Vol. XIV. No. r6. THURSDAY,FEB. 19, 1914.

r NOTES OF THE Week . READERSAND WRITERS. 13p R. H. C. . CURRENTCant . EARLYSPRING IN Damascus By R. €3. Curlc . Foreign AFFAIRS. Hy S. Verdad . THELAST OF THE Urbanasians By -4. F. Thorn , MILITARY NOTES. By Romney . VIEWS ANI) REVIEWS. By A. E:. R. . THE FATEOF Turkey AXD Islam By Ali Ancient Town-Planning By R. B. A. . Fahmy Mohamed . THEMINER. By A. GascoigneRichards . THECABINET COUNCIL. By Conclavist . PASTICHE.By R. A. IC;., P. Selver, H. E. Foster- PORTRAIT OF A Gentleman By D. . \V. Y. Toogood, IV. J. T. . TOWARDS THE PLAYWAY. By H. Caldwell Cook . LETTERSTO THE EDITORfrom A. D. Lewis, J. W. A NOTEON SECOND CHAMBERS.By S. Verdad . O'Leary, T. R. Coulson, C. \V. Wilkinson, ART AND NATIONAL GUILDS. By A. J. Pent- . PRESENT-DAYCRITICISM . A. hf. Ludovici, P. Reid, Press-Cutter, F. J. TESSERAE.By Beatrice Hastings - Merry, J. S. Oxley, R. A. F. TEMPLE01; THE Sibyl By FredRichards . LORDMURRAY. By Tom-Titt .

demands, everymember of a trade union in England deserves to behung, drawn and quartered. -x- -x- * To concealtheir passion forrevenge, the Boer generalsnot onlylaid their plot and thenput it into the Labour nest to hatch, but theygave out through the medium of our Press that the Labour movement in South Africa wascapable of evenworse things than IT mighthave beenexpected that alter sneering at conspiracyagainst the State. There was the native the South African Trade Unionists for being driven to peril, for example ; there were also dynamitards among rely uponhis political assistance, Mr. MacDonald in theTrade Unions. We are amazed that even so cor- Parliament last week would have made the most of his rupt a Press as our own should have given credence to opportunity. The caseagainst the South African these lies about their own flesh and blood, for the truth Governmentwas so strong as to be unanswerable,he is that there is not and never was a word of truth in had the secret or open support of a good deal of public the reports.Had there been anynative peril, it is and politicalopinion, and, inaddition, there was his monstrous to supposethat in themidst of thestrike chance to show those damned Syndicalists how a poli- the white Trade Unionists would not have joined even tical expert like himself sets to business. All these ad- with theirmasters against it. They too have lives to vantages, however,proved to be of no value to Mr. loseand wivesand children to defend-as dearto MacDonald ; for in the end he not only ruined his case, themas the livesand wives of thecapitalists are to but he has added to the difficulties of the whole situa- theirclass ; and in theface of a commonperil, had tion and knocked another nailin the coffin of political such existed, the strikers would have put by their griev- actioninto the bargain. The case against the South ances as they have done thousands of times in history AfricanGovernment was of thesimplest. There not before.As for thedynamitards among them-where only wasno plot on the side of themen, but all the were they? We knowthat the very first offer of the evidence goes to show that the boot was on the other Transvaal Federation was of police to keep order. Did leg. Look, forexample, atthe admissionsmade and this seem like encouraging dynamite ? We know also that the defence offered by GeneralsBotha and Smuts. Is short work was made of the only Labour speaker who it possible for any reasonable being, to read it and not ventured to hintat sabotage. If thiswas the kind of conclude that we havehere to do with a pair of slim spirit among the men, the charges brought against them liars if they are not lunatics?They admit that after by the Boer generals are not only without foundation, their capitulation to Labour last July they swore such butthey are calculated criminal libels. It is a bad a situationshould never recur ; and they admitthat sign for England when even the stupidest of our public theyset about preparing for it. That, in ouropinion, can be persuaded to believe them. is quite sufficient evidence of the existence of the plot, *** forit unmistakably establishes motive. Nor was there 'The dastardlyplot having, however, got itself be- anythingto compare with it on theLabour side. We lieved, the South African Government could t.hen make know that there was no Syndicalist plot on the side of use of it for their strokes of revenge.Martial law, as the men. Sucha nightmare has neverentered their weall know, was declared and, in addition,imprison- heads. From first tolast their movement hadfor its ment of all. theleaders, and deportations for some of object the satisfaction of one of the legitimate demands them,were resorted to. And herein the Act of In- of any trade union in the world-protection of its mem- demnity proposed in the South African Parliament and bers and a guarantee of security. What plotcan !be requiringto be endorsed in our own, wasMr. Mac- made out of this? If the South African Trade Unionists Donald'sopportunity. The indemnity against all the wereguilty of Syndicalistconspiracy in making these crimescommitted under martial law we should our- 482 selves have been prepared to see Mr. MacDonald accept SouthAfrican Government, if hisintention had been and to have refrained from criticising him for it. After to defendGeneral Botha? Itstands to our reason, dl, thething was done, it related to thepast, and we must say, that under those circumstances he would nothing said by our own Parliament could have altered not only have concealed the fact (hadit been a fact) matters.But the case was very differentwith the de- that neither he nor Lord Gladstone had been consulted, portations. There, as anybody can see, it is no longer but he would have given Parliament to suppose that he hn act of oblivion and indemnity that is in question, but approved of them.But he did neither, and inunmis- ;t fresh act of commission. The very gravest, questions takable terms. He not only did not conceal his ignor- of politics are raisedby anattempt to slip a Bill of ance of the doings of the South AfricanGovernment, Attainder referring to the future through the body of a but heexpressly denied thateither he or Lord Glad- Bill nominally referring only to thepast. That there was stoneapproved of them.Mr. MacDonald may draw a clear distinction to be drawn between the martial law whatinferences he likes from this evidence; but the andthe deportations not even Mr. MacDonaldcould inferencewe draw is that neither Lord Gladstone nor fail to see. Indeed he observed that the South African the Cabinet at home, however they might agree about Parliament was ‘ actuallylegislating by means of the martial law, could or would have consented with their Indemnity Bill, and squeezing a profit, so to say, out of foreknowledge to the deportations. an apology for a loss. Rut to have observed this was ,*** not only not enough, itinvolved the necessity of remark- And there are reasons for this attitudeof theirs, quite ing a gooddeal more. Among other things, it cer- apartfrom the sentimental reasons that fools may tainlynecessitated, in our opinion, anamendment of attributeto them. The deportations are inthemselves the resolution by means of which, while the Indemnity the veryfoolishest act of which a self-governing clauses could be accepted, the clauses referring to the dominioncan be guilty. They cannot bring industrial deportations could have been either formally censured peace, but are, on the contrary, a sure means of keep- or even deleted. ingindustrial war alive.Deported leaders are nearly **+ always powerful leaders, and in their very absence lies Mr. MacDonaldwould probably reply that even so their strength. Our Cabinet is not so ignorant of his- amended hisresolution would nothave been carried. tory that it does not know this; nor is it so stupid as But, in the first place, its mere publication would have not to be aware that the reaction will come in South indicated pretty clearly to South Africa where precisely Africa when the complaisance of England with the de- the line of censure was to be drawn ; and, in the second portations will appear in thelight of treachery. For place, we are almost certain that the resolution, if not Africa, be it. noted, is already divided upon the subject. carried, would at least have been better supported than GeneralHertzog, for one, a mostpowerful politician the actual resolution. Such a professional politician as and anti-British at heart, was opposed to the deporta- Mr. MacDonald might have been supposed to be capable tions. So is Mr. Merriman. It is probable, we should of readingthe signs of opinionin this direction Iong say,that at thecoming Autumn elections the South before the debate itself took place ; and their manifesta- African Government may be dismissed in consequenceof tion during the debate was nothing shortof remarkable. the deportations-and how will the British Government The “Times,” for example, from the first news of the appear then? Further than this, it is certain that there deportations, did more even that reserve judgment until will bereaction in England. Unless every Liberal is General Botha’s defence should appear ; it declared that a hardenedand abandoned liar, a largepart of the only themost proven perilcould justify such a step. party cannot stand by and see the principles of Liberal- And when General Botha’s defence was published, the ism smashed by the creature of their legislation. They ‘‘Times’ ” commenton the deportations was to the cannot forget, if even the Tories can, that two hundred effect that theirnecessity was,to say the least, very millions of money and thirty thousand British lives were doubtful Is Mr.MacDonald so ignorant of histrade spent to compel Kruger to refrain from doing no more that he is not aware that a hint like this was a hint to than a quarter of what General Botha has done. Was be taken? He did not surely expect the Government to there no appreciation of this, in the marvellous political confide to him; that in their view the deportations were mind of Mr. MacDonald? But there was in the minds beyondexcuse ! Yet,for political experts,the an- of at least a half of the members of the Cabinet ! nouncement in the Times was no less than this). *-E* Again,it was obvious long before the debate, that all And, asthe (‘Time”’ says, still more serious ques- theLiberal journals here, without a singleexception, tions were involved. The most serious, perhaps, is that were prepared to condemn the deportations at the same of the limitsof autonomy in the case ad the self-govern- time that they were prepared to assent to the Indemnity ing dominions. We certainlyshall not be accused of Bill proper. Was thishint, too, lost upon our great wishing to restrict unduly the responsibilities of the cor- political expert? Did he dream that our Liberal Press poratemembers of theEmpire, since to the category would beunanimous against the wish of the Govern- of autonomous bodies we would add, as ourreaders ment?The collusion was too’significant to beunin- know, the great industrial guildsof the nation-yes, and spired or without meaning ; and its plain meaning was preserve them in their charters through thick and thin. thatour own Government would have been glad of a But an autonomous body within a larger body can only popularexcuse for declining assent to deportations berelatively independent;for its absolute independ- without trial. enceceases with the limits of itscharter. But what + c arethe limitswithin which theautonomy of the We know that to partisans (such as Mr. MacDonald Dominions is confined? It wouldbe well: perhaps, if is alwayslecturing) the view thatour Cabinetcould the question were never raised in ‘a practical manner, possibly object to the deportations must appear ridicu- for the incident of the tea-party at Boston can never be lous. But Mr.MacDonald knows better ; and, if he forgotten,nor how the limits of thetwo areas were does not, the remarks of Mr. Harcourt must openhis then fixed. On theother hand, without limits of any eyes. Forthough the Press has notcommented on kind,the Empire is simply an illusion,cemented by them they are really of such a character as to be almost words and constructed of lies. Is that what all the flag- startling intheir implied condemnation of theaction wagginghas been about?Does the Empire mean no of theSouth AfricanGovernment. Mr. Harcourtwas morethan that? It will be seen,however, that Mr. careful tosay that his permission as Secretary of the Harcourt was practically driven into this universal and Colonies was only asked for thedeportations whenit negativeposition through the simple stupidity of Mr. was too late to withhold it ; and he was equally careful MacDonald.Faced with the choicebetween agreeing tosay that Lord Gladstone, our Governor inAfrica, withMr. MacDonald’s ill-considered resolution and hadbeen similarly placed. Now would hehave made assenting to the Indemnity Act, deportation clauses and these statements, voluntary as theywere, unnecessary all,Mr. Harcourt, however anxiousto except these as theywere, indiscreet as theymust appear to the latterfrom consent, had really no alternative but to 483 swallow General Botha’sdemands holus-bolus. That chargeis true or even probable? Does he anxiously they were unpalatable Mr. Harcourt made clear ; that a inquirewhether, even if Syndicalism exists in South majority of theHouse even would have reserved the Africa (which it does not), it is the Syndicalism made deportationclauses wethink probable; but what is known to him by the “Daily Express”and other certain is that by accepting the whole Bill andunder organs of the higher sociology? Not he ; the word is such circumstances, the ImperialParliament has now enough, and, before you can say knife, he is denouno- committed itself to a precedent not of regulated but of ing Syndicalism as“the worst enemy of organised un-regulated autonomy for the Dominions, tantamount labour,” pronouncing Syndicalism to be the causeof the in its effect to the abdication of the smallest power of strike in SouthAfrica, and apologising while pro- control. This moral, indeed, was drawn by Sir Gilbert fessing to plead forhis colleagues whose sin is only Parker, a Canadian, in the brief discussion that followed more honourable than his own. The sight of Mr. Mac- Mr. Harcourt’s speech. “A momentouspronounce- Donald excusing men whose character is at least cne of ment,” he declared it; and nobody with an eye beyond manliness is, let us hope, the nethermost depih of poli- to-day will deny that the description is just. tical Labour’s humiliation. *** -x- %- x- It is useless to speculate on what practical deductions Nothing, however, is settled that is not settled right; theother Dominions may draw from the successful and we may certainly expect thatboth here and in South revolt of South Africa fromBritish traditions and our Africa theevent of thedeportation withouttrial and own abdication of authority to deal with it. Time will without guilt of nine Trade Union leaders will have its doubtless bring home to us its consequences. But, for sequel. In England, if Mr. MacDonalddoes not move the sake of Labour politicians in the future (if, as we hell to stop it, the tour of the deported menwill, we fear, the wretched breed is to continue), we may com- imagine, stir up the Labour movement to do what Mr. ment on the failure of Mr. MacDonald. We haveno MacDonald was too much of a flunkey to do-namely, doubtwhatever that in letting down the Government, to compel the Government, secretly or openly, to as he thought, lightly, he fancied himself a very subtle “advise’’ GeneralBotha to re-admit the ostracised fellow on whom the larger appeals of Empire had not leaders and to pay them such compensation as he can. been lost. He would show the world thatthough a Nothing short of the return in honour of the deported Labour man and therefore (if he only knew it) honour- men can satisfy, we are sure, either the sense of justice ably bound to speak for his class on this occasion, he or the sense of pride which are in our race. .General could transcendtheir narrow views andrise tothe Botha may have been to Oxford, General Smuts may be heights of statesmanship. Never wasthere a worse British in allbut race and name ; both may imagine occasion for hisstatesmanship, and never before has that England, now that Parliament has consented, will hisfailure in statesmanship been more complete. For consent to their act of hostility; but, were they English we repeat that England expected on this occasion that indeed, they would realise that until that act is reversed the Labour Party would do itsduty ! Whatother it will be neitherforgotten nor forgiven. Do theyre- party in the State could voice the protest of England member how Majubastuck in the gizzards of the without peril to the Empire but the Labour Party? Had English for twenty years?Fought on February 27, the protust been initiated ‘by either the Liberal or the 1881,it rankled in the English mind until it was wiped Tory Party officially or even by group, the fat would out by the events of 1900 It is an ominous coincidence have been in the fire, and the Dominion parties would- that a fresh defeat of the British-this time our civil have dosed up and the curfew would have rung for the traditions--at the hands of the Boers will culminate on Imperial lights to be put out. Both parties instinctively thesame date in Februarythis year when ninewhite . knew thatthis was the situation and thePress and men will landon ourshores kicked outfrom South leaders of each were busy in anticipating it. But Africa for no offence known in any civilised law. what could not safely be done by either of the govern- *** ing parties could. be, and as they hoped in their hearts, wouldbe, done by theLabour Party. The Labour But we have quite a good reason for supposing that Party had no Imperial significance ; its protest, however the event is not dead in South Africa either. The pos- loud, would have imperilled nothing. Onthe other sible fall of General Botha’sministry, theresignation hand, hadits protest been loud enough,the voice of in disgust of LordGladstone, the significant division England might have been heard behind it and yet with- of opinion in all parties there, are political matters of outthe open collusion of any - official party. Thus some importance to those who troubleabout such General Botha might have been moved to reconsider his things.But infinitely moreimportant are facts of blunder and, while absolvingParliament from any anotherkind within our knowledge. As we ventured offence, have withdrawn the deportations to the satis- , to guess beforeever a cable could reach us, the expense faction of the whole English world and the laying of an of the whole Botha-bouffe has been too much for South Imperial problem now momentously opened. Unfor- Africa. It will never happen again. According tothe tunately, our cunning little Labour politician, eaten up “Rand Daily Mail” the bare cost of the citizen army with snobbery and having all the feelings of a cad to- was G40,000 a day. Another fifty thousandper day wardshis own class,must ne& takethe warnings was lost in gold production. In Johannesburg alone the addressed to the Liberal and Tory Parties as warnings liquor trade calculated its losses at &7,000 a day ; and addressed to him. Thoughnot in their position of re- the wail of theretail dealers, who complain that they sponsibility and though professedly and in thesight have been squeezed dry, is pitiable. On the other hand, of all men the spokesman of the English working-folk i: is not likely that the deportation of nine men out of and of no party in particular, he must needs think that ninety thousand leaves the proletariat without potential the statesmanship of the other parties was his also. The leaders. We have evidence, indeed, thatthe leaders other parties, it is obvious, cannot but praise him, since who are now preparing totake the place of the de- apish sycophancy is still a form of flattery { but respect ported leaders are in as much advance of these as these him-it is not in human nature ! There is no respect are of themselves of only a few yearsago. Events possible for Mr. Jeames MacDonald. Inmitigation of teach,and the Labour movement of South Africa as his snobbery, however, must be placed as a contributing well as General Bothacan profit by them. Thus we cause of his failure his fanatical hatred of Syndicalism. have, on the one side, adetermination never to incur What the man means by It is beyond his power to ex- the expense of such a strike suppression again ; and, on plain; bub whatever it is, he stands towards it as Sir the other, a determination to repeat the cause, if cause William Bull standstowards Socialism. Mark how itwas. Who can doubt that here are theelements of this intellectual this brain of Labour, this Marx-Bebel- a compromise, and of a compromise favourable to the Jaures rolled into one, treats the charge of Syndicalism men? But the first condition even of such a compromise broughtagainst the Trade Union leaders of South is the repeal of the deportation clauses of the Indemnity Africa ! Does hepause to consider whether the Act and the re-admission of the exiled men. 484

Current Cant. I Foreign Affairs. “Mr. Justice Eve, in the Chancery Division yesterday, By S. Verdad. ‘Some people think that the less you look at these old I mastersthe better. Old masters-Velazquez and so on. LAST week a curttelegram from Constantinople an- What were they? I should turn them into cash if they nounced thatan imperialirade had beenissued, were mine.’ (Laughter.)”--“Daily Mail February 12. formallysanctioning the arrangement reached by Sir Edward Grey andHakki Pasha inLondon a few ‘‘Mr.Dooley is one of thegreatest modern writers of monthsago. This is the latest proceeding in connec- English. ”-RUDYARD Kipling tion with the Bagdad railway ; and, like every previous step in the negotiations, it has left the Triple Entente a “My relationswith foreign Powers. . . My Govern- littleweaker andGermany and her allieslittlea ment. . . . My negotiations. . . .”---KING GEORGE. stronger.England now consentsto the extension of the line to Bassora-our face is saved by the provision “The people are looking to the churches to solve the ’ thatthe extensionshall not be undertakenwithout our dark problems of existence. ”-REV. CHARLESJOSEPH. consent. England gives up all claim to participation in theconstruction of therailway, and merely asks that “The Presscan, perhaps, do more than politicians to soften the temper of parties . . . it can proclaim a truce sheshall be represented on theboard of directors by of God.”--“The Star.” two members, who will see, as far as possible, that no -- rates likely to damage British interests are imposed. “Official Liberalismhas come, not without difficulty, *** io anappreciation of thequestion of whatthe future Only one grain of comfort, a very small one, is left of the British Race is to be.”--The “Times.” us. Turkey is assured of thesovereign rights she has exercisedover the Sheik of Koweit, that littledomain “WeEnglish are the most adaptable people inthe bordering on the Persian Gulf ; but, in return for this world.”-“The Spectator.” recognition of hersuzerainty, she recognises the “autonomy” of the Sheik-a pleasantsplitting of “Oh for one hour of Great Botha in GreatBritain. words, meaning that so long as England can maintain There was no Larkin withLabour loot where Boers are hersupremacy in thePersian Gulf and theadjacent the bosses.”--GEORGER Sims _I__- watersthe Turkish Government will notattempt to interferewith the Sheik of Koweit. Therights of the “The working man is selfish, foul-mouthed, ill-behaved, Englishshipping companies concerned arealso “safe- and Violent.”--GEORGEBERNARD SHAW. -- -- guarded. ” *** “Progress is the order of the day, and we are of the opinion that the passing hy Parliament of the Da light Franceis no longer a partyto these negotiations ; Saving Bill would be another rungin the ladder of for so far back as 199the French Government decided Progress.”-The Leytonstone Express.” to devoteits energies to looking after the more im- -.- .-- portant French interests concerned in the Tripoli-Horns- “F. E. Smith’s brilliant career is but opening. . . .”- Bagdad section of the line, leavingthe Bagdad-Gulf A. P. NICOLSON,in the “Nineteenth Century.’’ section to England. These latter negotiations have not come to a conclusion, or anything like one, and Djavid “Thejournalist must be ill earnest,he must dream Bey and the German financiers are still discussing the dreams and see visions S. R. PHILLIPS. various of the lineBerlin.in Since theBalkan war a new country has come on the scene, “The working man has more time to-day than ever he andItaly nowclaims her rights as a conquerorand had.”-REV. W. COLLETT. demandsparticipation in theSyrian railways. Her de- mand has already been granted in principle, andit is “Knowing how Mr. Frank Harris justifies his Christian now known that the task of the French Foreign Minister name. . . .”-“Daily Mirror.” ter will be much more complicated than the Government -- expected four years ago.*** “The Crown remainsunbribable, unassailable, power- ful, and still broad-based upon the people’s will.”-“Daily I have already referred to the concessions which the Express.” Powers expect to get from Turkey for the exploitation of Asia Minor-concessions,indeed, whichhave in “We havethe essentially British instinct for lawand manycases been granted already. The railwayprivi- liberty which detests everything that savours of Muscovite leges,although they are highly important, must be arbitrarinessand of notplaying the game.”-Lucien reckoned as only partofother privileges which WOLFin the “Graphic.” will in thecourse of timeprove much more ~~ valuable. The Germans, for example, have the conces- “Happily,the business world is asvitally interested sion for exploiting the forests “in the neighbourhood” in the production of pupils of the right t pe as the Edu- of theBagdad railway-an elasticterm of which full cationist is, or ought to be. . . . Happily a good start advantage is now being taken. It may be assumed that has already been made in many quarters for securing co- operation between the school and employer. ”-CLOUDSLEY the coaland other mines near the route will not be BRERETON in the “Contemporary Review.” neglected, as soon as capitalcan be raised. The Ger- manGovernment always works with the next four or ‘(Not even the proceedings institutedagainst Crippen five generations inview, andits acquisition of the after hisdramatic flightand capture could equal the Bagdad line is only part of a very well-laid scheme. sensationaltension of the Sumner case.”-“Liverpool *** Courier.” Of Italy, France, and this country the same remark cannotbe made. TheGerman Government hasone “The United States, with a vast area, bangs, bolts and advantageover the countries just mentionedin that barsthe door against free immigration--Arnold thefeelings of theruled need not be takeninto con- WHITE. sideration. Our own foreign policy is fairly continuous, but an election may cause a good and strong minister “The King’s Speech has transformed the whole political to bedisplaced for a weakerman. This, of course, situation.”-The “Star.” has happenedin France time andagain since,in the “Theclanging of a tram-carbell inthe Jerusalem ’eighties, Germany set seriously to work on the Bagdad streets is to us, not a warning of the coming of the scheme ; and the coming and going of French Ambassa- vandals, but a sign of progress.”--“ Jewish Chronicle.” dors and Foreign Ministers had a disastrous effect on 485 the policy of Francein the NearEast. At onetime theFrench populace appeared to favour a strong for- Military Notes. ward policy in Asia Minor; at another time a spirit of By Romney. distrust fell upon the people, andfears of thesudden advance of a Germanforce, or of trickery by the AMONGmy military recollections is one of a promising Spaniards inMorocco, or of analteration in the atti- young officer reproved by a seniormember of the tude of England,resulted in a change of policy. The General Staff for reading Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer, German Government never allowed itself to be disturbed accordingto the wisdom of Camberley, was morbid in this way. I amnot insisting that this is a good and unprofitable. Farbetter were the time devoted to “professionalliterature,” by which term I suppose method of rule if itbe generally applied : no doubt I shall be told that social reforms in England and France the aspirant is to understand the “Red book,” or one havemade greater progress under more enlightened of thosestudies of campaigns upon thegeometrical forms of administration. system beloved of Hamley, in which a happylack of *** imagination and general incapacity to think have per- mittedsome text-book writing hack todiscourse The country thatknows its own mind andis pre- learnedly upon “lines’’ and “positions” and “communi- pared to support its designs by forceful means is at a cations” and “re-entrants,” and every conceivable thing greatadvantage in theNear East as comparedwith exceptwhat matters-theskill andenergy of officers countries which pursue a vacillating policy. Italyis a and men. Well, well ! A light is thrown upon our newcomer in Syria,but whatever she may decide to Staff by all this kind of thing. uo isnot likely tointerfere with the plans of her *** powerful “ally” in the north-how these alleged allies Theyoung officer’s idea wasperfectly correct, love one another ! The Germans think that Italy should although I do not think that he was wise in his choice have stuck to Tripoli. On the other hand, France and of Schopenhauer. He saw that to understand soldiering England have been known in Asia Minor for years, and YOU mustunderstand life-which may seem rather a their recent policy there has detracted considerably from largeorder, but is an indispensable one. Thebiggest theirnone too large prestige. They will be ableto fool of a foolish time is the specialist. You cannot shut develop the smallinterests theyhave, no doubt;but off the things of this world intowater-tight compart- they will do so in future with the knowledge that Ger- ments, labelling one “Religion,” and the other “Philo- man officers are in command of the Turkish army and sophy,”and the third “Soldiering,” and the fourth thatRussia is too busilyoccupied with Armenia and. “Art,” and so on. To understand, any one department with Persia to furnish them with assistance on the spot one must acquire at any rate a working knowledge of in time of trouble. *** all. The man who confines himself to one subject-who, like our friend from Camberley, reads nothing but “pro- I may as well mentionhere what the next step in fessionalliterature”-forces himself into a groove. Germany’s foreign policy is to be-her foreign policy, And grooves lead inevitably to error. I mean, so far as Asia Minor is concerned. In connec- *** tion with theMorocco dispute Germany made us familiar It is a failure to grasp this important fact which is with the ominous expression “compensations,” and in to blame for the modern cult of the specialist-the “ex- the same way she is likely to impress upon us the dif- pert,” as heis called. Itis seen thatthe subject is ferent meanings which may be attached to the phrases large and complicated. It is seen that to practise in it “sphere of interest,”“enclave,” and “zone.” It is requires a long and intimate acquaintance with the de- the last word, I think, whichis likely to give rise to tails of which it is composed. So much for the one side thegreatest amount of discussion. In brief,Germany of the medal on which we are so fond of gazing. The is about to seek a zone of territory on either side of the obverse,however, is notless striking. Thereon you Bagdadline which shallgive her as muchauthority find it written that it is easy not to see the wood for there as is now beingexercised by theUnited States thetrees : thatthe great mistakes of historyhave for a specified distanceon either side of thePanama originatednot in someerror of detail(for such are Canal. It is no longer sufficient for the German Govern- comparatively easy to repair, and are soon detected be- ment that the Bagdad railway shall, for the most part, cause so many persons are looking for them), but in a be German-owned andGerman-managed; it must run false assumption at the root of the problem-some omis- throughterritory whichis as muchGerman as is the sion so gigantic that everybody took it for granted, and soil on which the Sans Souci Palace is built. This intro- those who did perceive it scarcely dared to question it. duces an entirely new factor into Near Eastern affairs; Nowsince the specialist is nearly always immersed in but a factor which is certain to be discussed with acri- detail-and, indeed,it is his business to be so-it is mony during the next few years. ~ uponthe man with a knowledgeless minute, but more *** ’ far-reaching,that we rely forthe correction of these

