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f 

T  H'E 


NINETEENTH 
CENTURY 


^    MONTHLY  REVIEW 
FOUNDED     BY    JAMES    KNOWLES 

VOL.  LXIV 
JULY-DECEMBER  1M8 


NEW    YOBK 
LEONARD   SCOTT  PUBLICATION   CO. 

LONDON:     SPOTTISWOODE   &   CO.   LTD.,   PRINTERS 


A? 

A- 

T<3 


TRIPLE  ENTENTE  AND  THE  TRIPLE  ALLIANCE.    By  J.  Ellis  Barker  1 

THB  '  VISION  SPLENDID  '  OF  INDIAN  YOUTH.    By  Sir  Bampfylde  Fuller  18 
MR.  HALDANE'S  TERRITORIAL  ARTILLERY.    By  Major -General  Charles 

H.  Owen,  B.A 26 

THE  PRESENT  STAGE    OF  CHURCH    REFORM.    By  the  Right  Rev.   the 

Bishop  of  Burnley     .......  88 

THE  LAMBETH   CONFERENCE   AND   THE   'ATHANASIAN   CREED.'     By  the 

Rev.  Dr.  W.  Emery  Barnes  ......  44 

UN  NOUVEAU    MOLIERE  :   A  FRENCH   VIBW   OF  BERNARD    SHAW.     By 

Augustin  Hamon      .......  48 

WOMEN  AND  THK  SUFFRAGE.    By  the  Lady  Lovat  .  .  .64 

APOLLO  AND  DIONYSUS  IN  ENGLAND.    By  Dr.  Emil  Reich          .  74 
THE  KHEDIVE  OF  EGYPT.     By  Edward  Dicey       .            .            . .          .85 

POVERTY  IN  LONDON  AND  IN  NEW  ZEALAND  :  A  STUDY   IN   CONTRASTS. 

By  Mrs.  Grossmann              ......  101 

THE  FORERUNNERS  OF  CHAMPLAIN  IN  CANADA.    By  Violet  R.  Markham  108 

L'  ITALIA  FA  DA  SB.     By  Walter  Frewen  Lord .                                      .  122 

THE  EMPIRE  AND  ANTHROPOLOGY.    By  Sir  Harry  H.  Johnston  .            .  188 

INDIAN  FAMINES  AND  INDIAN  FORESTS.    By  J.  Nisbet     .            .            .  147 

THE  UNREST  OF  INSECURITY.     By  Admiral  C.  C.  Penrose  Fitzgerald   .  162 
THE  INSECURITY  OF  OUR  HOME  DEFENCE  TO-DAY.    By  Colonel  Lonsdale 

Hale 178 

THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  :  A   LESSON   ON   THB   EFFECTS   OF   FREE   TRADE. 

By  Prince  di  Teano  .......  181 

THE  PRBSS  IN  INDIA,  1780-1908.    By  S.  M.  Mitra                                  .  1H6 

DREADNOUGHTS  FOR  SALE  OR  HIRE.     By  Gerard  Ficnnes                       .  '207 
SHAKESPEARE  AND  THE  WATERWAYS  OF  NORTH  ITALY.    By  Sir  Edward 

Sullivan,  Bart.          .  .  .  .  .  .  .215 

FRENCH    CANADA    AND    THE    QUEBEC     TERCENTENARY  :     AN    ENGLISH- 
CANADIAN  APPRECIATION.     By  Arthur  Hawkes       .            .            .  283 
THE  MONTH  OF  MARY.    By  Rose  M.  Bradley       ....  240 

CHURCH  REFORM— II.  AUTONOMY  IN  THE  ANGLICAN  CHURCHES.    By  the 

Right  Rev.  the  Bishop  of  Burnley  .....  258 

ART  AT  THE  FRANCO-BRITISH  EXHIBITION.    By  H.  Heathcote  Statham  266 

THE  CHASE  OF  THE  WILD  RED  DEER  ON  EXMOOR.    By  R.  A.  Sanders  278 
THE    NEO-ROYALIST    MOVEMENT    IN    FRANCE.     By    the    Abbe   Ernest 

Dimnet           ........  287 

THE  BASTILLE.    By  Mrs.  Frederic  Harrison        ....  294 

WORDSWORTH,  COLERIDGE,  AND  THE  SPY.     By  A.  J.  Eagleston  .            .  800 

UN  PEU  DB  PICKWICK  A  LA  FRANCAISE.    By  Sir  Francis  C.  Burnand  811 
COKE    AS  THE    FATHER    OF    NORFOLK   AGRICULTURE  :    A    REPLY.    By 

Mrs.  Stirling  ...  .  .  .  .821 

A  WORKMAN'S  VIEW  OF  THE  REMEDY  FOR  UNEMPLOYMENT.    By  James 

G.  Hutchinson           .......  881 

THE  WOMEN'S  ANTI-SUFFRAGE  MOVEMENT.    By  Mrs.  Humphry  Ward  843 
THE  TURKISH  REVOLUTION.     By  A.  Rustem  Bey  de  Bilinsld      .            ..  858 
A  NOVEL  PHASE  OF  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION  :  PARLIAMENTARY  GOVERN- 
MENT FOR  EGYPT.    By  Edward  Dicey        .            .            .            •>  ,873 
OUR   PROTECTORATES    AND    ASIATIC    IMMIGRATION.     By   Sir   Godfrey 

Lagden           ........  886 

SOME  UNPUBLISHED  LETTERS  OF  GENERAL  WOLFE.    By  BecTtles  Willson  400 
HAVE  WE  THE  '  GRIT  '  OF  OUR  FOREFATHERS  ?    By  the  Right  Hon.  the 

EarlofMeath  .         :  V  .  .  .  .  .421 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  AERIAL  NAVIGATION.    By  Professor  Simon  Newcomb  430 

THE  ORPHANAGE  :  ITS  REFOKM  AND  RE-CRKATION.     By  Frances  H.  Low  443 

AN  ACTOR'S  VIEWS  ON  PLAYS  AND  PLAY-WRITING.    By  J.  H.  Barnes     .  461 


CONTENTS    OF   VOL.   LXIV 


SOME  ERCENT  PICTUBB  SALES.    By  W.  Roberta  . 

THE  CENSORSHIP  OF  FICTION.    By  Brom  Stoker  . 

THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  VERSAILLES.    By  Elizabeth  B.  Yeomans      . 

WOMEN   AND   THE   SUFFRAGE:   A  REPLY  TO   LADY   LOVAT   AND   MRS. 

HUMPHRY  WARD.    By  Eva  Gore-Booth     .  .495 

A  MINIMUM  WAGE   FOR  HOME   WORKERS.    By  the  Might  Hon.   bir 

Thomas  Whittaker  .  507 

THE  VALUE  OF  CANADIAN  PREFERENCE.    By  the  Might  Hon.  Viscount 

Milner  ..«••••       525 

THE  EUCHARISTIC  CONGRESS.    By  the  Right  Rev.  Monsignor  Canon 

Moyes,D.D.    . 

CAN  ISLAM  BE  REFORMED  ?     By  Theodore  Monson         .  .548 

TURKEY  IN  1876 :  A  RETROSPECT.     By  Gertrude  Elliot  . 
THE  EAST  AFRICAN  PROBLEM.      By  Sir  Harry  H.  Johnston  .      567 

THE    FIGHT    FOR    UNIVERSAL    PENNY    POSTAGE.      By    J.    Henniker 

Beaton 

DANTE  AND  SHAKESPEARE.    By  Mary  Winslow  Smyth 

THE  CHAOS  OF  LONDON  TRAFFIC.    By  Captain  George  8.  C.  Swinton   .      622 
THE  METHOD  OF  PLATO.     By  Herbert  Paul  .      684 

HEALTH  AND  THE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION.    By  A.  Susan  Lawrence        .      644 
REVOCATION    OF    TREATY    PRIVILEGES    TO    ALIEN-SUBJECTS.      By  the 

Hon.  Mr.  Justice  Hodgins    ...  .       658 

THE  POET  IN  '  HIGH  ALPS.'     By  Frederick  Wedmore     .  .      665 

THE    ROYAL    OPEN-AIR    STATUES    OF    LONDON.      By    E.    Beresford 

Chancellor .  .       672 

PRINCE  BULOW  :  AN  APPRECIATION.    By  Sidney  Garficld  Morris  .      684 

THE  TRANSVAAL  TO-DAY:  FROM  A  WOMAN'S  POINT  OF  VIEW.    By  Mrs. 

Carolin  ........       694 

THE  CRISIS  IN  THE  NEAR  EAST: 

(1)  THE  AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN  CASE.    By  Dr.  Emil  Reich     .  .       705 

(2)  THE  BULGARIAN   POINT  OF  VIEW.     By  Colonel  Percy  H.  H. 

Massy        ........       719 

(8)  EUROPE   AND   THE   TURKISH  CONSTITUTION — AN    INDEPENDENT 

VIEW.    By  Professor  A.  Vambery          ....       724 

THE  MILITARY  SITUATION  IN  THE  BALKANS.     By  Captain  C.  B.  Norman      730 
SWEATING  AND  WAGES  BOARDS.     By  J.  Ramsay  Macdonald       .  .       748 

How  SWITZERLAND  DEALS  WITH  HER  UNEMPLOYED.     By  Edith  Sellers      768 
THE    PROBLEM    OF    AERIAL    NAVIGATION  :    A    REPLY    TO    PROFESSOR 

NEWCOMB.     By  Major  B.  Baden-Powell  .      777 

INDIA  UNDER  CROWN  GOVERNMENT,  1858-1908.     By  J.  Nisbet    .  ,      786 

AN  UNKNOWN  POET.     By  Frederic  Harrison        ....       808 

BERLIN  REVISITED  BY  A  BRITISH  TOURIST.   By  Mrs.  Henry  Birchenough      811 
NURSES  IN  HOSPITALS.     By  B.  Burford  Rowlings  .  .  .      824 

A  DUPE  OF  DESTINY.    By  Mrs.  Stirling  .....       887 

THE  SUPPLY  OF  CLERGY  FOR  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.    By  the  Rev. 

G.E.Ffrench  .......       852 

THE  CAVALRY  OF  THE  TERRITORIAL  ARMY.     By  the  Earl  of  Cardigan  .      864 
HAS  ENGLAND  WRONGED  IRELAND  ?     By  Goldwin  Smith  .  .       878 

THE  TWO-POWER  STANDARD  FOR  THE  NAVY.    By  Sir  William  H.  White      885 
THE  BERLIN  CRISIS.    By  /.  L.  Bashford      .....      908 

'  WATCHMAN,  WHAT  OF  THE  NIGHT  ?  '     By  Colonel  Lonsdale  Hale        .  .      924 
AN  EDUCATIONAL  SURRENDER.    By  D.  C.  Lathbury         .  .  .      984 

DANGER  IN  INDIA.     By  Sir  Edmund  C.  Cox          ....      941 

THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  CHURCH.     By  the  Right  Rev.  Bishop  Welldon      .      965 
SANE  TEMPERANCE  LEGISLATION  IN  ROUMANIA.    By  Alfred  Stead         . .      976 
THE  RULE  OF  THE  EMPRESS-DOWAGER.    By  Sir  Henry  Blake    .  .      990 

CHARLOTTE- JEANNE  :  A  FORGOTTEN  EPISODE  OF  THE  FRENCH  REVOLU- 
TION.   By  the  Hon.  Mrs.  Bellew      .  .  .  ,  .997 
THE  AMATEUR  ARTIST.    By  Alice  M.  Mayor         .            .            .  .    1011 

THE  REPRESENTATION  OF  WOMEN: 

(1)  A  CONSULTATIVE  CHAMBER  OF  WOMEN.    By  Caroline  E.  Stephen    1018 

(2)  A  TORY  PLEA  FOR  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE.    By  Edward  Goulding  .     1026 
How  WE  CAME  TO  BE  CENSORED  BY  THE  STATE.     By  Gertrude  Kingston    1080 
THE  NEW  IRISH  LAND  BILL.    By  the  Right  Hon.  the  Earl  of  Dunraven    1050 


THE 


NINETEENTH 
CENTUEY 

AND   AFTER 

XX 


No.  CGGLXXVII— JULY  1908 


THE    TRIPLE    ENTENTE    AND    THE 
TRIPLE    ALLIANCE 

THE  most  striking  feature  of  King  Edward's  reign  lies,  no  doubt,  in 
the  remarkable  change  which  has  taken  place  in  Great  Britain's 
foreign  policy.  In  consequence  of  that  change  the  international 
political  position  and  importance  of  this  country  have  greatly  altered. 
Foreign  statesmen  used  to  think  that  London  lay  outside  the  main 
currents  of  international  policy.  Bismarck  declared  that  England 
was  no  longer  an  active  factor  in  the  affairs  of  continental  Europe, 
and  that  he  left  her  out  of  account  in  his  political  calculations.  His 
immediate  successors  and  some  non- German  statesmen  showed  by 
their  actions  that  they  shared  Bismarck's  opinion.  England  was 
pretty  generally  thought  to  be  of  secondary  importance  on  the  chess- 
board of  European  diplomacy.  The  London  embassies  were  sinecures 
where  second-rate  diplomats  grew  grey  in  attending  to  routine  work. 
Since  1901  Great  Britain's  political  influence  has  mightily  increased, 
and  London  occupies  now  a  position  in  the  political  world  comparable 
with  that  which  Berlin  occupied  at  the  time  when  Bismarck  was  at 
the  zenith  of  his  power.  Since  1901  London  has  risen  from  political 
obscurity  to  pre-eminence.  It  has  become  the  meeting-place  of 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  377  B 


2  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBY  July 

monarchs,  and  it  is  as  much  the  political  centre  of  Europe  and  the 
diplomatic  capital  of  the  world  as  it  was  in  the  time  of  Chatham  and  of 
Pitt.  History,  which  used  to  be  made  at  Vienna,  at  St.  Petersburg, 
or  at  Constantinople,  is  now  being  made  at  London.  The  London 
embassy  has  become  the  most  important  embassy  of  foreign  States. 

To  the  majority  of  Englishmen  international  politics  are  '  foreign 
affairs.'  In  the  words  of  Lord  Beaconsfield, '  the  very  phrase  "  Foreign 
Affairs  "  makes  an  Englishman  convinced  that  they  are  subjects  with 
which  he  has  no  concern.'  Englishmen  grow  up  nourished  on  party 
politics,  and  party  politics  continue  to  be  their  daily  bread  to  the 
end  of  their  lives.  Foreign  politics  lie  out  of  the  beaten  track  of 
party  politics,  and  therefore  do  not  attract  the  general  attention  which 
they  deserve.  Besides,  owing  to  our  party  system,  which  brings 
successful  orators  and  political  wire-pullers  to  the  front,  and  which 
gives  the  highest  positions  in  the  Government,  not  to  administrative 
and  executive  ability,  but  to  debating  skill  and  party  influence, 
our  statesmen  are,  as  a  rule,  eminent  party  politicians  who  have 
neither  felt  the  need  nor  had  the  leisure  to  study  foreign  affairs 
with  the  thoroughness  which  is  required  for  diplomacy,  at  the 
same  time  the  highest  of  arts  and  a  science  of  experience.  Con- 
sequently the  equipment  of  our  statesmen  for  dealing  with  foreign 
questions  often  consists  only  in  a  small  stock  of  estimable  sentiments 
and  elementary  commonplaces  which  they  mistake  for  the  principles 
of  practical  statesmanship,  and  they  are  apt  to  treat  complicated 
foreign  problems  with  two  or  three  formulas  which  they  use  rather 
with  consistency  than  with  selective  discrimination.  Frederick  the 
Great  wrote  in  his  Memoirs  and  Napoleon  said  at  St.  Helena  that 
Englishmen  seemed  to  lack  understanding  for  the  realities  of  foreign 
policy.  This  lack  of  understanding,  which  is  to  be  fcund  in  most 
democracies,  is  still  noticeable.  Hence  the  great  changes  which  have 
taken  place  in  Great  Britain's  foreign  policy  and  international  position 
during  the  King's  reign  have  made  a  far  greater  impression  abroad 
than  in  this  country.  Only  a  few  Englishmen  are  aware  how  in- 
secure the  position  of  Great  Britain  used  to  be  and  how  greatly  it 
has  improved  since  the  foreign  policy  of  inertia  and  of  aimless  drift  has 
been  changed  for  that  policy  which  has  been  crowned  by  the  Reval 
meeting. 

Let  us  cast  a  retrospective  glance  at  the  circumstances  which  led 
to  the  adoption  of  the  policy  of  ententes ;  let  us  take  stock  of  the 
achievements  of  that  policy,  and  let  us  then  review  the  political 
situation  in  Europe  and  in  Asia,  and  take  note  of  the  possibilities  and 
demands  of  the  future. 

Up  to  1901  Great  Britain  stood  practically  alone  in  the  world. 
Our  isolation  was  rather  enforced  than  voluntary,  and  as  powerful 
hostile  coalitions  directed  against  this  country  were  always  possible, 
and  sometimes  actually  threatening,  there  was  nothing  splendid 


1908     TRIPLE  ENTENTE  AND  TRIPLE  ALLIANCE     3 

about  our  isolation,  notwithstanding  Lord  Goschen's  celebrated 
phrase. 

The  important  Powers  on  the  Continent  are  divided  into  two 
groups  :  the  Triple  Alliance  and  the  Dual  Alliance.  Before  Russia's 
defeat  in  Asia  both  groups  were  generally  thought  to  be  equally  strong. 
The  balance  of  power  was  so  nicely  adjusted  that  the  risk  of  war 
seemed  too  great  to  both  combinations.  Peace  was  secure  on  the 
Continent  as  long  as  the  Continent  was  divided  into  two  armed  camps 
of  equal  strength,  and  England  had  no  reason  to  fear  continental 
aggression  as  long  as  the  two  antagonistic  combinations  were  absorbed 
in  watching  one  another. 

Up  to  1901  our  relations  with  the  Powers  of  the  Dual  Alliance 
were  very  unsatisfactory.  Russia,  following  her  traditional  policy  in 
Asia,  advanced  with  sap  and  mine  sometimes  from  the  one  side,  some- 
times from  the  other,  upon  our  position  in  India.  Great  Britain  met 
with  more  or  less  disguised  Russian  opposition,  intrigue  and  hostility 
in  Turkey,  Persia,  Afghanistan,  Thibet,  China,  in  the  Yellow  Sea  and 
in  the  Persian  Gulf.  Every  few  years  a  threatened  Russian  advance 
upon  India  threw  the  City  into  a  panic.  We  were  in  a  latent  state 
of  war  with  Russia.  Our  relations  with  France  were  not  much  better. 
Largely  owing  to  the  skilful  policy  of  a  third  Power,  there  was  constant 
friction  between  France  and  England  in  Siam,  Egypt,  West  Africa 
and  Newfoundland,  and  once  or  twice  we  were  on  the  brink  of  war 
with  that  country.  The  naval  forces  of  France  were  concentrated  in 
Toulon  and  Bizerta,  and  threatened  demonstratively  Malta  and  our 
route  to  the  East  via  the  Suez  Canal.  Our  largest  fleet  had  to  be 
kept  in  the  Mediterranean  in  constant  readiness  for  war.  Under 
these  circumstances  it  was  only  natural  that  the  sympathies  of  Great 
Britain  went  towards  the  Triple  Alliance. 

Whilst  Great  Britain  was  inclined  to  support  the  Triple  Alliance 
against  the  Dual  Alliance,  the  Powers  of  the  Triple  Alliance  were 
not  by  any  means  inclined  reciprocally  to  support  Great  Britain 
against  France  and  Russia.  An  Anglo-Russian  or  an  Anglo-French 
war,  which  would  have  weakened  the  Dual  Alliance,  was  evidently 
advantageous  to  the  three  central-European  Powers,  especially  to 
the  leading  one,  the  more  so  if  it  was  long  drawn  out  and  exhaustive 
to  both  combatants.  Why,  then,  should  they  exert  themselves  in 
England's  favour  ?  However,  not  only  could  Great  Britain  not 
rely  upon  the  active  support  of  the  Triple  Alliance  against  France 
and  Russia,  but  she  had  to  reckon  with  its  possible  hostility.  Numerous 
attempts  were  made  by  Germany  to  arrive  at  a  working  understanding 
with  France  and  Russia  in  extra-European  affairs,  and  to  merge  the 
two  European  alliances  into  a  single  one  for  action  over  sea.  France 
and  Russia  were  assured  that  French,  German,  and  Russian  interests 
were  identical.  French  and  German  ships  and  Russian  and  German 
ships  were  frequently  seen  side  by  side.  The  German  Government 

B  2 


4  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBT  July 

was  unwise  enough  to  explain  in  the  Reichstag  in  very  plain  terms 
that  the  famous  Kruger  telegram  had  been  sent  in  order  to  ascertain 
whether,  under  the  pretext  of  defending  the  independence  of  the 
Transvaal  Republic,  an  anti- British  coalition  embracing  the  Powers 
of  the  Dual  Alliance  and  of  the  Triple  Alliance  might  be  formed,  and 
that  the  attempt  had  failed  because  France  had  placed  herself  on 
England's  side.  The  joint  action  of  the  united  French,  German  and 
Russian  fleets  against  Japan,  which  deprived  Japan  of  the  fruits  of 
her  victory  over  China,  was  a  practical  demonstration  of  the  community 
of  interests  and  of  the  solidarity  of  the  two  groups  of  Powers  in  trans- 
maritime  aflairs  and  clearly  foreshadowed  the  possibility  of  similar 
co-operation  against  Great  Britain.  It  is  said  that  another  attempt 
to  form  a  pan-European  coalition  against  Great  Britain  was  made  at 
the  time  of  the  South  African  War,  and  that  the  attempt  failed  in 
consequence  of  the  personal  attitude  of  the  Czar.  British  statesmen 
had  to  reckon  with  the  fact  that  a  better  pretext  for  common  action, 
a  change  of  statesmen  in  France  or  Russia,  or  merely  greater  skill  on 
the  part  of  the  most  active  Continental  statesman,  might  create  a 
pan-European  coalition  against  Great  Britain.  The  international 
anti-British  press  campaign  during  the  South  African  War  had  shown 
that  such  a  coalition  would  be  very  popular.  Besides,  a  partition  of 
the  British  Empire  would  have  been  a  more  tempting  enterprise  than 
a  partition  of  Poland.  During  a  number  of  years  Great  Britain  was 
constantly  threatened  with  the  danger  of  having  to  fight  in  *  splendid 
isolation  '  against  the  combined  naval  and  military  forces  of  practically 
all  Europe.  The  British  Empire  could  be  attacked  in  many  parts  and 
in  unexpected  ways.  British  statesmen  had,  for  instance,  to  be  pre- 
pared for  an  expedition  against  India  in  which  Russian  weight  of 
numbers  would  be  reinforced  by  German  intelligence!  thoroughness, 
and  foresight.  The  position  of  Great  Britain  and  her  Colonies  was, 
owing  to  our  unskilful  diplomacy  and  consequent  isolation,  one  of 
constant  tension  and  of  extreme  insecurity.  Chance,  not  the  ability 
of  our  statesmen,  preserved  us  from  a  war  with  all  Europe. 

Through  the  conclusion  of  the  Triple  Entente  with  France  and 
Russia  these  dangers  have  passed.  We  need  no  longer  simultaneously 
look  after  the  defence  of  Central  Asia  and  the  Persian  Gulf,  after  the 
defence  of  Central  Africa,  the  Mediterranean,  and  the  North  Sea.  We 
have  been  able  to  concentrate  our  naval  forces  in  home  waters.  Our 
naval  budgets  would  be  much  heavier  were  we  compelled  still  to 
assert  our  naval  supremacy  at  the  same  time  in  the  Mediterranean 
and  in  the  North  Sea.  Our  ententes  have  enabled  us  to  save  many 
millions  on  our  naval  expenditure.  They  have  enabled  us  to  save 
many  more  millions  on  barren  Asiatic  and  African  expeditions  designed 
to  checkmate  the  advance  of  France  and  Russia.  Our  ententes  have 
saved  to  the  City  and  to  our  industries  many  millions  which  might 
have  been  lost  in  political  panics,  and  they  have  given  to  our  business 


1908     TRIPLE  ENTENTE  AND  TRIPLE  ALLIANCE     5 

men  a  feeling  of  confidence  in  the  maintenance  of  peace  which  has 
induced  them  to  enter  upon  fresh  business. 

The  security  of  Great  Britain  from  European  attack  rests  upon  the 
preservation  of  the  balance  of  power  on  the  Continent.  History  shows 
that  each  nation  which  became  supreme  in  Europe — Spain  under 
Philip  the  Second,  France  under  Louis  the  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth 
and  Napoleon  the  First — came  into  collision  with  this  country. 
The  reason  for  this  phenomenon  is  obvious.  A  free  English  nation 
residing  in  an  island  citadel  gives  the  greatest  encouragement  to  revolt 
to  subject  nations  on  the  Continent,  and  is  therefore  an  ever-present 
danger  to  rulers  such  as  Philip  the  Second,  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  and 
Napoleon  the  First.  Great  Britain's  security  is  bound  up  with  the 
maintenance  of  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe,  and  we  must  defend 
that  balance  of  power  as  determinedly  as  did  our  greatest  rulers  and 
statesmen — Queen  Elizabeth,  Cromwell,  Marlborough,  Chatham,  Pitt. 

The  Russo-Japanese  war  of  1904  had  left  Russia  militarily,  finan- 
cially, and  morally  exhausted.  The  country  was  in  revolt,  all  bonds 
of  discipline  had  been  dissolved,  the  army  had  become  dispirited  and 
unreliable,  there  was  mutiny  in  the  fleet.  Besides,  the  stores  and  men 
required  by  Russia  in  a  European  war  were  in  farthest  Asia,  the 
railway  service  had  broken  down,  a  large  number  of  Russian  field- 
guns  was  worn  out,  the  stock  of  ammunition  in  the  Russian  magazines 
had  been  depleted  and  was  insufficient  for  a  European  campaign. 
Russia  was  disarmed.  Towards  the  end  of  the  war  Russia  could  not 
have  given  any  effective  assistance  to  France  had  the  latter  been 
attacked.  The  balance  of  power  in  Europe  had  temporarily  dis- 
appeared. The  danger  arose  that  Germany  might  feel  tempted  to 
make  use  of  her  opportunity  by  taking  another  slice  of  France  and 
make  the  re-establishment  of  the  balance  of  power  impossible.  The 
Morocco  crisis,  which  broke  out  immediately  after  Russia's  great 
defeat,  showed  that  Germany  had  at  all  events  the  desire  to  profit 
from  the  breakdown  of  the  balance  of  power.  Very  likely  England's 
support  saved  France  from  a  disastrous  war.  The  umnistakeable  threat 
uttered  by  Professor  Schiemann,  a  friend  of  the  Emperor,  and  by 
others,  that  in  case  of  an  Anglo-German  war,  even  if  France  would 
remain  neutral,  Germany  would  indemnify  herself  for  the  loss  of  her 
fleet  at  the  expense  of  France,  showed  that  France  stood  in  danger 
of  a  German  attack.  That  danger  is  perhaps  not  yet  past. 

The  geographical  position  of  Germany  is  a  peculiar  one.  The 
most  important  strategical  and  commercial  positions  in  Central 
Europe  are  in  the  hands  of  Germany's  small  neighbours.  Denmark 
has  excellent  harbours  and  dominates  the  entrance  to  the  Baltic. 
The  possession  of  Denmark  would  supply  the  German  navy  with 
adequate  harbour  space,  and  would  make  the  more  vulnerable  half  of 
the  German  sea-coast,  the  Baltic  coast,  secure  from  a  naval  attack  by 
a  Western  Power.  Holland  is  a  powerful  artificial  fortress  through 


6  THE  NINETBEtfTB  CENTURY  July 

her  canals  and  inundations,  and  she  also  has  very  valuable  harbours. 
Through  Rotterdam  and  Antwerp — the  latter,  though  situated  in 
Belgium,  is  dominated  by  the  Dutch  shore  which  lies  in  front  of  it — 
flows  the  main  stream  of  European  commerce  and  the  most  valuable 
part  of  Germany's  foreign  trade.  The  possession  of  Rotterdam  and 
Antwerp  would  be  invaluable  to  Germany's  industries  and  merchant 
marine.  Switzerland  is  a  mighty  natural  fortress.  It  would  supply 
an  admirable  position  for  the  defence  of  Germany,  and  would  enable 
her  to  dominate  Italy  and  Austria.  Germany  must  feel  strongly 
tempted  to  acquire  one  or  several  of  these  small  countries,  two  of  which 
formed  part  of  the  ancient  German  Empire  of  which  modern  Germany 
is  the  heir.  Their  possession  would  greatly  increase  Germany's  power 
and  wealth,  and  might  give  her  the  mastery  of  Europe. 

If  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe  is  to  be  preserved,  the  indepen- 
dence of  Denmark,  Holland  and  Switzerland  must  be  defended  at  all 
costs.  While  the  defence  of  Denmark  and  of  the  Belgo-Dutch  shore 
devolves  in  the  first  instance  upon  the  British  fleet,  the  defence  of  the 
Belgo-Dutch  mainland  and  of  Switzerland  can  be  undertaken  only 
by  a  powerful  army,  and  devolves  therefore  upon  France.  France 
is  the  natural  defender  of  Belgium,  Holland,  and  Switzerland  against 
the  Powers  of  the  Triple  Alliance  ;  but  she  cannot  defend  the  small 
neutral  States  if  she  stands  alone.  Denmark,  Holland,  and  Switzer- 
land have  been  the  cause  and  scene  of  some  of  the  greatest  wars  in 
the  past.  History  may  repeat  itself  in  the  future. 

The  foregoing  makes  it  plain  that  Great  Britain  must,  for  the  sake 
of  self-preservation,  support  France,  and  it  may  almost  be  said  that 
the  system  of  the  ententes  had  to  be  instituted  in  order  to  protect  France 
until  Russia,  her  ally,  has  been  nursed  back  to  health  and  vigour. 
Great  Britain  must  not  only  protect  France  during  the  critical  period 
of  Russia's  convalescence,  but  she  must  also  keep  a  watchful  eye  on 
Germany's  small  neighbours,  especially  as  it  is  rumoured  that  Germany 
has  made  some  very  interesting  secret  arrangements  with  one  of  the 
three. 

Population  determines  fighting  strength  in  continental  countries, 
and  in  population  the  superiority  of  Germany  over  France  is  very 
striking.  France  has  a  population  of  39,000,000.  Germany  has  a 
population  of  63,000,000.  While  the  population  of  France  increases 
by  only  60,000  per  year,  the  population  of  Germany  increases  by  no 
less  than  900,000  per  year,  or  fifteen  times  faster  than  that  of  France. 
If  Germany  should  acquire  Holland  or  Switzerland,  she  would  not 
only  add  several  millions  to  her  population,  but  she  would  at  the  same 
time  be  able  to  turn  the  defences  of  France. 

The  French  have  made  most  elaborate  preparations  to  meet  a 
German  invasion.  The  French  frontier  is  closed  by  a  number  of 
strong  fortresses  which  are  linked  together  by  a  chain  of  huge  detached 
forts.  In  that  line  of  fortifications,  which  stretches  from  Belfort  to 


1908     TRIPLE  ENTENTE  AND  TRIPLE  ALLIANCE     7 

Sedan,  there  are  two  gaps,  comparable  to  the  opening  of  huge  drag- 
nets, which  form  veritable  army  traps.  Germany  would,  no  doubt, 
in  case  of  war,  find  it  very  desirable  to  avoid  this  powerful  fortified 
position,  and  would  like  to  take  the  French  armies  by  the  flank.  It  is 
usually  assumed  in  this  country  that  the  German  armies  would  march 
through  Belgium  upon  Paris,  which  lies  only  110  miles  from  the  nearest 
point  on  the  Belgian  frontier,  while  it  is  separated  by  a  distance  of 
160  miles  from  the  nearest  point  on  the  German  frontier.  The  assump- 
tion that  Germany  would  penetrate  through  Belgium  and  march 
upon  Paris  in  order  to  take  advantage  of  the  short  cut  is  probably 
erroneous.  An  advance  through  Belgium  would  expose  the  German 
army  and  its  line  of  communication  with  the  arsenals  and  magazines 
at  home  to  a  flank  attack  from  the  sea.  Germany  need,  perhaps,  not 
seriously  consider  the  possibility  of  such  an  attack  if  it  was  made 
only  by  100,000  English  troops,  but  as  these  might  conceivably  be 
supported  by  200,000  or  300,000  Kussians  landed  on  the  Belgian  coast 
from  English  transports,  an  advance  upon  Paris  via  Belgium  might 
prove  a  very  risky  undertaking.  It  seems,  therefore,  more  likely  that 
Germany,  if  she  wishes  to  avoid  the  army  traps  on  the  French  frontier, 
will  try  to  invade  France  by  the  more  indirect,  but  safer  and  more 
commodious,  route  upon  Paris  via  Switzerland  and  the  Franche  Comte 
— the  route  which  was  chosen  by  the  Germans  in  1814.  This  route  has 
the  advantage  that  an  army  advancing  upon  it  cuts  off  the  capital 
from  the  south  of  France,  the  wealthiest  part  of  the  country,  and 
thus  deprives  the  centre  of  much  of  its  power  of  resistance. 

It  is  true  that  Switzerland  forms  a  powerful  natural  fortress,  but, 
unfortunately  for  France,  the  rugged  mountains  and  the  fortifications 
of  Switzerland  on  the  Gotthard  and  the  Furka,  near  St.  Moritz,  on 
the  Khone,  &c.,  do  not  face  Germany,  but  Italy  and  France.  Towards 
Germany  Switzerland  is  an  open  country,  with  large  undulating  plains 
and  gently  sloping  hills.  An  invasion  of  Switzerland  in  the  corner  of 
Basle  is  almost  as  easy  as  a  march  through  Surrey  or  Kent.  Besides, 
most  of  the  wealthy  towns  of  Switzerland,  such  as  Basle,  Zurich, 
Berne,  Lucerne,  Lausanne,  and  the  industrial  districts  of  the  country, 
with  the  majority  of  the  population,  lie  in  the  easily  invadable  part. 
Under  those  circumstances  Switzerland  would  find  it  exceedingly 
difficult  to  protect  herself  against  a  German  violation  of  her  frontiers. 
The  utmost  which,  I  am  told,  the  Swiss  officers  hope  to  accomplish 
would  be  to  detain  a  German  invading  army  for  a  short  time.  Unless 
support  from  France  should  come  forward  immediately,  the  Swiss 
army  would  either  have  to  capitulate  or  to  retire  into  the  vast  fortified 
position  at  the  Gotthard.  It  is  asserted  that  the  Swiss  have  lately 
made  military  service  much  more  arduous  and  costly  in  view  of  the 
possibility  of  a  Franco-German  war.  The  Morocco  affair  may  have 
given  them  a  warning. 

^After  the  end  of  the  Napoleonic  wars  Switzerland  and  Holland 


8  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

were  made  independent  and  neutral  States  and  their  neutrality  and 
inviolability  were  guaranteed  by  the  allied  Powers  of  Europe.  This 
was  done  in  order  to  confine  France,  who  then  was  the  great  disturber 
of  peace  in  Europe,  within  her  boundaries  by  erecting  on  her  frontier 
two  international  fortresses  which,  though  they  were  not  garrisoned 
by  an  international  military  force  drawn  from  the  united  Powers  of 
Europe,  were  meant  to  be  defended  by  the  united  Powers  of  Europe 
against  France  in  case  of  war.  Up  to  the  Franco-German  War  of 
1870-71  Switzerland,  Belgium,  and  Holland  saw  in  France  their  more 
powerful  and  more  dangerous  neighbour,  and  in  Germany  their 
natural  protector  against  a  French  attack.  Consequently  they 
inclined  towards  Germany.  Now  Switzerland,  Belgium,  and  Holland 
begin  to  see  in  Germany  their  more  powerful  and  more  dangerous 
neighbour,  and  to  look  towards  France  as  their  natural  protector  in 
case  of  a  possible  violation  of  territory  by  Germany.  They  have 
begun  to  incline  towards  France.  Perhaps  the  time  will  come  when 
another  European  Congress  will  endeavour  to  redress  the  disturbed 
balance  of  power  in  Europe  by  attaching  Switzerland,  Holland,  and 
Belgium  in  some  form  or  other  to  France  in  order  to  create  a  counter- 
poise to  Germany.  Even  then  Germany  would  preserve  her  numerical 
superiority  over  France,  for  the  joint  population  of  France,  Switzer- 
land, Holland,  and  Belgium  is  only  55,000,000,  or  8,000,000  less  than 
that  of  Germany. 

Perhaps  it  would  be  safer  to  convert  the  Anglo-French  Entente 
into  a  carefully  limited  public  treaty  of  alliance  approved  of  by  the 
Parliament  and  people  of  both  countries.  Such  an  alliance  would 
have  the  advantage  of  giving  to  each  of  the  two  Powers  greater  con- 
fidence in  the  loyal  support  of  the  other,  and  would  enable  the  military 
and  naval  authorities  to  agree  upon  a  plan  of  co-operation  in  case  of 
war.  Besides,  third  Powers,  who  at  present  may  doubt  the  binding 
force  of  the  entente  and  the  good  faith  of  one  or  the  other  party,  may 
act  upon  the  belief  that  the  Anglo-French  Entente  is  not  to  be  taken 
seriously.  Possibly  a  treaty  of  alliance,  which  gives  a  clear  warning 
to  all  concerned,  will  be  a  better  guarantee  of  the  peace  of  Europe 
than  a  somewhat  vague  understanding  called  an  entente. 

If  Great  Britain  desires  to  see  the  balance  of  power  re-established 
on  the  Continent  in  order  to  be  able  to  withdraw  herself  from  con- 
tinental politics,  with  which  she  has  only  an  indirect  concern,  she 
must,  before  all,  endeavour  to  strengthen  Kussia,  France's  ally,  until 
France  and  Eussia  combined  are  again  considered  strong  enough 
to  act  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  Powers  of  the  Triple  Alliance.  This 
consideration  and  the  fact  that  an  Anglo-French  Entente  could  not 
possibly  endure  if  England  should  remain  opposed  or  hostile  to  France's 
ally  led  to  a  complete  reversal  of  England's  policy  towards  Russia 
and  of  Eussia's  policy  towards  England  at  the  end  of  the  Russo- 
Japanese  War,  and  Russian  and  British  diplomats  deserve  the  highest 


1908     TRIPLE  ENTENTE  AND  TRIPLE  ALLIANCE     9 

praise  for  the  skill  with  which  they  have  effected  a  reconciliation  and 
rapprochement  between  the  two  Powers  notwithstanding  the  century- 
old  hostility  and  distrust  which  have  prevailed  between  them.  The 
improvement  in  Anglo-Kussian  relations  and  the  subsequent  entente 
found  its  formal  expression  in  the  Anglo-Russian  agreements  regarding 
Persia,  Afghanistan,  and  Thibet  which  were  signed  on  the  31st  of 
August  1907,  and  the  entente  was  sealed  by  the  recent  meeting  of 
the  two  monarchs  at  Reval. 

The  change  in  Anglo-Russian  relations  has  already  borne  fruit. 
Russia  might  have  created  considerable  difficulties  for  Great  Britain 
in  Persia,  Afghanistan,  and  Thibet,  and  she  might  have  added  to  our 
recent  troubles  in  India,  had  she  been  so  minded,  as  she  undoubtedly 
would  have  done  in  similar  circumstances  a  few  years  ago.  During 
the  last  two  years  there  has  not  been  a  single  complaint  about  Russian 
emissaries  in  Asia.  It  must  be  acknowledged  that  Russia  has  behaved 
with  the  greatest  correctness  and  loyalty  towards  this  country. 

Many  well-meaning  Englishmen  opposed  the  Anglo-Russian 
entente,  the  conclusion  of  the  Anglo-Russian  agreements,  and  the 
King's  visit  to  Reval  because  they  were  dissatisfied  with  the  internal 
state  of  Russia  and  the  character  of  its  government,  and  because  the 
present  Duma,  though  it  is  an  elected  assembly,  is  not  a  truly  demo- 
cratic representative  of  the  Russian  people.  They  therefore  demanded 
that  we  should  have  nothing  to  do  with  Russia  and  her  rulers,  and 
that  we  should  break  off  all  diplomatic  intercourse  with  her  until 
Russia  had  reformed  herself,  forgetting  that  the  Anglo-Russian 
entente  is  not  a  sentimental  union  but  merely  a  business  arrange- 
ment between  two  governments.  They  also  demanded,  as  do  many 
Russian  idealists,  full  self-government  for  the  Russian  people,  over- 
looking the  fact  that  all  progress  and  all  reform  must  needs  be  gradual. 
Those  who  wish  Russia  to  pass  at  once  from  absolutism  to  a  full 
self-government  aim,  perhaps  without  knowing  it  themselves,  not  at 
reform  but  at  revolution. 

According  to  the  last  Russian  census,  of  1897,  72  per  cent,  of  the 
Russians  over  nine  years  old — that  is,  about  two-thirds  of  the  popula- 
tion over  school  age — were  unable  to  read  and  write.  Apparently 
less  than  10  per  cent,  of  Russia's  citizens  are  newspaper  readers. 
Therefore  a  representative  democratic  Duma  could  be  representative 
only  of  illiteracy  and  ignorance.  How  could  such  an  assembly 
govern  the  largest  country  in  the  world,  a  country  inhabited  by 
twenty  different  nationalities,  by  Christians,  Mahommedans,  and 
Buddhists  ?  Besides,  the  Russian  people  does  not  demand  popular 
government  and  democratic  institutions,  for  the  excellent  reason  that 
the  very  words  '  democracy  '  and  '  constitution  '  are  words  without 
meaning  to  90  per  cent,  of  the  inhabitants.  It  must  also  not  be 
forgotten  that  it  is  not  so  very  long  since  the  Russians  emerged 
from  barbarism,  and  that  civilisation  in  Russia,  as  in  Germany,  haa 


10  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

made  the  greatest  progress  under  the  strongest  rulers,  such  as  Peter 
the  Great  and  Catherine  the  Second.  As  the  Russians  are  not  yet 
advanced  enough  to  govern  themselves,  they  must  be  governed. 
The  Russian  Duma  is  not  unlike  the  Prussian  Diet,  in  which  also 
practically  the  whole  of  the  working  classes  are  unrepresented. 
Russia's  greatest  need  is  not  a  democratic  government — which,  though 
theoretically  it  might  be  excellent,  would  create  anarchy  and  civil 
war — but  administrative  reform.  The  Russian  people  do  not  demand 
democratic  institutions,  about  which  they  know  nothing,  but  lower 
taxes,  higher  salaries  and  wages,  a  better  administration  of  justice,  &c. 
Russia  has  probably  as  much  popular  government  as  is  good  for  her 
for  the  time  being,  and  she  has  made  substantial  progress  towards 
democracy.  The  direction  of  affairs  is  no  longer  in  the  hands  of  an 
absolute  and  irresponsible  caste.  Ministers  have  to  lay  their  legisla- 
tive and  financial  proposals  before  the  Duma,  in  which  there  are  many 
intelligent,  patriotic,  and  independent  men,  and  the  measures  they 
recommend  are  scrutinised  and  amended,  passed  or  rejected,  by  them. 
The  Government's  Navy  Bill  was  thrown  out.  Russia  is  developing 
on  the  model  of  Prusso-Germany,  instead  of  on  the  model  of  the 
United  States,  which  is  apparently  unsuitable  for  the  country.  She 
must  be  allowed  to  find  her  way  to  the  light  in  her  own  way. 

The  King  concluded  his  toast  at  Reval  with  the  remarkable  words  : 
'  I  drink  to  the  health  of  your  Majesties,  to  that  of  the  Empress  Marie 
Feodorovna,  and  the  members  of  the  Imperial  family,  and,  above  all, 
to  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  your  great  Empire.'  These  words  contain 
an  admonition  and  a  programme.  Englishmen  who  wish  to  assist 
the  Russian  people  will  do  so  more  effectually  by  promoting  Russia's 
welfare  and  prosperity  than  by  endeavouring  to  press  upon  the  country 
representative  institutions  which  are  unsuitable  for  Russia  because 
the  people  are  not  yet  ripe  for  them,  and  which  would  therefore  only 
hamper  the  progress  of  the  people  instead  of  increasing  their  happiness. 
Besides,  Englishmen  will  benefit  themselves  also  by  promoting  the 
welfare  and  prosperity  of  the  Russian  Empire. 

The  most  necessary  reforms  in  Russia  are  the  improvement  of 
her  administration,  the  reform  of  taxation,  and  the  extension  of 
education.  These  and  various  other  reforms  will  cost  much  money. 
Therefore  Russia  must  before  all  develop  her  vast  agricultural,  mineral, 
and  industrial  resources  in  order  to  obtain  the  funds  which  are  re- 
quired for  good  government  and  reform.  Russia  has  magnificent 
resources.  Her  territory  is  twice  as  large  as  that  of  the  United  States, 
and,  like  the  United  States,  she  can,  grow,  raise,  and  produce  almost 
everything  needed  by  her  people.  Cotton,  silk,  tobacco,  wine,  rice, 
and  other  tropical  and  sub-tropical  products  are  raised  in  South 
Russia,  the  Transcaspian  and  Transcaucasian  provinces,  and  in 
Turkestan — it  is  not  generally  known  that  a  part  of  Russia  several 
.times  larger  than  Germany  .lies  on  the  same  latitude  as  Italy— and 


1908    TRIPLE  ENTENTE  AND  TRIPLE  ALLIANCE    11 

precious  stones,  gold,  iron,  platinum,  zinc,  copper,  naphtha,  and 
various  other  minerals  occur  in  many  places.  Russia  possesses  the 
sources  of  varied  and  boundless  wealth. 

At  present  agriculture  is  Russia's  principal  industry.  Russia 
has  a  very  fruitful  soil,  a  large  agricultural  population,  and  she  has 
excellent  natural  means  of  transport  in  her  rivers  and  lakes;  but 
poverty  and  ignorance  among  the  masses,  lack  of  enterprise  and  of 
capital  on  the  part  of  her  business  men,  and  short-sightedness  and 
neglect  on  the  part  of  the  administration,  have  hitherto  impeded  the 
development  of  her  agriculture.  The  soil  is  merely  scratched  by 
light  wooden  ploughs,  the  most  primitive  form  of  agriculture  prevails, 
manuring  is  practically  unknown  to  nine-tenths  of  her  peasants,  and 
there  are  hardly  any  roads  for  transporting  agricultural  produce  to 
the  rivers  and  railways.  Though  Russia  has  much  coal  and  iron, 
her  industries  are  quite  undeveloped.  Her  industrial  backwardness 
may  be  gauged  from  the  fact  that  with  a  territory  and  a  population 
twice  as  large  as  those  of  the  United  States,  Russia  produces  only 
one-tenth  of  the  quantity  of  iron  produced  in  the  United  States,  and 
that  she  raises  only  one-twentieth  of  the  quantity  of  coal  raised  in 
the  American  Republic.  In  other  words,  America  raises  per  head 
of  population  twenty  times  more  iron  and  forty  times  more  coal  than 
Russia.  Agriculturally  and  industrially,  Russia  is  a  mediaeval  country. 

Many  Russians  in  high  official  position  assert  that  the  latent 
wealth  of  Russia  is  greater  than  that  of  the  United  States,  and  if  they 
are  right  the  first  task  of  the  Russian  Government  should  be  to  develop 
Russia's  potential  wealth.  Wishing  to  reserve  the  whole  of  the 
national  wealth  to  her  own  people,  Russia  has  so  far  on  the  whole 
discouraged  and  stifled  foreign  enterprise,  though  M.  de  Witte  tried 
to  introduce  foreign  capital.  Russia  has  as  yet  neither  enough  capital 
nor  enough  experience  to  open  up  the  country  rapidly.  Therefore 
she  will  be  wise  if  she  calls  foreign  experience  and  foreign  capital  to 
her  assistance.  If  Russia  throws  the  country  wide  open  to  foreign 
enterprise  and  to  foreign  capital,  and  if  she  treats  liberally  and  even 
generously  those  who,  wishing  to  help  themselves,  will  most  vigorously 
promote  Russia's  prosperity,  the  poverty  and  dissatisfaction  of  the 
masses  and  the  penury  of  the  Russian  exchequer  will  soon  come  to  an 
end.  Russia  suffers  from  financial  anaemia  and,  as  she  may  prove  an 
Eldorado  to  British  contractors,  engineers,  and  investors,  her  financial 
anaemia  may  easily  be  overcome  by  their  aid. 

Russia's  difficulties  spring  chiefly  from  her  poverty.  Economic 
power  gives  social  power  and  military  power.  If  the  Government 
makes  Russia  rich,  the  people  will  be  contented.  Englishmen  and 
Russians  can  co-operate  in  developing  the  country,  and  in  promoting 
not  only  its  welfare  and  prosperity,  but  also  its  happiness.  Though 
Russia  may  find  it  difficult  to  borrow  money  for  military  and  naval 
purposes  and  for  building  strategical  railways,  she  will  find  no 


12 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


July 


difficulty  in  attracting  vast  sums  of  money  into  the  country  for 
commercial  and  industrial  development.  She  will  be  wise  if  she 
abstains  from  borrowing  for  unreproductive  purposes,  for  her  con- 
tinued borrowings  must  lead  in  the  end  to  national  bankruptcy. 

Russia's  finances  are  in  a  sad  state,  and  all  her  creditors  know  it ; 
but  her  financial  position  has  recently  considerably  improved.  How- 
ever, the  Government  cannot  claim  any  merit  for  the  improvement 
which  has  taken  place.  Wheat,  rye,  meat,  and  timber  have  risen 
considerably  in  price.  Hence  she  will  find  it  easier  to  raise  the  neces- 
sary taxes  and  to  pay  her  foreign  creditors.  The  potential  wealth 
of  the  Russian  State,  as  distinguished  from  that  of  the  Russian  people, 
is  very  great.  Her  immense  State  domain  is  quite  inadequately 
exploited.  Her  State  railways  are  run  either  at  no  profit  or  at  a  loss. 
If  Russia  becomes  a  rich  agricultural  and  industrial  State,  the  State 
domains  and  railways  will  rise  to  a  fabulous  value.  The  Russian 
State  will  then  be  the  richest  State  in  the  world. 

The  Anglo-Russian  trade  may  be  greatly  increased,  and  it  ought 
to  increase  pari  passu  with  the  increase  of  Russia's  population  and 
production.  Russia  exports  to  the  United  Kingdom  raw  products 
and  food,  such  as  grain,  timber,  eggs,  butter,  flax,  naphtha,  and  she 
receives  from  Great  Britain  coal,  machinery,  hardware,  cotton  and 
woollen  goods,  &c.  During  the  last  fifteen  years  British  exports 
to  Russia  have  been  absolutely  stationary,  but  they  may  be  very 
greatly  increased,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  following  figures. 

IMPORTS  INTO  RUSSIA 


From  Germany 

From  Great  Britain 

— 

Per  Cent,  of 

Per  Cent,  of 

Amount 

Total 

Amount  ' 

Total 

Imports 

Imports 

Roubles 

Roubles 

1890-4     . 

112,542,990 

25-3           106,922,825 

24 

1895-9      . 

195,707,851 

84-4           117,252,896 

20-6 

1900-4     . 

216,518,600 

38-5 

109,266,200 

19-4 

1906 

267,109,000 

43 

104,880,000 

16-9 

The  foregoing  figures  point  to  a  very  curious  state  of  affairs. 
Germany  puts  a  heavy  import  duty  on  Russian  exports,  while  Great 
Britain  allows  them  to  enter  untaxed.  Nevertheless  Germany  has 
by  her  tariff  policy  succeeded  in  securing  for  her  manufactures  preferen- 
tial treatment  in  the  Russian  market,  with  the  result  that  Germany 
is  rapidly  ousting  Great  Britain  from  the  Russian  market,  as  the 
foregoing  table  clearly  shows.  Fifteen  years  ago  German  and  British 
exports  to  Russia  were  equally  large.  Now  German  exports  to 
Russia  are  three  times  larger  than  ours,  and  while  our  percentual 
participation  in  the  Russian  trade  has  steadily  decreased  that  of 
Germany  has  equally  steadily  increased.  As  the  German  industrial 


centres  lie  far  inland,  German  manufactures  cannot  easily,  under 
equal  fiscal  conditions,  compete  with  British  manufactures  in  Russia. 
Given  equal  fiscal  conditions,  the  heavier  cost  of  transport  for  German 
goods  should  oust  German  goods  from  the  Russian^market.  A  good 
commercial  treaty  ought,  therefore,  to  lead  to  a  rapid  increase  of 
British  exports  to  Russia.  Will  it  be  possible  to  conclude  such  a 
treaty  while,  owing  to  OUT  unbusinesslike  fiscal  system,  we  have 
nothing  to  offer  in  return  for  special  concessions  ?  Why  should 
Russia  treat  our  manufactures  preferentially  if  her  goods  receive  the 
best  treatment  in  the  English  market  in  any  case  ? 

While  it  is  in  the  interest  of  Great  Britain  and  France  to  see 
Russia  economically,  socially,  and  politically  strengthened,  it  is  un- 
doubtedly in  Germany's  interest  to  see  Russia  weakened.  Russia  has 
150,000,000  inhabitants  and  her  population  is  growing  by  almost 
2,000,000  a  year,  while  Germany  has  only  63,000,000  inhabitants. 
Russia  has  room  for  300,000,000  people  as  soon  as  her  resources  are 
more  thoroughly  exploited.  A  wealthy,  well-organised,  and  powerful 
Russia  is  therefore  a  very  dangerous  neighbour  to  Germany.  Hence 
Germany  has  endeavoured  to  create  a  counterpoise  to  Russia  by 
strengthening  Turkey  against  Russia,  believing  that  further  collisions 
between  Russia  and  Turkey  are  well-nigh  unavoidable  until  the 
question  of  Constantinople  is  decided.  She  has  lent  to  Turkey  some 
of  her  ablest  officers.  General  Kolmar  von  der  Goltz  has  served  in 
Turkey  from  1883  to  1895,  and  he  has,  during  that  time,  together 
with  Muzaffer  Pasha,  completely  reorganised  the  Turkish  army  on 
the  German  model.  In  the  next  war  with  Russia  the  Turkish  army 
will  give  an  excellent  account  of  itself. 

The  military  position  of  Turkey  is  a  very  difficult  one.  Leaving 
aside  merely  nominally  Turkish  possessions,  such  as  Bulgaria,  Bosnia 
and  Herzegovina,  Egypt,  Crete,  and  Cyprus,  Turkey  has  25,000,000 
inhabitants.  Of  these  only  6,000,000  live  in  European  Turkey, 
while  by  far  the  largest  part  of  her  population,  about  18,000,000, 
lives  in  Asia.  Military  service  is  compulsory  on  the  Mahommedan 
Turks.  All  Christians  and  the  inhabitants  of  Constantinople  (about 
1,250,000)  are  excluded  from  military  service.  The  military  defence 
of  Constantinople  devolves,  therefore,  on  about  2,000,000  Turks  in 
Europe  and  about  15,000,000  Turks  in  Asia,  who  are  spread  all  over 
Asia  Minor,  Kurdistan,  Mesopotamia,  Syria,  &c.  While  the  most 
valuable  and  the  most  vulnerable  part  of  Turkey,  Constantinople, 
with  the  Bosphorus  and  the  Dardanelles,  lies  in  Europe,  Turkey's 
military  strength  lies  in  Asia,  and  a  large  part  of  the  population  is 
separated  from  the  capital  by  very  great  distances.  The  fact  that 
Turkey  cannot  rapidly  concentrate  her  Asiatic  troops  near  Constanti- 
nople has  greatly  diminished  Turkey's  power  of  resistance  in  all  her 
wars  with  Russia.  Though  the  Turkish  army  has  nominally  a  war 
strength  of  1,500,000,  only  a  small  part  of  ihat  mighty  host  can  be  led 


14  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

against  Russia  owing  to  the  absence  of  railways  in  Asia.  During  the 
Russo-Turkish  war  of  1877-78,  the  Mosul  Division  on  the  middle 
Tigris  required  seven  months  to  reach  the  theatre  of  war.  It  was  there- 
fore clear  that  the  most  effective  way  of  strengthening  Turkey  against 
Russia  lay  in  bringing  the  Turkish  population  of  Asia  within  easy 
reach  of  Constantinople  by  means  of  strategical  railways. 

In  the  autumn  of  1898  the  German  Emperor  made  a  pilgrimage  to 
Jerusalem.  On  his  way  he  paid  a  visit  to  the  Sultan  and  was  his 
guest  during  four  days.  The  outcome  of  the  Emperor's  visit  in 
Constantinople  was  a  concession  to  the  German  Anatolian  Railway 
Company  to  build  the  Bagdad  railway,  which,  passing  through  Asia 
Minor  and  Mesopotamia  and  branching  out  into  Kurdistan  and  Syria, 
was  to  connect  the  vast  Asiatic  possessions  of  Turkey  down  to  the 
Persian  Gulf  with  Constantinople.  This  railway  is  in  the  first  place  a 
strategical  railway,  but  as  Germany  received  with  the  railway  concession 
the  monopoly  of  navigating  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  and  of  mining  in 
the  zone  to  be  opened  up  by  the  railway,  the  Bagdad  railway  was 
believed  by  some  to  be  a  purely  commercial  undertaking.  England 
was  told  that  she  would  benefit  by  the  Bagdad  railway  because  it  would 
give  her  an  accelerated  mail  route  to  India,  and  she  was  invited, 
as  were  France  and  Russia,  to  participate  financially  in  that  under- 
taking, which  was  to  cost  about  24,000,0002.  The  German  promoters 
had  proposed  that  the  railway  terminus  on  the  Persian  Gulf  should 
be  at  Koweyt.  However,  the  question  of  the  terminus  on  the  sea 
was  a  minor  one.  The  principal  object  of  the  railway  was  not  to 
carry  freight  to  the  Red  Sea,  but  to  carry  Turkish  troops  and  reservists 
to  Constantinople  in  case  of  war  with  Russia.  Therefore  it  has  been 
given  a  kilometric  guarantee  by  the  Turkish  Government. 

This  project  was  put  before  the  British  Government  in  1903,  and 
it  was  at  first  favourably  considered ;  but  suspicions  arose  as  to 
Germany's  aim,  English  support  was  withheld,  and  the  Bagdad  railway 
scheme  was  temporarily  withdrawn.  On  the  20th  of  May  1908 
a  Reuter  telegram  announced  that  the  Bagdad  railway  scheme  had 
been  resuscitated  and  that  the  work  would  be  immediately  commenced. 
The  news  was  correct.  Germany  intends  now  to  construct  the  Bagdad 
railway  solely  or  principally  with  German  money.  Within  seven 
years  she  proposes  to  construct  500  miles  of  trunk  line,  which  will 
reach  Mardin,  at  a  cost  of  about  9,000,OOOZ.  This  is  the  most  difficult 
part  of  the  Bagdad  railway,  as  it  has  to  pass  the  chain  of  the  Taurus. 
The  survey  and  plans  are  complete,  and  a  large  tunnel  at  an  altitude 
of  1456  metres  is  planned.  This  will  be  an  engineering  feat  of  the 
first  rank.  The  Gotthard  tunnel  lies  at  an  altitude  of  only 
1155  metres. 

The  completion  of  the  Bagdad  railway  should  double,  perhaps 
even  treble,  the  strength  of  the  Turkish  army  in  case  of  a  Russian 
attack  upon  Constantinople,  but  it  seems  not  impossible  that  the 


1908    TRIPLE  ENTENTE  AND  TRIPLE  ALLIANCE    15 

question  of  Constantinople  will  be  decided  before  the  Bagdad  railway 
is  finished. 

Russia  cannot  help  seeing  in  the  construction  of  the  Bagdad 
railway  an  unfriendly  act,  and  she  must  conclude  that  Germany 
either  means  only  to  strengthen  Turkey  against  Russia  or  that  she 
means  to  acquire  a  kind  of  protectorate  over  Turkey.  The  Emperor 
has  made  the  latter  assumption  possible  by  a  very  curious  speech. 
On  the  18th  of  November  1898,  on  his  journey  to  Jerusalem,  the 
Emperor  proclaimed  himself  at  Damascus  as  the  Protector  of  Turkey 
and  of  all  Islam.  His  words  were  :  '  May  the  Sultan  and  may  the 
200,000,000  Mahommedans  in  all  parts  of  the  world  who  venerate 
the  Sultan  as  their  Calif  feel  assured  that  the  German  Emperor  will  be 
their  friend  for  all  time.'  That  speech  was  much  commented  on  at 
the  time  when  it  was  made,  but  its  real  significance  was  not  under- 
stood because  nothing  was  then  known  about  the  Bagdad  railway 
project  and  its  ultimate  purpose. 

Many  people  have  been  discussing  the  political  object  of  the 
Reval  visit  and  its  probable  outcome.  It  was  argued  that  some  big 
political  problem  must  have  been  discussed,  because  the  King  was 
accompanied  not  only  by  a  prominent  diplomat  but  also  by  Sir  John 
Fisher,  the  First  Sea  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  and  by  Sir  John  French, 
Inspector- General  of  the  Military  Forces  of  Great  Britain.  Besides, 
the  King  had  in  his  Reval  toast  expressed  the  hope  of  a  '  satisfactory 
settlement  in  an  amicable  manner  of  some  momentous  questions  in  the 
future.'  It  was  assumed  that  the  '  momentous  questions '  concerned 
the  settlement  of  the  Macedonian  problem.  However,  the  Macedonian 
problem  is  not  merely  a  problem  regarding  the  disorders  in  Macedonia, 
but  it  is  part  of  a  larger  problem.  In  Macedonia,  as  in  the  whole  of 
European  Turkey,  there  are  far  more  Christians  than  Turks.  About 
two-thirds  of  the  inhabitants  of  European  Turkey  are  Christians,  arid 
as  they  consist  of  many  races  and  nationalities  they  are  apt  to  fight 
among  themselves.  The  Christian  population  of  Turkey  consists  of 
Servians,  Bulgarians,  Greeks,  Roumanians,  Armenians,  Magyars,  &c., 
and  all  the  nations  bordering  upon  Turkey,  and  one  which  does  not 
border  upon  it,  have  during  many  years  endeavoured  to  peg  out 
claims  in  the  Turkish  provinces  which  they  believe  will  some  day 
fall  to  one  or  the  other  of  the  neighbouring  States.  With  this  object 
in  view,  various  nations  have  sent,  not  only  priests,  schoolmasters, 
doctors,  and  nurses  across  the  border  into  Macedonia  to  nationalise  the 
people,  but  also  armed  bands.  Their  propaganda  is  somewhat  forcible. 
Numerous  Greek  bands,  Bulgarian  bands,  and  Servian  bands  are 
asserting  the  claims  of  their  own  nationality  in  Macedonia  by  extermi- 
nating peaceful  inhabitants — men,  women,  and  children — belonging  to 
the  rival  nations,  and  devastating  the  country.  Every  day  we  read  of 
Greeks  slaying  Bulgarians  and  of  Bulgarians  slaying  Greeks.  Every 
year  peaceful  and  defenceless  inhabitants  are  slain  by  the  thousand. 


16  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

The  last  Turkey  Blue-book,  Cd.  4076,  gives  detailed  statistics  of  1768 
political  assassinations  during  1906  alone. 

The  Turks  are  in  a  small  minority  in  European  Turkey,  and  they 
do  not  wish  to  be  swamped  by  the  Christian  majority.  Therefore 
they  are  by  no  means  sorry  if  the  Christians  are  slaughtering  each 
other,  for  if  they  did  not  fight  and  kill  each  other  they  might  combine 
and  fall  upon  the  Turks.  If  disorder  becomes  too  great,  the  Turks 
join  in  the  fray  with  energy,  massacre  wholesale  and  indiscriminately 
both  parties,  and  then  we  hear  of  Turkish  atrocities.  That  is  the 
traditional  policy  of  Turkey  in  Europe,  and  it  is  perhaps  not  an 
illogical  policy  from  the  Turkish  point  of  view.  These  being  the 
conditions  in  European  Turkey,  it  follows  that  the  pacification  of 
Macedonia  will  not  end  the  Turkish  troubles.  If  Macedonia  be 
pacified,  Bulgarians,  Greeks  and  Servians  will  transfer  their  traditional 
activity  to  the  remaining  provinces  of  European  Turkey,  and  will 
there  reproduce  the  Macedonian  horrors.  Things  will  hardly  get 
better  as  long  as  a  Mahommedan  minority  misgoverns  a  Christian 
majority  in  the  Balkan  Peninsula. 

In  these  circumstances  it  seems  vain  to  hope  that  Inter- 
national Conferences  and  Programmes  will  effect  a  real  and  lasting 
improvement  in  European  Turkey.  Hitherto  they  have  effected 
nothing.  Very  likely  a  better  condition  of  affairs  can  be  created 
in  Macedonia  and  the  other  European  parts  of  Turkey  only  by  the 
abolition  of  Turkish  rule.  Therefore  the  Macedonian  problem  is, 
rightly  considered,  not  a  problem  concerning  the  various  nationalities 
in  Macedonia,  but  a  problem  regarding  the  future  of  Turkey  in  Europe 
and  the  possession  of  Constantinople.  If  Turkish  rule  be  abolished 
in  Europe,  there  might  be  peace  in  the  Near  East.  The  question  now 
arises,  Which  nation  is  to  take  Turkey's  place  in  Europe  and  especially 
at  Constantinople  ?  That  question  is  indeed  a  momentous  one,  but  it 
may  have  to  be  solved. 

During  two  centuries  Russia  has  endeavoured  to  expel  the  Turks 
from  Europe  and  to  capture  Constantinople.  She  wishes  to  possess, 
or  at  least  to  control,  the  Straits  of  Constantinople,  because  she  desires 
to  have  free  access  to  the  sea  for  her  enormous  empire,  and  from  her 
point  of  view  that  wish  is  a  reasonable  and  a  legitimate  one.  For- 
merly, when  Russia  was  hostile  to  England,  England  not  unnaturally 
barred  Russia's  path  to  the  Golden  Horn.  Times  have  changed,  and 
Great  Britain  may  conceivably  change  her  views  and  policy  with 
regard  to  the  control  of  the  Bosphorus  and  the  Dardanelles  in  accor- 
dance with  the  changed  conditions.  Great  Britain  would  probably 
rather  see  Russia  installed  at  Constantinople  than  any  other  European 
Great  Power.  Besides,  it  may  be  argued :  Either  Russia  remains  weak, 
and  then  she  cannot  do  much  harm  to  Great  Britain  even  if  she 
possesses  Constantinople ;  or  she  will  become  strong  and  then  she  will 
take  Constantinople  in  any  case.  The  subject  is  certainly  worth 


1908     TRIPLE  ENTENTE  AND  TRIPLE  ALLIANCE    17 

reconsidering  in  view  of  recent  developments  in  Turkey  and  in  Asia 
Minor. 

Since  his  return  to  Germany  General  von  der  Goltz,  the  organiser 
and  creator  of  the  new  Turkish  army,  has  made  a  rapid  career.  He  has 
become  commander  of  the  First  Army  Corps,  Inspector-General  of  the 
Army,  and  Commander-Designate  of  one  of  the  large  German  armies 
in  case  of  war.  His  experience  in  Eastern  affairs  would,  of  course,  be 
particularly  useful  in  case  of  a  war  in  Eastern  Europe.  At  the  present 
moment,  when  a  practical  solution  of  the  Macedonian  difficulties  is 
about  to  be  proposed  to  Turkey,  General  von  der  Goltz  is  in  Con- 
stantinople on  a  visit  to  the  Sultan.  As  it  can  hardly  be  expected 
that  General  von  der  Goltz  would  choose  the  hottest  time  of  the  year 
for  paying  a  purely  private  visit  to  Turkey,  diplomats  and  politicians 
in  Constantinople  are  keenly  discussing  the  object  of  his  mission, 
and  they  are  inclined  to  believe  that  the  Geneial  has  come  on  business. 
The  suggestion  that  he  may  have  come  to  replace  the  German  ambas- 
sador seems  incorrect.  It  appears  more  likely  that  the  General  has 
gone  to  Turkey  in  order  to  advise  the  Sultan  how  to  act  in  case  of  a 
great  emergency  or  that  he  is  arranging  for  Turco-German  military 
co-operation  in  certain  eventualities.  There  are  many  indications 
which  point  to  the  fact  that  it  will  be  no  easy  matter  to  solve  the 
Macedonian  problem,  that  the  Powers  advocating  order  and  good 
government  in  the  Near  East  may  have  to  overcome  the  determined 
opposition  of  those  who  wish  to  uphold  the  rule  of  Turkey  in  Europe 
even  at  the  price  of  the  yearly  hecatombs  in  Macedonia.  The  whole 
weight  and  influence  of  the  Triple  Entente  may  be  required  to  make 
the  cause  of  humanity  prevail. 

The  German  press  has  followed  very  attentively  the  gradual  develop- 
ment of  the  Triple  Entente.  While  most  of  the  Government  inspired 
papers  have  endeavoured  to  depict  the  Reval  meeting  as  a  visit  of 
courtesy  devoid  of  political  importance,  many  of  the  independent 
journals  have  complained  that  Great  Britain  tried  to  checkmate  and 
isolate1  Germany  and  to  hedge  her  in  with  a  network  of  ententes  in  order 
to  raise  a  European  coalition  against  her.  Imitation  is  the  sincerest  form 
of  flattery.  Germany  could  hardly  complain  if  such  were  Great  Britain's 
policy.  However,  she  is  mistaken.  As  Great  Britain  is  a  peaceful 
country,  it  is  clear  that  the  object  of  the  Triple  Entente  is  not  war 
but  peace,  and  it  must  be  assumed  that  its  aim  is  threefold.  It  aims 
at  creating  a  counterpoise  to  the  Triple  Alliance  in  order  to  preserve 
the  balance  of  power  in  Europe,  it  aims  at  taking  from  the  strongest 
European  Power  the  temptation  of  breaking  the  peace,  and  it  aims 
at  settling,  preferably  by  a  friendly  arrangement  and  without  war, 
some  of  the  great  problems  of  Europe  which  possibly  may  come  up 
for  settlement  in  the  near  future. 

J.  ELLIS  BARKER. 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  377  C 


18  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  July 


THE    '  VISION    SPLENDID '    OF   INDIAN 

YOUTH 


THE  Unrest  in  India  is  a  drama  that  is  presented  by  a  company  of 
juveniles.  There  are  grown  men  behind  the  scenes,  in  the  prompter's 
box,  and  in  the  orchestra,  who  arrange  the  properties,  supply  the 
words,  and  animate  the  courage  of  the  young  tragedians.  These  are 
the  professionals  of  the  art  of  agitation — lawyers,  journalists,  and 
schoolmasters, — who  find  in  the  play  not  merely  a  means  of  exhibiting 
their  talents,  but  an  excellent  business  advertisement.  In  the  audi- 
torium are  the  people  of  India,  watching,  not  without  some  pride, 
the  achievements  of  their  boys,  not  without  some  malice  the  effect 
of  these  achievements  upon  the  British  Government ;  but  without  any 
definite  wish  or  expectation  that  the  stage  effects  will  actually  be 
realised  :  they  still  believe  that  the  drama  tcajfjutcwTspav  l^ei  rrjv 
KdTa(TTpo(f))jv.  Very  different  would  have  been  the  position  had 
religious  prejudice  been  the  motif  instead  of  politics  ;  had,  for  instance, 
feelings  been  aroused  over  such  a  question  as  cow  killing.  In  this 
case  the  boy  actors  would  have  been  pushed  aside,  and  the  stage  have 
been  taken  by  adults. 

From  its  commencement  school-boys  have  been  the  practical 
exponents  of  the  Unrest.  Rehearsals  began  two  years  ago  in  a  number 
of  mass  meetings  organised  in  the  public  squares  of  Calcutta  by 
some  prominent  local  journalists.  They  were  practically  meetings 
of  boys,  who  crowded  to  listen  to  very  inflammatory  speeches,  delivered 
in  excellent  English,  by  the  leaders  of  the  Calcutta  press.  It  was  at 
these  meetings  that  the  boycott  was  invented,  the  war  cry  of  '  Bande 
Mataram '  was  adopted,  corps  of  school-boy  '  volunteers '  were  sug- 
gested, and  a  threat  offered  to  any  disciplinary  methods  on  the  part 
of  the  University  by  the  establishment  of  '  National '  schools  and 
colleges  which  would  be  independent  of  the  University  and  would  not 
look  to  it  for  diplomas  or  degrees.  These  measures  all  affected,  or 
relied  upon,  the  conduct  of  school-boys,  and  were  assimilated  with 
boyish  enthusiasm.  Another  resolution  was  passed  which  affected 
the  conduct  of  adults — that  men  holding  honorary  offices  under  the 
Government,  honorary  magistracies  and  the  like,  should  resign  them. 
This  went  no  further.  No  dramatic  art  was  spared  to  render  these 


1908     'VISION  SPLENDID'    OF  INDIAN   YOUTH      19 

meetings  impressive  and  exciting  to  the  youthful  mind.  They  did 
not  stop  short  at  words.  On  several  occasions  the  boys  brought  forth 
their  shirts  and  drawers  and  made  bonfires  of  them  in  the  streets,  as  of 
British  manufacture.  For  days  at  a  time  the  pavement  in  front  of 
European  shops  was  picketed  by  truant  school-boys,  who  waylaid 
any  of  their  own  race  who  attempted  to  enter,  turning  them  back 
with  threats,  adjurations,  and  supplications,  in  some  cases  even 
prostrating  themselves  on  the  ground  before  them.  Everything 
savouring  of  England,  except  the  language,  was  boycotted.  A  Bengali 
judge  of  the  Calcutta  High  Court  complained  to  me  that  for  three 
weeks,  in  these  days  of  dramatic  enthusiasm,  he  was  unable  to 
send  his  little  grandchildren  to  school. 

It  is  easy  to  see  now  that  a  serious  mistake  was  made  in  per- 
mitting the  squares  and  streets  of  Calcutta  to  be  blocked,  and  the  public 
peace  disturbed,  by  thousands  of  excited  school-boys.  The  enforce- 
ment of  ordinary  police  regulations  would  at  the  outset  have  probably 
been  a  sufficient  check  ;  at  all  events,  bonfires  and  street  picketing 
need  not  have  been  permitted.  Musalman  sympathies  were  on  the 
side  of  the  Government.  It  would  be  a  mistake  to  believe  that  the 
movement  had  the  approval  of  the  whole  body  of  Hindu  school- 
masters ;  the  majority  of  them  were  opposed  to  it  by  a  natural  dislike 
of  a  competing  authority,  if  not  by  solicitude  for  the  welfare  of  their 
students.  Had  their  influence  been  enlisted  early  in  the  day,  it  would 
have  been  possible  to  restrain  the  majority  of  the  students  from 
participation  in  these  political  orgies.  It  was  believed  that  the  new 
enthusiasm  would  burn  itself  out.  This  would  no  doubt  have  been 
the  case  had  it  affected  adults.  It  was  not  realised,  with  youth  as 
fuel,  how  great  a  matter  a  little  fire  kindleth. 

The  propaganda  spread  from  Calcutta  to  the  interior.  Here 
progress  was  slower,  and,  six  months  after  the  initiation  of  the  crusade, 
not  more  than  a  dozen  schools,  of  some  hundreds  in  Eastern  Bengal, 
had  subscribed  to  it.  They  became  violent  proselytes  ;  unprovoked 
assaults  were  made  upon  unprotected  Europeans  ;  carts  laden  with 
English  goods  were  overturned  in  the  streets,  boats  sunk  in  the  river, 
and,  on  two  occasions,  mobs  of  school-boys  actually  held  up  river 
steamers  for  several  hours.  Even  at  this  stage  order  might  have  been 
restored  by  withdrawing  from  three  or  four  schools  the  right  to  send 
up  students  for  University  examinations.  To  this  measure  the 
Government  of  India  was  opposed.  It  would  have  operated  hardly 
upon  individuals,  since  the  lack  of  the  university  imprimatur  would 
have  barred  them  from  the  service  of  Government.  But  it  was  surely 
better  that  two  or  three  hundred  boys  should  suffer  for  misconduct 
than  that  demoralisation  should  spread  wholesale  through  schools 
and  colleges.  It  may  have  been  feared  that  the  exclusion  of  the 
offending  schools  from  their  University  connection  would  have 
stimulated  the  movement  for  the  foundation  of  '  National '  schools,  in 

c  2 


20  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

complete  independence  of  both  the  University  and  the  Government. 
But  this  movement,  at  that  time,  had  little  prospect  of  widespread 
success.  Government  service  is  dear  to  the  mind  of  Bengali  students, 
and  these  '  National '  schools  would  afford  no  avenue  to  it.  When  it 
was  once  realised  that  no  practical  steps  were  to  be  taken  to  penalise 
schools  which  became  nurseries  of  violent  agitation,  the  anti-British 
campaign  rapidly  spread  and  intensified.  The  Musalmans  had  from 
the  outset  steadfastly  refused  to  take  part  in  it ;  and  their  boys  showed 
considerable  moral  courage  in  dissociating  themselves  from  the  be- 
haviour of  their  Hindu  school-fellows,  and  this,  too,  although  they  were 
greatly  in  the  minority,  for  English-teaching  schools  have  been  much 
less  attractive  to  Musalmans  than  to  Hindus.  The  Musalmans 
consequently  became  involved  in  the  odium  which  the  agitation  was 
casting  upon  British  rule,  and  were  bitterly  attacked  by  the  Hindus, 
especially  as  they  were  disposed  actively  to  resent  the  rise  in  prices 
which  was  the  outcome  of  the  boycott  of  British  commodities.  School- 
masters, yielding  to  pressure,  permitted  their  Hindu  students  to 
organise  themselves  into  definitely  militant  societies.  School  corps 
of  so-called  '  volunteers '  were  enrolled,  given  a  uniform,  drilled  and 
exercised,  and  employed  in  the  systematic  enforcement  of  the  boycott. 
Traders  dealing  in  British  goods  were  driven  from  the  country  markets 
by  bands  of  school-boys.  The  Musalmans,  having  no  other  remedy, 
met  force  by  force  ;  and  rioting  ensued,  which  compelled  the  Govern- 
ment to  draft  bodies  of  special  police  into  the  districts,  and  placed  it 
in  the  awkward  position  of  punishing  large  numbers  of  loyal  Musal- 
mans because  they  resented  the  oppression  of  Hindu  school-boys. 
It  is  unnecessary  to  explain  how  deplorable  the  situation  was  in  the 
interests  of  the  rising  generation  ;  school  discipline  vanished,  and 
class-rooms  were  deserted  for  the  bazaar.  Anarchism  became  a 
subject  of  instruction,  and  boys  were  systematically  taught  to  handle 
the  weapons  of  assassination.  It  is  known  that  the  attempted  mur- 
derers of  Mr.  Allen  were  mere  striplings.  Youths  made  and  threw 
the  bombs  which  recently  killed  two  English  ladies  at  Muzaffarpur, 
and  boys  of  sixteen  and  seventeen  formed,  apparently,  most  of  the 
staff  of  the  Garden  of  Anarchy — a  secret  factory  of  explosives — which 
has  since  been  discovered  in  Calcutta. 

It  does  not  necessarily  follow  that  these  incidents  had  their 
origin  in  any  real  or  deep-seated  grievance.  Boys  will  be  boys. 
Imagine  what  would  be  the  results  in  this  country  if  lads  of  fifteen  or 
sixteen  were  permitted  daily  to  listen  to  incendiary  speeches  in  the 
market-place,  to  read,  in  school  and  out  of  school,  newspapers  inciting 
them  to  disorder,  to  organise  themselves  into  semi-disciplined  bands 
of  political  guerillas,  to  interfere  actively  with  the  trade  of  their  towns  ! 
Should  we  be  surprised  if  lamps  and  shop  windows  were  broken, 
the  local  poHce  held  up,  and  school  life  became  altogether  demoral- 
ised ?  It  may  be  objected  that  these  Bengali  '  volunteers '  were 


1908     'VISION  SPLENDID'   OF  INDIAN   YOUTH      21 

drawn  as  much  from  colleges  as  from  schools,  and  that  active  inter- 
ference in  militant  politics  is  less  grotesque  in  a  University  student 
than  in  a  school- boy.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  in  India 
college  life  begins  at  a  much  earlier  age  than  in  England ;  students 
commonly  enter  college  at  sixteen,  and  the  Indian  college  compares 
much  more  nearly  with  the  English  secondary  school  than  its  English 
nominal  equivalent.  Moreover,  the  Indian  youth  is  far  more  excitable 
than  the  English  youth :  as  he  is  capable  in  some  ways  of  higher 
efforts  of  self-denial,  so  he  suffers  more  intensely  from  evil  influences. 
The  *  vision  splendid '  of  youth  is  in  the  East  unobscured  by  the 
passion  for  athletics,  the  material  ambitions  of  the  English  lad. 
The  Indian  parent  is  extraordinarily  indulgent,  and  parental  control, 
as  a  social  force,  is  almost  non-existent.  The  dreams  which  over- 
shadow the  pubescence  of  the  Indian  youth  are  hallowed  by  no  idealistic 
admiration  of  the  other  sex :  there  is  for  him  no  flirtation,  and  no 
idyllic  love-making  ;  for  him,  outside  the  family  circle,  woman  appears 
as  Venus  Pandemos  only.  As  such  her  influence  is  exceedingly 
potent  and  exceedingly  injurious.  It  is  impossible  in  addressing  the 
general  reader  to  picture  it  in  its  actual  colours ;  it  must  suffice  to 
say  that  houses  of  ill-fame  congregate  closely  round  college  and  school 
boarding-houses,  and  the  brothel  is  almost  as  marked  a  feature  of 
student  life  as  the  class-room.  Indeed,  students  not  uncommonly 
lodge  in  prostitutes'  houses.  One  of  the  leading  Calcutta  Bengali 
newspapers,  in  giving  an  account  of  some  school-boy  political  demon- 
strations, stated,  with  apparent  satisfaction,  that  the  boys  had  been 
escorted  in  procession  by  the  women  of  the  town.  It  may  be  urged 
that  student  life  on  the  Continent  is  also  free  from  the  restraint  which 
Puritanism  has  impressed  upon  English  youth.  But  the  arrangements 
of  Paris  or  Heidelberg  have  at  least  a  flavour  of  domesticity,  and 
represent  some  restraint  upon  the  lawlessness  of  youth. 

This  is  a  distressing  picture  of  indiscipline  and  immorality,  with 
a  sad  foreboding  for  the  next  generation.  Are  these  the  inevitable 
consequences  of  our  educational  policy — the  natural  fruits  of  the 
grafting  of  English  literature  and  science  upon  the  Oriental  dispo- 
sition ?  We  may  take  courage  to  doubt  this.  There  are  colleges 
and  schools  which  have  resisted  infection,  even  in  Bengal.  For  many 
years  past  the  Government  has  failed  to  appreciate  the  immense 
importance  of  its  responsibilities  to  the  young,  and  has  made  no 
sufficient  attempt  to  cope  with  the  difficulties  that  have  arisen  from 
the  increasing  desire  for  English  learning.  From  the  day  on  which 
a  qualification  in  English  was  adopted  as  a  condition  for  appointment 
to  the  public  service,  schools  and  colleges  have  sprung  up  in  Bengal 
with  mushroom  rapidity.  Fees  are  very  low,  and  the  teaching  staff 
is  usually  ill  paid.  In  these  circumstances  it  was  essential  to  maintain 
a  strong  inspecting  staff,  and  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  the  masters 
by  the  severe  repression  of  gross  disorder.  It  cannot  be  said  that 


28  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

either  of  these  conditions  has  been  fulfilled.  The  inspection  of 
colleges  and  schools  has  been  little  more  than  nominal ;  and  to  avoid 
a  storm  in  the  press,  grave — even  criminal — misbehaviour  has  been 
passed  over  in  silence.  The  students  of  one  school,  having  a  grudge 
against  a  ferryman,  threw  him  into  the  river  and  prevented  him  from 
landing  till  he  was  drowned.  No  evidence  could  be  produced  against 
individuals,  and  no  penalty  marked  abhorrence  of  the  crime.  Good 
feelings,  it  may  be  said,  are  not  born  of  discipline.  Not  so  ;  '  manners 
makyth  man,'  and  respectful  habits  generate  a  respectful  mind. 
But,  it  may  be  objected,  if  the  surroundings  of  English  University 
life  do  not  control  the  rebellious  imaginings  of  Indian  students,  surely 
no  hope  can  be  gathered  from  the  Education  Department  of  the 
Indian  Government.  But  we  are  concerned  with  students  younger 
than  those  who  enter  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  not  emancipated  from 
home  influences  (which  must  after  all  be  on  the  side  of  orderliness) 
and  more  amenable  to  discipline.  In  insisting  upon  discipline  we 
have  on  our  side  the  wisdom  of  the  East,  which  if  it  leaves  the  relation 
of  father  and  son  to  be  based  upon  affection,  insists,  and  has  always 
insisted,  upon  the  strict  subordination  of  the  pupil  to  the  teacher, 
of  the  chela  to  the  guru.  Control  should  not  be  condemned  till  it  has 
been  fairly  tried.  The  Education  Department  should  be  one  of  the 
most  important  branches — if,  indeed,  not  the  most  important  branch 
— of  the  public  service,  and  should  be  strengthened  until  it  can  meet 
its  duties.  Under  existing  arrangements  young  Englishmen  are 
appointed  to  the  Department  direct  from  college,  and  enter  upon  their 
duties  as  inspectors  or  professors  in  complete  ignorance  of  the  lan- 
guage, the  history,  the  customs,  and  the  sentiments  of  the  people 
whose  growth  is  entrusted  to  their  control.  Such  an  arrangement 
may  almost  be  described  as  an  insult  to  the  country ;  and  a  special 
course  of  training  should  most  certainly  precede  the  first  appointment 
of  an  Englishman  to  the  Educational  service.  But  I  do  not,  of  course, 
mean  to  imply  that  the  superior  staff  should  be  exclusively  recruited 
in  England.  In  my  experience  Bengali  inspectors  of  schools  have 
shown  courage  and  determination  when  Government  support  is  not 
denied  them  ;  and  I  may  pay  a  passing  tribute  here  to  Bengali  magis- 
trates, who  in  a  situation  of  immense  difficulty  have,  with  rare  ex- 
ceptions, been  displaying  remarkable  fortitude  of  purpose.  But  let 
it  be  realised  above  all  things  that  no  action  we  can  take  to  improve 
the  morale  of  Indian  students  has  any  hope  of  success  so  long  as  we 
permit  their  minds  to  be  poisoned  by  the  suggestions  and  exhortations 
of  an  unbridled  press.  The  more  seditious  of  the  Indian  newspapers 
are  written  in  the  main  for  juvenile  readers,  to  whom  they  appeal 
not  only  by  the  violence  of  their  language,  but  by  the  pruriency  of 
their  advertisements,  which  are  of  a  character  that  would  be  per- 
mitted in  no  English  newspaper.  Surely  the  most  strenuous  advocate 


1908     'VISION  SPLENDID'   OF  INDIAN   YOUTH      28 

of  the  liberty  of  the  press — one  that  will  not  hesitate  to  affirm  that 
what  suits  England  must  suit  India  also — will  admit  that  the  situation 
is  changed  if  it  can  be  shown  that  the  press  caters  for  the  class-room 
as  well  as  for  the  market-place,  and  is  a  forceful  power  in  the  training 
of  the  young  ?  It  is  difficult  indeed  to  appreciate  the  position  of 
those  who,  in  their  own  country,  would  check  the  sale  of  intoxicating 
liquors  to  adults,  but  in  India  would  permit  the  distribution  of 
infinitely  more  harmful  stimulants  to  children.  There  is  no  one  who 
is  well  acquainted  with  India  and  wishes  her  well,  but  has  rejoiced  at 
the  expression  by  Lord  Minto  of  an  earnest  wish  that  the  press  in 
India  may  be  subjected  to  some  general  control,  and  who  does  not 
join  him  in  the  hope  that  so  beneficent  a  measure  may  not  be  defeated 
by  the  opposition  of  those  who  care  more  for  the  maintenance  of 
so-called  liberal  principles  than  for  the  welfare  of  thousands  of  Indian 
students. 

Now,  it  will  be  said,  enough  of  discipline  and  control ;  what  of 
reform  ?  Granting  that  the  present  ferment  is  working  most  power- 
fully in  schools  and  colleges,  does  it  not  represent  some  real  grievance 
which  it  is  our  business  to  remove  ?  Has  not  our  gift  of  English 
learning  brought  with  it  aspirations  which  we  are  bound  to  notice 
and  to  fulfil  ?  We  are  most  certainly  responsible  for  the  growth  of 
a  desire  for  a  larger  share  in  the  government  of  the  country,  and  we 
should  most  certainly  meet  this  desire,  gradually  adding  to  the  oppor- 
tunities of  the  people  in  the  superior  service  of  the  State,  and  in  the 
Council  chamber.  But  it  is  a  mistake  to  conceive  that  the  study  of 
European  literature  and  science  generates  in  the  East  a  burning  desire 
for  a  vote,  for  some  form  of  representative  government.  We  are  so 
enamoured  of  the  authority  of  Parliament,  of  recent  date  though  it  be, 
that  we  are  inclined  to  believe  that  government  by  voting  appeals 
to  one  of  the  most  general,  the  most  deep-seated,  of  human  sentiments. 
But  there  are  nations  on  the  Continent  that  are  better  educated  than 
India  can  hope  to  be  for  some  generations  to  come  which  make  shift, 
pretty  contentedly  and  in  much  prosperity,  with  a  very  moderate 
allowance  of  political  freedom.  In  the  nature  of  things  there  is  no 
reason  why  India  should  be  fevered  by  a  longing  for  representative 
government,  nor  are  there  any  reliable  symptoms  of  such  an  affection. 
There  is  in  the  East  little  of  the  spirit  of  compromise  which  renders 
government  by  a  majority  endurable.  The  Musalmans  are  definitely 
opposed  to  any  experiment  in  this  direction ;  so  also  are  many  other 
sections  of  the  community  who  would  be  permanently  out- voted. 
It  is  most  significant  that  we  should  hear  nothing  whatever  of  liberal 
aspirations  in  the  native  states  which  include  one-third  of  the  Indian 
continent.  They  also  have  their  schools,  colleges,  and  an  educated 
public,  which  accept  without  question  monarchical  authority.  The 
cries  which  are  raised  on  our  side  of  the  border  for  elected  councils, 


24  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

a  colonial  constitution,  and  so  forth  are  the  expression  not  of  definite 
ambitions,  but  of  that  vague  feeling  of  dislike  with  which  all  humanity 
regards  an  alien  rule.  We  are  so  convinced  of  the  material  benefits 
which  our  intervention  has  secured  to  the  people  of  India  that  we 
resent — can  indeed  hardly  realise — the  idea  that  we  can  appear  in 
any  light  but  that  of  benefactors.  Yet  our  domination  in  India  runs 
counter  to  one  of  the  fundamental  sentiments  of  human  nature,  which, 
while  deferring  to  such  practical  considerations  as  self-interest,  will 
permanently  yield  only  to  custom  and  habitude.  We  brought  relief 
from  gross  oppression,  and  were  welcomed  on  our  arrival ;  the  memory 
of  the  oppression  fades,  but  the  figure  of  the  English  official  becomes 
gradually  accepted  as  of  the  order  of  nature.  The  triumph  of  Asia, 
in  the  victories  of  Japan,  fiercely  disturbed  this  settlement  of  ideas  ; 
and  it  is  a  curious  proof  of  our  lack  of  imagination  that  the  effect  of 
Mukden,  Port  Arthur,  and  Tsu-Shima  has  been  so  scantily  realised. 
Under  the  reflection  of  these  glories  India  burned  to  assert  herself. 
An  occasion  was  offered  by  the  reform  of  the  Universities  and  the 
partition  of  Bengal,  since,  although  both  these  measures  were  really 
advantageous  to  ,the  country  and  were  conceived  by  Lord  Curzon 
in  a  spirit  of  benevolence,  both  were  injurious  to  vested  interests 
which  could  command  the  sympathy  of  the  press.  The  press  with 
its  bodyguard  of  lawyers  put  forth  the  whole  of  its  power,  and  all 
the  resources  of  political  agitation  were  called  to  hand.  It  was  soon 
found  that  (save  in  one  area  and  for  a  particular  reason)  the  adult 
population  was  hard  to  move.  The  benefits  of  British  rule  are,  after 
all,  substantial  and  undeniable,  and  as  prosperity  increases  and 
capital  accumulates  the  country  becomes  more  and  more  apprehensive 
of  the  effects  of  a  cataclysm.  Further,  and  this  is  a  point  of  great 
importance,  there  is  no  scheme,  alternative  to  British  rule,  to  which 
the  ordinary  citizen  would  for  a  moment  trust  himself.  The  Nationalist 
party  has  shrunk  from  describing  a  native  form  of  government  for 
adoption  in  a  British  province,  unless  it  be,  generally,  that  men  of 
education  should  take  the  loaves  and  fishes,  and  that  the  British  army 
should  secure  their  enjoyment  of  them.  Such  a  claim  as  that  Bengal 
should  be  granted  a  constitution  on  colonial  lines  conveys  little  to 
the  Bengali  householder  beyond  a  vague  idea  of  bitter  quarrelling, 
terminated  by  an  invasion  from,  say,  Nepal.  In  the  minds  of  grown 
men  hostility  to  British  rule  is  not  sufficiently  pronounced  to  induce 
them  to  accept  the  doubtful  chances  of  revolution  ;  accordingly  they 
take  but  little  part  in  the  manifestations  of  unrest,  and  leave  politics 
to  their  boys,  not,  as  I  have  said,  without  some  pride  in  the  youngsters' 
exploits,  but  with  an  uncomfortable  feeling  that  studies  are  being 
neglected,  and  habits  of  discourtesy  acquired  which  render  their 
sons'  home-coming  a  very  irritating  experience.  In  these  circum- 
stances our  policy  should  be  to  sit  tight,  do  justice,  and  strictly  maintain 


1908     'VISION  SPLENDID'   OF  INDIAN   YOUTH       25 

the  peace.  Enthusiasms  in  the  East  are  short-lived ;  the  National 
Congress  itself  had  lost  all  repute  when  fresh  vitality  was  infused 
into  it  by  a  breath  from  the  shores  of  Manchuria.  It  is  only  in  the 
interests  of  the  rising  generation  that  new  departures  are  called  for — 
the  strengthening  and  reform  of  educational  supervision,  and,  above 
all,  for  the  protection  of  the  young,  the  control  of  the  press. 

BAMPFYLDE  FULLER. 


26  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 


MR.    HALDANES    TERRITORIAL 
ARTILLERY 


FOR  some  years  past  every  War  Minister  has  apparently  considered 
the  reorganization  of  the  Army  to  be  his  chief  function.  Why  an 
army  should  require  reorganization  every  three  or  four  years  is  not 
evident,  for  such  constant  changes  are  more  or  less  detrimental  to 
the  Service,  and  destroy  all  confidence  in  the  continuance  of  any 
system.  The  present  War  Minister  has  been  working  very  hard  with 
the  assistance  of  the  Army  Council  to  contrive  a  combined  scheme 
embracing  both  regular  and  auxiliary  forces,  and  enabling  the  latter 
to  afford  an  efficient  support  to  the  former  in  time  of  war.  Of  the 
auxiliary  forces  the  Militia,  now  called  the  Special  Reserve,  are  to 
supply  trained  drafts  to  the  regular  forces ;  and  the  Volunteers, 
termed  the  Territorial  Army,  are  intended  for  home  defence.  With 
the  main  portion  of  the  Territorial  Army  scheme  this  paper  is  not 
concerned,  but  the  part  relating  to  artillery  is  not  only  experimental 
but  unpractical,  and  Lord  Roberts's  warning  respecting  it  would 
probably  be  endorsed  by  every  artillery  officer  of  experience  who  has 
served  for  any  time  with  field  batteries. 

Neither  Mr.  Haldane  nor  his  advisers  could  have  realised  what 
would  be  required  to  organize  an  immense  force  of  196  efficient  field 
batteries.  Such  a  force  would,  if  organized  in  brigades  like  regular 
field  artillery,  with  ammunition  columns,  require  in  time  of  war  about 
1630  officers,  2437  sergeants,  2744  artificers,  56,187  rank  and  file 
(corporals,  gunners  and  drivers),  587  trumpeters,  and  64,083  horses. 
Some  of  the  transport  for  ammunition  columns  in  rear  of  the  fighting 
line  might  perhaps  be  done  by  motors.  For  a  peace  establishment, 
similarly  organized  in  brigades  of  batteries,  these  196  Territorial  field 
batteries,  making  about  65  brigades,  would  require  about  1110  officers, 
1829  sergeants,  28,665  rank  and  file,  457  trumpeters,  and  17,900  horses. 

As  the  horse  and  field  Territorial  batteries  are  to  have  reduced 
establishments  of  only  four  guns  and  eight'  ammunition  wagons 
on  a  peace  footing,  there  will  be  a  corresponding  reduction  in  the 
number  of  horses  required.  But  the  supply  of  horses  for  the  Terri- 
torial besides  the  regular  field  artillery  in  time  of  war  will  probably 
be  a  matter  of  great  and  increasing  difficulty  ;  for  as  more  omnibuses, 
vans,  and  other  vehicles  are  supplied  with  motor  traction,  fewer  horses 
of  the  required  class  will  be  available  for  field  artillery. 


1908  MR.  HALDANWS  TERRITORIAL  ARTILLERY  27 

As  they  are  to  be  field  batteries,  they  must  be  drilled  singly  and 
in  brigades,  to  march  in  different  formations,  to  deploy,  to  take  up 
positions,  to  come  into  action  and  retire  promptly,  and  change  front. 
The  old-fashioned  complicated  drills  are  no  longer  necessary,  nor  with 
our  long-ranging  guns  are  advances  over  short  distances  of  any  use, 
but  the  simple  movements  mentioned  above  are  required  for  ordinary 
manoeuvring.  To  obtain  suitable  grounds  for  such  drills  and  exer- 
cises all  over  the  country  would  be  both  difficult  and  costly.  It  has 
been  sometimes  rather  hard,  even  before  the  late  increase  of  field 
batteries,  to  get,  at  some  stations,  ground  large  enough  to  drill  a 
couple  of  batteries. 

Besides  drilling-grounds  a  number  of  practice  ranges  must  be 
obtained.  Such  ranges  for  modern  artillery  must  embrace  a  large 
extent  of  country,  for  the  ranges  of  field  ordnance  are  much  longer  now 
than  formerly,  and  also  the  possible  deflections  are  greater.  Firing 
at  targets  on  sea  ranges  or  along  flat  beaches  is  of  little  use  for 
field  artillery,  although  for  position  guns  for  coast  defence  they 
might  be  employed  with  advantage.  The  practice  ranges  at  Oke- 
hampton  and  Salisbury  in  England,  at  Trawsfynydd  in  Wales,  and  at 
Glen  Immal  in  Ireland,  are  barely  sufficient  for  the  service  horse 
artillery  and  field  batteries.  If  each  battery  was  allowed  a  week  to  fire 
a  moderate  allowance  of  ammunition,  say  400  rounds,  annually,  the 
196  batteries  would  require  some  forty-nine  months  to  get  through 
it,  so  that  numerous  ranges  must  be  obtained  to  allow  practice  at 
suitable  times.  It  must  be  remembered  that  gun  practice  cannot  be 
carried  on  at  all  times  and  seasons  ;  fog,  drenching  rain,  and  snow 
might  stop  it.  To  get  the  few  adequate  practice  ranges  for  the 
service  artillery  batteries  was  no  easy  matter,  and  cost  a  good  deal 
of  money.  It  is  very  improbable  that  the  difficulties  of  providing 
all  the  means  described  above  for  the  training  of  such  a  large  force 
as  196  field  batteries  could  be  surmounted  ;  but,  if  they  could  be,  the 
greatest  difficulty  of  all  would  be  the  training  of  the  batteries,  which 
would  take  up  far  more  time  than  volunteer  troops  could  afford  to 
give,  although  some  of  them  might  be  able  to  manage  to  come  out  on 
many  occasions  beyond  the  fifteen  days  annual  course.  They  would 
not  only  require  training  in  discipline,  horse  management,  manoeuvring, 
and  gun  practice  to  be  brought  into  an  efficient  state  to  enable  their 
majors  to  employ  them  skilfully,  but  continuous  training  afterwards 
to  preserve  efficiency. 

After  the  Boer  War  and  previous  to  the  introduction  of  the  two 
new  field  guns — 13-pr.  for  horse  artillery  and  18-pr.  for  field  artillery — 
the  regular  artillery  of  our  Army  consisted  of  : 

Horse  Artillery         .         .       28  batteries  of  12-pr.  guns 
Field  Artillery          .         .     141         „         „  15-pr.     „ 
Howitzers        ...        9          „          „     5-in.  howitzers 

Total     .  178  batteries. 


28  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

And  it  has  been  a  matter  of  surprise  to  the  Army,  at  any  rate  the 
artillery  portion  of  it,  why  such  a  much  larger  force  should  have 
been  decided  upon  for  the  Territorial  army.  Mr.  Haldane,  however, 
gave  the  reason  in  the  House  of  Commons :  '  The  general  staff  eighteen 
months  ago  were  of  opinion  that  there  should  be  five  guns  for  every 
1000  bayonets  and  sabres,  and  that  was  the  proportion  he  was  insist- 
ing on  maintaining.'  This  is  no  doubt  a  sound  principle  for  large 
armies  of  regular  troops  when  campaigning  in  extensive  open  countries 
on  the  Continent,  but  is  scarcely  applicable  to  the  defence  of  our 
small  enclosed  country  against  comparatively  small  forces,  which 
could  be  brought  over-sea  for  raiding  purposes.  To  resist  invasion 
by  a  large  army,  if  such  could  be  landed  on  our  shores,  a  very  large 
force  of  regular  field  artillery,  besides  any  Territorial  artillery,  would 
be  absolutely  essential. 

According  to  the  Army  Order  the  Territorial  artillery  is  to  consist 
of: 

Batteries 

Horse  Artillery 14 

Field         „        (41  brigades) 128 

Howitzer  batteries  (14  brigades) 28 

Heavy  artillery  batteries         .         .         .         .         .         .14 

Mountain  artillery  (1  brigade) 3 

Heavy  batteries  to  defend  ports 6 

188 

This  gives  eight  batteries  short  of  the  stated  number  196  ;  but 
if  the  howitzer  brigades  are  to  consist  of  three  instead  of  two  batteries, 
the  number  will  be  forty-two  howitzer  batteries  and  the  total  will 
be  196,  exclusive  of  the  six  heavy  batteries  for  the  defence  of  ports. 

Besides  the  batteries,  the  proper  proportion — a  very  large  one — 
of  ammunition  columns  for  artillery  and  infantry  are  laid  down  as 
part  of  the  scheme.  Such  a  force  is  well  proportioned  as  regards 
the  different  kinds  of  batteries  for  the  artillery  of  a  large  regular  army, 
but  to  organize  and  thoroughly  train  it  on  a  volunteer  system  is, 
as  has  been  pointed  out,  simply  impracticable.  To  increase  some 
127  semi-mobile  volunteer  batteries  to  196  field  batteries  would  be, 
as  Lord  Lansdowne  said,  a  colossal  project  and  a  tremendous  plunge, 
nor  is  it  necessary.  The  greater  portion  of  the  volunteer  artillery 
should  consist  of  semi-mobile  or  light  position  batteries  on  the  prin- 
ciple well  understood  and  provided  for  years  ago  ;  when  a  large  number 
of  40-pr.  R.B.L.  guns  (excellent  weapons)  were  kept  ready,  and  a 
plan  arranged  for  horsing  them  from  the  farms  of  the  country  or  the 
haulers  and  other  firms  using  horses.  At  the  present  time  a  more 
formidable  40-pr.  would  be  the  best  gun  (not  a  cumbrous  60-pr.), 
and  this  would  give  ample  scope  to  the  capacity  of  volunteer  gunners 
when  trained  to  make  good  practice  with  them,  for  which  sea  and 
beach  ranges  would  answer  the  purpose.  Batteries  of  these  guns, 
firing  both  shrapnel  and  explosive  shells,  could  be  conveyed  in  these 


1908  MR.  HALDANE'S  TERRITORIAL  ARTILLERY  29 

days  to  any  part  of  the  coast  where  a  landing  was  expected ;  they 
could  be  placed  in  good  sheltered  positions  in  gun-pits  to  protect 
them  from  the  fire  of  warships,  they  could  sink  boats,  and  over- 
power the  fire  of  any  field  guns  that  could  be  brought  over,  and  would 
greatly  assist  the  Territorial  forces  and  regular  troops  left  at  home 
in  preventing  any  landing.  They  could  be  armed  provisionally  with 
the  converted  15-pr.,  5-inch  howitzers,  and  4 '7-inch  guns  until  a 
40-pr.  or  other  suitable  guns  can  be  provided.  The  converted  15-pr. 
is  too  heavy  a  gun  for  horse  artillery.  Of  the  127  volunteer  artillery 
batteries,  100  might  be  organized  as  useful  and  powerful  position 
batteries  ;  and  the  remaining  twenty-seven  as  field  batteries,  a  more 
manageable  number  to  test  the  experiment  of  volunteer  field  artillery 
than  the  very  large  number  proposed  in  the  War  Office  scheme.  This 
would  give,  allowing  as  usual  four  guns  to  a  position  battery,  400 
position  guns  and  162  field  guns,  a  really  formidable  force,  the  forma- 
tion of  which  would  be  much  less  costly  than  that  of  the  War  Office 
scheme.  It  would  be  better  adapted  to  the  capabilities  of  volunteer 
artillery,  and  would  entail  far  fewer  difficulties  in  carrying  out  to 
success. 

According  to  Mr.  Haldane's  statement  in  the  House  of  Commons 
on  the  19th  of  April,  '  the  whole  point  was,  could  they  train  volunteer 
field  artillery  ?  He  thought  that  he  had  shown  beyond  all  possi- 
bility of  doubt  that  there  was  a  large  body  of  most  modern  and 
experienced  military  opinion  in  favour  of  the  proposal  to  include 
volunteer  field  artillery  in  the  second  line.' 

With  all  respect  to  Mr.  Haldane  it  may  be  said  that  the  possibility 
of  training  volunteer  field  artillery  is  not  the  point,  and  that  the 
critics  of  his  scheme  have  made  no  objection  to  including  volunteer 
field  artillery  in  the  second  line.  The  real  point  is  :  '  Shall  the  main 
portion  of  an  immense  force  of  196  volunteer  batteries  be  con- 
verted into  horse  and  field  batteries,  or  shall  the  experiment  be  made 
with  a  much  smaller  number  of  such  batteries  ?  '  Neither  Lord 
Roberts,  Lord  Denbigh,  nor  other  critics  object  to  twenty  or  thirty 
volunteer  field  batteries  being  included  in  the  second  line.  On  this 
point  Lord  Roberts  said  in  the  House  of  Lords  (on  the  18th  of  May)  : 

As  regarded  Lord  Midleton's  proposal  (to  form  twenty-one  volunteer  field 
batteries),  he 'acquiesced  in  that  experiment  being  made  because  he  was  able 
to  imagine  then,  as  he  could  imagine  now,  the  feasibility  of  raising  a  limited 
number  of  batteries  in  certain  selected  areas,  where  local  interest  and  training 
possibilities  appeared  to  hold  out  reasonable  hopes  of  carrying  such  an 
experiment  to  a  fairly  successful  conclusion.  Surely  no  impartially  minded 
person  could  see  any  similarity  between  the  experiment  that  was  contemplated 
in  1901,  to  form  twenty-one  batteries  in  carefully  selected  localities  as  a  reserve 
to  the  regular  artillery,  and  Mr.  Haldane's  proposal  to  raise  indiscriminately 
182  batteries  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  not  as  a  reserve  to  the  regular 
artillery,  but  to  take  the  place  of  the  regulars  and  to  be  the  sole  artillery — 
with  the  exception  of  eight  horse  artillery  batteries — on  which  we  should  have 
to  depend  for  the  defence  of  this  country. 


80  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

This  is  a  clear  and  sound  statement  of  the  case,  with  which  all 
officers  who  have  served  with  batteries  of  artillery  in  the  field — 
horse,  field,  or  position — would  probably  agree.  Lord  Denbigh,  who 
was  for  some  years  an  officer  of  the  Royal  Field  Artillery,  both  at 
home  and  on  active  service,  and  who  commanded  the  Honourable 
Artillery  Company  for  fifteen  years,  stated  in  a  letter  of  the  13th  of 
March  to  the  Times  newspaper  : 

With  all  respect,  therefore,  for  the  powers  that  be,  I  venture  to  state  my 
strong  opinion,  for  what  it  may  be  worth,  that,  though  it  may  be  possible, 
through  local  and  special  advantages,  to  have  a  certain  number  of  volunteer 
horse  and  field  batteries  that  would  be  able  to  give  a  very  good  account  of 
themselves,  even  if  called  out  in  an  emergency,  and  would  be  really  good  troops 
after  they  had  been  in  the  field  for  a  certain  time,  it  is  sheer  folly  to  depend  for 
the  adequate  defence  of  the  country  on  any  general  scheme  of  Territorial  field 
artillery  such  as  we  are  now  embarking  on. 

Of  the  few  volunteer  field  batteries  sent  out  to  South  Africa,  the 
C.I.V.  battery  of  the  Honourable  Artillery  Company  and  the  Elswick 
battery  had  special  advantages  in  the  way  of  training  by  officers  and 
non-commissioned  officers  of  the  regular  artillery,  they  were  composed 
of  men  of  greater  intelligence  and  education  than  most  volunteers, 
many  in  the  Elswick  battery  being  skilled  artificers,  and  some  having 
good  means,  a  considerable  amount  of  money  was  spent  on  them  ; 
and,  as  Lord  Roberts  observed  in  the  House  of  Lords,  they  had  some 
three  months'  training  in  the  field  before  they  were  seriously  engaged 
with  the  enemy,  and,  '  what  was  an  important  matter,  they  were 
never  opposed  by  highly  trained  artillery,  but  only  by  artillery  with 
little,  if  any  more,  training  than  they  had  themselves.'  The  Aus- 
tralian, New  South  Wales,  and  Victoria,  as  also  the  Canadian  field 
batteries,  Sir  E.  Hutton  stated  in  his  letter  to  the'  Times  of  the 
20th  of  April,  besides  being  more  or  less  deficient  in  equipment  and 
organization,  all  required  considerably  more  training  although  they 
had  received  a  certain  amount  under  Imperial  officers. 

Lord  Denbigh  stated  in  a  letter  to  the  Times  of  the  13th  of  March  : 
'  I  know  for  a  fact  Mr.  Haldane  was  considerably  influenced  in  his 
determination  to  rely  so  extensively  on  Territorial  artillery  by  the 
results  obtained  by  the  H.A.C.  batteries  and  the  brigade  of  Lancashire 
Militia  field  artillery.' 

Let  us  inquire  into  the  means  allowed  to  these  batteries  to  improve 
their  training.  To  again  quote  Lord  Denbigh  : 

They  (our  men)  go  to  the  riding-school  of  the  E.H.A.  at  St.  John's  Wood  for 
evening  riding-lessons,  for  which  E.H.A.  horses  are  provided  on  payment,  and 
horses  and  gun-teams  are  similarly  turned  out  for  our  gunners  and  drivers,  who 
do  detachment  and  driving  drills  on  Saturday  afternoons  at  St.  John's  Wood 
and  Wormwood  Scrubs. 

Of  recent  years  the  batteries  have,  previous  to  going  to  the  annual  ten  days' 
camp  on  Salisbury  Plain,  made  two  expeditions  by  train  to  Aldershot,  where 


1908  ME.  HALDANE'S  TERRITORIAL  ARTILLERY  31 

they  find,  on  arrival,  guns  and  horses  of  the  B.H.A.  all  ready  turned  out 
awaiting  them,  and  they  mount  and  go  out  for  a  long  afternoon's  drill.  I  have 
no  hesitation  in  saying  that  without  these  drills  and  the  facilities  afforded  us  by 
the  R.H.A.  at  St.  John's  Wood,  it  would  be  impossible  to  bring  these  batteries 
to  any  point  of  real  usefulness  without  a  much  longer  training  in  camp  than 
the  men  would  be  able  to  afford. 

The  exceptional  advantages  of  our  headquarters  and  the  drill  that  is  con- 
stantly going  on  there,  and  the  private  income  of  the  corps,  are  also  essential 
factors  in  the  situation. 

Major-General  Sir  George  Marshall,  who  commanded  the  artillery 
in  the  South  African  war,  and  was  Commandant  of  the  Field 
Artillery  Gunnery  School  at  Okehampton  for  some  time,  besides 
being  president  of  the  committee  that  introduced  the  18-pr.  and 
13-pr.  quick-firing  guns,  showed  in  a  letter  to  the  Times  that  a 
field  battery  after  being  trained  in  the  theory  of  gunnery,  riding, 
driving,  and  simple  movements  at  drill  and  manosuvres,  is  worthless 
as  a  fighting  machine  unless  it  has  had  a  considerable  amount 
of  gun  practice  under  varied  war  conditions  at  long  ranges,  directed 
by  thoroughly  capable  battery  commanders ;  and  that  the  other 
officers  should  be  able  to-  take  the  place  of  the  commander  if 
necessary.  And  he  asks  if  it  would  be  possible  during  mobilisation 
in  war  time  to  train  a  very  large  number  of  batteries  to  shoot, 
there  being  only  three  or  four  land  ranges  available  in  the  whole 
kingdom.  He  also  pointed  out  that  partially  trained  batteries  were 
not  employed  in  South  Africa  against  troops  equipped  with  trained 
artillery. 

Colonel  A.  S.  Pratt,  late  Royal  Artillery,  wrote  as  follows  to  the 
Daily  Mail  respecting  the  Lancashire  Field  Artillery  : 

In  1901  I  had  the  honour  of  forming  the  Lancashire  Field  Artillery  Militia 
with  a  large  percentage  of  Regulars  to  help  me,  and  we  trained  for  three 
months  annually.  From  my  experiment  with  them,  I  feel  quite  certain  that, 
unless  you  have  a  very  large  percentage  of  Regular  officers,  non-commissioned 
officers,  and  men  in  the  ranks  of  each  battery  (who  should  all  be  specially 
selected  and  able  to  teach),  the  volunteer  field  artillery  will  be  of  very  little 
use  in  war. 

There  seems  to  be  an  absurd  idea  that  a  skilled  mechanic  or  artisan  would  be 
sure  to  make  a  good  field  artilleryman.  Not  at  all.  .  .  .  One  of  the  most  important 
duties  of  a  field  artilleryman  is  to  look  after  his  horse  in  barracks,  in  camp, 
on  the  march,  and  in  the  field — in  fact,  everywhere ;  for  what  is  the  good  ot 
a  battery  on  service  which  loses  and  kills  its  horses  by  mismanagement  ? 
Discipline  and  daily  routine  can  alone  teach  horse  management,  and  constant 
experience  in  the  field  can  alone  teach  field  artillery  tactics  and  the  employment 
of  guns  to  officers. 

Mr.  Haldane  appears  to  have  been  influenced  by  the  idea  that 
skilled  mechanics  must  make  good  field  gunners ;  for  he  said  in  the 
House  of  Commons  :  '  He  quite  agreed  that  nothing  short  of  the  best 
was  good  enough  for  artillery,  but  in  the  little  volunteer  field  artillery 
in  Glasgow,  Sheffield,  and  other  big  towns  they  had  artisans  of  the 


82  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

very  highest  technical  training  with  the  working  of  complicated 
mechanism  such  as  was  exhibited  in  the  modern  gun.'  Such  skilled 
mechanics  would  be  far  more  valuable  in  position  than  in  field  artillery. 
It  is  a  novel  idea  for  a  War  Minister  to  rely,  for  the  support  of 
his  proposals,  on  accounts  given  by  newspaper  correspondents  of  some 
casual  manoeuvring  and  firing  on  the  Salisbury  ranges  of  two  or  three 
selected  volunteer  batteries,  which  have  had  exceptional  advantages 
in  training,  and  have  been  provided  with  horses  by  the  regular  artillery. 
Such  manoeuvres  afford  no  proof  that  165  horse,  field,  and  howitzer 
volunteer  field  batteries  can  be  formed  and  trained  up  to  the  compara- 
tive efficiency  of  these  few  exceptional  batteries.  One  of  the  corre- 
spondents quoted  by  Mr.  Haldane  in  the  House  of  Commons,  on  the 
18th  of  June,  stated  that  shrapnel  shells  '  rushed  high  overhead,  and 
falling  in  and  about  the  trenches  and  forts  exploded,  throwing  from 
the  sub-craters  they  made  volumes  of  smoke,  flame,  iron,  earth,  and 
stone.'  This  is  not  exactly  the  effect  desired  by  practical  gunners 
from  shrapnel  shell. 

Notwithstanding  what  has  been  said  by  many  artillery  officers 
of  experience,  Lord  Lucas,  now  Under-Secretary  of  State  for  War, 
stated  in  a  paper  read  after  a  dinner  of  the  National  Defence  Associa- 
tion :  '  If  I  could  borrow  the  King's  outriders  to  drive  my  guns,  and 
a  picked  team  from  Maxim's  works  to  fire  them,  I  would  guarantee 
to  have  an  efficient  battery  in  a  week.'  Lord  Lucas  is  said  to  have 
attained  the  rank  of  second  lieutenant  in  an  infantry  volunteer 
regiment,  so  of  course  he  must  know  all  about  artillery  service.  His 
idea  reminds  the  writer  of  a  somewhat  similar  notion  he  heard  ex- 
pounded several  years  ago  when  lunching  with  the  late  Sir  Alexander 
Wilson  at  Cammell's  works  at  Sheffield.  A  commercial  gentleman 
present,  said  to  be  a  shrewd  man  of  business,  declared  that  it  was  a 
great  waste  of  money  to  keep  up  an  army  in  peace  time.  If  war  was 
declared  against  any  Power,  all  the  Government  had  to  do  was  to 
select  two  or  three  good  contractors,  and  they  would  be  able  to  supply 
troops,  arms,  ammunition,  food,  &c.,  without  difficulty.  He  did  not 
seem  to  see  much  use  in  training,  and  did  not  apparently  care  what 
became  of  our  Colonies  and  possessions  in  different  parts  of  the  world. 

With  respect  to  Mr.  Haldane's  large  body  of  modern  and  ex- 
perienced military  opinion  in  favour  of  his  proposed  scheme,  it  does 
not  follow  that  the  most  modern  is  always  the  best.  For  instance, 
field  howitzers  were  not  allowed  to  take  part  in  the  Salisbury  man- 
oeuvres before  the  South  African  war,  as  it  was  thought  they  would 
impede  the  movements  of  the  other  troops  ;  and  as  to  guns  of  position, 
the  modern  authorities  of  the  time  had  never  apparently  heard  of 
them,  or  forgotten  the  services  performed  by  such  artillery  in  India 
and  the  Crimea,  and  we  have  had  no  fighting  against  an  enemy  with 
powerful  well-trained  artillery  since  ;  but  in  South  Africa  some  position 
howitzers,  which  had  been  sent  out  long  before  the  war  and  put  in  store, 


1908  MR.  HALDANE'S  TERRITORIAL  ARTILLERY  33 

when  brought  to  Lady  smith  did  very  useful  service.  And  it  must 
be  confessed  that  the  modern  generals  first  sent  out  to  South  Africa 
made  but  a  poor  use  of  the  fine  field  artillery  at  their  command. 
Then,  the  results  of  the  Essex  manoeuvres,  planned  by  modern  generals 
after  the  South  African  war,  were  more  or  less  futile.  They  appeared 
to  consist  mainly  of  an  exercise  in  landing  troops  from  ships,  without 
any  proper  arrangements  for  preventing  the  operation  by  the  em- 
ployment of  position  and  other  artillery  skilfully  posted  and  entrenched. 
That  the  Navy  could  promptly  land  troops  was  shown  in  the  Crimea 
more  than  fifty  years  before. 

With  respect  to  these  manoeuvres  a  critic — strange  to  say,  an 
artillery  officer — came  to  the  conclusion  that  heavy  artillery  will, 
generally  speaking,  be  useless  in  close  country,  and  field  artillery  will 
work  at  a  great  disadvantage.  This  may  be  true  if  the  enemy  is 
allowed  to  land  in  force,  but  this  is  what  he  should  not  be  allowed 
to  do ;  and  if  he  got  a  footing  by  landing  unexpectedly  at  night,  he 
must  be  overwhelmed  before  he  can  establish  himself  and  advance, 
an  operation  mainly  depending  upon  a  heavy  artillery  fire  brought  to 
bear  on  him,  and  this  would  be  the  legitimate  function  of  a  properly 
organized  and  well-trained  Territorial  artillery. 

Mr.  Haldane  attempts  to  quote  expert  opinions  against  that  of 
Lord  Roberts.  He  gives  those  of  Generals  Sir  John  French  and  Sir 
Neville  Lyttelton,  both  able  and  experienced  officers,  but  who  can 
hardly  be  considered  '  experts  '  on  a  technical  field  artillery  question  ; 
and  one  would  have  thought  that  such  an  idea  as  six  months'  training 
on  mobilisation,  which  appears  to  have  impressed  them,  had  been 
knocked  on  the  head  by  the  lamentable  experience  of  sending  un- 
trained yeomanry  to  South  Africa.  Then,  would  any  nation  delay 
operations  for  six  months  to  allow  time  for  the  enemy  to  train  his 
troops  ?  General  Sir  I.  Hamilton,  also  one  of  our  distinguished 
generals,  who,  besides  his  South  African  experience,  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  watching  the  operations  during  the  late  war  in  Manchuria, 
does  not  appear  to  share  Sir  J.  French's  estimate  of  the  value  of 
Territorial  field  artillery,  as  he  stated  that  three  or  four  such  batteries 
might  give  a  warm  reception  to  one  battery  of  the  Continental  armies. 
Both  Generals  Sir  J.  French  and  Sir  I.  Hamilton  evidently  wish  to 
do  all  in  their  power  to  assist  Mr.  Haldane,  but  seem  to  rely  on  most 
of  the  difficulties  being  overcome  by  the  military  enthusiasm  of  the 
country ;  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  signs  of  such  enthusiasm  are 
not  very  evident  either  in  the  country  or  among  the  War  Minister's 
supporters  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Enthusiasm  on  the  declara- 
tion of  war  is  rather  late  to  be  of  much  use.  Mr.  Haldane's  idea 
that  '  if  we  were  sending  our  Regular  troops  abroad,  we  must  be 
careful  not  to  send  more  than  we  could  spare  until  the  second 
line  had  hardened  into  efficiency,'  is  rather  vague  and  not  very 
practical. 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  377  D 


84  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

The  following  is  what  Mr.  Haldane  calls  important  evidence  of 
the  value  of  volunteer  artillery  : 

This  was  particularly  made  manifest  during  the  special  manoeuvre  training 
in  Scotland  last  year,  when  Scottish  volunteer  artillery  was  associated  with 
Kegular  artillery,  and  did  so  well  as  to  earn  the  warmest  praise  from  General 
Haig  and  Colonel  May,  the  expert  of  the  General  Staff.  General  Haig  con- 
fessed that  he  was  unable  to  differentiate  between  the  Regular  and  the  volunteer 
artillerymen,  and  Colonel  Grant's  Lancashire  volunteers  drove  over  a  bank 
which  a  Regular  battery  had  declined  to  negotiate. 

Whatever  may  be  the  value  of  General  Haig's  opinion  as  to  the 
efficiency  of  a  field  battery,  increased,  probably,  by  the  volunteers 
driving  over  a  bank,  the  fighting  powers  of  batteries  cannot  be  judged 
by  their  movements  during  manoeuvres  ;  and  it  is  curious  to  note  that 
the  casual  mention  of  Colonel  May's  praise  is  the  only  reference  made 
by  Mr.  Haldane  to  the  opinion  of  any  artillery  officer. 

Mr.  Haldane  states  that  '  the  Territorial  artillery  organization  is 
the  one  recommended  by  the  General  Staff,'  but  some  doubt  has  been 
thrown  on  the  opinions  of  officers  at  the  War  Office  by  Mr.  Arnold- 
Forster,  ex- War  Minister,  who  was  refused  the  production  of  certain 
documents  giving  the  opinions  of  officers  who  took  part  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  question  of  volunteer  artillery  at  the  end  of  1905.  In  a 
letter  to  Mr.  Haldane  of  the  30th  of  March  he  states  : 

I  do  not  pretend  to  know  what  the  views  of  the  distinguished  soldiers  I  have 
referred  to  may  be  at  the  present  time,  but  I  do  know  what  they  thought  and 
said  as  late  as  October  1905,  and  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  they  were 
at  that  time  wholly  opposed  to  the  policy  of  reducing  the  Royal  Artillery  and 
of  creating  196  batteries  of  volunteer  field  artillery. 

Then  there  is  the  threat  held  over  the  military  advisers  by  War 
Ministers,  as  stated  by  Lord  Elgin  in  the  House  of  Lords  •:  '  The  Secre- 
tary of  State  necessarily  must  act  on  the  advice  which  he  receives 
from  his  confidential  advisers.  These  officers  must  concur  with  the 
action  taken  or  they  must  resign.'  A  pleasant  prospect  for  the 
officers,  who  may  be  pardoned  for  some  alteration  of  opinions  rather 
than  have  their  professional  career  blighted. 

Lord  Elgin  went  on  to  discuss  '  what  was  expert  evidence,'  and 
instances  differences  of  opinions  between  two  field-marshals  on  a  ques- 
tion of  expert  advice,  on  which  a  third  field-marshal  declined  to  give 
his  opinion,  on  the  ground  that  strategy  was  not  an  exact  science. 
The  latter  was  perfectly  right,  and  on  this  matter  of  Territorial  field 
artillery  no  question  of  strategy  is  involved,  but  a  technical  one 
depending  on  money,  organization,  training,  and  experience. 

That  a  War  Minister  should  be  guided  by  his  military  advisers 
is  a  sound  principle,  but  in  its  application  he  must  make  sure  of  getting 
competent  advisers.  In  a  technical  question  involving  so  many 
complicated  details  as  field  artillery,  it  is  of  little  use  to  consult  tacti- 
cians, however  modern  their  notions,  for  there  are  now  no  generals 


1908  MR.  HALDANE'S   TERRITORIAL  ARTILLERY  35 

or  officers  of  lower  rank  on  the  active  list  who  have,  in  fighting,  ever 
been  opposed  by  armies  provided  with  a  powerful  and  well-trained 
artillery.  The  consequences  are  that  many  wild  ideas  have  been 
adopted,  such  as  :  that  the  effect  of  artillery  fire  is  chiefly  moral, 
that  only  one  gun  and  one  projectile  are  required  for  field  artillery, 
that  all  gun  practice  must  be  quick-firing  and  very  long  ranging, 
ideas  that  I  attempted  to  combat  in  a  paper  printed  in  the  United 
Service  Magazine  in  1905.  But  with  all  such  ideas  floating  about, 
there  has  probably  never  been  a  time  when  regular  artillery  officers, 
non-commissioned  officers,  and  men  have  been  better  trained,  and  they, 
at  any  rate,  know  what  results  can  be  expected  from  the  various 
kinds  of  artillery  in  use — siege,  very  heavy  field,  position,  field  gun, 
howitzer,  and  mountain  artillery. 

As  regards  the  regular  artillery,  Mr.  Haldane's  scheme  provides 
sixty-six  batteries,  horse  and  field,  for  the  striking  force  of  six  divisions, 
which  will  leave  eight  horse  and  thirty-three  field  batteries  at  home  ; 
but  the  scheme  involves  the  crippling  of  the  thirty- three  batteries, 
their  establishment  of  horses  being  reduced  to  such  a  low  point  that  a 
battery  cannot  turn  out  to  drill  without  borrowing  horses  from  the 
two  other  batteries  of  the  brigade  ;  and,  as  Lord  Roberts  pointed  out, 
only  the  eight  horse  artillery  batteries  would  be  left  to  act  for  home 
defence  with  the  Territorial  artillery,  and  to  supply  drafts  for  the 
batteries  of  the  striking  force.  The  thirty-three  field  batteries  are  to 
be  employed  to  train  the  15,000  men  of  the  Special  Reserve  (Militia) 
required  for  the  ammunition  columns  and  six  months'  wastage  from 
war.  How  can  these  thirty-three  batteries  train  the  Special  Reserve 
when  their  establishments  are  so  reduced  that  it  will  be  very  difficult 
for  the  majors  to  keep  up  the  training  of  their  own  batteries,  and 
preserve  their  efficiency  as  fighting  machines  ?  With  respect  to  this 
reduction  of  horses  in  the  thirty-three  field  batteries,  Mr.  Haldane  said 
in  the  debate  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  18th  of  June  : — '  The 
hon.  member  (Mr.  Lee)  complained  that  thirty-three  batteries  of  the 
Royal  Artillery  had  been  emasculated,  but  that  was  a  fallacy.'  A 
fact  cannot  be  converted  into  a  fallacy  by  a  bare  assertion  ;  and  any 
artillery  trumpeter  could  tell  Mr.  Haldane  that  these  batteries  are  simply 
crippled  for  want  of  horses.  The  idea  of  these  batteries  training  the 
Special  Reserve  is  a  good  one,  provided  that  their  ordinary  peace 
establishments  are  not  reduced  in  men  or  horses. 

The  Military  Correspondent  of  the  Times  parades  numbers  of  men 
and  guns  to  show  that  no  reduction  of  the  regular  artillery  has  been 
proposed  ;  but  these  are  of  little  use,  for  the  only  field  batteries  in  the 
country  outside  those  of  the  striking  force  are  crippled  for  want  of 
horses.  With  respect  to  the  Territorial  artillery  he  asserted  that 

there  were  three  courses  open  to  the  Army  Council  for  providing  the  necessary 
artillery  support.  This  artillery  might  have  been  exclusively  regular ;  it  might 
have  been  strengthened,  like  the  Lancashire  Field  Artillery  Militia,  by  some 

P3 


86  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

40  per  cent,  of  officers  and  men  who  were  serving  or  had  served  in  the  Begular 
army ;  lastly,  it  might  have  been  formed,  as  it  is  to  be,  on  the  same  lines  as 
the  rest  of  the  Territorial  army. 

He  also  said  that  '  no  alternative  plan  for  a  second  line  artillery 
has  been  produced.' 

There  is,  however,  another  and  a  better  plan  already  described 
in  this  paper,  which  is  less  ambitious  than  the  War  Office  scheme,  is 
more  practical,  much  better  adapted  to  the  desired  object — preventing 
an  enemy  landing  troops,  or  establishing  them  if  landed — and  requiring 
less  money  to  carry  out. 

The  long  letter  of  the  Military  Correspondent  of  the  Times,  sup- 
porting the  War  Office  scheme,  contains  a  great  deal  of  interesting 
information,  as  his  letters  usually  do  ;  and  it  may  be  said  here  that 
his  letters  written  during  the  Russo-Japanese  war  showed  that  he 
was  one  of  the  few  correspondents  who,  on  artillery  questions,  appeared 
to  understand  what  he  was  writing  about.  His  defence  of  the  scheme 
is  plausible,  but  there  seem  to  be  signs  here  and  there  that  he  recognizes 
that  a  good  deal  of  modification  will  eventually  be  necessary.  This 
military  correspondent  commences  his  letter  with  the  assertion  that  a 
campaign  has  been  opened  against  Mr.  Haldane  and  the  Army  Council 
in  Parliament  and  a  section  of  the  Press  on  this  artillery  question 
which  is  calculated  to  mislead  the  public. 

Mr.  Haldane,  in  a  reply  to  a  question  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
calls  the  critics  of  his  scheme  a  miscellaneous  medley  of  self-consti- 
tuted advisers.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  has  been  a  considerable 
amount  of  sound  criticism  from  three  ex- War  Ministers,  and  from 
artillery  officers  of  high  distinction  and  great  experience,  thoroughly 
acquainted  with  the  organization,  training,  and  employment  of  artillery 
and  who  are  much  more  likely  to  know  what  would  be  the  best  plan  as 
regards  artillery  for  the  defence  of  the  kingdom  than  the  best  Con- 
tinental guides,  the  example  of  which  Mr.  Haldane  states  has  been 
followed.  He  also  stated  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  18th  of  June, 
that  the  plan  of  the  Territorial  artillery  had  been — '  prepared  in 
detail  by  the  General  Staff,  and  afterwards  worked  out  in  the  Adjutant- 
General's  Department.'  The  organization  of  large  Continental  armies, 
with  which  these  departments  are  doubtless  well  acquainted,  are  not 
examples  to  be  followed  in  framing  plans  for  the  forces  of  our  small 
island  country  and  its  dependencies.  The  result  of  adopting  Conti- 
nental examples  some  years  ago  landed  us  in  a  grand  scheme  of  army 
corps,  quite  unsuited  to  the  conditions  of  the  services  required  from 
the  British  Army,  and  which  quickly  collapsed  when  applied  in 
active  warfare. 

The  general  feeling  among  soldiers  in  this  country  is  probably 
that  Mr.  Haldane  is  most  anxious  to  do  his  best  to  make  the  military 
forces  of  all  kinds  as  efficient  as  he  can  under  the  circumstances  ;  but 
every  one  knows  that  he  is  hampered  by  the  constant  demands  of  a 


1908  MR.  HALDANE'S  TERRITORIAL  ARTILLERY  87 

great  number  of  his  political  supporters  to  reduce  the  cost  of  the 
Army.  At  the  same  time  he  may  rest  assured  that  those  who  have 
criticised  his  Territorial  field  artillery  scheme  have  the  good  of 
the  Service  at  heart,  and  would  wish  to  help  him  to  make  a  satisfactory 
working  scheme ;  and,  notwithstanding  statements  to  the  contrary, 
they  have  made  no  disparaging  remarks  on  the  general  scheme  for  the 
organization  of  the  Territorial  army.  Some  idea  may  be  formed 
of  the  dangers  incurred  by  partially  trained  field  batteries  against 
well-trained  modern  batteries  by  recalling  the  fate  of  the  Russian  fleet 
in  the  late  Russo-Japanese  war,  with  imperfectly  trained  crews,  the 
ships  of  which  were  rapidly  sunk  or  put  out  of  action  by  the  skilful 
manoeuvring  and  deadly  fire  of  the  well-trained  crews  of  the  Japanese 
fleet.  This  object-lesson  applies  equally  to  artillery  actions,  whether 
on  land  or  sea. 

CHARLES  H.  OWEN  (Major-General). 


88  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 


THE    PRESENT   STAGE    OF   CHURCH 
REFORM 


A  YEAR  or  two  ago  a  facile  pen  produced  a  volume  of  essays,  pur- 
porting to  have  been  written  '  in  time  of  tranquillity.'  The  title, 
In  Peril  of  Change,  though  connoting  the  topic  of  the  closing  paper, 
affords  a  tolerably  correct  anticipation  of  the  complexion  of  the 
book  as  a  whole.  Without  posing  as  a  mere  laudator  temporis  acti, 
a  character  quite  below  so  forceful  and  discriminating  a  writer,  the 
observer's  attitude  towards  change  in  society  or  the  Church  may  be 
said  to  be  that  of  exceeding  caution. 

That  peril  should  be  associated  with  change  was  to  the  constitu- 
tional conservatism  of  a  bygone  day  an  axiom.  To-day,  except  with 
the  surviving  remnant  of  a  school,  whether  to  move  be  not  better 
than  to  stand  still  is  at  least  an  open  question. 

Church  Reform  is  a  policy  involving  not  so  much  a  constitutional 
change  in  the  Church  of  England  as  the  bestowal  upon  it  of  a  constitu- 
tion. For  at  present  it  is  unique  amongst  the  Churches  of  Western 
reformed  Christendom  as  possessing  none. 

The  phrase  '  Church  Reform '  calls  for  a  prefatory  word.  This, 
let  it  be  noticed,  has  nothing  directly  to  do  with  Church  Reformation. 
There  are  not  a  few  things  in  the  present  polity  and  practice  of  the 
National  Church  which  many  of  her  most  loyal  sons  would  be  glad 
to  see  amended.  The  sale  of  advowsons  and  of  next  presentations 
cannot  in  their  count  be  justified.  The  whole  question  of  private 
patronage  demands  revision.  These  matters,  however,  form  no  part 
of  the  programme  of  Church  Reform.  This  prepares  the  way  for 
their  fruitful  consideration,  and  offers  the  machinery  for  their  correc- 
tion. But  the  orderly  progress  of  Reform  has  been  frequently 
blocked  by  an  unwise  intersection  of  two  completely  distinct  inquiries. 
Time  is  spent  on  these  side  issues  which  should  have  been  devoted  to 
the  legitimate  position ;  and  the  real  object  for  which  discussion  is 
invited  has  often  been  thrust  into  a  subordinate  place  while  speaker 
after  speaker  has  waxed  warm  on  the  immediate  necessity  of  doing 
that  which  can  never  be  done  until  the  despised  machinery  for  doing 
it  is  supplied.  It  is  overlooked  that  reformation  of  abuses  and 


1908    PRESENT  STAGE   OF  CHURCH  REFORM       39 

constitutional  reform  do  not  admit  of  comparison.  The  Church 
Reform  League  is  partially  responsible  for  this  confusion  of  thought. 
In  its  early  days  it  selected  certain  abuses  as  planks  in  its  platform 
which,  while  affording  ethical  reasons  for  the  movement,  diverted 
attention  from  the  insistent  question  of  the  means  whereby  those 
abuses  should  ultimately  be  removed. 

We  may  learn  wisdom  here  from  a  page  of  English  history  record- 
ing an  epoch  when  a  constitutional  and  a  great  ethical  question  were 
reticulate. 

Years  before  the  passing  of  the  great  measures  which  secured  the 
reform  of  Parliamentary  representation,  the  subject  of  the  abolition 
of  slavery  in  our  plantations  had  been  brought  up  in  Parliament. 
In  Lord  Brougham  the  Buxtons  and  the  Wilberforces  had  found  a 
zealous  friend.  This  statesman  had  brought  forward  a  motion  in 
the  House  directing  attention  to  the  evils  and  scandals  of  the  labour 
system  of  the  West.  Sterile  resolutions  passed  by  successive  Govern- 
ments marked  the  slow  awakening  of  the  public  conscience.  Feeble 
substitutes  for  abolition  were  gravely  proposed ;  but  nothing  was 
done.  With  so  many  vested  interests  involved,  it  would  have  been 
astonishing  had  anything  been  done  so  long  as  Parliament  failed  to 
speak  the  mind  of  the  nation.  This  it  could  not  do  until  the  nation's 
voice  spoke  through  it.  Reform  had  to  precede  reformation. 

The  question  of  abolition  was  speedily  disposed  of  when  reform 
was  accomplished.  Lord  John  Russell's  Act  was  passed  in  1832. 
Emancipation  was  carried  in  1833.  Through  the  most  beneficent 
of  the  long  series  of  Factory  Acts  extinction  of  child-labour 
with  its  piteous  miseries  soon  followed.  The  relation  of  this 
latter  measure  of  reform  in  the  ethical  sphere  to  the  question 
of  reform  in  the  political  is  even  more  to  the  point  than  that  of 
the  abolitionist  Act,  inasmuch  as  it  complicated  the  purely  political 
issues  in  much  the  same  way  as  the  two  sets  of  questions  are  colliding 
and  so  impeding  progress  in  the  ecclesiastical  province  to-day.  It  is 
a  singular  instance  of  a  narrow  purview  in  one  whose  vision  was  in 
his  own  philanthropic  field  so  clear  that  Lord  Ashley  was  nearly  as 
zealous  in  opposing  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832  as  in  laboriously  preparing 
the  way  for  the  humane  legislation  of  1833,  1844,  and  1845. 

These  considerations  go  far  to  strengthen  the  persuasion  that  the 
more  ardently  we  may  desire  to  see  certain  abuses  in  the  administra- 
tion of  the  Church  of  England  amended  the  more  carefully  should  we 
guard  against  the  danger  of  diverting  public  attention  from  the  question 
of  the  Church's  constitution.  Unless  this  caution  is  respected,  the 
question  will  continue  to  be  invested  with  nothing  beyond  the  mere 
academic  interest  it  has  for  long  possessed.  '  I  have  been  thinking  of 
the  subject,'  said  one  Church  dignitary  to  the  writer  a  short  time 
ago,  *  for  thirty  years.'  '  I  have  been  weighing  it,'  said  another,  *  for 
forty.'  A  copious  literature  has  been  produced  by  such  varied  schools 


40  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

as  those  represented  by  the  late  Bishop  Westcott,  by  the  Bishop  of 
Birmingham,  the  Bishop  of  Liverpool,  the  Bishop  of  Hereford,  the 
Dean  of  Norwich,  Canon  Aitken,  Father  Rackham,  Chancellor  Vernon- 
Smith,  Sir  John  Kennaway.  Leaders  of  the  Churches  in  America, 
Canada,  Australia,  New  Zealand,  Cape  Town  have  furnished  informa- 
tion on  the  position  and  powers  of  the  laity  in  their  several  communities. 
We  have  listened  to  their  reports  with  respect,  blind  to  the  humour 
of  the  situation  that  the  mother  of  all  these  vigorous  local  communities 
should  continue  contented  to  be  the  only  disfranchised  Protestant 
Church  in  Christendom. 

Disfranchised — for  she  was  vocal  once.  Parliament  ceased,  with 
the  releasing  of  Nonconformists  from  their  disabilities,  to  represent 
the  National  Church.  Quite  inadequate  the  representation ;  but 
such  as  it  was  it  possessed  constitutional  recognition.  Since  1828 
no  shadow  of  representation  has  remained.  The  revival  of  Convoca- 
tion in  1852  attested  the  awakening  of  a  slumbering  Church.  But  it 
gave  the  Church  no  adequate  clerical  representation.  Bishop  Samuel 
Wilberforce's  appeal  to  the  Government  for  a  licence  to  sit  for  the 
transaction  of  business  was  warmly  seconded  by  Mr.  Gladstone.  It  is 
noticeable  that  this  statesman  was  amongst  the  first  to  see  the  in- 
sufficiency of  a  purely  clerical  assembly,  however  completely  it  should 
represent  the  clergy,  to  voice  the  Church.  He  urged  that  in  any  future 
convocational  action  the  laity  should  have  opportunities  of  being  heard. 
'  No  form  of  government,'  he  says,  '  that  does  not  distinctly  and  fully 
provide  for  the  expression  of  the  voice  of  the  laity  would  satisfy  the 
needs  of  the  Church  of  England.' ! 

Conscious  of  its  own  inadequacy  as  the  mouthpiece  of  an  organic 
body,  Convocation  on  its  revival  took  the  first  step  towards  securing 
the  necessary  powers  for  undertaking  its  own  internal  reform.  That 
of  the  Province  of  Canterbury  approached  the  Queen  with  an  address, 
praying  Her  Majesty's  royal  licence  to  amend  the  representation  of 
the  clergy  in  the  Lower  House.  Her  Majesty  was  not  advised  to 
comply  with  its  prayer. 

As  at  present  constituted,  Convocation  cannot  be  regarded  as  an 
exponent  of  the  mind  of  the  clergy  of  the  Church.  To  make  it  a  true 
exponent  of  that  mind  should  be  the  Church's  first  endeavour.  It  is 
nothing  short  of  a  gross  anomaly  that  while  an  incumbent  who  has 
been  only  three  years  in  holy  orders  is  in  virtue  of  his  benefice  an 
elector,  an  unbeneficed  clergyman  with  twenty  years'  experience  behind 
him  does  not  enjoy  the  franchise  ;  and,  of  course,  no  unbeneficed 
clergyman  can  take  his  seat  amongst  the  proctors  as  a  member. 

If  the  reform  of  the  Clerical  Convocation  be,  as  we  are  persuaded 
it  must  be,  the  question  that  first  presses,  it  appears  to  us  as  ill- 
advised  to  divert  general  attention  from  this  to  the  subject  of  lay- 
representation,  as  it  is  to  divert  that  attention  from  either  of  these 
1  Life  of  Gladstone,  John  Morley,  ii.  163. 


1908    PRESENT  STAGE   OF  CHURCH  REFORM       41 

constitutional  questions  to  ethical  reformanda.  This  observation 
is  commended  to  the  Church  Reform  League.  That  useful  educational 
agency — educational,  for  it  commits  itself  to  no  detailed  policy — 
in  its  original  draft  Declaratory  or  Enabling  Bill  merely  indicated 
the  lines  along  which  legislation  should,  in  its  estimation,  travel.  A 
start  had  to  be  made,  and  there  was  no  other  agency — and  there  is 
still  no  other  to  our  knowledge — in  the  field  to  do  it. 

A  Bill,  entitled  *  The  Convocations  of  the  Clergy  Bill ' — to  be  dis- 
tinguished from  Sir  Eichard  Jebb's  '  Convocations  Bill,'  introduced 
and  dropped  in  1900 — was  moved  in  the  Lords  by  Archbishop  Temple 
and  read  a  first  time  on  the  17th  of  May  1901,  passed  its  second 
reading  on  the  13th  of  June,  and  its  third  on  the  1st  of  July.  In 
the  Commons  it  was  read  a  first  time  four  days  later,  and  has  not  been 
heard  of  since.  A  similar  Bill  has  been  introduced  into  the  House 
of  Lords  by  the  present  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  has  apparently 
met  with  a  similar  fate. 

Three  years  ago  a  new  departure  in  consultative  organisation 
was  taken  in  the  formation  of  the  so-called  2  '  Representative  Church 
Council.'  This  consists  of  the  Convocations  of  the  two.  Provinces 
together  with  the  two  Houses  of  Laymen  conferring  at  Westminster  in 
joint  session,  and  is  the  outcome  of  careful  deliberations  in  the  separate 
Convocations  the  year  before  ;  and  we  may  be  sanguine  of  its  ultimate 
usefulness.  In  the  present  stage  of  its  business  it  appears  too  probable 
that  its  advances  towards  internal  qualification  for  future  legislative 
powers  (for  which  in  their  wisdom  the  Archbishops  have  not  yet  asked) 
will  be  obstructed  by  the  thorny  question  of  the  Church-franchise. 
In  July  1906  it  was  decided  by  a  fairly  substantial  majority  3  that  the 
qualification  be  parochial— residence  in  the  parish  with  a  declaration 
giving  the  vote.  Not  a  little,  however,  was  urged  by  several  prominent 
speakers,  including  the  Bishop  of  London,  the  Bishop  of  Birmingham, 
and  Lord  Halifax  in  favour  of  the  habitual  worshipper  from  over  the 
parish  border.  The  congregational  principle  was  indeed  recognised, 
but  the  Council  was  urged  to  secure  for  the  two  bases  concurrent 
recognition.  This  was  negatived,  and  the  ancient  parochial  principle 
reaffirmed.  It  has  to  be  noticed  with  regret  that  the  will  of  the 
Council,  thus  unequivocally  expressed,  has  not  been  loyally  accepted 
in  all  quarters,  and  some  of  the  foremost  leaders  in  Reform  have 
declined  to  consider  themselves  bound  by  the  vote  of  the  Council. 
This  independence  of  action  is  hardly  likely  to  impress  the  outside 
public  with  the  ripeness  of  Churchmen  for  the  exercise  of  legislative 
powers,  if  ever  they  are  applied  for.  Divergence  of  view  is  to  be 

2  For  no  Council  can  properly  be  called  '  representative  '  before  the  principle  of 
representation  has  been  decided  on,  and  exercised. 

3  The  voting  on  the  question  of  giving  the  franchise  to  non-parishioners  was  as 
follows  :  Bishops,  10  ayes,  19  noes ;  clergy,  53  ayes,  81  noes ;  laity,  80  ayes,  76  noes ; 
=  143  ayes,J176  noes. 


42  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

looked  for  in  all  assemblies  of  thinking  men,  and,  as  long  as  the  par- 
ticular question  remains  sub  judice,  is  fully  entitled  to  free  expression. 
But  for  Reformers  to  call  into  existence  a  deliberative  body  and  then 
to  include  in  the  rights  of  a  minority  that  of  individually  overruling 
its  decisions  is  a  singular  method  of  promoting  Reform.  We  say 
nothing  as  to  the  expediency  or  inexpediency  of  superinducing  the 
congregational  upon  the  parochial  theory.  We  contend  that  the 
question  has  for  consistent  Church  Reformers  been  closed  by  the  vote 
of  the  Council,  and  if  individual  Bishops  issue  independent  instructions 
to  their  clergy,  the  Church's  organic  action  ceases  to  be  a  reality. 
The  cause  of  Reform  is  hopelessly  blocked. 

It  is  not  easy  to  account  for  the  timid  attitude  towards  the  general 
question  of  creating  a  constitution  for  the  Church  of  England  taken 
by  many  members  of  that  Church.  Is  there  anything  to  be  said  in 
justification  of  the  absence  of  self-government  ?  And  if  theoretically 
there  be  nothing  to  be  said,  are  all  other  Anglican  communities 
possessed  of  facilities  which  have  been  denied  to  the  Church  of  England? 
Does  her  internal  administration  or  the  character  of  her  members 
present  peculiar  difficulties,  which  are  conspicuously  absent  from 
all  sister  Churches  ? 

Until  two  hundred  years  ago  she  was  autonomous  ;  constitution- 
ally represented  by  Parliament.  All  members  were  Churchmen. 
None  will  be  hardy  enough  to  say  that  Parliament  represents  her 
to-day.  With  the  abolition  of  all  Parliamentary  religious  tests  the 
last  vestiges  of  self-government  vanished.  Happily  for  the  Church, 
there  is  not  the  slightest  likelihood  that  such  a  method  of  representa- 
tion will  ever  be  revived. 

But  its  disappearance  has  placed  the  Church  in  a  singular  position. 
No  longer  representing  her,  the  Parliaments  of  recent  times  have 
betrayed  a  judicious  disincli nation  to  legislate  for  her ;  and  on  the 
rare  occasions  when  they  have  done  so,  the  scant  gratitude  of  Church- 
men has  been  won. 

Deprived  then  of  autonomous  powers,  she  has  remained  from  that 
day  to  this  without  them ;  and  there  is  no  instrumentality  by  which 
the  results  of  her  successive  efforts  to  improve  her  multiform  agencies 
and  institutions  can  be  invested  with  the  force  of  law.  The  passage 
through  Parliament  of  a  simple  enabling  Bill  which  should  recognise 
her  right  to  put  her  own  house  in  order  appears  to  meet  insuperable 
obstacles.  And  yet  it  is  impossible  to  accept  these  obstacles  as 
inherent  in  the  nature  of  the  case. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  equally  difficult  to  believe  that  the  character 
of  Church  people  presents  a  special  ethical  obstruction.  Are  a  laity 
trained  and  moulded  by  our  free  institutions,  nurtured  in  the  most 
comprehensive  of  all  the  Churches,  less  likely  than  all  others  to  wield  for 
the  general  good  whatever  limited  powers,  administrative  or  judiciary, 
might  hereafter  be  conceded  to  them  ?  We  think  not.  For  earnest- 


1908    PRESENT  STAGE   OF  CHURCH  REFORM        43 

ness,  for  devotion  to  a  high  ideal,  for  practical  wisdom,  the  laymen  of 
the  English  Church  have  often  little  to  learn  from  the  clergy,  and,  in 
the  last,  have  not  seldom  something  to  teach. 

Their  confidence,  moreover,  in  the  clergy  expresses  itself  without 
break  in  ungrudging  financial  support  of  the  Church's  work.  Some 
are  disposed  to  think  that  their  trust  is  withered,  or  is  withering. 
Nine  million  pounds  given  in  voluntary  offerings  yearly — the  bulk  of 
this  out  of  the  pockets  of  the  laity — is  singularly  abundant  fruit  to 
be  plucked  from  the  boughs  of  a  withering  tree.  And  if  the  laity,  as  a 
whole,  thus  trust  the  clergy,  as  a  whole,  this  trust  ought  to  be,  and  in 
most  cases  is,  heartily  reciprocated.  That  any  considerable  number 
of  the  laity  will  be  capable  of  prostituting  power  for  partisan  purposes 
we  decline  to  believe. 

In  the  fuller  recognition  of  the  momentous  problems  to  be  faced  in 
the  calmer  light  of  the  broadening  morrows,  in  the  nobler  crusades 
that  lie  beyond  our  rubrical  polemics,  lie  the  hopes  of  the  future 
solidarity  of  the  English  Church.  The  administrative  side  of  this 
solidarity  will  be  provided,  when  the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  Church 
sit,  side  by  side,  in  council  in  virtue  of  their  baptism,  and  take  common 
synodical  action  in  all  causes  appertaining  to  the  welfare  of  their 
common  Church. 

ALFRED  BURNLEY.    ' 


44  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 


THE    LAMBETH    CONFERENCE    AND 
THE    'ATHANASIAN    CREED: 


THIS  month  the  bishops  of  what  may  be  conveniently  called  the 
Anglican  branch  of  the  Catholic  Church  meet  in  conference  at  Lambeth. 
The  bishops  come  from  all  parts  of  the  world  ;  they  represent  bodies 
independent  one  of  another,  and  governed  by  different  ecclesiastical 
laws.  These  bodies  are  '  Anglican  '  in  the  sense  that  they  are  spiritu- 
ally descended  from  the  Church  of  England,  or  at  least  (as  in  the  case 
of  the  disestablished  Church  of  Ireland)  were  once  in  organic  union 
with  her ;  in  fact,  the  Lambeth  Conference  will  be  a  meeting  of  the 
representatives  of  sister  bodies,  not  of  one  organisation.  The  two 
great  links  between  bishop  and  bishop  who  meet  there  are  the  English 
tongue  and  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 

To  the  Lambeth  Conference,  therefore,  those  men  look  who  desire 
to  see  the  Prayer  Book  strengthen  its  hold  on  the  affections  of  all  who 
use  the  English  tongue.  The  Prayer  Book  as  it  stands  is  the  result 
of  successive  revisions.  First  compiled  in  1549  from  ancient  materials, 
it  was  revised  in  1552,  1559,  1604,  and  1661.  But  the  process  of 
revision  has  been  arrested  ever  since  the  beginning  oi  the  reign  of 
Charles  the  Second.  An  outsider  might  think  that  it  was  generally 
agreed  in  the  Church  of  England  that  the  revisers  of  1661  foresaw  the 
needs  of  all  future  generations  and  provided  for  them. 

And  yet  there  is  hardly  a  single  English  Churchman  who  holds 
any  such  opinion.  Indeed,  even  in  the  generation  which  accepted 
the  last  revision  of  the  Prayer  Book  the  weighty  voice  of  a  great 
English  Churchman,  Bishop  Jeremy  Taylor,  called  attention  to  a 
grave  defect.  The  Christian  faith,  the  Bishop  shows,  is  sufficiently 
set  forth  for  salvation  in  the  Apostles'  Creed,  yet  in  *  Athanasius's 
Creed '  there  is  '  nothing  but  damnation  and  perishing  everlastingly, 
unless  the  article  of  the  Trinity  be  believed,  as  it  is  there  with  curiosity 
and  minute  particularities  explained.' 

The  Damnatory  Clauses  to  which  Bishop  Jeremy  Taylor  refers 
have  been  with  the  Church  of  England  as  a  stumbling-block  ever 
since  his  day.  They  gave  rise  to  prolonged  discussion  in  1689,  when 
a  revision  of  the  Prayer  Book  was  considered  but  not  carried  out. 
The  proposal  then  adopted  was  to  add  an  explanation  to  the  rubric  : 


1908  THE   'ATHANASIAN  CREED'  45 

*  and  the  Condemning  Clauses  are  to  be  understood  as  relating  only 
to  those  who  obstinately  deny  the  substance  of  the  Christian  Faith.' 
This  explanation,  however,  set  aside  rather  than  explained  the  clauses, 
and  failed  to  give  satisfaction.  The  theologians  of  the  next  century 
sought  a  different  mode  of  escape  from  the  difficulty.  Thus  Charles 
Wheatly  L  suggests  that  the  '  warnings '  of  verses  1,  2  are  limited 
in  their  reference,  that  they  apply,  indeed,  only  to  verses  3,  4.  *  All 
that  is  required  of  us  (so  says  Wheatly)  as  necessary  to  salvation  is, 
that  we  worship  one  God  in  Trinity,  and  Trinity  in  Unity :  neither 
confounding  the  persons,  nor  dividing  the  substance.'  This  sugges- 
tion is  ingenious,  but  it  does  not  give  help  to  the  attentive  reader 
who  finds  Damnatory  or  Minatory  Clauses  stationed  at  three  separate 
points  in  the  Quicunque,  as  though  to  prevent  any  such  escape. 
Equally  unsatisfying  is  the  contention  of  Thomas  Bennet,  M.A.,2 
who  in  order  to  save  members  of  the  Greek  Church,  urges  that  the 
Damnatory  Clauses  do  not  cover  verse  23,  which  contains  the  Filioque 
clause  which  the  Greeks  reject.  It  is,  indeed,  hardly  to  be  wondered 
at  that  the  American  Church,  in  the  face  of  unworthy  shifts  like  these, 
cut  the  knot  at  her  own  revision  of  the  Prayer  Book  in  1789  by  cutting 
out  the  Quicunque  vult  as  well  from  her  Service  Book  as  from  her 
services. 

In  England  the  question  of  the  Damnatory  Clauses  came  to  the 
front  again  when  the  Ritual  Commission  of  1867  began  its  work. 
Many  of  the  members  of  the  Commission,  including  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  and  the  two  Regius  Professors  of  Divinity  at  Oxford 
and  Cambridge,  were  in  favour  of  discontinuing  the  recitation  of  the 
Quicunque  in  public  worship.  Nothing,  however,  came  of  the  labours 
of  the  Commission  in  England  except  the  passing  of  a  wordy  resolu- 
tion by  the  Southern  Convocation.  The  Synod  of  Canterbury  in 
1873  *  solemnly  declared  '  that  the  warnings  of  the  Damnatory  Clauses 
of  the  Quicunque  are  to  be  explained  after  the  analogy  of  the  '  like 
warnings  in  Holy  Scripture.' 3  Thus  the  Church,  instead  of  acting  as 
an  interpreter  of  Holy  Writ  and  a  guide  of  her  children,  is  to  hand 
over  her  interpretative  office  to  individuals,  that  they  may  expound 
for  themselves  her  ambiguous  warnings.  The  Synod,  when  asked 
for  bread,  gave  the  children  of  the  Church  a  stone.  Not  daring  to 
accept  the  clauses  in  their  plain  meaning,  the  Southern  Convocation 
sent  Churchmen  off  to  find  glosses  for  themselves. 

While  an  English  Synod  was  thus  shelving  the  question,  Irish 
Churchmen  were  settling  it.  The  disestablished  Church  of  Ireland, 
in  revising  the  Prayer  Book  for  her  own  use,  was  of  course  confronted 

1  Rational  Illustration  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  4th  ed.,  1724. 

2  Paraphrase   with  Annotations  upon  the  Book  of   Common  Prayer,  page  273 
(London,  1708). 

*  The  Solemn  Declaration  does  not  tell  us  where  in  Scripture  is  to  be  found  a 
engthy  and  intricate  doctrinal  statement  accompanied  by  warnings  that  we  must 
accept  it  on  pain  of  damnation  for  refusal  or  neglect. 


46  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

with  the  difficulty  of  the  Damnatory  Clauses  of  the  Quicunque.  She 
solved  the  difficulty  by  two  rubrical  changes.  In  Morning  Prayer  the 
revised  rubric  before  the  Apostles'  Creed  directs  only  that  the  Apostles' 
Creed  is  to  be  said.  The  rubric  before  '  The  Creed  (commonly  called) 
of  St.  Athanasius '  has  been  dropped.  Thus  the  Irish  Church  has 
ceased  to  enjoin  the  recitation  of  the  Quicunque.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  Quicunque  stands  in  its  familiar  place  in  the  Prayer  Book  as  a 
standard  of  doctrine.  The  Irish  Churchmen  of  the  earlv  seventies 
were  more  conservative  than  the  American  Churchmen  of  1789. 

In  England  the  difficulty  of  the  Damnatory  Clauses  has  con- 
tinued to  make  itself  felt.  The  Solemn  Declaration  of  1873  gives  no 
permanent  satisfaction.  Every  book  written  on  the  Prayer  Book  has 
its  own  way  of  dealing  with  the  difficulty,4  but  the  usual  resource  is 
to  set  limits  to  the  reference  of  the  words  '  Whosoever '  in  verse  1, 
and  '  every  one  *  in  verse  2.  These  verses  are  addressed  (we  are  told) 
only  to  those  who  have  been  soundly  instructed  in  the  Christian  Faith, 
and  only  they  are  damned  for  stumbling  over  the  Quicunque.  (We, 
however,  on  Christmas  morning  hear  the  clauses  said  to  babes  and  to 
beginners.)  *  Before  all  things  '  (we  are  informed)  implies  no  prefer- 
ence of  orthodox  thinking  to  right  living.  '  Without  doubt  he  shall 
perish  everlastingly  '  is  '  of  course  to  be  understood  with  the  limitations 
of  which  God  alone  is  judge.'  Why  are  limitations  '  of  course,'  when 
the  document  itself  says,  '  without  doubt '  ? 

The  defenders  of  the  Damnatory  Clauses  are  continually  protest- 
ing that  these  clauses  must  be  *  properly  understood,'  but  they  protest 
too  much.  The  language  of  the  Quicunque  is  too  painfully  clear. 
It  is  a  delusion  that  this  lawyer-drawn  document  merely  gives  us  a 
general  warning  against  the  frivolity  which  declares  that  it  does  not 
matter  what  a  man  believes,  provided  that  he  lives  a  decent  life.  The 
language  of  the  Quicunque  is  precise  not  only  in  its  definitions  but 
also  in  its  warnings  ;  it  offers  the  choice  between  its  own  perfect 
orthodoxy  and  damnation  '  without  doubt.' 

Twice  within  our  generation  the  '  Athanasian  Creed '  has  been 
retranslated  from  the  original  Latin  mainly  in  the  hope  that  it  would 
be  found  possible  to  remove  (or  lessen)  the  offence  caused  by  the 
Damnatory  Clauses.  The  work  was  done  in  1872  by  a  Committee  of 
Bishops,  and  in  1906  by  a  Committee  of  the  Northern  Convocation. 
It  must,  however,  be  confessed  that  more  accurate  translation  has,  if 

4  See  Canon  Fausset,  Guide  to  the  Study  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  p.  104, 
(ed.  iii.) ;  Dean  Stephens  (the  late),  Helps  to  the  Study  of  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  p.  56  (ed.  ii.) ;  Herbert  Pole,  M.A.,  The  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  p.  81 
(London,  1902) ;  C.  C.  Atkinson,  D.D.,  A  Handbook  far  Worshippers  at  Mattins  and 
Evensong,  pp.  79,  80  (London,  1902).  Dr.  Atkinson  says  truly  that  the  test  of 
membership  of  the  Church  is  the  Apostles'  Creed,  and  that  laymen  '  do  not  forfeit 
their  membership  from  thinking  that  this  or  that  article  of  the  Athanasian  Creed  is 
unscriptural  or  unsound.'  But  in  that  case  why  announce  that  whosoever  willeth  to 
be  saved  must  hold  the  Catholic  Faith  as  set  forth  in  the  Quicunque,  or  else  perish 
everlastipgly  ? 


1908  TEE   'ATHANASIAN  CREED'  47 

anything,  made  harder  the  task  of  those  who  seek  to  '  explain '  the 
Clauses.  The  last  verse  as  translated  in  1906  runs  :  '  This  is  the 
Catholic  Faith  :  which  except  each  man  shall  have  believed  faith- 
fully and  firmly  he  cannot  be  saved.'  The  (correct)  addition  of  and 
firmly  shuts  out  still  more  the  weaker  brethren. 

Experience  from  1689  till  now  shows  that  '  explanations '  and 
re-translations  do  not  permanently  satisfy  men  who  face  the  terrible 
words  of  the  Five  Clauses  as  they  stand,  and  ask  if  they  can  be  true. 
Some  more  worthy  way  of  dealing  with  the  difficulty  must  be  found, 
if  the  Church  of  England  is  to  fulfil  her  mission  as  a  witness  to  Divine 
truth.  The  essential  step  is  to  remove  the  present  legal  compulsion 
which  stamps  as  disobedient  the  men  whose  sense  of  truth  forbids  them 
both  to  recite  the  Damnatory  Clauses,  and  to  receive  the  glosses  which 
have  been  put  upon  them. 

It  is  for  the  Lambeth  Conference  to  decide  what  particular  remedy 
is  to  be  adopted,  but  it  is  interesting  to  note  the  last  important  step 
taken  with  regard  to  the  Quicunque.  The  example  of  the  Church  of 
Ireland  has  borne  fruit.  In  October  1905  an  important  decision 
was  made  by  the  General  Synod  of  Australia  and  Tasmania.  The 
Bishops  by  11  to  4,  the  Clergy  by  41  to  23,  the  Laity  by  28  to  13 
passed  after  two  days'  debate  the  following  resolution : — '  That  this 
Synod  affirms  its  ex  animo  acceptance  of  the  credenda  of  the  Quicunque 
vult,  but  in  view  of  the  minatory  clauses,  and  of  the  general  character 
of  the  document,  it  is  of  opinion  that  constitutional  means  should  be 
adopted  for  the  omission  of  the  rubric  requiring  its  public  recitation.' 

If  the  matter  is  to  be  settled  by  the  English  method  of  a  com- 
promise, it  is  hard  to  think  of  a  juster  compromise  than  this.  At 
present  those  who  as  truthful  men  cannot  bring  themselves  to  recite 
the  Damnatory  Clauses  are  guilty  of  disobedience  to  the  law  of  the 
Church  and  of  the  State.  If  the  rubric  were  removed,  this  state  of 
things  would  cease,  but  those  who  can  accept  the  five  clauses  as  true 
would  be  able  to  recite  the  Quicunque  as  an  anthem — its  form  is 
metrical — just  as  often  as  it  suited  their  sense  of  fitness.  Their  only 
disability  would  be  that  they  could  not  turn  out  the  Apostles'  Creed 
from  Morning  Prayer  to  make  room  for  what  is  only  a  commentary 
on  the  Creed.  It  is  earnestly  to  be  hoped  that  the  Lambeth  Con- 
ference, which  has  twice  dealt  with  the  Quicunque,  in  1888  and  1897, 
by  suggesting  a  retranslation,  will  in  1908  lead  the  great  Church  which 
it  represents  forward  towards  a  lasting  solution  of  a  difficulty  which 
has  been  felt  for  250  years.8 

W.  EMERY  BARNES. 

5  Three  important  recent  additions  to  the  literature  of  this  subject  are:  The 
History  and  Use  of  Creeds  and  Anathemas,  by  C.  H.  Turner  (S.P.C.K.  1906) ;  an 
article,  '  The  Athanasian  Creed,'  in  the  Church  Quarterly  Review  for  April  1908 ; 
and  Studies  in  the  Prayer-Book  [1908]  by  the  Bishop  of  Edinburgh. 


48  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 


UN   NOUVEAU   MO  LI  ERE 

A   FRENCH   VIEW  OF  BERNARD  SHAW 


THE  Frenchman  who  reads  Bernard  Shaw  or  sees  him  played  is  first 
of  all  surprised.  He  perceives  indeed  how  greatly  this  drama  differs 
from  that  to  which  he  is  accustomed,  that  is  to  say,  from  the  contem- 
porary French  drama.  On  reflection  he  perceives  that  the  differen- 
tiation is  none  the  less  great,  if  the  dramatic  work  of  Bernard  Shaw 
be  compared  with  that  of  other  contemporary  dramatists,  whether 
English,  Scandinavian,  Eussian,  German,  Italian,  or  Spanish. 

In  Bernard  Shaw's  drama  there  is  indeed  something  indefinably 
original  and  personal,  which  is  not  found  in  any  other  dramatist. 

This  originality  is  due  to  the  fact  that  Bernard  Shaw's  drama 
is  no  offspring  of  the  romantic  drama  of  Scribe,  Hugo,  the  two  Dumas, 
Augier,  or  the  vaudevillists  of  the  same  period — in  a  word,  of  the 
French  school  of  the  nineteenth  century.  On  the  other  hand,  all 
contemporary  dramatists,  both  Scandinavian  or  French,  Italian  or 
English,  German  or  Spanish,  are  the  faithful  disciples* of  this  school. 
Ibsen  himself,  whom  many  superficial  critics  have  regarded  as  quite 
outside  the  French  orbit,  has  written  plays  which  may  be  regarded 
as  models  of  well-constructed  plays  according  to  the  formula  of 
the  Scribe  school.  This  identity  of  structure  or  technique  and 
even  of  matter  causes  a  strong  resemblance  between  French  works 
whether  they  are  the  product  of  Hervieu,  Donnay,  Brieux,  Fabre, 
or  Bernstein.  The  spectator  who  has  seen  one  has  really  seen 
all  the  others.  When,  according  to  the  happy  phrase  of  G.  Polti, 
'  1'adultere  dans  le  mariage  indissoluble,'  so  dear  to  Dumas,  was  worn 
threadbare,  the  French  dramatists  threw  themselves  upon  '  l'adult£re 
dans  le  mariage  dissoluble,'  and  they  will  use  this  until  it  is  worse 
than  threadbare.  Still  it  is  always  the  same  thing ;  a  few  happy 
hits  here  and  there,  sometimes  more,  sometimes  less,  a  few  slight  varia- 
tions in  the  plot,  and  the  thing  is  done.  In  truth,  the  flavouring 
alone  differs :  in  one  there  is  a  little  more  pepper,  and  in  the  other  a 
little  more  salt,  but  it  is  always  the  same  dish  which  French  dramatists 
serve  us  up.  Nevertheless,  they  arrange  it  so  skilfully  and  so  astutely, 


1908  UN  NOUVEAU  MOLIEEE  49 

like  past  masters  in  cookery,  that  digestion  alone  discloses  the  fact 
that  we  have  once  more  eaten  of  yesterday's  dish. 

Foreign  dramatists  have  the  same  technique  and  the  same  manner, 
only  the  matter  with  which  they  deal  is  slightly  different.  This 
produces  an  illusion,  and  gives  a  certain  foreign  flavour  which  causes 
their  work  to  pass  as  a  real  novelty.  According  to  the  nationality 
of  the  authors,  the  environment  and  the  characters  are  Scandinavian, 
Russian,  English,  and  so  on.  This  difference  of  environment  and 
nationality  of  the  characters  causes  the  French  playgoer,  somewhat 
out  of  his  bearings,  not  to  recognise  at  first  the  dish  served  up  to 
him.  But  during  digestion  he  perceives  that  it  is  still  the  same 
dish  with  Norwegian  sauce,  or  Swedish,  Danish,  Italian,  English, 
or  Spanish  sauce. 

Nevertheless,  among  all  these  dramatic  works  there  are  many 
differences  in  the  details  of  technique  and  material.  The  eternal 
duel  of  the  sexes  remains  the  corner-stone  of  the  drama,  but  numerous 
are  the  variations  which  in  the  shape  of  diverse  arabesques  are  woven 
with  more  or  less  lightness  or  heaviness  by  the  authors  on  this  ap- 
parently immovable  basis.  Some  adopt  the  tragic,  others  the  comic 
style.  Others  combine  the  two  styles  in  various  doses.  In  our  days 
and  for  more  than  half  a  century,  authors  of  serious  plays  are  fond  of 
the  problem  play,  in  whatever  country  they  were  born  and  live. 

The  problem  play  is  the  logical  demonstration  of  a  principle. 
It  is  the  staging  of  a  plea  for  or  against  a  phenomenon  which  is  rather 
social  than  individual.  Our  dramatist  chooses  a  subject,  and  fits  in 
characters  to  put  forward  their  pleas  and  views  on  the  subject  chosen. 
Often  all  or  almost  all  the  plays  of  one  and  the  same  author  relate 
to  the  same  subject.  Thus  the  drama  of  Dumas  the  younger  is,  so 
to  speak,  the  drama  of  adultery.  In  the  same  way  Ibsen,  for  the 
majority  of  the  plays  of  his  mature  period  (1868-1886),  chose  criticism 
of  marriage  and  the  family.  But  he  rises  much  higher  than  Dumas, 
because  he  reaches  a  philosophic  generalisation  which  the  latter  had 
not  attained.  Ibsen,  a  genius,  sees  in  the  intestinal  struggles  of  families 
an  antagonism  between  ideals  and  the  actions  of  life,  between  our 
morals,  our  social  institutions  generally,  and  our  individual  develop- 
ment. He  is  haunted  by  the  problem  of  the  will.  He  goes  more  to 
the  bottom  of  things,  and  their  very  essence  appears  to  him  bad. 
Thus  the  principle  of  authority  seems  to  him  criminal.  Society 
appears  to  him  as  restrictive  of  the  individual.  The  State  is  the 
curse  of  the  individual.  The  latter  tends  continuously  towards  his 
own  development.  This  is  the  essential  theme  of  all  Ibsen's  plays,  and 
also  of  those  of  Bjornstjerne  Bjornson.  With  these  geniuses  the 
problem  play  had  acquired  a  social  scope  which  it  had  previously  not 
possessed  and  did  not  possess  either  with  the  other  dramatists, 
whether  French  or  other  of  our  time,  who  are  nearer  the  masters 
Augier  and  Dumas. 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  377  E 


50  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

Side  by  side  with  the  problem  drama  there  is  the  drama  the  sole 
object  of  which  is  either  to  move  the  sentiment  of  the  spectator  or  to 
excite  his  laughter.  Sardou  is  a  master  in  the  former  art  with  his 
inexhaustible  fecundity,  his  skill  in  weaving  and  unweaving  a  plot 
and  combining  incidents.  Labiche  was  the  master  of  the  second 
style  with  his  vaudeville  comedies,  which,  so  to  speak,  mechanically 
aroused  laughter.  Now  in  this  style  we  have  Messrs.  Courteline, 
Veber,  and  Tristan  Bernard.  This  is  all  moving  or  amusing,  but 
nearly  always  lacks  depth.  At  the  end  of  the  play  we  are  almost 
annoyed  with  ourselves  for  having  been  moved  or  for  having  wept, 
or  laughed,  so  clearly  do  we  perceive  the  superficiality  of  this  puppet 
theatre. 

Different  entirely  from  these  dramas  is  that  of  Bernard  Shaw, 
and  it  is  this  difference  which  at  first  surprises,  astounds,  and  shocks. 
Hence  at  the  outset  many  a  man  among  us,  all  being  essentially 
haters  of  what  is  new,  like  the  majority  of  humankind,  will  subscribe 
to  the  opinion  of  Monsieur  Augustin  Filon,  who  said  '  Bernard  Shaw 
serait  peut-etre  un  grand  auteur  dramatique,  si  ses  pieces  6taient  .  .  . 
des  pieces.'  For  myself,  being  essentially  a  lover  of  the  new,  I  have 
examined,  scrutinised  and  analysed  the  dramatic  work  of  Bernard 
Shaw,  and  his  artistic  beauty  and  philosophic  depth  were  thus  brought 
home  to  me.  It  is  quite  evident  that  Shaw  is  not  a  playwright  in 
the  romantic  style,  which  was  followed  by  all  the  European  dramatists 
of  the  nineteenth  century  as  faithful  disciples.  He  has  created  a 
work  imbued  with  the  originality  of  genius.  He  created  it  regardless 
of  the  so-called  rules  of  the  art.  to  the  great  discomfiture  of  professional 
critics  and  the  public  which  follow  them  like  sheep.  All,  on  seeing 
his  plays,  might  have  said  with  Lysidas  in  La  Critique  de  UEcole  des 
Femmes,  '  Those  who  know  their  Aristotle  and  Horace  see  that  in 
the  first  place  this  comedy  sins  against  all  the  rules  of  Art.'  Perhaps 
he  would  answer  them  with  Dorante  :  '  You  are  amusing  people  with 
your  rules,  with  which  you  bewilder  the  ignorant  and  which  you  din 
into  our  ears  day  by  day.  I  should  very  much  like  to  know  whether 
to  please  is  not  the  chief  rule  of  all  rules,  and  whether  a  play  which 
has  achieved  its  object  has  not  chosen  the  right  path.'  I  do  not 
know  whether  he  has  given  them  this  reply  of  Dorante's,  but  it  is 
certain  that  he  acts  as  though  he  had.  Is  he  not  still  writing 
plays — he  has  written  sixteen  now — which  continue  to  be  no  plays 
according  to  the  Lysidases  of  all  nations  ? 

When  we  examine  what  is  meant  by  the  '  Beautiful '  and  by 
'  Art,'  we  see  with  Tolstoi  that  *  every  notion  of  beauty  is  reduced  for 
us  to  the  reception  of  a  certain  kind  of  pleasure.'  Art,  which  is  the 
mode  of  expression  and  manifestation  of  this  beauty,  has  therefore 
precisely  for  its  object  pleasure,  as  was  maintained  by  Bettaux  and 


1908  UN  NOUVEAU  MOLIERE  51 

Mario  Pilo.  The  dramatic  work  of  Bernard  Shaw  is  therefore 
eminently  beautiful  and  artistic,  as  it  gives  rise  to  extreme  pleasure 
both  in  the  hearer  and  reader.  Moreover,  it  is  amusing  in  the  extreme, 
and  consequently  its  style  and  character  are  excellent,  if  Voltaire's 
aphorism  is  true  :  '  Tous  les  genres  sont  bons,  hors  le  genre  ennuyeux.' 
Nor  is  this  style  any  the  less  good  because  anyone  reading  or  seeing 
a  play  of  Bernard  Shaw  can  understand  it  without  difficulty  and  with- 
out inquiry,  and  because  it  produces  a  part  or  the  whole  of  the  effect 
which  the  author  desires ;  for,  as  Tolstoi  has  said,  '  All  styles  are  good 
except  that  which  is  not  understood  or  does  not  produce  its  effect.' 

Therefore  the  dramatic  work  of  Bernard  Shaw  is  beautiful  and 
artistic  according  to  the  definitions  given  of  beauty  and  art.  If  at 
first  this  does  not  appear  to  be  so  to  many  onlookers,  the  reason  is 
that  Shaw  is  a  precursor  and  not  a  follower,  as  is  peremptorily  brought 
home  to  us  by  an  analysis  of  his  drama,  both  as  to  form  and  substance. 
Like  Moliere,  Bernard  Shaw  in  his  drama  is  essentially  comical. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  manner  this  is  the  most  evident  characteristic 
of  our  writer's  drama.  At  times,  again  as  in  Moliere,  this  feature 
develops  into  buffoonery,  farce,  and  burlesque,  and  on  this  point  he 
reminds  us  more  of  Aristophanes  and  Plautus  than  of  Terence.  With 
the  latter,  contemplation  of  the  actions  of  man  takes  the  external 
form  of  humorous  reflections,  those  which  are  born  in  the  soul  of  the 
sage.  In  Shaw,  just  as  in  Moliere,  there  is  this  same  spirit  of  wisdom, 
but  it  by  no  means  prevents  critical  reflection  from  frequently  manifest- 
ing itself  in  the  form  of  farce — whether  the  burlesque  is  produced  by 
the  ideas  themselves,  or  by  the  language,  or  by  the  situations,  or  by 
action  of  the  characters. 

Bernard  Shaw  has  the  most  characteristic  comic  mentality.  He 
can  see  nothing  without  straightway  perceiving  a  comical  side  to  it. 
He  cannot  speak  or  write  of  anything,  however  serious,  without 
immediately  adding  a  comical  element  to  a  lesser  or  greater  extent. 
He  knows  how  to  bring  out  the  comical  side  of  everything  and  any- 
thing, even  if  profoundly  sad.  But  this  comicality  is  bitter  with  a 
deep  bitterness,  just  as  bitter  as  is  that  of  Moliere,  rightly  remarked 
by  Brunetiere.  This  bitterness,  which  is  likewise  characteristic  of 
Irish  gaiety,  when  it  emanates  from  Swift,  Sheridan,  and  Sterne,  in 
reality  shows  the  sympathy  of  these  severe  critics  for  human  evils 
and  vices. 

English  comic  writers  of  the  time  of  Elizabeth  sought  their  vis 
comica  chiefly  in  actions  and  the  situations  of  characters.  Bernard 
Shaw,  on  the  contrary,  seeks  it  chiefly  in  the  contrast  of  ideas  them- 
selves— and  in  this  he  is  the  rival  of  the  greatest  comiques  of  the  past — 
or  in  the  contrast  between  the  idea  and  the  position  of  the  person 
expressing  it.  Thus  the  poet  Eugene  Marchbanks  in  Candida,  the 
hotel  waiter  in  You  Never  Can  Tell,  Bluntschli  in  Arms  and  the  Man — 
indeed,  one  would  need  to  mention  all  his  plays  and  a  host  of  his 

E   2 


62  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

characters.  This  contrast  of  ideas  is  obtained  above  sill  by  means  of 
paradoxes.  This  is  the  mot  hod  to  which  Bernard  Shaw  is  particularly 
addicted,  with  a  success  which  has  no  parallel.  He  is  us  para- 
doxical as  Rabelais,  Jean-Jacques  Rousseau,  Proudhon,  all  the 
great,  educators  and  reformers  of  all  times.  The  innovator  is 
essentially  paradoxical.  He  is  so  even  by  definition,  since  he 
professes  opinions  contrary  to  common  opinions.  The  paradox  of 
to-day  is  the  commonplace  of  to-morrow.  Bernard  Shaw  is  an 
innovator.  There  never  lived  a  man  having  a  greater  disdain  for 
conventional  opinions.  He  experiences  a  deep  and  intense  joy  in 
opposing  these  conventional  opinions,  and  setting  up  in  their  place 
a  different  opinion  which  violently  and  brutally  shocks  common 
opinion.  These  paradoxes  or  these  truths  of  to-morrow  are  handled 
by  him  with  an  elegance,  a  subtlety,  and  a  charm  unequalled.  With 
a  masterly  hand  our  author  knows  how  to  insert  into  the  free  move- 
ment of  life  some  mechanism  of  thought  or  situation  in  order  to  bring 
out  the  comic  aspect,  which  is  so  pleasing  to  his  satirical  and  sardonic 
mind,  and  which  recalls  that  of  Hogarth's  pictures  and  engravings, 
though  far  exceeding  it. 

In  all  Bernard  Shaw's  plays  we  are  surprised  by  a  mixture  of  the 
tragical  and  the  humorous  which  amuses  in  spite  of  oneself.  This 
mixture,  faithful  to  actual  life,  is  found  in  all  the  good  comic  writers — 
Aristophanes,  Plautus,  and  Moliere.  for  instance ;  consequently  they 
are  realists  ;xir  f\nv//<*»»<v,  just  as  is  our  author.  It  is  his  aim  to 
produce  living  true  characters,  to  exhibit  real  ways  and  habits  of 
human  society.  Did  he  not  write  in  the  Ztit :  *  In  my  plays  you 
will  not  be  vexed  and  worried  by  happiness,  goodness,  virtue,,  or  by 
crime  and  romance  or  any  other  stupid  thing  of  that  kind.  My  plays 
have  only  one  subject — life,  and  only  one  quality — interest  in  life '  ? 
It  is  out  of  regard  for  truth  that  Shaw,  like  Moliore,  finds  that  it  is 
not  incompatible  for  a  person  to  be  ridiculous  in  certain  things  and 
an  honest  man  in  others.  Thus  Moliere  creates  Alceste  and  Philinte 
in  the  ,Vw<wM*t>j»«\  and  Shaw  creates  Kugene  Marchbanks  in  Candida. 
This  truth  to  nature  shocks  and  astounds  the  onlooker  even  more 
than  the  reader,  as  he  is  accustomed  in  the  theatre  to  see  individuals 
forming  one  united  whole  either  entirely  bad  or  entirely  good,  one  of 
the  nuv*t  comic  and  false  methods  imaginable.  It  was  concern  for 
realism  which  sometimes  led  the  great  dramatists  Aristophanes, 
Vlautus.  and  Moliere  into  buffoonery,  just  is  it  has  led  Bernard 
Shavr;  for,  if  it  had  been  combined  with  bitter  criticism  of 
humanity)  it  would  have  led  to  tragedy,  as  it  led  Ibsen,  Bjornstjerne 
Bjornson,  Augier,  and  Henry  Becque,  if  the  comic  spirit  within 
him  had  not  peorowred  the  humorous  side  of  life,  Shaw  is  an 
admirable  realist,  just  as  is  Baliac,  Like  him,  he  has  the  gift  of 
s«*ing  men  and  things  in  their  minute  diHiK  a  marvellous  facility 
of  observation  and  evocation.  H«  is  thoroughly  acquainted  with 


1908  UN  NOUVEAU  MOL1&RE  68 

social  classes  and  castes,  and  professional  and  national  habits  of 
mind.  Shaw  is  in  fact  more  a  painter  of  collective  characters  than 
of  individual  characters.  An  exception  must  nevertheless  be  made 
as  regards  his  female  characters,  who  are  individual  characters  rather. 
In  11  person  lie.  svnthetises,  in  a  Beater  decree  Minn  Moliere  did,  n, 
class,  sect,  caste,  nation,  or  profession.  One  need  only  mention,  in 
John  BvlVs  Other  Island,  the  Irishman  personified  in  Doyle,  the 
Englishman  in  H  road  bent ;  'in  \\' itlonrrs  Houses,  (lie  middle  class 
capitalist,  in  Sartorius,  and  in  Candida,  in  the  person  of  Burgess ; 
in  Anna  and  the  Man,  the  profession  of  the  soldier,  in  Bhmtsohli ;  the 
workman  in  the  Straker  of  Man  and  Superman. 

On  this  very  ground  of  his  concern  for  realism  Bernard  Shaw  hates 
the  romantic.  Therefore  1  can  say  of  him  what  M.  Faguet  says  of 
Moliere  :  '  II  est  lo  moms  romanosquo  dos  homines  et  son  oeuvre  la 
plus  contre-romauesque  qui  soit.'  In  spite  of  his  true  realism,  our 
author  is  necessarily  compelled  to  modify  it  somewhat  inasmuch  as 
he  paints  collective  characters.  Nevertheless,  in  synthetising  in  an 
individuality  national,  professional,  class  or  caste  characters,  he  departs 
from  actual  nature  in  a  less  degree  perhaps  than  Moliere  and  Balzac 
in  summing  up  a  man  in  a  single  dominating  quality,  a  single  senti- 
ment and  a  single  passion.  In  real  life  the  Uarpagons,  Alcestes, 
Tartuffes,  and  Mercadets  are — though  something  of  the  making  of 
Hum  nevertheless  exists  in  everybody — rarer  than  are  the  Crofts, 
Burgesses,  Sartoriuses,  and  Bluntschlis,  because  synthesis  of  ideas 
and  opinions  is  far  more  logical  than  synthesis  of  sentiments. 
Is  not  the  differentiation  of  castes,  classes,  sects,  and  nations  a  result 
more  of  the  ideas  and  opinions  of  men  than  of  their  sentiments  ? 
i  Ibsen,  painting  individual  characters  above  all,  could  in  his 
tragedies  represent  characters  of  an  abnormal  pathological  psycho- 
logy. And  he  did  not  fail  to  do  so,  to  such  an  extent— 
Strindberg  also,  but  to  A  lesser  extent — that  any  psychiatrist  could 
see  Mint  since  Shakespeare  no  dramatist  had  painted  abnormal 
psychical  types  with  so  much  truth.  Bernard  Shaw  painting  by 
proteeaoa  professional,  national,  caste  or  class  types  of  mentality, 
could  represent  nothing  but  normal  healthy  characters,  just  as  did 
Moliero,  but  gave  the  ptfmtm  to  tilt  depiction  of  types  synthetising 
a  single  passion  or  a  single  sentiment.  They  were  so  much  the  more 
bound  to  do  this,  because  both  of  them  contemplated  life  in  a  comic. 
an  intensely  oomio  spirit.  The  depiction  of  the  mentally  unbalanced 
leads  to  tragedy,  whilst  that  of  sound  minds  leads  to  comedy. 

There  is  no  comedy  without  criticism.  Criticism  is  its  life,  and 
the  more  bitter  it  is  the  stronger  is  the  comedy.  Whilst  Plautus  and 
Moliere  deal  above  all  in  the  follies  ami  vices  and  the  prejudices  of  men. 
Shaw  confines  himself  chiefly  to  social  principles,  to  the  very  organism 
of  society.  He  penetrates  deeper  into  our  social  organisation,  per- 


54  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

ceives  its  faults  and  its  vices,  and  shows  them  acting  on  his  characters 
and  guiding  them.  If,  like  the  criticism  of  Aristophanes,  that  of 
Bernard  Shaw  embraces  everything,  morals,  politics,  religion,  poetry, 
philosophy,  education,  and  family,  it  goes  even  farther  in  its  analysis. 
Thus  it  exposes  the  social  evil  wrought  by  the  thirst  of  riches,  and 
above  all  the  system  of  individual  property,  and  it  does  this  as  well 
as  Balzac  and  better  than  Augier.  It  is  this  depth  of  critical  analysis 
of  our  society  which  constitutes  the  great  superiority  of  the  comedy 
of  our  author  over  the  contemporary  French  drama  of  Brieux,  de 
Curel,  even  Henri  Fabre,  and  above  all  Capus,  Donnay,  and  Bernstein, 
whose  criticism  is  only  directed  to  superficial  causes.  Shaw's  criticism 
goes  down  to  the  deep  and  real  causes. 

In  our  author's  drama  sentimental  action  is  subordinate  to  the 
discussion  of  ideas  and  the  description  of  characters.  The  result  is 
that  this  drama  is  far  and  away  removed  from  that  of  Scribe,  in  which 
everything  is  sacrificed  to  the  plot  and  to  situations,  and  is  remote 
from  the  drama  of  Dumas  junior,  where  the  action  is  precise,  and  is 
resolved  in  well-combined  and  strong  situations.  On  the  contrary, 
Bernard  Shaw  with  his  disdain  of  plots  and  situations  approaches 
astonishingly  near  to  Moliere.  Who  does  not  know  that  Les  Pre- 
cieuses  Ridicules,  Ulmpromptu  de  Versailles,  Les  Facheux,  Le  Misan- 
thrope, and  La  Critique  de  VEcole  des  Femmes  have  no  plots  ?  and  this 
is  also  true  of  L'Ecole  des  Femmes,  '  piece  tout  en  recits,'  writes  Vol- 
taire, '  mais  menagee  avec  tant  d'art  que  tout  parait  etre  en  action.' 
The  same  may  be  said  as  regards  the  drama  of  Bernard  Shaw.  The 
scenes  are  so  animated,  there  is  such  a  gradation  of  warmth  that  the 
absence  of  material  action  and  plot  is  not  in  the  least  perceived.  It 
is  a  succession  of  pleasing  scenes,  in  which  ideas  clash  and  conflict. 
This  is  reminiscent  somewhat  of  the  vaudeville  comedy  made  illus- 
trious by  Labiche,  which  was  likewise  a  succession  of  pleasing  or 
humorous  scenes,  but  in  which,  instead  of  profound  ideas,  superficial 
characters  come  into  contact,  amplifying  and  distorting  the  true 
elements  which  the  author  borrowed  from  the  foibles  of  his  time. 

This  absence  of  or  disdain  for  plots  and  coherent  and  probable 
situations,  developing  by  rules  of  art  and  logic,  which  is  observed  in 
Moli6re  and  Bernard  Shaw,  and  which  previously  existed  in  the 
Italian  Ragionamenti,  where  the  interest  was  sustained  only  by  an 
animated  discussion  between  several  characters,  is  what  astonishes 
professional  critics,  so  greatly  are  they  accustomed  to  the  manner  of 
Scribe  and  all  the  dramatists  who  followed  him. 

They  are  at  a  loss  to  understand  the  immense  success  of  such  a 
drama  of  ideas,  which,  according  to  them,  must  necessarily  lack 
movement.  It  is  with  astonishment  that  they  observe  the  powerful 
movement  possessed  by  all  Shaw's  plays.  This  intense  movement 
arises  from  the  clash  of  ideas,  and  from  a  spirit  and  animation  which 
carries  the  spectator  away,  as  was  very  well  remarked  by  M.  Regis 


1908  UN  NOUVEAU  MOLIERE  55 

Michaud.  Paradoxical  situations  arising  out  of  the  ideas  and  frank- 
ness of  the  characters  replace  the  perfectly  material  movement  of  a 
man  like  Scribe  while  towering  to  intellectual  heights  above  him. 
Although  the  bases  of  Shaw's  comedies  are  discussions  and  reasoning, 
it  is  not  lectures  in  dialogue  form  which  are  presented  to  the  spectator 
who  goes  to  see  Mrs.  Warren's  Profession,  Candida,  or  Arms  and  the 
Man.  What  he  sees  are  plays,  plays  both  profound  and  amusing, 
plays  which  satisfy  what  is  generally  regarded  as  the  fundamental 
law  of  the  theatre. 

The  fundamental  law  of  the  theatre  is  :  the  quintessence  of  a  play 
must  be  the  action,  the  object  of  which  is  to  call  forth  emotion. 
According  to  tradition,  emotion  is  aroused  above  all  by  a  conflict  of 
sentiments.  Therefore  nothing  which  does  not  involve  a  clash  of 
sentiments,  or  at  least  of  sentiments  and  reason,  can  belong  properly 
to  the  theatrical  play.  This  is  what  is  usually  considered  as  the 
immutable  principle  of  Dramatic  Art  (Jean  Jullien).  Brunetiere,  when 
he  said  that  the  object  of  the  drama  is  to  display  to  view  the  develop- 
ment of  a  will,  expressed  an  appreciably  different  idea,  as  the  reasons 
for  the  unfolding  of  a  will  may  as  well  be  provided  by  ideas  and  pure 
concepts  as  by  sentiments  or  passions. 

If  the  drama  of  George  Bernard  Shaw  complies  with  the  funda- 
mental law  of  the  theatre,  action  arousing  emotion,  he  nevertheless 
does  not  follow  tradition  and  does  not  always  comply  with  the  so- 
called  immutable  law  of  M.  Jean  Jullien.  As  a  matter  of  fact  Shaw's 
theatre  is  the  artistic  representation  of  a  clash  of  conceptions  and  not 
of  sentiments  ;  for  instance,  Candida  (Pre-Raphaelitism  versus  Christian 
Socialism),  Widowers'  Houses  (Capitalism  versus  Christian  Socialism), 
You  Never  Can  Tell  (Traditional  Education  versus  New  Education), 
Mrs.  Warren's  Profession  (Ideal  of  Traditional  Morality  versus  Real 
Life),  &c.  The  emotion  from  this  clash  of  concepts  is  intense  at  times, 
even  poignant  (Mrs.  Warren's  Profession,  Candida).  The  emotion 
is  almost  always  intellectual,  more  frequently  so  than  in  Ibsen,  and 
as  often  as  in  Moliere. 

Whoever  sees  a  play  of  Bernard  Shaw  witnesses  the  unfolding, 
the  development  and  manifestation  of  a  will  in  accordance  with 
Brunetiere's  desideratum.  In  Arms  and  the  Man  it  is  the  will  of 
Raina  and  that  of  Louka  ;  in  Man  and  Superman  that  of  Anne, 
Violet,  Hector  and  John  Tanner ;  in  The  Man.  of  Destiny  that  of 
Napoleon  and  the  lady ;  in  Widowers'  Houses  that  of  Blanche ;  in 
Mrs.  Warren's  Profession  that  of  Mrs.  Warren  and  Vivie ;  in  The 
Philanderer  that  of  Julia  and  Grace,  &c.  It  is  always  a  spectacle 
of  wills  in  conflict  with  each  other,  and  this  conflict  of  wills  and 
concepts  is  expressed  in  such  comical  contrast,  with  a  spirit  and 
animation  so  entertaining,  that  the  result  is  a  lively  and  stirring  action. 
So  much  so  that  the  spectator,  carried  away  breathless,  at  first  does 
not  perceive  the  profundity  of  the  ideas  with  which  these  plays  are 


56  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

crammed.  The  rapidity  of  this  action  is  assisted  by  the  dialogue  in 
all  Bernard  Shaw's  plays.  It  is  concise,  clear,  easy,  brilliant,  natural, 
humorous,  lively,  sarcastic,  and  ironical.  It  perhaps  represents  the 
best  theatrical  dialogue  we  know  of.  Certainly  the  dialogue  of  Dumas 
the  younger  has  just  as  much  spirit  and  animation  as  that  of  Bernard 
Shaw,  but  it  is  artificial,  whilst  that  of  our  author  is  real  and  living. 
In  Ibsen,  the  dialogue  is  not  more  condensed,  is  less  subtle,  and  cuts 
no  more  keenly  and  swiftly  than  it  does  in  Shaw ;  both  voluntarily 
insert  vulgarities,  which  is  a  necessary  effect  of  realism. 

One  of  the  characteristics  of  Bernard  Shaw's  drama  is  the  extra- 
ordinary imagination,  of  incomparable  fertility,  which  is  only  found 
elsewhere  in  Beaumarchais.  With  regard  to  wit,  one  might  repeat 
what  M.  E.  Faguet  wrote  of  Beaumarchais  :  '  He  has  wit  enough  to 
frighten  you ;  he  was  witty  nolens  volens  in  everything  he  put  his 
hand  to  ...  in  his  prefaces  which  were  even  more  amusing  than 
his  pieces.'  The  wit  of  Bernard  Shaw  is  more  amusing  than  that  of 
Messrs.  Courteline  and  Tristan  Bernard,  because  the  latter  is  artificial, 
whilst  Bernard  Shaw's  wit  is  profound.  Another  characteristic  of 
the  drama  of  Bernard  Shaw  is  the  originality  of  the  denouement. 
The  play  rarely  ends  in  the  way  it  would  have  been  contrived  by 
most  dramatists,  and  the  way  the  public  expect.  The  denouement 
is  reconciliation  (Candida,  Man  and  Superman,  and  Arms  and  the 
Man)  or  separation  and  destruction  (Mrs.  Warren's  Profession,  The 
Philanderer).  At  times  even,  just  as  in  actual  life,  there  is  no  de- 
nouement, a  method  likewise  used  by  an  Italian,  Gerolamo  Rovetta, 
in  imitation  of  the  system  which  was  common  in  the  old  Italian  drama. 

Theatrical  tradition  required  the  play  to  be  set  out  to  the  spectator 
in  the  first  act.  Bernard  Shaw,  following  consciously  or  otherwise 
the  example  of  the  Scandinavian  dramatists  Ibsen  and  Strindberg,  who 
renewed  what  Moliere  had  done  in  Le  Bourgeois  Gentilhomme,  com- 
bines exposition  and  action  in  his  plays.  Each  play  is  exhibited 
in  proportion  as  it  develops.  This  gives  a  more  unforeseen  character 
to  the  incidents  and  the  denouements,  and  renders  the  action  stronger 
and  more  realistic  at  the  same  time. 

Moliere's  drama  is  essentially  a  human  and  not  a  national  drama. 
Shaw's  drama  continues  the  tradition  of  Moliere.  It  is  a  human, 
an  international  drama,  and  not  a  national  English  one.  The  Crofts, 
the  Mrs.  Warrens,  the  Ramsdens,  the  Bluntschlis,  the  Sartoriuses, 
the  Malones,  &c.,  are  of  all  countries,  and  not  only  English.  This 
is  natural  and  logical,  since  Shaw  describes,  above  all,  collective 
characters  of  classes,  sects,  and  professions,  and  not  individuals  ; 
and  since  classes,  sects,  and  professions  have,  whatever  the  country, 
certain  common  characteristics,  as  has  been  shown  by  the  psycho- 
logists Fouillee,  A.  Hamon,  Paulhan,  G.  Lebon,  and  Tarde.  The 
Scandinavian  drama  is  differentiated  from  this  international  drama 


1908  UN  NOUVEAU  MOLIERE  57 

a  la  Moliere.    Dramatists  like  Ibsen,  Bjornson,  and  Strindberg  lived 
in  their  province  above  all,  and  so  powerful  is  the  influence  of  the 
environment  of  land  and  climate  on  the  individual  that  their  work- 
has  been  profoundly  affected  by  it. 

G.  Bernard  Shaw  is  essentially  a  revolutionary.  He  is  so  by  dis- 
position of  mind  and  by  nature.  Consequently  the  whole  of  his  work  is 
revolutionary.  Among  contemporary  dramatists  there  is  none  so 
revolutionary  as  he,  for  in  all,  under  all  forms,  he  is  a  revolutionary  ; 
much  more  so  than  was  Moliere,  whose  drama  was  nevertheless  in  great 
measure  revolutionary.  Thus,  contrary  to  the  stage  tradition, 
Bernard  Shaw  puts  men  of  the  people  among  the  principal  characters 
of  his  plays,  giving  them  sympathetic  parts  (Straker  in  Man  and 
Superman,  the  Waiter  in  You  Never  Can  Tell,  and  Giuseppe  in  The 
Man  of  Destiny).  This  is  a  thing  Ibsen  had  not  done.  Old  age  is 
necessarily  conservative,  and  youth  necessarily  novelty-loving  and 
revolutionary.  Shaw  glorifies  the  latter  (Eugene,  Vivie,  Frank,  Dolly) 
and  ridicules  the  former  (Samuel  Gardner,  Craven,  Cuthbertson, 
Petkoff,  Burgess,  &c.).  At  the  same  time,  our  author  revolutionises 
the  family  by  making  the  fathers  (the  elders)  more  or  less  grotesque, 
and  the  children  (the  young  people)  more  or  less  sympathetic  and 
pleasing.  Indeed,  G.  Bernard  Shaw  is  a  revolutionary  in  every- 
thing. Thus,  contrary  to  custom,  he  shows  that,  in  war,  victory 
does  not  belong  to  those  who  follow  military  rules,  but  to  the  others 
(The  Man  of  Destiny,  Arms  and  the  Man).  But  our  author  is  devoid 
of  all  manie  respectante,  in  the  happy  phrase  of  Beyle-Stendhal. 
Anything  like  respect  is  absolutely  foreign  to  him.  It  is  for  him  an 
unspeakable  pleasure  to  despise  everything  which  the  mass  is  accus- 
tomed to  respect.  His  entire  drama  is  one  continuous  disrespect  of 
all  that  contemporary  middle-class  society  loves,  admires,  and  glorifies. 
He  is  much  more  profoundly  disrespectful  than  are  Ibsen  and  Bjornson. 

M.  George  Brandes  and  Mr.  Selden  L.  Whitcomb  were  wrong  in 
asserting  that  Shaw  had  followed  Ibsen  in  the  expression  of  his  discon- 
tent with  the  social  order.  Shaw  was  a  socialist  and  a  socialist  writer 
before  he  even  knew  Ibsen.  Furthermore,  at  the  time  when  Bernard 
Shaw  began  to  write  plays,  criticism  of  society  and  of  its  organisation 
based  on  authority,  and  its  principle  based  on  capitalism,  was  the  order 
of  the  day.  It  haunted  the  minds  of  all  the  young  writers  of  the  time, 
novelists,  dramatists,  psychologists,  and  sociologists,  in  all  the 
countries  of  the  West.  Ideas  of  social  criticism  were  so  much  in  the 
air  that  we  sometimes  find  them  expressed  in  the  same  form,  at  the 
same  time  in  different  countries.  Thus  Bernard  Shaw  makes  Petkoff 
say  in  Arms  and  the  Man  (1894)  :  '  Soldiering  has  to  be  a  trade  like 
any  other  trade.'  And  A.  Hamon  in  The  Psychology  of  the  Professional 
Soldier  (November  1893)  says  :  '  In  brief,  the  military  profession  is  a 
trade  just  like  another,  carried  on  exactly  like  the  others.' 


58  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

M.  Regis  Michaud  has  very  justly  noted  the  remarkable  unity 
of  the  ideas  of  Bernard  Shaw,  and  this  is  explained  without  difficulty, 
owing  to  the  very  fact  that  our  author  is  a  socialist  by  reasoning  and 
an  anarchist  by  nature.  He  therefore  regards  the  whole  of  present 
society,  the  family,  justice,  government,  industry,  commerce,  war, 
militarism,  and  education,  from  the  point  of  view  of  libertarian 
socialism.  The  unity  of  the  critical  point  of  view  results  in  the  unity 
of  the  ideas  expressed. 

Bernard  Shaw,  just  as  much  as  Moli£re,  and  as  much  as,  if  not  more 
than,  Ibsen,  criticises  and  detests  hypocrisy,  constraint,  and  discipline 
imposed  by  others — in  short,  authority.  All  three  hate  falsehood,  and 
say,  with  Gregoire  Werle,  in  the  Canard  Sauvage  :  '  It  is  better  to 
destroy  happiness  than  to  base  it  on  falsehood.'  It  would  be  difficult 
to  find  a  social  convention,  a  fundamental  organism  of  our  society, 
which  Bernard  Shaw  does  not  criticise  relentlessly  and  lash  with 
steel-pointed  thongs.  But  he  criticises  and  lashes  so  agreeably  that 
the  middle  people  are  pleased  though  they  are  beaten.  With  Bernard 
Shaw  the  censure  of  our  contemporary  society  is  much  deeper 
than  with  Ibsen.  It  is  even  deeper  than  that  of  Moliere  for  the 
society  of  his  time.  Ibsen  in  his  criticisms  always  stops  half- 
way. For  the  most  part,  the  social  causes  of  individual  vices  escape 
his  notice,  though  an  exception  must  be  made  as  regards  the  principle 
of  authority,  the  harmfulness  of  which  he  clearly  grasped  and  exposed. 
Bernard  Shaw,  however,  has  been  to  the  very  bottom  of  the  social 
abyss.  He  has  seen  its  organisation,  and  has  grasped  all  its 
mechanism.  It  is  this  which  constitutes  the  depth  and  scientific 
accuracy  of  his  censure.  Furthermore,  owing  to  the  very  fact  that 
in  politics  Ibsen  was  what  we  call  in  France  a  Radical  and  Shaw 
is  a  Socialist,  the  criticism  of  the  former  was  only  directed  against 
individuals,  but  of  the  latter  necessarily  against  social  causes. 

The  whole  of  the  contemporary  drama  is  strongly  impregnated  with 
criticism  of  the  social  conventions,  because  it  is,  generally  speaking, 
a  problem  drama,  and  because  the  problem  has  evolved,  passing  from 
purely  family  questions  (Dumas  the  younger)  to  the  various  social 
questions ;  but  the  censure  in  the  drama  of  Mirbeau,  Emile  Fabre, 
and  Brieux  is  less  remorseless  than  that  of  Shaw,  although  presented 
under  a  severer  form,  because,  as  I  have  said,  Bernard  Shaw  attacks 
the  deep-lying  causes  of  capitalist  society. 

Bernard  Shaw  is  a  thinker  as  well  as  an  artist.  As  a  thinker 
he  has  a  philosophy,  and  naturally  it  is  very  revolutionary  and  highly 
original.  He  has  dispersed  it  throughout  his  pieces,  and  it  would  be 
easily  gathered  together,  if  he  had  not  made  this  work  almost  needless 
by  condensing  all  his  philosophic  ideas  in  the  third  act  of  Man  and 
Superman — the  one  played  alone  at  times  under  the  title  of  Don  Juan  in 
Hell — and  in  its  complement,  The  Revolutionist's  Handbook.  We  do 


1908  UN  NOUVBAU  MOLI&RE  69 

not  wish  here  to  dwell  upon  the  philosophy  peculiar  to  our  author. 
It  will  suffice  to  note  its  most  characteristic  features,  those  brought 
out  by  the  plays  themselves. 

In  the  very  first  place,  it  clearly  appears  that  his  is  a  determinist 
drama  ;  that  is  to  say,  he  shows  characters  whose  actions  or  thoughts 
are  determined  by  a  multitude  of  influences  of  all  the  environments 
(ancestral,  family,  educative,  social,  climatic,  country,  economic, 
political,  &c.)  in  which  he  places  them.  From  this  point  of  view 
Bernard  Shaw's  drama  is  a  scientific  drama,  as  now  the  universal  illusion 
of  free  will  is  scientifically  demonstrated  and  admitted  by  all  scientists.1 

Moreover,  it  is  the  general  tendency  of  the  contemporary  drama, 
both  in  Ibsen  and  Bjornson  and  in  Pinero,  Brieux,  Hervieu,  and 
de  Curel.  With  our  author  determinism  is  social  above  all ;  I  mean 
that  in  his  capacity  as  a  socialist  thinker  he  attributes  a  preponde- 
rating influence  to  society  in  determining  actions — that  is  to  say,  to 
the  economico-political  conditions  of  the  social  environment  in  which 
his  personages  move.  See  the  explanations  of  Mrs.  Warren,  Sartorius 
or  Napoleon,  Bluntschli  or  John  Tanner.  »In  this  social  determinism  is 
found  a  further  differentiation  from  the  drama  of  Ibsen,  which  allots 
the  predominating  influence  to  ancestral  conditions,  to  the  individual 
condition  independently  of  the  social  environment  in  which  the 
individual  lives.  Whereas  the  great  Greek  tragic  and  comic  writers, 
and  Shakespeare,  contrive  the  intervention  of  Fate,  Ibsen  and  Shaw 
display  the  intervention  of  the  various  conditions  of  the  environments 
in  which  the  personages  move,  but  in  the  drama  of  these  master 
geniuses  what  has  to  be  always  will  be  ;  everyone  will  always  inevitably 
undergo  his  destiny.  There  is  nothing  more  demonstrative  on  this 
point  than  the  amusing  pursuit  of  Tanner  by  Anne  in  Man  and 
Superman,  or  that  of  Valentine  by  Gloria  in  You  Never  Can  Tell. 
For  Shaw,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  love  is  all-powerful  and  fatal.  Nothing 
can  prevent  a  man  being  caught  in  the  toils  when  woman  has  deter- 
mined that  he  shall  be  hers.  What  was  to  be  is.  We  find  the  same 
idea  again  in  a  tragic  and  painful  form  in  the  drama  of  the  misogynist 
Strindberg.  A  creature  of  love,  a  seeker  and  a  capturer  of  men,  such 
is  for  Shaw  the  essence  of  Woman.  Mrs.  Warren  says  so  explicitly. 
It  is  on  this  essence  that  he  built  up  his  marvellous  feminine  types, 
Candida,  Mrs.  Warren,  Grace,  Julia,  Sylvia,  Blanche,  Raina,  Louka, 
Mrs.  Clandon,  Gloria,  Dolly,  Anne,  Violet,  and  so  many  others.  I  do 
not  remember  who  was  the  critic  who  observed  that  no  literature 
presented  such  a  surprising  gallery  of  women  as  the  English  theatre  of 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  with  Marlowe,  Shakespeare, 
Webster,  Beaumont  and  Fletcher.  Curiously  enough,  the  gallery 
of  women  which  Bernard  Shaw  has  painted  is  quite  as  astonishing  in 
variety  of  character.  For  this  reason  it  wrung  admiration  from 

1  See  in  particular  The  Universal  Illusion  of  Free  Will  and  Criminal  Responsi- 
bility, by  A.  Hamon  (London,  1899). 


60  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUKY  July 

M.  Augustin  Filon,  a  critic  who  nevertheless  is  far  from  fond  of  this 
author  (Revue  des  deux  Mondes). 

•The  love  which  Shaw  places  in  the  souls  of  his  feminine  characters 
is  generally  not  sensual.  In  his  view  woman  loves  above  all  because 
of  her  need  to  protect  (Candida,  Violet,  Gloria,  and  Grace).  The 
whole  of  love  is,  in  them,  tinged  with  maternity. 

Although  Bernard  Shaw  is  an  unsparing  critic  of  present  capitalist 
society,  the  general  philosophy  gathered  from  his  drama  is  optimism. 
Gaiety  is  necessarily  optimistic,  and  therefore  this  optimism  is  found 
in  all  comic  writers.  This  optimism,  even  in  his  bitter  censures  of 
contemporary  society,  differentiates  Shaw's  drama  more  from  that 
of  Ibsen  than  from  that  of  Bjornson.  In  truth,  whilst  Bjornson  is 
generally  an  optimist,  Ibsen  is  a  pessimist,  both  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  society  of  to-day  and  from  that  of  the  society  of  to-morrow. 
From  the  negative  or  destructive,  and  positive  or  constructive  point 
of  view,  the  philosophy  which  the  plays  of  Bernard  Shaw  contain  is 
a  synthesis  of  socialism  and  anarchism.  It  is  a  philosophy  similar  to 
that  which  is  brought  forward  in  the  works  of  'the  socialist  and 
anarchist  sociologists,  such  as  Karl  Marx,  Bakounin,  Elisee  Reclus, 
G.  De  Greef,  Hector  Denis,  Kropotkin,  Proudhon,  Friedrich  Engels, 
A.  Hamon,  Emile  Vandervelde,  &c.,  though  from  the  causal  point 
of  view  his  philosophy  differs  entirely  from  that  of  these  writers  ;  it 
has  a  somewhat  theosophic  aspect.  A  detailed  study,  however,  would 
take  us  too  far,  and  outside  the  scope  of  this  article. 

In  principle,  as  was  said  by  M.  Emile  Faguet,  realistic  art 
must  be  as  impersonal  as  possible.  It  must  reveal  nothing  of  the 
passions  of  the  author.  In  practice  this  impersonality  is  always 
impaired,  as  it  is  impossible  for  the  author  to  be  so  purely  objective 
as  not  to  reflect  in  his  work  his  tendencies  of  mind,  character,  and 
feeling.  Bernard  Shaw,  in  whom  the  sense  of  justice  is  highly  de- 
veloped, is  certainly  objective  to  a  high  degree.  It  is  not  even  open  to 
dispute  that  he  endeavours  to  present  the  various  aspects  and  various 
causes  of  one  and  the  same  human  action.  He  strives  towards  the 
utmost  impartiality,  but  whatever  his  endeavours  he  does  not  attain 
to  the  absolute  impartiality  which  would  be  so  desirable.  He  is  the 
less  able  to  do  so  because  he  is  a  high  moralist,  and  wishes  his  plays  to 
form  lessons.  In  one  of  his  prefaces  he  states  so  categorically.  His 
object  is  to  teach.  Here  again  he  differentiates  from  Ibsen,  who  very 
energetically  disavows  any  desire  to  teach.  *  I  am  a  painter  and  not 
an  educator,'  said  the  Norwegian  dramatist,  '  an  artist  and  not  a 
philosopher.  I  ask  you  to  believe  that  the  ideas  which  I  write  in 
my  plays,  both  in  form  and  substance,  do  not  proceed  from  myself,  but 
from  the  dramatic  characters  in  my  plays.' 2  It  is  quite  otherwise  as 
regards  Bernard  Shaw,  who  declares  that  he  has  the  soul  of  a  school- 

2  Cf.  Ossip  Louri6,  La  Philosophic  d1  Ibsen. 


1908  UN  NOUVEAU  MOLIERE  61 

master.  Just  like  Strindberg,  our  author  makes  use  of  the  stage  as 
a  means  of  exposing  and  translating  his  ideas,  of  shouting  his  thoughts 
and  opinions  at  the  world.  Like  Aristophanes,  Bernard  Shaw  regards 
the  theatre  as  in  very  fact  a  tribune.  To  them,  the  domain  of  the 
comic  poet  is  without  limits,  and  his  moralising  mission  is  universal. 
From  the  stage  they  speak  to  the  entire  world,  embracing  all  in  their 
criticism  with  the  most  complete  disrespect  of  everything.  From 
this  point  of  view  our  author's  plays  recall  the  English  drama  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  which  dealt  with  all  questions  which  could  concern 
a  man  and  a  British  citizen.  With  Terence,  Bernard  Shaw  can  say 
'  Homo  sum,  humani  nihil  a  me  alienum  puto.'  Nothing  that  concerns 
men  is  foreign  to  him,  and  in  all  matters  he  plays  the  part  of  a  school- 
master. But  what  a  schoolmaster !  Amusing  and  profound,  playful 
and  serious.  To  him  we  can  apply  what  Santeuil  said  of  the  old 
Italian  comedy  :  '  Castigat  ridendo  mores.'  The  whole  of  his  work 
is  for  moralisation  of  humanity,  but  a  moralisation  having  nothing 
traditional,  and  even  opposed  to  customary  morals.  In  truth,  no 
play  by  Bernard  Shaw  defends  conventional  morals  according  to 
bourgeois  traditions  and  customs.  No  denouement  agrees  with 
traditional  morals.  On  a  superficial  examination  it  would  seem  that 
Candida  remaining  with  her  husband,  the  Pastor  Morell,  and  Vivie 
refusing  to  benefit  by  the  fortune  acquired  by  her  mother,  Mrs.  Warren, 
in  a  so-called  immoral  way,  are  endings  in  accordance  with  tradi- 
tional morals.  A  deeper  examination  shows,  however,  that  this  is 
only  so  in  appearance,  and  that  the  determining  causes  of  the  actions 
of  Candida  and  Vivie  have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  concern  for 
society  morality. 

Another  point  of  similarity  between  G.  Bernard  Shaw  and  Moliere 
is  the  common  fate  which  has  overtaken  many  of  the  plays  of  each. 
It  is  well  known  that  Moliere  saw  his  L'Avare,  Le  Misanthrope,  Les 
Femmes  Savantes,  and  L'Ecole  des  Femmes  turn  out  failures.  Bernard 
Shaw  in  turn  had  to  be  appreciated  by  the  Americans — which  was  no 
doubt  very  painful  to  him,  in  view  of  the  opinion  he  has  repeatedly 
expressed  regarding  them — and  the  Germans,  before  gaining  the 
appreciation  of  his  fellow-citizens  of  Great  Britain.  Every  play 
produced  by  Moliere  aroused  disparaging  criticism  without  end. 
Every  play  produced  by  Shaw  arouses  the  anger  of  the  Sarceys  of  all 
countries.  But  like  Moliere,  '  il  ne  se  soucie  pas  qu'on  fronde  ses 
pieces  pourvu  qu'il  y  vienne  du  monde '  (La  Critique  de  L'Ecole  des 
Femmes).  But  simultaneously  with  anger  he  also  arouses  sympathy. 
Moliere  had  partisans  and  adversaries,  and  G.  Bernard  Shaw  likewise 
has  partisans  and  adversaries.  Now,  however,  he  has  splendidly 
conquered  and  is  facile  princeps  in  the  contemporary  English  theatre, 
and  even  the  theatre  of  the  world. 

His  plays,  which  are  extremely  varied,  are  also  extremely  amusing. 


62  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

He  utters  truths  with  laughter,  and  his  perpetual  laughter  has  had 
this  result,  that  Americans,  and  above  all  the  English,  have  not 
quite  understood  him,  and  do  not  yet  quite  understand  him.  They 
never  know  whether  the  author  is  serious  or  not,  or  rather  they  always 
think  that  he  is  joking  and  does  not  mean  what  he  says.  As  regards 
the  English  and  Americans,  as  one  of  them,  Mr.  Archibald  Henderson, 
a  great  admirer  of  Bernard  Shaw,  wrote,  '  love  of  the  paradox  and 
of  buffoonery  are  prejudicial  to  him.'  It  is  very  amusing,  indeed, 
this  complete  failure  to  perceive  one  of  the  finest  qualities  of  our 
author.  Under  the  influence  of  religion  for  ages,  the  Anglo-Saxon 
has  acquired  a  habit  of  mind  full  of  hypocrisy  and  cant,  from  which  all 
intellectual  virtuosity  is  absent,  as  Shaw  rightly  points  out.  He  is 
unable  to  understand  the  finesse  and  the  height  of  view  of  an  ironical 
tale  of  Voltaire,  a  philosophic  drama  by  Eenan,  or  a  novel  by 
Anatole  France.  Consequently  he  is  unable  to  understand  Bernard 
Shaw,  whose  drama  is  redolent  of  all  these  qualities,  as  M.  Regis 
Michaud  has  justly  observed.  Furthermore,  this  failure  to  under- 
stand on  the  part  of  the  Anglo-Americans  is  not  likely  to  astonish 
those  who  know  that  falsehood  is  so  usual  a  thing  that  people  who 
believe  when  the  truth  is  told  them  are  very  rare.  Shaw,  however, 
loves  to  utter  the  truth,  and  then  those  who  are  accustomed  to  lie  do 
not  believe  what  he  is  saying.  They  take  him  for  a  jester  or  a  clown, 
and  do  not  believe  that  he  really  means  the  biting  criticisms  with 
which  he  assails  capitalist  society  with  all  that  supports  it.  Never- 
theless, it  is  clear  to  everyone  who  studies  Bernard  Shaw  and  his  work 
impartially  that  Shaw  really  expresses  his  opinions  when  he  lashes 
capitalist  society  and  its  hypocrisy.  Shaw  says  so  himself  in  his 
preface  to  his  Plays  Unpleasant,  and  we  should  wrong  him  to  think 
that  in  saying  this  he  was  merely  jesting  in  order  to  deceive  his  readers. 

Although  Shaw  writes  in  English,  his  constitution  of  mind  is  very 
different  from  that  of  the  Englishman,  since  he  is  an  Irishman.  In 
this  difference  may  no  doubt  be  found  one  of  the  causes  of  his  incom- 
prehensibility to  his  compatriots.  Bernard  Shaw  is  an  Irishman,  and 
therefore  one  feels  no  astonishment  in  noting  his  intellectual  rela- 
tionship to  Swift,  Sterne,  Sheridan,  and  Goldsmith.  Like  them,  he 
is  refined  and  vulgar,  subtle  and  trivial,  witty,  original  and  sublime. 
I  have  no  doubt  whatever  that,  in  French,  Bernard  Shaw's  drama  is 
destined  to  achieve  brilliant  success,  because  it  is  not  national  but 
human  drama.  His  comedies  are  not  an  image  of  English  society, 
but  an  image  of  contemporary  human  society.  There  are  of  course  a 
few  traits  relating  to  habits  and  ways  peculiar  to  the  English,  but 
they  are  so  general  that  all  cultured  people  in  the  world  know  them  and 
are  interested  in  them. 

France,  the  country  which  gave  the  world  Moli£re  and  Beaumar- 
chais,  will  necessarily  love  Shaw,  their  intellectual  son.  The  French- 
man, whilst  laughing  and  '  se  dilatant  la  rate,'  to  use  the  Rabelaisian 


1908  UN  NOUVEAU  MOLIEBE  68 

expression,   will  understand  the  bitterness  and  the  justice  of  the    • 
criticism  with  which  Bernard  Shaw  lashes  society.     To  sum  up  in  one 
word,  the  dramatic  work  of  Bernard  Shaw  is  more  French  than  English, 
although  it  was  written  in  the  English  language. 

To  secure  success  for  plays  of  this  character  in  England  it  was 
needful  to  possess  the  tenacity,  the  audacity,  and,  let  us  say  the  word, 
the  cheek  of  Bernard  Shaw.  There  were  so  many  bonds  to  be  broken  ! 
— cant,  religious  scruples,  &c.  In  France,  none  of  these  trammels 
exists.  It  is  only  required  to  overcome  the  inertia  of  the  directors 
of  theatres,  economic  competition,  and  the  benumbing  misoneism 
of  the  playgoers.  The  extreme  clearness  of  the  drama  of  Bernard 
Shaw  will  endear  him  to  French  minds,  which  are  imbued  by  nature 
with  a  predilection  for  clearness  of  thought.  To  us  Frenchmen,  this 
is  the  great  point  of  superiority  of  this  drama  over  that  of  the 
Scandinavians  and  the  Germans,  which  is  always  somewhat  misty, 
somewhat  confined  owing  to  the  very  nature  of  the  country  in  which 
it  moves.  France  is  the  boulevard  of  nations,  the  point  of  confluence 
where  mingle  the  social  rivers  of  all  nationalities,  and  by  this  very 
fact  it  comprehends  in  a  greater  degree  the  general  human  elements 
which  abound  in  our  author's  drama. 

