CONTENTS, PAGE PAGE NOTESOF THE WEEK ...... 49 THENEW FRANKENSTEIN.By Muriel Wells 63 CURRENTCANT ...... 52 THEPOLITICAL CONDOTTIERE. By Aeacus 64 FOREIGNAFFAIRS. By S. Verdad ...... 52 Our OF BOUNDS. By Peter Fanning ...... 64 MILITARYNOTES. By Romney ...... 53 VIEWSAND REVIEWS. By A. E. R...... 65 GUILD-SOCIALISM-VI.THE TRUST OR THE GUILD 54 DRAMA. By John Francis Hope ...... 60 MOREHYGIENIC JINKS. By Charles Brookfarmer 56 Art. By Anthony M. Ludovici ...... 66 THEBLACK CRUSADE-III. By Marmaduke Pickthall 58 PASTICHE.By Alice Morning, Charles White, Morgan Tud 68

UNEDITED OPINIONS: THENATURE OF THE SOUL e‘. 59 LETTERSTO THE EDITORfrom E. Belfort Bax, C. H. Nor- “ THEWINTER’S TALE” IN 1856. By E. Leigh-Bennett 60 man, Ezra Pound, Winstanley, Ralph Habben, Henry To THE LEADERS OF LABOUR.By Standish O’Grady 61 Alexander, J. T. Fife, H. L. Wheatley, L. H. Green, PRESENTRAY CRITICISM ...... 62 X. Y. Z., O. E. Post ...... 69 _-_--- __- All commzcnications relative to THENEW AGEshould Speaker, was, we repeat, as legitimate as anything be addressed to THE NEW AGE, 38, Cursitor Street, else done by a Cabinet with a caucus Parliamentary E.C. majority. Even worse things have been done, and will be again, and possibly by the very persons who now cry traitor. When Tariff Reform, for example, comes OTES OF THE WEEK. to be discussed, we shall see some rare sights in the House of Commons. And should it ever pass, which IT is absurd to demand the instant resignation of the we doubt, still rarer sights such as will disgust the Government on the division of Monday last. That nation will be seen in the lobbies of the House when division may or may not ha~7ebeen a “snap ” division the “interests ” that hope to profit by Tariff Reform in the childish vocabulary of the House of Commons, come up to Parliament to buy their Bills over the but for the public it simply counts as a warning to counter. The present quarrel, as we say, is unreal. expect the end shortly, and no more. The Govern- The two front benches, at any rate, will remain in private ment has its majority; certain Bills are generally ex- the best of friends. Sir William Bull himself would pected to be completed, if not passed; the standing probably not be above dining with Mr. Asquith if the crop of the Insurance Act has to be gathered in the latter tbought it worth while to invite him. early spring; and only derision would greet a Govern- Y** ment that resigned immediately under the present cir- But while the personal element of the quarrel is un- cumstances. Whatever may be their faults, Mr. real, the irritation felt by the Tories is real enough. Asquith and his Cabinet are not timid; nor are they But their resentment should be directed against the likely to overestimate either their own unpopularity caucus system, and not against their temporarily better or the amount of popular support awaiting the Tory half. What is the real matter of annoyance, of which Party. These latter have a ridiculous programme, the explosion of Wednesday was the misdirected out- they have no large ideas, they have untried leaders, come? It is not that Mr. Asquith had refused, with and they have Mr. Garvin to advise them. Even if, a hundred majority, to resign on a “snap ” defeat, or as is probable, they find themselves in power after the was attempting to create a novel precedent by ex- next Election, the result will be due, not to their merits, punging it; it was and is that debate and discussion but to the accidents of our political system. It will be have proved themselves of no effect in the House. Any. with reluctance that the nation will find itself in a few body who has had the misfortune to address a packed months’ tirne compelled to exchange Mr. Asquith for jury knows the anger that arises when a perfectly Mr. Bonar Law. Mr. Asquith commands a personal sound and convincing argument is stolidly ignored. respect which no other statesman can now rival. Some Yet that is what takes place in Parliament every hour of his colleagues have undoubtedly made his Cabinet of the day. On the subject of Home Rule, for example, impossible, but not so impossible that the nation would the Tories have undoubtedly scored, in a debating have Mr. Asquith dismissed by a Parliamentary sense, many points. We who have read the debates manoeuvre. He can take his time about resigning. A and weighed the respective arguments know well few months more or less is of no real importance. enough that they have. But it has made no difference tu the final form of the Bill. The voting has not been If bcth parties only knew it, their quarrel is not with affected. We can well understand, therefore, that, each 3ther. Observers outside, at any rate, are quite after some months of this futility, any Opposition aware that it is at best a case of pot and kettle. Is would lose its temper on a special occasion, and pre- anyone SO simple as to imagine that what Mr. Asquith cisely in proportion as the subject is serious to them. attempted to do on Wednesday Mr. Bonar Law would But the real cause of the trouble is not the other party not attempt to do in the same circumstances? Sir -the majority-but the caucus system, of which the William Bull fancied himself a real hero when he de- majority and the minority are alike the creators and nounced Mr. Asquith as a traitor and allowed himself the victims. For the caucus is designed, as everybody to be suspended for it. But traitor in the mouth of knows, not only to put a party with a majority in Par- an officer of the Anti-Socialist Union is not a charge liament, but to keep it a majority there. To this end that anybody with a sense of humour (such as Mr. it must needs have a mechanical majority, s10 loyal, Asquith has) would resent. Sir William Bull is too as it is called, as to be willing on every occasion to accustomed to pulling wires himself tto bring a charge vote as their leaders tell them. The best members, of treachery against a more successful wirepuller with indeed, from the caucus point of view (by no means any effect. The attempt of the Government on the same thing as the party point of view, with which Wednesday to rescind the resolution of Monday, Mr. Belloc confuses it), are those who are either in- though finally frustrated by the intervention of the capable of appreciating an argument against them- 50 selves and those who are incapable of voting as their the same time we will say that, if there is anything reason directs. Thus the mechanical action of any to choose between the two parties in the way of prac- Government majority is the direct and intended effect tical reasoning, the Tories are a little better than the of the caucus system. And this applies as much to Liberals, the proof being that a Tory Cabinet more a Tory majority as to a Liberal majority. It simply easily splits. When Mr. Chamberlain started to hunt means that the majority have not to think, but only the hare of Tariff Reform, not only he left the Cabinet, to vote. The less they think, the more smoothly the but several other Ministers left it with him, or shortly caucus works. But the same system that creates a afterwards. But in the present Cabinet there have docile majority also assumes an acquiescent minority. been differences quite as great. Three members of the If the minority should forcibly object, the machine ob- Cabinet, for example, loathed with all their heart the viously cannot work. The minority must be willing to Insurance Bill. But they did not allow their reason to be his Majesty’s loyal Opposition: that is,‘ a body of affect their votes for the measure. Mr. Lloyd George’s men who are prepared to keep up the pretence of Land Campaign, again, should have taken him out of debate without any hope of affecting legislation, and the Cabinet in a single week, but it did not. Liberals on condition of inheriting power when accident robs generally, in fact, as they were the first creators of the the majority of it. For the most part, Oppositions caucus, have been its most perfect slaves ever since. are prepared to do this. It seldom happens that the If the system is ever to be broken down, it will not be Government is so foolish as to propose legislation the Liberals who will do it, but the Tories. Perhaps which the minority, after respectable protest, is not Mr. Bonar Law’s “new style ” may assist the process. prepared to accept. It is, as Mr. Balfour has always *** maintained, a condition of the caucus system that the It is difficult to make Liberals realise that, while they two halves of the machine shall not differ radically on are the most professedly tolerant, they are also the any subject. The subject ‘of difference should never be most exasperatingly irrational of public men. (We more than the toss up of a coin could settle to the except the Labour Party, whose poor brains may Ise mutual satisfaction of the parties. That Tweedledum excused for never seeing any light that is not contained should be in power requires that Tweedledee should in their \own turnips.) Liberals will listen, they will assent to it. But in the Home Rule Bill and in the defer, give you marks for intelligence, and then act as Welsh Disestablishment Bill the subjects, for once, are if nothing had been said. The best of them will do of greater imagined importance than a toss-up could that. But the worst are exasperating to speechless- settle. For once the minority is not prepared to ness. Thmey will listen, and tben pretend never to have acquiesce in the mechanical majority rule. They expect heard a word; or, worse still, they will admit that they to influence the legislation of the majority by their are convinced, and then, when it comes to action, deny votes; and when, as the machine determines, they are that they were convinced. We do not know whether unable to do so, they lose their temper, and blame, not to call it intellectual dishonesty or simply downright the machine, but the other victims of it! crookedness. But it is the characteristic of the Liberal *U* much more than of the Tory, and of the advanced We need not point out, however, that they are both Liberals much more than of the moderate Liberals. If wrong and inconsistent. To the proper working of we may presume to take our own case, the facts are the machine, which Tories no less than the Liberals indisputable. On the Insurance Bill, for instance, of maintain, it is essential first that majorities should be the whole Liberal Press, though its writers, to our docile, and, secondly and consequently, that debates knowledge, read our pages and commented favourably should have no effect upon votes. Once the members on them in private, not a single Liberal journal pub- begin to vote by reason, the caucus is done for. The lished a single word even recognising the existence of Tories cannot justly complain, when they have accepted a validly reasoned and non-partisan view of the Bill. the caucus, that ïMr. Asquith plays the game by the Nay, in the very next columns to its own editorials rules. It is known that Mr. Balfour played the game the “Daily News ” was publishing Mr. G. K. Chester- by the same rules. It is confidently anticipated that ton’s criticisms, which were identical with our own, Mr. Bonar Law will do the same when he comes into and all the time was pretending that nobody was power. (He says he will not, but “the devil was arguing against the Bill, and that all the opposition sick.”) What they can complain of is that the subject was partisan. Mr. MacNeill threw a book at Mr. of Home Rule was introduced. Yet they have only Churchill out of some such consequent feeling of rage. themselves and the machine to thank even for that. It We confess that many times we have been tempted to is obvious that the machine could not run without the throw a few volumes of THENEW AGE at the heads of Coalition, and it is equally obvious that a General Liberal journalists. Election any time during the last two years would not *** have given the Tories a working majority. In other But, after all, the real reason for the present state words, the present Coalition is the best and only work- of things lies deeper than in the vagaries of Liberal ing majority of which the machine for the moment is or Tory politicians. They do not debate to any prac- capable. Since the Tories accept the machine, they tical conclusion, because they know well enough that must accept the article it provides. Again, it is U-ell a practical conclusion is a luxury which slaves of the known that they had the chance of collusion before the machine may not enjoy. Bu! nobody can contemplate event in thce drafting of the Home Rule Bill. The public journalism-apart even from caucus politics- famous secret conference of some years ago was not as a whole, without being struck by the almost com- so secret that everybody is not aware that its main plete absence of anything like controversy. Symposia purpose was the offer of co-operation in Home Rule there are, but the same intellectual tipplers go round with the Unionist federalists. They rejected the offer the Press in succession, spouting the same speech at then in the belief that they could make better terms each place ‘of call. You may be certain that Mr. Wells for themselves by fighting the Bill. Now that they and his crowd of economic pub-crawlers will appear in find their arguments are useless in Parliament, and that every journal whose editor believes that “ Industrial the country cares nothing about Home Rule, they are Unrest,” or some such topic, will attract customers. behaving like boys who, when they cannot have their And everywhere these people appear you will hear the own way, won’t play. same thing without the smallest essential change. Of *** course, they never debate with each other. That would We are, however, far from blaming them for’ it. be rude, or impolitic, or something of that sort. They We should like, in fact, to be able to give them credit must preserve an independent mind, which is to say, for it. But how can we? It is, of course, a scandal a mind that does not change by reason, but only by that debate should be mere east wind in the House of compulsion, a mind too fragile to be exposed to public Commons. But so it is, and so it will be, whether discussion, a mind too austere to be the sport of mere Liberals or Tories are in power by the act of the reason. Everybody, we say, is aware of this as one caucus. It simply cannot be helped. If they will have of the phenomena of our day. To take ourselves as their caucus, they must have its results, and among its an example once more, how many times have we called results is the indispensable fruitlessness of debate. At in vain for some public person to discuss with us? We 51

have not delivered our attacks without preparing our- a whole; and w-e can indicate at once how far off reason selves to support them; we have usually given chapter our age is by an examination of the present drift of and verse for our criticisms. Yet of the hundred or legislation. In every instance, so far as we can see, it so public writers, journalists, reformers, whom we have is the part and not the whole that is being considered. challenged to defend themselves against fair criticism, But-the part, from one point of view, may also be re- none that we can remember has taken up his pen to garded as the effect. And thus it is with effect, defend himself. We are not so conceited as to think simply that our legislation is now dealing. Take, we are invulnerable. We do not think so meanly of for example, the subject of Divorce now made a neces- our public men as to be completely certain that they sity of some sort of debate by the publication ot are afraid to meet us. Yet the few who have replied the report of the recent Commission. Considered as au have replied, not by discussion, but by a writ for libel item separate and distinct in the life of the community, or some such vulgar trick: as dirty and low-down a there is much to be said for freeing divorce both in its proceeding-in view of the state of law--as anything accessibility and in the number of its legal grounds. that could be imagined. What is it, then, that pre- To the five new grounds for divorce suggested by the vents our public men from engaging in controversy to Majority Report we could indeed easily add a dozen some definite conclusion? Whatever it is, the same each equally reasonable in itself and equally real. It is force, we may be sure, is at the back of the caucus suggested, for instance, that habitual drunkenness system. The caucus is not maintained, with its should rank as a legitimate excuse for divorce; but why horrible results, without a general consent, in which our intellectuals share. Indeed, our intellectuals set not paralysis, why not mutilation by accident (see Mark an example which the caucus merely follows. When Twain’s “Aurelia’s Unfortunate Young Man”), why the intellectuals in any country decline controversy- not excessive tobacco-chewing, onion-eating, bathless- which is their sole business, by the way-nobody should ness, baldness? As good “reasons” for any one of be surprised that politicians followed suit. The latter these as a ground of divorce we could certainly invent run the machine, but the former have really designed as the Majority Commissioners have discovered for it. their selected list. Rut what does it al?. amount to in *** the end? In the end it amounts to divorce for any- thing that either party or both parties choose to put Without trespassing too far into formal philosophy, forward. Far be it from us to maintain that marriage we should say that the cause of the decline of con- -indissoluble monogamous marriage-does not entail troversy is to be found in the prevalent system of hardships. Far be it from us to maintain that this thought which relegates reason to a subsidiary and kind of marriage is the only kind that may wisely be menial place in human self-direction. It is not realised, practised. Exceptional cases require exceptional treat- indeed, how profoundly even the unlearned have been ment and should be judged as exceptions simply. The impressed by the doctrine of unreason as taught by the schools subsequent to Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. point is that the very question of the reform of marriage The doctrine of unreason, however, whatever its ought to be approached not directly or in piecemeal parentage, is evidently anarchist, since it robs men of fashion, but wholly from the soul of society. Mie have their last available standard in the absence of a dogma. maintained that the soul of society is in these days in While the Church flourished, and its dogmas were danger of being lost. We appeal to reason to restore accepted as the common touchstone and final court of it, if not at once in fact, at least in theory. We ask appeal of Christendom, some external unity, at least, that any sociologist or reformer shall first assure us was obtained among men, and a real bond united them. and give us evidence that he realises what the soul of Protestantism (which is really timid atheism) attempted society is before he demands our attention for his par- to substitute for dogma interpreted by the Church a ticular reform. But at present he does nothing of the dogma interpreted by the individual-a signal return to kind. Like a silly boxer who rubs the spot where he * the individual conscience, as Matthew Arnold favour- has been hit instead of defending himself all over, ably put it; but in course of time the dogma dis- society, by means of its reformers, hastens to each spot appeared, and only the individual was left. Now, it in its body where it feels sore and applies a plaster to was very important that at this moment a new court it. Every Liberal reform of recent years is such a of appeal should be established; since otherwise every plaster. ,4nd now society thinks it feels sore about Tom, Dick, and Harry would have full liberty to regard marriage; and a new plaster is being prepared for it to as right any conclusions their poor muddled heads might put there. arrive at. What better court could be devised than *Y* the court of reason: reason not in the sense of Iogic based on dogma, but reason based on reality and We shall have, unfortunately, plenty of opportunities shaped by common-sense? But to this end long, large, for discussing the Divorce reports in whoIe and in their roundabout discussion was absolutely essential. The parts ; though no legislation, we venture to predict, will fruits of reason are a slow growth. They take time result from them. ‘The public has got hold at last of and patience to mature. But our wretched generation, a subject that exactly suits its cinematographic, thinking itself doomed to mortality, was impatient, and novelistic and sensational appetite. For some months, still is, of the real ripeningof reason under the sun of in all probability, the bones will be picked tu an accom- honest discussion. It began to snatch at conclusions paniment of purrings and growlings and whinings and and to set up as dogmas ideas that have no other clapper-clawing; and we shall certainly have to join in. warrant, perhaps, than some half-cracked brain. And But for the present we will content ourselves with the with these green ideas our generation has vexed itself following remarks. First, we have to thank capitalism and everybody else. Who can count the societies now for presenting us with what is called the “problem of existing to forward some green little notion, or the marriage.” In pursuit of its logical mission to reduce number of individuals each claiming that his little crab society to atoms, each atom insulated from its fellows is one of the apples of the Hesperides? We have done by an Act of Parliament, capitalism has finally arrived our best tu spoil the market for this rubbish, but what at the oldest institution of man. With the dis- can be done in the face of a season that produces them solution of the home capitalist disintegration will as fast as we can destroy them? There will never be be complete. We need not draw the conclusion anything ripe again in England in ideas, in art, in that marriage cannot be “reformed” except for the politics, or in life until our intellectuals stop crying worse while capitalism remains. Secondly, women are their hasty conclusions as perfected doctrines and re- making a grave mistake if they suppose that marriage sume humbly the way of reason, which is discussion. will be easier when the preferences now given to men Every time a public person refuses a fair challenge, a in the matter of divorce are.removed. Qn the contrary, new nail is driven into the coffin of Reason, and a new fewer men will marry. Thirdly, whatever the State part is added to the machine. may do the Church will be wise to maintain indissoluble *** monogamy even if from 61 per cent. of marriages now solemnised under her auspices the propartion drops Reason would certainly aim first at seeing things as ,tg IO per cent. Let her become distinguished for once. 52

