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THE SPKAlvEll.
ui
PAOK
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Mr. 13ALIOURS Mamikmo 183
The New Humanitakiamsm i8.(
" y-V/.i/rv" 18;
The E(;vrTiAN Question Again ... 186
The Naval .Manoivrks 18'.
mu. i.idiikkdai.e on the ."situation ... 187
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ClLASCOW I'HorKSSIllfi ANDTIIEH! WiiKK In2
CONTENTS.
Lamennais
Out of the U'oklh
The VoL'Ni; Citizen at I'lav
Open (Juestions. iv.— Wh.ii can wc- do
for ihc Critics? '
The Week
A I'KENCIl TkOI'IIET OI- ICviL
.-V CoRKECTEi) Contempt. By (J.
Verse : 1'rom the Mountains
Letters to the Uoitor : — Thir .'Jitualion in Irclanti
M.P.'s as Company Directors
PAGE "<>4
19(5
i>'7 200
A I.ITERAKV CAL'SERIE.
Reviews: — Tl)<r Lalxpur Movenienl in America .Mci.in<f*ia ... I'rant.- and Russia — Cndtr the
J'liapire
I-ai|y Wilde's Kss.ays
N'itiorian Poets
Engraved Ijcms
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Kicardi) for tlic I'eople
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PAGE
By .V T. Q. C. 202
First
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2C8
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'* * The Fountain of Youth " is to be commended to every one who likes a rattling good story, full of fun, and abounding in incidents of the most startling and sensa- tional character. . . . It is seldom that a scoundrel is depicted with such power. . . . Whether we regard it> humour, or its pathos, or the remarkable descrip- tions of things seen or heard in lands as strange to must people as any under the sun» the work is one which ever>' reader will enjoy." — Scotsman.
BROOKE FINCHLETS DAUGHTER. By Marv
Al. I I. .. r.-t :^.^ ili;;-[ra[^d Iu..r.-.l-. - -. , :.; .,., , -. od.
" Fearfully and woiiderfully tragic is the life uf ' Brooke Finchley's Daughter,' and strangely ingenious is the method adopted by Miss Albert of guiding her heroine through il" 1.ih\ riiithiTi' :! :i/.s of a mysterious and distressing parentage to the happy cu! :i interesting heroines at the end of their sorrows."—
Clasgo:^- :
ARMOREL OF LYONESSE : a Romance of To-day.
\,\ \S .\LTEK liiivANT. With 12 ^li^lvtr.alo;l-^ i>y h . K;irii;ird. Cbea[)er Edition, crown gvo, cloth c.vtra, 3-;. 6d. \Shortly.
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London: CHATTO & WINDUS, 214, Piccadilly. W.
The Speaker
SATURDAY, AUGUST 1.",, 1891.
PUBLIC AFFAIRS.
Tin; Walsall olriti<iri. wliidi resulti'd in the return of Ml{. lIol.liKN. till' Liljcral i-aiululatf, bj' a majority of .■)."!!) votes, aseoiiipared witii Siit C'li.Mti.KS I'\)USTi':n's majority of 1,077 in ISS."), was no (lisa|)i)oiiit ment to those Liberals who were ae(inniiile(i with thr circumstances of the constituency. It \\oulil of course have been more satisfactory if we had maintaineil the ISK.") majoi'ity. But the position of Silt I'liAWi.KS FousTKis was an exceptional one at Walsall as well as in the House of Commons, and it was notorious that many jjersous who had steadily sii])ported "the old membi'r" under every vicissitude in |)olitics, had no intention of extending their aid to his successor. The tlimiiuition in the F^iberal majority was, therefore. anti<i|iated, and tiiere was a l)eriod wlien a nuich worse result than that secured in the ballot on Wednesday wa> anticipated. For the rest, we may i-lieerfuily leave our oi)ponents to make what cajjilal they can out of Mk. IIoI-DKN's diminished but still adei|uate majority.
Mr. Bali-(>ih".s s|)eech on Monday at Plymouth, though marred by some absurtlities — c.;/., his exhi- bition of tlie election literatiiie of AMsbeach as a proof of the extremities to which Liberal candiilates are driven — <leserved the careful attention of jioliti- ciaus of every class. It conlirmed the announcement already made of the determination of Ministers to introduce a County (iovernnient Hill for Ii'eland next Session, and it went some way in defining the character of that measure. The chief ))oint which Mit. B.^i.KofK made was that the jiolice wotdd not be jjlaced under the con- trol of the new County Councils. Perhai)s the most remarkable featiu-e of his si)eech was the unconcealed regret with which he ap])eared to contemplate the conscciuences of the legislation on which he and his colleagues are about to embark. Tlie new Councils, he admitted, would drive from public life the men who n<jw manage the local business of Ireland, the lanillorils and other ))ersons of social rank on the Crand .lury i)anel. This was deploi-able : but the necessity had to Ije faced -api)ai'ently because Ministers have at last awoke to a knowledge that they cannot meet the country without making at least a ])retence of an attemjit to fulfil the solemn pledge which secured for them their victory in 1880.
Till-: manner in which the Bill has been received by the suj)porters of the .Ministry is hardly en- couraging. The Diihliii A'.'/)/-! .ss openly charges Mu. B.\i.i"t)i"K with ha\ing surrendereil to the enemy: and though tlie language of the London Conservative newsjiapers is not tiuite so plain, there is hardly an attemi)t to conceal the extreme disfavour with which the Ministerial jjroject is regarded. One featiu'c of the situation createil Ijy.AIii. B vr.roiu'si sjieech is the irritation against the Liberal Inionists which it has produced on the Tory side. The Conservative follo^vers of the Covernmcnt believe that the Bill is meant as a concession to the dissentient Liberals, and they gird oi)enly at the j)riee they an> called upon to i)ay for the suiijjort of their allies. It is not very clear on what ground tlie\- take this view. Possi- bly Ml!. CiiA.Mi!i:i;i..\i.N" and his Birmingham friends may wish to cover their .ipn-ia-y decently by means
of a Local tiovernnient Bill ; but those Libi-rul I'nionists who follow Loan llAHTi.\(iT<i.N", and who are represented by such |)aiK'rs as the, TiincH and the SiJiclalur have no more <le-ire to bring about this change in Irelaiul than the Tories themselves have. W'liat, for example, does .Mu. T. \\'. Hl.sski.i. think of Mis. Bali'ulh'.-5 speech?
Thk death - blow to P.irnellism was dealt at -Mallow last Sunday, when Mr. Dil.l.o.v and Mr. O'BiUK.v both made sjjeeehes in which they clearly defined their attitude towards their old leader, and gave their reasons for refusing to follow him further. It was easy for them to show that, ever since hia own fall, he had been animated by the most intense selfishness, and had been striving to secure his jiersonal rexenge against Mr. tji,.\i).sTO.\i-: at the cost of the interests of his country. Perhajis the most important i)oint in the s|)eeches was .Mr. Dii.i.o.n'.s direct ajjpeal to Mr. Par.nkm. to allow a jxirtion of the Paris funds to be released for the l)cncfit of the evicted tenants, to whom they rightfully Ijelong. Both Mr. DiLi.DN and Mr. .Ir.STiN McCakthv are l)rei)ar('il to i)ledge thi'iuselves that not a penny of these funds shall be used for political pur- l)oses, and they invite Mr. Parkei.i. to name two representatives of his own side who may c'O - ojierate in the distribution of the money among the evicted tenants. It is hardly neces- sary to say that Mr. Parxkt.i. has made no re- sponse to this fair jiroposal. The money is now locked uj) in a French bank, and if he should survive Mr. .M( Carthv the full control of it will fall into his own haniis. The Frcinian'n Journal, it is evident, will shortly cease to advocate Mr. P.\rsei.l'.s cause. His friends talk of starting a new journal, but fear thai they cannot obtain the necessary funds.
Wk have dealt at length elsewhere with the International Congress of Hygiene and Demography, wliich has been held in London during the iiresent week. Perhaps the most notable feature of the gathering has been the manifest ign<irance of the general public with regard to the character of the Congress, and the class of jjersons by whom it is at- tended. This ignorance is ai)pareutly shared by Her Majesty's Ministers, who seem to be unaware of the fact that London has this week been enter- taining some of the highest authorities in foreign countries on thosetpiestionsof international hygiene — c.i/., the (luarantine regidations — with which Ministers in their jiolitical character have so much to do. No doubt it is trying for a member of the (Jovernment to have to remain in town ovei- the lith of August in order to jiay some marks of attention to a number of foreign sctiititts . but the Piiixi i: or Walks was ready to give uji his ])leasure at Cowes in onler to be present at the ojjcning of the Congress, and it is di-creditablo that none of Iler Majesty's Ministers showed them- selves ready to follow his example. The reeei)tion of our distinguished guests, though it has fallen almost exclusively into the hands of juivate indi- viiluals, has been of the most coniial character, and too much pr.iise can hardly be given to the haitl- worketi professional men who. with very limited resources .at their command, have fulfilled the duties which, in any other country in Kurope, would have devolved upon a dcjiartment of the State.
182
THE SPEAKER.
[Augmst 15, 1891.
TnK death of Mit. howEU. has beeu in many respects the most imi)ortant event of the week. The great American had ah-eady passed the age of seventy, but until quite recently he had retained his youthfulness of spirit, and still seemed to have it in him to do work for his kind. Literature loses in him one of its most brilliant ornaments : nor is this all. It loses also one of the most powerful representatives of the Liberal s])irit. His death, deejjly mourned not only in bis own country but in Great Britain, has been made the occasion of one of those mani- festations of the unity of our race which do more than any i)olitical treaties can do to bind together both branches of the Anglo-Saxon family. It was fitting that the QrEE.v should express her sorrow at the death of the most distinguished representative the United States ever sent to the English Court. It was no less fitting that the Poet Laureate, the greatest living mau-of-lctters, should give voice to the feeling of all English writers at the loss of one in whose hands our noble mother- tongue was turned to such high use. Nor have Englishmen of all classes forgotten that Lowell was one of the illustrious band of men who fought against slavery in the days when that " sum of all villainy "' was well-nigh omnipotent in America. The display of feeling caused by his death in this country will not, we maj^ be sure, be ungrateful to those who had the high honour of claiming him as their fellow- citizen.
On the 2Ist of February last the "officiating Secre- tary to the Government of India" infoi-med Mr. QuiNTOX that " the Governor-General in Council con- siders that it will be desirable that the Senapatti should be removed from Manipur and punished for his lawless conduct," in promoting some months previously a bloodless revolution which the Resident reported would be, " at any rate for a time, beneficial to the country." On Wednesday last, the Times correspondent telegraphed, " The conviction of the Senapatti on the chai-geof waging war and abetting murder is also upheld. There is no ground for clemency in his case, so he and the Tonga! General will be executed." The man whom Sir J. GoRST described as possessing "great abilities and force of character, and jjopular among the jieople for his generosity " is tlms doomed: while the story of JIanipur is already half-forgotten. Of the evidence ])roving jiarticipation in the murder of the men with whom, till JIr. Qi'I.vton's arrival, the SENArATTi was on the most friendly terms, we know nothing. It must be assumed, however, to be conclusive. Yet it is impossible to ignore the fact that the man now doomed to die might, but for blunders at jiresent unexplained, be at this moment a loyal adherent to the Government of India. If the story of .Mani])ur had been told of the l<'rench in Tunis, or the Germans in East Africa, the virtuous indignation of the English press — now silent — would have known no bounds.
It was the main thesis of Sir Henry Maine's last work, that, as the mass of the peoi>le have no real political opinions, democracy can only be ke])t going at all by i)arty sjjirit and corru))tion. .Mr. GoLDWi.N .Smith has recently insistcil that this view holds good in Canada ; and the proceedings before the Public Works Committee, at Ottawa, assuredly bear him out. Whatever the exact truth about each separate bit of bribery already sworn to, both sides admit that Sir Hector Lancwcvin and other ])oliticians were financed by contractors and received subscriptions from them for election expenses. This being granted, the alleged resiUts, or something just like them, must follow as a matter of course. The contractors had to get the money from somewhere, and so it came — more or less directly — from subsidies to railways and steamers, or excessive profits on ]5ublic w"orks ; Avhile the oflicials who might have proved inconvenient were kept ciuiet with presents of money, jewellery, plate,
and, in one instance, a steam yacht. And very much the same thing ajjjiears to have happened among the Liberal j)arty in Quebec, to which pro- vince most of the I'ederal scandals revealed apparently have reference. The north-east part of it, where the most sanguine promoter would not start a comi)auy without a subsidy from Government, is indeed admirably fitted by nature to be the field of a National Policy. And, imfortnnately, the people are equallj' fitted to base their politics — where religion is not concerned — on Government ai)i)ropriations alone. Sir Hector Lanoevin's tardy resignation — demanded some weeks ago by organs of his own party — will hardly help the Government much, and certainly does nothing to reduce the im- portance of Mr. Tarte's revelations.
Prices on the Stock Exchange have fallen in almost every department during the week, and iu some departments the decline has been serious. In Ne%v York rumours respecting the Union Pacific Railroad Company have circulated, and the price at times has been as low as 33A. At the end of April the price was about 58A, so that since that time the fall has been nearly 40 per cent. Many specu- lators must, of course, have suffered severely, yet there is not expected to be as much difficulty as at first sight might be anticipated. There is a large floating debt, and it is feared that a receiver may have to be appointed ; but many suspect that Mr. Jay Gould is at the bottom of the whole movement. Early in the year he obtained control of the com- pany. Then it is said that he sold his shares largely, and now it is susjiected that he has created a scare for the purpose of buying back. However that may be, the heavy fall in Union Pacific shares has disorganised the whole market, and caused a serious decline once more this week. In the foreign department the deci-ee of the Rus- sian (iovernment stopping the export of rye has led to a further sharp fall, and arouses fears of serious difficulties before long on the Berlin Bourse. The Russian Rouble has again fallen sharply, and as Berlin speculates largely in Rouble notes, it is feared that the losses sustained must be growing serious. Altogether the feeling on the Stock Exchange is by no means comfortable. Perhajis it is less gloomy than it was at the beginning of the week, but it is diflienlt to see any signs of recovery as yet.
The Dii'ectors of the Bank of England made no change on Thursday in their rate of discount. They are evidently unwilling to do anything that might cause a fall in the value of money, and they do not see their way as yet to raise it. for the receii)ts of gold from abroad still nearly e(iual the withdrawals, and at home the demand for bank- ing acconnnodation is exceedingly small. At the Stock Exchange settlement this week borrowers were able to obtain all the money they wanted at 1| per cent., and even less. Indeed, many members of the Stock Exchange were inclined rather to pay off than to increase their loans. In the discount market the quotation for three months' bank bills is still 1;'. i^er cent., but business is done even lower. Speculation in every department in commodities as well as in securities is utterly pai-alysed. Trade is not so active as it has been. The harvest is late. And though there is still some demand for gold fromabroad it is not sullicicnt to materially affect rates. In the silver market the jirice has fallen to i.")id. per oz. Speculation is for the moment rendered impossible in New \'ork by the fall iu Stock Exchange prices generally. In Eurojje there has been unwillingness to speculate for a considerable time jtast. The Indian demand is small, and neither the Portuguese nor the Sjianish daraand lias as yet proved to be so lai'ge as a little while ago was expected. The tendency, there- fore, is for the time being downward rather than upward.
August 15, 1891.]
THE Sl'EAKER.
183
.M
MK. BALFOUR'S MANIFESTO.
K. BALFOUR deserves credit fur the vi<roiir -L^l. with which at tlie close of ii loii^ I'iirlia- mentary Session he has opened the jiolitica! canipaii^n of tlie recess. Jlis speech at I'lyniouth was tiothin;,' less than a polititMl manifesto of (irst-rate i.njjoi-t- anee, and the only wonder is that it should have been made in the first week of the holidays rather than on the eve of the General Election. The explicit declaration that a Count}' Oovernment Bill for Ireland will be introduced next Session was accompanied by a defence of that measure, and a sugfj^estion of its character, which are at least un- usual when a Bill lies many months ahead of us. But the Irish Secretary clearly felt that some apoIo<ry and explanation had become ab- solutely necessary. Why are Ministers going to legislate at all for Ireland :J is the question ■which is being asked by their own supporters ; and it is impossible to doubt that with the majority of Conservatives this new departure of theirs is regarded with the strongest suspicion and dislike. " It is to fultil a promise and satisfy the Liberal Unionists," cry the Tory critics ; and thei-eiipon we see them calcidating with ruefid faces the precise cost to the party of this Liberal Unionist Alliance. We are by no means so sure that the Liberal Unionists, as a whole, are at all more anxious than the Tories themselves to see local government established in Ireland. The Spectator, at all events, would fain have none of it. But the heads of the party probably recognise the fact that they could not face the country at the (ieneral Election unless they were to make some attempt to fultil tiie pledge by means of which the\' secured their majority in IHSCk It is not because Mr. Balfour and his colleagues like Irish Local Government any better than the dull rank and file of their followers do, but because they know that to dissolve without jiretending, at all events, to put a scheme of this sort before Parliament, would be to admit their own bad faith and to bring disaster upon themselves, that they are embarking on their present course of action. There is, indeed, a cynical audacity in their tone towards the uieasure they are about to bring forward, which speaks volumes for the demoralisation that has fallen upon them. With hardly any pretence at concealment, Mr. Bal- four is legislating in the teeth of his own convictions and of the convictions of his party, in the hope that he may thereby recover the lost favour of the public. Ifc is the case of Free Education over again, and we confess that we do not envy those who are called upon for these repeated sacrifices of principle to ex- pediency.
The red - hot opi)onents of Home Rule can hardly have liked Mr. Balfour's reference to his own measure. lie frankly expresses his belief that the establishment of Coinity L'ouncils in Ireland will mean the withdrawal of the control of local aft'airs from the land-owners, in whom it is now vested, and its transfer to the occupiers. In other words, these County Councils, everywhere outside of Ulster, will be in the hands of the men who now send Home Rule representatives to Parliament, and who, in Town Councils and Boards of Guardians, are in a chronic state of conflict with Dublin Castle and the police. This may seem to people who really believe in the principle of popular control a necessary condition of affairs; but it cannot seem otherwise than hateful to the classes which have hitherto followed Mr. Balfour with unswerving loyalty. To the Irish landlords and loyalists, it must seem just as much a sur- render of the fortress as the frank acceptance of Home Rule itself would be. This, indeed, appears to be the view already taken by so strong a supporter
of the Irish Secretary as the Dublin Ejrprexii. Mr. Balfour, it is true, has his remedy for the evil which he admits he is about to create. The County Coun- cils will have control of the rates, and of all the matters btdonging to local government with one exception. Tiiey will he allowed no contnd of the police. We should like to know how long the Irish Secretary expects this restriction to last. It is hardly necessary to say that this clause is intro- duced into the scheme for the simple purpose of showing that (from the Coercionist point of view) the present Cabinet is not quite so bad as Mr. Glad- stone and his colleagues wouM be. Looking at the matter from another standpoint, it seems to us that the Tory jiroposal is very much worse than any which Mr. Gladstone would be likely to make. To create tliese County Councils, and then to withhold from them the control of a great executive bodv, such as the police force in Ireland, is surely a colossal blunder. It would mean not merely a renewal and continuan-^e, but a serious aggravation of the struggle between the people and the authorities. We have already seen Boards of Guardians dis- solved, mayors of towns arrested as law-breakers, visiting magistrates insulted, defied, or ignored by the police and theii- superiors ; and the spectacle has been sufficiently startling and disgraceful. In future, if Mr. Balfour's scheme were to be adopted, we might expect to see these County Councils similarly at war with the constabulary ; and the legally oi-ganised representative body of a district defied with impunity by men of the stamp of the police officials who figured at the last trial of ^Ir. Dillon and Jlr. O'Brien. Does any sensible supporter of the Ministry think that this state of things will be an improvement upon the present? We confess we do not wonder at the ill-suppressed apprehensions and indignation with which Mr. Balfour's most faithful friends have received the announcement of his latest scheme.
The Plymouth speech contained the usual declara- tion which is now the truism of Tory platforms, that Home Rule has had nothing to do with the winning of recent elections. It is a pity that a man of in- telligence like Mr. Balfour should think it worth his while to repeat this silly tale. It cainiot be of im- portance to him to convince his own friends of this assertion, and he will never be able to convince his opponents. The Liberal party knows that it is not only winning by-elections steadily, but that it is winning them upon Home Rule. It was the Home Kide cause that triumphed at Walsall on Wednes- da)'. That cause, strong as it was a week ago, has received new strength from the speeches of Mr. Dillon and :\rr. O'Brien at Mallow. It is no longer possible to doubt that between the accredited representatives of the Irish people, and the Liberals of Great Britain, the union which was formed five years ago is now stronger than it ever was before. Mr. Pamell's great treason has been exposed and baffled by his own most trusted lieutenants, and it is mei'ely as the tool of Mr. Balfoiir and the avowed enemy of the Irish national movement that he now lingers upon the scene. In these circumstance-; it is hardly wise of the Chief Secretary to echo the foolish fallacies about Liberal weariness of Home Rule. If the Liberal party were really weary of the cause to which they stand com- mitted, we might at least be sure of oni' thing, and that is that Mr. B.ilfour himself woidd be the first to abandon his proposal to give Ireland a system of local self-government. It is because he dreads a genuine system of Home Rule that he is now about to try his hind at the production of a sham measure of the same class. What its fate will be is already manifest. The Irish Secretary himself can hardly
184
THE SPEAKER.
[August 15, 1891.
venture to hope that he can earn his new 2)hin by means of Tory votes. But if he should shrink from carrj'intT a measure of this kind in the teeth of the opposition of his own friends in Ireland, there can be little doubt as to the course he will take. The appeal to the country will be made on the strength of bis scheme for local government. The electors will be asked to choose between his Bill and Home Rule. We could hardly wish for a more satisfactory issue than this, uor can the result of the appeal to the judgment of the nation be doubtful.
THE NEW HUMANITAEIAXISM.
