Vol. IX. No. 11. THURSDAY,JULY 13, 1911. THREEPENCE.

PAGE PAGE NOTES OF THE WEEK ...... 241 UNEDITED OPINIONS : THE ECONOMICSOF POPULATION ... 251 FOREIGNAFFAIRS. By S. Verdad ...... 243 A PAILOF SLOPS. By Walter Sickert ...... 252 Is THE HOUSEOF COMMONSPOPULAR? By Kosmo Wil- AN ETHIOPIANSAGA--(continued). By Richmond Haigh ... 253 kinson ...... 2 44 BOOKS AND PERSONS.By Jacob Tonson ...... 255 TORYDEMOCRACY: LABOUR MEMBERS’ WIVES. By J. M. REVIEWS ...... 256 Kennedy ...... 244 RECENTMUSIC. By Herbert Hughes ...... 257 ASIATIC LABOUR:AN OPEN LETTER TO MR. KEIR HARDIE, PAGESFROM A BOOKOF SWELLS.V. By T. H. S. Escott ... 245 M.P. By W. Westwood ...... 258 A RHYMEOF AGADIR.By Arthur T. Colman ...... 246 LETTERSTO THE EDITORfrom Ernest Radford, Cecil Chester- FOUR CARICATURES By Tomtitt ...... 247 ton, Henry Meulen, H. D. Paul, G. T. Wrench, Frederick THEPRIDE OF HIS PROFESSION.By W. L. George ...... 248 Dixon, Joseph Banister, T. Shore, George Ford, N. Fitz- A SYMPOSIUM ON THE ART OF THE THEATRE ...... 249 herbert, Cyril Mandell ...... 259

Subscriptions to the NEW AGE are at the following to the shoulders of the wage-earners. That is as plain rates :- as a pikestaff to everybody who has discussed the Great Britain. Abroad. matter with employers themselves. Whatever may be One Year ...... 15 0 17 4 the reports from Germany, as collected by Mr. Lloyd Six Months...... 76 88 George, the truth of the matter is known and in private, Three Months 44 at any rate, acknowledged by English employers; it is ... 39 that either by actual reduction of wages or by increased SPECIALNOTE.--All communications whether re- cost of living, the cost of the Insurance will fall on Sating to the editorial, business, advertising or labour. What, however, Mr. Snowden fails to see is publishing departments should be addressed to THE that precisely the same objection lies against his own NEW AGE, 38, Cursitor Street, London, E.C. plan of abolishing contributions altogether. From the standpoint of labour, it is a matter of comparative in- difference whether the contributions come directly from the employers or indirectly through the State. In both NOTES OF THE WEEK. instances they are deductions from profits, and in both DURINGthe opening days of the Committee stage of the instances the employers will endeavour successfully to National Insurance Bill the great Welsh charleypitcher recoup themselves by reducing wages or raising prices. has been handing out concessions at a rate which sug- Under a capitalist system wages tend to the subsistence gests that his Bill was intentionally laden with them like level, and if, by free or contributory services, workmen a sort of Christmas tree. Nothing like it has been seen are enabled to subsist on less wages than heretofore, in politics before : the cheapjack, anxious to palm off a their competitive necessity is reduced and their wages worthless and costly article, and offering one clause fall in consequence. It is, in fact, from this very reason- after another as an inducement to greedy, ignor- ing, reinforced as it has been by statistical observation ant, but cunning purchasers. The doctors have over the last twenty years, that we conclude that every been placated, and it will soon be the turn scrap of Liberal social legislation has actually intensified of the Friendly Societies. Then will follow the pur- the impoverishment of labour. Free education, free chase of the Labour Party and the Trade Unionists. parks, free libraries, free food, free pensions, and now But these latter wiIl not cause much trouble. Like assisted insurance, have one common, economic effect- Uriah ’Eap, they are very humble, and will be satisfied they enable the working classes to demand and receive with many kicks and few ’apence. If the Unionists less and less in wages. What the workman gains on missed their opportunity in failing to oppose a Bill the swings of State charity he loses on the roundabouts which is certain to become unpopular, the Labour Party of private wages. *** has unfortunately divided itself to the same nugatory effect. The contributions to the debate on Thursday by But if this reasoning disposes of Mr. Snowden’s de- Messrs. Snowden and Macdonald respectively, demons- fence of free Insurance, it equally disposes of Mr. Mac- trated not only the differences of opinion in the Party donald’s defence of assisted Insurance. The pseudo- regarding the principle of the Bill itself, but a manifest Socialists who appear to be at loggerheads on a matter and equal misunderstanding of the nature of Socialism. of principle are realIy united upon a common fallacy, of supposing that wage-slaves can get from employers, The “Times ” was careless enough to remark that Mr. Snowden, in disapproving of contributory insurance in either directly or via a bureaucracy, something for toto, was putting ‘‘ the Socialist view.” But neither nothing. Mr. Snowden imagines that it is possible for Mr. Snowden’s disapproval of the contributory principle, the working classes to receive free Insurance benefits nor Mr. Macdonald’s approval of it is Socialism at all. without experiencing any diminution in their wages. Mr. Snowden’s defence of free, universal and non-contri- Mr. Macdonald, on the other hand, being Scotch, butory insurance is not Socialism but ’Communism ; and imagines that by paying threepence the workmen will be enabled to draw ninepence, also with no after effects Mr. Macdonald’s defence of the contributory principle is Liberalism pure and simple. From the sound upon morality and wages. If the State were itself a Socialist point of view, both methods of procedure are Fortunatus’ purse and could dispense wealth without equally condemned, as leading in practice to one and the first collecting it from employers gifts and bonuses of same end, namely, the reduction of wages. this kind might be possible. But in England, at any *** rate, the State, to our disgrace, is a needy but sturdy beggar, almost every penny of whose annual income We understand that Mr. Snowden’s main objection to must be annually obtained by taxing employers who, the contributory principle was the objection we have in turn, are allowed by economics to tas their work- urged many times in these columns, that the contribu- men. The State is in the position of Robin Wood, who tion of the employer would most certainly be shifted on robbed the rich to give to the poor. This may be 242

picturesque, but it is not politics; for the more the rich What was our surprise to learn, then, some weeks ago are robbed the more they will need to rob. So long that Mr. Money was supporting the Insurance Bill. as the present system of production for private profit And the news has now been confirmed by the publica- remains, so long will it be impossible by any means to tion, with a preface by Mr. Lloyd George, of an increase the income of the poor without diminishing it apologetic, eulogistic and explanatory pamphlet by Mr. at exactly the same rate. Money on the Bill itself, under the title of “A Nation *** Insured.” We do not propose to re-examine the Bill This is so obvious that we are disgusted that Mr. in detail even under the unctuous guidance of a recent Snowden and Mr. Macdonald should still be as blind to convert. One phrase that caught our eye is enough to it as any Liberal; but their blindness accounts, perhaps, show the spirit in which the tract is written. Explaining better than anything else within the limits of the the reasons for making the poll-tax compulsory, Mr. credible, for their official support of the Insurance Bill. Money inconsequently argues in this fashion : “If they Once let them realise what, in fact, is the case, that Mr. [the working classes] have failed to remain members Lloyd George’s Bill is a detestable fraud, a superficial, [of Friendly Societies] it is because they have been tricky and humiliating device for perpetuating and in- unable to afford to continue to subscribe...... It tensifying the present economic situation, and it is is in view of such facts that the principle of compulsory just possible that they may repent like Judas, even if insurance has been adopted in the Bill.” Since work- they do not venture to the same conclusion. With the men are too poor to pay voluntarily, make them pay text-books of economics open before us, the statistics compulsorily ! The case of Mr. Money reminds us of the of recent production tabulated and the evidence and gruesome story of Scotch second-sight. A small boy arguments of independent thinkers marshalled in our horrified his family by asking in her presence why support, we unhesitatingly say that Mr. Lloyd George’s grandmother was wearing bawbees in her eyes. We Insurance Bill is the worst measure devised by Parliament are disposed to think that Mr. Money similarly has baw- since the poll tax acts of 1380. Those acts were fol- bees in his eyes. lowed by Wat Tyler’s rebellion. This Act, if any spirit *** is left in our wage-slaves, will be followed by a purge THENEW AGE was the first journal to realise the im- of Parliament that will drive out the whole treacherous portance of the Seamen’s strike, which has now happily Labour Party and such bobtail of the Unionists as know terminated in the complete success of the men. We will not their right hands from their left. We entertain no not be so impertinent as the “Labour Leader” and the hope whatever that the Welsh poll-tax will not be “Clarion,” both of which papers now presume to lec- passed; but we do entertain high hopes that when it ture and instruct their betters in the art of economic is passed its authors and abettors will be the first to warfare. It is obvious from the whole incident that suffer for it. the rank and file have moved miles beyond the position *** occupied by their one-time leaders. Neither the Labour We are not now concerned with formulating an alter- Party in Parliament, nor the Trade Union officials, nor native scheme of Insurance to that of Mr. Lloyd the Labour journalists who conduct our contemporaries George. Many of our readers bave written to enquire are within speaking distance of the men they pretend to what we should do in Mr. Lloyd George’s place. When represent. It is the ludicrous fact that the Seamen’s not in office devise not the policy, said old Confucius. strike occasioned less surprise in the offices of the What is the use of formulating schemes when we are “ Times ” than in the offices of the official and non- as good as told beforehand that no notice will be taken official organs of Labour. As for the Labour Party in of them? As the political game is played (and every Parliament, it is enough to say of them that not one of move on the board is now under the searchlight in Mr. the bunch either foresaw or was forearmed against it. Belloc’s new paper, “The Eye-Witness ”), the Bills Busily engaged in protesting too much their indepen- which are introduced bear no relation whatever either to dence of the Liberal Party, few of them failed to share reason or to economic necessity. Mr. Lloyd George’s all the limelit delights of the recent Coronation exhibit Bill, for example, had absolutely no legitimate parent- tion. But while the Labour members were “ gazing age in any public need or demand. So far as the econo- into the eyes of Queen Mary,” and reading ineffable mic world is concerned, it was a bolt from the blue. prophecies therein, Messrs. Havelock Wilson, Tom The same considerations produced the Bill as produced Mann and Ben Tillett were at their work of raising a crop of new peers or any other êvent unintelligible wages. The carters’ strike in Manchester still remains outside the inner ring of politicians on the make : the to be satisfactorily settled. The carters belong to four considerations of party necessity, and the considerations unions and have no single organisation; and this will of personal popularity. For these trifles the nation is tell against them when Mr. Askwith adopts his to sacrifice its manhood, to grovel on its belly for doles, Napoleonic tactics of tackling them one by one. On the to be robbed of its hope of abolishing wage-slavery, and other hand, they are without official leaders, and this to be plunged forward in a long step towards mora! as well as economic slavery. The only alternative worth may save them. *** immediate consideration to such a Bill is to kill it, and kill it instantly. It will be time enough to suggest a Both the “ Telegraph” and the “ Times” have now real remedy when the poison which Mr. Lloyd George is joined the “Spectator” in urging the Lords to pass pouring out for the nation is spilt on the ground. the Veto Bill. The decision was probably arrived at *** after unmistakable evidence that the King would offer We cannot refrain from calling attention to one of the no objection to the creation of peers. As a matter of most extraordinary conversions or, rather, somersaults fact, no objection on the part of the King could have had ever witnessed on the political field. As everybody the smallest influence. Like the action of all the rest knows, Mr. Chiozza Money has been distinguished for of the parties to the situation, his action has been fore- years by his independent, careful, authoritative and doomed from the moment that the Coalition was formed complete demonstrations of the one issue of recent and there was proved to be no alternative government. Liberal social legislation, namely, the fact that the rich Mr. Gamin, who is understood to have written the grow richer and the poor poorer. Upon nobody more “Telegraph” leader advising the Lords to drink the than upon Mr. Money have we relied for an accurate hemlock, continues in the “ Observer ” his earlier ad- diagnosis of the disease of destitution, its progress and vice to them to do nothing of the kind. But Mr. Gar- its crises. Mr. Chiozza Money, almost alone among vin has lost his influence, and with the passage of the Liberal politicians, was critical of Mr. Lloyd George’s Veto Bill to the accompaniment of his tears of resigna- Budget. In attacking land, he said, Mr. Lloyd George tion in the “Telegraph,” and his protestations of Never was merely scratching and irritating the surface of Surrender in the “ Observer,” it will be quite gone. capitalism. He needed to get further down . . . and, Save for the possible but improbable rejuvenation of the finally, to acquire profitable undertakings on behalf of doctrine of Noblesse Oblige, the extinction of a political the State. In short, Mr. Chiozza Money showed him- charlatan will be the most valuable result of the passage self to be a Socialist in the strict sense of the word. of the Veto Bill. 243

serious official importance is ascribed to Germany’s Foreign Affairs. action. A German coaling station or even a German By S. Verdad. harbour at Agadir would be a grave menace to us; but it must not be forgotten that it would also be a menace, IT is often necessary for writers on this paper to slow though not of so much importance, to the United down and let the ordinary daily Press catch up. It States. was so, for example, in the case of the Insurance Bill, *** and equally so in the case of Morocco and Albania. But the main feature of Mr. Asquith’s reply was Last week, remember, the Albanian imbroglio and the contained in the final sentence : “I am confident that proposed intervention of a few of the Powers were matters which were fully discussed in this paper, and diplomatic discussion will find a solution, and in the part that we shall take in it we shall have due regard two or three days later the “special correspondents ” of the daily papers hurried along with the same news. to the protection of those [i.e., British] interests and to As for Morocco, Germany’s position and her various the fulfilment of our treaty obligations with France.” plans were referred to on this page weeks ago, and According to the Liberal papers, of course, this had nothing has since been added to the information I have reference to the Anglo-French Agreement of 1904 and to the Algeciras Act, the “Daily News,” for instance, already given. Some authorities hold that Germany stating explicitly that we had no other treaty obli- wants a coaling station on the Atlantic; others that gations with France. As readers of this column are she wants her African boundary lines better defined; others that she simply wants to drive as good a bargain aware, however, there is a military agreement, drawn of a treaty, whereby we are as she can; others, again, that, in view of the approach- up practically in the form bound to assist our French neighbours in the event ing Reichstag elections and the Socialistic propaganda, of a war with Germany. We supply this assistance she wants a little diversion abroad. These different by sending from 100,000 men upwards to the German points of view, I repeat, were all discussed in this paper weeks ago. borders viâ Belgium in the event of serious trouble, *** and we are also, I understand, to blockade various German ports. While the general Press, by Mr. The fact is, it is as impossible to talk of a definite Asquith’s reference to “treaty obligations,” under- German policy in Morocco as it is of a definite French stands the Anglo-French Agreement of 1904, I under- or a definite Spanish policy. Such a policy stand this military agreement which I have already does not exist. Germany wants a coaling station, mentioned in this paper, and about which Mr. Jowett certainly, and she also wants ,certain boundary lines vainly questioned Sir Edward Grey in the House of defined. If, while achieving one or other of these Commons several weeks ago. The agreement exists, objects, she can at the same time put a spoke in the but it is the duty of the Foreign Secretary to deny its Socialistic wheel-well, there you are! But German existence, otherwise diplomatic complications would policy, as I have often said in this very paper, is based ensue, and such complications might result in the on bluff to a greater extent than most people imagine, agreement going into effect sooner than was intended and the sending of a cruiser to Agadir is only a tentative by those who drew it up. move. *** *** I think it will be clearly recognised that, from the Agadir, of course, is a good strategic port--so good standpoint of European prestige and internal politics, that the Germans can’t have it, as that would instantly Germany has gained considerably by despatching a nullify Gibraltar and place British trade at the mercy cruiser to Agadir, The smaller nations, particularly of a German Atlantic squadron. But there is now an the Turks and the Balkan States, will be suitably opportunity for a “deal ” all round. The French Press impressed, and at home the almost traditional hostility is being praised on account of its ‘‘admirable restraint. ” of the Germans to Francemay lead to a considerable Proportional representation, it may as well be said at diminution in the effect of the Socialist propaganda. once, is causing the French Cabinet more anxiety than Even if Germany is in the end no better off, either in Morocco, and where M. Caillaux, the new Premier, land, money, or commercial concessions, from her is concerned, the pacifying of the champagne district action in Morocco, the addition to her prestige and a is the next most important point. The French Press set-back to the Socialists would be great gains--speak- reflects these feelings, hence its “admirable restraint ” ing, of course, from the point of view of the Govern- on the subject of Morocco. As for the Spanish papers, ment. I find that Mazzantinito and his four bulls corne in *** for a good deal of comment. I do not, of c’ourse, As no definite and settled policy exists where quote the Press as a diplomatic authority, but because, Morocco is concerned, either in London, Madrid, Paris, on the whole, it reflects the thoughts of the average or Berlin, it is naturally difficult to forecast the future. man more or less faithfully. M. Caillaux, the new French Premier, has just been *** defeated in the Chamber over the question of propor- What has undoubtedly strengthened Germany’s power tional representation, and this may or may not mean in her international dealings is the weakness of govern- the formation of another French Cabinet very shortly. ment in France. Democracy, as I have said once or Such an unsettled condition of French politics will be twice before, does not suit a Latin country, particularly taken advantage of by Germany if there is anything France. The people are too individualistic, and the for her to gain by doing so. Straws like this may struggle for power and “la gloire ” is particularly bitter change the whole course of events, for there might and continuous; hence the fifty or sixty Ministries in conceivably be a Monarchist rising in Portugal, or a France since the formation of the Republic and the change of Premiers at Madrid, which might alter any consequent changes of policy. We read, for example, plans that the Spanish Government might be thinking of negotiations begun by M. Pichon in the Briand of carrying out. Cabinet, discontinued by M. Cruppi in the Monis *** Cabinet, and tentatively resumed by M. de Selves in the It is safe, however, to leave Morocco to the financiers. Monis Cabinet. It is impossible for the foreign policy The country is rich, and nothing but a few desperate of a country to be controlled, much less directed, by a bands of “fanatic” Mohammedans stand in the way of series of Ministers who come and go like figures on its thorough exploitation by pious Christian specu- a cinematograph. The ideal administration is that of lators. German financiers want a share of the spoil, Germany, where, no matter how many Foreign Secre- and the Germany army and navy want, and have long taries may be in power, the Kaiser exercises full con- wanted, an opportunity of securing a little glory for trol; and William II., let it be remembered, has been themselves. But the Paris Bourse is wealthy, and the thus in charge for more than twenty years. French army in a fairly efficient state. Even Britain’s *** share in the transaction is commercial, for all the talk From Mr. Asquith’s statement in the House of is about trade routes. So for the next week or so let Commons on July 6, it will be clear that a somewhat us leave these sordid people to their own sordid doings. 244