The  influence  of  Molifire  has  been  considerable  on  authors  of  all 
.countries,  and  there  seems  little  doubt  that  Bernard  Shaw  will  likewise 
have  a  considerable  influence  on  future  French  and  other  dramatists. 
The  renovation  of  the  dramatic  art,  the  dawn  of  which  we  thought 
we. saw  in  the  years  1889-94,  has  led  to  such  meagre  results  that  they 
may  almost  be  passed  over.     It  seems  to  me  that  Bernard  Shaw  will 
be  the  initiator  of  this  renovation,  when  his  drama  becomes  known 
in  France.      In  England,  as  we  have  seen,  his  possible  disciples  are 
under  too  many  trammels  to  allow  them  to  conquer  and  force  them- 
selves on  the  public.     The  German  and  Scandinavian  minds  from 
certain  points  of  view  are  too  greatly  differentiated  from  Shaw  to 
admit  of  finding  those  who  will  follow  in  his  footsteps  and  continue  his 
methods.     Spain  groans  under  the  terrible  rule  imposed  by  religion 
and  prevents  any  expansion  of  the  individual  beyond  traditions. 
One  must  live  in  a  free  country  to  produce  a  work  of  beauty  and 
thought.     Russia  is  exhausting  her  powers  in  her  revolution,  and 
lives  in  a  state  of  nervousness  which  renders  her  incapable  of  pro- 
ducing men  of  sufficiently  healthy  intellect  to  create  a  new  drama. 
Italy,  with  its  traditions  and  its  addiction  to  the  pathetic  and  the 
redundant,  appears  too  remote  from  the  time  when  it  will  be  able 
to  give  birth  to  dramatists,  disciples  of  Shaw.     In  my  mind,  every- 
thing suggests  that  Bernard   Shaw's    drama  will  call   forth  many 
disciples  in  France  and  Belgium  as  soon  as  it  is  known,  being  so 
closely  akin  to  the  French  mind  in  the  nature  of  its  technique  and  its 
substance. 

AUGUSTIN  HAMON. 


64  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 


WOMEN    AND    THE    SUFFRAGE 


PERHAPS  none  of  Shakespeare's  plays  are  more  remarkable  for  that 
exquisite  blending  of  playfulness  and  wit  to  which  our  Gallic  neigh- 
bours give  the  name  of  gaietl  de  cceur  than  The  Merchant  of  Venice. 

It  has  another  claim  to  distinction.  In  the  character  of  Portia 
it  gives  one  of  the  most  perfect  portraits  of  a  woman,  whose  essential 
charm  is  womanliness,  of  all  Shakespeare's  gallery  of  female  portraits. 

Can  any  true  woman  read  unmoved  the  words  in  which  Portia 
gives  her  love  and  her  destiny  into  Bassanio's  hands  ? 

You  see  me,  Lord  Bassanio,  where  I  stand, 

Such  as  I  am  :  though  for  myself  alone 

I  would  not  be  ambitious  in  my  wish, 

To  wish  myself  much  better  ;  yet,  for  you 

I  would  be  trebled  twenty  times  myself, 

A  thousand  times  more  fair,  ten  thousand  times  more  rich  ; 

That  only  to  stand  high  in  your  account, 

I  might  in  virtues,  beauties,  livings,  friends, 

Exceed  account ;  but  the  full  sum  of  me 

Is  sum  of  something,  which,  to  term  in  gross, 

Is  an  unlesson'd  girl,  unschooled,  unpractis'd ;' 

Happy  in  this,  she  is  not  yet  so  old 

But  she  may  learn  ;  and  happier  than  this, 

She  is  not  bred  so  dull  but  she  can  learn ; 

Happiest  of  all  is,  that  her  gentle  spirit 

Commits  itself  to  yours  to  be  directed, 

As  from  her  lord,  her  governor,  her  king. 

To  one  who  takes,  as  I  do,  what  may  be  called  the  old-fashioned 
view  of  woman's  position  in  the  world,  the  above  quotation  is,  to  say 
the  least  of  it,  striking.  But  my  object  was  not  primarily  that  of 
adorning  my  page  with  the  exquisite  words  of  Shakespeare's  ideal 
woman,  or  even  drawing  attention  to  her  character. 

There  is  another  point  in  the  play  which,  by  analogy,  seems  to 
me  to  throw  considerable  light  on  the  controversy  of  which  we  hear 
so  much  :  whether  women  are  likely  to  get  parliamentary  representa- 
tion, and  if  conceded  to  them,  whether  it  would  be  a  benefit,  or  the 
reverse. 

The  plot  of  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  as  we  all  know,  turns  on  Shy- 


1908  WOMEN  AND    THE   SUFFRAGE  65 

lock's  discomfiture.  It  may  be  reckoned  an  ingenious  one,  though 
an  ardent  admirer  of  Shakespeare  has  spoken  of  it  as  a  '  sorry  quibble.' 
Still,  it  was  clearly  necessary  in  order  that  Portia's  woman's  wit  should 
triumph.  Also,  that  the  story  should  end  gaily  instead  of  striking 
a  note  of  tragedy  at  its  conclusion.  But  to  some  minds — probably 
ill-regulated  ones — there  is  an  interest  in  considering  the  possible 
other  side  of  the  question.  In  short,  the  '  might  have  beens.' 

Supposing,  therefore,  Shylock  had  elected  to  claim  his  pound  of 
flesh  at  all  costs  ?  True,  the  penalties  were  severe :  confiscation  of 
life  and  property.  But  he  is  represented  by  the  hand  that  drew  him 
as  savage  enough  to  push  matters  to  the  bitter  end,  as  many  from 
similar  motives  of  racial  hatred  have  done  both  before  his  time  and 
since. 

The  illustration  is  a  simple  one.  Are  women,  in  the  mad  pursuit 
of  their  pound  of  flesh  in  which  we  see  them  engaged  at  this  moment, 
bringing  upon  themselves — by  natural  laws  higher  and  more  universal 
in  their  bearing  than  any  of  the  most  puissant  state  of  Venice — pains 
and  penalties,  such  as  should  do  well  to  make  them  pause  in  their 
wild  career  ? 

To  prove  my  point — namely,  that  women  would  lose  infinitely 
more  than  they  gain  by  parliamentary  enfranchisement — I  should 
like  to  make  a  few  remarks  on  woman's  position,  as  illustrated  by 
those  who  support  these  pretensions  and  those  who  are  opposed  to 
their  being  granted. 

To  begin  with  the  latter :  it  is  generally  urged,  with  perhaps  a 
certain  amount  of  truth,  that  women  are  incapacitated  by  natural 
reasons — such  as  inferior  brain  capacity,  indifference  to  the  larger 
questions  of  policy,  as  apart  from  the  men  who  support  them — from 
taking  an  active  part  in  the  government  of  their  country  such  as  the 
possession  of  a  vote  would  confer  upon  them.  This  view  of  the 
question,  an  essentially  masculine  one,  seems  to  me  open  to  objection. 
It  is  a  cheap  form  of  masculine  wit  to  generalise  about  women  in  a 
way  that  would  certainly  be  looked  upon  as  childish  in  the  extreme 
if  the  same  words  (and  arguments)  were  used  with  regard  to  men. 
And  because  there  has  been  hitherto  no  female  Homer,  Michael  Angelo, 
or  Shakespeare  seems  no  reason,  in  itself,  for  excluding  her  from 
parliamentary  franchise.  Still  an  unbiassed  mind  may  admit  a  grain 
of  truth  in  a  bushel  of  chaff.  And  that  there  is  a  grain  of  truth  in  the 
assertion  commonly  made  with  regard  to  women  that  they  are  not, 
by  nature,  politicians  would  be  generally  admitted.  The  stock  proof 
of  this  is  that  a  number  of  women  meeting  together,  whether  at  a 
tea  party  or  at  any  other  strictly  feminine  gathering,  rarely  discuss 
politics  in  any  class  of  life.  Again,  the  political  situation  is  probably 
not  the  first  subject  to  which  she  turns  in  reading  the  news  of  the 
day.  A  man  on  his  way  to  business  buys  a  newspaper,  and  studies 
the  state  of  the  markets,  the  sporting  column,  or  politics.  A  woman 
VOL.  LX1V— No.  377  F 


66  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

in  a  similar  situation,  unless  she  is  personally  interested  in  the  success 
of  some  man,  or  in  some  measure  by  which  she  or  he  is  personally 
affected,  reads  the  fashions,  the  literary  column,  or  the  gossip  of  the 
day.  With  a  woman  in  the  immeasurably  larger  number  of  cases — 
so  large,  in  fact,  that  the  exception  may  be  taken  as  a  negligible 
quantity — it  is  alleged  measures  mean  a  man. 

The  objection  that  could  be  taken  to  the  above  assertions  is  one 
that  I  venture  to  think  has  not  so  far  met  with  the  recognition  it 
deserves,  and  that  is  the  power -women  have  of  adaptability  to  new 
surroundings  and  conditions. 

Woman's  talents  generally  take  a  practical  direction.  As  a  rule 
her  soul  abhors  the  abstract  as  much  as  nature  is  said  to  abhor  a 
vacuum  ;  but  give  her  the  concrete,  a  vote  by  which  she  can  back  up 
a  friend  or  wreak  vengeance  on  a  foe,  and  she  will  spare  no  pains  to 
master  the  subject,  and  cast  all  aside  in  order  to  throw  herself  into 
the  fray,  and  take  and  give  blows  with  the  best  of  the  combatants. 

The  problem  before  us  seems  to  me,  therefore,  to  turn  not  so  much 
upon  whether  women  are  capable  of  making  the  best  use  of  the 
franchise,  as  to  whether  the  advantage  they,  and  humanity  in  general, 
would  derive  from  it  would  be  at  all  commensurate  with  certain  and 
inevitable  loss. 

Is  it  possible  that  the  sober-minded  philosopher  of  either  sex  can 
look  with  light-hearted  approval  on  a  revolution  of  which  it  is  im- 
possible to  estimate  the  far-reaching  consequences,  but  which,  to  put 
it  at  the  lowest  computation,  must  alter  the  existing  conditions  and 
relations  of  the  sexes  in  this  country  to  a  very  considerable  extent  ? 

For  hitherto  man  has  had  it  all  his  own  way  in  the  active  domain 
of  politics.  Woman  has  used  her  influence  ;  she  has  pulled  the  strings, 
but  she  has  kept  aloof  from  the  stage.  Is  this  as  it  should  be,  or  is  it 
a  wrong  which  those  who  wish  her  well  should  lose  no  time  in  redress- 
ing ?  To  answer  this  it  would  be  as  well  to  take  man's  view  of  his 
vocation  in  life,  and  we  will  do  so  in  the  words  of  a  master  of  word- 
craft,  Lord  Morley  of  Blackburn. 

Speaking  of  Gladstone  at  the  termination  of  his  University  career 
he  says  :  '  The  end  of  it  all,  as  Aristotle  said  it  should  be,  was  not 
knowing  but  doing,  honourable  desire  of  success,  satisfaction  of  the 
hopes  of  friends,  a  general  literary  appetite,  conscious  preparation  for 
private  and  public  duty  in  the  world,  a  steady  progression  out  of 
the  shallows  into  the  depths,  a  gaze  beyond  garden  and  cloister  in 
agmen,  in  pulverem,  in  clamorem,  to  the  dust,  and  burning  sun,  and 
shouting  of  the  days  of  conflict.' 

Action  therefore,  the  joining  in  the  fray,  the  giving  and  taking 
of  blows,  is  the  natural  outcome  of  the  years  of  preparation  that  go 
to  form  a  man's  character  and  mind  in  early  life,  and  is  the  end  and 
object  of  them.  That  it  is  not  so  with  all  may  be  readily  conceded. 
But  man  at  his  best  is  essentially  a  man  of  action  ;  and  nations  share 


1908  WOMEN  AND   THE  SUFFRAGE  67 

this  characteristic  with  the  individual.  Home  in  its  decadence  was 
not  without  its  galaxy  of  brilliant  minds.  Letters  and  the  fine  arts 
flourished,  but  man  was  plunged  in  luxury  ;  he  became  effete  ;  woman 
shared  his  degradation,  and  the  home  which  should  have  been  a 
centre  of  purity  and  peace  was  a  plague  spot  on  the  earth,  and  Rome 
fell. 

Let  us  take  a  companion  picture  to  Morley's  from  Ruskin's 
Sesame  and  Lilies. 

We  are  foolish  [he  says]  and  without  excuse  foolish  in  speaking  of  the 
'  superiority '  of  one  sex  to  the  other,  as  if  they  could  be  compared  in  similar 
things.  Each  has  what  the  other  has  not :  each  completes  the  other,  and  is 
completed  by  the  other :  they  are  in  nothing  alike,  and  the  happiness  and  per- 
fection of  both  depends  on  each  asking  and  receiving  from  the  other  what  the 
other  only  can  give. 

Now  the  separate  characters  are  briefly  these.  The  man's  power  is  active, 
progressive,  defensive.  He  is  eminently  the  doer,  the  creator,  the  discoverer, 
the  defender.  His  intellect  is  for  speculation  and  invention ;  his  energy  for 
adventure,  for  war,  and  for  conquest  wherever  war  is  just,  wherever  conquest  is 
necessary.  But  woman's  power  is  for  rule,  not  for  battle — and  her  intellect  is 
not  for  invention  or  creation,  but  for  sweet  ordering,  arrangement,  and  decision. 
She  sees  the  quality  of  things,  their  claims,  and  their  places.  Her  great  function 
is  praise  :  she  enters  into  no  contest,  but  infallibly  adjudges  the  crown  of  con- 
test. By  her  office  and  place  she  is  protected  from  all  danger  and  temptation. 
The  man  in  his  rough  work  in  the  open  world  must  encounter  all  peril  and 
trial ;  to  him  therefore  must  be  the  failure,  the  offence,  the  inevitable  error. 
Often  he  must  be  wounded  or  subdued;  often  misled;  and  always  hardened. 
But  he  guards  the  woman  from  all  this ;  within  his  house,  as  ruled  by  her,  unless 
she  herself  has  sought  it,  need  enter  no  danger,  no  temptation,  no  cause  of  error 
or  offence.  This  is  the  true  nature  of  home — it  is  the  place  of  peace ;  the 
shelter,  not  only  from  all  injury,  but  from  all  terror,  doubt,  or  division.  In  so 
far  as  it  is  not  this,  it  is  not  home ;  so  far  as  the  anxieties  of  the  outer  life  pene- 
trate into  it,  and  the  inconsistently-minded,  unknown,  unloved,  or  hostile 
society  of  the  outer  world  is  allowed  by  either  husband  or  wife  to  cross  the 
threshold,  it  ceases  to  be  home  ;  it  is  then  only  a  part  of  that  outer  world  which 
you  have  roofed  over  and  lighted  fire  in.  Bu£  so  far  as  it  is  a  sacred  place,  a 
vestal  temple,  a  temple  of  the  hearth  watched  over  by  household  gods,  before 
whose  faces  none  may  come  but  those  whom  they  can  receive  with  love — as  far 
as  it  is  this,  and  roof  and  fire  are  types  only  of  a  nobler  shade  and  light,  shade 
as  of  the  rock  in  a  weary  land,  and  light  as  of  the  Pharos  in  the  stormy  seas — 
so  far  it  vindicates  the  name,  and  fulfils  the  praise  of  home.  And  wherever  a 
true  wife  comes,  this  home  is  always  round  her. 

In  claiming  Ruskin  as  a  witness  to  what  I  have  called  the  old- 
fashioned — and  perhaps  for  the  moment  the  unpopular — side  of  the 
controversy  now  raging,  it  may  be  allowed,  at  least,  that  I  have  sought 
support  from  one  who  has  never  ceased  proclaiming  from  the  house- 
tops his  belief  in  woman  and  her  high  destiny.  Never  has  Ruskin 
lost  an  opportunity  of  avowing  his  admiration  for  her  gifts,  her  mission, 
and  her  power,  provided  she  follows  those  well-indicated  paths  in 
which  nature,  and  the  common-sense  of  mankind  (and  by  mankind 
her  own  sex  should  be  included),  has  hitherto  held  her  restrained. 

F   2 


68  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

That  these  restraints  are  only  restraints  in  the  sense  that  the  police- 
man is  one  to  the  evil-doer  who  wishes  to  break  laws  imposed  for  the 
benefit  of  society  generally,  is  a  position  which  in  the  present  heated 
state  of  feminine  public  opinion  would  probably  be  strongly  con- 
tested. Nevertheless  I  believe  it  is  one  which  a  plebiscite  of  the 
women  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  would  endorse.  For  can  any 
doubt  exist  as  to  the  true  ideal  of  the  relations  between  the  sexes, 
in  theory  at  least  if  not  in  practice  ?  Is  it  not  that  the  interests 
and  aspirations  of  man  and  woman  should  be  identical,  so  that  they 
should  labour  hand-in-hand,  the  one  contributing  what  the  other 
lacked,  in  the  great  work  of  social  regeneration  ?  And  if  in  practice 
this  ideal  is  seldom  reached,  is  it  not  because  living  in  an  imperfect 
world  there  is  in  this  as  in  all  other  things  a  wide  divergence  between 
aspiration  and  performance  ?  What  can  we  say  therefore  when  we 
hear  and  see  daily  these  divergences  emphasised,  the  antagonisms 
between  the  sexes  brought  out  in  fullest  and  most  repulsive  form — 
women  struggling  with  men,  and  opposing  force  to  force — except  that 
it  is  a  sight  to  make  angels  weep  ?  The  murderer  does  not  commit 
a  greater  crime,  for  this  is  death  to  the  ideal.  It  has  been  frequently 
said,  not  by  women  only,  that  man  owes  what  is  best  in  him  to  woman. 
Who  can  estimate  the  share  she  has  in  his  life  ?  It  is  the  deeper  for 
being  for  the  most  part  hidden,  and  if  a  woman  is  sometimes  the  cause 
of  a  man's  undoing,  still  more  often  it  is  a  woman's  influence — a  wife's 
possibly  or  a  mother's — which  recalls  him  when  wandering  in  for- 
bidden or  dangerous  paths,  and  holds  oefore  him  the  unswerving 
standard  of  her  own  faith  and  purity  of  life.  Burke,  in  eloquent 
words  which  still  ring  in  our  ears,  lamented  that  the  days  of  chivalry 
were  over.  He  was  wrong !  They  will  never  die  as  long  as  a  true 
man  and  a  true  woman  remain  in  the  world.  But  could  anything 
be  more  fatal  to  that  sentiment — call  it  what  you  will,  chivalry  or 
reverence  for  the  sex — than  that  woman  should  leave  her  own  sphere, 
in  which,  whatever  her  rank  in  life,  she  reigns  supreme,  and  descend 
from  her  pedestal  to  enter  into  competition  with  the  other  sex  on 
subjects  for  which  she  has  no  special  aptitude  or  gift,  on  occasions 
when  every  man  would  wish  her  out  of  the  way  ? 

That  the  law  of  this  country  is  capable  of  improvement  with 
regard  to  women's  just  rights  and  aspirations  no  man  or  woman 
would  be  disposed  to  deny.  Much  has  been  done  already,  more 
remains  to  be  done.  But  that  the  present  state  of  things  requires  a 
revolution,  such  as  the  enfranchisement  of  the  sex,  in  order  to  right 
their  wrongs,  is  an  idea  which  it  seems  only  necessary  to  put  into 
plain  language  in  order  to  see  its  folly.  Surely  the  remedy  is  out  of 
all  proportion  to  the  disease. 

In  the  past  women  have  had  their  wrongs,  and  in  few  have  they 
been  greater  than  in  the  case  of  their  education.  On  this  point  some- 
thing still  remains  to  be  done.  If  we  look  back,  however,  on  the 


1908  WOMEN  AND   THE   SUFFRAGE  69 

past  hundred  years,  and  note  the  progress  that  has  already  been  made, 
there  can  be  no  cause  for  fear  that  this  progress  will  not  continue, 
with  an  even  accelerated  pace,  in  the  future.  For  to  education,  and 
to  the  development  of  the  Christian  ideal  of  love  and  self-sacrifice,  we 
can  trust  more  than  to  any  other  cause  for  the  growth  of  '  feminism  ' 
in  the  right  direction — that  is,  of  a  greater  appreciation  of  woman's 
dignity  and  aspirations,  and  a  greater  realisation  of  the  enormous  field 
of  activities  open  to  her  under  the  natural  conditions  of  her  being. 

It  has  been  well  said  by  a  clever  writer  who  has  taken  up  strongly 
the  cause  of  woman's  higher  education  in  America  1 : 

Let  us  not  be  so  dull  as  to  ignore  the  gifts  of  woman.  Let  us  not  be  of  those 
who  still  doubt  whether  it  is  not  better  that  she  should  be  a  simpleton ;  who 
think  that  only  superficially  educated  women  can  make  good  wives  and  mothers. 
If,  as  Goethe  says,  it  is  a  most  frightful  thing  to  see  ignorance  at  work,  is  it  not 
most  frightful  when  the  work  is  that  which  woman  is  called  to  do  in  the  home 
and  in  the  school  ?  In  all  companionship  the  lower  tends  to  pull  the  higher 
down,  for  it  is  easy  to  sink  and  hard  to  rise.  Hence  an  ignorant  mother  will 
dull  the  minds  of  husband  and  children,  while  one  who  is  intelligent  and  appre- 
ciative will  be  for  them  a  strong  stimulus  to  self -activity.  It  is  the  nature  of  an 
enlightened  mind  to  diffuse  light,  of  a  generous  soul  to  make  love  prevail,  of  a 
noble  character  to  build  character.  ...  In  marriage,  as  in  friendship,  as  in 
every  other  sphere  of  life,  human  relations  are  chiefly  spiritual,  and  the  more 
thoroughly  educated  a  woman  is  the  more  able  is  she  to  fulfil  in  a  noble  way 
the  duties  of  wife  and  mother. 

The  primary  aim,  however,  is  not  to  make  a  good  wife  and  mother  any  more 
than  it  is  to  make  a  good  husband  and  father.  The  educational  ideal  is  human 
perfection — perfect  manhood  and  perfect  womanhood.  Given  the  right  kind  of 
man  or  woman,  and  whatever  duties  are  to  be  performed,  whatever  functions 
are  to  be  fulfilled,  will  be  well-performed  and  well-fulfilled.  Woman's  sphere 
lies  wherever  she  can  live  nobly  and  do  useful  work.2 

These  striking  words,  which  it  would  be  well  if  some  in  the  present 
excited  state  of  public  opinion  would  inwardly  ponder  on  and  digest, 
dispose  in  a  remarkable  way  of  the  argument,  frequently  used,  that 
wives  and  mothers  have  opportunities  denied  to  the  unmarried  of 
influencing  public  opinion  indirectly,  and  so  forth.  Does  the  woman 
exist  who  is  so  isolated  by  circumstances,  so  cut  off  from  contact  with 
others,  that  she  may  not  become,  in  any  walk  of  life,  either  a  centre 
of  life  and  light  to  others,  or  the  reverse  ? 

From  one  point  of  view  only — and  there  are  others  too  numerous 
to  mention — the  education  and  training  of  the  youth  of  both  sexes, 
what  a  huge  field  is  open  to  woman's  influence  and  activities  ! 

It  is  said  that  Huxley  was  asked  which,  in  his  opinion,  were  the 
most  important  years  for  the  formation  of  character  in  the  life  of 
a  human  being.  His  answer  was  :  '  Probably  the  first  three  years  of  a 
child's  life.'  And  these  three  years  are  given  over  by  universal  consent 
to  women.  That  these  sacred  duties  are  little  understood  and  even 
grievously  neglected  (from  the  ethical  point  of  view)  by  many,  in  all 

1  Bishop  Spalding.  2  Opportunity  and  other  Essays. 


70  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

classes  of  life,  could  hardly  be  denied.  Also  that  the  proper  per- 
formance of  these  duties  requires  a  strong  and  deeply  founded  spirit 
of  self-sacrifice  should  likewise  admit  of  no  controversy.  But  if 
Carlyle  could  say,  and  say  truly,  that  it  would  be  misjudging  man  to 
assert  that  he  was  led  to  heroic  action  by  the  prospect  of  ease,  hope 
of  pleasure,  recompense  only ;  '  in  the  meanest  mortal  there  lies  some- 
thing nobler.  Difficulty,  abnegation,  martyrdom  are  the  allurements 
that  act  on  the  heart  of  man  ' — could  less  be  said  of  woman  ? 

And  these  struggles,  these  sacrifices,  are  mitigated  by  love — the 
special  prerogative  of  woman.  For  '  love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law.' 
'  Love,'  it  has  been  said,  '  is  the  only,  the  eternal  foundation  of  the 
training  of  our  race  to  humanity.'  '  Love,'  says  Goethe,  '  does  not 
rule,  but  it  educates,  and  this  is  more.' 

And,  .again,  St.  Augustine  says,  *  When  it  is  asked  whether  one  be 
a  good  man,  there  is  not  question  of  what  he  believes  or  hopes, 
but  of  'vhat  he  loves.  For  he  who  loves  rightly,  rightly  believes, 
and  rightly  hopes ;  but  he  who  loves  not,  believes  in  vain,  hopes 
in  vain.  Little  love  is  little  righteousness,  perfect  love  is  perfect 
righteousness.' 

That  these  thoughts  which  Christianity  has  fostered  and  developed 
were  not  utterly  unknown  (in  some  faint  and  obscure  form)  in  pagan 
times,  witness  the  exquisite  legend  told  by  Plato  : 

As  Socrates  was  walking  with  some  of  his  disciples  in  the  garden  of  Pericles, 
the  conversation  turned  upon  art  and  its  divine  beauties. 

1  Tell  us,'  said  Alcibiades  with  a  smile,  '  tell  us,  0  Socrates,  how  thou  earnest 
to  make  the  statues  of  the  Graces  ;  and  why,  having  finished  thy  masterpiece, 
thou  didst  abandon  art  ?  Would  thou  hadst  given  us  also  the  goddess  of 
wisdom ! ' 

'  I  will  relate,'  said  Socrates,  '  the  story  of  my  art,  and  thou  shalt  then 
decide,  Alcibiades,  whether  it  would  be  well  for  me  again  to  grasp  the  mallet 
and  the  chisel.  As  youth  I  loved  art  with  all  my  heart,  and  was  accustomed  to 
visit  the  workshops  of  the  masters  and  the  temples  of  the  gods ;  for  in  those  I 
hoped  to  receive  instruction,  and  in  these  divine  enthusiasm.  With  this  view 
I  went  one  day  to  a  little  temple  on  the  boundary  of  Attica,  dedicated  to  the 
Graces.  The  simplicity  of  its  form  invited  me,  and  I  said  to  myself  :  "  Though 
thou  find  nothing  for  thy  art — for  how  could  a  marble  statue  have  strayed 
hither  ? — yet  mayst  thou  nourish  and  cultivate  here  a  taste  for  simplicity,  since 
this,  as  I  thought,  should  not  be  lacking  in  an  artist."  At  the- door  of  the  little 
temple  an  old  man  of  venerable  and  friendly  countenance  met  me. 

'  "  What  seekest  thou  here,  my  son  ?  "  he  inquired  with  a  gentle  voice.  I  told 
him  that  I  was  an  art  student,  and  that  I  had  sought  the  temple  to  improve 
myself. 

'  "  It  is  well,  my  son,"  he  replied,  "  that  thou  beginnest  with  thyself,  and 
approaches  the  godlike  to  produce  it  in  thyself,  before  thou  attemptest  to  body 
it  forth.  Thy  efforts  shall  not  go  unrewarded.  I  will  show  thee  what  elsewhere 
in  all  Greece  thou  shouldst  look  for  in  vain — the  first  and  oldest  statues  of  the 
Graces." 

'  Thereupon  he  pointed  to  three  square,  rough- hewn  stones  and  said : 
"  Behold,  there  they  are  !  " 

'  I  looked  at  him  and  was  silent.  But  he  smiled  and  continued  :  "  Dost  thou 
find  it  strange  that  the  godlike  should  have  been  in  the  heart  of  man  before  his 


1908  WOMEN  AND   THE   SUFFRAGE  71 

tongue  or  his  hand  could  give  it  expression  ?  Well,  show  thy  reverence  for  it 
by  endowing  it  with  a  worthier  form.  I  am  the  priest  of  this  temple ;  my  duty 
calls  me  now." 

'  He  went  and  left  me  in  an  unwonted  mood.  Eeturning  to  Athens  I  made 
the  statues  of  the  Graces.  You  know  them.  I  took  them  to  the  priest  as  an 
offering  for  the  temple  and  presented  them  to  him  with  a  trembling  hand. 

'  "  Well  done,  my  son,"  said  the  friendly  old  man ;  "  thou  hast  accomplished 
thy  task  with  industry  and  zeal.  But,"  he  contimied  with  a  serious  air,  "  tell  me, 
hast  thou  also  satisfied  thyself?  " 

'  "  Alas,  no  !  "  I  replied  ;  "  I  have  a  nobler  image  in  my  soul,  to  which  I  feel 
the  hand  is  powerless  to  give  form." 

'  The  venerable  man  laid  his  hand  upon  my  shoulder  and  spoke  with  inde- 
scribable grace.  "  Well,  then,  take  thy  statues  to  the  halls  of  the  rich  men  of 
Athens  and  leave  us  our  stones.  We,  my  son,  in  our  simplicity  have  faith,  and 
the  plain  symbol  suffices  ;  but  they  have  only  knowledge,  and  therefore  need 
the  work  of  art.  To  thee  I  give  this  counsel :  Learn  to  know  the  divine  germ 
which  lives  in  thee,  and  in  every  human  heart ;  cherish  it,  and  thou  shalt  pro- 
duce the  godlike  within  and  without  thyself."  He  left  me  and  I  returned  with 
my  statues,  meditating  the  words  of  the  old  man,  who  appeared  to  me  to  be  a 
god.  I  stood  a  whole  night  beneath  the  stars,  and  as  the  sun  rose  the  light 
became  clear  within  my  soul  also.  I  recognised  the  eternal  grace,  love,  within 
and  without  myself.  I  prayed,  hastened  home,  laid  my  mallet  and  chisel  at 
the  feet  of  my  statues  of  the  Graces,  and,  coming  forth,  found  you,  my  dear 
friends  and  disciples.  Are  ye  not  the  noblest  expression  of  the  divine  grace ; 
and  shall  I  not  live  longer  in  such  images  than  in  cold  fragile  marble  ?  ' 

Is  not  this  office  of  drawing  out  the  good — the  Divine  Image — 
which  exists  in  all  men  and  women,  the  special  gift  of  woman,  as  well 
as  her  highest  prerogative  ?  But  to  descend  from  these  heights  to 
the  arena  of  the  duties  of  every-day  life,  especially  those  which  chiefly 
concern  the  sex  :  can  we  say  at  the  present  time,  when  statistics 
point  to  a  rapidly  diminishing  birth-rate,  and  a  truly  appalling  death- 
roll  among  infants,  that  this  is  the  moment  for  women  to  choose  to 
add  to  their  already  only  too  onerous  duties,  in  order  to  pursue  the 
phantom  of  parliamentary  representation  ? 

It  is  surely  a  singular,  and  not  altogether  satisfactory,  state  of 
things  as  regards  the  division  of  labour  between  the  sexes,  that  the 
names  of  those  who  have  been  most  prominently  before  the  public  in 
the  noble  work  of  training  ignorant  women  in  their  maternal  duties  of 
suckling  or  feeding  their  children  should  be  mainly  those  of  men,  not 
of  women.  Now  that  the  medical  profession  is  open  to  women,  and 
many  have  taken  honourable  degrees  as  physicians  and  medical  prac- 
titioners, it  seems  singular  that  they  should  not  take  the  lead  in  this 
great  and  important  work,  to  which  they  would  surely  bring  a  know- 
ledge and  sympathy  impossible  in  the  case  of  the  opposite  sex.  In 
short,  would  it  not  be  wise  for  woman  to  begin  by  setting  her  own 
house  in  order  before  she  tried  her  hand  at  meddling  with  the  larger 
questions  of  the  politics  and  destinies  of  nations  ?  A  year  ago  it  was 
urged  in  an  interesting  article  in  this  Eeview 3  that  the  influence  of 

Women  and  Politics  :  A  Reply,  by  Eva  Gore-Booth,  March  1907. 


72  TEE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBY  July 

women  in  parliamentary  representation  would  be  usefully  employed 
in  questions  affecting  the  difficult  problems^f  the  insufficient  payment 
of  woman's  labour.  Humanitarian  views  swdh  as  these  must  commend 
themselves  to  all,  but  is  it  probable  that  legislation  would  be  produc- 
tive of  any  good  results  in  cases  of  this  sort  ?  The  laws  that  govern 
the  labour  market  are,  it  will  be  generally  admitted,  exceedingly 
sensitive  to  undue  interference.  Is  it  not  therefore  not  only  possible, 
but  even  exceedingly  probable,  that  in  striving  to  amend  them  the 
opposite  effect  from  the  one  intended  might  come  to  pass  ?  For  with 
foreign  competition  ever  ready  to  take  advantage  of  a  higher  labour 
bill,  the  trades  in  question  are  not  unlikely  to  follow  the  example  of 
many'others  which  once  existed  in  this  country — that  is,  disappear 
altogether,  thus  adding  to  the  ever-increasing  number  of  the  unem- 
ployed. Also  the  contention  that  women  when  engaged  on  piece- 
work should  be  paid  as  highly  as  men  is  one  which  would  be  contested 
inch  by  inch  by  the  working-man — the  reason  being  obvious,  for  few 
would  maintain  that  a  living  wage  for  a  woman  would  constitute 
one  in  the  case  of  a  man.  Besides,  may  it  not  be  open  to  considerable 
doubt  whether  the  sad  and  terrible  problems  to  which  Miss  Eva  Gore- 
Booth  alluded  are  among  those  which  would  be  affected  in  any 
appreciable  degree  by  the  action  of  Parliament  ?  Gladstone  has  a 
very  weighty  and  pregnant  saying  which  seems  to  me  to  bear  on  this 
statement :  'It  is  not,'  he  says,  '  by  the  State  that  man  can  be 
regenerated,  or  the  terrible  woes  of  this  darkened  world  effectually 
dealt  with.' 

There  is  yet  another  point  of  view  from  which  the  subject  should 
be  considered. 

It  is  only  proposed  so  far  to  give  the  franchise  to  the  woman  who 
has  a  stake  in  the  country :  in  other  words,  to  the  widow  or  spinster 
who,  though  an  owner  of  property,  is  debarred  by  the  present  state 
of  the  law  from  giving  effect  to  her  opinions  on  public  matters  in  which 
her  interests  are  involved.  That  the  law  is,  in  a  sense,  an  anomaly, 
and  presses  severely  on  individual  cases,  is  doubtless  true,  but,  it  may  be 
asked,  are  the  women  whose  claims  are  urged  on  the  plea  that  logically 
they  have  a  right  to  register  their  vote  the  most  fitted  to  give  it  ? 
Admittedly  the  faddists — the  women  who  neglect  the  thousands  of 
claims  which  suffering  humanity  forces  upon  them  in  order  to  endow 
homes  for  '  our  dumb  friends  ' ;  the  follower  of  the  latest  fashionable 
craze,  whether  it  be  for  Socialism  or  table-turning ;  the  rabid  anti- 
vivisectionist — are  in  the  ratio  of  ten  to  one  recruited  from  the  class 
whom  fate  or  their  own  inclinations  have  cut  off  from  the  healthy 
companionship  of  the  masculine  sex:  a  fact  which  has  given  rise  to 
the  popular  saying  that  most  men  should  marry,  but  all  women.  Few 
indeed  would  be  found  to  deny  that  woman  is  at  her  best  living  in  the 
normal  condition  of  things  as  wife  and  mother — a  man  at  her  side 
whose  counsel  and  guidance  she  cheerfully  accepts.  But  to  refuse  the 


1908  WOMEN  AND   THE   SUFFRAGE  78 

franchise  to  the  '  shrieking  sisterhood  '  and  their  compeers,  and  grant 
it  to  the  married  woman,  is  a  proposition  worse  than  impracticable. 
It  is  unthinkable.  If  the  Erery  Cross  is  abroad  now,  truly  in  such 
an  eventuality  Great  Britain  would  be  in  a  blaze.  Also  would  the 
world  be  a  gainer  by  it  ?  I  trow  not.  For  in  the  majority  of  cases  the 
married  woman  would  follow  her  husband's  lead,  and  in  the  divided 
household  it  would  but  add  to  the  many  debatable  subjects  on  which 
man  and  wife  may  differ.  To  add  to^their  number  is  hardly  to  benefit 
society  or  the  world  at  large. 

There  is  yet  another  solution  to  the  question  which,  though  scarcely 
belonging  to  the  domain  of  practical  politics,  is  sufficiently  so  to  be 
openly  maintained  by  the  most  advanced  advocates  of  the  enfran- 
chisement of  women.  This,  needless  to  say,  is  manhood  suffrage, 
to  be  followed  in  due  course  by  womanhood  suffrage.  We  shall  then 
have  reached  the  climax.  Woman  by  her  numerical  superiority  in  this 
country  would  be  in  the  position,  should  she  exercise  her  rights, 
of  dictating  the  laws  to  men — a  climax  which,  owing  perhaps  to  a  lack 
of  humour  on  the  part  of  my  sex,  is  far  from  being  looked  upon  by  them 
as  a  reductio  ad  absurdum.  Kather  they  are  prepared  to  welcome  it 
as  the  dawn  of  a  better  day — in  short,  of  a  female  millennium. 

In  conclusion  may  I  plead  in  the  name,  I  firmly  believe,  of  a  large 
(I  am  tempted  to  say  overwhelming)  majority  of  my  fellow  country- 
women that  the  great  political  parties — whether  Radical  or  Unionist — 
should  judge  the  question  on  its  merits,  and  with  no  other  end  in  view  ? 
There  seems  to  be  a  growing  disposition,  if  we  are  to  credit  the  public 
press,  to  make  political  capital  out  of  this  question.  If  the  Radical 
party  now  in  power  had  rushed  lightly  into  a  revolution  of  which  no 
man  could  with  any  certainty  prophesy  the  outcome,  it  would  not 
perhaps  have  been  altogether  surprising.  But  have  not  women  a  right 
to  expect  different  treatment  from  the  Unionists  ?  Surely  a  party 
which  comprises  within  it  so  strong  an  element  of  conservatism — 
whose  boast  has  ever  been  that  it  has  sought  to  preserve  what  is  wise 
and  good  in  the  past — should  hesitate  before  it  breaks  with  all  its 
traditions  in  favour  of  a  leap  in  the  dark  such  as  the  one  at  present 
in  contemplation.  That  woman's  sphere  in  the  future  will  be  an 
ever  widening  one  for  all  good  and  useful  work,  and  that  she  will 
maintain  the  high  ideals  of  her  past,  must  be  the  earnest  wish  of  all 
true  women.  But  that  these  ends  can  be  attained  by  the  present 
outcry  against  limitations  imposed  by  natural  laws,  is  a  contention 
contrary  to  all  experience,  as  well  as  to  the  instinct  of  mankind, 
as  voiced  by  almost  a  consensus  of  the  wise  and  far-seeing  of  this  and 
other  countries.  To  those  of  my  sex  who  differ  from  me  I  would 
answer  with  Cassius  : 


The  fault  ...  is  not  in  our  stars, 

But  in  ourselves  that  we  are  underlings. 


A.  M.  LOVAT. 


74  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 


APOLLO    AND    DIONYSUS    IN   ENGLAND 


IT  was  many  years  ago  that  in  the  Bodleian  at  Oxford  I  was  shown 
into  the  beautiful  room  where  John  Selden's  noble  library  is  placed. 
It  is  a  lofty,  well-proportioned  room,  and  on  the  walls  are  arrayed 
the  silent  legions  of  the  great  scholar's  books.  At  that  time  I  was 
still  fonder  of  books  than  of  realities,  and  with  breathless  haste  I 
ran  over  the  title-pages  and  contents  of  the  grand  folios  in  over 
fifteen  languages,  written  by  scholars  of  all  the  Western  nations  and 
of  many  an  Oriental  people.  Then  I  paused  before  the  fine  oil- 
painting  near  the  entrance  of  the  room  representing  the  face  and 
upper  body  of  the  scholar-patriot.  The  face  is  singularly,  touchingly 
beautiful.  The  delicately  swung  lines  of  the  lips  tell  at  once,  more 
especially  in  their  discreet  corners,  of  the  deep  reticence  and  subtle 
tact  of  the  man.  No  wonder  my  Lady  Kent  loved  him.  The  com- 
bination of  political  power,  boundless  erudition,  and  charming  male 
beauty  could  not  but  be  pleasing  to  a  knowing  woman  of  the  world. 
His  eyes,  big  and  lustrous,  yet  veil  more  than  they  reveal.  He 
evidently  was  a  man  who  saw  more  than  he  expressed,  and  felt  more 
than  he  cared  to  show.  Living  in  the  troublous  times  of  James  the 
First  and  Charles  the  First,  he  worked  strenuously  'for  the  liberties 
of  his  country,  while  all  the  time  pouring  forth  works  of  the  heaviest 
erudition  on  matters  of  ancient  law,  religions,  and  antiquities.  His 
printed  works  are,  in  keeping  with  the  custom  of  his  day,  like  comets  : 
a  small  kernel  of  substance,  appended  to  a  vast  tail  of  quotations 
from  thousands  of  authors.  Like  the  unripe  man  I  was,  I  liked  the 
tail  more  than  the  kernel.  Yet  I  had  been  in  various  countries  and 
had  acquired  a  little  knowledge  of  substance.  And  as  I  gazed  with 
loving  looks  at  the  mild  beauty  of  the  scholar,  I  fell  slowly  into  a 
reverie.  I  had  read  him  and  about  him  with  such  zeal  that  it  seemed 
to  me  I  knew  the  man  personally.  Then  also  I  had  walked  over 
the  very  streets  and  in  the  very  halls  where  he  had  walked  and  talked 
to  Camden,  Cotton,  Archbishop  Ussher,  Sir  Mathew  Hale,  Lord 
Ellesmere,  Coke,  Cromwell.  It  was  the  time  that  we,  in  Hungary, 
had  been  taught  to  admire  most  in  all  English  history.  And  there 
was  more  particularly  one  maxim  of  Selden's,  which  he  carefully 
wrote  on  every  one  of  the  books  of  his  library,  which  had  always 
impressed  me  most.  It  ran  :  '  Liberty  above  everything  ' ;  or  as 


1908     APOLLO  AND  DIONYSUS  IN  ENGLAND         75 

he  wrote  it,  in  Greek  :  irspl  iravros  rrjv  s\svdepLav.  Yes,  liberty — 
that  is,  political  liberty — above  everything  else.  I  had,  like  all 
people  born  in  the  fifties  of  the  last  century,  believed  in  that  one 
idea  as  one  believes  in  the  goodness  and  necessity  of  bread  and  wine. 
I  could  not  doubt  it ;  I  thought,  to  doubt  it  was  almost  absurd.  And 
so  I  had  long  made  up  my  mind  to  go  one  day  to  Oxford  and  to  make 
my  reverent  bow  to  the  scholar  who  had  adorned  the  shallowest  book 
of  his  vast  collection  by  writing  on  it  the  Greek  words  in  praise  of 
liberty. 

However,  before  I  could  carry  out  my  pilgrimage  to  the  Bodleian 
I  had  been  five  years  in  the  States.  There  indeed  was  plenty  of 
political  liberty,  but  after  a  year  or  so  I  could  not  but  see  that  the 
sacrifices  which  the  Americans  had  to  make  for  their  political  liberty 
were  heavy,  very  heavy,  not  to  say  crushing.  And  I  began  to  doubt. 
I  conceived  that  it  was  perhaps  not  impossible  to  assume  that  in 
Selden's  maxim  there  were  certain  *  ifs  '  and  certain  drawbacks. 
My  soul  darkened ;  and  when  finally  I  arrived  at  the  Bodleian  I 
went  into  Selden's  room,  and  to  his  portrait,  prompted  by  an  un- 
articulated  hope  that  in  some  way  or  other  I  might  get  a  solution 
of  the  problem  from  the  man  whose  maxim  I  had  held  in  so  great 
an  esteem  for  many  a  long  year.  So  I  gazed  at  him,  and  waited. 
The  room  became  darker ;  the  evening  shadows  began  spreading 
about  the  shelves.  The  portrait  alone  was  still  in  a  frame  of  strangely 
white  light.  It  was  as  if  Apollo  could  not  tear  himself  away  from 
the  face  of  one  who  had  been  his  ardent  devotee.  After  a  while 
I  observed,  or  thought  I  did,  with  a  sensation  of  mingled  horror  and 
delight,  that  the  eyes  of  the  portrait  were  moving  towards  me.  I  took 
courage  and  uttered  my  wish,  and  asked  Selden  outright  whether 
now,  after  he  had  spent  centuries  in  the  Elysian  fields  with  Pericles 
and  Plato,  whether  he  still  was  of  opinion  that  liberty,  political 
liberty,  is  the  chief  aim  of  a  nation,  an  aim  to  be  secured  at  all  prices. 
Thereupon  I  clearly  saw  how  his  eyes  deepened  and  how  the  surface 
of  their  silent  reserve  began  to  ripple,  as  it  were,  and  finally  a  mild 
smile  went  over  them  like  a  cloud  over  a  Highland  lake.  That  smile 
sent  a  shiver  through  my  soul.  Selden,  too,  doubts  his  maxim  ? 
Can  political  liberty  be  bought  at  too  great  a  price  ?  Are  there 
goods  more  valuable  than  political  liberty  ?  After  I  recovered  from 
my  first  shock  I  boldly  approached  the  smiling  portrait  and  implored 
Selden  to  help  me.  And  then,  in  the  silence  of  the  deserted  room, 
I  saw  how  his  lips  moved,  and  I  heard  English  sounds  pronounced  in  a 
manner  considerably  different  from  what  they  are  to-day.  They 
sounded  like  the  bass  notes  of  a  clarionette,  and  there  was  much  more 
rhythm  and  cadence  in  them  than  one  can  hear  to-day.  They  were 
also  of  exquisite  politeness,  and  the  words  were,  one  imagined,  like 
so  many  courtiers,  hat  in  hand,  bowing  to  one  another,  yet  with  a 
ready  sword  at  the  side.  To  my  request  he  replied  :  '  If  it  should 


76  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

fall  out  to  be  your  fervent  desire  to  know  the  clandestine  truth  of  a 
matter  so  great  and  weighty,  I  shall,  for  the  love  of  your  devotion,  be 
much  pleased  to  be  your  suitor  and  help.  Do  not  hesitate  to  follow 
me.'  With  that  he  stepped  out  from  the  frame  and  stood  before 
me  in  the  costume  of  the  time  of  the  Cavaliers.  He  took  me  by  the 
hand,  and  in  a  way  that  seemed  both  natural  and  supernatural,  so 
strangely  did  I  feel  at  that  moment,  we  left  unseen  and  unnoticed 
the  lofty  room,  and  arrived  almost  immediately  after  that  at  a  place 
in  the  country  that  reminded  me  of  Kenilworth,  or  some  other  part 
of  lovely  Warwickshire.  It  was  night,  and  a  full  moon  shed  her 
mysteries  over  trees,  valleys,  and  mountains.  On  a  lawn,  in  the 
midst  of  a  fine  wood  of  alders,  Selden  halted.  There  were  several 
persons  present.  They  struck  me  as  being  Greeks  ;  their  costume 
was  that  of  Athenians  in  the  times  of  Alcibiades.  I  soon  saw  that 
I  was  right,  for  they  talked  ancient  Greek.  Selden  explained  to  me 
that  they  had  left  Elysium  for  a  time,  in  order  to  see  how  the  world 
beneath  was  going  on.  In  their  travels  they  had  come  to  England, 
and  were  anxious  to  meet  men  of  the  past  as  well  as  men  of  the  present, 
and  to  inquire  into  the  nature  and  lot  of  the  nation  of  which  they 
had  heard,  by  rumour,  that  it  had  something  of  the  nature  of  the 
Athenians,  much  of  the  character  of  the  Spartans,  a  good  deal  of 
the  people  of  Syracuse  and  Tarentum,  and  also  a  trait  or  two  of  the 
Romans.  Of  those  Greeks  I  at  once  recognised  Pericles,  the  son  of 
Xanthippus  ;  Alcibiades,  the  son  of  Clinias  ;  Plato,  the  son  of  Ariston  ; 
Euripides,  the  son  of  Mnesarchos  ;  moreover,  a  man  evidently  an 
archon  or  high  omcial  of  the  oracle  of  Delphi ;  and  in  the  retinue  I 
saw  sculpturesque  maidens  of  Sparta  and  charming  women  of  Argos, 
set  off  by  incomparably  formed  beauties  of  Thebes,  and  girls  of  Tanagra 
smiling  sweetly  with  stately  daintiness.  Selden  was  received  by  them 
with  hearty  friendliness,  and  conversation  was  soon  at  its  best,  just 
as  if  it  had  been  proceeding  in  the  cool  groves  of  the  Academy  at 
Athens. 

The  first  to  speak  was  Pericles.  He  expressed  to  Selden  his  great 
amazement  at  the  things  he  had  seen  in  England.  '  Had  I  not 
governed  the  city  of  holy  Athena  for  thirty  years,'  he  said,  '  I  should 
be  perhaps  pleased  with  what  I  see  in  this  strange  country.  But 
having  been  at  the  head  of  affairs  of  a  State  which  in  my  time  was 
the  foremost  of  the  world  ;  and  having  always  availed  myself  of  the 
advice  and  wisdom  of  men  like  Damon,  the  musician-philosopher, 
Anaxagoras,  the  thinker,  Protagoras,  the  sophist,  and  last,  not  least, 
Aspasia,  my  tactful  wife  and  friend,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  understand  the 
polity  that  you  call  England.  What  has  struck  me  most  in  this 
country  is  the  sway  allowed  to  what  we  used  to  call  Orphic  Associa- 
tions. In  Athens  we  had,  in  my  time,  a  great  number  of  private 
societies  the  members  of  which  devoted  themselves  to  the  cult  of 
extreme,  unnatural,  and  un-Greek  ideas  and  superstitions.  Thus 


77 

we  had  thiasoi,  as  we  called  them,  the  members  of  which  were  fanatic 
vegetarians  ;  others,  again,  who  would  not  allow  their  adherents  to 
partake  of  a  single  drop  of  Chian  or  any  other  wine ;  others,  again, 
who  would  under  no  circumstances  put  on  any  woollen  shirt  or 
garment.  But  if  any  of  these  Orphic  mystagogues  had  arrogated 
to  themselves  the  right  of  proposing  laws  in  the  Public  Assembly,  or 
what  this  nation  calls  the  Parliament,  with  a  view  of  converting  the 
whole  State  of  Athens  into  an  Association  of  Orphic  rites  and  mys- 
teries, then,  I  am  sure,  my  most  resolute  antagonists  would  have 
joined  hands  with  me  to  counteract  such  unholy  and  scurrilous 
attempts.  I  can  well  understand  that  the  Spartans,  who  are  quite 
unwilling  to  vest  any  real  power  whatever  in  either  their  kings,  their 
assembly,  their  senate,  or  their  minor  officials,  are  consequently 
compelled  to  vest  inordinate  power  in  their  few  Ephors,  and  in  the 
constantly  practised  extreme  self-control  of  each  individual  Spartan. 
In  a  commonwealth  like  Sparta,  where  the  commune  is  allowed  no, 
or  very  little,  power ;  where  there  are  neither  generals,  directors  of 
police,  powerful  priests  or  princes,  or  any  other  incumbents  of  great 
coercive  powers  ;  in  such  a  community  the  individual  himself  must 
needs  be  his  own  policeman,  his  own  priest,  prince,  general,  and 
coercive  power.  This  he  does  by  being  a  vegetarian,  a  strict  Puritan, 
teetotaller,  melancholist,  and  universal  killer  of  joy.'  Here  Pericles 
was  interrupted  by  the  suave  voice  of  Selden,  who,  in  pure  Attic, 
corroborated  the  foregoing  statements  by  a  reference  to  the  people 
called  Hebrews  in  Palestine.  '  These  men,'  Selden  said,  '  were 
practically  at  all  times  so  fond  of  liberty  that  they  could  not  brook 
any  sort  of  government  in  the  form  of  officials,  policemen,  soldiers, 
princes,  priests,  or  lords  whatever.  In  consequence  of  which  they 
introduced  a  system  of  individual  self-control  called  ritualism,  by 
means  of  which  each  Hebrew  tied  himself  down  with  a  thousand 
filigree  ties  as  to  eating,  drinking,  sleeping,  merrymaking,  and,  in 
short,  as  to  every  act  of  ordinary  life.  So  that,  0  Pericles,  the 
Hebrews  are  one  big  Orphic  Association  of  extremists,  less  formidable 
than  the  Spartans,  but  essentially  similar  to  them.' 

Selden  had  scarcely  finished  his  remarks,  but  what  Alcibiades, 
encouraged  by  a  smile  from  Plato,  joined  the  discussion,  and,  looking 
at  Pericles,  exclaimed :  '  My  revered  relative,  I  have  listened  to  your 
observations  with  close  attention ;  and  I  have  also,  in  my  rambles 
through  this  country,  met  a  great  number  of  men  and  women.  It 
seems  to  me  that  but  for  their  Orphic  Associations,  which  here  some 
people  call  Societies  of  Cranks  and  Faddists,  the  population  of  this 
realm  would  have  one  civil  war  after  the  other.  Surely  you  all 
remember  how,  in  my  youth,  misunderstanding  as  I  did  the  Orphic 
and  mystery-craving  nature  of  man,  I  made  fun  of  it  and  was  terribly 
punished  for  it  at  the  hands  of  Hermes,  a  god  far  from  being  as  great 
as  Zeus,  Apollo,  or  Dionysus.  Little  did  I  know  at  that  time  that  the 


78  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

exuberance  of  vitality  which  I,  owing  to  my  wealth  and  station  in 
life,  could  gratify  by  gorgeous  chariot  races  at  Olympia,  under  the 
eyes  of  all  the  Hellenes,  was  equally  strong,  but  yet  unsatisfied,  in 
the  average  and  less  dowered  citizens  of  my  State.  My  chequered 
experience  has  taught  me  that  no  sort  of  people  can  quite  do  without 
Orphic  mysteries,  and  when  I  sojourned  among  the  Thracians  I 
saw  that  those  barbarians,  fully  aware  of  the  necessity  of  Mysteries 
and  Orphic  Trances,  had  long  ago  introduced  festivals  at  which  their 
men  and  women  could  give  free  vent  to  their  subconscious,  vague, 
yet  powerful  chthonic  craving  for  impassioned  day-dreaming  and 
revelry.  They  indulge  in  wild  dances  on  the  mountains,  at  night, 
invoking  the  gods  of  the  nether  world,  indulging  freely  in  the  wildest 
form  of  boundless  hilarity,  and  rivalling  in  their  exuberance  the  mad 
sprouting  of  trees  and  herbs  in  spring.  You  Laconian  maidens, 
usually  so  proud  and  cold  and  Amazonian,  I  call  upon  you  to  say 
whether  in  your  strictly  regulated  polity  of  Sparta  you  do  not,  at  times, 
rove  in  the  wildest  fashion  over  the  paths,  ravines,  and  clefts  of  awful 
Mount  Taygetus,  in  reckless  search  of  the  joy  of  frantic  vitality  which 
your  State  ordinarily  does  not  allow  you  to  indulge  in  ?  And  you 
women  of  Argos,  are  you  too  not  given  to  wild  rioting  at  stated  times  ? 
Have  I  not  watched  you  in  your  religious  revivals  of  fierce  joy  ?  ' 
Both  the  Laconian  and  Argive  women  admitted  the  fact,  and  one  of 
them  asked  :  '  Do  the  women  of  this  country  not  observe  similar 
festivals  ?  I  pity  them  if  they  don't.'  And  a  Theban  girl  added  : 
'  The  other  day  we  passed  over  the  Snowdon  and  other  mounts  in  a 
beauteous  land  which  they  call  Wales.  It  is  much  like  our  own  holy 
Mount  Kithaeron.  Why,  then,  do  the  women  of  this  country  not 
rove,  in  honour  of  the  god,  over  the  Welsh  mountains,  free  and 
unobserved,  as  we  do  annually  over  wild  Kithaeron  ?  •  They  would  do 
it  gracefully,  for  I  have  noticed  that  they  run  much  better  than 
they  walk,  and  the  thyrsus  in  their  hand  they  would  swing  with  more 
elegance  than  the  sticks  they  use  in  their  games.' 

At  that  moment  there  arose  from  the  haze  and  clouded  mystery  of 
the  neighbouring  woods  a  rocket  of  sounds,  sung  by  female  voices 
and  soon  joined  in  the  distance  by  a  chorus  of  men.  The  company 
on  the  lawn  suddenly  stopped  talking,  and  at  the  example  of  the 
Delphic  archon,  whom  they  called  Trichas,  they  all  went  in  search 
of  ivy,  and,  having  found  it,  wreathed  themselves  with  it.  The 
music,  more  and  more  passionate,  came  nearer  and  nearer.  From 
my  place  I  could  slightly  distinguish,  in  mid-air,  a  fast  travelling 
host  of  women  in  light  dresses,  swinging  the  thyrsus,  dancing  with 
utter  freedom  of  beautiful  movement,  and  singing  all  the  time  songs 
in  praise  of  Dionysus,  the  god  of  life  and  joy.  Trichas  solemnly 
called  upon  us  to  close  our  eyes,  and  he  intoned  a  paean  of  strange 
impressiveness,  imploring  the  god  to  pardon  our  presence  and  to 
countenance  us  hereafter  as  before.  But  the  Laconian,  Theban,  and 


1908      APOLLO  AND  DIONYSUS  IN  ENGLAND         79 

Argive  maidens  left  us,  and  soaring  into  air,  as  it  were,  joined  the  host 
of  revelling  women.  After  a  time  the  music  subsided  far  away,  and 
nothing  could  be  heard  but  the  melodious  soughing  of  the  wind 
through  the  lank  alder  trees. 

Then,  at  a  sign  of  Trichas,  Plato  took  the  word  and  said  :  '  You 
are  aware,  my  friends,  that  whatever  I  have  taught  in  my  Athenian 
days  regarding  the  punishment  of  our  faults  at  the  hands  of  the 
Powers  of  the  Netherworld,  all  that  has  been  amply  visited  upon  me 
in  the  shape  of  commentaries  written  on  my  works  by  learned  teachers, 
after  the  fashion  of  savages  wjio  tattoo  the  beautiful  body  of  a  human 
being.  I  may  therefore  say  that  I  have  at  last  come  to  a  state  of 
purification  and  castigation  which  allows  one  to  see  things  in  their 
right  proportion.  Thus,  with  regard  to  this  curious  country  in  which 
we  are  just  at  present,  I  cannot  but  think  that  while  there  is  much 
truth  in  what  all  of  you  have  remarked,  yet  you  do  not  seem  to  grasp 
quite  clearly  the  essence,  or,  as  we  used  to  say,  the  ovcrta  of  the  whole 
problem.  This  nation,  like  all  of  us  Hellenes,  has  many  centuries 
ago  made  up  its  mind  to  keep  its  political  liberty  intact  and  un- 
diminished.  For  that  purpose  it  always  tried  to  limit,  and  in  the  last 
three  hundred  years  actually  succeeded  in  limiting,  or  even  destroy- 
ing, most  of  the  coercive  powers  of  the  State,  the  Church,  the  nobility, 
the  army.  Selden  not  improperly  compared  them  to  the  Jews. 
And  as  in  the  case  of  the  Jews,  so  in  the  case  of  the  English,  the  lack 
of  the  coercive  powers  of  State,  Church,  nobility,  and  army  inevitably 
engendered  coercive  powers  of  an  individual  or  private  character. 
This  is  called,  in  a  general  word,  Puritanism.  Our  Spartans,  who 
would  not  tolerate  public  coercive  corporate  powers  any  more  than 
do  the  English,  were  likewise  driven  into  an  individual  Puritanism, 
called  their  ajwjij,  which  likewise  consisted  of  fanatic  teetotalism, 
mutisme,  anti-intellectualism,  and  other  common  features.  This 
inevitable  Puritanism  in  England  assumed  formerly  what  they  call 
a  Biblical  form ;  now  it  feeds  on  teetotalism — that  is,  it  has  become 
liquid  Puritanism.  I  have  it  on  the  most  unquestionable  authority, 
that  the  contemporary  Britons  are,  in  point  of  consumption  of  spirits 
and  wine,  the  most  moderate  consumers  of  all  the  European  nations  ; 
and  the  average  French  person,  for  example,  drinks  152  times  more 
wine  per  annum  than  the  average  Englishman.  Even  in  point  of 
beer,  the  average  Belgian,  for  instance,  drinks  twice  as  much  as  the 
average  Englishman  ;  while  the  average  Dane  drinks  close  on  five 
times  more  spirits  than  the  average  Briton.  Yet  all  these  facts  will 
convert  no  one.  For,  since  the  Puritan  wants  Puritanism  and  not 
facts,  he  can  be  impressed  only  by  inducing  him  to  adopt  another  sort 
of  Puritanism,  but  never  by  facts.  Accordingly,  they  have  introduced 
Christian  Science,  or  one  of  the  oldest  Orphic  fallacies,  which  the 
medieval  Germans  used  to  call  "to  pray  oneself  sound."  They 
have  likewise  inaugurated  anti-vivisectionism,  vegetarianism,  anti- 


80  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

tobacconism,  Sabbatarianism,  and  a  social  class-system  generally, 
which  combines  all  the  features  of  all  the  kinds  of  Puritanism.  We  in 
Athens  divided  men  only  on  lines  of  the  greater  or  lesser  political 
rights  we  gave  them  ;  but  we  never  drew  such  lines  in  matters  social 
and  purely  human.  The  freest  Athenian  readily  shook  hands  with  a 
metic  or  denizen ;  and  we  ate  all  that  was  eatable  and  good.  In 
England  the  higher  class  looks  upon  the  next  lower  as  the  teetotaller 
looks  upon  beer,  the  vegetarian  upon  beef,  or  the  Sabbatarian  upon 
what  they  call  the  Continental  Sunday.  Moreover,  there  is  in  England, 
in  addition  to  the  science  of  zoology  or  botany,  such  as  my  hearer 
Aristotle  founded  it,  a  social  zoology  and  botany,  treating  of  such 
animals  and  plants  as  cannot,  according  to  English  class-puritanism, 
be  offered  to  one's  friends  at  meals.  Thus,  mussels  and  cockles  are 
socially  ostracised,  except  in  unrecognisable  form ;  bread  is  offered 
in  homoeopathic  doses  ;  beer  at  a  banquet  is  simply  impossible  ;  black 
radishes,  a  personal  insult.  In  the  same  way,  streets,  squares,  halls, 
theatres,  watering-places — in  short,  everything  in  the  material  universe 
is  <?r  is  not "  class  "  ;  that  is,  it  is  subject  or  not  subject  to  social  Puri- 
tanism. All  this,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Hebrews,  who  have  an  infinitely 
developed  ritualism  of  eatables  and  drinkables,  of  things  "  pure  "  or 
"  impure  "  ;  all  this,  I  say,  is  the  inevitable  consequence  of  the  un- 
willingness of  the  English  to  grant  any  considerable  coercive  power 
to  the  State,  the  Church,  the  nobility,  the  army,  or  any  other  organised 
corporate  institution.  They  hate  the  idea  of  conscription,  because 
they  hate  to  give  power  to  the  army,  and  prefer  to  fall  into  the  snares 
of  faddists.  The  coercive  power  which  they  will  not  grant  in  one  form, 
they  must  necessarily  admit  in  another  form.  They  destroy  Puritanism 
as  wielded  by  State  or  Church,  and  must  therefore,  since  coercive 
powers  are  always  indispensable,  accept  it  as  Puritanism  of  fads. 
What  are  the  Jews  other  than  a  nation  of  extreme  faddists  ?  Being 
quite  apolitical,  as  we  call  it,  they  must  necessarily  be  extremely 
Orphic — that  is,  extreme  Puritans.  Political  liberty  is  bought  at  the 
expense  of  social  freedom.  Nobody  dares  to  give  himself  freely 
and  naively ;  he  must  needs  watch  with  sickly  self-consciousness  over 
every  word  or  act  of  his,  as  a  policeman  watches  over  the  traffic  of 
streets.  And  lest  he  betray  his  real  sentiments,  he  suppresses  all 
gestures,  because  gestures  give  one  away  at  once.  One  cannot  make 
a  gesture  of  astonishment  without  being  really  astonished  at  all,  and 
vice  versa.  And  so  slowly,  by  degrees,  the  whole  of  the  human  capital 
is  repressed,  disguised,  unhumanised,  and,  in  a  word,  sacrificed  at 
the  altar  of  political  liberty.  The  Romans,  much  wiser  than  the 
Spartans,  gave  immense  coercive  power  both  to  corporate  bodies,  such 
as  the  Roman  Senate,  and  to  single  officials,  such  as  a  Consul,  a  Censor, 
a  Tribune,  or  a  Praetor.  They  therefore  did  not  need  any  grotesque 
private  coercive  institutions  or  fads.  The  English,  on  the  other 
hand,  want  to  wield  an  empire  such  as  the  Romans,  and  yet  build  up 


1908     APOLLO  AND  DIONYSUS  IN  ENGLAND         81 


their  polity  upon  the  narrow  plane  of  a  Spartan  ayfoytf.  In  this 
there  is  an  inherent  contradiction.  They  hamper  their  best  inten- 
tions, and  must  at  all  times,  and  against  their  better  convictions, 
legislate  for  faddists,  because  they  lack  the  courage  of  their  Imperial 
mission.  Empires  want  Imperial  institutions,  that  is,  such  as  are 
richly  endowed  in  point  of  political  power.  Offices  ought  to  be  given 
by  appointment,  and  not  by  competitive  examinations,  if  only  for  five 
or  ten  years.  The  police  ought  to  have  a  very  much  more  compre- 
hensive power,  and  the  schools  ought  to  be  subject  to  a  national 
committee.  Parliament  must  be  Imperial,  and  not  only  British. 
Very  much  more  might  be  said  about  the  necessity  of  rendering  this 
Realm  more  apotelestic,  as  we  have  called  it,  but  I  see  that  Euripides  is 
burning  to  make  his  remarks,  and  I  am  sure  that  he  is  able  to  give 
us  the  final  expression  of  the  whole  difficulty  in  a  manner  that  none 
of  us  can  rival.' 

Thereupon  Euripides  addressed  the  company  as  follows  :  *  For 
many,  many  a  year  I  have  observed  and  studied  the  most  fife-endowed 
commonwealth  that  the  world  has  ever  seen,  Athens.  I  watched  the 
Athenians  in  their  homes,  in  the  market  place,  in  the  law  courts,  in 
peace  and  war,  in  the  theatre  and  in  the  temple,  at  the  holy  places 
of  Eleusis  and  Delphi,  their  men  as  well  as  their  women.  Personally  I 
long  inclined  towards  a  view  of  the  world  almost  exclusively  influenced 
by  Apollo.  I  thought  that  as  the  sun  is  evidently  the  great  life-giver 
of  all  existence,  so  light,  reason,  system,  liberty,  and  consummately 
devised  measures  constitute  the  highest  wisdom  of  the  community.  In 
all  I  wrote  or  said  I  worked  for  the  great  god  of  Light,  and  Reason, 
and  Progress.  I  could  not  find  words  and  phrases  trenchant  enough 
to  express  my  disdain  for  sentiments  and  ideas  discountenanced  by 
Apollo.  I  persecuted  and  fiercely  attacked  all  those  dark,  chthonic, 
and  mysterious  passions  of  which  man  is  replete  to  overflowing.  I 
hated  Imperialism,  I  adored  Liberty  ;  I  extolled  Philosophy,  and 
execrated  Orphic  ideas.  But  at  last,  when  I  had  gone  through  the 
fearful  experiences  of  the  Peloponnesian  War,  with  all  its  supreme 
glories  and  its  unrelieved  shames,  I  learned  to  think  otherwise.  I 
learned  to  see  that  as  man  has  two  souls  in  his  breast,  one  celestial  or 
Apollinic,  the  other  terrestrial  or  Dionysiac,  so  there  are  two  gods, 
and  not  one,  that  govern  this  sub-lunar  world.  The  two  are  Apollo 
and  Dionysus.  One  rules  the  world  of  light,  of  political  power, 
of  scientific  reason,  and  of  harmonious  muses.  The  other  is  the  god  of 
unreason,  of  passion,  and  wild  enthusiasm,  of  that  unwieldy  Heart 
of  ours  which  is  fuller  of  'monsters  and  also  of  precious  pearls  than  is 
the  wide  ocean.  Unless  in  a  given  commonwealth  the  legislator 
wisely  provides  for  the  cult  of  both  gods,  in  an  orderly  and  public 
fashion,  Dionysus  or  Apollo  will  take  fearful  revenge  for  the  neglect 
they  suffer  at  the  hands  of  shortsighted  statesmen  and  impudent 
unbelievers.  In  the  course  of  our  Great  War  we  have  come  into 
VOL.  LXIV-No.  377  G 


'82  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

» 

contact  and  conflict  with  many  a  non-Greek  nation,  or  the  people 
whom  we  rightly  term  Barbarians.  For  while  some  of  them  sedulously, 
perhaps  over-zealously,  worship  Dionysus,  they  all  ignore  or  scorn 
Apollo.  The  consequence  is  that  the  great  god  blinds  them  to  their 
own  advantages,  robs  them  of  light  and  moderation,  and  they  prosper 
enduringly  neither  as  builders  of  States  nor  as  private  citizens  in 
their  towns.  For  Apollo,  like  all  the  gods,  is  a  severe  .god,  and  his 
bow  he  uses  as  unerringly  as  his  lyre.  It  is  even  so  with  Dionysus. 
The  nation  that  affects  to  despise  him,  speedily  falls  a  wretched 
victim  to  his  awful  revenge.  Instead  of  worshipping  him  openly 
and  in  public  fashion,  such  a  nation  falls  into  grotesque  and  absurd 
eccentricities,  that  readily  degenerate  into  poisonous  vices,  infesting 
every  organ  of  the  body  politic  and  depriving  social  intercourse  of 
all  its  charms.  The  Spartans,  although  they  allow  their  women  a 
temporary  cult  of  the  god  Dionysus,  yet  do  not  pay  sufficient  atten- 
tion to  him,  worshipping  mainly  Apollo.  They  had,  in  consequence, 
to  do  much  that  tends  to  de-humanisation,  and,  while  many  admire 
them,  no  one  loves  them.  It  was  this  my  late  and  hard-won  insight 
into  the  nature  of  man  which  I  wanted  to  bring  out  in  the  strongest 
fashion  imaginable  in  my  drama  called  Bacchae.  I  see  with  bitterness 
how  little  my  commentators  grasped  the  real  mystery  of  my  work.  If 
Dionysus  was  to  me  only  the  symbol  of  wine  and  merrymaking, 
why  should  I  have  indulged  in  the  gratuitous  cruelty  of  punishing  the 
neglect  of  Bacchus  by  the  awful  murder  of  a  son-king  at  the  hands 
of  his  own  frenzied  mother-queen  ?  All  my  Hellenic  sentiment  of 
moderation  shudders  at  such  a  ghastly  exaggeration.  Neither  the 
myth  nor  my  drama  refer  to  wanton,  barbarous  bloodshed  ;  and 
such  scholars  as  assume  archaic  human  sacrifices  in  honour  of  Dionysus, 
and  '  survivals  '  thereof  in  Dionysiac  rites,  ought  to  -be  taken  in  hand 
by  the  god's  own  Maenads  and  suffer  for  their  impudence.  Human 
sacrifices  indeed,  but  not  such  as  are  made  by  stabbing  people  with 
knives  and  bleeding  them  to  physical  death.  Human  sacrifices  in  the 
sense  of  a  terrible  loss  of  human  capital,  of  a  de-humanisation  caused 
by  the  browbeating  of  the  Heart — this  and  nothing  else  was  the  mean- 
ing of  my  drama.  And  which  country  is  a  fuller  commentary  on  the 
truth  of  my  Bacchae  than  England  ?  Here  is  a  country  that,  had 
Dionysus  been  properly  worshipped  by  its  people,  might  be  the 
happiest,  brightest  of  all  nations,  a  model  for  all  others,  and  living 
like  the  gods  in  perpetual  bliss — that  is,  in  perfect  equilibrium  of 
thought  and  action,  reason  and  sentiment,  beauty  and  moderation. 
They  have  done  much  and  successfully  for  Pythian  Apollo ;  they 
have  established  a  solid  fabric  of  Liberty  and  Imperial  Power  ;  various 
intellectual  pursuits  they  have  cultivated  with  glory ;  and  in  their 
paeans  to  Apollo  they  have  shown  exquisite  beauties  of  expression 
and  feeling.  But  Dionysus  they  persistently  want  to  neglect,  to 
discredit,  to  oust.  Instead  of  bowing  humbly  and  openly  to  the 


1908      APOLLO  AND  DIONYSUS  IN  ENGLAND         83 

god  of  enthusiasm,  of  unreasoned  lilt  of  sentiment  and  passion,  and 

of  the  intense  delight  in  all  that  lives  and  throbs  and  vibrates  with 

pleasure  and  joy ;  they  affect  to  suppress  sentiments,  to  rein  in  all 

pleasures,  and  to  cast  a  slur  on  joy.     And  then  the  god,  seeing  the 

scorn  with  which  they  treat  him,  avenges  himself,  and  blinds  and 

maddens  them,  as  he  did  King  Pentheus  of  Thebes,  King  Perseus  of 

Argos,  the  daughters  of  Minyas  of  Orchomenos,  or  Proitos  of  Tiryns, 

and  so  many  others.     The  god  Dionysus  puts  into  their  hearts  absurd 

thoughts  and  fantastic  prejudices,  and  some  of  them  spend  millions 

of  money  a  year  to  stop  the  use  of  the  Bacchic  gifts  in  a  country  which 

has  long  been  the  least  drinking  country  in  the  white  world,  and  as 

a  matter  of  fact  drinks  far  too  little  good  and  noble  wine.     Others 

again  are  made,  by  angry  Dionysus,  to  fuilvso-Oai  or  rage  by  adding 

to  the  250  unofficial  yearly  fogs  of  the  country,  fifty-two  official  ones, 

which  they  call  Sundays.     Again  others,  instigated  by  the  enraged 

god  Dionysus,  drive  people  to  furor  by  their  intolerable  declamations 

against  alleged  cruelties  to  animals,  while  they  are  themselves  full  of 

cruel  boredom  to  human  beings.     There  is,  I  note  with  satisfaction, 

one  among  them  who  seems  to  have  an  inkling  of  the  anger  of  the 

god,  and  who  has  tried  to  restore,  in  a  fashion,  the  cult  of  Dionysiac 

festivals.     He  calls  his  Orphic  Association  the  Salvation  Army.     They 

imitate  not  quite  unsuccessfully  the  doings  of  the  legs  and  feet  of 

the  true  worshippers  of  Dionysus  ;  but  the  spirit  of  the  true  cult  is 

very  far  off  from  them.     And  so  Dionysus,  cut  and  looked  down  upon 

by  the  people  of  this  country,  avenges  himself  in  a  manner  the  upshot 

and  sum  of  which  is  not  inadequately  represented  in  my  Bacchae. 

And  yet  the  example  of  the  Hellas  of  Hellas,  or  of  the  town  of  Athens, 

which  all  of  them  study  in  their  schools,  might  have  taught  them 

better  things.     When,  by  about  the  eighth  or  seventh  century  B.C. 

(as  they  say),  the  cult  of  Dionysus  began  to  spread  in  Greece,  the 

various  States  opposed  it  at  first  with  all  their  power.     All  these 

States  were  Apollinic  contrivances.     They  were  ordered  by  reasoned 

constitutions,    generally    by   one    man.      In   them   everything   was 

deliberately  arranged  for  light,  order,  good  rhythm,  clearness,  and 

system.     It  was  all  in  honour  of  Apollo,  the  city-builder.     Naturally 

the  leaders  of  those  States  hated  Dionysus.     However,  they  were 

soon  convinced  of  the  might  of  the  new  god,  and,  instead  of  scorning, 

defying  or  neglecting  him,  the  wise  men  at  the  head  of  affairs  resolved 

to  adopt  him  officially.      In  this  they  followed  (0  Trichas,  did  they 

not  ?)    the    example    of    Delphi,   which,   although   formerly  purely 

Apollinic,  now  readily  opened  its  holy  halls  to  the  new  god  Dionysus, 

so  that  ever  after  Delphi  was  as  much  Apollinic  as  it  was  Dionysiac. 

At  Athens  they  honoured  the  new  god  so  deeply  and  fully  that,  not 

content  with  the  ordinary  rural  sports  and  processions  given  in  his 

honour,  the  Athenians  created  the  great  Tragedy  and  Comedy  as  a  fit 

cult  of  the  mighty  god.     The  Athenians  were  paid  to  go  to  those 

o  2 


84  TEE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

wondrous  plays,  where  their  Dionysiac  soul  could  and  did  find  ample 
food,  and  was  thereby  purged  and  purified,  or,  in  other  words,  pre- 
vented from  falling  into  the  snares  of  silly  faddists  of  religious  or 
other  impostures.  But  for  those  Dionysiac  festivals  in  addition  to  the 
cult  of  Apollo,  the  Greeks  would  have  become  the  Chinese  of  Europe. 
Why,  then,  do  not  the  English  do  likewise  ?  Why  do  they  not  build  a 
mighty,  State-kept  theatre,  or  several  of  them  ?  Why  does  their 
State  try  to  pension  decrepit  persons,  and  not  rather  help  to  balance 
young  minds  ?  Why  have  they  no  public  agones  or  competitions  in 
singing,  reciting,  and  dancing  ?  They  do,  officially,  next  to  nothing 
for  music  ;  and  if  one  of  their  strategi  or  ministers  was  known  to  be  a 
good  pianist  or  violinist,  as  they  call  their  instruments,  they  would 
scorn  him  as  unworthy  of  his  post.  Yet  few  of  such  strategi  are  the 
equals  of  Epaminondas,  who  excelled  both  in  dancing  and  playing 
our  harp.  But  while  they  ignore  music — that  is,  Dionysus's  chief 
gift — they  crouch  before  the  unharmonious  clamour  of  any  wretched 
Orphic  teetotaller,  vegetarian,  or  Sabbatarian.  This  is  how  Dionysus 
avenges  himself.  I  see  how  uneasy  they  are  with  regard  to  the  great 
might  of  the  Germans.  Why,  then,  do  they  not  learn  to  respect 
Dionysus,  who  was  the  chief  help  to  the  powerful  consolidation  of  the 
German  Empire  ?  German  music  kept  North  and  South  Germans 
intimately  together ;  it  saved  them  from  wasting  untold  sums  of 
money,  of  time,  of  force,  on  arid  fads  ;  it  paved  the  way  to  political 
intimacy.  Had  the  English  not  neglected  Dionysus,  had  they  sung 
in  his  honour  those  soul-attaching  songs  which  once  learned  in  youth  can 
never  be  forgotten,  they  might  have  retained  the  millions  of  Irishmen, 
who  have  left  their  shores,  by  the  heart-melting  charm  of  a  common 
music.  From  the  lack  of  such  a  delicate  but  enduring  tie,  the  Irish 
had  to  be  held  by  sterile  political  measures  only.  In  music  there  is 
infinitely  more  than  a  mere  tinkling  of  rhythm  ;  there  is  Dionysus  in  it. 
Their  teachers  of  politics  sneer  at  Aristotle  because  he  treats  solemnly 
of  music  in  his  Politics.  But  Aristotle  told  me  himself  that  he  sneers 
at  them,  seeing  what  absurd  socialistic  schenfes  they  discuss  because 
they  do  not  want  to  steady  the  souls  of  their  people  by  a  proper  cult 
of  Dionysus.  Socialism  is  doomed  to  the  fate  of  Pentheus  at  the 
terrible  hands  of  Dionysus.  Socialism  despises  Dionysus  ;  the  god 
will  speedily  drive  it  to  madness.  See,  friends,  we  must  leave — yonder 
Apollo  is  rising ;  he  wants  to  join  Dionysus,  who  passed  us  a  little 
while  ago.  Should  they  both  stay  in  this  country,  and  should  they 
be  properly  worshipped,  we  might  from  time  to  time  come  back  again. 
At  present  I  propose  to  leave  forthwith  for  the  Castalian  sources.* 

EMU, 


1908 


THE  KHEDIVE   OF  EGYPT 


BEFORE  these  lines  appear  in  print  Abbas  the  Second  will  probably 
have  terminated  his  flying  visit  to  England.  The  visit  is  essentially  a 
private  visit.  If  I  am  rightly  informed,  his  Highness  did  not  come 
here  as  the  guest  of  the  King.  Sir  Eldon  Gorst,  H.M.  Consul- 
General  in  Egypt,  considered  it  as  a  matter  of  importance  alike  to 
Egypt  and  England  that  an  interview  should  take  place  between 
King  Edward  the  Seventh  and  Abbas  the  Second,  the  great  grandson 
of  Mehemet  Ali  and  the  sixth  Sovereign  of  the  reigning  dynasty. 
During  the  last  two  months  Sir  Eldon  Gorst  has  paid  very  frequent 
visits  to  Koubbeh,  the  palace  some  five  miles  out  of  Cairo  where 
his  Highness  usually  resides  in  preference  to  the  Palace  of  Abdeen 
in  Cairo,  where  his  grandfather  Ismail  Pasha  and  his  father 
Tewfik  Pasha  habitually  held  their  abode.  After  very  frequent  and 
prolonged  negotiations,  an  arrangement  was  concluded  to  the  effect 
that  Abbas  the  Second  came  to  England  as  a  private  visitor,  with 
the  object  of  seeing  his  Majesty  the  King.  I  do  not  profess  to 
have  any  personal  knowledge  of  the  correspondence  on  this  subject 
which  may  have  passed  between  the  British  Agency  and  the  Foreign 
Office,  but  I  can  assert  without  fear  of  contradiction  that  the  upshot 
of  these  negotiations  was  such  in  substance  as  that  stated  above. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  enter  into  any  discussion  as 'to  how  far 
Lord  Cromer  was  or  was  not  justified  in  the  attitude  he  assumed 
towards  Abbas  the  Second  almost  from  the  date  of  the  latter's  acces- 
sion to  the  vice-regal  throne.  The  argument  that  Abbas  owes  any 
special  gratitude  to  England  for  his  elevation  to  the  Khediviate  is  some- 
what illogical.  Upon  his  father's  sudden  and  unexpected  death  in  1891 
he,  as  the  eldest  son  of  Tewfik,  became  Viceroy  as  a  matter  of  course, 
and  the  idea  of  the  British  Government  raising  any  objection  to  his 
accession  was  never  even  ventilated  either  in  Egypt  or  elsewhere. 
By  international  law,  in  as  far  as  such  a  thing  can  be  said  to  have 
any  existence  other  than  that  of  a  conventional  fiction,  Abbas  the 
Second  is  subject  to  the  nominal  suzerainty  of  the  Sultan,  the  de 
jure  and  de  facto  ruler  of  Egypt,  in  the  same  sense  as  Nicholas  the 
Second  is  Czar  of  All  the  Russias. 

From  a  personal  point  of  view  the  early  death  of  Tewfik  Pasha 

85 


86  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUKY  July 

was  a  misfortune  for  his  son  and  heir.     As  soon  as  the  two  Princes 
Abbas  and  Mahomed  Ali  were  old  enough  to^be  instructed  by  foreign 
teachers,  Tewfik  placed  them  under  the  care  of  an  English  gentleman, 
then  in  the  service  of  the  Egyptian  Government.     This  gentleman, 
Mr.  Mitchell,  was  the  son  of  the  then  Public  Orator  of  Oxford.  Being  in 
Egypt  at  this  time  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Mitchell,  who  later 
on  was  appointed  Consular  Judge  in  Cyprus  and  is,  I  believe,  a  high 
authority  on  Oriental  lore.     He  often  spoke  to  me  about  the  quickness 
of  apprehension  possessed  by  his  vice-regal  pupils,  and  the  interest 
their  father  took  in  their  progress.    There  are  obvious  reasons  why  boys 
destined  to  occupy  distinguished  positions  in  Eastern  countries  are 
usually  sent  at  an  early  age  to  European  schools  or  seminaries.     These 
reasons  were  especially  calculated  to  commend  themselves  to  Tewfik 
Pasha,   who  attached  perhaps  an  undue   importance  to  educational 
advantages,  as,  unlike  his  younger  brothers,  he  himself  had   never 
enjoyed  these  advantages.     Be  this  as  it  may,  his  heir,  Abbas  the 
Second,  was  sent  to  the  Theresianum  of  Vienna  at  an  early  age. 
In  the  days  of  which  I  speak  this  academy  was  especially  frequented 
by  the  sons  of  the  Austrian  nobles  and  was  a  sort  of  Viennese  Eton, 
where  respect  for  the  prerogatives  of  royalty  and  for  the  predomi- 
nance of  princes  and  heirs  apparent  above  the  common  herd  of  man- 
kind were  more  pronounced  than  in  any  other  European  capital  with 
the  possible  exception  of  St.  Petersburg.     At  the  period  of  life  when 
lads  approaching  manhood  are  most  susceptible  to  the  influence  of 
their  surroundings  he  was  brought  up  in  a  society  whose  dominant 
traditions  were  those  of  a  bygone  age,  when  the  divine  right  of  kings 
was  an  article  of  faith.     This  period  also  happened  to  coincide  with 
an  era  in  which  the  duration  of  our  virtual  protectorate  over  Egypt 
still    seemed    more   than   doubtful.      The  idea   that   England  had 
'  come  to   stay '  was  scouted,  not  only  by   our  own  Government, 
but  in  diplomatic  circles   on   the    Continent.    This   was  especially 
the  case  in  the  Austrian  capital,  where  the  British   occupation  of 
Egypt  was  not  regarded  as  a  permanent  arrangement.    The  rela- 
tions between  the  late  Khedive  and  the  British  Agency  in  Cairo 
had   become    ostensibly  more   friendly  than  they  ever   had   been 
before  or  have  been   since.    It  seemed,  to  say  the  least,  on  the 
cards  that  an  arrangement  might  be  arrived  at  by  which  the  British 
troops  would  be  withdrawn  from  Egypt,  while  the  Khedive,  subject 
to  certain  restrictions,  would  be  reinstated  in  his  former  position 
not  only  as  the  nominal  but  as  the  actual  ruler  of  Egypt.     Whether 
such  an  arrangement  could  have  worked  satisfactorily  is  a  question 
which  can  now  never  be  decided  ;  but  the  fact  that  the  British  Govern- 
ment had  as  late  as  1885  become  a  consenting  party  to  a  convention 
with  Turkey  drawn  up  by  Muktar  Pasha  Gazi  and  by  my  old  friend 
Sir  Henry  Drummond  Wolff  is  proof  sufficient  that  Lord  Salisbury, 
equally  with  Mr.  Gladstone,  was  then  genuinely  desirous  of  terminat- 


1908  THE  KHEDIVE   OF  EGYPT  87 

ing  the  British  occupation  as  soon  as  possible.  Indeed,  if  it  had  not 
been  for  the  opposition  offered  to  the  Wolff  Convention  by  representa- 
tives of  the  French  Republic  at  Constantinople  there  would  not  have 
been  a  British  garrison  in  any  part  of  Egypt  at  the  untimely 
death  of  Tewfik. 

Abbas  Pasha  had  barely  completed  his  eighteenth  year  when  he 
received,  when  still  a  pupil  at  Vienna,  the  news  of  his  father's  sudden 
and  unforeseen  demise  in  the  prime  of  life,  and  was  summoned  to 
return  to  Cairo  in  hot  haste  in  order  to  take  possession  of  the  vacant 
throne.  It  would  have  been  far  better  on  every  ground — apart  from 
any  question  of  his  personal  affections — if  Abbas's  accession  to  the 
viceroyalty  could  have  been  delayed  for  a  few  years  longer.  It  was 
his  misfortune,  not  his  fault,  if,  while  almost  a  schoolboy,  he  returned 
to  Egypt  as  her  lawful  Sovereign.  He  had  necessarily  a*  very  scanty 
knowledge  of  the  country  he  was  called  upon  to  govern,  and  a  still 
more  imperfect  appreciation  of  the  exceptional  and  anomalous  con- 
ditions under  which  his  authority  had  to  be  exercised.  In  theory 
the  Khedive  was — subject  to  the  shadowy  suzerainty  of  the  Sultan 
— an  independent  prince,  to  whom  the  Ministers  and  all  Egyptian 
officials,  both  civil  and  military,  owed  complete  obedience.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  any  commands  he  might  issue  were  not  binding  on  any 
public  servants  to  whom  they  might  be  addressed,  unless  these  com- 
mands were,  so  to  speak,  countersigned  by  the  Consul-General  of 
Great  Britain,  as  the  representative  of  the  Power  whose  armies  occupied 
the  Khediviate.  Whatever  else  may  have  been  the  merits  or  demerits  of 
Abbas  the  Second,  even  his  worst  detractors  have  never  denied  him  the 
possession  of  singular  ability  and  of  high  ambitions.  He  came  back 
under  a  not  altogether  unfounded  conviction  that  the  British  repre- 
sentatives had  taken  advantage  of  the  lack  of  energy  of  his  prede- 
cessor in  order  to  augment  the  official  authority  of  the  Protecting 
Power  and  thereby  decrease  the  personal  authority  of  the  Khedive. 
He  can  hardly  be  blamed  if  he  came  home  with  the  intention  of  setting 
matters  straight  by  claiming  to  be  master  in  the  land  of  his  birth,  as 
befitted  the  lineal  heir  to  the  dynasty  founded  by  Mehemet  Ali,  the 
Lion  of  the  Levant. 

It  was  almost  inevitable  that  Abbas  the  Second  on  his  arrival 
in  Egypt  should  have  fallen  under  the  influence  of  partisans  of  France, 
resident  in  Cairo.  Up  to  this  date  the  French  Republic  had  not  given 
up  the  hope  that  England  might  be  compelled  or  cajoled  into  surrender- 
ing the  position  she  had  acquired  by  the  occupation  of  Egypt  and  that 
France  might  then  recover  her  lost  supremacy.  Whenever  the  true 
history  of  the  campaign  conducted  in  Egypt  by  France  against  England 
is  fully  made  known,  I  expect  the  fervid  partisans  of  the  entente 
cordiale  will  have,  metaphorically  speaking,  to  put  a  good  deal  of 
water  into  their  milk.  For  the  present,  however,  it  is  enough  to  say 
that  the  French  Colony  in  Cairo,  which  was  then  far  more  numerous 


88  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

and  better  organised  than  it  is  to-day,  brought  their  influence  to 
bear  upon  Abbas  the  Second  in  order  to  induce  his  Highness  to  make 
an  effort  for  the  recovery  of  his  personal  authority.  Ever  since  the 
occupation  there  had  been  an  almost  complete  schism  between  the 
English  and  the  French  elements  of  Cairene  Society.  Up  to  the 
bombardment  of  Alexandria  by  the  British  fleet,  French  had  been  the 
language  employed  in  social  intercourse,  mainly,  I  think,  because  it 
was  practically  the  only  European  language  in  which  the  native 
Ministers  and  officials  could  make  themselves  understood.  Gradually 
Cairene  Society  split  up  into  groups  where  English,  French,  German,  and 
Italian  were  employed  as  the  usual  channels  of  communication.  This 
separative  tendency  was  increased  by  the  policy,  which  found  favour 
with  the  British  Agency  during  the  last  twenty-four  years,  of  discoura- 
ging all  private  social  intercourse  between  natives  and  British  public 
servants.  This  policy,  whether  wise  or  unwise  in  itself,  tended  to 
promote  close  relations  between  the  well-to-do  natives  and  the  French. 
The  youthful  Khedive  was  given  to  understand  by  his  self-constituted 
mentors  that  the  Egyptian  public  were  extremely  hostile  to  the 
continuance  of  the  occupation,  and  that  if  he  only  manifested  a 
determination  to  assert  his  authority  and  to  show  that  in  future  he 
intended  to  take  a  leading  part  in  the  administration  of  State  affairs 
he  would  have  the  active  sympathy  and  support  of  his  fellow-country- 
men and  of  his  co-religionists. 

It  is  hardly  matter  for  surprise  if  these  counsels  commended  them- 
selves to  the  approval  of  the  young  Prince.  The  particular  form 
under  which  Abbas  the  Second  proposed  to  vindicate  his  individual 
freedom  of  action  and  thereby  to  introduce  a  new  regime  was,  I  am 
inclined  to  think,  his  own  idea.  If  there  is  one  department  of  the 
State  in  Egypt  over  which  the  Viceroy  might  be  considered  at  liberty 
to  exercise  a  personal  control  it  is  the  Anglo-Egyptian  Army.  It 
goes  without  saying  that  the  British  forces  receive  their  orders  from 
the  general  in  command,  but  the  Anglo-Egyptian  Army  is  a  native 
army,  whose  ranks  are  exclusively  composed  of  Fellaheen,  enlisted 
of  their  own  free  will  or,  in  case  of  need,  by  conscription.  The  officers 
of  this  native  army,  whether  British  or  native,  hold  commissions  from 
the  Khedive  and  are  paid  at  the  cost  of  the  State.  The  only  differ- 
ence between  the  British  and  the  native  officers  is  that  the  former 
are '  seconded  '  by  the  British  War  Office  subject  to  the  approval  of  the 
Khedive,  while  the  latter  are  nominated  directly  by  the  Egyptian 
military  authorities.  The  Sirdar  or  Commander-in-Chief  has  always 
hitherto  been  a  British  officer,  though  he  fulfils  the  duties  of  his  office 
in  virtue  of  the  commission  he  holds  under  the  Khedive's  sign  manual. 
As  long  as  the  army  of  occupation  remains  in  Egypt  I  fail  to  see 
how  this  unwritten  regulation  could  ever  be  disregarded  in  practice. 
I  never  could  obtain  any  satisfactory  explanation  as  to  what  would 
happen  in  the  improbable,  but  not  impossible,  event  of  a  British 


1908  THE  KHEDIVE   OF  EGYPT  89 

officer  who  had  been  '  seconded '  by  the  War  Office,  or  in  plainer 
words  '  lent '  to  the  Anglo-Egyptian  army,  receiving  contra- 
dictory orders  from  the  British  and  the  Khedivial  Govern- 
ments. It  is  significant  of  the  general  '  Topsy  Turvydom '  of  all 
Egyptian  arrangements,  under  our  unavowed  Protectorate,  that  my 
friend  Sir  Keginald  Wingate,  the  present  Sirdar,  is  bound  by  the 
Condominium  to  serve  two  masters,  his  Majesty  Edward  the  Seventh, 
and  his  Highness  the  Khedive  Abbas  the  Second.  Suppose  the 
King  and  his  co-Sovereign  were  to  hold  opposite  views  as  to  the 
occupation  of  the  Soudan,  and  the  Sirdar  was  commanded  by  the 
British  Government  to  remain  at  Khartoum,  while  at  the  same 
time  he  was  commanded  by  the  Viceregal  Government  to  evacuate 
Khartoum.  On  such  an  hypothesis  he  would  be  liable  to  be  shot  for 
mutiny  by  the  Power  whose  orders  he  elected  to  disobey.  The  Sirdar 
at  the  time  when  Abbas  the  Second  succeeded  to  the  Vicerega 
throne  happened  to  be  General  Kitchener,  now  Lord  Kitchener  of 
Khartoum,  and  it  was  this  most  distinguished  officer  that  Abbas 
the  Second  selected  as  affording  him  an  opportunity  for  asserting  his 
contention  that  he  considered  himself  entitled  to  exercise  his  authority 
in  criticising  the  movements  of  his  own  troops  when  they  were  being 
reviewed  in  his  own  presence  as  the  Sovereign  of  Egypt. 

It  is  always  very  difficult  to  make  out  the  truth  about  any- 
thing in  Egypt,  and  all  the  more  difficult  in  cases  where  racial 
or  professional  rivalries  are  called  into  play.  The  general  outlines, 
however,  of  the  disagreement  between  the  Khedive  and  General 
Kitchener  are  not  open  to  any  grave  doubt.  It  seems  certain 
that,  when  a  review  in  Upper  Egypt  at  which  the  Khedive 
was  present  had  been  concluded,  and  when  the  Sirdar  naturally 
expected  to  receive  the  usual  compliments  on  the  efficiency  dis- 
played by  his  troops,  the  Khedive,  speaking  in  a  voice  audible  to 
those  around  him,  expressed  his  grave  displeasure  at  the  want  of 
regularity  with  which  certain  military  manoeuvres  had  been  conducted, 
and  requested  that  increased  vigilance  should  be  displayed  in  future. 
Immediately  upon  the  Khedive's  departure  from  the  field  General 
Kitchener  forwarded  his  resignation  of  the  Sirdarship,  while  the  news 
of  the  cause  which  had  led  him  to  take  this  step  was  forthwith  tele- 
graphed to  the  British  Agency  in  Cairo,  where  it  created  very  general 
alarm.  It  is  no  part  of  the  present  writer's  duty  to  discuss  whether 
the  Khedive  was  most  to  blame  for  a  very  unfortunate  incident.  It 
was  contended  by  the  friends  and  courtiers  of  Abbas  the  Second  that 
his  Highness,  accustomed  as  he  had  been  for  many  years  to  the  almost 
mathematical  regularity  with  which  Austrian  troops  are  trained  to 
march  step  by  step,  row  after  row,  may  have  attached  far  too  great 
importance  to  the  comparatively  loose  formation  of  Egyptian  troops 
commanded  by  British  officers.  Be  this  as  it  may,  I  cannot  see  how 
the  British  Agency  could  have  allowed  the  censure  inflicted  upon  the 


90  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

Sirdar  before  his  troops  to  pass  without  protest.  After  all,  when  you 
discard  theories  and  deal  with  realities  in  Egyptian  matters  you  come 
at  once  to  the  bottom  fact  that  our  influence  and  authority  in  Egypt 
are  due  to  our  military  occupation  of  the  country.  Our  British 
Civil  servants  may  have  developed  the  resources  of  the  Nile  Land, 
may  have  carried  out  many  useful  reforms,  may  have  improved  the 
conditions  of  the  Fellaheen  and  may  have  introduced  a  better  and 
less  corrupt  system  of  law  and  justice.  But  when  all  is  said  none  of 
these  reforms  could  have  been  carried  into  effect  unless  a  British 
garrison  had  occupied  the  citadel  whose  guns  command  Cairo.  To 
speak  the  plain  truth  we  owe  our  present  hold  over  Egypt  to  the 
sword,  and,  if  we  wish  to  hold  it  in  the  future,  we  must  keep  it  by  the 
sword,  not  by  introducing  reforms,  however  beneficial  from  our  British 
point  of  view.  To  many  of  these  reforms  Egypt  as  a  nation  is 
distinctly  hostile,  and  to  the  remainder  she  is  absolutely  indifferent. 
If,  therefore,  Great  Britain  rightly  or  wrongly  attaches  extreme 
importance  to  upholding  her  ascendency  in  Egypt  she  cannot  allow 
her  military  supremacy  to  be  questioned.  No  reasonable  person  can 
deny  that  the  fact  of  the  Sirdar  being  publicly  rebuked  by  the  Khedive 
in  the  presence  of  his  Egyptian  troops  would  have  gravely  damaged 
our  military  prestige.  This  being  so,  I  am  bound  to  say  that  our 
Consul- General,  as  the  representative  of  the  British  Government, 
would  have  failed  in  his  duty  if  he  had  not  insisted  upon  the  formal 
withdrawal  of  the  criticism  passed  upon  the  Sirdar  in  the  presence  of 
his  troops.  I  think,  perhaps,  the  form  of  the  withdrawal  might  have 
been  couched  in  terms  less  offensive  to  the  susceptibilities  of  a  young 
and  inexperienced  Prince,  who  had  failed  to  realise  the  fact  that  under 
the  British  occupation  he  was  no  longer  master  of  his  own  army. 
Kiaz  Pasha  was  deputed  by  the  British  Agency  to  proceed  at  once  to 
the  camp.  No  better  choice  could  have  well  been  made.  Riaz  had 
throughout  a  long  public  career  earned  the  respect  of  all  parties  in 
Egypt  by  his  independence  of  character  and  his  strict  sense  of  duty. 
He  had  recognised  the  British  Protectorate  as  a  necessity,  but  as  an 
unwelcome  necessity.  He  was  known  to  be  personally  attached  to 
the  Viceregal  dynasty,  had  served  as  Prime  Minister  under  three 
generations,  and  had  fully  deserved  the  confidence  reposed  in  him 
alike  by  Ismail  and  Tewfik  and  Abbas  the  Second.  I  may  add,  too, 
that  as  a  strict  follower  of  Islam  and  as  a  patriot  in  the  Egyptian 
sense  of  the  word,  Eiaz's  sympathies  were  enlisted  on  behalf  of  the 
Khedivial  dynasty.  What  actually  passed  between  Abbas  the  Second 
and  the  emissary  of  the  British  Agency  has  never  been  recorded  in 
any  official  narrative,  but  there  is  a  general  and  probably  a  well- 
founded  belief  throughout  Egypt  that  his  Highness  was  given  to  under- 
stand that,  unless  he  consented  to  request  the  Sirdar  to  withdraw 
his  resignation  and  to  resume  his  post  as  the  General  in  command  of 
the  Anglo-Egyptian  Army,  the  British  Government  would  take 


1908  THE  KHEDIVE   OF  EGYPT  91 

immediate  action  to  bring  about  his  deposition  through  the  same 
instrumentality  as  that  which  had  deposed  Ismail  Pasha.  If  Abbas 
the  Second  had  been  the  petulant  self-willed  lad  he  was  credited  with 
being  at  this  period  in  British  circles  he  might  probably  have  refused 
to  retract  his  censures  upon  the  troops  under  the  Sirdar's  command 
and  might  have  thus  given  England  an  infinity  of  trouble.  But 
being,  happily  for  himself  and  for  Egypt,  as  later  events  have  shown, 
a  singularly  clear-headed  man,  Abbas  the  Second  recognised  that  so 
long  as  the  British  occupation  remained  in  force,  with  the  tacit  assent, 
if  not  with  the  open  approval,  of  all  the  Great  Powers  of  Europe,  the 
hold  of  England  on  Egypt  was  too  strong  to  be  seriously  attacked. 
His  Highness,  moreover,  possessed  a  sufficiently  clear  insight  into  our 
national  character  to  understand  that  the  British  Government  would 
not  allow  the  demand  for  his  abdication  to  remain  a  brutum  ftUmen, 
and  that  if  he  wished  to  retain  the  Viceroyalty  he  had  no  choice 
but  to  accept  the  terms  upon  which  his  offence  was  to  be  condoned, 
and  to  accept  them  without  further  demur. 

The  reason  why  I  deem  it  well  to  recall  this  bygone  incident  is  because 
it  explains  a  great  deal  of  the  friction  which  up  to  a  recent  period  has 
existed  between  the  Khedive  and  the  British  authorities  in  Egypt.  It 
is  only  in  human  nature  that  his  Highness  should  not  have-forgotten, 
even  if  he  has  forgiven,  what  from  his  point  of  view  he  may  not  un- 
naturally have  considered  a  flagrant  disregard  of  his  personal  suscepti- 
bilities as  the  Viceroy  of  Egypt.  It  is  also  not  unreasonable  he  should 
deem  that  even  if  he  had  asserted  pretensions  which  he  was  not  justified 
in  doing,  more  consideration  might  have  been  shown  to  his  youth  and 
inexperience. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  only  fair  to  admit  that  the  diplomatic  repre- 
sentatives of  England  at  Cairo  may  have  resented  what  they  regarded 
as  a  deliberate  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Khedive  to  dispute  their 
supremacy  in  Egypt.  Both  Lord  Cromer  and  General  Kitchener  were 
adepts  in  the  art  of  displaying  the  iron  hand.  But  both  alike  were 
not  equal  adepts  in  the  employment  of  the  velvet  glove.  Both  of 
them  were  inclined  by  character  to  believe  in  the  proverb  that  fair 
words  butter  no  parsnips.  Long  experience  of  life  in  many  countries, 
both  at  home  and  abroad,  and  especially  in  Eastern  countries,  has 
brought  me  to  the  conviction  that  there  is  no  maxim  of  proverbial 
philosophy  so  utterly  fallacious  as  the  one  in  question.  In  the  East 
more  than  anywhere  else  fair  words  butter  any  number  of  parsnips. 
Ceremonial,  courtesy,  careful  recognition  of  etiquette  and  outward 
forms  of  respect  do  more  to  conciliate  Orientals  than  elaborate  arguments 
designed  to  show  them  it  is  their  interest  to  obey  your  instructions. 
The  system  of  letting  the  Khedive  know  what  he  has  got  to  do,  without 
explaining  to  him  why  it  was  his  interest  and  his  duty  to  do  so,  had 
been  tried  with  complete  success  at  the  commencement  of  his  reign, 
and  the  de  facto  rulers  of  Egypt  never  ceased  to  believe  that  this  was 


92  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

the  right  way  of  dealing  with  the  de  jure  ruler.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
both  Lord  Cromer  and  Lord  Kitchener  were  by  character  and  tempera- 
ment impatient  of  opposition.  I  have  often  wondered  which  of  the 
two  would  have  carried  the  day  if  by  any  chance  their  views  of  policy 
had  been  at  variance.  Happily  such  a  contingency  never  occurred 
during  the  brief  interval  when,  after  the  capture  of  Khartoum,  the 
latter  had  become  as  supreme  in  military  matters  as  the  former  had 
long  been  in  the  Civil  Service. 

It  would  be  an  insult  to  the  intelligence  of  Abbas  the  Second  to 
imagine  that  he  does  not  appreciate  the  many  great  services  Lord  Cromer 
has  rendered  to  Egypt.  At  the  same  time  neither  the  Khedive  nor 
Egypt  could  reasonably  be  expected  to  attach  quite  the  same  value  to 
these  services  as  was  attached  to  them  in  this  country.  I  have  always 
thought  that  the  most  signal  of  the  many  acts  on  which  his  Lordship 
might  base  his  claim  to  the  gratitude  of  Egypt  is  the  stubborn  persistency 
with  which  he  stuck  to  the  principle  that  the  first  step  towards  the 
regeneration  of  Egypt  was  the  restoration  of  her  financial  solvency. 
To  carry  out  this  object,  rigid  economy  was,  in  the  opinion  of 
our  Pro-Consul,  essential  in  order  to  rescue  Egypt  from  imminent 
bankruptcy.  To  effect  this  end  he  was  compelled  to  enforce  upon 
the  native  administrators  the  absolute  duty  of  almost  parsimonious 
thrift  and  of  curtailing  all  avoidable  expenditure  on  works  of 
general  utility  until  such  time  as  Egypt's  huge  deficit  had  been 
converted  into  a  substantial  surplus.  In  as  far  as  my  experience 
extends,  services  of  this  kind  seldom,  if  ever,  command  the  gratitude 
of  those  who  benefit  by  them  in  private  life  ;  and  I  hold  this  is  also  the 
case  in  public  affairs.  Reduction  of  salaries,  increase  of  taxation, 
abolition  of  monopolies,  collection  of  arrears,  and  compulsory  liquidation 
of  overdue  debts,  are  never  popular  even  in  Western  countries,  are  still 
more  unpopular  in  Oriental  lands,  and  are  especially  open  to  hostile 
criticism  when  they  are  introduced  by  foreigners,  aliens  to  the  native 
race  by  blood,  race,  and  creed.  The  Khedive  had  not  the  power,  even  if 
he  had  the  will,  to  modify  the  financial  policy  dictated  to  him  by  his 
financial  advisers,  who  derived  their  instructions  from  the  British 
Agency  and  who  insisted  on  these  instructions  being  carried  out  by  the 
Khedive  in  his  own  name  and  by  his  own  orders.  Meanwhile,  the  Khedive 
was  regarded  by  his  own  people  as  being  morally,  if  not  directly,  respon- 
sible for  a  financial  system  whose  advantages  were  not  easily  com- 
prehensible to  an  ignorant  population.  In  the  eyes  of  his  subjects  he 
was  still  the  Lord  and  Master,  the  Effendina,  the  Viceroy  of  the  Sultan, 
and  was  surrounded  in  their  eyes  with  all  the  trappings  of  sovereignty. 
Under  these  circumstances  he  was  constantly  in  receipt  of  appeals,  all 
telling  the  same  story,  namely,  that  the  appellants  were  overburdened  with 
taxation,  unable  to  meet  their  own  liabilities,  devoid  of  funds  to  improve 
their  lands,  irrigate  their  estates  and  procure  fresh  crops  or  machinery. 
All  this,  the  appellants  contended,  could  be  altered  if  the  Government  was 


1908  THE  KHEDIVE  OF  EGYPT  98 

not  in  such  a  hurry  to  pay  off  old  loans,  which  the  bondholders  were 
not  anxious  to  have  repaid,  and  could,  in  lieu  of  cancelling  all  the  bonds, 
drawn  by  lottery,  make  advances  for  purposes  of  irrigation  which  would 
prove  advantageous  alike  to  the  borrowers  and  to  the  State.  The 
refusal  of  the  British  Agency  to  sanction  any  default  in  the  reduction 
of  the  public  debt  was — as  I  hold — sound  in  theory  and  wise  in  practice, 
but  the  discontent  created  by  the  fiscal  system  introduced  into  Egypt 
after  the  British  occupation  fell  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  Khedive,  not 
upon  those  of  its  real  authors. 

I  fully  admit  that  in  the  controversy  between  the  Khedive  and  the 
British  Agency  which  lasted  throughout  from  1885  almost  up  to  1907 
there  is  a  great  deal  to  be  said  on  both  sides.  Having  been  intimately 
connected  with  Egypt  from  1877,  when  I  wrote  in  the  columns  of  this 
Review  an  article  entitled  '  Our  Route  to  India,'  in  which  I  advocated 
the  paramount  importance  to  the  British  Empire  of  keeping  the  control 
of  the  Suez  Canal  in  our  own  hands,  and  having  never  modified  this 
opinion  in  any  material  way,  I  am  not  likely  to  write  anything  which 
might  be  construed  as  expressing  an  opinion  on  my  part  that  our  military 
occupation  might  be  terminated  with  advantage  to  England  or  to  Egypt. 
All  I  desire  is  to  make  intelligible  to  my  own  countrymen  the  main  causes 
of  the  antagonism  which  under  the  Cromer  rSgime  precluded  any  cordial 
co-operation  between  the  Protecting  and  the  Protected  Power.  I  do 
not,  however,  hesitate  to  say  that  in  my  opinion  the  main  cause  of  this 
regrettable  antagonism  was  the  inability  or  incompetency  of  the  British 
Agency  to  try  and  understand  how  their  policy  was  inevitably  regarded 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Khedive. 

Even  if  the  limits  of  space  permitted,  it  is  not  necessary  for  my 
present  purpose  to  show  how  time  after  time  the  Khedive  has  suffered 
from  the  unintentional  neglect  of  the  British  authorities  in  Egypt  to 
realise  the  difficult  position  in  which  his  Highness  was  placed  by  their 
persistent  refusal  to  recognise  the  truth  that,  though  he  was  powerless 
to  offer  any  overt  opposition  to  their  policy,  he  was  all  the  more  entitled 
to  the  formal  recognition  of  his  nominal  Viceroyalty.  Let  me  cite  a 
few  instances.  In  consequence,  if  I  am  correctly  informed,  of  private 
intelligence  being  received  from  Abyssinia  to  the  effect  that  the  Emperor 
Menelik  had  entered  into  a  secret  engagement  with  the  French  Govern- 
ment to  send  an  army  to  meet  Captain  Marchand  on  his  arrival  at 
Fashoda,  the  British  Government  made  up  its  mind  to  frustrate  the 
intrigue  by  issuing  peremptory  orders  to  the  British  Army  of  occupation, 
in  company  with  a  portion  of  the  Anglo-Egyptian  Army,  to  start  at 
once  upon  the  march  to  Khartoum.  The  Khedive  was  never  informed 
of  this  sudden  change  of  policy,  and  never  knew  of  the  intended 
departure  till  the  vanguard  of  the  expedition  had  actually  started  from 
Cairo  on  its  advance  Soudanwards. 

Again,  on  the  occasion  of  the  Dam  of  Assouan  being  carried  into 
execution  by  a  financial  group,  of  which  Sir  Ernest  Cassel  was  the  head, 


94  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

and  which  had  received  the  cordial  support  of  the  British  Agency,  when 
this  colossal,  gigantic  work  was  completed,  the  question  naturally  arose 
as  to  who  was  to  preside  at  the  inauguration  of  the  greatest  monument 
probably  ever  erected  in  Egypt  since  the  days  of  the  Pharaohs.  By 
all  rules  of  precedence  and  common  courtesy  the  Khedive,  as  the  heredi- 
tary Viceroy  of  Egypt,  was  the  fittest  person  to  have  his  name  associated 
with  the  inauguration  of  a  monument  destined  to  add  a  new  triumph 
to  the  annals  of  his  world-old  country.  But,  in  accordance  with  the 
approval  of  the  British  Agency,  if  not  on  its  own  initiative,  the  honour 
of  formally  opening  this  gigantic  work  was  reserved  for  the  Duke  of 
Connaught,  a  most  worthy  representative  of  the  British  Royal  Family, 
but  at  the  same  time  one  who  had  no  special  connexion  with  the  Dam, 
and  had  no  special  reason  to  be  invited  to  preside  at  its  inauguration 
which  in  any  other  country  would  have  been  deemed  to  belong  of  right 
to  its  recognised  and  acknowledged  ruler.  I  have  no  reason  to  suppose 
that  either  Sir  Ernest  Cassel  as  the  capitalist  of  the  concern,  or  Sir 
Benjamin  Baker  as  the  engineer  of  this  enterprise,  had  any  private 
reason  for  insisting  upon  an  English  Duke  being  selected  to  fill  a 
position  which  belonged  naturally  to  Abbas  the  Second.  I  cannot  but 
think  that  the  Khedive's  exclusion  from  the  post  in  question  may,  not 
unnaturally,  have  been  regarded  as  a  slight  by  himself  and  by  his 
subjects  which  would  not  have  been  inflicted  if  the  representatives  of 
British  rule  in  Egypt  had  tried  to  take  into  account  the  Egyptian  point 
of  view. 

A  somewhat  similar  disregard  of  the  Khedive's  personal  position 
was  displayed  in  Cairo  on  the  occasion  of  the  opening  of  the  Port 
Soudan  railway  in  1907.  To  the  best  of  my  belief,  though  I  have  no 
authority  for  so  saying,  Lord  Cromer  deserves  the  credit  of  the  virtual 
annexation  of  the  Soudan  to  the  British  Empire  under  the  Con- 
dominium, that  is  under  the  joint  sovereignty  of  His  Majesty  the 
King  of  England  and  his  Highness  the  Khedive  of  Egypt.  I  have 
always  held  him  to  have  been  the  chief  supporter,  if  not  the  originator, 
of  this  somewhat  complicated  arrangement,  and  I  imagine  that  he  was 
actuated  by  the  conviction  that  under  certain  contingencies  in  the 
unknown  future  it  might  be  advisable  for  England  to  have  a  recognised 
and  indisputable  footing  on  the  confines  of  Egypt.  If  so  he  is  fully 
entitled  in  this  respect,  not  only  to  the  gratitude  of  his  country,  but 
to  the  credit  of  high  statecraft.  In  Egypt  the  arrangement  was  not 
popular,  the  more  so  as  it  imposed  an  annual  payment  of  some 
300,OOOZ.  on  the  revenues  of  Egypt  for  the  administration  of  the 
Soudan,  a  remote  country  in  which  Egypt  takes  little  interest  and 
which  is  not  likely  to  be  able  to  contribute  in  any  way  to  her  wealth 
for  many  years  to  come.  Moreover,  there  was  then,  and  is  still,  a 
very  prevalent  sentiment  amongst  the  Egyptian  public  that  the 
object  of  the  Condominium  was  not  to  benefit  Egypt  but  to  contri- 
bute to  the  grandeur  and  might  of  England.  I  should  doubt  this 


1908  THE  KHEDIVE   OF  EGYPT  95 

sentiment  being  shared  by  the  Khedive,  as  he  is  far  too  intelligent 
not  to  realise  the  great  advantage  to  Egypt  of  being  insured  for  the 
future  against  any  possible  recurrence  of  Dervish  raids  under  some 
Mahdi  or  Khalifa  of  the  future.  I  have  little  doubt  also  that  his 
association  with  the  King  of  England  as  his  fellow  Sovereign  of  the 
Soudan  must  have  been  gratifying  to  his  personal  self-respect. 
He  is  not  likely,  with  his  intimate  knowledge  of  British  policy 
in  Egypt,  to  have  imagined  that  his  share  in  the  administration 
of  the  Soudan  would  be  more  than  nominal,  and  on  that  account  he 
naturally  attached  the  more  importance  to  his  titular  rank  as  co- 
Sovereign  with  the  King  in  their  joint  dominion.  When  the  Port 
Soudan  railway  was  sufficiently  completed,  to  permit  of  its  formal 
opening,  it  was  thought  at  the  British  Agency,  which  in  those  days 
regulated  the  affairs  of  the  Soudan  aa  well  as  those  of  Egypt,  that 
there  ought  to  be  an  official  inauguration  of  the  Port  Soudan  line 
which  opened  up  direct  railway  communication  between  the  Soudan 
and  the  Red  Sea.  It  was  generally  expected  that  the  Khedive 
would  in  the  unavoidable  absence  of  his  fellow  Sovereign  be  the  leading 
personage  in  the  State  visit  to  the  Condominium.  But  this  expecta- 
tion was  not  fulfilled.  The  arrangements  for  the  State  visit  were 
conducted  at  the  British  Agency,  and  it  was  at  once  made  known 
that  the  King  of  England  would  be  represented  at  the  Soudan  by 
the  British  Consul-General  and  the  Khedive  of  Egypt  by  the  Sirdar. 

I  am  well  aware  that  there  were  many  questions  of  precedence  and 
etiquette  as  well  as  of  a  more  material  and  commonplace  character 
which  may  have  actuated  the  British  Agency  in  the  decision  come  to 
in  this  matter,  and  I  have  no  right  to  say  that  the  decision  was  unwise 
or  unjust.  I  cannot,  however,  but  express  my  own  opinion  that  the 
Khedive's  non-inclusion  in  the  State  visit  to  the  Soudan  was  an 
incident  which  required  more  explanation  than  has  ever  yet  been 
given,  and  can  hardly  have  failed  to  give  unnecessary  offence. 

It  may  be  said  from  an  English  point  of  view  that  such  incidents 
as  I  have  referred  to  are  unworthy  of  serious  consideration.  But  the 
Eastern  point  of  view  is  entirely  different  from  our  own.  Moreover, 
in  countries  where  the  titular  Sovereigns  have  no  individual  rank, 
other  than  that  conferred  by  the  external  recognition  of  their  sove- 
reignty, they  are  bound  in  their  own  interest  to  stand  upon  titular 
dignity. 

If  it  is  necessary,  to  use  a  French  saying, '  to  put  the  point  upon 
the  I,'  it'would  have  been  well-nigh  impossible  for  the  dual  rulers 
of  Egypt  to  understand  each  other  or  to  appreciate  each  other's  merits 
or  demerits.  Apart  from  the  fundamental  differences  between  the 
East  and  the  West,  they  were  hardly  in  a  position  to  regard  each  other 
justly.  Lord  Cromer,  not  unnaturally,  never  quite  realised  that  the 
Prince — whom  he  had  known  as  a  lad,  and  who,  in  his  opinion,  had 
well  deserved  the  rebuke  administered  to  him  in  the  early  days  of  his 


96  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

reign — had  become  a  full-grown  man,  had  studied  carefully  the  condi- 
tions of  his  tenure  of  power,  had  acquired  a  personal  insight  into  the 
sentiments  entertained  by  his  subjects,  and  was  much  more  in  touch 
with  the  beliefs  and  aims  and  ideas  of  Egypt  of  to-day  than  any 
British  official,  however  highly  placed  and  however  great  his  ex- 
perience, could  ever  hope  to  be.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Khedive 
had  learnt  to  look  upon  our  British  Consul-General  as  a  sort  of  over- 
seer, always  ready  to  find  fault  whenever  the  occasion  arose,  and  to 
throw  the  responsibility  of  his  own  policy  upon  the  shoulders  of  the 
Prince,  though  the  latter  had  had  no  voice  in  its  adoption.  To  speak 
the  truth,  the  Viceroy  looked  upon  our  Consul-General  very  much  as 
an  ambitious  Duke  of  Languedoc  must  have  regarded  his  Maire  du 
Palais.  If  this  version  of 'the  respective  attitudes  of  the  Khedive  and 
the  British  Consul-General  is  approximately  correct  it  is  easily  in- 
telligible why  the  relations  between  the  British  Agency  and  the 
Khedivial  Court  were  never  cordial  and  were  generally  strained. 
The  vast  Palace  of  Abdeen  is  nowadays  never  used  except  for  State 
receptions.  The  lovely  palace  of  Gesireh,  which  was  the  favourite  resi- 
dence of  Ismail  Pasha,  was  sold  by  the  Commission  of  Liquidation  and 
is  now  converted  into  an  hotel,  chiefly  frequented  by  British  tourists. 
It  is  reported  that  the  chief  consideration  which  caused  his  Highness 
to  take  up  his  abode  at  the  suburban  palace  of  Koubbeh  on  the  borders 
of  the  Suez  desert  lay  in  the  fact  that  it  is  five  miles  distant  from  the 
British  Agency.  Anyone  acquainted  with  the  East  will  have  no  diffi- 
culty in  understanding  that  both  the  de  facto  and  the  de  jure  Courts  of 
Kasr-el-doubara  and  of  Koubbeh  should  have  been  the  habitual 
resorts  of  two  cliques  of  courtiers  who  were  more  Koyalist  than  the 
King.  The  hangers-on  of  the  two  Courts  were  interested  in  earning 
the  favour  of  their  respective  patrons.  In  consequence  m.any  arbitrary 
acts,  which  gave  umbrage  to  honest  public  opinion  in  Egypt,  owed 
their  origin  and  their  execution  to  the  ill-regulated  zeal  of  subordinate 
partisans. 

So  much  for  the  past.  All  that  remains  to  me  is  to  say  something 
of  the  future  as  modified  by  the  final  retirement  of  Lord  Cromer 
from  the  post  in  which  he  has  played  so  long  and  so  conspicuous  a 
part.  The  basis  of  the  policy  on  which  Egypt  has  been  adminis- 
tered under  Lord  Cromer  was  the  assumption  that  it  lay  in  the  power 
of  England  to  depose  the  Khedive  if  he  declined  to  follow  the  advice 
tendered  him  by  our  Consul-General  at  Cairo.  In  a  certain  sense  this 
assumption  was  just.  No  sane  person  can  doubt  that,  so  long  as 
Egypt  is  under  our  military  occupation,  we  could  depose  and  deport 
the  Khedive  by  British  troops,  and,  if  we  chose,  declare  a  British 
Protectorate.  But  it  is  by  no  means  clear  that  we  are  in  a  position 
to  do  so  to-day.  We  could  have  done  so  without  the  risk  of  any  inter- 
vention on  the  morrows  of  the  battle  of  Tel  el  Kebir,  of  the  victory  of 
the  Atbara,  and  of  the  capture  of  Khartoum,  but  I  should  hesitate  to 


1908  THE  KHEDIVE   OF  EGYPT  97 

affirm  that  we  could  rely  nowadays  on  the  tacit  acquiescence  of 
Europe  in  so  high-handed  an  action.  The  Congress  of  Algeciras  has 
decided  that  the  Anglo-French  agreement  is  invalid  in  respect  of  the 
proposal  of  a  French  Protectorate  over  Morocco ;  and  the  German 
Emperor,  though  he  has  expressed  his  cordial  approval  of  the 
manner  in  which  Great  Britain  has  administered  Egypt  under  our 
military  occupation,  has  in  no  sense  committed  himself  to  a  similar 
approval  in  the  event  of  our  wishing  to  make  our  occupation  perma- 
nent. The  old  saying  *  He  who  wills  not  when  he  may,  when  he  wills 
he  shall  have  nay  '  is  one  singularly  likely  to  prove  true  in  our  relations 
with  Egypt. 

Even,  however,  if  we  dismiss  the  risk  of  foreign  intervention  as 
not  worth  consideration,  I  am  unable  to  see  what  we  should  gain  if 
we  deposed  Abbas  the  Second,  while  I  see  very  clearly  what  we 
might  lose.  So  long  as  the  Viceregal  Throne  is  occupied  by  its  lawful 
Sovereign,  the  Prince  acts  as  a  sort  of  buffer  between  the  dominant 
Christian  Power  and  the  Mussulman  State  of  Egypt.  Some  nine-tenths 
of  the  whole  population  of  the  Nile  land  are  fervent,  if  not  fanatical, 
followers  of  the  Prophet,  and  under  the  nominal  rule  of  the  Prince, 
who  is  known  to  be  a  devout  believer  in  Islam,  his  people  are  free 
from  apprehensions  that  any  measures  will  receive  his  sanction  which 
might  be  incompatible  with  the  laws,  customs,  usages  and  rules  of 
Mahomedan  life  as  ordained  by  the  Koran.  To  take  a  case  in  point. 
The  British  authorities  in  Egypt  have  at  last  made  up  their  minds, 
rightly  or  wrongly,  to  undertake  the  task  of  providing  Cairo,  at  a 
huge  expense,  with  a  thorough  system  of  water  drainage.  The 
population  of  the  capital  are  absolutely  indifferent  to  the  advantages 
of  water  drainage.  They  object  to  the  outlay  which  would  be  required 
for  this  purpose,  and  they  bitterly  resent  the  regular  entrance  of 
inspectors  into  private  dwellings  in  order  to  ascertain  whether  the 
waterworks,  drains  and  sinks  are  kept  in  order.  But  unless  such 
inspection  is  allowed  the  experiment  must  prove  an  utter  failure. 
It  is  obvious  that  the  effectuation  of  this  great  sanitary  reform 
would  be  greatly  facilitated  if  the  Khedive  could  be  induced  to 'give 
his  individual  sanction  and  support  to  the  scheme  in  question. 
The  same  principle  applies  to  scores  of  reforms  which  our  British 
administration  would  like  to  see  introduced  into  Egypt.  To  work 
with  the  co-operation  of  the  Khedive  or  against  his  approval  is 
tantamount  to  the  difference  between  rowing  with  or  against  the 
current. 

There  are  two  illusions  of  the  Cromerian  era  which  should  be 
dispelled  if  we  wish  to  understand  the  Egyptian  question.  The  first 
delusion  is  that  the  rank  and  file  of  the  population  are  keenly  alive 
to  the  oppression  and  extortion  they  suffered  under  Ismail's  reign 
owing  to  his  extravagance  and  his  land  hunger.  We  conclude  that 
Egyptians  must  necessarily  shrink  with  horror  from  the  bare  idea  of 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  377  II 


98  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

any  restoration  of  similar  oppression  and  would  view  the  withdrawal 
of  the  British  troops  as  a  national  calamity.  I  do  not  say  that, 
as  an  Englishman  in  Egypt,  I  should  not  think  that  the  protec^on 
of  my  life  and  property,  subject  to  the  same  conditions  as  a  native, 
as  indeed  I  might  be  if  the  Capitulations  should  ever  be  abolished, 
my  exemption  from  the  Conscription  and  the  Corvee,  were  amply 
sufficient  to  cause  me  to  feel  deep  gratitude  towards  the  adminis- 
tration under  which  I  had  become  comparatively  free,  comfortable 
and  prosperous.  The  absence  of  any  gratitude  for  the  material 
benefits  they  have  derived  from  the  British  administration  may 
indicate  a  mental  delinquency  on  the  part  of  the  native  popu- 
lation ;  but,  however  this  may  be,  I — if  I  were  a  fellah  born 
and  bred — should  entertain  no  personal  gratitude  for  the  ameliora- 
tion of  my  condition  under  foreign  rule,  and  should  feel  little 
or  no  personal  resentment  towards  the  memory  of  the  first  and 
greatest  of  the  Khedives.  Imagination  exercises  a  far  larger  influence 
in  the  East  than  it  does  in  the  West,  and  the  grandiose  character  of 
Ismail's  projects,  his  passion  for  the  acquisition  of  land,  his  gorgeous 
entertainments,  his  extension  of  his  empire  to  the  then  unknown 
Dark  Continent,  and  his  reckless  extravagance  for  the  glorification  of 
Egypt,  as  represented  by  himself,  combined  with  his  personal  bon- 
homie, appealed  to  the  imagination  of  an  Oriental  race,  who,  through- 
out ages  of  servitude,  have  always  cherished  the  memory  of  the  rulers 
under  whom  Egypt  had  played  a  leading  part  in  the  world's  history. 
You  must  take  men  as  you  find  them,  and  it  puzzles  me  to  understand 
how  anybody  knowing  Egypt  and  the  Egyptians  could  expect  them, 
to  use  an  Americanism,  '  to  enthuse  '  over  the  material  benefits  con- 
ferred upon  them  by  a  British  administrator,  who  did  not  understand 
their  language,  who  had  no  sympathy  with  their  creed,  their  traditions 
and  their  ambitions,  and  who  had  not,  and  could  not  have,  any  hold 
upon  their  imagination. 

If  I  have  succeeded  in  making  my  meaning  clear,  the  grave  defect 
in  the  administration  of  our  Pro-Consul  was  in  the  first  place  his 
inability  to  remain  on  friendly  relations  with  the  reigning  Khedive, 
and  in  the  second  place  his  failure  to  secure  the  active  co-operation 
of  the  Khedive  in  his  projected  reforms.  His  Highness  is  a  man  of 
exceptional  intelligence,  and  is  well-disposed  towards  England  and 
the  English.  I  can  say  also  that,  in  as  far  as  it  is  possible  for  an 
Oriental  to  understand  the  West,  he  has  succeeded  to  a  remarkable 
degree  in  appreciating  the  strength  and  the  weakness  of  the  British 
Empire  as  an  Imperial  Power.  It  would  be  unreasonable  to  expect 
him  to  be  an  enthusiastic  advocate  of  our  military  occupation,  but 
I  am  sure  he  is  convinced  that  the  idea  of  an  independent  Egypt  is  a 
chimera  for  many  years  to  come,  and  that,  this  being  so,  the  virtual 
protectorate  of  England  is  the  best  thing  for  Egypt  as  compared  with 
the  protectorate  of  any  other  European  Power. 


1908  THE  KHEDIVE   OF  EGYPT  99 

The  above  statement  expresses  in  general  terms  the  view  which 
Abbas  the  Second  is  supposed  by  those  most  in  his  confidence  to 
entertain  concerning  the  British  occupation,  but  on  such  a  point 
absolute  certainty  is  almost  unattainable.  In  the  East  it  is  not  the 
fashion,  whatever  it  may  be  in  the  West,  to  wear  your  heart  upon 
your  sleeve,  and  in  all  Oriental  Courts  there  exists  a  certain  element 
of  intrigue,  about  public  as  well  as  private  affairs,  which  seems  to  my 
mind  to  be  based  on  hereditary  instincts.  I  allude  to  this  aspect  of 
Oriental  character  because  the  charge  most  frequently  brought  against 
his  Highness  by  his  hostile  critics  is  that  his  views  of  the  political 
situation  in  Egypt  are  often  contradictory,  according  as  they  happen 
to  be  expressed  to  Englishmen  or  to  his  fellow  countrymen. 

By  a  curious  concatenation  of  circumstances  one  of  the  most 
definite  results  of  the  Cromerian  era  in  Egypt  has  been  the  restoration 
of  the  personal  influence  of  the  Khedive.  The  Egyptian  public, 
however  unjustly,  never  pardoned  the  readiness  with  which  Tewfik 
Pasha  apparently  acquiesced  in  the  military  occupation  of  their 
country.  In  like  fashion  they  were  slow  to  overlook  the. promptitude 
with  which  Abbas  the  Second  gave  up  his  attack  on  Lord  Kitchener 
as  soon  as  the  British  Agency  had  expressed  disapproval  of  his  conduct. 
But  when  it  came  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Egyptians  that  the  Khedive 
was  no  longer  a  persona  grata  at  the  British  Agency  he  rapidly  re- 
covered his  lost  influence  with  his  own  countrymen.  It  was  hardly 
reasonable  to  expect  that  a  very  energetic,  able  and  ambitious  Prince, 
eager  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  administration  of  his  own  country, 
should  acquiesce  without  an  effort  in  his  virtual  exclusion  from  public 
life.  For  the  reasons  I  have  already  indicated  an  entente  cordiale 
could  never  be  permanently  established  between  Koubbeh  and  Kasr- 
el-Nil  so  long  as  so  masterful  a  ruler  as  Lord  Cromer  held  sway  in 
Egypt.  Obviously  it  was  difficult  for  the  Khedive  to  forfeit  the 
influence  he  had  acquired  by  his  supposed  sympathy  with  Nationalist 
ideas,  unless  he  saw  reason  to  believe  that  the  policy  of  the  British 
Agency  was  likely  to  be  different  from  what  it  had  been  under  our 
late  Consul- General. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  appointment  of  Sir  Eldon  may 
prove  a  benefit  to  both  England  and  Egypt,  which  have  a  common 
interest  in  the  cordial  co-operation  of  the  British  and  Egyptian  autho- 
rities. He  has  had  so  far  little  or  no  opportunity  of  displaying  ad- 
ministrative ability,  or  of  formulating  any  policy  distinct  from  that 
of  his  former  chief.  He  has,  however,  succeeded  already  in  securing 
the  confidence  of  the  Khedive,  and  has,  I  believe,  done  much  to 
remove  any  suspicions  which  may  have  been  entertained  at  home  or 
in  Egypt  as  to  his  good  faith  and  loyalty.  The  Khedive,  I  fancy, 
is  very  willing  to  be  the  friend  of  England  if  England  is  willing  to 
treat  him  as  a  friend ;  and  his  friendship  may  be  of  very  considerable 
value  to  us  at  no  distant  period.  The  Khedive  has  never  failed  to 

B  2 


100  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

express  his  gratitude  for  King  Edward  the  Seventh's  courtesy  and 
kindness,  and  for  the  pleasure  he  received  from  the  courteous  recep- 
tion accorded  to  him  in  London  when  he  was  entertained  at  the 
Guildhall.  His  presence  in  London  will  do  much  to  facilitate  the 
discovery  of  a  modus  vivendi  between  the  British  and  the  Egyptian 
authorities  under  our  military  occupation.  All  I  would  venture  to 
suggest  now  is  that  the  necessary  condition  of  any  such  arrangement 
must  be  based  on  the  goodwill  of  the  Khedive  and  his  active  par- 
ticipation in  public  affairs.  Lord  Cromer,  Sir  Eldon  Gorst,  and  Sir 
Edward  Grey  are  all  high  authorities  on  Egyptian  politics ;  and  all 
I  need  say  is  that  so  excellent  an  opportunity  for  coming  to  an  Anglo- 
Egyptian  cordial  understanding  is  hardly  likely  to  occur  again. 

EDWARD  DICEY. 


1908 


POVERTY   IN    LONDON   AND    IN   NEW 
ZEALAND 

A   STUDY  IN  CONTRASTS 


No  one  who  has  not  experienced  the  effect  of  coming  from  the  New 
World  to  settle  in  the  Old  World  can  quite  appreciate  the  strong 
impression  made  by  contrast  between  the  social  state  left  behind 
and  that  before  our  eyes.  The  outlines  stand  out  in  strong  relief, 
while  on  the  contrary,  as  long  as  we  moved  only  in  the  surroundings 
to  which  we  were  habituated,  we  observed  nothing  but  the  details 
and  even  these  only  when  they  presented  to  our  notice  something 
new.  There  are  two  distinguishing  characteristics  of  the  Old  World 
society  which  are  often  commented  upon  by  Colonials ;  and  these 
are  conservatism  of  ideas  and  inequality  of  social  condition.  These 
two  characteristics  are  at  the  bottom  of  the  difference  between  the 
problem  of  poverty  as  it  appears  in  the  West  End  of  London  and  as 
it  appears  in  New  Zealand.  I  have  chosen  these  two  places  as  extreme 
types  of  old  and  new  civilisation.  In  the  East  End  there  is  some- 
thing like  a  frank  reversion  to  barbarism,  but  the  parasitism  of  the 
West  marks  it  as  more  directly  the  product  of  an  antique  system. 
It  is  often  said,  '  But  you  have  poor  people  in  New  Zealand,  too, 
and  the  only  real  difference  is  that  the  colony  has  at  present  a  small 
population.'  This  is  nothing  like  an  adequate  explanation  of  the 
whole  matter.  The  two  points  which  deserve  attention  are  first  what 
constitutes  the  difference  between  the  social  condition  of  the  lowest 
strata  in  the  Old  and  the  New  Britain,  and  secondly  whether  these 
differences  are  in  truth  solely  the  result  of  size  and  age,  or  are  likely 
to  be  permanent. 

In  part  the  difference  lies  in  the  prevalence  of  poverty  and  in 
part  in  its  intensity  and  its  contrast  with  luxurious  extravagance. 
We  in  the  '  Newest  England  of  the  South '  have  indigent  and  vicious 
persons,  but  we  have  not  an  immense  mass  born  into  want  and 
depravity  with  scarcely  any  chance  of  rising  beyond  them.  Koughly 
speaking,  the  abjectly  poor  amongst  us  are  those  exceptional  persons 
who,  through  weakness  or  crime,  or  mere  accident,  have  been  thrown 
out  of  the  track  of  decent  living.  But  here  there  are  miles  of  streets 

101 


102  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

inhabited  by  them  alone  ;  miles  of  monotonous  and  featureless  houses, 
dingy  inferior  shops  and  dreary  wells  of  back  yards,  all  ugly,  feature- 
less, and  dull-coloured.     Outside  a  few  fashionable  neighbourhoods 
of  the  West  End,  there  is  more  poverty  in  proportion  to  the  number 
of  people,  and  much  more  in  proportion  to  the  square  mile,  than  in 
any  of  our  little  colonial  towns.     The  fact  that  there  is  on  the  other 
hand   much  greater  wealth  for  the  favoured  few  does  not  make  the 
balance  straight  for  the  sufferers.     It  is  just  that  contrast  between 
say  Piccadilly  and  the  Euston  Road,  which  is  most,  saddening  and 
most  shameful.     To  walk  from  one  to  the  other  is  to  plunge  from  the 
extreme  of  exquisite  and  fantastic  luxury  to  unresisting  misery  and 
depravity.     In  the  one  locality  are  women,  the  products  of  beauty 
culture,  spending  their  lives  in  places  of  amusement,  worn  out  often 
with  what  ought  to  be  occasional  relaxations,  physically  suffering 
from  excess  of  self-indulgence,  displaying  incessant  changes  of  summer 
finery  or  costly  furs  which  will  be  thrown  aside  from  mere  caprice 
and  restless  love  of  novelty  long  before  they  are  even  damaged.    In 
Regent  Street  and  Bond  Street  unseasonable  fruit  raised  with  infinite 
pains  and  expense  is  sold  for  ten  shillings  or  twenty  shillings  a  pound, 
and  there  are  costly  confections  and  jellies  and  game  to  match  the 
fruit.    In  other  places,  by  no  means  the  lowest  parts  of  London,  human 
bodies  and  souls  are  cheap.     The  clothing  supplied  is  shoddy,  the 
furniture  ready  to  fall  to  pieces.     The  very  sight  and  smell  of  the  food 
are  offensive.    No  such  vile  things  can  be  found  in  the  colony  as  those 
offered  for  sale  in  the  purlieus  of  Bloomsbury.     I  have  seen  an  inde- 
scribable grey-coloured  substance  sold  as  meat  at  fourpence  a  pound, 
and  have  heard  of  a  butcher's  shop  in  a  southern  suburb^  where  two- 
pence halfpenny  a  pound  is  the  regular  price,  though  the  fair  price  for 
decent  English  mutton  is  Is.  2d.  per  pound.   It  is  little  to  say  that  this 
cheap  food  is  unfit  for  human  consumption ;  it  is  unfit  for  dogs.  Stale 
fish  and  eggs  and  poultry,  withered  vegetables,  decayed  fruit,  atrocious 
cheap  cakes,  all  exposed  for  hours,  perhaps  days,  to  the  taint  of  the 
city's  malodorous  dirt-laden  atmosphere,  are  sold  as  a  mere  matter  of 
course  and  without  the  slightest  check.    The  beer  and  spirits  which 
the  over-worked  and  the  workless  alike  consume  in  great  quantities 
are  of  even  worse  quality  than  the  provisions.     This  is  the  nourish- 
ment   that  produces  those  blotched  and  unhealthy  faces  and  those 
figures  so  often  distorted  by  disease  or  deformity.     It  is  this  miser- 
able cheapness  that  dresses  the  men  and  women,  even  the  young 
girls,  in  clothes  that  rot  and  discolour  and  hang  in  rags  about  their 
owners,  making  the  streets  an  eyesore.    Here  the  poor  cannot  have 
good  plain  living  if  they  wish ;  they  must  take  the  refuse  from  the 
markets  of  the  rich.    The  better  qualities  are  literally  picked  out 
for  wealthy  neighbourhoods.     Some  time  ago  the   Chronicle  pub- 
lished a  witty  article  on  *  The  Food  Area,'  by  a  journalist  who  had 
discovered  from  experience  that  outside   a  certain  radius  in  the 


1908  LONDON  AND  NEW  ZEALAND  103 

metropolis,  a  decent  meal  was  not  to  be  had  at  any  price.  Yet  it 
is  food  that  most  of  all  forms  the  bodies  of  the  people,  and  it  is  the 
people  who  form  the  nation.  Worse  even  than  the  dearth  of  good 
things  is  the  coarse  and  disgusting  abundance  of  bad  things.  There 
is  an  impassable  gulf  between'the  habits,  the  feelings,  and  the  character 
of  those  who  inhabit  Mayfair  and  those  who  dwell  on  the  dreary 
borders  of  Regent's  Canal.  They  have  far  less  in  common  with  each 
other  than  each  has  with  foreigners  of  their  own  rank.  Here  Dives 
and  Lazarus  will  never  really  meet  face  to  face  until  they  come  together 
for  the  final  judgment,  when  their  sins  and  their  merits  may  be  balanced 
very  differently  from  now.  In  our  own  country  we  are  very  often 
troubled  and  ashamed  by  cases  of  hardship  and  want,  but  when  we 
come  in  view  of  London's  nether  world,  it  seems  as  if  we  had  never 
seen  real  poverty  before.  Three  winters  ago,  on  visiting  a  charitable 
friend,  I  found  her  in  deep  distress  at  the  suffering  that  had  quite 
casually  come  before  her  notice.  *  I  cannot  stay  in  this  country,' 
she  said ;  '  it  is  too  dreadful  to  see  what  these  people  suffer,  and  to 
be  able  to  do  nothing  for  them.'  And  this  was  in  Edinburgh,  which 
has  not  the  depth  of  misery  there  is  in  London.  At  the  West  End 
it  is  not  horrors  that  are  in  evidence ;  when  they  exist,  civilisation 
succeeds  in  keeping  them  out  of  sight.  It  is  the  grossness,  the 
inferiority,  the  degradation  of  manhood  and  of  womanhood  that 
sicken  the  very  soul  to  watch.  It  is  not  barbarism.  Savages 
have  primitive  virtues  that  go  some  way  towards  compensating 
for  the  fierceness  of  animal  instincts.  But  here  there  is  a  peculiar 
degeneracy,  bred  by  an  excess  of  material  civilisation. 

The  problem  of  the  unemployed  and  of  the  unemployable — of 
all  that  great  section  of  the  unfit — has  not  yet  been  solved  in  any  part 
of  the  earth.  Though  it  is  much  worse  in  the  great  cities  of  Britain 
than  elsewhere,  it  is  not  peculiar  to  them.  What  strikes  a  Colonial, 
more  than  the  amount  of  actual  destitution,  is  the  mass  of  poor 
workers  always  on  the  verge  of  destitution,  ready  to  sink  into  it  at 
the  first  accident.  Hundreds,  indeed  thousands,  whom  we  should 
count  as  poor,  are  not  reckoned  so  here.  These  are  not  paupers. 
They  are  merely  the  lower  strata  of  the  employed.  They  are  far 
worse  off  than  the  corresponding  class  in  the  Colonies.  They 
are  wretchedly  underpaid,  their  hours  are  longer  and  their  wages 
lower.  They  have  no  margin  to  save  from.  It  is  often  inaccurately 
said  that,  though  wages  are  lower  in  England,  money  goes  much 
farther.  So  far  as  the  poor  are  concerned  this  is  a  fallacy.  After 
observing  the  market  prices  in  both  countries,  I  am  satisfied  that 
good  plain  living  is  cheaper  and  more  easily  obtained  in  the  Colonies. 
There  is  more  variety  to  be  had  in  London,  and  it  is  true  that  for 
people  above  a  certain  social  level  luxuries  are  much  cheaper.  But 
wholesome  food  and  decency  seem  beyond  the  reach  of  the  West 
End  poor.  To  take  a  few  examples  ;  first-class  meat  such  "as  day 


104  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

labourers  eat  in  the  Colonies  is  at  least  double  the  Colonial  price  ; 
milk,  bread,  and  eggs,  taking  a  rough  yearly  average,  about  the  same  ; 
fresh  fish  decidedly  dearer,  vegetables,  except  potatoes,  cheaper  and 
more  abundant ;  so,  too,  is  fruit.  Clothing  is  cheaper  here,  though 
I  have  not  found  any  such  difference  as  is  sometimes  supposed.  Rents, 
including  rates  and  taxes,  are  far  higher  for  decent  rooms  in  decent 
neighbourhoods,  and  it  is  almost  impossible  to  avoid  some  outlay  on 
omnibus  or  train.  But  the  curse  of  the  London  market  is  that  cheap 
refuse  which  ought  to  be  destroyed  by  sanitary  inspectors,  and  which 
is  generally  the  only  kind  of  goods  supplied  to  '  low  neighbourhoods.' 
It  would  be  good  to  see  new  fires  kindled  in  Smithfield  and  other 
market  places,  to  burn  up,  not  heretics  or  treatises  this  time,  but 
tons  of  provisions  that  are  now  sorted  out  for  the  sustenance  of  the 
workers. 

There  are  deeper  depths  than  any  I  have  touched  on  yet,  and 
these  the  New  World  does  not  yet  know.  We  have  not  any  class  so 
low  as  the  lowest  in  London.  '  Some  time  before  leaving  New  Zealand 
I  spent  a  day  visiting  Burnham,  the  central  Industrial  School  of 
the  colony.  The  majority  of  the  children  looked  healthy  and  fairly 
happy  and  decent,  but  amongst  them  was  one  undersized  degenerate 
creature  who  seemed  to  belong  to  a  race  not  quite  human.  The 
superintendent  pointed  him  out  and  remarked,  '  That  boy  is  a  London 
street  Arab,  you  don't  get  that  type  here.'  All  Londoners  know 
this  savage  of  the  slums  who  haunts  the  West  as  well  as  the  East. 
The  type  may  be  uncommon,  but  it  is  only  an  extreme  development 
of  characteristics  that  are  too  frequently  seen.  Mr.  Howells  in  a 
recent  criticism  says  that  the  English  aristocracy  have  distinction, 
but  adds  that  distinction  is  one  of  the  things  for  which  the  nation 
pays  too  dear.  The  heaviest  price  it  pays  is  the  physical,  mental, 
and  moral  inferiority  of  the  undistinguished  mass.  It  is  considered 
bad  taste  now  to  use  the  terms  '  upper '  and  '  lower '  classes  or 
'  superior '  and  '  inferior ' ;  but  it  is  no  offence  against  taste  to  keep 
up  irreconcilable  class  separation,  and  to  assume  all  the  superiority 
that  was  once  frankly  claimed.  It  would  be  better  to  drop  the  pre- 
tence of  consideration  and  to  say  openly  that  the  working  classes  are 
an  inferior  species  of  mankind.  There  is  not  enough  independence 
and  self-respect  amongst  subordinates.  If  they  assert  themselves, 
it  is  with  insolence.  The  rich,  for  their  part,  are  often  in  a  spasmodic 
and  uncertain  way  excessively  generous,  but  they  object  to  any 
appearance  of  equality.  It  is  curious  to  hear  employers  without  a 
sense  of  humour*  say,  as  a  severe  reproach,  that  their  employes  *  are 
getting  so  independent  nowadays.' '  The  idea  of  a  fair  bargain  between 
master  and  man  or  between  mistress  and  maid,  in  which  the  sub- 
ordinates make  their  own  terms,  seems  to  the  aristocratic  mind 
absolutely  farcical.  The  result  is  the  parasitic  dependency  of  the  West 
End  poor.  Servants,  landladies,  charwomen,  small  shopkeepers  and 


1908  LONDON  AND  NEW  ZEALAND  105 

tradesmen,  porters  and  cabmen,  are  all  underpaid,  and  they  all 
compensate  themselves  by  preying  on  every  one  who  comes  within 
their  reach.  In  a  legal  sense,  the  lower-class  Londoners  are  remarkably 
honest.  There  seems  to  be  scarcely  any  downright  robbery,  but 
there  is  a  universal  system  of  cheating  in  petty  ways,  and  of  extorting 
extra  money  in  the  shape  of  tips,  gifts,  or  doles  of  charity.  In  a  new 
country  it  is  much  easier  to  have  confidence  and  trust  between  different 
classes  and  to  form  sincere  and  equal  friendships.  But  in  England 
there  is  far  too  much  charity  from  the  higher  to  the  lower  ranks, 
and  far  too  little  justice.  The  masses,  whether  they  have  votes 
or  not,  are  not  truly  represented  in  Parliament.  Their  interests 
are  not  in  their  own  hands  but  in  the  hands  of  a  governing  class  which 
has  never  shared  their  life,  cannot  understand  their  needs  and  views, 
and  which  feels  itself  to  be  and  actually  is  of  a  different  calibre.  So 
long  as  this  goes  on  there  will  not  be  radical  reform.  There  will 
be  nothing  but  more  and  more  charity  coupled  with  more  and  more 
pauperism. 

Nothing  can  be  more  dissimilar  than  the  temper  of  the  average 
Englishman  and  of  the  average  Colonial  in  approaching  the  great 
social  problem.  That  there  are  saints  on  earth  working  amongst 
the  London  poor,  every  one  knows,  but  the  very  greatness  of  their 
virtue  is  a  proof  of  the  great  need  that  has  called  it  out.  Amongst 
the  mass  there  is  still  a  callous  indifference  to  the  sufferings  of  others. 
No  one  is  more  willing  than  the  average  Londoner  to  do  an  obliging 
act  towards  a  fellow  creature ;  no  one  is  more  determined  not  to 
sacrifice  his  own  comfort  or  pleasure  or  advancement  to  save  the 
most  unfortunate  from  ruin.  '  Each  man  eager  for  a  place,  doth 
thrust  his  brother  in  the  sea.'  One  character,  one  career,  one  human 
life,  counts  for  so  little.  There  are  so  many  other  lives  crowding 
all  around.  Tragedies  are  so  common  that  they  have  lost  their 
significance.  The  fortunate  cannot  help  all,  so  they  either  help  none 
or  else  give  a  little  inadequate  help  to  the  most  persistent. 

Amongst  the  early  settlers  of  a  young  colony  there  is  a  strong 
feeling  of  neighbourliness.  When  any  sudden  calamity  befalls  one 
of  the  community,  friends  are  sure  to  come  to  the  rescue  and  give 
the  sufferer  a  fair  chance  of  starting  again.  But  in  London  the 
unfortunate  have  few  or  no  friends.  Here  the  battle  of  life  is  fiercest, 
and  there  is  no  quarter  given.  Nowhere  else  is  success  so  successful, 
and  failure  so  hopeless.  In  New  Zealand,  when  the  old  intimacy 
and  hospitality  could  no  longer  be  universal,  legislation  was  soon 
called  in  to  supplement  individual  kindness.  There  has  been  plenty 
of  humanitarian  legislation  in  other  countries,  but  the  distinguishing 
feature  in  New  Zealand  is  that  it  did  not  come  so  much  from  the 
benevolence  of  the  richer  towards  the  poorer,  as  from  the  active 
self-interest  of  the  working  classes.  The  man  of  the  people  works  for 
the  people  in  the  Colonial  Parliament,  not  because  he'*pities"them, 


106  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUEY  Jiily 

but  because  it  is  their  power  that  put  him  in  his  place.  The  democracy 
are  not  led  by  big  names  or  feudal  traditions  or  by  questions  of  foreign 
politics  which  do  not  concern  them.  They  vote  for  the  man  whom 
they  think  likely  to  do  the  most  for  them,  and  when  he  is  elected, 
they  watch  to  see  what  he  is  doing.  The  roughest  labourers  and 
artisans  show  surprising  shrewdness  and  information  when  it  comes 
to  a  matter  of  regulating  the  conditions  of  labour  or  the  incidence 
of  taxation.  A  traveller  will  find  on  rugged  back  country,  on  sheep 
or  cattle  farms,  amongst  mining  prospectors  and  tributers,  amongst 
settlers  and  shearers,  intelligence  and  practical  ability  of  a  far  higher 
order  than  shows  itself  in  most  English  villages.  That  is  the  main 
reason  why  our  social  outlook  is  brighter.  The  salvation  of  the  poor 
lies  with  the  poor  themselves.  If  they  do  not  help  themselves,  outside 
help  will  be  useless. 

We  of  the  New  World  have  been  so  often  taunted  with  experi- 
menting, that  it  is  only  fair  we  should  explain  our  own  point  of  view. 
The  untravelled  Englishman  resents  new  ideas.  Though  he  has  not 
the  least  expectation  of  succeeding  in  dealing  with  poverty,  he  still 
continues  in  the  old  ways  in  which  he  has  so  long  and  so  comfortably 
failed,  and  he  regards  with  profoundest  contempt  the  hope  of  succeed- 
ing by  unorthodox  methods.  At  the  bottom  of  his  soul  he  believes 
poverty  to  be  one  of  the  institutions  of  Providence.  In  the  colony 
there  is  a  resolute  determination,  as  strong  outside  as  inside  the 
ranks  of  the  Government,  to  establish  sounder  and  more  wholesome 
social  conditions  than  those  which  have  for  centuries  bred  want  and 
dependence  and  degradation.  Socialistic  laws  may  fail,  but  behind 
the  laws  is  the  spirit  of  the  people.  All  their  best  energies  are  given 
to  the  one  task.  Humanitarianism  is  with  many  Colonials  a  religion 
in  practice,  with  some  a  popular  sentiment  to  be  exploited  for  their 
own  benefit,  but  for  all  alike  the  main  force  in  political  and  social  life. 
Through  all  its  experiments,  the  democracy  has  had  one  steady  and 
consistent  policy,  and  its  objects  have  from  the  first  been  clearly  con- 
ceived. An  acute  but  by  no  means  partial  critic  says  of  the  New 
Zealanders :  '  Au  fond  d'eux-memes  on  trouverait  probablement 
cette  idee  que  la  politique  apres  tout  n'est  pas  chose  si  compliqu6e 
qu'on  a  bien  voulu  le  dire  et  qu'il  sufiit  d'un  peu  de  courage  et  de 
decision  pour  accomplir  les  reformes  dont  la  vieille  Europe  a  si  grande 
peur.'  The  best  answer  to  this  delicate  piece  of  satire  is  that  courage 
and  decision  have  already  accomplished  great  and  sweeping  reforms. 
There  is  something  to  be  said  for  the  '  Faith  Cure  '  even  for  the  worst 
diseases  of  the  social  body. 

To  sum  up  in  one  sentence  :  the  cardinal  difference  between  the 
problem  of  poverty  in  the  Old  World  and  in  the  New  is  that  in 
the  New  World  there  is  more  hope  and  more  ground  for  hope ;  in 
the  Old  it  seems  to  a  stranger  all  but  hopeless.  These  views  can 
claim  only  to  be  taken  from  the  outside,  and  not  from  the  inside  of 


1908  LONDON  AND  NEW  ZEALAND  107 

London  life.  But  outside  impressions  have  their  own  uses.  If  I 
have  seemed  to  describe  the  *  Cloudland '  of  the  Antipodes  as  altogether 
Arcadian,  I  must  admit  that  it  wears  this  aspect  only  in  contrast 
with  the  sin  and  suffering  in  the  City  of  Dreadful  Night.  New  Zealand 
is  very  far  from  having  realised  any  Utopias,  but  it  can  justly  claim 
to  have  refounded  society  on  a  sounder  and  more  equitable  basis, 
and  in  a  cleaner  and  brighter  moral  atmosphere. 

EDITH  SEARLE  GROSSMANN. 


108  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 


THE  FORERUNNERS   OF  CHAMPLAIN 
IN  CANADA 


'  HUMANITY,  tu  es  quelquefois  juste,  et  certains  de  tes  jugements  sont 
bons ' — Kenan's  famous  words  rise  involuntarily  to  the  mind  as  the 
time  approaches  when  representatives  of  great  and  powerful  nations 
will  meet  at  Quebec  to  do  honour  to  the  memory  of  Samuel  de  Champ- 
lain.  In  thus  commemorating  not  only  the  founder  of  New  France, 
but  the  tercentenary  of  the  Canadian  people,  history  renders  justice — 
as  in  the  long  run  is  her  habit — to  a  son  the  greatness  of  whose  achieve- 
ment has  been  lost  in  obscurity  for  many  generations.  Imagination  is 
touched  by  the  contrast  between  the  arduous  life  and  little  recognised 
labours  of  Champlain,  and  that  illustrious  gathering  at  Quebec  this 
summer,  when  the  fruits  of  those  labours  will  be  set  forth  before  the 
whole  world.  It  was  not  given  to  Champlain  to  foresee  the  far-reaching 
results  of  his  life's  work ;  no  facile  triumph  insured  an  ephemeral 
popularity  for  him  among  the  men  of  his  own  generation.  Champlain, 
faithful  servant  of  thankless  kings,  has  no  place  among  those  fugitive 
figures  of  history  whose  fame  burns  up  straw-like  for  a  day,  to  be  lost 
ever  afterwards  in  darkness.  There  are  heroes  whose  'claims  destiny 
would  appear  deliberately  to  overlook  for  a  time,  and  the  light  of  whose 
greatness  rises  but  slowly  above  the  annals  of  mankind.  But  such 
fame  once  achieved  is  eternal  and  is  proof  against  the  shocks  of  time 
and  change.  Posterity  winnows  finally  the  chaff  from  the  grain,  and 
in  the  end  it  is  those  who  have  sown  in  faith  and  truth  who  come 
again  with  joy  and  bring  their  sheaves  with  them.  Among  such 
men  Champlain  assuredly  takes  high  rank.  His  life  was  not  only 
strenuous  but  full  of  trial  and  disappointment.  Fired  with  visions  of  a 
great  transatlantic  empire  for  France,  his  personal  realisation  of  such 
a  dream  was  confined  to  the  establishment  of  one  small  settlement 
on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  hard  pressed  between  the  incle- 
mency of  nature  and  the  ferocity  of  man.  But  the  measure  of  Champ- 
Iain's  vision  was  the  measure  of  his  service  to  New  France,  not  that 
of  his  material  achievement.  When  the  ironclads  of  three  great 
nations  thunder  forth  salutes  beneath  the  citadel  of  Quebec,  they  will 
testify  to  the  ultimate  triumph  of  that  vision,  if  the  manner  of  its 
fulfilment  has  changed  in  character.  At  the  point  where  Champlain 


1908  CHAMPLAIN'S  FOBERUNNERS  IN  CANADA    109 

cast  anchor  from  his  weather-beaten  ship,  and  the  little  company 
of  immigrants  gazed  with  anxious  hearts  at  the  great  precipice  of 
Quebec ;  the  leviathans  of  the  deep,  three  centuries  later,  will  assemble 
to  acclaim  the  founder  of  the  city  and  his  inauguration  of  a  work 
the  magnitude  of  which  no  dream  of  his  had  ever  compassed.  Servant 
of  France  and  of  her  kings,  it  is  the  heir  of  an  Empire  greater  than 
any  known  to  Champlain  whose  royal  hand  will  lay  the  laurel  wreath 
upon  his  unknown  grave — lay  it  in  the  name  of  two  great  united 
races  from  whom  a  new  nation  has  sprung. 

Few  chapters  of  history  are  more  romantic  than  those  which  tell 
of  the  first  discovery  and  colonisation  of  America  ;  few,  for  some  curious 
reason,  are  more  unknown  to  the  general  reader.  France,  it  must  be 
owned,  has  done  less  than  justice  to  the  memory  of  the  brave  pioneers 
and  adventurers  who  laid  the  foundations  of  French  rule  in  Canada. 
French  historians  have  devoted  little  attention  to  what,  nevertheless, 
remains  a  striking  and  honourable  page  in  their  national  annals. 
It  is  thanks  to  the  brilliant  pen  of  Parkman,  an  American,  that  the 
obscurity,  in  a  large  measure,  has  been  dissipated  into  which  such 
men  as  Cartier,  Champlain,  La  Salle  and  Frontenac  had  been  allowed 
to  sink  by  their  own  countrymen.  But  Samuel  de  Champlain,  though 
founder  of  the  first  permanent  settlement  in  Canada,  was  not  the 
original  discoverer  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  He  possessed  notable  fore- 
runners in  the  task  of  exploration,  whose  services  are  eminently  worthy 
of  recognition  at  a  moment  when  public  interest  is  centred  on  the 
dawn  of  Canadian  history.  It  will  be  the  object  of  the  following  article 
to  sketch  the  life  and  work  of  those  men  who  were  distinguished 
figures  in  an  earlier  period  of  discovery,  a  period  connected  with  vital 
issues  in  the  development  of  human  knowledge.  The  roots  of  Canadian 
history  in  reality  go  back  much  farther  than  the  seventeenth  century, 
and,  like  those  of  the  whole  American  continent,  lie  deeply  imbedded  in 
the  life  and  thought  of  contemporary  Europe.  Child  of  the  Renais- 
sance and  the  Reformation,  two  of  the  greatest  movements  which  have 
vitalised  history,  to  judge  the  New  World  in  true  perspective  we 
must  never  lose  sight  of  the  mighty  forces  which  stood  around  its 
cradle.  If  we  would  understand  rightly  the  spirit  brought  by  explorers 
and  pioneers  to  their  task,  we  must  first  realise  the  intellectual  and 
political  ferment  of  the  age  which  gave  them  birth,  an  age  of  struggle, 
when  obstinate  questionings  on  either  hand  had  resolved  themselves 
into  the  fiercest  convictions,  political  and  religious. 

To  what  has  been  well  termed  the  tree  of  genius  in  that  Saturnian 
land,  Italy,  we  owe  the  great  explorers  of  the  New  World.  The  keen 
spirit  of  activity  and  research  infused  by  the  revival  of  learning  into 
every  branch  of  human  thought  and  action,  threw  up,  so  to  speak, 
travellers  and  adventurers  during  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries, 
no  less  than  the  masters  of  art,  literature  and  science.  Geographical 
discoveries  entered  into  the  Zeitgeist  of  the  time,  were  part  of  its 


110  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

splendid  fruits.  The  bonds  of  the  Middle  Ages  were  burst,  and  man 
awoke  to  the  existence  of  two  vast  new  worlds — the  inner  kingdom 
of  the  mind  and  the  great  regions  beyond  the  western  seas.  At  the 
same  time,  the  very  gradual  character  of  the  discovery  of  America 
is  a  fact  to  be  remembered.  .That  discovery  was  no  isolated  or  bril- 
liant feat,  for  which  exclusive  glory  must  be  claimed  by  one  or  two  great 
names.  It  is  nearer  the  truth  to  affirm  that  neither  Columbus  nor 
Cabot  grasped  the  real  magnitude  of  their  own  work,  and  had  little 
idea  that  they  had  touched  the  shores  of  a  new  continent.  The  very 
name  of  the  West  Indies,  and  of  the  term  Indian,  as  applied  to  the 
aborigines,  proves  the  intense  preoccupation  of  the  early  explorers 
with  Asia  rather  than  America.  Columbus  probably  died  in  the  belief 
that  he  had  landed  on  the  eastern  coast  of  the  former  continent.  Cabot 
was  no  less  earnestly  concerned  with  the  search  for  Cathay.  Long  years 
were  to  pass  before  the  physical  character  of  the  New  World  was  in 
any  sense  grasped  by  its  European  discoverers,  to  whom  the  existence 
of  a  great  barrier  continent  was  an  unthinkable  idea.  More  than  a 
century  later  we  find  the  early  French  settlers  in  Canada  labouring 
under  the  same  Asiatic  delusion — a  delusion  to  which  the  name 
of  a  suburb  of  Montreal,  La  Chine,  still  bears  witness.  Whatever 
confusion,  however,  may  have  existed  in  the  minds  of  the  early  navi- 
gators as  to  the  actual  goal  they  had  reached,  such  confusion  in  no 
sense  reflects  on  the  fame  which  attaches  eternally  to  the  prosecution 
of  their  hazardous  enterprises.  The  dying  Beowulf  speaks  of  the 
'  sailors  who  drive  from  afar  their  tall  ships  through  the  mists  of  the 
ocean ' — a  fine,  almost  prophetic  image  of  those  dauntless  seamen 
of  the  fifteenth  century  steering  their  frail  vessels  into  the  wastes  of 
unknown  waters. 

The  pre-eminence  of  Italy  in  the  task  of  exploration  id  as  undoubted 
as  her  pre-eminence  in  other  matters  during  this  brilliant  epoch. 
In  the  study  of  scientific  geography  and  cartography  she  had  no 
equal.  But  it  is  a  curious  and  suggestive  fact,  and  one  which  illus- 
trates strikingly  the  lack  of  any  homogeneous  national  feeling  among 
the  Italian  States,  that  Italy,  numbering  the  most  famous  of  the  ex- 
plorers among  her  sons,  nevertheless  sent  no  expedition  to  the  New 
World.  It  was  in  the  service  of  foreign  princes  and  borne  by  alien 
keels  that  the  intrepid  Italians  of  the  fifteenth  century  first  touched 
the  shores  of  America.  Columbus  andVCabot>  natives  of  Genoa, 
found  their  patrons  respectively  in  the  monarchs  of  Spain  and  England, 
and  their  discoveries  were  the  basis  of  Spanish  and  English  claims  in 
the  New  World.  Similarly,  the  explorations  of  Verrazano,  a  Florentine, 
won  fame  for  France ;  and  to  the  services  of  Amerigo  Vespucci,  merchant 
of  Seville  and  Pilot  Major  to  his  Most  Catholic  Majesty,  the  whole 
Western  hemisphere  bears  witness  by  its  name. 

The  final  break-up  of  the  Greek  Empire  in  1453,  and  the  dispersion 
like  winged  seeds  throughout  Europe  of  that  knowledge  and  civilisa- 


1908  CHAMPLAIN'S  FORERUNNERS  IN  CANADA    111 

tion  which,  even  in  the  hour  of  decadence,  found  shelter  at  Constan- 
tinople, was  an  influence  profoundly  affecting  the  later  Renaissance. 
It  had  an  effect  no  less  important  upon  geographical  discovery  and 
commercial  development.  The  unconscious  influence  of  the  Turk 
upon  the  history  of  exploration  is  one  of  the  most  curious  factors 
in  the  development  of  modern  Europe.  The  practical  closing  of  the 
great  Eastern  trade  routes  after  the  fall  of  Constantinople,  the  com- 
mercial paralysis  resulting  from  the  wave  of  barbarism  which  had 
submerged  the  Eastern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  forced  merchants 
and  traders  to  bend  their  energies  to  the  discovery  of  fresh  channels 
of  commerce.  With  the  Turk  in  victorious  possession  of  the  East 
the  eyes  of  Europe  began  to  turn  eagerly  to  the  West.  The  spirit  of 
adventure  was  abroad ;  the  adventurers  themselves  were  at  hand ;  it 
rested  with  the  Turk  to  give  a  determining  direction  to  their  voyages. 
The  discovery  of  the  West  Indies  by  Columbus  in  1492  revolutionised 
the  commercial  venue  of  Europe.  For  the  first  time  in  history  the 
centre  of  gravity  shifted  from  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  to 
those  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  Little  by  little  the  commercial  impor- 
tance of  the  Mediterranean  cities  began  to  dwindle,  while  for  the 
nations  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  Spain,  Portugal,  France,  England, 
a  new  era  set  in.  Among  the  silent  revolutions  of  history  none  has 
been  more  weighty  in  its  consequences  than  this. 

The  part  played  by  England  in  the  early  exploration  of  North 
America  is  somewhat  insignificant,  and  bore  no  proportion  to  the 
ultimate  influence  she  was  to  wield  in  the  New  World.  A  variety 
of  reasons  had  combined  to  leave  her  in  the  rear  of  that  great  forward 
movement  which  marks  the  golden  age  of  Portuguese  and  Spanish 
maritime  discovery.  At  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  country 
was  in  a  state  of  political  and  economic  exhaustion,  thanks  to  the  chaos 
resulting  from  the  Wars  of  the  Roses.  Commerce,  population  and 
finances  were  at  their  lowest  ebb.  The  first  of  the  Tudors,  a  cautious, 
commercially  minded  monarch,  was  concerned  primarily,  and,  be  it 
added,  rightly,  with  the  restoration  of  law  and  order  in  his  distracted 
realm.  Henry  the  Seventh  was  in  no  sense  attracted  by  adventure  for 
the  mere  love  of  adventure.  Like  all  the  Tudors  he  excelled  at  a  bar- 
gain, but  his  bargains  were  devoid  of  that  touch  of  panache  and  genius 
which  in  Henry  the  Eighth  and  Elizabeth  dignified  and  excused  much 
royal  huckstering.  His  services  to  the  realm,  nevertheless,  were  very 
great.  By  his  restoration  of  order  and  settled  government,  even  by 
the  somewhat  inglorious  peace  he  effected,  breathing-space  was 
obtained,  in  which  the  country  was  able  to  make  good  the  devastations 
of  prolonged  civil  strife  and  to  prepare  for  the  struggles  and  triumphs 
of  the  coming  century.  Obviously,  however,  the  Court  of  such  a 
monarch,  unlike  those  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  held  out  little  encourage- 
ment to  adventurers  with  schemes  for  the  discovery  of  Cathay. 
Hence  Henry  the  Seventh  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  proposals  of 


112  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

Columbus  when  the  latter,  in  search  of  a  patron,  made  overtures  that 
his  American  enterprise  should  be^undertaken  under  the  protection  of 
the  English  king.  But,  in  spite  of  so  many  inauspicious  omens,  the 
destiny  of  England  bore  her  forward  at  this  moment.  To  her,  in 
whose  hand  lay  the  future  sovereignty  of  North  America,  the  glory 
of  the  first  discovery  of  the  mainland  was  not  denied,  even  though 
her  eyes  were  long  holden  to  the  true  bearings  of  that  discovery. 

The  success  of  Columbus  in  1492,  and  the  stories  at  once  set  on 
foot  of  fabulous  wealth  in  these  new  regions,  encouraged  Henry  to 
listen  with  more  attention  to  the  schemes  of  John  Cabot,  born  a 
Genoese,  but  a  naturalised  Venetian,  who  in  the  last  decade  of  the 
fifteenth  century  appears  to  have  settled  with  his  wife  and  family  at 
Bristol.  Bristol  in  the  fifteenth  century  was  one  of  the  most  important 
cities  in  England.  What  maritime  enterprise  the  country  possessed 
at  this  time — and  it  was  at  a  low  ebb — found  its  headquarters  on  the 
Bristol  Channel.  The  fishermen  of  this  district  were  known  as  a 
hardy  and  a  courageous  race,  and  the  rank  and  file  of  American 
exploration  was  for  many  years  recruited  among  them.  It  was  a 
Bristol  ship  manned  by  Bristol  seamen  that  first  cast  anchor  on  the 
shores  of  the  American  mainland,  five  years  after  the  discovery  by 
Columbus,  far  to  the  south,  of  the  outlying  islands,  and  more  than  a 
year  before  his  subsequent  voyage  to  Venezuela.  English  and  Italians, 
between  whom  in  latter  days  so  close  a  tie  of  sympathy  exists,  will 
remember  gladly  that  an  Italian  led  an  English  company  on  the 
initial  stages  of  a  great  destiny,  and  that  the  Lion  of  St.  Mark  floated 
by  the  Cross  of  St.  George  when  the  symbol  of  British  rule  was  first 
raised  on  the  shores  of  Canada. 

History  has  preserved  but  meagre  accounts  of  the  voyages  of  the 
Cabots.  Their  significance  and  importance  were  but  little  appreciated 
in  the  England  of  the  day.  In  March  1496  Henry  the  Seventh 
granted  a  patent  to  John  Cabot  and  his  sons  to  undertake  a 
voyage  for  the  discovery  of  Cathay  and  the  countries  of  Northern 
China.  The  agreement  between  the  English  monarch  and  the  Italian 
adventurers  was  one  of  those  characteristic  bargains  at  which  the 
Tudors  excelled.  The  Cabots  took  all  the  risk  and  the  King  graciously 
shared  the  profits.  In  May  1497  Cabot  set  forth  on  his  perilous 
journey  from  the  port  of  Bristol.  His  vessel  was  of  that  minute 
tonnage  common  enough  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  but 
appalling  to  the  imagination  of  latter-day  travellers  who  have  experi- 
enced Atlantic  storms  on  a  modern  Atlantic  liner.  The  Matthew, 
Cabot's  ship,  registered  60  tons  and  she  carried  a  crew  of  eighteen 
men.  How  these  small  and  often  untrustworthy  vessels  ever  came 
to  their  journey's  end  must  remain  one  of  the  standing  marvels  of 
exploration.  The  women  of  the  period  must,  indeed,  have  required 
stout  nerves  to  endure  the  disappearance  for  months  and  years  of 
those  dear  to  them,  and  the  absolute  silence  in  which  their  perilous 


1908  CHAMPLAIN'S  FOEERUNNERS  IN  CANADA    118 

ventures  were  shrouded.  Mr.  Dawson,  in  his  exhaustive  and  scholarly 
work  on  the  St.  Lawrence,1  points  out  how  much  greater  were  the 
difficulties  which  beset  the  task  of  Cabot  even  than  those  which 
had  fallen  to  the  lot  of  Columbus.  Columbus  had  the  immense  advan- 
tage of  sailing  in  fair  weather  latitudes,  where  night  by  night  the 
stars  rose  in  a  clear  sky.  Cabot,  on  the  contrary,  following  a  northerly 
course,  found  himself  in  a  region  of  stormy  seas,  thick  fog,  and  adverse 
winds.  Both  men  alike  steered  by  the  compass,  but  the  greater  varia- 
tion of  the  magnetic  needle  in  northern  as  compared  with  southern 
latitudes  was  not  as  yet  calculated,  and  this  fact  must  have  added  a 
fresh  element  of  perplexity  to  Cabot's  task.  In  spite  of  all  difficulties, 
however,  the  Matthew  beat  her  way  steadily  across  the  Atlantic  in 
the  space  of  about  fifty  days.  Authorities  have  differed  as  to  the 
exact  point  on  the  Canadian  shore  which  marks  Cabot's  landfall,  but 
the  latest  evidence  points  to  the  eastern  coast  of  Cape  Breton  Island, 
a  beautiful  and  fertile  portion  of  the  present  Dominion  of  Canada. 
The  climate  is  extremely  temperate  for  so  high  a  latitude,  and  Cabot 
must  have  arrived  at  the  height  of  the  brief  but  beautiful  Canadian 
summer.  The  mildness  of  the  summer  climate  no  doubt  served  to 
confirm  him  in  the  delusion  that  he  had  reached  the  shores  of  Cathay, 
that  land  of  marvels  which  Marco  Polo  at  an  earlier  date  had  described 
to  an  astonished  Europe.  Satisfied  on  so  important  a  point,  Cabot, 
whose  first  voyage  was  nothing  but  a  reconnoitring  cruise,  set  sail 
and  hurried  back  to  England.  He  was  welcomed  by  the  nation 
after  a  prosperous  and  rapid  return  journey  with  real  enthusiasm. 
The  imagination  of  even  Henry  the  Seventh  was  stirred  by  the  prospect 
of  a  new  trade  route  to  China,  and  money  and  honours  were  conferred 
on  the  successful  explorer. 

Cabot's  hour  of  triumph  was  doomed  to  be  but  brief,  An  expedi- 
tion of  five  armed  ships,  to  which  the  king  contributed,  sailed  from 
Bristol  the  following  spring,  the  London  merchants  sending  stores 
of  goods,  including  silks  and  laces,  with  which  they  aspired  to  open 
up  a  profitable  trade  with  the  inhabitants  of  Cathay.  Expectation 
ran  high  as  regards  this  expedition,  but  its  fate  is  shrouded  in  complete 
mystery.  It  is  not  supposed  that  actual  disaster  overtook  the  ships, 
but  that  the  venture  ended  in  an  absolute  fiasco  from  a  commercial 
point  of  view  is  certain.  Cabot  must  have  pursued  a  more  northerly 
course  than  on  his  first  voyage.  The  scanty  references  to  this  abortive 
enterprise  in  the  literature  of  the  period  speak  of  the  icebergs  and 
icefields  in  which  his  ships  were  involved.  After  skirting  the  shores 
of  Labrador  he  would  appear  to  have  turned  south,  followed  the  coast 
as  far  as  the  38th  parallel,  and  then  returned  to  England.  We 
know  no  details  of  that  homecoming,  the  anger  of  the  disappointed 
merchants,  the  probable  wrath  of  the  king.  The  expedition  simply 
disappears  without  comment  from  English  history,  and  with  it  John 

1  The  Saint  Lawrence  Basin,  by  Samuel  Edward  Dawson. 
VOL.  LXIV— No.  377  I 


114  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

Cabot  vanishes  entirely  from  view.  Sebastian  Cabot,  his  son,  held  high 
rank  in  the  naval  service,  first  of  Spain,  and  then  of  England,  but  as 
to  the  fate  of  his  illustrious  father  contemporary  records  are  silent. 

Thus  in  gloom  and  disappointment  ended  the  preliminary  venture 
of  England  in  the  New  World.  The  mood  of  the  people,  as  already 
stated,  was  thoroughly  unheroic  at  this  moment.  The  gentlemen 
adventurers  of  a  later  date  were  yet  unborn,  and  the  nation,  crippled 
by  long  and  exhausting  civil  strife,  was  in  no  condition  to  prosecute 
hazardous  enterprises  the  benefits  of  which  were  doubtful.  The  first- 
fruits  of  Cabot's  great  discovery  fell  to  the  ground  unheeded,  and  the 
prize  won  back  eventually  through  fire  and  sword  was  doomed  to 
pass  for  nearly  three  hundred  years  into  the  keeping  of  France.  This 
period  of  maritime  depression  in  England  was  but  brief.  The  vigorous 
national  consciousness  given  to  their  country  by  Henry  the  Eighth 
and  his  great  daughter  little  by  little  redressed  the  balance,  and  brought 
the  English  navigators  into  the  front  rank.  For  the  moment,  however, 
the  laurels  of  discovery  pass  elsewhere,  and  the  golden  age  of  Eliza- 
bethan adventure  is  not  concerned  with  Canada,  but  found  its  theatre 
far  to  the  south. 

Expeditions  to  the  New  World  undertaken  by  Portuguese,  by 
French,  and  by  Spaniards  had  followed  closely  on  the  wake  of  Cabot's 
discovery.  Some  of  these  voyages  were  private  ventures,  some  were 
undertaken  under  royal  charter ;  all  practically  were  haunted  by 
visions  of  the  much-sought-for  North- West  Passage.  These  royal 
expeditions  bore  useful  fruits  of  a  geographical  character,  but  com- 
merce rather  than  the  caprice  of  kings  was  pushing  the  task  of  explora- 
tion in  North  America.  Newfoundland  was  the  point  round  which 
it  centred.  The  name  Bacallaos  (stockfish)  applied  to  the  island  by 
the  early  navigators  at  once  explains  the  presence  of  fishermen  in  this 
locality.  The  Newfoundland  fisheries  have  been  famous  from  the  first 
moment  of  American  discovery  and  played  a  great  part  in  the  opening 
up  of  the  continent.  The  waters  swarm  with  codfish,  and  in  the  days 
of  a  Catholic  Europe,  when  the  fasts  of  the  Church  were  strictly 
kept,  the  demand  for  dried  fish  was  considerable  and  created  a  most 
profitable  trade.  These  fisheries  were  first  opened  up  by  Portuguese 
and  Breton  sailors ;  but  the  navigation  laws  of  Henry  the  Eighth  and 
Elizabeth  prove  that  these  monarchs  were  soon  alive  to  the  importance 
of  pushing  British  trade  in  this  part  of  the  world.  In  a  statute  of 
Elizabeth's  reign  we  can  almost  catch  the  ricochet  of  the  religious 
disputes  of  the  time,  when  her  Majesty  prescribes  that  the  fleet  shall 
eat  fish  twice  a  week  for  the  benefit  of  the  fishing  trade,  adding,  how- 
ever, with  Tudor  peremptoriness,  that  any  person  daring  to  connect  the 
eating  of  fish  with  the  service  of  God  would  be  most  severely  punished. 
The  marvellous  wealth  of  the  sea  was  a  prize  for  which  all  nations 
strove  alike  off  the  Newfoundland  shores,  and  by  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century  we  find  the  banks  frequented  by  English  sailors 


1908  CHAMPLAIN'S  FORERUNNERS  IN  CANADA    116 

no  less  than  by  Portuguese,  Spanish,  Breton,  Basque  and  Norman 
fishermen.  Fierce  strife  reigned  as  a  normal  condition  of  affairs 
between  the  various  fishing  fleets.  Probably  no  one  particular  bone 
of  international  contention  has  maintained  its  character  unimpaired 
for  so  many  centuries  as  that  of  the  Newfoundland  fisheries.  They 
enter  history  in  an  atmosphere  of  broil  and  disturbance,  and  for 
centuries  they  have  proved  a  fruitful  source  of  discord  to  all  the 
nations  concerned.  Treaty  after  treaty  has  dealt  with  the  subject, 
but  to  this  hour  they  remain  a  very  difficult  element  in  the  threefold 
relations  of  England,  Canada,  and  the  United  States. 

To  the  Newfoundland  fisheries,  therefore,  we  must  look  for  the 
causes  which  encouraged  and  stimulated  the  American  voyages  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  The  yearly  cruises  of  the  fishing  vessels,  the  tales 
of  strange  lands  brought  back  by  the  hardy  mariners,  created  an 
atmosphere  which,  especially  in  England,  harmonised  well  with  the 
new  temper  of  the  people.  The  Reformation  was  abroad,  and  the 
strong  religious  and  political  feeling  of  Elizabeth's  age  caught  and 
reflected  the  enthusiasm  of  the  merchant  adventurers.  The  struggle 
against  Rome  involved  the  struggle  against  Spain,  her  handmaid, 
and  Spain  was  at  that  moment  incomparably  the  most  wealthy  and 
prosperous  of  American  Powers.  The  harassing  of  Spanish  Catholic 
colonies  was,  therefore,  an  obvious  policy  for  a  Protestant  maritime 
nation  whose  very  existence  was  at  stake.  Hence  the  increasing 
preoccupation  of  England  with  the  New  World  as  her  maritime 
power  and  her  national  consciousness  soared  into  being  together. 
But,  thanks  to  the  struggle  with  Spain,  the  thoughts  of  England  were 
diverted  during  the  Elizabethan  age  far  from  the  shores  of  New 
England  and  Canada,  to  the  West  Indies  and  southern  portions  of 
the  continent,  where  Philip  and  his  viceroys  held  sway.  France, 
accordingly,  with  whom  the  real  struggle  for  supremacy  finally  was 
to  be  waged  in  the  New  World,  established  herself  quietly  on  the 
shores  of  the  St.  Lawrence  without  opposition  of  any  kind. 

France  had  entered  the  field  of  exploration  with  the  voyage  of 
Verrazano  in  1524.  Francis  the  First  was  in  no  way  minded  that  his 
country  should  be  wholly  passed  over  in  the  race  for  the  New  World. 
Brilliant,  dissolute,  fickle,  proof  against  the  promptings  of  that  spirit 
of  British  respectability  which  possibly  may  have  inspired  Henry 
the  Eighth's  spasmodic  and  unsatisfactory  ventures  in  holy  matri- 
mony, Francis  the  First  was,  nevertheless,  a  true  patron  of  art  and 
letters,  and  his  Court  was  a  centre  of  learning  and  culture  in  Europe. 
His  lifelong  enmity  with  Charles  the  Fifth  turned  his  thoughts  to  the 
New  World,  whence  the  Spanish  monarch  was  deriving  so  much  of 
wealth  and  prestige.  '  God,'  so  the  King  declared  caustically,  '  had 
not  created  America  for  Castilians  alone,'  a  judgment  which  history 
has  fully  ratified.  Verrazano,  therefore,  on  behalf  of  Francis  the  First, 
went  forth  to  confound  the  Emperor  by  the  discovery  of  the  North- 

i  2 


116  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUEY  July 

West  Passage,  and  his  exploration  of  the  American  seaboard  added 
much  to  the  geographical  knowledge  of  the  day.  Verrazano  was  eager 
to  follow  up  his  first  voyage,  but  the  moment  was  thoroughly  in- 
auspicious. In  1524  Francis  was  involved  in  the  humiliations  and 
disasters  of  the  Italian  campaign,  culminating  in  his  defeat  and  capture 
at  Pavia.  Verrazano  disappears  from  the  scene  during  the  con- 
fusion and  exhaustion  of  this  period,  and  ten  years  later  the  trans- 
atlantic enterprise  is  resumed  by  that  first  pioneer  of  France  in  the 
New  World,  to  whom  belongs  the  honour  of  the  discovery  of  the 
St.  Lawrence. 

With  Jacques  Cartier  the  exploration  of  Canada  assumes  a  definite 
aspect.  Not  even  the  greater  fame  of  Champlain  should  obscure 
our  admiration  for  this  gallant  Breton  sailor,  in  whom  courage, 
simplicity,  and  modesty  united  to  form  a  character  of  a  singularly 
attractive  nature.  From  the  beginning  we  find  France  sending  forth 
two  distinct  classes  of  Canadian  explorers :  on  the  one  hand,  worth- 
less courtiers,  vain,  idle,  profligate,  reared  in  the  atmosphere  of  a 
corrupt  Court,  and  proving  a  source  of  unmixed  mischief  to  every 
expedition  with  which  they  were  connected ;  on  the  other,  those 
sturdy  sailors  and  adventurers  who  laid  the  foundations  of  New 
France,  and  live  in  history  as  admirable  examples  of  all  that  courage 
and  heroism  can  effect.  Many  high-born  and  gallant  gentlemen,  it  is 
true,  went  forth  in  the  service  of  France,  and  have  left  distinguished 
names  in  Canadian  administration.  But  the  professional  courtier  of 
the  period  is  one  of  the  most  despicable  types  in  history,  and  the 
interference  of  such  men  from  first  to  last  in  Canadian  affairs  brought 
nothing  but  ruin  and  trouble  on  the  struggling  settlements. 

Jacques  Cartier  was  born  at  St.  Malo  in  1491.  He  was  a  navigator 
of  tried  experience  when,  in  1534,  he  set  sail  for  Canada,  holding  a 
royal  commission.  As  France  began  to  recover  from  the  exhaustion 
of  the  Italian  wars,  schemes  of  American  exploration  were  pressed 
upon  Francis  the  First  by  Philip  de  Chabot,  Admiral  of  France,  a 
high-spirited  noble  and  an  intimate  companion  of  the  king.  De 
Chabot  was  fired  with  the  idea  of  French  colonies  established  in 
America  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  influence  of  Spain,  and  in  Cartier 
he  found  a  suitable  agent  for  so  great  an  enterprise.  Carrier's  first 
expedition  to  Canada,  which  was  but  a  reconnoitring  cruise,  consisted 
of  two  small  ships  and  a  company  of  sixty-one  men.  Needless  to 
say  that,  like  his  predecessors,  the  great  prize  on  which  the  leader's 
hopes  were  set  was  the  discovery  of  the  North- West  Passage.  No 
previous  navigator  had  more  solid  grounds  than  Cartier  for  believing 
that  he  had  solved  the  mystery.  Sailing  to  Newfoundland,  he  passed 
through  the  Straits  of  Belle  Isle  and  made  a  complete  circle  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  gulf,  landing  on  Gaspe,  where  he  raised  the  Fleur-de-lis. 
Misled  by  Anticosti,  he  appears  to  have  turned  north  without  actually 
entering  the  river  itself ;  but  little  wonder  if  his  hopes  ran  high  at  the 


1908  CHAMPLAIN'S  FORERUNNERS  IN  CANADA    117 

discovery  of  this  great  waterway  to  the  west,  obviously  leading  into 
the  interior  of  the  continent.  The  season  was  too  far  advanced  to 
admit  of  further  exploration,  and  Cartier,  favoured  by  westerly  winds, 
made  a  rapid  journey  back  to  France  and  laid  his  report  before  the 
Court.  The  scale  of  the  second  expedition  proves  the  attention 
paid  to  his  story  by  Philip  de  Chabot  and  the  king. 

Cartier's  second  voyage  to  Canada,  in  1535,  is  the  one  with  which 
his  fame  is  principally  concerned.  First  of  all  Europeans  he  pushed 
his  way  westwards  from  the  lower  waters  of  the  Gulf  along  the  actual 
stream  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  Cartier's  route  is  that  practically 
traversed  by  the  mail  steamers  of  to-day,  and  it  is  one  of  the  most 
interesting  in  the  world.  The  St.  Lawrence  route  is  eminently  the 
pathway  to  be  followed  by  all  pilgrims  who  journey  for  the  first  time 
to  America.  From  the  moment  the  Straits  of  Belle  Isle  are  sighted 
the  traveller  is  in  touch  with  islands,  lands  and  seas  famed  in  story, 
and  to  which  the  roll-call  of  both  French  and  British  fame  bears 
witness.  Cabot,  Fr.obisher,  Humphrey  Gilbert,  Davis,  Henry  Hudson, 
are  names  which  rise  involuntarily  to  the  memory  as  the  eye  rests  to  the 
right  on  the  bleak  coast  of  Labrador,  and  to  the  left  on  the  famous 
French  shore  of  Newfoundland.  The  great  waterway  itself  is  no 
less  dignified  by  memories  of  the  dauntless  Frenchmen  who  won  for 
France  an  empire  in  the  West,  memories  Englishmen  in  these  latter 
days  are  proud  to  incorporate  with  their  own  in  the  traditions  of  a 
joint  people.  Whoever  has  sailed  past  the  peninsula  of  Gaspe,  with 
its  white  houses  and  wooded  hills,  gazed  on  the  sombre  portals  of  the 
Saguenay,  where  the  gulf  yields  place  to  the  river  proper,  felt  in  the 
night  the  mysterious  welcome  of  a  new  land  as  the  St.  Lawrence  bears 
him  right  into  the  heart  of  an  unknown  continent,  finally  awoke  at 
dawn  to  see  the  citadel  of  Quebec  revealed  by  the  morning  light,  has 
enriched  his  memories  by  one  of  the  greatest  experiences  in  travel. 

Cartier's  second  expedition,  consisting  of  three  ships,  provisioned 
for  a  cruise  lasting  more  than  a  year,  excited  the  keen  hostility  of  the 
St.  Malo  merchants.  Royal  expeditions  to  Newfoundland  waters 
were  little  to  their  mind,  when  royal  rapacity,  as  they  shrewdly  guessed, 
might  result  in  royal  absorption  of  a  lucrative  private  trade.  Cartier, 
however,  was  not  a  man  to  be  turned  from  his  purpose  by  commercial 
intrigues,  and  with  the  King's  commission  at  his  back  and  de  Chabot's 
support  he  bore  down  all  obstacles.  The  expedition,  fated  to  play  so 
great  a  part  in  the  destinies  of  France,  sailed  from  St.  Malo  on  the 
19th  of  May  1535.  Cartier  with  all  his  company  had  assembled 
first  in  the  grey,  weather-beaten  cathedral  to  receive  the  Sacrament 
and  the  episcopal  blessing.  A  devout  Catholic,  the  simple  faith  of 
this  brave  sailor  is  an  outstanding  feature  in  his  character,  and  one  all 
the  more  refreshing  in  an  age  when  religious  fervour  was  generally 
allied  with  religious  bigotry. 

Cartier  met  with  bad  weather  :  his  vessels  were  dispersed  by  violent 


118  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

gales ;  but  all  three  eventually  reached  the  rendezvous  off  the  Straits  of 
Belle  Isle.  Cartier  hugged  the  Labrador  shores,  and  on  the  10th  of 
August  ran  for  shelter  against  contrary  winds  to  a  land-locked  harbour 
opposite  Anticosti.  It  was  the  festival  of  St.  Lawrence,  and  the  name 
given  by  Cartier  in  honour  of  the  day  to  his  harbour  of  refuge 
gradually  extended  to  both  gulf  and  river.  From  two  Indians 
met  at  Gaspe  the  previous  year,  who  acted  as  guides  and  pilots  to  the 
present  expedition,  Cartier  learnt  that  a  great  river,  called  the  Hoche- 
laga,  led  into  the  interior  of  the  continent,  and  that  three '  kingdoms  ' — 
tribal  hunting-grounds  were  the  better  name — Saguenay,  Canada  and 
Hochelaga,  lay  along  its  banks.  Canada  is  a  Huron  Iroquois  word 
signifying  town,  and  the  Canada  of  Cartier's  narrative  was  a  district 
comprising  an  Indian  village  named  Stadacona,  on  the  site  of  Quebec, 
Hochelaga  being  situated  where  Montreal  now  stands.  It  will  be 
seen  in  how  haphazard  a  manner  the  Dominion  has  acquired  its 
name  and  that  of  its  great  river.  The  generic  word  applied  to  the 
Indian  encampment  near  Quebec,  for  some  unknown  reason,  became 
extended  over  the  whole  country,  in  the  same  way  as  the  Labrador 
harbour  gave  its  name  to  the  St.  Lawrence. 

Cartier  sailed  up  the  river  to  the  Isle  of  Orleans,  and  Canada  in  the 
early  days  of  September  smiled  her  fairest  at  him.  The  beauty  of 
the  vegetation,  the  green  meadows  and  lofty  trees,  all  these  things 
must  have  rejoiced  the  hearts  of  the  wanderers  as  the  great  rock  of 
Quebec  finally  came  into  view.  Cartier  decided  to  pass  the  winter 
at  Quebec,  and  a  camp  and  stockade  were  built  on  the  St.  Charles 
River,  which  falls  into  the  St.  Lawrence  at  this  point.  Friendly  rela- 
tions were  established  with  the  Indians  and  their  chief  Donnacona. 
The  success  of  France  in  dealing  with  the  aboriginal  tribes  of  North 
America,  and  the  humanity  generally  shown  by  her  pioneers  in  all 
their  relations  with  the  natives,  is  a  remarkable  feature  of  French 
colonial  history.  It  is  to  the  eternal  honour  of  France  that  she  showed 
more  sympathy  towards  these  hapless  races,  and  won  their  confidence 
and  affection  in  a  way  which  has  no  parallel  among  the  other  European 
colonists,  the  followers  of  Perm  excepted.  Cartier  was  anxious  to 
pursue  his  explorations  higher  up  the  river  and  to  visit  what  the 
Indians  called  the  '  great  town '  of  Hochelaga.  On  the  2nd  of 
October  his  little  company  reached  the  Indian  hamlet,  now  covered 
by  the  site  of  Montreal.  The  journey  up  the  St.  Lawrence  had 
necessarily  proved  in  a  measure  one  of  disillusion  to  Cartier,  for  on 
reaching  fresh  water  his  hopes  of  the  North- West  Passage,  which  had 
run  high  in  the  lower  gulf,  naturally  were  shattered.  We  find,  how- 
ever, that  the  idea  of  the  North- West  Passage  in  a  slightly  changed 
form  is  at  the  root  of  all  exploration  for  many  years  to  come.  As 
little  by  little  hope  of  a  direct  saltwater  route  to  China  was  aban- 
doned, a  navigable  river  flowing  by  an  easy  course  to  the  western 
coast  of  America  was  sought  after  with  no  less  diligence. 


1908  CHAMPLAIN'S  FORERUNNERS  IN  CANADA    119 

Cartier  landed  at  Hochelaga,  and  was  received  by  the  Indians  with 
that  touching  faith  and  confidence  usually  extended  by  the  aboriginal 
tribes  to  the  first  advent  of  the  white  man.  How  shameful  in  most 
cases  was  the  betrayal  of  that  trust  is  an  ugly  page  in  the  history  of 
exploration,  on  which  no  European  can  care  to  dwell.  France,  at 
least  in  the  first  instance,  is  free  from  this  reproach.  Cartier  visited 
the  native  town  and  was  received  as  some  semi-divine  personage. 
The  inhabitants  crowded  round  him,  entreating  that  he  would  touch 
their  sick  and  suffering  and  so  cure  them  of  their  ills.  Religion  was 
no  matter  of  state  obligation  or  superstitious  observance  in  this 
Breton  sailor,  but  the  active  principle  of  his  life.  Moved  with  infinite 
compassion  for  these  poor  people,  he  feD  on  his  knees  and  prayed 
devoutly  for  their  welfare,  before  reading  aloud  to  them  certain 
portions  of  Scripture.  For  the  first  time  the  great  and  mysterious 
words  of  the  opening  chapter  of  St.  John's  Gospel  were  heard  on 
Canadian  soil,  and  Cartier  in  his  simple  way  went  on  to  expound 
the  Passion  of  the  Saviour  to  the  silent  and  attentive  natives.  *  It 
was  a  happy  augury  for  the  fair  city  of  future  years,'  writes  Mr. 
Dawson  in  the  work  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made,  '  that 
the  opening  words  of  St.  John's  Gospel  and  the  recital  of  the  Passion 
of  our  Lord  inaugurated  its  appearance  on  the  field  of  history.  Might 
it  perchance  be  that  some  charm  lingered  on  the  slopes  of  Mount 
Royal  and  spread  up  the  diverging  streams  of  the  great  valley,  for  in 
all  that  land  persecution  has  never  reared  its  hateful  head,  and  there 
are  no  arrears  of  religious  violence  and  bloodshed  in  its  history  to 
be  atoned  for.' 

Cartier,  like  all  tourists  who  have  succeeded  him,  ascended  the 
mountain  at  the  base  of  which  was  situated  the  Hochelaga  of 
the  sixteenth  century  and  Montreal  now  stands.  Montreal,  like 
Quebec,  is  fortunate  in  its  natural  scenery.  The  view  from  the  hill 
to  which  Cartier  gave  its  name  of  *  Royal '  is  superb,  ranging  from 
the  Laurentian  mountains  on  the  north  to  the  Adirondacks  to  the 
south.  A  busy  scene  of  life  and  commerce  now  animates  the  banks 
of  the  stately  river,  but  Cartier  looked  north,  south,  east  and  west 
on  nothing  but  vast,  illimitable  forests,  the  desolate,  impenetrable 
character  of  which  not,  even  the  glorious  colouring  of  a  Canadian 
autumn  could  wholly  dispel.  Sixty  years  were  to  pass  before  Samuel 
de  Champlain  gazed  from  the  same  spot  over  the  great  wastes  of  the 
unknown  exterior — sixty  precious  years  lost  to  France  owing  to  the 
devastating  wars  of  religion  in  which  the  nation  was  now  engulfed. 
Had  Carrier's  journey  of  exploration  been  followed  up  at  the  time 
(as  he  hoped)  by  a  definite  scheme  of  colonisation,  the  French  would 
have  established  themselves  in  Canada  nearly  two  generations  ahead 
of  the  British  in  New  England.  What  that  advantage  might  have 
meant  to  France  in  the  closely  contested  struggle  for  supremacy 
with  Great  Britain  can  only  remain  now  as  a  conjecture  of  incal- 


120  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

culable  importance.  But  the  gods  decreed  otherwise.  The  oppor- 
tunity was  allowed  to  slip.  Carrier's  schemes  were  abandoned,  and 
the  first  permanent  British  settlement  at  Jamestown,  in  1607,  was  to 
coincide  almost  to  a  year  with  Champlain's  first  permanent  settlement 
at  Quebec  in  1608. 

Cartier  returned  immediately  to  his  camp  on  the  St.  Charles 
River,  for  the  season  was  too  far  advanced  to  admit  of  a  lengthy  stay 
at  Hochelaga.  The  rigours  of  a  Canadian  winter  now  set  in,  and  the 
sufferings  of  the  intrepid  band  were  severe.  It  was  with  a  sadly 
diminished  company  that  the  leader  sailed  for  France  early  in  May, 
and  nothing  but  disappointment  awaited  him  on  his  return.  It  is 
impossible  not  to  regret  the  one  blemish  on  Carrier's  record  in  Canada — 
his  abduction  of  Donnacona,  monarch  of  the  wigwams  of  Stadacona, 
and  that  of  the  other  Indians,  who  were  carried  off  to  France  for  the 
benefit  of  the  King's  curiosity  and  to  ^lustrate  the  story.  These 
men  were  kindly  treated  and  their  bodily '^10  less  than  their  spiritual 
needs  well  cared  for.  It  was  Carrier's  full  intention  to  restore  them 
to  their  homes  the  following  summer ;  but  political  strife  in 
France  postponed  his  next  voyage  to  Canada  for  five  years,  and  in  the 
interval  all  the  unfortunate  Indians  perished. 

Cartier's  third  journey  to  the  St.  Lawrence  ended  disastrously. 
Like  many  a  brave  man  before  and  after,  he  was  doomed  to  see  the 
fruits  of  his  labours  dissipated  by  the  caprice  of  a  monarch  and  the 
ignorance  of  a  favourite.  Philip  de  Chabot  had  fallen  into  disgrace, 
and  when,  in  1541,  Francis  turned  his  thoughts  once  more  to  the  coloni- 
sation of  Canada,  it  was  to  place  Cartier  under  the  orders  of  an  ignorant 
and  reactionary  nobleman,  who  was  given  charge  of  the  expedition. 
The  Sieur  de  Roberval  sallied  forth  to  found  a  colony,  his  complete 
incapacity  for  any  such  task  fortified  by  the  grandiloquent  titles 
of  Lord  of  Norambego,  Viceroy  and  Lieutenant-General  in  Canada, 
Hochelaga,  Saguenay,  Newfoundland,  Belle  Isle,  Carpunt,  Labrador, 
the  Great  Bay  and  Baccalaos.  But  colonisation  is  too  stern  a  matter 
to  be  compassed  by  titles,  however  lofty.  Carrier's  commission  was 
revoked,  and  Francis,  in  a  burst  of  generosity,  placed  the  scourings 
of  the  state  gaols  at  Roberval's  disposal ;  '  pitiful  rascals,'  who  put  us 
in  mind  of  Falstaff's  famous  defence  of  his  disreputable  band.  With 
such  a  personnel  the  expedition  was  foredoomed  to  failure.  Carrier, 
who  had  been  sent  on  ahead  to  Canada,  flung  up  his  work  at  an  early 
date  and  returned  full  of  mortification  and  disgust  to  France.  With 
the  departure  of  the  one  capable  man  qualified  to  lead  the  expedition 
Roberval's  luckless  colony  was  soon  overtaken  by  disaster.  He 
reached  Canada  with  a  company  of  200  people,  including  women  and 
children,  no  less  than  gaol  birds,  soldiers,  and  well-born  adventurers. 
Roberval  himself  was  a  type  of  the  French  nobleman  already  referred 
to — harsh,  autocratic,  imperious,  and  withal  devoid  of  the  smallest 
colonising  instinct,  from  whose  maladministration  Canada  in  years 


1908  CHAMPLAIN'S  FORERUNNERS  IN  CANADA    121 

to  come  was  to  suffer  much.  The  expedition  disembarked  at  Cap 
Rouge,  a  point  some  miles  above  Quebec.  Being  badly  provided  with 
the  elementary  requirements  of  colonists  in  a  strange  land,  the  sufferings 
of  the  unhappy  immigrants  were  terrible.  One-third  of  the  com- 
pany perished  from  scurvy,  and  after  a  winter  of  misery  the  emaciated 
survivors  found  their  way  back  to  France  the  following  year,  such 
energy  as  their  wretched  bodies  still  possessed  being  devoted  to  shaking 
the  dust  of  the  New  World  off  their  feet. 

With  this  fiasco  French  colonisation  in  America  collapsed  for 
many  years  to  come.  Where  Cartier  had  failed  Champlain  was  to 
succeed,  and  it  is  a  happier  chapter  of  history  which  reopens  in  1604 
with  his  first  Canadian  colony,  not  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  be  it  noted, 
but  in  Acadia.  Cartier,  it  appears,  lived  for  many  years  at  St.  Malo, 
a  popular,  honoured  citizen,  sharing  heartily  in  the  life  and  simple 
pleasures  of  his  birthplace.  His  portrait  hangs  in  the  town  hall  of  the 
old  Breton  port,  and  though  modern  criticism  has  thrown  doubts 
on  its  authenticity,  visitors  to  St.  Malo  probably  prefer  to  think  that 
the  canvas  with  the  keen,  watchful  face  and  steady  eyes  preserves 
the  lineaments  of  the  famous  navigator  to  posterity.  Canada  was 
fortunate  in  the  character  of  her  early  explorers,  of  whom  the  brave 
and  simple  Cartier  is  a  fine  example,  and  the  celebrations  at  Quebec 
this  summer  have  a  special  value  in  bringing  before  modern  Canadians 
a  fuller  realisation  of  their  own  possessions  in  this  respect.  We  of 
the  Mother  Land  recognise  with  gratitude  our  obligations  to  Saxon 
and  Norman  and  Dane  in  the  making  of  the  race  ;  and  Canada,  too, 
can  point  with  pride  to  a  national  life  all  the  richer  because  drawn 
from  the  sources  of  more  than  one  great  nation.  The  band  of  gallant 
adventurers,  well  termed  by  Parkman  the  forest  chivalry  of  New 
France,  have  enriched  the  Dominion  by  traditions  valuable  in  the  life 
and  development  of  a  young  country.  A  national  heritage  to  safe- 
guard becomes  a  shrine  whence  men  may  seek  inspiration  when  hard 
pressed  by  the  idols  of  the  market-place.  But  Canada  as  she  praises 
famous  men  will  not  forget  the  services  of  John  Cabot,  who  first  drew 
the  veil  from  her  unknown  shores,  and  not  even  the  greater  lustre  of 
Champlain  should  wholly  dim  the  fame  of  Jacques  Cartier,  first 
pioneer  of  France  in  the  New  World  and  discoverer  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 

VIOLET  R.  MARKHAM. 


122  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 


L   ITALIA   FA   DA    SE 


SIXTEEN  years  ago  there  appeared  in  the  pages  of  this  Review  an 
article  entitled  '  L'  Italia  non  fara  da  se.'  A  member  of  the  Italian 
House  of  Lords  put  forward,  in  a  valuable  pamphlet,  reasons  for 
disagreeing  with  this  conclusion,  and  forwarded  his  pamphlet  to  every 
member  of  the  Upper  House.  He  was  not  very  sanguine,  and  indeed 
at  that  date  there  was  no  possibility  of  being  sanguine  ;  and  he  finished 
somewhat  in  the  conditional  mood.  His  conclusion  was,  in  fact, 
that  if  only  a  kind  Providence  would  send  Italy  a  good  financier, 
*  grideremmo  in  barba  al  signer  inglese,  "  L*  Italia  fa  da  se." 

An  act  of  penance  may  sometimes  be  agreeable ;  it  is  so  in 
this  case.  It  is  with  the  greatest  pleasure  that  I  give  the  Senator 
and  all  his  brother  peers  who  may  think  me  worthy  of  their  attention 
the  fullest  permission  to  '  gridermi  in  barba  "  L'  Italia  fa  da  se." : 
Not  that  there  was  a  word  to  withdraw  in  the  article  ;  but  there  was 
much  to  add  if  any  one  had  known  it.  Nor  was  the  Senator  right  in 
praying  for  a  heaven-born  financier.  Italy  needed  no  miracles,  as  we 
shall  see  ;  but  it  would  not  be  possible  to  arrive  at  the  present  conclu- 
sion without  a  good  many  years  of  study,  observation,'and  reflection. 
Those  conditions  being  fulfilled  it  remains  to  state  the  conclusion, 
and,  at  the  risk  of  being  wearisome,  to  give  reasons  for  that  conclusion. 

Bankrupt  municipalities,  ruinous  finances,  an  emigrant  population, 
languishing  trade,  absurd  adventures  abroad,  a  disordered  currency, 
an  unsound  legal  system,  railways  idiotically  mismanaged,  an  enormous 
army,  grinding  taxes,  a  wholly  unnecessary  quarrel  abroad,  and  a 
wholly  unprofitable  alliance  to  balance  it — these  things,  combined 
with  a  notable  lack  of  discernible  capacity  in  public  life,  spell  ruin. 
At  least  they  would  have  spelt  ruin  in  any  other  country  but  Italy 
at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century.  In  that  country  and  period 
all  these  symptoms,  which  appeared  to  be  so  grave  in  1892,  were 
hardly  more  than  the  process  of  desquamation  after  the  fever  of 
1848-70. 

We  may  profitably  begin  with  matters  of  detail ;  and,  through 
them,  approach  more  serious  reflections.  One  well-kept  horse  does 
not  imply  much,  but  a  thousand  well-kept  horses  imply  a  good  deal. 
If  one  never  sees  an  ill-kept  horse,  or  one  with  a  sore,  or  over- worked, 


1908  L'   ITALIA   FA   DA   SE  123 

the  conclusion  is  not  only  that  there  is  a  great  improvement  in  the 
horses,  but  also  that  there  is  a  great  improvement  in  the  drivers 
and  owners.  The  chubby,  active  little  animals  squealing  with  beans 
and  fun  are  a  pleasure  to  look  at.  Their  gay  harness  tells  of  the 
driver's  love  for  his  beast ;  their  willing  paces  testify,  perhaps,  to 
the  activity  of  the  S.P.C.A.  But  whatever  the  cause,  there  is  the 
result ;  the  very  donkeys  look  as  if  they  were  enjoying  their  day's 
work.  All  this  is  nothing  less  than  a  transformation  scene.  The 
traditional  beast  of  burden,  ghastly  with  sores,  and  worked  to  a 
skeleton  by  his  light-hearted  tyrant,  is  as  much  of  the  past  as  the 
brigand  of  tradition. 

Railways  impress  the  traveller  most ;  and  here,  again,  we  have 
another  transformation  scene.  How  well  one  remembers  a  feed  of 
fried  octopus  and  red  ink  at  Castellamare  Adriatico  twenty  years  ago — 

...  a  base  repast ; 
It  makes  me  angry  yet  to  think  of  it. 

Not  that  red  ink  and  fried  octopus  is  more  loathsome  in  reality  than 
many  a  feed  wherewith  the  traveller  is  punished  and  plundered  in 
rural  England ;  but  this  was  thought  good  enough  for  an  important 
train,  officially  styled  an  express,  and  fitted  with  steam  heat  which 
would  not  work,  broken  windows,  and  hot  and  cold  water  supply, 
all  the  taps  of  which  were  broken,  for  which  fraud  one  paid  heavily, 
and  was  conveyed  at  the  rate  of  about  fourteen  miles  an  hour. 

All  this  is  swept  away.  Modern  Italy  does  not  waste  much  on 
rolling  stock,  *»ut  what  there  is  is  sound  and  fairly  comfortable. 

There  are  no  sensational  runs,  but  one  reaches  Naples  from  Rome 
in  a  little  over  four  hours  (about  150  miles),  and  is  admirably  served 
on  the  way.  Not  even  the  Canadian  Pacific,  that  model  for  all  rail- 
ways, is  more  attentive  and  efficient.  One  hears  a  great  deal  about 
pilfering  on  Italian  railways.  For  the  sake  of  the  experiment  I  sent 
my  kitbag  unlocked  from  Naples  to  Rome.  It  arrived  untouched. 
One  strong  administrative  order  has  sufficed  to  stop  this  abuse.  Why 
not  have  issued  the  order  earlier  ?  is  a  natural  inquiry,  the  answer 
to  which  is  a  matter  of  Italian  history. 

If  the  great  lines  were  badly  served  in  days  gone  by,  the  profits 
derivable  from  local  traffic  were  almost  completely  neglected.  To-day 
by  the  simple  expedient  of  lowering  the  fares  the  traffic  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  great  towns  is  hugely  multiplied,  to  the  vast  profit  of 
the  line  and  the  pleasure  of  the  public ;  and  this  is  but  the  A  B  C  of 
administration.  But  then  there  was  a  time  not  so  long  ago  when  it 
seemed  as  if  the  Italian  declined  to  learn  the  A  B  C  of  administration. 

Wherever  we  turn  we  see  the  same  tendency.  Everywhere  is 
change,  sometimes  change  of  lightning  rapidity,  sometimes  change 
so  deliberate  that  we  wonder  if  the  abuse  is  really  observed.  That  is, 
we  should  wonder  if  we  had  not  already  learnt  the  mistake  of  sup- 


124  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

posing  that  Italians  were  indifferent  because  they  were  slow  in  taking 
action.  Nowhere  is  stagnation,  everywhere  more  happiness — an  air 
of  composure,  as  of  contented  people  in  settled  conditions,  as  indeed 
the  Italians  are.  The  very  beggars  at  the  door  of  S.  Lucia  have  the 
air  of  pursuing  their  calling  as  amateurs.  The  once  verminous  *  Villa  ' 
is  charming  and  gay  ;  the  reasons  for  having  only  marble  seats  exist  no 
longer. 

'  Resolute  profundity '  is  the  temper  in  which  the  Royal  House 
entered  on  its  gigantic  and  heroic  task  of  making  Italy ;  the  same 
spirit  prompted  the  purchase  of  the  field  of  Cannae.  We  shall 
understand  nothing  thoroughly  in  modern  Italy  unless  we  keep  in 
mind  the  leadership  of  the  House  of  Savoy,  unless  we  remember  that 
other,  and  more  significant  '  Risorgimento,'  the  resurrection  of  the 
monarchical  idea.  Some  history,  if  tedious,  is  indispensable. 

Of  course  the  institution  is  eternal,  and  will  outlast  all  temporary 
expedients,  but  it  will  be  subject  to  occasional  occultation,  and  in 
our  time  1848  was  its  abject  nadir.  1848  was  also  the  darkest  hour 
of  Italy.  The  resurrection  of  Italy  and  the  Monarchy  (the  two 
are  inseparable)  began  with  the  sublime  abdication  of  Charles  Albert. 
It  is  an  uplifting  memory.  This  is  an  age  devoted  to  mediocrity 
and  proud  of  having  no  standard  of  behaviour  but  a  commercial 
standard.  Naturally  the  vulgar  denounced  the  King  for  '  running 
away,'  it  being  incomprehensible  to  them  in  their  ignorance  that  any 
man  should  give  up  anything.  It  is  cheering  to  remember  that  it  did 
not  matter  what  the  vulgar  and  ignorant  said.  The  act  was  itself 
noble ;  and  being  done  in  the  grand  manner  that  the  House  of  Savoy 
commands  it  struck  the  heroic  note — the  note  that  dominated  Italian 
public  life  for  twenty-two  years.  The  Romans  do  well  to  inscribe 
on  his  statue — 

II  popolo  Italiano  riconoecente. 

If  the  broken-hearted  King  had  prophesied  to  his  son  on  the 
night  of  Novara  the  course  of  the  next  twenty-two  years,  it  must 
certainly  have  been  said  of  him  that  misfortune  had  driven  him  mad. 
Thrown  into  the  form  of  an  ancient  vaticination,  history  would  have 
been  thus  foretold :  '  Thou  shalt  drive  forth  the  Hapsburg,  the 
Bourbon,  and  the  Bonaparte ;  kings  shall  flee  from  before  thy  face, 
and  thou  and  thy  son  and  thy  son's  son  shall  dwell  in  the  city  of  Rome 
for  ever  and  ever.' 

With  Radetzky  (aged  89)  and  Ward,  the  Cavour  of  Absolutism 
(aged  thirty-nine),  in  the  full  tide  of  success  such  an  outpouring 
would  have  sounded  like  sheer  insanity,  whereas  in  fact  it  was  but  the 
barest  outline  of  the  triumph  of  the  monarchy.  The  work  of  Victor 
Emmanuel  and  his  successors  has  two  epochs.  The  first  is  the  epoch 
of  heroic  endeavour,  for  which  heroes  were  needed  and  were  forth- 
coming. The  second  epoch  is  the  period  of  business ;  for  which,  at 


1908  L'  ITALIA    FA   DA   SE  126 

first,  business  men  were  not  forthcoming.  The  first  epoch  closed  in 
1870 ;  the  second,  and  far  greater,  task  had  to  be  faced.  This  task  was 
nothing  less  than  to  make  the  nation  ;  to  undertake  huge  administrative 
labours  without  administrators,  and  to  carry  out  great  public  works 
by  the  agency  of  men  wholly  strange  to  sound  traditions  of  public 
life.  This  explains  why  the  article  '  L'  Italia  non  fara  da  se  '  was  a 
false  prophecy.  The  statistics  were  correct ;  and  they  lied  as  only 
statistics  can  lie ;  they  even  corresponded  at  the  moment  with  the 
facts  of  life ;  but  the  facts  were  the  facts  of  a  transitory  stage  of  the 
nation's  life  and  not  the  symptoms  of  its  permanent  condition. 

Leaving  these  considerations  for  the  moment  let  us  very  briefly 
consider  the  heroic  period ;  we  shall  then  be  able  to  understand  the 
well-nigh  overwhelming  difficulties  which  beset  the  Monarchy  after 
1870.  Radetzky  could  not  live  for  ever ;  Ward  was  summarily  dis- 
missed by  the  Duchess  Regent,  and  died  four  years  later  :  the  rise  and 
collapse  of  the  farcical  Roman  Republic  was  a  set-off  to  these  advan- 
tages. The  year  succeeding  Ward's  death  saw  the  alliance  with 
Imperial  France  ;  and  the  campaign  of  Solferino  was  followed,  as  we  all 
remember,  by  the  downfall  of  the  Duchies  and  the  disappearance  of 
the  kingdom  of  the  Two  Sicilies.  In  another  six  years  came  the 
acquisition  of  Venice,  and  in  yet  another  four  the  entry  of  the 
Italian  troops  into  Rome.  These  epochs  of  intense  and  dramatic 
life  lasted  a  very  short  time.  A  young  officer  who  smelt  powder  for 
the  first  time  on  the  field  of  Novara  would  hardly  have  been  in  com- 
mand of  a  regiment  by  September  1870. 

These  years  are  the  record  of  a  number  of  lugubrious  prophecies, 
and  of  their  falsification.  Thus  it  was  said  that  the  House  of  Savoy 
*  would  never '  recover  from  Novara,  or  supplant  the  Austrians,  or 
absorb  Central  Italy.  Even  Cavour  was  concerned  at  the  rapidity 
with  which  his  master's  responsibilities  increased  when  Naples  and 
Sicily  were  added  to  the  Italian  kingdom.  Savoy  rose  easily  to  this 
as  to  every  other  responsibility.  In  no  single  case  were  the  prophets 
of  evil  so  vociferous  as  in  the  case  of  Rome.  They  shouted  defiance. 
'  Never  '  would  the  House  of  Savoy  '  dare  '  to  go  to  Rome.  *  Never  ' 
could  they  hope  to  occupy  the  '  Eternal  City,'  still  less  to  make  it 
their  own.  The  House  of  Savoy  dares  everything.  To  Rome  the 
Bang  went,  strong  in  his  courage ;  and  not  even  the  traditional  and 
personal  piety  of  the  Royal  House  was  allowed  to  interfere  with  the 
fulfilment  of  an  historical  necessity :  even  the  Vatican  thundered  in 
vain. 

Events  of  this  immeasurable  importance  have  one  result — they 
produce  heroes ;  they  also  produce  a  number  of  people  who  are  not 
at  all  heroic  but  who  may  catch  the  heroic  pose  for  a  time.  After 
1870  what  Italy  needed  was  a  large  supply  of  business  men  and 
administrators.  Heroes  had  been  needed  to  make  noble  speeches 
and  conquer  kingdoms,  but  when  all  the  kingdoms  were  conquered, 


126  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

and  the  fewer  speeches  that  might  be  made  the  better,  it  became 
apparent  that  Italy's  hard  times  were  before  her. 

To  begin  with,  '  Italy,'  though  no  longer  a  bare  *  geographical 
expression,'  needed  making.  The  Piedmontese  had  to  learn  that  he  was 
only  a  favoured  subject,  not  the  conqueror  of  a  subject  people.  The 
Neapolitan  had  to  learn  that  he  was  an  Italian  first  and  a  Neapolitan 
afterwards.  The  most  potent  instrument  to  this  end  was  the  army. 
A  civilian  does  well  to  keep  silence  about  military  matters  ;  but  even  a 
civilian  may  claim  to  appreciate  the  educational  influence  of  a  standing 
army  on  a  civilian  population;  and  the  more  of  us  who  publicly 
repudiate  the  pernicious — nay,  poisonous — nonsense  talked  about 
*  militarism  '  and  a  '  blood-tax  '  the  better.  The  great  standing  army 
of  Italy,  then,  has  been  the  most  potent  of  all  beneficent  instruments 
in  the  making  of  the  Italian  people.  That  it  was  '  too  large '  is  the 
opinion  of  many  soldiers  who  had  opportunities  of  observing  it  at 
close  quarters ;  and  that  opinion  one  naturally  accepts  from  the 
military  point  of  view,  with  the  reservation  that  in  point  of  fact  Italy 
did  not  think  it  too  large.  As  an  instrument  of  education  it  has  been, 
and  is,  admirable,  and  can  hardly  have  been  too  large. 

The  navy  has  also  been  criticised  adversely ;  but  as  the  details  of 
maritime  warfare  are  even  more  intricate  than  those  of  an  army  one 
does  not  pretend  to  follow  them.  At  least,  however,  one  can  take 
the  statesman's  point  of  view,  although  it  is  not  '  obvious  '  and  in 
fact  requires  a  good  deal  of  study  and  patience.  From  the  statesman's 
point  of  view,  then,  it  is  clear  that,  after  1870,  every  form  of  activity 
needed  to  be  cherished.  Much  of  the  Italian  population  consists 
of  seafaring  folk,  who  learn  more  easily  at  sea  than  anywhere  else 
that  they  are  Italian  subjects,  with  duties  to  Italy.  Besides  the 
immediate  advantage  of  preserving  and  cherishing  'their  activity 
there  was  (and  is  still  more  to-day)  the  probability  that  with  increasing 
population  and  wealth  Italy  might  become  a  first-rate  naval  Power. 
With  this  point  in  view  Italian  seamanship  could  not  be  allowed  to 
atrophy  in  the  interest  of  temporary  economy.  In  almost  all  matters 
of  civil  administration — posts,  railways,  justice,  the  civil  service — 
it  was  inevitable  that,  from  the  first,  the  task  of  the  monarchy  should 
be  terribly  uphill. 

