VOl. XIV. NO. 21. THURSDAY, MAR.26, 1914.

Notes OF THE Week . HELAS! A DRAWING. By R. Ihlee . CurrentCant . READERS .5SD Writers R_\. R. H. c‘. alld FOREIGNAFFAIRS. By S. Verdad . E. A. B. . PRESENT-DAYCRITICISM TtxE PASSING OF THE HOMERULE Controversy . THELondon Group By T. E. HuIme . By L. G. Redmond Howard . VIEWSAm REVIEWS. By A. E. R. . A REDMONDFOR ULSTER. By J. Wards . . THE FABIANInsurance REPORT. By Margaret REVIEWS . PASTICHE.By Arthur Hood,Rathmell Wilson . Douglas . ART. By Anthony M. Ludovici . GUILDSAND VERSATILITY.Ry Arthur J. Penty . DRAMA.By JohnFrancis Hope . EDUCATIONFOR THE WORKERS.--II. By Rowland Kenney LETTERS TO nrE EDITOR from Press-cutter, N.A. Larsen, A PostalWorker, E. J. Dixon, TOWARDSTHE PLAYWAY.--VI. 1317 H. Caldwell MarmadukePickthall, R. Cox, Simplicissimus Cook . simus, W. H. Crook, Frances H. Low, E. €3. Os SWIFTNESS.By Walter Sickert . Visiak, Arthur F Thorn, Harold B. Harrison LOUISEDE LA Valliere By BeatriceHastings . MR. HUGHWalpole 13~-Tom Titt .

correspondentinforms us, inhabited chiefly by middle- class and upper-middle-classfamilies : the coloured vote, according to the same authority, counts for little or nothing, a1)d there are very few working-class fami- lies in theconstituency. This Constituency, at theend of last week, chosea representative, not for the Pro- vincial Council, but the Parliament of the South African Union On the assumption that dog does not eat dog, JN recent issues of THE NEW AGE we have laid unusual we may depend upon the newspaper. just mentioned to emphasison certain elementary aspects of English make out as good a case for the mineowners and their nationality and English law ; and if confirmation of what supporters as possible;yet even the “Telegraph” we said werenecessary we shouldappeal, with every admits that this seat, “always a Unionist stronghold,” .certainty that our appeal would be recognisedand un- has now passed into the hands of Labour by a stagger- derstood, tothe results of the elections just held in large majority; :by a vote the utter decisiveness of South Africa. Thoseresults have been so remarkable which cannot be questioned. Mr. Maginnis, the Labour that even the most anti-Labour newspapers have been candidate, polled 1,298 votes ; Mr. Eddy,the official forced to take cognisance of thetn ; and they provide a Unionist, 474 ; and Mr.Brydone, the Independent completerefutation of GeneralBotha’s belief that all Unionist, 337. It is significant thatafter the declara- classes in South Africa are ready to support him in the tion of the poll thecrowds sang “Rule Britannia” ; stand he has taken up concerning the workmen. not,however, with itscustomary jingoistic interpreta- -):- 4,‘. n. tion, but with the feeling that the “white ideal,” which In the first place, the elections for the Transvaal Pro- had been imperilled by the action of the Boer Government vincial Council-the members of which are chosen by metlt,had been rehabilitated. Thereis only onecom- precisely thesame constituencies, and on the same ment to make on this result; but it is very important. register,as the members of theSouth African Union ’The middle-classes voted for Mr. Maginnis, not so much Parliament-resulted in thereturn of twenty-three because he represented the workmen in the constituency, Labour members out of forty-five, giving the Labourites for there werenone to represent ; butbecause the .a clear majority over all the other parties combined. On LabourParty in SouthAfrica represents at present theformer Council, itshould be mentioned by way of everything that is truly English, all that is based on our comparison, Labour held only two seats. This gigantic nationaltraditions. If ourOpposition atWestminster victory wasnever expected by theGovernment or by had the sense of a well-trained parrot, they would take the so-called “Opposition.” A Labour gain or two here note of this result and everything it involves. and there was the utmost the governing classeswere *si% preparedto allow; and noone, not. even theLabour leadersthemselves, suspected for a single instant that For, it may be asked at once, why did not the middle- an exasperated public had turned against the Govern- class people who live in Liesbeek vote for the Unionist ment to such an extent. There were, however, reasons or the Independent Unionist? The answer is that dur- for thisremarkable decision,which we canconsider ing the debates on the Indemnity Bill and the new anti- more fully when, in the second place, we have referred Trades Union measure introduced by General Smuts tht to an even more striking electoral result, viz., Liesbeek. official Opposition steadily refrained from criticising the **+ Government or causing it the slightest inconvenience. ’There are men withEnglish names, and presumably Liesbeek is one of thesuburban constituencies of withEnglish habits also, amongthe Opposition; and Greater Capetown; and it is, as the “Daily Telegraph” undoubtedlythe Conservative Press here gave the 642 countryto understand that these menwere the only they couldhave voted with a safe conscience for the peoplerepresenting England,, and everything that IndependentUnionist; but they did not. Theyrallied English civilisationmeans, among a crowd of Boers to the Labour candidate because the Labour candidate and a sprinkling of-well, Anarchists,Socialists, or represented what, to their minds, was English : in other my other offensive epithet youmay care to hurlat words,they neglected class distinctions for what was Mr. Creswell andhis followers. But the Labour diffi- national.Banker, merchant, lawyer, small capitalist, culty arose; the voice of the Jew was heard in the land, clerk, craftsman : they have actually voted for a work- and itscommands were obeyed as effectively by the ing man ! And, in the language of Burke, we claim this. Opposition as by theGovernment benchers. And is as the judgment of the people, the judgment of great there noparallel to that in our ownpolitics? We all multitudesacting fogether, under the discipline of know that if a capitalistlike Lord Cowdray says, “I nature-nature here meaning some place wherein men am Sir Oracle,’’ even the mongrels on the Opposition are SO situated that reason may be best cultivated, and side of the House refrain from barking. We have cer- whereit most predominates. This, we maintain, and tainly no wish to emulate Scottish ministers; but again we know that allwho have studied our ancient guild andagain we would layemphasis on whatthey call system will agree withus, is the“natural state” of “the lesson.” Labouris supreme in theTransvaal; English society : itis the alien, capitalist influences Labour has added another member to the South Afri- which, to quoteBurke again, have “broken up this canParliament at a by-election. Whatare the pros- beautiful order, this array of truth and nature, as well pectsfor the Government, and for the Opposition, at as of habitand prejudice.’’ Where the “natural habi- thenext general elections, which are to be heldin a tat” of alien capitalists is, we do not profess to be able few months?There is no need tostress that point to say.But we do say that when suchmen worm further. Every voter in South Africa to whom English themselvesinto a supremeposition in the midst of civilisation means anything has risenin revolt against Englishmen, they-and the system they spread among the deportations without trial, against the brutality of renegade Englishmen-theCowdrays, the Joiceys, the thecapitalist class, against the Government that sup- Furnesses, the Levers, the Cadburys, the Frys, and the ports that class, and against the miserable and cowardly Eppses-are responsiblefor anamount of crime, Opposition, which, as we must judge from its actions, misery,degradation, and want which noone but :* is in the pocket of the Government, and consequently capitalistcan contemplate unmoved. of the alienswho exploit Englishmen in theRand *** mines, on the railways, and everywhere an opportunity The weak state of mind produced by plutocratic in- presents itself. fluences is not, we observe, confined to out-and-out ,. capitalistsand their hirelings. Last Thursday a vote was-taken in our Upper House on Lord Willoughby de We realise,nevertheless, thatthe Labour Party in Broke’s Bill to make military service compulsory on the South Africa would not be thus supported if it had not wealthy classes and optional for the working classes. If shown a better appreciation of its political position than militaryservice, saidLord Willoughby de Broke in the mugwumpswho misrepresent Labour at West- effect, is a burden, let us be the first to take it upon our Westminster, andthe Artful Dodger wholeads them. Be- shoulders, and let it be compulsory on us to do so; but, fore the Labour members were compelled to allow the if it is a privilege, then let us take it upon ourselves and Indemnity Bill to pass through the South African Par- make it optional for the remaining classes .to join us if liament, they fought it tooth and nail, line by line, for they wish. We need hardlyadd that this suggestion, twenty-sixhours. The Government did not attempt to sound enough in itself, was rejected by 53 votes to 34 ; answertheir criticisms ; forthey were unanswerable. though we do not think that this represents the proper General Smuts made cynical admissions ; and his serried proportion of parvenu peers with no sense of responsi- rows of backvelders awoke from their slumbers at the bility and the few remaining peers who think they owe word of command and defeated theLabour amend- somethingot their fellow-men. Thesupporters of the mentsone after another. The answerto this attitude Bill laid some stress on the necessity for the wealthier on thepart of theGovernment may be found in the classes taking the lead in social service but this sug- election results published at the end of last week. When gestion was scouted a peer who, so far as we know, oneseries of ProvincialCouncil elections results in a by doesnot belong to thecapitalists, Lord Lucas. . The solid Labour majority, and when an admittedly strong principle that the rich should serve the poor, said Lord Unionist constituency neglects both the Opposition and Lucas, was first preached about nineteen centuries ago, the Independent Unionist candidates to return a Labour since when it had fallen into comparative disuseuntil member with a majority over the other two combined, it was sought to be revived by the noblelord in thae the results of the Government’s anti-English policy may Bill. “In trying by this Bill to make the rich serve the v-ell besaid to justify Mr. Creswelland his, as yet, poor the noble lord was endeavouring io do something smallband of supporters in Parliament.Nor are the thathad‘ neveryet been achieved by any country, so South African Labour elements soft-headed that they civilised or savage ; by any nation, eastern or western ; are likely to adopt Mr.Will Dyson’s jocular pictorial by any form of government, constitutional or despotic, suggestionthat they shouldinvite Mr. Ramsay Mac- Donald to lead them. Besides, the conditions in South by any kind of religion, Christian or pagan.” Africademand men; and jellyfish, we gather, are not *** encouraged by any political group.When we remem- Thereare short histories of the world which Lord ber what the present Labour conditions in South Africa Lucas, in a leisure moment, might be advised to con- are, and that the railwaymen there recently struck for sult. No doubthis secretary would look, upthe rele- statusrather than for higher wages merely, we are vantpassages for him. Hemight also remember that bound to look forward with every hope to the realisa- the principle of noblesse obligedoes not call upon tion, sooner or later, of our policy of National Guilds. merely rich men to help the poor ; it calls upon men of For the Guilds, as we have always maintained, are as influence and authority, such as peers, to set an example much an elementaryprinciple of the English social in characterand conduct to the other classes, and to organisation as a fair and speedy trial is an elementary lead the other classes when a lead is required. It is too principle of English law. much the habit of richpeople nowadays to think that

x. -Y? they can satisfy the publicconscience, and their own, by paying a few shillings more of super-tax, or a few We cannotpass away from this topic without one poundsmore of deathduties, than the average man. furtherremark. NQ one will pretendthat so large a We ourselvesdo not regard money as of any conse- number of Cape Town electors voted blindly and out o.f quence ; and it is not enough for us if one of the Cad- sheer ragefor the Labour candidate. If they had burys,for example, shall escape condemnation merely merely been irritated by the attitude of the Opposition, because he can fling t-he public a gold coin or two by 643 way of an extra tip. We must have more than that. If make out; but, even if we admit that a plausible case a duke can show his fellow peers that the wage-system can be put forward on behalf of Ulster, we may take it is a curse to mankind and should be abolished, he as certain that no such case could have been put for- shall for our part gladly take all the death duties which ward if Mr.Asquith had laid his federal cards on the pass from the Willses and the Devonports to the Ex- table. ForUlster, let it be noted,insists upon being chequer in the course of a century-if he wants them- left within the Empire; and, we are givento understand, hut if a duke supports capitalism because he thinks it is eyen if a General Election should again go in favour of in his interest to do so, or because he thinks the poor the Liberals and give the Unionists a good excuse for should be “kept down,” then he shall not escape our standingaside (which, at themoment, is whatthey censure even if he contributes enough to the Exchequer very much want to do) Ulster would still resist “separa- to pay off the National Debt. tion.” Thesituation, as it now exists,is undoubtedly *** difficult ; lbut a statesman could have turned the very The truth is, and Lord Lucas must have overlooked it difficulties of the situation to his advantage. The first only by crassignorance or carelessness, that no aris- sign of resistance in Ulster should have been the signal tocracy in the world has ever survived for a generation for a series of political reformsbased on federalism ; unless it helped the lower classes or castes every day and in the face of federal proposals Ulster’s resistance in the year and every hour of the day ; and aristocracies and the alleged necessity for it would have vanished. werenot necessarily wealthy. Infact, genuine aristo- *** cracies have, on the whole, been poor. The Brahmins, In the meantime, we think it is above all important for example, and the class immediately below them, the thatthe authority of ouractual Central Government Rajputs,were seldom so wealthy as thericher third should be upheld, though we fully realise that the up- caste inancient India, the vaishyas or traders. They holding of it puts the Cabinet in a difficult position- didnot value wealth, and they did not despise it; for a difficult position from which, let us repeat, a federal the simple reason that wealth did not enter into their solution of the question would still extricate them-and calculations. They held such a position of spiritual which is due, in the first place, to their own stupidity. and moral authority that the richest vaishya would have More than four months ago a member of the Cabinet givenall his chances of absorption into the infinitein told the writer of these Notes that any officer who re- exchange for the presence of a Brahmin at his dinner- fused to serve against Ulster would be invited to resign. table.Similarly, toskip a few thousand years,the More than four months agoin other words, trouble with modern German aristocrat is not nearly so wealthy as the army was apprehended-and not provided against. themodern German trader. Yet the enormously rich We think that the resistance shown by a few officers, families of Ballin, Rathenau,Thyssen, and so on, though we should be the last to defend it on military though they may be received by the Kaiser unofficially, grounds, will be a lucky enough accident if it postpones as they frequently are, cannot attend Court functions, actual fighting for a few days in order that Mr. Asquith because all their wealth does not enabIe them to belong may have time to come to a decision. The employment to the aristocratic order-an orderwhich has, in its of armedtroops against our fellow-subjectswould, in time,looked after the lowerclasses of Germans,and our opinion, be approved of by the country only in the still does so where the plutocrats have not undermined knowledge that all other means of upholding authority its influence and driven families by the thousand across had failed; and the average voter does not yet know the Atlantic. More than that : so pronounced is the in- that all othermeans have failed. He will, likely stinctivedistrust with which the nobles regardthe enough, accuse Mr. Asquith of not having taken steps tradesmen-for even the best of trades degrade to some monthsago against the Ulsterleaders. Whatever the extentthose who participate in them-that noteven consultations of theGovernment and the Opposition the meanest army lieutenant with a “von” to his name may have been, they appear to the public to have been can be induced to brighten a plutocratic tea-party by his remarkablyhaphazard, slow, and insincere. Insin- presence, though, if he wished, the purse-strings of the cerity,indeed, has characterisedthe present Govern- head of the house would be placed in his hands to untie. ment more than once and has always characterised the That is settingan example ; that iscarrying out one Oppositionin connection with this Ulster business. of the principles of noblesseoblige ! Now,now can When insincere people meet insincere people the result Lord Lucasunderstand why somearistocracies have can be predicted with minute accuracy ; and if Ulster is preserved their dignity, their influence, and their power, really sincere and determined the electors of this country and why somehave not? Under no Frenchking, we will want to know why the Government could not have imagine,would ithave beenpossible for a Joicey to ascertained the facts last autumn, or even sooner. Did havebeen ennobled ; butwe still warrantthat Lord the(Cabinet, one wonders, rely upon P. W. W.? Or, Lucas would notdespise an invitation to shoot’on worse still, did they, rely upon the tautological and ver- Lord Joicey’s estates--somewhere on tcp of those three- bose predictions of a man whom the British Isles have shiftmines of his. Reciprocalservice has always disgracedthemselves by treating as a serious and characterised the aristocracy and the classes below it ; authoritative politician,Mr. T. P. O’Connor? and whenour own aristocratswere able totake an -k. x intelligentinterest in craftsand to helptheir crafts- We are not dissatisfied to find that the Government men, they had no cause to grumble because they were still expressesits determination to go on; for, as we notsupported. Itwas the English aristocracy that have said, we believe that the authority of the Central firstsuspended the old socialorder ; andit is for the Governmentmust be upheld. Butwe are profoundly aristocracy, if there is one, to attempt to renew it. dissatisfied that Mr.Lloyd George, the mostinsincere .x. + and hypocritical figure in English politics, should have The more we read about Ulster the more we regret beenthe latest person chosen by theCabinet to that Mr. Asquith did not take advantage of the crisis, sharpen his tongue like a serpent so that he might, at when it first became evident, to put forward a federal Huddersfield,convey the views of the King’s advisers solution of the whole question. ’The ImperialConfer- to the people of England.Mr. Lloyd George, with a ence andthe Committee of ImperialDefence aretwo soft heartand hard words for capitalists,and with new bodieswhich arose in response to a definite de- honeyed lips and a heart as hard as the nether millstone mand; they form the nucleus, together with a reformed for workmen,takes his front of brass to aprovincial House of Lords, of a Central Federal *Government for platform ; and.instead of expounding a statesmanlike the whole BritishEmpire ; andthe definite organisa- solution of a problemin political science, hedeclaims tionand regulation of thesubsidiary governments is againstthe “Tories” in favour of Liberalism,adding only a matter of time. We do not, of course,agree “On behalf of the British Government”-as if that were that under the Home Rule Bill Ulster is being penalised a mere incidental-“They mean to confront thisdefiance and imposed upon, as so many Unionists are trying to of popular liberties with the most resolute and unwaver- 644

ing determination.” It is truethat Mr.Lloyd George traditions and habits of thought. Compare the speeches afterwards spoke about the Parliament Act in much the of Burke, let us say, with the speeches of the present same way as we wrote about it in these columns a week Chancellor of the Exchequer, and what a difference; or, or twoago. That isnot IIOW thepoint. The question rather, what an interminable series of differences ! The of immediateurgency isthe employment of troops in former was not merely a great orator, but a great poli- Ulster; and the Chancellor of the Exchequer could not tical creative thinker as well ; the latter is a pantaloon dealwith this simplequestion without ranting about politician who has achieved his object when he raises a “popular liberties.” laugh, not when he has thought out some helpful prin- **-x ciple andexplained it so lucidly that his fellows can shareand understand it with him. A statesman, in It encroaches on our patience, we own, when we find short,is capable, whennecessary, of makingparty Mr. Lloyd Georgetalking in thisignoble strain, and. speeches ; but his outlook is never restricted by the out- when hedoes so hecannot be criticised too severely. look of his party. Mr.Lloyd George’s outlook, on the We shall never overlook the fact that it was he who, on other hand, is narrower even than the average outlook twogreat occasions, apart frominnumerable smaller of hisparty ; andhe has never yet risen to a great ones, did all in his power to crush and strangle not only statesmanlike occasion. As he morethan any other our “popular liberties,” but the spirit among English- politician-more, even, than Mr. F. E. Smith-is re- menwhich gave rise to thosevery liberties. If Mr. sponsible forthe introduction of pantaloonpolitics, it Lloyd Georgehad heen allowed by therailwaymen of is only justthat the fact shouldbe pointed out with thiscountry to succeed in hisdiabolical endeavour to himself as an example. establishConciliation Boards in 1907, thepath would x. ’. c have been smoothedfor themethods of official perse- cution to which the workmen in many other countries Leeds has been seized withabrilliant idea. The have to submit-to compulsoryarbitration, for ex- Special Committee of its Corporation has decided, as a ample, which has brought about such bitterness in New resultof the recent Labour troubles there, to appoint Zealand;to State interference in strikes, which has a ‘‘Commercial Manager” to controlthe labour ern- exasperatedthe workmen in Australia ; toLabour ployed by the Municipality. The plan is not novel ; for colonies, and so forth.It was notthe fault of Mr. severalbig American department stores adopted the Lloyd George thatthese things were not introduced principle years ago--i.e,, that one man in theestab- here.Again, totake the second instancewe have in lishmentshould make himself responsiblefor employ- mind, IMr. Lloyd George’sInsurance Act of 1911-13 ing, dealing with, and discharging all the labour used has already had the effect of placing some thirteen mil- -and theresults thus achieved werenot such as to commend themselves, after years experiment, to the lions of ourfellow-citizens in a conditionof modified of slavery, which will become actual slavery if we cannot heads of those establishments. Such a manager, in our yet manage to erasethis blotchon Englishlaw from view, is in a position not unlike that of a Commissioner theStatute Book itdisgraces. Yet the Chancellor of for Native Affairs ; and he is usually characterised by all the Exchequer, this plague with which the Lord in his thehaughtiness. ignorance of humanity, stiff -necked- omniscient wisdom has smitten the people, this fanatic, ness,and adherence to red-tape that distinguishthe worst specimens of such officials. speaking a degradedbarbaric dialect as hismother- tongue,this obsequious pick-thank of the capitalists : * * this, forsooth, is the alien who shall stand up before an Knowing the recent history of Leeds, we regard the audience of the Englishmen whom he has tried to turn appointment of a certain Mr. Hamilton,who appears into the cringing sycophants of the rich and speak to to be designated for the post, as a declaration of war them about “popular liberties” ? In the course of some on Labour ; an attempt on the part of an inefficient Cor- littlereading in history andliterature, we have come poration to shift the responsibility for dealing with the across not a fewextraordinary and almost incredible workers on to the shoulders of a human machine. The examples of what,we hope,we may be permittedto control of its own workmen thus passes outof the hands designate by the plain term of damned inpudence ; but of theCorporation into those of an entirelydifferent we confess that the exploits of Gil Blas and “Peregrine party; and Mr. Hamilton cannot be blamed i.n the least Pickle” seem to be, when compared with some exploits if he asks for powers in proportion to his responsibility.

of Mr. Lloyd George’s,merely the indiscretions of ~ The experiment will certainly fail if for no other reason thoughtlessamateurs ; andPerkin Warbeck’s bland thanthat women at times of crisis,refuse to deal

claims tothe throne of Englandwere just as worthy l with foremen, by whatever name or title foremen may

of seriousconsideration as Mr.Lloyd George’s claim to ~ be called ; but insist on coming, through their accredited be the defender of the liberties of England. We write leaders,into close contact with the board of manage- with none the less feeling for knowing beforehand that ment or the proprietors. our smilingChancellor has so hardenedhis skin as *+* almost to be insensible even to the word of God. If themembers of theCorporation had been *+* genuinelydesirous of makingfair terms withtheir Although our main quarrel with Mr. Lloyd George is, I~ workpeople, they would, as we have often advised, have naturally, his Insurance Act, this is not’our only quarrel enteredinto direct negotiations with the secretaries of with him. Ithas always been a characteristic of his the various trade unions concerned ; and they could, if that he has been unable to adapt his oratorical style to they had wished to take the first step towards a system the dignity of the office he holds ; and in consequence he of National Guilds, have made the trade unions respon- has taught thepublic never to look to him for an orderly sible for the efficiency and work of the men belonging and sane opinion. It has almost become an established to them. This would have been a real attempt to solve article of English politics that the Prime Minister shall the localproblem of labour unrest. We do not forget be succeeded by the Chancellor of the Exchequer; and that,thanks to theInsurance Act, many well-estab- it is, accordingly, not enough that Mr.Lloyd George, lishedunions are now in thehabit of handingtheir whenon the stump, shall be able to “draw” a half- “vacantbooks” over to theLabour Exchanges, and baked audience, ready to listen to his cheap jokes and that if the Corporation had applied to the local. Labour witticismsbut unable to realise what is due from the Exchangecomplete arrangements satisfactory. to the man whose power and influence in the Cabinet and the citycould have beenmade. Butwe know perfectly country should be second only to the power and influ- well that the use of Labour Exchanges is resented by enceof the Premier. The reader will look in vain the workers almost as much as the Insurance Act itself, through Mr. Lloyd George’s speeches for a sound poli- and we are not surprised that only the direst need in- tical principle;for a phrase that will stand wear and duces a skilled workman to turn to them for assistance. tear and is not gimcrack ; for any indication that the This is a statement to be taken to heart ; and not 6nly speakeris familiar with Englishmanners, customs, by the members of the Leeds Corporation. 645

Current Cant Foreign Affairs.