resented not less by the Opposition than by the Minis- Is the House of Commons terial leader. In that, as a fact, a special fitness will have been recognised ; for the Lower House’s reputa- Popular ? tion rises or falls from time to time with that of its Kosmo Wilkinson. chiefs to the Speaker’s right and left. It was not its By august traditions or its place in English history which “FORit was of the Lord to destroy them.” If this made it the central point of national interest and study sentiment, so familiarly recurring in a biblical context, in the Gladstonian and the Disraelian epoch. Then, could be applicable in the present day to bodies of men as in the preceding eras of Fox and Pitt, of Canning, or to individuals, their own doings and the tactics of Peel, of Russell and Palmerston, Englishmen were of humbler champions outside their own number would proud of St. Stephen’s because it had become the scene invest it with a sinister reference to the immediate of trials of wit, eloquence, wisdom and statesmanship subject of the Parliament Bill and of those who, sitting between those in whom all Europe saw the master in another place, instruct their noble friends regarding minds of their age. the line of resistance they should take. In other Today, however, the elective manufactory of statute words, the Lords are quite capable of fighting their law witnesses no encounters like those of an earlier own battle. It is not only that their collective ability generation between “ these lords of human-kind. ” It at least equals and probably surpasses that to be is within the facts to say that the most generally found in the other assembly. Could the country be interesting of its attractions are the oratorical squabbles polled on that single issue, the legislators who sit on between M.P.’s who may be described with justice as the crimson benches would be found to have a personal not of the first calibre, relieved perhaps by escapades, following quite as large as those who sit on green. about which the public hears little, of Labour members The peers who have so long been, in Irish phrase, or certain irreconcilables. Lord George Hamilton and “ spoiling for a fight ” are indeed unintentionally doing the Right Honourable “ Bobby,” Lord Spencer, both all they can to rehabilitate the Commoners with the disappeared from St. Stephen’s in 1906. Since then multitude. It is entirely a (mistake to suppose that they have had few successors, specimens of the grand the elected members of Parliament, individually or young men who took their seats shortly after coming of collectively, have had a higher place in the country’s age, held them till translation to another place, who affections than. those who, beneath another part of the came down to the House in dress clothes, with dust- same roof, owe their election to no constituencies. coloured overcoats, big button-holes, and opera hats When Parliaments first came into existence, the shire cocked most knowingly on their heads. Yet they knights-in other words, the county members--derived constituted, after all, features of popular interest in any consideration they might have from their social the Chamber, whose absence is a real loss to it in this consequence as connected by ties of consanguinity with Coronation year. noble families, as being a sort of annexe to the peerage. One cannot, therefore, consider it otherwise than as The burgess, or the borough representative, was even, a godsend that, just as the House had reached the nadir in official parlance, known only as “Goodman So-and- of popular indifference, of prosaic (dulness, of with- so,” belonging to the sovereign’s humble Commons, drawal from it of anything like wit, beauty, or even and not presuming to offer an opinion except by special pleasantness, the Lords and their friends should have permission and request of his superiors. If he did raised a breeze which may possibly float it once more not obey these conditions, he was publicly whipped, into favour. Quieta non movere sums up the sage just as much under the Tudors as under the Stuarts. advice left by Lord Salisbury in all matters of party Should he in the Chapter House, his place of assembly management to his nephew and to his other successors. till the middle of the sixteenth century, presume to do Disraeli, as Salisbury remembered, was never so anything more than vote supplies, the Court, with the popular with his party or in the country as when, in entire approval of the Crown, took good care that he 1876, he refused to change the day fixed for a great should be promptly and effectively forbidden the West- Conservative gathering at the Crystal Palace to suit the minster precincts. Denied respect by others, he convenience of one or two Tory dukes. Whatever gradually lost respect for himself. Some time before Conservative noblemen, whether two, three, half a Cromwell let it be known he intended to work his own dozen, or more, may wish, beware of committing, for sweet will with Goodman Stubbs, that burgess had that reason only, the party to a particular course. The formed one of as unsavoury a gang as had ever superior sagacity of a later age has seen nothing but collected itself beneath a historic roof. Then came a nonsense or paltroonery in such shrewd counsel. Once new dispensation. St. Stephen’s had made itself a more, therefore, the Tory organisation is to be handi- vogue. The well-born or wealthy mediocrities gathered capped by identification with a titled patriciate. If within its walls by degrees subjected themselves to the anything could be likely to check the descent of the control of some two or three Score men of genius or Commons’ House to absolute unpopularity, it is, pro- exceptional knowledge, distributed into factions whose videntially as enemies of the bicameral system may respective heads were the first Englishmen of their think, forthcoming in the partisanship to which their time. From such a period as this, the House, as it leaders are committing the whole body of Unionist was now pre-eminently called, entered upon a course M.P.’s in the constitutional discussion whose close will of distinction which ended by its being known, not, as perhaps only be found in the national weariness of the it is sometimes put, as the best club in London, but issues it is said to raise, and the interminable disquisi- as the pleasantest club in the country. Then followed tions of which it has been made the theme. a prolonged season of fairly respectable mediocrity, continuing to the present day, during which debates have been, and are, conducted without sprightliness and more signally without any attempt at eloquence. Tory Democracy. Commonsense or shrewdness thus became the highest praise aimed at by speakers. Emotion and, however By J. M. Kennedy. true it may ring, rhetoric, are pooh-poohed as clap-trap, Members’ Wives. and the approved tone of the speeches most in request VI.-Labour resembles nothing more closely than the colloquial THEinfluence of women in a democratic community is methods of housewives for cheapening small wares. a subject which has yet to be written about in detail. Adapting t‘le terms of Dunning’s famous motion Those who look upon women from the standpoint of about the Crown, Lord Midleton could talk the other idealistic Liberalism-the most common standpoint in day of the Lower House’s influence as increased, as England, by the way-will claim from them virtues with increasing, arid as a thing that ought to be diminished, which they may be endowed in theory but certainly not without a single Commoner commenting on such lan- in practice : strict morality, honesty, candour, justice ; guage a5 at all out of the way. Against this it must an earnest desire to benefit their fellow-women and to indeed be set that Lord Hugh Cecil’s uncomplimentary guide men in the right path. The fact that, to take one observations about the Chamber wherein he sits were instance, women have at best only a rudimentary sense 245 of justice is a statement with which the average idealist, the King’s frock coat! What are the sweated toilers i.e., the average English Liberal, will never agree. Yet of the slums in comparison with all this ! it is true. Nietzsche has already pointed out, with I am prepared to swear that if the inmost heart special reference to Greece, that justice in a nation is of the average Labour member’s wife were laid bare, usually allied with stupidity; that just people, in short, she would be found to entertain sentiments like those are usually stupid, conventional folk, while higher just outlined, and that she conveys them to her spouse types of culture are generally found to prevail among daily, with all the subtlety of which an ambitious people with whom the sense of justice is much less woman is capable. “Why should you be an outsider developed, e.g., the earlier Greeks. Compare the sense when that man Burns is on the Treasury Bench? of justice among the Greeks and among the Romans, Aren’t you as good as so and so and so and so? Aim and compare the artistic productiveness of both nations. at Cabinet rank, or as near to it as you can go. Burns These points, however, form part of a larger theme, turned Liberal; why can’t you turn Liberal, too?* with which I hope to deal before long in these columns. Isn’t it worth it? ” This is what, in somewhat less On the present occasion I am concerned with the in- crude phraseology, perhaps, is dinned into the ears fluence exercised on English politics by one section of of the Labour M.P.’s from a source which, as I have women, a small but important section, viz., the wives said, is listened to with the greatest possible attention. of Labour M.P.’s. And it is a state of things which will become more Unless their attention is specially directed, the com- acute. Apart from the example of Mr. Burns, and the plex varieties of human elements which we know less notorious example of Mr. Richard Bell, I am not giving away any secrets (for the news is now all over vaguely as the public are not given, as a rule, to looking Fleet Street) when I say that one of the best known behind the scenes. They are satisfied with the fierce Labour members is shortly expected to become a light that beats upon the superficial and the external. Liberal for the purpose of taking up an important It is known that there is a Labour Party in Parliament ; Government appointment, and that he has already it is known to a few deeper students of politics that this taken an initial step towards his schism by proceeding party is for all practical purposes a section of the Liberal to quarrel with his party. This further instance of a Party, and is likely to remain so. But why? What Labour M.P.’s success from a worldly point of view ambitious wire-pulling has been going on behind the will act as an additional stimulant, and will probably scenes to lead to this result? render the Labour Party tamer than ever. In one respect only are the Labourites further ad- To express the matter even more plainly : we have vanced than the Liberals : in sentimentality. Self-made been sickened by newspaper gush about the assistance men, most of them, intense, plodding students rather rendered to Labour M.P.’s by their wives. How often than original, broad, imaginative thinkers, they have have we heard that Mrs. Philip Snowden, for example, unconsciously developed thoughts, habits, opinions, and is an invaluable aid to her husband, and that much moral codes which are even more strict and puritanical of Mr. Crooks’ popularity is due to Mrs. Crooks? than those of the Radicals. They are, in fact, ultra- We know that Mr. Ramsay Macdonald married, to use conservative; and their Conservatism is seen in the fact the acknowledged expression, “above him,” and that that they look upon a new idea even more suspiciously he is tacitly bound to raise himself to his wife’s class. than would even the most hide-bound of hide-bound Now, will any level-headed psychologist affirm for a Tories. But their sentimentality leaves a soft spot in moment that these estimable ladies are entirely dis- their hearts for their wives; and any suggestion coming interested in the aid they render to their husbands, from this feminine source is sure to meet with respect- that they are inspired purely by zeal to benefit the ful attention. The failure of the Labour Party, then, working men of the country, and that they do not must be sought to a great extent in a consideration expect and do not wish to gain any fame or distinction of the wives of the members constituting it. for themselves ? During the canvassing preceding the election in 1910 (January) I had several opportunities, in company with a few foreign journalists, of visiting working- class districts which were either represented in the Pages from a Book of Swells. House of Commons by Labour members, or where By T. H. S. Escott. the influence of a Labour member was strong-Wool- wich, for instance. In the course of this slumming I V.--The Military Swell. had occasion to observe the behaviour of the wives of two or three Labour members, and the failure of the THE incarnation of Mars a la mode in the recent Labour Party as a whole at once became clear to me. Coronation pageant had a place only a little, if at all, It was evident to me that the wife of the average below the magnate of the Church Militant, as recently Labour member was the hope of the Capitalist; and portrayed in these columns. If the warrior of the this is a statement which I believe I can uphold. period now uppermost in all his countrymen’s minds had Inspired by a truly Liberal sense of justice, the not, from his parentage and other early associations, Labour member is saddened by the spectacle of his own downtrodden class, and all his efforts, in theory, been destined for the profession of Scipio and Hannibal, are bent on removing what he considers, and with some he would have long since won renown and opulence as reason, as a grievous iniquity. In the service of his a leviathan of directors and a king among railway class, and without necessarily thinking of any benefit princes. Nor, indeed, as it is, has soldiering been to himself, he is ready to labour day and night. He his only mission. Cedunt arma togae; and the one ob- does so. He gets on. His articles are sought by ject consistently as well as to some extent successfully newspapers, and his opinions are occasionally referred to as authoritative. pursued by him has been to explode the idea of Cicero’s Then the Labour M.P.’s wife, with her rudimentary doggerel verse and by the weight of his sword to make sense of justice, comes on the scene. Her Will or the scale containing the precepts of statesmanship kick her Sam has raised himself, and incidentally her, above the beam. A statesman now living once called himself their neighbours. He is obviously a clever man. Why the soldier of immensities. The dominant notion of the should he wear himself out in the service of a class embodiment and leader of latter-day militarism is to which is by no means noted for gratitude? How nice clear the way by his sabre of the obstacles by which it would be for her to be the wife of a Cabinet Minister, or an Under-Secretary, or an important permanent civilian prejudice thwarts or delays the fulfilment of official-to be asked to official functions connected with military ambition. Napier’s history of the Peninsular the House of Commons; to go to garden-parties at * If any readers still doubt that the Liberal Party is Buckingham Palace; to shake her most gracious favourable to the capitalists, let them turn to Mr. Arthur Majesty by the hand, and to remark confidentially what Chamberlain’s recent speech, in which he says that the finan- a dear young lady the Princess Mary is; to mother cial burdens of the famous 1909 Budget are not falling on the Prince of Wales, and to comment on the cut of the employer, but on the workman.J. M. K. 246

War shows throughout the prostration of its writer’s sky darkened by gunpowder or lightened only by the powerful mind before the name of Bonaparte. Napier’s flash of steel in a casual sunbeam. Upon General preferences, adapted to the events of our own time, Cook’s devoted head it has rained gold boxes am- have throughout his career coloured the thoughts and, taining the freedom of great cities almost as frequently inspired the action of General Cook, who sees in the as it was said to do in the days of Chatham. If a operations of war a mere game of exquisite skill wherein grateful country insists on pouring out its wealth praise can only go to the most successful player. For before, perhaps, the one officer of his period who has the rest, he may boast with Horace to have taken no never failed it in time of need, who is he that he man’s shilling, and at every turn to have justified his should churlishly divert from its channel the precious persistent refusal to shrink from no responsibility. stream of complimentary tributes? Only, in order In a better and more ennobling than the conventional that these tokens of national appreciation should be sense, it is Field-Marshal Lord Cook’s initial dis- as practically precious as they deserve to himself and tinction to be a self-made man. Belonging to the those who may come after him, let them be not only school neither of a Roberts, of a Wolseley, nor of any of commercial value, but of daily serviceableness. other among the much-advertised warriors of his day, When a man possesses swords of honour enough to he listened profitably at the Woolwich Academy to furnish an armoury, why, in the name of common discourses from competent professors about masters sense, let his admirers waste their money on useless in the art of war, from Hannibal and Caesar to Jomini, additions to the store? Meanwhile, too, are there and thence to Von Moltkë and the Hamleys. But the not certain deficiencies to be made good in the golden school in which he practically perfected himself was the dinner suite or the silver tea-service that constitute battlefield. His victories in the hinterland of Canopia, General Cook’s especial pride? A truce, therefore, for one after another, were, as Palmerston might have said, the present, to the honorific blades already bestowed in “won off his own bat,” with no preliminary blare of unmanageable multitude. The hint thus opportunely trumpets at home, and, as regards the joining of battle given and appreciatively acted upon has made General with the enemy, the time, place, and conditions left en- Cook one of the best supplied virtuosos, as well as tirely to himself. These were the tactics which, adopted the most approved and indispensable warrior of his by individual commanders on their own responsibility, era. with no chance of reference to superior authorities One danger still confronts him, but will, if, as and none of the machinery involved in councils of war, there is no reason to doubt, successfully overcome, laid the first foundations of King George’s Empire and, only add to his honestly won reputation. No laurel- skilfully reproduced by General Cook, secured his covered personage has ever so little sought-indeed, successive promotion to the chief command of its so brusquely repelled-the good offices which spring service. up like mushrooms before the feet of greatness. At Asked where and how he learned to do his work the beginning of the present reign his parasites so quietly and effectively, whether as a pupil of this reminded him that, as the case of the Duke of Welling- great commander or that, he has always found an ton shows, his countrymen were always ready to accord answer to inquirers in Topsy’s words, “’Specs I the triumphant leader of many legions abroad a place. of trust and honour among the statesmen of his time growed. ” Another respect wherein he is honourably distinguished from so many of his cloth is that he at home. So, too, General Cook’s adulating entourage has actually accomplished three-score years without insisted on the opportunity given him by King George’s doing that which Job wished his enemies to do; in accession of inscribing his name on the roll of fame in other words, he has never written a book. His another capacity than that of soldier. Nothing, of officers it is true have illustrated, some of them most course, followed from the suggestion. The new Sove- blamelessly as well as successfully, the fashionable reign was never for a moment near to heeding the coun- union between sword and pen. The General himself sel of the few militarists who would have promoted has preserved a singular and consistent silence about Cook to a position which his own good sense told him the method by which he has avoided mistakes himself could only befit a soldier when nothing but the remedy and retrieved the blunders of others. The present is of dictatorship remained for an empire. Since then, a time in which every handler of troops on a large he has settled down in a position of ease and honour, scale has become his own Xenophon, and for a undisturbed by the risk of mistakes on his own part, campaign abroad finds a literary staff a necessary representing at the same time to his countrymen a per- item of his commissariat. Not so Field-Marshal sonal force in the operations of war rather than that Cook. His countrymen at home, in such accounts maid-of-all-work of empire which the late Lord Dufferin of his movements as reach them, read nothing of amused the Canadians by calling himself. Is there any- far-reaching plans slowly and surely developing them- thing in possibilities of another kind likely to breed selves, or of imposing hospitalities given to the native active dissatisfaction in Cook with his present mètier ? princes of friendly tribes. So few are the false steps needing to be re-traced, and so uneventful, for an A RHYME OF AGADIR. inordinately long time, seems the chronicle from the seat of war as to have originated a theory that Cook When in Morocco (or elsewhere) himself is less of a leader of men than a first-rate I come along to take my share, organiser. And I am asked my business there, The truth, of course, is that, with a knack of I will not snarl, I will not snort : winning victories in the field by following out his own “ I want a port. I want a port.” ideas and disregarding the rules of military bookmen, But in my suavest tones retort : he unites qualities of management such as would “ There’s trouble still at Agadir.” ensure the success of any civil enterprise, as well as If ten new Dreadnoughts I require an eye extraordinarily quick, and a memory, Napoleonic To set the universe on fire, in its tenacity, for details of every kind and degree. And haply raise Great Britain’s ire, No man can show a contempt more withering for the I’ll never use the verb “ to squeeze,’’ luxuries or for some of the comforts with which the Nor mention ‘‘mastery of the seas.’’ twentieth-century sons of Mars surround themselves But murmur with a well-bred ease : in a campaign. No one, on the other hand, could “ There’s trouble still at Agadir. ” appreciate more keenly the little elegancies and pretti- When anti-warlike fervours set nesses of social existence, could have a better instructed taste in old china, and, above all things, could be a The pace, and cash is hard to get, sounder critic or more sedulous collector of antique I will not fume, I will not fret, silver. These tastes occasionally show themselves in But bid the God of Battles stand a way that is not more characteristic of the man than Beside me for the Fatherland, the disposition of his fighting force, or the quickness Repeating with demeanour bland : with which he finds a cue for his strategy in the inci- “ There’s trouble still at Agadir.” dents of the hour as they pass around him under a ARTHURT. COLMAN.. 247

MR. G. K. CHESTERTON. MR. G. BERNARD SHAW.