Current Cant. Foreign Affairs. “This is a democratic age and it is all the better for it.” -CANON HENSON. By S. Verdad. KNOWINGwhat I do of diplomatists and such people, E “The rule of the Middle-class has come to an end; should be the last to accuse them of having a sense of Democracy has arrived. ”-DUKE OF WESTMINSTER. humour. If they had any, we might be spared all these solemn pow-wows and rumours and denials and asser- “Don’t forget the Union Jack. . . . I believe that the tions and counter-assertions about the serious situation five nations who have that flag as their flag have done more for Christianity, more for their poor, and more for between Austria and Servia. It is agreed that Servia liberty than the whole of the rest of the world put to- wants a port on the Adriatic, as I mentioned last week; gether. ”-LORD CHARLESBERESFORD. and it is) equally clear that neither Austria nor Italy wishes to see her there. If Austria, however, desires to “The Church is not merely a clerical freehold, but a back up her demands by force, Russia will find it diffi- national possession. ”-“News and Leader.” cult to stop her, even though Russian public opinion is, ----- as we know, in favour of the aims of the Servian “The Mouse of Commons is one of the most marvellous colleges, where an education of incomparable excellence people. In the present state of things it would be is given in human affairs.”-LORD HALDANE. child’s play for Austria to occupy not only Belgrade, but even Servian territory as far down as Nish. “I am proud of the House of Commons.”-BONAR LAW. Russia, it is obvious, could not prevent some such move as this; and the occupation of Belgrade would be “With regard to flogging, I am opposed on principle, the first step in the Austrian campaign against Servia. . . . . but I cannot disguise from myself that the people Russia could counter only by an offensive movement dealt with in the White Slave Bill are a separate class. farther east, miles away from the Servian border, even . . . I cannot in the name of humanity refuse to sanc- tion their being flogged.”--B~s~o~OF BIRMINGHAM. assuming that she could mobilise her forces and have them ready for war within a month, which, I learn, is “The White Slave traffic is a denial of human justice doubtful. and the parent of every other eviI.”--Mrs. BRAMWELL This is beside the point at issue. Servia wants a BOOTH. port in order that she may export her products without having to send them through Austrian territory, and in “It is impossible that once these White Slave facts are order that she may get her imports without submitting realised that we as citizens of a Christian country . . . .” to vexatious delays. But Servia’s main imports re- -ARCHBISHOPOF CANTERBURY. cently have been arms and munitions of war, which “Sensible people who understand human nature from were usually forwarded via Salonika; and her main ex- the Archbishop of Canterbury to Mr. Will Crooks, know ports, year after year, are pigs. Man for man, the perfectly well that when you are dealing with brutes you Servians take more interest in pigs than even the Irish must use brutal methods. ”-“Daily Mail.” do. Now, can it be seriously suggested to the European public at this time of day that the whole Continent is “Co-operation between capital and labour is the only to be plunged into a bloody war of which the root cause solution. . . .”--GRIFFITH JONES. would be Servia’s dead pigs? Pork interests vast num- “Labour has at last taken its courage in both hands. bers of us at breakfast time; but there, I think, our . . . The ‘Daily Citizen’ is inspired by high ideals. We consideration for the pig ends. note that in its literary features it does not follow the Of course, the thing is too absurd. The Servians have conventional methods. . . . .”-“The Literary World.” put up a good fight; and if they do not get what they set “The Duchess of Marlborough takes the keenest in- out for it will not be fair. But a diplomatic arrange- terest in social work of every description, and often ment with Austria is not an insuperable difficulty. With ’ spends the entire day ‘slumming’ in the East End. . . . a little pressure the Vienna Government will be found Her collection of jewels is unique, and she is enormously willing to offer Servia some Adriatic port on the con- wealthy.”--“Mother and Home.” dition that it shall be used fnor commercial purposes only, and that it shall not be fortified; and the Ballplatz, “The growing tyranny of the ‘week-end’ habit was too, would have no objection to granting Servia excep- responsible yesterday, it seems, for the defeat of the tional rights over the railway linking up this Adriatic Government. ”-“News and Leader.” port with Continental Servia. To this arrangement Italy “Marriage should be made more difficult and divorce also would be found willing to assent. More than this more easy. ”-Mr. PLOWDEN. Servia does not want. _--- It is true that Russia, in supporting Servia’s claim “Nowadays every woman has her own profession. She for a port, had other designs in view. There is a demands a higher standard from the man she will wed, tremendously large Slav population in Austria-Hungary and it is because men fail to come up to this standard -it cannot fall far short of 20,000,000. The powers that marriage is on the decline.”-“ The Modern Man.” that be in St. Petersburg, who always look very far ahead, will tell you frankly that they expect one day “It is good for the world that a strong and deep re- ligious feeling fills the breast of this big strong German to absorb all this population into Holy Russia, and brother of Britain, and that from the Kaiser (whom Sal- Servia along with it, so that the Greater Servian port vationists reverence . . .) down to many of the humblest would then form a Russian outlet. But the time for citizens, a robust faith makes for restraint, honourable the realisation of this plan, which is by no means im- dealing and a high ethical standard. ”-“All the World. ” possible of achievement, is very far distant indeed; and by the time it could be realised Russia will have found “Rough shooting, where the game is sought by the her Southern European port in another and more guns themselves, is the form of sport that knits men’s easterly locality. Servia should in the meantime be souls in friendship.”-“VANOC.” content with her unfortified commercial port. If she “TO the Right Ron. Viscount Haldane, Lord High still persists in demanding more than this, we shall be Chancellor. My Lord,-In view of your exalted and re- forced to assume that she is being supported by a very sponsible office, not only as the head of the legal profes- much stronger Slav Power. As differences of opinion sion, but as the dispenser of much public patronage in are now known to have arisen between Bulgaria and the Established ‘Church, and as Keeper of the King’s Russia, it is believed in Paris that the Tsar will re- Conference . . . .” Your obedient Servant, A. W. COB- in the “Church’ Intelligencer” commend calm measures to King Peter. HAM, The Great Powers are once again too late, and they CURRENT CITIZEN. have cut a sorrier figure than ever. Let it be remem- “I have had thirteen children, but the churchyard has bered that before the war started they solemnly assured been a good friend to me.”-A WOMAN,to the Cheshire the combatants that the Balkan League would not be County Councillor. allowed to take possession permanently of any territory 53 which it might succeed in conquering in the course of the campaign. The next announcement made was that Military Notes. Turkey would have to make up her mind to submit to the loss of Macedonia and possibly part of Thrace and I HAVE just returned from Servia, and Heaven knows Albania. Finally, when the Porte appealed for media- how glad I am to record my opinions of that country tion, the Great Powers dallied to such a degree that and of its army in columns where one can say Kiamil Pasha was forced to send emissaries to treat what one thinks, and not what one thinks that other directly with Bulgaria and the lesser units of the people of quite unimaginable stupidity want one to League. In no instance did the Powers succeed in averting the awkward situations that arose one by one. think. After all, it is not surprising that nine out of They are still haggling over a Conference which Eng- ten modern journalists are fools. Five years of “writ- land, France, and Russia regard as necessary, but ing down” to tuppenny clerks, and the strongest brain which Austria and Germany do not want. goes “phut,” becoming incapable of anything beyond Let us say here,. for the guidance of Sir Edward the cockney copy and the conventional lies. Grey, whose knowledge of Balkan problems is not ex- tensive, that Turkey’s sovereignty over her European *** provinces has long been merely nominal. Their popu- What I am going tlo describe here, in about the only lation was largely non-Turk, and the present genera- place in the world where one can describe it, is the tion of Turkish administrators did not take particular wretched system of collecting and transmitting news by pains to learn their task of governing. The influx of Positivists, Freemasons, and Freethinkers from Paris which England, who spends the most money, receives and Geneva undermined what stability there was left in the least truth in Europe. Henceforward, I shall argue the governing classes of European Turkey. This upon the tacit assumption that the ascertaining and dis- species of degeneracy had to be punished; the hand of semination of truth is the object in view, and shall Allah was bound to fall ; and no one can now deny th’at judge the organisation of newspapers and their corre- the punishment and loss of prestige have been swift and spondents upon those lines. Many able and astute per- drastic. At all but a few points the Turks have been sons would, I am aware, not grant that assumption. overwhelmed by superior numbers and organisation. But the Montenegrins have made very little headway, Most newspaper proprietors would never grant it. I and the resistance on the Chatalja lines is grim and do not think Lord Harmsworth would grant it. I am determined. sure that Sir Arthur Pearson would not, and that Assuming, then, that the Powers were to intervene Mond would not, and that Cadbury and his immediately, it must be acknowledged that the Monte- crowd would prove equally recalcitrant. It is negrins are entitled to nothing whatever; that the a quite maintainable position that the object of a Greeks, who met with hardly any resistance, have not newspaper is not the dissemination of the truth, buî the proved their right to anything at all; that the Servians profit and advancement of its proprietor, to which end have at least met their match; and that even the Bul- the enlightenment of the public would be, if anything, garians, when the forces were anything like equal, had opposed. Still I do not suppose that any journal, how- also a hard fight. The Turks have been beaten at hotly- ever venal, would not have given a great deal to be able contested points, not because the men had lost their to predict the recent Servian victories, and if their vast former valour and military daring, but simply ‘because and expensive organisations did not enable them to do the fish had begun to stink from the head, to quote a so, there must be something very wrong even from their Turkish proverb which has recently had its share of own venal point of view. publicity. The Turks, up to the present, have proved *** their right tlo retain the territory which has been over- run by the Montenegrins, and to retain also an eastern I do not pretend to any remarkable degree of military neck of territory running, say, in a line from Midia to insight, but I know a soldier when I see one, and I Lule-Burgas, from Lule-Burgas to Demotika, and from will say this for myself, that as soon as I saw the Ser- Demotika to the sea at or near Dedeagatch. Vian troops I knew that they were excellent. One only By next week-I write on November 16--the situa- had to look at it to see that here was a real fighting tion may have altered for the worse; but let us assume force. Men like Mr. H. C. Woods had arrived at a like that the Powers do not intervene at the moment-they conclusion, which, by a marvel, they were allowed to have stultified themselves so often that they have no publish broadcast. However, the point is that although right to do so. I know, on better authority than Lieu- the quality of the higher leading must always remain un- tenant Wagner’s, that the Bulgarian troops have been determined until the outbreak of hostilities, the quality badly “hammered” during the engagements around the of the men and regimental officers can always be esti- village of Chatalja. The Russian soldiers, it may be mated fairly correctly by an acute observer, and I remembered, in the campaign of 1877-1878, could not maintain that no reasonable, upstanding person with follow- up their final victories because of the winter the normal quantity of grey matter in the top of his snows and severe weather, to which the Turks were head could possibly have spent an hour in Belgrade, accustomed and to which the majority of the Russian either before hostilities or after, without realising that troops who took part in that particular campaign were here was a very determined people and a tough, hard no+. May this tale be repeated? Will the Powers give fighting force. How was it that we in England were Turkey what she wants, viz., time? For the move- never allowed to hear this fact? that we were given to ments for peace emanating from the Porte have only understand by hints, if not by open statements, that the emanated from the Porte because Kiamil was under the Servians were a rotten lot, “lazy brutes, Sir-cowards impression that Russia would shortly interfere to the just murdered their queen, Sir ! Damn them, Sir ! ” disadvantage of Turkey. I venture to say that it is the and so forth? I don’t suppose Northcliffe is going duty of the Powers, seeing- how they have failed so to earn a title for his brother by suppressing facts about far, to give Turkey two months more and thcn make Servia, or is adding to his already over-swollen wealth the Porte abide by the result. But up to the time of by accepting bribes from the Austrian Government like writing Turkey is entitled to a fair proportion of her some of our British newsvendors on the spot. European territory; for not all of it has by any means *** been conquered. Lieut. Wagner, by the way, appears to have been I can 0nIy conclude that the great organisation of thrown over-his own editor willingly admits that Carmelite Street made the mistake because it didn’t this famous correspondent was not at the front; and know, not because it wished to, conceal anything, and gave us on the authority of the Bulgarian General Staff as it is of importance that Carmelite Street should alone those accounts of routs, battles, and massacres know, if only because half of England depends on it for that never took place. It may be that Lieut. Wagner information, I propose to give it a few useful hints was born at or near Shanghai. which may prove of value. 54

