BY MR. C. E. ODGERS. HIS is in many ways a remarkable book* and deserves to be read by not only lawyers, to whom it naturally chiefly appeals, but by every thinking man who cares to enquire into the sources of the various steps recently undertaken for the defence of the Empire; the rights and liabilities of allies and enemies and their property and those of the persons who have dealings with them during a state of war; the laws of war on land and sea and many various topics in connection therewith. We do not remember to have previously come across a book which combines a summary of what is strictly International Law, i.e., the rules of law as between sovereign states, with a digest of the Municipal Law regulating the raising of the Army and Navy and the Indian and other Forces; the extraordinary powers taken by the Crown to regulate the life and habits of the people during the war; the scope of the Regulations promulgated to provide for the public safety-which range from a prohibition against allowing any light to escape from the windows of a private house to forbidding an alien resident in Great Britain to change his name— during the course of the war. The work shows evidence of great research and very considerable learning on the part of the authors. In their criticisms of the Regulations made under the Defence of the Realm Acts they display much acumen especially in the argument as to what powers the Crown possesses over the people in the case of a war waged outside the realm-as in the present case. They come to the conclusion (page 93) that in the case of war outside the realm the Crown is not invested with such powers over British subjects within it, but may on the other hand take such steps as it pleases against alien enemies within it. Amongst the powers taken by the Regulations is the power to destroy private property, and the argument of the learned authors is that such power is ultra vires of the Statute. A perusal of the Statutes and the Regulations made in pursuance of these justifies the conclusion that "certainly never in our history has the executive assumed such arbitrary power over the life, liberty and property of British subjects. The net of restrictions is now so finely woven, so ingeniously developed that it enmeshes every activity of the citizen." * War: Its Conduct and Legal Results, by T. Baty, DC L.,LL.D., and Professor T. H. Morgan, M,A, London; John Murray, 1915. 10s, 6d, Living as we do in India and as far as the ordinary avocations of life are concerned practically untramelled as we are, it is a little difficult to realize that our fellow citizens in the United Kingdom are living under a state of military law, whereby any action almost may be called in question either by the military or civil authorities. It is of course on account of the very propinquity of the country to the scenes of operations and to the presence therein at the commencement of the war of thousands of alien enemies-also to the extensive commercial relations hitherto existing between our own people and those of the enemy, that these stringent regulations are undoubtedly necessary. Another interesting topic and one. treated with great ability by the authors is that of contracts with alien enemies. Story laid it down some time 66 that ago no principle is better settled than that all contracts made with an enemy during war were utterly void." This sounds simple, but what if the alien enemy has a neutral agent resident in the enemy country, or the alien enemy is himself resident in a neutral country? Can either insist on performance? If a failure of performance takes place can either sue in a British Court. The cases cited are chiefly American but as these arose during the American Civil War there is reason for holding that they are not authorities for cases arising in an International War. Trading with the enemy is equally well-treated and this subject as well as that of contracting with the enemy should prove useful to all merchants and others who at the beginning of the war had business dealings with any of the subjects of the countries with which we are at war. This remark will also apply to the chapters on the Moratorium-or postponement of payments. The first of these was effected by the Proclamation of the 2nd of August when war was imminent and continued with extensions subsequently. Enough has perhaps been said to show that the book is of very varied interest. It deals with subjects of vital importance at the present day, for many of which there has been hitherto very scanty authority in our law-and in many cases what authority there is has hitherto escaped the legal text writers and lain hidden in our reports, The investigations and research of Professor Mor gan and Dr. Baty have now brought much of this to light, and the result has been not a dry legal text book, but discussions in a thoroughly logical way of points of interest to us all at the present crisis. GENERAL DMITRIEFF, IN COMMAND OF THE RUSSIAN ARMY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SIEGE GENERAL VON KUSMANEK, THE DEFENDER OF THE FORTRESS THE FALL OF PRZEMYSL (PEREMYSL) The surrender of this important stronghold of Austrian Poland, with over 100,000 soldiers and vast supplies of war material, is the greatest victory of the war for the Allies, so far. In the number of men taken by the besiegers the capture of Przemysl ranks in history with that of Metz by the Germans in 1871.