MR. H. G WELLS SIR A. W. PINERO. 248

she could. Of course it didn’t matter in those parts; The Pride of His Profession. half a dozen people passed me, but it’s like that in the slums : they don’t want to get mixed up- Anyhow, the By W. L. George. woman got up again; there was a bit of a scrap. She “WELL?”said the News Editor rather sulkily. It was a game one: I saw her smack him on the head had been a long day and he was not as yet very well with a bottle; her hair was coming down : she looked impressed by the new reporter. He could not get over as much of a devil as he did. But he came at her again. Don’t, Jim,’ she cried, don’t do it. I’ve always the escape of the Princess of Novogorod, who had dived ‘ ‘ done my duty to you.’ No, wait a bit, she didn’t say into a block of flats in Piccadilly to elude the reporter’s that. . . . “ notebook and left him to wait two hours at the door The young man man deftly drew out his notebook. while she coolly walked out into Jermyn Street. A “No, what she said was : ‘ I’ve always been a good journalist who wasn’t up to that. . . . Well ! So he wife to you.’ I took a shorthand note, you see,” he looked unkindly on the short figure in grey as it apolo- explained. getically worried its straw hat. An extraordinary expression came over the News Editor’s face. It was deadly pale, and yet the corners “ I’ve got something, Chief,” said the reporter of his mouth suddenly twitched upwards. slowly; “murder. ” ‘‘ Go on, go on,” he stammered. “Oh ? We’ll get that from the Association,” replied “‘There’s not much more,” said the reporter. “He the News Editor. got hold of her by her hair, pulled her head back, got “ Sure enough, by and by, not for a couple of hours her with one arm jammed against the wall and the other though. ” against him. Then he cut her throat. It took him half The News Editor’s face showed sudden signs of in- a dozen cuts before she stopped screaming. Then he terest. He threw himself back in his armchair and let her go. She went down in a heap. He didn’t look at her, just walked across to the corner and cut the pushed his scanty hair away from his forehead, as he children’s throats too. Easy, you know; they were was wont to do when a special piece of information just petrified, too frightened to cry out.” fired his surfeited imagination. “Oh? ” he said at “ Good heavens,” muttered the News Editor, “ did length; “ how’s that ?” you call the police? ’ ’ “Saw it half an hour ago; nobody else did.” A “ I did think of it,” faltered the reporter in a shame- slight flush rose up into the reporter’s cheeks as he ex- faced way, as if avowing a weakness. “ But. . . . hibited his prize. Well, it seemed a pity to spoil it, and it wouldn’t have “ done any good. I watched him wash and get his hair “ Nobody else? . . . How? . . . What? . . . tidy; then I guessed he was coming out. It wouldn’t cried the News Editor with increasing interest. “Let’s hear about it anyhow. . . . Buck up, we’ll be in time have done if he found me there, so I just sheered off fifty yards or so and watched the street. Sure enough for the final. ” he came out a minute or two later. I followed him “ I was walking along Lisson Grove,” began the re- down Lisson Grove, along Marylebone Road, just to porter, “ on my way to the Tube, when I saw a big navvy-looking sort of chap walking just in front of me. see where he was going. He was steady enough, Nothing particular about him; had a drop too much sobered perhaps. At last he walked into a place that perhaps. He went on in front, not hurrying at all, was half a mews and half a street, quiet sort of place, steadily though. Just as I was going to pass him he but he wasn’t walking so well then. After hanging put his hand in his coat pocket, took a razor out, looked about for a minute or so he went to the end, where at it, put it back.” there’s an empty house. I was watching him from the The reporter stopped, his eyes dreamily fixed on the corner, but though he looked round he didn’t see me. faded wallpaper. I saw him go down the area, heard him break a pane of glass, lift up a sash. He got into the kitchen, I “ Well? ” asked the News Editor. expect. “ Struck me as queer. I just dropped back a step or “And here you are,” said the News Editor blankly. two, following him quietly. A minute later he took the He was staring at the young man now with extraor- razor out again, kept it in his hand that time, turned dinary intentness. into Devonshire Street sharp. Of course I followed right “ He’s bound to be there now,” resumed the re- on. He turned into one of the houses, slammed the door almost in my face. They always leave the doors porter. “ I thought of telling the police, but that would open in the slums; it’s a habit. When I was doing have let the cat out of the bag, wouldn’t it? And it “ wouldn’t have done his family much good.” Bethnal Green. . . . “ No, you’re right there,” said the News Editor, his “ Yes, yes,” snapped the News Editor, ‘‘ get on with it, man.” There was tenseness in his voice; his languor mouth again twitching. “ But I had a bit of luck,” added the reporter. His had left him. eyes glittered now, full of vivacity. “ As I ran out into ‘‘ Well,” resumed the reporter quite unruffled, “I thought there was something in this. So I looked Marylebone Road to find a taxi I fell into Brunton. Didn’t tell him everything, of course; just let him know through the keyhole; couldn’t see anything, of course : passage pitch dark. So I got against the wall and there was a murderer in that house. Made him swear squinted through the window. There was no area. to watch it and shadow the man if he came out and give him in charge about an hour later, or, if he didn’t come There he was right enough, waving his arms in front of out, after an hour, tell the police.” a woman. Couple of children in a corner. ‘ I’ll learn yer,’ he was saying; I could hear him, for the window The News Editor’s eyes blinked quickly. He im- was open at the bottom. ‘ I’m goin’ to do yer in and patiently pushed away his hair. the kids,’ he shouted. She screamed-screamed fit to “ What did you do that for? ” he asked. rouse the whole street. He just jumped on her, got hold “ Well, I thought we’d have the murder as a SCOOP in of her by the throat and threw her down on the the final and then we could have a special out an hour ground.’ ’ after with the arrest.” “What did you do?” gasped the News Editor. The News Editor slowly rose up from his chair, “Oh, I looked. I couldn’t see very well just then. walked up and down the room, his hands twisting his Rather hard lines. ” handkerchief. Suddenly he turned to the reporter, The News Editor’s eyes were now beginning to whose eyes were once more dreamily directed to the bulge. He moistened his dry lips. faded wallpaper. He considered him the space of a “ What happened then? ” second, then, with a movement that was all impulse, he “ I couldn’t see much for a minute, except the chil- clapped him on the back. dren in the corner, one of them crying, the other, a “ Young man,” he shouted, “ you’re the pride of nice little girl, screaming ‘ Daddy ! daddy ! ’ as hard as your profession. ” 249

sidised by the Government or by the munificence of a Symposium on the of private donor. A Art This in not such a formidable proposition as it may on the surface appear. It need not be run on the same scale the Theatre. of expansiveness as that controlled by the private managers. Conducted by Huntly Carter. As a mattter of fact it can be run in a comparatively small way, and yet serve its purpose and exert a salutary effect QUESTIONShaving relation to the artistic reform of in the community. the theatre have been put to the following representa- Two things are necessary. (I) A place to perform the tive persons :- plays. (2) A company to interpret them. A small theatre, AUSTRALIA. capable of seating say about 600 people would have to be built in each of the large cities. This would have to be Mr. BRYCESONTREHARNE, Director of Adelaide well equipped, have a good stage, be compact and suitable. Literary Theatre. The charge of admission could be made subject to the The Adelaide Literary Theatre is the only movement of its extent of the expenditure, but I think a uniform charge of kind in Australia. There is a Stage Society in Sydney, but 2s. 6d. per person would meet the demands of the exchequer. this is largely governed by social exigencies, and is not You see, it would not be the aim then to look for large primarily artistic. profits; all that would be asked is that the scheme pay its There has been an attempt made in Melbourne, but so way. Supposing, for example, the hall was but two-thirds far it has only resulted in a few isolated performances of full for each of the six nights and a matinee, this would “The Silver Box ’’ and “You Never Can Tell.” They are to result in an income of £350 a week. Well, I contend that produce “Alice Sit-by-the-Fire,” which I should consider by eliminating many of the non-essential expenses incurred outside the purpose of the movement, as we view it. by managements nowadays, this would be enough to meet all calls. I know of nothing in New Zealand. A company would have to be selected, and as they would As to our purpose, I will attempt to reply as briefly as be people actually interested artistically in the venture, who possible. In the first place, we want to infuse a taste would naturally prefer doing work beneficial and instructive for sincere drama ; to get people to distinguish the difference to themselves to wasting their time and talents on mediocre between what is good and bad art on the stage. and shoddy stuff, they would be content with a fair and In the second place, we are seeking to lay the founda- reasonable remuneration. There would be no star-system ; tions of an institution which, by reason of its endowment every member of the company would be on an equal footing, will be more stable than it is possible for ours to be. Aus- and each one would work for the good of the whole tralia is a young country ; it is governed democratically and Again, for example, supposing we had fifteen people in in the evolutionary phases of its laws can bring shame on its the company, and they were paid £10 a week each, this maternal progenitor. But it has still something to do. It would only bring our expenditure sheet up to £150. There has to consider art as a serious item in a community’s would still be £200 left, and this should prove sufficient to welfare. In no branch of art has the Government shown tide over all emergencies. One company would suffice for practical syspathy. Is it any wonder that Australia loses the whole of Australia; they could give seasons of say two all her gifted sons and daughters? And this misfortune months duration in the principal cities, and on such times will continually recur, until this country can give its people when they were not utilising the theatre it could be sublet an artistic education and an outlet. The former is no for other purposes, and would very quickly recoup any good without the latter. It is futile training people in any actual expenditure which the building would entail. realm of art and then turning them adrift without much hope This is only a bald, outline of what might be done. The of gaining sustenance by a sufficiency of labour. details of the scheme I will leave untouched. I only throw Let us consider this in its bearings upon histrionic art. out the suggestion in the hope that some day, sooner or Australia at present depends exclusively for its amuse- later, it will be taken up. ments upon private managers. These managers, with every We, here, are paving the way for some such scheme, and due respect to them, have given the people, not exactly what when it eventuates, we shall be quite prepared to retire, was good for them, but what, with a tolerable measure of content to know that the efforts we expended towards arous- certainty, they felt would replenish their own coffers. I do ing interest in the project were not altogether in vain. not say this is so in every case, because Mr. Williamson, to take an instance, must have lost heavily on his last operatic CHINA. venture. He is a man of great acumen and discernment, and must have foreseen that to present a piece of such. ad- MRS. ARCHIBALDLITTLE. vanced modern texture as “Madame Butterfly ’’ must Irre- With regard to the use of colour in the Eastern theatre, vocably end in disaster. I may say the only colour I know of on the Chinese stage is Music such as this is difficult of comprehension It re- in the dresses of the actors and the exceedingly beautiful quires not only a keen sensibility on the part of the listener, guild houses in which the plays are generally performed. but presupposes a knowledge of much that has gone before The first of these guild-houses I saw was in a yet more in the art to account for what to the uninitiated may appear magnificent setting on the bank of the greatYangtse River as mere idiosyncracies. in the first grand gorge I traversed. With words as a medium, it is a different matter. We The Chinese put primary colours together generally in can safely assume that most people can distinguish between their ceilings and roofs, undegraded by that odious admix- beauty of phrase, tersity of language and play of wit, so ture of black prevalent in Japan and France. that the possibility of failure in presenting intellectual As indicative of Chinese taste, I may mention the story of plays is far moue remote than it is in presenting modern a young man born and bred in China and half Chinese, opera. who on arrival in England was taken to see “Sumurun.” We hear much of enterprise, but it is a unilateral sort When asked for his opinion he wagged his finger at me of enterprise to say the best of it. The thing that should and said: “Oh, I had forgotten to speak to you about that. be considered most is the one that is considered least. The Don’t go to see it. It is no good at all. Horrid! And play, after all, is the important element in the theatre, not fancy, they make the Arab men kneel before the women. the dresses, the scenery and the stars. Conceive that ! “ I said Arabs might have customs of their The managers will tell you that good plays do not pay. own unlike Chinese. I was not intimately acquainted with How can they know when they never produce them? Per- Arabs. “ But was not the scenery and staging good ? ’’ He haps they would find it difficult after nurturing their audi- looked quite confounded. “Oh, that! I never noticed,” ences on inanities for years. If we delve deeply enough we he said. “But the piece is no good.” shall find a latent intelligence in every mind, and if you give I admired the effect of Miss Loie Fuller‘s Chinese Play at them enough of a good thing, in time they will come to the Little Theatre. It was a real colour feast. I regretted appreciate it as much, and more, than the other, which very much she did not give the effect so beautiful in Western actually fills them to repletion every time they are forced to Chinese towns at the Eastern festivals of the decoration feast on it. going on ad infinitum and in infinite variety. I have never So I contend that, given the opportunity, Australians yet seen an English stage look so picturesque nor so would appreciate good plays as much as they seem now to theatrical as the entrance hall of an ordinary Chinese house appreciate bad ones. of business at New Year‘s time. There is another side to the question. We have a number of clever writers, men and women. Many of them have POLAND. turned their literary energies to account by writing for the stage, but the utter impossibility of securing a hearing must PROFESSORAXENTOWICZ, Cracow. discourage them, and divert their talents into other more The Polish stage in general, and the Cracow Theatre in fruitful and remunerative channels. particular can boast of a great development during the last How are we to meet this contingency? Well, the best and ten years, First, under the management of Mr. Pawlik- I think the only way, is to institute a theatre which, for owski, and then under that of Mr. Solski, the Cracow purposes of expediency and safety, will have to be sub- Theatre, both as regards the choice of plays and their 250 production, has been brought quite up to the modern were developed to the highest degree. He therefore wrote European level. his plays with strict regard to the Elizabethan theatre in Among the performers was Stanistaw Wyspianski, who which they were to be presented ; and to the audience which exercised such influence in Cracow that he practically re- assembled therein. volutionised the theatre. He was poet, play-writer, acting- There was no scenery used in his theatres. The word manager, and painter. He wrote plays, painted the “scenery” does not occur in his plays; nor does the word decorations and designed the costumes. Possessing the “scene” as meaning a painted curtain placed at the back of imagination of a “ visionaire” almost excessive in its inten- the stage to represent the place where the action occurs. He sity, he could by means of the stage effects play to an does use the word “scene” as meaning the location of the unusual degree on the feelings of the audience. action. His plays “Wesele,” “ Warsiawianke,” and “ The Night He did not trust for his success to “appropriate decoration in November ” (Noc Listopadowa) were magnificent from a for his plays,” but to the imagination of his audience. In stage-effect point of view. Also his productions such as the prologue to “King Henry the Fifth” he describes de- “Auhileis” ‘‘ Meleagr,” “ Leodeunia. ” The Act III. in finitely his method of presenting his plays:- “Bolestaw Smiaty” is simply the vision of a painter in which ((Suppose within the girdle of these walls the winds are represented by a display of colours by means Are now confined two mighty monarchies, of spontaneously changing lights. In the “Wyzwoleme,” Whose high-upreared and abutting fronts where the relation of the genius to average men is depicted, The perilous, narrow ocean parts asunder. the hero of the play is seen acting with masks. The masks Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts ; represent the kind of people who need them to hide their Into a thousand parts divide one man, nullity. And make imaginary puissance : Amongst modern writers beside Wyspianski mention ought Think when we talk of horses, that you see them to be made of Stanistaw Pnylynewski, and Mr. German Printing their proud hoofs i’ the receiving earth ; (author of “ Lilith”), one of a group of rising writers. For ’tis your thoughts that now must deck our Kings, Amongst the painters who have worked for the advance- Carry them here and there, jumping o’er times, ment of modern theatre in Poland, the name of Mr. Turning the accomplishment of many years Karol Frycz stands prominent. Into an hour-glass. ’’ 2. At the same time Shakespeare’s genius as a Stage- RUSSIA. Manager enabled him to feel the days that were before. He M. LEONBAKST, Decorator of the Russian Ballets. SO wrote his plays that while they were adapted to the I believe the time for the conventional producer to Elizabethan theatre without any scenery, they could be arrange the sunshine and shadow of the “scene” has passed produced in the theatre of the present time, with all its for ever. The peculiar form of “mental” intelligence which accessories of stage-setting‘. Were he now living and has dominated the theatre for so many years is about to be writing, I think he would use scenery, as by so doing he replaced by the plastic intelligence, and the tone of the could certainly intensify the dramatic effect. ensemble will be determined by the painter. The evolution I do not think he would present the plays “unabridged.” of the theatre is towards a plastic ideal, and the action of In his theatre a presentation took about two hours. (Cf. a piece, sometimes full of invention, is weak and ineffective prologues to “Romeo and Juliet,’’ “King Henry the Eighth.”) if it has not been conceived according to an artistic vision; The quartos of his plays were in many cases abridged, and just as an exaggerated “literary” picture repels a true acting copies of the original MSS., which were first pub- connoisseur. lished in full in Fol. I. This fact is revealed in the (‘Bank- So give place to the painter in the theatre-and a leading side Shakespeare,’’ in which the Quarto I and Fol. I texts place. It is the painter who should now (taking the position are printed on parallel pages. of the erudite director), create everything, know every- Were Shakespeare writing now he would, I believe adapt thing, foresee everything, and organise everything. It is the theatric representation of his plays, both as regards the painter who must be master of the situation, understand scenery and abridgment, to the conventions of the modern its finesse, and decide the style of thepiece It is to his theatre. plastic judgment and taste must be subordinated the 3. To a certain, possibly to a very great, extent, “the thousand details which compass the imposing ensemble of a beauty of Shakespeare resides in the spoken word,” and fine work of the theatre. consequently “the utmost attention should be given to the The time is almost ended for little and stupid decorators, delivery of Shakespearean verse. ” Shakespeare was the ignoring their artistic equipment, to submit to the ab- greatest master of English that ever put pen to paper. With surdities of the bad taste of the literary director. the exception of Shakespeare, Milton used more words than It is from a body of painters of the highest intelligence any writer of English, viz., about eight thousand. Shake- that we are going to recruit the directors of the work of the speare’s vocabulary amounted to sixteen thousand words. theatre, which evolves unceasingly, and which now takes a So, rich, indeed, was it, that it included innumerable new form. hapax legomena. Many words he coins and uses but once. The age of realism in the theatre is dead. Every person In his earlier plays, those written before his art had of intelligence becomes everyday more and more convinced reached maturity, there is occasional bombast, errors of of this. To me the play and its frame offer a continual diction, a lack of sureness in his selection and use of words. variation of a great picture united by style, found in the When his art had reached perfection his use of the lan- smallest of canvases. This absolute unity has been guided guage is almost faultless, inexhaustibly rich, and poetic. by plastic intelligence, so it is now more evident than ever His words are suggestive not only in what they denote, but that stage interpretation is before all, a plastic rather than also in what they connote. In his verse, therefore, resides a literary one Otherwise what is the use of the scene, much of the beauty of his dramas, and to its recital should in which the movements, decorations, costumes, and other be given the greatest care. accessories should all be intended to create a single impres- 4. The tendency now is “to overload Shakespeare with sion, but which contain a medley of effects having no rela- scenery.” The result of this is to divert the attention of tion to each other, and which itself has no relation to the an audience from the play itself to its stage-setting. theatre? As in a picture, the decorations cannot have The effect of “extensive cuts” in the plays depends on the other elements of form and tone than those which are critical judgment and sound artistic taste of the stage specially added by a single plastic intelligence which unites manager. Owing to the length of some of the plays it is everything in perfect harmony. necessary that they should be abridged. If that abridg- Let us bid farewell to the painter who submits blindly to ment is done properly, that would not detract from but, on carry out one part of the work only, and leaves, say, the the contrary, would conduce to the effectiveness of their costumes to a costumier who introduces a false note into the presentation. scene. Farewell to the unspontaneous movements, the false In conclusion, no matter how great are the plays, or tone, and that fearful over-elaboration, and exaggeration- how artistically they are presented, their final effect depends purely literary-of detail, the invention of the ‘(brainy” on the audience. director absolutely lacking artistic perception, and which Hippolyta was dissatisfied with the crude acting of the smother the modern scene with tit-bits of information, and Athenian Mechanicals. She said to Theseus :- banish the simplicity, dignity, and impressiveness of the “This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.” real work of art. He replied : “ The best in this kind are but shadows ; and AMERICA. the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them.” MR. W. H. FLEMING,New York. Hippolyta responded : [The following reply to the Symposium on the Representa- “It must be your imagination then, and not theirs.” tion of Shakespeare was received too late for inclusion --“ Midsummer Night’s Dream,” V. I., 208-211. in the last series of replies.] Such is Shakespeare’s comment on his own art. 1. Shakespeare had the sanest intellect of any man that Dip thou ever so deep in brook or river, thou canst but ever lived. In him both the imaginative and the practical fill thy pitcher. 251