First, choose your correspondents properly. If you are on the subject of war, get a man who knows about Guild Socialism. war and has read about war and, if possible, has seen war. There are dozens of them. I would engage to VII The Trust or the Guild. get you twenty in as many days, and if they would not THE protagonists of the corning industrial struggle know the journalistic ropes as well as the Carmelites will be the Trust, the monopolist of capital, and the themselves, still they would get you something to the Guild, the monopolist of labour power. If thc Trust point. Don’t send out the professional journalist-the succeeds in the subjugation of labour, a servile state is man whose mind has gone “phut” in the manner de- rendered inevitable. Therefore, either the Trust or the scribed above, and who can be relied upon to write the Guild must conquer; there is no room in industrial same safe, silly thing in Cairo, Kamchatka or Con- society for both. stantinople. Men of that sort never see anything of the There are many misconceptions as to the meaning of country they may be happening to visit. They would the Trusts, their objects and their methods. It is too see nothing in Heaven except a two-column readily assumed that they exist to kill competition; that scoop on the nakedness of the angels. They don’t by economising the costs of production and distribution mix with the people. They don’t try to learn. They they are in a position to undersell and finalIy bankrupt ?gather in cafés and inflame each other’s Cockney any outside competitors. These results may, or may ignorance, and write back the stuff that they did write not, accrue; they are not the primary objects. They back, and genetally make asses of themselves. If it are, in fact, subsidiary to the Trust’s main purpose, takes men to make war, it also takes men to understand which is to regulate capital outlay and secure con- and to criticise it. You can’t entrust the job to office tinuity of dividends. That is to say, the Trust is boys. primarily a financial organisation. This is proved by *** the fact that, in the first instance, the term “trust” was applied to exclusively financial undertakings. The Don’t pass everything through Vienna. Get your directory or the London telephone book will show at news straight from the countries in question if YOU a glance that even yet “trusts” are financial in their want the truth. If there is to be collating and elimina- scope and purpose. And we use the word also in the tion of the various reports, do it in London, where you private and personal sense, when we leave our property are impartial, if \only from ignorance. You can no “in trust,” when we execute “trust” deeds, and when more hope to get accurate and impartial news of Bel- we appoint “trustees.” A trustee, even if he have the grade and Sofia via Vienna than you can hope final word in the policy and affairs of a business or an to get accurate and impartial news of Paris estate, almost invariably acts purely from financial via Berlin. Y’our correspondent at Vienna depends motives, the administration of the business being left on the Austrian Government for favour, protection and to a manager. Further, trust funds are generally in news, and perhaps for an occasional lumping back- the nature of debentures, bonds and other gilt-edged sheesh into the bargain. The Vienna system in all its securities ; trustees, when re-investing moneys are re- imbecility is principally responsible for the hopeless stricted by Act ‘of Parliament to certain specified forms failure of the British Press to give a decent forecast of of security. For the payment of dividends, the trusts, the war. *** whether private individuals or large corporations, de- pend absolutely upon the labour value added to raw Don’t judge foreign nations by the suburban material over and above the wages value-i.e., the sur- standards of your own dear land. It doesn’t follow plus value, and exacted out of labour paid for at a com- that because the Servians murdered their sovereign petitive price as a commodity. In our second article after a very brutal fashion in 1904, that theref’ore they we have set out the net output per person employed will be defeated by the Turks in 1912. It would be and the average wage paid. The difference between awfully nice if it were so, and awfully comforting to these two must, at all costs, be maintained by the the dear good souls who study the Court Circular and Trust; it depends absolutely upon the continuance of live on the doings of little Wales and York, but it the wage system to achieve that object. It will be the doesn’t follow in the slightest and it really isn’t safe to main business of th? guild to defeat that object by ab- het on it. Foreigners are queer people, and somehow sorbing surplus value and so leaving no fund available or ‘other don’t fit in with the suburbs at all. Again, for the exaction of usury of any kind. This absorption don’t talk patronisingly of “little States.” Militarily, cof surplus value is the kernel of the future economic they are a jolly sight stronger than we are, and, in any revolution. case, it isn’t wise to let a growing megalomania entrap The invasion of industry by the organised trust is you into a false contempt of small nations and small the result of the necessity of the informal trust to people. That is a mistake which has brought great formalise and secure its financial future. It is pro- empires-let alone great newspaper combines-to the foundly conscious of the necessity of maintaining ground before now. wagery, and, in consequence, the struggle will mainly *** centre round this problem : whether the Trust can, by adding to the material comfort of the wage slave, out- Do not be cheaply solemn and solemnly cheap. bid the Guild, which in its incipient stages will be faced Do not, like the wretched “Chronicle,” talk mysteri- with practical difficulties of a special character from ously of a “certain Power” when you and all your which the Trust is exempt. readers know perfectly well what Plower pou mean and It is, theFefore, of great importance that we should when there can be no conceivable object in omitting to clearly uuderstand the exact working and organisation say so plainly. All this charlatanry and hocus-pocus of the Trust-particularly of the Trust which is in- are ridiculous and only worthy of the servants’ hall, formally organised, which cannot be seen, and cannot, where the butler and the housemaid talk about “cer- therefore, be directly attacked. tain parties,” the mystery-mongering of vulgar minds. The origin of Trust organisation is to be found in the Yaur mind is vulgar, but you needn’t advertise the growth of joint stock operations. In Great Britain, the And, finally, don’t take all this exclusively toc fact. first purpose of the joint stock company was to define yourself. There are at most two papers in London and limit the interests and responsibilities of partners. whom it doesn’t apply to. As the younger generations knocked at the door of the *** counting-house, as daughters married, their marriage But still better don’t do any of these recommended portions being immediate or contingent interests in things. Don’t folllow this advice. GO on yet further their fathers’ businesses, it finalIy became imperative in that muddle and darkness which God has marked to give relief to the pressure of ill-defined claims by out for those who lie to Him, until your softness and joint-stock distribution and limited liability. Thus, in fatness call for their own destruction. early days, the Companies Acts were really legislation ROMNEY. to enable partners to arrange their affairs. Even to-day 55 a shareholder sometimes whimsically regards himself as trust, in this country, is not quite so simple or obvious. in some mrt a partner in the concern in which he has The Free Traders often contend that Free Trade kills invested. In reality, however, we have travelled a the trust. As a matter of fact, practically every in- dustry in Great Britain is informally trustified-iron long way from that conception. To the ordinary in- vestor, a company is only a means of earning divi- and steel, shipbuilding, textiles, railways, chemicals. The Wall-paper Trust is formally organised, open and dends. How they are earned is no concern of hiS. He unashamed. How, then, does the informal trust do holds his bonds or share certificates; he cares nothing its work? In two ways : (a) by trade associations, whether they are brewery shares, laundry shares, land where prices or rates are fixed ; and (b) by interchanging investment, gold mines-what they yield as shares shares and nominating directors. The names of British is his one and only question. him, partnership is TO trust magnates instantly spring to mind--the late Lord only a joke. Furness, Lord St. Davids, Sir Charles Macara, Mr. 111 this wise there has grown up a vast army of in- Arthur Keen, Mr. a vestors who have regard only to the earning capacity D. A. Thomas, and score of others. These gentlemen are the British prototypes of the of businesses and the market value of their shares. Armours and Carnegies, and, in practically every re- Years ago it was usual to appeal to these shareholders directly for capital, but more recently they have been spect, are far more able and statesmanlike-and there- fore more dangerous-than their American colleagues. regimented by the financial houses of London, Paris, The American and British trust magnates whom we Berlin, New York, and elsewhere. So much is this the have named have one characteristic in common: they case, in fact, that it is naow practically impossible to are each masters of thcir otvn particular trade. Does float a large amount, whether of debentures or shares, not that fact destroy ow contention that the purpose without first greasing the wheels of the financial of the trust is primarily financial? If they are men machinery. This financial machinery is the Trust. Its who have mastered their own special industry, does it purpose is purely financial; the labour that produces not follow that they are primarily concerned with the its dividends is a commodity which it buys in the open practical administration of their businesses, only calling market, which it keeps in disciplined subjection, either in finance as it is required? Let us briefly trace the by wheedling, by starvation, by the police, or, in the career of one of them. He started by chartering a last resort, by the army. The extent to which the boat. Next he procured a few shares in a boat. investors have been organised is scarcely realised by AS time went on, he controlled a number of the outside world in general and the Labour Party in tramp steamers. Next he ordered new boats to be particular. Thus, one corporation in London controls built. He speedily discovered that it paid better to over ~30,000,000,and has a mailing list of over build them himself. Next he found that steel and 200,ooo investors, large and small. These investors machinery had to be bought. He saw no reason why are carefully classified-some prefer one kind of invest- he should not share in the profits on the manufacture ment, some another. Some prefer five per cent. bonds; of steel plates and marine machinery. In the fulness some prefer industrials. One of the largest firms of of time he was deeply committed to a dozen different stockbrokers in London has three lists : the first only enterprises, all more or less directly connected with buys gilt-edged securities ; the second buys reasonably ships. He had to buy large quantities of coal. Why good ordinary and preference shares; the third is specu- not link up with a suitable colliery? So said, so done. lative-“is fond of a flutter.’’ Transversely, there are But this ceaseless activity called for colossal and asso- lists of investors who specialise in gold mines, breweries, ciated capital outlay. Therefore we find him re- industrials, land development, houses, and so on, down organising old companies and floating new ones. the whole gamut of industry. The French banks have Gradually he becomes immersed in finance-perhaps excelled in collecting the savings of the French even against his inclinations-so that to-day he spends peasants, who like six per cent. bearer bonds. A good practically all his time in cajoIing or conciliating or harvest in France is invariably followed by a large bullying various groups of shareholders to whom he is number of flotations, both in Paris and London. Prac- morally if not legally responsible. Probably he never tically every London financial house has its branch or enters any of his numerous works; finance claims all agent in Paris. France to-day is even more distinctively his thoughts and energy. Nor is that the end of it. than England the money-lender of the world. America He must go on building ships, for he cannot let his and Germany are still borrowers. In this way, &ither capital lie idle. He cannot face his shareholders with by lending or borrowing (both equally remunerative to empty hands. Like the daughters of the horse-leech, the financial houses), a great financial network covers their cry is “Give, give, give. ” So when his own particu- the world. Its organisation is largely informal; it is lar group wants no more ships, he goes further afield. ‘none the less effective on that account. In America Some Danish, German, Swedish, French, Austrian, or (where it is more highly centralised than elsewhere) South American company wants a ship, but cannot pay it is known as “the money power.” To this power for it in cash. A ship may cost anything from &5o,ooo principalities bow; it rules the rulers of kingdoms. to &2j0,000. “Very good,” says he. “I will build The Trust is the operative principle of the money you a ship; you may pay me in 5 per cent. bonds at power; its attitude to industry is precisely that of the go.” Next he goes to some financial house, and sells private investor to the companies whose shares he these bonds at 91 or 92. They unload at 95 upon the holds. Economised output and distribution, the elimi- British or French public, and our magnate has another nation of competition (except in wages), the control of ship upon his stocks. Finance is his master; he is its sea and land transit-all these doubtless result from servant. It is only so far as the financial market is the trust organisation, but they are one and all sub- favourable that he can continue. But he cannot obtain sidiary to the one great purpose of exacting usury and a single farthing unless he can keep intact the wage protecting dividends by the enforcement of permanent system, for only out of wages can he pay dividends. wage conditions. So he is noticeably friendly to labour, inaugurates In the development of finance, it was ultimately dis- profit-sharing (at no risk to himself), pays bonuses for covered that certain large investors controlled certain speeded-up work, sits in Parliament as a sound Radical, industries. Thus, Carnegie ad his group controlled and finally goes to the Lords in the odour of sanctity American steel, Armour and his group the American and the stench of an election petition. But the out- canned goods trade, Duke and his group held a big standing fact is that he has graduated through industry grip on American tobacco. Gradually it became much intlo finance; he is what he is because of his aptitude more convenient and remunerative to group these in- for finance. He employs hundreds of men who are dustries and to capitalise them. In this way was born technically his superior. the Steel Trust, the Wheat Trust, the Tobacco Trust, Thus we see what a driving, hungry, and insatiable and half a dozen others. They were primarily banking master is this money monster. It is here that the transactions, the industrial problems connected with Guild must prove its superiority. Why should ship- them being of secondary consideration. In Great building, or engineering, or coal-mining, or any other Britain, industrial development, being much older, is industry depend upon the caprice of finance for its h consequence much more complex. Accordingly the maintenance? Mankind wants these things irrespective 56 of fashions in finance-ûnd in no market do fashions passes my comprehension. The plain facts can fi0 prevail to the same extent as in finance. To-day it longer he challenged by any carerful man. I say may be rubber; yesterday it was nitrates or cycles; to- from my heart-(" Hear, hear ")-my heart, that morrow it may be oil. .my blood boils when I think of the dastardly acts If, then, the Guilds can grasp the true meaning of committed daily in England. The police and effective demand, disentangling it from finance, how magistrates are hampered by the restrictions much more efficiently can they build ships, or make of the existing law. We want their powers in- boilers or steel plates, than by the round-about methods creased. (Loud applause.) We must increase -generally devious-inherent in the present financial their powers of arrest, and, above all, of punish- system? We see that the ways of finance are im- ment. (Loud cheers.) The cowardly villains and practicable, clumsy, casual, and tyrannous; industry, bullies should be flogged. (Thunders of applause.) organised into its appropriate guilds, can be practical, Some say that there is a risk of innocent men expert, orderly, and, above all, considerate. Our trust being arrested. Are we not all, everyone of us, magnate has to sell his very soul to Mammon to keep willing to take this small risk? Is there anyone going. What is the broad result? On a given year worthy of the name of a man, who, if by doing the net output of shipbuilding and marine engineering so he could save the soul of one innocent girl, is A17,678,000, the number of persons employed being would not face a firing line, step into a storm- 184,557. Is it not evident that the combined credit of swept sea, or enter a burning building? (Loud these employees, all of them productive units, would shouts of " N'o.") With regard to flogging, and suffice to produce &17,678,000? If the Guilds do not the supposed degradation attached to it, whom realise this elementary fact, let them consult the Whole- does the flogging degrade? Does it degrade the sale Co-operative Society. But it would not only be cowardly monsters who batten on the ruin of ten- the credit of the actual employees; it would be the der and innocent girls? (" No '' and cheers.) As associated credit of the membership of all the other for the flogger, I, myself, follower and disciple of Guilds in addition. Christ, would not feel degraded by flogging such In this way we come back to our starting point. men. (Thunders of applause.) Who is economically the stronger-the money mono- CHAIRMAN(after waiting for the applause to subside) : I polist or the Labour monopolist? The answer is too call upon MRS. GENERAL BOOTH to address the simple to need (elaboration. Therefore, providing there meeting. (Whirlwinds of cheering.) is no taint of the servile in the mass of the workers, MRS. GENERALBOOTH: Ladies and Gentlemen, I am provided their minds are not distracted by the alluring very glad to have been called here to-night to futilities of politicians, provided their imaginations are fired by the vision of economic emancipation, in the speak about this appalling evil. I have not much confidence in talking about these matters, and I great struggle victory will rest with the Guild. The have onIy ten minutes in which to address you. Trust, blown out to the dimensions of a monstrous If I could, I would call for an all-night meeting, balloon, pricked by the abolition of the wage system, will collapse, leaving behind the bare value of its frame- as we often do in the Salvation Army. Women work and its silk cover, now become its shroud. may accomplish more in this than men even. The men have gone to sleep and it is impossible for us tlo wake them up. I have information from Paris that fifteen young English girls are being trans- ienic Jinks. ported to Buenos Ayres this week. ('' Shame.") By Charles Brookfarmer. They are bound for that city of charnel houses of filthy bondage. where they will lead a shameful Scene : " Great Demonstration of Men and Women and terribly short life-for death follows swiftly at The London Opera House, to urge the passing of in the train of these practices. But before we can the Criminal Law Amendment Bill in an effective form go further in the matter, we must make the citi- this Session. '' zens fear the Iaw. (Loud cheers.) TIME : Tuesday, November 12th, about 7.55 p.m. CHAIRMAN: I Call upon fi%r. CLAUDE MONTEFIOREto [A packed house is regarding- with interest a motley address the meeting. collection of notorious nonentities gathered on the plat- CLAUDE J. G. MONTEFIORE,Esq., M.A. : Ladies and form. Polite and well-bred conversation concerning Gentlemen, on looking at this large and representa- the climate and digestions can be heard arising from tive meeting of British citizens, my heart fills with the vicinity of the stalls and boues, whose inmates are thanks and hopefulness. Those men and regarding one another through opera-glasses, with that women who have not seen the vice at close intensity which marks all the doings of the leisured quarters cannot know what is wanted. I have classes. The occupiers of the circle and balcony have seen the vice at close quarters. (Male voices, assumed an air of indolent interest fitted tlo the occa- " Hear, hear.") The villains and bad men who sion. A few minutes after the Student has been make this traffic their pastime are allowed tu pass shown to his seat, HIS GRACE THE ARCHBISHOPOF from the clutch of justice. (" Shame.") Fines are CANTERBURY, adorned with his habitual expression of nothing-what we want is more drastic punish- incompetent determination, makes his way to the Chair, nient. (Loud applause, chiefly from women.) Two amidst the respectful plaudits of the assembled multi- important and noble societies have helped to bring tude. The STUDENTis then regaled with a special per- the Bill before Parliament-The National Vigilance formance of the Lord's Prayer, which is chanted in Assxiation, and the London Council for the Fro- detachments, and with many and not unpleasing varia- tection of Public Morality. As to punishment, I am tions, by the different sections of the audience.] absolutely certain that flogging would be a deter- HIS GRACE THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY (CHAIR- rent-( applause)-and quite agree with HIS GRACE MAN) : Ladies and Gentlemen-(scraps of applause) on the subject. If only all other countries would -er-Ladies and Gentlemen (loud and long-con- adopt the same punishment, the brothel would be a tinued applause), we are assembled here to-night thing of the past. (Loud cheers.) for the sake of a cause both simple and sacred- CHAIRMAN: The BISHOPOF BIRMINGHAM will now move a cause so great and so good that we have no the resolution. (Applause.) doubts at all about its acceptance by any sensible The Right Rev. the LORDBISHOP OF BIRMINGHAM : and good man-er--and woman. What is the The resolution is as follows : (he reads it) . . . . cause? (Male voices in circle "Votes for Ladies and Gentlemen, if there is one thing Women." Scuffle and protests. The audience necessary for a country, it is purity in its young unanimously, " Shh-shh--shh. '' Quiet is re- men and women. The vile traffic has shocked the stored.) It is the cause of the innocent girls of whole moral feeling of the nation, which now in- England. How the citizens of any Christian sisrs on protecting the innocent. There is only country can allow such hideous wrongs to exist one deterrent for these inhuman crimes, perpe- 57

trated by monsters with no feelings. To them the pect from women. God said (( Thou shalt not.” human soul is only a pawn on the chessboard and ‘They don’t mince matters in the old book. It says nothing more. Their only fitting reward is ‘( Th’ou shalt not,” and what it says it means. flogging. (Loud applause.) Let us have no pity CHAIRMAN: I call upon Dr. MARYMURDOCH to address in the name of humanity. (Cheers.) As to the the meeting. fears expressed with regard PO giving more power Miss MARY MURDOCH,M.D. : Ladies and Gentlemen, to the police, they are simply ridiculous. I trust one famous physician said he’d sooner see his the police implicitly. I am perfectly willing to girls die than that they should be doctors. And entrust ,mysell‘ and all those near and dear to me he was quite right. \Ve see to40 much misery in to their care. For such blackguards, coarse this world. Many a time when the police have methods must be used. The punishment must fit actually laid their hands on a bully, he has escaped. the crime. (Loud applause.) While opposing cor- The police want more power. Personally I[ think poral punishment in theory, I cannot refuse to flogging is much too good for these men. (Cheers.) sanction flogging in this case. (Loud cheers.) More than z5,ooo men in London alone live on the Nothing except that will suffice to clear England immoral earnings of women, and the importation of this curse. I am not with those who would sit of girls from Japan to India is increasing. Women still and slay (‘God’s in his Heaven~---all’s right can be bought for anything from AIS upwards with the world.” God reigns not only in Heaven, each. If you mothers and sisters want your sons but also in the earth he made. (Tornado of ap- and brothers to remain pure, subscribe to the funds plause.) €or our noble campaign. Parents should instruct Mrs. F. D ACLAND (She has a languid and bridge-club their girls and warn thein against the dangers to manner, and a Mayfair-cum-Ascot accent, quite which they are exposed. No more let it be said impossible to produce, but demonstrations of that England is the Paradise of Procureurs. which are given every Sunday in Hyde Park (Loud cheers.) church parade) : Ladies and Gentlemen, I-ah- CHAIRMAN: ‘4s many have to leave, the resolution will have no special claim whatevah to speak heah on be put to the meeting now. (A show of hands de- this platform, but what I would reahlly like to say monstrates of what the audience is composed.) --ah--is tha.; we Liberal women not only work LADY BARLOW (with a wailing and sickly accent) : It hard for the Party, but also for the othah women has been said that the Glory of God is in the living of England. This movement has demonstrated man. Ah, would that it were more so. It can be the existence of Ses Solidarity, if-ah-I may say so. The greater the beauty of a girl nowadays, so. We now realise that e7;ery wornan-every the more danger she must encounter. She goes woman-is her sistah’s keepah. We are strivin’ to business in the West End, and there she is for Women’s Political Emancipation. I am very drawn into the ooze and slime of the underworld. gratified indeed to notice the growin’ comradeship I must say that personally-speaking personally- between men and women. (“Hear, hear.”) This I deplore corporal punishment of any sort, subject of the White Slave Traffic is a human one, and object to it. (No applause, with the to be settled by men and women. (This is the onlj7 solitary exception of klrs. DESPARD who is valuable piece of information obtained by the on the platform.) If every man had a STUDENT.He went to the meeting under the im- proper home such things would not be. And, pression that the question was to be dealt with above all, do not forget that “ unless the Lord by a Select Committee of Locusts and Jellyfish.) keep the city, the watchman waketh in vain.” CHAIRMAN : I call upon Mrs. NOTT-BAHto address the (Loud and prolonged cheers.) meeting. CHAIRMAN: I call upon Mr. D. L. ALEXANDERto ad- h’Irs. E. E. NOTT-BOWER, P.L.G. (surmounted by two dress the meeting black ostrich feathers and anointing her remarks D. L. ALEXANDER,Esq., K.C. (His face is strangely with an endless simper) : Ladies and Gentlemen, reminiscent of the Mad Hatter, and his manner of The Pass the Bill Committee, of which I am a speaking, with its legally pompous, slow and ridi.. member, was born last May, and since then its culous delivery, equally as grotesque) : The Co- daily post-bag has grown, and grown, and grown, joint Committee is the author of the Bill in Parlia- till now it’s oh ! so large. It is such fun. We ment. . . . The villains manage to keep outside devote ourselves to the Bill, the whole Bill, and the clutches of the police, whose powers must be nothing but the Bill. (Simpers amidst applause.) reinforced. . . . English public opinion, though We are only a few insignificant women. (“Hear, we all know it tlo be very slow to -rousing, yet hear.”) We are like the buglers to a great army thoGgh it be sl~om,and slowness is often a sign of anxious to do battle in a great cause. In the last deliberateness and determination consequent on few months we’ve distributed some IOO,OOO close investigation on the subject under considera- leaflets. (Incredulous applause.) Yes, we have. tion . . . (and so on for well over a quarter of an One thing I would very much like tlo do, and that hour, when he sat down amidst very feeble ap- is to ïaise the age of conception. (Mixed recep- plause, evidently well satisfied with himself). tion amongst the male portion of the audience; CHAIRMAN:I call upon Dr. SCOTTLIDGETT to address female portion mostly uncertain as to the meaning the meeting. of the phrase.) We want an extension of the time Rev. J. SCOTTLIDGETT, M.A., D.D. : Ladies and Gen- of imprisonment for criminal assaults on children. tlemen, it is my very pleasant duty to propose that And don’t forget that 117e are few in number, and our best thanks be given to HIS GRACE THE poor in pocket, and that our rent is Drily paid till ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY for so kindly presid- nest Christmas. (Feeble applause.) ing over the meeting. This is a National Demon- CHAIRMAN : A collection will now be taken. (This is stration against the most diabolical iniquity upon done.) I call upon Mr. EDWARDSMALLWOOD, earth. Satan himself in the depths of Hell must to address the meeting. blush to see it. In England, we love taking the EDWARD SMALLWOOD,Esq., J.P., L.C.C. : Ladies and lead of all the nations of Europe. (Cheers.) Let Gentlemen, two years ago a young girl was seen us do so in this instance, and stamp out this evil. into a cab at a station in London by an old lady and We ask no penalty which is excessive, but we stop left to travel across London alone to another station. short of nothing. (Loud applause.) Since that day she has never been seen or heard (After a short inaudible prayer the meeting is de-’ of. Some blackguards and villains say that this clared closed. The STUDENTwends his way t’oward, evil i~ a necessary evil. -4s a Member of the Piccadilly, where he watches the innocent virgins hein ; Alliance of Honour-(applause)-I say it is not led away and the youth of the country corrupted. Co:.- necessary. Women have the right to expect the vinced that he is helpless in the matter, he makes 3’- standard of morality from men as men es- way home.) 58