We  have  in  our  time  come  to  lavish  admiration  on  mediocrity ; 
we  use  the  most  extravagant  language  about  very  small  perform- 
ances. In  fact  we  have  almost  lost  the  sense  of  proportion,  or 
retain  only  enough  of  that  sense  to  recognise  and  decry  grandeur. 

Consequently  when  one  talks  about  the  field  of  Cannae  and  '  reso- 
lute profundity '  one  mistrusts  one's  own  language  instinctively. 
Only  after  contemplating  the  work  attentively  are  we  reassured. 
Here  we  have  a  people  nominally  one,  really  a  loosely  knit  half-dozen 
States  with  thirty  millions  of  inhabitants.  Of  these  thirty  millions 
perhaps  one-fifth  have  had  a  short  experience  of  constitutional  govern- 


1908  L'    ITALIA    FA   DA   SE  127 

ment :  the  rest  have  been  accustomed  for  many  centuries  to  despotic 
government  by  aliens.  In  England  we  have  experienced  periodical 
anxiety  at  the  risks  which  we  were  running  in  1832,  1867,  and  1885. 
What  were  those  risks  to  the  experiment  of  Constitutional  Italy  ? 
Absolutely  nothing.  In  Italy  everything  had  to  be  created ;  the 
machinery  was  the  easiest  to  forge ;  but  what  was  the  machinery 
without  the  men  and  the  spirit  ?  *  Kesolute  profundity '  seems  a 
pedantic  and  inadequate  expression  in  the  face  of  the  solution  of 
this  problem.  We  have  distinguished  between  the  heroic  period 
and  the  period  after  1870,  but  in  fact,  for  the  Monarchy,  it  was  all 
heroic.  '  Superhuman  resolution  and  foresight '  alone  seem  fitting 
terms  for  the  sagacity  of  the  House  of  Savoy  in  facing  what  for  many 
years  must  have  looked  like  defeat,  and  in  winning  through  innumer- 
able defeats  to  victory.  One  wonders  that  the  country  moved  at  all ; 
without  the  Monarchy  to  guide  and  steady  it,  it  certainly  would  not 
have  moved.  The  marvel  was  not  that  things  should  occasionally 
have  gone  wrong,  but  that  they  should  ever  have  gone  right. 

Inflexible  cturage,  the  example  of  devotion  to  duty  in  the  highest 
places,  mutual  confidence  between  King  and  people,  a  patience, 
truly  Italian,  which  said  in  effect  at  every  blunder, '  The  next  generation 
will  do  better  ' — these  are  the  noble  qualities  which  justify  and  inspire 
the  phrase  so  often  blasphemed,  so  often  made  ridiculous  by  the 
incompetent,  '  L'  Italia  fara  da  se.' 

We  note  one  distressing  circumstance  after  1870 — that  Italy,  who 
owed  so  much  to  France,  has  become  estranged,  and  soon  afterwards 
enters  into  intimate  alliance  with  the  direst  foes  of  France. 

Between  1866  and  1870  there  was  an  incident.  It  was  only  a 
telegram  of  six  words,  but  while  it  was  potent  enough  to  strengthen 
the  growing  sense  of  Italian  nationality  it  did  so,  alas  !  at  the  expense 
of  making  every  patriotic  Italian  feel  that  he  had  a  personal  quarrel 
with  France.  The  telegram  ran, '  Les  chassepots  ont  fait  des  merveilles. ' 
The  Englishman  and  the  Italian  have  much  in  common ;  they  under- 
stand each  other  instinctively.  They  are  supposed  to  differ,  in  that 
the  Englishman  is  credited  with  a  short  memory.  In  fact  he  has  as 
good  a  memory  as  anybody  else ;  but  he  does  not  think  it  dignified  or 
profitable  to  cherish  an  ancient  grudge  when  an  immediate  advantage 
can  be  secured  by  forgetting  it.  The  Italian  is  the  same  :  forty 
years  are  long  enough  to  have  remembered  an  affront :  the  telegram 
is  now  pigeonholed  and  the  relations  of  France  and  Italy  are  excellent. 
It  is  impossible  to  imagine  Italy  marching  300,000  men  into  France 
under  inspiration  from  abroad. 

On  the  north-eastern  frontier  Italy  is  in  alliance  with  her  neigh- 
bour. What  will  become  of  that  alliance  is  a  subject  for  much  facile 
speculation,  but  it  seems  unlikely  to  develope  into  hostility. 

Practically  secure  from  complications  abroad,  Italy  has  ample 
leisure  in  which  to  work  out  her  destiny  at  home.  The  theory  of 


128  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

Italian  public  life  is,  and  has  been,  that  it  is  better  for  an  Italian  to 
do  a  given  piece  of  work  and  to  do  it  as  badly  as  possible  than  for  a 
foreigner  to  do  it  and  to  do  it  as  well  as  possible.  This  is  not  pig- 
headedness  or  conceit,  but  profound  wisdom.  Blunders  teach.  The 
proof  of  the  pudding  is  in  the  eating.  To  appreciate  the  wisdom  of 
this  policy  we  have  but  to  visit  Rome.  Enthusiasm  about  Rome 
is  natural  to  Englishmen.  It  is,  as  a  rule,  either  ecclesiastical  or 
antiquarian  by  origin.  It  has  been  my  good  fortune  to  listen  to 
many  visitors  to  Rome  just  returned  from  their  travels.  They  all 
reason  in  the  same  way,  men  or  women.  Either  they  say,  *  Henry  the 
Eighth  had  six  wives ;  therefore  Anglican  orders  are  invalid ;  therefore 
Rome  ought  to  be  restored  to  the  Papacy,'  or  else,  if  absorbed  in 
the  study  of  antiquity,  they  denounce  '  modern  Rome '  as  *  shoddy,' 
'  overbuilt,'  and  *  uninteresting,'  averring  that  Italians  have  *  no 
sense  of  art '  and  are  afflicted  with  *  megalomania.' 

Mediocrity  contemplating  magnificence.  So  imposing  is  modern 
Rome  that  it  is  hard  to  begin  the  task  of  doing  justice  to  the  Royal 
City.  It  is  not  large,  as  we  estimate  size,  but  it  is  none  the  worse  for 
that.  Some  flesh  is  good  on  a  man's  bones,  but  we  do  not  adore 
Silenus.  Rome  is  the  more  stately  for  not  being  bloated.  It  does 
not  really  matter  where  we  begin,  so  let  us  take  a  map  of  Rome  to  the 
Pincian  and  study  it  there. 

Straight  through  the  Trastevere  there  has  been  driven  a  boulevard 
traversing  four  squares,  viz.  Piazza  della  Liberta,  Piazza  Cola  di 
Rienzo,  Piazza  dell'  Unita,  and  finally  at  the  very  gates  of  the  Vatican 
Piazza  del  Risorgimento.  It  would  be  impossible  to  proclaim  more 
loudly  the  fact  that  Rome  is  irrevocably  Royal  Rome,  even  if  the  fact 
were  daily  proclaimed 

.  .  .  with  great  pomp,  and  blare 
Of  bannered  trumpets  in  St.  Peter's  Square. 

From  the  way  in  which  many  English  people  talk  it  would  be 
supposed  that  the  House  of  Savoy  was  in  Rome  more  or  less  on  suffer- 
ance. This  does  not  look  like  it.  As  for  '  no  sense  of  Art '  we  English 
live  in  so  frail  a  structure  ourselves  that  we  should  do  well  to  avoid 
throwing  stones.  Modern  Rome  breathes  art.  We  mark  the  Ponte 
Garibaldi.  By-and-by  we  shall  descend  from  the  Pincian  and  look  at 
the  two  pillars  standing  by  the  bridge.  They  bear  these  simple  words, 
which  (for  those  who  can  understand  them)  convey  an  epic  of  emotion : 

i  S.P.Q.R. 

i  ,   -  MENTANA  1867 

DIGIONE  1870. 

To  explain,  to  amplify,  to  comment  is  to  reduce  oneself  to  banality  ; 
let  no  one  say  that  he  understands  Rome  or  Italy  who  can  contem- 


1908  V  ITALIA   FA   DA    SE  129 

plate  unmoved  this  poem  in  marble.  And  the  people  who  erected 
this  monument  have  no  sense  of  Art ! 

In  this  pellmell  of  joyous  impressions  it  matters  little  what  we  take 
next.  Let  us  take  the  trams.  We  may  not  all  be  well  read  in  Italian 
history,  or  possess  a  sense  of  art,  but  anybody  can  understand  a  tram. 
The  Roman  tramways  are  the  best  in  the  world.  In  other  cities 
there  may  be  more  spent  on  upholstery,  and  the  trams  may  run  faster, 
but  no  city  can  be  better  served.  And  yet,  they  say,  Italians  are  not 
practical.  They  are  at  least  practical  enough  to  have  turned  the 
Rome  of  Monte  Cristo  into  a  glorious  city,  well  paved,  well  drained, 
well  policed,  convenient,  and  stately. 

We  return  to  the  Trastevere  to  look  at  the  new  Courts  of  Justice 
facing  the  Tiber  by  the  Castle  of  S.  Angelo.  These  are  very  magnificent. 
We  recall  in  silent  misery  our  own  Courts  of  Justice,  where  everything 
is  wrong,  from  the  sit  3  to  the  internal  lighting,  including  such  details 
as  style  and  construction.  The  sites  on  the  Tiber  are  nothing  like  so 
fine  as  the  sites  on  the  Thames,  but  the  Italians  make  the  best  of  theirs 
and  we  make  the  worst  of  ours.  There  can  hardly  be  a  building  in 
Europe  so  harmonious  as  this.  The  mass,  the  balance,  the  outline, 
the  decoration  are  all  as  noble  as  possible,  and  the  whole  is  imposing 
to  the  last  degree. 

Probably  the  memorial  to  King  Victor  Emmanuel  will  be  still 
more  imposing  when  it  is  finished.  Its  position  in  front  of  the  Campi- 
doglio  gives  a  vista  the  whole  length  of  the  Corso  Umberto  Primo 
from  the  Piazza  del  Popolo. 

It  is  no  part  of  the  scope  of  these  few  pages  to  write  guide-book 
jottings  on  Rome,  but  only  to  point  out  that  Royal  Rome  lives  and 
moves  in  its  magnificent  life,  the  only  surviving  Rome.  Moreover, 
we  have  to  remember  that  only  forty  years  separate  us  from  the 
Rome  of  Lothair.  In  so  short  a  time  have  so  great  things  been 
done.  One  often  hears,  among  other  disparaging  remarks,  the  state- 
ment that  modern  Italians  are  '  Vandals ' — in  evidence  of  which  we 
hear  that  they  are  pulling  down  so  much  of  ancient  Rome. 

It  depends  to  some  extent  on  what  we  agree  to  call  ancient ;  but, 
in  effect,  dirt  is  not  always  picturesque  ;  all  things  old  are  not  good  ; 
modern  Italians  cherish  whatever  is  genuinely  classic.  When  streets 
have  to  be  condemned  for  any  reason  they  are  dealt  with  promptly. 
Thus  in  Naples  the  streets  where  the  cholera  broke  out  twenty-four 
years  ago  have  been  swept  away  ;  a  broad  boulevard  has  been  driven 
through  the  space.  We  may  be  fairly  sure  that  wherever  we  see  a 
change  the  change  was  necessary ;  moreover,  the  talent  shown  in  taking 
advantage  of  natural  sites,  and  in  making  the  most  of  space  and  vista, 
is  quite  remarkable.  We  must  perforce  dwell  long  on  Rome,  because 
Rome  is  a  summary  of  modern  Italy ;  and  of  the  three  Romes — 
Royal  Rome,  Ecclesiastical  Rome,  and  Pagan  Rome — Royal  Rome  is 
the  greatest ;  in  fact,  it  is  Rome,  having  easily  absorbed  the  other  two, 

VOL.  LX1V— No.  377  •     K 


130  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

With  respect  to  the  question  of  the  Church  it  is  extraordinary 
to  observe  that  in  England  the  intellectual  (and  sometimes  the  lineal) 
heirs  of  the  people  who  shouted  for  Garibaldi  fifty  years  ago  are 
shouting  to-day  for  the  restoration  of  Rome  to  the  Holy  See. 

The  difference  between  the  Italian  and  the  English  points  of  view 
on  this  question  is  worth  noting.  For  the  Italian,  whatever  attention 
is  paid  or  refused  to  the  Pope  outside  Italy,  within  the  country  he  is 
undoubtedly  the  head  of  the  Italian  Church.  Thus  all  the  questions 
of  '  alien  interference  '  and  their  kindred  which  have  agitated  English 
minds  for  centuries  are,  for  the  Italian,  occasions  of  mild  boredom  ; 
hard  to  understand  and  tedious  in  so  far  as  they  are  intelligible. 
Moreover,  to  the  Italian,  whatever  else  the  Papacy  may  be,  it  is, 
essentially,  an  Italian  institution. 

It  is  quite  a  common  thing,  for  example,  to  hear  men  grumble 
at  the  '  over-representation '  of  Italy,  as  they  call  it,  in  the  Sacred 
College.  It  seems  to  them  quite  reasonable  to  demand  that  the 
governing  body  of  the  Universal  Church  should  be  .  composed  of 
'  Nations,'  represented  in  more  or  less  exact  proportion  to  their  popu- 
lation and  their  contribution  to  the  resources  of  the  Vatican.  To 
the  Italian  such  a  proposal  appears  not  only  ridiculous  but  rather 
*,  more  than  impertinent.  This  ought  not  to  be  hard  for  an  English- 
man to  understand.  Let  us  suppose,  for  example,  that  England 
had  been  the  seat  of  orthodoxy,  and  that  Italy  had  '  protested '  in 
days  gone  by.  Let  us  suppose  that  for  centuries  England  had  supplied 
Popes,  and  had  retained  an  absolute  working  majority  of  the  Sacred 
College  for  Englishmen.  What  should  we  say  to  the  pretensions  of 
those  Italians  who  had  '  found  salvation '  to  anything  like  '  propor- 
tionate representation '  ?  Incontestably  in  so  far  as  we  took  such 
pretensions  seriously  we  should  call  them  impertinent)  and  perhaps 
worse  than  impertinent. 

Such  is,  precisely,  the  feeling  of  the  Italian  towards  the  English- 
man who  talks  about  the  restoration  of  the  Papal  authority  over 
Rome.  With  respect  to  this  general  question  of  the  discussion  of 
public  affairs  the  Italian  and  the  Englishman  are  very  much  alike. 
Both  nations  have  their  reservations ;  English  people  grow  restive 
when  their  monarchy  is  criticised  ;  Italians  are  growing  sensitive  in 
the  same  direction  as  they  come  to  realise  the  debt  which  they  owe 
to  their  own  monarchy  ;  and  in  the  meantime  they  are  (most  naturally) 
touchy  about  Rome. 

Ecclesiastical  Rome  is,  then,  intensely  Italian,  and  therefore  a 
subject  of  pride  and  rejoicing  for  all  good  Italians.  In  so  far  as  it 
claims  to  be  something  else  than  ecclesiastical  it  is  no  longer  possible, 
as  we  see  by  the  majestic  assertiveness  of  Royal  Rome.  Spiritually, 
Ecclesiastical  Rome  is  at  a  standstill,  if  a  visitor  is  qualified  to  express 
an  opinion.  Hardly  can  «,  comparison  of  St.  Peter's  with  St.  Paul's 
be  avoided.  St.  Peter's  is  larger,  but  St.  Paul's  is  more  harmonious, 


1908  L'   ITALIA   FA   DA    SE  181 

as  the  natural  result  of  being  the  work  of  one  architect.  Owing  to 
the  radiant  atmosphere  of  Rome  St.  Peter's  is  cleaner  ;  it  might  have 
been  built  yesterday.  St.  Paul's  is  dirty,  and  it  has  even  been 
suggested  that  the  chief  of  the  Fire  Brigade  might  occupy  the 
spare  time  of  his  men  (if  they  have  any  spare  time)  in  cleaning 
St.  Paul's — i.e.  in  removing  its  rich  patina — a  barbarous  thought. 
The  lavish  employment  of  gold  and  the  faithful  observance  of  classical 
traditions  of  decoration  enhance  the  grandeur  of  St.  Peter's.  Many 
of  us  admire,  and  many  deprecate,  the  mosaics  of  St.  Paul's.  Which- 
ever view  may  be  just,  it  can  hardly  be  maintained  that  the  mosaics 
increase  the  sense  of  size.  As  to  the  music,  musicians  appear  to  be 
agreed  that  the  service  in  St.  Paul's  is  the  noblest  in  the  world.  St. 
Paul's  is  vastly  more  interesting,  not  only  on  account  of  the  interest 
of  individual  monuments,  but  because  those  monuments  proclaim 
the  church  to  be  the  church  of  the  land  ;  the  arid  ecclesiasticism  of 
St.  Peter's  shrivels  the  soul.  St.  Paul's,  '  in  streaming  London's 
central  roar,'  really  dominates  the  city,  in  spite  of  every  thwarting  of 
Wren's  designs  ;  it  seems  to  consecrate  the  strenuous  toil  of  the  great 
capital.  St.  Peter's  dominates  nothing ;  hardly  even  the  Trastevere, 
certainly  not  Rome.  If  any  monument  is  to  dominate  Rome  it  will 
be  the  monument  to  King  Victor  Emmanuel. 

Pagan  Rome  is  the  Rome  to  which  the  world  renders  lip  service 
daily  with  a  loud  voice.  Whether  the  homage  thus  offered  is  more 
than  lip  service  prompted  by  the  claims  of  '  vested  interests '  is  a 
fair  question.  Let  us,  however,  assume  it  to  be  genuine.  Let  us 
assume  that  the  devotees  of  classical  learning  would  really  like  to 
do  something  to  prove  their  gratitude  to  Rome.  There  are  (if  one 
is  rightly  informed)  400  universities  in  the  United  States  alone.  They 
might  not  all  subscribe,  but  perhaps  it  is  not  extravagant  to  assume 
that  we  might  count  upon  500  faculties  throughout  the  world  con- 
tributing 101.  apiece  annually  to  a  fund  for  the  rebuilding  of  the  Forum. 

Rome  could  do  something  with  half  a  million  sterling,  which 
would  take  a  century  to  collect  at  this  rate.  But  long  before  the 
century  was  reached,  or  even  the  half-century,  or  probably  twenty- 
five  years,  we  should  have  large  donations  falling  in,  so  that  the 
difficulty  would  be  not  so  much  to  raise  the  money  as  to  content  the 
ardour  of  donors  and  subscribers  who  would  want  to  see  the  com- 
pleted work  as  soon  as  possible. 

Architecture  and  archaeology  have  been  so  attentively  studied 
that  quite  a  large  number  of  people  must  know  exactly  what  the 
Forum  was  like  in  the  days  of  its  grandeur.  There  are,  however, 
two  conditions  to  be  maintained ;  the  first  is  that  the  work  should  be 
under  the  immediate  sanction,  patronage,  and  control  of  the  King ; 
and  the  second  is  that  there  should  be  no  nonsense  about  '  inter- 
national commissions.'  That  being  done,  many  of  us  might  live  to 
see  realised  the  atmosphere  of  De  Quincey's  dream  :  '  at  a  clapping 

K    2 


132  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBY  July 

of  hands  would  be  heard  the  heart-shaking  sound  of  Consul  Romanus  ; 
and  immediately  came  "  sweeping  by "  in  gorgeous  paludaments, 
Paullus  or  Marius,  girt  around  by  a  company  of  centurions,  with  the 
crimson  tunic  hoisted  on  a  spear,  and  followed  by  the  alalagmos  of 
the  Roman  legions.' 

One  might  even  venture  to  suggest  a  dedicatory  inscription  : 

A  ROMA 

IL   MONDO   RICONOSCENTE. 
1950. 

There  could  be  nothing  derogatory  to  the  pride  of  Romans  in  this 
willing  tribute,  and  the  completed  work  would  appeal  to  their  poetic 
and  historic  sense.  The  Forum  would  be  the  most  impressive  build- 
ing in  the  world ;  a  noble  demonstration  of  the  oneness  of  history, 
and  of  incalculable  value  and  delight  to  the  erudite  and  the  student. 
In  their  present  condition  the  ruins  are  a  truly  deplorable  sight,  the 
most  distressing  spectacle  imaginable ;  one  prefers  Wandsworth 
Common. 

But  they  do  occupy  a  very  considerable  area  of  Rome,  and  of 
course  it  is  not  hard  to  imagine  the  advent  of  some  terrible  '  practical ' 
person  who  will  call  for  the  building  of  flats  in  this  eligible  building 
locality.  The  practical  person  would  have  a  good  many  sound  argu- 
ments on  his  side,  so  it  would  be  no  more  than  '  practical '  to  antici- 
pate him  rather  than  to  give  him  time  and  opportunity  to  become  a 
force  requiring  suppression. 

This  article  might  be  indefinitely  extended.*  It  might  include 
statistics ;  but  statistics  are  most  treacherous  auxiliaries,  as  the 
author  of  '  L'  Italia  non  fara  da  se '  knows  well ;  and  modern  Italy  is 
too  great  for  statistics. 

If  one  who  has  vaticinated  and  recanted  may  still  be  allowed  the 
privilege  of  private  judgment,  he  would  say  that  the  Risorgimento  is 
the  most  successful  revolt  of  the  spirit  against  modernism — which 
is  the  deification  of  mediocrity.  It  behoves  the  good  throughout 
the  world  to  offer  to  Rome  the  tribute  of  their  gratitude  and 
admiration. 

WALTER  FREWEN  LORD. 


1908 


THE  EMPIRE  AND  ANTHROPOLOGY 


SOME  twenty  years  back  in  the  volumes  of  Mr.  Punch  may  be  found 
a  characteristic  Du  Maurier  drawing  of  a  pretty  woman  interrogating 
a  pompous  personage  in  evening  dress. 

He  says,  '  I  am — ah — going  to  the  Anthropological  Institute.' 

'  And  where  do  they  anthropolodge  ?  '  is  the  smiling  question  that 
follows  this  announcement. 

They — the  Anthropological  Institute  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 
(at  that  period) — possibly  still  '  anthropolodged  '  in  two  dark,  dirty 
little  rooms  in  a  part  of  St.  Martin's  Lane  long  ago  rebuilt. 

Ohe  could  imagine  the  hitherto  untravelled  man  of  science  of 
German,  French,  Italian,  or  American  nationality  who  by  reading 
had  acquired  some  fair  conception  of  that  stupendous  fact — the 
British  Empire  over  400,000,000  of  human  beings,  belonging  to  nearly 
every  known  race  or  species  of  the  human  genus — arriving  in  London, 
the  capital  of  the  Empire,  and  turning  his  attention  almost  first  and 
foremost  to  the  headquarters  of  anthropology. 

He  might  fairly  expect  to  find  that  branch  of  scientific  research 
occupying  the  whole  of  the  magnificent  buildings  of  the  Imperial 
Institute,  or  endowed  with  the  Crystal  Palace,  or  the  new  Victoria 
and  Albert  Museum  of  South  Kensington,  or  some  one  or  other  of  the 
Palaces  of  London.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  would  discover  the  science 
of  anthropology — the  Koyal  Anthropological  Institute  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland — established  in  one  and  a  half  rooms  on  the 
second  floor  of  No.  3  Hanover  Square,  where  it  enjoys  the  somewhat 
limited  hospitality  of  the  Zoological  Society. 

If  the  intelligent  foreigner  had  studied  the  British  Empire  suf- 
ficiently to  have  gauged  what  should  have  been  the  immense  scope 
of  its  Imperial  anthropology,  he  would  have  learnt  enough  about  our 
odd  way  of  doing  business  not  to  be  surprised  that  we  should  spend 
millions  of  ppunds  on  horse-breeding  (half  of  which  is  for  no  other 
purpose  than  that  of  carrying  on  a  pernicious  form  of  gambling), 
hundreds  of  thousands,  very  wisely,  on  cattle  and  sheep  breeding  or 
less  wisely  on  fancy  dogs,  and  with  problematical  benefit  on  the 
promotion  of  tariff  reform,  imperial  cricket,  sectarian  warfare  in 
religion  or  education ;  and  yet  from  out  of  the  gigantic  wealth  in  the 
home  country  and  capital  of  the  Empire  only  be  able  to  raise 

133 


184  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

fifteen  hundred  pounds  annually  for  a  science  dealing  with  the 
bodies  and  minds  of  the  400,000,000  living  men  and  women  who  are 
passing  their  lives  under  the  rule  of  King  Edward  the  Seventh. 

The  scientific  study  of  anthropology — the  science  of  man,  the 
attempt  to  understand  the  bodily  and  mental  conditions  of  earth's 
ruler — may  be  said  to  have  begun  in  this  country  at  the  end  of  the 
fifties  of  the  last  century,  under  the  direction  of  Sir  Charles  Lyell, 
T.  H.  Huxley,  E.  B.  Tylor,  Sir  John  Evans,  Francis  Galton,  Colonel 
Lane-Fox-Pitt-Rivers,  Sir  John  Lubbock,  Dr.  John  Beddoe,  Sir  A.  W. 
Franks,  Sir  Edward  Brabrook,  Dr.  Charnock,  Sir  Richard  Burton, 
Moncure  D.  Conway,  and  others.  Dr.  Prichard  had  written  interest- 
ingly but  unscientifically  on  the  races  of  mankind  in  the  pre-Darwinian 
days  of  the  middle-nineteenth  century,  when  a  slavish  interpretation 
of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  still  clogged  research  into  the  past  history 
and  present  classification  of  mankind.1 

He  and  others  (including,  I  believe,  one  of  the  ablest  and  most 
'  modern  '  of  these  pioneers  in  anthropology,  the  late  Edward  Norris, 
Librarian  of  the  Foreign  Office)  had  founded  the  Ethnological  Society 
about  1843  ;  but,  as  Professor  D.  J.  Cunningham  has  recently  pointed 
out,2  the  membership,  though  distinguished,  was  and  remained  very 
small. 

'  In  those  days '  (if  I  may  quote  the  very  interesting  address  recently  delivered 
by  Professor  Cunningham)  '  anthropologists  were  looked  upon  with  some  sus- 
picion. They  were  regarded  as  men  with  advanced  ideas — ideas  which  might 
possibly  prove  dangerous  to  Church  and  State.  In  London,  as  indeed  might 
be  expected,  no  opposition  was  offered  to  the  formation  of  the  Anthropological 
Society,  but  in  Paris  the  first  attempt  to  found  a  similar  Society  in  1846  was 
rendered  futile  by  the  intervention  of  the  Government,  and  when  finally,  in  1859, 
the  Anthropological  Society  of  Paris  was  formed,  Broca,  its  illustrious  founder, 
was  bound  over  to  keep  the  discussions  within  legitimate  and  orthodox  limits, 
and  a  police  agent  attended  its  sittings  for  two  years  to  enforce' the  stipulation. 
The  same  fear  of  anthropology,  as  a  subject  endowed  with  eruptive  potentialities, 
was  exhibited  in  Madrid,  where  the  Society  of  Anthropology,  after  a  short  and 
chequered  career,  was  suppressed.  It  is  indeed  marvellous  how,  in  the  com- 
paratively speaking  short  period  which  has  elapsed,  public  opinion  should  have 
veered  round  to  such  an  extent  that  at  the  present  day  there  is  no  branch  of 
science  which  enjoys  a  greater  share  of  popular  favour  than  anthropology.' 

The  '  popular  favour  '  to  which  Professor  Cunningham  alludes  may 
be  accorded  [to  what  should  be  the  first  of  sciences]  in  France,  Ger- 
many, Austria,  Spain — Spain  has  made  up  for  lost  time  in  this  respect 

1  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  point  out  that  the  Churches  soon  became  reconciled 
to  and  even  enthusiastic •,  supporters  of  anthropological  research.     Eemove  the  con- 
tributions  to  anthropology  from  members  of  the  many  Missionary  Societies  and  you 
knock  the  bottom  out  of  the  science.     One  of  the  best  periodical  Reviews  on  this 
subject  is  Anthropos,  conducted  from  Vienna  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  P.  W.  Schmidt,  and 
supported  by  Roman  Catholic  Missionaries  throughout  the  world.     Nor  are  the  clergy 
of  the  Church  of  England,  the  Presbyterian,  Baptist,  or  Wesleyan  Churches  in  any 
way  behind  the  Church  of  Rome  in  their  fifty  years'  contributions  to  anthropology. 

2  In   his  presidential   address    of   January  1908    to   the  Royal  Anthropological 
Institute. 


1908         THE  EMPIRE  AND  ANTHROPOLOGY          185 

— Italy,  Belgium,  and  Portugal.  But  there  is  little  sign  of  it  in 
Britain  or  in  the  British  Dominions  beyond  the  Seas.  The  total 
membership  of  the  only  Anthropological  Institute  in  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland — to  which  the  King  has  recently  accorded  the  title  of 
'  Royal ' — scarcely  reaches  to  five  hundred.  There  are,  I  believe, 
no  anthropological  societies  in  Scotland  (except  that  4of  Aberdeen) 
or  Ireland,  though  there  may  be  efficient  bodies  for  dealing  with 
archaeology,  folklore,  and  philology.  Yet  the  importance  of  the 
detailed  study  of  the  existing  tribes  and  races  of  Scotland  and  Ireland 
can  hardly  be  over-estimated  both  in  regard  to  our  reading  of  history 
and  our  understanding  of  modern  political  questions. 

In  1863  the  Anthropological  Society  was  founded  in  London, 
apparently  to  assume  a  more  militant  role  in  those  eager  young  days 
of  the  new  birth  of  research  (revolutionised  by  Darwin's  theories) 
than  had  been  taken  up  by  the  staider  Ethnological  Society,  which 
was  less  anxious  to  outrager  the  clergy  of  all  denominations  than  the 
young  men  filled  with  the  new  wine  of  the  evolution  thesis.3  The 
real  difference  perhaps  between  the  two  was  that  the  ethnologists 
wished  rather  to  confine  themselves  to  the  collection  and  statement 
of  bare,  and  sometimes  very  dry,  facts,  whereas  the  anthropologists 
desired  to  riot  in  theories,  sometimes  with  no  more  fact  to  support 
them  than  the  anthropology  of  the  Theosophists  or  the  history  of  the 
book  of  Mormon.  The  anthropologists  for  eight  exciting  years,  with 
a  fluctuating  membership  of  five  to  seven  hundred,  discussed,  among 
other  topics,  thorny  problems  in  sociology,  religion,  church  music, 
the  rights  of  the  negro,  the  Adamites  and  pre- Adamites ;  then  the 
membership  began  to  dwindle,  a  movement  towards  union  with  the 
ethnologists  was  made,  and  that  great  man  of  science,  the  late  Professor 
Huxley,  as  President  of  the  Ethnological  Society,  proved  the  bond  of 
union.  The  two  London  societies  dealing  with  the  science  of  man 
were  amalgamated  in  1871  as  the  Anthropological  Institute  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  a  title  to  which  his  Majesty  graciously  added 
the  prefix  of  Royal  in  1907. 

Since  1871  the  (Royal)  Anthropological  Institute  has  always  been 
a  society  poorly  equipped  in  funds  and  spending  its  last  penny  in 
scientific  research.  But  its  output  of  work  has  been  splendid  and 
most  stimulating,  especially  since  the  last  ten  years.  Yet  the  wolf, 
in  the  form  of  a  possible  deficit,  is  always  at  the  door.  The  response 
to  occasional  pressing  necessities  in  past  times  on  the  part  of  the  few 
among  its  members  who  are  persons  of  means  has  been  generous, 
and  even  the  rank  and  file  consented  some  little  while  ago  to  an 
increase  in  the  subscription.  Unfortunately,  anthropology  as  a  study 

3  Anthropology  is  the  accepted  general  term  for  the  Science  of  Man,  but  it  is  usually 
also  employed  in  a  specific  sense  to  cover  the  physiological  study  of  man  as  a 
mammal:  in  contradistinction  to  Ethnology  ('  The  Science  of  the  Nations'),  which 
deals  with  all  the  aspects  and  results  of  man's  mental  development. 


136  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

lias  not  yet  become  a  fashionable  foible,  as  is  happily  the  case  with 
zoology  in  general  or  with  horticulture.  Existing  professional  anthro- 
pologists (though  of  the  very  elect  and  some  day  to  be  revered  among 
the  early  saints  in  the  churdh  of  science)  are  scarcely  ever  blessed 
with  large  incomes,  and  to  many  the  limits  of  their  annual  money 
contributions '  to  scientific  research  has  already  been  reached.  Of 
late,  therefore,  it  has  been  felt  by  not  a  few  members  of  the  Institute 
that  the  time  has  arrived  when  the  Imperial  Government  might  see 
its  way  to  making  a  small  annual  grant — say,  500?. — to  the  Royal 
Anthropological  Institute,  on  the  same  grounds  as  those  on  which 
it  makes  a  similar  grant  to  the  Royal  Geographical  Society.4  The 
Institute  has  carried  out  an  immense  amount  of  anthropological 
research  in  all  parts  of  the  British  Empire  at  its  own  expense  or  at 
the  personal  expenditure  of  time  and  money  on  the  part  of  its 
associates,  and  without  any  cost  whatever  to  the  nation  at  large. 
The  gratuitous  instruction  it  has  often  imparted  to  Government 
servants  has  been  of  undoubted  utility  in  encouraging  that  growth  of 
sympathy  and  understanding  between  the  governors  and  the  governed 
which  is  one  of  the  necessities  of  an  Empire  like  ours. 

To  such  a  proposal  there  may  possibly  be  the  same  peevish  objec- 
tion that  nearly  every  new  movement  creates  as  its  backwash.  Some 
will  say, '  If  you  are  going  to  endow  the  Anthropological  Institute,  then 
the  Zoological  Society  next  will  be  asking  for  State  funds,5  and 
the  Linnsean,  Entomological,  British  Ornithologists'  Union,  Royal 
Asiatic,  African  Societies —  And  why  not  ?  All  these  institu- 
tions do  a  vast  amount  of  pure  good,  absolutely  no  harm,  and  have 
rendered  services  of  very  considerable  economic  importance  to  the 
city,  the  kingdom,  the  Empire. 

I  wish  some  abler,  more  authoritative  pen  than  mine  could  bring 
home  to  the  mass  of  the  voting  populace  (and  they,  in  their  turn, 
force  the  knowledge  on  their  representatives  in  Parliament,  who  can 
unlock  the  doors  of  the  Treasury)  the  immense  economic  importance 
of  '  pure  '  science.  At  the  best  these  institutions  are  regarded  with 
amused  tolerance  by  the  masses  and  classes  on  the  '  keep-the-people- 
out-of-the-public-house  '  line  of  thought.  Blamelessness  is  typified 
in  comedies  by  a  visit  to  the  Zoological  Gardens,  the  British  Museum, 
and  Madame  Tussaud's.  An  evening  spent  at  the  Linnaean  Society 
is  considered  to  be  decorous  to  the  point  of  ostentation,  but  dull. 

4  The  Royal   Geographical  Society  in  return  for  this  modest  grant  places  its 
magnificent  library  and  collections  of  maps  at  the  disposal  of  the  Government,  and 
further  engages  to  impart  practical  instruction  in  surveying  and  other  requirements 
of  the  explorer.     The  Royal  Anthropological  Institute  could  render  like  services  to 
the  Government  in  regard  to  the  science  of  anthropology.     It  could  instruct  Govern- 
ment employes  and  others,  and  issue  certificates  of  proficiency. 

5  At  present  the  Zoological  Society  does  receive  this  much  assistance  from  the 
State,  that  its  rental  of  a  small  portion  of  Regent's  Park  is — compared  with  existing 
values — calculated  at  a  low  figure.     Fortunately  popular  support  does  the  rest. 


1903         THE   EMPIRE  AND  ANTHROPOLOGY          187 

The  fact  is,  that  the  time  has  come — if  we  are  really  going  to  be 
governed  intelligently  by  intelligent  people — when  scientific  research 
will  have  to  be  heavily  endowed  ;  in  the  same  way  that  a  Church  or  a 
religion  was  endowed  with  properties  and  tithes  in  order  to  place  it 
above  penury  and  the  risks  of  popular  indifference  and  vacillating 
support.  In  the  course  of  centuries  the  people,  as  a  whole,  came  to 
see  the  value  of  religion  as  a  social  factor  and  rallied  to  its  assistance 
of  their  own  free  will.  Gradually  the  popular  contributions  to  the 
faiths  enabled  endowments  to  be  redistributed  or  capitalised,  and 
subsidies  to  be  withdrawn,  without  the  least  detriment  to  '  pure 
religion  and  undefiled,'  as  defined  in  the  imperishable  words  of  the 
Apostle  James.  The  time  may  come  when  the  mass  of  the  people  will 
flock  to  the  discussions  at  the  Royal  Anthropological  Institute  or  the 
Entomological  Society  as  they  now  crowd  the  music  halls.  When 
that  happy  advance  has  been  reached  science  may  safely  be  dis- 
endowed, unsubsidised. 

Twenty  years  ago  it  began  to  dawn  on  the  educated  classes  as  a 
whole  that  anthropology  in  its  many  branches  led  to  very  practical 
issues  of  application  (fitness  for  the  Army  and  Navy,  finger-print 
identification,  &c.).  Before  that,  the  study  of  the  mental,  physical, 
racial  attributes  of  man,  his  past  history  and  his  future  possibilities,  was 
looked  upon  by  Society  as  a  boring  fad,  associated,  it  might  be,  with 
white  whiskers,  white  waistcoats,  and  respectability  (especially  if 
you  were  a  baronet  whose  younger  brother  collected  Microlepidoptera), 
but  still  a  somewhat  foolish  pastime  ranked  in  importance  with 
stamp-collecting  :  in  any  case  a  stuffy  pursuit.  Now,  Society  would 
not  be  surprised  at  a  novel  depicting  '  real  life,'  in  which  the  hero  was 
young,  handsome,  marriageable,  and  a  Double  First  in  Anthropology, 
who  at  the  end  of  the  book  is  rewarded  with  an  appointment  of  two 
thousand  pounds  a  year  as  head  of  the  Anthropological  Department 
of  the  Crown  Colony  of  Barataria.  The  time  will  come,  I  believe, 
before  long,  when  all  candidates  for  all  branches  of  service  under 
the  British  Crown  connected  with  the  affairs  of  men  and  women  of 
any  human  race  will  be  as  much  required  to  be  examined  in  anthro- 
pology as  in  reasonable  mathematics,  geography,  history,  and  modern 
languages. 

Policemen,  magistrates,  judges  should  pass  examinations  in  this 
science  from  '  elementary '  to  the  most  recondite,  in  correspondence 
with  the  importance  of  the  office  they  hold  :  they  already  have  large 
and  useful  doses  of  it  in  the  form  of  medical  jurisprudence  and  anthro- 
pometry. Juries  taught  the  simple  truths  of  craniology  at  school 
would  at  once  fix  their  attention  on  the  shape  and  proportions  of 
the  prisoner's  or  the  witness's  skull  and  face,  and  disregard  the  con- 
flicting evidence  for  the  safer  intuitions  of  the  physiognomist. 

Statesmen  might  form  a  correct  opinion  on  the  negro  question 
if  they  acquired  some  exact  information  as  to  how  and  in  what  degree 


186  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

the  anatomy  of  the  negro  differed  from  that  of  the  northern  Caucasian, 
and  whether  in  any  one  of  his  many  stages  of  mental  development  he 
is  above  or  below  or  on  a  level  with  the  average  white  man.  We 
do  not  yet  know  enough  to  speak  dogmatically  as  to  whether  he 
shall  mingle  his  blood  with  ours,  to  the  detriment  of  American  or 
European  races,  or  whether  the  two  divisions  of  humanity  shall 
grow  up  side  by  side  with  absolutely  no  commingling.6 

We  do  not  yet  know  (though  we  may  perhaps  hazard  a  favourable 
opinion)  whether  the  physical  difference  between  the  Euramerican 
and  the  Amerindian  is  so  slight  that  the  American  peoples  might  be 
encouraged  to  absorb  the  Indians  into  their  midst,  with  no  more 
shame  or  lowering  to  the  white  man's  ideal  of  physical  beauty  and 
fitness  than  has  been  occasioned  by  the  absorption  of  the  Gipsy  and 
the  Semite.  Are  the  Amerindians  of  Canada  to  be  allowed  to  remain 
and  develop  apart  on  different  lines,  as  a  race  by  themselves  ?  Is  home 
opinion  to  intervene  (if  it  counts  for  anything)  to  secure  just  treatment 
for  the  red  or  yellow  man  of  North  America  (so  far  as  he  is  under  the 
British  flag),  or  is  he  a  negligible  quantity,  to  be  allowed  to  drink 
himself  to  death  or  to  die  of  the  white  man's  diseases  ?  (Canada,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  fulfils  her  duty  to  the  Amerindians  on  her  territory.) 

What  is  to  be  done  with  the  black  Australian  and  the  Papuan  ? 
Is  fusion,  extrusion,  or  isolation  to  be  fostered  in  this  case?  Is 
their  extermination  (assuming  such  to  be  contemplated)  to  be  allowed 
to  proceed  without  remonstrance  from  the  Metropolis  ?  If  the 
hybridising  of  the  Australasian  negroid  with  early  types  of  Caucasian 
can  produce  such  a  good  half-breed  as  the  Polynesian,  may  not  the 
latter  again  be  encouraged  to  enter  the  white  fold  in  the  building  up 
of  great  Australian  nations  ?  Or  is  the  black  Australian  or  the  Papuan 
to  be  treated  as  the  northern  Caucasian  races  have  seemed  inclined  to 
treat  the  negro — an  equal  to  be  respected  but  not  to  be  absorbed  ? 
What,  in  short,  are  the  plans  which  the  Commonwealth  will  adopt  for 
the  black  Australian's  future  ? 

Then  there  are  the  tremendous  questions  of  India,  racial  questions 
that  daunt  one  with  their  complexity  and  with  the  awful  degree  of 
happiness  or  unhappiness  that  may  result  from  success  or  failure  in 
their  solution.7  Once  more  the  problem  arises  here  in  regard  to  the 
Eurasian  half-breeds,  who  have  merited  so  well  the  consideration  of 
the  British  Government  for  the  splendid  support  they  have  given  to 
British  rule  in  India. 

'  Is  Uganda  to  be  granted  wider  and  bolder  f acilities  for  self-govern- 
ment ? '  may  be  the  question  to  be  considered  by  a  British  Legislature 

6  This   much   anthropology  has   taught   us :   that   there   is   an   ancient   negroid 
element  pervading  the  highly  civilised  Mediterranean,  and  that  the  negro  makes  a 
magnificent  hybrid  with  the  Arab  or  the  Moor. 

7  In  referring  to  India,  attention  might  be  drawn  to  the  excellent  werk  which  is 
being  done  under  the  State  of  Mysore  in  an  ethnographical  survey  conducted  by 
H.  V.  Nanjundagya,  M.A.,  M.L. 


1908        THE  EMPIRE  AND  ANTHROPOLOGY          189 

a  quarter  of  a  century  hence,  when  sleeping-sickness  has  been 
eliminated  by  European  science. 

Are  there  to  be  local  parliaments  in  India  ?  Is  there  ever  to  be 
a  confederation  of  the  black  West  African  Colonies  and  Protectorates, 
with  larger  measures  of  self-government  ?  Is  the  Sudan  to  be  wholly 
separate  from  the  future  of  Egypt  ?  Can  we  safely  leave  Egypt 
without  a  British  garrison  ?  Can  we  encourage  France,  Spain,  and 
Italy  to  resume  and  continue  the  work  of  Rome  in  North  Africa,  or 
will  the  failure  of  our  allies  to  do  so  involve  us  in  an  awkward  position  ? 
Are  we  to  encourage  negro  settlement  in  British  Honduras,  or  is  there 
any  chance  of  the  indigenous  Amerindian  multiplying  and  sufficing  for 
that  country's  industrial  development  ? 

Shall  Trinidad,  like  Mauritius,  become  a  land  of  Indian  Coolies  ? 
If  we  allow  and  encourage  the  millions  of  Chinamen  to  replace  or 
supplement  the  sparse  Malay  and  Negrito  populations  of  the  great 
Malay  Peninsula  and  Borneo,  shall  we  still  be  able  to  govern  them 
in  the  interests  of  the  British  Empire  and  of  the  world  at  large  ? 
What  can  we  make  of  Somaliland  ?  Dare  we  aspire,  if  the  Turkish 
Empire  breaks  up,  to  become  the  controlling  power  in  Arabia  ?  Does 
Persia  contain  the  elements  of  regeneration — can  she  be  formed  into 
a  strong,  self-governing  civilised  Asiatic  State  independent  of  the 
help  or  control  of  England  and  Russia  ?  Can  we  hope  some  day  to 
receive  her  into  the  comity  of  the  higher  nations,  as  we  have  received 
Japan,  and  as,  after  many  years  of*  French  and  English  training,  we 
may  receive  Morocco  and  Egypt  ? 

All  these  are  questions  in  which  the  opinion  of  trained  anthro- 
pologists would  be  well  worth  having. 

Perhaps  our  anthropological  studies  should  begin  at  home. 

A  great  field  lies  before  us  most  insufficiently  worked.  Elementary 
anthropology  should  be  taught  in  all  the  State  and  public  schools 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  besides  being  far  more  widely  and 
efficiently  dealt  with  in  secondary  education  and  at  the  Universities. 

A  knowledge  of  the  anthropology  of  the  British  Isles  would — or 
should — clear  up  the  Irish  question.  It  would  show,  for  example, 
that  the  Irish,  like  the  Welsh  and  Scots,  are  composed  in  somewhat 
different  proportions  of  the  same  racial  elements  as  the  British.  It 
would  also  bring  home  to  all  of  us  the  idiosyncrasies  of  the  diversely 
constituted  blend  of  Proto-Caucasian,  Iberian,  Kelt,  Dane,  and  Saxon 
which  now  forms  the  people  of  Ireland  ;  it  would  interest  us,  or  should 
do  so,  much  as  we  were  formerly  interested  in  Latin,  Greek,  and 
Hebrew,  in  the  remarkable  Keltico-Iberian  languages  of  prehistoric 
features  which  are  still  spoken  or  remembered  in  Ireland,  Man,  Wales, 
Cornwall,  and  parts  of  Scotland,  and  which  were  once  the  speech  of 
England  itself. 

It  is  preposterous  that  the  dominating  English  people  should  for 
thirteen  hundred  years  have  ignored  the  two  Keltic  languages  still 


140  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

remaining  in  these  islands — Goidelic  and  Brythonic.  They  are  at 
least  as  interesting  as  Greek,  Latin,  and  Sanscrit,  and  far  more  so  than 
Hebrew.  In  their  structure  and  vocabulary  is  locked  up  a  great 
amount  of  useful  '  prehistoric '  history ;  these  languages  represent- 
ing in  varying  degrees  the  combination  in  vocabulary  and  syntax 
between  the  Aryan  speech  of  the  invading  Kelts  and  the  probably 
antecedent  Iberian  language.  (This  last  may  have  been  connected 
with  the  Berber  group  of  North  Africa,  or  with  Basque,  which  was 
spoken  in  France  and  Spain  by  the  pre-existing  peoples  who  were 
conquered  by  the  Gallic  Kelts.) 

By  reason  of  this  neglect  on  the  part  of  men  of  science,  modern 
Irish,  Gaelic,  and  Welsh  have  become  transcribed  and  spelt  in  the 
most  ridiculous  and  barbaric  fashion,  with  far  less  reason  in  the  use 
of  the  Roman  letters  than  is  even  the  case  with  modern  English.8 

Anthropological  researches  on  the  lines  of  statements  recently 
published  by  Dr.  Frank  Shrubsall  (of  the  Hospital  for  Consumption, 
Brompton  Road)  would  show  the  results  of  town  life  under  present 
conditions  on  this  or  that  racial  element  in  the  British  population : 
how,  for  example,  tall  blonds  are  best  suited  to  a  life  in  the  country, 
while  brunets  are  better  adapted  to  resist  the  bacteria  of  towns. 
While  in  the  last  ten  years  or  so  anthropology  has  been  turned  to 
practical  uses  in  most  parts  of  the  civilised  countries  in  the  matter 
of  identification  by  finger-prints,  it  is  also  coming  into  play  in  regard  to 
the  State-care  for  the  children,  the  checking  of  certain  diseases  in  early 
youth  which  by  neglect  might  permanently  enfeeble  the  individual. 

Naturally  Medicine  and  Surgery  have  long  been  associated  with 
Anthropology.  So  far  as  Comparative  Anatomy  exists  in  these 
islands,  it  may  perhaps  be  said  to  have  been  founded  by  the  great 
John  Hunter,  whose  collections  of  comparative  and  human  anatomy 
are  permanently  established  in  the  remarkable  museum  of  the  Royal 
College  of  Surgeons  in  Lincoln's  Inn. 

This  is  the  only  museum,  at  present,  that  exists  in  the  British  Isles 
which  deals  effectively  with  the  exposition  of  the  anatomy  of  man, 
and  in  which  it  is  possible  for  the  student  correctly  to  compare  human 
anatomy  with  that  of  other  mammals  or  other  vertebrates.  Nearly 

8  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  Irish,  Highlanders,  and  Welsh  have  apparently 
gloried  in  this  obscurantism,  and  in  these  uncouth  transliterations  of  languages 
which  are  by  no  means  difficult  of  pronunciation  to  any  Englishman  who  is  capable 
of  talking  another  language  than  his  own.  A  Government  movement  should 
be  set  on  foot  to  establish  authoritatively  the  standard  pronunciation  and  phonetic 
spelling  of  Irish  and  Welsh,  just  as,  for  example,  the  Spanish  Academy  in  the 
eighteenth  century  set  to  work  to  obtain  and  establish  in  a  most  sensible  and  logical 
fashion  the  correct  phonetic  spelling  of  Castilian.  The  modern  Irish  alphabet  and 
orthography,  due  to  monkish  invention  about  thirteen  hundred  years  ago,  are  rabid 
nonsense  ;  equally  unnecessary  and  absurd  is  the  spelling  of  Welsh  with  y's,  w's.  IPs, 
dd's,  ff's,  &c.,  &c.  The  correct  phonetics  of  these  tongues  should  be  ascertained  by  a 
select  commission,  who  should  forthwith  establish  a  simple  logical  spelling  in  the 
Roman  alphabet  as  laid  down  by  Lepsius.  These  remarkable  Keltic  languages 
should  then  be  taught  throughout  the  United  Kingdom  as  a  branch  of  history. 


1908         THE  EMPIRE  AND  ANTHROPOLOGY          141 

a  century  of  thanks  is  due  by  the  British  public  to  the  College  of 
Surgeons  of  Great  Britain  for  their  gratuitous  assistance  to  the  study 
of  anthropology  and  of  comparative  anatomy  in  general  by  the 
institution  and  maintenance  of  this  magnificent  museum,  the  germ  of 
which  was  the  Hunter  collection. 

So  far  as  public  exhibits  and  displayed  information  are  con- 
cerned, we  are  very  much  in  arrears  on  the  score  of  anthropology 
(the  study  of  man  as  a  mammal)  compared  with  the  museums  of 
France,  Germany,  Belgium,  Russia,  and  Austria-Hungary.  Ethno- 
graphically,  perhaps,  we  stand  well,  with  our  magnificent  collections 
in  the  British  Museum,  though  therein  is  all  too  little  space  for 
the  adequate  display  of  those  collections  which  illustrate  the  primitive 
culture  of  the  still-existing  races  of  savage  men  or  the  gorgeous 
developments  in  art  of  the  Caucasian  and  Mongolian  peoples.  The 
collections  are  there,  the  skill  and  zeal  in  exhibiting  them  in  an 
educating  way  are  decidedly  present  in  a  staff  of  exceptional  ability  ; 
but  the  nation,  as  represented  by  the  Treasury,  still  finds  itself  unable 
to  meet  the  cost  of  further  exhibition-rooms.9 

But  as  regards  the  other  side  of  the  question — Man — above  all, 
British  man — considered  physically :  our  efforts  are  most  inadequate. 
Putting  aside  the  private  help  afforded  to  students  by  the  College  of 
Surgeons,  all  that  we  know  of  Man  as  a  mammal  at  the  British 
Museum  (Natural  History)  is  crammed  into  a  small  portion  of  one  of 
the  uppermost  galleries,  up  (I  cannot  remember  how  many)  flights  of 
fatiguing  stairs.  The  greater  part  of  this  gallery  is  of  necessity  devoted 
to  the  exposition  of  apes,  monkeys,  lemurs,  and  bats.  What  remains  is 
given  up  to  cases  containing  a  valuable  collection  of  skulls  (imperfectly 
exhibited  for  want  of  space),  a  few  skeletons  and  bones,  a  placard  refut- 
ing palmistry  by  an  appeal  to  the  gorilla's  foot,  and  a  not  particularly 
good  collection  of  photographs  of  certain  savage  tribes.  As  to  the  types 
of  the  British  Isles,  they  are  conspicuous  by  their  absence.  Go  to 
France,  Russia,  Germany,  Belgium,  and  Austria-Hungary,  and  in  the 
public  museums  you  will  find  magnificent  collections  of  photographs  (or 
life-sized  models)  of  all  the  physical  types  of  men  and  women  in  those 
countries,  giving  you  some  idea  of  the  race  or  races  to  be  found  therein. 
Nothing  of  the  kind  that  I  know  of  exists  in  the  British  Isles,  and  all 
published  works  on  anthropology  avoid  the  subject,  and  reduce  British 
anthropology  to  a  few  paltry  paragraphs,  illustrated  by  one  or  two 
picture-postcard  photographs  of  fishermen  or  Welsh  cottagers,  wearing 

9  A  British  anthropologist,  to  whom  I  showed  this  article,  writes  in  regard  to  this 
paragraph:  'Berlin,  with  500,000  objects  and  6000Z.  a  year  for  purchases,  beats  the 
British  Museum  hollow ;  Dresden  has  nearly  as  much  stuff,  I  should  think.  Hamburg, 
Cologne,  and  Leipzig  are  perhaps  smaller,  but  with  grants  of  1000Z.  a  year  And 
upwards  for  purchases  they  will  be  dangerous  rivals  in  the  very  near  future.  Do  you 
know  that  Prance  has  now  actually  started  an  Anthropological  Bureau  for  Govern- 
ment information  ?  '  We  may  rejoice  in  Ge'rman  emulation  in  such  a  good  cause 
without  slackening  our  own  efforts. 


142  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

stage  costumes,  together  with  some  monstrously  faked  sickly-sweet 
'  types  of  English  beauty '  (in  some  cases  amiable  ladies  of  the  stage 
whose  birthplace  was  on  the  Continent  of  Europe). 

But  after  attending  in  an  adequate  degree  to  the  illustration  of 
the  Anthropology  of  the  United  Kingdom,  the  Royal  Anthropological 
Institute  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland — if  it  were  only  properly 
supported  and  subscribed  to  by  the  nation  as  a  whole — might  get  into 
touch  with  the  educational  establishments  of  the  Daughter  Nations, 
of  the  Crown  Colonies  or  Protectorates,  or  of  India.  It  would  incite 
where  they  do  not  already  exist  (and  this  is  hardly  anywhere) 
the  establishment  of  Anthropological  societies  or  departments  in  all 
the  great  centres  of  population  throughout  the  British  Empire. 

It  would  induce  a  desire  to  create  an  Anthropological  society  at 
Malta  to  describe. the  wonderful  past  and  to  delineate  the  present 
racial  character  of  that  most  interesting  and  intelligent  people  the 
Maltese,  whose  language,  like  Irish  and  Welsh,  locks  up  so  much 
unwritten  history.  It — the  parent  Anthropological  Institute  of  Great 
Britain — should  urge  on  a  much-needed  anthropological  survey  of  the 
British  West  African  Colonies  and  Protectorates ;  of  the  Falkland 
Islands,  where  a  new  and  interesting  type  of  white  man  is  being 
slowly  developed ;  of  Cyprus,  where  there  are  several  layers  of 
Mediterranean  races ;  but  above  all  of  South  Africa.  Seeing  that 
we  have  been  the  ruling  power  in  the  South  African  sub-continent 
for  over  a  hundred  years,  it  is  little  less  than  a  national  disgrace  that 
we  have  made  such  poor  use  of  our  opportunity  for  enriching  the 
knowledge  of  the  world  in  regard  to  the  past  and  present  negro  peoples 
of  South  Africa. 

So  far  as  Government  action  is  concerned,  there  is  scarcely  any- 
thing to  record.  Fortunately  there  was  once  a  Governor  of  Cape 
Colony  with  a  strong  love  for  science,  Sir  George  Grey.  Under  his 
instigation  Livingstone  and  Dr.  W.  I.  Bleek  collected  much  informa- 
tion as  to  perishing  tribes — Bushman,  Hottentot,  and  Bantu. 

The  Colonial  Government  established — and  still  maintain — a  small 
fund  wherewith  to  maintain  a  librarian  and  a  museum  curator  at  Cape 
Town,  but  in  the  National  Library  of  Cape  Town  are  still  preserved 
in  manuscript  most  of  the  important  anthropological  and  ethnological 
studies  of  Livingstone,  Bleek  and  others,  which  this  great  Colony 
has  either  been  too  poor  or  too  uninterested  to  publish. 

There  are  in  pigeon-holes  somewhere  the  very  valuable  Reports  of 
Mr.  Palgrave,  the  Commissioner  sent  in  the  early  'seventies  to  examine 
Damaraland  (the  anthropological  photographs  obtained  on  this  expedi- 
tion— most  creditable  to  Mr.  Palgrave,  considering  the  epoch  in  which 
he  worked — are  in  the  collection  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society). 

So  far  no  great  Afrikander  has  arisen  who  has  displayed  any  scientific 
aptitude  for  the  study  of  the  Negro  races  of  South  Africa.  Almost 
all  the  recorded  work  has  been  done  by  outsiders — British,  German, 


1908         THE   EMPIRE   AND  ANTHROPOLOGY          148 

French,  Swiss,  and  Norwegians.  Yet  what  links  in  the  chain  of 
evidence  of  the  evolution  of  humanity  as  a  whole  or  of  branches  of 
the  Negro  species  in  particular  are  concealed  in  this  southern  pro- 
longation of  the  Dark  Continent ! 

The  little  research  stimulated  and  paid  for  by  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  Government  has  revealed  the  remains  of  a  vanished  race — 
the  Strand-loopers — who  are  probably  akin  to  the  Bushmen,  but  of 
a  less  specialised  and  more  primitive  type. 

Is  there  any  truth  in  Professor  Keane's  account 10  of  the  Vaal-pens 
or  '  Ashy-bellies,'  based  on  the  stories  of  travellers  and  writers  who 
assert  them  to  be  a  very  primitive  race  still  lingering  in  the  Northern 
Transvaal,  and  perhaps  descended  from  the  aforesaid  Strand-loopers  ; 
whilst  other  authorities,  like  Mr.  F.  C.  Selous,  deny  their  existence, 
or  at  any  rate  account  for  them  as  some  starved  remnant  of  an  out- 
cast Bushman  or  Bantu  stock  ? 

Private  British  enterprise,  even  on  the  part  of  people  of  very  small 
means,  has  certainly  done  something  to  illustrate  and  elucidate  the 
manners  and  customs  of  the  South  African  Bantu  races.  We  owe 
much  recent  information  under  this  head  to  the  writings  of  Mr.  Dudley 
Kidd  and  Miss  A.  Werner,  to  a  number  of  missionaries  of  the  London 
Missionary  Society,  the  Scottish  missionaries  of  Nyasaland,  the  Kev. 
Father  Torrend  of  the  Zambezi,  the  Universities  Mission,  and  to  the 
Anglican  bishops  of  South-Eastern  Africa ;  but  comparatively  with 
the  importance  of  the  place  that  Trans-Zambesian  Africa  holds  in 
the  scheme  of  the  British  Empire,  our  knowledge  of  the  anthropology 
and  ethnology,  and  even  the  languages,  of  its  five  or  six  millions  of 
negroes  is  pitifully  small.  The  Government  of  Cape  Colony  has  done 
something  for  which  it  should  receive  due  credit ;  the  other  Govern- 
ments have  done  practically  nothing,  and  the  Imperial  Government 
has  been  the  most  indifferent  of  all.  A  good  deal  of  what  we  do 
know  has  been  derived  from  the  results  of  explorations  subsidised  by 
the  Governments  of  France  and  Germany. 

Where  in  the  whole  range  of  British  South  African  literature  can 
we  find  such  a  work  as  that  of  Professor  Leonhard  Schultze,  Aus 
Namaland  und  Kalahari?  It  is  practically  a  description  of  man 
and  nature— the  anthropology,  above  all— in  the  N.W.  parts  of  Cape 
Colony,  subsidised  by  the  German  Government. 

Crossing  the  Zambezi  northwards,  look  at  the  way  in  which  the 
German  Government  has  enabled  Dr.  Fiilleborn  and  others  to  illustrate 
the  anthropology  of  German  East  Africa  and  Nyasaland,  and  con- 
sider what  impetus  or  assistance  the  Imperial  Government  has  shown 
in  dealing  with  the  anthropology,  the  native  codes  of  law,  the  languages, 

10  Popular  anthropology-  I  mean  anthropology  popularised-  owes  much  to  the 
labours  and  researches  of  Professor  A.  H.  Keane  and  (more  recently)  of  Mr.  T.  Athol- 
Joyce,  of  the  British  Museum,  and  Mr.  Northcote  Thomas ;  also  to  the  publishing 
enterprise  of  Messrs.  Hutchinson,  Macmillan,  Cassell,  and  Archibald  Constable. 


144  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTUBY  July 

myths,  traditions,  institutions  of  British  Central  Africa,  British  East 
Africa,  or  Uganda.  Such  work  as  has  been  done  by  British  pens  has 
been  for  the  most  part  carried  out  by  missionaries,  or  by  Government 
officials  at  their  own  expense,  or  by  travellers  and  explorers  not  always 
of  British  nationality. 

Our  own  Government  is  quite  willing,  if  necessary,  to  spend 
millions  on  warfare  in  Africa  and  (very  properly)  millions  on  railway 
construction ;  but  it  has  not  held  up  a  finger  of  encouragement  or 
provided  a  pound  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  sound  study  of  the 
anthropology  of  regions  wherein — even  more  than  in  South  Africa — 
it  is  necessary  for  the  administrative  white  man  to  know  most 
thoroughly  the  minds  and  bodily  characteristics  of  the  Negro  and 
Negroid  races  with  whom  he  has  to  deal. 

Private  enterprise  just  enables  the  Royal  Institute  of  Anthropology 
to  keep  alive.  A  Government  grant  of  500?.  a  year  from  out  of  the 
brimming  revenue  of  the  United  Kingdom  would  place  it  above  all 
risk  of  the  bailiffs  being  put  some  day  into  its  one-pair  back  at  No.  3 
Hanover  Square  ;  would  enable  it  with  a  lighter  heart  to  extend  its 
researches  and  its  practical  instructions  to  those  about  to  travel. 

Private  enterprise  has  likewise  started  and  kept  going  the  Royal 
Asiatic  Society  (but  this,  I  believe,  receives  a  small  grant  from  the 
India  Office),  the  Central  Asian  Society,  the  African  Society ;  and 
there  may  be  for  aught  I  know  a  Chinese  Society ;  there  ought  cer- 
tainly to  be  one  dealing  with  the  Malay  races  of  our  vast  Malay 
possessions.  The  Royal  Asiatic  Society  outdistances  all  these  other 
bodies  by  the  length  of  its  existence.  Its  journal,  in  many  volumes, 
contains  a  splendid  accumulation  of  Eastern  lore.  Unfortunately 
this  is  caviare  to  the  general  mind  ;  some  Harmsworth,  some  Saleeby, 
some  Hooper  is  required  to  come  along  some  day 'and — with  due 
permission  and  participation  of  profits — boil  down  the  researches  of 
the  Royal  Asiatic  Societies  of  London,  Calcutta,  and  Bombay  into 
palatable  ethnology,  and  thus  get  them  consumed,  digested,  and 
assimilated  by  the  British  public. 

It  has  been  of  late  the  fashion  to  scoff  at  the  efforts  of  the  Times 
or  of  Carmelite  Buildings  to  invigorate  knowledge  by  hypnotising 
the  British  public  into  the  purchase  of  encyclopaedias,  histories,  and 
self-educators.  In  my  own  humble  opinion,  these  agencies  have  by 
such  means  increased  the  general  education  of  the  upper  and  middle 
classes  by  at  least  one-fifth.  The  ninth  edition  of  the  Encyclopaedia 
Britannica  may  or  may  not  have  been  slightly  out  of  date  for  the 
fine  fteur  of  intellect  of  the  year  1900,  but  it  was  quite  new  enough 
knowledge,  and  sound  enough  for  nine-tenths  of  the  population  to 
whom  it  had  been  more  or  less  inaccessible. 

In  the  same  way — if  I  may  venture  to  offer  an  opinion  of  my 
own — one  would  like  to  see  some  such  publishers  as  those  mentioned 
compel  the  British  public  to  take  in  a  great  work  on  anthropology — 


1908         TEE   EMPIRE  AND  ANTHROPOLOGY          145 

on  the  anthropology,  let  us  say,  of  the  British  Empire,  in  twenty-four 
volumes,  with  an  index  and  an  atlas.  It  would  be  a  beneficial  work, 
because  it  would  go  a  long  way  towards  educating  the  British  public 
in  the  cares,  opportunities,  and  responsibilities  of  the  Empire. 

Comparative  anthropology  has  not  yet  come  into  existence  in  a 
complete  form — that  is  to  say,  no  individual  or  group  of  scientific 
men  have  yet  had  the  means  or  time  or  knowledge  to  compare  care- 
fully and  conclusively  the  anatomy  of  each  racial  type,  species,  or 
sub-species,  one  with  another.  In  a  limited  manner  this  has  been  done 
through  the  comparison  of  skulls — shape,  length,  and  breadth ;  capacity 
and  facial  angle  ;  and,  in  a  much  less  degree,  by  the  proportion  of  the 
bones  of  the  skeleton,  the  poise  and  curve  of  the  spine.  Comparisons 
have,  at  any  rate,  been  made  between  such  extremes  as  the  highest 
type  of  Caucasian  and  the  negro  or  Australasian. 

Some  comparisons  have  also  been  made  in  the  head-hair — as  to 
whether  it  is  round,  oval,  or  elliptic  in  section  ;  its  colour,  straight- 
ness,  or  tendency  to  curl.  But  in  a  general  way,  as  contrasted  with 
our  intimate  knowledge  of  the  comparative  anatomy  of  the  different 
species  of  cat,  of  horses,  asses,  and  zebras,  of  cattle  and  dogs,  we  are 
still  most  remarkably  uninformed  as  to  the  comparative  anatomy  of 
mankind.  Such  types  as  the  fair-haired  Caucasian  races  of  Europe  and 
America  are  as  well  known  to  us  in  all  the  details  of  their  anatomical 
structure  and  physical  condition  as  we  could  expect  in  the  twentieth 
century  and  in  the  inheritors  of  the  science  that  began  with  Aristotle  ; 
but  what  has  been  definitely  recorded  as  to  the  anatomy  of  the  Arab, 
Tartar,  Chinaman,  Negrito,  Papuan,  Hindu,  Ainu,  Esquimaux,  Malay, 
Australian,  Amerindian,  Veddah,  and  even  most  types  of  negro  ?  I 
mean,  in  comparison  to  the  white  man  of  northern  Europe  and  America, 

As  regards  the  negro,  we  are  better  informed  than  about  any 
other  human  race  than  our  own,  because  for  at  least  a  century  the 
physical  structure  of  the  Aframerican  has  undergone  careful  scientific 
investigation  by  the  surgeons  and  anatomists  of  the  United  States  ; 
but  the  negro  after  two  or  three  centuries  of  settlement  in  the  New 
World  may  have  already  begun  to  differ  in  blood  and  bone,  bowel 
and  muscle,  from  the  aboriginal  native  of  Africa.  Already  he  finds 
himself  as  prone  as  the  European  to  suffer  from  the  diseases  of  Africa, 
should  he  return  there.  He  has  lost  the  relative  immunity  to  malarial 
fever  of  an  African  type  which  his  West  African  forefathers  possessed. 

We  know,  in  short,  so  little  about  the  structure  of  all  the  living 
races  of  mankind  (as  compared  one  with  another,  and  again  with 
the  forms  nearest  allied  to  humanity  amongst  the  apes)  that  I  return 
to  my  first  assertion  in  stating  that  the  science  of  Human  Comparative 
Anatomy  has  scarcely  yet  been  established  on  a  sound  basis. 

We  know  so  little  on  this  subject  that  we  are  not  able  to  decide 
whether  all  the  living  races  of  mankind  are  merely  local  varieties  of  a 
VOL.  LXIV— No.  377  L 

\ 


146  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  .  July 

single  species,  whether  some  of  them  are  to  be  elevated  to  the  rank 
of  a  sub-species,  or  whether  three  or  more  types  are  sufficiently  diver- 
gent to  be  considered  separate  species  of  a  single  genus — of  the  isolated 
genus  Homo.  Anthropology,  however,  brings  out  forcibly  the  fact 
that  all  men  are  brothers  under  their  skins  ;  the  study  of  this  science 
therefore  is  the  best  corrective  of  intolerance,  cruelty,  racial  arrogance, 
and  narrow-minded  conceit.  It  is  perhaps  in  our  own  country — 
it  should  be  everywhere — the  science  of  kings  and  rulers. 

H.  H.  JOHNSTON. 


1908 


INDIAN  FAMINES'  AND   INDIAN  FORESTS 


EVERY  one  who  has  made  any  sort  of  impartial  study  of,  or  enquiry 
into,  the  causes  of  the  disastrous  famines  with  which  various  parts  of 
our  Indian  Empire  are  so  frequently  cursed  and  blighted  agrees  that  they 
are  due  to  one  cause  alone,  the  failure  of  rainfall.  This  is  a  physical 
cause  arising  from  the  influence  of  the  strength  or  weakness  of  aerial 
currents,  the  south-west  and  the  north-east  monsoon  winds  ;  and 
the  greater  or  less  amount  of  rainfall  that  these  winds  bring  depends 
entirely  on  conditions  existing  outside  of  India,  and  beyond  the  control 
of  either  the  Indian  Government  or  the  Indian  people.  India  always 
has  been,  and  still  is,  mainly  an  agricultural  country.  Out  of  its  total 
population  nearly  two-thirds,  or  about  two  hundred  million  souls, 
are  dependent  on  agriculture  for  a  livelihood ;  while  the  holdings 
are  usually  small,  and  the  cultivated  area  is  only  a  little  over  one  acre 
per  head  of  the  total  population.  And  in  many  parts  agriculture 
is  carried  on  under  extremely  uncertain  and  precarious  conditions 
as  to  the  natural  supply  of  a  sufficient  amount  of  soil-moisture  being 
provided  by  these  otherwise  fairly  regular  monsoon  winds.  The  south- 
west or  summer  monsoon,  after  sweeping,  saturated  with  moisture, 
across  the  Indian  Ocean,  generally  bursts  over  Burma  in  May  and 
over  India  in  June  ;  and  this  marks  the  beginning  of  the  agricultural 
year,  following  two  to  three  months  of  intense  heat,  during  which  the 
bare  earth  has  been  scorched  and  terrified  under  the  fierce  glare  of  a 
blazing  sun  in  a  brazen,  cloudless  sky,  which  bakes  the  soil  hard  and 
makes  it  sterile  through  lack  of  moisture. 

As  soon  as  the  thirsty  land  gets  sufficiently  softened  by  rainfall 
ploughing  begins,  and  during  the  next  two  to  four  months  before  the 
monsoon  ceases,  in  September  or  October,  or  later  in  Burma,  the 
various  crops  of  millets  and  rice  are  grown  for  the  autumn  harvest,  the 
more  important  for  the  food-supply  of  the  people.  The  choice  between 
these  two  main  classes  of  crops  depends  chiefly  on  the  local  average 
amount  of  rainfall ;  in  each  case,  however,  successful  agriculture 
depends  not  only  on  the  total  amount  of  the  rainfall,  but  also  on  its 
favourable  distribution.  Heavy  rains  flood  the  low-lying  tracts, 
while  deficient  rainfall  and  long  breaks  in  between  good  showers  cause 
drought  on  the  higher  lands.  In  October  the  ploughing  and  sowing 

147  L  2 


148  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  July 

for  the  spring  harvest  begins,  which  includes  wheat,  barley,  and 
pulses  among  foodstuffs  in  the  north,  and  millets  in  the  south ;  and 
these  crops  are  dependent  on  the  north-east  or  winter  monsoon  rains, 
which  break  late  in  November  or  early  in  December  along  the  Madras 
coast,  and  about  Christmas  in  the  other  parts  of  India  which  they 
affect. 

As  the  result  of  these  climatic  conditions.,  governed  by  circum- 
stances entirely  beyond  human  control,  the  vast  territory  of  the  Indian 
Empire,  about  1,100,000  square  miles  in  area,  is  naturally  parcelled 
out  into  more  or  less  well-defined  zones  of  average  annual  rainfall, 
which  determine  the  character  of  the  agricultural  crops  that  can  be 
raised.  The  coasts  of  Bombay  and  Burma,  upon  which  the  south-west 
monsoon  winds  first  impinge  and  deposit  much  of  their  moisture, 
and  the  cool,  thickly  wooded  mountain  tracts  in  the  north-east  of 
Bengal  and  in  Assam,  have  an  annual  average  rainfall  of  over  100 
inches.  In  the  immediate  vicinity  of  these  three  zones  of  heaviest 
rainfall,  and  extending  all  along  the  base  of  the  Himalayas  and  through- 
out the  deltas  of  the  Ganges  and  the  Brahmaputra  in  the  Bengals,  and 
the  plains  of  the  Lower  Irrawaddy,  the  Sittang,  and  the  Lower  Salwin 
in  Burma,  there  is  an  average  rainfall  varying  from  fifty  to  a  hundred 
inches  ;  and  in  these  areas  rice  cultivation  can  be  carried  on  with  this 
natural  water-supply.  Fringing  this  belt  of  ample  rainfall  along  the 
Himalayas  and  including  the  whole  of  Oudh,  then  stretching  north-west 
only  as  a  thinner  belt,  but  reaching  down  to  the  Ganges  delta,  and  thence 
extending  over  the  whole  of  the  rest  of  Bengal  proper,  the  Central 
Provinces,  most  of  the  Central  Indian  States,  and  the  northern  part 
of  Madras,  comes  the  zone  of  thirty  to  fifty  inches,  whose  north-western 
limit  forms  roughly  a  convex  arc  drawn  from  Baroda,  at  the  head  of 
the  Gulf  of  Cambay,  to  not  far  above  Allahabad,  where  the  Jumna 
effects  its  junction  with  the  Ganges,  while  its  north-western  limit 
describes  a  very  sinuous  line  from  the  Tapti  River  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Kistna.  In  the  rest  of  Southern  India,  comprising  the  Deccan 
and  the  greater  part  of  Madras,  the  average  rainfall  varies  between  ten 
and  thirty  inches,  and  beyond  the  north-eastern  limit  similar 
averages  obtain  for  the  greater  part  of  the  United  Provinces,  the 
south-eastern  Rajputana  States,  and  the  Punjab  ;  while  the  Thar 
or  Rajputana  desert  to  the  west  of  Bikanir  and  all  the  lower 
Indus  valley  and  westwards  across  Beluchistan  form  an  arid  zone 
having  under  ten  inches  of  rainfall.  A  large  part  of  Central  Burma 
forms  a  zone  of  thirty  to  fifty  inches,  while  the  core  of  the 
province  forming  the  middle  of  the  old  kingdom  of  Ava  has  even 
less  than  that. 

So  far  as  variations  from  the  normal  average  rainfall  are  concerned, 
the  tracts  blessed  with  fifty  inches  or  above  are  much  more  likely 
to  suffer  from  inundation  than  from  drought ;  but  throughout  the 
whole  of  the  rest  of  India — and  that  means  over  about  four-fifths  of 


1908  INDIAN  FAMINES  AND  INDIAN  FOBESTS    149 

the  total  area,  or  nearly  875,000  square  miles — there  is  always,  except 
in  irrigated  tracts,  a  greater  or  less  danger  of  a  weak  monsoon  current 
failing  to  bring  sufficient  rainfall  to  satisfy  the  minima  requirements 
for  successful  agriculture. 

Naturally,  too,  the  highest  average  temperatures  occur  in  the  arid 
tracts,  the  climax  being  attained  in  the  Rajputana  desert,  which  falls 
within  the  high  isotherm  of  90°  Fahr.  Another  result  of  this  widely 
differing  rainfall  is  the  extreme  variation  in  the  distribution  and  the 
character  of  the  remaining  woodlands,  which  still  cover  250,000  square 
miles,  or  nearly  one-fourth  of  the  total  area  of  India.  In  wet  zones 
having  a  fall  of  over  seventy-five  inches  evergreen  tree- forests  prevail ; 
in  the  tracts  with  from  about  thirty  to  seventy-five  inches  the  quasi- 
evergreen  and  purely  deciduous  forests  vary  greatly  according  to 
rainfall,  elevation,  soil,  configuration,  &c.,  while  in  the  dry  and  the 
arid  tracts  with  less  than  thirty  inches  the  vegetation  is  usually  scanty 
and  more  or  less  scrub-like. 

As  has  been  briefly  indicated  above,  any  irregularity  or  weakness 
in  the  rain-bringing  monsoon  currents,  and  especially  in  the  great 
south-western  monsoon  which  profoundly  affects  the  whole  of  India 
except  the  eastern  portion  of  Madras,  is  bound  to  influence  the  agri- 
cultural crops  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  wherever  their  thriving  is 
dependent  solely  on  rainfall.  Whenever  any  considerable  irregularity 
occurs,  and  more  particularly  when  there  is  a  shortage  of  rain,  crop- 
failure  and  consequent  scarcity  are  bound  to  be  the  direct  and 
immediate  results.  And  this  not  only  affects  the  landowners  and  the 
tenant  occupiers,  but  also  the  poorest  labouring  classes  who  work  in  the 
fields  for  hire,  as  then  there  is  less  work  for  them.  But  even  when  there 
is  a  scarcity,  this  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  famine  is  about  to 
ensue.  Extremely  thrifty  as  a  rule,  the  Indian  peasant  can  generally 
survive  with  admirable  equanimity  the  loss  of  one  bad  season ;  and  by 
means  of  the  good  railway-net,  food-grain  can  now  be  easily  poured 
into  tracts  where  scarcity  is  announced.  But  not  being  a  capitalist, 
and  the  individual  holdings  being  usually  small,  his  credit  with  the 
local  money-lenders  soon  shrinks  when  a  harvest  fails.  And  when, 
as  is  unfortunately  now  so  very  often  the  case,  there  has  been  a  suc- 
cession of  years  of  drought,  then  the  resources  of  the  patient  and 
resigned  Indian  peasant  soon  become  exhausted,  and  famine  appears 
with  all  its  horrible  sufferings  and  their  terrible  after-effects  in  the 
shape  of  epidemic  diseases.  On  their  crops  failing  the  poorer  agri- 
cultural classes  first  try  to  eke  out  a  scanty  livelihood  by  gathering 
and  eating  wild  fruits  and  roots  in  any  neighbouring  jungles,  and  it 
is  only  when  the  hard  pressure  of  actual  want  becomes  keenly  felt 
that  they  can  bring  themselves  to  quit  their  fields  and  go  to  the  test 
works  opened  by  Government  for  famine  relief.  And  so  strongly  is 
the  Indian  peasant  bound  to  his  ancestral  holding  by  caste  and  by  all 
that  he  believes  in,  that  he  absolutely  declines  to  remove  from  his 


150  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

habitual  surroundings  to  other  parts  of  his  province,  or  other  parts  of 
the  empire,  where  vacant  land  is  still  easily  obtainable  in  fertile  regions 
well  provided  with  water  either  naturally  or  artificially  supplied. 

In  former  times,  when  the  Mahrattas  and  Pindaris  laid  waste  and 
terrorised  the  whole  of  Central  India  throughout  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  down  to  the  time  when  the  entire  empire  came  under  British  rule, 
matters  were  much  worse  than  they  now  are,  when  so  much  has  been 
done  to  improve  the  old  systems  of  water-storage  in  tanks,  and  to 
provide  abundant  water  perennially  by  vast  irrigation  canals.  But 
while  oppressive  misrule  and  war  have  been  put  an  end  to,  the  blessings 
of  peace  have  to  a  very  serious  extent  aggravated  the  difficulty  needing 
so  often  to  be  dealt  with.  The  suppression  of  female  infanticide,  the 
maintenance  of  peace,  the  saving  of  life  by  such  means  as  hospitals, 
improved  sanitation,  endeavours  to  restrict  and  overcome  epidemic 
diseases,  and  famine  relief  on  a  vast  scale  during  outbreaks  of  famine 
have  all  tended  to  increase  the  population  very  largely.  And  as  this 
increase  is  not  being  balanced  by  a  proportionate  industrial  develop- 
ment throughout  the  Indian  Empire,  or  by  emigration  from  congested 
districts  with  precarious  rainfall  to  non-congested  provinces,  like 
Assam  and  Burma,  with  abundance  of  vacant  virgin  soil  and  unfailing 
rainfall,  it  simply  means  that  whenever  or  wherever  irregularity  or 
shortage  of  rainfall  is  apt  to  produce  scarcity  there  is  all  the  greater 
danger  now  of  this  becoming  a  famine. 

The  greatest  and  as  yet  the  only  means  of  artificially  providing 
soil-moisture  is  irrigation,  of  course ;  and  the  inquiries  made  by  the 
Irrigation  Commission  of  1901-3  showed  that,  with  its  total  population 
of  nearly  300,000,000,  about  53,000,000  acres,  equal  to  17 '6  per  cent,, 
were  ordinarily  irrigated  out  of  the  total  cultivated  area  of  about 
300,000,000  acres.  And  of  these  irrigation  methods  canals  supplied 
19,000,000  acres,  wells  16,000,000,  tanks  10,000,000,  ano!  other  sources 
8,000,000.  For  British  India  alone,  with  its  population  of  about 
220,000,000,  and  an  average  area  of  226,000,000  acres  annually  culti- 
vated, the  area  ordinarily  irrigated  was  44,000,000  acres,  or  19 '5  per 
cent.  ;  and  of  these  irrigated  lands  18,500,000  acres  were  watered 
from  State  and  25,500,000  from  private  irrigation  works.  The  areas 
thus  protected  against  climatic  shortcomings,  and  secured  as  regards 
a  sufficient  water-supply  for  agriculture  by  means  of  irrigation,  are 
mainly  those  which  lie  within  the  operation  of  the  large  canal  systems 
of  the  Northern  Indian  rivers  and  the  deltas  of  the  Madras  rivers, 
and  those  which  can  be  amply  supplied  with  water  from  wells.  But 
outside  of  these  artificially  protected  areas  and  of  the  tracts  with  an 
assured  rainfall  there  must  always  be  a  recurring  danger  of  scarcity 
through  insufficient  natural  moisture,  and  a  consequent  risk  of  famine ; 
and  this  means  that  by  far  the  largest  part  of  India  is  continually 
exposed  to  this  danger,  the  most  frequently  afflicted  parts  being  the 
great  Deccan  plateau,  forming  the  central  portion  of  the  peninsula  of 


1908  INDIAN  FAMINES  AND  INDIAN  FORESTS    151 

Southern  India,  and  the  adjoining  portions  of  the  Central  Provinces 
and  the  Central  Indian  States,  although  Western  Bengal  and  Orissa, 
the  United  Provinces,  and  the  Punjab  have  more  than  once  been  the 
scene  of  very  severe  famines,  and  are  now  again  thus  afflicted. 

In  olden  times  transport  was  primitive,  and  when  famine  occurred 
the  people  just  wandered  and  died.  Thus  in  1769-70,  when  famine 
afflicted  Bengal,  the  loss  of  life  was  estimated  at  10,000,000.  Without 
reckoning  years  merely  of  greater  or  less  scarcity,  parts  of  Madras  have 
throughout  the  last  150  years  been  visited  by  eight  famines,  extending 
over  eighteen  years  ;  and  it  was  in  connection  with  a  scarcity  which 
threatened  to  become  a  famine  there  that  relief  works  were  first 
opened  by  the  British  in  1792,  although  the  obligation  to  provide 
relief  for  all  who  sought  aid  was  not  recognised  till  over  forty  years 
later,  during  a  severe  famine  in  and  around  Agra  and  Delhi  in  1838, 
when  a  fixed  famine  wage  was  given  (230,000?.  being  thus  spent). 
But  regular  relief  works  under  professional  control  were  not  brought 
into  operation  till  the  great  Bellary  (Madras)  famine  in  1854. 

It  was  not  until  after  British  India  had  passed  under  Crown 
government,  however,  that  anything  in  the  shape  of  a  Famine  Policy 
was  considered.  Agra  and  Delhi  having  again,  along  with  Rajputana, 
in  1860-1  suffered  from  famine  extending  over  53,000  square  miles 
with  a  population  of  20,000,000,  a  special  inquiry,  the  first  of  the  kind 
ordered  by  Government,  was  carried  out  by  Colonel  Baird  Smith, 
which  showed  that  stability  of  tenure  and  canal  irrigation  had  already 
improved  the  people's  power  of  endurance.  And  when  land-locked 
Orissa  and  Bihar  in  Bengal  and  the  Bellary  and  Ganjam  districts  of 
Madras  were  in  1865-7  blighted  with  a  famine  affecting  180,000 
square  miles  with  a  population  of  47,500,000,  and  severe  scarcity 
also  extended  all  along  the  south-eastern  coast  and  into  the  Bombay 
Deccan  and  Central  and  Western  Bengal,  a  Commission  of  investiga- 
tion was  appointed  under  Sir  George  Campbell,  which  effectually 
aroused  the  attention  of  Government  to  the  responsibilities  resting 
upon  them. 

From  this  time  may  be  dated  the  humane  modern  relief-policy 
which  has  been  gradually  developed  during  the  last  forty  years,  and 
which  has  now  become  so  far  perfected  as  to  be  a  great  safeguard  in 
preventing  serious  loss  of  human  life,  though  it  does  not  in  the  very 
slightest  degree  attempt  to  improve  the  local  conditions  as  to  climate  and 
soil-moisture,  except  where  irrigation  is  practicable  in  areas  lying  lower 
than  the  beds  of  the  great  rivers  at  the  points  where  these  can  be  utilised  as 
sources  of  water-supply. 

Almost  immediately  thereafter  the  great  famine  on  the  eastern  side 
of  the  peninsula  was  followed  by  another  equally  severe  famine  on 
the  western  side,  affecting  296,000  square  miles  with  a  population  of 
44,500,000,  and  centring  in  Ajmer  and  Rajputana,  also  a  land-locked 
area.  It  was  during  this  famine  that  Sir  William  Muir,  Lieutenant 


152  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

Governor  of  the  North-Western  Provinces,  issued  his  oft-quoted 
order  that '  every  district  officer  would  be  held  personally  responsible 
that  no  deaths  occurred  from  starvation  which  could  have  been 
avoided  by  any  exertion  or  arrangement  on  his  part  or  that  of  his 
subordinates,'  in  spite  of  which  the  mortality  was  high,  owing  to  the 
great  immigration  that  took  place  into  British  territory  from  the 
Native  States. 

When  the  next  famine  broke  out,  in  1873-4,  affecting  54,000  square 
miles  in  Bihar  with  a  population  of  21,500,000,  the  vast  expenditure 
of  6,750,OOOZ.  was  incurred  in  somewhat  indiscriminate  gratuitous 
relief.  Two  years  later  another  Southern  Indian  famine  occurred, 
in  1876-8,  which  in  its  second  year  included  not  only  Madras,  Mysore, 
Hyderabad,  and  part  of  Bombay,  but  also  extended  into  the  Central 
and  the  United  Provinces  and  the  Punjab,  affecting  a  total  area  of 
257,000  square  miles  with  a  population  of  58,500,000.  Sir  Richard 
Temple  was  then  sent  down  as  Famine  Commissioner  to  assist  the 
Madras  Government  and  to  ensure  that  suitable  precautions  should 
be  taken  against  such  reckless  expenditure  as  had  been  incurred  in 
Bihar.  Relief  administration  was  much  stricter,  and  a  famine  wage 
of  one  pound  of  grain  plus  one  anna  per  man  (known  as  *  the  Temple 
wage ')  was  fixed,  but  was  afterwards  found  to  be  insufficient  except 
under  favourable  conditions.  And  though  these  measures  cost  about 
8,000,OOOZ.,  yet  the  extra  famine  mortality  in  British  territory  alone 
was  estimated  at  5,250,000. 

While  Madras  and  Bombay  were  still  suffering  from  this  famine 
that  began  in  1876,  and  then  extended  to  the  United  Provinces  and 
the  Punjab  in  1877-8,  modern  relief  policy  became  definitely  outlined 
by  the  Secretary  of  State's  declaration  in  1877  that  '  the  object  of 
saving  life  is  undoubtedly  paramount  to  all  other  considerations.  But 
it  is  essential  that  .  .  .  you  are  bound  to  adopt  precautions  .  .  . 
similar,  so  far  as  the  circumstances  of  India  permit,  to  those  with 
which  in  this  country  it  has  always  been  found  necessary  to  protect 
the  distribution  of  public  relief  from  abuse.'  This  was  the  key-note 
struck  when  the  appointment  of  the  first  Famine  Commission  was 
ordered  in  the  despatch  of  the  10th  of  January  1878;  '  to  collect 
with  the  utmost  care  all  information  which  may  assist  future  adminis- 
trations in  the  task  of  limiting  the  range  or  mitigating  the  intensity  of 
these  calamities.' 

This  first  Famine  Commission  was  appointed  on  the  16th  of  May 
1878,  with  General  (afterwards  Sir  Richard)  Strachey  as  president ; 
and  it  submitted  its  long  report  on  the  31st  of  July  1880.  If  there 
was  any  previous  doubt  about  the  matter,  it  established  beyond 
further  question  the  fact  that  all  Indian  famines  are  caused  by  drought, 
and  '  that  Indian  famines  are  necessarily  recurring  calamities,  against 
which  such  precautions  as  are  possible  must  be  taken  beforehand,  and 
that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Government  to  do  its  utmost  in  devising  some 


1908  INDIAN  FAMINES  AND  INDIAN  FORESTS    168 

means  of  protecting  the  country,  and  to  persevere  in  its  attempts  till  some 
solution  of  the  problem  has  been  obtained.'    It  therefore  recommended 
the  adoption  of  '  a  definite  system  of  procedure,  to  be  embodied  in  a 
famine  code,'  and  urged  the  importance  of  improved  meteorological 
observations  and  the  dissemination  of  the  useful  information  thus 
obtainable  in  advance.     These  recommendations  were  embodied  in  a 
Provisional  Famine  Code,  which  was  circulated  in  1883,  and  under 
which  Provincial  Codes  were  drawn  up  for  future  guidance  and  action. 
Among  the  questions  on  which  the  Commission's  opinion  was 
asked  was  one  concerning  the  influence  which  the  denudation  of  forests 
may  have  upon  the  rainfall  and  on  the  subsequent  retention  of  the  rain- 
water in  the  soil,  and  its  effect  on  the  permanence  of  springs  or  flowing 
streams.     This  was,  in  point  of  fact,  the  renewal  of  a  very  important 
question  which  had  been  brought  before  the  notice  of  the  Government 
thirty  years  previously.     In  1846  Dr.  Gibson,  then  acting  as  Con- 
servator of  Forests  in  Bombay,  had  pointed  out  the  serious  effects 
that  were  already  ensuing  from  extensive  clearance  of  woodlands 
during  the  previous  fifty  years.     He  had,  in  a  letter  dated  the  9th  of 
March  1846,  clearly  stated  that  unrestrained  clearances  had  diminished 
the  fertility  of  neighbouring  gardens  and  rice-lands,  and  of  the  sur- 
rounding tracts  generally,  and  that  if  continued  they  must  necessarily 
have  the  disadvantageous  effect  of  considerably  increasing  the  mean 
annual  temperature  and  the  aridity  of  the  climate.     As  proof  of  this 
he  showed  that  since  extensive  clearances  of  forest  had  been  made 
in  the  South  Konkan  the  people  asserted  that  the  springs  had  dried  on 
the  uplands,  and  that  the  climate  had  become  much  drier,  the  seasons 
more  uncertain,  and  the  land  less  fertile.     This  and  other  similar 
representations  led  the  Court  of  Directors  to  send  out  a  despatch 
(No.  21,  dated  the  7th  of  July  1847)  asking  the  Government  of  India 
to  ascertain  '  the  effect  of  trees  on  the  climate  and  productiveness 
of  a  country,  and  the  results  of  extensive  clearances  of  timber.'    The 
Government  of  India  at  once  took  action  ;  but  the  times  were  troublous, 
and  only  three  reports  from  Madras  collectorates  were  published. 
These  gave  valuable  evidence  about  the  drying  up-  of  springs  after 
forest  clearance  and  the  effect  of  this  on  water-storage  at  the  base  of 
hills,  the  rapidity  of  forest  denudation  since  the  introduction  of  rail- 
ways, the  injurious  effects  of  extensive  clearance  on  climate  and  soil- 
fertility,  and  the  assertion  of  the  cultivators  in  Trichinopoly  that 
where  the  forests  had  been  cleared  the  heat  and  wind  were  much 
increased,  and  that  dry  cultivation  had  extended  greatly  owing  to  a 
diminished  water-supply  in  the  tanks  and  wells.    Among  scientific 
bodies  at  home,  too,  the  forestal  question  in  India  was  arousing  serious 
attention,  and  in  1851  the  British  Association  appointed  a  Committee 
to  consider  the  probable  effects,  from  both  economical  and  physical 
points  of  view,  of  the  destruction  of  forests  ;  and  this  Committee 
reported  urging  forest  conservancy  and  planting  operations. 


154  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

No  definite  reply  was  ever  officially  given  to  the  very  important 
questions  raised  in  that  despatch  of  1847.  But  this  matter  had  now 
again  come  before  the  Government  of  India  in  Sir  Kichard  Temple's 
report  on  the  Madras  famine  of  1877,  in  which  he  said — 

We  cannot  but  reflect  whether  the  uncertainty  of  season,  which  often  proves 
so  disastrous  in  Southern  India,  is  not  becoming  worse  and  worse  ;  whether 
there  may  not  be  some  physical  causes  at  work  to  render  the  rainfall  precarious  ; 
and  whether  such  causes  can  be  ascertained  and  obviated.  It  is  hard  to  con- 
ceive a  question  more  practically  important  than  this.  The  discussion  of  it 
would  be  beyond  the  scope  of  this  minute.  But,  connected  with  it,  there  is 
one  particular  matter  which  may  be  mentioned  forcibly,  though  briefly.  The 
Southern  Peninsula  of  India  has  been  or  is  being  denuded  not  only  of  its  forests 
but  also  of  its  jungles,  its  groves,  its  brushwood,  its  trees.  The  denudation  has 
been,  as  I  understand,  going  on  near  the  sources  and  in  the  upper  courses  of 
the  many  rivers  which  water  the  country.  This,  perhaps,  is  being  in  some 
degree  checked.  But  with  the  progress  of  coffee-planting,  and  with  the  assertion 
of  commercial  rights  on  behalf  of  the  people,  the  utmost  vigilance  will  be  needed 
to  keep  it  within  bounds.  If  it  were  to  proceed  unchecked,  there  would  be 
imminent  danger  of  the  rivers  running  dry.  .  .  .  And,  as  these  rivers  supply 
the  great  canal  systems,  this  danger  has  only  to  be  mentioned  in  order  to  be 
felt.  The  same  argument  applies  in  a  lesser  degree  to  the  tanks  or  lakes,  which 
are  second  only  to  the  canals  in  usefulness  for  irrigation.  It  has  already  been 
seen  how  precarious  is  the  question  of  these  reservoirs,  even  with  one  year's 
drought.  ...  In  the  midst  of  cultivated  tracts  there  are  to  be  seen  bare,  sterile 
hill-sides  said  to  have  been  forest-clad  within  living  memory.  In  such  localities 
the  climate  is  supposed  to  have  been  changed  for  the  worse.  Beyond  the  ghat 
mountains,  in  Bellary  and  Kurnool,  the  treeless,  shrubless  aspect  of  the  country 
is  as  wonderful  as  it  is  melancholy.  These  are  the  very  districts  where  famine 
has  been  occasionally  epidemic  and  where  scarcity  has  been  almost  endemic. 

This  subject  was  therefore  referred  to  the  Famine  Commission  in 
1878,  and  the  results  of  their  investigations  are  contained  in  three 
pages  (177-9)  dealing  with  '  Forest  Conservancy '  (Report,  part  ii. 
chap.  vi.  sect,  ii.),  which  may  be  summarised  as  follows  so  far  as  they 
bear  on  the  particular  points  at  issue  : — 

1.  ...  Whether  the  presence  or  absence  of  forests  has  any  direct  effect  on 
precipitating  rain  is  a  much  disputed  point,  which  we  shall  not  attempt  to  decide  ; 
but  there  is  before  us  a  great  amount  of  evidence  from  all  parts  of  India  that  the 
destruction  of  forests  is  believed  to  have  acted  injuriously  by  allowing  the 
rain  waters  to  run  off  too  rapidly.     They  descend  from  the  hill-sides  in  furious 
torrents,  which  carry  down  the  soil,  cause  landslips,  and  form  sandy  deposits 
in  the  plains,  so  that  the  surface  drainage,  which,  if  gently  and  evenly  distributed 
over  an  absorbent  soil  protected  by  vegetation,  should  furnish  a  perennial  supply 
of  fertilising  springs,  passes  rapidly  away,  and  the  streams  into  which  it  collects 
quickly  cease  to  flow,  after  causing  mischief  instead  of  good.  .  .  . 

2.  The  action  of  the  State,  which  certainly  was  too  long  deferred,  has  every- 
where been  much  hampered.  .  .  . 

7.  ...  but  the  Indian  Forest  Act  of  1878  has  at  length  given  the  Executive 
ample  powers  to  arrest  further  waste  and  denudation,  and  to  administer  the 
forest  resources  to  the  greatest  public  advantage. 

9.  ...  We  think  it  probable  that  some  of  the  least  productive  tracts  now  under 
the  plough  might  be  managed  with  greater  benefit  to  the  community  as  protected  forest 
for  village  uses  than  as  arable  land. 


1908  INDIAN  FAMINES  AND  INDIAN  FORESTS    155 

10.  So  far  as  any  immediate  advantage  is  to  be  sought  from  the  extension  of 
forest  in  respect  to  protection  against  drought,  it  will,  in  our  opinion,  be  mainly 
in  the  direction  of  the  judicious  inclosure  and  protection  of  tracts  .  .  .  from 
which  improved  and  more  certain  pasture  may  be  secured  for  the  cattle  of 
the  vicinity,  a  supply  of  firewood  secured  which  may  lead  to  a  more  general 
utilisation  of  animal  manure  for  agriculture,  and  a  possible  addition  made  to 
the  power  of  the  subsoil  to  retain  its  moisture,  and  to  the  prospect  of  maintain- 
ing the  supply  of  water  in  the  wells.  ...  As  to  the  protection  of  the  higher 
hill-slopes  from  denudation,  it  may  confidently  be  stated  that  they  will,  in  any 
case,  be  more  useful  if  kept  clothed  with  wood  than  subjected  to  the  wasteful 
and  destructive  process  by  which  they  are  brought  under  partial  and  temporary 
cultivation,  and  that,  whether  the  expectation  of  an  improved  water  supply  as  a 
consequence  of  such  protection  is  fully  realised  or  not,  there  is  on  other  grounds 
sufficient  reason  for  arranging  for  the  conservation  of  such  tracts  where  it  is 
practicable. 

In  the  main  portion  of  the  Commission's  report,  however,  no  refer- 
ence whatever  was  made  to  forests,  and  the  Forest  Department  is 
not  even  mentioned  in  that  part  of  it  (par.  120)  which  urges  the 
*  co-operation  of  all  departments  .  .  .  apart  from  demands 
arising  in  relation  to  direct  measures  of  relief.' 

Further  light  was  thrown  on  this  most  important  subject  when 
Dr.  J.  A.  Voelcker,  consulting  chemist  to  the  Koyal  Agricultural 
Society,  was  sent  out  in  1892  to  study  and  advise  on  agricultural 
matters,  and  embodied  his  opinions  in  a  Report  on  the  Improvement  oj 
Indian  Agriculture,  1893.  In  the  chapters  dealing  with  '  Climate  ' 
and  '  Wood '  he  made  very  valuable  observations  concerning  the 
relation  between  agriculture  and  forests  ;  and  he  gave  proper  apprecia- 
tion to  the  work  of  the  Forest  Department,  which  was  even  then  still 
accursed  in  the  eyes'  of  many  district  officers.  With  regard  to  wood- 
lands he  said — 

38.  ...  I  would  point  out  that  their  real  influence  and  value  consist  hi  their 
lowering  the  temperature,  and  thus  causing  moisture  to  be  deposited  where  it 
would  otherwise  pass  on.  .  .  .  Thus,  a  given  quantity  of  rain  will  be  distributed 
over  a  greater  number  of  days,  and  its  value  to  the  agriculturist  will  be  thereby 
largely  increased.  .  .  .  Though  immense  tracts  of  country  have  been  denuded 
in  the  past  there  are  still  considerable  areas  which  can  be  taken  up  and  rendered 
serviceable  for  climatic  ends,  and  the  Forest  Department  has  stepped  in  none 
too  early  in  the  endeavour  to  save  those  wooded  tracts  which  are  still  left.  From 
climatic  considerations  alone  the  work  of  the  Forest  Department  is,  accordingly, 
of  importance.  .  .  . 

180.  Having  instanced  sufficiently  the  need  of  more  firewood  for  agricultural 
purposes,  I  must  now  express  my  concurrence  with  the  views  that  have  been  .expressed 
both  by  Governments  and  by  individuals,  that  the  way  in  which  the  supply  of  wood 
to  agriculture  can  be  best  increased  is  by  the  creation  of  new  enclosures  for  the  purpose 
of  growing  wood,  scrub  jungle,  and  grass.  Such  enclosures  are  now  denominated 
'  Fuel  and  Fodder  Reserves.' 

182.  The  question  was  often  asked  by  me,  why  the  Forest  Department  has 
not  created  more  '  Fuel  and  Fodder  Reserves '  .  .  .  Undoubtedly  progress  is 
hampered  by  an  insufficient  staff,  but  I  consider  this  important  question  must 
not  be  longer  delayed. 

197.  Such  '  reserves '  should  be  primarily  adapted  to  serve  agricultural  ends. 


156  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

There  is  a  considerable  amount  of  land  which  might  be  taken  up  for  this  purpose, 
in  others  land  must  be  purchased.  The  results  must  not  be  gauged  by  financial 
considerations  alone,  but  by  the  benefits  conferred  on  the  agricultural  population, 
the  keeping  up  of  the  soil's  fertility,  and  the  maintaining  of  the  Land  Revenue  to 
the  State.  Enquiry  is  needed  in  order  to  ascertain  exactly  what  the  requirements 
of  each  district  are  in  respect  of  fuel,  &c.,  and  how  these  may  be  met.  Continued 
encouragement  should  be  given  to  the  spread  of  Arboriculture.  The  Forest 
Department  is  certainly  undermanned,  and  the  present  financial  check  placed  upon 
its  further  development  in  an  agricultural  direction  should  be  removed. 

The  first-fruits  of  Dr.  Voelcker's  report  appeared  in  a  Government 
of  India  resolution  in  October  1894,  when  it  was  formally  declared 
that '  the  sole  object  with  which  State  forests  are  administered  is  the  public 
benefit';  and  this  has  been  the  policy  adopted  since  then.  Very  soon 
thereafter  a  striking  example  of  the  direct  utility  of  forests  in  pro- 
viding edible  roots  and  fruits  and  fuel  for  the  relief  of  the  labouring 
poor,  and  of  the  advantages  obtainable  in  granting  them  free  collection 
of  grass  for  their  starving  cattle,  occurred  in  1894  during  serious 
scarcity  in  parts  of  the  Central  Provinces.  '  Nothing  that  was  done 
for  the  relief  of  the  people,'  the  resolution  thereon  stated,  '  is  said  to 
have  been  more  appreciated  than  the  concession  made  in  this  respect.' 

The  first  severe  test  to  which  the  Famine  Codes  were  put  came  in 
1896.  In  the  Bundelkhand  district  of  the  United  Provinces  the 
summer  rainfall  of  1895  was  scanty  and  the  winter  rains  failed,  and 
relief  works  were  begun  early  in  1896.  The  monsoon  of  1896  was  also 
weak,  and  famine  soon  spread  over  between  a  quarter  and  one-third 
of  all  India.  The  whole  of  Central  India  was  famine-stricken,  together 
with  parts  of  Madras,  Bombay,  the  Punjab,  Bengal,  and  Upper 
Burma,  the  afflicted  areas  aggregating  about  307,000  square  miles 
with  a  total  population  of  69,500,000,  of  whom  4,000,000  had  to  be 
given  relief  whilst  the  famine  was  at  its  height.  Never  before  had 
famine  relief  operations  been  so  extensive.  Over  820,000,000  units 
received  relief,  at  a  cost  of  nearly  6,000,000?.,  besides  large  remissions 
of  revenue  and  loans  afterwards  made  for  the  purchase  of  plough 
cattle.  But  in  British  districts  alone  the  famine  mortality  was  about 
750,000  before  the  autumn  harvest  of  1897  ended  the  general  distress, 
which  was  followed  by  an  exceptionally  heavy  death-rate  from  fever 
and  other  epidemic  diseases  always  following  in  the  wake  of  famine, 

As  soon  as  this  great  distress  was  ended  a  second  Famine  Com- 
mission, of  which  Sir  James  Lyall  was  president,  was  appointed  on 
the  23rd  of  December  1897,  to  examine  and  compare  the  various 
systems  of  relief  adopted  locally  and  the  results  attained,  and  '  to 
make  any  enquiries  and  record  any  recommendations  or  opinions 
which  it  is  thought  will  prove  useful  in  the  case  of  future  famines.' 
Under  the  Provincial  Famine  Codes  special  arrangements  had  been 
made  for  the  withdrawal  of  restrictions  tending  to  exclude  persons  in 
distress  from  the  full  benefits  of  the  natural  products  of  the  Reserve 
Forests  or  waste  lands  containing  an  important  supply  of  edible  produce 


1908  INDIAN  FAMINES  AND  INDIAN  FORESTS    157 

and  also  for  the  protection  of  cattle,  when  the  pasture  was  about  to  fail, 
by  sending  them  to  the  nearest  Reserves  that  could  be  opened  and 
by  supplying  them  with  fodder  and  water  on  the  way  there.  The 
only  direct  mention  made  of  the  forests  in  this  Commission's  report, 
dated  the  20th  of  October  1898,  is  with  regard  to  Bombay,  where — 

141.  The  operations  undertaken  by  the  Forest  Department,  with  the  object 
of  supplying  the  distressed  districts  with  grass,  cut  and  compressed  in  the  more 
favoured  parts  of  the  presidency,  constituted  an  important  departure  from  the 
prescriptions  of  the  local  famine  code,  which  are  confined  to  measures  for  throwing 
open  the  forests  for  free  grazing  and  the  collection  of  edible  products.  Effect 
was  given  to  these  measures  both  in  the  distressed  tracts  and  in  adjoining  districts. 
But  in  the  distressed  areas  the  drought  affected  equally  the  forests,  and  the 
agriculturists  refused  to  send  their  cattle  to  distant  forests.  The  fodder  opera- 
tions involved  a  net  loss  ....  but  it  is  claimed  that  many  valuable  cattle  have 
thereby  been  kept  alive,  and  that  the  results  of  the  experiment  will  be  of  great  use 
in  future  droughts. 

Similar  evidence  had  just  before  then  been  published  in  the  Madras 
Relief  Fund  Committee's  report  for  1897  (vol.  ii.  p.  373). 

The  solution  which  promised  the  best  hopes  of  success  .  .  .  consisted  in 
throwing  open  to  free  grazing  all  the  forests  in  the  Ceded  districts  .  .  .  [i.e.  of 
the  Deccan,  where  the  cattle  numbered  about  three  million,  and  where  the  forest 
area  exceeded  3,810,000  acres,  much  of  which  was,  owing  to  its  altitude,  exempt 
from  the  parched  condition  of  the  plains  and  lower  hills]  .  .  .  The  proposal  was 
...  to  induce  the  ryots  to  club  their  cattle  into  herds  under  appointed  drovers, 
'  who  should  take  the  cattle  into  the  reserves  under  the  supervision  of  Revenue 
inspectors,  and  keep  them  there  till  better  times  came.  This  plan  was  in  accord- 
ance with  old  native  custom,  and  is  believed  to  be  by  far  the  best.  Under  a  sky 
of  brass  a  wind  like  scorching  fire  was  sweeping  over  the  Deccan,  and  the  fate  of 
its  cattle — all  but  the  large  stall-fed  bullocks  of  the  richer  ryots — depended 
upon  the  promptitude  with  which  the  herds  were  rescued.  .  .  .  The  second 
requisite  was  the  opening  of  every  forest  reserve  for  free  grazing.  These  reserves 
cover  an  area  .  .  .  capable  of  carrying  a  million  head  of  cattle.  .  .  .  All  the 
ordinary  herds  could  be  driven  to  these  reserves.  .  .  .  The  reserves  were  at  last 
all  opened  towards  the  end  of  May.  And  nearly  700,000  head  of  cattle  benefited 
thereby.1 

Hardly  had  the  Commission  reported,  however,  before  another  and 
even  a  more  widespread  and  serious  famine  broke  out.  Beginning 
in  Ajmer  in  1898,  it  spread  all  around  in  1899,  affecting  an  area  of 
475,000  square  miles  and  a  population  of  59,500,000,  of  whom  6,500,000 
were  receiving  relief  in  July  1900,  while  the  total  number  of  units 
relieved  exceeded  1140  millions.  It  was  at  once  the  most  widespread 
and  the  most  terrible  famine  that  had  ever  occurred  in  India,  and  over 
7,000,OOOZ.  were  spent  in  Government  relief  measures. 

To  inquire  into  this  a  third  Famine  Commission  was  appointed  on 
the  20th  of  December  1900,  with  Sir  Antony  MacDonriell  as  president. 
So  far  as  forests  were  concerned,  its  report,  dated  the  8th  of  May  1901, 
drew  serious  attention  to  the  exceptionally  high  mortality  of  far  over 
four  million  cattle  which  had  been  a  marked  feature  of  this  famine. 

1  Madras  Famine  Report,  1898,  vol.  i.  p.  37. 


158  THE  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  July 

205.  The  great  mortality  of  cattle  in  the  recent  famine  has  pushed  to  the 
front  the  question  of  their  preservation  in  times  of  drought  and  dearth  of  fodder. 
Such  fodder  famines  are  fortunately  rare.     In  an  ordinary  famine,  when  the 
crops  fail  at  a  late  stage  of  their  growth,  there  usually  remain  sufficient  straw 
and  grass  to  save,  at  any  rate,  the  useful  cattle  ;  but  the  recent  famine  has  been 
abnormal  in  this  respect.     It  is  estimated  that  nearly  two  million  cattle,  local 
and  immigrant  combined,  died  in  the  Central  Provinces  and  its  Feudatory  States, 
and  that  an  equal  number  died  in  Bombay.     The  mortality  was  also  great  in 
Berar  and  in  Ajmer,  in  which  latter  district  no  effective  measures  were  taken  to 
prevent  it.  ...  In  their  efforts  to  save  their  cattle  the  Gujarat  agriculturists 
expended  all  their  savings,  themselves  enduring  great  privations  ;  they  sold 
their  jewels  and  even  the  doors  and  rafters  of  their  houses,  we  are  told,  in  order 
to  purchase  fodder.     Their  efforts  failed,  their  cattle  died,  and  with  then*  cattle 
all  their  accumulated  wealth  disappeared,  so  that  Gujarat  became  a  stricken  field. 

206.  ...  In  the  Central  Provinces,  where  the  conditions  were  very  favour- 
able to  success,  well  considered  and  sustained  action  was  taken  by  the  authorities. 
The  free  cutting  of  grass  was  allowed  ;  the  means  of  watering  were  provided, 
as  far  as  possible  ;  forests  were  thrown  wholly  open  to  grazing  ;  and  grass  was  given 
away  in  large  quantities.     The  province  had,  in  fact,  as  a  whole,  more  than 
sufficient  fodder  for  its  requirements,  and  exported  large  quantities  both  of  grass 
and  jawari  straw.     And  yet  the  cattle  died  in  immense  numbers. 

207.  ...  In  Bombay  relief   measures  were   conducted  on  a  scale  hitherto 
unknown  .  .  .  but  the  conditions   were  such  .  .  .  that   no  efforts  .  .  .  could 
achieve  more  than  a  partial  success. 

Regarding  the  deportation  of  cattle  to  the  forests  this  Commission 
did  not  think  it  advisable  to  put  pressure  on  the  people,  as  in  Gujarat 
and  Berar  large  numbers  of  stall-fed  cattle  thus  deported  had  died 
on  the  way,  while  '  the  coarseness  of  the  grass,  the  change  of  water, 
or,  again,  the  scantiness  and  insufficiency  of  the  water-supply,  as 
well  as  the  neglect  of  the  hirelings  in  charge,  are  fatal  to  carefully 
reared  and  stall-fed  beasts.'  But,  they  added  :  '216.  We  think, 
nevertheless,  that  the  forests  should  be  opened  to  all  who  are  prepared 
to  take  the  risks.' 

In  the  second  Famine  Commission's  report  of  1898  there  was  one 
very  ominous  sentence  (par.  404)  :  '  Viewed  as  a  whole  we  consider 
that  .  .  .  the  areas  over  which  intense  and  severe  distress  prevailed 
in  the  famine  of  1896-97  were  greater  than  in  any  previous  famines.' 
And  yet  the  next  famine,  immediately  thereafter,  was  still  more 
widespread  and  distressing.  Now,  this  very  sad  and  serious  state  of 
affairs  is  hardly  to  be  wondered  at.  Ever-widening  areas  of  scarcity 
must  become  the  rule,  unless  far  more  is  done  than  has  ever  yet  been 
attempted  to  afforest  all  waste  lands  and  the  poorest  classes  of  agri- 
cultural soil,  and  to  plant  and  manage  them  solely  for  the  benefit  of 
the  surrounding  agricultural  population  and  their  plough -cattle. 

During  the  fifty  years  previous  to  the  assumption  of  government 
by  the  Crown  there  were  four  famines  and  four  periods  of  scarcity  ; 
and  during  these  last  fifty  years  since  then  there  have  been  twelve 
great  famines,  including  the  two  most  extensive  and  disastrous  that 
have  ever  occurred,  and  six  periods  of  serious  scarcity.  Indeed, 


1908  INDIAN  FAMINES  AND  INDIAN  FORESTS    159 

within  the  last  ten  years  there  have  been  three  great  famines,  and 
serious  scarcity  has  now  become  almost  an  annual  occurrence  in  some 
part  or  another  ;  while  the  famine  of  1907-8,  that  has  for  over  a  year 
been  blighting  Upper  and  Central  India,  has  already  proved  of  long 
duration  and  great  extent.  Now,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
previously  existing  relations  between  woodlands  and  waste  jungle- 
covered  tracts  on  the  one  hand,  and  cleared  agricultural  land  on  the 
other,  have  been  greatly  disturbed  and  entirely  altered  during  the 
last  sixty  years  since  the  Court  of  Directors'  despatch  was  sent  out  in 
1847.  Whatever  beneficial  effects  extensive  wooded  or  shrub-covered 
areas  can  possibly  exert  on  the  temperature  and  the  relative  humidity 
of  the  air,  and  on  the  temperature  and  the  amount  of  moisture  retain- 
able  within  the  soil,  the  sum  total  of  such  benefits  must  necessarily 
have  become  greatly  diminished  through  the  vast  clearances  made 
for  permanent  and  temporary  cultivation  under  British  rule  during 
many  years  of  peaceful  occupation  and  of  rapidly  increasing  popula- 
tion, railway  development,  and  trade.  During  the  last  fifty  years 
under  Crown  government  the  agricultural  situation  in  high-lying 
tracts  has,  despite  the  benefits  of  extensive  irrigation  in  tracts  lying 
lower  than  where  the  great  river-courses  can  be  tapped,  become 
aggravated  by  an  increase  in  population  certainly  exceeding  60,000,000 
and  probably  amounting  to  80  or  100,000,000  souls,  and  by  correspond- 
ingly vast  clearances  of  lands  formerly  covered  with  trees  or  shrubs ; 
and  these  clearances  for  cultivation  must  inevitably  have  simultane- 
ously decreased  the  capacity  of  the  soil  for  retaining  moisture  and 
increased  the  actual  aridity  of  both  the  soil  and  the  atmosphere.  So 
far,  therefore,  as  any  sort  of  opinion  is  justifiable  in  default  of  a  careful 
scientific  enquiry  it  may  be  presumed  that  these  extensive  clearances 
of  woodlands  and  the  pressure  of  a  population  of  300,000,000  now 
requiring  to  be  supported  must  inevitably  have  tended  both  to 
induce  and  to  prolong  the  now  more  frequently  recurring  periods  of 
scarcity,  and  also  to  increase  the  danger  of  scarcity  becoming  famine. 

Although  the  Reserved  and  Protected  Forests  amount  to  nearly 
25  per  cent,  of  the  total  area  of  India,  yet  the  percentage  of  their 
distribution  varies  enormously  (Burma  75,  Assam  45,  Central  Provinces 
and  Berar  21,  Madras  13|,  Bombay  12,  Bengal  and  Punjab  9,  United 
Provinces  4,  Baluchistan  and  North- West  Frontier  2) ;  and  this 
means  that  in  the  hottest  and  driest  parts  and  in  the  most  densely 
populated  provinces,  where  woodlands  and  scrub  jungles  would  afford 
the  greatest  benefits  to  agriculturists  and  their  cattle,  the  forests  now 
exist  only  in  an  inverse  proportion  to  the  need  for  them. 

I  have  before  touched  incidentally  on  this  matter  in  an  article  on 
'  The  Forests  of  India  '  (see  this  Review,  February  1907),  but  I  would 
here  plead  for  more  attention,  a  more  specialised  scientific  and  especially 
botanical  enquiry,  and  more  money  being  devoted  both  to  the  con- 
sideration of  and  also  to  actual  experiments  connected  with  the 


160  TEE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

question  as  to  whether  or  not  the  Government  cannot  do  something 
to  relieve  the  situation  by  (1)  afforesting  all  still  existing  waste  lands 
and  also  acquiring  many  of  the  lowest  grade  cultivated  lands,  which 
are  the  first  to  become  affected  by  and  the  last  to  recover  from  the 
effects  of  drought,  and  (2)  by  endeavouring  so  to  plant  or  sow  them 
with  any  sort  of  trees,  bushes,  coarse  grasses,  or  even  desert  plants 
as  can  possibly  be  made  to  grow  there. 

Thirty  years  ago  the  Secretary  of  State  (despatch  of  the  10th  of 
January  1878,  par.  9)  said  :  '  It  is  of  still  more  essential  importance 
to  ascertain  how  far  it  is  possible  for  Government,  by  its  action,  to 
diminish  the  severity  of  famines,  or  to  place  the  people  in  a  better 
condition  for  enduring  them.'  Never  yet,  however,  has  science  been 
properly  asked,  except  to  a  partial  extent  through  Dr.  Voelcker  in 
1892,  to  aid  in  ameliorating  in  such  manner  the  lot  of  the  patient  agri- 
culturist and  of  his  dumb,  helpless  cattle.  The  Famine  Commissions 
of  1898  and  1901  were  enquiries  by  practical  administrators,  and  only 
considered  forests  as  the  means  of  possibly  providing  edible  roots  and 
fruits,  and  grazing  for  cattle  in  time  of  scarcity.  And  the  Indian 
Irrigation  Commission  of  1901-03  did  not  investigate  the  influence  of 
forests  on  rainfall  and  water-storage.  Nor  is  the  Agricultural  Depart- 
ment in  a  proper  position  to  make  the  searching  investigation  and  the 
authoritative  recommendations  that  seem  called  for. 

I  would  emphasise  what  Dr.  Voelcker  said  in  1893  (op.  cit.  p.  159) : — 

It  is  very  clear,  from  the  instances  I  have  given,  that  there  is  a  good  deal  of 
land  on  which  '  fuel  and  fodder  reserves '  might  be  formed,  and  if  only  syste- 
matic enquiry  be  made  it  will  result  in  showing  .  .  .  that  there  is  very  much 
more  land  available  than  has  been  stated.  In  almost  every  district  [in  the 
North-West  Provinces]  there  are  uncultivated  spots  among  existing  cultivation 
which  would  grow  babul  or  similar  wood  perfectly  well. 

And,  in  addition  to  trees,  bushes,  and  grasses  indigenous  to  India, 
experiments  should  also  be  made  with  the  flora  of  the  drier  tropical 
and  sub-tropical  parts  of  Africa,  America,  Australia.  Here  science 
can  and  should  aid  India,  and  it  rests  with  Government  to  take  the 
necessary  steps  to  obtain  such  assistance.  The  results  would,  of 
course,  not  be  of  immediate  benefit ;  but  the  necessities  of  future 
generations  call  for  the  immediate  commencement  of  experiments 
to  try  and  ameliorate  even  to  a  small  extent  the  existing  precarious 
conditions. 

Far  be  it  from  my  intention  to  say  anything  that  may  be  taken 
to  imply  that  little  or  nothing  has  been  done  in  the  directions  indicated 
by  Dr.  Voelcker  (see  p.  155) ;  but  I  do  urge  that  nothing  adequate 
has  yet  been  done,  and  that  much  has  been  left  undone  which  might 
well  find  even  its  financial  justification  in  the  splendid  and  ever- 
increasing  .annual  revenue  accruing  from  the  work  of  the  Indian 
Forest  Department.  Even  now  there  are  great  possibilities  of  doing 
much  good  in  this  direction.  The  uncultivated  areas  are  still  in  many 


1908  INDIAN  FAMINES  AND  INDIAN  FORESTS    161 

parts  very  extensive,  and  these  waste  lands  receive  little  or  no  atten- 
tion from  Government.  And  although  the  Forest  Department  was 
considerably  strengthened  in  1907,  yet  it  is  still  undermanned  con- 
sidering all  the  extra  work  it  ought  to  be  called  upon  to  do  in  the 
interests  of  Indian  agriculture,  and  of  the  patient,  uncomplaining 
millions  engaged  in  the  toilsome  and  exceedingly  precarious  cultiva- 
tion of  the  soil  throughout  by  far  the  greater  portion  of  our  Indian 
Empire. 

Even  in  Burma,  the  best  wooded  and  one  of  the  best  watered 
of  all  the  provinces,  with  its  75  per  cent,  of  woodlands  and  its  thin 
population,  the  results  of  disturbance  of  the  water-supply  have  already 
been  recently  felt  so  strongly  as  to  have  necessitated  active  measures 
being  taken  to  restrict  and  regulate  hill  clearances.  And  if  that  be 
the  case  there,  then  it  is  certain  that  the  other  parts  of  India  need 
measures  going  very  much  further. 

No  Secretary  of  State  for  India  could  be  more  sympathetic  than 
Lord  Morley  or  more  willing  to  consider  informal  representations  made 
regarding  matters  concerning  the  welfare  of  Indian  agriculture.  After 
his  famous  first  budget  speech  on  the  20th  of  July  1906,  in  which  he 
highly  eulogised  the  work  of  the  Forest  Department,  his  attention  was 
drawn  to  the  fact  that  no  proper  reply  had  ever  been  given  to  the 
despatch  of  1847,  and  that  possibly  such  an  enquiry  as  would  now  be 
necessary  to  probe  this  economic  sore  to  the  bottom  may  probably 
show  that  the  afforestation  and  improvement  of  waste  tracts  for  the 
partial  amelioration  of  agricultural  conditions  in  future  might  well 
be  considered  a  fit  object  towards  which  to  devote  a  fair  share  of  the 
splendid  surplus  annually  accruing  to  the  provinicial  and  imperial 
treasures  from  the  forests  of  India.  Preliminary  action  has  already 
been  taken  in  so  far  that  a  circular  has  been  issued  by  the  Govern- 
ment of  India  calling  upon  the  Provincial  Governments  to  enquire 
and  report  upon  the  influence  of  woodlands  and  scrub-covered  jungles 
on  climate,  soil-moisture,  water-storage,  and  agriculture.  And 
simultaneously  therewith,  in  Notes  on  the  Influence  of  Forests  on  the 
Storage  and  Regulation  of  the  Water  Supply  (Forest  Bulletin  No.  9, 
August  1906),  Mr.  Eardley  Wilmot,  Inspector-General  of  Forests, 
has  touched  on  this  matter  as  regards  some  of  the  drier  parts  of  India. 
But  he  could  not  possibly  deal  fully  with  the  subject,  and  what  is 
needed  is  a  thorough  scientific  enquiry. 

When  these  reports  are  published  they  will  form  the  first  full  and 
complete  official  answer  to  the  question  asked  by  the  Court  of  Directors 
in  1847.  But  they  will  then  only  be  merely  a  preliminary  enquiry  ; 
for  it  is  not  to  administrative  and  executive  officers,  but  to  scientific 
specialists  that  Government  must  look  for  that  particular  kind  of 
aid  that  Indian  agriculture  has  long  stood  so  much  in  need  of. 

J.  NISBET. 
VOL.  LXIV— No.  377  M 


162  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 


THE    UNREST    OF  INSECURITY 


THE  man  in  the  street,  the  man  in  his  club,  and  the  lady  in  her  boudoir 
are  asking  what  it  is  all  about. 

They  want  to  know  what  is  the  meaning  of  all  these  leagues  and 
associations  which  are  being  formed  and  supported  by  men  of 
various  shades  of  political  opinion  and  in  various  walks  of  life ; 
all  purporting  to  have  for  their  object  the*  awakening  of  the  country 
to  a  sense  of  its  insecurity ;  and  all  prescribing  their  own  special 
schemes  for  national  defence ;  without  which  we  are  told  that 
we  are  now — as  a  nation — dangerously  insecure,  and  liable  to  some 
great  national  catastrophe  which  may  cost  us  untold  miseries 
and  humiliations,  with  the  probable  loss  of  our  freedom  and 
independence. 

What  does  it  all  mean  ? 

Are  these  men  who  support  these  leagues  and  associations  all 
cranks  and  nervous  alarmists  ? 

Or  are  they  vulgar  practical  jokers,  trying  to  '  get'a  rise '  out  of 
their  fellow-country-men  and  women  (for  the  women  have  just  as 
much  interest  in  this  matter  as  the  men)  ?  Or,  finally,  are  they 
for  the  most  part  level-headed  Englishmen,  who,  having  given  some 
thought  to  the  course  of  the  history  which  we  are  now  *  making,' 
have  reluctantly  come  to  the  conclusion  that  our  ancient  weapons 
of  defence  have  become  rusty  and  obsolete,  and  that  it  behoves  us 
to  adopt  new  ones,  and  that  speedily,  while  the  day  of  grace  is  still 
ours  ? 

We  have  the  '  Navy  League,'  in  fact  we  have  two  navy  leagues  : 
the  original  one,  and  the  revolted  branch,  which  has  assumed  the  title 
of  the  '  Imperial  Maritime  League.'  Both  of  them  working  towards 
the  same  goal,  though  by  different  methods.  Both  of  them  strenuously 
urging  their  fellow-countrymen  to  maintain  at  all  costs  an  indis- 
putable naval  supremacy  over  all  our  rivals,  either  singly  or  in  any 
probable  combination  against  us. 

Then  we  have  the  '([National  Defence  Association,'  containing, 
amongst  others,  such  distinguished  names  on  its  committee  as  those 
of  Lord  Koberts,  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  Sir  Vincent  Caillard,  Lord 


1908  THE    UNREST  OF  INSECURITY  168 

Castlereagh,  M.P.,  the  Earl  of  Dundonald,  the  Earl  of  Erroll,  the  Right 
Honourable  Walter  Long,  M.P.,  and  many  others. 

This  Association  holds  periodical  meetings,  and  discusses  such 
important  national  subjects  as  '  The  blue- water  school,'  '  The  problem 
of  invasion,'  '  The  citizen's  duty  in  defence,'  '  The  state  of  the  Navy,' 
'  The  defence  of  India,'  '  The  county  associations  and  their  work,' 
&c.,  &c. 

Then  we  have  the  '  National  Service  League,'  headed  by  our 
veteran  soldier  Lord  Roberts. 

This  association,  which  bears  on  its  roll  fifty-two  admirals  besides 
a  very  large  number  of  generals  and  colonels,  shows  thereby  that 
even  professional  seamen  who  have  spent  all  the  best  years  of  their 
lives  in  the  Royal  Navy  and  might  be  expected  to  belong  entirely 
to  the '  blue- water  school,'  are  yet  so  firmly  convinced  that  the  country 
cannot  be  defended  by  the  Navy  alone  that  they  spend  their  time, 
their  energies,  and  their  money  in  striving  to  awaken  their  country- 
men to  the  danger  they  incur  by  entrusting — as  they  do  now — the 
defence  of  the  British  Empire  entirely  to  the  Navy,  without  an 
adequate  Army  to  back  it  up. 

It  is  probably  known  to  most  of  our  readers  that  the  National 
Service  League  was  formed  a  few  years  ago  for  the  purpose  of  advo- 
cating the  compulsory  military  training  of  all  able-bodied  young 
men  in  these  islands,  for  the  purpose  of  home  defence.  The  general 
idea  being  that  it  would  be  very  good  for  the  young  men  themselves 
(irrespective  of  the  feeling  of  security  which  it  would  produce  in  the 
country)  if  every  British  youth  of  sound  physique  and  ordinary  brain- 
power were  put  through  a  short  course  of  military  training  and  rifle 
shooting,  as  the  logical  complement  of  compulsory  education  in 
'  book-learning.'  That  it  would  be  at  least  as  good  for  the  wealthy 
and  so-called  '  idle  '  classes  of  the  community  as  for  the  industrial 
and  working  classes.  That,  in  short,  it  having  already  been  proved 
in  free  and  democratic  Switzerland  that  universal  military  training 
for  home  defence  is  highly  beneficial,  both  to  the  individual  and  to 
the  country,  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  it  will  not  be  equally 
beneficial  in  free  and  democratic  England.  And,  further,  that  so  far 
from  universal  military  training  being  likely  to  produce  a  spirit  of 
aggression  and  jingoism,  exactly  the  opposite  sentiments  will  probably 
be  developed ;  and  when  every  family  knows  it  may  have  to  put 
one  or  more  of  its  members  into  the  fighting  line,  that  knowledge 
will  have  a  sobering  effect  upon  the  nation  and  prevent  further  exhibi- 
tions of  that  music-hall  patriotism  which  has  on  more  than  one  occasion 
detracted  seriously  from  our  reputation  for  dignified  self-control  and 
British  coolness,  showing  us  to  our  neighbours  more  in  the  guise  of 
some  of  those  Southern  races  whose  demonstrative  excitability  we 
have  always  affected  to  despise. 

*) 


164  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

The  case  was  admirably  put  by  Lord  Roberts  when  he  said : 

I  wish  I  could  make  it  clear  to  my  fellow-countrymen  that  the  universal 
obligation  to  share  in  the  national  defence  is  the  surest  guarantee  against  a 
spirit  of  wanton  aggression  and  that  kind  of  irresponsible  jingoism  which  shouts 
for  war  on  the  slightest  provocation,  the  shouter  knowing  full  well  that  he  will 
not  have  to  risk  his  own  skin. 

Those  who  are  opposed  to  anything  in  the  shape  of  compulsion 
for  military  training  ask  those  who  advocate  it  to  show  the  necessity 
for  it  at  this  particular  juncture  in  our  national  life.  The  request, 
at  first  sight,  sounds  reasonable,  as  it  is  not  usual  to  make  fundamental 
changes  in  long-established  institutions  without  good  cause  shown 
for  doing  so.  Yet  in  the  present  case  it  is  not  possible,  and  never  will 
be  possible,  to  show  the  '  necessity '  for  the  change  advocated  until 
after  some  terrible  national  catastrophe  has  happened  ;  and  then,  of 
course,  it  will  be  too  late.  But  it  is  submitted  that  even  if  we 
'  muddle  through  '  our  next  war  with  our  present  antiquated  system 
of  patriotism  by  proxy,  it  will  not  prove  that  we  could  not  have  done 
better  and  cheaper  had  the  manhood  of  the  nation  been  trained  to 
arms  ;  nor  will  it  prove  either  that  such  universal  training  is  not  a 
'  necessity '  for  the  safety  and  independence  of  the  country  in  the 
near  future. 

But  although  it  may  not  be  possible  to  demonstrate  the  '  necessity  ' 
beforehand  in  the  same  way  that  we  prove  a  proposition  in  Euclid, 
it  is  surely  reasonable  and  wise  to  deal  with  such  an  important  subject 
as  national  security  in  accordance  with  the  probabilities  arising  out 
of  the  international  situation  which  we  have  to  deal  with. 

Men  insure  their  houses  and  their  goods  not  only  against  what 
might  be  called  the  '  probabilities  '  of  fire,  but  against  the  '  possibility  ' 
of  loss  by  such  a  catastrophe  as  the  burning  down  of  their  houses  or 
stores.  Is  not  such  a  precaution  equally  incumbent  upon  a  very 
rich  and  much-envied  nation,  or,  rather,  world-wide  Empire  ? 

'  True,'  say  our  critics  ;  '  but  we  are  insured  :  our  all-powerful 
Navy  is  our  insurance,  and  if  that  should  suffer  defeat,  all  the  home 
armies  of  millions  of  trained  men  that  we  could  possibly  muster  would 
not  save  the  country,  as  we  could  be  starved  into  submission  in  a  few 
months  ;  for  our  food  supplies  would  be  cut  off  directly  our  Navy  was 
defeated.' 

'  True  also,'  replies  the  National  Service  League ;  *  but  your 
Empire  can  be  destroyed  without  the  defeat  of  the  British  Navy  ;  and 
if  during  some  future  great  European  war  you  tie  your  Navy  to  the 
shores  of  these  islands,  and  never  allow  the  bulk  of  your  battle  squadrons 
to  be  more  than  forty-eight  hours'  sail  from  the  North  Sea  (as  certainly 
will  be  the  case  under  approaching  conditions),  you  will  lose  your 
Empire.' 

It  is  confidently  submitted  to  the  mature  judgment  of  the  readers 
of  this  Review  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  manhood  of  the  nation  to  be 


1908  THE   UNREST  OF  INSECURITY  165 

ready  to  defend  their  country  from  invasion ;  and  if  we  are  too 
short-sighted,  or  too  misguided  by  silly  sentiment,  to  insist  that  our 
young  men  shall  prepare  themselves  for  this  duty  while  the  day  of 
grace  still  lasts,  our  Navy  will  be  paralysed  from  the  day  that  war 
breaks  out  or  becomes  imminent. 

That  there  should  be  any  question  of  the  invasion  of  these  islands 
is  humiliating  in  the  last  degree,  and  absolutely  inconsistent  with  our 
proud  boast  of  being  the  greatest  Empire  that  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

Wherein  lies  the  wisdom  of  boasting  that  we  own  a  fifth  part  of 
the  habitable  globe,  and  that  three  or  four  hundred  millions  of  men 
and  women  of  various  shades  of  colour  are  subject  to  our  Imperial 
but  beneficent  rule,  whilst  all  our  neighbours  are  well  aware  that  if 
we  were  to  find  ourselves  at  war  to-morrow  with  an  ambitious  rival 
across  the  North  Sea  we  should  stand  trembling  in  our  shoes,  in  fear 
of  a  successful  invasion  of  these  two  little  islands — the  heart  of  the 
Empire  ? 

And  why  ?  Simply  because  we  continue,  as  a  nation,  to  hold 
such  a  distorted  view  of  that  much-abused  word  '  freedom '  that  we 
place  the  freedom  of  the  individual  on  a  higher  level  of  sanctity  than 
the  freedom  of  the  State.  Thus  deliberately  neglecting  to  make  due 
provision  for  carrying  out  the  first  law  of  nature — self-preservation — 
as  a  State ! 

In  other  words,  whilst  we  compel  the  rising  generation  of  lads  and 
lasses  to  receive  education  of  a  more  or  less  useful  kind,  whether 
they  like  it  or  not,  on  the  broad  principle  that  it  makes  of  them  useful 
citizens,  we  totally  neglect  to  complete  the  education  of  the  lads  by 
instructing  them  in  the  most  useful  and  most  important  of  all  duties — 
the  duty  of  preparing  themselves  to  defend  their  country  ;  with  the 
result  that  just  nine- tenths  of  them  shirk  this  duty  altogether,  to  their 
own  loss,  both  physically  and  morally,  and  to  the  ever-increasing 
danger  of  the  land  they  live  in. 

The  precious  freedom  of  the  British  hobbledehoy  is  so  sacrosanct 
that  it  is  considered  to  be  wiser  and  more  patriotic  to  allow  him  to 
follow  his  own  sweet  will ;  to  shirk  his  most  obvious  duty  to  his 
country  in  order  that  he  may  have  plenty  of  time  to  follow  his  own 
private  business  or  pleasure ;  to  smoke  his  pipe  at  a  football  match 
(not  to  play  that  or  any  other  manly  game,  but  merely  to  look  on 
and  applaud) ;  to  slouch  about  at  street  corners  and  the  precincts 
of  public-houses ;  and  to  brag  about  his  liberty  as  a  free-born 
Briton. 

Many  deeds  of  crime  and  folly  have  been  committed  in  the  sacred 
name  of  liberty,  though  perhaps  none  more  foolish,  none  more  short- 
sighted or  more  dangerous  to  the  future  of  the  integrity  and  indepen- 
dence of  these  islands,  than  that  folly  which  we  are  now  committing 
in  its  name  by  allowing  nine-tenths  of  our  lads  to  grow  up  into  man- 
hood without  instructing  them  and  preparing  them  to  assume  when 


166  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

necessary,  and  qualifying  them  to  undertake,  the  most  obvious  and 
most  sacred  duty  of  defending  the  land  they  live  in  and  call  their  own : 
whose  institutions  they  profess  to  be  proud  of,  whose  laws  they  are 
always  ready  to  invoke  for  their  own  protection  or  advantage,  but 
whose  liberty  and  inviolability  from  foreign  aggression  they  are  not 
ready  to  defend.  In  short,  they  claim  their  '  rights  '  without  acknow- 
ledging their  duties  and  their  obligations,  and  they  are  quietly  allowed 
to  do  so  by  the  law  of  the  land.  What  a  travesty  of  the  word 
'  liberty ' ! 

Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  of  America  are  generally 
supposed  to  be  the  two  most  peace-loving  nations  on  earth,  and  they 
have  every  reason  to  be  so.  They  are  both  of  them  rich,  and  they 
both  have  (practically  speaking)  as  much  territory  as  they  want ; 
at  any  rate,  as  much  as  they  can  comfortably  manage.  They  desire 
therefore  the  status  quo  :  to  be  left  alone  by  their  neighbours  to  enjoy 
their  inheritances  in  peace.  The  United  States,  from  their  geographical 
position,  are,  for  the  present  at  any  rate,  relieved  from  all  fear  of 
foreign  aggression.  They  are  safe  from  outside  attack,  and  the  only 
national  troubles  which  could  possibly  overtake  them  must  hence 
arise  from  internal  dissensions  and  disruption.  A  great  national 
army  would  not  protect  them  against  this  danger ;  in  fact,  might 
have  exactly  the  opposite  tendency. 

The  case  of  Great  Britain  is  different,  and  there  is  no  rational 
comparison  between  the  two  countries  in  this  respect.  The  British 
Empire,  from  its  geographical  position,  is  more  open  to  attack  than 
the  territories  of  any  other  nation  on  earth.  It  is  rich  and  prosperous, 
and  naturally  excites  the  envy  of  its  neighbours.  Its  foundation  is 
upon  the  sea — an  unstable  element — and  not  only  the  defeat  but 
even  the  partial  paralysis  of  the  British  Navy  would  bring  the  Empire 
tumbling  down  like  a  house  of  cards. 

This  paralysis  will  certainly  take  place'if  we  have  not  sufficient 
land  forces  to  protect  these  islands  from  invasion  at  the  time  that 
Germany  issues  her  challenge.  That  she  will  challenge  us  as  soon  as 
she  is  ready  and  sees  a  good  opportunity  there  can  be  no  reasonable 
doubt ;  in  fact,  we  have  had  fair  warning  to  that  effect — '  Germany's 
future  is  on  the  ocean,'  '  The  twentieth  century  belongs  to  Germany,' 
'  We  must  have  a  navy  of  such  strength  that  the  strongest  navy  in 
the  world  will  hesitate  to  try  conclusions  with  it,'  &c.,  &c. 

Germany  will  be  perfectly  justified  in  challenging  us.  She  is  now 
desirous  of  doing,  and  has  a  perfect  right  to  do,  what  we  ourselves 
have  been  doing  for  the  last  two  hundred  years.  That  is  to  say, 
engaging  in  that  operation  euphemistically  known  as  '  expansion.' 
We  have,  practically  speaking,  come  to  the  end  of  our  expansion,  as 
previously  noted ;  but  it  is  well  to  remember  that  some  of  the  lands 
which  we  '  expanded '  into  were  not  waste  and  unoccupied  lands. 
In  fact,  many  of  them  were  very  thickly  peopled  ;  but  this  fact  did  not 


1908  THE   UNEEST  OF  INSECURITY  167 

hinder  us  from  annexing  them.  It  never  does  when  nations  think 
they  are  strong  enough  to  take  something  they  want ;  and  they  can 
always  find  some  more  or  less  plausible  excuse  for  doing  so — '  Peace- 
able penetration,'  '  The  advancement  of  Christianity,'  '  The  benefits 
of  civilisation  and  commerce,'  '  The  abolition  of  slavery,'  '  The  neces- 
sary compensation  and  salutary  punishment  for  the  murder  of  an 
explorer  or  a  missionary.'  Any  of  these  is  quite  sufiicient  excuse 
for  the  annexation  of  a  tract  of  country,  always  provided  that  you  are 
strong  enough  and  that  your  jealous  neighbours  will  not  object  and 
interfere  with  you. 

There  are,  no  doubt,  many  excellent,  honest,  amiable,  and  thoroughly 
sincere  public  men  in  this  country  who  firmly  believe  that  we  shall  be 
able  to  avoid  war  in  the  future,  if  we  are  only  sufficiently  conciliatory, 
courteous,  and  perhaps  yielding  towards, all  our  neighbours.  There 
are  many  such  men  in  our  present  Parliament,  engaged  in  making 
laws  for  the  government  of  this  great  Empire  and  in  voting  or  hinder- 
ing supplies  for  the  naval  and  military  services,  which  are  maintained 
for  its  defence.  These  excellent  people — '  men  of  peace,'  as  they  call 
themselves — are  endeavouring  to  persuade  their  fellow-countrymen 
that  if  we  could  only  bring  about  some  international  agreement  for 
the  limitation  of  armaments  war  would  become  less  likely,  and  might 
perhaps  be  eventually  abolished  altogether.  They  preach  the  exact 
opposite  to  the  well-known  maxim  '  Si  vis  pacem  para  bellum,'  and 
they  tell  us  that  if  we  wish  for  peace  we  must  not  be  prepared  for 
war.  They  go  even  further  than  this,  and,  with  the  view  of  carrying 
out  their  theories,  they  suggest — and  try  to  enforce — that  Great 
Britain  should  set  the  example  by  reducing  her  expenditure  on  the 
warlike  services.  And  they  even  venture  to  prophesy  (like  Cobden 
did  about  Free  Trade)  that  our  neighbours  will  speedily  follow  our 
example. 

The  proposal  seems  to  be  somewhat  rash,  and  the  assumption 
that  our  neighbours  will  follow  our  example  even  rasher.  We  may 
search  all  history  in  vain  to  find  any  warrant  for  assuming  that  a  rich, 
prosperous,  and  essentially  commercial  nation  rendered  itself  immune 
from  attack  by  reducing  its  armaments  for  defence.  Moreover,  our 
neighbours  have  good  reason  for  doubting  our  sincerity  in  this  matter 
when  they  hear  a  responsible  Minister  declaring  in  the  same  breath 
that  he  has  reduced  expenditure  on  one  of  the  warlike  services  and  at 
the  same  time  added  to  its  efficiency  by  means  of  wiser  administration 
of  its  resources.  This  statement  was  naturally  regarded  abroad  as  a 
piece  of  insincerity — not  to  say  hypocrisy.  In  this  country  it  was 
understood  as  a  rather  clever  method  of  squaring  two  opposite  schools 
of  thought  in  the  right  honourable  member's  constituency,  one  of 
which  desired  efficiency  first  and  economy  second,  and  the  other 
economy  first  and  efficiency  second,  and  of  thus  redeeming  some  glib 
election  pledges. 


168  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  July 

The  two  Peace  Conferences  at  The  Hague  raised  hopes  in  the  breasts 
of  a  few  enthusiasts  which  have  been  somewhat  rudely  dashed  to  the 
ground.  '  Peace  Conferences  '  they  were  called,  though  as  a  matter 
of  fact  they  were  war  conferences.  They  did  nothing  whatever  to 
bring  universal  and  perpetual  peace  one  day  nearer  to  the  nations 
wishing  for  it.  The  later  conference  did  something,  though  very 
little,  to  settle  some  of  the  so-called  practices  of  war  ;  but  in  so  doing 
it  brought  to  light  and  accentuated  in  an  alarming  degree  some  of 
the  opposing  and  quite  irreconcilable  interests  of  those  nations  which 
are  now  struggling  for  naval  supremacy. 

Our  recognised  peace  apostles  abused  the  British  delegates  at 
The  Hague  in  unmeasured  terms.  The  latter  were  alluded  to  as 
incompetent  blunderers  who  had  totally  disappointed  the  hopes  of 
their  country,  and  had  done  nothing  whatever  to  further  the  cause  of 
peace. 

The  latter  accusation  is  undoubtedly  true  ;  but  it  would  seem  to 
be  about  as  reasonable  to  charge  our  greatest  mathematicians  with 
incompetence  because  they  have  failed  to  square  the  circle  as  to  find 
fault  with  Sir  Edward  Fry  and  his  colleagues  because  they  have 
failed  to  alter  human  nature  by  a  display  of  their  persuasive  eloquence. 

Far  wiser,  far  deeper  in  thought,  far  more  practical  in  their  con- 
clusions, are  the  comments  of  the  Chinese  Ambassador  at  the  Hague 
Conference.  They  are  so  direct,  so  honestly  free  from  all  cant  and 
make-believe,  so  quiet  yet  so  earnest  in  their  evident  object  as  an 
exhortation  to  his  country  (the  oldest  civilisation  on  earth)  to  wake 
up  and  adopt  new  methods  for  its  defence,  that  they  will  become 
quite  classical  as  a  contribution  to  the  discussions  on  the  subject  of 
universal  peace  ;  and  a  few  of  them  are  well  worth  quoting  here. 

After  pointing  out  that  while  at  the  first  Hague  Conference 
twenty-six  independent  nations  were  represented,  forty-five  sent 
delegates  to  the  second,  his  Excellency  Chien-Hsiin  proceeds  : 

In  most  cases  the  leading  representatives  were  either  statesmen  or  lawyers, 
with  naval  or  military  experts  to  assist  them.  In  no  case  were  their  arguments 
and  representations  trivial  in  character,  and  each  and  all  did  his  best  to  advance 
his  nation's  interest ;  but,  inasmuch  as  nations  differ  in  status  and  power, 
proposals  made  by  one  nation  would  not  commend  themselves  to  another,  and 
heated  arguments  would  follow,  moving  the  whole  assembly  to  excitement, 
each  representative  insisting  on  his  nation's  sovereign  rights,  and  with  the 
result  that  the  proposal  would  be  dropped  half  way,  or  suspended  in  a  void  of 
empty  theories. 

What  a  delightfully  honest  description  of  a  Peace  Conference  ! 
Chien-Hsiin  then  goes  on  to  say  : 

The  first  conference  was  nominally  intended  to  effect  the  limitation  of  arma- 
ments, and  on  this  occasion  England  made  this  her  main  suggestion,  but  on 
proceeding  to  discuss  it  the  members  of  the  conference  could  not  refrain  from 
smiling ;  for,  when  every  Power  is  competing  to  the  uttermost,  which  of  them 
is  likely  voluntarily  to  impose  checks  upon  its  own  martial  ardour  ? 


1908  THE   UNREST  OF  INSECURITY  169 

Which  of  them  indeed  ? — with  the  single  exception  of  England,  who 
seems  to  be  fairly  on  the  road  to  being  taken  in  by  the  old-fashioned 
and  oft-exposed  confidence  trick  :  stinting  and  saving  money  on  her 
defensive  services  in  order  that  she  may  be  able  to  pauperise  her 
working  classes. 

His  Excellency  further  reports  to  the  '  Son  of  Heaven  '  that — 

It  was  expressly  declared,  in  addition,  that  Great  Britain,  Germany,  France, 
America,  Italy,  Austria,  Japan,  and  Russia  are  the  eight  Great  Powers,  which 
plainly  indicated  that  all  other  nations  are  to  be  regarded  as  small  Powers. 

And  he  proceeds  to  give  considerable  point  to  this  remark  by  adding 
a  little  further  on  that — 

The  Great  Powers  naturally  availed  themselves  of  their  power  to  benefit  them- 
selves by  coercing  others  on  the  pretext  of  law.  When  they  wished  to  carry 
some  proposal  they  tried  to  sway  the  assembly  by  an  oratorical  appeal  to  each 
other,  and  when  they  wished  to  defeat  a  proposal  they  secretly  exercised  methods 
of  obstruction  to  promote  disagreement. 

This  last  is  a  somewhat  grave  indictment  against  the  Peace 
delegates,  and  we  can  only  hope  that  the  Chinese  Ambassador  is 
exaggerating,  or,  at  any  rate,  adding  a  little  more  gall  than  necessary 
to  his  remarks,  in  order  to  emphasise  his  disappointment  at  not  being 
included  amongst  the  representatives  of  the  '  Great '  Powers.  For  if 
there  is  any  truth  in  what  he  says,  it  constitutes  a  scathing  criticism 
of  those  gentlemen  who  went  to  The  Hague  with  peace  upon  their  lips, 
but  envy,  hatred,  and  malice  in  their  hearts. 

There  is  something  quite  pathetic  in  the  expression  of  Chien- 
Hsiin's  concluding  remarks,  when  speaking  of  his  own  country.  He 
says  : 

If  she  could  at  the  next  conference  win  a  position  among  the  Great  Powers 
such  as  that  which  Japan  holds  at  the'  present  day,  what  an  unspeakable 
blessing  it  would  be  for  our  country !  But  the  time  soon  passes  by,  and  the 
consequences  involved  are  very  great. 

China  gave  up  militarism  some  centuries  ago,  and  public  opinion 
in  the  Celestial  Empire  has  since  then  despised  the  military  art,  and 
treated  the  soldier  and  all  connected  with  his  calling  as  debasing  and 
degrading  and  only  worthy  of  the  contempt  of  a  highly  civilised  race. 
•  Perhaps  China  was  right — theoretically ;  but  it  did  not  work  out 
in  practice,  and,  unable  to  defend  herself  and  her  territories  by  force 
of  arms,  she  has  been  fleeced,  bled,  insulted,  and  forced  to  submit  to 
the  most  humiliating  conditions  of  the  foreign  intruder  ever  since  she 
came  in  contact  with  more  warlike  nations. 

There  are  many  indications  which  show  that  this  great  and  sleepy 
Empire,  secure  in  her  isolation  until  quite  lately,  is  at  last  beginning 
to  wake  up  to  the  idea  that  perhaps  practice  is  better  than  theory  in 
the  affairs  of  nations  ;  and  there  is  a  store  of  worldly  wisdom  in  the 
concluding  remarks  of  the  Chinese  delegate  at  The  Hague,  quoted 
above,'  to  the  effect  that  if  China  could  only  become  like  Japan  (i.e.  a 


170  THE  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  July 

warlike  nation)  '  what  an  unspeakable  blessing  it  would  be  for  our 
country !  ' 

The  disciples  of  Confucius  may  still  have  to  recognise,  and  act 
upon,  that  most  profound  and  fundamental  truth  of  history — that 
the  warlike  races  inherit  the  earth. 

The  present  position  of  Great  Britain  may  be  briefly  summed  up 
as  follows  :  She  has  not  had  to  fight  for  her  life  for  more  than  a  century 
(1805).1  The  safety  of  these  islands  having  been  assured  since  that 
date  by  the  maintenance  of  an  all-powerful  Navy,  the  warlike 
qualities  of  the  British  race — those  qualities  which  made  of  us  a 
Great  Power  and  founded  the  Empire — have  steadily  deteriorated. 
A  fair. warning  of  this  deterioration  has  been  given  to  us  by  the  dis- 
closure of  our  military  impotence  during  the  Crimean  and  Boer  wars. 
It  is  true  that  our  small  professional  Army  maintained  its  reputation 
for  discipline,  devotion  to  duty,  and  individual  acts  of  personal  valour, 
of  which  any  army  might  well  be  proud  ;  but  the  military  impotence 
of  the  nation — as  a  nation — stood  revealed  to  all  the  world.  And  at 
the  conclusion  of  both  those  wars  the  martial  power  of  Britain  stood 
at  a  far  lower  level  amongst  the  nations  than  it  did  at  the  conclusion 
of  the  Napoleonic  wars. 

Riches,  ease,  inordinate  luxury,  and  devotion  to  amusement  and 
trivial  gossip  in  one  class  ;  the  race  to  be  rich,  the  absorbing  devotion 
to  commercialism  and  money- making  in  another  class  ;  the  jealousy, 
the  discontent,  the  unrest  and  the  struggle  to  secure  for  themselves, 
by  fair  means  or  foul,  a  larger  share  of  the  wealth  produced  by  the 
combination  of  capital  and  labour  in  a  third  class ;  and  the  misery, 
hopelessness,  and  consequent  recklessness  and  despair  of  yet  a  fourth 
class  of  our  population,  have  effectually  undermined,  if  not  destroyed, 
those  warlike  and  heroic  qualities  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  which 
brought  us  into  power,  prosperity,  and  opulence. 

This  dauntless  and  heroic  spirit — the  foundation  of  all  great 
nations,  including  America — appears  to  have  passed  on,  for  the  present, 
to  Germany  and  Japan ;  and  our  Teuton  relations  have  calmly  and 
confidently  told  us  that  it  is  now  their  turn,  and  that,  in  accordance 
with  that  indisputable  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  they  intend 
to  take  our  place  in  the  world  as  the  leading  commercial  and  maritime 
Power  of  Europe.  And  Japan  is  obviously  preparing  herself  on  the 
same  foundation — the  foundation  of  military  and  naval  power — to 
assume  the  commercial  and  maritime  hegemony  of  Asia. 

And  what  are  we  doing  by  way  of  preparation  for  holding  our  own 
in  the  world  ? 

Well,  we  have  just  reduced  our  very  small  regular  Army  by  21,700 
men.  We  have  put  our  irregular  Army  (Militia  and  Volunteers)  into 
the  melting-pot,  and  it  is  not  quite  certain  what  will  come  out  of  it ; 

1  It  has  been  truly  said  that  we  fought  for  our  lives  at  Trafalgar,  and  for  the 
establishment  of  the  peace  of  Europe  at  Waterloo.  Napoleon  gave  up  all  idea  of  the 
invasion  of  England  after  the  defeat  of  the  combined  fleets  at  Trafalgar. 


1908  THE   UNREST  OF  INSECURITY  171 

though  there  are  already  rumours  that  large  numbers  of  Volunteers 
are  resigning,  as  they  naturally  decline  to  give  more  of  their  time 
and  trouble  towards  acquiring  increased  military  efficiency  (as  they 
are  now  being  asked  to  do  by  Mr.  Haldane)  whilst  they  see  nine- 
tenths  of  their  able-bodied  comrades  skulking  and  flatly  refusing  to 
do  anything  at  all. 

With  regard  to  our  Navy,  we  have  virtually  given  up  the  two- 
Power  standard,  and  the  annual  output  of  battleships  which  was 
quite  recently  announced  by  the  Board  of  Admiralty  as  the '  irreducible 
minimum  consistent  with  safety  '  has  been  reduced  to  less  than  half  ; 
and  yet  the  naval  members  of  the  Board  have  not  resigned  their 
offices.  Party  and  place  before  consistency  and  national  safety. 

On  the  2nd  of  March  a  motion  was  brought  forward  in  the  House 
of  Commons  for  a  still  further  reduction  in  our  armaments,  and,  not- 
withstanding that  it  was  rejected  by  a  large  majority,  the  speeches 
of  Ministers  were  obviously  in  sympathy  with  it.  Mr.  Asquith 
told  the  House  and  the  country  that  '  We  on  our  side  had  no 
reason  to  view  with  suspicion  or  apprehension  any  naval  expansion 
there  [in  Germany]  or  elsewhere,  which  should  simply  correspond  to 
the  economic  needs  of  the  country/  &c.,  &c. 

But  the  so-called  *  economic  needs  of  the  country '  consist  of  a 
sustained  national  effort  to  take  their  place  in  the  world  as  a  leading 
maritime  commercial  Power ;  about  which  no  secret  is  being  made, 
but  preliminary  to  which  the  astute  Germans  are  perfectly  well  aware 
that  it  will  be  necessary  for  them  to  build  a  navy  of  such  strength 
that,  concentrated  in  the  North  Sea,  as  it  will  be,  and  supported  by 
a  numerous  and  well-equipped  torpedo  flotilla,  it  will  be  able  to  wait 
and  watch  for  an  opportunity  of  taking  England  at  a  disadvantage 
and  of  striking  a  swift  and  deadly  blow  at  the  heart  of  the  Empire. 
This  opportunity  will,  in  all  human  probability,  arrive  long  before 
the  German  Navy  has  acquired  equality,  or  anything  approaching  to 
equality,  with  our  Navy,  as  we  have  to  watch  and  guard  many  seas 
beside  the  North  Sea.  In  the  meantime  the  Germans  are  rapidly 
gaining  on  us,  and  their  ultimate  object  has  become  so  obvious  to  all 
the  world  that  some  of  their  public  men  have  begun  to  express  alarm 
lest  we  should  strike  before  they  are  ready  ;  but  there  is  not  the  slightest 
danger  of  this.  We  shall  wait  until  they  are  quite  ready  and  allow 
them  to  choose  their  own  time. 

In  the  same  speech  above  alluded  to  the  present  Prime 
Minister  told  the  country  that  *  We  must  safeguard  it,  not  against 
imaginary  dangers,  not  against  bogeys  and  spectres  and  ghosts,  but 
we  must  safeguard  it  against  all  contingencies  which  can  reasonably 
enter  into  the  calculations  of  statesmen.' 

The  proposition  is  indisputable,  so  far  as  the  wording  of  it  goes. 
No  sane  man  wishes  to  guard  against  anything  beyond  reasonable 
contingencies ;  but  a  strong  difference  of  opinion  at  once  arises  as 
to  what  are  and  are  not  '  reasonable  contingencies  ' ;  and  it  would 


172  TEE  NINETEENTH  CENTUEY       July  1908 

certainly  help  to  clear  the  air  if  Mr.  Asquith  were  to  explain  what 
he  means  by  bogeys,  spectres,  and  ghosts.  Invasion  is  constantly 
alluded  to  as  a  bogey,  and  in  fact  that  school  of  optimistic  thought 
to  which  Mr.  Asquith  belongs  rarely,  if  ever,  alludes  to  it  other- 
wise. It  will  not  be  unfair,  then,  to  assume  that  invasion  is  one 
of  the  numerous  bogeys  or  ghosts  which  it  is  not  necessary  for  us  to 
guard  against. 

The  national  dangers  to  which  a  country  may  at  any  time  be 
liable  are  always  very  largely  a  matter  of  opinion ;  and  the  value  of 
opinions  must  be  assessed  in  accordance  with  the  position,  the  know- 
ledge, the  experience,  and  the  authority  of  those  giving  them. 

The  great  Napoleon  did  not  think  the  invasion  of  England  im- 
practicable at  a  time  when  the  British  Navy  held  a  far  greater  superiority 
over  that  of  France  than  it  is  likely  to  do  over  that  of  Germany  in  ten 
years'  time. 

The  German  General  Staff  of  to-day  do  not  think  the  invasion  of 
England  impracticable,  as  they  have  all  the  plans  and  the  details 
made  out  for  carrying  it  into  effect,  and  they  are  kept  well  informed 
and  up  to  date  by  an  admirable  system  of  spies  in  the  shape  of  German 
soldiers  now  serving  as  waiters  (as  the  Japanese  did  as  barbers  at 
Port  Arthur)  in  all  our  principal  hotels  and  restaurants. 

Many  of  our  leading  soldiers,  including  Lord  Roberts,  do  not 
look  upon  the  invasion  of  England  in  the  near  future  as  either  a 
bogey,  a  spectre,  or  a  ghost ;  and  they  ought  to  know  nearly  as  much 
about  the  subject  as  Mr.  Asquith.  One  of  Lord  Roberts'  latest  public 
statements  is  as  follows  : 

I  am  sure  the  most  important  point  to  bring  before  the  public  is  the  possibility 
of  an  invasion.  Until  they  clearly  understand  that  this  may  some  day  happen, 
nothing  will  induce  them  to  listen  to  our  appeals  for  a  national  army.  I  found 
this  on  every  occasion  I  have  spoken,  and  unfortunately  none  of  our  leaders 
nor  the  Press  ever  do  anything  to  arouse  the  people  to  a  sense  of  our  danger 
from  not  having  a  sufficient  and  efficient  land  force. 

Is  Lord  Roberts,  V.C.,  with  his  glorious  records  of  service  to  his 
country,  to  be  regarded  as  a  nervous  alarmist,  easily  scared  and 
frightened  by  bogeys,  spectres,  and  ghosts  ? 

Finally,  the  fact  that  fifty-two  of  our  most  thoughtful  admirals 
have  become  members  of  the  National  Service  League  would  appear 
to  indicate  that  even  the  Navy  itself  does  not  believe  the  country  can 
be  defended  by  the  Navy  alone. 

The  '  unrest  of  insecurity '  will  continue,  and  in  all  probability 
rapidly  increase  under  approaching  conditions,  until  England  not 
only  '  expects  '  but  '  insists  '  that  every  man  shall  do  his  duty. 

C.  C.  PENEOSE  FITZGERALD, 

Admiral. 


The  Editor  of  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  cannot  undertake 
to  return  unaccepted  MSS. 


THE 


NINETEENTH 
CENTUEY 

AND   AFTER 

XX 


No.  CCCLXXVIII- AUGUST  1908 


THE    INSECURITY    OF    OUR    HOME 
DEFENCE    TO-DAY 

As  the  country  generally  seems  to  be  not  in  the  least  alive  to  the 
present  unsatisfactory  state  of  the  Defence  of  our  Home,  I  gladly  avail 
myself  of  the  opportunity  afforded  me  of  putting  forward  in  this 
Review  one  aspect  of  the  condition  of  that  Defence  as  it  appears  to 
me  to-day.  That  aspect  is  its  precariousness.  And  in  so  doing 
I  may  at  once  warn  sailors  and  soldiers  that  it  is  not  they  that  I 
hope  may  give  a  few  minutes  to  the  perusal  of  what  I  am  writing, 
for  they  know  already  quite  as  much,  and  perhaps  more  about  the 
subject  than  I  myself  do.  It  is  the  civilian  educated  English- 
man— aye,  and  what  I  may  call  the  civilian  educated  English- 
woman— that  I  hope  will  give  me  a  hearing.  And  I  purposely 
include  the  latter,  for  all  history  tells  us  of  the  vast  influence  which 
womankind  can  exert  even  on  great  matters  of  state ;  of  the  power 
womankind  can  bring  to  bear  when  the  defence  of  hearths  and 
homes  comes  before  them,  no  longer  as  a  theory,  but  as  an  actuality. 
The  other  day,  in  a  somewhat  southern  county,  a  highly  educated 
lady,  the  wife  of  a  landowner,  whilst  speaking  of  Mr.  Haldane's 
scheme,  put  to  me  the  question  '  And  what  if  our  County  Association 

VOL.  LX1V -  No    378  N 


174  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Aug. 

does  not  really  interest  itself  in  the  matter  ?  '  The  reply  seemed 
to  me  obvious,  and  I  gave  it  at  once  :  '  That  is  your  look-out ;  you  will 
suffer  hereafter.'  And  possibly,  afterwards,  her  husband  may  have 
discounted  my  views,  though  in  this  particular  case  I  doubt  that  he 
did  so,  by  pointing  out  to  her  that  those  views  came  from  a  soldier,  or, 
rather,  an  ex-soldier,  and  that  all  men  of  that  kind  are  alarmists. 
Both  Viscount  Wolseley,  when  giving  evidence  about  the  Channel 
Tunnel,  and  Earl  Roberts,  only  very  recently  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
emphatically  admitted  that,  with  the  country  generally,  the  opinion  of  a 
soldier  on  military  matters  goes  for  little,  simply  from  the  fact  that  he 
is  a  soldier.  It  is  not  so  with  other  professions.  If  a  man,  credited 
with  knowledge  of  what  he  is  talking  about,  calls  public  attention 
to  the  dangers  to  health  and  life  arising  from  some  insanitary  or  other 
conditions,  or  even  from  the  hitherto  unsuspected  presence  of  a  new 
microbe  in  an  article  of  food,  his  warnings  are  accepted  as  having  some 
foundation,  at  all  events.  And  why  ?  Because  it  is  to  self-interest 
of  a  personal  and  individual  character  that  the  warnings  appeal,  and 
it  is  the  instinct  of  personal  and  individual  self-preservation  that 
insures  their  not  being  treated  with  utter  indifference. 

But,  as  has  been  pointed  out  over  and  over  again,  this  personal 
self-interest  is,  in  the  earlier  stages  of  civilisation,  subordinate  to,  and 
merged  in  national  self-interest,  whilst  in  later  stages,  although  the 
calls  of  national  self-interest  are  still  recognised  as  the  first  demands 
on  national  life,  the  recognition  becomes  somewhat  nominal,  the 
demands  are  apt  to  be  ignored,  and  personal  self-interest  becomes  the 
real  and  predominant  factor  in  national  life.  I  have  admitted  the  fact 
of  the  recognition  of  the  calls ;  it  was  shown  in  this  neighbourhood  and 
elsewhere  by  outdoor  fetes  and  rejoicings  on  what  is  called  '  Empire 
Day  ' ;  but  in  what  way  ?  By  treating  some  hundreds  6f  children  to 
tea,  gingerbeer,  buns,  and  cakes.  What  practical  effort  was  being 
made  or  shown  by  the  manhood  of  the  district  to  rise  to  Imperial  calls, 
or  what  self-sacrifices  it  would  make  to  meet  those  calls,  would  be 
difficult  to  discover.  National  self-preservation  no  longer  really  comes 
home  to  the  individuals  of  this  nation  as  a  personal  matter  for  each  ; 
but  it  needs  to  be  brought  home,  and  I  am  trying  here  to  bring  it  home. 
And  now,  putting  on  one  side  the  larger  questions  of  defence  of  the 
Imperial  kind,  about  which  there  is  doubtless  much  legitimate  difference 
of  opinion,  I  will  turn  to  that  of  Home  Defence.  At  present  there  are, 
and  for  some  years  there  will  be,  only  two  nations  that  could  venture 
on  the  attempt  of  an  attack  on  our  Home ;  they  are  France  and 
Germany.  And  the  reasons  are,  firstly,  that  they,  and  they  alone,  are 
sufficiently  near  at  hand  ;  secondly,  that  they,  and  they  alone,  have 
always  ready,  at  the  briefest  notice,  the  mass  of  troops  sufficient  for 
the  land  operations  involved  in  the  attempt.  At  present  we  are 
quite  safe  from  the  catastrophe  ;  but  how  long  that  security  may  last, 
whether  for  years,  or  for  months,  or  even  only  for  weeks,  no  one  can 


1908      INSECURITY  OF  OUR   HOME  DEFENCE      175 

possibly  foresee  ;  it  may  be  for  any  one  of  the  periods.  And  the 
reason  for  the  uncertainty  lies  in  the  distressing  but  undeniable  fact 
that  the  continuance  of  the  delay  in  putting  an  end  to  the  period  of 
security  will  not  be  determined  by  ourselves,  but  depends  on  events 
which  are  either  beyond  our  own  control,  or  are  under  the  control  of 
others.  So  long  as  the  political  barometer  keeps  steady  at  '  Set  Fair ' ; 
so  long  as  India  and  the  Mediterranean  route  to  India  make  no  fresh 
demands  on  our  land  forces  ;  so  long  as  the  Admiralissimo  of  our 
fleets  has  .one  and  only  one  available  employment  for  those  fleets, 
namely,  practising  the  protection  of  our  shores  against  a  non-existent 
hostile  foe,  so  long  may  Britishers  buy  and  sell,  marry  and  be  given 
in  marriage,  and  carry  on  their  ordinary  normal  occupations  with 
confidence.  But  in  these  days  of  nations  topographically  far  apart, 
yet,  owing  to  the  practical  annihilation  of  space,  actually  jostling 
against  each  other  in  their  rivalries,  the  political  barometer  is  liable 
to  great  and  sudden  fluctuations,  and  may  at  any  moment  fall  to 
'  Stormy.'  The  East  may  make  large  demands  on  our  small  force 
of  well-trained  troops  at  home ;  the  Admiralissimo  may  have  to  show 
the  mobility  of  his  fleets  far  away  from  our  shores  against  living,  bitter 
and  determined  enemies,  and  then,  it  may  be  in  a  month's  time,  how 
about  the  defence  of  the  heart  and  vitals  of  the  Empire  against 
France  or  Germany,  or  perhaps  both?  For  to  either  of  them  the 
temptation  to  aggression  may  be  insurmountable.  What  is  hopelessly 
impracticable  to-day  may  have  become  hopefully  practicable 
to-morrow.  Which  of  these  two  countries  is  destined  to  be  the  first 
to  terminate  its  present  friendship  with  us,  and  to  adopt  in  place  of 
it  a  hostile  attitude,  would  be  impossible,  in  the  whirligig  of  inter- 
national politics,  for  any  one  to  predict.  But  even  the  best  and  most 
intimate  personal  friends  sometimes  quarrel  unexpectedly,  and  so  do 
nations.  And  the  unexpected  may  come  at  any  moment.  The  issue 
then  depends  mainly  on  which  of  the  friends  quarrelling  has  been 
best  prepared  for  the  disagreeable  eventuality. 

How  France  stands  in  her  preparation  for  possible  quarrels  with 
other  nations  I  do  not  know  ;  but  I  do  know  something  of  how  these 
matters  stand  in  Germany,  and  therefore,  and  for  this  reason  alone, 
I  propose  to  restrict  my  remarks  to  that  country.  Germany  is,  in  this 
respect,  certainly  formidable,  owing  to  her  always  steadily  keeping 
in  view  the  possibility  of  any  '  hopefully  practicable '  arising  within 
her  sphere  of  action,  and  to  her  quietly  preparing  accordingly  for  its 
advent.  From  the  earliest  days  of  the  gradual  recovery  of  Prussia 
from  the  crushing  blows  delivered  on  her  by  the  Great  Napoleon, 
up  to  to-day,  her  military  policy  has  been  one  and  the  same,  namely, 
look  well  forward  ;  prepare  thoroughly,  the  more  quietly  the  better, 
for  what  lies  in  the  future  ;  do  not  rest  on  laurels  gained,  nor  be 
satisfied  with  only  the  deeds  of  the  past.  On  Germans,  it  is  the 
present  and  the  future  that  have  the  pressing  calls.  And  Germany 

N    2 


176  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

knows  right  well  that  preparation  for  war  is  not  only  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal factors  of  success  in  war,  but  is  an  equally  powerful  factor  in  main- 
taining peace,  should  peace  be  considered  at  any  time  preferable 
to  war.  So  she  is  always  preparing  for  war,  constantly,  steadily, 
without  break  or  pause,  and  her  preparation  is  thorough.  Those 
who  have  seen  anything  of  the  German  Army  in  peace  time  cannot 
fail  to  have  been  struck  with  the  constancy  and  the  thoroughness 
of  the  preparation.  But  the  preparation  is  not  always  for  purposes  of 
offence  ;  and  the  thoroughness  has  to  be  paid  for  with  a  great  expen- 
diture of  personal  time,  labour,  and  self-sacrifice.  I  have  seen,  in  my 
many  visits  to  Metz  and  Alsace-Lorraine  in  past  years,  many  in  stances 
of  this  thorough  preparation ;  and  I  was  much  impressed  on  one  occasion 
with  the  reply  given  to  me  by  my  old  friend  the  late  Lieut.  -General 
von  Wright,  himself  an  Englishman  by  birth,  when  I  expressed  my  great 
admiration  for  the  system ;  his  reply  was  to  the  following  effect : 
'  Yes,  you  English  officers  quite  rightly  admire  our  incessant  prepara- 
tion ;  thorough  it  is,  and  it  is  universal  in  the  army  ;  but  on  us  Germans 
it  imposes  burdens  heavy  to  bear ;  and  what  makes  us  individually 
willing  and  ready  to  bear  them  is  the  instinct  of  self-preservation.' 
And  this  self-preservation  was  identical  with  national  self-preserva- 
tion. 

To  one  branch  of  this  preparation,  not  however  involving  any  self- 
sacrifice,  I  have  lately  called  attention  elsewhere,  and  I  refer  to  it 
again  here.  It  is  the  acquiring  and  amassing  details  of  the  local 
topography  of  any  possible  future  theatre  of  war.  The  knowledge 
possessed  of  these  details  by  the  Germans  with  regard  to  the  United 
Kingdom  is  remarkable.  One  of  my  friends,  touring  in  the  Black 
Forest,  was  surprised  to  come  across  Germans  who  seemed  to  be 
well  acquainted  with  a  district  at  home  which  he  knew';  and  he  told 
me  of  the  surprise  of  a  priest  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Ireland,  at 
finding  in  Germany  people  who  knew  the  large  town  which  was  his 
cure  of  souls,  quite  as  well  as  he  himself  did.  The  priest  assigned  to 
itinerant  German  bands  the  credit  for  obtaining  the  information. 

But  they  go,  these  Germans,  in  my  opinion  very  wisely,  and 
quite  legitimately,  much  further  than  this.  Somebody,  apparently 
in  a  state  of  alarm,  as  if  he  had  discovered  something  new,  questioned 
Mr.  Haldane  some  days  ago  in  the  House  of  Commons  as  to  foreigners 
having  been  discovered  engaged  in  reconnoitring  in  this  country. 
Probably  the  foreigners  were  doing  so,  as  other  foreigners  had  done 
before  them.  Only  a  year  ago  an  officer  entering  a  railway  carriage 
found  it  occupied  by  British  brother  officers  returning  home  from  a 
stafi  or  regimental  ride.  They  had  only  one  topic  of  conversation, 
the  extraordinary  fact  that,  whilst  engaged  in  the  work,  they  had 
tumbled  clean  and  plump  into  a  party  of  German  officers  engaged 
in  identically  the  same  occupation.  The  scene  of  the  ride  seemed  to 
possess  equal  attractions  for  the  military  officers  of  both  countries. 


1908      INSECURITY  OF  OUR  HOME  DEFENCE      177 

Comment  is  needless,  for  the  inference  is  obvious,  even  to  what  is 
called  the  '  meanest  capacity.'  And  the  Germans  know  well  the  value 
even  for  pacific  purposes  of  the  acknowledged  possession  of  the  powers 
for  offence.  It  is  well,  however,  to  be  wise  in  time.  What  can't  be 
cured  must  be  endured.  Spies  and  spying  and  scares  do  not  enter 
into  the  matter  at  all ;  but  surely  if  a  present  friend  is  found  or  known 
to  be  preparing  to  become  a  possible  foe,  it  is  only  common  sense  to 
regard  the  friendship,  however  much  valued,  as  liable  to  conversion 
into  hostility,  and  to  prepare,  pan  passu,  to  meet  it.  To  ignore  the 
possibility  of  the  conversion  would  be  suicidal. 

And  it  seems  to  me  that  just  now,  with  liability  to  complete  change 
at  any  moment  in  the  present  international  situation,  such  as  I  have 
already  depicted  it,  we  should,  if  that  change  comes,  be  found  either 
absolutely  defenceless  at  home,  or,  to  obtain  security  at  home,  we 
should  have  to  rely  solely  and  entirely  on  the  Admiralissimo,  and  have  to 
ask  him  to  sacrifice  his  mobility,  and  pay  no  attention  to  Imperial  calls, 
but  to  stay  at  home  and  take  care  of  us,  for  we  have  not  a  sufficient 
number  of  enicient  trained  men  and  of  the  best  modern  military  material 
for  us  landsmen  to  be  able  to  take  care  of  ourselves.  Not  to  respond 
to  the  Imperial  calls  may  mean  the  dissolution  of  the  Empire  ;  yet  to 
comply  with  them  may  mean  paralysation  of  its  heart.  But  can  we 
trust  solely  and  entirely  to  the  power  of  the  Admiralissimo  unaided  to 
insure  us  protection,  not  only  sufficient  but  permanent  ?  Not  even  the 
Admiralissimo— in  fact  no  Admiralissimo — can  foretell  with  certainty 
the  issue  of  a  naval  battle  between  the  vessels,  large  and  small  of  to-day. 
No  one  can  predict  the  national  defensive  value  of  any  fleet  after  one 
great  battle,  even  if  it  emerges  from  it  the  victor.  And,  if  I  mistake 
not,  this  state  of  things  would  inevitably  have  been  accentuated  by  the 
adoption  of  Mr.  Haldane's  original  scheme,  founded  on  the  quaint,  truly 
original  and  almost  comical  idea  that  our  army  for  Home  Defence  should 
commence  its  preparation  at  the  outbreak  of  a  great  war,  but  would 
not  be  enicient  until  six  months  had  elapsed  after  that  outbreak. 
Whether  that  scheme  still  holds  good,  or  has  been  consigned  to  its 
appropriate  place,  the  waste-paper  basket,  no  one  seems  to  know. 
Whether  the  combatants  in  the  great  war  would  politely  and  idiotically 
leave  us  six  months  for  the  preparation  of  a  force,  which  would  have 
to  be  taken  into  account  by  them,  after  their  exhaustion  in  a  six 
months'  campaign  ;  or  whether  they  would  be  rude  and  ill-mannered 
enough  to  disturb  it  during  incubation,  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
considered. 

However,  we  must  take  things  as  they  stand  to-day,  our  defence- 
lessness,  save  what  defence  the  Admiralissimo  may  be  able  to  afford  us. 
This  is  the  point  I  desire  so  much  to  impress  on  those  civilians, 
women  as  well  as  men,  who  may  read  these  words ;  the  precariousness 
of  our  defence  of  our  home.  And  then,  if  they  do  but  realise  this, 
let  them  look,  be  they  Unionists,  Liberals,  Radicals,  members  of  the 


178  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

Labour  Party,  Socialists,  or  anything  else,  at  the  strange  conduct  of 
the  rulers  who  are  now  in  power,  and  with  whom  rests  the  adoption 
or  maintenance  of  measures  for  their  security. 

The  Secretary  of  State  for  War  has  now  devised  a  scheme  for 
meeting  all  our  military  needs,  and  that  scheme  has  been  adopted. 
I  am  not  going  to  discuss  the  scheme  itself  ;  possibly  it  has  within  it 
great  potentialities,  but  they  are  potentialities  only.  The  scheme 
has,  however,  unfortunately,  one  vital  weakness,  namely,  the  time 
required  for  full  fruition,  the  time  that  must  elapse  before  it  can  pro- 
duce power  sufficient  and  sufficiently  trustworthy  for  the  Land 
Defence  of  our  Home.  Until  that  fruition  comes,  we  are  defenceless, 
save  by  reducing  our  Naval  Forces  to  a  condition  of  immobility,  in 
which  they  must  remain,  however  pressing,  urgent  and  important 
may  be  the  calls  on  them  from  elsewhere.  To  introduce  his  scheme 
Mr.  Haldane  has  already  got  rid  of  a  certain  amount  of  fairly  reliable 
defensive  power  of  the  same  kind  as  that  he  purposes  to  eventually 
substitute  for  it ;  and  in  so  doing  he  has  thrown  away  birds-in-hand 
for  others  which  are  still  in  the  bush,  and  which,  for  aught  he  knows, 
may  elect  to  stay  there.  He  has  gone  even  further  ;  we  had  at  home 
a  certain  amount  of  really  reliable  defensive  power,  in  regular 
artillery  and  regular  infantry,  but  he  has  reduced  greatly  the 
amount  of  both  and,  if  report  speaks  true,  more  may  be  thrown 
away  at  the  first  opportunity.  Surely,  if  Mr.  Haldane  had  a  private 
house  resting  on  foundations  fairly  sound,  but  which  he  considered 
unsuitable,  he  would  not  remove  the  old  foundations  until  those  to 
replace  them  were  ready  for  use.  Yet  for  home  defence  he  has  gone, 
and  is  going,  on  diametrically  opposite  principles.  He  and  his 
colleagues  know  perfectly  well  that  whether  there  would  be  time 
for  the  replacement  of  the  house  foundations  depended  entirely  on 
meteorological  conditions,  //'storms  and  gales  did  not  set  in,  the 
work  might  be  completed  in  time,  and  the  house  be  even  more 
stable  than  before,  but  it  is  on  this  if  that  everything,  everything, 
depends.  Similarly  the  satisfactory  building  up  of  Mr.  Haldane's 
new  Defensive  Force  depends  entirely  on  an  if,  and  an  if  only.  In 
the  case  of  the  house,  it  would  be  a  risk  of  merely  a  private 
character.  In  the  case  of  Home  Defence  a  similar  line  of  conduct 
seems  to  be  nothing  more  or  less  than  a  national  political  gamble, 
more  shameless,  more  unprincipled,  and  more  iniquitous  than  are  any 
of  those  that  are  perpetrated  inside  and  outside  the  Stock  Exchanges 
and  Bourses  of  Europe.  It  may  purchase  votes,  and  may  hold  together 
a  heterogeneous  majority  in  the  House ;  as  regards  national  interests 
it  is  little  less  than  a  betrayal  for  a  time-serving  purpose. 

In  a  leading  article  in  a  high-class  London  paper,  I  find  myself 
charged  with  having  in  a  letter  to  the  Times  dealt  with  war  as  '  immi- 
nent.' But  I  do  not  hold  this  view  in  any  way.  My  point  is  the 
hopeless  uncertainty  as  to  whether  war  or  an  outbreak  somewhere  or 


1908      INSECURITY  OF  OUR   HOME  DEFENCE      179 

other,  and  involving  this  country,  is  or  is  not  '  imminent.'  It  is  the 
existence  of  this  uncertainty  that  causes  our  present  insecurity,  an 
insecurity  acknowledged  by  the  vast  majority  of  all  who  have  studied 
the  subject  to  be  a  matter  of  vital,  pressing  and  immediate  importance. 
Our  rulers  seem  to  be  fanatical  believers  in  the  scriptural  injunction 
to  take  no  thought  for  the  morrow,  but  to  let  the  morrow  take  thought 
for  itself. 

Just  now,  though  there  is  much  sunshine,  there  are  unpleasant 
'  rumblings  '  in  the  air ;  whether  a  storm  or  a  succession  of  storms 
is  coming  up,  no  one  can  tell.  Surely  it  is  the  duty  of  our  rulers  to 
be  prepared  with  protection  for  us  in  case  the  storm  does  come  ;  we 
had  some  little  available  protection  a  short  time  ago,  but  of  this 
they  have  already  taken  away  from  us  much,  and  it  is  said  that 
they  purpose  to  deprive  us  yet  of  more ;  and  then,  if  the  storm 
bursts  on  us,  where  shall  we  be  ?  Ruined  as  individuals  and  as  a 
nation,  and  past  hope  of  recovery.  Let  those  whom  I  am  specially 
addressing  take  this  warning  to  heart,  let  them  ponder  over  it,  and 
then  by  their  influence  aid  to  induce  the  country  to  insist  on  our 
rulers  '  holding  their  hands  '  in  time  in  their  mad  career. 

In  speaking  out  these  views  on  the  subject  I  am  only  saying  what 
everywhere  soldiers  are  saying  in  similar  fashion,  but  with  '  bated 
breath.'  The  condition  of  our  Home  Defence  is  thoroughly  known 
to  the  rulers  of  every  foreign  Power  that  cares  to  interest  itself  in 
the  matter ;  to  our  own  people  it  is  not  generally  known.  Reticence 
seems  to  me  to  savour  of  the  proverbial  ostrich.  British  officers  of 
well-earned  high  military  reputation,  and  holding  posts  of  great 
responsibility,  are  debarred  from  giving  the  nation  their  real  views. 
Our  responsible  Military  Advisers  are  silent,  at  all  events  in  public  ; 
and  who  may  be  Mr.  Haldane's  real  advisers  no  one  knows.  The 
result  is  that  there  is  just  now  prevalent  in  the  whole  of  the  armed 
forces  of  this  country  a  not  unnatural  feeling  of  military  leaderlessness. 
They  feel  that  the  control  of  the  military  armed  strength  of  the 
nation  is  in  the  hands  of  civilians  only,  and  that  once  more  in  our 
history  its  destiny  may  be  no  longer  to  be  in  accordance  with  national 
needs,  but  with  better  recognised  needs — those  of  party  politics. 
Whoever  may  be  the  nominal  leader,  the  real  leader  seems  to  be  a 
civilian  Secretary  of  State  for  War,  aided  by  an  '  Army  Council.' 
They  regard  the  latter,  however,  as  of  no  protective  value  ;  but, 
and  rightly,  as  a  cleverly  devised  machine  for  the  suppression  of  the 
individual  responsibility  of  its  members,  by  the  merging  that  responsi- 
bility into  the  easily-borne  corporate  responsibility  of  ah1.  So  the 
duty  of  speaking  out  necessarily  devolves  on  the  unofficial  '  smaller 
fry,'  of  which  I  am  one.  And  it  is  in  no  spirit  of  presumption  that 
I  have  done  so.  A  short  time  ago,  Mr.  Haldane  was  pressed  about 
a  warning  said  to  have  been  given  by  a  well-known  General  on  the 
Active  List,  and  in  high  command,  as  to  a  friend  across  the  water 


180  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

who  might  possibly  become  a  foe.  The  General,  after  this  watching 
of  his  words,  is  not  likely  to  offer  any  further  warnings  at  all,  weighty 
though  they  would  be.  So  I,  faute  de  mieux,  take  up  the  running 
and  continue  the  warnings,  not  against  only  one,  but  against  all 
possible  foes. 

As  I  stated  at  the  commencement  of  this  article,  it  is  to  the  pre- 
cariousness  of  our  present  condition  that  I  desire  to  draw  special 
attention.  If  this  precariousness  be  once  realised,  then  surely  all 
and  every  one  who  realises  it  will  voluntarily  put  on  one  side  the 
claims  of  self-interest,  and  by  the  offer  of  personal  service  and  personal 
self-sacrifice  make  good  the  national  shortcomings  of  our  present 
rulers,  and  compel  them  to  take  in  hand  their  bounden  duty  at  once 
to  make  the  defence  of  our  home  certain  and  sure.  This  once  assured, 
and  known  to  our  friends  across  the  water  to  be  assured,  those  friends 
will  think  twice,  and  many  times  more  than  twice,  before  doing  any- 
thing likely  to  disturb  our  present,  nominally,  satisfactory  relations  ; 
for  they  will  not  care  lightly  to  encounter  Great  Britain,  when  Great 
Britain  shall  have  thrown  off  her  present  state  of  lethargy  and  shall 
have  proved  that,  like  them,  she  has  placed  national  self-preservation 
in  the  forefront  of  the  personal  life  and  the  personal  duties  of  the 
dwellers  in  her  land. 

LONSDALE  HALE. 

Cam  berley. 


1908 


THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE 

A   LESSON  ON  THE  EFFECTS  OF  FREE   TRADE 


IT  is  not  my  intention  to  take  part  directly  in  the  great  political  and 
economical  controversy — Free  Trade  versus  Tariff  Reform — which 
agitates  public  opinion  in  England,  and  is  par  excellence  the  battle 
cry  of  the  two  historical  parties  in  the  internal  politics  of  the  British 
Empire.  Someone  might  object  to  a  foreigner's  interference  in  a 
discussion  which  the  majority  of  English  people  consider  as  private 
matter,  regarding  their  interests  alone.  As  son  of  an  Englishwoman, 
however,  I  have  always  felt  an  irresistible  attraction  to  follow  the 
different  phases  of  English  public  life,  with  almost  the  same  attention 
as  I  devote  to  the  internal  politics  of  my  own  country. 

Englishmen  are  perhaps  under  the  impression  that  the  question  of 
Tariff  Reform  can  only  interest  themselves.  The  attention,  however, 
of  other  countries  is  every  day  more  strongly  concentrated  on  what 
is  happening  in  England  since  the  beginning  of  the  new  reign.  If 
England  will  really  abandon  some  day  her  old  traditional  policy  of 
splendid  isolation  and  Free  Trade,  the  political  and  economical  effects 
of  such  a  radical  change  will  be  felt  all  over  the  world. 

With  the  present  article  I  intend  simply  to  express  my  sincere 
admiration  for  the  British  nation,  and  to  give  a  proof  of  the  keen 
interest  awakened  on  the  Continent  by  the  great  political  battle. 

There  is  a  new  argument,  or  rather  historical  fact,  which  being,  as 
far  as  I  know,  ignored  by  both  parties  might  perhaps  contribute  to 
throw  light  on  some  points  of  the  controversy,  where  political  passion 
has  not  yet  completely  paralysed  the  use  of  impartial  reasoning. 

Public  speakers  in  England  generally  prefer  to  avoid  a  display  of 
deep  learning,  and  to  remain  in  the  field  of  contemporary  politics  with 
facts  and  figures  of  the  present  time — the  practical  spirit  of  the  British 
nation  clearly  recognises  the  feebleness  of  historical  arguments  in 
the  heat  of  political  discussions.  The  economical  history  of  olden 
times  affords,  however,  a  mine  of  useful  information  which  I  know 
British  statesmen  do  not  ignore  while  leading  public  opinion  towards 
the  solution  of  the  problems  of  the  future.  It  might  therefore  be  of 
some  avail  to  remind  politicians,  even  in  a  brief  and  summary  manner, 

181 


182  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

of  the  greatest  experiment  in  Free  Trade  which  the  world  has  known 
until  England  repeated  it  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Perhaps  many  still  ignore  the  fact  that  a  condition  of  International 
Free  Trade  necessarily  followed  the  constitution  of  the  Eoman  World  - 
Empire.  Before  Rome  had  extended  her  authority  over  all  the  Mediter- 
ranean world,  no  real  commercial  barriers  existed  between  nations  in 
the  sense  in  which  we  understand  them  nowadays ;  nevertheless  effective 
barriers  were  created  by  the  difficulty  of  communications,  the  unsafety 
of  commercial  high  roads,  the  state  of  continuous  warfare  between 
tribes  and  nations,  and  the  instinctive  reluctance  of  Governments 
to  permit  the  free  exportation  of  food-stuffs.  The  danger  of  famine 
was  one  of  the  great  anxieties  of  those  troublous  times.  The  gradual 
formation  of  the  Roman  Empire,  embracing  as  it  did,  one  after  the 
other,  the  rich  provinces  which  encircle  the  Mediterranean  basin, 
finally  put  an  end  to  the  aforesaid  state  of  affairs.  From  the  day  in 
which  Egypt  passed  under  the  sceptre  of  Caesar  Augustus,  the  glorious 
Pax  Romana  held  sway  over  all  the  ancient  world  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Nile  to  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  overthrowing  all  barriers,  and 
opening  in  the  heart  of  the  Empire  the  easiest  and  most  economical 
highway  of  commerce,  the  open  sea. 

Rome  and  Italy,  like  London  and  Great  Britain  of  the  present  day, 
became  the  great  centre  of  attraction  of  the  Empire,  the  centre  where 
the  greatest  wealth  accumulated,  and  towards  which  the  world's 
produce  naturally  converged. 

Italy,  completely  destitute  of  mineral  wealth,  has  always  been, 
since  the  beginning  of  Roman  expansion,  a  country  essentially 
agricultural,  peopled  by  different  races  of  sturdy  and  thrifty 
peasants.  These  knew  how  to  extract  a  meagre  pittance  from  a  soil 
which,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  favoured  regions,  answers  but 
ungratefully  to  the  care  and  toil  lavished  on  it.  Only  a  few  very 
fertile  provinces  can  bear  comparison  with  the  rich  plains  of  Gaul 
or  the  wondrous  Nile  valley ;  the  greater  part  of  Italy  is  poor  and 
rocky,  incapable  of  resisting  the  unrestricted  competition  of  richer 
countries. 

When  therefore  the  Roman  statesmen  opened,  through  conquest, 
all  the  ways  of  the  world,  and  demolished  the  natural  barriers  which 
had  till  then  protected  Italic  agriculture,  the  latter  found  itself  exposed 
without  defence  to  the  merciless  competition  of  other  countries. 
First  came  the  plains  of  Sicily,  considered  at  one  time  the  granary 
of  the  Roman  Republic ;  then  the  conquest  of  Gaul  opened  Italy 
to  the  competition  of  Gallic  industry  and  agriculture;  and,  lastly, 
the  inexhaustible  richness  of  the  Nile  valley  dealt  the  death- 
blow to  the  patient  industry  of  the  poor  and  ignorant  Italian 
peasant. 

Nowadays  Egypt,  thanks  to  the  wise  British  administration,  which 
reminds  one  of  the  highest  and  most  glorious  traditions  of  ancient 


1908  THE   ROMAN  EMPIRE  183 

Home,  has  shown  again  how  much  wealth  it  can  produce,  and  what 
a  huge  margin  it  leaves  to  free  exportation. 

The  economical  problems  created  by  the  absorption  of  Egypt 
into  the  Empire  acquired,  moreover,  an  exceedingly  serious  character 
by  the  co-operation  of  a  very  powerful  political  factor.  The  lords  of 
Rome,  for  well-known  reasons  which  I  omit,  inaugurated  that  unhappy 
system  of  distributing  gratuitously  a  daily  ration  of  bread  to  the 
teeming  thousands  of  the  capital.  From  this  deplorable  policy  there 
grew  up  a  numerous  population  of  parasites  who,  without  producing 
anything,  absorbed  annually  an  enormous  amount  of  food-stuffs.  The 
evil  became  intensified  through  the  fact  that  Rome,  as  the  adminis- 
trative centre  of  the  Empire  and  the  seat  of  the  Imperial  Court, 
attracted  all  the  wealthiest  and  most  ambitious  men  of  the  time, 
who,  in  hopes  of  popularity  or  Imperial  favour,  squandered  vast  sums 
of  money  in  worthless  enterprises  and  lavish  generosity. 

Rome,  whose  population  at  one  moment  surpassed  a  million 
inhabitants,  became  therefore  a  gigantic  consumer  who  ought  to  have 
constituted  a  great  source  of  wealth  to  Italian  agriculture.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Imperial  treasury  through  the  free  distribution  of  such 
vast  amounts  of  food-stuffs  was  overloaded  by  a  financial  charge  which 
in  times  of  trouble  and  distress  became  one  of  its  most  serious  econo- 
mical problems,  and  any  possible  economy  would  have  been  readily 
applied. 

If  therefore  the  peasants  had  been  able  to  offer  their  produce  on 
the  market  of  Rome  at  a  price  inferior  to  that  of  Sicily,  Gaul  or  Egypt, 
no  doubt  the  emperors,  or  rather  the  administrators  of  the  Imperial 
treasury,  would  have  given  preference  to  the  cheaper  Italian  article.  • 

It  so  happened  instead  that  the  government  of  Rome  only 
partially  understood  the  economical  phenomenon  produced  by  uni- 
versal Free  Trade,  and  ignored  completely  its  causes  and  its  possible 
remedies.  Already  in  the  time  of  the  Gracchi,  before  the  fall  of  the 
Roman  Republic,  the  effects  of  the  agricultural  crisis,  brought  about 
by  the  competition  of  Sicily,  had  given  birth  to  many  painful  con« 
sequences.  The  great  agitation  with  which  the  name  of  the  Gracchi 
is  closely  bound  gives  us  the  first  safe  indication  of  the  economical 
catastrophe  under  which  Italy  was  to  fall. 

The  remedies  tried  in  those  circumstances  by  the  leaders  of  the 
Roman  people  were  of  no  avail,  because  they  failed  to  grasp  the  real 
causes  of  the  evil.  The  crisis  under  the  Empire  became  ever  more 
acute,  and  in  Italy  agriculture  slowly  died  out  as  an  unremunerative 
industry ;  those  fields  from  which  the  revenue  was  poor  and  uncertain — 
that  is,  the  greater  part  of  Italy — were  gradually  abandoned.  Agri- 
culture survived  only  in  relatively  happy  conditions  in  some  restricted 
areas,  like  the  valley  of  the  Po  and  Campania,  for  instance,  where 
the  exceptional  richness  of  the  soil  permitted  the  continuation  of 
agriculture  even  with  greatly  diminished  profits.  The  special  system  of 


184  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

cultivation,  the  minute  subdivision  of  property  and  the  conservative 
tenacity  of  a  hard-working  population  saved  those  privileged  regions 
from  the  ruin  which  extinguished  all  life  in  the  rest  of  the  Peninsula. 

Nobody  thought  of  defending  the  native  industry,  for  Italy  was 
but  a  province  of  the  Empire  extending  from  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates 
to  the  Atlantic  coast.  Keasons  of  political  opportunism,  selfish 
hand-to-mouth  principles  of  internal  policy,  seemed  more  urgent 
and  impelling ;  the  highest  economical  interests  of  our  unhappy 
country  were  sacrificed  to  these  principles,  and  Italy,  deprived  of 
other  resources,  was  fatally  condemned  to  misery  and  depopulation. 

The  process  was  slow  but  relentless,  it  lasted  several  centuries, 
but  in  the  end  the  country  •  was  transformed  into  a  desert ;  some  of 
the  peasants  emigrated,  others  became  shepherds  or  slaves,  and  the 
rest  died  of  hunger.  The  plains,  once  covered  with  stretches  of  golden 
grain,  became  overrun  by  brambles  and  rank  weeds,  or  sank  back 
into  marshes  teeming  with  game.  The  greater  part  of  the  country 
was  absorbed  into  the  immense  landed  estates  of  the  wealthy  Roman 
capitalists,  and  formed  those  celebrated  latifundia  of  the  later  Eoman 
Empire. 

Through  the  erroneous  interpretation  of  historical  phenomena 
the  effects  were  mistaken  for  the  causes,  and  succeeding  generations 
formulated  that  celebrated  sophism  :  Latifundia  Italiam  perdidere. 

In  conclusion  :  Italy  was  ruined  economically  and  abandoned  by 
her  inhabitants  principally  through  the  formation  of  the  Eoman 
Empire,  and  in  consequence  of  the  greatest  experiment  of  Free  Trade 
in  the  history  of  mankind. 

•  Without  entering  here  into  greater  details  it  is  sufficient  to  add 
that  the  crisis  ruined  Sicily  likewise,  and  inflicted  heavy  losses  even 
on  Gaul  and  Spain.  All  the  weaker  industries  succumbed  under  the 
free  competition  of  those  countries  where  the  same  goods  could  be 
produced  at  a  lower  price.  It  so  happened  that  the  government  of  the 
Empire,  by  neglecting  the  real  remedies  for  a  problem  of  such  vital 
importance,  permitted,  and  even  encouraged,  the  extinction  of  the 
principal  sources  of  national  wealth.  This  contributed  in  a  very  high 
degree  to  the  great  political  catastrophe  of  the  fourth  and  fifth 
centuries,  when  the  Barbarians  overthrew  the  Empire. 

If  the  Roman  statesmen  had  been  able  to  foresee  the  disaster  and 
to  understand  its  principal  causes,  and  if  they  had  tried  to  protect  the 
agricultural  industry  on  which  alone  Italy's  power  relied,  they  might 
have  saved  their  country.  By  giving  means  of  existence  to  a  numerous 
population  of  sturdy  peasants  they  could  have  considerably  modified 
the  course  of  events  during  the  last  centuries  of  the  Empire  and 
through  the  Middle  Ages. 

The  singular  consequence  of  this  state  of  affairs  was  that  Italy 
began  to  pick  up  her  ancient  material  prosperity  only  after  the  Empire 
she  had  founded  went  to  pieces.  Then  the  natural  barriers  between 


1908  THE   ROMAN  EMPIRE  185 

nations  were  formed  again  by  the  splitting  up  of  the  Roman  World, 
and  Egypt  ceased  to  paralyse  Italy  with  her  ruinous  competition. 
Then  alone  with  the  rise  of  prices  agriculture  slowly  revived  all  through 
the  Peninsula,  more  land  came  under  cultivation,  and  the  inhabitants 
gradually  became  more  numerous  in  the  poorer  parts  of  the  country. 
But  an  evil  which  is  the  consequence  of  an  error  lasting  through 
centuries  can  only  be  wiped  out  through  many  more  centuries  of  slow 
and  steady  evolution. 

Italy,  as  is  proved  by  the  present  state  of  the  country  round 
Rome,  in  Sicily  and  elsewhere,  principally  in  the  south  of  the  Peninsula, 
has  not  yet  completely  revived — even  after  seventeen  centuries — 
from  the  pernicious  effects  of  Free  Trade  under  Imperial  Rome.  The 
Bills  voted  by  the  Italian  Parliament  in  these  last  few  years  for  the 
agricultural  improvement  of  the  Campagna  Romana  are  a  plucky 
experiment  of  the  twentieth  century  to  remedy  the  evil  consequences 
of  an  economical  error  of  the  builders  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

I  need  not  add  any  further  comments.  Every  Englishman  who 
has  had  the  leisure  to  peruse  this  brief  and  incomplete  descrip- 
tion of  one  of  the  most  important  phases  of  the  world's  history,  will 
know  how  to  draw  from  it  those  conclusions  most  useful  for  the 
material  and  moral  development  of  his  great  country. 

TEANO. 


186  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 


THE    PRESS    IN    INDIA,     1780-1908 


THE  English  Press  did  not  appear  suddenly  in  India,  fully  developed, 
like  Minerva  from  Jupiter's  head.  Before  the  English  appeared  on 
the  scene,  civilisation  had  long  existed,  and  the  necessities  of  the 
native  Government  had  evolved  a  system  of  obtaining  and  publishing 
information.  In  Hindu  times  the  rulers  of  the  country  relied  upon 
the  reports  regularly  transmitted  to  them  by  their  agents  at  home 
and  abroad.  During  the  rule  of  the  Moguls  there  was  an  organised 
department  under  State  regulations  (as  set  forth  in  the  Ain-i-Akbari) 
both  for  the  recording,  in  writing,  of  events  at  headquarters  and  for 
the  collection  of  reports  from  newswriters  at  different  stations.  There 
was  a  waqianavis,  or  '  recorder,'  in  each  Subah,  or  province.  In  their 
early  days  in  Bengal  the  English  utilised  these  newsagents  to  act  as 
their  intermediaries  with  the  Mogul  Emperor.  The  Portuguese 
printed  books  at  Goa  in  the  sixteenth  century.  There  was  a  printing 
press  at  Bombay  in  1674.  There  was  printing  at  Madras  in  1772, 
and  an  official  printing  press  was  established  at  Calcutta  in  1779 
(while  Warren  Hastings  was  Governor-General).  'Mr.  Bolts,  an 
ex-servant  of  the  Company,  had  proposed  a  printing  press  in  1768, 
but  he  had  been,  as  an  interloper,  deported.  '  The  Life  and  Death  of 
the  First  Indian  newspaper,'  1780-1782,  are  described  at  full  length 
by  Colonel  Busteed,  C.I.E.,  in  his  well-known  and  fascinating  book, 
Echoes  from  Old  Calcutta.  The  proprietor,  editor,  and  printer  was 
Mr.  James  Augustus  Hicky,  an  illiterate  man,  probably  a  printer  by 
trade,  who  had  suffered  losses  at  sea  and  been  in  jail.  On  the  29th 
of  January  1780  he  brought  out  Ricky's  Bengal  Gazette  or  Calcutta 
General  Advertiser  as  '  a  weekly  political  and  commercial  paper  open 
to  all  parties  but  influenced  by  none,'  the  first  newspaper  printed  or 
published  in  India.  At  first  dull  and  vulgar,  and  on  the  whole  harm- 
less, it  descended  to  indecency,  personalities,  and  scurrilous  attacks, 
often  directed  at  Warren  Hastings  and  Sir  Elijah  Impey ;  but  it 
avoided  attacking  Sir  Philip  Francis.  On  the  14th  of  November 
1780  its  circulation  through  the  channel  of  the  General  Post  Office 
was  stopped,  because  it  contained  '  several  improper  paragraphs 
tending  to  vilify  private  characters  and  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the 
Settlement.'  But  its  circulation  in  Calcutta  and  the  neighbourhood 


1908  THE  PRESS  IN  INDIA,   1780-1908  187 

continued.  The  worst  features  of  the  paper  became  exaggerated  : 
personality  assumed  intolerable  licence,  private  individuals  were  held 
up  to  derision.  Hicky  slandered  everyone  and  anyone  alike ;  even 
young  ladies  were  most  offensively  indicated  under  different  sobriquets 
which  could  not  be  mistaken.  In  June  1781  Hicky  was  arrested 
under  Impey's  order  at  the  suit  of  Hastings,  imprisoned,  and  fined, 
but  he  continued  the  paper  without  any  change  in  its  style.  In 
January  1782  he  was  again  tried  by  Impey  on  the  same  indictment  as 
that  on  which  Hastings  had  previously  had  him  tried  ;  he  was  fined, 
and  sentenced  to  one  year  in  jail.  In  March  1782  his  types  were 
seized,  so  that  his  paper  was  closed.  He  is  described  as  a  worthless 
man,  but  as  the  pioneer  of  the  Indian  Press.  Of  this  paper  Kaye 
remarks  in  his  Christianity  in  India,  '  Society  must  have  been  very 
bad  to  have  tolerated  such  a  paper.  ...  It  is  difficult  to  bring  for- 
ward illustrative  extracts.  The  most  significant  passages  are  too 
coarse  for  quotation.'  Other  papers  were  established  about  this 
time ;  the  most  important  of  them  were  the  India  Gazette,  in  November 
1780,  and  the  Calcutta  Gazette  (a  semi-official  organ,  under  the  avowed 
patronage  of  Government),  edited  by  Mr.  Francis  Gladwin  in  1784. 
Kaye  has  stated  in  his  Life  of  Lord  Metcalfe,  that  with  the  improved 
moral  tone  of  Society  during  the  administration  of  Lord  Cornwallis 
(1786-1793)  and  Sir  John  Shore  (1793-1798)  the  respectability  of  the 
Indian  Press  necessarily  made  steady  progress.  The  papers  had 
little  or  nothing  to  say  against  Lord  Cornwallis  and  his  Government. 
It  would  appear  that,  therefore,  they  were  left  very  much  to  them- 
selves. There  is  other  testimony  to  the  general  improvement  in 
journalism  between  1788  and  1798. 

In  1791  William  Duane,  an  Irish  American,  was  arrested  by  the 
Bengal  Government  and  ordered  to  be  sent  to  Europe  in  consequence 
of  an  offensive  paragraph  in  the  Bengal  Journal  reflecting  upon 
Colonel  de  Canaple,  Commandant  of  the  affairs  of  the  French  nation 
and  his  countrymen  in  Calcutta.  Mr.  Duane  applied  to  the  Supreme 
Court  for  a  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus,  which  was  granted.  On  the  trial 
of  the  case  the  Court  unanimously  decided  that  the  Governor-General 
in  Council  possessed  the  legal  right  to  order  Mr.  Duane's  arrest  and 
have  him  sent  to  Europe.  On  the  intercession  of  M.  Fumeron,  the 
French  Agent,  the  Government  revoked  their  order  for  Mr.  Duane's 
embarkation.  But,  later,  as  editor  of  the  Indian  World,  he  published 
a  number  of  improper  and  intemperate  articles,  and  particularly  an 
inflammatory  address  to  the  army  ;  he  was  therefore  put  under  arrest 
(of  which  an  amusing  account  is  extant)  and  sent  to  Europe  in  1794  : 
the  Court  of  Directors  approved  of  these  proceedings.  The  Bengal 
Harkaru  came  out  as  a  weekly  journal  in  1795.  In  1796  proceedings 
were  taken  against  the  editors  of  the  Telegraph  and  the  Calcutta 
Gazette  respectively  for  articles  considered  objectionable  by  the 
Government,  but  no  resort  to  extreme  measures  was  required. 


188  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

In  1798  an  officer  was  suspended  and  compulsorily  retired  for 
writing  in  the  Telegraph  a  letter  tending  to  excite  discontent  and 
disaffection  in  the  Indian  Army;  and  another  person  was  deported 
for  writing  a  letter  to  the  same  paper  animadverting  on  the  official 
conduct  of  a  magistrate,  and  for  contumacy  in  declining  to  apologise. 
In  1799  the  editor  of  that  paper  was  required  to  apologise  for  a  very 
improper  reflection  on  an  official.  During  these  years  the  attitude 
of  the  Government  of  the  Madras  and  Bombay  Presidencies  towards 
the  editors  of  papers  was  the  same  as  that  of  the  Government  of 
Bengal :  several  editors  were  warned,  and  the  Press  generally  was 
officially  supervised.  Thus,  previously  to  1799,  there  were  no  uniform 
and  consistent  rules  established  at  the  three  Presidencies  to  guide  the 
editors  of  newspapers,  or  to  restrain  and  punish  their  excesses.  But 
the  frequent  abuses  in  the  Calcutta  and  other  Presses  before  1799 
seem  to  have  satisfied  the  Government  that  checks  were  required. 

When  Lord  Wellesley  (then  Lord  Mornington)  arrived  in  India 
as  Governor- General  on  the  18th  of  May  1798,  the  Government  were 
engaged  in  a  great  contest  with  the  French,  who  were  still  endeavouring 
to  establish  a  dominant  influence  in  India  and  intriguing  with  the 
principal  native  dynasties  for  the  destruction  of  the  British  power 
in  the  East.  It  was  a  great  crisis.  The  unwary  publication  of  items 
of  intelligence  might  have  been  fraught  with  pernicious  results. 
Lord  Wellesley  believed  that  it  was  necessary  to  subject  the  Press  to 
a  rigorous  supervision.  A  censorship  was  established.  In  1799  Lord 
Wellesley  was  in  Madras,  to  supervise  the  fourth  Mysore  war  against 
Tippoo.  The  Bengal  Government,  under  his  instructions,  issued  the 
following  Regulations  for  the  public  Press  :  they  bore  date  the  13th  of 
May  1799  (Seringapatam  was  stormed,  and  Tippoo  killed,  on  the  4th 
of  that  month)  : — First. — Every  printer  of  a  newspaper  to  print  his 
name  at  the  bottom  of  the  paper.  Second. — Every  editor  and  pro- 
prietor of  a  paper  to  deliver  in  his  name  and  place  of  abode  to  the 
Government.  Third. — No  paper  to  be  published  on  Sunday.  Fourth. 
— No  paper  to  be  published  at  all  until  it  shall  have  been  previously 
inspected  by  the  Secretary  to  the  Government,  or  by  a  person  autho- 
rised by  him  for  that  purpose.  Fifth. — The  penalty  for  offending 
against  any  of  the  above  regulations  to  be  immediate  embarkation 
to  Europe.  These  Regulations  were  communicated  to  seven  English 
papers  then  published,  and  were  extended  to  others  as  they  started. 
This  system  obtained,  with  some  additions  to  the  rules,  until  the 
censorship  was  abolished  in  1818. 

Lord  Wellesley  is  said  to  have  been  at  this  time  exasperated 
beyond  measure  against  the  Press  of  Calcutta.  He  regarded  with 
extreme  sensitiveness  any  remarks  in  the  public  journals  which 
appeared  in  any  degree  likely  to  compromise  the  stability  of  British 
rule  in  the  East.  In  his  Life  and  Times  of  Carey,  Marsh-man  and  Ward, 
Mr.  J.  C.  Marshman  has  written  how  Mr.  Bruce,  the  editor  of  the 


1908  THE  PRESS  IN  INDIA,   1780-1908  189 

Asiatic  Mirror,  a  Calcutta  newspaper,  and  one  of  the  ablest  public 
writers  who  have  ever  appeared  in  India,  had  indulged  in  some  specula- 
tive opinions  on  the  comparative  strength  of  the  European  and  native 
population,  written  in  all  simplicity  and  good  faith  and  without  any 
factious  design.  But  Lord  Wellesley  considered  the  article  mis- 
chievous, and  in  his  anxiety  that  the  public  security,  as  he  said,  might 
not  be  exposed  to  constant  hazard  he  directed  Sir  Alured  Clarke, 
whom  he  had  left  in  charge  of  the  Government  of  Calcutta  during 
his  absence  at  Madras,  to  embark  the  editor  of  that  paper  for  Europe 
in  the  first  ship  which  might  sail  from  Calcutta,  adding, '  If  you  cannot 
tranquillise  the  editors  of  this  and  other  mischievous  publications, 
be  so  good  as  to  suppress  their  papers  by  force,  and  send  their  persons 
to  Europe.'  At  the  same  time  he  established  the  very  rigid  censor- 
ship of  the  Press,  and  authorised  the  Secretary  to  Government,  who 
was  appointed  censor,  to  expunge  whatever  appeared  to  him  likely 
to  endanger  the  public  tranquillity.  Immediate  deportation  to 
England  was  the  penalty  for  breach  of  any  of  the  regulations.  These 
rules,  on  reaching  Leadenhall  Street,  received  the  cordial  approbation 
of  the  Court  of  Directors,  and  a  despatch  was  promptly  prepared  for 
transmission  to  India.  But  the  President  of  the  Board  of  Control, 
before  whom  the  despatch  had  to  be  placed,  declined  to  concur  with 
the  sentences  which  expressed  approval  of  Lord  Wellesley's  rules, 
and  reserved  the  question  for  further  consideration.  At  a  subsequent 
period,  after  his  return  to  England,  Lord  Wellesley  directed  the 
Regulations  to  be  excluded  from  the  collection  of  his  official  despatches, 
published  under  his  own  superintendence.  But  in  November  1799 
his  feelings  of  animosity  and  alarm  regarding  the  Press  were  in  full 
force,  and  it  was  at  that  inauspicious  juncture  that  the  missionaries 
in  Bengal  sought  to  establish  a  press  in  the  interior  of  the  country, 
two  hundred  miles  from  Calcutta.  To  this  proposal  the  Governor- 
General  gave  the  most  decided  and  peremptory  refusal. 

When  Lord  Wellesley's  Government  in  1801  prepared  a  plan  for 
the  establishment  of  a  Government  printing  press  it  was  proposed 
to  print  an  official  Gazette,  accompanied  with  a  newspaper,  the  latter 
to  be  published  under  Government  inspection,  but  not  to  be  con- 
sidered as  an  official  communication.  The  proposition  was  based 
on  the  following  grounds  : 

In  a  political  view,  a  powerful  motive  arises  in  favour  of  the  proposed  establish- 
ment. The  increase  of  private  printing  presses  in  India,  unlicensed,  however 
controlled,  is  an  evil  of  the  first  magnitude  in  its  consequences  ;  of  this  sufficient 
proof  is  to  be  found  in  their  scandalous  outrages  from  the  year  1793  to  1798. 
Useless  to  literature  and  to  the  public,  and  dubiously  profitable  to  the  speculators, 
they  serve  only  to  maintain  in  needy  indolence  a  few  European  adventurers, 
who  are  found  unfit  to  engage  in  any  creditable  method  of  subsistence.  The 
establishment  of  a  press  by  the  Supreme  Government  would  effectually  silence 
those  which  now  exist,  and  would  as  certainly  prevent  the  establishment  of  such 
in  future. 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  378  O 


190  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

On  the  ground  of  expense  the  plan  was  not  carried  into  execution. 
During  the  years  1801-1804,  when  the  Mahratta  wars  were  in  progress, 
the  Government  prohibited  the  publication,  in  the  Calcutta  Gazette 
and  India  Gazette,  without  their  express  sanction,  of  military  and 
naval  information,  unless  it  had  previously  appeared  in  the  official 
Gazette — a  proper  precaution  under  the  circumstances — and  in  1807 
the  prohibition  was  repeated,  and  editors  were  censured  for  infring- 
ing it. 

Lord  Minto  (Governor-General  1807-1813)  had  only  been  two 
months  in  Calcutta  when  the  Secretary  to  Government  was  instructed 
to  address  (the  8th  of  September  1807)  the  English  missionaries 
residing  at  the  Danish  settlement  of  Serampur  and  desire  them  to 
remove  their  press  to  Calcutta,  so  that  its  productions  should  be 
subject  to  the  immediate  control  of  the  officers  of  Government.  Some 
of  the  religious  pamphlets  and  treatises  issued  by  the  missionaries 
from  that  press,  and  directed  against  the  Hindu  and  Mahomedan 
religions,  had  (as  they  were  circulated  in  the  Company's  dominions) 
appeared  to  Government  to  be  calculated  to  produce  irritation,  alarm, 
and  dangerous  effects,  and  to  be  contrary  to  the  system  of  protection 
which  the  Government  were  pledged  to  afford  to  the  undisturbed 
exercise  of  the  religions  of  the  country.  The  leading  missionaries 
waited  on  Lord  Minto  and  submitted  an  explanation,  whereupon  the 
Government  revoked  the  order  for  the  removal  of  the  press  from 
Serampur,  and  simply  required  the  missionaries  to  submit  works 
intended  for  circulation  in  the  British  dominions  to  the  inspection 
of  Government  officers.  The  Court  of  Directors  approved  of  the 
measures  taken  to  prevent  the  circulation  of  the  obnoxious  publica- 
tions and  of  the  permission  granted  to  the  missionaries  to  remain  at 
Serampur. 

During  Lord  Minto's  administration  the  editors  of  Calcutta  news- 
papers were  constantly  warned.  In  1808  the  editor  of  the  Calcutta 
Gazette,  who  had  failed  to  have  his  proof  sheets  inspected  before 
publication,  was  censured  and  directed  to  send  everything  for  previous 
revision.  In  1811  the  proprietors  of  all  presses  in  Calcutta  and  its 
dependencies  were  required  to  have  the  names  of  the  printers  affixed 
to  everything  printed  and  issued  by  them,  on  pain  of  incurring  the 
displeasure  of  Government.  In  1812  the  editor  of  the  Calcutta  Daily 
Advertiser  was  censured  for  inserting  an  advertisement  intended  to 
expose  a  respectable  military  officer  to  public  ridicule.  Orders  were 
issued  requiring  the  previous  submission  to  Government,  for  in- 
spection, of  all  advertisements  save  those  of  special  kinds  which  were 
exempted.  In  another  case,  in  1813,  the  proprietors  of  the  Bengal 
Harkaru  were  called  on  to  explain  their  disregard  of  the  rule 
requiring  previous  inspection. 

About  this  time  there  was  an  animated  debate  in  the  House  of 
Commons  on  the  subject  of  the  restrictions  on  the  English  Press  in 


1908  THE  PRESS  IN  INDIA,   1780-1908  191 

India.  On  the  21st  of  March  1811  a  motion  was  made  for  copies 
of  all  regulations  &c.  promulgated  since  1797  regarding  it.  The 
motion  was  opposed  by  Mr.  Dundas,  then  President  of  the  Board  of 
Control,  who  said  that 

the  noble  Lord  seemed  to  infer  that  no  restraint  should  be  placed  upon  the  Press 
in  India.  If  such  was  his  meaning,  he  must  say  that  a  wilder  scheme  never 
entered  into  the  imagination  of  man  than  that  of  regulating  the  Indian  Press 
similarly  to  the  English.  There  could  be  no  doubt  that  the  very  Government  would 
be  shaken  to  its  foundations  if  unlicensed  publications  were  allowed  to  circulate 
over  the  continent  of  Hindustan.  There  could  be  but  two  descriptions  of  persons 
in  India — those  who  went  to  that  country  with  the  licence  of  the  Company,  and 
those  who  lived  in  its  actual  service  ;  and  there  could  be  no  doubt  whatever  that 
the  Company  had  a  right  to  lay  any  regulation  it  pleased  on  those  who  chose  to 
live  under  its  power,  and  who,  when  they  went  into  its  territories,  knew  the 
conditions  of  submission  to  its  authority  on  which  their  stay  depended. 

The  Marquis  of  Hastings,  who  (as  Lord  Moira)  succeeded  to  the 
Governor-Generalship  on  the  4th  of  October  1813,  soon  added  some 
rules,  dated  the  16th  of  the  same  month,  to  those  already  in  force  for 
the  control  of  printing  offices  in  Calcutta,  as  follows  :  (1)  That  the 
proof  sheets  of  all  newspapers,  including  supplements  and  all  extra 
publications,  be  previously  sent  to  the  Chief  Secretary  for  revision ; 
(2)  that  all  notices,  handbills,  and  other  ephemeral  publications  be 
in  like  manner  previously  transmitted  for  the  Chief  Secretary's  re- 
vision ;  (3)  that  the  titles  of  all  original  works  proposed  to  be  pub- 
lished be  also  sent  to  the  Chief  Secretary  for  his  information,  who  will 
thereupon  either  sanction  the  publication  of  them,  or  require  the 
work  itself  for  inspection,  as  may  appear  proper  ;  (4)  the  rules  estab- 
lished on  the  13th  of  May  1799  and  the  6th  of  August  1801  to  be 
in  full  force  and  effect  except  in  so  far  as  the  same  may  be  modified 
by  the  preceding  instructions. 

In  November  1814  Dr.  James  Bryce  arrived  in  Calcutta  as  the 
Senior  Scotch  Chaplain,  and  was  allowed  (a  curious  combination  of 
employments,  the  incompatibility  of  which  was  noticed  by  the  Govern- 
ment) to  become  also  the  editor  and  managing  proprietor  of  the 
Asiatic  Mirror  in  1815.  Assuming  an  independent  attitude,  he  soon 
attacked  the  policy  of  the  press  censor,  was  censured  for  constant 
disregard  of  rules,  and  in  1817  carried  the  war  into  the  enemy's  camp 
by  complaining  to  Government  of  the  Chief  Secretary,  Mr.  John 
Adam,  for  '  having  overstepped  the  powers  of  his  office  '  as  press 
censor.  The  Government  supported  their  officer  and  reprimanded 
Dr.  Bryce  in  his  editorial  capacity,  declining  to  withdraw  their  censure 
when  he  appealed  against  it.  His  quarrels  with  Mr.  Adam  continued. 
Meanwhile  the  Government  had,  on  the  2nd  of  May  1815,  established 
the  Government  Gazette  for  the  public  service,  withdrawing  official 
authority  from  the  Calcutta  Gazette.  Their  object  was,  it  is  said,  to 
ensure  greater  control  over  official  secrets. 