rate begins to decline. As machinery advances the Unedited Opinions. population retires. That is only true in a modified sense. As a matter of The Economics of Population. fact, the population increases but at a slower rate. THATgreat service of child-bearing which wives render The same thing. And remember that the legitimate decline in population, which should be much more rapid the State, I have been thinking about it with some than it is, has been retarded by several causes. The amusing results. Do you know, I find it is often no sentiment of hysterical bachelors preaching the duty of service at all, but the very contrary, a great disservice. rearing large families is one cause. The screams of This applies not only to manifest drags and drains such our Colonies for cheap wage-slaves to save them the as idiots and invalids, but to thousands of apparently cost of machinery is another cause-breeding for the healthy children. The State, I am sure, could do with export market, let us call it. The general reduction in considerably less service of this kind than it is unfor- the standard of living of the poor is still another cause. A fourth is the necessity many women are under to tunately compelled to receive. Children are very often produce children or lose their sanity. Still a fifth is the a poor investment for society's money. deliberate under-employment and arrested development What language to use of the sacred offices of life! of machinery itself. So long as large numbers of people You will have all the novelists on your track, and all must be employed, and can be more cheaply employed the bishops and all the amateur parsons. Children a than the corresponding machinery, machinery is arrested bad investment for the State indeed ! in its development. Why, there are inventors alive at Well, it is no bad exercise in congenial company to this moment who could save the country the labour of millions of hands if only it were worth the country's discuss the production, distribution and exchange of while to keep the hands idle, or the production of more children exactly as if they were an admitted commodity. hands could be stayed. But let the cost of human hands From the statesman-economist's point of view they are go up, say, by the establishment of a high minimum a commodity, of course, and, as such, subject to the wage or by insisting that every child shall cost a same laws of supply and demand as any other com- thousand pounds in education before it is permitted to modity. Only it would never do to say so, would it? earn a penny, up will go the invention of machinery and down will go the birth-rate as surely as a market is a Iremember one phrase, however, that contains a hint market. of it-" Food for powder" ! It is just possible that By the way, I forgot to ask if you are serious. You wars and other degraded occupations were invented to are not meaning, I hope, that this prospect pleases you. keep the surplus population busy. The substitution of machinery for human beings strikes What do you suppose would happen then if such me as social retrogression. occupations were prohibited ? Yet, strangely enough, you would approve, I think, of That is precisely my problem-the effect on the manu- all the means that will infallibly bring it about. A high facture of children of a sudden cessation of demand. universal and compulsory minimum wage, for example? Wives, as wives, would obviously be thrown out of An educational curriculum for everybody to the age of twenty-one ? Restriction of wholesale emigration save work. There would be a slump in the marriage market. to countries civilised enough to establish the same con- Children being at a discount and a drug in the market, ditions of wages and education? Establish these and such persons as were married would begin restricting your increase of population is doomed! Yet who can their families. Women, driven from the marriage mar- be so inhuman as not to wish to establish them? ket, would be compelled to turn elsewhere for an occu- Certainly I do, but I am not prepared for the ultimate pation; they would clamour at all the doors of labour effect you foresee. crying to be let in. Only women who could not help Because you have not fully realised, first, what themselves, or who were specially gifted, would produce terrible lives society imposes upon the many unwanted, and how much human misery would be saved if they children at all. The former would become more and were never born; and, secondly, how splendid a society more despised, the latter more and more respected. might be every one of whose members was necessary to Why, you are describing the existing situation almost it. In production generally the substitution of quality exactly! Do you understand that it is the present and for quantity is the first mark of a high civilisation. It is not merely the future that you have sketched? so in the area of other commodities; and it will be so in Perfectly. But there is one difference; there has been the case of children. When, owing to the cessation of the causes I have named, the production of numbers of no sudden cessation of demand. The cessation is children ceases to be commercially profitable, produc- gradual. tion of quality may, if we are wise, be substituted. And You mean that wars have not suddenly ceased? the moment for our choice is close at hand, if it is not I mean more. Several causes have contributed to already slipping past us. the diminution of demand, of which the comparative Are you, then, among the Eugenists? cessation of war is only one. The decline of the death- God forbid! The Eugenists are, to my mind, only rate is another. But perhaps the invention and exten- one degree less absurd than the preachers of over- population-the bishops and their train. sion of machinery is the most powerful cause of all. Yet the Eugenists advocate the very course you pre- Machinery dispenses society from the necessity of a scribe as desirable, namely, production for quality. large population. True, but their means, my friend, their means ! Pre- But machinery can never take the place of the human occupation with the actual processes of child-production brain. is a mark of superficiality, if not of degeneracy, Not of the best brains, certainly, and of the soul wherever it appears. It matters not whether the object never. But what has economics to do with the soul? is to increase the quantity or better the quality of the For nine out of ten brains mechanical substitutes can population. Both objects, as ends in themselves, are worthless. The statesman-economist sets himself to the easily be found. Substitutes, nay, improved sub- creation of a high civilisation, the conditions of which stitutes! Lots of machines are singly equal in capacity are those measures I spoke of and which you approved to dozens of men. Why should inferior articles in the --high wages for everybody, prolonged education and form of human beings be produced at a vast expense the maintenance of these standards for his people in all when superior articles in the form of machines can be parts of the world. These conditions are within his easily produced to better their office? You will observe, reach and within his duty. They, in their turn, will in fact, that this reasoning has already been implicitly settle the population question for us. Any more direct adopted. With the extension of machinery the birth- approach is indecent. A PAIL OF SLOPS. 253

Also he came at certain seasons into their country to An Ethiopian Saga. take money from the Black People; and when they had not money cattle were taken, or sheep or goats, for By Richmond Haigh. the White People were strong and could do this thing. CHAPTER XIX. The name of this man, as he was known to Koloani When they saw that the song was finished the and the others, was “Seatlata,” which is to say “He Councillors praised Spalodi greatly, and Koloani the of the Heavy Hand.” Chief spoke kindly to him and thanked him. Now while Koloani the Chief was yet a stone’s throw But Jamba, the son of Bama, went over and sat from the house came Matauw to meet him, and with down beside Spalodi, for he had not heard such a him a White Man, and when they came together the thing before. And it was a wonder and a delight to White Man held out his hand to the Chief and greeted the young man, and he spoke to Spalodi; and after him, and said in his own tongue, “My father, Seatlata, that these two became great friends. greets thee, Chief, and asks that you rest under the wattle tree and he will come to thee quickly.” And now, being well rested, they came again to the And when Matauw had given this word to the Chief, road and continued their journey. Koloani said, “Give my greetings also to Seatlata, and From this place was a broad road which had been say I will await him as he has said.” made for the waggons and the carts of the White Then the young White Man went down with the People, and they travelled along this road, having now Chief, and when he had brought him to the wattle tree no fear. About the turn of the day they came to a he went back again to the house. place where they knew was water ; but the water And Matauw spoke to Koloani and said, “The men could not be seen because it ran through the sand, and who came with me have spoken with those who herd the heat of the sun made it appear as dry sand only. the cattle and the horses, Chief, and they say these And when they had found a shady place to rest, one White Men are greatly troubled because they are of the men went down and dug a hole in the sand with beaten in fight with those who have come against them his hands. from over the water. And now certain leaders of them And another went into a corn land near by and found are met together here to consider what they shall do.’’ an old gourd, which he scraped out with a stone. And And Koloani the Chief was sad at this word, and he he rubbed the gourd with sand and washed it. And said, “Have I, then, brought my complaint to a sick when the water had become clean in the hole, they doctor ? ” brought water in the gourd to the Chief and to the Then one came from a kraal carrying a sheep on his Councillors, and all the men went down to the hole shoulders, and when he stood before them he put the and drank. sheep down and said, “My Master sends this sheep Koloani and those with him slept at this place, for to the Chief for meat.” And Koloani said, “Give the day was hot and they had travelled far. And near my thanks to thy Master.” the closing of the day they set forth again. And corn meal was also brought, and an iron pot When they had gone some way they left the big road which stood on three legs. and moved again on a path which led steeply out from ‘Then one of the men took the sheep away and killed the valley. It was over the top of the hill at this part, it and prepared it. And a fire was made, and the men and not at a great distance, where the White People got bowls from the house and water was brought. And would be found. when water had been put into the iron pot and boiled And near the setting of the moon they came to a over the fire, the corn meal was poured in and cooked, spring with clear water, and Koloani the Chief said, and it was stirred with a stick until the meal was thick “We will sleep here, my Brothers, that we may come and could be broken with the fingers. And the meat refreshed and with clear eyes before the White People was also brought and cooked over another fire which in the morning.” So they prepared their places and the men had made. slept there that night. And when all had eaten there was not any of the In the morning, before the rising of the sun, Koloani meat left, for they had had little food for two days, the Chief spoke to Matauw. “ Matauw, my friend, take and were hungry. now two of the mien with thee and go before us to the camp of the White Men. And when thou hast CHAPTER XXI. found one in authority, make known that I, Koloani, In a little while, when they had finished eating, came am coming and will quickly be at the camp to speak three men towards them from the house, and one of with them on matters which concern them and me. them was an old man with a grey beard which fell to When the sun has risen we will follow after thee.” the span of a hand below his chin. And, he was of Matauw struck his hands together and said, “I have greater height than Matauw, and broader; yet Matauw heard, Chief. ” was a very big man. He walked upright and straight; Then Matauw went to the men and called two of and when he came nearer it was seen that the colour them, and they took up their blankets and went off. of his face was pink, as are the faces of the Young amongst the White People, so that he appeared to be CHAPTER XX. a young man with a grey beard. His eyes also were When the sun had risen a little way, Koloani the strong and of the colour of the sky. Chief and Spalodi and Jamba and the men came again This man was “He of the Heavy Hand,” Seatlata, to the big road. And before the sun was hot they came and his fame was great in the land. to a rise from which they saw the place of the White Now the White Men came up, and Seatlata stepped Men not far from them. before the others and came to the Chief Koloani. And And first they saw a large white house built after Koloani and all those with him stood up. And Seatlata the fashion of the White People, so that many could shook the hand of Koloani the Chief. live together in it. Not far from the house were And Spalodi and Matauw and Jamba, the son of kraals, built of loose stones, for cattle and sheep, and Bama, and the other men with them struck their hands there was also a place of many trees, which were all together and gave greeting to Seatlata and the White trees of fruit which was good to eat. Men, saying “Chief ! Great Chief ! ” And Koloani and those saw waggons and carts close Then spake Seatlata the White Man to Koloani the to the house which were outspanned, and many Oxen Chief, and said, “I am wondering to see you here, and horses were feeding a little way off. And as they Koloani, at this time, and that you did not send me came nearer they saw that many men were at the early word that you were coming. Come now to the house and about the place. house, and we will talk in a place there.” Now he who lived at the house was the me And when Matauw had given this word to the Chief appointed by the White People to deal with the tribes they went down to the house. in that part; to hear the complaints of Chiefs and to Seatlata walked first, and after him walked Koloani decide between them. the Chief, and then came the two White Men, and after 254 them came Spalodi and Matauw and the young man “And so have I come to thee, Seatlata, my Father. Jamba. And now I pray thee let some of thy people come When Seatlata had brought them to a part of the quickly together and return with me, that we come house they all went in, and the door was closed after upon Kundu before he works greater evil amongst the them. people, and also that he be brought to punishment for Then Seatlata sat down in a chair by a table on which that which he has done. Hear me, Chief! ” were many papers, and the two White Men sat also at the table, one at each end. And a chair was placed for the Chief Koloani, but CHAPTER XXII. Spalodi and the others sat on the floor, near the Chief, Now while Koloani the Chief was speaking these with their legs crossed before them. words, Seatlata the White Man had shown great wrath And when all were seated Seatlata spoke and said, upon his face, and his hand had pulled strongly upon “I am ready, Chief, to hear the reason of thy coming, his beard. And when the Chief had said all, Seatlata for Matauw has already told me that the matter is of stood up and his chair fell back, and he strode quickly great importance. Speak now.” back and forth. Then spake Koloani the Chief, and said “Hear me, Then came he again to the table and spoke to Seatlata. My words will not be many. Thou art here Koloani, and said “Chief, I have heard thy words. as the Ears and the Eyes and the Tongue of the White Go now again and sit under the wattle tree, for I will People which rule this land, to whom we must listen. hold Council upon this thing at once. I will send again We are thy children.” to thee in a little while.” “A father having two sons who cannot live together And Koloani the Chief and those with him came in peace will separate them, and say to this one Dwell ‘ again and sat under the tree. in this place,’ and to that one ‘ Dwell in that place, and come ye not again together to make trouble. And he And the sun rose and came overhead, and the day who hears not my word, but goes to his brother’s place turned, yet came none from the house to call the Chief to make trouble there, shall be driven out from this again. land and allowed no more to return.’ But White Men came from the carts and from the “Now if these sons listen to their father to obey waggons and went into the house, back and forth; him, each will go to his own place and live in peace, and it was seen that Council was being held, for some taking no heed of what his brother is doing. But if came out holding argument, and there was shaking of one of; them hath blackness in his heart he will wait the head and waving of the hands, as of men who till the father goes upon a journey, then will he come speak heatedly. suddenly upon his brother and destroy him, because And now, when it was past the noon, came one from the brother placed faith in the words which had been the house again to call the Chief Koloani, and Matauw spoken, and was not prepared for such a thing.” and the other two went into the house with the Chief. And Koloani said, “Even so, my Father, has it And when they were brought into the place again happened to me. My spears had rusted, and the there were other White Men who sat about the table, children had taken them for playthings. My people but Seatlata sat in his chair between them. went and came with clean faces, and built their huts And Seatlata the White Man, who ruled over all that upon open ground. We stood no men upon the hills, part, said, “Koloani, Chief ! We have held Council neither sent spies to bring a word of what other Chiefs and spoken over that which you have told us abut were doing. Kundu and the slaying of your people. Kundu has seem “For we had heard thy word, Seatlata! The word that we are fighting against an enemy in the land and of the White People who rule in the land and who had that lour hands are very full with this matter, and so spoken, even as a father to his sons, between Kundu he has dared to laugh in our faces. He shall surely die and me. for this thing. “But Kundu was born with a black heart ! Four “But at this time, Koloani, can no White Men go nights ago he sent murderers and slayers to Moali, in with thee against Kundu. You must even be content my village. to wait until we have swept our own enemy out of the “In the middle of the night they came with spears in land. It will not be many days before we have done their hands, and without noise. And they entered into this, but now we have not a man we can spare to go the village and slew all those who were great in the with you to Moali.” village and leaders and councillors of the people. In And when Koloani the Chief would have begged for their sleep the Great Ones were slain. twenty White Men, or ten, Seatlata said, “Nay, “Manok, Long of Tooth and Wise. He was a Chief, we have spoken much over this matter, and friend of thine, Seatlata. He and his house. would fain grant thy wish and send in and destroy “ Bama the Warrior, whom thou hast praised because Kundu, with all those who have counselled him evilly. of his straight tongue and open face; he and his sons, But there are even greater matters before us, and we save only Jamba, who is here. must deal with Kundu later. “ Mankopani, greybearded and wise in, our law, with “As for thyself, Koloani, it is as thou wilt. Either whom thou hast spoken much; he and all his sons.” can you stay here and I will find a place for you and And Koloani the Chief spoke the names of all those your people, or if you would to any other place Great Ones who had been killed, for they had all been go I will not hinder you. ” known to the White Man Seatlata. And Koloani said, “And yet I live to bring this word, And when they had spoken a little more, and Koloani Seatlata, for my Fathers had sent me to visit Chuaani saw that he could not move the White Man from that the Hairy One, who is my uncle. And I had taken which he had said, the Chief went out again, and those with me only Jamba, a son of Bama the Warrior, to with him, and they came to the wattle tree and sat the village Tlapakun. down. And they were all sore at heart. “When the word of evil was brought to me I made Now the day was closing and one came from the haste to return to Moali, but those met me on the way house and said Seatlata had sent him to show the Chief who said that Kundu with a great force had come a place in which he might sleep that night. But Koloani and with cunning had entered into the village, saying said : “Nay ! we will sleep under this tree to-night.” to the peopIe that I was dead. And he went away again to the house. “Then I returned to Chuaani, my uncle, and my And Matauw and Spalodi and the young man Jamha people would have gone forth at once to fight with sat before the Chief, and Koloani spake and said, “My Kundu, but I would not, for I said, ‘ Those White Brothers! Ye have heard the word of the White Man People who rule the land have but to come and stand which he has spoken to us. It must be with them before MoaIi, and Kundu will crawl upon his belly to even as we have heard, that they are sorely pressed them. Why, then, should the people fight and slay by their enemy and have great fear for themselves. each other? ’ “The crippled wolf has come to the sick lion for 255

