as its public services have undoubtedly been, is by no means qualified to dispense with the bracing influences exercised by a strong and coherent Opposition. We are not of those who think that the two-party system, as it has been illustrated in England during the past two centuries, is the only system upon which parliamentary government can conceivably be carried on with general advantage. That system may be hopelessly vitiated by insincerity on the part of those working it; and this is perhaps the most pernicious malady whereby any scheme of dealing with public affairs can be infected. It may be that a set of political groups, each held together by common beliefs and aspirations honestly entertained, would supply a more healthy, if less stable, form of parliamentary government than a party-system of the dual kind not based upon conscientious divergence and real difference of principle. A state of things, however, in which, on the one side, there is a very powerful and well-organised party, and on the other a number of groups which cannot unite, except casually, without the suppression of vital differences of principle and feeling, has few of the merits either of the system to which we have been accustomed or of that which future developments of democracy may have in store for us. every point of view, therefore, we most cordially wish success to Lord Rosebery and his friends in their endeavour to reconstruct the Liberal party on the basis of a frank and cheerful acceptance of England's Imperial responsibilities, and of the clear, if somewhat belated, recognition that Irish Home Rule would be a fatal hindrance to the discharge of those responsibilities.

From

If, however, this hope should not be realised-if, on the contrary, the prospect before us should prove to be one of protracted Liberal disintegration, one unfortunate result will be that a group of statesmen of recognised Imperial competence will, for an indefinite period, be excluded from Cabinet office. But must this necessarily involve their complete exclusion from responsible participation in Imperial affairs? We touched on this point nearly two years ago in connexion with the overwhelming case which, as we maintained, had then been established for the creation of some form of advisory Imperial council. Such a body, we contended, having as its primary duty

the continuous review of the problems of Imperial defence and external policy, in the light of the fullest information to be given by the Cabinet Ministers concerned, might very suitably contain, not only representatives of the great colonial Governments, but also a few leading members of the party not in office, invited by the Government of the day to give their counsel.

The existence of some body of this kind, in which all Imperialists, of whatever party, should be represented, is an essential condition of that regular participation of the Colonies in the work of Imperial defence which is increasingly recognised as just and necessary by the best colonial opinion, but which cannot be expected to take definite shape unless assurance is given to the Colonies of a regular and recognised representation of their views at the centre of the Empire. The gathering of colonial statesmen at the Coronation will afford an opportunity, of which His Majesty's Government may be assumed to intend to make all possible use, for promoting a real and important advance towards the effective consolidation of the Empire. It is impossible to conceive of circumstances more favourable than those which will then exist for fruitful consultation among Imperial statesmen on subjects of the utmost interest to all the states united under the British flag. The assembly will take place on an occasion of supreme Imperial interest; it will consist of the trusted leaders of great communities, of one allegiance and blood, which have been giving signal and prolonged proof to one another and the world of their readiness to face the severest sacrifices in the discharge of their reciprocal fealty. Surely it is not too much to hope that from the deliberations of such a gathering there will emerge an understanding on the basis of which the several self-governing members of the British realm will henceforth stand together, ready and prepared to meet by common action whatever difficulties or dangers the future may have in store.

Art. XII.-TURKEY AND ARMENIA.

1. Armenia: Travels and Studies. By H. F. B. Lynch. Two vols. London: Longmans, 1901.

2. The Highlands of Asiatic Turkey. By Earl Percy, M.P. London: Arnold, 1901.

3. Turkey in Europe. By Odysseus. London: Arnold, 1900.

MORE than a century has now elapsed since that complicated group of problems which we call the Eastern Question began to trouble the statesmen of Europe. It became formidably acute in 1821, when the Greek insurrection flamed out; and again in 1838, when Ibrahim, son of Mehemet Ali, then ruler of Egypt, threatened the Turkish Empire; while the three wars of 1853, 1877, and 1897 are comparatively fresh in our recollection. The correspondence that has passed between the great Powers upon the various phases of this interminable entanglement fills hundreds of volumes. But the Question goes on, a little reduced in its area as province after province has passed from beneath the sway of the Sultan either to independence or under the control of some one of the Powers, but otherwise substantially the same, and as perplexing now as it was in the days of Pitt, and Canning, and Palmerston. For the moment most people in England, absorbed by other troubles, have forgotten its existBut it remains scarcely less menacing to the peace of Europe than in earlier days; and those who know all that its recrudescence may involve, and how much in time past we have suffered through our ignorance of the facts, will welcome any light which intelligent travellers and impartial students of history can throw upon the actual situation in the East.

ence.