WE print on another page an account, from the pen of one of its leading members, of that great Congress which — somewhat to the bewilder- ment of the ordinary citizen — has been held in London during the present week. There is ample room, however, for a survey of its proceedings from an independent standpoint. To us it seems that the Congress of Hygiene is not so much a forum of de- bate ; it is a sort of commemoration, the commemora- tion of a series of unsurpassed victories — Waterloos, veritable Borodinos and Marengos, in which millions of lives have been saved ; victories so inspiring and encouraging that there is no saying what may be done in a few years. Meditate ujwn the facts told by Sir Joseph Fayrer in his address upon preventive medicine. In the England of liStiO-"'.' — with one- tifteenth part of it lakes, stagnant water, and moist places, the chill damp of marsh fever everywhere, houses of mud or wood, small, dirty, ill-venti- lated, the floors covered with foul-smelling rushes or sti'aw, the streets unpaved and with open gutters, the food scanty (little varied, with few vegetables and much salted meat), small-pox, marsh fever, scurvy, and lejirosv prevalent — the death rate was 80 per 1,000; bv 1081-90 it had fallen to 42-1 per 1,000; in 1880 it had sunk to 17-85 per 1,000. These ai-e the true victories of humanity. But much remains to be won, as may be seen by compar- ing the death rate in London with, say, those in Bolton or some other Lancashire towns. Sir Joseph Fayrer calculates that preventible diseases still kill in England yearly about 125,000 i)ersons, and he cites a calculation as to cases of illness not ending fatally, that 78| millions of days of labour, or in money .17,750,000, are annually lost by reason of preventible diseases. One-fourth of the present deaths take place, it is estimated by some experts, from such causes, and it is pretty clear that the preventible diseases are being prevented. Dr. Priestley, in his striking paper on JIaternitj' Hos- pitals, brings out the fact that, while the mortality in such places iiuder the old ir'giiw before the introduction of antiseptics was o-i-21 per 1,001), it is now less than 5 per per 1,000. Well may all concerned be proud of such a triumph. No doubt there are disconcerting mysteries which so far have baffled investigators. A new sewage system is created in Salisbury : immediately follows an "extraordinary" reduction in the death rate. The old insanitary cesspool system in a Surrey village, to which Dr. Seaton refers, is replaced by a new and elaborate system : there results an epi- demic of diphtheria. The discussion in the bac- teriology section leaves the impression that Koch, Pasteur, Dr. Roux, and Dr. IMetschinkoft' are but on the threshold of the subject in which they are the chief worker-s. Whether Dr. Metschinkolf is right in his striking theory that there is a strugirle a out ranee l>etween the cells of the bodv and the
invading micro-organisms, the white blood cor- l^uscles seeking to devour the germs of disease, and vice vertiii, is uncertain ; the ways of those enemies of the race that work in darkness are obscure. But even with present knowledge, what an outlook ! For the first time we are within measurable dis- tance of a time when, practically speaking, all mem- bers of the community will live their full natural lives — will die only because the machine is outworn. Hitherto a large number have made shipwreck just when going out of port, many more sank when not half-wa)' across ; and now we are told that every- body ma}' make the whole voyage. If the average mortality of London in the latter half of the seven- teenth century was 80 per 1,000, and in 1889, 17'4, what may it not be in 1990 ? In that larger science of political econoni}', health is no less a factor than wealth. If the smaller science of jjolitical economy has been stationary, the more comprehensive has been advancing, and we look forward to soon seeing National Health Budgets which will enumerate the effectives and non-effectives of society, state the expenditure by reason of death and sickness, and the income in increaseil health, and so accurately com- pute the true national surplus.
In both branches of the work of the Congress, in demography as well as hygiene, there is an advance, and in both is a tendency is push out the dabbler and the talker and writer on things in general. Science is fast invading fields which had been left open to the sciolist. Take, for example, the subject of the future growth of nations. Here, until latelj-, patriotism or chauvinism was rampant. It said what it liked, certain that it could not be refuted. Through French literature ran a secret assumption that it was in the order of things that the French language and civilisation must extend more and more as the survival of the fittest. All this is changed, not so much bv reason of Gravelotte and Sedan as of the inexorable facts which demogi-aphers have made known ; the spirit of vaunting optimism has given place to one ap- proaching despair. The same assumption may now be detected in English literature ; it is taken for ^ranted that the Anglo-Saxon must eventually be universal. We, too, ought not to be over-confident : the results of the last censuses of England and the United States may well inspire doubts ; and the whole subject of population is taking a new asjject. Further investi- gations in this field pointing to new theories are pro- ceeding; what they are Mr. Francis Galton indicated in his address. "The whole question of fertility under the various conditions of civilised life requires more detailed research than it has yet received. We re- quire further investigations into the truth of the hypothesis of Malthus, that there is really no limit to over-population besides that which is afforded by misery or prudential restraint. Mr. Galton throws out some hints as to the true clue to the fertility of different nations and classes ; and he proposes re- search, in his favourite fashion, into the hereditary permanence of several classes, taking specimens of the least and most efficient physically, morally, and intellectually. ^Vhcther the true law of j^opulation will be found in that way, we have our doubts: jjarticular societies have, like other organisms, their special law of fertility ; in what is vaguely called race may lurk, as he admits, a part of the solu- tion of that problem. Crime might be cited as another examj^le that the day of the talker on things in general is nearl}' over. Formerly it was always safe to say that education must put down crime ; that if only we had schools enough, gaols might be shut up. Everybody accjuainted with the subject knows nowadays that this is most doubtful : statistical science attests a steady spread of education and a steady increase of certain forms of crime, and those
Auo-ust IT), 1891.]
THE SPKAKi:iJ.
185
not the least repulsive. Much was e.xpected ci Couffi'ess now sittinfj. We ciinnot sav more in its favour than that it has realised what was expected — that we liave liad ij^reat thenii's worthily discussed, and an \inusualiy small amount of social science chatter.
^'FUlMUsr
AGODl) many Englishmen will, we imagine, read the judgment of .Mr. Justice .Stirling in the Ailesbury case with a keen sense that their country- is still a kind of Laputa. We have nothing to say against the technical correctness of the judge's tiuding. It appears to be quite in harmony with the law. The Court of Chancery was asked to act as referee between disputing trustees of the property of which the Marquis of Ailesbury is the tenant for life, with a goodly number of remainder-men attached to him. Lord Ailesbury wished to sell a hopelessly encumbered estate to Lord Iveagh, late Sir Edward Guinness, for the sum of .t7.JU,U(.H». One trustee and all the remainder-men opposeil the sale. Mr. Justice Stirling's judgment was dii'eeted to the one sentimental ]>oint as to whrther he was justified in letting the wide and beautiful dcmiain of Savernake Forest go out of the hands of the Ailesbury family with a spendthrift and bankrupt tenant, but with an available reserve of fairly thrifty and well-to-do suc- cessors. He decided that he would not disappoint these persons of their hope of owning one of the great show places of Kugland, and of maintaining the traditions of a family of no gi"eat repute in the public service. In other words, Mr. Justice Stirling decided to retain under the care of a hope- less prodigal of twenty-eight, who lives on the grace of a money-lender, an estate which does not yield more than a very few hundreds of net income, which has been let down till it must be in parts almost below the margin of cultivation, and which, on the other hand, had the promise in Lord Iveagh — a type of the better kind of noiii-i'HH ricl(c—oi an owner of abundant resources and great business capacity. The farmers of Savernake will have to go without their improvements, and the estate will be allowed to slip more and more into " loop'd and window'd " rauiredness, so loufr as mv Lord Ailesburv, who may have forty years of highly useful life be- fore him, " is to this body.'' And all because Savernake " ought," in the opinion of Mr. Justice Stirling, to belong to the Ailesburys. '• Ought " is good. It is so modern. It exhibits our landed system in all its palpitating actuality. It is so like an English judge to parade a solemn array of precedents in order to prove the •' right " of a family of English Brahmins with the appropriate motto '• Finmns,'' and with a craving to recover a lost position in their caste, to go on ordering the lives of so many thousand yeomen and plouglmien. and to lay and keep waste so many tens of thousands of acres of a country that year by year loses a little more of its power to main- tain its rural population.
The human side of thi> tr.igi-comedy of land- lordism is not a little curious. The Marquis of Ailes- bury is a young gentleman who has had tive years' enjoyment of his title. His family practically dates from a cinny Bruce, who got tlie right side of King James the First's •■lugge" (we l>elieve that is the cor- rect historic expression), ami made haste to change the Royal favour into lanils stolen from the Cis- tercians in Yorkshire and an earldom of Elgin. Later, they married into the family of the Seymours, from which sprang the Protector Somerset, one of the ablest and most rapacious of the nobles to whom the Reformation came as a boon and a
i'lessing totally une.Mun'cted with tiieology. From this union cann- the Savernake Estates, which the Somersets origiuiiUy acipiin-d by nrarriage and (nily remotely bv rapine. The Ailesburys, first earls and tiien iii;irqni«es, havi- as a rule care- fully abstained from lining anything which might entitle them to publii' gratitu<le. They jobbed tiieir two boroughs of .Marlbonnigh and (ireat liedwin, which once returned four members, so discreetly as to earn the gratitude of George the Fourth and to obtain their step up in the Peerage. Up to 188r> they returned, with the trilling assistance of some few hundred electors, a member for Marlborough. They have the patronage of nine livings, which is of course dispensed by the young gentleman whom the Jockey Club lately warned ojf Xewmarket Heath, and who is described by his friends as a whip of quite fantastic merit. Lord Ailesbury has since and before his accession •' done himself proud." He has absorbed the little matter of the Cistercian abbe^', which counted for a good tlT-i.odi) ; he has placed himself on the books of Mr. Samuel (not Mr. George) Lewis to the extent of over t2()0,00O; he has had a brief and not glorious cai'eer on the turf ; he is said to have sported or even invented, after the manner of the First Gentle- man of Europe, a new coachman's Ijutton. His position as regards the i'O odd farms and the 40,niMi acres of Savernake is curious. Personally, he would not be a penny the better for the sale. He would have to raise .t2oO,(iOO to pay his debts, and the interest on tliis sum, together with the jointures and the outgoings of the estate, would reduce his income from Lord Iveagh's t7">n,(tiin to its pre- sent figure of a very few hundreds. It is not sur- prising that he feels the burden of his position, and would like to be rid of it. Probably if the three kinjrdoms could be searched through and through (not excluding Whitechapel), the)' would not be found to contain a man more unsuited to exercise any sway over the lives and fortunes of others, more unfit to inherit anything Init a pair of hands and the necessity to work for his living. But our excellent law not only condemns him to his heritage of woe, but sternly waves him back from his well-meant attempts to let in a better man. Savernake, therefore, remains with the Ailesburys, on the chance that some future marquis njay be rich enousfh to administer it with credit.
There is, no doubt, a certaui picturesqueness in a decision which permits Lord Ailesbury to legislate for us, to appoint (possibly under the advice of Mr. Samuel Lewis) to the cure of souls, and to pass over to others, though not to Mr. Lewis, the unearned increment of Savernake. The law allows it, the Court decrees it, and, we suppose, we ought to see nothing wrong in it. W'.iat, however, does strike us with some seriousness is not the refusal of the Court to sanction the sale, which, at the best would have exchanged a feudal lord of the better type for one of the worse. It is the appalling levity of a law which, in the mouth of a very able ju Igc, cimsiders a problem of wide human happiness solely with respect to what is socially " due " to an oldish, but in no wa}- a distinguished family of landlords. whi.i have fallen on evil days, but who have nothing but their own reckless improvidence to blame for them. Reading the Ailesbury case it seems difficult to realise that we are in post-Revolution d.iys, or that we have advanced very appreciably beyond the ethics of the seiiTniorial court. The Ailesbury fa:nily, with a certain anticipatory grace, have thought it wise to inscribe " Fuimus " on their co.it-of-arm-. Surely it was not too much to ask Mr. Justice Stirling to take the lead thus opportunely tendered him, and to wTite " Fuerunt "' instead.
186
THE SPEAKER.
[August 15, 1891.
THE EGYPTIAN QUESTION AGAIN.
ri^HE reflex of the excitement caused on the Conti- I nent b}' the supposed attitude of England towards the Triijlc Alliance has made itself felt in an unpleasant way in our diplomatic relations with the Porte. A fortnight ago we mentioned the rumour that the Sultan — no doubt under dijjlo- matic instigation — was anxious to reopen the nego- tiations as to the date of the withdrawal from Egypt of the British Army of occupation. Last week the Staiidanl announced that the negotiations had been opened, but were to be postponed until after Lord Salisbury's return from the Continent. This week the same paper has stated — evidently under official inspiration — that it is with extreme impatience that the Sultan submits to the jtostjionement. Turkish officials are strangers to energetic action, and consequently can easily dispense with a holiday, so that in one sense the Sultan's impatience is intelligible. It presents, indeed, a somewhat curious contrast with the slackness and the repeated delays on the part of the Porte, which brought Sir Henry Wolff's mission in 1887 to an abrupt conclusion. Then we laid down certain conditions determining our administration of Egypt, and pi'omised that the acceptance of them by all the EurojJean Powers should be followed by our withdrawal. The Powers liesitated, and the Sultan hesitated, and Sir Henry Wolff, very properly, did not wait for them. As to the influences which }\ave now stimulated the Sultan to act, there is no room for doubt.
Now it is quite within the bounds of possibility — looking at the way the Porte usually conducts its business — that the negotiations may not be left to the present Government to comj)lete. By the end of next year, at latest, we shall have a new Foreign Secretary, and as to the remoter future of our policy in Egypt, the Liberal party, whom he will represent, has always been divided in opinion. A certain section — of less relative imjiortance than formerly, but still very influential among the electorate — would gladly withdraw as soon as possible not only from Egypt, but from all foreign entanglements whatever. Another section would undoubtedly adopt an ideal which is economically impossible, unless, like the democracies of antiquity, we made our subject allies pay tribute — democracy at home combined with Empire abroad. Both ideals are outside the sphere of practical politics. With regard to the immediate future, no conceivable Government, Conservative or Liberal, can have any policj' save one — which is marked out for us by circumstances beyond our own control.
In the present si.ate of Europe, and in view of the progress of the scramble for Africa, we cannot allow the greatest prize in the latter country to be left a prey to certain misgoverninent and disorder. The inevitable and speedy result of our withdrawal would be the intervention either of ourselves or of some other Mediterranean Power. Even to fix a date for that withdrawal would stimulate other Powers to prepare for intervention. France must protect Algiers and Tunis, Italy her possessions — such as they are — in Abyssinia. The mere jn-obability of such an occasion would intensify all those international jealousies which are constantly breaking out in connection even witli such trivial ma'tei's as the sympathies of Ras Aloula or the religious orders in Tunis — and which even Signer Crispi, desinte his fatuous efforts to em- phasise them, declares he wishes to suppress. There is plenty of explosive material in Crete and Macedonia, in Servia and Albania, which may bring about a European war, whether tlie Triple Alliance chooses or not, witliout adding to it the indefinitely greater quantity which our evacuation of Egypt, under
any circumstances within the sphere of prob- ability, would necessarily leave absolutely uncon- trolled. As to the suzerainty of the Porte, from the Liberal point of view especially, there will be even less doubt about our answer. The Power which habitually fails throughout its own dominions in the elementary duties of a civilised Government — which cannot repress revolt in Yemen or keep oi"der in Crete or Armenia, or stop bi-igandage in the neighbourhood of its own capital, or, indeed, pay or clothe its own troops — cannot be given any fresh oj)portunities for failure in that part of the world where failure would be most disastrous. Our own work — so well described by Mr. Alfred Milner in the Pall Mall Gazette some weeks ago — will not be finished for years. Till it is finished, every year gives fresh justification for our jjresence during the next ; and until the danger of a Mohammedan revival is past— a danger which the partition of Africa is extremely likely to intensify — our modest army of occupation cannot be with- drawn. In the interest both of Egypt and of Euro- pean peace, we must at pi-esent stay where we are. By our work in Egypt we are justified ; and we are justified still more by the certaint}- that our presence there nullifies one set of causes of a European ex- plosion.
THE NAYAL MANCEUVRES.
THE general interest aroused by the annual Naval Manoeuvres is a hopeful sign. It is well that the public should endeavour to master the lessons they teach ; but it is important that these lessons should be rightly understood. Unfortunately in all such object lessons there lies danger. The correspondents to whom the public must look for teaching are frequently at fault. Their letters, often hurriedly written, may convey only the impressions of the moment ; the broad aspects of the operations as a whole may altogether escape them. The popular impression created by last year's manoeuvres was doubtless unfavourable. No powder was burned between the main fleets, and the C squadron disappointed expectation by going off into space, and striking the prescribed trade route at a point where it was one hundred and eighty miles vride, and no concentration of traffic existed. Yet these manoeuvres were extremely instructive. Sir G. Tryon showed how a fleet might be handled for the effective protection of the most important '• neck of commerce " of the Empire. A new insight into the possibilities of torpeolo-boat employment was gained, auol the young officers who conducted the attack on the fleet in Plymouth Sound clearly indicated the only way in which such an attack coulol hope to be successful.
Again this year the mameuvres have ended amidst a chorus of dissatisfaction, by no means justified, and arising prinripally from a want of comprehension of the objects in view. It is not yet sufficiently realised that instruction is best conveyed by explaining clearly to the officers and men con- cerned the nature and objects of all maud^uvres. Mystery seems to jjossess some inexjjlicable fascina- tion, and the i-esult is that teaching sutt'ers. The want of grasp of the objects in view is reflected from the officers to the press, and from the pi'ess to the general public. The manoeuvres of 1890 were mainly strategic ; those of 1891 almost purely tactical. The wide striking range which the torpedo-boat was shown in the former year to possess, naturally suggested experiments in new methods of dealing with this nature of attack. Formerly it had been customary to protect the battle-
August 15, 1891.]
THE SPEAK KK.
1K7
ship froin attack ai m-.i ii\ i|uick-lii hil; j,'"'^ .mil searcli-li<,'lits; atauchor.hynettiiij,'. A totally ilirtereiit policy is possible, however. In place of awaitini; its attack, the torpedo-boat luav l)c huiiteil down by special vessels possessing' '^vt ater speed and tar greater coal endurance, able in keep the sea in ail "weathers, and armed with nnnierous guns of the class which the torpedo-boat has most reason to dread. In order to bring this new policy to a test, Ireland was assnmed to lie the country of an enemy who had established ahmg his coast six torpedo-boat stations, with a view to attack Hritish commerce in transit through St. George's Channel. The torpedo- boat must have a jiicd a terre to enable it to refit, and to secure rest and reliefs to its overworked crew. The six torpedo-stations were thus represented by depot-ships anchored in solci-ted Irish ports ; and from them the - Blue Squadron " of twentj' torpedo- boats, under llear-Adminil Krskine, might operate at will. The " lied Squadron," under Captain Long, consisted of three old-type armour-cladj provided with nets — a skeleton fleet of battle-ships — and accom- panied by six " torpedo-catchers." According to the rules of the game, it Avas open to Captain Long to cap- ture any of the enemy's depots, or to cajiture or put out of action the opposing torpedo-boats, on fulfilment of certain conditions. The various engagements have been sufficiently described. Captain Long appears to have handled his vessels with great vigour, and the umpires admit his claims to the capture of two stations and four torpedo-boats; while seventeen boats in addition are regarded as having been put out of action for twenty-four hours. Under the rules, therefore, there is no doubt that the new offensive policy proved disastrous to the torpedo- boats, and their many zealous advocates will doubt- less jirotest against conditions which have previously been accepted. It is not for a moment to be sup- posed that the arbitrary conditions of the game cor- responded with those of war ; but the recent torped< >- boat actions in Chilian waters go far to show that they are approximately fair.
The great principle of strategy which von Moltkc upheld was to adopt a vigorous offensive. The Xaval Manrcuvres of Lsi'l appear to prove that, as against torpedo-boats, this principle is equally sound. It follows that to a great naval Power pos- sessing a vast commerce which must be defended in wai-, torpedo-catchers, vigorously handled, supply the surest guarantee of security. The torpedo-boat is, in the main, the weapon of the Power whose policy is the attack of commerce, and for Great Britain its uses are restricted. To have thrown new light upon a question so important, and to have, perhaps, supplied a check to the tendency to the over-pro- duction of torpedo-boats, is no small result. Our task is to study and grasp our peculiar and indi- Tidual requirenuMits, avoiding all temptations to copy measures which may be adapted to the widely different needs of other Powers.
Of the proceedings of tlie Northern and Western Fleets, there is little to be saitl. Eight first-class battle- ships and tw-elve other vessels — the most powerful squadron ever assembled — were placed under the com- mand of Sir M. Culme Seymour for evidutionary purposes in the North S>'a. and nineteen vessels, including eight battle-ships, under Rear-Admiral Fitzroy, assembled at Ben haven. It is to l>e re- gretted that the {U'ogranunc arranged for the former fleet was cut short by orders from the Admiralty, and that bej'ond the ordinary mameuvres of the signal- book nothing was attempted, so that no fresh light has been thrown on the much-vexed question of fighting formations. But the admirable way in which the mobilised shijis — huge complex machines as they are, with crews hastily brought together — fell
into their place in line, n-ii>its miiniti' creilit on the jjirniiiLHrl of J1..M. Navy, and is full of good augury.
Tiif (ii-riuuns liavi- proved to tii'- world the value of niano'Livres. To (;reat Britain the Navy is as th>- Army to < lermany, and something mcjri'. It is only by exercises skilfully planned and intelligently executed that tin- temper of tin- '•tremendous weapon " on which the existence of the Empire depends can be preserved.
MK. LIDDEKDALE ON THE SITUATION.
THE Xrir York III r<d(l has published a very in- teresting account of an intervii-w one of its representatives has hail with the (Governor of the Bank of England. For a considerable time past fears have existed in New York, as well as upon the Continent, that the Citj' of London had practically become bankrupt, and that scarcely a Iciuling house is in a thoroughly solvent position. Hence credit had received a shock all over the world, and men were afraid to enter into new engagenn-nts, not so much because they apprehended difficulties at home, but because they were doubtful what might happen at any moment in London. It is not surprising then that the representative of an enterprising journal which publishes issues, not only in New York, but in London and Paris, should try to ascertain what the real facts are, or that the Governor of the Bank of England should be willing to allaj', as far as he properly could, the alarm which exists. Briefly, then, his statement is, that with a single exception, all the important houses in the City are solvent. One house has been known to be in difficulties for at least twelve months. Its name has again and again been the subject of talk not only at home I)ut abroad, and it has on one or two occasions already received assistance. Appa- rently it is once more embarrassed, but its embarrass- ments are being considered, and it would seem, from what the Governor of the Bank said, that they are likely to be once nujre arranged. \Vhatever the outcome of the negotiations may be, it seems to be the opinion of Mr. Lidderdale, as undoul)tedIy it is that of the City generally, that very little influence will now be exercised upon the course of affairs. The credit of the house has been too much under discus- sion. For the past year it has therefo:-e been com- pelled to restrict its business in all directions, and even if it were now to decide upon wiiuling-up. the impression made upon the general public would be sli"-ht. At one time the closing of the doors of so threat an establishment would unquestionably have produced a crisis, but the public has now become accustimied to the notion that the difficulties are insuperable, and therefore little trouble would prob- ablv follow even if it had to suspend. The Governor of the Bank of England assured his interviewer that with this exception no important house is now in serious difficulties. He admitted that it was ex- tremelv likely that failures would ensue. After such a crisis as we have been passing through, with a breakdown in South America, and a probable break- down in Southern Europe, it would be very strange if there were none But these will be unimjiort- ant so far as the Money Market is c(.>ncerned, and therefore will not have serious consequences. South America is not able to buy on the scale it had been doing for years past, and it would there- fore not surprise anyone if there were to be failures amoui.: commercial houses in the South American trade. Similarlv there would be no cause for wonder if there were failiu-es amongst houses engaged in
188
THE SPEAKER.