It  is  understood  that  about  the  year  1816  the  propriety  of  making 

o  2 


192  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

the  Press  free  was  constantly  debated  by  the  Members  of  the  Supreme 
Council  in  India.  The  authority 'for  this  statement  is  obscure.  Lord 
Hastings  had  brought  with  him,  it  is  said,  very  enlightened  views  on 
the  subject  of  the  Press.  When  he  had  broken  up  the  Mahratta 
power  and  confederacy,  he  resolved  to  break  the  fetters  of  the  Press. 
So  he  abolished  the  censorship,  without  recording  any  reasons,  not- 
withstanding the  remonstrances  of  his  Cabinet.  At  the  same  time  he 
passed  certain  regulations,  dated  the  19th  of  August  1818,  for  the 
conduct  of  the  editors  of  newspapers,  superseding  the  censorship,  as 
follows  : 

The  editors  of  newspapers  are  prohibited  from  publishing  any  matter  coming 
under  the  following  heads,  viz. :  — (1)  Animadversions  on  the  measures  and  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Honourable  Court  of  Directors  or  other  public  authorities  in 
England  connected  with  the  Government  of  India,  or  disquisitions  on  political 
transactions  of  the  local  administration  or  offensive  remarks  levelled  at  the  public 
conduct  of  the  Members  of  the  Council,  of  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  or 
of  the  Lord  Bishop  of  Calcutta  ;  (2)  discussions  having  a  tendency  to  create 
alarm  or  suspicion  among  the  native  population  of  any  intended  interference 
with  their  religious  opinions  or  observances  ;  (3)  the  republication  from  English 
or  other  newspapers  of  passages  coming  under  any  of  the  above  heads  otherwise 
calculated  to  affect  the  British  power  or  reputation  in  India  ;  (4)  private  scandal 
and  personal  remarks  on  individuals  tending  to  excite  dissension  in  society. 

The  Government  were  empowered  to  visit  any  infraction  of  these 
rules  by  a  prosecution  in  the  Supreme  Court  or  by  expelling  the 
offender.  The  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  on  one  occasion  refused 
to  grant  a  criminal  information.  Hastings  was  extremely  averse  to 
banishing  an  editor.  Deportation,  after  cancelment  of  the  licence  to 
remain  in  India,  continued  to  be  nominally  the  effective  method  of 
enforcing  the  censorship  against  English  editors.  But  when  an  editor 
born  in  India,  who  could  not  be  embarked  to  Europe,  rebelled  against 
the  censorship,  he  could  not  be  touched,  and  the  situation  became 
anomalous  and  impracticable.  The  rules,  therefore,  soon  became 
a  dead  letter  and  the  Press  practically  free. 

Hastings  subsequently,  when  answering  an  address  from  Madras, 
claimed  to  have  removed  the  restrictions  on  the  Press,  in  pursuance 
of  the  policy  that  supreme  authority  should  look  to  the  control  of 
public  scrutiny — as  it  gains  force  thereby.  The  rules  of  1818,  when 
reported  on  the  1st  of  October  of  that  year,  without  any  reasons 
assigned  for  the  change  of  system,  to  the  Court  of  Directors  in  England, 
met  with  their  disapproval ;  the  promulgation  of  the  Governor- 
General's  doctrines  excited  their  disgust  and  alarm.  The  Court 
prepared  a  despatch  to  the  Government  of  India,  expressing  their 
annoyance  at  not  having  been  consulted  before  the  changes  in  the 
Press  rules,  and  denying  the  efficacy  of  the  proposed  change.  They 
proposed  to  write  to  India  as  follows  : 

With  this  conviction  we  positively  direct  that  on  the  receipt  of  this  despatch 
you  do  revert  to  the  practice  which  had  prevailed  for  near  twenty  years  previous 


1908  THE  PRESS  IN  INDIA,   1780-1908  198 

to  1818,  arid  continue  the  same  in  force  until  you  shall  have  submitted  to  us, 
and  we  shall  have  approved  and  sanctioned,  some  other  system  of  responsibility 
or  control,  adapted  alike  to  all  our  presidencies  in  India.  The  inconvenience 
and  public  scandal  which  have  resulted  from  the  sudden  liberation  of  the  Press 
in  Calcutta,  while  that  at  Madras  remained  under  control,  are  too  notorious  to 
require  particularising  here  and  could  not  but  be  the  consequence  of  so  hasty  and 
partial  a  measure. 

But  when  this  draft  despatch  was  sent  on  the  7th  of  April  1820  to 
the  Board  of  Control  for  approval,  Mr.  George  Canning,  who  presided 
there,  did  not  return  it.  It  was  simply  shelved,  and  never  issued. 
So  Lord  Hastings's  rules  of  1818  remained  in  force  (until  1823).  The 
Bengal  Harkaru  became,  on  the  27th  of  April  1819,  the  first  daily 
paper  in  India.  For  the  next  four  years  the  Court  of  Directors 
deplored  the  licentiousness  of  the  Indian  Press,  after  the  abolition  of 
the  censorship,  and  were  anxious  to  reimpose  it. 

Mr.  James  Silk  Buckingham  arrived  in  Calcutta  with  a  licence  in 
1815.  As  editor  of  the  Calcutta  Journal  he  attacked  the  Government 
and  the  officials  unsparingly.  He  was  reproved  and  warned  for 
aspersing  the  character  of  the  Governor  of  Madras.  He  defied  all 
rules,  and  harassed  the  Government  and  individuals  by  his  objec- 
tionable conduct  of  his  paper,  being  repeatedly  warned  for  inserting 
articles  injurious  to  the  interests  of  the  Company.  Lord  Hastings 
disapproved  of  his  violence,  and  personally  remonstrated  with  him, 
but  in  July  1822  overruled  the  votes  of  his  Council  for  deportation. 
When  a  change  was  about  to  take  place  by  the  appointment  of  a 
new  Governor-General  (Lord  Amherst),  the  Court  of  Directors  thought 
it  a  fit  opportunity  to  address  the  Board  of  Control  on  the  licentious 
state  of  the  public  Press  in  India. 

It  appears  (they  wrote)  that  from  1791  to  1799  the  Bengal  Government 
limited  its  interference  with  the  Press  in  India,  in  cases  of  venial  offences,  to 
expressions  of  its  disapprobation  and  to  requisitions  of  apologies  from  offending 
editors  ;  that  in  two  cases  of  aggravation  it  exercised  its  legal  power  of  sending  the 
offenders  to  England  ;  in  one  instance  it  suspended  the  offender  from  the  Com- 
pany's service  ;  the  Calcutta  Press  was  subjected  to  a  censorship  from  1799  to 
1818  ;  and  during  that  period  no  case  occurred  which  it  was  found  necessary  to 
visit  with  the  severe  displeasure  of  Government.  The  censorship  was  removed 
in  1818,  rules  being  laid  down  instead  for  the  conduct  of  editors  ;  and,  ever  since, 
the  restrictions  then  imposed  have  been  set  at  nought  and  the  Government  has 
been  involved  in  an  almost  constant  but  unsuccessful  conflict  with  an  individual 
editor,  it  having  failed  in  one  prosecution,  and  declined  exercising  its  power  of 
sending  him  home,  because  of  other  prosecutions  which  had  been  instituted 
against  him  in  the  Supreme  Court.  In  one  instance,  previously  to  the  intro- 
duction of  the  censorship  at  Madras,  the  Government  had  found  it  necessary  to 
order  an  editor  to  Europe.  The  censorship  has  not  yet  been  removed  by  the 
Madras  Government,  and  at  that  Settlement,  so  far  as  is  known,  the  Press  causes 
neither  uneasiness  to  Government  nor  disturbance  to  the  community.  The 
Madras  Government,  with  reference  to  what  has  been  done  elsewhere  and  to  the 
general  agitation  of  the  question,  have  lately  represented  to  the  Court,  in  the 
strongest  terms,  the  impolicy  and  danger  of  liberating  the  Press  from  the  most 
absolute  control.  Lastly,  at  Bombay,  where  the  censorship  was  imposed  in  1791, 


194  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

no  case  had  occurred  under  its  operation  against  which  the  Bombay  Government 
thought  itself  called  upon  to  proceed  with  severity  ;  but  in  December  1819  the 
censorship  was  removed,  and  the  same  regulations  for  the  Press  established  at 
Bombay  as  in  Bengal. 

The  Court's  despatch — which  was  laid  before  Parliament  with  other 
papers  in  May  1858 — argued  the  case  in  the  fullest  detail  with  all 
possible  force  against  the  freedom  of  the  Press  and  in  favour  of  the 
censorship.  Among  other  points,  the  Court  observed  that  a  free 
Press  could  not  be  confined  to  Europeans,  that  four  native  news- 
papers were  started  on  the  withdrawal  of  the  censorship,  and  that 
such  a  Press  must  be  injurious. 

The  half-castes  may  be  made,  as  they  must  at  no  remote  period  become,  a 
source  of  great  anxiety  to  Government.  .  .  .  Moreover  any  diminution  of  the 
native  respect  for  Government  would  endanger  its  safety.  ...  As  to  the  diffusion 
of  intelligence  among  the  natives  that  is  a  high  object,  but  it  is  not  to  be  attained 
through  newspapers,  whose  aim  is  to  gratify  the  curiosity  rather  than  enlighten  the 
understanding,  to  excite  the  passions  rather  than  to  exercise  the  reason  of  their 
readers  ; 

and  much  stress  was  laid  on  the  danger  of  the  native  army  obtain- 
ing a  perusal  of  English  newspapers,  '  containing  a  perhaps  exag- 
gerated representation  of  their  grievances  or  an  inflammatory 
incentive  to  rebellion,  which,  from  their  assemblage  in  garrisons  and 
cantonments,  they  have  better  means  of  concerting  than  any  other 
portion  of  the  population.'  They  expressed  a  preference  for  censor- 
ship over  the  extreme  penalty  of  deportation,  and  suggested  that, 
as  the  censorship  could  not  be  extended  to  journals  edited  by  half- 
caste  and  native  editors,  Parliament  should  be  asked  to  enlarge  the 
powers  of  Government.  They  suggested  that  the  necessity  of  the 
censorship  would  be  superseded  were  the  local  governments  em- 
powered to  grant  and  withdraw  licences  to  printing  presses,  with  the 
power  of  suppressing  unlicensed  printing,  as  such  a  check  would  be 
universally  applicable.  Among  the  papers  quoted  by  the  Court 
was  a  Minute  by  Lord  William  Bentinck,  then  (1807)  Governor  of 
Madras.  *  It  is  necessary  in  my  opinion  for  the  public  safety  that 
the  Press  in  India  should  be  kept  under  the  most  rigid  control.' 
He  recommended  that  all  proprietors  of  printing  presses  should 
be  forbidden,  under  pain  of  the^  utmost  displeasure  of  the  Governor, 
to  print  any  paper  whatever  without  the  previous  sanction  of  the 
Governor. 

A  Minute  (1822)  by  Sir  Thomas  Munro  (Governor  of  Madras  1820- 
1827)  was  also  quoted,  containing  his  sentiments,  unanimously  shared 
by  his  Council,  on  the  danger  to  be  apprehended  from  a  free  Press  in 
India.  He  observed  that  the  grand  object  of  improving  the  moral 
and  intellectual  character  of  the  people  of  India  was  not  to  be  attained 
by  the  circulation  of  newspapers  and  pamphlets  among  the  natives 
immediately  connected  with  Europeans,  but  by  spreading  education 


1908  THE   PRESS   IN  INDIA,   1780-1908  195 

gradually  among  the  people,  diffusing  moral  and  religious  instruction 
through  the  community,  giving  the  natives  a  greater  share  in  the 
administration,  and  allowing  them  to  fill  places  of  rank  and  emolu- 
ment. 

In  reply  to  the  Court's  despatch  the  President  of  the  Board  of 
Control  wrote  that  his  Majesty's  Ministers,  though  deeply  sensible  of 
the  weight  and  importance  of  the  considerations  pressed  on  their 
attention  by  the  Court,  did  not  think  that,  under  the  circum- 
stances, it  would  at  present  be  advisable  to  submit  to  Parliament 
any  measure  for  extending  the  authority  of  the  Indian  Government 
to  check  this  abuse  (the  licentious  state  of  the  Press  in  India). 
In  the  interim  between  Hastings's  retirement  and  Amherst's 
arrival  in  India  Mr.  John  Adam,  the  Senior  Member  of  Council, 
acted  as  Governor-General  in  1823.  He  had  previously  been  Chief 
Secretary  and  ex  officio  Press  Censor.  He  had  uniformly  opposed 
the  liberal  views  of  Hastings  regarding  the  Press  :  he  considered  a 
free  Press  incompatible  with  the  institutions  of  a  despotic  Govern- 
ment like  that  of  India,  and  his  objections  to  it  were  based,  not  on 
personal  irritation,  but  on  conscientious  principle.  The  officials  had 
started,  in  1821,  the  John  Bull,  by  way  of  retorting  upon  Buckingham's 
Calcutta  Journal.  The  Presidency  was  divided  in  opinion  between 
the  two  newspapers.  A  prosecution  instituted  against  Buckingham 
failed.  After  Hastings  had  left  India,  Buckingham  in  his  paper 
ridiculed  the  appointment  of  the  Presbyterian  Chaplain  to  be  clerk 
to  the  Committee  of  Stationery ;  Buckingham's  licence  was  promptly 
taken  away,  and  he  was  deported.  The  Calcutta  Journal  was  made 
over  to  an  Indian-born  gentleman,  as  editor,  who  could  not  be 
deported. 

Thereupon  Regulation  III.  of  1823  was  passed  '  for  preventing  the 
establishment  of  printing  presses  without  licence,  and  for  restraining 
under  certain  circumstances  the  circulation  of  printed  books  and 
papers.'  It  enacted  that  no  person  should  print  any  newspaper  or 
book  containing  public  news,  or  information,  or  strictures  on  the 
proceedings  of  Government  without  a  licence,  which  was  liable  to  be 
revoked  ;  and  that,  if  any  newspaper  or  work  should  be  printed  either 
without  a  licence  or  after  its  recall,  any  two  justices  of  the  peace  might 
inflict  a  penalty  of  40Z.  for  each  offence.  When  the  Calcutta  Journal 
opposed  the  registration  (required  to  make  it  law)  of  this  regulation 
in  the  Supreme  Court,  the  Chief  Justice  ordered  its  registration  on 
the  ground  that  the  Government  and  a  free  Press  were  incompatible 
with  each  other  and  could  not  co-exist.  Simultaneously  rules  were 
published  for  the  guidance  of  editors  ;  it  was  notified  that  the  publica- 
tion of  any  observations  on  the  measures  or  orders  of  the  public 
authorities  in  England  connected  with  the  Government  of  India, 
or  on  the  measures  and  orders  of  the  Indian  Governments,  impugning 
their  motives  or  designs,  or  in  any  way  intended  to  bring  them  into 


196  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

hatred  or  contempt,  or  to  weaken  their  authority,  would  subject  the 
editors  to  the  loss  of  their  licences.  This  measure  has  been  called 
the  tyranny  of  despotism ;  Lord  Amherst  (1823-1828)  is  said  to 
have  adopted  the  violent  counsels  of  his  advisers.  A  Mr.  Arnott, 
of  the  Calcutta  Journal,  was  banished  for  publishing  some  offensive 
remarks ;  the  licence  of  the  paper  was  soon  after  revoked :  Mr. 
Arnott  appealed  to  the  Directors,  and  was  awarded  1,500Z.  as 
compensation  for  his  banishment.  Various  orders  were  issued  in 
1822-1826  to  prevent  Government  officers  from  having  any  connection 
with  the  Press  on  pain  of  dismissal. 

In  1824  the  Bombay  Supreme  Court  complained  of  the  Bombay 
Gazette  for  having  misrepresented  their  proceedings.  The  Bombay 
Government  deprived  Mr.  Fair,  the  nominal  owner  and  editor,  of  his 
licence  and  deported  him.  But  when  the  Bombay  Court  was  moved 
by  the  Bombay  Government  in  July  1826  to  register  (to  validate  it 
locally)  the  Bengal  regulation,  the  Judges  refused  to  do  so,  pronoun- 
cing it,  with  many  panegyrics  on  the  liberty  of  the  Press,  unlawful 
and  inexpedient.  Malcolm  (Governor  of  Bombay  1827-1830)  felt 
the  want  of  power  of  controlling  the  Press,  except  by  deportation, 
very  embarrassing.  In  May  1827  the  Government  suppressed  the 
Calcutta  Chronicle  for  great  disrespect  to  the  Government  and  the 
Directors,  and  for  violating  the  Press  regulation.  Lord  Amherst 
is  said  to  have  relaxed  his  views  on  restriction  during  his  last  two 
years  of  office.  Lord  William  Bentinck  (Governor-General  1828- 
1835)  hesitated  to  establish  the  liberty  of  the  Press  by  a  legislative 
enactment,  but  he  paved  the  way  for  it  by  giving  the  Press  seven 
years  of  practical  freedom  and  by  constantly  encouraging  its  discus- 
sion of  public  questions.  He  thought  some  power  should  be  reserved 
to  the  authorities,  responsible  as  they  were  for  the  peace  and  integrity 
of  the  Empire,  to  enable  them  effectively  to  secure  the  Government 
against  sedition.  Though  he  never  interfered  with  the  freedom  of 
public  discussion,  except  in  the  solitary  case  of  the  half-&a#a  order 
(which  came  from  England),  he  thought  Government  should  have 
some  authority  to  restrain  the  Press  summarily  in  a  clear  case  of 
political  necessity.  When  publishing  the  h&li-batta  despatch  he 
appears  to  have  contemplated  some  restrictions  on  the  Press,  but  was 
apparently  deterred  by  Sir  Charles  Metcalfe's  Minute  of  the  6th  of 
September  1830,  which  argued  against  any  interference  with  the 
liberty  of  the  Press.  Bentinck  was  wont  to  say,  snapping  his  fingers, 
that  he  did  not  care  a  straw  for  the  vituperations  of  the  Press.  He 
esteemed,  it  he  said,  as  a  friend  and  appreciated  it  as  an  auxiliary  to 
good  government. 

Upon  Lord  William  Bentinck's  retirement  Sir  Charles  Metcalfe, 
Senior  Member  of  the  Supreme  Council,  acted  as  Governor-General 
for  nearly  a  year  until  Lord  Auckland  arrived  in  March  1836.  There 


I[J 

CO] 


1908  THE   PRESS  IN  INDIA,   1780-1908  197 

were  then  a  number  of  journals  in  existence  in  Bengal.  On  the 
3rd  of  August  1835  the  Government  of  India  under  Sir  Charles 
Metcalfe  passed  Act  XI.  of  that  year,  which  took  effect  from  the 
15th  of  September,  removing  all  restrictions  on  the  Press.  In  1825 
Metcalfe  had,  as  he  wrote  to  a  friend,  no  decided  opinions  on  the 
subject  of  the  Press. 

I  cannot  go  along  with  one  party  as  to  the  blessings  of  a  free  Press,  nor  with 
another  as  to  its  dangers  ;  but  1  rather  think  that  the  inconveniences  would  pre- 
dominate at  present  and  the  advantages  hereafter  ;  and  that  it  would  be  hostile 
to  the  permanency  of  our  rule,  but  ultimately  beneficial  to  India. 

The  real  dangers  of  a  free  Press  in  India  are,  I  think,  in  its  enabling  the 
natives  to  throw  off  our  yoke.  The  petty  annoyances  which  our  Government 
would  suffer  I  call  rather  inconveniences.  The  advantages  are  in  the  spread  of 
knowledge,  which  it  seems  wrong  to  obstruct  for  any  temporary  or  selfish  purpose. 
I  am  inclined  to  think  that  I  would  let  it  have  its  swing,  if  I  were  sovereign  lord 
and  master. 

In  1832,  as  Vice-President  in  Council,  he  expressed  his  opposition 
to  any  control  of  the  Press.  His  opportunity  came  while  he  was 
acting  as  Governor-General,  with  Macaulay  as  his_Legal  Member  of 
Council.  The  Act  of  1835,  which  they  passed,  repealed  the  Press  Kegu- 
lations,  of  1823  in  Bengal,  and  those  of  1825  and  1827  in  Bombay.  It 
enacted  that  the  printer  and  the  publisher  of  every  periodical  work, 
within  the  Company's  territories,  containing  public  news,  or  comments 
on  public  news,  should  appear  before  the  magistrates  of  the  jurisdiction 
in  which  it  should  be  published  and  declare  where  it  was  to  be  printed 
and  published.  Every  book  or  paper  was  thenceforth  to  bear  the 
name  of  the  printer  and  publisher.  Every  person  having  a  printing 
press  on  his  premises  was  to  make  a  declaration  thereof,  and  for  all 
violations  of  the  provisions  of  the  Act  penalties  of  fine  and  imprison- 
ment were  decreed.  But,  beyond  the  necessity  of  making  these 
declarations,  there  was  no  other  restriction  upon  the  liberty  of  the 
Press.  Sir  G.  Metcalfe  was  belauded  as  the  liberator  of  the  Indian 
Press,  and  defended  his  measure  as  conducing  to  the  promotion  of 
.owledge  and  civilisation,  and  thereby  the  improvement  of  the 
condition  of  the  people  ;  he  admitted  the  liberty  practically  given  to 
the  Press  by  Lord  W.  Bentinck's  forbearance,  although  the  Press 
laws  were  nominally  in  existence.  He  was  blamed  for  his  change 
of  opinion  since  1825,  and  for  having  seized  the  opportunity  of  a  brief 
occupancy  of  the  chief  seat  of  Government  to  secure  for  himself  a 
little  fleeting  popularity.  The  use  of  a  safety-valve,  the  publicity, 
the  aid  afforded  to  Government  by  a  free  Press,  were  the  arguments 
relied  upon  by  the  supporters  of  liberation.  At  the  same  time  the 
Government  of  India  recognised  not  only  the  right  but  the  bounden 
duty  of  the  Government  to  suspend  that  liberty  on  the  possible 
occurrence  of  certain  emergencies  when  such  a  measure  might  become 
necessary  for  the  safety  of  the  State.  The  freedom^of  the  Indian 


198  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Au£. 

Press  dates  from  the  15th  of  September  1835,  and  the  Metcalfe  Hall 
was  erected  in  Calcutta  to  commemorate  the  name  of  the  Liberator. 
The  free  Press  dinner  became  an  anniversary  festival  in  Calcutta. 
The  Court  of  Directors  showed  their  dissatisfaction  with  Sir  C. 
Metcalfe's  Government,  and  made  him  personally  feel  the  weight  of 
their  displeasure.  In  their  despatch  of  the  1st  of  February  1836  the 
Court  very  severely  blamed  the  Government  of  India  for  passing  the 
Act,  which  they  declared  to  be  opposed  to  all  previous  orders,  un- 
justifiable, unsupported  by  facts,  redressing  no  real  grievance, 
required  by  no  emergency,  an  uncalled  for  substitution  of  legal  responsi- 
bility for  the  previous  licensing  system.  But  the  Court  refrained  from 
disallowing  the  new  law,  and  awaited  Lord  Auckland's  advice  before 
finally  deciding.  The  Act  remained  in  force. 

So  far  the  main  account  of  the  Indian  Press  has  been  limited  to 
English  journalism,  with  the  briefest  allusions  to  vernacular  papers. 
It  is  time  to  describe  succinctly  the  rise  and  development  of  vernacular 
journalism,  especially  that  of  Bengal,  which  by  the  date  of  the  Mutiny 
of  1857  had  attained  such  a  position  as  to  require  the  serious  attention 
of  the  Government.  In  1798  the  Court  of  Directors  intimated  their 
desire  to  encourage  Indian  literature.  When  the  missionaries 
Marshman  and  Ward  had  established  themselves  at  Serampur  in 
October  1799,  they  were  soon  joined  in  January  1800  by  William 
Carey,  who  brought  down  his  press  from  his  factory  in  the  Malda 
district.  There  is  no  need  to  dwell  at  length  on  the  activity  of  the 
Serampur  missionaries  until  the  year  1818.  Their  relations  with 
Lord  Minto's  Government  have  been  mentioned.  Marshman  tells 
how  the  Serampur  missionaries  had  for  some  time  contemplated 
the  publication  of  a  newspaper  in  the  Bengali  language,  to  stimulate 
inquiry  and  diffuse  information.  The  Government  had  always 
regarded  the  periodical  Press  with  a  spirit  of  jealousy ;  it  was  then 
under  a  rigid  censorship.  It  did  not  appear  likely  that  a  native 
journal  would  be  suffered  to  appear,  when  the  English  journals  at  the 
Presidency  (where  alone  they  were  published)  were  fettered  by  the 
severest  restrictions.  On  Marshman's  proposal  the  Government,  in 
February  1818,  allowed  the  publication  of  a  periodical  in  Bengali, 
provided  all  political  intelligence,  more  especially  regarding  the  East, 
was  excluded,  and  it  did  not  appear  in  a  form  likely  to  alarm  Govern- 
ment. '  It  must  therefore  be  confined  to  articles  of  general  informa- 
tion and  notices  of  new  discoveries,  but  a  small  space  may  be  allotted 
to  local  events  with  the  view  of  rendering  it  attractive.'  This  monthly 
magazine  appeared  in  April  1818  as  the  Dig-Dursun.  As  it  was 
received  with  unexpected  approbation,  Dr.  Marshman  and  Mr.  Ward 
issued  a  prospectus  for  the  publication  of  a  weekly  vernacular  news- 
paper in  Bengali.  Dr.  Carey  regarded  this  publication  with  feelings 
of  great  alarm,  but  was  overruled  by  his  colleagues.  The  first  number 


1908  THE   PRESS   IN  INDIA,   1780-1908  199 

was  issued  on  the  23rd  of  May  1818  as  the  Samachar  Durpan.  This 
was  supposed  to  be  the  first  Bengali  newspaper,  until  recently  it  has 
been  stated  that  the  Bengal  Gazette,  published  in  1816  in  Bengali, 
which  lived  less  than  a  year,  was  the  first.  However  that  may  be, 
the  issue  of  the  Samachar  was  favoured  by  the  authorities,  and  Lord 
Hastings,  to  encourage  it,  allowed  its  circulation  at  one-fourth  the 
usual  postage  charge.  The  censorship  of  the  Press  was  then  in  full 
vigour,  but  the  *  liberty  of  unlicensed  printing,'  which  the  mission- 
aries enjoyed  in  the  Danish  settlement  of  Serampur,  was  not  inter- 
fered with.  While  the  animosity  against  the  periodical  English  Press 
was  at  its  height,  the  Government  manifested  its  confidence  in  the 
discretion  of  the  Serampur  missionaries  by  purchasing  one  hundred 
copies  of  their  Bengali  newspaper  for  the  public  offices  in  Bengal,  and 
encouraged  a  Persian  version  of  it  by  a  liberal  subscription.  Persian 
was  then  the  official  language  of  the  Courts  of  Bengal.  The  first 
native  newspaper  in  Bombay  was  the  Bombay  Samachar,  published  as 
a  weekly  on  the  1st  of  July  1822 ;  the  Government  subscribed  for 
fifty  copies ;  it  became  a  weekly  in  1833,  and  a  daily  in  1860.  By 
1875  there  were  254  vernacular  newspapers  in  India.  In  Bengal  the 
Hindu  Patriot  had  been  started  (in  English)  in  1853.  The  Indian 
Mirror  came  out  in  1861,  the  Bengali  in  1862,  the  Amrita  Bazar 
Patrika  in  1868. 

Soon  after  the  Mutiny  broke  out  in  1857  the  Government  of  India 
recorded  on  the  12th  of  June  a  Resolution  announcing  their  intention 
to  take  prompt  and  decisive  measures  with  the  Press.  Certain  native 
newspapers  (the  Doorbeen,  SuUan-ul-Akhbar,  Samachar  Soodhaburshun) 
in  Calcutta  had  uttered  falsehoods  and  facts  grossly  perverted  for 
seditious  purposes,  misrepresented  the  objects  and  intentions  of 
Government,  vituperated  Government  itself,  and  endeavoured  to 
excite  discontent  and  hatred  towards  it  in  the  minds  of  its  native 
subjects.  Two  of  the  papers  had  published  a  traitorous  proclamation 
inciting  the  Hindus  and  Mahomedans  to  murder  all  Europeans. 
The  Government  ordered  their  law  officers  to  prosecute  the  printers 
and  publishers  of  the  two  newspapers  on  charges  of  publishing  seditious 
libels,  and  determined  to  take  for  a  time  control  of  the  Press,  and 
power  to  suppress  summarily  publications  containing  treasonable  or 
seditious  matter  or  otherwise  infringing  the  conditions  imposed. 
Lord  Canning  himself  took  charge  of  the  measure,  which  became,  on 
the  13th  of  June,  XV  of  1857,  an  Act  to  regulate  the  establishment  of 
printing  presses  and  to  restrain  in  certain  eases  the  circulation  of 
printed  books  and  papers.  It  temporarily  placed  the  whole  Indian 
Press  very  much  in  the  position  in  which  it  was  permanently  before 
Sir  C.  Metcalfe's  legislation  in  1835  gave  it  complete  liberty.  It 
prohibited  the  keeping  or  using  of  printing  presses  without  licence 
from  the  Government.  The  Government  took  discretionary  power 


200  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

to  grant  licences,  subject  to  conditions,  also  to  revoke  the  licences  : 
also  to  prohibit  the  publication  or  circulation  in  India  of  newspapers, 
books,  &c.,  of  any  particular  description.  The  conditions  upon  which 
licences  were  ordinarily  to  be  granted  were,  that  nothing  printed  at 
such  press  should  contain  matter  impugning  the  motive  or  designs 
of  the  British  Government,  in  England  or  India,  or  tending  to  bring 
Government  into  hatred  or  contempt,  to  excite  disaffection  or  un- 
lawful resistance  to  its  orders,  or  to  weaken  its  lawful  authority,  or  the 
lawful  authority  of  its  civil  or  military  servants  :  that  nothing  printed 
there  should  contain  matter  having  a  tendency  (1)  to  create  alarm 
or  suspicion  among  the  native  population  of  any  intended  interference 
by  Government  with  their  religious  opinions  and  observances,  or  (2)  to 
weaken  the  friendship  towards  the  British  Government  of  native 
princes,  chiefs,  or  dependent  or  allied  States.  Soon  the  Friend  of 
India  (an  Anglo-Indian  newspaper),  which  had  infringed  every  one  of 
the  conditions  of  its  licence,  was  warned  against  repeating  remarks  of 
the  dangerous  nature  contained  in  an  article  on  the  '  Centenary 
of  Plassey.'  It,  however,  repeated,  in  offensive  and  .defiant  terms, 
the  substance  of  the  original  article.  The  licence  was  about  to  be 
withdrawn,  when  an  assurance  was  given  that  the  prescribed  condi- 
tions would  be  observed.  The  printers  and  publishers  of  two  of  the 
native  papers  pleaded  guilty  and  were  discharged  under  recognisances. 
The  third  defendant  was  acquitted.  The  law  was  enforced  against 
two  other  papers.  The  Act  applied  to  all  India ;  its  duration  was 
limited  to  one  year ;  it  made  no  distinction  between  the  English  and 
Vernacular  Press.  This  aroused  a  storm  of  indignation  in  the  European 
community  on  the  ground  that  the  European  Press,  although  no  fear 
was  entertained  that  treasonable  matter  would  be  designedly  published 
in  any  English  newspaper,  had  been  placed  under  the  same  restric- 
tions as  the  native  Press.  This  was  the  deliberate  intention  of  Lord 
Canning  himself,  who  said,  when  introducing  the  measure,  that  he  saw 
no  reason,  and  did  not  consider  it  possible  in  justice,  to  draw  any  line 
of  demarcation  between  European  and  native  publications.  The 
'  Gagging  Act '  has  never  been  forgotten.  The  Government  particu- 
larly pointed  out  to  the  Court  of  Directors  the  nature  of  the  comments 
that  might  be  made  in  a  newspaper  and  circulated  among  natives 
in  India  with  impunity,  when  the  Press  is  not  under  a  temporary 
law  of  restriction.  The  Jam-i-Jamshid  was  suppressed  by  the  Bombay 
Government,  who,  moved  by  the  Commissioner  in  Sind  (Sir  Bartle 
Frere)  to  take  some  action,  recorded  strong  opinions  in  favour  of 
restrictions  and  supported  Act  XV  of  1857,  The  Court  of  Directors 
entertained  no  doubt  of  the  necessity  of  some  such  measures,  and, 
when  the  proprietor  of  the  Bombay  Gazette  memorialised  the  Court, 
praying  for  the  disallowance  of  the  Act  and  pleading  for  the  rights 
and  privileges  enjoyed  by  the  Press  since  1835,  they  very  briefly 


1908  THE  PRESS  IN  INDIA,   1780-1908  201 

replied  to  him  that  they  had  approved  of  the  Act.  When  the  Act 
expired  it  was  not  renewed. 

While  Lord  Lawrence  was  Viceroy  of  India  (1864-1869)  the  idea  of 
establishing  a  Government  organ  was  considered,  and  negotiations 
were  opened,  it  is  said,  with  the  editor  of  the  Englishman,  but  nothing 
came  of  them,  as  no  subsidy  was  to  be  granted.  Sir  Henry  Maine, 
the  Legal  Member,  wrote  in  a  Minute  dated  the  27th  of  February  1868 : 
'  We  stand  alone  among  the  Governments  of  the  civilised  world  in 
having  no  means,  except  the  most  indirect,  of  correcting  the  honest 
mistakes  or  exposing  the  wilful  misrepresentations  of  a  completely 
free  Press.'  He  considered  the  subject  of  possible  future  relations 
between  the  Government  and  the  Friend  of  India,  but  was  strongly 
advised  against  the  establishment  of  an  official  paper  like  the  Moniteur, 
and  apparently  nothing  came  of  the  idea.  On  the  16th  of  March  1868 
he  wrote : 

We  are  beginning  more  and  more  to  be  conscious  of  the  reflex  action  of  Indian 
opinion,  which  is  mainly  formed  by  the  newspapers,  which  penetrates  to  England 
in  a  variety  of  ways  and  thus  leavens  or  creates  English  opinion  about  India,  and 
so  becomes  a  real  power  with  which  we  have  to  count.  Even  more  serious  is  the 
direct  influence  of  the  European  Press  in  India  on  the  now  enormous  Native 
Press.  Where  the  native  newspapers  do  not  perceive  that  native  interest  points 
the  other  way  (which  they  constantly  fail  to  do)  they  merely  echo  European  cries, 
which,  hi  the  vast  majority  of  cases,  are  bitter  calumnies  on,  or  misrepresentations 
of,  the  policy  of  the  Government. 

Of  the  European  Press  in  Bengal  and  Upper  India  he  added  :  '  We 
always  knew  that  it  was  careless,  shallow,  and  scandalous.  We  now 
know  all  but  for  certain  that  it  is  corrupt.  It  is  not  very  uncharitable 
to  speak  of  it  as  constantly  subsidised  by  one  or  other  of  the  numerous 
persons  who  are  conspiring  against  the  Indian  Exchequer.'  There  is 
evidence,  in  his  Life  by  Sir  W.  Hunter,  that  Lord  Mayo  also  considered 
the  question  of  a  '  Government  organ,'  but  saw  the  difficulty  there 
would  be  in  controlling  an  inspired  one,  and  the  risk  to  be  incurred 
in  raising  hostile  feelings  among  the  other  papers.  In  1867  Act  XXV. 
(Printing  Presses  and  Books)  was  passed  to  deal  with  the  preservation 
and  registration  of  all  books,  repealing  and  re-enacting  Metcalfe's 
Act  of  1835,  with  only  a  slight  alteration  of  a  penalty  section. 

Several  of  the  chief  English  newspapers  now  published  in  India 
were  commenced  during  the  twenty  years,  1858-78,  such  as  the 
Pioneer,  the  Civil  and  Military  Gazette,  the  Madras  Mail,  and  others. 
The  Press  has  developed  since  that  time,  through  greater  enterprise 
and  facilities.  More  especially  have  the  vernacular  papers  increased 
in  number  and  circulation.  Between  1858  and  1878  the  power  and 
influence  of  the  Presses,  both  English  and  Vernacular,  whether  for 
good  or  bad,  was  fully  established.  In  1875  there  were  155  English, 
besides  the  254  Vernacular,  and  69  mixed  English  and  Vernacular 
papers  published  in  different  parts  of  India.  As  there  had  been  no 


202  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

stamp  duty  on  the  newspaper  Press  of  India,  this  development  of  the 
Indian  Press  was  not  the  result  of  a  repeal  of  a  duty  in  the  same 
way  as  in  England  the  repeal  of  the  newspaper  stamp  duty  in  1855, 
and  of  the  advertisement  tax  in  1853  (both  first  imposed  in  1712), 
and  the  abolition  of  the  paper  duty  in  1861,  had  conduced  there 
to  the  enormous  expansion  of  journalism. 

The  Wahabi  conspiracy  had  existed  at  least  from  1863,  and  in 
1868-1869  inquiries  were  instituted  which  led  to  the  trial  and  con- 
viction of  some  of  the  conspirators.  The  investigations  brought  to 
light  the  fact  that  further  measures  were  required  to  meet  cases  of 
seditious  preaching,  for  which  there  seemed  to  be  no  satisfactory 
provision  in  the  existing  law.  The  Penal  Code  was  accordingly 
amended  by  the  introduction  (by  Act  XXVII.  of  1870)  of  a  new  section 
124A,  by  which  Sir  Fitz James  Stephen,  then  Legal  Member,  intended 
to  assimilate  generally  the  Indian  law  regarding  seditious  language  to 
the  English  law  as  it  had  settled  down  since  Fox's  Libel  Act  of  1792. 
This  new  section  had,  he  stated,  stood  in  Macaulay's  draft  code  in 
1837,  and  no  one  could  account  for  its  final  omission.  He  disclaimed 
any  wish  of  the  Government  to  check,  in  the  least  degree,  any  criticism 
of  their  measures,  however  severe  and  hostile,  nay,  however  disin- 
genuous, unfair,  and  ill-informed  it  might  be.  The  section  would  not 
apply  to  a  writer  or  speaker  who  neither  directly  nor  indirectly  sug- 
gested or  intended  to  produce  the  use  of  force  ;  but  his  intention 
would  have  to  be  inferred  from  the  circumstances  in  each  case.  The 
section  also  would  not  be  an  interference  with  the  liberty  of  the  Press, 
a  phrase  which  he  described  as  mere  rhetoric.  '  The  question  was  not 
whether  the  Press  ought  or  ought  not  to  be  free,  but  whether  it  ought  to 
be  free  to  excite  rebellion,'  and  he  proceeded  to  describe  what  people 
might  or  might  not  say.  The  section  (124A)  was  passed  as  follows  : 
' 124A.  Whoever  by  words,  either  spoken,  or  intended  to  be  read,  or 
by  signs  or  by- visible  representations  or  otherwise,  excites  or  attempts 
to  excite,  feelings  of  disaffection  to  the  Government  established  by  law 
in  British  India,  shall  be  punished  with  transportation  for  life  or  for 
any  term,  to  which  fine  may  be  added,  or  with  imprisonment  for  a 
term  which  may  extend  to  three  years,  to  which  fine  may  be  added, 
or  with  fine.  Explanation. — Such  a  disapprobation  of  the  measures 
of  the  Government  as  is  compatible  with  a  disposition  to  render 
obedience  to  the  lawful  authority  of  the  Government,  and  to  support 
the  lawful  authority  of  the  Government  against  unlawful  attempts 
to  subvert  or  resist  that  authority,  is  not  disaffection.  Therefore,  the 
making  of  comments  on  the  measures  of  the  Government,  with  the  in- 
tention of  exciting  only  this  species  of  disapprobation,  is  not  an  offence 
within  this  clause.' 

Also,  during  this"period  (1858-1878)  the  Penal  Code  contained  a 
section,  505  (which  was  altered  in  1898)  directed  against  the  circula- 
tion or  publication  of  any  statement,  rumour,  or  report,  known  to  be 


1908  THE   PRESS   IN  INDIA,   1780-1908  203 

false,  with  intent  to  cause  any  officer,  soldier,  or  sailor,  to  mutiny,  or 
with  intent  to  cause  fear  or  alarm  to  the  public,  and  thereby  to  induce 
any  person  to  commit  an  offence  against  the  State  or  against  the 
public  tranquillity. 

In  1878  it  appeared  to  the  Government  of  India,  when  Lord  Lytton 
was  Viceroy  and  Governor-General,  that  a  section  of  the  Vernacular 
Press  had  of  late  years  assumed  an  attitude  of  fixed  hostility  to  the 
Government;  that  it  did  not  confine  itself  to  criticising  particular 
measures  or  the  acts  of  individual  officers  on  their  merits,  but  attacked 
the  very  existence  of  British  rule  in  India,  and  that  the  evil  had  been 
steadily  growing  and  had  attained  a  magnitude  which  called  for  the 
application  of  some  strong  measures  of  repression.  The  Lieutenant 
Governor  of  Bengal  (Sir  Ashley  Eden)  had  brought  to  notice  instances 
of  the  licentiousness  and  sedition  of  the  Vernacular  Press,  and  the 
necessity  for  immediate  action  was  pressed  on  the  Government  of 
India  from  many  quarters.  The  existing  law  was  held  by  competent 
advisers  not  to  furnish  a  sufficient  remedy,  so  that  fresh  legislation  was 
\  considered  necessary.  It  was  decided  to  devise  a  special  procedure 
for  the  prevention  of  offences,  rather  than  to  amend  the  ordinary 
criminal  law  imposing  penalties  for  offences  already  committed. 
The  reasons  for  the  measure  stated  in  the  preamble  of  the  Bill,  which 
became  law  on  the  14th  of  March,  were  that  certain  publications  in 
Oriental  languages,  printed  or  circulated  in  British  India,  had  of  late 
contained  matter  likely  to  excite  disaffection  to  the  Government,  or 
antipathy  between  persons  of  different  races,  castes,  religions,  or 
sects  in  British  India,  or  had  been  used  as  means  of  intimidation  or 
extortion,  and  that  such  publications  were  read  by  and  disseminated 
among  large  numbers  of  ignorant  and  unintelligent  persons,  and  were 
thus  likely  to  have  an  influence  which  they  otherwise  would  not  possess, 
so  that  it  was  considered  necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  the  public 
tranquillity  and  for  the  security  of  her  Majesty's  subjects  and  others 
that  power  should  be  conferred  on  the  Executive  Government  to 
control  the  printing  and  circulation  of  such  publications. 

The  measure  passed  by  the  Council  established  a  system  of  con- 
trol over  vernacular  papers,  as  follows  :  (1)  The  Magistrate  might, 
with  the  previous  sanction  of  the  Local  Government,  require  the 
printer  or  publisher  of  any  such  newspaper  to  enter  into  a  bond  binding 
himself  not  to  print  or  publish  in  such  newspaper  anything  likely  to 
excite  feelings  of  disaffection  to  the  Government  or  antipathy  between 
different  races  &c.,  or  to  commit  extortion ;  (2)  If  any  newspaper 
(whether  a  bond  had  been  taken  in  respect  of  it  or  not)  at  any  time 
contained  any  matter  of  the  description  just  mentioned,  or  was  used 
for  purposes  of  extortion,  the  Local  Government  might  warn  such 
newspaper  by  a  notification  in  the  Gazette,  and  if,  in  spite  of  such 
warning,  the  offence  was  repeated,  the  Local  Government  might  then 
issue  its  warrant  to  seize  the  plant,  &c.,  of  such  newspaper,  and  when 


204  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

any  deposit  had  been  made  might  declare  such  deposit  forfeited  ; 
(3)  as  the  deposit  of  security  and  the  forfeiture  of  the  deposit  might 
perhaps  press  unduly  on  less  wealthy- proprietors,  clauses  were  inserted 
enabling  a  publisher  to  take  his  paper  out  of  the  operation  of  this 
portion  of  the  Act  by  undertaking  to  submit  his  proofs  to  a  Govern- 
ment officer  before  publication,  and  to  publish  nothing  objected  to  by 
such  officer. 

In  the  debate  In  the  Legislative  Council  full  explanation  was  given 
of  the  necessity  for  the  measure  (which  included  also  provisions  for 
the  seizure  and  prohibition  of  importation  of  books,  newspapers, 
&c.,  of  the  kind  aimed  at),  and  for  the  summary  procedure  adopted, 
also  of  the  limitation  of  the  measure  to  the  Vernacular  Press.  Much 
stress  was  laid  upon  the  importance  of  avoiding  public  trials  for 
sedition.  It  was  mentioned  that  both  Sir  Charles  Metcalfe  and 
Macaulay,  the  one  the  originator  and  the  other  the  draughtsman  and 
the  eloquent  defender  of  the  Act  of  1835,  while  arguing  strongly  in 
favour  of  a  free  Press,  adverted  to  the  possibility  of  circumstances 
arising  which  might  compel  the  Government  of  the  day  to  resort 
again  to  legislation  of  a  restrictive  character.  Mr.  Prinsep  also,  in 
1835,  thought  the  eye  of  the  Government  would  require  to  be  kept 
'  continually  upon  the  Press,  and  especially  upon  the  native  Press, 
for  it  was  capable  of  being  made  an  engine  for  destroying  the  respect  in 
which  the  Government  is  held,  and  so  undermining  its  power.'  The 
Secretary  of  State,  Lord  Cranbrook,  sanctioned  the  Vernacular  Press 
Act,  but  objected  to  the  provisions  under  which  a  publisher  might 
undertake  to  submit  a  proof  of  his  newspaper  to  Government  before 
publishing  it,  so  a  brief  Act  was  passed  repealing  this  portion  of  the 
previous  measure.  The  Act  was  only  once  put  in  force.  Under  the 
orders  of  Government  a  bond  was  demanded  from  the  printer  of  the 
Som  Prokash  for  publishing  seditious  matters.  The  printer  executed 
the  bond,  but  subsequently  stopped  the  issue  of  that  paper,  and  started 
the  Navabibhakar  in  its  place.  The  following  year,  permission  was 
sought  to  revive  the  Som  Prokash,  and  such  permission  was  accorded  on 
the  editor's  giving  a  pledge  for  its  future  good  conduct.  Subsequently 
both  the  papers  were  separately  published.  No  prosecution  took  place  ; 
no  further  publicity  was  given  to  the  incriminated  articles  ;  a  warning 
was  given  to  the  whole  native  Press,  and  its  tone  preceptibly  improved 
without  any  diminution  of  fair  criticism :  the  preaching  of  general 
sedition  ceased.  All  that  was  required  was  effected  by  requiring  the 
printer  to  execute  the  bond. 

The  two  Acts  were  both  repealed  by  Lord  Kipon's  Government 
in  January  1882,  so  that  S.  124A  of  the  Penal  Code  alone  remained  to 
the  Government  as  a  means  of  controlling  seditious  utterances  in  the 
Press  generally ;  while  under  Customs  and  Post  Office  Acts  foreign 
publications  could  be  stopped  from  circulation  in  India. 

Although  some  of  the  vernacular  newspapers  attacked  the  Govern- 


1908  THE   PRESS  IN  INDIA,   1780-1908  205 

ment  with  virulence  and  boldness,  for  the  next  nine  years,  no  notice 
was  taken,  until  in  August  1891  the  proprietor,  editor,  manager, 
printer  and  publisher  of  the  Bangobasi  (Calcutta  newspaper)  were  pro- 
secuted under  Sections  124A  and  500  of  the  Penal  Code  for  sedition  and 
defamation  in  certain  articles  in  which  statements  were  made  against 
the  Government,  and  attempts  made  to  excite  popular  feeling  and  dis- 
content and  disaffection  towards  the  Government  among  the  people. 
The  main  object  of  the  Government  in  instituting  the  prosecution 
was  to  ascertain  and  make  known  the  exact  state  of  the  law.  After 
a  trial  for  several  days  before  the  Chief  Justice,  a  majority  of  the  jury, 
in  the  proportion  of  seven  to  two,  were  for  conviction,  but  the  Chief 
Justice  declined  to  accept  anything  but  a  unanimous  verdict ;  the 
jury  were  therefore  discharged.  The  accused  then  expressed  their 
contrition  for  having  allowed  the  articles  in  question  to  appear,  and 
threw  themselves  unreservedly  on  the  Lieutenant  Governor's  mercy, 
promising  never  to  repeat  their  ofience.  The  Lieutenant  Governor, 
with  the  concurrence  of  the  Government  of  India,  stopped  further 
proceedings.  In  this  case  the  meanings  of  the  words  '  disaffection '  and 
'  disapprobation '  were  much  discussed,  the  Chief  Justice  laying  it  down 
that  the  meanings  of  the  two  portions  of  Section  124A  were  distinct, 
and  that  a  man's  '  disaffection  '  was  totally  different  from  '  disappro- 
bation.' When  Mr.  Rand  and  Lieutenant  Ay  erst  were  murdered  at 
Poona  in  June  1897,  the  Government  ascribed  the  murders  to  in- 
flammatory articles  in  the  Vernacular  Press  (in  connexion  with  anti- 
plague  measures).  In  1897  Mr.  Tilak  was  tried  under  Section  124A  for 
attempting  to  excite  feelings  of  disaffection  to  the  British  Govern- 
ment in  certain  articles  in  the  Marathi  paper,  the  Kesari,  of  which 
he  was  the  editor  and  proprietor.  The  jury  found  him  guilty  by 
a  majority  of  six  to  three.  The  judge  accepted  this  verdict  and 
sentenced  the  accused  to  eighteen  months'  rigorous  imprisonment. 
In  1898  section  124A  was  amended  and  amplified. 

The  relations  between  Government  and  the  Press  have  developed, 
as  has  been  shown,  since  1780  from  a  system  of  arbitrary,  not  to  say 
despotic,  treatment,  through  periods  of  Press  censorship,  restriction, 
liberty,  temporary  restraint,  renewed  freedom,  a  Vernacular  Press  Act 
for  four  years,  legislation  (twice)  by  amendments  of  the  ordinary  law 
against  sedition,  until  in  1908,  before  Act  VII.  was  enacted,  the  Press 
law  was  comprised,  as  will  have  appeared,  in  Act  XXV.  of  1867,  in 
Sections  108A,  124A,  153A,  and  505  of  the  Penal  Code,  and  Sections 
108  and  196  of  the  Code  of  Criminal  Procedure,  besides  some  provisions 
of  the  Customs  and  Post  Office  Acts.  It  has  been  officially  explained 
that  the  new  Act  VII.  of  1908  (incitements  to  offences)  is  directed, 
not  against  the  liberty  of  the  Press,  nor  against  sedition,  with  which 
the  existing  criminal  law  would  deal,  but  against  a  Press  which  incited 
men  to  murder,  to  armed  revolt,  and  to  secret  diabolical  schemes. 
It  remains  to  be  seen  whether  the  combined  effect  of  the  previously 

VOL.  LXIV-No.  378  P 


206  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

existing  law  and  the  new  Act,  all  of  which  apply  equally  to  the  English 
and  the  Vernacular  Presses,  will  suffice  to  control  the  utterances  of  the 
Press  within  reasonable  limits,  and  to  maintain  peace  and  order,  which 
is  the  ultimate  object  of  all  law.  When  other  legislative  attempts 
have  failed  it  is  difficult  to  be  hopeful  of  complete  success  from  the 
new  law. 

S.  M.  MITKA. 


11- 08 


DREADNOUGHTS    FOR    SALE    OR    HIRE 


THE  period  of  hesitation  through  which  the  Naval  Powers  of  the 
world  passed  when  the  Dreadnought  design  was  first  revealed  has 
given  place  to  a  period  of  nervousness,  some  manifestations  of  which 
approach  the  comic. 

For  instance,  people  have  suddenly  awakened  to  the  fact  that 
two  large  battleships  are  building  at  Els  wick  and  Barrow  respectively 
to  the  order  of  the  Brazilian  Government,  and  that  a  third  is  pro- 
jected and  will  be  laid  down  at  Elswick  as  soon  as  the  first,  the  Minos 
Geraes,  is  in  the  water.  Promptly,  there  arises  something  which 
approaches  the  indignity  of  a  first-class  naval  scare.  In  the  United 
States  particularly,  the  New  York  Herald  laments  almost  in  the 
vein  of  the  Psalmist  that  Brazil,  their  own  familiar  friend,  hath  laid 
great  wait  for  the  Yankees. 

The  simple  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  when  the  model  of  the  Minos 
Geraes  appeared  at  the  Franco-British  Exhibition  people  at  once 
began  to  ask,  *  What  on  earth  can  Brazil  want  with  Dreadnoughts  ?  ' 
And  next,  '  How  on  earth  can  Brazil  pay  for  Dreadnoughts  ?  '  Thus 
the  way  was  paved  for  a  story  of  dark  and  dire  complots  of  which  the 
terrible  little  yellow  man  from  the  Far  East  was  naturally  made  the 
hero.  His  relations  with  the  guileless  Yankee  have  recently  been 
strained ;  his  fleet  is  to  the  American  fleet  but  as  four  to  five  (in 
material  that  is,  in  war-worthiness  it  may  be  as  Lombard  Street  to 
a  China  orange);  therefore  the  perfidious  one,  without  doubt,  has 
conspired  with  the  Government  of  Brazil  to  bring  about  a  nefarious 
deal.  So  they  argue  in  America. 

Conjecture  of  this  kind,  is,  of  course,  no  evidence  ;  and  although 
the  question,  '  What  does  Brazil  want  with  Dreadnoughts  ? '  seemed 
unanswerable  to  the  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  I  do  not  think  it 
necessarily  is  so.*  A  modern  fleet  is  not  built  in  five  or  even  ten 
years,  and  in  ten  years'  time  a  certain  European  Power  suspected 
of  designs  on  the  independence  of  South  American  States  will  be 
so  strong  at  sea  that  it  will  be  quite  desirable  (we  will  put  it  this 
way)  for  Brazil,  the  largest  of  the  threatened  communities,  to  be 
able  to  afford  effective  help  in  the  maintenance  of  the  Monroe  doctrine 
to  the  United  States.  Again,  when  the  Isthmus  Canal  is  cut,  Brazil 

207  r2 


208 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


Aug. 


may  quite  possibly  aspire  to  such  aggrandisement  at  the  expense  of 
Columbia  or  Ecuador  as  would  seat  her  on  both  oceans  and  give  her 
the  unquestioned  hegemony  of  South  America.  Be  it  remembered 
that  the  Brazilian  Navy  League  is  strong  and  aggressive,  and  exercises 
real  influence  on  public  opinion.  Brazilian  naval  officers  are  perfectly 
clear  on  the  point  that  Brazil  is  in  fact  intending  to  build  up  a  Navy 
for  herself.  One  of  them,  a  member  of  the  Naval  Commission,  put  it 
this  way  :  '  This  is  not  a  new  programme  ;  the  Government  authorised 
it  as  long  ago  as  1904,  and  would  have  authorised  it  ten  years  earlier 
had  money  been  available,  and  had  not  the  Navy  been  imbued  with 
anti-Republican  sentiment.  Since  it  was  authorised,  it  has  been 
further  delayed  by  the  coming  of  the  Dreadnought.  If  we  are  to 
have  a  Navy  at  all — and  there  are  plenty  of  good  reasons  why  we 
should — it  is  wise  to  have  the  best  of  its  size  that  can  be  built ;  so  we 
are  constructing  Dreadnought  battleships,  swift  cruisers,  torpedo- 
boat  destroyers  and  submarines,  exactly  as  every  other  Power  which 
aspires  to  naval  strength  is  doing.'  It  is  a  fact  that  there  is  nothing 
to  be  called  news  in  the  information  that  these  ships  are  being  built 
to  the  order  of  Brazil.  The  officers  of  the  Brazilian  Naval  Com- 
mission, which  is  superintending  the  building  of  the  Minas  Geraes, 
were  very  much  to  the  fore  when  I  was  at  Jarrow  in  the  autumn  of 
1906  to  witness  the  launch  of  the  Lord  Nelson.  All  the  ordinary 
naval  text-books,  moreover,  have  included  them,  with  details  of 
greater  or  less  inaccuracy,  for  the  last  two  years.  Nevertheless, 
the  idea  that  the  warships  are  intended  for  some  Power  other  than 
Brazil  is  not  so  absurd  as  it  may  appear  at  first  sight. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  apposite  to  remember  that  sales  to  some 
other  Power  of  warships  completed  or  completing  by  the  South 
American  State  which  gave  the  order  are  by  no  means  'uncommon. 
Taking  ships  still  borne  on  the  fighting  strength  of  the  world's 
navies  only,  we  get  the  following  list : — 


Ship 


Idzumi1  (ex-Esmeralda) 
Iwate  and  Idzumo 

Triumph  and  Swiftsure 
Kasuga  and  Nisshin 


Class 

Built  for 

At           !    Bought  by 

Date 

da)  . 
ire    . 

Cruiser 
Armoured 
Cruisers 
Battleships 

Armoured 
Cruisers 

Chili 
Chili 

Chili 
Argentine 

Elswick         Japan 
Elswick         Japan 

Elswick         Great 
Barrow        Britain 
Sestri-         Japan 
Ponente 

1895 
1899 

1903 
1903 

It  may  be  said  with  truth,  in  fact,  that  the  ships  South  America 
has  sold  could  wipe  all  the  fleets  South  America  possesses  off  the  seas. 

Since  these  things  are  so,  it  is  not  much  to  be  wondered  at  that 
the  intentions  of  Brazil  are  suspect,  nor,  seeing  that  of  the  seven 
ships  named  above  Japan  has  bought  five,  while  the  other  two  were 
bought  by  Great  Britain  to  prevent  them  passing  into  the  hands  of 
an  enemy  of  Japan,  is  it  marvellous  that  Japan  should  be  pointed  at 

1  To  be  struck  off  the  effective  list  this  year. 


1908      DREADNOUGHTS   FOE   SALE   OE  HIEE        209 

as  the  purchaser.  Moreover,  the  ships  have  a  remarkable  likeness 
in  general  plan  to  those  most  newly  designed  for  the  Japanese  Navy. 
In  each  class  there  are  four  turrets  on  the  centre  line,  two  raised 
so  as  to  fire  over  the  others  ahead  or  astern  respectively ;  while  there 
are  also  two  amidships,  placed,  as  in  the  Dreadnought,  one  on  either 
beam.  Now  this  arrangement,  up  to  the  present,  is  entirely  and 
exclusively  Japanese.  In  British  ships,  there  is  no  intention  of 
going  beyond  an  armament  of  ten  12-inch  guns,  firing  eight  on  either 
broadside,,  for  technical  reasons  which  it  skills  not  to  explain.  The 
newest  American  design  provides  for  ten  12-inch  guns  in  five  turrets, 
all  placed  on  the  centre  line,  so  that  all  the  guns  bear  on  either  beam. 
The  most  striking  resemblance  to  the  Japanese  design,  however, 
is  to  be  found  in  the  mounting  of  the  anti-torpedo  armanent.  The 
Brazilian  ships  are  to  carry  twenty-two  4*7  inch  guns,  of  which  four- 
teen will  be  mounted  in  battery  amidships,  and  the  remaining  eight 
in  sponsoned  casemates  on  the  upper  deck  and  on  the  superstructure. 
The  Japanese  ships  will  carry  ten  6-inch  guns,  mounted  in  battery, 
and  twelve  4'7  on  the  upper  deck  and  superstructure.  At  the  date 
of  the  design  of  these  ships  only  the  Japanese  had  begun  to  adopt 
large  quick-firers  mounted  behind  armour  as  the  anti-torpedo 
armament. 

For  these  and  other  reasons,  I  went  to  Elswick  recently  believing 
that  the  great  battleships — equal,  be  it  remembered,  to  the  most 
powerful  in  the  world  until  the  British  '  Super- Dreadnoughts '  are 
built — were,  in  fact,  to  go  to  Japan  under  cover  of  the  Brazilian 
order.  By  the  time  I  left  for  Barrow-in-Furness,  to  interview  the 
Sao  Paulo,  I  was  convinced  that  this  view  was  mistaken.  In  the 
first  place,  there  is  no  Japanese  Naval  Commission  in  either  town  ; 
no  Japanese  naval  officer  even  that  I  could  hear  of.  It  is  true  that 
numbers  visit  these  great  establishments,  but  I  was  informed  that 
the  Ordnance  Works,  rather  than  the  shipbuilding  yards,  are  most 
frequently  the  object  of  their  visits.  Now,  I  am  very  sure  that, 
except  under  stress  of  circumstances,  the  Japanese  would  never 
consent  to  accept  ships  the  material  of  which  had  only  been  tested 
by  the  easy-going  methods  of  the  Brazilians.  When  a  contract  for 
the  Imperial  Japanese  Navy  is  placed,  the  watch  kept  by  the  naval 
officers  of  Japan  is  unsleeping.  In  the  second  place — and  this 
consideration  is  important — given  time,  Japan  could  build  her  warships 
to  her  own  designs,  in  perfect  secrecy — a  secrecy  to  which  Western 
nations  vainly  strive  to  attain — and  at  far  less  cost  than  that  which 
a  British  firm  would  accept.  The  warships  which  she  has  bought 
at  present  she  has  bought  in  moments  either  of  national  anger  or  of 
national  peril :  the  Idzumi  (Esmeralda)  on  the  conclusion  of  the 
Treaty  of  Shimonoseki ;  the  Iwate  and  Idzumo  on  the  Russian 
occupation  of  Port  Arthur ;  the  Kasuga  and  NissTiin  when  the 
great  struggle  with  Russia  was  seen  to  be  inevitable.  But  these 
three  Brazilian  ships  will  not  be  ready  to  hoist  the  pendant  until  the 


210  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

following  dates  approximately  :  Minos  Geraes,  September-November 
1909;  Sao  Paulo,  December  1909 -March  1910;  Rio  de  Janeiro, 
December  1910-March  1911.  These  dates,  moreover,  involve  rapid 
construction — as  rapid,  indeed,  as  that  which  is  quoted  as  the  highest 
standard  attainable  by  the  German  Navy ;  and  it  may  safely  be 
said  that  if  the  vessels  are  completed  by  the  dates  named  it  will 
only  be  owing  to  their  purchase  by  another  Power.  In  any  case, 
however,  it  is  obvious  that  these  vessels  could  be  of  no  use  to  Japan 
if  a  struggle  be  imminent.  If  it  be  postponed  till  1911-1912,  she 
can  probably  make  other  and  better  arrangements. 

At  the  same  time — and  with  the  greatest  deference  to  the  Brazilian 
Charge  $  Affaires,  who  has  recently  declared^that  his  Government  has 
no  intention  of  selling  these  ships  to  any  other  Power — it  is  almost 
impossible  to  believe  that  they  were  designed  without  an  arriere 
pensee.  When  the  Triumph  and  Swiftsure  came  into  the  market,  our 
Government  refused  at  first  to  buy  them,  on  the  ground  that  they 
'  do  not  fulfil  Admiralty  requirements.'  Later,  under  stress  of  cir- 
cumstances which  are  well  known,  we  bought  them,  and  have  been 
sorry  for  it  ever  since.  But  the  Brazilian  ships,  so  far,  at  any  rate, 
as  the  outward  signs  of  structural  strength  go,  are  up  to  the  standard 
of  any  Navy  in  the  world.  There  is  no  '  cuttin'  the  frames  too  light ' 
here,  and,  of  course,  the  great  names  of  Armstrong  and  Vickers  Maxim 
are  guarantees  of  the  excellence  of  material  and  workmanship.  At 
any  rate,  both  the  political  and  financial  equilibrium  of  South  American 
Republics  is  unstable,  and  it  is  pretty  certain  that,  at  this  moment, 
Brazil  would  not  refuse  a  good  offer  for  the  ships.  In  some  quarters 
it  is  certainly  believed  that  this  course  will  be  forced  upon  the 
Brazilian  Government  by  the  res  angusta  domi. 

I  want,  however,  to  discuss  the  matter  from  a  more  general  stand- 
point. If,  by  the  middle  of  1911,  there  be  three  Dreadnoughts  for  sale 
or  hire,  what  effect  will  that  have  on  the  naval  balance  of  power  ? 
I  take  the  Brazilian  ships  for  example  ;  but  be  it  remembered  that  at 
least  one  other  country  not  generally  classed  among  the  great  Naval 
Powers— Austria-Hungary,  to  wit — is  building  ships  which  may  be 
classed  with  the  Dreadnoughts  ;  Spain  is  not  impossibly  about  to  do 
so  ;  and  there  are  rumours  of  formidable  programmes  for  China, 
Chili,  and  even  for  Holland  and  the  Scandinavian  States. 

I  take  the  beginning  of  1912  (January  to  March)  for  my  epoch 
of  comparison.  At  that  date,  the  Anglo-Japanese  Alliance  and  the 
Triple  Alliance  (nominally  so  far  as  Italy,  actually  so  far  as  Austria- 
Hungary  is  concerned)  will  still  be  in  existence,  as  well  as,  presumably, 
that  between  Russia  and  Franco.  We  may  take  the  following  as  being 
the  Powers  or  groups  of  Powers  between  which  collision  is  most 
likely  to  occur  :  the  United  States  and  Japan ;  Great  Britain  and 
Germany,  with  or  without  the  alliance  of  Austria-Hungary ;  Italy 
and  Austria-Hungary. 

To  take  the  most  probable  first.     In  the  event  of  war  breaking  out 


1908      DREADNOUGHTS   FOE   SALE   OR   HIRE        211 

between  the  United  States  and  Japan  in  (say)  March  1912,  the  relative 
strength  of  the  opposing  fleets  in  capital  ships,  or,  as  I  prefer  to  call 
them,  ships  of  the  line,  will  be  as  follows,  so  far  as  can  be  reasonably 
anticipated  at  this  date  : 

United  States  Japan 

Battleships : — 

Dreadnought  ships  .         .        .  6                      6  ( +  8  =  [9) 

Pr 'e- Dreadnought  battleships  .  22  11 
Armoured  Cruisers   (four  or  more 

9-2-inch  or  superior  weapons)  .  4                     8 

Guns:  — 

12-inch  and  above     ...  124  124  ( +  86  =  160) 

10-inch  to  9'2-inch    ...  16  64 

8-inch  to  7-inch         ...  216  24 

6-inch 212  208 

The  figures  in  brackets  show  the  modification  caused  by  the 
purchase  of  the  Brazilian  ships  by  the  weaker  Powers.  Ships  of  the 
Lord  Nelson  and  Invincible  classes  and  their  foreign  equivalents 
are  counted  as  Dreadnoughts. 

The  Japanese,  like  ourselves,  plan  to  have  their  ships  ready  for  sea 
in  two  years  from  the  date  of  laying  down.  If  this  arrangement  were 
adhered  to,  and  the  programmes  for  the  years  immediately  ensuing 
be  the  same  as  for  those  immediately  past,  another  pair  of  battleships 
and  of  armoured  cruisers  ought  to  be  added  to  the  total.  But  financial 
stringency  may  cause  a  delay  in  the  completion  of  some  part  of  the 
programme. 

The  Americans  have  a  superiority  in  -pie-Dreadnought  ships  and 
in  the  lighter  type  of  gun — a  superiority  which,  seeing  that  in  Dread- 
noughts and  in  Dreadnought-carried  heavy  guns  they  are  about  equal 
to  the  Japanese,  ought,  if  material  were  everything  (which  it  is  not), 
to  give  them  the  victory.  Add  the  Brazilian  ships  to  the  American 
total,  and  their  superiority  becomes  assured.  But  add  them  to  the 
Japanese  total,  and  the  balance  inclines  quite  markedly  the  other  way. 
The  United  States  must  certainly  take  these  vessels  into  account,  or 
lay  down  three  additional  Dreadnoughts  themselves  and  press  them 
rapidly  to  completion,  in  order  to  secure  a  bare  margin  of  material 
superiority  over  Japan  in  1912. 

The  next  hypothetical  struggle  to  which  reference  will  be  made  is 
one  between  Great  Britain  and  Germany.  In  this  case,  the  account 
in  March  1912  will  stand  thus  : 

Great  Britain    Germany 

Dreadnought  ships  .         .        .        .         18  18  ( +  3  =  16) 

"Pre-Dreadnought  battleships  38  20 

Armoured  Cruisers    ....          9 

Guns : — 

12-inch  to  11-inch  .         .        .        .272          190  ( +  86  =  226) 

10-inch  to  9'2-inch  ....       108  40 

8-inch  to  7'5-inch  .        .        .        .        74 

6-inoh  .        .      436          476 


212  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

1  have  here  allowed  for  a  British  programme  of  four  large  armoured 
ships  to  be  laid  down  next  year  and  to  be  finished  by  the  end  of  1911. 
Similarly,  I  have  estimated  that  the  German  ships  which  will  be  laid 
down  in  July  next,  under  the  programme  of  1909,    will  be  ready  for 
service  in  March  1912.     Were  Germany  to  purchase  the  Brazilian 
ships,  our  margin  of  superiority  to  her  alone  would  still  be  considerable, 
but  we  should  be  very  far  below  the  two-Power  standard.     Suppose 
(and   it   is   not  an  extravagant  supposition)  Austria-Hungary  were 
in  alliance  with  Germany.     Then  the  figures  would  stand  : 

Germany  and 
Great  Britain  Austria-Hungary 

Dreadnought  ships    .        .         .         .  18                    16  ( +  3  =  19) 

Pre-DreadnougJit  battleships  38                    23 

Armoured  Cruisers                     :  9 
Guns : — 

12-inch  to  11-inch 272  202  (  +  86  =  238) 

10-inch  to  9-2-inch    ....  108  76 

8-inch  to  7'5-inch      ....  74  36 

6-inch 436  476 

Taking  Dreadnought  ships  alone,  the  eighteen  British  vessels  will 
mount  160  12-inch  guns  and  twenty  9-2-inch,  against  162  12-  and 
11-inch  and  twenty-four  9*4r-inch  guns  for  the  German  and  Austro- 
Hungarian  ships.  Should  the  Brazilian  Dreadnoughts  pass  to  either 
Power,  the  alliance  would  have  an  actual  superiority  of  forty-two 
heavy  guns  in  its  Dreadnought  ships,  and  that  is  somewhat  heavy 
odds.  As  the  standard  German  weapon  is  the  11 -inch  gun,  it  is  on 
the  face  of  it  unlikely  that  Germany  will  complicate  her  artillery 
by  the  purchase  of  these  ships,  but  the  temptation  to  do  so,  were 
war  imminent,  would  be  great,  and  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
German  element  in  Brazil  is  now  very  large. 

Next  let  us  take  the  event  of  war  between  Austria-Hungary  and 
Italy.  The  naval  forces  of  the  two  nations  will  stand  thus  : 

Italy      Austria-Hungary 

Dreadnought  ships    .        .        .        .  2  3  ( +  3  =  6) 

Pre- Dreadnought  battleships  10  9 '-' 

Armoured  Cruisers    ....  4 
Guns: — 

12-inch  to  11-inch     .        .        .         .  44  12  (+ 36  =  48) 

10-inch  to  9-2-inch    ....  24  57, 

8-inch  to  7'5-inch      ....  88  36 

6-inch 64  54 

In  this  case,  the  acquisition  of  the  Brazilian  ships  by  Austria- 
Hungary  would  turn  the  scale,  which  is  fairly  evenly  balanced  at 
present,  decidedly  in  her  favour. 

It  may  be  said,  of  course,  that  there  is  nothing  new  in  all  this. 
Minor  Naval  Powers  have  always  had  ships  for  sale  or  hire,  and  have 

2  Hdbsburg  and  Wien  classes  added  for  purpose  of  comparison  with  Italy,  these 
ships  being  capable  of  fighting  in  the  Adriatic. 


1908       DREADNOUGHTS  FOR   SALE  OR   HIRE        218 

sometimes  been  compelled  to  sell  or  hire  them  to  belligerents,  as  we 
found  to  our  inconvenience  between  1776  and  1783,  and  again 
in  1807.  So  far,  that  is  true ;  but  since  the  era  of  armoured 
ships  began  no  minor  Power  has  ever  possessed  vessels  which  were 
right  up  to  the  standard  of  the  latest  and  most  powerful  designed 
for  the  leading  Powers  ;  and  if  any  have  approached  it,  they  have 
always  been  bought  by  one  or  other  of  those  leading  Powers.  These 
Brazilian  Dreadnoughts,  therefore,  are  of  new  and  ominous  significance. 
And  not  less  so  are  the  Austro-Hungarian  ships,  which,  though  not 
for  sale,  may  be  said  to  be  on  hire  as  reinforcement  for  the  Navy  of  a 
Power  with  which  it  is  convenient  to  Austria-Hungary  to  ally  her- 
self. From  our  point  of  view,  and  from  that  of  the  Americans  and 
the  Italians  also,  the  uncomfortable  feature  is  that  for  twenty  years 
to  come  we  shall  always  have  to  take  the  M inas  Geraes  and  her  sisters 
into  account  in  estimating  our  naval  needs,  even  if  they  should  remain 
for  the  greater  part  of  that  time  under  the  Brazilian  flag.  When  the 
outbreak  of  war  has  become  a  matter  of  months,  as,  for  example, 
it  was  in  September  1903,  the  payment  of  5,000,0002.  or  so  for  a 
reinforcement  of  three  first-class  ships  will  be  the  merest  drop  in  the 
bucket  of  expenditure  to  be  incurred.  The  stronger  Power,  even  if  it 
does  not  want  the  ships,  will  be  compelled  to  buy  them  to  keep  them 
out  of  the  enemy's  hands.  We  have  done  this  once  for  a  friend, 
with  results  on  which  I  am  afraid  we  are  hardly  entitled  to  congratulate 
ourselves,  however  convenient  our  action  may  have  been  to  Japan. 
I  suspect  that  the  lesson  of  the  Triumph  and  Swijtsure  and  their  pur- 
chase has  not  been  thrown  away  on  irresponsible  republics  '  on  the 
make.'  If  we  repeat  the  operation,  we  shall  lay  ourselves  open  to 
a  system  of  diplomatically  correct  blackmail  very  much  to  be 
deprecated. 

But  what  is  the  alternative  ?  I  confess  I  do  not  see  one.  Now 
that  (quite  rightly,  in  my  humble  judgment)  the  same  sum  of  money 
goes  in  the  construction  of  one  battleship  that  formerly  sufficed 
for  two,  and  one  cruiser  of  the  Indomitable  type  absorbs  the  provision 
which  would  formerly  have  sufficed  for  three,  the  number  of  ships 
which  nations  can  afford  to  build  is  necessarily  much  smaller  than 
it  was.  But  it  is  of  vital  importance  that  the  great  private  ship- 
building yards  should  be  kept  employed.  The  shipbuilding  resources 
of  Germany,  Russia,  Japan,  and  the  United  States  have  been  so 
largely  developed  that  these  countries  now  not  only  build  all  they 
require  for  themselves,  but  can  undertake  work  for  foreign  nations 
as  well.  Spain  is  patriotically  and  prudently  developing  her  dock- 
yards before  starting  on  the  building  of  her  new  Navy.  Nought 
remains  to  our  shipbuilders  but  the  orders  of  the  minor  States,  and 
every  ship  of  great  fighting  force  which  they  build  for  one  of  these 
may  hereafter  become  an  embarrassment  to  their  own  country. 
That  is  the  irony  of  the  dilemma  in  which  we  are  placed. 


214  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

So  John  Bull  must  pay,  and  continue  to  pay,  and  look  as  pleasant 
as  he  can.  Since  his  very  existence  depends  on  it,  he  must  not  only 
take  into  account  the  warships  of  any  two  Powers  which  might, 
under  conceivable  circumstances,  combine  against  him,  but  also  the 
potential  reserves  of  these  Powers  in  the  hands  of  minor  States. 
He  need  not  concern  himself  very  seriously  about  the  much-discussed 
epoch  of  1911 — as  I  have  shown  above.  But  when  1915  comes,  and 
with  it  the  expiration  of  the  alliance  with  Japan,  he  may,  and  probably 
will,  find  himself  face  to  face  with  new  responsibilities  against  which 
he  can  hardly  begin  to  make  provision  too  soon.  That,  however, 
is  another  story,  and  one  which  is  too  long  to  be  told  here. 

GERARD  FIENNES. 


1908 


SHAKESPEARE  AND    THE    WATERWAYS 
OF  NORTH  ITALY 


SOME  of  Shakespeare's  plays,  in  which,  the  scenes  are  laid  in  Italy, 
have  led  to  considerable  misunderstanding.  It  is  true  that  commenta- 
tors express  amazement  at  the  knowledge  which  the  Dramatist 
shows  of  Italian  life,  public  and  private  ;  the  laws  and  customs  of 
the  country ;  its  ceremonies  and  characteristics ;  all  agreeing  that 
the  very  atmosphere  of  these  scenes  is  as  Italian  as  it  well  could  be. 
Men  have  wondered  how  this  very  accurate  knowledge  was  obtained, 
and  their  wondering  has  led  some  even  to  contend  that  Shakespeare 
must  have  visited  Italy  in  person  on  some  unrecorded  occasion. 

Elze,  to  quote  one  of  many,  speaking  of  The  Merchant  of  Venice, 
says  :  '  There  lies  over  this  drama  an  inimitable  and  decidedly 
Italian  atmosphere  and  fragraDce  which  certainly  can  be  more  readily 
felt  than  explained  and  analysed.  Everything  is  so  faithful,  so  fresh, 
and  so  true  to  nature,  that  the  play  cannot  possibly  be  excelled  in 
this  respect.' 

In  spite,  however,  of  their  unanimity  concerning  Shakespeare's 
marvellous  power  of  investing  his  Italian  scenes  with  so  true  a  local 
colouring,  the  great  majority  of  the  commentators  go  a  step  further, 
and,  in  a  strange  spirit  of  inconsistency  with  their  own  views,  tell 
us  that  Shakespeare's  knowledge  of  the  geography  of  the  country 
with  which  he  shows  such  an  accurate  familiarity  in  other  respects, 
is  hopelessly  at  fault,  and  inaccurate  even  to  the  verge  of  carelessness 
and  ignorance.  Three  well-known  passages  are  relied  on  as  proof 
of  such  assertions — one  in  The  Tempest  (I.  ii.  129-44),  another  in  The 
Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona  (I.  i.  71),  and  a  third  in  The  Taming  of  the 
Shrew  (IV.  ii.). 

In  the  words  of  a  well-known  author  of  to-day  : 

But  the  fact  that  he  represents  Valentine  in  The  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona 
(I.  i.  71)  as  travelling  from  Verona  to  Milan  (both  inland  cities)  by  sea,  and  the 
fact  that  Prospero  in  The  Tempest  embarks  in  a  ship  at  the  gates  of  Milan  (I. 
ii.  129-44)  renders  it  almost  impossible  that  he  could  have  gathered  his  know- 
ledge of  Northern  Italy  from  personal  observation.1 

1  Sidney  Lee,  Great  Englishmen  of  the  Sixteenth  Century,  p.  299.    London,  1904. 

215 


216  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUEY  Aug. 

Again,  to  quote  another  commentator  : 

Shakespeare  had  clearly  conceived  the  geography  of  the  land,  and  accurately 
maintained  his  conception,  though  it  was,  for  the  most  part,  an  ideal  not  a  real 
geography.  For  instance,  Verona  is  a  port  upon  the  sea,  with  tides  that  ebb 
and  flow,  and  boats  may  sail  from  thence  to  Milan  ;  Valentine's  '  father  at  the 
road  expects  his  coming,  there  to  see  him  shipped  '  ;  and  Launce  .  .  .  '  is  like 
to  lose  the  tide.'  Verona  is  a  seaport  for  Shakespeare  in  The  Two  Gentlemen  of 
Verona,  and  it  is  still  a  seaport  for  him  in  Othello,  where  Cassio's  ship,  the  first 
to  reach  Cyprus  after  the  storm,  is  a  Veronesa.  But  the  sheet  of  water  nearest 
to  Verona  is  the  Lake  of  Garda  ;  and  though  the  Venetians  kept  their  war  galleys 
floating  upon  it,  about  which  Shakespeare  may  have  heard,  yet  it  had  not  a  tide 
that  any  man  could  miss.2 

If  these  assertions  are  well  founded,  Shakespeare  is  at  once  con- 
victed of  an  inconsistency  as  glaring  as  it  is  inartistic,  and  one  which 
in  itself  would  go  far  towards  showing  that  his  accuracy  in  other 
directions  was  merely  the  result  of  some  happy  chance,  arrived  at 
by  so  unusual  a  process  of  penetration  that  it  amounts  to  something 
like  a  miracle. 

It  is  worth  while,  therefore,  in  the  first  place  to  examine  the 
actual  passages  on  which  the  statements  are  based,  after  which  one 
may  go  on  to  inquire  what  light  is  thrown  on  the  matter  by  con- 
temporary records  bearing  on  the  geography  of  Northern  Italy. 

The  opening  scene  of  The  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona  is  laid  in 
Verona  —  Valentine  is  taking  leave  of  Proteus  ;  and  addressing  his 
friend,  he  says  : 

Once  more  adieu  I    My  father  at  the  road 
Expects  my  coming,  there  to  see  me  shipp'd. 

His  exit  follows  shortly  after,  and  Speed,  his  servant,  enters. 

SPEED.  Sir  Proteus,  save  you  I    Saw  you  my  master  ? 
PROTEUS.  But  now  he  parted  hence,  to  embark  for  Milan. 

The  phrase  '  at  the  road,'  if  it  stood  alone,  might  possibly  suggest 
the  sea,  and  an  ignorance  of  the  geographical  position  of  Verona  ; 
and  other  lines  later  in  the  play  might  add  weight  to  the  suggestion, 
as  where  Panthino  (Act  II.  iii.)  urges  Launce  to  follow  his  master: 

PAN.  Launce,  away,  away,  aboard  !  Thy  master  is  shipped,  and  thou  art 
to  post  after  with  oars.  .  .  .  Away,  ass  !  You'll  lose  the  tide,  if  you  tarry  any 
longer.  .  .  .  Tut,  man,  I  mean  thou'lt  lose  the  flood,  and,  in  losing  the  flood, 
lose  thy  voyage.  .  .  . 

But  Launce's  reply  to  the  latter  speech,  which  seems  to  have  escaped 
the  notice  of  those  who  are  so  eager  to  attribute  ignorance  to  Shake- 
speare, triumphantly  acquits  the  Dramatist  on  this  count  of  the 
indictment  : 


Lose  the  tide,  and  the  voyage,  and  the  master.  .  .  .  Why,  man, 
ifth  e  river  were  dry,  I  am  able  to  fill  it  with  my  tears  ;  if  the  wind  were  down, 
I  could  drive  the  boat  with  my  sighs. 

-  Studies  in  the  History  of  Venice,  Horatio  Brown  (1907). 


1908         SHAKESPEARE,  AND  NORTH  ITALY          217 

'  The  river ' — What  river  but  the  Adige  ?  which  was,  in  Shake- 
speare's day,  as  I  purpose  showing,  the  highway  from  Verona  to 
many  Italian  cities,  including  Milan — a  fact  of  which  the  Poet  was 
only  too  well  aware.  The  words  '  tide '  and  '  road '  may  possibly 
have  misled  commentators  ;  but  the  former  is  explained  in  the  text 
itself,  and  the  latter,  which  occurs  again  in  the  same  play  in  reference 
to  Milan  ('  I  must  unto  the  road  to  disembark  some  necessaries,' 
II.  iv.),  is  as  applicable  to  a  navigable  river  as  to  the  sea,  and  is,  indeed, 
so  used  by  Harrison,  the  '  W.  H.'  of  Hollinshed's  Chronicles  (1st  ed. 
1577),  of  Chatham,  which  was  then  known  by  the  name  of  Gillingham 
rode.3 

The  second  instance  of  Shakespeare's  suggested  blundering  is 
the  passage  in  The  Tempest  (I.  ii.)  where  Prospero  describes  to  Miranda 
their  expulsion  from  Milan  : 

PROSPERO.  One  midnight 

Fated  to  the  purpose  did  Antonio  open 
The  gates  of  Milan,  and  i'  the  dead  of  darkness, 
The  ministers  for  the  purpose  hurried  thence 
Me  and  thy  crying  self.  .  .  . 
In  few,  they  hurried  us  aboard  a  bark, 
Bore  us  some  leagues  to  sea ;  where  they  prepared 
A  rotten  carcass  of  a  boat.  .  .  . 

There  they  hoist  us, 
To  cry  to  the  sea  that  roared  to  us,  ... 

On  the  strength  of  these  lines  we  are  seriously  told  that  Shakespeare 
was  under  the  impression  that  Milan  was  a  seaport !  One  can  only 
conclude  that  those  who  said  so  were  themselves  unaware  of  the 
fact  that  Milan,  in  Shakespeare's  day  and  long  before  it,  was  in 
direct  communication  by  waterway  with  the  Adriatic.  To  one 
aware  of  this  fact  the  passage  can  present  no  difficulty.  Prospero 
does  not  waste  words  in  describing  the  journey  by  canal  and  river 
till  they  reached  the  sea  ;  his  own  phrase  '  in  few  '  points  significantly 
to  curtailment  of  unnecessary  details  ;  the  main  incidents  of  their 
expatriation  are  all  that  his  daughter  need  be  told ;  and  the  very 
structure  of  the  passage  shows  in  its  last  two  lines  that  it  was  on 
reaching  the  sea  that  a  change  was  made  from  the  bark  which  had 
brought  them  there  to  the  '  rotten  carcass  of  a  boat '  in  which  they 
were  finally  turned  adrift  upon  the  Adriatic. 

Again,  in  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew  (IV.  ii.)  we  meet  the  river- 
highways.  Here  the  scene  is  laid  in  Padua,  where  Tranio  addresses  a 
Pedant  who  has  just  admitted  that  he  was  a  countryman  of  Mantua : 

Of  Mantua,  sir  ?     marry,  God  forbid  ! 
And  come  to  Padua,  careless  of  your  life  ? 

'Tis  death  for  any  one  in  Mantua 

To  come  to  Padua.    Know  you  not  the  cause  ? 

3  Sarrazin,  Jahrbuch'jler  DeutscJien  Shakespeare-Gesellschaft,  vol.  xxxvii.  (1900). 


218  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

Tour  ships  are  stay1  A  at  Venice,  and  the  duke, 
For  private  quarrel  'twixt  your  duke  and  him, 
Hath  publish' d  and  proclaim' d  it  openly. 

While,  earlier  in  the  same  play,  we  get  at  least  a  suggestion  of 
geographical  knowledge  of  the  same  kind  in  the  question  put  by 
Hortensio  to  Petruchio  (I.  ii.) : 

And  tell  me  now,  sweet  friend,  what  happy  gale 
Blows  you  to  Padua  from  old  Verona  ? 

The  comments  I  have  quoted  are  all  the  more  remarkable  when 
we  consider  that  something  has  already  been  done  by  one  or  two 
more  enlightened  commentators  to  show  that  the  rivers  and  other 
waterways  of  North  Italy  were  constantly  used  for  passenger  traffic 
in  and  about  Shakespeare's  time.  Herr  Sarrazin,  for  instance,  has  in 
recent  years,  contributed  some  interesting  articles  to  the  Jahrbuch  of 
the  Shakespeare-Gesellschaft4  on  this  subject,  though  without  going 
into  the  matter  with  much  detail. 

But  quite  independently  of  any  interest  we  may  take  in  Shake- 
speare's knowledge  or  ignorance  of  their  existence,  the  waterway 
communications  between  the  cities  of  Lombardy  and  the  territories 
of  the  Venetian  Republic  played  no  small  part  in  Italian  history  for 
many  years  before  The  Tempest  and  The  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona 
came  to  be  written.  A  volume  might  easily  be  rilled  with  extracts 
from  chronicles,  social  records,  and  other  writings,  to  show  the  import- 
ance attaching  to  these  inland  water-routes  in  the  eyes  of  statesmen, 
merchants,  and  private  persons  in  early  Italian  days  ;  and,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  no  reliable  history  of  the  navy  of  Venice  could  be 
written  in  which  their  prominent  utility  in  peace  and  war  happened 
to  be  overlooked. 

In  the  circumstances  it  may  be  worth  while  to  give  a  sketch  of 
the  geographical  position  as  it  is  disclosed  by  some  quotations  from 
contemporary  documents,  the  subject  being,  from  every  point  of 
view,  one  of  extreme  interest,  as  well  as  being  one  on  which  there 
appears  to  be  considerable  misapprehension  in  many  minds  to-day. 
The  accompanying  Map,5  published  in  1564,  will  show  at  a  glance 
the  course  of  the  chief  waterways,  the  majority  of  which  may  be 
taken  to  have  been  navigable  at  that  time — for  all  that  Shakespearian 
commentators  have  to  say  to  the  contrary. 

The  main  river  route  through  the  Lombardo-Venetian  territories  in 
the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  as  for  many  centuries  previously, 
was  the  river  Po  ;  and,  as  might  be  expected,  it  is  almost  impossible 
to  take  up  any  book  dealing  with  the  history  of  the  North  Italian 
republics  which  does  not  contain  copious  allusions  to  the  traffic 
borne  upon  its  waters.  It  was  the  same  long  even  before  the  Middle 

4  Band  xxxvi.  (1900)  and  xlii.  (1906). 

5  Reproduced  by, permission  of  the  British  Museum. 


1908         SHAKESPEARE   AND   NORTH  ITALY          219 


220  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Augj 

Ages,  Polybius  speaking  of  this  river  as  navigable  for  some  250  Roman 
miles  from  the  sea ;  Strabo  noticing  it  as  such  from  Placentia  (now 
Piacenza)  to  Ravenna  ;  and  Pliny  describing  it  as  beginning  to  be 
navigable  as  high  up  as  Augusta  Taurinorum,  the  Turin  of  to-day. 
When  we  come  to  the  twelfth  century,  the  navigation  of  the  Po  had 
already  become  a  matter  of  great  state  importance.  An  interesting 
edict  of  Frederick  the  First  (Barbarossa),  dated  1159,  is  set  out  in  a 
recently  issued  Italian  parliamentary  publication,6  which  gives  us  a 
picturesque  glimpse  of  the  then  conditions  of  the  navigation  on 
the  Po  : 

.  .  .  We  therefore  mindful  of  the  devoted  services  of  our  most  faithful  people 
of  Cremona,  graciously  assent  to  their  request — and  it  is  our  will  and  command 
that  from  Cremona  down  the  Po,  and  in  all  places  and  valleys  at  any  time  con- 
nected by  water  with  the  Po,  as  far  as  to  the  sea,  as  well  in  the  province  of  Reggio 
as  of  Modena,  or  of  Bologna,  Ferrara,  or  Ravenna,  that  they  shall  have  free 
passage  and  sailing  rights  in  full  security  with  what  merchandise  they  please, 
free  of  all  tolls,  imports  or  other  exactions  sought  to  be  levied  on  them  by  any 
other  powers  or  cities. 

A  list  of  tolls  follows,  to  be  collected  by  Frederick's  own  agents 
from  ships  generally,  the  charges  varying  in  different  towns.  Amongst 
the  towns  mentioned,  which  are  all  practically  treated  as  ports,  are 
Ferrara,  Figarolo,  Governolo,  Guastalla,  Scozzarolo,  and  Luzzara. 

The  same  state  of  things  prevailed  in  the  fifteenth  century,  as 
may  be  seen  from  the  '  Diary '  of  Roberto  Sanseverino,  written  about 
the  year  1458,  in  which  he  describes  the  journey  he  and  his  com- 
panions made  from  Pavia  to  the  Holy  Land.7  They  embarked,  he 
tells  us,  on  the  1st  of  May  on  the  Ticino,  escorted  by  friends  from 
Pavia,  and  reached  Piasenza  [Piacenza]  that  evening.  On  the  2nd 
of  May,  in  heavy  rain  and  with  contrary  winds,  the  ship  being 
frequently  driven  to  shore,  they  got  as  far  as  Cremona,  instead  of 
making  Colorno,  as  they  hoped  to  do.  On  the  4th  they  passed  Guas- 
talla and  Sachetta,  and  made  Revere  ;  and  on  the  5th,  still  contending 
against  rain  and  wind,  they  arrived  at  Villanuova.  On  the  6th,  a 
Saturday,  having  heard  mass  at  '  le  Patoge,'  three  miles  from  Villa- 
nuova, they  started  for  Gioza  [Chioggia],  where  they  arrived  that 
night ;  and  got  to  Venice  on  the  following  day. 

Again,  in  connexion  with  the  same  century,  we  have  in  the  '  Life 
and  Memoirs  of  Isabella  d'Este  '  plentiful  allusions  to  travel  on  the 
Po,  as  well  as  on  other  rivers  connected  with  it  by  canal  or  otherwise : 8 

In  the  following  spring  [i.e.  bf  1481]  the  Marquis  of  Mantua  brought  his 
son  Francesco  [Gonzaga]  to  spend  the  Feast  of  St.  George  at  Ferrara,  and  make 
acquaintance  with  his  bride  [i.e.  Isabella  his  betrothed  bride,  then  aged  about 

6  Atti  della  commissione  per  lo  studio  della  Navigazione  internet  nella  valle  del 
Po.    Eoma,  tipografia  della  camera  dei  deputati,  1903. 

7  Scelta  di  curiositd  letterarie  inedite  o  rare,  Bologna,  1888. 

8  The  extracts  quoted  here  are  from  Mrs.  Ady's  Isabella  d'Este,  Marchioness  of 
Manilla,  Murray,  1904. 


1908         SHAKESPEARE  AND  NOETH  ITALY          221 

six  years],  and  her  family.  The  Mantuan  chronicler,  Sohivenoglia,  relates  how 
on  this  occasion  the  Marquis  and  his  suite  of  six  hundred  followers  sailed  down 
the  Po  in  four  bucentaurs  .  .  . 

The  wedding  was  celebrated  at  Ferrara  on  the  llth  of  February  1490.  .  .  . 
On  the  following  day  the  wedding  party  set  out  in  the  richly  carved  and  gilded 
bucentaur  [the  gift  of  the  Duke  her  father],  attended  by  four  galleys  and  fifty 
boats,  for  Mantua,  and  sailed  up  the  Po. 

The  cruel  hardships  to  which  the  Marchioness  [Isabella]  and  her  ladies  were 
exposed  during  their  journey  in  barges  up  the  Po  °  .  .  .  are  vividly  described 
in  Beatrice  dei  Contrari's  letters  to  the  Marquis. 

On  the  return  journey — February*  1491 — '  when  the  wedding 
party  reached  Ferrara,  the  Po  was  frozen  over,  and  hundreds  of  work- 
men were  employed  to  break  the  ice  and  make  a  passage  for  the 
bucentaur.' 

When  despatch  was  necessary,  horses  were  used  ;  as,  for  instance, 
on  the  4th  of  December  1491  Isabella  writes  from  Ferrara  to  her 
husband  at  Milan  : 

I  hear  that  you  are  gone  to  Milan.  .  .  .  But  as  I  did  not  know  this  in  time, 
I  send  these  few  lines  by  a  courier  on  horseback  to  satisfy  my  anxiety  as  to 
your  welfare  .  .  . 10 

At  her  first  coming  to  Mantua,  Isabella  brought  a  whole  train  of  artists 
.  .  and  the  court  painter,  Ercole  Roberti,  suffered  so  much  from  seasickness 
on  the  journey  up  the  Po  [i.e.  from  Ferrara]  and  was  so  much  exhausted  .  .  . 
that  he  left  suddenly  without  even  bidding  the  Marchesa  farewell. 

Apropos  of  the  wedding  in  1501  of  Alfonso  d'Este  and  Lucrezia 
Borgia,  at  Rome,  and  their  return  to  Ferrara  : 

Some  days  were  spent  at  Bologna,  where  a  banquet  was  given  in  her 
[Lucrezia's]  honour,  after  which  the  party  embarked  on  bucentaurs,  and  tra- 
velled by  water  first  along  a  canal,  and  then  up  the  river  Po  as  far  as  Castel 
Bentivoglio,  a  town  about  twenty  miles  from  Ferrara.  .  .  . 

Fortunately  the  Moro's  journey  was  delayed,  and  Isabella  left  Mantua  early 
in  May  and  travelled  by  boat  to  Ferrara.  On  her  arrival  she  sent  an  affectionate 
note  to  her  sister-in-law  Elisabetta,  from  whom  she  had  parted  with  much  regret. 

[Quotation  from  letter.] 

When  I  found  myself  alone  in  the  boat,  without  your  sweet  company,  I  felt 
so  forlorn  I  hardly  knew  what  I  wanted  or  where  I  was.  To  add  to  my  comfort, 
the  wind  and  tide  were  against  us  all  the  way,  and  I  often  wished  myself  back 
in  your  room  playing  at  scartino.11 

9  I.e.  from  Ferrara  to  Milan,  for  the  marriage  of  Beatrice  d'Este  to  Ludovico 
Sforza  (1491). 

10  In  this  connexion  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  Shakespeare,  though  well  aware 
of  the  use  made  of  rivers  and  canals  for  ordinary  travel,  makes  his  characters  resort 
to  horses  when  there  was  occasion  for  urgency.     So  in  Romeo  and  Juliet  where 
Balthasar  (V.  i.)  meets  Romeo  in  Mantua  and  tells  him  of  the  burial  of  Juliet  which 
he  has  himself  seen,  he  adds  :  '  And  presently  took  post  to  tell  it  you.'     Obviously 
the  river  route  would  have  been  too  slow  for  his  purpose.    For  the  same  reason, 
Romeo,  immediately  after  learning  the  news  of  Juliet's  death,  orders  the  messenger 
to  '  hire  post  horses,'  so  as  to  leave  Mantua  that  very  night. 

11  Copia  lettera  d'Isabella,  quoted  by  Luzio,  Mantova  e  Urbino,  p.  63. 
VOL.  LXIV— No.  378  Q 


222  TEE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

In  the  year  1502  Isabella  d'Este  came  to  Ferrara  at  her  father's 
request  to  receive  Lucrezia  Borgia,  and  she  writes  to  her  husband 
(the  29th  of  January) :  '  On  Tuesday  I  shall  accompany  Don  Alfonso 
with  only  a  few  ladies  in  a  barge,  as  far  as  Malalbergo  to  meet 
her.' 

On  the  1st  of  February  the  Marchesa  describes  her  first  meeting 
with  the  bride  at  Ferrara  : 

Soon  after  eight  o'clock  I  entered  Don  Alfonso's  barge.  ...  At  Torre  del 
Fossa  I  changed  boats  and  went  on  to  Malalbergo,  where  we  met  the  bride  in 
a  ship.  .  .  .  The  boat  came  alongside,  and  one  bark  having  curtsied  to  the 
other,  with  joyous  haste,  I  entered  the  bride's  .  .  .  and  we  went  on  our  way, 
and  she  did  not  enter  the  small  bucentaur  for  fear  of  losing  time.  About  four 
o'clock  we  reached  Torre  del  Fossa.  Then  we  entered  the  large  bucentaur, 
where  all  the  ambassadors  shook  hands  with  us,  and  we  sat  down  in  the  following 
order  .  .  .  and  so,  amid  great  cheering  and  shouting  and  the  sound  of  trumpets 
and  guns,  we  reached  Cassale  about  five. 

[1502.]  As  soon  as  Isabella  had  recovered  from  the  fatigues  of  the  wedding 
festivals  at  Ferrara  .  .  .  she  and  the  Duchess  of  Urbino  set  out  one  morning  in 
March,  incognito,  for  Venice.  .  .  .  The  Marquis  accompanied  his  wife  and 
sister  as  far  as  Sermide,  where  they  took  boat  to  the  mouth  of  the  Po,  and  spent 
the  night  at  the  wretched  hostelry  at  Stellata. 

Writing  to  her  husband  from  Venice,  where  she  arrived  on  the 
14th  of  March,  she  says  :  '  Yesterday  morning  we  left  "  la  Stellata  " 
so  early  that  we  reached  Chiozza  an  hour  after  dark.' 

The  condition  of  the  roads  of  North  Italy  at  the  time  may  be 
gathered  from  a  remark  made  by  Isabella  when  writing  from  Lonato. 
'  I  arrived  about  6  o'clock,  having  driven  over  from  Cavriana  in  a 
chariot  and  felt  broken  to  pieces  by  jolting  over  the  stones  ' ;  and  the 
statement  strongly  suggests  that  the  riverway  was  in  those  days  the 
more  usual  and  more  comfortable  method  of  getting  from  place  to 
place. 

I  have  already  mentioned  Shakespeare's  reference  in  The  Taming 
of  the  Shrew  to  the  waterway  route  from  Venice  to  Mantua  (ante,  p.  3), 
the  main  portion  of  the  journey  being,  of  course,  along  the  Po.  That 
he  knew  what  he  was  writing  about  is  shown  pretty  clearly  in  another 
short  extract  from  Isabella  d'Este  (ii.  267) : 

By  the  end  of  the  month  [May  1527]  the  Marchesa  herself  had  reached 
Ferrara.  After  a  brief  interval  .  .  .  Isabella  once  more  resumed  her  journey, 
and  sailed  up  the  Po  to  Governolo.  .  .  .  The  next  day  they  sailed  up  the  Mincio 
to  Mantua. 

So  far  there  has  been  little  mention  of  any  actual  waterway  con- 
nexion between  Milan  and  the  sea,  the  route  made  use  of,  according 
to  Shakespeare,  in  the  midnight  journey  of  Prospero  and  his  daughter. 
The  history  of  the  navigable  canals  that  led  out  of  that  city  in  various 
directions  has  been  often  written — so  often  indeed  that  one  can  but 
wonder  at  the  seeming  carelessness  shown  by  such  commentators 


1908         SHAKESPEARE  AND  NORTH  ITALY          228 

on  The  Tempest  as  find  any  difficulty  in  the  description  of  Prospero's 
embarkation.    To  cite  but  one  authority,  Bruschetti 12 : 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  at  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  or  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth,  the  two  largest  canals  which  to-day  traverse  the  interior  of  the 
province  of  Milan,  were  in  connexion  with  the  rivers  Adda  and  Ticino.  The 
first,  on  the  eastern  side  of  Milan  (formerly  called  Nuova  Adda,  and  Muzza  at 
a  later  date)  running  towards  Lodi — the  second,  on  the  West,  called  Ticinello, 
leading  towards  Pa  via.  ...  It  is  well  known  that  this  same  canal,  before  the 
end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  under  the  name  Naviglio  Grande,  was  already 
adapted  to  the  purpose  of  free  and  continuous  navigation  from  the  Ticino  right 
up  to  Milan. 

The  historian  I  quote  from  tells  us  further  that  Milan  had  in 
the  fourteenth  century  seen  the  advantages  to  be  gained  by  a  short 
and  direct  waterway  to  the  Po  (which  was  not,  however,  completed 
successfully  till  a  much  later  date) ;  but  having  extended  the  Naviglio 
Grande  in  the  following  century  right  up  to  the  foundations  of  the 
Duomo  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  the  marble  of  which  it  was  being 
built  from  the  Lago  Maggiore,  we  find  the  city  in  1497  in  ship  com- 
munication on  one  side  (by  the  Naviglio  della  Martesana)  with  the 
Adda,  and  on  the  other  (by  the  Naviglio  Grande)  with  the  Ticino, 
the  Po,  and  Lago  Maggiore — a  condition  of  things  sufficient  to  justify 
Carlo  Pagnano's  statement  in  1520  that  Milan,  far  as  it  was  from  the 
sea,  might  easily  be  taken  to  be  a  seaport  town.13 

With  regard  to  the  Adige  and  the  embarkation  of  Valentine 
at  Verona  for  the  purpose  of  travelling  to  Milan,  there  is  no  more 
cause  for  finding  fault  with  Shakespeare's  hydrographical  knowledge 
than  in  the  journey  from  Milan  to  the  sea — although  it  is  a  matter  of 
some  little  difficulty  to  point  out  with  certainty  the  exact  route  by 
which  one  would  journey  the  whole  way  by  water  from  Verona  to 
Milan  at  or  before  the  Poet's  time.  There  is,  however,  nothing  in 
The  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona  to  suggest  that  the  whole  journey  was 
by  water ;  although  I  am  strongly  inclined  to  believe  that  it  may  in 
fact  have  been  possible.14  It  is  easy,  however,  to  show  that  from 
centuries  long  before  Shakespeare's  time  the  Adige  was  the  main 
highway  for  traders  and  travellers  between  Verona  and  Venice.  As 
Hazlitt  puts  it : 

The  River,  or  Inland  commerce  became  at  a  very  early  period,  extensive 
and  valuable.  The  Po,  the  Tagliamento,  the  Adige,  the  Brenta,  and  other 
streams,  by  which  the  peninsula  was  watered  and  fertilised,  were  soon  covered 
with  their  cargoes.  .  .  . 

At  a  later  epoch  [998]  the  Government  of  Orseolo  II.  entered  into  treaties 

12  Istoria  dei  progetti  e  delle  opere  per  la  Navigazione  interna  del  Milanese. 

18  '  Mediolanum,  quanquam  a  mari  remotum,  maritima  civitas  facile  existimari 
posset.' 

14  The  fossa,  or  canal,  which  joined  the  river  Tartaro  with  the  Po  at  Ostiglia 
(ancient  Ostia)  is  omitted  on  the  map  of  1564,  but  it  undoubtedly  existed  from  about 
the  year  1000  A.D.  (being  marked  on  some  other  early  maps),  and  was  in  all  pro- 
bability the  canal  by  which  the  Venetian  ships  in  1510  escaped  into  the  Adige,  as 
described  by  Guicciardini.  (See  post,  p.  10.) 

Q  2 


224  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY     .  Aug. 

with  various  Powers,  by  virtue  of  which  several  ports  in  the  Peninsula  were 
opened  to  Venetian  traders,  on  highly  advantageous  terms,  to  the  exclusion  of 
any  other  flag.  Such  became  the  relations  with  Gruaro  on  the  Livenza,  and 
with  San  Michele  Del  Quarto  on  the  Silis.  With  Aquileia,  Ferrara  (1102), 
Treviso  (998),  Verona  (1193)  and  other  places,  the  commercial  intercourse  of 
the  Republic  subsisted  on  a  general  footing  of  permanence  and  security.15 

Then,  in  reference  to  the  year  1191,  he  relates  how  a  difference 
between  the  Doge  Dandolo  and  Verona,  on  the  subject  of  certain 
piracies  and  depredations  to  which  Venetian  traders  had  been  exposed 
on  the  Adige,  was  settled  by  a  treaty  under  which  '  the  Council 
engaged  to  pay  an  indemnity  .  .  .  and  to  refrain  in  future  from 
offering  any  molestation  to  the  commerce  and  navigation  of  the 
Republic  on  the  river  Adige.' 1G 

It  may  be  said,  however,  that  this  is  all  very  ancient  history, 
and  has  no  particular  bearing  on  the  subject  in  hand.  The  objector 
should  at  least  remember  that,  although  it  is  likely  that  Shakespeare's 
geographical  ideas  of  North  Italy  were  the  ideas  of  his  own  time, 
there  are  yet  no  dates  given  for  the  occurrences  dramatised  in  any 
of  the  plays  in  reference  to  which  the  difficulties  have  been  suggested. 

Speaking,  however,  of  a  more  modern  period,  and  in  reference  to 
the  '  terra  firma '  or  inland  possessions  of  the  Venetian  State,  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  the  same  historian  remarks  :  '  In  the  poorer  locali- 
ties, proprietors  were  indulged  by  a  partial  exemption  from  taxes.  .  .  .' 
To  promote  the  interests  of  the.  same  class  it  was  that  many  rivers 
in  the  Peninsula  were  for  the  first  time  made  thoroughly  navigable,17 
a  statement  which  is  confirmed  in  an  interesting  manner  by  a  stray 
extract  from  the  Venetian  Archives  reproduced  in  our  calendar  of 
State  Papers  : 18 

The  English  Ambassador  came  to  the  Cabinet.  He  [Sir  Henry  Wotton] 
then  went  on  to  return  thanks  for  the  honours  and  favours  shown  him  every- 
where by  the  officials,  especially  at  Verona  and  Salo.  On  his  return  he  had 
somewhat  lengthened  his  journey  by  coming  doum  the  Adige  in  order  to  see  the 
forts  and  Legnago  in  particular. 

The  foregoing  references  to  both  the  Po  and  the  Adige  as  water 
highways  for  purposes  of  commerce  and  travel  are  confined  to  cases 
of  transit  in  time  of  peace.  But  when  we  come  to  war  conditions, 
the  aspect  presented  by  the  two  rivers  in  their  ship-carrying  capacity 
is  little  less  than  amazing,  and  should  be  a  strange  revelation  to 
Shakespearian  students  who  stumble  at  the  journey  from  Milan  to  the 
sea.  In  the  words  of  the  Italian  Commission,  already  referred  to, 
(p.  5  ante)  '  H  Po  fu  palestra  di  accanite  battaglie  navali ' ;  19  and  one 
need  not  go  beyond  the  pages  of  Guicciardini's  History  of  Italy,  the 
English  translation  of  which,  by  Fenton,  was  published  in  1579,  to 

15  History  of  Venice,  iv.  236  (ed.  1858).  >6  Ibid.  ii.  55. 

17  IWd-lii.  551.  '8  Venetian,  vol.  xi.  1607-1610. 

19  '  Was  the  wrestling-place  of  furious  naval  contests.' 


1908        SHAKESPEARE  AND  NORTH  ITALY          225 

learn  that  through  many  centuries  these  two  rivers  had  for  all  practical 
purposes  been  high  seas  for  the  contending  navies  of  the  hostile  states 
whose  dominions  were  made  approachable  by  their  waters. 

It  will  be  sufficient  to  cite  but  a  few  instances  out  of  very  many 
from  which  the  nature  of  these  conflicts  may  be  gathered.  In  June 
1431  Nicolo  Trevisano,  a  captain  of  the  Signorie  of  Venice,  had  a 
powerful  fleet  all  but  wiped  out  by  the  Milanese  ships  under  Ambrogio 
Spinola,  close  by  Cremona.  It  was  a  staggering  blow  to  the  Venetians, 
but,  having  nursed  their  wrath  for  some  years,  a  resolution  was  passed 
in  July  1438  to  build  a  fleet  to  humble  the  pride  of  the  Duke  of 
Milan  and  the  Marquis  of  Mantua.  Vast  numbers  of  men  were  at 
once  set  to  work  at  the  Arsenal  of  Venice,  and  on  the  28th  of  August 
in  the  same  year,  a  fleet  left  the  Venetian  capital  consisting  of  100 
galeoni  (galleons),  six  riguardi  (?),  thirty  barche  (barks),  six  galere 
(galleys),  which  with  other  vessels  laden  with  ammunition  and 
provisions  that  followed  raised  the  whole  number  to  256  ! 20 

Dealing  with  a  later  period,  the  year  1509,  let  me  quote  an  extract 
from  Fenton's  Guicciwdini  : 

After  this  the  Venetian  armie  drew  towards  Monselice  and  Montagnana, 
both  to  recover  Polisena,  and  to  charge  the  places  of  Ferrara  together  with  their 
navie,  which  the  Senate  .  .  .  had  determined  to  send  against  the  Duke  of 
Ferrara,  well  furnished  with  strength  and  munition  along  the  river  of  Paw  .  .  . 
it  was  agreed  that  their  navie  and  sea  armie,  commanded  by  Ange  Trevisan, 
compounded  upon  seventeen  light  gallies  with  a  large  furnishment  of  meaner 
vessels  and  able  bodies  for  service,  should  sayle  toward  Ferrara.  This  fleet  e 
entring  into  Paw  by  the  mouth  of  the  fornaces  and  burning  Corvola  with  certaine 
other  villages  neare  to  Paw,  went  pilling  and  spoiling  the  country  up  to  the  lake 
of  Scuro,  from  which  place  the  light  horsemen  who  followed  them  as  a  strength 
by  land,  made  incursions  as  farre  as  Ficherolo  ;  .  .  .  the  coming  of  this  navie 
together  with  the  rumour  of  the  armie  by  land  that  was  to  follow,  brought  no 
little  amaze  to  the  Duke.  .  .  .  Trevisan,  after  he  had  in  vaine  assayed  to  passe, 
seeing  he  could  advance  nothing  without  he  were  succoured  by  land,  came  to 
an  anker  in  the  middest  of  the  river  of  Paw  behind  a  little  Isle  right  over  against 
Puliselle,  a  place  within  xi  myles  of  Ferrara,  and  very  apt  to  torment  the  towne 
and  make  many  hurtfull  executions  upon  the  countrey. 

Again,  of  the  year  1510,  he  writes  : 

at  which  time  the  Duke  of  Ferrara,  together  with  the  Lord  of  Chastillion  with 
the  French  bands  lay  encamped  upon  the  river  of  Paw,  between  the  hospitall 
[lo  Spedaletto]  and  Bondin,  on  the  opposite  to  the  Venetian  regiments  which 
were  beyond  Paw  ;  whose  navie  seeking  to  retire  for  the  sharpness  of  the  Season 
and  for  the  ill  provision  that  came  from  Venice,  being  charged  by  many  Barkes 
of  Ferrara  whose  artilleries  sunke  eight  vessels  to  the  bottome,  retired  with  great 
paine  by  Newcastle  upon  Paw,  into  the  ditch  that  falleth  into  Tanare  21  and 

20  Atti  della  commissions  etc.  Relazione  Generate,  p.  18. 

21  This  passage  clearly  establishes  the  existence  of  a  navigable  waterway  connec- 
tion between  the  Po  and  the  Adige  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  places  mentioned. 
The  Canal  is  not  marked  on  the  map  of  1564.     '  Tanaro '  in  the  original  text  is 
obviously  an  error  for  Tartaro,  which,  in  the  region  referred  to,  comes  to  within  a 
few  miles  of  the  Po,  while  further  north  it  is  connected  with  the  Adige  near  Legnago. 


226  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

Adice,  and  there  is  separate  ['  Si  condusse  con  difficolta  a  Castelnuovo  del 
Po  nella  fossa  che  va  nel  Tanaro,  e  nell'  Adice,  e  dipoi  si  risolve.' — Ouicciardini.'] 

The  Naviglio  Grande,  the  great  link  between  Milan  and  the  Ticino 
in  early  times,  has  already  been  mentioned,  and  its  importance  during 
the  war  in  1524  between  the  Imperial  forces  and  the  Venetians  under 
the  Duke  of  Urbino  is  given  due  prominence  in  Fenton's  translation. 
Referring  to  Biagrassa  [Abbiategrasso]  the  only  town  then  left  in  the 
power  of  the  French,  he  tells  us  : 

it  was  plentifully  provided  of  victuals  and  garded  with  a  strong  garrison  of  a 
thousand  footemen  under  Jeronimo  Caracciollo :  but  because  it  hath  his  situa- 
tion upon  the  great  channell  ['  in  sul  canal  grande,'  in  original],  and  by  that 
means  stoppeth  the  course  of  victuals  which  that  channel  is  wont  to  bring  in 
greate  plentie  to  Millan, 

I 

it  was  besieged  and  captured  by  Sforza. 

Innumerable  other  instances  might  be  quoted  from  Guicciardini 
and  others  to  show  the  sea-like  character  of  the  river  Po  in  the  centuries 
of  war  in  Northern  Italy  before  Shakespeare's  day.  Of  the  Adige 
it  is  the  same  tale.  One  extract  of  a  somewhat  remarkable  kind, 
bearing  on  the  latter  waterway,  may  fittingly  close  this  portion  of 
my  paper.  When  describing  the  siege  of  Brescia  by  the  Milanese, 
in  1438,  Hazlitt 22  mentions  that  the  Venetian  Republic  had  no  ships 
on  the  Lago  di  Garda,  the  east  side  of  which  was  still  open  to  them. 
To  help  their  armies  in  this  quarter,  an  astounding  proposal  was  made 
to  the  Senate  to  convey  a  flotilla  in  midwinter  up  the  Adige  and 
across  the  Tyrolese  Alps,  a  distance  of  about  200  miles,  which  was 
at  once  agreed  to.  The  fleet  consisted  of  five  and  twenty  barks  and 
six  galleys  ;  it  was  under  the  care  of  Pietro  Zeno.  Zeno  proceeded 
by  water  from  the  mouth  of  the  Adige  up  to  Roveredo,  at  the  east 
side  of  the  northern  end  of  Lake  Garda,  from  which  point  the  passage 
to  the  summit  of  Monte  Baldo  over  an  artificial  causeway  of  boughs, 
stones,  and  other  rough  materials,  running  along  the  bed  of  a 
precipitous  fall,  furnished  a  spectacle  which  none  could  witness  and 
forget.  The  descent  was  a  perfect  prodigy  of  mechanical  skill,  and 
the  fleet  was  at  last  set  afloat  on  the  Lago  di  Garda  in  February 
1439. 

With  the  single  exception  of  Fenton's  translation  of  Guicciardini's 
History,  the  whole  of  the  foregoing  references  to  the  waterways  of 
Lombardy  are  based  on  Italian  authorities.  I  do  not  suggest  that 
our  Dramatist  ever  read  any  of  them,  though  Fenton's  work  was 
within  his  reach  had  he  wished  to  consult  it.  I  have  quoted  these 
extracts  merely  for  the  purpose  of  demonstrating  certain  geographical 
facts  which  have  been  largely  overlooked  by  students  of  Shakespeare. 

The  mistake  has  been  repeated  in  all  editions  and  translations  of  Guicciardini.    The 
Tanaro  is  about  200  miles  to  the  west. 

22  History  of  the  Venetian  Republic  (ed.  1860),  iv.  141  sqq. 


1908        SHAKESPEARE  AND  NORTH  ITALY          227 

The  authorities  quoted,  however,  are  far  from  exhausting  the  evidence, 
and  they  are  fully  confirmed  by  a  number  of  English  writers  who  have 
left  us  some  extremely  interesting  narratives  of  journeys  made  by 
water  in  the  same  region. 

The  Pylgrymage  of  Sir  R.  Guylforde,  for  instance,  which  was  pub- 
lished by  Richard  Pynson  in  151 1,23  describes,  with  some  detail,  the 
journey  he  made  in  1506  through  North  Italy  on  his  way  to  Jerusalem. 
At  Alessandria  his  company  left  their  horses  and  took  the  water  of 
Tanaro.  Being  brought  to  the  Po  by  this  river,  they  passed  Pavia. 
Next  day,  they  passed  Piacenza  and  Cremona,  and  lay  at  Polesina. 
The  day  after  they  passed  Torricella,  Casalmaggiore,  Viadana, 
Mantua,  Grescello,  and  stayed  for  the  night  at  Guastalla  :  and  so  on, 
until  after  passing  Ferrara  • 

somewhat  before  noone  we  left  all  the  Poo  and  toke  our  course  by  a  lytell  ryver 
yt  cummeth  to  the  same,  called  the  Fosse,  made  and  cutte  out  by  hande,  whiche 
brought  us  overthawart  into  another  ryver,  called  Lytyze  [TAdige]  that  com- 
meth  from  Verone  and  Trent ;  and  yet  within  a  whyle  we  traversed  out  of  that 
ryver  into  another  lytell  ryver,  whiche  brought  us  thawarte  agen  into  Latyze, 
whiche  Latyze  brought  us  into  Chose  [Chioggia]  upon  the  see,  called  in  Latyne 
Claudium.  .  .  .  The  next  daye  ...  we  come  to  Venyse.  .  .  .  XII.  daye  of 
June  ...  we  wente  by  water  to  Padua  by  the  ryver  of  Brente. 

Following  closely  upon  this,  we  have  the  Pilgrimage  of  Sir  Eichard 
Torkington,24  also  to  the  Holy  Land.  He  left  England  in  1517,  and 
crossing  France,  reached  Pavia,  where  he  sold  his  horse,  saddle,  and 
bridle. 

'  Wednesday,  the  XXI.  day  of  Aprill,  I  toke  a  barke  at  the  forseyd 
Pavia,  upon  the  ryver  which  is  called  Poo  ;  the  same  night  I  cam  to 
Placiencia  or  Plesaunce  [Piacenza]  .  .  . ' 

Like  his  predecessor  Guylforde,  he  describes  with  minuteness  the 
towns  he  passed  in  descending  the  river — mentioning  '  Cremena ' 
[Cremona],  '  Dosor  '  [Caorso],  Mantua,  *  Ryver  '  [?  Revere],  '  Fferare  ' 
[Ferrara],  '  Ffrancclyno  '  [Francolin],  and  Corbala.  His  description  of 
leaving  the  Po  and  crossing  to  the  Adige  in  order  to  reach  Venice  is, 
strange  to  say,  in  the  identical  words  used  by  Guylforde  as  quoted 
above.  It  is  possible  that  they  were  both  indebted  to  some  early 
guide-book  in  the  matter. 

Another  English  traveller  in  Italy,  with  whose  work  Shakespeare 
was  undoubtedly  acquainted,  is  Fynes  Moryson.  In  his  own  words  : 

In  the  spring  of  the  yeare  1594  (the  Italians  beginning  the  yeare  the  first  of 
January)  I  began  my  journey  to  see  Italy,  and  taking  boat  at  the  East  gate  of 
Padua,  the  same  was  drawne  by  horses  along  the  River  Brenta ;  ...  we  came 
to  the  Village  Lizzafusina,  where  there  is  a  damme  to  stop  the  waters  of  Brenta, 
lest  in  processe  of  time  the  Marshes  on  that  side  of  Venice  should  be  filled  with 


'2S  Beprinted,  from  the  unique  copy  in  the  British  Museum,  by  the  Camden  Society, 
vol.  i. 

24  Ye  oldest  diarie  of  Englysshe  travell,  etc.,  W.  J.  Loftie  (1884). 


228  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY      .          Aug. 

sand  or  earth  and  so  a  passage  made  on  firme  ground  to' the  City.25  Heere  whiles 
our  boat  was  drawne  by  an  Instrument,  out  of  the  River  Brenta,  into  the 
Marshes  of  Venice,  wee  the  passengers  refreshed  our  selves  with  meat  and  wine. 
•  .  .  Then  we  entred  our  boat  againe,  and  passed  five  miles  to  Venice,  upon  the 
marshes  thereof  ;  and  each  man  paied  for  his  passage  a  lire,  or  twenty  sols,  and 
for  a  horse  more  then  ordinary  that  we  might  be  drawne  more  swiftly  from 
Padua  to  Lizzafusina,  each  man  paied  foure  sols,  but  the  ordinary  passage  is 
only  sixteene  sols.  We  might  have  had  coaches,  but  since  a  boat  passeth  daily 
too  and  fro  betweene  these  cities,  most  men  use  this  passage  as  most  convenient. 
For  the  boat  is  covered  with  arched  hatches,  and  there  is  very  pleasant  company, 
so  a  man  beware  to  give  no  offence.  .  .  . 

From  Venice  to  Farraria  [i.e.,  Ferrara]  are  eighty-five  miles  by  water  and 
land ;  and  upon  the  third  of  February  (after  the  new  style)  and  in  the  yeare 
1594  .  .  .  and  upon  Wednesday  in  the  evening,  my  selfe  with  two  Dutchmen, 
my  consorts  in  this  journey,  went  into  the  Barke  which  weekely  passeth  betwixt 
Venice  and  Ferrara.  .  .  . 

The  same  night  we  passed  25  miles  upon  the  marshes,  within  the  sea  banke, 
to  Chioza.  .  .  . 

The  next  morning  in  the  same  Barke  we  entred  the  River  and  passed  15  miles 
to  the  Village  Lorea  and  after  dinner  10  miles  in  the  territory  of  Venice,  and 
8  miles  in  the  Dukedom  of  Ferraria  to  Popaci,  and  upon  Friday  in  the  morning 
22  miles  to  Francoline,  where  we  paied  for  our  passage  from  Venice  thither,  each 
man  three  lires  and  a  halfe.  .  .  . 

We  left  our  Barke  at  Francoline,  where  we  might  have  hired  a  coach  to 
Ferraria,  for  which  we  should  have  paid  22  bolinei,  but  the  way  being  pleasant 
to  walke,  we  chose  rather  to  goe  these  5  miles  on  foot. 

From  hence  [Ferrara]  they  reckon  34  miles  to  Bologna.  We  went  on  foot 
3  miles  to  the  village  La  Torre  del  fossa.  .  .  . 

From  hence  we  hired  a  boat  for  4  bolinei  and  foure  quatrines,  and  passed, 
in  a  broad  ditch  betweene  high  reedes,  to  a  place  called  Mal'Albergo  .  .  .  being 
nine  miles  .  .  . 

The  next  morning  a  boat  went  from  hence  to  Bologna.  [But  they  went  the 
18  miles  on  foot  as  the  charge  was  high,  and  '  the  day  was  faire  '  and  '  the  way 
very  pleasant.'] 

On  foote  from  Pavia  ...  20  miles  through  rich  pastures  to  Milan.  .  .  . 

It  is  large,  populous,  and  very  rich,  seated  in  a  Plaine  (as  all  Lombardy  lies) 
and  that  most  firtile,  and  by  the  commoditie  of  a  little  River  brought  to  the 
Citie  by  the  French,  and  almost  compassing  the  same,  it  aboundeth  also  with 
forraine  Merchandise. 

The  2nd  day  we  rode  14  miles  to  Mantua  ...  in  a  most  durtie  highway. 

The  Citie  is  compassed  with  Lakes,  which  usually  are  covered  with  infinite 
number  of  water-foule  ;  and  from  these  Lakes  there  is  a  passage  into  the  River 
Po,  and  so  by  water  to  Venice. 

I  said  formerly  that  there  is  a  passage  from  the  Lakes  into  the  River  Po,  and 
so  by  water  to  Venice,  and  the  Duke,  to  take  his  pleasure  upon  the  water,  hath 
a  baot  [sic]  called  Bucentoro,  because  it  will  beare  some  two  hundred  and  it  is 
built  in  the  upper  part  like  a  banqueting  house,  having  five  rooms  (with  glased 
windowes)  wherein  the  Duke  and  his  Traine  doe  sit ;  ...  these  roomes  according 
to  occasions  have  more  or  lesse  rich  hangings,  when  the  Duke  either  goeth  out 
to  disport  himself,  or  when  he  takes  any  journey  therein  (as  oft  he  doth).  .  .  . 

'"  It  was  the  same  in  Dante's  time,  some  three  centuries  before  : 
Quale  i  Fiamminghi  .  .  . 

Fanno  lo  schermo  perche  il  mar  si  f  uggia  ; 
-    E  quale  i  Padovan  lungo  la  Brenta, 

Per  difender  lor  ville  e  lor  castelli,  etc. — Inferno,  xv.  4. 


1908        SHAKESPEARE  AND  NORTH  ITALY          229 

Being  to  goe  from  hence  to  Padua  .  .  .  hired  a  horse  from  Mantua  to  the 
Castle  Este  for  eleven  lires.  .  .  . 

First  day  passed  a  Fort  upon  the  River  Athesis,  called  Lignaco,  and  rode 
20  miles  ...  to  Monteguiara. 

Next  morning  9  miles  to  Castle  Este. 

From  thence  I  passed  by  boate  15  miles  to  Padua,  and  paied  22  soldi  for  my 
passage.  This  day  .  .  .  was  the  14  of  December,  after  the  new  stile,  in  the 
yeere  1594. 

Thomas  Coryat,  '  the  Odcombian  Legge-stretcher,'  as  he  describes 
himself,  is  another  of  those  who  travelled  in  North  Italy,  and  published 
(in  1611)  an  account  of  his  journeys  there.26  His  travels  began  in  1608. 
Here  are  a  few  extracts  from  his  work : 

Many  do  travel  down  this  river  [the  Po]  from  Turin  to  Venice  all  by  water, 
and  so  save  the  travelling  of  227  miles  by  land.  For  the  young  Prince  of  Savoy 
with  all  his  traine  travelled  to  Venice  down  the  Po  when  I  was  at  Turin.  [I.  97.] 

Speaking  of  Milan  [I.  124]  he  says  : 

The  Citadell  is  moted  round  about  with  a  broade  mote  of  fine  running  water, 
and  many  other  sweet  rivers  and  delectable  currents  of  water  doe  flow  within 
the  Citadell.  .  .  . 

Also,  whereas  these  rivers  doe  runne  into  the  towne  to  the  great  commodity 
of  the  townsmen,  the  inhabitants  can  at  all  times  when  they  list  restraine  the 
passage  of  them  .  .  .  but  so  cannot  the  townsmen  on  the  contrary  side  restraine 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Citadell. 

In  another  place  he  described  his  journey  '  in  a  barke  '  down  the 
river  Brenta  from  Padua  to  Venice  [i.  194],  while  of  Verona  he  writes  : 

the  noble  river  Athesis  runneth  by  it.  ...  This  river  yeeldeth  a  speciall  com- 
moditie  to  the  citie.  For  although  it  be  not  able  to  beare  vessels  of  a  great 
burden,  yet  it  carrieth  prety  barges  of  convenient  quantitie,  wherein  great  store 
of  merchandise  is  brought  unto  the  city,  both  out  of  Germany  and  from  Venice 
itselfe.  [II.  99.] 

Montaigne's  Travels  in  Italy  might  be  cited  if  further  proof  be 
wanted.  He  covered  much  the  same  ground,  in  1581-2,  as  other 
travellers  in  Italy  did  in  and  about  that  time.  Part  of  his  journey 
from  Padua  to  Venice  was  by  boat — he  describes  the  machinery 
and  pulleys  worked  by  horses  by  which  the  boats  were  brought  ashore 
for  the  purpose  of  being  conveyed  on  wheels  to  the  canal  which  runs 
into  the  sea  at  Venice.  He  tells  us,  too,  that  his  trunks  were  sent 
down  the  Adige  from  Rovere,  near  the  Lake  of  Garda,  to  Verona,  for 
which  he  paid  one  florin ;  and,  when  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Milan, 
we  are  informed  that  he  '  crossed  the  river  Naviglio,  which  was  narrow, 
but  still  deep  enough  to  carry  great  barks  to  Milan.' 

The  evidence  I  have  collected  bearing  on  Shakespeare's  notions 
of  the  geography  of  Lombardy,  curtailed  though  it  be,  is,  I  fancy, 
sufficient  to  acquit  him  of  any  serious  imputation  of  blundering,  and  is 

26  Crudities,  hastily  gobled  up  in  five  Moneths  Travells  in  France,  Savoy,  Italy, 
etc.  1611. 


280  TEE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

certainly  capable  of  showing  that  his  so-called  errors  were  at  least  made 
in  very  respectable  company.  A  few  thoughtful  students  of  his  works 
have,  here  and  there,  defended  him  from  the  condemnation  of  the 
many  who  have  held  him  -up  to  public  derision  as  an  ignoramus  in 
connection  with  Italian  topography  which  must,  after  all,  have  been 
more  or  less  the  common  knowledge  in  his  day.  On  one  point,  however, 
connected  with  the  geography  of  another  country,  the  Dramatist 
has  for  centuries  been  the  target  of  almost  everyone  who  had  an 
opportunity  of  drawing  a  bow  at  a  venture  and  getting  an  arrow  home 
on  the  subject  of  his  ignorance  of  the  boundaries  of  Bohemia.  Chief 
amongst  these  archers  stands  Ben  Jonson  himself,  with  his  oft-repeated 
dictum  *  that  Shakespeare  wanted  art,  and  sometimes  sense  ;  for  in 
one  of  his  plays  he  brought  in  a  number  of  men,  saying  thay  had  suffered 
shipwreck  in  Bohemia,  where  is  no  sea  near  by  100  miles,'  written  in 
reference  to  passages  in  The  Winter's  Tale,  which  give  a  sea  coast 
to  that  country  (iii.  3  passim).  The  best  that  has  been  said  in  defence 
of  the  Poet's  description  has  been  based  on  the  error  that  Greene 
is  supposed  to  have  made  previously  in  his  story  of  Dorastus  and 
Faunia,  where  the  country  in  question  is  described  as  having  a  sea- 
board. It  is  all  very  well  to  assume  that  the  Dramatist  took  the 
story  '  with  all  faults,'  that  he  never  stopped  to  inquire  whether  there 
were  faults  or  not,  but  such  a  course  does  not  strike  a  reasonable 
mind  as  being  one  that  a  master  playwright  would  be  prepared  to 
follow.  Is  it  not  more  likely  that  Shakespeare  adopted  the  Bohemia 
of  his  predecessor,  sea  coast  and  all,  for  the  very  good  reason  that 
he  had  already  learned,  as  he  might  easily  have  done  from  history, 
that  Bohemia  had  not  only  a  coast,  but  two  coasts,  at  an  earlier 
period — and  that  the  most  important  period  of  its  national  existence  ? 

All  historians  of  that  country  tell  us  that  under  the  rule  of  Ottocar 
the  Second  (1255-1278)  Bohemia  was  raised  to  the  position  of  a 
formidable  power  which  at  the  time  comprised  all  the  territories 
of  the  Austrian  monarchy  which  had  up  till  then  formed  part  of  the 
Germanic  confederation,  with  some  few  exceptions.  '  By  these  acces- 
sions of  territory,'  to  quote  from  Coxe,  7  '  Ottocar  became  the  most 
powerful  prince  in  Europe — for  his  dominions  extended  from  the 
confines  of  Bavaria  to  Raab  in  Hungary,  and  from  the  Adriatic  to  the 
shores  of  the  Baltic.' 

Greene  and  Shakespeare  are  the  only  writers  of  their  day  who 
are  generally  supposed  to  have  given  a  seaboard  to  Bohemia.  There 
was,  however,  another  at  the  time  who  did  the  same,  although  the 
fact  has  escaped  notice,  so  far  as  I  am  aware  ;  and,  strangely  enough, 
the  best  known  work  of  this  author  is  one  with  which  Shakespeare 
seems  to  have  been  curiously  familiar.  I  refer  to  Richard  Johnson's 
Honourable  History  of  the  Seven  Champions  of  Christendom,  the  oldest 
known  copy  of  which  is  dated  1597,  though  this  may  well  have  been 

-'  Home  of  Austria,  I.  29,  ed.  1847. 


1908        SHAKESPEARE  AND  NORTH  ITALY          231 

a  second  edition,  as  the  work  was  entered  at  Stationers'  Hall  in  1596. 
Referring  to  St.  George,  Johnson  describes  his  arrival  *  in  the  Bohemian 
Court '  with  his  children,  '  where  the  King  of  that  countrey,  with  two 
other  Bordering  Princes,  most  Royally  Christened '  them.  Their 
bringing  up  was  also  undertaken  by  the  same  monarch,  one  of 
them,  '  whose  fortune  was  to  prove  a  scholar,'  being,  like  Hamlet, 
sent  '  unto  the  University  of  Wittenburg,' 

Thus  were  St.  George's  Children  provided  for  by  the  Bohemian  King,  for 
when  the  Embassadors  were  in  Readiness,  the  Ships  for  their  passage  furnished, 
and  Attendance  appointed,  St.  George,  in  company  of  his  Lady,  the  King  of 
Bohemia  with  his  Queen,  and  a  Train  of  Lords,  and  Gentlemen,  and  Ladies, 
Conducted  them  to  Ship-board,  where  the  Wind  served  them  prosperously,  that 
in  a  short  time  they  had  bad  adieu  to  the  Shore,  and  Sailed  chearfully  away.28 

Whether  it  was  owing  to  these  last  three  writers  or  not,  there 
appear  to  have  been  quite  a  number  of  people  in  and  about  the  time 
who  had  an  idea  that  Bohemia,  even  at  that  date,  was  approachable 
by  sea.  Taylor,  the  Water-Poet,  who  wrote  an  account  of  his  journey 
in  1620  to  that  country,20  in  his  '  Preface  to  the  Reader'  alludes  to  the 
questions  addressed  to  him  in  the  street  *  by  ignorant  people  '  after  his 
return  : 

First  John  Easie  takes  me,  and  holds  me  fast  by  the  fist  halfe  an  houre.  .  .  . 
I  am  no  sooner  eased  of  him,  but  Gregory  Gandergoose  .  .  .  catches  me  by  the 
goll,  demanding  if  Bohemia  be  a  great  Towne,  and  whether  there  be  any  meate 
in  it,  and  whether  the  last  fleet  of  ships  be  arrived  there. 

It  is  difficult  to  conceive  why  commentators,  from  Ben  Jonson's 
time  until  to-day,  should  assume  that  the  Bohemia  of  The  Winter's  Tale 
was  the  Bohemia  that  existed  in  Shakespeare's  day.  The  very  men- 
tion of  the  oracle  of  Delphos  might  at  least  have  suggested  to  some 
of  them  that  the  author  had  in  mind  the  Bohemia  of  a  very  much 
earlier  date. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  suggest  the  particular  sources  of  Shakespeare's 
knowledge  of  North  Italian  geography  in  the  face  of  the  numerous 
quotations  I  have  set  out.  His  own  reference  to  the 

Fashions  of  proud  Italy, 
Whose  manners  still  our  tardy  apish  nation 
Limps  after  in  base  imitation  30 

together  with  other  well-known  observations  by  himself  and  many 
other  writers  of  his  time,  are  quite  conclusive  as  to  the  wide  in- 
formation possessed  by  Englishmen  generally  on  the  subject  at  the 
close  of  the  sixteenth  century  and  after. 

Prof.  Raleigh  in  his  recent  work31  is  undoubtedly  but  stating 

w  Parti.  Ch.  XVII.  ad  fin. 

29  Travels  to  Prague  in  Bohemia.     Reprinted  in  the  Spenser  Society's  Publica 
tions. 

80  Richard  II.  ii.  1. 

31  English  Men  of  Letters  :  '  Shakespeare,'  1907. 


232  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

• 

a  fact  when  he  says  of  Shakespeare  :  '  He  must  often  have  seen  the 
affected  traveller,  described  in  King  John,  dallying  with  his  toothpick 
at  a  great  man's  table  full  of  elaborate  compliment, 

And  talking  of  the  Alps  and  Apennines, 
The  Pyrenean  and  the  river  Po.' 

He  does  not,  however,  seem  to  be  quite  so  near  the  mark  when 
adding  :  '  The  knowledge  that  he  gained  from  such  talk,  if  it  was 
sometimes  remote  and  curious,  was  neither  systematic  nor  accurate  ; 
and  this  is  the  knowledge  repeated  in  the  plays  '  (p.  58). 

One  can  only  hope  that  the  last  assertion  will  be  modified  in  the 
next  edition  of  his  brilliantly  written  volume,  so  far  at  least  as  it 
relates  to  the  waterways  of  Lombardy  as  Shakespeare  knew  them. 

EDWARD  SULLIVAN. 


1908 


FRENCH    CANADA    AND    THE    QUEBEC 
TERCENTENAR  Y 

AN  ENGLISH-CANADIAN  APPRECIATION         ' 


THE  French  Canadian  is  neither  an  Imperialist  nor  an  advertiser. 
But  the  celebration  of  the  three  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  found- 
ing of  Quebec  by  Champlain  will  be  the  largest  advertisement  the 
French  Canadian,  and  the  part  he  has  played  in  the  development 
of  the  modern  British  Empire,  have  ever  received.  The  celebration 
was  nbt  planned  as  a  Quebec  affair.  Neither  was  it  contemplated  that 
it  would  win  the  applause  of  the  inhabitants  of  all  the  King's 
Dominions.  The  Tercentenary  and  the  history  of  its  evolution  afford  a 
valuable  study  for  the  mind  that  loves  to  learn  how  events  are  shaped 
behind  the  scenes.  Once  or  twice  the  movement  was  in  danger  of 
breakdown — not  because  of  lack  of  interest  or  of  paucity  of  material 
for  an  imposing  demonstration,  but  because  the  range  of  interest  was 
so  wide,  and  the  quantity  of  material  so  enormous,  that  differences  of 
perspective  and  varieties  of  interpretation  came  into  action,  'and 
time,  and  patience,  and  tact  had  to  work  their  perfect  work  before  the 
scheme  of  celebration  found  its  agreeable  stride. 

And,  even  now,  the  Tercentenary  is  all  things  to  all  men — to  some 
a  French  glorification,  to  others  a  British  Imperial  festival.  It  could 
not  be  otherwise.  It  were  foolish  to  ask  whether  its  sum  of  effect  will 
be  best  expressed  in  English  or  French.  In  an  atmosphere  that  has 
become  redolent  of  the  Champlain  epoch  we  can  all  afford  to  be 
Frenchmen.  The  Anglo-Saxon  has  profited  so  much  by  what  the 
French  accomplished  in  founding  Quebec  that  he  does  well  to  glory 
in  their  noble  deed,  and  to  devote  some  time  to  discovering  in  his 
neighbour,  who  talks  with  a  delightful  French  accent  of  our  and  his 
matchless  Constitution,  the  qualities  that  immortalised  his  progenitors, 
who  may  have  devoutly  believed  that  the  English  were  everything 
they  ought  not  to  be. 

There  has  been  so  rapid  a  development  of  Canada  that  the  children 
of  this  generation  are  apt  to  forget  the  suffering  toil  of  their  own  parents 
in  converting  an  endless  forest  into  valuable  farms.  Pioneer  societies 
cherish  the  records  of  early  settlement,  and  commemorate  the  sacrifices 

288 


234  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

of  life  and  comfort  that  dignify  the  past.  But,  for  most  people,  life 
is  too  interesting,  and  there  are  too  many  trains  to  catch,  to  permit  of 
much  pious  reflection  on  what  happened  to  people  who  are  dead.  If 
that  is  true  about  men  whose  fences  of  pine-roots  are  abiding  monu- 
ments of  their  labour,  how  much  more  is  it  true  of  Champlain  who, 
when  James  the  First  was  still  a  stranger  to  English  ways,  came  to 
Quebec  in  a  caravel  that  would  nowadays  scarcely  be  regarded  as 
safe  on  Lake  Ontario  ! 

French  Canada  is  somewhat  of  an  abstraction  to  most  of  the 
English-speaking  inhabitants  of  the  Dominion.  It  is  five  hundred 
miles  from  Quebec  to  Toronto,  and  eighteen  hundred  from  Quebec 
to  the  Saskatchewan  border.  The  Canadian  House  of  Commons 
contains  sixty-five  members  from  the  province  of  Quebec.  The  Prime 
Minister,  the  Minister  of  Marine  and  Fisheries,  and  the  Postmaster- 
General  discourse  to  Parliament  in  excellent  English  that  is  unmistake- 
ably  begotten  of  French  thought.  But  though  the  Western  member 
of  Parliament  is  next  door  to  French  Canada  during  the  session,  he  is 
so  deeply  committed  to  legislative  projects  that  originate  outside  the 
French  sphere  of  influence,  and  the  American  tinge  which  is  coming 
over  his  Western  ideas  is,  however  unconsciously,  so  affecting  his  vision 
of  events,  that  he  does  not  think  often  or  deeply  about  his  debt  to  the 
eloquent  race  to  which  the  heroic  situation  of  a  powerful  minority  is 
more  of  a  virtue  than  a  political  asset. 

Misappreciation  is  a  serious  political  defect,  especially  where  semi- 
racial  sentiment  is  always  a  potential  factor  in  current  affairs.  During 
three  sessions  of  Parliament  the  St.  Jean  Baptiste  Society  of  Quebec 
hoped  to  secure  an  appropriation  for  the  Champlain  Tercentenary.  It 
was  the  first  time  that  a  Quebec  celebration  was  projected  as  an  all- 
Canada  responsibility.  The  Prime  Minister,  who  is  the  unquestioned 
master  of  his  majority,  has  sat  for  a  Quebec  city  constituency  since 
1887.  But  the  nationalising  of  a  celebration  that  was  primarily 
French  could  not,  apparently,  be  brought  into  the  estimates  with 
unanimous  approval.  That  it  did  reach  such  a  position,  and  secure 
the  endorsement  of  Parliamentarians  who  are  equally  innocent  of 
French  and  Arabic,  was  due  to  the  daring — one  might  almost  say 
the  indiscretion — of  the  Governor-General,  who  conceived  the  idea 
of  converting  the  jeopardised,  gaol-endowed  Plains  of  Abraham  into 
a  National  Battlefields  Park. 

Parliament  set  up  a  Commission  to  carry  out  the  Park  project 
and  gave  it  three  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  spend.  The  last 
section  of  the  constituting  Act  empowered  the  Commission  to  use  its 
discretion  as  to  assisting  the  Tercentennial  fetes.  The  authority  has 
been  exercised  with  admirable  liberality.  The  city  of  Quebec,  and 
the  Provincial  Governments  of  Quebec,  Ontario,  and  Saskatchewan 
have  voted  funds  for  the  commemorations  ;  and  the  Champlain-cum- 
Battlefields  display  goes  into  history  as  the  British  Empire's  first 


1908  THE   QUEBEC   TERCENTENARY  235 

great  spectacular  homage  to  epochal  discoveries  and  pioneerings  of  a 
rival  race,  the  unearned  increment  of  which  has  inured  to  the 
advantage  of  English-speaking  men. 

To  understand  the  daring — indiscretion,  if  you  like — of  Earl  Grey 
it  is  necessary  to  try  to  put  oneself  into  a  French-Canadian's  place. 
To  him,  Canada  is  all  in  all.  His  Canada  is  French  Canada ;  just  as 
Yorkshire  is  England  to  the  dalesman  who  never  listened  to  Cornish 
speech.  He  knows  that  since  1535  men  of  his  name  have  navigated  the 
peerless  St.  Lawrence.  Modern  France  is  to  him  a  distant  relation. 
England,  at  the  best,  is  a  venerable  stepmother.  If  he  is  of  Quebec 
City,  he  has  seen  and  survived  a  painful  series  of  misfortunes.  In  the 
square  timber  trade  his  city,  not  so  long  ago,  was  splendidly  alone. 
Five  thousand  of  the  men  who  handled  the  leviathan  rafts  that  were 
the  peculiar  pride  of  the  country  found  congenial  winter  employment 
in  building  ships.  The  square  timber  trade  vanished  with  the  depletion 
of  the  supply  of  giant  trees  and  the  multiplication  of  mills,  the  build- 
ing of  railways,  and  the  populating  of  the  hinterland.  Wooden  sailers 
were  superseded  by  iron  creatures  of  the  engineer.  The  channel  to 
Montreal  was  deepened,  so  as  to  meet  the  new  conditions  of  commerce 
and  transportation.  The  Quebec  patriot  had  to  watch  processions 
of  heavy-laden  ships  cross  his  forsaken  harbour,  and  could  not  nourish 
himself  with  the  consolation  of  a  melancholy  huzza. 

Occasionally  he  was  hurt  by  hearing  English-speaking  natives  of 
Quebec  speak  of  England  as  '  home.'  For  him  Quebec  was  the  only 
home,  and  he  desired  no  other.  He  could  not  understand  a  patriotism 
that  seemed  to  give  second  place  to  the  Providence  of  birth.  To-day 
it  would  be  as  offensive  to  a  native  Torontonian  to  hear  a  compeer 
call  England  '  home  '  as  it  was  to  the  French-Canadian  forty  years  ago 
in  Quebec.  A  Governor-General  perpetrated  the  blunder  of  dividing 
the  country  into  Upper  Canada  and  Lower  Canada.  Quebec  was  in 
Lower  Canada.  The  average  French -Canadian  came  to  know  that 
there  were  upper  and  lower  classes  in  England,  and  when  he  felt  gloomy 
and  ironical  he  told  himself  that  a  gratuitous  liberty  had  been  taken 
with  geography  ;  and  that '  Canada  Superieur  '  and  '  Canada  Inferieur ' 
were  a  double  rock  of  offence  to  him.  By  violence  he  had  lost  the 
Motherhood  of  France.  By  stupidity,  he  sometimes  told  himself,  he 
was  only  half  an  heir  of  the  stepmotherland  of  England. 

All  the  time  he  was  the  proprietor  of  a  past  that  could  never  perish, 
and  that  became  more  lustrous  with  the  wear  of  time.  The  English- 
man— officer  of  the  garrison,  or  immigrant  hastening  to  lay  capable 
hands  on  the  endless  wealth  of  the  West — might  not  take  the 
trouble  to  understand  him.  But  Cartier,  Champlain,  Laval,  Dollard, 
Frontenac,  La  Salle — immortals  like  these  were  of  his  flesh  and  blood 
and  mind  and  faith.  Neither  principalities  nor  powers  could  upset 
that  deathless  relationship.  The  St.  Jean  Baptiste  Society  cherished 
the  traditions  of  the  fathers.  The  Church  remained  to  continue  the 


286  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

blessed  shepherding  that  ennobled  it  when  French  overseas  dominion 
was  withdrawn,  and  the  new  dominator  was  least  sympathetic  even 
when  he  was  most  just.  In  the  main,  the  British  regime  in  Canada 
was  blessed.  But  blood  has  a  quality  that  cannot  be  transfused  to 
parchment ;  and  the  most  satisfactory  manage  de  convenance  cannot 
diffuse  the  perfect  love-light. 

Unless  you  are  a  young  man  in  a  hurry,  or  a  provincial  Imperialist 
imagining  you  are  broad  when  you  are  merely  flat,  you  will  be 
grateful  for  the  signs  of  the  times  in  French  Canada.  It  was  good 
that  the  St.  Jean  Baptistes  should  ask  all  Canada  to  join  in  honouring 
Champlain.  It  is  too  much  to  expect  that  your  French  brethren  will 
feel  towards  Wolfe  exactly  as  a  countryman  of  Wolfe's  does.  It  is 
well  for  us  to  remember  sometimes  that  when  French  and  English 
last  fought  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham  the  English  were  beaten,  and 
that  French  valour  saved  Canada  for  England  when  the  American 
colonists  revolted.  As  we  contributed  nothing  to  Wolfe's  renown 
we  need  not  give  the  impression  that  we  love  to  rub  in  Montcalm's 
loss.  The  decrees  of  history  are  mightier  than  any  of  us.  It  is 
easy  to  imagine  we  are  muddling  through  when  we  are  only  trying  to 
meddle  through. 

It  is  safe,  now,  to  say  that  many  French-Canadians  thought 
Lord  Grey  was  meddling  and  muddling  when  he  proposed  the  National 
Battlefields  Park  as  a  concomitant  of  the  Champlain  Tercentenary. 
They  did  not  see  then,  though  they  accept  it  now,  that  he  used 
the  Battlefields  as  the  starting  lever  for  English-speaking  participa- 
tion in  the  Tercentenary — primarily  for  the  pecuniary  aid  from 
Parliament  without  which  the  Tercentenary  must  be  but  a  partial 
triumph.  Champlain  had  about  as  much  to  do  with  1759  as  Montcalm 
had  with  Mr.  Chamberlain.  The  British  form  of  government  has 
been  good,  and  doubly  good,  for  French  Canada.  But  it  brought 
no  blessings  to  Champlain.  He  was  a  devout  son  of  the  Church, 
and  would  have  died  to  give  her  evangel  to  the  Hurons  and  Algonquins. 
He  did  not  trouble  himself  about  the  British  Empire.  When  he 
came  to  Quebec  England  had  newly  abandoned  her  godly  allegiance 
to  the  Church.  If  he  was  afraid  of  anything,  he  was  afraid  that  such 
rebellion  against  the  Holy  Father  as  had  vexed  England  would 
involve  the  ruin  of  the  world.  Besides,  his  work  was  great  enough 
to  wjn  the  unreserved  homage  of  the  most  inveterate  devotee  of  the 
Union  Jack. 

Every  quality  that  has  given  the  English-speaking  people  their 
wonderful  proprietorship  in  the  world  was  Champlain's.  He  could 
not  pass  Reform  Bills  in  democratic  legislatures  ;  nor  could  he  pro- 
mote transcontinental  railways.  But  he  won  the  devotion  of  all 
who  knew  him.  Men  served  him  as  he  served  the  King.  With  a 
prescience  that  no  Britisher  has  ever  excelled,  he  understood  the 
future  of  Canada.  He  marked  Halifax  for  the  military  key  of  the 


1908  THE   QUEBEC   TERCENTENARY  287 

Atlantic  littoral.  The  site  of  St.  John,  he  said,  would  one  day  be  a 
great  distributing  point  of  enterprising  populations.  For  Montreal 
he  prophesied  a  commercial  pre-eminence  in  Canada.  He  foresaw 
the  importance  of  the  place  whereon  Ottawa  stands.  His  trip  from 
Georgian  Bay,  across  Lake  Simcoe,  to  Lake  Ontario  convinced  him 
that,  some  day,  the  Indian  hunter  would  be  superseded  by  flourishing 
tillers  of  an  opulent  soil. 

What  mortal  man  could  do  Champlain  achieved,  and  those  who 
have  entered  into  his  labours  may  fitly  join  in  honouring  his  memory, 
and,  after  a  fashion,  give  thanks  for  what  they  have  received.  To 
drag  into  a  celebration  of  1608  a  disaster  of  1759  was  so  unique  a 
method  of  commemorating  events  as  to  provoke  simple  people  to  look 
for  a  sinister  motive.  Could  it  be  desired  to  hitch  Champlain  to  the 
Imperialist  car  of  Mr.  Chamberlain  ?  Was  Lord  Grey  an  emissary 
of  a  school  of  wire-pulling  jingoes,  instead  of  the  representative  of  a 
King  who  is  too  wise  to  discount  any  of  his  subjects  ? 

Thus  they  talked — those  who  do  not  know  Lord  Grey,  and  who 
do  remember  the  days  of  Canada  Superieur  and  Canada  Inferieur. 
Lord  Grey  soon  learned  what  was  in  the  wind,  and  governed  himself 
accordingly.  Though  some  French-Canadians  have  looked  on  the 
celebration  from  afar,  danger  of  a  breach  was  avoided,  and  the  splendid 
advantage  to  French  Canada  of  the  world-wide  interest  that  is  being 
taken  in  the  Tercentenary  is  patent  to  everybody.  Forbearance, 
diplomacy,  generosity  have  produced  magnificent  fruits.  There 
will  be  such  a  reciprocity  of  good  feeling  between  English-speaking 
and  French-speaking  Canadians  as  was  not  believed  to  be  possible 
before  Lord  Grey  made  everybody  speculate  as  to  what  he  was 
going  to  do  next. 

The  Tercentenary  passes  ;  French  Canada  abides,  a  temptation 
to  the  prophet,  a  problem  for  the  statesman.  Those  who  know 
most  prophesy  least.  Those  who  are  most  statesmanlike  are  least 
anxious  about  the  problem.  By  taking  thought  you  cannot  add 
one  footstep  to  the  working  out  of  French-Canadian  nationalism. 
There  are  differing  tendencies  among  the  French,  of  course.  But 
they  are  insignificant  compared  with  the  differences  between  the 
French  and  British.  It  is  as  useless  to  think  of  making  Englishmen 
out  of  French  Canadians  as  it  is  to  imagine  that  the  Irish  temper 
can  be  kept  in  a  Saxon  mould. 

There  can  be  no  proposal  to  replace  the  French  tongue  with  what 
an  American  has  called  '  God  Almighty's  own  language.'  The  move- 
ment is  Englishwards  ;  but  it  is  only  just  perceptible.  This  is  partly, 
if  not  chiefly,  because  the  Church  is  the  ultra-conservative  force  in 
the  province  of  Quebec.  It  is  the  fashion  to  say  that  the  French 
are  not  progressive.  Orangemen,  who  abound  in.  Ontario  and  who 
consecrate  the  twelfth  of  July  to  the  display  of  their  steadfast  Pro- 
testant liberty,  yearn  for  the  deliverance  of  Quebec  from  Rome  ;  and 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  378  K 


288  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTUEH  Aug. 

see  a  perpetual  menace  in  the  residence  of  a  papal  delegate  at  Ottaw  a. 
The  observer  has  no  business  with  Catholic  propaganda  or  Protestant 
missioning.  He  can  only  try  to  size  up  conditions  as  they  exist, 
and  to  deduce  the  conclusions  that  seem  to  emerge  from  a  mass  of 
sometimes  confusing,  sometimes  illuminating  facts. 

Once  you  have  grasped  the  great  importance  of  French  Canada — 
and,  with  a  phenomenally  prolific  population  already  as  numerous 
as  that  of  Norway,  its  strength  is  enormous — and  are  seized  of  the 
permanence  of  its  speech  and  religion,  you  know  that  there  must 
be  a  considerable  element  of  compromise  in  some  of  the  major  political 
transactions  of  Canada.  The  problem  for  the  statesman  is  not  really 
concerned  with  prospective  divergences,  as  between  French  and 
British,  likely  to  split  the  body  politic  in  twain.  Both  races  are 
equally  certain  to  insist  on  Canada  doing  exactly  as  she  pleases  in 
large  affairs  as  well  as  in  small.  The  statesman  is  at  the  mercy  of 
the  voter,  and  must  avoid,  as  far  as  he  can,  incitements  to  the  ballot- 
box  to  curse  in  either  tongue.  There  is  as  much  danger  of  Saskatchewan 
and  Ontario  wanting  opposite  things  as  there  is  of  Ontario  and 
Quebec  being  at  variance,  merely  on  account  of  one  being  Protes- 
tant and  the  other  Catholic.  Community  of  interest  is  likely  to  be 
pro-Eastern  or  pro-Western.  The  Orange  order  is  still  powerful  in 
Ontario  ;  and  the  Lord's  Day  Alliance  will,  for  a  long  time,  count 
heavily  as  a  semi-political  organisation.  But  in  a  country  where 
politics  must  necessarily  be  largely  bound  up  with  commercial  develop- 
ment, a  transfer  of  the  balance  of  population  will  affect  the  statesman 
more  than  fluctuations  of  the  public  temper  towards  a  dogma  in 
theology  or  a  regulation  of  social  custom. 

Fifteen  years  hence,  it  is  widely  believed,  the  people  west  of  Lake 
Superior  will  be  the  larger  half  of  Canada.  As  railway  traffic  to  and 
from  the  West  will  be  the  chief  traffic  of  the  Dominion,  and  the  head- 
quarters of  the  railways  will  remain  in  the  East,  there  will  be  a  corre- 
sponding strengthening  of  the  Western  view  of  things  in  the  East. 
More  and  more  Americans  are  settling  in  Western  Canada,  and  American 
manufacturers  are  vigorously  cultivating  that  market.  This  summer, 
for  example,  the  Canadian  Northern  Railway  has  opened  a  connection 
between  Duluth  and  Winnipeg  that  will  presently  mean  a  new  and 
direct  route  from  Winnipeg  to  Chicago.  The  Americans  are  well 
pleased  with  Western  Canadian  institutions.  They  are  influencing 
the  Western  habit  of  mind,  though  there  is  something  in  the  prairie 
air  and  outlook  that  does  more  than  them  all  to  quicken  the  life  of 
the  Eastern  and  European  people  who  migrate  to  the  Western 
provinces. 

The  West  will  obtain  its  subsidiary  market  route  through  Hudson's 
Straits,  and  will  be  less  and  less  dependent  upon  the  extraneous 
manufacturer.  There  must  be  more  railway  intercommunication 
between  East  and  West.  That  is  recognised  in  Quebec,  which  will 


1908 


THE   QUEBEC   TERCENTENARY 


239 


be  the  tide-water  port  for  both  the  Canadian  Northern  and  the  Grand 
Trunk  Pacific  railways.  When  Quebec  is  once  more  a  leading  factor 
in  Canadian  transportation  she  will  be  less  inclined  to  dwell  on  the 
past,  because  she  will  have  a  new  concern  with  the  present.  In 
short,  the  provincial  view  of  things,  which  in  the  very  nature  of  the 
times  has  largely  dominated  the  older  provinces,  will  gradually  be 
merged  in  a  wider  national  outlook,  which,  though  it  may  be  of  com- 
mercial origin,  will  be  as  much  as  can  be  expected  in  an  imperfect 
world.  Localism  of  race  and  localism  of  business  have  obtained  to  a 
considerable  extent  in  the  province  of  Quebec.  The  Tercentenary 
will  show  the  French  that  they  are  more  highly  appreciated  than  they 
supposed,  and  will  encourage  them  more  readily  to  participate  with 
their  English-speaking  brethren  in  the  commercial  expansion  of 
Canada  as  a  whole.  Wherein  is  great  hope  for  those  who  care  for 
the  essential  unity  of  British  citizenship  beyond  the  seas. 


ARTHUR  HAWKES. 


Beech  Avenue,  Toronto. 


R  2 


240  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUET  Aug. 


THE  MONTH   OF  MARY 


IN  the  soft  dusk  of  the  May  evening,  a  heavy  waggon,  drawn  by  a 
yoke  of  cream-coloured  oxen,  lumbers  down  the  cobbled  main  street 
of  St.  Jean  de  Luz.  The  tired  beasts  with  their  linen  coats  and  shaggy 
red  head-dresses  patiently  follow  the  driver,  a  handsome  Basque 
in  a  slouch  hat  and  blue  sash,  who  walks  a  few  yards  in  front, 
holding  his  long  pole  and  his  arms  outstretched  to  point  the  way. 
The  day's  work  is  done.  The  load  of  sweet-smelling  hay  has  been 
deposited  in  the  barn,  but  the  waggon  is  not  empty.  It  is  filled  with 
a  chattering  crowd  of  children,  mainly  little  girls,  hatless,  after  the 
female  fashion  of  their  race,  and  they  have  begged  a  ride  from  the 
good-natured  driver.  They  laugh  and  clap  their  hands  as  the  waggon 
sways  and  creaks  beneath  them,  and  they  are  very  loth  to  jump  out, 
each  in  turn,  when  their  respective  homes  are  reached.  They  are  not 
going  to  bed  however.  Quite  late  into  the  summer  night  they  will 
play  hide  and  seek  about  the  streets,  which,  being  empty,  they  now 
regard  as  their  own.  In  the  daytime  they  prefer  to  keep  to  the  back 
quarters  of  the  town,  where  they  may  be  seen  chasing  the  untethered 
donkeys  under  the  acacia  trees  or  sliding  down  the  stone  balustrades 
upon  their  faces,  one  baby  tugging  another  by  his  pinafore  to  give 
him  greater  impetus  in  his  descent. 

The  Basque  children  are  sturdy,  merry  little  things,  clean  and 
tidy  rather  than  picturesque,  but,  in  spite  of  the  independence  of 
spirit  which  has  characterised  their  race  since  its  foundation  in  the 
mists  of  antiquity,  they  are  extremely  well-mannered.  In  the  schools 
they  learn  French,  and  for  a  time  speak  it ;  but  once  emancipated  from 
the  thraldom  of  education  they  make  haste  to  relapse  into  their  native 
Basque,  that  most  difficult  and  mysterious  language  which  is  said 
so  effectually  to  have  baffled  Satan  when  he  tried  to  land  on  the  shores 
of  the  Bay  of  Biscay.  For  the  boys  this  deliberate  f  orgetf ulness  proves 
a  short-sighted  policy,  since,  when  the  military  service  begins,  the 
conscripts  have  to  devote  many  weary  hours  to  the  re-acquisition  of  the 
French  tongue.  Life  is  not  all  playtime,  however,  even  for  the  children . 
It  is  the  duty  of  one  little  boy — he  cannot  be  more  than  eight  or  nine 
at  the  outside — to  light  the  lamps  in  the  roads  of  St.  Jean  de  Luz. 


19081  THE  MONTH  OF  MARY  241 

He  may  be  met  every  evening,  as  the  darkness  swallows  up  the  brief 
twilight,  flitting  swiftly  along,  as  if  all  the  witches  of  his  ancestral 
legend  were  upon  his  track,  his  bare  legs  twinkling  under  the  black- 
belted  pinafore,  his  feet  encased  in  red  cloth  shoes,  the  espadrilles  of 
the  country,  and  carrying  the  lighter,  a  stick  at  least  three  times  as 
long  as  himself.  On  wet  nights  he  is  dressed  in  a  dark  cape  and  hood, 
which  give  him  a  very  elf -like  appearance. 

But  on  this  warm  May  evening  neither  play  nor  work  is  the  only 
consideration.  The  '  Mois  de  Marie '  has  a  peculiar  significance  for 
the  Basques,  who  are  essentially  devout.  Every  evening  there  is  a 
service  in  the  Church  of  St.  Jean  Baptiste,  whose  fete  will  be  kept 
with  much  civic  and  religious  ceremony  a  month  later.  So  a  great 
many  of  the  children  are  captured  by  pious  mothers  and  are  borne 
off  to  the  large  sombre  church  where  Louis  the  Fourteenth  was  married 
to  Maria  Teresa,  Infanta  of  Spain.  The  magnificent  vestments  worn 
by  the  Koi  Soleil  on  that  occasion  are  preserved  at  Fuenterrabia, 
across  the  Bidassoa,  where  the  wedding  procession  took  place,  and 
little  enough  remains  in  the  gloomy  interior  of  the  church  at  St. 
Jean  de  Luz  to  suggest  so  gorgeous  a  ceremony.  It  is  a  solid,  plain 
building,  devoid  of  ornament,  for  the  Renaissance  never  penetrated 
to  this  south-west  corner  of  France,  and,  like  the  majority  of  the 
churches  in  this  country,  it  seems  to  indicate  the  Basque  tempera- 
ment, strength  and  solidity  rather  than  beauty  being  the  keynotes 
of  the  structure.  There  is,  however,  a  fine  outside  stone  staircase 
leading  up  to  the  men's  galleries,  three  tiers  of  which,  magnificently 
carved  in  black  oak,  form  the  most  noticeable  feature  of  the 
interior.  These,  and  the  profusely  gilded  high  altar  are  hardly  dis- 
tinguishable at  this  evening  service.  All  the  light  is  concentrated 
upon  the  altar  of  Mary,  set  at  the  foot  of  the  steps  outside  the  chancel 
rail,  and  the  air  is  heavy  with  the  scent  of  roses,  white  stocks, 
lilies,  and  acacia  blossom,  piled  up  high  amidst  its  myriad  candles, 
heaped  in  masses  upon  the  altar  itself,  and  arranged  in  green 
jars  upon  the  steps.  These  floral  tributes  are  renewed  daily 
through  the  month  of  May,  and  the  sisters  having  been  banished  by 
the  State  from  their  ministry,  the  labours  of  the  sacristan  must  be 
heavy. 

The  floor  of  the  nave  is  closely  packed  with  women  and  children, 
only  discernible  in  the  gloom  as  a  dark  and  solid  mass,  and  that  the 
galleries  are  at  least  equally  crowded  is  proved  by  the  volume  of  bass 
voices  in  the  hymns  to  the  Virgin,  of  which,  besides  the  prayers  of  the 
Rosary,  the  service  mainly  consists.  In  the  front  row,  where  the 
lights  from  the  altar  fall  full  upon  them,  are  three  or  four  especially 
well-conducted  children,  belonging  obviously  to  a  class  rather  above 
those  who  ride  in  ox  waggons  and  slide  down  balustrades  upon  their 
faces.  Of  these  one  tiny  face  seems  in  its  preternatural  sharpness  to 
shadow  forth  the  capable  business  woman  of  the  future.  It  is  the 


242  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

face  of  a  baby — its  owner  cannot  be  more  than  five — but  it  is  a  baby 
who  is  very  wide  awake.  Her  hair  is  short  and  elaborately  curled 
and  extremely  glossy,  and  her  eyes,  which  are  not  devoutly  closed, 
like  those  of  her  companions,  are  remarkably  bright  and  are  taking  in 
every  detail  of  the  altar  of  Mary.  At  intervals  and  with  the  help  of 
a  sharp  elbow  she  endeavours  vainly  to  arouse  an  equally  intelligent 
interest  in  a  sleepy  brother. 

Just  a  year  ago,  upon  the  Sunday  after  Ascension  Day,  Marthe 
Marie  Etcheverry — for  such  is  her  name — was  brought  to  the  church 
and  dedicated  to  the  Virgin,  in  company  with  several  other  little  girls 
of  extremely  tender  years,  as  is  the  Basque  fashion.  Marthe  retains 
a  dim  but  glorified  recollection  of  her  short  and  stiff  white  skirt,  her 
veil,  and  her  couronne  of  artificial  flowers,  and  she  feels  now  that  the 
altar  of  Mary  is  in  some  sense  her  especial  property,  and  the  religious 
observances  of  the  month  of  May  have  for  her  infant  mind  a  distinct 
significance.  She  does  not,  of  course,  know  that  this  year  these  have 
been  threatened  with  some  abridgment,  since  for  the  first  time  for 
many  years  the  Republican  party  has  come  into  power  in  St.  Jean  de 
Luz.  The  anti-Church  feeling,  however,  is  less  strong  here  than  in 
other  parts  of  France,  because  the  Basques  are,  as  we  have  said, 
essentially  devout,  and  beyond  removing  the  occupier  of  every  church 
appointment,  including  the  old  woman  at  the  bathing  establishment, 
and  depriving  the  cure  of  an  annual  income  of  30Z.  because  he  persists 
in  preaching  one  Basque  sermon  a  year,  the  authorities  do  not  seem 
disposed  to  interfere  seriously  with  the  religious  festivities  of  the 
people.  This  is  as  well,  for  these  form  the  one  picturesque  element  in 
their  industrious  but  otherwise  unimaginative  lives. 

At  all  events  the  Rogation  processions  upon  the  three  days  pre- 
ceding Ascension  Day,  when  a  blessing  is  invoked  upon  .the  earth,  that 
she  may  bring  forth  her  increase,  are  observed  with  all  the  usual  piety 
and  devotion.  For  these  three  days  the  weather  is  glorious  and  the  sun 
blazes  hotly  upon  Monsieur  le  cure  and  his  band  of  faithful  followers, 
who  trudge  off  at  daybreak  along  the  white  and  dusty  roads  to  some 
distant  farm,  where  Mass  is  celebrated  at  an  altar  raised  in  the  open 
fields.  All  along  the  way  the  shrines  are  decorated  with  greenery  and 
fresh  flowers,  and  the  procession  is  swelled  as  it  proceeds  by  con- 
tributions, mainly  of  men,  from  each  village  through  which  it  passes. 
Monsieur  le  cure  is  an  elderly  man,  and  these  long  tramps  into  the 
country  tire  him  considerably.  He  is,  however,  said  to  prefer  them  to 
the  later  ceremony  in  the  month  of  June,  when  he  goes  out  in  a  small 
boat  to  the  mouth  of  the  harbour  to  ask  for  a  blessing  upon  the  sea 
and  all  that  therein  is,  an  expedition  which,  being  a  bad  sailor,  he 
particularly  dislikes.  In  old  days  whale-fishing  was  the  great 
industry  of  St.  Jean  de  Luz,  and  possibly  the  priests  felt  it  better 
worth  while  to  suffer  some  personal  inconvenience  in  so  profitable  a 
cause  ;  but  the  sardines  have  long  survived  the  whales,  and  Monsieur 


THE  MONTH  OF  MABY  248 

le  cure  must  be  forgiven  if  lie  is  inclined  to  grudge  to  such  small 
fry  his  annual  attack  of  mal  de  mer. 

Meantime  one  wonders  if  he  is  at  all  conscious  that  in  these 
Rogation  processions,  which  are  so  full  of  satisfaction  and  promise  to 
the  rustic  community,  he  is  helping  to  perpetuate  a  very  sacred  rite 
of  the  most  ancient  fraternity  of  ancient  Rome.  From  the  records 
which  they  have  left  upon  the  walls  of  their  temples,  reared  late  in 
their  own  history,  in  the  days  of  the  Emperor  Augustus,  we  learn  that 
the  fraternity  of  the  Arvales  was  founded  in  order  that  its  members 
might  pray  to  the  Dea  Dia,  the  Divine  Goddess,  and  invoke  her 
blessing  upon  the  fields.  Apparently  the  feast  of  this  goddess  belonged 
to  the  order  of  the  fence  conceptivce  and  was  as  movable  as  our  own 
Easter.  The  date  would  be  announced  at  the  Ides  of  January  by  the 
president  of  the  community,  standing  upon  the  steps  of  the  Pantheon, 
his  head  veiled  and  his  face  turned  towards  the  east.  As  a  rule  it 
fell  towards  the  end  of  May,  when  the  corn  was  beginning  to  ripen, 
and,  like  the  Rogation  days,  it  lasted  for  three  days,  during  which  time 
there  was  a  complicated  series  of  processions,  sacrifices,  and  banquets. 
When  Monsieur  le  cure  puts  on  his  purple  cope  with  the  silver  fringe  to 
walk  in  the  dust  of  the  high-road,  he  is  perhaps  unaware  that  he  is  obey- 
ing the  orders  of  the  founder  of  the  Arvales,  Romulus  himself,  according 
to  the  legend,  that  a  band  of  purple  should  be  worn  by  the  brothers 
upon  their  togas  in  the  processions.  When  the  people  bring  their 
roses  to  the  church  to  be  blessed,  the  Sunday  after  Ascension  Day, 
they  do  not  know  that  they  are  commemorating  the  exchange  of 
bouquets  of  roses,  an  important  ceremony  at  the  close  of  the  feast  of 
the  Divine  Goddess.  Rites  of  the  same  sort  were  undoubtedly  observed 
by  the  early  Christians,  who  called  for  a  blessing  upon  the  fruits  of 
the  earth  in  the  middle  of  Mass  on  Ascension  Day,  and  it  is  curious 
to  note  the  many  small  points  of  resemblance  to  the  pagan  festival 
which  have  survived  through  the  ages,  and  are  still  carefully  adhered 
to  in  the  Rogation  processions  of  Southern  Europe.  With  the  Arvales 
the  second  day  of  the  festivity  was  the  most  important,  and  so  it  is 
with  the  Basques,  but  in  a  different  fashion,  for  whereas  it  was  the 
only  day  upon  which  the  Roman  ceremony  took  place  in  the  country 
the  second  day  is  the  only  one  on  which  the  Basques  confine  their 
procession  to  the  town. 

In  the  church  of  St.  Jean  Baptiste,  sombre  and  cool  on  this  hot 
May  morning  of  the  second  Rogation  day,  a  few  of  the  faithful  have 
begun  to  assemble  towards  ten  o'clock.  At  present  they  are  mainly 
women,  the  older  ones  with  their  heads  tied  up  in  black  handkerchiefs, 
according  to  custom.  Amongst  them  there  is  a  decided  preponder- 
ance of  widows,  with  the  long  soft  black  shawl  over  their  heads  and 
hanging  to  the  hem  of  their  skirts.  There  are  also  children,  and  I 
recognise  a  little  Spanish  boy  and  girl,  Fernando  and  Gloria,  who 
have  come  to  St.  Jean  de  Luz  for  the  sea  bathing,  and  with  their 


244  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

mother,  a  grown-up  brother,  five  elder  sisters,  several  dogs,  and  an 
automobile  are  packed  happily  and  noisily  into  a  house  which  might 
comfortably  have  held  a  family  of  four  persons.  Fernando  and 
Gloria  are  handsome  children,  with  wonderful  black  eyes,  clear  olive 
complexions,  and  slim  well-formed  little  bodies.  At  home  they  are 
also  extremely  naughty,  as,  our  gardens  adjoining,  I  have  cause  to 
know  ;  but  in  church  their  manners  suggest  all  the  pride  and  aloofness 
of  their  race,  and  they  sit  motionless  on  their  chairs  whilst  their  nurse 
devoutly  kneels  upon  her  prie-Dieu  between  them.  A  much  less 
patient  little  figure  presently  flits  out  of  the  sunshine  into  the  deep 
shadow  of  the  porch.  It  is  Marthe,  and  she  is  apparently  unattended, 
or  at  all  events  she  has  escaped  from  her  guardian.  Marthe  has  a 
great  and  boundless  admiration  for  the  Spanish  children  who  are 
lodged  nearly  opposite  her  own  home,  but  they  are  much  too  proud 
and  aristocratic  to  respond  to  the  advances  of  the  little  Basque  girl. 
Every  afternoon  the  old  man  with  the  paralysed  hand,  playing  on  his 
pan  pipes,  comes  up  the  road  under  the  acacias,  followed  by  his  little 
flock  of  goats  and  their  kids,  carefully  guarded  by  a  big  shaggy  sheep 
dog.  Fernando  and  Gloria  run  down  to  the  door  with  their  glasses, 
the  pipes  stop  playing,  the  goats  group  themselves  picturesquely, 
and  the  sheep  dog  lies  down  in  the  dust  with  a  sigh  of  relief.  He 
keeps  one  watchful  eye  upon  the  kids  however,  who,  their  mothers 
and  the  goatherd  being  occupied,  are  apt  to  make  raids  upon  the 
more  succulent  vegetation  of  a  neighbouring  garden.  While  the  goats 
are  milked  into  six  glasses  for  the  Spanish  family  Marthe  stands  at 
her  gate  across  the  road  and  enviously  watches.  She  too  would 
like  goat's  milk,  but  still  better  she  would  like  to  play  with  Gloria 
and  Fernando.  One  afternoon  her  feelings  get  the  better  of  her,  and 
she  boldly  crosses  the  road  with  a  china  mug  in  her  hand  and  followed 
by  her  puppy  Bijou.  But  the  bell-wether  of  the  flock,  a  large  beast 
with  twisted  horns  and  his  hair  done  up  in  tight  curls  to  match  the 
dignity  of  his  position,  and  whose  temper  has  been  tried  by  Fernando's 
attentions,  does  not  approve  of  either  Marthe  or  the  puppy.  He 
advances  to  meet  them  at  a  slow  trot  with  his  head  ominously  down. 
Marthe  screams,  Bijou  yaps,  and  the  goat  who  is  being  milked  and 
is  a  nervous  lady  kicks  out  and  breaks  the  sixth  glass,  which  has  just 
been  filled.  Gloria  explains  in  shrill  and  fluent  French  that  Marthe 
is  an  intruder,  but  the  discomfited  child  has  already  fled  to  the 
shelter  of  her  own  home,  leaving  the  undaunted  Bijou  to  exchange 
views  with  the  sheep  dog.  This  was  only  yesterday,  and  this  morning 
the  Spanish  children  deliberately  ignore  her  presence.  Marthe  has 
an  incurably  sociable  and  consequently  forgiving  disposition,  but 
having  circled  vainly  two  or  three  times  round  their  isolated  group 
of  chairs,  she  flits  out  again  into  the  sunlight,  shaking  out  a  diminu- 
tive but  elegant  white  parasol  as  she  goes.  At  this  moment  two  little 
acolytes  appear  on  the  steps  of  the  choir,  followed  by  a  couple  of 


1908  THE  MONTH  OF  MARY  245 

young  priests  and  finally  by  the  tall,  austere-looking  old  man  who  is 
Monsieur  le  cure.  We  follow  them  out  into  the  blazing  sunshine  and 
find  that  the  street  has  been  strewn  with  green  rushes  and  branches  of 
euonima.  Here  quite  a  crowd  is  waiting,  which  forms  itself  at  once 
into  processional  order,  led  by  the  old  bent  women  in  their  black 
head-dresses  and  brought  up  at  the  rear  by  the  children.  Nobody 
wears  a  hat,  but  the  parasols  of  the  younger  women  and  the  little  girls 
strike  a  bright  note  of  colour  against  the  black  of  their  dresses  and 
of  the  men's  coats.  The  Basque  women,  with  their  frugal  minds  and 
absence  of  any  instinctive  love  of  colour  and  brightness,  are  fond  of 
black  for  their  wearing  apparel.  No  self-respecting  bride  of  the 
lower  classes  would  be  seen  in  anything  else;  and  indeed  with  the 
floating  white  veil,  especially  if  she  be  a  tall  and  handsome  woman, 
she  presents  an  appearance  of  austere  dignity  which  is  not  at  all 
unattractive.  The  Pays  Basque  appears  to  be  the  one  country  in 
Europe  where  the  men  are  at  least  equal  numerically  to  the  women. 
In  their  innumerable  processions  at  weddings,  at  funerals,  and  on 
every  other  possible  occasion  there  seems  to  be  no  difficulty  in  match- 
ing the  sexes  quite  evenly.  To-day  the  men  are  considerably  in  the 
majority,  and  fresh  recruits  fall  in  continuously  as  we  pass  in  total 
silence,  save  for  the  trampling  of  many  feet,  the  heavy  tread  of  the 
men,  the  shufHing  steps  of  the  children,  through  the  narrow  streets 
strewn  with  greenery  to  the  chapel  of  the  naval  and  military  hospital, 
where  Mass  is  to  be  celebrated.  We  cross  the  scorching  Pelote  ground 
and  through  the  school  yard,  where  are  drawn  up,  awaiting  us,  rows 
of  very  neat  little  school  children  in  blue  and  pink  pinafores.  The 
hospital  chapel  is  a  small,  unpretentious  yellow- washed  building,  with 
a  heavy  carved  wooden  gallery  outside  and  a  wooden  porch.  Inside 
it  much  resembles  a  barn,  and  from  the  centre  of  the  roof  is  suspended 
a  model  of  an  ancient  man-o'-war  with  a  green  hull,  a  votive  offering, 
no  doubt,  for  some  bygone  victory  of  the  French  fleet  over  the  Spanish. 
Beyond  these  and  a  few  pictures  upon  the  walls  there  is  no  attempt 
at  internal  decoration.  The  chapel  certainly  will  not  hold  the  con- 
gregation, which  by  now  has  attained  considerable  dimensions,  and  a 
portion  of  it  has  to  be  content  to  sit  out  in  the  courtyard  under  the 
shade  of  the  plane  trees,  where  the  red  roses  are  peeping  over  the  wall 
and  only  the  distant  droning  of  the  Mass  and  the  tinkle  of  the  bell  are 
audible.  Perhaps  for  many  of  the  worshippers  it  does  quite  as  well 
on  this  hot  morning,  and  it  is  less  than  an  hour  before  the  congregation 
begins  to  pour  out  again.  This  time  the  procession  reforms  in  a  more 
imposing  fashion.  A  chosen  few  of  the  little  girls  go  in  front  of  the 
cure,  scattering  rose  petals  and  yellow  iris  upon  the  rushes.  They  are 
probably  those  who  are  especially  vouSes  a  la  sainte  Vierge,  for  Marthe 
is  amongst  them,  and  though  she  is  decidedly  the  smallest  she  has 
succeeded  in  walking  in  front.  She  holds  herself  very  upright.  Her 
brown  head  is  unprotected,  for  obviously  nobody  can  scatter  flowers 


246  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

and  hold  up  a  parasol ;  her  cheeks  are  unusually  pink  with  the  effort, 
and  she  turns  every  now  and  then  to  fill  her  small  hands  with  petals 
from  the  large  basket  carried  by  an  elder  girl  behind.  The  insults  of 
her  Spanish  rivals  are  temporarily  forgotten  in  the  obvious  supe- 
riority of  her  position.  The  blue  and  pink  pinaf ored  children  follow  im- 
mediately behind  the  cure,  and  in  front  of  the  boys,  the  young  priests 
walking  with  the  latter  to  keep  order  and  to  control  the  singing. 
Then  come  the  women,  and  finally  a  great  number  of  men.  But 
to-day  is  pre-eminently  the  children's  procession,  for  they  cannot 
manage  the  distances  out  into  the  country.  The  Basque  singing, 
whether  it  be  religious  or  secular,  at  a  funeral  or  a  merrymaking  after 
a  wedding,  has  a  curious  quality  of  monotony,  which  gives  it  a  rather 
dirge-like  sound,  but  it  is  not  unmusical  and  there  is  always  a  vast 
preponderance  of  male  voices. 

Halfway  down  the  main  street  stands  an  old  iron  cross,  beneath 
which  a  temporary  altar  has  been  erected,  heaped  with  fresh  roses  and 
surrounded  by  pots  of  hydrangea.  Here  the  procession  halts,  and 
the  children  gather  round  in  a  circle.  We  are  not  only  in  the  main 
street,  but  also  on  the  high-road  from  France  into  Spain,  yet  the 
traffic  of  motors  and  market  carts  is  stopped  without  the  aid  of  any 
policeman,  and  quite  as  effectually  as  in  Whitehall  on  Coronation  Day. 
We  kneel  meekly  on  the  greenery,  a  light  carpet  over  the  thick  white 
dust  of  the  road.  Monsieur  le  cure,  with  a  branch  of  palm  in  his  hand, 
blesses  the  flowers  upon  the  altar,  and  taking  a  large  gilt  cross  is  about 
to  turn  and  bless  the  kneeling  congregation,  when  a  diversion  occurs. 
Nobody  has  apparently  noticed  or  is  concerned  by  the  fact  that  the 
congregation  has  been  joined  by  a  small  black  lamb,  whose  front  hair 
is  tied  up  with  yellow  ribbons  like  a  poodle,  and  by  a  fat  and  fluffy 
puppy,  who  is  the  former's  self-appointed  guardian  and  protector. 
The  lamb  belongs  to  Marthe  Etcheverry,  and  is  usually  sleeping  or 
browsing  upon  the  grass  by  the  roadside,  with  Bijou  curled  up  very 
close  to  his  charge  for  warmth  and  comfort — one  baby,  in  fact,  guard- 
ing another.  More  than  once  Bijou  has  attacked  me  viciously 
with  his  shrill  yaps  and  pin-points  of  teeth,  for  some  fancied  desire 
on  my  part  to  make  friends  with  the  lamb,  and  no  doubt  he  is  training 
to  be  a  sheep  dog,  like  his  friend  belonging  to  the  goatherd. 

To-day,  however,  he  trots  rather  doubtfully  behind  the  lamb, 
who,  of  an  enquiring  disposition,  ambles  deliberately  towards  the 
hydrangeas.  Bijou's  superior  intelligence  tells  him  that  he  has  no 
possible  business  within  this  kneeling  circle  of  children  and  grown-up 
people,  but  his  duty  bids  him  follow  his  charge,  until  halfway  across 
he  is  suddenly  seized  and  held  tightly  round  the  body  by  Fernando. 
At  the  same  moment  Gloria,  who  is  an  agile  child,  has  thrown  herself 
upon  the  lamb.  There  is  a  brief  scuffle,  a  roll  in  the  dust,  and  the 
Spanish  children,  having  forgotten  their  devotions  and  their  dignity 
alike,  are  off  up  the  road  in  full  chase,  Bijou  yapping  and  snapping 


1908  THE  MONTH  OF  MARY  247 

\ 

at  their  bare  legs.  Maithe  has  not  instantly  observed  the  intrusion, 
but  now  she  is  making  frantic  efforts  to  escape  and  to  wreak  instan- 
taneous vengeance  upon  the  perpetrators  of  this  awful  outrage  upon 
her  property.  Her  bonne,  however,  holds  her  firmly  in  a  kneeling 
posture  by  her  small  shoulders,  while  the  cur6,  who  has  observed 
the  scene  with  a  grim  smile,  lifts  the  brass  cross  and  blesses  the  con- 
gregation, who  are  then  free  to  depart  with  the  least  possible  delay. 
'Mechants,  mechants,'  sobs  Marthe,  beside  herself  with  rage  and 
indignation,  and  wriggling  herself  free  from  the  detaining  hand,  and 
hurling  French  and  Basque  invectives  upon  the  little  Spaniards,  she 
races  up  the  road  in  their  pursuit.  She  is,  however,  neither  so  slim 
nor  so  long  in  the  leg  as  her  adversaries,  and  by  the  time  she  arrives, 
breathless  and  panting,  under  the  acacias,  they  have  disappeared 
within  the  shelter  of  their  own  door,  leaving  the  lamb  and  Bijou  in  an 
exhausted  heap  upon  the  grass. 

Early  the  next  morning  I  am  aroused  by  the  same  wailing  hymn 
under  my  windows,  and  am  only  just  in  time  to  see  the  last  Rogation 
procession  making  its  way  back  into  the  town.  Monsieur  le  cure 
in  his  purple  cope  and  black  biretta  looks  less  tired  this  morning, 
and  yet  he  must  have  been  some  distance,  for  he  started  at  sunrise. 
Perhaps  he  is  pleased  with  the  really  beautiful  floral  offerings 
over  which  he  is  invited  to  walk.  His  road  home  is  leading 
him  past  houses  with  well-stocked  gardens.  The  fresh  greenery  at 
his  feet  has  a  light  powdering  of  acacia  blossoms,  which  the  breeze 
is  bringing  down  in  a  shower  from  the  trees  overhead,  those  trees 
which  in  May  are  a  perfect  harbour  for  nightingales.  The  six  Spanish 
girls  are  all  there.  Gloria's  five  elder  sisters  are  slim  and  tall  and 
graceful  in  their  fresh  white  dresses,  each  with  a  different-coloured 
ribbon  twisted  in  her  hair,  and  their  arms  are  full  of  roses,  red  and  pink 
and  white,  with  which  they  recklessly  strew  the  path  before  the  cure. 
Being  more  demonstrative  in  their  religion  than  the  Basques,  they  kneel 
to  receive  his  blessing  as  he  passes.  Lower  down  the  road  Marthe's 
little  eager  face  peers  through  the  gate,  which  for  all  her  rattling  her 
small  arms  cannnot  move  on  its  hinges.  Marthe  is  in  disgrace,  and 
so,  perhaps  a  little  unjustly,  is  Bijou.  She  hugs  him  tightly  in  her 
arms,  and  with  a  series  of  shrill  barks  he  evinces  a  distrustful  interest 
in  this  procession.  Marthe  would  like  to  make  faces  at  Gloria — Gloria, 
who,  her  wickedness  unpunished  and  in  a  clean  white  frock,  is  scatter- 
ing choice  roses  with  her  sisters — but  unfortunately  Gloria  is  not  looking, 
and  the  hardest  part  of  her  own  punishment  to  the  little  Basque 
girl  is  that  she  is  impotent  to  wipe  out  old  scores.  The  black  lamb, 
the  cause  of  the  trouble  for  which  his  playfellows  are  suffering,  sleeps 
peacefully  upon  the  grass,  his  toilet  yet  unmade,  for  his  head  is  guiltless 
of  the  yellow  ribbon. 

The  procession,  with  its  tired  dusty  followers,  goes  on  its  way 
down  to  the  church,  the  dirge-like  singing  growing  fainter  in  the 


248  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

distance,   and  the  words  of  George  Herbert's  Easter  hymn  recur 
instinctively  to  my  memory  : 

I  got  me  flowers  to  strew  Thy  way ; 

I  got  rne  boughs  off  many  a  tree  : 

But  Thou  wast  up  by  break  of  day, 

And  broughtst  Thy  sweets  along  with  Thee. 

After  having  assisted  at  these  Kogation  processions  it  seems  only 
right  and  natural  to  go  out  into  the  fields  which  have  been  blessed. 
The  month  of  May  is  the  morte  saison  at  Biarritz  and  St.  Jean  de  Luz. 
Not  many  of  the  Spanish  bathers  have  arrived,  and  the  English 
visitors  have  gone  home  to  welcome  their  own  dilatory  spring.  The 
few  who  remain,  however,  know  that  the  '  Mois  de  Marie '  is  the  most 
beautiful  month  of  the  year  in  the  Basque  country.  The  sun  has 
not  begun  to  scorch,  and  the  wind  has  ceased  to  chill,  and  in 
the  fresh  green  of  the  woods  and  fields  there  is  no  hint  of  the 
hot  and  dried-up  country  with  which  we  associate  the  thought  of 
Southern  Europe  in  the  summer.  Mid-May  in  the  Basses-Pyrenees 
is  equivalent  to  mid-June  in  England,  and  it  is  pre-eminently  the 
month  of  roses.  Surely  nowhere  in  the  world  can  there  be  a 
greater  abundance  of  beautiful  roses,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that 
they  play  so  prominent  a  part  in  the  religious  ceremonies  of  the 
country.  They  run  riot  over  every  building,  peer  over  every 
wall,  and,  trained  over  every  trellis,  they  form  a  very  effective 
protection  from  the  sun.  The  air  is  sweet  with  them,  and  in  the 
country  the  hedges  are  covered  with  briar  roses  and  honeysuckle. 
As  the  month  draws  on,  the  hay-makers  are  busy  in  the  meadows, 
and  the  roads  are  full  of  ox  waggons  and  donkey  carts  laden  with  the 
sweet  flowery  grass.  The  haymaker,  if  he  be  wise,  keeps  his  weather 
eye  rather  anxiously  upon  the  sharp,  razor-like  outline  of  La  Rhune, 
in  dread  of  an  approaching  thunder-storm,  and  is  thankful  when 
the  Trois  Couronnes,  that  majestic  triple  mountain  which  guards 
the  pass  through  the  Pyrenees  into  Spain,  melts  softly  into  a  blue  and 
hazy  sky. 

May  is  a  busy  month  at  the  convent  of  Notre-Dame  de  Kefuge, 
which  lies  out  in  the  country  between  Bayonne  and  Biarritz.  It  is 
the  community  of  the  Servantes  de  Marie,  and  consequently  the 
month  of  the  Virgin  is  for  them  especially  full  of  religious  observances. 
Nevertheless,  on  the  eve  of  the  fete  of  the  Ascension  they  are  by  no 
means  averse  to  receiving  a  visitor.  The  sister  who  on  this  occasion 
acts  as  guide  is  an  elderly,  weather-beaten,  but  extremely  cheerful 
person,  with,  I  have  reason  to  believe,  a  purely  surface  appearance 
of  childlike  innocence,  and  a  mild  sense  of  humour.  She  is  delighted 
to  do  the  honours,  but  she  cannot  persuade  me  to  linger  in  the  chapel, 
which,  though  a  large  and  handsome  building,  is  entirely  cold  and 
ugly  in  the  interior.  Great  pots  of  plants  stand  before  the  altar  of 


1908  THE   MONTH  OF  MARY  249 

Mary,  but  there  is  not  the  same  profusion  of  flowers  as  in  the  churches, 
and  the  altar  itself  is  decorated  in  a  gaudy  and  artificial  manner. 
Outside,  the  garden  and  the  farm  are  very  much  more  interesting. 
It  is  a  large  community,  numbering  six  hundred  with  the  Penitentes, 
the  care  of  whom  forms  the  special  occupation  of  the  sisters.  The 
Basque  idea  of  rescue  work  differs  in  its  details  from  that  of  this 
country.  There  are  neither  bolts  nor  bars,  nor  even  high  walls,  such  as 
usually  enclose  convent  buildings,  to  prevent  the  Penitentes  from 
returning  to  that  mode  of  life  from  which  they  have  been  snatched 
as  brands  from  the  burning.  No  doubt  there  is  in  reality  a  close 
moral  supervision,  which  is  less  apparent  to  the  visitor  than  the 
low  privet  hedges  ;  but  when  such  a  calamity  as  the  desertion  of  an 
inmate  occurs,  the  mother  superior,  being  a  Basque,  will  probably 
only  raise  her  shoulders  and  murmur  with  a  sigh  of  resignation, '  Qu'est- 
ce  que  pa  fait  ?  '  the  usual  observation  in  this  country  when  mis- 
fortunes happen.  '  There  are  others  to  think  of,  and  the  "  bon  Dieu  " 
knows  His  own  work.'  Meantime  the  Penitentes  are  kept  well  employed 
and  certainly  have  as  a  whole  a  contented  appearance.  Those  who  can 
sew  are  set  to  do  fine  linen  work  and  embroidery,  which  is  sold  for 
the  benefit  of  the  convent.  Others — and  there  are  not  a  few  who  are 
mentally  deficient — are  set  to  work  in  the  fields  and  upon  the  farm. 
Here  one  of  their  duties  is  to  wash  the  cows  and  the  pigs  daily,  and 
each  animal  is  housed  in  sumptuous  isolation  with  a  small  statue  of 
St.  Joseph  over  its  lodging  to  act  as  protector.  It  is  indeed  a  model 
farm,  but,  as  the  sister  explains  to  me,  the  lives  of  the  Penitentes  are 
not  too  strenuous,  since  men  are  called  in  to  do  the  rougher  work.  A 
doctor  is  also  in  the  service  of  the  convent,  and  indeed  the  community 
appears  to  have  no  objection  to  employing  the  other  sex  in  what  it  may 
consider  is  its  proper  sphere.  Another  elderly  Penitente — she  must 
certainly  be  over  sixty  and  has  a  most  evil  countenance — acts  as  shoe- 
maker, and  her  time  is  well  occupied  in  resoling  the  stout  shoes  of  the 
sisters,  for  there  is  much  walking  to  be  done  in  this  country  convent. 

The  sister  who  is  my  guide  is  quite  pleased  when  I  explain  that 
my  chief  object  in  coming  out  to  Notre-Dame  de  Refuge  is  to  visit 
the  Silent  Sisters,  otherwise  known  as  the  Soeurs  Bernardines,  who, 
though  belonging  to  a  Trappist  Order,  are  in  some  sense  an  offshoot 
of  and  are  largely  supported  by  the  Servantes  de  Marie. 

She  laughs  with  feminine  amusement,  rather  as  if  I  were  a  child 
clamouring  for  the  pantomine,  but  she  conducts  me  chattering  all 
the  way  through  a  long,  tunnel-like  avenue  of  plane  trees,  whose 
branches  are  trained  to  meet  above  our  heads.  On  either  side  are 
the  fields  with  the  produce  of  which  the  sisters  supply  the  market  of 
Bayonne,  for  they  are  really  market  gardeners  upon  a  large  scale. 
At  the  end  of  the  avenue  we  pass  through  a  little  pine  wood,  and, 
opening  a  wicket  gate  between  high  box  hedges,  the  sister  pauses 
to  explain  to  me  that  we  must  now  talk  only  in  whispers.  Her  own 


250  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

whisper  might  well  have  filled  the  chapel,  but  no  doubt  they  are 
used  to  her,  and  in  any  case  there  seems  to  be  nobody  about 
except  some  workmen.  The  garden  of  the  Soeurs  Bernardines, 
enclosed  on  three  sides  by  the  low  long  buildings  of  the  convent, 
is  singularly  charming.  All  sorts  of  old-fashioned  flowers  abound 
here — mignonette,  sweet  peas,  moss  roses,  set  round  with  neat 
borders  of  box,  and  there  are  also  beds  of  thyme  and  rosemary. 
Outside  the  dormitories  is  a  long  hedge  of  camellias,  which  are  in  bloom, 
the  sister  says,  from  October  until  March.  The  original  buildings, 
dating  from  about  seventy  years  back,  of  which  the  chapel  is  still 
in  use,  were  constructed  entirely  of  thatch  and  have  a  very  quaint 
appearance.  It  was  in  this  little  chapel  that  the  Emperor  Napoleon 
the  Third  and  the  Empress  Eugenie  came  to  pray  for  an  heir,  an  event 
commemorated  by  a  tablet  on  the  wall.  The  thatched  walls  of  the 
cells  were  not,  however,  considered  sanitary,  and  the  Soeurs  Bernardines 
are  now  properly  lodged  in  less  picturesque  stone  cells  of  very  fair 
dimensions.  In  one  room  they  are  allowed  to  see  their  friends  and 
relatives  once  a  month,  and  apparently  there  is  no  time  limit  to  this 
their  only  chance  of  conversation.  In  the  refectory,  a  long  low 
building,  fresh  and  airy,  with  pink  monthly  roses  peeping  in  at  the 
windows,  and  a  floor  of  deep  sand,  I  am  given  a  glimpse  of  the  harsher 
side  of  the  discipline.  A  narrow  table  runs  down  the  middle  of  the 
room,  with  a  little  drawer  containing  the  knife,  fork,  spoon,  and  cup 
of  each  sister  opposite  her  seat  on  the  wooden  bench,  but  on  Fridays 
the  Bernardines  have  to  receive  their  food  kneeling  on  their  knees  on 
the  sand.  Meantime  not  one  of  these  ladies  is  to  be  seen,  and  '  ma 
soeur,' who  feels  herself  responsible  for  my  entertainment,  is  distinctly 
disappointed.  As  we  pass  through  the  gardens  she  peers  cautiously 
behind  the  privet  hedges  and  round  the  clumps  of-  rhododendrons, 
very  much  like  a  child  playing  hide  and  seek,  and  admonishing  me  all 
the  time  in  a  loud  whisper.  '  You  must  be  very  quiet  here,  made- 
moiselle ;  this  is  where  the  sisters  often  sit,  and  they  do  not  like  to  be 
disturbed.'  Then  she  suddenly  seizes  my  arm  and  points  down  a 
side-alley.  '  Look,  look,  mademoiselle,  quick.  Ah  !  you  have  missed 
it.'  My  hasty,  nervous  glance — for  I  am  rather  prepared  to  see  a  wild 
animal — only  shows  me  the  vanishing  figure  of  a  young  woman  in  a 
white  monkish  frock  with  a  black  cowl  and  a  large  straw  hat.  '  Ma 
soeur '  is  dissatisfied,  and  she  hurries  me  to  a  long  row  of  greenhouses, 
where  several  Penitentes  are  occupied  in  nailing  up  the  vines.  '  On 
sont  done  ces  dames  ? '  she  demands  a  little  fretfully,  and  we  are  told 
that,  workmen  being  in  the  garden,  '  ces  dames '  are  all  away  working 
in  the  fields.  This  she  obviously  thinks  is  ridiculous  when  there  is  a 
visitor  to  be  entertained,  but  discipline  forbids  her  to  say  so,  and  she 
conducts  me  with  a  contemptuous  sniff  to  the  cemetery,  to  show  me, 
as  she  explains,  that  in  death  they  are  all  equal.  In  contrast  to  the 
garden  the  |  cemetery  is  certainly  a  depressing  spot — rows  and  rows 


1908  THE   MONTH  OF  MARY  251 

of  plain  mounds  without  even  grass  upon  them,  only  adorned  with  a 
cross  of  cockle  shells.  A  sign  of  pilgrimage,  I  suggest,  but  the  sister 
shakes  her  head.  '  I  do  not  know ;  they  are  cheap,  and  in  death  we  are 
all  alike.'  She  repeats  the  latter  phrase  with  virtuous  self-satisfaction. 
'  Servantes  de  Marie,  Bernardines,  Penitentes,  it  is  all  the  same.' 
Looking  round  me  I  am  inclined  to  doubt  the  accuracy  of  her  state- 
ment. There  are  graves  upon  which  the  shells  are  distinctly  larger 
than  others,  and  at  the  head  of  these  a  bush  is  planted,  sometimes 
even  a  plant  of  white  marguerites.  I  shrewdly  suspect  that  these 
superior  graves  belong  to  the  Servantes  de  Marie,  but  I  make  no 
comment,  for  after  all  the  best  of  us  occasionally  deceive  ourselves. 

As  we  walk  back  under  the  plane  trees  we  meet  the  cows  being 
driven  up  to  the  milking  sheds.  They  are  sleek,  well-cared-for  beasts, 
still  shining  with  cleanliness  from  their  morning  tubs.  The  extremely 
aged  appearance  of  the  Penitente  in  charge  leads  me  in  my  ignorance 
to  ask  a  question  which  proves  to  be  particularly  indiscreet. 
How  long  do  they  remain  Penitentes  and  under  the  protection 
of  Notre-Dame  de  Refuge  ?  '  But  always,  mademoiselle,'  is  the 
reply,  '  unless  they  take  the  vows  of  the  Bernardines  and  become 
Silent  Sisters.'  *  But  cannot  they  take  your  vows  ?  '  I  ask,  appalled 
at  the  thought  of  this  only  means  of  exit ;  '  cannot  they  become 
Servantes  de  Marie  ?  '  Instantly  '  ma  sceur '  draws  herself  up  very 
stiffly,  and  the  geniality  dies  out  of  her  face.  '  But  certainly  not, 
mademoiselle,'  she  says  coldly ;  '  nobody  with  a  slur  upon  them  can 
join  our  Order ;  we  are  irreproachable.'  Wondering  if  the  Bernardines 
are  merely  a  further  development  of  the  Penitentes,  and  if  this  accounts 
for  the  slight  accent  of  contempt  and  amusement,  mingled,  however, 
with  some  awe,  with  which  my  guide  has  referred  to  them,  I  enquire 
if  they  are  all  under  a  cloud.  This  suggestion  gives  even  greater 
offence  than  my  former  one.  '  Not  at  all,  mademoiselle ;  the  Order  is 
open  to  the  unfortunate,  and  there  are  many  who  take  the  vows ; 
also  to  the  Enfants  Abandonnes.  But  there  are  others,  and  they  are 
"very  aristocratic  ladies.'  She  then  goes  on  to  tell  me  that  only  a  few 
months  ago  a  young  girl  of  ancient  family  had  joined  the  Order.  '  She 
had  led  a  blameless  life,  but  there  was  a  dark  spot  in  her  pedigree. 
She  could  not  join  us.'  ( Ma  soeur '  spreads  out  her  hands  with  an 
expressive  gesture.  '  We  are  irreproachable.'  She  pauses  and  taps 
herself  upon  the  chest.  '  I,  I  who  speak  to  you,  mademoiselle,  je  suis 
irreprochable.'  A  cold  chill  seems  suddenly  to  fall  upon  the  peace 
and  contentment  of  the  sunlit  garden.  I  can  think  of  no  suitable 
response,  and  in  a  silence  which  surprises  'ma  soeur,'  who  has  entirely 
recovered  her  geniality,  I  make  my  offering  for  the  fete  of  the  Ascension, 
and  say  a  brief  good-bye  to  an  Order,  which,  in  the  name  of  Christianity, 
condemns  its  unfortunate  sisters  to  perpetual  servitude  or  silence. 

In  the  villages  on  the  lower  slopes  of  the  Pyrenees  Ascension  Day 
is  kept  very  quietly.  The  churches  are  full,  as  is  always  the  case  in 


252  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

the  Basque  country  ;  there  is  a  little  dancing,  and  everybody  seems  to 
cany  roses ;  but  the  merry-making  is  obviously  of  a  sober  kind.  Never- 
theless we  are  en  fete,  and  the  holiday  atmosphere  is  more  noticeable 
on  the  last  day  of  the  month,  which  is  also  a  Sunday.  Up  the  valley 
of  the  Nive  the  train  potters  along  by  the  river,  stopping  at  the  many 
little  villages  to  take  up  and  set  down  parties  of  holiday-makers. 
The  Nive  is  crossed  at  intervals  by  ancient  stone  bridges,  some  of  which 
are  supposed  to  date  from  the  time  of  the  Romans,  but  are  of  more 
recent  interest  as  having  borne  the  weight  of  Wellington's  artillery. 
In  the  scattered  villages,  reached  through  long  avenues  of  oak  trees, 
where  the  British  forces  must  have  bivouacked,  not  a  few  of  the  white 
houses,  with- their  heavy  wooden  cornices,  bear  the  suggestive  date  of 
1814.  The  Nive  is  also  famous  for  its  trout,  and  the  train  is  full 
of  fishermen  who  have  come  for  a  day's  sport.  At  one  little  station 
a  venerable  priest,  who  has  travelled  from  Bayonne  to  celebrate  the 
last  Mass  of  the  month  of  May  at  the  old  church  up  on  the  hill,  is  met 
and  greeted  by  the  whole  village.  One  of  the  anglers,  looking  rather 
like  the  White  Knight  in  his  waders,  and  hung  round  with  nets,  rods, 
and  tackle,  and  all  the  impedimenta  with  which  a  Basque  goes  out  to 
catch  trout,  climbs  out  of  the  train  to  have  a  chat  with  the  priest. 
The  postman  also  descends  to  cool  his  bottle  of  wine  under  the  tap, 
for  leisure  is  the  most  marked  characteristic  of  this  railway,'  which 
is  a  single  line.  Each  of  these  little  stations  appears  to  be  the 
property  of  one  family,  and  it  is  the  prolonged  interchange  of  greetings 
between  our  engine  driver,  the  station  master,  his  wife,  mother,  and 
innumerable  offspring  which  is  now  delaying  us.  A  small  boy  of 
four  or  five  is  seated  upon  a  minute  chair  on  the  platform,  grasping  a 
red  flag  which  it  is  his  business  to  wave  when  a  train  approaches, 
presumably  as  a  warning  to  his  brethren  and  the  chickens  who  play 
unconcernedly  upon  the  rails.  His  hair  is  dressed  in  long  ringlets, 
and  his  face  is  puckered  with  anxiety,  for  he  feels  that  the  responsi- 
bility of  the  traffic  on  the  whole  line  to  Bayonne  rests  upon  his  little 
shoulders.  At  length  the  train  crawls  slowly  on  through  a  beautiful 
but  very  narrow  gorge,  where  is  the  famous  Pas  de  Roland.  This  is 
a  rock  with  a  circular  hole  in  it,  said  to  have  been  made  by  the  spear, 
or,  as  some  say,  the  foot  of  the  Paladin,  in  order  that  his  army  might 
pass  through  the  gorge  to  join  his  uncle,  Charlemagne,  without  scaling 
the  rocks  above  or  plunging  into  the  torrent  below.  AB  we  emerge 
into  the  cherry  orchards  of  Biderray  the  clouds  which  have  been 
gathering  for  some  hours  begin  to  come  down  in  steady  rain.  '  II  est 
la  ! '  had  been  the  comment  of  the  toothless  old  grandmother  in  charge 
of  the  little  station  amongst  the  hayfields  where  I  had  embarked  in 
the  early  morning,  and  she  had  cast  a  gloomy  eye  at  the  sky  and  then 
upon  the  half -cut  meadow  where  her  son-in-law  was  preparing  to  spend 
his  fete  day.  It  is  unfortunate  that  the  last  day  of  May,  and  that 
a  holiday,  should  be  a  wet  one.  But  so  it  is,  and  after  all  the  blessing 


1908  THE   MONTH  OF  MART  253 

invoked  by  the  priests  has  been  responded  to,  for  the  land  is  crying 
out  for  water,  and  the  hay  should  have  been  carried  by  now.  If  it 
refers  to  the  rain  it  is  certainly  there  when  we  reach  the  end  of  the 
journey  at  St.  Jean  Pied  de  Port,  the  fortified  town  which  guards  the 
pass  into  Spain  through  the  Col  de  Roncevaux.  A  dark  curtain  is 
drawn  down  over  the  mountains,  and  the  observations  of  a  visitor 
seem  likely  to  be  restricted  within  narrow  limits.  Of  human  interest 
however  there  is  plenty,  for  the  hotel  on  the  Place  is  crowded  with 
family  parties  from  Bayonne,  who  have  come  out  to  spend  the  day, 
and  it  is  with  some  difficulty  that,  returning  a  little  late  from  the 
church,  I  can  find  a  free  table  for  dejeuner. 

A  small,  shrill,  and  familiar  voice  greets  me  as  I  enter.  It  is  un- 
expected to  meet  Marthe  Etcheverry  so  far  from  St.  Jean  de  Luz,  but 
from  the  subsequent  conversation  I  gather  that  she  has  been  spending 
the  fete  of  the  Ascension  with  her  grandparents  at  Bayonne.  To-day 
she  is  with  her  parents  and  her  brother,  who  is  about  a  year  older 
than  herself,  and  she  is  talking  in  intelligible  French  as  becomes  a 
fete  day,  her  best  clothes,  and  the  assembled  company.  She  is  vexed 
because  the  bonne  has  been  washing  her  face  and  hands  at  table, 
an  indecorous  proceeding,  and  she  is  now  patting  down  her  short  full 
skirts  and  demanding  a  glass  of  white  Bordeaux  from  her  father's 
bottle  as  the  best  means  of  restoring  her  self-respect.  Her  request 
is  refused,  for  her  parents  are  evidently  enlightened  people,  and,  as 
the  little  voice  persists  they  reason  with  her,  the  father  at  great  length 
and  with  extreme  gentleness,  the  mother  more  shortly  and  with  some 
asperity.  But  Marthe  is  quite  undeterred.  She  is  now  launched 
upon  a  thrilling  tale  of  some  unforgotten  Pentecote  (she  is  not  yet  six) 
when  she  was  taken  by  her  grandparents  to  see  the  fandango  danced  at 
Fuenterrabia,  and  how  she  had  a  glass  of  real  red  wine — '  mais  rouge, 
papa.'  The  tale  waxes  in  interest  and  unveracity  as  it  proceeds,  and 
the  heroine  turns  to  smile  affably  at  the  applause  with  which  it  is 
greeted  by  one  of  the  fishermen  who  has  travelled  with  me  in  the 
morning,  and  who  is  probably  a  bachelor.  Marthe's  father  spreads  out 
his  hands  and  shrugs  his  shoulders  in  mock  despair.  '  Get  enfant  ment 
tellement,'  he  complains  with  ill-concealed  pride  ;  '  son  frSre  jamais  ! ' 
The  brother  indeed,  with  his  sweet  placid  Basque  face,  who  has  been 
listening  to  his  sister's  narrative  with  an  occasional  appreciative 
snigger,  is  evidently  at  a  safe  distance  from  any  incriminating  effort 
at  imagination.  But  at  this  juncture  Madame  Etcheverry  interposes 
with  some  effect,  and  Marthe's  attention  is  temporarily  concentrated 
upon  the  excellent  dish  of  trout  which  has  appeared  a  little  indis- 
criminately between  the  sausage  and  the  entrecute.  A  fresh  diversion 
is  soon  caused,  however,  by  a  large  white  dog  decorated  with  brown 
spots,  belonging  to  the  fisherman,  and  who  is  only  too  pleased  to  fall 
in  with  Marthe's  desire  to  share  with  him  her  dejeuner.  His  owner 
explains  that  the  amiable  creature  is  called  Mocha,  because  he  was 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  378  S 


254  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

intended  to  be  entirely  brown,  a  joke  which  is  thoroughly  appreciated 
by  the  assembled  company,  and  Marthe  clasps  her  minute  hands  in 
ecstasy,  as  Mocha  thrusts  his  nose  upon  the  lap  of  a  well-behaved  little 
girl  at  a  neighbouring  table  who  is  strictly  forbidden  to  feed  him. 
Meantime  the  rain,  which  has  come  down  pitilessly  since  the  morning, 
shows  signs  of  relenting,  and  it  is  a  relief  to  escape  from'  the  heated 
atmosphere  of  the  salle  a  manger  into  the  freshness  of  the  rain- washed 
Place,  with  its  dripping  plane  trees. 

i':-'  Quaint  houses  overhang  the  river  where  it  falls  in  a  cascade  below 
the  bridge,  and  further  up  are  visible  the  flying  buttresses  which 
constitute  the  only  picturesque  feature  of  the  plain,  solid  little  church. 
But  the  clouds  have  only  temporarily  lifted,  and  there  is  barely  time 
to  walk  round  the  fifteenth-century  ramparts  before  the  rain  comes 
down  again,  and  a  retreat  under  the  archway  of  the  clock  tower 
beside  the  church  seems  advisable.  Here  an  aged  crone,  her  head 
tied  up  in  a  black  handkerchief,  is  established  with  a  basket  of  cherries, 
and,  in  spite  of  the  weather,  she  is  doing  a  good  business  with  the  little 
boys  of  the  town.  A  group  of  three  remain  in  affectionate  proximity 
to  her  basket.  The  two  elder,  for  want  of  a  better  receptacle  for 
their  cherries,  have  taken  the  smallest  boy's  cap,  and  this  not  being 
sufficient,  they  have  further  filled  his  trousers  pockets.  The  urchin 
remains  unmoved  by  these  arrangements,  but  when  it  comes  to  a  sub- 
division of  the  spoil  he  proves  quite  competent  to  hold  his  own.  His 
cap  he  surrenders,  conscious  that  superior  force  will  prevail,  but 
the  contents  of  his  pockets  he  has  mutely  decided  are  to  be  his  own, 
and  oddly  enough  he  imposes  this  opinion  upon  his  elders  with  the 
slightest  possible  show  of  resistance.  He  is  a  true  Basque,  as  stolid 
and  immovable  as  the  plain,  square-set  church  behind  him,  and  he 
/emains  under  the  shelter  of  the  arch  munching  his  cherries  in  total 
silence  long  after  his  brothers  have  retired,  vanquished,  from  the  field. 
Every  now  and  then  he  rubs  a  fat,  sunburnt  hand  across  his  chest,  pre- 
sumably to  assist  the  passage  of  his  cherry  stones,  for  I  cannot  see  that 
they  reappear  in  orthodox  fashion.  He  takes  his  pleasures  quietly, 
and  indeed  quietness  seems  to  be  the  note  of  St.  Jean  Pied  de  Port  on 
this  particular  fete  day.  An  old  man  passes  under  the  archway  and 
pauses  in  front  of  the  open  church  door  to  cross  himself  and  bow 
devoutly  to  the  darkness  of  the  interior.  A  group  of  little  girls  are 
waiting  on  the  steps  under  umbrellas,  but  even  they  are  subdued. 

Suddenly  round  the  corner  comes  Marthe,  a  very  self-important 
Marthe,  who  has  escaped  from  the  tyranny  of  her  mother,  nurse, 
and  brother,  and  has  induced  a  long-suffering  father  to  bring  her 
out  fishing  with  Mocha  and  his  master.  She  is  enveloped  in  a  blue 
cape,  with  a  hood  drawn  tightly  round  her  face,  and  her  sharp  little 
eyes  are  dancing  with  excitement.  She  is  having  a  glorious  time, 
and  assuredly  the  Spanish  children  are  never  taken  out  fishing.  She 
pauses  for  a  moment,  fascinated  by  the  cherries,  but  the  angler's 


1908  THE  MONTH  OF  MARY  255 

zeal  will  brook  of  no  delay,  and  it  is  intimated  to  her  by  her  too  reason- 
able parent  that  she  has  had  enough  cherries  for  one  day,  and  that  she 
must  come  at  once  or  not  at  all.  So,  throwing  what  is  obviously  a 
caustic  observation  in  Basque  to  the  little  boy  and  a  smile  to  myself, 
she  is  off  on  the  trail  of  Mocha. 

On  a  religious  festival,  which  is  also  a  wet  one,  the  church  seems 
to  offer  a  suitable  refuge,  and,  as  there  is  no  train  for  another  hour  or 
so,  I  am  considering  the  advisability  of  attending  vespers,  when  an 
old  lady  in  a  post-card  shop  across  the  way  mysteriously  beckons  to 
me.  She  has  placed  two  chairs  under  the  shelter  of  the  overhanging 
eaves  of  her  house,  and  she  is  preparing  for  a  good  gossip  with  the 
solitary  stranger.  It  soon  appears  that,  though  a  Basque,  this  old 
lady  is  not  dtvote,  and  has  no  opinion  of  fete  days,  especially  when 
they  are  wet  and  bring  so  few  visitors  to  the  town.  She  has  not  been 
to  Mass,  oh  no !  but  a  rumour  has  reached  her  that  after  the  Basque 
sermon  this  morning  a  pastoral  letter  has  been  read  in  French  from 
the  bishop  of  the  diocese.  Can  mademoiselle  tell  her  if  this  is  really 
so  ?  I  reply  in  the  affirmative,  and  explain  that  the  letter  was  to  beg 
for  help  for  the  church  from  the  congregation,  the  Pope  not  having 
seen  his  way  to  consent  to  the  compromise  accepted  by  the  Associations 
cuUuelles.  Madame  becomes  contemptuous,  but  interested.  '  Ah  ! 
mon  Dieu  !  Did  he  really  read  that  again  ?  That  was  the  doyen,  I'll 
be  bound,'  and  she  calls  to  a  young  man  who  is  passing  on  his  way  up 
to  the  church,  '  Was  not  that  Monsieur  le  doyen  who  read  the  pastoral 
letter  this  morning,  hein  ?  '  He  nods  in  assent.  '  That  is  our  tenor,' 
she  explains  to  me  in  parenthesis.  '  They  will  have  the  vespers  of  the 
Sacred  Heart ;  you  must  go  in  and  hear  him.'  Then,  reverting  to  the 
original  subject,  she  tells  me  that  for  her  part  she  considers  they  have 
heard  enough  of  the  separation.  '  Les  cures  se  plaignent  toujours. 
Meantime  it  is  we  poor  people  who  have  to  keep  them.  Oh,  yes,  the 
vicaire  receives  six  hundred  francs  a  year — he  is  old — but  the  young 
ones  nothing,  and  our  hands  are  always  in  our  pockets.'  It  is  curious 
to  hear  such  anti-Church  opinions  upon  the  borders  of  Spain  and 
within  so  short  a  distance  of  Bayonne,  where  a  few  days  past  a  very 
revolutionary  sermon  was  listened  to  in  the  cathedral  by  a  respectful 
and  sympathetic  congregation. 

But  it  is  always  interesting  to  see  the  other  side  of  the  coin,  and 
there  is,  no  doubt,  a  good  deal  of  truth  in  madame's  grievances.  She  is 
obviously  a  very  red  republican,  and  she  is  also  a  shrewd  and  cynical 
old  woman,  quite  as  irreproachable  probably  in  her  own  estimation  as 
the  Servante  de  Marie  herself.  '  Tell  me,  mademoiselle,'  she  continues, 
'  in  your  country  when  you  have  buried  your  dead  it  is  finished,  is  it 
not ;  your  expenses  are  over  ?  '  I  reply  that  this  is  so.  '  Ah,  vous  avez 
un  autre  bon  Dieu  que  nous,'  she  says  with  a  sly  twinkle  in  her  hard 
eyes.  '  Here  we  have  to  pay  all  the  time.  Think  of  it,  mademoiselle, 
4  francs  50  centimes  for  each  Mass  into  Monsieur  le  cure's  pocket. 

8  2 


256  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

To  be  buried  is  enough  to  ruin  you,'  she  continues  with  unconscious 
humour,  '  and  to  have  your  body  taken  into  the  church  you  must 
pay  extra ! '  If  you  are  contented  with  two  clergy  to  officiate  she 
admits  that  you  can  do  it  for  less,  but  to  be  buried  with  only  two 
clergy  is  obviously  not  at  all  comme  il  faut.  My  thoughts  turn  in- 
voluntarily to  a  pathetic  procession  I  have  seen  the  day  before  wending 
its  way  under  the  oak  trees  up  from  the  valley  to  a  little  church  standing 
on  the  fortifications  above  a  village.  It  was  evidently  a  very  humble 
funeral,  and  I  find  myself  wondering  whether  Monsieur  le  cure  under 
his  umbrella,  assisted  by  only  one  priest,  was  really  so  callous  and 
so  mercenary.  My  memory,  however,  rather  retains  the  impression 
of  a  long  cortege  of  shabby  and  weary  mourners  who  have  trudged  so 
far  to  lay  their  dead  under  the  ground  with  every  sign  of  reverence, 
but  with  no  superfluity  of  clergy.  Madame  recalls  me  to  my  obliga- 
tions. '  That  is  the  organist  who  has  just  passed,  mademoiselle;  the 
bell  is  about  to  stop,  and  you  must  go.'  She  has  no  intention  of 
attending  vespers  herself,  she  has  more  important  matters  to  attend 
to,  but  for  the  visitor  it  is  another  matter,  and  with  such  a  tenor  the 
vespers  of  the  Sacred  Heart  are  worth  hearing. 

An  hour  later  as  I  climb  rather  thankfully  into  the  train  down 
below  in  the  valley  the  clouds  have  all  rolled  away,  and  this  last  day 
of  May  is  ending  in  a  singularly  lovely  evening.  The  citadel  stands  out 
well  above  the  houses  of  St.  Jean  Pied  de  Port,  which  are  clustered 
on  either  side  of  the  river.  The  slanting  golden  sunlight  catches  the 
windows  here  and  there,  shines  upon  a  big  gilt  cross  in  the  cemetery, 
and  glints  across  the  water  through  a  row  of  poplars.  Beyond,  clear 
cut  against  the  blue  of  the  sky,  towers  a  mighty  bulwark  of  mountains, 
through  which  runs  the  Pass  of  Roncevaux,  on  the  road  to  Pampeluna. 

