THE NEW AGE A WEEKLY REVIEW OF POLITICS, LITERATURE AND ART. Vol. VI. No. 12. THURSDAY,JAN. 20, 1910. THREEPENCE, INDIGESTION. 266 THE NEW AGE JANUARY 20, 1910 CONTENTS. PAGE PAGE A CARTOON: INDIGESTION. By John P. Campbell ... ... 265 LITERARYA SUPPLEMENT. NOTESOF THE WEEK ... ... ... ... ... 266 OLDCURRENTS AND NEWEDDIES. By John Hamilton POEMS.Alfred By E. Randall ... ... ... ... 268 Churchill ... ... ... ... ... ... 277 FOREIGNAFFAIRS. By Stanhope of Chester ... ... 269 THENEW ZION: A Poem. By Judah P. Benjamin ... 278 GOVERNMENTBY POSTER. By O. W. Dyce ... ... 270 THESTRIKE AT VOUSIGNY.By W. L. George ....... 279 ON GERMANSPIES. By M. D. Eder ... ... ... 271 ALEXANDREDUMAS. By Francis Grierson... ... ... 280 IMAGINARYSPEECHES.--VI. Mr. Ure. By J. C. Squire ... 272 MAGAZINES..THE . ... ... ... ... ... 281 THEFAILURE OF MILITANCY.By D. Triformis ... ... 273 DRAMA.By Ashley Dukes ... ... ... ... 282 PROPHETICPARAGRAPHS. St. Guido de Vaux. By Alcofrida 274 ART. By Huntly Carter ... ... ... ... ... 283 T HE NATIVITY.THE By Lucifer ... ... ... ... 275 INSURANCE NOTESAND CORRESPONDENCE... ... ... 284 BOOKSAND PERSONS.JacobBy Tonson ... ... ... 276 MODERN BIBLIOGRAPHIES.III. Jerome K. Jerome ... 285 Subscriptions to the NE W A GE are at the following whom a single appeal was to be made has received so rates :- many appeals that in its distraction it has answered Yes Great Britain. A broad. and No toanything and everything. In short, the One Year ... ... 15 0 17 4 election, as we maintained from the outset, cannot be Six Months.. 76 88 decisive on any issue whatever, and should never have . ... been held. Whatevermandate may be supposed to Three Months ... 93 44 crystalliseout of the ballot-boxes was as clearon All orders and remittances should be sent to the NewAge November 30 as it will beon Jan. 30. Nothingis Press, 38, Cursitor Street, E.C. illuminated by the election, and only a modicum of good MSS., drawings and editorial communicationsshould be will havebeen done for a mountain of troubleand addressed to the Editor, 38, Cursitor Street, E.C. expense. *** Advertisements are inserted in the NEW AGE at the It istoo soon yet, however, to raisethe delicate following rates: £6 per page ; £3 per half page; £1 10s. questionwhether Mr. Asquith will get from the King per quarter page ; 6s. perinch. All communications re- theguarantees without whichhe will refuseto take garding the sameshould be addressed to the Advertisement office. Mr. Balfour did venture at Glasgow on Tuesday Manager, 38, Cursitor Street, E.C. tocompare the respective functions of theKing and the House of Lords, and to hint that the Lords, veto and all,were necessary to the Monarchy whichin its turnwas necessary tothe Empire. The conclusion to NOTES OF THE WEEK. bedrawn was that the King might hesitate to give JUDGING from the results of the first day’s poll, which guaranteesenabling Mr. Asquith to clip the wings of are all we have at the time of writing to go upon, the the circumambient House, lest the Monarchy should be LiberalGovernment will bereturned with a majority imperilled. Mr.Asquith replied onThursday on lines sufficient to enableit to pass advanced measures, but withwhich ourreaders have been long familiar. The not sufficient to enable it to pass reactionary measures. strength of Monarchy in England lies in its weakness, So far so good. Thatthe Irish and Labour Parties not in its power ; and its veto was effective because it between them may hold the balance of power is not in was never used. The parallel,in short,broke down ; itself or in relation to an ideal constitution a good thing ; but we imagine that the state of affairs is still in flux but under the circumstances we do not regard the pros- andthat Mr.Asquith is still withouthis guarantees. pect with any particular horror. If Mr. Asquith accepts This means, of course, that affairs are still critical and office on theseterms Home Rule is certain, and pro- serious ; for there is no mistaking one thing, namely, bably the Labour Party will secure the reversal of the that Mr. Asquith is bound to refuse office without the recentdecision regardingTrade Union funds This King’sassurance. So, after all,we may haveOld latter will be a pity, since Payment of Members will be Moore’s prophecy fulfilled that Mr. Balfour will be the therebypostponed ; butthe former is an unmitigated next Prime Minister. advantage. *** *** That would be an odd, not to say a revolutionary, Of the particular results of theopening day of the conclusion of a state of suspended chaos. And not the election not much notice will be taken by the time these least embarrassed by it would be Mr. Balfour himself. pagesare being read. We refrain,therefore, from It is rumoured that Mr. Balfour, despite the drums of needlesscomment. The “ splits ” in theProgressive hisragged regiments, has no desirefor office under forces have been responsible in two cases for the return anyconditions at present. And no