dashes its head against the bedpost; the delicious humor of this last incident lies in the fact that the dead cat is Euphemia, the darling of the New England old maid who is black Caesar's hostess.

The composite of sentimentality and romance probably overbalances crude fun. Here again it is pretty hard to trace any direct borrowing. Scott and Simms are certainly reflected, but their material is so much of it common property that it will not do to exaggerate their influence. The southern colonel in all his pride and magnificence probably owed a good deal to Scott's highland chiefs, but he had his foundation in the ideals of the South and in the actual characters of the time. Similarly the fiery young bloods of these tales are very much like the heroes in Guy Rivers or the Yemassee, but the slightly arrogant young aristocrat of fact still had in him something of the border leader. Sentimentality, particularly elegant melancholy, probably outweighs the romantic element. So much attack on Northern institutions naturally called for suffering heroines and thwarted heroes. But there is nothing very distinctive about this sensibility. To trace it to its origins in Byron or L. E. L. would be a thankless task. It follows the popular taste as met by Caroline Lee Hentz or Mary Jane Holmes. Buckingham Hall gives some typically sugary views of high society in New York. Eugene, the planter lover, has taken Julia for a drive to Greenwood Cemetery. Julia's father has just forbidden her to marry Eugene :

"After what had passed it was not surprising that the young people labored under a mutual embarrassment, during the drive to Greenwood; and while they were wandering through its labyrinths. As they walked on, admiring the lovely flowers and ornamental trees, and reading the sweet and touching inscriptions on the numerous, chaste and elegant monuments, Eugene's eyes expressed deep sadness. He sighed frequently and was evidently so preoccupied that Julia asked what ailed him. He replied that he felt a little indisposed, but the truth was he was endeavoring to make up his mind to leave New York, and banish himself from the charmer

at his side, and after a long struggle with himself, decided to do so.

"In the meantime Julia had seated herself on a bench beneath the shadow of a large oak tree, and Eugene, having finished his survey came and took a seat beside her. (She has promised to tell him the sad story of one of the graves.) 'Charlotte Canda,' began the fair girl, 'was the only daughter of a rich French gentleman, who was the superintendent of a large and successful seminary in New York. This young lady was mistress of every accomplishment, and the idolized of her parents. Beautiful and wealthy, she was surrounded by suitors, and no ball or party among her acquaintances was considered complete without her presence.' Any one who listens to the melancholy little tale of Charlotte may easily forecast that Eugene is destined to go mad and Julia to fade away, only to be restored to health and sanity by a cruel father's repentance and a wedding in the last chapter. Their method gets results, though it may not be as admirable as our modern brands of quick action and strong suffering.

An interesting question might be raised in conclusion as to the exact extent of the influence of English humanitarians upon this pro-slavery fiction. Hammond's pamphlet had taken their data and used it in defense of another theory of society. Following Hammond's lead these Southerners employ the evidence of labor conditions in England as proof of the rottenness of the British industrial system. Quotations are taken from the newspapers and magazines. There is no mention of any piece of Victorian literature, except an obscure novel or tract, "The Little Pin-Headers." The types and situations used to attack the British are reëmployed for condemnation of northern institutions. The material had been already handled by Dickens, Reade, Thomas Hood and others, but there is no direct evidence of specific borrowing. The abused child, the miserable seamstress, the unprotected girl, the father who sees his children starve, all have their British ancestors, whether remote or immediate.

On a sub-literary level the authors of this group of early problem novels show considerable dexterity in the use of a

variety of material. Aside from their literary importance as early examples of propaganda fiction, they are not without historical interest for their interpretation of social philosophy. They have a moral earnestness which covers a multitude of sins against good taste. May our efforts to ice over the fundamental absurdity of the purpose-novel seem more plausible to our enlightened descendants.

BOOK REVIEWS

SEA-POWER IN THE PACIFIC. A STUDY OF THE AMERICAN-JAPANESE NAVAL PROBLEM. By Hector C. Bywater. Boston and New York: Hougton-Mifflin Co., 1921, ix, 334 pp.

With the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet the center of naval interest shifted for the first time in history from Atlantic to Pacific waters. The change has a dramatic interest. For centuries European powers have contended against each other for mastery of the sea. Turk and Christian -to go back no further-fought for the Mediterranean; the Atlantic was contested in turn by English and Spanish, English and Dutch, English and French. Trafalgar left England supreme. Only once or twice during the nineteenth century did she find cause for concern in French naval activity. Then came the German navy bills of 1898 and 1900, and thenceforward until 1918 the British navy, in peace and war, was pitted against the most dangerous rival in its history. Not since Howard and Drake dispersed the Armada had England breathed such a sigh of relief as when the long column of German ships steamed submissively down the double lane of their British captors.

An era in naval rivalry was ended. France and Italy had long since been outstripped in the race. The British Isles had rarely been so secure, and British publicists began to urge the propriety of shifting a portion of the burden of naval upkeep to the colonies-for it was they, not England, who now had need of naval protection. For while in European waters Britannia unquestionably ruled the waves, in a distant ocean a new contest for naval supremacy was being waged by two newcomers in the field. Sooner or later that contest must

touch British imperial interests.

Mr. Bywater, who is an Englishman, writes with the detachment of one whose country is not concerned in the new rivalry of the United States and Japan. He writes as, ten years ago, an American might have written of "Sea-Power in the North Sea." In short, he treats the Pacific theatre of sea

power as if it were a two-sided and not a triangular affair. That England, with her trade and colonial interests, could be unconcerned in any war between Japan and the United States is inconceivable. Certainly she could not regard with equanimity an overturn that would leave Japan supreme. How she would be affected by the reverse result is not so clear. Probably she would be best suited by the continuation of a healthy rivalry between the two Pacific powers, provided the competition were kept down to a moderate pace. Such a policy would have obvious advantages, and would be closely analogous to the time-honored British policy of preserving the balance of power on the European continent.

It is because of the omission of all mention of the British empire as a factor that the scope of Mr. Bywater's volume seems disappointingly narrow. One would like to hear something of the reported development of a great British naval base at Singapore. Sea-power in the Pacific, as here treated, is purely a matter between the United States and Japan. The book contains some interesting chapters on the history and composition of the American and Japanese navies—statistics which may mean much or little when the Disarmament Conference has finished its work. But the two most significant chapters are those on "Strategy in the Pacific" and "Possible Features of a War in the Pacific." These are pages that every American ought to read. Briefly summarized, they show our position in the Philippines, in case of war with Japan, to be desperate to the point of hopelessness. No matter how strong our fleet, it is almost valueless without adequate bases, and in the preparation of bases we have been unbelievably remiss. We have a moderately good base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands, but that is nearly five thousand miles from Manila. The real key to our position in the Philippines is Guam, but that island is not only as yet unfortified, but is now surrounded by the islands embraced by Japan's new "mandates." Mr. Bywater holds it possible that in a long war we might eventually recover the Philippines-which would be lost to us within a few weeks of the outbreak of hostilitiesbut his opinion is that before succeeding we should have to make efforts and sacrifices compared to which those we made