“ imagination--Selfridge Advertisement. By S. Verdad. ‘I’HE murder of &I. GastonCalmette, editor of the “ I am an author of several sorts--Arnold Bennett Paris“Figaro,” by MadameCaillaux, wife of the ‘‘ The Prime Minister is clearly correct in refusing to Minister of Finance,is an event which,in view of its discuss further details.”--“ Daily Chronicle.” probablepolitical results, may yet haveto be called -- historical.thinkI it will be advisablefor me this “ ’The genius of Mr. Selfridge.”-“ Daily Mail.” week to sum up briefly the causes of the crime and its consequences. * 3 *. ‘‘ Our Socialist rulers.”--Arnold WHITE. -- It isadmitted that M. Caillaux,acting both inde- ‘(The greatest minds contribute to ‘ TheTimes.’ ”- pendently andin conjunctionwith other politicians, ‘(The Times.” was involved in financial transactionsfrom time to timewhich, toexpress it calmly,did notadd to his ‘‘ Without the vote we have no power--Beatrice creditas a Minister. Ir, particular,readers of THE MACLEODCAREY. New AGE will remember the emphasis I had occasion to layupon his dealings with Germany at the time of “ Thearch-adventurer of OUT times is Mr. H. G. the Agadir affair in 191I-dealings which were carried Wells.”-“ The Nation.” on withoutthe knowledge of thePrime Minister and M. Caillaux’ othercolleagues in theCabinet. In late “ ‘ The Star.’ Bigger and brighter than ever. Take it years, let me recall, M. Caillaux has always advocated home to your wife.”-Advertisement in “ News and Leader.” an income Tax; and the repeatedrejection of Income Tax measures by the Senate onlyseemed to have the ‘(The Press is fully alive to its loss of political power.” effect of making M. Caillaux more and more determined -GEORGE R. SIMS. to have some such measure eventually passed. *+* ‘‘ All ouropportunities come up from theSunday- It wasnaturally to the interest of anyenemies the school.”-“ The International Bazaar.” FinanceMinister hadshouldthathe be, if I-_-_._ possible,discredited thepublicationby of the “ In view of thegrave importance of the present documentary evidence of some of histransac- political situation, ‘ The Times ’ will be reduced in price to a penny.”-The Press Association. tions.Several months ago suchevidence came to the knowledgeof M. Calmette,who published, “ If Mrs. Lloyd George shotan editor.”--“ Daily in the“Figaro,” accusations supported bynames, Sketch.” dates, facts, andfigures. M. Calmette,although not himself unfamiliar, from personal experience, with the “ The King has a host of admirers among Press photo- ways of finance and financiers, wasknown to be a graphers.”-(‘ Daily Mirror.” sincere patriot; and, further, as an adversary who,in matters of controversy, would stop at nothing that was “ Money-making may be a form of asceticism likely todamage his opponent. M. Caillauxformally DEANOF ST. PAUL’S. denied the attacks as the articles appeared day by day ; and a few weeks ago it was thought that the “Figaro” “ The uncompromising commercial honesty of London is the most astonishing thing I know.”-A South had decided to letthe matter drop. Those who held this opiniondid notknow their Calmette. Early this African in the “ Daily Mail.’’ month the attacks were renewed, and they culminated a “ As the acknowledged leader of a Socialistintrigue, few days ago-Friday, March13, to be unluckilypre- Lloyd George would be splendidly in his element.”- cise-in a letter, publishedin facsimile, written by M. “ Daily Express.” Caillaux to a lady in which appeared thephrase : (‘r have squashed ecrase the Income Tax while seeming “ The Socialists . . , exceedingly busy . . . reduce our to defendit.” great Empire to mere chaos.”-Om MOORE. *** -- Thisletter caused anextraordinary sensation ; for “ The ‘ Morning Post ’ . . . built up on greattradi- tions . . . living organism,with an - identitydistinct its’ genuineness was acknowledged, and M. Caillaux from that of the human instruments by which its exist- merely replied that, though he h.ad not believed in the ence is carried on . . . serene . . . steadfast . . . dignity imposition of an Income Tax when theletter was . . . principles.”-“ The Globe.” written(about 1901 hehad since changedhis mind, and had changed it with more reason than most people “ Give the workers decent comfort for their leisure . . . could show for changing their minds. The acknowledg- growth of discontent . . . largely checked.”-“ Morning ment and the explanation were simple and straightfor- Post. ” ward. *a* “ It isour businessto try to find out which of the livingwriters are worth our attention,and which are In 191, as it happened, &I. Caillaux was not married not.”--“ The New Weekly.” to his present wife-his third-who was then Madame Leo Claretie wife of theson of the famousJules “ How to Write a Novel.”-“ T. P.’s Weekly ” Adver- Claretie recentlydeceased, who was so long Admini- tisement. strator of the Comedie Francais.Madame Caillaux believed that she recognisedthe letter; and from this “ Why be contentwith four per cent. ?”-‘‘ New point the affair assumed an aspect which, for want of a Weekly ” Advertisement. betterexpression, we may termromantic. French women-let it be mentioned that there are exceedingly *‘Anyone who has watched the ‘ Daily Mail ’ in recent fewsuffragists among them as yet-enjoy anenor- years can see that it has been suiting itself to the tastes, mousamount of power,social arld political;but they not of a purely sensation-loving, mercurial crowd, but to a crowd whose tastes are supposed to be more exacting.” never attempt to make a public display of it or to have -“ The New Weekly.” itacknowledged by law. Itis tacitlyunderstood that French womenshall be allowed, orrather expected,

“ Paris, like London, is ceasing to be commercial in to wield their purely feminine influence as much as they literature.”-W. B. Yeats in “ New York Times.” like, and that theyshall remain in the background, in 646 .

return- for which theirnames are never dragged into as because he loved his country ; it condones Madame controversy on the platform or in the Press. Caillaux’ crime because she acted in a womanly way ; 3 +I 4- butit condemns M. Caillauxbecause he hasalways M. Calmette,it is admitted broke this rule to the gloriedin being an anti-patriot. It follows that if M. extentthat he published a letterwritten by M. Cail- Caillauxhad been a patriothe wouldnot havesup- lauxto a lady,though he did not publish thelady’s ported Germany; if he had not supported Germany M. name. (The “Figaro” adds that only the political and Calmette would not have had to expose him ; and if M. not the personal part of the letter was reproduced and Calmette had not had to expose him M. Calmette would published ButMadame Caillaux, onmaking in- at thismoment have beenin thebest of healthand inquiries appears to havebeen informed from an authori- acting still as managing editor of the “Figaro. ” The tative quarter that M. Calmette had come into posses- reasoning, to anEnglishman, may seem to berather sion of a :bundle of letters written to her by M. CailIaux involved, or it may seem to be a series of non sequiturs ; a few years before their marriage, and that he intended but, from the point of view of Paris, it is quite sound. to publish these letters one one with the object of ic *-* showing that M. Caillauxwasinvariably false In the circumstances, M. Caillaux ielt that he could to his political promises. ‘The letters, it was suggested not continue to carry on his duties, so he handed in his (the“Figaro’’ states that no such letterswere in its resignation. M. Renoult was appointed to succeed late editor’s possession) were couched in a purely per- him;but the Government wasfar from safe.Early sonaltone, but dealt largely with politicalaffairs. in 191I a well-known Paris financier, M. Rochette, de- Madame Caillaux consulted the Public Prosecutor, and faulted ; and,before he escaped, he declared that was told that she had no remedy. Her husband’s posi- he wouldnever stand in thedock, since he would be tion as FinanceMinister forebade hisengaging in a compelled to make unpleasant revelations about people duelwith M. Calmette; and, as there ispractically no in high places. Hiswords came true; forin March, libel law in France, long before any legal proceedings 191I, M. Monis, who was then acting as Prime Minis- could have been brought to anend, the letters would ter, sent for M. Fabre, the public Prosecutor, and in- havebeen published. structed him to stay the proceedings against Rochette * * untilafter the Long Vacation. The Public Prosecutor Conceive now the position of MadameCaillaux in indignantlyrefused ; but so muchpressure was exer- view of anotherfactor. It is admitted that M. and cised on him by M. Monis and other Ministers that he Madame Caillaux had not been living happily together gave way. for some time, because, although Madame was greatly +** attachedto Monsieur, thelatter had begun to show M. Caillaux, as ithappened, was one of theother somefondness for another lady. This lady,by a Ministersconcerned ; forhe was Finance Minister in strange coincidence-though thefact was not known the Monis Cabinet of 191I, as he was until last week in to MadameCaillaux at the time of the murder-hap- theDoumergue Cabinet of 1914. And M. Monis, to pened tohave been, a fewyears previously, a close carrythe drama a stage further, was until last week friend of M. GastonCalmette. Would sit notbe pos- Ministerof Marine in theDoumergue Cabinet. What sible, Madame Caillaux appears to have thought, would broughtabout M. Monis’s resignationand made the itnot be possible forher in the firstplace to avenge case against M. Caillaux even blacker than it had been? whatshe regarded as herwounded honour--i.e., the * publication of the letter-in the secondplace, to help The letter referred to, written by M. Fabre, the Public herhusband to escape from the attacks of M. Cal- Prosecutor, to a friend, found its way to M. Calmette. mette, which were slowly ruininghis political career Either he himself, just before his death, or, more pro- and driving him to distraction ; and thus, in the third bably, some quick-witted, clerk just after his death, sent place, to regain his affection and dispose of her rival? the letter to M. Briand,the ex-Premier and enemy of ++ .+ * M. Caillaux, and M. Briand sent it to M. Dourmergue’s A few o’f these details have reached me from sources immediatepredecessor, M. LouisBarthou. When the notyet accessible to thegeneral public; but the rest incident was being discussed in the Chamber on March of thestory is known. Madame Caillaux went to the 18, M. Barthou referred to this letter. M. Monis, speak- office of the“Figaro,” ordering anew costumeand ing for the Government, denied its existence, whereupon engaging a new cook on the way. Thesefacts, com- M. Barthou pulled it out of his pocket and read it to binedwith herextraordinary calmness and delibera- theastounded Chamber. Immediately afterwards, add tion,certainly bearout her own explanation that she the delicately written newspaper reports, M. Monis,in did not intend to kill M. Calmette but merely to ‘‘teach spite of hiswish to remain, was induced by his col- him a lesson.” Itis a remarkablefact or perhaps I leagues to resign from the Cabinet. should rathersay a verysignificant fact,that the *** emotions of the people of Paris, stirred by the news of The Radicalparty without M. Caillauxis like what thedeath of M. Calmette,were directed against M. the Liberal party would be without Mr. Lloyd George. Caillaux andnot at all againsthis wife. ThePress The party reliedupon his personality, oratory, ability, refers to the deed with sorrow, disgust, horror; but its andsound knowledge of one or two subjects to bring invectiveis directed, on generalgrounds, against M. them back to power at the next general election, which Caillaux. Thereason is, not that M. Caillaux has isto be held in aboutsix weeks. M. Caillaux was speculated and aided hisfriends to speculate,but be- undoubtedly a force, in spite of his liking for Germany cause M. Caillaux was ready, on more than one occa- andhis hatred of England. Hehas now retired, at sion, to make over certain French interests to Germany. least for the time being, from political life; but in the Ifnegotiations were proceeding about the Congo, or presenttemper of theFrench people it would notbe Morocco, or some Central African border-line, and M. politically safe for a party to set him up as leader. The Caillauxhappened to be inpower, all his influence financial scandals inwhich he,with other Ministers, would be thrown on the side of Germany. Conversely, were involved haveincreased the disgust with which M. Caillauxintensely disliked theEntente Cordiale, ‘theFrench people as a whole regardthe game of andmore than once he snubbed ourAmbassador, Sir politics in general. Hardly a year passes without some Francis Bertie-I referred to onesuch incident in the .financial scandal, running into millions, in which Minis- autumn of 191I. He alsodisliked theAnglo-French tersare in someway implicated. The Rochetteaffair policy of agreement with Spain ; and, as he had insulted has, three years after it was discovered, had the effect the SpanishAmbassador, he was not invited to lunch of ridding Germany of a friend in Paris, as the German at the Elysee when the King of Spain was last in Paris. 1 Presscomments on M. Calmette’smurder sufficiently **.E ~ indicate.Germany’s lossouris gain. But, having

Inshort, French opinion grievesover M. Calmette, ~ giventhe main facts as shortly as I could,I must post- mot so much because he exposed the Finance Minister 1 pone furthercomment until next week. 647

tainingthe whip hand of Imperial supremacy in case The Passing of the Home Rule either party goes to extremes. It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that the Controversy. Home Rule problem is solved, though undoubtedly the Controversyis at an end-as far as governmentis a “ The Union is Dead! Long Live the Union! ” thinking process and not merely a kind of hazard with By L. G. Redmond-Howard. the dice of the Ballot : andthe concessions must re- [An article commenting on the Prime Minister’s offers present the high-water mark of political sagacity. to Ulster, pointing out that Home Rule is norepeal of At last he is steering in the right direction, namely, the Union, and drawing attention at once to the dangers the line olf leastresistance; but the danger is by no and the hopes of the present situation.] means over. THEpronouncement of Mr. Asquith, offering the last Indeed,optimists and pessimists alike may find concessions to Ulster, marks at once a very definite and abundant confirmations of their views, for the situation a very critical stage in the Home Rule controversy; in- is filled as much with hopes as fears-it would be the indeed it may betaken to signalise the passing of the merest folly to hide it from oneself : Irishmen may yet matterout of therealms of speculationinto those of find as much difficulty in using Home Rule as they did accomplished fact. in obtaining it. It was, to my mind, one of the greatest examples of Difficulties,in fact,crowd like Furiesround the statesmanship everdisplayed by anEnglish Prime cradle of the New Assembly. Minister in his dealings with Ireland; and this for the The elimination of a considerableportion of Ulster following reason-namely, that it avoided one more of in allprobability, must, for example, render it one- those futile General Elections, which seem to be the last sided from the first, and tlo a certain extent prejudiced. resource of intellectual bankruptcy. It will be a Parliament of oneparty. Further, all the When you have a bad hand, shuffle again, seems to ProtestantUnionists of the South will beleft entirely be the principle of modern partisanship : when in doubt, at the mercy of their religious and political opponents- dissolve : quiteforgetting that each deal is intended and though there is no reason to believe that they will to be played out, and each election is intended to solve, receive betteror worse treatment than the Catholics not shelve, difficulties which presentthemselves would have received in a “Trinity” composed of all to the electorate. sectsand classes, certainly no one can find fault with Now it would have been as unfair to England as it the logic of theirfears after the behaviour of the would to Ireland tohave a GeneralElection at the Bishops on education. presentjuncture : it would havemeant the repetition Ireland,however, seems for everdoomed to liveon of the same old confession : an Irish local reform would in water-tightcompartments, each class isolated as if havedominated an Imperial issue; an Imperial issue every other were a plague germ, such as we have seen would havecomplicated anIrish localreform ; and I bottledin a hospitalmuseum, instead of allmixing consider that by relegating the ballot to the fewpro- freely together in the healthy amity of mutual respect. vinces that form the only real crux to the measure, the The Orangemen, however to my mind, will consider- PrimeMinister has struck the first blow at that arti- ably damage their own cause by not coming forward at ficial party-spiritwhich is becomingthe stumbling- once as pioneers in the new assembly of that democratic block of all sane government. progressiveness of which their religion is but the theo- logical expression. In the first place, he has cleared the way for the next The formation of a strong opposition in Dublin, corn- GeneralElection in England, in a way which should posed of men advocatingthose principlesfor which earn him the gratitude of all parties-but of no party Ulster is supposed to stand, namely,industry, aristo- morethan the Tory Party, whose programmeat the cracy, lay thoughtand general independence of indi- present momentcan only be acceptedin Irish affairs viduality,unbullied by party organisationor clerical at the cost of therenunciation of alltheir traditional principles. An Irish policy, in other words, has ceased to’ denomination, would have corresponded with an ever increasing dissatisfaction of which the O’Brienite move- be thedominating question in English politics, and it ment is a visibleproof. Indeed, if I mightventure to wasworth attaining this end even at thecost of a Pyrrhic victory.Henceforth whatever Celticinfluence prophesy,I should say that it will not be long before thehostile ,countiescome round to see that theyhave exists in England will be logically divided between each, far more allies than foes in their supposed victors. Nay, instead nationally antagonisticto both the great of by thetime six years have elapsed, they maybe far English parties ; for it can never be forgotten that the more eager to take part in the council of their common alliance of the most conservative country with the most countrythan any Nationalist county was to establish progressive party must, by its very nature, be artificial. it-and possibly theymay form farmore valuable Inthe second place,it shows greatconstitutional assets. wisdom in that, making the attitude of England purely Onething the Prime Minister’s offer hasdone, and that of a disinterested spectator, it grants either section done effectually : sit has taken the ground entirely from in Irelandits fullcontentions, giving the domination underthe feet of Sir Edward Carson : thevolunteers neither to one party nor to the other. It takes both at must ,philosophically cease to exist after the declaration theirown word ; givingthe Nationalist fullself- on the part of Mr. Asquith that their future is in their government, and the Orangeman complete protection : own hands, and Sir Edward Carson, by trying to anti- so that, while the former is put upon his metal to show cipate the verdict of six years hence, is himself interfer- that his promises of toleration are sincere and his boast ing with the policy of a futureParliament at West- of capacity is true, it puts the latter to the test of show- minster to treat with the situation that will have arisen ing that his fears are grounded upon fact and his hatred by that time. based upon reality. I have always maintained, and still maintain, that Sir What could be more philosophical? Edward Carson’s tactical policy is one which is far more No doubt Sir Edward Carson and Mr. John Redmond dangerousto the cause he has at heart, than to the would each have preferred a party victory on their own enemies he has at hand : though it is to a certain extent terms : and it reflects not a little to Mr. Asquith’s credit the onlydignified answer he could make to the high- that, dictated to for yearsby the Nationalists, he has not handed way in which hisopponents were seeking to allowed himself to be blinded to the claims of Orange- establish a constitution over his head : but I should be men. For by making each party, SQ to speak, alike inde- very sorry indeed to see a Parliament in Dublin in which pendent of England, he has for ever eliminated the pos- he did not figure to fill the place to which he has a so,rt sibility of thatdisturbing race elementwrecking pro- of naturalright, in orderto restore or rather to gress both Englishand Irish. In other words, he has establish that balance of thought without which delibe- givenIrishmen over totheir own devices, merely re- rativegovernment becomes anabsolute tyranny. 645