As a complement to the development of railway lines ~ fundamentalmistakes-upon the man whocan see (and, in consequence, the development of land also) in things as a whole, who has not lost sight of the wood, Asia Minor, anagreement has already beenreached andwho understands the place of the woodin a yet betwen the Greek Government and a French Company, largersystem. Such men are nevertoo common. To- the Societe desBatignolles, whereby a newrailway daythey are less common than usual becausewe de- of great internationalimportance and strategic value liberately discourage them. will bebuilt in the new Greek territoryannexed as a *** result of theBalkan war. This new line is to linkup i The classic instance of the specialist’s failure is found therailway at presentrunning to Larissa with some in the Revolutionary epoch. The close of the eighteenth convenient point on the Oriental Railway-Verria, per- century found thestanding armies of Europe in the ~ haps, whichis on the line to Salonika. It will incon- control of men who knew the details of their business sequence be possible to travel from Paris to Athens, via as thoroughly as anyone can ever hope to know them. Uskuband Nishin twodays and a half. (Sincethe War had been, or was thought to have been,reduced Servianstook. over Nish the Turkish name has been to a science. Everypossible contingency had been changed back to the old Servian form of Skopljie.) foreseen-and providedfor. Persons of considerable *** knowledge,both theoretical and practical, had enume- Following upon this, of course, it is hoped that the rated every move and the counter to it. The teachers of traffic to India may be diverted from Calais-Brindisi to Ju-jitsu who will show you how to break an opponent’s Calais-Athens ; and, even if this scheme cannot beimme- neckwith your thumb and forefinger, and will then diately proceeded with, there remains ample opportunity show your opponent how to smash your right ankle as of economic developmentinEpirus and Northern soon as you try to do it, are not more omniscient. To Greece. imaginethe helplessness of themilitary pundits of 486

1792-3, confronted with the Revolution, we must imagine aJu-jitsu wrestler acquainted with all the moves that The Fate of Turkey and Islam. are open to a man fighting with his naked hands, sud- By Ali Fahmy Mohamed. denly confronted by an opponentwith a rifle-with a IV. possibility, that is, which they had not provided for be- cause it seemed to them either impossible or outside the The Egyptian Nationalist Party. rules of thegame. It isobvious that insuch circum- I Think it is necessary toexplain here a forcein stancesthe more acquainted’ with Ju-jitsu awrestler Egyptian politics which has had the greatest influence, was, and the more steeped in Ju-jitsu traditions he had directly and indirectly, on the fortunes of Turkey. For become, the less likely he would be to foresee the rifle it must not be forgotten that Cairo has become, more contingency or to provide for it. All his art would not especiallysince 1907, the centre-the metropolis--of be worth a little common sense and,’the most amateurish allsorts of Orientalintrigues and counter-intrigues. acquaintance with the possibilities of rifles. As a country occupied by the troops of a foreign Power, * .* there is in Egypt, naturally, a Nationalist movement to Now it is the problem of the future not how to make drivethe foreign usurper out of the motherland. In our officers more learned-they are alreadyabout as the Akaba incident of 1906, which nearly mused a war learned in their profession as Englishmen are likely to between England and Turkey, the Egyptians naturally be-but how to cultivatetheir grip of reality,their sidedwith Turkey and the masses. We believed that knowledge of men, their power of using their wits and theTurkish Saviour was coming to drivethe unbe- adaptingthemselves to circumstances-powerswhich lievers out of the land. Infact Al-Ghazi Mokhtar are apt to become atrophied by years of routine in time Pasha announced in the “Al-Lewa” that 100,000 Otto- of peace.I am told by myoptimistic friends that the mantroops were camping near Akaba, and that his Englishman already possesses these qualities in abnor- son,Mahmud Pasha Mukhtar, was to march at their malmeasure, and that they will reappear at the first headright to Cairo.Matters thus became more corn- breath of dangerjust as theyappeared in the Indian plicated, Lord Cromer became more obstinate, and the Mutiny andthe Napoleonic wars.It may be ; but I British fleet washurried to the Levant.Although the shouldlike to point outthat those events took place affair was peacefully settled, a campaign was begun in before theBritish subaltern had beencompelled to the English Press against the “ungrateful Egyptians,” deadenhis brains by “professionalliterature.” The perhaps not withoutreason. For England was sur- England of those days had two classes of officer. One prised to find that all Egypt turned so suddenly against read-and read well-philosophy, poetry,history and her and sided with the Turks whom she considered to what not; in short, all the contents of those country- have ruined Egypt, while she (England) had saved the houselibraries which he founded, and which-signifi- Nile Valley from anarchy and chaos, and had endowed cant fact-are notbeing renewed. Theother didnot withit prosperity. In short,the Egyptians were read at all. But he lived and moved among men. He punished for their ingratitude in the Denshawi Incident, had a workingknowledge of allclasses, andwas, byhanging four unfortunate peasants and sentencing throughthe medium of groomsand pugilists, incon- manyothers to various terms of penalservitude and siderable sympathy with the lowest class fromwhich his flogging ; for the nominal cause that an English officer, men weredrawn. If he lived in India,he had often a certain Captain Bull, died of sunstroke after having acquiredadministrative experience of a remarkable been beaten by the unfortunate villagers whose pigeons nature. Hehad organised armies, conducted negotia- he tried to shoot without their permission. This affair tionsand overturned thrones. Ineither case, there- was destined to have an unfortunate effect on Egyptian fore, the officer was a man of the world in the best sense politics andthe Anglophobe movement. A sharp but of the term. His successor surpasses himin acquaint- admirablePress campaign ‘was carried out in the ance with the niceties of drill and fieldwork and in a Egyptian Press, and we, the youthful generation of the knowledge of thelatest fads of the militaryschools. land,were easilyconvinced thateverything good was But if in the hour of trial that knowledge fails-as a done by ourcompatriots, the elder Egyptians, and considerable part of it is bound to fail-I doubt whether everything bad was done by the English. Not only had he would be equallycapable of improvisingmethods wethe example of Denshawi,but here had obvious suitable to the situation. failuresin all educational institutions andother de- +*+ partments, for which theNationalist Press advocated Acquaintancewith detail, unless it is corrected by a remedy to which theEnglish displayed their objections knowledge of essentials,deadens as much as it en- tion. We had not been given sufficient and progressive lightens. That knowledge of essentials, so far as it history-at school-to train us inthe evolution of can beacquired from books at all,is to be sought in nations; and we accordingly believed that the English wide andcatholic reading. I donot mean that the were the curse of the land and that every evil done not soldier must be a competent literary critic. Matter must onlyin Egypt, but in the whole East, was caused by be his aim rather than the form in which it is presented. them. And thus every movement unfavourable to the But both in theory and practice officers should be en- Englishwas always applauded by the public-the couraged to put themselves in touch with life. The way ignorantand innocent public ! To us in Egyptthe not tomake soldiers is to isolatethem on Salisbury friendlyrelations between England and Turkey were Plain and tie them down to “professional literature.’’ not only a badomen for Egypt, but for Turkey, too. *** We allbelieved that England had no businessin the I see that my Hebrewantagonist has returned to East except to destroy Islam, and exploit the resources the charge with a demand that should justify my dis- of Mahomedan countries;and that she would do like of his people. I haveneither time nor space to nothingto helpIslam or any Moslempeople unless do so, nordoes the case demandthat I should. Our she was paid for it, in manifold. controversy turned not upon whether Jews were nice or At that time, I wrote two articles in “Misr-el-Fatat” nasty, but upon whether contributors to the Press have entitled “The Warnings of History” ; and these caused the right of expressing an opinion in the matter. I con- muchsensation. The subject of one of these, which tend that they have. I can express opinions relative to was in sixcolumns, was the role playedby Great Catholics,Protestants, Turks, and infidels without Britain in the Berlin Congress;how she betrayed arousing a tempest of silly and unmanly squealing, and Turkey, who was then her ally by virtue of the Cyprus it should be the same with Jews. It is quite intolerable Convention; and brought about the dismemberment of that in an age whenneither tradition nor sacrament theOttoman dominionin the manner already men- inspiresreverence and whenfreedom of speech is tioned. I donot rememberexactly the subject of the alleged to be within the right of everyone, that immu- otherarticle, but it tended tothe same conclusion, nity from criticism which has been denied to God should namely, that the faith of English politics could not be be revived for the benefit of an obscure tribe of Asiatics. relied upon. 487

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Up till that time,I did not go beyond theOriental foreignintrigues in Egypt against England. It was method of theories. I then believed that everybody, rumoured that Germany was desperately struggling to high or low, who advocated reform was devoted- to the regain her influence in Constantinople,and that her cause of reform.I knew nobody workingin politics intriguesextended to the banks of the Nile. Itwas except the enthusiasts of the Nationalist Party ; but I said that after she had demonstrated her anger with the remember well that when I was invited to a wedding of Young Turks in the matters of Bulgaria’s independence a friend of mine, I recordedin my pocket-book some andthe annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, she pro- names of notablesand others whom I meant to mised the Young Turks to get them compensation by approachwith my politicalideas. We chatted,at the wrestingEgypt from England, if theYoung Turks wedding, ,on politics, and praise was lavishly bestowed would bringabout the downfall ofKiamel Pasha, the on thosewho were servingthe Nationalist cause. avowedpro-English Grand Vizier. BaronOppenheim, Among those I approached were two of the most noted Hon. Councillor of the German Legation in Cairo, was Egyptian politicians,namely, Mahmud Bey Anis,a rumouredto be influencing certainEgyptians to in- member of the managing committee of the Nationalist augurate an anti-English propaganda, and Farid Bey’s Party, and Hassan Musa AI-Akkad, who played an im- visit to Germany thatsummer made the rumour portantpart in theold Nationalist movement. Ilaid credible. OtherEgyptians known to beNationalists, beforethem my twoplans : first,the solution of the such as Hofez Bey Ramagan,the Cairo Advocate, Egyptian question by means of arbitration-a European and Yousif Bey El-Moulhi, thenotorious sequestrator Congress-which aimed at thesubstitution of the of “AI-Lewa” (who was the Court’s underling in frus- Englishoccupation by a Turkishor an international tratingthe Nationalist Party), visited Germany, too, garrisonand the internationalisation of theEgyptian on apolitical mission. administration, in such a mannerthat the whole arrangement would resultin the neutralisation of Egypt; second, thatEgypt shouldbe represented in theOttoman Chamber. foundI Mahmud Bey Anis The Cabinet Council. with a weekly paper that has since praised him to the By Conclavist. highestheaven; and he began to complain tome of THE Premier : Gentlemen, I have called you together theattacks on himself, buthe didnot expend much to-day so that you might present reports of your various courtesy or generosity on the editor of that paper. But departments.‘With the changes which areabout to when I began to speak on the two public subjects, the occur I thought it would be profitable to all concerned, talk was unconsciously turned to the weekly paper; and both those who are quitting and those who areexchanging it was in vain that I tried to set before him a plan to ing office to hear a generaloutline of thematters at go in deputation to Constantinople. presentengaging their departments. ‘This will enable When I talked to Hassan AI-Akkad about my two subjects he interrupted me in every line, and raised all you, to some extent at least, to familiarise yourselves sorts of objections to everypoint. He saidthat the with questions which you may be called upon to answer best plan was to go back to the ideas which he advo- inthe House or on the platform. We will first take the report of the Home Office. Mr.McKenna. cated in 1870-1880,so I departed. 1 could no longer have any faith in members of the Nationalist Party, who re- Mr. McKenna : Mr. Premierand Gentlemen, I am jectedevery plan I laid before them. It was apparent pleased toreport that the militant movement of the to me that merely to go on shouting, in the open air, for Suffragettes is dying rapidly. a Constitution or evacuation would not have any prac- ThePremier : Fromthe application of theCat and ticalresult. TheEnglish authorities gave the Mouse Act ? Nationaliststhe impression that the Khedive had the Mr. McKenna; Oh, no Sir.Neither that measure Constitution in his hands, and they accordingly began nor forcible feeding would have killed themovement. to challenge the Khedive and his Court. Farid Bey, in The Press notices enjoyed by those women subjected to the first speech after his election as leader of the Party, forciblefeeding orthe in-and-out-of-prison treatment warned his Highness by citing the example of the fate would alwayshave kept up the supply of heroines of Louis XVI when he hesitated and refused to grant a anxiousfor the advertisement of martyrdom.But Constitution. Itwas stated that the Khedivecould fromthe moment one of theleaders proclaimed her- not sleep for several nights after that speech was made, self anauthority on the subject of pox themilitant for fear that national enthusiasm had reached a climax movementbegan to decline. So, Sir,we may reasan- of fury. ably anticipate an early dissolution of the movement. It was at that time, more especially immediately after ThePremier : That, I think,Gentlemen, is a most the Khedive’s return from his state visit to London in satisfactory report. In addition, it appears most fitting 1908,that I began to write to him my letters, imploring that as it was these Pankhurst creatures who created the him to put a stop to intrigues against the Nationalist movement, so they arethe proper people to kill the Party, and to use his influence to get the management thing. We will next take the report of the L.G.B. Mr. of the Party into more competent hands. For this abso- Burns. lutely justifiable action, I was despised by the National- Mr. Burns : Mr. Premier and Gentlemen, seeing that ist leaders on the one hand, and sometimes threatened, I am aboutto have a successor at the office of the at other times flattered,by the Courtiers, who began L.G.B., I am delighted at this opportunity of informing then to exercise a powerful influence over his Highness. him of the matter I have in hand at present. There is They told me plainly thatthe Khedive hadentirely every prospect of my new Star Chamber method for the ceased to mix in politics; and advised me to attend to internal ,management of workhouses getting into opera- my own affairs. It became clear to everybody that the tion without the knowledge of’the general public. new alliance, which was called the “Entente Regime,” The Premier : What do you expect will be the result, betweenthe Court and Sir E. Gorst, was established, Mr.President? and thatit allowed theCourt an extensive power to Mr. Burns : Well, really, Sir, I cannotsay for cer- frustrate the Nationalist Party, in the Oriental method, tain. But I was hoping that under my newsystem we in lieu of certain concessions. ThenFarid Bey wrote should beable to kill off five paupersfor every his twoimmortal articles entitled : “What People three we kill off at present. Of course, Gentle- Say,” in which he openly said that the Khedive had con; men, that is nothing like what we couldaccomplish if contracted a privateloan of ~3,000,000with anEnglish we had the lethal chamber, or the free use of prussic firm, payableon theday that the Englishevacuated acid. But I am afraid we dare not at the moment risk Egypt, and that his Highness was no longer interested the introduction of these. Themasses unfortunately in the publicwelfare beyond its effect onhis income havenot yet reached that stage when they will view from his ,private estates. with indifference the destruction of the surplus poor as Atthat ‘time, too, there was muchdevelopment of they do surplus dogs and cats. Still, Sir, I am pleased 488 to say everything is steadily tending in that direction. to Mr.Redmond, who I knowat bottom hasno par- Theconstant pressure which we areapplying to the ticular love for the priest in politics. We will now take working classes will eventually force the man of twenty- thereport of theChancellor Mr. George. five to support us, when he sees that no’one will Mr.Lloyd George : Mr. Premier,Friends and employ his fifty-year-old father, and he is left with no Enemies. Since our Last gathering here I have partici- choice but to kill or keep him. I feel convinced he will pated in a most exhilarating series of events. Amongst view the destruction of his father without regret. That otherthings I have been to Glasgow. On my way prospect I feel sure, Sir, will gladden the’ hearts of my thereto I stopped at Carlisle and told the jumpers of the successor and the Chancellor. border town that I would free them from the last vestige The Premier : A capital report, Gentlemen. Let us all of feudalism. And they were fools enough to believe it. hope the new President of the L.G.R. will carry to a Of course, I did not explain that I intended to substitute successful conclusion the good work so happily initiated for the conventions of aristocracy the manacles of pluto- by the old one. cracy; and the men of Cumberland have not gumption Mr. Samuel T I will do my best, Sir. to scent it for themselves. Mr. Asquith : I am sure you will. These paupers are I then proceeded toGlasgow and had great sport. a terrible burden on our rates and must be thinned cut. I called one duke a liar and the son of another duke a I thinkwe may safelyleave theirdestruction in the sharp. This latter fellow was trying to pose as a flat. hands of the newpresident. Why a manualhaving But I was n,ot taking either him or his property at his reached the age of fifty and being of no further use to valuation. I have a valuation of my own for everyone any employer should hesitate todie, is one of those things andeverything. If anyonedare refuse to acceptit, I I could never understand. However, now we know what say : “Yah-you’re a son of Ananias.” Neat, aint it? action is being taken against them, we may reasonably Mr. Burns : Rats ! hope to see a steady reductionin old and middle-aged Mr.Lloyd George : Ah : that is just like the Presi- men of the manual class. We will now hear what the dent. Not even five thousand a yearhas enabled him Chief Secretary has to say.Mr. Birrell. to cultivate a taste that can appreciatesuch exquisite Mr. Birrell : Mr. Premier and Friends, I am happy to wit as mine. Ah, well, the connectionbetween pearls say,on the whole, thesituation in Ireland is greatly and swine still holds good. As I was saying, Sir, these improved. In Dublin,thanks to a felicitouscombina- Scotchmen are queer folk. They pose before the world tion of priests, police, politicians and publicans, Larkin- asbeing men of penetration.Well, they had before ism has been crushed and the revolt of labour defeated. them “The People’sSmall Holdings Act,” “The And further,thanks again to carefullyselected juries People’s Budget,” and “The People’s Insurance Act.” and magistrates, we have succeeded in preventing any- All frauds, as you know; so patent,indeed, that even one being made amenable for the murders of the men the Cow Os Lendrum could see through them. And yet, Byrne and Nolan and the girl Brady. During that late such is the paver of codology, my fairy tale about land trouble it was delightful to see how all those in autho- taxes was gulped down by these Scotchmen as eagerly rityworked together. The Lord Lieutenant, myself, as theirnative toddy unsweetened. When I returned Archbishop Walshand his clergy, Mr. Murphy,and toLondon discoveredI RamsayMacDonald sitting Jacobs the Jew, Mr. Dillon, Nugent and his Hibernians, weepingon my doorstep fit to break hisheart. Poor the Orange gentry of theKildare Street Club-we all fellow, he was in a terrible state as to the course he hadone aim and object-to confine IOO,OOO souls to shouldpursue regarding these deported Labour men one-roomed tenements,and we have succeededadmir- fromSouth Africa. I took him in to breakfast and sat ably. But,unfortunately, Gentlemen, thishappy, open him down to some porridge, and such was the flood of combination betweenDublin Castle and the Romish tears which fell into the browse that he found the use priest is viewedwith ,alarm in the Northern Counties. of milk unnecessary. He declared that he would rather Ithas undoubtedlystrengthened the demand of the be out of thecountry when, these menarrived ; and Protestant working menfor separatetreatment. They hinted that we might create some kind of a Commission are apprehensive that in an industrial dispute in Belfast on which we could give him a seat. Like all of us his, the Catholic priests, as in Dublin, would join the master appetitehas evidentlybeen whetted. At first I was classagainst the workers and, with thesupport of a inclined to oblige him and suggested a Commission to Nationalexecutive sitting inCollege Green, would ascertainthe exact relation between the dog-star and crush out all efforts of Labour to better its condition the dog-fish. Butthen I reflected. MacDonaldcan be I have,therefore, Mr. Premier,somewhat reluctantly, mostuseful to us in the House, so I rallied him to I confess, come to the conclusion that we shall be forced come and movea resolution and put upa furious speech. togive the four Northern Counties something like “That’sall very fine foryou,” he retorted. “But Home Rule within Home Rule. Being a Nonconformist anything I may say now will be cast in my teeth when I do not contemplate with pleasure the possibility of any I take office.” “Nevermind, my dearfellow,” said I. communitybeing placed under the heel of clericalism. “Lookat Burns.” ‘Thus encouraged,he consented Actualpersecution I do notfear. Thereis really no to come down and play his part. So you will take any- danger of that.But actual repression, the stifling of thing he says at its true valuation. the voice of the people ; active opposition to mental de- Mr. Churchill : That’s all very interesting-but what velopment and the acquisition of greater independence about finance? amongstthe working classes I doapprehend. I there- Mr.Lloyd George : Finance? fore think, for the protection of the Northern Catholics Mr.Churchill : Yes, finance ! That’s your depart- themselves againstthe tyranny of clericalism,some ment. Have you forgottenit? special arrangements regarding Ulster should be made. Mr.Lloyd George : Now, Sir, I call that real nasty. My solution of the problem would be : A council re- The First Lord knows my limitations in this respect as presentingthe four Northern Countiessitting inBel- well as .anyone. He knowsthat my knowledge of fast? possessingthe right of vetoon all legislation finance is so small that I cannot distinguish between a which they thought injurious to themselves, for a matter gambleand an investment. And yet, he demandsthat of twentyyears. At theexpiration of thattime we I shoulddeal with finance. Tut,tut. should have a new generation of Irishmenwho had Mr.Churchill : Well,sit down and stow your gas. learned to act for themselves, without the direction of You evidentlyknow no moreabout anything that theclergy on either side. These men I haveno doubt mattersthan a stuffedduck knowsabout sage and- would join togetherand put down allclerical preten- onions. I do not see any reason, Mr. Premier, why this sions to power. That I venture to offer as a solution fellowshould pester useternally with his wretched of the. Ulster problem. fudge. Mr. Asquith : Gentlemen, I thinkthe suggestion of Mr. Asquith : I feel it is time that I should intervene. the Chief Secretaryis excellent; much better than Sir You cannotcomplain, Mr. Chancellor.You havehad H. Plunkett’s and others I have heard. I will submit it a long innings and added nothing to our knowledge. 1: 489 -- will now call upon our colleague Buxton. As this will be the last time he will address us in this room’, I wish The Genesis of French Syndical- you threegentlemen, Burns, Samuel and Masterman, to payparticular attention towhat he says. Mr. ism-and Some Unspoken Morals. Buxton. Mr. Buxton : Mr. Premier, at the outset, permit me By G. D. H. Cole. to thank you for the great honour you have conferred upon me by elevating me to the peerage and promoting 111. me tothe governorship of South Africa. Thereare WHEREVERmanifests it itself, Syndicalism has some, I know, who think that I am getting more than twodistinct aspects. It is at once a policy of Direct I deserve. But you know different,Sir. To the Chan- Action in thepresent and a vision of thecoming cellor and Mr. Mastermanhave fallen the honours of Society. Of lateyears, Syndicalism in Francehas theInsurance Act. Theywere operating in the House curiously confused these two points of view : professing forall men to see. Consequentlythe plutocratic pro- to repudiate all theory about the future and to be merely motors of themeasure give tothem the chief credit. a plan of campaign for immediate use, it has continually NowIdo not wish torob these gentlemen of their affirmed, almost in the same breath, its faith in a new laurels, but I wish to point out, Sir, that my action, in Industrial Commonwealth, ‘based solely onorganisa- the end, will prove more effective. in reducing the work- tions of producers. The confusionis plainest in the ingclasses to thatcondition of slaverywhich we are work of M. Sorel, whose philosophy of Violence, for all aimingat, than anything accomplished by theChan- its denial of prophetic intention, is but the continuation cellor. Permitme to explain.During the time I was of his first work, “L’Avenir Socialiste des Syndicats,” conducting part 2 throughCommittee Room By’ I a distinct and definite attempt to found a new Society received information that our intention as embodied in on a Trade Unionbasis. M. Pouget, again, repudiates section 74, par I, had been discovered. Thereupon, I the idea of forecasting the future and gives an exposi- commissionedMr. P. W. Wilson to announce through tion of Syndicalism as a method of Trade Union action, the“Daily News” that the section was withdrawn. butalso writes, along with M. Pataud,the elaborate Through this move the opponents of the measures were propheticromance “Comment nous ferons la Revolution bullied into the belief that the Penal Industrial Colony tion.”But on the whole, itcannot be disputed that clausewas abandoned. The trick, Sir, answered per- there has been in France a considerable reaction against fectly. It enabled me to remodel and extend the clause long views and Utopian speculations. into the most perfect weapon for the degradation of the This change can hardlytbe dissociated from the actual working classes that has ever beenembodied in legis- change in industrial organisation. It will be found that, lation. You will find it now, Sir, calledSection 100. whereFrench Syndicalism remains prophetic, it still Itcontains acomplete scheme for the institution of cleavesin the main to the dd concepts of local auto- PenalIndustrial Colonies, which shouldbe put into nomy andAnarchist-Communism. “Comment nous force as early as possible. I hadintended, had I re- feronsla Revolution is,in most of its essentials, a mained in office, to apply to the Webbs to work out the Communistromance mightit almosthave been details for us. Those people have a real genius for this written,long before Syndicalism was heard of, by a kind of thing. And as they are old friends of my suc- disciple of Kropotkin or even of Bakunin. Syndicalists, cessor I suggest that he apply to them for assistance in in fact, have tended to give up theorising largely be- theundertaking. That is all I desireto say, Sir, and cause a great deal of their theory has already become thank you again for your kindness to me. obsolete. They have not thought out a newsystem of Mr. Asquith : Now, Mr. Burns, you have heard what organisation capable of supplanting Capitalism in :uch Mr. Buxton has related regardingyour powers under a way asto accept as itsbasis nationala Trade Section 100. I hope you will enlistthe services of the Unionism. They have not carried their speculations be- Webbs and get these penal colonies into working order yondthe embryonic stage of local organisation : they as soon as possible. Perhaps Mr. Harcourt would like have produced no theorist great enoughto work out the to say a fewwords. conception of Pelloutier in the light of more recent de- Mr. Harcourt : Mr. Premier, I have nothing of fny velopments. We shallnot be wronging them if we consequence to report. ’Ihe work of my office is running maintain that they have kept silence because they have quitesmoothly. Thereis just one thing Ishould like nothing new to say-because, realising the inadequacy to say. I see my friend and colleague Gladstone is about of their first sketch of thefuture, they have failed to tocome home. How Ienvy him his achievement. To put in its place a profounder analysis and a more com- have attained immortality as the man who established pletereconstruction. perpetual imprisonment inEngland and perpetual Syndicalistsin the country would do well to realise banishment inSouth Africa isgiven to few. Thatit the full meaning of this change in the attitude of their should have fallen to my dear friend Herbert seems to friends in France. Syndicalism in England has been to,o be most fitting. And yet, I envy him the distinction. aptto exalt the unessential : a goodmany English Mr. Asquith : Now, Gentlemen, I hope this exchange syndicalists, mainly recruits from the Anarchist ranks, of views and information will be of benefit to you all. have gone on preaching the principle of federation and You should be able now to assist or defend each other localautonomy asthe basis uponwhich the whole in your various offices. movementrests. But Trade Unionism in Englandis so predominantly national in character, the “craft” or “industrial”bond is so strongand the localbond so PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN. weak,that no theory which aimsat a federalsystem He was born-as most, in the main- based ongeneral local associations of producerscan Except his mother knew less pain. possibly makeheadway. The really vitaldoctrine of Nurses and doctors watched beside Syndicalismis :he doctrine of producers’ control : it He, who became his mother’s pride. asserts fundamentally thatthe producers mustsecure He grew : went to a proper school- the control of their work, if the work is to be honour- His father’s once. (He followed the rule.) School days past, he went to college, ableand the community real. Anythingthat under- In due time acquired knowledge; mines this doctrine is contrary tlo the whole aim of Syn- Thence, he passed to his proper place, dicalism ; but, if thisbe accepted, the question of Married-and bred-with seemly grace. machineryremains secondary, tobe settled according All things fitting and all things right to theactual conditions under whichmodern industry In his own and his neighbour’s sight. is, or canbe, carried on. The federalbasis of Anar Though favoured by fortune and lovedby fate, chism is no essential part of Syndicalism : it came to He carried no riches beyond the gate. beregarded as vitalbecause Syndicalism arose in w. Y. D. France at a time when local organisation was easiest, 490