‘help! Let us now speak together on our affairs and bookstalI. But Charles Péguy, being voluminous, has see that which is best to be done.” already arrived at the distinction of a volume of And they spoke together earnestly, and considered “ Selected Works ”--“Oeuvres Choisies, 1900-1910 ” many things, and when the moon had set, Koloani the (Bernard Grasset, 3f. 50c.). Charles Péguy is a critic, Chief took his blanket and said, “We will speak again in the morning and say what we will do, for sleep is and he is a critic of everything-the arts, politics, the best bath for the eyes.” And the others took social life. He is equally good on art, war, science, their blankets also and laid them down. metaphysics. He can paint a portrait as well as dis- (To be continued.! CUBS the philosophy of the King of Spain’s visit to Paris. His portrait of Clemenceau, for example, is very striking. This book makes grand miscellaneous reading. It is a bed book and should be used as such, Books and Persons. and not read straight through from end to end. (AN OCCASIONAL CAUSERIE.) *** By Jacob Tonson. Volumes of essays, on account of their extreme rarity, must be respectfully, and even deferentially, THEfirst publication of the publishing house founded by treated. I feel this, though I cannot rationally defend “La Nouvelle Revue Francaise” has just reached me : it. My attitude towards Mrs. (or Miss) Rosalind “L’Otage,’’ a play in three acts, by Paul Claudel. Denis-Browne’s “A Bird in the Hand ” (Methuen, Paul Claudel furnishes one of those cases, not uncom- 2s. 6d. net) was polite to begin with, and after I had, mon in France, but rare in England, of an author against my inclination, read one essay my attitude achieving a real and distinguished reputation at the became considerate, and after I had read it several hands of an extremely small number of people. The times it became positively cordial. Mrs. Denis-Browne ordinary French reader has never heard of Paul Claudel, courageousIy chooses again all the old subjects : “On and yet the enthusiasm of his admirers has got his Falling in Love,” “Geniuses,” “ Shop Windows,” name into the histories of contemporary literature! I “The Pursuit of Happiness,’’ ‘‘In Defence of the Age,” etc., etc., etc. She is very sagacious and salty about remember that when I went to live in Paris for a time, falling in love. This is true : “ In one way, falling in love early in 1903, Claudel’s two little books of essays and is very much like influenza-the more you do it, the descriptions “ L’Arbre’’ and “Connaissance de l’Est,” more likely you are to do it again, for repeated attacks were regarded in certain circles as the nec plus ultra of render you more susceptible to both complaints.” style. And to-day there are perhaps a couple of hun- Also this : ‘‘The love that sees the object of its affec- dred people in Paris for whom the appearance of tion as it really is and not as it would like it to be . . . is the most lasting of all; but this can never be “L’Otage ” is an event of the highest artistic import- felt in extreme youth.” Mrs. Denis-Browne is divert- ance. The piece is noble in theme and conception. ing about widows and geniuses. If the book had con- Laid at the end of the Napoleonic era, it employs the tained only these three essays, I should have said that vast politics of the time to produce a dramatic conflict its author had possibilities, and I should have shut between the forces of love, religion and patriotism in my eyes to her misquotations and her constant use of the heart of a fine girl. The treatment is austere. clichés. Quite half the book, however, is feeble, and Every theatrical artifice (save that of a tempest) is dis- the clichés grow distressing. Here is a list of clichés dained. The characterisation is clear. Fierce irony is taken from one average page-and the page is very short; this paragraph, for example, would fill two pages not absent. The writing is beautiful. In some scenes, of the book :- notably at the culmination of the long scene between The fact that the farmers will benefit is cold comfort. the heroine and the priest, the emotion becomes acute, A sealed book to the optimist. and the lyrical quality of the dialogue is remarkable. One little word of love. To make it a point of honour. And yet on the whole I have not been greatly impressed Everything has a bright side. by “L’Otage.” It seems to me to contain every virtue Every cloud has a silver lining. except the virtue of spontaneity. It seems trop voulu ; The optimist hastens to remind you. and assuredly it is not quite free from the fault of pre- Ugly and sordid surroundings. Mrs. Denis-Browne thinks in ready-made phrases ciosity. It is as if the author, in sitting down to write, instead of in separate words. She ought to read had said to himself : “NOWI am going to produce a Schopenhauer on literary style. Her vice may be work of high art, and I doubt whether anybody on earth curable; it probably is curable, for now and then she understands as I do what high art is, or can appre- really has something to say. When one has really ciate the intensity with which I scorn the misunder- something to say, one does not use clichés; one cannot. standing mind.” I have not been able to share to the *** full my friends’ admiration for Paul Claudel. That he Who could find fault with the tone of Mr. J. M. has a very individual gift, and a profound comprehen- Kennedy’s urbane and magnanimous article on Mr. sion of the significance of art, is certain. But I think H. G. Wells’s “manifesto ” last week? Not I ! But it is equally sure that he has not the full creative gift. I shall venture to add to the sum of Mr. Kennedy’s If he had possessed the full creative gift, that gift would knowledge. Mr. Wells did not originally publish the He published it voce have forced him to produce a great deal more than he manifesto in “Le Temps.” viva to a crowded audience at the Times Book Club some produced. It would have cured him of finickingness. weeks ago, and a report of his lecture was given in First-class creative artists are never finicking. The stuff these columns at the time. “Le Temps ” merely tumbles sut of them, pell-mell. The next generation bought a translation of the original lecture. The little will discover about Paul Claudel, as Paul Claudel’s ad- biography appended to the translation was neither mirers have discovered about Flaubert, that his more furnished by Mr. Wells nor revised by him. This I ambitious works have the quality of a pastiche, and are know from inquiries made in Paris. Mr. Wells, by the way, has decided, in spite of Susan Ferrier, to calf dull accordingly. This is a hard saying. his new novel simply ”Marriage.” As it is to run *** serially in an American magazine, the book publication Another esoteric reputation is that of Charles Péguy, has been postponed till the autumn of 1912. In the meantime, Messrs. Nelson are issuing in their two-shil- one of the chief contributors to the famous “Cahiers ling series a volume of Mr. Wells’s short stories, and de la Quinzaine,” a periodical of which every literary Mr. Palmer is issuing a little book of his on the body constantly talks, but which you never see on any nursery. 256

and long before they came into sight the new-so new REVIEWS. -standard somehow appeared to be only a very old The English Review (for July). and grimy one. And everybody who was not himself PROBABLYthe ridiculous and the sublime never met sick and feverish or palsied ran out to meet the real nearer than when the sick soldier lagged so far behind artists. And the sick usurpers, hysterically screaming that he lost sight of the army altogether, and, believ- “ Health !” waved in vain. Some of them still wave, ing himself to be leading, struggled back to the still scream, and the very large and very empty camp deserted camp to fetch the rest. This story is some- they occupy affords a monstrous echo, so that one what apposite. In these days, when psychologists might suppose many adherents answered them. But are beginning to realise that half the world remains in fact only the wild asses of the desert and one or subconscious during its whole existence, and the other two adolescent humans who will soon, let us suppose, half, with few exceptions, is but rarely wide awake, come of age, remain. All the rest are off to follow it does not do to accuse persons whose sayings and the soldiers whose news is of a fair way to the Promised actions appear to be deliberately perverse, of either Land. deliberation or motive. Even though some of these But we have somehow escaped the obligations of our declaim so loudly and so often the horrid fellness of title heading ! The “ English Review” has recently their intentions, we must not too easily believe them been adversely criticised, and we have heard its devotees quite responsible. Even though others whom we see compare its advertised freedom of speech with the smitten with the elemental ills of blindness and vanity actual outspokenness of THENEW AGE, which austere vociferate never so tediously their ability to show us critics do not condemn. There is a reason. the way, we should remember their legion of diseases. THENEW AGE has always satirised the recruiting They are blind, they are off the track, they are behind, sergeants of sex. Does the “ English Review ” ? they are very lonely, and they call the desert to arms. To deny them sincerity, still more to accuse them of The Tragedy of Nan. By John Masefield. (Grant wilful imposture, is to endow them with a naughty Richards. 1s. 6d. net.) power which they do not possess. “ A carelessness of life and beauty marks the glutton, During the last twenty years there has occurred in the idler, and the fool in their deathy path across literature a sort of insurrection of the sick. The soldiers history.” A curious distinction as made by the author of art were out on expedition, but in the camps lay, of this forced, unbeautiful play. Whether to deal with raving or melancholy, the unfit. Their attempt to set Mr. Masefield as one of the mortifying phenomena up a new standard was momentarily assured of success, that corrupt the English drama, or as a negligible and round about the emblem of their hectic ideals they literary invalid, troubles indeed our lifey path; for fussed and staggered and fluttered with feverish energy Mr. Masefield appears to have some influence in and morbid conviction of their perfect health and dramatic circles. He can get his plays represented strength. Health, indeed, not unnaturally according to often more than once. “The Tragedy of Nan” has the diagnosis of certain specialists in such matters,- been acted before some thousands of people, some of Health! was their catchword. We were, above all, whom must have become inoculated with the sensuality, to be healthy in the way that they themselves were the criminality, and the low, morbid, emotional greed healthy. Health was proved, for instance, if one that the author styles “ exultation,” and which is showed no shame about some actions of which even plastered throughout this play upon the figure called the doers, par excellence, had hitherto found it no credit Nan. His public is invited to see a set of figures, all to boast. Health was proved, in fact, if one went to of which, practically without exception, might be the animals-the healthy, natural animals--for instruc- labelled by one or other of the common forms of lunacy. tion. We were all to be very ‘‘natural ” indeed. So, That Mr. Masefield can find a public willing to pay of course, as animals find their highest bliss in the for so degrading an exhibition seems to entitle him to sex relation, we too, albeit we possessed an intelligence be criticised as one of the numerous worms at the heart of admittedly a more rational order, we were even to of the drama. suspect ourselves if we felt inclined to regard the sexual Palacio Valdes, the so much more admirable joys as hardly significant of humanistic maturity, critic than creator, once wrote regarding modern though not shameful to adolescents and the newly “art” a dictum which deserves to be widely married. and repeatedly published: “It seems to me like Some temporary success was secured, as we have an acute attack of nerves, the artists sometimes said. Women flocked to the new banner, youths and like madmen, sometimes like charlatans, who hide their maidens languished openly, or openly pursued the object want of power under monstrous affectations, and of their animal health in a manner not seen before in cleverly profit by the general perversion of taste, whilst England. When one of the most prominent leaders set the public, depraved by them, is without a criterion up for worship a certain mythical female, “Ann White- to distinguish between the beautiful and the whole- field,” soon no suburb of any English city but could some, the ugly and the absurd.” Further, he forecasts boast some Miss or Mrs. practising premonitory the verdict of posterity : “Our spurts of strength will writhings in imitation of the bold, pouncing man- be regarded as the spasmodic ebullitions of a weakened grabber, Ann. Such was the cult of health in- sex nervous system. . . . They will say that we delighted matters that the immemorial sex problem very nearly in representations of physical and mora! deformity disappeared. The courtesans fumed in deserted parlours; because we ourselves were infirm in body and mind, sex was no longer paid for. We hailed the new and that we felt ourselves attracted by the deformed and free dispensation. Unceasingly the novelists, the monstrous because our evolution was deformed, and dramatists, the poets bepraised this freedom. We that we loved paradoxy because our being was para- positively beheld the millennium. doxical; and quitting the tortuous paths we tread, and Alas! for our delusion. Too soon the more sober leaving the altars of the furies to whom we sacrificed, amongst us realised that those who led were blind and artists of the near future will walk the path of modera- sick, themselves in need of a guide and a physician. tion which is the sign of strength, and will lay the All the signs of ultimate failure became evident in their fruits of their intellects at the feet of the Graces.” work. Dramatists, poets, novelists, painters and Nearer, perhaps, than he dreamed is that future. musicians, all ineffectual ! We began to notice now The tide has begun to turn in favour of the beautiful, their differences not only from the healthy, natural, the wholesome, and the humorous Almost unnoticed unashamed animals, but from the healthy and natural at present, works of true art appear here and there. artists of all climes and ages. Clearly, we concluded, The devotees of Pan begin to feel the arrows of Apollo. the way to power and glory was not the sexual way, Things like Mr. Masefield’s squalid exercise excite a since the chief apostles of animal health were forced shrug from good readers, an anathema from reviewers to conceal their human ineradicable sense of modesty who value their time. In the preface to “Nan ” Mr. behind the tags and bobtails of merely imitative art. Masefield lays open his literary soul. It is unwholesome, And then the soldiers of art blew a distant trumpet, a cruel, a frankly masochistic soul. He aspires to a 257

one’s final impression is of farce, perhaps after all monstrous share in “that power of exultation which we have over-estimated the damage possible to be done comes from a delighted brooding over excessive, ter- through Mr. Masefield’s sickly rampage over the rible things.’’ This language is frightful-fit for hell, dramatic field. not earth. To find the writer of that, parroting the name of the Soul, is to come upon blasphemy. Mr. Masefield professes to have been told a story upon which he bases his play. One need be at small Recent Music. pains to guess how much of the present version is true. By Herbert Hughes. The rest is plainly concocted by a morbid mind. An innocent man is hanged-injustice not uncommon. So ‘‘Veni, Vidi--” much is not improbable. But Mr. Masefield must have THEdeath, a few years ago, of Edward MacDowelI more complicated delight to brood over; so the hanged left the world of music very little the poorer. Amongst man’s daughter, Nan, kills her false lover to prevent American musicians he was the most distinguished him making other women unhappy. The hackneyed because he was a Scotchman. And if you were trick of the discovered letter opens the first act. When disposed to praise or define MacDowell’s music you the writer’s own invention is to be relied upon, the would not say it is American or Scottish, but that it plot soon becomes silly. Nan’s friendly uncle has a is Griegish. Grieg was the most distinguished favourite beer-mug. He is falsely told that Nan broke musician Scotland ever produced, and he was dis- it. Instead of asking her about the affair, instead of tinguished because he was a Norwegian. And in saying outright, “You broke my Toby mug,” he is- praising or defining Grieg’s music you would not say oh ! soskilfully-forbidden anything so simple. Above it is Scottish or MacDowellish; you would say it is all, he must avoid mentioning the mug, for if Nan Scandinavian. We have here the cases of two Scotch- had understood his preposterous “stare at her all men, denationalised; one imitating (I use the word in through this act,” she might not have lost her only its most respectful sense) the music of the country of his friend; she might, indeed, not have been driven to nativity and education, and the other imitating the man murder. The figure, as we have said, presents from who imitated the music of the country of his-etc.-a the beginning the signs of lunacy-homicidal mania. sort of house that Jack built. American music is like Nan draws a knife as readily upon her irritating aunt the house that Jack built. We have known this for as upon her false lover. Through almost unmention- years. All the world know it, except the United able dirt the miserable climax of homicide is reached. States of America. We have observed the rise of a How any audience, however limited and selected, can great school in France; we have observed the decadence sit through the scene where Nan forces her cousin of a great school in Germany; we have observed the to swallow rotten meat is scarcely to be understood, music of Russia coming to a climax in Rimsky- and better not examined here. The case is one for Korsakov hesitate and tremble and do nothing; we physicians. Trying to learn her cousin’s secrets, Nan have watched the wine-cups of Italy overflow, and her betrays her own. She loves rich Dick Gurvil, whom musicians grow bilious with their own melodies; we Jenny wishes to marry. This Dick is a gay village have been sad at the continued silence of Spain; we spark, with an erotic vocabulary and no truth in him. have alternately scoffed and enthused at the renascence Nan’s eye has already claimed him. He introduces in England. But we have never-have we?-had two himself with a heartfelt wish to see all criminals opinions about America. Indeed, we are morally ’anged, and a few minutes later the tender, the filial capable of but one opinion on the subject, and America Nan, whose own father was hanged, has taken her has the other. hair down to let Mr. Dick nuzzle in it. Having thus *** brought him to a state of exultation, she gloomily The latest test of our regard for the creative art of declares that she cannot marry him. But the revelation the North American Continent was made at the of her father’s death must, of course, not come here. Queen’s Hall a few days ago. With the assistance That would be too simple. In front of a crowd the of Mr. Daniel Mayer, agent, Mr. Henry Hadley tale must be disclosed. It is; and Dick decides to challenged the public opinion of this country as far marry Jenny. An extraordinary old clown, such as as it is represented and misrepresented by a handful never was or may be, a kind of philosophical, rhapso- of London newspapers. It is no joke engaging the distical old clown talks about zweet dowers and gold London Symphony Orchestra of eighty to a hundred riders and the drying of bride’s tears and the competent musicians, hiring the Queen’s Hall, putting wammering tide, and conveys, we conjecture, Mr. big advertisements in the front page of the “Daily Masefield’s notion of beauty. He has loosely strung Telegraph ” and other expensive papers, and paying together the whole caboodle of decorative images, the usual fees to everybody concerned. However, by supplied so freely to peasants by the Irish school of hook or by crook the noble hall was practically filled. dramatists. Nan and Gaffer groan in strophe and I should like to know how many hundreds of tickets antistrophe about the tide, attributing to water the were given away by Mr. Daniel Mayer (on behalf of affections of human beings, and making between them Mr. Henry Hadley), for presumably we were not all a very fair exhibition of Mr. Masefield’s genius in personal friends. Indeed, it is unlikely that one haut exultation. Enter Jenny for the putrid meat person in each hundred of the audience had ever heard scene. This scene is otiose, and need not be men- Mr. Hadley’s name before, or, having heard it, knew tioned except that here, for the second time within an whether it was the name of an obscure millionaire or hour, Nan threatens to “kill” some person. Arrive an impresario. Anyway, he came, he made his bow, Government officials bringing money to Nan and the he made a god deal of noise and he-I suppose he declaration of her father’s innocence : the gold riders ! has gone by this time. Dick now, not unnaturally for a conventional young *** villager, offers to marry Nan, whom he always pre- ferred. Nan’s galloping lunacy finds a purchase in First of all we had an immense Symphony entitled Gaffer’s senile imbecility. He babbles. She orders “North, South, East and West.’’ These, we were Dick to give the money to Jenny. Dick dares to informed in our youth, are the points of the compass; hesitate about such a piece of sentimentality, and the but we were not informed at the Queen’s Hall exactly figure of Nan, ecstatically Masefeddian, at its proper what relationship the points of the compass bear to pitch of exultation, raging of tramplings and spittings, Mr. Hadley’s symphony. It may be that Mr. Hadley, stabs Dick with the pastry knife and goes out to whose musical receptivity suggests a sort of Marconi commit suicide by drowning in the tide. The irritating instrument, has given his magnum opus this title as aunt purloins the money, and Gaffer, curiously an act of conscience. We had nearly everybody in acquiring an aspirate under stress of his exultation, it except Brahms-Wagner, Tchaikovski, Strauss, cries, “The horn ! The horn ! ” A coach-a coach Elgar, Sousa, and so on. The first movement was that has no relation to anything-blows its horn. But, strenuous nonsense; the second (a formal “slow ” of course, the gold rider blew a horn; so doubtless movement) had a little more colour and interest than the coach is sent past to fit it all in. And since thus the first when its dreary tempo quickened; the third 258

