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LITERARY NOTES.
IN a recent small volume1 well worth reading, M. Alfred Kanibeau, a senator of France and a recognized authority on Russian history7, has given a brief presentation of Russia's develop ment, her aims, and the probabilities of her suc cess. M. Rambeau outlines the origin and growth of the Russian State, pointing out that so far as territorial expansion in Europe is con cerned, all the wars undertaken by Russia in Eastern Europe, from Peter the Great, in 1711, clown to Alexander II, in 1877, have brought but meagre results, and venturing the opinion that the present Emperor is convinced that " in the direction of the Danube, of the Black Sea, and of the Aegean Sea the destiny of Russia is fixed for a long time to come." But while, in Europe, Russia seems willing to act in harmony with the " European Concert," in Asia she has, on the contrary, followed a very decided and emphatic policy, acting in entire independence of that " Concert." It is the lat ter part of the book before us, dealing with the expansion of Russia in Asia, that has especial and immediate interest in view of current events in the Far East. While her progress in Europe, as is pointed out, has been the cause or the re sult of serious wars, Russian expansion in the East has been accomplished without a war with a power of the first rank, not excepting China. Her despotic form of government has made pos sible a consistent political policy, constantly pressing toward one goal, but urged with a pru dence which M. Rambeau terms " wholly Orien tal." One important element in Russia's success in Asia has been that Russian colonization does not exterminate the aboriginal races — it absorbs them, the Russian colonists adapting themselves to their environment and assimilating with the native peoples. Mr. Rambeau, perhaps naturally, attaches un due importance, as it seems to us, to the Russian alliance with France, outlined in 1891, and pro claimed some half dozen years later. That al liance, he thinks, assured the safety of the European frontiers of Russia, and also furnished her with the money needed to push her designs in the East. Certain it is, however, that since then 1 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA : Problems of the East and Problems of the Far East. By Alfred Kambean. Hurlington, Vt.: The International Monthly. 1900. Cloth.
Russia has made long strides toward the realiz ation of the object for which she has been striving for centuries — access for her fleets to seas free from ice. To quote the book before us, " She is about to inaugurate a new era in her history; the oceanic, the world-wide era, is merely begining for the Slav." IN LAST SONGS FROM YAGABONDIA,' Mr. Car man has expressed so accurately what our feel ings are each year " about this time," as the almanacs say, that we cannot forbear quoting two or three stanzas from the verses entitled "A Spring Feeling." I am too winter-killed to live, Cold-sour through and through. О Heavenly Barber, come and give My soul a dry shampoo. I want to find a warm beech wood, And lie down, and keep still; And swear a little; and feel good; Then loaf up on the hill, And let the Spring house-clean my brain. Where all this stuff is crammed; And let my heart grow sweet again, And let the age be damned.
We beg Mr. Carman to accept the apologies which we owe him for quoting these verses, rather than some of far more merit in this same volume; for instance, the admirable lines to the memory of Philip Savage. The pieces credited to Mr. Hovey are good, as was all that he wrote; but in the earlier volumes of •• Songs from Vagabondia," rather than here, his best things are to be found.
RECEIVED AND TO HE REVIEWED LATER: THE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. By Francis Newton Thorpe. In three volumes, 1765-1895. Chicago : Callaghan & Company, 1901. Cloth $7.50 net. THE LAW AND POLICY OF ANNEXATION. With special reference to the Philippines, together with observations on the status of Cuba. By Carman F. Randolph, of the New York Bar. New York: Longmans, Green & Company, 1901. 1 LAST SONGS FROM VAGABONDIA. By Bliss Carman, and Richard Hovey. Designs by Tom B. Afeteyará. Boston: Small, Maynard and Company. 1901. Boards.