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I always thinkthat it is a great pity thatthe pro- Rule which will relegate it to the scrapheap of dead blems of Ireland have been allowed to get into politics bigotries-but consentand not coercion isthe key to at all-€or if ever there was a country which needed only that promised land, and if the six years’ limit stands in economics, thatcountry is Ireland. For once drop the the way then let that obstacle too be removed, for peace oldparty tags of “Catholicsand Protestants,” “Na- would be worth the price. tionalistsand Orangemen”--phrases which are ,be- “ Union,”like kingship, is somethingsingular : it comingevery day more futile, if not absolutely odious stands in the evolution of nations for the permanent and inthe eyes of serious thinkers-and thereis hardly a immutable progresstowards the common ideal of the single concrete problem on which there is any real differ- brotherhood of man : but of “unions” as of Kings, it enlce of opinion between educated laymen. And, the de- may be said, their nameis legion. Nay, we may rest putation shortly to wait upon the Prime Minister with assuredthat an Empire which is notcomprehensive regardto thecalling of thegreat English liners at enough tto assimilate and contain the Nationhood of Ire- Queenstown, which is to consist of Mr. John Redmond, land without crushing it, will not, when the time comes, SirEdward Carson, and Mr.William O’Brien is a be able to contain the full maturity of such Dominions rather typical example of whatis an everyday occur- as are ours in Africa, Australia, Canada and India. occuence in Ireland in all such matters as Trade, Commerce, I am not one of those, to use the words of Disraeli, Agriculture, and every kind of Industrial Reform. who take an exaggerated view of the Act of Union o€ In a word, the whole bias of politics is entirely tradi- 1800. The best that can be said for;it is that in a panic tional : and were the Recording Angel to suddenly burn Pitt acted with good intentions, but in a spirit of martial every page of history he has written from the memory lawdiametrically opposed to everyBritish tradition. of the people,he would almostautomatically establish Experience has pointed out, however, fault after faultin a millennium. itswisdom, and there seems no reason why that cor- The so-called “Union”-that colossal piece of clumsy rective,ameliorative, andprogressive instinct which panic legislation, devised against the saner judgment of lies theatroot of ourconstitutional evolution all the best qualified thinkers of the age-has never in shouldbot be allowed to expendsome of itspowers any way been synonymous with “Unity.” upon a piece of legislation so crude in itsconception, Clauseafter clause that was once so fondlylooked so disastrous in its result ; and thatis what I mean when upon as vital toEmpire has been found unworkable, I say,rejoicing inMr. Asquith’s giganticstep in this condemned and altered, from the separation of the two direction, Exchequers and the guarantee of the established Church “THEUNION IS DEAD. LONGLIVE THE UNION !” of Ireland,to the eternal confusion of Local andIm- perial spheres, its inevitableable consequence has been a hundredyears’ domination of every nationalissue by “ A Redmond for Ulster.” an alien minority, hostile alike to the interests of each Ward. English party and to the constitution of both, plunging By J. P. England into such a confusion of thought as to render SOMEtime in December of last year the Unionist Press representative government almost impossible of GreatBritain and Ireland sent a thrillthrough its Surely it has dawned on everyone, except perchance readersand stiffened theback of many a drooping the professional politician, that we have had enough of Volunteer, by the news that hlr. L. 6. Redmond- it all, and that no further good can possibly come from Howard had recognisedthe justice of Ulster’s cause and thecontinuance of theinitial mistake made by Pitt, had shown his disregard for ties of kindred in the face though to listen to some Englishmen onewould imagine of a great crisis by joining the Ulster Volunteers. The he had been ,invested with the infallibility of a mediaeval newssupplied the Belfast Unionist Press for a few Pope. days withsome badly-needed copy while Home England never did, never can, and never will take the Rulers calmly shrugged their shoulders and adopted a trouble to understand Ireland’s purely local affairs. She “wait and see” policy. Theywaited, but theydid not is sick unto death of the whole responsibility which Pitt see, because this “dramatic” advent into the arena had short-sightedly threw upon her shoulders, in the name nomore effect on the political situationthan would of unity-and unless Ulstercan nowprove that self- the fact that the humblest rivetter on the Queen’s Island governmentmeans disruption, the peopleof Great had “scamped” his weekly “goose-stepping” to go and Britain are determined upon regaining the Home Rule see a football match. of which Pittdeprived them by forciblydelegating ‘Through the mediumof THENEW AGE, Mr. Redmond powers over the trivialities that concern them, to those Howard makes an attempt to justify his illogical posi- who would interferewith the placid flow of theirIm- tion and tries, without success, to prove that a man can Imperial thought.They cannot, in other words, think consistently be a Home Ruler and in sympathy with the Imperially while theystill retain in their assembly a aims and objects of the Ulster Volunteers at the same hundredfanatics of that village pump--local Affairs. time. The union of England and Ireland is good. We have In his opening remarks he states that he would not welded togetherour two races, we have helped to have Home Rule at the cost of a single Orangeman’s build, as we now help to rule, one Empire, and we will life. Nationalists will heartily agree withhim up to a expend our brains and, if necessary, shed our blood in certainpoint and subject to qualifications. In the first its common defence. Long live that union ! place the resistance of the Orangeman and Unionist to But as for that “Act of 1800,” passed by Pitt during HomeRule is a directchallenge to thefundamental a “moment of panic” which has given his complaint to principle of constitutional government, that the will of almost every legislator who has touched the Irish ques- the majority must prevail. Will Mr. Redmond-Howard tion the past hundred years-let us find a new term assert that he would not have the living wage for the forit, for it was nothing but a printer’serror, or a toilingmasses at the cost of a singleworker’s life? politician’s pun, from the beginning, so to have desig- Recent events in the labourand politicalworlds have nated it. proved that reform comes, not as a result of a sudden Ithas been thegreatest blunder in the history of philanthropic wave over Capitalism or Ascendancy, but Empire ; it was the policy which lost America and very as the result of a perpetual warfare on the part of the nearlylost Canada : and in the words of Lord Mac- toiler for betterwages and better conditions. What Donald, it is a policy so foreign to the genius of our has been the price of the ameliorated condition of the race that, if applied to any of ourself-governing worker of tday, circumscribedthough it be? Will Colonies, it would drive it into open rebellion within six Mr. Redmond-Howard deny that it has been at the cost months-in a word, it was the attempt to graft official- of hundreds of lives just as precious to the community ism upon the idea of Empire. if not more so, than those of Ulster Orangemen? Strictly speaking, it was the union which created the But why, might I ask, is the sacred Orange life to be Ulster problem such as we see it to-day ; and it is Home forfeited at all? Has Orangeismtaken a vow to im- 649 ~-_ immolate itself inatonement for the atrocities of Crom- cannotmake themselves respected, what hope has a well, forthe Penal Laws of Elizabeth,or for the miserablehandful in a DublinAssembly?” treachery of Castlereagh? Nationalists are at a loss to Fancyapproaching “a hundredthousand menin know why theOrangeman has so heroicallydoomed arms” in a spirit of peace and national settlement. It is himself to die. likehanding your watch and chain over to a burglar Of course, Mr. Redrnond-Howard starts off onthe armed to the teeth on the condition he won’t shoot you. presupposition that civil warin Ulster is inevitable if Ah ! no, Mr. Redmond-Howard must try some other Home Rule is passed. He, therefore, places himself in method of explaining away an indiscretion and of mn- a falseand prejudicedposition atthe outset.If he convincing Unionists and Nationalists that he has found a were to come to Belfast for a few days without the label solution of the “ Ulsterquestion.” If I might make a of ‘‘visitor to be converted” ostensibly attached to his suggestion, in a modification of his own words, let him coat-tails, and moved about amongst the business men tryand ,convinceUlstermen, if they need convincing, of the city, in the streets, in the cafes in the tram-cars, that Ireland is an asset, without which Ulster would be or any place where men are apt to shed their political poor indeed. reserveand express their plain andfree opinions, .he mighthesitate before takingup such an unprofitable line of argument. I saythe business men of the city The Fabian Insurance Report. because they are the censors in this matter, as we might possibly realise some of these days. DESPITE certain fundamental defects the Interim Report He bewails the fact that leaders of allparties have on the working of the Insurance Act, which was issued thrown logic to the winds and endeavours to thrust this last week by theFabian Research Department, forms home upon us bybecoming utterly illogicalhimself. a useful addition to the armoury of those who are fight- He declares that it is what he calls the “realisation of ’ ingthis detestable piece of legislation. If we discover paradoxes” that has made it possible for him “to sign : in itnothing new, we at anyrate find summarisedhere adeclaration in favour of Ulster, the GeneralElection incareful and concise form theexperiences of our andthe Union.” It must be remembered thathe is friendsand neighbours. For the last six or eight remaining a HomeRuler all thistime, although ordi- monthsmost people have been aware insome dim nary, everydayintelligences mightbe inclined to for- fashionthat the Insurance Act wasnot justifying its get it. promoter’sclaims Each of us has come across some- According to Mr. Redmond-Howard, the Orangeman one whose “benefit” has been delayed, another whose “stripped of the Castle system with which he has been case has been wrongly diagnosed by the panel doctor, associated,”represents “the spirit of independence of or a third who has been discharged from a sanatorium thought, both in religion and politics, the spirit of ,in- whilestill unfit forwork ; thoseengaged insocial or dustryas opposed to sentiment,the spirit of Imperial charitable work have foundsuch cases to be very fre- brotherhood instead of racial hatred.” I confess it took quent, and in the “New Statesman” Supplement these me considerable time to take that allin. It is incline\d individual experiences are, as it were, brought together to be rather of a strain if one tries to swallow it all at andpassed under review. Taken collectively theypro- once. vide an overwhelmingmass of evidenceagainst what “The spirit of Imperial brotherhood instead of racial was always a discredited Act of Parliament. hatred.”Shades of SirEdward Carson ! The very factthat Mr. Sidney Webb,Chairman of the Committee of Inquiry, never questions the principle Forthe past two years the Unionist leader has onwhich the Act is based-the divine right of the stumpedGreat Britain describing themajority of the bureaucracy to control the lives of the poor-but con- people of Ireland as “those whom we loatheand fines hiscriticism to financial andadministrative de- detest. ” tails, is notwithout a certainvalue, since ithas per- Mr. Redmond-Howard regrets the spirit in which the mittedsome mention of thereport and its findings to presentcontroversy has been approached.“Each appearin quarters that have been carefullyclosed to party,.” hesays, “is not for peace, butfor victory.” moredamaging attacks. It isimportant however for That IS why, I suppose, Irish Nationalists in the North those who are opposing the Act on principle to remem- of Ireland have consented to risk being cut off from the ber as they read, that were the machinery efficient and national life of thecountry in orderthat Sir Edward its finances sound,the most objectionablefeatures of Carson and his followers may have full sway over their the Actwould still remain, although in thiscase the lives andinterests. And that is why Mr.Redmond, FabianSociety would find little to condemn. As itis, short of sacrificing the fundamental principles of Home however, it isproving as indefensibIein practice as Rule,has offered to Ulstermenevery concession and ithas always beenin theory ; all thingsare working safeguard inreason, in order that we may enterthe together towards a break-up of the Actin its present portals of Self-Government together in peace and good- form. will. With regard to Mr. O’Brien’s share in the policy Every page of the Report serves but to expose oace of “Conference,Conciliation andConsent,” his only morethe fallacious and fraudulent basis of Compul- hope of gaining the confidence of Irish Unionists was sory,Contributory, National Health Insurance. Take, to lose no opportunity of heaping vitriolic abuse on the forinstance, the question of sickness benefit. The heads of Mr.Redmond and his colleagues. “Robbing State armed with all power and might, has for nearly Peter to pay Paul” seems to be Mr. Redmond-Howard’s twoyears been forcingthirteen millions of working idea of conciliation. people to lay aside a fixed amount of money every Further, t-o demonstrate his conception of logic, he week,yet finds itself to-clay, as Sir Edward Brabrook states, with regard to civil war, that he is “profoundly foretold unable to define the conditions on which they convinced of its uselessness in the present crisis.” Why canget their money back ! Thesituation would be then has he joined the Ulster Volunteers, whose avowed Gilbertianwere it not so tragicfor the victims. The intentions are to resist Home Rule by force of arms? late Chief Registrar has repeatedly pointed out that the Why does he take upon himself the task of defending State has no knowledge of what is ‘‘sickness benefit.” a course of action in which he disbelieves? “The physiological condition giving a person a title to Hewants a “freeconsenting Ulster” to show, he benefit is not defined in the Act, it cannot be defined,” says, that Nationalists do not approach the. question in werehis words on one occasion. The statutory defini- a spirit of party triumph but of national settlement. I tion of the ground for benefit is “Incapacity for work,” th,ink I havedealt with that point pretty clearly. but the phrase is capable of a thousand different inter- Nationalists are prepared to sacrifice many thingsfor the pretationsamong the officials of thetwenty-three sake of winning that consent. He promptly then takes thousandApproved Societies entrusted with the work- away with one hand what he gives with the tother by ing of the scheme. A coalminer may beunable to declaring that “if a hundred thousand men in arms follow his arduous occupation, but he is not therefore 650

~ ~~ ~~~ ~~. incapable of any work. In one Society his claim might I called once-a firstand last visit-at theSociety’s beadmitted, in another disallowed. A womanabout office earlyin 1912and was informed by one of the to be confined will similarly be allowed benefit in one “Waragainst Poverty” officials thatthe society was Societyfor her incapacity to work,and refused it by law-abidingand would certainlynot resist the opera- another on the ground that pregnancy is not sickness. tionof the Act. Ourpompous Committee prays that If we examine the Medical benefit we find that millions some relief may be given to these poor people and that of pounds are being spent on the Panel system, only to justice may be done to those known as the Post Office perpetuate the worst evils of club and contract practice, Depositors. I feelproud now at the recollection that and thatan even more limitedservice thanbefore is the first leaflet I composed had on it these words, “In being- required of thedoctors for an enormously in- practice therefore those whose need is greatest get the creasedexpenditure. least help. Refuseto Pay !” Underthe heading “Sanatorium Benefit,” by which The startling discovery has been made in this report anenlightened nation sought tostamp out consump- that there is a completeabsence of democratic control tionby offering treatment to persons in ‘possession of of administration by the insured : they once more “re- stamped cards, but none to their wives, children or de- gretto report” that any suchreliance on democratic pendents, the report shows that as a result of two and a self-government is practicallya delusion and a snare. half years’activity eight thousand beds have been What else did they expect? Did they imagine in their secured for the fortunate possessors of passports. It is wildestmoments of fmd andfoolish Radicalism that a little discouraging to find that most of these beds were the Prudential would allow itself to be placed under the available to the poorbefore the passing o’f the “heal- control of working men and women? From the moment ing” Act, but, inadequate as the provision is, it might Mr. Handel Booth’s resolution admitting the Insurance at any rate have been administeredhonestly as far as Companies was accepted, all talk of democratic control it would go. Election addresses are, however, of para- became mere platform fudge and stuffing. In truth this mount importance, and so we find that instead of treat- report is disheartening. I began to read it in a judicial ing a small number of cases thoroughly, from 20,000 to spirit, but felt inclined to throw it in the fire before I 30,000 personshave been hurried through the various reached thelast page. And so withthis article. Like institutions in a year, to return ‘half cured in most cases Mr. Austin Dobson on a happier occasion :- to the slum or factory that bred the disease, and often I intended an Ode, indeed to be dispatched to the workhouse infirmary to And it turned to a Sonnet. die. Thevast majority of theconsumptives never get It began a la mode, within sight of the “sanatoria” for which they have been I intended an Ode; specifically taxed. Cod liver oil is doled out to them in But Webb crossed the road. their own homes, where they remain to spread the in- and I thought of hisreputation, his immense know- fection amongst their families and friends. ledge, his influence, the organisation he controls, and his Of such base metal is the much-vaunted ninepence ! lifelong professions of sympathy for and interest in the In such great povertyand insecurity dothe mass of poor. Yet when an Act is framed for their oppression, the people live that a sham of this kind is still a bribe ! by which they are taxed as he himself says “still further In truth the report is a depressingdocument. From into starvation,” by which they are bullied by well-paid the first page to the last it is the recordof a cruel decep- officials, and by which their hardly earned money is laid tion and deliberate fraud upon the poorest of the poor, out to theworst advantage, he does nothing to help for National undertakings must be judged by their pro- thosewhose souls revolt at suchabominations being portion of failures. Thefraud, the deception, and the done in thename of theState. He sitsstill, and like failure were as clearly foreseen in 1911as they are the schoolboy with a ,butterfly on a pin,watches the categorically proved in 1914. Mr. Sidney Webband his effect on,the poor of this experiment in social reform, ninety-five solemnities sit round their table and record makes notes, files, indexes, catalogues their sufferings, their discoveries with “regret” ; they shake their heads and-issues this Report ! over one thing, they deplore another, they suggest, re- Next week I hope to deal with the Committee’s sug- commend, “regret to have to report,” and then again regret. But these sapient and self-righteous individuals gestionsreform.for MARGARET DOUGLAS. mightspare us their sighs and lamentations. The re- port they have issued might have been written two years ago as easily as this year. It was indeed writtenthen Guilds and. Versatility. for all practicalpurposes. Do theydeplore the excess Arthur J. Penty of sicknessclaims over the estimate? Was itnot By written in 1911 that “the fallacyon which the conclu- MR. H. 6. WELLS,in his recent book “An Englishman sions in thepresent Bill rest is that the experience of Looks at the World,” has proclaimed himself antagon- voluntary insurance is the measure of the risk incurred isticto the idea of restoring the Guildsbecause he by compulsoryinsurance.” (Sir E. Brabrook,“Morn- believesin the“necessity of versatility.”“A. E. R. ing Post,” December 3, 1911 What need have we of in reviewing the bookrecently in THE NEW AGE, con- any further witness ? trovertedthis view, andthough I agree with most of Does the Committee note the approaching insolvency what he says, I do not think he has entirely answered of many of the societies the Government has chosen to Mr. Wells’objection For Mr. Wellsand “A. E. R.”. markwith its“approval” 2 Didnot Mr. McKinnon attach different meanings to the word “versatility.” It Wood declare in the House of Commons in December, raises animportant issue which isworth discussing 191I, thatthere never had beenany question of the more fully-the differencebetween true and false ver- ‘Treasury guaranteeing the minimum benefits for which satility.Mr. Wells, I hope to show,stands for false compulsory contributions were to be made, and was it versatility, and as its apostle he is perfectly tight in ob- not pointed out in thousands of leaflets that the absence jecting tothe Guild. Fornot the least among the of a guaranteeundermined the whole principle of en- benefitswhich therestoration of the Guild System forcedcompulsory contributionsOur critics make would bring to society would be the substitution of a much ado aboutthe hardships of the poll-taxon the for true versatility.a false , poorest paid workers.They print a headline “The Now, i I the first place, we have to recognise that Mr. Abstracted Loaf,” and burst into italics in their horror Wellsis a representative man. All thingsconsidered, at the thought that the State by diminishing the scanty he is, perhaps, the most representative man of our age. earnings of the poor is thereby “starvingthem still This does not mean that Mr. Wells is the wisestman of further into illness.” TheFabian Society themselves our age. 11 means that more than anyone else he is in issued pamphletsshowing that this would inevitably harmonywith his time. Mr. Wellsfirst came to the happen if the Act came into force, but I am not aware front as a writer of scientific romances and the whole- that they have lifted a hand to prevent the occurrence. hearted advocate of the mechanic state, thus giving ex- 65 1 impression to what a decade ago was the popular faith of of things, for in an article in the ‘‘Daily Mail” he was the people-itsbelief in the sufficiency of science and attributing the Industrial Unrest to dull work, and he mechanism as a basis of our national life. Sincetheg was eloquent on the monotony of the work men were the sufficiency of science has beencalled in question, compelled to do nowadays. But lo and behold ! not while therapid extension of machineproduction has long after this he was back at his old game of advocat- broughtall manner of problemsin its train. Industry ing more andmore machinery. Inanother article he has becomeincreasing unstable. Ithas created the actually advocated the revival of the Guild, and whithin problem of boy labour,undermined technical compet- a fortnight he was decrying Trades Unions, \which, of ence, has placedenormous power in thehands of course, are the base on whichGuilds are to be built. capital; has forced women into industry, broken up the How to explain all these contradictions is difficult, un- home,and hascreated the women andlabout revolt. less it be thatat the back of Mr. Wells’ mind is anutterly Whileside by side, as a result of all this,there has impossible dream which is now being shattered to frag- comea gradual loosening of the grip which men had on 1 ments by the ruthless force of facts. For facts are giv- therealities of life, we have become mentallyand ing the lie to modernism in every department of activity. morallyunstable. All thisinstability and changeability It needslittle insight tosee that we cannot travel are reflected in Mr. Wells’writings. He sympathises anyfarther on the roadwe are now on. Modernism with all the modern moods, and realises all the modern which denied the existence of limits, has paradoxically injustices. And he would find a remedy, if he could. reached its limits in a very short space of time. Sooner In his confusion he seizes first at this and then at that or later we shall have to make up our minds to return in the hope that it will prove the remedy. But it is all to the old order of things, and painful though the tran- invain, for he is powerless. Hehas lost the master- sition may be for us to-day, it will be more painfiul to- key. morrow. The remedy for all people suffering from this Now itis preciselybecause Mr. Wells is so repre- modernist malady is to do some practical work. If Mr. sentative of the modern world that he is not versatile in Wells,instead of writingabout machinery, would be- thetrue sense of the word. Forthe modern world is come a machine tender in a factory, I venture to think notversatile : itis changeable, and so isMr. Wells. thathis illusions aboutthe blessings of machinery And versatilitydiffers from changeability in the same would vanish in a day. His soul would rise in rebellion way thatart differs fromfashion. The analogy is a againstthe degradation to which hehad to submit good one; just as fashions arise from the absence in the And it is onlybecause we have utterly destroyed, all community 0.f living traditions of art, so changeability spirit in the people that they are willing to submit. The arisesfrom the absence of convictions. And thisis so trouble with Mr. Wells is the same trouble as with the because of the absence of any great established tradi- majority of the middle and upper class. They have lost tion of culture or order in society and because modern touchwith all realities and ‘conceive of life as they societyis dead atits roots. Inan age of living art foundit in their immediate circle.Machinery offers there is no such thing as fashion.On the other hand many advantages to them. It has brought them many change is slow and gradual ; it is a natural development ,conveniences andgiven them opportunities for travel. or growth which resultsfrom continuous work upon They’ forget the existenceof the millions whose degrada- certain well defined lines. Butfashion is the very tion has made such conveniences possible. ’They can go antithesis ofthis. It is sudden and violent. It comes to the Grampians or theAlps for their holidays, and they about because we have lost the power of concentration, forget the soot and grime of the Black Country and the of understandingthe fundamentals of things. We horrors of our chemical towns. A conspiracy of silence flounder about first this way and then that, finding no hangsaround these lest our composure be disturbed.. sure footholdanywhere. The modern artist is versatile And when they are reminded of these things, they tell .in Mr.Wells’ sense of the word. He can mimic the usthat what is needed ismore machinery to remedy work of any period. Butthat is all hecan d.0. He these evils, andthey conspire tothrust the workers cannotproduce any great work of art. He isnot a into a lower hell than that which they now inhabit. creativeartist, but an imitative one. Heknows at I say that theremedy for these illusions is to do some oncetoo much andtoo little about things. The great actual work. It is alsothe ‘basis of a true versatility. artists of the past were intensive in their culture; the Emerson well said “A‘ man must have a base for ‘his modern ones are merely extensive, andas such are culture.” The defect of most of our literary men is that superficial. theyentirely lack such a base. ’ In China.where rhe Now if we are ever to restore to society a great art people reverence above all things literature and learn- we shallhave toget back this intensive culture. We ing, every literary man is supposed to be more or less must, insist that a man should in the first place under- of a craftsman, a painter or a musician. The idea of stand his craft thoroughly. Mr. Wells thinks that this the pursuit of literature as a separate profession is not narrows a man. What it really does is to give him the favoured, and I think the Chinese are right. For litera- key to allthings. Thesecret of thismodern change- ture pursued as a separate profession is apt to lead to abilitylies inthe fact that industry has become superficiality, and is as bad as the pursuit of art when organised on abasis which prevents nearly all from divorced from craftsmanship. This has beena danger understanding a craftthoroughly. The system of the at all times, but it is much more so to-day, where the division of labour has destroyed this possibility for most division of classes and the sub-division of function have men. The result isthe modern man has becomeup- reached a degree of development hitherto unknown. As rooted. Hehas become at the mercy of his moods. it is, our literary class, separated from actual work, has He has lost the structural sense of’ things. His mind, tended more and more to become purely negative in its instead of beingorganic, has become anaggregation attitudetowards things. When at last they have suc- of atomicideas, which refuseto coalesce. It ishere ceeded in destroying what little faith we possessed, in- that we see the value of the Guild idea. It goes to the terestnowadays tends to centre itself aroundthe root of this problem, for its aim in the first place is to problems of sex. The prepossession of Mr. Wells and fix things by erecting barriers, as it were. No great art other novelists with these problems is, I am persuaded, or culture, or even social order, are possible so long as dueto their divorcefrom realities. For when faith is everythingremains in a state of flux. We must he- destroyed and men are separated by tfie nature of their come rooted again, and the Guild is the instrument for occupations from participation in the actual work of the effecting that change. It will enableus to restore world, they naturally tend to become preoccupied with industry to its former integrity by the abolition of that the prorblems of sex, which is theone realityleft to excessive sub-division of function, which is our ruin. them. So that when we get to the bottom, of it all we The truth is that Mr. Wells, like every other advo- find that the kind of versatility which Mr. Wells is so cate of modernity has become involved in an amazing anxious to preserve owes its origin to the materialism mass of contradictionsfrom which hecan find no and emptiness of modern life. And so he naturally dis- escape.Once I thought he was getting near the truth trusts the revival of the Guild 652