consisted of vivacious but vulgar little tunes skilfully We can, however, forgive Mr. Young’s insistence on and vulgarly treated--I mean they were quite good one or two of the eternal verities for some pretty writ- in their way, and rather reminded one of jolly evenings ing. The “Music of the Salon” is a charming essay, at the Bedford with imitation sandboys dancing “two- egoistical in the modern manner, and containing many steps” on the little stage and an orchestra playing well-turned phrases. His reflections upon Catholic and anyhow. The fourth movement commenced with a Protestant music in “ The Two Westminsters ” are phrase intended to be heroic; this petered out, like sensible, and so are his remarks upon the revolutionary most Americanisms, in mere vapourings which work of Claude Debussy. The whole book, in fact, is eventually led the composer into a slough of sentiment, a model of good, plain English common sense. There where, bursting once or twice into rhetoric, he stuck are no opinions in it that could offend the most con- to the end. servative lady in the land. The next composition was “The Culprit Fay,” a “tone poem ” suggested by an American ballad. The gauche title is a fair indication of the quality of the Asiatic Labour. music. We had a good deal of Debussy this time, but it is at least satisfactory to observe that the frag- An Open Letter to Mr. Keir Hardie, M.P. mentary motifs of Debussy never come so near to the quick-lunch manner as those created by the fertile SIR,--It so happened that a letter from Vancouver, brain of Mr. Henry Hadley. Indeed, it was most B.C., in the “Spectator,” headed “The Problem of expeditious music, taking it all round, and as sugges- the Pacific,” reached India at the same time as a tive of the supernatural as a tin can is suggestive Reuter’s telegram informing us that at Kilmarnock of William Blake. . . . The final item on the pro- you had attempted to chastise Mr. Fisher for attend- gramme was another “tone poem”-on the subject of ing to Australian Defence matters. As probably the Salome. This was performed at the Promenades here comparative virtues of the middle classes conveyed by a year or two ago. I was afraid to hear it again, Mr. St. Loe Strachey would tend to weary you, it is for first impressions are sometimes very dear. possible that the “ Spectator ” may not appear before Mr. John Powell played the E flat Concerto of Liszt you regularly, but I would ask your kind attention to at this American concert. He is improving rapidly. this particular letter in its issue of April 29; it deals He is a sensitive young pianist, but he should study briefly and very clearly with the most important ques- his Beethoven a little further. Liszt is not all theatrical tion of future politics, viz., the clash between Western brilliance and sentiment and tempo rubato, any more and Eastern labour. than Beethoven is all crescendo and diminuendo. A The reason why I ask your kind attention to this little more Beethoven will teach Mr. Powell a little problem is that it commends itself especially to your more Liszt, charge as a warm friend of both parties. Partly on *** account of your efforts, British labour has often been able to establish itself on a better footing, and more “More Mastersingers.” (Grant Richards. 5s.) especially so in our self-governing Colonies, where, There is a good deal of commonsense in Mr. Filson with less competition and sometimes more congenial Young’s new book. It contains a number of essays climate, it has been able to improve the scale of living which appeared originally in various journals and and the rate of pay, and also to reduce the hours of reviews. Some of these, regarded from the point of working. All this being in accordance with your view of literature, are negligible enough, suitable, teaching must cause you the most lively gratification, perhaps, for University Extension lectures, and con- the only drawback to this pleasant state of things taining nothing that everybody has not said heaps of being the close proximity of the Asiatic-also a friend times before. In fact, about half of the book is actually of yours, and whom you are also educating to demand a reprint of lectures, and Mr. Young has apparently more--who is willing to work much longer and harder been unable to leave out of it such a startling observa- for one-third of the pay, and also at the same time to tion as this : “As for his inspiration, that must come breed faster. The white labourer, with an established directly from within himself if his music is to make any higher scale of living, etc., must necessarily view this mark, if it is to have any real life or any place in the competition with anxiety. world of true art ”--or this : “There are other ways, As you know, Sir, some few centuries ago wars were however, in which we may cultivate our gifts and waged at the instigation of either royal or religious faculties-by study, exercise, and practice. When we factions-the quarrels or desires for conquest of find a natural musical gift we try thus to cultivate it, Kings, Princes, Princesses, Popes, Cardinals, etc. ; with the result that some voices . . . “ and so on. later the Napoleonic wars were fought on trade routes; But the author’s attitude is quite safe; he is well in- more recently the financier has taken the chief hand formed, and when his thoughts are not too utterly in these, as in other matters. Quite lately it has obvious they are pleasant to read. . . . It is becoming been shown to us that huge financial concessions in very much the fashion for authors to write their Korea were an important factor in forcing the Russo- reminiscences early in life and to set. absout issuing Japanese War. Our last war was to settle whether collected editions ; the younger the author the more one band of plutocrats (Boer) at Pretoria or another passionately he devotes himself tu retrospect. It is a cosmopolitan crowd (with an English label) at Johan- delightful pose. I know at least six young writers nesburg should control the affairs of South Africa. under thirty, each of whom has recorded in still un- Whether for Prince, Pope, or Plutocrat, the masses published manuscript incidents in the history of his have always been anxious to kill one another, although emotional life. It is quite good fun. Mr. Filson Young the real cause has generally been carefully covered up is interesting in his “Memories of a Cathedral ”; it is by flag-wagging and other side issues; but if in the picturesque, humorous and sentimental, without being past the people were really anxious to fight for the ridiculous. But the momentum of his enthusiasm for doubtful claims of a Princess, or, as quite recently, a certain famous organist whom he knew and loved to slaughter one another in the interests of a Wernher, makes him write a lot of nonsense on page 40 and how much more anxious will Democracy be to fight platitude on page 41. “Absolute precision and firmness for bread and butter and the comfort you have educated in putting down the notes of a chord,” the “true value it to demand. And soon, with the more rapidly of dotted notes,” “phrasing,” and the “sense of time expanding East, it will be a fight for room to live and and rhythm ” are taught in every decent musical insti- food to eat-the simplest fight of Nature. tution, and are as well taught now as ever they were. Now Labour in Australia has only one way of look- In this book, indeed, Mr. Filson Young wastes a good ing at the Asiatic, from a Malay coolie to your Bengali deal of space and his readers’ time in discovering the friends in Calcutta-namely, as sanguinary niggers. essentials of musical art. “The secret, of conducting This may be coarse and ignorant, but you must is domination. . . . But we must bear in mind that remember that all of us, including yourself, are natu- the domination thus exercised must also be founded rally severe on cheap, under-cutting labour. Can the on absolute technical equipment.” We must. Australian look upon his Asiatic neighbours in any 259 other light? Some of the resolutions passed in recent the nastiest of them to death with a nice little bucket of years by Labour in Australia (and also, for that matter, boiling water. in Canada and South Africa) with regard to the I have referred to Mr. Chesterton as a true Socialist, and sincerely hope it is so, for united we should be determined Asiatic could not show more studied insolence in the opponents of the editor’s policy, or tactics, rather, and he implied inferiority of its opponents than if taken from would also I hope endorse my contradiction of Mr. Ken- the despatches of kings, etc., in the Middle Ages. In nedy’s statement that there are very few Socialists in Eng- recent years, however, the Australian has woke up to land. It is a lie direct as it stands, and a lie with a sinister discover that this contempt would really only be purpose, but if there is any quarrel with me I hope it will possible at the finish if the British flag and the not be over the word, which latterly in practical politics has British Navy were behind him. Now Labour in been a vote-splitting nuisance too often, and I shall be quite willing to drop it when it seems to have served its purpose ; Australia affects to despise these two institutions, but giving up Socialism would be a different thing alto- therefore this desire for independence in defence gether, for we also believe in a future State. Mr. Kennedy matters, and hence your little difference of opinion has only attacked Fabians in the articles which concern with Mr. Fisher at Kilmarnock. them, but there is much more than that in view, and I con- And now, Sir, I would ask your special attention fess I have been astonished to see Mr. Chesterton playing to this, which must eventually become the most into your hands by hammering at his old enemies continu- ally, though they are all on what I must call our side, when important question in the British Empire. The Asiatic from my point of view he would have been better employed cannot stop. His food is costing him more, and the in raiding the editor’s camp, and not leaving a man alive. chances are that the simple commodities of life will With the hotchpot of Nietzsche borrowed from you which further increase in price. Very few people realise how appears in Mr. Kennedy’s “Tory Democracy,” I had in- much our wealth is dependent upon our Eastern trade, tended to deal in another letter, but all I can do at present directly or indirectly. Do you realise that if the Asiatic is to challenge that gentleman’s right to pose as a leader is to have much more, the white man has got to have of thought. An Aristocracy is inseparable from the idea of a perfect State. There, I take it, we are agreed. The Socio- less? The Australian working man has fully grasped logist holds that it would represent at its best the intelli- this: his newspapers are brutally clear on the point. gence of the community, and I see nothing in this new con- The Canadian writing in the “ Spectator ” suggested, ception but a “ strange inversion of genius,” as one who roughly, that certain arrangements and limits might was seldom quite sober remarked while he stood on his be the solution of the difficulty; but even on this basis head. While on the poetical side of my nature a discussion on even terms would be advisable. At there is ample allowance for the ultra-rational, on the present we are not on even terms in the Pacific, which practical side there is none, and I regard it as certain that the attempts you are making through THE NEW AGE to your Canadian and Australian friends fully realise. infect politics with a megalomaniac’s notions will be the In conclusion, you will pardon my saying that so far cause of its death very soon. I also believe they are being a tendency to abuse people, institutions, policies, etc., pushed to the front by the snob at the back of us all, and with which. you disagree has been stronger with you can see nothing in it as presented by Mr. Kennedy but the than any tendency to constructive statesmanship. This natural desire of a no-account writer te be “recognised,” Asiatic question should give you an opportunity of poodled, and spoilt. With so little space at command, I can only point to correcting this.-Yours faithfully, what meets the eye, and to the harm it has certainly done. India, June, 1911. WM. WESTWOOD. It has changed you from the man you were ; has made you an editor without any following, because you give no one the lead. It is a paper in which the reader can detect neither purpose nor principle, and the consequence of your having LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. nothing to say for yourselves can be seen week after week in the meanness of your attempts to belittle the life-work of A FRIENDLY LETTER. men who are entitled to your respect. Now for some Sir,-I trust you will publish this letter as promised, be- specimens of Mr. Kennedy’s genius. cause with feelings like these unexpressed, I shall be in “This is not a fanciful picture. The Liberal victory of a false position if I continue to write for THE NEW AGE. 1906 was not due merely to disgust with the former Govern- Permit me to commence by reminding you it was ment; it was due to the skilful arguments of men like among Fabians, as the promoter of an Art and Chesterton and Belloc.’’ I hope these gentlemen will ex- Philosophy Group of the Society, that you became cuse my saying that you might find an idiot who could beat known in London, and that THE NEW AGE until recently that, but nowhere outside an asylum, unless Mr. Kennedy was an ably conducted avowedly Socialist journal. There does it himself, and that others will share my opinion that was no need to tell you it was no more likely to last than all previous records are beaten by this amazing compound other such papers have, and for its stoppage we were pre- of conceit. “Where are the Tories to get their ideas,” he pared, but not for the complete volte-face which we have asks? “Since they have waited five years for an answer, witnessed lately. You must have done it with your eyes they may as well wait for another fortnight, when the third open to the loss of respect it would surely entail, though no article in this series will appear! “ Mr. Kennedy is going editor can fairly be blamed for a change of opinions merely, to be intellect-feeder-in-chief to about half of all England but it has gone far beyond that as you know, and what has it seems, and I am sure it ought to be stopped. Now, ac- surprised and disgusted me is your having so lowered your- cording to you and your friends there is not only something, self as to let it become a medium for the dissemination of but everything wrong with the brains of the only leaders malice and lies affecting the achievement and personnel of we have, and this is all the more singular since Mr. Ken- your former leaders and friends, nedy says the Conservatives sustained a great loss when they There is a fine fighting force in Mr. Cecil Chesterton, ceded the whole of their massive intelligence to the males on who surely should be on my side, but we all have to confess the winning side, and are now wanting it back very badly. to failings, and his would appear to be tilting at windmills, All the Conservative intellect sone. Here then is a chance or institutions as good as dead. Since for him there is safety for the ladies. Permeation is the word for it. And I think in numbers, he always seems happiest when he is squaring yours is a handsome offer :-To all deserters from Socialist up to an enemy at least half a million strong, or to the lord ranks, and all who will swear by the book or affirm that of as many acres, whose ear he will never reach, and who their souls retain not a trace of the editor’s previous views, would be smiling his silliest smile if he knew he was being introductions are solemnly promised to some of the least attacked. offensive of the persons hereafter described ; introductions I notice a similar fondness for numbers in Mr. Verdad, whereby the said ladies-(the only excuse for the following is who has lately surpassed himself by opposing his worthless that rhyme got into the sentence so that it was spoilt for opinion on the Peace question to that which will be ex- prose) : pressed in the Treaty to be concluded between the United Should be able if they stick to it, States and Great Britain, and if there is anything at all in Stick to it like leeches, please, religion, will be echoed all over Christendom. To do it, to do it, to do it, As editor, you also are fond of issuing challenges when In the manner prescribed by Pease. you know that there is not the slightest chance of their being Should be able if they stick to it, accepted, or noticed even. When I see you complain that no one will answer you properly, I tell you to make it worth There’s a terrible hill to climb, while, and often I wonder whether you really would be so To make of these half-witted wasters, Intelligent beings in time ! glad if one of these giants did rouse himself. The one I re- proached for his laziness said he would hit at them with a Though he hath not the brains of a rabbit, fly-flapper if they carne near enough, or if I thought it was An intelligent being in time! wasps, would be willing to pay somebody sixpence for doing If Carlyle could say that of Cardinal Newman, where 260 would he have placed our friend? The man who wrote mands the establishment of fresh industry in some manner asking Mark Twain if he could recommend a fish diet for or other: strikes are as useless as State Insurance Bills. the upbuilding of brains, was advised to commence with a Mr. Donisthorpe has written an admirable little book on couple of whales, and not to begin talking about the import- ‘’ True Money,” unfortunately without touching on the only ance of his Ideas too soon (vide NEW AGE, May 18, 1911). aspect of money which is of interest to this problem. This Mr. Kennedy is nothing to me but a writer who has been is the proposition which I want to see discussed; I put it treated as such more tenderly than he deserved, because simply and briefly, and I invite Mr. Donisthorpe’s atten- such a ridiculous person, such a mere incarna- tion to it. At the present day 98 or 99 per cent. of industry tion of Boast, I have never beheld before. Since has been established, and is maintained, by the free issue your purpose so clearly is to induce all you possibly of certain paper credit sunstitutes for gold by our ordinary can to change their old leaders for new, and since not all of banks. The governments of the world, however, have pro- your readers are fools, why do you employ such a man? hibited any increase in the volume of the only paper credit Finally, as regards THE NEW AGE. If for the reason which which can be used for wages, namely, the bank-note; and I have given the breach should be final, I can only say I since any growth of industry requires an increase of wages, shall deeply regret it. the industry of the civilised world is constantly limited by Paris. ERNESTRADFORD. the danger of the depletion of its banks’ stores of gold. I P.S.-- affirm that the banks of this and every other country are “I was angry with my friend, prevented from making the loans which they otherwise I told my wrath, my wrath did end.” would on account of the danger of a drain of gold when the volume of paper, at home or abroad, swells to a certain This from Blake, is very near to the truth at the present point, which danger arises from the prohibition in every time, because the trouble is three months old, and I don’t civilised country of a sufficient increase of circulating sub- see what your object is in printing a letter provoked by stitutes for gold. If there are no Fabians who will dis- articles mostly forgotten which were not worth getting cuss this question I must perforce invite a fellow Indivi- by heart.-E. R. *** dualist to thrash it out. Allons, Mr. Donisthorpe! HENRY MEULEN. MR. GRAYSON AND THE LABOUR PARTY. *** Sir,-In my article last week there occurs a misprint, Sir,--Mr. Wordsworth Donisthorpe, in THE NEW AGE, which is doubtless due to my bad writing, but which I feel July 5th, appears to be of the opinion that moral right is not I must correct. worth consideration, and can be brushed on one side in I am made to speak of Mr. Grayson’s “desertion of the favour of legal right. I am not sure that such is the case. Labour Party.” This, of course, would be nonsense, for Such was the attitude of slave owners, but slavery was Mr. Grayson never belonged to that party, so could not abolished when the community made up its mind that it “desert” it. What I wrote was, “his desertion by the was morally wrong. The mine-owners once had the legal Labour Party,” referring to the famous scene in the right to employ little children for long hours at unhealthy House. The rest of the sentence, in which I speak of Mr. labour. The Earl of Shaftesbury and others said these Snowden “defending ” this desertion, should make this children had a moral right to a better existence; as a clear. Nevertheless, I should be obliged if you would insert result the mine-owners’ legal right was curtailed Since this correction. CECIL CHESTERTON. b ** then many people have said the child has a moral right to an education. They now have a legal right to it. Having PROPERTY IN LAND. these things in mind when Mr. Donisthorpe asked me to Sir,--Mr. Donisthorpe asks for a definition of property. define property, I replied I was not interested in so doing. I must confess my sympathy with Mr. Paul’s reluctance to I am, however, interested in what the community thinks comply with the request. Proudhon made the attempt in of the moral right of anybody to property in land. The a lengthy volume, but his one phrase, “Property is Rob- agitation worked up by the Liberals in favour of the land- bery! ’’ has caused him to be misunderstood to the extent of tax proved conclusively to my mind that there is a very being dubbed a Communist! It seems to me of far more large proportion of the community who consider that land- practical use to discuss, on its own merits, and in the light lords have no moral right to the land. When that idea has of social welfare, each proposal of interference with the right gathered a little more driving force great changes may to buy and sell, and in this light I think that the disad- take place in their legal right. vantages of monopoly of land by those who do nothing but Knowing the lip-service individualists have rendered to charge rent for it, in certain cases outweighs the advan- “liberty,” I asked “What is their attitude on the land ques- tages of absentee landlordism sketched by Mr. Donisthorpe. tion? ” The replies up to date do not suggest that they as But I am strongly of opinion that, for this country at a body will have much to do with releasing the community least, the land question is of quite subsidiary importance from the grip of the landlord. Mr. Meulen is quite satis- to the industrial problem. The attitude of THE NEW AGE fied to allow the landlord to sell his land at the rate of towards the question of the comparative benefits likely to £2,000,000 per acre (I believe it has reached £3,000,000 in accrue to the workers from Mr. Lloyd George’s Insurance several instances) as long as he can find somebody clever Bill and the strike, respectively, interests me vastly. There enough to extract that sum from the pockets of people is no doubt of the strength of its criticism of the Bill. buying his goods. Mr. Donisthorpe appears content with Briefly, the evil is one of low wages as compared with the the legal decision of “mine” and “thine.” As many people price of necessaries. Low wages at present spring from in- find their liberty restricted by private ownership of land, the sufficient demand for labour among employers, which again idea that this is wrong is spreading rapidly, and when the results from inability to obtain capital on the part of those majority say the landlord has no moral right to the land workers who might be able either to produce cheaper goods, he will soon lose his legal right. If asked to define a moral or to attract certain labour by a higher wage. As long as right, I should reply, “I am not interested in so doing.” this condition lasts the employers have, in the majority of What I am intesested in is what the community considers cases, the whip hand, and any compulsion put upon them a moral right, because there is some chance of that becom- by the State to pay insurance doles will simply be met ing a legal right. H. D. PAUL. either by an increase of prices or a reduction of wages, the *** State compulsion effecting that agreement among employers’ THE PORTRAIT OF MR. MORDKIN. interests which is so difficult to secure when a combination Sir,-There is at present on exhibition in the Doré Gal- to increase prices is proposed in ordinary times {witness the lery a portrait of Mr. Mordkin, the Russian dancer, from recent effort of taxicab proprietors to combine). The criti- the brush of Miss Bettia Schebsman, who is also a Russian cism of THENEW AGE is, therefore, undoubtedly justified. by birth. The portrait is so interesting that I trust YOU will But now THE NEW AGE turns and cuts the ground from find space for this letter. under its own feet by advocating the strike as the sound Those who are acquainted with the modern galleries of method. Surely theprinciple of its criticism of the Insurance Europe will, I think, agree that the most beautiful portraits Bill applies with telling force here. As long as the employers are those painted of other artists, of dancers, actors, remain entrenched behind the wall which prevents compe- actresses or painters, whereas the portraits of ordinary suc- tition within their ranks a successful strike merely causes cessful people are as dull as the founts which give rise to an increase of prices up to the point where foreign competi- them. Nietzsche in Zarathustra asks the youth who desires tion begins to become dangerous. At this point the workers to marry: “Art thou a man who has a right to wish for a might stand a chance of a real benefit from the increase of child? ” It would be well if the many faces that now appear wages, except that the stimulation of foreign trade by our in galleries would ask themselves, if they have a right to a high prices is the signal for strikes abroad, which, if suc- portrait. With the artist, however, there is no doubt to cessful, leave our employers again masters of the field. his or her right. He has something to give, whereas it is The central cause of the poverty of the workers is lack of only the painter of genius who can transmute an ordinary demand for their labour. Either we must remove the face into a work of art. As since Whistler died there has credit restrictions which now prevent men from lending been, as far as I know, no such painter of genius, the greatest the means to set up fresh industry, or the State must step portraits are nowadays those of artists who have something in and “organise” industry by setting up factories in compe- to give and therefore can inspire the painter, for without in- tition with present employers ; but the evil undoubtedly de- spiration a work of art cannot k created. 261