The  little  station,  which  is  the  last  on  the  way  to  Spain,  is  a  scene 
of  considerable  activity  this  evening.  Arrivals  by  the  last  train  have 
been  numerous,  and  the  platform  is  crowded  with  mysterious  bales 
of  merchandise  which  are  to  be  despatched  by  road  over  the  frontier. 
It  takes  some  time  to  get  the  outgoing  train  ready.  At  the  end  of  a 
fete  day  there  are  many  travellers,  and  much  local  gossip  has  to  be 
exchanged  with  the  officials.  At  the  last  minute  Marthe  and  her  family 
arrive,  escorted  by  the  fisherman  and  Mocha.  It  is  a  sleepy  and  rather 
fractious  Marthe,  with  a  dangling  hood  and  limp  uncovered  curls,  who 
is  exhorted  in  vain  to  say  polite  things  to  the  kind  gentleman  who  has 
taken  her  out  fishing.  A  flash  of  reviving  interest  appears  in  her  adieux 
to  Mocha,  but  she  is  glad  enough  to  be  hoisted  by  the  patient  bonne 
into  the  train  and  to  find  comfort  upon  that  ample,  solid  shoulder. 
The  little  brother  follows,  docile  as  ever.  He  has  helped  to  catch  no 
fish,  but  has  spent  the  afternoon  in  the  stuffy  inn,  amusing  himself  in 
the  mysterious  fashion  acquired  by  patient  and  unimaginative  children, 
whilst  the  bonne  has  chattered  withjthe  landlady,  and  the  mother  has 


1908 


THE  MONTH  OF  MARY 


257 


slept  upon  the  bed  provided  for  her  refreshment.  Such  is  the  injustice 
which  from  time  immemorial  has  been  awarded  to  the  meek.  But  who 
can  say  that  with  his  Basque  patience  and  promise  of  future  industry 
he  may  not  some  day  inherit  the  earth  ? 

The  month  of  Mary  is  over.  The  hay  is  cut  and  the  roses  are  falling. 
The  fields  have  been  duly  blessed  and  must  be  left  to  ripen  to  the 
harvest,  watched  with  all  the  faith  and  piety  which,  the  old  lady  at 
St.  Jean  Pied  de  Port  notwithstanding,  still  belong  to  an  ancient  and 
childlike  people. 

ROSE  M.  BRADLEY. 


258  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 


CHURCH  REFORM—  II.  AUTONOMY  IN  THE 
ANGLICAN  CHURCHES 


IN  a  paper  on  the  subject  of  Church  Reform  contributed  to  this  Review 
last  month  the  present  writer  pointed  out  that  the  Church  of  England 
stands  alone  among  those  of  the  Anglican  Communion,  as  possessing 
nothing  which  the  loosest  usage  of  the  term  can  describe  as  a  con- 
stitution. To  support  this  allegation  is  the  purpose  of  this  contribu- 
tion to  the  subject.  At  the  outset  clearness  will  be  consulted  by  a 
brief  recapitulation. 

The  Church  of  England  in  former  days  possessed  powers  of  self- 
government.  We  defend  neither  the  character  nor  the  exercise  of 
those  powers.  It  is  merely  observed  that  they  existed.  Parliament 
then  contained  none  but  Churchmen  :  and  thus  in  its  own  inadequate 
fashion — inadequate  owing  to  the  very  partial  sway  of  the  franchise — 
it  represented,  and  legislated  for,  the  Church.  Since  the  abolition  of 
Parliamentary  representation,  nothing  has  ever  been  granted  to  the 
Church  to  replace  it.  When  in  those  days  Church  questions  were 
treated  in  the  Legislature  it  could  not  have  been  objected  that  they 
were  being  handled  by  persons  who  were  external  to-  the  body  to 
which  such  questions  belonged.  But  when,  with  the  lifting  of  all 
religious  tests  from  the  consciences  of  members,  Parliament  ceased 
to  be  an  ecclesiastical  court,  the  Church  was  bereft  of  its  popular 
constitutional  voice,  and  that  voice  has  not  been  raised  since. 

With  the  revival  of  Convocation  came  no  revival  of  constitutional 
existence.  This  ancient  body  was  purely  clerical.  To  the  laity 
it  gave  no  voice  in  administration.  The  creation  of  the  Houses  of 
Laymen  some  years  ago  in  no  proper  sense  qualifies  this  assertion. 
These,  as  in  its  normal  functions  Convocation  itself,  are  deliberative 
only,  and  have  hitherto  had  no  share  in  that  limited  ad  hoc  authority 
•conferred  at  long  intervals  upon  the  Clerical  Houses  by  Royal  Letters 
•of  Business,  as  at  the  present  juncture.  The  temporary  powers  this 
xarely  issued  instrument  granted  are  conferred  only  upon  the  ancient 
Synod. 

We    pass  in  rapid  review   those  western  *  communities  which, 

1  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  point  out  that  '  western '  is  here  used  in  the 
ecclesiastical,  not  in  the  geographical  sense. 


1908      AUTONOMY  IN  ANGLICAN  CHURCHES        259 

either  as  established,  unestablished,  or  disestablished,  are  permitted 
to  manage  their  own  internal  affairs,  and  for  this  management  enlist 
the  services  alike  of  clergy  and  laity  in  free  co-operation. 

(1)  The  Irish  Church. — The  Disestablished  Church  of  Ireland  is 
our  first  study.  Here  we  encounter  a  Church  whose  situation  entails 
peculiar  difficulties,  and  it  may  be  said  without  fear  of  contradiction 
that,  if  difficulties  have  not  proved  insurmountable  there,  they  are  not 
likely  to  prove  so  elsewhere. 

At  the  date  of  the  disestablishment,  thirty-eight  years  ago,  the 
Irish  Church  Convocation,  though  nominally  existent,  had  not  been 
convened  since  1711.  The  collective  voice  of  the  Church,  sitting  in 
Synod,  had  for  159  years  been  silent.  Application  was  made  to  the 
Government  of  the  day  for  permission  to  call  the  Synod  together. 
This  was  asked  in  view  of  the  imminency  of  disestablishment.  It  was 
granted,  and  Convocation  forthwith  authorised  the  calling  of  a  General 
Synod,  in  which  the  laity  should  sit  with  the  clergy.  This  led  the 
way,  after  the  passing  of  the  Disestablishment  Act,  to  the  creation  of 
a  formal  constitution.  The  Lay  Conference  consisted  of  representatives 
chosen  by  the  parochial  delegates,  who  had  themselves  been  elected 
at  a  meeting  of  parishioners  who  were  also  members  of  the  Church. 
By  a  resolution  of  the  Lay  Conference,  it  was  decided  that  the  laymen 
in  the  Convention  should  be  in  the  proportion  of  two  to  one.  This 
proportion  was  embodied  in  the  draft  constitution  presented  to  the 
Convention,  and  ultimately  accepted.  Through  Select  Vestries  the 
government  of  the  parishes  was  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  laity. 
The  Cyprian  boast  can  be  that  of  the  Irish  Bishops,  their  election 
being  entrusted  to  the  Diocesan  Synod,  provided  two-thirds  of  each 
order  of  its  members  were  agreed.  A  board  of  patronage  on  which 
four  Diocesans  sat,  and  jointly  with  them  three  parish  representatives, 
had  the  appointments  to  vacant  cures. 

Experience  speedily  proved  that  the  rights  of  the  bishops  and 
clergy  in  matters  purely  spiritual  were  amply  guarded.  Hasty 
changes  are  rendered  practically  impossible  by  the  proviso  that 
majorities  of  two- thirds  of  both  the  clerical  and  lay  order  in  two 
successive  years  are  requisite  to  pass  any  such  measure.  Moreover, 
on  any  question  the  House  of  Bishops  can  vote  separately,  and  they 
possess  the  power  of  vetoing  any  measure  by  a  final  majority  of  two- 
thirds. 

The  difficulties  referred  to  above  were  largely  incident  to  the 
situation  of  a  Church  planted  in  an  alien  soil,  surrounded  by  members 
of  the  Roman  Communion.  This  rendered  its  members  suspicious  of 
any  presumed  Romeward  tendencies.  The  young  constitution  was 
to  be  tried  to  the  uttermost  by  the  seven  years'  controversy  over  the 
Revision  of  the  Prayer  Book.  Notwithstanding  that  from  the  Select 
Vestries  and  the  Diocesan  Synods  liberty  of  discussing  points  of 
doctrine  or  of  ritual  was  withheld,  the  hot  Irish  nature  could  not 


260  TEE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

respect  the  limits  of  power  thus  prescribed.  Year  after  year  the 
weapons  of  indignant  resolutions  were  plied.  Year  after  year  the 
Protestant  susceptibilities  of  the  Select  Vestries  deemed  themselves 
outraged.  The  Revision  was  accomplished,  but  it  bears  upon  its 
front  something  of  the  arena  dust.  The  liturgical  gift  demands  for 
its  meet  exercise  days  of  calm.  Such  polemical  times  are  past, 
and  are  only  recalled  to  accentuate  by  way  of  contrast  the  unruffled 
flow  of  administrative  activity  in  the  brave  little  Church,  whose 
fruitfulness  in  good  works  and  generous  giving  has  fully  justified 
the  admission  of  its  warm-hearted  laity  to  its  counsels. 

(2)  The  Scottish  Episcopal  Church. — The  revival  of  the  corporate 
life  of   this   Church  is  to  be  dated   from   the  pamphlet  which  Mr. 
Gladstone  addressed  to  the  Scotch  Primus  in  1852.     The  suggestions 
there  made  were  keenly  debated  in  the  Synod  of  Bishops,  and  after- 
wards in  the  Diocesan  Synods.     The  constitution  sketched  consisted 
of  three  chambers,  of  bishops,  of  clergy,  and  of  laymen  ;  the  initiation 
of  legislation  was  to  rest  with  the  first.     The  subject  was  hung  up  for 
eleven  years,  and  when,  in  1863,  laymen  were  admitted  to  Diocesan 
Synods,  and  congregations  were  entitled  to  send  a  representative  to 
the  General  Synod,  the  rights  of  the  laity  to  an  effective  voice  in  the 
councils  of  their  Church  gained  but  very  partial  recognition.     Leave 
had  to  be  granted  by  the  presiding  bishop  even  to  address  the  meeting. 
Twelve  more  years  had  to  pass  before  the  constitution  of  the  present 
Representative  Church  Council  was  formulated  and  formally  accepted 
by   the    General   Synod.     Each   congregation — the   parochial   basis 
being  of  course  impracticable  in  Scotland — sends  one  representative 
to  this  Council,  and  three  others  are  returned  by  each  diocese.     It  is 
not  to  be  overlooked  that  in  the  constituents  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  Council  a  tribute  is  paid  to  the  business  capabilities  of 
laymen.    While  on  the  Four  Boards  of  the  Council  the  clerical  and 
lay  members  are  about  in  an  equal  proportion,  on  the  Executive 
Committee  the  clerical  members  are  only  as  one  out  of  three.     The 
working  of  the  constitution  affords  ground  for  the  hope  that  when 
our  own  Representative  Church  Council  is  remodelled  on  a  basis 
entitling  it  to  its  name,  it  will  not  be  distressingly  liable  to  find  itself 
in  antagonism  with  the  separate  Clerical  Convocations.     We  believe 
that  during  the  time  since  the  creation  of   the  Scotch  system  no 
serious  collision,  or  anything  approaching  it,  has  occurred  to  ruffle  the 
even  current  of  its  discussions.     It  is,  however,  right  to  add  that 
the  experimental  stage  has  hardly  yet  been  passed  ;  and  as  recently  as 
in  1906  further  recognition  of  the  value  of  associating  the  lay  element 
with  the  clerical  was  marked  in  the  formation  of    a  consultative 
Council  in  which  co-ordination  between  the  Orders  is  for  consultative 
purposes  pushed  a  step  further. 

(3)  The  American  Church. — A  survey  of  this  Church  is  of  special 
interest  for  the  reason  that  several  other  communities  framed  their 


1908      AUTONOMY  IN  ANGLICAN  CHURCHES        261 

constitution  on  its  model,  and  in  doing  so'profited  by  certain  mistakes 
of  detail.  This  remark  applies  to  the  Canadian,  Australian,  and  New 
Zealand  Churches,  and  to  these  we  must  add  Scotland.  In  the 
American  Church  attention  should  first  be  directed  to  the  features 
which  are  common  to  all  the  dioceses  and  are  laid  down  in  the  General 
Constitution  and  Canons,  in  harmony  with  which  all  diocesan  canons 
must  be  framed.  Herein  a  marked  characteristic  is  the  admission  of 
the  laity  to  a  full  share  in  the  legislative  and  administrative  functions 
of  the  Church.  The  highest  Church  Council,  the  General  Convention, 
which  meets  every  three  years,  consists  of  two  Houses,  the  bishops 
forming  one,  and  elected  clerical  and  lay  deputies  sitting  together 
in  the  other  in  equal  numbers,  four  clergymen  and  four  laymen  being 
chosen  by  each  Diocesan  Convention.  The  lay  deputies  must  be  com- 
municants and  residents  of  the  diocese  which  they  represent.  The 
concurrence  of  both  Houses  is  required  for  the  passing  of  any  measure, 
and  in  important  matters  the  concurrence  of  all  three  Orders.  It 
will  be  seen  that  this  arrangement  places  in  the  hands  of  the  laymen  a 
practical  power  of  veto,  and  very  seriously  lessens  the  legislative  pre- 
rogatives of  the  bishops. 

In  each  diocese  its  Convention  elects  a  Standing  Committee  with 
advisory  functions  such  as  properly  belong  in  England  to  Cathedral 
Chapters.  These  Standing  Committees  in  all  but  two  dioceses  consist 
of  lay  as  well  as  clerical  members. 

The  Diocesan  Conventions  in  all  cases  are  composed  of  lay  as  well 
as  clerical  delegates  elected  by  the  several  parishes,  and  both  Orders 
must  concur  in  any  matter  of  legislation,  and  in  the  election  of  a  bishop. 
The  particular  method  of  election — whether  by  a  mere  majority  or 
by  a  two-thirds  vote  of  each  Order,  and  whether  by  both  Orders  voting 
simultaneously,  or  by  the  nomination  of  the  clergy  confirmed  by  the 
laity — is  determined  by  the  Canons  of  each  diocese.  In  some  dioceses 
the  bishop  possesses  a  power  of  veto  in  matters  of  legislation ;  in  the 
majority  of  dioceses  this  is  not  the  case. 

In  the  filling  of  cures  there  is  no  private  patronage.  The  bishop 
ordinarily  appoints  to  the  charge  of  a  mission,  i.e.  a  congregation 
which  is  not  fully  organised  as  a  parish,  and  is  dependent  upon  diocesan 
aid ;  in  the  case  of  a  parish,  the  vestry  elects,  but  before  giving  a  formal 
call  to  a  clergyman  his  name  must  be  communicated  to  the  bishop 
for  the  expression  of  his  approval  or  disapproval,  but  he  has  no  power 
of  absolute  veto,  provided  the  clergyman  be  in  good  standing. 

An  elaborate  system  is  provided  in  the  general  Canons  for  the 
trial  of  a  bishop ;  the  court  for  the  trial  of  a  presbyter  or  deacon  and 
its  procedure  are  left  to  diocesan  arrangement,  while  a  sort  of  pro- 
vincial court  of  review  is  established  by  the  general  Canons,  on  which 
both  clerical  and  lay  members  sit ;  but  as  yet  no  final  court  of  appeal 
has  been  provided  for  such  cases. 

With  undoubted  and  acknowledged  weaknesses,  the  autonomous 


262  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

Church  in  the  United  States  may  well  be  more  than  content  with  its 
corporate  life.  '  We  have,'  one  writer  says,  '  become  so  firmly  and 
unanimously  convinced  of  its  value,  that  nothing  would  induce  us  to 
part  with  it.' 2 

(4)  The  Church  of  England  in  Canada. — The  autonomy  of  this 
Church  was  in  a  measure  forced  upon  it  from  the  first.  The  demo- 
cratic institutions  of  the  neighbouring  American  Church,  the  circum- 
stance that  the  Methodist  and  Presbyterian  communities  already 
planted  and  thriving  in  Canadian  soil  were  similarly  organised,  the 
absolute  dependence  of  the  Church  upon  the  voluntary  offerings  of 
its  members,  all  these  local  conditions  rendered  autonomous  govern- 
ment well-nigh  a  foregone  conclusion.  As  Professor  Cody,  of  Toronto, 
says,  '  Autonomy  is  accepted  as  an  axiom,  and  it  would  be  impossible 
for  us  to  progress  as  an  organised  body  without  it.' 

Looking  over  the  frontier  in  1851  to  the  example  of  the  American 
constitutions,  with  the  intention  of  adopting  what  was  best,  but  with 
the  discriminating  faculty  on  the  alert,  the  Bishops  of  Quebec,  Toronto, 
Newfoundland,  Fredericton  and  Montreal  laid  their  plans.  Their 
first  thought  was  to  secure  for  the  Church  a  legislative  voice  through 
the  establishment  of  Diocesan  Synods.  Such  a  Synod  informally  met 
in  1853,  and  in  the  following  year  these  assemblies  agreed  upon  a 
constitution.  It  should  here  be  mentioned  that  in  1856  the  Imperial 
Government  ceased  to  create  Canadian  sees,  and  to  appoint  bishops ; 
and  the  Dominion  Legislature  thus  had  its  powers  enlarged,  and 
forthwith  conferred  on  the  Church  of  England  in  Canada  authority 
to  meet  in  Synods  for  administrative  and  legislative  purposes,  these 
purposes  including  the  two  functions  above  mentioned  which  the  Home 
Government  had  heretofore  exercised. 

Diocesan  Synods  were  in  this  way  called  into  existence.  Each 
consisted  of  the  bishop,  any  suffragan  or  co-adjutor,  all  the  clergy 
who  held  a  licence,  whether  beneficed  or  not,  and  lay  representatives 
chosen  by  the  parishes.  Their  number  varies  in  the  different  dioceses 
from  one  to  three.  They  must  have  communicated  at  least  three 
times  in  the  year  immediately  previous  to  their  election.  Habitual 
worship,  interpreted  as  having  worshipped  regularly  for  three  months 
in  a  particular  church,  constitutes,  with  a  declaration  of  membership, 
the  qualification  for  electors. 

After  five  years'  synodical  existence  it  was  felt  that  too  wide  a 
space  separated  the  diocese  from  the  General  Convention  in  the  Church 
of  America.  It  was  here  that  the  younger  congeries  of  communities 
profited  by  the  survey  of  the  institutions  of  the  older.  It  was  de- 
termined to  supply  this  lack  to  the  completeness  of  the  American 
Church  system.  In  1861  the  Provincial  Synod  of  Canada  was  formed. 

2  For  much  of  the  information  offered  in  the  foregoing  paragraphs  on  the  American 
Church  the  writer  is  indebted  to  the  Bishop  of  Vermont,  who  has  kindly  supervised 
the  above  sketch  and  has  personally  contributed  some  particulars. 


1908      AUTONOMY  IN  ANGLICAN  CHURCHES        268 

Here  the  bishops  sit  by  themselves  in  the  Upper  House  ;  the  clergy 
and  lay  delegates  sit  side  by  side  in  strict  co-ordination  of  powers  in 
the  Lower.  We  in  England  note  with  special  interest  the  rules  which 
control  the  procedure  of  this  body.  In  the  modifications  in  the 
Order  of  Public  Service  only 'those  have  been  accepted  which  had 
previously  secured  the  sanction  of  our  own  Convocations  of  the 
southern  and  northern  provinces.  At  the  same  time  it  is  to  be 
regretted  that  the  relationship  between  the  Diocesan  Synods  and  this 
higher  Synod  of  the  province  is  susceptible  of  some  improvement,  the 
tenacity  with  which  the  former  have  cleaved  to  their  privileges  some- 
times proving  inimical  to  synodical  efficiency  in  the  Provincial 
Assembly.  This,  we  have  recently  learnt  from  one  high  in  authority 
in  the  Dominion  Church,  is  now  in  course  of  correction.  Thirty-two 
years  separate  the  formation  of  the  Provincial  Synod  from  that  of  the 
General  Synod.  It  was  not  until  1893  that  the  ecclesiastical  provinces 
of  Canada,  Rupertsland,  and  the  extra-provincial  dioceses  of  British 
Columbia  combined  to  establish  a  Supreme  Council.  For  some  years 
after  its  creation  the  condition  of  this  body  was  somewhat  inchoate, 
and  the  boundaries  of  the  respective  areas  of  jurisdiction  of  the  General 
and  the  Provincial  Synods  were  somewhat  imperfectly  defined.  Here, 
however,  as  in  many  another  instance,  solvitur  ambulando  ;  practical 
experience  is  staking  out  the  territories.  In  this  assembly,  as  in  the 
General  Convention  of  the  American  Church,  the  bishops  and  the 
representatives  sit  in  separate  session,  though  they  can  at  any  time, 
if  desiring  it,  sit  together.  In  this  these  communities  are  in  our 
judgment  outdistanced  by  others  now  to  be  reviewed,  in  the  matter 
of  enlightened  constitutional  usage.  As  in  the  ecclesiastical  sphere 
there  is  no  hereditary  chamber,  we  have  never  been  able  to  support 
the  objection  to  all  the  Orders  meeting  in  a  single  House,  and  taking 
counsel  in  frank  and  free  interchange  of  thought  on  all  questions 
which  all  have  a  right  to  discuss.  Expedition  in  the  conduct  of 
business  would  gain  immeasurably  if  this  were  done.  But  a  still 
greater  gain  would  surely  be  the  opportunities  which  would  thereby  be 
afforded  of  brotherly  relations  being  cultivated  between  the  Orders ; 
the  clergy  would  profit  by  the  trained  business  habits  of  the  laity, 
the  laity  would  learn  from  the  clergy  to  distinguish  between  the 
crudely  and  the  accurately  formulated  in  the  theological  bearings 
of  many  a  question.  Corners  would  be  rubbed  down ;  many  an 
occasion  of  friction  avoided  ;  many  a  difference  adjusted,  if  in  place 
of  the  aloofness  of  the  sundered  sessions,  one  roof  covered  all. 
'  (5)  The  Church  of  South  Africa. — The  rise  of  the  autonomy  of  this 
Church  has  a  piquant  interest  in  the  virile  personality  of  Bishop  Gray. 
The  strongest  of  ecclesiastics,  he  yet  asserted,  as  few  others  have  ever 
done,  the  rights  of  the  laity.  He  arrived  in  Cape  Colony  in  1847  to 
find  a  singular  state  of  Erastian  subservience  to  the  Governor,  who 
had  inherited  the  worst  traditions  of  Dutch  rule.  The  justification 


264  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

of  Bishop  Gray's  autocracy  during  the  first  decade  of  his  episcopate 
is  to  be  sought  in  the  outrageous  claims  of  a  State  which  possessed  no 
valid  title  to  the  name  Christian.  And  the  time  came  when  this  most 
conspicuous  of  autocrats  proved  himself  the  most  progressive  of 
Church  reformers. 

In  the  necessary  process  of  preparing  the  way  for  autonomous 
conditions,  it  was  a  matter  of  primary  urgency  to  define  the  term 
'layman.'  For  Christianity— and  the  remark  applies  peculiarly  to 
Cape  Colony — was  mainly  represented  by  bodies  outside  the  pale  of 
the  Anglican  Church.  Little  to  the  honour  of  a  somnolent  communion, 
Presbyterians  and  Wesleyans  held  the  field.  For  the  possession  of 
the  franchise  an  unfortunate  alternative  qualification  invested  the 
definition  with  a  degree  of  hesitancy.  In  the  Cape  Town  Church 
constitution  the  constituency  is  thus  defined  : '  Every  male  parishioner 
being  of  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  who  is  on  the  list  of  communi- 
cants or  who,  being  baptized  and  not  being  a  member  of  any  other 
religious  body,  is  an  habitual  worshipper  in  the  church  of  the  parish 
or  district  in  respect  of  which  he  claims  to  vote,  shall  be  entitled  to 
vote  for  the  parish  or  district  to  which  he  belongs.'  Qualification  for 
delegacy  includes  the  communicant  status,  this  defined  as  involving 
reception  at  least  three  times  during  the  year  previous  to  the  nomina- 
tion. With  immaterial  variations  of  electoral  procedure  in  different 
dioceses,  the  following  are  the  features  of  the  general  constitution. 
Above  the  Vestries  the  Diocesan  Synods  meet,  some  annually,  some 
triennially.  The  members  consist  of  the  bishop,  the  clergy  and  one 
lay  delegate,  holding  office  until  the  next  session,  elected  to  represent 
each  parish.  In  practice  the  non-communicant  vote  has  hardly  ever, 
if  ever,  been  known  to  influence  an  election.  Nominal  members  of  the 
Church  are  less  eager  than  in  England  to  assert  their  rights.  In  the 
election  of  a  bishop,  however,  only  communicants  are  allowed  any  voice. 

Over  the  Diocesan  Synod  is  the  Provincial ;  it  is  septennial,  and 
summoned  by  the  Archbishop  of  the  Province  on  his  own  initiative. 
Though  in  theory  consisting  of  three  Houses,  all  the  three  Orders 
sit  and  deliberate  together.  On  occasion  they  may  hold  their  meetings 
apart  by  mutual  consent.  As  regards  the  conduct  of  business,  the 
laity  have  in  the  Church  councils  their  full  share.  Their  power  is 
tangible,  their  influence  in  every  department  of  Church  adminis- 
trative activity  is  felt,  and  their  practical  interest  in  the  Church's 
work  proportionally  deep.  Incumbents  cannot  at  the  will  of  an 
external  organisation  be  thrust  upon  a  parish  unwilling  to  welcome 
them.  Two-thirds  of  the  lay  members  of  the  Synod  may  veto  the 
election  of  a  bishop,  though  chosen  by  two-thirds  of  the  clergy.  The 
fruitful  co-operation  of  the  laity,  secured  to  the  Church  in  South  Africa 
by  the  energetic  inception  of  the  most  healthily  tenacious  of  prelates, 
remains  one  of  the  most  substantial  guarantees  of  its  progress  and 
hold  upon  the  lands  in  which  it  has  taken  root. 


1908      AUTONOMY  IN  ANGLICAN  CHURCHES        266 

The  limits  of  this  paper  forbid  more  than  a  passing  reference  to 
the  Churches  of  Australia  and  New  Zealand.  It  must  suffice  to  say 
that  the  American  Church  constitution  supplied  for  these  communities, 
as  for  Canada,  the  general  model  on  which  their  own  systems  were 
framed. 

Cursory  as  this  glance  over  daughter  or  sister  communities  of  the 
Church  of  England  has  necessarily  been,  we  venture  to  think  that  it 
sufficiently  substantiates  the  contention  that  the  Church  amongst 
us  occupies  an  anomalous  and  quite  unjustifiable  position  as  regards 
its  internal  administration.  In  no  accurate  sense  can  it  be  described 
as  self-governed.  And  such  extraneous  government  as  holds  is 
practically  ineffective.  We  do  not  assert  that  the  activities  of  the 
Church  are  in  consequence  paralysed ;  but  we  emphatically  contend 
that  they  are  straitened,  and  that  questions  of  mere  procedure  occupy 
attention  to  an  extent  scarcely  short  of  lamentable  in  her  quasi- 
authoritative  Councils.  Is  there  anything  to  be  said  against  a  speedy 
settlement  of  this  still  constantly  shelved  question  which  the  above 
survey 'may  not  be  taken  conclusively  to  refute  ? 

ALFRED  BURNLEY. 


266  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 


ART   AT    THE    FRANCO-BRITISH 
EXHIBITION 


WITH  the  majority  of  Londoners  who  crowd  to  it  the  Franco-British 
Exhibition  is  evidently  not  an  institution  to  be  taken  seriously.  It 
is  the  playground  of  the  season  ;  a  place  to  dine  at  and  meet  your 
friends  and  spend  a  summer  evening  amid  fairy  architecture  and 
lights  and  fireworks — a  view  of  its  function  which  is  certainly  coun- 
tenanced by  the  extent  of  space  allotted  to  feeding  establishments 
and  the  predominance  of  such  innocent  amusements  as  gravitation 
railways  and  toboggans  and  the  vast  piece  of  moving  structure  irreve- 
rently dubbed  '  the  flip-flap ' ;  the  latter,  however,  a  more  interesting 
piece  of  mechanical  engineering  than  most  of  those  who  are  slung  in 
its  cages  are  aware  of.  But  there  is  more  in  the  Exhibition  than 
this,  else  had  it  been  but  a  wanton  expenditure  of  money. 

To  begin  with,  the  question  of  the  architectural  treatment  of  a 
collection  of  temporary  structures  is  one  of  some  interest.  It  is  an 
opportunity  for  realising,  for  the  moment,  architectural  effects  of 
a  richness  and  exuberance  such  as  can  seldom  be  afforded  in  per- 
manent buildings  in  these  days  of  economy  and  the  competitive 
cutting  of  prices.  The  architectural  designer  is  let  loose,  as  it  were, 
into  a  dream-country,  in  which  he  may  give  the  reins  to  his  fancy 
without  the  fear  of  the  Quantity  Surveyor  before  his  eyes.  Should 
he  aim  at  producing  vast  combinations  of  architecture  in  orthodox 
form,  ephemeral  in  actual  structure  but  in  outward  aspect  monu- 
mental ?  Or  should  he  frankly  accept  the  situation  and  treat  his 
buildings  as  obviously  temporary  and  evanescent,  fragile  fancies  in 
fragile  materials  : — 

The  earth  hath  bubbles  as  the  water  hath, 
And  these  are  of  them  ? 

There  is  something  to  be  said  for  either  principle.  Inigo  Jones  or 
Bramante  would  have  preferred  the  first  alternative,  and  would  have 
produced  for  us  visions  of  stately  combinations  of  columnar  archi- 
tecture such  as  have  really  been  carried  out  only,  perhaps,  in  the 
great  days  of  Selinus  or  of  Paestum.  At  the  Chicago  exhibition  the 
tendency  was  in  favour  of  this  kind  of  stately  classic  scenery,  and 


1908      ART  AT  FRANCO-BRITISH  EXHIBITION      267 

fine  effects  were  produced  ;  whether  the  knowledge  that  the  structure 
is  not  what  it  appears  destroys  the  enjoyment  of  the  effect,  is  perhaps 
a  question  of  individual  temperament.  The  French,  who  have  a 
keener  aesthetic  sense  in  matters  of  this  kind  than  any  other  nation, 
in  their  more  recent  great  exhibitions  (1889  and  1900)  have  rather 
favoured  the  adoption  of  special  forms  of  temporary  architecture; 
though  M.  Formige,  in  the  two  palaces  of  '  Arts  '  and  '  Arts  Liberaux  ' 
which  faced  each  other  in  the  1889  Paris  Exhibition,  adopted  an 
honestly  visible  construction  of  a  then  new  type — steel  framing 
filled  in  with  decorative  terra-cotta.  But  in  general,  and  in  the  1900 
Exhibition  especially,  the  French  adopted  a  style  of  obviously  tem- 
porary architecture  founded  in  the  main  on  reminiscences  of  classic 
forms,  but  treated  with  a  great  deal  of  freedom  and  in  many  cases 
with  admirable  effect. 

It  is  difficult  to  classify  the  architecture  of  the  Franco-British 
Exhibition — it  is  a  medley  ;  but  for  the  most  part,  though  derived 
from  very  various  types,  it  does  not  simulate  monumental  architec- 
ture. There  are  some  pavilions  in  which  classic  columnar  orders  are 
introduced,  as  in  the  British  Applied  Arts  pavilion,  designed  by  a 
young  English  architect  of  genius,  Mr.  J.  B.  Fulton  ;  but  in  this  and 
other  cases  the  treatment,  at  all  events  of  the  upper  portion  of  the 
structure,  is  so  far  playful  and  (as  one  may  say)  unreal  as  to  preclude 
the  idea  of  a  monumental  structure.  The  Canada  pavilion  has  the 
most  monumental  appearance  of  any,  and  is  rather  imposing  in  its 
general  effect.  The  Daily  Mail  pavilion  is  a  rather  bad  imitation,  in 
faulty  proportion,  of  Chambers's  octagon  pavilion  with  concave 
sides  in  Kew  Gardens,  itself  a  weak  imitation  of  the  Temple  of  the 
Sun  at  Baalbek.  The  part  of  the  Exhibition  architecture  which  most 
closely  follows  the  detail  of  existing  styles  is  the  first  and  largest 
quadrangle  on  entering  from  Wood  Lane  ;  but  here  the  model  followed 
is  in  the  main  that  of  Dravidian  Hindu  architecture,  combined  (in  the 
upper  portions)  with  some  reminiscences  of  Indian  Mohammedan 
architecture — 

By  no  quite  lawful  marriage  of  the  arts, 

but  the  two  elements  harmonise  well  enough,  and  no  style  could  be 
better  suited  for  festal  temporary  architecture  than  the  school  of 
Hindu  work  which  has  been  adopted.  It  is  as  essentially  an  orna- 
mental architecture  as  the  Spanish  style  which  has  been  called 
'  plateresque  '  from  its  resemblance  to  silversmith's  work ;  and  has 
the  same  kind  of  resemblance,  with  better  detail ;  for  in  a  good  deal 
of  the  Hindu  decorative  detail  there  is  a  certain  finish  and  purity  of 
line  which  has  something  the  character  of  Greek  ornament.  A  great 
deal  of  modelled  ornament  in  this  first  court  is  charming  work,  and 
the  design  as  a  whole  has  a  coherence  and  restraint  which  contrasts 
favourably  with  some  of  the  pavilions  further  on  ;  the  Women's  Work 


268  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUEY  Aug. 

and  the  Palace  of  Music  pavilions,  for  instance,  on  the  right  of  the 
central  court,  have  a  good  deal  too  much  of  the  pie-crust  order  of 
detail  about  them  ;  a  criticism  which  applies  also,  to  some  extent, 
to  the  fayade  of  the  Fine  Arts  pavilion  on  the  extreme  right.  In  one 
particular  respect  "we  realise  that  we  are  here  in  an  exhibition  in 
London  and  not  in  Paris,  viz.  in  the  scarcity  of  figure  sculpture  in 
the  decoration.  In  the  1900  Paris  exhibition  the  nude  figure  was 
to  be  seen  at  every  turn  ;  figures  seated  or  recumbent  on  cornices 
everywhere,  in  precarious  positions,  as  if  blown  there  by  the  wind  and 
left  where  they  chanced  to  fall ;  but  all  with  a  vigour  and  suppleness 
of  line  and  modelling  that  spoke  of  the  artistic  instinct  of  the  French 
decorator,  and  in  curious  contrast  to  the  tame  and  matter-of-fact 
manner  in  which  figure  decoration  is  used,  where  it  is  used  at  all,  at 
the  Shepherd's  Bush  Exhibition.  However,  the  first  court  of  the 
exhibition  forms  a  fine  piece  of  architectural  scenery  and  is  worth 
seeing  as  such.  Its  defect  is  the  lack  of  any  colour ;  it  is  too  white. 
The  gilding  of  all  the  small  cupolas  would  perhaps  have  been  too 
costly  an  expedient,  but  it  would  have  immensely  enhanced  the  total 
effect. 

The  special  intellectual  interest  of  the  exhibition  is  of  course  the 
joint  display  of  French  and  English  sculpture  and  painting  in  the  Fine 
Arts  pavilion,  compared  with  which  every  other  interest  is  only 
secondary.  The  sculpture  is  placed  in  a  central  hall  on  the  plan  of 
a  cross,  the  French  work  on  the  left  of  the  central  axis,  the  English 
on  the  right,  the  picture  galleries  of  the  two  nations  being  grouped 
around  and  beyond  their  respective  domains  in  the  sculpture  hall. 
Nothing  could  have  been  more  interesting,  or  in  a  sense  more  instruc- 
tive, than  an  opportunity  of  studying  a  collection  of  the  best  products 
of  French  and  English  sculpture  and  painting  side  by  side  ;  but  un- 
fortunately the  representation  of  the  two  countries  is  not  sufficiently 
well  balanced  to  afford  a  fair  standard  of  comparison.  It  was  no 
doubt  an  easier  task  to  get  together  a  representative  collection  of 
English  art  on  our  own  soil  than  for  the  French  Committee  to  send 
the  works  of  their  artists  across  the  Channel ;  but  the  result  is  that 
England  is  far  more  favourably  represented  than  France.  On  the 
English  side  of  the  Sculpture  Hall  are  collected  a  considerable  number 
of  the  best  sculptural  works  of  late  years,  and  this  can  hardly  be 
said  of  the  collection  on  the  French  side.  Falguiere  and  M.  Mercie 
are  inadequately  represented ;  M.  Alfred  Boucher  also  ;  M.  Jean- 
Boucher  not  at  all ;  Gerome  only  by  a  bronze  equestrian  statuette 
of  Napoleon — a  splendid  little  work  certainly,  but  not  an  example 
of  what  Gerome  could  do  in  sculpture  ;  and  Carpeaux's  group  of 
Ugolino  is  hardly  a  happy  example  of  his  genius.  The  result  is  an 
impression  that  French  and  English  sculpture,  as  represented  here, 
are  pretty  evenly  balanced  as  to  genius  ;  but  could  we  have  seen  on 
the  French  side  such  works  as  Carpeaux's  La  Danse ;  Falguiere's  Juno ; 


1908      ART  AT  FRANCO-BRITISH  EXHIBITION      269 

Jean-Boucher's  Antique  et  Moderne ;  Bartholome's  pathetic  group 
of  the  man  and  woman  looking  into  the  tomb  (the  central  group 
of  the  Monument  aux  Morts) ;  Mercie's  monument  to  Alfred  de  Musset, 
and  a  dozen  others  that  might  be  mentioned,  there  would  have  been 
a  different  story  to  tell.  In  regard  to  painting  the  discrepancy  is 
still  greater.  The  English  galleries  contain  one  of  the  finest,  most 
varied,  and  most  typical  collections  of  modern  English  painting 
that  have  ever  been  got  together  ;  not  to  speak  of  a  very  fine  collection 
of  water  colours  also,  an  art  of  which  the  French  show  nothing,  and 
have  in  fact  very  little  to  show.  Moreover,  the  English  Committee 
had  the  fortunate  idea  of  exhibiting  in  two  or  three  special  rooms 
a  selection  of  the  works  of  deceased  English  painters,  both  recent 
and  earlier,  which  forms  one  of  the  most  interesting  portions  of  the 
exhibition.  The  French  have  a  few  works  of  their  artists  of  the 
early  and  middle  nineteenth  century,  but  they  are  not  collected 
together  so  as  to  make  a  special  feature,  nor  do  they  form  a  very 
typical  selection.  There  is,  it  is  true,  one  splendid  Troyon  (forming 
a  pendant  to  an  equally  fine  example  of  M.  Harpignies) ;  but  neither 
the  name  of  Diaz  nor  Theodore  Rousseau  appear,  and  no  one  need 
think  they  get  any  notion  of  such  a  grand  landscape-painter  as  Dupre 
from  Ihe  two  small  pictures  by  him  that  are  exhibited  ;  and  as  to 
Puvis  de  Chavannes,  it  is  absolutely  melancholy  to  think  that  English 
visitors  should  get  their  only  idea  of  him  from  his  unfortunate 
Decollation  de  Saint  Jean-Baptiste  (probably  an  early  work).  Nor 
are  the  living  artists  more  satisfactorily  represented.  Instead  of  any 
one  of  M.  Gervais'  great  works  we  have  only  an  insignificant  portrait 
by  him ;  neither  MM.  Didier-Pouget  nor  Quignon  appears  among 
landscape  painters  ;  the  semi-nude  figure  entitled  Beaute  is  hardly  a 
typical  example  of  M.  Henri  Martin  ;  and  M.  Carolus-Duran  is  not 
shown  at  his  best.  And  one  is  almost  as  much  inclined  to  complain 
of  what  is  there  as  of  what  there  is  not.  Some  of  the  worst  pictures 
are  among  the  largest.  What  is  the  credit  to  French  Art  of  such 
a  huge  piece  of  commonplace  as  M.  Detaille's  Victimes  du  Devoir  ? 

In  one  point,  however,  the  French  picture  galleries  score  heavily 
over  ours — in  their  decorative  treatment ;  and  the  difference  is  one 
which  is  unfortunately  characteristic  of  the  two  nations.  The  English 
galleries,  it  is  understood,  were  got  up  under  the  direction  of  the  Royal 
Academy,  who  apparently  could  think  of  nothing  better  than  covering 
the  walls  with  a  dull  red,  and  finishing  them  with  a  very  ordinary 
plaster  cornice.  Go  into  the  French  galleries,  and  you  find  a  delicate 
diaper  on  the  walls  and  a  fine  bold  frieze  at  the  top  made  up  of  gilt 
'  swags  '  and  festoons  ;  the  whole  aspect  of  the  galleries  is  refined 
and  decorative,  in  strange  contrast  to  the  crude  and  coarse  effect  of 
the  English  galleries  ;  a  contrast  not  creditable  to  us.  A  redeeming 
point  is  that  the  English  are  certainly  better  lighted  than  the  French 

VOL.  LX1V— No.  378  T 


270  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Aug. 

galleries ;  the  skylight  draping  in  the  latter  is  overdone,  and  the 
effect  of  the  pictures  somewhat  dulled  in  consequence. 

Taking  the  sculpture  as  it  stands,  we  have  the  rather  unexpected 
result  that  the  English  collection  shows  a  larger  proportion  of  works 
of  subjective  interest,  of  intellectual  suggestion  beyond  mere  modelling, 
than  the  French,  though  the  case  would  be  certainly  reversed  if 
French  sculpture  were  as  well  represented  as  English.  There  is 
perhaps  nothing  among  the  French  sculpture  exhibited  so  poetically 
suggestive  as  Mr.  Colton's  Crown  of  Love,  nothing  so  full  of  historical 
point  and  individual  character  as  Mr.  Reynolds-Stephens's  A  Royal 
Game,  Chapu's  kneeling  figure  of  Jeanne  Dare 1  is  beautiful  in  pose 
and  in  the  fine  type  of  the  head,  but  it  has  no  special  character ;  it 
might  be  any  handsome  woman  in  trouble.  On  the  other  hand 
there  is  an  elevation  of  style  in  the  nude  figures,  such  as  M.  Sicard's 
Baigneuse  and  M.  Marqueste's  Hebe  with  the  eagle,  and  M.  Mercie's 
David  apres  le  Combat  (in  one  of  the  picture  galleries),  which  makes 
most  of  the  English  nudes  look  tame  and  commonplace.  Among 
the  most  powerful  works  on  the  French  side  of  the  gallery  is  M.  Alfred 
Boucher's  A  la  Terre,  the  colossal  nude  figure  of  a  labourer  digging, 
which  was  in  the  Salon  two  or  three  years  ago.  The  difference  between 
the  largeness  of  manner  in  French  sculpture  as  compared  with  English 
may  be  noted  in  comparing  M.  Mathurin-Moreau's  Sommeil  with 
Mr.  Walker's  Sleep,  both  of  them  nude  groups  of  mother  and  infant 
sleeping ;  the  latter  is  a  charming  work,  but  it  rather  suggests  the 
nursery ;  the  French  sculptor's  group  has  the  large  abstract  manner 
which  suggests  the  ideal  type  of  life.  Among  other  works  on  the 
French  side  the  Luxembourg  lends  us  one  of  its  most  remarkable 
modern  works,  M.  Sicard's  (Edipus  and  the  Sphinx ;  and  those  who 
have  not  seen  it  before  should  not  miss  M.  Puech's.  poetic  fancy  La 
Seine  (also  from  the  Luxembourg),  where  the  river  is  symbolised  by 
a  recumbent  nude  figure  in  alto-relief,  the  decorative  semblance  of 
Paris  in  bas-relief  forming  the  background.  It  was  exhibited  at  the 
Salon  a  good  many  years  ago,  and  bought  by  the  Government.2 

But  the  glory  of  the  Art  collection  lies  in  the  galleries  of  English 
painting,  of  which  one  cannot  speak  without  a  certain  enthusiasm. 
The  two  rooms  devoted  to  deceased  British  artists  contain,  among 
other  things,  Gainsborough's  incomparable  portrait  called  The  Blue 
Boy  and  his  Lady  Bate  Dudley  ;  some  fine  examples  (though  not  quite 
equal  to  these)  of  Reynolds ;  Burne-Jones's  Chant  d' 'Amour,  his  best 

'  The  form  '  Jeanne  d'Arc,'  which  the  modern  French  writers  persist  in,  as  if  she 
were  a  lady  of  family,  is  of  course  absurd.  Balzac  writes  '  Jeanne  Dare '  in  the  one 
reference  to  her  I  have  noticed  in  his  works. 

8  Perhaps  English  artists  might  take  the  opportunity  this  exhibition  affords  of 
knowing  a  little  more  about  contemporary  French  sculptors  than  they  do  at  present. 
I  sat  opposite  two  Royal  Academicians  at  a  public  dinner,  one  a  sculptor  and  the 
other  an  architect,  neither  of  whom  had  ever  heard  of  the  name  or  works  of  M.  Puecb, 
one  of  the  most  prominent  and  most  gifted  of  modern  French  sculptors. 


1908      ART  AT  FRANCO-BRITISH  EXHIBITION     271 

work ;  Albert  Moore's  The  Quartette,  the  most  perfect  example  of  his 
peculiar  type  of  decorative  art ;  Romney'a  Lady  Hamilton  at  the 
Spinning  Wheel,  and  Rossetti's  The  Blessed  Damozel,  each  among  the 
painter's  best  works  ;  Walker's  The  Plough,  perhaps  his  finest  picture  ; 
Lewis's  In  the  Bey's  Garden ;  and  two  or  three  very  fine  examples  of 
Watts,  though  not  one  of  his  greatest  works.  Among  the  painters  of 
the  last  generation  perhaps  none  holds  his  place  so  well  as  Millais. 
His  Over  the  Hills,  which  I  had  not  seen  for  some  years,  seems  finer 
than  ever,  and  shows  how  a  painting  on  which  the  highest  pains  have 
been  bestowed  will  keep  its  place  in  virtue  of  that  kind  of  genius  which 
consists  (in  part  at  least)  in  the  infinite  capacity  for  taking  pains. 
In  the  room  devoted  to  the  works  of  living  artists  we  have  an  example 
of  the  modern  Scottish  school  of  landscape  in  The  Storm,  by  Mr.  W. 
McTaggart,  R.S.A.  (lent  by  Mr.  Carnegie) ;  a  landscape  splashed 
rather  than  painted,  with  a  certain  boldness  and  vigour  ;  but  will  this, 
like  Over  the  Hills,  hold  its  own  and  be  returned  to  with  admiration 
thirty  or  forty  years  after  its  date  ?  I  trow  not.  But  Millais's 
Autumn  Leaves  is  more  than  conscientious  work ;  it  is  an  inspiration 
in  colour  and  poetic  feeling,  and  it  is  as  such  and  as  a  whole  that  it 
must  be  judged,  not  picked  to  pieces  in  detail.  Those  who  wonder 
why  the  faces  of  the  girls  are  so  dark  ('  dirty  '  they  were  called  when 
it  was  first  painted)  do  not  recognise  that  they  are  parts  of  the  rich 
solemn  harmony  of  the  whole,  including  that  deep  purple  distance  ; 
Millais  was  not  going  to  have  them  making  light  spots  in  his  com- 
position. A  picture  that  I  met  again  with  great  interest  is  Falconer 
Poole's  Seventh  Day  of  the  Decameron,  exhibited  many  years  ago  at 
the  Academy  under  the  title  The  Song  of  Filomena  on  the  Margin  of 
the  Beautiful  Lake,  and  which  I  have  never  seen  since.  Coming  to 
it  again  one  recognises  that  the  figures  are  open  to  criticism  ;  but  it 
is  steeped  in  poetry,  and  I  owe  the  author  of  it  for  a  youthful  day- 
dream. Figures  were  not  Poole's  strong  point ;  he  painted  land- 
scapes with  a  meaning  in  them,  not  understanded  of  the  people,  and 
hence  he  was  never  a  popular  painter  ;  he  should  have  been  represented 
by  A  Lion  in  the  Path,  a  grand  work  in  which  the  landscape  itself  seemed 
to  threaten  like  the  lion.  It  hung  in  the  large  room  at  the  Academy 
many  years  ago,  nor  have  I  ever  seen  it  since.  What  has  become 
of  it? 

Then  there  is  Leighton's  beautiful  work  Summer  Moon,  hanging 
just  by  Millais'  landscape — as  a  poetic  conception  perhaps  the  most 
perfect  thing  he  ever  did,  with  an  almost  Greek  reticence  and  com- 
pleteness about  it  both  in  colour  and  design.  (I  remember  hearing  it 
referred  to  by  a  spectator,  the  year  it  was  first  exhibited,  as  '  that 
pree-Raphaelite  thing.')  No  one,  I  suppose,  would  attempt  to  paint 
such  a  picture  nowadays  ;  it  is  not  ugly  enough.  It  is  significant 
to  notice  that,  with  such  a  work  as  that  hanging  a  few  yards  off,  the 
critic  of  a  certain  influential  paper  could  find  nothing  better  to  single 

T   2 


272  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

out  for  enthusiasm  than  Mr.  Orpen's  The  Valuers,  a  study  of  two  or 
three  figures  of  the  meanest  and  most  repulsive  types  of  humanity.  Is 
that  our  progress  during  the  last  forty  or  fifty  years,  according  to  the 
contemporary  '  art  critic  '  ?  From  Millais'  landscape  to  Mr.  McTag- 
gart's  splashes ;  from  Leighton's  Summer  Moon  to  Mr.  Orpen's 
Valuers  ?  A  pretty  descent  in  the  period !  These  amateurs  of  the 
ugly  and  repulsive  remind  one  of  Mephistopheles'  contemptuous 
gibe  at  the  habits  of  mankind,  in  the  Prologue  in  Heaven — 

In  jeden  Quark  begriibt  er  seine  Nase. 

However,  thank  goodness,  there  is  not  much  of  the  New  English 
Art  Club  element  in  this  fine  and  representative  collection  of  the  work 
of  living  English  painters.  Not  a  few  are  represented  each  by  almost 
his  best  work.  Mr.  Sargent  certainly,  by  his  two  grand  portrait  groups 
— that  with  the  pearl  necklace  in  it,  and  that  with  the  great  yellow 
jar  (though  I  do  not  see  how  the  lady's  face  in  the  latter  can  show 
light  against  the  sky) ;  Sir  E.  Poynter  by  the  finest  of  his  large  pictures, 
Atalanta's  Race,  and  by  that  remarkable  little  work,  The  Sirens  (or  The 
Storm  Nymphs,  as  it  was  originally  called),  a  masterpiece  of  drawing 
which,  as  such,  will  always  keep  its  place  ;  Mr.  Holman  Hunt  by  The 
Pot  of  Basil  (not  forgetting  also  that  beautiful  little  work,  Morning 
Prayer) ;  Mr.  Tuke  by  his  best  wt)rk,  The  Diver.  Then  there  is  Mr. 
Orchardson's  The  Borgia ;  Mr.  Somerscales's  first  exhibited  sea- 
painting,  Corvette  shortening  Sail ;  two  of  the  finest  of  Sir  L.  Alma- 
Tadema's  works  ;  Mr.  Leslie's  In  Time  of  War,  the  best  example  of 
his  later  style  ;  and  perhaps  the  very  best  of  Mr.  Adrian  Stokes's 
landscapes,  exhibited  at  the  Academy  a  good  many  years  ago  under 
the  title  (I  think)  Changing  Pasture  ;  here  called  simply  French  Land- 
scape. It  is  that  in  a  double  sense ;  it  is  a  landscape. of  the  French 
school,  and  the  best  French  school ;  and  those  who  would  realise  what 
style  in  landscape  means  should  look  at  the  treatment  of  nature  in 
this  painting  ;  the  broad  and  perfectly  effective  manner  in  which  the 
long  meadow  grass  (laetae  segetes)  and  the  blowing  of  the  wind  over 
it  are  indicated,  without  the  slightest  realism ;  the  consentaneous 
movement  of  grass,  trees,  and  cattle,  all  in  one  direction,  giving  such  a 
unity  of  expression  to  the  picture.  It  is  one  of  the  best  landscapes 
ever  exhibited  at  the  Academy,  and  it  is  a  satisfaction  to  meet  it  again. 

Style  in  landscape  is  shown,  too,  with  equal  perfection  in  the 
largest  of  the  works  of  M.  Harpignies  in  the  French  picture-galleries, 
in  which,  as  has  been  said,  the  selection  is  less  typical  and  representa- 
tive than  in  the  English  galleries.  There  are  a  good  many  things  one 
does  not  care  much  for,  and  there  are  eminent  painters  who  are  not 
represented  by  their  best  works.  Henner,  however,  appears  to 
advantage  in  one  of  his  earlier  nudes,  Jeune  Fille  endormie,  painted 
before  he  lapsed  into  that  exaggeration  of  Hennerism  in  which  his 
figures  look  as  if,  like  the  Veiled  Prophet  of  Khorassan,  they  had 


1908      AET  AT  FEANCO-BEIT1SH  EXHIBITION     278 

been  dissolved  in  a  nitric  acid  bath.  Among  pictures  to  be  noticed 
is  M.  Albert  Maignan's  grand  work  Eve  et  le  Serpent,  not  only  as  a  re- 
markable conception,  with  its  iridescent  serpent  with  the  human 
torso  and  head,  but  as  a  fine  example  of  style.  The  nude  figure  of 
Eve,  it  will  be  observed,  does  not  attempt  realism  either  in  finish  or 
texture ;  the  figure  and  the  details  are  all  harmonised  down  to  a  unity 
of  effect,  and  the  picture  is  a  fine  piece  of  colour,  one  of  the  best  in 
that  sense  in  the  French  galleries.  Colour  has  been  the  difficulty 
with  M.  Emile  Friant's  large  picture  Doukur,  which  no  one  can  miss, 
and  in  which  all  the  figures  are  clad  in  deep  mourning.  M.  Friant, 
who  is  always  worth  attention,  seldom  paints  on  so  large  a  scale  as 
this,  and  perhaps  this  would  have  done  better  on  a  smaller  scale  ; 
yet  it  seems  to  me  now,  as  it  did  when  I  first  saw  it  at  the  Salon,  one 
of  the  most  pathetic  of  modern  pictures  dealing  with  scenes  in  real 
life.  It  is  now  apparently  in  the  Museum  at  Nancy,  and  must,  there- 
fore, have  been  a  Government  purchase.  Among  other  pictures  that 
should  not  be  passed  over  are  M.  Humbert's  portraits,  especially 
Miles.  Legrand  and  the  singularly  spirited  and  characteristic  portrait 
of  M.  Jules  Lemaitre  ;  Delaunay's  La  Peste,  an  allegorical  picture  of 
the  old  school,  interesting  on  that  account,  and  as  representing  a  class 
of  picture  and  a  style  of  execution  much  esteemed  in  their  day  and 
entirely  passe  now ;  and  Delacroix's  Mirabeau  et  de  Br6ze,  an  historical 
picture  of  a  past  generation  which  still  keeps  its  place,  and  always 
will,  for  its  dramatic  realisation  of  the  situation  and  of  the  principal 
actor  in  the  scene.3  Those  who  do  not  know  the  work  of  M.  Joseph 
Bail,  that  masterly  painter  of  interiors,  should  not  pass  over  the  pictures 
by  him,  though  they  do  not  represent  the  best  that  he  has  done  ;  nor 
is  M.  Paul  Chabas's  Joyeux  Jabots,  from  a  recent  Salon,  quite  one  of  his 
best  works,  but  it  gives  an  idea  of  the  work  of  a  painter  who  has  made 
a  style  of  his  own,  and  whose  picture  in  this  year's  Salon  has  already 
been  mentioned  in  these  pages  as  perhaps  the  most  perfectly-balanced 
work  of  the  year.  M.  Tattegrain,  also,  a  painter  of  great  and  very 
versatile  powers,  is  shown  to  advantage  in  his  seashore  scene  VEpave 
(a  much  better  work  than  his  larger  shipwreck  picture).  M.  Hebert's 
Le  Matin  et  le  Soir  de  la  Vie  was  exhibited  a  great  many  years  ago  at 
the  Eoyal  Academy,  I  think  under  the  title  Youth  and  Age,  when  it 
made  an  impression  on  me  which  renewed  acquaintance  does  not  quite 
ratify.  It  is  painted  in  a  somewhat  loaded  manner,  and  is  perhaps 
a  little  theatrical,  though  it  is  a  powerful  work  in  the  style  of  a  past 
generation.  And  if  the  visitor  wishes  to  realise  to  what  depths  of 
vulgarity  the  vagaries  of  the  '  New  Salon  '  can  descend,  he  can  have 
an  object  lesson  in  the  preposterous  and  impudent  scrawl  by  M.  Willette 

3  It  was,  perhaps,  just  this  kind  of  dramatic  element  in  his  work  which  puzzled 
and  alarmed  the  men  of  Delacroix's  own  generation.  It  seems  odd  now,  but  it  is  the 
fact,  that  Delacroix  in  his  own  day  was  considered  as  a  dangerous  innovator,  who 
was  breaking  away  from  the  old  traditional  classic  formulae  of  historical  painting. 


274  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

called  Parce  Domine  ;  apparently  a  coarse  satire  on  modern  life.  It  is 
to  be  hoped  that  the  Committee  of  the  French  Section  are  ashamed  of 
it,  as  they  have  skied  it.  At  the  New  Salon,  a  year  or  two  ago,  it  hung 
on  the  line,  and  it  is  an  instance  of  what  journalistic  art-criticism  has 
come  to  with  us,  that  this  vulgar  caricature  (looking  like  a  Punch 
picture  magnified  to  the  nth  power)  was  praised  in  some  of  the  leading 
English  journals  as  a  remarkable  picture.  Apparently  nothing  is  too 
ugly  and  outr&  for  the  modern  art-critic  ;  that  it  should  be  ugly  and 
outrd  seems,  in  fact,  to  be  a  positive  recommendation. 

A  general  retrospective  glance  over  the  whole  comparative  show  of 
paintings  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth,  the  English  painters  were,  and 
that  on  the  whole  they  are  now,  better  colourists  than  the  French. 
There  was  a  ghastly  interval,  no  doubt,  when  the  pictures  of  the  elder 
Leslie,  and  Maclise,  and  Ward,  and  Landseer,  passed  for  colour ; 4  and 
even  the  early  works  of  the  P.R.B.  produced  on  Philip  Hamerton's 
clever  French  wife,  when  she  accompanied  him  to  England,  a  feeling 
which  she  could  only  compare  to  '  setting  one's  teeth  into  unripe  fruit.' 
But  looking  round  the  walls  at  the  Franco-British  Exhibition,  and 
taking  the  average  of  the  two  collections,  it  seems  to  me  that  there 
is  better  colour,  and  more  of  the  sense  of  colour  harmony,  on  this  side 
of  the  Channel  than  on  the  other. 

It  is  worth  while  to  give  a  glance  at  the  architectural  designs  to  be 
found  in  a  narrow  gallery  in  each  suite.  The  two  collections  are 
characteristic  of  the  two  nations.  The  French  architects  can  hardly 
be  got  to  exhibit  drawings  of  the  current  architecture  of  the  day.  They 
produce  much  finer  and  larger  drawings  than  are  usually  produced 
in  England,  but  these  are  chiefly  of  restorations  of  ancient  buildings, 
or  highly  worked-up  illustrations  of  them,  many  of  the  latter  being 
made  for  the  archives  of  the  '  Commission  des  Monuments  Historiques.' 
That  is  always  the  defect  of  the  architectural  gallery  at  the  annual 
Salons  ;  you  get  very  little  idea  from  it  of  the  architecture  in  progress 
at  the  moment.  On  the  other  hand,  at  the  Academy,  hardly  anything 
is  supposed  to  be  exhibited  in  the  architectural  room  except  drawings 
of  buildings  executed,  or  in  contemplation  ;  and  at  the  Franco-British 
Exhibition  there  is  quite  a  representative  collection  of  drawings  of  the 
principal  English  buildings  recently  completed,  or  intended  to  be  carried 
out.  There  are  illustrations  of  a  good  deal  of  what  is  going  on  in 
London  in  the  way  of  new  street  architecture,  as  well  as  of  such  public 
buildings  as  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum,  the  London  County  Hall, 
the  Cardiff  Town  Hall,  the  new  Wesleyan  Methodist  Hall  at  West- 
minster, and  other  large  and  important  buildings.  The  collection 

4  This  with  all  deference  to  Landseer's  great  and  incontestable  powers  as  an 
animal  painter.  But  his  sense  of  colour  was  truly  Early- Victorian.  And  after  all, 
M.  Aim6  Morot's  lion  in  the  Franco-British  Gallery  would  eat  up  any  possible  lion  of 
Landseer's. 


1908      'ART  AT   FRANCO-BRITISH  EXHIBITION      275 

gives  a  pretty  good  resume  of  what  is  being  done  in  English  architecture, 
public  and  domestic,  at  present.  As  far  as  public  architecture  is 
concerned,  it  shows  that  classic  architecture,  or  architecture  based  on 
classic  forms,  is  in  the  ascendent  at  present ;  and  there  are  some  signs 
that  new  combinations  may  be  evolved  from  it.  For  public  buildings 
revived  Gothic  is  entirely  at  a  discount  now.  And  if  there  must  be  a 
revived  style,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  classic  type  of  archi- 
tecture is  more  suited  to  modern  public  buildings  in  England  than  the 
Gothic,  both  as  regards  practical  requirements  and  sentiment.  Our 
civilisation  and  habits  of  life  are  much  nearer  to  those  of  the  Roman 
or  Renaissance  periods  than  to  those  of  mediaeval  life.  There  may,  no 
doubt,  be  such  a  thing  as  a  modern  style  evolved  which  is  dependent 
upon  neither  form  of  precedent.  But  it  must  be  acknowledged  that 
there  is  not  much  sign  of  it  in  the  architectural  exhibits  at  Shepherd's 
Bush. 

Among  the  more  important  erections  in  the  grounds  is  the  '  Ville 
de  Paris '  pavilion,  built  for  the  special  exhibition  of  the  Municipality 
of  Paris,  and  no  doubt  designed  by  one  of  their  official  architects. 
Almost  needless  to  say,  it  is  one  of  the  best  designed  structures  in  the 
exhibition ;  refined  classic  architecture  with  some  good  decorative 
use  of  modelled  figures  in  the  round  and  in  bas-relief.  But,  alas  ! 
the '  Ville  de  Paris '  is  hopelessly  unpunctual.  In  the  Dublin  exhibition 
they  had  their  own  pavilion,  which,  a  month  after  the  opening  of  that 
exhibition,  was  still  closed  ;  and  at  the  time  this  is  written,  more  than 
two  months  after  the  official  opening,  the  '  Ville  de  Paris  '  pavilion 
is  still  not  ready.  Whenever  its  doors  are  opened,  it  will  probably  be 
found  to  be  one  of  the  most  interesting  special  exhibitions  in  the 
place.  Meantime,  we  can  take  a  glance  at  the  French  and  English 
pavilions  of  '  Applied  Arts.'  The  contents  of  these  do  not  exactly 
bear  out  their  name.  With  one  important  exception  (to  be  noted  just 
now)  they  do  not  represent  the  work  of  artists  in  applied  art.  If  they 
did,  we  should  feel  (patriotically)  happier.  For  no  nation  is  now 
producing  such  good  work,  in  such  things  as  jewellery  and  silver- 
smith's work,  as  English  artists  such  as  Mr.  Fisher,  Mr.  Nelson  Dawson, 
Miss  Steele,  and  others  are  doing,  combining  so  much  invention  with 
such  pure  taste.  The  jewellery  of  Lalique,  about  which  so  much  fuss 
lias  been  made  lately,  exquisite  as  it  is  in  execution,  is  false  and  tawdry 
in  taste  compared  with  the  best  English  work  ;  the  trail  of  the  article 
de  Paris  is  over  it  all.  But  it  is  not  in  these  pavilions  that  we  shall 
find  the  jewellery  or  silver  work  of  the  artist.  These  are  shop  ex- 
hibitions ;  the  productions  of  such  firms  as  Christofle,  and  Barbedienne, 
and  Mappin  and  Webb.  But  it  is  worth  while  comparing  the  results, 
which  are  significant.  In  the  French  pavilion  the  one  quality  which 
seems  to  be  aimed  at  before  anything  else  is  what  may  be  called  move- 
ment of  line — all  things  are  twisted,  convoluted,  restless  in  outline 
and  detail.  This  is  an  element  of  vulgarity,  but  it  cannot  be  denied 


276  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

that  there  is  a  pervading  quality  of  cleverness,  of  a  certain  '  go ' 
about  it.  In  the  English  pavilion  we  do  not  find  this  element  of 
vulgarity ;  there  is,  in  a  sense,  better  taste,  but  unhappily  the  good 
taste  is  entirely  of  a  negative  order ;  the  designs  are  absolutely  dull 
and  commonplace.  They  look  as  if  they  might  have  been  designed  by 
machinery,  and  that  at  all  events  cannot  be  said  of  the  French  work. 
The  latter  includes  some  finely  modelled  bronzes,  too,  replicas  of 
statuary  ;  and  Barbedienne's  miniature  reproductions  of  the  works 
of  Barye,  the  great  animal  sculptor,  are  distinctly  good.  But  the 
curious  thing  is  that  amid  all  this  shop  work  there  is  one  unpretending 
case,  which  no  one  looks  at,  containing  purely  artistic  work  of  the 
highest  class,  exhibited  by  the  French  '  Administration  des  Monnaies 
et  Medailles.'  Let  visitors  to  the  French  Applied  Art  pavilion  look 
at  this  work,  at  the  exquisite  art  displayed  in  the  modelling  of  the 
medals  by  MM.  Chaplain,  Roty,  Bottee,  Cariat,  and  others  of  the  French 
medal  engravers — sculptors  on  a  minute  scale — work  worth  all  the  other 
exhibits  in  the  room  put  together.  The  right  place  for  such  a  collection 
would  have  been  in  the  sculpture  hall,  not  in  a  trade  exhibition. 

The  British  Textiles  pavilion  does  not  show  much  in  the  way  of 
artistic  work.  It  is  worth  notice  how  far  more  artistic  are  the  patterns 
of  Manchester  goods  prepared  for  the  half-civilised  races  than  those 
for  home  use.  Almost  the  only  two  artistic  stuffs  of  the  kind  are  on 
lay  figures  of  Indian  wearers  ;  home  taste  seems  to  be  content  with 
simple  stripes  and  checks.  Among  the  contents  of  this  pavilion  is  a  little 
historic  exhibition  of  dresses  during  the  last  century,  enabling  us  to 
realise  the  hideousness  of  the  mid- Victorian  costume,  and  to  see  how 
Emma  Woodhouse  would  have  been  dressed  when  she  went  out  to 
dinner  at  Randalls.  One  or  two  of  the  dresses  of  that  early  Nine- 
teenth Century  period  are  very  pleasing,  and  say  much  for  the  taste 
of  the  day.  Nor  does  the  Women's  Work  pavilion  display  anything 
very  noticeable  in  the  way  of  artistic  design  ;  but  it  presents  a  contrast 
between  French  and  English  work  in  one  instance,  which  is  character- 
istic. There  is  an  exhibit  of  dresses  by  one  or  two  London  firms, 
which  impress  one  as  made  of  very  handsome  materials  cut  into  a 
satisfactory  shaping ;  but  in  the  dresses  exhibited  by  a  Biarritz 
firm  one  is  not  struck  either  by  the  richness  of  the  materials  or  by  any 
particular  line  that  the  eye  can  single  out,  but  by  a  charm  which  seems 
undefinable,  and  to  be  the  result  of  a  kind  of  happy  inspiration  rather 
than  of  formal  design.  The  contrast  is  rather  a  parallel  one  with 
that  between  the  contents  of  the  English  and  French  Applied  Art 
pavilions,  and  serves  again  to  illustrate  contrasts  of  national  character 
and  taste. 

The  Colonial  pavilions  contain  only  displays  of  useful  products, 
and  it  is  curious  to  observe  how  completely  the  artistic  instinct,  in  the 
method  of  displaying  them  and  of  decorating  the  buildings,  seems 
wanting  here.  We  have  triumphal  arches  of  wool  from  Australia, 


1908      ART  AT  FEANCO-BEITISH  EXHIBITION     277 

for  instance  ;  and  the  attempts  of  Canada  to  treat  the  interior  of  her 
pavilion  in  a  decorative  manner  are  the  worse  for  their  very  preten- 
tiousness, and  remind  one  of  that  dreadful  trophy  arch  which  Canada 
was  allowed  to  erect  in  Whitehall  at  the  period  of  the  Coronation.  The 
sense  of  Art  will  dawn  on  the  Colonial  mind  some  day,  no  doubt, 
but  the  time  is  not  yet. 

However,  we  must  not  be  too  superior,  for  we  can  be  as  Philistine 
ourselves  in  other  ways.  Music  is  also  an  art,  and  there  are  one  or  two 
good  bands  in  the  grounds.  That  they  should,  for  the  most  part,  play 
very  poor  music  is  perhaps  only  what  was  to  be  expected  in  a  place  of 
public  entertainment  in  this  country.  But  there  is  worse  than  that  to 
be  charged  against  them.  One  day  I  heard  from  a  distance  the  familiar 
strains  of  the  opening  of  the  finale  to  the  C  minor  Symphony,  started  by 
the  band  in  front  of  the  Fine  Art  pavilion,  and  moved  nearer  to  hear 
what  they  made  of  it.  The  first  thirty  or  forty  bars  were  played, 
as  far  as  the  end  of  the  intermediate  subject  (the  unison  passage 
leading  up  to  it  being  absolutely  vulgarised  by  the  omission  of  the 
contra  tempo  accent  which  gives  it  all  its  force) ;  the  principal  '  second 
subject '  was  omitted  entirely,  and  a  jump  made  to  a  few  bars  of  the 
prestissimo  passage  at  the  end,  which  concluded  the  performance.  No 
one  seemed  disturbed  ;  no  one  offered  to  throw  anything  at  the  band- 
master's head.  Is  such  a  piece  of  Vandalism  possible  in  any  other 
European  country  ?  No  ;  when  we  can  thus  hear  Beethoven's  grand- 
est finale  reduced  to  a  pot-pourri — 

Butchered  to  make  a  British  holiday — 

we  realise,  in  spite  of  the  word  '  Franco-British,'  that  we  are  in  England 
— very  much  in  England. 

H.  HEATHCOTE  STATHAM, 


278  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 


THE    CHASE    OF    THE    WILD    RED    DEER 
ON   EXMOOR 


IN  an  article  in  this  Review,  towards  the  close  of  the  last  season  on 
Exmoor,  Lord  Coleridge  described  with  hereditary  eloquence  a  stag- 
hunt  from  the  stag's  point  of  view.  Reduced  to  plain  prose  that  article 
tells  how  he  saw  a  stag  hunted  and  killed,  and  how  the  onlookers,  old 
and  young,  male  and  female,  lay  and  clerical,  all  seemed  to  enjoy  them- 
selves. But  the  sight  spoilt  the  pleasure  of  Lord  Coleridge's  walk. 
He  does  net  judge  us,  and  asks  us  to  think  kindly  of  him  in  return. 

Now  the  sport  of  stag-hunting  with  the  Devon  and  Somerset  is 
supported  by  the  practically  unanimous  opinion  of  the  countryside. 
It  attracts  hunting  men  from  every  county  in  England,  and  from  many 
foreign  countries  ;  and  not  hunting  men  alone,  but  men  distinguished 
in  politics,  literature,  law,  medicine,  and  the  Church.  Could  they  be 
consulted  I  believe  the  deer  would  support  it  too.  That,  I  own,  is 
matter  of  conjecture.  The  support  of  the  countryside  and  the  field 
is  undeniable,  and  that  support  implies  that  a  very  large  number  of 
good  men  and  women  look  on  stag-hunting  as  a  pursuit  which  none 
need  be  ashamed  to  enjoy.  The  object  of  this  article  is  to  show  the 
reasons  for  that  belief.  And  though  sentiment  operates  quite  as 
strongly  on  the  one  side  as  on  the  other,  I  wish  at  first  to  treat  the 
matter  on  the  strict  Benthamite  system  :  to  strike  a  balance  of  pains 
and  pleasures. 

Let  us  take  the  stag  first.  His  size  and  beauty  win  for  him  a 
degree  of  sympathy  that  is  not  extended  to  the  fox  or  hare.  And  an 
eminent  philosopher  propounds  a  curious  theory  that  the  cruelty 
of  killing  varies  with  the  nearness  of  the  animal  killed  to  man  on  the 
ladder  of  evolution ;  so  that  the  slayer  of  a  deer  is  more  guilty  than 
the  slayer  of  a  fish.  This  is  surely  moonshine.  It  is  more  reasonable 
to  say  that  the  amount  of  cruelty  varies  with  the  amount  of  pain 
inflicted,  and  I  know  of  no  evidence  to  show  that  a  large  animal  feels 
pain  more  intensely  than  a  small  one.  In  the  words  of  one  who  was 
no  mean  naturalist, 

The  poor  beetle  that  we  tread  upon 
In  corporal  sufferance  finds  a  pang  as  great 
As  when  a  giant  dies. 


1908        THE    WILD   RED  DEER   ON  EXMOOR          279 

It  is  always  the  custom  to  describe  a  stag  as  'the  noble  animal.' 
As  a  great  admirer,  I  regret  to  say  that  his  nobility  is  confined  to 
appearance,  and  does  not  extend  to  character.  If  the  truth  be  told 
he  is  a  selfish  old  fellow,  much  addicted  to  the  pleasures  of  the  table 
and  the  harem.  He  is  a  dreadful  bully  to  the  hinds  and  young  deer  ; 
and,  though  well  armed  by  nature,  is  a  poor  fighter  save  at  the  season 
when  the  lust  of  the  flesh  is  upon  him.  Now  in  satisfying  his  appetite 
he  does  a  great  deal  of  damage  to  crops.  Not  only  what  he  eats  but 
what  he  spoils  has  to  be  considered.  The  hunt  pays  some  1000Z. 
a  year  in  compensation,  and  there  are  rumours  that  the  sum  does  not 
cover  all  the  damage  done.  Yet  the  stag,  if  not  a  welcome,  is  usually 
an  unmolested  guest.  The  farmer  is  very  loyal  to  the  hunt,  and  though 
he  often  growls  he  seldom  shoots.  And  so  the  stags  have  the  best  of 
everything  for  years.  Some  live  to  a  ripe  old  age,  escaping  pursuit, 
or  at  all  events  capture,  in  the  summer,  looking  on  and  laughing  when 
hinds  are  hunted  in  the  winter.  There  was  an  old  nott  stag  on  Dunkery 
and  an  old  one-horned  stag  on  the  Quantocks,  well-known  characters 
both,  that  eluded  hounds  for  years.  For  even  when  a  stag  is  hunted 
it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  he  will  be  killed.  He  has  many  chances 
in  his  favour,  as  all  who  follow  the  hounds  know  well.  It  is  true  that 
it  is  the  business  of  those  responsible  for  the  hunt  to  make  the  odds 
against  him  as  great  as  possible.  Horses  must  be  fast  and  fit.  Hounds 
must  combine  drive  with  steadiness.  The  staff  must  thoroughly 
understand  their  work.  Then,  if  luck  is  with  the  pursuers,  to  kill  a 
stag  looks  easy.  It  is  not  really  so.  I  have  hunted  a  great  many 
deer  myself,  and  I  cannot  remember  a  day  when  at  some  period  or 
other  of  the  chase  I  did  not  expect  my  quarry  to  escape.  In  hunting 
a  stag,  if  you  make  two  mistakes  you  will  probably  lose  him  ;  you  will 
probably  lose  a  hind  if  you  make  one.  The  deer  indeed  has  many 
chances.  If  all  fail  him,  he  is  killed  with  as  much  speed  and  humanity 
as  possible.  He  has  lived  a  life  of  luxury  for  years,  and  has  a  bad 
half -hour  at  the  end.  From  his  point  of  view  surely,  the  pleasure 
predominates  over  the  pain.  For  if  it  were  not  for  the  hunting  he 
would  not  exist  at  all.  Everyone's  hand  would  be  against  him.  In 
the  middle  of  last  century,  when  stag-hunting  was  dropped  for  a  few 
years,  the  deer  very  nearly  became  extinct.  And  then  it  must  be 
remembered  that  one  animal  only  is  killed  to  "provide  sport  for 
hundreds.  I  do  not  wish  to  malign  other  sports.  But  compare  this 
with  the  shooting  man's  bag  of  pheasants  or  the  fisherman's  basket 
of  fish.  It  is  true  the  hinds  are  killed.  The  country  would  be  overrun 
with  deer,  were  they  not.  But  they  have  a  far  longer  period  of  grace 
before  and  after  the  birth  of  their  young  than  any  other  hunted  animal ; 
and  I  have  never  heard  of  a  hind  that  was  not  killed  being  any  the 
worse  for  being  hunted.  It  is  said  there  is  an  element  of  cruelty  in  all 
sport.  It  may  be  so,  and  in  all  life  as  well.  I  doubt  if  any  form  of 
sport  is  less  cruel  than  the  chase  of  the  deer. 


280  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Aug. 

I  have  tried  to  show  that  even  from  the  deer's  point  of  view  there 
is  much  to  be  said  in  favour  of  stag-hunting.  This  may  be  uncertain. 
But  it  is  quite  certain  that,  when  the  deer's  pain  has  been  considered, 
the  pain  side  of  the  account  is  exhausted.  There  is  absolutely  nothing 
else  that  can  be  said  against  the  sport.  But  there  is  a  great  deal  that 
can  be  said  in  its  favour.  As  already  stated,  it  is  supported  by  the 
practically  unanimous  opinion  of  the  countryside.  It  may  be  replied 
that  the  motive  of  the  countryside  is  self-interest.  And  that  is  the 
truth,  but  not  the  whole  truth.  It  is  perfectly  true  that  the  hunting 
of  the  deer  is  the  means  of  bringing  a  great  many  thousand  pounds 
into  the  district  every  summer.  The  number  of  people  mounted  at 
a  meet  in  August  or  September  varies  from  two  to  five  hundred. 
There  are  often  as  many  more  in  carriages  or  on  foot.  Nine-tenths 
of  these  people  are  visitors  on  a  summer  holiday — not  cheap  trippers 
who  think  they  are  being  done  at  every  turn,  but  rich  trippers  who 
spend  money  as  a  man  on  his  holiday  should.  It  is  obvious  that  this 
annual  influx  does  much  to  enrich  the  district.  And  material  pro- 
sperity is  not  to  be  altogether  disregarded.  But,  apart  from  that,  the 
Exmoor  villager  loves  the  hunting.  When  the  hounds  meet  at  some 
places  the  labourers  will  not  work  on  the  farms.  They  all  take  holiday 
to  see  the  sport.  The  children,  when  they  come  out  of  school,  play  at 
stag  and  hounds  in  the  road.  I  have  even  seen  the  word  '  hunting  ' 
solemnly  entered  on  a  school  attendance  sheet  as  an  excuse  for  absence. 
As  a  stranger  rides  home  he  is  surprised  at  being  asked  by  every 
passer-by, '  Did  you  kill  to-day  ?  ' — an  embarrassing  question  if  he  has 
got  thrown  out.  Labourers  in  the  fields  leave  their  work  if  the  hunt 
goes  by.  I  have  known  a  horse  taken  from  the  plough  and  ridden 
straight  on  after  hounds.  Should  a  town  or  village  be  passed,  the 
population  turns  out  as  one  man.  There  is  no  wish  for  gain  here. 
It  is  the  instinct  of  sport,  however  that  may  be  defined,  the  thrill 
and  excitement  caused  by  the  sight  and  sound  of  hounds  running, 
and  caused  by  nothing  else.  Probably  this  instinct  is  lacking  in 
many  people.  It  is  almost  universal  in  the  West  country.  And 
another  influence  should  not  be  forgotten.  The  hunt  can  trace  its 
history  for  several  centuries.  It  has  great  traditions  behind  it ;  and 
West  country  people  are  proud  of  their  traditions.  They  are  proud 
also  of  possessing  -something  which  nobody  else  does.  For  this  stag- 
hunting  is  unique.  In  no  other  country  in  the  world  is  a  wild  red 
deer  hunted  over  an  open  country.  And  so  people  come  from  all  over 
the  world  to  see  it ;  and  the  natives  of  the  country  are  kind  to  the 
strangers,  and  delight  in  telling  them  stories  of  the  hounds  and  the 
deer — some  true,  some  maybe  not.  And  if  stag-hunting  ceased  and 
the  deer  were  shot  down,  all  these  things  would  cease  too,  and  much 
pleasure  would  cease  with  them. 

And  now  we  come  to  the  pleasure  of  the  field — that  strange  field, 
unlike  anything  to  be  met  in  any  other  hunting  country.     For  the 


1908        THE    WILD*  RED  DEER   ON  EXMOOR          281 

stag  is  hunted  in  summer  when  men  make  holiday.  There  are  no 
fences  to  frighten  the  inexperienced  horseman.  So  many  come  who 
hunt  at  no  other  time,  and  many  horses  are  seen  that  nature  did  not 
mean  for  hunters.  Some  may  see  little  of  the  chase,  but  they  enjoy 
themselves  and  are  the  better  for  it.  For  Exmoor  is  a  health-giving 
place  ;  the  high  air  is  a  tonic  second  only  to  that  of  the  Alps.  And 
riding  is  healthy  exercise,  whether  the  rider  is  close  to  hounds  or  far 
away.  Many  a  pale,  tired-looking  man  have  I  seen  come  down  in 
August  to  go  back  to  chambers  or  office  two  months  later  with  face 
brown  and  muscles  hard,  ready  for  another  year's  work.  There  is 
much  truth  in  Jorrocks's 

Better  to  rove  in  fields  for  health  unbought 
Than  fee  the  doctor  for  a  nasty  draught. 

There  is  pleasure  in  it  too,  even  for  those  who  do  not  mean  to  ride 
hard.  They  meet  friends  in  that  informal  way  that  is  characteristic 
of  the  hunting  field.  They  picnic  at  Cloutsham  or  Haddon  while 
the  tufters  are  at  work  in  the  great  woodlands  ;  and  they  are  sur- 
rounded by  some  of  the  most  beautiful  scenery  in  the  world.  There 
is  beauty  too  in  much  of  the  hunting  that  anyone  may  see.  Stand 
by  the  farm  at  Cloutsham,  and  watch  the  scarlet  coats  of  the  huntsman 
and  whip  moving  about  the  tall  fern  of  Sweetworthy.  Now  and  then 
a  hound  is  visible  in  an  open  space.  Then  suddenly  a  great  body 
springs  up.  The  glad  notes  of  the  horn,  the  holloa  of  a  sporting 
farmer  with  that  shrill  note  only  heard  in  the  West  country,  and  the 
opening  cry  of  the  tufters  come  to  you  across  the  deep  combe.  You 
must  be  made  of  stone  if  your  pulses  do  not  beat  quicker.  Or  take 
another  scene.  I  remember  waiting  one  day  on  the  side  of  one  of  the 
deep  combes  that  runs  down  to  Chargot  Wood.  The  faint  note  of 
hounds  in  the  distance  told  that  a  deer  was  on  foot.  Suddenly,  on 
the  top  of  the  fence  deep  down  in  the  combe,  a  great  stag  appeared. 
There  he  stood  for  a  full  minute,  outlined  against  the  deep  green  of  the 
trees  behind  him,  as  still  as  the  few  watchers  on  the  hill  above,  then 
backed  into  the  wood  again,  to  reappear  a  few  hundred  yards  further 
off  and  bound  away  over  the  heather.  '  It  is  worth  coming  out  just 
to  see  that,'  said  a  good  sportsman  beside  me  who  had  ridden  fifteen 
miles  to  the  meet. 

And  then  there  is  the  pleasure  of  riding  to  hounds.  To  many  to 
ride  at  all  is  a  source  of  keen  enjoyment.  But  the  enjoyment  is  greatly 
enhanced  when  hounds  are  running.  For  then  the  feeling  of  emula- 
tion comes  in.  The  rider  is  trying  to  play  the  game  a  little  better 
than  others  ;  and  riding  to  hounds  on  Exmoor  is  not  altogether  an 
easy  game.  The  runs  are  often  long  enough  to  tire  the  best  of  horses  ; 
the  hills  are  steep  ;  the  ground  is  rough.  Frequently  you  cannot  ride 
just  where  the  hounds  go.  To  see  all  that  can  be  seen  of  a  run  you 
must  '  bucket '  your  horse  downhill,  you  must  ease  him  up,  you  must 


282  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

steady  him  over  rough  or  boggy  ground  just  enough  to  save  a  fall, 
but  not  too  much,  or  you  will  be  left  behind.  You  must  remember 
the  lie  of  the  land  to  know  where  you  can  go,  and  where  you  cannot. 
If  you  cannot  follow  hounds  exactly  you  must  decide  at  once  whether 
to  go  right  or  left  of  them  ;  and  you  must  have  your  eyes  very  wide 
open  all  the  time  to  look  for  any  distant  object  that  may  modify  your 
course.  In  fact  you  want  horsemanship,  memory,  quickness  and 
eyesight.  These  are  all  valuable  qualities,  as  we  discovered  in  South 
Africa.  There  one  of  our  generals  remarked  that  a  Boer  could  see 
about  twice  as  far  as  an  Englishman.  An  Exmoor  training  would 
do  much  to  correct  that  inequality.  But,  apart  from  utility,  to  excel 
in  these  things  is  what  Englishmen  enjoy.  And  they  enjoy  talking 
about  it  all  afterwards.  In  the  summary  of  the  pleasures  of  the 
chase,  the  chat  on  the  way  home  and  the  discussion  in  the  smoking 
room  after  dinner  must  never  be  omitted.  All  these  pleasures  are 
hard  to  analyse,  but  very  real.  If  it  was  not  so  the  same  people 
would  not  return  year  after  year  to  enjoy  them. 

So  far  I  have  tried  to  discuss  stag-hunting  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  deer,  from  that  of  the  countryside,  and  from  that  of  the  field. 
I  think  I  have  already  shown  that  the  pleasure  resulting  from  it  is 
far  greater  than  the  pain  it  causes.  But  the  keenest  pleasure  of  all 
is  reserved  for  the  initiated  few,  the  sporting  farmers,  the  old  in- 
habitants, some  constant  visitors,  and  those  intimately  connected 
with  the  hunt.  To  them  the  ride  is  a  secondary  affair.  They  love 
the  genuine  sport,  the  matching  of  the  endurance  and  cleverness  of 
hounds  and  men  against  those  of  a  very  strong  and  very  cunning 
wild  animal.  To  these  every  detail  of  a  day's  hunting  possesses  an 
extraordinary  interest  and  fascination.  There  is  first  of  all  the 
harbouring.  That  is  one  man's  work ;  and  he  must  be  a  man  of  the 
greatest  skill  and  experience,  or  the  day's  sport  will  probably  be  spoilt. 
His  duty  is  to  tell  the  master  where  to  find  a  deer  that  very  likely 
he  has  never  seen,  and  what  that  deer  will  look  like  when  he  is  seen. 
The  system  on  which  he  works  is  described  in  many  books ;  but  to  see 
it  in  detail,  and  to  test  whether  he  is  right  or  wrong,  is  a  bit  of  wood- 
craft in  which  there  is  infinite  variety  and  interest.  Whether  the 
expected  stag  is  there  at  all,  whether  he  is  alone  or  with  other  deer, 
whether  he  is  in  the  depths  of  the  big  covert,  or  lying  in  the  fern, 
or  in  the  little  copse  close  by :  these  are  all  questions  on  which  the 
likelihood  of  a  successful  day  depends.  Then,  when  a  deer  is  roused, 
there  is  a  time  of  tense  excitement  till  it  is  known  whether  it  is  the 
right  deer  or  not.  And  that  only  the  initiated  can  tell.  For  stags  are 
not  hunted  till  they  are  five  years  old,  and  it  is  no  easy  matter  to  tell 
a  stag's  age  when  he  is  moving  and  not  very  close.  Even  the  points 
on  his  head  are  very  difficult  to  count,  and  some  old  stags  have  no 
points  on  top  at  all — a  most  unkind  trap  for  the  unwary.  And  some- 
times a  stag  will  go  away  without  being  seen  at  all,  and  then  the  slot 


1908        THE    WILD  RED  DEER   ON  EXMOOE          288 

alone  can  say  whether  he  is  fit  to  run  or  not.  But  this  ought  not  to 
happen.  Someone  ought  to  be  in  the  right  place,  not  only  to  see  him, 
but  to  stop  the  tufters.  And  this  is  even  more  important  than  seeing 
the  stag ;  for  if  a  single  tufter  is  allowed  to  go  on  he  spoils  the  scent 
when  the  pack  is  laid  on.  For  the  benefit  of  the  uninitiated  it  should 
be  explained  that  only  a  few  old  hounds  are  used  as  tufters  to  find  the 
deer ;  and  the  rest  of  the  pack  does  not  generally  come  into  play  till 
he  breaks  covert.  These  old  hounds  should  obey  the  voice.  There 
should  be  no  need  of  whipcord.  A  Russian  master  of  hounds  who 
was  among  our  visitors  one  year  was  more  impressed  with  the  ease 
with  which  hounds  were  stopped  than  with  any  other  part  of  the 
day's  sport.  In  all  the  work  that  is  done  before  laying  on  the  pack 
the  field  takes  no  part.  These  preliminaries  and  the  choice  of  the 
right  moment  at  which  to  lay  on  look  easy  when  all  goes  right ;  but 
they  are  a  science  in  themselves,  and  a  most  interesting  science  too. 

But  suppose  the  preliminaries  over,  the  pack  laid  on,  and  the  chase 
begun.  Now  is  the  time  to  see  how  the  young  hounds  enter.  Many 
of  them  will  dash  to  the  front  at  first ;  there  is  a  moment  of  anxiety 
when  a  flock  of  sheep  runs  in  front  of  them,  for  the  one  unpardonable 
crime  in  a  staghound  is  to  take  the  line  of  a  sheep.  But  there  is  the 
keenest  delight  when  two  young  hounds  seem  to  run  the  line  of  the  sheep 
for  a  few  yards,  then  branch  off  up  a  narrow  path,  where  the  slot  shows 
the  stag  has  gone.  So  hounds  run  on  through  the  covert  or  over  the 
moor,  and  the  horsemen  gallop  to  their  heart's  content ;  but  presently 
there  is  a  check  at  the  water.  The  deer  has  come  to  a  stream,  and  gone 
up  or  down.  And  now  comes  one  of  the  most  fascinating  features  of 
the  pursuit,  hunting  the  water.  Perhaps  the  leading  hounds  will  dash 
confidently  downstream ;  but  an  older  one,  not  quite  so  fast  as  he 
was,  knows  better.  He  goes  up  the  water  very  slowly  and  carefully, 
sniffing  at  every  bush  and  overhanging  tuft  of  grass,  and  at  last  gives 
a  deep  note  that  proclaims  that  he  is  right  and  those  young  headstrong 
fools  are  wrong.  Or  perhaps  hounds  can  make  nothing  of  it,  and  the 
huntsman  has  to  cast  up  or  down  as  the  spirit  moves  him.  He  will 
send  a  whip  on  to  try  and  view  the  deer,  or  find  out  if  anyone  else  has 
done  so.  If  that  succeeds,  of  course,  the  task  is  simple  ;  but  if  there 
is  no  news,  hounds  must  be  divided  between  the  two  banks  of  the 
stream,  the  stones  must  be  watched  to  see  if  there  are  splashes  on  them, 
and  bars  that  cross  the  river  carefully  examined  for  traces  of  a  deer's 
passage  under  them.  At  times  enclosed  land  may  be  encountered 
where  the  huntsman  cannot  ride,  but  has  to  get  off  and  walk.  On 
one  occasion  a  deer  took  to  the  Mole  near  South  Molton,  and  went  down 
the  river  for  seven  miles  without  being  seen.  At  one  place  a  sporting 
farmer  found  a  hair  from  a  deer's  coat  on  a  bar.  With  that  exception 
there  was  no  sign  for  all  that  distance  save  that  hounds  did  not  take 
a  line  on  either  bank.  At  the  end  of  seven  miles  they  hit  the  line  where 
he  left  the  water  and  killed  him  soon  after.  On  another  occasion  the 


284  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

hunted  stag  escaped  by  going  straight  down  a  stream  and  either  over 
or  under  some  bars  where  it  seemed  impossible  for  a  deer  to  pass 
without  leaving  some  trace.  On  coming  to  the  bars,  hounds  were 
taken  back  to  be  cast  elsewhere ;  but  next  day  news  came  that  the 
stag  had  gone  straight  on. 

The  water  is  one  of  the  difficulties  to  be  overcome  in  hunting  a 
deer.  Another  and  even  greater  arises  from  the  chance  of  getting  on 
fresh  deer.  This  may  happen  in  a  covert.  Hounds  may  run  a  line 
all  through,  but  when  they  come  out  a  fresh  deer  is  in  front  of  them. 
Then  one  of  three  things  may  have  happened.  The  hunted  stag  may 
have  remained  in  the  covert ;  he  may  have  gone  out  in  front  of  the 
fresh  deer ;  or  he  may  have  gone  out  somewhere  else.  Here  some 
of  the  best  hound  work  may  be  seen.  Frequently  the  situation  is 
saved  by  a  few  old  hounds,  who  stick  to  the  line  of  the  hunted  deer  when 
the  rest  of  the  pack  is  after  the  fresh  one.  The  French  hounds  are 
better  than  ours  in  this  respect.  There  are  in  a  French  pack  a  certain 
number  of  chiens  de  change  that  will  stick  to  the  hunted  deer,  no  matter 
how  many  others  intervene.  We  have  never  got  so  far  as  that ;  but 
then  I  am  told  that  if  you  want  to  hunt  a  second  deer  in  a  day  the 
chiens  de  change  will  not  hunt  at  all.  If  the  hounds  cannot  put  him 
right,  the  huntsman  has  to  take  the  situation  in  hand.  He  will  send 
one  or  two  men  that  he  can  trust  to  try  and  slot  the  deer  across  any 
neighbouring  road.  If  there  is  a  stream  close  by  he  will  take  hounds 
there  and  cast  along  the  water  ;  for  a  hunted  deer  will  probably  have 
gone  there.  If  he  can  make  nothing  of  it  forward  his  only  resource  is 
to  go  back  and  draw  the  covert — &  somewhat  forlorn  hope  if  there  are 
many  deer  about.  But,  great  as  the  difficulties  are  in  covert,  they  are 
even  greater  when  hounds  come  on  fresh  deer  in  the  open.  Then  the 
hunted  deer  may  have  joined  the  herd,  or  may  be  ahead  of  them. 
Unless  someone  can  get  close  enough  to  see,  it  is  impossible  to  tell  which 
is  the  case.  In  any  case  it  is  best  to  stop  hounds.  Before  long  the 
herd  will  probably  stop  too.  Then  someone  must  be  sent  on  to  get 
as  close  as  possible,  and  see  if  he  can  recognise  the  hunted  deer  in 
the  herd.  If  he  is  not  there  the  best  chance  is  to  cast  the  nearest 
stream  ahead,  and  try  to  hit  a  line  from  the  water.  If  he  has  joined 
the  her.d,  he  may  possibly  run  with  them  for  miles,  but  probably  will 
leave  them  before  very  long.  As  a  rule,  a  stag  will  not  remain  long 
with  a  herd  of  hinds,  nor  a  hind  with  a  herd  of  stags.  The  essential 
thing  is  that  someone  should  be  in  the  right  place  to  see  him  when  he 
leaves  the  herd.  I  remember  one  day  tufting  on  the  open  moor,  and 
rousing  a  good  stag  with  six  hinds.  They  went  away  together.  I 
stopped  the  hounds  and  sent  a  whip  to  ride  after  the  deer.  After 
giving  them  about  five  minutes  law  I  let  the  hounds  go.  The  deer 
ran  together  for  about  two  miles ;  then  on  the  side  of  a  deep  combe  the 
stag  lay  down  in  the  fern,  while  the  hinds  went  on.  The  whip  saw  what 
happened,  and  the  day  was  saved. 


1908        THE .  WILD  RED  DEER   ON  EXMOOR          285 

To  these  difficulties,  which  are  peculiar  to  stag-hunting,  must  be 
added  one  that  is  common  to  all  forms  of  hunting — that  is,  working 
out  the  twists  and  turns  made  by  the  hunted  animal,  especially  when 
sinking.  There  are  periods  in  the  course  of  most  hunts  when  the  deer 
seems  hopelessly  lost.  The  huntsman  knows  that  he  has  neither 
gone  to  ground  nor  climbed  a  tree,  and  so  far  has  the  advantage 
over  his  fox-hunting  colleague  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  fox-hunter 
can  draw  for  another  f ox,whereas  one  stag  is  usually  enough  for  one  day. 
And  so  it  often  happens  that  a  deer  is  an  hour  or  more  ahead  of  hounds. 
He  has  then  plenty  of  time  to  make  arrangements  for  baffling  his 
enemies.  Sometimes  he  will  run  along  a  road,  then  come  back  on  his 
own  tracks,  sometimes  go  up  to  a  fence,  but,  instead  of  jumping,  run 
down  beside  it,  either  to  jump  or  turn  back  further  on.  Sometimes 
he  will  make  an  enormous  bound  into  thick  gorse  or  coppice,  and  lie 
there  concealed,  not  moving  unless  hounds  or  man  come  actually  on 
top  of  him.  But  the  most  perplexing  case  of  all  is  when  a  deer  beats 
back  on  his  own  tracks  for  perhaps  half  a  mile.  Hounds  and  horse- 
men coming  on  the  forward  line  completely  obliterate  the  scent  in  the 
opposite  direction.  I  remember  a  hind  baffling  hounds  near  Cothel- 
stone  for  an  hour  and  a  half  by  that  manoeuvre.  An  old  hound  then 
put  her  out  of  a  patch  of  gorse  within  a  few  yards  of  where  the  whole 
hunt  had  come  along.  It  is  the  slow  hunting  after  a  deer  a  long  way 
ahead  that  appeals  to  the  old  stag-hunter,  while  it  may  bore  the  hard- 
riding  stranger.  Every  time  the  line  is  recovered  is  a  triumph  for 
hounds  and  huntsman  ;  and  when,  after  long  hours  of  patient  work, 
sometimes  under  a  scorching  sun,  sometimes  in  pouring  rain,  the 
occasional  notes  of  hounds  slowly  working  out  the  line  suddenly  change 
into  the  frantic  chorus  that  proclaims  a  fresh  find,  the  stag-hunter,  old 
or  young,  gets  those  few  moments  of  delirious  excitement  which  are  the 
acme  of  every  form  of  sport.  Even  then  it  may  not  be  all  over. 
It  is  possible  that  hounds  have  put  up,  not  the  hunted  deer,  but  a  fresh 
one.  It  may  be  that  those  who  see  the  deer  cannot  be  sure  ;  for  after 
a  long  rest  a  hunted  deer  may  look  quite  fresh.  Then  watch  the 
hounds.  If  the  old  hounds,  outpaced  earlier  in  the  day,  are  dashing  to 
the  front,  you  may  be  sure  they  have  a  sinking  deer  in  front  of  them. 
Some  two  years  ago,  on  a  very  hot  day,  hounds  were  laid  on  at  Yard 
Down  about  three  in  the  afternoon.  They  ran  right  across  the  moor 
to  Lord  Lovelace's  plantation.  There  fresh  deer  were  on  foot  and 
difficulties  ensued.  After  some  time  hounds  drove  a  stag  up  from 
the  depths  of  the  covert.  He  had  two  short  points  on  either  horn. 
So  had  the  hunted  stag  ;  so  have  countless  others.  It  was  uncertain 
at  first  whether  this  was  a  fresh  deer  or  not ;  but  when  hounds  came 
up  after  him  there  were  old  hounds  that  had  been  tufting  for  three 
hours  in  the  morning  driving  at  the  head  of  the  pack.  There  was  no 
doubt  then,  and  the  stag  was  killed  at  Porlock  just  before  dark. 

I  have  tried  to  describe  the  fascination  and  difficulties  of  hunting  a 
VOL.  LXIV— No.  378  U 


286  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

stag.  They  must  have  come  home  forcibly  to  all  who  took  part  in  a 
run  from  Cutcombe  on  October  6,  1906.  On  that  day  we  started 
with  three  stags,  and  ran  them  into  a  wet  mist.  We  emerged  after  one 
of  them.  Then  a  false  holloa  gave  the  stag  a  long  start.  After  that  we 
twice  got  on  fresh  deer.  Once  a  clever  bit  of  slotting  set  things  right. 
Once  a  sage  old  hound  stuck  to  the  line  of  the  hunted  deer  while  all 
his  fellows  went  wrong.  Then  followed  a  tortuous  line  over  heathery 
enclosures.  It  was  all  slow  hunting,  each  hound  doing  his  very  best. 
Presently  they  came  to  a  marshy  bottom.  We  had  to  go  round,  and 
lost  sight  of  them  for  a  few  minutes.  We  were  in  a  country  seldom 
reached  by  stag-hounds,  and  had  run  a  thirteen-mile  point.  We  were 
wondering  where  we  should  get  to  next,  when  suddenly  from  the  other 
side  of  the  swamp  came  the  sound  of  hounds  baying.  They  had  come 
right  up  to  the  stag  in  a  pool  beside  a  great  beech  fence.  All  was  soon 
over  then,  and  we  found  it  was  the  biggest  of  the  three  that  had  been 
roused  nearly  five  hours  before.  It  was  a  very  contented  little  band 
that  gathered  round  the  fallen  monarch.  For  to  kill  your  deer  is 
success ;  to  lose  him  is  failure ;  and  the  greater  the  difficulties  the 
sweeter  the  success  when  it  comes. 

Such  are  the  pleasures  of  the  chase  of  the  deer ;  and  the  memory 
of  these  things  is  pleasant  too.  The  stag  roused  after  a  long  draw,  the 
quick  gallop  over  the  moor,  the  long  check,  the  fresh  find,  the  last  wild 
rush  down  the  water,  and  the  long  ride  home,  very  tired,  very  wet, 
very  hungry,  maybe  a  little  thirsty,  but,  above  all,  very  happy.  Such 
recollections  are  dear  to  many  ;  and  with  them  I  make  bold  to  say,  the 
association  is  not  of  cruelty,  but  of  good  fellowship,  good  health,  great 
endeavour,  and  great  enjoyment.  If  any  doubt  me,  let  him  come 
and  see  for  himself.  The  season  begins  on  the  5th  of  August.  Felix 
faustumque  sit. 

E.  A.  SANDERS. 


1908 


THE  NEO-ROYALIST  MOVEMENT  IN 
FRANCE 


VERY  few  readers  will,  I  am  sure,  glance  at  this  preposterous  title 
without  feeling  either  surprise  or  distrust.  The  day  is  far  when  the 
Republican  constitution  seemed  so  much  a  fact  of  yesterday  that  it 
could  hardly  be  expected  to  be  one  of  to-morrow,  when  the  notion  that 
there  is  a  radical  incompatibility  between  the  French  temperament  and 
democratic  institutions  was  regarded  as  an  incontrovertible  principle, 
and  when  you  could  rouse  the  whole  country  by  the  mere  mention  of  a 
Royalist  plot.  Who  remembers  now  that  the  Republic  was  actually 
founded  by  Royalists,  who  thought  that  a  few  years  of  that  harmless 
and  ephemeral  government  might  give  them  time  to  adjust  their 
internal  difficulties  ?  Who  remembers  their  disgust,  and,  soon  after, 
their  rage  at  finding  themselves  caught  in  their  own  snares  ?  What 
used  to  be  called  the  Conservative  party  seems  to  belong — does,  indeed, 
belong — to  a  generation  gone.  The  idea  that  a  Due  de  Broglie  was 
a  Republican  Premier  seems  an  absurdity.  Nineteen  peasants  out  of 
twenty  ignore  the  very  name  of  the  Due  d'Orleans.  Ask  the  average 
journalist — nay,  the  average  Deputy — who  is  the  present  Royalist 
leader  in  Parliament.  He  will  be  silent  for  a  minute,  and  at  last 
will  hesitate  between  two  or  three  names.  You  could  count  on  the 
fingers  of  one  hand  the  Royalists  who  get  themselves  returned  to 
the  Chamber  under  their  own  ticket.  Every  now  and  then  the 
Gaulois  announces  that  the  Due  d'Orleans  is  cruising  in  the  North  Sea, 
or  doing  Napoleon's  battle-fields  under  the  guidance  of  a  retired  general, 
and  all  the  papers  print  the  news  in  their  fashionable  column,  but  it 
awakes  less  interest  than  the  expeditions  of  the  Prince  of  Monaco. 
The  Legitimist  feeling  is  dead,  and  the  Royalist  party  gone  ;  nobody 
deplores  that  the  Pretender  is  childless. 

What  interest  can  the  present  writer  hope  to  gain  to  a  revival  of  the 
monarchist  ideal  by  thus  prefacing  what  he  has  to  say  ?  Who  will 
listen  to  the  praise  or  dispraise  of  Orlando's  mare  ? 

The  fact  is  that  the  curious  phenomenon  to  which  I  would  invite 
attention  seems,  in  its  present  stage,  to  be  exclusively  of  speculative 
import.  It  is  an  intellectual  rather  than  a  political  manifestation, 

287  u  2 


288      .  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug 

but  as  such  it  has  taken  a  development  which  can  no  longer  be  left 
unnoticed. 

The  old  Royalist  party  was  virtually  destroyed  by  the  Boulangist 
catastrophe  and  by  the  famous  encyclical  of  Leo  the  Thirteenth  on 
Republican  loyalism  a  duty  to  Catholics.  With  a  very  few  exceptions  the 
Royalists  could  never  account  very  clearly  for  their  hopes.     They  felt 
sure  that  the  Republic  could  not  last,  that  was  all.     The  deeply  religious 
Comte  de  Chambord  waited  for  '  God's  hour,'  just  as  the  more  fatalist 
Due  d'Orleans  still  waits  for  the  *  shifting  of  the  wind  * ;  but  both  Le- 
gitimists and  Orleanists  have  never  ceased  to  associate  in  their  minds 
the  Restoration  with  some  sudden  transformation  of  the  public  spirit. 
To  the  typical  Royalist  nobleman  the  Republic  is  a  government  of 
underbred  individuals,  occasionally  exposed  by  an  accident  like  the 
Panama  affair,  and  caring  more  for  their  profits  than  for  their  politics. 
Such  a  man  must  feel  sure  that  even  the  rudest  peasant  cannot  but 
realise  some  day  the  unworthiness  of  his  masters,  and,  by  a  natural 
consequence,  go  back  to  his  old  leaders.     Never  were  hopes  of  this 
sort  so  near  their  fulfilment  as  in  the  eventful  summer  when  General 
Boulanger  declared  war  on  the  Government,  got  elected  by  thirty  con- 
stituencies,   showed   himself  in   triumph   everywhere,    and   seemed 
to  have  only  to  raise  his  finger  to  give  the  signal  for  the  universal 
rising.      Unfortunately  the  so-called  dictator,  who  it  was  confidently 
asserted  in  Royalist  circles  was  only  a  condottiere  in  the  Orleans'  pay, 
instead  of  marching  into  the  Elysee  thought  it  safer  to  take  lodgings 
in  Piccadilly,  and  the  discomfited  spectators  of  this  gigantic  farce 
once  more  sought  refuge  in  their  hopes  and  obscurity.     Such  a  lesson 
is  often  lost  on  men  of  fifty,  but  never  on  their  sons,  and  the  younger 
generation  only  looked  on  with  sceptical  smiles  when  honest  Derouldde 
made  his  quixotic  gesture,  and  when  the  gallant  but  lamentably  light- 
headed Major  Marchand  pretended  to  bestride  Boulanger's  legendary 
horse.     One  great  hope  of  the  Royalists  had  always  been  the  secular 
alliance  of  the  Throne  and  the  Altar.     The  doctrine  of  Divine  right 
had  long  been  taught  in  the  seminaries  as  one  which  it  bordered 
upon  heresy  to  deny,  and  the  efforts  of  Lacordaire,  Montalembert,  and 
the  rest  of  the  Liberal  school  have  failed  to  persuade  the  majority  of 
Catholics  that  the  words  Republic  and  Revolution  were  not  synony- 
mous, and  one  could  be  religious  without  praying  for  a  resurrection  of 
the  ancien  regime.     In  default  of  a  definite  programme,  which  the 
Conservative  party  never  boasted  of,  such  a  conviction  was  a  powerful 
bond,  and  the  two  hundred  members  of  the  Right  appeared  a  rather 
formidable  Opposition.     The  encyclical  of  February  1892,  which  Pope 
Leo  the  Thirteenth  had  designed  as  the  charter  of  unity,  proved  the 
very  reverse.     The  Royalists  had  appealed  to  the  Pope's  authority  as 
long  as  it  seemed  to  support  their  policy  ;  the  moment  they  heard  that 
the  things  of  earth  ought  not  to  be  mixed  up  with  those  of  heaven,  they 
retired  to  their  country  seats  to  sulk  and  mope,  got  the  theologians  in 


1908    NEO-ROYAL1ST  MOVEMENT  IN  FRANCE      289 

their  persuasion  to  write  treatises  against  pontifical  interference,  and 
stopped  their  contribution  to  Peter's  Pence. 

A  few  years  of  this  highly  edifying  conduct  were  sufficient  to 
alienate  the  younger  clergy,  suddenly  become,  by  a  mysterious  process, 
quite  democratic  in  tendency,  break  up  the  remnants  of  the  Opposition, 
and  add  another  element  of  confusion  to  the  vast  seething  of  appetites, 
prejudices,  and  hatreds  of  which  France  was  unfortunately  the  scene 
in  the  last  years  of  the  past  century.  During  the  last  two  Parliaments 
monarchist  opposition  has  consisted  exclusively  in  teasing  the  Govern- 
ment by  a  violent  outcry  against  now  their  weakness,  now  their  tyranny, 
their  unmanly  fear  of  Germany,  or  their  colonial  foolhardiness, 
against  Clemenceau  as  well  as  Combes,  comfortably  irrespective  of 
times,  men,  and  affairs.  This  childish  attitude  has  long  been  beneath 
notice,  and  the  soberer  members  of  the  aristocracy  as  soon  as  they 
come  in  contact  with  the  solid  realities  of  modern  life  carefully  avoid 
to  call  themselves  more  than  traditionally  monarchists.  There  are 
among  them  several  able  historians,  whose  favourite  study  is  naturally 
the  France  of  the  kings,  but  they  are  sufficiently  interested  in  the  past 
and  present  to  let  the  future  alone. 

At  the  very  moment  when  the  Royalist  feeling  was  growing  so 
torpid  as  to  seem  dormant  for  ever  the  Royalist  ideals  were  reappear- 
ing in  quarters  where  they  were  the  most  unexpected.  The  tendency 
of  the  French  youth  to  speculate,  analyse,  and  generalise  has  been 
evident  since  the  days  of  the  early  Romanticists.  Each  successive 
generation  sees  dozens  of  schools  of  French  thought  triumph  in  the 
Latin  quarter.  Year  after  year  the  final  formula  of  the  literary  beau 
ideal  is  discovered  by  some  genius  under  age,  and  sounded  to  the 
echoes  of  the  Montagne  Sainte-Genevieve  by  a  few  score  of  clamorous 
admirers.  Every  now  and  then  the  public  is  deceived  by  all  this  up- 
roar, and  the  utterances  of  a  M.  Lajeunesse  or  a  M.  Saint  Georges 
Bouhelier  are  discussed  in  the  Mercure  de  France  until — the  master- 
pieces designed  to  illustrate  the  theories  not  forthcoming — the  theories 
are  superseded  by  newfangled  philosophies  of  art,  and  their  inventors 
find  themselves  old  by  the  time  they  are  five-and-twenty. 

One  of  the  most  flourishing  of  these  short-lived  little  sects  was 
undoubtedly  one  called  Neo-Christians,  alias  Buddhists.  It  had 
been  founded  by  a  most  estimable  professor  at  the  College  Stanislas, 
M.  Paul  Desjardins,  who,  while  holding  the  tenets  of  Christianity  too 
obsolete  to  be  preached,  proved  by  his  life  and  speeches  that  Christian 
morals  add  greatly  to  a  man's  elegance.  Tolstoism  is  one  of  those 
doctrines  which  are  bound  to  be  re-invented  and,  to  the  credit  of 
human  nature,  relived  by  many  distinguished  individuals,  as  long  as 
the  Gospel  remains  the  Book  of  Mankind.  But  the  moment  it  becomes 
a  watchword  the  consequences  must  always  be  pretences  of  all  sorts. 
Goodness  is  not  to  be  worn  by  everybody  like  a  fashionable  hat. 
In  fact,  the  disciples  of  M.  Desjardins  soon  grew  weary  of  playing 


290  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

at  asceticism,  and  retreated  on  the  lower  planes  of  politics  and  litera- 
ture, where  they  professed  themselves  individualists  and  Ibsenites. 

The  common  dogma  of  all  Rousseauesque  varieties  is  the  superiority 
of  the  individual  over  society,  of  impulse  over  authority,  and  of  the 
intimately  felt  over  the  artificially  superimposed.  The  Dreyfus  affair 
becoming  the  all-ruling  interest  just  when  Tolstoism  was  passing 
into  individualism,  on  which  side  were  the  youthful  individualists 
likely  to  be  ?  Naturally  on  the  side  of  the  wronged  individual  against 
the  oppressive  collectivity,  tribunals,  codes,  &c.  So  M.  Desjardins's 
congregation  was  violently  Dreyfusist. 

It  was  all  very  well  as  long  as  Dreyfusism  only  meant  the  innocence 
of  Captain  Dreyfus  ;  but  the  purely  judicial  case  soon  became,  as 
everybody  remembers,  a  political  affair,  in  which  individualism,  i.e. 
in  most  cases,  prejudices  of  all  sorts  and  ugly  appetites — could 
give  itself  free  scope.  It  is  a  most  unfortunate  fact  that  the  direct 
political  offspring  of  Dreyfusism  was  M.  Combes's  Thirty  Months' 
Terror,  with  its  expulsions  and  confiscations,  with  General  Andre's 
espionage  and  M.  Pelletan's  methodical  disorganisation  of  the  Navy, 
with  its  wholesale  anti-militarism  and  anti-patriotism. 

All  these  untoward  results  did  not  become  manifest  until  the  panic 
which  caused  M.  Delcasse  to  be  thrown  overboard,  but  they  had 
been  foreseen  by  many  who  saw  that  France  was  at  stake.  Then 
it  was  that,  according  to  a  well-informed  but  undoubtedly  biassed 
historian  of  Neo-Royalism — M.  Maurras — the  individualist  club  which 
had  gone  on  analysing,  generalising,  and  respectfully  realising  their 
inward  modifications  became  aware — at  least  some  of  its  members 
did — that  they  had  been  helping  in  a  dreadfully  negative  work,  and, 
by  one  sudden  impulse,  went  round  from  the  pole  of  individualism  to 
the  extreme  of  Neo-Royalism,  where  they  seem  to  have  been  fairly 
pleased  with  themselves  ever  since.  They  were  led  by  two  young 
men — MM.  Vaugeois  and  Moreau — whose  names  are  very  well  known 
at  present,  but  whose  talents  never  appeared  of  the  first  order,  and  their 
reasoning — for  without  reasoning  they  do  nothing — was  as  follows  : 

Individualism — so  they  reasoned — is  after  all  lawlessness,  and 
lawlessness  is  only  the  chance,  not  of  clever  young  Frenchmen  who 
have  an  undisputed  right  to  come  through,  but  above  all  of  a  set  of 
nondescripts,  Hebrews,  and  mcteques  '  of  all  sorts  who  push  themselves 
forward  and  help  themselves  to  the  best  of  everything  in  the  country. 
To  this  unendurable  consequence  of  individualism  there  is  only  one 
remedy.  The  nation  must  rise  against  the  individual  and  crush  him 
under  its  weight.  Everything  must  be  judged  from  the  standpoint 
of  national  welfare  and,  when  necessary,  sacrificed  to  it.  This  was 
the  first  principle  of  what  was  called  conscious  integral  nationalism, 
and  since  the  first  months  of  1898  it  has  been  the  key-note  of  thousands 

1  The  word  is  of  M.  Maurras's  coining  and  seems  rather  a  felicitous  insult.  The 
Neo-Boyalists  apply  it  to  all  aliens  trying  to  pass  themselves  oft  as  Frenchmen. 


1908    NEO-ROYALIST  MOVEMENT  IN  FRANCE      291 

of  articles  and  addresses  written  and  delivered  by  the  adherents  of  the 
Action  Fran^aise. 

This  was  not  at  first  identified  with  Koyalism  proper,  but  it  soon 
led  to  it.  For  the  chief  enemy  of  integral  nationalism  is  the  revolu- 
tionary or  individualistic  spirit,  '  with  its  crazy  habit  of  introducing 
the  concepts  of  pure  ethics  into  matters  foreign  to  them.'  What 
are  those  matters  to  which  pure  ethics  are  foreign  ?  Politics,  to  be 
sure.  Politics  means  nothing  if  it  is  not  facts,  realities,  and  generally 
existences  with  which  thought  and  the  principles  of  morals  have 
nothing  to  do.  So,  it  appears,  have  reasoned  Comte,  Renan,  Taine, 
Tocqueville,  and  the  most  distinguished  intellects  of  the  past  century, 
with  which  it  is  certainly  most  comfortable  to  side. 

But  if  the  worst  foe  of  a  nation  is  the  spirit  of  change,  revolution, 
and  untimely  morality,  its  best  friend  must  be  the  spirit  of  continuity 
— that  is  to  say,  the  instinctive  and  spontaneous  spirit  of  monarchy. 
And  here  again  it  appeared  that  the  said  Taine,  Renan,  &c.,  had 
written  numberless  pages  in  perfect  distrust  of  the  democratic  in- 
stitutions. 

All  these  discoveries  could  not  but  be  highly  gratifying.  At  a 
period  when  French  democracy  was  quickly  drifting  towards  demat 
gogism,  but  when  speculative  socialism  was  still  so  much  the  fashion 
as  to  engross  a  broad  mind  like  that  of  Anatole  France,  there  was 
something  wonderfully  elegant  in  being  suddenly  all  by  one's  self  and 
yet  able  to  boast  of  having  the  best  acquaintances. 

Being  monarchists  was  not  the  sole  originality  of  MM.  Maurras, 
Vaugeois,  Moreau,  &c.  They  were  monarchists  after  a  decidedly 
new  pattern,  by  no  means  to  be  compared  with  the  traditional  and 
generally  provincial  Royalist,  whose  hopeless  impotency  was  evident 
to  the  least  attentive.  The  Royalism  of  M.  de  Broglie,  M.  Chesnelong, 
and  their  effete  descendants  had  always  been  tainted  with  a  certain 
amount  of  parliamentarism.  The  new  Royalism  was  purity  itself. 
Only  just  read  M.  Bourget's  article  in  the  Revue  Hebdomadaire  for  the 
6th  of  June ;  you  will  know  what  a  principled  man  means  by  monarchy. 
The  reader  ought  to  know  that  M.  Bourget  was  one  of  the  first  con- 
verts to  integral  nationalism  :  even  the  most  superficial  reading  of 
those  irritating  books  UEtape  and  IS  Emigre  would  make  one  suspect 
that  there  is  some  radical  doctrine  running  under  the  tale.  But  M. 
Bourget's  royalism  is  of  the  most  radical  description.  The  whole 
school  holds  that  parliamentarism  is  the  root  of  all  evil,  and  that  the 
prince  ought  to  be  completely  uncontrolled ;  but  M.  Bourget  traces  all 
the  corruptions  of  our  system  back  to  the  elective  fallacy.  Wherever 
there  is  an  election  (M.  Bourget  forgets  the  Pope  and  himself  as  a 
member  of  the  French  Academy)  there  is  essential  wrong,  as  the 
principle  of  election  or  selection  is  the  choice  of  the  ablest  by  the  least 
able,  which  is  a  prima  facie  absurdity.  Consequently  the  new 
monarchy  should  avoid  both  the  mistakes  and  the  ill  fate  of  its  pre- 


292  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

decessors  by  being  more  absolute  than  any  of  them.  This,  you  will 
perceive,  is  only  absurd  in  practice,  and  the  philosopher  is  exclusively 
concerned  with  the  theoretical. 

Another  feature  of  the  scientific  royalism  is  its  complete  inde- 
pendence of  any  religious  ideas.  The  great  prophet  of  the  school, 
M.  Maurras,  has  always  been  and  still  is  a  confessed  atheist.  He  has 
learned  of  late  to  refrain  from  indulging  in  a  certain  elegant  profanity 
to  which  he  used  to  be  much  addicted,  but  he  is  too  proud  of  his 
conceptions  to  sacrifice  any  of  them,  and  one  is  rather  confused  to 
see  at  the  Royalist  Institute — a  sort  of  private  university  in  which 
the  scientific  methods  of  the  school  are  propounded — a  chair  filled  by 
a  priest  commenting  on  the  Syllabus  beside  another  devoted  to  the 
crudest  positivism. 

This  is  not  all.  The  same  logic  and  fearless  originality  distinguish 
the  practical  politics  of  M.  Maurras.  It  is  useless,  he  argues,  to  try 
to  persuade  the  electorate  that  self-destruction  is  their  unique 
chance.  The  lower  classes  ought  to  be  treated  as  non-existent.  All 
the  effort  of  the  enlightened  minds  should  be  to  create  in  the  higher 
spheres  a  system  of  incipient  convictions  from  which  some  general — 
General  X.,  they  always  call  him — can  start  to  do  away  forcibly 
with  the  present  Republican  corruption.  Dozens  of  generals  might 
do  for  this  work ;  but  it  is  enough  if  the  conscience  of  one  should 
clearly  show  him  his  duty.  The  coup  d'etat,  in  the  present  state  of 
France,  is  the  sole  remedy,  but  it  may  take  time  to  impress  its  necessity 
upon  those  who  alone  can  make  it  a  reality.  The  Action  Franfaise 
has  no  other  aim  than  the  preparation  of  a  man  and  a  day. 

These  are  the  rough  outlines  of  the  Neo-Royalist  doctrine  as  set 
forth  in  an  already  voluminous  library  of  books,  tracts,  and  papers. 
None  of  its  champions,  not  even  M.  Maurras,  who,  however,  is  above 
the  average  journalist,  is  very  remarkable  either  as  a  thinker  or  writer ; 
yet  there  is  in  everything  that  comes  from  those  quarters  a  tone  of 
decision,  something  positive  and  almost  steely,  which,  in  default  of  all 
magnetism  and  sympathy,  is  a  power  in  itself.  Those  self-contented 
doctrinaires  enjoy  their  invention  and  its  paradoxicalness  with  a 
contagious  satisfaction.  Young  men  are  undoubtedly  strongly 
drawn  towards  them ;  for  a  few  years  there  will  be  a  sense  of  dis- 
tinction in  being  a  Royalist  at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century, 
as  there  used  to  be  in  being  a  socialist.  Many  uncultivated  minds 
too — for  which  brute  strength  is  a  charm — will  go  the  same  way 
without  much  minding  the  beautiful  arrangement  of  the  esoteric 
system.  Certainly  the  Action  Francaise  as  a  movement  is  a  success ; 
the  quite  recent  foundation  by  the  group  of  a  daily  paper  is  another 
proof  that  it  appeals  to  a  comparatively  large  audience. 

But  its  future  is  precarious.  What  are  twenty  or  thirty  thousand 
men,  most  of  them  at  halfway  between  the  ordinary  voter  and  those 
who  influence  him,  in  the  ocean  of  French  opinion  ?  There  may  be 


1908    NEO-ROYALIST  MOVEMENT  IN  FRANCE      293 

— the  signs  are  even  more  remote  than  they  were  five  years  ago — 
possibly  in  consequence  of  a  war,  or  of  financial  mismanagement,  a 
discontent  which  might  result  in  a  change  of  constitution.  To  this 
revolution  the  Action  Frangaise  would  give  its  individual  assistance, 
but  it  never  could  force  its  principles  upon  those  who  took  advantage 
of  it.  Nobody  can  tell  whether  there  will  ever  be  a  Restoration  in 
France,  nor  in  whose  behalf,  but  one  can  Confidently  assert  that 
the  monarch  will  not  be  the  Absolute  First  imagined  by  the  Action 
Franc;aise.  Switzerland  is  surely  a  better  type  of  the  future  organisa- 
tions than  Russia. 

Probably  when  M.  Maurras  and  his  friends  have  spoken  for  a  few 
years  of  their  General,  his  conscience,  and  his  duties,  some  other  fad 
will  take  possession  of  the  raw  imaginations  of  the  young  and  the 
violent,  and  the  daily  Action  Frangaise  will  shrink  back  into  the 
original  weekly,  and  one  more  political  farce,  less  contemptible  in 
some  ways  than  many  others,  will  have  been  played  out. 

The  tone  in  which  M.  Lamy  and  the  Marquis  de  Vogue,  in  the  or- 
thodox organ  of  the  Royalist  aristocracy,  Le  Correspondent*  discuss 
the  claims  of  M.  Maurras  to  dictate  to  them  as  he  does  shows  clearly 
that,  in  spite  of  its  official  communications  with  the  Due  d'Orleans, 
the  Action  Frangaise  preserves  in  clear-sighted  eyes  its  primitive 
character  of  a  literary  club  with  rather  original  pretensions  to  elegant 
anarchism. 

ERNEST  DIMNET. 

-  See  Correspondant,  10  June,  1908. 


294  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 


THE    BASTILLE 


THE  chance  traveller,  some  fifty  years  since,  alighting  at  a  small 
Yorkshire  town,  and  inquiring  his  way  to  the  best  inn,  might  very 
probably  have  had  this  conundrum  given  him  for  answer,  in  all  good 
faith,  to  enlighten  his  ignorance.  He  would  be  told  to  *  Goo  oop  baa 
Baastille. '  Reflection  and  further  inquiry  would  interpret  the  meaning 
to  be  that  he  must  go  up  past  the  Workhouse.  Carlyle,  in  a  memorable 
passage  in  his  Past  and  Present,  tells  us  how  the  picturesque  tourist 
on  a  sunny  autumn  day  through  this  bounteous  realm  of  England 
descries  the  Union  Workhouse  on  his  path.  '  Passing  by  the  Work- 
house of  St.  Ives  in  Huntingdonshire,  on  a  bright  day  last  autumn,' 
says  the  picturesque  tourist,  '  I  saw,  sitting  on  wooden  benches  in 
front  of  their  Bastille  and  within  their  ring-wall  and  its  railings,  some 
half  hundred  or  more  of  these  men.' 

Readers  of  Carlyle  may  not  generally  know  that  his  expressive 
epithet  was  the  common  name  given  by  the  rough,  independent 
Yorkshire  workman  to  that  which  he  loathed  most  on  earth,  a  name 
suggestive  of  the  most  gross  injustice,  but  also  of  assault  and  final 
disappearance. 

It  is  the  fashion  to-day  to  suggest  that  the  Bastille  was  a  grand 
fortress  belonging  to  the  Crown,  a  sort  of  Tower  of  London,  where 
inconvenient  persons  were  temporarily  lodged  at  their  sovereign's 
expense ;  where  there  was  an  undoubtedly  good  cook  who  sent  up 
pleasant  little  dinners  for  three  or  even  four  persons ;  where  visitors 
came  and  went  freely,  where  the  Governor  himself  entertained  you 
if  your  reputation  entitled  you  to  such  an  honour,  and  where  on  the 
whole  it  was  not  unpleasant  to  be  forced  to  reside  if  you  had  a  poem 
or  a  play  on  hand,  or  wished  to  launch  a  political  satire.  Possibly 
even  a  short  sojourn  in  the  Bastille  was  a  distinction  in  its  way,  much 
as  an  execution  or  two  for  high  treason,  amongst  the  members  of  a 
great  house  in  Tudor  times,  marked  its  importance  and  doubtless 
raised  it  in  the  estimation  of  the  vulgar  crowd. 

We  know  now  all  that  needs  to  be  known  about  the  famous  sealed 
letters,  or  Lettres  de  Cachet.  We  know  that  they  did  not  always 
conduct  their  recipients  to  the  Bastille.  A  Roi  Soleil,  if  he  took 
upon  himself  the  material  interests  of  his  courtiers,  concerned  himself 


1908  THE   BASTILLE  295 

also  with  their  religious  opinions,  and  if  he  were  dissatisfied  with  these, 
if  he  detected  a  Jansenist  heresy  or  an  attack  upon  the  Jesuits,  or  if  he 
fancied  a  coolness  towards  himself  or  his  favourites,  inflicted  punish- 
ment as  one  might  punish  a  troublesome  child.  Here  are  two 
summary  orders  of  Louis  the  Fifteenth  and  Louis  the  Sixteenth ;  a 
third  concerns  the  carrying  of  coals. 

Lettre  de  cachet.    Personelle 

Mons.  Duval  de  Beauvais,  je  vous  fais  cette  lettre  pour  vous  dire  que  mon 
intention  est  que  vous  sortiez  de  la  ville  de  Paris  dans  le  jour  sans  voir  ni  parlor 
a  personne,  vous  defendant  d'approcher  de  ladite  ville  plus  pres  que  de  deux 
lieues,  a  peine  de  d£sobeissance.  Sur  ce,  je  prie  Dieu  qu'il  vous  ait,  Mons.  Duval 
de  Beauvais,  en  sa  sainte  garde.  Ecrit  a  Versailles  le  24  may  1771. 

Phelypeaux.  Louis. 

Lettre  de  cachet  du  14  Aout  1787 

Mons.  N je  vous  fais  assavoir  que  vous  aiez  a  rester  chez  vous,  a  quitter 

Paris  dans   vingt  quatre  heures,  et  a  vous  rendre  dans  quatre  jours  a  Troyes, 

ou  je  vous  ferai  connaitre  mes  intentions.    Sur  ce,  je  prie  Dieu,  Mons.  N ,  qu'il 

vous  ait  en  sa  sainte  et  digne  garde.     A  Versailles  ce  14  Aout  1787. 

Le  Baron  de  Breteuil.  Louis. 

The  paternal  tone  of  the  letters  is  apparent,  and  also  the  elegant 
French  in  which  they  are  couched.  The  punishment  inflicted  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  severe ;  in  the  case  of  M.  Duval  de  Beauvais, 
his  exile  from  Paris  was  of  short  duration,  for  he  was  soon  reinstated 
in  his  old  posts  at  the  Ch  telet.  He  does  not  appear  to  have  appre- 
ciated the  interest  shown  in  him,  for  a  few  years  later  there  is  an  official 
entry  against  his  name,  *  S'est  pendu.' 

The  accusations  made  against  persons  sent  to  the  Bastille,  as  given 
in  the  registers,  were  diverse,  and  appear  to  modern  ideas  strange 
indeed.  '  Pour  la  Religion '  accounts  apparently  for  more  than  half 
the  prisoners.  Such  a  phrase  easily  covers  a  variety  of  religious 
misdemeanours.  Thus  we  find  as  causes  of  detention  such  charges  as 
'  Mauvais  Catholique '  (this  charge  occurs  on  every  page),  '  De  la 
Religion  pretendue  reformed '  is  also  frequent.  Then  we  have  '  Accuse 
d'<  tre  quk-tiste,'  '  Accuse  d'etre  Janseniste,'  '  Pour  Libelles  contre 
les  Jesuites.'  An  Irish  Jacobin  priest  is  imprisoned  as  '  Fou  furieux.' 
L'Abb6  Primi,  an  Italian  who  had  been  persuaded  into  writing  the  life 
of  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  but  whose  history  did  not  gain  the  royal 
approval,  was  sent  to  the  Bastille,  his  book  suppressed,  his  papers 
seized.  Freret,  who  ventured  to  publish  a  study  on  the  origin  of  the 
Franks  in  1714,  in  which  he  challenged  the  views  then  current,  was 
also  sent  to  the  Bastille.  Paulet,  a  distinguished  man  of  science, 
one  of  the  first  members  of  L'Acad^mie  de  Medecine,  narrowly  escaped 
a  like  fate,  for  having  taught  that  small-pox  was  contagious  !  The 
Abbes  who  took  part  in  the  Encyclopedia  were  not  only  censured 
by  the  Sorbonne,  but  one  of  them  had  to  leave  the  country,  another 
expiated  his  fault  in  the  Bastille.  Year  after  year  the  charges  against 


296  TEE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

prisoners  are  found  to  be  '  Pour  la  religion,  Janseniste  ' ;  '  Convul- 
sionnaire,'  or  '  Pretendu  Convulsionnaire,'  or  *  Jansenistes  convul- 
sionnaires,'  in  the  case  of  a  man  and  his  wife.  We  know  that  Voltaire 
had  a  taste  of  the  Bastille,  and  in  his  story  of  L'Ingenu  he  describes  at 
some  length  the  life  as  it  might  be  of  two  prisoners — L'Ingenu  himself 
and  an  elderly  Jansenist. 

What  then  was  that  life  ?  We  have  enough  evidence  before  us 
in  these  days  to  be  sure  of  the  truth.  It  must  first  be  admitted  that 
the  Bastille  was  *  a  Paradise  '  in  comparison  with  the  prisons  of  Bicetre 
or  of  the  Chatelet,  which  were  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Paris.  There  was,  however,  one  highly  important  distinction, 
that  whereas  the  prisoners  of  the  city  had  to  be  tried  and  convicted, 
with  many  formalities  of  arrest  and  accusation,  the  mere  signature 
of  an  individual  consigned  to  the  Bastille. 

The  Bastille  as  a  prison  was  apparently  better  kept  and  cleaner 
than  either  Bicetre  or  the  Chatelet,  and  imprisonment  within  its  walls 
did  not,  it  would  seem,  dishonour  the  prisoner  or  his  family.  A  great 
many  prisoners  were  charged  as  mad  ;  and  under  this  elastic  term  the 
violent  maniac,  the  ambitious  madman,  the  young  spendthrift,  the 
megalomaniac,  the  searcher  for  the  philosopher's  stone  or  the  secret  of 
perpetual  motion — all  these  tiresome  persons — might  be  and  were 
included. 

How  then  did  these  prisoners  live  ?  In  the  underground  cells 
or  dungeons,  as  in  the  cells  in  the  towers,  the  prisoners  were  on  bread 
and  water  as  a  rule ;  in  the  other  rooms  in  the  main  building,  three 
meals  were  served  a  day  with  drinkable  wine — '  vin  potable.'  In 
certain  cases,  according  to  the  quality  and  distinction  of  the  prisoner, 
he  might  supplement  the  meagre  furniture  of  his  prison  and  get  a 
provision  of  books.  Very  favoured  persons  were  allowed  their  own 
servant,  if  he  would  consent  voluntarily  to  undergo  confinement. 
Voltaire  began  to  write  the  Henriade,  as  prisoner  in  the  Bastille; 
1'Abbe  Morellet  of  the  Encyclopedia  speaks  of  the  great  fortress  as  the 
cradle  of  his  fame ;  but  we  must  remember  that  it  was  perhaps  not 
advisable  to  say  much  about  the  Bastille  when  you  were  still  living 
within  its  walls,  and  that  as  M.  Mouin  has  reminded  us,  '  the  old 
Spartans  offered  sacrifices  to  Fear.'  Prisoners,  moreover,  had  to 
sign  on  their  release  an  elaborate  declaration  by  which  they  swore 
never  to  divulge,  directly  or  indirectly,  anything  they  might  have 
learnt  as  prisoners  concerning  the  Bastille. 

M.  Linguet,  however,  who  had  been  a  prisoner  under  Louis  the 
Sixteenth,  and  had  signed  his  declaration  like  the  others,  published  a 
Memorial  of  the  Bastille,  from  London.  In  this  he  only  voiced  the 
demand  of  the  people  for  the  demolition  of  the  fortress.  Suggestions 
had  been  long  made  as  to  the  buildings  and  streets  which  should  be 
made  upon  the  site  when  the  old  castle  came  down,  and  some  five 
weeks  only  before  the  actual  demolition  the  Academy  of  Architecture 


1908  THE  BASTILLE  297 

received  a  design  for  a  grand  monument  to  be  erected,  where  the 
Bastille  once  stood,  with  the  inscription  *  to  Louis  the  Sixteenth,  who 
gave  his  people  liberty.' 

The  terror  of  the  great  prison  was  the  arbitrary  nature  of  the 
imprisonment  for  acts  or  beliefs  which  were  not  properly  offences 
against  the  law,  for  the  dark  secrecy  that  prevailed,  for  the  impenetrable 
mystery  that  enveloped  the  unhappy  prisoners,  who  were  in  the  absolute 
power  of  the  Governor,  upon  whose  character  for  clemency  and 
justice  everything  depended.  While  the  horror  of  being  forgotten 
and  left  to  perish  darkened  hope. 

As  to  the  fate  of  the  unfortunates  imprisoned  in  the  underground 
dungeons,  Dr.  Rigby,  a  well-known  physician  of  Norwich,  can  enlighten 
us.  He,  with  three  travelling  companions,  entered  Paris  on  the 
evening  of  the  7th  of  July  1789.  He  was  in  Paris  at  the  fall  of  the 
Bastille,  though  he  did  not  actually  witness  the  surrender,  and  was 
present  at  the  historic  scene  of  the  deliverance  of  the  prisoners. 
History  tells  us  that  in  consequence  of  the  hot  public  feeling  about 
the  Bastille,  prisoners  had  been  sent  away  to  other  prisons,  so  that  at 
the  time  of  the  fall  seven  only  remained  in  the  fortress. 

Dr.  Rigby,  writing  home  to  his  wife  and  daughters,  gives  a  graphic 
description  of  how  in  the  Hue  St.  Honore  they  first  perceived  a  large 
crowd  advancing  towards  the  Palais  Royal  bearing  aloft  some  huge 
keys,  a  flag,  and  a  paper  on  which  was  written,  '  La  Bastille  est  prise, 
et  les  portes  sont  ouvertes.'  *  A  sudden  burst  of  the  most  frantic  joy 
instantaneously  took  place,'  he  says.  The  crowd  shouted,  wept, 
laughed  ;  the  Englishmen  were  recognised  and  seized  and  embraced  ;  the 
people  shouting  '  Now  we  are  free  as  you.'  The  crowd  swept  by,  and 
was  quickly  followed  by  another  even  larger.  Its  approach  was 
heralded  by  loud  and  triumphant  acclamations  with  an  undertone  of 
angry  and  defiant  murmurs.  The  Englishmen  were  soon  horrified  to 
see  two  gory  heads  borne  aloft  on  pikes.  Many  of  the  onlookers 
fled  in  alarm,  and  the  night  that  followed  was  an  anxious  one.  Guns 
were  continually  fired  from  different  parts  of  the  city,  and  the  tocsin 
sounded  unceasingly.  The  Englishmen  retired  to  their  lodgings, 
and  found  next  day  that  the  Parisians  had  spent  the  night  in  felling 
trees  and  throwing  them  across  the  principal  thoroughfares,  while 
the  stone  pavements  had  been  removed  and  carried  as  ammunition 
to  the  tops  of  the  houses. 

On  the  morning  of  the  15th  of  July,  Dr.  Rigby  and  his  friends 
were  again  in  the  streets,  and  again  were  led  by  the  sound  of  an 
approaching  crowd  to  the  end  of  the  Rue  St.  Honore. 

There  (he  says)  I  witnessed  a  most  affecting  spectacle.  Two  wretched 
victims  of  the  detestable  tyranny  of  the  old  Government  have  just  been  dis- 
covered, and  taken  from  some  of  the  most  obscure  dungeons  of  this  horrid 
castle,  and  were  being  conducted  by  the  crowd  to  the  Palais  Eoyal.  One  of 
these  was  a  little  feeble  old  man.  He  exhibited  an  appearance  of  childishness 


298  TEE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

and  fatuity ;  he  tottered  as  he  walked,  and  his  countenance  exhibited  little 
more  than  the  smile  of  an  idiot.  The  other  was  a  tall  and  rather  robust  old 
man  ;  his  countenance  and  figure  interesting  in  the  highest  degree.  He  walked 
upright  with  a  firm  and  steady  gait ;  his  hands  were  folded  and  turned  out- 
wards ;  his  face  was  directed  towards  the  sky,  but  his  eyes  were  but  little  open. 
Had  he  really  been,  as  I  was  told,  two  and  forty  years  shut  up  in  one  of  those 
cells  where  the  light  of  heaven  is  denied  an  entrance,  it  is  easy  to  explain  why 
his  eyes  were  so  little  open.  He  had  a  remarkably  high  forehead,  which  with 
the  crown  of  his  head  was  completely  bald  ;  but  he  had  a  very  long  beard,  and 
on  the  back  of  his  head  the  hair  was  unusually  abundant,  exhibiting  a  singularity 
which  had  the  appearance  of  a  disease  not  unknown  to  the  human  species,  called 
the  '  Plica  Polonica.'  It  had  grown  behind  to  an  incredible  length,  and,  not 
having  been  combed,  it  had  become  matted  together,  and  divided  into  two  long 
tails  very  much  resembling  the  tail  of  a  monkey.  These  tails,  I  should  suppose 
would  have  nearly  reached  the  ground,  but  as  he  walked  he  supported  them  on 
one  of  his  arms.  His  dress  was  an  old,  greasy,  reddish  tunic  ;  the  colour  and  the 
form  of  the  garb  were  probably  some  indication  of  what  his  profession  or  rank 
had  been  ;  for  we  afterwards  learned  that  he  was  a  Count  d'Auche,  that  he  had 
been  a  major  of  cavalry,  and  a  young  man  of  some  talent,  and  that  the  offence 
for  which  he  had  sustained  this  long  imprisonment  had  been  his  having  written 
a  pamphlet  against  the  Jesuits.  .  .  .  Perhaps  to  some  persons  I  should  be 
ashamed  to  acknowledge  it,  but  you  will  not  think  the  worse  of  me ;  I  was  no 
longer  able  to  bear  the  sight,  I  turned  from  the  crowd,  I  burst  into  tears. 

The  names  of  the  two  prisoners  thus  conducted  through  the  streets 
have  never  been  absolutely  ascertained,  though  it  is  fairly  certain 
that  one  of  them  was  the  Count  d'Auche.  According  to  the  Moniteur 
of  the  24th  of  July,  seven  prisoners  in  all  were  released.  The  account 
given  by  Dr.  Rigby  of  what  he  and  his  friends  saw  is  enough  to  con- 
vince us  that  men  were  thrown  into  the  Bastille  on  the  flimsiest 
pretences  without  trial,  that  they  lay  there  for  long  years  without  hope 
of  justice  as  without  legal  sentence  ;  that  they  were  forgotten,  or  that 
it  was  deemed  impolitic  to  release  them.  We  may  be  quite  sure 
that  the  Count  d'Auche  was  not  invited  by  the  Governor  to  dine,  or 
allowed  to  play  bowls  on  the  famous  bowling  green  ! 

Voltaire  was  himself,  as  we  know,  a  prisoner  in  the  Bastille,  and  in 
his  defence  of  General  Lally  complains  bitterly  that  the  General  was 
confined  there  without  trial  for  fifteen  months.  If  he  began  his 
Henriade  in  the  solitude  of  the  fortress,  he  has  left  us  his  true  opinion 
of  it  in  the  well-known  lines  quoted  in  Vlngenu : 

De  cet  affreux  chateau,  palais  de  la  vengeance, 
Qui  renferme  souvent  le  crime  et  l'innocence.j 

It  would  be  an  easy  and  a  pleasant  pastime  to  make  a  selection 
of  distinguished  English  men  and  women  who  would  be  eligible  for 
the  Tower,  if  that  delightful  haunt  of  American  tourists  and  children 
served  as  a  Bastille,  and  it  would  help  us  to  understand  why  the  ancien 
regime  found  it  so  useful. 

All  the  new  theologians  would  have  to  go — agnostic  or  otherwise, 
Mr.  Wells  would  certainly  have  a  suite  reserved  for  him,  as  would 


1908 


THE  BASTILLE 


299 


Mr.  Bernard  Shaw,  with  his  '  Dilemma,'  and  one  or  two  fashionable 
doctors  to  keep  him  company.  Court  poets  and  painters  would 
certainly  be  spending  week-ends  to  revise  verses  and  paintings.  Mr. 
Stead  and  Mr.  Chesterton  might  be  let  off  with  a  threatening — but 
Father  Vaughan  would  have  a  few  months  there  for  his  attack  on 
Society,  and  surely  there  would  be  delegates  from  the  principal  suffrage 
societies — '  Suffragettes  Convulsionnaires.'  It  would  turn  London 
into  a  really  dull  city. 

Surely  our  fathers  were  right  when  they  danced  round  the  Tree 
of  Liberty,  and  we  do  wrong  to-day  to  scoff  at  their  enthusiasms  and 
at  the  freedom  they  won  for  us. 

E.  B.  HARRISON. 


800  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 


WORDSWORTH,    COLERIDGE,   AND 
THE  SPY 


Hie  error  tamen  et  levis  haec  insania  quantas 

Virtutes  habeat  sic  collige  :  vatis  avarus 

Non  temere  est  animus ;  versus  amat,  hoc  studet  unum  ; 

Detrimenta,  fugas  servorum,  incendia  ridet ; 

Non  fraudena  socio  puerove  incogitat  ullam 

Pnpillo ;  vivit  siliquis  et  pane  secundo  ; 

Militiae  quamquam  piger  et  malus,  utilis  urbi.1 


IF  Horace  had  had  the  gift  of  prophecy  he  could  not  have  written  a 
more  accurate  description  of  the  life  which  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge 
lived  together  during  the  year  of  productiveness  which  brought 
forth  Lyrical  Poems  and  Ballads.  There  never  were  two  men  less 
concerned  about  money-making  or  more  whole-heartedly  devoted  to 
poetry.  As  for  their  fare  and  their  indifference  to  the  minor  mis- 
fortunes of  life,  everyone  will  remember  Cottle's  story  of  his  visit  to 
Alfoxton.  The  provisions  laid  in  for  the  supper  of  the  company  were 
bread  and  cheese,  lettuces,  and  a  bottle  of  brandy.  On  the  way  the 
cheese  was  stolen  by  a  tramp  ;  the  brandy  bottle  fell  out  of  the  cart 
and  broke  ;  and  in  the  end  the  party  supped  with  philosophic  cheerful- 
ness off  bread  and  lettuces  alone,  without  salt,  for  the  servant  had 
forgotten  to  buy  any.  It  is  true  that  Wordsworth's  military  qualities 
were  never  tested ;  but  Coleridge  had  served  for  some  months  in  a 
cavalry  regiment,  where  he  had  distinguished  himself  by  incapacity 
either  to  groom  or  to  ride  his  horse. 

1  Or,  in  Pope's  imitation : — 

'  Yet,  sir,  reflect ;  the  mischief  is  not  great ; 
These  madmen  never  hurt  the  Church  or  State. 
Sometimes  the  folly  benefits  mankind, 
And  rarely  avarice  taints  the  tuneful  mind. 
Allow  him  but  his  plaything  of  a  pen, 
He  ne'er  rebels  or  plots  like  other  men. 
Flight  of  cashiers  or  mobs  he'll  never  mind, 
And  knows  no  losses  while  the  muse  is  kind. 
Enjoys  his  garden  and  his  book  in  quiet, 
And  then  a  perfect  hermit  in  his  diet. 
Of  little  use  the  man  you  may  suppose 
Who  says  in  verse  what  others  say  in  prose ; 
Yet  let  me  show  a  poet  's  of  some  weight 
And  though  no  soldier  useful  to  the  State.' 


1908  WORDSWORTH,  COLERIDGE,  AND  THE  SPY  301 

Considering  that  in  that  age  Horace  was  the  favourite  study  of 
politicians  and  the  chosen  ornament  of  their  speeches,  it  is  surprising 
that  they  failed  to  recognise  the  poet  as  described  by  Horace  when 
they  came  across  him,  or  at  any  rate  refused  to  accept  Horace's 
assurance  of  his  entire  harmlessness.  For  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge 
fell  under  suspicion  as  French  spies  or  English  revolutionaries  or 
both,  and  a  detective  was  sent  down  from  London  on  purpose  to  watch 
them. 

It  has  always  been  a  matter  of  surprise  that  so  much  suspicion 
should  have  attached  to  them.  For  even  if  Coleridge  did  hold  Radical 
views,  nothing  more  harmless  than  their  life  in  Somersetshire  can  be 
imagined.  Coleridge  with  his  wife  and  baby  took  a  little  cottage  at 
Stowey  in  January  1797.  In  July,  Wordsworth  and  his  sister  Dorothy 
paid  them  a  visit  there,  and  during  that  time  heard  of  a  house  to  let 
at  Alfoxton,  and  took  it  at  once.  It  was  a  large  house — Dorothy 
Wordsworth  calls  it  a  mansion — and  the  Wordsworths  were  allowed 
to  have  it  at  the  nominal  rent  of  231.  Evidently,  the  object  was 
simply  to  keep  it  inhabited  and  habitable  while  the  owner  was  a  minor. 

The  two  Wordsworths  and  Coleridge  lived  in  the  closest  associa- 
tion. '  We  are  three  people  but  only  one  soul,'  said  Coleridge  himself. 
The  two  poets  were  each  writing  or  putting  the  finishing  touches  to  a 
tragedy ;  they  were  also  writing  the  lyrics  which  were  published  in 
Lyrical  Poems  and  Ballads ;  and  Dorothy  Wordsworth's  Journal — 
printed  in  Professor  Knight's  Life  of  Wordsworth — shows  them  con- 
stantly roaming  about  the  country  at  all  seasons  and  in  all  weathers 
and  making  studies  of  Nature  in  every  aspect  and  mood.  The 
journal  shows  at  once  how  extraordinarily  subtle  and  precise  was  their 
observation  of  Nature,  and  how  directly  it  was  used  as  matter  for 
their  poetry.  Here  is  a  typical  entry :  '  18th  (March  1797). — The 
Coleridges  left  us.  A  cold,  windy  morning.  Walked  with  them  half- 
way. On  our  return,  sheltered  under  the  hollies  during  a  hail  shower. 
The  withered  leaves  danced  with  the  hail  stones.  William  wrote  a 
description  of  the  storm.' 

Compare  Coleridge's  own  account :  *  My  walks  were  almost  daily 
on  the  top  of  Quantock  and  among  its  sloping  coombes.  With  my 
pencil  and  memorandum  book  in  my  hand,  I  was  making  studies,  as 
the  artists  call  them,  and  often  moulding  my  thoughts  into  verse  with 
the  objects  and  imagery  immediately  before  my  senses.' 2 

They  had  a  fair  number  of  friends  and  visitors.  Stowey  was  the 
home  of  Thomas  Poole,  an  active  politician  and  philanthropist,  and  a 
warm  friend  and  kind  helper  of  Coleridge.  Cottle  the  publisher  and 
Southey  could  easily  come  over  to  see  them  from  Bristol.  Lloyd 
lived  with  Coleridge  for  part  of  the  time ;  Sir  James  Mackintosh  and 
Charles  Lamb  were  occasional  visitors,  and  Hazlitt  has  left  a  very 
striking  description  of  a  visit  to  Stowey  and  Alfoxton.  A  visitor 

*  Biographia  Literaria,  1847,  vol.  i.  p.  200. 
VOL.  LXIV-  So.  378  X 


802  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTUBY  Aug. 

better  known  at  the  time  than  either  of  these  was  Thelwall,  the 
notorious  democrat,  who  had  lately  been  tried  for  high  treason.  He 
was  visiting  at  Alfoxton  on  the  18th  of  July  1797.  In  fact  he  wanted 
to  settle  in  the  neighbourhood,  but  this  his  friends  strongly  dis- 
couraged, foreseeing  that  his  constant  presence  would  cause  trouble 
for  all  of  them  ;  and  Coleridge  had  to  write  and  tell  him  that  it  would 
not  do. 

The  greater  part  of  our  information  about  the  spy  incident  comes 
from  Coleridge,  who  told  the  story  as  he  knew  it  in  his  Biographia 
Literaria.3 

The  dark  guesses  of  some  zealous  Qividnunc  met  with  so  congenial  a  soil  in 
the  grave  alarm  of  a  titled  Dogberry  of  our  neighbourhood,  that  a  spy  was 
actually  sent  down  from  the  Government  four  surveillatice  of  myself  and 
friend.  There  must  have  been  not  only  abundance  but  variety  of  these 
'  honourable  men '  at  the  disposal  of  Ministers,  for  this  proved  a  Very  honest 
fellow.  After  three  weeks  truly  Indian  perseverance  in  tracking  us  (for  we 
were  commonly  together),  during  all  which  time  seldom  were  we  out  of  doors, 
but  he  contrived  to  be  within  hearing  (and  all  the  while  utterly  unsuspected ; 
how  indeed  could  such  a  suspicion  enter  our  fancies  ?),  he  not  only  rejected 
Sir  Dogberry's  request  that  he  would  try  yet  a  little  longer,  but  declared  to 
him  his  belief  that  both  my  friend  and  myself  were  as  good  subjects,  for  aught 
he  could  discover  to  the  contrary,  as  any  in  his  Majesty's  dominions.  He  had 
repeatedly  hid  himself,  he  said,  for  honrs  together  behind  a  bank  at  the  sea-side 
(our  favorite  resort),  and  overheard  our  conversation.  At  first  he  fancied  that 
we  were  aware  of  our  danger ;  for  he  often  heard  me  talk  of  one  Spy  Nozy, 
which  ho  was  inclined  to  interpret  of  himself  and  of  a  remarkable  feature 
belonging  to  him ;  but  he  was  speedily  convinced  that  it  was  the  name  of  a 
man  who  had  made  a  book  and  lived  long  ago.  Our  talk  ran  most  upon  books, 
and  we  were  perpetually  desiring  each  other  to  look  at  this,  and  listen  to  that ; 
but  he  could  not  catch  a  word  about  politics.  Once  he  had  joined  me  on  the 
road  (that  occurred  as  I  was  returning  home  alone  from  my  friend's  house, 
which  was  about  three  miles  from  my  own  cottage),  and  passing  himself  off  as 
a  traveller,  he  had  entered  into  conversation  with  mo,  und  talked  of  purpose  in 
a  democrat  way  in  order  to  draw  me  out.  The  result,  it  appears,  not  only  con- 
vinced him  that  I  was  no  friend  of  Jacobinism,  but  (he  added),  I  had  plainly 
made  it  out  to  be  such  a  silly  as  well  as  a  wicked  thing  that  he  felt  ashamed 
though  he  had  only  put  it  on,  I  distinctly  remembered  the  occurrence,  and  had 
mentioned  it  immediately  on  my  return,  repeating  what  the  traveller  with  the 
Bardolph  nose  had  said,  with  my  own  answer ;  and  so  little  did  I  suspect  the 
true  object  of  my  '  tempter  ere  accuser'  that  I  expressed  with  no  small  pleasure 
my  hope  and  belief  that  the  conversation  had  been  of  some  service  to  the  poor 
misled  malcontent.  This  incident  therefore  prevented  all  doubt  as  to  the  truth 
of  the  report,  which  through  a  friendly  medium  came  to  me  from  the  master  of 
the  village  inn,  who  had  been  ordered  to  entertain  the  Government  gentleman 
in  his  best  manner,  but  above  all  to  be  silent  concerning  such  a  person  being  in 
his  house. 

It  was  not  clear  from  this  what  were  the  precise  points  about  the 
poets'  behaviour  that  had  aroused  suspicion ;  but  Coleridge  refers  a 
little  later  to  his  friend  the  landlord  having  been  questioned  as  to 
their  habit  of  roaming  about  the  hills — '  Has  he  not  been  seen  wander- 

3  1847,  Vol.  i.  p.  196. 


19C8  WORDSWORTH,  COLERIDGE,  AND  THE  SPY  803 

ing  on  the  hills  towards  the  Channel  and  along  the  shore,  with  books 
and  papers  in  his  hand,  taking  charts  and  maps  of  the  country  ?  ' 
This  clearly  points  to  their  being  suspected  as  spies  rather  than  as 
democrats,  and  the  stories  which  Coleridge's  friend  and  publisher 
Cottle  tells  in  his  Reminiscences  of  Coleridge  and  Southey  (1847,  p.  181) 
also  suggest  that  it  was  the  habits  and  behaviour  of  the  poets  rather 
than  any  political  views  which  they  were  known  to  hold  that  had 
alarmed  their  neighbours. 

The  wiseacres  of  the  village  had,  it  seemed,  made  Mr.  Wordsworth  the 
subject  of  their  serious  conversation.  One  said  that  '  He  had  seen  him  wander 
about  by  night  and  look  strangely  at  the  moon  1  and  then  he  roamed  over  the 
hills  like  a  partridge.'  Another  said,  '  He  had  heard  him  mutter  as  he  walked 
in  some  outlandish  brogue  that  nobody  could  understand  !  '  Another  said,  '  It's 
useless  to  talk,  Thomas,  I  think  he  is  what  people  call  a  "  wise  man  " '  (a 
conjuror).  Another  said,  '  You  are  everyone  of  you  wrong.  I  know  what  he  is. 
We  have  all  met  him  tramping  away  towards  the  sea.  Would  any  man  in  his 
senses  take  all  that  trouble  to  look  at  a  parcel  of  water  ?  I  think  he  carries  on 
a  snug  business  in  the  smuggling  line,  and  in  these  journeys  is  on  the  look  out 
for  some  wet  cargo  ! '  Another  very  significantly  said,  '  I  know  that  he  has  a 
private  still  in  his  cellar,  for  I  once  passed  his  house  at  a  little  better  than  a 
hundred  yards  distance,  and  I  could  smell  the  spirits,  as  plain  as  an  ashen 
faggot  at  Christmas  I '  Another  said,  '  However  that  was,  he  is  surely  a 
desperate  French  Jacobin,  for  he  is  so  silent  and  dark  that  no  one  ever  heard 
him  say  one  word  about  politics.' 

The  gentleman  who  gave  information  to  the  Government  is  said 
to  have  been  Sir  Philip  Hale,  of  Cannington ; 4  but  according  to  a 
letter  of  Southey's,6  General  Peachey  claimed  a  few  years  afterwards 
to  have  had  a  hand  in  the  affair. 

August  28th,  1805. 

General  Peachey  spoke  of  the  relationship  with  us :  he  said  of  me  and 
Wordsworth  that  however  we  might  have  got  into  good  company,  he  might 
depend  upon  it  we  were  still  Jacobins  at  heart,  and  that  he  believed  he  had 
been  instrumental  in  having  us  looked  after  in  Somersetshire.  This  refers  to  a 
spy  who  was  sent  down  to  Stowey  to  look  after  Coleridge  and  Wordsworth. 
This  fellow,  after  trying  to  tempt  the  country  people  to  tell  lies,  could  collect 
nothing  more  than  that  the  gentlemen  used  to  walk  a  good  deal  upon  the  coast, 
and  that  they  were  what  they  call  '  poets.'  He  got  drunk  at  the  inn  and  told 
his  whole  errand  and  history,  but  we  did  not  till  now  know  who  was  the  main 
mover. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  accounts  given  of  this  affair  have 
been  looked  upon  with  much  suspicion  by  biographers.  The  idea 
that  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge  should  ever  have  been  taken  for 
dangerous  characters — still  more  for  French  spies — seems  too  ridiculous 
to  be  seriously  entertained.  And  the  authority  is  by  no  means  first- 
rate.  The  story  was  not  published  till  1847,  fifty  years  after  the 
incident  happened,  and  apart  from  Southey's  letter  it  rests  entirely 
on  Coleridge's  authority ;  for  Cottle  says  in  so  many  words  that  he 

4  See  A  Group  of  Englishmen,  by  E.  Meteyard,  p.  78. 
4  The  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Southey,  Vol.  ii.  p.  343. 


804  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

got  his  information  from  Coleridge.  Coleridge's  own  account  of  his 
knowledge  is  that  it  came  to  him  '  through  a  friendly  medium  .  .  . 
from  the  master  of  the  village  inn,  who  had  been  ordered  to  entertain 
the  Government  gentleman,'  or,  in  other  words,  he  only  knew  what 
someone  else  told  him  that  the  innkeeper  had  said.  It  is  clear  that  he 
would  himself  have  been  suspicious  of  the  story  if  it  had  not  been 
confirmed  by  the  incident  of  his  conversation  on  Jacobinism  with  the 
spy.  Add  to  this  that  Wordsworth  himself  had  never  heard  of  the 
affair  until  the  Biographia  Literaria  was  published,  fifty  years  after ; 
and  that  Coleridge  has  a  bad  reputation  as  an  historical  authority. 
His  sons  say  of  him  (in  the  biographical  sketch  prefixed  to  Biographia 
Literaria) :  '  It  is  true  that  on  a  certain  class  of  subjects  it  (his 
memory)  was  extraordinarily  confused  and  inaccurate  ;  matter  of  fact, 
as  such,  laid  no  hold  on  his  mind.  ...  A  certain  infidelity  there  was 
doubtless  in  the  mirror  of  his  mind,  so  strong  was  his  tendency  to 
overlook  the  barrier  between  imagination  and  actual  fact.'  No 
wonder,  then,  that,  as  Professor  Knight  says,  '  the  story  of  the  spy 
has  been  deemed  apocryphal  by  many  persons,'  and  that  sober 
biographers  handle  it  very  delicately.  It  is  only  the  independent 
confirmation  afforded  by  Southey's  letter  that  prevents  them  from 
rejecting  it  entirely. 

But  though  the  bare  fact  that  a  spy  was  sent  is  thus  established, 
most  people  are  agreed  in  rejecting  Coleridge's  account  of  what  passed. 
'  Most  of  Cottle's  stories  of  the  suspicions  excited  in  the  neighbourhood 
by  the  poets'  goings  on,  and  much  of  Coleridge's  own  account  of  the 
spy's  proceedings  wear  a  dubious  complexion,'  says  Mr.  Campbell 
in  his  admirable  Life  of  Coleridge.  The  biographers  find  an  explana- 
tion of  the  surprising  fact  in  the  presence  of  Thelwall  in  the  neighbour- 
hood and  his  visits  to  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge.  Wordsworth 
himself  was  of  this  opinion ; 6  and  it  has  been  generally  accepted.  Very 
reasonably,  upon  the  information  then  existing ;  for  it  seems  too 
ridiculous  to  imagine  that  Government  would  trouble  to  send  a  spy 
into  Somersetshire  because  the  country-people  suspected  some  dark 
design  concealed  under  the  eccentricities,  the  country  rambles,  and 
the  commonplace  books  of  two  poets ;  but  it  is  not  unnatural  that 
the  visits  of  a  man  who  had  just  been  tried  for  high  treason  should 
bring  suspicion  on  his  hosts. 

But  happily  for  the  humours  of  literature,  further  information  is 
now  available  which  goes  directly  counter  to  the  rationalising  ten- 
dencies of  this  scientific  age,  and  restores  to  authentic  literary  history 
— in  substance,  at  any  rate — the  old  version  which  is  so  attractive 
to  every  reader  of  Biographia  Literaria.  Some  of  the  original  cor- 
respondence as  to  the  surveillance  of  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge 
is  preserved  in  the  Home  Office  records  for  the  year  1797.7  It  is 

•  See  his  note  to  the  Anecdote  for  Fathers. 
7  Vol.  137— Domestic,  Geo.  III.,  1797. 


1908  WORDSWORTH,  COLERIDGE,  AND  THE  SPY  805 

unfortunately    incomplete ;    but  enough  remains  to  throw  a  flood 
of  light  on  the  details  of  the  whole  affair. 

The  first  letter  of  complaint  has  not  been  preserved,  but  the 
subsequent  correspondence  shows  that  it  was  addressed  to  the  Duke 
of  Portland,  who  was  then  Home  Secretary,  by  Dr.  Lysons,  of  Bath, 
on  the  8th  of  August  1797.  No  doubt  the  original  was  given  to  the 
detective  employed,  and  no  copy  kept.  On  the  llth  of  August 
Dr.  Lysons  addressed  a  supplementary  letter  to  the  Home  Office. 
This  also  was  sent  to  the  detective,  but  a  copy  was  kept  in  the  Home 
Office.  It  is  docketed,  *  Copy  of  Mr.  Lysons'  second  letter  to  the 
Duke  of  Portland,'  and  is  as  follows  : — 

Bath,  11  Aug  1797. 

MY  LORD  DUKE, — On  the  8th  instant  I  took  the  liberty  to  acquaint  your 
Grace  with  a  very  suspicious  business  concerning  an  emigrant  family,  who  have 
contrived  to  get  possession  of  a  Mansion  House  at  Alfoxton,  late  belonging  to 
the  Eevd.  Mr.  St.  Albyn,  under  Quantock  Hills.  I  am  since  informed,  that  the 
Master  of  the  House  has  no  wife  with  him,  but  only  a  woman  who  passes  for 
his  Sister.  The  man  has  Camp  Stools,  which  he  and  his  visitors  take  with 
them  when  they  go  about  the  country  upon  their  nocturnal  or  diurnal  excur- 
sions, and  have  also  a  Portfolio  in  which  they  enter  their  observations,  which 
they  have  been  heard  to  say  were  almost  finished.  They  have  been  heard  to 
say  they  should  be  rewarded  for  them,  and  were  very  attentive  to  the  River 
near  them — probably  the  River  coming  within  a  mile  or  two  of  Alfoxton  from 
Bridgewater.  These  people  may  postibly  be  under  Agents  to  some  principal  at 
Bristol. 

Having  got  these  additional  anecdotes  which  were  dropt  by  the  person 
mentioned  in  my  last  I  think  it  necessary  to  acquaint  your  Grace  with  them, 
and  have  the  honor  to  be  &c.  D.  LYSONS. 

The  next  paper  in  the  series  is  a  report  from  the  detective  employed 
by  the  Home  Office.  It  is  addressed  to  Mr.  J.  King,  then  Permanent 
Under-Secretary  of  State  for  the  Home  Department. 

Bear  Inn,  Hungerford,  Berks  :  11  Aug  1797. 

SIB, — Charles  Mogg  says  that  he  was  at  Alfoxton  last  Saturday  was  a  week, 
that  he  there  saw  Thomas  Jones  who  lives  in  the  Farm  House  at  Alfoxton, 
who  informed  Mogg  that  some  French  people  had  got  possession  of  the  Mansion 
House  and  that  they  were  washing  and  Mending  their  cloaths  all  Sunday,  that 
He  Jones  would  not  continue  their  as  he  did  not  like  It.  That  Christopher 
Trickie  and  his  Wife  who  live  at  the  Dog  pound  at  Alfoxton,  told  Moggs  that 
the  French  people  had  taken  the  plan  of  Their  House,  and  that  They  had  also 
taken  the  plan  of  all  the  places  round  that  part  of  the  Country,  that  a  Brook 
runs  in  the  front  of  Trickle's  House  and  the  French  people  inquired  of  Trickie 
wether  the  Brook  was  Navigable  to  the  Sea,  and  upon  being  informed  by 
Trickie  that  It  was  not,  They  were  afterwards  seen  examining  the  Brook  quite 
down  to  the  Sea.  That  Mrs.  Trickie  confirmed  everything  her  husband  had 
said.  Mogg  spoke  to  some  other  persons  inhabitants  of  that  Neighbourhood, 
who  all  told  him  they  thought  these  French  people  very  suspicious  persons  and 
that  They  were  doing  no  good  there.  And  that  was  the  general  opinion  of 
that  part  of  the  country.  The  French  people  kept  no  Servant,  but  They  were 
visited  by  a  number  of  persons,  and  were  frequently  out  upon  the  heights  most 
part  of  the  Night. 

Mogg  says  that  Alfoxton  lays  about  Twelve  miles  below  Bridgewater  and 
within  Two  Miles  of  the  Sea.  Mogg  says  that  he  never  spoke  to  Doctor 
Lysons,  but  that  a  Woman  who  is  Cook  to  the  Doctor  had  lived  fellow  Servant 


806  ,      THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

with  Mogg  at  Alfoxton,  and  that  in  his  way  from  Thence  home,  he  called  upou 
her  at  the  Doctor's  House  in  Bath  last  Monday,  when  talking  about  Alfoxton, 
He  mentioned  these  circumstances  to  her. 

As  Mr.  Mogg  is  by  no  means  the  most  intelligent  Man  in  the  World,  I 
thought  It  my  duty  to  send  You  the  whole  of  his  Storry  as  he  related  It. 
I  shall  wait  here  Your  further  Orders  and  am 

Sir, 

Your  most  obedient  Humble  Servt. 

G.  WALSH. 

On  receipt  of  this  letter  further  instructions  were  at  once  sent  to 
the  detective.  The  next  paper  is  docketed  '  Copy  of  Mr.  King's 
letter  to  Walsh.' 

Whitehall  Aug  12th,  1797.' 

SIR, — I  have  considered  the  contents  of  your  letter  to  me  from  the  Bear 
Inn,  Hungerford,  of  yesterday's  date.  You  will  immediately  proceed  to 
Alfoxton  or  its  neighbourhood  yourself,  taking  care  on  your  arrival  so  to  con- 
duct yourself  as  to  give  no  cause  of  suspicion  to  the  Inhabitants  of  the  Mansion 
house  there.  You  will  narrowly  watch  their  proceedings,  and  observe  how  they 
coincide  with  Mogg's  account  and  that  contained  in  the  within  letter  from 
Mr.  Lysons  to  the  Duke  of  Portland.  If  you  are  in  want  of  further  information 
or  assistance,  you  will  call  on  Sir  P.  Hale  Bar'  of  Boymore  near  Bridgewater, 
and  upon  showing  him  this  letter  you  will  I  am  confident  receive  it.  You  will 
give  me  a  precise  account  of  all  the  circumstances  you  observe,  with  your 
sentiments  thereon ;  you  will  of  course  ascertain  if  you  can  the  names  of  the 
persons,  and  will  add  their  descriptions — and  above  all  you  will  be  careful  not 
to  give  them  any  cause  of  alarm,  that  if  necessary  they  may  be  found  on  the 
spot.  Should  they  however  move  you  must  follow  their  track  and  give  me 
notice  thereof,  and  of  the  place  to  which  they  have  betaken  themselves. 
I  herewith  transmit  you  a  bank  note  for  £20. 

J.  KING. 

The  following  letters  show  how  Walsh  obeyed  his  instructions  : 

Globe  Inn,  Stowey,  Somerset :  15th  Augst  1797. 

SIK, — In  consequence  of  Your  orders  which  I  reed  Yesterday,  I  immediately 
set  of  for  this  Place,  which  altho  it  is  five  Miles  from  Alfoxlon,  is  the  nearest 
house  I  can  get  any  accommodation  at. 

I  had  not  been  many  minutes  in  this  house  before  I  had  an  opportunity 
of  entering  upon  my  Business,  By  a  Mr  Woodhouse  asking  the  Landlord,  If  he 
had  seen  any  of  those  Eascalls  from  Alfoxton.  To  which  the  Landlord  reply'd, 
He  had  seen  Two  of  them  Yesterday.  Upon  which  Woodhouse  asked  the 
Landlord,  If  Thelwall  was  gone.  I  then  asked  if  they  meant  the  famous 
Thelwall.  They  said  Yes.  That  he  had  been  down  some  time,  and  that  there 
were  a  Nest  of  them  at  Alfoxton  House  who  were  protected  by  a  Mr.  Poole 
a  Tanner  of  this  Town,  and  that  he  supposed  Thelwall  was  there  (Alfoxton 
House)  at  this  time.  I  told  Woodhouse  that  I  had  heard  somebody  say  at 
Bridgewater  that  They  were  French  people  at  the  Manor  House.  The  Landlord 
and  Woodhouse  answered  No,  No.  They  are  not  French,  But  they  are  people 
that  will  do  as  much  harm,  as  All  the  French  can  do. 

I  hope  To-morrow  to  be  able  4o  give  you  some  information,  in  the  mean 
time  I  shall  be  very  attentive  to  your  instructions. 

I  think  this  will  turn  out  no  French  affair,  but  a  mischiefuous  gang  of 
disaffected  Englishmen.     I  have  just  procured  the  Name  of  the  person  who 
took  the  House.     His  name  is  Wordsworth  a  name  I  think  known  to  Mr.  Ford. 
I  have  the  honor  to  be  Sir 

Your  most  obedient  Humble  Sert. 

G.  WALSH. 


1908  WORDSWORTH,  COLERIDGE,  AND  THE  SPY  807 

Stowey :  16th  Augt  1797. 

SIR, —  The  inhabitants  of  Alfoxton  House  are  a  Sett  of  violent  Democrats. 
The  House  was  taken  for  a  Person  of  the  name  of  Wordsworth,  who  came  to 
It  from  a  Village  near  Honiton  in  Devonshire,  about  five  Weeks  since.  The 
Rent  of  the  LI  ouse  is  secured  to  the  Landlord  by  a  Mr  Thomas  Poole  of  this 
Town.  Mr  Poole  is  a  Tanner  and  a  Man  of  some  property.  He  is  a  most 
Violent  Member  of  the  Corresponding  Society  and  a  strenuous  supporter  of  Its 
Friends,  He  has  with  him  at  this  time  a  Mr  Coldridge  and  his  wife  both  of 
whom  he  has  supported  since  Christmas  last.  This  Coldridge  came  last  from 
Bristol  and  is  reckoned  a  Man  of  superior  Ability.  He  is  frequently  publishing, 
and  I  am  told  is  soon  to  produce  a  new  work.  He  has  a  Press  in  the  House 
and  I  am  informed  He  prints  as  well  as  publishes  his  own  productions. 

Mr  Poole  with  his  disposition,  is  the  more  dangerous  from  his  having 
established  in  this  Town,  what  He  stiles  The  Poor  Man's  Club,  and  placing 
himself  at  the  head  of  It,  By  the  Title  of  the  Poor  Man's  Friend.  I  am  told 
that  there  are  150  poor  Men  belonging  to  this  Club,  and  that  Mr  Poole  has  the 
intire  command  of  every  one  of  them.  When  Mr  Thelwall  was  here,  he  was 
continually  with  Mr  Poole. 

By  the  direction  on  a  letter  that  was  going  to  the  Post  Yesterday,  It  appears 
that  Thelwall  is  now  at  Bristol. 

I  last  Night  saw  Thomas  Jones  who  lives  at  Alfoxton  House.  He  exactly 
confirms  Mogg  of  Hungerford,  with  this  addition  that  the  Sunday  after 
Wordsworth  came,  he  Jones  was  desired  to  wait  at  table,  that  there  were 
14  persons  at  Dinner  Poole  and  Coldridge  were  there,  And  there  was  a  little 
Stout  Man  with  dark  cropt  Hair  and  wore  a  White  Hat  and  Glasses  (Thelwall) 
who  after  Dinner  got  up  and  talked  so  loud  and  was  in  such  a  passion  that 
Jones  was  frightened  and  did  not  like  to  go  near  them  since.  That  Wordsworth 
has  lately  been  to  his  former  House  and  brought  back  with  him  a  Woman 
Servant,  that  Jones  has  seen  this  Woman  who  is  very  Chatty,  and  that  she 
told  him  that  Her  Master  was  a  Phylosopher.  That  the  Night  before  last  Two 
men  came  to  Alfoxton  House,  And  that  the  Woman  Servant  Yesterday  Morning 
told  Jones  that  one  of  the  Gentlemen  was  a  Great  Counsellor  from  London,  and 
the  other  a  Gentleman  from  Bristol. 

Jones  had  been  apply'd  to  by  the  Servant  to  weed  the  Garden,  but  had 
declined  going,  as  he  was  afraid  of  the  people.  But  upon  my  applying  a  few 
shillings  Mr  Jones  has  got  the  better  of  his  fears  and  is  this  Day  weeding  the 
Garden,  and  in  the  evening  is  to  bring  me  the  Name  of  the  Great  Counsellor 
and  every  other  information  he  can  Collect.  It  is  reported  here  that  Thelwall 
is  to  return  soon  to  this  Place  and  that  he  is  to  occupy  a  part  of  Alfoxton 
House. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be  Sir 

Your  most  obedient  Humble  Servt. 

G.  WALSH. 

At  this  point  the  correspondence  unfortunately  breaks  off,8  and 
we  are  left  in  uncertainty  as  to  why  the  watching  was  discontinued, 
and  whether  Mr.  Walsh  on  personal  acquaintance  actually  formed  so 
favourable  an  opinion  of  Coleridge  as  Coleridge  says  he  did. 

8  There  is  nothing  to  show  what  became  of  "the  later  letters.  It  is  possible  that 
the  Duke  of  Portland  took  them  away  when  he  went  out  of  office,  and  that  they 
may  still  be  among  the  Portland  archives.  At  that  time  the  line  between  official 
correspondence  and  private  or  semi-official  letters  was  very  loosely  drawn  ;  and 
Secretaries  of  State  took  away  with  them  much  that  would  now  be  considered 
official  correspondence,  and  on  the  other  hand  left  with  the  files  some  things  that 
would  certainly  be  treated  as  private  papers  at  the  present  time. 


808  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUEY  Aug. 

It  will  be  obvious  that  these  letters  greatly  affect  the  views  hitherto 
accepted  about  this  affair.  To  begin  with,  they  make  it  plain  that 
the  information  which  led  to  the  sending  of  the  detective  came  not 
from  Sir  Philip  Hale,  but  from  Dr.  Lysons  of  Bath.  It  is  easy  to 
see  how  Sir  Philip  got  the  credit.  Walsh  was  instructed  to  go  to  him 
for  help,  probably  because  he  was  a  leading  magistrate  and  supporter 
of  Government  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood.  No  doubt  he  did 
so  ;  and  as  Sir  Philip  was  prominent  in  the  later  stages  of  the  affair, 
the  country  folk  from  whom  Coleridge  got  his  information  naturally 
concluded  that  he  had  been  the  prime  mover  throughout. 

But  it  is  clear  that  Dr.  Lysons  was  merely  transmitting  to  the 
Home  Secretary  reports  which  had  reached  him,  and  that  he  had 
no  personal  knowledge  of  the  matter.  The  correspondence  printed 
above  makes  it  probable — in  fact  almost  certain — that  Dr.  Lysons' 
informant,  and  the  direct  cause  of  Wordsworth  being  watched,  was 
the  Charles  Mogg  of  Hungerford  who  figures  so  largely  in  it. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  original  instructions  given  to  the  detective 
were  merely  to  go  to  Hungerford  and  make  some  inquiry  there  ;  other- 
wise there  would  have  been  no  need  for  the  Under-Secretary  to  send 
him  fresh  instructions  to  go  to  Alfoxton  (and  a  fresh  supply  of  money), 
as  he  did  in  his  letter  of  the  12th  of  August,  written  after  receiving 
Walsh's  report  from  Hungerford.  The  only  object  in  sending  a 
detective  to  Hungerford  can  have  been  to  interview  Mogg ;  and  his 
report  does  in  fact  relate  solely  to  an  interview  with  Mogg.  The 
reader  will  have  noticed  also  that  the  Hungerford  report  begins 
about  Mogg  without  introduction  or  explanation,  as  though  he  were 
already  well  known  to  the  Under-Secretary  in  connection  with  the 
affair.  This  can  only  be  explained  on  the  assumption  that  Mogg  was 
the  informant  mentioned  in  Dr.  Lysons'  first  letter.  This  conjecture 
is  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  Walsh  in  his  report  takes  special  pains 
to  explain  Mogg's  precise  connexion  with  Dr.  Lysons.  '  Mogg  says 
that  he  never  spoke  to  Dr.  Lysons,  but  that  a  woman  who  is  cook  to 
the  Doctor  had  lived  fellow-servant  with  Mogg  at  Alfoxton,  and  that 
on  his  way  from  thence  home  he  called  upon  her  at  the  Doctor's  house 
in  Bath  last  Monday,  when,  talking  about  Alfoxton,  he  mentioned 
these  circumstances  to  her.'  The  dates  fully  bear  out  this  view. 
The  passage  just  quoted  was  written  on  Friday,  the  llth  of  August, 
the  previous  Monday  would  therefore  be  the  7th,  and  we  know  that 
Dr.  Lysons'  first  letter  of  complaint  was  written  on  the  8th.  The 
natural  inference  is  that  Dr.  Lysons'  letter  to  the  Home  Office  was 
due  to  the  startling  reports  of  French  spies  at  Alfoxton  which  his 
cook  told  him  that  Mogg  had  brought. 

A  more  important  result  of  the  correspondence  now  printed  is  to 
make  it  clear  that  the  rationalising  explanation  given  by  the  biographers 
is  mistaken.  A  priori  it  is  far  more  reasonable  that  the  visits  of  a 
notorious  democrat  like  Thelwall  should  have  led  to  the  poets  being 


1908  WORDSWORTH,  COLERIDGE,  AND  THE  SPY  809 

suspected  than  that  they  should  seriously  have  been  mistaken  for 
French  spies.  But  the  ridiculous  explanation  is  the  true  one.  It  is 
plain  from  Dr.  Lysons'  letter  and  from  Walsh's  first  report  that  the 
original  information  sent  to  the  Home  Office  was  based  entirely  on  the 
theory  that  the  Wordsworths  were  French  and  spies,  and  was  silent 
about  any  connexion  with  Thelwall.  It  was  not  till  Walsh  got  to 
Stowey  that  he  discovered  that  '  this  would  turn  out  no  French 
affair,  but  a  mischievous  gang  of  disaffected  Englishmen.' 

Evidently  the  country  folk  at  Alfoxton  were  genuinely  alarmed 
at  the  eccentric  behaviour  of  the  Wordsworths  and  their  friends,  and 
could  only  explain  their  want  of  any  apparent  occupation,  their  love 
of  country  walks,  their  note-books  and  sketches,  and  their  inquisitive- 
ness  about  the  brook  on  the  theory  that  they  were  spies.  Why  they 
took  them  for  French  people  is  not  so  plain  ;  but  rustics  are  always 
prone  to  put  down  people  of  outlandish  habits  as  foreigners ;  and 
the  French  were  the  foreigners  most  in  men's  minds  then.  Possibly 
also  it  may  be  accounted  for  by  Wordsworth's  north  country  accent, 
and  the  introduction  into  Alfoxton  of  the  Continental  Sunday,  as 
evidenced  by  the  Sunday  washing  and  mending  of  clothes  which 
scandalised  and  frightened  Thomas  Jones. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  accounts  given  by  Dr.  Lysons 
and  Charles  Mogg  bear  out  Coleridge's  story  in  one  striking  feature. 
Mogg  reported  '  that  a  brook  runs  in  front  of  Trickie's  house,  and  the 
French  people  inquired  of  Trickie  whether  the  brook  was  navigable 
to  the  sea,  and  upon  being  informed  by  Trickie  that  it  was  not,  they 
were  afterwards  seen  examining  the  brook  quite  down  to  the  sea.' 

This  at.  once  confirms  and  is  explained  by  a  passage  in  the 
Biographia  Literaria : 

I  sought  for  a  subject  that  should  give  equal  room  and  freedom  for  descrip- 
tion, incident  and  impassioned  reflections  on  men,  nature  and  society,  yet 
supply  in  itself  a  natural  connection  to  the  parts,  and  unity  to  the  whole. 
Such  a  subject  I  conceived  myself  to  have  found  in  a  stream,  traced  from  its 
source  in  the  hills  among  the  yellow-red  moss  and  conical  glass-shaped  tufts 
of  bent,  to  the  first  break  or  fall,  where  its  drops  become  audible  and  it  begins 
to  form  a  channel ;  thence  to  the  peat  and  turf  barn,  itself  built  of  the  same 
dark  squares  as  it  sheltered;  to  the  sheepfold;  to  the  first  cultivated  plot  of 
ground ;  to  the  lonely  cottage  and  its  bleak  garden  won  from  the  heaths,  to  the 
hamlet,  the  villages,  the  market  town,  the  manufactories  and  the  seaport.  .  .  . 
Many  circumstances,  evil  and  good,  intervened  to  prevent  the  completion  of 
the  poem,  which  was  to  have  been  entitled  '  The  Brook.'  Had  I  finished  the 
work,  it  was  my  purpose  in  the  heat  of  the  moment  to  have  dedicated  it  to  oxir 
then  committee  of  public  safety  as  containing  the  charts  and  maps  with  which 
I  was  to  have  supplied  the  French  Government  in  aid  of  their  plans  of 
invasion. 

The  official  correspondence  breaks  off  before  the  detective  came 
into  personal  contact  with  the  poets.  It  is  useless  therefore  to  look 
for  any  confirmation  of  Coleridge's  delightful  story  about  Spinoza 
and  the  personal  interpretation  which  the  spy  put  upon  that  celebrated 


810  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

name.  But  the  whole  tone  of  the  correspondence  makes  against  the 
truth  of  it.  To  judge  from  his  reports,  Walsh  was  a  man  of  some 
education  and  plenty  of  natural  shrewdness,  and  would  have  been 
very  unlikely  to  entertain  such  a  delusion.  If  the  incident  really 
happened,  it  seems  much  more  likely  that  it  was  Thomas  Jones  or 
some  other  rustic  informant  who  heard  Coleridge  talking  about  '  Spy 
Nozy,'  and  concluded  that  it  was  his  name  for  the  detective. 

But  even  if  all  the  details  of  Coleridge's  narrative  cannot  be 
accepted,  it  is  undoubtedly  true  in  the  spirit.  The  people  of  Alfoxton, 
suddenly  confronted  with  a  group  of  poets  in  the  flesh,  were  deeply 
impressed  with  their  interest  in  all  the  details  of  the  country-side, 
and  could  only  account  for  it  on  the  theory  that  they  had  some 
mysterious  but  strictly  practical  object.  It  was  an  exact  reproduction 
in  real  life — only  substituting  the  country  for  the  town — of  the  some- 
what fantastic  situation  that  Browning  described  in  '  How  it  Strikes  a 
Contemporary ' : 

I  only  knew  one  poet  in  my  life  : 

And  this,  or  something  like  it,  was  his  way. 

You  saw  go  up  and  down  Valladolid 
A  man  of  mark,  to  know  next  time  you  saw.  .  .  . 
He  took  such  cognizance  of  men  and  things, 
If  any  beat  a  horse,  you  felt  he  saw  ; 
If  any  cursed  a  woman,  be  took  note.  .  .  . 
So,  next  time  that  a  neighbour's  tongue  was  loosed, 
It  marked  the  shameful  and  notorious  fact, 
We  had  among  us,  not  so  much  a  spy, 
As  a  recording  chief-inquisitor, 
The  town's  true  master  if  the  town  but  knew ! 
We  merely  kept  a  Governor  for  form, 
While  this  man  walked  about  and  took  account 
Of  all  thought,  said,  and  acted,  then  went  home., 
And  ( wrote  it  fully  to  oar  Lord  the  King. 

A.  J.  EAGLESTON. 


1908 


UN  PEU  DE   PICKWICK  A  LA   FRANCAISE 


HAVING  had  occasion  to  rearrange  my  collection  of  books,  which 
conscientiously  I  cannot  describe  as  *  a  library,'  I  came  across  a  few 
odd  volumes  of  a  French  magazine  entitled  Journal  pour  tous,  which 
having  come  into  my  possession  some  considerable  time  ago,  had 
been  put  aside  for  examination  and  reference  when  some  special 
occasion  might  require  it.  The  hour  has  come,  bringing  the  oppor- 
tunity. This  French  magazine,  which  seems  nowadays  so  old  fashioned 
in  form,  was  illustrated  in  a  style  occasionally  reminding  me  of  the 
London  Journal  of  half  a  century  ago,  when  its  pictures  were  by 
John  Gilbert,  afterwards  Sir  John  Gilbert,  whose  masterly  work  in 
black  and  white  has  rarely  been  equalled,  and,  as  far  as  I  am  aware, 
never  been  surpassed. 

The  Journal  pour  tous  was  started  in  1855,  its  first  number 
appearing  on  the  1st  of  April  (an  unfortunate  date  perhaps)  in  that 
year.  The  price,  of  this  Magasih  Hebdomadaire  illustrd  was  dix 
centimes,  and  it  could  be  obtained,  among  other  places,  '  a  la  librairie 
de  MM.  L.  Hachette  et  Cie.,  rue  Pierre-Sarrazin.'  Its  object  was  to 
interest  and  amuse,  and,  writes  the  editor  of  that  time,  Charles  Lahure, 
'  Nous  faisons  une  loi  absolue  a  tous  nos  collaborateurs  de  ne  rien 
ecrire  qui  puisse  blesser  la  morale.'  With  this  excellent  purpose  in 
view,  Romans  Strangers  were  immediately  laid  under  contribution, 
and  in  the  first  number  appear  translations  of  works  by  such  well- 
known  writers  as  Carleton,  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  Warren  (Dix 
mille  guinees  de  rente),  W.  M.  Thackeray,  Longfellow,  N.  Hawthorne, 
and  others.  It  is  noticeable  that  in  this  list  the  name  of  Charles 
Dickens  does  not  appear  in  the  first  four  volumes  of  the  magazine, 
although  we  are  supplied  with  two  pages  of  Thackeray's  Henry 
Esmond,  Memoires  d'un  Officier  de  Marlborough,  As  far  as  I  can 
make  out,  we  are  not  presented  with  any  selection  from  the  works 
of  Charles  Dickens,  until  we  reach  the  last  two  months  of  the  fifth 
year  of  the  Journal  pour  tous,  when  suddenly  we  are  confronted  with 
La  Prison  pour  Dettes,  which  is  the  title  given  by  the  adapting  trans- 
lator to  the  excerpt  from  Mr.  Pickwick's  adventures  commencing 
with  the  celebrated  trial  and  ending  with  his  incarceration  in  the 
Fleet  Prison. 

311 


312  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

The  extract  from  Pickwick  which  I  have  just  come  across  in  the 
Journal  pour,  tons  commences  with  what  I  find  to  be  the  second 
chapter  of  the  second  volume  of  The  Posthumous  Paper*  of  the 
Pickwick  Club  as  published  in  that  weH-known  form  so  convenient  for 
travellers'  pockets,  in  more  senses  than  one,  *  The  Tauchnitz  Edition, 
1842.'  This  '  chapter  ii.  vol.  ii.'  corresponds  with  Chapter  XXXI. 
in  Chapman  and  Hall's  '  Memorial  edition.'  These  details  I  mention 
for  the  benefit  of  any  of  my  readers  who  may  wish  to  compare  the 
quotations  with  the  original. 

The  French  translator  evidently  did  his  work  most  conscientiously 
and  most  carefully.  The  difficulty  that  will  present  itself  to  any 
Dickensian  student  will  of  course  be  expressed  in  the  question,  *  How 
on  earth  could  Sam  Weller's  cockneyisms  be  anything  like  equivalently 
rendered  in  French  so  as  to  convey  to  the  foreign  reader  a  correct  idea 
of  the  English  original— that  is,  of  the  "  English  as  she  was  spoke  "  by 
the  immortal  Samuel,  not  Johnson,  but  Weller  ?  '  We  shall  see. 

We  commence  with  the  description  of  certain  dark  and  dirty 
chambers  in  various  holes  and  corners  of  the  Temple,  in  and  out  of  which 
may  be  seen  constantly  hurrying  with  bundles  of  papers  under  their 
arms  an  almost  uninterrupted  succession  of  lawyer's  clerks,  *  une 
armee  de  clercs  d'avoues  portant  d'enormes  paquets  de  papiers  sous 
leurs  bras  et  dans  leurs  poches.' 

Then  comes  Dickens's  delightful  enumeration  of  the  various  kinds 
of  clerks,  their  habits,  customs,  and  manners,  followed  by  a  picture  of 
the  sequestered  nooks  which  are  the  public  offices  of  the  legal  pro- 
fession, that  is  as  Charles  Dickens  knew  them,  not  it  may  be  as  they 
are  nowadays,  since  so  many  extensive  alterations  have  been  effected. 

The  French  adapter  came  across  this  picturesque  Hogarthian 
kind  of  description  of  the  mouldy  rooms  where 

innumerable  rolls  of  parchment  which  have  been  perspiring  in  secret  for  the 
last  century  send  forth  an  agreeable  odour  which  is  mingled  by  day  with  the 
scent  of  the  dry  rot,  and  by  night  with  the  various  exhalations  which  arise  from 
damp  cloaks,  festering  umbrellas,  and  the  coarsest  tallow  candles. 

Now  how  would  the  translator  manage  the  *  festering  umbrellas  '  ? 
I  give  the  passage  : 

Ce  sont,  pour  la  plupart,  des  salles  basses,  sentant  le  renfermi',  ou 
d'innombrables  feuilles  de  parchemin  qui  y  transpirent  en  secret  depuis  un 
siecle,  e"mettent  un  agreable  parfum,  auquel  vient  ae  meler,  pendant  la  journ^e, 
une  odeur  de  moisissure,  et,  pendant  la  nuit,  des  eihalaisons  de  manteaux,  de 
parapluies  humides  et  de  chandelles  ranees. 

His  rendering  of  *  festering  umbrellas  '  is  decidedly  disappointing, 
for  though  it  may  be  no  easy  task  for  an  English  admirer  of  Dickens 
graphically  to  explain,  or,  if  a  draughtsman,  to  draw  a  picture  showing 
precisely  what  the  author  intended  to  convey  by  his  strikingly,  but 
strangely,  chosen  adjective  *  festering,'  yet  the  substitution  of  humides 
takes  all  the  noisomeness  out  of  the  description  and  gives  us  simply 


1908     UN  PEU  DE  PICKWICK  A  LA  FRANQAISE    818 

what  Mr.  Mantalini  would  have  termed  a  '  demmed,  moist,  uncom- 
fortable '  umbrella. 

We  now  come  to  the  moment  *  vers  sept  heures  et  demie  du  soir,' 
which  has  been  selected  by  Mr.  Jackson  of  the  house  of  Dodson  and 
Fogg  as  opportune  for  serving  subpoenas  on  Messrs.  Tupman,  Snodgrass, 
Winkle,  and  Sam  Weller,  ordering  them  to  appear  as  witnesses  at  the 
forthcoming  trial  of  Bardell  versus  Pickwick.  Mr.  Snodgrass  having 
been  duly  *  served,'  Mr.  Jackson,  turning  sharply  upon  Mr.  Tupman, 
said,  '  I  think  I  ain't  mistaken  when  I  say  your  name's  Tupman, 
ami?' 

The  difficulty  for  the  translator  is  to  convey  to  the  French  reader 
the  commonplace,  vulgar  personality  conveyed  in  the  expression 
*  I  ain't  mistaken.'  *  Ain't '  is  the  difficulty.  It  simply  could  not  be 
rendered.  So  Monsieur  Jackson,  '  le  clerc  lui  dit,  "  Je  ne  me  trompe 
pas  en  disant  que  votre  nom  est  Tupman,  Monsieur  ?  " 

And  again,  how  difficult  for  a  Frenchman  to  exactly  render  the 
vulgar  English  colloquialism  used  by  Jackson,  who,  to  a  question 
put  to  him  by  Mr.  Pickwick,  playfully  rejoined,  '  Not  knowin', 
can't  say.'  This  seems  to  me  effectively  done  by  *  Peux  pas  dire  .  .  . 
Sais  pas.' 

Then  to  Mr.  Pickwick's  question  as  to  why  the  subpoenas  were 
served  on  his  friends,  Mr.  Jackson  replies,  '  slowly  shaking  his  head.' 
'  Very  good  plant,  Mr.  Pickwick.  But  it  won't  do.  There's  no 
harm  in  trying,  but  there's  little  to  be  got  out  of  me.' 

Which  is  thus  rendered  in  good  French  slang  of  the  period : 

'  Votre  souriciere  est  tres-bonne,  Monsieur  Pickwick,'  repliqua  Jackson  en 
secouant  la  tete ;  '  Mais  jo  ne  donne  pas  dans  le  panneau.  II  n'y  a  pas  de  mal 
a  essayer,  mais  il  n'y  a  pas  grand'  chose  de  tirer  de  moi.' 

This  is  put  very  neatly  and  effectively. 

I  wish  it  were  possible  to  reproduce  here  the  illustration  which 
appears  on  this  page,  showing  Mr.  Pickwick  a  la  Franfaise,  indignant, 
bareheaded,  irately  addressing  himself  to  a  wigged  and  gowned 
barrister,  wearing  enormous  bands  and  low  shoes  with  buckles,  who, 
as  I  had  at  first  imagined,  was  intended  as  a  Mephistophelian  legal 
functionary  representing  Messrs.  Dodson  and  Fogg  in  person ;  but,  as 
will  be  evident  later  on,  I  was  misled.  Behind  Mr.  Pickwick,  a  little 
to  the  right,  stands  a  strapping  Sam  Weller,  six  feet  high  if  he's  an 
inch,  with  folded  arms,  clutching  in  his  right  hand  his  master's  hat, 
which  the  latter  has  given  him  to  hold.  On  Sam's  head  is  a  sort  of 
Court  footman's  hat  with  a  cockade  attached  ;  instead  of  an  overcoat 
he  wears  an  ostler's  old-fashioned  long  waistcoat  with  sleeves,  and  his 
continuations  are  baggy  breeches  with  a  line  of  exterior  buttons  from 
hip  to  ankle,  where  they  become  very  full,  and  just  by  a  couple  of 
inches  fail  in  reaching  the  toe  of  his  boot.  The  faithful  servant  is 
stolidly  standing  with  eyes  closed  while  his  somewhat  heavy  coun- 
tenance is  slightly  lit  up  by  a  gentle  half-smile.  The  whole  sqene  is 


814  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

thoroughly  characteristic  of  a  clever  French  artist's  representation  in 
black  and  white  (curiously  resembling  some  of  Sir  John  Gilbert's  earlier 
work)  of  such  dramatic  action  as  ought  to  be  furnished  by  a  '  situation  ' 
in  an  English  court  of  law.  Underneath  is  the  legend, '  Mr.  Pickunck 
mit  ses  lunettes  et  contempla  le  chef  du  jury?  So  that  the  individual 
in  wig,  gown,  and  bands  whom  at  first  I  had  taken  for  some  dis- 
tinguished legal  functionary,  born  of  the  artist's  imagination,  repre- 
senting the  firm  of  solicitors,  Messrs.  Dodson  and  Fogg,  turns  out  to 
be  intended  for  '  le  chef  du  jury,'  whom  Mr.  Pickwick,  having  put  on 
ses  lunettes,  regards  with  '  un  cceur  palpitant  et  une  contenance  agitee* 
Needless  to  say,  this  thrilling  scene  as  represented  by  the  imaginative 
artist,  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  original  Pickwick,  where,  not  in  the 
hall,  but  from  his  seat  in  the  court  which  he  never  quitted  during  the 
trial,  Mr.  Pickwick  '  put  on  his  spectacles  and  gazed  at  the  foreman 
with  an  agitated  countenance  and  a  quickly  beating  heart.' 

Before  leaving  this  interesting  chapter  we  cannot  help  being  struck 
by  a  note  explanatory  of  a  certain  portion  of  the  dialogue  before  the 
trial  between  Mr.  Pickwick  and  Sam,  who  points  out  to  his  master 
that  the  day  fixed  for  the  trial  is  '  Walentine's  day,  sir,  reg'lar  good 
day  for  a  breach  o'  promise  trial.' 

But  the  French  writer  cannot  contrive  the  rendering  of  the  *  w ' 
for  the  '  v '  which,  though  the  common  vulgarism  of  Dickens'  time, 
has  long  ago  almost,  if  not  quite,  entirely  disappeared ;  old  boatmen, 
labourers  and  their  wives,  in  some  parts  of  Kent,  retained,  and  still 
retain  this  substitution,  long  after  it  had  disappeared  from  London. 

'  Le  jour  de  Saint  Valentine,  monsieur.  Fameux  jour  pour  juger 
une  violation  de  promesse  de  mariage.'  And  to  this  our  author  adds 
this  explanatory  note  : 

Jour  oii  un  grand  nombre  d'amoureux  et  d'amoureuses  s'ddressent,  sous  le 
voile  de  1'anonyme,  des  declarations  serieuses  ou  ironiques.  Miss  Bardell  [note 
the  '  Miss ']  etait  une  intrigante  qui,  dirigee  par  Dodson  et  Fogg,  voulait 
profiter  d'une  plaisanterie  pour  se  faire  epouser  par  M.  Pickwick. 

This  puts  the  whole  story  into  a  nutshell,  and  at  once  disposes, 
at  least  for  all  French  readers,  of  '  Mrs.'  or  rather  *  Miss  Bardell.' 

The  French  adapter  makes  short  work  of  the  trial,  breaking  ofE  in 
the  middle  of  the  eloquent  address  delivered  by  '  Me.  Buzfuz ' — 
Maltre  being  taken  as  equivalent  to  the  ancient  title  of  *  Serjeant,' 
which  has  now  ceased  to  exist — and  giving  his  own  explanation  as 
to  the  omission  of  all  the  evidence  for  plaintiff  and  defendant.  Thus 
he  treats  it : 

M*.  Buzfuz  continua  avec  grande  emotion.  .  .  .  Mais  le  stenographe 
charge1  de  reoueillir  ses  paroles  s'etant  obstin^  a  nous  refuser  la  communication 
de  ses  notes,  nos  lecteurs  y  perdront  un  morceau  qui  eut  fait  envie  a 
Demosthene.  Qu'il  nous  suffise  de  dire  que  Me.  Buzfuz  dans  sa  pe"roraison, 
foudroya  M.  Pickwick.  Le  philosophe  trembla  un  instant  d'avoir  e'td  jusque-la 
un  profond  sce'le'rat,  sans  s'en  6tre  jamais  doute". 


1908     UN  PEU*DE  PICKWICK  A  LA  FEANCAISE    815 / 

So  our  light-hearted  French  adapter  nimbly  skips  from  p.  103  to 
p.  125,  and  alights  upon  the  summing-up  of  Mr.  Justice  Stareleigh, 
who  gives  the  plaintiff's  social  status  correctly,  as  '  Mme.  Bardell, 
and  at  its  conclusion  '  les  jures  se  retirerent  dans  leur  salle  pour 
deliberer,  et  le  juge  se  retira  dans  son  cabinet  pour  se  rqfratchir  avec 
une  c'telette  de  mouton  et  un  verre  de  sherry,'  which  certainly  sounds 
like  something  far  more  recherche  than  the  mere  ordinary  k  mutton 
chop  and  a  glass  of  sherry.' 

With  the  verdict  of  the  jury  in  favour  of  the  plaintiff  the  trial 
ends.  The  mournfully  apologetic  epilogue  uttered  by  Mr.  Weller, 
Senior,  follows  the  fall  of  the  curtain  on  this  dramatic  scene, '  0  Sammy, 
Sammy  !  pourquoi  qui  ne  se  sont  pas  servi  d'un  alebi  ?  '  which  in  this 
old  gentleman's  peculiar  English  is  memorable  as  '  Oh,  Sammy, 
Sammy,  vy  worn't  there  a  alleybi !  '  which  ungrammatical  specialty 
it  was  impossible  to  render  colloquially  in  French. 

From  the  fifth  chapter  our  adapting  translator,  keeping  steadily 
in  view  his  design  when  he  entitled  his  Pickwickian  papers  La  Prison 
pour  Dettes,  skips  over  five  chapters  devoted  to  the  Bath  incidents, 
and  nimbly  alights  on  '  chapter  xi.,'  which,  according  to  the  original 
descriptive  heading,  '  introduces  Mr.  Pickwick  to  a  new,  and  it  is 
hoped  not  uninteresting  scene,  in  the  great  drama  of  life,'  which  is,  as 
the  end  of  the  chapter  reveals, '  within  the  walls  of  a  Debtors'  Prison.' 

The  chapter  commences  with  the  arrival  of  the  sheriff's  officer, 
Mr.  Namby,  and  his  man  Smouch,  with  both  of  whom  Sam  exchanges 
a  few  scarcely  complimentary  remarks.  Namby,  turning  very  white, 
summons  his  follower : 

'  Here,  Smouch  ! ' 

'  Well,  wot's  amiss  here  ?  '  growled  the  man  in  the  brown  coat. 

'  Ici,  Smouch  ! ' 

'  Ben  !  quoi  qui  gnia ?  '  grommela  Phomme  a  la  redingote  brune. 

This  strikes  me  as  an  excellent  rendering  in  French  slang  of  Dickens' 
'  wot's  amiss,'  which  is  equal  to  the  more  modern  '  what's  the  row  ?  ' 
or  the  rather  more  modern  American  inquiry  '  what's  the  trouble  ?  ' 
and,  as  I  take  it,  the  equivalent  for  this,  slang  in  ordinary  French  would 
be  in  the  perfect  tense  of  the  verb  saveter.  How  the  slang  word 
gniaf  ever  became  a  popular  form  of  savetier  is  a  puzzle,  but,  as 
vulgarly  expressive  of  difficulties  in  the  shoe-trade,  and  meaning 
cobbling,  botching,  bungling,  and  so  forth,  its  parallelism  with  '  what's 
the  difficulty  '  or  *  what's  the  row  '  is  not  far  to  seek. 

I  should  have  mentioned  that  our  adapter  ingeniously  contrived 
to  abbreviate  Mr.  Pickwick's  walk  from  the  '  George  and  Vulture '  to  his 
solicitor's  chambers  by  omitting  Sam  Weller's  story  of  the  *  celebrated 
sassage  factory,'  and  by  bringing  up  the  narrative  sharply  to  the  point 
when  '  Sam  toucha  le  bras  de  son  maitre,  et  lui  apprit  qu'ils  etaient 
arrives.'  Another  excision,  most  judicious  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  French  magazine's  editor  and  readers,  is  the  omission  of  all  the 


316  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBY  Aug. 

incidents  that  occur  between  the  time  of  Mr.  Pickwick's  interview  with 
Perker  and  his  arrival  at  the  Fleet  Prison — '  la  prison  de  la  Flotte  ' — 
which  occupy  from  p.  173  to  p.  177  in  the  Tauchnitz  edition.  It  may 
be,  nay  I  am  sure  it  will  be,  remembered  how  Sam  knocked  off  Mr. 
Namby's  hat,  and  contented  himself  with  coolly  observing,  in  answer 
to  his  master's  severe  reprimand,  that '  if  Mr.  Namby  would  have  the 
goodness  to  put  his  hat  on  again,  he  would  knock  it  into  the  latter  end 
of  next  week.'  As  the  French  equivalent  for  the  ultimate  destiny 
of  Mr.  Namby 's  hat  we  find  Sam  giving  '  aux  grandes  Indes.'  He 
says,  '  si  M.  Namby  voulait  avoir  la  bonte  de  remettre  son  chapeau 
sur  sa  tete,  il  le  lui  enverrait  aux  grandes  Indes.' 

This  is  expressive  of  considerable  distance,  but  is  powerless  in  its 
attempt  at  conveying  the  infinity  of  '  the  latter  end  of  next  week '  and 
the  hopelessness  of  any  attempt  at  the  recovery  of  the  lost  treasure. 

When  Mr.  Pickwick,  on  his  arrival  in  the  Fleet  Prison,  wished  to  be 
informed  where  he  could  sleep,  the  stout  turnkey  showed  him  a  bed 
which  he  could  have  for  the  night,  saying,  '  It  ain't  a  large  'un,  but 
it's  an  out-and-outer  to  sleep  in.' 

This  description  seemed  to  me  to  be  somewhat  difficult  to  deal  with 
in  French.  So,  I  fancy,  thought  the  ingenious  translator,  who  renders 
it  thus  :  *  II  n'est  pas  grand,  mais  on  y  dort  comme  une  douzaine  de 
marmottes.'  '  Dormir  comme  une  marmotte '  is  to  sleep  like  a  dormouse, 
so  that  the  French  turnkey  transfers  the  description  of  the  sleeper's 
happy  state  to  the  somniferous  charm  of  the  bedstead.  The  original 
text  presented  a  considerable  difficulty,  very  cleverly  met  by  the 
adapter. 

In  No.  251  of  the  Journal  pour  tons,  Janvier  1860,  we  find  '  con- 
tinued in  our  next,'  the  fourth  chapter  of  La  Prison  pour  Dettes,  which 
corresponds  to  chapter  xii.  p.  180  of  the  second  volume  of  the 
Tauchnitz  edition  of  Pickwick,  and  to  chapter  xli.  in  the  *  Daily 
News  Memorial  Edition,'  published  by  Chapman  and  Hall. 

Here,  after  the  acquisition  of  the  '  out-and-outer '  for  one  night,  our 
adapter  omits  a  little  more  than  two  pages  in  which  occur  Mr.  Pick- 
wick's conversation  with  Sam  and  Sam's  story  about '  Number  Twenty,' 
and  '  apres  avoir  fait  quelques  tours  dans  la  cour  peinte '  Mr.  Pick- 
wick bids  Sam  betake  himself  to  a  lodging  close  at  hand  and  return 
early  in  the  morning. 

Then  comes  the  awakening  of  Mr.  Pickwick  when  suddenly  aroused 
by  the  dancing  of  Mr.  Mivins  as  Zephyr  and  the  applause  of  his 
companions.  After  the  episode  of  the  nightcap,  and  of  apologies 
offered  and  accepted,  Mr.  Pickwick  enters  into  conversation  with 
Smangle,  who  says,  '  Here  am  I  in  the  Fleet  Prison.  Well ;  good. 
What  then  ?  '  and  so  forth. 

Very  naturally  our  Frenchman  renders  this  '  Je  suis  ici  dans  la 
prison  de  Fleet  Street.  Bon.'  The  old  Fleet  Prison  was  in 
Farringdon  Street. 


1908     UN  PEU  DE  PICKWICK  A  LA  FBANQAISE    317 

The  next  move  Mr.  Pickwick  has  to  make  is  when  he  has  received 
from  Mr.  Roker  his  ''chummage  ticket,'  which  translated  into  slang 
French  becomes  '  billet  de  copin ' ;  '  copin '  being  the  lower  slang 
rendering  for  'co/m'n.' 

Of  the  three  chums  (copins)  on  whom  Mr.  Pickwick  found  himself 
billeted,  '  one  expressed  his  opinion  that  it  was  a  "'rig,"  and  the  other 
his  conviction  that  it  was  "  a  go."  '  Having  recorded  their  feelings 
in  these  very  intelligible  terms,'  adds  Dickens,  '  they  looked  at  Mr. 
Pickwick  and  each  other  in  an  awkward  silence.' 

Here  is  the  translation  :  '  Ces  deux  gentlemen  ayant  a  leur  tour 
parcouru  le  billet  de  M.  Pickwick,  1'un  exprima  son  opinion  que 
c'etait  caligulant,  et  1'autre  sa  conviction  que  c'etait  une  scie.' 

Une  scie  is  a  slang  expression,  now,  as  then,  in  common  use.  It 
signifies  '  a  bore,'  '  a  nuisance,'  its  meaning  being  intensified  by  the 
tone  and /manner  of  utterance,  just  as  the  force  of  the  expression  '  a  go  ' 
will  be  regulated  by  the  utterer.  '  Caligulant '  bothered  me.  On 
referring  for  information  on  this  point  to  M.  Louis  Roche,  than  whom 
on  such  matters  it  were  difficult  to  find  a  more  competent  authority, 
he  writes  to  this  effect :  '  I  happen  to  know  that  Caliguler  means, 
in  argot,  "  ennuyer."  It  is  a  word  coined  by  litterateurs  to  express 
their  opinion  that  a  play,  or  book,  or  poem,  is  a  "  bore,"  or  "  very  slow." 
It  originated  when  Alexandre  Dumas  wrote  Caligula,  which  the  critics 
howled  down  as  a  boredom-creating  work.' 

The  chums  suggest  buying  the  new-comer  out,  that  is,  subscribing 
between  them  a  sum  which  he  will  accept  as  the  price  of  his  consenting 
not  to  impose  his  society  on  them : 

•  What  will  you  take  to  be  paid  out,'  said  the  butcher  ;  '  the  regular  chummage 
is  two  and  sixpence.  Will  you  take  three  bob  ?  ' 

' and  a  bender,'  suggested  the  clerical  gentleman. 

'  Bobs  '  and  '  benders  '  were  certainly  difficult  to  translate,  seeing 
that  a  Frenchman  would  have  had  to  change  them  into  French  rflang 
equivalents,  and  then  not  lose  money  by  the  transaction.  Thus  he 
solves  the  problem : 

'  Combien  demandez-vous  pour  vous  en  aller  ?  D'ordinaire  c'est  trois 
francs,  mais  on  vous  en  donnera  quatre ;  ga  vous  va-t-il  ?  ' 

' Au  besoin  nous  nous  fendrons  d'une  roue  de  cabriolet,  suggera 

M.  Simpson. 

Now  the  roue  de  cabriolet  is  a  five-franc  piece,  so  that  Monsieur 
Pickwick  will  have  the  advantage  over  Mister  Pickwick  in  this  trans- 
action, and  it  is  therefore  somewhat  puzzling  to  find  the  Frenchman 
reckoning  all  this  up  as  only  amounting  to  quatre  schellings  after  all, 
whereas,  unless  the  money  market  was  at  a  very  low  ebb,  la  roue 
would  certainly  have  been  worth  four  shillings  and  twopence:  Any- 
how, the  French  representative  of  Pickwick  would  have  gained  over 
his  English  original. 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  378  Y 


818  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

The  next  important  scene  is  the  meeting  of  Mr.  Pickwick  with 
Alfred  Jingle  and  Job  Trotter  in  the  poor  side  of  the  prison,  *  le  c't6 
des  pauvres.'  But  as  the  adapter  has  not  hitherto  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  exhibiting  Jingle  and  Job  to  his  French  readers,  he  is  bound 
to  explain  them,  which  he  does  by  stopping  to  address  his  public  : 

Ce  que  c'etait  que  M.  Alfred  Jingle,  leoteur  ?  Si  vous  1'aviez  vu  jadis,  avec 
son  camarade  Job  Trotter,  sur  les  planches  du  Theatre  Blinsbury,  a  Bath,  lui  si 
brillant  et  Job  si  etrangement  comique,  il  ne  TOUS  serait  pas  sorti  de  la 
memoire. 

This  is  something  quite  new.  Evidently  the  translator  is  confusing 
Jingle  with  the  strolling  player,  '  Dismal  Jemmy,'  Job's  brother. 

M.  Pickwick  ne  1'avait  pas  oiiblie  non  plus,  car  il  lui  avait  'souffle  sa 
maitresse ; 

This  maitresse  means  the  maiden  Aunt  Eachel,  old  Wardle's 
elderly  sister,  whom  Jingle  persuaded  to  elope  with  him. 

Et  Sam  se  souvenait  de  Job  Trotter,  qui  lui  avait  administre  une  volee  de 
bois  vert.  Ah !  les  deux  amis  monaient  la  vie  joyeuse  du  temps  du  Theatre 
Blinsbury ! 

The  possibilities  of  la  vie  joyeuse  at  Blinsbury  Theatre  would 
have  been  a  delightful  revelation,  an  inspiration,  probably,  to  Charles 
Dickens  had  he  ever  come  across  the  account  of  it.  As  it  is,  this 
introduction  must  have  considerably  puzzled  any  Pickwickian 
students  into  whose  hands  Le  Journal  pour  tons  may  have  fallen. 

The  inventive  translator  now  suddenly  breaks  off  in  order  to  give 
his  artist  a  chance  which  the  original  does  not  offer  : 

En  ce  moment  on  vint  appeler  M.  Pickwick  pour  passer  au  grefife.  '  Au 
greffe  ! '  dit-il ;  '  n'a-t-on  pas  rempli  toutes  les  formalites  necessaires  ?  II  est  bien 
difficile,1  ajouta-t-il  en  souriant  a  deini,  '  de  se  faire  mettre  en  prison.' 

Mr.  Pickwick  is  summoned  to  the  clerk's  office,  it  appears,  so  that  he 
may  find  himself  '  en  presence  des  procureurs  de  Mme.  Cluppins.' 

Of  course  the  real  scene  on  which  this  is  founded  will  be  specially 
fixed  in  the  memory  of  all  by  Hablot  K.  Browne's  illustration  of  it. 

'  Jamais  auparavant  on  n 'avait  vu  le  philosophe  dans  un  tel  etat ' 
— it  is  needless  to  add  that  Messrs.  Dodson  were  not  '  on  in  this  scene,' 
which  must  have  been  entirely  invented  in  order  to  suit  an  illustration 
which  the  ingenious  or  mistaken  artist  had  already  finished  and 
sent  in — 

et  jamais  on  ne  1'y  revit  depuis.  Dans  son  indignation  il  jeta  au  nez  des 
dignes  associes  le  journal  qu'il  tenait  a  la  main.  Us  enfilerent  la  porte  avec 
precaution ;  et  M.  Pickwick,  dont  les  coleres  ne  durent  guere,  remonta  chez  lui 
tout  pensif . 

The  dramatic  action  is  shown  in  the  tableau  which  represents  the 
two  sneaking  attorneys  backing  out  of  the  office  door.  It  is  not  the 


1908     UN  PEU  DE  PICKWICK  A  LA  FRANQAISE     319 

artist's  best  effort.  Mr.  Pickwick's  marvellous  recovery  of  temper 
after  the  departure  of  the  solicitors  will  be  remembered  as  showing 
him  at  his  best,  when  he  withdrew  his  head  from  the  open  window 
in  Perker's  office. 

The  Sterne-like  touch  given  by  Dickens  to  the  strikingly  impressive 
scene  of  the  Chancery  prisoner's  death  does  certainly  not  gain  by 
its  translation  into  French. 

*  The  turnkey  stooping  over  the  pillow  drew  hastily  back.     "  He 
has  got  his  discharge,  by  G !  "  said  the  man.' 

*  He  had.    But  he  had  grown  so  like  death  in  life,  that  they  knew 
not  when  he  died.' 

Le  guichetier  s'etant  courbe  sur  le  traversin  se  releva  precipitamment. 
'  Ma  foi  1  dit-il,  le  voiU  libere,  a  la  fin.' 

Cela  e'tait  vrai.  Mais  durant  sa  vie  il  etait  devenu  si  semblable  &  un  mort, 
qu'on  ne  sut  point  dans  quel  instant  il  avait  expire. 

The  strength  of  the  turnkey's  forcible  exclamation  and  the  im- 
pressive solemnity  of  the  author's  brief  comment  are  entirely  lacking 
in  the  French  translation. 

The  interview  between  Sam  and  his  father,  who  is  afterwards 
joined  in  his  visit  by  Mrs.  Weller  and  the '  red-nosed  man,'  Mr.  Stiggins, 
must  have  given  the  readiest  adapter  some  trouble.  Sam  calls  his 
chuckling  father  '  an  old  picter  card  born,'  which  term  becomes  simply 
'un  grimacier.'  Then  '  Vot  are  you  bustin'  vith,  now?  '  asks  the 
dutiful  son.  This,  barring  the  mis-spelling  and  the  omission  of  the 
final  '  g,'  representing  the  sound  of  the  vulgar  pronunciation,  is 
adequately  rendered  by  '  Qu'est-ce  que  vous  avez  a  vous  crever  main- 
tenant  ?  ' 

This  scene  is  capitally  done  into  French,  with  a  strong  apprecia- 
tion of  its  irresistible  humour. 

At  the  end  of  this  number  (No.  254)  appears  the  usual  announce- 
ment that  '  la  fin '  is  to  appear  '  au  prochain  numero.'  But  after 
carefully  examining  not  only  the  index  at  the  end  of  the  volume 
but  also  its  remaining  pages  from  18  Fevrier  1860  to  31  Mars  of  the 
same  year,  I  can  conscientiously  affirm  that  there  is  no  sign  of  Mr. 
Pickwick's  reappearance  either  in  or  out  of  La  Prison  des  Dettes. 

I  am  inclined  to  doubt  if  the  close  of  Mr.  Pickwick's  incarceration 
ever  came  within  the  scope  of  the  French  adapter's  original  intention. 
Practically  he  has  given  us  the  essence  of  Mr.  Pickwick's  personal 
experience  in  the  Fleet.  The  incidents  that  led  to  his  surrendering 
himself  to  the  wish  of  his  friends  do  not  belong  to  the  story  of  his 
self-willed  incarceration. 

It  seems  to  me  incredible  that  the  translation  and  adaptation  of 
this  portion  of  Pickwick  could  have  escaped  the  notice  of  either  Charlea 
Dickens  or  of  his  publishers  ;  yet,  as  far  as  I  can  ascertain — though  no 
doubt  some  certain  evidence  on  the  point  must  be  in  existence,  and 
may  be  easily  attainable — there  is  no  sort  of  allusion  to  it  in  Forster's 

Y    2 


820  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

Life,  nor  in  any  of  the  plentiful  Dickensiana  which,  within  recent 
years,  have  been  brought  under  my  notice.  Charles  Dickens,  in 
his  letters,  delivers  himself  of  deservedly  severe  slaps  at  pilferers 
who  were  principally,  if  not  entirely,  American. 

At  the  end  of  every  chapter  of  this  cleverly  arranged  French 
adaptation  appears  the  name  of  '  Charles  Dickens  '  appended  as  the 
author,  and  followed  by  a  note,  in  italics,  conveying  this  warning  to 
all  and  several, '  Reproduction  interdite.  La  suite  au  prochain  numdro.' 
But  this  notice,  as  it  seems  to  me,  applied  only  to  the  work  of  the 
translator  who  was  adapting  it  specially  for  the  Journal  pour  tons,  and 
does  not  refer  to  the  original  by  Charles  Dickens,  which  was  partly  the 
property  of  Messrs.  Chapman  and  Hall. 

I  am  informed  by  the  Paris  house  of  Messrs.  Hachette  et  Cie.  that 
'  the  publication  of  the  Journal  pour  tous  was  continued  after  1850  ' — 
they  do  not  say  for  how  long — '  but  that  all  volumes  are  now  out  of 
print.'  I  may  therefore,  at  all  events,  congratulate  myself  on  the 
accidental  preservation  of  this  exceptionally  interesting  series  which, 
published  between  1854  and  1859,  came  into  my  possession  in  1863, 
and  per  tot  discrimina  rerum,  from  house  to  house,  and  from  London 
to  country,  is  still  in  my  possession. 

F.    C.    BURNAND. 


1908 


COKE    AS    THE    FATHER    OF  NORFOLK 
AGRICULTURE 


A    REPLY 


IN  a  long  article  entitled  '  A  Great  Norfolk  House,'  which  appeared 
in  the  June  issue  of  this  Keview,  Dr.  Jessopp  attempted  to  discredit 
the  statement  that  Coke  of  Norfolk  had  transformed  the  agriculture 
of  his  native  county,  and  that  prior  to  his  labours  and  experiments 
the  condition  of  that  county,  especially  of  the  Holkham  estate,  was 
such  as  it  is  represented  to  be  in  his  biography  recently  published 
under  the  title  of  Coke  of  Norfolk  and  His  Friends. 

Dr.  Jessopp's  views  are  presented  with  a  decisiveness  which  admits 
of  no  appeal.  Let  us  examine  them  briefly  and  see  upon  what  grounds 
he  bases  his  assertions. 

