The Portland daily press., 1878-09-21
Magazine Notices,

Inc Oct0Der number OF the North american
Reuieao contains articles of more than ordinary
interest. Mr.. Gladstone's paper, "Kin beyond
Sea-" will attract the most attention, and, Ger
tainly on this side the water, command general
praise. Its delicate flattery of the American
people is not to be resisted, and its comparison
Of the two forms of government, the American
Republic and the British Monarchy, is as en-
Pertaining as it is instructive. Elsewhere will
be found fuller discussion of the paper than
can be INDUCED within the scanty limits of
this notice.
The second article of the number is paper
on torpedo warfare by Admiral Porter. This
high naval authority is enthusiastic in his
praise of the torpedo and is disposed to regard
it as the most destructive implement of naval
warfare yet devised. He gives history of the
invention from the time of Bushnell to the
time of the Whitehead, and shows that it played
far more important part in the war of the
Rebellion than it has generally received credit
for. Many will be surprised to learn that no
less than twenty vessels of our fleet were sunk
by rebel torpedos.
The Hon. George w. Julian, one of a band
of professional reformers which has done much
to bring the name of reform" into dsrepute,
asks SIS the Reformer any longer Needed?"
and goes on to answer the question in the
affirmative. He certainly lays out work enough
to keep this gene ration busy, The despotism
OF the caucus must be overthrow, the civil
service must be purified, the ballot must be
given to women, the currency question must be-
settled, the old conflict bet ween labor and cap
ital muat ha fou Oht mi tbo nd
whatever that is-must be decided, poll
tics must be secularized, and the 'con-
cubinage of Church and State destroyed.
Mr.. Julian, to use his own words, 'hails the
independent voter as the annointed Messiah on
whom we are to believe" and who is to bring
all these things about.
DIR. William T. Harris has Thoughtful paper
on "The Readjustment of Vacations made
necessary by changed economic conditions re-
sulting from the wonderful increase in the use
OF machinery. The causes and consequences
of the change are fairly and wise set forth. but
when we come to the remedy Dr. Harris's pre-
scriptiou is found not to be novel. He in ef-
feet tells US that the way to readjust is to re-
adjust. The great difficulty is to persuade
people to follow the advice. The Hon.
John Jay, taking the changes in the
New York custem house for pretext breaches
asermon on Civil Service Reform, making refer
ence of course, to the Vienna Commission
Mr.. 7. S. Perry, who is acquiring reputation
as critic quite as much by his knack of say
ing undisputed things ia solemn way as by
any extraordinary powers of sympathy or anal
ysis he possesses, writes of Alfred de Musset.
The paper is entertaining, not certainly by
reason of the fineness and delicacy of its criti-
cism. but because it tells us much that we like
to hear about de Musset. Most of it some of us
hayehe before; nevertheless it is pleasant to
hearsagain.
The concluding paper Of the number is one
OF those unsatisfying feasts that it is the fash
ion to call symposia. The subject under dis
cussion this time is "What is Inspiration?'
and the disputants are the Rev. Messrs. f. II.
Hedge, E. A. Washburne, Chauncey Giles and
j. ?. Newman, the most Rev. James Gibbons,
Archbishop of Baltimore, and Mr.. John Fiske.