is progressive in a worldly sense, though Christianity The Black Crusade. has arrived at a modus vivendi with the modern world. El Islam has not yet done so. When she does-if By Marmaduke Pickthall. ever she can do so now-there is a chance of her evolv- III. ing a Civilisation free from many of the faults of ours. IN former articles I have talked of Moslem progress in She starts with polygamy established as a principle, a way that, as I read them over, smacks of cant. Let though little practised ; with almost perfect freedom to divorce on both sides, which almost equalises matters me explain. The kind of civilisation which Europeans for the woman; with every woman in complete posses- have imposed on certain of the Arab peoples, for ex- sion of her property; with the equality of all believers, ample, is accepted, as all facts are by a fatalistic a hearty detestation ,of the thought of usury, and un- nation, but remains entirely foreign to their turn of flinching gaze at the brute facts of life. The process thought, forever an enigma to their understanding. I of induction and expansion to meet the needs of modern have “been” an Arab, and I know that the very words life, thce intercourse with other nations, has long been going on among the Turks. In Turkish homes during which Europeans use to carry their ideas in Arabic are the last fifty years very interesting changes have been calculated to perplex the native mind. The Arabic taking place-by no means always in a European word for “civilisation” has the flavour rather of direction, but always in the way of culture and of “urbanity.” Remember that, and there is nothing toleration. The Young Turk movement was entirely foolish in such sayings as, “How can he be a European in its inspiration, but its ultra-European civilised man? He kicked me,” at which Europeans leaders were but few; I should think they were as smile. many as the harem hotheads who wish to kick over the Here is a story to the point from Egypt. Nine mer- traces-poor souls, they think emancipation comports promiscuity !-not more than forty. The other move- chants, with their merchandise, were jogging peace- ment that I speak of is entirely Turkish, and almost fully along on donkeys, when two robbers bounced out universal in that nation. It had taken up the burden of of a patch of cane, exclaiming “Bo !” The merchants the Young Turk programme when this war broke flung themselves upon the ground, and cried for mercy. out; and had it been allowed to grow, would soon have The robbers took toll of their merchandise and let them had a civilising influence on Moslems everywhere, since go. When the merchants reached the town they went its doctrines would have been expressed in sound before the judge and made complaint. Koranic terms intelligible to them. This is what I mean by Moslem progress. An improved administra- “But,” said the judge, “you say there were two tion of the country was required, as well as stronger robbers only? You are nine strong men.” armaments, to justify this infant civilisation in the “ True,” was the reply, “ but we are civilised people sight of Europe. That also was in prospect, but a while they are Children of the Night.” month ago before this cowardly and brutal blow was Reading this reply in the police report, a high Eng- struck at Turkey. lish official not unnaturally laughed aloud. But what Mohammedans are never happy under Christian rule. the merchants really said was reasonable : “We are Their consolation hitherto has been to think that one great Moslem power still flourished in the world, and urbane men (that is, persons enervated by the life of every kindness done to Turkey has been done to them. towns) and robbers strike us with a supernatural Government like those of France and England, which terror. ” have many Moslem subjects, should have seen in Tur- The word for “progress,” too, conveys a notion of key a most useful outlet for Mohammedan enthusiasm, “advancement,” quite misleading. Having been taught to be preserved at all costs, for their own peace. that education is a means of progress, the educated Moslem progress, in the sense I have defined, would young Egyptian feels defrauded if he fails to get a have repaid them. It would have been worth even a sacrifice of territory t0 secure the co-operation of an- comfortable post. In short, not to multiply examples, other Power. All this is very baldly stated; but it is no thorough Oriental can arrive at an understanding the truth. Statesmen of a bygone day regarded Turkey with a thorough European. Each sees the other on the as the keystone of an arch which sheltered Europe outside only. Staring at the same object from the from terrific storms. They did not hesitate to go to same standpoint, they behold two different things. war to keep that stone in place. In this sense also she There is no hope of any inspiration passing from the was still worth fighting for. European to the Eastern. The latter apes the European I daresay that my views are quite unstatesmanlike. cleverly, but always for his own immediate ends. He They are, at all events, constructive and humane, and quite sincere. Sir Edward Grey’s ideas, to judge from seems incapable of general views. Such general views their results, are very different. Why, in the name of as he expresses are mere pious formulas, or shibboleths righteousness, should Turkey, more than Russia, be of Europe eagerly produced to please the listener ; even kicked out of Europe? Because, though certainly well as I had a gramophone stuck right against my ear, meaning, she has shown her weakness. Not many when lunching with some fellahin, with the glad cry : days ago we were assured that, whatever happened, the Balkan States should gain no territory by this “ It is the music of your honoured country. Deign to hear it!” Englishmen who have spent their lives in present war. Look at the Press to-day-“The Turk must go,’’ “ The Dying Crescent ”-all true-born charge of Orientals often fail to recognise even the fact Britons now prostrate themselves before the winners, of this essential difference, and storm at men as if their with Sir Edward Grey fur their Imam. English states- lack of understanding proceeded from stupidity or in- men were not wont to eat their words in this way. No attention. The missionary blaims the faith of El Islam one thinks fit $0 mention that the Turks have had foul for everything he finds amiss. The Turk-whose brains play from start to finish; that the Bulgarian attack is are those of Europe-laughs at them all, and says the nothing but an act of brigandage; that England stands truth : “Their minds are different.” He knows how dishonoured by some broken pledges; that she has to adapt his words to reach their minds. They are folk earned both hatred and contempt where she might of his own household; he has known their minds from easily have earned undying loyalty; that the whole childhood; and, being of the same faith, he can use Islamic world has been thrown back a hundred years; religious language. that a precedent has been created most disastrous to El Islam has been called an enemy of civilisation. the peace of nations. Well, SO is Christianity, at heart. Or, rather, our These, of course, are simple details; but they are civilisation is an enemy to both alike. Neither religion details which will cause more trouble, in the long run, than a European war. 59

Consciously, do YOU mean? Are all men aware of Unedited Opinions. this duality of theirs ? Yes, all men; though they may not be aware that The Nature of the Soul. they are aware. How, then, can you prove to them that they are RESUMINGour subject where we left off recently, we aware ? were about to inquire what qualities the mind reveals How does one recall a thing one knows but has for- that could not be derived from sense perception, and gotten? By recalling things near it or by being placed what nature these implied in the soul that caused them. where it may recur. Suppose we can point to certain Have you in the meantime thought of any difficulties ideas, derived from the soul, and meditate upon them, in our attempt ? might we not recover for ourselves and arouse in others One at least. How is it possible to distinguish in thte the recollection of the knowledge the mind has? Sup- mind the qualities native to itself from the qualities de- pose, fior instance, that we name certain ideas as due to rived from proximity to the soul? Would you not have the soul, may we not afterwards more readily recall to prove a negative, namely, that the latter qualities not only the soul that is their source, but the other could not possibly be derived from sense-impression ? ideas the soul has engendered in our mind? I would leave to the materialist psychologist the con- But you are still taking it for granted that such trary task of proving that they can be so derived. All ideas of such an origin do exist. their attempts, so far, seem to me to be ridiculous. We have seen that the sensible mind must needs An accumulation of differences of degree do not appear conclude sensibly from sensible things its own mor- to me to be able at any time to account for a difference tality, its own ephemerality, its own materiality, its of kind. When, therefore, a quality is discerned that own meaninglessness. We can have no respect for a differs in kind from preceding qualities, I conclude, in logical mind that is not at once an atheist, a materialist the absence of proof to the contrary, that it is really a and a pessimist. All these conclusions are honestly new quality and not an old quality grown up and be- inevitable from the standpoint of the sensible mind. come merely larger. Reason, for example, appears to But, on the other hand, as everybody knows, there me to differ in kind from instinct. Instinct, that is, exists in us an impulse either to refuse to recognise may be developed ad infinitum without becoming these conclusions of logic or to refuse to recognise them Reason. The analogy of spatial dimensions is illu- as conclusive. To accept them as conclusive is, in fact, minating on this point. You may increase length to almost impossible. With the clearest sense brain in infinity without thereby producing area, and area, the world and after a course of sense-reasoning leading again, you may extend ta infinity withtout thereby crest- inevitably to the conclusion that man is a mortal animal ing a solid. So,-too, qualities in the mind may be dis- and nothing else, our perfect logician will go on acting tinguished in kind as well as in degree. Some qualities as if, indeed, he had come to no such conclusion. Why? are obviously extensions of existing qualities ; but Because he has not reached convictison; and he does others, I think, are as obviously not extensions merely, not reach conviction on this matter while the soul is but either new powers of old qualities or (what is the all the while preventing him. same thing) new qualities entirely. But how does the soul prevent him? And can you name any qualities contained in the By influencing the upper surface, so to say, of the mind that differ in kind as as well in degree? mind in the very contrary direction inevitably taken by I think I can not only name them, but, I was going to say, prove them. The proof, however, is less logical the lower surface in contact with matter. Matter, we say, gives one report-a gloomy report and a report than psychological. I mean that it depends upon the that man is a mortaI animal. But soul, on the other side perception of the soul no less than upon the activity of whispers in mind's other ear that man is neither mortal, the reason. But, indeed, the whole mind itself appears ephemeral, material, nor meaningless, but the contrary to me to be susceptible of a two-fold division; there is the mind that is turned facewards to the soul; and of all these. Thus it comes about that man is in con- there is the mind that is turned facewards to matter. tinual doubt and self-division, distracted by contrary Admitting that they are both the same mind, the out- reports from his dual mind and, for the most part, unable to believe either report entirely. looks of the two faces are entirely different : the one is concerned with the nature of the soul and is under its But there is, you say, more evidence for Matter's suggestion; the other is concerned with matter and is report than for the report that mind makes the Soul? under the suggestion of matter. The consequent More evidence of a sensible, that is a material kind, qualities we observe in the mind differ accordingly as of course. There is no sensible evidence that the soul they are derived from the mind looking downwards or exists. On the other hand, evidence, though of an- the mind looking upwards. In the latter case the other kind from sense-evidence, is just as strong that qualities are those due to the soul; in the former they soul does exist. There is one sort of evidence for are due io matter. matter and for the existence of the material mind; but What, would you say, are the qualities respectively there is another sort of evidence for soul and for the due to these modes of mind? existence of what we may call the spiritual mind. Well, we can make a broad classification from our Is this evidence of such a character that anybody can knowledge of the deductions to be drawn from matter. appreciate it? Mind looking tlowards the manifested world of matter Decidedly. Since, ex hypothesi, all minds are under is necessarily materialist ; nothing that is not material the influence of soul as well as of matter, it follows that, -that is, that dloes not produce a sense-impression- properly curious, every mind can find as much evidence exists for it. But the nature of the manifested is to for.one influence as for the other. The practical prob- change. Change and decay in all around I see. Nor lem consists, first, in realising the difference in nature is there any meaning- in Nature as such. You may of the two objects of search-namely, the Soul and look at the world of sense microscopically, telescopi- Matter; secondly, in realising the difference in kind of cally, OP in any way you please, but there is no mean- the evidence necessary; and, thirdly, in training one- ing there. Animals see no meaning in life! they ac- self to appreciate spiritual evidence as scientists are cept it. The material mind of man likewise sees no now trained to appreciate sensible evidence. meaning there. But it does not accept it! Why does The equipment you appear to be postulating is, how- it not accept it? Because it is troubled by another ever, difficult of attainment. I presume you require in vision, that of the mind facing soulwards which gives the student familiarity with metaphysics, philosophy, a different and a conflicting account of the world from psychology, and a score of other arts and sciences. that of the sensible mind. If there were not this other Matter, fortunately for itself, requires no such equip- vision in man, he would be no more troubled or divided ment. Deny it and it proves itself. Cannot soul do the in mind than the rest of the animals. But he cannot same? enjoy their unreflective incomparable aplomb. He has The method of the soul is that of the still small voice; seen something that they do not see. but I think it is not less conclusive. 60

allowed to see a lady’s ankle, it was obviously neces- “The Winter’s Tale” in 1856. sary to prune the text of Shakespeare very freely. It THE Shakespearean revivals, marvellous in their way, is much to the credit of the managers of that day that of Charles Kean during the ’fifties are now almost they so rapidly transformed their stages from the forgotten; indeed, there cannot be many people alive manners of George IV to those of Victoria. Certainly, who witnessed them. Everything with Kean was done there was little to offend the propriety of an age that with the object of educating and even edifying his shrank from calling a spade a spade. An occasional audience, and it seems strange that he should have damn in broad farce at any theatre brought down the chosen the “Winter’s Tale” as the ground-work for in- house: it always seemed that the character must have struction in the manners and the architecture of the arrived at the last stage lof comic exasperation before Greeks at the highest period of their development, he could commit himself to such a breach of good taste. while carefully eliminating from the dialogue anything But Charles Klean went far beyond the rest; indeed, that could possibly shock the most sensitive ears. he catered largely flor the country clergy. One of them, Some time in advance Kean announced that he was arriving rather late in town with his boys, and being going to produce a Greek play, thus arousing an ex- unable to get seats, sent in his card to the manager, pectation of Sophocles. Great was the disappointment who promptly accommodated him. In Kean’s “Life” is when the play was discovered to be the “Winter’s a grateful letter from the parson, expressing at some Tale.” But it was, indeed, a Greek play. When the length his) entire approval ‘of the performance, hoping curtain rose, Leontes and his guests were found lying he may be able to see Henry V with his boys, and on couches crowned with chaplets in his palace at trusting that Mr. Kean will find it convenient to give Syracuse, a city which, according to Thucydides, as it in July. It rather reads like a command. Grateful for clerical support, Kean cut out every word which Kean discovered, grew from a Doric colony $0 a height of magnificence, reflecting the splendour of Athens at could offend the ear of a moralist or even a theologian. her best. Hermione, after the custom of all modest For instance, allusions to grace in the first act, having women, sat at the foot lof her husband’s couch. The some religious suggestion, were ‘omitted. Leontes’ cornice on which the roof rested was supported by allusion to Camillo as his father confessor was also Canephorae. Clip-bearers, slaves, female water- omitted, but possibly that was on account of the carriers, and boys were variously employed. Musicians anachronism. By the time all the excisions were made, were playing the hymn to Apollo; after which thirty- about one-third of the play was gone; but the play six youths in full armour performed the Pyrrhic dance. itself, except for the basis of the whole plot, which Then the play began. In the next act we were intro- there was no getting rid of, was made suitable to the duced to the Gynaeconitis, or women’s apartments, Sunday school. Indeed, Mrs. Kean and some of the where women were playing on musical instruments. ladies of the company were said to be Sunday-school Thence Hermione .c’as taken to one of the Latomiae, or teachers; but the evidence of this is imperfect. prisons gf Syracuse, known as “the ear of Dionysus” Nothing shows more clearly Kean’s respect for the (copiously described in the notes of the acting edition). proprieties than his hatred lof the word “bastard,” The Trial scene was in the great theatre of the city, which he carried so far that when he brought out which was capable of holding 30,000 persons, and the “King John,” the character that had been known for scenery gave the iliusion of a vast concourse. The reply three centuries to the British public as the Bastard of the Delphic ‘oracle came in a sacred ark, very cor- was re-christened Faloonbridge. rectly reproduced When cutting out improper words and phrases, As all anachronisms and geographical errors were Kean, scholar though he was, made havoc of the blank ruled out, Bohemia was changed into Bithynia, in ac- verse, which, except in the rustic scenes, is rigidly ad- cordance with a suggestion made by Sir Thomas Han- hered to in this play. The pruning knife was more mer in the eighteenth century. It was very convenient, freely used in the later than in the earlier acts, which because the scanning of the two words corresponded. seems inexcusable. One could do without much of the This gave Kean an excellent #opportunity to teach the coarse and irrational brutality of Leontes in Acts I and public something about Asia Minor. Thus we had “a II; besides, much of the language is so archaic that pastoral scene in Bithynia, with a distant view of the it is difficult to follow on the stage. But we cannot City of Nicaea, on the Lake Ascania, together with the readily dispense with a word of the exquisite poetry of chain of lofty mountains known as the Mysian Florizel and Perdita Yet Kean sacrificed about half