[August 15, 1891.
trade with the United States — whic-h has been dis- ort^anised, as everybody knows, by the McKinley tariff — and in other directions : but these will be a con- sequence of events that have already happened, and most people ai-e now so well prepai-ed for them that they will not have much effect upon puljlic opinion. Assuming that the Governor of the Bank of England is right — and undoubtedly he expresses the opinion of the most competent judges in the City — the crisis is now drawing gradually to a close. The Bank of England and the Joint Stock Banks have been steadily increasing their reserves for eight or nine months, and are now unus'iallv strong. All classes have been at the same time restricting their risks in every possible way. Therefoi-e the liabilities of the country have been gTOwing smaller and smaller month by month, and its means of meeting them have been increasing. We may hope, therefore, that before long a more confident and hopeful spirit will arise.
Any very great revival, however, is not to be anticipated while Southern Europe and Russia remain in their present state. The ukase issued by the Russian Government forbidding the export of rye leaves no longer a doubt that the Russian harvest is a failure, that much distress, if not actual famine, is to be ajjprehended in extensive districts, and that, therefore, there may be grave political as well as financial troubles before the Empire. In that case there can hardly fail to be a considerable fall in all Russian securities, which, as our readers know, the French investing public have been buy- ing upon an enormous scale during the past few years. It is roughlj- estimated that the French holdings of Russian Government bonds at present are over seventy and eighty millions sterling. If there were to be a serious fall in those securities and a great depreciation in Russian credit, not only would French investors suffer, but the great French banks that have been active in converting Russian bonds would have an additional lock-up of their capital. Their credit would be affected, and 2)eople would begin to ask anxiously whether they could tide over so many difficulties — a fall in Russian secui'ities, following so rapidly upon the great depreciation in South American securities and Southern European securities, which themselves followed so rapidly upon the copper crash and the ■Panama Canal collapse. Hardly less serious is the Russian harvest failure as it affects Germany. The poorer classes in Germany live mainly upon rye, and they draw their supplies chiefly from Russia. The Russian exports being stopped, naturall}' the price of rye rose sharply. Indeed, rye is now actually dearer than wheat in the German market. And it is to be recollected that the German harvest itself is bad, so that the_ stoppage of the Russian supply is all the more serious. Already trade has been declining in Germany ; industrial securities of all kinds have been falling disastrously ; and people have been looking forward to the autumn with grave apprehension. Now it would seem that Germany will have to turn to the United States for its food supply ujion an unusual scale, and as she cannot export goods thither sutiicient in quantity to j)ay for her imports of food, she will have to send gold to make the payment. The German money market is likely thereby to be seriously af- fected by-and-by. and if so, there may be trouble on the German Bourse. Add to all this that the bankruptcy of Portugal is only a question of time, that the crisis in Italy is growing more and more acute, and that the financial difficulties of Spain are vorj' serious. When we consider all this, and bear in mind how deeply both Paris and Berhn are involved in the finances not of Russia only, but of Portugal,
Spain, and Italy as well, we can see that trouble upon the Paris and Berlin Bourses is only too likely in the autumn, and with that prospect no very great recovery on the London Stock Exchange can be looked for.
It is possible of course that the difficulties upon the Continent may be counterbalanced by a great revival of business' in the United States. That is the main hope of the City, and to a certain extent it appears to be well founded. The crops all over the United States are exceptionally good; the wheat harvest particularly is one of the finest that has ever been gathered in. The maize harvest promises to be exceptionally good, and the cotton is also looking well : but as the harvest in Russia is a failure, and as the crops all over Western Europe are deficient, the demand for wheat for Western Europe will be exceptionally large this year, and will have to be supplied almost entirely by the United States. Thus the American farmers will be able to sell all their surplus farm produce at profitable jirices as quickly as they please, and consequently that they will do better this year than they have done for many years past. It seems also reason- able to conclude that the railways will be able to do an exceptionally prosperous business. It seems also to follow that there must also be a larger demand than for a long time past for Euro- pean goods of every kind, and so, in spite of the McKinley tariff; there may be a better trade with Europe than there has been for a long time. Furthermore, the general expectation is that, when all classes are doing well, speculation in American railroad securities will spring up in New York, that prices will consequently rise, and that, with the recovery in American securities, European holders will, to a certain extent at all events, be re- couped for their losses in South America and Southern Europe. The argument is undoubtedly plausible, and, we should say, would be likely to be fulfilled were it not for the fear of what may happen upon the Continent. If confidence revives here, if every- body begins to recognise soon that the opinion of the Governor of the Bank is sound, that no serious failures are to be apprehended — and if, at the same time, there are no political troubles either in Portugal or in Russia, and no great convulsion upon the Paris or Berlin Bourses — it is quite possible that we may see a revival in speculation in the American depart- ment before the year is out. But, on the other hand, the fear of what may happen upon the Continent is likely to deter all prudent people from engaging rashly in new risks.
niROXICLE OP FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
rpi IIS week the comparative lull in international X. alTairs is not counterbalanced by any revival of activity in the internal politics of any of the Con- tinental nations. The French fleet has at last left Cronstadt--after a recei)tion of the most enthusiastic kind had been given to Admiral Oervais and the lirincipal otliccrs at Moscow — and. after coaling at Christiansand, will arrive at Portsmontli on Thursday next. Some of the loading French newsjiaiJers — the Tonpa and the Di'lxtts in i)articular — ha\e taken a more sober tone about the i)rcseut enthusiasm in France for Russia, and pointed otit the extremely slender bases on which a i)ermanent friendship between the two jjcoples must rest. But the popular enthusiasm continues unabated. Everywhere the Russian National Anthem is received with frantic ai)plause, while the stay in Paris of the Grand Duke Alexis and his arrival at Vichy have been the occasion of extravagant displays of interest and welcome. Of course, the people who attend band concerts and
August 15, 1891.]
THE SPEAKER.
1H!J
run lifter I'orrifjn princes ni'ed not re|>rosent t)ie mind <>r llie I'lencli eleeloriite oT ISlKt, any more tliiin the nnisie-liuU puhlir in London in 1S7S represented the mind of tiie !iKKi'ej;iite ImikHsIi eleetonite of l.SSO. Still, we nnist eoinit on ii eertiiin decree of friction with the Frencli (iovernment iind tlic l>'reneli press just now — even after tiie interutitionHl courtesies of next week — tis tlie b-Kyiitian (Question, to which we refer elsewhere, jirohaljly will show us very soon.
Tlie lonjj report drawn up in the name of the French I?ud),'et t'otnmission hy y\. (iodefroyCavaiKuac indicates that a limit will soon lie set to the increase of the National l)el)t of France. Comparing ISS;< with ISiK), the juniMal estimates for the ordinary budget ha\e fallen about I l.iKiii.iHIO francs, while the extraordinary budget, which was then in<'reasing the debt by about lil(i,()li(i,(Mi(l francs a year nett. will soon be suiipressed altoKethci', though about 172,<Hl(i,()()(l francs of this sum will have to liiul a place in the ordinary annual exiienditure. The last loan, it is hojied, marks the last ]iermanent aildition to the public debt. The extracu-dinary budget was oovei-ed by terminable S percent, rentes, which are now being reduced by about (iS.(i(iO,l)l)() francs a year. This may be set against tlie IT'J.odo.ood francs above men- tioned, and the expansion of the revenue, it seems to be ho])od, and the economies to be elTected, will do the rest.
Tlie French and (ierman autumn manonivres are this year on an exceptional scale. In south-western France, three army corps will operate against a supposed invasion from Spain — two niano'uvring near Dax, while a third will be in reserve near Toulouse. Near Rheims four army corps will man- CEUvre for some weeks. The idea is said to be as follows : — A German army, marching down the valley of the Marne on I'aris, has detacheil two .army cor])s to protect its left, which is threatened by French troops. These cor})s — rei)resented by the Fifth and Sixth Corps under General (iallifet — will meet the Seventh and Eighth C'orjis in battle between C'liau- inont andBrienne thefirst head(iuarters resiiectively of the two armies on Sejjtember (ith and 7th. The (ierman army will then retreat, but another battle will take i)lace on Sei)teml)er Utli ami lOth between Bar-sur-Aube anil Troves. On September rJth, both armies are to unite under General Saussier, anil fight against an imaginary enemy near N'itry le Franvois. On Sejitember 11th the Pn-sidont will review them.
The German manoeuvres are to take i)lace near Cassel, and also in the Grand Dueliy of Baden. In the latter, two army coi-ps are to resist an im- aginary French army, which, coming by Belfort, is sni)posed to have driven them back. A battle is to take place close to the Swiss border at Basel, the (•ernian troo])s being reinforced by means of a new " strategic" line of railway from Constance. After- wards some 4(),(i()0 men are to mameuvre in Alsace.
Alarming rejiorts have been current, esi)ecially in France, as to the recent accident to the (ierman Emperor. His knee has certainly been severely in- jured— the kneecai), it is said, being dis])laced by his fall on board his yacht and its treatment may not have been very successful. I'rof. Esmarch, of Kiel, whose reputation as a surgeon is European, has. however, seen him, and reassuring reports have been issued from oHicial and semi-oflicial sources, though there is some discrepancy between them.
There has been fresh excitement about the " Bochum scandals." Herr Fussangel, the West- libalian journalist who had been sentenced to a term of imju'lsonment for lil)elling the income tax assessment committee of the town, and had made startling revelations during the trial as to the possession by the leading iron manufactory of the neighbourhood of forged (iovernment stanijis for marking rails as a sign that they had passeil the requisite tests, had been accorded a respite, and continued to publish his revelations. Kaily last week he was summoned to undi'i-go his imprison- ment : but he was not ready, and preferred to go
aliroail. His fiii-ud'- of course hi-ld tliat some high ollicial was interesteil in putting a si(,p to the publication. Indeed, n certain eagerness in that direction has been vi--ible in olVn-ial rpiurtei-s from the lirst. On Saturday morning, the body of Heii- .Steiger, the chief engineer of the woi-ks, was found near them, with a pistol lying beside it. Ap|>ear- ances pointed to suicide rumour at lirst said even to murder by persons interested in checking the revelations; but it i- now said that it is he who originally furnished the information to llerr l-'nsn- angel's pai)er.
The (ierman l.ilier.il party are exultant over the result of a bye-election at Tilsit in East I'l-ussia. In si)ite, it is said, of the grossest abuse of their power by the oHicials, the Conservatives, who have helil the seat since ISSl.have polled nearly twenty jjer ci-nt. fewer votes than at a bye-election in l-'ebruary of last year. They attribute the l/iberal victory to the Socialist vote : but it is very small, and the Socialist journals counselled abstention. The hands of the Liberals will now be considerably strengthened in the campaign against the maintenance of the grain duties, which at present lills so large a s))ace in their papers.
Both rye and wheat rose sharply in Berlin on .Saturilay in antici|)ation of the jn-ohibition of the ex])ort of grain from Russia, and still more on Wednesday — rye being now deaier than wheat. Though the rejiort was exjiressly denied on .\londay in a semi-official organ, a ukase was jiubli^hed next day absoluti'ly jirohibiting the export of rye and rye-meal from the Russian ports on the Baltic and Black .Sea, or over her AVestern frontiers. The movement of grain is to be facilitated by reducing railway rates; jmblic works are to be inidertaken : the distressed peasants are to have firewood free from the Crown forests, and grain is to be i)\irchased and issued to them by the local authorities. How the purchase money is to be raised is not stated, anil the funds available for the i)tiri)ose are known to be sca:ity. The measure will maiidy affect (iermany, where rye is a stajjle food, nearly ninety )ier cent, of that used last year having, according to the Ti)ii< s. come from Russia. It is a severe blow to the oj)tiinist view as to harvest i)rospects so lately ex)iressed by the (ierman Chancellor. According to one view, it lias a political object- -to damage (iermany : but the state of Russia makes this hyi)othesis a violation of the scientific rule not to sui)i)ose more causes than are necessary to explain the facts. But it is semi-otlieiallj- announced that the grain duties in Germany will be neither suspended nor reduced.
The yoiuig King of Servia has passeil through X'ienna and reached Isclil. on his vi-it to the Emjieror of Austria. The Austrian i)ress, of course, are hastening to remind Servia that Austria is her friend, not Russia. In the Russo-Turki-h war. it is said, it was Austria that saved her after the defeat of Alexiuat/. : and if she will only moderate her I'an?lavist aspirations, Austria will be able to secure to her a substantial share of the heritage of the Sultan.
The Hiuigarian .Mini-try h.is passed its new County (iovernment Hill of two clauses, empowering the (iovernment to appoint certain otiicials and to make regulations as to local goverinnent. This cen- tralisation, it is said, will o]ien up the eountr.v. which is notoriously rich, but unilcveloi>ed. to foreign cai)ital. The new magistrates will be far easier to deal with than the old si|uirearchy.
The failure of the leading bank at Trieste, owing to defalcations by a s))eculating clerk, iind a series of horrible murder- of Viennese -ervant-girl-. who were decoveil awa>' by a woman ami her husband under pretence of liuding them situations, are items of .Vnstrian news this week.
A hitch has aiisen on the Swiss side in the negotiati(Mis between .Switzerland, (iermany. and Austria for a commercial treaty. But Switzer- land has had other things to think about. The Federal festival is just over, and Berne, which
190
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[August 15, 1891.
has been oi-c-iii)ying the interval with a Geograjjliical Congress, is now celebrating the seventh centenaiy of her I'oiindation. Tiie historical plaj-, annoiniced for to-day and to-morrow at 0 a.m., may be witnessed by about l!t,()()0 persons, of whom ten thousand are to be j)rovided with scats connnanding a good view of the stage, while eight thousand more will have standing room. About 900 j)ersons will be on the stage at once, while 1,100 will take i)art in the liis- torical jirocession of Monday. The school-children's festival on Saturday afternoon should also be a striking featui'e, anil some curious athletic sjjorts, luitive to various ])arts of the canton, will, it is said, be a feature of the celeliration.
The International Labour Congress, which will meet on Sunday at Brussels, will ])robably exhibit the considerable dissensions now existing among the Socialists, especially in Germany, on the (|Uestion of Internationalism c. Nationalism.
JJjevat J'acha, the Governor of Crete, has man- aged to restore order among the Mahommedans round Heraclia. But insurgent Greek bands had begun to land in Crete, the Greek Nationalist press has been urging the Greek Government to intervene, and a section of the Greek inhabitants have, it is said, invited English interference.
Two Frenchmen, managers of a French wine- growing company in Turkey, have been carried off by brigands from near Heraclia, in European Turkey, not far from the Sea of Marmora, and a ransom of eCT5,()00 demanded. The place is within a hundred miles of the scene of the recent train rol)bery, and the band is said to be the same. The French (iovernment has insisted that the Porte shall secure their rescue, and both are now fi'ee.
Four American warships have been sent to China to i)rotect American citizens who may be endangered by the ])oi)ular ujn-ising against the missionaries.
THE INTERNATIONAL HEALTH CONGRESS.
(By ONE OF THE PRESIDENTS.)
ri"^TIE complete success of the Seventh International X Congress of Hygiene and Demogra])liy, holding this week its meeting in London, is now assiu'ed. This is not merely evident from the large mnnber — close ujion three thousand British and Foreign men of science who have enrolled their names on the ofiicial list of members, but still more from the charactei- and position of those names. There is scarcely a country professing any claim to be termed civilised which has not sent delegates, and it may safely lie said that so long a list of men of light and leading in the numerous subjects essential to the health and well-being alike of the individual and of the connmniity lias never liitherto been brought together. One has only to glance down the lifty clo.sely-iirinted jiages of theonicial list toconvince one- self that tlie meeting togetlusr of so many ennnent men must of itself prove fruitful of good results : but when we look over the printed abstract of the jiapers which have been or are about to be communicated to the Congress, even those initiated into the mysteries of bacteriology and demograi)hy may be forgiven if a feeling of bewilderment at the innuense variety and imjOTrtance of the subjects discussed and the ])robleins ))ut forward, occasionally oppresses them. The inaugural meeting in St. .James's Hall on Monday afternoon was a foretaste of what was to come. The hall was crowded to sulTocatiou witli delegates not only from every Kuro])ean coiuitry, but with many others, both men an<l women, hailing fi'om the far East of our great Indian ]"]mpire. Doubtless the pri;sence of our genial I'rince on this occasion added to the rush of the foreigners, and that great aiulience which heard the short address delivered I)y the I'l'ince, as President of the Congress, and listened to the feeling reference he made to his own recovery from severe illness some twenty years ago. nnist have felt that the interest he takes in hj-gienic and sani-
tary (piestions is real and vivid. But the absence, at the Prince's side, of every member of Her Majesty's (iovernment ^yas much commented on. .Surely on such an occasion it would have been only courteous to our eminent guests that if the Prime Minister could not appear, at least some member of his Cabinet might have been told off for this dutj'. Such an omission is not likely to raise the opinion of foreign men of science as to the importance which attaches in the mind of tlie successor of Bea<'onsfield to that statesman's well-worn phrase of minitas oxmia sanilas.
The Congress is divided into ten sections, each presided over by an i'higlishman distinguished for his knowledge of the special branch, and supported by a long list of vice-presidents and mendjers of Council both foreign and British. These sections are all conveniently housed in the rooms of the various scientific societies in Burlington House ; and this we Londoners may say with truth, that in none of the great Continental cities in which the former Congresses have been held has the accommoda- tion for the sectional work been so amjile or so complete as it is hei-e. It is somewhat difficult for the ordinary mind to grasp the extent of the subjects treated of under Hygiene, and still more puzzling to know what is the term under- stood by Demographj^— and how jiuzzling it is, may be seen from the fact that the Times of Wednesday spells it in large capitals " Domo- grapliy." That the former is more extensive than the latter is clear from the fact that nine of the ten sections are devoted to Hygiene, whilst one suffices for Demography. This, we find, is after all nothing more than our old friend Social Science, dressed up to deal with Industrial Hygiene, and with the con- ditions of communities from a statistical point of view. It is presided over by Mr. Francis Galton, the right man in the right place. He naturally gave an interesting, though avowedly a somewhat speculative, address on the betterment of the human race, in which he called njjon his brother " Demographers " to aid in raising the present miserably low standard of the li'iman family to one '• in which the Utopias in the dreamland of philanthropy may become jjractical jjossibilities." Proposals to assist in securing this laudable consummation is the work in which the nine hygienic sections are in fact engaged ; but it is of a modest character — these sections concern themselves with very special matters. But as " many a mickle makes a muckle," so the exact investigation of the phases of life of a single microbe may open out a method of prevention for some of life's greatest ills, and the atteution to what may be thought by some to be only petty details may save thousands if not millions of lives. So each section brings its own contributions of facts and conclusions to the general weal, and matters which to the outsider seem most trivial tiu-n out to play an important ])art in the complicated ])henon>ena of life.
■That much has been already done during the last half-century to imjirove the conditions of healthy living, all acknowledge; but when Sir Josei)h Fayrer tells us that one-fourth of all the mortality of England is caused liy jjreventible disease, we feel how much more has still to be accomjilished. In this great work of life-saving every man of science has, or may have, his share. The chemist and jjhysicist, as Sir Henry Roscoe reminds us in his Presidential atldress, work at the foiiudation of things. They have to study the laws and explain the phenomena upon which deiJend Ijoth physiology — the science of the body in health and pathology — treating of the body diseased ; and. without the hel]) of the chemist and the jjhysicist, neither the ))hysiologist nor the pathologist can do nuich.
The great interest of the day doubtless attaches to the Bacteriological section, so ably presided over by Sir Joseph Lister. It is here that the newest and most startling revelations of modern science are to be looked for. Thus it has long been a puzzle to surgeons why in certain cases wounds heal well even
August 15, 1891.]
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191
■when tlie i)atient.s are exjiosed to coiKlitioiis usually fatal to ciinitive processes. On the batthvlidd wounds of the most serious eiiaracter, dressed l)adly, or not dressed at all, and swarming with i)ois{>nous haeteria, are known someiinics to heal almost mirac\ilously. .MetsehnikolT, of the Institut Pasteur, has explained this a|)parent anomaly. Jt is true that in sueh eases the outside and visihle jiarts of the wound swarm witli i)athogenie organisms, but the intei-nal surface of the wounded tissue is found to be i)orfeetly healthy and (juito free from them, for soon after the wound is made, the wandering i)ha- goeytes are seen to pass out from the healthy l)lood- vessels, and tliey at once sei/.e ujion and devour any poisonous bacteria with which they come in contact, and thus preserve in a healthy condition the layer nearest to the wounded llesh. and enable tlie pro- ce.sses of re-formation of tissue to go on. Such a battle is always being fought, but the victory some- times comes to the invading ho-^t, and it is only wlien the defending forces are of sullicient number to rejjel the attack that the citailel can be held. So that to ensure a successful defence, aid in the shajjc of bac- tericidal material must be brought in from outside, andthisconstitutesthe i)rinciple of antisei)tic surgery. Otlier sections concern themselves with no less important questions. We have Sir Nigel Kingscoto presiding over that iu which the relations of the disease.s of animals to those of man are discussed. Roux of Paris discourses in ehxpient French on the pro|)agation and prevention of rabies, whilst the question of the infection of food is treated of by Brieger of Berlin. Next comes Mr. Diggle's section in which the hygiene of infancj-, childhood, and school-life, is considered. Then engineering in re- lation to sanitation is confessedly an imi^ortant subject : the burning (jiiestions of sewerage and sewage disposal, water sup))ly. ])ollution of rivers, and tow)i refuse, being discussed under Sir John Coode. Lastly come naval and military hygiene under Lord "Wantage, and State hygiene under Lord Basing. Here is at anj- rate sco])e wide enough : and the crowded condition of the sections, as well as the animated discussions which have taken i^laee, show that a real interest is taken Ijy all present in the legitimate business: so that this Congress is by no means a gigantic scientific ])icnic — though the social attractions of the meeting are most alluring — but an assembly of men determined to do what in them lies to better the condition of their fellows of every rank and of every nation.
JAMES Kl'SSELL LOWELL.