The books that lie before us are, in their several ways, valuable contributions to the literature of the subject, and deserve to be studied by those who desire to know the facts as they stand to-day. Of the three, that of Mr Lynch is by far the biggest, although he treats of an area smaller than that covered by the others, that area being practically the Armenian plateau between the valleys of the Phasis and the Kura on the north, and the rugged country whence the Tigris and its great tributary, the Zab, emerge

on the south. It is a region of about 250 miles each way, the northern part of it now Russian, the southern and larger part Turkish. But Mr Lynch's account of what he saw on his two journeys is so frequently interrupted by elaborate dissertations on the history of some of the places visited, and indeed on the earlier history of the country generally, that one may almost describe his book as a treatise on Armenian topography and Armenian antiquities, partly historical, partly archæological. He has taken enormous pains to consult the works, not only of preceding travellers, but of recent scholars, German and English, who have discoursed upon the very obscure history of the various kingdoms that have from time to time risen and ruled and vanished in these regions. Thus his book is a storehouse of information, additionally serviceable because he has been careful to give references to all the authors cited, and has placed in an appendix a very complete bibliography. Nor must we forget to add that the volumes contain a number of plans of the environs of cities, and sketch-maps of mountain masses, such as Sipan Dagh, Nimrud Dagh, and Bingöl Dagh, prepared from Mr Lynch's own surveys; and that they are illustrated by a profusion of engravings reproducing photographs taken in the course of his journeys. These illustrations are of great value, for, while some of them faithfully convey the character of the Armenian plateau, others form an admirable record of the remains of ancient edifices, chiefly churches, which are everyday yielding to decay and to the destroying hand of those who abstract their materials for building or road-making purposes. The Armenian architecture of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, as seen, for instance, in the ruined city of Ani, once the capital of the northern Armenian kingdom, is of the highest interest. It is a form of the Romanesque or Byzantine style, with peculiar features, especially in the ornamentation, and it is so little known to most students that what Mr Lynch has done by these photographs is a service of real and permanent worth.

Mr Lynch's first journey was made in 1893-4, his second in 1898. As much of the region over which he travelled is but little known to geographers and archæologists, his careful descriptions ought to be welcome. Without laying himself out for highly coloured pictures

of scenery, he conveys to us a distinct impression of the physical features of the country; nor does he omit to mention any facts of interest regarding the character of the people. There is, for instance, in his first volume, a very interesting account of one of the colonies of Russian sectaries who have been transplanted by the Czars to the bleak region in the upper valley of the Kura. The story of the Dukhobortsi and their 'queen' Lukesia, who has become since her death a sort of saint, almost worshipped by these simple people, is extremely curious, and may serve to explain some of the stranger phenomena in the earlier history of religion.

When he comes to speak of social and political phenomena, Mr Lynch is commendably fair and candid. He is neither Russophile nor Russophobe. He is free from that absurd prejudice in favour of the Turks and against the native Christians which so many travelling Englishmen imbibe from the commercial cynics of Constantinople and Smyrna, but he does justice to the good qualities of the Mussulman peasantry, and recognises the difficulties which stand in the way of protecting both them and the Christians from the ferocious rapacity of the Kurds and the corruption of the Turkish officials. The moderation of his language on these topics adds weight to his judgments.

Lord Percy is already favourably known, not only to the world of politics as one of the most promising and earnest-minded of the younger members of the Conservative party in Parliament, but also in the world of letters by his previous book of travels in the East. He shows a curiosity about the countries for which England has made herself largely responsible, specially to be commended in a politician whose talents and position make it probable that he will be called upon to have a share in deciding how, if at all, she is to attempt to fulfil those responsibilities. In the course of his journey he experienced, as all travellers do, much discomfort, and at a few points ran some risk of attack by Kurdish marauders; but potent introductions from high quarters enabled him to escape the difficulties which the Turkish authorities, now even more vexatiously than before, throw in the way of western travellers.

Lord Percy writes easily and pleasantly. He has a