After  a  lengthy  recapitulation  of  the  history  of  Coke's  ancestry, 
culled  from  the  biography  above  mentioned,  but  in  which  many 
palpable  errors  are  introduced  by  him,  he  proceeds  to  annihilate 
Coke's  claim  to  be  considered  a  leading  agriculturist  in  the  following 
terms  : 

It  is  a  very  great  mistake,  which  the  general  reader  makes  who  looks  back 
carelessly  upon  the  past,  that  Thomas  William  Coke  was  the  father  of  Norfolk 
agriculture  and  the  bringer-in  of  new  things  to  the  agriculturists  of  East 
Anglia.  The  real  pioneer  of  the  army  of  advance  was  Nathaniel  Kent,  born 
in  1737.  Kent  published  his  Hints  to  Gentlemen  of  Landed  Property  in  1793, 
and  the  book  attracted  very  wide  notice  and  approval,  and  was  specially 
welcomed  by  the  Norfolk  farmers,  who  presented  the  author  with  a  handsome 
testimonial  in  1808.  Four  years  Kent's  junior  was  Arthur  Young,  who  pub- 
lished his  Letters  to  the  Farmers  of  England  in  1767,  when  Coke  was  a 
schoolboy,  and  his  Farmer's  Tour  through  the  East  of  England  in  1771. 
Mrs.  Stirling  seems  to  believe  that  Norfolk  was  a  desert  till  the  great  landlord 
took  up  his  residence  at  Holkham  and  took  the  oversight  of  his  vast  Norfolk 
estates — an  absurd  delusion!  Arthur  Young,  writing  in  1771,  speaks  with 
enthusiasm  of  the  advanced  state  of  farming  in  Norfolk :  at  Docking  he  found 
two  great  farmers  who  held  1,700  acres  between  them ;  at  Burnham  one  farm 
of  1,000  acres  was  apparently  in  a  high  state  of  cultivation;  and  from  this 
same  Burnham  to  Wells,  extending,  that  is,  almost  exactly  over  the  land  now 
beautiful  with  the  Holkham  Park,  there  was  a  highly  cultivated  farm,  pro- 
ducing crops  of  wheat,  barley,  turnips,  and  with  tenants  intelligent  and 

321 


822  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBY  Aug. 

prosperous.  .  .  .  Among  the  Norfolk  landlords  and  the  Norfolk  farmers  in  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  there  was  a  real  craze  for  the  new  methods 
of  tillage  that  were  already  in  vogue,  and  a  rage  for  making  experiments  and 
improvements  in  every  direction.  ...  In  the  meantime,  where  Mrs.  Stirling 
got  her  amazing  statement  that  from  Wells  to  Lynn  was  a  sheep-walk,  and  a 
bad  one,  and  that  in  all  those  twenty  miles  or  so  neither  wheat,  barley,  nor 
rye  were  cultivated,  I  know  not.  It  reads  very  like  the  reminiscence  of  one 
of  my  own  dreams,  which  occasionally  trouble  me  with  nonsensical  dialogues. 

And  because  Dr.  Jessopp  does  not  know  the  authority  for  the 
statement  referred  to,  he  proceeds  to  inform  his  readers,  with  a  gravity 
which  is  unconsciously  humorous,  that  '  we  must  be  upon  our  guard 
against  admitting  that  Thomas  William  Coke  was  the  leader  of  the 
agricultural  movement  in  Norfolk.' 

Yet  the  question  which  he  dismisses  thus  summarily  is  one  which 
is  of  paramount  interest,  not  only  to  the  agriculturist,  but  to  the 
student  of  progress  and  to  the  historian  who  deals  with  a  bygone  age. 
None  the  less,  Dr.  Jessopp  first  casually  misquotes  my  statement,  which 
related  to  wheat  only,  and  next,  by  his  naive  admission  of  ignorance  re- 
specting the  origin  of  that  statement,  at  the  outset  tends  to  disqualify  his 
subsequent  assertions.  For  a  critic  should,  presumably,  be  conversant 
with  the  subject  of  which  he  treats ;  yet  the  most  superficial  student 
of  Coke's  agricultural  career  would  not  attempt  to  pronounce  a  verdict 
upon  a  matter  which  requires  careful  analysis  of  facts  and  statistics, 
without  first  having  studied  the  chief  authority  on  the  question  at 
issue.  Had  Dr.  Jessopp,  however,  even  glanced  at  Dr.  Rigby's  able 
book  on  Holkham  and  its  Agriculture,  he  could  not  have  been  at  a  loss 
to  know  whence  came  the  remark  which  so  amazes  him,  nor  the 
grounds  for  believing  that  remark  to  be  veracious. 

Dr.  Rigby  was  a  man  who,  in  his  day,  acquired  a  considerable 
scientific  and  literary  reputation.  His  book  on  Hdlkham,  published 
1816-18,  achieved  an  international  reputation.  It  was  translated 
into  three  different  languages  and  had  an  extensive  sale  in  Germany, 
France,  Italy,  and  America.  Obviously,  therefore,  it  was  held  to 
contain  reliable  information  by  those  who  were  in  a  position  to  gauge 
its  accuracy ;  while  the  writer  himself  was  a  contemporary  of  Coke, 
and  was  an  eye-witness  of  that  which  he  attested. 

Writing  of  Holkham  in  1817,  Dr.  Rigby  says  that  when  Coke  came 
into  possession  of  the  estate,  in  1776,  wheat  was  not  cultivated  in  the 
district,  and  then  follows  the  emphatic  statement  which  has  be- 
wildered Dr.  Jessopp  :  '  In  the  whole  tract  between  Holkham  and  Lynn 
not  an  ear  was  to  be  seen,  nor  was  it  believed  that  one  would  grow.  The 
system  of  farming  was  wretched,  and  the  produce  of  the  soil  of 
little  value.' l 

Referring  to  the  great  sheep-shearings  instituted  by  Coke,  he 
adds  :  '  When  he  [Coke]  began  this  institution  [in  1778]  the  land  of 

1  Holkham  and  its  Agriculture,  by  Dr.  Eigby.     Ed.  1817,  p.  3. 


1908       COKE  AND   NORFOLK  AGRICULTURE         323 

Holkham  was  so  poor  and  unproductive  that  much  of  it  was  not  worth 
five  shillings  an  acre.' 2 

On  page  98  of  this  same  edition  he  describes  more  fully  the  con- 
dition of  the  land  before  Coke  came  into  possession  of  his  property, 
and  also  the  wretched  inhabitants  of  this  poverty-stricken  district : 

These  parishes  [of  Warham  and  Holkham]  are  situated  near  the  sea,  and  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  small  port  of  Wells ;  and  not  many  years  ago  the  site  on 
which  Mr.  Coke's  stables,  &c.,  now  stand  was  occupied  by  a  few  mean 
straggling  cottages,  inhabited  by  miserable  beings,  who,  unable  to  obtain  a 
maintenance  from  the  inadequate  produce  of  the  agricultural  labour  of  the 
neighbourhood,  derived  a  not  less  precarious  subsistence  from  smuggling,  and 
the  predatory  habits  connected  with  it  ...  It  was  nearly  the  same  with  the 
unfortunate  inhabitants  of  Wells. 

Later,  he  draws  the  contrast : 

The  present  inhabitants  of  both  parishes  are,  happily,  of  a  different  character 
.  .  .  and  the  moral  influence  on  the  poor,  not  less  than  their  increased  numbers, 
is  obvious.  .  .  .  Holkham  has  in  the  last  forty  years  tripled  its  numbers,  having 
increased  from  two  to  six  hundred,  and  Warham  has  increased  from  two  to 
more  than  three  hundred  within  less  than  that  period ;  and  if  it  be  true  that 
population  follows  subsistence,  and  subsistence  grows  out  of  labour,  we  must 
look  for  these  in  some  increased  sources  of  labour ;  and  where,  in  these  parishes, 
can  they  be  found,  but  in  the  greatly  changed  system  of  agriculture  ?  * 

Then,  having  given  particulars  of  Coke's  system  of  agriculture,  he 

says  : 

And  what  has  been  the  result  ?  Sterility  has  been  converted  into  fertility. 
What  before  was  principally  a  meagre  sheep-walk,  here  and  there  only  ex- 
hibiting patches  of  ordinary  rye,  oats,  barley,  and  badly  cultivated  turnips,  with 
not  a  single  ear  of  wheat  to  be  seen  to  nod  over  its  whole  surface,  has  become 
a  most  productive  land ;  much  more  than  the  average  of  crops,  of  even  the 
best  soils  and  of  the  most  valuable  grains,  having  grown  upon  it ;  of — I  repeat 
it — from  ten  to  twelve  coombs  of  the  best  wheat  and  nearly  twenty  coombs  of 
excellent  barley  per  acre.4 

He  further  remarks : 

In  the  neighbourhood  of  Holkham,  and  in  the  greater  part  of  the  west  of 
Norfolk,  it  may,  however,  be  observed  that  the  land  is  light  and  naturally 
sterile ;  many  extensive  tracts  of  this  kind  were,  under  the  old  system,  as 
unproductive  as  Holkham,  and  the  country  is  equally  indebted  to  the  new 
system  for  the  ample  supply  of  corn  they  now  produce.5 

Yet  compare  this  statement  with  Dr.  Jessopp's  assertion  that 
long  before  Coke  commenced  his  agricultural  career,  '  extending  over 
the  land  now  beautiful  with  Holkham  Park,  there  was  a  highly  culti- 
vated farm,  producing  crops  of  wheat,  barley,  turnips,  and  with 
tenants  intelligent  and  prosperous  !  ' 

fact  is  that  on  the  Docking  farm,  to  which  Dr.  Jessopp's 

2  Holkham  and  its  Agriculture.,  Ed.  1818,  p.  78. 

3  Op.  cit.  p.  98.  4  Op.  cit.  p.  106.  b  Op.  cit.  p.  87. 


824  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

remarks  refer,  the  chief  husbandry  was  sheep.  Arthur  Young,  more- 
over, admitted  having  stated  that  this  farm  was  more  than  double 
the  size  which  he  afterwards  found  it  to  be. 

We  must  now  consider  Dr.  Jessopp's  assertion  that  Nathaniel 
Kent  was  the  true  '  pioneer  of  the  army  of  advance.' 

When  Kent  published  his  Hints  to  Gentlemen  of  Landed  Property 
in  1793,  Coke  had  been  labouring  at  agriculture  for  seventeen  years. 
By  1787  Coke  had  already  produced  corn  where  it  had  previously 
been  believed  that  none  could  grow ; 6  while  in  1792,  two  celebrated 
farmers,  Boys  and  Ellman,  visited  Holkham  and  wrote  their  account 
of  all  which  he  had  accomplished  by  that  date,7  laying  special  stress 
on  their  surprise  at  finding  that  he  had  produced  *  immense  fields  of 
barley,  very  great  crops,  and  perfectly  clean,  on  land  naturally  poor.' 
In  1804,  viz.  four  years  before  the  date  at  which  Dr.  Jessopp  trium- 
phantly points  out  that  a  testimonial  was  presented  to  Kent,  Coke  had 
already  received  a  public  recognition  of  his  services  from  the  farmers 
of  Norfolk,  which,  according  to  Roger  Wilbraham,  cost  them  seven 
hundred  guineas,  voluntarily  expended.  In  1796  Kent,  with,  as  Dr. 
Jessopp  patronisingly  concedes,  '  a  certain  measure  of  authority,' 
himself  added  his  testimony  respecting  what  Coke  had  accomplished  : 
'  The  Holkham  estate,'  he  relates,  '  has  been  increased  in  the  memory 
of  man  from  five  to  upwards  of  twenty  thousand  a  year  in  this  county, 
and  is  still  increasing  like  a  snowball ' ;  yet,  even  at  that  period,  it 
was  not  the  luxuriant,  richly  cultivated  land  which  Dr.  Jessopp 
represents  it  to  have  been  fully  a  quarter  of  a  century  earlier.  Kent 
gives  the  following  statistics  : 

Sedgy  and  swampy  ground 1,500  acres 

Unimproved  commons 60,000     „ 

Marsh  lands 63,346      „ 

Warrens  and  sheep-walks 63,346      „ 

'  It  is  a  lamentable  thing,'  Kent  concludes,  '  that  these  large 
tracts  of  land  should  be  suffered  to  remain  in  their  present  unprofit- 
able state,' 8  and  we  must  again  call  to  mind  that,  principally  through 
Coke's  agency,  between  1804  and  1821  no  less  than  153  enclosures 
took  place  in  Norfolk  alone,  while  between  the  years  1790  and  1810 
not  less  than  two  millions  of  waste  land  were  brought  into  tillage.9 

Further,  Kent  emphasises  the  fact  that  *  a  great  part  of  this 
county  is  known  to  have  been,  within  the  space  of  a  century,  a  wild, 
bleak,  unproductive  country  comparatively  with  what  it  is  now 
[in  1796] ;  full  half  of  it  was  rabbit-warrens  and  sheep-walks,'  and  he, 
proceeds  to  describe  that  '  the  sheep  were  as  natural  to  the  soil  as 

8  Coke  of  Holkham,  Walter  Eye,  1895,  p.  5. 

7  Vol.  xix.  of  The  Annals  of  Agriculture,  1793. 

8  Kent's  Agricultural  Survey  of  Norfolk,  1796.         . 

9  Sketch  of  Thomas  Coke,  Earl  of  Leicester,  printed  by  Whiting,  Beaufort  House, 
Strand  ;  also  Norwich  Mercury,  the  9th  of  July,  1842. 


1908       COKE  AND  NORFOLK  AGRICULTURE         825 

the  rabbits,  being  hardy  in  their  nature,'  for  which  reason  he  asserts 
confidently  that  the  Norfolk  farmers  will  '  never  be  able  to  substitute 
any  other  sheep  but  these  native  sheep,'  a  belief  which  Coke  sub- 
sequently proved  to  be  entirely  erroneous,  for,  having  improved  the 
land  beyond  what  Kent,  in  1796,  conceived  to  be  possible,  Coke 
successfully  substituted  the  breed  of  Southdowns,  which  may  be 
seen  there  to-day,  for  the  wild,  hardy  Norfolk  sheep  which  had  been 
indigenous  to  the  soil  in  a  less  productive  period. 

As  to  Arthur  Young,  he  corroborates  Kent's  testimony  of  the 
condition  of  Norfolk  prior  to  Coke's  labours.  Speaking  of  the  Style- 
man  estate  about  Snettisham,  he  describes  it  as  '  scarcely  to  be  called 
land,' 10  and  writing  thus  in  1771,  he  says  that  all  the  western  tracts 
of  Norfolk  forty  or  fifty  years  before  that  date  were  sheep-walks, 
while  much  of  it  was  in  the  same  condition  only  thirty  years  before 
the  date  at  which  he  was  writing,  thus  bringing  his  evidence  practically 
down  to  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  This,  it  may  be  added, 
is  endorsed  by  a  report  of  the  condition  of  the  county  of  Norfolk  drawn 
up  for  the  Board  of  Agriculture  in  1790,  a  copy  of  which  is  in  the 
possession  of  Sir  William  ffolkes,  of  Hillington,  Bang's  Lynn,  and 
which  affirms  that  *  landlords  and  farmers  had  been  asleep  before  this 
date.' 

Having  thus  examined  the  statements  of  Kent  and  Young,  the 
two  witnesses  who  Dr.  Jessopp  imagines  support  his  theories, 
let  us  glance  briefly  at  what  other  authorities  state  to  have  been  the 
condition  of  the  county  prior  to  Coke's  labours  and  experiments. 

Lord  Erskine,  born  in  1750,  stated  that  within  his  own  memory 
he  had  seen  '  Holkham  as  a  heath  and  the  beautiful  fields  surrounding 
it  as  a  barren  waste.'  u 

Samuel  Copland,  who  wrote  a  work  on  agriculture  in  1866,  under 
the  name  of  the  Old  Norfolk  Farmer,12  tells  how  he  had  '  heard  old 
people  say  they  remembered  the  time  when  from  Holt  to  Lynn, 
embracing  a  tract  of  forty  miles  in  extent,  and  comprehending  Holk- 
ham and  Fakenham  in  its  sweep,  there  was  scarcely  an  acre  of  land 
thought  strong  enough  to  bear  a  crop  of  wheat.' 

R.  N.  Bacon  in  1845  stated  that  by  reason  of  Coke's  example 
and  influence,  '  the  vast  tracts  of  uncultivated  land  in  sheep-walks, 
warrens,  and  commons,  with  which  Norfolk  abounded,  almost  in- 
stantly became  a  scene  of  the  busiest  employment.' 13 

Mr.  Rew,  reporting  in  1895  to  the  Royal  Commission  on  Agriculture 
in  the  county  of  Norfolk,  remarked  that  '  perhaps  in  no  part  of  the 
world  can  be  found  a  better  example  of  the  triumph  of  agricultural 
skill  and  enterprise  over  the  niggardliness  of  Nature  than  in  the 

10  Farmer's  Tour  through  the  East  of  England,  vol.  ii.,  1771,  p.  150. 

11  A  Report  of  the  Transactions  at  the  Holkham  Sheep- Shearing,  bj  R.  N.  Bacon 
1821,  p.  25. 

12  Agriculture  Ancient  and  Modern,  by  S.  Copland,  1866,  p.  109. 

13  Norfolk  Agriculture,  1845,  p.  88. 


326  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

transformation  of  the  light  lands  of  Norfolk  from  barren  heath  to 
highly  productive  farms.  A  century  ago  the  cultivation  of  wheat 
was  practically  confined  to  the  fertile  land  in  the  east,  and  the  heavy 
soils  in  the  south  of  the  county/ 

Further,  when  Coke  retired  from  public  life  in  1833,  the  condition 
of  the  land  prior  to  his  system  of  agriculture  was  described  in  all  the 
speeches,  pamphlets,  and  newspaper  articles  bearing  upon  this  event. 
The  Duke  of  Sussex,  for  one,  publicly  stated  before  an  audience  of 
five  hundred  people  that  Coke  had  made  '  a  garden  of  a  wilderness,' 
and  described  that,  on  succeeding  to  his  property,  though  Coke  was 
possessed  of  '  a  splendid  habitation  and  magnificent  estate,  although 
he  had  a  splendid  mansion,  numerous  pictures,  valuable  statues  and  a 
still  more  valuable  library,  the  estate  was  little  short  of  a  rabbit  warren.'  u 
After  Coke's  death  this  fact  was  dwelt  upon  at  length  in  all  his  obituary 
notices,  and  a  very  interesting  summary  of  his  work,  written  by 
Lord  Spencer,  appeared  in  the  Journal  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society, 
in  which  Lord  Spencer  stated  emphatically  that  when  Coke  '  came 
into  possession  of  his  estate  in  the  year  1776  .  .  .  the  whole  district 
round  Holkham  was  unenclosed  and  the  cultivation  was  of  the  most 
miserable  character.'  But  for  Coke's  exertions,  he  points  out,  '  no 
improvement  would  have  taken  place.  West  Norfolk  would  still 
have  been  considered  a  district  in  which  wheat  could  not  be  grown.'  And 
later  in  the  same  article  he  describes  how,  after  Coke's  labours, 
'  Holkham  assumed  the  appearance  of  fertility  which  it  has  ever  since 
held,  and  attracted  the  attention  of  everyone  at  all  interested  in  the 
improvement  of  agriculture.  He  was  undoubtedly  the  original  and 
greatest  cause  of  these  beneficial  results.'  u 

Some  years  later,  when  there  appeared  the  published  account  of 
the  erection  of  the  public  memorial  to  Coke,  the  above  fact  was  dwelt 
on  with  reiteration.16  Again  and  again  we  are  told  in  that  publica- 
tion how  the  extensive  estate  of  Holkham  had  by  Coke  been  '  con- 
verted from  a  comparatively  barren  soil  to  the  most  rich  and  ex- 
uberant domain  in  this  part  of  the  kingdom,'  how  completely  he  had 
transformed  '  that  soil  which,  once  a  desert,  was  now  a  rich  domain,' 
that  '  he  had  introduced  the  growth  of  wheat  into  Norfolk,  by  which 
Great  Britain  has  been  benefited,'  and  that  '  it  was  not  merely  this 
county  [Norfolk]  which  he  had  benefited,  for  the  whole  kingdom, 
nay,  the  whole  world,  was  more  or  less  interested  in  his  conduct.' 
Dr.  Jessopp  has  presumably  never  studied  the  publications  of  that 
date,  which,  it  must  again  be  emphasised,  represent  the  evidence  of 
men  who  were  contemporaries  of  Coke,  and  who  spoke  from  personal 
knowledge  of  that  of  which  they  had  been  eye-witnesses.  Yet, 

11  An  Account  of  a  Dinner  to  Mr.  Coke  on  the  occasion  of  his  Retirement  from  the 
Representation  of  the  County.    Published  Norwich,  1833. 

15  Vol.  iii.  of  the  R.A.S.E.,  1842,  p.  2. 

16  Narrative  of  the  Proceedings  regarding  the  Erection  of  the  Leicester  Memorial. 
Published  by  Bacon  &  Co.,  Mercury  Office,  Norwich. 


1908       COKE  AND  NORFOLK  AGRICULTURE         827 

writing  from  fifty  to  130  years  after  these  witnesses,  and  having  by 
his  own  confession  devoted  inadequate  research  to  his  subject,  Dr. 
Jessopp  attempts  to  discredit,  by  the  very  force  of  his  self-assertive- 
ness,  that  which  they  took  pains  ,to  demonstrate  for  posterity  "by 
a  careful  enumeration  of  facts  and  statistics. 

Coming  nearer  to  our  own  times,  and  to  the  statements  of  men 
who  have  sifted  the  evidence  which  he  ignores,  we  find  in  the  R.A.S.E. 
the  assertion  that,  in  1776 — 

Farming  in  Norfolk  was  then  in  a  backward  state.  It  is  true  that  the  culti- 
vation of  turnips  had  become  general  since  1727,  and  that  marling  had  been 
introduced  in  1768;  but  there  was  little  energy  displayed,  and  the  'rabbit  and 
rye  lands' — the  thin,  drifty  soil  which  was  jocularly  said  to  be  ploughed  by 
rabbits  tethered  to  a  pocket-knife — were  generally  thought  to  be  hopeless.1'1 

Again,  in  Social  England,  we  are  told  that  in  1776  '  the  sandy 
soil '  on  Coke's  estate  '  yielded  only  a  thin  crop  of  rye  and  a  bare 
subsistence  for  a  few  milch  cows  and  Norfolk  sheep.' 18  But  the 
evidence  which  might  be  adduced  in  proof  of  what  Coke  accomplished 
and  of  the  condition  of  the  land  from  which  his  results  were  achieved 
is  so  overwhelming  that  to  give  any  adequate  summary  of  it  would 
become  tedious.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  I  have  purposely 
quoted  solely  from  the  material  accessible  to  the  general  reader,  and 
that  only  very  partially.  I  have  not  attempted  to  bring  forward 
the  strong  evidence  afforded  by  the  mass  of  private  correspondence 
of  which  I  am  cognisant,  and  which  space  will  not  permit  me  to 
utilise.  Enough,  however,  has  been  mentioned  to  show  the  value 
of  Dr.  Jessopp's  statements,  and  how  completely  his  theories  represent 
a  striking  distortion  of  realities.  Meanwhile,  in  one  of  the  old  letters 
lying  before  me  is  a  sentence  which  seems  as  apt  now  as  at  the  date 
when  it  was  written  by  a  Norfolk  clergyman  to  William  Roscoe  during 
the  riots  of  1815  :  '  Those  who  would  belittle  the  labours  of  Mr.  Coke 
are  indeed  throwing  snowballs  at  the  sun ;  facts  cannot  be  contro- 
verted by  the  sneers  of  the  ignorant !  ' 

Throughout  his  article,  like  a  modern  Don  Quixote,  Dr.  Jessopp 
surely  tilts  at  windmills.  That  Coke  was  the  pioneer  of  all  agricultural 
improvements,  or  that  there  were  no  farmers  in  Norfolk  before  his 
advent,  no  one  has  maintained ;  to  do  so  would  be  manifestly  absurd. 
But  there  is  ample  evidence,  as  I  have  demonstrated,  that  he  was 
what  Dr.  Jessopp  denies  him  to  have  been,  '  the  bringer-in  of  new 
things  to  the  agriculturists  of  East  Anglia,'  that  he  was  the  great 
pioneer  of  practical  experiments  in  agriculture,  that  the  results  achieved 
by  him  were  astonishing  to  his  contemporaries  and  far-reaching,  and 
still  more  that  before  his  date  Norfolk  was  not  the  luxuriant,  highly 
cultivated  county,  rich  in  crops  and  filled  with  intelligent  farmers, 

17  B.A.S.E.,  Series  3,  pt.  1,  p.  3. 

18  Social  England,  edited  by  H.  D.  Traill,  D.C.L.,  vol.  vi.  p.  79. 


828  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

which  Dr.  Jessopp,  with  a  too- vivid  imagination,  fondly  pictures  it 
to  have  been.  That  Coke  was  not  the  original  suggestor  of  all  the 
innovations  he  adopted  was  stated  in  his  lifetime,  and  fairly  admitted 
by  Lord  Spencer  after  his  death ;  but  those  who  suggest  theoretical 
improvements  in  agriculture  are  many,  and  those  who  have  the 
courage  and  the  patience  to  risk  testing  the  utility  of  such  theories 
and  of  enforcing  their  adoption  by  means  of  practical  experiment  are 
rare,  and  it  is  they  who  usually  represent  the  great  benefactors  and 
leaders  of  their  fellow-creatures. 

It  is  obvious  that,  even  during  his  lifetime,  Coke  had  his  detractors. 
What  man  has  not,  who  has  attained  to  any  eminence  in  any  depart- 
ment of  life  ?  Had  this  not  been  so,  Dr.  Eigby's  book  had  never  been 
written,  giving  a  detailed  account  of  Coke's  system  of  agriculture,  of 
the  necessity  for  it,  and  of  the  result  of  it.  Nor  would  Lord  Spencer's 
admirable  defence  and  analysis  of  Coke's  methods  have  been  pub- 
lished, nor  would  a  score  of  pamphlets  have  appeared,  now  no  longer 
accessible  to  the  general  public,  but  still  extant  among  the  muniments 
of  Holkham  and  in  the  libraries  of  many  Norfolk  squires,  and  which 
repay  research  if  only  by  proving  the  curious  storm  of  opposition 
and  jealousy  which  Coke's  innovations  excited  in  his  generation. 
Yet  if  the  Norfolk  farmers  were  what  Dr.  Jessopp  represents  them 
to  have  been,  in  advance  of  Coke's  methods ;  if  they  were,  as  he  would 
have  us  believe,  not  only  conversant  with  scientific  agriculture  but 
imbued  with  a  '  real  craze  '  for  it,  and  enthusiastically  practising  it  on 
their  fertile  farms  long  before  Coke's  advent,  whence  the  storm  of 
opposition  with  which  Coke's  practices  were  greeted  ?  It  is  surely 
the  pioneers,  not  the  imitators  who  rouse  condemnation  and  opposition. 
And  when  facts  had  proved  that  Coke's  methods  were  successful, 
when  statistics  brought  conviction  to  his  detractors,  why  the  over- 
whelming gratitude  of  those  who,  according  to  Dr.  Jessopp,  had  been 
his  precursors  in  the  good  work  and  had  shown  him  the  way  ?  At 
Holkham  stands  a  colossal  monument  erected  as  a  lasting  expression 
of  that  gratitude,  and  which,  to  the  average  mind,  presents  a  more 
solid  argument  than  any  which  Dr.  Jessopp  adduces  when  with  a 
sweeping  assertiveness  he  ignores  all  facts  inimical  to  his  own  rash 
statements.  '  I  had  to  contend  with  prejudice,  an  ignorant  im- 
patience of  change,  and  a  rooted  attachment  to  old  methods,'  related 
Coke  ;  and  he  was  never  a  man  to  utter  an  idle  boast  or  to  court  per- 
sonal aggrandisement.  Was  he  speaking  of  the  intelligent,  enthu- 
siastic, highly  progressive  farmers,  revelling  in  the  pretty  scene  of 
rural  felicity  which  Dr.  Jessopp  paints  as  existent,  even  upon  the 
Holkham  estate,  in  the  year  1771  ?  One  is  almost  tempted  to  emulate 
Dr.  Jessopp's  own  manner  of  criticism,  and  pronounce  his  assertions 
to  be  '  an  absurd  delusion ' !  while  involuntarily  one  recalls  the  para- 
graph with  which  Dr.  Rigby  closed  the  second  edition  of  his  book 
on  the  22nd  of  November,  1817.  Speaking  then  of  the  '  extraordinary 


1908       COKE  AND  NORFOLK  AGRICULTURE         829 

charges '  which  *  with  unabated  hostility  continue  to  be  directed 
against  Mr.  Coke  and  his  system,  and  which  are  not  confined  to  the 
ignorant  and  prejudiced  of  the  lower  classes,'  Dr.  Rigby  concludes 
cynically :  '  They  are,  however,  of  easy  refutation ;  a  very  simple 
statement  will,  probably,  satisfy  the  ingenuous  reader,  and  the  most 
obdurate  opposer  of  Mr.  Coke  will,  I  apprehend,  be  little  able  to 
resist  positive  facts.' 

Upon  the  other  inaccuracies  in  Dr.  Jessopp's  article  it  is  not  needful 
to  touch.  It  is  true  that  one  reads  with  some  surprise  his  assurance 
that  the  builder  of  Holkham  was  created  Earl  of  Leicester  sixteen 
years  before  this  was  the  case.  And  when  he,  somewhat  more  warily, 
raises  a  doubt  respecting  the  statement  that  old  Lady  Leicester  had 
several  children  who  died  in  infancy,  because  (in  a  work  of  a  thousand 
pages)  the  authority  for  this  wholly  unimportant  fact  has  not  been 
quoted,  one  is  inclined  to  remind  him  that  the  information  is  written 
indelibly  upon  the  tomb  of  the  lady  in  Tittleshall  churchyard,  not  far 
from  his  own  home.  But  misstatements  such  as  these,  in  which  his 
article  abounds,  are  easily  recognisable,  and  are  worth  noting  only  as  a 
further  indication  of  the  scanty  attention  which  he  has  devoted  to 
each  detail  with  which  he  attempts  to  deal.  He  would  undoubtedly 
be  on  safer  ground  if  he  did  not  risk  treating  of  questions  of  fact,  but 
confined  his  comments  to  a  mere  expression  of  opinion.  Yet  even 
here  he  exhibits  the  same  tendency  to  jump  to  hastily  formed  con- 
clusions, and  to  assert  those  conclusions  with  a  dogmatic  finality 
which  a  more  careful  student  would  hesitate  to  do,  especially  when 
pitting  partial  information  against  knowledge  obviously  derived  from 
a  direct  source. 

Thus,  in  concluding  his  remarks,  Dr.  Jessopp,  with  a  prudery 
which  is  militant,  apparently  upholds  the  conviction  that  history 
should  be  carefully  expurgated  before  being  presented  to  the  public. 
Whether  the  public,  and  posterity,  would  appreciate  this  novel  method 
of  procedure  it  is  not  necessary  to  enquire.  The  incidents  on  which 
Dr.  Jessopp  bases  his  comments  could  not  have  been  omitted  from 
any  honest  biography  of  Coke,  since  they  referred  to  his  immediate 
family,  and  were  thus  closely  connected  with  his  own  life.  Moreover, 
Dr.  Jessopp  seems  totally  unaware  that  they  are  not  now  presented 
to  the  public  for  the  first  time,  but  have  already  appeared  in  number- 
less biographies — in  the  Life  of  Richard  Burton,  the  Memoirs  of  Karo- 
line  Bauer,  the  Pickering  Memoirs,  Balzac's  Le  Lys  dans  La  Vallee, 
and  other  publications,  ancient  and  modern,  English  and  foreign. 
They  are  matters  of  history,  too  well  known  to  be  ignored,  and  they 
refer  to  a  character  in  history  who,  whatever  her  errors,  will  always 
remain  one  of  the  most  fascinating  and  remarkable  personalities  of 
the  last  century. 

Yet  Dr.  Jessopp's  article  leaves  us  confronted  with  the  strange 


380  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

discovery  that,  while  he  will  blindly  champion  one  faulty  character 
in  history,  in  another — which  presented  conflicting  elements  and, 
despite  failings,  exhibited  rare  genius  and  exceptionally  noble  qualities 
— he  can  recognise  only  what  is  '  sad  and  bad  ' ;  and  that — perhaps 
this  epitomises  the  whole — in  a  celebrated  portrait,  the  beauty  of  which 
has  delighted  two  generations,  he  can  see  only  '  a  vulgar  caricature.' 

Such  remarks  cannot  be  taken  seriously  and  detract  from  the 
dignity  of  criticism.  The  fact  remains  that  history,  whether  agri- 
cultural or  social,  cannot  be  written  in  the  fantastic  manner  which 
Dr.  Jessopp  advocates,  suppressing  some  facts  and  misrepresenting 
others.  It  is  sufficiently  obvious  that  a  biographer  who  would  deal 
honestly  with  posterity  must  state  his  just  convictions.  Nor  can  he 
choose  the  materials  with  which  he  has  to  work.  They  are  ready  to 
his  hand,  the  shade  as  well  as  the  light,  and  a  record  from  which  some 
of  the  salient  points  are  omitted  is  a  work  of  fiction,  not  fact. 

A.  M.  W.  STIRLING. 


1908 


A    WORKMAN'S    VIEW  OF   THE   REMEDY 
FOR    UNEMPLOYMENT 


IN  common  with  other  workmen  readers  of  this  Review,  I  turned  to 
the  perusal  of  Mr.  J.  A.  R.  Marriott's  article  on  *  The  Right  to  Work,' 
in  the  June  number,  with  considerable  curiosity  and  interest ;  and, 
after  having  read  it,  I  must  confess  to  a  large  measure 'of  disappoint- 
ment with  its  contents.  For,  whether  reasonably  or  unreasonably, 
I  fully  expected  we  should  have  had  detailed  some  method  of  con- 
structive policy  which,  if  not  a  '  panacea,'  would  at  least  have  led 
up  to  a  remedy  for  the  shortage  of  employment  that  besets  the  working 
class  body  politic  so  persistently  at  the  present  time,  and  impels  them 
to  demand  the  right  to  work  with  which  he  is  dealing.  Instead  of 
which  we  have  a  very  interesting  and  instructive  essay  that  practically 
ignores  this  point,  and  leaves  the  matter  where  he  (Mr.  Marriott) 
found  it  when  he  started  out. 

However,  without  indulging  in  further  useless  repining  in  this 
connexion,  as  this  is  essentially  a  working  man's  question  I  may  be 
pardoned  for  taking  up  the  inquiry  on  behalf  of  my  class,  and  stating 
briefly  what  can  be  done,  in  the  light  of  my  experience  and  observation 
of  workmen  and  their  ways  of  life,  to  ameliorate  this  most  unsatis- 
factory condition  of  British  labour. 

Speaking  as  one  of  the  older  workmen  who  in  my  time  has  known 
what  it  is  to  be  out  of  employment,  and  to  have  to  turn  out  and  seek 
for  work,  in  a  period  of  depression  in  trade,  day  after  day,  and  week 
after  week,  and  fail  to  find  it,  I  can  certainly  claim  to  have  a  living 
interest  in  the  consideration  of  this  phase  of  the  difficulties  of  a  working 
man's  position.  Not  that  it  can  be  said  there  is  anything  novel 
or  unusual  in  the  fact  that  many  worthy  men  and  women  are  often 
laid  idle  through  want  of  work.  This  has  at  all  times  been  a  regular 
occurrence.  And  it  is  only  now,  when  the  socialist  unrest  by  which 
we  are  surrounded  has  become  more  accentuated,  that  attempts 
are  being  made  to  find  *  cures,'  whereby  the  cloud  of  unemployment 
which  lowers  darkly  over  many  a  workman's  home  can  be  dispelled, 
and  work  and  its  resulting  wages  resumed,  along  with  the  comfort 
and  tjontentment  they  invariably  bring  in  their  train. 

831 


882  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

A  notable  example  of  this  character  that  has  been  strenuously 
brought  to  the  front  just  lately  is  the  establishment  of  Labour 
Exchanges  as  a  '  cure '  for  unemployment.  Public  offices  where 
employers  could  ascertain  where  bodies  of  workpeople  are  available 
for  carrying  out  work  they  have  in  hand,  and  working  people  where 
their  services  are  required.  It  is  argued  that  through  this  medium 
workmen  and  employers  could  be  more  readily  brought  together, 
that  the  organisation  and  '  decasualisation '  of  labour  would  lead  to 
greater  permanence  of  employment ;  and  that  by  a  drastic  process  of 
weeding  out,  the  '  reserves  of  labour '  would  be  materially  reduced, 
while  those  remaining  would  have — on  the  principle  of  the  survival 
of  the  fittest — become  more  worthy. 

All  this  very  probably  is  true  in  the  main ;  but  to  carry  the  argu- 
ment so  far  as  to  believe  that  the  registration  of  the  requirements  of 
labour,  or  giving  more  facilities  for  its  movement  from  place  to  place, 
is  a  '  cure  '  for  shortage  of  work,  is,  to  my  mind,  simply  a  stretch  of 
the  imagination,  and  further,  as  the  idea  is  not  new,  only  another 
exemplification  of  the  truth  of  the  old  adage — that  there  is  really 
nothing  new  under  the  sun.  For,  if  it  is  not  exactly  as  old  as  the 
hills,  it  certainly  carries  us  back  to  the  Middle  Ages  ;  to  the  far  times 
when  the  craftsmen's  guilds  and  lodges  of  Freemasons  were  doing 
somewhat  analogous  work  in  this  direction  to  that  carried  out  in  our 
own  day  by  the  trade  unions  of  this  country.  Moreover,  without 
it  being  necessary  for  us  to  rely  upon  the  unions  for  information  of 
this  nature,  or  the  Labour  Bureaus  established  by  many  munici- 
palities ;  or  even  setting  up  additional  Labour  Exchanges  as  proposed, 
where  a  shilling  advertisement  in  an  evening  paper  would  serve  the 
purpose  quite  as  well ;  it  would  be  easy  to  prove  without  all  this 
bureaucratic  routine  that  workmen  generally  are  not  now  without 
accurate  knowledge  of  where  large  works  are  in  progress  and  employ- 
ment likely  to  be  met  with ;  the  freemasonry  that  obtains  among 
all  distinctions  of  labour  prompting  men  to  tell  each  other  of  any 
town  or  place  where  work  is  to  be  found.  And  my  experience  of 
this  feeling  of  comradeship  between  man  and  man  is  that  it  is  dis- 
played independent  of  whether  they  are  unionist  or  non-unionist, 
esprit  de  corps  impelling  men  who  are  in  employment  to  give  this 
information  to  their  less  fortunate  brethren.  And,  independent  of 
the  question  of  who  would  have  to  pay  for  their  institution  and  up- 
holding, they  appear  to  me  to  be  a  work  of  supererogation,  as  the 
agencies  we  already  have  are  ample  for  the  purpose.  And  again, 
to  elaborate  this  point,  on  which  the  whole  argument  hinges,  I  have 
never  yet,  after  a  life-long  experience  of  the  vicissitudes  of  labour, 
been  confronted  with  the  difficulty  of  getting  to  know  where  work 
was  to  be  obtained,  whenever  or  wherever  it  was  to  be  had  for  the 
asking.  And  further,  I  believe  the  solution  of  this  problem,  when 
it  is  arrived  at,  will  be  found  to  lie  far  deeper  than  can  be  fathomed 


1908        THE   REMEDY  FOR    UNEMPLOYMENT         883 

by  any  schemes  which  can  be  devised  for  the  mobility  of  labour.  To 
my  thinking,  to  put  the  whole  matter  into  a  nutshell,  the  most  radical 
cure  for  unemployment — shortage  of  work — can  only  be  defined  by 
what  is  virtually  a  self-evident  proposition — that  is,  the  provision  of 
a  fuller  and  better  paid  average  state  of  employment.  And  I  have 
no  doubt  this  remedy,  although  it  may  appear  to  be  a  fanciful  one, 
could  be  easily  achieved  by  wise  economies  on  the  part  of  capital  and 
labour.  Capital  by  according  to  the  workman  such  a  share  of  the 
profits  of  their  combined  management  and  industry  as  would  impel 
him  to  believe  that  he  was  being  fairly  dealt  with,  and  compel  him 
as  a  fair-minded  man  to  render  a  more  adequate  service  for  his  enhanced 
wages.  And  labour  by  making  a  much  more  sensible  use  of  the  money 
which  has  been  earned,  in  its  expenditure  on  articles  of  utility,  the 
production  of  which  will  in  effect  prove  an  addition  to  the  sum  total  of 
employment. 

With  a  view  to  clearing  the  ground  somewhat  before  beginning  to 
deal  with  other  causes  of  and  remedies  for  unemployment,  I  may 
mention  one  project  that  has  been  discussed  lately — the  Unemploy- 
ment Bill  of  the  Labour  party.     In  my  opinion  we  have  had  enough, 
and  more  than  enough,  of  special  law-making  for  the  working  classes, 
as  many  of  us  have  already  been  well-nigh  legislated  out  of  our  employ- 
ment by  well-meant  but  mistaken  measures  passed  to  promote  our 
welfare.     And  I  cannot  but   believe   that  this  latest  effort  of  the 
party  will  prove  the  last    straw  which  will  break  the  patience  of  the 
self-reliant  workman,  and  make  him  kick  against  the  notion  that  he 
cannot  look  out  for  himself  and  protect  his  own  interests.     For  my 
own  part  I  cannot  conceive  that  any  good  can  be  done,  at  least  within 
a  reasonable  measure  of  time,  by  suggesting  such  drastic  changes 
in  our  present  methods  of  work  and  conditions  of  service  between 
employers  and  employed  as  were  embodied  in  this  Bill.     And  the 
short  shrift  recently  accorded  to  the  measure  by  Parliament  and  the 
country  furnishes  evidence  which  does  not  warrant  our  proceeding 
further  in  this  direction.     The  broad  fact  is,  the  taxpayers  and  the 
'  ratepayers  as  represented  by  the  State  and  the  municipalities  are 
not  yet  ready  to  provide  employment  for  working  men  and _. women 
in  all  the  industries.     It  is  true  they  have  already  engaged  in  and 
achieved  success  in  some  special  undertakings,  notably,  the  provision 
of  water,  gas,  electricity,  the  tramways,  &c.,  which  lend  themselves 
more  directly  to  collective  ownership  ;  although  even  these  have  often 
been  built,  and  are  run  at  a  cost  which  would  prove  prohibitive  in  any 
private  establishment  that  had  not  the  power  to  draw  upon  public 
moneys  for  losses  which  had  been  incurred  in  the  conduct  of  the  business. 
No,  we  believe  we  can  safely  say  that  the  people  of  this  country  are 
not  yet  prepared  for  the  socialisation  of  its  capital,  and  the  means  of 
production  and  distribution  ;  and  will  not  be  until  it  has  been  proved 
to  demonstration  that  the  same   constant  watchfulness^  with  regard 
VOL.  LXIV— No.  378  Z 


884  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

to  economies  in  management  which  animates  all  successful  business 
enterprise  has  become  the  dominant  factor  in  the  spending  of  moneys 
which  are  not  owned  by  anyone  in  particular  but  by  all  in  common. 

In  the  earlier  part  of  my  working  career  we  were  equally  as^ 
subject  to  ebbs  and  flows  in  the  employment  of  capital  and  labour, 
which  were  quite  as  severe,  and  often  more  protracted  than  at  the 
present  time.  These  breaks  in  the  continuity  of  labour  were 
generally  attributed  to  three  reasons — over-production,  foreign  com- 
petition, and  adverse  seasons.  The  first — over-production — will 
be  regarded  by  very  few  at  this  time  as  a  tenable  one,  until  each 
and  all  without  class  distinction  have  had  their  wants  supplied. 
The  next  reason  is  more  open  to  consideration,  and  will  be  dealt  with 
afterwards.  While  as  regards  the  last — adverse  seasons — their  evil 
effects  are  not  felt  so  severely  now  that  our  commerce  has  become 
more  increasingly  world-wide  than  at  the  former  period.  To  these 
must  now  be  added  another  cause  which  exercises  a  decided  influence 
in  the  production  of  unemployment :  the  encroachment  of  the  machine 
on  the  workman's  field  of  labour.  Although,  I  must  say,  in  my 
experience  as  an  artisan,  I  have  not  found  it  a  hindrance,  but  often  a 
helpmate,  as  it  has  tended  to  make  labour  less  arduous  in  the  skilled 
trades,  and  even  in  the  more  laborious  occupations  where  its  adverse 
influence  has  been  severely  felt,  its  assistance  has  enabled  many  men 
whose  physical  strength  is  not  equal  to  hard  work,  and  others  whose 
mental  abilities  through  want  of  training  are  not  sufficiently  alert  for 
the  higher  industries,  to  obtain  and  retain  employment  in  our  factories, 
engineering,  and  general  workshops,  who  without  this  aid  would  have 
been  more  hampered  in  earning  a  livelihood.  And,  while  many  work- 
men decry  its  indiscriminate  uses,  I  am  convinced  the  machine, 
taking  it  generally,  has  wrought  more  good  than  harm  to  the  labouring 
classes  ;  especially  in  materially  reducing  the  cost  in  the  production  of 
manufactured  commodities,  and  consequently  enabling  the  humblest 
of  our  toilers  to  have  a  better  share  in  the  products  of  labour. 

Another  phase  of  the  question  deserving  notice  is  the  large  number 
of  young  men — and  older  ones,  too,  for  that  matter — who  have  not 
served  a  full  apprenticeship  to  their  trades,  and  were  not  bound,  who 
as  soon  as  they  have  learned  enough  of  their  business  to  make  them 
believe  they  are  worth  two  or  three  more  shillings  a  week  in  wages, 
desert  their  old  master  and  take  berths  as  improvers  ;  and  often 
they  have  to  continue  as  improvers  for  the  rest  of  their  days,  through 
neglecting  to  make  themselves  more  fully  competent.  This  type  of 
men  in  the  building  trades  has  been  brought  into  existence  mainly  by 
the '  jerry  '  building  fraternity  ;  they  are  not  fitted  for  doing  even  fairly 
good  work,  and  are  often  out  of  employment,  being  the  last  to  be 
set  on  in  a  busy  time,  and  the  first  to  be  stopped  on  its  slackening. 
A  further  influence  in  this  direction  that  has  not  worked  altogether 
for  good  is  the  product  of  legislation.  The  Workmen's  Compensation 


1908       THE  REMEDY  FOE    UNEMPLOYMENT         335 

Act  was,  we  have  no  doubt,  passed  in  the  best  interests  of  labour. 
But  it  has  certainly  resulted  in  rendering  the  position  of  many  of  the 
older  men  in  their  employment  more  precarious — men  who  have 
grown  grey  in  the  service  of  their  employers,  of  whom  it  is  often 
facetiously  said  they  would  have  to  be  taken  over  along  with  the 
freehold  when  a  change  of  proprietorship  was  made.  I  have  known 
several  of  these  men  who  have  had  to  be  turned  adrift  from  this 
cause ;  and  others  because  of  this  and  trade  union  regulations  com- 
bined, which  would  not  permit  them  to  accept  lower  wages  for  easier 
and  less  dangerous  work  in  the  same  employment.  And  in  this  way 
many  an  old  tie  between  workman  and  employer  has  had  to  be  severed, 
and  the  kindly  associations  engendered  by  long  years  of  service  between 
man  and  man  has  had  to  be  cast  to  the  four  winds  because  employers 
must  be  just  to  themselves  before  generous  to  their  employees ;  and 
from  these  causes  many  an  old  workman  who  was  competent  for 
lighter  work  at  less  wages  has  become  unemployable. 

Another  side  issue  which  has  proved  an  important  factor  in  the 
cause  of  unemployment  among  the  masses  of  the  people  is  the  super- 
ficial education  we  have  been  giving  to  our  children  in  the  elementary 
schools  during  the  last  thirty  odd  years.  Not  only  has  this  training 
failed  in  turning  out  a  more  intelligent  and  willing  body  of  workers 
but  it  has  also  rendered  many  of  its  recipients  through  a  feeling  of 
false  pride  unemployable.  At  the  same  time  I  do  not  wish  to  infer 
from  this  objection  that  the  requisite  skill  to  carry  out  many  me- 
chanical operations  cannot  be  more  readily  gained  and  successfully 
applied  by  a  capable  educated  workman ;  always  provided  that  his 
moral  training,  his  conscientiousness,  is  commensurate  with  his  acquired 
abilities.  But,  unfortunately,  this  is  too  often  not  the  case.  That 
little  learning  which  is  a  dangerous  thing  has  upset  his  mental  equi- 
librium, and  instead  of  his  abilities  assisting  him  in  his  labours  they 
have  tended  to  make  his  work  more  irksome  and  distasteful,  and, 
as  it  were,  beneath  his  dignity.  Education  is  a  most  desirable  adjunct 
to  industry,  but  whenever  it  interferes  with  discipline  it  is  not  an 
unalloyed  blessing.  The  truth  is  we  have  attempted  too  much ; 
the  superstructure  cannot  be  substantial  if  the  foundation  has  been 
badly  laid.  Instead  of  in  the  first  instance  teaching  thoroughly  the 
three  R's,  grammar,  composition,  history,  geography,  and,  above  all, 
what  can  be  taught  for  the  formation  of  moral  character,  we  have 
wearied  our  children's  minds  with  problems  in  geometry,  algebra, 
and  other  abstruse  subjects,  which,  if  learned,  are  of  no  use  to  nine- 
tenths  of  our  working  people,  and  so  are  promptly  forgotten.  And, 
further,  this  is  a  fact  that  cannot  be  ignored,  and  one  which  promises 
little  hope  for  improvement  in  the  educational  status  of  my  class. 
If  nine-tenths  of  our  working  men  can  read  and  write  fairly  well,  and 
have  mastered  sufficient  arithmetic  to  enable  them  to  understand  the 
*  state  of  the  odds,'  that  is  enough  to  satisfy  their  limited  Tequire- 

z  2 


836  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

ments.     And,  if  it  were  possible  to  imbue  the  majority  of  our  workmen 
with  the  enthusiasm  for  work  they  have  for  sport  and  play,  they  would 
be  irresistible  and  carry  all  before  them.     Nor  can  this  failure  of 
education  in  its  alliance  with  labour  be  ascribed  altogether  to  faults  of 
the  system  or  the  teachers,  as  many  parents  must  be  held  in  a  measure 
blameable  for  this  shortcoming  through  allowing  their  children  to  be 
absent  from  school  so  often  ;  while  many  others  who,  by  the  exercise 
of  stern  self-denial,  have  kept  their  children  under  tuition  beyond  the 
regular  school  age  have,  when   they  set  them  to  work,  insisted  on 
putting  them  to  some  occupation  where  they  can  obtain  their  liveli- 
hood with  their  coats  on.     And  in  this  way  many  a  lad  with  a  happy 
knack  for  searching  out  the  why  and  wherefore  of  mechanical  con- 
trivances has  been  doomed  to  an  uncongenial  life  on  a  desk  stool ; 
whereas,  but  for  the  false  pride  which  apes  gentility,  had  he  been 
allowed  to  pursue  the  top  of  his  bent,  he  would  have  turned  out  a 
creditable  and  willing  producer  of  wealth — a  six  o'clock  man — instead 
of  being  an  incubus  on  the  labour  of  others  as  a  consumer ;  a  misfit, 
a  round  peg  in  a  square  hole,  dissatisfied  with  himself  and  a  drag  upon 
the  progress  of  the  rest  of  the  community.     The  notion  that  unfortu- 
nately prevails  among  the  majority  of  working  class  parents,  who  by 
dint  of  hard  work  and  strict  economy  have  managed  to  give  their 
sons  an  education  above  the  common,  that  these  qualifications  must 
needs  be  used  as  a  stepping-stone  to  some  occupation  otherwise  than 
manual  labour,  is  a  mistaken  one.     For  while  the  black-coated  brigade 
is  always  overcrowded  and  treading  on  each  other's  heels  for  employ- 
ment, and  even  when  in  work,  except  in  the  higher  positions,  badly 
paid,  there  are  always  opportunities  for  clever  lads  with  some  push 
in  them  to  rise  to  positions  as  foremen  and  managers  in  our  textile 
mills,   engineering,   building,   and  general  workshops,   which  would 
afford  them  better  pay  and  more  regular  employment. 

The  tariff  reformers'  Open  Sesame  for  the  remedy  of  unemploy- 
ment— the  imposition  of  import  duties  on  manufactured  commodities 
from  over  the  sea — is  not  at  present  within  the  range  of  practical 
politics ;  nor,  I  venture  to  say,  likely  to  be  for '  many  long  years. 
Still,  as  it  is  being  strenuously  pushed  to  the  front,  we  will  try  to 
ascertain  if  any  comfort  for  the  workless  one  can  be  gained  from  this 
source.  In  the  first  place  we  must  ask,  What  duties  can  be  imposed 
on  foreign  imports  which  will  prove  beneficial  to  the  working  classes  ? 
I  am  decidedly  of  opinion  that  foodstuffs  of  whatever  nature,  and 
from  whatever  quarter  they  come,  must  be  resolutely  ruled  out  of 
this  category.  While  the  raw  materials  of  every  class  used  in  our 
varied  manufactures  should  be  as  free  of  access  to  our  shores  as  the 
air  we  breathe,  as  it  is  as  necessary  to  our  existence  as  a  manufacturing 
nation.  Then  as  regards  the  semi-manufactured  material  we  have 
heard  so  much  about,  this  is  equally  as  advantageous  to  our  em- 
ployers and  workmen.  For  instance,  take  steel  billets;  these  are 


1908        THE  REMEDY  FOE    UNEMPLOYMENT         387 

the  raw  material  for  the  rolling  of  steel  plates,  angles,  joists,  and  other 
sections  ;  and  it  is  more  than  possible  that  the  coal  and  coke  used  in 
their  production  abroad  was  exported  from  this  country,  and  that 
the  workman  in  wages  and  the  colliery  owner  in  profit  has  benefited 
by  the  transaction.     Further,  the  sole  reason  why  these  semi-manu- 
factures can  be  '  dumped '  is  that  they  are  less  costly  than  that  of  the 
home  producer  ;  and  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  this  '  dumping  '  has 
enabled  our  home  traders  in  many  instances  to  buy  this  semi-raw 
material,  complete  its  manufacture,  and  then  re-export  the  finished 
product  to  the  country  of  its  origin.     And  all  through  the  process 
the  course  of  barter  and  exchange  has  furnished  wages  for  our  work- 
men, employment  for  our  ships,  and  profit  for  the  capitalist.     But 
there  is  another  aspect  of  our  foreign  trade  that  cannot  be  ignored, 
which  tends  to  cut  the  ground  from  under  our  feet  and  render  less 
stable  our  opportunities  for  advancement  in  our  trade  relations  with 
our  foreign  customers.     Just  now,  and  for  years,  our  engineers  and 
•  machinists  have  been  busy  building  mills  and  workshops  in  India, 
China,  Japan,  and  other  countries,  and  fitting  them  with  motive 
power  and  machinery  for  the  production  of  manufactured  goods  of 
all  classes.     I  would  ask  if  it  is  in  the  nature  of  things,  after  we  have 
fitted  these  factories  abroad  with  all  necessary  appliances  for  the 
natives  of  those  countries  to  make  the  finished  product  for  them- 
selves, that  we  can  expect  them  to  take  our  finished  goods  as  well  ? 
Our  innate  good  sense  tells  us  that  we  cannot.     We  must  understand 
these  manufactories  have  been  built  for  use,  and  not  for  show.     And, 
while  our  workmen  and  capitalist  employers,  and  through  them  the 
country  generally,  have  reaped  the  benefit  of  the  foreign  orders,  their 
after  effects  must  recoil  on  our  own  heads  in  making  competition 
keener  for  our  manufacturers  in  those  countries.     Personally  I  do 
not  think  we  have  any  cause  for  complaint  on  this  score ;  we  cannot 
both  eat  our  cake  and  have  it ;  and  while  our  workers  in  wood  and 
iron  are  prospering  by  this  labour,  the  competition  it  induces  will 
compel  our  merchants  and  manufacturers  to  get  out  of  the  old  groove, 
or  otherwise  be  side-tracked,  and  strike  out  into  new  paths  wherever 
these  influences  bar  the  way  to  the  old. 

Those  of  us  who  are  old  enough  to  remember  the  early  fifties  of 
the  last  century,  when  flour  and  bread — the  workman's  staff  of  life — 
were  more  than  twice  the  price  they  are  to-day  ;  when  tea  and  sugar, 
and  colonial  produce  generally,  were  dear  and  scarce  articles  on  the 
workman's  table ;  when  the  purchase  of  a  new  suit,  a  dress,  a  bonnet 
or  a  Paisley  shawl  was  an  event  which  came  so  seldom  that  it  was 
regarded  as  a  red-letter  day  in  the  calendar  of  the  workman's  home, 
and  celebrated  accordingly,  when  wages  were  from  20  to  30  per 
cent,  less  than  at  this  time,  and  were  further  depreciated  in  their 
purchasing  power  under  the  shadow  of  the  restrictions  of  trade 
which  then  obtained  ;  when  employment  was  more  scanty  and  trade 


388  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

depressions  more  severe  ;  none  of  us  who  can  recall  our  experiences 
of  fifty  years  since  would,  I  aver,  even  lift  a  finger  to  help  to  bring 
them  back  again.  While  the  younger  generation,  if  they  will  but  read, 
can  live  over  again  in  history  the  stress  and  durance  of  the  time,  and 
thus  fortify  themselves  agamst  any  insidious  attempts  to  check  the 
free  and  natural  flow  of  imports  and  exports  under  whatever  name 
— tariff  reform,  broadening  the  basis  of  taxation,  or  bald  protection — 
as  these  will  only  end  in  reducing  the  volume  of  employment  and 
raising  the  prices  of  commodities  to  the  consumer  ;  and  in  their  special 
application  to  the  working  classes  making  them  poorer. 

But  by  far  the  most  potent  causes  which  affect  the  continuity 
and  volume  of  employment,  with  reference  to  which  it  will  be  necessary 
to  speak  plainly,  are  the  wastage  of  health  and  wealth  on  intemperance 
of  all  kinds  ;  and  strikes  and  lock-outs.  These  factors  in  the  produc- 
tion of  slackness  in  the  call  for  labour  and  dislocations  in  trade  are 
undoubtedly  the  most  powerful  of  which  we  are  made  cognisant. 
There  are  few  of  us  who  can  afford  to  waste  our  capital  in  riotous 
living  or  in  idleness  and  not  be  left  the  poorer.  But  to  the  great 
body  of  the  people  this  extravagant  misuse  of  their  money  and  their 
labour  simply  courts  disaster.  And  it  is  obvious  we  have  in  these 
reasons  for  national  depreciation  the  root  causes  most  inimical  to  the 
progress  in  well-being  of  the  working  classes  of  this  country. 

To  begin  with  the  drink  bill :  according  to  calculations  which 
have  been  made,  6s.  lOd.  per  week  is  the  average  sum  spent  upon 
intoxicating  liquors  by  every  working  class  family  in  this  kingdom. 
This  estimate  has  been  examined  in  great  detail  by  Messrs.  Rowntree 
and  Sherwell,  who  have  tested  the  figures  in  a  number  of  ways.  The 
result  of  their  investigation  is  summed  up  as  follows  : 

That  a  large  proportion  of  the  working  classes  spend  very  much  less  than 
the  amount  suggested  is  certain ;  but  it  is  equally  certain  that  a  considerable 
number  spend  very  much  more,  and  when  all  possible  deductions  have  been 
made,  it  is  doubtful  if  the  average  family  expenditure  upon  intoxicants  can  be 
reckoned  at  less  than  6s.  per  week.1 

Taking  this  estimate  of  65.  per  week  for  each  household  as  our 
basis,  and  taking  the  number  of  working  class  dwellings  as  given  by 
Mr.  Chiozza  Money,  M.P.,  in  Riches  and  Poverty  at  6,500,000,  we  have 
an  expenditure  on  intoxicating  liquors  alone  of  1,950,0002.  per.  week 
by  the  six  and  a  half  millions  of  families  involved.  That  this  huge 
sum  is  far  more  than  reasonable  moderation  can  possibly  require 
there  are  few  will  deny.  And  the  question  is,  What  is  reasonable 
moderation  in  strong  drink  ?  My  own  estimate,  as  it  is  my  practice, 
is  a  half  pint  a  day,  3|  pints  per  week,  at  a  cost  of  8|rf.  a  week  for 
bottled  beer  at  2|eZ.  per  pint.  But  as  I  am  probably  more  abstemious 
than  the  average,  we  will  allow  two  pints  a  day,  or  fourteen  pint 
bottles  for  the  week,  which  will  entail  an  expenditure  of  2s.  lid.  a 

1  Mr.  B.  S.  Eowntree's  Poverty :  a  Study  of  Town  Life, 


1908        THE  REMEDY  FOR    UNEMPLOYMENT         889 

week  on  this  item  by  every  working  class  family  in  the  kingdom.  But 
even  this  saving  can  be  improved  upon  by  buying  our  beer  in  the 
cask.  A  very  good  beer  can  be  bought  for  Is.  a  gallon,  but  as  we 
have  no  desire  to  sacrifice  quality  to  cheapness,  we  will  pay  Is.  2d. 
for  it ;  and  as  our  beer  will  now  cost  us  less  money  we  will  extend  our 
allowance  for  the  benefit  of  the  toper  to  two  gallons,  or  sixteen  pints 
per  week,  which  will  cost  2s.  4d.  We  shall  now  be  in  a  position  to 
compute  the  saving  which  can  be  made  in  the  workman's  share  in  the 
annual  drink  bill,  and  also  to  show  how  useful  this  saving  will  prove 
in  the  provision  of  employment.  Deducting  the  2s.  4rf.  beer  money 
from  the  6s.  given  as  the  average,  we  have  3s.  8d.  left  per  family 
as  a  saving  on  this  item ;  or  for  the  6,500,000  families,  1,191,666?. 
per  week,  which  makes  for  the  whole  year  over  61,966,632Z. 

As  it  is  obvious  the  necessities  of  the  labouring  classes  would 
require  them  to  spend  most  of  this  saving  on  articles  of  dress,  we 
will  try  and  ascertain  what  they  could  buy  per  family  with  it,  and 
also  what  the  sum  total  would  come  to  for  the  whole  country.  For 
convenience  in  calculation  it  will  be  desirable  to  bring  the  3s.  8d.  a  week 
saved  into  a  lump  sum  for  the  year,  which  is  9Z.  10s.  8d.  Having 
presumed  that  the  money  will  be  spent  on  useful  articles  of  wearing 
apparel  generally,  we  will  take  woollens  first,  and  make  provision  for 
material  for  suits  for  the  father  and  son  of  the  family  ;  this  will  require 
six  yards  of  cloth,  wide  width,  at  7s.  per  yard,  i.e.  21.  2s.,  which  leaves 
us  with  71.  8s.  8d.  to  apportion  among  the  other  members  of  the 
family.  On  the  supposition  that  they  will  require  new  coats  or 
mantles  and  as  there  are  three  of  varying  ages  to  provide  for,  we  shall 
have  to  buy  seven  yards  of  double  width  cloth  at  4s.  per  yard  for  the 
purpose,  i.e.  ll.  8s.,  this  reducing  our  balance  to  Ql.  Os.  8d.  As  the 
mother  and  girls  will  be  needing  new  dresses  we  will  lay  out  a  portion 
of  our  residue  on  wide-width  union  dress  goods,  which  will  take  twelve 
yards  of  this  material  at  Is.  6d.  per  yard,  or  18s.  for  this  item.  We  have 
yet  51.  2s.  8d.  in  hand,  and  as  cotton  goods  will  be  required  for  various 
articles  of  underclothing,  which  will  be  made  at  home,  we  will  purchase 
thirty-two  yards  of  calico  and  flannelette  at  an  average  price  of  5d. 
per  yard,  which  will  cost  us  13s.  4d.  From  the  4Z.  9s.  4d.  we  have 
left,  we  will  buy  boots  for  the  whole  family  at  an  average  cost  of  9s. 
per  pair,  i.e.  21.  5s.  for  five  pairs.  We  have  still  a  remainder  of 
21.  4s.  4rf.,  which  it  would  be  good  policy  to  keep  as  a  nest-egg  against 
possible  bad  times,  or  expended,  if  absolutely  needful,  on  other  articles 
of  utility. 

Having  now  accounted  for  our  savings  on  the  drink  bill  of  the 
great  body  of  the  people,  we  will  proceed  to  demonstrate  their  effect 
in  the  provision  of  increased  employment  in  the  textile  and  shoe- 
making  industries.  So  far  as  the  woollen  trade  is  concerned,  we  have 
an  annual  additional  requirement  of  six  yards  at  7s.  per  yard,  seven 
yards  at  4s.  and  twelve  yards  of  dress  stuffs  at  Is.  Qd.  a  yard,  while 


340  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

cotton  fabrics  account  for  thirty-two  yards  at  5d.  per  yard,  for  each 
family.  While  the  call  for  boots  over  and  above  the  normal  demand 
will  be  five  pairs  for  6,500,000  families,  or  a  grand  total  of  32,500,000 
pairs. 

It  will  now  be  interesting  to  extend  these  items,  and  present  them 
in  the  form  of  a  table. 

Woollen  goods  at  Is.  Od.  per  yard     39,000,000  yards  £13,650,000 
„  „        4s.  Od.         „  45,500,000       „          9,100,000 

Dress  „        Is.  Gd.         „  78,000,000      „          5,850,000 

Cotton  „  5d.         „         208,000,000      „          4,333,333 

Boots,  average  price  per  pair  9s.     32,500,000  pairs      14,625,000 
Savings  available  for  other  purposes  ...         ...         14,408,333 

Total  savings         £61,966,666 

Thus,  out  of  a  total  saving  of  61,966,6662.  per  year,  on  the  expendi- 
ture for  this  item  of  luxury  alone,  we  have,  after  buying  the  large 
quantities  of  manufactured  goods  and  boots  shown,  at  a  cost  of 
47,558,3332.,  still  a  capital  of  14,408,3332.  available  for  the  purchase 
of  furniture,  carpets,  curtains,  and  other  articles  for  making  the 
house  cosy  and  beautiful.  And,  further,  as  we  are  entitled  to  presume 
that  the  denizens  of  the  6,500,000  dwellings  dealt  with  would  have 
had  their  needs  supplied — in  a  sort  of  way — before,  we  may  take  it 
that  the  manufacturing  of  the  additional  quantity  of  textile  goods  and 
boots  enumerated  would  be  a  clear  gain  to  the  community  in  increased 
employment. 

This  huge  saving,  which  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  and  to  the 
advantage  of  all  concerned,  could  be  wrested  from  the  clutches  of  a 
trade  that  furnishes  the  lowest  average  rate  of  employment,  and  pays 
the  least  percentage  in  wages  to  its  employees  in  accordance  with  the 
capital  used  in  its  business,  would  be  sufficient  to  pay  a  living  wage  of 
30s.  per  week,  or  782.  a  year,  to  794,444  workmen,  and  afford  them 
constant  work  all  the  year  round  ;  a  number  which  is  in  excess  of  the 
highest  total  average  state  of  unemployment,  taking  both  unionist 
and  non-unionist  throughout  the  country. 

With  reference  to  other  fruitful  reasons  for  fluctuations  in  the 
demand  for  labour  to  be  dealt  with — strikes  and  lock-outs.  We  are 
frequently  being  confronted  with  examples  of  this  character  which 
must  fill  the  minds  of  all  thoughtful  workmen  with  dismay.  In  some 
of  these  cases  it  is  a  pitiful  illustration  of  the  tail  wagging  the  dog. 
At  times,  as  we  have  seen,  even  of  open  mutiny  against  constituted 
authority  set  up  by  the  men  themselves,  where  the  recusants,  actuated 
by  political  zeal  rather  than  the  furtherance  of  their  own  best  interests 
and  the  interests  of  their  fellow-men,  are  determined  to  work  out 
their  own  destiny  on  untried  political  lines  in  lieu  of  the  established 
principles  of  supply  and  demand,  which  always  have  and  always  will 
in  the  long  run  rule  the  market  for  labour,  as  they  do  all  other  markets. 
But,  although  the  question  is  a  tempting  one  to  handle,  I  will  forbear 


1908        THE   REMEDY  FOR    UNEMPLOYMENT         841 

at  this  time,  as  my  object  is  to  bring  into  a  somewhat  stronger  light  the 
fact  that  the  effects  of  these  industrial  upheavals  do  not  confine  them- 
selves to  those  actually  engaged,  but  exercise  a  direful  influence  upon 
many  innocent  non-combatants  ;  and  are  the  source  of  much  of  the 
want  of  continuity  of  labour  that  we  all  deplore.  For  instance,  the 
dislocation  of  employment  in  the  industries  immediately  involved  will 
lead  very  soon  to  the  throwing  out  of  gear  of  the  subsidiary  trades, 
which  must  depend  in  a  large  measure  upon  the  prosperity  of  the 
more  important  industries  for  their  own  development  and  success.  In 
these  cases,  the  spending  power  of  the  special  belligerents  affected 
and  other  cognate  trades  being  crippled,  its  effects  will  soon  be  seen 
in  the  textile,  tailoring,  boot,  and  other  manufactures.  The  fact 
that  many  thousands  of  toilers  are  workless  and  wageless  will  result 
in  a  general  disturbance  of  business.  Goods,  which  in  normal  circum- 
stances would  have  gone  into  consumption,  will  be  lying  on  the  shelves 
of  the  retailer  ;  consequently  the  orders  which  under  brighter  auspices 
should,  and  would,  have  been  forthcoming  for  goods  to  replace  those 
which  ought  to  have  been  sold,  have  to  be  withheld,  and  short  time 
and  discharges  of  working  men  and  women  become  the  order  of  the 
day.  And  before  long  there  are  cries  of  distress  and  poverty  arising 
from  a  condition  of  unemployment  brought  about,  too  often,  by  the 
unwarranted  action  of  a  comparatively  few  irresponsible  men,  who 
in  the  majority  of  cases  cover  the  whole  of  their  family,  or  their  family 
cares,  under  their  own  hats.  But  men  will  not  think,  or  at  least  will 
not  think  wisely.  It  is  a  word  and  a  blow,  and  too  often  the  blow  first. 
When  employment  in  the  industries  throughout  the  country  is  declin- 
ing, when  employers  are  experiencing  a  difficulty  in  replacing  orders  as 
they  are  being  worked  out ;  when  vacant  berths  in  the  shipbuilding 
yards,  silent  machines  in  the  workshops,  and  discharges  of  workmen 
week  after  week  tell  the  tale  eloquently  that  trade  has  become 
depressed  ;  this  is  no  time  for  causing  further  trouble  by  strikes  and 
lock-outs.  Far  more  sensible  would  it  be  for  all  concerned  to  bow 
to  the  inevitable  ;  instead  of  flying  in  the  face  of  fortune,  in  the  front 
of  a  falling  market,  at  a  time  when  the  employer  could  more  profitably 
close  down  his  works  than  try  to  keep  them  going.  Workmen  are 
perfectly  justified  in  doing  all  they  can  to  gain  a  fairer  share  of  the 
proceeds  of  their  labour  in  prosperous  times.  But  the  application  of 
this  principle  cuts  both  ways.  As  they  have  a  right  to  share  in  the 
good  times,  equity  demands  it  is  equally  their  duty  to  suffer  deprecia- 
tion with  the  employers  in  the  bad  times.  Putting  on  one  side  for 
the  moment  the  comparative  relations  of  employer  and  employed : 
profit-sharing  without  loss-sharing  does  not  imply  a  complete  sense  of 
duty  or  of  justice  such  as  should  prevail,  if  not  between  master  and 
workman,  at  least  between  man  and  man. 

In  conclusion,  it  hardly  seems  necessary  to  insist  that  the  large 
wastage  of  industrial  capital — the  accumulated  funds  of  the  trade 


342  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

unions,  and  the  moneys  disbursed  by  the  employers  during  a  struggle 
of  this  character — would  have  been  more  sensibly  used  in  the  provision 
of  work,  instead  of  being  thrown  away  in  starving  one  side  or  the  other 
into  subjection.  This  capital,  usefully  employed,  would  not  only  have 
provided  work  in  their  own  business,  but  through  the  ramifications  of 
the  commercial -machine  its  benefits  would  have  extended  to  the 
whole  body  of  labour  in  the  country.  A  change  of  this  nature 
in  our  industrial  strife  is  a  consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished 
for ;  and  one  that  will  be  near  at  hand  when  workmen  recognise 
they  owe  a  duty  to  their  employers,  and  equally,  employers  to  their 
workmen ;  and  when  both  acknowledge  they  have  duties  which  in 
common  justice  they  should  render  to  the  whole  community.  Finally, 
the  reforms  here  briefly  sketched  out  are  such  as  the  working  classes  can 
accomplish  for  themselves.  And,  once  achieved,  they  would  result 
in  such  an  expansion  of  our  home  trade  as  would  prove  a  remedy  for 
unemployment,  and  render  unnecessary  any  alterations  in  our  fiscal 
policy. 

JAMES  G.  HUTCHINSON. 


1908 


THE    WOMEN'S  ANTI-SUFFRAGE 
MOVEMENT 


IN  June  1889 — nearly  twenty  years  ago — an  '  Appeal  against  Female 
Suffrage  '  was  issued  in  this  Review.  It  was  signed  by  about  104  names, 
headed  by  the  veteran  Lady  Stanley  of  Alderley,  whose  long  social  ser- 
vice, combined  with  her  marked  independence  and  originality,  made  of 
her,  in  this  matter,  a  leader  whom  other  women  were  proud  to  follow. 
Among  the  names  are  many,  very  many,  of  which  the  bearers  have  now 
passed  away.  The  list  was  rich  in  the  names  of  women  remarkable  for 
ability  or  high  character,  and  of  these  many  were  also  the  wives  of 
famous  men — Mrs.  Goschen,  Mrs.  Westcott,  Mrs.  Church,  Mrs.  T.  H. 
Green,  Mrs.  Leslie  Stephen,  Mrs.  Huxley,  Mrs.  Hort,  Mrs.  Spencer 
Walpole,  Mrs.  W.  E.  Forster,  Mrs.  Matthew  Arnold,  Mrs.  Arnold 
Toynbee,  Mrs.  Max  Miiller,  Mrs.  Seeley,  Mrs.  Bagehot — whose  names 
therefore  conveyed  a  double  protest  against  a  national  danger.1 

If  we  look  at  the  appeal  itself,  and  compare  it  with  the  arguments 
advanced  to-day  against  woman  suffrage,  we  see  that  the  case  put 
forward  is  substantially  the  same,  but  that  the  process  of  time  has 
in  some  respects  strengthened  the  older  pleas,  while  in  others  it  has 
made  it  necessary  to  add  to  them.  The  '  Appeal '  was  written  imme- 
diately after  the  passage  of  the  Local  Government  Act  creating  County 
Councils  as  we  now  know  them,  and  it  expressed  nearty  sympathy' 

with  all  the  recent  efforts  which  have  been  made  to  give  women  a  more  important 
part  in  those  affairs  of  the  community  where  their  interests  and  those  of  men  are 
equally  concerned.  ...  As  voters  for  or  members  of  School  Boards,  Boards  of 
Guardians,  and  other  important  public  bodies,  women  have  now  opportunities 
for  public  usefulness  which  must  promote  the  growth  of  character,  and  at  the 
same  time  strengthen  among  them  the  social  sense  and  habit.  .  .  .  The  care  of 
the  sick  and  the  insane  ;  the  treatment  of  the  poor;  the  education  of  children  ;  in  all 
these  matters  and  others  besides,  they  have  made  good  their  claim  to  larger  and 
more  extended  powers. 

Since  these  words  were  written  what  may  be  called  the  Local 
Government  powers  of  women — powers  especially  recognised  and 

1  In  furtherance  of  this  Appeal  a  Protest  against  Female  Suffrage  was  widely 
circulated  amongst  women  readers,  and  a  long  list  of  signatures  was  published  in  the 
August  No.  of  the  same  year — EDITOR,  Nineteenth  Century  and  After. 

848 


844  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUB7  Aug. 

supported  by  this  earlier  manifesto — have  been  still  further  extended, 
and,  finally,  the  right  of  women  not  only  to  vote  for,  but  to  become 
elected  members  of  County  and  Borough  Councils,  has  been  conceded, 
thus  bringing  to  a  successful  issue  a  movement  covering  some  forty 
years  of  the  national  life. 

At  the  same  time  it  will  perhaps  strike  a  thoughtful  reader  of  the 
earlier  document,  as  he  or  she  looks  back  over  the  twenty  years  which 
separate  us  from  it,  that  important  as  women's  share  in  Local  Govern- 
ment has  become,  female  suffrage  as  such  has  had  very  little  to  do 
with  it,  or  with  the  general  progress  of  reform.  Women  have  been 
placed  on  local  bodies  by  the  votes  of  men,  or  by  co-option,  rather 
than  by  the  votes  of  women ;  probably  just  as  good  or  even  better 
results  might  have  been  achieved  by  the  American  system,  which 
nominates  women — through  the  Governor  or  the  Mayor — to  sit  on 
State  or  Municipal  boards.  And  outside  the  Local  Government  sphere 
altogether  a  large  amount  of  both  legislative  and  administrative 
reform  has  been  secured  by  the  efforts  of  women,  official  and  non- 
official,  whose  wide  experience  of  life,  together  with  their  trained 
ability,  acting  on  the  minds  and  appealing  to  the  justice  of  men, 
have  borne  admirable  fruit.  The  '  Remonstrants  *  of  twenty  years 
ago  maintained  that  '  during  the  past  half-century  all  the  principal 
injustices  of  the  law  towards  women  have  been  amended  by  means 
of  the  existing  constitutional  machinery ;  and  with  regard  to  those 
that  remain,  we  see  no  signs  of  any  unwillingness  on  the  part  of  Parlia- 
ment to  deal  with  them.'  Parliament  in  truth  has  been  dealing  with 
them,  in  the  slow  but  steady  English  fashion,  ever  since  ;  and  if  much 
is  still  unachieved,  it  is  because  the  reforms  yet  to  be  won  depend 
upon  the  growth  of  public  opinion  and  moral  conviction  among  both 
average  men  and  average  women, — a  growth  which  is  stijl  in  many 
important  respects — I  refer  especially  to  matters  concerning  the 
relation  of  the  sexes — weak  and  ineffectual. 

Thus,  while  the  advancing  education  of  women,  and  their  greater 
social  power  and  efficiency  have  given  them  an  ever-increasing  influence 
on  both  law-making  and  administration,  the  important  suffrage — 
let  me  repeat — which  they  possessed  during  the  whole  period  has 
played  an  extremely  insignificant  part  in  the  process.  It  has  been 
very  difficult  to  get  them  to  vote  in  any  numbers ;  only  the  pressure 
of  religious  interests  has  achieved  it ;  and  with  regard  to  the  important 
powers  in  respect  of  women  and  children  possessed  by  local  bodies, 
the  woman  vote  has  notoriously  meant  little  or  nothing. 

This  is  perhaps  one  of  the  most  striking  features  of  the  twenty 
years  which  He  between  us  and  the  manifesto  of  '89.  It  seems  to  show 
that  women  are  not  naturally  voters,  and  that  the  instruments  which 
suit^and  serve  them  best  are  of  another  kind. 

But  while  the  main  case  to  be  presented  against  the  suffrage 
does  not  differ  now  materially  from  the  main  case  as  it  was  presented 


1908  THE  ANTI-SUFFRAGE   MOVEMENT  845 

in  '89,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  circumstances  of  to-day  are 
different  from  those  of  twenty  years  ago.  The  speech  printed  below 
enumerates  some  of  those  recent  events  which  are  in  all  our  minds* 
Urged  by  them,  the  women  of  to-day,  who  oppose  female  suffrage, 
can  no  longer  content  themselves  with  '  Appeals  '  or  '  Remonstrances.' 
We  have  reached  perhaps  the  crisis  of  the  movement,  and  an  active 
propaganda  must  be  met  by  one  no  less  active.  Last  year  the  first 
steps  in  opposition  were  taken  ;  and  in  a  few  weeks  37,000  signatures 
were  collected.  This  year  a  National  Women's  Anti-Suffrage  League 
has  been  started,  evoking  the  same  instant  and  widespread  response, 
and  on  the  21st  of  July  a  crowded  meeting,  under  the  presidency 
of  the  Countess  of  Jersey,  was  held  at  the  Westminster  Palace 
Hotel,  for  the  purpose  of  approving  the  Constitution,  and  adopting 
the  Manifesto  of  the  new  League.  The  task  of  proposing  the 
Manifesto  fell  to  myself,  and  the  editor  of  this  Review,  renewing 
the  friendly  co-operation  shown  by  Sir  James  Knowles  in  initiating 
the  appeal  of  '89,  has  erpressed  a  wish  to  print  the  speech  made 
on  that  occasion.  No  one  can  be  more  conscious  of  its  short- 
comings and  omissions  than  myself.  But  it  shows,  I  hope,  that  the 
newly  started  League  is  very  much  in  earnest ;  and  that  while  the  old 
arguments  of  '89  are  as  strong  as  ever,  time  has  added  not  a  few 
new  ones  to  our  store. 

The  manifesto  ran  as  follows  : 


1.  It  is  time  that  the  women  who  are  opposed  to  the  concession  of  the  par- 
liamentary franchise  to  women  should  make  themselves  fully  and  widely  heard. 
The  arguments  on  the  other  side  have  been  put  with  great  ability  and  earnestness, 
in  season  and  out  of  season,  and  enforced  by  methods  legitimate  and  illegitimate. 

2.  An  Anti-Suffrage  League  has  therefore  been  formed,  and  all  women  who 
sympathise  with  its  objects  are  earnestly  requested  to  join  it. 

3.  The  matter  is  urgent.      Unless  those  who  hold  that  the  success  of  the 
women's  suffrage  movement  would  bring  disaster  upon  England  are  prepared 
to  take  immediate  and  effective  action,  judgment  may  go  by  default  and  our 
country  drift  towards  a  momentous  revolution,  both  social  and  political,  before 
it  has  realised  the  dangers  involved. 

4.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  concession  of  the  franchise  is  '  inevitable/ 
and  that  a  claim  of  this  kind  once  started  and  vehemently  pressed  must  be 
granted.    Let  those  who  take  this  view  consider  the  case  of  America.    A  vigorous 
campaign  in  favour  of  women's  suffrage  has  been  carried  on  in  the  States  for 
more  than  a  generation.     After  forty  years  the  American  agitation  has  been 
practically  defeated.     The  English  agitation  must  be  defeated  in  the  same  way 
by  the  steady  work  and  argument  of  women  themselves. 

5.  Let  us  state  the  main  reasons  why  this  League  opposes  the  concession  of 
the  parliamentary  vote  to  women  : 

(a)  Because  the  spheres  of  men  and  women,  owing  to  natural  causes,  are 
essentially  different,  and  therefore  their  share  in  the  management  of  the  State 
should  be  different. 

(b)  Because  the  complex  modern  State  depends  for  its  very  existence  on  naval 
and  military  power,  diplomacy,  finance,  and  the  great  mining,  constructive,, 
shipping  and  transport  industries,  in  none  of  which  can  women  take  any  practical 


846  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTUBT  Aug. 

part.     Yet  it  is  upon  these  matters,  and  the  vast  interests  involved  in  them,  that 
the  work  of  Parliament  largely  turns. 

(c)  Because  by  the  concession  of  the  local  government  vote  and  the  admission 
of  women  to  County  and  Borough  Councils,  the  nation  hag  opened  a  wide  sphere 
of  public  work  and  influence  to  women,  which  is  within  their  powers.     To  make 
proper  use  of  it,  however,  will  tax.  all  the  energies  that  women  have  to  spare, 
apart  from  the  care  of  the  homeland  the  development  of  the  individual  life. 

(d)  Because  the  influence  of  women  in  social  causes  will  be  diminished  rather 
than  increased  by  the  possession  of  the  parliamentary  vote.     At  present  they 
stand,  in  matters  of  social  reform,  apart  from  and  beyond  party  politics,  and  are 
listened  to  accordingly.     The  legitimate  influence  of  women  in  politics — in  all 
classes,  rich  and  poor — will  always  be  in  proportion  to  their  education  and  common 
sense.     But  the  deciding  power  of  the  parliamentary  vote  should  be  left  to  men, 
whose  physical  force  is  ultimately  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  the  State. 

(e)  Because  all  the  reforms  which  are  put  forward  as  reasons  for  the  vote  can 
be  obtained  by  other  means  than  the  vote,  as  is  proved  by  the  general  history  of 
the  laws  relating  to  women  and  children  during  the  past  century.     The  channels 
of  public  opinion  are  always  freely  open  to  women.     Moreover,  the  services 
which  women  can  with  advantage  render  to  the  nationtin  the  field  of  social  and 
educational  reform,  and  in  the  investigation  of  social  problems,  have  been  recog- 
nised by  Parliament.      Women  have  been  included  in  Royal  Commissions,  and 
admitted  to  a  share  in  local  government.     The  true  path  of  progress  seems  to  lie 
in  further  development  along  these  lines.     Representative  women,  for  instance, 
might  be  brought  into  closer  consultative  relation  with  Government  departments, 
in  matters  where  the  special  interests  of  women  are  concerned. 

(/)  Because  any  measure  for  the  enfranchisement  of  women  must  either 
(1)  concede  the  vote  to  women  on  the  same  terms  as.  to  men,  and  thereby  in 
practice  involve  an  unjust  and  invidious  limitation  ;  or  (2)  by  giving  the  vote 
to  wives  of  voters  tend  to  the  introduction  of  political  differences  into  domestic 
life  ;  or  (3)  by  the  adoption  of  adult  suffrage,  which  seems  the  inevitable  result  of 
admitting  the  principle,  place  the  female  vote  in  an  overpowering  majority. 

(g)  Because,  finally,  the  danger  which  might  arise  from  the  concession  of 
woman  suffrage,  in  the  case  of  a  State  burdened  with  such  complex  and  far- 
reaching  responsibilities  as  England,  is  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  risk  run  by 
those  smaller  communities  which  have  adopted  it.  The  admission  to"f  ull  political 
power  of  a  number  of  voters  debarred  by  nature  and  circumstance  from  the 
average  political  knowledge  and  experience  open  to  men,  would  weaken  the 
central  governing  forces  of  the  State,  and  be  fraught  with  peril  to  the  country. 
Women  who  hold  these  views  must  now  organise  in  their  support. 

6.  We  appeal,  therefore,  to  those  who  disapprove  the  present  suffrage  agita- 
tion, to  join  our  League,  and  to  support  it  by  every  means  in  their  power. 

The  woman  suffrage  movement  can  be  defeated — it  must  be  defeated — and 
by  women  themselves. 

Women  of  England  !  We  appeal  to  your  patriotism,  and  your  common 
sense. 

Upon  this  text  the  following  speech  was  delivered  : 
'  The  first  part  of  the  foregoing  Manifesto  dwells  on  the  urgency 
of  the  situation.  As  to  that  there  can,  I  think,  be  no  doubt.  When 
a  Women's  Enfranchisement  Bill  has  passed  its  second  reading  in 
the  House  of  Commons  by  a  large  majority  ;  when  we  have  a  militant 
Society,  amply  supplied  with  money,  and  served  by  women  who  seem 
to  give  their  whole  time  to  its  promotion  ;  when  we  have  before  us 
the  spectacle  of  marchings  and  counter-marchings,  alarums  and 


1908          THE  ANTI-S^FRAGE  MOVEMENT  847 

excursions,  on  behalf  of  the  Suffrage  cause,  in  all  parts  of  England ; 
when  Ministers'  houses  are  attacked  and  political  meetings  broken 
up ;  when  besides  the  pennyworth  of  argument,  added  to  an  intoler- 
able deal  of  noise,  with  which  the  Women's  Social  and  Political  Union 
provide  us,  we  have  the  serious  and  impressive  sight  of  Mrs.  Fawcett's 
procession  of  a  month  ago — then,  indeed,  it  seems  to  be  time  that 
those  women  who,  with  no  less  seriousness,  with,  I  hope,  no  less 
tenacity,  and  with  certainly  as  much  public  spirit  as  Mrs.  Fawcett 
and  her  supporters,  hold  the  view  that  Woman  Suffrage  would  be  a 
disaster  for  England,  and  first  and  foremost  for  women  themselves — 
that  they  should  bestir  themselves,  that  they  should  take  counsel, 
that  they  should  organise  opposition,  and  prepare  to  see  it  through. 
For  the  fight  will  be  a  tough  and  a  long  one.     We  shall  want  work, 
we  shall  want  money,  we  shall  want  enthusiasm.     No  member  joining 
this  League  should  be  an  idle  member.     Time,  money,  zeal — we  ask 
you  for  all  these — and  if  this  newly  formed  League  is  not  prepared 
to  give  them,  we  might  as  well  not  organise  it  at  all.     We  want  an 
efficient  Central  Office,  and  an  efficient  Executive  Committee  ;    we 
want  a  good  and  active  Publication  Committee  ;    we  want  bramches 
throughout  the  country,  who  will  take  up  with  energy  the  work 
of  local   persuasion,   of  interviewing  members   and  candidates  for 
Parliament,  and  of  meeting  the  tactics  and  arguments  of  the  Suffragists 
with  counter-tactics  and  counter-arguments.      Not  that  we  intend 
to  meet  lawlessness  with  lawlessness  ;    far  from  it.      This    League 
cannot,  in  my  opinion,  uphold  too  strongly  the  old  English  standards 
of  fair-play  and  courtesy  in  debate,  of  law-abiding  and  constitutional 
methods.     The  Suffragists,  indeed,  are  already  inviting  us  to  go  to 
prison  for  our  opinions.     We  in  return  can  only  marvel  at  the  logic 
of  Miss  Beatrice  Harraden,  for  instance,  who  maintains  in  the  Times, 
that  because  a  small  body  of  women  whose  "  blood  is  up,"  to  use 
Miss  Harraden's  expression,  choose  to  invite  imprisonment  by  violent 
methods,  choose  to  subject  themselves  to  discomforts  in  prison  from 
which  they  could  free  themselves  at  a  word,  that  therefore — therefore 
— this  "dear  land  of  England,"  this  old  and  complex  State,  is  to 
capitulate  at  once  to  a  doctrine  which,  in  our  belief,  the  great  majority 
of  its  inhabitants  disapprove  and  condemn,  is  to  change  its  ancient 
use  and  custom,  and  is  to  embark    alone  of  civilised  States  of  the 
first  rank,  on  the  strange  seas  of  Woman  Suffrage.     The  considera- 
tions are  not  equal !  and  what  is  practically  a  revolution  is  not  going 
to  be  bought  so  cheap  ! 

'  Let  us,  then,  meet  energy  with  energy,  and  in  a  spirit  of  hope. 
There  is  nothing  in  this  movement  which  cannot  be  defeated,  as 
this  Manifesto  points  out.  I  have  ventured  lately  to  draw  English 
attention  to  the  state  of  things  in  America,  where,  after  half  a  century 
of  agitation,  the  Woman  Suffrage  movement  is  obviously  declining, 
put  down  by  the  common  sense  of  women  themselves.  They  cer- 


848  TEE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

tainly  could  have  got  it  if  they  had  ultimately  determined  upon  it ; 
and  in  the  sixties  and  seventies,  when  Women's  Clubs  were  spreading 
all  over  the  States,  with  the  avowed  object  of  securing  Woman 
Suffrage,   when  great  meetings   were   perpetually  being  held,   and 
petitions  presented  to  the^State^Legislatures,  or  to  Congress,  it  looked 
as  though  the  movement  would  and  must  succeed.     Four  States 
had  granted  the  Suffrage  ;   other  States  were  being  pressed  to  grant 
it.     Then,  in  the  eighties,  the  tide  turned.     The  opinion  of  women 
themselves  set  against  it.    Women's  Anti-Suffrage  Societies  sprang 
up,  led  in  many  cases  by  the  women  most  actively  concerned  in 
social  and  philanthropic  work  ;    appeals  to  State  Legislatures  were 
met  by  counter-appeals,  ably  argued,  a  vast  amount  of  literature 
was  distributed  ;    and  now,  not  even  Mrs.  Cobden  Sanderson  can 
deny  that  the  movement  is  receding,  or,  as  Mrs.  Fawcett  prefers  to 
put  it,  is  "  less  advanced  "  than  in  England.     Mr.  Zangwill,  indeed, 
announces  that  he  is  "  bored  "  by  facts  drawn  from  Wyoming  and 
Oregon.     But  I  am  afraid  this  is  only  when  they  are  used  against 
him !     The  Society  for  which  he  writes  is  never  tired  of  quoting  the 
four  Suffrage  States,  when  it  suits  them  to  do  so,  and  of  printing  a 
number  of  highly  doubtful  statements  about  them.     One  of  their 
recent  pamphlets  deals  entirely  with  the  noble  example  of  Wyoming 
and   Colorado,    Utah   and   Idaho.     But   when  someone   points   out 
that  there  is  a  great  deal  to  be  said  of  another  kind  about  these  four 
States,  and  that  the  State  of  Oregon,  which  has  for  neighbours  these 
very  Suffrage  States,  has  just  defeated  a  Woman's  Suffrage  amend- 
ment by  20,000  votes,  as  against  10,000  last  time,  and  1,800  the 
time  before — then  Mr.  Zangwill  is  "  bored." 
'  We  must  fight  then,  and  fight  with  hope. 

'  As  to  the  reasons  for  the  fight,  we  are  probably  all  pretty  much 
agreed  in  this  room.  Women  are  "  not  undeveloped  men  but 
diverse,"  and  the  more  complex  the  development  of  any  State,. 
the  more  diverse.  Difference,  not  inferiority — it  is  on  that  we 
take  our  stand.  The  modern  State  depends  for  its  very  existence — 
and  no  juggling  with  facts  can  get  rid  of  the  truth — on  the  physical 
force  of  men,  combined  with  the  trained  and  specialised  knowledge 
which  men  alone  are  able  to  get,  because  women,  on  whom  the  child- 
bearing  and  child-rearing  of  the  world  rest,  have  no  time  and  no- 
opportunity  to  get  it.  The  difference  in  these  respects  between 
even  the  educated  man  and  the  educated  woman — exceptions  apart — 
is  evident  to  us  all.  Speaking  generally,  the  man's  mere  daily  life  as 
breadwinner,  as  merchant,  engineer,  official,  or  manufacturer,  gives 
him  a  practical  training  that  is  not  open  to  the  woman.  The  pursuit 
of  advanced  science,  the  constantly  developing  applications  of  science 
to  industry  and  life,  the  great  system  of  the  world's  commerce  and 
finance,  the  fundamental  activities  of  railways  and  shipping,  the  hard 
physical  drudgery,  in  fact,  of  the  world,  day  by  day — not  to  speak  of 


1908  THE   ANTI-SUFFRAGE   MOVEMENT  349 

naval  and  military  affairs,  and  of  that  diplomacy  which  protects  us 
and  our  children  from  war — these  are  male,  conceived  and  executed 
by  men.  The  work  of  Parliament  turns  upon  them,  assumes  them  at 
every  turn.  That  so  many  ignorant  male  voters  have  to  be  called  into 
the  nation's  councils  upon  them,  is  the  penalty  we  pay  for  what  on 
the  whole  are  the  great  goods  of  democracy.  But  this  ignorance-vote 
'is  large  enough  in  all  conscience,  when  one  considers  the  risks  of  the 
modern  State  ;  and  to  add  to  it  yet  another,  where  the  ignorance  is 
imposed  by  nature  and  irreparable — the  vote  of  women  who  in  the 
vast  majority  of  cases  are  debarred  by  their  mere  sex  from  that  practical 
political  experience  which  is  at  least  always  open  to  men — could  any 
proceeding  be  more  dangerous,  more  unreasonable  ?  The  women 
who  ask  it — able,  honourable,  noble  women  though  they  be — are  not 
surely  true  patriots,  in  so  far  as  they  ask  it.  There  is  a  greatness  in 
self -restraint  as  well  as  in  self-assertion  ;  and  to  embarrass  the  difficult 
work  of  men,  in  matters  where  men's  experience  alone  provides  the 
materials  for  judgment,  is  not  to  help  women.  On  the  contrary. 
We  are  mothers,  wives,  and  sisters  of  men,  and  we  know  that  our 
interests  are  bound  up  with  the  best  interests  of  men,  and  that,  to  claim 
to  do  their  work  as  well  as  our  own  is  to  injure  both. 

'  But  we  shall  be  told  there  is  a  vast  field  where  men  and  women 
are  equally  concerned — the  field  of  industrial  and  domestic  legislation — 
and  that  women  here  ought  to  have  an  equal  voice.  And  if  there  were 
any  practical  possibility  of  dividing  up  the  work  of  Parliament,  so  that 
women  should  vote  on  only  those  matters  where  they  are  equally 
concerned  with  men,  there  would  be  a  great  deal  to  be  said  for  a  special 
franchise  of  the  kind.  But  there  is  no  such  possibility.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone tried  something  like  it  when  in  the  case  of  the  first  Home  Rule 
Bill  he  endeavoured  to  draw  a  line  between  certain  subjects  and  others, 
in  the  case  of  the  Irish  members.  We  all  know  that  he  failed.  The 
work  of  Parliament  is  one  and  indivisible.  The  handling  of  every 
subject  bears  on  the  handling  of  every  other,  and  the  vote,  once  given, 
can  only  carry  with  it  the  whole  range  of  parliamentary  power. 

'  But  what  then  ?  Are  women  without  power  over  the  subjects 
that  specially  concern  them,  because  they  are  and,  as  we  hope,  will 
remain  without  the  parliamentary  vote  ? 

'  By  no  means.  They  have  first  of  all  the  power  which  will  always 
belong,  vote  or  no  vote,  to  knowledge  and  experience  wherever  they 
are  to  be  found.  During  the  last  half-century,  as  the  education  of 
women  has  advanced,  and  as  their  experience  has  been  enlarged,  their 
influence  upon  public  men  and  upon  legislation  has  steadily  increased. 
Not  a  single  Bill  is  now  passed  bearing  on  the  special  interests  of 
women  and  children,  but  women  are  anxiously  consulted.  When 
the  Special  Schools  for  defective  children  were  constituted  throughout 
the  country,  the  influence  of  women  shaped  the  law  at  every  successive 
stage  ;  when  the  Midwives  Act  was  passed,  it  was  not,  as  Mrs. 

VOL.  LXIV-No.  378  A  A 


850  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Aug. 

Pankhurst  says,  "  passed  by  men  without  consulting  women  " — it  was, 
as  I  happened  to  know,  mainly  the  work  of  a  group  of  energetic  and 
clear-headed  women,  who  proved  their  point  and  achieved  their 
reform,  even  against  a  strong  masculine  opposition.  The  Probation 
of  Offenders  Act  of  last  year  was  framed  throughout  in  consultation 
with  women  possessed  of  expert  knowledge  and  experience  ;  and  as 
for  the  Children's  Bill  of  this  Session,  this  children's  charter,  which* 
does  Mr.  Samuel  such  honour,  it  could  not  have  been  drawn  up  without 
the  advice  and  help  of  women,  which  it  has  had,  throughout.  Women, 
moreover,  are  now  placed  on  Royal  Commissions,  and  we  may  be  very 
sure  that  the  influence  of  Mrs.  Sidney  Webb  on  the  Poor  Law  Com- 
mission is  at  least  equal  to  that  of  any  man  upon  it. 

'  But  this  is  not  all.  Women  have  not  only  the  influence  given 
them  by  special  knowledge  and  ability,  knowledge  which  enables 
them  now  in  all  fields  to  represent  and  speak  for  their  sex  ;  they  have 
also  freely  open  to  them,  whether  as  electors  or  elected,  the  immense 
field  of  local  government.  They  have  had  the  municipal  vote  for 
thirty-seven  years ;  they  have  long  been  eligible  as  Poor  Law  Guardians, 
as  parish  or  district  councillors,  and  they  have  now  been  made  eligible 
as  county  and  borough  councillors.  If  anyone  will  take  up  any 
competent  book  on  local  government  and  look  at  the  powers  of  county 
and  borough  councils,  he  will  ask  himself,  I  think,  how  long  will  it 
be  before  women  overtake  or  fill  the  immense  sphere  which  has  been 
here  opened  to  them  ?  They  have  not,  indeed,  shown  any  great  zeal 
to  fill  it.  The  women's  vote  has  been  extremely  small,  except  when 
some  exciting  cause  has  intervened — not  unlike  the  men,  however, 
in  this  !  But  all  the  time,  if  the  vote  were  really  the  talisman  that 
the  Suffragists  proclaim,  what  women  might  have  done  in  local 
government ! — what  they  still  might  do  ! 

'  "  If  we  get  the  vote,"  says  one  of  the  Suffragist  leaflets,  "  more 
attention  would  be  given  to  the  condition  of  the  children,  to  the  care 
of  the  sick  and  aged,  to  education,"  and  so  on.  But  meanwhile  all 
sorts  of  powers  are  lying  unused  under  the  hands  of  women.  There 
has  been  much  talk,  for  instance,  of  the  evils  of  street  trading  for 
children  of  school  age.  But  this  is  a  matter  which  depends  entirely 
upon  the  County  Council ;  and  if  the  women's  Vote  in  London,  which 
they  have  now  possessed  for  thirty  years  and  more,  had  been  properly 
used  and  directed,  street  trading  could  have  been  made  impossible. 
Organised  playgrounds  again  for  children  throughout  London  could 
have  been  established,  as  they  have  been  established  in  Boston  and 
New  York;  a  hundred  things  could  have  been  done  for  children, 
if  voters  and  organisers  had  so  willed  it.  Meanwhile,  the  need  for 
women  school  managers  of  a  capable  sort  throughout  London  is  really 
urgent.  In  the  Cripple  Schools  with  which  I  have  been  specially 
connected,  we  cannot  get  women  enough  to  do  the  work  which 
urgently  wants  doing  for  these  delicate  and  helpless  children.  And 


1908          THE  ANTI-SUFFRAGE   MOVEMENT  851 

meanwMle  good  brains  and  skilled  hands  are  being  diverted  from 
women's  real  tasks  to  this  barren  agitation  for  equal  rights  with  men, 
in  men's  own  field,  this  sex-rivalry,  which  has  too  often  masqueraded 
as  reform. 

'  Two  arguments  often  used  in  the  controversy  are  not  touched 
in  the  Manifesto,  which  had  of  necessity  to  be  short.  But  they  have 
had  remarkable  influence  upon  the  working  population  of  the  north. 
I  mean  (1)  the  argument  that  the  possession  of  the  vote  would  raise 
the  wages  of  women  to  an  equality  with  those  of  men  ;  (2)  that  hygienic 
regulation  of  the  employment  of  women — married  women  especially 
— should  not  be  imposed  on  women  without  their  consent,  expressed 
through  the  vote. 

'  Heavy  indeed  is  the  responsibility  of  those  who  are  teaching  an 
excitable  factory  population  that  the  possession  of  a  vote  will  raise 
their  wages  !  If  this  were  even  remotely  true,  would  the  average 
wage  of  the  agricultural  labourer,  twenty-four  years  after  his  political 
enfranchisement,  be  still  15s.  or  16s.  a  week  ?  Would  all  that  mass 
of  low-paid-  male  labour  disclosed  by  Mr.  Rowntree's  book  on  York, 
or  Mr.  Booth's  London,  still  exist — if  the  vote  could  remedy  it  ? 

'  The  reasons  why  women's  wage  is  generally  lower  than  that  of 
men  are  partly  economic,  partly  physical.  There  are  more  women 
than  men ;  men  are  stronger  than  women ;  there  is  far  more  com- 
petition for  men's  labour ;  marriage  and  the  expectation  of  marriage 
affect  the  industrial  value  of  women's  work  unfavourably ;  and 
above  all  the  organisation  of  women's  labour  is  still  backward  and 
weak. 

'  Many  causes  now  in  operation  will,  we  hope,  tend  in  time  to 
the  better  payment  of  women ;  the  more  even  spread  of  the  world's 
population,  better  training,  better  organisation,  and  so  on.  But  to 
teach  the  labouring  women  of  England  that  a  parliamentary  vote 
is  of  itself  to  raise  wages  and  bring  them  the  economic  millennium, 
is,  as  it  seems  to  me,  to  poison  the  wells  of  thought  and  action  among 
them,  and  to  increase  instead  of  lightening  the  burdens  on  our  sex. 

*  As  to  factory  regulations,  the  opinion  of  women  in  the  matter, 
trained  and  experienced  women,  has  been  of  increasing  importance 
with  the  Government  for  many  years  past.  I  believe  I  am  not  wrong 
in  saying  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  recent  reforms  in  factory 
legislation  for  women  and  children  are  due  to  the  reports  of  women 
inspectors,  in  daily  contact  with  the  people,  and  bringing  their  trained 
knowledge  to  bear.  But  let  us  ask  a  further  question.  Is  the  work 
of  married  women  in  factories  the  concern  only  of  women  ?  Not  at 
all.  It  is  the  concern  of  the  nation  as  a  whole,  who  are  the  trustees  for 
and  the  guardians  of  the  coming  generation. 

4  Whether  the  legitimate  influence  of  women  on  legislation  could 
be  carried  further,  on  the  lines  of  responsible  advice,  and  co-operation 
with  Government  departments,  is  a  matter  to  which  some  of  us  have 


352  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY       Aug.  1908 

given  anxious  thought.  You  will  find  a  reference  to  this  in  the 
Manifesto.  We  have  no  hard  and  fast  plan.  We  throw  out  the 
suggestion  to  show  that  we  are  far  from  admitting  that  everything 
is  for  the  best  in  the  best  of  worlds.  We  know  that  there  are  griev- 
ances of  women,  just  as  there  are  grievances  of  men,  awaiting  redress. 
But  let  us  not  throw  out  the  child  with  the  bath  water.  Let  us  not 
in  pushing  the  claims  and  demands  of  women  forget  that  the  interests 
of  the  whole — of  the  great  country  to  which  we  all  belong — must  come 
first.  As  one  reads  the  Suffragist  literature,  Macaulay's  lines  come 
ringing  in  one's  head  : — 

When  all  were  for  a  party, 
And  none  were  for  the  State. 

'The  party  of  sex  may  be  the  worst  of  all  parties.  And  there 
is  too  much  of  it  in  the  Suffrage  agitation. 

'Practically,  then,  our  new  League  meets  the  Suffragist  demand 
by  a  direct  negative,  and  by  the  strong  assertion  that  women's  true 
sphere  is  already  secured  to  her,  both  in  the  home  and  the  State,  and 
what  she  has  to  do  now  is  to  fill  and  possess  it.  For  the  brutalities 
and  wrongs  that  remain,  force,  political  force,  is  no  remedy.  The  task, 
alack,  is  harder  than  that. 

'  Finally,  outside  the  political  machinery  necessary  to  the  mainten- 
ance of  the  modern,  civilised  State,  there  is  a  world  of  thought  and 
action  common  to  both  men  and  women  alike,  in  perfect  equality,  a 
world  more  readily  open  to  ideas  than  the  world  of  party  politics,  a  world 
where  all  reforms  begin,  and  which  provides  the  force  which  ultimately 
carries  them.  Every  capacity  of  women  can  find,  if  we  will,  free  scope 
in  that  world,  and  within  it  women's  influence  and  women's  power 
depend  entirely  upon  what  women  are  themselves. 

'  Well,  now,  we  have  to  give  practical  effect  to  this  belief.  We 
have  to  carry  the  organisation  of  the  League  throughout  the  country  ; 
we  have  to  provide  good  and  adequate  literature  ;  we  have,  abo.ve  all, 
to  break  down  the  420  pledges  that  have  been  given  to  Woman  Suffrage 
in  this  Parliament ;  and  if  Men's  Societies  "  for  the  promotion  of  Woman 
Suffrage  "  have  been  already  formed — as  they  have  been  formed  in  the 
north — we  must  call  on  men  to  form  Associations  of  voters  "  in  opposi- 
tion to  Woman  Suffrage."  In  short,  we  must  fight — with  good 
humour,  I  hope,  and  with  constant  respect  for  those — often  dear 
friends  of  our  own — who  differ  from  us,  but  with  a  determination  to 
make  our  voice  heard,  and  to  save  England,  if  we  can,  from  a  national 
disaster.' 

MARY  A.  WARD. 


The  Editor  of  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  cannot  undertaJce 
to  return  unaccepted  MSS. 


THE 


NINETEENTH 
CENTURY 

AND   AFTER 

XX 


No.  GCCLXXIX— SEPTEMBER  1908 


THE    TURKISH   REVOLUTION 

THREE  points  are  especially  interesting  in  connexion  with  the 
remarkable  change  which  has  .taken  place  in  the  condition  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire.  Firstly,  the  unprecedented  manner  in  which 
one  of  the  most  despotically  governed  countries  in  the  world  has 
acquired  freedom ;  secondly,  the  prospects  of  a  satisfactory  working 
of  the  new  order  of  things  and  its  permanence — in  other  words,  the 
prospects  of  real  reformation  which  the  transformation  offers  ;  thirdly, 
the  feelings  with  which  the  modified  situation  in  which  Turkey  finds 
herself  is  viewed  by  her  immediate  neighbours  and  by  the  rest  of  the 
world. 

I  propose  to  deal  with  these  three  points  as  comprehensively  as  is 
possible  within  the  compass  of  a  Review  article. 

The  re-establishment  by  Abd-ul-Hamid  of  the  Constitution  he  had 
promulgated  in  1876,  and  almost  immediately  afterwards  suspended, 
came  as  a  tremendous  surprise  to  everybody,  not  excepting  the  chiefs 
of  the  Young  Turkey  party,  who  did  not  expect  such  a  sudden  fruition 
of  their  patriotic  labours.  Undoubtedly  these  labours  have  been  very 
great  during  the  last  ten  years  or  so,  and  marked  by  an  ability  and  per- 
severance which  reflect  the  greatest  credit  on  the  reorganiser  of  the 
party,  Prince  Sabah-ed-dme,  own  nephew  of  Abd-ul-Hamid,  who,  at 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  379  853  B  B 


854  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

the  early  age  of  thirty,  has  gained  undying  glory  as  the  prime  agent 
in  the  destruction  of  one  of  the  most  infamous  and  yet  most  deeply- 
rooted  political  systems  in  the  world.  But  the  obstacles  to  success 
opposed  by  the  ill-inspired  genius  of  Abd-ul-Hamid,  and  the  extra- 
ordinary difficulty  of  weaning  the  Turkish  peasant,  who  forms  the 
backbone  of  the  Turkish  Army,  from  his  almost  animal  devotion  to  the 
Sultan-Caliph,  were  recognised  to  be  of  such  magnitude  by  the  party  as 
to  cause  it  to  believe  that  at  least  two  or  three  years  more  would  be 
necessary  to  bring  about  that  general  revolt  of  the  troops  upon  which 
it  had  rightly  centred  its  efforts  and  which,  by  depriving  the  Hamidian 
regime  of  its  principal  support,  would  bring  it  to  the  ground.  What 
hastened  the  event  is  that  the  indescribably  wretched  condition  which 
has  been  the  lot  of  the  Turkish  soldier  under  the  autocracy  of  Yildiz, 
and  which  none  but  men  of  his  admirably  patient  and  disciplined  race 
would  have  endured  so  long,  became  at  last  intolerable  to  him  when  he 
was  brought  into  contact  with  his  fellow-subjects,  most  of  them  his 
co-religionists,  of  the  Macedonian  Gendarmerie,  whose  treatment, 
under  European  supervision,  formed  such  a  contrast  to  his  own.  The 
army  concentrated  in  Macedonia,  which  represented  four-fifths  of 
the  military  establishment  of  Turkey,  having  revolted,  the  move- 
ment spread  with  lightning  rapidity  to  the  neighbouring  troops  in 
the  Vilayet  of  Adrianople,  and  from  them  to  those  in  the  vicinity  of 
Constantinople,  because  it  arose  from  a  reaction  against  unbearable 
sufferings  common  to  all  the  soldiers  of  the  Sultan,  with  the  exception  of 
those  belonging  to  the  pampered  Guard,  garrisoned  around  Yildiz 
itself,  and  also  because,  unlike  former  mutinies,  the  rebellion  in  Mace- 
donia broke  out  in  the  midst  of  a  whole  Army  Corps  simultaneously, 
and  thus  gave  encouragement  to  other  units  and  divisions  to  follow 
suit.  ,;  'j  ^.sjl^i 

The  Young  Turkey  party  had  no  anticipation  of  this  happy  pre- 
cipitation of  events,  due  to  unforeseen  causes ;  but  no  sooner  had 
the  tendency  manifested  itself  among  the  rank  and  file  to  take  into 
its  own  hands  the  matter  of  the  reformation  of  their  lot — their  object 
was  purely  selfish  in  the  beginning,  and  confined  to  the  desire  of 
remedying  military  grievances  only — than  the  party  intervened 
through  the  numerous  officers  affiliated  to  its  cause,  and,  adjusting 
the  movement  to  its  general  purposes,  gave  it  the  significance  of  a 
political  rising,  which  led,  in  an  extraordinarily  short  time,  to  the 
attainment  of  its  fundamental  programme.  Herein  lies  the  great 
merit  of  Prince  Sabah-ed-dine  and  his  coadjutors.  They  were  pre- 
pared for  emergencies  because  they  had  patiently  established  a  wide- 
spread connexion  with  the  regimental  officers  of  the  Turkish  Army, 
the  great  majority  of  whom  had  personal  as  well  as  patriotic  motives 
for  adhering  to  the  Young  Turkey  creed,  but  who  ran  the  greatest 
risks  in  joining  the  ranks  of  the  party.  In  this  way  a  military  revolt 
was  promptly  transformed  into  a  revolution  :  the  first,  be  it  noted, 


1908  '   THE   TURKISH  REVOLUTION  855 

which  has  taken  place  in  the  history  of  Turkey.  It  is  a  fact  that,  so 
far,  all  dethronements  and  other  forced  political  changes  in  the 
Ottoman  Empire  have  been  the  result  of  conspiracies  or  revolts.  It 
is  a  sign  of  the  times  that,  whereas  it  has  been  impossible  in  the  past 
to  bring  the  Turkish  masses  into  line  against  the  throne,  because  to 
them  it  represented  an  intangible  Idol,  semi-religious,  semi-political, 
they  have  been  awakened  by  their  sufferings  into  a  notion  of  solidarity, 
the  underlying  element  of  which  is  a  new-born  spirit  of  criticism  in 
regard  to  the  Sultan-Caliph.  The  great  difference  between  the 
Turkish  upheaval  of  1876  and  the  present  one  is  that  the  former 
represented  the  ideas  of  a  small  group  of  enlightened  patriots,  whereas 
the  latter  is  thoroughly  national  in  character. 

The  role  played  by  Abd-ul-Hamid  in  the  drama  which  has  just  been 
enacted  is  intensely  interesting  to  analyse.     At  first — that  is,  during 
two  or  three  days — the  crowned  Machiavelli  of  modern  times  could 
not  bring  himself  to  believe  that  the  system  he  had  devised  for  pre- 
venting his  subjects,  and  especially  his  troops,  from  combining  against 
him  in  any  but  a  sporadic  and  timid  manner — that  system  which  we 
cannot  help  admiring  as  a  marvel  of  ingenuity,  knowledge  of  human 
nature,  and  singleness  of  purpose — had  failed  to  act  after  serving  him 
so  well  for  thirty-one  years.     When,  however,  with  the  quick  per- 
ception which  is  one  of  the  attributes  of  his  extraordinary  intellect, 
he  realised  that  this  was  the  case,  and  that  resistance  to  the  wishes 
of  the  nation  was  out  of  the  question,  he  promptly  adapted  himself 
to  the  new  situation  and,  shedding  the  despot,  entered  into  the  skin 
of  a  constitutional  sovereign  with  a  facility  and  good  grace  which 
came  as  a  revelation  even  to  those  most  intimately  acquainted  with 
him.     It  was  an  axiom  with  all  students  of  Abd-ul-Hamid's  character 
that,  rather  than  part  with  the  omnipotence  of  despotism,  which 
appeared  to  be  as  necessary  an  element  of  existence  to  him  as  the 
breath  of  his  nostrils,  he  would  confront  a  hundred  deaths  or  put  an  end 
to  his  days  with  his  own  hands.     Is  he  not  authentically  known  to 
have  said  that,  so  long  as  he  could  remain  the  absolute  master  of 
his  subjects,  the  Empire  might  shrink  to  the  size  of  a  single  province  ? 
And  does  not  the  whole  history  of  his  reign  confirm  this  statement  ? 
Does  it  not  teach  that  his  object  has  been  to  weaken  the  Empire 
systematically,  methodically,  unrelentingly,  in  order  the  better  to 
dominate  it,   but   nicely   calculating   withal   his   destructive   action 
so  as  to  prevent  the  fabric  from  collapsing  entirely  before  his  death, 
and  thus  have  some  territory,  if  only  that  single  province  of  which 
we  have  just  spoken,  to  dominate  ?     Never  in  history  has  the  motto 
of  '  Apres  moi  le  deluge '  been  more  thoroughly  followed  than  by 
Abd-ul-Hamid  as  Sultan  of  Turkey.     And  yet  that  very  man,  when 
confronted  by  the  inevitable  in  the  shape  of  an  unexpected  revolution, 
bows  to  it,  and  says  to  his  subjects  :    '  I  thoroughly  identify  myself 
with  the  change.     My  dearest  wish  is  to  preside  over  its  successful 

B  B  2 


386  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY"          Sept. 

development.'  And  he  means  what  he  says.  Not  that  he  would 
not  take  advantage  of  the  smallest  chance  of  recovering  his  lost 
power ;  but,  seeing  none,  and  rightly  so,  for  reasons  which  will  presently 
appear,  he  has  no  alternative,  since  he  has  decided  to  remain  on  the 
throne,  but  to  play  the  part  of  constitutional  sovereign  as  thoroughly 
as  he  has  typified  that  of  despot.  It  is  indeed  a  wonder  that,  instead 
of  abdicating  or  committing  suicide — as  one  would  have  expected  of  a 
ruler  who,  having  sacrificed  everything  to  the  possession  of  absolute 
power,  and  having  enjoyed  it  in  all  its  Oriental  plenitude  for  thirty- 
one  years,  is  suddenly  deprived  of  it — he  should  bend  himself  to  the 
tameness  of  limited  monarchy.  It  is  only  another  reason  for  admiring 
this  prodigious  man,  in  whom  will-power  is  evidently  the  supreme 
quality  among  so  many  other  remarkable  attributes.  But,  it  may  be 
asked,  what  is  it  that  has  caused  him  to  exercise  his  will-power  in  the 
direction  he  has  adopted  ?  No  doubt  the  fact  that,  being  no  longer 
able  to  sacrifice  the  Empire  to  his  misguided  ambition,  he  has  suddenly 
awakened  to  a  sense  of  patriotism,  and  wishes  to  make  amends  to  his 
country  by  serving  it  in  the  only  capacity  left  to  him,  that  of  con- 
stitutional sovereign.  Be  that  as  it  may,  we  need  not  hesitate  to 
believe  that  the  genius  of  Abd-ul-Hamid  will  act  now  as  an  invaluable 
aid  to  Turkey,  as  invaluable  in  the  present  as  its  ill-directed  action 
in  the  past  has  been  incalculably  injurious  to  her.  The  writer  is 
firmly  convinced  that,  if  only  he  live  long  enough,  Abd-ul-Hamid  is 
destined  to  become  the  best  sovereign  Turkey  has  ever  had,  after 
having  certainly  been  the  worst.  None  better  than  he,  possessed 
as  he  is  of  an  incomparable  experience,  a  unique  coup  ffail,  and  a 
deftness  of  touch  that  makes  a  very  magician  of  him,  could  pilot  the 
ship  of  State  through  the  stormy  seas  of  reform  ;  for  stormy  they  will 
soon  become,  the  present  glad  calm  and  sunshine  being  the  result 
of  temporary  causes,  as  will  be  presently  explained.  Who  knows 
but  what  Abd-ul-Hamid  may  yet  wipe  out  the  memory  of  the  wrongs 
he  has  inflicted  upon  his  country  by  services  of  equal  magnitude  ? 

Another  very  remarkable  circumstance  accompanying  the  Turkish 
Revolution,  and  which  justifies  the  pretty  name  given  to  it  by  Hilmi 
Pasha,  une  Evolution  sans  tache,  is  that  it  has  given  rise  to  no  excesses 
on  the  part  of  the  soldiery  or  the  civilian  population.  The  move- 
ment has  been,  so  far,  kept  well  in  hand  by  the  Young  Turkey  leaders, 
who  have  used  their  new-found  power  with  a  tact  and  moderation 
equal  to  the  consummate  skill  and  dogged  perseverance  which  has 
led  to  the  triumph  of  their  programme.  Only  two  cases  of  violence 
against  the  representatives  of  the  former  regime,  of  which  the  horrors 
were  sufficient  to  justify  the  most  terrible  reprisals  on  the  part  of  the 
population,  have  been  recorded  up  to  date.  Fehim  Pasha,  perhaps 
the  greatest  villain  of  the  infamous  gang  which  served  as  an  instru- 
ment for  the  execution  of  the  now  defunct  policy  of  Yildiz,  was  lynched 
at  Broussa  by  the  mob,  and  another  myrmidon  of  the  palace,  a  notorious 


1908  THE   TURKISH  REVOLUTION  857 

spy,  was  badly  beaten  at  Salonica.  For  the  rest,  arrest  and  imprison- 
ment have  been  the  only  forms  of  punishment  to  which  recourse  has 
been  had.  As  for  pillaging  or  even  mafficking,  there  has  been  no 
instance  of  them.  This  constitutes  the  highest  testimonial  not  only 
in  favour  of  the  leaders  of  the  movement  but  of  the  Musulman  popula- 
tion at  large,  and  more  especially  the  predominant  Turkish  element, 
which  was  credited  in  so  many  quarters  with  every  instinct  of  brutality 
but  has  given  the  world,  not  excluding  the  West,  which  indulges  in 
such  complacent  self-laudation,  a  lesson  in  self-restraint  and  generosity 
which  should  receive  ample  recognition  from  the  detractors  of  the 
race,  its  English  detractors  especially,  who  have  been  loudest  in  their 
denunciations  of  the  '  unspeakable  Turk.'  It  is  only  fair  to  add  that 
it  is  in  England  also  that  Turkey  has  found  her  staunchest  friends, 
and  that  they  have  always  formed  the  majority  of  the  population. 

While  it  developed  without  displaying  excesses  of  any  kind, 
the  Turkish  Revolution  has  been  marked  by  the  fraternisation 
of  Musulmans  and  Christians,  and  of  Christians  among  themselves, 
and,  still  more  astonishing  phenomenon,  by  the  surrendering  to 
the  Turkish  authorities  of  the  '  Comitadji '  bands  of  Macedonia- 
But  this  fraternisation,  so  far  as  the  majority  of  the  Christians 
is  concerned,  is  attributable  to  no  permanent  feeling.  Overjoyed 
at  the  suppression  of  the  tyranny  which  weighed  so  heavily  on 
them,  the  Christians,  thinking  for  the  moment  of  nothing  else  but 
of  manifesting  their  wild  delight,  fell  on  the  necks  of  their  Musulman 
compatriots,  who  had  already  moved  to  meet  them  more  than  half  way. 
The  latter  are  certainly  inspired  by  a  sincere  desire  for  permanent 
reconciliation.  But  it  is  just  as  certain  that  the  former,  or  at  least 
certain  nationalities  among  them,  will  sooner  or  later,  rather  sooner 
than  later,  freeze  into  indifference  and  from  indifference  pass  back 
to  hostility.  As  for  the  '  Comitadjis,'  the  latest  news  to  hand  is  to 
the  effect  that  they  are  already  reverting  to  their  former  occupation. 
This  brings  me  to  the  second  point  of  my  article,  namely,  the  prospects 
of  good  working  and  durability  of  the  new  order  of  things  in  Turkey. 

The  Turks  proper,  the  founders  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  of  which 
they  have  always  been  and  will  continue  to  remain  the  axis,  and 
which  is  composed  of  nearly  as  many  nationalities  as  the  mosaic 
of  peoples  governed  by  the  Hapsburgs,  are  giving  conclusive  proofs 
of  their  sincere  desire  to  weld  the  variegated  and,  so  far,  antagonistic 
populations  of  Turkey  into  one  whole,  inspired  by  a  feeling  of  common 
citizenship.  This  is  natural.  Chastened  by  a  bitter  experience,  the 
Turks  have  become  fully  aware  that  they  can  only  keep  together 
what  remains  of  the  inheritance  of  Osman,  their  inheritance,  through 
the  contentment  of  the  races  they  have  conquered.  It  is  for  this 
reason  that  the  first  care  of  the  Young  Turkey  party  in  its  hour  of 
triumph  has  been  to  proclaim  and  emphasise  what,  du  reste,  constitutes 
one  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  resuscitated  Constitution  of 


358  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

Midhat  Pasha,  namely,  the  equality  before  the  law,  under  the  common 
name  of  Ottomans,  of  all  the  elements  of  the  heterogeneous  multitude 
which  inhabits  the  Empire.  The  Turkish  population  (I  am  still 
speaking  of  the  Turks  proper)  has  cordially  adhered  to  this  notion  of 
its  leaders.  Few  incidents  in  history  are  more  touching  than  the 
visit  paid  by  a  large  assemblage  of  Turks  to  the  Armenian  cemetery 
in  Constantinople  in  order  to  deposit  floral  tributes  on  the  graves  of 
the  victims  of  the  massacre  of  1894  and  to  have  prayers  recited,  by  a 
priest  of  their  own  persuasion,  over  the  butchered  dead.  Truly,  the 
Turks  have  shown  to  extraordinary  advantage  during  the  present 
crisis.  Not  only  have  they  displayed  marked  steadiness  of  demeanour 
in  a  situation  which  would  have  produced  disorderly  intoxication  in 
most  nations,  but  they  have  also  acted  like  men  of  feeling  and  refine- 
ment, confirming  the  verdict  of  those  who  knew  them  best  that  they 
are  '  the  gentlemen  of  the  East.'  And  they  have  been  well  served  by 
their  instincts.  For,  if  anything  was  calculated  to  placate  the 
Armenians  and  throw  them  into  the  arms  of  the  race  from  whose 
midst  sprang  their  arch  tormentor  and  which,  though  it  did  not  lend 
itself  to  the  execution  of  the  sanguinary  anti- Armenian  policy  of  the 
Yildiz — it  is  the  Kurds  who  are  guilty  of  this  revolting  complacency — 
yet  has  much  with  which  to  reproach  itself  in  regard  to  them,  it  is 
this  charmingly  simple  act  of  contrition  and  redemption. 

The  Turks  having  offered  moral  reparation,  in  this  and  other  grace- 
fully inspired  forms,  to  the  Armenians  for  past  ill-treatment,  and  the 
latter  having  accepted  it  in  the  same  spirit,  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  re-establishment  of  the  Constitution  of  1876  has  been  already 
accompanied  by  preliminary  measures  of  reform  and  other  circum- 
stances which  make  it  imperative  on  every  fair-minded  person  to  give 
the  ruling  element  in  Turkey  credit  for  the  earnest  desire  and  the 
ability  to  introduce  competent  government  into  the  Empire — a  point 
to  which  I  will  revert  with  greater  wealth  of  argument  at  the  end 
of  this  article,  asking  my  readers  to  take  it  provisionally  for  granted 
that  the  Turks  deserve  the  full  confidence  of  the  world  in  the  new 
r die  they  have  assumed — nothing  stands  in  the  way  of  a  permanent 
political  association  of  the  two  peoples. 

There  are  Armenians  but  there  is  no  Armenia.  In  none  of  the 
Turkish  vilayets  or  Eussian  provinces  included  in  the  boundaries  of 
the  defunct  Kingdom  of  Tigrane  the  Great  do  the  Armenians  form  the 
majority.  Even  if  they  did  and  were  well  grouped  geographically 
they  could  not  dream  of  achieving  absolute  independence,  counting, 
as  they  do,  less  than  2,000,000,  between  two  such  powerful  neighbours 
as  Kussia  and  Turkey.  The  Poles,  who  form  a  compact  ethnic  mass 
numbering  20,000,000,  and  who  possess  at  least  as  much  patriotism 
and  vitality,  not  to  speak  of  civilisation,  as  the  Armenians,  have 
renounced  the  idea,  not,  indeed,  of  regaining  the  unity  of  which  the 
partition  of  their  country  has  deprived  them — that  will  come — but  of 


1908  THE   TURKISH  REVOLUTION  359 

reconstituting  an  independent  political  entity.  With  the  sense  of 
realities  they  have  developed  in  the  school  of  adversity  they  have 
understood  that,  situated  as  they  are  numerically  and  geographically, 
the  extreme  form  of  self-government  they  can  attain  is  that  of 
autonomy  as  federal  member  of  one  of  the  two  gigantic  States  between 
which  and  Austria  their  territory  is  divided,  namely  Russia,  who 
offers  them  the  advantage  of  reconciliation  and  union  with  a  kindred 
race.  Can  the  Armenians  hope  to  do  better  than  the  Poles  ?  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  only  a  small  minority  of  the  leaders  of  the  race,  which  is 
sensible  in  the  main,  and  has  calmed  down  from  the  chimerical  exalta- 
tion which  possessed  it  at  one  time,  as  it  possessed  the  Poles,  have 
aspired  for  anything  else  but  happy  conditions  of  existence  under 
Turkish  rule.  Excellent  foundations  for  this  exist  in  the  very  con- 
siderable autonomy  which  the  Armenians  as  well  as  the  other  non- 
Musulman  elements  of  the  Empire  already  enjoy  in  a  form  which  is 
remarkable  in  that  it  is  racial,  not  territorial,  and  groups  them  into 
distinct  units  called  Millel  (nations)  under  their  religious  chiefs — 
Patriarchs,  Exarchs,  Rabbis,  etc.  If,  to  the  full  exercise  of  this  legally 
recognised  privilege  which,  under  the  autocracy  of  Abd-ul-Hamid, 
received  many  checks,  be  added  the  benefits  of  a  good  imperial  govern- 
ment, nothing  will  be  wanting  to  make  the  lot  of  the  Armenians,  as  a 
people,  as  satisfactory  as  it  is  materially  possible  for  it  to  become. 
The  guarantees  provided  for  the  accomplishment  of  these  conditions 
by  the  new  era  which  has  dawned  in  the  Ottoman  Empire  make  it 
less  desirable  than  ever  for  the  Armenians  to  join  their  brethren  under 
Russian  rule — a  third  section  of  the  race  lives  in  Persia — which  is 
the  only  other  alternative  to  their  aspirations.  Maltreated  they 
have  been  by  the  Turks,  administratively  and  socially ;  but  with  the 
adoption  of  a  sincerely  fraternal  attitude  towards  them  by  the  latter, 
and  the  memory  of  the  political  liberality  which  their  conquerors  have 
shown  them,  and  which  has  allowed  them  to  retain  their  national 
individuality  and  develop  a  considerable  measure  of  civilisation,  they 
cannot  feel  attracted  to  Russia,  where,  in  addition  to  ill-treatment 
equal  to  that  endured  in  Turkey,  their  compatriots  have  suffered  and 
still  suffer  from  legal  disabilities,  and  are  exposed  to  denationalisation 
Indeed,  what  is  more  than  likely  to  happen  is  that  the  Russian 
Armenians  will  emigrate  en  masse  to  Turkey,  substituting  for  the  re- 
ligious centre  of  Etchmiadzin,  in  the  Caucasus,  which  has  been  for 
centuries  the  seat  of  the  '  Cathohcos,'  the  supreme  pastor  of  the 
forcibly  disrupted  race,  some  locality  on  Ottoman  territory  equally 
enshrined  in  national  traditions  and  legends. 

It  will  be  seen  from  what  precedes  that  the  Armenians  are  destined 
to  work  in  durable  unison  with  the  Turks  in  the  remodelled  Ottoman 
Empire.  Their  financial,  commercial,  and  administrative  aptitudes, 
which  are  of  the  highest  order,  will  constitute  a  felicitous  complement 
to  the  political  and  martial  virtues  which  predominate  in  the  Turks. 


I 

860  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

The  co-operation  of  the  two  peoples  will  act  as  a  conservative  factor 
of  great  importance  in  the  new  situation. 

The  Albanians  and  the  Kurds,  living  respectively  at  the  western 
and  eastern  extremities  of  the  Empire,  and  whose  case,  as  subjects 
of  the  Porte,  presents  singular  points  of  resemblance  in  that  they  have 
both  been  allowed  to  preserve  a  feudal  system  of  organisation,  and  to 
indulge  their  lawless  and  rapacious  instincts  at  the  expense  of  their 
Christian  compatriots,  while,  at  the  same  time,  they  are  practically 
exempted  from  military  service — the  so-called  '  Hamidic '  regiments  of 
Kurdish  cavalry  are  a  voluntary  militia  which  has  sprung  out  of  an 
understanding  between  Abd-ul-Hamid  and  the  hereditary  enemies  of 
the  Armenians,  the  better  to  enable  the  former  to  exercise  their  san- 
guinary hostility  against  the  latter — have  not  the  same  reasons  as  the 
Armenians  for  rejoicing  at  the  re-establishment  of  the  Constitution. 
To  them  this  great  event  means  the  loss  of  very  substantial  privileges. 
And,  although  the  new  regime  will  provide  them  with  compensations 
in  the  shape  of  administrative  benefits  such  as  roads,  education,  and 
other  characteristics  of  civilisation,  in  whose  wake  wealth  will  follow 
automatically  and  without  violence,  the  more  ignorant  and  thoughtless 
among  them  will  not  be  in  a  position  to  appreciate  them  for  some  time 
to  come,  or,  at  all  events,  will  consider  that  the  enjoyment  of  lording  it 
over  others,  pistol  in  hand,  is  far  superior  to  that  procured  by  progress 
and  well-being  under  a  system  of  equality  with  their  former  victims. 
But  the  Turkish  soldier,  disciplined,  brave,  and  well  armed,  who  has 
acted  policeman  throughout  the  Empire  with  such  stolid  devotion  to 
an  effete  and  wicked  central  government  of  which  he  has  been  one  of 
the  principal  sufferers,  will  resume  this  duty  with  an  increased  vigour 
and  goodwill  inspired  by  the  improved  conditions  of  service  under 
the  colours,  and  will  restore  order  in  the  disaffected  provinces  even 
quicker  than  when  he  was  asked  to  do  so  before  by  the  Sultan — which, 
in  truth,  was  not  often.  Eventually  both  races  will  settle  down  con- 
tentedly to  the  modern  conception  of  citizenship  which  the  con- 
stitutional government  of  Turkey  will  set  before  them,  backed  by 
Mauser  rifles  and  Krupp  guns  of  the  latest  pattern.  This  will  happen 
much  sooner  in  the  case  of  the  Albanians,  who,  though  wild  and  ignorant, 
are  a  highly  intelligent  race  with  traits  of  nobility  in  their  character 
which  are  entirely  lacking  in  their  '  colleagues  '  on  the  other  border  of 
the  Empire.  The  Shkipetars,  as  they  call  themselves,  are  destined, 
like  the  Armenians,  to  become  a  very  valuable  asset  to  the  Empire 
whose  councils  have  already  benefited  in  the  past,  and  will  do  so  much 
more  in  the  future,  from  their  political  genius — the  famous  Keuprullu 
dynasty  of  Grand- Vizirs  was  Albanian,  as  are  so  many  of  the  Young 
Turks — and  whose  army  will  receive  a  considerable  supplement  of 
qualities  from  the  dash  and  resourcefulness  of  these  remarkable 
mountaineers  whom  ethnologists  have  been  unable  to  classify  any 
more  than  the  Basques  of  the  Pyrenees.  As  for  any  desire  on  their 


1908  THE   TURKISH  REVOLUTION  861 

part  to  unite  with  Greece,  which  fanciful  and  complacent  theorists  of 
that  country  attribute  to  them,  the  notion  is  simply  grotesque.  Even 
more  grotesque  is  the  supposition  that  they  will  care  to  pass  under 
Austro-Hungarian  or  Italian  rule,  either  of  which  will  not  be  content 
to  deprive  them  of  their  privileges,  but  will  condemn  them  to  a  con- 
dition of  political  inferiority  in  the  midst  of  the  communities  which 
constitute  the  monarchies  governed  respectively  by  the  Houses  of 
Hapsburg  and  Savoy.  The  position  of  their  country  in  the  new 
combination  would  be  that  of  Bosnia-Herzegovina,  a  portion  of 
Turkey,  already  occupied  by  Austria-Hungary,  excellently  admin- 
istered, no  doubt,  but  kept  in  distinct  subjection  to  the  older  political 
formation. 

The  Greeks,  Bulgarians,  and  Servians  inhabiting  the  Empire 
have  derived  genuine  satisfaction  from  the  change  brought  about 
by  the  Young  Turks.  But  how  long  will  this  feeling  last  ?  To  live 
free  from  degradation  and  outrage  is  necessarily  the  unique  pre- 
occupation, for  the  present,  of  these  races  which,  so  far,  have  been  the 
victims  not  only  of  the  maladministration  of  Constantinople,  but  also, 
and  in  later  times  especially,  of  the  armed  bands  vomited  by  the 
States  formed  around  Macedonia  by  their  emancipated  congeners. 
These  bands,  of  which  Bulgaria  was  the  first  to  conceive  the  notion, 
finding  prompt  imitators,  or  rather  rivals,  in  Greece  and  Servia,  have 
not  been  in  the  least  concerned  to  ameliorate  the  lot  of  their  unre- 
deemed brethren.  Their  only  object  has  been  either  to  bring  back 
to  the  national  fold  what  were,  or  what  they  considered  to  be,  lost 
sheep,  or  to  attract  new  ones  from  the  neighbouring  enclosures.  In 
their  struggles  to  attain  this  object  against  one  another,  with  a  view 
to  the  establishment  of  favourable  statistics  to  their  plans  at  the 
expense  of  the  '  Sick  Man  '  (what  irony  this  name  contains  to-day  !), 
they  have  had  recourse  to  methods  of  such  violence  as  must  surely 
make  the  '  Grand  Old  Man,'  who  was  such  a  staunch  believer  in  the 
righteousness  of  all  in  Turkey  except  the  '  Unspeakable  Turk,'  turn 
uneasily  in  his  grave.  The  bestial  intoxication  caused  to  them  by 
the  fumes  of  the  human  blood  they  were  spilling  with  such  accom- 
paniment of  cruelty,  and  of  the  innumerable  villages  they  were  reducing 
to  cinders  in  the  districts  inhabited  by  their  rivals,  finally  overcame 
all  sense  of  the  human  in  them,  and  being  at  the  same  time  pressed 
by  the  want  of  funds,  especially  the  Bulgar  and  Servian  bands,  which, 
unlike  the  Greek,  lacked  the  patronage  of  wealthy  merchant-princes, 
they  actually  resorted  to  methods  of  extortion  against  their  own 
kith  and  kin,  showing  as  much  savagery  in  this  pursuit  as  in  their 
enterprises  against  their  opponents.  No  wonder  that  the  settled 
Greeks,  Bulgars,  and  Servians  of  Macedonia — I  have  left  out  of  con- 
sideration the  Koutzo-Vlachs  or  trans-Balcanic  Roumanians  as  too 
insignificant  a  factor — overtaxed  by  the  Ottoman  authorities  who 
gave  them  absolutely  nothing  in  exchange,  terrorised  each  by  the  bands 


362  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

of  the  two  other  sides,  and  even  by  those  which  had  taken  the  field 
in  the  name  of  their  own  particular  nationalism,  celebrated  the 
wonderful  change,  so  full  of  promises  of  relief,  which  had  taken  place 
all  of  a  sudden  in  the  management  of  the  Empire,  by  shouting '  hosanna ' 
and  fraternising  indiscriminately  with  one  another  and  the  Turks. 
It  is  less  easy  to  explain  why  the  bands  surrendered  to  the  authorities, 
since  they  were  composed  of  maniacs  exclusively  intent  upon  '  pegging- 
out  '  claims  at  any  cost  for  their  respective  nationalities,  an  operation 
which  the  reformation  of  government  in  Turkey  is  scarcely  calculated 
to  facilitate.  But  a  reaction  is  bound  to  set  in  at  no  remote  period 
in  the  case  of  all  these  populations,  as  has  already  happened  in  the 
case  of  the  '  Comitadjis.'  Emancipated  Greece,  Bulgaria,  and  Servia 
will  act  as  irresistible  magnets  upon  them.  Secretly  they  will  cherish 
the  hope  and  foster  the  chance  of  amalgamating  with  their  independent 
brethren  across  the  frontier.  No  improvement  in  their  condition 
will  destroy  this  ideal,  temporarily  thrust  back  into  some  obscure 
corner  of  their  hearts.  On  the  contrary,  as  their  well-being  grows 
under  the  new  Turkish  rule,  their  national  aspirations  will  develop 
in  strength  and  impatience.  I  am  not  criticising,  je  constate 
seulement.  The  whole  range  of  history  is  there  to  prove  that  they 
will  only  be  displaying  a  fundamental  trait  of  human  nature  in 
going  through  this  process.  Unless  the  chemical  composition  of  their 
blood  is  modified,  thanks  to  the  invention  of  some  Turkish  savant  of 
the  future,  so  as  to  transform  them  into  a  new  species  of  humanity, 
they  will  sooner  or  later  resume,  with  renewed  vigour,  their  subversive 
designs  against  the  Ottoman  State.  If,  in  conjunction  with  their 
elder  and  politically  '  settled  '  brethren,  they  succeed  in  reconciling 
their  antagonistic  claims  on  the  basis  of  some  compromise,  Turkey 
will  have  a  great  deal  more  to  do  than  to  govern  well  in  order  to 
retain  Macedonia.  However  unlikely  this  contingency  may  appear 
in  the  present  state  of  intense  hatred  which  divides  Bulgaria,  Greece, 
and  Servia,  it  is  one  which  Turkey  has  to  take  into  serious  considera- 
tion. Caveant  consules.  It  is  really  her  weakness  which  has  brought 
about  the  intransigeant  attitude  assumed  towards  one  another  by 
these  pretenders  to  the  Macedonian  territory.  Her  restoration  to  health 
may,  and,  according  to  the  writer,  will,  effect  a  reconciliation  and 
entente  between  them  which  will  also  include  restless  Montenegro. 
Fortunately  for  Turkey,  other  Powers  are  interested  in  the  main- 
tenance of  the  status  quo.  They  may  be  relied  upon  to  act  as  a  counter- 
weight to  a  pan-Balcanic  combination. 

On  the  whole,  without  ever  becoming  a  source  of  strength  to 
Turkey,  the  Christians  inhabiting  her  European  territory  will  not 
be  in  a  position  to  imperil  her  integrity  until — the  time,  just  per- 
ceptible in  the  dim  future,  when  Europe  will  enter  into  travail  to 
bring  forth  a  new  system  of  political  divisions  based  on  the  principle 
of  pan -nationalist  federations. 


1908  THE   TURKISH  REVOLUTION  363 

The  Syrians,  Arabs,  and  Egyptians  wind  up  the  list  of  races  of 
importance  which  are  included  in  Ottoman  territory,  and  whose 
reaction  to  the  touch  of  liberalism  and  its  concomitant — reform — it 
is  necessary  to  examine.  Numerically  they  constitute  an  extremely 
important  group — 25,000,000  to  30,000,000 — whose  several  sections, 
with  the  exception  of  1,500,000  non-Musulman  Syrians,  profess  the 
same  religion  as  their  conquerors,  but  whose  tongue,  racial  charac- 
teristics, and  civilisation,  being  radically  different,  place  them  in  a 
separate  category.  The  Arab  expansion  which  followed  upon  the 
advent  of  Islamism  united  them,  with  many  other  peoples,  into  a 
gigantic  State  the  memory  of  whose  power  and  glories,  aided  by 
Turkish  maladministration  and  decadence,  has  kept  up  in  the  breasts 
of  its  dethroned  founders — I  am  speaking  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Arabian  peninsula,  of  which  the  Turks  have  subdued  only  a  small 
fraction — a  keen  spirit  of  opposition  to  Ottoman  rule  and  the  firm 
hope  of  a  restoration.  The  one  thing  this  people  have  in  common 
with  the  Turks — Islamism,  which  as  a  rule  acts  as  such  a  powerful  bond 
between  its  adherents — constitutes  an  additional  source  of  division 
between  them,  because  of  what  the  Arabs  consider  as  a  usurpation 
by  the  dynasty  of  Osman  of  the  supreme  dignity  of  Islam,  which, 
according  to  them,  should  by  right  have  remained  vested  in  one  of  the 
families  descended  from  the  Prophet — in  other  words,  in  their  own 
race.  >'•#&$ 

So  far  as  the  writer  knows,  no  news  of  joyous  manifestations  such 
as  those  which  greeted  the  re-establishment  of  the  Constitution  in 
other  parts  of  the  Empire  has  reached  the  outer  world  from  Arabia. 
If  any  celebrations  have  taken  place  it  can  only  be  in  those  parts  of 
the  peninsula  which  are  really  under  Turkish  rule,  and  where  mal- 
administration has  been  even  greater  than  in  the  less  excentrically 
situated  provinces  of  Turkey,  and  where,  in  consequence,  the  dawning 
era  of  reform  must  have  come,  in  the  first  instance,  as  a  welcome 
event  to  the  inhabitants.  But,  as  in  the  case  of  Macedonia,  reaction 
is  bound  to  follow,  reaction  inspired  by  the  desire  to  see  a  unified 
Arabia  under  a  national  dynasty,  wielding  the  supreme  spiritual  as 
well  as  temporal  power,  with,  as  a  final  goal,  the  re-inclusion  in  the 
sphere  of  its  dominion  of  Syria  and  Egypt  and — who  knows  ? — the  rest 
of  the  Arabic-speaking  lands.  Fortunately  for  Turkey,  there  is  no 
feeling  of  solidarity  between  Arabia,  Syria,  and  Egypt,  notwithstanding 
the  assertions  to  the  contrary  of  the  soi-disant  '  party '  of  Arab  re- 
constitution  whose  manifestoes  have  constituted  tissues  of  grandi- 
loquent nonsense.  In  fact,  Syria  never  seriously  contemplated  the 
severance  of  her  connexion  with  Turkey,  from  whom  she  only 
demanded  good  government.  Being  assured  of  obtaining  this  now, 
she  may  be  expected  to  become  one  of  the  most  loyal  portions  of  the 
Empire.  But  the  fact  remains  that  Turkish  Arabia  is  disaffected, 
and,  notwithstanding  the  particularist  tendencies  of  the  Arab  race, 


T&E  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

will  eventually  aspire  to  reunion  with  independent  Arabia,  as  prefer- 
able to  association  with  an  alien  people.  On  the  other  hand,  Egypt, 
which  already  enjoys  considerable  autonomy,  and  whose  prosperity 
and  political  potentialities  are  rapidly  increasing,  will  strive  to  throw 
off  Turkish  influence  if  it  exceeds  the  form  of  nominal  suzerainty. 
The  solution  of  the  Arab-Egyptian  problem,  the  most  serious  which 
confronts  Turkish  statesmen,  seems  to  lie  in  the  creation,  in  the 
fulness  of  time,  of  a  dual  monarchy  on  the  Austro-Hungarian  model, 
one  half  of  which,  with  Constantinople  as  centre,  would  be  composed 
of  the  Turkish,  Armenian,  Albanian,  Greek,  Bulgarian,  Servian,  and 
Kurdish  elements  occupying  that  part  of  the  Empire  which  spreads 
to  the  north  and  west  of  a  straight  line  drawn  from  Aleppo  to  the 
Persian  frontier  passing  through  Mossoul ;  and  the  other  half  of  which, 
with  Damascus  as  a  centre,  would  comprise  the  Arabic- speaking  peoples 
of  the  Empire,  which,  by  reason  of  the  very  distinct  geographical 
grouping  of  these  peoples,  could  be  organised  on  the  federal  system, 
so  as  to  spare  the  susceptibilities  of  Egypt,  who,  besides  autonomy, 
possesses  a  line  of  hereditary  sovereigns  of  her  own — the  dynasty  of 
Osman,  still  invested  with  the  Khalifate,  to  remain  the  supreme  and 
binding  head  of  both  portions.  No  insuperable  difficulties  lie  ahead 
of  Turkey  in  this  direction  either. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that,  so  far  as  internal  action  is  concerned, 
liberal  Turkey  need  not  view  the  future  with  diffidence. 

Some  trouble  there  will  probably  be,  at  first,  in  Albania  and 
Kurdistan,  and  later  on  the  even  course  of  the  State  may  be  con- 
siderably disturbed  by  Macedonian  and  Arabian  intrigue.  But, 
unless  one  or  more  of  the  Great  Powers  of  Europe  intervene  to  favour 
the  separatist  tendencies  of  some  elements  of  the  Empire,  the  latter 
will  easily  survive  any  commotion  that  may  arise  in  its,  midst.  This 
leads  me  to  the  consideration  of  the  third  and  last  point  of  my  article. 

If  the  Young  Turkey  party  itself  was  unaware  of  the  imminence 
of  the  upheaval  which  was  to  restore  the  Empire  to  liberty,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  none  of  the  European  Governments  should  have  had 
the  faintest  suspicion  that  Turkey  was  on  the  eve  of  the  re-establish- 
ment of  the  Constitution  of  1876.  Indeed  both  in  the  official  and  private 
circles  of  Europe — we  may  say  of  the  whole  world  including  wide 
sections  of  the  variegated  Ottoman  population  itself — the  past  history 
of  Turkey  was  interpreted  to  prove  conclusively  that,  not  only  was 
there  no  prospect  of  a  prompt  reversal  of  the  order  of  things  created 
by  Abdul  Hamid,  but  that  it  would  never  come.  As  a  consequence, 
the  notion  of  the  regeneration  of  the  Empire  was  definitely  relegated 
to  the  limbo  of  exploded  theories.  This  being  so,  even  such  countries 
as  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Italy,  which  had  been  such  strong  up- 
holders of  the  necessity  of  maintaining  the  integrity  of  the  Ottoman 
Empire,  gradually  readjusted  their  Near  Eastern  policy  so  as  to  make 
it  fit  in  with  the  idea  of  the  inevitable  disruption,  at  some  more  or  Jess 


1908  THE   TURKISH  EEVOLUTION  865 

near  period,  of  what  had  been  one  of  the  greatest  States  in  the  world. 
Naturally  each  of  them  had  to  consider  in  what  measure  it  would 
take  over  from  the  dispossessed  dynasty  of  Osman  the  duties  and, 
let  us  add,  the  advantages  of  government  in  that  part  of  the  globe- 
one  of  the  most  disturbed  politically  but  also  one  of  the  most  favoured 
geographically  and  otherwise.  Eussia,  who  had  always  entertained 
designs  against  Turkey,  and  even  partially  carried  them  out,  was 
naturally  engaged  in  the  same  pursuit.  Germany,  even  if  she  had 
wanted  to  stand  aloof,  which  was  not  the  case,  notwithstanding  her 
rather  puerile  insistence  to  prove  the  contrary  to  a  world  which  is  not 
entirely  composed  of  imbeciles,  could  not  do  otherwise  but  also  form 
plans  for  her  aggrandisement  in  the  same  direction.  But  the  cake 
was  most  difficult  to  divide  owing  to  the  unevenness  of  its  composition, 
the  plums  being  more  abundant  in  some  parts  than  in  others,  and,  also, 
owing  to  the  specific  and  conflicting  interests  developed  by  the  Great 
Powers  in  their  relations  with  Turkey.  Hence  the  common  desire, 
in  order  to  avoid  a  general  conflagration,  to  bolster  up  the  apparently 
tottering  fabric  as  long  as  it  was  humanly  possible  to  do  so.  For  the 
rest  it  was  to  be  a  la  grace  de  Dieu.  This  is  the  explanation  of  the 
reassertion  by  Sir  E.  Grey,  when  launching  the  British  project  of 
reforms  for  Macedonia,  of  the  principle  of  the  integrity  of  Turkey. 
A  pious  falsehood,  nothing  more.  But  the  reputedly  impossible 
has  taken  place.  In  a  trice,  and  as  if  by  some  conjurer's  trick,  Turkey 
has  reverted  from  the  despotic  to  the  constitutional  form  of  govern- 
ment, adding  to  the  astonishment  of  the  world  by  the  bloodless  and 
orderly  as  well  as  eminently  businesslike  fashion  in  which  she  has  gone 
so  far  through  this  revolutionary  process — the  most  radical  the  world 
has  ever  witnessed.  Having  rubbed  their  eyes  and  convinced  them- 
selves that  this  was  not  a  dream  but  a  tangible  reality,  the  Great 
Powers  find  themselves  obliged  to  reconsider  their  position  in  regard 
to  Turkey  from  the  standpoint  of  what  necessarily  appears  to  them 
to  be,  by  reason  of  the  extraordinarily  promising  circumstances  of 
the  case,  much  more  than  a  bare  possibility  of  regeneration  for  the 
Empire. 

The  change  must  have  undoubtedly  come  as  a  violent  shock  to 
Russia,  the  only  Power  entertaining  resolute  and  deep-laid  plans  for 
the  further  appropriation  of  Turkish  territory.  All  the  more  must  this 
have  been  so,  as  the  only  two  other  avenues  to  the  temperate  seas 
offered  to  her,  besides  that  leading  through  Turkey,  have  been  both 
barred,  by  Japan  and  Great  Britain  respectively.  But  she  has  just 
emerged  from  an  exhausting  and  unsuccessful  struggle  with  the 
former  of  these  States,  followed  by  an  internal  convulsion  which  has 
considerably  aggravated  the  paralysing  effects  of  her  Manchurian 
adventure.  She  is  not  in  a  position  to  interfere  with  the  develop- 
ment of  Turkish  reform.  Making,  in  public,  a  virtue  of  necessity, 
but,  no  doubt,  secretly  cursing  her  helplessness  which  is  completed  by 


366  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

the  fact  that  she  contains  in  her  midst  a  body  of  20,000,000  extremely 
progressive  Musulmans,  mostly  of  Turkish  origin,  and  thus  doubly 
hypnotised  by  Constantinople,  she  has  declared  that  she  will  follow 
with  sympathetic  attention  Turkey's  steps  in  the  path  of  Liberalism, 
hoping  that  they  may  lead  her  to  the  enjoyment  of  order  and  progress. 
Indeed  it  would  appear  that,  if  the  Government  of  the  Tsar  is  not  sincere 
in  the  expression  of  its  good  wishes,  his  Majesty  has  been  personally 
so  impressed  by  the  decisive  advance  Turkey  has  made  in  the  direction 
of  freedom  that  he  has  decided  to  add  considerably,  at  the  reopening 
of  the  Douma,  to  the  concessions  he  has  already  made  to  his  subjects. 
Strange  irony  of  fate,  that  Russia  should  take  lessons  from  Turkey  ! 

Germany  most  certainly  views  the  new  situation  in  the  Ottoman 
Empire  with  an  equally  painful  surprise.  She  professes  to  be  delighted, 
but  we  have  no  more  reason  to  believe  her  declarations  than  those  of 
Russia.  The  clumsy  attempt  she  has  made  to  prove,  after  the  event, 
that  she  had  exerted  herself  to  check  the  Sultan's  despotism  :  namely, 
the  reiterated  statement  made  through  her  semi-official  press  that  it 
was  at  her  request  that  the  notorious  Fehim  Pasha — already  mentioned 
as  having  been  gathered  to  his  fathers  by  the  expeditious  process  of 
lynching — was  exiled  to  Broussa,  can  be  only  met  by  a  smile.  Yes, 
she  demanded  and  obtained  the  dismissal  and  banishment  from  Con- 
stantinople of  the  former  Ser  Hafiye  (Chief  Spy,  the  official  title  borne 
in  the  good  old  time  by  the  head  of  the  Sultan's  political  police),  but 
it  was  by  no  means  out  of  regard  for  the  interests  of  Turkey.  It  was 
simply  because  the  egregious  villain  who  was  acting  the  part  of  sub- 
tyrant  to  his  Imperial  Majesty  had  ostentatiously  violated  the  capitula- 
tions at  the  expense  of  the  Vaterland  in  connexion  with  a  German 
vessel  arrived  at  Constantinople  and  suspected,  wrongly  as  it  happened, 
of  carrying  a  cargo  of  dynamite. 

But,  on  the  face  of  it,  how  could  Germany  have  possibly  acquired 
the  preponderating  influence  she  has  been  enjoying  at  Constantinople 
for  the  last  twenty  years,  except  by  flattering  the  instincts  of  a  sovereign 
who  had  gathered  in  his  hands  all  the  threads  of  the  national  exist- 
ence, and  was,  above  all,  a  despot  ?  And  how,  having  acquired  this 
preponderating  influence,  which  Great  Britain  lost  precisely  because  she 
had  permitted  herself  to  remonstrate  with  Abd-ul-Hamid  on  the 
subject  of  his  arbitrary  and  retrograde  policy,  could  Germany  have 
put  it  to  the  extremely  profitable  use  which  shows  so  conspicuously 
in  the  important  concessions  of  various  sorts  granted  to  her  by  the 
Turkish  Government,  except  by  favouring  a  system  which  relegated 
the  interest  of  the  Ottoman  State  to  the  distant  background  ? 
Under  the  circumstances  it  is  a  delectable  joke  to  hear  her  afiirm 
that  she  is  right  well  pleased  with  the  change  which  has  taken  place 
in  the  Ottoman  Empire.  No,  she  is  not  pleased,  since  the  prompt 
introduction,  as  a  result  of  the  Revolution,  of  a  scientific  conception 
of  government  in  Turkey  has  already  made  her  lose  the  monopoly  she 


1908  THE   TURKISH  REVOLUTION  867 

practically  enjoyed  of  industrial  and  political  concessions  in  that 
country,  among  the  latter  figuring  the  right  to  plant  agricultural 
colonies  of  Germans  all  over  Anatolia  and  Syria  so  as  to  be  on  a  par 
with  the  other  Powers  in  the  matter  of  claims  at  the  moment  of  the 
'  partition.' 

But  she  cannot  fail  to  realise  that  the  old  regime  under  which  she 
exploited  Turkey  is  dead.  Not  being  one  of  the  Empire's  neighbours, 
she  cannot  interpose  herself  bodily  between  the  country  and  regenera- 
tion as  Russia  might  and  probably  would  have  done  if  she  were  not  a 
tottering  convalescent.  Nothing  remains  for  her  to  do  but  to  resign 
herself  to  the  inevitable  and  make  the  best  of  it.  Gone  are  the  hopes 
of  luscious  Asiatic  possessions  to  be  added  to  her  imperial  domain ! 
Gone  the  prospect  of  further  railway  concessions  on  the  kilometric 
guarantee  system !  But,  if  she  will  allow  reason  to  overcome 
Teutonic  pride,  she  may  console  herself  with  the  reflection  that,  in  the 
light  of  what  is  going  on  in  the  world,  expansion  at  the  expense  of  alien 
races,  unless  they  be  of  the  thoroughly  negro  type,  is, an  enterprise  to 
be  avoided  even  by  her,  the  '  Salt  of  the  Earth.'  Without  being 
paradoxical,  one  may  say  that  the  Powers  without  possessions  are 
better  off  than  those  which  are  provided  with  them.  Colonies  in  the 
English  sense  of  the  word  are  the  only  form  of  territorial  development 
worth  practising,  and  there  is  no  room  left  in  the  world  for  such  national 
'  projections.'  Again,  Germany  may  dwell  with  a  certain  amount  of 
consolation  on  the  thought  that,  even  after  the  Revolution,  she  may 
aspire  to  an  honest  share  in  the  profits  of  developing  the  new-found 
Ottoman  Empire.  The  Turks  are  not  a  vindictive  people. 

Austria-Hungary  has  undoubtedly  taken  a  favourable  view  of  the 
situation.  True,  she  has  coveted  Salonica,  the  pearl  of  the  Aegean  ports, 
for  a  long  time,  and  no  doubt  its  possession  with  that  of  the  interven- 
ing territory  would  benefit  her  economically  in  a  very  considerable 
measure.  But  what  originally  awakened  her  ambition  in  this  con- 
nexion, or  rather  that  of  the  ruling  German  and  Magyar  elements  in 
her  midst,  was  the  necessity  to  act  as  an  obstacle  to  the  expansion  of 
Bulgaria  in  the  same  direction.  This  was  so  because  she  cannot 
tolerate  the  formation  of  a  big  independent  Slav  State  at  her  southern 
doors — a  gigantic  one  surrounding  her  already  to  the  north  and  east — 
being  herself  largely  composed  of  Slav  provinces  with  separatist 
tendencies.  Unwieldy  as  she  already  felt  herself  to  be,  and  top-heavy 
with  Slavism,  it  was  not  without  misgivings  that  she  shaped  her  policy, 
under  pressure  of  the  Bulgarian .  danger,  with  a  view  to  the  further 
addition  of  a  predominantly  Slav  territory  of  Turkey  to  the  congeries 
of  nations  of  which  she  is  composed.  If  the  Turks  are  to  remain  in 
solid  possession  of  the  disputed  country — why,  the  problem  is  solved 
entirely  to  her  advantage.  It  is  also  true  that  regenerated  Turkey 
will  eventually  claim  back  Bosnia-Herzegovina ;  but  it  will  appear 
from  what  has  just  been  said  of  the  situation  of  the  dual  monarchy 


868  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

that  she  can  easily  consent  to  the  restoration  of  this  province,  du  reste 
only  *  occupied '  by  her,  to  its  rightful  owner.  It  will  reduce  the 
proportion  of  Slavs  in  her  midst,  the  particular  group  inhabiting 
Bosnia-Herzegovina,  and  of  which  the  majority  are  strongly  in  favour 
of  reincorporation  with  Turkey,  having  been  brought  under  Austro- 
Hungarian  rule  purely  and  simply  with  a  view  on  the  part  of  Vienna 
and  Budapest  to  counteracting  the  successes  gained  by  Russia  in  the 
Balkans  as  a  result  of  her  victorious  campaign  against  the  Turks  in 
1877-78.  The  necessity  for  such  special  measures  on  the  part  of 
Austria-Hungary  disappears  with  the  regeneration  of  Turkey.  It 
should  be  added  that  this  regeneration  will  provide  the  dual  monarchy 
with  immense  opportunities  for  increasing  her  trade  and  industry, 
greater  by  far  than  those  that  would  accrue  to  her  by  the  annexation 
of  Macedonia. 

Italy  may  shed  a  tear  over  her  lost  illusions  in  connexion  with 
Tripoli.  But  like  Germany  she  could  not  hope  to  acquire  a  permanent 
footing  in  Turkey.  What  would  have  been  the  use  of  going  to  Tripoli 
if  fifty  or  sixty  or  seventy  years  later  she  was  to  be  pitched  into  the 
sea  by  the  Arabs  ?  Her  opportunities  of  expansion  lie  to  the  north. 
On  the  other  hand,  like  Austria-Hungary  she  will  benefit  enormously 
from  the  economic  point  of  view  by  the  entrance  of  Turkey  into  the 
paths  of  progress.  It  will  not  take  her  long  to  realise  that  she  is 
entirely  a  gainer  by  the  change  'which  has  occurred  in  the  condition 
of  that  country.  The  Ottoman  Empire  may  expect  to  receive  her 
loyal  support  in  its  new  career. 

France  may  be  trusted  to  applaud  unreservedly.  The  principles  of 
1789  of  which  she  is  rightly  proud  have  triumphed  in  yet  another 
country,  and  if  only  for  this  reason  liberal  Turkey  is  assured  of  French 
sympathy  and  help.  But  there  are  many  others,  the  principal  of  which 
is  that  she  will  derive  considerable  material  profit,  as  great  even  as 
that  which  will  accrue  to  Austria-Hungary  and  Italy,  from  the  re- 
organisation of  the  Empire  on  modern  principles.  With  the  restoration 
of  the  '  Sick  Man '  to  health  her  ambitions  at  his  expense,  born  of 
the  necessity  not  to  be  distanced  by  the  other  Powers,  fall  to  the 
ground.  Being  one  of  the  '  filles  intellectuelles '  of  France,  Turkey 
is  already  arranging  to  place  herself  under  the  further  tuition  of  the 
illustrious  Gaul.  The  greatest  cordiality  and  mutual  goodwill  will 
mark  the  relations  of  the  two  Powers  in  the  future. 

I  now  come  to  the  position  created  for  Great  Britain  by  the  new 
turn  of  affairs  in  Turkey.  The  change  has  been  received  with  every 
sign  of  satisfaction  in  the  United  Kingdom  and  the  wish  has  been  ex- 
pressed on  all  sides  that  it  may  be  durable.  There  is  no  reason  what- 
ever for  doubting  the  sincerity  of  this  attitude.  Like  France,  Great 
Britain  can  only  be  pleased  at  the  extension,  to  a  country  whose  last 
chance  of  salvation  is  to  be  found  in  it,  of  a  form  of  government  of 
which  she  herself  offers  the  best  and  oldest  pattern,  though  the  French 


1908  THE   TURKISH  REVOLUTION  869 

^Revolution  may  have  produced  more  stirring  effects  in  the  world 
than  the  gradual  development  of  her  own  Constitution.  And  that 
she  desires  the  salvation  of  that  country  is  perfectly  clear  from  the 
fact  that,  having  attained  her  full  imperial  development,  her  one 
pre-occupation  is  to  avoid  war  in  order  not  to  be  diverted  from  the 
settlement  of  her  internal  problems.  Now  the  misgovernment  of 
Turkey  has  been  one  of  the  greatest  sources  of  danger  to  the  peace  of 
Europe.  It  has  also  meant  the  gradual  ruin  and  closing  up  to  the 
industry  and  commerce  of  Great  Britain — her  principal  sources  of 
sustenance — of  one  of  the  fairest  portions  of  the  globe.  But,  it  may 
be  objected,  the  regeneration  of  Turkey  will  bring  to  the  fore  the 
Egyptian  question.  Quite  so.  It  will  bring  it  to  the  fore  and  lead 
to  a  solution  which  will  rid  Great  Britain  of  an  incubus.  Having  to 
admit,  as  all  Englishmen  must,  that  the  United  Kingdom  cannot, 
by  reason  of  what  it  owes  to  itself,  oppose,  in  any  case,  the  efforts  of 
Turkey  to  establish  order,  security,  and  justice  in  her  midst,  English- 
men will  also  have  to  look  squarely  in  the  face  the  consequences  of 
this  attitude,  namely,  the  transformation  of  the  Ottoman  Empire 
at  no  remote  period  into  a  Power  so  formidable  as  to  make  it  im- 
possible for  their  country  to  refuse  to  evacuate  Egypt  if  that  Power 
insists  upon  it.  So  that  Egypt  will  have  to  go,  because  inevitably 
Turkey  will  demand  it.  Will  this  be  a  loss  ?  Will  it  be  a  humilia- 
tion ?  Neither.  Great  Britain  entered  Egypt  for  the  purpose  she 
declared :  the  restoration  of  order  in  the  country.  Having  attained 
this  object  she  loyally  opened  negotiations  with  Turkey  for  her  with- 
drawal. At  the  last  moment  the  Sultan,  indoctrinated  by  France 
and  Kussia,  refused  to  sign  the  Convention  which  was  to  regulate  this 
operation.  Great  Britain  stayed  on,  and,  falling  in  love  with  the 
good  work  she  was  doing  in  the  country,  decided  not  to  retire  until 
she  could  be  sure  that  the  edifice  of  reform  she  had  raised  was 
sufficiently  advanced  and  consolidated  not  to  require  her  further 
supervision.  In  the  interval  she  realised  the  advantage  of  being  in 
possession  of  the  Suez  Canal,  and  this  undoubtedly  added  to  her 
reluctance  to  leave.  But  the  guardianship  of  the  Canal  is  important 
to  her  only  on  account  of  India.  Now,  the  evacuation  of  Egypt  would 
form  automatically  the  basis  of  an  alliance  between  Great  Britain 
and  the  Ottoman  Empire,  which  would  place  the  Canal  in  safe  hands, 
the  hands  of  her  new  ally,  and  contribute  a  further  element  to  the 
security  of  British  tenure  in  semi-Musulman  India  by  creating  a  strong 
link  between  the  Khalif,  grown  enormously  in  prestige  and  authority 
in  the  world  of  Islam  as  the  head  of  a  reformed  and  powerful  Turkey, 
and  the  King-Emperor.  As  for  the  welfare  of  the  Egyptians  and  the 
protection  due  to  European  interests  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  both 
will  be  sufficiently  guaranteed  by  the  substitution  of  Turkish  for 
British  tutelage,  in  a  form  which  can  be  easily  devised  to  give  satis- 
faction to  both  parties,  and  which  might,  for  instance,  and  probably 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  379  C  C 


870  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

would,  include  the  maintenance  of  a  number  of  British  experts  in  the 
Sultan's  name.  Great  Britain,  having  repeatedly  declared  that  she 
is  only  in  temporary  occupation,  could  retire  without  incurring  the 
slightest  loss  of  prestige. 

This  is  a  question  which  Englishmen  cannot  afford  to  examine 
from  any  but  a  purely  practical  point  of  view.  Sentiment  must  nc& 
intervene.  If  England  has  no  interest  in  prolonging  her  stay  in  the 
valley  of  the  Nile — if,  on  the  other  hand,  she  can  feel  sure  that  it  will 
not  constitute  a  dereliction  of  duty  to  Egypt  and  Europe  to  retire  in 
favour  of  Turkey — why  linger  on,  with  the  certainty  that,  whatever 
attitude  the  suzerain  Power  may  adopt,  the  Egyptians  themselves 
will  be  in  a  position  to  dislodge  her  some  day,  thanks  precisely  to  the 
progress  the  country  is  making  under  her  rule  ?  In  the  present  cir- 
cumstances, her  role  in  Egypt  is  artificial,  false,  and  undignified. 
It  complicates  considerably  her  natural  destinies,  whose  definite  settle- 
ment is  a  formidable  problem  in  any  case.  The  Turkish  Revolution 
offers  her  the  opportunity  of  an  honourable  exit.  If  she  was  ready 
to  sign  a  Convention  with  the  despotic  and  retrograde  Turkey  of 
1889  for  the  evacuation  of  Egypt,  what  is  there  to  prevent  her  from 
entering  into  a  compact  for  the  same  purpose  with  the  constitutional 
and  progressive  Turkey  of  to-day  ?  Both  in  the  interests  of  Great 
Britain  and  Egypt,  the  writer  has  been  so  far  a  strong  upholder  of 
the  maintenance  of  the  occupation.  But  the  Turkish  revolution  has 
completely  changed  the  situation.  Great  Britain  will  gain,  Egypt 
will  not  lose,  by  the  evacuation.  At  the  same  time,  a  legal  situation 
will  be  substituted  for  a  forced  one,  the  consequence  of  which  will  be 
to  clear  considerably  the  political  and  diplomatic  atmosphere  in 
which  Great  Britain  is  enveloped  and  to  strengthen  her  hands  internally 
and  externally.  I  need  not  labour  the  point.  All  thoughtful  English- 
men outside  of  Egypt  herself,  where  an  independent  view  of  the 
situation  cannot  be  expected  to  be  taken,  will  recognise  that  in 
what  I  have  just  written  I  have  provided  them  with  a  serious  subject 
for  meditation,  if  nothing  more. 

Two  of  the  Great  Powers  of  Europe  not  being  in  a  position  to 
hinder  the  reformation  of  Turkey,  and  the  four  others  having  every 
reason  to  favour  the  process,  the  secret  feelings  of  consternation  and 
rage  with  which  Montenegro,  Servia,  Greece,  and  especially  Bulgaria, 
must  have  certainly  received  the  news  of  the  Turkish  Revolution,  for 
reasons  which  have  been  already  explained,  lose  much  of  their  import- 
ance. Vigilance  and  caution  Turkey  must  exercise  in  the  accomplish- 
ment of  her  new  journey ;  but,  on  the  whole,  the  road  is  free  from 
pitfalls. 

Before  finishing,  I  must,  as  announced,  justify  the  assumption 
which  threads  the  whole  of  my  argument  and  which  to  many  people 
may  appear  based  on  excessive  optimism — namely,  that  the  Turkish 
Revolution  is  not  a  superficial  phenomenon,  and  that  the  Turks  possess 


1908  THE   TURKISH  REVOLUTION  371 

the  requisite  qualities  for  turning  it  to  the  real  and  lasting  advantage 
of  the  Empire. 

For  thirty-one  years  Abd-ul-Hamid  has  been  assiduously  occupied 
in  poisoning  the  Turkish  race,  the  ruling  element  of  the  Empire,  so  as 
to  dispose  of  it  at  will.  The  process  seemed  to  make  terrific  progress. 
In  the  opinion  of  most  people,  and  the  writer  owns  to  having  been  one 
of  the  number,  the  crowned  conspirator  of  Yildiz  had  succeeded  in 
gangrening  the  whole  mass  of  his  congeners.  It  looked  so.  But  it 
was  not  the  case,  and,  on  reflection,  it  will  be  found  that  it  could  not 
be.  To  transform  the  character  of  a  body  of  15,000,000  men  having 
secular  traditions  to  fall  back  upon  is  beyond  the  power  of  any  human 
being,  however  great  his  genius  for  good  or  for  evil.  What  Abd-ul- 
Hamid  did  accomplish  was  to  increase  enormously  among  the  educated 
classes  of  his  people  the  tendency  to  subordinate  public  to  private 
interest  which  has  been  such  a  marked  characteristic  of  their  history 
for  the  last  two  centuries  or  more.  But,  in  proportion  as  through 
this  process  he  reduced  them  to  the  condition  of  servile  instruments 
of  his  will,  he  raised  their  pride  and  patriotism  in  regard  to  the 
outer  world  so  as  to  have  a  complementary  national  chord  to  play 
upon.  Now,  public  corruption  can  benefit  only  a  limited  number  of 
members  of  a  State  community — less  and  less  each  year  with  the 
reduction  of  revenues  brought  about  by  that  very  corruption.  In 
course  of  time,  when  the  spies  of  Abd-ul-Hamid  and  the  other  creatures 
of  his  policy  numbered  not  hundreds  but  thousands,  the  share  of  each 
in  the  imperial  munificence  and  the  spoils  of  the  Empire  decreased, 
and  finally  the  vast  majority  of  this  army  of  evil  found  itself  similarly 
situated  to  the  honourably  disposed  among  the  nation,  that  is  to  say, 
badly  and  irregularly  paid  and  enjoying  as  little  liberty  and  peace 
as  the  others,  the  suspicions  of  the  master  weighing  upon  all  indis- 
criminately. What  had  those  gained  who  had  sold  their  souls  to 
Abd-ul-Hamid  ?  With  the  exception  of  an  infinitesimal  minority, 
which  succeeded  in  accumulating  wealth,  nothing.  On  the  other 
hand,  Turkish  patriotism  and  pride,  purposely  exasperated  by  Abd- 
ul-Hamid,  opened  its  eyes  and  realised  that  he  was  the  prime  cause 
of  the  humiliations  heaped  upon  the  Empire.  A  reaction  set  in 
which  considerably  purified  and  chastened  Turkish  officialdom  in 
thought  and  intention,  if  not  in  action,  which  was  impossible  because 
one  must  live.  This  process  has  been  going  on  for  at  least  ten  years, 
and  has  developed  a  tremendous  yearning  for  reform  among  all  ranks. 
At  the  same  time  the  admirable  qualities  of  the  Turkish  masses  which 
Abd-ul-Hamid  could  not  reach  have  remained  untouched,  while  a 
true  appreciation  of  what  constituted  the  source  of  their  misfortunes 
succeeded  their  former  blindness.  These  circumstances  are  sufficient 
guarantees  of  the  depth  of  feeling  which  has  produced  the  Revolution. 
As  to  the  ability  of  the  Turks  to  utilise  it  for  the  real  and  permanent 
good  of  the  Empire,  I  would  point  out  that  they  are  an  extremely 

c  c  2    . 


872  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

intelligent  and  well-poised  race,  whose  long  imperial  career  further 
prepares  them  for  the  work  of  reform.  They  have  given  a  very 
substantial  promise  of  this  in  the  extremely  practical  and  sound  way 
in  which  they  have  started  operations.  Abd-ul-Hamid,  whose  very 
genius  has  been  his  undoing  as  autocrat,  realises  this  better  than 
anybody  else.  Hence  the  certainty  that  he  does  not  entertain  plans  for 
the  restoration  of  his  power,  and  the  advantage  for  the  country  of 
maintaining  him  in  his  new  capacity,  from  which  it  may  expect  great 
benefits. 

These  are  the  reasons  for  my  optimism  concerning  the  Turkish 
Revolution.  Of  course,  time  has  to  prove  that  I  am  right  before 
the  consequences  I  have  announced,  and  especially  those  concerning 
Egypt,  take  place. 

Long  live  Turkey  ! 

ALFRED  DE  BILINSKI 
(late  Turkish  Charge  d?  Affaires  in  Washington). 


1908 


A   NOVEL   PHASE   OF  THE  EASTERN 
QUESTION 

PARLIAMENTARY  GOVERNMENT  FOR  EGYPT 


I  HAVE  no  special  knowledge  of  the  origin  of  the  coup  d'etat  by 
which  Abdul  Hamid  is  endeavouring  to  disarm  the  mutiny  of  the 
Turkish  troops  in  Macedonia ;  I  can  therefore  express  no  trustworthy 
opinion  as  to  its  chances  of  success  or  failure.  In  common  with  all 
persons  who  have  any  knowledge  of  the  Eastern  Question  I  entertain 
the  gravest  doubts  as  to  the  good  faith  of  the  reigning  Sultan.  I  have 
little  or  no  confidence  in  a  constitutional  government  established  by 
a  military  revolt.  I  am  by  no  means  certain  how  far  the  Turkish 
troops  share  the  political  aspirations  of  the  '  Young  Turkey '  party. 
I  labour  under  the  impression  that  if  the  Sultan  can  find  means  to 
pay  the  overdue  wages  of  the  Turkish  garrisons  in  Macedonia  and  to 
promote  the  leaders  of  the  insurrection  to  high  rank  or  to  lucrative 
positions,  a  reconciliation  might  easily  be  effected  between  the  Com- 
mander of  the  Faithful  and  the  insurgents,  which  might  prove  fatal  to 
the  agitation  for  constitutional  government.  I  can  see  no  reason  to 
assume  that  the  leading  Continental  Powers  are  prepared  to  welcome 
the  conversion  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  from  an  absolute  auto- 
cracy into  a  constitutional  Monarchy  subject  to  the  authority  of  an 
independent  National  Parliament.  All  I  can  assert  with  any  certainty 
is  that  such  a  conversion  would,  if  successful,  dispel  the  hopes  enter- 
tained by  the  States  of  the  Balkan  Peninsula,  if  not  of  the  great  Slav 
Empire  of  the  North,  and  would  therefore  meet  with  their  active, 
if  not  their  avowed,  opposition.  Under  these  circumstances  I  hold 
that  any  attempt  to  unravel  the  entangled  web  of  the  Eastern  Question, 
as  complicated  by  the  recent  appearance  of  the  Sultan  in  the  character 
of  a  champion  of  constitutional  government,  is  for  the  present  futile. 

My  object  in  this  article  is  to  point  out  how  the  Sultan's  coup  d'ttat 
is  calculated  to  create  serious  embarrassment  for  England  in  Egypt. 
I  suppose  very  few  of  my  readers  are  aware  that  in  the  last  days  of 
July  London  was  visited  by  a  deputation  consisting  of  half  a  dozen 
members  of  the  Legislative  Assembly  of  Egypt,  who  are  supposed  to 
share  the  views  of  the  Nationalist  party.  How  far  they  had  any 

b73 


374  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

direct  mandate  to  represent  either  the  so-called  Egyptian  Parliament 
or  the  party,  I  have  no  means  of  ascertaining.  The  Legislative 
Assembly  of  Egypt,  which,  on  the  ]MCUS  a  now  lucendo  principle,  has 
no  power  to  legislate,  is  so  anomalous  and  inchoate  a  body  that  it  is 
very  difficult  to  say  whether  it  is  in  a  position  to  authorise  any 
deputation  to  speak  on  its  behalf  or  in  its  name.  The  Nationalist 
party  was  so  disorganised  by  the  death  of  Kamil  Pasha,  that  it  has 
only  recently  formed  a  definite  programme  of  its  own.  Shortly  after 
their  arrival  in  London  in  the  latter  part  of  last  month  they  were 
received  by  Sir  Edward  Grey,  who,  it  is  needless  to  say,  listened 
most  courteously  to  their  demand  for  an  early  recognition  of  the 
alleged  right  of  Egypt  to  some  form  of  constitutional  government 
under  the  British  occupation.  As  usual  the  demand  was  met,  if  I  am 
rightly  informed,  by  the  answer  that  though  his  Majesty's  Ministers 
might  admit,  as  a  matter  of  principle,  the  desirability  of  the  Nationalist 
demand,  they  could  hold  out  no  hope  of  its  immediate  or  even  of  its 
early  application  in  practice. 

After  this  reply — which  was  identical  with  the  language  employed 
repeatedly  by  the  British  Agency  in  Egypt  on  similar  occasions 
though  more  sympathetic  in  its  terms — the  delegates  of  the  Reform 
party  in  Egypt  had  discharged  their  duty,  and  had  no  reason  to  pro- 
long their  sojourn  in  London.  They  had,  however,  arranged  before- 
hand to  give  a  dinner  to  friends  and  acquaintances  interested  in 
Egyptian  affairs,  and  amongst  others  they  sent  an  invitation  to  the 
present  writer.  I  had  always  accepted  invitations  of  a  like  kind  in 
Cairo  accompanied  by  a  proviso  that  my  presence  on  these  occasions 
was  not  to  be  interpreted  as  expressing  my  approval  of  any  resolutions 
that  might  be  passed  at  these  demonstrations,  and  I  saw  no  reason 
why  I  should  make  an  exception  in  London.  I  trust  my  hosts  will 
not  deem  me  uncourteous  if  I  express  an  opinion  that  in  London,  as  in 
Cairo,  the  Eeform  party  in  Egypt  have  not  mastered  the  rudiments 
of  political  agitation.  From  what  I  could  learn  they  had  barely 
advertised  their  proposed  demonstration.  They  had  made  little  or  no 
arrangements  for  having  reporters  present :  they  had  not  secured  the 
attendance  of  many  men  of  note  in  London,  whose  names  would  have 
attracted  general  attention  both  in  our  own  country  and  in  theirs. 
Mr.  Robertson,  M.P.  for  Tyneside,  acted  as  Chairman,  and  expressed 
his  general  agreement  with  the  views  of  the  Nationalist  party.  These 
views  were  expounded  at  considerable  length  by  one  of  the  Young 
Egypt  delegates,  but  as  his  knowledge  either  of  English  or  French  was 
apparently  limited,  and  as  he  had  great  difficulty  in  making  himself 
audible,  the  programme  of  the  meeting  was  not  very  intelligible  to  the 
general  body  of  the  audience.  No  printed  prospectuses  had  been 
prepared,  and  the  only  notices  of  the  demonstration  in  the  London 
press  were  confined  to  a  few  brief  paragraphs  inserted  in  papers 
not  enjoying  any  large  authority  or  circulation.  To  speak  the 


1908     NEW  PHASE  OF  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION   875 

plain  truth,  the  demonstration  at  the  Metropole  Hotel  in  favour  of 
some  parliamentary  control  of  their  own  affairs  being  granted  to  the 
Egyptians  under  the  British  occupation  would  have  been  a  failure  but 
for  an  unexpected  stroke  of  good  fortune. 

The  Metropole  Anglo-Egyptian  banquet  was  fixed  for  Tuesday 
evening,  the  28th  of  July.  On  the  previous  morning,  not  only  England 
but  all  Europe  was  startled  by  the  news  that  Abdul  Hamid,  terrified 
by  the  mutiny  of  the  Turkish  troops  in  Macedonia,  had  re-established 
parliamentary  government  throughout  the  Ottoman  Empire  just  as  it 
had  existed  in  the  days  of  Midhat  Pasha.  However  sceptical  other 
European  nations  might  be  as  to  the  genuineness  of  the  Sultan's 
conversion,  England  was  bound  by  her  past  record  to  welcome  the 
resuscitation  of  a  constitutional  Turkey,  not  only  as  a  gain  to  the 
Ottoman  Empire,  but  as  a  boon  to  humanity  in  general  and  to  the 
followers  of  the  Prophet  in  particular.  The  intelligence  in  question 
had  only  become  known  in  London  a  few  hours  before  the  meeting 
convoked  at  the  Metropole,  and  this  incident  resuscitated  the  hopes 
of  the  delegates. 

I  confess  that  the  exultation  of  my  Egyptian  friends  on  learning 
the  Sultan's  coup  d'etat  at  Constantinople  seemed  to  be  not  un- 
reasonable. Unfortunately,  the  British  Government,  acting  as  I 
believe  mainly  on  the  advice  of  our  late  Consul-General,  had  per- 
sistently upheld  the  theory  that  her  military  occupation  had,  as  its 
leading  motive,  the  welfare  of  Egypt,  and  had  contended  that  her 
object  in  continuing  this  occupation  was  to  promote  the  prosperity 
and  the  development  of  Egypt  and  thereby  to  reconcile  her  to  the 
temporary  loss  of  her  national  independence.  Up  to  the  present 
moment  this  contention,  though  unsound  as  I  hold,  was  in  itself 
logically  tenable.  It  might  fairly  be  argued  that  if  we  had  evacuated 
Egypt,  which  though  a  very  rich  country  is  singularly  weak  for  purposes 
of  self-defence,  she  must  inevitably  have  fallen  under  the  domination  of 
some  other  European  Power  acting  in  all  probability  in  the  name  of 
Turkey  as  her  recognised  suzerain.  I  do  not  dispute  for  one  moment 
that  the  suzerainty  of  Turkey  would  in  such  a  case  have  been  more 
detrimental  to  Egyptian  interests,  both  economically  and  politically, 
than  the  unavowed  protectorate  of  England.  It  might  therefore  be 
fairly  argued  that  if  the  continuance  of  our  protectorate  was  the  only 
alternative  to  the  restoration  of  Turkish  supremacy,  and  if,  in  our 
opinion  our  protectorate  was  inconsistent  with  Egypt  being  granted 
any  kind  of  national  independence,  England  might  have  been  justified 
in  administering  the  Nile  Land  autocratically  under  the  control  of 
British  officials  who  received  their  instructions  simply  and  solely 
from  the  British  Agency,  or  in  plainer  words,  from  our  own  distinguished 
Pro-Consul. 

On  the  day  before  the  banquet  it  was  learnt  that  the  Sultan  of 
Turkey  had  suddenly  agreed  to  forfeit  the  autocratic  authority  he 


876  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

had  exercised  for  upwards  of  thirty  years  and  to  accept  the  position 
of  a  constitutional  Sovereign  subject  to  the  control  of  an  elected 
Parliament.  It  was  learnt  also  that  the  British  Ambassador  at  Con- 
stantinople had  proceeded  to  Yildiz  Kiosk  to  congratulate  Abdul 
Hamid  on  his  grant  of  constitutional  government  to  his  subjects,  and 
thereby  presumably  committed  the  British  Government  to  the  approval 
of  the  establishment  of  Parliamentary  institutions  throughout  Turkey, 
not  only  in  her  European  provinces,  but  in  the  whole  of  her  Empire. 

Technically  speaking  it  may  be  argued  that  Egypt  is  not  an 
integral  portion  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  Under  the  agreement  con- 
cluded in  1840  between  Mehemet  Ali  and  the  then  reigning  Sultan, 
Egypt  was  granted  internal  independence  under  the  hereditary  Vice- 
Royalty  of  Mehemet  Ali  and  his  descendants  subject  to  the  payment  of 
an  annual  tribute  to  Turkey.  Since  the  compact  thus  arranged 
between  the  suzerain  and  the  vassal  State  its  validity  has  never  been 
disputed  by  any  Continental  Power.  On  the  contrary  England  always 
has  invariably  supported  the  claims  of  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  as  the 
overlord  of  Egypt.  Even  when  England  and  France  decided  on 
the  deposition  of  Ismail  Pasha  it  was  England  who  insisted  upon  the 
decree,  calling  on  Ismail  Pasha  to  abdicate  his  throne,  being  issued 
by  the  Sultan.  England  again  supported  the  demand  of  Turkey  for 
an  increase  of  the  enormous  tribute  paid  by  Egypt  to  the  Porte  and  its 
hypothecation  to  the  payment  of  the  Turkish  defence  loan  raised  in 
London  and  Paris.  I  do  not  think  myself  England  is  to  blame  for 
the  constant  support  she  gave  to  Turkey  up  to  the  date  of  the  Treaty 
of  San  Stefano.  All  I  would  say  is  that  she  is  not  in  a  position  to 
deny  that  the  Sultan  still  exercises  and  has  a  right  to  exercise  an 
ill-defined  but  yet  a  supreme  authority  over  the  Egyptian  Pashalik. 

If  this  is  so,  our  Government  would  be  placed  in  a  position  of 
extreme  difficulty,  supposing  the  Sultan  were  to  contend  that  the 
Constitution  he  has  granted  to  the  whole  of  his  Empire  extends  or 
should  extend  to  his  Egyptian  provinces. 

I  To  all  men  of  ordinary  intelligence  it  must  seem  obvious  that  the 
experiment  now  being  tried  in  Turkey  is  apparently  conducted  under 
far  less  favourable  conditions  than  would  be  the  case  if  it  were  to  be 
carried  out  in  Egypt.  The  Turks,  as  I  have  insisted  from  the  days 
of  the  Bulgarian  outrages,  are  a  brave,  honest  people,  kindly  natured 
when  left  to  themselves,  but  brutally  cruel  when  their  religious  or  racial 
passions  are  aroused.  Treat  the  Turk  fairly,  and  he  will  treat  you 
fairly  in  return.  With  all  my  liking  for  the  Egyptians,  I  could  not 
honestly  say  that  they  possess  the  same  qualities  as  the  Turks.  They 
have  never  been  a  warlike  race.  For  countless  generations  they  have 
been  a  servile  race.  Under  Persian,  Greek,  Roman,  Arabian,  French, 
and  Turkish  dynasties  they  have  always  obeyed  the  '  powers  that  be.' 
They  have  never  stood  up  against  their  oppressors  except  in  the  rare 
cases  when  their  rulers  were,  or  were  believed  to  be,  hostile  to  their 


1908     NEW  PHASE  OF  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION   877 

creed  as  followers  of  the  Prophet.    Even  their  fanaticism,  such  as  it 
is,  is  mild  in  comparison  with  that  of  the  born  Turk.     The  Arabi 
insurrection  is  the  only  serious  instance  of  any  popular  uprising  of  the 
Egyptian  nation,  and  that  insurrection  collapsed  hopelessly,  partly 
because  its  leaders  lacked  the  courage  to  lead   an  insurrection  and 
still  more  because  the  insurgents  had  no  stomach  for  fighting.     Eng- 
land has  now  ruled  Egypt  for  well  nigh  a  quarter  of  a  century  under 
a  regime  which  seemed  purposely  adapted  to  render  the  administration 
of  the  country  by  foreign  and  alien  rulers  distasteful  to  the  Egyptian 
population.    Yet  throughout  this  period  there  has  been  no  single 
attempt  to  protest  against  the  British  occupation  of  Egypt,  unless 
we  take  the  riots  of  Alexandria  and  the  Denshawi  massacre  as  serious 
demonstrations  of  popular  hostility  to  the  continuance  of  our  British 
occupation.     I  do  not  say  the  Egyptians  have  had  no  cause  of  com- 
plaint.    On  the  contrary,  they  have  serious  ground  for  objecting  to 
the  policy  under  which  Egypt  has  been  administered  from  1885  up  to 
the  present  day.     But  I  do  say  without  fear  of  contradiction  that  so 
long  as  a  British  garrison  continues  encamped  in  the  citadel  of  Cairo 
any  idea  of  the  garrison  being  dislodged  by  a  popular  indigenous  rising 
is  absolutely  fatuous.     If  England  decided  to-morrow  to  declare  a 
protectorate  over  Egypt,  to  issue  a  brand-new  Constitution,  or  to  intro- 
duce any  reforms  which  did  not  overtly  interfere  with  the  creed  of 
Islam,  her  policy  would  be  accepted  without  any  attempt  on  the  part 
of  the  Egyptian  nation  to  expel  the  British  garrison  from  Egypt  or  even 
from  the  citadel.     The  Egyptians  in  their  own  way  are  a  very  prudent 
people,  and,  as  long  as  the  British  troops  remain  in  force,  we  have  no 
need  to  fear  any  active  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  Egyptian  populace. 
I  deem  it  well  to  make  this  point  clear,  as  I  am  anxious  there  should 
be  no  doubt  as  to  our  military  occupation  being  endangered  or  even 
impaired  by  any  concessions  I  may  think  it  expedient  to  make  to  the 
popular  demand  in  Egypt  for  some  kind  of  parliamentary  government. 
In  order  to  make  my  position  clear  it  may  be  well  to  explain  that  the 
Nationalist  party  is  divided  into  two  distinct  and,  to  some  extent, 
discordant  sections.     The  first  and  oldest  is  that  of  Ali  Pasha  Youssouf , 
the  founder,  proprietor,  and  editor  of  El  Moyad,  or  in  English  The 
World.     The  Pasha  is  a  man  of  large  fortune  and  deserves  the  credit 
of  having  been  the  first  to  recognise  how  the  virtual  abolition  of  the 
censorship  over  the  native  press  in  Egypt  might  be  worked  to  the 
advantage  of  the  Nationalist  movement. 

Some  three  years  ago,  in  a  conversation  with  Lord  Cromer  at  Cairo, 
I  ventured  to  point  out  that  the  unrestricted  licence  accorded  to  the 
native  press  might  easily  prove  a  source  of  danger.  I  was  told  in 
reply  that,  after  careful  consideration,  his  lordship  had  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  advantages  of  leaving  the  native  papers  to  say 
what  they  liked,  without  fear  of  interference  on  the  part  of  the  British 
authorities,  largely  outweighed  its  obvious  disadvantages.  In  his 


378  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

opinion  a  free  press  afforded  a  sort  of  safety-valve  against  popular 
discontent,  as  any  malcontents  with  our  British  administration  would 
be  satisfied  when  they  had  been  allowed  to  blow  off  their  steam. 
I  do  not  say  that  these  were  the  exact  phrases  employed  by  his  lordship, 
but  I  am  certain  the  above  was  their  purport.  In  substance  Lord 
Cromer  identified  himself  with  the  policy  towards  the  native  press 
adopted  by  the  Government  of  India.  I  must  admit  also  in  common 
fairness  that  a  priori  it  seemed  improbable  a  native  press  could  ever 
exercise  a  dominant  influence  in  Egypt.  In  a  country  where  according 
to  official  calculations  only  one  in  a  hundred  natives  can  either  read  or 
write,  and  where  the  means  for  circulating  newspapers  anywhere  except 
between  the  capital  and  the  large  towns  are  extremely  costly  and  tardy, 
it  was  difficult  to  suppose  the  press  could  exercise  any  serious  influence 
over  the  great  mass  of  the  population.  My  friend  Ali  Youssouf 
understood  his  countrymen  far  better  than  the  British  Agency.  He 
realised  the  innate  love  of  his  fellow-countrymen  for  gossip  of  all  kinds, 
especially  when  that  gossip  flatters  their  personal  vanity  and  their 
natural  hostility  to  foreign  rule  as  conducted  according  to  British 
administrative  ideas.  He  was  doubtless  alive  to  the  fact  that  in  any 
Egyptian  village,  however  small,  there  would  be  found  one  or  more 
story-tellers  able  to  read  Arabic,  and  that  on  Fridays  and  market-days 
a  story-teller  would  always  find  it  to  his  personal  advantage  to  read 
out  to  the  crowd  the  articles  and  news  columns  of  the  Mot/ad,  especially 
such  passages  as  condemned  the  action  of  the  British  Administration. 
At  the  outset,  and  indeed  up  to  the  present  day,  Ah'  Youssouf  has 
always  maintained  in  the  Moyad  that  for  the  present  the  main- 
tenance of  our  military  occupation  is  essential  to  the  interests  not 
only  of  England  but  of  Egypt.  So  long  as  there  was  no  formidable 
opposition  to  the  Moyad,  the  criticisms  of  the  paper  on  British  adminis- 
tration were  comparatively  moderate,  and  Ali  Youssouf  may  fairly 
claim  the  credit  of  having  been  the  first  to  show  that  a  native  paper 
could  be  made  a  paying  concern.  Possibly  if  Lord  Cromer  had  not 
persistently  set  his  foot  down  against  any  kind  of  concession,  which 
might  impair  his  own  absolute  autocracy  in  Egypt,  his  policy  of 
allowing  unrestricted  freedom  to  the  Egyptian  press  might  have  been 
justified  by  its  results. 

Unfortunately  the  very  success  of  the  Moyad  proved  the  cause  of  its 
decline.  If  a  paper  conducted  on  moderate  lines  could  be  made  to  pay, 
it  followed  logically  that  a  rival  paper  conducted  more  in  harmony 
with  popular  prejudices  and  passions  was  likely  to  drive  the  Moyad 
out  of  the  field  ;  and  the  first  man  who  seriously  attempted  to  carry 
this  idea  into  practice  was  Kamil  Pasha.  It  is  well  nigh  impossible  for 
an  Englishman  born  and  bred,  not  either  to  underrate  or  overrate  the 
merits  or  the  demerits  of  this  politician  who,  during  his  short  career, 
played  so  striking  a  part  on  the  Egyptian  stage,  and  whose  memory 
to-day  is  worshipped  by  his  fellow-countrymen.  As  to  some  of  his 


1908     NEW  PHASE  OF  TEE  EASTERN  QUESTION    379 

characteristics,  there  can  be  no  kind  of  question.  He  was  singularly 
handsome  ;  he  had  a  marvellous  charm  of  manner  ;  he  possessed  the 
dangerous  gift  of  native  eloquence.  These  gifts  furnished  a  special 
attraction  for  his  fellow-countrymen  which  they  would  not  have 
possessed  to  anything  like  the  same  extent  with  men  of  Anglo-Saxon 
race.  He  had  been  educated  in  France,  was  imbued  with  French 
ideas,  spoke  French  with  perfect  accuracy,  and  could  address  an 
audience  in  French  with  the  same  eloquence  as  if  he  had  been  born 
in  Paris.  He  had  also  an  extraordinary  faculty  of  making  friends 
wherever  he  went,  and  hardly  ever  failed  when  he  put  their  friendship 
to  the  test  of  asking  for  their  pecuniary  assistance  in  order  to  carry 
out  his  public  or  private  enterprises.  As  a  rule,  I  think  that 
Mahometans,  who  spend  their  lives  at  home  amidst  their  own  people, 
are  finer  and  worthier  specimens  of  Islam  than  those  who  have  been 
educated  in  Europe  and  have  acquired  a  varnish  of  European  culture. 
Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  certain  that  Kamil  Pasha  could  never  have 
attained  his  exceptional  position  in  Egypt  if  France  for  good  or  bad 
had  not  become  to  him  almost  a  second  country. 

Whether,  like  most  young  Arabs  educated  abroad,  Kamil  Pasha 
had  lost  the  fervour  of  his  faith  in  Islam  I  have  no  means  of  saying. 
All  I  can  assert  is  that  when  he  knew  death  to  be  imminent — a  con- 
tingency which  he  faced  with  Oriental  indifference — he  did  everything 
in  his  power  to  show  that  he  died  as  a  faithful  follower  of  the  Prophet. 
Whether  also  he  deserved  the  name  of  a  serious  statesman  it  is  im- 
possible to  assert  one  way  or  another.  All  I  can  say  is  that  he  belonged 
to  those  whom  the  Gods  are  said  to  love  and  that  he  died  too  young 
to  prove  his  worth  as  a  leader  of  men. 

I  fancy  that,  when  the  time  arrived  for  his  '  years  of  wandering  ' 
to  come  to  an  end,  he  was,  in  common  with  so  many  of  his  young  fellow- 
Egyptians,  brought  face  to  face  with  the  hard  fact  that  there  was  no 
possible  career  for  him  in  the  public  service  of  his  own  country  so  long 
as  it  remained  under  the  then  British  administration.  Thereupon  he 
proceeded  to  Constantinople  and  ingratiated  himself  with  the  Sultan. 
Whether  he  was  made  acquainted  with  Abdul  Hamid's  Pan-Islamic 
schemes  must  be  matter  for  surmise.  The  only  thing  known  is  that, 
under  the  established  relations  between  the  suzerain  and  the  vassal 
State,  no  titles  are  bestowed  as  a  rule  on  Egyptian  subjects,  except 
at  the  formal  request  of  the  Khedive,  and  that  in  KamiPs  case 
this  rule  was  disregarded  and  he  was  raised  to  the  rank  of  Pasha  by 
the  Commander  of  the  Faithful. 

As  soon  as  Kamil  took  up  his  abode  permanently  in  Egypt  he 
resolved  to  start  a  native  paper  to  run  against  the  Moyad,  and  to 
make  its  dominant  policy  the  necessity  of  bringing  our  military 
occupation  to  a  close.  The  Lewa,  or  Flag,  as  his  anti-British  paper 
was  yclept,  was  not  long  before  it  obtained  a  very  large  circulation  ; 
but  the  expenses  of  starting  an  important  paper  in  Egypt  are  very 


880  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

heavy  and  the  immediate  returns  are  extremely  limited.  Thereupon 
Kamil  Pasha,  with  his  usual  disregard  of  financial  considerations, 
engaged  to  make  himself  responsible  for  the  expenses  of  the  Lewa, 
on  the  strength  of  a  personal  conviction  that  he  should  always  find 
some  friend  or  other  to  provide  him  with  the  needful  subsidies.  The 
admirers  and  the  detractors  of  Kamil  Pasha  are  alike  agreed  as  to 
his  extraordinary  success  in  raising  any  funds  necessary  for  the 
accomplishment  of  his  life's  purpose,  that  of  creating  an  organ  which 
should  voice  the  sentiments  of  Egypt.  From  what  quarters  the 
funds  required  for  subsidising  the  Lewa  were  found,  or  upon  what 
conditions  they  were  raised,  is  a  matter  which  has  never  yet  been 
clearly  ascertained,  and  is  never  likely  to  be  disclosed  for  many  years 
to  come. 

The  only  light  I  can  throw  upon  this  question  is  derived  from  a 
conversation  which  has  been  reported  to  me  by  a  friend  in  whose 
accuracy  and  knowledge  I  am  justified  in  placing  the  utmost  reliance. 
Only  a  few  months  before  Kamil's  death,  my  friend  had  an  interview 
with  him,  in  which  he  urged  the  young  tribune,  instead  of  asking 
for  the  impossible — that  is,  for  the  immediate  withdrawal  of  the 
British  army  of  occupation — to  employ  his  influence  as  the  proprietor 
of  the  Lewa  to  advocate  various  reforms  in  the  internal  administration 
of  Egypt.  Kamil  Pasha  replied  in  the  following  words  : 

To  achieve  success  in  the  mission  I  have  undertaken  I  have  got  to  make 
the  Lewa  the  recognised  organ  of  the  Egyptian  nation.  To  do  this  I  have  to 
appeal  to  my  fellow-countrymen  to  provide  the  necessary  funds.  For  this 
purpose  I  have  to  put  forward  a  programme  they  can  understand.  Now,  the 
Egyptians  of  to-day  hardly  yet  understand  what  is  meant  by  parliamentary 
government ;  and  if  they  did  understand,  I  am  by  no  means  sure  they  would 
appreciate  its  benefits.  But  there  is  not  a  born  Egyptian  who  does  not  desire 
the  termination  of  the  British  occupation  ;  and  if  I  tell  them  that  the  Lewa 
will  bring  about  the  withdrawal  of  the  British  troops  and  the  restoration  of 
Egyptian  independence,  their  purse-strings  will  be  open  at  once. 

The  plea  thus  put  forward  may,  from  an  English  point  of  view, 
seem  dictated  by  a  cynical  desire  to  put  money  into  the  author's 
own  pocket  under  cover  of  pursuing  a  national  object.  But  such  an 
interpretation  would  be  discarded  in  Egypt,  even  by  Kamil's  bitterest 
opponents.  Whatever  else  Kamil  may  have  been,  however  lavish 
his  own  expenditure,  however  reckless  his  improvidence,  he  was  not 
a  mere  adventurer.  Up  to  the  time  of  his  death  he  employed  all 
the  funds  he  could  secure  by  hook  or  by  crook  in  extending  the 
circulation  of  the  Lewa,  and  when  he  died  he  left  little  or  nothing 
behind  him  except  the  love  of  the  Egyptian  people.  Popular  opinion 
is  seldom  wrong  in  its  posthumous  judgments  ;  and  the  memory  of 
Kamil,  dead,  is  still,  and  will  remain  for  many  a  year  to  come,  a 
potent  factor  in  Egyptian  politics.  Young  as  he  died,  Kamil  may 
fairly  be  said  to  have  been  '  felix  opportunitate  mortis.'  Whether 


1908     NEW  PHASE  OF  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION    881 

if  lie  had  lived  to  middle  age  he  would  have  preserved  his  influence 
in  his  own  country  is  a  question  which  now  can  never  be  decided. 
If  I  were  asked,  I  should  be  inclined  to  answer  it  in  the  negative. 
This  much,  however,  is  certain,  that  with  Kamil  gone  there  was  no 
one  to  carry  on  his  self-imposed  mission  as  the  liberator  of  Egypt 
from  British  rule.  The  plain  truth  is  that  Kamil  was  the  Lewa  and 
the  Lewa  was  Kamil.  The  Kamil  legend,  if  I  may  employ  the  phrase 
in  no  offensive  sense,  will  probably  survive  in  Egypt  much  as  the 
Gambetta  legend  still  survives  in  France ;  but  with  the  removal  of 
its  editor,  proprietor,  and  capitalist,  the  Lewa  dwindled  away  like 
a  plant  without  water.  The  circulation  fell  off,  the  subscribers  failed 
to  renew  their  subscriptions,  and  the  friends  of  the  Nationalist  move- 
ment who  had  subsidised  the  Lewa  seemed  to  lose  their  interest  in 
an  unremunerative  speculation.  One  after  the  other  the  British 
Standard  and  the  Etendard  Franqais,  which  were  daily  editions  of 
the  Lewa,  started  by  Kamil  with  the  hope  of  influencing  English  and 
French  opinion,  had  to  cease  their  publication  owing  to  financial 
considerations,  and  the  parent  Lewa  itself  is  not  expected  to  outlive 
long  the  demise  of  its  affiliated  branches. 

For  the  time,  at  any  rate,  the  policy  of  Kamil  has  been  relegated 
to  the  background.  His  former  colleagues  and  collaborators  are 
many  of  them  men  of  considerable  ability,  but  there  is  not  one  of 
them  who  possesses  his  phenomenal  ability  as  an  orator,  a  writer,  or 
a  canvasser,  or  who  can  hope  to  supply  his  place  in  the  hearts  of  his 
people.  I  believe  myself,  if  they  could  afford  to  throw  cold  water  on 
the  Nationalist  party,  they  would  admit  that  KamiPs  idea  of  com- 
pelling England  to  withdraw  her  troops  by  the  moral  force  of  public 
opinion  in  Egypt,  as  displayed  by  a  series  of  popular  demonstrations, 
lies  buried  in  a  grave  from  which  there  is  no  possible  resurrection. 
This  being  so,  they  are  inclined  to  pursue  much  the  same  policy  as 
that  propounded  by  the  Moyad  and  rejected  by  the  Lewa,  namely, 
that  of  seeking  the  political  regeneration  of  their  country  by  advocating 
some  kind  of  parliamentary  institutions  as  the  true  panacea  for  the 
grievances,  whether  real  or  alleged,  under  which  Egypt  is  supposed  to 
suffer. 

These  grievances  may  be  fairly  stated  as  follows.  Under  British 
rule  the  Egyptians  have  no  legal  or  practical  means  of  making  their 
wishes  or  their  sentiments  known,  except  through  the  instrumentality 
of  the  native  press,  which  is  seldom,  if  ever,  read  by  the  British 
authorities,  and  whose  opinions  are  only  allowed  free  utterance 
because  they  are  regarded  by  the  de  facto  rulers  of  Egypt  with  a 
contemptuous  indifference.  Again,  the  practical  elimination  of  the 
native  element  from  the  administration  of  Egypt  and  its  virtual 
replacement  by  nominees  of  the  British  Agency,  ignorant  for  the 
most  part  of  the  language  of  the  country  they  administer  and  of  its 
customs,  usages,  and  traditions,  is  a  further  cause  of  complaint.  The 


882  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

greatest  grievance,  however,  of  all  is  a  lurking  impression  on  the 
part  of  the  Mussulman  community,  who  form  upwards  of  nine-tenths 
of  the  whole  population,  that  '  the  powers  that  be '  are  hostile  to 
the  religion  of  the  Koran  and  to  the  system  of  polygamy,  upon  which 
the  whole  social  fabric  of  Islam  is  based.  I  believe  this  apprehension 
to  be  utterly  baseless. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  my  present  purpose  to  argue  the  point 
whether  Egypt  ought,  or  ought  not,  to  regard  the  benefits  undoubtedly 
bestowed  on  her  under  British  rule  as  an  adequate  compensation 
for  the  absence  of  representative  government.  I  am  confident  that 
the  educated  and  well-to-do  classes  in  Egypt  fully  admit  the  value 
of  our  work  of  irrigation.  It  may  be  well  to  quote  the  words  of  the 
chairman  of  the  Metropole  meeting,  Ismail  Abaza  Pasha  : 

We  seize  this  opportunity  to  acknowledge  the  great  reforms  that  have  taken 
place  in  the  Department  of  Irrigation  under  the  administration  of  such  men 
as  Moncrieff  and  Garstin,  to  whom  we,  as  a  nation,  feel  deeply  indebted.  Such 
men  have  greatly  conduced  to  a  better  understanding  between  our  two  nations, 
and  will  always  have  the  gratitude  of  all  Egyptians.  Great  feats  like  the 
Assouan  and  Aesiout  dams  have  vastly  increased  the  wealth  of  Egypt,  and  stand 
to  the  lasting  honour  of  all  those  engineers  who  took  part  in  their  construction. 

I  suspect  myself  that  the  statement  made  at  the  Metropole  meeting 
by  the  chairman  and  his  colleagues,  and  which  is  to  be  submitted 
to  the  Nationalist  party  on  the  arrival  of  their  delegates  in  Egypt, 
would  have  been  materially  modified  if  the  news  of  the  unforeseen 
proclamation  of  constitutional  government  in  Turkey  had  been 
received  after,  instead  of  before,  the  meeting.  Still  more  would  this 
have  been  the  case  if  our  own  Government  had  not  gone  out  of  its 
way  to  congratulate  in  hot  haste  the  leaders  of  the.  Young  Turkey 
party  upon  the  acquisition  of  political  liberty.  It  seemed  impossible 
to  the  Nationalist  party  that  the  same  nation  which  congratulated 
Turkey  upon  having  obtained  self-government  should,  notwithstanding, 
adhere  to  the  non  possumus  attitude  adopted  by  Sir  Edward  Grey 
when,  only  a  few  days  before,  he  repeated  the  stereotyped  reply  to 
any  number  of  similar  applications,  that  though  in  theory  the  British 
Government  sympathised  with  the  Egyptian  desire  for  some  form  of 
self-government,  they  were  unable  to  hold  out  any  prospect  of  their 
theoretical  sympathy  being  carried  into  practical  application.  I  have 
no  reason  to  suppose  that  our  Foreign  Office  had  any  anticipation  of 
Turkey  then  being  on  the  eve  of  a  military  insurrection  which  would 
compel  Abdul  Hamid  to  choose  between  his  own  violent  deposition 
and  the  absolute  surrender  of  his  autocratic  authority.  Otherwise 
common  sense  and  common  prudence  would  have  dictated  a  very 
different  reply  from  that  which  was  given  to  the  delegates  of  the 
Nationalist  party  in  their  recent  interview. 


1908     NEW  PHASE  OF  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION  883 

The  following  paragraphs  in  the  report  read  at  the  meeting  tell 
their  own  tale : 

England  had  always  the  honour  of  helping  the  different  nations  who  were 
struggling  for  some  form  of  self-government  or  other,  and  her  sympathy  for 
the  Russians,  Persians,  and  Turks  struggling  for  a  constitutional  form  of  govern- 
ment is  too  recent  to  be  forgotten.  We  therefore  appeal  with  confidence  to  the 
support  of  the  British  public  in  our  desire  to  obtain  a  sort  of  representative 
assembly  with  limited  powers,  dealing  with  administrative,  judicial,  financial, 
and  educational  matters,  and  leaving  aside  international  treaties,  foreign 
capitulations,  public  debts,  and  matters  concerning  the  law  of  liquidation — in  a 
word,  all  matters  in  which  foreign  or  international  interests  are  at  stake.  .  .  . 

We  had  the  honour  to  be  received  the  other  day  by  Sir  Edward  Grey,  to 
whom  was  offered  a  copy  of  our  demands.  We  have  every  reason  to  believe 
that  these  demands  will  meet  with  the  approval  of  the  British  Secretary  of 
State  for  Foreign  Affairs,  and  that  reforms  will  be  shortly  introduced.  But,  as 
you  know,  however  good  may  be  the  will  of  any  Minister  hi  your  country,  he 
would  shrink  from  rapidly  introducing  any  reform  if  he  were  not  backed  up  by 
public  opinion. 

We  therefore  appeal  to  you  once  more  to  give  us  your  sympathy  in  our 
demands,  which,  as  you  can  see,  are  quite  consistent  with  both  Egyptian  and 
European  interests,  and  are  Egypt's  natural  and  sacred  rights.  We  hope  the 
time  is  close  at  hand  when  you  will  hear  of  our  having  obtained  complete  self- 
government  and  a  real  Constitution,  which  we  shall  continually  keep  asking  for. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  document  is  manifestly  drawn 
for  home  and  foreign  consumption,  for  Egyptian  as  well  as  English 
perusal.  Its  authors  were  obviously  desirous  on  the  one  hand  to 
avoid  any  language  which  might  give  umbrage  to  the  Egyptian 
public,  especially  to  the  Nationalists,  or  to  the  British  Imperialist 
party  on  the  other.  This  object  they  have  accomplished,  in  as  far  as 
it  was  capable  of  accomplishment. 

Put  into  plain  English,  their  proposal  comes  to  this.  They  wish 
the  British  public  to  understand  that  with  the  death  of  Kamil  they 
have  abandoned  his  idea  of  forcing  England  to  quit  Egypt  by  a  popular 
demonstration  of  the  general  dislike  with  which  our  rule  is  regarded 
by  the  vast  majority  of  the  Egyptian  Moslem  population.  They  are 
willing  also  to  acquiesce  in  the  continuance  of  our  military  occupation 
for  the  present  and  to  engage  themselves  not  to  take  part  in  any 
agitation  whose  object  would  be  to  promote  the  evacuation  of  Egypt 
by  his  Majesty's  troops.  In  return  for  this  all  the  authors  of  the 
memorandum  demand  is  that  the  British  Agency  should  advise  the 
Khedivial  Government  to  give  limited  self-governing  powers  to  a 
certain  number  of  municipalities  now  established,  or  to  be  hereafter 
established,  in  the  Egyptian  provinces.  The  advantages  of  such  a 
compromise  are  obvious.  Its  adoption  by  England  would  tend 
greatly  to  satisfy  public  opinion  in  Egypt,  to  remove  the  general 
unrest  which  undoubtedly  has  spread  over  Egypt,  as  over  all  parts 
of  the  East,  since  the  ignominous  defeat  of  Russia  by  Japan ;  and  to 
secure  an  interval  of  tranquillity  during  which  our  British  authorities 


384  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBY  Sept. 

would  be  enabled  to  remove  the  discontent  inevitably  created  by 
absolutely  autocratic  rule.  It  would  enable  the  entente  cordidle  between 
our  present  Consul- General  and  his  Highness  the  Viceroy  to  become 
confirmed  and  consolidated  to  the  great  advantage  of  England. 

The  only  serious  objection  I  have  ever  heard  from  the  opponents 
of  a  compromise  is  the  thin  end  of  the  wedge  argument.  I  have 
constantly  been  told  by  the  enthusiastic  admirers  of  our  great  Pro- 
Consul  that  if  you  once  give  the  Egyptians  any  share,  however  limited, 
in  the  administration  of  their  own  affairs  they  will  never  be  at  rest 
till  they  have  got  the  whole  administration  of  their  country  into  their 
own  hands.  If  I  believed  in  this  assertion  it  might  give  me  pause  as  a 
life-long  advocate  of  the  British  occupation  of  Egypt. 

The  issue  between  Egypt  and  England  is  simple  enough  in  itself. 
I  cannot  conceal  my  conviction  that  Kamil  Pasha  created  a  state  of 
feeling  in  Egypt  more  akin  to  patriotism  than  had  been  known  there 
before ;  and  that  this  feeling  can  be  best  described  as  one  of  general 
unrest.  I  cannot  doubt  that,  whether  reasonably  or  unreasonably, 
English  rule  is  viewed  with  disfavour  by  the  great  majority  of  the 
Egyptian  public,  and  that  if  we  are  to  reconcile  Egypt  to  our  dominion 
we  must  adopt  other  measures  than  those  which  commended  themselves 
to  the  British  Agency  under  the  late  Administration.  It  is  obvious 
that  the  Nationalists  feel  it  their  duty,  or  at  any  rate  their  interest, 
to  stand  up  for  the  establishment  of  complete  parliamentary  govern- 
ment in  Egypt  similar  to  that  which  has  been  recently  accorded  by 
the  Sultan  to  the  whole  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  At  the  same  time 
I  think  the  Nationalist  party  in  Egypt  are  fully  alive  to  the  truth  of 
the  saying  that  *  there  is  many  a  slip  between  the  cup  and  the  lip,' 
and  are  aware  that,  however  high  their  hopes  may  run,  the  conversion 
of  Turkey  into  a  State  ruled  by  a  freely  elected  Parliament 
is  still  far  from  being  an  accomplished  fact.  This  being  so,  the 
Egyptian  delegates,  in  as  far  as  I  can  ascertain,  are  not  unwilling  to 
accept  a  compromise  under  which  their  delegates  would  consent  not 
to  agitate  for  the  early  withdrawal  of  the  British  troops  from  Egypt, 
on  condition  of  some  form  of  parliamentary  self-government  being 
immediately  introduced  into  Egypt  as  being  an  integral  province  of 
the  Ottoman  Empire.  The  question,  therefore,  we  have  to  consider 
is  whether  the  suggested  compromise  should  be  accepted  by  England, 
supposing  it  to  be  proffered. 

It  would  be  premature  to  discuss  the  specific  form  under  which 
powers  might  be  given  to  provincial  municipalities  to  raise  their  own 
rates,  discuss  their  own  affairs  and  frame  their  own  budgets,  by  local 
parliaments  freely  elected  by  the  people.  I  am  not  over-sanguine  as 
to  the  ultimate  result  of  putting  new  wine  into  old  bottles,  but  I  hold, 
after  the  collapse  of  our  policy  which  aimed  at  attempting  to  Anglicise 
Egypt,  some  attempt  should  be  made  by  a  wise  Government  and  a 
wise  people  to  proceed  on  new  lines  under  which  the  Egyptians  might 


1908    NEW  PHASE  OF  THE  EASTEBN  QUESTION  386 

I 

be  allowed  to  have  some  reasonable  share  in  the  administration  of  their 
own  country. 

The  mere  fact  of  such  a  proposal  being  suggested  by  the  delegates  of 
Young  Egypt  shows  that,  as  I  have  contended  for  years,  Lord  DufEerin 
was  right  in  saying  in  his  epoch-marking  report  that  the  Indian 
system  of  a  native  State  administered  by  native  officials  and  super- 
vised by  a  British  Resident,  was  the  one  he  would  have  recommended 
if  he  had  not  been  precluded  from  so  doing  by  the  terms  of  his  man- 
date. It  is  mainly  because  I  hope  the  concession  of  municipal  self- 
government  may  lead  to  the  ultimate  adoption  of  Lord  Dufferin's 
policy  that  I  should  rejoice  to  see  the  compromise  in  question  meet 
with  the  approval  of  his  Majesty's  Ministers. 

EDWARD  DICEY. 


VOL.  LXIV— No.  379  D  D 


886  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 


OUR    PROTECTORATES 
AND    ASIATIC   IMMIGRATION 


DURING  the  last  few  years  we  have  had  a  flood  of  correspondence, 
Blue  Books,  Commission  Reports,  and  various  other  literary  produc- 
tions launched  at  us  from  all  sides  upon  the  subject  of  the  expansion 
of  Asia  and  the  immigration  of  Asiatics  to  other  spheres.  'Crises  in 
respect  of  it  have  recently  arisen  in  America,  Canada,  Australia,  and 
South  Africa.  In  a  degree  it  formed  one  of  the  determining  causes 
of  friction  which,  with  others  relating  to  aliens,  helped  to  fill  up  the 
schedule  of  grievances  that  led  to  firm  remonstrances  and  eventually 
to  the  great  war  in  South  Africa. 

Quite  lately  the  question  has  received  technical  treatment  at  the 
hands  of  British  and  Colonial  statesmen  and  others  who  have  given  it 
special  study,  and  have  been  induced  to  record  their  views  based  upon 
experience. 

We  find,  for  instance,  a  series  of  illuminating  papers  contributed 
to  the  new  weekly,  The  Standard  of  Empire,  by  distinguished  persons 
like  Lord  Milner,  Mr.  Alfred  Lyttelton,  M.P.,  and  Sir  Lewis  Tupper, 
all  of  whom  have  held  high  office  under  the  Crown  either  in-  England 
or  its  dependencies  ;  by  Mr.  Harney,  K.C.,  a  Senator  to  the  Common- 
wealth Parliament ;  by  Mr.  Maydon,  at  one  time  Colonial  Secretary  of 
Natal ;  and  by  Sir  William  Arbuckle,  formerly  President  of  the  Natal 
Legislative  Council  and  now  Agent-General  for  that  Colony  in  London. 

A  vigorous  and  able  address  was  delivered  before  the  Royal  Society 
of  Arts  by  Mr.  Richard  Jebb,  entitled  '  The  Imperial  Problem  of 
Asiatic  Immigration,'  in  which  the  proposition  is  carefully  and  criti- 
cally enunciated  from  the  points  of  view  of  the  Empire,  the  Colonies, 
and  the  Asiatics.  In  papers  read  before  the  Royal  Colonial  Institute 
by  Mr.  A.  R.  Colquhoun  on  '  Our  East  African  Empire,'  and  by  Mr. 
E.  R.  Davson  on  '  British  Guiana,'  the  matter  is  freely  discussed  from 
their  points  of  view  after  travel  and  investigation  on  the  spot,  and 
Mr.  Winston  Churchill,  M.P.,  narrating  his  '  African  Journey '  in  the 
Strand  Magazine,  has  much  to  say  about  it. 

These  statesmen  and  writers,  as  a  rule,  strike  the  same  note  in 


1908  ASIATIC  IMMIGRATION  887 

moderate  terms  and,  with  certain  exceptions  to  be  alluded  to,  arrive 
by  different  roads  more  or  less  at  a  common  conclusion,  viz.  : 

1.  That  the  Imperial  view  of  the  problem  is  powerfully  influenced 
by  considerations  relating  to  our  trade  and  commerce ;  our  duty 
and  obligations  to  the  people  of  India ;  our  alliances  and  friendly 
relations  with  Japan,  China,  and  other  countries. 

2.  That  there  is  profound  repugnance  on  the  part    of    British 
colonists  to  Asiatic  immigration,   whether  from    British    India  or 
otherwise,   based   upon   the   convictions   that    fusion  is  impossible, 
that  social  and  political  equality  are  impracticable,  and  that  terri- 
tories won  by  British  energy  and  enterprise  should  be  debarred  from 
invasion  by  Orientals  whose  characteristics  and  ideas  make  their 
presence  injurious  to  indigenous  nationalism.      (I  adopt    the  term 
'  indigenous  nationalism,'  used  and  defined  by  Mr.  Jebb  to  mean  the 
intention  or  endeavour  to  build  up  an  indigenous  nation   of   the 
British  and  democratic  type.) 