and because there was already there a strong Anarchist But the objection to this new Syndicalism goes deeper. movement to serve as a basis. It is not desirable thatthis ultimate reconciling body The Syndicalism, therefore, which is most commonly should be elected on a sectional basis, or that it should preached by those who call themselves Syndicalists, IS, directlyrepresent the various bodies of producers. In if- they would but realise the fact, essentially a national that case, it wouldonly reflect, instead of reconciling, product of Frenchconditions. Moreover, itis at the theirdivergence. What is needed is a body standing presenttime, even for France, something of a back for the community as a whole, the representative not number. Itcan onlyemerge revitalised andfruitful merely of its industrial life, but of all its national pur-- if itsadvocates consent to re-examinetheir first prin- posesand aspirations. Syndicalists make the mistake ciples and to rebuild in view of national differences and of imagining that the Stat-e of the future must neces- modern conditions. sarily resemble, in all its essential features, the State of As we have seen, there is at least one school of Syn- to-day, thatmustit remain ,capitalistic, bureau- dicalists in Great Britain which has attempted this re- cratic and oppressive. But the State is the expression of construction ; but most schoolsstill persist in denying the structure of Society ; as the class-structure finds its its necessity. TheFrench type of Syndicalistoften naturalexpression in the class-State, so true demo- becomes impatientwhen he is told that hisaim is to cracy,based on Trade Unionism, will find itsexpres- secure “the mines for the miners, the railways for the sion in the nationaI State, whi,ch will be the expression railwaymen,and the patients for the doctors.” He of the national will. confrontedwith Trade Unions maintains quite truly that he has never upheld the right which aretheir awn masters in theindustrial sphere, oi any section of the community to own the means of theState will cease to bethe natural enemy of the production, or to usethem for the exploitation of the worker, and will become the .natural partner of the pro- consumer. In hissystem, the conflicting interests of ducers’organisations in theordering of thenational different sections of producerswere to be reconciled life. locally in theBourse du Travail : the local Unions of If,then, it beregarded as fundamentally anti- miners,etc., hadan important function in the control political, not merely in the sense that it holds the State of production,but the national Unions or Federations of to-day to be only an instrument in the hands of the were,comparatively speaking, unimportant. This type oppressor,but also in the sense that it aims at the of Syndicalist is therefore contemptuous of the criticism entire destruction of every vestige of communal expres- that he is merely substituting a multitude of profiteers sion outsidethe producers’ organisations themselves, for theprofiteering of a few. Theweakness of his Syndicalism is a theory of which noserious account critics is that they have failed to realise the difference need betaken. If, on the other hand, it is realised between his point of view and that which they are de- that Syndicalismonly implies the satisfaction of the denouncing ; if oncethey see this,they can easily point workers’demand to control their life and work, it re- out to him that, where strong national Unions already mains stilla vitalising force, capable of transforming exist,the interests of thevarious sections cannot be Socialism intosomething better than a bureaucratic reconciled locally : interests nationally organisedmust Collectivism. It will surviveonly if itsucceeds in re- be nationally reconciled. conciling the conception of social solidarity which was There is, however, a type of Syndicalism to which our fundamentalto Communismwith thedevelopment of critic’sobjection legitimately applies. the authors of Trade Unionism on a national basis-if it can avoid re- the “Miners’ Next Step” do clearly look to the ousting lapsinginto Individualism, and at thesame time pre- of the capitalists in each industry by a method of direct serve its insistence on the need of control, by the actual expropriation, which will substitute for private owner- workers ineach industry, of the normalprocesses of ship and control complete ownership and control by the productionand distribution. In short-for themoral national organisations of producers. They would trans- need no longer be unspoken-it can survive only in the fer tothe nationalUnion the part which mas played form of Guild Socialism, which is for this country, the by the local Union in Pelloutier’sideal, and in this essential parallel to Syndicalism in France. The theory manner, create a new. .Syndicalismbased on a national of National Guilds is the restatement of local Syndical- TradeUnionism This reconstruction,however, lacks ism in terms of national Trade Unions. the pivoton which the wholeCommonwealth, as Pel- Pelloutier sawit, would haveto revolve. There is no nationalorganisation to take the place of the Bourse Towards the Play Way. du Travail. Where,then, Pelloutier advocated a form of Anar- By H, Caldwell Cook, chist Communism, these new Syndicalists stand for an I. Anarchism that is fundamentally individualistic. It was INthese notes will befound many disconnected possible to suppose that, if sectional organisation re- thoughtson education which itis my hopesome day mained chiefly local, the Bourses would be able to hold to shape into a practical system. The central idea oif the thebalance among the differentbodies of producers ; wholetheory is simple enough We are to Play.But but clearly national Trade Unions demand a far stronger why we are to play, and, especially, how we are to play, co-ordinating force. The power of the national Unions will take me long to tell. would be so unequal, andthere would be such possi- The natural means of study in youth is play, as any- bilities of theexploitation of theless by thegreater onemay see for himself by watchingany child or that it is no longer possible, if the controlling force of younganimal when it is left alone. A natural educa- producers is national to dispensealtogether with an tion is by practice, by doing things, and not by instruc- authority standing for the community as a whole. The tion, the hearing how as you may see in the flight of a attempt is sometimes made to supply this force in the youngbird. And tellingcan only be theservant of body of the Trade Union Congress, or, in France, the trying,not its substitute. Certainly preliminary advice confederation Generale duTravail itself ; but clearly and warning might save us from many a sore trial, but such a body would either be too weak for the purpose, we rarely profit by any experience other than our own. or would be in fact the State which the syndicalist pro- The burnt child dreads the fire, but the child that has fessedly sets out to abolish. A Trade UnionCongress onlybeen warned is still to beburnt. Therefore wild capable of holdingthe balance between the national oats are more approved by men of the world than moral Unions is an impossibility, unless it acquires such powers lectures. But instead of leaving a child to gain wisdom as transform it, in effect, from a Federation of national by painful as well as pleasantexperience, itis well Unionsinto a body no longerfederal, but practically to let him tryas much as hecan for himself under a State Parliament elected on a sectional, instead of a guidance. It would notbe wise to senda child inno- local,basis. Such a Congress would berepudiated no cent into the big world ; and talking is of poor avail. less vehemently by the new Syndicalist than by the old But it is possible to hold rehearsals, to try our strength Parliamentarian. in a make-believe big world.And that is Play. 491

Themain concern in a child’s life isthat manifold lowinghis natural bent will play. His whole power is businessunderstood clearly by him, and dimlyby his inplay. Beware of trying to make rivers run up hills elders, as Play. He wakes up inbed even beforethe instead of flowing round them. dawn, and plots out a fairyland of play-doings for the To me it seems obvious where the trouble lies : the day until he is allowed to get up. Then while the fires teacherworks, whether consciously or unconsciously, are still crackling on the wood you can hear him, pat- on his own lines, and not in and for- his children. The teringabout the landing or singingon the stairs. teacher may have a beautiful system, a course of work Dressing is a nuisance because it requires his presence schemed, graded, and ordered in admirable shape, and in one place for some twenty minutes; toys must come thoroughlyapproved byhis orher chief, and byhis to table; food itself must furnish a game. Porridge is Majesty’sinspector to boot. Butwhat if the child’s an island in a sea of milk, and he would be rather more mind does not work. orderly ?-which happens to be the interested than shocked to find a chicken in every egg. case. What will hisMajesty dothen, poor thing? School, above the Kindergarten, is a nuisance because What if a growing mind scornssystematic progress there is no play, So he lives onthroughout the day- (which also is true), and leaps back and forth over the light hours, playing many parts, as pirate, or king-in-a- field of study, now shining with the brilliance of a light crown,or beast of prey; in thetreetops, or under fullfocussed, now showing as black as the back of a ground,or sailingmerrily. onthe salt sea, until that lighthouselantern? Let us haveoutline schemes by littlenightly tragedy of bedtime.After dark, nurse, all means, but leave the details to the hour in which it however amiable, comes as a fury with abhorred shears. shallbe told uswhat weshall do. Let us remember As an onlooker at the drama I always regard her com- thatwithout interest there is no learning,and since ingas the prelude to an affecting finish. She is the the child’s interest is all in play it is necessary, what- executionerwhose summons must be obeyed. Have everthe matter in hand, that the method be a play- you notadmired the fortitude with which thelittle method. Otherwise there will be no guests at the table, hero-though thereare cowards, we know--goes on and the feast will lie stale in our hands. his round sf farewell to the waking world? Have you notobserved that he always carries an air of detach- ment, salutes even his mother as though he were think- A Note on Second Chambers. ing sf something else; and how he looks back from the THE Supplementon Second Chambers presented with door?However, one shall find upstairs certain friends a recent number of the “New Statesman” would have who can float in a bath ; and after all : been better, I think, if it had been edited with some pur- My bed is like a little boat ; pose in view. As it is we have a series, not of essays, Nurse helps me in when I embark. but rather of stiff and formal Fabian consular reports, Shegirds me in my littlecoat, and a few remarks by Professor Morgan and Mr. Snow- And starts me in thedark. den.Mr. Morganwrites by andlarge, and Mr. And so to dream. Snowden, as usual,writes like a minorpedant. Lord Itmust have occurred to everyone that sincea Esher is extremely disappointing ; we shall come back child’s life under his own direction is conducted allin to him presently. play,whatever else we want to interest himin should So faras a few factsand correspondingly limited he carriedon in that medium, or at the very least deductions go, Mr. Morgan’sarticle is clearenough. connected with play as closely as possible. Why should It is true, as he says, that the “chances of life” of a therestretch such an abyss between thenursery and Bill underthe Parliament Act “dependon its being theclass-room? Ah,yes, they tell us, but life is not born in the first or second (at the most the third ses- goingto be all a game.They must learn the serious sion of a parliament,”and in consequence “as many side of things. By the life of the world ! What could Bills as possible mustbe introduced in thefirst two be more serious than childplay? I know of nothing so orthree years of a government’sexistence. . . The whole-hearted, so thorough, so natural, so freefrom early sessions are thus, beyond all precedent, prolonged, stain, so earnest,as the spontaneous playing of a while the debates themselves are no less exceptionally child. Take a child in the nurseryand consider him shortened.”It follows that even if noother factor besidethese graveadults at theirconcerns. Compare were taken into consideration-if it were admitted, for a game of toy soldiers with the conduct of a war The instance, that a vastmob of voters at election times difference is in degreeand not inkind. Consider were never carried away by the clamour of the moment, whetherthe little maidin the clay nurseryis less en- andthat the measures they supported need neverbe grossed in the care of her doll than the other maid in reconsidered-this shortening of debates in the Lower thenight nursery is in thecare of the baby. Do you House necessitates ample. scrutiny,careful revision, play more fair at politics than we do at ninepins? And ir! the Upper. has any man as much care for the rules of the game in It is the principlesunderlying this revision, with all commerce, and as muchrespect forhis opponents .as respect to Mr. Morgan, which form the real bases for he has in cricket? In the one it is a question of what theconstitution of an UpperChamber. In whose in- he can make, in the other all is subject to fair play. I terestsshall the revision of bills bemade? In some tell you that sincere endeavour and honesty of purpose countries, such as South Africa, Australia and Canada, can only be relied on under conditions that favour their itis clear that the Upper Chamber serves onlytho continuance ! Whether he be paid or nlot, so long as purposes of thewealthy classes : theSenators con’ a man’s heart is in his work it is well with him and well sider nothing but money ; and their most important task for the work. Beyond that we cannot go. Theforce is to see thatthe working classes are held incheck, of extraneous need, or compulsion of any kind, however politically and economically, asfar as possible.Mr. necessary it be, blunts honesty, dulls the zeal of whole- Morgan says that “the chief function of Upper Houses heartedendeavour; and if it come in much strength in mostforeign countries is to support the Ministry will spoil all. The Child isthe true amateur, he does against the Lower one.” This, it seems to me, is not a thing for the love of it. Among all workers he is the at all a soundobservation ; the contrary is rather the player, andalone is fit tostand beside thegenuine case. InFrance and the United States, to give two artist,the self-sacrificing physician andthe inspired well-knowninstances, theSenate is frequently in col- poet or: seer. His hearty interest is a powerfulengine lisionwith theLower House, which is equivalent to which will carry a heavy load eventually to its appointed sayingthat it is in disagreementwith the Ministry. destination. Whatthough you claim toknow where The case of the Income Tax Bills, which have not yet that may be, and to know also of a shorter route? Is been completely forcedthrough the Upper Houses in it not better to follow the engine that pulls the train, thesetwo countries after years of agitation,is well rather th,an dragit back, even thoughthe route be known. In both these instances the vast majority of the roundabout?It may be that the way will provemore nation is against the decision of the Lower House and level and thecountryside more beautiful A child fol- in favour of the Upper House. 492