-The Outlook Types of knitted helmets that have been supplied to German regiments fighting on the Russian frontier MAKING SCHOOL-HOUSES OUT OF RAILWAY CARS Many of Germany's school-houses have been turned into hospitals for the wounded, and the dispossessed children are boing taught in railway cars used as school-rooms. The children in the picture seem to like the change GERMANY ADAPTS HERSELF TO THE VARYING EMERGENCIES OF WAR The Outloo BY DR. JAGADISH CHANDRA BOSE, M.A., D.SC., C.I.E., C S.I. In tracing the characteristic phenomenon of life from simple beginnings in that vast region which may be called Unvoiced, as exemplified in the world of plants, to its highest expression in the animal kingdom one is repeatedly struck by one dominant fact, that in order to maintain an organism to the height of its efficiency, something more than a mechanical perfection of its structure is necessary. Every living organism in order to maintain its life and growth must be in free communion with all the forces of the universe about it. Further it must not only constantly receive stimulus from without, but must also give out something from within. And the healthy life of the organism will depend on these twofold activities of inflow and outflow. When there is any interference with these activities then morbid symptoms appear, which ultimately must end in disaster and death. This is equally true of the intellectual life of a nation. When through narrow conceit a nation regards itself self-sufficient and cuts itself from the stimulus of the outside world then intellectual decay must inevitably follow. So far as regards the receptive function. Then there is another function in the intellectual life of a nation-that of spontaneous outflowthat giving out of its life by which the world is enriched. When the nation has lost this power, when it merely receives but cannot give out then its healthy life is over and it sinks to a degenerate existence which is purely parasitic. THE FUNCTION OF A NATIONAL UNIVERSITY. How can our nation give out of the fulness of the life that is in it and how can a new Indian University help in the realisation of this object. It is clear that its power of directing and inspiring will depend on its world-status. This can be secured to it by no artificial means; nor can any charter assure it. This world-status can only be won by the intrinsic value of the great contributions to be made by its own Indian scholars for the advancement of world's knowledge. To be organic and vital our new University must stand primarily for self-expression and for winning for India a place she has lost. Knowledge is never the exclusive possession of any particular race nor does it recognise geographical limitations. The whole world is interdependent and a constant stream of thought had been carried out throughout the ages enriching the common heritage of mankind. Although science was neither of the East nor of the West, but international in its universality certain aspects of it gained richness by reason of their place of origin. Has India then any great contributions to offer for the advance of human knowledge? And we have also to realise in this connection: What has been her strength in the past and what is the weakness that has been paralysing her activities? CONDITIONS FOR SCIENTIFIC SUCCESS. For the accomplishment of any great scientific work there must be two different elements and these must be evenly balanced; any excess of the one at the expense of the other would be highly detrimental of the discovery of truth and advancement of knowledge. These elements are: first, a great imaginative faculty, and second: a due regulation of that faculty in pursuance of rigid demonstration. An aimless experimentation can lead to no results, while an unrestrained imagination will lead to the wildest speculation, which is subversive to intellectual sanity. A true inquirer has, therefore, to guard against being self-deceived; he has at every step to compare his own thought with the external fact; he has remorselessly to abandon all in which these are not agreed. Thus what he slowly gathers is certain, forming a sure foundation of what is to come. Even in this path of self-restraint and verification, he is making for a region of surpassing wonder. When the visible light ends he still follows the invisible. Where the note of the audible reaches the unheard even then he gathers the tremulous message. How have these wonderful feats been rendered possible? First by the recognition of man's own limitations and then undaunted by these in setting about the creation of artificial organs, which would require great genius for invention and extraordinary skill in construction. Indian inquirers had even at an early stage clearly understood our physical limitations. They recognised that there are infra-sensible phenomena, which exist but cannot be detected on account of the imperfection of our senses. For want of finer instruments-which are in reality artificial means for extending the range of our perception-the progress of knowledge was arrested. The cause of our scientific ill success has been just this want of a true recognition of the experimental side. This may have been due to decline of national life, however brought about, or to the general