The  position  is  one  which  presents  extraordinarily  difficult  features. 
Mr.  Chamberlain,  who  as  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies  was 
called  upon  to  address  the  Premiers  at  the  Colonial  Conference  in 
1897,  expressed  the  Imperial  idea  in  the  following  terms  : 

We  quite  sympathise  with  the  determination  of  the  white  inhabitants  of  the 
Colonies,  which  are  in  comparatively  close  proximity  to  millions  and  hundreds  of 
millions  of  Asiatics,  that  there  should  not  be  an  influx  of  people  alien  in  civilisa- 
tion, alien  in  religion,  alien  in  customs,  whose  influx  moreover  would  most 
seriously  interfere  with  the  legitimate  rights  of  the  existing  labour  population. 
An  immigration  of  that  kind  must,  I  quite  understand,  in  the  interests  of  the 
Colonies,  be  prevented  at  all  hazards,  and  we  shall  not  offer  any  opposition  to 
the  proposals  intended  with  that  object ;  but  we  also  ask  you  to  bear  in  mind 
the  traditions  of  the  Empire  which  makes  no  distinction  in  favour  of,  or  against, 
race  or  colour ;  and  to  exclude,  by  reason  of  their  colour  or  by  reason  of  their 
race,  all  her  Majesty's  Indian  subjects,  or  even  all  Asiatics,  would  be  an  act  so 
offensive  to  those  peoples  that  it  would  be  most  painful  I  am  certain  to  her 
Majesty  to  have  to  sanction  it. 

And  again,  in  a  despatch  two  years  afterwards  to  the  Governor- 
General  of  Canada  upon  the  subject  of  the  exclusion  of  Japanese 
citizens  from  British  Columbia,  he  stated  that  any  attempt  to  restrict 
immigration  or  to  impose  disqualifications  on  distinctions  of  race  and 
colour,  besides  being  offensive  to  friendly  Powers,  is  contrary  to  the 
general  principles  of  equality  which  have  been  the  guiding  principle 
of  British  rule. 

The  case  for  the  Colonies  is  set  forth  at  length  in  the  Keport  of 
the  Canadian  Royal  Commission,  published  in  1902,  wherein  much 
light  is  shed  in  a  summarised  form  on  Colonial  opinion  which  is 
reflected  in  the  concluding  note  to  certain  resolutions  passed  in  1888 
at  a  conference  of  all  the  Australian  Governments.  This  note  is  to 
the  effect  that  in  so  serious  a  crisis  the  Colonial  Governments  had  felt 
called  upon  to  take  strong  and  decisive  action  to  protect  their  people  • 

D   D    2 


888  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

but  in  so  doing  they  had  been  studious  of  Imperial  interests,  of  inter- 
national obligations,  and  of  their  reputations  as  law-abiding  communi- 
ties. They  relied  confidently,  however,  upon  the  support  and  assist- 
ance of  her  Majesty's  Government  in  their  endeavour  to  prevent 
their  country  from  being  overrun  by  an  alien  race,  who  are  incapable 
of  assimilation  in  the  body  politic,  strangers  to  their  civilisation,  out 
of  sympathy  with  their  aspirations,  and  unfitted  for  their  free  institu- 
tions, and  whose  presence  in  any  number  would  be  a  source  of 
constant  danger. 

There  is  no  uncertainty  as  to  the  meaning  the  Conference  intended 
to  convey  in  its  Report,  and  when  Sir  Henry  Parkes,  after  prolonged 
negotiations  with  the  Imperial  Government,  was  challenged  to  defend 
in  the  Legislature  the  refusal  of  his  Government  to  let  Chinese  land 
on  Australian  shores,  he  vindicated  the  policy  of  his  Ministry  in 
the  following  terms,  which,  though  high-sounding,  are  not  without 
significance  : 

If  in  doing  that  we  have  infringed  any  law,  I  say  that  this  House  is  bound 
in  honour  to  indemnify  us  because  in  infringing  the  law  we  have  obeyed  the 
higher  law  of  conserving  society.  .  .  .  Neither  for  her  Majesty's  ships  of  war, 
nor  for  her  Majesty's  representative  on  the  spot,  nor  for  the  Secretary  of  State 
for  the  Colonies,  do  we  intend  to  turn  aside  from  our  purpose. 

Though  it  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  article  to  deal  with  the  wider 
aspect  of  the  subject  as  it  affects  colonies  with  responsible  government, 
but  to  treat  particularly  of  its  relation  to  British  Protectorates  where 
there  are  aboriginal  populations,  the  above  points  should  engage 
attention  because  they  bear  materially  upon  a  vexed  question  into 
which  a  good  deal  of  sentiment  has  penetrated. 

Lessons  are  and  ought  to  be  learnt  from  past  experience.  It  is 
therefore  surprising  to  find  a  Cabinet  Minister  holding  .the  important 
position  of  Under-Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies  committing 
himself  to  ill-considered  expressions  of  opinion  which,  if  not  in  some 
measure  binding  upon  the  Government  of  the  day,  are  disturbing  and 
compromising  as  regards  both  India  and  our  Protectorates. 

I  refer  to  utterances  of  the  Right  Hon.  Winston  Churchill  after  his 
fleeting  visit  to  East  Africa,  and  to  his  articles  in  the  Strand  Magazine 
entitled  '  My  African  Journey.'  Mr.  Churchill's  writings  always 
command  a  large  audience ;  they  are  so  attractive  and  full  of  verve. 
But  that  is  all  the  more  reason  why,  when  directing  the  affairs  of  a 
great  department  like  the  Colonial  Office,  he  should  have  been  careful 
of  inexactitudes,  and  refrained  from  sporting  with  a  problem  with 
which  the  Western  world  is  sorely  troubled,  more  especially  at  a 
moment  when  South  Africa  was  still  wrestling  with  complications 
arising  out  of  the  presence  of  Asiatics  and  British  Indians.  At  that 
time  delicate  negotiations  were  being  conducted  (they  are  still  going 
on)  with  the  object  of  trying  to  find  a  working  solution  of  the  Transvaal 
imbroglio,  and  simultaneously  there  was  on  the  stocks  a  draft  Bill 


1908  ASIATIC  IMMIGRATION  889 

to  come  before  the  Natal  Parliament  to  prevent  the  further  introduc- 
tion of  Indians  into  that  Colony,  whilst  throughout  South  Africa  the 
general  tendency  was  towards  repatriation  of  imported  aliens. 
Mr.  Churchill,  in  his  journal,  forcibly  remarks  : 

The  problems  of  East  Africa  are  the  problems  of  the  world.  We  see  the  social, 
racial,  and  economic  stresses  which  rack  modern  society  already  at  work  here, 
but  in  miniature  ;  and  if  we  choose  to  study  the  model  when  the  whole  engine 
is  at  hand,  it  is  because  on  the  smaller  scale  we  can  see  more  clearly,  and  because 
in  East  Africa  and  Uganda  the  future  is  still  uncompromised. 

He  then,  though  seemingly  hinting  the  necessity  for  caution,  makes 
an  attempt  to  compromise  the  future,  but  not  without  misgivings, 
for  he  says,  '  I  wonder  why  my  pen  slips  ofE  into  these  labyrinths.' 

The  inexactitudes  to  which  I  allude,  and  which  for  convenience 
of  reference  I  will  number  1  and  2,  are  contained  in  the  following 
quotations  selected  for  comparison  : 

1.  I  have  written   of  Europeans  and  Asiatics.      What  of   the   African  ? 
Nearly  five  millions   of  these  dark  folk   are  comprised  within  the  districts 
of  the  East  African  Protectorate  which  are  actually  or  partially  administered. 
Many  more  lie  beyond  those  wide  and  advancing  boundaries.     What  is  to  be  their 
part  in  shaping  the  future  of  their  country  ?     It  is,  after  all,  their  Africa.  .  .  . 
I  am  clearly  of  opinion  that  no  man  has  a  right  to  be  idle.     He  is  bound  to  go 
forward  and  take  an  honest  share  in  the  work  of  the  world.     And  I  do  not  except 
the  African  native.     To  a  very  much  larger  extent  than  is  often  recognised 
by  some  who  discuss  these  questions,  the  natives  are  industrious,  willing  to 
learn,  and  capable  of  being  led  forward.  .  .  .  Live  for  a  few  weeks  as  I  have 
done  in  close  association  with  the  disciplined  soldiers  of  the  King's  African 
Rifles.  .  .  .  How  strong,  how  good-natured,  how  clever  they  are !  .  .  .  Just 
and    honourable    discipline,    careful    education,    sympathetic    comprehension, 
are  all  that  is  required  to  bring  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  native  tribes  of 
East  Africa  to  a  far  higher  social  level  than  that  at  which  they  now  stand.  .  .  . 
The  British  Government  has  it  in  its  hands  to  shape  the  development  and  destiny 
of  these  new  countries  and  their  varied  peoples.     [All  italics  are  mine.J 

Here  we  have  a  strikingly  correct  picture  and  a  policy.  An  abori- 
ginal population  to  be  counted  by  millions,  with  many  more  beyond, 
occupying  a  country  admittedly  theirs  :  the  desire  to  advance,  the 
capacity  to  rise  to  higher  levels,  and  the  willingness  of  the  ruling 
power  to  shape  and  develop  it.  These  are  surely  some  of  the  consti- 
tuents which  go  to  form  what  Mr.  Jebb  calls  indigenous  nationalism. 

And  how  does  Mr.  Churchill  propose  to  shape  their  development 
and  destiny  ?  What  sort  of  measure  does  he  mete  out  for  the  dwellers 
in  millions  of  East  Africa  whose  multiplication  and  advance  he  antici- 
pates ?  He  first  of  all  flouts  what  there  is  of  a  white  population — 
now  numbering,  it  is  true,  but  a  few  thousand — for  their  '  strident 
tones '  and  '  vigorous  shrieking '  (which  may  yet  have  to  be  listened  to), 
and  then  adumbrates  his  second  policy  : 

2.  The  mighty  continent  of  tropical  Africa  lies  open  to  the  colonising  and 
organising  capacity  of  the  East.  ...  It  may  be  contended  that  the  very  fact 
that  the  native  of  British  India  will  undoubtedly  ...  be  refused  access  .  . 


390  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

to  several  South  African  and  all  Australian  colonies  .  .  .  makes  it  all  the 
more  desirable  that  the  Imperial  Government  should  afford  in  the  tropical 
protectorates  outlet  and  scope  to  the  enterprise  and  colonising  capacity  of 
Hindustan.  .  .  .  There  is  no  reason  why  .  .  .  the  Asiatic,  if  only  he  does  not 
teach  the  African  evil  ways — a  contingency  which  must  not  be  forgotten — should 
not  be  encouraged  to  trade  and  settle  as  he  will  in  the  enormous  regions  of  tropical 
fertility  to  which  he  is  adapted. 

Now,  I  maintain  that  the  policies  forecast  in  these  two  sets  of 
quotations  overlap  and  conflict.  The  tropical  protectorates  cannot 
be  held  available  to  both  the  expanding  millions  of  Africa  and  of 
India.  It  is  not  correct  to  say  there  is  ample  room  for  both.  If  you 
eliminate  the  spheres  of  prospective  occupation  by  whites  and  blacks, 
there  remain  no  enormous  regions  of  fertility  to  barter  with  except 
in  arid,  swampy  and  unhealthy  places  where  immigrants  would  find  a 
worthless  gift.  I  shall  endeavour  to  show  by  and  by  that  the  mixture 
of  coloured  races  is  undesirable  from  administrative  and  other  points 
of  view,  and  that  the  attempt  to  procure  it  will  prove  unsatisfactory. 

The  case  which  I  am  aiming  to  establish  will  be  made  clearer  if  we 
glance  for  a  moment  at  South  Africa,  whose  modern  history  is  familiar 
to  us,  and  which  affords  in  some  measure,  from  climatic  and  other 
aspects,  an  illustration  of  what  East  Africa  may  become ;  for,  though 
the  latter  is  more  equatorial,  heat  and  cold,  fever  and  scourges  are 
common  to  both  latitudes. 

A  century  ago  the  white  settler  population  of  the  Cape,  after  one 
hundred  years  of  effective  occupation,  numbered  but  few  thousands. 
So  late  as  1856,  the  then  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies,  remon- 
strating with  those  who  wished  to  extend  the  British  dominions  to  the 
Orange  Eiver,  stated  that '  Cape  Town  and  Table  Bay  were  all  England 
really  required  in  South  Africa,'  and  later,  that '  the  responsibility  and 
cost  of  Great  Britain  becoming  the  paramount  Power  in  South  Africa 
would  far  outweigh  any  possible  advantages.' 

The  same  lack  of  appreciation  of  the  position  and  of  imagination 
then  displayed,  and  which  had  prompted  at  an  earlier  date  the  dumping 
of  low-type  convicts  in  Australia,  Virginia,  and  other  possessions, 
may  be  answerable  for  errors  of  judgment  to-day. 

But  what  has  happened  since  ?  South  Africa  is  now  settled 
by  a  white  population  of  a  million  and  a  half,  extending  from  Cape 
Town  to  the  Zambesi,  and  we  have  fought  strenuously  for  the  para 
mountcy.  The  coating  of  settlement  may  as  yet  be  thin.  But  the 
point  is  that  the  discovery  of  mineral  wealth,  resulting  to  the  world's 
benefit  of  an  aggregate  output  of  over  two  hundred  millions  in  gold,  and 
other  attractions  caused  a  rapid  and  sustained  increase  of  Europeans. 
These  white  people  are  formed  into  colonies  with  constitutions  worked 
on  progressive  lines,  and  are  there  to  stay  ;  they  have  in  fact  created 
an  indigenous  nationalism  now  preparing  to  federate  and  control 
the  whole  sub-continent  with  one  central  idea.  At  the  same  time 
the  native  population  has  multiplied  and  spread  out  with  greater 


1908  ASIATIC  IMMIGBATION  891 

rapidity,  and,  by  means  of  education  and  other  forms  of  enlighten- 
ment, is  leaving  barbarism  behind  and  rising  fast  to  a  higher  level. 

But,  as  if  a  native  problem  with  its  proportion  of  five  blacks  to 
one  white  were  not  sufficient,  Natal  on  gaining  its  charter  as  a  colony 
committed  the  fatal  error  of  introducing  Indians  to  work  in  its  semi- 
tropical  districts,  from  the  unhappy  consequences  of  which  she  is 
now  repenting  and  struggling  to  be  freed.  In  the  words  of  Sir  William 
Arbuckle,  the  Agent-General  in  England  : 

Forty-eight  years  ago  the  supply  of  native  labour  in  Natal  for  the  sugar 
plantations  proved  to  be  unreliable  .  .  .  and  indentured  labourers  from  India 
were  imported.  ...  In  the  contracts  ...  no  mention  was  made  of  their 
return  to  India — an  unfortunate  omission.  They  were  therefore  free  to  remain 
in  Natal.  ...  I  fear  we  did  not  then  adequately  recognise  the  danger.  .  .  . 
The  Indians,  like  the  Kaffirs,  are  a  prolific  race,  and  to-day  we  have  in  our  midst 
a  large  number  born  and  bred  in  the  Colony  .  .  .  they  will  soon  outnumber  us. 
.  .  .  The  position  is  therefore  a  most  perplexing  one.  ...  It  is  never  too  late 
to  mend.  .  .  .  This  very  session  three  Bills  of  far-reaching  importance  are 
being  submitted  to  the  Natal  Parliament  .  .  .  their  object  is  : 

1.  To  put  an  end  to  the  introduction  of  indentured  Indian  immigrants  ; 

2.  To  prevent  the  issue  of  new  trading  licences  to  Indians  ; 

3.  To  extinguish  all  trading  licences,  held  by  Indians  after  December  1918. 

Mr.  Maydon,  the  ex-Colonial  Secretary,  unburdening  himself  in  • 
the  same  strain,  says  :   '  We  are  beginning  to  pay  now  in  troubles 
arising  in  this  country,  still  more  in  the  ferment  which  is  growing  in 
India.     But  at  present  we  have  only  begun  to  pay.' 

What  sterner  lesson  could  we  have  ? — for  Natal,  like  East  Africa, 
has  hot  and  low-lying  belts  where  white  people  do  not  thrive,  as  well 
as  delightful  highlands,  and  she  is  forced  after  a  brief  and  vexatious 
experiment  to  abandon  it  and  pay. 

It  may  be  imagined,  therefore,  that  the  very  same  conditions 
which  have  influenced  the  affairs  of  South  Africa  in  general  and 
Natal  in  particular  may  come  to  prevail  in  East  Africa,  where 
everything  is  yet  in  the  making.  For,  there  are  to  be  found  high 
and  healthy  tablelands  in  which  white  people  thrive  and  flourish  ; 
where  cattle-ranching  succeeds,  and  the  cereals  in  common  use  by 
Europeans  grow  ;  where  coffee,  sugar,  and  rubber,  having  a  high  com- 
mercial value  in  European  markets,  are  cultivated  ;  and  where  the 
export  of  cotton,  which  the  natives,  according  to  the  last  official 
reports,  are  being  encouraged  to  plant,  is  sensibly  increasing. 

And  then,  too,  for  all  we  know  there  is  mineral  wealth  stored  away 
to  be  revealed  as  a  surprise,  as  it  was  in  South  Africa,  in  which  case 
the  civilised  world  would  throng  there  by  tens  of  thousands.  Sir  Charles 
Eliot,  in  his  recent  book  on  the  East  African  Protectorate,  points 
out  that  the  investigations  in  mineralogy  have  been  surprisingly  few, 
and  that  so  far  there  is  little  ground  for  anticipating  the  discovery 
of  rich  deposits.  (But  how  many  discoveries  have  been  anticipated  ? 
At  one  time  the  farms  on  which  the  Transvaal  gold  mines  and  Kimberley 


892  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

diamond  mines  now  stand  would  have  changed  hands  readily  for  a 
few  hundreds,  whereas  they  are  now  worth  millions.)  He  refers 
incidentally,  however,  to  the  presence  of  gold  on  the  shores  of  Lake 
Victoria,  and  to  a  reef  crossing  the  boundary  of  German  territory, 
as  well  as  to  the  presence  of  silver,  opals,  agates,  mica,  and  iron  in 
great  abundance. 

So  that — and  this  I  want  to  emphasise — in  time  to  come  when 
breathing-space  has  been  allowed,  the  elevated  plateaux  of  East  Africa 
may  become  the  centre  of  a  colony  having  great  possibilities,  with  a 
strong  and  progressive  Government  who,  in  the  uphill  fight  common 
to  all  new  colonies,  may  well  be  spared  multicolour  problems  recklessly 
built  up  for  them  to-day. 

And  now  let  us  turn  to  matters  relating  to  the  native  Africans,  to 
the  Indians  whose  characteristics  are  so  different,  and  consider  what 
their  mixture  entails  upon  the  Administration,  and  upon  the  country 
in  which  they  are  proposed  to  be  mingled  as  part  of  an  organised  scheme. 

First,  as  regards  British  Indians  ;  it  is  unwarranted  to  suppose 
that  we  can  be  inimical  to  them,  or  insensible  to  their  interests,  or 
unmindful  of  our  obligations  to  them  as  being  subjects  of  the  Empire. 
They  number  over  300  millions,  whose  development  and  welfare  we  are 
bound  to  consider.  It  is  imperative  that  we  should  keep  faith  with 
them,  that  we  should  be  proud  of  them,  and  not  ignore  the  loyalty 
which  as  a  whole  they  have  shown,  nor  the  services  many  have  ren- 
dered to  the  Crown.  Moreover,  it  must  not  be  overlooked  that  the 
Indian  Empire  is  a  valuable  and  almost  exclusive  centre  of  British 
trade,  for  which  purpose  it  was  acquired  by  the  East  India  Company, 
who  were  the  missionaries  of  trade  and  commerce.  But  our  respect 
for  and  present  duties  to  the  people  of  India  and  their  need  for  ex- 
pansion offer  no  reason  why  we  should,  in  discharging  .our  obligations 
to  them,  imperil  the  existence  and  expansion  of  other  races  dwelling 
in  Africa,  whose  claims  there  have  first  call  upon  us  and  who  are 
silently  appealing  to  us. 

The  whole  history  of  India  and  its  people,  whose  character  for 
intelligence,  energy,  and  demeanour  is  of  a  high  order,  contrasts  with 
the  idea  that  their  exploitation  of  the  African  continent  is  suitable. 
Their  traditions,  caste,  customs,  and  pursuits  do  not  lend  themselves 
to  assimilation  in  any  form  with  that  of  the  African  natives,  from 
whom  they  so  widely  differ,  and  who  will,  according  to  all  precedents, 
multiply  and  extend. 

It  seems  therefore  so  undesirable,  so  unnecessary,  to  obtrude 
gratuitously  a  foreign  element  which  requires  to  be  governed  by 
imported  experts  and  its  own  peculiar  penal  codes,  and  thus  kindle 
race  problems  in  addition  to  those  already  existing. 

It  may  be  argued  that  it  would  be  easy  to  put  them  in  a  ring- 
fence  under  trained  officials  and  limit  the  risk  of  clashing  by  complete 
segregation.  But,  then,  their  natural  increase  could  not  be  arrested, 


1908  ASIATIC  IMMIGRATION  393 

and,  when  that  made  itself  felt,  a  new  problem  of  expansion  would 
be  bound  to  arise  at  the  moment  when  the  expansion  of  the  natives 
was  also  impending,  so  that  the  overflow  of  Indians  from  Africa 
would  become  a  question  of  major  importance. 

It  is  no  good  to  confine  our  surveillance  of  the  prospect  to  what 
may  appear  convenient  to-day.  We  should  have  the  prescience  to 
look  ahead  fifty  years  and  calculate  consequences,  for  that  is  as 
much  a  function  of  statesmen  as  to  find  solutions  for  the  pressing 
contingencies  of  the  hour. 

Now,  I  referred  above  to  expert  government  and  special  codes, 
believing  that,  with  the  introduction  of  a  foreign  and  alien  element, 
you  are  bound  to  make  special  provision  for  its  control.  In  con- 
firmation of  this  view,  I  will  quote  Sir  Lewis  Tupper,  whose  opinion, 
based  upon  long  and  distinguished  experience,  carries  great  weight. 
Writing  upon  the  '  Problems  of  Empire,'  he  says  : 

Indian  races  are  widely  separated  from  African  races,  and  I  suggest  no 
comparison  between  them.  But  I  do  not  think  it  would  be  to  the  advantage  of 
Indians  to  settle  in  countries  where  they  could  not  be  aided  by  those  who  under- 
stand them  to  a  certain  extent,  as  we  who  have  long  served  in  India  may  be 
allowed  to  hope  we  do. 

And  Lord  Morley,  when  lately  defending  his  policy  in  India, 
repudiated  the  idea  that  it  is  possible  in  practical  politics  to  frame 
and  shape  one  system  of  government  for  communities  with  absolutely 
different  sets  of  social,  religious,  and  economic  conditions. 

To  indicate  what  I  mean  as  to  the  necessities  and  drawbacks  of  a 
dual  system  of  control,  let  me  recall  the  embarrassments  into  which 
Natal  was  plunged  in  providing  for  its  Indian  population.  A  reference 
to  the  Statutes  of  that  Colony  will  show  that  between  the  date  of 
the  introduction  of  Indians  in  1856  and  the  year  1900  no  fewer  than 
thirty-eight  Acts  of  Parliament  had  to  be  passed,  apart  from  the 
promulgation  of  numerous  Regulations,  relating  exclusively  to  Indian 
immigrants  ;  the  average  of  legislative  enactments  since  the  latter 
date  has  been  maintained. 

In  1903  an  Act  was  passed  to  place  closer  restrictions  on  immi- 
gration. The  Act,  though  purporting  to  be  of  general  effect  in 
prohibiting  any  class  of  immigrants  whose  presence  was  not  desired, 
was  aimed  no  doubt  at  Indians,  and  it  has  since  been  almost  universally 
adopted  as  a  standard  law  in  other  colonies.  But  the  climax  in 
Natal  has  now  been  reached  in  the  proposed  Act  *  to  put  an  end  to 
the  introduction  of  Indian  immigrants.' 

The  demands  for  special  legislation  will  be  better  understood  if 
the  titles  and  objects  of  one  or  two  of  the  Acts  are  given,  i.e.  : 

1.  To  create  an  Indian  Immigration  Trust  Board. 

2.  To  protect  uncovenanted   Indians  from  arrest  in  mistake  for 
absconding  indentured  Indian  servants. 

3.  To  amend  and  consolidate  the  laws  relating  to  the  introduction 


894  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

of  Indian  immigrants  and  to  the  regulation  and  government  of  such 
immigrants.  (This  law,  as  amended  at  frequent  intervals,  extends 
to  119  sections,  and  makes  provision  to  deal  with  matters  affecting 
protectors  and  other  executive  staff ;  interpreters ;  contracts ;  wages ; 
registration ;  absence  without  leave ;  transfers ;  inspections ;  medical 
care  and  hospitals ;  estates ;  marriages,  births,  and  deaths ;  divorces, 
adultery,  seduction  and  abduction,  besides  a  variety  of  other  things 
incidental  to  aliens  with  strange  customs.) 

The  cost  of  various  Departments,  special  courts  and  officers  has 
thus  been  entailed  upon  the  Government  in  order  to  maintain  the 
cumbrous  machinery  of  supervision  and  control  of  Indians,  sup- 
plementary to  the  ordinary  work  of  the  State  in  administering  the 
affairs  of  its  domiciled  white  population,  in  addition  to  that  of  its 
natives,  for  whom  there  is  at  the  same  time  a  Code  of  native  law 
with  298  sections. 

Similarly,  the  Transvaal,  with  its  native  and  other  race  problems, 
is  burdened  with  an  Indian  Department  and  burning  questions  affect- 
ing Indians,  particulars  of  which  are  to  be  found  in  volumes  of  Blue 
Books  that  have  been  loading  our  shelves  for  years  ;  whilst  in  British 
Guiana  the  imported  East  Indians,  who  number  42  per  cent,  of  the 
population,  appear  to  be  a  law  unto  themselves,  for,  according  to 
Mr.  Davson,  they  have  not  only  acquired  political  power  under  the 
franchise,  but  have  banded  together  with  other  coloured  sections 
and  become  *  a  hindrance,  if  not  a  danger,  to  the  State.' 

The  same  sort  of  procedure  found  requisite  for  Natal  would  be 
required  in  any  country  placed  in  similar  circumstances  ;  yet  we 
are  invited  to  establish  such  an  order  of  things  in  East  Africa  and 
saddle  that  new  territory  with  a  form  of  dual  administration  which 
has  already  been  found  full  of  perplexities  elsewhere.  • 

And  what  of  the  African  native  population  ?  On  every  side, 
except  where  an  epidemic  like  sleeping  sickness  is  raging,  they  are 
increasing  by  leaps  and  bounds.  In  southern  latitudes,  where  we 
must  look  for  the  prototype,  the  greater  part  of  their  arable  land  has 
been  absorbed  in  cultivation,  so  that  future  generations  may  have  to 
seek  occupations  other  than  as  agriculturists.  In  Cape  Colony, 
Natal,  Basutoland,  Orange  River  Colony,  and  Transvaal,  there  are  no 
longer  vacant  tracts  to  be  allotted.  In  Bechuanaland  Protectorate 
and  Rhodesia  there  are  certain  areas  not  under  beneficial  occupation, 
but,  where  not  waterless  or  infertile,  they  are  earmarked  for  it. 

This  promises  to  be  the  situation  in  which  the  natives  of  East 
Africa  will  be  placed  in  due  course  after  a  reign  of  peace  and  protection. 

Mr.  Churchill  told  the  Fellows  of  the  Royal  Colonial  Institute 
he  was  less  interested  in  East  Africa  than  in  Uganda,  and  he  went  on 
to  say  : 

Yon  travel  through  East  Africa  and  everywhere  see  swarms  of  savages 
in  the  primal  squalor  of  mankind.  But  when  you  come  to  Uganda  you  find 


1908  ASIATIC  IMMIGRATION  895 

a  clothed,  highly  intelligent,  orderly  peaceful  race,  200,000  of  whom  can  read  or 
write  ...  a  race  with  an  elaborate  feudal  system  under  which  they  are 
governed  .  .  .  with  their  own  laws  ...  all  the  machinery  in  fact  of  a  highly 
developed  polity  .  .  .  entitling  .  .  .  them  to  be  called  the  Japanese  of  Africa. 

Do  not  these  words  contain  a  warning  ?  All  analogy  justifies  a 
reasonable  expectation  that  the  swarms  of  savages  alluded  to  will, 
when  they  come  under  beneficent  influences,  progress  as  rapidly  as 
those  of  Uganda,  who  but  a  few  years  ago  were  like  unto  them,  and 
that  these  Bantu  people,  hitherto  broken  and  separated  by  slave - 
raiding  and  tribal  feuds,  will  before  long  be  welded  into  one  homo- 
geneous body  partaking  of  the  education  and  opportunities  for  intel- 
lectual development  to  be  derived  under  British  rule.  When  that 
day  comes,  as  it  surely  must,  they  may  demand,  on  the  principle  of 
self-preservation,  that  an  alien  race  alongside  them  shall  be  rigidly 
confined  within  limits — may  even  demand  its  repatriation — and  then 
will  arise  the  serious  question,  How  to  be  rid  of  this  Indian  experi- 
ment ?  Nothing,  indeed,  is  more  likely. 

It  is  sometimes  alleged,  as  Mr.  Colquhoun  does  in  his  paper  on '  Our 
East  African  Empire,'  that  these  natives  are  by  no  means  indigenous, 
some  being  marauding  tribes  and  some  nomads.  We  must,  however, 
remember  that  they  were  in  possession  when  the  earliest  explorers 
discovered  them,  and  that  they  were  driven  from  pillar  to  post  by 
the  Portuguese  at  times  and  by  the  Arabs  in  their  slave-raiding 
expeditions.  In  Theal's  History  and  Ethnography  we  find  quotations 
from  the  great  work  of  Macoudi,  A.D.  943,  entitled  Les  Prairies  ifOr, 
issued  with  the  original  Arabic  text  in  1877.  That  writer  describes 
the  Bantu  as  '  inhabiting  the  country  as  far  south  as  Sofala.'  The 
narrative  of  Tippoo  Tib,  the  great  slave-trader,  related  in  his  own 
words,  is  a  revelation  of  the  unscrupulous  cruelty  with  which  he 
scattered  Bantu  tribes  that  stood  in  his  way  in  his  quest  for  slaves. 

But,  however  that  may  be,  slave-trading  is  now  at  an  end,  wanton 
destruction  has  ceased,  and  the  natives  as  a  whole  are  under  benevolent 
rule  which  admits  of  their  enlightenment.  Without  venturing  to 
estimate  the  intellectual  standard  to  which  they  have  the  capacity 
to  attain,  it  is  certain  that  they  are  able  to  rise  to  a  much  higher 
level  than  that  at  which  the  great  majority  now  stand. 

Mr.  Jebb,  in  his  reasoned  paper  on  the  *  Imperial  Problem  of 
Asiatic  Immigration,'  advocates  warmly  the  rights  and  privileges  of 
'  indigenous  nationalism.'  But  his  liberality  of  view  is  not  extended 
to  the  natives.  He  observes  : 

It  has  been  suggested  that,  by  way  of  compensation  for  their  exclusion 
from  South  Africa,  the  Indians  should  have  East  Africa  set  apart  for  them.  There 
is  no  objection  to  this  proposal  in  Imperial  theory  unless  the  local  natives  have 
a  case.  ...  If  the  reservation  of  East  Africa  for  Indian  settlement  would  assist, 
either  morally  or  materially,  the  solution  of  this  problem,  by  all  means  let  us 
agree  to  it. 


896  THE  NINETEENTH  GENTUBY  Sept. 

It  is  this  light-hearted  way  of  donating  with  a  wave  of  the  hand 
what  belongs  by  inheritance  to  others  against  which  I  protest.  Mr. 
Jebb,  if  he  is  not  authorised  to  suggest  this  handsome  gift,  is  only 
following  the  lead  of  those  in  authority  who  advocate  a  magnanimous 
policy  at  the  expense  of  others  without  considering  the  ultimate 
consequences.  According  to  a  Blue  Book  just  issued,  the  Governor 
of  East  Africa  is  partial  to  the  same  idea,  for  he  refers  to  the  growing 
tendency  amongst  the  white  settlers  to  keep  the  Indian  not  only  out 
of  the  uplands,  but  out  of  the  country  altogether,  the  spirit  of  which, 
he  says,  is  akin  to  that  prevailing  in  Natal  and  elsewhere  ;  and  he 
sees  no  reason  why  we  should  not  give  small  allotments  of  land  to 
agricultural  Indians.  The  spirit  to  which  the  Governor  alludes  is 
that  of  people  whose  voices  are  as  yet  faint ;  but  the  sound  may 
grow  distinct  in  East  Africa  as  it  has  grown  elsewhere.  We  have 
evidence  of  dissension  in  the  strained  relations  which  have  lately 
occurred  between  the  Governor  and  certain  members  of  his  Legislative 
Council,  resulting  in  their  suspension.  I  allude  to  this  unfortunate 
misunderstanding  for  the  reason  only  that  it  has  arisen  partly  out  of 
some  of  the  questions  discussed  in  this  paper. 

I  believe  that  if  the  history  of  the  troubles  about  Indian  immigra- 
tion that  have  ensued  in  Natal  and  other  parts  were  epitomised  and 
circulated  in  Protectorates  where  there  is  still  unallotted  land,  some 
useful  lessons  might  be  learnt  and  some  faulty  experiments  avoided.^ 

It  is  only  quite  recently  that  a  petition,  to  which  attention  was 
called  in  the  House  of  Commons,  was  sent  to  the  Colonial  Office  pro- 
testing against  the  continued  introduction  of  East  Indian  coolies 
into  Jamaica.  It  pointed  out  that  the  labouring  and  small  settler 
classes  were  unable  to  obtain  regular  employment  on  the  sugar  estates 
and  fruit  plantations,  and  were  therefore  under  the  necessity  of 
emigrating  to  seek  work ;  that  therefore  a  great  injustice  was  done  to 
these  classes  and  the  island  generally  by  taxing  them  for  expenditure 
in  connexion  with  imported  labourers  to  compete  with  the  super- 
abundant labour  market  of  the  country. 

Although  the  Secretary  of  State  was  not  prepared  to  admit  the 
entire  accuracy  of  all  the  statements  in  the  memorial,  the  case  in 
itself  presents  another  instance  of  confusion  in  which  imported  Asiatics 
have  come  into  conflict  with  the  negroes  of  Jamaica,  who  have  now 
become  the  indigenous  population  and  who,  if  the  petition  speaks 
correctly,  are  subject  to  undue  competition  for  their  daily  bread, 
just  as  would  happen  if  the  enterprising  swarm  from  Hindustan  were 
allowed  to  settle  as  it  will  and  swamp  East  Africa.  For,  be  it  remem- 
bered that  the  native  African  is  bound  to  his  country,  there  being  no 
field  of  emigration  available  to  him  except  perhaps  the  North  Pole, 
which  the  rest  of  humanity  shuns. 

It  must  be  admitted,  of  course,  that,  as  a  temporary  expedient 
to  meet  pressing  industrial  demands,  it  is  justifiable  to  import  workers. 


1908  ASIATIC  IMMIGRATION  897 

To  that  no  strong  exception  can  be  taken  so  long  as  due  provision  is 
made  for  repatriation  when  the  pressure  ceases,  as  was  the  intention 
in  respect  of  Chinese  and  the  South  African  mines.  The  point  I  wish 
to  urge  is  the  insurance  of  safeguards  against  schemes  for  permanent 
settlement,  particularly  in  East  Africa,  which  has  lately  been  focussed 
for  experiments  which  have  proved  costly  and  abortive  elsewhere. 

If  no  other  danger  existed,  there  is  the  powerful  objection  to  the 
crossing  of  the  black  and  brown  races,  which,  no  matter  what  obstacles 
are  put  in  the  way,  is  bound  to  follow  their  association.  The  results, 
as  seen  in  some  places,  are  painfully  apparent.  The  idea  of  their 
blending  may  be  summarily  dismissed,  unless  we  want  to  promote 
deterioration  of  both  races.  If  that  prospect  is  not  a  sufficient  deter- 
rent, let  us  remember  that  East  Africa  has  already,  or  will  soon  have, 
its  own  race-problems  which  will  tax  the  wits  and  resources  of  settlers 
and  Government.  A  considerable  portion  of  it  is  notoriously  suitable 
for  European  occupation.  It  has  a  swelling  native  population  which 
will  develop,  and  on  its  borders  a  rapidly  improving  race  in  Uganda 
whose  influence  and  movement  are  destined  to  be  active.  All  these 
natives  are  rooted  to  the  country  in  which  they  live,  and  we  have 
no  moral  right  to  hazard  their  future  by  indulging  in  speculative 
schemes  predetermined  to  crowd  them  out,  whether  it  be  of  land  or 
labour,  for  the  sake  of  sharing  it  with  Orientals  who  have  their  own 
heritage. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  article  to  suggest  a  remedy  for  India's 
troubles  about  expansion  ;  but  it  seems  that  what  she  is  most  suffering 
from  is  a  surplus  of  young  men  educated  to  a  standard  which  offers 
them  little  chance  of  profitable  employment.  It  is  apparently  for 
this  class  that  pursuits  and  occupations  have  to  be  sought,  and  they 
are  not  to  be  found  in  Africa.  The  Indian  agriculturist,  notwith- 
standing the  entreaties  of  his  most  ardent  advocates,  appears  to 
have  room  in  his  own  sphere  which  is  not  utilised,  if  we  may  judge 
from  the  opinions  of  the  men  on  the  spot. 

For  instance,  Mr.  Nisbet,  a  Conservator  of  Forests,  thus  writes 
in  this  Review  for  July,  in  a  paper  upon  '  Indian  Famines  and  Indian 
Forests  '  : 

So  strongly  is  the  Indian  peasant  bound  to  his  ancestral  holding  by  caste  and 
by  all  that  he  believes  in,  that  he  absolutely  declines  to  remove  from  his  habitual 
surroundings  to  other  parts  of  his  province,  or  other  parts  of  the  empire,  where 
vacant  land  is  still  easily  obtainable  in  fertile  regions  well  provided  with  water 
either  naturally  or  artificially  supplied.  .  .  .  This  increase  (population)  is  not 
being  balanced  by  a  proportionate  industrial  development  throughout  the 
Indian  Empire,  or  by  emigration  from  congested  districts  with  precarious  rainfall 
to  non-congested  provinces,  like  Assam  and  Burma,  with  abundance  of  vacant 
virgin  soil  and  unfailing  rainfall. 

Mr.  Nisbet  writes  with  experience  from  a  position  of  authority, 
and  his  statements  are  important  and  relevant.  Surely,  then,  we  are 
entitled  to  ask  statesmen  and  enthusiasts  to  let  the  East  find  salvation 


898  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

in  its  own  sphere,  and  to  pause  before  involving  us  in  sketchy  projects 
by  which  the  Imperial  Government  should  afford  in  the  tropical 
protectorates  outlet  and  scope  to  the  enterprise  and  colonising  capacity 
of  Hindustan. 

Conversing  lately  with  two  prominent  persons  intimately  con- 
nected with  East  Africa,  the  one  informed  me  that  the  Indians  have 
already  secured  a  strong  footing,  and  will,  if  care  is  not  taken,  over- 
run the  whole  country ;  that  they  are  to  be  found  in  settlements  at 
intervals  all  along  the  railway;  and  at  every  Government  station  ; 
that  they  furnish  the  shopkeepers,  market  gardeners,  purveyors, 
carpenters,  builders,  masons,  engine-drivers,  telegraphists,  and 
butchers.  While  admiring  their  industry  and  thrusting  power,  he 
had  grave  apprehensions  about  the  future  prospect  when  native 
intelligence  and  activities  had  been  stirred. 

The  other  said  that,  being  in  business,  he  was  bound  to  regard 
politics  from  the  purely  commercial  point  of  view  of  to-day ;  but  he 
could  not  defend  in  principle  the  policy  of  Indian  settlement,  which 
would  recoil  upon  them.  He  attributed  the  apparent  acquiescence 
in  that  policy  to  the  fact  that  they  had  been  consenting  parties  to 
expedients  because  the  natives  of  East  Africa  showed  no  disposition 
to  improve  as  they  had  done  in  other  parts — otherwise  he  would 
think  differently.  In  this  there  is  an  exhibition  of  impatience  and 
want  of  perception  ;  for,  except  in  Uganda,  apparently  little  effort 
has  as  yet  been  made  to  give  the  local  natives  opportunity  for  im- 
provement or  scope  for  taking  up  their  burden.  When  that  effort 
becomes  operative  and  the  natives  advance,  racial  cleavage  and  all 
the  entanglements  which  accompany  it  will  follow  as  a  matter  of 
course. 

It  seems,  however,  to  be  the  plot  to  let  things  drift  in  a  muddling 
way  into  precisely  the  same  position  as  Natal  is  trying  to  wriggle 
out  of,  for  the  Secretary  of  State,  in  a  despatch  of  March  1908,  concurs 
in  the  policy  outlined  by  the  Governor,  who  regards  the  settlement 
of  Indians  with  favour,  more  especially  if  with  their  families,  and 
considers  they  will  set  an  example  of  thrift  and  industry  which  the 
natives  will  soon  learn  to  follow  when  they  realise  the  advantages  to 
be  gained.  And  then  ? 

To  recapitulate  ;  my  plea  for  the  dwellers  in  Africa,  in  respect 
of  proposals  made  under  authority  for  the  organised  immigration  of 
British  Indians  on  lines  of  permanent  settlement,  rests  upon  the 
following  amongst  other  reasons  : 

1.  All  experience  shows  that  the   introduction  of   aliens  into  a 
colony  with  an  indigenous  population  to  meet  temporary  demands 
for  labour,  or  for  other  purpose,  without  rigid  provision  for  repatria- 
tion, has  produced  disastrous  results  wherever  it  has  been  attempted. 

2.  Protectorates  where  the  white  race  has  established  itself  and 
can  thrive,  though  in  certain  parts  unsuitable   for  hard  work  or 


1908  ASIATIC  IMMIGRATION  899 

continuous  residence,  may  become  centres  of  population  and  develop 
mining  and  other  industries  to  an  astonishing  degree  if  discoveries 
are  made  and  enterprise  is  set  going. 

3.  East  Africa — a  case  in    point — is  young  and  fulfils  many  of 
the  conditions  which  attract  the  European  race  as  regards  altitude, 
climate,  pursuits,  and  possibilities. 

4.  The  aboriginal  races  in  occupation,    whose  cause  stands    in 
need  of  representation,  are  multiplying  fast,  and  are  forming  an 
indigenous  nationalism  of   their  own  under  our  guidance.     We   are 
stimulating  them  to  improve  and  to  be  industrious  ;    we  have  no 
right  to  cramp  their  material  development  and  stifle  their  hopes  by 
bequeathing  their  natural  field  of  expansion  to  competitors  alien  in 
characteristics  and  language,  with  whom  they  cannot  fuse. 

5.  Preservation  of  the  purity  of  races  should  be  an  aim.     It  is 
manifestly  impolitic  to  graft  the  religious  caste  of  Hindustan  upon  the 
wild  African  fetish. 

I  wish  in  conclusion  to  affirm  that  nothing  in  this  paper  is  meant 
in  any  way  to  foster  a  sentiment  of  antipathy  to  Asiatics.  We  are 
entitled,  however,  to  feel  that  our  obligations  to  British  Indians,  with 
whose  problems  we  warmly  sympathise,  should  not  be  satisfied  at  the 
expense  of  the  natives  of  Africa,  and  to  claim  that  the  wholesome 
development  of  our  Protectorates  should  not  be  fettered  by  reactionary 
policy, 

It  is  criminal  folly  to  deliberately  create  problems  in  a  new  country 
in  order  to  assuage  them  in  another. 

GODFREY  LAGDEN. 


400  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 


SOME    UNPUBLISHED  LETTERS   OF 
GENERAL    WOLFE 


IN  a  rambling  Tudor  house  on  the  hem  of  a  quiet  Kentish  village, 
finding  delight  in  horses,  dogs,  and  muskets,  as  well  as  in  Csesar  and 
Livy,  James  Wolfe  dreamt  of  military  renown  from  his  tenderest 
years.  Two  months  he  lacked  of  his  fifteenth  birthday  when,  a  lank, 
red-haired  stripling,  a  first  commission  was  placed  in  his  hands.  The 
parchment  with  the  faded  signature  of  '  George  R.'  and  '  Harrington  ' 
is  before  me  as  I  write,  setting  forth  that  Colonel  Edward  Wolfe's  eldest 
son  is  thereby  appointed  second-lieutenant  in  the  aforesaid  Colonel's 
'  Marine  Regiment  of  Foot.'  Its  date  is  the  3rd  of  November  1741. 
Nineteen  years  passed  away ;  on  the  selfsame  spot  in  the  grounds  of 
Squerryes  Court,  where  the  boy's  trembling  ringers  grasped  the  scroll, 
his  dearest  friends  posed  a  cenotaph,  to  record  for  all  time  to  come 
the  beginning  of  that  career  of  arms  whose  celebrity  had  by  1760 
extended  over  the  civilised  world. 

Here  first  was  Wolfe  with  martial  ardour  fij;ed, 
Here  first  with  Glory's  brightest  flame  inspired  ; 
This  spot  so  sacred  will  forever  claim 
A  proud  alliance  with  its  hero's  name. 

In  May  1742,  the  young  soldier  (having  meanwhile,  owing  to  his 
father's  absence  in  the  West  Indies,  got  himself  transferred  as  ensign 
in  Colonel  Duroure's  regiment  of  foot)  landed  in  Flanders.  There- 
after, with  his  campaigns,  began  also  that  series  of  letters  to  his  parents 
and  friends  at  home,  which  lasted  until  the  very  eve  of  his  death  on 
the  Heights  of  Quebec,  and  now  find  a  fitting  lodgment  at  Squerryes 
Court,  Westerham. 

The  ancient  estate  of  Squerryes  had  been  acquired  by  John  Warde 
from  the  Earl  of  Jersey  in  1721.  The  younger  Warde  children  were 
contemporaries  of  the  two  Wolfe  lads  at  Spiers  (now  Quebec  House). 
With  George  Warde  vows  of  eternal  friendship  were  exchanged  by 
James  ;  both  attended  the  same  school ;  both  entered  the  Army, 
both  duly  rose  to  high  rank.  The  hero's  mother  made  this  George 
Warde  executor  of  her  will  and  bequeathed  to  him,  amongst  other 
things,  including  various  military  commissions,  all  her  son's  letters — 


some  250  in  number,  which  during  long  years  she  had  carefully 
treasured. 

So  much  for  the  manner  in  which  these  letters  came  to  Squerryes, 
now  the  seat  of  Lieut.-Colonel  C.  A.  Madan  Warde,  J.P.,  Lord  of  the 
Manor.  They  have  in  the  past  century  and  a  half  had  their  vicissi- 
tudes. The  poet  Southey  meditating  a  Life  of  Wolfe  (which  never 
got  itself  written)  borrowed  them.  The  intermediary  in  the  negotia- 
tions, having  received  the  papers  back  from  the  Laureate,  died ;  his 
effects  were  dispersed,  and  not  until  thirty  years  afterwards  did  the  late 
Admiral  Warde,  K.H.,  hear  that  they  were  actually  being  offered  for 
public  sale  at  Yarmouth  amongst  other  effects  of  the  antiquary 
Dawson  Turner.  Upon  the  Admiral's  remonstrance,  the  priceless 
letters  were  restored  by  the  executors  to  the  lord  of  Squerryes. 
Robert  Wright  incorporated  many  of  them  in  his  biography  published 
half  a  century  ago  ;  but  nearly  every  one  amply  repays  perusal,  and 
the  least  of  them  sheds  some  light  on  the  impulsive  and  yet  wholly 
amiable  character  of  one  of  the  greatest  soldiers  England  ever 
produced. 

Of  the  extracts  (hitherto  unpublished)  which  follow  from  Wolfe's 
correspondence  with  his  parents,  the  first  dates  from  February  1747, 
when  he  was  in  camp  near  Maestricht.  He  was  a  hardened  veteran  of 
twenty,  having  seen  five  years'  service,  and  as  many  severe  campaigns. 
His  rank  is  that  of  Brigade  Major,  his  activity  and  thoroughness  in 
that  capacity  being  so  notable  as  to  attract  the  attention  of  the 
Commander-in-Chief,  the  Duke  of  Cumberland.  It  is  a  curious  epistle, 
or  rather  a  verbose  apology  for  not  writing  one.  He  scorns  to  shine 
as  a  letter- writer ;  our  youthful  Brigade  Major  leaves  such  distinction 
as  that  to  mere  amateurs  in  the  absorbing  art  of  war  : 

DEAR  SIR, — We  military  men  don't  accustom  ourselves  to  moral  topics, 
or  seldom  entertain  one  another  with  subjects  which  are  out  of  the  common  role, 
from  the  frequent  occasion  we  have  to  mention  our  own  affairs,  which,  in  time 
of  war,  are  of  no  small  extent  and  concern.  Possibly  our  manner  of  writing 
may  proceed  in  some  measure  from  diffidence  and  modesty,  as  not  caring  to 
attempt  things  that  we  are  sensible  have  been  better  touched  upon  ;  and  rather 
choose  to  be  confined  to  that  particular  branch  of  knowledge  with  which  we  are 
supposed  to  be  well  acquainted.  Nine-tenths  of  the  letters  from  hence,  I  am 
persuaded,  are  filled  with  observations  of  what  occurs  in  the  army  in  general, 
or  in  the  particular  battalion  to  which  the  writer  belongs.  I  know,  or  at  least 
guess  by  myself,  how  much  every  man's  attention  is  taken  up  with  the  things 
about  him,  and  the  use  of  thinking  constantly  on  the  same  matter  weighs  greatly 
with  the  mind,  and  in  time  becomes  its  first  principle.  So  that  setting  aside 
a  man's  modesty  and  his  diffidence,  he  has  little  else  to  talk  of. 

I  am  led  into  this  observation  by  a  discourse  at  Gen.  Howard's  an  hour  ago, 
of  the  difficulty  some  people  there  said  they  were  under  for  want  of  sufficient 
variety  of  occurrences  to  fill  up  their  paper ;  and  so  put  off  testifying  their  love 
to  their  friends  till  next  post.  Now,  I  was  secure,  nay  certain,  that  you  could 
expect  nothing  very  extraordinary  or  amusing  hi  the  way  we  are  in,  and  that  your 
good  nature  and  friendship  would  have  been  satisfied  to  have  known  your  son 
VOL.  LX1V— No.  379  E  E 


402  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTUKY  .  Sept. 

in  health,  and  to  have  had  a  mark  of  his  respect  and  affection  for  his  parents 
expressed  in  ever  so  few  linos.  I  heartily  wish  you  health,  and  am,  dear  Sir, 
your  most  obedient  and  affectionate  son, 

P.S. — My  love  to  my  mother.  J.  WOLFE. 

It  is  worth  remarking  that  James  Wolfe,  as  the  son  of  a  success- 
ful soldier,  was  under  no  delusions  as  to  the  value  of  mere  merit  in 
the  military  regime  of  that  day. 

'  If  I  rise  at  all,'  he  observes  in  one  letter,  '  it  will  probably  be  by 
means  of  my  father's  pocket.'  Consequently,  we  need  not  be  sur- 
prised to  find  the  parents  of  the  precocious  hero  for  ever  wire-pulling 
at  headquarters,  besides  planning  matrimonial  alliances  which  would 
enable  him  to  command  the  means  of  promotion.  If  in  his  letters  we 
note  him  repeatedly  deploring  the  system  (to  which  he  was  to  owe  as 
little  as  any  man),  he  declares  himself  convinced  that  '  none  but 
earthly  gods  and  goddesses  are  moved  far  without  the  precious  bane.' 

He  has  a  restless  temperament ;  his  moods  change  ;  he  is  soon 
over  the  '  we  military  men  '  phase.  He  gossips  gaily  with  his  mother 
about  his  camp  duties,  his  professional  prospects,  his  health  (this,  by 
the  by,  was  always  precarious),  and  the  affairs,  especially  the  love 
affairs,  of  his  friends.  Mrs.  Wolfe  had  written  to  say  that  one  of  his 
old  Greenwich  comrades  had  fallen  in  love  with  a  damsel  whose  beauty 
he  insisted  upon.  James  professes  in  his  reply  to  be  astonished.  He 
unbends  so  far  as  to  be  exceedingly  facetious. 

Sure,  PaUiser  can't  in  honesty  be  partial  to  that  red  head  of  hers,  and  think 
there  is  beauty  in  the  motley  of  white  and  yellow  !  He  has  certainly  meant  his 
speech  in  compliment  to  some  female,  of  the  fairer  kind.  He  can  never  be  so  blind 
as  to  imagine  any  perfection  but  in  the  just  medium  between  dismal  black  and 
pallid  white.  He  has  sacrificed  his  own  opinion  of  Miss  Higeham's  affections 
in  pure  civility  to  the  neighbourhood  of  that  same  lady  who  was,  as  I  have 
said  before,  undoubtedly  the  object  of  and  first  in  his  thoughts. 

As  for  himself,  he  professes  to  have  made  many  conquests 
before  he  met  Miss  Elizabeth  Lawson,  daughter  of  the  Sir  Wilfrid 
Lawson  of  that  day,  and  a  maid-of-honour  at  Court.  His  own  de- 
scription of  the  lady  is,  '  I  don't  think  her  a  beauty.  She  has  much 
sweetness  of  temper,  sense  enough,  and  is  very  civil  and  engaging  in  her 
behaviour.  In  point  of  fortune  she  has  no  more  than  I  have  a  right  to 
expect,  viz.  12,OOOZ.  .  .  .  The  maid  is  tall  and  thin,  about  my  own 
age,  and  that's  the  only  objection.'  On  his  return  from  the  Continent 
early  in  1749,  he  quickly  discovered  that  his  parents  were  hotly  opposed 
to  the  Lawson  match.  '  They  have  their  eye,'  he  wrote  his  friend 
Eickson,  '  upon  one  of  30,00011. ' 

As  the  year  wore  on  the  young  Major  became  stationed  at  Glasgow 
with  his  regiment,  then  commanded  by  Lord  George  Sackville,  after- 
wards the  Lord  George  Germain  of  the  American  War  of  Independ- 
ence, and  of  whom  Wolfe,  by  the  by,  conceived  a  high  opinion.  His 


1908       SOME  LETTEBS   OF  GENEBAL    WOLFE      408 

letters  show  him  to  be  very  miserable.  He  was  head  over  ears  in  love 
with  Miss  Lawson,  notwithstanding  that  Mrs.  Wolfe  even  alleged 
rumours  against  that  young  lady's  fair  fame  in  her  desire  to  break  off 
the  connexion.  James  repels  these  insinuations  with  scorn,  even  when 
they  are  backed  up  by  two  of  his  father's  friends  and  a  young  kins- 
woman, who  acted  as  his  mother's  companion,  and  whom  he  designates 
as  '  Jezebel.' 

Neither  my  inclination  nor  interest  leads  me  [he  writes  from  Glasgow,  the 
25th  of  March  1749]  to  do  anything  that  may  disoblige  either  my  father  or  you, 
much  less  against  both  can  I  be  persuaded  to  oppose  your  wills  ;  it  would  humble 
me  indeed  if  you  were  once  to  suppose  that  I  could  be  biassed  in  my  opinion 
by  either  of  the  gentlemen  you  mention,  though  they  should  receive  advice  and 
assistance  from  the  artificial  and  fraudulent  female  ;  or  that  she  (prepared  as  I 
am  against  all  her  attempts)  should  be  able  to  work  upon  me  with  lies  and  false- 
hood, her  constant  weapons.  I  had  not  five  minutes  discourse  with  her,  but  in 
company  with  the  others,  where  her  intimacy  is  not  yet  strong  enough  to  allow 
the  freedom  of  utterance  upon  all  subjects  ;  so  that,  what  she  might  be  wanting 
in  truth  must  have  been  chiefly  upon  indifferent  topics,  more  proper  to  move  one's 
contempt  than  displeasure.  One  melancholy  proof  of  her  pernicious  example, 
I  foresee,  will  appear  in  that  child  Miss  Sotheron  [his  cousin] ;  if  Jezebel  be 
suffered  to  meddle  in  her  education,  the  girl  is  undone.  I  pressed  the  father  to 
send  her  to  New  York.  His  fondness,  and  Fanny's  wickedness,  will  be  her 
distraction,  if  she  is  not  quickly  removed.  It  is  a  pity  the  poor  thing  should 
be  neglected,  for  she  appears  ready  enough  on  her  part  to  do  what  is  right. 

Lodged  in  the  suburb  of  Camlachie,  there  being  no  Glasgow  bar- 
racks in  those  days,  Wolfe  began  to  feel  the  effects  of  seven  campaigns 
on  a  naturally  delicate  frame.  He  became  almost  prostrated. 

DEAB  MADAM  [he  writes  the  21st  of  May  1749], — This  is  the  most  lazy  and 
indolent  disorder  I  have  ever  been  oppressed  with  ;  'tis  pain  to  undertake  the 
slightest  business  ;  and  what  used  to  give  me  pleasure  in  the  work  is  now  tedious 
and  disagreeable.  I  should  hardly  imagine  it,  if  I  did  not  really  feel  it  myself, 
yet  the  very  writing  a  few  words,  though  to  the  person  I  always  loved  to  write 
to,  is  now  a  trouble  to  me.  I  must  drive  off  this  heaviness  by  some  means  or 
other,  and  not  be  thus  uneasy  to  myself,  when  everything  about  me  looks  gay 
and  pleasant. 

The  sergeant  brought  me  the  little  bundles,  just  as  you  had  given  them  into 
his  hands  ;  they  came  very  seasonably  and  I  thank  you  much  for  the  relief. 

Mr.  Godde,  too,  has  furnished  me  with  what  his  shop  affords  ;  I  can't  say  they 
come  at  so  easy  a  rate  as  some  other  things,  but  whoever  deals  with  him  I  find 
must  pay  well  to  be  well  served. 

We  expected  a  great  tumult,  and  some  mischief  in  a  day  or  two,  at  the  punish- 
ment of  two  men  concerned  in  the  mob  ;  but  they  have  prevented  all  that  by 
escaping  out  of  prison.  It  has  saved  me  a  great  deal  of  trouble,  though  it  would 
have  been  for  the  future  peace  of  the  place  if  these  offenders  had  received  what 
the  law  intended  them.  I'm  afraid  the  magistrates  will  suffer  in  the  opinion  of 
their  superiors  ;  though  I  can't  say  it  appears  that  they  connived  at  the  prisoners' 
flight ;  yet  their  fears  of  their  being  rescued  and  their  timorous  behaviour  through- 
out the  whole  of  this  affair  will  not  fail  to  create  suspicions  to  their  prejudice. 
Present  my  duty  to  my  father.  I  am,  dear  Madam,  your  most  obedient 
and  affectionate  son, 

J.  WOLFE. 

E   K    2 


404  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

The  latter  part  of  the  above  letter  refers  to  a  riot  in  Glasgow 
occasioned  by  a  corpse  having  been  resurrected  by  a  party  of 
young  collegians.  Thinking  the  body  had  been  taken  to  the  college, 
a  mob  collected,  smashing  windows  and  perpetrating  other  violence. 
A  number  of  the  rioters  were  arrested.  Two  were  found  guilty  and 
sentenced  to  be  whipped  through  the  town  and  banished  for  life. 

From  Glasgow  Wolfe  undertook  a  journey  to  Perth  in  the  course  of 
that  summer.  The  weather  had  been  miserable,  cold  and  wet,  and  our 
Major's  health  was  not  improved  thereby.  '  If  I  say  I'm  thinner, 
you'll  imagine  me  a  shadow  or  a  skeleton  in  motion.' 

From  Perth  I  find  him  writing  Mrs.  Wolfe  : 

You  know  what  a  whimsical  sort  of  person  I  am,  and  how  variable  and 
unsteady.  Nothing  pleases  me  now  but  the  rougher  kind  of  entertainments, 
such  as  hunting,  shooting  and  fishing.  There's  none  of  that  kind  near  London, 
and  so  I  have  distant  notions  of  taking  a  little,  very  little  house,  remote  upon 
the  edge  of  the  forest  or  waste,  merely  for  sport,  and  keep  it  till  we  go  to 
Minorca. 

The  idea  of  a  sporting  lodge  in  the  Highlands,  so  strikingly  novel 
in  1749,  has  since  become  a  familiar  one  to  the  natives  of  these  islands. 

The  elder  Wolfe,  now  a  Major-General,  frequently  supplemented 
his  son's  slender  pay  by  a  handsome  remittance.  It  is  a  pity  we 
know  so  little  of  his  character  and  personal  traits  other  than  those 
we  can  infer  from  his  son's  correspondence.  Captain  George  Wolfe, 
a  Jacobite,  fled  from  Limerick  in  1651.  His  grandson  first  saw 
the  light  in  1685,  and  sixteen  years  later  entered  Queen  Anne's 
service  as  second-lieutenant  of  marines.  His  first  commission,  dated 
the  10th  of  March  1702,  is  now  with  the  others  at  Squerryes  Court. 
The  fact  of  his  rapid  rise — without  fortune  or  family  influence  (he 
became  lieutenant-colonel  in  1717) — evinces  rare  merit,  and  he  was 
regarded  with  favour  by  Marlborough.  Major-General  Wolfe  was 
now  in  his  sixty-fifth  year,  and  while  devoted  to  his  one  surviving 
son,  was  not  blind  to  what  he  considered  his  faults.  The  letters 
of  both  parents  must  have  been  filled  perpetually  with  advice  or 
remonstrance,  and  fortunately  the  son's  filial  piety  was  such  that  he 
always  deferred  to  them  both — sometimes  with  an  excellent  grace — at 
a  later  period  under  passionate  protest. 

I  have  [he  writes  from  Glasgow  the  10th  of  July  1749]  but  one  way  of  making 
you  any  acknowledgements  and  that  is  by  endeavouring  to  deserve  your  esteem. 
A  number  of  words  and  sentences  ever  so  well  put  together  cannot  equal  a  good 
action.  Those  are  only  to  be  paid  in  their  kind  ;  and  though  I  should  take  the 
greatest  pains  to  tell  you  how  much  I  think  myself  obliged  to  you,  you  would  be 
better  pleased  to  hear  that  I  did  my  share  of  duty  as  it  should  be  done  ;  and  that 
every  kindness  I  received  from  you  was  felt  by  the  honest  and  the  good ;  that 
every  addition  of  circumstance  was  employed  as  you  yourself  would  wish,  and  that 
the  same  principles  and  integrity  that  have  hitherto  guided  your  actions  are, 
through  you,  the  rule  of  mine.  All  this  would  be  pleasing  to  hear,  and  you  have 
taken  one  more  step  to  bring  it  about ;  'tis  now  in  my  power  to  be  both  generous 


1908      SOME  LETTERS   OF  GENERAL    WOLFE      405 

and  just,  and  I  have  an  opportunity  of  owning  with  great  pleasure  that  both  the 
inclination  and  ability  are  from  you.  Lord  George  Sackville  and  Cornwallis 
are  two  people  that  no  sordid  or  vicious  man  can  succeed  without  appearing 
in  dismal  colours,  and  a  regiment  accustomed  to  genteel  commanders  are  so 
many  censors  to  disapprove  and  condemn  a  different  behaviour.  Not  but 
certain  allowances  are  to  be  made  between  men  of  high  rank  and  fortune  and 
those  of  inferior  degree. 

Mrs.  Wolfe  having  written  to  him  of  a  visitation  of  their  house  at 
Greenwich  on  the  hill  by  burglars,  and  the  fright  of  a  maiden  lady,  his 
mother's  companion : 

I  laugh  to  think  of  Mrs.  Fanny's  globes  and  spheres  rolling  upon  the  ground, 
her  drawing  pens  and  brushes  dispersed,  her  shells  in  disorder,  and  a  goblet 
broken  in  the  fray.  I  hope  it  was  her  effects  and  not  her  person  that  these 
rash  robbers  aimed  at  1  Sure,  they  have  not  run  away  with  her  ?  Sweet  soul  I 
What  a  panic  she  is  always  in  at  the  sight  of  a  rude  man  1 

The  Major  was  transferred  to  Perth  towards  the  close  of  the  year, 
and  he  writes  to  his  mother  that  since  Lord  George  Sackville  left  he 
has  '  changed  his  way  of  life.'  '  When  we  were  at  Glasgow  together,  I 
had  taken  that  opportunity  to  acquire  a  few  things  that  I  was  before 
ignorant  of,  and  in  which  I  might  expect  assistance  from  some  of  the 
people  of  the  College.'  Meanwhile,  Mrs.  Wolfe  had  finally  fixed  upon 
an  heiress  for  her  son,  a  Miss  Hoskins  of  Croydon,  with  a  fortune  of 
30,OOOZ.  Of  this  lady  she  was  never  weary  of  singing  the  praises, 
discouraging  as  much  as  possible  all  continuance  of  the  Lawsori 
connexion.  At  last  both  parents  went  so  far  as  to  forbid  him  per- 
emptorily to  pay  any  more  attention  epistolary  or  otherwise  to 
Miss  Lawson. 

Perth :  16  Dec.  1749. 

DEAB  MADAM, — You  give  the  best  reason  in  the  world  for  continuing  in  the 
country  so  late  aa  you  did.  Wherever  my  father  and  you  have  your  health  best 
there  I  would  wish  you  most,  and  as  Greenwich  seems  to  agree  with  both,  the 
best  thing  you  can  do  is  to  make  it  more  agreeable  by  changing  from  a  bad 
house  to  a  good  one,  from  a  low  situation  to  a  high  one,  and  as  near  the  park 
as  possible.  Do  not  be  in  any  pain  about  me.  When  I  am  well  all  places  will 
produce  something  to  entertain,  and  when  otherwise,  it  matters  little  where  one 
is ;  the  less  trouble  to  our  friends  the  better.  You  need  not  hurry  yourselves 
about  military  promotions,  for  I  take  them  to  be  at  an  entire  stand  for  some 
time.  When  these  things  were  to  be  had,  I  got  my  share,  and  (my  necessary 
confinements  excepted)  have  reason  to  be  well  enough  satisfied  with  what  has 
happened. 

I  am  mighty  glad  Miss  Hoskins'  disorder  does  not  turn  out  so  dangerous 
as  was  apprehended.  Her  sweetness  of  temper  and  social  disposition  makes 
her  too  valuable  not  to  fear  her  loss.  [This  is  far  too  polite.]  The  Duke  of 
Montague's  death  will  be  of  advantage  to  the  young  lady,  since  his  conversation 
(in  your  opinion)  was  not  fitted  for  her  tender  ear.  There  is  one  kind  of  converse 
and  discourse  with  the  men  that  is  of  great  service  to  the  other  sex,  and  another 
as  injurious,  but  it  would  take  too  much  time  to  distinguish  the  two.  However 
it  obliges  me  to  observe  to  you  that  the  women  in  this  country  partake  very 
much  of  society  with  men,  and  by  that  means  gain  a  certain  freedom  of  be- 
haviour, uncommon  in  England,  but  which  is  nevertheless  of  great  use  to  preserve 


406  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

them  from  the  bad  consequences  of  sudden  surprise  or  novelty  ;  and  is  a  real 
protection  to  their  virtue,  though  at  times  one  would  imagine  that  their  easiness 
in  some  particulars  lead  directly  to  the  contrary.  'Tis  a  usual  thing  for  the 
matrons  to  sit  at  table  with  the  men  till  very  late  and  concur  in  everything  but 
the  actual  debauchery,  and  as  the  men  warm  at  wine,  they  speak  openly  enough 
to  give  offence  with  us. 

This  fresh  disappointment  in  love  has  changed  my  natural  disposition  to  such 
a  degree  that  I  believe  it  is  now  possible  I  might  prevail  upon  myself  not  to 
refuse  twenty  or  thirty  thousand  pounds,  if  properly  offered.  Rage  and  despair 
do  not  commonly  produce  such  reasonable  effects  ;  nor  are  they  the  instruments 
to  make  a  man's  fortune  by  but  in  particular  cases. 

Miss  Hoskdns  afterwards  married  John  Warde,  of  Squerryes  Court. 

Lord  George  Sackville's  successor  as  Colonel  of  the  regiment  was 
Lord  Bury,  the  Earl  of  Albemarle's  eldest  son,  and  the  Captain  who 
brought  news  of  Culloden  to  George  the  Second,  for  which  he  received 
1000Z.  and  was  made  aide-de-camp.  Bury  had  no  intention  of 
joining  the  regiment  immediately,  and  the  actual  command  con- 
tinued in  the  hands  of  Major  Wolfe. 

My  Colonel  and  I  [he  writes  in  January  1750]  have  a  very  exact  correspon- 
dence. He  is  extremely  bent  upon  procuring  all  the  knowledge  of  regimental 
affairs  that  the  distance  between  us  will  allow  of  ;  in  order,  I  suppose,  to  make 
such  alterations  and  amendments  as  seem  requisite,  and  to  be  the  better  prepared 
against  he  comes  amongst  us.  I  answer  his  letters  very  punctually,  and  endeavour 
all  in  my  power  to  satisfy  him  in  such  particulars  as  are  properly  within  my 
sphere  ;  confining,  however,  my  judgment  of  men  and  things  to  what  is  purely 
military,  and  belonging  to  my  office.  He  can  give  you  weekly  intelligence  as 
far  as  the  assurance  of  a  letter  can  go,  whenever  you  are  so  good  as  to  make 
inquiry  after  me. 

Keaction  naturally  set  in  after  Wolfe's  yielding  to  his  parents' 
wishes  in  the  matter  of  Miss  Lawson.  After  all,  he  was  no  saint, 
notwithstanding  the  character  he  receives  in  Johnstone's  Chrysal, 
but  a  youth  of  spirit,  and  it  is  to  be  feared  reports  of  his  hot  language 
and  wildness  of  behaviour  reaching  his  father  brought  down  more 
than  the  customary  rebuke. 

DBAB  SIR  [he  writes  the  19th  of  February  1750], — Though  I  have  frequently 
given  you  occasion  to  blame  either  my  neglects  or  levity,  I  am  not  however 
conscious  of  ever  having  intended  to  give  you  any  uneasiness  by  obstinacy, 
or  perseverance  in  an  error  ;  the  high  opinion  I  have  all  along  entertained  of  your 
just  sense  of  things  has  always  forced  me  to  a  proper  submission  to  your  will, 
and  obliges  me  to  acknowledge  those  actions  to  be  actually  wrong  when  you 
think  them  so.  Besides  I  am  so  convinced  of  your  sincerity  and  secure  of  your 
friendship  that  your  advice  cannot  fail  of  its  due  weight,  not  could  I  without 
the  highest  presumption  differ  from  your  sentiments  in  any  of  the  concerns  of 
life.  As  what  I  have  said  is  the  exact  truth,  I  mention  it  by  way  of  making  a 
distinction  between  that  part  of  my  behaviour  that  is  guided  by  reflection, 
and  such  steps  as  are  the  consequence  of  youth  and  inexperience,  or  that  have 
no  rule  to  go  by  and  are  the  pure  effects  of  chance  ;  but  the  main  reason  is  to 
induce  you  not  to  look  upon  any  slight  omission  or  inadvertency  as  done  with 
design  to  offend  or  displease  ;  so  far  am  I  from  any  such  intention,  that  my  greatest 
satisfaction  is  the  means  of  contributing  in  some  measure  to  your  happiness. 


1908      SOME  LETTERS   OF  GENERAL    WOLFE      407 

His  mother  was  resolved  to  punish  him  by  not  answering  his 
letters.  After  a  time  (the  9th  of  March  1750)  this  conduct  elicits 
the  following : 

DEAR  MADAM, — I  hope  your  long  silence  does  not  proceed  from  the  continuance 
of  your  indisposition,  I  had  rather  it  should  have  any  other  cause,  though  ever 
so  unpleasant  to  myself  ;  I  desire  you  to  think  that  I  have  undergone  sufficient 
punishment,  and  judge,  by  the  pleasure  it  gives  me  to  hear  from  you,  I'm  sure 
you  would  not  wish  that  the  penalty  should  exceed  the  crime. 

As  a  distraction,  his  prospective  lieutenant-colonelcy  forms  the 
theme  of  several  anxious  letters. 

Perth  :  28  March,  1750. 

DEAR  SIR, — The  words  of  Lord  Bury's  last  two  letters  seem  calculated  to 
make  me  imagine  his  lordship  wishes  me  success,  at  the  same  time  that  they 
express  his  diffidence  of  it.  I  am  not  able  to  extract  enough  of  his  real  opinion, 
to  determine  whether  I  am,  or  am  not,  to  be  his  lieut.-col.  He  says,  indeed, 
that  the  Duke  is  our  friend,  but  does  not  affirm  that  he  won't  be  prevailed  upon 
to  give  up  his  point.  Lord  George  Sackville  sent  me  the  first  information  of  the 
vacancy  with  the  strongest  assurance  of  his  aid  and  service.  As  I  know  he  is 
very  sincere,  I  rely  chiefly  upon  him.  Whichever  way  the  business  turns,  I  shall 
be  glad  to  know  from  you  who  the  persons  are  that  seem  the  most  to  concern 
themselves  in  it ;  that  I  may  thank  them  for  their  endeavours  whether  they 
succeed  or  not. 

At  last  the  hopes  of  at  least  three  people  in  the  world  are 
crowned  with  success. 

After  his  appointment,  the  Lieutenant-Colonel's  health  continues 
indifferent,  although  he  can  report  no  actual  disease. 

Though  I  can  say  little  more  to  you  than  that  I  have  no  complaint,  yet  as 
you  are  so  good  to  say  it  is  agreeable  to  you  to  hear  even  that  I  have  no  right 
to  dispense  with  that  prerogative,  nor  inclination  to  omit  that  you  desire  should 
be  done.  I  am  going  into  the  country  for  a  fortnight  or  three  weeks ;  there 
I  shall  drink  goat  whey,  rather  to  purify  the  blood  from  unclean  food  and  irregular 
living,  than  as  a  remedy  to  any  certain  known  distemper. 

A  month's  easternly  wind  that  has  blasted  almost  every  plant  and  tree,  has 
not  been  able  to  make  me  shake,  so  I  have  reason  to  think  there  is  no  remains  of 
an  ague  in  me. 

Later  (the  22nd  of  June  1750)  Wolfe  writes  his  father  : 

DEAR  SIR, — I  drank  the  whey  and  went  into  a  cold  bath  fourteen  days, 
in  that  time  I  found  such  an  alteration  for  the  better  that  if  I  had  been  at  liberty 
to  continue  that  way  of  life  a  month  longer,  I  make  no  doubt  but  it  would  have 
been  of  considerable  advantage.  The  march  of  two  companies  into  Angus  has 
perhaps  made  Mr.  Hindes  imagine  that  the  whole  battalion  was  to  change  their 
quarters,  especially  as  Pultenay's  moved  early  in  the  summer  to  Aberdeenshire, 
but  it  is  not  probable  that  we  shall  leave  Perth  before  the  middle  of  October. 
It  will  take  the  remainder  of  that  month  to  clothe  the  men,  and  settle  them  in 
their  new  quarters,  and  that  is  what  Lord  Bury  expects  I  should  see  done. 

Mrs.  Wolfe  continuing  obdurate,  her  son  writes  anxiously  : 

July  26, 1750. 

DEAR  MADAM, — I  persuaded  myself  that  this  post  would  have  brought  me 
some  news  of  your  health,  and  such  as  I  should  have  reason  to  be  pleased  with  ; 


408  TEE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

I  want  to  see  it  under  your  own  hand,  'tis  to  me  the  most  agreeable  proof  of 
your  recovery,  though  one  that  I  could  wish  never  to  stand  in  the  need  of.  I 
don't  think  since  my  first  leaving  you  there  ever  has  been  so  long  an  interval  of 
silence  on  your  part,  which  I  am  afraid  does  but  too  manifestly  imply  your  want 
of  health ;  you  are  otherwise  too  good  to  refuse  me  a  satisfaction  that  I  have 
always  justly  reckoned  amongst  the  greatest  of  my  life. 

At  last  the  long-promised  furlough  was  obtained,  and  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Wolfe  was  able  to  leave  Scotland  for  London.  It  is  to  be 
feared  that  his  long  seclusion,  his  disappointment  in  love,  and  the 
refusal  of  the  Commander-in-Chief  to  allow  him  to  study  military 
science  abroad  (after  Miss  Lawson's  hand  his  heart's  dearest  desire) 
made  him  plunge  into  the  dissipation  of  town  life  with  fatal 
abandon. 

Passing  a  few  days  with  his  cousins  the  Thompsons  and  the 
Sotherons  in  Yorkshire,  he  reached  the  capital  on  the  14th  of  November, 
where  he  paid  his  duty  to  his  parents,  now  at  their  town  house  in  Old 
Burlington  Street.  Contrary,  however,  to  their  wishes,  James  now 
renewed  his  suit  to  Miss  Lawson,  against  whom  Mrs.  Wolfe  had  con- 
ceived a  violent  dislike.  She  called  it  a  '  senseless  passion,'  more 
than  hinting  that  the  young  lady  was  not  all  she  should  be.  This 
aroused  James's  ire,  and  being,  above  all  things,  of  a  passionate  dispo- 
sition, the  inevitable  scene  occurred.  The  elder  Wolfe  appealed  to 
his  son's  '  natural  affections  '  in  order  to  enforce  obedience.  James 
replied  hotly  and  hastily,  and  in  language  he  repented,  that  he  knew 
nothing  of  natural  affections.  He  left  his  parents'  roof,  and  together 
with  one  or  two  companions,  one  of  them  the  Hon.  Arthur  Loftus, 
a  genial  rake,  proceeded  to  drinking,  late  hours,  and  the  other 
fashionable  vices  of  the  period. 

I  went  to  London  in  November  [he  wrote  Rickson  later]  arid  came  back  the 
middle  of  April.  In  that  short  time  I  committed  more  imprudent  acts  than 
in  all  my  life  before.  I  lived  in  the  idlest,  most  dissolute,  abandoned  manner 
that  could  be  conceived,  and  that  not  out  of  vice,  which  is  the  most  extra- 
ordinary part  of  it.  I  have  escaped  at  length  and  am  once  again  master  of  my 
reason,  and  hereafter  it  shall  rule  my  conduct. 

One  must  not  take  this  confession  too  seriously.  Wolfe  was  not 
the  man,  either  morally  or  physically,  to  emulate  the  excesses  of  a 
Charles  Fox  or  a  Lord  Byron.  As  it  was,  the  result  might  have  been 
foreseen.  He  became  seriously  ill,  and  was  scarcely  recovered  when 
he  returned  to  his  regiment  at  Banff.  Here  further  long  parental 
remonstrances  reached  the  young  Lieutenant-Colonel,  to  which  he 
replied,  on  the  12th  of  June  1751,  thus  to  his  father  : 

I  am  very  glad  from  the  knowledge  of  your  sentiments  (which  in  a  case  that 
concerns  myself  ought  justly  to  be  preferred  to  my  own,  and  indeed  in  almost 
all  other  cases)  to  be  able  to  make  you  some  sort  of  apology  for  every  particular 
instance  of  vice  or  folly  that  has  very  luckily  fallen  under  your  notice  while  I  had 
the  honour  to^be  near  you.  I  say  very  luckily,  for  if  you  or  some  other  perfect 


1908     SOME  LETTERS   OF  GENERAL    WOLFE       409 

friend  hod  not  discovered  them,  so  as  to  make  them  known  to  me,  I  might  have 
continued  in  the  conceit  of  there  being  no  such  thing  hi  my  composition,  and 
consequently  they  must  in  time  have  taken  deep  root,  and  increased  beyond 
the  power  of  any  remedy.  Yours  is  a  very  lively  picture  of  the  impertinence 
and  idleness  that  is  often  in  people  of  my  years,  so  that  it  is  not  quite  new  and 
unexpected ;  and  if  I  do  not  mistake  this  is  not  the  first  time  that  you  have 
observed  the  seeds  of  such  imperfections  in  me,  that  perhaps  only  wanted  nourish- 
ment and  proper  occasion  to  break  forth.  I  am  quite  persuaded  (though  you 
express  some  iridifference  in  the  latter  part  of  your  letter)  that  you  mean  to 
recover  me  from  the  ill  habit  of  mind  you  have  seen  me  in,  and  with  that  view  and 
that  only  it  is  that  the  just  remarks  you  have  made  upon  my  conduct  are  put 
in  their  proper  light.  I  am  sure  at  the  same  time  that  your  course  of  goodness 
and  indulgence  to  me  is  not  entirely  altered  and  that  you  are  ready  to  make 
such  allowances  as  may  be  expected  from  one  who  has  so  extensive  a  knowledge 
of  mankind  as  you  have. 

The  respect  I  have  for  you  and  strong  desire  to  be  better  in  your  opinion 
than  I  have  been  of  late,  will  put  me  upon  pursuing  the  best  means  that  you  can 
devise,  or  that  I  can  imagine  for  such  an  alteration  of  behaviour  as  may  conduce 
to  that  end.  I  .believe  the  first  step  to  amendment  is  to  acknowledge  our  faults, 
a  proof  that  we  think  them  faults.  This  I  do  very  heartily  and  truly,  though 
I  must  assert  that  most  of  them  have  arisen  from  inadvertency  and  not  from 
any  ill  intention.  I  am  very  sensible  that  many  things  have  appeared  with  an 
exceeding  bad  grace,  but  am  nevertheless  quite  clear  and  conscious  that  no 
offence  ever  was,  or  could  be,  meant.  My  mother  told  me  you  intended  to 
write.  I  was  desirous  to  know  your  thoughts  (which  I  am  sorry  to  say  I  have 
been  but  too  often  unacquainted  with)  and  that  is  one  reason  why  I  left  such  an 
interval  between  asking  your  pardon  in  the  short  though  sincere  manner  in  which 
I  did,  when  I  came  away,  and  making  all  the  submission  that  can  be  made  to 
one  that  I  am  very  unwilling  to  disoblige.  I  hope  the  former  part  of  my  life 
will  in  some  measure  make  this  appear ;  and  I  believe  I  may  venture  to  say 
that  my  future  conduct  will  help  to  convince  you.  .  .  . 

The  warm  expression  that  fell  from  me  upon  the  Duke's  refusing  to  let  me 
go  abroad  savoured  much  of  ingratitude ;  the  words,  it  must  be  confessed,  were 
arrogant  and  vain.  I  thought  them  so  at  the  time  of  speaking.  Passion  and 
disappointment  produced  them.  Certainly  his  Royal  Highness  could  not  have 
so  truly  convinced  me  of  his  kindness  as  by  consenting  to  a  reasonable  and 
salutary  request.  For,  if  eternal  imprisonment  and  exile  is  to  follow  perferment, 
few  will  be  thankful  for  the  favour. 

I  am  sorry  you  can  think  it  troublesome  to  me  to  read  any  letter  from  you, 
though  it  should  bo  the  mirror  of  my  follies.  You  say  it  shall  be  the  last  upon 
this  subject ;  and  I  am  sure  you  will  do  me  the  justice  to  recollect  that  it  is 
likewise  the  first.  It  shall  be  my  care  not  to  give  such  large  room  for  reproof 
hereafter  ;  and  from  no  motive  so  powerful  as  a  thorough  regard  for  your  person, 
and  a  sense  of  what  is  due  to  you  as  a  parent.  My  mother  might  safely  have 
ventured  to  send  me  her  blessing,  though  she  should  build  it  upon  only  the 
strength  of  a  return  from  me.  I  do  sometimes  leave  out  in  my  letters  what  I  least 
intend,  and  when  I  omit  expressing  my  affections  for  either  of  you,  there  remains 
little  else  that  is  valuable.  I  beg  my  duty  to  her  and  am,  dear  Sir, 

Your  most  obedient  and  affectionate  son, 

J.  WOLFE. 

Then  follows  this  postscript : 

I  think  I  never  could  advance  that  there  were  no  natural  affections.  I  believe 
I  said,  and  still  am  of  opinion,  that  affections  of  all  kinds  spring  from  mutual 
good  offices  done  to  one  another  ;  and  that  is  nature.  I  likewise  said  that  opposite 
interests  frequently  extinguish  those  affections,  which  I  imagine  will  be  allowed. 


410  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

His  mother  relented  but  slowly.  On  the  19th  of  July  I  find  James 
writing  in  answer  to  her  letter  : 

DEAR  MADAM, — I  began  to  give  up  all  hopes  of  hearing  from  you,  and  to 
think  myself  exiled  to  all  intents  and  purposes  without  the  consolation  of  being 
so  much  as  thought  of  hi  this  state  of  bondage  and  confinement. 

I  am  not  addicted  by  constitution  either  to  the  vapours  or  to  despair,  and 
have  determined  always  to  leave  the  cure  of  present  evils  to  a  distant  day  ; 
imagining  that  they  must  be  great  indeed  that  have  no  remedy  in  the  bosom 
of  time  ;  and  such  I  hope  never  to  know.  When  I  say  I  put  off  the  cure,  I 
suppose  no  present  application  sufficient,  and  therefore  prefer  a  remote  one, 
rather  than  give  it  up,  or  submit  to  disasters  and  design,  though  they  should 
be  ever  so  powerful.  Your  letter,  short  as  it  is,  unusually  so,  has  nevertheless 
been  of  great  aid  and  relief,  because  it  convinces  me  that,  though  deservedly 
neglected,  I  am  not  entirely  forgot,  alienated,  or  divided  from  you,  as  of  no 
further  concern.  It  is  fit  that  some  share  of  evil  should  fall  upon  us  in  this  life, 
to  teach  us  to  enjoy  the  best  that  we  are  formed  to  taste. 

About  the  same  time  he  writes  his  father  from  Peterhead  : 

July  29th,  1751. 

Honest  Charles  writes  me  word  (with  a  good  deal  of  concern)  that  he  thinks 
you  are  not  quite  so  cheerful  as  he  could  wish  ;  this  affects  me  very  particularly  : 
first,  because  I  hate  to  hear  that  any  of  your  hours  pass  unpleasantly,  or  that 
anything  breaks  in  upon  the  usual  quiet  of  your  mind,  and  then  starts  the 
disagreeable  reflection  that  possibly  I  may  contribute  to  it.  I  don't  think  my 
friend  meant  to  reproach  me,  but  I  could  not  read  his  letter  without  feeling 
remorse  and  repentance  for  any  ill  acts,  or  without  being  shocked  at  the  con- 
sequence as  far  as  it  regards  your  person.  If  it  be  true  that  I  still  create 
uneasiness,  I  would  endeavour  to  persuade  you,  as  well  as  words  from  me  can 
do  it,  so  far  to  forget  and  overlook  me  and  my  irregularities  as  not  to  entertain  a 
thought  of  pain  for  what  has  already  appeared,  or  form  from  thence  a  judgment 
of  what  may  be  expected  hereafter  ;  I  had  much  rather  be  quite  out  of  your 
thoughts  than  take  a  place  in  them  to  torment  you. 

Six  months  elapse,  and  Wolfe  pens  the  following  from  Inverness  : 

If  a  man  is  not  allowed  to  utter  his  complaints  (and  I  deny  myself  this  indul 
gence),  what  else  can  he  say,  or  how  can  he  find  subject  of  discourse,  when  his 
thoughts  are  necessarily  taken  up  with  a  multitude  of  sensations  ?  Notwith- 
standing all  this,  whether  from  pride,  obstinacy,  a  vanity  to  appear  firm  on 
one  side,  or  moderation  and  indifference  on  the  other,  I  am  determined  to  guard 
against  the  inclination  that  most  people  feel  to  communicate  their  distresses  ; 
and  that  resolution  arises  from  one  or  other  of  the  above  motives,  or  a  mixture 
of  them  all. 

Wolfe  spares  no  pains  to  propitiate  his  outraged  parent : 

I  don't  always  understand  myself,  and  can't  therefore  wonder  that  I  am 
sometimes  unintelligible  to  others  ;  however,  I  don't  mean  to  be  obscure  in 
my  discourse  to  you,  and  so  my  words  generally  bear  the  sense  that  they  are 
most  usually  taken  in,  their  common  acceptation  ;  when  this  is  not  the  case, 
and  the  meaning  not  plain,  pray  be  so  good  to  burn  the  letter.  I  think  your 
hardest  task  will  be  to  make  out  the  words.  If  I  did  not  know  the  best  part  of 
what  I  had  writ  it  would  be  sometimes  difficult  to  read  my  own  writing.  I  am 


1908     SOME  LETTERS   OF  GENERAL    WOLFE       411 

quite  sensible  that  you  are  nohow  concerned  in  military  affairs,  and  have  given 
me  no  positive  orders  to  reside  here  or  there  ;  nor  are  you  the  cause  of  any 
evil  that  falls  upon  me  ;  so  I  repent  me  much  if  words  have  dropped  from  me 
that  are  unpleasant  and  unsuitable,  or  seem  to  proceed  from  a  restless  and 
fretful  temper  inconsistent  with  the  regard  due  to  your  peace,  which  I  should 
be  sorry  to  disturb  for  myself.  I  do  not  know  what  demon  possessed  me  at 
that  unlucky  hour,  but  I  have  never  known  my  thoughts  less  confused  than  of 
late,  and  easy  stupidity  and  insensibility  seems  to  have  crept  into  me  and  does 
the  part  of  reason  in  keeping  the  vessel  steady,  with  prodigious  success.  It  is 
so  pleasing  a  state  that  I  prefer  it  to  any  conceit  that  the  fancy  can  produce, 
any  whirlwind  of  the  brain  or  violent  chase  after  nothing — the  one  goes  slowly, 
sedately,  and  heavily,  the  other  distractedly  to  the  same  end.  That  I  am  still 
here  is  a  proof  that  you  have  no  power  to  remove  me  ;  but  you  may  be  assured 
by  way  of  comfort  that  I  can  sleep  through  any  mischance  and  dose  away  all 
my  complaints. 

Mrs.  Wilmot  is  the  oldest  of  all  my  old  friends  and  acquaintance,  and  I  never 
see  her  but  with  great  pleasure,  and  love  to  hear  her  name  mentioned.  Is  she 
as  merry  as  heretofore  ?  Does  she  laugh  away  all  her  life  ?  I  hope  her  good 
humour  will  never  forsake  her.  I  have  recovered  my  hearing  within  these 
three  weeks — a  month  ago  I  could  not  hear  my  watch  strike  with  the  right  ear, 
and  it  has  been  so  ever  since  I  left  London  ;  exercise  and  temperance  have 
brought  this  about,  and  will  do  the  rest  in  time. 

The  next  letter,  dated  Inverness,  14th  of  February  1752,  shows 
that  all  is  amity  again  in  the  relations  between  mother  and  son  : 

DEAR  MADAM, — It  is  very  pleasing  to  me  to  know  that  our  sentiments  agree, 
let  the  subject  be  what  it  will ;  but  I  should  be  much  better  satisfied  if  all  the 
actions  of  my  life  were  such  as  you  would  approve  of,  for  it  is  evident  that  our 
words  are  no  proof  of  good  conduct :  they  don't  always  express  our  thoughts  ; 
but  what  a  man  does  may  be  depended  upon,  and  is  the  true  measure  of  his 
worth.  The  lady  you  mentioned  ['  Jezebel ']  is  very  fair  of  speech,  and  yet  you 
see  how  little  to  be  trusted  to  in  other  respects,  and  how  subtle.  I  have  formerly 
observed  her  disposition  (but  not  so  accurately  as  I  might  have  done),  and 
did  not  always  like  the  appearances  as  they  struck  me  ;  but  I  saw  how  deeply 
Charles  [Brett]  was  involved,  and  therefore  forebore  to  speak  too  freely,  that  I 
might  not  torment  him.  The  way  she  treated  him  would  have  opened  the  eyes 
of  a  less  amorous  gallant,  and  turned  his  love  and  admiration  into  perfect 
contempt.  .  .  .  We  are  not  enough  acquainted  with  ourselves  to  determine  our 
future  conduct,  nor  can  any  man  foresee  what  shall  happen  ;  but,  as  far  as 
one  may  hazard  a  conjecture,  there  is  a  great  probability  that  I  shall  never 
marry.  I  shall  hardly  engage  in  an  affair  of  that  nature  purely  for  money  ; 
nor  do  I  believe  that  my  infatuation  will  ever  be  strong  enough  to  persuade 
me  that  people  can  live  without  it ;  besides,  unless  there  be  violence  done  to 
my  inclinations  by  the  power  of  some  gentle  nymph,  I  had  much  rather  listen 
to  the  drum  and  trumpet  than  any  softer  sound  whatever.  .  .  . 

Loftus  has  always  been  an  old  fashioned  coxcomb — a  tawdry  kind  of  beau. 
I  suppose  he  would  dress  the  regiment  in  his  own  taste  ;  he's  one  of  those  people 
who  think  there  can't  be  too  much  finery,  no  matter  where  'tis  stuck.  .  .  . 

I  hope  you  will  succeed  in  the  management  of  all  your  London  affairs, 
that  you  may  have  an  end  to  such  unpleasant  business.  My  washerwoman 
says  she  thinks  I  shall  hold  out  till  next  autumn  with  her  assistance  ;  she 
has  promised  to  keep  everything  very  tight,  and  if  she's  as  good  as  her  word 
it  will  save  you  the  trouble  of  sending  any  new  linen.  My  compliments  to 
Mrs.  Inwood  and  to  Miss  Brett.  I  bog  my  duty  to  father. 


412  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

The  winter  of  1753-4  found  Wolfe  stationed  at  Dover  Castle,  then 
in  a  disgraceful  state  of  disrepair  and  full  of  discomforts.  The  weather 
as  it  happened  was  particularly  severe.  Nevertheless,  there  were  com- 
pensations. He  had  his  men  more  directly  under  his  eye,  and  took  a 
pride  in  bringing  them  to  a  high  state  of  perfection  in  drill  and  dis- 
cipline. '  It  would  be  a  prison  to  a  man  of  pleasure,'  he  tells  his 
mother, '  but  an  officer  may  put  up  with  it.'  In  another  letter  he  says; 
'  I  always  encourage  our  young  people  to  frequent  balls  and  assemblies. 
It  softens  their  manners  and  makes  them  civil,  and  commonly  I  go 
along  with  them  to  see  how  they  conduct  themselves.  I  am  only 
afraid  they  shall  fall  in  love  and  marry.  Whenever  I  perceive  the 
symptoms  or  anybody  else  makes  a  discovery  we  fall  upon  the  delin- 
quent without  mercy  till  he  grows  out  of  conceit  with  his  new  passion. 
By  this  method  we  have  broke  through  many  an  amorous  alliance,  and 
dissolved  many  ties  of  eternal  love  and  affection.  My  experience  in 
these  matters,'  adds  the  benevolent  despot  of  seven-and-twenty, 
'  helps  me  to  find  out  my  neighbour's  weakness  and  furnishes  me  with 
arms  to  oppose  his  folly.' 

An  East  Indian  expedition  was  being  fitted  out  in  February  1754, 
and  our  Lieutenant-Colonel  writes  : 

We  have  sometimes  thought  ourselves  in  the  way  of  this  East  Indian  expedi- 
tion ;  and  if  they  had  sent  a  regiment  from  England,  it  could  have  been  none 
other.  But  Lord  Bury's  rank  and  employment  (he  was  aide  de  camp  to  King 
George  the  Second)  exempts  him  from  these  undertakings,  and  I  do  not  suppose 
he  would  think  it  consistent  to  let  his  regiment  embark  without  him.  So  we 
are  reserved  for  more  brilliant  service. 

In  the  tone  of  his  letters  henceforward  we  may  note  a  change. 
His  mind  appears  tinged  more  and  more  with  seriousness  and  stoic 
resignation.  Writing  of  a  disappointment,  he  says  : 

Pleasures  that  are  enjoyed  leave  but  a  slight  impression.  They  furnish 
matter  for  idle  talk.  But  cooler  reflection  upon  them  serves  but  to  convince 
a  thinking  person  that  we  are  occupied  about  small  matters  and  earnest  upon 
trifles. 

In  the  same  letter  the  Lieutenant-Colonel  tells  his  mother  : 

I  have  been  appointed  to  preside  at  a  general  court-martial  composed  of 
officers  of  our  regiment  for  the  trial  of  a  deserter.  This  is  the  first  time  that  I 
have  acted  in  that  grave  office — and  a  very  grave  one  it  is,  when  the  matter 
under  consideration  is  of  any  importance.  These  courts  of  justice  should  not 
be  assembled  too  frequently,  lest  the  troops  should  forget  or  lose  the  respect 
and  veneration  that  they  ought  to  have  for  such  courts. 

Yet  humour  is  not  altogether  absent  from  his  correspondence,  as 
many  passages  demonstrate. 

I  come  up  for  two  months  before  embarkation  to  appoint  factors'  agents,  &c., 
upon  all  my  estates,  and  settle  other  weighty  concerns,  that  my  affairs  may  not 
run  into  confusion  in  my  absence.  This  I  hope  you  will  think  is  a  necessary 


1908      SOME   LETTERS   OF  GENERAL    WOLFE      413 

precaution  for  all  that  are  possessed  of  any  considerable  property  of  lands, 
houses,  manors,  &c. 

Wolfe  got  leave  of  absence  for  several  months  during  the  spring 
and  summer  of  1754,  and  although  his  relations  with  Miss  Lawson  had 
been  finally  severed,  yet  it  appears  he  still  continued  on  good  terms 
with  the  young  lady's  uncle,  General  Sir  John  Mordaunt.  He  even 
went  to  spend  some  days  under  Sir  John's  roof  at  Freefolk,  Hampshire, 
from  whence  he  writes  : 

My  mistress's  picture  hangs  up  in  the  room  where  we  dine.  It  took  away 
my  stomach  for  two  or  three  days  and  made  me  grave ;  but  time,  the  never- 
failing  aid  to  distressed  lovers,  has  made  the  semblance  of  her  a  pleasing  but  not 
a  dangerous  object.  However,  I  find  it  best  not  to  trust  myself  to  the  lady's 
eyes  or  put  confidence  in  any  resolutions  of  my  own. 

His  term  of  leave  ended,  he  rejoined  his  regiment  at  Exeter,  where 
he  was  now  much  concerned  in  the  matter  of  further  promotion, 
although  then  probably  the  youngest  lieutenant-colonel  in  the  service. 

Sir  John  Mordaunt  hit  upon  a  point  in  his  journey  to  Plymouth  that  seems 
to  carry  reason  and  prudence  with  it.  It  occurred  to  him  that,  as  Lord  Bury 
would  probably  get  the  first  regiment  of  Dragoons  that  fell,  and  as  another 
colonel  of  rank  or  quality  or  Parliamentary  merit  would  probably  succeed  him, 
Sir  John  thought  that  it  would  be  best  to  wait  that  event  to  propose  the  other 
change.  He  thinks  it  so  difficult  to  accomplish  that  he  is  willing  to  have  some 
circumstance  of  that  sort  in  aid  of  the  request,  for  although  I  cannot  expect  or 
hope  to  succeed  Lord  Bury,  yet  it  is  a  kind  of  grievance  to  put  men  over  the  heads 
of  those  who  have  been  perhaps  more  accustomed  to  command,  and  have  had 
all  the  business  to  do  for  several  years.  This  is  a  plea  that  would  be  of  very 
little  service  in  any  other  case,  but  may  do  good  in  this.  Most  of  my  brother 
lieu,  colonels  are  people  who  have  arrived  at  the  height  of  their  expectations 
or  at  least  will  be  contented  to  wait  till  their  turn  comes  without  murmuring. 
Sir  John  offered  to  begin  immediately,  but  he  advised  this  delay  as  the  most 
convenient ;  and  you  may  be  sure  I  did  not  oppose  it. 

James  Wolfe  was  certainly  not  a  man  who  regarded  a  lieutenant- 
colonelcy  as  the  '  height  of  his  expectations.'  In  another  letter  he 
tells  his  mother,  then  with  his  father  at  Bath,  that  '  it  is  cheerfulness 
and  ease  that  will  prolong  your  life,  and  that  is  not  to  be  had  but  in 
some  well-suited  society.'  And  for  that  reason  he  thinks  cards  *  are 
reasonable  and  very  innocent  instruments  of  diversion,  although  not 
particularly  fond  of  cards  myself.'  His  parent  has  repeated  to  him 
some  eulogies  of  his  friend,  an  old  Dowager  Lady  Grey,  concerning 
him. 

It  is  time  my  Lady  Grey  should  discard  me  and  take  a  younger  lover.  I  am 
really  not  worth  a  farthing.  But,  however,  she  may  be  assured  that  I  am  now 
as  much  in  love  with  her  as  with  any  woman  in  England — a  fact  that  she  seemed 
to  doubt  the  last  time  I  saw  her. 

On  another  occasion  he  writes  : 

I  have  heard  of  my  Lady  Grey  very  lately  ;  she  sent  me  her  compliments 
and,  what  was  more  (as  she  expressed  it)  her  love.  You  see,  I  have  the  art  of 


414  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

preserving  the  affections  of  my  mistresses,  and  I  may  be  vain  of  these  conquests 
without  offence  or  danger  to  my  reputation. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  this  was  in  the  decade  following  the 
last  Jacobite  rising,  and  that  Exeter  was  a  Jacobite  stronghold.  So 
resolved  was  Wolfe  to  allay  the  animosity  of  the  people  for  the  military 
that  he  neglected  no  opportunity  to  that  end. 

Will  you  believe  [he  writes]  that  no  Devonshire  squire  dances  more  than 
I  do  ?  What  no  consideration  of  pleasure  or  complaisance  for  the  sex  could 
effect,  the  love  of  peace  and  harmony  has  brought  about.  I  have  danced  the 
officers  into  the  good  graces  of  the  Jacobite  women  hereabouts  who  were  pre- 
judiced against  them.  We  were  upon  such  terms  with  the  people  in  general 
that  I  have  been  forced  to  put  on  all  my  address  and  employ  my  best  skill  to 
conciliate  matters. 

When  Lord  Bury's  father  died  and  he  succeeded  to  the  Albemarle 
peerage  and  the  command  of  a  cavalry  regiment,  his  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  thought  the  time  had  arrived  when  he  might  advance  his  claims 
to  command.  At  least,  he  expected  that  none  under  the  rank  of  General 
would  be  put  over  him.  '  I  am  resolved  not  to  serve  one  moment 
longer  than  I  can  with  honour  even  if  I  should  starve.'  As  war  with 
France  was  imminent,  the  old  General  hastens  forward  with  an  offer  of 
his  purse.  The  son  replies  : 

12th  March,  1755. 

I  do  hope  that  a  proper  confidence  will  always  subsist  between  us.  I  have 
no  interest  distinct  from  yours,  nor  many  passions  to  gratify  ;  or  if  I  have  any 
they  shall  always  be  subservient  to  your  pleasure,  for  now  I  think  I  have  them 
under  pretty  good  command. 

Whenever  I  may  have  occasion  to  desire  the  aid  of  your  purse,  it  will  generally 
be  with  a  view  to  do  you  honour  and  to  enable  me  to  serve  his  Majesty  as  you 
yourself  would  serve  him.  If  there  is  a  war,  I  must  either  rise  or  fall,  and  in 
either  case  am  provided  for  ;  but  as  I  would  willingly  enjoy  the  society  of  my 
friends  without  being  troublesome  to  them,  I  should  rather  prefer  the  former 
as  the  means  of  doing  it  and  having  as  yet  some  little  relish  of  life. 

To  his  mother  he  writes  from  Winchester,  the  26th  of  March  1755  : 

DEAR  MADAM, — Upon  my  arrival  here  yesterday  I  found  your  letter,  and  I 
found  a  very  unsatisfactory  account  of  your  health  in  it.  The  weather  has  been 
so  uncommonly  sharp  that  I  feared  it  would  affect  you,  and  you  have  the  mis- 
fortune to  feel  all  the  changes  and  rudeness  of  climate  that  this  country  is  subject 
to.  I  can  recommend  nothing  to  you  but  the  same  course  that  you  have  hitherto 
pursued  ;  to  be  good  and  religious  is  the  only  means  of  quieting  the  mind  under 
great  afflictions  ;  we  have  no  other  comfort  here  below,  nor  anything  else  worth 
our  regard.  A  little  more  stirring  in  fair  weather,  and  in  a  light  machine  if  you 
had  one,  might  help  you  ;  but  the  house  and  a  great  chair  is  death  or  a  life  of 
misery. 

We  are  impatient  to  know  whether  peace  or  war  is  resolved  on.  If  the 
latter,  as  we  suppose,  the  troops  will  probably  encamp  very  soon,  to  be  ready 
for  all  purposes.  In  either  case  I  must  go  to  London  for  a  ,few  days  to  settle 
my  affairs,  and  then  I  shall  have  the  pleasure  of  being  with  you. 

The  Marines  you  speak  of,  if  they  do  raise  any,  will  be  put  into  companies 
of  100  men  each,  and  not  into  regiments,  as  the  newspapers  have  proclaimed ; 
and  these  companies  are  to  have  a  field  officer  to  inspect  them,  a  lieut.  colonel 


1908      SOME  LETTERS   OF  GENERAL    WOLFE       415 

or  major  to  every  ten  or  twelve  companies.  The  whole  body  of  Marines  will 
be  under  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty  and  entirely  out  of  our  way.  But  do  you 
imagine,  if  regiments  were  raised,  that  I  should  have  any,  the  least  chance  to 
succeed  ?  All  my  hope  of  success  must  be  grounded  upon  right  and  just  pre- 
tensions. I  must  serve,  and  serve  well,  or  I  cannot  get  forward  ;  for  who  will 
be  at  the  trouble  to  solicit  for  me  out  of  pure  friendship  ?  No  man  will  ask 
such  a  favour  but  where  he  promises  himself,  and  expects  something  in  return. 

I  thank  you  for  all  your  kindnesses  and  for  the  pains  you  bestow  upon  me. 
I  should  be  sorry  if  it  brought  the  least  distress  upon  you,  or  even  cramped 
your  compassionate  and  generous  disposition.  I  have  but  a  little  while  longer 
to  be  troublesome  to  you  ;  a  war  of  two  or  three  years  will,  I  hope  (though  I  do 
not  wish  it  for  my  own  sake,  at  the  public  hazard  and  expense),  improve  my 
circumstances. 

The  sergeant  I  brought  from  London  does  not  please  me ;   if  you  hear  by 

chance  of  a  good  honest  groom  or  a  servant  that  can  dress  a  wig,  I  pray  you 

•  let  me  know.     I  thought  I  had  left  a  stock  with  you — 'tis  what  I  have  most 

occasion  for  at  present,  as  mine  are  actually  worn  to  threads.     I  am  a  good  deal 

out  of  repair. 

By  the  middle  of  April  1755  Wolfe  learns  of  the  appointment  of 
Colonel  Philip  Honey  wood,  M.P.,  to  succeed  Lord  Bury,  and>Lhas 
recourse  to  philosophy  to  reconcile  him  to  the  change.  Unless  there 
was  war  it  did  not  affect  him.  He  might  '  jog  on  in  the  easiest 
position  in  the  Army  and  sleep  and  grow  fat.' 

We  were  then  on  the  eve  of  the  great  war  with  France,  whose  end 
was  to  be  the  crowning  victory  and  death  of  the  very  soldier  who 
penned  these  lines  four  years  before  (the  20th  of  June  1755). 

I  do  not  know  what  news  may  be  stirring  in  the  great  world,  but  we  have 
none  that  is  bad.  Our  fleet  is  now  more  formidable  than  the  fleet  of  England 
ever  was,  and  as  the  regiments  are  growing  every  day  more  and  more  complete, 
I  don't  apprehend  that  there  is  the  least  shadow  of  danger  to  the  island  this 
campaign. 

What  I  most  apprehend,  and  what  is  very  well  worth  our  thoughts,  is  the 
excessive  expense  that  a  war  creates  to  the  English  nation.  This  expense  has 
already  involved  us  so  deep  in  debt  that  we  have  not  much  more  credit,  and 
consequently  must  give  up  the  funds,  Bank,  &c.,  whenever  the  means  of  raising 
fresh  supplies  fail.  This  consideration  should  determine  every  thinking  man 
(when  war  is  declared)  to  divide  at  least  his  substance  and  take  the  first  favour- 
able opportunity  to  secure  something  upon  land  for  his  family,  in  case  the  other 
portion  should  be  lost  in  the  public  ruin.  It  is,  no  doubt,  a  little  troublesome  to 
begin  late  in  life  to  manage  estates,  especially  great  ones  ;  but  a  small  matter 
by  way  of  security  of  two  or  three  hundred  pounds  a  year  is  not,  nor  can  be, 
very  inconvenient ;  and  I  think  I  could,  with  the  help  of  friends,  find  out  a 
purchase  of  that  sort  that  would  be  no  burthen.  I  do  heartily  advise  this 
measure  for  your  particular  safety.  My  father's  regiment  is  certainty  for  him 
and  my  trade  will  always  subsist  me  in  exigencies,  and  (sad  it  is  to  confess  it) 
rather  mends  by  the  distress  of  others  than  falls  off.  A  war  is  of  most  uncertain 
conclusion,  and  the  demands  of  money  prodigious  while  it  lasts.  All  private 
accounts  should  be  cleared,  and  we  should  not  become  responsible  for  other 
men's  affairs  when  our  own  are  so  precarious. 

I  have  been  here  since  Monday  at  the  races,  where  there  never  was  less 
sport  in  the  horse  way  ;  but  that  defect  is  a  good  deal  made  amends  for  by  the 
vivacity  of  the  other  entertainments,  which  the  people  here,  and  I  suppose 
everywhere,  give  into,  as  if  no  danger  hung  over  us  nor  no  war  was  to  be  feared. 


416  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

I  have  danced  incessantly,  and  mend  upon  it,  which  will  encourage  me  to 
be  more  the  servant  of  the  sex  upon  these  occasions  than  I  have  hitherto  been. 

I  would  have  you  persevere  in  riding  as  the  most  salutary  of  all  exercises, 
and  the  very  best  of  all  remedies  for  ill  health.  Have  you  two  horses  ?  How 
are  you  provided  ?  for  there  is  a  growth  of  little  cattle  here  that  might  produce 
something  to  fit  you.  I  have  countermanded  the  pacing  horse. 

I  am  going  once  more  to  Portsmouth  to  enjoy  the  dreadful  though  pleasing 
sight  of  our  mighty  navy.  The  Marines  are  in  full  exercise  to  be  ready  to  go 
on  board  and  relieve  the  regiments  of  Foot  now  at  Spithead. 

In  the  next  month  he  is  back  at  Canterbury,  writing  : 

All  notions  of  peace  are  now  at  an  end.  The  most  discerning  people  of  the 
country  have  long  been  of  opinion  that  a  war  would  be  the  certain  consequence 
of  the  steps  that  have  been  taken  by  us  in  return  for  the  attempts  made  by  the 
French.  The  embargo  laid  upon  shipping,  the  violent  press  for  seamen,  and 
the  putting  soldiers  on  board  of  our  fleet  makes  me  conclude  that  the  maritime 
strength  of  our  enemy  is  by  no  means  contemptible  ;  and  as  we  are  open  to 
assaults  in  almost  every  part  of  the  King's  dominions,  both  here  and  in  America, 
I  am  much  of  opinion  that  the  enemy's  first  attack  will  be  vigorous  and  successful. 
We  must,  however,  hope  that  fortune  will  favour  us,  since  we  do  our  best  to 
deserve  her  smiles. 

After  Mrs.  Wolfe's  somewhat  serious  attack  of  illness  in  1755  : 

Southampton  :  Sunday,  15  July,  1755. 

DEAB  MADAM, — I  must  write  you-  a  short  letter  (but  a  very  sincere  one)  of 
congratulation  upon  the  return  of  your  health,  or  rather,  I  fear,  upon  the  present 
removal  of  your  pains.  Would  to  God  that  what  you  have  felt  was  to  be  the 
last  of  your  sufferings,  and  that  a  future  life  of  peace  and  ease  was  to  make  you 
some  amends  for  the  many  unpleasant  hours  that  are  gone  by  !  My  wishes  for 
you  are  truly  those  of  a  son  for  a  mother  whom  he  has  always  found  kind  and 
indulgent ;  for  I  conclude  such  mothers  cannot  have  sons  that  wish  them  other- 
wise than  well. 

What  is  seemingly  a  peculiarity  of  Wolfe's  disposition  was  his 
callousness  to  death — even  of  his  nearest  and  deafest.  One  says 
'  seemingly '  because  something  must  be  ascribed  to  the  formal  style  in 
which  he  customarily  writes,  his  control  over  his  own  feelings,  and  his 
inability  to  convey  the  least  pathos.  In  this  respect  he  is  the  true 
stoic  warrior  and  strangely  resembles  Wellington.  He  rarely  alludes 
to  death  with  any  deep  feeling,  and  sometimes  our  notions  are  shocked 
by  the  want  of  it.  Mrs.  Wolfe  lost  both  a  brother  and  a  sister  within 
six  months  of  each  other.  Of  the  first,  Bradwardine  Thompson,  M.P., 
her  son  writes  : 

Canterbury  :  Feb.  20,  1756. 

DBAB  MADAM, — I  can't  say  I  am  sorry  for  my  poor  uncle's  death,  other - 
\  .  wise  than  as  it  is  a  matter  of  concern  to  you  ;   which  I  hope  will  not  be  more 
lasting  than  the  cause  seems  to  demand. 

The  Duke's  coming  here  will  determine  my  going  to  town.  I  shall  want 
nothing  but  a  suit  of  black  clothes  and  fringed  ruffles  ;  those  I  have  already 
(I  mean  the  muslin  ones)  should  be  lessened  in  their  depth — and  two  or  three 
more  pairs  bespoke  of  a  proper  size.  Will  you  take  the  trouble  to  do  this  business 
for  me,  and  I  shall  thank  you.  My  duty  to  my  father.  I  am  always,  my  dear 
Madam, 

Your  obedient  and  affectionate  son, 

JAM.  WOLFE. 


1908     SOME  LETTERS   OF  GENERAL    WOLFE       417 

Of  his  aunt  he  observes  to  his  father  :  '  Mrs.  Abthorp's  death  may 
be  reckoned  rather  fortunate  than  otherwise,  since  it  was  hardly 
probable  that  she  would  recover  from  the  melancholy  state  she 
was  in,  or  that  her  natural  disposition  would  correct  with  her  returning 
judgment  if  she  did  recover.' 

.  As  Mrs.  Wolfe  advanced  in  years  and  in  illness  her  temper  grew 
more  infirm,  and  in  her  letters  to  her  son  she  is  perpetually  upbraiding 
him  for  his  neglect.  It  is  nothing  to  the  purpose  that  he  has  nearly 
always  fulfilled  her  lightest  commands.  She  presses  for  his  influence 
to  secure  the  appointment  of  certain  youthful  military  aspirants.  He 
exerts  himself  and  not  unsuccessfully  in  their  behalf.  Amongst  several 
letters  on  this  subject  one  may  be  singled  out : 

You  cannot  doubt  my  readiness  to  oblige  you  in  anything  that  is  of  immediate 
concern  to  yourself  ;  but  you  must  not  put  me  upon  actions  that  I  would  blush 
to  engage  in  and  that  my  uncle  should  blush  to  ask.  I  can  never  recommend 
any  but  a  gentleman  to  serve  with  gentlemen.  There  is  little  prospect  of  a  low 
dog's  doing  a  shining  act. 

But  one  letter  of  reproaches  at  last  goads  him  into  a  warmth  of 
expression  he  afterwards  regrets. 

13th  Nov. 

My  temper  is  much  too  warm,  and  sudden  resentment  forces  out  expressions 
and  even  actions  that  are  neither  justifiable  nor  excusable,  and  perhaps  I  do  not 
correct  that  natural  heat  so  much  as  I  ought  to  do  ;  but  you  must  have  observed 
that  people  are  apt  to  resent  what  they,  at  first  view  (and  often  inadvisedly), 
take  for  injuries,  with  more  than  common  quickness,  when  they  come  from  an 
unexpected  quarter.  With  regard  to  myself,  you  must  leave  to  time  and  exerted 
reason  for  the  correction  of  those  errors  and  vices  which  may  at  present  prevail 
most  against  sense  and  judgment — pointing  them  out  hi  the  gentlest  and 
friendliest  manner,  and  by  that  means  help  to  weaken  and  to  destroy  them. 
I  have  that  cursed  disposition  of  mind  (the  worst  quality  that  can  seize  the 
heart  of  man,  and  the  devil's  great  assistant)  that,  when  I  once  know  that  people 
have  entertained  a  v^:y  ill  opinion,  I  imagine  they  never  change  ;  from  whence 
one  passes  easily  to  an  indifference  about  them,  and  then  to  dislike  ;  and  though 
I  flatter  myself  that  I  have  the  seeds  of  justice  strong  enough  to  keep  me  from 
doing  wrong,  even  to  an  enemy,  yet  there  lurks  a  hidden  poison  in  the  heart 
that  is  difficult  to  root  out.  However,  in  this  respect  Satan  is  disappointed, 
for  I  have  been  so  long  used  to  love  and  esteem  you  in  gratitude  for  your  good 
offices,  and  still  more  in  consideration  of  the  many  excellent  qualities  that  you 
are  possessed  of,  that  it  must  be  a  very  great  change  indeed  on  your  side  that 
could  weaken  my  affection  for  you.  Now  and  then  I  think  myself  forgot — but 
still  attribute  it  to  some  unhappy  cause  of  health,  and  wish  it  better.  Com- 
passion alone  for  your  sufferings  (if  all  other  motives  were  dead)  ought  to  make 
me  calm  under  your  reproofs,  if  they  were  ever  so  severe  ;  and  may  be,  if  I  only 
pitied  your  condition,  without  any  mixture  of  affection,  I  should  be  more  so- 
It  is  my  misfortune  to  catch  fire  on  a  sudden,  to  answer  letters  the  moment 
I  receive  them,  when  they  touch  me  sensibly,  and  to  suffer  passion  to  dictate 
my  expression  more  than  reason.  The  next  day  perhaps  would  have  changed 
more  still  and  carried  more  moderation  with  it.  Every  ill  turn  through  my 
whole  life  has  had  this  haste  and  first  impulse  of  resentment  for  its  true  cause, 
and  it  proceeds  from  pride.  I  am  too  much  affected  with  your  letter  to  leave 
you  a  moment  in  doubt  about  my  inclinations,  which  you  may  be  assured  are 
always  tending  affectionately  towards  you,  and  which  do  in  reality  make  your 
VOL.  LXIV— No.  379  F  F 


418  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

ease  and  quiet  and  welfare  of  consideration  greater  than  any  concern  of  my 
own  ;  and  I  can  safely  say  that  I  have  always  had  your  well  being  much  more 
sincerely  at  heart  than  my  own  interest,  and  am  pleased  to  find  in  myself  so  much 
merit  in  my  love  and  regard  for  you,  so  well  deserving  it  at  my  hands. 

From  Canterbury  on  the  4th  of  April  1756,  Wolfe  writes  to  his 
mother : 

The  fine  season  will  call  us  all, to  business  and  leave  no  excuse  or  pretence 
for  the  lazy  and  indolent  to  indulge  their  dispositions.  Would  you  believe 
that  there  are  many  who  call  themselves  soldiers  who,  to  excuse  their  shameful 
idleness,  cry  out  that  they  believe  there  will  be  no  war — no  invasion — and  so 
act  as  if  they  were  persuaded  of  the  truth  of  it  ?  [He  adds  at  the  close  of  the 
letter] :  Mr.  Beckwith  has  got  another  child,  so  that  he  is  now  the  father  of 
four  sons,  and  I  have  not  one !  My  duty  to  the  General.  I  am,  dear  Madam, 

Your  obedient  and  affectionate  son, 

J.  WOLFE. 

!.  There  are  a  couple  of  letters  which  bring  before  us  a  rather 
pathetic  little  picture.  The  lieutenant-colonel  has  just  been  ap- 
pointed Quartermaster- General  for  Ireland,  and  is  to  kiss  hands 
on  his  appointment.  He  arrives  in  London  and  dashes  off  a 
letter  to  his  father  at  Blackheath,  which  he  concludes  thus  :  *  If 
my  mother  will  let  me  know  the  hour  she  will  take  me  up  in  her 
chariot,  I  shall  be  ready  to  wait  upon  her  at  Blackheath  ;  and,  if  she 
does  not  care  to  come  herself,  only  signify  your  pleasure  as  to  sending 
the  chariot,  and  I  shall  be  at  my  post.'  Crabbed  in  temper  as  she  was 
Mrs.  Wolfe  was  dotingly  fond  of  her  brilliant  son,  and  resolved  to  meet 
him  at  the  .bridge.  The  appointed  day  arrives  ;  it  is  bitterly  cold,  and 
a  blizzard  is  blowing.  Nothing  loth,  the  good  lady  bundles  out  of 
bed,  mounts  her  coach,  and  drives  ten  miles  to  Westminster  Bridge. 
Her  son  is  not  there.  She  waits  there  three  hours  t  until  she  nearly 
perishes  with  the  cold,  and  then,  with  thin  lips  and  blazing  eyes,  orders 
the  coachman  to  drive  back  to  Blackheath.  It  appears  James  had 
written  by  the  penny  post  to  countermand  the  carriage.  His  letter 
arrived  too  late. 

From  his  conduct  as  Quartermaster-General  in  the  unhappy 
Rochefort  Expedition  Wolfe  was  a  marked  man. 

Mr.  Fisher  writes  me  word  that  the  King  has  been  pleased  to  give  me  the 
rank  of  Colonel,  which  at  this  time  is  more  to  be  prized  than  at  any  other,  because 
it  carries  with  it  a  favourable  appearance  as  to  my  conduct  upon  this  late 
expedition  and  an  acceptance  of  my  good  intentions. 

HeKthus  refers  to  his  famous  evidence  before  a  special  Army 
commission  : 

I  have  a  summons  to  attend  the  Board  of  General  Officers  who  are  appointed 
to  enquire  into  the  causes  of  the  failure  of  the  late  expedition  ;  they  begin  their 
examination  to-morrow,  and  I  suppose  will  not  end  it  soon.  Better  and  more 
honourable  for  the  country  if  the  one  half  of  us  had  gone  the  great  road  of 
mortality  together  than  to  be  plagued  with  inquiries  and  censures  and  the  cry 
of  the  world. 


1908     SOME  LETTERS   OF  GENERAL    WOLFE        419 

Just  before  his  departure  for  Louisburg  at  the  beginning  of  1758, 
Wolfe  in  his  letters  more  than  hints  the  possibility  of  his  never  seeing 
either  of  his  parents  again.  To  his  uncle,  Major  Walter  Wolfe,  he 
writes  that  '  the  General  seems  to  decline  apace  and  narrowly  escaped 
being  carried  off  in  the  spring.'  As  for  his  mother,  '  she,  poor  woman, 
is  in  a  bad  state  of  health,  and  needs  the  care  of  some  friendly  hand 
to  prop  up  the  tottering  fabric.  She  has  long  and  painful  fits  of  illness, 
which  by  succession  and  inheritance  are  likely  to  devolve  on  me, 
since  I  feel  the  early  symptoms  of  them.'  Under  these  circumstances 
he  turns  to  his  old  friend,  schoolfellow,  and  companion-in-arms, 
George  Warde,  begging  him  with  another  friend  to  be  his  attorney 
and  representative  while  he  is  away.  The  other  friend  is  Colonel 
Guy  Carleton,  afterwards  Lord  Dorchester,  one  of  the  '  Makers  '  of 
British  Canada. 

My  DBAB  MAJOR  [he  writes  from  London,  the  1st  of  February  1758], — As  the 
time  of  my  sojourning  in  North  America  is  uncertain,  accidents  may  happen  in 
the  family  that  may  throw  my  little  affairs  into  disorder,  unless  some  kind  friend 
will  take  the  trouble  to  inspect  into  them.  Carleton  is  so  good  as  to  say  he  will 
give  what  help  is  in  his  power.  May  I  ask  the  same  favour  of  you,  my  oldest 
friend,  in  whose  worth  and  integrity  I  put  entire  confidence  ?  I  believe  there 
should  have  been  some  powers  drawn  out  and  some  formality  in  this  business, 
all  which  I  am  a  stranger  to  ;  but  I  am  no  stranger  to  the  good  will  and  honour 
of  the  two  persons  to  whom  I  recommend  my  concerns.  I  wish  you  much  health 
and  prosperity,  and  am,  my  dear  Major, 

Your  faithful  and  affectionate  servant, 

JAM.  WOLFE. 

Amongst  the  letters  from  the  conquered  province  of  Acadia,  now 
Nova  Scotia,  I  cull  the  following,  written  after  the  capture  of  Louis- 
burg  : 

27th  July,  1758. 

DEAR  SIR, — I  wrote  you  two  or  three  letters  from  Halifax  in  relation  to  our 
voyage  and  preparations  for  the  siege  of  Louisburg.  We  got  out  as  soon  as 
possible,  and  came  without  any  accident  into  the  Bay  of  Calarouse,  made  a 
disposition  for  landing,  and  had  very  near  been  foiled  in  the  aCtempfc  By  great 
good  fortune,  however,  we  got  ashore,  proceeded  to  attack  the  town  and  the 
shipping,  and  at  length  have  succeeded  in  both.  We  burned  four  ships  of  the 
line  and  took  one  ;  the  enemy  sunk  two  frigates,  and  our  squadron  has  caught 
a  third,  so  that  we  have  hurt  their  marine  a  little  and  possessed  ourselves  of 
Louisburg.  Our  loss  in  all  this  affair,  notwithstanding  the  most  violent  fire 
from  the  shipping,  does  not  amount  to  much  above  400  men  killed  and  wounded, 
that  of  the  enemy  at  least  three  times  as  much.  The  garrison  to  the  number  of 
about  two  thousand  men  are  prisoners  of  war  ;  they  laid  down  their  arms  this 
morning,  and  we  took  possession  of  the  town.  Two  of  our  captains  of  Grenadiers 
are  killed  and  6  or  8  subaltern  officers,  and  about  as  many  wounded.  The 
Indians  and  Canadians  gave  us  very  little  trouble.  I  believe  their  chief  was 
killed  the  day  we  landed,  and  the  rest,  who  are  veritable  canaille,  were  a  good 
deal  intimidated. 

We  have  a  report  this  day  from  the  continent  that  an  attack  has  been  made 
upon  some  advanced  post  of  the  enemy  with  success,  but  that  my  Lord  Howe 
was  killed  in  the  beginning  by  a  cannon  shot.  His  loss  is  irreparable,  because 
there  is  not  such  another  soldier  in  his  Majesty's  service,  and  I  do  not  at  all 

F  v  2 


420  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

doubt  but  that  in  two  campaigns  he  would  have  driven  the  French  out  of  North 
America.  We  have  been  rather  slow  in  our  proceedings,  but  still  I  hope  there 
is  fine  weather  enough  left  for  another  blow  ;  and  as  our  troops  are  improved  by 
this  siege,  the  sooner  we  strike  the  better.  Two  of  the  French  men-of-war  were 
boarded  in  the  night  by  the  boats  of  our  fleet  and  both  taken.  This  coup  was 
quite  unexpected  and  astonishing,  and,  indeed,  if  we  had  not  been  very  well 
informed  of  their  negligence  and  security,  would  appear  to  be  a  rash  attempt. 

I  see  my  name  among  the  new  Colonels  ;  I  hope  Fisher  will  take  care  of  my 
affairs,  as  he  is  intended  for  my  agent.  The  climate  is  very  healthy,  though  the 
air  is  foggy  and  disagreeable.  I  have  been  always  very  well  since  we  landed, 
and  have  got  through  this  business  unhurt. 

Soon  after  the  date  of  the  foregoing  letter,  its  writer  returned 
to  England,  one  of  the  heroes  of  the  hour,  became  engaged  to  Miss 
Lowther,  and  was  entrusted  by  Chatham  with  the  expedition  against 
the  great  French  stronghold  in  Canada.  Ere  the  following  summer 
had  passed  away  the  vital  spark  of  this  marvellous  boy,  who  is  to  war 
what  Keats  is  to  literature  and  Pitt  to  politics,  was  extinguished 
for  ever  in  a  sudden  and  glorious  uprush  of  victory  on  the  heights  of 
Quebec. 

BECKLES  WILLSON. 

Quebec  House,  Westerham. 


(  c." 


K» 

kr- 


a 


1908 


HAVE    WE    THE    'GRIT'    OF   OUR 
FORE  FA  THERS  ? 


THIS  is  a  question  that  all  who  love  their  country  should  ask  them- 
selves, for  upon  the  answer  depends  not  only  the  existence  of -the 
Empire,  but  also  the  very  continuance  of  the  British  race  as  one  of 
the  dominant  peoples  of  the  world. 

The  writer  of  this  article,  whilst  recognising  that  the  *  grit '  of  our 
forefathers  (to  use  an  expressive  and  well  understood,  though  perhaps 
not  strictly  classical,  word)  is  to  be  found  in  its  full  strength  and 
vigour  amongst  large  numbers  of  our  people,  doubts  whether  it 
permeates  the  entire  mass  of  the  population  in  anything  like  the 
proportion  it  did,  say,  a  hundred  years  ago.  The  writer  understands 
by  the  word  '  grit '  that  virile  spirit  which  makes  light  of  pain  and 
physical  discomfort,  and  rejoices  in  the  consciousness  of  victory  over 
adverse  circumstances,  and  which  regards  the  performance  of  duty, 
however  difficult  and  distasteful,  as  one  of  the  supreme  virtues  of  all 
true  men  and  women.  Having  expressed  this  doubt,  he  will  endeavour 
to  justify  it  by  pointing  out  some  of  the  signs  which  appear  to  him 
indicative  of  a  decadent  spirit  and  of  a  lack  of  virility  amongst  portions 
of  all  classes  of  the  community. 

Let  us  give  in  this  matter,  as  is  right,  due  precedence  to  the  ladies. 

The  deeds  of  former  generations  of  British  men  and  women,  patent 
to  all  who  read  history,  render  it  unnecessary  to  argue  the  possession 
by  our  ancestors  of  this  virile  spirit. 

Do  our  women  of  the  present  day  carry  on  the  noble  traditions 
of  their  forerunners  in  this  respect  ?  The  word  '  duty  '  was  as  sacred 
to  our  grandmothers  as  it  was  to  our  grandfathers. 

Duty  demanded  of  a  woman  in  former  days  that  she  should  sub- 
ordinate her  own  inclinations  to  those  of  her  parents  and  of  her 
husband,  and  that  in  her  conduct  she  should  consider  the  interests 
of  the  State.  She  was  taught  that  her  first  duty  in  life  was  to  marry, 
and  produce  children  who  should  carry  on  worthily  the  traditions  of 
the  family  and  of  the  race  to  which  she  belonged.  Whilst  unmarried 
she  was  trained  in  the  virtues  of  obedience,  respect  for  authority, 
endurance,  and  diligence  in  the  prosecution  of  all  household  and 

421 


422  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

domestic  duties.  She  was  expected  to  prepare  herself  for  the  married 
state.  When  married,  honour  demanded  that  she  should  face  the 
obligations  of  the  marriage  tie  and  the  sufferings  and  dangers  of 
childbirth  (ten  times  greater  in  her  days  than  in  ours)  with  as  much 
coolness  and  courage  as  was  expected  of  the  man  on  the  field  of  battle 
or  in  the  presence  of  deadly  peril. 

Society  was  merciless  to  those  of  either  sex  who  failed  in  the 
exhibition  of  courage  in  the  face  of  their  respective  duties. 

What  is  the  attitude  of  some  of  the  women  of  to-day  towards  these 
special  duties  and  obligations  of  their  sex  ?  Is  it  not  a  fact  that 
amongst  the  richer  classes,  at  all  events,  some  girls  decline  to  marry 
unless  their  suitors  are  in  a  position  to  supply  them  with  luxuries 
unheard  of  by  their  mothers  ?  And  have  we  not  heard  of  girls  marrying 
a  man  for  his  money,  or  his  position,  and  then  refusing  to  live  with 
him  ? — an  act  of  cold-blooded  treachery  and  of  heartless  cruelty, 
which  society  should  punish  by  a  stern  ostracism  of  the  offender. 

We  know  that  the  birth-rate  is  diminishing  year  by  year.  Does 
not  this  mean  that  women  are  showing  the  white  feather,  and  are 
shirking  one  of  the  principal  duties  of  their  sex  ?  Again,  are  the 
present  generation  of  mothers  to  be  found  as  often  in  the  nursery 
and  in  the  schoolroom  as  their  ancestors  ?  I  think  not.  The  general 
complaint  is  that  amongst  the  richer  mothers  the  children  are  more 
and  more  being  left  to  the  care  of  governesses  and  nurses.  The  desire 
for  pleasure  and  for  personal  ease  seems  to  have  taken  firm  hold  of  the 
minds  of  many  well-to-do  women,  and  to  have  driven  out  the  maternal 
instincts.  I  do  not  say  that  the  women  of  to-day  are  altogether 
lacking  in  physical  or  moral  courage.  To  gratify  her  ambitions  in 
the  world  of  sport,  or  of  society,  the  modern  woman  not  infrequently 
displays  a  fine  quality  of  endurance  and  great  tenacity  of  purpose. 
The  question  is,  Do  the  majority  of  the  women  of  our  nation  exercise 
these  same  virtues  of  self-control  and  discipline  in  the  performance 
of  daily  duties,  both  great  and  small  ? 

The  middle-class  woman  apes  her  fashionable  sister.  In  former 
days  the  wife  of  the  professional  man  took  an  active,  personal,  intelli- 
gent part  in  the  management  of  her  home.  She  was  to  be  found  in 
the  kitchen,  as  well  as  in  the  nursery  ;  she  was  careful  of  her  husband's 
money,  and  did  not  attempt  to  vie  with  her  social  superiors.  Now 
all  this  is  altered.  She  must  run  in  the  same  race  as  her  fashionable 
sister,  with  perhaps  only  a  tenth  part  of  the  latter's  income,  to  the 
financial  ruin  of  her  husband  and  of  his  professional  prospects.  Not 
infrequently  the  husband  also,  imbued  with  the  theory  that  '  nothing 
succeeds  like  success,'  urges  her  to  keep  up  the  level  of  so-called  smart- 
ness and  style,  in  order  to  maintain  the  impression  of  his  professional 
prosperity,  and  because  he  too  enjoys  the  luxuries  of  good  living, 
costly  dressing,  and  frequent  social  pleasures. 

The  ever -increasing  body  of  professional  and  of  working  women  is 


1908       THE   'GRIT'   OF  OUR   FOREFATHERS         428 

perhaps  less  exposed  to  the  dangers  engendered  by  easy  and  sheltered 
living,  but  even  amongst  a  certain  class  of  these  there  is  a  tendency 
to  shirk  any  training  which  entails  long  and  concentrated  effort,  and 
a  happy-go-lucky  impression  prevails  in  some  minds  that  general 
adaptability  and  native  wit  will  enable  them  to  seize  the  chances 
of  life  and  steer  themselves  into  a  haven  of  comparative  prosperity. 
The  instability  of  much  women's  work,  and  the  constant  creation, 
through  the  whims  of  fashion  and  other  causes,  of  new  occupations, 
tend  to  develop  a  habit  of  lightly  disregarding  the  performance  of 
monotonous  duties ;  while  the  demands  made  by  class  custom  upon 
many  professional  women  for  extravagant  dressing,  and  for  the 
acquisition  of  the  latest  social  accomplishment,  create  a  love  of  luxury, 
of  excitement,  and  of  constant  change,  that  seriously  militates  against 
the  development  of  the  more  stable  traits  of  character. 

Let  us  descend  again  in  the  female  social  world. 

Has  not  the  modern  domestic  caught  the  fever  of  an  easy  life  and 
of  equality  of  condition  ?  Is  she  to-day  as  solicitous  of  her  employer's 
interest,  as  hardworking,  as  skilled  in  her  profession,  and  as  proud  of 
it  as  the  servant  of  former  days  ? 

Without  being  a  pessimist  I  fear  the  answer  to  these  questions 
cannot  be  truthfully  given  in  the  affirmative. 

If  there  be  some  grain  of  truth  in  what  I  have  said,  is  there  not 
reason  to  inquire  why  the  women  of  to-day  take  a  less  serious  view 
of  their  duties  than  did  those  of  former  generations  ? 

Let  us  now  consider  briefly  the  case  of  the  men,  and  the  attitude 
assumed  by  them  in  regard  to  duty.  Do  they  possess  the  same 
measure  of  '  grit '  as  their  forefathers  ? 

The  writer  desires  to  make  no  sweeping  generalisations.  He 
proudly  acknowledges  the  splendid  qualities  of  courage  and  of  endur- 
ance displayed  within  recent  years  by  large  numbers  of  Britons,  both  in 
peace  and  in  war.  He  fully  recognises  the  heroic  deeds  of  our  soldiers, 
of  our  sailors,  in  action,  and  of  our  civilians  in  times  of  accident  and 
of  peril  to  life ;  nevertheless,  he  would  ask  whether  it  is  not  a  fact  that 
surrenders  to  the  enemy  without  serious  loss  of  life  took  place  during 
the  Boer  war  more  frequently  than  it  is  agreeable  to  the  patriot 
to  hear  about  ?  In  previous  wars,  when  surrenders  occurred,  they 
were  almost  invariably  in  accordance  with  superior  orders  and  after 
such  serious  loss  of  life  as  showed  that  ultimate  success  was  a  prac- 
ticable impossibility.  But  in  the  Boer  war  some  British  soldiers  are 
reported  to  have  thrown  down  their  arms  without  orders,  and  this  on 
more  than  one  occasion ;  and  it  is  even  said  that  a  great  surrender  took 
place  owing  to  a  junior  officer  having  raised  the  white  flag  without 
instructions.  I  do  not  like  to  dwell  on  this  subject,  as  it  may  seem  to 
cast  a  slur — which  is  the  last  thing  I  should  desire  to  do — on  an  Army 
which  I  firmly  believe  to  be  still  the  equal  in  courage  of  any  in  the 
world. 


424  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

Let  us  turn  to  the  civil  side  of  life. 

It  may  be  argued  that  our  supremacy  in  the  Olympic  Games  is 
sufficient  proof  of  the  healthy  condition  of  our  national  qualities  of 
pluck  and  endurance.  I  do  not  regard  this  as  sufficient  proof.  The 
excellent  results  achieved  by  a  few  selected  experts,  who  are  subjected 
to  long  and  severe  training,  is  no  guarantee  that  there  is  a  high  standard 
of  physical  efficiency  and  of  courage  among  the  people  as  a  whole. 
Even  in  this  realm  of  sport,  dear  as  it  is  to  the  heart  of  the  nation, 
there  is  an  increasing  tendency,  among  both  rich  and  poor,  to  enjoy 
it  as  a  spectacle  rather  than  to  take  an  active  part  in  it,  and  there 
are  large  numbers  of  men  who  are  far  readier  to  criticise  the  '  form ' 
of  some  notable  footballer  or  cricketer  than  they  are  to  submit  them- 
selves to  even  the  mild  severities  of  amateur  training,  or  to  take  the 
rough  and  tumble  of  the  game  itself. 

The  writer  is  fully  aware  that  large  numbers  of  men  are  labouring 
steadily  and  honestly  in  their  respective  spheres  for  small  and  often 
most  inadequate  pittances  without  grumbling,  content  as  long  as  they 
can  worthily  perform  the  tasks  which  duty  demands  of  them ;  but  is 
this  the  usual  attitude  of  men  towards  the  work  of  their  lives  ?  and 
do  our  men  compare  favourably  in  this  respect  with  those  of  some 
other  nations,  such  as  the  German  and  the  Scandinavian  ? 

The  average  Englishman  is  often  too  phlegmatic  and  heavy  of 
brain  to  forecast  the  future  with  any  detail.  He  is  content  to  trust 
to  inherited  instincts  of  pluck  and  resource  to  pull  him  through  all 
difficulties  and  adverse  circumstances.  He  forgets  that  these  same 
instincts  of  pluck  and  of  resource  were  only  developed  in  our  fore- 
fathers by  the  hard  and  strenuous  conditions  of  their  daily  lives, 
conditions  which  enforced  the  continual,  not  the  occasional,  use  of 
these  qualities. 

The  national  and  individual  successes  of  former  times,  of  which  we 
are  so  proud  to-day,  were  won  by  the  unrelaxing  '  grip '  which  our 
ancestors,  as  a  rule,  kept  on  themselves  in  the  performance  of  duty ; 
and  this  was  combined  with  an  ever-watchful  outlook  on  the  future, 
and  a  foresight  which  was  largely  the  result  of  the  stern  discipline 
of  the  day,  which  never  failed  to  visit  with  instant  and  condign  punish- 
ment any  dereliction  of  duty,  or  even  innocent  failure  in  the  execu- 
tion of  superior  orders.  We  are  justly  proud  of  the  victories  of  Nelson, 
but  how  many  of  us  know  or  realise  that  he  was  constantly  and  un- 
tiringly, in  all  spare  hours,  preparing  himself  and  his  captains  for  every 
possible  contingency  of  naval  warfare  ?  The  battle  of  the  Nile  was 
mentally  won  before  ever  it  took  place,  yet  most  Englishmen  attribute 
it  to  the  brilliant  genius  of  the  moment.  Pluck  and  quick-wittedness 
are  invaluable  national  assets,  but  they  cannot  be, maintained  without 
frequent  daily  use,  much  less  can  they  be  retained  at  that  high  level 
of  perfection  at  which  we  are  wont  to  estimate  them  if  their  use  be 
relegated  solely  to  the  emergencies^oflife. 


425 

-  ,  The  German  works  longer  hours,  takes  fewer  holidays,  and  often 
spends  his  leisure  in  perfecting  himself  in  his  business,  with  the  result 
that  he  is  cutting  out  our  men  in  many  spheres  of  life.  Whilst  the 
young  Englishman's  head  is  filled  with  thoughts  of  sport,  and  that 
far  too  often  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  spectator  rather  than  of 
a  participant,  the  German  is  gaining  knowledge  which  will  avail  to 
advance  him  in  his  profession.  The  waste  places  of  the  earth  used 
formerly  to  be  colonised  by  the  Briton ;  now  he  finds  the  labour  of 
subduing  nature  too  severe  for  his  enfeebled  energies,  and  settles 
in  the  towns,  leaving  the  health-giving  tillage  of  the  virgin  soil  of  new 
countries  to  the  hardier  races,  whose  minds  and  muscles  have  been 
strengthened  by  discipline  and  who  recognise  the  nobility  attached 
to  strenuous  labour. 

Labour  in  the  present  day  is  a  thing  to  be  avoided — not  to  be 
proud  of.  It  is  a  disagreeable  necessity,  which  must  be  made  as  short 
and  as  easy  as  possible,  compatible  with  the  earning  of  the  daily  bread- 
and-butter. 

The  substitution  of  the  limited  company  for  the  old-fashioned 
private  business  tends  to  make  men  less  conscientious  in  regard  to 
the  service  they  give  to  their  firm  of  employers.  The  managing 
director  of  a  company  is  not  so  severe  a  taskmaster  as  the  head  of  a 
private  firm — he  has  not  so  much  at  stake,  either  financially  or  in  the 
matter  of  commercial  reputation  ;  and  neither  is  there  the  same  incen- 
tive to  work  hard  for  the  benefit  of  an  impersonal  body  of  shareholders 
as  there  is  for  an  individual  master.  Hence  the  feeling  arises  that  it 
is  sufficient  if  just  enough  attention  be  given  to  business  to  prevent 
the  possibility  of  dismissal,  and  that  nothing  more  can  be  demanded. 
Surely  this  is  a  deplorable  attitude  of  mind,  and  one  far  removed 
from  the  mental  '  grit '  of  our  forefathers,  and  incompatible  with 
their  stern  regard  for  duty.  Whilst  other  nations  commence  work 
at  five  and  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  even  earlier  in  summer, 
in  theJ.West  End  of  London  no  business  can  be  transacted  before 
nine  or  ten  A.M.  So  engrained  are  our  idle  habits  that,  hopeless  of 
being  able  to  induce  the  present  generation  to  change  its  hours, 
Parliament  has,  through  one  of  its  Committees,  approved  of  a  Bill  to 
legalise  the  alteration  of  the  clock  on  certain  dates,  so  as  to  induce 
people  to  rise  earlier  than  they  are  accustomed  to  do  by  making  them 
believe  that  the  hour  is  later  than  it  really  is.  Can  anything  show 
more  clearly  than  does  the  discussion  of  such  a  Bill  how  idleness  has 
eaten  into  the  bone  of  some  portions  of  our  people ;  for,  of  course,  if 
of  our  own  free  will  we  chose  to  rise  earlier  in  the  morning,  no  legisla- 
tion would  be  necessary. 

:  No  other  nation  maintains  an  army  of  paupers  out  of  the  enforced 
taxation  of  the  industrious.  No  other  State  provides  hotel  accommoda- 
tion gratis  for  those  of  its  citizens  who  dislike  work  and  prefer  to  roam 
from  workhouse  to  workhouse  and  enjoy,  at  the  expense  of  their  hard- 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

working  neighbours,  the  delights  of  the  country  in  the  summer.  With 
such  facilities  for  idleness  it  is  not  astonishing  that  Great  Britain  can 
show  a  larger  number^of  idle  men  living  on  the  industry  of  others 
than  any  other  country  in  the  world.  These  men  claim  to  be  un- 
employed, but,  as  John  Burns  is  reputed  to  have  said — and  he  ought  to 
know — '  their  one  prayer  on  rising,  if  they  ever  pray,  is  that  they  may 
not  find  work  that  day.' 

It  has  been  ascertained  that  in  ordinary  times  amongst  these 
men  the  proportion  of  genuine  unemployed  who  are  both  able  and 
willing  to  work  is  only  about  3  or  4  per  cent.,  the  others  being  either 
physically  incapable  of  work  or  idle  scoundrels  living  on  their  fellows. 

Slackness  is  not,  however,  confined  to  the  poorer  classes ;  it  is  found 
also  amongst  the  richer,  amongst  those  who  have  been  enervated  by 
a  faulty  upbringing,  usually  connected  with  luxurious  living.  There 
is  an  increasing  difficulty  in  finding  amongst  the  leisured  classes  men 
willing  to  work  without  remuneration  for  the  public  benefit  and  in 
philanthropic  enterprises.  It  is  a  very  general  complaint  that  as  the 
older  generation  of  hardworking  men  of  leisure  die  off  it  is  difficult  to 
replace  them. 

There  appears  to  be  a  general  slackness  amongst  all  classes  of  our 
population  in  regard  to  the  performance  of  duty — a  slackness  which 
is  weakening  to  the  moral  fibre  and  is  one  of  the  most  potent  signs 
of  lack  of  '  grit '  amongst  the  young. , 

Pleasure  is  the  god — self-indulgence  the  object  aimed  at.  Large 
numbers  of  men  and  women  seem  to  have  but  one  aim,  namely,  enjoy- 
ment of  the  largest  amount  of  so-called  pleasure  with  the  smallest 
amount  of  labour.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  these  people  never  really 
obtain  the  object  of  their  desire,  for  they  never  taste  of  genuine  pleasure, 
which  declines  to  be  divorced  from  that  honest  labour  which  is  the 
true  source  of  its  keenest  delights. 

But  is  this  right  ?  Can  a  nation  flourish  under  these  conditions  ? 
Remember  that  our  Empire  has  been  obtained  by  hard  struggle  and 
our  commercial  position  by  indomitable  pluck.  Is  it  likely  that  we 
shall  be  permitted  to  retain  these  except  through  the  strength  of  our 
own  right  arms  and  by  the  power  of  well-trained  brains  ?  We  are 
face  to  face  with  hardworking  competitors  who  have  been  taught  in 
the  home  and  in  the  school  to  subordinate  self  to  the  demands  of  duty, 
and  who  have  received  the  most  careful  and  intelligent  and  well- 
considered  training  in  all  branches  of  knowledge.  In  Germany  and 
in  Scandinavia  nothing  in  the  training  of  youth  is  left  to  chance,  and 
this  training  is  compulsorily  continued  until  the  man  or  woman 
attains  adult  age.  We  permit  the  children  of  our  working  and 
industrial  classes  to  leave  school  at  thirteen,  or  even  at  twelve  years  of 
age,  we  teach  them  little  that  is  of  practical  use  to  them  during  these 
few  years,  and  then,  after  spending  millions,  we  turn  them  loose  into 
the  streets,  free  from  all  control,  and  wash  our  hands  of  them.  The 


427 

boys  have  learnt  no  trade,  the  girls  can  neither  cook,  wash,  nor  make 
their  own  garments  unless  the  materials  are  out  out  for  them.  They 
cannot  even  scrub  properly,  and  are  unwilling  to  do  what  they  consider 
menial  work.  A  helpless  crew,  which  soon  becomes  a  hopeless  one. 
They  can  only  become  errand  boys  and  girls.  In  a  few  years  they 
grow  too  old  for  this ;  they  are  dismissed,  and  are  left  stranded  in  the 
world.  Undisciplined,  untrained,  with  their  heads  filled  with  notions 
of  their  own  importance,  and  unable  and  unwilling  to  work  with  their 
hands,  is  it  astonishing  that  our  streets  are  filled  with  armies  of  in- 
capables  who  call  themselves  the  unemployed  ?  And  this  is  the  way 
we  are  content  to  raise  an  Imperial  race  destined  to  rule,  save  the 
mark !  one-fifth  of  the  human  race  ! 

Will  our  rulers,  our  education  committees,  and  the  general  public 
never  learn  that  they  are  manufacturing  incapables  and  paupers  by 
a  system  of  education  which  treats  all  alike,  whatever  may  be  their 
future  callings  in  life,  and  which  turns  out  annually  thousands  of 
boys  who  know  no  useful  art  or  trade  or  occupation,  and  of  girls 
who  when  they  marry  know  nothing  about  the  care  and  feeding  of 
babies,  the  management  of  a  home,  and  all  those  useful  arts  so 
necessary  to  a  housewife — girls  who  are  deplorably  ignorant  of  the 
elementary  knowledge,  as  essential  for  women  as  for  men,  that  what 
cannot  be  paid  for  must,  in  the  long  run,  be  gone  without,  and  who 
imagine,  consequently,  with  appalling  vagueness,  that  a  home  and 
family  can  be  maintained  on  the  slenderest  income  and  one  which 
shows  little  prospect  of  future  increase  or  even  of  permanence  ? 

Poor  children,  they  are  to  be  pitied  !  From  earliest  years  they 
learn  that  what  they  want,  that,  they  must  have,  even  if  it  be  procured 
through  the  agency  of  the  pawnshop,  the  hire-purchase  system,  or 
by  the  squandering  of  the  family  capital.  Familiarity  with  debt, 
the  common  use  of  materials  morally  not  their  own  because  not 
paid  for,  and  the  withholding  of  no  desired  pleasures,  familiarise  these 
boys  and  girls  with  a  most  unseemly  side  of  life  and  seriously  blunt 
their  moral  sensibilities. 

In  former  days  the  children  of  their  age  could  neither  read  nor 
write,  but  they  had  been  trained  to  labour  each  in  his  own  sphere. 
They  were  not  made  unhappy  by  being  given  a  smattering  of  know- 
ledge which  must  necessarily  be  useless  to  ninety  out  of  a  hundred ; 
they  could  generally  earn  their  bread-and-butter,  and  a  hard  discipline 
had  placed  '  grit '  into  their  systems,  so  that  the  inevitable  sufferings 
of  life  were  borne  by  them,  as  a  rule,  with  a  light  and  even  cheerful 
heart.  Troubles  and  hardships  which  were  the  daily  lot  of  previous 
generations  seem  to  the  enfeebled  folk  of  to-day  as  unbearable.  Hence 
the  immense  increase  of  suicides.  We  even  hear  of  children  com- 
mitting this  crime,  a  thing  unheard  of  in  former  days.  What  is  the 
cause,  and  what  is  to  be  the  cure  for  this  unhappy  condition  of 
affairs  and  for  the  lack  of  '  grit '  in  portions  of  our  population  ? 


428  TEE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

There  are'many  causes  and  no  one  cure.  Luxury,  the  spread  of  a  false 
humanitarianism,  and  the  consequent  decay  of  discipline,  are  amongst 
the  causes. 

The  rapidity  of  legislative,  scientific,  and  other  economic  changes 
produces  the  feeling  that  there  is  now  little  stability  in  even  the  most 
venerated  institutions,  traditions  and  enterprises ;  consequently,  that 
it  is  not  worth  while  to  build  a  career  on  too  solid  a  foundation. 

I  do  not  propose  to  suggest  any  one  cure,  but  there  are  some  steps 
which  those  of  us  who  are  parents  might  take  to  counteract  the 
enfeebling  influences.  To  begin  with,  I  maintain  that  no  training  is 
so  effective  in  producing  this  desired  '  grit '  as  strict  and  unquestioned 
discipline  in  the  earliest  years,  enforced  if  necessary  by  what  used  to  be 
called  the  wholesome  '  encouragement  of  a  slipper.'  In  addition  to 
this,  can  we  not  surround  our  children  with  an  atmosphere  of  order, 
and  teach  them  steady  and  cheerful  obedience  to  duty,  instead  of 
allowing  them  to  hear  from  their  elders  expressions  of  impatience 
and  annoyance  at  the  intrusions  of  private  and  public  duty.  By 
training  them  from  the  earliest  years  to  be  conscious  of  the  calm, 
quiet,  but  ever-industrious  processes  of  nature,  and  of  the  inevitable 
consequences  of  infringements  of  her  wise  laws,  can  we  not  imbue 
them  with  a  deep-rooted  knowledge  of  the  necessity  of  obedience  to 
law  and  order  and  of  diligence  as  the  very  conditions  of  life  itself, 
enforcing  these  lessons  with  a  kind  but  firm  discipline  in  the  events  of 
their  daily  lives  ? 

Is  it  not  possible  to  give  in  our  schools  some  definite  instruction  as 
to  the  importance  of  the  processes  of  thought  and  of  their  effects  upon 
both  character  and  physique  ?  Will  not  a  knowledge  of  the  conse- 
quences of  slovenly,  inaccurate,  and  unwise  thought  (so  often  en- 
gendered in  girls  by  constant  novel-reading  and  unrestricted  indulgence 
in  pleasure),  of  continual  disregard  of  duty,  and  of  slackness  of  personal 
discipline,  induce  these  children  to  submit  willingly  to  a  stricter 
regime,  and  minimise  the  prevailing  sense  of  rebellion  against  what 
sometimes  may  seem  to  them  the  senseless  dictates  of  those  in 
authority  ?  If  we  could  but  add  to  this  knowledge  a  sense  of  the 
infinite  importance  of  our  human  inheritance  and  of  the  short  time 
we  have  at  our  disposal  in  which  to  work  out  our  individual  and 
national  education,  should  we  not  then  have  given  our  young  men 
and  women  a  sound  foundation  of  quiet,  disciplined  strength,  on  which 
we  could  trust  them  to  build  year  by  year  the  structure  of  noble 
character?  Surely  we  may  see  that  our  children,  whatever  their 
station  in  life,  are  taught  to  use  their  hands,  so  that  they  may  be  able 
under  any  reverse  of  fortune  to  fend  for  themselves.  By  setting 
them  tasks  slightly  beyond  their  capabilities  we  can  strengthen  by 
struggle  their  mental  and  physical  powers  and  give  '  grit '  to  their 
moral  natures.  We  can  give  them  a  taste  of  the  exquisite  happiness 
which  follows  victory  over  difficulties,  and  so  prevent  them  from 


1908       THE   'GRIT'   OF  OUR   FOREFATHERS          429 

regarding  failure  with  a  benumbing  sense  of  depression.  There  is 
a  danger  lest  the  too  carefully  educated  children  of  the  present  day 
shall  have  their  mental  and  manual  progress  so  scientifically  graduated 
that  they  fail  to  learn  the  necessity  for  that  vital  effort  which  alone 
makes  achievements  of  value.  We  must  so  train  them  that  the 
inevitable  mistakes  and  failures  of  later  years  may  call  forth  a  quality 
of  dogged  persistence,  instead  of  resulting  in  depression  and  consterna- 
tion. We  can  bring  up  the  children  in  a  more  Spartan-like  manner, 
so  that  the  lack  of  luxuries  and  comforts  may  not  appear  as  evils 
beyond  the  endurance  of  man,  and  that  when  they  go  forth  into  the 
world  they  may  be  accustomed  to  hard  work  and  to  the  pressure  of 
subordination,  and  not  make  themselves  miserable  by  striking  against 
the  inevitable  pricks  of  life.  We  can,  in  short,  remember,  in  the  nursery 
and  in  the  home,  the  words  of  one  of  the  wisest  of  men,  who  said,  '  The 
rod  and  reproof  give  wisdom,  but  a  child  left  to  himself  bringeth  his 
mother  to  shame,'  and  we  can  each  of  us  in  his  own  domestic  circle, 
by  example  and  by  precept,  preach  the  gospel  of  discipline,  of  duty 
and  of  endurance,  and  thus  give  to  a  generation  unborn,  or  just 
born,  that  '  grit '  which  would  appear  to  be  lacking  in  so  large  a 
number  of  the  young  men  and  women  of  to-day. 

MEATH. 


430  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 


THE   PROBLEM  OF  AERIAL  NAVIGATION 


THE  recent  construction  of  machines  on  which,  for  the  first  time  in 
history,  men  have  flown  through  the  air,  coupled  with  the  prospective 
growth  of  the  dirigible  balloon  into  an  airship,  has  led  to  a  widespread 
impression  that  aerial  flight  is  soon  to  play  an  important  part  as  an 
agency  in  commerce.  Such  a  feeling  is  quite  natural  under  the 
circumstances.  In  forecasting  the  possible  results  of  invention  we 
begin  by  reasoning  from  analogy,  and  the  progress  of  invention  in 
the  direction  of  aerial  navigation,  with  its  alternations  of  success 
and  failure,  is  at  first  sight  very  like  what  we  have  seen  in  the  begin- 
nings of  every  new  system  of  developing  the  powers  of  nature. 
Possibilities  of  great  results  have  first  been  shown ;  then,  step  by 
step,  difficulties  have  been  overcome,  until  possibilities  have  grown 
into  realities.  The  possibility  of  aerial  flight  has  been  shown  both 
in  theory  and  practice,  and  the  difficulties  now  encountered  in  per- 
fecting it  seem  quite  like  those  met  with  in  perfecting  the  steam 
engine,  the  telegraph,  and  the  telephone.  The  present  movement 
has  an  advantage  over  the  preceding  ones  in  that  its  ultimate  out- 
come is  more  clearly  in  sight.  We  find  it  easier  to  imagine  ourselves 
flying  through  the  air  in  balloons  or  upon  aeroplanes  than  it  was 
a  century  ago  to  conceive  of  the  world's  commerce  being  carried  on 
by  the  power  of  steam.  We  can  best  judge  the  possibility  that  this 
prospect  will  be  realised  by  first  considering  what  it  has  in  common 
with  the  past,  and  then  inquiring  whether  we  have  any  grounds  more 
secure  than  analogy  on  which  to  base  a  forecast. 

It  might  seem  that  there  can  be  no  better  ground  for  now  limiting 
what  may  be  hopefully  expected  from  the  '  conquest  of  the  air  '  than 
there  was  a  century  ago  for  limiting  what  could  be  expected  from 
the  development  of  steam  navigation.  At  each  early  stage,  from 
the  time  when  steam  was  applied  to  the  propulsion  of  boats  on  the 
Seine  and  the  Hudson,  to  the  date  when  the  first  steamship  crossed 
the  Atlantic,  it  was  easy,  by  taking  what  was  known  as  the  measure 
of  the  future,  to  show  that  no  great  result  could  be  expected  from  the 
new  system.  With  the  earlier  engines  no  ship  could  cross  the  ocean. 
But  improvement  in  engines  was  brought  about  both  by  invention 
and  by  the  development  and  application  of  physical  principles.  The 


1908    THE  PROBLEM  OF  AEEIAL   NAVIGATION  481 

theory  of  the  steam  engine,  and  indeed  of  heat  engines  in  general, 
had  been  set  forth  by  Carnot,  but  the  ideal  steam  engine  to  which 
this  theory  led  was  so  far  outside  the  practical  reach  of  the  time 
that  the  earlier  inventors  and  engineers  paid  little  attention  to  it. 
Only  the  germ  of  the  theory  of  energy  had  been  found  by  Rumford, 
and  it  was  not  until  it  had  been  farther  developed  that  it  could  be 
fully  utilised  in  guiding  invention.  Thus  it  came  about  that,  instead 
of  the  ocean  steamship  being  rapidly  developed,  a  century  elapsed 
before  it  had  assumed  its  present  proportions.  Is  it  not  reasonable 
to  expect  that  the  airship,  whether  balloon  or  flyer,  will  have  a  similar 
history  ?  This  question  cannot  be  answered  by  pointing  out  present 
imperfections.  We  all  know  that  as  a  means  of  transportation  it  is, 
up  to  the  present  time,  so  expensive  and  so  doubtful  that  it  is  only 
from  future  improvements  that  any  important  result  can  be  expected. 
We  must  inquire  whether  there  is  any  well-defined  limit  to  future 
improvement,  and,  if  there  is,  learn  where  we  shall  stand  when,  if 
ever,  that  limit  is  approached. 

One  word  as  to  the  trend  of  our  inquiry.  The  vital  question  is 
not  whether  aerial  navigation  is  practicable,  for  that  has  been  settled 
in  the  affirmative.  In  the  time  of  Montgolfier  it  was  shown  that 
men  could  rise  and  float  in  balloons  ;  twenty  years  ago  it  was  found 
that  a  balloon  could  be  guided ;  now  it  is  proved  in  the  best  of  all 
ways,  that  of  actual  trial,  that  a  man  can  fly  through  the  air  on  an 
aeroplane.  But  we  are  all  looking  for  more  than  the  bare  fact  of 
sailing  or  flying  above  the  earth.  We  wish  aerial  flight  to  serve  some 
practical  purpose  in  the  world's  work,  and  to  compete  with  the  steam- 
ship, the  railway,  or  the  mail-coach  in  the  carriage  of  passengers  or 
mails.  The  inquiry  into  which  the  reader  is  now  invited  to  enter  is, 
What  measure  of  rational  hope  we  can  entertain  of  this  consummation. 

All  the  questions  involved  are,  at  bottom,  those  of  physics  and 
mathematics.  The  pivotal  points  are  such  as  numbers  of  feet  and 
pounds,  the  density  of  air,  the  tenacity  of  materials  used  in  construc- 
tion, and  the  resistance  to  motion  under  varied  conditions.  These  can 
be  discussed  in  the  most  satisfactory  way  only  by  mathematical 
computations.  But  it  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  numerical  details 
to  find  a  basis  for  our  conclusions.  General  principles,  easily  within 
the  comprehension  of  every  educated  person,  will  serve  our  purpose 
as  well  as  the  most  rigorous  mathematical  investigation. 

I. 

We  must  distinguish  at  the  outset  of  our  inquiry  between  advance 
in  knowledge  and  progress  in  invention.  No  definite  limit  can  be 
set  to  the  possible  future  of  knowledge,  nor  to  results  which  may 
yet  be  reached  by  its  advance.  The  best  recent  example  of  a  dis- 
covery in  the  required  line,  indeed  the  only  example  which  suggests 


432  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTO ftY  Sept. 

the  possibility  of  extending  the  efficiency  of  a  heat  machine  beyond 
the  limit  now  set  by  the  theories  of  physics,  is  the  finding  in  radium 
of  a  substance  which  emits  energy  in  seeming  defiance  of  the  laws  of 
energy.  Ideally,  the  power  of  annulling  the  gravity  of  matter  would 
perhaps  b3  the  most  revolutionary  one  that  we  can  think  of.  But 
the  most  refined  experiments  made  with  a  view  to  discover  whether 
anything  can  be  reached  in  this  direction  have  shown  that  by  no 
method  yet  known  can  the  gravitation  of  matter  be  altered  in  the 
slightest  degree.  Should  some  way  of  controlling  or  reversing  gravita- 
tion be  discovered ;  should  it  be  found  possible  to  make  the  ether 
react  upon  matter ;  should  radium  hereafter  be  produced  by  the  ton 
instead  of  by  the  milligramme ;  should  some  metallic  alloy  be  found 
having  ten  times  the  tenacity  and  rigidity  of  steel — all  our  forecasts 
relating  to  future  possibilities  in  the  application  of  power  would  have 
to  be  revised. 

But  we  must  note  that  the  present  efforts  of  inventors  are  not 
taking  this  direction.  They  are  accepting  physical  principles  and  the 
facts  of  engineering  as  they  now  stand,  and  are  not  seeking  to  discover 
new  sources  of  radium,  to  find  new  alloys,  or  to  bring  out  laws  of 
nature  hitherto  unknown.  Our  forecast  must  therefore  be  based 
upon  the  present  state  of  science,  and  can  relate  only  to  what  is 
possible  through  invention  being  continued  on  lines  it  is  now  following. 
I  enter  this  caveat  not  because  there  is  #ny  great  probability  of  an 
epoch-making  discovery  in  any  of  the  directions  just  mentioned,  but 
to  define  clearly  the  ground  for  our  conclusions. 

When  we  study  progress  in  the  application  of  power  from  this 
point  of  view,  we  see  that  it  has,  during  the  entire  nineteenth  century, 
been  approaching  fairly  well-defined  limits,  which  can  never  be 
extended  except  by  some  revolutionary  discovery  that  has  not  yet 
cast  even  its  shadow  before.  With  every  step  forward  we  have 
come  nearer  the  limits,  thus  leaving  less  room  for  future  advance. 
There  is  a  certain  amount  of  energy  stored  up  in  fuel  which  may 
possibly  be  utilised  in  the  application  of  power.  The  engineer  of 
to-day  who  reads  Dickens's  graphic  description  of  the  steamship  in 
which  he  first  crossed  the  Atlantic,  with  flame  issuing  from  the  top  of 
her  funnel,  will  appreciate  the  enormous  waste  of  power  that  must 
have  been  incurred.  The  problem  of  invention  from  that  time  to 
this  has  been  to  save  as  much  as  possible  of  this  wasted  energy  and 
apply  it  to  the  blades  of  the  screw  propeller.  There  is  also  a  limit 
to  the  power  which  can  be  exerted  by  an  engine  of  given  weight. 
Inventions  of  lighter  and  lighter  motors  have  been  steps  toward 
this  limit,  which  is  probably  not  yet  reached.  Yet  we  are  so  much 
nearer  to  it  in  the  engines  which  to-day  run  Count  Zeppelin's  airship, 
and  the  flyers  of  Farman  and  Wright,  that  we  may  safely  say  that  it 
is  at  least  being  approached. 

The  resistance  and  supporting  power  of  the  air  are  yet  more 


1908    THE  PROBLEM  OF  AEHIAL   NAVIGATION  433 

determinate.  No  progress  in  invention  will  increase  the  weight 
which  a  given  volume  or  surface  of  air  will  support  at  a  given  speed, 
nor  can  the  resistance  experienced  by  a  surface  in  moving  through 
the  air  ever  be  reduced  below  the  point  set  by  physical  theory. 
With  these  conditions  in  mind  we  are  prepared  to  inquire  what 
form  an  aerial  vehicle  may  take,  and  what  results  may  be  expected 
from  it. 

II. 

Two  systems  of  navigating  the  air  are  now  being  developed,  which 
are  radically  different — we  might  almost  say  opposite — in  their 
fundamental  principles.  One  is  that  of  the  flying  machine,  which  is 
supported  by  motion  through  the  air  as  a  bird  by  its  wings.  The 
only  form  of  flyer  yet  found  feasible  is  the  aeroplane,  which  is  sup- 
ported by  a  rapid  movement  of  translation,  and  of  which  all  flying 
machines  now  being  tried  are  samples.  Of  another  form,  a  flyer 
carried  by  revolving  wings,  I  need  not  speak  in  detail,  because  success 
in  this  form  has  not  yet  been  reached.  Whether  it  does  or  does  not 
hereafter  supersede  the  aeroplane,  the  principle  of  support  through 
motion  alone  is  common  to  both. 

The  other  form  is  the  airship  proper,  floating  in  the  air  by  its  own 
buoyancy,  and  not  held  up  by  propulsion.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  dirigible 
balloon,  so  enlarged  and  perfected  that  the  term  airship  may  well 
take  the  place  of  balloon  in  discussing  it.  For  conciseness  I  shall  use 
the  terms  '  flyer  '  and  '  airship  '  in  comparing  these  two  forms  of 
aerial  vehicle. 

It  is  much  easier  to  point  out  the  limits  to  the  development  of 
the  flyer  than  to  that  of  the  airship.  There  are  several  drawbacks  to 
every  form  of  flyer,  either  of  which  seems  fatal  to  its  extensive  use, 
and  which  taken  together  throw  it  out  of  the  field  of  competition. 
One  of  these  is  inherent  in  the  theory  of  its  support  by  the  air ;  the 
others  are  purely  practical. 

Being,  as  it  were,  supported  upon  the  air,  it  must  present  to  the 
atter  a  horizontal  surface  proportional  to  the  entire  weight  to  be 
carried,  including  motor,  machine,  and  cargo.  If  one  square  yard 
of  surface  can  be  made  to  carry  a  certain  weight  at  a  certain  speed, 
one  thousand  square  yards  will  be  required  to  carry  one  thousand  times 
that  weight.  Any  enlargement  of  the  machine  must  therefore  be  in  a 
horizontal  direction.  The  estimate  of  weight  must  be  so  much  per 
square  yard  of  horizontal  surface  ;  an  addition  of  weight  in  the 
vertical  direction  can  never  be  possible.  Hence,  if  any  enlargement 
of  the  flyers  is  ever  made — for  example,  if  they  are  to  carry  two  men 
instead  of  one,  as  at  present — it  must  be  through  enlarging  their 
superficial  extent  in  the  same  proportion.  Reflecting  on  the  present 
extent  of  the  successful  flyers,  it  will  readily  be  seen  that  a  practically 
unmanageable  area  of  supporting  surface  and  a  consequent  weakening 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  379  G  G 


484  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

of  the  machine  will  be  required  for  any  important  enlargement. 
Whether  the  limit  be  one,  two,  or  three  men,  every  extension  of  it 
must,  to  secure  the  necessary  strength,  involve  increased  weight  per 
square  yard,  which  will  be  less  and  less  compatible  with  its  performance. 

A  practical  difficulty  which  seems  insuperable  is  that  the  flyer, 
supported  only  by  its  motion  through  the  air,  can  never  stop  in  flight 
to  have  its  machinery  repaired  or  adjusted.  It  makes  toward  the 
ground  like  a  wounded  bird  the  moment  any  stoppage  occurs.  The 
navigator  may  be  able  to  guide  its  fall,  but  not  to  prevent  it. 
He  can  only  choose  the  point  of  dropping  among  trees,  houses,  rivers, 
or  fields  which,  within  a  limited  area,  will  be  productive  of  least 
damage.  No  engine  yet  built  by  human  skill,  much  less  the  delicate 
motors  necessary  in  the  flyer,  can  be  guaranteed  against  accident. 
The  limitations  upon  a  vehicle  of  transportation,  the  slightest  accident 
to  whose  propelling  machinery  involves  in  all  probability  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  vehicle,  as  well  as  danger  to  the  lives  and  limbs  of  the 
passengers,  need  not  be  dwelt  upon.  If  a  steamship  were  liable  to 
go  to  the  bottom  the  moment  any  accident  occurred  to  her  machinery, 
the  twentieth  century  would  have  come  upon  us  without  steam 
navigation  on  the  ocean. 

Another  serious  limitation  upon  the  flyer  is  that  it  cannot  be 
navigated  out  of  sight  of  the  ground,  and  must  descend  at  once  if 
enveloped  in  fog.  This  necessity  arises  from  the  deviation  in  the 
apparent  direction  of  gravity  which  must  be  produced  by  any  change 
in  the  inclination  of  the  supporting  surface,  through  the  consequent 
acceleration  or  retardation  of  the  speed.  The  principle  at  play  is 
shown  in  an  observation  which  may  be  made  whenever  a  railway 
carriage  at  high  speed  is  brought  rapidly  to  a  stop.  A  passenger 
standing  well  balanced  on  his  feet  during  the  period  of  retardation  will 
find  himself  suddenly  falling  backward  at  the  moment  of  the  complete 
stop.  He  has  been  leaning  backward  while  fancying  himself  erect. 

Neither  of  the  two  drawbacks  first  mentioned  is  incident  to  the 
airship.  Her  buoyant  power  is  proportional  to  her  cubical  contents, 
and  not  merely  to  the  surface  she  presents  to  the  air.  She  can  there- 
fore be  enlarged  in  length,  breadth,  and  thickness,  instead  of  being 
confined  to  length  and  breadth,  like  the  aeroplane.  Floating  in  the 
air,  she  may  possibly  stop  for  repairs,  which  the  flyer  never  can. 
This  faculty  carries  with  it  a  wide  range  of  possibilities,  how  little 
soever  may  be  the  probabilities  of  their  realisation.  A  comparison 
with  the  steamship  will  show  them  in  the  clearest  light. 

As  the  ocean  steamship  has  increased  in  size,  she  has  also  increased 
in  speed.  At  the  present  moment  the  two  largest  ships  afloat  are  also 
those  of  highest  speed.  It  may  have  seemed  to  many,  as  it  long  did 
to  the  writer,  that  in  this  there  was  a  constantly  increasing  sacrifice 
of  power.  The  larger  the  ship  the  greater  the  power,  and  therefore 
the  greater  the  consumption  of  coal,  required  to  drive  her  at  any  given 


1908     THE  PROBLEM  OF  AERIAL   NAVIGATION  486 

speed.  It  might,  therefore,  be  felt  that  considerations  of  economy 
would  suggest  that  the  smaller  ships  should  be  built  for  high  speed 
rather  than  the  larger  ones.  But  the  advance  is  in  reality  upon 
correct  lines.  Leaving  out  the  practical  limits  set  by  such  conditions 
as  the  depth  of  harbours  and  the  time  required  to  load  and  unload, 
the  larger  the  ship  the  more  economical  the  application  of  power  in 
driving  her  at  any  given  speed.  The  principle  involved  is  simple. 
The  model  remaining  the  same,  the  carrying  capacity  increases  as  the 
cube  of  the  length.  But  the  resistance  of  the  water,  and  therefore  the 
power  of  the  engine  and  the  consumption  of  coal,  increases  only  as  the 
square  of  the  length.  Hence  the  larger  the  ship  the  more  economically 
can  a  ton  of  cargo  be  carried  at  a  given  speed. 

The  same  principle  applies  to  the  airship.  The  larger  she  can  be 
built,  the  more  economically  she  can  be  driven  when  we  measure 
economy  by  the  ratio  of  carrying  power  to  cost  of  running.  The 
limits  to  her  possible  size  cannot  be  set  by  any  principles  of  physical 
science.  The  question  is  simply  one  of  constructive  engineering — 
How  large  can  we  build  her  and  still  keep  her  manageable  ? 

This  view  is  not  presented  as  opening  out  a  vista  of  unlimited 
progress,  but  rather  to  avoid  ignoring  any  possible  line  of  progress. 
An  airship  of  a  size  not  yet  dreamed  of  will  require  new  devices  for  the 
application  of  power  which  may  be  utilised  in  our  present  system  of 
land  and  ocean  transport.  We  can  never  do  away  with  the  difference 
between  the  ground,  the  ocean,  and  the  air  as  supporting  agencies,  and 
the  solution  of  the  problem  must,  in  the  long  run,  turn  upon  their 
respective  advantages  and  drawbacks. 

III. 

Among  the  ideas  which,  inherited  from  our  ancestors  or  formed  in 
childhood,  remain  part  of  our  nature  through  life  may  be  placed  the 
notion  we  so  universally  entertain  that,  if  we  succeed  in  navigating 
the  air  with  a  fair  approach  to  safety,  an  important  end  will  be  reached. 
This  notion  must  have  been  as  deeply  felt  as  one  so  purely  speculative 
can  be  from  the  time  that  men  reflected  on  the  flight  of  birds.  If  any 
child  to-day  grows  up  without  many  a  time  longing  for  the  power  to 
fly,  and  reflecting  how  much  easier  its  possession  would  make  it  to 
pass  from  country  to  country,  it  must  have  been  from  some  unusual 
power  of  refraining  from  useless  speculation.  The  notion,  justified 
perhaps  in  our  ancestors,  that  flight  through  the  air  has  some  inherent 
element  of  superiority  to  locomotion  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  or 
ocean  is  still  a  feature  of  our  common  nature. 

Let  us  lay  aside  this  notion  long  enough  to  inquire  whether  the 
cheapening  of  transportation  by  steam  power  during  the  last  century 
has  not  practically  done  away  with  all  the  supposed  advantages  of 
flight  through  the  air,  which  appeared  in  so  strong  a  light  to  former 

o  a  2 


486  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

generations.  Probably  few  of  us  realise  in  our  daily  thought  that  it 
now  costs  less  to  transport  any  small  light  article — a  pair  of  shoes 
for  example — across  the  Atlantic  than  to  deliver  them  from  a  shop 
to  the  house  of  a  customer  in  New  York  or  London.  Careful  thought 
may  show  us  that,  leaving  aside  exceptional  cases,  like  that  of  striving 
to  reach  the  Pole,  the  substitution  of  aerial  for  land  and  water  trans- 
portation is  at  bottom  the  substitution  for  the  solid  ground  of  so 
imperfect  a  support  for  moving  bodies  as  the  thin  air. 

We  can  best  judge  this  view  by  coming  down  to  concrete  facts. 
Let  us  take  the  case  of  an  express  train  running  from  London  to  Edin- 
burgh. When  going  at  high  speed  the  main  resistance  it  has  to 
encounter  is  that  of  the  air.  It  is  in  overcoming  this  resistance  that  the 
greater  part  of  its  propulsive  power  is  expended.  Now,  imagine  the 
highest  possible  perfection  in  an  aerial  vehicle  which  shall  carry 
passengers  and  mails  from  London  to  Edinburgh  in  competition  with 
the  railway.  If  the  surface  presented  to  the  air  by  the  vehicle  were  no 
greater  than  that  presented  by  the  train,  it  would  still  encounter 
a  large  fraction  of  the  same  resistance  when  going  at  the  same  speed. 
But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  owing  to  the  necessary  size  of  the  flyer,  the 
resisting  surface  would  be  vastly  greater  than  in  the  case  of  the  train, 
and  the  means  of  overcoming  this  resistance  by  adequate  propulsive 
power  would  be  more  imperfect  and  expensive.  In  the  case  of  the 
train  the  wheels  of  the  engine  are  made  effective  by  the  reaction  of  the 
solid  ground.  In  the  airship  the  reaction  is  only  that  of  the  air,  a 
condition  which  necessitates  propelling  surfaces  of  a  superficial  extent 
greater  in  proportion. 

Needless  to  say,  the  consumption  of  fuel  must  be  increased  in  pro- 
portion to  the  power  to  be  expended.  The  Royal  Mail  airship  will 
therefore  have  to  consume  several  times  as  much  cqal  as  the  engine 
of  the  Flying  Scotchman  if  she  is  to  carry  the  same  burden.  What  the 
multiplier  may  be  admits  of  at  least  an  approximate  estimate,  but 
it  may  be  feared  that  the  most  careful  mathematical  computation 
would  show  a  disparity  so  extravagant  as  to  deaden  interest  in  the 
subject. 

This  view  may  appear  in  conflict  with  the  principle  already  men- 
tioned, that  increased  economy  will  be  gained  by  increasing  the  size 
of  the  airship.  But  we  must  remember  that  the  economy  is  measured 
by  the  ratio  of  cargo  or  other  weight  carried  to  fuel  consumed.  It 
must  always  cost  more  to  run  a  large  ship  than  to  run  a  small  one. 
Economy  is  gained  only  when  we  increase  the  dimensions  of  the  air- 
ship so  that  she  will  carry  more  cargo  than  the  ocean  steamer  or  the 
railway  train.  The  projector  of  an  airship  who  would  success- 
fully compete  with  the  steamship  in  ocean  traffic  must  not  permit  his 
modesty  to  suggest  beginning  with  dimensions  less  than  a  length  of 
half  a  mile  and  a  diameter  of  600  feet.  His  ship  might  then  be 
able  to  carry  some  10,000  tons  of  cargo  or  15,000  passengers,  and 


it  would  be  only  through  these  great  possibilities  that  economic 
success  would  be  reached.  If  this  requirement  seems  extravagant  or 
impracticable,  the  fault  lies  in  the  problem  itself,  and  not  in  our 
treatment  of  it. 

In  order  to  present  the  case  in  another  wholly  practical  aspect, 
it  may  be  remarked  that,  no  matter  how  high  the  speed  of  the  airship, 
the  wind  would  affect  it  by  its  entire  velocity.  A  normal  speed  of  100 
miles  an  hour  would  be  reduced  to  one-half  by  meeting  a  wind  blowing 
in  the  opposite  direction  at  a  rate  of  fifty  miles  an  hour.  It  is  true 
that  a  favouring  wind  of  the  same  speed  would  accelerate  its  motion, 
and  enable  it  to  reach  its  destination  more  quickly.  But  it  is  needless 
to  describe  the  practical  drawbacks  of  so  uncertain  a  system  of 
transportation. 

When  we  look  carefully  into  the  matter,  we  see  that  these  are  by  no 
means  the  only  drawbacks  inherent  to  the  general  use  of  the  airship. 
In  addition  to  her  being  carried  out  of  her  course  at  the  rate  of  twenty 
or  thirty  miles  an  hour  by  a  wind  blowing  across  her  line  of  motion 
at  this  not  unusual  speed,  comes  the  difficulty,  we  might  say  the  im- 
possibility, of  finding  her  destination  or  effecting  a  landing  in  foggy 
weather.  To  appreciate  these  drawbacks  it  must  be  remembered  that 
they  do  not  arise  merely  from  imperfections  in  the  present  development 
of  the  airship,  but  are  inherent  in  any  form  of  aerial  vehicle,  no  matter 
to  what  degree  it  may  be  perfected.  Unless  the  science  of  the  future 
discovers  some  form  of  action  between  material  masses,  of  the  practical 
attainment  of  which  the  science  of  to-day  gives  not  even  a  hint,  any 
method  of  aerial  transportation  must  bo  subjected  not  only  to  the 
drawbacks  we  have  mentioned,  but  to  a  number  of  others  which  we 
refrain  from  setting  forth  merely  because  the  items  are  all  on  the  debit 
side. 

But  let  us  also  in  fairness  see  what  is  to  be  placed  on  the  credit  side. 
First  and  almost  alone  among  these  must  be  in  the  reader's  mind 
the  fact  that  steam  transportation  on  land  requires  the  building  of 
railways,  which  are  so  expensive  that  the  capital  invested  in  them 
probably  exceeds  that  invested  in  all  other  forms  of  transportation. 
Moreover,  there  are  large  areas  of  the  earth's  surface  not  yet  accessible 
by  rail,  among  which  are  the  two  Poles  and  the  higher  mountains.  All 
such  regions,  the  mountains  excepted,  we  may  suppose  to  be  attainable 
by  the  perfected  airship  of  the  future. 

The  more  carefully  we  analyse  these  possible  advantages,  the  more 
we  shall  find  them  to  diminish  in  importance.  Every  part  of  the 
earth's  surface  on  which  men  now  live  in  large  numbers,  and  in  which 
important  industries  are  prosecuted,  can  be  now  reached  by  railways, 
or  will  be  so  reached  in  time.  True,  this  will  involve  a  constantly 
increasing  investment  of  capital.  But  the  interest  on  this  invest- 
ment will  be  a  trifle  in  comparison  with  the  cost  and  drawbacks 
incident  to  the  general  introduction  of  the  best  system  of  aerial 


488  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTUEY  Sept. 

transportation   that   is  even  ideally  possible   in  the  present  state 
of  our  knowledge. 

Let  us  stop  a  moment  to  see  the  framework  of  the  reasoning  on 
which  our  conclusions  are  based.  We  have  not  taken  either  the  airship 
or  the  flyer  of  to-day  as  the  measure  of  what  is  possible  in  the  future. 
We  have  not  dwelt  upon  the  great  ratio  of  failure  to  success  or  of 
labour  cost  to  results  in  the  trials  hitherto  made.  The  vehicle  we  have 
had  in  mind,  and  of  which  we  have  shown  the  shortcomings,  is  an  ideal 
one  to  be  realised,  if  possible,  in  the  future — a  vehicle  in  which  every 
part  shall  be  so  nicely  adjusted  that  the  maximum  of  efficiency  shall 
be  reached  with  the  least  possible  weight,  and  the  best  devices  used  to 
diminish  friction  and  insure  the  application  of  all  the  power  available 
in  the  fuel  to  the  purpose  of  driving.  We  have  allowed  no  practical 
questions  of  construction  to  interfere  with  success.  We  have  shown 
what  would  be  the  more  than  colossal  dimensions  of  an  airship  that 
could  successfully  compete  with  the  ocean  steamship  of  to-day,  with- 
out inquiring  into  the  practicability  of  building  her  or  the  problem 
of  managing  her  in  an  ocean  storm.  May  we  not  say,  as  the  outcome 
of  these  reflections,  that  the  efforts  at  aerial  navigation  now  being  made 
are  simply  most  ingenious  attempts  to  substitute,  as  a  support  of 
moving  bodies,  the  thin  air  for  the  solid  ground  ?  And  is  it  not 
evident,  on  careful  consideration,  that  the  ground  affords  a  much 
better  base  than  air  ever  can?  Resting  upon  it  we  feel  safe  and 
know  where  we  are.  In  the  air  we  are  carried  about  by  every  wind 
that  blows.  Any  use  that  we  can  make  of  the  air  for  the  purpose  of 
transportation,  even  when  our  machinery  attains  ideal  perfection, 
will  be  uncertain,  dangerous,  expensive,  and  inefficient,  as  compared 
with  transportation  on  the  earth  and  ocean.  The'  glamour  which 
surrounds  the  idea  of  flying  through  the  air  is  the  result  of  ancestral 
notions,  implanted  in  the  minds  of  our  race  before  steam  transportation 
had  attained  its  present  development.  Exceptional  cases  there  may 
be  in  which  the  airship  will  serve  a  purpose,  but  they  are  few  and 
unimportant. 

The  attitude  of  the  writer  is  not  that  of  an  advocate  conducting 
a  case  against  aerial  navigation  and  leaving  it  to  the  other  side  to 
present  its  own  views.  He  cheerfully  admits  the  possibility  of  excep- 
tional cases  in  which  the  airship  may  be  a  more  effective  means  of 
attaining  an  end  than  any  other  yet  at  our  command.  The  most 
promising  result  now  in  sight  is  the  reaching  of  the  Poles.  It  may 
be  feared  that  the  failure  of  the  ill-fated  Andre  has  cast  too  dark  a  cloud 
upon  his  enterprise.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  Count  Zeppelin's  balloon, 
when  improved,  will  be  the  first  vehicle  actually  to  carry  a  human 
being  to  the  North  Pole.  If  nothing  more  interesting  than  fields  of 
ice  is  found  there,  the  result  will  still  be  of  value  by  putting  an  end 
to  a  useless  expenditure  of  energy  which  has  been  going  on  for 


1908    THE  PROBLEM  OF  AERIAL   NAVIGATION  489 

generations.     Let  us,  then,  permit  the  airship  to  gain  all  the  prestige 
it  can  by  being  the  first  agency  to  make  the  Pole  accessible. 

IV. 

The  possibility  of  using  the  airship  in  warfare  has  already  presented 
itself  so  strongly  to  the  minds  of  men,  especially  in  England,  that  it 
may  well  be  included  in  our  inquiry.  The  power  of  flying  through 
the  air  was  always  possessed  by  the  superhuman  beings,  animated 
by  malevolence,  who  held  so  prominent  a  place  in  the  imagination  of 
our  ancestors.  It  is,  therefore,  only  natural  tha't,  when  an  airship  is 
conceived  as  flying  at  pleasure  over  land  and  sea,  she  is  pictured  in  our 
minds  as  an  engine  for  scattering  death  and  destruction  by  the  ex- 
plosion of  bombs,  unless  her  course  is  stopped  by  an  enemy  possessing 
sufficient  power  to  engage  in  conflict  with  her.  Let  us,  then,  inquire 
to  what  result  an  appeal  to  reason  and  fact  will  lead  us  in  estimating 
the  efficiency  of  an  airship  in  carrying  on  military  operations. 

Her  possible  usefulness  in  reconnaissance,  though  easily  exaggerated, 
is  too  obvious  to  need  discussion.  The  really  vital  question  is  that 
of  her  efficiency  in  conquering  a  country,  especially  an  island  like 
England.  The  ways  in  which  the  airship  might  be  used  in  war  are 
numerous.  I  will,  therefore,  first  summarily  examine  some  points 
which  will  limit  our  inquiry. 

Enough  has  already  been  said  to  show  that  the  flyer  is  out  of  the 
question.  The  airship  proper,  or  enlarged  balloon,  is  the  only  agency 
to  be  feared.  Her  vulnerability  is  obvious.  Her  size  is  so  great  as 
to  make  her  an  easy  target ;  her  sides  so  thin  that  she  can  be  pierced 
through  and  through  by  any  bullet,  even  that  of  a  revolver ;  and  her 
interior  composed  of  gas  so  inflammable  that  an  explosive  bullet 
would  reduce  her  to  a  mass  of  flame.  A  single  yeoman  armed  with  a 
repeating  rifle  could  disable  a  whole  fleet  of  airships  approaching 
the  ground  within  range  of  his  station  before  the  crews  could  even 
see  where  he  was  or  what  he  was  doing.  How  many  such  vehicles 
would  be  required  to  carry  and  land,  with  all  its  accoutrements,  an 
armed  force  sufficiently  large  to  be  a  menace  need  hardly  be  computed. 
To  carry  out  the  enterprise  the  fleet  must  either  operate  at  night 
or  choose  an  hour  when  the  country  is  enveloped  in  fog.  Saying 
nothing  of  the  difficulties  inherent  in  navigating  the  air  and  of  choosing 
a  point  of  landing  when  the  ground  is  invisible,  it  would  be  easy 
by  a  system  of  searchlights  to  make  a  landing  as  difficult  at  night 
as  during  the  day.  Should  advantage  be  taken  of  a  smoky  and  foggy 
day,  with  a  view  of  landing  without  being  seen,  the  difficulties  would 
be  as  great  on  the  side  of  the  aerial  vehicle  as  on  that  of  the  defence 
against  it.  The  navigator  of  an  airship  must  at  all  times  be  at  the 
disadvantages  already  mentioned,  one  of  which  is  that  of  being  always 
carried  with  the  wind,  and  of  knowing  nothing  of  his  motion  at  the 


440  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

moment  except  what  he  can  learn  by  observing  the  ground.  He  would 
therefore  be  unable  to  find  his  way  in  a  fog.  Above  the  region  of 
fog  and  cloud  he  might  in  an  uncertain  way  be  guided  by  observations 
on  the  sun  or  stars,  but  this  would  be  much  more  uncertain  than  in 
the  navigation  of  a  ship,  owing  to  the  want  of  a  clear  horizon.  The 
more  closely  one  analyses  the  conditions  and  the  requirements  of  an 
invading  force,  the  more  clearly  it  will  be  seen  that  the  idea  of  invading 
England  with  a  formidable  army  borne  in  airships  is  quite  chimerical. 
Compared  with  what  would  be  the  outcome  of  such  an  enterprise, 
should  it  ever  be  undertaken,  the  Spanish  Armada  was  a  miracle  of 
success. 

It  is,  therefore,  by  operations  conducted  so  high  above  the  ground 
as  to  be  outside  the  range  of  bullets  that  the  airship  must  be  used 
in  military  operations,  if  at  all.  The  serious  question  is,  In  what 
way  could  a  fleet  of  airships  be  used  in  conducting  military 
operations  or  aiding  an  invading  army  by  operating  at  this  height  ? 
We  can  scarcely  conceive  of  her  as  a  fighting  engine  at  any  height. 
It  is  barely  possible  that,  if  made  of  sufficient  size,  the  lightest  field 
artillery  might  be  fired  from  her.  But  her  offensive  power  would 
be  so  insignificant  that  we  should  waste  time  in  attempting  to  estimate 
it.  Of  course  she  could  do  some  damage  to  a  place  like  London 
by  dropping  the  smallest  bombs  into  it ;  but  this  would  be  a  wanton 
proceeding,  of  no  avail  in  conquering  a  country,  and  therefore  not 
permissible  by  the  rules  of  modern  warfare. 

The  only  rational  fear  to  be  entertained  is  that  a  fleet  of  airships 
might  drop  explosive  bombs  into  fortifications  and  upon  the  decks 
of  ships  of  war.  The  projectiles  could  not  be  fired — that  would 
not  only  be  enormously  expensive,  but  useless,  because  dropping  them 
would  be  as  effective  as  firing  them.  On  the  defensive  side,  the  con- 
struction of  a  machine  gun  which,  pointed  vertically,  could  fire  a 
shot  to  a  height  of  two  miles  is  so  simple  a  matter  that  I  assume 
this  to  be  the  height  at  which  the  aerial  ship  will  have  to  operate, 
Let  us,  then,  inquire  what  England  may  have  to  fear  from  explosives 
dropped  upon  her  forts  and  ships  from  a  height  of  two  miles  in  the 
air.  We  must  remember,  at  the  outset,  that  the  air  is  rarer  by  about 
one-fourth  at  this  height  than  at  the  earth's  surface.  This  reduces 
in  a  yet  greater  proportion  the  possible  weight  of  projectiles  which 
an  enemy  could  carry.  If  we  reflect  that,  making  allowance  for  the 
necessary  weight  of  a  balloon,  its  gas  and  its  accoutrements,  every 
ton  carried  at  a  height  of  two  miles  would  require  more  than  5000 
cubic  yards  of  gas  in  the  balloon,  we  shall  see  that  the  task  of  seriously 
injuring  a  modern  fortification  by  dropping  explosives  into  it  will  be 
at  least  an  expensive  one. 

But  how  is  it  in  a  case  of  a  ship-of-war  ?  Among  the  conditions 
of  the  problem  would  be  these.  The  time  required  for  a  bomb  to  fall 
from  a  height  of  two  miles  is  between  twenty-five  and  thirty  seconds, 


1908    THE  PROBLEM  OF  AERIAL   NAVIGATION  441 

depending  upon  the  resistance  which  it  experiences  from  the  air, 
as  compared  with  its  size  and  weight.  During  this  time  the  ship, 
if  in  motion,  would  have  moved  away  by  her  entire  length,  and  would 
therefore  escape  the  missile,  unless  due  allowance  had  been  made  by 
the  attacking  power  for  her  motion.  This  might  be  possible  ;  but, 
even  if  it  were,  a  still  greater  difficulty  would  be  found  in  the  fact 
that  the  balloon  is  itself  in  motion,  because  it  floats  in  the  moving  air. 
True,  the  motion  of  the  wind  would  be  neutralised  if  the  balloon 
steered  against  it  with  the  proper  speed.  But  the  navigator  of  the 
balloon  cannot  determine  the  direction  of  the  wind,  as  can  the  sailor. 
The  only  way  by  which  he  can  know  how  a  wind  is  carrying  him  is  by 
observations  on  the  ground  below,  presumably  on  the  ship  he  desires 
to  attack. 

Now  let  us  estimate  the  degree  of  precision  required  in  the  opera- 
tions. Let  the  reader  imagine  himself  looking  down  vertically  from 
a  scaffold  swaying  in  the  wind  at  the  pavement,  fifty  feet  below. 
On  that  pavement  imagine  an  object,  two  or  three  feet  in  length  and 
from  four  to  six  inches  in  breadth,  swaying  about  in  such  a  way  that 
he  can  scarcely  judge  when,  if  ever,  it  is  below  his  station.  Then 
let  the  problem  be,  with  the  wind  blowing,  to  drop  a  bullet  in  such  a 
way  that  it  shall  strike  the  object  in  its  fall.  By  the  most  skilful 
arrangements  he  might  perhaps  hit  it  once  in  forty  or  fifty  trials. 
The  problem  of  the  balloon  would  be  of  this  same  kind,  except  that 
nearly  half  a  minute  is  required  for  the  missile  to  reach  the  object. 
We  may  admit  that  a  dirigible  balloon,  carrying  a  hundred  bombs 
of  a  ton  each,  and  taking  her  position  two  miles  above  a  battleship, 
would  probably  succeed  in  dropping  one,  two  or  three  upon  her  deck. 
Would  this  disable  her  or  seriously  impair  her  fighting  power  ?  A 
torpedo  discharged  under  water  against  the  side  of  a  ship  sinks  her, 
partly  from  being  under  water,  and  partly  because  the  water  reacts 
in  the  explosion.  But  the  torpedo  exploding  on  the  deck  has  nothing 
but  the  air  to  react  against  it,  and  the  limit  of  damage  would  probably 
be  a  hole  or  fracture  in  the  deck.  We  need  not  be  experts  to  know 
how  small  is  the  area  of  damage  in  an  explosion  of  dynamite. 

Bearing  in  mind  all  these  considerations,  it  would  appear  that 
England  has  little  to  fear  from  the  use  of  airships  by  an  enemy  seeking 
to  invade  her  territory,  even  if  she  tamely  allowed  him  to  do  his 
worst,  which  she  need  not.  The  key  to  her  defence  is  the  necessary 
vulnerability  of  a  balloon.  In  this  respect  the  latter  is  so  completely 
the  opposite  of  every  other  engine  of  war  that  it  requires  a  little 
reflection  to  appreciate  the  case.  A  conflict  between  two  aerial 
navies  composed  of  balloons  belongs  to  the  realm  of  poetry.  Most 
extraordinary  would  be  the  disparity  of  force  if  mutual  annihilation 
were  not  the  speedy  result  of  an  attempt  to  engage  in  a  conflict. 
Each  side  could  continue  firing  a  few  moments  after  being  riddled, 
no  matter  how  great  the  damage  sustained,  but  the  work  of  those 


442  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUE7  Sept. 

moments  would  suffice  to  send  both  combatants  on  their  way  to 
earth  or  ocean.  If  explosive  bullets  were  used  the  result  would  be  yet 
more  tragic. 

I  assume  that,  should  England  ever  be  threatened  with  attack 
by  an  aerial  navy,  she  would  not  follow  the  example  of  the  perhaps 
mythical  and  certainly  chivalrous  French  battalion,  which  extended 
to  the  enemy  the  invitation :  '  Gentlemen,  please  fire  first.'  The 
possible  availability  of  the  perfected  airship,  if  she  ever  becomes  a 
reality,  in  rendering  possible  an  excursion  into  the  atmosphere  above 
an  enemy's  country  cannot  be  denied.  But  when  this  is  done,  the  task 
of  firing  a  single  explosive  bullet  into  each  balloon  of  an  entire  navy 
is  so  much  simpler  than  that  of  dropping  explosives  heavy  enough 
seriously  to  damage  a  modern  fortification  or  battleship,  that  common- 
sense  will  choose  this  policy  in  preference  to  any  other.  If  a  single 
airship  or,  to  guard  against  accident,  two  or  three,  can,  by  watching 
a  favourable  opportunity,  destroy  an  aerial  navy  in  its  own  country 
in  any  stage  of  its  construction,  may  we  not  assume  that  no  Power  is 
going  on  to  make  any  great  effort  to  develop  such  a  navy  after  the 
possibilities  are  fully  appreciated  ? 

In  presenting  the  views  set  forth  in  the  present  article  the  writer 
is  'conscious  that  they  diverge  from  the  general  trend,  not  only  of 
public  opinion,  but  of  the  ideas  of  some  able  and  distinguished  authori- 
ties in  technical  science,  who  have  given  encouragement  to  the  idea 
of  aerial  navigation.  Were  it  a  simple  question  of  weight  of  opinion 
he  would  frankly  admit  the  unwisdom  of  engaging  in  so  unequal 
a  contest.  But  questions  of  what  can  be  done  through  the  application 
of  mechanical  power  to  bodies  in  motion  have  no  relation  to  opinion. 
They  can  be  determined  only  by  calculations  made  by  experts  and 
based  upon  the  data  and  principles  of  mechanics.  If  any  calcula- 
tions of  the  land  exist,  the  writer  has  never  met  with  them,  nor  has 
he  ever  seen  them  either  quoted  or  used  by  any  author  engaged  in 
discussing  the  subject.  So  far  as  his  observation  has  extended,  the 
problem  has  been  everywhere  looked  upon  as  merely  one  of  experi- 
ments ingeniously  conducted  with  all  the  aid  afforded  by  modern 
apparatus.  He  has  seen  no  evidence  that  any  writer  or  projector 
has  ever  weighed  the  considerations  here  adduced,  which  seem  to 
him  to  bring  out  the  insuperable  difficulties  of  the  system  he  has 
been  discussing,  and  the  small  utility  to  be  expected  from  it  even 
if  the  difficulties  were  surmounted.  If  he  is  wrong  in  any  point — 
and  he  makes  no  claim  to  infallibility — it  must  be  easy  to  point  out 
in  what  his  error  consists.  He  therefore  concludes  with  the  hope 
that  if  his  conclusions  are  ill-founded  their  fallacy  will  be  shown,  and 
that  if  well-founded  they  may  not  be  entirely  useless  in  affording 
food  for  thought  to  those  interested  in  the  subject. 

SIMON  NEWCOMB. 


1908 


THE   ORPHANAGE: 
ITS  REFORM  AND    RE-CREATION 


IN  one  of  his  most  delightful  essays,  Froude  tells  the  story  of  a  dis- 
tinguished German  writer  and  savant,  who  said  that  for  his  part  he 
could  not  conceive  how  the  English  people  came  by  their  Keformation. 
After  a  candid  exposition  of  many  facts  not  too  complimentary 
to  our  national  pride,  he  added  that  we  seemed  to  be  '  hide-bound 
by  tradition  and  precedent.'  The  essential  justice  of  the  latter 
part  of  this  criticism  must  often  recur  to  the  mind  of  any  unbiassed 
person  who  sets  himself  to  the  task  of  enquiring  into  the  conditions 
and  methods  of  orphanages  existing  at  the  present  day.  It  would 
take  us  too  far  from  our  present  purpose  to  trace  the  origin  and 
growth  of  these  institutions,  many  of  which  were  founded  a  hundred 
years  ago  and  more,  and  came  into  existence  owing  to  some  special 
need  or  set  of  circumstances.  These  circumstances  have  changed, 
the  needs  have  disappeared;  nevertheless,  unbelievable  as  it  may 
seem  to  those  who  have  frequently  visited  this  or  that  favourite 
orphanage  on  prize  days  and  anniversaries,  the  original  conditions  and 
restrictions  and  even  methods  of  management  still  continue,  and 
are  taken  for  granted  as  wholly  right  and  even  desirable.  The  reply, 
'  We  have  always  done  so  ;  it  works  very  well,'  appears  to  satisfy  even 
moderately  intelligent  committees  and  officials  ;  and  the  criticism  and 
suggestions  of  the  astonished  outsider  are  usually  met  by  indifference, 
polite  for  the  most  part,  but  not  invariably  so,  and  the  implied  verdict 
that  they  are  unnecessary  and  mischievous.  Yet  it  is  not  to  be  doubted 
that  many  who  support  the  orphanages  that  have  come  within  my 
survey  will  unqualifiedly  disapprove  of  many  of  their  common  and 
salient  characteristics,  and  will  be  in  harmony  with  some,  at  least,  of  the 
recommendations  put  forward  here,  the  very  core  of  which  is  inspection 
by  carefully  selected  women,  who  would  be  responsible  to  Government 
— or  any  other  properly  constituted  tribunal — and  unconnected,  whether 
as  committee  or  as  any  other  body,  with  any  orphanage  or  institution. 
I  hope  to  prove  up  to  the  hilt  the  need  of  this  inspection,  so  long  as 
orphanages  remain  in  their  present  form,  and  the  inclusion  of  all 
philanthropic  institutions  of  this  nature,  whether  supported  by  public 

443 


444  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

contributions,  or  by  companies,  or  by  the  founder  or  founders,  in  Mr. 
Samuel's  Children's  Bill.  This  reform  would  meet  with  strenuous 
opposition  by  committees,  by  officials  and  by  timid  parents,  whose 
position  at  the  present  moment  is  almost  without  exception  a  negligible 
one.  For  its  ultimate  goal,  that  of  the  entire  reconstruction  of  the 
orphanage  and  its  transformation  into  a  less  mediaeval  sanctuary, 
will  be  instantly  discerned  by  those  either  sufficiently  far-seeing  or 
sufficiently  self-interested ;  and  many  minor  yet  most  important  and 
even  imperative  reforms  must  in  the  meantime  be  fought  for. 

My  investigation  during  the  last  few  years  has  been  extended  to 
some  sixty  or  more  of  these  orphanages,  large  and  small,  well  known 
and  almost  unknown  beyond  the  small  staff  employed ;  and  it  has 
been  carried  on  quietly,  and  in  some  instances  silently,  not  merely 
as  a  visitor  who  admires  the  children's  rosy,  fat  cheeks,  and,  for  the 
most  part,  well-nourished,  tidy  persons,  but  wherever  possible  by 
going  out  of  the  beaten  track ;  by  asking  questions  not  '  supposed  ' 
to  be  asked,  and  by  gently  insisting  upon  a  reply ;  by  now  and  again 
having  the  opportunity  to  question  a  child  or  parent ;  by  a  more 
thorough  and  detailed  examination  of  Reports  than  is  usual ;  and 
lastly,  by  a  personal  stay  in  more  than  one  of  these  establishments,  in 
what  capacity  it  is  not  necessary  to  state  here.  The  inside  knowledge 
obtained  under  this  latter  condition  was  most  valuable.  The  auto- 
cratic power  wielded  by  a  matron  who  without  much  difficulty  exer- 
cised her  influence  over  her  committee  of  men ;  the  absolute  lack  of 
appeal  on  the  part  of  children,  over-conscious  of  the  necessity  to 
endure  things,  however  intolerable ;  the  timidity  of  the  average 
mother,  who,  however  conscious  things  were  not  right,  never  would 
complain  through  fear  of  being  told,  as  she  invariably  is,  by  secretaries 
and  other  officials,  that  she  is  at  perfect  liberty  to  take  her  child 
elsewhere ;  the  utter  farcical  absurdity  of  a  committee  consisting  of 
ponderous  well-meaning  gentlemen  of  the  middle  class,  who  saw 
nothing,  and,  so  far  as  the  education  and  rearing  of  girl  children  are 
concerned,  were  incapable  of  seeing  what  is  to  be  seen  by  the  eye  of 
experience  and  knowledge ;  the  really  horrible  isolation  of  a  com- 
munity of  girls  and  women  cut  off  from  the  rest  of  the  public,  the 
former  lacking  the  high  spirits  and  elasticity  of  children  who  have 
always  had  freedom,  individuality  and  their  own  natural  surround- 
ings— all  these  features,  incidental  to  the  institution  to  which  I  was 
for  the  moment  attached,  set  me  speculating  as  to  whether  they  were 
a  set  of  peculiar,  isolated  phenomena,  or  characteristic  in  a  greater  or 
less  degree  of  all  the  charitable  institutions  of  this  order.  My  inves- 
tigations and  comparisons  enable  me  to  state  with  truth  and  authority 
that  many  of  the  above  objectionable  features  are  absent  from  some 
of  the  most  enlightened  of  these  institutions.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
very  worst  of  them  prevail  in  many  regarded  by  the  public  with  the 
greatest  confidence  and  admiration. 


1908  ORPHANAGE  REFORM  446 

Roughly  speaking,  all  orphanages  come  under  one  or  other  of  these 
headings : 

1.  Those  that  have  grown  with  the  spirit  of  the  times,  and  with 
some  slight  modifications  and  alterations  might  be  taken  as  the 
model  upon  which  such  communities  should  be  conducted.    As  an 
instance,  the  Princess  Mary  Village  Homes  may  be  cited.     In  certain 
details  they  might  be  advantageously  improved.     It  is  sufficient  to 
say  here  that  the  principle  au  fond — that  of  grouping  children   in 
cottages  under  kindly,  sensible,  middle-aged  women — is  the  right  one.| 

It  is  highly  desirable,  even  essential,  that  they  should  be  given 
a  little  more  play  of  light  and  air,  which  would  follow  from  the 
attendance  of  the  children  at  the  ordinary  village  school  after  a  due 
period  has  elapsed.  One  effect  of  this  would  be  to  modify  the 
atmosphere  of  this  well-managed  institution,  where  almost  all  the 
children  have  one  or  more  parents  in  prison.  There  should  be  also 
a  more  systematic  and  scientific  household  training,  of  which  further 
details  are  presented  later,  and  there  would  then  remain  little  to 
criticise  unfavourably.  The  system  of  '  friends  '  needs  enlarging  and 
placing  on  a  more  sound  basis,  but  this  is  a  reform  in  the  hands  of 
leisured  women  which  the  authorities  would  gladly  welcome.  Unfor- 
tunately orphanages  conducted  upon  this  progressive  plan  are  in  a 
minority. 

2.  There  is  the  group  including  most  of  the  large  and  well-known 
orphanages,  which  is  established  on  a  bad  system,   that  of  herding 
together  one  hundred  or  two  hundred  or  three  hundred  girls  or  boys, 
often  in  palatial  edifices,  in  which  the  educational  curriculum  is  far 
behind  that  of  any  ordinary  Board  School ;  the  training  for  domestic 
service  of  the  girls,  most  casual  and  superficial,  whilst  there  are  no 
workshops  for  the  boys  ;   and  as  an  inevitable  outcome,  the  growing 
up  of  the  children  without  individuality  or  initiative  or  self-reliance. 
But  in  this  group  the  results  are  often  better  than  might  have  been 
expected,  owing  usually  to  the  special  qualifications  of  character  and 
experience  of  the  lady  charged  with  responsibility  (or,  in  the  case  of 
boys,  of  the  master,  though  the  scope  of  this  article  is  mainly  limited  to 
orphanages  for  girls). 

By  qualifications,  I  do  not  mean  the  capacity,  so  highly  valued  it 
would  seem,  of  keeping  down  expenses,  or  of  feeding  the  children  at 
a  lower  rate  than  that  of  predecessors,  but  those  so  difficult  to 
estimate  at  their  right  worth,  so  seldom  rewarded,  so  often  even 
unrecognised,  yet  of  such  priceless  value  in  work  of  this  order. 
I  think,  though  I  stand  to  be  corrected,  they  can  be  found  only  in  their 
fullest  and  highest  perfection  in  one  who  unites  traditions  of  breeding 
and  culture,  the  effects  of  life-long  environment,  with  a  love 
of  children,  a  devotion  to  duty,  and  an  attitude  regarding  her  work 
that  is  almost  that  of  the  nun  to  her  sacred  vocation.  At  least  three 
times  I  have  come  across  such  superintendents  or  matrons,  and  the 


446  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

difference  of  atmosphere  and  outlook  are  most  striking.  The  Home 
may  contain  large  numbers,  and  it  may  even  house  (as  at  the  Brixton 
Orphanage  for  Fatherless  Girls)  no  fewer  than  250  girls ;  nevertheless 
it  will  have  a  quality  that  one  looks  for  in  vain  elsewhere,  a  personal 
quality,  the  precise  nature  of  which  I  cannot  pretend  to  explain. 
But  the  Home  which  breathes  this  essence  is  simply  the  wide  width 
of  Heaven  from  the  ordinary  orphanage  with  its  staff  of  paid  officials, 
and  its  conscientious,  austere,  depressing  atmosphere.  It  cannot 
of  course  often  happen  that  such  a  conjunction  of  qualities  can  be 
found  united  in  one  person.  The  prizes  are  not  great  enough  to 
attract  women  of  marked  administrative  capacity,  nor  is  a  profound 
love  of  children  usually  found  allied  with  this  form  of  practical 
capacity. 

It  can  but  be  placed  on  record  here  that  human  beings  with  this 
noble  equipment  are  actually  devoting  their  lives  to  the  fulfilment  of 
the  difficult  and  often  most  saddening  duties  that  devolve  upon 
the  matron  of  an  orphanage :  and  that  the  least  satisfactory  of 
systems  in  the  hands  of  such  men  and  women  can  be  neutralised  and 
even  transformed  into  actively  fruitful  environments. 

As  I  write  these  lines  there  comes  across  my  memory  one  of  those 
incidents  which  more  than  pages  of  analysis  and  description  throw 
light  and  reveal  as  in  a  flash  the  very  spirit  and  essence  of  a  great 
undertaking.  I  had  visited  that  day  several  orphanages,  and  my 
spirit  was  utterly  depressed  and  melancholy.  I  had  stood  in  vast, 
too  immaculately  clean  dormitories  with  their  cold,  white,  unhome- 
like  bare  walls,  and  their  long  rows  and  rows  of  countless  little  narrow 
beds,  faultlessly  precise  and  uniform  even  to  the  fold  of  a  quilt.  I 
had  been  unable  to  subdue  the  emotion  that  had  from  time  to  time 
troubled  me,  when  I  pictured  the  heartrending  desolation  of  the  child 
I  knew  best,  had  he  come  to  one  of  these  places,  fresh  from  the  love 
of  his  foster-mother,  whilst  his  frightened  gaze  wandered  round  the 
great  bare  room,  with  never  a  sign  or  symbol  of  a  child's  restless  feet 
or  mischief-loving  little  fingers.  And  the  somewhat  wooden  replies 
of  officials  had  become  so  oppressive,  that  I  sought  in  vain  to  escape 
from  my  last  task,  a  visit  to  the  orphanage  I  have  just  named.  As 
I  crossed  the  sunny  garden,  whose  fine  old  trees  lovingly  shadowed 
the  splendidly  airy  rooms,  in  contrast  to  the  insignificant,  mean 
frontage,  my  eye  suddenly  espied  a  miscellaneous  collection  of 
children's  cheap,  worn  toys  thrown  carelessly  upon  the  window  sill, 
as  though  they  had  been  recently  played  with.  So  trivial  a  thing,  and 
yet  in  a  moment  these  well-drilled  repressed  little  automata  I  had 
been  seeing  all  day  were  transformed  into  the  dear,  self-willed,  careless 
children  I  knew ;  and  life  once  more  held  for  me  some  sweet  and 
vivifying  moments.  But  the  nobility  and  breadth  of  character  ex- 
hibited by  some  in  charge  of  these  institutions,  must  not  blind  us  to 
the  radical  defects  of  the  system  upon  which  they  are  conducted,  or  to 
the  fact  that  under  incompetent,  stupid  and  narrow  administration  they 


1908  ORPHANAGE  EEFOEM  447 

are  capable  of  becoming  even  worse  than  the  actual  system  necessitates. 
This  criticism  especially  applies  to  the  orphanages  comprised  in 

Group  3,  including  many  of  the  orphanages,  if  not  most,  which 
enjoy,  as  I  have  said,  the  largest  share  of  public  esteem  and  admiration. 
They  have  often  vast  funds  to  draw  upon  and  are  under  the  auspices 
of  well-meaning  persons  in  prominent  positions,  who  are  not  only 
genuinely  amazed  by  any  expression  of  criticism,  but  appear  indisposed 
to  entertain  the  idea  that  uncompromising  objection  is  taken  to  the 
fundamental  principles  upon  which  they  are  based.  No  modifications 
of  this  or  that  detail  of  discipline  or  management  will  avail  here. 
The  strongest  public  opinion  must  be  brought  to  bear  in  no  uncertain 
fashion,  the  active  co-operation  and  direction  of  women  of  judgment, 
sense  and  feeling  must  be  obtained,  and,  when  necessary,  Acts  of 
Parliament  introduced  which  will  give  properly  appointed  Com- 
missioners the  right  to  control  the  funds  and  overhaul  the  very  founda- 
tions of  the  immense  edifices,  insisting  upon  a  complete  regeneration 
of  management  and  the  sweeping  away  of  cast-iron  traditions  and 
precedents  which  exert  the  cruellest  pressure  upon  human  lives. 

This  section  comprises  such  huge  and  prominent  institutions  as 
the  Foundling,  which  in  many  respects  exhibits  unique  conditions  ; 
more  representative  ones  such  as  the  Orphan  Working  School  in 
Haverstock  Hill,  the  Soldiers'  Daughters'  Home  in  Hampstead,  and 
a  smaller  group  with  certain  specific  peculiar  characteristics,  such  as 
the  City  of  London  Freemen's  School  at  Brixton.  Many  of  the 
worst  survivals  are  common  to  them  all,  survivals  which,  dating  from 
fifty  or  sixty  years  ago,  have  remained  unaltered  and  unmodified, 
and  that  form  an  environment  for  children  so  stupidly  unsuited  to 
the  conditions  of  the  world,  such  as  we  know  it,  as  to  fill  a  person  who 
hears  of  them  for  the  first  time  with  incredulity.  That  there  should 
be  institutions  modelled  upon  lines  so  narrow  and  ugly  reflects  much 
discredit  in  my  judgment  upon  the  numberless  women  clamouring 
for  larger  rights,  and  for  wider  interests,  than  are  associated  with  the 
home.  Upon  this  point  I  shall  have  something  more  to  say.  It  is 
convenient  here  to  complete  the  list  of  groups  before  considering  the 
important  ones  in  detail ;  and  with  regard  to 

Group  4, 1  propose  to  make  but  the  briefest  of  comment.  This  last 
division  comprises  small  orphanages  often  run  either  by  the  original 
founder  or  by  some  relative,  who,  however  unfit  or  even  undesirable, 
remains  at  the  head  of  the  concern  from  some  feeling,  surely  wholly 
misplaced  on  the  part  of  the  committee,  that  it  would  seem  to  be 
ungrateful  or  disrespectful  to  the  memory  of  the  founder,  if  she  were 
removed.  This  group  of  institutions  usually  suffers  from  want  of  funds, 
and  ought  to  be  done  away  with,  root  and  branch.  In  one  instance 
where  several  girls  have  run  away,  I  learned  from  a  young  mistress,  on 
the  point  of  leaving,  that  the  committee  met  irregularly,  sometimes 
at  intervals  of  six  months,  and  consisted  usually  of  two  gentlemen, 
both  relatives  of  the  lady  superintendent. 


448  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

These  hole-and-corner  *  homes  '  provide  an  education  that  hardly 
deserves  the  name,  and  that  cannot  be  compared  with  that  given  in 
the  least  efficient  of  elementary  schools,  reproducing  the  wretched, 
superficial  instruction  given  to  tradesmen's  daughters  fifty  years  ago, 
without  compensation  in  the  shape  of  the  thorough  instruction  in 
cookery,  laundry  and  the  household  arts  which  they  received.  There 
are  two  '  Homes  '  (probably  many  more)  in  which  the  sleeping  accom- 
modation ought  to  be  condemned  forthwith,  and  the  sanitary  arrange- 
ments in  at  least  three  others  were  most  elementary  ;  indeed,  without 
speaking  unfairly,  they  verged  upon  what  is  insanitary.  None  of  these 
orphanages  had  any  arrangements  for  the  proper  care  of  the  girls' 
health  ;  there  was  neither  nurse  nor  doctor  attached,  and  the  appear- 
ance of  the  girls  would  have  convinced  anyone  who  knows  the  signs  of 
good  health  that  in  physical  as  well  as  in  mental  development  many 
of  these  poor  children  were  far  below  the  average  of  children  in  the 
poorest  working-class  homes.  I  have  some  ten  or  twelve  Homes  upon 
my  list  which  come  under  Group  4,  and  my  single  recommendation 
with  regard  to  them  is  the  immediate  and  imperative  necessity  for 
their  demolition. 

Let  us  now  return  to  section  3,  which  includes  most  of  the  best- 
known  institutions.  It  is  only  right  to  make  a  few  generalisations 
of  a  favourable  nature.  Let  me  say  at  once  that  the  majority  of 
these  institutions  are  almost  beyond  criticism  so  far  as  the  material 
wants  of  the  children  are  concerned.  Many  of  the  buildings  are  truly 
palatial,  and  it  is  a  real  question,  which,  however,  I  leave  others  to 
decide,  whether  it  is  welt  to  rear  children  who  will  have  to  earn  their 
living  in  the  workaday  world  under  such  supremely  comfortable 
and  prosperous  conditions.  With  regard  to  cleanliness,  ventilation, 
order,  and  good  organisation,  the  only  desiderata  that  the  visitor 
as  a  rule  has  the  opportunity  of  estimating,  it  is  hardly  possible  to 
find  anything  of  which  to  complain.  Here  however  the  evils  and  dis- 
advantages inseparable  from  large  numbers  have  to  be  reckoned. 
The  routine,  the  automatic  discipline,  the  almost  military  preciseness 
under  which  these  young  lives  grow  up  from  babyhood  to  girlhood 
and  youth,  are  so  systematised  that  one  cannot  look  for  any  vestige 
of  individuality,  initiative,  or  self-reliance  to  emerge.  These  perhaps 
are  moral  rather  than  material  problems,  and  may  be  thought  out 
of  place  at  this  precise  point ;  yet  these  moral  qualities  really  grow  out 
of  the  material  conditions,  and  so  long  as  these  orphanages  exist 
in  their  present  form  it  is  hard  to  see  how  they  are  to  be  altered. 
The  food  is  of  excellent  quality,  and,  so  far  as  one  can  judge,  is  carefully 
cooked,  and  on  the  whole  attractive.  But  there  are  many  details  of 
diet  which  a  woman  accustomed  to  the  feeding  of  boys  and  girls,  and 
knowing  something  of  the  properties  of  food  and  the  necessities  of 
young  children,  would  alter.  I  think,  too,  that  more  scope  should 
be  given  for  the  play  of  individual  appetites,  and  that  some  of  the  more 


1808  ORPHANAGE   BJSFOMM  449 

enlightened  theories  about  the  value  of  different  food  stuffs  ought  to 
be  understood  by  matrons  and  committees.  Still,  it  can  be  fairly 
conceded  that  children  in  orphanages  are  well  fed  in  addition  to  being 
well  housed.  I  can  also  say  decisively  that  I  came  across  no  single 
case  of  anything  that  could  be  called  intentional  cruelty.  Stupidity 
in  plentiful  quantity,  but  with  every  disposition  to  recognise  it 
I  saw  neither  excessive  beating,  nor  bullying,  nor  starving,  nor  that 
horrible  system  of  torture  which  puts  little  children  in  dark  rooms 
by  themselves,  or  deprives  them  of  necessary  food  or  even  sleep  till 
tasks  of  appalling  difficulty  are  toiled  through.  Finally,  it  is  only 
fair  to  say,  amidst  much  that  struck  me  as  painfully  stupid,  callous, 
and  even  inhuman,  I  saw  much  quiet  heroism,  a  devotion  to  duty 
amidst  circumstances  calculated  to  depress  and  deaden  sensibilities 
that  was  beyond  all  praise,  and  not  infrequently,  and  perhaps  more 
especially  amongst  the  minor  officials,  lives  of  great  moral  beauty. 