he is lumped up against one of the brutal facts of our Education for the Workers. modern social system. So the W.E.A. is non-partisan. That must mean that By Rowland Kenney it either does not believe that there is any antagonism 11. between capitaland labour, or, if anyantagonism I HAVE divided working-classeducation into three exists, it refuses to range itself upon the side of labour. kinds, which I will calltechnical, civic, andrevolu- It isconcerned with “life, not livelihood.” Education tionary. To say that the first can make any appreciable is to be desired by the workman for its own sake and difference in theconditions of the massesis to insult not because it has any “direct bearing upon his wage- what little intelligence labour has got, and the technical earningcapacity.” It aims at “providingthe workers educationist is surelyaware of that fact.Under with atleast the groundwork of universityculture.’’ present conditions, a technical education for the labourer And this non-sectarian attitude is necessary to the con- is simply a means of making him into a more profitable tinuedexistence of the W. E.A., as a glance at the machine for his employer ; it will not make him free or list of names of men who have helped to finance it will raise his status at all, it will simply lower the status of show. In a list before me there are, for instance, such the man who has served his apprenticeship to a trade. shiningrevolutionists asPercy Alden, M.P. ; A. J. The skilled labour market is overcrowded just as is the Balfour, M.P. ; theArchbishop of Canterbury ; S. C. unskilledlabour market. A competentcraftsman even Buxton, M.P. ; W. Hamilton Fyfe ; Rupert Guinness ; now may tramp from London to Dundee without getting the Right Hon. J. W. Lowther, M.P. ; Viscount Milner ; oneday’s work athis ownskilled trade.Carpenters, SirWeetman Pearson ; HerbertSamuel; and Colonel metalworkers, skilled workmen of every kind are driven Seely ! I mustadd tothis listthe State Educational .to take jobs as labourers, and no further improvement Department and the Universities. Is it any wonder that in their knowledge of their trade will lift them out of ~ Mr. Mansbridge is able to claim that hisorganisation the unskilledlabour rut. I need sayno more about “has unified in one body, without conscious difference technical education. 1 (whoseconsciousness?), men of all experiences-the 1 peer’s son rejoices in the fellowship of theminer’s son, To come next to the working-class educators who are ’ and the casual labourer in the friendship of the don. ”’ out to produce“decent citizens.” I think we can take j NOWI mustagain remind readers of THENEW AGE theWorkers’ Education Association asrepresenting of the present tendency in politics and economics : the thistype, and to it we can add the Ruskin College nationalisation of labour, its organisation and regimen- movement in Oxford. The latter, it will be remembered, tation by State officials who must of necessity be on the was founded about fourteen years ago by two Ameri- side of the profiteers and against the workers. Having cans. Its object was to givediscontented workers an reminded readers of that, I mustpoint out that it is education in politics, economics, and in all sociological just on thisparticular point that the W,.E.A. and matters. In 199there was a strike of students against Ruskin College must be indicted and condemned. Two the management of the collegebecause of the latter’s of thestrongest supporters of the official clique at attempt to hitch the institution on to the skirts of the Ruskin College, when an attempt was made to turn it University. The. strikerswanted “Ruskin” to keep on to the side of militant labour, were David Shackle- more closely in touch with the militant labour movement tonana Richard Bell. Anofficial at the College was outside. The result was that the malcontents were cut Mr. BertramWilson, whosacrificed himself to labour adrift,and “Ruskin” proceeded to imbibemore and on thealtar of a LabourExchange. Mr. H. B. Lees more of the University spirit ; University diplomas were Smith another of the crew, is upholding the banner of offered to its students, and a reactionary gang obtained theworkers as a Liberal h/I .P. Thelater secretary control. How anxious “Ruskin” is to steer clear of the and Vice-principal, Mr. Henry Allsopp, was appointed ideathat it is out for the workers as a classmay be his Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Elementary Schools not gathered fromthe letter of itslate secretary to the longago. As forthe W. E.A., letme quote from its “Times” in April, 1912,wherein he pointed out, that the secretary : “Theactual number of studentswho have College “is not applied to turning out labour agitators.” accepted appointments as Labour Exchange officials, or The secretary of the Workers’ Education Association, inconnection with theInsurance Act, is notto hand, Mr. Albert Mansbridge, tells us that this body is a body but the effect is considerable.” As he so naively says, non-partyand unsectarian. It has “helpedworkpeople “True study is its own sufficient reward.” and scholars on their way, and rallied many to the war I do not want tooverburden my point, but I must em- againstthe ignorance and evilforces of ourtime.” phasise it. The growing feeling among the: workers of But “it has never attempted to deal directly with eco- antagonismto the capitalists is being noted by every nomic or politicalreform.” To it,according to hh. member of the propertied classes. ’The Universities, the Mansbridge,trade unionists such as Mr. Shackleton two “great” political parties, the churches, philanthropic and Mr. Henderson,and Socialists such as Mr.Philip institutions,the Press the great industrial magnates, Snowden and Mr. J. Ramsay MacDonald, have always even the Labour Party, all are becoming aware of the held out helping hands. The discontent of the W.E.A. fact that the temper of Labour grows worse an,d worse “willnot cease until each child, adolescent, and adult And all are concerned to conciliate Labour; all are de- is receiving that education, in measure and kind, which sirous of sympathising with the workman so long as he is essential for the complete development of his or her can be kept at work. He must be put in a good temper, individuality. ” but kept on as a wage-slave. What better helpers could Whatever else one may say of Mr. Mansbridge, one the enemies of the poor have, then, than these educators must admit that he is one of the most strenuous workers of the working classes? And what more subtle enemies anyorganisation was ever blessed with. Hisenergy could theworking classes have? Even Mr. Mans- is surprising, his capacity for evil, so far as labour is bridge seems dimly conscious that the instincts of the concerned,ismonstrously great,and I believe his workersare against himand his clique. Hesays : honestyis unimpeachable. He sincerely believes that “Anyidea thatthere is no suspicion on the part of the hotch-potch of notionshe turnsout are. really of working people who become students would, however, use to the dear “workpeople.” He refuses to see that be misleading. Thedread of the‘master class’ is the draining offof what brainy men the labour move- deeplyrooted. The masters penetrate and dominate so ment possesses, and the turning of these into university manyother creational institutions. Is itpossible that slimed prigs, is one of the most terrible wrongs a man thetutorial classes (of the W.E.A.)can be exempt? can inflict upon theworking classes. And so he inno- Theyknow that some universities are not. . . This cently pursues his evil course. He nets in hundreds of suspiciousattitude is the heritage of the past, and in striving workers, and inoculates them with the virus of too many places is justified to-day. To declaim against university “culture,”and preaches anon-party, un- it is to strengthen it.” So, apparently, the thing to do sectarian doctrine which makes a fool of him every time is soothe the poor suspicious worker bv telling him that 63 3

his fears are relics of barbarism, and that the. leopard dling band of labour as was the “identity of interests” at profiteering is rapidly changing its spots. of some time ago. We come now to the third of the groups of educa- I do not wish to say that the C.L.C. is perfect, but I educationists : the revolutionary. Apart from what map be done do mean that it represents the only educational institu- in the columns of a few papers, the organisation which tion(again excepting THENEW AGE, and,in a less is achieving the most important result is that of which degree, one or two other journals) which is striving to the Central Labour College is the centre. The C.L.C. keep the minds of workers clear from the cant and lies was formed by the malcontents who broke away from thatare being so widely disseminated by andl in the “Ruskin” about five years ago. As the W. E. A. and interests of theprofiteering classes. We are rapidly “ Ruskin” are non-partisan, the C.L.C. is fiercely parti- approachingthe timewhen thisquestion of working- san. It concentrates upon social and industrial subjects class education will have to b.e considered seriously by and strives to impart to its studentsa knowledge of the everyone interested in the checking of the development facts of theireconomic servitude. Historyhas largely of the ServileState, and I submitthat the C.L.C. been written to the order of the exploiter. Economics and should be helped,and theother working-class educa- social science have nearly always been taught from the tionists fought. point of view that the interests of capital and labour are identical. Theworker who has sought to grasp the principles upon which a11 rules of socialconduct have Towards the Play Way. been built has invariabIy found himself in some sort of By Caldwell Cook, a dilemma which theorthodox professors have never H, even tried to explain away. Each ruling class has held VI* sway in the past because it hasdeveloped its own system Self-Government in Class. of philosophy in linewith its economic needs. Estab- MR. Penty says : “While art has one of itsroots in lished ordershave been overthrown by otherclasses religioustradition ithas another in the socialstruc- when thelatter have obtained general acceptance of ture.” Is it not likely enough that a renewal of life in their own new philosophies. one root mayrevive the whole tree? Is it too simple- So far labour has had but a limited consciousness of minded of us to hope that the National Guilds system the fact that its position of inferiority was imposed upon far the reconstruction of society may initiate a process it by itssuperiors. Ithas struck out blindly against which will culminate in the restoration of this religious oppressionwhen the intensity of that oppression has tradition? Just as there can be no thought of Play in become unbearable, but few of the workers have under- elementary education so long as sixty children have to stood, orhave beenhelped tounderstand, what they be drilled together in bondage by one teacher, so there were striking against exactly,or to what end theirblows can be no thought of that joy in life which makes for and campaigns were waged. Each struggle has seemed art, so long as the wage-system continues in being, de- something apart from the general course of their lives ; manding a man’s whole labour in return for bare sub- a sudden disaster, some strange phenomenon. In short, sistence. Grantleisure, grant life, andit will soonbe revolting labour has been an almost blind and unintel- found that men, coming back’ out of mere existence into ligent force. Nowthe workers are gradually learning life, will surelyturn their hearts and hands to the that a battle betweenthemselves and the profiteers is practice of those arts which embody andtransmit the nostrange outburst due to somesudden change in communal ideals or religious tradition of which we are theirrelations, or increase in theprice of bacon,but speaking. Mr. Pentytruly says : “How torestore a simply an incident in onelong campaign that must religious tradition is itself a mystery which is not to be end either in the overthrow of wagedom or in their own solved by dialectics. And yet therevival of art ulti- eternal enslavement. And, as we have seen, labour has mately depends upon such a restoration,” so far been the losing party in the campaign. The pro- And now, having expounded something of the prin- cess of enslaving the worker is now going on, and the ciples upon which is founded the Play Way as a theory workingclass educationists are effecting its progress. of education I propose to describe how the theory has The civic educators of labour are helping it along ; the been to some extent carried out in practice, and to show technical educators are2 at the very best, doing nothing how a true feeling for art values may be expected to to prevent or hinder it; the revolutionaryeducational arise out of such practice. Havingneither hope nor institution, the C.L.C., is opposing it. fear of king regarded as a dialectician, I submit, as a As opposed to the other bodies, the C.L.C. says : It possible help to the solution of the mystery, our games is not enough to feel oppression in order to remove it. andour work, andthe dreams which unite them as. We mustknow how thisoppression arises and con- Play. tinues if we would overcomeit, and the act of over- Thewriter of PresentDay Criticism, in reviewing coming must be an act of the working class. It cannot one of our playbooks about a year ago, said, “In our be performed by philanthropistsorby patronage schooldaysiniquities ‘were an affairbetween Jones of anykind. mustIt be a partisanand class minor andMr., Herr, or Monsieur...... One achievement. The victory of theworking class wasnot also priggishly judged and reproached by involves the disappearance of allclasses, but it one’scontemptible peers. To provoketemporarily meansthe victory of a classnevertheless. So obedientchildren to however feebleand con- long as the economic foundations of society are such as straineddisapproval osf a temporarilyturbulent to make exploitation, and therefore classes, possible, it companion is a detestable device.” Can you imagine in is mere humbug and cant to talk about neutrality and any class-room such an episode as the following, which non-partisanship. happened here this morning and is quite in accord with So theC.L.C. does nottalk about neutrality. It every-day practice? (In these papers I must be under- teachesits students that the worker must face the stood as speakingfor myself, incriminating noone master as an antagonist, or be robbed because he is a else.) Twelve and a half being the average age of the fool or a coward. It has no use for Labour Exchanges form, any teacher will realise that many of the brighter or Insurance Acts, or other State organisations for the members are younger than that. They are known to me provision of blacklegs and the regimentation of indus- collectively as “Littleman.” While one of the boys is trialserfs. It says that whereverprofit-making is the calling the assembly to order before the lesson begins, aim of production, there is the fighting organisation of anotherstands up and asks him if he may make a labournecessary. Strikesare common toworkers of speech. Obtainingpermission, he mounts the rostrum allbranches and all nations where capitalism reigns, and proceeds to harangue the several members of the whilst the capitalists in all branches of industry employ class who have had the misfortune to incurdetention common measures to stem the revolts of wage slaves. anytime during the past week. Of course, in the Conciliation andarbitration are methods adopted by serious atmosphere usuallyassociated with classrooms capitalists in general. They are parts of the same swad- such a proceeding would be even too barbarous ever to 654

take place. ’ But I haveonly quoted the reviewer to Thelibrarian’s office is no sinecure, for itsometimes point my illustration. The playboy’s two-minute speech takes him a week to trace a borrowed volume that has was all part of a big game, and he concluded, with all gone from hand to hand, and sometimes he must needs earnestness, in somesuch words asthese : “I think, bequeaththe search to hissuccessor. But of all the sir,the house will agreethat those members of the ministerial posts, I chiefly envy that of the Prime Moni- Cabinetwho have got detention areno longer fit to tor, or Knight Captain, as he used to be called “or ever remain in office, and I, therefore,propose a vote of the knightly years were gone,” when we were reading censure on the Government.” Several members sprang Morte d’Arthur in the form below. Over and above the up to speak, and the one who was called upon lost no delight of sharing every man’sjob insuperintending time in pointing out that the last speaker had himself all, he has the joy that comes of wielding the mace. met with the same misfortune whilerecently in office. am not quite clear as to the purpose of the bauble they Not a little was said on both sides of the motion, but keepin theHouse of Commons,but we have a very not much to the purpose. A neat reply from the original definite use for ours. It is the Knight Captain’s badge speakerput the question beyonddebate. Itwas per- of office made for us by one of the knights, consisting fectly true, he said, that he had somehow come by an of a gold handle of wood about a foot long attached to hour’s detention while in office, but it was on that very ablue wooden ball about the size od a man’s fist. It account that his party was turned out, when the present hangs onthe wall by a leathern loop andis brought government came in. The result was a general election down at every lesson to be wielded. in which a new Prime Monitor came into power, who Such is the force of habit and the respect paid by the appointed his cabinet from among the best of the Old boys to their elected leader that, whatever noise may be Stagers. Some teacher may object] that all this is very raging, whetherin organised Play orsheer disorder, bad teaching, because it gives the boys an entirely in- one smart tap of the mace on the table ensures immedi- accurate notion o’f how the government of the country ately anabsolute silence. To assure himself that it is is carried on. But my aim is not to teach “Civics” .in not merely a comparative quiet, the Prime Monitor in the second form ; and may heaven help us all if ever I the solemn hush holds aloft a pin, and until that pin has should be calledupon to describe to smallboys what been heard to fall noone is allowedeven tobreathe every man knows of how the government of the country audibly. Active Play in the class-room is not conducted iscarried on. No, theboys are simply doingas all without turmoil, and as everyone’s interest is centred in children will do if allowedfreedom of fancy.As the what he is doing, it is not always easyto obtain a hear- children of long ago imitatedin their Singing Games ing whennecessary. The quickestway, as well as the theritual whichthey sawtheir elders observe so in- most effective, is to asks the Prime Monitor, “Get me a tently, so the children of to-day can find play .in party silence.” Thetap of hismace is “lights-out” to the politics. In order to be sure whether the boys are really most enthralling revel. interested in what is afoot, it is a good plan to let them Doubtless these appear trivial matters to some grave write“real” letters. Here is one which gives a fair reader. But in a discourse of education some place may idea of thesport inquestion. “Dear Mr. Cook,-The perhaps be allowed for the interests of the youngsters. form at this moment is in great excitement. B, with 18 And if you study their interest in school you may safely votes to 2, won the post of Prime Monitor. That was count on it out of school as well. Over and above the onFriday. To-day, Tuesday, I thinknearly half are routine work of the officials, committees are appointed back on A’s side, and at the next election I am nearly from time to time to arrange some particular business, surethat A will regainthe chiefpost. Spies were such asthe booking of namesfor a concert.One of spoken of. It was said that a boy had gone on to A’s theLittlemen, twelve years of age, recently gave a sideand was going to get detentionand wreck A’s lecture onTudor architecture. It amounted to a talk supremacy. Yours truly, S. ” That letter appeals to me, aboutthe houses of Shakespeare’sEngland. On the I have quoted it word for word to illustrate the compact spothe gave us descriptions, drawings, and photo- workmanlike style a boy can use when he knows what graphs in books but it was suggested further that in he wants to say. The play side of politics is well shown thetown might be found examples of timber-work, in the plan of the spy. But Play, as I am quite tired of chimneys,gables, fireplaces,panelling, windows, and insisting,is not all pastime.Before now we have had so on ; if not genuine Tudor, then at least modern work a “Junior Republic of Form IIIb.,” in complete control of thesame style. The committeeappointed in this not only of the discipline of the form, but even manag- connection wasnot permitted to keepall the fun to ingto carry on the scheme of workthroughout the itself, but specifically directed to organise a competition term, evenin themaster’s occasional absence. I once inwhich all might take a part. went away to Oxford without arranging for anyone to Just before I left school this morning at one o’clock take the third form lessons. But my present republicans, a rounddozen of Littlemen sat-or rather surged--in being only in the second form, are rather weak at con- committee to discuss final arrangements for this after- structivelegislation, and rarely hold a debate which noon’soccupation. They have beenplaying in school does not result in a change of government ! But in the “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and, corning at last executive, in the work of administration carried on dur- upon the“tedious-brief episode Pyramusof and ing the intervals between party fights, there is no such Thisbe have taken such a joy in the Bensonian business weakness. Thereare a hundreddetails of classad- ness I showed them that they have adopted the whole ministration which one is able with perfect confidence to scene as a “rippinggame.” Their scheme firstcame leave in the hands of the boys; with the added assur- to notice when Quince accosted me in hall with a scroll ance that a little thing is often better done by someone on which werewritten certain names. Being a peda- who considers it no small matter but one of the weighty gogue, I cut short his preliminaries with the direction responsibilities o,f office. It isthe duty of no lessa to quote.Says the Littleman in reply : “Here isthe personage than a member of the cabinet to see that no scroll of every man’s name, which is thought fir through one leaves school without knowing what work he is to allAthens to playin our interlude before the Duke.” doat home; to writeit up and to readit out. The They had, it seemed, decided upon a course of out-of form master need not find out what work has been set school rehearsals,intent upon bringingthat scene to ‘in subjectsother than his own. Then further officials such a fit state of performance as would persuade me are required,one to checklate-comers and absentees, to stage it publicly at the end of term. This half-holi- one to collect and distribute papers, one to act as mes- day, being for various reasons free of games, scouting senger,one as inspector of the tidiness of theclass- andfolk-dancing, they desired my attendance at the room, and a kind of sanitary inspector who keeps the first rehearsal. I pleaded a previous engagement to see desksorderly and free from live ratsor dead moles. theMarlowe Society play “The Alchemist.” Notices One holds a daily Wapenshaw to make sure thatall have were then hung up, announcements delivered from the fit and ready their equipment of pens, ink, and paper. rostrum,and the parts assigned, all in some odd -(Would those were not the sole weapons in daily use.) moments when I was either not present, or busied with 65 5

Some othermatter. And where did this “crew of tary salary at the expense of such of his colleagues as patches” meet to rehearse their play? There is no per- have not been slim enough to wriggle out of “Labour.” manent stage, and no request was made for keys of the Labour to the artist is the sport itself. It is the harsh classroom. They had pot evena green plot for stage, coarse, salt crystal of life, for which he will be talked norhawthorn-brake for tiring-house. Butround be- into no substitute. hind the gaunt school building, in the back part of the I do notknow who was the profound observer to playground, without audience, scenery, costume, or any whom we owe the authorship of the following criticism properties other than a few sticks, did Thisbe tarry in of the results of Board School education. “The result,” mulberry shade while Bottom bravely broach’d his boil- he said, “of theEducation Act seems to me, as far ing bloody breast, and Lion, Moonshine, Wall at large as I can make out that I see the word . . . . written up discoursed to show their simple skill. on the wall, oftener and lower down than I used to. ” “That is the true beginning of our end.” And oddly enough,the result of ourintensive and electioneeringArt scholarships and Art education is tending to thesame thing. The Contemporary Art Swiftness. Society is beating the pathetic and philanthropic drum out for the young men of geniuswhom no one will buy. By Walter Sickert. Havinggot our intenerated pennies, it cocks (c’est le WE haveseen thatthe basis of drawingis a highly cas de le dire) an invertedsnook at us by buying a cultivated sensibility to the exact direction of lines and religiouspicture which represents Eve, with Adam their rapidlocation by eyewithin the 180 degrees of standing on his head ! We hear a great deal about non- two right angles. With this faculty, trained to theoreti- representativeart. But while thefaces of thepersons calperfection, weshould arrive at havingformed a suggested are frequently nil, non-representation is for- draughtsman whose translation into line of visible ob- gottenwhen it comes to the sexual organs. Witness jects was absolute, and with this, fortunately, unattain- Mr.Wyndham Lewis’s “Creation,” exhibited at able consummation art would be at an end. Brighton, Mr.Gaudier-Brzeska’s drawing in last But as nature is not only innumerable as the laughter week’s NEW AGE, andseveral of Mr. Epstein’slater of the sea, and mobile as the leaves of a poplar, a cor- drawings.That such intention is notread into the rectand completerecord is not within human power. works by me, but is deliberate, we may gather from the Thereforeone definition of art, and perhaps the most Cubists’own defence of themselves.Mr. Lewis writes profoundly true, might be formulated somewhat thus : in the preface to the Brighton catalogue of December Art may be said to be the individual quality of failure, 16, 1913 : or theindividual co-efficient of error of eachhighly Hung in this room as well are three drawings by Jacob skilledand cultivatedcraftsman in hiseffort to attain Epstein,the onlygreat sculptor at presentworking in England. He finds inthe machinery of procreation a to the expression of form. dynamo to work the deep atavism of his spirit. How reasonable this view of art is, may be at once seen by the layman if we bring analogies to bear from So thatthe Pornometric gospel amounts to this. All otherarts, or sports-for artis a sport. (I takeno visible nature with two exceptions is unworthy of study. highfalutin ground for art.) Letus suppose that all and to be considered pudendum. The only things worthy the fish in a stream could, by some perfectibility of tackle ofan artist’s attention are what we have hitherto and bait, be induced to align themselves in a queue be- called thepudenda ! Solvunturrisu tabulae fore the bait, and to bite in turn, till they could all be Basta cosi ! lifted out, one by one, andthe riveremptied of fish. Let us returnto the serious study of drawing. We ‘The whole art of angling would be at an end ; and with have seen that complete and accurate record of a scene itthe pleasure, the sport, and all inducement to men in nature is impossible, and that the ,character, quality, of skill, courage and patience to practice it. Analogies life,bulk, weight, dramatic intention, beauty, move- of the kind will occur to every reader, and I need not mentand fleeting character of naturehave to be ex- labour the point. pressed by a sensitive,intuitive and rapidestimation Art, being the highest intensification of the most in- of the direction of lines. But as theselines are in- formed human intelligence,both suffers and gains,to finite, and as the greatest draughtsman is finite, it will an intensified degree, from the law “Rien sans peine.” be a small percentage of the lines in nature with which No one but a babe or a fool supposes that anything can the artist has to arrive at his expression. be accomplished except by a long and learned struggle I know of no dynamometer like a drawing. Dealing, against the resistance of things, in any field of human of course,only with men whose method of expression effort.A reasonable layman would thereforetake for is the pictorial, a drawing will tellyou what a man’s granted that this must be true of art. The artist knows eyesightis worth, and what his hand. It will tell not it by life-long and bitter-sweet experience. He knows only this, but whether his brain is swift or slow, it so well, to his cost, and his pleasure, that the pro- whether he is sympathetic callous,or profound or super- found purpose of art is pretty clear to him. ficial, tenacious or soft, empty or full. Great draughts- He knowsthat art is a form, at once of sportand men have been diffuseand great draughtsmen have training,an unviciousvice, if you will, ofwhich the beenterse. But all great draughtsmen are swift-that interest never flags. Artis a vice, a pastime which is in their studies. differs fromsome of the most pleasant vices and pas- I wish I could lay my hand on a passage in Flaubert’s times by consolidating and intensifying the organswhich lately published letters, of which I can only suggest the it exercises. The artist can be no Liberal, no Socialist. driftfrom memory. Hesays it is imperative that a He knows with Santayama that the Liberal ideal, “The sentence should flow, whatever its subordinated clauses greatest happiness of the greatest number” means “the maybe, from the beginning to the endwith one sus- greatestlaziness of thelowest possiblepopulation.” tained impulse. The impression thatFlaubert’s idea He will have nothing to do with philanthropy, and he madeon me was that a writermust so, write, that, knows that altruism is the unkindest virtue of all. His whenhe begins a sentence,its close mustbe fore- contribution to politics is to stick to hisown job and shadowedfrom the beginning, and that, at theend, enjoy it. If hisexample in thiswere strictly followed, it must be found that the close has not let go the hand there would be no social questions left to solve. If the of its beginning. artist need moraljustification for his occupation, he Here, for instance, is one sentence :- can plead that his work gives intellectual pleasure and And I know courage, and a wish to live to countless. fellow creatures ’Tis not the balm, the sceptre, and the ball, The sword, the mace, the crown imperial, through centuries, and that he sets the perfect example The intertissued robe of gold and Pearl. of contentedindustry. “ Labour ” tothe “Labour The farced title running fore the king member” io something to be got out of as soon as pos- The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp sible, so that he may live comfortably on a parliamen- That beats upon the high shore of this world- 656