In the forties of the eighteenth century our Bishop To the Leaders of Labour. Berkeley, distressed in his humane mind at the fre- rL4x ADDRESSTO THE IRISHLABOUR LEADERS.] quent sight of tramps and beggars upon all our high- roads, called upon the Irish aristocracy to employ these By Standish O’Grady. unemployed, to feed, clothe and shelter them “well,” HEREis a question upon your answer to whlich a great and to set them upon the creation of wealth, both for deal will depend; indeed, everything will depend : their own sustentation and for the general good of the Have the unemployed a right founded in justice to em- whole community. The Irish gentry, at the time in ployment, with a full and fair remuneration-and, in full command, were wiliing enough to do many other lieu of that, to a sufficient and honourable maintenance, things which their great Bishop invited them to do, and not a dishonourable and degrading maintenance such also profited themselves greatly by following his other as we now provide for them by our brutal and devilish advice. But, concerning this one suggestion of his, Poor Law? ’l’ou will say ‘‘ Yes.” So do I. So will they were silent. They said nothing and did nothing. all whose natural sense of justice is not perverted by You can guess why. the fear that the full concession of such a right will The great Bishop might as well have walked down by its consequent abolition of blacklegism and of the from his palace at Cloyne to the seashore and present ferocious competition of our working people addressed the deaf waves of the Atlantic at Bally- with each other for employment, reduce the profits of cotton. capital, and plunge themselves into poverty. Nothing In the thirties of the nineteenth century, when the but this terror of those who now live upon the exploita- Whigs were fastening their devilish Poor Law upon tion of labour, prevents or retards the concession of the neck of these nations, the poet Wordsworth, at that right. They resist tlie concession, not through the time popular, famous and respected, entered a any radical inhumanity, callousness and cruelty on powerful argumentative protest against that system. their part, but through fear-fear which is the basest He maintained that the British man. the Irish likewise, of the passions. It is a passion which, more than any had an indefeasible right, in Nature and in law, to a other, obscures the intellect, hardens the heart, and full and sufficient and honourable maintenance in lieu sears the conscience. In a certain sense their fear is of employment and wages. The governing classes- not altogether unnatural; for, beyond a doubt, the con- busily engaged as they were in the exploitation of land cession of that right, in full, would lead, and rapidly, and capital and labour-quite ignored that powerful to a social revolution carrying all forward, and by an protest. They made him Poet Laureate, praised the immense stride, towards that promised Kingdom of “Leech Gatherer,” “We are Seven ” and “The God on earth and away from this present dominion of Daffodils ”; but took care at the same time to fasten the Devil. This seeming all-but-Almighty power of the down their Poor Law System tight upon these countries Devil in his form of Mammon is maintained to-day, with its denial of that right founded upon nature, and not by any inherent strength and wisdom of his own, in law, reaching back to Magna Charta and beyond, to but just through the refusal of that right, the conse- the days of Edward the Confessor, as Wordsworth quent murderous cornpetition of the working people for powerfully maintained. employment, and the resulting usurious profits of the The poet might as well have delivered his argument exploiting capitalists. to the Dabbling Rotha which ran by his Cumberland Observe, in passing, a grand, hopeful, and inspiring cottage, or declaimed it to Grasmere’s reeds and aspect of the situation. It is this : Fear, which is the sedges. There was no public discussion at all upon meanest, the most cruel and the most terrible of the that powerful protest. It was simply ignored, so that passions, is just that one human passion which is most time nearly swallowed it up in oblivion. I lighted upon easily mitigated and most easily abolished and it myself by accident. quenched. The little child in an agony of terror at tlie When Tom Paine published his “Rights of Man” dark is at once pacified, and sinks back into sleep hear- they did not at least boycott it or enjoin silence in their ing only just one quiet and reassuring word from its Press. No. They advertised it hugely and filled the mother. ’The people who now live upon their usuries, world with their execrations. Why? that is, upon your exploitation, and see no other way of They felt that Wordsworth’s “ Rights of Man” was living, are just like children in dread of the dark. To a serious danger to their position, but that that other them the situation is all dark and terrible. Allay that “Rights of Man,” with its accompanying Deism and terror, and you may yet find that not only the middle denial of the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, was classes, but even the Dives’ of the earth are not so a help. It enabled them to stand aut before the foolish bad after all; are in fact, quite human like yourselves. many as the champions of orthodoxy. At all events, don’t frighten them any more than they A few years later Wordsworth’s great theme was are frightened at present. For you are in fact taken up by a greater man-Thomas Carlyle. In words frightening them, I believe quite unnecessarily, to-day, of blazing indignation he called, loudly enough almost by threatening to deprive them of their property by to wake the dead, upon England’s possessing and direct violence or by violent legislation. And I tell governing classes to do this thing, to employ the un- YOU that it is a very dangerous game; and, indeed, in employed, to do it at once and without a moment’s every way wrong, such a taking away from men, no delay, to do it intelligently, thoroughly, bravely and matter what the justification, of that which they have heroically. He told them that it was their duty to do been accustomed to regard as their property. We have it, as it was the clear right of the poor to have it done. never been told that the violent shall inherit the earth; Also, he declared to them that, if they did not do it, but assured upon very good authority that the gentle they and England with them would go down amid such shall inherit the earth. whirlwinds of horrors and terrors as universal history If you think and consider and give pur understand- had not yet exhibited upon any of her lurid pages. ings fair play, you will find that the Sermon on the Almost literally this great-minded and great-hearted, Mount is not a bundle of absurd paradoxes at all, but a unpaid champion of the poor, and at the same time of most plain and scientific and divine statement of cer- all England’s nobler traditions, thundered and lightened tain truths. at the possessing and ruling classes about this thing. “ The employment of the unemployed ! ” The England, in reply-if indeed England ever made any peaceful and gradual solution of the whole of this tragi- articulate reply-only remarked that Carlyle was a cal, social problem seems to be contained in it. There very eloquent person, possessed a fine gift of satire, is nov before Parliament a poor little Bill bearing this his books an excellent moral tonic, etc., etc., ”nut that title. It is very poorly urged by your Labour Party, unfortunately, he was unpractical. and is ignored, where not jeered at, by the Press. He was succeeded by the noble John Ruskin, who Neverthelss, the demand which is contained in it is in the fifties, sixties, and seventies of the last century one pregnant with immense issues and has had a great continued in many ways to assert Carlyle’s doctrine. history, to which I now invite your earnest attention. And I am glad to note in all labour papers a continual 62 recognition of the generous and unbought labours of these brave preachers, as well as frequent quotations Present-Day Criticism. from their works. Both of them thought that the rich The Vigo Verse Anthology. (Elkin Mathews.) were too stupid to understand. It was not quite so. It would be pleasant to believe that this little volume, The rich-at least the brain-carriers of the rich-per- the first verses of which contain an eulogy of opium ceived that if there were no unemployed, no destitute and a curse upon the Creator, whereas the last are a persons looking for employment, wages would neces- happy song of a girl in summer fields, is symbolical of sarily go up and profits go down, that they themselves the age. One would be glad to understand that the de- would in consequence cease to exist, and that the first cadents have been conquered once again and cast in step would be taken towards a radical reconstructlon the background with all their paraphernalia of curses of society. and crême de menthe and poppies and green dissolu- They were right. But what they failed to perceive tions. Centuries since people knew that the only cure and what their successors there and here fail to per- for these maladies is-legal marriage ! The cares of a ceive, is that in a world like this, made by infinite good- family leave no time for suicide, the alternative. To ness and wisdom, Right is always the grand standby curse God and die is to be called afterwards a “poor for men and for nations, and for the rich as well as chap.” To curse God and marry is to leave off writing the poor, and that Wrong, sooner or later, ends in bad verses ; in fact, to become distinguished. While, misery and destruction. however, the world, full weary of pale lights and all I don’t wish any unhappiness to befall the classes. disastrous things, would willingly lament the last I know them too well and understand their many suicide and welcome the reformed decadent as pere de troubles too intimately to desire in any way to add to famille, there remains a dangerous state to be avoided their afflictions. But I see clearly that the same road the peril of which is inestimable, for its rises from the which leads to your emancipation leads also to theirs. very needs of youth to be occupied, to be enthusiasti- I believe that they would see it themselves if they could cally occupied. No one is more concerned than our- only give their understandings fair play. This they selves lest in weeding out the decadents, modern critic- cannot do at present. Their minds are too darkened, ism shiould discourage young poets, not, indeed, of confused and obscured by that basest of all the passions genius, for this would be impossible, but of pure and -habitual and lifelong fear of poverty. Carlyle laughed noble talent. These, never numerous and only less at the Englishman’s Hell-poverty. It is the Irish- rare than genius itself, are greatly to be desired and man’s, too. Unexpressed, unseen, unheard, this con- cherished among the gardens leading to Parnassus. suming fear is devastating the lives of the classes. They are distinguished by their tunefulness, their And I say again that the very best thing you can do modesty, their increasingly scrupulous performance. for your own people is just to mitigate that fear. They train themselves, and know not to trust alto- I advise you, the leaders or‘ Irish Labour, to press gether in the inspired moment-inspication, they are along this line of advance with all your power. It is aware, flows from too many sources, and some are im- the line of least resistance and ‘of greatest results. pure. Doing SQ you concentrate the greatest amount of force We pass over poor “Aurelian” and his poppies and possible upon a point which is necessarily the very his spirit driving “into the outer dusk,” and come weakest in defence. For who will openly maintain that straight upon a chastened dirge of sweet September the unemployed have no other right than the right to and a lost friend, by Mr. F. G. Bowles, the poet’s walk into the workhouse? rhythm exhibiting still surviving energy though almost But here arises a difficulty which fortunately only no originality of phrase. Nautical information ; a seems to be insuperable. The rich won’t employ the dirge for an unknown woman carefully registered as unemployed; they are afraid of cutting through the found dead in the East End; a facile exile’s plaint; branch upon which they themselves sit. Neither will some stuff of poison; one good first verse and for the the, State; it is the organ and agent of the rich. If, rest venomous language from a lady to her kingly hus- by agitation, you drive the State into doing it, the band; love, grief and you sweet in the night and you State will only seem to do it. The State, the agent dear in the day! then some respectably handled verses and organ of the exploiting classes, will never do it on “ Arques-la-Bataille,” by J. S. Fairfax :- cordially, thoroughly and sincerely. I once visited one Mi-. Those seven towers, who piled them high? of the State’s “ Labour Colonies,” and shall never Who wrought the hills their crown visit another. I saw the men there degraded and con- Of seven towers.that stand sublime, scious of their degradation. Of seven towers defying time? What remains? I say it boldly and with confidence. And who shall cast them down? Do it yourselves. I see that you have the necessary “ Defying” in the fourth line is no inspiration; in fact, financial and other material ways and means of doing towers do not defy time. Most cliches are nonsense, it, and that nothing is really wanting upon your side the original virtue of phrases being individual. Mr, except just the heart to dare and do. You can change Flecker is unfortunate in speaking of the great Gods the face of the world if you do this. “in durable array” ; but the whole first stanza of “The While individually unpropertied and having little Bridge of Fire ” is trivial enough. A man is not clever cash to spare, you are, collectively and en masse, the Here, who belittles his subject. Mr. Flecker’s first verse de- potential wielders of enormous financial power. scribes these great and durable Gods in the bald lan- as elsewhere, the pennies and sixpences of the millions guage of the uninitiated. The idea, doubtless, was too mean a colossal capital, a mighty revenue; if only you, big for him :- the leaders, can kindle their enthusiasm and fire their And old disastrous Gods imaginations by setting before them the prospect of a That nod with snaky nods- certain and mighty advance, not partial and limited, but limitless and “all along the line.” is scarcely original in the first line, and paltry in the I could shuw you, nay, demonstrate, how a few second, *theadjective further being borrowed from Mil- thousands of your young people, equipped with land, ton’s “snaky twine ” :- its boundless fertilities, equipped with the astonishing Nor all the gods beside, results of modern science, and with our miraculous Longer dare abide, modern machineries and labour-saving contrivances, Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine. how such a few thousand of our young people working, Miss Gibson quenches “in mid-sea love’s consuming not as wage slaves, but as free men and women, might fire’’ after a sad night and awakes to find Passion produce with ease, and with pleasure too, all the neces- “dead,” whereafter she never catches “Vagrant saries of life and every rational kind of wealth needed Love,” not even a “glimpse of his flying heels.” In- by millions! Indeed, I perceive that if ~OLIdon’t an- sincere stuff of this kind testifies to the Grand Malady. nex and master these machineries, they are going to Miss Gibson should marry at once. &Ir. Gibson is still master you. Sairy Gamp’s pardner, spying into all obstetrical situa- 63 tions, even those of sheep: Husband away lambing, might select these two lines might not blush to print returns to find a new-born baby beside his deceased below them :- wife. Mr. Gibson reiterates eight times through as Gone the fret and fever of existence, many verses the worthless line, “ The sea is grey be- Soothed the sorrow of Life’s aching brow. neath the wind,” and groans into a region of haunted The contributions of Mr. Skrine, Miss Street, Mr. vales and pale moon-gleams. We have never read yet a Sturm, Mr. Todhunter, Mr. Watson, Mr. Walrond, single line of true poetry from this licentious pen. Mr. and Mr. Wynne do not interest us in the least; they Greene has some “Dantesques ” about hypocrites in seem quite negligible. The concluding poem is by Miss “penitential garb,” that threadbare clothing, though Ruth Young, and entitled “August” : it is a dainty here it is decorated with “gold that glitters bright.” and simple song of summer. Our readers may have Really, the talent of some of these people is far to divined by now that its triumphant position is but an seek ! alphabetical one ; yet we are sufficiently contented after Mr. Gilbert Hudson sounds the purer tone, fresh, finding even a few graceful, careful, meritorious charming, and happily dramatic :- poems. Weave me a fairy garland and a crown Of tender hawthorn sprays, And wrap their prickles up in moss and down Stol’n from the new nest before brooding days; The New Frankenstein. And blossoms then of apple and of pear A Warning to Futurists, With leaflets glossy green from their dark sheathing, And every flower that makes the sunlit air IN one of his earlier books, “Mafarka le Futuriste,” Sweet for the sweet bird’s breathing, Signor Marinetti, the genius and ringleader of the Or bids the roving bee fold its wings; fantastic band, boasts that, some time in the future, And here and there in clusters neat entwine Man, the lord of creation, will be able voluntarily and Marsh marigolds that bravely shine by mere effort of mental power to propagate the Far o’er the wind-swept ings. Lay them on the open grass species. This assertion, coupled with the astounding Where the moonlight and the dew manifesto recently issued by Signor Comberto Boc- Them with magic may infuse, cioni, painter and sculptor, gives one furiously to And the maiden if she pass think. And behold them cannot choose With the human form as it is, the Futurists are But take them up and crown herself obviously dissatisfied, but it is evident to the most Queen of every woodland elf. casual observer that, with the human form as they She approaches-all be hush represent it in painting and sculpture, they are inordi- And secret as the nested thrush. nately and (one would think) unnecessarily pleased. I “ A Border Castle,” by Mr. R. G. Keatinge, is once asked Signor Marinetti what was the meaning rhythmical and scrupulously worded. “ The windy of a picture which seemed to represent some monstrous voices of the wheat,” is a poet’s expression of simple creature seated at a writing-table, with a smashed, blue correctness. Miss Alice Maddock’s verses, “ A Water face and the top cut off his head. He answered me Jug,” are gay, and thoughtfully gay, in one of the proudly : “C’est mon portrait, Mademoiselle ! ” This most charming of moods. by the way. In homely yard ’neath Springtime’s blue With diabolical hate and rancour they slice and cut Bent low a rosy maid the gracious lines and curves of the human figure with To rinse and rinse a jug anew fragments of machinery, tables, houses, wheels of taxi- Whence glittering sparkles played. cabs, anything that comes within the line of vision. Evidently the Futurist superman (they do not recognise The poet reflects on the pretty sight of the rustic Hebe. the necessity of woman’s presence in the scheme of O Life, O Lore, lend evermore things) is to be some fantastic compound of machinery Hope’s fresh, immortal youth and flesh. To lave the vessels whence we pour If Signor Marinetti and his followers are not careful, The crystal draught of Truth. they may waken one morning to find that Fate has Nothing extravagant is there in praying for immortally given them what they seek, has wrought strange things youthful Hope. while they slept and dreamed their wild dreams. Would they be pleased, we wonder, if, after spending the “ The Eternal Skies,” by Miss Evelyn Moore, de- scribes in admirable and smooth rhythm the fascination greater part of a night in hazardous aeroplaning and and call of the clouds to a child. Mr. John Masefield heated discussions anent still more astounding mani- festos, they woke to the tune of a strange new song, a jingles. “Spanish Waters ” is in his commonest style, utterly reckless of poetical propriety. The diction song in which the whirr and chirrup of small might be fit enough in a yarn for boys. “Slithering, machinery seemed curiously mingled with the childish squelching feet, swags of rolling trees, sinking, stag- gurglings of a human voice. gering in the quagmire”-here are boy’s own terms, What a subject for the jesting of a laughter-shaken indeed ! In his fashion he writes in a thin line or two world would be there, the materialisation of a mad mix- of the sentimental-“ Like a sweet quaint piece of ture of dreams of machinery and flesh, the tiny em- music from the grey forgotten years ”; an oldish song, bodiment of the Futurist superman! What a moment as we think. Miss_ K. A. Mardoch has a brief, thrill- of amazement while the Futurist who has wrought this ing song on a shepherd boy who once saw Guinevere. miracle (perhaps Signor Marinetti himself) lies aghast From “The Tragedy of Asgard” Mr. Victor Plarr and staring at the object upon his bed-foot! It is all selects an example of his blank verse. It abounds with very well to have every confidence in one’s powers of unfamiliar proper names, and reads stiffly and jerkily. propagating by mere effort of thought, but to find that No valuable care whatever has been bestowed upon the thought is strong enough to have become embodied technique, and the result is many varieties of metre, the while one slept is another and altogether more dis- which we cannot waste time enumerating. Mr. Plarr concerting thing. shows no sense of drama in displaying his sleeping Our imagination can picture the chaos of doubt and youth and maiden, and straightway wandering in consternation into which the mind, hovering between reverie up and down Italy, Paris and London for thirty sleeping and waking, is thrown by the unlooked-for lines. Mr. Tinsly Pratt was ill-advised to preface his appearance of this new Frankenstein. Then, while he mediocre lines with two so pure as these of Lord de gazes and wonders, the tiny monstrosity moves, Tabley :- gropingly at first, then with more certainty, with de- finite inquiry. The hybrid voice rises to a higher note, He will not wake though snowdrops rise, becoming a mixture of ear-piercing shrieks and deafen- Nor greet the woodland bells of blue. ing clangours, and the Futurist father-mother of a It is almost inconceivable that the same taste that sudden awakens to the fact that his perplexing infant, 64 growing the while before his eyes, is demanding food. In desperate agitation he springs from his bed, de- Out of Bounds. manding of himself wildly what the creature’s diet might be. Ah, a bright thought! Oil! He rushes WE arrived in Cape Town on the Saturday afternoon to the door, demanding it loudly, forgetting in his to take up Staff billets. In the evening my chum, Bob perturbation to notice whether he rushed out of the Dooley, and I went out to see the city, and eventually door or the door through him. It is all one to the found ourselves in Grave Square, where I saw a sign, Futurist. From the excited household, flocking in answer to his cries, he seizes the oil-can and flies to which bore thle legend :-“ Grave Hotel. Proprietor, the succour of the unfortunate creature, only to find N. O’Callaghan. ” himseff completely at a loss as to where to introduce “ Bob,” says I, (‘ here’s a compatriot who appears the sustaining fluid. To the louder, ever-increasing to have a decent tavern; let us go in and sample his plaints of the unholy monstrosity are added the jeers lotion. ” and ironic laughter of the household crowding at his We entered a well-furnished smoke-room, and from door. Imploring help, he turns from one to the other, and finally turns them all pell-mell out of the room and the girl behind the bar I ordered two half-en’s of locks the door, to the accompaniment of such vivid whisky. The girl turned to draw the spirit, and I language as every Futurist has at his command, and turned to look at three respectable middle-aged citizens a deafening crescendo of turmoil from the prodigy. who sat at a round marble-topped table, discussing Such a sense of shock and movement and hustle their affairs, when, from behind me, came a loud, ought to delight his Futurist soul to the uttermost, but husky voice, demanding to know : “ What the hell he has no time to attend to conflicting and contending (hic) are you fellows doing here (hic)? ” I swung impressions. His one absorbing idea is to silence his round and came face to face with a stumpy, pot- extraordinary child. He seizes the oil despairingly, again searching hopelessly for a place to pour it in. bellied, double-chinned person, plainly full of drink and insolence, who had grasped the counter with one hand It is all in vain; he cannot understand the anatomy or mechanism of the thing he has produced. Suddenly to steady himself. I saw the barmaid raise her hand as he wrestles n-iti? the problem, an unnoticed bit of and caution me to bc careful. So I inquired : “ Did machinery catches his hand, cutting it to the bone. you address your remarks to me, my friend? ” Immediately, where the blood flows, he feels little (‘I did (hic). And I want to know what the hell the suckers fasten, rapidly drawing his blood from him. likes of you are doing in here (hic)? ” The importunate cries diminish, and die away to a “ May I ask what the hell business that is satisfied gurgling, but the throb of the machinery of yours? ” grows ever more powerful, drawing great waves of “ Do you not know (hic) that this house (hic) is out vitality from his body. He tries to cry out, but from of bounds (hic)? ” horror and fear his voice is strangled in his throat. ‘(KO, I don’t know it. But I do know that it isn’t His confrères, who have hastily been told of the strange large enough to hold the likes of you and me at the event, come hot-foot from their houses, thundering on same time, so I’ll wish you good evening.” the locked door to demand admission. But befiore On Monday morning I took up my duties as they can force it in, his struggles are over; he has orderly to the Commissary-General, and the very first fallen bloodless across the bed. Quite silent now- the thing E was ordered to do was to take a letter to the satiated monster, grown to its full proportions, waits garrison sergeant-major. for the entrance of those who shall acclaim him the Arrived at his office, I found the warrant officer Futurist Superman. Muriel WELLS. seated at his desk, with his back turned towards me. ‘(A letter from the Commissary-General, sir. ” The figure turned in the chair, and at a glance I THE POLITlCAL CONDOTTIERE. recognised my antagonist of Saturday evening. He looked at me, took the letter and read it, and I HE wraps adroitly the adventurer’s banner then asked : “ Is there any reply, sir? ” In the airs and graces of the Oxford manner, (‘ KO, orderly, there is no reply.” This nonchalantly schoolboy politician I turned to leave, when : (‘I say, orderly, were you Whose lounging stride rakes to the front position, in the Grave Hotel on Saturday night? ” As statesmanlike as Rex Numa Pompilius, “Yes, sir.” Yet young and debonnair and supercilious, “ Did you see me there, orderly? ” For whether he adorns the New Old Bailey, (‘ No, sir.” Or scintillates in columns (( Daily Mailey,” “ Did anyone inform you that the Grave Hotel was Plays the bland host at some fantastic ball, Raises “1 don’t think” laughs in some packed hall, out of bounds? ” “ Oh, yes, sir. There was a pot-bellied, bull-necked Whether for that (( Wronged Wrong ’Un” he appears Or tries to set two countries by the ears, civilian, full to the gills with whisky and insolence, who Struts as the cocky rooster on the perch, had the impudence to demand what the hell I was Or knight defender of a ravished church doing- there. ” << Or shady typist, whom his passion’s breath And-you---didn’t--see--me, orderly ? ” Cleverly kept from witness-box and death, “ No, sir, I didn’t see yo“. I was hardly there a Pleads the great cause of Christ or of a thief Somehow without confusing either brief, minute when this uncultivated clown came from some- In Parliament plays at the Oxford Union. where, spluttering and hiccuping. ” Hard at last dinners dines, or takes communion. “ And-you are sure you didn’t see me, orderly? ” Partitions in advance the office swag, “ I’m positive I didn’t see you, sir. There were Or engineers a House of Commons’ rag, three gentlemen sitting at a table, but the sudden Or claims as loyal a mutineer to rank appearance of this pig in liquor prevented me.” As ever made his leader walk the plank “ And you really didn’t see me there, orderly? ” (The while the noble crew in chorus crow With sympathetic tears ,and pointed toe “ Oh, no, sir, I didn’t see you. “ Well, that’s all right, orderly, as long as you “ ’Twere better for your health that you should go”), In all these cases equally will tally- didn’t see me. At the same time the Grave Hotel and Th’ assiduous attentions of his valet, many others are out of bounds for private soldiers. I And howsover poignant the emotion will have a list of them posted up in your barrack-room His hair bisected shine with equal lotion; so you will know which to avoid in future.” And yet from all ‘heroic feats of course At last I managed to escape, aching with suppressed Pre-eminent there stands his tour de force, laughter. I don’t suppose the garrison sergeant-major Who lifts that trite cognomen to th’ official Prestige of that illustrious tn in initial. ever tried to play the “ superior officer ” dodge .again AEACUS. in a publichouse whilst in liquor and mufti. ‘ PETERFANNING. 65