Such portraits as those of Rosario Guerrero and Die documents of Genesis. Unfortunately for them, many years Schlaftänezerin by Fritz August von Kaulbach, which were after Mrs. Eddy, a famous critic insisted on a similar dis- exhibited in Vienna in 1909, illustrate my meaning. The tinction. Their (‘reverence,” writes Professor Sayce , to pose, colour and atmosphere are all selected with wonderful quote a single passage, “for the more ancient story did not skill to express in the first case the alluring witchery of full- prevent the lsraelites from accepting another symbolic nar- blooded beauty, in the second the shimmering grey-green rative which embodied more advanced truth; nor did mystery of her who dances in a trance of sleep. The por- their enthusiastic appreciation of the new light lead them traits are, in fact, not imitations, but art works whole and to cast aside a Scripture hallowed by many sacred memories complete in themselves. and associations. The two were placed side by side.” Here The same may be said of this portrait of Mordkin. It then is a premise very different from that of Mr. Thorn; is true it does not show the mastery and restraint that distin- let me attempt so far as space permits to draw the guish Von Kaulbach, but nevertheless it is whole and com- conclusion. plete in itself as an art work must be, and as such surpasses Christian Science accepts, without qualification, the de- any portrait I have seen in England for many years. The claration of Jesus that man must be born again, and it in- picture shows Mordkin in his bacchanal dance, in which the sists that this new birth only takes place as the carnal dancer expresses with intimate sympathy the drunkem mind gives place to the Mind that was in Christ Jesus. If, vitality and passion-whelmed physical splendour of the however, the carnal mind is to be destroyed the material Grecian bacchanal. These are shown in the picture by the body which is the material idea or image and likeness of the dramatic contrast of the powerful legs and body of the carnal mind must disappear, and the spiritual man appear. dancer and the utter weariness of the face. Indeed the But if the carnal mind and the material body can disappear eyes have death within them, as if the delirium of the bac- it is because they are not the real mind or body, for that chanal had almost sucked the life out from the strong body which is real is indestructible. It is here the theory of the of the pagan youth. unreality of matter emerges in Christian Science, and pro- The colours are skilfully used to enhance the motive. bably more nonsense has been talked on this subject, by They are very simple and only three in number. But they people with a generous ignorance of what they are talking are used in rivalled splendour that contrasts notably with about, than about any other subject of interest to the world. the blending and blurring that is characteristic of modern Christian Science is obviously spiritual idealism, and, harmony. They carry out and augment with singular power as is the case in all idealistic teaching, it denies the reality the drama of the picture. The lush green of the grass gives of the phenomenon called matter. The theory has been to the youth the strength and vigour of health, but is put with complete frankness by one of the greatest chemists challenged by the brilliant red and orange of the passionate in Europe, a man whom the University of Oxford has de- sky. lighted to honour :-“Matter is only a thing imagined, which The fact that this portrait hangs in the Doré Gallery we have constructed for ourselves, very imperfectly to re- amidst sober and conventional imitative portraits and sacred present the constant element in the changing series of pictures reminds one irresistibly of Hogarth’s famous battle of phenomena. Now we begin to understand the actual-that pictures. Mordkin’s portrait is a bodily and emotional picture, is, that which acts upon us, is only energy, we have to in which the challenge of passion to bodily vigour is selected ascertain by tests in what relation the two conceptions stand, and enhanced, and the dull insipid portraits around it look and the result is without a doubt that of energy alone can like stolid spectators gazing stupidly at the lust and sacrifice of reality be predicated.’’ Now if the idealist of natural science life which is not theirs. But their faces show no envy. They acted logically on his premises, he would desist from the have too long dwelt in gloom and sobriety. Nevertheless clumsy method of inducing mind to act on matter through a change may be coming. We have at least recently refused material means. The human mind is, however, incorrigibly to give £90,000 for a picture eloquent of that gloom and illogical, and the holders of these advanced theories, while sobriety; and, irrelevant as it may seem, people are flocking declaring disease to be a mental effect, proceed to doctor it to see the beauty of the body-the eternal rival to the spirit materially. (see Gal. vi., 7, 8,)--as wonderfully shown by Russian The Christian Scientist indulges in no such half truths. dancers. Should these Russian dancers, or artists inspired He declares matter to be unreal just as the orthodox ideaIist, by them, influence the public, it might come about that but here he parts company entirely with the idealism of the they would see that Paul, when he said that “he that soweth schools, and boldly accepting the idealism of the New to hi5 flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption,” was possibly Testament, insists that mortal mind or energy is itself un- wrong. Nay more, being a little, deformed man, it is even real, and constitutes nothing but the negation of divine possible that he was envious in a saintly way. Mind, “without whom was not anything made that was G. T. WRENCH. made.” This, he insists, is the truth, the absolute scientific *** truth to which Jesus alluded when he said, (‘Ye shall know CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Free from the false evidence of the material senses, which, in insist- Sir,-The letter of Mr. Arthur F. Thorn, in your issue ing on the unreality of matter, constitute sin, disease, and of June 22, propounds a dilemma which is so obvious death, ideas of that divine Mind, which created nothing that, if its premises correctly stated the teaching of Chris- which was not good, and in speaking of which Jesus himself tian Science, no person of ordinary intelligence could ac- said, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth cept that teaching. As is, however, so frequently the case nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, with critics of Christian Science, Mr. Thorn adopts premises and they are life.” which are the very antithesis of Christian Science teaching, To imagine that divine intelligence created something and then has no difficulty in reaching an absurd conclusion. which profited nothing, and which Paul dismissed as the With your permission, therefore, I will endeavour to make garment of those who could not please God, is surely to plain so far as may be possible within the limits of a letter be guilty of a word the opponents of Christian Science are what Christian Science really does teach on the subject he extremely fond of, and that is blasphemy. All the same, alludes to. numbers of natural scientists, who claim to be Christians, So far from separating man from intelligence, Christian are for ever committing this blasphemy apparently uncon- Science maintains that the two can no more exist apart than sciously. One of these natural scientists tells us that science cause and effect. The only absolute intelligence it describes is confined to the study of secondary causes or physical facts, as divine Mind or God, and it defines man as the idea of and that primary causes are of necessity in the realm of the this Mind, and consequently as the image and likeness of unknowable. In other words this writer calmly assures us God. Now as this divine Mind is what is known as Spirit, that science is confined to the study of that which “profiteth it follows that the ideas of this Mind are necessarily spiritual. nothing” and “cannot please God.” Such reasoning is So far Christian Science is dealing with the absolute, and frankly not only anti-Christian, it begs the question in the describing the real or spiritual creation dealt with in the most unblushing way. Of course, if you assume you can allegory contained in the first chapter or priestly document never know something, you, at any rate, are never likely to of Genesis. But, as Mrs. Eddy pointed out many years know it; but it is perhaps as well the great thinkers of the ago, the allegory does not stop here. The redactors of past did not argue so childishly. So far from arguing that the Hexateuch placed side by side with the priestly docu- that which is born of the Spirit is ipso facto unknowable, ment the Jehovistic document, which contained the allegory Thomas Aquinas, the man whom Huxley described as per- of the supposititious creation of mortal man in the image haps the subtlest of the mediaeval thinkers, boldly declared and likeness of that carnal, or, as it is named in Christian that the only absolute science was theology, the word of Science, mortal mind, which is itself nothing but the nega- tion of divine Mind. “That,” said Jesus, in the course God, whilst all natural sciences were strictly relative. Hux- ley put the matter a little differently. If, he said, I should of his momentous conversation with Nicodemus, when the see a lump of lead suspended, without support, in the air, Ruler came to him by night, “which is born of the flesh is I should not immediately describe it as a miracle, meaning flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel thereby a violation of law. I should, on the contrary, realise not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” that it was the operation of hitherto unsuspected law, and Many critics of Christian Science, little conscious that they set to work to investigate the phenomenon. Now, it hap- were displaying their own ignorance, have been humorous pens, of course, that the words translated miracle in the over the distinction drawn by Mrs. Eddy between the two New Testament have not and never have had any super- 262

natural significance. They mean the one an act of power, subscribing towards the expense of exiling Englishmen from the other a sign. The miracles of Jesus were, to the mate- their own country, his exotic Lordship insists that aliens, rialistic Jews, acts of power, lumps of lead in the air, which even of the least desirable class, should be permitted to they were ready to dismiss as supernatural; but to the swarm into England. In adopting this attitude he is, of spiritually-minded disciples they were signs of the power of course, acting in the interests of his own race. He probably divine law, that absolute Truth the knowledge of which was believes that the more the English emigrate the more room to make the world free. History repeats itself: when to-day there will be for the Jews who are shipped here. It is a the power of Truth heals a patient in Christian Science the pity that Sir Reginald Pole-Carew, Sir Clement Kinloch- modern Sanhedrin shakes its head, and asks: “What shall Cooke, and the other non-exotic promoters of the emigration we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath movement have not the same regard for the interests of their been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in race. If they had, instead of endeavouring to increase the Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it. But that it spread no enormous emigration of their own countrymen, they would further among the people, let us straightly threaten them, devote their energies towards stopping the influx of that they speak henceforth to no man in this name.” foreigners. An English ex-soldier has quite as much right Christian Science accepts the miracles of Jesus in their in England as a Jew deserter, and a respectable English true sense, as object lessons in proof of his theory or theo- workman, even if he is without employment, has as much logy. “Ye shall know the truth,” he said, “and the truth right in England as a Yiddish pauper, coolie, or criminal. shall make you free.” He came preaching to the world this It was Englishmen who made England free, prosperous, truth, and the world knows the result. The materialists and a pleasant country for Jew plutocrats to accumulate of the age promptly accused him of blasphemy, and said their money in, not the Compatriots of Lord Rothschild, Sir he was arrogating to himself the power of God. The world Edward Stern, Sir Edgar Speyer, and the other contributors knows what he said, “He that believeth on me, the works to emigration funds. that I do shall he do also,” he that understands my teach- It may be said, of course, that the unemployed ex-soldiers, ing, or my theology, will be able to prove the truth of it and other Englishmen who are being exiled at the expense by demonstrating it in the way I have demonstrated it. of Jewish millionaires are “undesirables.” But this can No amount of ingenuity can ever get away from the simple hardly be so. They have to be of good character, and meaning of those words, and when one reads the various mentally and physically fit in order to secure admission to answers of the sects to the teaching of Christian Science, the countries they are sent to. If our Colonies and the one is reminded of the reply of Erasmus to the Fran- United States were accustomed to admit undesirables, the ciscans, when they demanded that he should declare that Jewish philanthropic agencies of the Continent would not they had controverted Luther’s doctrines : “I can truth- have to ship their ex-prison birds, and paupers to England. fully say,” he replied grimly, “that you have burned his They would dump them at the ports of the United States and books, but I cannot say that you have answered them.” Canada. JOSEPH BANISTER. The opponents of Christian Science endeavour to answer the *** teaching of Christian Science by expelling its books from the public libraries. They do not burn them, for that A MALTHUSIAN MARTYR. method has gone out of fashion. They fail to see that Sir,--Believing that THE NEW AGE before almost every- the modem argument is quite as humorous as the mediaeval thing else stands for a Free Press and Free Discussion, one FREDERICK DIXON. **A I am writing to ask a small space to draw attention to the death of a poor man who has gone under in a single- EMIGRATION. handed fight with Law and Authority and Obscurantism. Sir,-For years the Irish Press has been striving to dis- On November 14, 1910, James White. was committed for courage emigration from Ireland, and the Scotch Press is trial for having sold in Consett Market Place a pamphlet now protesting against the heavy emigration from Scot- entitled “ True Morality.” land. Perhaps if the English Press were controlled by He was sentenced to pay a fine of £20 and costs or under- Englishmen, as the Irish Press is by Irishmen, and the go three months’ imprisonment. Scotch Press by Scots, it would endeavour to discourage There was an appeal and an adverse decision, as might the present huge efflux of Englishmen. As it is, it is doing be expected with (In)-Justice Darling on the judgment seat, the reverse of this. Although English emigration now and as the money to pay the fine was not raised as it should reaches about a quarter of a million annually, the majority have been, James White went to prison. of the London dailies are not satisfied. They insist that “ True Morality” has been publicly sold for years not only a greater number still of the despised English aborigines in England but in the colonies and abroad; it consists should be induced, or forced to exile themselves, and they mainly of quotations and extracts from the works of states- apparently regard any Englishman of the poorer class men, divines, medical men and economists on the question who refuses to leave his own country as a criminal of the of population ;with advertisements of books on the question, deepest dye. The more enthusiastic newspaper promoters and with advertisements of various sanitary appliances. of the English emigration movement are the “Daily Tele- Hundreds of thousands of the book have been sold, and graph ’’ (owned by a Jew, and edited by his son), the “Daily hundreds similar are sold every day, in spite of which that Express” (edited by a Jew), the “ Standard” (controlled by most learned and just man, Justice Darling, gave it as his a Scot), the “Sunday Observer” (owned by an American), opinion that the conviction by the Consett J.P. was good, and the “ Times,” “ Daily Mail,” “ Globe,” and other organs and further that, “in his own opinion the book was simply of the alleged Irishman, Harmsworth. a catalogue of articles the expression of which was contrary A week or two ago occurred the annual meeting of the to law.” Central. Emigration Board, one of the principal emigration Against this there can be quoted a long carefully reasoned promoting concerns. The chair was taken by Sir Reginald judgment by the Senior Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court Pole-Carew, and among those present were Lord Dundonald, of N.S. Wales, who laid it down that the sale of preventa- Sir Clement Kinloch-Cooke, Sir John Downer, Captain tives was not immoral and not contrary to law. Gilmour, M.P., and Messrs. Almeric Paget and H. Ingelby, But James White had to go to jail, and now he is dead, M.P. The meeting was opened by the reading of a letter with all the usual mass of lying, white-washing and excusing from the Duke of Sutherland, who is the president of the which seems inevitable when a poor obscure soldier of the Board, the owner of a large portion of Scotland, and is at army of progress stands in the way of the car of convention. present engaged in emigrating Scotch farmers to Canada. There are no doubt numbers of readers of THENEW AGE In this letter, His Grace said : “The work of emigrating ex- who object to the Neo-Malthusian doctrine and its propa- soldiers would commend itself to all who were interested ganda, I ask them for the moment to put that special objec- in the welfare of those who had given the best years of tion aside for the moment and consider James White’s death their life to the service of their country.” Now, I hardly only from the point of view of “censorship” and “defini- believe many English, not of the money-pig imitation sort, tion.” would care to endorse this sentiment. If there is no room He was imprisoned for selling a book said to be “ob- in England for Englishmen who have given the best years scene,” (( corrupting,” calculated to promote immorality.” of their lives to the service of their country, England must These words we all know have meanings which vary with indeed be over-crowded. In that case one would think that every degree in geography, and every year in time-one instead of trying to increase the already huge multitude of could almost say with every minute in time and space; English exiles, wealthy Englishmen would employ their meanings and definitions which are really more fluid than wealth and influence in promoting the movement for re- water. stricting immigration of aliens, especially those of the coolie, During the last two or three years there has been vast talk criminal, harpy, and pauper class. But I have never heard and writing about censorship. A great deal of it seems to of any of the English emigration promoters doing anything have been on too high a plane to have any practical appli- in that direction. The two largest contributors to the funds cation to real life and action; it might be usual to examine of the Central Emigration Board are Lord Rothschild, the the question from the very common-place stand of a really owner of portions of one or two English counties, and Sir good dictionary. Edward Stern. Now, the first-mentioned of these two imita- James White is dead because what some people hold to tion Englishmen has been particularly prominent in oppos- be highly moral Justice Darling and some Durham blunder- ing the movement for restricting alien immigration. While heads hold to be immoral. Wanted, some clear definitions. 263