- I-___.---I__ ~~ - -.-“ ___- -- In one part of his article Mr. Morgan has introduced countyborough members, to obtain electoral colleges. a little light; but he does not throw it directly on our It seems to me that this suggestion is as inept as the own problems. Hesays : “The tendencyin politics, comparisonbetween England and France. We have as in economics, is towards the concentration of power had no revolution here to alter completely the number, in a few hands.” There is a statement the significance influence, and importance of our great county families, of which ishardly realised by itsauthor. It has noble orotherwise. TheFrench people are bound,in always been thecontention of writers in thisjournal most cases, to draw upon the equivalents of our county that, generally speaking, economic power precedes poli- councillors and such people ; for as a rule there are no tical power;and if we find, as wedo nowfind, that other local worthies. In England we are very differently economic interestsare being concentrated in fewer situated ; andthe experience of foreign peopleswith hands, it will be only natural for us to expect that poli- second chambers, although of some interest to the poli- tical interests arealso being gathered into fewer hands. ticalscientist, is of littleguidance to us. Nationality Hence we have the caucus system, the dependence of ismore important here than abstract theory; our in- the House of Commons on the Cabinet, and the Cabinet stitutionshave been made by Englishmen,not by itself, uncontrolled, ordering the destinies of the coun- pedants.Our old families,I repeat, rich orpoor, are try.Indeed, when we say Cabinet in this connection stillpowerful ; andcognisance must be taken of this we cannot even refer to the whole Cabinet, but only to fact when the revision of our House of Lords is being the inner circle. GreatBritain is at thepresent time considered. being controlled by Mr. Asquith, Sir Edward’Grey, Mr. In two respects practically all the other contributors Winston Churchill,and Mr. Lloyd George. Theother to this Supplement appear implicitly to agree with Mr. Cabinet Ministers are not necessarily in the confidence Morgan. In the firstplace, they would give us to un- of these four, until afterwards. derstandthat the Second Chamber, underwhatever It happens, however, that the caucus system in Eng- nameit may have beenformed, isthe final arbiter landapplies definitely, as yet,only tothe House of abroad,and that occasional conflicts between the two Commons ; and, although the influence of the orthodox Housesare almost inevitable. Mr. Robert Dell writes politicalleaders isstrong in theLords, there is suffi- four columns on the French Senate without mentioning cientindependence left amongthe peers for them to the Conseil d’Etat; Mr. SydneyBrooks writes nearly vote as they please; and they mayeven absent them- five columnsabout the American Senatewith only a selvesfrom every debatewithout incurring the dis- casualreference to the Supreme Court. The Supreme pleasure of a partywhip, or of theirconstituents. It Court,however, is the interpreter of the American is clear, then, that purelyeconomic interests are not yet Constitution ; andit may, as such,condemn any act dominantin the House of Lords. Thereare several which does not seem to be in accordance with the spirit other interests to be reckoned with there-the interests of the Constitution. To note all the instances in which of the land, the interests of those peers who have not, it has exercisedthis power would fill a *‘New States- perhaps,much land, but who possessthe socialin- man” Supplement-I commend thesuggestion fo the fluence that comes from long descent ; the territorial in- Editor. As forthe French Conseil d’Etat,it is pre- fluence that may dependon a small as much as ona sidedover by no lessa distinguished personage than large estate; and, above all, the solid English character the Minister of Justice for the time being, and is con- which-to take only one example of it-has made our sultedon various legislative and administrative ques- civil serviceadministration abroad so excellent, if not tions. Inpractice its powers are seldom exercised in perfect, an instrument of government. opposition tothe Government of theday, because it The whole history of the strength of England, and of givesthe Government hints’ before Bills are finally England’sgreat families, liesin thosetwo words : passed; andno Government, however strong, can territorial influence ; and this bringsus back to theques- afford to ignore this Napoleonic institution. tion : In whoseinterests is our legislation to bere- I think the writers of the Supplement ought to have vised in theUpper House? Since the rejection of the keptthese facts inmind andcommunicated them to Budget of 1909-10--such is my reading of the situation their readers, since we have no similar bodies here. We -Bills sentfrom the Commons to the Lords run the have, it is true, the Law Lords and the Privy Council; risk of genuine criticism and of insincere, hypocritical but neither body can do anything to influence the fate criticism. The first type of criticismcomes from the of a Bill. In other words, if we admit that safeguards less-known peers, the “Backwoodsmen,” who represent such as Second Chambers are necessary at all, we must the old, families, the territorial influence, the landed in- recognise that France and the United States, to men- terest ; the insincerecriticism comes from the rather tiononly two countries,have powerful constitutional financial Whig group of peers, headed by Lord Lans- safeguards in regular use in addition to their Senates Lansdowne and his colleagues, who work hand in glove with and! their Presidential veto. the party leaders in the Lower House. Inthe secondplace, thecontributors appear to There are two comments to make on thefirst group of assume-Mr. Snowden states his belief explicitly-that peers. To me they are preferable, infinitely preferable, foreigncountries have adopted the bicameral system to the second ; but their influence is becoming smaller, onlybecause England did so ; andthe possibilityof andtheir instincts arenot suficiently sound to atone Single-Chamber government in England brings with it fortheir intellectual stupidity. It is no doubt true, as theconsequent probability of Single-Chamber govern- Nietzschesaid in one of hislater works, that intel- mentabroad. This is also bad reasoning on poorin- lect must be qualified by blood (;.e., descent, good birth) formation. It is surely well known that all Europe, before it can be of much use for cultural or any other andnot merely England,is indebted to Rome forits highpurposes ; but blood without sufficient intellect constitutionalpractice; and even in the time of the to make up for lack of instinct is as useless, I venture Kings, at the very foundation of the City, we find that to submitto the Nietzscheans, as intellect without Romehad a senate as well as a popularassembly. blood. While the Whig criticism of Bills is insincere, This principle, of course,was maintained under the the “die-hard” criticism usually misses its mark-it is Republic. ill founded, it is unscientific; or something happens in LordEsher disappointed me because his facts were the end to upset it. wrong. He says, for example : “Political power-that In spite of this, the local influence of these territorial is to say, power of government and of legislation-has peers is still so strong that it cannot be neglectedby any passedunder theultimate control of themasses of one who is aiming at a complete reconstitution of our people who work f40rtheir daily bread, all day and every Second Chamber. Mr. Morganthinks that “we are day.”Tell this to therank and file of thetrade forced to contemplate a system of indirect election by unions ! Again : “The informationon current events electoral colleges.’’ He goes on to imply that we shall poured out daily for the people, information far more ‘draw upon thecounty councillors, thedistrict coun- extensive and accurate than our oligarchic forefathers cillors, delegates of parish councils, and the county or ever got by gossip and pamphlets, is a very formidable 493 andquite new factor.” It was thissentence that led need of architectureand the crafts is to re-establish me to loosen my collar. The gossip that made its slow authority. This is, of course, a peculiarIy modern situa- way from the coffee-rooms and clubs of London up to tion. No suchquestion could possibly havearisen in a century ago was, in essentials, more accurate by far the Middle Ages, because at that time, when a know- than the distorted information supplied by our modern ledge of the arts wasa common possession of the whole newspapers. We have only to readthe report of any people, it mattered little to the arts how power was dis- political event,.such as the South African strike,to tributed within the community, for beauty was then as realise that. Rapidity in the transmission of news and inevitable and customary as ugliness is to-day. But in the circulation of newspapers has not been accompanied our own day, when the knowledge of art is literally an withcare in regard to facts or comments; and it fre- esoteric doctrine known only to a very limited few, and quentlyhappens in newspapersnowadays that social when the artist carries on a very precarious existence, and political exigiencies necessitate the telling of lies. any slight economic or political change may easily end “I1 s’agitde faire penser,” concludesMr. Morgan, in catastrophe; for if anything is done which alters the quoting Montesquieu. If he hadwritten “d’ennuyer” economicposition of the wealthyclass, art wouldcer- he would have correctly described the effect of the Sup- tainlydisappear entirely from the modern world, and plement on at least one of its attentive readers. with it all hopes of peaceable reform, for as I tried to S. VERDAD. show in my lastarticle, the revival of thearts and crafts is indispensable to socialreform. To illustrate my meaning let us suppose that Guilds wereestablished in thebuilding trades. Each of the Art and National Guilds. building trades would have a Guild of its own and there By Arthur J. Penty. would presumablybe an architects’ Guild. Onthe face of thingsthis seems a verysimple solution. But THE writers of the articleson National Guilds ask how would it affect the art of architecture. My answer whetherunder the name of “ Guild Collectivism ”- is thatit would be disastrous,because it would Fer- underwhich, in my recentarticle on “Art and Social perpetuate thatclass divisionbetween thearchitect and Reform,”I affirmed art wouldnot prosper-I include the building trades which it is the aim of all who are orrefer to NationalGuilds; and, if so, whatis the workingfor architectural reform to breakdown. For feature in itwhich, beingshared in commonwith we mustremember that the architectural profession “Bureaucratic Collectivism,” is fatal to art? in its present proportions has come into existence not In this article, therefore, I propose to state my posi- in response to a demand for architecture but in response tionwith regard to “National Guilds,” At the outset, to ademand for commercial building. Architects who then, let me say that, as I imagined would be gathered pursue architecture as an art are a minority within the from thecontext, by “GuildCollectivism” I refer to profession. If therefore a Guild of architectswere the scheme forthe “control of industry” which the suddenly created it could have no other result than to Fabian Society is now engaged in formulating. I called place the minority of realarchitects atthe mercy of it “GuildCollectivism’’ because I view theiractivities amajority who regard architecture more as a profes- in this connectionwith suspicion as an attempt to re- sion than as an art, with results which it is easy to see habilitate Collectivism in the eyes of Socialists; for the would bedisastrous. The ordinary professional archi- FabianSociety is Collectivist by temperament,and tect would certainlyresist any attempt to remove the in practice opportunist, though its members may find it class division existing between architects and the build- expedient to profess a belief in Guilds. I am convinced ing trades. On the other hand, any premature attempt that they are entirely destitute of the Guild spirit, and tomerge the architectural profession in thebuilding that any scheme ‘which they formulated would in prac- trades would be equally disastrous.For in that cage ticebe bureaucratic. This will resultinevitably from the whole body of architects wouldbe placed at the theirunderlying thought, which isquantitative rather mercy of thebuilding trades, and this could mean thanqualitative, in its conceptions of society.More- nothingless than the death of architecture,for the over, as Mr. andMrs. Webbare to write the final buildingtrades to-day are almostentirely ignorant of report of the commission of inquiry, and as their article everything appertaining to architecture as an art. The which I analysedrecently shows them to be utterly building craftsmen of the Middle Ages were conversant destitute of anyconception of thetrue relationship with the art of design, but the building trade to-day is which art bears to society ; it is an absolute certainty not.However much one may desire to democratise that any proposal of theirs will be inimical to art. Do architecture there is only one policy possible to-day, to figs grow on thistles? safeguard the independence and authority of the archi- My attitudetowards National Guildsisdifferent. tect until thebuilding trades are leavenedwith archi- With regard to the articles in THENEW AGE, I do not tectural ideas. lookupon the scheme there set forth as a final state- Now, what is true of architecture is true not only of ment of the case for Guilds, but I do feel them to be every artand craft inmodern society but in a very a mostvaluable contribution to the subject. If I do much larger way of all mannerof industries. The not agree withall the conclusions of the “Writers of system of the division of labour has, in the interests of theArticles,” I do feel themto be possessed of the commercialismseparated functions whichin a decent Guild spirit, and such differences as I have with them system of industry would beunited. Hence it is that arise, I think, more from a difference of emphasis than though I believe thatthe Guild Systemis the only from a fundamentally different way of thinking such as system under which industry may be properly organised, separatesme from the Fabian Society. This difference I regard it more as a goal at which to aim than as a of emphasis arises, I think, from our having approached practical policy of immediate reform. Before Guilds are the problem from differentpoints of view. I cameto establishedcommercialism will need tobe abolished ; believe in the need of restoringthe Guilds by a con- nay, questionI the possibility of establishingthem sideration of the problems which surround the practice until this has been *achieved. In the accomplishment of of architectureand the crafts in themodern world, this indispensable step time is an all-important factor. whereas THE NEW AGE writers arrived at the same be- We donot believein commercialism as much aswe lief from a moregeneral consideration of theneeds did. With a great number of peopleto-day of democracy. cialism is a matter of necessity ratherthan choice. Now it is to be observed that though the interests of Hence, while itis necessary to insist upon themoral architecture and the crafts and the interests of demo- reformation which must precede the abolition of mm- cracy are ultimatelyidentical, itis nevertheless true commercialism measures must at the same time be adopted that in the immediate and practical sense their interests to relieve thepressure which drivespeople into com- are opposed. It is the immediateaim of democracy to mercialism against their choice, and this it is possible place power in the hands of the people ; the immediate to do if we think the matter out. 494

Firstly, as regards a reformation of morals.Recog- up industry from new centres by co-operative organisa- recognising thatthe love of money is at the root of corn- tion of small workshops. Smallworkshops and local mercialism,how canwe keep this motive in check? marketsprovide the indispensable basis for a revival In his efforts to secure the unity of the Athenian state of the arts and crafts, and in so far as the “National Solon sought to achieve his ends less by means of €CY)- Guilds” idea is in favour of these it has my support. nomic legislation than by the regulation of habits and As a generalisation the“abolition of wagery” customs. He was wise enough to have discovered two touchesthe central defect of thepresent system, but anda half centuriesbefore Aristotle that it is more that, I am inclined to think, is not because wages are importantto form good habits than to framegood necessarilyand inevitably evil, butbecause under a laws. Accordingly helegislated against luxury, which system of large industries wages involve slavery. With inhis day showed a tendency to increase ; heacted small industries the evil wodd not be felt, for a man upon the principle that the best way to get controlof tin would then only work for wages for a part of his life, evil is to remove its cause. He reasoned that inequali- and as he would at any time be in a position to set up ties of wealth owe their origin to the love of money, in,business on his own account he would be alble to which in its turn owes its origin to an undue craving bargain for a just wage. Thealternative of “pay” for pleasure and luxury. Aristotlethought that the seemsto me to involve bureaucracy,and that, to my position of womenin society should be clearlydefined way of thinking,is fatal. Further, it would be im- andthat their livesshould be carefully regulated in possible to regularise wages unless commercialism were view of thefact that a stronglymarked tendency to- I firstabolished, and the arts revived, for,as I pointed wardsluxury is characteristic of thesex. Heargued out in my last article, the instability of fashion, which that this desire for luxury on the part of women when is such a disturbing, element in so many industries has theyhave too muchliberty brings about the ruin of its roots in the degradation of taste. States,inasmuch as itresults in a competition for Finally, I would say that though I have criticised the wealth on the part of men. Suffragists might do worse “National Guilds” itis not in a disparagingspirit. than ponder on this. Though I am unable to accept the proposal as a com- Applying to industry the principle of Solon that the plete solution of our problems, it has this to its credit regulation of manners is necessary to moral reform, an -that it has revolutionised thinking uponsocial ques- effort should be made, for example, to regulate adver- tionsand raised the tone of discussionIt has within tising. The “.manners” of trademust be reformed itself thegerm of growth,and the best guarantee of before it will be possible to reform its morals. this is that the writers of the articles welcome criticism rather than resenting it. Then, we must destroy that worship of bigness and success which vitiates modern life. It has much to do withthe growth of large organisations which are the Present-Day Criticism strongholds of commercialism, while it undermines our capacityfor resistance to evils of allkinds. It is un- OURreaders will recollect an opinion given by Mr. Cald- necessaryfor me to do more than mentionthis, as I well Cook, themaster of the Perse Players, affirming analysedthe problemin threearticles entitled, “The the superiorvalue of theNorse traditions above the. Peril of Large Organisations,” which appeared in THE Greek as poetical subject. Our own opinion, of course, new AGE on January 11, 18, and 25, 1912. is the reverse ; and although we wouldnot argue bit- We mustalso face the question of machinery,for terlyagainst 3fr. CaldwellCook’s use of theNorse theincreasing pressure which itsever extended use places on the individual is the greatest of all the factors mythology for his boys, there seems to be small reason which make for thegrowth of thecommercial spirit. for his preference on the ground that the Greek tradi- Here again I must refer the reader to a recent article tionsare less crude than the Norse, for this is their in THENEW AGE, in which 1 analysed the problem.* superiority. The boysbelong to a civilisationwhich, Behind all this there is the still larger problem of the at its best, stands upon Greek culture. If they are not growth of towns and the depopulation of the country- to be as aliens, they must cary forward this civilisation side. If we areto abolishcommercialism we must withits complex culture,and to turn themtowards a reverse this process. As landreform is not my sub- tradition which has beenrejected by thegenius of ject, I can do no more than emphasise its importance. England is turning them from their destined task and The time isnot far distant wheneven landlords will deprivingthem of familiaritywith the high standards come to recognise that landreform is imperativeto national stability. raised,by their forefathers. Cultural education is not simply a matter of teaching, but of awakening the mind Emigrationshould be encouragedin order that we maynot be dependent upon foreign markets. This toits highest heritage. Our heritage, needless to say, dependenceis another of theroots of commercialism. is not the violent and sentimental Norse tradition, which “A nation,” says Mr. Lowes Dickinson “that is poli- concerns us as littleas the tradition of thecruel and ticallystable must be economically independent. ” feeble Druids,those abortive culturalists of these Such,then, it appears to me are some of theroot islands. causes of commercialism, and I ampersuaded that it Leaving aside the questionof what may be given with- will be impossible to rid ourselves of the commercial out too great waste and injury to young boys, we may spirit so long as thesecauses remain. The Socialist considerthe decline of manymodern men of talent propagandais on too narrowa basis. It dealsmore with effects than causes, apparently on the supposition upon the crude and barbaric, and, on the other hand, that by merely superimposingsystems all evils can be thesigns of inheritedhigh culture among the prole- regulated.This certainly is not the case. Not until tariat. we widen the scope of our propaganda shall we be really The preference for the barbaric is false in people who effective. have transcended the barbaric, and, if such an inclina- My criticism of NationalGuilds isdirected less tion be not temporary, soon to be examined and set aside against the aim of the proposal than against the manner as narrowing to the judgment, the result must be de- d’procedure. The propaganda, as I have already said, cadence. Not courage or clear mind sends us seeking in should regard Guilds moreas agoal to be aimed at barbarism for inspiration, but inability to support and than as something to be immediatelyaccomplished. usethe stupendous culture which our unterrified, un- There isa tendency to place too muchreliance Upon bewildered ancestors mightily supported, and used, and addedunto for bequeathal to us. If wecannot bear strikes. It would be farbetter to aim at building -___ f- See concluding article on “The Restoration of the * “The Machine Problem.” January I, 1914 Guild System,” September 4. 1913. 495 this culture up, it will bear us down--for to get rid of cannot deal to his profit with these self-controlled, ap- it is not in our power ! A sufficiently terrifying position parentlymotionless opponents. They waste his brutal is this to have caused the collapse, partial or complete, spirit by refusing to imitate his methods. They appear of hundreds who haverealised how vastthe world is as impassive to militaristic displays as the poet Goethe compared with Atlas. On every hand, our little Atlases who refused to interrupt his way of life by so much as are trying to edge away from the world of culture upon a glance at the soldiers striding past his house. theirmental shoulders. It wereaspectacle to move What use to a proletariat so cultured as this is the thegods if gods could interferewith destiny. In barbaricNorse tradition ! If the. Greek culture .a fashion there is bravery-the bravery of the insane-in ture has been chosen for England by schoIars to whom the modern imaginary flight from culture ; for, since the self-discipline is a condition of progress, if it has been exasperatedheirs of culturecannot movefrom under utilised by the fighting aristocracy for the very purpose theirheritage, theydo, with a sort of maddened of balancingqualities, and thus preserving them from audacity, look each other in the face and declare that theirworse selves,if it isthe source from which they are quit of theburden that every instant bows English artists have drawn-then the Greek culture will them flatter into oblivion. profitthe English proletariat whose progress is under Now thereis a classical way of temporary relief, thegenius of England.The ignorant, upstart and though not of escape, from the pressure of culture. The doomed plutocracy affects to despise the Greek culture. way of relief isclassical because the state of terror It would suit them perfectly for the proletariat to follow has oftenbeen suffered and, sometimes, has been sur- Norsetraditions. But every patrioticartist and pub- passed. TVhen it is surpassed,a nation comes to cul- licist will see to it that the culture from which our own turalre-birth. The symptoms of cultural panic may genius is a re-birth shall be well understood among the be two,namely, intense fear of stirringfrom formal rising people. tradition, and, more rarely, craving for release from all forms. Out of sucha state of culturalpanic, Dante led theItalian nation, Spenser the English, Rousseau Tesserae. theFrench : eachtook the way towardsnature, to- By Beatrice Hastings. wards simplicity, towardspatriotism. IVe may con- 0 YESTERDAY, difficult even to remember,where hast sider briefly thecultural power in thesethree men. thou gone, bearing away my unheeded acts and speech? Eachsucceeded in savinghis nation from cultural Alas ! Thou wilt returnunto me my sum of doings decadence ; and at least one basic similarity of method characterisedeach of the three-natural,simple, surely as yester-yearnow heaps within my reluctant patriotic defence,selection and use of hisnative lan- arms the monsters I then created heedless od Time. guage. In so far as Rousseau failed as a man, he failed *** as a saviour compared with either Dante or Spenser. He If one is attached to truth this must be for its own left chaos in many respects where the others left exem- sake, for so seldom that one may say, never, is truth- plaryorder. Whereas they led alwaysupward and speakingto one’simmediate interest. There is such awayfrom artificial barbarism, hewent often so near delight in thepursuit of truththat persons who are to it thatthose that followed him becamebewildered habituated to this pursuit do not easilylet it go. And anddemented, and Rousseau was blamed forthe ex- cesses of evenrevolutionary France. He did not, in- althoughfor the reason that we d,o not know what deed,bear thecultural heritage of Franceas Dante truth is, a man has noclaim to. die for his idea of it, borethat of Italy,or Spenser that of England.He yethe has a claim to determineall his personal acts attemptedimpatiently to shift a part of that which according to his idea of truth ; for we know very well theyraised complete on their genius,His lead was what truth is not inmost instances evenif we donot from no great predecessor, as Dante led fromVirgil know what it is in all instances. : We know that truth and,Spenser from Chaucer,but he tried to lead from himself alone,with theconsequence that all hiscul- is not in theft, flattery, slander, profiteering, way-laying tural efforts were partial, egotistic and provincial ; and or murder,since all these acts require deception for when hespoke of Nature-which was very often- their success. And yeteven habitualtruth-speakers Nature appeared as some spot, some attire, some CUS- often fail to push their opinions even to legitimate ex- tom; in the others, Nature showed as all that is univer- tremes in conduct. It is so easy to let oneself off with sal in mankind. arecognition of thetruthful course, saying, “I know Yet, even of Rousseau,it cannot be said that he glorified a barbarictradition. Although he neglected what I ought to do, thoughI may not do it,” and somewhatthe grand European traditions, he went no taking one’sknowledge for the deed. The penalty for further against the good of men than to over-glorify a this is a loss of dignity which leaves one at the mercy marrow ideal of simplicity without reckoning that civil- of chance. isation will berevenged upon those that underrate it. Itis a rare soul thatis indisinterested love with While the royal mock, shepherds played in the Tuileries, truthful conduct in regard to liberality, charity, mercy, the real ones were preparing for their terrible game of sovereignty ; Rousseau’s influence was too merely lite- andcontrol of mind and body as many of us are in literary to merit much blame for what was in tht2 govern- lovewith the mere recognition of truth.Not many ing classes an insult at once to civilisationand to un- persons have a love of subduing their personality in the civilised nature.If he didnot giveFrance the access service of, even, Art, which has visible results and re- of culture which would haveraised the wholepeople, wards, let alone in the service of the Creation that can hecannot justly be blamedbecause those whom his with difficulty be seenexcept in so far as itappears works reached used them only to adorn folly ; for there grosslytoserve man. No wonder thatthe great is that in them for which France must ever be grateful. Not from Rousseau arose the barbarism of the Revolu- Teachersand heroes are regarded as incarnategods tion, but from the unsurpassed spectacles of levity and and portions of gods, for to serve Creation is a culture cruelty to which theproletariat hadbeen accustomed we mortals can scarcely glimpse. by the nobility. Theproletariat knew noexpression *** hutthat of violence, had no idea of liberty butwhat It is the way of most of the popular writers to men- might be won by violence. tion all things commonly; that is, to write of noble and Our English proletariat, to-day, has a better idea of ignoblethings in terms whichdivert perception from the way towardsliberty. What is the mostconfound- the difference in the things themselves. Thus the author ing tacticof the English proletariat? We allknow. <.1he capitalist would rejoice if any cunning of his might runs no risk of thereader throwing down the book goadthe Trade Unions into adisplay of violence. He from the terror hewould feel if he were brought in con- 496 tactwith what ishorrible and also undecorated, fiftyand more houses entertaining. Everything you or from the mysteriousfear of beauty whichseizes ate, even thebread and the potted meat, and most “those that hate the Muses.’’ But all gates to hell are things that you drank had been made by your hostess thesame breadth. The reader is lost who accepts the and her daughters, who would never dream of leaving presentation of ugliness when it is veiled in words, stolen yourfood toservants’ mercy. And certainlymost of from beauty. the girls there would have made every stitch of clothes .)(. * * theyhad on. You could nothave calculated a three- May the following observation be printed in invisible guinea, or five, or ten-guinea costume as youmay in ink, or Ishall certainly lose life-long friends. I see so manyLondon drawing-rooms, let alone the cost of married women with a certain artistic talent commer- the cakes you ate. The whole thing was an exhibition cially exploiting this under conditions of servility which of feminine nous and ingenuity : and if flirtation was you would suppose would drivethem to their knees theorder of theday, it was mingled with promising polishing floors by honourable preference ; and it is all feminine skill in other ways-and besides flirtation is the done precisely to escape polishing their very own floors ! order wherever young men and women meet.Only, it This, to my mind,is very mad. I waspresent once wasgayer than it will everbe in England until the while a great female genius instructed another woman, epicenefemale, with herexpansive manly sense of not so pretentious, regarding sane libretto which was affairsis conquered by the women. This epicene is a to be set to music. In this case the literary genius was terribledeadweight incompany. Present-dayconver- paying for the production. I never in all my life heard sation is growing dowdy through her. Listen to her con- pompousand patronising tones more intolerable of versingwith a man, or even with a woman-there is bearing ; yet the musical lady bore them. I shall never littlebut a repetition of facts,the scum of the news- be beIieved when I say that she herself was then paying papers, or her own especial “shop. ” She is thoroughly two servants to look after her house and little boy-yet anti-social and may be depended on to do everything it is true. These servants, neither of whom would she annoyingfrom sulking, unless she is constantly at- havetrusted for a singlenight alonewith the child, tended upon, to breaking up a party half an hour before would have given notice had she spoken to them as she anyone else desires to take leave. wasspoken to by that woman for whosewretched Somemarried women are really true epicenes,per- libretto she was engaging to supply music to suit. sonally ambitious, and always with the air of playing Itpasses my understanding how a marriedwoman a lone hand severe,patronising and scornful wives, can so demean herself for money in order to feel herself married because intheir epicenity they are, of course, excused from doingher own housework. She is not partly female. Theytalk the Larger Life, politics, therebyexcused, but is restingon self-deception, for White Slaves, strikes, American, Indian, African, Aus- sheinvites indignities merely to provideeconomic in- tralian Conditions, and the horrible injustices to women. dependence for a servant,another female. The They may deign to tell one about Music, Poetry, Paint- married woman will urge that she dislikes housework, ing and the Drama, but they soon change such shallow- as though this were quite enoughto justify her in failing seeming but vexingly treacherous subjects, and it is as as a housewife afteraccepting the office withall its well theyshould, for you will besure to remember privileges, securities, andemoluments. where you read what they may have been saying, and I agree that a wife needs a woman companion ; but a laughapparently at nothingand exhibit all kinds of man has not a home but merely a house where he falls puerile form. oversuperfluous females at everystep. Whereare Now ifin a colony you hearvery little intellectual those women whoshould be companions, taking their talk,at least you arespared an imitation of it. For placeunobtrusively in the household, saving their salt mypart, I haveyet to hear an intellectual discussion at every handsturn, and respectable as onlya woman between men and women together. Women break up can be who saves her salt? They are out, avoiding the discussion,” said Madame Geoffrin, that spare-speeched wife, sweating the sweat of blacklegs, herding together Frenchwomanwho kept a salonfor learned menfor as “ladiesresidential,” and ever in horror of the in- thirtyyears, onlyallowing one woman besideherself evitable day when they shall be thrown aside for some ever to dine with the men, but favouring a few choice youngerblackleg. What a melancholy misunderstand- wives at her suppers. Men do not meet women for in- ing between women is here ; for one half of the energy, tellectualdiscussion, and the women who realise this fidelity in detail, and punctual self-discipline speeded by carry off the men while the epicene is left to her par- cunningand contemptuous employers out of women rotting, her sulky independence, and all the rest ofit. In should, if generously given to a household make them themost polite salon I know of, one which may welt cherishedfriends. But so long as itis notconsidered figure in many a memoir, when an intellectual subject preposterous for a woman to say that she does not like chances to seize the company, we women find ourselves to look after the house her husband works to keep to- quaintly becoming the satellites of one blazing planet, gether, how may the poor blacklegging spinster expect the whichis all the men. It will alwayshappen so to find respectin domestic life for her energy, fidelity whereverthe atmosphere is free enough for men to and self-discipline?Certainly, before wives may re- breathe intellectually if theychoose ; and serious men cover the companionable help of spinsters and widows, donot go where theatmosphere is not thus free. wivesliterally will have to put theirhouses in order. I do not compare this salon with any Colonial gather- It may be that industrial changes will drive the woman ing,for this is London of London, and intellectual blackleg back to domestic work before wives shall have London at that.But so far as Colonial housesare re-established thehonour of home-making. So much dullcompared with it, so isthe average London the worse for feminine culture ! house compared with the average Colonial one, partly Butthe wife whounnecsssarily works for pay is a through the presence of the epicenewith her Medusa doubleblackleg, first onman, and secondly,on those effect on inter-sexual gaiety, partly through the enter- clever women whowork to support children. And she tainment being supplied by tradesmen, and what follows will laugh at thecharge of immoralitywith such un- fromthis, an absence of intimate sociality, mutual concern as makesit quite clear that she may never femininesympathy and triumph-in short, of homeli- be reached through reason ! ness ! In a colony, one pays a day visit as a matter of *** course after a social evening, and the women thus be- It is improbable that the Colonial woman will make comefamiliar with each other and like finds like. In more than a playful effort after economic independence, London, your fellow-guests are off to sanitary inspector- for the home of thislady is her palace, where she is ships next day, or some such horror, and the chances the busyqueen. She will take a guestfor a three are that you do not meet twice a year. No merriment months’visit, and makeher visitor the magnet for will ever come out of such an artificial state of things, miles around. Whoneglects her guest neglects her ! neithermerriment nor freelychosen friendships,nor In the town I lived in, there would beevery evening even revealing dislikes. One is driven to be indifferent. FEBRUARY19, 1914 THE NEW Age 497