tions, and the characteristic is now ingrained in their Views and Reviews.* constitutions; but if Herr Bebel told them the truth, even on this subject, as vigorously as the lies were told THIS translation. of Bebel’s autobiography, following to them, for a length of time sufficient to counteract the so closely on the translation of the aubobiography of previous efforts of the will, the truth really would pre- Adelheid Popp, enables us to see the nature of the vail. appeal made by the leaders of social democracy to their Why, this very book is a refutation of Herr Bebel’s followers; and it is important that we should realise argument! He strove not for social democracy, but a social democratic party; and he got it. His early SUC- what manner of man he is. For it is certain that the cesses, small as they were, coupled with the disaffection character of democracy, more particularly of the of the German people, compelled Bismarck to introduce modern town-bred democracy, is largely determined by the laws against Socialists, and thereby founded the the nature of the appeals made to it. If one could oon- German Social Democratic Party. Had Herr Bebel ceive a Nietzsche leading a Labour Party, one knows been preaching revolution, or Christian Science, or the that it would not be a Party very long; but the govern- ethics of the Blue Moon, who could doubt that he would have influenced the German people tto an equal extent? ing classes would find themselves confronted with a The German Social Democratic Party is his, and he practically insoluble problem of government. But Herr made it, and his hands prepared the dry band. He Bebel leads the German Labour Party, and in spite of may take his stand with Luther, and say : “Here stand his Pyrrhic victories at elections, the Government has I; God help me; I cannot do otherwise.” But there is no difficulty in excluding him from the exercise of no doubt that the will, if not free (which only means power. For the democracy that he leads is one from ineffective), was efficacious. If Herr Bebel’s argument has any validity at all, it means that he is not satisfied which he has rigorously excluded any influence but his with the results. He aimed at social democracy own. Death has been his friend, perhaps even a through the Social Democratic Party; he has obtained greater friend than Bismarck; for if the German the Party, and social democracy is still far from him. Labour Party really was born from the persecution in- But this is no argument against the will : it only proves flicted by the Anti-Socialist laws, the leadership of that, in medical language, Herr Bebel mistook a August Bebel derives from the absence of any other symptom for a cause, and has confidently treated the leader. For one reason or another (the usual reason symptom. A more exact diagnosis, and an equal exer- cise of the will, and the favourable circumstances will given in this book is that the individuals were cor- follow, if there is law in the universe. ruptly influenced by the Government), every man who But this is stating the case too favourably to Herr differed from Bebel had departed from him, or he from Bebel. We have a right to assume that, when a man them. shows every sign of an active will, when he pushes his If we want to understand why German Social Demo- way through obstacles or over them, that he knows cracy has done no more than set an example to Mr. where he is going, and does really intend to go there. Lloyd George, we have only to understand Herr Bebel. When you see a design, infer a designer, was Paley’s It is significant in this connection that Herr Bebel pro- maxim; and it has survived all the onslaughts of the fesses a belief in determinism : it is also significant that Rationalists. So when we see Herr Bebel reaching he confuses will with prevision. “ Most emphatically what he set out to reach, and then telling his followers I do not agree with the proposition that a man is that there is really no room for more than one of him- master of his own fate,” he says. “ He is impelled to self, we see him, not as the friend, but as the enemy action by circumstances and his environment. So- of democracy. His appeal is not to the free instincts called freedom of will is mere moonshine. In most of men, but to the instincts of the herd. The display cases a man cannot conceive of the consequences of his of his own virtues in this book will not deceive anyone actions ; only afterwards does he recognise the results who has read Nietzsche. Morality is simply a self- to which they lead.” Of course, the use to which he imposed regimen that makes easier the exercise of the puts this argument is a protestation of his own will. Psychologically, it is an intensification oi the conscious purpose by the elimination disturbing sen- modesty. “ It is favouring circumstance that lifts a of man to a privileged position in life,” he says. “For sations and ideas; physiologically, it is an economical the very many who do not reach such a position there process that makes possible an extreme activity of one is no seat at the table of life; and even if circumstances part of the human organism. Herr Bebel’s morality be favourable, a man must show the requisite adapta- was the necessary condition of his emincnce, and he uses it to maintain his position on that altitude. bility to make use of them. Rut there is no personal merit in that.” But the workers! Are they benefited? It is a de- fect of the workers that they sympathise with suffering, Let us admit that but for the favouring circum- and a man who encourages them in that sympathy only stances of the death of Lassalle and Schweitzer and perpetuates the suffering. Herr Bebel relates the story the practical exile of Marx and Engels, Herr Bebel of his suffering for the cause, and little else, in thls might not have become the leader of the German volume, for the book ends on “The Eve of the Anti- Labour Party, and that there is no personal merit in Socialist Laws. ’’ He does not, as Coriolanus did, the adaptability by which he attained that office. Let show his wounds disdainfully, regarding- them as negli- us admit this, and what have we in the argument but gible in comparison n-ith his personality : he does not, the confession of a Parliamentarian ? “Circumstances ? as St. Paul did, condescend to speak of hi5 sufferings I nialce circumstances,” is a phrase that has been only to obtain the ear of his readers ior some sublimer variously attributed, but always to men of action truth. He denies the freedom of his will, and he gives who have become historical. For the will is not a his public what it wants. He talks of his poverty, his faculty of choice, as Hume believed, but a power imprisonment, and his zeal, not because it will benefit capable of application to a definite purpose. The fact the democracy to know of these things, but because that a man cannot conceive of the consequences of his it will make Herr Bebel seem necessary to the demo- actions only means that he lacks a certain amount of cracy. We look in vain throughout this book far any fore-knowledge. It is certain that, if we except vision of a free people, we look in vain for any liberat- what we call the phenomena of Nature, the ing word or intention; we see only Herr Bebel main- circumstances surrounding a man are the result of taining the pose expected of him, and offering the vices previous or temporary acts of the will either com- of the democracy as his own virtues. In a spirit of pulsory or inhibitory; and may be controlled b? a true humility he might have helped the democracy to superior act cf the will. For example, men believe free itself from itself; he has chosen rather to pose as lies easily because they have been told lies for genera- one of the Smilesian heroes of “Self-Help,” and left the ______~--- democracy with one more example of what it ought +“My Life,” by August Bebel. (Fisher T’un-in. ;S. 6tl. nci.) not to be. A. E. R. 66