No, not all these, thrice-gorgeous ceremony, Love sees its own unhappy, asks no cause, Not all these, laid in bed majestical, Or whose the fault, but straightway stills the pain Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave Who, with a body filled and vacant mind, With words of grace, with dewy, sheltering looks, Gets him to rest, crammed with distressful bread, And sensealive to rousethe sunken veins, Never sees horrid night, the child of hell; To find the very knot of misery, But like a lackey, from the rise to set, Sweats in the eye of Phoebus, and all night Untie it, and set life aglow again. Sleeps in Elysium : next day, after dawn, Nor any blame so hurts a gentle heart Doth rise and help Hyperion to his horse ; As losing single instant in relief And follows so theever-running year, And this cure’s out of heav’n, not of earth, With profitable labour to his grave :- And, but for ceremony, such a wretch, Where judgment shameth mercy, and affrights : Winding up his days with toil, and nights with sleep, It comes from heav’n through the passive heart, Had the forehand and vantage of a king. That hath a gate opes hellward, but is shut A passage like this as ladled out by the modern actor- And bound by all-defying barriers managergives not the slightest anticipation, at the While haplike love leaves there its bribeless seal. beginning, of thesustained flight thatis coming, the hierarchy of thesubordinated clauses and phrases is notestablished, and long before thelast line,every “Beware” is word which lovers never hear. echo of the ,beginning has faded from the voice of the Of what might love beware when only woe actor,and therefore the sequence of theenchained Is ceasing from the simple sweet of love? whole is lost on the audience. On the English stage of Waste wisdom is in warning while love burns. thepresent day, onlyunder Mr. GranvilleBarker’s Tell her he kissed you-him, she is not true ! managementhave I seen theseconsiderations under- She loves him not for kissing you, but her : s tmd. He loves her for her heart upon his heart. Hint them no hints-’twere all one, true or fale ! As I readover these verses I find intheir sus- Love reckons nought wherein is not its charm. tained subordination and in their speed without haste, Poison was ne’er distilled that hindered love- intheir calm without rest, the most precise analogy For love is less than sense incorporate, that I can think of, and the closest, to the kind of fur- Has not so much of matter as a thought, nished sequence there is in the higher exercises of the But is a virtual, magic dream of dreams, draughtsman’s act. I think that this concrete example That when ’tis realised, is at an end. in literature is more illuminating, since it can be trans- portedon to these pages, than would be anydescrip- tion of mine of apictorial operation. Such description 0 gainless heav’n ! 0 guarded paradise ! would runthe danger of beingincomprehensible. Not even love may reach thee, pass thy gates I In my article of last week the name of hfr. Freer of 0 lost dear looks, lost hands, lost melody- Detroit was misspelt. This is the fault of my detestable Lost all that may be lost by love fulfilled 1 cacography,and no error of mine. A painterdoes not **x. misspell the name of an American collector ! She waits, attired and fair, and sweet for love. The hours creep by, then fly, oh, fast they fly- And the last comes whose wings show blank of hope, Her eyelids shut to stay the breaking tears Louise de la Valliere. Which seem to blame someone for love’s mischance- This night gone loveless ! So, she goes to dream. By Beatrice Hastings. From heart to lips endearing names upspring WHAT waked thy love? Was it some sideway glance And what is speechless on her lips is signed. Showed thee the light of gainless paradise, She sleeps upon a thought of morning’s joy ! That gleamed--and was not there-and came again : But cometh joy as sure as sin doth rise? Or, curve of cheek or brow, as fine as love, Fair as the star-set arc of happy heav’n Yet she was one whom love did ne’er unseal- That seemed thy bridge across the passless gulf? This human violet that loved a king : A winged girl-a bird-a soul in flow’r Wast thoumade lover by hissudden voice ‘ Incarnate grace, and tempered all of love. With tones like rhythmic ladder; to the spheres? Hatred she never knew, or envy’s gloom- Or was it hand’s involuntary clasp Her quenchless tears were only pleas for love. Drew up thyheart, unknowing, towards his heart? And when she sank at last, at long last, crushed- Whilst he stood over thee, the world forgot, This hapless, pliant thing so hard to break- Clear lost in love : hut thou knew’st not the thing Immortal sweetness issued, sense divine ! Her gentle, sorrowful hands updid the curls Until from dream-sleep thou didst waken thrilled, Of one that was her foe. She draped the lace, While every sense in turn re-played the scene. And clasped the jewels, tied the riband’s knot Upon a breast that was to beat in love Beneath his heart where hers would lie no more. Touch, tone and glance wake love, but glance is first : And glance is purest fire when lovers look. The more loveraves, the more it seems obscure. Thereafter, sits an image in the eye, There sound no words for love; but this is true Sovran above all senses, lord of dreams ! That schemes and wishes be not guiltless love, But when the dream doth verify, who knows Which, though they ripen, never do delight : Whether ’tiseyes or signal stars whichshine, Rut whenlove’s found in indeliberate hour, Or voice or circling air melodious sings- Blame, then, not charmed mortal, but the god ! Or what is eye, or ear, or hand at all? Here is a sign of love all-favouring : Life is but death where love doth vainly dream. When sweet thoughts fly away before they’re caught- Yet, is no wish to have them closer come. No state’s more piteous than love’s chagrin, Be sure, then, love is laughing at delay ! Where that flame-image burns through arid hours- Love knows not time or place, honour or age- No one of them to bring the fervent flood But whom it touches is forever sweet : That proves hearts fusile : Then, fair mind doth pine, Nor deem that love which turns to woeful hate, While body drieth like a rainless flow’r. Or leaves unpitied, any gentle grief. HELAS ! BY R. IHLEE. MODERNDRAWINGS-NO. I2 EDITED BY WALTER SICKERT 65658

1 in the clothes of giants, these phrases are worth a place in an exemplarygrammar. Oh, Mr. Headweak ! Readers and Writers. I *** ‘THENew Weekly”with its priapic title-drawing is In a recentfootnote quoted by “A. E. R.” a fort- now out,and I supposethat by thistime most of my I night ago, Mr. Wellsreferred to the “uneasy intelli- readershave seenit. “We want,”says the editor, I gence” of the editor of this journal. Both the selection to rope in as many as wecan.” Well, that is un- and the placing of the adjective. are worth a moment’s doubtedly the way todo it.Look at thenames of the examination, since, if I am not mistaken, we can esti- *‘‘new” contributors,for example-all of them“alive, mate Mr. Wells’weight from them. Uneasy-what energetic,and sincere”-Mr. Gosse,Mr. Hardy, Mr. doesitmean in thisphrase of Mr. Wells? I can Thomas Seccombe,Mr. R. C. Lehmann, Mr. E. M. gathernothing definitefrom it,certainly not in the Forster, Mr. Galsworthy, Mr. Rutter I fancyre-I way of definition, andscarcely in the way of quality. member havingheard of most of themtwenty years My eardetects in its usea faint intention to express ago ; and most of them were dead then. suspicion and evensuspiciousness ; but so timidly as *** wellnigh to disappear at a straight question. Onthe I have been commissioned to clear up the mystery a other hand, it is the sole epithet employed in a sentence dozen correspondents observed in last week’s issue in thatstands isolated fromthe text; and must needs the printing of one of Blake’s best-known jeux d’esprit therefore carry all the burden of Mr. Wells’ meaning. Over the name of a living contributor, Mr. Caleb Porter. But what is that meaning? Examined frankly it turns But a mysterydiffers from asecret in not being fully out, as I say,to be no meaning at all. Nowcompare explicable;and assuredly the incident for all my ex- this deliberate and prominent employment of a merely planationmust remain in some of itswrappings. The vaguely suggestive word with Mr. Wells’ advocacy, in editor, I may say, was innocent, for he was away on the thearticle of which it is a footnote, of whathe calls only holiday he has taken for seven years. But so, too, versatility. Defective versatility, we are to understand, was Mr. Porter, who offered the verses as written after is Mr. Wells’ last word of condemnation of the National dreaming them as he thought, and with no recollection GuildsSystem. But is not “versatility” of exactly the of ever havingread them. Butwho was responsible sameinsubstantiality in a criticism of a socialscheme for publishing them? Ah, there is the mystery-for one as “uneasy” in a description of anintelligence? In copy of the verses was actually returned to Mr. Porter short, do not the two words revealMr. Wells’ own state with a note to the effect that they were Blake’s ! Now of mind muchmore clearly thanthey define anything whereare we? The episoderecalls some phenomena else? I diagnosein him fromhis vocabulary an in- common to all whose dreams are noteworthy-the read- flamed condition of egotism, of which himself is vaguely ing in sleep, forinstance, of bookswhich appear to aware, and the characteristic of which is to be engaged be strange and only on waking become familiar. Thus with itself evenwhen ostensibly engagedwith some- I have read in a dream with delight and surprise pas- thing not itself. Instead of clearly discerning an object sages from the Bible which in waking life I find I knew and boldly throwing a definite word at it, Mr. Wells’ by heart. Aty othertimes the dream fragments are mind, self-occupied and only half alertto the outside echoesas, for example, this sentence whichI wrote world,perceives as through a glassdarkly, and then down exactly as I heardit while asleep : “Theyshall fumblesfor the indefiniteword, not to aim at his beat their sorrows into song and their mirth into instru- image,but to match its blur. I recallnow another ments ofmusic.” Mr. Edward Carpenter told me that “word’’ of Mr. Wells-furtive. How often does it not he dreamed the following verse-which, for all I know, occurin his works ! And then, of course,there are may be found printed in some book which he had read his dots . . . . Yes, theHigher Criticismdoes, I and forgotten : think, convict Mr. Wells of promiscuity of mind, Call in the tip-cat cut off its tail, *** R. H. c. Fold up some eggs 1n a saucepan, AMERICAN NOTES. Sit on the rest like as elderly male, Friendsand relatives of theCeltic Renascence will Gulp [gallop] down the whole as a horse can. (perhaps3 begrieved tolearn that Mr. W. B. Yeats An earlydream effort of my ownwas, as near as I has resigned his post as leader of the Celtic Revivalists. can remember, the following-the fruit, I imagine, of Thesad occurrence took place at Chicago recently in ‘latereading of Rider Haggard’s“She” :- mostunromantic circumstances. Mr. Yeats, in the Dagwaso hung in the Pyramids, course of anaddress to the“business men” of that Hung by his clammy hooks, city, informed his hearers that the poet’s difficulties in- Deathless king of a lifeless race, creasedin ratio to hisdistance from Paris “whence Asleep in a body of sleep. nearly all thegreat influences in artand literature come.”Shades of Cuculain and Deirdre ! Was it for Flitted no shadow across the place, this that Synge was persuaded to leave Paris anddevote For light trod dreadly by; And feared to look . . . himself toWicklow and Aran? Have Lady Gregory’s Walled in by Dagwaso’s tribe. “translations” been written in vain, so that even Mr. Yeatshas forgotten them, together withhis own SO ‘Nobody, however, will discover that I havedreamed enthusiasticprefaces? Unofficially, ofcourse, it has ’Blake ! long been known in Ireland that Mr. Yeats was lost to Anglo-Irish literature, that he had deliberately violated No essays in criticism such as I asked for the other the best of his mind by forcing his, energies into the week have yet appeared ;but they continue to be poured work o,f theNational Theatre. Nevertheless, in spite out on the soakedsoil of the familiar. Inthe “Fort- of Mr. George Moore’s narratives, the feeling prevailed nightly Review” Mr. W. L. Courtney writes on Balzac that Mr. Yeats at all events stood for and sympathised -as if anybody could still be in doubt about Balzac ! with the aims of the Irish Literary Revival. Now there In the same issue an old (and, I suspect, retired) contri- is no longer any doubt that, with the commercialisation contributor to THENEW AGE, Mr. M. D. Armstrong, writes of the Irish theatre, Mr. Yeats has been compelled to onRecent English Poetry. Hisfour examples are modify hisviews of literarygeography. Obviously, Messrs.Gibson, Masefield, Abercrombie and Davies- there can be no hope for the Irish poet who finds his all, as weknow, as muchfishmongers as poets-and inspiration in the legends and stories ofhis country’s these he defines respectively as “the spirit of pity con- heroicage. Until he has made the acquaintance of templatinghuman patience inface of overwhelming Mr. Pound’s Unanimists and Paroxysts he will look in odds,”“the showing forth of creativeadventure,” vain for Mr. Yeats’ approval. *‘?he history of thevirgin Soul in the midst of the ++* world” and “the spirit of inner contentment.’’ If bom- While in Chicago Mr. Yeats hazarded the statement bombast be rightly understood as the dressing of mannikins that “allsubscribers to artistic monuments are poets 659 themselves,” anaphorism clearlymanufactured for The stodginess of the American quarterlies is doubt- Americanconsumpiion, and certainlyworthy of first less due in part to a reaction from the noisy vulgarity place in “CurrentCant.” I canimagine how grate- of the Press in general,and in part to the facultyof fully it must have been received in the canning circles imitationwhich is so highlydeveloped inAmerican of- Chicago. Thatwasit acceptedalmost as an literature and journalism. In the effort to avoid Hearst argumentum ad hominem isindicated by theeditorial and Pulitzer they have seized upon the wo,rst features comment of aNew York journal which immediately of theEnglish publications upon which they are citedthe Chicago monthly, “Poetry,” asan instance modelled, It is true, as my colleague, “R. H. C.,” re- of such artistic endowment.haveI already referred centlytestified, thatthe “Yale Review” occasionally to this review as havingawarded a prize of $250, to contains a readable article, but its achievement is hardly Mr. Yeats for the best verse published in its pages dur- whatone expects from the principal quarterly review. ing the tpast year. The awarding of prizes and the en- As forthe “Sewanee Review,” the “South Atlantic dowment of scholarshipsfor young poets are features Quarterly” and the “Mid-West Quarterly,” they mock of the review’s policy, and help to increase the obviously description. All threehave an official or semi-official respectfulpride with which it is regarded in this connectionwith some University, and serve as the country.Incidentally, Imay add that Mr. Yeatshas dumping-groundfor professorial wastepaper. Intheir since decided to accept only $50, andthe remaining pages the curious may study the genesis, or fragments, $200 have been sentto Mr. EzraPound, presumably of those notorious “ literary studies ” whichhave be- for hisservices toFrench literature. If the founders come the sign and symbol of American professordom. of this phenomenal review were “themselves poets,” it There will be found the explanation of the weird com- is a pitythey did not infuse some of their poetic fire pilations, half journalese, half pedantry,whose often intoits pages. The editress, Miss HarrietMonroe promisingtitles too regularly adorn the publisher’s occupies the first tenpages of theFebruary number, announcements.I shudder to think of thenumber of six of which are devoted toan ode tothe Panama interestingsubjects whichhave been mutilated by the Canal :- efforts of contributorsto these reviews. Itwas here 0 Panama ! 0 ribbon-twist that the “ authorised version ” of Mr. Bernard Shaw’s That ties the Continents together ! biography w%s hatched.I have only to glance at that Now East and West shall slip your tether volume to recallmy sufferings as a reviewer. Lured And keep their ancient tryst. by thesubject, Ihave often undertaken to criticise a *** book,only to discover too late that the author was a contributorto the “Sewanee” or the “South Atlantic Mr. RobertFrost, who, itappears, is resident in Quarterly. ” England, contributes a diluted Masefieldian concoction : ***

So when he paired off with me in the hayfield Unfortunately, the arrival of a new quarterly, “ The To load the load, thinks I, look out for trouble ! Unpopular Review,” so far from relieving the tedium, I built the load and topped it off; old Sanders seems to promise rather a fresh field for the horrors to Combed it down with the rake and said “O.K.” whichrefer. I The criticism of the “ Candid . How one regrets that Mr. Frost did not remain in his Quarterly”made by “R. H. C.” mightbe literally owncountry. Finally there is Mr. Orrick Johns, a applied to this review. The “Unpopular Review” *isas *poetry prizewinner, who suggests undigested Whitman, devoid of literarymatter asthe “Candid Quarterly,” with an up-to-date Futuristic veneer :- although it was not stated to be solely concerned with politicaland social questions. Thecontributors, more- There is nothing in me save mutation and laughter; over, are anonymous, a departure from the general rule My laughter is like a sword, in American journalism. Presumably the intention is to Like the piston-rod that defies oceans and grades. suggest that the articles are of so daring a nature that When I labour it is a song of battle in the broad noon; theauthors cannot reveal their identity. But the For behold the muscles of a man- possible “ revelations ” of anonymity leave me cold. It They are piston-rods; they are cranes, hydraulic presses, powder magazines : looks as if the “ Unpopular ” contributorswere very But thoughmy bodybe as beautiful as a hill crowned determinednot to risktheir popularity by the public with flowers, acknowledgment of their views. 1 will despise it and make it obey me. . . . *** Fortunately, Mr. Johns adds :- To theEnglish reader these precautions must seem curiouslysuperfluous, for there is not an ideain the No manshall ever read me. . . . whole number that couldpossibly offend the suscepti- *** bilities of thesucking dove. The place of honour,for example, is accorded to an article entitled “ The New Not to be outdone by Chicago, Boston permits itself IrrepressibleConflict,” which would not seem out of a similar luxury in the shape of “The Poetry Journal,” placein the politicalnotes of the “ Academy.” The I fail to notice any difference between the two reviews, 66 new ” conflict, itappears, is that arising from the although the former is always spoken of as “our only fact “ somr;: of us have not got along as fast as others,” magazine devoted to poetry.” Perhapsthe merit of a truth graciously admitted by the author, although he “ThePoetry Journal” is its humour. For example, hastens to prove that “ equalisationis already taking the followingnaive confession of areviewer : “The place at a ratethat fewpeople realise.” After the editor . . D asked me tlo review the book [“Ballads familiarreferences to “ demagogueswho make their of the Veld-land,”by LynnLyster] becauseI have living out of the discontent,” etc., etc., I was prepared spentmost of my life in Africa,and because I think for the demonstration that the poor are getting richer ’it the best country onearth. . . . When I opened the andthe rich aregrowing poorer, and a general con- pages and saw the names of so many friends of mine clusion thar allwould be well if menwould help one . . . . andall of them dead now-well, I was unutter- another in a spirit of brotherly love. The“Unpopular ably sad. I went out and got a drink the way we used Review ’) concludes with an article on phonetic spelling to in Africa. To me, then, this is great poetry.” With in whichall theproposed “ improvements ” and such “literary” criticism in vogue it is no wonder that ’‘ simplifications ’) are used. On the whole, as neither the younger American writers comeover to Europe. I conservatismnor stupidity is particularly unpopular in mustconfess that the perusal of these two collections America, it would not appear as if this review possessd of modernAmerican verse left me also“unutterably a very appropriate title. sad.” A littlemore of it,and Ishall be tempted to follow, in my turn,the custom which the reviewer so *** ingeniouslyassociates with Africa. Some weeks ago I cited the emendations of “ Vanity 660

Fair,” by Dr. Rossiter Johnson, as an example of the that-the deluge, which is of blood ! Can nothing stay it? Yourdeclaration can stay it ! Reason isagainst ‘‘ criticalattitude ” of the Americanprofessor. Mr. I RichardBurton, Head of theDepartment of English theplutocracy. Declare yourself againstthe Pluto- at the University of Minnesota, now supplies me with cracy ! By votedeclare yourself, by gift, by wordin a furtherexample. Speaking of GeraldStanley Lee’s season, and, if you are an artist, by the spirit of your “ Crowds,” Mr. Burton cries : ‘‘ Here is a book that works condemn the class which is the common enemy I would nomore expect to be popularthan Carlyle’s of allhonourable existences, of domesticity, of crafe ‘ SartorResartus,’ and, by gosh,it sells !” So and of art. beautiful and so appropriate has this phrase appeared, The evidence o€ plutocraticsabotage, sacrilege and that Mr. Lee’spublishers quote itbroadcast in their positive miscreation is on all sides ; look ! you have only advertisements. Thepedantry of Dr.Johnson and the to look to see it. Behold the wholecountry scarred musical comedy boisterousness of Mr. Burton are fairly with asphalt, and see the Fat Man’s blatant house grin- representative of thetwo extremes between which ning down upon the hovels of thevillages where the Americanstyle oscillates. Who is to save America thirty-shillingproletarian comes to birth. Hearthe from the criticism of the one and the enthusiasm of the roar of tenthousand cars, and the curse of the way- other ? E. A. B, farer whose neighbour with a market-cart is forbidden under penalty togive him a lift. Do youknow of a village where the cottagers dare not give away a cup Present-Day Criticism. of water? There are such, within fifty miles of London ! IT will be only too easy during the coming years for the Yet there is no luxury too shameful for the rich. They despair of artists to break into hatredof the plutocracy ; economiseonly in others’ necessities.And, artists 1 the hard thing is to keep any sort of hold over the feel- it is quite as frequently your necessities as those of the workersthat are economised. What doesthe Pluto- ings in the faceof the despoliation of the country and the cracyfirst part without of thecountry for the con- people. It is not that any portion of the land may ever venience of hisluxury? Your food’! The past models belong to the artists as real estate : nor do they desire you need, the scripts that have been yourinspiration. such possession. The beauty and prosperity of England This class is prepared to sell and export the very bricks is theshare desired by theartist. He wants natural weathered by centuries of Englishair since once they spaces, fertilised countryside and fine cities, and not- were laid with incomparable skill under priceless plans. as the land is becoming-a pauper plot, a living grave It isnot only that the actual things arelost to us; we are depressed in our spirit by such savage indifference, and forthe countryman, a prisonand a circusfor the we are made to appear shameful before other nations. townsman. The artist wants to live among a free and And if you wouldsee thestark contempt of the rich leisuredpeople, and not-as theEnglish nation has for the national architectural quality-go upon almost become-on the one hand, a horde of political sharpers any estate and groan for the fate of living genius. Go, and commercial debauchees, and, on the other, a multi- forinstance, where aforetime William of Wykeham tude of brooding dupes. spent four hundred thousand pounds in the building of a singleabbey, and then pass on and note the jerry- The Englishplutocracy is mad and damned. Go A building on the Wimborne estate; or, worse, far worse, where it lives, a vast swine among the once pleasant take a peep inside the picturesque pest-holes which the places, and you will seehow madit is. Go whereit Duke of Bedford so regularly keeps repaired-outside ! lives not, but from whence it sucks its means, into the Turn off the roads of England where you may-there slums of bothtown and country, you will see is some festering pest-hole where vengeance is hatch- howdamned it is. Psychologistsknow of the ing. Yon high and spacious-looking cottage is a fraud trouble which is slowly encircling England. Some- -go in, and see whether you can turn roundin it ;those thingis closing in which will makehere Blacka who cannottouch the ceilings with their hands are Hole, where courage will not avail the courageous, nor short indeed. This cottage is of a piece with all Pluto- craticswindling, the meanest, perhaps, of a series of weakness the pitiable, but if chance favour. This some- hypocriticalgifts. But, indeed, the jerry-builder is thing is the spirit of revenge, created not by inequality the very friend of the plutocracy : he sees to the weaken- of state, for men know that they are unequal, but by the ing of the thirty-shilling children, no longer wanted in swindling legislation of the plutocracy-- Thesewords manhoodfor the ploughand thresher, and ever less arenot of imaginedthings. The plutocracy itself is necessaryeven in the factory : but what an enemy of aware-and preparing ! London,isarming. Any England is in this figure ! traitor can become an armed man beforethis week is Is there any end to the murderous greed of the rich? out ! The plutocracy is willing formore than slow Is there any way of relief from them save through the murder ; it is willing for massacre : it will provoke the murderous revenge of the poor? In the case that revo- lution breaks out, we may but change our oppressors ? circumstanceswhere unarmed, men may be shot like It is no part for the long-sighted to work forviolent partridges. You will see it, reader, for it will come in revolution. But, come what may, our declaration must your day. be wholly on the side of them whose hearts are burning Andon which side will you be? Think-n which withthe anger we share.There is no human dignity side do you belong? If you can look with satisfaction possible as things are to-day, no hope either for family, at dragooned workmen-go to yourown side ! If forcraft, or for art.The power of the plutocracy you can accept the government of lawyers-go to your must be broken. It maybe possible for the artists to own side ! If you are willing that yournation shall break it without the sacrifice of one human body : but be called a conquered race-go, declare yourself ! Be- to do this, they must put away all presenthopes and gin with the first and the rest will be added unto you ; plans,they must lose their art to save it. We heard for these things are historical in that succession. There onewho is vexed at all these. labourtroubles speak are many chances in national destiny, but the might of the other day of his duty of keeping “a little turret of the proud depends upon the might of the simple, and civilisation” amidstthe ruin onall sides. Thatis nationanal fall iscertain when the simple are no longer nothing but a little dream ! Such turrets become stink- patriotic. ing tombs, sepulchres for cynics. One is of one’s time, But if your spirit is such that it will not endure even or never ; andour time is concerned with thework- thesight of enslavement-comeon OUT side ? If you man’s struggle €or status against the plutocracy bentOQ wantan open Parliament-come onour side ! If you hisperpetual servility. Nothingdone to-day will last will the integrity of the Empire-come to your place ! hut what touches this matter, for there is no; life in any There is still a space and an hour for reason, After other thing. 661I