TEMPLE OF THE SIBYL. BY FREDRICHARDS.. MODERN DRAWINGS-6 Edited BY WALTER SICKERT 498

theprospect of aboundless reciprocity with literary Readers and Writers. language.Admitting for the sake of theargument all accounts the next few months will see the addi- thatliterary language is the synthesis of dialects,its By perfection is only possible when these have been assimi- tion of a number of weekly and monthly journals to the already over-crowded market.Let me hasten at once latedand in theirturn restored to common colloquial to disclaim thededuction that I amjealous of their currency.Literature, so tosay, takes up dialect and, appearancein competition with THE NEW AGE. I am afterusing it, restores it to speech in a purified and not. We can never be Overcrowded with necessities or universalinstead of localform. Thus the perfection of Greekwas to befound, should say, in Platoand evenwith luxuries. What producesthe sense of over- I Demosthenes,two, of thesimplest and most colloquial crowding is the multiplication of the identical, the mere writers that ever lived. Swift in English is often indis- repetition;and it is precisely this effect that I both from careful conversation ; and, generally, fearand anticipate. Without pretending to omni- style becomesperfect asit becomesnatural-that is, science I may nevertheless say that there is scarcely a writer livingin Englandwith whose work I amnot colloquial. Thusthe future of thewriter is not the gloomyone foreseen byMr. GeorgeMoore, for there acquainted ; and if my judgment is equal to my oppor- can scarcely be an end to the perfectibility of language tunities some value should attach to my conclusion that in simplicity. It is, on the contrary, a future of infinite among them all there is no group capable at present of attraction. Onlywhen some writerarises as simple creating a newjournal of anoriginal character. The comparative ease, however, with which journals can be and yet as profound as Plato, or as simple and yet as impassioned as Demosthenes,shall begin to feel any started nowadays is a great temptation to add to their I number without much consideration. The improbability apprehension of theapproaching surcease of literary progress. of so frequent a complex of happy circumstances as are *** required really to “found” a journal is forgotten; and thusone new paper follows another with the rapidity No issue of the English Review” is complete with- and ephemerality of intellectual whims and fancies. out an article by some jackanapes ; and, in the relative *** absence from the current number of hfr. Austin Harri- Of the two new Quarterlies, the first issues of which son’stalent for vulgarity, his place isamply filled by hsvejust appeared,. neither, in my opinion, is strictly Mr.R. A. Scott-James. Under thetitle of “TheReal necessary. “The CandidQuarterly” (5s. net),edited Decadent’’ Mr. Scott-James ventures into denunciations by Mr. GibsonBowles, is very able in theaccepted od people who either do not exist or of whom himself is sense of Carlyle’s “able editor ; but none of its views aspecimen. Who, I wonder, arethe “tub-thumping are of such a character that they could .not otherwise supermen” whomMr. Scott-Jamesdescribes, without ‘havefound expression or werenot, in fact already naming, as standing on Nietzsche’s, stilts and arrogat- beingexpressed. Mr. Bowles’ opinions of apositive ing to themselvesthe direction of culture?Out with nature fall intotwo classes, those findingweekly ex- theirnames ! Nobeating about the bush insuch a pressionin the “New Witness” and those finding hunt ! But it is not bf these armorial beasts Mr. Scott- weekly expressionin THENEW AGE. Outsidethese James is really contemptuous,he says; but of the two areas the “Candid Quarterly” has not only nothing pedants, mandarins, and men of university culture who, tosay, but its range within them is circumscribed. I ostrich-like original phrase ] refuse to see the great will say nothing-for thereis nothing to be said-of popularmovements, men and opinions, of our day- -the “literary and artistic” side of the “New Witness” ; Larkinand Larkinism, to wit;Giovanetti: Haywood ’butthe “literary” affairs included specifically in the and the I.W.W. ! For loftily refusing to’ feel the signi- .prospectusand on the title-page of the“Candid ficance of these,culture to-day is damned.Yet was it Quarterly” simply receive no mention in the first issue. not Mr. Scott-James whlo only a week or two ago in I The three hundred pages are given up to political and long contemporary history of the British Press managed economic subjects completely. By definition the “Poli- to omit THE NEW AGE andyet to include ‘‘John tical Quarterly”(Oxford Press, 3s., or 10s. annually) Bull” ? It was. *** restricts itself tothese departments; but, once again, withno originality to justifya fresh publication Is The coming-of-age of the“Westminster Gazette,” there one of the articles in the current issue that would being an event without parallel in its history, was made -not easily havefound a homein anexisting Review? the occasion of congratulationfrom its competitors- I amsure there is not. But in that case, the new among them the “Daily News.” Glancing nervously at “Quarterly”is wastefula superfluity. I go a little me (I suppose) the “Daily News” justified its praise of further in the case of one article-that of Professor A. the “Westminster” by saying : “Good fellowship of this D. Lindsay on “The State in Recent Political Theory.” kind-in spite of all that its critics may say-has been Itsignorance is disgraceful in a newreview. Among on the whole a tradition and an honourable tradition of his statements regarding the recent Socialist revival is the British Press.” Well, I speak as I find and without this,that “the men who five years ago would have complaintsince we have done ourbest to ignore the calledthemselves Socialists and given everything to traditions, good orbad, of theBritish Press and to the State now call themselves Syndicalists and can find follow the traditions of the British people and English noplace forit.” Thatis the informationwe expect literature; but my experience of the British Press (and from the “Times” or General Smuts; it is unforgiveable of the “Daily News” included) is that honour, genero- in aprofessed student. sity,good fellowship and evencommon fairness are *** rareamong them and are growing rarer. Will the In the midst of his trivial relations of his trivial obser- “Daily News” note that among all the Press-references vations among trivial people, Mr. George Moore in the to the exhibition of cartoons by Mr. Rosciszewsky, not “English Review” makes osne remark the discussion of a singlejournal, including itself, mentioned thatthe which might be useful. “The source,”he says, “from drawings had appeared in THENEW AGE, though one which languageis refreshed-rural English-is being journal (the “Daily Sketch,” I think), in gossip said to .destroyed by Council Schools ; and God help the writer have been written by Mr. Titterton, did discover that who puts pen to paperin fifty years’time.” I do not “’Tom-titt” hadonce contributed to “L’Assiette au agree with either of the implied propositions, but I do Beurre,“ a French magazine ! not deny that there is somethingto be said for them. The *** sources of literature in the dialect are indeed in danger I think if I were M. Bergson I should begin to recant of drying up, if they are not dried up already ; the great my philosophy; for to the extent that it is pragmatic its “Dialect Dictionary’’ has, in fact, as good as reported disciples condemn it. His lectures at the Paris Univer- onthe post-mortem of local variations.But on the sity are now so popularamongst the ladies that not other hand, the colloquial is always with us and offers only has he hadto protest against the unbearable odours 499

of perfume brought in by them, but on account of the I think, to appreciate the strength of Burns’ mind, and crush of fashion and the rudeness of his audience to his mistakesgush for praise. For instance : “Greatwith colleagues he has now been compelled to alter the time throbbing pity for all weak creatures, a flaming indigna- of hislectures to an hour whenladies are at lunch. tion of scorn for all hypocrisies, stcadfast witnessing to Things culminated last week when his audience, to en- liberty and truth of the naked man, though he had to sureseats €or his lecture,took up their places atthe face the frost of neglect and the fire-hail of criticism for lecture by M. Leroy-Beaulieu whoprecedes him; and hisindependence, he has won the undying rewards of this they interrupted and, in fact, stopped, by chatter- never-fadinglove.” The which is poppycock, as ing, wrangling and singing the Marseillaise. ‘‘From a humiliating to the ghostof Burns as the Scotch stupidity popular philosophy,”said Coleridge, “Good Lord de- of his own day. Nor can Mr. Watt forget the bawbees. liver us.’’ Butthe prayer should be reservedfor a The inscribed Family Bible of Burns was recently sold philosophy and a philosopher popular amlong women. €org1,560 ; and,says Mr. Watt, “whenthe auc- tioneer’shammer fell, thetap of itwas heard from **i pole to pole.” What a tribute-but to whom if not to The pointscontained in Mr. Ludovici’s long letter Mr. Carnegie ? published elsewhere are really of moreimportance to *+* Nietzscheans than to NationalGuildsmen. It was with Ithas just occurred, tome whyI so oftenhate to the foolish hope of diverting Mr. Ludovici fromhis pursuit of airy ,nothings that Icalled his atten- readthe eulogies of the dead. This Mr. Watt now- bogey with his rhetoric about the dead Burns and his throb- tion to Nietzsche’s aphorism on the future organisation bingthis and flaming that-what would hemake of of industry. Thataphorism Istill maintain contains Burnsalive yet obscure? Probably nothing; and his -the germ of the Guilds, for by no other means than the case is common. Critics feel it safe to write about the Guilds could itsrequirements he carriedout. That an dead,for nobody caresto correct them.Besides, they Army and a Guild are not on all fours I am, of course, need only to read a dozen or so essaysabout a dead .aware; but their similarities are sufficient to justify the man to come without effort to an apparent judgment of drawing of a proximate parallel. Rent,Interest and their own. Inthe case of theliving, however, they Profit,for example, are eliminatedfrom both. So is both risk a little, and are compelled to be original ; and Wages. Thereis a commonend, subordination is by henceusually their failure. Onthe whole Iprefer the merit,and the task is national. Mr. Ludovici,it will criticisms written during an author’s life to any written be observed,makes Nietzsche aGerman for one pur- afterwards. So, I believe, doauthors. ‘pose,but timelessa andabstract philosopher for another purpose. When holding up toindustry the *++* model of the army, Nietzsche had in mind, Mr. Ludo- After my recentnotes on the sins of otherjournals Titi tells us, the German army-the army he knew and in the matter of mixing advertisements with literature, -that everybody knew. But when declaring that “wealth it was a great shock to me to find this journal guilty necessarily creates an aristocracy,” Nietzsche had not of a lapse. In the issue of February 5 aninteresting in mind the German wealthy classeswhom he and every- letter was broken in two to make room for an advertise- ‘body knew. Oh,dear, no ! Butwealth as an abstract ment of hfr. Allen Upward’s new novel, “The Divine institution ! I donot know that the Yankees need Mystery.” I have read the “Divine Mystery” as I read tremble at the distinction--I should not in their place. wery book by Mr. Upward.He is an author who in ‘Theprecedence of a “transvaluation of values”over many respects is a mystery himself, at once fascinating a change of institutionsis of thehen-and-egg order. andrepellent, stimulatingand depressing, incredibly Materialists,we know, assume that values arisefrom wise and incredibly silly ; a study of him would be an .institutions.Mr. Ludovici, a Catholicstrayed into the admirabletest for the powers of anycontemporary :fold of a rival Pope, retorts that values create institu- critic, and I hereby invite them. But an advertisement tions.Both, in my opinion, arewrong, for values and of one of his works is not advantagedby a breach in the ‘institutions actually change together and so inseparably goodmanners of THENew AGE. Onthe contrary, it that, except in logic, the pair can at no moment be dis- suffers by it. Havingmade inquiries I amhappy to tinguished. With the institution of wealth the guilds- say that neither Mr. Upward nor his publishers had any manhas naturally no quarrel, sincehis organisation hand in thematter. It was, I amtold, a piece of existsto producewealth. But Mr. Ludovici isafter a fatality, due to the coincidence of a cross-page adver- wealthyclass. Yes, and though he may denounce the tisementwith one of a wholecolumn. I amfurther plutocracy ofto-day with anystreet-corner ranter, he assured that such a thing will not occur again. would notimperil the existence of a wealthy class by *+* .abolishing the wage-system on which not wealth, but a More translations of Croce, I hear, are shortly due ; wealthyclass, depends. I leavethe subject with one and I am looking for two in particular : his “Logic,” further observation : it is unhappily not the fact that a andhis work on Marx. Meanwhile, I haveread his plutocracycan become an aristocracy,but itis un- “Philosophy of Giambattista Vico” (Howard Latimer, happily the fact that every aristocracy has ended as a 10s. 6d. net)with much pleasure. It chancesthat my plutocracy. *** recent comments on the difference between childishness and childlikeness are fully discussed in this volume ; for A coming cheap reprint is that of “Trubner’s Orien- Vico spent twenty-five years of intensestudy and re- tal Series,” published by Messrs. Kegan Paul. It does flection in endeavouring to re-enter the primitiveand notcontain the“Mahabharata,” of course,nor even simplemind of the earlyrace. Twenty-five years ! -the “Ramayana” ; but many of the series are indispen- Think of that, and of the seriousness and devotion of sable. I hope thatone of theearliest volumes will such a man as Vico; and then contrast this effort with be the “Classical Dictionary of HinduMythology and the ease with which ourlatter-day primitives hope to Religion.” It should,in fact, be the first. enterheaven as littlechildren. Vico’s conclusion, 1 +** may add, was that after all he was only comparatively successful. To Collins’ ‘‘ Nation’sLibrary” (IS. net)has been *** .added, for some strange reason, a book on Burns. The writer,the Rev. LauchlanMaclean Watt, is justan Now that Mr. Lansburyis back from America his enthusiast of a type as common in Scotland to-day as longoverdue explanation of hissudden dismissal of it was inversely common in Burns’ own days. One can Mr. Lapworthfrom the editorship of the“Daily see easily enou,gh in the eulogies of posterity the same Herald” ought to appear. I cannot say that the “Daily defectsthat disgraced the poet’s contemporaries ; his Herald” has perceptibly improved under the new regime countrymen are as unjust now on the side of adulation --whatever that may be. With lessspirit than hlr. as they were unjust while he was alive. Mr. Watt fails, Lapworthput into it, the paper is even worse edited 500 inpoint of form,and is stillwithout any sign of a towards the sunny plateau thatlies between the Lebanon policy. By policy I donot necessarily meananything and the Anti-Lebanon. An exquisitegreen valley, sur- so explicit asthe propaganda of theNational Guild rounded by snow-capped mountains, unfolds itself at System; for few of the“Daily Herald” staff appear your feet. It is a valley smooth to the eye as a lawn, to be in a position to understandit, let alone to ex- and, as I saw it then in March, soft with the touch of pound it. I mean a comparatively fixed scale of values. early spring. Upon its banks grow the vines 0.f Syria, Thephenomena of the political,economic and labour and farms are dotted over the low meadow land. Here, world do, it is true, change, but not every twenty-four at a wayside station, on the edge of the hill I bought hours, nor without reason. The “Daily Herald” ought from a littleragged boy hard-boiled eggs (stained nottherefore on successive days, or evenduring suc- yellow withonion juice), coarse salt, and flat Arab cessive weeks, to support National Guilds and Syndical- bread, and made an excellent meal. ism, to denounce the Unionist Pressand praise the For some hours before reaching Damascus the scene “Times” and the “Pall Mall Gazette,” to dismiss the becomesvery uninteresting. You descend gradually Fabians as reactionaries and welcome their organ “The through a narrow, stony gulch which remains with you New Statesman,” as advanced, to sneer at culture and upto the very border of the city. Forthe linenow recommend culture, to preach the class-war and to in- follows the bed of the Barada (the far-famed Abana of vite all classes to co-operate with Labour. All this in- Scripture)-thevery river thatwaters Damascus. But dicates the absence of something less even than a con- suddenly,round a bend,the plain opens before you, structive policy, namely, a steady and consistent mind. white with the blossom of fruit trees and green with the As regards form, the test of good editing is arrange- verdure of a thousandgardens. You areon the ment.A journal ought to be as well ordered as a threshold of Damascus, and ten minutes later you are public library on the free access system. The ordinary alighting at Beramke, the outskirt station of the city. reader should know at once where to look for anything. AlthoughDamascus contains, by roughcalculation, But this is not the case with the “Daily Herald.” Save anything up to a quarter of a million inhabitants,- they for one ortwo fixed features,any paragraph or any are packed so closely together that you can go from the subjectmay appear anywhere. Some such make-up as east boundary to the west and from the south boundary the following would, I think, serve as a model, subject, to the north in an astonishingly short time. To encom- of course, to variation under special circumstances. pass the whole city, in truth, would be hardly more than Page I.-Cartoon, as now. a morning’swalk. The streets are narrow, cobbled, 2.-Signed contributed articles and correspond- and horribly uneven, and they literally seethe with all ence. the peoples of thenearer East. Such slow-moving 3.-The chief news item of the day. crowds are unknown to European cities andwould never +--Minor news. betolerated in them. But, then, these areOrientals, s.-Parliament. whoregard neither convenience nor time. Arab camel 6.-Special features : a variable subject. driversand Turkish soldiers, Syrian Christians and 7.-Herald League and announcements. Jews, sleek,grey-bearded merchants, ,mendicants, 8.-Leaders and Notes of the day, as now. veiled women, fanatical holy men,jostle one another upon thepavements and overflow intothe The habit of plasteringadvertisements on every page road. A perpetual sound of loud argument, of hammer- should also be given up ; and if necessary the price of ing, of thecries of street-sellersand cabdrivers, of thepaper should beraised to a penny. R. H. C. yelpingdogs, and of therustle of tenthousand feet, falls upon the ear, seeming to blend harmoniously with the barbaric colours of the town. Early Spring in Damascus. My firstimpression of Damascus,as I walked its Richard Curle. streetsthe day after my arrival,was of a city of in- By numerablemerchants. The noiselessfootfall of ageis IN March thestony uplands of Palestineare covered almost lost for you in the whirl of traffic. Even in the with wild flowers andthe barren wilderness blooms bazaars, where once romance and commerce sat hand in again. It is this, together with the Easter celebrations hand,change is only too visible. Theglory has de- at Jerusalem, that draws travellers hither at a time of partedfrom them. They have beenrebuilt since the year when the nights are apt to be very cold. Even in recentdisastrous fire, broaderandroofed with Syria, where flowers are scarcer and spring comes late, corrugated iron. Hygienehas slain not merelyinsani- you will find cyclamen and dark red anemones flourish- taryconditions but romance itself. Likean octopus, ing in the rock-crannies of the hills. You have, indeed, they spread far and wide over the town, but they are no plenty of time to study the flora of the country as the longer the bazaars of old, the bazaars where some con- train carries you from Beyrout to Damascus. The dis- temporary of “goodHaroun Alraschid” might have tance is only ninety miles, but as much as nine hours are wanderedin peage. The kernelmay be thesame, but allowed forits accomplishment-and inSyria, more- the shell is different. over, there is no pedantic interpretation of punctuality. By thepopulous centre of bazaar-lifestands, in its At any rate, there was none on the day that I made the noonday stillness, the Great Mosque of Damascus. But journey. In the freshness of the morning, almost before here, too, the hand of change has erased the memorials the sea-mist has cleared off the Mediterranean, you run of thepast. For thoughits history goes backlong, through the long mulberry groves of the coast. Thence, long before the era of Mohammed, and though it has turning inland, you climb steadily, with many an abrupt actually been a Moslem sanctuary for 1,300 years, yet and devious twist, into the range of the Lebanon. The thepresent building is but of yesterday.For it, also, boulders hang steeply upon the mountain side and like a has been devastated by fire, and the new mosque is not great panting animal the train creeps and grunts up to twenty years old. And Christians may now tread where the snow level of 5,000 feet. Here, in these wide vistas once no dog of an Unbeliever would have been allowed. of forestand sloping hill, dwell the Druses-that I, myself,my unclean bootscovered with slippers, curious people whose secret religion admits the dogmas steppedupon the rich carpets where the Devout were both of Christianityand Mohammedanism. Inthis scattered in attitudes of prayer. Heedless of my presence windingascent you arefor ever losing andcatching theywere prostrating themselves before their God or sight of Beyrout. It crouchesfar, far beneath you, reciting holy passages from the Koran as they swayed growing smaller at each upward and inward curve, till their bodies to and fro. In this proof of the living in- at length it appears but as a handful of whitish dust fluence of their religion I could realisesuddenly the sprinkled upon a promontory. Damascusof a thousand years.And, indeed, even as Where the winter snow still lingers by the railway you walk through the streets when the day is at its full trackthe air is keen,but once you havereached the andthe withering sunlight pours upon the surging summit it is not long beforeyou are slipping downwards masses, you are able to obtain many a glimpse of the 501 ancient and historic Damascus-here, in the green-tiled search of offal, this hour is by far the most delicious of minaret of a mosquestanding gracefully against the the day. The call toprayer is heard but as a myste- blue sky, there, in amarble-paved court, seen for an in- riousecho in the silence, andthe scent of the trees stant through a half-closed door, in which a fountain is appears stronger as the darkness falls. bubbling. There is nothing to do in Damascus at night, unless I have said that the area of Damascus is remarkably youwould sit drinkingTurkish coffee inone of the small, and this, in fact, becomes at once apparent if you many open restaurants, or would walk about the streets walk up to the suburbof Salahiyeh and look down upon feeding the stray dogs with Arab bread. (Poor dogs ! the city spread beneath. From the side of that barren There are thousands of them,homeless anddespised, hill you see at once its close, compact formation. There and they live on meagre charity and on unsavoury pick- are but two wings to Damascus, the street leading toup ings.)The social life of Mohammedansdoes not ap- Salahiyeh and that of the Midan that straggles out of proximate to ours. You cannot penetrate behind these the town for about a mile of houses and granaries. And dark, latticed windows, and the whole town seems to be beyond the city rangesthe flat andbeautiful plain to shut off from your prying gaze. And yet the fatal West which Damascus is the key. Two days’ journey to the has notbattered on Damascus all in vain. Two cine- south-east it loses itself in the desert, where the Barada, matograph theatres and an electric tram are evidence of its life-giver,is swallowed by thesalt marshes; but its blighting touch. If this he the march of progress, I from here, far as eye can reach, there is a mass of trees prefer retrogression. and grey foliage. Away to the east mountains are just Thenights of earlyspring are bitterly cold in visible, and behind you (if you could but see it over the Damascus, and you are thankful topile on the blankets. shoulder of the hill) Hermon stands white and shining But towardsmorning it generally becomes warmer in the distance. The river Barada, a swift and narrow (strange anomaly), and at eight o’clock you can sit up stream, flows out of the gorge into Damascusonly to be quitecomfortably inbed for breakfast. My window carried underground and to emerge in the further plain. overlooked theBarada, hurrying to its underground Jt is from a neighbouringsummit that Mohammed is fate a hundred yards further on, and from there I could said to have gazed upon the city and to have turned watch the crowds demonstrating before the governor’s fromit reluctantly with these words, “Man can have palace at the high price of bread. Minarets and snowy but oneparadise, and my paradise is fixed above.” Hermonmade up the Eastern picture. Thesecrowds Towardsevening, when the level rays of thesun of Damascus are good-natured, but subject to waves of strikesideways down the shadowy mountains, the intense excitement. They rise and subside in them like wholelandscape glows with richness. Likeone im- an angry storm coming whence and going whither no mense fruit garden the orchards, white with almond and man exactly knows. Damascus is the town in which to apricot blossom, open fanways on all sides from the city study the psychology of crowds. And, as to individuals, of Damascus. Thegleaming minarets are surrounded I have come across many curious people here-from a by this fragrant sea and the brown houses seem to rise Melbourneclergyman, who knew the precise spot of fromout the engulfing plain. Thedeepest and most Paul’s conversion, to a Syrian tradesman (a Christian, unbrokenquiet reigns in theseorchards. Goldfinches of course), who read La Bruykre and Pushkin, and who hopfrom branch tobranch, and in thesun-spattered got up every morning at four to write essays on“family glades you can watch the figures of gardeners moving happiness”and kindred subjects. But to understand silently amongstthe trees. If you leaveDamascus by the inner lives of Moslems is a difficulty that has faced the Bab Tuma (the other side of the town from Sala- me at every step. The creed of Mohammed neither in- hiyeh), on the high road th.at still carries so mu.ch of the vites confidences nor suggests compromise. To the True Aleppo traffic, you will travel for mile after mile through Believer the best of Christians is merely’ a dog, as to the the finest fruitgarden of Asia. In Marchit is still Christianthe best of Mohammedansis hopelessly chilly beneath the laced and laden boughs where the sun damned.Over and over again, as I walkedthrough cannot penetrate, but a little later when theuniversal these streets, I have studied the faces of old men and of green will havegrown more profound, and when the young men, and I have seen there only the proud and peach blossom will have added its lustre to that of the fanatic dogmatism of an invinciblefaith. And to them othertrees, it must be delightful here beyondwords. their religion is not solely religion, but also civilisation Theseenvirons are the real charm of Damascus.For -a civilisationalien toWestern philosophy. So the the town itself would inevitably pall upon you at last, conflict wages and will wage for centuries to come. as all Oriental towns do, but the orchards of Damascus There are, indeed, Christianand Jewish quarters in would remain sweet for ever. Damascus, but they have not that importance they as- It is in such a place, without the walls and half-sur- sume in someother Moslem towns. In Beyrout,€or roundedwith fruittrees, that Thomas Henry Buckle, instance, the Christians actually outnumber the Moham- theauthor of “TheHistory of Civilisation,”lies medans, and in Bagdad the Jews have a great part of buried. €€e died in Damascus in 1862, and he sleeps in the city to themselves. But in Damascus,Christians the tinyEnglish cemetery whose unruffled stillness is) andJews together probably do not constitute a unbroken by the steps of True Believers.A Jew con- twentieth of thepopulation. Their quarters lieon ductedme thither, a superior person, who expressed eitherside of theTarik-el-Mustakim, near its further great contempt for Mohammedans and was very urgent end by the Bab Tuma or Thomas’ gate, and there they with me that I should visit the Catholic as well as the dwell,for themost part, like hunted animals in their Protestant cemetery. I stood a few minutes by Buckle’s burrows of houses,creeping stealthily along their grave, round which the falling petals will shower when smelly, narrowlanes. Their hatred of the Moham- spring is over, and I read what his sister has had carved medansis returned to them four-fold and with an in- uponhis headstone :-“I know thathe will rise veterate contempt which would be galling to more edu- again.” But who would wish to risefrom so peaceful cated races.But there is nowlittle or no active inter- a spot? ferencewith the Unbelievers. I havemet, certainly, At sunset the call to prayer resounds from a hundred someuncommonly agreeableand intelligent men minarets. The muezzins’high-pitched drone floats out amongst the Syrian Christians, but, on the whole, these over the orchards, and devout men, weary from a day Turkish subjects of the Greek Church are a poorlot. of toil,fall upon theground and turn once again to- They are “smart” and shallow. But they are sincere in wardsthe Holy City. This is thehour to be abroad, one thing at least-in their hatred of the Turkish rule in the mild silence of the dusk. It is cool even amidst and there, to a very large extent, they join hands with the narrow and airless back streets of the town or the their Moslem neighbours.Indeed, how could the pungent smells of the Tarik-el-Mustakim-the long Syrians be loyal to Turkey? She drains their manhood ‘Street called Straight,” that cuts the city as the Rue forher unvictorious armies andshe gives nothing in de l’Universite cuts Paris. But in the orchards, where return.She sits upon their patient backs like a verit- all is stilland where thepariah dogs wandernot in able old man of the sea. 502 --___