him. If the capitalist chastised him with whips, they Drama. chastised him with scorpions. They drove him forth to By John Francis Hope. service with contumely ; his mother, Kniertje, used every device known to a mother, from coaxing to scold- THEconfusion of mind, to say nothing of the corrup- ing, from abuse to the appeal to save his old mother tion of taste, that is implicit in every attempt to make from additional hardship. And if they treated Barend drama something other than dramatic is well illus- like this, how did they treat Geert, the only man in trated by what is called “propagandist drama. ’’ Cer- the play who showed fight or talked the propagandist tainly, if a man wants to use characters on a stage to commonplaces ? They pitied his sufferings, they ad- express his particular thoughts about social matters, it mired his fierceness, they gloried in his strength; but is no one’s business to gainsay him. Thought will they did not believe his arguments, they silenced his out, as well as foolishness; and whatever means a man tongue, they held his arm when he would have with- may choose concerns only himself. But criticism will stood the capitalist to his face. If the suffering fell not be denied; and although art is the means to the end upon them, they were none the less active agents in the of the portrayal of beauty, the criticism that is con- preparation of it; and it is impossible to feel sympathy cerned with the fitness of things may have a word to for a self-caused woe. Even at the last, the cry of JO say when the projected end is a sociological thesis. is only : “Whatever shall I do?” while Kniertje hugs For successful propaganda is as much dependent on art a barren grief to a dry breast in bewailing what she as is the presentation of beauty. In both cases, the calls her murder of her son. subject-matter must be chosen and its treatment must It is true that women do so behave: E have not a be directed to produce an inevitable conclusion. For word to say against the craftsmanship of Heijermans. this reason, Shaw’s “conversations” have failed equally These women with their false reasoning are common- as art and as propaganda. He never drove his charac- place; everyone knows that, in the main, women care ters through confusion to certainty, through the chaos for nothing but their own security, and find that Ir: the of dissociated personalities to that harmonious re-arrange- person of a man. But the defect of art should be appa- ment of faculties that is the physical basis of reason. rent. If Heijermans wanted to show us that women He posed dilemmas, and left them unresolved; he suffered under Capitalism, and to claim our sympathy wrote his plays to arrive at no conclusion and to pro- for their sufferings, he ought not to have represented duce no effect. them as preparing the graves of their own happiness But the recent production of Heijermans’ “The Good and left them mourning at the side. As propaganda of Hope,” by the Pioneer Players, shows us more clearly Socialism, it is absurd to show us people whom no than Shaw can do how confused is the judgment that calamity will induce to take a more than personal view decides to blend art with propaganda. Cut all the of the situation. references to Socialism and capitalism, and “The Good In the beginning of the play they see only the kind- Hope” is quite a good melodrama; include them, and ness of the capitalist in finding work for themselves and “The Good Hope” is really a very bad failure as pro- their men; at the end of the play they are conscious paganda. The blend of the two produces a play over- only of the fact that the capitalist ought to be de- charged with hysterics; in every act some one shrieks, nounced because their men have lost their lives in his in the third act almost everyone shrieks, and shrieks service. That is all that happens. They do not resolve really do not demonstrate the nature of Socialism. If not to work for the capitalist, nor do they determine Socialism means anything at all, it means an ordered to exhort, persuade, convince men not to work for the production, distribution, and exchange of the commo- capitalist. No vision dawns upon them of a future in dities necessary to life; and the hysterics of the revolt which the capitalist will have no part: they have against Capitalism do not lead necessarily to that con- achieved one of their desires, and have obtained a clusion. It is conceivable that, even under a Socialistic sorrow about which they may be sentimental in leisure system, a number of people will take their sorrows hours, and in the bearing of which they may develop sadly; and the inevitable nature of this tragedy of the their passive virtue of fortitude. sea will remain the same. “ We take the fish, and God Intellectually, the play is a failure. It puts forward takes us,’’ will remain, whatever solution to the pro- as the results of Capitalism what are not aBI the re- blem of getting a living we may find. The only dif- sults of Capitalism, but are the inevitable calamities ference that Socialism would make would be that the that attend the struggle of man with the elements of trawler would not leak, and that no man suffering from Nature. It takes the negative side of attack, instead of the fear of the sea like Barend Vermeer would be the positive side of construction; and it fails in attack forced to face its dangers. Socialism would eliminate by an unfair choice and confusion of subject-matter most of the hysterics of this play, but would certainly and by a perverse appeal to our sympathies. “Men not eliminate all. must work and women must weep” under Socialism as It is clear, then, that there is a confusion of thought under Capitalism, and there is no gainsaying the fact in the beginning : we cannot make Capitalism respon- that the women will weep whatever happens. Artis- sible for the phenomena of Nature, and a considerable tically, the play fails in spite of its mastery of stage- degree of responsibility for the tragedy must rest with effect. Heijermans calls tears to the eyes of his audi- the victims of it. The merest acquaintance with the ence by the ancient device of making his women cry; practice of Socialism would have reminded anybody of but as he leaves his characters helpless under oppres- the possibility of a strike; and although Heijermans sion he has neither resolved his problem nor produced takes elaborate care to represent his ship-owner as an effect af beauty. The attempt to combine propa- absolute master of the village, yet a man so greedy for ganda with art has given us neither art nor propaganda profit as he is represented to be could not long have -but a stage full of weeping women who weep and withstood an organised refusal to sail the boat. He weep unceasingly. would have been compelled, to produce more profit for himself, to invest a little more capital in his business; Art. and, really, insurance companies are not quite such duffers as Heijermans represents them to be. The Pot-Boiler Paramount. Dramatically, the values are wrong. Our sympathy ByAnthony M. Ludovic;. is asked for the women left desolate; for Kniertje de- SOMEyears ago there were two kinds of pot-boiler prived of the props of her old age, for JO deprived in the picture world. There was the pot-boiler of her lover and the father of her chiId, and for the painted by the truly tasteful but impecunious artist other women who have lost their men. But who can who could do better things, but who was complied at sympathise with the makers of their own misfortunes ? least once per annum to lay aside his more inspired Heijermans represents JO as sneering at Barend as work and to paint a picture for merely trade purposes; a coward for being afraid of the sea; all the women and there was the pot-boiler which was produced, not combine to force the lad into a service that horrifies in a moment of cupidity or of lust for mere gain, but 67 normally, continually, perpetually, by the kind of sionists and Futurists, whose true business thirty years, painter who could not rise above the pot-boiling ago would have been the trade pot-boiler, provided of standard. The producer of the first kind of pot-boiler course that they had been able to reach even that was generally a very gifted and very estimable fellow, standard-a question which gives rise to a good deaI who honestly admitted that his pot-boilers were wretched of doubt. Before long, perhaps, a still further reduc- stuff, but who pleaded poverty as an excuse for his tion in the standard of what is supposed to be a great annual, or sometimes biennial, deflections from the path painting will enable every man Jack of us to be of high art. The producer of the second kind of pot- “artists” and the producers of masterpieces, and then boiler was merely a variety O€ the ordinary, honest “art” will be general and we shall all feel what a great craftsman who produced his picture just as his fellow age is ours. craftsman produced brown and black boots, and who, These are some of the thoughts that came to me on while being aware of his limitations in art, still plumed my second visit to the present Post-Impressisonist Ex- himself on possessing some taste and higher culture, hibition at the Grafton Galleries, and the more I because he had chosen the palette rather than the last. studied the exhibits the more convinced I became that No tasteful purchaser of pictures was deceived by the vanishing trick above described had actually been either of these two kinds of pot-boilers, and they both perf ormced. went either into the channels of real trade in the form It must not be supposed, however, that the man who of advertisements, almanacs, covers of chocolate boxes, knows will be actually taken in by this feat of legerde- etc., or were hung in some bourgeois home where main,. although I cannot help thinking that large boots and pictures were purchased in accordance with numbers of the public are. The very colours these the same utilitarian point of view. A boot had to people use in their work are in most cases self-revela. fit, a picture had to tell an obvious tale lof interest, or, tory and betraying. Look at Marchand’s “ Nature better still, of sweet sentiment, which could be under- Morte” (No. IO), €or instance, or Derain’s “ Le stood immediately by all. Rideau” and “La FIoret (Nos. II and 12) or De Since the good old days when these two pot-boilers Vlaminck’s “Les Figues” (No. 17). These ,men are reigned supreme, however, many changes have come in my opinion heralds of the decay and dissolution of over the world of pictorial art. Started by earnest and art, and their colour is the colour of decomposed tissues gifted pioneers, movements have been set on foot and of putrefying corpses. which have proved as revolutionary as they were un- I will not enter into the subject of the content of precedented. Extraordinary, original techniques have their canvases, because from that point of .view there oome into being, like those of the pointillistes (Monet) would scarcely be a single picture worth saving in the and a-chiaroscurists (Manet), each of which has been whole exhibition. But even from the point of view of taken up by hosts of admiring followers or mere manner alone, how few could one choose, and haw imitators. Nevertheless, in the early days ,of these small would be the reward of one’s search in the end! movements, the person of modest powers was still Cezanne’s “Le Dauphin ” (N’o. 4) ; Chabaud’s unable to pretend that he could go very far beyond the “Chemin dans la Montagnette” (No. 41)for its de- ordinary recognised pot-boiling standard, because some sign; Van Dongen’s “ Portrait de Madame Dongen ’’ serious schooling and great original gifts continued to (No. 43); Marquet’s “Le nue à contre-jour” (No. 55); be required in order to produce the Monet and Manet Flandrin’s “ Porte de la Cuisine” (No. 57); Asselin’s type of picture. To have the pretensions of genius in “ Anticoli ” (No. 80) ; Grant’s “ Pamela ” (No. IO) ; Monet’s or Manet’s style was extremely difficult. Mrs. Bell’s “ Nosegay ’’ (No. 109); Fry’s “Angles sur Soon, however, the sharp line ‘of demarcation be- Langlin ” (Nio. 120) ; Flandrin’s “ Pivoines ” (NIO. tween the genuine painter and the mere painter of pot- 158); at a pinch one might have been tempted to carry boilers was to be bridged, at least so far as a certain off one ‘of these as trophies; but, in a show of 242 pic- portion lof the public was concerned. And with the tures, the number is small, not more than four per assistance of a fair modicum of blindness, both among cent., and for the life lof me I could noc add to it. the people who are devotees of art and the critics, a This is the heyday of the mediocre person. Let him curious thing happened in the art world. A sort of profit while he may from the confusion and doubt that vanishing trick was performed under the very eyes ‘of prevail about him. But do not let him try to convince all those in whose best interest it would have been to us that his work is anything more than the pot-boiler allow nothing of the sort to happen. paramount . The mere pot-boiler, the painter of pot-boilers, vanished ! By a curious trick of sleight of hand, he was merged into the exalted company of the painters whose Pastiche. work was high art. Or, if you would like it put in another way, a new kind of pot-boiler was discovered AN AFFAIR OF politics. Well, I said, I could have two boys instead of one of for the pot-boiler painter. He could now paint master- each of the maids and put them to sleep in the harness pieces misunderstood strokes $of genius ! room the veiitilation is perfect but solve the problem I Tricks, moments of carelessness, moments of de- shall it’s shameful! I couldn’t have them in the house pression, are easily emulated. Gauguin and Van Gogh and with a thick carpet on the floor and there is a fire- -to mention the greatest of the Post-Impressionists- place everything would be alright. Moore tells me he like all men, had Iittle knacks, moments ,of careless- has seen a hundred and forty-nine guests stopping here and all the maids and valets slept all over those beautiful ness, and moments of depression which could be imi- stables. Doesn’t it seem awful! Guy said well let me tated with ease. Very quickly, therefore, the worst know dear when you’ve quite decided hut boys and old examples of their work became a sort lof canon for a women are not everybody’s fancy which was good news legion of mediocre people who saw fame, or at least to me I thought the Act would have snapped them all a higher level of appreciation than mere pot-boiling up already before I knew they weren’t under it though would bring, if only they could imitate, not the highest in that case I should have tried for girls and old men, pay achievements, but rather the vagaries of genius. -never that’s all. I hated having to ask the guests to walk up to the Castle and Mrs. FolIitt swore very because Nonentity after nonentity arose, who could now her train got caught in a rabbit trap but all the others scornfully laugh at the career lof painting pot-boilers, said she shouldn’t swear the Cause was too admirable and could conceal his inoompetence and vulgarity be- and we mustn’t be beaten by Liberal chauffeurs! So we neath a deceiving mantle ‘composed of the ostensible get there only a very little dewy and a bit footy with eccentricities of great minds. one swamp. And the poor old thing had his gout again With the appearance of the Futurists, this exulting and I simply let the nurse make a perfect fool of me be- band of “emancipated” painters of pot-boilers Sam- cause she was wheeling him round one way to receive me and I went the other and I kept on getting at the yet another chance lof ascending the ladder to “ high back of him because of the perfectly awful noise where artistic achievement ” without possessing the necessary Henry was having a shooting party in the dining-room, gifts thereto, and very quickly the market was flooded a perfectly ridiculous joke and not at all amusing. And with the “inspired ” work of a legion of Post-Impres- the best of it was while I could see he was as fond of 68

me as ever and never meant to cut me off with nothing On one of these night of nights I saw an inkster. It but the paddock I simply didn’t know what to do about was fully a year ago, I know, but was it in September the Guests who Thomas said had all gone by mistake or October? I forget. But it is no matter. Personally, into the servants’ new dining-room and were Aston- inkstei-s (litterateurs) are charming fellows ; impersonally, ished! I should think so though I Love onions and cold they are totally unaware of other people’s feelings ; beef and great slabs of cheese but he shouldn’t be so chari- editors are what all the world knows editors always will table and have the servants’ supper at the usual time be (editors worthy of their duty, I meanthank goodness, with me in an awful state about how he would receive too !). And on this night of nights, reading in my little me because he does change his mood ten times a day room, I saw an inkster, standing upon a yellow splash, when his toe is bad poor darling. But fortunately evei-y- and lifting up his voice and braying all about a gentle- body knows the family’s mad and when nobody would man’s dramatic poetry. And suddenly I asked myself : move I said oh well this is quite charming and let us let Why is he doing it? He seemed heroic, and not to do it the servants go in the dining room and we’ll all stop was out of the question. Why? I pondered over how here and eat cheese and we did all except Mrs. Follitt who inksters had behaved towards nie, and I remembered that, thought it wasn’t right and being a sort of aunt abso- charming or cantankerous, they would never have praised lutely she went all by herself and stopped Henry’s non- my poetry in yellow splashes of heroics, even for money, sense which was silly of her because Henry always gets to be squashed by “Present-Day Critics.” Well, of course, quite drunk if he can’t do what he likes and positively it was his sense of beauty. Why did he so obviously she sat on the right hand of Thomas and pretended it was stray? A little thought, a little study, and wouldn’t he Father! Greedy old thing I’m sure if our spread had have damned the impertinence of that dramatic bequest ? been in the servants’ hall she would have come! Pa Cacoëthes scribendi, the first of literary virtues. Yes, really did enjoy it and promised he wouldn’t say any- but why in the case of just this inkster did the itch to thing horrid about me and the Act and the paddock scribble manifest itself so unquestionably, so auto- although I told him truthfully that Principles at Stake matically? I looked at his yellow splash that night of would never let me pay. And there was another upset nights a year ago to find a love for beauty, devotion to when we all got back to the Spinney House Emily was art, and a just pride in the classics of his country. I in a wax about the boys whistling and one of the old have no doubt these things were hidden somewhere women had got drunk and taken her room without ask- away deep in his breast, but upon the yellow splash was ing and she said Act or no Act she begged to give notice the stamp of the scribbling man to whom it did not occur which she couldn’t stick by ine for sleeping on a couch to disobey his taskmaster. And on that night of nights was a taste of what prison would be like and which a year ago I realised, not indeed that the inksters are going to bed under such circumstances was nothing but a sham (though, indeed, they look sloppy enough in R Ecicty Pomp! ALICE MORNING. print, and all regular artists I know despise them), but that at the back of all modern journalism there is a sham which so many things besides the yellow splashes THE BURDEN OF LLANYSTUMDWY braying a year ago, “ Masefield is a genius; read his Some men have lost the ideals of their youth ; ‘ Nan,’ ” help to mortalise. They are too blasé; cynics to the core I do uot wish to be misunderstood. The true artist They have forsworn all faith and jeer at truth; sees so much less good than bad in all ugliness, that he What souls they had are lost for evermore. is very careful not to reproduce it. But I have no desire In Wales they keep the flag of faith unfurled- to burn the English Press nor to destroy a system of The birthplace of the Hero of the World. publishing which is after all our one bulwark in defiance Let us give thanks the Principality of the censor. I know what I am talking about, for I Has giv’n these isles a guide to happiness. have written to the London papers, and have enjoyed the pleasure Adam Swann Penman derives from the adver- No fate can thwart “ Our Hero,” for ’tis he- The power that deigns our earthly course to bless. tisement of his literary effusions. The “Times ” is Dukes, Suffragettes, in vain against him swirled ; grandiloquent ; the ‘‘ Spectator ” is grandiloquent ; the Me beat them all-the Hero of the World. E Daily Mail ” “ News,” and “ Herald ” are all wonder- Let us acclaim the Star of Britain, we ful expressions of life. We say, “These things can be done as little businesses for getting our daily bread.’’ Have been assured by him that politics I understand all these things and am an inkster. I love At home are from the worst corruption free; Abroad, of course, they’re darker than the Styx. my Shakespeare passionately. I know as much about Land of Truth’s dawn, with honour’s dew impearled, literature as most. And I certainly have the proper Give him your thanks, the Hero of the World. feeling when, after “The Maids’ Comedy” and the Great Star, before you other stars are pale; Ir Ode to the Cherubim,’’ I read “ The Charwoman’s Daughter ” and “ The Everlasting Mercy ” . . . . Your path is righteous conflict to great ends. I don’t know In your strong light shall Justice’ cause prevail ; I don’t know why I have written thus. For our past darkness you shall make amends. whether it is right and proper forme to do so. I am not Your foes shall fall ’neath thunderbolts heaven hurled ; quite sure whether it is meet and right that this thing A Jovian judgment, Hero of the World! should be done. Rut, really, I don’t care; for just XIOW I feel like writing. And feelings are everything to me. CHARLES WHITE. I am an inkster. Let me be understood. MORGANTUD. I N KST E R S. TT-ith apologies to THE NEU7 -AgE, September 26.) I was staying all last year in a tidy little house kept THE BURDEN OF A LABOUR LEADER. by a tidy little lodger’s-lady. It stood high up on a hill, Autre temps-well-other manners, don’t you know. opposite the local railway station, and not very far from You may have heard of the rebellious Kett, where the trams swirl round the end of our lane and Who lived in Norfolk many years ago slide down our hill to wander listlessly through the And raised a shindy one would fain forget. weary wilderness of a London suburb. Seven miles For peaceful methods I’m an earnest pleader ; away \vas the Crystal Palace, and ten minutes by train In which I’m backed by every Labour Leader. from the local railway station was the neighbourhood of Some think the strike and such-like agitation Tooley Street, where I spent my clays in labour for a Would serve the cause as well as local preaching; pittance. But in the gloaming, and through the long Extremists, who would rend our happy nation nights, by the light of a tallow candle, I read THE NEW In spite of Nonconformists’ peaceful teaching AGE. To me it was the most unspoilt, unspoilable in The violent man is wicked-a seceder; essentials, of English papers. To me it was the Red, Peace, perfect peace, becomes a Labour Leader. White, and Blue of my country-noble, fair, and grand. To hasty action we must be repressive ; But one night there was yellow. United we must stand against the Tory. I shall never forget that awful annoyance. True, it was It will not do to split the ranks progressive; only a tiny little splash of yellow ; true, it has often since The Liberals are the Co-heirs of our glory. appeared ; equally true, whensoever it appears, and to A fact that needs impressing on each reader, whomsoever it may concern, it is an oracle, though it Though known, of course, to every Labour Leader. bray as the brassy trumpet of a foolish gramophone. We are against the frantic revolution Still, of even such is life, and to life I shall accredit it. That seeks to capture Heal-en in a dag. Rut on this particular night, and for a whole inonth of We work by means of England’s constltution; nights, if I remember rightly, the yellow splashes brayed Some distant century will own our sway. bravely. In consequence, the gulls of our little world The worker is, of course, a blind non-heeder, put on their prettiest petticoats; but to ine there were Or he would understand the Labour Leader. CHARLES WHITE. visions of the Yellow Peril and the Army of Occupation. 69