Meanwhile, a woman is left sorrowing-again the woman gland in the treatment of the disease. Kinnicutt has pays-and nothing seems to be done as to the main issue. collected 48 cases with adrenal preparations. Of these six T. SHORE were reported as cured, 22 as improved. I have usedit in *** four cases myself.’) I leave it to Mr. Macdonald to distinguish between REFINED BRUTALITY. myxœdema and cretinism, supra-renal extract and adrena- Sir,-Enclosed is a recent newspaper report of a case tried line. In conclusion, I may point out that in drawing atten- before Mr. R. Wallace, K.C. The devilish ingenuity by tion to the cure of cretinism by adrenaline I was not which he first raised the hopes of the poor woman only to attempting to deny all truth to Mr. Harris’s original asser- shatter them with the greater effect, is past imagination. tion, but raising an objection to its sweeping nature. Any humane person, after reciting the wrongs inflicted by CYRIL C. MANDELL. society on this woman in her childhood, would have sen- tenced her to nothing less than a pension for the rest of her broken life by way of partial compensation. Public opinion, CORONATION EXHIBITION I am certain, would do it if public opinion could only speak. GREAT WHITE SHEPHERD’S But, alas, it is Mr. R. Wallace, K.C., who has the speaking. GEORGEFORD. CITY. 1/= BUSH, W. Sentenced to hard labour at twelve, a smartly-dressed Hundreds of Native Artisans at work woman of forty, who said she was a chorus singer, denied THE amidst the picturesque surroundings of at the London Sessions on Thursday that she was an habitual criminal, but pleaded guilty to robbing of money their own countries. I 50 realistic scenes. children whom she met in the streets. She gave her name EMPIRE’S 60 acres of beautiful palaces-India, Ceylon, as Lily Hayden. Burma, West Indies, Borneo, New Guinea, According to counsel, she began her career of crime in 1883, and had confessed to five cases of theft similar in form. WONDERS Hong Kong, East, West, and South Africa, Her chief practice was to waylay children entrusted with Australia, New Zealand, Canada. money to redeem articles in pawn. The list of convictions included three terms of penal servitude. Open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mr. R. Wallace, K.C.: She must have been sent to hard Admission 1 s. Children 6d. labour when she was only twelve. I am happy to think that such a thing is impossible nowadays, but I have no doubt that from such an unhappy beginning can be traced the life history of many criminals WHAT AND WHERE IS The accused declared that she had worked for a woman, after failing to obtain a position as “chorus girl.” TRUTH IN RELIGION? The jury found that Hayden was an habitual criminal, Plain answers given on Rational Grounds only, by the and his lordship ordered her three years’ penal servitude and five years’ preventive detention. As she left the dock THEISTIC CHURCH, London. Found not in words the accused swooned. She would have pitched headlong alleged to be GOD’S, but in WORKS, wrought by HIM steps leading to the cells had not a wardress under our very eyes. By the SOUL, through the down the SOUL,to the SOUL is the Truth revealed. assisted her. *** THEISTIC LITERATURE will be sent gratis to anyone applying to the Hon. Sec., Postal Mission, THE DECLARATION OF LONDON. THEISTIC CHURCH, Swallow Street, Piccadilly, Sir,-As a constant and admiring reader of THE NEW W., where services are held on Sundays at II a.m. AGE, and as one with some sense of patriotism and pride and 7 p.m. in his country’s greatness, I have looked in vain during the recent crisis brought about by the Declaration of London for a full and explicit exposition of this amazing treaty in your Notes of the Week. The entire omission of this all-important question strikes me and many other of your readers with whom I am acquainted as nothing Picture Framing short of astounding. Can it be that you intend to ignore a matter which dwarfs every other measure now before Re-Gilding Restoring, the country in its paramount importance, and which threatens our very existence as a nation? Mount-Cutting, etc. N. FITZHERBERT [We do not agree with our correspondent in his estimate PERFECT CRAFTSMANSHIP of the importance of the “Declaration of London,” for GUARANTEED. reasons which we shall shortly give. --ED., “ N.A.”] Ring up 5493 Gerrard. *** A CURE FOR CRETINISM. J. EDGE, 155 & 186, High Holborn, London, W.C. Sir,-I do not doubt that Mr. Macdonald, despite the fact that he withholds his degrees, has taken a deeper draught of the Pierian spring than I, but he appears to have clouded MISCELLANEOUS ADVERTISEMENTS those usually limpid waters with the mud of his own imma- turity. He quotes my statement that “it is quite customary to administer adrenaline for cretinism and Addison’s disease,” and proceeds to comment as follows : “Adrenaline -the extract of supra-renal bodies-has never yet been administered for cretinism by any practitioner who is not entirely givenover to empiricism. “ Sir William Osler, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., F.R.C.P., Regius Professor of Medi- FAIR PRICE Given for Old Gold, Silver, and Platinum, Old cine at Oxford, says in his “Principles and Practice of Coins War Medals Diamonds Silver Plate Jewellery China etc AND. Medicine”: “Our art has made no more brilliant advance ALL KINDS OF FOREIGN MONEYS Exchanged by MAURICE ESCHWEGE than in the cure of those disorders due to disturbed func- 47, Lime Street, Liverpool. tion of the thyroid gland. That we can to-day rescue ASHLET” SCHOOL-HOME, Addlestone, Surrey. Re- formed Diet. Individual Instruction. Careful Preparation for Public children otherwise doomed to helpless idiocy-that we can Examinations. Healthy District. Highest References.-Apply PRINCIPAL, restore life to the hopeless victims of myxœdema--is a triumph of experimental [empirical !] medicine, for which we FIFTY VOLUMES of “ PUNCH.” Splendid condition, an6 bound in half-morocco. Carriage paid, £10.--Apply Box G, NEW AGE are indebted very largely to Victor Horsley and his pupil office. Murray. Transplantation of the gland was first tried; then FOR SALE.--The Original Pen and Ink Drawing by Robert Murray used an extract subcutaneously. We now know Cruikshank of Liberty Hall Drawing Room,’’ signed by the Artist.- that the gland, taken either fresh or as the watery or Apply, stating offer. to BOX30, NEW AGE Office. glycerine extract, or dried and powdered, is equally effi- GENTLEMEN. Bachelors only.-Excellent and cheap Single cacious in a majority of all cases of myxœdmema in infants Rooms, Furnished or Unfurnished, with attendance, etc may be had at or adults. . . . It makes little difference how the gland is the Imperial Chambers, 3. Cursitor Street, Chancery Lane, E.C. administered. ” NEWNESS of the SPIRIT-OLDNESS of the LETTER-Read N “Dialogue with Two Parsons.” Mr. Macdonald further states that ‘‘ adrenaline in Addi- Vol. IV. ZION’SWORKS in Free Libraries. son’s disease is useless because of its extreme volatility.)) Sir William Osler, writing on the subject of treatment of UNITARIANISM AN AFFIRMATIVE FAITH.” “ The “ Unitarian’s Justification” (John Page Hopps), “ Eternal Punishment “ Addison’s disease by supra-renal extract, says : ‘‘ Following (Stopford Brooke)Atonement ” (Page Hopps), given post free.-Miss BARMBY, the researches of Schäffer and Oliver, the latter used the Mount Pleasant, Sidmouth. 264

SWIFT

Books that Compel

~~-- WORKS' BY FRANCIS GRIERSON EIGHT CENTURIES OF PORTUGUESE Mr. Francis Grierson is undoubtedly the most extra- MONARCHY. By V. DE BRAGANCA CUNHA. Demy 8vo. ordinary personality of our times. After having charmed 15 Pencil Portraits. 15s. net. most of the Courts of Europe by his improvisations on the " Frank and critical study."-The World. piano, and being hailed as a musical prodigy equal to " A vigorous, straightforward narrative . . . a workmanlike Mozart, he has now developed the most remarkable and rapid survey. "--Morning Leader. literary qualities. Maeterlinck and the late Professor " The curious and interesting sketches add greatly to the William James own his greatness, and there is not a critic distinction of the volume. "-Daily Telegraph. in England who has not come under his spell. " Senhor Cunha has carried out his idea with care and in the most excellent English. He is a true patriot. "-Contemporary MODERN MYSTICISM, 2s. 6d. net Review. "The book is . . . a commendable one. When great " This volume is full of thoughts and meditations of the very . . . highest order. In this book Mr. Grierson has concentrated his issues are pending, it is in the power of very few to distribute thought on the profound and simple questions of life and con- nicely balanced doses of blame and justification on all hands, science, and his vision is infinitely more touching and more vast. regardless of the heavy storm-clouds above. It is precisely this What unique and decisive things in ' Parsifalitis,' for example; that our author has done. . . . None can deny that he has what strange clairvoyance in ' Beauty and Morals in Nature,' dealt out strict justice to each party and faction. "-Academy. in the essay on ' Tolstoy,' in ' Authority and Individualism,' in ' The New Criticism,' etc. "--MAURICE MAETERLINCK. THE PHILOSOPHY OF A DON " A delectable book, original in the thought and (to restore a By G. F. ABBOTT. Cloth, 5s. net. '' Caustic and candid. sympathetic, satirical and subtle in debased word to its proper estate) elegant in the writing. " A. B. WALKLEY. turn, and always diverting. "-Vanity Fair. " Mr. Grierson has a right to speak. He uses with success one '' Written in a style of unflagging vivacity . . . As a pre- of the most difficult of literary forms, the essay. "-The Spectator. sentment of contemporary opinions the book should commend itself to posterity. "-Birmingham Daily Post. THE CELTIC TEMPERAMENT. 2s. 6d. net LONELY ENGLAND. " In this volume I am privileged once more to breathe the By MAUDEGOLDRING. With three Coloured Illustrations. atmosphere of supreme spiritual aristocracy which emanates Cloth. 5s. net. He has, in his best moments, from all Mr. Grierson's work. " Restful and engaging. "--The Scotsman. that most rare gift of casting certain shafts of light, at once " Written in a natural style . . . very pleasant reading."- simple and decisive, upon questions the most difficult, obscure, Pall Mall Gazette. and unlooked-for in art, morals, and psychology. These " Miss Goldring's pen-pictures of the English country-side moments of illumination abound, for example, in the essays on have a distinctive charm. Her work is always sincere, always ' Style and Personality,' ' Hebraic Inspiration,' ' Practical interesting."-The World. Pessimism,' ' Emerson and Unitarianism,' ' Theatrical Audi- " A very charming volume of essays. "-Morning Leader. ences,' ' The Conservation of Energy,' etc. I place these " Charming."-The Times. essays among the most subtle and substantial that I know."- MAURICE MAETERLINCK. TRIUMPHANT VULGARITY". '' I find the ' Celtic Temperament ' charming and full of By CHARLESJ. WHITBY M.D. 3s. 6d. net. wisdom. The essay that has happened to strike me most is the '' A thoughtful and uncommonly well-written discourse, one on ' Hebraic Inspiration.' The pages of ' Reflections ' also flavoured with penetrating irony. "-The Scotsman. have found their mark in me."--PROF. WILLIAM JAMES. " A trenchant attack on latter-day fads and faddists-sound '' Mr. Grierson gives us original and intimate apercus of commonsense . . . tempered with gentle irony and pungent things . . . . subtle things, and as I say, ' intimate '-things sarcasm."-Aberdeen Free Press. deep down below the surface of conventional thought-and Mr. '' We have read few books on similar or kindred themes with Grirrson's book is full of them. . . . I shall keep Mr. Grier- such a sane and level-headed treatment. We commend this son's book on the same shelf as ' Wisdom and Destiny ' and book to all who are interested in . . . the many arresting ' The Treasure of the Humble. ' "-A.B. WALKLEY. signs of the times which are evident in English life to-day."- Academy. PORTRAITS 2s. 6d. net '' It is impossible to do justice to the vigour and eloquence " The outcome of close observation."-The Standard. of this book."-Occult Review. '' Striking sketches. "--The Scotsman. '' Mr. Grierson writes . . . with perfect art. A most fascin- CIVIL WAR. A Play in Four Acts. ating volume of essays. "--Morning Leader. By ASHLEYDUKES. 2s. net. '' A very real faculty for catching a likeness, a pleasant and '' A play of unusual merit. "--Manchester Guardian. personal critical spirit, and an easy and engaging style." '' An indication of the possibility of an English drama that Pall Mall Gazette. is neither Shavian nor Pineroesque. . . . The characterisation "There is knowledge, there is fine perception, there is in- is excellent, the dialogue appropriate and easy. "-Daily Express. : vigorating wisdom in Mr. Francis Grierson's ' Parisian Por- " A fine play.'--F. G. BETTANYin the Sunday Times. traits.' Mr. Grierson . . . writes . . . the old things in a new manner. His pictures are amazingly clear' and acute. "--MR. SIB EDWARD. SIDNEYDARK in the Daily Express. By a Fellow of the Literary Society. Cloth, IS. net. '' One of the drollest satires of the day."-Pall Mall Gazette. THE VALLEY OF SHADOWS. Demy 8vo, 6s. net " A most polished essay. "-Morning Leader. '' A very pretty piece of satire."-Observer. " Mr. Grierson is one of those rare anomalies-a born man of letters who develops late in life. It was not until he reached "The author . . . has earned our gratitude for this whim- middle-age that he gave any public evidence of his high literary sical study. "--The Spectator. distinction in his essays, which suddenly revealed a new critic of unsuspected powers. . . . ' The Valley of Shadows ' is not THE RECTOR OF ST. JACOB'S. a novel, yet in the graphic portraiture of spiritual and intellec- By SENEX RUSTICANUS.Crown 8vo, 6s. tual movements it possesses an attraction denied to all but the '' A notable book. "--Aberdeen Free Press. most significant kind of fiction. It combines the charm of '' The book is concerned with realities ; so that it has . . . life incident and psychology, it re-creates the internal atmosphere and power. "--Observer. of an historical struggle whose external facts have long been familiar to the educated public. The book is a picture of the SOME NEIGHBOURS spiritual and intellectual atmosphere of America in the days By CHARLESGRANVILLE. Second Edition. Crown 8vo, 6s. preceding the Civil War. . . . With a wonderful touch Mr. " Fresh and individual. "--Morning Leader. Grierson depicts scene after scene, drawing the simple, native characters with bold, impressive strokes. "--W. L. COURTNEY THE MAIDS' COMEDY. A Chivalric Romance in Daily Telegraph. in Thirteen Chapters. 3s. 6d. net.

10 JOHN STREET STEPHEN SWIFT Adelphi