MR. LOWELL'S death makes agreatgaj) in many associations; but Englishmen will think of him first, perhaps, not as the accom])lished man of letters, but as a rejiresentative of the Ijest tyi)e of American citizenship, as a iiatriot who \vas never blind to the de- fects of his country, as a iiublic man who made the cul- ture of kindliness between two great nations, allieil by blood and s))eech, no small i)art of his life. It seems odd now to look back to the jjcriod of "storm and thrust," when the American democracy was con- vulsed by civil war, and fiiul Mr. Lowell amongst the foremost to chide England for that sympathy with the Soutli which was certainly manifested by aclass. Those were the times when the brilliant writer, who little thought that he would one day charm English audiences with the oratory which is the highest exiiression of a good digestion, bade Englishmen with some sternness not to take too literally " w hat- ever our Minister may say in the effusion that comes after ami)le dining." The Minister who suffered this re]n'oach was Mr. Reverdy .Johnson, whose after-dinner cordialit.\' was contrasti'd by Mr. Lowell with Mr. Adam-'s warning, "My lord, this means war." Still more interesting in this retrospect of extinct animosities is the famous protest from Jonathan in the " Biglow Papers."
•■ It il.in't v • rn lianlly H«lit, .l'<l.ii, AVlnii Ij'.th my li«ii(l« wuH lull, To stiiiiiij iii> t'l 11 liKht, .lulin, Vi.ii ( ouniu, III, ,I(j|iti Uull ! Oil- Cncli' S, Mv. he, ' I ifucss
W'- liMuw it now,* Hi-/, ho, 'Thij linn's j.riw is iiU the law,
Accor.liii' ti) .1. U , Tht-l's fit fi-r yoti an' nii3 I '"
There is more i)athos than fierceness in these lines, and it is easy to understiintl now the passionate sense of injustice which insjtiied them. Then and later Mr. Lowell stood for what was Ijest in American man- hood. No writer diil so much to hclj) the cause which triumithed over slavery. Xo jjolitician had a higher concejitionof statesmanship than he whowrote the noble eulogy of Lincoln, and who believed that his country came victoriously out of a great struggle by virtue of " heroic energy, jjersistence, and self- reliance." In latter da\s there; were some .\merican.s who were indis|)osed to remember these services to the conunonweal, and who treated .Mr. Lowell as if lie were indifferent to the national sentimc-nt and wedded to European ideals. But to the end of his life he was keeidy sensitive for the honour of hU country. Never a strong i»arty man, he took small interest in the sordid struggles which make the chief interest of American ])olitics. A true friend of democrac}', he never hesitated to speak his mind about those Avho betrayed the i)ublic welfare. His denunciations of corrui)tion were as scathing as hi.s satires on the slaveholders. He had a great con- tempt for Fourth of July orators, who "debased the standard of gieatncss," and he warned his cr)untry- men that "i)oj)ular government is not in itself a l)anaeea, is no better than any other form exce])t as the virtue and wisdom of the i)eoi)le make it so" — a lesson which no one who knows the working of American institnti<ins will ever deem superfluous.
To this iiublic sjjirit Mr. Lowell added a literary etiuiiiment which few men of letters have surpassed. Though he once wi'ote that America must " submit herself to the Euroi)ean standard of intellectual weights and measures,' he always maintained an inilepeudent quality of mind and style. One of the most interesting things in the "Biglow Papers" is the essa.\- on Yankee dialect ; and while he emjiloyed that dialect ^\ith infinite humour in the dissertations of Mr. Biglow ami his associates, Mr. I^owell pre- served something of the native raciness in his most finished prose. I'arlyle, he said, "called do^vn the tires of hea\eii when he could not readily lay his hand on the match-box;" but while he ne\t'r dis- dained to turn to account the lowlier means of illumination, Mr. Lowell could command at will the higher lights of a moving eloepience. Most of his ))oems are full of fancy and tenderness. Without any superlative gift, he was master of the chastened exiiression of delicate feeling. In the " Biglow Papers" lies the chief individuality of his verse, and although most of it belongs to moods and incidents which are of ))urely historic interest, and which have a national rather than a universal character, some of the humour will always be ))roverbial. .lohn P. Robinson was an actual personage mIio has long been forgotten even in the |)lace that bore him, yet his name has a lasting significance in the famous
stanza —
■■]!ut.i..iiM r.
KoKinsirn he Siz thcv diJu'tkujw ovoiytliin' Jiuvn in .luihc."
"A Fable for Critics" has striking illusti-ations of Mr. LowelTs dexteritj- and variety. The form seems a little old-fashioned to us now. much older indeed than Ilosca Biglow's quaint locutions; but the wit is so keen and the characterisation so deft, that many of the rlnines share with Lewis Carroll's the capacity of clinging to the memory when graver matters have fallen into oblivion
" -VU women he damns with miilnliilr srmper. And if ever he felt somi'thinir like love's rlistemi^^r. 'Twa.- towards a youu;; LiJy wh" spoke am iint Mexic.in. And assisted her father in making a lexicon."
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THE SPEAKER.
[August 15, 1891.
But Aiuericaiis may cherish, witliout any narrow prejudice, the pithy phrases of Hosea Biglow's " Pious Editor," whose maxims are still household ■words in the politics of the Southern States : —
" It's wal enough agin a king To dror resolves an' friggi r.-, But libbaty's a kind of thing Thet don't agree with niggers."
The reader who eares for none of these beauties of vernacular, may find amjile comi)ensation in Mr. Lowell's prose. The stimulus of his style, the clear- ness of his judgment, the catholicity of his taste, ought to be a liberal education to some of his coinitrymen. who offer us strange idols wifih robust confidence and small knowledge. As a critic Mr. Lowell had a large endowment both of culture and native insight. His appreciation of Emerson is a fine instance of his subtle perception. " Those who are grateful to Emerson, as many of us are, for what they feel to be most valuable in their culture, or, perhaps I should say, their impulse, are grateful, not so much for any direct teachings of his, as for the insi)iring lift which only genius can give, and without which all doctrine is chaff." That is an admirable touchstone of Emerson as a teacher, and it led Mr. Lowell, naturally enough, to depre- ciate the influence of Carlyle. The essay on Carlyle, moreover, has the inspiration of the democrat who feels liimself a champion of the system on which the philosopher of the " eternal verities " poured his fiercest scorn. To Emerson, wrote Lowell, "the young martyrs of our civil war owed the sustain- ing strength of thoughtful heroism that is so touching in every record of their lives." To Carlyle the civil war was like "the bm-ning of a dirty chimney." For this unflattering image, Mr. Lowell took amjile revenge in another analogy of combustion. " Imagination, if it lays hold of a Scotsman, possesses him in the old demoniac sense of the word, and that hard logical nature, if the Hebrew fire once gets fair headway in it, burns un- quenchable as an anthracite coal mine." But Mr. Lowell's culture was too broad to make him a contro- versialist in every field of literature. He roved through the old English writers without observing the cloven hoof of feudalism at every turn. His knowledge was broad-based upon an active sympathy with the lives of the people ; but he did not carry the sensitive- ness of a young democracy into every corner of the sphere of letters. Hosea Biglow transported himself at will into the atmosphere of Chaucer, and Yankee idioms were superseded by a dispassionate inquiry into the origin of English metre. By the quality ami extent of his sc-holarshij), Mr. Lowell was distin- guished amongst his conqieers. By the dignity and urbanity with which he discharged his duties as an official representative of his country, he won the respect of all classes of Englis-hmen. His gift of speech, jjersuasive, picturesque, always exhaling the essence of delicate thought and observation, was not the least welcome exjjression of a rare personality. He represented that development of the New England mind in which the hard shell of Puritanism is penetrated by the glow of a healthier experience, and by a sympathetic vision, •' without which all doctrine is chalT."
GLASGOW PROFESSORS AND THEIR WORK.
THE lines of Scotch Professors may truly be said to have fallen in ])leasant places. To asso- ciate ])overty with the Universities of Scotland is a great, if a popular mistake. There may be needy students north of the Tweed, as elsewhere, but so far as the Professors are concerned, it is safe to declare that in no country throughout the world do their salaries mount u]) to such a sul)stantial sum. Inequalities no doubt exist. Thus in Glasgow the incomes range between £1,758 enjoyed by the Professor of Mathematics, and £500 bv the Pro-
fessor of Astronomy, while in Edinburgh they range between £1,254 in respect of Greek, and £831 in respect of Rhetoric. But the averages, at all events in the Faculty of Arts, are high, being £1,337 for Glasgow, and £1.079 for Edinljurgh. All this may be changed when the Ordinances now being drawn u\t by the University Commission come into force, but as yet the Glasgow Professor holds an enviable position. He finds huuself first of all in i)ossession of an income running into four figures, lie has also a comfortable mansion in which to live within the ])recincts of the College, and admir- able class-rooms for the accommodation of himself and his students. A sijlendid libi-ary and reading- room a,Yc at his disjiosal, while the situation of the buildings is unrivalled in any part of the city. As for his -vVork. it rarely extends beyond six months in the year. He has, moreovei-, any advantage that flows from being connected with one of the most ancient Universities of the country — an institution whose liLstory is inseparably associated, throughout its \vhole coiu-se, with the ])rt)gress of modern ideas, seeing that its foundation, about the middle of the fifteenth century, was contenqjoraneous with the invention of the art of printing.
The ])resent head of Glasgow University — Dr. John Caird — -xruist be looked iqion as no unworthy successor to the long line of able and distinguished men who have filled the office of Princi]3al. Born at Greenott^ hi 1820, Dr. Caird graduated at the College over which he noAV jjresides, and became minister of Xewton-on-Ayr in his twenty-fifth year. He was called to the Church of Lady Tester's at Edinburgh in 1817, and it might have been thought that his great gifts would have sjjeedily won recognition in the historic ca])ital of the country. This was not the case, however ; for two j-ears after settling in Edinburgh he moved to the quiet parish of Errol, situated abotit half-way between Dundee and Perth. Up to that time, indeed, with all his marvellous eloquence, Dr. Caird had failed to find his way to the hearts of the j)eople. He was looked upon as but little above the ordinary run of pulpit orators. In illustration of this a good story has been pre- served. While at Errol. Dr. Caird discovered that the acoustic properties of the church were by no means of the best, and, his congregation being scanty, he suggested to the beadle that an improvement might be effected by boarding up one of the side aisles. "That may do all very well for you," replied the shrewd old Scotchman, " but what will we do for room, if we should get a ]ioi)ular preacher to follow you'?" If the beadle lived to follow Dr. Caird's career, ami to see him acknowledged not only as the greatest ])reacher of his time, but as the eminent chief of Glasgow University, he may have come to the conclusion that at Errol he entertained a genius unawares.
Dr. Caird came to Glasgow in 1857, was a^^ pointed Professor of Divinity five years later, and has held the ]iost of Priiu^ijial since 1873. Unlike some of his iiredecessors. Dr. Caird holds no minis- terial charge in connection with the Princiiialship, but he ])reaches once a month in the University chapel during the si'ssion. and the calls made upon his services in other ([uarters are far greater than he can overtake. He is not a jitolific author, the only works from his i)en, besides a volume of sermons, being an essay on the "Unity of tlie Sciences " and an " Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion." He exercises no control over the teaching work in the University, while his administrative labours may be said to consist in presiding over the delibera- tions of the Senate, and, in the absence of the Chancellor, over the meetings of the University Court. Di-. Caird might not find it easy to define his own duties, but liis imnu'diate predecessor, Dr. Barclay, had no such difficulty. When congratu- lated in 185S on his appointment as Princiiial, Dr. Barclay said, in his own ])ithy way, " Oh yes, I deserve to be congratulated. There's a good house, a fair stipend, nothing to do.and six months' holiday."
August 1/), 1891.]
THE SPEAKER.
197
ediu'ation u])oii lines not ilosijrned by their pastors and masters. Tom docs his <|uai>tiim of Latin, and, as k)nfj as he escapes absolute disgrace, fares little how small a fraction of his intellipeneo he bestows njion the task: the full lujwers of his mind are re- served for framing the rules of the cyclinR club and decidinfj whether or not Jones minor shall be allowed to play in tlie eleven. These matters settled, he takes his supiier with a sense of " somethinp; aeeomijlished, somethiuK done," which no school success could sui>|>ly, and prejmres himself with i)atience to render unto C'jc-iar or .\cnoi)hon the dues which an inct)mprelicnsil)lc late compi'ls him to give to those, to him, eminently uninteresting personages. The real business of life, however, he considers, is niean- whili' at a standstill.
Who shall say that he is not right V It is at least au o|)en question whether the education that goes on in tlie playground is not quite as fruitful in good results as that which is carried on in the sclioolroom. There the boy learns to meet his fellows, to boar his part in common amusements, to contend with- out bad temper, and to subordinate self to party. To these educating influences is now added, in instinctive conformance to tlie s])irit of the time, precisely the kind of training which is most needed for the formation of good citi/.ens. In view of recent develoi)ments of self-government, the increased jxiwer of municii)alities and the new responsil)ilities thiinvn npon local oi-gauisations throughout the kingdom, there could be no bi'tter prei)aratioii for the duties of a citizen than the ))raetic(> in the transaction of business, the familiarity with methods of corjiorate action, which our sehooll)oys and schoolgirls are thus unconsciously acquiring. When our elementai'y schools have tleveloi)ed their social life sufliciently to induce the formation of similai' habits to a greater extent than at pi-esent, they too will be bearing their full share in the training of our citizens. Hitherto the class-room has been too much the be-all and end-all of their existence, and the cause of real education has been retarded thereby.
OPEN QUlvSTlOXS.
TV. — What cax we do for thk Critu-s?
rilHE authors are going to have a nice little did) in X Piccadilly all to themselves. I have heard that critics are to be eligible for it : but, if this is so, I do not think that many critics will dare to avail them- selves of the opportunity. ^Vhere there are clubs, there are dining-rooms; and where there are dining- rooms, there are table-knives. Critic's cannot be expected to run needless risks. Kven if there were no danger, there would be uiii)leasaiitness. It would be trying for a jioor little critic to enter the smoking- room, and to see six authors with an archdeacon at their head walk out in disgust and dignity. Besides, critics are not so well paid as authors : they cannot afford to dress so well : the\- would jirobably steal the authors" hats.
But something ought to be done for tiie critics. They sulTer much. First, their nerves suffer. They have to read horrible stories aliout murders, and ghosts, and mesmerism. This is ruin to tlu; nerves of critics. They go skiiijiing lightly through the first volume, fall into something awful, and are brought home on shuchiers. Nobody cares. Tlien, again, their ojiinions siilVer: they have their dearest convictions assaulted by agnostical novels : Robert Elsmere knocks their creed into space, and ^liss Edna Lyall catches it as it drops. Lastly, their hearts suffer from laceraticnis. The heroine, in her sinqjle dress of some soft, white clinging material, makes, iierhaps. her innocent little mistake. We all know what that mistake is. She sees through the foliage in the dimly-lighted con- servatory the hero (it is not really the hero) kissing (if it is- the hero, he is not really kissing, but re-
moving a lly from the eye) her black-haired rival. (If it is the liero, and he »« ki.-^ing. then it is not the rival but his own sister.) .She goes to her njom, and flings herself on her bed, and at last finds the relief of tears. All this telU .,n the critics. They want to soothe her and comfort her ; or to wring her neck; or to do something to -^lop her. All this snil'ering is inseiiarable from the critic's regular work.
It isolnioiis that it is not exactly a club which the critics re<iuire. It seems to be rather a hosjiital or, perhai)s. an asylum. It must be some iilace where they will be treated kindly, and where each critic can be kept ap:ut from the rest. If they are kejit together, they will fight. I have exaiiiined certain articles on criticism by critics, ami I lind that in all of them the writer seems to be trying to say two things espeeiall\ :
1. ."My criticism and l"rench criticism is g(Jod.
2. The other is Ijad.
Now it is clear that critics who disaiijirove of one another to this extent cannot safely be kept together. That is the advantage of the asylum. Kach could have a -eiiarate cell —a i)added cell. The authors might provide the jjadding out of their books, i)erlia|)s. But, on the other hand, there is the (luestion of expense to be considered. Critics, as has been already jiointed out, are not rich men. If the authors ])ro\ided the iiadding, they might think that they hail done enough : tliey are fre- (|uently inclineil to think this. A cemetery would be kejil up at much less cost than an asylum. There would only Ije the initial exjiense for the ground, and jiossibly some kind novelist would lirovide a little plot. It could be planted with wheat and tares. Mild oats, and other serials. The inscriptions would cost very little, because Englisli ci-itieisni is ^o sljockingly anonymous : and tlie tombstones would naturally take the form of a broken column. There is much to be saiil for the project, but it is to be i"eared that the authoi-s would bring it into contempt. They would call the critics' cemetery the '• Saintsbiirying (iround," and that would never do.
It is really very difliciilt to -.ay what we can do for the critics. It is a (|Uestioii which has not been del >a ted sutlieieiitly. People moreoftiMi ask fioir they can do for tlio critics. During the dull si-ason perhai)s we may be able to get iqi some correspondence on the subject.
THE WEEK.
Mh. LowKi.i, wasso well known in London society that he might almost have claimed to i)ass nnister as an Englislimaii. He was very jiopular as a diner- out, and those persons who in recent years were invited to meet him in Belgravia and .Mayfair justly esteemed themselves fortunate. His talk was lively, .authoritative, bristling with facts and illustrations. Perhaps it was suggestive of the critic rather than thejioet: for it was only to his intimate friends, or when moved out of his common mood, that .Mi{. Lowi;ll revealed those " silent silver lights un- dreamed-of" which were hidden from the common gaze. In the many notices of his life which have a]>- jieared in the daily pai>ers e(im]>aratively little atten- tion has been ))aid to the wonderfully lieautiful sjieeoh which he delivered at the great meeting of American citizi'iis held in London after the assassination of Prksidi^nt Garfiki.i). No more ex(iui>ite jirose elegy was ever iiioiiduneed u))ona imlilic man, an<l to read" it in the column-- of the newsiiapers was a delight to mind and soul. But the s|)eech w;is badly de- livered, and till' Americans who were pri\ileged to listen to it failed to ))erceive its beauty. All their ;ipi)lause was gi\in to an Episeoiialian liishoji who liad mastered the tricks of the platform.
Now here verily is a strange thing. It has seemed good to the literary i-ritic of the J'all Mull Gazette
198
THE SPEAKER.
[Aiig-ust 15, 1891.
to sugpest that the i)lot of " Friend Perditus," a story iu whifh the main incident turns upon a man's tera- ]Kn-ary loss of memory, must have been taken from Mi{. Makio.v Crawi-ohd's "Witch of Prague," in which tlie same incident occurs. Surely this particular ])lot is as old a'< the liills. It has been used in our own time by such writers as Mr. Cl.\rk RrssKi.r, and Mr. Cii.vri.es Rkaue, and it was useil more than once before either of these authors was born. The critic himself must have been suffering from tlie affliction which befell Friend Perditus when lie l)enned his egregiou.s statement.
The Times on Thursday morning drew attention to the fact that " The Last Great Naval War," a booklet which yn'ofesses to give an account 'A a struggle to the death between England and France, had been jniblished on the eve of the visit of the French fleet to our .shores. We believe that this coincidence ■was quite unintentional. IIaiii)ily, there is nothing in Mr. " Nelson Seaforth'.s " brilliant little book which can wound the legitimate suscepti- bilities of the French. Indeed, it is rather English- men who might comiilain that so brilliant and able a strategist, so clever a writer, and so thorough an expert in knowledge of our naval affairs, should have l)ul)lishcd to the whole world the tactics which nuist undoubtedly be followed if England should ever have the misfortune to find herself at war with France. The book has only been out a few days ; but is already being talked of everywhere, and bids fair to rival '■ The Battle of Dorking " iu ))opularity. In every other respect it surpasses that over-praised pamphlet.
In introducing to the English reader Tol.stoi's study of Russian peasant character and satire on tlie fads and extravagances of modern society in the land of the Muscovite, translated by Dr. Dillon under the title of the " Fruits of Enlightenment," Mr. Pinero })uts some things very well. The modern English i)laywrigbt has not been in the habit of publishing his plays, because of the injurious condition of the American copyright law, which, till now, has constituted the publication of his play a serious financial loss, and because the )jublic likes to take its reading easily. To imagine a great character or a grand scene, in Shakespeare or Weisster, demands a more exhausting mental effort than the realisation of a creation of Th.\(;'KERAy or Dkkexs. This intellectual indolence of the iniblic Mr. Pinero would like to see overcome, for he thinks the dramatic form is the nearest a))proach to the actual rejiroduction of life, and therefore the most natural setting for the study of character and incident.
What ^vill the novelists do if i)eoi)le begin to read dramas instead? Will the exti-aonlinary time then arrive, imagined by a fantastic individual, when ])eo])le will Ije paid to read novels?
Bi'T Mr. Pinero, as becomes an earnest artist, is anxious to see our acting plays jjublished, because authors, conscious that their plays will be subjected to the cool and critical analysis of the study, will feel it incumbent ui^on them to jiay closer attention to the literary quality of their labours ; and also because they will bo strengthened in their artistic pur|)ose by feeling that there is now open to them a medium of apiieal from the occasionally hastily formed and indefinite ^•e^dict of the theatre to the Avell-weighed. deliberate, and final ju<igment of the reading jjublic.
Why is Lamartine not read? asks M. RAOtn, RosifeRES. This, his centenary year, produced l)lenty of harangues, and memorial verses, and paue- gyi'ics ; yet from every quarter came the cry, " No one reads LA.MAiniNE to-day." The main reason is, doubtless, as .M. RosifeREs has it, that Lamartine had not suflicicnt genius to invent an ideal world ; nor was he able to concentrate in his verse thespirit of his time. " That young man's language," said De Maistre, after reading La.martine's fir.st volume, "is exquisitely lulapted for the expression of his ideas. We shall see what he will do when the age of ideas comes." Tlie age of ideas never came, however. His fir.st volume, " Meditations," remains the best of his works. It is quite conventional in thought, and rejieats the characteristic imagery of tlie later ]joets of the eighteenth century: but although the amount, the value, is the same, he has exchanged for the c<)i)i)cr coin of his in-edecessors pieces of gold.