distraction consequent on the unsettled condition of the country. No great experimental work can be carried out unless the mind of the inquirer remains * Address delivered in connection with the inauguration of the Benares Hindu University. undisturbed, unless he be connected with an institution having great and inspiring traditions where constructive skill of great mechanicians has been handed down from generation to generation. Whatever the reason might be, the mind gradually drifted from the irksome curb of slow experimental verification to the fascination of unrestrained speculation. What could be more enchanting than that delightful story in the Arabian Nights when the prince presses a pin in the neck of a mechanical horse and the machine flies through space! To confuse It romance with reality is but one step. It is by the contact of the hand with real things, that the brain receives a constant stream of stimulating message; and the answering impulse of the brain gives the hand its cunning. Without action, the mind must lose its vigour and will succumb at last. will begin to think that great achievements in science may perhaps be won by some lucky chance or by certain feats of jugglery. I cannot think anything so deadening to progress as this attitude of mental degeneracy. LIFE OF AN INVESTIGATOR. It is no easy life that lies before a scientific investigator. He has to steel his body and nerve to the utmost. There is to be for him no life of ease. It is to be one of unending struggle. Even after all this there is no assurance whatever of success to reward him for his ceaseless toil. He has to cast his life as an offering, regarding gain or loss, success or failure, as one. This will perhaps be better realised when I recount the real history of the conquest of air. I had the unusual opportunity of coming in close contact with the work of the man to whom this great achievement is ultimately due. Many lives had previously been sacrificed in various ineffective attempts till the investigation on the supporting power of moving surfaces was scientifically taken up by Langley in America. After many years of patient experimentation new data were obtained which were contrary to all previously accepted theories of aero-dynamics. Then the question of light motors presented insuperable difficulties. After these had been overcome Langley took up the question of flying machines and a small model of automatic flying machine ascended the air on the 6th of May 1896, for the first time and after describing a series of special curves in the air safely descended on the Potomac river, having accomplished the length of flight of over 3,000 ft. I had this recounted to me by his friend, Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone who watched this flight. Great interest was aroused, and the American nation keenly watched for the occasion when a larger machine was to make its flight before the public. In this public demonstration a small screw was left loose by the carelessness of a workman, with the result that the machine instead of rising was precipitated into the river. A chorus of derision arose which was magnified by the Press, and Langley died of a broken heart. This has often been the fate of great inventors and discoverers. But the lure that draws heroic souls is not the success which can easily be achieved but defeat and tribulation in the pursuit of the uattainable. I have seen at the Smithsonian Institution this machine failed at the first experiment. But after Langley's death the experiment was repeated, and the aeroplane rose into the air like a bird that has been set free after a long period of imprisonment. THE MENTAL FACTOR. I spoke in some detail of the source of the weakness that had so long arrested our scientific advance. This was our neglect of the experimental factor. I shall show later how this defect can be remedied if we once realised and faced it. I shall now take up the other factor, the mental, in which fortunately we do possess certain advantages. It is to be remembered that every experiment has to be carried out first in the inner region of the mind. To keep the mental vision clear great struggles have to be undergone, for the clearness of the inner vision is lost too easily. The greatest wealth of external appliances is of no avail, where there is not a concentrated pursuit of a great object. Those whose mind rush hither and thither, those who hunger for public applause or personal gain instead of truth, by them the quest is never won In pursuit of knowledge an Indian inquirer has the burning imagination which could extort truth out of a mass of disconnected facts, a habit of meditation without allowing the mind to dissipate itself. If he, caught with his scientific imagination a glimpse of a wonder-working ray as yet unknown to man, and believed that experiment would reveal its properties and potentialities, he would go on working ceaselessly through a long life and dying hand on his task to his disciples. POWER OF DETACHMENT. And what about the fruit of knowledge that has been acquired and its applications. It is well known that a moving machinery in increasing its unrestrained pace is rushing towards destruction, unless it has a self-checking governor to restrain it before the danger limit is reached. In the West there has been no cheque or limit to the |