InDamascus there are ancient Roman remains, groundthat Paul trodand where Saladin lies buried and,no doubt, also,some of thememorials of Islam knew also the feet of the Roman conquerers. And now-, are very old. But at thebest the age of Moham- at length, after its long Turkish subjection, it looksas if medanism is but a breath. The pyramids of Egypt were itmight outlast the celebrated cities of Europe. For hoarythousands of yearsbefore the Hegira and thedisintegrating influences of modernunrest do but Christianity itself was already an established religion at ruffle its surface, and presently, in the twilight of obscu- thebirth of Mohammed.Curiously enough, the most rantism, it will slumber again. Let the Turks but depart excellent privateexample of ,anantique dwelling in without successors and we will hear no more of Occi- Damascus belongs to a family of Jews, who are prob- dental Civilisation. By the help of Allah and the Prophet ably more careful of it than most Mohammedans would the True Believers will stamp it out. be. ForMohammedans are not touched with our modern ardour of preservation.They care for their souls and for the good things of this world, but they The Last of the Urbanasians. are neither artistsnor antiquarians. The well-known Damascene work is crudely garish and of a type that By Arthur F. Thorn, admits of little originality. Nassan, by the Bab Tuma, I RAN into Snaith just as I was dodging up Adam and employs about 500 people in the making of gold, silver, Eve Court. “Which way are you going?” he gasped, brass and copper work and in the inlaying of tables and clutchingme by thearm. “The club,” I whispered. boxes in mother-of-pearl, rare woods, and camel bone. He gavea terrified glance round the corner into Oxford Many of the workers are little girls of five and upwards, Streetand then jumped back into the shadow. “For and the more select inlaying is largely in the hands of yourlife,” he cried, and together we bolted intothe Jewesses. They sit in rows, their black heads bent over darkness of the alley. “Are you quitecertain of your the trays, every now and again glancing up with their bearings?” I gaspedas we racedalong. “Quite,” he shining,black eyes, and begging for baksheesh with replied; “it’ll take us justfour minutes at thispace, voluminous smiles. providing-providingwe are not followed.” I was too Indeed, from the youngest to the oldest, the desire of breathless to inquire exactly how the position stood, or profit isstrongly ingrained in the Damascenes. Here, whatthe other chaps had decided to do. “Ross was if you like, is a race of shopkeepers. Not only do they caught this morning,” panted Snaith as, he dragged me manufacturemany goods themselves, but they have through a dirtylittle shop and up some unlighted madeDamascus the centre of a greatEastern trade. stairs.“God knows what’s become of him.?’ I Hither come caravans laden with tobacco from Bagdad stumbled up afterhim as best I could. “Is thisthe andsilk carpetsfrom Persia. And here,also, isthe new branch?” I panted.Snaith did notreply, but Northern terminus of the Hedjaz railway. It is singular shovedme into a veryspacious room which was to think how even the railway but emphasises the con- crowdedwith men of all ages,many of whom were servatism of the Moslem Creed. For it is a line built to completestrangers. “ Ah, here you are,” exclaimed a carrypilgrims towards Mecca,in thehope of eternal tall,elderly gentleman,fighting his way from the life, in the longing to gain the promised rewards of a further corner where he had been talking to a group of voluptuous paradise. Indeed, the Oriental spirit lingers veryexcited members. ‘Glad to seeyou both safe. stillwithin Damascus. Inthe dimbyways and in the Have you heardabout Ross?” Snaith noddedquickly outlying parts little change can have fallen for hundreds and removed hishat. “Yes, we got a messagethis of years. The electric tram and the cinematograph have afternoon at the Charing Cross Branch. It’s a damned come, butthey have only scratched this fringe of the shame. Just fancy, poor old Ross, one of the initiators changelessEast. The old buildingsmay decay and a too. Was he disguisedwhen they caught him?” The European veneer may slightly alter the outward life, ibut elderly gentleman nodded. “That’sjust the extra- beneath it the spirit remains the same as of yore. Veiled ordinary thing about it,” he answered, ;and it puts us women steal round corners, disappearing down noisome in a fearful hole-what on earth are we going to do?” alleyways. Men pass you, mumblingtheirin He sholok hishead. “The game’s up,” I interrupted. beards, cursing you beneath their breath. To the Ortho- “Theyknow the disguise now; you don’tsuppose it dox and the Devout we are of no more importance than will hold good inthe future, do you?” Snaith sat the dog they kick contemptuously from their path. Are downand mopped his face. “There’sno chance of we not Unbelievers and has not Mohammed, the servant escapingfrom London now,” he exclaimedirritably. of theCompassionate One, announced thatwe shall “None that I can see, any way. All these disguises, too enter not into the joys of Heaven? -sheer waste. How onearth did they detect Ross? ThoughDamascus has so alluring a fascination, That’s what beats me.” The elderly gentleman smiled nevertheless, if I hadto live in Syria, I hadrather it sadly. “We haveno definite explanation,”he replied. were in a seaport lik,e Beyrout than in the interior, For “Ross, as you know, was an exceptionally stout man, the apathy and lassitude of a purely Oriental atmosphere andabove the average height. His make-up was ad- overwhelm one like an invincible tide. But on the coast justedwith the usual care-anyhow, whoeverit was vou hear ever the faint murmurs of the busy Western thatspotted him must have been ‘veryintimately ac- world. Where the lazy sea flaps exhausted on the rocks quaintedwith the malephysique.” He twiddled his you know that there starts the highway of the universe. thumbs in a forlornmanner. At that moment a little It is remarkable, this feeling of freedom engendered by red-faced man burst into the room and locked the door the sea, and I have felt it nowhere more mightily than behindhim. “It’sHarris,” exclaimed Snaith,“he when I returned to Beyrout after my visit to Dam.ascus. looks prettydone up.” we made a circleround him Beyrout is a. town very deceptive to the casual traveller, andwaited for him to recover hisbreath. “I’ve just whosees only the sordid and repulsive streets around rushed over from the Kennington Swimming Baths” : the port, and judges of it accordingly. But up amongst his eyes bulged from his head. “What do you think,” the pine woods, amongst the flowering gardens and the hecried, “They’ve burnt down the Charing Cross lush, wayward vegetation of its high outskirts, there is an exotic charm. Especially is this true at night when Branch !” the frogs are croaking in every pool and darkness hides I fetched him a chair and endeavoured to calm him. the snowy summits of the Lebanon. “Well,” exclaimedeverybody excitedly, “whathap- Butfor sheer romance it is of Damascus I would pened? ’’ Harris moistened his lips, and struggled into speakfirst and last. Its very name conjures up all the a sittingposture. “They’ve captured them all- save glamour of theArabian Nights. Isit nottrue, in- Sarner-he’s safe in the Kennington Baths. He’s been deed, that Abou Nuwas in the story of “Noureddin Ali there since one o’,clock-and there’s no food-” of Damascus and the Damsel Sitt el Milah,” exclaims Thecrowd around Harris asked him innumerable rapturously “Damascus is all gardens for the pleasance questims,but he wastoo weak tosay much. We of theeyes”? Its fameis no mushroomgrowth. The helpedhim to undress. “You never saw such a crowd 503 ~~ - in theStrand,” he remarked in a feeble voiceas I by aboutfifty of the enemy. I recall seeing poor loosened hisblouse strings. “Talk about a ,crowd- youngSmith beinghoisted intothe first lorry. AS it you couldn’t move. And TrafalgarSquare ! Well, to rattled away the crowd on either side was swept into give you some idea, twelve of ’em had climbed up the twoblack lines. Inthe lorry behindmine the elderly Nelson Column with double-handed saws”-he paused, gentlemanhad fainted. A swarm of the enemywere andhis eyes bulged morethan ever.“They’ve re- endeavouringreviveto him. Theirleader, who moved-they’ve removedNelson !” Thecrowd fell manueuvred throughthe crowd in a smallaluminium backamazed. Harriswas in a perspiration of fear. motor-car, shouted instructions through a large mega- “You’ll hardly believe it,”he continued, but Peel’s phone-“Let no man be injured,” came the voice above gone, too. There isn’t a statue left standing in London theroar. “Remember, they are the last of their race barQueen Elizabeth and Victoria.” Hestruggled We need them, every one.” Then, as my lorry started, out of hisskirt and drank a glass of brandy which I looked back. Merrivale stood in the centre of the van Snaith had procured from downstairs. “What’s going which followed mine. He stoodcalmly with folded to happen next?” inquired Merrivale .nervously, a fine, armsand made no1 protest. Inoted thathe had been broad-shouldered youth of about thirty. stripped of his disguise, and that several of the enemy “Godknows,” replied Harris. “Frankly, I don’t wereweeping and bathing a slightwound upon his think we shall be able to hold out much longer; in the breast. ‘‘So be it,” I muttered,and cheerfullysub- firstplace, where’s thegrub coming from? We’re mitted to theunceasing ,caresses myof hysterical bound togive in sometime or other.” The sad, captors. elderly gentlemanproduced a magentanotebook. “How many of us do you suppose are still free?” He looked around him with a pathetic smile. Views and Reviews. “Well,” replied Harris finishinghis brandy, “I should sayas manya,s there .are in this room, and WHENthe dramatic critic of “The Daily Chronicle” set Sarner,” he paused ; “there’s no doubt aboutthey’ve it himself to the task of making Mr. G. K. Chesterton’s got allthe rest.” The elderly gentlemanmade a cal- play a commercial success, and proposed a public debate culationin his note-book. “Twohundred and one- on the subject of miracles as a means of advertising the- twohundred and one,” he repeated, sucking the end play, he had, I suppose, some hope that the debate itself of hispencil; “ andhow ‘many ofthe-of the- mightbeinteresting. Indeed, if oneforgets that others-”(he loweredhis voice) “of the enemy?” We G. K. C. is primarily a controversialist, and is “bobby-. leaned,forward. “Millions,” exclaimed Harris em- dazzled” by hisverbal trickery into regarding him as phatically. “They simply swarm; you’ve no idea.” either an artist or a thinker, it is easy to expect great As he spokeTaylor came up from the shop beneath things from him, and to be disappointed in the event. with the information that no more food was available. But “Magic” itself is a polemic primarily directed not Th,erewas just sufficient to carry us through till the againstmaterialism, but in favour of themiraculous morning.Immediately there was an uproar. “Quiet, element of RomanCatholicism. Inthe prologue and quiet,”cried Harris, “they’ll hear us.” Therewas a the first act, G. K. C. is concerned to establish a pre- suddensilence during which hecrawled over tothe sumption in favour of the occurrence of a miracle; but ventilator andpeered throughinto the street below. when the miracle happens, he devotes his skill to show- Then he crawledback again with an expression of ing that it is due to devilry, and is only a form of sin, terror upon his face. He held up his five fingers three becauseit is not a RomanCatholic miracle. Inthe timesin succession. “Disguise,” he whispered, rolling debate, he adopted the same position. He urged, in his his eyes. “If you value your freedom, disguise. They’ve opening speech, the presumption in favour of the occur- got us ; it’s all up ; they heard us talking-fifteen of ’em rence of miracles in general ; and, when everybody had waiting outside.. It’s all up.” There was an immediate arguedabout miracles in general,he suddenly intro- rush for disguises; and in the chaos that followed, no duced thesubject of Christianity(which had been de-. single costume was properly adjusted. Harris was try- liberatelyexcluded from therange of debate)and as- ing to fasten his skirtwhen we heard the distant shrieks serted that they had been arguing about Christianity all and wailings of the enemy. “They are upon us,” cried the time. The subject was : “Do Miracles Happen?” Snaith;“out with thelights.” In complete darkness and Mr. Chesterton concluded that the resurrectionof n-e waited-breathless. Theatmosphere in theroom Jesus Christ was so stupendous a miracle as to compel wasfetid and almost stifling. “Shallwe chance it?” him to’believe thatthe Roman Catholic Church was whispered Merrivale, in a hoarse voice; but even as he commissioned by God to save the world and Mr. Ches- spoke the shrieking and shouting grew nearer and louder, terton,or something like that. The conclusion was while abovethe increasing roar we could,distinguish‘ very like a nonsequitur, and it had every appearance ofintellectual dishonesty ; for Mr. Chestertonappa- thetriumphant battle-cry of theirleader. “ They’ve surrounded the house,” muttered Harris. “We may as rently reached the foregone conclusion that no miracles well give in,” persisted Merrivale, hopelessly. “What’s havehappened or do happen except those sanctioned the use of stickinghere? They’ll possibly burnthe by theauthority of theCatholic Church, which, by house down like they did at Charing Cross. After all, the way, was not the subject of discussion. n-e shouldn’t be much worse off in a “an Farm.” The Inspite of the fact that the discussion was opened roar grew deeper. “Put it to the members,” exclaimed with the statementof a dictionary definition of a miracle, Snaith.“Are we to be burnt alive, o.r do weattempt which G. K. C. amended forthe purposes of debate, to escape ’’ thedisputants couldnot even agreeconcerning the We waitedfor a moment,and at lengthcame the natureor characteristics of a miracle. G. K. C.’s almost inaudible word, “Escape.”, As we ranged our- amended definition wasthis : “A miracle isan event selvesin single file and Harris unlocked thedoor, happening perceptible to the senseswhich indicates that lightedtorches were thrust against the windows ; there is a will, or purpose, or intelligencebehind the flames licked the casements, andwithout a moment’s happeningthing.” According tothis definition, it hesitation we scuttleddown the stairs-right intothe would be a miracle if Mr. T. E. Hulme, accepting the challenges offered him in thisjournal, handed Jack arms of the enemy A howl of delight greeted our ap pearance in thestreet, andi instantly,each one of us Johnsonthe k.o., asthe boxing experts phrase it. In was seized by abouttwenty olf them.‘‘Passive re- G. E(. C. ’s loose rendering, this would be an ‘‘event, ” it would be perceptible to the senses, and it would in- sistance,” cried the elderly gentleman as he was borne dicate a will, or purpose,or intelligence behind the away. “Remember-no violence.”Ashriek of de- rision answeredhim, and I heard him.no more. We happeningthing. But nobody (except,perhaps, were then hurried along swiftly to sixteen great motor ++ Do Miracles Happen? -4 copy of the Recent Debate lorries which werewaiting in OxfordStreet. There at theLittle Theatre. (“Christian Commonwealth” Co. was no chance of escape ; each one of us was surrounded 6d .) 504 --

G. K. C. and Mr. Joseph McCabe) would fall down and encebetween apparently personal and impersonal worship Mr. Hulme, and, in addition, accept his “ellip- causation.Take the example from G. K. C.’s pray, ticalrhomboids” as a newcreation of the universe. “Magic.” If thedoctor’s lamp showed a red or blue Yet we find, according to G. K. C., similar contingen- lightindifferently, the fact would accordwith all the cies attaching to a miracle; it is not merely the hap- assumptions of thenature of 3 miraclemade by the pening, the perceptibility, and the indication of a will, speakers. It would be a previouslyunknown fact, a that describe a miracle. That a miracle mustpossess wonderfulfact, an apparently inexplicable fact,and, the power of compelling worship, and must prove some to mostpeople, it would be an incrediblefact. But it proposition aboutthe universe, are assumptions not would notbe a miracle,because itscausation would clearly stated by G. K. C., but which are none the less beapparently impersonal. But whenthe red light manifestin his speeches. turns to blue, in consequence of Morris Carleon’s chal- But if thisbe so, G. K. C.’s own example of a lenge to the‘conjurer, we have a fallacious instance of a miracle is useless. If the mountains suddenly fell down miracle;fallacious because, as a matter of fact, the andsomething happened afterwards as if therewere personal will of the conjurer does not effect the change. purpose in it, we should not be, as G. K. C. supposes, If the conjurer, without using any material aids, could face to face with the problem of a personal God. If the by an effort of will causelight shining through red problem of a personal God does not arise while moun- glass to appear blue, that would be a miracle. It is not tains stand, and avalanches hit or miss the huts of the a question of beingable to produce the same effect mountaineers,it will notarise because mountains, by othermeans : whenMr. Maskelyne reproduces avalanches,huts, and mountaineers are all whelmed spiritualistic phenomena by mechanical means, he does into an inextricable confusion. Let God hang out a sign not, as he supposes, prove that the spiritualistic pheno- proclaimingthat alone he did it,the evidential value menaare produced by mechanical means : the whole of this occurrence would depend entirely on the nature question is : “Can these phenomena be produced by the of the individual mind. When a country house is burnt, direct .agency of the will?” and Suffragette literature is found near the scene, only It is ‘clear that no analogy from science can help us. minds prepared to believe that all incendiaries are Suf- Thetransmutation of metals,although wonderful is fragettes accept the second fact as proof positive of the not miraculous ; bycareful observation, the scientist authorship of the first. The presumptionin favour of has discovered the conditions of transmutation, and he such a conclusion is very strong, of course ; but the two onlyprovides the ,conditions, not thecausation. But facts are not invariably connected, and the second; does if the teaching of religions has any validity, it is that not constitute irrefragable proof of the authorship of the the will of man is an effective cause of the existence of first. When the island of Krakatoa exploded, and the things.“Circumstances ? I makecircumstances,” earthwas glorified withmagnificent sunsetsfor some said Napoleon,in anepigrammatic assumption of seasonsafterwards, the scientific mindconnected the divinity. We need not reopen the controversy concern- two events ; but it did not fall into the error of suppos- ing free-will and determinism ; Croce has reconciled the ing that God blew up the island to provide the earth opponents by proving that both are right, that the will withglorious sunsets. Even if, as I have suggested, a has two moments, the first conditioned by the nature of sign had! appeared in the sky saying that this was the the circumstances, the second free. by the nature of the intention of God, the scientist would not have believed will, and that the two moments coincide. If we impose it. He would have argued that such amethod showed upon our minds the determinist limitation : “Being as such ignorance of the most economical way of providing we now are,we cannot do otherwise than as we now fine sunsets as to be impossible to God. do” : we practically deny action, and await event. It is If thisis G. K. C.’s idea of amiracle, then,quite safeto say that this is the mental condition of prac- obviously, heought to have argued that miracles do tically the whole of the human race ; it is only here and not happen. Themountains do notskip like young thereone who dares to renew the worldand himself rams,nor do we worshipand falldown, and kneel at crucialmoments. Yet it is conceivable, and there- before theLord our God. But G. K. C.’s contention fore possible, that the will will affirm its own supremacy was that miracles do happen, and when he was asked and create things, that miracle and not method will be ‘‘Where?”he replied : “AtLourdes.” But it must the order of life ; and that the mechanical utilisation of be apparent that the cures at Lourdes do not agree with the forces of nature will be superseded by the personal hisown definition orexample of a miracle. Theyare direction of them. A. E. R. events,they are perceptible to the senses; but if they manifest any will, it is only the will of the patient, for I think it s.afe to say that no patient has beencured Ancient Town Planning.* who did not will tobe cured. Thepurpose of these curesis not apparent, except to a scoffer like Zola; A LINGERING belief in thegoodness od humannature andhe quite plainlyinferred thattheir only purpose makes us hope that the modern builder is as much of was the enriching of the town, the railway companies, anignoramus as he is a knave. If he hadread his and the Catholic Church.Nor do these cures manifest Vitruvius he could not fail to be impressed by the pro- intelligence, for it is safe to say that not all those who minent position which considerations of health hold in are cured are those whom an intelligent person would “TheArt of Architecture.”Let us take the theatre select forlonger life on this planet. If the cures per- as an example-an institution of supremeimportance formedby medical men do notbring us face to face in the ancient world, as,indeed it mustbe in any withthe problem of a personalGod, neither dothe civilisationless barbarous than that of to-day. Vitru- cures at Lourdes. vius says (we quote from the translation by Willkins) : So I mightexamine all theinstances given by “After the site of the forum has been determined, the G. K. C. andthe other speakers, of theplanchette, next care is t.0 select the most healthy spot within the of the transmutation of metals, of the development of a limits of thecity for a theatre. . . . Forthose who somatic cell from the fertilised ovum,etc., and show frequent them in (company with their families, engaged that they do not conform to the definition of a miracle by the interest they take in the representations, remain given by G. K. C. The term “miracle” is really an inde- in fixed attention; wheme it happens that the pores of terminate term ; it seems to mean something previously the body are exposed to the effects oif the atmosphere, unknown, or something inexplicable, something wonder- which, in the neighbourhood of marshes or spots other- ful, or something incredible, according to the mood or wise unhealthy, is charged with vapours prejudicial to nature of thespeakers. Matthew Arnold, of course, the human frame. . . . It is no less necessary that the cleverly evaded the problem by defining a miracle as theatre be not placed with its concave part facing the something that does not happen. But surely the whole * “AncientTown-Planning.” By F. Haverfield. Pp. differencebetween whatis callled a “miracle”2nd a 152, with g plates and 27 illustrations in the text. 8170. natural occurrenceis (superficially, at least) the differ- 6s. net. (Oxford : Clarendon Press.) 505