littleresemblance tothese past geometric arts. It is Modern Art characterised, not by the simple geometric forms found The London Group. in archaic art, but by the more complicated ones asso- E. Hulme. ciated in our minds with machinery. Minor effects of this By T. change of sensibility are very obviousin the-pictures THISgroup has been formed by theamalgamation of here. They do not shrink from forms which it is usual to theCamdell Town Groupand the Cubists. It thus describe as unrhythmical,and great use is made of claims to represent all theforward movements in shapestaken from machinery. Thebeauty of banal English painting at the present moment. Judging from formslike teapot-handles, knuckledusters, saws, etc., its first exhibition, it is probably destined, since the de- seems to have been perceived for the first time. A whole cline of the New English, to play a very important role picture is sometimes dominated by a composition based in the next few years. Of the more realist section of the on hard mechanical shapes in a way which previous art society I shall not say much here, as I intend to write would have shrunk from. It is not the emphasis on form aboutit atgreater lengthlater. Mr. SpencerGore’s which is thedistinguishing characteristic of the new “TheWood,” and Mr. Harold Gilman’s “Eating movement,then, but the emphasis on thisparticular House” show in very different ways the same intimate kind of form. research into problems of colour. Mr Charles Ginner’s “La Balayeuse” is the best picture of his that I have But it is easy to see how this main movement, with seen as yet. His peculiar method is here extraordinarily its necessary use of abstraction of a particular kind for successful in conveying the sordidfeeling of the sub- a particular purpose, has engendered on the side of it a ject. hfr. Bevan exhibits a characteristicand interest- minor movement which uses abstractions for their awn ing painting of horses.Although at the moment I am sake in a muchmore scattered way. I do, not think more in sympathy-with the other section of the society, this minormovement isdestined to survive.I bok yet I am bound to say that the work of the painters I upon it rather as a kind of romantic heresy, which will, have just mentioned is better than that one finds at the however,have a certaineducative influence. It will Mew English, and infinitely better than the faked stuff lead to the discovery of conceptions of form, which will produced by Mr. Roger Fry and his friends. It is pos- be extremely useful in the construction of the new geo- sible to point out, however,in looking at this kind of metrical art. But temporarily, at any rate, most of the painting, the dissatisfaction which inclines one towards painters in this exhibition seem to be very much influ- Cubism. Thesepictures are filledby contourswhich, enced by an enthusiasm forthis idea. Onehas here, when one is moved by the dissatisfaction I am speaking then, agood opportunity for examining this heresy. of, one can only describe as meaningless. They are full Theoreticallyit is quite plausible. It seemsquite con- of detail which isentirely accidental in character,and ceivable that the directions of the forms in a picture, the only justified by the fact that these accidents did actually ‘subordination of the parts to the whole, the arresting of occur in the particular piece of nature which was being one form by the other, the relation of veiled to exposed painted.One feels a repugnance to such accidents- shapes, might make up an understandable kind of music and desires painting where nothing is accidental, where withoutthe picture containing any representative ele- all the contours are closely knittogether into definite merit whatever. How doesit work out in practice? structural shapes. Take Mr. Wyndham Lewis’s largecanvases, which TheCubist sectionis particularly interesting, as it at first look like mere arbitrary arrangements of bright shows very clear!y the unsettled state of the new move- coloursand abstract forms. Judgedfrom this point of ment. Though it hasfinally got clear away from its Post- l view,what can be said about them? They fail, in that Impressionisticbeginnings, it cannot be said tohave ~ they do notproduce as a whole, thekind of coherent reached any final form. Two different tendencies can be I effect which, accordingto the theory, they ought to distinguished. The main movement is that which, aris- 1 produce. Theforms are notcontrolled enough. Inthe ing out of Cubism, is destined to createa new geometric i Eisteddfod,for example, long tranquil planes of colour and monumental art, making use of mechanical forms. sweepingup from the Ieft encounter realisticallya It is possible, I think, to give an account of this move- l paintedpiece ofironwork which,being very large in ment, which will exhibit itas an understandableand ~ proportion thetoplanes, dwarfs any effect they coherent whole, closely allied to the general tendency of might have produced. The second picture, “Christopher the period, and thus containing possibilities of develop- Columbus,” is hard and gay, contains many admirable ment. ~ inventions,bestregarded isbut as a field But this has now generated, a second movement based wherecertain qualities are displayed, rather than as a simply on the idea that abstract form, Le., form without completework of art. In Mr. Lewis’s work, there are any representative content, can be an adequate means of always certain qualities of dash and decision, but it has expression. Inthis, instead of hard,structural work the defects of these qualities. His senseof form seems to like Picasso’s you get the much more scattered use of me to be sequent rather than integral, by which I mean abstractions of artists like Kandinsky. It seems,. judg- that one form probably springs out of the preceding one ing by its development up to now, t.o be only a more or ashe works, instead of being conceived as part of a less amusing (by-product of the first. Lacking the con- whole. His imaginationbeing quick and never fum- trolling sensibility, the feeling for mechanical structure, bling,very interestingrelations are generated in this whichmakes use of abstractions anecessity, itseems way, but the whole sometimes lacks cohesion and unity. rather dilettante. It so happens, however, that Thequalities of Mr. Lewis’s workare seen to better all explanationsall of the newmovement as yet advantage inhis quite remarkable drawing, “ The given, have been explanations of this secondtendency Enemyof the Stars.” Equally abstract is Mr. Wads- only. In this way the real importance of the main ten- worth’swork. In the most successful, “Scherzo,” a dency has been veiled. It has seemed rather in the number of lively ascending forms are balanced by broad air,rather causeless. Thedriving force behind itre- planes at the top. The painterwhose work shows the mained hidden. greatestadvance is Mr. C. I?. Hamilton. His “Two Whatis really behind the mainmovement, Figures”shows a great sense of construction,and is whatmakes it importanttheis re-emergence oneof the best paintings in this section. Mr. F. of a sensibility akin to that behindgeometrical Etchells’ drawings are admirably firm and hard in char- arts of the past. At first, at its rather fumbling search acter ; but it would obviously be premature to form any for an appropriate meansof expression, it naturally went sure judgment about this artist’s work at a time when back to these past arts. You thus got a period in which he almost seems to be holding himself back, in a search the work produced had a certain resemblanceto Archaic, for a new method of expression. , His fine “Drawing of Byzantineand African art.But this state has already a Head” shows this state of hesitation and experiment been left behind. The new sensibility is finding for itself veryclearly. Mr. Nevinson is much lessabstract than a direct and modern means of expression, having very I the others. His best picture is “The Chauffeur,," which 662

is very solid and develops an interesting,contrast be- tweenround and angular shapes. I admirethe ability Views and Reviews. of Mr. Gaudier-Brzeska’s sculpture;the tendencies it IF this work* were merely a history of penal methods, displays are sound though the abstractions used do not it would not need noticein these columns. The main. seem’ to me to be always thoroughly thought out. facts are available in other forms, and desultory readers, In all thepainters I have mentioned so farabstract form at leasthave long been familiarwith them. Emven the has been used as the bearerof general emotions, but the conception of ancient law as the law of retaliation has real fanatics of formreject even this abstract use as been made popular in recent times by Sir Henry Maine savouring of literatureand sentiment. Representation and Nietzsche,for example; and of the barbarities of has already been excluded. They want to exclude even our prison system we have heard enough from novelists the general emotions conveyed, by abstract form, and to andplaywrights. The Humanitarian League has done confine us to the appreciation of form in itself tout pur. good service by exposing not merely the ,brutalities in- Some such intention must be behind the largest picture flicted, but the stupidity implied, by flogging and other ~ in the show, Mr. Bomberg’s “In the Hold.” Stated in methods of punishment ; and if Mr. Ives had merely col- more detail, the theory on which it is based seems to be lectedand abstracted the information, his work would,

this. In looking at a pictureonenever sees ~ have beenvaluable only to thosewho need a ready it as a whole, one’s eyetravels over Init. source of reference or to those who approach the subject doing so, continuallywe find certainexpecta- for the first time. But the work is not merely a history, tions fulfilled-a bootis followed by a leg,and even it is an indictment, of penalmethods ; and at a time when there is no representation at all, certain abstract when weare threatened with a revival of themost formsare naturally continued by otherforms. Appa- crudely punitive ideas, it should possess peculiar value. rently this fulfilled expectation is an added non-aesthetic We have always to realise that different people (because emotion, and must be excluded by those who wish to they are different people) arenot all amenable to the take an absolutely “pure” pleasure in form itself. Mr. sameappeal. Tothe person of rigidconscience, it is Bombergtherefore cuts his picture up into sixty-four enough to shew that punishment must always exceed, squares, and as each square is independent of its neigh- and by itsnature is never commensurate with, the bours, the “fulfilled expectation” I spoke-ofabove is damage doneby the criminal to convincehim of its excluded, and whatever pleasure we take must be in the injustice ; onthe person of delicatesensibilities the arrangement of shapes inside each square. The picture merest description of the routine of punishment will re- appears to have started off as a drawing of an actual act as an injury to himself. The philosopherswho be- subject, but that apparently was only because a purely lieve in Free Will should naturally be apposed to punish-, mentalinvention of form would have inevitablypro- ment,arguing that, if the will befree, it cannot be duced thme “sequences” it was desired toavoid The re- coerced.Psychologists and physiologists will naturally presentation of the outside scene generates, in its pas- be opposed to punishment,on the ground that it can sage through a square, an entirely accidental and “un- only causedeterioration of themental and physical expected”shape. The square I might callK.Kt.6, for structure, not only of the person subjected to it but of example,makes aninteresting gattern. That the those responsible forits administration. But the ordi- picture as a whole isentirely empty is, I suppose, on nary person who thinks that Free Will can ‘be ‘coerced, thetheory I have just put forward, no defect. All the who wants to inflict more injury than has been received, general emotions produced by form have been excluded in whom retaliation is practically reflex action, he is not and we are reduced to a purelyintellectual interest in amenable to any of these appeals,. Nothing but the his- shape. Thisparticular picture, then, is certainly the tory of the failure of penal methods to abolish crime is. reductioad absurdum of this heresy aboutform. I likely to cause him to reconsiderhis determination to see no development along such lines, though such work put down crime by the revival of some method that was may bean excellent discipline. I look forward, how- either discarded long ago or is as useless for the purpose ever, to Mr. Bomberg’s future work with interest ; he is of reformationin its modified as in its original form. undoubtedly anartist of remarkable ability. Forthe Such persons are as easily to be found on the Bench as present, I prefer his drawings. “The Acrobats” breaks among the general public. away from the sculptural treatment. of his recent work But the book has a value in addition to this of pro- and seems to me to be admirable. vidingthe ordinary person with an historicalrefuta- Most of thework I have been talkingabout tion of the practical value of punishment. The instinct is experimentalis and interestingis .because isit of retaliation seems to be a natural one, and if ancient on the way tosomething else. Perhapsthe only law recognised it, none the less it strove to make the really satisfyingand complete work in this section is injured’ party forgo his right to retaliation and accept that of Mr. Epstein. He possesses that peculiar energy a money compensation for hisinjury. Both ecclesias- which distinguishesthe creative from the merely in- tical and Crown courts made it possible for the injured telligent artist, and is certainly the greatest sculptor of party to obtain restitution or compensation, or, in de- this generation ; I have seen no work in Paris or Berlin fault, infiicted not punishment but a form of retaliation. which I can so unreservedlyadmire. At the present It was not really until the advent of the prison system momenthe has arrived at aninteresting point in that the principle of restitution or compensation became his development. Starting from a very efficient realism, obsolete;and punishment became the sole purpose of hepassed through a more or lessarchaic period ; he criminalprocedure. The modernprison system arose seems now to have left that behind and, as far as one as a “reform.”Prisons there were beforeJohn can judge from the drawings for sculpture heexhibits, Howard,but they were places of detention,not of to havearrived atan entirelypersonal and modern punishment. ‘The revelations made by Howard of the method of expression. The“Carving in Flenite ” state of theprisons and the prisoners rousedall the comes at the end of the second period. Technically, it “philanthropy” of theEnglish character in the isadmirable. The design is in nosense empty, but eighteenthcentury. A littleband of reformers arose, gives a most impressive and complete expression of a and the ruling classes were compelled to look into the certainblind, tragic aspect of its subject-something matter. They saw that the prisons were insanitary, and akin perhapsto what Plato meant by thevegetable thereuponthey built sanitary prisons; they saw that soul. The archaic elements it contains are in no sense communication between prisoners had a corrupting in- imitative. What has been taken from African or Poly- fluence, and thereupon they invented the cellular system nesian workis the inevitable and permanent way of and the rule of silence; they saw that the only way to getting a certain effect. The only quite new work Mr. keep prisoners outof mischief was to give them work to Epstein exhibits, the “ Bird Pluming Itself ” is in com- do,and thereupon installed thetread-wheel and the parisonwith thisprofound work, quite light in character, but the few simple, abstractions out of which * “A History of Penal Methods.” By George Ives it is built are used with great skill and discretion. M.A. (Stanley Paul. 10s. 6d. net.) 663 crank; they sawthat there was no disciplinein the perty in themeans of productionand distribution. prisons, andthereupon they invented a system which Turn whichway you will, theone reform whichwill regulatedevery activity of the mind and badly. And liberate the civilising powers of mankind is the reform theeffect of all the“reformation” was that prisoners of our economic system. Only then shall we be able to wentmad, or committed suicideor died fromcver- reducethe criminal class to its proper dimensions, to work. Withthe invention of theprison system, the includeonly those who,from congenital weaknessor State no longer sought to compel the prisoners to make depravity,are unfit or unable to live a normalsocial restitution or compensation ; the Law usurped the right life. The crimes of circumstances can only be abolished of private vengeance, and punished. by thealteration of thecircumstances; the crimes of But even the clear demonstration of the fact that im- impulseconstitute a classapart concerning which we prisonment, and all that attends it, is really the national- must rely onmedical advice. Meanwhile, we haveto isation of theinstinct of retaliationdoes not exhaust recognise that our criminal law is committed to punish- thevalue of thisbook. For Mr. Ivesdevelops his ment as a principle, that punishment is only retaliation thesis beyond the demonstration of the vicious circle of in disguise, that reform of the prison system is impos- aggressionand retaliation into a consideration of the sible while these two facts remain true, and that crimin- causes and nature of crime, both personal and national ; ology is indicting the fundamental principle of modern andranges over the whole literature of criminology. society. A. E. R. Hemakes an important division of crimeinto two classes, crimes of circumstances and crimes of impulse. The criminal law really exists for the suppression of the REVIEWS. formerclass, andfails lamentably todo so ; butit Spiritual Therapeutics. By ‘W. J. Colville. 6s. net.. also has power to deal with the second class, and does Students’ Questionson Spiritual Science.. so with more ferocity andeven less success. The two Answered by W. J. Colville. 3s. 6d. net. (The classesmay coincide in individual cases, butthe fact Power-Book Co.) of theirexistence relegates penology tothe class of superstitions. For, obviously, thecause of thecrimes Boththese books deal with a subject that is so in-. of circumstances must be sought in social conditions ; extricablymixed with quackery that, however much and, as Mr. Ives truly says, “the stern and unavoidable wemay agree with the main assumption, we do not problem which science andmachinery have set before feeljustified in recommending themto our readers. civilisation-the just producingand distributing of That Mr. Colville is eclectic, may beadmitted; he is wealth-has to he solved for crime to disappear.” The neither a Christian Scientist,Spiritualist, Theosophist, crimes of impulse fall so obviously within the province Emmanuelist,Mesmerist, hypnotist, but something of the doctor that Mr. Ives seems to labour the point of all these, for the principle underlying all these sys- unnecessarily, if we forget the stupidity that is charac- temsis the same one. Butwe do not need, at this teristic of theordinary person whenhis instinctsare time of day, any argument to prove the value of faith roused. The simple fact that nlo prescription of punish- as a condition of health or as a ‘factor in the cure of ment can deter from crimes of impulse must be insisted disease ; it isthe practical problem of creatingor on until this whole class of crime is removed from, the establishingfaith that besets everyone who attempts to healanother. Here, where Mr. Colvilleshould be jurisdiction of the criminallaw ;’ andit is surely an omission that Mr. Ives does not advocate, as a prelimin- explicit, he is vague, or, at most, tentative; the healer ary step towards this reform, the, appointment of medi- mustnot deny, in the Christian Sciencefashion, the cal assessors. realexistence of matteror of pain;he must distract That Mr. Ives shouldproceed to develop theidea the mind fromconsideration of either by directing of makingprisons instruments of practicalreform is contemplation to the perfection of God. How thisis a lapsefrom thestrict logic of the case. The to bedone is the real problem ; and Mr. Colville fact that more than half the peoplewho go to prison throws no light on it. These two books reveal neither aresent indefault of thepayment of fines suggests, a methodnofr a magical phrase ; and as Mr. Colville first of all,the practical reform which Mr. Thomas deniesgenerally (but not absolutely) the value of Holmes has advocated for years, the grantingof time in diagnosis,we must remind hi.ml thatit is possible to which topay fines. This simplereform would empty have a mind filled with theidea and conviction of half our prisons, and would have a considerable effect health at the verytime that disease ordeath is be- on thenumbers of recidivists.Rut itmay well be comingmanifested. The euphoria of Nietzschepre- doubted whether the prison system could be developed cedinghis insanity, is only oneexample of a well- into a reforming agency for the benefit of the remain- knownfact. But even ourwillingness to admitthe ing criminals. “Soulsare not saved in bundles,”said possibility of spiritualhealing does not justify us in Emerson ; andthe most drastic reformation of our limiting the process to theuse of onefactor; if we prison system and the staff of officials would not alter accept the idea thatman has more than one body, thefact that the treatment would be mainlyinstitu- andthat these bodies inter-penetrate and inter-act, tional,and therefore standardised. Let the prison we may well doubt the value of a system that asserts system be made as perfect as possible, let it resemble the fundamental reality of only one of his bodies We life as nearly as possible in its activities, and its ideals, know, as a matter of commonexperience, thatthe thereis one thing that it can never provide-tempta- suggestibility of people isvarious ; a man may be tion.Therefore. it can never provide the opportunity impervious to ideas, but susceptible to emotions, while for the self-overcoming of theparticular weakness of thegeneral body of people areopen to suggestion the criminal,it can never make the onlydesirable re- only through concrete facts. It wouldseem wiser to formation, the reformation of will. . It can only revive recognise all thesefacts; to admit, for example, that themonastic ideal,and provide a harbour of refuge the onlyeffective way of suggestinghealth to some from the stresses of normal social life. people is by prescribing a bottle of medicine, to others, Thatthis wouldbe a considerableadvance on our by ordering a change of occupation, of pleasures, of present treatment of criminals, may be admitted ; but scenery,etc., and toothers, by interestingthem in it implies, or shouldimply, such a radical reformation generalideas of anotherorder to those which now not only of our penal,but of our economic, system monopolise theirattention. The principlemay be the that it may be said to await, as all other reforms of any same in all cases ; faith is an act of the soul ; but few value await,the economicrevolution. Underthe havethe power of evokingfaith by anappeal to the presentsystem of privateproperty, larceny and one spiritual nature of man. The art and craft of all heal- or two kindred offences constitute about five-sixthsof ing is toget over or under or throughthe pre- indictable crime ; and there can be no doubt that these possessions of thepatient; and the simplicity of the offences are directly due to the poverty imposed on the principle does not justify the prescription of one simple mass of the people by theinstitution of private pro- method. 664

tears.” By this timeSatan was well on his way, and Pastiche took UP his quarters, for the time, at the Albert Hall. ARTHURHOOD. SATAN, in COUNCIL. THE PATH. In the time when men knew no inventions,and few crafts beyond weaving, dyeing,and fashioning armour BY RATHMELL WILSON. and weapons of defence; when their peaceful toil in the For twenty years each Sabbath day fields was liable at any hour to be rendered useless by the He sat within the chapel grim sudden raid of an energetic foe, or their bodies mauled in Singing right lustily, for joy most unpleasant fashion by a wild beast or a wilder neigh- That burning Hell was not for him. labour, the Arbiter of Destinies said, “These poor ill-clad, ill-fed, savagecreatures shall be given Over-lords and Indeed it was a pleasant thing Dukes, men whose superior courage and greater oppor- To know just what one must expect tunities for amassing riches shall serve these bewildered A long white robe, a harp of gold, ones as a refuge and a defence.” The word, therefore, The sure reward of the elect. went forth, and dukes and lords arose, and built forthem- selves great stone castles (the remains of which can still Then in his soul he felt a kind be seen by the curious in such matters), and into these Of discontentment dimly dawn, well-defended places the poor carles could flee when the He wearied of his sisters prim, ramping neighhour, or yelling invader appeared over the His Holy brethren made him yawn. hill,or crawled throughthe forest. Thls Over-lord was at once leader, judge, refuge, andtyrant, all in one, Once when the spirit slowly moved without him the poor cultivators, weavers and men of toil Old Brother Joshua from his heart suffered grievous loss, they were either slaughtered by a To speak an hour on “Zion Hill,” stronger Over-lord, or carried off totoil for him, or be The spirit moved him to depart. macle a source of amusement to him and his familyby enduringhorrible pangs of tortureinthoughtfully- He longed for air, he longed for space, equipped dungeons. After some centurieshad passed, So very won he might be. seen and great men h,adbecome abnormally cruel and sense- A soldier in Salvation’s ranks, lessly licentious, the angels demanded unanimously that crying aloud upon the Green. these tyrants should be destroyed, butthe Arbiter of Destinies said, “ Patience, such and such an one is not a How he one morn conversion found, leader nor a protector of his vassals, at the same time And “Oh, dear friends, how much that means !” without these ‘nobles’ the poor would be even in a worse (The lads all cried “Hosannah” here, case, and at themercy of any quarrelsome, fearless brute.” And lasses banged glad tambourines.) And so the castles remained, to over-awe enemies and to comfort thehut dwellers until all men came to be in- For many months he felt at home ; instructed in crafts and in arts, and money and power fell It was’ a good thing to perspire to men of all classes. Withecstasy, while givingout Still, the castles were there,and the lordsand dukes The benefits of “Blood and fire.” inheritedvast tracts of land,or men,being suddenly ennobled, acquired or built themselves mighty mansions. Then in a tramway-car he met: Then the angelsagain becoming impatient, cried out A priest, a goodly, red-faced man and said, “These powerful ones do no longer protect the Who said, “Oblige me with a match?” poor, their walled-ln property serves no longer as a refuge To which he said, “I think I can.“ for the weak, or the old, or the oppressed : how much more are they to flourish ?” And the Arbiter of Destinies That match set up within his soul said, “How shall they be destroyed, seeing that they also Another flame of discontent; are human creatures, and many of them quite well-living They talked, and in a week or so and well-meaning persons?” At this Satan came forward, Our friend to Mass each morning went. smiling; “Let me go forth and be a lying spirit calling myself ‘charity’ in the minds of these men, and I shall He sniffed the incense till he sneezed, destroy them.” Thenthey demanded of him how this The candles filled nim with delight, should be. And Satan said, “So long as these men were He murmured “Paters” all the day strong in body, leaders in war, supplying from their own And told his beads throughout the night. purses armed men to protect the land; tyrants, and yet Soon Mother Church received a son, refuges, thenmen could notlive in peace orsecurity The priest with satisfaction shone, without them, and their vices were of no consequence uence to Our friend began to really look any except to those whom they harmed ; now, however As saintly as an Oxford Don. all this is changed, snd You desire their destruction : I, therefore, will go and put it into their minds that they But Discontent again assailed should run about opening hospitals, giving teas to starving His restless soul. He doubted God, ing persons and to children who seem to be unrequired : Viscounts shall hand bread and butter, Earls shall distri- He doubted priests-and bishops, too- bute buns : and their women (no longer above scandal or He even called the Pope a “cod.” disdain), shall dress dolls to be given to those that cry He doubted everything except for bread ; and they shall (in the pretence of charity), go That he was “free” and had a mind. in scantclothing and dance before men(after theold His lecture, “Saved from Popery,” fashion of the harlots of Babylon, and other towns that have fallen into my hands), this shall they do, and cry, He now inflicted on mankind. How much we do for the poor. Thenthe wise men Then in a thunderstorm he heard and those capableof considering shall come in time to say, A Voice : “Learn now the truth-In life ‘ Why suffer we these useless doles andthese foolish Man makes himself his Heaven or Hell, condescensions from these men ? Behold, they form them- selves into Clubs, andthey prate and say, ‘ Let us go Man makes himself his peace or strife. among the poor andimprove them, and shakehands “Heed not the babbling ‘brotherhood’ with them, and talky, talky, talky, till they think what Which wrangles over Kikuyu ; fine chaps we are, and that we deserve all our wealth and Heed not the man ‘infallible,’ lands because we do not even mind shaking hands with The priests who pence from peasants woo. common folk,”and the wise andthoughtful shall cry, ‘ Away withsuch hypocrisies andhumbugs.’ ” Then “For Masses, that the dead they loved Satan bowed and remarked, suavely :- May soon leave Purgatory’s night ; “AS to the manner of their removal I leave it to You, I Heed not the ‘ Word ’-interpreters can only suggest that my services during the revolution By Ebenezer copyright. of the people of Francehave been somewhat severely commented upon, so that I prefer to leave it in other “Leave all the chattering sects who prate hands.” With that hevanished, and theangels looked Of unknown things with certainty; at one another,and whispered, “Will he succeed? It Learn this, “fie Kingdom is within seems a queer way, andCharity will weep Oceans of Christ’s simple Life-philosophy.” 665