Are we forgetting in the vogue of General JMarbot that there were others who wrote memoirs of France's great jjeriod ? Messrs. Plon, Nourrit cV Co. publish a collection of memoirs of the ancien r(''</i)nc\ the Revolution, the Empire, and the Restora- tion, the whole forming a gossiping history of France. Beginning with Col'nt de Cheverney, " introducer of ambassadors," in the reign of Louis XV., we can follow Frencli history, home and foreign, tlirougli more than two dozen volumes of memoirs, souvenirs, documents, and all manner of co'itfi divcrx by the Duchess de Tourzel, governess of the royal infants from ITSU-D.j ; by the Mar- chioness de Montagu, who saw tlie actors in the French Revolution " neither tlirough the large nor the small end of the telescope," but with her own eyes ; by Baron Hyde de Neuville, who would not bend to Napoleon ; by La Roche.iacquelin : by Metter- NICH, and a bevy of lords and ladies, concluding with the Marc(uis de Villeneuve's " Charles X. and Louis XIX.," a very lively picture of the Court of the exiled Bourbons.
If housekeepers are in earnest in wisiiinp in benefit tlie utienii'loyed in Knst London, tliey shnuUl Imy Bryant & Mav'.s M;itehea, and refuse tlie foreign matches which are depriving the workers in East London of a larj^e amount in weekly wagt s.
In his new novel, " Le JIari de Jacqueline" (Charpentier), Andr6 Theuriet, who is a sort of Ftcnch WiLLL\M Bl.\ck, returns to the unsophis- ticated dwellers among the fields and woods, as in his ])opular " Reiue des Bois." J.vt ch'eline de Noirel, the heroine, is plain-looking, poor, dowdyish, ignorant of books and of the world, with nothing to say for herself, and yet she gains our interest and sympathy. ^I. Theuriet in his tenderness for women and their faults reminds us of Jean Paul »iitnis his spirituality.
Since Alphonse Daudet came up to Paris from the South of l^'rance, the land of Tartaiiii has sent out no more promising writer than M. Paul Ari'jne. Wliat has hitherto been most noted about his work is the success with which — liaving caused the Durance to flow, as it were, in the channel of the Seine — he has annexed Paris to Tarascon. " He is the most Parisian of Provencals, and the most Proven<,-al of Parisians:" and Parisian and Proveu^-al have collaljoratcd in his new work, " Les Ogresses " (Cil\r- pentier), the former suiJi)lying the observation, and the latter the fant;\stic matter. It is a satire on women, witty, poetical, very one-sided, but never rancorous.
Two recently jiublished books dealing with the Revolution are ]\L ^Maurice Alrert's "French Litera- tui-e under the Revolution, etc.," and " Orators and Tribunes," by M. Victor du Bled, with a pre- fac^e by M. JuLES Claretie, both issued by Calmann LitvY. The former was delivered as lectures to young ladies, with this result among others — that iu a study of Alfred dk Musset, unable to describe De Musset as he was, M. Alhert has succeeded to
August 15, 1891.]
THE SPEAKER.
1!)!)
porfeotiou in deseribiiiK liiiii as lie was not. M. nv Bled's bot)k is aiiocdotic — a iiiosaie, none the less artistic because it is cousti-ucted of fragments.
Mr. Wii.i.ia.m S.\rART has followed up his adiiur- able translation of Proficssok Buii.m-15awi;rk'.s " Capital and Interest " with a version of his '• I'ositive Theory of Cajjital" (Mac.MII.I.AN). I'Rt)- FKssoR BtiiiM-BAWiaiK's purpose in this work is to find for the vexed problem of interest a solution whieh invents nothing- and assiuues nothing, but simply and truly attemjtts to deduce the i)he- nomeua of the format ion of interest from the simi)lest natural and i)sychological ])rinci))l('s of economic science. Mu. S.maut linds that I'koi'iossou Boii.m-Hawkrk'.s theory challenges attrition by the originality of its ideas and the thoroughness of its treatment.
Till-; jirose translation of the Iliad issued Ijy Mkssr.s. Pkrcivai, iV: Co. was the literary work of Mr. PfBVKs's life. Begun in IS7I, it was comi)leted, after many interrujitions, in 1SS4. Dr. K\i:ia\ AnnoTT is the editor, ;uid introduces the translation with an exhaustive analysis of the Iliad.
Siiaki:;.si'i;are and Bitrns at least among our great poets have been honoured with a Concordance. Wordsworth, as yet, has oidy a " Dictionary," jjublished by the author, "Sin. J. R. Tutin, of Hull, who was already known as being responsible for several similar enterprises. Mr. TfTix's useful volume contains indices to all Wordsworth's allusions to persons and i)laces, ai'ranged in sections to facilitate reference ; a collection with index of all the familiar quotations ; an a])i)endix containing a hitherto unpublished can- celleil version of the " Ode to Duty," and other matter. The edition is limited to six hundred copies.
WILI.IA^r Ogilvir. of Pitteusear, a Professor in Aberdeen in the eighteenth century, whose name is hardlj- known now even in Scotland, wrote an " Essay on the Right of Property in Land," in which he forestalled Mr. HK^•R^■ (iKOiKa:. This pamphlet, under the titleof •' Birthright in Land," is }mblished by Messrs. Kegax Paul <S: Co., with biographical notes by Mr. D. C. Mac Donald, of Aberdeen. Ogii.vie. on account of his advanced ojainions, lived practically as an exile in his own eountrj'.
A\'e are i)romised a Conservative comic weekly on the lines of the American I'uck; to be called Bin Ben. Why not call it The Primyose? Mr. W. Arlisox, formerly of .S7. Stephen s Revicir. who is to be editor, ought not to be in a hurry with his first number. He should wait and take a lesson from Mark Twai.v, who, rumour has it, is about to start a comic paper in London to teach us '• how to do it."
A FREN'CH PROPHl>7r OP EVIL.
Paris, Au-iist llth.
THAT "old men are not always wise" is as true now as when it was iirst said, but oM i)eo))le are generally interesting and often delightful. When a man has sjjcnt a long life in the service of his country and in the ]>ursuit of learning, his ex- periences cannot but be worth hearing. If retired from the active pursuit of politics, the judgment of a veteran has a special worth ; with nothing to gain or lose, in a personal sense, during the few re- maining years of life, opinions become singularly dispassionate.
M. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire is now in his eighty- sixth year. The last decade has made little difference
in his external ap|)earaM(o, which is still remarkable for its robustness. Free, happily, from inlirmities— save a long-standing defect in one eye- the aged scholar is able to piusue his studies and fidlil Ids engagements with sei iijiiilous assiduity and exacti- tude. Winter ;ind summer he rises befori- daybreak, lights his lire, makes Ids coffee, and sits down in hw study to commune with the immortal sjjirits of the l)ast.
On enteiing the libiaiy, be(|tieathed to his friend and i)ui)il by the i)hilns,,pber Cousin, one has a sen- sation of anti(iuity. 'J'lds lioary head and strong face with massive .jaw suggest the busts of Cato and Seneca. The impression is intensified as the visitor runs his eye over the seulptured images of the wise men and deities of Hellas surmounting the book- cases. By long eonnnerce with the originals or their exponents, the oc<-upant ha.s not only imljibed the genius of ancient Greece, but also taken on its out- ward form. l'\)r, as he says, in rejily to a reference to the article in the lulinhurijh Jleiien; (piestioning the authenticity of the lately-discovered Aristotelian lja))yrus: "When one has lived in intimacy so to speak with Aristotle all one's life, it is not jjossible to mistake his style, ^'ou, for instance, would not coid'ound a i)assage of Macaulay with a jjlay of Shakesjjeare, no more than we should the writings of N'oltaire and Bossnet. The article in the J'Jdiri- hun/li disi)lays great learning and pains to elucidate the subject, l)ut I do not agree with the writer's con- clusion that he was not in jjreseuee of a genuine work of Aristotle."
But, besitles having studied the great Grecian all his life. M. Saint-llilaiie has been Minister for Foreign Affairs. It is true that this is now ten years ago, during the eventful period of the Tunisian occupation, for which stroke of i)olicy the executor of the high works of President (Jrevj^ is by no means disposed to go into sackcloth and ashes. He still follows the course of affairs, domestic and foreign, with an eager and somewhat troubled eye, and is not slow to come to .a conclusion on the whole matter. When I'rince Bismarck was so sunuuarily got rid of last year the ei-deiaiit French Minister thus judged the situation: — "I told my colleagues in the Senate: 'The sole reason which can have in- duced the Emperor to |)art with his Chancellor is that M. de Bismarck ^\•as o])i)osed to a Russian alliance.' And events have proved this to be the case, in des])ite of the apocryi)lial letter of the Prince i)rinteil by the Flr/aro (which has since been denied l)y its alleged author). Russia has never forgiven, and never will forgive, "SI. de Bismarck for his conduct at the Congress of Berlin, and the Prince knows it. ^Moreover, he knows what tiermany has to fear from Russia, and so was not i)leased to see the young Kaiser so eager to make advances to the C/.ar."
"And you say the same thing about France, Monsieur y" In this respect M. Saint-Hilaire has never varied. He may ha\e become moi-e sce))tical as to the fitness of his countrymen for Rei)ublican institu- tions ; he has never wavered about the imi>olicy of an alliances Ijetween .Muscovite despotism and tiallic deniocrai-y. "Let there be no ndstake about this," rei)eats the aged statesman. " Russia wants Con- stautinojile, and l-'rancc desires her lost provinces; a bargain is to Ijc strni'k on this basis understood if not expressed — in which we stake the independence of our country. For if defeated, as would be most likely, we -houlil be dismendjered ; I'ranee would suffei' the fall' of Poland. It is absurd to su])|)ose that there is any les-^ issue at stake. Russiti has not renounced her as|)iiatii>ns. and uevei- will until they are attained. It was to jireveiit this, the seizure of the key of the worlil, as Napoleon called it at the Congress of Erfiirt. that we sacrificed the lives of IdU.OOO soldiers in the Crimea. A\"hen I think of the future I fear for my country " and the solemn features of the gazer into futurity assumeil the asi)ect of a seer. " Yes." ho repeate<l, in mystical manner, " I see it all. clear before me."
200
THE SPEAKER.
[August 15, 1891.
It is easy to smile at these visions as it was to laufrh at Heine's jirophccy of the burning of Paris, but wlio shall say what the future may not have in store ? When one has been born under the shadow of the H evolution, and lived to see Kings and Emjierors driven from their thrones, and Anarchy set up on high, the mind must be prone to foresee things darkly. To the eye of the i)hilosoi)her the l)rosi5ects of his country are not reassuring. There is the old proneness to run after jihantasies, to imagine vain things, and to cherish delusions. Ministers go about the country i-epeating their little sayings, ha]>j)y if by chance they say a good thing. Boiilanger is done for, but Boulangism is not extinct. If the man had not been a rogue he would have succeeded. The j^eople are no more Rei)ublican to- day than they were thirt j' years ago ; tliey simjily
ask to be governed. The President but here we
trench on delicate ground, and it is best not to repeat that "a perfectly honest man can become a
jierfect " Also on the rivalry of his successors,
about which some pithy words were sjioken, it is well to draw the veil. It is not material for gossip, but matter for instruction that we look for in the house of the sage.
Reverting to the dominion of letters, we once more have occasion to remark the wonderful fresh- ness and lucidity of the old scholar's mind. He re- peats from memory the various editions of the Dic- tionary of the Academy— 1693, 1715, 1834, 1S7S— confirming his recollection by reference to the great work in his library, which in every case proved correct. He tells of his collaboration with Littre for sixty-five years — " that lay Benedictine who worked thirteen or fourteen hours a day, and left a monument far more naiant than our dictionary" — he hits off a rapid sketch of his colleagues in the Palais Mazariu still engaged over the letter A, and pronounces the scheme of the " Dictiounaire his- toriane " to be imc folie.
In a raj)id survey over the face of the globe, the sagacious student dwells with ])ride and ]ileasure ou the work performed by England. Incidentally we are assured that it is a mistake that England or the English arc so unpo]3ular as writers like Paul de Cassagnac and Charles Laurent would make us be- lieve. He, almost alone among his countrymen, re- joices that '• you exclude the works of M. Zola, to prohibit the sale of obscene ])ictures." The moralist regrets tliat he cannot see the trace of a like si)irit here. As a thoughtful student, this experienced observer acknowledges that the day will come when the British Empire shall become a thing of the past ; but he hopes that all Britannia's chil- dren will bear proudly their heritage, and avert the knell of doom by maintenance of the traditional (lualities of the race. All these, and many other, things are saitl by this lively octogenarian, who goes to spend the vacation Avith 3Ille. iJosne, Mme. Thiers' sister.
A CORRECTED CONTEMPT.
ri'lHE whistles had sounded, and we were already I moving slowly out of St. David's Station, Exeter, to continue our journey ■westward, when the door was pulled open and a brown bag, followed by an over-dressed young man, came flj'ing into the com- partment where I sat alone and smoked.
The youth scrambled to a seat as the door slammed behind him : remarked that it was "a near shave:" and laughed nervously, as if to assure me that he found it a joke. His face was pink with rnnning, and the colour contrasted unpleasantly with his pale sandy hair and moustache. He wore a light check stiit, a light-blue tie knotted through a " Mizpah " ring, a white straw hat with a blue ribbon, and two diamond finger-rings, doubtfully genuine. One felt that, in moments of candid self-communion, he owned his aiipearance to be
" rather nobby." Being conscious, however, that it needed a few rejiairs, he opened the brown bag, jJuUed out a duster and (licked away for half-a-minute at his l)rown boots. Next, with a handkerchief, he mopi)ed his face, and wi|)ed romid the inner edge first of his straw liat,and then of his collar and cutTs. After this he stood up, shook his trowsers until they hung with a satisfying gracefulness, produced a cigar-case — covered with forget-me-nots in crewel work — and a copy of the Sporting Times, sat down again, and asked me if I could oblige him with a light.
J think the train was passing Dawlish before the cigar was fairly started, and his jiink face hidden behind the pink newspaper. But even then his mann'uvres allowed me no rest. Between me and the wholesome sea his diamond rings kept flirting round the edge of the Sportin;] Times, his brown boots shifting their position ou the cushion in front of him, his legs crossing, uncrossing, recrossing, his cigar- smoke rising in cpiick. uneasy jjuffs.
Between Teignmouth and Newton Abbot this restlessness increased. He dropped some cigar-ash on his waistcoat and arose to shake it otf. Twice or thrice he picked \\\i the paper and set it down again. As we ran into Newton Abbot Station, he came over to my side of the carriage and scanned the small crowd upon the platform. Suddenly his colour mounted to a furious crimson blush.
The train stopped, and he hesitated for a moment; then bent aci'oss, and, opening the carriage door, stepped out.
A little old man with an insignificant face, a greenish-black suit that spoke eloquently of con- tinued depression in some village retail trade came tottering up, his watery eyes full of pi-ide and gladness.
" Whai. Chorley, lad, there you be, to be shure — an', gude "eart alaive ! if I han't been glazin," these vorty zecconds at a girt stranger chap, thinkiu" he raus' be you. Shaake your old father's fist, lad. You'm lookin' as peart as a gladdy — ee's fay you be." ^
The youth, consumed with a miserable shame, put his hand into his father's, and tried to withdraw him a little up the platform, so as to be out of hearing.
" Noa, uoa ; we'll bide where us be, zoa's to be handy vur th' train when her ztarts off. Her don't stay no while, to menshuu. I vound Zam Grigg zarvin' here as porter — you mind Zam ? Danged if I knowed en. at vurst, the vace of en 's that altered ; but her zays to me. ' how be gettin' on, Izaac "? ' an' then I zaw who 'twas— an' us fell to talkin' "bout how long the train ud stap here, an' th' upshot es that her staps vaive minnits — — "
His sou interrupted him with mincing haughti- ness.
" 'Ow's mothaw?"
'• AVeist an' ailin,' pore sowl — turble weist au' ailiii'. Herd ha' come to gie thee a kiss, if her'd been
in a vit staiite : but her's zent thee zummat "
He searched the tail ])Ockets of his threadbare coat, and i)roduced a greasy pajier of sandwiches and an ai)i)le. 1 saw the young man wini'e.
'• Her reck'ned you'd vcel a zinkin' i' the stonnnick, travellin' arl the waay from Hexeter to Plymouth. There,— stow it awaiiy. Not veelin' peckish";' Never mind : there's plenty o' taime betwix' this an' Ply- mouth."
'• No, thenks."
" Tut-tut, now " There was a brief struggle, at
the end of which the youth accei^ted tlie packet, on which spots of grease were slowly extending over the white papei- wrapper. The little man looked wistfully up in his son's face : his eyes were full of love, but seemed to search for something.
" There, now. Chorley — Zinime I've been doin" arl the tarlk, an' your mother '11 be i)uttin' me dree- score o' questions, when I gets whome. How dost laike it, up to Hexeter ; an how"st get along"?"
" Oh, kepital — kepital. Give mothaw my love." " E'es shin-e. Fainely plaised her'll be, when her
August lo, 1891.]
THE SPEAKER.
201
hears tbee'rt zo naicely adrest. ller'd niaiide iij) lici- maind, pore sowl, that arl your Ijuttons lul be out, wi'out her to zee arter num. J5iit I dechire theo'rt (h-est laike a to)izawycr."
And with this, somehow, ;i silence I'ell between the two. The time ran on, and the old man. tlioufrh he knew he would l)e cross-examined on every second as soon as lu- reacheil home, shil'tcd his Axeipht from one foot to the otiier, and had not :\ word. The younjr couiiter-juni])er nuuiibled a word or two and averted his eyes fioni his father's (quivering lip, to stare uj) the phitform.
At last the old man said — •
"That there's a stubbard-ajJiile you've fjot in your liand."
'• Yes ; so I see."
The guard shouted, "Take your seats, ])lease," and held the door while they shook hands again. "Charley" leant out at the window as our tr.iin moved olT.
" Her comes from the zeccond tree i)ast th' inyon- bed — al'ays the vurst to raijjen, tliat there tree."
The jjoor old man broke into something resem- bling a run as he followeil our carriage to .shout the next sentence.
"Turble bad zoasou viu- /.aider!"
AVith that he halted at the end of the platform, and watched us out of sight. His son flung himself on the seat, and drew a long breath. It was twenty minutes before his blush faded, and he regained con- fidence enough to ask me for another match.
.Just eighteen months after, I was travelling up to London in the Zulu express. There were half a dozen passengers in the comjiartmeiit with me : and when we halted at Newton Abbot, another stepi)ed in — an old man, in a black suit.
I recognised him at once. And yet he was changed, almost woefully. He had fallen away in flesh : the lines, 1 thought, had deepened beside his upper lip : and in sjiite of a glossier suit, he had the appearance of hopelessness which he had not worn when I saw him for the first time.
He took his seat, looked about him vacantly, and caught the eye of an acquaintance — a ruddy farmer, with thick grey side-whiskers — who nodded from the far corner.
"Travellin" up to Exeter':'" a.sked this farmer, with a curiously gentle voice. The old man bt-nt his heatl for " j'es," and I saw the tears s])ring into his weak eyes.
" There's no need vur to ax your arrand," the other went on. drop])ing his tone almost to a whisper.
" Xaw, uaw. I be goin' up to berry en — e'es, VTiends," he went on, looking aroinid and asking, with that glance, the sympathy of all jnesent, " to berry my zon, my clever zou, mj- only zon." ^'f
Nobody spoke for a few seconds. Then the kindly farmer observed —
"Aye, I've heerd zay "a was clever to his trajide. Uxtable an' Co., his employers, sjioke very han'some of en, they tell me. I can't call to maind, tho',that I've a-zet eves 'j)ou the voung man. since he was a little tacker."
The old man began to fumble in his breast- pocket, and drawing out a i)liotograph, handed it across.
" That there's the last that was tuk of en."
" Pore young cha])," saitl the farmer, holding up the likeness in front of him, and studying it ; " pore young chap ! Zuch a respectable youth to look at ! They tell me 'a made ye a good son, too."
" Good ? " The tears rolled down the father's face and .splashed on his hands, trembling as they folded over the head of his stout stick. "Good? I b'lieve, vriends. ye'U call it good when a j'oung man zends the third o' his earniu's week b>- week to helj) his ])arents. That's what my zou did, vriun the taiine he left whome. An' presunts — never a month went by. but zouie little gift ud come by the jiost- man : an" little 'twas he'd got to live 'pon, at the best, the dear lad "
The farmer was iia-^ing back the jihotograph. ".May 1 see it':"" I asked : and the old man nodded.
It was the same face -the same suit, even -that had roused my contc iii|)t eighteen months before.
I'RO.M TIIK MOLNTAINS.
COME up lulu tlio iiiouulaiiis. Set your feet Liglit-licurliMlly upon tlu'ir wriiiklfd IIiM>rs. And U'tive tlie valli^y to it« Binile. Be yunrs To si-.ile the trend, ..< of tin- licaviru.s nnil meet Till' mighty wind iipm its throned .se:it.
Ci.nii- up intij the niuuutuin.s. (jrief and care Make liaggard evni llie diviuest vale, And I);iflied liopes hliall hardly lo.se their palo
Complexion in tliat soft and gentle air.
Having a need they may not cancel there.
.Set tliem upon tlie moiuitains. Bid them climb, .
Storey by cloudy storey, .some vast hill.
And there, erect upon its pinnacle, Deliver them to pro.sences sublime That know not space and have forgotti;ii time.
Amuose Bennett.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE SITCATKlX IN' IRELAXD.
Sir, — I have read with a pleasure I cannot indicate your leading article in your issui' of last Saturday — ■"' Home Rule To-Day." It is an article not only luminously clear, but it is also — and this is vastly better — an article luminously fair. You, an English Protestant Lil)eral. have no misgivings about the Irish Catholic priestliood; you say they have their shortcomings, certaitdy. Wlio is without shortcomings!' Who omni hora sopit i You trust tliem. an<l wisely, because they are in their corporate capacity the best and the most iuHuential ujiholders of the "civil orders'' the world has ever had. An Englishman, and not a Catholic, you refuse to ignore what the English peojde owe to the Catholic Church. The things you love most— the keeping of the kingshi]) within its (jwu province, trial by jury, the legitimate upholding of tlio masses against the illegitim.ito action of the classes, the ditf u.sion of education, etc. ; all these things — England's glory today — came when England was but a young n.ation. aiul from the Catholic Church. You don't be- lieve in tlie idiocy that wo\dd lead a Catholic to deal unfairly with a man simply because he h.ippcns to be a Protestant. The Tory party — English. Irish, and Scotch — in the days <iuite recent, spat upon Parnell; he was in its nostrils a filthy smell. To-ilav the saiil party u])hol(ls Parnell! Wliv — because of better" thoughts — liei'iiuse it deems him right ■■ No. To the Tory party Farnell will be always Parnell. But because ho lias become the evil sjiirit of discord among tlie Irish people, because \w is doing his level best to keep from them what tliey are justiv entitled to — if you will — fair government from with- out ; or. if you prefer it, fair government from within, neither of which the Tory jiarty seems willing to concede. The man- date that bids a man " do unto others as he would have others do unto him." seems to be outside the ken of the Tory jiarty. The Irish people must still lu — if this party can secure if — " the hewers of wood and drawers of watiT ; " and because Parnell helps tliem to attain this end. they write him up. In vain '. The end is coming, comiuir ipiickly. and the outcome of centuries of illwill. bitterness, and injustiei- will be the union — not again to be broken— of '■ John " and " Paddy."— Yours, Mr. Editor, ever
fHithfully. Sacerdos HiBERNICCS.