wonder. For he of a Unionist Tariff Reformer ; but it appears that they is far from being master in his own house. Moreover, could not be helped. We are genuinely sorry that the the number of hostages he has given to fortune in the veteran Mr. Hyndman has again been defeated at Burn- shape of promisesand half promiseswould prove ley. There will need to be some serious reconsideration ruinous. What has driven Mr. Balfour to such straits of the policy of anorganisation that has during a thathe shouldsolemnly pledgehis word that food quarter of a century failed toreturn the soundest would not be increased in price if the price of it were Socialist in England. His defeat is, however, mitigated raised by a tariff? No defence of philosophic doubt as inour opinionby thedefeat of hisLiberal opponent, to such a propositioncan be offered. His speech at Mr. Maddison, whose outbreak of anti-Socialism on Mr. Hanleymade a warwith Germany, if the Unionists Grayson’sfirst election for Colne Valley will notbe shouldbe returned, almost a pledge. Yet Mr. Balfour forgotten in the list of hisoffences. London has done certainlydoes not mean tomake war on Germany. betterthan we shouldhave expected. Birmingham is Thenhis letter and the letter of LordLansdowne on likeMoab, a Highburywashpot. The Labour Party the question of Old Age Pensions are pledges of a kind, has nothing to fear if it maintain the position it holds pledges that the Old Age Pensions Act may, after all, on the first day’s poll. be“modified,” as Mr. Uresaid it would be. More *** extraordinarytactics were neverdevised to secure a Apart from the measures already named we may say defeat while pretending to aim at victory. We can at once that the prospect of drastictreatment of the only conclude, as wesay, that Mr.Balfour does not Lordsbegins to fadelike the Cheshire cat. There is, desire office at this juncture. we think, no doubt that Mr. Asquith, at any rate, was *** in earnest about it; but the same cannot be saidfor Wouldit be unkind to suggest that Mr. Balfour is the other members of his: Cabinet ; nor, unfortunately, waiting until Mr. Chamberlain ceases nominally as well can it be said of the country as a whole. Liberal Cabi- as actually torule the Unionist Party? Two rams net Ministers have been as various in their speculations cannotdrink out of thesame calabash. Besides, the regardingthe future of theHouse of Lords as any use to which Mr. Chamberlain’s name has been put in casual group of diurnal politicians ; and the country to this election, theextent of hisinvisible influence, the JANUARY 20, 1910 THE NEW AGE 267 miraculous number of hiscommunications and the acutelydangerous Prussian Imperialism. We donot embarrassing particularity of his presumed instructions, suggest that Prussian Imperialism has ceased to be a would infallibly entitle him and not Mr. Balfour to the danger to Europe, but the critical stage is practically actualpremiership of theparty. Nothing ismore over. The GermanNaval Programme will ceaseto anomalous in this anomalous election, in fact, than the operate in 1917, by which time it is probable that Ger-. position of Mr. Chamberlain. We hesitateto suggest many will feel herself strong enough, not to make war flatly that Mr.Chamberlain is no more Mr.Chamber- on England-an intention that only exists’ inpanic- lain thanMrs. Harris was Mrs. Harris. But what are strickenBritish minds-but tonegotiate on tolerably we to think of a personage active enough to conduct a equalterms with England and America andJapan. generalelection like anorchestra, yet not able to be That was certainlythe intention from the very first ; permitted tohear the firstresult of itlest the shock and in the absence of an international fleet and army to should provetoo much? Curiouser and curiouser, enforceits findings, a reasonableintention. Mean- higher criticism can easily prove that Mr. Chamberlain’s while, it is unEnglish of Englishmen to cry out while innumerable letters,messages, manifestoes, and tele- their ships outnumber, and will always outnumber, Ger- grams are either colourless or consist of colours taken man ships by two to one. What, we ask, would Eliza- from his old speeches meditated on the illimitable veldt. beth have said to Drake had he demanded two ships for The final manifesto for certain is a thing of shreds and every Spanish one? In ourown schooldays a ladwho patches. It was not written with a pen but by a pair of suggested that Englishmen would not positively prefer scissors. We confess,however, thatthe problemis itthe other way would have been sentto Coventry. beyond us. Yetquite half ourPress, and especially of the pro- *** fessedlybull-dog breed, whine like beaten curs at the prospect of a two to one conflict. Possiblyone of the It is usually expected that miracles of nonsense will most salutary effects of the present Liberal victory will happen duringgeneral elections, but nothing can well be the silencing of these cowardly bullies.