people who would be the first to throw up their stupid Art. hands in horror at thisseeming idolatry-I refer to Western Europeansand Americans, moreparticularly The Art of India-IV.” of theProtestant persuasion-are certainly the very By Anthony M, Ludovici. last creatures on earth to whom me would ever dream IT is impossible forme to dealadequately with Dr. of turningfor a system of religion or society which Coomaraswamy full and .illuminating account of could even pretend in any way, however remote, to Hindureligiousness in the opening chapter of his approachthis marvellous organisation of Hindu reli- book on the “Arts andCrafts of Indiaand Ceylon,” which givesto the smallestand to the but toits keynote, I thinkI can do justice here, by greatest, a dignified spiritual significance, and fills saying that it is the breadth of its embrace, the univer- each man from the highest to the lowest with a deep sality of its appeal which seems to be its chief charac- sense of the sacred nature of his duties as a vital tissue teristic. Inanother work, “Essays in NationalIdeal- or ceil in the social organism. Idealism Dr. Coomaraswamy deals more briefly with this Even if we admit for the sake of argument that all very question, and he points out that the strengthof the religions from Brahmanism to Bahaism, from the cult Hindu cosmogony lies in its “acceptance of all life as of the ancient Incas to Protestantismand all its 500 sects, consist of a pack of lies, a mass of high falutin religious, no part as profane. ” And he proceeds : “In such an idealisation of life itself there lies the strength andextravagant bunkurn, why is itthat those very of Hinduism, and in its absence the weakness of modern people-the Protestants-who have perpetrated or who Christianity. Thelatter is puritanical,it has no con- believe in, theleast fruitful, the least beautiful, the cern with artor agriculture, craft or sex or science. least life-affirming and least life-supporting lies, are the The natural result is that these are secularised and that first to croak in toadlikeindignation, when liesmore men concerned with these vital sides of life must either satisfactory than theirs in every way, lies more organ- preserve their life andtheir religion apart in separate king and richer in noble infection than theirs could ever water-tightcompartments, orlet religion go. The hope to be, are discovered abettingand confirming Church cannot well complain of the indifference of men beauty in parts of the world where the microbes of to religion when she herself has cut them off from re- Protestant industryand commerce happen,not yet to ligion, and delimited as ‘profane’ the physical and have found a firm foothold? Why is it that those very mental activities and delights of life itself.” (pp. 33-;::) people who in theirheart of hearts believe they are Even the relationship between thesexes in India 1s pursuing truth andare convinced that superioren- regarded as a sacred mystery, and is never held to be lightenment is theirs,have shown themselves totally suggestive of improper or indecent ideas.” (p. 33.) unable to evolve a system of society which can endow “Indeed, the whole distinction of sacred and profane is the common workman,craftsman or artist, with a for India meaningless, and so it is that the relation of hundredth part of the solemn significance andrever- the soul to God may be conceived in terms of the pas- ence for his work and its quality, that Hindu religious- sionateadoration of a woman forher lover.” (p. 32:) ness has succeeded in infusinginto its believers? I When I refer to this fundamental feature of Hindu rell- would recommend any reader of THENEW AGE, who dis- religiousness as the keynote of the whole structure, I mean approves of this way of putting it, who dislikes the tone that, from thestandpoint of society, it is by farthe of thesearticles, to take up thefour books by Dr. most important. It is very much more necessary that Coomaraswamy which have helped me to gain an in- a religion should be Catholic than that it should be free sight into these matters, especially the last, “The Arts from superstition. and Crafts of India and Ceylon.” Let him begin with Under the protective guidance then of a creed which Dr. Coornaraswamy’s “Essays in NationalIdealism,” undertook to find a place and a dignity for everybody then proceed to read “Artand Swadeshi,” and then and everything, and not only an economic place but also “The Indian Craftsman.” Ifby that time he does not a spiritual one, the artists and the craftsmen were feel that there are some things to be said in favour of naturally led to regard themselves and their duties as a religion which, however full of superstitions too palp- agents and accessories of a solemn religious function. able to deceive the superiorand enlightened brain of As Sir George Birdwood says, speaking of the Indian amodern city man, is yetCatholic enough to inspire the meanest with a reverence for quality, with a fear of craftsman : “ He knows nothing of thedesperate struggle for existence which oppresses the life and offending God by shirking a hammer-stroke or a sweep crushes the very soul out of the English working man. He of the plane, and with a blessed dread lest Visvakarma, has his assured place, inherited from father toson for a the lord of the arts, should be offended by infidelity to hundred generations, in the national Church and State hismethods, then I can only suppose that there is a organisation; while natureprovides him with every- degree of fanatical belief in modern ideas which I have thing to his hand but the little food and less clothing utterly failed to realise. he needs, andthe simple tools of trade. . . This at And what is the art that has been generated by this once relieves him from an incalculable dead weight of catholic religion and social system? I confess that but cares,and enables him to give to hiswork, which is forthe beautiful collection of reproductions in Dr. also a religious function, that contentment of mind and Cmmaraswamy’s book “The Arts and Crafts of India leisure, and pride and pleasure in it for its own sake, and Ceylon,” and other publications, and the collection which are essential to all artistic excellence.” at South‘Kensington andthe British Museum, I am sadly ignorant of Hindu painting, sculpture and archi- Tracing their descent directly from Visvakarma, the tecture.Nor do I agree altogether with Dr. Chornara- god of all crafts, and believing that they inherit their swamy that I ought to be touched by Hindu art, how- skill from him, the Hinduand Cingalese craftsmen ever much o,f it I might Be fortunate enough to see. have a lofty conception of the dignityand purity of Dr. Coomaraswamy says : “ If one should say that he their calling. “To thisday they style themselves is touched by the Italian and not by the Chinese primi- Visvabrahmans fp. 33 “Artsand Crafts of India”], tives, oar by Greekand not by Egyptian or Indian employ priests of their own caste, and claim spiritual sculpture, we understand that hehas done no more equality with Brahmins.” In some parts of India than accepta formula.” (p. 57.) I amsurprised ! they even worship the implements of their labour at When the temperament of a type manifests itself un- the Dasahra festival (see Coomaraswamy, “The Indian mistakably as it must do in all national arts, to accuse Craftsman,” p. 71); andthe “thavais” Northern of a man of doing no more than accepta formula, when he India, who are Muhammedan converts,actually make selects this national art rather than that, is surely going offerings of sweetmeats to their tools (ibid. p. 71). a little toofar. Has Dr. Coomaraswamy really con- Now it is a curious and irritating fact that the very sidered this point deeply? Now can he maintain it by * “The Arts and Crafts of India and Ceylon.” By the side of the much more reasonable utterance whi&l Ananda K. Cwmaraswamy. (T.N. Foulis and Ca) appears on the opposite page?, There he says : ZTo be 666 a connoisseur and perfectly dispassionate critic of many Swamy’s book was published, and I am glad to find that arts or religions is scarcely compatible with impassioned in one or two cases he has either confirmed my state- devotion to a singleone.” Thatis better. That, in mentsor met my objections. On p. 62, forinstance, my opinion, is true.But it contradicts what is said hemeets my objection about the multiplication of the on p. 57, which statementis out of allkeeping with arms, and on p. 63 he confirms my remarks concerning Dr.Coomaraswamy ’s customaryprofundity. To, be the resemblance of Indian sculpture to thatof the Gothic quiteplain itis distinctly zeitgemass. If all art were period,and draws the same distinction as I did. I freefrom the temperament,the character, and the should like to quote these passages infull, but I fear values of the people practisingit, if itwere an inter- I have quoted too much already, and must leave it to pretation of life in the same terms, then Dr. Coomara- thereader himself, whois interested, to refer to Dr. swamywould beright; but seeing thatthis is Coomaraswamy’s stimulating book on his own account. not so, and never will be so until people swayed by the He could notwish for a more sympathetic and expert samevalues and animated by thesame ideals inhabit guide. the whole globe, the pleasure of tasting the arts will always be the pleasure of the partisan, of the prejudiced andprepossessed. I saythen, with perfect frankness, Drama. that while thereis much that I deeply admire in this By John Francis Hope. art of India,there is also a gooddeal that does not touch me. Thereis a lack of delight in untormented MR. GRANVILLEBARKER is no friend of mine. Since surfaces, a feverish rippling of planes, which is strange thatnight, more than four hundred nights ago (as I to my emotions, and which in the end becomes irritating learn from the advertisements), when I talked with Mr. to me. The Indianartist seems unable to cry “halt” Ashley Dukes during the intervals of the first perform- eitherto himself or to his pupil. He seemsunable to ance of “TheGreat Adventure,” I havenot seen a say, “Have done now ? It is finished !” I do not mean Barker performance at the request of the producer. It by thisthat there is no restraint in Indianart. The is not to be supposed that “An Actor,” who reproduced restraintwhere ends are deliberately sought are ob- one itf Mr. Barker’srehearsal scenes withsuch veri- vious. What I mean is that there seems to be an in- similitude,is responsible for thislapse of managerial credibleamount of hair-splitting in thisart, so that courtesy ; I think it is moreprobable that one of the there is always “yet something else,” to be added or to attendants(“lagging,” as the children do at school) be done. It is true that there are brilliant exceptions- told Mr. Barkerthat two of the. criticswere talking, “brilliant,” of course, in my sense-the Buddha, facing and, in theinterests of dramaand discipline,Mr. p. 18, for instance, and the perfectly amazingly beauti- Barker separated me fmm my friend and predecessor in ful hands, facing p. 31 ; but the readerwill realise what I this column. Whatever the reason may be, I have not mean, if he examines the frontispiece and the figure of beeninvited to see a Barker production since “The Shivafacing page 17. Both are Gothicin thesense GreatAdventure” was produced; I havegone privily that they cannotsettle a thing once andfor all. I at my own expense to see this “drama as it should be hope I ammaking myself clear. Thesame character- produced,” and I want to record one fact of a personal istic appears in the multiplication of the arms. I admit naturethat should be indicative of much to acareful that in the figure of Shiva as cosmic dancer, the multi- reader.I amnot a Dionysian, as “G. K. C.” is; nor plication of armsgives the impression of exuberance. do I, as Mr. Cowley bnce said in this paper that he did, As thefigure dances it seems to saytriumphantly : pour out libations of cheap wine to tile honour of the ‘‘Behold ! I can do this and that and the other thing all God. Bad as our modern plays are, and most of them at the same time ! I am a God, I can hold four things are unutterably bad, I am able to sit through themwith- at once,you can only hold two”-and so on.But I out recourse to the “wine which cheereth the heart of respectfullysubmit, thatthetoclass of mind ‘God and man.” It is only at a Barker production that that will havedone with a thing,that will arrive I go out to see a man about a dog, that the command : at a settlement, that will, in fact,be clear and plain, “Give strong drink unto him that is ready tu perish” : thereare lessmechanical andperhaps more telling becomesimperative. If Mr. Barkerwants to know ways of expressingexuberance, than mere multiplica- what I think, without euphemism or any of the graces tion. For what is theprice paidfor this “accretive” of speech, of his productions, let him ask his barmaids. exuberance? It is invraisemblance and, I think,irrita- f have ‘(drunken, and forgotten my poverty; and I re- tion. I cannotsay to what extent the decoration on member my misery no more” ; and I write these articles the Indian brass vessels to be seen at South Kensing- for the delectation of my readers and myself. When I ton, is typical of good or bad Indian art ; but I feel con- ope my lips, let no dog Barker. vinced of this, that in theworried, tormented, hair- Let no one protest that the last sentence is ungram- splitting, almost nagging ornamentation and ornateness matical. It is good enough for a man who can write of of thisdecoration, you have a lowermanifestation of Shakespeare : “How he could and seeminglycouldn’t the same characteristic to which I have been referring. help but flower intoverse !” If anyonesupposes that Letanyone go to viewthem and see if he doesnot this sentence is a concoction of my own,let him turn .agree with me. Isit possible thatthe non-artistic to the producer’spreface of “A MidsummerNight’s Aryan is responsible forthis troublesome element in Dream and find it therein. I suppose that the phrase Hindu art, while the best in Hindu art derives from the means something ; it probably means as much as this non-Aryan? And what is thisbest ?-It is in archi- passage : “If he hadn’t been a man of the people, if tecture, a granddignity and simplicity of line,a fine he hadn’t had his living to earn, if he hadn’t had more sense of proportion and effectiveness-in sculpture a fun in him than the writing of lyric poetry will satisfy ! healthiness of‘ type, a fluid, almostsnake-like supple- If itwas he made the English theatre, did notthe brass of limb and trunk-reminiscent of the Gothic, but theatremake him whathe is-what hemight be to healthier,nobler, deeper-chested ; in painting, refine- us?” Oh, meet me at Ninny’stomb ; in otherwords, ment,delicacy, positiveness to sunshineand colour, I have been to see “A Midsummer Night’sDream.” cheerfulness, exuberance ; in decoration, bold, sweeping Twice have I seen it, and slung the flowing bowl. .designs, torrential richness of invention and happy com- It is easyto see, fromthe extracts that I have combination throughout conscientiousness,painstak- quoted, that Mr. Barker has ideas about Shakespeare, ing strenuous ardour, directing a degree of skill which perhaps of the same nature as those “fancies about the js stupendous,unprecedented and unrepeated, and market-cross” that obsessed Cromwell and caused him directed by areverence forgreater things, which is to send for the doctor at midnight. This comparison is apparentin every line, in everychisel mark,in every an example of the art of periphrasis which shodd not feffort. beignored. One of theideas about Shakespeare that 1- said some of these things a year ago in THENEW Mr. Barkerhas is this, that Shakespeare’s “chief de- AGE, some months, I believe, before Dr.Coomara- light in this play” was in “the screeds of word-music 667 to be spoken by Oberon,Titania and Puck.” This is bethanEngland. I like Englishfolk-song as well as not an isolated instance of Mr. Barker’s predilection for most peopledo : itis so expressive of thegood old Shakespeare as poetrather than as dramatist; in his grouty Anglo-Saxon.But thelanguage that it speaks preface to “TwelfthNight,” he said that “to have is not that of fairy-land; natural enough to Bottom the one’s full laugh at the play’s comedy is no longer pos- Weaver and his friends, its rhythm and idiom are bar- sible, even foran audience of Elizabethanexperts.” barousjargon for fairies. The contrast between not The result of this predilection is that in Mr. Barker’s only the two states of mind, but between the two states productions of Shakespearean comedy, thecomedians of musicalfeeling mustbe apparent to everyone; the arevery carefully kept intheir place. Thelaughter scenesbetween Titania and Bottom showthat it was thatburst from Shakespeare in floods iscarefully notinvisible to Shakespeare.But the incongruous measured cut in a graduatedglass; the lyric poetry humour of Bottom in fairyland is lost when the fairies that was no less a spontaneous expression is carefully sing the songs that Bottom would sing (if he could) and suppressedinto very blankverse recitation. Shake- dance the dances that he has seen on the village green. spearewas “a myriad-minded man”;but, of course, Folk-song anddance are very well intheir way for his plays are “units,” and the only proper way to pro- Englishpeople; but fairies “come from the farthest duce them is to strike an average of feeling and to raise steppe of India”have a musical idiom different from orsuppress (usually suppress) everyone of the actors I that of Elizabethan England. Yet it is only in English to that level. I folk-song anddance that they indulge at the Savoy ; For the simple truth about Mr. Barker’s predilection and to the imaginative eye, they are clothed in smock- for Shakespeare’s lyric poetry is that he cannot produce frocks, and to the natural ear, their footsteps sound as it. Me hasneither an actor nor anactress capable of faintly as those of a navvy. speaking lyric poetry ; and, if they could and did, the Try as hemay, Mr. Barker cannot produce aper- “unitarian” effect of the play would bedestroyed, its formance of Shakespeare that rises above the level of average level of feelingwould be upset. Whatis the i anamateur production except in stagemanagement. use of talking about “the screeds of word-music to be I Hemakes it impossible forany one of hisactors to spoken by Oberon,” when Mr. DennisNeilson-Terry, speakhis lines as thoughthey were natural to him. who plays thepart, usesall butone of thesame It might beinteresting to produce the play so that it cadences,pauses, and stresses that he usedin “’The expressedwhat Shakespeare meant by it, if onlywe Witch,” where he played Martin the adulterous priest? knewwhat he did mean;although this assumption is Theone exception is that,as Oberon,he does not based on the fallacy that art is didactic, and therefore neigh with lust; but it was obviously difficult for him to that the art of the interpreter is the art of ,misrepresen- refrain from doing so, for that was the great success of tation.But to imposementala conception on an his performance in “The Witch.” I don’t want to say imaginativecreation, to prohibit thereproduction of anythingabout Titania ; a thoroughlyundistinguished the very spirit that gave birth to the play, to reduce performancecannot We criticised. But,Puck? What hisactors to such a statethat eachcan only sayhis the devil have“screeds ofword-music” todo with little piece anddepart, hoping that the audience will Shock-headed Peter,who gabbles and shouts his way regard it as comical or lyrical, as the case may be, is through the play at such a rate that half his words are evidence of suchstupidity that Mr. Barker is revealed unintelligible, and who relies QI-L pantomimetricks of as the linealdescendant of Quince.Comedy, parti- entrance and exit for causing laughter? It would be a cularlyShakespearean comedy, i.s impossible to him, “fault to Heaven” if thespirit of the comedy of this becausehe lacks the fullness of spiritfrom which it play were to be suppressed so that the lyric portion of arises;and poetry,with its demand on everymusical itshould be emphasised;but to offer us only a few sense, is alien to the withered virginity of Mr. Barker’s verydepressed comedians, and no lyricpoetry, is to soul. reduce Shakespearean comedy to nonentity.Yet Mr. Barker can speak of Shakespeare being “so recklessly happy” in writing this lyric verse ! Butthe fairies have reduced even Mr. Barkerto LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. modesty. “Lackinggenius,” he says, “one considers “THE NEW AGE” AND THE PRESS. first how not to do a thing. :’ I submit that, in spite of Sir,-The South African papers, the “Cape Times,” in the preface, Mr. Barkerhas notgone beyond that particular,continue to discuss the National Guildspro- stage. For if there is one thing that the idea of fairies posals. The Rev. R. Balmforth writes in reply to a does convey to us at this time, it is not diminutiveness, challenge : ‘‘ I would haveundertaken to bringa Bill it is evanescence; and Mr. Barker has piled fallacy on intoParliament for the incorporation of Trade Unions fallacy to makeevanescence impossible tohis fairies. by which strike-breakers would be legislated out of existence, and every worker made a certificated member They could not vanish-no, not if the Board school man of hisindustrial group, paying his trade dues as an appeared.In the firstplace, they aremade to look industrial citizen, and getting his trade benefits through like an advertisement of somebody’sgold-paint : Mr. his group orunion.” Mr. Dean also further ,expounds Barkerhas discovered thatfairies in Shakespeare’s the Guildideas with much ability. In the ‘‘ Carpenter time were gilded, SO, although this is not Shakespeare’s andBuilder,” apropos of Mr. Penty’sarticles in your time, the fairies are supposed to be Shakespeare’s and columns, the following remark is made : “It is inthe are golden. Some of themare not merelygolden, but direction of trade guilds that the best thoughtin ad- are really substantial substantialas militanta vanced industrial circles is tending.” Mr. Chiozza Money in the “New Statesman” of March 1.1, discusses Suffragette.But lest these golden apparitions should the Guild proposals somewhat academically underthe suggest evanescence to a poverty-strickenaudience, title of the “Delimitationand Transmutation of Indus- Mr. Barkerroots them tothe stage. The trains of tries.” His fear appears to be thatthe Guild system Oberon and Titania are massed like groups of statuary, would stereotypeindustries both asregards their area in which nomovement is visible or audiblebut the and the numbers employed in them. A discussion of laryngealmotion of thefairy King and Queen. The thispoint should be undertaken by your leaders, I think.In th,e“Sphere,” “C. S., who recently fairy that meetsPuck in thefirst comeson with R. act said he would not read THE New Age any more com- twiddling steps, eachtwiddle carefully numbered and ments on a noteby “R. 13. C. He explains the press measured.Never were theresuch deadly serious boycott of yourjournal as due to the sensitiveness of fairies,or fairies that more resembled a barbaric newspaperproprietors and editors, for THE NEW AGE, SavingsBank. hesays, is often “frankand disagreeable.” How these But whatever they looked like or suggested, there is people .do associate words incongruously! To be frank is precisely not to be disagreeable, I should have alwaysmusic toexpress the quality that we now thought. But we well understand that what the press associate with fairies. Mendelssohn at least did not sup- wants is “ Current Cant,” a feature, by the way, which pose that the fairies were Shakespeare’s peculiarpro- “C. K. S.” declares is one of the best inexisting pertyor that they were typicalinhabitants of Eliza- journals. PRESS-CUTTER. t 668 5