August 10th, fSLi).
M.P.'S. AS COMPANY DIRECTORS.
Sin, With reference to the remarks in your issue of this
week im members of the ( tovernmeiit and members of Parlia- ment being either journalists or directors of companies. I should like to sav a few words.
1 do not think anyone can justly object to any M.P. writing for the press. If he signs his articles he merely delivers a speech to a larsrer audience tlian he could adilrcss ririi roct. and unsiirned articles are judged on their intrinsic merits.
The case of an M.P. who is the director of a company is a verv dilferent matter.
I think it is one of the scandals of the present day that so manv men should enter Parliament merely to adv.auce themselves tiuaiiciallv bv becoming mure in re(me.st as directors of companies owin" to the magic letters " M.P." after their names.
202
THE SPEAKER.
[August 15, 1891.
I innst not pfive any iiainos, but would rclVr your readers to the " Directory of Directors."
I think all M.P.'s should be disqualified l)y law from sitting on any board of directors. — I remain, your obedient servant,
J. ConiUHouN Reade. Brooks's, St. James's Street, August lOtli, l8i)l.
[OuE correspondent falls into tlie mistake of confounding legiti- mate commercial undertaking.s with bubble comjiauies. It is not only as directors of business affairs that members of Parliament turn their position to account. — Ed. Speaker. J
A LITEEAET CAUSERIE.
The Speaker Office,
Friday, August Htli, 1891.
TRULY we are all in a delightful mess. Mr. W. D. Howells writes au essay on " t'riticisni and Fiction," in which lie begins by demonstrating that any remarks he luaj^ proceed to make can possess no value at all, and at once proceeds to make a number possessing very great value indeed. Next, because Mr. Howells' language is truculent rather than conciliatorj^ his English critics miss all advan- tage they might extract from his book, and begin to ask him unpleasant questions which are quite beside the mark. 1 confess myself one of those sinners. It seemed, a fortnight back, pertinent to ask him how on earth he reconciles with his fairly rigid theory of novel-writing the indiscriminate jiraise he bestows on every man, woman or child of American birth who hajjpens to have \vTitten a book. But the ques- tion is of little moment, and clouds — as Mr. Howells' olTensivc obiter dicta cloud — many more important questions which might easily be discussed with serenity.
Again, let us observe the muddle which English novelists have made with the theories which Mr. Howells is not alone in holding. It is not so very long ago, after all, that the dove-cotes of our fiction were lluttered. Somebody shouted that we were sunk in convention, .slaves of Mr. Mudie, producers of boarding-school literature, etc. etc. — the phrases already stick in the throat, so pei-sistently have they been repeated. And really the energy with which our novelists at once east abont and tried to be French, tried to be Russian, tried to be naughty and bold and bizarre, tried to be everything but what God made them, must .apical anyone who looks back on the work of the last two years or so.
Take Mr. Hardy, for instance — Mr. Hardy whose beautiful phrase haunted the memory, whose tales contained the sweet essences of Englisla i)astoral life, and whose heroines sprang from the soil, cajiricious, cajitivating, and quite sufficiently naughty. He took the alarm. It seems but a few weeks since he began to show signs of it, and wrote a ))lea for a locked book-case. He, the creator of Fancy and Bath- sheba and Eustacia and Grace Melbnry de- manded a cui)board in which to be French. This Avas terrifying. But in a few months he grew bolder. The shyness jiassed off, and its natural demand, the cupboard, Avent with it. The other day he gave the world his " Group of Xoble Dames." The bookseller, of whom I procured my copy, said nothing of the padlock ■which I expected to be included in the price of the book. He simply wrapped up the volume in brown ])a]ier. and seemed to think lie had given me my money's worth.
I have read manj' reviews of this work. One critic, who must be a joy to his friends, called it " a capital book for the smoking-room," and meant the remark for i)raise. But he is the one luminous spark, calm and certain, in a general fog. His fellows di.slike the book somehow, but do not say why. even if they know. They have a dazed impression that Mr. Hardy has become very " real," and " realism "
owjli t to be all right ; so they observe vaguely that the author's style has deteriorated, that his faults of construction show more prominently in a short tale, that he is happier with rustics than with noble dames, etc. etc.
This is the merest nonsense. The truth is that yiv. Hardy is striving to be French; and a more painfully comic spectacle the ])itiless gods never laughed over. A hay -maker, who should wear patent-leather boots and an imi)erial to .set off his corduroys, were not a more unseemly sight. De Maupassant might be a thousand times as indecent without shocking lis, while Hardy's conscientious naughtiness smells to heaven. There are ten stories in the volume, and as one after the other of the author's heroines goes wrong, merely to .show that she doesn't care for Mr. Muilie, the farce grows a little too ghastly. But it is written that as a man is great so shall his degradation be deep when he plays tricks with his genius.
His style, it is said, has altered sadly in this work. Of course it has : and so must any man's who ceases to write what is in him. As for his faults of con- struction, which are supposed to show more pro- minently in a .short tale, let the critics, who suppose anything so absurd, at least remember that this same man has written " The Three Strangers" — a ghost story which, in mere construction, cannot be beaten by any in our language.
Another book which has been hotly discussed this year is Lucas Malet's " The Wages of Sin." Much that Canon MacColl has said about it is true enough. The strength of the story is not to be denied ; the advance it marks is amazing. Only upon one point can I quarrel with the subject. Why, I ask. will writers be always selecting their own temperament — the artistic temperament — for analysis and study? It is a rare temperament — thank Heaven — and the conclusions based on a study of it are quite inapplicable to nine hundred and ninety-nine thousandths of the human race. A genius, such as James Colthurst, is as abnormal as an idiot, and much rarer. The one excuse for an artist's existence is that he depicts his fellow-creatiu-es : and just at present he is for ever painting himself and his troubles. One would think, to judge from the books written nowadays, that this planet was crowded with Dick Heldars and James Colthursts. Why may not the grocer have a chance? Grocers before now have gone wrong and earned the wages of sin. Also I had studied Colthurst before, in Zola's " L'(hhiirc." and knew what his difficulties would be.
But it is when we come to Lucas Malet's method that we observe the compromise between Fi'ench and English workmanshij). I'ossibly no more ho]>e- less concession was ever made to jM)])ular British taste than the death of Colthurst, in the last few pages. It knocks the reader on the head, and it knocks the whole book inside out. If I under.stand the writer's purpo.sc, it was to exhibit the cumulative effect of sin in wrecking the sinner ; and to toss the sinner over a handy cliff when he is bracing himself to bear the heaviest burden of his life, is just to play ninepins with art. There was a certain Roman, according to Tacitus, who threw his wife out of window " for uncertain causes." Unless it hapjiened in deference to the circulating library, I confess that Colthurst's neck was broken for reasons equally vague.
Again, who but an English lady could have con- ceived the idea of writing such a story with a running commentary almost in the style of Thackeray? For pity's sake, if our art is to be French, let it be all French.
August 15, 1891.]
THE SPEAKER.
■20:i
Hut is tlierc any roasoii why wo- shnuld stiiiKKlc to bt" Krt'iK'h or Russian or Amei-icau or Scaii(liiiavinu or Sijanish? Wliat wo can Icarii from tlif novelists of liioso countries is just to sit down and describe truthfully what we see about us. AVe do not see - whatever Mr. Stanliope Forbes may paint— mueh French life about us: we cannot, if we try. see what Tolstoi se.;s, siiujily because Kngland and Russia aie two dilVerent countries. All that we can learn from him, from Bjiirnsen, or IVom N'aldes. is to tell tlie truth.
When we do this, we may count on the admira- tion of the foreigners. Mr. Howells, for instance, who is not disposed to love any work ])roduced in P^ngland, can hardly speak too reverently of Jane Austen. But to see our novelists running up and down in a panic, and trying to be foreign, is sadden- ing. For unless we assume that all nations are alike, the truth about l-^-ance is a lie about Russia, and the truth about Russia a lie about England.
A. T. (.1 C.
REVIEWS.
THE LABOUR MOVEMENT IN AMERICA.
The Lahouk J[ovemf.nt in Ameuica. By Kichard T. Ely, Pli.l>., Associate in rolitic:il Economy, Johns Hopkins University, l.unilon: \V. lleiu.--ninnn. 1S91)'.
rpHE United States furnish not only a wider field JL than any other country for the study of industrial movements, but a more rich and varied experience. The laws of the several States are in many points dissimilar : diffci-ent kinds of labour exist in the different regions of the country, and give birth to different kinds of organisation. The masses of the peojjle have long ])pssessed a remarkable talent for organising themselves, and have been allowed by the democratic and individualistic structure of society facilities for associating themselves into trades unions and other sorts of fraternities which the workmen of most countries in Europe might envy. Moreover, the working classes, since they constitute the majority of the voters, have been able to ])ut into i)owei- such legislatures and otlieials a.s they desire, ;ind to obtain the laws which best suit them. Tliere has never been a nation among whom all experiments in the W'ay of social and in- dustrial reconstruction could be so readily tried and would be .sure of being so fully recorded. One might therefore expect that the Socialists and Com- munists anil Anarchists of Europe would look with peculiar interest and satisfaction to America as the land where tlieir ideas would have the best prosj^ect of taking i)ractical shajjc. The contrary, however, seems to be the case. .Much disa])pointment with America is expressed by tlie leadsu's of these ])arties, and by those who in the jiress expound their views. They conii)lain that the Americans are too contented and self-satisfied to desire radical changes. They declare that nowhere is capital more powerful, more grasping, more audacious. Working men may appear to hold ))olitical sujiremacy, but they are somehow jn-evented from using it. They cannot extricate themselves from the toils of ])arty, witli its comiilex system of organisation. They have not the proper degreeof hatredtothe so-called honrjjcoisic, the retiuisite jiassion for overturning the existing order, and clearing the grouiul for the establishment of something better.
The exi)lanation of this strange contrast between possibilities and results in the United States, and the descrii)tion of the various forms which schemes of industrial reform and industrial revolution have taken, would sui))}ly matter for a most instructive treatise ; nor could such a treatise come at a moment more suitable than the jjresent, when '• Labour Ques- tions " are all the fashion. We opened Mr. Ely's book in the hope of finding such an explanation and description, knowing him from his other books to
be a thouglitfiil and well-informed writer, warmly interested in these subjects. We must, however, confess to some disapjiuintment. He has a habit— Ijcrhajis more common in America than in England — of mixing up his sentimenis and his sympathies with his facts and reasoning, so as to give a character of wooUiness ami llulline^s to his whole treatment of the subject. Hot bla<k colTee is good, and cold water, either before tin- i-offee, as in the East, or after it, as among the I'lanks, is also good. But to ixmr the colfee into the water, or the water into the colTee, is to spoil l)otii. The book is fre<|uently vague just where ])reci>^ioii was neeiled, and gives us ex- cellent morality where we needed hard facts. We are told very little either about the Knights of Labour or about the altem))t to work a universal boycott, though these ai'e among the most interesting l>henomena of the .Vmerican Labour struggles. Still, the book contains a good deal of useful information which it would be hard to find elsewhere, and it is written in a sjiirit of laudable fau-ncss and tolerance.
One of the ((uestions most often asked regarding American Co-oi)erative enteriirises and trade or- ganisations is why they liave not giown faster and taken de«'i)er root than in l-Jngland. Mr. Ely sug- gests some explaniilioiis. He thinks that "in no country in the civilised world have the lalionrers, as such, been so isolated as in the large industrial centres of the United States." They have received far less aiil from men of intellect and ])osition than in England or Germany. " Other obstacles in the way of tlie success of Co-oj)eration are these — un- steady employment, roving habits, the heterogeneous character of our jjoindation — all preventing that consolidation and amalgamation of the masses which co-operation requires." lie adds another reason, which has unich force — viz., that in the United States there exists ar. unec|ualled " nuiltii)licity of openings for the giftetl and fortunate. In older countries a great deal of talent has been found among laboiuing classes ready to assist in Co-ojier- ative enteri)rises," whereas in America the brightest and most energetic of the working class find it comparatively easy to rise into the class of i)eu or brain workers, and thereby the workmen are, to a large extent, deiuided of their natm-al leaders. This remark ajjplies not merely to Co-o])cration, but to Labour movements generally, and it helps to explain the ease with wliich the American labourers are led astray by childish fallacies. Still more significant is the fact which he menti'ius in another place, that the class of hantl labourei-s in the United .States is mainly comjjDsed of foreigners, because native-born Americans generally rise into higher kinds of work. Among the skilled artisans there is a fair i)roportiou of natives, but the ur.skilled are wholly Euroi)ean, or Canadian, or coloured.
As everyone knows, it is among the foreigners, and chielly among the tiermans, Poles, Bohemians, and other Slavs, that .Socialism and .Vnarchism prevail. The Anarchist jiress is mainly, the more moderate Socialist press wholly, written in LJermau. The latter has a rcs])ectable circulation, while the Anarchist so-called internationalist journals, though more numerous, seem to reach a very small imblic. Mr. l^ly guesses roughly that the total innnber of •' adherents of the general jn-inciples of moderate and jieaceful Socialism in the United States" may be half a million: ami, of course, estimates the Anarchic or Revolutionary jjarty at a far lower figure. He gives many si)eeimens of the blood- thirsty out))oin-ings of this faction, antl api>ears to think that they constitute a real danger to the State — a\iewwhich will not commend itself to those who remember the furious wrath evokcil in America by the Chicago murders, and who gather from Mr. lily's own i)ages that Anarchism makes, prac- tically, no converts among native Americans. That "moilerate Socialism." on the other haml, <ioes advance, we can \\ell believe; but it seems in America, as in England, to consist rather in a sympathetic attitude towards the poor, and a
204
THE SPEAKER.
[August 15, 1891.
cnriositj' in looking out for suggested reforms, than in any acceptance of specific Socialist schemes. How Mr. Ely, with his experience of tlie conduct of public authorities in liis own coiuitry and the results of ])olitical patronage, can avow himself in favour of giving the control of railways to the State, passes our comprehension.
MELANESIA.
The JIelanesians. Their Autliropology and Folklore. By Iv. II. Codrington. Oxford : Clarendon Press.
Melaxe.si.v is the name given to four groups of islands in the 'Western Pacific, not far from North Australia ; and Mr. Codrington's book is an excellent record of the customs, beliefs, and social institutions of the islanders. No more valuable or more gentiine study of man in a very ]irimitive state has recently api)eared ; for it is founded upon a long and intimate acquaintance with the people, and it throws light ujion several ])()ints in anthropology and the evolution of superstitions toward which attention has latterly been turned. And while the sociologist will find in this volume good store of new facts and suggestive observations, the general reader will be touched by the charm which belongs to a picture of very simi)le, unsophisticated manners that are beiugrapidly obliter- ated. The jiersistent resemblance — one might almost say, the monotonous identity — that i^revails among the ideas and practices, religious and social, of man in an elementary stage all over the world is i-emark- alily illustrated by this account of the !Melanesiaus. Exogamy, for exam])le, seems to be almost an abori- ginal prinei])le of archaic society ; it is the jirimeval ordinance of prohibited degree that runs in different versions all over Asia, although no satisfactory ex- ])lanation has yet been given of the invincible repug- nance among so many races to intermarriage between persons who are even conventionally kinsfolk. Here, in remote Melanesia, we find this rule universal. The people are not divided into tribes, but into two or more classes that are exogamous, and in which descent is usually counted only through the mother. The base-line which unites and divides the gronjjs is the marriage law, or the inviolable custom which strictly ijrohibits the intercourse of men and women Avith others of their own class. Yet, although the l)ractice is patent, of its cause or origin Melanesia gives no exjilanation ; the precise germ of utility, the rude ethical notions which it represents, are still ojjcn to ingenious conjecture : we cannot tell what has led savages, with few scruples about sexual promiscuity, to condemn so rigidly the connection of i)ersous su)!- posed to be allied, however distantly, in blood.
Although there are no tribes, the Melanesians have chiefs, who unite sjiiritual with temporal juris- diction, or. to speak accurately, see no difference between tlie two things. '"As a matter of fact, the power of chiefs has hitherto rested ui)on the belief in their sui)ernatural ])ower derived from thi^ spirits or ghosts with which they had intercourse." The art of consultation \vith infiiiential ghosts is be(|ueathed to a successor, and is indeed the essential attribute of rulcrship by divine right : but this hereditary rejinta- tion for ghostly science has, like l*ai)al infallibility, to be occasionally su))i>orted by a liberal use of the carnal weapon upon those who (Umbt it. The two powers, spiritual and temi)oral, evidently support and interact upon each other ; for while a great warrior is creilited with magical secrets, the possessor of charms and amulets is thereby armed with supe- rior forces ; and, again, a rich man gets the repute of bi'ing a magician because the multiplication of pigs and yams can be produced by sorcery. The taboo is a favourite j)olitieal engine, being used by the chief to kee]) his own person sacred and unapproachable, and also to boycott any Melanesian Hampden who stands out agjiinst exceptional demands by the chief ii))on his i)roperty. There are a great many secret societies, at which ghosts are understood to be present and to hold comuumion with the members, and the
initiation is by wild singing and frantic dancing in grotesque costtune ; yet although unlicensed peeping behind the scenes is punished by sudden death, no one seems to treat these mysteries as nnich more than fantastic masciuerading. To the earnest European iiKpiirer. who is always on the look-out for jjrofound meaning and fai--reaching symbolism in the childish sports and sujierstitions of wild folk, it is always difficult and disappointing to realise the fact that primitive man rarely takes his religion more than half seriously, and that his queer rites and play- acting often mean nothing at all. Besides the secx-et societies, of which ghosts seem to be honorary members, every village has a kind of social club, where a system of grades, as in Freemasonry, pre- vails, and where you can jjurchase your steps up- ward by money, food, and the idjiquitous ])ig, who is, however, not always legal tender if he be in- sufferably tough.
In regard to Melanesian religion Mr. Codrington tells us much that is very curious and nothing that is very new ; but his information is valuable just because we have heard of the same sort of things and ideas in many other lauds, because the conceptions and practices of these Pacific islanders resemble so remarkably A\hat is done and thought by ]jeople in similar stages of mental development elsewhere. These coincidences help us to generalise regarding the primeval superstitious of mankind, and aid us in tracing what may be called the springs of natural religion. Hei-e, as in other parts of the uncivilised world, much confusion has arisen out of the attempts of Europeans to express vague and rudimentary fancies or images in the highly condensed language of organic religion. The words " God " and " Devil." for instance, as used by an Englishman, have no sense or fitness in apjilication to the loose, shadowj' notions of a savage about jihantoms and goblins : and as for the word " soul," it causes endless confusion. " Many a voyager," remarks Mr. Codrington. " carries away as a sort of joke the story that the natives think their shadows are their souls, who could not tell exactly what he means by the word soul which he uses himself."
The ghosts of dead men are universally wor- shipped, but are to be carefully distinguished, ac- cording to our author, from the higher spiritual beings who have never inhabited a human body ; and both ghosts and spirits haunt places, are present in trees and stones, where they can be detected by queer shapes and motions ; are discoverable in the shajies of snakes, owls, sharks, and other uncanny animals ; can be propitiated by food offerings, are accessible to prayer and sacrifice, rule the elements, deal in plagues and curses ; and, in fact, exercise all the iiowers and attributes that are everywhere characteristic of embryonic polytheism before the divinities become heads of regular ilepartments. But whereas in the eastern islands the ghost and the si)irit belong to two distinct classes, not sup- ])osed to be connected by origin, in the Solomon Islands " the distinction is between ghosts of jiower and ghosts of no account " ; between those whom you must ajipease and those from whom nothing is expected : and to the jjowerful class belong, of course, the ghosts of formidable men. On the whole, this book contains very strong but striking evidence in corroboration, first, of the universality of ghost worship as one of the earliest forms of superstition ; and, secondly, of the view that the notable glio.st is regularly promoted. ui)on his merits as a wonder-worker, into the lower order of divinities.
One may observe in this description of Melanesian beliefs the strange iucajiacity to accept death as the end of a human being which is at the bottom of the feeling that peoples the environment with inniuuer- able ghosts. Death means only that the soul has de])arted out of the body, that it has become a sprite or spectre which hangs about the house and the grave, showing itself by lights or noises, and making itself ])articularly troublesome if the body has not
August lo, 1891.]
THE SPEAKER.
205
been buried. It may be driven away by shouts or bull-roarers ; or it may be eoneiliated by t'nnei-al honours, in which the death meal, or funeral feast, with a morsel for the ghost, plays, as usual, a eon- siderable part. Sacrifices arc made on tiie j;rraves ; and somctiuies the wife is stranj,'lcil or buried alive that she nuiy follow her husbantl ; for, although the ghosts wander about incessantly, there is, neverthe- less, a kind of Lindjo. or place of dei)arted s|)irits, to which all ghosts are sujiposcil to Journey, and where l)ad characters are refused admittance.
The discerning leader will by this time have con- vinced himself that the .Alehuiesians have struck out no novelties in their religion; ami that its most remarkable cliaracteristic is its extraordinary resem- blance, generally aixl in many particulars, to the ways of worshi)) and s|)iritual fancies struck out at sundry times and in divers i)laces by the human imagination working freely aiul independently uiion the great troubles of life and death. In illustration of the curious ul)i(iuity of certain particular faljles, it may be mentioned that we find in Melanesia the Lamia oi- l)eautiful woman, who tempts incautious men, and turns intr) a snnke when ))ropci-ly exorcised ; while the wm-ld-wide jiractice of throwing stones on a heap l)y the wayside, whicii is known all over Asia and parts of Kuro))c, with vei>- diverse ex|)Ianati<)ns or objects, is nnich in vogue in tliese remote islands. There is .a good sujiply of marvellous myths and rathei- idiotic stories for the collectors of folklore ; and altogether Mr. Codrington's book is of real value to the student of comjiarative religion and sociology. It is valuable, not only as a copious rejjertory of authentic jjarticulars liearing on the mental condition and manners of a sf)ciety. that has grown up naturally undisturbed by external intercourse, but also because he haniUes his materials soljerly and judiciously, without ineconceived theories or attemi)ts to read deep meanings in the shallow fancies of primitive brains. The custom of Taboo, for instance, upon which much ingenious speculation has been recently exjicnded, is very correctly defined by Mr. Codrington as a i)rohil)itive rite, with more imi)lied ; it is a well- known and obvious device for giving supernatural sanction to an earthly ordinance, for hedging in the savage king with awfid divinity. Ho shows also, incidentally, that what Euro])eans call devil-dances, are often mere rhythmic saltations, with no religious meaning at all : that grotesque carvings are not always idols ; and that fantastic games or cere- monies, which are full of mj'stic symbolism to the philosophic reader of i)aj)ers before learned societies, may be mere outbursts of the s])ortive barbarian, or inventions to satisfy his credulity. There is nuich to be learnt about ordeals and divina- tions, which ai-e mainly simple tests or tricks for detecting culi)rits, recovering lost projjerty, and in- dicating the ghost or demon who is alllictiiig a rich man. Magic is. of course, an art in high repute, being closely allied, as has been always the case, with some tincture of nattn-al i)hilosophy. esj)ecially in the direction of jjoisoniiig. In short, the book is one that adds to our knowledge and throws light in various directions; and it is well suited for that large class of readers to whom the ways and whims of i)riinitive folk are a source of anmsement or in- struction.