south ; because, from its peculiar form, the sun would assignedfarming-plots onthe public domains to heat every part alike and prevent the ,circulation of air, emigrantcitizens of Romeplanned these plots on the which, becoming rarefied and heated, causes the evapo- same rectangular scheme--as the map of rural Italy is rati,on andexhaustion of thecorporeal juices. On witness to this day. ” And again on p. 77 : “The two theseaccounts unwholesome situations must be main streets appear to follow some method of orienta- avoided, and healthy spots carefully selected. ” tionconnected with augural science.” It is a splendid And so throughout, whether he be describing public instance of thefact, well known to thosewho study or private buildings, Vitruvius, at least, seems to have religion andother superstitions, that much of ancient realised that buildingis a- matter which concerns ceremonialwas merelygood hygienics. Godliness was primarily the health and welfare of the citizens at large, originallynext to cleanliness, but nowadays we are andthe ancients generally recognisedthe importance primarily godly-as witness our capitalists. of healthconsiderations, as witness the very existence It is interesting to notice how the Romans dealt with of such offices as the Astynomi and Agoranomi, what- over-crowding. ’Their “Colonize,” thoughprimarily evertheir precise functions may have been. Butit is military outposts, were often accidentally occasioned by good to be able to judge, at any rate in part, how far overcrowding in thecity itself. We havenot solved these ideal theories were carried out by an ancient prac- the problem at all. Silchester (p. 129)is an example to tice. ProfessorHaverfield’s bok: thoughthis may put besi,de ourgarden-cities except that instead of nothave been his intention in writing it, helps us to attempting to bring the country into the town it turns frame our answer. He himselfdescribes it in the pre- town-features into the country. “The reverse has taken face as “a scholar’scontribution to a modern move- place of that which weoften see to-day in England. ment”and the original essay uponwhich it has been Our modern builders and architects had-until perhaps based was submitted to theLondon Conference on Town- quite recently-only oneidea of a smallhouse, the planning in 1910. Now we havealways thought, in house, namely, which to-daycharacterises the monoc- spite of thesplendour of PericleanAthens and tonous streets in the poorer quarters of our new towns, Augustus’ boastabout finding Rome a city of brick withits front door and bow windowon one side, its and leaving it one of marble, that the ancient city was offices behind, andits two other sides left blank for generally one of splendid public and mean private build- otherhouses tostand against. This is a town house. ings. Does not Juvenal give us a picture of Rome with Yetour modern-builders use it, all by itself,in the its narrow,dirty streets and mean tottering houses mostdesolate country districts. I came acrossone which even a modernjerry-builder could contemplate suchnot long ago, when drivingover a lovely valley with complacency? As Professor Haverfield says, in Exmoor.There it stood, with noother house near “Town-planning is an art of intermittent activity. . . . it, yet with its two sides blankly waiting for the street For ;ts full unfolding twoconditions are needed. The that ought to form itself to the right and left” (p. 131). age must be one in which, whether through growth or The book concludes with pointing out the difference throughmovements of population,towns are being between the difficulties of the ancient and modern world freely founded or freely enlargedand almost as a in town-planning,but we are grateful to Professor matter of courseattention is drawn to methods of Haverfield for his very lucid exposition of what archaeology arrangingand laying out suchtowns. And secondly, logy has to teach us about ancient town-planning. We thebuilders of these towns must have wit enough to feel thebeam in our own eye. R. B. A. are forthe well-being of common menand thedue arrangement of ordinarydwellings. Thathas not THE MINER. alwayshappened. In manylands and centuries-in I wonder if it was God’s design ages wherecivilisation has been tinged by an under- That a man should earn his bread, current of barbarism-one or both of these conditions Toiling away in the dark 0’ the mine, have .been absent” (p. 11). (This‘‘undercurrent of With Death hanging over his head; barbarism” rises pretty well to the surface in the slums For a fault just here and a prop too few, of ourlarge townsto-day.) Now in‘classical Greek Or a lamp drawn out of its sheath, times man lived for the State. We all remember Aris- And an “empty” stands in the family pew, Aristotle in the classicalperiod While a “full” truck’s shunted down underneath. the individual as such is badlyhoused. But as the And all I can say of a task like mine idea of theor city-state vanished in the Mace- Is, “I wonder whether it’s God’s design.” Macedonian era, so the claims of the individual citizen begin I wonder God doesn’t deem it a crime tobe recognised, and this shows itself evenin town- That some wives should be slaves Toiling away at washin’ 0’ grime planning. It israther strange that Socialists, those That’s come from the underground caves; foolswho will notsee that man is an individual and For clothesare spoilt as soon as they’recleaned thatthe only things of value arethe things of indi- Till a woman is never at rest; viduality orpersonality, should be so interested in an And a boy’s near dead as soon as he’s weaned, art which was first taken up in Greece when the claims Till Life seems a bitter and cruel jest. of the individual first began to be recognised ! Not that And I wonder whether a wife like mine town-planning begins in the Macedonian era. We find Is meant for a slave by Law Divine. it right back beyond the historical period, and perhaps I wonder whether ‘twas meant that coal, themost interesting part, to the general reader, of That our fair land should lie ProfessorHaverfield’s book, ishis description of the In desolate slag-heaps, line upon line, terremare of NorthItaly, which dateback to the With nothing to gladden the eye; Bronze Age, where we see already that “chess-board” That miners should dwell in such dingy rows Of dingy huts in dingy towns, arrangement of streetsand rectangular house blocks While their sweat to the barren coinage goes, which are so prominent throughout his survey. And their temper’s lost for a few half-crowns; We find, too, that Herodotus’ famous description of And when for an easier life I pine, Babylonis confirmed, in allsave dimensions, by the I wonder if that was not God’s design. excavations which have been made; but this is not the I wonder whether’twas meant that coal, place for a ,critical review of the evidence produced by Industry’s hard, black food, Professor Haverfield. We prefer to pointthe moral Should cost in its getting the human soul, from a few instances. And then, in a criminal mood, On page 70 we read, “The Roman augur who asked That men should put it to murderous use, the will of Heaven marked off a square piece of sky or Or uselessly rather, should kill earth-his ternplum-into fourquarters; inthem he The human lives that the great fleet’s cruise sought for his signs. The Roman general who encamped Exacts as due by the War-god’s will. No, I fear that the final fruit of the mine his troops laid out their tents on a rectangular pattern 1s a blot on the beauty of God’s design. governed by the same idea. The commissionerswho A. GASCOIGNERICHARDS. 506

I honestly tryingto enjoythe little lease of life before Pastiche I the final danse macabre, that dance at the end of a ro e to which we mustall come, nos chers ! Letothers die MODERN REVIEWING. intheir beds if they please. Villon was a GreatPoet ‘‘ The limes,” February 12. because he had not the lie in the soul. Any man seeing Francois Villon was at his worst when he wrote court the world to be nut as Villon saw it has the lie in the poetry. Yet for some strange reason Francis I. delighted soul. Anyman who pretends to be a greater poet than in him. Surely Francis 1. must have been aware of our Villon hasthe lie in the soul.Villams and would-be opinion : Villon was at his worst when he wrote court viIlains,arise and salute-the Master ! R. A. F. poetry.Francis ought not tohare delighted in Villon, unless he had some reason stranger than that Villon was at his. worst when hewrote court poetry. It is awfully INTERLUDE IN A LIBRARY. annoying ! Marot, too, whom Francis employed toes- “ . . . . philologists who trace plain Villon to him (for, although he delighted in Villon, A panting syllable lable thro’ time and space.” e didn’t understand him)-Marot was shockin ly deficit -eo a-i ’ER. in his ideas about Villon. The ood Marot, with the best This crotchety and half-unwashen don of intentions, could not wholly comprehend Maistre Shuffles about with wagging pate and hugs Francois, nos chers ! Marot never dreamed that aday Lexicons to his frozen heart. He peers would come when men would gladly devote half of their Thro’ triple goggles, with the purblind stare wakinghours to gleaning even the most apparently Of some strange fish. He pounces on a haul trifling factabout Villon’s career : how, forinstance, Of faded roots as featly as the bird he, with three none too reputable friends (what a devil!) , Takes into custody the proverbed meed bullied some scrivenersand stuck with a dagger the Of timelvrising. . . . . aged master who salliedout to defend hisclerks from You depend on it- .the bold ruffians : how Villon was condemned to death He’s the Nth. grandson (not so far removed) for this assaultand wrote a flippant quatrain-so Of him who settledHOTI, and who based Villonesque of him !-and how he condescended to appeal OUN inits fitting aspect. MAGISTER for his life and got off with Villonesque luck. Ah ! the ARTIUM of three Universities, snows of last year-truly, where are they? Many great Doctor in sundry kinds of folly, he spirits have engaged in the formidable task of recovering Has scaled Fame’s ladder, rung by rung, till Jow Villon’s remains. Amazing progress has been made. It The clouds have got him. is now exactly fifty years, exactly, since M. Longnon dis- Forty years ago covered the famous documents which inspiredSteven- He framed an emendation ill the test son’s brilliant (but wrong-headed, nos chers !j essay. This Of seme dark Alexandrine papyrus was a Magnificent Beginning to a knowledge of the man That made six men in Europe gape. (Cf. himself, such as Marot never dreamed of. Longnon “Archives of Paleography” 1701. X was succeeded in his task by M. Marcel Schwob. To the Pagefourteen hundredodd). And thereupon unending regret of all lovers of Villon, M. Schwob died, He wrote a treatise whose Latinity having writtenbut two chapters of the GreatWork Leaves not a doubt that old Theocritus which hehad projected. It was terriblyvexing. But blundered in laws of Syntax, and, in fine, M. Pierre Champion, thepupil of Longnon, the friend Knew not his Greek. Then some Academy of Schwob (what a devil!), has received the Torch. In Upon the Elbe, in mighty joy thereat twobeautiful volumes hehas given tothe world the Hailed him with rapture and a Ph.T). -results of ten years’ devotion. This was a feat, in sooth, but divers years Romance had not quite succumbed to economics in Of luminous research have made it naught- Villon’s day. Evenhe, modern of the moderns), nos A tawdry bauble like the exercise chers, cannot hold himself sometimes from a meaningless Of some young froward stripling, still intent romanticvein. Hold himself from vein. a But On Latin construes. essentially hestood for the new world against the old. His Compendium Stood for economics against romance. He never de- And Indexed List of genealogies ceived himself; he belonged to the new order and became Of them who gorged at Alexander’s feast the first great French poet. He knew that all the other Still remains peerless. His Aeolic gloss -poets before andsince have thoroughly deceived them- And metric Targum to the hook of Psalms .selves and are not poets at all. (Done from the Hebrew finally restored) Wasjoy to proselytesunnumbered. Then Though M. Champion has not been so gloriously for- He lisped in Sanskrit for the Sanskrit came. fortunate as his predecessors in that he has discovered no He probed Upanishads and Vedic Hymns fresh manuscript which bears upon the life of Master To track defective verbs. He pored upon Francis-Maistre Francois Villon-Francois Villon- The myriad-linedMahabharata, where Francis!-he has recreated the times in which the poet With unexcelled sagacity he found -lived. He throws a suddenFlash of Light upon the Three cases of Abnormal Ablatives, Company of false clergywith whom Villon associated. And nothing else. To discover Villon’s Parishas been M. Champion’s So he b dint of zeal loving labour. With Willon modern Frenchpoetry be- And stolid scholarship discovering gins. To recognise thegreat art which directed that What others failed ta seek, and missing that -beginning, it is all-important to realise how closely he Which many cherished, garnered In renown was attached to the poetry of his age. He was the fore- That will secure him wondrous necrologes .runner of a New Epoch, yet in him sometimes the spirit In twentyLearned Journals, and a name of antecedent literatureran to vainrepetition andhe For every eunuch guarding Wisdom’s couch was impelled to add to one perfect balladetwo others To batehis breath at . . . paralleland inferior. He hadnot the benefit of our Friend,let’s come away, .study of his life and works, noschers, which is more And Watch the sparrows frisking on the steps. . . . than a pity, for we could have instructed him in le par- P. Selver fait Villonisme. In the transition from the “ Lais ” to IN WANTON the immortal “ Testament ” he rose from the schoolboy MOOD. task of presenting his Legateeswith appropriate I live in a house tavern signs, to the creative art of presenting them with And a mouse appropriate poems. Appropriate schoolboy tavernsigns Lives there, too; ;creative art of presenting Legatees. Stevenson has repre- It’s very nice sentedhim as the genius of insincerity.Really, we And the mice .could slap Stevenson ! Never was poet more utterly Think so, too, sincere. Therewas perpetually debatentre le coeur et For they nibble the cheese corps de Villon (Anglice : struggle between thespirit When I lie at my ease and fleshof Villon),and thatexplains him for anyone In my bed; who can understand. And for histruth he has been And they wander abroad called aliar ! It is shameful ! He saw the realities. of When I nap, his age which arerealities of all ages. Thehanging But ‘the trap of children. He knew,that we all have to die, and SO Strikes them dead he thieved andmurdered instead of weaklyand dis- ~ Where they gnawed. 507

I’m a bachelor living alone, punishment does fit the crime. However, hequickly And a bone perceived that the editorand a sub werealready there, Of lambCanterbury I chew : and, with a sigh of relief and a grin of satisfaction, he So may you; began to watch proceedings. Theeditor took a letter It is good for the blood from the table and reads it aloud : ‘‘ I shall come at 9.5. As the sap for the bud, The paper shall be conducted as usual to the iast tick. It keeps things together you see; When I come I shall spout the leaders into the machine. But those mice -Nathaniel P. Chewgum. ” Are not nice; EDITOR: What a style ! And it’s four minutespast They gmw in the night now;in another minute he’ll be spoutinginto the Till it’s light machine. And sleep is a stranger to me. SUB: Can’t we throttlehim ? Just fancy old Burnham It’s a Iunny world, don’t you think ? selling the show, and with such conditions ! If you don’t, let me say so in ink ; EDITOR: Got about tentimes its worth, I expect. It The world is a blunder was getting abit heavy. One of the clubs wrote And also a wonder; privatelythat it had broken down some of their It is true furniture. They’dhad toget speciallystrong legs The sky’s blue, put on the “ Daily Telegraph ” table. But why is it true it is blue ? SUB: But I always thought that’s what sold it ! People And things come and go, could startin the morning,and it would last out But why is it so? theday. Northcliffe chuckles.) What was that? Ah, those mice gnawing wood ! EDITOR: Oh, only a rat ! We keep them to eat the MS. I’m sure ’tis not good sentin. My dearchap, they weren’t referring to For my sleep, if it’s good for their life. . . . the size. The fellow was a wag. I know him. I’d far better get up and marry a wife. . . . SUB: But he couldn’t be representative;he must be It’s a funny world ! quite an exceptional- P’r’aps the whisky ’1. had (The door opens, and QuartermasterNathaniel P. Has made me so bad; Chewgum, billionaireproprietor and editor of the Lord, what a night ! “ Grand Rapids Press,” U.S.A., enters.) See the stars in their flight ! CHEWGUM: ’Night, gentlemen ! What a sight for a man, what a sight ! EDITORand SUB: Good-evening, Mr. Chewgum ! But I’ll get back to bed, CHEWGUM: Quartermaster Chewgum. For to-morrow-why, to-morrow EDITORand SUB: Quartermaster Chewgum. I may be with yesterday’s sev’n thousand CHEWGUM: Everything O.K. ? years ! EDITORand SUB: We’re onlywaiting for the leaders. CHEWGUM : So, I’ll begin right here. Seats, gentlemen ! so (Lord Northcliffe in his corner shifts from one foot I slept the sleep of him who wakes tothe other. The editorand subtake chairs after At nine, with many pains and aches, the sub has arranged the machine.) And finds the old world just the same, CHEWGUM: I’ve got five pars, and each par has a punch And neither heaven nor earth to blame ; in it. No long-winded twaddleabout nothing. An old, old world not understood Short,snappy grapeshot from the editorial gun on Because it speaks of bad and gad; And has two faces, like the man in ‘(The five or six chief topics. Pilgrim’s Progress. ” No. I.--OUR FUTURE. But those mice Our birthday! Changed forgood! New leaf Arenot nice, turned, old skin burned ! We stand now for Progress, Nor the fleas Peace, and Pungency. All who oppose are Renegades, And cockroaches. Decadents, andLiars ! Longlive theKing! ! ! What is a man NO. 2.-RELIGION(CHRISTIAN SCIENCE). More than a little tin can ? Are you aware, Mr. Reader, of Sloane Square? Who’s to know why trees are trees, Finestslap-up piece of ’tecture inthe country! Or why boots aren’t made by bees ? That’soutside! Inside, the soul of man,and Mr. Or why man prefers to live Bishop. Mr. MinisterQuantum K. Bishop. You’ve Though the world is “take and give” ? been waitingfor it, Mr. Reader! It’s waiting for Ah, those mice you ! Just one word. Go ! ! Know as much about these things as we do! H. E. FOSTER-TOOGOOD. No. Home RULE. Cut-throat Redmond ! FenianAsquith ! Jack-a- napesWinston ! Georgie Porgy,and Bibulous HISTORICAL IMPRESSIONS.-Xo. 7. Birrell! We don’t want you, but we just name you. THE NEW METHOD. We’d like to know where you are after that last blow Thesale of “ Harper’sWeekly,” and the consequent in the eyes from Bonar. We knowwhere you’ll be. retirement of Colonel Harvey from a hebdomadal editorial Inthe country,growing vegetables. That’s what appearance, was commented on at length by most Ameri- you’re fit for. Pullup everything by the rootsand can journals,particularly as Colonel Harvey(who was call it progress. Dismember andcall it growth. It’s the discoverer andperhaps maker of PresidentWilson) timeyou went home for good. And you’re going, took the opportunity of writing a valedictory, in which you’re going, slow but sure. he confessed that the weekly had been run at a loss by (Lord Northcliffe, who at firstwas smiling, has his firm, fora greatmany years,owing to the change now an uneasy,almost anxious expression.) in publictaste. He had declined to write down tothe mob (which numbers most of America’s shining lights), NO. +-?‘HE SUFFRAGETTES. andhad accordingly suffered. Commenting on this Will no man rid us of these female vermin? That valedictory, the “Grand Rapids Press” wrote in May, 1913, screeching she-cat Christabel, is there no man as follows, their opinion coinciding with that expressed brave enough to seize her and bring her to justice? by the majority of the American newspapers :- If we hadmen governing the country,instead of a packet of senile gollywogs, by now there would not “ Words must crack like whips and sting like snakes ; have been aSuffragette from Land’s Endto the theymust be punctures as well as sounds. Writing Orkneys. We call on everyman, who is aman, to to-day must be crispand terse.Thoughts must he repudiate atthe polls thissentimental Dorcas boiled down into tabloid form. Force and vim must Society which calls itself aGovernment, and thus never be sacrificed forgrace. The strong, short words helpto stamp out this pest which afflicts us. -must come like shots from amachine gun.” I must confess I should shrink from the task of repre- No. 5.--SPORT. senting dramatically the man-behind the gun, if it were In anothercolumn we givea third of a million not that, like Daniel, I hare had a vision related to me. sterlingto the first Englishman across theherring And this is it. pondand back. Fools talkglibly of our decay in Lord Northcliffe dreamed that he was inthe editor’s sport. There’s no decay, except elsewhere. In Ger- roomof the ‘‘ DailyTelegraph.” It was such a shock many,France, Italy, decay spreadslike a purple to find himself there that his first thought was that he blot on a white napkin. In England we see no sign was dead, and that, after all, in thenext world the of it. It doesn’t exist except on the lips of liars 50s

