New Age, Vol. 6, No.25, April 21, 1910
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THE NEW AGE A WEEKLY REVIEW OF POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND ART. .Vol. VI. No. 25. THURSDAY,APRIL 21, 1910. THREEPENCE. CONTENTS. PAGE PAGE NOTESOF THE WEEK ... ... ... ... ... 577 STYLEIN MODERNLITERATURE. By Edwin Pugh ... ... 588 FOREIGNAFFAIRS. By Stanhope of Chester ... ... 579 THEORDER OF THE SERAPHIM. III. Bp Allen Upward ... 590 CRIMINALLAW AND ADMINISTRATION.By C. H. Norman ... 580 VESPERS. By VincentO’Sullivan ... ... ... 592 DESOLATE.By E. H. Visiak ... ... ... ... 582 NEWWINE.Walter By Sickert ... ... ... ... 592 CONCERNINGSECOND CHAMBERS. By St. John G. Ervine ... 582 BOOKSAND PERSONS. By JacobTonson ... ... ... 593 THEPHILOSOPHY OF A DON.V. ... ... ... ... 584 ART. By Huntly Carter ... ... ... ... ... 594 THEETHICS OF TRIMALCHION’SDINNER PARTY. J.By Stuart CORRESPONDENCE ... ... ... ... ... 596 HAY ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 586 ARTICLESOF THE WEEK... ... ... ... ... 599 MR. BELLOC,M.P., v. MR. SIDNEY WEBB ByCharles BIBLIOGRAPHIESOF MODERN AUTHORS. XXII. Edward CHARRINGTON... ... ... ... ... ... 587 Clodd ... ... ... ... ... ... 599 Subscriptions tothe NEW A GE are at the following do on the morrow of the late election had his majority rates :- been unquestionableand unexceptional, namely,advise Great Britain. A broad. the King to exercise his Royal prerogative and to create s. d. peers to overcome the opposition of the oligarchs. But One Year ... ... 15 0 17 4 having consented to offer this advice, the Premier has SixMonths.. ... 7 68 8 wisely declined both to define in advance the form his Three Months ... 3 9 4 4advice will take and also to announce whether he will All orders and remittances should be sentto the NEW AGE further advise thathis adviceshould be taken. It is as well in thesematters not tointerpret too liberally PRESS,38, Cursitor Street, E.C. (orshall we say Radically) thetext of Mr. Asquith’s MSS., drawings and editorial communicationsshould be statements.The meaning must be takennot at its addressed tothe Editor, 38, Cursitor Street, E.C. maximum,but at itsminimum value. And at its mini- All communications regarding Advertisements should be mum value it is obvious that Mr.Asquith’s announce- addressed theto Advertisement Manager, 38, Cursitor mentmeans no more than that he will consultthe Street, E.C. King’s discretion in the matter of exercising the Royal prerogative. *** NOTES OF THE WEEK. Now, we are equally convinced that the bestadvice IF they had any gratitude, the Radicals would now be that could be offered the King by Mr. Asquith is the thanking their moderate friends, ourselves among them, advice not to take the advice to create peers seriously for having saved them from the worst excesses of their and at once. There has been a great deal of talk about recentfanaticism. Only a few weeks agocharges of demanding guarantees of the King; but thosewho know treacherywere being freely brought by themagainst anything of what is due to one of the persons of the not only their nominalleaders, but even against their constitutionaltrinity know very well that the demand might fairly be made from the other side. The Crown, “ great leader ” Mr. Asquith. Because he did not con- sult P.W.W. everyhour of the day, or inviteMr. that is, may notunnaturally demand guarantees in Massingham to hisCabinet meetings, andbecause, returnfor guarantees. “ Suppose,”the King might moreover, in theabsence of suchheart-to-heart talks, say, “ that I give you a pledge to create peers as you P.W.W. andMr. Massingham were unable to divine suggest, are you prepared in return to give me a pledge the direction of events,these journals concluded that that the country will back you up? ” The Crown has not onlywere they being blinded, but their party and no desire to alienate both the Lords and the People by theircountry were being betrayed. We did ourbest a singleand irretrievable act. The alienation of the then to point out that it was probable that the Cabinet Lordswith the full consent of the people mightbe knewits business, that Mr. Asquith’s famousAlbert possible, and even patriotic and necessary; but if there Hallpledge to obtain guarantees or die applied to an is any wish thatthe people will notconsent on the electoraland not a royal guarantee, that the result of fullest reflection, then the risk should be taken, not by the election gaveministers a legitimateexcuse for theKing, whonever soughtthe dispute, but by the differing in details, that the Parliamentary majority in party that did. *** January was not whatit was in November,and that, on the whole, Radicals would do well to “ waitand This reasoningappears to us unanswerable by any- see.”They have waited with some impatience,it is body who takes the trouble to put himself in the place true, and not without frequent alarums and excursions of the King; and it enforces the conclusion we came to in quest of referendums and political wild-fowl of that last week that a General Election should be held imme- description; and their patience has