THE POSTAL TELEGRAPH SERVICE. andhis friends turn to theirtrue missionarysphere Sir,-Although I attachlittle weight tothe writings among their fellows, things will move quickly. Mean- of one who attacksparticular persons under cover of a while, we must hope that the difference between propa- nom-de-plume, I have considerable respect for that body ganda on the conference floor and actualworking in of thought in which THE NEWAGE takes such a fine lead, Postal Unionism will be more appreciated by those who and therefore could wish, acting independently as one of naturally find the pace slow. the maligned Executive of “ A Postal Worker,” to offer If “A Postal Worker” honours me with a consideration some comments on the excellentlydrawn-up article of of the views I have expressed, he will if unkind, suggest our critic appearing in your last issue. that I merely defend my tribe, that the environment of Failure in Trade Union actioncarries as a natural a year has damaged me, and even that I seek advertise- corollary criticism of the Executive. It has done so in ment. If he is kind, if hemerely means business, he the case of the Holt Scandal.The Postal Executives do will drop his cover and meet those he criticises in the not complain. But I think most of my colleagues would proper place at Easter. I look forward to meeting him. plead guilty with me to nursing a very human grievance. N. A. LARSEN. We want to meet “A PostalWorker” and his peers in *** the open, and we are not likely to get the chance. “A PostalWorker” asserts, without offering anything A CORRECTION. in support, that ‘‘ Postalworkers were led as lambs to Sir,-Permit me to correct your printer of the article, the slaughter” ; that the Postal ‘‘ leaders ” were guilty “ The Postal Telegraph Service,” appearing in your last of procrastination and deceit; and that the National Joint issue. Committee have dishonestly used executive powers. The In the firstresolution down for Leeds (Postal), (‘in- reference to teawith Mr. Samuel, thelickspittling to tolerable tothe workers ” shouldobviously read Mr. Hobhouse and N. W. Durhammerely reveal the “tolerable.” The last extract given in the article is one colour touch of an old hand. resolution made up of two parts, not two resolutions. Inthe absence of argument from the critic we must A POSTALWORKER. assume that he is led to thesecharitable thoughts by *** consideration of the fact that the Postal Executives “ de- cided to postpone action until Parliament met.” THE “DAILYHERALD” LEAGUE, But surely the real cause of such ‘‘ postponement ” is Sir,-At the London Delegate Conference of the “ Daily to be found in the words of “ A Postal Worker ” himself. Herald ’’ League,held on March 36, the resolution set “ The prospect of a Postal strike taking place was, and forth below was unanimouslyagreed to. The conference still is, as remote as that of the Postal workers getting would be greatly obliged to you if you can find space one farthing of their fifteen per cent. demand.” ‘‘ We for it :- know that the suggestion of resisting the application of “ That this meeting of London delegates of the * Daily its findings would be so much blather, for the strength Herald ’ League, held at 220, Blackfriars Road, S.E., on was not there with which to do it.” If these things are March 16, greatly deplores the attitude of the ‘ Limit ’ true, will “ A Postal Worker ” suggest what alternative Company in theircontinued autocratic conduct in refusing course, other than making the fullest use of the wretched the right of the ‘ Daily Herald ’ League to act in accord- Parliamentary machine, an Executive could take 3 ance with theoriginal intention of its formation-i.e., Thenthe critic exposes thedastardly attempt of his as an independent autonomous body to support the ‘ Daily unpaid servants, half of whom at least must retire at the Herald,’ uncontrolled by any private interests. ’’ forthcoming conference, to wreck thefuture of hisand E. J. DIXON, their union. It is surelya wonderful deduction that Hon. Sec. to the London Committee. criticism of asuggested amalgamation, a criticism to *** which members areentitled from the experience of an Executive,should mean thatthe soledesire held is to THE TURKISH PARTIES. foist paid officials on the Society. The existence of such Sir,--Having conceived no slight respect for S. paid officials, by the way, was underconsideration by Verdad’s opinions from long perusal of his usually states- both the bodies now united in the Postal and Telegraph manlikeand lucidarticles, I amdismayed to find him Clerks’ Association, and waslaid down asan integral writing as abitter partisan. In yourissue of the 18th part of-the union when the scheme was voted upon. inst. hehas written : “The Young Turks,having par- The weakness of ourfriend and of allsimilar critics celled out Asia Minor among European concessionnaires, is excellentlyshown when he proceeds to contrastthe are now relieving their slothful and corrupt existence at immediate practical programme of an Executive with the Constantinople by instigating attacks on men like Sherif ideals which inspire, as an ultimate end, a small minority Pasha and Sadik Bey, whose only fault is that they are of members. Can “ A PostalWorker ” imaginethe patriots and object to the intrigues of an unworthy and membership he so flatteringly describes steppingright corrupt pack of scoundrels.” Thisis notonly grossly into Guild control? Surely the existence of joint boards unfair, but alsountrue. The Young Turks-the term is is an evolutionary step. rather loose, but I suppose the writer means the present What a pity the resolutions on our agenda which call TurkishCabinet-did not grant the various concessions for a Postal M.P. in each andevery one of the Parlia- he refers to out of gaiety of heart, but as a result of the mentaryparties were not put alongside thosegiven as financial boycott, asthe sole means of keeping the intended to fetter the bold, bad Parliamentary aspirants ! Turkish army clothed and fed and properly equipped for It is easy to see, Sir, what is wrong with “ A Postal the defence of Turkey.Whatever may be thought of Worker.” Hehas never been on the Executive of a Talaat Bey, of EnverPasha and Jemal Pasha-to name Postal Union. I have,for just one year.Long enough but three of them-no one could call them slothful ; and to learn thatthe majority of myexecutive colleagues their honesty-described as “lack of knowledge of haveideals equal toany advanced inthe resolutions affairs”-has caused diplomatists to wringtheir hands quoted byour critic. I make the quite modest claim to on more than one occasion. I do not saythat their them myself. Certainly the obvious ideascontained in administration, in integrity, would comparefavourably the Glasgow resolution quoted were presented to Con- with that of England,for example; but I do say most ference by myself six years ago, and have been revoiced decidedly that it is superior inthat respect toany ever since. My colleagues, moreover, areworking to- previous Turkish administration. To assertthat Sherif wards these ideals, not talking aboutthem. But when Pasha is obnoxious to them only because heis “a an executive is presented with a capitalistic blunderbuss patriotand objects,” etc., is to ignore the fact that he likethe HoltReport, with the full force of the Parlia- contributedlarge sums of money towards,and was one mentarysystem behind it, the ideals of the individuals of the chief organisers of, a conspiracy which resulted which compose it, and the fact that its members in con- inthe assassination of Mahmud ShevketPasha, and ference assembled have declared and reiterated for Guild aimed atthe “extermination”(the very word used in control, to formulate a strike policy, andagainst all the circular or pamphlet which he issued at the time) of capitalistictricks, are found to be useless as weapons. the Unionist Turks. It is notunnatural that the latter We found ourselves in hard fact supported by the spirit shouldregard him therefore as adoubtful patriot. But which is truly described butrather undervalued by “A is it proved that the “attacks” on him are the work of Postal Worker.” The rest is history. theTurkish Government? I know thatat the time of I would assureyour readers, however, that anyone Mahmud Shevket’sdeath a number of privatein- with an inside knowledge of Postal Unionism and of dividuals,mad with indignation, vowed to devote their its peculiar enemies is notdisheartened by the present lives to killinghim. Mostof themhave probably for- spirit of postal workers. Results in thepast are not so gotten their vow by this time, but a few fanatics may be bad as painted by our critic, andwhen ‘‘A Postal Worker” true to it. The men I speak of were in no sense under 669

Government control. I do not know SherifPasha, but how else onecan account for the inrush of women into 1[ do know several of hisfriends, and love themper- the working world than by the drift of economic events. sonally, forthey are charming people. But I hatetheir Surely none but the wilfully myopic can fail to see that politics, as apro-Turk, and for this reason : thatthey women did not trip into the rough, untrodden ways out would rather Russiatook Constantinople thanthey of curiosity,, but were forced into them. (From your own point of view, it would be altogether too much to credit would see an independent,thriving Turkey ruled by them with any thought-out motive for doing so.) others than themselves. S. Verdad would seem to share A little above the condemnation, referred to, you label theirstandpoint. I submitthat, in his view which I Olivve Schreiner as “a traitor to women” and a “Witch.” have quoted, he is writing not as an impartial English- Now, whether you consider Olive Schreiner a wordy man but as the most embittered of reactionary Turks. “champion of women,” OT an audacious dabbler in author- The Young Turks have many faults, no doubt-I am not craft, you cannothelp recognising in heraperfectly prepared to back them up through thick and thin, and honestmind groping along thepath of progress-how- much deplore the spectacle of anyEnglishman thus ever small the mind and narrow the path. If the view is backing any partyhere or elsewhere-but theyare not amistaken one, the viewer stilt neitherbetrays nor the monsters he depicts them,as compared with their bewitches. opponents. MARMADUKE PICKTHALL. It seems na‘ive of a Lilliput to reminda Brobding- *** nagian, dwelling on a pinnacle of good sense and intel- ARISTOCRACY AND MR. LUDOVICI. lectual honesty, of an elemental principle-yet otherwise rare,and strange, and odd things would notbe Sir,-IBelieve that, on the whole, I understandwhat SIMPLICISSIMUS. Mr. Ludovici means. I had asked him whether he meant *** that what is common to men is less important than what is not common, and to that question he replied first by SUPERFLUITY. another (“ Important for what ?”), and then’ by explain- Sir,-In a recent issue we were once more treated ing what this counteringquestion implied. And he ex- to a perfect orgy of feminine “ logic I’ of the worst type plained it so clearly that the best way of advancing the -under the title of “ The Superfluous Women’s Suffrage discussion toits next position will be for me firstto Week.”A four years’ admirer of yourattitude u on answerhis question, and then to follow hisexample to the economic (Guild-Socialistic) side of life, I cannot gut theextent of proceeding mainly by furtherquestions, deplore the second-rate talent you employfor certain whose gravity I believe he will recognise at leastas othersides of life.What, sir,are we tothink of the readily as I recognised the gravity of his own. book reviews of such a contributor as “ A. E. R.,” when To his question, ‘‘ Important for what ?” the answer we see her (I cannot believe it is one of my own sex !) is, (‘Good life.” amazingassumptions in suchspecial signed articles as But Mr. Ludovici would probably not rest content with that mentioned above? “ Man made thecountry and that answer, and for this reason. Heimagines (I) the woman made thetown” ! Maywe, as merereaders, be Human Race, and divides that into (a) Civillsed Men and permitted to know on what revelation “ A. E. R.” bases (b) Barbarians. Healso imagines (11) Human Life in this calm statement? Have I, for instance, not an equal general, and divides that into departments, one of which case for asserting, (‘Man wrote thearticles on Guild is “ the department of life known as politics.” He goes Socialism, woman the book reviews ” ? What would even further by speaking of “civilised men equipped (‘A. E. R.” have us do? How would “ A. E. R.” have for a certainfunction inthe political world,” for he us treatthe women who have the misfortune to be in seems to subdivide the “ department ” of politics into thisworld? Till me learnsomewhat inthis way of this ‘(function ” and that. “ A. E. R.’s ” views we are tern ted to judge ‘(A. .E: R.” So my first question to him is : (x) On what principle as (‘A. E. R.” judges H. G. WeP 1s-as a little feminine do you distinguish“functions” within the“department god who started ‘‘ looking at the world ” a few years sf life known as politics” ? ago. A terrible thought strikes me-it has support, too, The importance of this question will be especially in pastpseudonymities who havecontributed to your evident from what he himself says earlier in his letter, paper-can we be at all certain that ‘(A. E. R.,” Alfred where he asks : “ What are those differences which be- E. Randall,and Mrs. Beatrice Hastings are not all one come importantin classifying man, let us say, for the firm-are, in fact, not one and the same great personality ? twocallings of brewer’s draymanand medical manre- If it be nut so, I appeal to “ A. E. R.” to enlighten your spectively?” For it seems from this that to be a brewer’s readers. Meanwhile letyour cobbler stick tohis ( ?) drayman is toperform a “ certain function in the political last, and. review books under the safer heading of ‘(Views world.” If so, and Reviews.” W. H. CROOK. (2) Does the brewer’s drayman perform any other [Mr. Randall replies : I must decline controversy with function in the political world ? Mr.Crook for the following reasons, which I am sure Next, Mr. Ludovici does not make himself quite clear will meet withhis approval. He is altogethertoo for- to me when he says : ‘‘ If the democrat, with his belief midable anantagonist for me. Theextensive range of in equality, maintains that that which is common to all his knowledge is evidence of an inquiring andpersevering men in a state of barbarity-say,the soul, !he usual mind;and his astonishing array of facts is no less re- complement of limbs, etc.-is more important in classify- markable than the acumen manifested in his deductions ing men for civilised political life than, let us say, the from them. His power of criticaldivination is marvel- qualities of rulerand subject,(which generically are lous; andhis literary skill I canadmire and envy, but negligible, I suppose), then I maintainthat he is con- cannotemulate. I feel that THE NEW AGE isunworthy cealingessential differences, from thestandpoint of of sucha communication, and I suggest that it would civilised humanity, beneath a generalisation derived from be made more properly to one of ourlearned societies. man’ as a genus.” I am not certain of his meaning here I regard it is an unmerited compliment that so profound because I do not believe heintends to imply that the a thinker anddistinguished a writer as Mr. Crook is qualities of rulerand subject are not present among should have deemed my article worthy even of correction ; “men in a state of barbarity.” So that I shall next ask and I assurehim, and express my gratitude with the him : assurance, that hehas revealed aspects of this question (3) Are you classifying men historically or logically ? which would otherwisehave been invisible to me.] If- (a) historically, the7,do you mean that ‘‘ the quali- **-E ties of rulerand subject are not present among “ men in a state of barbarity ” ? FEMINISM. If (b) logically, in what precisely is the life of civilised Sir,-It is alwa s pleasing to a sensible woman to find men more important than that of barbarians? that aman can

this campaign of violence andintimidation and salaries to the leaders and officials-I don’t even trouble to discuss thematter. Butwhat I want to point out to every thoughtfulman and woman readingthis paper who is not hopelessly, passionately prejudiced is this. Note that Sir Harry Johnston’s taunt is that there are only about thirty women sufficiently “prominent” to get their letters, etc.,inserted inthe papers. If you searched the world through, could you find anything more typical of the age in which me live, more absolutelycharacteristic of the standard of lik andcharacter that prevailsto-day, not amongst the uneducated or half-baked “democrat,” but amongst persons of presumably some social standing and education. Forthe firsttime, I suppose, in tkehistory of social manners, it is held as a matter of reproach by a public speaker, that women are still sufficiently saneand con- scientious to be continuing to do their work in the world, quietly doing their duty when they might be sufficiently “prominent,” by which SirHarry Johnston means “notorious” h laSuffragette school of language and manners:to be writingto the papers,pestering the editors,boring and disgusting readers, with their “views” and “sufferings,” andexploits as hooligans ill smashing windows, slashingpictures and, policemen, burning mansions and the rest of the versatile pro- gramme. The miserable“perverse” women instead of achieving immortality in Suffragette circles, ate carrying on their work in the world, maintaining the home, rear ing thechildren, nursing the sick, caring for the aged, and the afflicted when they might be careering about the streets doing mischief and injury wherever they go dragging with them young girls who should be at home, with, of course, the noblest of motives-subjecting the unfortunate men who happen to differ from them on a political question, and who are only doing their duty, to outrageous persecutions thelike of which, as I say, n-e have never seen in the political life of this country, even at times when men really groaned under oppression, in place of ns now when women are treated with an indulgence gence that many--indeed I mayventure to say, being through. some of my solumns in touch every week with large numbers of educated working women most women feel tu bc wholly wrong and tll’it would never be granted if a woman occupied thc place that the ill-used Mr McKenna does ! As I say, I know nothing on earth about Sir Harry Johnston, and apart from his existence on the suffragette platform, with Miss Lena Ashwell and Mrs. Pethick Lawrence he may be a reasonable and fair-minded mem- ber of Society. If so, I must I repeat have. me not one more illustration of thedisastrous effect upon a man’s‘ moral, mental, and emotional being, u-hen heputs Woman’s Suffrage as the aim and object and beall and hope-all of Life, and Life’s wider and nobler issues andoutlooks are seen through the distorting, cramping-, narrowing obliquity of the obsessed Suffrage.tte--of which- ever ses It is. FRANCESH. Low )i. * x-

Present-Day CRITICISM. Sir have been asked by a friend to bring tl~ewriter of Present-day Criticism ” to expound and demonstrate hisstricture that Wordsworth’s “Ode on Immortality (C containsall elements for success, each of these success sively being lost. ” Personally, I cannot agree with that writer- that Cole- ridgeis a second-rank poet. if he hadwritten that Spencer, Shakespeare Milton, etc., were inspired by the Seraphim, and Coleridge by the Cherubim, I could have agreed with him For “The Ancient Mariner” and the first part of “Christabel” are the inspired and embodied imaginations of childhood ; nor have T found elsewhere so vivid a presentation of the glamour uf things as seen through the lens of young and pure eyes. Inspiration is never second rate. Child beauty is not second-rate beauty. there is one beauty d the flower ; there is another beauty of the fruit. I cannot agree u-it11 Mr Caldwell Cook’s assertion that Shakespeare contains the whole of Milton. Milton’s genius is unique, like every othergenius. Mr. Caldwell Cook’s “Play U*~J-’’articles are excellent 6. H. VISI Visiak *

Sir,--“Present-day Criticism” of this week embraces a. truth which it was my god :fortune to see demonstrated in an East-end music-hall a few nights ago. It is indeed the“vulgar rich” who not onlycreate ugliness and depress the people hut insulttheir souls into the bar- 6,- I

gain. My experience was this : I satin thesixpenny appreciations and disapprobations. I go to have nly pit of an East-end music hall and saw a working-class intellect stimulated, my sense of beauty appealed to, my audience bored to irritation for nearly two hours by an aesthetic emotions gratified, my artistictaste educated insane medley called a “Revue.” They did not like it a my soul elevated, my mind refined. bit. The house wasdead, and there wasno applause. The other day I came, and saw, and was overcome Towards the end of this “entertainment,” when the byCubism with a sense of unutterable despair. This audience wasbecoming dangerously restless, one of the is no place for me !” I cried. ‘(Back, back to auntie’s artists came out on a “front-cloth” and played an ex- drawing-room, and the dear old mid-Victorian floral car- quisite violin solo. The result was astounding; he pet, and the water-colours by Copley Fielding and Noah’s almost, literally, brought the “house” down, and had to Ark Cooper on the walls! ” Of a truth, Mr. Editor, I givethree solid encores. The music he played was am grieved for the Cubist, and my bowels of compassion classical. Now why should Stoll and the rest of the big yearn towards him, as for mine own little brother. Tu variety tradesmen deliberately underestimate theintelli- think of the prostitution of so much decent talent, and gence of the people f’ These “Revues” are simply being the beclouding of so many bright intellects, the young, slung at suburban music-hall audiences, just because the brave, the beautiful, emasculating their abilities on they happen to please the decadent patrons of the “Hip- the altar of this terrible goddess. podrome.” On top of this,the suburban halls only get a second-rate company. At the hall in question they cf . . . Ego adolescens, ego ephebus, ego puer have had five or six of these West-end “Revues,” and Ego guminasi fui flos, ego eram decus olei.” another is booked for next week. Is it not possible that Catullus, Attis, 11. 63-64. the principle underlying this incident runs without ex- Oh ! when I was a boy at the slade, ception through the whole of our society, reaching its 1 was easily top of my grade ; extreme form in such filth-rags as the “Mirror” and the Both in charcoal and chalk “Sketch” ? One thing I am at least convinced of, that I was cock of the walk, the people are inthe claws of vampires. “Present-day And in oils the first pick on parade. Critic” says the thing in one line, “Squalor has not yet reached the heart of the people” (my italics). ARTHUR F. THORN. Once the glory and pride of the school, I have turned out a Futurist fool, *** And the paint from my tube I expend on a cube CUBISM. That I’ve drawn with a compass and rule. Sir,-In my letter on the above subject, whichyou Far better were it then, asothers used, to ply the were kind enough to find space for, I referred to Cubism homely, slighted advertiser’s trade. To be an honest, as “the dregs of the Renaissance” squeezed dry. On horny-handed son of artistry, producing those pictures reflection I find that this admission is far too generous. of pretty girls whose brilliant complexions are solely The Renaissance was the gift of Athens to humanity. owing to the use of Pears’ soap, and those placards of Cubism, I am nom convinced, likeChristianity, has its bearded pashas whose ample circumambient cummer- origin in Jerusalem. It is distinctlyan Oriental cult : bundsare lined with the contents of bottles containing for is it not. written “Thou shalt not make unto thyself Captain White’s Oriental Pickles ; or, failingthis, let any graven image : nor the likeness of anything that is the Cubist obtain a pitch on the pavement, alongside in the heavens above, or in the earth beppath, ox in -the of his fellow-scrievers, and become a pavement artist. waters that are under the earth” ? And verily I say unto But no, hand in hand with his fantastic marionettes, you, by the piper that played beforeMoses, Cubism is wrapped in the solitude of his own diseased imagination, the fulfilling of the Law. he treads the measure of his danse macabre the way to Thetreatment accorded tothis great movementby a death.dusty HAROLDB. HARRISON. section of our Art-Journalists (I believe that is the neo- cognomen of the old-time Critic) makes the judicious grieve and moves the cynical to ribaldry. By the mass, with the exception of the lion-hearted Ludovici, they are as coy as maidens, as they toy with their new-fangled jargon of neologisms, such as abstract-art, space-shyness, content,rhythm, Poor creatures, they seem absolutely afraid of saying anything definite,or of coming to any conclusion on the subject. Without a doubt the Cubists have succeeded in establishing a funk : whether by phy- sical threat or force of intellect, I know not, and the Art- Journalist, like unto Agag, steps delicately in their pre- sence and takes heed unto his ways. Speaking only for myself, I am convinced that no in- telligent being, much less an Art-Journalist, could under- stand the true intent and meaning of these “abstractions” without a personal explanation from the artist himself : and six months afterwards, after they have been forgotten by the public, I feel in my own mind that they would be equally unintelligible to their creators. It is a wise child, they say, that knows its own father; and, contrariwise, it is an acute Cubist who, after a decent interval, could reconstruct his own particular reticulations. The British Museum authorities have supplied guides totheir treasure-house for the benefit of visitors. The Cubists, as they progress towards their inevitable ex- tinction, had better hasten to do the same; but, like all the truly great, let them cultivate a modest demeanour, and not refer us back for a parallel to their jigsaw Puzzles to those glorious achievements of man’s skill and intellect that erstwhile adorned the palaces and temples of Memphis and Hecatompylos. 1s it possible thatthey havediscovered thefourth dimension ? If SO, mankind must evolve ‘‘ larger other eyes ” than those we have been supplied with : an article which Helmholtz declared, that, if he had given an order for it, he would have returned it to the artificer as a piece of defective workmanship. I am not an artist ; I am not even an Art-Journalist ; I am simply a unit of that atient WANTED, post by German, aged 2 with nearly 2 years goose-necked public which planks down itsshilling at London experience. and good knowledge ofi’tenoh. Engaged formerly the entrance of‘picture-galleries for the privilege of view- in business, presently as teacher (Latin, Greek). Would accept similar oc CIerical occupation (shorthand typist). Willing to start at low salary wlth good ing the wares displayed upon the walls. In company firm. Reliable and interested worker, Could leave present situation at once with the rest, f cackle and quack my own little silly Box W. ~ ~- t MR. HUGH WALPOLE.

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