FRANCE AND RUSSIA UNDER THE FIRST EM PI UK.
.\LEXAXnUF. ]'" ET N'M'Oi.Ki.X :>'Al'liKi LFDIl ('t)l;l!ESrilNI)^NCB
INEDITE. (18)1— lS12j J';ii- Sei;; ■ Tiitiatchc'lT. I'.iris: I.iljiairio .\cnUcmi(iuo Di. io:-, I'erriu et <■[.■. ISSl.
Tl IK close frieudshij) cxi-ting at the )n-csent time Ijetween the French and tlie Ru-sian ))eo|iIe is a matter of grave imi)ortai)ci> to the future (jf Kuiii|)e. It is nnprofitablo to sjjecuiate on the cau-^es of tliis friendsliip : it has been asserted that it is liue merely to the geogra|)hical situation of the two c-ountries: that it is tlie result of a i)cculiar jittraction iji the character of the French for the best Slav intellects.
or that it is the creation of far-seeing statesmen of both nationalities, who have endeavoured to build up the feeling of friendship into a traditional alliance. The causes matter not ; the facts remain, that Russia has learned moi-e of the ai-ts of civilisation from Fiance than from hci- near neighbouis, ami that France has always encouraged the asjiirations of Russia to become a iMuopean i'ower. The history of the formation and giowlh of the friendship of the two countries would make a most interesting essay; it dates from the reign of I'eter the (M-eat, and has steatlily develojjed to the present time. Inli-ll(?ctually it has had great residts; the Empress Catherine ai)preciated the labours of the i"'rench encyclo))a'dist.s and i)ensioned Diderot in the most graceful manner by i)urchasing his library, and then making him its ])aid custodian ; she was in constant comnuinication with the leailers of French thought, and develoi)ed their influence on the budding literature of Russia; while in modern days l''iance has repaid the debt by interpreting and tran>^lating to Ivu-oije the works of the great Kussians. who are at ))i-esent exercising such i)rofound influence on Euroi)ean thought. Foli- tically the alliance has a long and striking history ; both countries strove against Frederick the (ireat in the Seven Years' War, but while Rossl)ach has been followed by .Jena and .Sedan, the I'mssians have never revenged their defeat at Ziirndorf. This jjoli- tical alliance has been interrupted by four imijortaut wars, those of IT'.W-!)!). lSOO-07, ISl'i-i:^, and lS.-)l-5(i, but while the campaigns of Suvarof in Italy and Switzerland, the liattles of Austerlit/. and Friedland, and the Crimean war exercised no a))i)reciable iidlu- ence on the history of the two nations, the war of 1S12, with its invasion of Russia, its burning of Mos- cow, and the disastrous retreat of the Grand Army, ranks among the most important events in the modern history of Euroi)e.
Tolstoi, the great Russian Miiter, has grasjied alike the imjiortance and the dramatic features of this great struggle in his prose ejjic " ^\'ar and Peace;" he iniderstood its significance, and recog- nised that while the resistance of Russia to the in- vader was national, the attitude of the French soliliers was inirely military. The camjjaign of 1S12 showed an artuy fighting a nation with the inevitable result that the latter was victorious. Beyond this, there exists a jjcrsonal interest in the great war. The French peo))le had no desire to tight Russia, nor hatl the French ai-niy ; it was in no respect necessary for the ijrosperity of France that Russia should he con- quered and defeated. The war was the work of one man, Xajiolcon, and tlie repulse he met with was a sign that his star was setting, and that the days of his sujiremacy were numbered. The history of the events which led to the war is therefore bound uj) in the story of the personal connection of Napoleon with Alexander I.. ('/.:ir of Russia, and is of the greatest interest and importance.
This history M. .Serge TatistchefF has given in his bulky volume. It may be said at once that the letters of the C/.ar .\lexander. which he has discovered in the archives at St. Petersburg, throw no new light of any imi)ortance on the relations between the C/.ar and Naixilcon ; it is the well-written history in which they are embedded, and the careful and im))artial analysis of the despatches of the successive French ambassadors at the Hussian Court, which give his book a |)ermanent value. On the accession of the Czar Alexander after the assassination of the C'.ar Paul, the young ruler found himself the only admirer of France and of the l'"irst Consul at his Court. This admiration had been iiis|)ired into his mind liy his tutor, the Swi-s ijublici^t L:i Harpe. and he expressed it freely to Duroc. the first envoy sent by Napoleon to St. Petersburg. ".lai toujours desire." lie said to Duroc, "lie voir la France et la Russie unies. Ce sont deux nations grandes et ]iuissantes fpie se sont donnes ri'-cipro(|uement ties i)reuves d'estinie, et (pii doivent s'entendre jiour faire cesser les i)etites divi-ions du
continent le desirerais beaucou|i m"entendre
dircctement a\ec le Premier Consul, dont le earactere
20G
THE SPEAKER.
[August 15, 1891.
loyal m'est bien (!onnn et sans passer par taut <1 inter- ni(-diaiies toujojus dangereux." But hi-; aaiuiration was not shared by his mother, by his oouiisellor.s, or by the nobles of St. Petersburg, as Caulamcourt, the first accredited ambassador of Napoleon, soon dis- covered, and under their influence Russia took part in the campaign of Ansterlit/., and after peace had been made between France and Austria, waged war alone in the campaign, which was terminated by the battle of Friedland. Then came the dramatic episode of the interview between the CV.ar and Napoleon on the River Niemen. M. Tatistcheff gives full promi- nence to this striking event, and describes, from the narratives of eye-witnesses, the uniforms worn by the two monarchs and the anxiety of the King of Prussia the fate of whose kingdom was under discus- sion as he rode up and down ujion the bank, and even forced his horse in to the water in his longing to hear what was being said. The grandiose ideas of Napoleon, his schemes tor the ruin of England antl the division of the civilised world between two Em- pires of the East and the West, the glamour of the fame of the great conqueror, and the fascination of his manner, all influenced the Czar, who was young and suscejitible ; and he returned to his capital after signing treaties of peace and alliance with Napoleon at Tilsit, with his former feelings of admiration for the Emperor of the French multiiilied a thousand fold. Napoleon was perfectly well aware of the Czar's feelings, but he did not reciprocate them, and ho deliberately prepared to take advantage of the en- thusiasm of Alexander for himself. He was to receive everything and to give nothing, and for a time this policy, assisted by the sagacity of Caulaiucourt, the French ambassador at St. Petersburg, was completely justified. But the Czar Alexander was not devoid of natural shrewdness : he began to distrust the jirofes- sions of his illustrious friend, and his suspicions were further deepened by Talleyrand during the confer- ences at Erfurt, as the wily diplomatist acknowledges in the rMi Part of his recently iiublished Memoirs. The feeling of distrust having once taken the place of that of affectionate admiration, the personal friendship between the two monarchs grew less and less. Napoleon did not recognise this fact immedi- ately, but the refusal of Alexander to give hiin the hand of a Russian princess to take the place of Jose- phine opened his eyes, and from that time his policy directly tended to war with Russia. That war com- menced with the invasion of 1.S12, and did not cease iintil the allies occupied Paris, and \ai)oleon was forced to abdicate.
From this sketch it will be seen that the story of the personal i-elations between Napoleon and the Czar Alexander I. is of surpassing importance to the history of Eurojie. It is this story which M. Serge TatistchelT has endeavoured to tell. As has been said, his researches have not added much that is new to the main features in the hitherto uniiublished letters, but ho has taken the opportunity of his dis- coveries to com]iile a volume of real interest, which cannot for the future be neglected by any stu. Cut of the history of Europe during the era marked by the victories of Napoleon.
LADY WILDE'S ESSAYS.
Notes on Me.v, Women, and I'.ooks. By Lady WiUc. I.omlon : Wiird & Bowney. IS'Jl-
Lady Wildk sweeps over a very wide range of subject indeed, whether we look upon it from a geogra])liical, a literary, or a i.olitieal standi.oint. She travels over Germany, Siiain. Fiance. Kiigland, and Irehuul, dcscen.ling in the literary scale from .Jean Paul and Caldeion to Miss Jlartiiieau and Lady Blessingtou, and politicailv diversifying her i)ages with notices of Daniel OConnell. Dr. Doyle, and Disraeli. No doubt she touches nothing she does not adorn, but a hypercritical person might feel inclined to think she over-adorns not a few things. Here, for instance, is a passage, the rhetoric of
which will be found, we fear, by most people a trifle excessive : —
"Hi« [O'Connell's] moral-force agitation was a mighty oce-in pcrpotuallv heavinf.- and di.shing, and making fresh inroads upon the tixed roiks of prcjuilice and bigotry, whirhug into its vortex what- ever stiit.ly vessel or tinv craft of a Measure was put forth bv Ministers, Absorbing its ric'hes and then casting iiack the dismantled iiulk to the despairing launchers. He knew that Insh independencvo could never he achieved bv epileptic fits of mad ferocity, and through his consummate leadership he gained all for which he combated 'without Ihe slain of a single crime resting on the national cause.* ''
However, when all is said, the chief fault to be found with this imblication is that much of it which is interesting and intelligent in itself is scarcely needed in a very much over-booked and very busy age. Lady Wilde has certainly nothing to say about Richter which was not said some sixty years ago by Carlyle, and even her more elaborate treatment of Calderon will scarcely be needed by readers of Trench, McCarthy, Fitzgerald, and others. Still, to readers who approach these great writers for the first time Lady Wilde's essays will be found valuable, and especially that part of them devoted to an analysis of some of their works, particularly some of the plays of Calderon. Lady Wilde deals mostly with very big people, but we think she succeeds best with the few comparatively small people she condescends to include in her wide survey of "Men, Women, and Books." We have all heard so much about these big people before, and by all sorts of jieople, big and little, that it is no doubt hard to please us in any- thing said about them. Then tastes differ so widely. The present writer, for instance, thinks very much better of George Eliot than Lady Wilde does, and very much worse of the late Lord Lyttou. We have many poets included in these notices, as is natural, seeing that our author is herself a poet, and have little faidt to find with most of ^vhat is here said about them, save that so much of it has been said over and over again before. Of Wordsworth and Tennyson, for instance, where can we expect to find any fresh or new " apprecia- tion" or " impression ':'" Leigh Hunt, undoubted poet as he is. might jierhaps be considered the smallest mentioned in this volume, and seems to us to be the most satisfactorily handled. Lady Wilde has not so much to say, save incidentally, about women as the title of her book would lead one to imagine. Her biggest woman (George Eliot) meets, as we think, with but very imperfect appreciation, whereas her smallest, and the most inconsiderable person in the whole book (Lady Blessingtou), forms the subject of the longest and, in our opinion, the most valuable of these essays. Lady Wilde does not overrate Lady Blessingtou intellectually, morally, or otherwise, but she gives us a very vivid jiicture of the early and later life—mostly a very worthless, though interest- ing one— of this once well-known, but now nearly forgotten. L'isli adventuress and beauty.
We do not wish it to be thought, from what may be held, esiiecially by the softer sex, to be the some- what cariiing and ixVssibly ungracious spirit of some of our criticism, that we do not think well of most of these essays. We simply think they need not have been reprinted : in other words, we fail to see the raison d'etre of the book. We might, however, say the .same of nine-tenths of all the books printed every year, and of jierhaps nineteen-twentietlis of all the books of criticism. Why does not Lady Wilde give us more Irish fairy and folk stories? She is strongest on the side of the imagination. She might leave criticism to her highly critical anti-Philistine son, the prophet of the for nu- anil the scoruer of the fact.
VICTORIAN POETS.
Vktokian Tor-T;
By .Amy Shari'C, Newnbain (Ullage, Cambrilge. London :'Methuen & Co. 1891.
This volume is one of a " I^niversity Extension Series," which Messrs. Methueu i^- Co. describe as "suitable for extension students and home-reading circles." W^e have, with our own eyes, seen that
August 15, 1891.]
THE SPEAKER.
20;
strangely nanicf! crcatiu'c, an "extension student"; but a " home-reading cireie" we had always imagined to be, like tlie mori' familiar eirele of geometry, an imaginary eonstruetion, useful for pur|)oses of i)ure ratioeinatioM, l)ut ni'ver eneouiitered in actual life. There is little doubt, however, that, did such a eii-cle exist, some point in its eireumferenee would stand uj) on the family hearth and assei't its honest belief that Sir Ivlwin Arnold was a greater jjoet than Hobert drowning. And there is less doubt that sufh an assertion — however heartfelt — should be at oneo scolTed at. The ordinary family, however, niight find some diflieidty in sconiiig intelligently. It is to meet this erying want that .Miss Sharjx' recommends twenty-nine books of criticism and reference to bo read side by side with the eight most considerable Victorian poets, and herself adds a thirtieth.
And, indeed, if we assume the existence r)f this figure, " the home circle," there is little fault to be found with .Miss Sharjie's book. She is, as her name denotes, of the same sex as Elizabeth Uarrett Browning, and may be jiardoned for allotting a separate essay to that jioetess, while t'lough and Matthew Arnold are lum])ed together in the following chapter, and Rossetti, William Morris and Swinburne in the next. As mere men, on the other hand, we may be forgiven for holding that either Cloiigh or Arnold, whether we consider their per- formance or their intluence, eould give Mrs. Browning fifty points in a hundred and beat her with ease. But the contention is unimportant, and the census teaches us to allow for a preponderance of females in the family cireie. Let us note also — without com- jilaint^the feminine note in Miss Sharjie's criticism of Mr. Swinburne. The battle over the " ballads beautiful" — as "Slv. Whistler calls them "was fought out on the ground of Morals versus Art; Swinburne's position might perhaps have been turned more effectively and not less truly v.ith the contention that as the artistic ideal vuist include meaning as well as form, to emphasise and cover with a glory of noble language ugly facts or ideas essen- tially degraded is to set up an ideal as false artistically as it may be hurtful ethically. How- ever, without recanting anything. Mr. Swinburne's later Axorks have been cleared of the elements which made his earlier jioems offensive; and there the con- troversy may well rest." But Miss Sharjie hardly lets it rest. Her sense of iirojiriety colours the whole of her estimate of this i)oet: and her essay perhaps would better have been shortened to this — "Chapter V. Swiniu-hxe. There are no snakes in the home-circle." It may be added that the whole of this fifth chapter is curiously unsympathetic. Tennyson is known to Miss Sharpe, and Browning —
•• Tlierf's ii JIE Sooitty down at Cimliridgc- "
— as J. K. S. sings; and ( 'lough and Matthew Arnold are usually understood, in a measure, by all who reside near University towns. But this same con- tiguity with a seminary of polite learning is just as sure to blunt the ajipreciation of Rossetti, -Morris and Swinburne —widely as these three poets differ. Rossetti, especially, is no writer for academies. b\it for artists; and the obtuseness of .Miss Shari>e's remarks ujion him is only astonishing at first. AVc make haste to assert that she tells the home-reading circle quite as much as is good for it.
The method adopted in the tliree most imi)orlant essays — those on Tennyson and Mr. and Jlrs. Brown- ing— is that of illustrating each critical obser\ atiou with cojiious illustrations from the works of the writer under review. And, for .Miss Shariic's])uriJose, there is no doubt that this is the right method. Her exposition of the merits of tliese three jwots is capable and lucid — so far as it goes. But to an embracing survey of their work, with its aims, con- scious and unconscious, anil its effects, she has not attained. Perhajjs it was no part of her plan. If, however, we allow the usefulness of her narrower scope, we still liud ourselves demanding something
moi<- than slic- tells iis, not only ol Kussctti, .Morris and Swinburne, but of Cjough an<l ArnoM. With something that we lie-itate to call perversity, though we teel it as i)erversc, slic misses the iiecidiar charm of the " BotliJe," of "Thyrsis" and "the Scholar (iipsy." anil the Ilomerir majesty of "Balder Dea.l" and ".SoJiiaband Hu-tum." To lier " Bahler " a|.pears " somehow wanting in force" and the narrative in " Solirab and Hustum " "hardly seems swift enougli, l)assionate enough, to make an event so tragic as the death of a warrior-son by the hand of his unwilling warrior-fatherquite so imj)ressive as it ought to be." In truth this is just how it would strike a home- reading circle the sort of folk who dote on Mr. I'ildes' "The Doctor"— and we can almost see Arnold's smileatthe comi)laint— " (iive us something passionate, i)lease. And don't let it deal with Hasti- ness, like theijassionof Swinburne: but, if you itlease, stir uj) our soids with just tlu; good old domestic emotion we want. We know what we like: we want you to be as ])ure as ever you were, but kindly reek with i)assioii." The young men and women who ext<'nd themselves as students, and form circles for nuitual instruction, are after all of the same bhjod as their giandi)arents who read Byron to each other and sang songs of sea-rovers and jiining oriental beauties: and this is an admirable book for then). It will wean them, without i-iideness, from their natural favourites. It tells them exactly what is admired in academic, as opposed to home-reading, circles: and so leads them, gently, towards good taste.
ENGRA\ED GEM.S.
Tin: Kn(ihavkI) (Ikms of Clas-^icai, Times, with ;i Catalogue of the Gems ill the Fitzwilliain Museum. lly ,1. Henry MiJdleton, Sladc Professor of l-'iiie .Vit, etc. t'umbndi;i- : Al Ilie fiiiviitity Press. ISill.
While everyone is aware of the singidar interest attached to engra\cd gcm>., lew writers have veu- turetl during the last half century on any comi)re- hensive discussion of this dillicidt subject. lu England, with the excejjtion of .Mr. A. S. .Murray's short introduction to the Catalogue of Gems in the British Museum, there is little e.\ce])t the works of the late .Mr. C. W. King, to whose memory the book here Tintler review is de<iicated. .Mr. King's writings areadmirable in many ways, but they are rather those of an aci-onq)lished scholar who delightetl in gems for the side lights that they throw on the classics, than of an arcliH'ologist of the modern school, whose first object is to trace out the history of gem-engraving itself. Jloreover several classes oi' gems which were hardly known when the failure of his eyes |tui an end to -Mr. King's work, have since become im])ortant. On the Continent, by the general consent of arclue- ologists, the subject has been left almost entirely to the few ])ersc)ns who have the actual handling of the ])ublic collections, and St. Petersburg, Berlin, and Paris have each had two representatives in the dis- cussion. These si.x, however, w ith one or two others, lia\e i)referred to focus great learning on particular parts of the subject, rather than to write general text-books. Hence it comes about that in ))ul)li~hing an account of the engraved gems of ehis^ical tin)cs. Professor .Middleton enters a field \\ Inch is almo'^t inioccu)>ied.
Tli(M)ook is st:itfd to be " a brief account of the engraved gems anil other forms of .-ignet which were used by the chief classical races of ancient times," and is intended for the general use of students of archa-ology. ,\n illustrated catalogue of the small but interesting collection in the Pit/.wiHiam Mu-euni. which was chiefiy made by Colonel Leake, is adikd as an ajipendix.
Professor .Middleton begins, as is ine\i table, with the two earliest forms of gems the Eg.\ plian searaba'us and the Habylonian cylinder-and quotes a few exam))les <if each. The hi>tory of the scarab.cus, and of its otTsjn'ing. the M-araba-oid, is duly traced, through Phteuicia to Etnuia and
208
THE SPEAKER.
[August 15, 189].
Greece ; but the story of the engraved cylinder, a-s told by Professor Middleton, stops short with the PhuL'nicians. It is true that there is little more to be told, as cxaniiiles of Greek cylinders are very rare. The reader, liowever, naturally asks whether any reason can be K'^'^n for the neglect of the cylinder form by Greeks and Etruscans, exce))t for the special iiurpose of iini)ressing a recurrent design on pottery"/ — and to this question no answer is sug- gested.
The account of the cylinder and the scarab is followed by a description of the strange but uncouth signets of the " Hittites," and by an account of the "gems of the Greek Islands." Here, again, the reader will complain that the author is too brief. The so-called " gems of the Islands " are a strongly marked class of stones, distinguished by their style and by their characteristic shai)es. They are found in the islands of the -Egean (whence their name), but also on most of the adjoining coasts. Their interest lies in the fact that they are found botli witli dei)osits of the Myceu;ean j)eriod and also with later Greek works. All this is stated by Professor Middleton. But questions at once arise which are of interest to all students of history, and not only to archa-ologists. "What was this school of artists, able to bridge by a continuous tradition the dark gulf that separates Myceu;e from later Greece V Were they seated at a distance — say, in Crete? Were they craftsmen so humble that the storms of the Dorian Invasion passed over their heads V Is the whole Myceuiean culture subsequent to the Dorian Invasion ? — if, indeed, that invasion ever took place. Such ai-e some of the solutions tliat have been pro- ])osed. Professor Middleton does not clearly indicate his owu o])inion. but we gather that he would incline to the second of the alternatives given above.
After an account of the Greek gems of the finest period, which would Ije more serviceable if it wei-e more fully ilhistrated. Professor Middleton turns to Etruria. In his treatment of scarabs found in Etruscan tombs he differs somewhat from his pre- decessors, in holding that a considerable portion of the earlier and better specimens are of Greek origin. Here, too, he might well have defined and sujjported his jjosition rather more fully. It apjiears to us that the differences between the fine gems found in Greece and those of Etruria are so marked that the idea of an extensive import trade is excluded, unless w'e suppose that thei* was a great manufacture in Greece of gems expressly designed for tlie Etruscan market, and of this there is no evidence.