called as witnesses. Dr. Bostock was a prejudiced wit- LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, ness in the sense that he was one of the victims of the CANT, COWARDICE AND CRUELTY. attack. DI-. Nolan’s evidence was omitted from the White Paper, also his report. For his report there was Sir,-The escellent remarks in THENEW AGE’S“Notes of the Week” for November 7, in conjunction with a substituted a report of Dr. Bostock and Public Health Inspector Nessim Dawood. Nessim Dawwood was not former series of Notes on the “White Slave” humbug, called as a witness, and therefore the White Paper ought to be re-published as a pamphlet and scattered medical testimony rested on the evidence of one preju- broadcast throughout the land as a wholesome corrective diced man. The ‘Egyptian Gazette,’ the organ of the to the slavery of public opinion and Press to that organ- Anglo-Egyptians, fortunately reported Dr. Nolan’s evi- ised hypocrisy called the Nonconformist Conscience.” dence: ‘ DI-. Nolan was then called, and stated that in It has been made only too clear lately how the latter has his report he had said that the wounds were caused by become the safe refuge of the bestial lust and cruelty violent blows with a blunt instrument, but the direct which lurks beneath the veneer of civilised man, e.g., cause of death was heat apoplexy.’ The relevance of this bishops and M.P.’s. piece of evidence will be understood when one recalls that The whole agitation is unquestionably also a move in Lord Cromer, Sir E. Grey, and MI-. Findlay had all ex- the anti-man crusade O€ modern Feminism. Men can be pressed the opinion that a British jury would have con- arrested on suspicion of being procurers or souteneurs, victed six men of murder. The legal effect of Dr. Nolan’s and are liable as such to torture and heavy terms of im- evidence in an English Court would have been to compel prisonment, while procuresses (much more numerous than the judge to stop the murder case, and to direct the procureurs) are to be let off, on the ground of their be- case to be proceeded with on the basis of manslaughter.” longing to the privileged sex, with practical immunity. That is the ground for the particular observation Mr. In short we have before us nothing less than a savage sex- Fox Pitt has called in question. The White Paper, I may war being waged against man on behalf of a certain sec- add, was presented to the House, as containing a full re- tion of women. While reading the accounts in the papers port of the evidence at the trial. of the sickening exhibition of the bête humaine on the C. H. NORMAN. part of Colonel Lockwood, &fr. Crooks, and other *+* “honourable” Menibers, I could not help thinking how refreshing it would be if while they were engaged in the, THE BLACK CRUSADE. to them (as they were not ashamed to boast), congenial Sir,--lf I did not know. that THENEW AGEwas a €ree task of torturing their helpless victim, some unregenerate forum where every man is allowed to speak his mind I who had gained access to the scene with a concealed should be surprised at the appearance of “’The Black . revolver should cut short their operations by a well- Crusade” in its pages. directed shot in the region of the lungs and heart. I write this lest the casual reader of the paper imagines Though I am proud to consider myself a sentimentalist, that there is any unanimity in the matter, i.e., the Turco- I wear my sentiment like Ophelia wore her ‘‘ rue,” to wit, Bulgarian war, among the regular contributors. “with a difference.” To m thinking the man who can As an alien, and a man detached from immediate con- deliberately inflict a horrible torture upon a fellow- cern in the situation in so far as it concerns England, creature who is helpless for self-defence, be it man or I would state my position in brief : woman, saint or souteneur, is a coward, a cur, and a That of all the silly sentimentalism which I have met cad. The best I can hope for the honourable gentlemen in post-Victorian England, this silly pro-Turkish senti- who distinguished themselves in the House on the occa- mentalism is the silliest. sion in question is that the temptation to pander to “Haw dem’me! El Islam ! ! ” and the rest of it. Feminism and prudish-prurient cant, led them to do in- The disgrace to Europe is not that Turkey is about to justice to their true selves. be sent from Europe, but that she was not long since Of course, the very expression “White Slavery” is driven out. itself indicative of the lying humbug of which the whole If Turkey has been maintained in the “unspeakable” movement for which it stands, consists. ’Where you have status quo, I should like to know by what force if not slavery there must be coercion into being or continuing a by the foi-ce of the allied monopolies of Europe? If it slave, and how can there be any coercion of the procurer’s has not been to the interest of European capital to main- “victim” when the whole force of law, police, and public tain the Turk, why has he persisted? opinion is against the procurer and in favour of the If an Oriental despotism is not lock, stock, and barrel “victim’ 2nd when that “victim” has only to raise the of our matter with the industrial tyrannies of Europe, to faintest cry or to lift a little finger to bring down upon what is it allied? To the freedom of the individual? To her “enslaver” a “multitude that no man can number” of equal opportunity for all? To the conservation of human amateur detectives, male and female, hysterically eager energy and dignity? To any of the one and fifty causes to hand him over to the tormentors appointed by law. In to which we are pledged? No! the case of the souteneur, morally indefensible though What has the labourer to gain by letting continue a his conduct may be, his “grue” hands him over the earn- model of tyranny more disgraceful than that whereunder ings she has made in her trade just as willingly as the he sweats? Turkey means monopoly. In her trouble she moneyed bourgeois hands over the profits he has made has asked loans of the monopolists of Europe and in his trade, whatever it may be, to the mistress of his America. choice. There are many foul things in this capitalist If we cannot break the close ring in oiir own countries society of ours of which the institution of souteneur is the next best thing is to see it broken elsewhere. only one and Gy no means the most radical or important, “Fellow Christians” and the rest of the cant, be either by reason of its extent or even of its effects. hanged ! The real nature of the objects of the promoters of this What could be more inane than Europe pretending to “White Slave” Bill is shown alike by their savage eager- be Christian ? “Fellow rebels” if you like. “Fellow ness to torture men guilty of breach of its provisions, and fighters for fair play and an open game,” we greet you the shuddering horror with which they greet any pro- and we wish you well. And we wish we could throw posal to apply the lash to the backs of women when off the subtle strands of the hidden tyranny of the mono- guilty of precisely the same offences. It may be also, as polists as swiftly and as cleanly as you are throwing off has been suggested, that a touch of Xénophobism enters in the yoke of a tyranny of arms. to add a spice to the vincdictive brutality of our patriotic Uncivilised Montenegrins, Servians, decadent Greeks, parliamentary heroes who pose as the champions of pestilent Bulgarians, I wish you well, and I pray that virtue. The majority of souteneurs, it is alleged, whether you conserve your ideal of freedom better than men have rightly ur wrongly I do not know, are foreigners. done in my own “free” country or in constitutional E. BELFORTBAX. England. EZRAPOUND. +*n *** “THE CALLING OF THE ROOKS.” “ THE NEW AGE ” AT KING’S COLLEGE. Sir,--ltn reply to Mr. Fox Pitt’s comment upon the Sir,-It is somewhat depressing to read your corre- above article, may I cite a passage from an article en- spondent’s notice on the Haileybury ban of THE NEW titled “The Honour of Liberalism,” in “The Westminster AGE. The state of the Haileybury mind is more concern- Review,” February, 1908 where the matter I referred ing than the rebuff to your excellent paper. to is detailed: I will, however, match my Roland with their Oliver, “A White Paper was published purporting to record and in the shape O€ a scholastic institution of far greater the evidence given at the trial of the Denshawai weight than a public school. prisoners. With one remarkable exception, it does. The When I came up to the University of London and aim of the prosecution was to prove murder had been entered King’s College some three years ago I *found committed, and certain medical evidence was adduced THE NEW AGEwith about one earnest reader, who strove witb. that end in view. Drs. Bosteck and Nolan were in vain to get it put upon the Common Room list 70

of journals taken. In my third year we triumphantly in- Sir,-The writer O€ your admirable ‘(Present-Day stalled THENPW AGE on the list, with, let it be remarked, Criticism ” concludes his last article with the epigram very substantial support from members of the Theolo- that our speech and not our spelling is at fault. In gical Faculty. And there it remains with a circle of support of a conclusion that would bear much elabora- readers beyond what any of us expected a year or so ago. tion may I add one 01- two remarks? Our spelling, as WINSTANLEY. your critic truly urges, has been the work of successive * :w * schools of artists working, consciously or unconsciously, within the tradition imposed by the genius of our nation. MEREDITH. That for a long time they fumbled, as it were, for the Sir,-In reply to your correspondent, ‘‘A Detester of precisely expressive letters for the sounds to be denoted Meredith,” may one ask for a few examples from Mere- is evident from the history of the evolution of English dith’s works substantiating the satyr-like qualities attri- spelling. Not by a single leap in every instance did buted to that writer? they arrive at a word-picture of the sound they had in Meredith’s attitude to life was philosophical and not mind. But the fact that when they had arrived at it sentimental, and he was neither champion nor attacker they recognised its finality and authorised by their of the feminine sex. It seems obvious from his life, example its currency as a completed word is also a works, and letters that he admired and appreciated the proof that the ideal sound which they heard in ‘their “lady with brains,” but regretted, as must all reason- minds existed before its spelling was attempted. These able beings, the overpowering ses-sense of women, which two facts, I venture to think, are at the root of our tinges their every thought and action, and hampers any objection to the spelling reformers ; in attempting to forward tendency in them: The sentences from “The change our spelling they are not only robbing the Egoist” are surely a somewhat unfoi-tunate choice on the written word of all its features as a word-picture, but part of “Detester.” The words are unmistakably favour- they are endangering the character of the sound which able to the “lady with brains,” who had no sex illu- the written word represents. Of these two dangers to sions about her egoistic husband, and married him rather our language I agree with your critic that the danger to for the gratification of maternal and comrade-instinct than sound is greater and would be more disastrous than the of sexual instincts. danger to spelling simply. New and changed spellings By all means let women-and men, too, for that matter are easy to detect, and their course of corruption (as in --“saturate themselves in Meredith.” He shows the way the American Press, in Mr. Shaw’s plays, and in the women should go, and how they are being kept back and pages of the ‘‘ Nation ”) is clearly marked out. But sent astray by the lack of balance caused by over-accen- the corruption of sound as expressed in pronunciation tuation of sex feeling, for which orer-accentuation women is much more difficult to trace. The standard exists are chiefly responsible. under even the best circumstances in only a com- RALPH HABBEN. paratively few minds; not more than a few thousand of *** our millions speak our language purely. And if the new spelling should give sanction to new pronunciations, SIMPLIFIED SPELLING. however slight in character, the descent of the standard will be as rapid as it would prove impossible to check. Sir,-The last paragraph but one of the article entitled If the main object of the new spellers is merely to save “Present-Day Criticism” in your last week’s issue is a the time of poor school children (for I cannot conceive splendid illustration of the way in which would-be phone- that time is any object to the wealthy), it will be seen ticians manufacture their evidence to fit in with pre- that the sacrifice of our language is to be made to conceived ideas. The writer maintains (I) apparently capitalism and to nothing else. Saving time? Why that the “ng” in young denotes two distinct sounds, should time spent in art always be saved and not time presumably (‘n + g.” Let him pronounce “ youn ” as he spent in ugly and useless labour? Instead of deploring suggests and then add the sound of “hard” ‘( ’’ The the rich and beautiful variety of our spelling and seeking result will be quite unlike the sound in “youn~;’which to Pitmanise it, let rather our pedagogues insist on is a nasalised “g.” (2) He says that he “does not teaching the nation how to live up to it, how to pro- neglect” the “h” in “ghost.” One would like to hear nounce our language as well as our forefathers spelled his pronunciation. Is it on the analogy of “b-lioy”? it. Otherwise we shall be open to the charge that we (3) If,one were to pronounce the words “debt,” “bet,” have not known how to preserve our heritage, but have “set, etc., into a phonograph one would find (unless the squandered its richness and reduced OUr tongue to pronunciation was “faked”) no difference at all between penury. I am afraid that the new spellers are not the record of the vowels in the words. To say that the aware of the magic nature of the language on which they “e” in “debt” is pronounced longer than if it were “det” are attempting their violent experiments. Sound, as is to make your facts fit your theory. (4) As for the every student of the ancient wisdom is aware, is itself “s” lingering and softening into the “c” in “scent,” the a living, creative, and magical power. There are sounds gramophone record would testify that there was no differ- that bless, there are sounds that curse. It is to be ence at all between the “s” sound in “scent” and “sent” supposed that the language of a great nation is composed in the speech of anyone but your imaginative contributor, on the whole of sounds that bless, of sounds that in iE, indeed, there was any in his. themselves create as well as convey the meanings ex- HENRY ALEXANDER. pressed in them. In laying rude hands on them, there- **Y fore, the new spellers are endangering not merely our language but ‘our national life. Whoso altereth the spoken words of a people by ever so little alters at the Sir,-I have followed this correspondence with great sanie time that people’s character. Are the new spellers attention, waiting in expectation that some one better such legislators (in Plato’s sense of the word) that they fitted than I might point out what is necessary. can be trusted to change the national sounds for the In Scotland I find that the various districts give diffe- better? Their childish motives of saving the time of rent values to the vowel sounds. P expect this obtains children bewray them : the pert folly of their secretary over the Border. gives them. away ; Professor Rippmann’s superficial dis- It is here the difficulty lies. putation disposes us to incredulity. Not under the In works on prosody I read of long and short vowels, guidance of such men and methods shall we feel con- of what is permissible in rhyming and what isn’t. But fidence in following the new spellers. On the contrary, when I read that brute should not be rhymed with fruit with renewed earnestness and increased reverence we I am puzzled. shall turn to the spelling as handed down to us by our In works on elocution I meet the same vowel trouble, fathers and learn anew to pronounce our tongue as for while they distinguish them by signs, they reveal very purely and beautifully as it has been spelled for us. little to me. As to the elocutionist, the few I have met H. L. WHEATLEY. have been charlatans, and therefore I distrust them. *** It seems to me that what is required is some method VIEWS AND REVIEWS. of teaching, and that our teachers be taught first. And the means are at hand. Sir,--“Touche ! ” as Whistler wrote after one of his The Board of Education has introduced training centres periodical slaughters of ‘( ’Arry.” Verily I have caused for teachers, and if they are properly employed then the (‘-4. E. R.” to unmask all the heavy guns of his mid- acquired information can be used, not to the advantage of Victorian battery. such as 1-1 am past redemption-but for the advan- He even quotes Shaw. Shaw and Emerson now. What tage of the children. a cultivated world we live in! As for reformed spelling, I know little of it, and care “Mr Green seems to imagine that, if he calls a book less. But their first job must be the reformation of the a work of art, I am, therefore, prevented from saying alphabet. J. T. FIFE. that its subject is prurient and the treatment of it moral.” 71

Of course I do. l’he subtle penetration of our ’Arry of justice does not apply to God. ’’ (“Meta-Christianity,” THE KEW AGE is amazing. P. 372.) What the devil have prurience and morality to do with “God reveals no ethical relationship of Himself, as the criticism of a work of art? (I apologise for the word duty froin him to us.” (Ibid.) “prurience.” It is such an ugly word. No artist would ‘‘If Coil is under no obligation, what have we to do use it except by way of quotation, as I do here.) with God’s veracity ?” (Ibid., p. 365.) We accept a work of art as such, not because Mr. Green “ Personal rights are chimerical.” (Ibid., p. 282.) thinks it is one, not even because our ’Arry thinks it is “There can be no essential aggression where there are one, but because its creator gives it to the world as his no rights to assail.” (Ibid.) offspring. “As God determines pain for the creature here, He Wilde regarded himself as an artist, and his novel as a may deterinine pain for the creature hereafter.” (Ibid., work of art. It is our business to accept it at that valua- P- 356.) tion. Having done so we inay begin to criticise. But “The miserable might so become sacrifice for the we must criticise it by the canons of its own creation. happy.’: (Ibid. p. 372.) We do not criticise a brand of tobacco by canons borrowed Here is Baalism with its complete outfit of favouritism from the art of shoemaking, nor do I criticise the moral for some at the cost of victimisation for others and ter- (I suppose it is moral) conduct of “A. E. R.” by canons rorism for all alike, including the favourites for the time derived from my study of his writings. being, who can have no security against being victimised Therefore why criticise a particular work of art by in their turn whenever it pleases Baal the Absolute to use canons borrowed from a wholly different kind of artistic the right of dispensing with veracity and faithfulness. It activity? Foi- there is an art of morality, although to is thus plain that the foundation of Equalism is a concep- most people it is only a bad habit. tion of God substantially indentical with that which vvas My “right to limit” “A. E. R.’s ” “criticism” is, I take denounced so fiercely by the Hebrew Prophets and upheld it, the right of every citizen to see that the conditions of so zealously by Spencer, by Nietzsche, by that guile- the game are observed. lessly self-styled “Atheist,” the late Charles Bradlaugh, One more point : the fact that Wilde was amused, and and generally by the defenders of economic terrorism as perhaps gratified, at whzt “A. @. R.” calls the “Chris- it is practised to-day in this country among others and as tian reviews of the book” (what on earth are “Christian it was in Sodom of old according to the description of the reviews”?), does not prove that he wrote with that object “ iniquity of Sodom ” given by Ezekiel (xvi. 49-50). in mind any more than the fact that I ain amused at As for hlr. Hiller’s ascription of Atheism to myself, it having roused your critic to such a pitch of exasperation is accurate only on his own supposition that to deny proves that such \cas my aim in trespassing 0x1 your Baal is to deny Cod (“Meta-Christianity,” p. 373). Mr. space. I,. H. GREEN. Bax seeins to agree with this supposition, whr‘ch involves *** the conclusion that Socialism, which is certainly Anti- BYRON. Baalistic, must be Atheistic. As a matter of fact, Social- ism has its own Anti-Baalistic conception of God as the Sir,-I am greatly surprised to find “A. E. R.” per- Protector of all possible sufferers from all savable suffer- petrating such a review of the Biography of Byron by MISS ing. To what extent this conception is valid not only Mayne. The book is not only absolutely superfluous- as a “postulate of the practical reason,” but also as a for every single fact therein contained has appeared be- conclusion of the “theoretical reason,” this is a question fore in various books, but it is in the highest that cannot be treated at the end of a letter intended to degree mischievous. Mischievous because the amout prevent confusion between two kinds of equality, namely, of emphasis given to Byron’s immoral life in the equality of security which forms the pith and core Venice is wholly out of proportion compared with the of the essence of Socialisin and the equality of insecurity rest of his life in which he gave to the world a body which is what must result from a successful attempt to of imperishable poetry, the finest collection of letters in carry out Mr. Hiller’s Calvinistic Equalism. existence; and before dying at the early age of 37, had o. E. POST. displayed such power as a leader of inen as is revealed by no other man probably but Napoleon. At this time of day his immoral life in Venice is of no consequence at all, and the time has come when it only needs to be NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY. given in detail to students. Miss or Mrs. Mayne’s book is not for students and, as I say, superfluous so far as QUEEN’S (MINOR) HALL, PLACE, actual facts are concernecl. But worst of all is the record- LANGHAM W. ing of the infamous incest story put about 35 years after at 7.30, the death of Byron by Lady Byron and the authoress of Sunday, ’Nov. 24th, Mr. G, W. FOOTE, “ Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” and about as sensational as that “ The Church and the Divorce Report.” famous work of art. l’he incest story is given by her as if -~- it was gospel truth which was accepted by inen of repute : and your reviewer is apparently under the impression that it is true. If he will take the trouble to read even GLAISHER’S NEW BOOK CATALOGUE, the short defence by Alfred Austin, to say nothing of No. 390, NOVEMBER, 1912, IS NOW READY. numerous other statements made by men of the highest Post Free? on application. standing, he will probably be inore coinpetent to deal PRICES. with a so-called “Biography” of Byron than I venture to NEW REMAINDERS. REDUCED Thas New List of PubLishers’ Remainders contains many important think he is at present. There is, of course, an eternal mid valuable additions to our extensive stock. mystery :!s to the cause of the Byron separation, but only persons with minds as stupid as base, will believe * WILLIAM GLAISHER, Limited, in this story which poor Lady Byron, after much thought, 265, HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON. seems to have coine to believe in-though no one else, I believe, shares this belief except a relative of hers, a noble lord given to spinning literary theories of a strange kind. If at this moment men and women, especially young inen, would abandon their dismal and barren Ber- nard Shaws and H. G. Wells and their more or less futile followers, and steep themselves in Byron, who was not only a great poet, but a great man, Lx-ith a virile, vigorous intellect and imagination, one might feel slightly more hopeful for the future than is possible at present. *** s. Y. z. SOCIALISM AND MOTIVE. Sir,-I beg to answer Mr. Hiller’s questions as to “what connection Equalism has with Baalism. ” This connection can be stated by simply citing the words which &Ir. Hiller has used in expounding the theological foundations of “Equalism. ” “We have no personal rights except incidentally to the manifestation of justice as our duty to God. But, as froin God to us, there is no question of duty. Hence there is no question of justice. God owes us nothing, and our 72

MR. JOSEPH CONRAD.