I

andhired detractors. That is why we give a third ~ will be time enough for them to come when hope of their of a million. We know no foreigner can win it. breadwinners’returu is over.But thatis not yet by a (At the last words Lord Northcliffe, whose anxiety waylong very ! 1’. R. Coulson had been allalong growing intenser, awoke in a *** heavy perspiration, and for hoursafter trembled in GUILDSAND NIETZSCHE. every limb from the fear he had experienced of this unexpected competition.) Sir,-There is little reason for Nietzscheans to claim W. J. T. that the aphorism quoted by “ R. H. C.” (‘contains the germ of the National Guild System.” The aphorism in question contains four definite ideas, each of which Nietzsche probably derived from Carlyle, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. whom he professed to despise. Each of these four con- THE “DAILY HERALD” AGAIN. ceptions is to be found repeatedly in (( Past and Present,” ~ writtenforty years before “ The Will to Power.” Sir,-After Mr. Lansbury has told the majority of the The following quotations may not be the best, but will members of the“Herald league” (whichconsists of ’ serve :- working-men who have pen of their very scanty leisure Nietzsche : Workmenshould learn to regardtheir andsavings to keep a alive a paper which they hoped duties as soldiers do. would express their hatred of smug robbers) that he does Carlyle : A Chivalry of Labour . . . far nobler than not want them or their money, now that (among others) a ~ any Chivalry of Fighting was. . . . Your gallant work- titledSuffragist lady is keepingthe paper,he still has ~ hosts, as othersdid, will need to be madeloyally yours ; the cheek to advertise in the“Herald” for workmen’s theymust and will be regulated,methodically secured pence for Our SpecialBirthday Fund.’’ It is really in their just share of conquest under you;-joined with outrageous. you in veritable brotherhood, sonhood, byquite other Thedemocrat, Lansbury, ardent for votes for women, and deeper ties than those of day’s wages. will have no votes for“Herald Leagl-lers.” Similarto Nietzsche : These receive emoluments, incomes ; they the W.S.P.U., the League must be controlled by himself do not get wages. and officials paid andappointed by himself. The only Carlyle : See above, et seq. ;-How would mere red- committee through which the “League could ever ex- coated regiments, to say nothing of chivalries,fight for press any opinions was dissolved just before Mr. Lam- you, if you could discharge them on the evening of the bury left for America, and he left orders that no other was battle, on payment of the stipulated shillings,-and they to be elected. When it was elected,neither he nor the discharge you on themorning af it? (Italicsmine.) paper w recognise it. Nietzsche : There is no relationship between work done “The hol war on property” has now disappeared be- and money received. cause Mr. Lansbury might be sent back to finish those i Carlyle : Cash-payment never was, or could except threemonths in prison,and, instead, we have a highly 1 fora few years be, the union-bond of man to man. Cash rhetorical attack on man, who, according to John Scurr, ~ never yetpaid one manfully his deserts toanother; nor is the routineer,while woman is essentiallycreatively could it, nor can it, now or henceforth to the end of the original. It does notmatter, if youare wordy enough, world. :’ that all history seems to prove the opposite. Nietzsche : The individualshould, according to his Seeing that propertied women want the vote to protect kind, be so placed as to perform the highest that is com- property, it is disgustingthat a few political betties patible with his powers. should go aboutshouting that votes for women is an Carlyle : Labour, wide asthe Earth, has its summit immediate cure for women’s low wages. in Heaven.Sweat of thebrow; and up from thatto Of course, no discussion on the subject is allowed in the sweat of thebrain, sweat of theheart; which includes, pages of the“Herald,” which, if it is as free asother all Kepler calculations, Newton meditations, all Sciences, papers, is yet sufficiently intolerant. It also does not all spokenEpics, all acted Heroisms, Martyrdoms,-up allow you to say that it shows a lamentable ignorance of to that (‘Agony of bloody sweat,” which all men have humannature to suppose thatgreat reforms cannot be called divine. . . . Thelatest Gospel of this world is, brought about by appealing to men’s benevolence. Direct Know thy work and do it. . . . Blessed is he who has. appeal to class hatred is no longer allowed. Christ went found his work ; let him ask no other blessedness. aboutamong the poor denouncing the rich, but modern c. w. Wilkinson Christians do not. *** Mr. Pethick Lawrence (in the “Herald” expressed the opinion tlat if working women are poorer than working “R. €I.C.” AND NIETZSCHE. men, it proves tbat the class opposition between workers Sir,-In reply to “R. H. C.’s” two notes in your issue and robbers is not greater than any opposition of interests of February 5 allow me first to suggest that it is surely between men and women. Also he would putthe votes a little too early in the controversy to make use of such for women cry first,and, therefore, women’s housing, bitter reproaches as are to be found in these letters of my food and wages second. I need nottrouble to answer opponent. Neither of us has exactly lost yet, why then be such views ; they seem to show what an effect the Suffrage angry? It does notprecipitate, it simplydelays a movement has on the brain. ARTHURD. LEWIS. purposeful conclusion to retrace his steps in order to re- define his position against what he feels to be misrepre-. sentation. THE LABOUR PARTY. Let me take “R. H. C.’si’ communications in the order Sir,-With reference tothe comparison, in TH~NEW in which they appeared in the columns of ’I‘m NEW AGE. AGE of 5th instant, between the Labourand theIrish In the first one he implies by his opening denial that I Parties, I submitthat, as it hastaken thirty years for conceitedly understood hisfirst question relative to- a party of eighty to bring one measure of reform within Nietzsche and the National Guilds as if it were addressed sight of success, it is notfair to denounce thefailure to myself as an authority on Nietzschean exegesis. This of half that number to achieve similar success in twenty is an absolutely gratuitous inference. What was there in years. Thematter may notlend itself to solutionby my reply to provoke this deliberate denial on the part of‘ a political rule-of-three ; but suppose the Labour Party “R. H. C.” ? Whatare the facts? “R. H. C.” in THE. chose to be even more independent than the Irish, and NEW AGE of January 22 coupled my name with a question voted against the Government,on a critical division, so which, I suppose, he meant to be general. After quoting as to bring about a general election, whatguarantee is Aphorism 763 of the Will to Power, and saying that it. there thatthe majority of the electorate-that is, the contained the germ of the National Guild System, a con- majority of the proletariat-will notonly elect again clusion, which ir,all fairness, I suppose, T may say more Tories thanWhigs (as they did in 1910 but a resulted from “R. H. C.’s” personal reading of the majority of Tories or Whigs, independent even of a aphorism-he challenged me to “fall back on it” if I coalition ? J. W. O’LEARY. chose, for my assumed greatorder of society. I replied‘ *** to this challenge by giving my reading of the aphorism, because “R. H. C.” had made it my concern to say what ACAUTION. my reading was. With what justice, then, can “I<. H. C.” Sir,-I see it is announced that some of the wives of imply th,at my answer called forth his opening denial ? the deported South African leaders are thinking of joining Now tothe nest point? “R. H. C.” continues : “The their, husbands in England. Nothing would suit General phrase transvaluation of all values’ appears to have got Botha better, as by that act the leaders would appear to into Mr. Ludovici’s head to the exclusion of any possible acquiesce in their own exile. May I urge the men through meaningattached to it.” Again, this is your columns to give no countenance to this, but to order gratuitous; in the first place, because it is obvisouly their wives andfamilies tostay in South Africa? It impossibleconstantly to be definingevery one of the soy - - terms one uses, and, therefore, one must use some phrases Over this matter of wealth, let me assure “K. H. C.” summing up whole doctrines, theexplanation of which that though he is perfectly at liberty if he chooses to read one assumes one’s opponent knows, and knows one knows “modernplutocracy” wherever Nietzsche in his works oneself;and, secondly, because “R. H. C.” used the refers to “wealth,” he cannot very well insist upon every- phraseNational Guild System without explaining what body else doing the same. Nor can he justly accuse one he meant by it, I were to imply that he was merely using oftwisting and distorting Nietzsche’s writingsif one NEW AGE:tags, devoid of meaning and the mere shells of does notimpose that absolutelyunfamiliar meaning of actual doctrines, I should be making a discussion on the the word wealth upon Nietzsche’s use of it. On the same subjectquite impossible. So much, for thepresent, for principle, “R. H. C.” might arguethat wherever what I cannot help regarding as an unnecessarily obstruc- Nietzsche spoke of aristocracy .and the aristocrat, he meant tive method of discussion employed by my opponent. the German Junker,or whenever hespoke of Higher With regard to the actual arguments in “R. H. C.’s” Men, hemeant the men in the highestpositions of his firstreply. Let me take themalso one by one. First, day. To anybodywho reads Nietzsche with understand- “R. H. C.” says “there is no mistaking the purport of ing- such meanings are not nearlyso obvious as “R. H. C.” the aphorism quoted’’ (i.e., Aphorism 763, Will to Power). would have us believe. He writes : “Wealth as an insti- If this be so, then, by implication, “R. H. C.” concludes tutionmeant obviously to Nietzsche exactlywhat it that there is only one way of reading it, and as he read means to Mr. Ludovici, namely, a wealthy class, or, once it to mean the germ of the National Guild System,, it must more, a plutocracy, and it was of this class and not of mean that germ; and that anyone who reads it differently ‘wealth as an institution,’ that Nietzsche affirmed it must be twisting it about. necessarily creates an aristocracy.” What are the four ideas contained in the aphorism ? “R. H. C?’ isentitled Lo this opinion if he chooses; (x) That workmen should regard their duties a.s soldiers but seeing that it is a perfectly arbitrary interpretation do. of Nietzsche’s words, he cannot well expect everybody to (2) Thatthey should receive emoluments,not wages. share it with him; and I, therefore, think that when in (3) That there should be no relation, between the work a mare confidential tone hecontinues : “1 amcertain, done and money received. and, so mayyour readers be, that Nietzsche assumed (4) That each workman according tohis kind be so thatthe existingwealthy classes, inother words, our placed as to do the best of which he is capable. dearly-beloved plutocracy, could and would be moralised, If any one,two OT three of these conditions can be etc.,” he takes up an attitude so oracular and divinatory, shown by “R. 13. C.” to be necessarilyand exclusively andbetrays an intimacy so profound withthat will 0’ affiliated to the NationalGuild System, and not to any the wisp, Nietzsche’s doctrine,th.at the Nietzscheans he othersystem, “R. H. C.” would be right;but since it rebukes for biased exegesis appear as mere tyros beside is possible not only to see the germs of other systems in him. this aphorism, but also to point to at least one striking For Nietzsche knew perfectly well how toestimate difference between its conditions and those of the National the value of the modern plutocracy, as I pointed out to Guild System, according to my reading of the Aphorism, “R. H. C.” last week, and it wasabout the modern he is wrong. For instance howdo soldiersregard their plutocracy created by democratic conditions that we were duties? I amspeaking of the soldiers which Nietzsche speaking. To refer-, therefore, to “wealthya class,” obviously had inhis mind ; for he had served inthe without reserve, as equivalent to our idea of the modern German Army, and this experience would naturally occur plutocracy, as “R. H. C.” does in the passage quoted to him at all times when armyor military questions above, is to createunnecessary confusion. My reasons were uppernost inhis thoughts. Their duties, in addi- for believing that when Nietzsche spoke of wealth in the tion to being ennobled by constituting parts of a whole terms used in “Human all too Human,” Part 11, he meant scheme of national defence which sheds a certain glamour wealth as an institution cleansed of its present pollution, upon every factor in the scheme, are imposed upon them are,first, that Nietzsche was so constantlyrevaluing by certain superiors-imperiors to whom they are answer- modern values that one has as much right to understand able inthe event of any delinquency. What is their and read a revaluation here as in a host of other instances relation to these superiors? They are subjected to these where modern ideas are given fresh and chastened defini- superior’s by acentral organising board, at which they tions (see, for instance, “My Concept of Freedom,” Aph. haveno voice. Theirsuperiors are bestowed upon them 38 Twilight of the Idols. “My Concept of Genius,” Aph. from above. Theycan neither select norreject them. 44 Ibid.“Progress in my Sense,”Aph. 48 Ibid,and a Now, if this soldierlyrelation to superiors,and tothe host of other instances ; secondly, that if Nietzsche had dutiesand delinquencies of a militarylife, is that in- meantthe modern plutocracy thecontext would have volved by the National Guilds for the ordinary workman, revealed themeaning; thirdly that according tothe I canonly say thatmy reading of theNational Guild quotations I gave in my Art Notes last week, it is clear System is not the same as “R. H. C.’s.” he was perfectly well aware of the hopeless shortcomings “R. H. C.” proceeds : “Had it (thetransvaluation of of the modern plutocracy;fourthly, that his works are all values) any reality for him (me) he would see that the full of warningsand sign-posts cautioning the student abolition of the wage-system and the concurrent establish- against the very reading which ‘R.H. C.” has adopted, ment of guildindustry actually imply au accomplished and,finally, that Nietzsche knewperfectly well, and transvaluation.” Now,, it is precisely because a trans- actuallysaid that “In the world even the best things valuation of all values has so much reality for me that I are worthlesswithout those that representthem” cannot see that to which (‘R.H. C.” lays claim for the (Zarathustra I, XI.) How aboutwealth, then ? System of National Guilds. Because, as I understand the ANTHONYM. LUDOVICI. matter, institutions and systems grow out of values and **-E not values out of systemsand institutions. To begin, “THENEW AGE” AND THE therefore, with a transformation of systems, it strikes me PRESS. as constituting an error in the order of precedence. It is Sir,--“ Press-Cutter ” says, inlast week’s issue : character that builds up institutions, it is character that ‘‘ THE new AGE principle, as I understand it, isthat maintains them; andcharacter js thespiritual product the assetsshould be vested inthe State. The shares slowly evolved out of values. So slowly, indeed, 1s char- representthe assets, so that Mr. Reid was charging acter evolved out of values, and so gradually is the change ‘ The GuildWriters ’ withserious inconsistency when in character effected by a change of values, that an imme- they were assumedto be asking for the transfer of the diate, a sudden and a radical change in institutions may shares.” by comparison seem the morepractical, the more busl- THENEW AGE’S principle as to State ownership is not ness-like, and the more efficient method of reforming a mentioned in Article XV, nor, as far as I can ascertain nation or a continent is trouble. Butthat which, on at present, is it alluded toin the articleson ‘(Guild the surface,appears the moreimmediate method of re- Socialism,’’ I to XIV. I have referred to my file of the form, is, I submit, not necessarily the more genuine or articles I to XV (which is not, however, complete),and the more fundamental. instead of any indication that the assets are to be vested In his second note, “R. H. C.” accuses me of twisting, in the State, I find statements which imply the contrary. distortingand misreading Nietzsche in pursuit of the If yourwriters have not included the proposal about will 0’ the wisp which Nietzscheans call his doctrine I State ownership in the articles, I am not to be blamed. cannot understandwhat purpose is served by making If they have, will you quote from the articles? euch acharge. Will. “R. H. C.” believe for amoment With regard to public controversy, it is usual to con- that I am as determined as he is to get at the facts in trovert statements about which doubt is felt by means of this matter ? I shall not accuse him of twisting, distorting a letter thetojournal 1n which thestatements ing and misreading Nietzsche to suit his own ends; I take were made. Owing to pressure of work, I had it for granted that he is much too anxious to arrive at temporarilygiven u some periodicals, including the truth about the question. Cannot he credit me with THE NEW AGE (regretfully, as areader since the first similar earnestness ? issue),and I heard,accidentally, that my “New States- 5 10

__-~~ man” letterabout the “original” scheme of THE NEW return of the GuildSystem.” THE New AGE is not: AGEwas under discussion. I have not yet seen THENsw named, but I think we need nottrouble the Catholic AGE for January 22. PHILIPREID. editor’s conscience about that. Two even obscurer refer- “Press-Cutter” replies : It is no kindness on the part ences to your propaganda areto be found, one in the of Mr. Reid to misrepresent the NationalGuilds in current “ Nation ” and the other in Mr. Bowles’ ‘(Candid another journal ; and it is no excuse that he has not read Quarterly. A masterly article in the latter on ‘(Science all the articles you have published. He is obviously too and Life ” contains the followingpassage :- busy for public controversy, and I advise him to give it ‘‘ Amid allthe sneers at the impracticability and up visionarycharacter of communistic schemes, let it not *** be forgotten that science is a communism, neither theo- Sir,-According to “ Public Opinion,” your propaganda reticalnor on paper, butactual and in practice. The of the NationalGuilds is “ the most discussed con- results of thosewho labour in the fields of knowledge structive new idea in the world of Labour.”For the for its own sake are published freely and pooled in the most part, however, it appears to be sub rosa. But we generalstock for the benefit of all. Common ownership shallarrive in time, never fear-if onlyunder another of all its acquisitions is thebreath of its life. Secrecy name; for Mr. Webb positively announces in the current or individualism of any kind would destroy its fertility. ‘‘ New Statesman ” that his report will ‘(consider that Even the great industries of the Continent have already form of partnership in the control of industryEhich learned this lesson to a remarkable degree, and the o n- haslately been put forward by THE NEW AGE. I ness and freedom with which they frequently allow t.ir should liketo make aguess at wh.at Mr. Webb will special knowledge to become public is a matter for sur- say. Two thingsare certain : he will omit to mention prise among those who are engaged in the same field at that the Guildsassume the abolition of wage slavely ; home.” and he will be apprehensive of the fate of the consumer. Alld inthe eighth article of his serieson ‘‘ Wealth On bothgrounds he will lean to Collectivism, infact, and Life ” in the “ Nation,’’ Mr. Stephen Reynolds has while payingindustrial democracy lip-homage. You , the following passage :- will see ! At the threshold of hisconsideration he makes I thetragic error of confoundingthe GuildSystem with “ No matter how industrialismmay be mollified, no Syndicalism. It is, hesays, a form of Syndicalism. matter how it may be gildedwith the illusion of liberty, the status of the worker remains that of a tool. But the “ Syndicalist,” edited by Mr. Guy Bowman, makesno such error. To Mr. Bowman, NationalGuilds Wage-slave he is often called, but tool is more descriptive - the. . The mendacious stupidity of regarding tfe are a “ fake,” designed to “ hustle the workers into the . . catacombs of a politicalsociety.” So there you are worker as a free and independent agent could never he oncemore-accused of Syndicalismby Collectivists and maintained, but that so muchself-interest is bound up of Collectivism bySyndicalists. What can be better- , with it. First and foremost, the human tool has to live, or more splendidlyisolated from the fanatics of the I Industrialism comes down on him like a desert brigand : extremes? But your writers have no cause to complain. ‘ You will work on myterms, or be left to die.’ He While the Webbs and the Bowmans are repudiating you, canmake himself troublesome, but not effectively. . . . yourpropaganda ismaking headway in practice. Do. Not all the efforts of organised Labour. have raised red your readers realise, as I now do, that the recent Labour wages. They never substantially will do so, as long as movement inSouth Africa was neitherSyndicalist nor the workers remain tools ; the most organised tools can State Capitalist, butGuild? In the Cape newspapers do only what tools can.” duringthe strike there was only one subject of dis- 1 The above passage,and, indeed, the series in which cussion : the ‘‘ Guild Socialism ” (as theycall it) of they appear, convince me thateither Mr. Reynolds has THE NEW A:?. Letters in dozens appeared inthe been reading THE NEWAGE-or possibly writing it ! ‘I CapeTimes and “ CapeArgus,” advocating a Rail- ’ PRESS-CUTTER. way Guild on the lines laid down in THE NEW AGE, and expressly statingthat the Labour movement therehad *** this as its object. Among the correspondents were Mr. J. H. Dean, the secretary of the Cape ProvinceFedera- RELIGION AND ART. tion, who notonly declared himself aGuild Socialist, Sir,-Replying to Mr. Mitchell’s point as to the im- but wrote as follows of Mr. J. T. Bain, the chief of the possibility of providing a new religious tradition-sap, deportedleaders : “ I repudiate the statementthat my by return of post-one might remark that in the present chief, Mr. Bain, is a Syndicalist.He is not. He is a age it is necessary above all things to beprepared for Guild Socialist, a disciple of THE NEW AGE, ajournal the unexpected. The usual method of discussing the art for which even Sir Maitland Park must have a profound problem, orother problems, is to assumethe bearing respect.” Other advocates of the ideas were Mr. L. upon the case of snchfactors alone as are immediately Turok, Mr. Hugh M. Meyler (a member of the Cape recognisable. in the present, while ignoring others which Legislature), Mr. W. J. Strange,and the Rev. J. Balm- haveundoubtedly existed in the past, and suckalso as forth. Both the ‘‘ Cape Times ” and the “ Cape Argus ” may be said to possess an equallycertain, if potential, devoted editorials to the discussion, each admittingthe of existence inthe future.There is said to a priorimerits of the scheme, thoughnaturally adding $e nothing new under the sun; and if it be true that criticisms. So (‘fascinating,” in fact, has the discussion history moves in cycles, orin spirals,, then that which proved that I believe the whole politicaland industrial has existed in any previous epoch must necessarily recur world in South Africa is now engaged in continuing it. under a new form in the future, and obviously that which After that, it is pssible that even some of your contem- is the furthest behind us. in the old world, must he the poraries inEngland may pluck up courage to whisper nearest to us in the new. the name of THENEW AGE. If Mr. Mitchell is concerned about religious traditions, In the “Church Socialst ” for February, two references he may easily satisfy himself that they are sprining up appear. One is in the nature of a too brief but excellent allaround him Take, for example,Christian Science, article proving from English history that economic power the Higher Thought, the Bahai Movement, not to s eak precedes political power. Theother is the“What of the numerous occult societies in existence; indeed IS THE NEW AGE doing with the musty old theory that one of these, to which I have the honour to belong, is ‘ establishment ’ [of the Church] means that religion is even praised. with faint damns in the issue in which &. the one department of life in which people canhave Mitchell’s letter appears. Not onlyis there need of a privilegeswithout responsibilities or conditions ?” But ne-& religionstradition !n Art,but there is also much 1s not that the very claim of religion? I really thought more of the said commodity in existence at the present it was, and that this was the foundation of the teaching moment thanliving artists will be able to digestfor a of Christ.The Church is not anindustry or a corpora- considerable time to come. However, by the next gene- tion; it is not even a Statewithin a State ; it isthe ration, this difficulty shouldbe overcome. State itself in its religiousaspect. AS such, it either FRANKJ. MERRY. includes everybody or ceases to be national.They can- not have it both ways. But I wish some ‘of your learned *** correspondents would examine the history of the subject. HARLEY STREET. Mr. Conrad Noel is waitin for areply. In a more sur- friendly place, however, tfanthe ‘‘ Church Socialist,” Sir,-The argument employed byseveral of your cor- riend p references to the Guildshave occurred. Mr. J. respondentsagainst Mr. Barker isthe argument of the Smith, &I.Sc., inthe ‘‘ Catholic Timesand Opinion ” blackleg.This, it wasdoubtless presumed, would be January 30) not onlynotes thatlast year produced a a final objection for the readers of a journal devoted to strike for status,” but contends that “the next demand the cause of trade unionism. But before concluding that of Labour will be a demand to participate-in the manage- this should be the case, may I interject a few observa- ment of industry ; thereafter the way is clear forthe tions. Inthe first place, it is obvious that of non- 511

members of any given union there are two kinds : those rectly described. There is the usual sympathy with other’ not good enough in skill, training, or character to get blacklegs, theusual silly aff thattheir methodsnever in, and thosetoo good. The former areusually known fail (everytrained man has certainly to repairtheir by the fact thatthey command less wages thantheir ignorant mistakes), and the usual foolish gag that they organised fellows, and only find employment when these have a monopoly of certain knowledge-which, of course are locked out or are on strike. The latter, on the other is obvious nonsense. hand, can never be said to blackleg the members of the Around thefringes of alltrades and professions arc union, since they do not accept lower fees, nor, in fact, found these rotters, all in possession o€ some wonderful perform any work within the compass of the union men. secret, all advertising it for the sake of suffering humanity They are, in short, monopolists on their own. (of course !) and all conveniently silent about their rotten Now, I think it will be admitted that Mr. Barker be- failures. longs tothe second andnot tothe first of thesetwo Bluff, bunkum, and blatherskite should be their motto classes. Theskill he possesses in bone-setting is not -blackleg andscab serve well for.their names. My something common tothe medical profession, or of a compliments to “H. F. S.” A. B. B. character too low for them to acquire; it is a skill which at present is beyond them. By excludinghim from *** theirranks the doctors are nottherefore excluding a blackleg, but what I venture to call :a whiteleg-one who, BRITISH MUSIC. in fact, can do something the ordinary profession ought to be able to do, but cannot do. Sir,-The classic effusion signed “D. C. Parker” urges me also to yokemy cliches togetherand rush to the On thesupposition thatthe medical profession is a fray. I know nothing about music, but I’ll undertake guild chartered by the State to cure all national diseases to rotwith Parker. Now, sir,the truth of all this con by the best meansavailable, it is the duty of the pro- troversy, as it appears to .me, lies somewhere midway fession, of course, to protect itself from inferior com- between meand Parker. Parker says that many young petition. But isit its dutyto protestagainst superior composers envied Mr. Holbrooke’s chance in ‘‘ The competition? Compare, forexample, on thispoint the Children of Don.” But I say that there neverwas an$ appearance of the genius among men of talent anywhere. chance with that libretto. Parker is right in saying that No doubtwhatever thatan organised body of pro- music is not merely something with which elegant young fessionalmen, responsible for theirstatus, are justified ladies fill their leisure. I say that nobody ever thought in closing up against the charlatan, but are they wise to it was. Parkersays that music is an emotional art. I close up against the genius ? Thetwo, it is true,are saythat it is purely intellectual. Parkersays that we often similar in method, but by their works yeshall lag behindother countries intesting new movements. know them ! Is the medical profession so stupidthat I saythat we are absolutely in advance of the whole it cannot trust itself to discriminate between anex- earth. Parker says that it is strange to think the citizens ceptional genius and a quack? Or the case of THE NEW of anEmpire on which the sun never,etc., are so In- AGE itself may be cited. You havetold us that THE different to a new rising musical sun. I saythat they NEW AGE is boycotted by the press, from the “ Times ” are absolutelyindifferent tothe Empire,but liable to downwards;and I have no doubt thatthe real reason go mafficky over any new musician,even Wagner. is that your journal is regarded as a kind of “ outsider.” Parkersays that this narrow-mindedness of ourscould You havenot conformed tothe regulations of Fleet be brushedaway by serious musical talk. I saythat Street; yourwriters are not journalists inthe pro- talk, being a whisk, our serious interminable talk is the fessional sense of the word ; andaltogether, nodoubt, crumb-brush of lamented musical feasts of the gay past you are regarded as a blackleg. But we know very well -that talk is the devil’s own besom andought to be that it does not follow that THE NEWAGE deserves to be suppressed. Parkersays that a pillar of musical art regarded as a blackleg. As a matter of fact, it is jealousy ought t? be ashamed of himself for calling ‘‘ Tristan ’’ and not professional prudence that inspiresthe hatred a vampire. I say that the pillar deserves a pension for of you that exists. Similarly, I think, it is not in the his veracity. Parker says that riot is a tribute to honest interests of medicine that Mr. Barker is boycotted by conviction. I say that riot is a tribute to power, honest the profession of which he is a distinguished though an or dishonest. (No midwayshere, Parker !) Theriot of unacknowledged member;but out of sheerjealousy of the South African Government is a tribute to the power superiority. Thelittle men of talenthate him as the of Labour. I say that the boycott is the genuine tribute little journalists of Fleet Street hate THE NEW AGE, not to honest conviction. The boycott of Labour,known as because he is their inferior in any respect, but because the Strike, is the tribute paid by Labour to the honest he is their superior. convictions of Capital. The peculiarcharacter of the Of Mr. Barker’s skill there is, I presume, 110 possible boycott is that it reboundsand kills those who are too doubt inthe mind even of professional doctors. They small to handle it. I remark that thehands of Labour seem dare not, indeed, attack him on that ground. But equally just aboiit theri right size to take up orlay down this of his goodwill tothe profession or to the public at tributeas they please Poor littleParker tries to boy- largethere is no possible doubt. If Mr. Barker were cottBritish music. He puts on a show of immobility a quack,his methods would notonly be secret, but he He will die,will Parker ! Parker says-oh, damn would keepthem secret toretain their monopoly. But, Parker!Let him go sweatwith emotion under ‘‘ Tris- on the contrary, Mr. Barker offers to teach them to the tan.” It say it leaves me boycottishly cool as a cucum- profession free of char e, to demonstrate and spread them ber. Cool, andsir, indifferent ! R. A. F. to his own personal loss perhaps. This is the oddest form of blacklegging f have ever come across ! No P.S.The midwayfact is that I neither boycott nor quack of my acquaintance has ever indulged in it. riotagainst “ Tristan.” It is middling comic to set. theheirs of Purcelland Bishop sweatingvoluntarily I submitthat in the case of Mr. Barker we have an under the whip of the Nibelung of Music. example of the evil conservatism of a profession, and one which, far from recommending trade unionism, will tend to damn it. Forhis thirt thousand patients, most of them cured by this “ blacklg,” cannot without base ingratitude support the strengthening of a union which has boycotted a man superior to themselves. As a way out of the difficulty, I would suggestthat the Medical Council be authorlsed to admit tofull if honorary membership any person like Mr. Barker on the report of a committee of hispeers on hisskill alone. There is not the leastdoubt that,but for their superstitious belief in the efficacy of their certificate, the doctors would long agohave admitted Mr. Barker. Unless the pro- fession is to blackleg,by blacklisting, another genius the sooner they claim Mr. Barker as an honoured mem- ber of their profession thebetter. J. S. OXLEY. *** Sir,-The yelps of “X. A.” and “H. A. Barker” are the common heard from blacklegsand their backers (often the same person under 3 bashful alias) when cor- 512 THE New AGE FEBRUARY19, 1914

__ - . .~ - LORD MURRAY.