In the study of gems some knowledge of the technical methods of engraving is a valuable aid in determining doubtful questions of date and authenticity. In this part of thes ubject Professor Middleton is seen at his best. With Ids inirivalled knowledge of curious manual processes, he is able to (piote the methods of the Indian tribesman, the dentist, the glazier, and the gem-forger — one of tlie latter class was once obliging enough to disi)lay the whole of his art. But on questions of techni(iue, as on all otliers connected with gems, there is room for dilTerences of o])inion ; and we doubt wlietlier I'rofessor Middleton can jn-ove the use of the wheel on the "gems of tlie Greek Islands."
A considerable part of the book is devoted to a discussion of gems with su)5iiose<l artists' signatures. These form at once tlie most jierplexing and tiie most irritating of archaeological juoljlems ; the most perplexing because certainty is usually unattainable, .•uid the most irritating because the whole difficulty is due to the folly of our ancestors. Nevertheless, the histoiy of the signed gems is a curious study. Two or three specimens were extant all through the middle ages. Between the si.xteenth and llie eigliteenth centuries, the number of known gems with artists" signatures slowly increased, and the gems so signed began to Ije objects of special value. In the eighteenth century a royal Prince became an amateur of gems, anil jjrojiounded a theory as to one Solon, a gem-engraver. .Soon after Baron Stosch
published his book on signed gems, and every man of taste became a collector. For more than a century the sui)j)ly of signed gems was fully equal to the demand, and the catalogues of ancient engravers were swelled to a prodigious size. At length the bubble burst some sixty years since, and it only lemained for archa-ologists laboriously to pick out tlie true signed gems from the accumulated rubbish. Most of the writers alluded to at the beginning of this article liave devoted themselves to the inquiry, but the uncertainty of their conclusions is sufficiently shown by their variety. Meanwhile, it fortunately happens that new gems are from time to time dis- covered which are above sus])icion, and stir up no controversy. The Fitzwilliam JIuseum possesses one such gem, a work of the admirable artist Dexamenos. The chapters on which we have not touched treat of various Ijranches of the subject, such as the history of the cameo, the uses of gems in anti- ([uity, and the manufacture of glass pastes. There is also an interesting section on the use of gems as signets anil ecclesiastical ornaments in the middle ages. As we have already said, the main fault that i;ve find in a book in other ways excellent is the venial one of being too short, and it may be hoped that its apjiearance will be of real service in promoting a renewed study of gems in England. Thei'e are a few misprints and other inaccuracies, such as are almost unavoidable in a book dealing with a mass of details. We note, for example, that Professor Middleton speaks in the present tense of a very remarkable cup of carved glass in the Museum at .Strasburg. Tnless we are wrongly informed, this cuji perished, with much else that was hardly less fragile, in the summer of 1870.
SHILLING FICTION.
1. The Diary or a Scoindkel : Being t'ne I'ps and Downs of a Man
about Town. Bv Slax Pemberton. London : Ward & Downey. 1891.
2. Ji'sTiNE : OR, A Woman"3 Hosorit. By AValter C'alvort. London:
Eden, Remington & Co. 1891.
3. DiTiFUL Davohteks : a Tale of London Life. By H. SutherlunJ
Edwards. London : Eden, Remington & Co. 1890.
4. Betweem the Lines. By Walter llorries Pollock and Alexander
Gait. London : Methuen & Co. 1891.
•3. Bits i-kom Bi.inkhonny ; or, Bell o" the Manse. By John
.Strathesk. Edinburgh and London : Olijihant. Anderson & Ferrier. 1891.
" The Diary of a Scoundrel "' is, of course, the diary of a man with redeeming traits in liis ch.aracter ; and the goodness of bad peojile is more in.pressive — in some cases more attractive — than the goodness of the evenly virtuous. It was this, perhajis, which won the sympathy of the reader for tlie heroine of "As in a Looking Glass," and made that story so popular. In tliis book the scoundrel was not so much of a scoundrel as the world supposed him to be. But for the world's bad oiiinion he had himself chiefiy to thank. His wife obtained a ilivorce from him with a facility that seems a little unusual, when he could very easily have jiroved to her that she had no reason whatever to susi)ect him. He had squan- dered her money, but he had done nothing worse. However, he was too proud to give any explanation. " Wliy trouble." he says, •• why seek to convince a woman wlio shows a desire to lie rid of you"?" The story contains plcnt}'' of striking contrasts ; it deals with the low morality of high life, the virtues of a scoundrel, the change from ric-hes to poverty. It is by no means without interest : and a rich American, of tlie kind most common in fiction, provides the rescue of the hero and the hapjiy ending. In short, it is much the kind of book that the ]iublic have shown that they like to read. To more critical reailers it will seem a little over-coloured and un- natural ; much of it is rather story-like than life- like.
On the cover of "Justine"' is the jiicture of a young man in an easy-chair, gazing pleasantly at a skeleton standing erect in a cabinet. This looks
August 15, 1891.]
THE SPEAKER.
209
])r(>iiiisiiiff. The opeiiinp fhajiliT helps to raise one's aiiticiiiatioiis. There is so iimch ])reliiiiiiiary fuss that <me really exi)ects soiiu'tliiuf? more tliau the eoiiiinoiiplaee iminier story. .Viul yet we liiid in it only tiie old, iamiliar lines. A man is found mur- dered. It is believed l)y the detective that a ei'rtain Avonian eonniutted tlie minder. We kno\v that the detective must be wrong, because the hero is in love with that woman ; and this alone is, to a habitual reader of fiction, sufficient evidence of her innocence. In the enit the real murderess confesses her guilt. This isnot a very ingenious story. It isuot well constructed ; it contains much material which seems unnecessary to the story and not illustrative of the characters; in other places the book sulTcrs from undue com- jiression. We notice here, as in some other recent volumes, a slight alteration in the detective. Tlie fashion has cliangcd, and the detectives of fiction are, it seems, to fail this winter : they will be l)eauti- fuUy foiled and turned back so as to sliow the superior cunning of the hero. They W'ill, however, be quite as dull as they were in the spring. There is just that amoiuit of love-story in "Justiue" which one generally finds in detective stories, to provide relief when one is overwrought with the mystery and bloodshed, and to furnish motives for the com- mitting of a murder and for the hero's interest in the detection of guilt. On the whole, ".lustine" is rather a poor si)ecimen of rather a i)Oor kind of story.
In "Dutiful Daughters" Mr. Sutherland Edwards has a subject which has already been treated with some success by Shakcsi)eare, Miss Wilkins,and others. The title is, of course, ironical. The two married daughters of Mr. Meeking were very far from being dutiful. Owing to circumstances which need not Ije detailed here, Mr. Meeking found himself entirely dependent on his two daughters ; it was ai-ranged that he should spend six months of the year with each of them. But the one turned him out a day or two before the right time, antl the other refused to take him in until the very day on which he was due. Consecpiently we find Mr. Meeking at the commence- ment of the story in Kensington Workliouse. Mr. Meeking regains his old i)osition in the end. and his undutiful daughters and sons-in-law are generally confounded. It is a clever little story, written with brightness and humour; much of it is wildly im- in'obal)le and farcical, but it is well told and dis- tinctly annising.
" Between the Lines " is a murder story, ratlier more original and ingenious than the average murtler story. The missing document, the rightful heir, and the disguised villain are part of the subject of the book, but they do not constitute its chief claim to originality. The impulsive act by which Mr. Xtin Rhyn tries to screen tlie character of his murdered friend, and the comi)lieations which ensue from that, are well invented, however. Mr. Van Rhyn, we are told, occupied the same set of rooms at the Langham Hotel which had been formerly oc(Ui)ied by that "•well-known American millionaire, Mr. Gilead P. Beck." As a com])linient to ^Ir. Besant this kind of thing may be all that is delicate and admirable, but it does not make this story more convincing; it may perhai)s help to make "The Golden Butterfly " more convincing, which is not at all necessary. It is really a mistake to remind the reader that the story is only a story and not real life ; he is so likely always to remember that for himself. The obitujiry notice of M. Ferdinand Montluc on the last iiage is a capital imitation of the i)ersonal i)aragra])hs of certain newsj)apers. The tone of the writing is somewhat cynical — humoiw- ously cynical. " Between the Lines " is (luite a read- able story.
Many will welcome, the new edition of "Bits from Blinkboiniy." There is a pleasant homeliness and simplicity about this series of pictures of Scottish village life. They have a character and quality of their own, and are quite free from the common fault of pretentiousness.
TWO HOOK GUIDES.
A GVUIE TO THE llllOIi E O) riOOKS I-
I{KAi.i;ns. Editid l,y .\itl,ur H. JJ. .\ olUulh.il Colle«c, ((xioril. Loudou : i
■ ■ • -.'TS AKI> GenEBAI,
H'.jiiorarv Fellow
niford. IH'J\.
A (irii.E Hook to Books, r.dil.-l bv K. is. hargant aiid Bcniard \\ lii.'.liaw. Loudon : Hfiiry Knjwdc. ItS'Jl.
The imllMir nf tlu' ti-i-Hli-.' firnt named in our luiidiiig cauilidly tells us in his prefac- tli.it it \h not intended fortlinse •• fcrtnnate lic-isonsin an cnvialile iio«iti..ii. more fortunate and more envied llian they often know," who liave oomi>etent ndviserM at liaud who ean tell them *• wli.it to road." T)ie aim of Die hook is to he useful "to the eomniitleis of the smaller Free Lihrarieo, to the Edueational Deparlinents of Working Men's CooiK-rative mill otlier Societies, to some of those who are attending University Extension I.eetnres, to Home R<-adiug Cirehs and Mutual Iin- lirovenieiit Soeieties, and also to a good inunv isolated (-tuilents engaged in fiVorts to ediieate themselves." lliat it will he u-ieful in this way wo liave no d..iihl. and there is also a good deal of useful adviee and jileasant literary matter intersju-rsed through its iiages. Geohigy must he studied eliiefly in the ojien air. Under the liead of " Pliilosojihy " the student'is advised to follow two rules, tlie ehief jioiiits of w'hieii are 1 to eheek his reading by his own experienee of men and things, and i Ji to read the liliihisojiheis themselves and not to he eoiitent with reading about ]i]iilo.soi)hy. Tlie (luotatioiis under the various headings are also good and well chosen. Thus, under " Politiejil S<-ience," we liave a iiuotntiou from Bagehot ending with — "If eonstitu- encii's knew move. iiieinber< would have to know more, and the standard of intelligence of the House of Commons would he raised." Under this heading, however, we mav note that we were somewhat surprised to see "The Student's Blaekstone" reeouimcuded as an ik/ciuicciI book on the English Con.stitution. The second book named in the heading of this article is written on (piiti a difl'erent ]ilan. In it the various subjeets considered are arranged alpliabetieally. The object of the work, as stated in the preface, is " to place at the service of the reader tlie opinions of those who may be trusted t-> give sound advice as to the books which arc of valne in each department of know- ledge." The word " knowledgo " is iiswl in a widi- sense, as it includes in its scope the "science" of self-defence, for boxing tigmes ill the list of subjeets on which treatises are recommended. Billiards, cricket, cycling, fencing, football, and golf, with a variety of similar subjects, have sjiace allotted to them in these pages. From "Abyssinia" to "Zoology." the eye ranges ov<r some l!ot) main subjects of the most varied character, with verv nuiiieroiis sub-heads, which we are invited to study in standard treatises. History. Science, .\rt. Law, Literature, and Tlieologv find a jilacp. There would seem, indeed, to be scarcely any topic of interest in which the reader is not referred to a copious list of aiitliorities. One subject aloue, which is. we think, (le.serving of attention, seems to have escaped notice. A library, in order to lie at all complete, ought to have copies of the best speeches of the princijial orators of ancient and modern times. Demosthenes and Cicero find a place under Greek and Latin, and Burke under England in the sul -head. Literature; but we have looked ill vain for Gladstone. Bright, and other names of first-rate im- ]iortaiice in the ranks of orators. To us the work appears to err rather on the side of reduuilaney ; but we have little doubt that a good many readers will find it very serviceable.
RTCAEDO FOR THE PEOPLE.
PKixcin.ES or 1'oliticai, Economy and T-vxatiox. By David Ric-irdo. Edited, with iutrodiutory Essiiy, Notes, and .\i>]ieiiiiice*, by E. C. K. Gomier, M.A. London: George Bell A: Sous. IS'.'l. (Bohu's .Series .)
The publishers of Bolin's scries deserve the gratitude of all students of political economy for Mr. Conner's neat edition of the chief work of the best abused and least studied of the great masters of the science. The editor is a young Oxford man, alreadv favourably known a.-: a University Extension lecturer and writer on the subject in the latter ea)mcity. if we mistake not, on both sides of the Atlantic. He contributes an introduc- tion and appendices, the unprelentiousness of which rather obscures their real utility, dealing with the st.'ck criticisms on Ricardo and in Apiieiulix .Vi more particularly with those of Jevoiis and Professor InL'rnm.aiid the savage per>iUialities of the great Geriiian " inductive" economist, Adolf Held. He also brings out Ricardo's uumethodical habit of mind — character- istic, bv the way, of the English business man— sketches a
rearrangement of'the < tints in a more logical onler, -suece.ss-
fullv disconnects Ricanh. from the Soeiali-t tlieories of the relation of value and labour that have so often been fathered upon him, explains vi'ry clearly the position of the theory i^f rent in his svsteiii, and exhibits a wide knowledire of economic liteiatiire that was. till recently, far too nire amoUi.' English econniuists. There are u'ood notes scattered thnnigh the book and an excellent bibliography. We believe this is the first cheap edition of Ricardo's works. The pn'si nt dress of the series is a great iniprovemeiit on the familiar covers wliose repntatiou is somewhat soiled in many miuds— such is the effect of earl)" a.ssoeiation— by their suggestions of cribbing tit school.
210
THE SPEAKER.
[August 15, 1891.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS.*
Prefaced by a lucagre aud uiisiitisfactory biojiTapliical and critical introduction, a new and clicai) edition of '• The Poetical Works of John Greculiaf Whit tier " Jias just licen broufrht out by Messrs. Frederick Warue A Co. Whitlior is always welcome, thoujjh, as these pages Ihenisclves bear witness, the" gentle aud attractive Quaker-poet of Amcsbury is not always inspired — except by the motive to do good. "Soniotinuis his muse is be- trayed into anything but rhylliniic motion, yet never, in the moral sense, into one nnworth'y line. The lyrics aud idylls of New England life whicli Wlnttier has writ'teu. often approach in their artless beauty tlie \L'yy perfection of art, whilst his anti-slavery ]H>ems, with their noble enthusiasm of humanity, aud passionate protest against injustice, quicken the pulse like the sound of a trumpet, and shame meaner natures witli their lofty views of brotherhocd. In the jwetic interpretation of nature. Whittier has won for himself not a great, but an honoured place ; and wherever the sanctity of the home is most valued, his jjoems. with their rich human love and tenderness, will always Hud .-i place. It has been finely said of him that, belonging by auce.-^try ami conviction to a religious body making much of the - inner liglit " of God in the heart, Whittier has, bv his free and natural songs, made freedom a duty and religion a joy. Whittier li.is written too much, but mucli may be foi^iveu to a man who has always written from his heart, and who has ever used his gift of song to <|uickeu faith, to kindle hope, and to keep alive charity in the hearts of meu.
Dr. Norraau Macleod's racy, genial, and vigorous sketches and stories of Scottish life aud cliavacter arc not nearly so well known as they deserve to be by the jiresent generation. We are therefore glad to welcome, in" a neat volume published at a popular price, - The Old Lieutenaut and His Son," " Character Sketches," and other " Remiuiseeuces of a Highland Parish." Norman Macleod held in Scotland, as preacher and man of letters, for a long term of busy and iutineutial vears. a positiou wjiich was ncit imlike. iu mauy respects, that" which Charles Kingsley filled so admirably iu England. Both men possessed to a marked degree the power of personal fascination ; both had the courage of tlieir convictions, aud both were cheery optimists though never flatterers, of their kind.
Evidently Mr. Arnold Wliite believes himself (o be a man with a mission, and " Tries at Truth " is, iu our judg-nient. quite too_mod(!sl_ a designation for the volume to which it' is attaclied. It is possible to admit that the accent of sincerity pervades these oracular deliverauces, without at the same time committing ourselves to anything in the nature of a hearty eudorsomen"t ot their wisdom. Mr. White expresses the ho])e that there will be fotmd some " elements of strength iu thoughts that have been written ouly after prolonged labour"; but i'^f there are we are bound to add tliat we have missed them. The book is'unciues- tionably writti^n with tli,> best intentions, but it is vitiated by the rather fus.sy and emotional character of its benevolence Here and there Mr. White, iu dealing with the social questions ot the hour, strikes the nail ou the head, aud, like the late Lord Beacousiiekl, he is on the side of the angels. It matters not wliat the subject may be— Socialism, strikes, drink over- crowding, pauper immigrathm, amusements— ho is prepared to -set everyl)ody right, and he not seldom proceeds to do so by tricking out a few familiar moral commouplaces and obvious retiections in a smart dress of highly coloured rlietoric. What- ever originality the book can claim Ties in the direction of catch- penny phrase and stilted grandiloquence of expression. It is really dreadful to read jiage after pag<> all too ideutifiillv decorated with this sort of tiling-'- The Lamb of Labour will lie down with the Lion of Capital only when he is inside or when he is admitted as a iiartner." Wo counsel Mr. Arnold VV lute, to give diligent heed himself to at least a brace of his own seutentious deliverances— for they might have been written coneeruiiig the book before us—" Rhetoric has injured labour IU the past, and - T ntutored emotion has wrought evcu more harm than deliberate wrong."
Under the modest title of •' A School History and Geography of Northeru India," Sir William W. Hunter has just wdtten a
* The Poetical Wohks of John CiuEENLEAF Whittieu. With Life
Isotes, ami Index. The Albion Editiou. Loudon: Frederick
V\ arue A: Co. Crown Svo. AV0EK3. By Xorm.an Mueleoil, D.D. Illustrated. Loudou : diaries
Humet A: Co. Oomv Svo. (lis. lid.) Tries AT^TuuTU By Arnold White, Author of " Problems of a Oreat
i^itj , etc. Loudon : Isbister & Co. Crowu Svo.
■*■ ^w.*;P^ ^'™'"' ^'° tiEOOKAPHY OF NoiiTHEHN IXDIA. Bv Sir
il^ iri"J- r '''"? ^r"'"' KC-S.I., CLE., LL.B. Calcutta : k K. i^alim A. Co. Lomlon : Henry Frowde. Crown Svo C^s 6d )
By Richarci S^ley, M.D.. Member of the Koval Collc-e of Phv-'icians
& Co." Kovafsvo™"'' "'"' ^'"' ^'"''''^ ^""'S""^"^, Ureeu
The UrcEU Tk x .- a Story ot' the \-ciy Be.st Society. By Sebastian
DimySvo (K) "'"'• ^""''°" ^ Sampson Low, Marston & Co
WAY. New and EcvLsed Edition. Illustrated. London, Paris and Melbourne : Cassell & Co. Crowu Svo. (Is.) "u, ir,u.» auu
singularly able summary of facts relating to Bengal and the Northern Provinces. The manual— a little book of one hundred and iifty pages, packed with terselv-expressed and clearly-arranged information— has been prepared for use in the schools of India, but it is also hoped that it may prove of ser- vice to young English and American readers. It is. in truth, a masterly epitome, and we do not know which we admire most : its conciseness or its comprehensiveness. We only wish that the majority of .school books on history and geograid"iy displayed anything like the skill and research of this vigorous'aud attrac- tive volume on Northern India.
Dr. Sisley's mouogra]ih on " Epidemic Intluenza " is a book which ajijieals chiefly to the faculty, and yet. at the same time, it is not without a certain painful interest to ordinary people. He believes that inHuen/.a is contagious, aud he agrees with Professor Klein and other authorities that the disease is prob- ably diK! to a microscopic organism. It seems clear that influ- enza spreads along the lines of human intercourse, for statistics prove that large towns are affected sooner than small ones, whilst village communities often escape the visitation of the epidemic. It is a curious fact that the inhabitants of asylums. prisons, convents, and other places more or less cut oii' from contact with the outer world, frefjuently pass unscathed, even wlien the disease is raging all luuiid. " Dr. Sisley thinks that iuHueii/.a. by a short Act of Parliament, ought to" bo placed in the category of infectious di.seases for which notification is com- pulsoi-}', and the whole drift of his argument goes to jirove the necessity of stringent precautions, as well as regulations, in regard to this insidious maladv. The book is plentifully supplied with illustrative charts," aud at each stage of the inquiry Dr. Sisley rests his case ou statistics which cannot be challenged.
The freaks and foibles of a certain set of rich and idle people of rank are caricatured with a little cleveruess and a good deal of cynicism in " The Upper Ten : a Story of the verv best Soc:e'y.' The story, such as it is, is thrown 'into dramatic" form, aud, in consequence, we are supposed to overhear a succession of conversations, some of which are not half so amusing as might be expected from the complications which arise. This rather exaggerated aud occasionally pointless exhibition of contem- porary manners is dedicated"to M. Edouard Paillesou. and the authors gracefully hint that he is in a measure responsible for the work by virtue of '• Le Monde ou I'on s'cnnuie."
Now that the tourist season has set in w-ith its usual severity, guide-books, big and little, assume a sudden importance. Quite one of the best popular books of the kind— iu size and .shape like a well-dressed •' Bradshaw "—is " The Offici.il Guide to the Loudon and North Western Railway." Of course, official guides require to be read with a little healthy scepticism, for they naturally pounce upon the ]iicturesqiie. and. with judicious express-paced .speed, rush past, with the briefest possible allusion, less-favoured localities. The North AVesteru Railway, with its associated systems, now extends over some six thousand miles, aud iu this volume of four hundred pages will be f(nind com- pressed a va.st amount of useful and explicit information, and less word-painting tlian is generally the ease in works of the sort. The traveller. f<u- cxamjde, will find the distances fnmi Eustou and other important stations ; the time allowed for stoppages in the course of a long jouruey ; and particulars of the letter-boxes, po.stal telegraph offices, boo'kstalls, and ref reshmeut- roouis provided. luformatiou is also given ccmcerniug looji and branch lines, aud the various coaches, steamers, and "Ims which p!y in counection with the railway. The chief publ buildings and hotels ot the cities aud towns reached by the North Western Railway are also indicated, and the volume is provided witli a capital index, so that it is possible to find (Uit at once all that the Guide has to say eoiieerniiii;- some two tliousand places at which the trains stop. "The new edition which has just been brought out contains several .'idditional maps, jilaus, and illustrations ; and, thanks to Mr. Neele, the superinteudeui of the line, and his ju-incipal assistants, the details have been ccn- siderably amplitied. and. what jierhaps is still more to the point, have also been verified up to the date of publication.
scs lie
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