at last been rewarded diately on the rejection of the Resolutions by the Lords. by the spectacle of a Cabinet that has, we hope,suc- We areglad to see that our wordshave had their ceeded in satisfying both Radicals and some of the more effect in inducingthe “ Nation ” to withdraw,or at immoderate political Socialists’ that it means business. least to modify what appeared to be its rooted objection *** tomaking sure that the nation, as well asthe We arenot out of the wood, however, by a long way “ Nation,’’ was in favour of revolution. In its current yet; and a number of cautions must be addressed to our issue, the ‘‘Nation ” not only discards the Referendum friends both in the Cabinet and out of it, which we trust (which now, by theway, has leftMr. Barnes for that will be received in the spirit in which they are offered. Home of Lost Clauses, Mr. Balfour), but actually con- In the first place, it is our duty to repeat our warning templates without a shudder a General Election in June; thatthere is noroyal road to revolution.Acting on supported, no doubt, in its new resolution by Mr. the advice of hisRadical supporters, Mr. Asquith has Churchill’s bold wordson Tuesday : “ We arenot at last consented to do now what he was prepared to frightened; we are prepared to trust the people, and to 578 THE NEW AGE APRIL21, 1910 runthe risk. ” The “DailyNews,” similarly, is now Cabinet,has never threatenedto defeat the Govern- prepared to echoour advice and to face a General ment if this or that procedurewere not adopted, has Electionwithout flinching. And both journals, we may notbargained for its support of theBudget, evenof add, repeat our contention that the Election should be thoseclauses which theparty opposed lastyear, nor foughtas far as may be on thesingle issue of the has it threatened, like theNonconformists, to raisea Democracy versus the Oligarchy. holy war if its viewson education were not adopted *** by the Government. For all itsmagnanimity and its So far, so good. Rut there are stillone or two con- rare politicalhonesty, theLabour party is now, it siderations,and one in particular, to be taken into seems to berewarded with something even lessthan account. Mr. Churchill was unwiseenough to enumer- apromise; itis tobe, in the councilsof the post- atethe major measures which would be passed when revolutionaryCabinet, absolutely ignored. the Lords nolonger blocked the way. We deprecate *** altogether any mention at this moment of what may be All we can say is that if suchis to be the case, or donewhen theLords’ veto is removed;but if these if such is made to appear to be the probable case, the promissory notes are to be drawn at all, we hope that Liberals will be wise to postpone the General Election the list will notbe so ludicrouslyincomplete as Mr. until theirterm of office isexpired. Let them remain Churchill made it. Only four measures did he name at in office, with the help of their Radicals and Welshmen, all;and these were Home Rule for Ireland, Disestab- their Nonconformists andtheir Irish Nationalists, as lishment of theWelsh Church, a PassiveResisters’ long as they like. So soon as they go to the country, Recompense Act, andElectoral Reform. Frankly, if thetruth of theirpolitical ingratitude, cowardice and that is all Mr. Churchill’sCabinet hopes to be able meanness will bemade known and a revengetaken. todo after abolishing the absolute veto of theLords, Is it to besupposed thatthe Labour party, and not the revolutionis not worth thetrouble of making. only theLabour party but the Labour and Socialist What, as Mr. Balfourpertinently asked,have any of movements,deliberately suspended theirproper work these thingsto do with Social Reform?Not one of of economic agitationand education simply in order them is of the slightest economic importance to a single thatthe passage of trumperytinkerings withpetti- poor man in the country. We have been led to believe fogginggrievances of a purely political natureshould that whenonce theLords’ veto was destroyed there be facilitated throughthe House of Lords? We will might thenbe thebeginning of the real economic except, if anybody objects, the Home Rule Bill for Ire- revolution for the want of which this country is dying, land ; but does anybody seriously pretend that the other the revolution which will distributethe means of life measuresnamed can compare in realvalue with a equitably to all. Afterall, that isthe test of social Right toWork Bill ora Direct Income Tax Bill, or reform, whether it makes the rich poorer and the poor a Railway and Mines NationalisationBill? We have richer;everything else is idle wind.If, therefore,on only solemnly to repeatour warning that it would be the list of reforms to whichMr. Churchill regards the better for Liberals to stick in office until their salaries House of Lords as an impediment, there is not placed learn by habit to walk into their pockets, than to risk a single measure of Socialreform in thismaterial a GeneralElection on aRevolution, the only objects sense, then either the list is shamefully incomplete and of which are thosenamed by Mr.Churchill.