one at a time, the purchaser being thus enabled either to select his favorites, or to watch the row gradually lengthen until it is complete. Jane Austen also is already complete in this edition, and lovers of Thackeray, Trollope, Dickens, George Eliot and other of the Victorian novelists look forward with pleasant anticipations to the appearance of volume after volume of their favorite authors.

SEVENTH SERIES
VOLUME XXXV.

No. 3285 June 22, 1907.

CONTENTS.

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The Arab in Architecture.

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The Control of the Public Purse. By Michael MacDonagh

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MONTHLY REVIEW 707

CONTEMPORARY REVIEW 719
MACMILLAN'S MAGAZINE

By L. March Phillips

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V. Idle Reading.

VI.

By Herbert Paul NINETEENTH CENTURY AND AFTER The Bridge-Warden. By Owen Oliver CHAMBERS's JOURNAL VII. Aesculapius in Ireland. By Sheila Desmond

VIII. The Nemesis of Imperialism.

IX. The Art of Being Poor.

X. The Mystery of the Cuckoo.

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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.

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THE CONTROL OF THE PUBLIC PURSE.

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Legislation is but one of the functions which Parliament discharges. haps more important still is its control of the collection and expenditure of the National revenue. It was around questions of taxation that in the past the battle of securities for good government and the liberty of the subject was fought and won. In the new field of political and social thought and action that has opened in this country, into which the Legislature is entering swayed by fresh impulses, taxation occupies a position of even greater magnitude. It is the chief bone of contention between parties. Still more does it promise to be the engine by which great changes and revolutions will be effected, or at least attempted, in the future.

The resources which our statesmen have to play with are indeed stupendous. Before a select Committee of the House of Commons which sat last year on the income tax the property of the United Kingdom was estimated at £11,500,000,000 by Mr. Chiozza Money, M.P., an able financier and author of "Riches and Poverty," and Sir Henry Primrose, Chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue, calculated that the annual income of the country was somewhere between £1,600,000,000 and £1,800,000,000. On this national property and income the State in the financial year which ended on March 31, 1907, placed the charge of £142,835,000 to defray the cost of the administration and defence of the Empire. The vast bulk of this enormous public revenue comes from the pockets of the people directly or indirectly. Of the total amount £118,010,000 was contributed by Customs and Inland Revenue, from taxes, direct or indirect, levied by Parliament, and £24,825,000 obtained from

non-tax sources, such as the Post Office and Telegraph services.

The revenue of the country is lodged by the departments charged with its collection in the Bank of England to the account of "His Majesty's Exchequer," and forms what is called "The Consolidated Fund." The chief exception to this procedure is that payments out of revenue amounting to £10,000,000, assigned by Acts of Parliament in aid of local taxation, are intercepted and sent direct to the local authorities. As the stream of revenue flows from all directions into this Fund, so out of it comes the money to meet every item of Imperial expenditure. Payments from the National Exchequer are of two kinds-namely "Consolidated Fund Services" and "Supply Services."

The first services consist of regularly recurring annual charges, that have been authorized and made permanent by Acts of Parliament, and are, therefore, issued to the Treasury without coming every year under the supervision of the House of Commons. These charges amount to over £30,000,000. As much as twenty-eight millions of this sum go to pay interest on our National Debt (which amounted last year to £788,990,187), and to create a sinking fund for its redemption. Over half a million goes to the King and Queen and other members of the Royal Family; half a million is spent on the salaries and pensions of judges and magistrates; about £339,000 on annuities and pensions for naval and military services (including perpetual annuities to the heirs of Nelson and Rodney), and for diplomatic, political and civil services; about £82,000 on existing salaries and allowances to high State functionaries-as, for instance, the £20,000

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