In  quite  a  number  of  aspects  the  Foundling  Hospital  in  Guilford 
Street  occupies  a  unique  position.     Its  situation  in  the  very  centre 
of  London,  the  distinctive  and  quaintly  pretty  dress  of  the  children — 
to  some  of  us  the  saddest  of  symbols — the  vast  funds  which  the 
Governors  control,  and  the  strange,  tragic  circumstances  attaching  to 
the  birth  of  the  infant  brought  to  the  gates  by  the  youthful  mother,  not 
only  give  the  institution  the  prestige  that  attaches  to  mystery  and 
romance  (for  who  knows  what  illustrious  or  exalted  rank  the  father 
may  not  occupy  ?),  but  also  a  kind  of  permanency  of  character,  so  that 
no  one  either  questions  or  criticises  even  in  these  topsy-turvy  days. 
Yet  a  deep  responsibility  attaches  to  everyone  of  us  willing  and 
content  to  accept  that  all  is  right.     I  cannot  divest  myself  of  the 
share  of  blame  that  attaches  to  every  woman  who  has  done  no  more 
than  see  the  children  well  clad,  well  fed,  and  for  the  most  part  rosy- 
cheeked,  upon  anniversaries  and  other  festive  occasions,  and  who 
repeats  the  parrot  cry,  '  How  lucky  these  boys  and  girls  are  ! '     '  Such 
dear  little  things,  and  how  pretty  they  look  in  that  quaint  costume  !  ' 
Lucky  !     To  enter  this  world  without  name  or  father.     That  is  the 
first  stage  in  the  life  of  the  little  girl  pilgrim.     Then  follows  the  second, 
her  entrance  into  the  Foundling  and  the  acceptance  of  its  grim  condi- 
tions.    To  be  doubly  bereaved  :  never  to  see  again  her  mother's  face, 
never  to  hear  her  voice,  never  to  feel  her  kiss  upon  her  brow,  her 
caresses  upon  her  baby  lips,  and  at  the  very  moment  of  her  abandon- 
ment to  be  re-baptized  with  the  stain  of  her  birth  necessitated  by  the 
Constitution  of  the  Foundling.    There  she  remains  through  the  years 
of  childhood,  cut  off  from  happier  children  with  fathers  and  mothers, 
till  she  goes  out  into  the  world  at  sixteen  with  the  indelible  brand  that 
maintenance  at  the  Foundling  irrevocably  carries.     If,  after  knowing 
these  truths,  there  are  still  women  with  hearts  in  their  breasts  who 
can  take  a  pleasure  in  the  quaint,  distinctive,  pretty  costumes  of  brown 
and  white,  they  must  be  strangely  constituted. 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  379  H  H 


450  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

Examine  more  closely  for  a  moment  the  conditions  under  which  a 
child  becomes  a  foundling.  Every  leaflet  or  report  issued  by  this  insti- 
tution bears  these  impressive  words  :  '  It  should  never  be  forgotten 
that  this  institution,  in  addition  to  the  maintenance  and  education  of 
children,  has  another  most  important  object,  viz.  the  restoration  to 
society  and  their  friends  of  young  persons  of  previously  good  character, 
and  it  is  impossible  duly  to  estimate  the  immense  importance  of  this  work.' l 
The  restoration  of  the  young  mother  to  society  may  be  interpreted 
in  various  ways.  It  would  be  inferred,  no  doubt,  by  many  who  care- 
lessly read  these  consoling  words,  that  the  support  given  to  the  young 
mother,  often  little  more  than  a  girl,  for  the  period,  long  or  short, 
which  must  elapse  after  a  moral  ordeal  of  this  kind  (felt  to  a  greater 
or  less  degree  according  to  the  temperament,  upbringing,  and  to 
some  extent  rank  in  society  of  the  mother)  would  take  both  a  material 
and  spiritual  form.  With  the  vast  funds  possessed  by  the  Foundling 
authorities,  no  less  than  25,OOOZ.  a  year,  it  is  possible  to  provide  the 
adequate  and  efficient  means  which  other  societies  with  the  same  objec- 
tive are  incapable  of  giving,  owing  to  lack  of  money.  In  whatever  spirit 
the  words  are  interpreted,  they  will  surely  convey  some  sort  of  help. 
It  will,  I  feel,  be  a  somewhat  severe  strain  on  the  common  sense  of 
most  men  and  women  to  give  credence  to  my  solemn  statement,  that 
the  help  given  to  the  young  mother,  the  immense  importance  of  which 
*  cannot  be  duly  estimated,'  is  precisely — nothing !  I  wrote  down  the 
replies  of  the  courteous  young  assistant-secretary,  who  seemed  very 
willing  to  receive  ideas  and  even  to  be  struck  with  the  justice  of 
some  of  them,  and  also  those  given  me  by  the  matron,  which  indeed 
simply  corroborated  those  of  the  assistant-secretary. 

'  What  steps  do  we  take  to  preserve  the  relationship  of  mother 
and  child  ?  '  he  repeated,  '  none  at  all.  We  take  effectual  means 
to  cut  off  the  child  from  the  mother,  according  to  the  expressed  inten- 
tions of  Coram.3  The  founder,  Coram,  whom  the  authorities  of  the 
Foundling  seek  to  please  so  piously,  lived  in  the  reign  of  George  the 
Second,  and  was  the  master  of  a  trading  vessel.  '  Coram,'  added  the 
assistant-secretary,  '  went  even  further  than  we  do.  Do  we  make 
any  inquiries  ?  Of  course,  most  searching  enquiries,  and  if  they  are 
not  satisfactory,  if  we  find  the  mother  has  not  told  the  truth,  we  don't 
go  any  further.  The  children  are  all  illegitimate,  but  the  mother  must 
have  lived  a  respectable  life  up  to  her  first  fall.2 

The  matron  told  me  that  they  only  considered  first  cases.  'A 
woman  presenting  herself  with  a  second  illegitimate  child  is  soon 
bundled  out.' 

'  What  steps  do  you  take  then  to  assist  the  young  mother  to  regain 
her  footing  ? '  was  the  next  question  put  to  the  assistant-secretary  and 
matron.  '  Well,  we  relieve  her  of  the  child,  the  best  way  I  should  say 

1  I  have  italicised  these  words  so  that  they  shall  not  be  read  heedlessly. 

2  I  have  italicised  these  words  for  a  reason  that  will  soon  explain  itself. 


1908  ORPHANAGE  REFORM  461 

of  helping  her.     We  feed,  clothe,  and  maintain  her  child,  and  thereby 
set  her  free  to  earn  her  living.' 

'  But  do  you  do  nothing  ?  Do  you  assist  her  to  get  work,  or  lend 
her  money,  so  that  for  the  immediate  present  she  is  not  forced  to  go  on 
the  streets  ?  Surely  you  satisfy  yourself  that  the  mother  has  a  home 
to  go  to,  and  in  the  event  of  her  having  none  help  her  to  find  one  ? 
Do  you  mean  that  you  do  absolutely  nothing  for  a  mother  who  is  in 
such  wretched  despair  that  she  brings  herself  to  part  with  her  child 
and  give  it  over  to  strangers  for  ever  and  ever  ?  ' 

The  matron  said,  '  Oh,  we  always  pay  their  fares.'  The  irony  of 
this  reply  was  so  unconscious,  that  had  I  not  allowed  myself  a 
bitter  smile,  I  might  not  have  been  able  to  control  my  emotions 
of  a  different  kind. 

Recollect,  here  is  a  young  mother  who  is  not  a  wicked  or  abandoned 
woman.  That  the  Foundling  authorities  readily  admit ;  only  a  woman, 
young,  often  mistaken  in  the  meaning  of  her  feeling  for  the  father 
of  her  child,  who  has  been  lacking  in  knowledge  of  the  world  and  self- 
control  at  the  most  critical  moment  of  her  life. 

I  do  not  claim  to  have  a  wide  experience  of  these  girl-mothers,  but 
many  times  it  has  been  my  sad,  but  hopeful,  task  \  to  help  in  finding 
a  home  for  a  little  child,  handicapped  before  it  has  seen  the  light  of 
day ;  and  I  can,  without  fear  of  contradiction,  maintain  that  many 
of  these  young  mothers  have  the  stuff  of  which  the  truest  woman- 
hood is  made.  Too  kind,  too  trusting,  too  yielding,  many  of  them 
are ;  and  not  always  victims,  as  it  pleases  a  certain  section  of  the 
femininist  school  to  make  out,  but  willing  to  confess  that  they  have 
failed,  and,  what  is  better,  willing  to  repent.  But  in  their  supreme 
hour  of  martyrdom,  when  they  emerge  from  lying-in  hospitals  or 
infirmaries,  deeply  ashamed  as  many  are,  and  deeply  conscious  of  the 
gulf  between  them  and  happier  women,  when  it  is  a  mere  throw  of  the 
dice  whether  they  will  sink  or  rise,  they  need  wise  help,  good  sense, 
love  and  tenderness.  As  I  have  pointed  out  till  I  am  weary,  we  need 
a  '  Guild  of  help  '  attached  to  every  place  of  this  kind  to  sustain  the 
girl  and  help  her  financially  with  the  cost  of  maintaining  her  child. 
And  the  instrument  for  her  salvation  is  ready  at  hand.  If  she  is  to 
be  saved,  it  is  by  means  of  and  through  one  agency  alone,  her  child. 
The  mother's  failure  is  in  part  redeemed  by  the  very  act  of  creative- 
ness  that  she  is  called  to  endure  with  much  suffering  and  mental 
anguish,  and  deprived  of  all  the  consoling  joys  that  are  compensation 
to  stronger  women.  Her  final  regeneration — and  there  is  scarce  one 
of  these  young  mothers  in  whom  the  idea  is  not  dimly  discerned  from 
the  very  moment  that  she  feels  the  child  at  her  breast — is  achieved 
slowly  and  nobly  whilst  she  works  and  toils  and  expiates  for  her  child. 
What,  then,  can  be  said  in  adequate  condemnation  of  the  procedure, 
the  salient  characteristic  of  which  is  that  the  young  mother  is  bereft 
of  the  child  at  the  moment  of  her  sorest  need  and  profoundest  lone- 

H  n  2 


462  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

liness  ?  '  She  can  write  if  she  likes,'  says  the  matron,  '  and  about 
two  a  year  do.'  It  would  be  demanding  superhuman  virtues  to  ex- 
pect a  woman  to  feel  her  mother's  love  for  a  being  taken  away  in  the 
first  weeks  or  months  of  infancy,  whom  she  is  not  allowed  to  see,  or 
to  write  to,  or  to  have  any  hope  of  being  re-united  to.  Can  anyone 
with  experience  question  that  in  this  singular  method  of  '  restoring 
the  mother  to  society,'  the  exact  reverse  must  usually  be  the  con- 
sequence, since  she  is  violently  deprived  of  the  single  incentive  to 
effort  and  self-sacrifice  ? 

Let  us  now  pursue  the  destiny  of  the  child.  At  any  age  less  than 
twelve  months  it  may  be  handed  over  to  the  Foundling  officials.  The 
recording  of  facts  is  not  infrequently  a  painful  obligation,  and  it  has 
to  be  said  that  at  every  step  of  the  little  creature's  pilgrimage  the 
wrong  thing  seems  to  be  done. 

As  we  have  seen,  early  in  its  life-journey,  whilst  still  in  the  cradle, 
sorrow  and  bereavement  set  their  mark  upon  the  piteous  little 
being,  and  of  that  sweet,  joyous  atmosphere  breathed  about  them 
by  the  homeliest  father  and  mother  there  is  none.  Still,  thank  God, 
there  is  an  innumerable  company  of  good  large-hearted  women 
with  the  right  mother  instinct,  who  may  be  trusted,  under  proper 
control  and  supervision,  to  play  the  part  of  foster-mother  to  a 
child  or  small  group  of  children.  Nothing  can  more  nearly  approach 
the  home  and  mother  that  the  child  has  lost,  than  a  clean  homelike 
country  cottage  with  its  cheerful  bustling  house-mother  (such  as  we 
may  see  at  the  Princess  Mary  Homes),  taking  to  her  kindly  bosom  the 
desolate  scrap  of  humanity  cut  off,  through  no  fault  of  its  own,  from 
all  those  united  to  it  by  feeling  and  ties  of  blood.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  nothing  could  be  more  dangerous  than  this  system  as  carried 
on  by  the  Foundling  authorities.  Not  only  is  there  no  council  of  ladies, 
disinterested,  leisured  and  sympathetic,  having  the  judgment,  ex- 
perience and  sympathy  essential  for  this  responsible  work,  but  there 
is  no  systematic  inspection  of  any  kind,  no  rigorous  supervision,  no 
careful  and  constant  examination  of  the  children,  no  instructions  to 
the  foster-mother.  Everything  is  done  in  the  most  casual  and  un- 
systematic manner.  A  country  doctor,  who  seems  from  the  in- 
quiries I  have  made  to  do  his  best  under  impossible  circumstances, 
amidst  his  multifarious  other  duties,  selects  the  cottages  for  the 
hundred  or  so  babies  under  four  years  of  age  who  are  distributed  about 
the  villages  near  his  residence,  and  any  inspection  is  limited  to  his 
frequently  seeing  the  children  during  his  journeys  through  the  villages. 
In  his  own  words,  '  I  am  continually  up  and  down  the  roads  where 
the  children  live,  and  there  is  also  pay  day,  when  I  often  see  the 
children.'  There  are  two  doctors  attached  to  the  institution,  and 
a  significant  and  painful  fact  in  connexion  with  their  functions, 
is  to  be  found  in  the  refusal  of  the  authorities  to  permit  a  lady  to 
visit  the  cottage  homes  even  in  the  presence  of  the  doctor !  An 


1908  ORPHANAGE   BE  FORM  458 

unimpeachable  authority,  well  known  for  her  work  amongst  poor 
married  women,  writes  to  me  as  follows  :  *  I  know  many  of  the 
homes  in  which  the  babies  are,  and  some  years  ago  I  asked  to  be 
allowed  to  be  given  the  power  to  inspect  and  supervise  every  home 
containing  one  of  the  foster  infants.  I  was  curtly  refused.  Yet 
there  is  the  greatest  necessity.  The  homes  are  not  always  what  they 
ought  to  be,  nor  the  women  selected  to  play  the  part  of  mother  always 
the  most  fitted,  though  they  may  have  bonny  children  themselves. 
Many  of  the  country  mothers  are  most  ignorant,  and  though  they 
manage  to  keep  their  own  offspring  alive,  it  becomes  a  very  different 
matter  when  it  involves  the  artificial  feeding  of  someone  else's  child.' 
Moreover,  is  there  any  woman  with  experience,  who  fails  to  appreciate 
the  risk  of  leaving  helpless  beings  in  the  hands  of  women  known  in 
many  cases  only  superficially  to  the  doctors,  and  who  ought  to  be 
under  the  immediate  guidance  and  control  of  those  superior  in  birth 
and  education  and  knowledge,  and  of  irreproachable  character  ?  When 
one  thinks  how  easily  dark  things  might  occur  which  it  would  be  the 
instinct,  indeed  the  interest  of  everyone  concerned  to  hush  up  ;  when 
one  recollects  how  difficult  is  the  rearing  of  children  often  on  artificial 
foods,  and  how  often  the  little  waif  is  brought  into  the  world  under 
most  disadvantageous  conditions,  is  it  not  almost  impossible  to  believe 
that  any  community  could  be  so  culpably  careless  as  to  allow  this  large 
number  of  children  who  cannot  speak,  and  who  are  too  young  to  defend 
themselves,  to  be  left  to  the  supervision  of  busy  country  doctors  ? 

It  is  only  fair  to  say  that  many  of  the  foster-parents  seem  passion- 
ately fond  of  these  little  creatures  whom  they  have  tended  to  the  best 
of  their  power. 

At  four  the  child  leaves  its  foster-mother  and  is  brought  into  the 
institution,  and  according  to  its  sex  placed  on  the  boys'  or  girls'  side. 
Happily,  at  the  age  of  four,  emotions  and  memories  are  not  of  any 
great  depth,  and  no  doubt  the  little  one  soon  settles  down  and  lives 
contentedly  enough  with  its  companions.  It  is  now  up  to  its  sixteenth 
year  well  fed,  palatially  housed  and  adequately  clothed.  But  material 
good,  however  important,  can  be  too  dearly  purchased ;  it  can  be 
purchased  at  the  cost  of  more  intrinsically  essential  things.  The 
identity  of  the  child,  known  only  to  one  or  two  of  the  Governors,  has 
been  dropped  absolutely.  The  girl  (or  boy)  is  given  a  name  selected 
by  one  of  the  Governors  who  concerns  himself  with  this  task,  by  which 
she  is  known  henceforth  exclusively.  She  leaves  the  institution  ignorant 
of  her  own  name,  or,  to  be  pedantically  correct,  of  the  name,  of  the  mother 
who  bore  her,  or  of  any  single  particular  of  her  parentage. 

This  will  come  as  a  shock  and  revelation  to  many  who  were  under 
the  same  impression  as  myself,  that  the  girl  had  such  particulars  as 
were  known  about  her  mother  disclosed  upon  leaving  the  institution. 
This  is  not  the  case.  The  girls  and  boys  leave  the  institution  at  six- 
teen in  virgin  ignorance  of  their  identity,  of  their  relations  to  other 


464  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

human  beings  in  the  world,  to  whom  in  some  cases  they  must  have 
the  very  closest  ties  of  blood.  I  do  not  want  to  pursue  the  startling 
and  indeed  horrible  train  of  thought  which  this  amazing  set  of  facts 
induces.  It  does  not  need  to  have  a  riotous  imagination  to  picture 
what  may  happen  in  a  world  where  coincidences  in  the  shape  of 
meetings  between  widely  separated  relatives  are  everyday  affairs. 
But  this  does  not  mark  the  end  of  the  charity  child's  sufferings.  The 
same  amazing  want  of  common  sense  and  common  judgment  are  to 
be  found  in  the  internal  economy  of  administration.  Here  are  200 
girls  growing  up  between  the  ages  of  five  and  sixteen,  when  they  leave 
to  enter  domestic  service,  and  there  is  no  ladies'  committee,  and  not 
a  single  woman  upon  the  board  of  management.  There  is  not  a  single 
woman,  apart  from  the  matron  and  the  other  officials,  who  has  any 
part  in  the  arrangements  for  rearing  and  educating  these  200  girls. 
I  have  said  that  many  of  the  characteristics  of  the  Foundling  are 
to  be  found  elsewhere.  At  the  Soldiers'  Daughters'  Home  in  Hamp- 
stead,  at  the  Freemen's  City  School  in  Brixton,  where  there  are 
seventy  girls,  the  same  incredible  state  of  things  exists.  At 
both  these  institutions,  in  the  latter  especially,  there  is  an  imperative 
need  of  a  committee  of  women.  I  will  give  one  practical  instance 
which  will  appeal  to  the  common  sense  of  any  one  possessing  it, 
though  it  is  really  of  less  consequence  than  many  matters  involving 
the  moral  training  and  welfare  of  the  girls.  At  the  City  School  the 
girls  are  orphans,  daughters  of  lower  middle-class  parents.  They 
leave  the  school  at  fifteen  to  go  into  shops,  offices  and  the  like.  No 
domestic  training  is  given  them ;  they  do  not  make  or  learn  to  make 
their  own  clothing ;  they  do  not  do  an  hour's  service  in  the  work 
of  the  house ;  and,  could  there  be  any  stronger  argument  for  the 
appointment  of  women  of  sense  and  administrative  capacity,  for  the 
131  children  in  the  school  (of  whom  seventy-one  are  boys,  all  of  them 
above  the  age  of  seven  years),  there  is  maintained,  upon  the 
authority  of  the  matron,  a  staff  of  twenty  servants.  Contrast  this 
ridiculously  extravagant  retinue  with  Miss  Bird's  establishment  round 
the  corner.  Here  are  250  girls  of  all  ages,  and  there  is  no  staff  of 
servants  at  all,  the  girls  doing  the  work,  cooking,  cleaning  and  laundry 
work,  with  the  aid  of  a  house  matron  for  each  department,  and  doing 
the  different  household  crafts  gladly  and  exquisitely  well.  Ever  since 
1854,  when  the  City  School  came  into  existence,  it  has  contributed 
to  the  State  numbers  of  girls  who  have  never  done  a  day's  household 
work,  never  even  washed  a  pocket-handkerchief  or  had  an  hour's 
instruction  in  either  subject,  and  who  have  been  for  years  waited  upon 
by  a  staff  of  servants  !  Some  amongst  us  have  smiled  whilst  we 
listened  to  young  ladies,  who  have  not  long  left  the  schoolroom, 
modestly  assuming  to  themselves  the  government  of  the  Empire ; 
but  it  is  surely  no  less  a  ridiculous  and  unfitting  role  for  City  gentlemen 
to  arrogate  to  themselves  the  internal  management  of  an  institution 


1908  ORPHANAGE   REFORM  455 

for  girls.  Is  it  not  *»  paradox  that  this  state  of  things  should  exist, 
at  a  moment  when  not  a  Woman  Suffrage  meeting  takes  place  without 
especial  mention  of  the  fact  being  made,  in  language  of  most  vehement 
indignation,  that  the  would-be  voters  have  no  part  in  the  care  and 
control  of  the  thousands  of  poor  women  and  girls  ? 

Here  are  scores  of  orphanages  containing  hundreds  of  friendless 
girls — children,  many  of  them,  without  either  father  or  mother — and 
their  dreary  lives  are  often  passed  within  a  few  yards  of  streets  filled 
with  well-to-do  women,  many  of  whom  base  their  political  demand 
upon  the  necessity  for  helping  the  weak  and  friendless,  whilst  they 
have  failed  to  act  the  role  of  '  friend '  to  the  girl  children  at  their 
own  doors. 

It  is  not  alone  as  administrators  and  inspectors  examining  into  every 
nook  and  corner  that  ladies  are  needed,  but  even  more  as  counsellors 
and  friends  to  these  isolated,  desolate,  repressed  children.  Realise 
if  you  can  the  unnatural  phenomena  of  the  Foundling  girl's  life.  The 
child  has  not  a  single  friend  or  relative  in  the  outside  world ;  she  has 
no  social  relations  with  any  human  beings  beyond  the  walls  of  the 
institution.  In  all  the  outside  world,  she  has  no  woman  friend  other 
than  the  officials.  She  knows  no  child  who  has  parents — do  these 
children,  one  speculates,  know  there  are  such  beings  as  parents  ? — 
and  a  home  of  which  it  is  a  beloved  member.  Then  not  even  the 
big  girls  of  sixteen  are  allowed  out,  either  alone  or  with  a  batch 
of  companions,  the  spacious  grounds  being  considered  sufficient 
for  exercise  and  recreation.  All  her  sixteen  years  the  girl  has 
been  ordered,  arranged  for,  thought  for.  No  one  expects  or 
wishes  her  to  think  for  herself  or  to  act  for  herself  in  the  smallest 
particular.  Here,  cut  off  from  the  outside  world,  knowing  nothing 
of  it,  seeing  nothing  of  it  behind  these  great  gates,  she  lives  in  an 
unnatural,  cloistered,  mediaeval  way,  a  fitting  preparation  for  the  life 
of  the  nun.  But  is  there  anyone  who  can  defend  it  from  the  point  of 
view  of  a  preparation  for  the  workaday  world  into  which  this  poor 
child  is  launched  at  sixteen  ?  I  confess  I  cannot  contemplate  this 
event,  even  in  imagination,  without  being  profoundly  moved.  I 
cannot  think  that  all  children,  even  charity  children,  are  so  blunted 
and  hardened  as  to  be  destitute  of  the  feelings  and  pains  of  our  com- 
mon humanity.  I  cannot  but  think  of  the  dreadful  feeling  of  be- 
wilderment and  desolation  that  this  girl  must  be  steeped  in  when  she 
is  cast  upon  the  world  to  do  her  own  fighting,  she  so  helpless,  so  ill- 
equipped  for  the  battle.  It  is  true  that  she  is  indentured  for  five 
years  and  under  the  supervision  of  the  matron,  who  visits  her  from 
time  to  time,  and  of  her  mistress.  But  no  mistress  in  the  world 
can  dog  the  girl's  footsteps  and  watch  at  every  step  to  see  that  she 
does  not  fall,  and  with  such  it  must  be  a  miracle  that  saves  her  from 
falling.  One  wonders  with  infinite  pain  what  she  thinks  of,  how  she 
bears  the  glances,  we  may  be  sure  not  always  feeling,  of  her  fellow 


456  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

servants  ;  for,  recollect,  she  is  stamped  ineffaceably  with  the  brand  of 
her  mother's  and  father's  wrong  against  society.  Is  it  not  time  that 
we  abandoned  all  orphanage  uniforms,  carrying  with  them  the  needless 
taint  of  charity,  and  usually  singularly  conspicuous  and  inartistic  ? 
Why  should  the  poverty  of  the  mother,  more  often  than  not  due  to 
the  death  of  the  bread-winner,  be  converted  into  the  instrument  of 
reproach  and  disgrace  for  the  child  ?  '  A  boy,'  says  the  writer  of  the 
greatest  philosophical  novel 3  in  England  since  '  Mark  Eutherford  ' 
appeared,  '  is  not  a  devil.  But  boys  are  devils.'  In  the  same  way  a 
charity  official  is  not  inhuman,  but  charity  officials  are  inhuman.  How 
painfully  and  frequently  this  dictum  is  driven  home  to  one  during 
such  investigations  and  inquiries  as  these  !  With  one  or  two  hopeful 
exceptions,  I  found  everywhere  the  tie  of  motherhood  looked  upon 
lightly,  and  even  with  contempt.  Everything  is  done  to  weaken  it. 
There  is  no  faith  in  its  unspeakable  potency,  even  when  the  mother 
is  not  all  she  might  be ;  no  effort  made  to  cherish  a  relationship  that 
must  of  necessity  suffer  when  the  child  who  has  a  mother  only  sees 
her  at  lengthy  intervals.  Many  of  the  regulations  are  most  harsh 
and  unnecessary.  At  the  Soldiers'  Daughters'  Home  the  mother 
may  not  take  her  child  out  for  a  walk  upon  her  visits.  I  inquired 
why  not,  and  the  answer  of  the  matron  was,  '  It  was  out  of  the  ques- 
tion.' Pressed  to  explain  why,  she  remarked,  '  Why,  they  would  take 
them  to  the  public-house.' 

Only  a  few  yards  away  there  is  an  admirably  managed  little  in- 
stitution, the  Sailors'  Orphan  Home.  The  matron  is  a  lady,  an  ex- 
High  school  mistress,  and  she  is  supported  by  that  rare  accompaniment 
of  a  girls'  orphanage,  a  women's  council. 

The  girls  here  are  freely  permitted  to  go  out  with  their  mothers. 
'  Nothing  more  wrong,'  says  Miss  Forsyth,  '  has  ever  happened  than 
too  indiscreet  an  indulgence  in  sweets.'  Yet  the  quiet  attractive 
blue  serge  frock  of  a  sailor  girl  is  not  conspicuous,  as  are  the  scarlet 
skirts  and  trimmings  of  the  neighbour  institution. 

Limitations  of  space  necessitate  my  presenting  the  rest  of  my 
investigations  in  the  form  of  recommendations. 

The  first  and  paramount  need,  as  I  have  stated,  is  a  strong  council 
of  ladies  attached  to  every  institution,  not-satisfied  simply  to  *  address 
the  children  occasionally,'  en  masse,  as  at  the  Orphan  Working  School, 
but  so  organised  that  each  lady  attaches  herself  to  a  group  of  children, 
befriends  them,  and  finds  them  work  on  leaving  school.  Moreover, 
a  record  should  be  kept  of  each  child's  career  for  some  years.  It  is 
not  alone  at  the  City  Freemen's  School 4  that  the  matron  knows  scarcely 

8  The  Longest  Journey. 

4  It  is  only  fair  to  say  in  regard  to  this  School  that  since  writing  the  above  I  was 
able  to  interview  Mr.  Montague,  the  Headmaster,  who  on  my  earlier  visits  was  ill, 
and  who  most  favourably  impressed  me  by  his  deep  interest  in  and  knowledge  of  his 
boys,  and  by  the  breadth  of  mind,  good  sense  and  real  kindness  he  evidently 
possesses. 


1908  ORPHANAGE   REFORM  457 

any  details  of  the  destiny  of  the  girls  after  leaving  school.  Reference 
on  this  point  had  to  be  made  to  the  clerk.  The  placing  of  girls  in 
situations  is  not  the  function  of  a  man  clerk. 

The  ^Women's  Council  must  faithfully  concern  themselves  with 
every  department  of  the  orphanages.  The  diet  in  many  directions 
needs  improving.  White  bread,  the  staple  food  of  most,  cut  up  the 
day  before  needed,  is  not  the  best  food  for  growing  children.  In 
many  cases,  too,  ignorance  of  food  values  is  exhibited.  Porridge,  for 
instance,  might  with  advantage  be  introduced. 

The  education  is  for  the  most  part  hopelessly  out  of  date.  At  the 
City  School  the  course  dates  from  the  year  1854,  and  includes  a  smat- 
tering of  many  subjects  that  are  neither  suitable  nor  advisable. 

At  the  Orphan  Working  School,  why  so  called  I  know  not,  the  boys 
have  not  a  single  workshop,  and  the  girls  have  no  systematic  house- 
hold or  laundry  or  cookery  training.  But  they  are  taught  short- 
hand. At  another  orphanage,  in  many  respects  admirable,  the  girls 
were  not  only  taught  shorthand  and  typewriting,  but  also  a  most 
antiquated  system  of  bookkeeping.  The  majority  of  the  teachers  in 
orphanages  are  most  inferior  and  very  ill-paid.  The  teaching  of  small 
children  on  kindergarten  principles  appears  to  be  unknown.  The 
delightful  and  stimulating  '  nature  '  teaching  has  not  been,  so  far 
as  my  inquiries  have  gone,  introduced  anywhere.  From  every  point 
of  view,  from  the  standpoint  of  actual  teaching,  from  the  standpoint 
of  other  advantages,  viz.  intercourse  with  happier  children  who  have 
parents  and  homes  to  which  in  all  probability  the  orphanage  children 
would  be  introduced,  inestimably  good  results  would  follow  were 
these  children  sent  to  the  ordinary  elementary  schools  of  the  district, 
and  permitted  to  mingle  freely  with  other  children,  returning  to  the 
orphanage  for  meals  and  shelter.  Change  of  scene,  the  stimulation 
and  the  bracing  effects  of  competition,  would  be  incalculably  good. 
No  one  with  insight  can  deny  that  the  atmosphere  of  many  of  these 
institutions,  both  for  teachers  and  children  is  most  oppressive  and 
heavy — there  is  a  something  unspeakably  stagnant.  A  free  current 
of  air  blown  in  from  the  outside  would  be  of  the  utmost  benefit.  I  was 
especially  conscious  of  this  need  at  the  Orphan  Working  School,  at 
the  Soldiers'  Home,  at  the  City  School  at  Brixton,  at  Dr.  Miiller's 
Orphanage  and  many  others. 

The  systematic  teaching  of  the  Home  crafts,  which  ninety  per  cent. 
of  the  girls  will  need  to  exercise,  married  or  single,  hardly  exists.  In  a 
perfunctory  way  the  girls  sweep  and  dust  the  rooms  occupied  by  the 
matron  and  staff.  Consequently  a  most  valuable  opportunity  is  lost 
of  showing  how  fine,  true,  and  honourable  and  artistic  are  the  Home 
crafts  and  of  raising  their  achievement  into  a  fine  art.  The  training 
of  the  girls  in  type- writing,  with  the  view  of  their  swelling  the  lower 
branches  of  the  commercial  world,  ought  to  be  forbidden.  It  cannot 
be  defended.  The  life  of  a  woman  clerk  has  not  one  single  thing  to 


458  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

recommend  it.  It  is  the  most  soulless,  unhealthy  and  unprogressive 
form  of  drudgery  that  can  be  pursued  by  a  girl ;  its  prospects  are  hope- 
lessly bad  after  the  first  few  years,  and  as  a  preparation  for  marriage 
and  maternity  it  is  the  worst  possible. 

The  arrangements  should  be  of  a  less  mediaeval  character.  In 
respectable  suburbs  of  England,  groups  of  girls  placed  upon  their 
honour  ought  to  be  allowed  within  certain  limits  to  go  out,  and  should 
be  entrusted  with  small  commissions.  There  must  be  healthy  inter- 
course with  the  outside  world,  and  all  these  institutions  ought  to  be 
open  at  certain  hours  to  the  public,  at  the  convenience  of  course  of 
the  matron.  The  children  ought  to  be  given  greater  freedom.  At  an 
institution  recently  visited  one  child  had  been  punished — the  matron's 
elegant  expression  was  '  smacked  ' — because  she  jumped  upon  ground 
allotted  to  the  staff.  Characteristic  sign  of  the  Charity  Institution ! 
On  the  one  side  of  a  gravel  path  is  a  delightful  green  lawn  with  shady 
trees.  This  is  kept  for  the  staff.  On  the  other  side  is  a  treeless 
asphalte  playground — this  is  for  the  children,  who,  one  supposes,  like 
other  children  delight  in  the  feel  of  springy  turf  under  their  feet. 

Corporal  punishment  for  girls  should  be  absolutely  forbidden. 
If  the  offence  be  so  grave  as  to  need  this,  there  must  be  something 
wrong  with  the  child,  or  at  least  it  ought  to  be  of  rarest  occurrence. 
When  the  ladies'  committees  are  appointed  it  will  be  their  business 
to  control  this  practice.  Miss  Bird  finds  that  she  can  maintain 
discipline  amongst  her  250  girls,  drawn  from  very  lowly  though 
respectable  surroundings,  without  ever  resorting  to  caning,  much  less 
to  severer  forms  of  corporal  punishment. 

There  ought  to  be  proper  systematic  inspection.  At  the  present 
moment  much  of  the  inspection  is  a  farce.  I  asked  the  clerk  of 
one  famous  school — the  matron  having  assured  me  '  that  they  did 
not  profess  to  admit  visitors  at  any  time ' — whether  any  outside  body 
had  any  right  of  admission.  He  said,  '  Yes,  the  Charity  Commissioners 
have,  but  they  never  exercise  it ;  they  never  come.' 

'  Why  not  ?  '  I  asked. 

*  Because  they  are  so  satisfied  that  they  don't  need  to.' 

'  But  how  can  they  be  satisfied  if  they  don't  visit  you  ?  ' 

'  Oh,  they  have  our  reports.' 

So  this  school  supplies  its  own  reports,  naturally  scarcely  of  an 
unbiassed  nature  to  the  Commissioners,  who  are  so  well  satisfied  that 
they  do  not  trouble  to  give  the  school  a  visit  even.  This  seems 
a  singular  mode  of  carrying  out  their  duty.  Inspection,  fearless, 
disinterested  and  thorough,  must  be  carried  out  not  by  trained  hospital 
nurses  or  ex-matrons,  but  by  men  and  women  with  the  special 
gifts  of  wide  sympathy,  insight,  love  and  knowledge  of  children,  and 
with  above  all  humanity.  Only  by  this  means  can  an  ampler,  diviner 
spirit  be  breathed  into  the  dead  bones  of  these  places. 

Finally,  there  ought  to  be  a  movement  for  wholly  changing  the  face 


1908  ORPHANAGE  BE  FORM  459 

of  these  institutions  and  bringing  them  more  into  line  with  the  modern 
spirit  of  humanity.     In  scores  of  cases  the  placing  of  the  children 
in  the  orphanages  means  the  breaking  up  of  the  family  and  the  de- 
moralisation of  the  mother,  and  the  expenditure  of  absurdly  extra- 
vagant sums  of  money.     An  instance  illustrating  this  may  be  given. 
A  young  woman  in  a  South  of  England  village,  healthy,  comely  and 
capable,  lost  her  husband,  a  middle-aged  workman.     She  had  six 
beautiful,  intelligent,  healthy  little  children  under  eight  years.   Several 
ladies  who  knew  the  woman  well  at  once  took  steps  to  place  the  children 
in  orphanages.     Others  expostulated,  pointing  out  that  the  woman 
was  a  careful,  capable  mother,  and  that  with  a  little  help  she  could 
make  a  good  living  out  of  dressmaking  and  sewing.     It  was  suggested 
to  the  vicar  that  if  three  shillings  could  be  obtained  weekly  for  each 
child,  the  mother  could  manage.     The  mother  could  have  probably 
earned  another  fifteen  shillings  without  either  the  babies  suffering  or 
her  work  failing.     It  would  have  kept  the  family  together,  left  the 
children  in  the  country,  and  with  care  the  mother  could  have  saved 
a  little  each  week  for  future  emergencies.     It  meant,  however,  respon- 
sibility and  considerable  personal  trouble,  and  even  sacrifice  on  the 
part  of  some  one  or  more  persons  willing  to  keep  in  touch  with  the 
family,  and  advise  and  assist  when  needed.     What  happened  ?     One 
summer  day  an  unhappy  lady  took  the  two  elder  children,  twins,  to 
one  of  the  big  London  institutions,  where  the  mother's  intercourse, 
as  at  the  Foundling,  practically  ceases.     A   third   little   boy   was 
got  into   another  similar  establishment,  and  six    months  later  the 
fourth   little   boy  was    despatched    to    another   '  home.'      The   un- 
fortunate mother  who  adored  her  little  flock  and  would  gladly  have 
worked  for  them,  did  not  dare  to  stand  up  and   assert  her   rights 
against  vicars,  important  ladies  and  so  forth.     The  family  is  broken 
up,  the  children  are  parted  and  estranged  from  a  good  mother,  and 
brought  up  by  officials  who  will  no  doubt  be  kindly  to  them,  but  cannot 
replace  the  irreplaceable :  they  grow  up  strangers  from  their  brothers 
and    sisters,    and    the    expense    is    quadrupled.      The    average    ex- 
penditure will  be  about  30Z.  for  each  child,  and  in  one  case  at  least 
considerably  more. 

But  were  it  the  other  way,  were  the  institution  upbringing  more 
economical  than  the  preserving  of  family  life,  I  should  still  utter  the 
most  eloquent  plea  of  which  I  am  capable  for  the  cherishing  and  main- 
tenance of  the  home,  at  any  rate  during  childhood.  More  than  once 
from  amidst  the  serried  ranks  of  girls  in  their  stuff  frocks  and  woollen 
mittens,  there  has  flashed  forth  from  beneath  the  close-cropped  hair, 
a  look  that  has  for  long  haunted  me,  something  of  brooding  wistfulness 
and  loneliness,  something  in  its  half-unconscious  pathos  that  is  a 
sentence,  a  sob.  That  desolate,  yearning  glance,  that  so  often  startles 
and  thrills  one  amidst  the  rather  wooden  stolid  faces,  is  it  anything 
less  than  the  broad,  deep,  simply  human  appeal  for  someone  to  love 


460  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

us  and  to  love,  the  sad  mute  reproach  to  those  who  have  held  in  such 
light  account  the  mother's  care  and  love  ?  We  hear  so  much  to-day 
about '  woman's  rights.'  Is  it  perhaps  but  the  natural  corollary  of 
this  agitation,  that  there  seems  on  every  side  a  tendency  to  underrate 
the  divine  role  of  the  mother,  divine  however  humble  ?  We  need  to  show 
greater  faith  and  greater  tenderness  when  the  problem  of  the  up- 
bringing of  the  orphan  faces  us.  It  is  wonderful  how  thriftily  and 
decently  children  are  brought  up  to  respectable  womanhood  and  man- 
hood by  mothers  whose  whole  lives  are  passed  in  sewing,  scouring, 
brushing  and  cooking  for  their  children.  The  mother's  homely  cares, 
the  contrivances  of  poverty  so  long  as  it  is  not  destitution,  even  the 
discipline  of  poverty  if  not  too  severe,  the  animal  spirits  that  are  to  be 
found  amongst  the  very  poor,  and  the  part  the  child  of  necessity  takes 
in  the  family  services  and  duties,  have  all  a  real  value  and  form  a 
more  free,  true  and  natural  field  for  the  growth  of  fine  character,  than 
the  trimmed  and  pruned  walled-in  garden  of  the  charity  institution, 
with  its  want  of  personal  love,  personal  responsibility  and  unfettered 
activities.  It  is  not  a  popular  gospel  to  preach  to  leisured  women 
to-day  that  greater  patience,  sympathy,  and  practical  benevolence 
shown  to  the  mother  bread-winner  in  her  hour  of  supreme  need,  would 
often  and  often  save  her  little  one  from  the  charity  institution,  and 
redeem  her  from  selfishness  into  the  noblest  womanhood.  One  final 
word :  until  we  can  eliminate  the  charity  institution  altogether,  shall 
it  not  be  agreed  amongst  those  of  us  with  a  sense  of  humanity,  that 
we  must  labour  to  obliterate  the  dividing  line  between  the  normal, 
natural  happy  life  of  the  ordinary  child,  and  that  of  the  no  less  innocent 
charity  child  ?  Is  there  any  reason  why  the  teachers  for  the  little  ones 
should  not  abandon  the  stupid,  dreary,  old-time  repetition  instruc- 
tion, now  happily  vanishing  from  the  schools  of  the  poorest,  and 
invest  their  teaching  of  these  little  creatures  with  the  freedom,  en- 
lightenment, and  joyousness  that  are  the  inheritance  of  ^  those  whom 
Froebel  has  inspired  ?  Is  there  any  reason  why  the  older  boys  and  girls 
should  not  know  something  of  the  delights  of  Nature  to  be  found  in 
every  common  and  pond  ?  And  is  it  an  Utopian  ideal  to  hope  that 
before  half  a  dozen  years  have  elapsed,  each  boy  and  girl  in  these 
orphanages  will  have  a  friend  in  the  great  world  outside  who  will  find 
the  way  as  only  a  woman  with  imaginative  sympathy  and  the  instinct 
of  tenderness  can,  to  its  starved  heart,  and  by  giving  it  a  place  in  her 
own  circle,  restore  or  create  those  exquisite  offices  arising  from  her 
instinctive  motherhood  which  are  the  birthright  of  every  child  ? 

FRANCES  H.  Low. 


1908 


AN   ACTORS    VIEWS    ON    PLAYS    AND 
PLAY-WRITING 


IN  the  last  February  number  of  this  Review  I  took  occasion  to  draw 
attention  to  what  I  considered  some  serious  errors  which  had  crept 
in  between  the  modern  actor  and  his  audiences,  and  the  marked 
interest  taken  in  those  notes  is  my  principal  reason  for  continuing 
my  reflections  and  endeavouring  to  deal  with  another  phase  of  the 
question,  viz.  the  writing  of  modern  plays  as  it  affects  the  profession 
to  which  I  have  the  honour  to  belong. 

Be  it  understood  that  in  this  article,  as  in  the  former  one,  my 
primary  object  is  the  betterment  of  my  terribly  overcrowded  calling, 
which  can  in  the  end  only  be  benefited  by  successful  plays  running 
in  well-filled  theatres. 

I  have  been  accused  in  some  quarters  of  pessimism  in  my  former 
article,  whereas,  in  reality,  no  man  is  farther  from  that  condition  of 
mind  than  myself,  but  it  is  idle  to  deny  that  theatrical '  times  are  very 
bad  indeed.'  And  why  ?  Let  me  endeavour  to  give  a  valid  reason  : 
the  absolute  lack  of  real  interest  in  the  majority  of  the  plays  pro- 
duced. 

More  than  thirty  years  ago  that  master  of  stagecraft  and  dramatic 
productions,  the  late  Dion  Boucicault,  in  the  course  of  conversation 
made  use  of  the  sentence  in  my  presence,  *  Ah !  when  young  men 
get  tired  of  writing  clever  plays  perhaps  they  may  write  successful 
ones ' ;  and  I  was  greatly  interested  to  see,  quite  recently,  that  an 
up-to-date  dramatist  raises  the  same  point,  in  another  way,  after  all 
these  years. 

Is  this  the  correct  reading  of  the  conditions  affecting  the  successful 
production  of  plays  or  is  it  not  ?  I  contend  that  it  was,  is,  and  will 
be  the  only  solid  basis  to  go  on. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  argue  against  cleverness  in  plays.  If  it  were 
my  mission  to  argue  from  the  art  point  of  view  I  could  take  up  that 
parable,  I  hope,  without  difficulty ;  but  there  are  plenty  of  theorists 
to-day  without  me,  and  I  am  contending  for  a  principle,  the  principle 
of  the  greatest  happiness  for  the  greatest  number,  and  a  return  to 
the  times  when  a  larger  number  of  my  calling  could  earn  a  fair  liveli- 

461 


462  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

hood,  enjoy  the  comforts  of  a  modest  home,  and  bring  up  and  educate 
their  children  respectably  and  well.  This  is  not  asking  much,  but, 
alas  !  I  fear,  it  is  far  more  than  is  obtainable  in  very  many  cases  under 
existing  circumstances. 

Can  anyone  give  a  valid  reason  for  the  ascendency  of  the  Music 
Hall  and  Musical  Comedy  ?  I  think  I  can ;  and  I  repeat  my  earlier 
sentence,  '  the  absolute  lack  of  interest  in  the  majority  of  the  plays 
produced.'  The  modern  stage  is  dying  from  lack  of  colour  in  acting 
and  lack  of  dramatic  action  in  the  plays  presented. 

One  of  the  most  pronounced  characteristics  of  the  human  mind 
is  the  desire  for,  and  the  delight  in,  illusion.  Just  as  one  reads  a 
'  Stanley  Weyman '  novel !  One  realises,  of  course,  that  it  never 
happened,  yet  the  pleasure  of  being  carried,  temporarily,  into  the 
world  of  romance  is  so  great  that  one  almost  wishes  it  did.  So  a 
paying  audience  assembled  in  a  theatre  loves  to  be  lifted  out  of  its 
every  day,  humdrum  mood,  and  to  spend  two  or  three  hours  in  an 
atmosphere  of  idealism,  whether  ancient  or  modern,  and  has  rarely 
failed  to  pay  for  entertainment  of  such  a  nature  when  reasonably 
good.  But  what  is  happening  to-day  ?  A  certain  section  of  the 
dramatic  Press,  led  by  one  gentleman  of  more  than  ordinary  dogmatism, 
are  apparently  unable  or  refuse  to  recognise  the  constantly  expressed 
opinion  of  the  paying  public,  and  only  allow  the  quality  of  merit  to 
such  plays  as  come  within  the  scope  of  their  own  little  pet  theories. 

Those  theories  seem  to  be  expressed  by  such  phrases  as  '  psy- 
chology,' '  insight  into  character,'  etc.,  and  their  favourite  condemna- 
tion '  A  Theatrical  Play,'  and  on  a  recent  occasion  I  read  a  notice 
where  one  of  these  gentlemen  claimed  that  the  coterie  to  which  he 
belongs  had  '  educated  the  public '  to  a  better  drama  than  formerly. 
These  sentences  look  very  fine  in  print  and  the  parrot  cry  '  the  educa- 
tion of  the  public  '  crops  up  at  not  infrequent  intervals,  but  I  venture 
to  join  direct  issue  with  their  writers  with  all  the  emphasis  at  my 
command.  A  very  lengthened  and  extended  observation  has  shown 
me  that  your  '  educator  of  the  public '  (at  all  events  theatrically) 
is,  finally,  a  sadly  neglected  person,  and  the  people  who  have  prospered 
and  remained  prosperous  are  those  who  successfully  gauged  the  public's 
requirements  and  gave  them  what  they  wanted. 

What  is  the  meaning  of  the  word  '  theatre  '  if  it  is  not  a  place 
for  a  theatrical  entertainment  or  a  theatrical  play  ?  The  theatre 
is  not  the  place  to  lecture  on  social  subjects  or  argue  on  hereditary 
ailments  and  sordid  problems.  Let  us  look  the  facts  squarely  in  the 
face,  and  if  I  am  proved  wrong  I  will  gladly  admit  it  and  own  that  my 
thirty-seven  years  on  the  stage  in  different  hemispheres  has  taught  me 
nothing.  On  the  one  hand,  what  are  (practically)  all  the  plays  that 
have  made  successes  and  big  money  ?  Why,  theatrical  plays  through 
and  through  !  On  the  other  hand,  how  many  of  the  modern  so-called 
'  clever,'  '  brainy,'  '  psychological,'  '  insight  into  character,'  '  non- 


1908  PLAYS  AND  PLAY-WRITING  468 

theatrical '  plays  have  made  anything  for  their  writers  or  anyone  else  ? 
No  one  is  more  competent  to  judge  of  this  point  than  a  working  actor, 
like  myself.  A  few  years  ago,  one  could  hope  that  after  rehearsing 
for  three  or  four  weeks  one  could  count  on  a  reasonable  run ;  to-day 
it  is  becoming  quite  common  to  rehearse  four  or  five  weeks  and  get, 
in  return,  one  or  two  weeks'  salary. 

As  in  my  former  notes  I  am  writing  only  of  what  has  occurred 
within  my  own  absolute  experience. 

A  few  examples  occur  to  me  as  I  think  over  it.  Fedora  has  certainly 
made  half  a  million  pounds.  The  Silver  King  probably  much  more. 
The  Sign  of  the  Cross  as  much.  The  Lights  of  London  a  very  large  sum. 
Boucicault's  three  great  Irish  plays  Arrah-na-pogue,  The  Colleen  Bawn, 
and  The  Shaughraun  enormous  sums.  The  authors'  fees  on  these 
plays  would  (I  expect)  amount  to  at  least  fifty  thousand  pounds  in 
each  case.  I  am  writing  from  conviction  rather  than  absolute  know- 
ledge. This  list  might  be  greatly  extended  and  include  many  comedies, 
but  I  cite  the  above  to  prove  my  argument.  Robertson's  Caste  has 
been  played  for  forty  years  almost  continuously.  Certain  critics 
sneer  at  Robertson  as  of  the  '  tea-cup  and  saucer  school.'  Well, 
I  was  in  the  old  Prince  of  Wales'  Theatre  the  first  night  Caste  was 
played  and  I  can  never  forget  it.  The  chivalry  and  delicate  romance 
of  Fred  Younge,  the  admirable  comedy  of  George  Honey,  our  present 
Sir  John  Hare  and  Sir  Squire  and  Lady  Bancroft,  the  lovely  domestic 
pathos  of  Lydia  Foote !  I  am  in  the  autumn  of  a  working  actor's 
life  now  and  may  be  expected  to  be  fairly  satiated  with  acting  in 
all  its  branches ;  but  I  would  go  many  miles  to  pass  another  such 
pleasurable  evening,  and  I  venture  to  assert  that  I  should  be  joined 
in  my  pilgrimage  by  a  very  large  number  of  ardent  playgoers  who 
are  not  afraid  of  a  '  theatrical  play  '  or  who  love  to  spend  an  evening 
under  the  spell  of  tender  romance  and  human  interest  and  sympathy. 

'  Tea-cup  and  Saucer  Drama,'  forsooth !  Better  far  than  the 
*  Garbage  Drama '  which  some  would  hold  up  to  us  to-day  as  enter- 
tainment, and  which  neither  entertains  nor  amuses,  except  the  most 
limited  few,  but  on  the  other  hand  drives  our  public  out  of  the  theatre 
habit,  and  if  carried  far  enough,  or  even  as  far  as  some  writers  on  stage 
matters  would  appear  to  desire,  would  bankrupt  and  close  every  West- 
end  theatre  in  London  in  a  year — a  consummation  which,  so  far  as 
dramatic  theatres  are  concerned,  seems  within  measurable  distance. 

These^are  strong  words,  but  I  have  no  hesitation  in  using  them 
and  no  doubt  of  their  truth. 

To-day  eight  West-end  theatres  are  playing  musical  comedy, 
six  are  closed  altogether,  several  others  are  to  my  knowledge  playing 
to  less  than  expenses,  and  the  money  lost  in  recent  years  in  producing 
undramatic  and  uninteresting  plays  would  go  far  towards  establishing 
the  much-discussed  National  Theatre. 

As  opposed  to  some  of  the  successes  I  have  noted  I  would  ask, 


464  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept, 

How  many  plays  produced  in  the  last  fifteen  years  have  the  slightest 
chance  of  being  heard  of  fifteen  years  hence  ?  I  think  I  know  of  one 
certainty  and  about  two  or  three  possibilities. 

There  are,  at  present,  several  societies  in  London  who  produce 
plays  of  an  advanced  type  on  Sunday  evenings  and  Monday  matinees. 
And  why  not  ?  It  is  a  fairly  harmless  form  of  debauchery,  because 
the  audiences  know  what  to  expect  and  can  attend  or  stop  away  as 
they  please.  If  authors  can  be  found  who  can  afford  to  write  for 
art's  sake  alone,  and  actors  can  be  found  who  can  afford  to  act  for  the 
beggarly  pittance  they  offer,  with  the  additional  inducement,  held 
out  as  a  bait,  of  advancing  themselves  in  their  profession,  it  is  their 
own  business ;  but  I  would  submit  that  I  do  not  recall  a  case  where  the 
actor  has  received  any  advantage  from  accepting  such  underpaid 
engagements,  and,  what  is  more  to  the  point,  in  the  direction  of  my 
main  contention,  I  cannot,  at  the  moment  of  writing,  remember  a 
single  instance  of  a  play  produced  under  these  circumstances  which 
has  ever  reached  and  succeeded  before  a  general  paying  public,  I  mean 
if  unaided  by  other  and  stronger  circumstances.  It  may  be  argued 
that  many  of  these  plays  are  not  expected  to  make  money,  but  I 
venture  to  say  that  the  original  hope  of  every  man  who  writes  a  play 
is  that  it  may  make  a  success  with  the  public  and,  incidentally,  thereby 
make  money;  and  I  further  submit,  on  behalf  of  my  calling,  that 
if  these  intellectual  feasts  provide  amusement  to  a  number  of  the 
dilettanti  of  London,  they  should,  at  least,  be  robust  enough  to  be  able 
to  pay  a  reasonable  wage  to  the  artists  employed.  What  a  chance 
is  presented  here  for  the  national  or  subsidised  theatre  if  it  ever 
arrives. 

During  the  last  two  or  three  years  a  vast  amount  of  almost  hys- 
terical praise  has  been  showered  upon  a  set  of  clever  advanced  plays, 
produced  principally  at  matinees  at  certain  West-end  theatres.  They 
have  been,  beyond  all  doubt,  very  interesting,  and  quite  successful 
for  six  or  eight  performances  before  the  limited  and  select  public 
which  constitute  matinee  audiences.  Scarcely  one  of  them  paid  ex- 
penses when  subjected  to  the  stronger  test  of  transference  to  the 
Evening  BiD.  Scarcely  one  of  them  has  been  tried  elsewhere,  and  he 
would  be  a  bold  man  indeed  who  would  predict  that  any  one  of  them 
will  be  heard  of  in  ten  years'  time.  This  is,  doubtless,  very  regrettable, 
but  it  is  impossible  to  ignore  facts  or  gainsay  nett  results  when  one  is 
arguing  on  a  broad  basis  and  contending  for  what  one  believes  to  be 
a  great  principle.  (Of  course  Mr.  G.  Bernard  Shaw's  successful  plays 
are  not  included  in  the  immediately  foregoing  category.) 

A  great  deal  of  interest  and  discussion  was  recently  aroused  by 
the  Censor's  refusal  to  license  a  certain  play,  and  the  fact  was  made 
a  peg  on  which  to  hang  a  protest  against  the  Censor's  office  alto- 
gether. The  play  was  afterwards  produced  by  one  of  the  before- 
mentioned  societies,  and  I  venture  to  say  was  as  strong  an  argument 


1908  PLAYS  AND  PLAY-WHITING  465 

in  justification  of  the  Censor  as  could  possibly  be  found,  not  only 
in  the  public  interest  but  also  in  the  interest  of  the  author.  Clever 
it  was,  no  doubt,  but  I  should  not  envy  the  feelings  of  anyone  who 
produced  it  before  an  audience  who  considered  themselves  called 
upon  and  in  a  position  to  judge  and  express  an  opinion  upon  its 
morals  and  its  taste,  as  well  as  its  dramatic  value.  I  have  played  in 
a  great  many  London  '  first  nights,'  pleasant  and  painful,  and  I  think 
I  know  full  well  what  would  happen  in  such  a  case  both  during  the 
progress  of  the  play  and  at  the  final  fall  of  the  curtain.  At  ail  events, 
I  gravely  fear  that  it  could  never,  under  any  circumstances,  have 
been  a  successful  money-making  play. 

Not  long  ago  I  had  a  professional  engagement  to  play  for  some 
months  in  a  play  which  was  well  constructed  and  dramatic  enough 
for  anything,  but  contained  certain  unpleasant  features  and,  at  times, 
skated  over  very  thin  ice.  Numbers  of  times  during  my  association 
with  that  play  I  have  seen  ladies  and  gentlemen  leave  the  theatre 
(more  especially  younger  members  of  the  audience),  and  I  know  of 
many  good,  solid,  paying  playgoers  who  could  never  be  induced  to 
bring  their  families  to  see  it  when  they  had  learned  the  character 
of  the  story.  Eesult :  the  play  was  in  some  places  a  moderate  success 
only,  and  in  others  a  very  positive  failure. 

I  now  desire  to  step  '  out  of  my  course  '  briefly  to  allude  to  some- 
thing which  took  place  just  before  my  time,  although  I  knew  and 
enjoyed  the  friendship  of  the  prime  mover  therein  in  later  years, 
and  played  with  him  in  many  of  his  finest  performances.     Probably 
one  of  the  very  brightest  spots  in  English  stage  history,  as  well  as  one 
of  the  very  worthiest  managements  that  ever  shed  a  lustre  on  the 
British  drama,  was  the  association  of  Messrs.  Phelps  and  Greenwood 
at  Sadler's  Wells  Theatre.     No  one  ever  dreams  of  alluding  to  their 
achievements  nowadays.      London  soon  forgets.     And  yet  'tis  well 
at  times  to  stop  and  think.     For  eighteen  years,  from  1844  to  1862,  this 
management  drew  all  London  to  an  out-of-the-way  theatre.     There, 
with  a  fine,  sound  company,  each  member  eager  and  encouraged  to  do 
his  or  her  best,  plays  produced  well  enough  only,  no  speeches,  no  para- 
graphs, no  interviews,  no  booming,  just  dignified,  sincere,  straight- 
forward service  of  the  public  year  in  and  year  out,  they  reached  the 
great  heart  of  that  public  and  held  it  firmly  to  the  end.     They  pro- 
duced all  of  Shakespeare's  plays  but  four,  and  their  repertoire  would 
mean  a  list  of  all  the  finest  plays  in  our  language  including  many 
first  productions,  and,  although  other  West-end  managers  were  more 
the  vogue  of  fashion,  and  were  even  favoured  by  royalty  itself,  there 
was  never  any  doubt  as  to  where  the  great  public  found  its  dramatic 
home  and  its  money's  worth.     And  just  as  one  wonders  at  their 
achievements  in  the  direction  of  productions,  so  one  is  almost  lost  in 
admiration  at  the  art  and  versatility  of  the  leading  actor.     I  can 
read  of  no  one  actor  on  the  English-speaking  stage  who  ever  played 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  379  1  I 


466  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

as  many  parts,  and  as  wide  a  range  of  parts,  as  well  as  Samuel  Phelps. 
No  one  has  ever  proposed  a  monument  to  him.  He  did  not  need  it. 
His  monument  is  in  the  hearts  of  all  his  contemporaries  amongst 
London  playgoers  who  remember  him  and  his  work,  and  who,  when- 
ever one  of  the  great  parts  is  mentioned  will  say,  *  Ah  !  I  saw  Sam 
Phelps  play  that  at  Sadler's  Wells.'  London  stood  bareheaded  for 
miles  when  we  laid  him  to  rest  on  that  dull  November  morning  in  1878. 
Those  who  did  not  know  him  felt  they  had  lost  a  personal  friend,  and 
those  who  had  the  privilege  of  his  friendship  knew  that  an  incompar- 
able artist  and  noble-minded,  worthy  citizen  had  gone  to  take  the 
wages  of  a  life  of  truth  and  honest  worth.  An  artist  with  the  finest 
ideals  I  have  ever  met  in  any  branch  of  art,  it  may  be  truly  said  of 

him  : 

Take  him  for  all  in  all, 

We  shall  not  look  upon  his  like  again. 

Here  was  indeed  a  genuine  '  public  educator '  !  One  who  did  it 
without  announcement  or  ostentation,  but,  like  the  American  author's 
famous  insect,  '  got  there  all  the  same.' 

I  trust  I  may  be  pardoned  this  slight  digression,  especially  as  it 
brings  me  back  directly  to  my  text.  Phelps  and  Greenwood  pro- 
duced nothing  but  theatrical  plays,  pulsating  with  humanity,  interest, 
poetry,  and  dramatic  incident  and  situations.  In  short,  plays — not 
lectures,  treatises,  or  problems  ;  just  plays. 

I  have  a  second  strong  reason  for  this  digression,  because  I  believe 
thoroughly  that  '  what  has  been  done  could  be  done  again.'  Given 
a  London  theatre  of  fair  size,  and  not  weighted  down  with  middlemen's 
profit  rental  (the  most  glaring  curse  of  the  modern  London  stage) 
and  a  fair  capital,  and  I  firmly  believe  I  could  within  twenty-four 
hours  give  a  list  of  a  hundred  fine  plays  that  would  each  run  a  month 
or  six  weeks  to  good  business  without  authors'  fees  at  all.  Here 
would  be  programmes  for  about  eight  years.  The  plays  need  not  be 
produced  extravagantly.  Let  the  poet's  fancy  and!  the  dramatist's 
quality,  aided  by  the  brains  of  the  artists  depicting  them,  all  have  a 
chance  to  show  at  their  best,  as  in  the  case  of  Sadler's  Wells.  In  a 
very  short  time  the  theatre  would  be  in  possession  of  a  useful  stock  of 
scenery  and  properties.  The  absence  of  authors'  fees  would  be  equiva- 
lent to  a  prima  facie  profit  of  from  5  to  10  per  cent.,  which  in 
itself  would  constitute  a  good  interest  on  the  capital  invested,  and 
the  public  would  soon  find  out  for  themselves  where  they  were  catered 
for  after  their  hearts'  desire,  as  they  have  found  out  in  one  notable 
instance  in  London  to-day,  and  are  testifying  their  approval  in  no 
uncertain  manner.  But  the  plays  must  be  plays.  Could  such  a 
scheme  be  put  in  motion  I  would  be  willing  to  prove  my  sincerity  of 
purpose  by  devoting  what  years  of  a  working  actor's  life  remain  to 
me  to  its  furtherance,  and  I  fancy  many  more  hopeless  schemes  are 
constantly  being  brought  forward,  and  often,  I  fear,  with  disastrous 


1908  PLAYS  AND  PLAY-WRITING  467 

results  to  the  investors  as  well  as  the  artists  engaged.  At  all  events, 
I  should  consider  it  a  far  more  hopeful  project  than  a  national  or 
subsidised  theatre  if  for  no  other  reason  than  that  I  firmly  believe  it 
would  be  self-supporting,  and,  in  the  end,  very  profitable. 

Of  course,  such  a  scheme  would  be  ignored  by  the  advanced  or 
'  educating '  section  of  the  dramatic  Press,  but  that  might  be  a 
'  blessing  in  disguise  '  or,  possibly,  '  a  consummation  devoutly  to 
be  wished.'  Who  amongst  my  readers  saw  the  late  John  McCul- 
lough's  production  and  performance  of  Virginius  at  Drury  Lane  in 
1881  ?  This  is  one  of  the  finest  acting  plays  imaginable,  and  one  of 
the  greatest  mentalities  of  that  day  wrote  of  this  event  that  it  was 
'  three  hours  spent  in  the  absolute  atmosphere  of  ancient  Rome.' 

One  more  instance.  It  is  the  fashion  nowadays  to  decry  The  Lady 
of  Lyons,  a  play  laid  down  on  the  true  great  lines  of  dramatic 
construction,  which  has  made  incalculable  money  and  pleased  in- 
calculable thousands  of  playgoers.  Doubtless  it  appears  tawdry  as 
pronounced  by  a  modern  school  of  performers,  who  are  apparently 
afraid  of  or  unable  to  delineate  romance  of  any  kind ;  but  does  anyone 
recall  Mrs.  Kendal's  performance  of  Pauline  in  the  later  days  of 
Hollingshead's  management  at  the  Gaiety  Theatre  in  1877  ?  I  doubt 
if  an  audience  was  ever  more  deeply  moved.  I  can  safely  say  I  have 
never  seen  one.  But  then  Mrs.  Kendal  knew  how  the  play  and  part 
were  meant  to  be  played,  and  was  not  afraid  to  exercise  the  actor's 
art  in  carrying  out  the  intention  of  the  author.  I  was  engaged  in 
both  the  performances  cited,  so  I  am  not  writing  from  hearsay  know- 
ledge. 

It  is  curious  to  find  the  story  of  The  Lady  of  Lyons  cropping  up 
as  the  absolute  basis  of  a  modern  light  comedy,  but  such  is  the  case 
at  the  present  time. 

It  may  be  assumed  from  the  foregoing  notes  that  I  am  one  who 
believes  that  art  and  commercial  success  cannot  go  hand  in  hand 
in  the  matter  of  plays,  or  that  I  am  advocating  a  transpontine  style 
of  melodrama.  Nothing  can  be  farther  from  the  fact.  I  believe 
and  advocate  just  the  opposite. 

Practically  all  the  foibles,  failings,  vices,  and  plague  spots  of  our 
frail  human  nature  have  been  dealt  with  by  the  older  dramatists, 
but  it  is  in  the  treatment  of  a  subject  for  the  stage  that  its  strength  or 
weakness  lies.  The  writers  of  the  past  dealt  with  these  subjects  in 
a  lofty,  grand  manner,  and  by  means  of  literature  and  poesy,  fancy 
and  wit,  covered  up  the  sting  in  the  charm  of  artistic  atmosphere. 
It  is  when  these  subjects  are  handled  by  the  modern  ardent  (not  to 
say  blatant)  realist  that  they  become  morbid,  sordid,  ugly,  sometimes 
filthy,  always  unamusing,  unentertaining,  and — what  is  worse  from 
the  point  of  view  of  these  notes — dull,  deadly  dull ;  and,  as  before 
stated,  drive  the  paying  public  out  of  the  theatre  habit.  ivjt 

Sir  Henry  Irving  told  me  in  conversation  during  my  last  en- 

1 1  2 


468  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTUEY  Sept. 

gagement  with  him  in  1901,  that  in  the  later  days  of  his  management 
he  produced  a  play  at  the  Lyceum  by  a  very  distinguished  man  of 
letters  with  great  Press  influence  behind  him.  The  cast  included 
Miss  Terry,  Sir  Henry  himself,  and  the  full  strength  of  the  Lyceum 
company.  A  clever  play,  but  one  that  the  public  did  not  want,  and 
one  night  it  was  played  to  less  than  forty  pounds,  gross  receipts. 
Whether  the  artists  of  the  past  were  greater  than  those  of  to-day  or 
not  is  a  moot  question,  but  certainly  no  one  at  the  present  time  can 
draw  unless  the  play  is  popular.  To-day,  more  than  ever,  '  the 
play's  the  thing.' 

In  conclusion,  it  would  be  impertinence  for  me  to  tender  advice 
to  the  tried  dramatists  of  to-day.  But  I  may  mention  that  at  least 
four  of  them,  in  the  course  of  conversation,  have  expressed  views 
which  startlingly  coincide  with  my  own. 

To  the  budding  and  oncoming  writer  for  the  stage  I  would  appeal, 
and  urge  with  all  the  possible  strength  of  conviction  begotten  of 
experience,  '  do  not  be  misled  by  the  false  doctrines  of  inexperienced 
or  bigoted  theorists  who  constantly  misrepresent  the  views  of  the 
paying  audience.'  What  the  public  wants  (and  always  has  wanted) 
is  a  well-made  play,  with  action,  situation,  romance  (or  comedy  as  the 
case  may  be),  human  nature,  and  human  sympathy.  What  they  do 
not  want  is  a  lecture,  a  problem,  a  treatise,  or  a  dramatised  disease. 
Leave  such  subjects  to  be  discussed  by  the  various  learned  societies 
which  are  formed  for  that  purpose.  If  you  have  ideas  for  a  theatrical 
play,  write  it.  As  before  stated,  the  public  loves  a  theatrical  play, 
and  more  than  often  pays  well  for  it.  One  success  in  that  direction 
may  make  you  rich.  The  managers  will  seek  and  court  you.  The 
actors  and  their  families  will  bless  you.  And  don't  be  surprised  if  the 
magic  word  art  (with  a  big  A)  follows  in  due  course,  because  on  the 
stage  as  elsewhere  '  Nothing  succeeds  like  success.' 

.  H.  BARNES. 


1U08 


SOME    RECENT   PICTURE    SALES 


No  phase  has  been  more  remarkable  in  the  annals  of  picture  sales 
of  the  past  decade  than  what  may  be  justly  termed  the  triumph  of 
modern  artists,  English  and  Continental,  during  the  last  season  or 
two.  It  has  for  long  been  the  custom  of  a  few  ill-informed  writers, 
who  fail  to  distinguish  between  '  pot-boilers  '  and  serious  art,  to 
shout,  with  strident  voice,  of  the  '  slump  '  in  modern  art.  It  does 
not  seem  to  be  recognised  that  the  enormous  prices  paid  thirty  or 
forty  years  ago  for  the  '  popular  '  works  of  artists  of  the  early  and 
mid- Victorian  period  were  largely  due  to  a  meretricious  vogue,  and 
that  no  change  in  fashion  can  galvanise  into  life  the  taste  for  such 
pictures.  The  story- telling  canvas  of  those  days  was  easily  painted  and 
rapidly  sold,  and  even  the  high  price  which  it  for  a  very  brief  period 
realised  in  the  auction  room  can  never  have  deceived  anyone  into  the 
belief  that  the  thing  was  either  art  or  that  it  was  permanent.  It 
would  be  as  absurd  to  rank  works  of  this  description  with  modern  art 
as  it  would  be  to  describe  the  novels  of  Gr.  W.  M.  Reynolds  and  Hall 
Caine  as  literature.  They  are  the  flotsam  and  jetsam  of  art,  the 
redundancies  brought  into  existence  by  an  uncultured  taste,  and 
they  pass  into  fruitless  oblivion  like  seed  sown  in  stony  places. 

Tastes  will  always  differ  as  to  what  constitutes  art.  The  verdict 
of  one  generation  is  not  always  ratified  by  those  which  follow.  There 
are,  however,  certain  broad  principles  which  must  always  count. 
It  will  be  curious  to  see,  twenty  years  hence,  how  far  the  taste  and 
tendencies  of  to-day  are  ratified — or  the  reverse.  It  is  certainly  a 
very  remarkable  fact  that  nearly  all  the  sales  of  the  season  just  con- 
cluded have  been  of  modern  artists  :  not  one  important  collection  of 
old  masters  has  come  under  the  hammer.  Roughly  speaking,  during 
the  1907  season,  pictures  by  the  old  masters  and  of  the  Early  English 
school  produced — chiefly  at  Messrs.  Christie's — 110,OOOZ.  It  will 
be  seen  from  the  tabulated  statement  which  follows  that  from  January 
to  July  ten  sales  alone  have  approximately  produced  the  huge  and 
unparalleled  total  of  340,OOOZ. — nearly  all  of  which  has  gone  in  the 
purchase  of  pictures  by  artists  working  within  the  limits  of  the  first 
three-quarters  of  the  last  century,  and  this  in  spite  o'f  the  depression 
in  trade,  Old-age  Pensions,  the  Beer  panic,  and  the  thousand  and  one 
other  things  which  pessimists  tell  us  are  taking  this  country  to  the  dogs ! 

469 


470  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

These  ten  sales  are  : 


Sept. 


Kame  of  Sale 

Date 

Number  of 
Lots 

Total 

& 

S.  G.  Holland 

June  25,  26,  29 

432 

138,118 

H.  Roberts 

May  21,  22,  23 

309 

65,673 

Isruay,  Ac)  and  Hood,  and  others 

April  4 

134 

31,890 

Tatham  and  Dickins 

May  7 

99 

28,552 

Knowles,  Loder,  and  others 

May  27,  28,  29 

539 

20,000 

Ponsonby  and  others 

March  28 

151 

18,000 

G.  E.  Burnett 

March  21-23 

312 

11,902 

W.  Connal       . 

March  14 

85 

8948 

C.  A.  D.  Halford     , 

Feb.  15,  17 

326 

8150 

Sutherland 

Feb.  8 

101 

7644 

The  majority  of  the  collections  were  formed  by  men  who  had  made 
their  money  in  commercial  pursuits  and  found  their  recreation  in 
picture-collecting.  It  is  perhaps  not  wise  to  inquire  too  minutely 
into  the  question  of  profits  and  loss,  although  some  striking  examples 
of  both  ups  and  downs  are  ready  to  hand.  It  is  said  that  Mr.  Holland 
spent  200,0002.  in  pictures  ;  but  probably  the  real  truth,  if  it  could  be 
known,  would  put  the  actual  figure  much  lower  than  this.  Whatever 
he  spent — and  the  same  remark  applies  to  the  similar  but  on  the  whole 
much  inferior  collection  of  Mr.  Humphrey  Roberts — the  sale  was  an 
undoubted  success.  It  is  difficult  to  appreciate  the  subtlety  of  the 
reasoning  by  which  a  man  should  expect  to  realise  a  profit  on  what 
is  his  hobby  and  not  his  business.  It  is  curious  to  note  that  the  sales 
of  the  collections  of  four  of  the  small  band  of  men  who  recognised  the 
beauty  and  the  charm  of  the  Barbizon  school — James  Staats  Forbes, 
Alexander  Young,  Humphrey  Roberts,  andjS.  G.  Holland — should, 
after  a  race  together  for  many  years,  be  all  dispersed  (two  by  private 
purchase  and  two  at  auction)  within  two  or  three  years.  Sir  James 
Knowles,  the  founder  and  editor  of  this  Review,  whose  name  appears 
fifth  in  the  above  list,  was  an  ideal  collector  wortjiy  to  rank  with 
Ralph  Bernal  of  an  earlier  generation,  and  with  the  Huths  of  more 
recent  times.  Gifted  with  the  genuine  -flair  of  the  connoisseur,  an 
excellent  all-round  judge  of  art  matters,  and  by  no  means  accustomed 
to  pay  fancy  prices,  nearly  all  Sir  James  Knowles's  purchases  give 
evidence  of  a  fine  taste,  and  at  their  dispersal  amply  vindicated  his 
judgment  and  foresight. 

The  honours  of  the  season  undeniably  fall  to  J.  M.  W.  Turner,  ten  of 
whose  works  (drawings  and  pictures)  have  produced  the  enormous 
total  of  over  44,4002.  The  Tatham,  Acland  Hood,  and  Holland 
collections  were  all  remarkable  on  account  of  their  Turners,  and  in 
that  of  the  last  named  a  '  record  '  was  obtained.  Some  years  ago  the 
late  Mr.  T.  H.  Woods,  of  Christies',  gave  the  present  writer  a  few 
statistics  of  the  Turners  which  had  been  sold  under  the  hammer 
at  that  historic  house,  and  these  showed  that  284,0002.  had  been 
paid  for  pictures  and  243,0002.  for  drawings,  and  up  to  the  present 


1908 


SOME   RECENT  PICTURE   SALES 


471 


time  probably  three-quarters  of  a  million  have  changed  hands  in  this 
'  commodity '  alone  in  King  Street.  At  the  Bicknell  sale  of  1863, 
ten  Turners  which  had  cost  3750Z.  11s.  $d.  realised  17,261Z.  10s.,  and 
ever  since  then  there  has  been  a  growing  commercial  appreciation  of 
works  of  this  great  artist.  Of  the  scores  of  Turners  which  have 
come  up  for  sale  during  the  past  season,  seventeen  may  be  selected  as 
of  the  first  rank  of  importance.  These  are  shown  in  the  following 
table  (d.  signifying  water-colour  drawing)  : 


Title 

Sale 

Price, 
1908 

Previous  Prices 

(JS. 

Mortlake  Terrace,  1826,  35  x  47     . 

Holland 

12,600 

James      Price,      1895, 

5200  gs. 

Morning    after   the  Storm,    1840, 

M 

7700 

— 

12x21 

Beach  at  Hastings,  1810,  35  x  47  . 

Acland  Hood 

6000 

— 

The  Storm,  1840,  12  x  21       . 

Holland 

5500 

— 

Heidelberg,  with  Rainbow,  1840-5, 

,, 

4200 

Gillott,  1872,  2650  gs. 

13  x  20,  d. 

Constance,  1842,  12  x  18,  d.  . 

Tatham 

2200 

— 

Orfordness,  11  x  16,  d.  . 

Holland 

1850    Knowles,  1877,  375  gs. 

Windsor  Castle,  11  x  17,  d.    . 

Tatham 

1700 

J.  Smith,  1870,  680  gs. 

Hastings,  1818,  15  x  23,  d.     . 

Holland 

1600    C.  S.  Bale,  1881,  1150  gs. 

Saltash,  1825,  10  x  16  d. 

,, 

1050 

Knowles,  1865,  210  gs.  ; 

Leyland,  1872,  450  gs. 

Carnarvon  Castle,  11  x  16,  d. 

Tatham 

970  Novar,  1877,  760  gs. 

Vale  of  Heathfield,  14  x  22,  d. 

Acland  Hood 

700 

— 

Zurich,  11  x  18,  d. 

Tatham 

680 

Gillott,  1872,  710  gs. 

Torbay   from   Brixham,   1815-18, 

Holland 

680 

Knighton,  1885,  190  gs. 

6  x  9,  d. 

Vale  of  Pevensey,  15  x  22,  d. 

Acland  Hood 

650 

— 

Bye,  Sussex,  1820,  5  x  9,  d.   . 

Holland 

650 

C.  S.  Bale,  1881,  340  gs. 

Vale      of      Ashburnham,      1816, 

Acland  Hood 

610 

— 

14  x  21,  d. 

There  was,  in  one  instance,  a  slight  '  fall,'  but  this  does  not 
materially  affect  the  remarkable  '  rise '  which  is  apparent  on  com- 
paring the  figures  in  the  last  two  columns.  It  is  not  known  how 
much  the  Acland  Hood  drawings  and  the  one  picture  cost  the  original 
owner,  '  Jack  '  Fuller,  M.P.,  but  probably  500Z.  would  have  been  the 
outside  price  of  the  whole  series  of  fourteen  works. 

Next  to  Turner,  in  price  but  not  in  number,  ranks  John  Constable, 
two  of  whose  works  reached  four  figures.  In  the  Holland  sale  Salis- 
bury Cathedral,  34  x  43,  signed  and  dated  1826,  realised  7800  guineas. 
Writing  in  January  of  that  year,  the  artist  speaks  of  the  '  ruined 
state  '  of  his  finances,  and  remarks  '  I  am  executing  all  my  commissions, 
amounting  in  all  to  400?.  ;  two  months  will  complete  them.'  From 
an  interesting  '  scale  of  Mr.  Constable's  prices  for  landscapes  '  in  this 
year,  we  learn  that  his  charges  were  60  guineas  for  a  canvas  30  x  36, 
and  120  guineas  for  one  50  x  40,  and  probably  he  did  not  get 
more  than  100  guineas  for  the  Salisbury  Cathedral.  There  is  another 
and  much  better-known  version  of  this  picture,  identical  in  every 
respect  except  for  a  slightly  different  manipulation  of  the  foliage, 
in  the  South  Kensington  Museum ;  it  is  signed  and  dated  1823,  in 


472 


THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


Sept. 


which  year  it  was  exhibited  at  the  Royal  Academy.  Painted  '  for  a 
bishop  of  the  diocese,  who,  finding  some  trivial  fault  .with  the  dark 
cloud  behind  the  cathedral,  declined  to  take  it,'  it  passed  into  the 
Sheepshanks  collection  and  thence  to  the  South  Kensington  Museum. 
The  Holland  version  was  practically  unknown  until  it  appeared  at  the 
Old  Masters  in  1895  ;  it  has  been  etched  by  Brunet  Debaines.  Of  the 
second  Constable  to  realise  four  figures,  the  Humphrey  Roberts' 
Opening  of  Waterloo  Bridge,  17x32,  1100  guineas,  there  are  also 
several  versions  :  the  big  picture  is  in  the  Tennant  collection ;  others 
were  in  the  Birch  sale  in  1853,  240  guineas ;  Burnett,  1882,  98 
guineas ;  and  Webster,  1893,  180  guineas.  The  only  other  Constable  to 
which  attention  need  be  drawn  is  The  Valley  Farm,  50  x  40,  the  original 
sketch  which  hung  (on  loan)  for  many  years  at  South  Kensington 
Museum ;  at  Capt.  Constable's  sale  in  1887  it  realised  54  guineas  and 
sold  on  the  3rd  of  July  for  620  guineas. 

The  five  great  portrait-painters  of  the  Early  English  school  may  be 
tabulated  together,  precedence  being  arranged  according  to  the 
highest  price  paid  this  season : 


Name  of  Artist 

Title  of  Picture 

Sale 

Price  in  1908 

Previous  Price 

Gs. 

T.  Gainsborough 

The     Artist's     Daughter 

Loder 

4550 

Heugh,  1878, 

(Mrs.  Fischer),  30  x  26 

360  gs. 

„ 

The  Artist's  Wife,  28  x  23 

H 

2650 

Heugh,  1878, 

340  gs. 

General  Wolfe,  29  x  24 

July  3     . 

1800 

— 

Mrs.  D.  Hodges,  30  x  25 

H.  Roberts 

1000 

— 

Sir  H.  Raeburn 

Mrs.  Mackenzie,  50  x  40 

July  3     . 

4500 

— 

Mrs.  R.  Hay,  49  x  40 

„ 

3200 

— 

Capt.  R.  Hay,  94  x  58 

„ 

650 

— 

G.  Komney 

Mrs.  Morley,  80  x  25 

March  28 

2750 

1790,  30  gs. 

. 

Mrs.  Poulter,  30  x  25 

|| 

1500 

1780,  18  gs. 

Mrs.  Charnock,  49  x  39 

July  3     . 

1900 

1795,  70  gs. 

Sir  J.  Eeynolds 

Countess  of  Erroll,  50  x  40 

July  9     . 

2500 

1769,  25  gs. 

. 

(bought  in) 

Sir  J.  Reynolds 

Portrait  of  a  Lady,  35  x  27 

July  3     . 

2060 

— 

[probably   F. 

Cotes] 

Sir  J.  Reynolds 

The  Laughing  Girl,  29  x  24 

» 

480 

1887,  240  ps. 

» 

Woody  Landscape,  28  x  28 

Jas. 

410 

1885,  8  gs. 

Knowles 

Sir  T.  Lawrence 

Duchess  of  Norfolk,  30  x  25 

Sutherland 

820 

1831,  11  gs. 

There  is  a  singular  absence  of  sensational  prices  in  the  foregoing 
table  ;  the  most  remarkable  of  all  are  perhaps  the  two  Gainsboroughs 
which  head  the  list.  These  two  portraits,  with  one  of  the  artist's  un- 
married daughter,  were  obtained  from  the  family  of  John  Heugh, 
a  well-known  collector  of  the  mid-nineteenth  century ;  he  was  a  City 
merchant  who  was  constantly  buying  and  selling,  and  he  probably 
obtained  the  three  extremely  interesting  Gainsborough  family  portraits 
for  very  small  amounts.  Unfortunately  the  third  portrait  is  no  longer 
with  the  other  two,  all  three  of  which  were  purchased  by  Messrs.  Agnew 
at  Heugh's  sale.  In  contrast  to  the  two  three-quarter  length  Raeburns 


1908 


SOME   RECENT  PICTURE   SALES 


473 


in  the  list,  there  were  also  two  imposing  whole-length  portraits 
of  Alexander  Allan  and  Mrs.  Allan  and  child,  81  x57  (8th  of  May), 
which  fell  at  only  350  guineas  each. 

Of  recent  years  there  has  been  a  very  appreciable  increase  in  the 
value  of  the  pastel  portraits  of  Daniel  Gardner  and  John  Russell. 
In  the  former  case  a  record  was  obtained  on  the  28th  of  March,  when  a 
portrait  in  pastel  and  gouache  sold  for  1250  guineas,  the  same  property 
including  another  example,  the  Bouverie  children,  which  went  for 
500  guineas.  The  highest  price  this  season  for  a  Russell  pastel  was 
1500?.  which  a  group  of  Miss  Darby  and  the  artist's  son,  40  x  30, 
realised  at  Robinson  and  Fisher's  on  the  14th  of  May.  This  is  the 
second  highest  price  (in  England) — the  record  is  still  held  by  the 
beautiful  portrait  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Currie,  24  x  18,  1789,  which 
realised  1551  guineas  in  1901,  and  was  again  sold  at  auction  in  Paris 
last  December,  this  time  for  no  less  than  80,000  francs.  Downman's 
portrait  of  Mrs.  Rawlinson,  7|  x  6£,  realised  200  guineas  on  the 
28th  of  March,  and  Cosway's  portrait  of  Mrs.  Benfield  (Fanny  Swin- 
burne) 400Z.  at  Robinson  and  Fisher's  on  the  3rd  of  July.  Mention 
may  be  here  made  of  two  examples  of  George  Morland  which  this 
season  reached  four  figures  :  Group  of  Peasants,  27  x  35,  1792,  1750 
guineas  (3rd  of  July),  and  Blindman's  Buff,  27  x  35,  engraved  by 
W.  Ward,  1788,  1100  guineas  (28th  of  March). 

Modern  English  artists  are  grouped  together  in  the  following 
table,  and  again  the  order  of  arrangement  is  according  to  the 
respective  market  value  as  shown  at  the  season's  sales  : 


Name  of  Artist 

Title  of  Picture 

Sale 

Price 
in  1908 

Previous  Price 

Gs. 

SirW.Q.  Orchard- 

Hard  Hit,  1879,  33  x  48 

H.Roberts 

3300 

Previous  '  re- 

son 

cord,'  710  gs. 

»! 

Napoleon   on  H.M.S    Belle- 

Holland 

1600 

— 

rophon,  28  x  44 

F.  Walker 

Harbour  of  Refuge,  22  x  35,  d. 

Tatham 

2850 

Record       for 

Walker. 

» 

Marlow  Ferry,  11  x  18,  d. 

Holland 

2700 

L  ehm  a  n  n, 

1892,  1120  gs. 

)» 

The  Street,  Cookham,  9  x  13, 

„ 

1600 

1875,  450  gs.  ; 

d. 

1886,  860  gs. 

i)               • 

The      Fishmonger's     Shop, 

tt 

1600 

1892,  600  gs. 

14  x  22,  d. 

» 

The  Violet  Field,  9  x  15,  d.  . 

Tatham 

1600 

Artist's  price, 

50  gs. 

>i               • 

The  Old  Gate,  1869,  52  x  66 

>» 

1500 

— 

„               . 

The  Bee-Hives,  9  x  13,  d.      . 

» 

550 

1888,  205  gs. 

Sir  J.  E.  Millais 

The  Gambler's  Wife,  1869, 

H.  Roberts 

2100 

1874,  880  gs.  . 

35x15 

>» 

Caller  Herrin',  1881,  43  x  31 

Holland 

1800 

1904,  1600  gs., 

>i 

Orphans,  1885,  37  x  27  . 

Tatham 

1540 



„ 

Fringe  of   the  Moor,   1874, 

Ismay 

1100 

— 

53x85 

it 

Sound  of  Many  Waters,  1876, 

Coghill 

1100 

1892,  2900  gs. 

57x83 

H 

Stella,  1868,  44  x  36      . 

H.  Roberts 

1050 

1884,  1400  ga. 

„ 

The   White  Cockade,   1862, 

„ 

1050 

1889,  400  ga. 

23x17 

474 


THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


Sept. 


Name  of  Artist 

Title  of  Pieture 

Sale 

Price 
in  1908 

Previous  Price 

G*. 

Sir  J.  E.  Millaia 

The  Moon  is  Up,  &c.,  1890, 

H.  Boberts 

900 

1900,  1000  gs. 

40x65 

» 

Cuckoo  !  1880,  50  x  39  . 

JulyS 

820 

1884,  1900  gs.; 

1900,  1550  gs. 

G.  Mason  . 

The  Gander,  1865,  18  x  32    . 

Tatham 

1900 

Previous    re- 

cord, 480Z. 

J.  Linnell,  sen.  . 

Carrying    Wheat,    1862-74, 

Ismay 

1900 

1867,  1650  gs. 

39  x  54 

»»             • 

Timber  Waggon,  1852,  35  x  56 

April  4 

2150 

1892,  3100  gs. 

A  Forest  Boad,  1853,  35  x  56 

Ismay 

1280 

1859,  600Z. 

it             • 

The  Brow  of  the  Hill,  1858, 

Holland 

620 

— 

21x30 

Sir    E.    Burne- 

Love    Among     the    Euins, 

Tatham 

1575 

— 

Jones 

38  x  60,  d. 

H 

Wood  Nymph,  1883,  48  x  48 

Connal 

1130 

— 

The  Bath  of  Venus,  52  x  18,  d. 

M 

560 

— 

Heart  of  theBose.1889,37  x  51 

H 

500 

— 

J.  F.  Lewis 

Turkish  School,  Cairo,  1865, 

Holland 

1250 

1891,  1700  gs. 

25x32 

»                 • 

A  Kibob  Shop,  Scutari,  1858, 

>i 

1000 

— 

20x30 

Sir  D.  Wilkie    . 

Cotter's  Saturday  Night,  1837, 

Ismay 

1100 

1872,  590  gs.  ; 

33x42 

1897,  1250  gs. 

>i               • 

Bride  at   Her   Toilet,   1838, 

July  3 

900 

1892,  700  gs. 

38x48 

James    Holland 

Venice,  1846,  26  x  35     . 

Holland 

1150 

1870,  98  gs. 

Venice,  14  x  24 

660 

— 

n 

Colleoni  Monument,  1830-31, 

)> 

620 

1872,  195  gs.  ; 

29x34 

1876,  320  gs. 

»> 

Grand  Canal,Venice,12  x  19,  d. 

1     585 

1894,  300  gs. 

P.  de  Wint 

Lincoln,  11  x  35,  d. 

Tatham       1050 

1899,  480  gs. 

Albert  Moore     , 

Midsummer,  1887,  61  x  58     ; 

Connal 

1000 

Cost  8001. 

» 

Beading  Aloud,  1884,  41  x  80 

,, 

800 

Cost  1501. 

Sir     L.     Alma- 

Close  of  a  Joyful  Day,  1894, 

April  4 

920 

— 

Tadema 

32x13 

D.  Cox 

Lancaster,   Peace  and  War, 

Holland 

920 

1887,  810  gs. 

1842,  19  x  29 

A.  C.  Gow 

Garrison    Marching    out    of 

„ 

720 

.  Becord  price. 

Lille,  1887,  47  x  60 

With  very  few  exceptions  all  the  pictures  in  the  foregoing  list 
have  more  than  maintained  their  previous  market  values,  and  what 
applies  to  particular  pictures  may  be  taken  as  applying  generally  to 
the  artists  who  painted  them.  Fluctuations  occur,  for  no  apparent 
reason,  in  connexion  with  the  sale  of  all  kinds  of  art  and  literary 
property.  Generally  speaking,  the  '  drops  '  of  the  year  have  occurred 
in  connexion  with  unimportant  works  of  distinguished  artists,  or 
with  artists  who,  having  had  their  little  summer  of  popularity,  are 
no  longer  vital  forces  in  English  art.  Some  of  these  reverses  of 
fortune  may  be  briefly  illustrated.  W.  C.  T.  Dobson's  Kate  Kearney, 
1873,  has  declined  from  130  guineas  in  1876  to  9|  guineas  in  1908 ; 
E.  Duncan's  Wreck  near  Corbiere  Rocks,  1865,  from  146  guineas  in  1881 
to  18  guineas  ;  Sir  J.  Gilbert's  On  the  March,  1873,  from  280  guineas 
in  1876  to  82  guineas  ;  F.  W.  Topham's  Venetian  Water-carriers,  1870, 
from  200  guineas  in  1881  to  65  guineas  ;  W.  Collins'  Cromer  Sands, 
from  250  guineas  in  1874  to  32  guineas  ;  H.  Macculloch's  Loch  Katrine, 


1908 


475 


1866,  from  430  guineas  in  1884  to  95  guineas  ;  W.  Miiller's  Acropolis, 
Athens,  1843,  from  760  guineas  in  1887  to  130  guineas  ;  Sir  E.  Landseer's 
Otter  and  Salmon,  1842,  from  1300  guineas  in  1890  to  360  guineas  ; 
J.  C.  Hook's  Mackerel  Time,  from  860  guineas  in  1892  to  360  guineas  ; 
and  J.  Phillip's  Gipsy's  Toilet,  from  525  guineas  in  1867  to  520  guineas, 
having  reached  its  high- water  mark  in  1897  at  1,700  guineas. 

The  old  masters  have  made  a  very  poor  *  show '  this  year  in  the 
sale-room  ;  the  one  '  sensation  '  of  this  section  occurred  in  connexion 
with  Rembrandt's  portrait  of  his  son  Titus,  a  three-quarter  length, 
which  was  in  Lord  Young's  sale  on  the  29th  of  February.  It  was 
purchased  by  a  firm  of  dealers  at  the  modest  price  of  205  guineas, 
and  early  in  April  it  was  announced  that,  after  the  picture  was  cleaned, 
it  turned  out  to  be  a  very  fine  example  of  the  master,  and  that  it 
had  been  sold  in  Berlin  for  something  like  8000Z.,  which  can  hardly 
be  regarded  as  a  poor  return  for  eight  weeks'  investment !  On  the 
other  hand,  the  most  noteworthy  *  drop  *  of  the  season  was  in  con- 
nexion with  a  fully  documented  example  of  Hobbema  in  the  Holland 
collection,  The  Market  Day,  17  x  21,  which,  bought  at  the  Novar 
sale  in  1878  for  700  guineas,  now  realised  only  260  guineas.  In  con- 
nexion with  the  first  entry  in  the  following  table,  it  should  be  explained 
that  most  of  the  pictures  at  Trentham  Hall  were  submitted  last  year 
to  public  auction  on  the  premises — always  an  unwise  proceeding — 
and  that  many  of  them  failed  to  reach  the  reserves.  Those  that  were 
bought  in  were,  with  others,  again  offered  at  Christies'  in  February  last. 


Name  of  Artist 

Title  of  Picture 

Sale 

Price 
in  1908 

Previous  Price 

Gs. 

A.  Van  Dyck     . 

Portrait  of  a  Gentleman,  103 

Sutherland 

2100 

1907,  120  gs. 

x65 

„ 

Cardinal  Bivarola,  39  x  30 

July3 

780 

— 

Rembrandt  [?  by 

Portrait  of  a  Gentleman,  38 

,, 

2000 

1890,  1550  gs. 

F.  Bol] 

x33 

D 

Philosopher  Writing,  5|  x  5    . 

May  15 

300 

1823,  31  gs. 

A.   and    L.    Le 

Children's      Concert,      1629, 

Loder 

1270 

1875,  470  gs. 

Nain  [?  by  Jan 

26x33 

Molenaer] 

Velasquez 

Peasants  at  a  Bepast,  37  x  43 

July3 

1000 

— 

!)                                   • 

Portrait  of  a  Lady,  29  x  24     . 

Jf 

1000 

— 

J.  Buysdael 

The  Bleaching  Ground 

Jas. 

920 

1867,  13  gs. 

Knowles 

H.  Fragonard    . 

D               • 

Entrance  to  a  Park,  d.  . 
Landscape  with  Big  Trees,  d. 

» 

»> 

660Z. 
200Z. 

["      Previous 
I  English    re- 
1  cord  175  gs. 

Claude  Lorrain  . 

Fisherman        and       Angler, 

,, 

630Z. 

1876,  66  gs. 

25x30 

H.  de  Bles 

St.  Catherine  and  St.  Barbara, 

Ponsonby 

700 

— 

each  33  x  11 

A.  Van  der  Neer 

Woody  Biver  Scene,  25  x  34  . 

May  15 

640 

— 

B.      Van      der 

Madonna     and     Child     En- 

600 

—    • 

Weyden 

throned,  9£  x  7 

D.  Teniers 

Kitchen  Scene,  12  x  17  . 

Ponsonby 

200 

1902,  52  gs. 

In  no  respect  have  the  sales  of  the  last  year  or  two  been  more 
noteworthy  than  in  connexion  with  the  Barbizon  school  of  French 


476 


THE   NINETEENTH  CENTUtiY 


Sept. 


painting.  Up  to  1886,  as  may  be  seen  from  Bedford's  Art  Sales,  this 
group  of  artists  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  existed,  so  far  as  English 
auctions  are  concerned  ;  and  yet,  according  to  Edward  Strahan's 
Art  Treasures  of  America,  nearly  every  important  collection  of  pictures 
in  that  country  was  more  or  less  made  up  of  works  by  artists  who  fall 
into  this  group.1  Judging  from  auction  records,  the  tide  of  popularity 
would  seem  to  have  arisen  in  England  in  1890 ;  but  that  there 
were  many  collectors  and  collections  before  this  may  be  seen  from 
Mr.  D.  Croal  Thomson's  admirable  book,  The  Barbizon  School  of 
Painters,  published  in  1891,  of  which  a  new  edition  appeared  in 
1902.  It  is  only  within  recent  years  that  some  of  these  collections, 
which  were  formed  or  being  formed  when  Mr.  Thomson  wrote  his 
book,  have,  in  the  natural  course  of  events,  come  into  the  auction  room 
or  have  otherwise  been  dispersed. 

The  Barbizon  men  were  prodigious  workers,  but  most  of  them 
died,  if  not  in  poverty,  at  least  not  overburdened  with  this  world's 
goods.  The  growth  in  the  general  appreciation  of  their  genius  was  a 
slow  one,  with  the  natural  result  that  when  they  passed  away  their 
studios  were  stocked  with  unsold  pictures.  From  these  sources  and 
from  others,  up  to  the  year  1900,  over  3200  examples  of  Corot,  about 
1500  of  Daubigny,  and  over  1000  of  Diaz  have  been  sold  by  public 
auction  in  Paris  and  elsewhere.  Some  of  the  highest  prices  have 
been  paid  not  in  Paris,  but  in  New  York  and  London.  In  the  following 
table  I  am  able  to  convey  many  interesting  points.  The  second  and 
third  columns  show  the  number  of  works  of  each  artist  which  have 
been  sold  in  New  York  from  1886  to  1906,  and  in  London  from  1886 
to  1907 ;  the  fourth  and  fifth  columns  indicate  '  record  '  prices  in 
America  and  England  respectively,  with  the  year  of  sale ;  and  the 
final  column  the  French  '  record  '  prices  (up  to  1900)  of  the  first 
three  on  the  list.  I  am  not  able,  with  any  degree  of  accuracy,  to 
give  the  record  prices  of  the  second  three,  nor  to  bring  the  figures  in 
the  last  column  up  to  a  more  recent  date  than  1900 : 


Works 

Artist 

sold  in 
New 

In 
London 

American  Record 

English  Record 

French  Record 
(to  1900) 

. 

York 

Dollars 

G?. 

Frs. 

Corot 

116 

49 

1898,  36,000 

1905,    2650 

1892,  101,000 

Daubigny  . 

88 

22 

1903,     9,700 

1899,      720 

1891,     68,000 

Diaz  . 

120 

26 

1900,  16,900 

1903,      860 

1897,     42,000 

Jacque  (Ch.) 

56 

16 

1902,     8,100 

1902,      920 

— 

Mauve  a    . 

50 

20 

1906,  42,250 

1897,      580 

.  '.  .    •  — 

Troyon 

84 

39 

1888,  26,000 

1902,    7000 

•   — 

1  The  importation  into  America  of  pictures  by  artists  of  tbe  Barbizon  school  dates 
back  for  more  than  half  a  century.     Mr.  Seth  Morton  Vose,  a  dealer  of  Providence, 
Ehode  Island,  imported  his  first  paintings  by  Corot  in  1852, his  first  Troyons  in  1854, 
and  by  1857  he  had  not  only  pictures  by  these  masters,  but  others  by  Daubigny, 
Millet,  Dupre,  Rousseau,  Diaz  and  Delacroix. 

2  Mauve  is,  of  course,  a  Dutch  artist,  but  his  affinity  to  the  Barbizon  school — particu- 
larly to  Daubigny — is  sufficiently  strong  to  excuse  his  being  included  in  the  above  list. 


1908 


SOME   RECENT  PICTURE   SALES 


477 


Large  as  are  these  prices,  examples  of  most  of  these  artists  have 
changed  hands,  a  Vaimable,  at  far  higher  sums.  Corot's  Le  Lac,  for 
instance,  formerly  in  the  James  Staats  Forbes  collection,  was  sold  by 
one  dealer  to  another  for  18,OOOJ.,  and  this  is  by  no  means  a  solitary 
instance,  even  of  its  kind.  To  leave,  however,  the  general  for  the 
particular,  and  to  come  back  to  the  sales  of  the  season  just  closed, 
I  have  tabulated  the  more  important  examples  of  the  Barbizon  and 
modern  Continental  schools  which  have  reached,  or  very  nearly 
reached,  four  figures.  It  will  be  more  convenient  to  arrange  the 
artists  in  alphabetical  order : 


Name  of  Artist 

Title  of  Work 

Price 

Sale 

Previous 
English 
Record 

6s. 

Corot 

River  Scene,  17  x  23 

3000 

Holland 

\ 

•t             • 

L'Etang,  15  x  26      . 

2600 

„ 

I  iQflir 

»>              • 

Edge  of  the  Wood,  20  x  25 
Landscape,  10  x  22  . 

2150 
1400 

H.  Roberts 
i» 

t  loUO, 

[    2650  gs. 

11             • 

Quiet  Lake,  15  x  21  . 

850 

„ 

) 

Daubigny  . 

On    the    Oise  :      Morning,     1872, 

\ 

17x32  

3500 

Holland 

On    the     Oise  :      Evening,     1873, 
14x26  

2900 

1904, 
820  gs. 

»» 

Village  with  Church,  1864,  13  x  21  . 

630 

H.  Roberts 

Diaz  . 

The  Bathers,  17  x  25 

2950 

Holland 

>  1903, 

»»     • 

Woody  Landscape,  10  x  13 

650 

i) 

f    860  gs. 

Harpignies 

Matinee  d'Automne,  1901,  25  x  31  . 

1600 

,, 

I  1898, 

>» 

Evening,  1902,  25  x  31     . 

750 

H.  Roberts 

1    210  gs. 

Israels 

La  Fete  de  Jeanne,  28  x  52 

1600s 

Ismay 

Sailing  the  Toy  Boat,  19  x  29  . 

1600 

H.  Roberts 

Age,  46  x  33      

1350 

1879, 

The  Widower,  18  x  28      . 

1200 

»> 

1610  gs. 

Washing  Day,  15  x  21      . 

1100 

,, 

. 

Waiting,  15  x  31       . 

720 

H 

Jacque 

The  Flock,  28  x  39  . 

2500 

„ 

. 

Watering  the  Flock,  31  x  25    . 

1250 

Holland 

i  ono 

• 

Landscape    with    Flock  of  Sheep, 
31x25  

1050 

July  10 

ivm, 

'   920  gs. 

„            . 

Woody  Pasture,  16  x  26  . 

880 

Holland 

L'Hermitte 

The    Gleaners  :      Evening,     1890, 

38x30  

2500 

»>        • 

The  Gleaners,  1889,  27  x  42     . 

1250 

)> 

1905, 

KA{\    fwa 

>i        • 

The  Flock,  29  x  27  . 

950 

H.  Roberts 

d**(J   go. 

»        • 

The  Evening  Meal,  29  x  24      . 

840 

II 

Mauve 

Returning  from  Work,  22  x  40 

1550 

June  19 

\   1  QQ7 

„            .  i  Ploughing,  10  x  18  . 
.  |  On  the  Scheldt,  29  x  43   . 

975 
850 

H.  Roberta 
Dickens 

1  ioy  i  , 
j    580  gs. 

Troyon       .  ;  The  Ferry,  23  x  19  . 

3100 

Holland 

Iiofio 

»f            • 
>»            • 

;  Landscape  with  Cattle,  11  x  15 
The  Fisherman,  14  x  31  . 

1150 
1050 

H.  Roberts 

1VU2| 

7000  gs. 

Van  Marcke 

Returning  from  Pasture,  28  x  23 

1150 

Holland 

(  1905, 
1  1650  ga. 

Of  the  ten  artists  named  in  the  foregoing  list,  it  will  be  seen  that 
'  record  '  prices  have  been  obtained  this  season  for  works  by  seven  out 
of  that  number  ;  in  another  case — Israels — the  two  highest  prices  only 
fall  10  guineas  below  the  previous  *  record.'  Had  there  been  space 

'  This  picture  was  purchased  from  the  artist's  studio  at  The  Hague,  and  at  the 
W.  Fenton  sale  in  1879  it  realised  1610  gs. 


478  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

to  extend  the  list,  about  half  a  dozen  other — but  much  smaller — 
*  records  '  for  pictures  by  artists  of  the  modern  Continental  schools 
could  be  mentioned.  These  facts  alone  would  lift  the  picture-sale 
season  of  1908  out  of  the  ordinary ;  and,  taken  generally,  it  may 
claim  to  be  ranked  as  one  of  the  most  remarkable  and  most  interesting 
seasons  of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century. 

W.  ROBERTS. 


1908 


THE    CENSORSHIP    OF   FICTION 


THERE  is  perhaps  no  branch  of  work  amongst  the  arts  so  free  at  the 
present  time  as  that  of  the  writing  of  fiction.  There  are  no  official 
prohibitions,  no  embarrassing  or  hampering  limitations,  no  oppressive 
restraints.  Subject  and  method  of  treatment  are  both  free.  A  writer 
is  under  no  special  obligation,  no  preliminary  guarantee  ;  he  may 
choose  his  own  subject  and  treat  it  in  his  own  way.  In  fact,  his  duty 
to  the  public — to  the  State — appears  to  be  nil.  What  one  might  call 
the  cosmic  police  do  not  trouble  him  at  all.  Under  these  conditions, 
hitherto  kept  possible  by  the  self-respect  of  authors,  a  branch  of  the 
art  of  authorship  has  arisen  and  gone  on  perfecting  itself  in  mechanical 
excellence,  until  it  has  become  an  important  factor  of  the  life  of  the 
nation.  To-day  if  the  supply  of  fiction  were  to  be  suddenly  with- 
drawn the  effect  would  be  felt  almost  as  much  as  the  failure  of  the 
supply  of  breadstuffs.  Happily  fiction  is  not  dependent  on  the 
existence  of  peace,  or  the  flourishing  of  trade,  or  indeed  on  any  form 
of  national  well-being.  War  and  business  worries — distress  in  any 
form — are  clamorous  in  their  own  ways  for  intellectual  antidotes  ; 
so  that  though  the  nature  of  the  output  may  be  of  every  varying 
kind,  the  supply  is  undiminished.  Herein  it  is  that  the  wide  scope 
of  the  art  of  fiction  proves  its  excellence ;  as  no  subject  and  no  form 
of  treatment  is  barred  it  follows  that  changing  needs  may  find  settle- 
ment in  suitable  opposites.  And  so  imaginative  work  becomes 
recognised  in  the  higher  statecraft  as  a  useful  product. 

But  in  the  real  world  all  things  are  finally  relative.  There  is  in 
reality,  whose  existence  and  progress  must  be  based  on  cosmic  laws, 
no  such  thing  as  absolute  freedom.  The  needs  and  necessarily 
recognised  rights  of  individuals  and  groups  must  at  times  become  so 
conflicting  that  some  sort  of  give-and-take  rules  or  laws  are  necessary 
to  the  general  good.  Indeed  we  might  put  it  in  general  form  that 
freedom  contains  in  its  very  structure  the  germs  of  restraint.  The 
measure  and  method  of  that  restraint  have  to  be  ascertained  by  ex- 
perience, and  in  some  measure  by  experiment,  for  if  we  wait  till 
experience,  following  a  simple  course  of  laissez  faire,  has  learned  the 
worst  that  can  happen,  at  least  a  part  of  the  protective  force  of 
common  sense  is  thrown  away. 

479 


480  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

This  is  a  philosophy  too  simple  to  be  put  in  books,  and  has  its 
existence  in  the  brain  of  every  sane  individual.  Let  us  apply  it  to 
the  subject  in  question — the  union  or  at  least  the  recognition  of  two 
values,  the  excellences  of  imagination  and  of  restraint.  Restraint  may 
be  one  of  two  kinds — either  that  which  is  compelled  by  external 
forces,  or  that  which  comes  from  within.  In  art  the  latter  in  its 
usual  phase  is  known  as  '  reticence.'  This  is  the  highest  quality  of 
art ;  that  which  can  be  and  is  its  chief  and  crowning  glory.  It  is 
an  attribute  practically  undefinable.  Its  conditions  are  so  varying 
and  so  multitudinous,  its  degrees  so  finely  graded,  its  workings  so 
mysterious,  its  end  so  elusive,  that  it  is  not  possible  to  explain  it  ade- 
quately by  words  which  are  themselves  defective  and  yet  of  ever- 
varying  meaning.  Suffice  it  that  it  is  recognisable,  and  recognised, 
by  all  true  artists.  In  it  consists  largely,  if  not  wholly,  the  ethics 
of  art ;  and  on  it,  or  in  it  depends  that  quality  of  art  which  brings  it 
within  the  classification  of  '  high  '  art.  The  measure  of  the  ethics 
of  the  artist  is  expressed  in  the  reticence  shown  in  his  work ;  and 
where  such  self-restraint  exists  there  is  no  need  for  external  com- 
pelling force.  In  fact,  self-restraint  is  the  bulwark  of  freedom,  inas- 
much as  it  makes  other  forms  of  restraint  unnecessary.  Some  power 
must  somewhere  in  the  advance  of  things  recognise  the  imperfection 
of  humanity.  When  the  integer  of  that  great  body  recognises  that 
imperfection  and  the  evils  consequent  upon  it,  those  evils  are  at  their 
least. 

This  is  especially  so  where  imagination  is  concerned,  for  the  bounds 
of  such  being  vague,  the  restraint  from  within  need  only  be  applied 
to  the  hither  or  known  edge  of  the  area  of  demarcation ;  whereas  if 
laws  of  restraint  have  to  be  made  at  all  they  must,  in  order  to  be  of 
efficacy,  be  applicable  to  the  whole  area.  This  proposition  may  seem 
at  first  glance  to  be  in  some  way  a  paradox  ;  that  as  the  object  of  the 
external  power  is  to  prevent  a  thing  of  possible  good^  from  straying 
into  the  region  of  evil,  the  mandate  should  be  to  prevent  excursion 
beyond  the  outmost  point  of  good.  But  it  is  no  paradox  at  all.  The 
object  is  not  merely  to  prevent  the  straying  from  the  region  of  good, 
but  to  do  so  with  the  least  measure  of  effort  and  at  the  smallest  cost 
of  friction.  Whatever  law,  then,  can  be  made  or  whatever  application 
of  force  used  to  effect  this — whether  such  law  or  force  originate  from 
within  or  from  without — should  in  the  first  be  as  little  drastic  as 
possible  and  in  the  other  as  gentle  as  may  prevail.  Indeed,  the  dif- 
ference between  the  internal  and  external  forces  thus  applied  is  some- 
thing like  the  difference  between  ethical  and  criminal  laws.  In  the 
great  world  of  fact,  if  ethical  law  be  not  observed  the  criminal  law  must 
come  into  operation,  so  that  the  balance  of  individual  right  be  main- 
tained£and  cosmic  law  vindicated. 

I  think  this  may  be  proved  by  the  history  of  two  great  branches 
of  fiction — the  novel  and  the  drama.  By  drama  we  must  take  drama 


1908  THE   CENSORSHIP   OF  FICTION  481 

when  acted.  Unacted  drama  is  but  the  novel  in  another  literary 
form.  The  novel  we  must  accept  in  its  old  meaning  as  a  story,  quite 
irrespective  of  length  or  divisions.  In  the  case  of  drama  the  necessity 
for  an  external  controlling  force  has  been  illustrated  throughout  some 
three  centuries,  and  by  its  history  we  may  by  a  parity  of  reasoning 
gain  some  light  upon  the  dangers  of  the  other  form  of  literary  effort. 
Of  course,  primarily  the  controlling  force  comes  into  operation  because 
the  possibilities  of  trouble  are  multiplied  by  the  fact  that  its  mechanism 
of  exploiting  thoughts  is  by  means  of  the  human  body  ;  and  inasmuch 
as  poor  humanity  is  likely  to  err  in  many  ways,  possibilities  of  error 
in  this  respect  are  superadded  to  the  inherent  possibilities  of  purely 
literary  form.  There  is  also  another  aspect  of  this  control  which 
must  be  mentioned  before  being  set  aside,  lest  it  confuse  issues  in  the 
case  of  the  novel.  This  latter  is  the  State  aspect  of  censorship.  It 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  is  a  State  and  not  a  political  aspect. 
It  came  into  existence  and  remains  entirely  for  the  protection  of  the 
King.  The  official  who  has  to  deal  with  the  question  is  a  State  and 
not  a  political  official,  and  has  his  bounds  of  jurisdiction  regarding 
the  drama  fixed  ipso  facto  by  the  residence  of  the  King.  But  in  the 
matter  of  the  general  welfare  of  the  public  the  censorship  of  the  drama 
is  based  on  the  necessity  of  perpetually  combating  human  weakness. 
This  weakness  is  of  two  kinds — or  rather  in  two  forms  :  the  weakness 
of  the  great  mass  of  people  who  form  audiences,  and  of  those  who  are 
content  to  do  base  things  in  the  way  of  catering  for  these  base  appetites. 
In  fact,  the  quarrel  rages  round  the  standard  of  the  higher  law,  made 
for  the  elevation  as  against  the  degradation  of  humanity ;  another 
instance  of  the  war  between  God  and  devil.  The  vice  of  the  many 
of  the  audience  in  this  case  is  in  the  yielding  to  the  pleasant  sins  or 
weaknesses  of  the  flesh  as  against  the  restraining  laws  made  for  the 
protection  of  higher  effort.  The  vice  of  the  few  who  cater  is  avarice 
pure  and  simple.  For  gain  of  some  form  they  are  willing  to  break 
laws — call  them  conventions  if  you  will,  but  they  are  none  the  less 
laws.  The  process  of  this  mutual  ill-doing  is  not  usually  violent. 
It  creeps  in  by  degrees,  each  one  who  takes  a  part  in  it  going  a  step 
beyond  his  fellows,  as  though  the  violation  of  law  had  become  an 
established  right  by  its  exercise.  This  goes  on  till  a  comparison 
between  what  was  and  what  is  shows  to  any  eye,  even  an  unskilled 
one,  a  startling  fact  of  decadence.  Then,  as  is  too  often  observable 
in  public  matters,  official  guardianship  of  ethical  values  wakes  up  and 
acts — when  it  is  too  late  for  any  practical  effect.  To  prevent  this, 
censorship  must  be  continuous  and  rigid.  There  must  be  no  begin- 
nings of  evil,  no  flaws  in  the  mason  work  of  the  dam.  The  force 
of  evil,  anti-ethical  evil,  is  the  more  dangerous  as  it  is  a  natural  force. 
It  is  as  natural  for  man  to  sin  as  to  live  and  to  take  a  part  in  the 
necessary  strife  of  living.  But  if  progress  be  a  good  and  is  to  be  aimed 
at  in  the  organisation  of  national  forces,  the  powers  of  evil,  natural 
VOL.  LXIV  -  No  379  K  K 


482  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

as  well  as  arbitrary,  must  be  combated  all  along  tlie  line.  It  is  not 
sufficient  to  make  a  stand,  however  great,  here  and  there ;  the  whole 
frontier  must  be  protected. 

For  while  the  tired  waves,  vainly  breaking, 

Seem  here  no  painful  inch  to  gain, 
Far  back,  through  creeks  and  inlets  making, 

Comes  silent,  flooding  in,  the  main. 

What  use  is  it,  then,  in  the  great  scheme  of  national  life,  to  guard 
against  evil  in  one  form  whilst  in  another  form  it  is  free  to  act  ?  In  all 
things  of  which  suggestion  is  a  part  there  is  a  possible  element  of  evil. 
Even  in  imagination,  of  whose  products  the  best  known  and  most 
potent  is  perhaps  fiction,  there  is  a  danger  of  corruption.  For  imagina- 
tion is  not  limited  to  materials  of  a  special  kind  ;  there  is  no  assorted 
and  approved  stock  of  raw  material  for  its  use.  The  whole  worlds 
of  fact  and  fancy  are  open  to  it.  This  is  its  strength,  and  those 
who  have  imagination  and  believe  in  its  power  as  a  working  factor 
in  education — and  so  making  for  good — may  well  be  jealous  of  its 
privileges,  not  the  least  amongst  which  is  its  freedom.  Its  weakness 
on  its  assailable  side  is  that  it  is  absolutely  and  entirely  personal. 
To  what  Walt  Whitman  calls  *  the  en  masse '  imagination  does  not 
apply,  does  not  appeal.  If  the  '  en  masse  '  feels  its  effects  it  does  so 
not  as  a  unit  but  as  a  congeries  of  individuals  ;  a  wave  there  may  be, 
but  it  is  a  wave  of  integers  dominated  by  a  common  thought  or  pur- 
pose. This  being  so,  the  strongest  controlling  force  of  imagination 
is  in  the  individual  with  whom  it  originates.  No  one  has  power  to 
stop  the  workings  of  imagination,  not  even  the  individual  whose 
sensoria  afford  its  source.  But  the  individual  producer  or  recorder 
can  control  his  own  utterances  ;  he  may  have  to  feel,  but  he  need  not 
of  necessity  speak  or  write.  And  so  individual  discretion  is  the  first 
line  of  defence  against  such  evils  as  may  come  from  imagination — 
itself  pure,  a  process  of  thought,  working  unintentionally  with  impure 
or  dangerous  material.  To  the  drama  as  written  this  argument  applies  ; 
to  the  play  as  acted  it  does  not.  The  dramatist  like  any  other  person 
of  imagination  can  control  his  output  in  the  first  instance.  And  like 
any  other  writer  he  has  been,  up  to  the  present,  free  to  print  his  work  ; 
his  publishing  it  being  simply  subject  to  ordinary  police  control.  It  is 
on  the  stage  and  acting  side  that  the  censorship  as  existing  comes  in. 
Of  course  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  if  the  evil  is  traceable  to 
thoughts  as  set  forth  in  words,  the  words  must  then  come  into  the 
purview  and  under  the  knife  of  the  censor.  But  up  to  the  point  of 
stage  use  the  dramatist  has  the  same  freedom  as  any  other  writer  of 
fiction. 

Now  as  to  the  possible  evils  of  imagination.  Wherein  or  of  what 
kinds  are  or^may  such  be  ?  We  shall,  I  think,  on  considering  the 
matter,  find  that  they  are  entirely  limited  to  evil  effects  produced  on 


1908  THE   CENSORSHIP   OF  FICTION  483 

the  senses.  Here  I  speak  only  on  the  ethical  side  ;  there  may  .be  evils 
of  revolt  against  political  or  social  laws,  but  in  such  case  the  work  of 
imagination,  novel  or  drama,  must  be  taken  as  an  educational  machine 
or  medium  only.  Imagination  does  not  appeal  to  a  nation  except 
through  its  units,  and  so  must  be  taken  as  dealing  with  individuals 
only,  though  its  effects  may  ultimately  become  of  general,  if  not  of 
universal  import.  As  example,  in  a  base  play  given  in  a  crowded 
theatre,  though  many  may  be  gratified  and  so  debased  by  the  expo- 
sition of  lewd  suggestion — either  verbal  or  of  movement  or  appear- 
ance— there  are  others  who  will  be  disgusted.  It  is  through  the  cor- 
ruption of  individuals  that  the  harm  is  done.  A  close  analysis  will 
show  that  the  only  emotions  which  in  the  long  run  harm  are  those 
arising  from  sex  impulses,  and  when  we  have  realised  this  we  have 
put  a  finger  on  the  actual  point  of  danger.  Practically  in  this  country 
the  danger  from  unacted  plays  has  not  up  to  the  present  existed. 
English  people  do  not  as  a  rule  read  plays  ;  they  prefer  to  see  them 
acted.  This  is  no  doubt  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  for  a  couple  of 
centuries  the  plays  that  have  been  published,  having  already  for 
stage  purposes  passed  the  censor,  have  had  any  passages  considered 
objectionable  or  suggestive  of  evil  deleted.  As  a  practical  matter 
they  are  as  a  rule  but  dull  reading  to  those  who  look  for  salacious 
matter.  Truly  even  the  plays  of  the  Kestoration  period  and  after, 
when  Congreve,  Wycherley,  Farquhar  and  Mrs.  Aphra  Behn  flourished, 
were  written  to  suit  a  debased  public  taste ;  even  these  are  but  tame 
affairs  compared  with  some  of  the  work  of  our  novelists.  But  if  the 
growing  custom  continues  of  publishing  as  literary  works  stage  plays 
forbidden  for  that  purpose  by  the  censor,  the  public  may — will — end 
by  reading  them  in  the  hope  of  finding  offensive  matter.  They  will 
bring  to  the  study  for  evil  motives  an  ardour  denied  for  purposes  of 
good. 

I  may  perhaps  here  explain  that  I  speak  of  '  the  censor  '  for  pur- 
poses of  clearness  and  brevity.  We  have  a  certain  censorship  over 
plays,  but  there  is  no  such  official  as  '  the  censor.'  By  the  Theatres 
Act  the  work  of  supervision  of  the  stage  is  entrusted  to  the  Lord 
Chamberlain,  and  it  is  a  part  of  the  duty  of  that  functionary  to  issue 
the  licence  decreed  by  the  Act  as  a  necessary  preliminary  to  the  pro- 
duction of  the  play  in  a  licensed  theatre.  For  convenience — since  he 
naturally  cannot  do  such  a  mass  of  work  himself — the  Lord  Chamber- 
lain deputes  a  well-qualified  gentleman  to  make  the  necessary  ex- 
amination of  the  plays  submitted  for  licence.  It  is  this  gentleman 
to  whom  is  applied  the  term  '  censor '  by  the  writers  of  letters  to 
newspapers  and  of  articles  in  magazines  who  clamour  against '  oppres- 
sion '  and  call  aloud  for  absolute  freedom  of  subject  and  treatment  of 
stage  productions. 

Here  we  come  to  a  point  at  which  for  our  present  purpose  we 
may  speak  of  '  fiction '  as  containing  both  the  forms  of  imaginative 

K   K   2 


484  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Sept. 

fiction,  the  novel  and  the  drama.  If  we  take  it  as  '  published  '  fiction 
we  can  exclude  all  considerations  of  the  drama,  as  the  word  fiction  will 
include  all  sorts  of  literary  effort  as  applied  to  imaginative  work, 
of  which  the  drama  is  but  an  accepted  form.  Henceforth  in  this 
article  we  must  take  fiction  to  mean  published  fiction,  irrespective  of 
form  or  size.  By  this  means  the  matter  narrows  itself  down  to  its 
simplest  form,  and  we  find  ourselves  face  to  face  with  the  question : 
Are  we  or  are  we  not  ultimately  to  allow  fiction  to  be  put  forth  without 
any  form  of  restraint  whatever  ?  The  question  is  not  merely  a  civic 
•or  national  one.  It  is  racial,  all-embracing,  human.  Fiction  is  per- 
haps the  most  powerful  form  of  teaching  available.  It  can  be  most 
potent  for  good  ;  and  if  we  are  to  allow  it  to  work  for  evil  we  shall 
surely  have  to  pay  in  time  for  the  consequent  evil  effects.  Let  not 
anyone  with  a  non-understanding  or  misapplied  moral  sense  say  or 
believe  that  fiction,  being  essentially  based  on  something  that  is  not 
true,  should  be  excluded  altogether  from  the  field  of  morals.  The 
highest  of  all  teachers  and  moralists,  Christ  Himself,  did  not  disdain 
it  as  a  method  or  opportunity  of  carrying  great  truth.  But  He  seemed 
to  hold  it  as  His  chosen  means  of  seeking  to  instil  truth.  What  is  a 
parable  but  a  novel  in  little  ?  A  parable  may  be  true  in  historical 
fact — its  ethical  truth  may  be  complete,  but  if  so  the  truth  is  accidental 
and  not  essential.  When  those  who  listened  to  the  Master  were  told 
that  '  a  sower  went  forth  to  sow,'  or  that  '  a  certain  man  planted  a 
vineyard,  and  set  an  hedge  about  it,'  or  '  a  certain  man  made  a  great 
supper,  and  bade  many,'  or  '  two  men  went  up  into  the  Temple  to 
pray,'  did  they  believe,  or  were  they  intended  to  believe,  that  they 
were  being  treated  to  a  scrap  of  veracious  history  ?  No.  The 
purpose  of  the  Teacher  was  to  win  their  hearts  through  the  force  of 
imagination.  If  there  be  any  doubt  of  this,  read  the  parable  of  Dives 
and  Lazarus.  Here  the  Master,  who  knew  the  workings  of  heart  and 
brain,  did  not  hesitate  to  give  even  presumably  fictitious  details  which 
might  enhance  the  force  and  conviction  of  His  story — just  as  a  novelist 
of  to-day  does.  He  followed  the  two  men  into  the  divisions  of  the 
'  under  world,'  and  even  heightened  the  scenic  effect  by  the  suggestion 
of  a  great  gulf  between  the  two.  When  Christ  taught  in  such  a  way, 
are  we  to  reprobate  the  method  or  even  to  forego  it  ?  Should  we  not 
rather  encourage  and  protect  so  potent  a  form  of  teaching,  and  guard 
it  against  evil  use  ? 

The  first  question  then  is  as  to  restraint  or  no  restraint.  That 
restraint  in  some  form  is  necessary  is  shown  by  the  history  of  the  last 
few  years  with  regard  to  works  of  fiction.  The  self-restraint  and 
reticence  which  many  writers  have  through  centuries  exercised  in 
behalf  of  an  art  which  they  loved  and  honoured  has  not  of  late  been 
exercised  by  the  few  who  seek  to  make  money  and  achieve  notoriety 
through  base  means.  There  is  no  denying  the  fact  nor  the  cause ; 
both  are  only  too  painfully  apparent.  Within  a  couple  of  years  past 


1908  THE   CENSORSHIP   OF  FICTION  485 

quite  a  number  of  novels  have  been  published  in  England  that  would 
be  a  disgrace  to  any  country  even  less  civilised  than  our  own.  The 
class  of  works  to  which  I  allude  are  meant  by  both  authors  and 
publishers  to  bring  to  the  winning  of  commercial  success  the  forces  of 
inherent  evil  in  man.  The  word  man  here  stands  for  woman  as  well 
as  man  ;  indeed,  women  are  the  worst  offenders  in  this  form  of  breach 
of  moral  law.  As  to  the  alleged  men  who  follow  this  loathsome 
calling,  what  term  of  opprobrium  is  sufficient,  what  punishment  could 
be  too  great  ?  This  judgment  of  work  which  claims  to  be  artistic  may 
seem  harsh,  and  punishment  may  seem  vindictive  ;  the  writer  has  no 
wish  to  be  either  harsh  or  vindictive — except  in  so  far  as  all  just 
judgment  may  seem  harsh  and  all  punishment  vindictive.  For  look 
what  those  people  have  done.  They  found  an  art  wholesome,  they 
made  it  morbid  ;  they  found  it  pure,  they  left  it  sullied.  Up  to  this 
time  it  was  free — the  freest  thing  in  the  land ;  they  so  treated  it,  they 
so  abused  the  powers  allowed  them  and  their  own  opportunities, 
that  continued  freedom  becomes  dangerous,  even  impossible.  They 
in  their  selfish  greed  tried  to  deprave  where  others  had  striven  to 
elevate.  In  the  language  of  the  pulpit,  they  have  '  crucified  Christ 
afresh.'  The  merest  glance  at  some  of  their  work  will  justify  any 
harshness  of  judgment ;  the  roughest  synopsis  will  horrify.  It  is 
not  well  to  name  either  these  books  or  their  authors,  for  such  would 
but  make  known  what  is  better  suppressed,  and  give  the  writers  the 
advertisement  which  they  crave.  It  may  be  taken  that  such  works 
as  are  here  spoken  of  deal  not  merely  with  natural  misdoing  based  on 
human  weakness,  frailty,  or  passions  of  the  senses,  but  with  vices  so 
flagitious,  so  opposed  to  even  the  decencies  of  nature  in  its  crudest 
and  lowest  forms,  that  the  poignancy  of  moral  disgust  is  lost  in  horror. 
This  article  is  no  mere  protest  against  academic  faults  or  breaches 
of  good  taste.  It  is  a  deliberate  indictment  of  a  class  of  literature 
so  vile  that  it  is  actually  corrupting  the  nation. 

The  subject  is  one  seriously  undertaken,  and  with  a  full  sense  of 
responsibility.  The  evil  is  a  grave  and  dangerous  one,  and  may,  if 
it  does  not  already,  deeply  affect  the  principles  and  lives  of  the  young 
people  of  this  country.  The  measure  of  protection  from  it  involves 
a  departure  from  the  custom  of  free  speech  hitherto  tolerated  by  the 
Legislature.  But  the  class  it  deals  with  is  constructively  a  criminal 
class,  and  repressive  measures  such  as  are  required  in  dealing  with  all 
crimes  are  necessary.  Press  criticism,  which  might  help  to  restrain, 
is  sadly  deficient ;  the  Press  generally  has  manifestly  not  done  its  duty 
in  this  respect.  The  offenders  are  such  as  are  amenable  only  to 
punitive  measures.  They  may  be  described  as  a  class  which  is  thus 
designated  in  the  searching  Doric  of  the  North  of  Ireland,  '  They 
would  do  little  for  God's  sake  if  the  devil  was  dead  !  '  It  is  hardly 
possible  to  obliterate  such  works  of  shameful  lubricity ;  unhappily 
the  weakness  of  poor  humanity  makes  a  continuous  market  for  them. 


486  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

But  we  should  at  least  try  to  prevent  for  the  future  such  filthy 
and  dangerous  output.  We  take  steps  to  deal  drastically  with  evils 
that  menace  the  well-being  of  society.  Dance  houses  are  regarded 
jealously,  disorderly  houses  are  sternly  dealt  with,  the  sale  of  noxious 
drugs  is  carefully  regulated,  even  the  sale  of  intoxicants  is  limited  by 
restraining  measures.  In  fact,  all  occupations  based  on  human  frailty 
are  by  the  general  wisdom  of  the  State  put  in  greater  or  less  degree 
under  supervision.  Why  not,  then,  if  necessary,  adopt  the  same 
attitude  towards  an  evil  more  grave  than  any  of  the  above,  because 
more  insidious  ? 

The  writer  does  not,  for  one,  wish  such  a  thing  as  a  censorship  of 
fiction  to  be  brought  about  if  it  can  be  possibly  avoided,  if  some  other 
means  of  protection  for  the  highest  class  of  literature  can  be  found  or 
designed.  He  glories,  like  the  others  of  his  calling,  in  the  freedom  of 
letters,  and  trusts  that  some  way  may  be  found  of  dealing  with  the 
dangers  that  threaten.  But  if  no  other  adequate  way  can  be  found, 
and  if  the  plague-spot  continues  to  enlarge,  a  censorship  there  must 
be.  Of  course  there  is,  in  a  way,  a  remedy  already.  There  exists  a 
censorship  of  a  kind,  but  it  is  crude  and  coarse  and  clumsy,  and  difficult 
of  operation — the  police.  No  one  could  wish  an  art  so  fine  as  litera- 
ture, with  a  spirit  as  subtle  and  evanescent  as  oenanthic  ether — the 
outward  expression  of  the  '  thaumaturgic  art  of  thought ' — put  under 
repressive  measures  carried  out  by  coarse  officials.  But  it  is  the 
coarseness  and  unscrupulousness  of  certain  writers  of  fiction  which 
has  brought  the  evil ;  on  their  heads  be  it. 

The  sad  part  of  the  whole  thing  is  the  wantonness  of  it.  Coarse- 
ness there  has  always  been  of  some  measure.  Smollett,  for  instance, 
was  undeniably  and  wantonly  coarse  ;  even  Fielding's  beautiful  work 
was  dyed  with  the  colour  of  an  age  of  luxury  and  unscrupulousness. 
But  certain  of  the  writers  of  our  time  claim  absolute  freedom  of  both 
subject  and  method  of  treatment,  in  order  that  they  may  deal  with 
what  they  call '  problems.'  Now  there  is  no  problem  which  may  arise 
to  any  human  being  in  the  long  course  between  the  cradle  and  the 
grave  which  need  be  forbidden  to  public  consideration,  and  which 
may  not  be  wholesomely  dealt  with.  There  is  not  a  household  which 
may  not  have  its  painful  experiences  of  some  of  them,  and  they  are 
solved  to  some  end  with  boldness  and  decorum.  But  it  may  be  feared 
that  writers  who  deal  with  lewd  subjects  generally  use  the  word 
'  problem '  either  as  a  shelter  for  themselves  or  as  a  blind  for  some 
intention  more  base  than  mere  honest  investigation.  The  problem 
they  have  in  reality  set  themselves  is  to  find  an  easy  and  prosperous 
way  to  their  desires  without  suffering  from  public  ignominy,  police 
interference,  or  the  reproaches  of  conscience ;  with  the  inevitable  result 
that  they  rightly  incur  the  penalties  distributable  by  all  three.  It  is 
the  same  old  problem  which  has  tortured  fallible  humanity  from  the 
beginning,  or,  at  any  rate,  since  desire  of  many  things  found  itself 


1908  THE   CENSORSHIP   OF  FICTION  487 

face  to  face  with  inadequate  powers  and  insufficient  opportunities  for 
attainment. 

Truth  can  always  investigate  in  worthy  fashion.  Otherwise 
medicine  and  surgery  would  be  obnoxious  trades,  and  law  and  the 
administration  of  religion  dangerous  callings.  As  it  is,  those  who 
prostitute  their  talents — and  amongst  them  the  fairest,  imagination- 
must  expect  the  treatment  accorded  to  the  class  which  they  have 
deliberately  j  oined.  The  rewards  of  such — personal  luxury  and  perhaps 
a  measure  of  wealth — may  be  theirs,  but  they  must  not  expect  the 
pleasures  or  profits  of  the  just — love  and  honour,  troops  of  friends, 


and  the  esteem  of  good  men. 


BRAM  STOKER. 


488  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 


THE  FOUNTAINS   OF   VERSAILLES 


OF  the  gay  thousands  who  throng  Versailles  throughout  the  summer, 
rejoicing  in  its  stately  avenues  and  shady  walks  and  the  rich  abundance 
of  its  waters,  probably  but  few  think  of  what  these  same  waters 
represent  as  triumph  of  mind  over  matter. 

Although  the  name  of  Versailles  evokes  to-day  the  image  of  stately 
buildings,  cold  and  passionless  guardians  of  so  many  souvenirs  of 
human  will  and  wilfulness,  mad  mirth,  rollicking  comedy  and  grimmest 
tragedy,  it  evokes  also  pleasant  stretches  of  lake  and  canal  and 
bubbling  fountain,  and  especially  visions  of  the  wonderful  play  of 
'  les  Grandes  Eaux  '  on  high  days  and  holidays.  If  it  is  to  those  that 
Versailles  owes  her  glory,  it  is  to  these  that  she  owes  a  large  share  of 
her  popularity  ;  and  these  are  the  outcome  of  a  long  and  strenuous 
effort  of  science,  for  Versailles,  left  to  herself,  could  not  have  produced 
even  the  tiniest  apology  for  a  fountain. 

'  The  only  defect  of  this  charming  site  is  a  total  absence  of  water,' 
says  a  French  author  writing  of  the  place,  then  scarcely  more  than  a 
hamlet ;  and  he  continues  : 

'  An  insignificant  brooklet,  the  ru  de  Galie,  flows  through  the  town, 
and  this  absence  of  water  threatened  to  be  an  insurmountable  obstacle 
to  the  growth  of  the  place.  Nothing  but  the  iron  will  of  Louis  the 
Fourteenth  could  have  overcome  this  obstacle.' 

The  '  iron  will '  would,  however,  have  availed  little  had  it  not 
been  backed  by  the  energetic  initiative  of  Colbert  and  Louvois,  who, 
to  realise  their  sovereign's  wishes,  hesitated  not  to  demand  of  the 
science  of  hydraulics  that  which  she  had,  as  yet,  hardly  dreamed  of 
accomplishing,  and  to  aid  her  in  the  royally  imposed  task  recoiled 
before  no  sacrifice  of  men  or  money.  Colbert,  indeed,  as  we  shall  see, 
was  at  first  averse  to  the  project,  but  his  resistance  was  not  of  long 
duration. 

The  desire  of  Louis  for  fountains  at  Versailles  seems  to  have  been 
first  awakened  by  the  sight  of  Vaux,  that  stately  chateau  of  Fouquet, 
the  magnificence  of  which  lent  only  too  much  colour  to  the  popular 
accusations  against  its  master  and  which  had  doubtless  no  little 
share  in  his  downfall  and  doleful  captivity. 


1908          THE   FOUNTAINS   OF   VERSAILLES  489 

What  Fouquet  had  accomplished  at  Vaux  with  everything  in  his 
favour,  he,  Louis,  would  surpass  at  Versailles  with  everything  against 
him.  To  establish  at  waterless  Versailles  fountains  which  should 
exceed  in  number  and  beauty  the  '  Nymphes  de  Vaux '  sung  by  La 
Fontaine,  was  a  task  worthy  the  ambition  of  even  Le  Grand  Monarque. 

Francine,  the  creator  of  the  '  Nymphes  de  Vaux,'  does  not  appear  to 
have  dreamed  of  the  possibility  of  utilising  the  waters  of  the  Seine 
at  St.  Germain.  The  eighty  feet  difference  of  level  between  the 
two  places  rendered  the  idea  preposterous.  He  therefore  sought  on 
the  higher  ground  north  of  Versailles  and  found  what  he  wanted  at 
Clagny. 

Then  began  the  construction  of  a  complicated  system  of  pipes, 
reservoirs,  pumps  and  windmills  which  should  assure  a  constant 
supply  of  water  to  the  newly  made  fountains  and  grottoes  of  Ver- 
sailles. But  even  thus  early  in  her  career  Versailles  proved  to  be 
the  most  ruinously  extravagant  of  the  King's  favourites,  and  Colbert, 
as  a  prudent  Keeper  of  the  Royal  Purse,  was  disconsolate.  In  1664 
we  find  him  thus  appealing  to  Louis  : 

'  This  place  is  much  more  for  the  pleasure  and  diversion  of  Your 
Majesty  than  for  His  glory.  It  is  quite  right  that  after  giving  such 
great  and  continued  application  to  State  affairs  as  commands  the 
admiration  of  all  men,  Your  Majesty  should  give  something  to  His 
pleasures  and  diversions  ;  but  care  should  be  taken  that  these  tend 
not  to  tarnish  Your  Majesty's  glory.  If  Your  Majesty  will  seek  at 
Versailles  the  five  hundred  thousand  ecus  spent  there  during  the 
last  two  years,  there  will  certainly  be  much  difficulty  in  rinding  them. 
If  Your  Majesty  would  but  reflect  that  to  the  end  of  time  it  will  be  seen 
in  the  Treasurer's  accounts  that  whilst  devoting  such  vast  sums 
to  Versailles  you  have  neglected  the  Louvre,  which  is  certainly  the 
most  superb  palace  in  the  whole  world  and  the  most  worthy  of  the 
greatness  of  Your  Majesty. 

'  Your  Majesty  is  aware  that,  except  brilliant  exploits  of  war, 
nothing  so  clearly  shows  the  grandeur  of  a  prince  as  the  edifices 
which  he  erects,  and  he  is  judged  of  all  posterity  by  the  splendour  and 
magnificence  of  the  palaces  he  builds.' 

A  strong  dose  of  undiluted  flattery  concludes  the  exordium : 
'  Ah  !  quelle  pitie  que  le  plus  grand  Roi,  et  le  plus  vertueux  de  la  veritable 
vertu  qui  fait  les  grands  princes,  fut  mesurd  a  Vaune  de  Versailles  ;  et, 
toutesfois,  il  y  a  lieu  de  craindre  ce  malheur.' 

Louis  let  himself  be,  at  least,  half  convinced,  and  for  some  time 
the  Versailles  expenditure  was  kept  within  bounds  calculated  to 
reassure  the  troubled  soul  of  the  Ministre  des  Finances. 

But  in  1670  the  King  visited  Conde  at  Chantilly,  and  the  sight  of 
those  fountains  which,  as  Bossuet  tells  us,  '  were  hushed  nor  day  nor 
night,'  fired  anew  the  royal  desires.  The  King  now  resolved  that 
posterity  should  indeed  judge  of  his  greatness  by  Versailles,  and 


490  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

Colbert,  sinking  his  scruples,  gave  himself  with  blind  devotion  to  the 
task  of  furthering  his  master's  wishes. 

Clagny  no  longer  sufficed,  and  the  engineers  of  the  time  were  in 
despair.  A  less  obstinate  man  than  Louis  would  have  yielded  to  the 
inevitable,  as  indeed  for  a  moment  he  was  tempted  to  do.  Charles 
Perrault  relates  that '  on  etait  en  branle  de  quitter  Versailles  en  ce  temps- 
la,  pour  aller  batir  dans  un  terrain  plus  heureux.'  But  the  '  iron  will ' 
of  the  Grand  Monarque  kept  mathematicians  and  engineers  to  their 
task. 

All  the  most  famous  engineers  had  their  pet  theories  and  plans, 
but  the  most  audacious  was  unquestionably  that  due  to  Eiquet,  who 
declared  it  possible  to  bring  the  River  Loire  to  Versailles.  Riquet  was 
no  mean  authority,  for  to  him  was  due  the  Canal  du  Midi,  then  in 
process  of  making,  which  connects  the  Atlantic  with  the  Mediterranean. 
The  plan  of  the  canal  which  should  bring  the  Loire  to  Versailles  was 
drawn  up  and  the  necessary  authorisations  were  about  to  be  signed, 
when  the  Abbe  Picard,  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  bluntly  declared 
the  thing  to  be  impossible.  Charles  Perrault,  at  that  time  Colbert's 
secretary,  thus  relates  the  circumstances  : 

'  I  mentioned  this  ' — Picard's  objections — '  to  M.  Colbert.  He 
showed  some  annoyance  and  told  me  to  .send  for  the  Abbe  Picard, 
who  repeated  his  assertions.  M.  Colbert,  angry  at  seeing  an  obstacle 
appear  in  the  way  of  the  satisfaction  he  hoped  to  procure  the  King, 
spoke  very  plainly  to  M.  Picard  and  told  him  to  be  careful ;  that  M. 
Riquet  was  no  ordinary  man ;  that  the  success  of  his  canal  gave  him 
a  prestige,  and  that  certainly  he  could  not  be  so  grossly  mistaken  as 
people  wished  to  make  out.  M.  Picard,  without  one  word  of  reply, 
made  a  low  bow  and  withdrew,  which  surprised  me  greatly,  and  it 
seemed  to  me  that  the  Minister  was  rather  taken  aback. 

'  This  took  place  at  the  further  end  of  M.  Colbert's  library.  As  he 
was  returning  to  his  private  room  I  said  that,  if  he  thought  fit,  I 
would  bring  M.  Riquet  and  M.  Picard  together  without  either  suspect- 
ing it  to  be  done  intentionally,  and  that  I  would  faithfully  report 
to  him  their  conversation.  M.  Colbert  approved  my  idea,  and  the 
next  day  I  sent  for  them.  When  M.  Riquet  arrived  (for  I  had  arranged 
that  he  should  come  first)  I  said  : 

"  M.  Colbert  has  ordered  me,  sir,  to  ask  you  for  information  with 
regard  to  the  great  enterprise  you  are  about  to  undertake  in  order 
to  bring  the  River  Loire  to  Versailles,  for  he  wishes  me  to  give  him  a 
detailed  account  of  the  matter,  that  the  payments  may  be  arranged 
for.  I  confess,  sir,"  I  added,  "  that  it  seems  to  me  a  very  difficult 
matter,  seeing  that  Versailles  lies  high,  while  the  Loire  is  certainly 
in  the  lowest  part  of  the  plains  it  traverses." 

'  "  That  is  true,  sir,"  he  replied  ;  "  but  mathematical  instruments 
are  more  exact  than  any  reasonings  based  on  the  simple  appearance 
of  things.  I  have  taken  exact  observations  of  the  ground  from  that 


1908          THE   FOUNTAINS   OF   VERSAILLES  491 

part  of  the  river  whence  I  mean  to  take  the  water  to  the  place  where 
I  intend  it  to^flow  to,  and  I  am  sure  of  what  I  advance.  I  have  a 
greater  slope  than  is  necessary  even." 

'  "  I  have  been  told,"  I  replied,  "  that  you  promise  to  bring  the 
waters  of  the  Loire  to  the  top  of  Mont  Satory,  and ' 

'  "  I  do  not  know,"  he  interrupted,  "  what  people  may  choose 
to  relate  about  Mont  St.  Satory." 

'  "  There  is  not,"  said  I,  "  any  saint  to  that  mount.  It  is  called 
simply  Mont  Satory,  and  apparently  you  have  raised  hopes  that  you 
would  bring  the  river  there,  for  two  days  ago  M.  le  Notre,  accompanying 
the  King  on  the  banks  of  the  canal  at  Versailles,  remarked  what  a  fine 
thing  it  would  be  to  see  the  vessels  from  the  Loire  descending  the 
hill  at  full  sail  and  entering  the  canal  itself.  M.  le  Notre  could  not 
have  spoken  thus  had  not  the  King  told  him  that  you  would  bring 
the  Loire  to  Mont  Satory,  and  the  King  could  not  have  said  so  if  he 
had  not  heard  it  from  M.  Colbert,  who  could  only  have  had  it  from 
your  own  lips." 

'  "  What  I  have  promised  I  will  perform  as  a  gallant  man," 
replied  M.  Riquet. 

*  At  that  moment  M.  Picard  entered. 

'  "  Sir,"  I  said  to  him,  "  you  are  fond  of  the  beautiful  and  especially 
of  the  marvellous.  At  Versailles  is  going  to  be  done  what  has  hitherto 
been  deemed  impossible.  M.  Riquet  promises  to  bring  a  part  of  the 
Loire  to  the  top  of  Satory.  Think  what  fountains  can  be  made, 
having  a  river  there  !  " 

'  "  Certainly,  that  would  render  superfluous  both  pumps  and  mills," 
replied  M.  Picard,  "  but  the  thing  appears  to  me  extremely  difficult, 
and  I  hope  this  gentleman  will  pardon  me  for  doubting  that  the  Loire 
can  be  made  to  rise  even  to  the  level  of  the  ground  floor  of  the  Palace 
of  Versailles,  much  less  to  the  height  of  Satory.  It  is  well  known 
that  the  Seine  at  St.  Germain  is  in  summer  eighty  feet  below  the 
ground  floor  of  Versailles,  and  it  is  not  easy  to  imagine  that  the  Loire, 
at  any  point  whatever,  is  eighty  feet  higher  than  the  Seine." 

' "  Imagination,"  said  M.  Riquet,  "  must  yield  to  the  exact 
measurements  that  have  been  taken." 

'  "  Such  measurements,"  retorted  M.  Picard,  "  are  not  easy  to 
take,  and  I  doubt  whether  the  ordinary  instruments  be  sufficiently 
exact  for  such  great  distances  as  those  in  question." 

'  They  said  several  other  things,  and  I  perceived  that  M.  Riquet 
was  not  very  sure  of  his  ground.  I  reported  this  conversation  to 
M.  Colbert,  who  some  days  later  appointed  M.  Picard  and  other 
members  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  to  take  fresii  measurements.' 

These  led  to  the  plan  being  abandoned  as  impracticable,  and  the 
costly  and  cumbrous  system  which  had  served  for  Clagny  was  applied 
to  ponds  further  distant,  on  the  plain  between  Versailles  and  Ram- 
bouillet.  Where  the  natural  supply  of  ponds  was  insufficient,  others 


492  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

were  dug.  All  these  ponds  were  connected  with  each  other  and  with 
Versailles  by  an  elaborate  system  of  trenches.  The  whole  country 
between  Versailles  and  Rambouillet  is  still  cut  up  by  these  '  rigoles,' 
which  in  many  places,  as  near  Trappes  for  instance,  still  bear  the 
royal  crown  a,nd.fleur-de-lys  cut  in  the  grey  stone  of  bridge  or  boundary. 
That  picturesque  little  stream,  the  Bidvre,  which  to-day  comes  to  an 
ignominious  end  in  the  sewers  of  Paris,  was  pressed  into  the  service, 
and  reservoirs  were  constructed  to  collect  its  waters.  But  still  there 
was  not  enough. 

In  1675  Colbert  called  to  his  aid  the  Flemish  engineer,  Arnold 
Deville,  whose  hydraulic  works  in  his  own  country  were  famous. 
Deville  declared  the  possibility  of  raising  the  waters  of  the  Seine  to 
feed  the  ever-increasing  jeux  d'eau  of  Versailles.  After  careful  sound- 
ings he  decided  upon  a  spot  between  Chatou  and  Bougival  as  most 
suitable  for  the  huge  machine  he  proposed  to  erect. 

Naturally  the  idea  was  much  discussed  in  engineering  circles, 
and  Morland,  chief  engineer  to  James  the  Second  of  England,  found, 
as  he  believed,  a  solution  simpler  and  less  costly  than  Deville's.  James 
had  so  much  faith  in  his  own  man  that  he  sent  him  to  France  to  lay 
his  plans  before  Louis,  and  the  rival  machines  were  put  to  a  practical 
test.  Two  small  models  were  erected:  the  one  at  St.  Germain  by 
Deville,  the  other  at  Maisons  by  Morland.  The  victory  remained  with 
the  Flemish  engineer,  who  forthwith  began  his  grand  construction. 

When,  after  five  years'  hard  work  and  the  expenditure  of  some 
eight  million  pounds  sterling,  the  machine  was  completed  and  the 
waters  of  the  Seine  flowed  by  the  Aqueduct  of  Louveciennes  to  Ver- 
sailles, the  delight  of  the  Bang  was  unbounded.  Deville  received  a 
gift  of  twenty  thousand  pounds  and  the  honour  of  the  King's  personal 
thanks.  He  was  appointed  life-governor  of  the  machine  at  a  yearly 
salary  of  2,400Z.,  and  had  a  house  built  for  him  at  Louveciennes. 

But  Deville's  work  was  barely  finished  when  Colbert  fell  and  was 
succeeded  by  Louvois,  his  mortal  enemy. 

In  this  matter  of  the  waters,  as  in  all  else,  Louvois  must  needs 
show  himself  a  better  man  than  his  fallen  rival.  Colbert  had  dreamed 
of  bringing  the  Loire  to  Versailles,  but  he — Louvois — would  certainly 
bring  the  Eure.  The  King's  ambition  was  fanned  to  the  height  of 
folly.  Not  only  should  Versailles  exceed  in  glory  Vaux  and  Chantilly, 
he  would  execute  for  his  beloved  Versailles — his  own  creation — 
works  excelling  all  that  had  been  achieved  by  the  Komans ;  his  fame 
and  grandeur  should  far  exceed  theirs,  and  posterity,  measuring  '  le 
plus  grand  Roi  d  Vaune  de  Versailles  '  should  have  a  noble  standard. 

Louvois  submitted  his  plan  to  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  who, 
noting  the  constant  rise  of  the  ground  from  Versailles  to  the  Eure, 
was  pleased  to  declare  the  scheme  eminently  practicable.  The  execu- 
tion of  it  was  entrusted  to  Vauban,  the  famous  marshal  and  military 
engineer. 


1908          THE   FOUNTAINS   OF   VERSAILLES  498 

If  the  expenditure  had  been  lavish  before,  it  now  became  fabulously, 
fantastically  extravagant.  Thirty  thousand  men  were  employed,  of 
whom  two-thirds  were  soldiers.  The  work  was  begun  at  Pontgouin, 
some  distance  beyond  Chartres,  by  the  construction  of  a  vast  reservoir 
in  hewn  stone  destined  to  receive  the  sources  of  the  Eure,  whence 
the  water  could  be  directed  at  will  into  the  canal  which  should  carry 
it  to  Maintenon,  a  distance  of  some  twenty-eight  miles.  At  Maintenon 
came  the  big  difficulty  of  the  project.  The  river  which  was  to  make 
glad  the  slopes  of  Versailles  had  to  be  carried  across  the  deep  valley 
of  Maintenon  before  it  could  pursue  its  even  way  over  the  plains 
between  Rambouillet  and  Versailles. 

Louvois  and  Vauban  were  by  no  means  the  men  to  be  turned 
from  their  task  by  the  difficulty  of  erecting  an  aqueduct  over  three 
and  a  half  miles  long,  even  in  a  country  void  of  building  material. 
As  the  land  had  been  scoured  to  find  water,  so  now  it  was  scoured  to 
find  stone  and  lime.  The  one  was  found  at  Epernon,  the  other  at 
Germonval.  But  Epernon  in  one  direction  and  Germonval  in  another, 
were  each  distant  about  eight  miles  from  Maintenon ;  and  Vauban 
realised  that  even  were  he  to  mobilise  all  the  beasts  of  burden  in  the 
district  they  would  not  suffice  for  the  transport  of  the  enormous 
amount  of  material  required.  So,  with  the  army  at  his  disposal,  he 
set  to  work  to  dig  canals  connecting  Maintenon  with  Epernon  and 
Germonval. 

Threatening  war  did  but  redouble  the  efforts  of  Louvois  to 
complete  his  gigantic  undertaking.  Day  and  night  the  work  went 
steadily  on  ;  the  arches  of  the  aqueduct  rose  as  by  magic  ;  across  the 
plain  which  reaches  from  Maintenon  to  Trappes  the  new  bed  of  the 
river  was  dug,  and  a  series  of  ponds  created  to  ensure  to  the  stream 
a  uniformity  of  level.  At  the  same  time  reservoirs  were  constructed 
for  collecting  the  waters  from  the  ponds  of  Saclay  and  Trou  Sale, 
and  the  pipes  carrying  the  water  over  the  valley  of  the  Bidvre  at  BUG 
replaced  by  a  stone  aqueduct. 

But  events  were  too  quick  for  Louvois.  The  breaking  out  of  war 
in  1688  put  an  effectual  stop  to  all  these  gigantic  enterprises.  Masters 
and  men  went  to  take  part  in  less  pacific  struggles,  and  this  conquest  of 
Nature  was  left  for  the  science  of  the  nineteenth  century  to  complete. 

To-day  most  of  the  ponds  are  but  a  name.  Trou  Sale  and 
many  others  are  now  green  fields  awaiting  the  inevitable  builder. 
The  unfinished  Aqueduct  of  Maintenon  stretches  its  picturesque 
ruins  lamentably  across  the  valley.  Those  of  BUG  and  Louveciennes 
have  long  been  dry. 

The  Flemish  engineer,  Deville,  is  alone  justified  of  his  creation. 
*  La  Machine,'  near  Marly,  is  the  modern  development  of  Deville's 
idea,  and  sends  the  waters  of  the  Seine  to  Versailles,  not  indeed  by 
the  sun-bathed  arches  of  Louveciennes,  but  by  the  dark  and  hidden 
ways  beloved  of  modern  science. 


494  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Sept. 

But  though  Louis  and  his  men  failed  to  accomplish  all  they  aimed 
for,  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  Versailles  owes  its  existence  to  them. 
But  for  the  mighty  efforts  exacted  of  a  still  undeveloped  science  by 
the  '  iron  will '  of  Le  Grand  Koi,  and  rendered  possible  by  his  bounty, 
Versailles  would  still  be  an  obscure  hamlet  watered  only  by  the  tiny 
ru  de  Galie. 

Louis  the  Fourteenth  might  well  vary  his  famous  phrase  and  say 
with  unquestionable  veracity  '  Versailles,  c'est  moi.' 

ELIZABETH  B.  YEOMANS. 


1908 


WOMEN   AND    THE    SUFFRAGE 

A   REPLY  TO  LADY  LOVAT  AND  MRS.   HUMPHRY   WARD 


IN  the  July  number  of  this  Review,  Lady  Lovat  quotes  various 
writers,  ancient  and  modern,  in  support  of  her  skilful  defence  of  what 
she  calls  the  old-fashioned  side  of  the  Women's  Suffrage  question. 
And  indeed  she  has  a  wide  range  of  choice,  for  probably  there  have 
been  more  theories  advanced  on  this  and  kindred  subjects  than  on 
any  other  in  the  world.  To  judge  from  folklore  sayings  and  proverbs 
alone,  women  seem  to  have  been  the  victims  from  the  earliest  times 
of  the  first  crude  efforts  of  the  savage  intelligence  to  make  a  large 
generalisation  out  of  a  small  and  very  narrow  experience,  and  of  the 
fatal  facility  that  first  enabled  people  to  conceive  of  a  great  multitude 
of  various  human  beings  as  one  simple  abstract  personality,  governed 
by  easily  attainable  mechanical  laws  and  called  '  Woman.'  '  Woman  ' 
in  the  abstract  has  indeed  been  the  '  Aunt  Sally  '  of  the  world's  child- 
hood, pelted  by  many  missiles. 

And  age  does  not  seem  to  stale  the  infinite  variety  of  this  exercise 
of  the  imagination.  Since  the  days  of  Solomon's  Proverbs  to  those  of 
Ruskin's  Sesame  and  Lilies  these  generalisations  have  been  and  still  are 
the  stock  in  trade  of  imaginative  writers.  Time  has  brought  one  change, 
however.  In  old  days  the  subject  was  considered  a  simple  one,  and 
certain  well-worn  maxims  were  thought  sufficient  to  meet  all  needs. 
Now  everybody  who  is  anybody  is  bound  to  have  a  different  inter- 
pretation of  '  Woman  '  and  her  place  in  the  scheme  of  things.  Thus  to 
those  who  take  such  speculation  and  theorising  seriously,  the  world 
is  full  of  confusion  and  contradiction  on  this  subject.  But  to  anyone 
who  is  interested  in  the  growth  of  thought  and  understanding  among 
individuals  or  nations,  the  interest  is  mainly  a  psychological  one, 
for  it  may  be  safely  presumed  that  these  theories  reveal  more  of  the 
mental  calibre  and  nature  of  the  theorist  than  of  the  unfortunate 
human  beings  who,  since  the  world  began,  have  been  ceaselessly 
vivisected,  with  varying  degrees  of  success,  by  everybody  who  is 
trying  to  be  intellectual.  Thus,  when  Solomon  says  that  women's 
value  is  above  rubies,  whilst  the  Kaffirs  decree  a  wife  is  worth  ten 
cows,  we  are  not  so  much  struck  with  the  truth  or  wisdom  of  either 
pronouncement  as  with  the  difference  of  the  point  of  view  between 

495 


496  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

Solomon  and  the  Kaffirs.  And  when  we  hear  that  some  Eastern 
nations  believe  women  to  have  no  souls,  whilst  a  council  of  the  Church 
decided  by  a  small  majority  that  they  may  really  hope  for  a  humble 
share  of  man's  privilege  of  immortality,  a  woman  may  perhaps  be 
pardoned  if  she  thinks  less  of  her  own  no  doubt  remote  chances  of 
salvation,  than  of  that  precious  and  enlightening  sense  of  humour 
that  seems  to  have  been  denied  to  so  many  learned  and  law-making 
assemblies  of  men.  Souls  are  not  thought  so  important  in  this  genera- 
tion, and  we  are  allowed  to  possess  them  in  peace  ;  but  when  some 
men  say  women  have  inferior  brain  capacity,  we  can  always  comfort 
ourselves  with  the  thought  that  so  little  do  they  believe  this  that 
they  find  it  necessary  to  protect  themselves  legally  and  artificially 
from  women's  competition.  As  Mill  said  long  ago,  you  do  not  have 
to  make  laws  to  prevent  people  without  muscles  being  blacksmiths. 
The  people  who  want  to  restrict  women  because  they  are  inferior 
mentally  are  really  those  who  believe  no  such  comfortable  doctrine, 
but  are,  in  simple  English,  afraid  of  their  competition.  Just  in  the 
same  way  the  men  Trade  Unionists  who  say  women  can  never  be  as 
skilled  as  men,  say  it  because  they  do  not  want  them  to  be  employed, 
whilst  the  masters  who  say  they  are  neater  and  quicker  are  those 
who  want  to  employ  them.  Schopenhauer,  no  doubt,  had  some  good 
spiteful  human  reason  for  proclaiming  that  women  were  an  '  undersized, 
broad-hipped,  narrow-shouldered,  short-legged  race.'  Lady  Lovat 
may  argue  as  the  result  of  her  experience  that  women's  souls  abhor 
the  abstract.  Against  that  dictum  we  must  set  the  undoubted  fact 
that  some  university  professors  affirm  that  women  excel  in  mathe- 
matics and  logic.  But  all  these  are  simply  matters  of  personal  opinion 
and  belief.  It  is  certainly  amusing  to  see  that  Solomon  was  more 
progressive  in  his  views  about  women  than  Ruskin,  and  that  his  ideal 
lady  could  at  all  events  speak  with  her  enemy  in  the  gate,  while 
Ruskin's  could  only  sit  at  home  and  arrange  things,  '  entering  into  no 
contest.'  But  these  theories  are  too  vague  and  random  to  be  of  any 
value  except  as  they  throw  light  on  the  character  of  the  theorist. 
Ruskin's  ideal  of  women  was,  of  course,  sentimental  and  impossible. 
What  woman  is  there  in  the  world,  be  she  never  so  old-fashioned,  who 
enters  into  no  contest  ?  And  may  Heaven  defend  us  from  people,  men 
or  women,  who  spend  their  lives  in  '  sweet  ordering,  arrangement, 
decision.'  Indeed,  it  is  that  sort  of  thing  that  makes  a  great  many  of 
the  world's  worst  fights,  because,  however  ideal  and  womanly  it  may 
be,  other  people  will  not  always  stand  being  '  sweetly  ordered  and 
arranged.'  Lady  Lovat  quotes  Ruskin's  saying  that  women  should 
rule  and  not  fight,  and  one  is  tempted  to  think  how  strange  it  was  that 
Ruskin  did  not  seem  to  know  that,  everywhere  and  in  every  sphere, 
physical,  mental  and  spiritual,  it  is  the  hardest  fighters  who,  in  the 
end,  rule,  and  must  rule.  Because  the  hardest  fighters  are  simply 
those  who  are  most  in  touch  with  the  Divine  Force. 


1908  WOMEN  AND   THE   SUFFRAGE  497 

As  a  refutation  of  the  claims  of  women  to  political  life,  Lady 
Lovat  quotes  a  very  romantic  speech  of  Portia's  in  the  Merchant  of 
Venice ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  see  that  it  has  any  bearing  on  the  case, 
as  even  men  have  belittled  themselves  and  called  women  their  '  ladies 
and  queens,'  and  other  extravagant  things,  on  similar  occasions,  when 
they  were  in  love  (especially  in  plays),  and  the  rhapsodies  of  these 
ecstatic  moments  cannot  be  seriously  debated  as  a  basis  for  legislation. 
In  discussing  the  question  of  Women's  Suffrage,  it  is  not  with  Ruskin's 
Early  Victorian  ladies  we  have  to  deal,  '  women  who  enter  into  no 
contest,'  '  who  are  protected  from  all  danger  and  temptation,'  '  whose 
great  function  is  praise.'  Nor  is  it  with  the  heroines  of  history  or 
fiction.  Portia  would  have  been  most  certainly  just  as  blatantly 
in  love  with  Bassanio  if  she  had  been  a  plural  voter  or  a  member  of 
the  Council  of  Ten.  The  serious  charge  brought  by  Lady  Lovat 
against  modern  women  is  that  they  are,  like  Shylock,  insisting  on 
their  pound  of  flesh  (the  suffrage)  and  willing  to  pay  a  great  price  for 
it,  the  sacrifice  of  their  present  ideal  position  of  influence  and  happi- 
ness, and  especially  their  '  highest  prerogative  of  educating  children.' 
Also,  oddly  enough,  she  points  to  the  medical  profession  as  one  of  the 
splendid  privileges  due  to  the  old  order,  a  profession  that  has  been 
forced  open  within  the  last  fifty  years  by  the  unremitting  and  much 
opposed  efforts  of  Women's  Rights  women.  As  to  the  Education 
question,  Lady  Lovat  quotes  Plato  in  support  of  the  view  that  to 
draw  out  the  Divine  Image  in  a  human  being  is  a  greater  work  than 
the  making  of  a  beautiful  statue.  This  is  no  doubt  true,  but  there  are 
few  who  would  venture  to  assert  that  a  man  or  woman  of  genius,  an 
artist  or  a  thinker,  could  not  be  as  useful  an  instrument  to  awaken  the 
Divine  Image  in  another  person's  soul  as  an  ordinary  domestic  person 
immersed  in  trivialities.  Influence  is  no  question  of  time.  No  women 
of  any  class  really  educate  their  children,  they  provide  teachers 
for  them  or  send  them  to  school.  Their  own  influence  is  confined  for 
the  most  part  to  what  they  are  and  what  they  know — the  real  source 
of  all  power.  If  anyone  wishes  to  have  influence,  let  her  not  forget 
Maeterlinck's  fable  about  the  man  in  the  lighthouse,  who  gave  away 
the  oil  in  his  lamp  to  the  poor,  and  thus  lost  his  power  to  save  great 
ships  from  destruction.  And  it  is  one  of  the  enduring  happinesses  of 
life  that  everything  we  learn  and  every  strength  we  gain  makes  our 
lamp  burn  brighter  and  thus  enables  us  to  help  other  people.  If  women 
are  going  to  be  great  educators  they  must  not  shut  themselves  out  from 
any  human  activity,  for  all  inventive  and  creative  activity  is  not  only 
good  for  men,  it  is  good  in  itself  :  in  fact,  it  is  the  condition  of  full 
human  development  and  right  doing.  The  idea  that  one  power  crowds 
out  another  in  the  human  mind  is  surely  based  on  a  very  false  con- 
ception of  the  working  of  the  laws  that  make  evolution  by  a  gradual 
widening  of  mental  outlook,  and  the  receding  of  horizons  before  a 
determined  effort  of  the  will.  Women' who  wilfully  detach  themselves 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  379  L  L 


498  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTUXY  Sept. 

from  the  energies  and  struggle  and  fight  of  the  living  world  around 
them  to  pursue  an  ideal  of  the  gracious  seclusion  of  the  family,  and 
the  sanctifying  influence  of  passive  existence,  will  too  soon  find  that 
they  have  nothing  to  give  their  children,  and  that  the  young  will  go 
elsewhere  for  the  generous  inspirations  of  courage  and  heroic  living. 
But  nobody  can  escape  the  battle  in  the  end.  And  nobody  should. 

'  The  garden  and  the  cloister '  (quoted  from  John  Morley  by 
Lady  Lovat)  are  no  doubt  necessary  and  delightful  for  us  all,  but  so 
are  '  the  dust  and  burning  sun  and  shouting  of  the  days  of  conflict ' 
to  every  human  being,  man  or  woman,  who  believes  in  the  high 
destinies  of  the  human  soul,  but  more  especially  to  those  who  would 
be  the  means  to  awaken  the  Divine  Image  of  heroism  and  power 
and  hardly  won  wisdom  in  the  soul  of  a  child. 

Love,  Lady  Lovat  says,  is  the  special  prerogative  of  woman. 
But  there  are  no  special  prerogatives.  The  world  as  God  made  it 
is  free  to  us  all.  It  is  useless  to  tell  women  that  the  active  life  is  the 
special  prerogative  of  men  ;  as  useless  as  it  would  be  to  tell  men  that 
love  is  the  special  prerogative  of  women.  These  things  are  not  so, 
simply  because  the  Power  that  made  the  world  did  not  make  them  so. 
In  every  contest  since  the  beginning  of  history  women  have  struggled 
and  fought  and  suffered.  In  every  great  national  movement,  where 
those  movements  have  come  into  the  sphere  of  bloodshed  and  death, 
as  in  France,  in  Russia,  in  Italy,  women  have  suffered  and  struggled 
and  died  in  large  numbers,  and  proved  to  the  world  a  thousand  times 
over  by  their  deeds  their  possession  of  the  heroic  qualities  of  the 
active  life. 

As  to  love,  surely  it  is  a  universal  principle  not  to  be  narrowed 
down  to  any  one  section  of  humanity.  Those  who  do  not  believe 
in  the  special  prerogatives  of  sex  can  comfort  themselves  with  the 
comprehensiveness  of  the  ancient  conception  '  God  is  Love.'  Lady 
Lovat  allows  that '  Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law  '  ;  Ipve  is  '  the  only, 
the  eternal  foundation  of  the  training  of  our  race  to  humanity.'  If 
these  things  are  true,  surely  this  Divine  Principle,  being  her  special 
prerogative,  would  prove  nothing  but  the  superiority  of  the  spiritually 
enlightened  woman's  soul  over  the  darkened  soul  of  man.  But  this  is 
not  so  ;  the  sun  shines  on  the  good  and  evil  and  on  the  just  and  the 
unjust,  and  the  great  vivifying  and  purifying  forces  are  the  birthright 
of  every  human  soul,  irrespective  of  all  accidents  or  '  prerogatives  of 
sex.' 

Now  as  to  the  present  happy  position  and  influence  of  women 
which  is  said  to  be  threatened  by  their  approaching  emancipation. 
Lady  Lovat  thinks  that  what  she  considers  the  present  ideal  relations 
of  men  and  women,  and  especially  the  private  influence  of  women  over 
men,  are  in  danger.  By  all  means  let  us  render  unto  Csesar  the  things 
that  are  Caesar's,  but  it  is  as  well  to  remember  that  there  are  some 
things  that  are  outside  his  jurisdiction.  And  our  private  relations 


1908  WOMEN  AND   THE   SUFFRAGE  499 

to  one  another  are  not  settled  by  the  House  of  Commons,  but  by  the 
deep  working  laws  of  our  own  natures.  Lady  Lovat  thinks  that  men 
should  reverence  women  and  keep  them  on  pedestals  far  removed  from 
the  contests  and  difficulties  that  go  to  make  up  life.  But  women 
are  human  beings,  and  not  meant  to  live  on  pedestals  ;  their  place  is 
in  the  midst  of  contest  and  difficulty,  and  there  are  some  of  us,  men  as 
well  as 'women,  who  do  not  admire  or  revere  or  even  tolerate  the 
type  of  character  produced  by  this  St.  Simon  Stylites  attitude  towards 
life,  in  man  or  woman.  Anyhow,  the  doubtful  privilege  of  a  column 
is  only  possible  for  the  favoured  few  of  a  leisured  class.  The  mass  of 
the  female  population  have  no  time  to  dream  of  the  very  brittle 
influence  which  they  are  supposed  to  hide  under  a  veil  of  weakness. 
They  are  not  posing  on  pedestals,  they  are  struggling  and  fighting 
through  their  lives,  trying  to  earn  their  livings  honestly  and  hold  their 
heads  above  water  in  that  world  where  there  is  no  pity  nor  help  for 
those  who  go  under.  If  I  venture  to  doubt  Lady  Lovat's  generalisa- 
tions of  the  great  influence  of  politics  on  private  life,  I  am  also  very 
far  from  sharing  her  opinion  of  the  powerlessness  of  political  forces  to 
work  out  their  results  in  the  nearly  allied  world  of  industry.  These 
forces  are  not  so  helpless  as  politicians  would  have  us  believe. 

If  Gladstone  really  thought  that  the  *  terrible  woes  of  this  darkened 
world  '  could  not  be  effectually  dealt  with  by  the  State,  why  did  he 
elect  to  spend  his  whole  life  as  a  statesman  ?  Surely,  in  face  of  the 
many  importunate  problems  that  surround  us,  if  he  had  really  seen 
a  more  excellent  way  he  would  have  taken  it.  Let  us  take  courage. 
The  Franchise  is  not  a  new  and  insidious  method  of  overturning  the 
lives  and  traditions  and  sentiments  of  the  rich.  It  is  not  even  a 
question  of  one  political  party  against  another.  It  is  simply  a  means 
by  which  the  mass  of  women  in  the  professional  and  industrial  worlds 
can  defend  their  interests  and  their  right  to  work.  Practically, 
working  men  do  not,  as  Lady  Lovat  thinks,  contest  inch  by  inch 
the  idea  that  piece-work  rates  should  be  the  same  for  women  as  for 
men,  because  they  do  not  like  being  undercut,  and  the  sympathy  of 
working  men  for  the  suffrage  movement  is  very  much  on  the  grounds  of 
the  indirect  influence  of  political  status  on  wages.  They  realise  in  a 
way  that  the  leisured  classes  cannot,  that  it  is  the  present  outcast 
position  of  working  women  that  forces  them  to  pull  down  the  rate  for 
everybody  by  accepting  such  very  low  pay.  And,  apart  even  from  wages, 
never  before  in  the  history  of  this  country  have  women  had  more  need 
of  political  power  to  protect  themselves  against  injurious  legislation. 
At  this  moment  over  100,000  women  are  being  threatened  by  Parlia- 
ment with  the  abolition  of  their  employment.  We  are  told  that 
a  day  will  be  given  by  the  Government  to  the  discussion  of  Clause  20 
of  the  Licensing  Bill.  It  is  by  a  sub-clause  of  this  clause  that  the 
fate  of  these  women  will  be  decided.  It  seems  that  in  a  couple  of  hours' 
talk  by  unrepresentative  legislators  they  will  be  deprived  of  their 

L   L    2 


500  TEE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

occupations,  their  incomes  and  their  reputations,  through  no  fault  of 
their  own,  but  simply  because  of  their  helpless  unenfranchised  position. 

The  President  of  the  Local  Government  Board  says  openly  that  one 
of  the  great  remedies  for  unemployment  is  the  enormous  curtailing 
of  the  work  of  women.  This  ingenious  method  of  robbing  Peter  to 
pay  Paul  has  no  doubt  its  charm  for  a  Government  that  depends 
for  its  very  existence  on  Paul's  votes,  and  has  nothing  to  hope  for  or 
fear  from  Peter.  Attempts  are  being  constantly  made  to  turn  women 
out  of  their  trades  and  livelihoods,  whether  it  is  the  barmaids,  the 
circus  riders  and  acrobats,  the  pitbrow  women,  the  married  women  of 
Lancashire  (73,000),  the  married  teachers,  or  the  Cradley  Heath 
chainmakers.  Sometimes  these  things  are  done  quietly,  as  in  the  case 
of  trades  like  printers  or  florists.  Here  a  simple  application  of  the 
Factory  Acts  is  enough  to  turn  the  women  out  of  work,  as  the  minute 
regulation  of  hours  is  quite  impossible  where  the  manipulation  of 
perishable  flowers  is  concerned,  or  where  work  has  to  be  done  at 
night,  as  in  the  printing  trade. 

The  outlook  is  dark  indeed  for  all  working  women,  because  the 
women's  labour  market  is  already  overcrowded,  and  every  displacement 
of  labour  simply  adds  to  the  competition  in  the  lesser  skilled  trades, 
and,  by  making  the  supply  of  workers  so  much  greater  than  the  demand, 
brings  down  the  already  low  rate  of  wages  for  all  concerned.  The 
franchise  is  a  crying  need  to  guard  the  interests  of  those  who  have 
to  take  part  in  the  industrial  struggle.  It  is  easy  to  laugh  at  unmarried 
women  for  being  faddists,  and  married  women  for  being  influenced 
by  their  husbands,  but  whether  they  are  faddists  or  weak-minded 
people,  if  they  are  workers,  they  have  need  of  the  protection  of  the 
franchise,  for  they  will  have  to  fight  their  way  in  the  world.  Men  are 
not  disfranchised  because  they  are  faddists  or  because  their  wives 
influence  them  unduly.  And  Lady  Lovat  herself  insists  strongly  on 
the  tremendous  influence  of  women  over  their  husbands.  Indeed,  if 
a  free  mind  were  to  be  a  qualification  for  voting,  one  imagines  the 
electorate  of  this  country  would  be  reduced  by  a  considerable  number. 
In  considering  the  question  of  adult  suffrage,  Lady  Lovat  says  there 
are  more  women  than  men  in  this  country.  At  first  sight  it  seems 
a  very  odd  contention  to  an  ordinary  mind  used  to  democratic 
theories,  that  because  a  section  of  the  populace  are  in  the  majority, 
that  is  a  reason  why  they  should  not  be  represented  in  Parliament. 
The  idea  that  all  women  would  band  together  and  vote  against  all 
men  is  absurd  and  inconceivable.  .Even  in  the  present  struggle  for  the 
suffrage,  which  you  would  think  has  been  made  entirely  a  sex  question, 
by  the  exclusion  of  a  whole  sex,  men  and  women  have  not  been  driven 
into  opposite  camps.  There  are  plenty  of  men  on  the  women's  side, 
and  doubtless  many  women  who  see  no  evil  in  the  present  state  of 
things.  The  sentimental  and  speculative  aspect  of  this  subject  has 


1908  WOMEN  AND    THE   SUFFRAGE  501 

had  its  full  share  of  attention ;  but  one  would  like  to  appeal  to  those 
intellectual  people  to  whom  the  franchise  is  naturally  rather  a  matter 
for  philosophic  discussion  than  a  vital  need,  as  it  is  to  the  working 
classes,  for  the  sake  of  theories  and  traditions,  not  to  range  themselves 
on  the  side  of  those  forces  that  are  making  life  so  difficult  and  so 
squalid  to  millions  of  the  poorest  workers  of  this  country. 

In  the  course  of  a  speech  made  by  Mrs.  Humphry  Ward  in  pro- 
posing the  '  Anti-Suffrage  '  Manifesto  and  published  in  the  August 
number  of  this  Review,  she  added  the  weight  of  her  testimony  to  Lady 
Lovat's,  and  attacked  the  position  of  those  who  claim  that  the  posses- 
sion of  the  franchise  by  women  will  result  in  industrial  equality 
between  the  sexes — a  very  practical  gain,  as  it  will  work  itself  out  in 
adjustment  of  wages  to  natural  ability  and  capacity  irrespective  of 
the  present  artificial  sex  handicap.  Everybody  who  is  interested  in 
labour  questions  from  the  workers'  point  of  view,  be  they  men  or 
women,  must  wish  for  this  result.  Because  infallibly  and  mechani- 
cally, by  the  same  law  through  which  women  are  Underpaid,  men  are 
undercut,  and  the  lamentations  of  trade  unionists  on  the  competition 
of  what  they  call '  unfair  '  female  labour  are  the  commonplace  of  labour 
meetings  and  reports.  Mrs.  Ward  indeed  allows  that  women's  wages 
are  generally  lower  than  men's,  but,  like  Lady  Lovat,  she  clings  to  the 
belief  that  political  enfranchisement  would  be  powerless  to  affect  this 
economic  evil,  which  is  caused,  according  to  her  view,  by  five  different 
reasons. 

(1)  '  There  are  more  women  than  men.'    While  not  disputing  this 
statement  as  applied  to  generalities,  it  is  impossible  to  deny  that  as 
far  as  the  labour  market  is  concerned  truth  lies  in  its  exact  opposite. 
There  are  far  more  men  than  women  competing.     And  this  is  because 
at  present  so  large  a  proportion  of  women's  work  is  absorbed  in  the 
unpaid  activities  of  married  home  life.     People  are  apt  to  think  that 
there  are  more  women  than  men  in  industrial  life  because  the  com- 
petition for  work  is  doubtless  fiercer  among  women ;  but  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  this  added  competition  is  easily  accounted  for  by  the 
fact  that  women's  labour  is  forced  into  a  few  restricted  channels, 
because  so  many  trades  are  artificially  shut  to  them,  while  with  men 
'  la  carridre  est  ouverte  aux  talents  ' — the  world  of  technical  education 
and  work  is  free  to  their  competing  abilities. 

(2)  Mrs.  Ward  gives  as  one  of  the  most  important  causes  of  women's 
low  wages  the  backwardness  of  the  organisation  of  women's  labour. 
Now  this  is  a  confusion  of  cause  and  effect.     Women's  labour  is  badly 
organised  in  those  trades  where  they  are  doing  little-skilled  and  low- 
paid  work.     The  same  rule  applies  to  men.     This  is  no  sex  question. 
Any  trade  union  secretary  will  tell  you  that  it  is  almost  impossible 
to  organise  men  in  an  unskilled  trade.     Where  men  or  women  are 
doing  highly  skilled  work  they  are  usually  well  organised  into  strong 
societies.     But  women's  societies  are  fewer  and  poorer  than  men's, 


502  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

because  they  are  as  yet  excluded  from  the  better  and  more  highly- 
paid  parts  of  most  trades.  And  where  they  are  well  organised  the 
trade  unions  are  crippled  by  their  want  of  political  status.  It  is  not 
only  the  unskilled  unorganised  among  women  that  do  not  get  industrial 
justice.  For  instance,  in  every  town  in  England  the  teachers  employed 
in  the  elementary  schools  are  paid  by  a  fixed  rate  from  the  head 
master  and  the  head  mistress  down  to  the  pupil  teachers,  in  which  it 
is  carefully  calculated,  that,  training  and  qualifications  and  hours 
being  equal,  a  man  gets  so  much  more  for  being  a  man  and  a  woman 
so  much  less  for  being  a  woman.  And  yet  there  are  30,000  women  in 
the  National  Union  of  Teachers.  Mrs.  Ward  considers  low  wages 
among  unskilled  men  to  be  a  proof  that  wages  are  not  influenced  by 
political  forces.  Nobody  denies  that  among  men  skilled  labour  is, 
roughly  speaking,  highly  paid  and  unskilled  labour  poorly  paid.  But 
the  work  of  the  political  forces  is  to  be  found  in  the  different  payment 
obtained  for  the  same  or  equally  skilled  quality  of  work  by  men 
and  women.  If  the  average  of  agricultural  labourers'  wages  is  low  at 
present,  it  must  be  remembered  that  in  1872  8s.  to  12s.  a  week  was  the 
amount  given  by  their  leader,  Joseph  Arch,  as  a  fair  estimate  of  their 
ordinary  earnings.  After  their  enfranchisement  their  trade  union, 
with  the  uncertainty  attending  all  such  organisations,  gradually 
ceased  to  exist.  The  unquestioned  improvement  of  the  minimum 
8s.  to  15s.  in  the  face  of  the  industrial  disaster  like  the  collapse  of  the 
union  can  be  traced  to  their  improved  political  status.  Just  as  so  much 
of  the  amelioration  of  their  social  and  industrial  condition  can  be  traced 
to  the  possession  of  what  Joseph  Arch  called  the  '  political  telephone 
of  the  vote'  and  in  the  working  of  those  political  forces  in  which  he  had 
such  faith.  Indeed,  nowadays  there  is  growing  to  be  little  doubt 
among  trade  union  men  as  to  the  value  of  votes  in  the  industrial 
world,  and  to  this  slow-growing  conviction  is  due  the  modern  develop- 
ment of  the  labour  representation  movement.  Experience  teaches, 
and  it  is  noteworthy  that  the  trade  unions  that  fifty  years  ago  received 
all  suggestions  of  political  action  with  cries  of  '  No  politics  '  are  now 
running  their  own  special  candidates  for  Parliament. 

(3)  Mrs.  Ward  says  that  marriage  and  the  expectation  of  marriage 
affect  the  industrial  value  of  woman's  work  unfavourably.  There  are 
two  sides  of  this  question.  In  trades  and  professions  where  women 
are  stopped  working  on  their  marriage,  and  married  women  are  not 
employed,  such  regulation  no  doubt  takes  the  quality  of  stability 
from  their  work,  and  tends  to  the  employment  of  very  young  girls, 
which  is  always  a  misfortune  from  an  industrial  point  of  view.  But 
there  are  very  few  of  these  trades,  and  married  women  are  specially 
useful  members  of  trade  unions  (if  their  husbands  are  earning),  as  in 
times  of  industrial  dispute  they  have  something  to  fall  back  upon  and 
this  gives  them  independence  and  power.  The  same  applies  to  their 
husbands,  and  many  a  man  has  been  tided  over  times  of  struggle 


1908  WOMEN  AND   THE   SUFFRAGE  508 

or  unemployment  through  the  help  of  his  wife's  earnings.  Two 
incomes  in  a 'family  lend  security  to  the  industrial  position  of  its 
members. 

(4)  '  There  is  far  more  competition  for  men's  labour '  is  Mrs.  Ward's 
fourth  reason  for  women's  low  wages.     This  is  rather  a  cryptic  saying, 
as  competition  varies  so  much  in  different  trades,  and  in  cases  where 
it  is  a  real  factor  it  will  usually  be  found  to  be  due  to  easily  removed 
causes,  such  as  either  the  debarring  of  women  from  technical  training, 
or  the  old  but  fast  dying  tradition  of  women's  inferiority  as  workers 
or  human  beings — a  tradition  which  made  it,  a  few  years  ago,  a  distinct 
and  marked  descent  in  the  social  scale  to  employ  a  maid  instead  of  a 
footman.     So  we  come  back  again  to  the  real  root  of  all  the  economic 
mischief,  the  need  of  the  mass  of  women  for  political  life  and  energy 
to  widen  out  this  industrial   outlook   and  strengthen  their  earning 
power. 

(5)  *  Men  are  stronger  than  women.'     This  is  a  generalisation  elusive 
and  hard  to  test,  for  to  measure  strength  is  indeed  a  difficult  task. 
The  bearing  of  this  statement  on  the  problem  of  women's  low  piece- 
work rates  is  hard  to  understand,  because  the  strength  of  the  worker, 
though  it  may  affect  the  amount  of  his  or  her  output,  could  in  no  way 
affect  the  value  of  the  work  per  piece,  provided  that  it  is  up  to  the 
standard  of  excellence  required.     If  the  employer's  standard  is  not 
satisfied,  the  solution  is  easy ;  the  incompetent  worker,  man  or  woman, 
is  dismissed  to  make  room  for  a  more  competent  one.  But,  apart  from 
the  industrial  point  of  view,  this  question  of  relative  strength,  and 
especially  of  physical  strength,  is  a  very  important  one,  for  here  we 
come  to  what  I  would  venture  with  all  respect  to  call  the  root  error  of 
the '  Anti-Suffragists.'    '  The  modern  State,'  says  Mrs.  Humphry  Ward, 
*  depends  for  its  very  existence  on  the  physical  force  of  men.'    Now 
you  might  say  with  equal  obviousness, '  the  modern  State  depends  for 
its  very  existence  on  the  physical  capacity  of  women.'    Without  going 
so  far  as  the  Christian  Scientists,  who  tell  us  that  matter  does  not 
exist,  surely  such  a  material  point  of  view  is  hard  to  maintain  in  face 
of  the  accumulated  thought  and  energy  and  will  that  has  built  up 
the  difference  between  our  own  imperfect  civilisation  and  the  rude 
and  brutal  life-customs  of  a  savage  tribe. 

Meanwhile  we  all  know  practically  in  our  own  lives  that  it  is 
on  our  wills  and  our  presence  of  mind,  and  not  our  fists,  that  we  rely 
in  any  extremity.  If  it  had  not  been  so,  the  world  might  have  been 
ruled  by  lions  and  tigers  or  even  elephants.  But  the  human  will  has 
conquered  and  rules  over  physical  force,  and  the  divine  power  of  thought 
is  the  greatest  power  in  the  world.  It  is  not  even  true  that  physical 
force,  ruled  and  organised  by  will,  controls  our  affairs.  We  do  not 
choose  our  Prime  Ministers  and  Governments  because  they  know 
how  to  lead  armies  and  win  battles,  and  when  our  successful  Generals 
come  home  from  the  war  we  may  load  them  with  honours  and  applause, 


504  THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY  Sept. 

but  we  do  not  entrust  to  them  the  destinies  of  the  nation.     The  days 
of  Napoleon  and  Julius  Caesar  and  Alexander  the  Great  have  passed, 
and  all  who  found  their  claims  to  rule  on  their  superior  physical 
force  are  building  on  the  sand,  and  their  claims  must  in  the  course  of 
evolution  crumble  away  into  the  same  ruin,  as  the  claims  of  the  lion  or 
the  pack  of  wolves  to  terrorise  the  human  race.    We  all  know  in  our 
individual  lives  that  will  power  is  no  respecter  of  sex  ;  women  have  the 
same  capacity  for  strength  as  men  ;  where  they  have  not  developed 
it  as  individuals  or  nations,  they  have  been  subjected  through  the 
hypnotism  of  fear  and  ignorance,  and  the  penalties  of  such  subjection 
are  surely  leading  the  way  to  a  higher  wisdom.     It  is  wide  of  the  mark 
to  talk  about  the  trained  and  specialised  knowledge  that  men  alone 
are  able  to  get  as  a  reason  for  women's  low  wages.     With  equal  truth  it 
might  have  been  said  when  women  were  not  allowed  to  qualify  as 
doctors  that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  practise  because  men  alone 
were  able  to  get  trained  and  specialised  knowledge.    Monopolies  in  tech- 
nical education  are  most  certainly  doomed,  and  even  now  this  barrier  is 
breaking  down  on  all  sides,  and  it  will  not  be  disputed  that  women  are 
gaining  trained  and  specialised  knowledge  and  qualifications  in  many 
and  various  fields.  In  politics,  Mrs.  Ward  says, '  women  are  debarred  by 
their  mere  sex  from  that  practical  political  experience  which  is  at 
least  always  open  to  men.'     And  she  does  not  see  the  curious  working 
of  the  law  of  reaction  or  compensation  by  which  it  happens  that  this 
very  debarring  and  shutting  out  of  women  from  politics  has  given 
them  a  practical  experience  almost  unknown  among  men.     Just  as, 
in  a  nation,  want  of  success  in  war  means  concentration  of  national 
energy  on  questions  of  Army  Reform,  so  the  long  political  struggle 
against  fearful  odds,  though  it  may  have  developed  a  tendency  to 
disorder  and  mafficking  among  the  less  sober,  has  also  given  unique 
opportunities  for  political  experience,  and  developed  political  faculties 
among  the  working  and  organising  part  of  the  female  population,  facul- 
ties that  cannot  be  crushed  by  physical  force,  for  they  are  the  stuff  of 
which  the  political  will  to  live  is  made,  and  as  such  they  are  a  necessary 
part  of  the  national  life  and  carry  in  their  very  existence  the  complete 
assurance  of  their  final  victory. 

In  answer  to  the  claim  that  it  is  inexpedient  that  what  Mrs.  Hum- 
phry Ward  calls  hygienic  regulations  should  be  imposed  on  the  work 
of  women,  especially  married  women,  without  their  own  consent, 
she  uses  the  curious  argument  that  though  the  women  concerned 
have  no  voice  in  the  matter,  other  women  who  have  neither  worked 
in  mills  themselves  nor  been  chosen  by  the  workers  to  represent  them 
have  been  consulted  in  the  making  of  these  laws.  And  here  many  of 
us  would  emphatically  protest  against  the  extraordinary  theory  that 
in  political  matters,  while  men  must  choose  their  own  representatives, 
any  woman  can  choose  herself  to  represent  all  other  women  and  no 
questions  will  be  asked.  The  Anti-Suffrage  Manifesto  speaks  of 


1908  WOMEN  AND   TEE   SUFFBAGE  605 

'  representative  women  '  being  brought  into  closer  touch  with  Govern- 
ment departments.  But,  as  far  as  Government  is  concerned,  there  are 
no  representative  women.  There  are  no  women  with  a  mandate  from 
their  fellows  to  represent  them  in  political  matters.  Whilst  women 
have  no  votes  they  cannot  have  accredited  political  representatives. 
Labour  questions  are  involved  and  difficult,  and  when  factory  laws 
are  ignorantly  and  theoretically  drafted,  without  due  regard  to  the 
practical  interests  of  some  section  of  workers,  it  is  no  comfort  to  those 
workers  to  know  that  some  '  distinguished '  woman  favoured  among 
politicians  has  been  consulted  about  their  affairs.  This  sort  of  so- 
called  representation  is  no  safeguard  to  anybody ;  if  it  were,  men  would 
never  have  felt  the  need  for  democratic  institutions,  and  England 
might  still  be  peaceably  governed  by  irresponsible  rulers  who,  by 
right  of  birth,  consider  themselves  and  one  another  fit  to  coerce  the 
multitude  for  their  good.  Practically  we  recognise,  as  far  as  men  are 
concerned,  that  the  only  safety  for  the  governed  lies  in  the  fact  that 
their  governors  in  some  way  depend  on  them,  and  are  therefore  sensitive 
not  only  to  their  needs  but  to  their  judgment.  A  politician  must  have 
the  countenance  and  support  of  his  constituents,  and  it  is  to  his  con- 
stituents that  in  the  last  resort  he  must  make  his  appeal.  Without 
constituents  you  cannot  have  representation.  Under  a  fair  system 
if  a  woman  wanted  to  be  representative  of  the  aspirations  of  a  female 
factory  population  she  would  have  to  be  prepared  to  stand  up  for 
what  they  really  wanted,  not  her  theories  of  what  they  ought  to  want, 
unless  of  course  she  could  convert  them  to  her  theories.  But  until 
women  have  votes  it  is  impossible  that  they  should  get  true  and  honest 
representation  from  other  women,  who,  however  wise  and  cultured 
and  distinguished  they  may  be,  can  only  have  any  influence  as  long  as 
their  views  please  the  men  in  power.  One  of  the  lesser  evils  attendant 
on  the  present  voteless  condition  of  women  is  the  fact  that  there  is  no 
test  for  the  working  value  of  women  politicians,  no  means  of  gauging 
their  influence  and  claims  to  be  representative  of  other  women.  TJie 
truth  is,  the  power  of  the  few  women  of  the  upper  classes  who  by  their 
position  and  social  influence  are  able  to  keep  in  touch  with  legislation 
is  no  comfort  at  all  to  the  mass  of  the  working  women,  who  want  to 
be  governed  by  people  who  are  responsible  to  them,  and  to  whom  it 
will  therefore  come  as  a  matter  of  course  to  consider  their  interests 
and  consult  their  intelligence,  and  the  fact  that  men  will  anxiously 
consult  distinguished  and  philanthropic  ladies  does  not  touch  the 
point  at  issue.  Nor  does  the  example  of  American  institutions.  The 
strange  thing  about  America  is  that  it  is  often  quoted  to  us  as  an  ideal 
country  where  public  opinion  has  such  a  high  standard  that  barmaids 
would  not  be  tolerated,  and  anti-suffrage  societies  flourish.  And  most 
splendid  of  all,  the  highly  cultured  and  advanced  State  of  Oregon 
has  just  defeated  a  woman  suffrage  resolution  by  10,000  votes.  But 
when  one  comes  to  inquire  into  the  actual  political  and  moral  con- 


506  THE    NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

dition  of  American  towns  one  begins  to  wonder  whether  anti-suffrage 
societies,  barmen,  and  an  enlightened  masculine  electorate  are  to 
be  wholly  congratulated  on  their  political  results,  one  hears  bitter 
complaints  of  the  public -houses  as  centres  of    political  and  moral 
corruption,  and  of   the  masses  of    ignorant  and  often  alien  voters 
whose  vote  and  interest  is  for  sale.     The  consumption  of  spirits  per 
head  is  much  larger  in  the  United  States  than  it  is  in  England ;  over  and 
over  again  lurid  flashes  of  light  have  been  thrown  on  the  social  and 
economic  condition  of  the  great  American  cities,  a  condition  which 
is  usually  attributed  by  Americans  to  the  influx  of  ignorant  emigrants 
and  the  enormous  foreign  and  often  very  retrograde  element  that  has 
thus  been  introduced  into  the  electorate.     It  is  inaccurate  to  assert 
that  the  American  women-suffrage  agitation  has  been  defeated,  because 
as  yet  it  is  only  partially  successful ;  victory  in  four  States  may  seem  a 
very  small  thing,  a  little  result  for  forty  years'  work,  and  yet  this  is 
perhaps  a  short-sighted  and  impatient  view.     Some  of  us  were  tempted 
to  envy  the  swift  revolution  by  which  the  Finnish  women  gained 
complete  political  freedom.     But  it  may  well  be  that  here  in  England 
what  we  lose  in  speed  we  gain  in  stability,  and  Englishwomen  who 
are  slowly  working  forward  towards  the  greater  life  may  comfort 
themselves  with  the  thought  that  much  of  the  work  of  a  rapid  revolu- 
tion  may  be  undone  by  the  inevitable  reaction  that  dogs  its  steps, 
whilst  the  work  of  evolution,  plodding  steadily  on  through  the  storm 
of  its  own  reactions,  is  founded  on  an  everlasting  basis  of  security. 

EVA  GOKE-BOOTH. 


1908 


A  MINIMUM    WAGE  FOR   HOME    WORKERS 


THE  problem  of  what  are  usually,  but  very  vaguely  and  by  no  means 
always  accurately,  described  as  '  Sweated  industries  '  is  one  which  has 
forced  itself  upon  the  attention  of  several  of  the  great  European 
countries,  and  also  of  Australia  and  the  United  States  of  America. 
In  almost  all  thickly  populated  districts,  and  especially  where,  as  in 
old  countries,  women  are  at  least  as  numerous  as  men,  there  are  a 
large  number  of  people  who  depend  for  their  livelihood  upon  earnings 
which  are  pitiably  small  and  often  irregular  and  uncertain. 

Many  attempts  have  been  made  to  give  a  precise  definition  of  the 
word  '  sweating.'  My  own  view  is  that  the  term  should  only  be  applied 
to  the  employment  of  people  under  conditions  and  at  rates  of 
payment  which,  in  addition  to  being  extremely  low,  deprive  them  of 
a  fair  and  reasonable  share  of  the  price  vhich  the  employer  obtains  for 
the  articles  which  are  produced.  '  Sweating  '  appears  to  involve  that 
an  employer  is  obtaining  an  excessive  and  unfair  profit  by  squeezing 
down  to  an  altogether  inadequate  figure  the  payment  which  he  makes 
for  his  work,  or  that  an  intermediary  or  middleman  steps  in  between 
the  original  employer  and  the  actual  worker,  and  *  sweats  '  the  pay- 
ment which  was  really  intended  to  be  made  for  the  work  by  retaining 
in  his  own  hands  a  much  larger  proportion  of  the  original  payment 
than  any  service  he  may  render  can  be  said  fairly  to  entitle  him.  If 
there  be  '  sweating,'  there  must  be  a  '  sweater.'  To  describe  a  man  as 
a  '  sweater '  is  to  use  a  term  of  opprobrium.  It  implies  that  he  is 
taking  undue  advantage  of  those  whom  he  employs  by  paying  them 
much  less  for  the  work  they  do,  and  the  time  they  work,  and  also  pro- 
bably providing  them  with  far  less  satisfactory  conditions  under  which 
they  work,  than  the  price  or  payment  which  he  receives,  or  the  terms 
and  conditions  under  which  the  work  could  and  should  be  done,  render 
necessary.  In  a  word,  he  '  grinds  the 'face  of  the  poor,'  takes  advan- 
tage of  their  necessities  and  ignorance,  and  imposes  upon  them  rates 
of  payment  and  conditions  of  work  which  are  extremely  meagre  and 
unsatisfactory,  in  order  that  he  may  obtain  an  exceptional  profit. 
That  is  '  sweating  '  pure  and  simple,  as  I  understand  the  term.  Were 
this  really  the  problem  which  had  to  be  dealt  with,  were  it  even  the 
chief  part  of  it,  its  solution  would  be  comparatively  simple.  But  as 

507 


508  THE   NINETEENTH  GENTUBY  Sept. 

the  Select  Committee  of  which  I  had  the  honour  of  being  Chairman, 
which  was  appointed  by  the  House  of  Commons  early  last  year  to 
consider  the  conditions  of  labour  in  trades  in  which  home  work  is 
prevalent,  say  in  their  Keport  which  was  issued  as  Parliament  rose 
for  the  summer  recess  : 

If  the  term  '  sweating '  is  understood  to  mean  that  the  employer  '  grinds 
the  face  of  the  poor '  by  making  an  altogether  inadequate  payment  for  work 
upon  which  he  obtains  a  large  and  quite  disproportionate  profit,  your  Committee 
are  of  opinion  that,  although  there  are  cases  of  this  kind,  sweating  of  this 
description  is  not  the  most  important  factor  in  the  problem  which  they  have 
had  to  consider. 

Only  those  who  have  little  or  no  direct  and  personal  practical 
business  experience  can  doubt  that  it  can  only  be  in  special  and  ex- 
ceptional cases  and  circumstances  that  the  operation  of  the  ordinary 
laws  of  business  competition  will  fail  to  reduce  the  profits  of  manu- 
facturers, merchants,  contractors,  dealers,  and  shopkeepers  to  an 
average  percentage,  which  experience  has  shown  to  be  usual  and  reason- 
able, when  all  the  conditions  under  which  the  business  is  carried  on  are 
taken  into  consideration. 

The  real  problem  is  the  serious  and  deplorable  fact  that,  as  the 
Committee  say  : 

The  earnings  of  a  large  number  of  people — mainly  women  who  work  in  their 
homes — are  so  small  as  alone  to  be  insufficient  to  sustain  life  in  the  most  meagre 
manner,  even  when  they  toil  hard  for  extremely  long  hours.  The  consequence 
is  that,  when  those  earnings  are  their  sole  source  of  income,  the  conditions  under 
which  they  live  are  often  not  only  crowded  and  insanitary,  but  altogether  pitiable 
and  distressing. 

The  Committee  refrained  from  expressing  any  opinion  as  to  whether 
the  evil  is  greater  now,  either  actually  or  relatively  to  population,  than 
it  was  when  a  House  of  Lords  Committee  reported  on  the  subject  in 
1890.  No  conclusive  evidence  on  the  point  is  available,  and  the 
testimony  of  individuals  is  for  the  most  part  of  very  little  value. 
Few  of  them  have  had  precisely  the  experience  which  would  enable 
them  to  express  a  reliable  opinion ;  fewer  still  possess  the  very  rare 
faculties  of  accurate  observation  and  memory  and  unbiassed  judgment 
which,  in  the  absence  of  carefully  recorded  facts  and  statistics,  are 
essential  if  anything  like  a  trustworthy  comparison  is  to  be  made 
between  the  conditions  which  prevailed  twenty  years  ago  and  now. 
Those  who  are  engaged  in  agitating  for  reform  usually  have  the  evils 
brought  so  frequently  and  prominently  before  them  that  they  are  apt 
to  form  an  exaggerated  view  of  their  extent  and  prevalence,  and  to 
think  that  they  are  greater  and  wider  spread  than  ever  before,  when 
the  truth  is  they  have  only  been  more  fully  investigated  and  exposed, 
and  consequently  they  bulk  more  largely  in  their  eyes  and  in  those  of 
the  public.  When  at  the  same  time  an  energetic  propaganda  is  being 
carried  on  by  two  such  active  bodies  as  the  Tariff  Reformers  and  the 


1908    A  MINIMUM  WAGE  FOR  HOME  WORKERS    509 

Socialists,  who  have  convinced  themselves  that  what  our  country 
needs  is  a  revolutionary  change  in  our  commercial  system  on  the  one 
hand  and  in  the  economic  basis  of  the  social  fabric  on  the  other,  and 
who,  consequently,  are  constantly  unconsciously  yielding  to  the 
temptation  to  seize  and  drag  to  the  front  and  exaggerate  anything 
and  everything  that  will  lend  itself  to  the  suggestion  that  the  social 
and  economic  condition  of  the  people  is  deplorably  bad  and  is  steadily 
growing  worse,  we  need  to  be  carefully'on  our  guard  against  the  blind- 
ing of  our  eyes  to  obvious  facts,  and  the  warping  of  OUT  calmer 
judgment  which  may  result  from  being  compelled  to  listen  to  the 
constant  jeremiads  and  the  persistent  pessimism  of  these  modern 
Jeremiahs.  My  own  impression,  for  what  it  may  be  worth,  is  that  Miss 
Squire's  opinion  that  there  has  been  a  considerable  improvement  since 
Lord  Dunraven's  Committee  sat  is  well  founded.1  There  are  few 
people  who  are  more  capable  observers  and  more  competent  to  give  an 
opinion  on  this  subject  than  Miss  Squire  of  the  Home  Office,  and  I  am 
disposed  to  attach  greater  weight  to  her  judgment  and  that  of  Miss 
Collet,  of  the  Labour  Department  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  on  points 
like  this  than  to  the  testimony  of  others  whose  opportunities  of  obtain- 
ing accurate  information  are  less  extensive,  or  whose  position  and 
interests  render  them,  unconsciously,  less  impartial  observers.  Be 
that  as  it  may,  it  is  certainly  true  that,  to  quote  the  words  of  the 
Report  of  our  Committee, 

If  '  sweating  '  is  understood  to  mean  that  work  is  paid  for  at  a  rate  which,  in 
the  conditions  under  which  many  of  the  workers  do  it,  yields  to  them  an  income 
which  is  quite  insufficient  to  enable  an  adult  person  to  obtain  anything  like  proper 
food,  clothing,  and  house  accommodation,  there  is  no  doubt  that  sweating  does 
prevail  extensively.  ...  It  still  exists  in  such  a  degree  as  to  call  urgently  for 
the  interference  of  Parliament. 

The  Report  of  our  Committee  sounds  a  note  of  warning  on  one  or 
two  points  which  should  be  clearly  understood  and  always  borne  in 
mind.  All  statements  as  to  rates  of  payment,  earnings  and  number 
of  hours  worked,  should  be  received  with  great  caution ;  this  is  especially 
so  when  they  are  made  by  anyone  but  the  actual  worker.  Even  when 
the  information  is  obtained  direct  from  the  worker,  the  possibilities 
of  misconception  are  great.  The  inquirer  and  the  informant  are  apt 
to  assume,  often  erroneously,  that  each  understands  precisely  the 
meaning  which  the  other  attaches  to  phrases  and  terms  which  are 

1  It  is  worthy  of  note  that,  in  spite  of  the  greater  extent  to  which,  during  the  last 
twenty  years,  young  women  have  become  teachers,  clerks,  typists,  nurses,  etc.,  the 
census  returns  showed  that  a  smaller  proportion  of  females  over  ten  years  of  age  were 
employed  in  occupations,  in  England  and  Wales,  in  1901  than  in  1891.  It  was  satis- 
factory that  the  decrease  was  between  the  ages  of  ten  and  fifteen,  and  from  twenty-five 
upwards.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  (which  is  all  to  the  good)  that  there  were  con- 
siderably fewer  boys  under  fifteen  and  men  over  sixty-five  employed  in  1901  than  in 
1891,  there  were,  in  proportion  to  population,  more  males  over  ten  years  of  age 
employed  in  1901  than  in  1891.  That  was  as  it  should  be— more  men  and  fewer 
women  employed  in  occupations  other  than  domestic  duties. 


510  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

used,  and  that  both  are  perfectly  clear  as  to  the  conditions  and  quali- 
fications which  make  all  the  difference  between  an  accurate  and  an 
inaccurate  understanding  of  the  statement.  Few  of  the  workers 
who  live  and  work  in  the  pitiable  and  distressing  conditions  under 
which  many  of  these  people  pass  their  lives  can  be  expected  to  possess 
that  faculty  of  clear,  complete,  and  accurate  statement  which  is  rare 
among  more  favourably  placed  and  better  educated  people.  When 
the  inquirers  are  extremely  sympathetic  and,  possibly,  emotional 
persons,  whose  hearts  are  very  naturally  wrung  by  the  misery  which 
they  see  around  them,  and  they  have  had/no  practical  business  ex- 
perience of  any  kind  whatever,  nor  any  training  in  the  art  of  getting 
at  the  bottom  facts  of  problems  which  are  often  very  different  from 
those  which  appear  on  the  surface,  and  when  they  approach  the 
investigation  from  the  point  of  view  that  employers  are,  as  a  rule, 
harsh,  hard,  grasping  and  unsympathetic,  and  that  the  people  whose 
lot  they  are  considering  are  almost  invariably  thoroughly  competent 
and  industrious,  and  well  equipped  for  their  work,  and  especially 
when  this  attitude  of  mind  is  accompanied  by  views  regarding  the 
economic  basis  of  the  social  fabric  which  have  led  them  to  the  con- 
clusion that  society  needs  reconstructing  on  a  new  foundation,  we 
have  all  the  conditions  that  may  be  expected  to  produce  statements, 
it  may  be,  given  with  an  appearance  of  great  precision  and  detail, 
which  are  striking  and  sensational,  but  not  always  sufficiently  accurate 
and  complete  to  render  them  really  informing  and  useful. 

There  are  one  or  two  points  to  which  our  Report  refers  on  which 
misunderstanding  is  very  probable  unless  close  inquiry  be  made  and 
precise  replies  be  obtained  : 

The  circumstances  and  earnings  of  home  workers  vary  very  considerably. 
Great  caution  is  required  in  receiving  statements  as  to  rates  of  payment,  net 
receipts,  and  number  of  hours  worked.  The  evidence  which  your  Committee  have 
received  has  sometimes  been  conflicting.  The  price  paid  for  doing  part  of  the 
work  required  to  produce  an  article  or  garment  may  be  thought  to  be  the  pay- 
ment for  the  whole  of  the  work,  unless  the  various  sub-divisions  of  it  be  under- 
stood, and  it  be  clearly  stated  that  only  one  of  the  processes  is  referred  to.  There 
is  also  often  great  uncertainty  as  to  the  number  of  hours  worked  per  day  in 
cases  where  the  worker  is  a  wife  or  daughter,  who  has  her  household  and  family 
to  look  after,  and,  in  some  cases,  an  invalid  husband  or  father  to  attend  to.  A 
week's  earnings  may  or  may  not  represent  a  full  week's  work.  In  some  cases 
it  represents  only  such  time  as  can  be  spared  from  other  duties.  In  others 
it  represents  almost  ceaseless  toil  during  all  the  hours  the  workers  are  awake 
from  Monday  morning  to  Saturday  night. 

Mere  statements  of  the  amount  earned  per  week,  even  when  it  is  added  that 
long  hours  are  worked,  are  not  sufficient  and  conclusive.  Sometimes  the  workers 
are  old  or  crippled,  or  in  feeble  health,  and  quite  incapable  of  reasonably  rapid 
and  efficient  work.  In  other  cases  they  are  inexperienced,  slow,  and  incom- 
petent. Many  are,  from  one  cause  or  another,  industrial,  physical,  and  social 
wrecks.  If  cases  be  investigated  with  the  assistance  of  a  relieving  officer,  a  very 
different  impression  will  be  created  than  the  one  that  will  result  from  visiting 
those  to  whom  any  large  employer  of  home  workers  will  introduce  an  inquirer. 


1908    A  MINIMUM  WAGE  FOR  HOME  WORKERS    511 

By  one  method  the  most  exceptional,  pitiable,  and  distressing  cases,  and,  in- 
cidentally, usually  the  least  capable,  and  less  regularly  and  fully  employed 
workers,  will  be  discovered.  By  the  other,  the  most  reliable,  satisfactory, 
efficient,  and  constantly  employed  will  be  met  with.  Neither  group  of  cases  will 
represent  the  average.  The  conditions  and  earnings  of  the  great  majority  will 
be  found  to  lie  between  the  two. 

A  great  diversity  in  the  rate  of  actual  earnings  per  week  will  be  found  among 
persons  who  are  receiving  the  same  rate  of  pay  per  article  or  per  process.  Some 
are  much  quicker  than  others.  There  is  a  considerable  difference  in  the  extent 
to  which  workers  have  the  most  efficient  tools  and  appliances.  Sewing  machines 
vary  considerably  in  speed  and  time-saving  fittings.  Workers  vary  in  the  speed 
at  which  they  can  continuously  drive  them.  The  class  of  work  also  varies. 
Low-class  work  at  low  rates  often  gives  larger  earnings  than  better  work  at 
higher  rates.  Some  articles  or  garments  are,  so  to  speak,  '  blown  together.' 
Others  of  the  same  kind,  but  different  quality,  have  to  be  carefully  made  and 
finished.  That  one  rate  is  lower  than  another  does  not  by  any  means  necessarily 
prove  that  it  is  a  less  remunerative  rate. 

There  is  another  feature  of  this  phase  of  the  problem  which  must 
not  be  overlooked,  as  it  goes  to  the  root  of  much  of  the  employment 
of  home  workers  at  rates  which  yield  them  miserable  earnings. 
I  cannot  do  better  than  again  quote  the  Report  of  our  Committee  : 

A  large  proportion  of  home  workers  are  engaged  in  the  production  of  articles 
in  competition  with  machinery,  and  the  cost  of  making  the  articles  by  machinery 
fixes  the  rate  which  can  be  paid  to  them.  Powerful  sewing  machines,  with  the 
latest  improvements,  specially  adapted  for  each  particular  class  of  work,  driven 
by  steam  power  will  turn  out  four  times  as  much  work,  in  an  hour,  as  can  be 
done  by  an  ordinary  treadle  machine,  and  with  far  less  physical  strain  upon  the 
worker.  If  the  same  rate  per  article  be  paid  to  the  two  classes  of  workers,  the 
home  worker  will  be  able  to  earn  only  one-fourth  as  much  per  hour  as  the  factory 
worker.  The  weekly  earnings  of  the  home  worker  may  be  pitiably  small,  while 
those  of  the  factory  worker  may  be  fairly  good.  In  such  cases,  the  trouble  is  not 
that  the  rate  of  pay  is  unduly  low,  but  that  the  home  worker  is  handicapped 
by  her  conditions  and  appliances.  It  is  very  largely  a  repetition  of  the  old 
difficulty  of  the  hand-loom  weaver  in  his  room  at  home  competing  with  the  power 
loom  in  the  factory.  Clearly,  the  rate  of  payment  per  article  cannot  be  increased 
substantially  beyond  the  price  paid  for  doing  the  same  work  under  superior 
conditions  in  the  factory.  Either  the  whole  of  the  work  must  be  done  in  well- 
equipped  factories,  or  the  earnings  of  home  workers  who  make  the  same  articles 
must  remain  much  lower  than  those  of  factory  workers.  These  remarks  apply 
especially  to  the  ready-made  tailoring  and  the  box-making  trades. 

The  truth  of  this  is  obvious,  but  the  question  which  naturally  arises 
in  connection  with  it  is,  How  is  it  that  the  whole  of  this  work  is  not 
done  in  factories  ?  Why  do  people  work  at  the  same  or  similar  rates 
under  less  favourable  conditions  ?  This  opens  out  the  whole  question 
as  to  who  are  these  workers  whose  earnings  are  so  miserably  small, 
and  why  they  accept  such  inadequate  payment  for  the  time  they  spend 
over  the  work. 

A  large  majority  of  those  who  work  for  exceedingly  low  earnings 
are  women.  Of  those  who  so  work  at  home  the  proportion  who  are 
women  is  so  large  that  for  practical  purposes  the  position  of  the 
women  home  workers  may  be  regarded  as  the  problem  with  which  we 


512  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Sept. 

have  to  grapple.     The  Keport  of  our  Committee  explains  who  these 
women  home  workers  are,  and  classifies  them  in  three  groups,  thus  : 

( 1 )  Single  women,  widows,  wives  deserted  by  or  separated  from  their  husbands, 
and  wives  whose  husbands  are  ill  or  unable  to  work.     These  are  usually  regular 
workers.     They  vary  much  in  age,  skill,  and  efficiency,  in  the  class  of  the  work 
they  do,  and  the  amount  they  are  able  to  earn. 

(2)  Wives  who  obtain  work  when  their  husbands  are  out  of  employment. 
They  are  more  or  less  casual  workers  ;  some  of  them  have  not  had  any  real 
training,  and  are  unskilled.     They  have  to  take  such  work  as  is  available  at  the 
moment,  on  such  terms  as  are  offered  to  them. 

(3)  Wives  and  daughters  of  men  in  regular  employment,  who  wish  to  increase 
the  family  income.     They  usually  select  pleasant  work,  and  do  not  ordinarily  work 
very  long  hours. 

Some  explanation  why  so  much  work  of  a  certain  class  is  done  in 
the  workers'  homes,  and  why  there  are  so  many  women  ready  to  under- 
take it  although  they  receive  very  small  payment  for  it,  is  given  in 
the  following  extracts  from  our  Report : 

Much  of  the  work  is  sewing,  and  requires  no  or  very  little  previous  training 
and  experience.  It  is  consequently  work  to  which  almost  any  woman  who  is 
able  to  sew  can  turn  at  once,  when  the  necessity  of  earning  her  livelihood  is 
forced  upon  her,  or  employment  in  any  other  occupation  to  which  she  has  been 
accustomed  fails  her. 

As  the  work  can  be  done  at  home,  it  is  desired  by  a  large  number  of  women, 
whose  circumstances,  household  duties,  feeble  health,  age,  invalid  husband, 
parents,  or  children,  render  it  impossible  or  difficult  for  them  to  undertake 
regular  work  in  factories.  It  is  preferred  by  others  who  dislike  domestic  service 
or  regular  work  for  fixed  hours  under  supervision  in  factories  or  workshops. 
It  is  also  sought  after  by  the  daughters  of  men  in  work  and  their  wives  who  have 
no  family,  or  who  have  time  on  their  hands,  and  desire  to  augment  the  family 
income  by  doing  work  in  their  spare  time. 

As  the  payment  for  home  work  is  necessarily  at  piece  rates,  those  who  are 
slow,  owing  to  age,  feeble  health,  inexperience,  incompetence,  or  lack  of  power, 
energy,  or  disposition  to  work,  and  those  who  for  any  reason  find  it  difficult 
to  secure  and  retain  employment  elsewhere,  find  it  more  easy  to  obtain  this 
kind  of  work  than  any  other,  and  they  drift  into  it  and  settle  «down  to  it  as  a 
method  of  earning  a  livelihood. 

There  are  also  considerations  which  lead  employers  in  some  trades, 
and  certain  classes  of  employers  in  others,  to  prefer  to  employ  home 
workers  rather  than  provide  factory  accommodation  with  a  regular 
staff  of  permanent  hands.  In  some  seasonal  trades  the  employment 
of  a  number  of  additional  hands  as  home  workers  while  the  rush  is  on 
enables  the  employer  to  avoid  the  cost  of  providing  premises  which 
would  only  be  occupied  a  portion  of  the  year.  In  this  way,  where  the 
supply  of  the  required  home  workers  is  abundant,  as  it  mostly  is,  the 
employes  have  to  bear  more  than  their  share  of  the  consequences  of 
uncertainty  and  irregularity  in  the  trades  in  which  they  are  engaged. 
In  some  trades  the  employment  of  home  workers  renders  it  possible 
for  men  of  small  capital  to  commence  and  carry  on  business  as 
employers  who  would  be  unable  to  do  so  if  they  had  to  rent  factories 


1908    A  MINIMUM  WAGE  FOR  HOME  WORKERS    513 

and  fit  them  up  with  machinery  and  plant.  A  third  class  of  employers, 
which  includes  many  of  those  in  the  two  groups  just  referred  to, 
consists  of  those  who  desire  to  avoid  compliance  with  the  requirements 
which  Parliament  imposes  upon  owners  and  occupiers  of  factories 
and  workshops,  and  to  escape  the  visits  and  supervision  of  the 
inspectors  who  are  appointed  to  enforce  them. 

A  further  factor  in  the  problem  is  the  abundance  and  elasticity 
of  the  supply  of  women  home  workers.  The  number  of  women  who, 
while  not  absolutely  compelled  by  pressing  necessity  to  do  so,  are  quite 
willing  to  earn  a  very  welcome  addition  to  the  family  income  by  doing 
work  at  home  is  so  large  that  in  those  trades  where  the  work  is  clean 
and  inoffensive,  and  such  technical  skill  as  is  necessary  can  easily  be 
acquired,  it  may  be  said  to  be  almost  unlimited.  In  some  parts  of 
the  country  work  of  this  kind  is  sent  out  from  the  towns  to  a  large 
number  of  home  workers  in  villages  and  hamlets  many  miles  away. 
The  poorest  class  of  women  home  workers  who  depend  upon  their 
earnings  from  it  for  their  livelihood  are,  owing  to  their  poverty  and 
their  necessities  and  the  fact  that  they  work  separately,  a  peculiarly 
helpless  class.  They  are  altogether  unorganised,  and,  because  the 
supply  of  such  labour  as  theirs  is  abundant  and  very  scattered,  it  has 
been  found  to  be  impossible  hitherto  for  thereto  act  together  to  pro- 
mote common  interests  and  secure  betterj$and  uniform  rates  of  pay- 
ment. The  consequence  is  that  they  are  powerless  to  resist  the  ten- 
dency to  reduce  rates  which  results  from  the  competition  of  employers 
to  undersell  each  other.  The  pressure  which  the  smaller  employers  are 
under  to  reduce  the  rates  of  pay  to  their  workers  is  very  great  because 
their  lack  of  capital,  and  their  consequent  inability  to  buy  their  mate- 
rials on  the  best  terms  and  occupy  factories  equipped  with  the  most 
efficient  plant,  drives  them  to  look  for  a  reduction  in  their  cost  of  pro- 
duction that  will  enable  them  to  undersell  the  larger  and  more 
favourably  circumstanced  firms  by  reducing  the  rates  of  payment  to 
those  of  their  workpeople  who  are  least  able  to  resist  the  pressure.  When 
one  employer  reduces  the  rates  of  payment  made  to  his  workpeople, 
and  is  thereby  enabled  to  quote  lower  prices  for  his  goods  than  his 
immediate  competitors  can,  they  in  turn  are  compelled  to  seek  further 
economies  somewhere.  Thus  the  process  goes  on  until  everything — 
profits,  wages,  quality — is,  so  to  speak,  *  cut  to  the  bone.'  With  an 
abundant  supply  of  exceptionally  helpless  and  totally  unorganised 
workers,  it  is  inevitable,  under  present  conditions,  that  their  rates  of 
payment  should  be  driven  down  to  extremely  low  figures. 

When  the  task  of  suggesting  practical  remedies  for  this  condition 
of  things  has  to  be  faced,  the  difficulties  of  the  situation  are  speedily 
realised,  except  by  the  most  optimistic,  happy-go-lucky,  cocksure, 
pills-for-earthquake  reformers  of  the  human  race  and  the  body  politic. 
The  Select  Committee  of  the  House  of  Lords — Lord  Dunraven'a 
Committee — to  whose  Report,  made  in  1890,  reference  has  already  been 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  379  M  M 


614  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

made — collapsed,  __  for  all  practical  purposes,  when  it  reached  this 
stage  of  its  work,  the  real  object  for  which  it  was  appointed.  Its 
summary  of  the  evidence  which  had  been  submitted  to  the  Committee 
describing  the  then  existing  condition  of  things  was  admirable,  but 
the  recommendations  which  were  based  upon  it  were  feeble.  Briefly 
stated  they  were  : 

(1)  That  all  workshops  should  be  treated  as  factories  for  sanitary  purposes. 

(2)  That  a  list  of  all  home  workers  should  be  kept  by  every  occupier  of  a 
factory  or  workroom. 

(3)  That  all  work  places  should  be  more  thoroughly  inspected. 

(4)  That  the  provisions  of  the  Truck  Act  should  be  more  strictly  enforced. 

(5)  That  girls  should  not  be  allowed  to  use  heavy  sledge  hammers  or  make 
thick  chains. 

(6)  That  the  Government  and  other  public  bodies   should  take  steps  to 
prevent  sweating  in  connexion  with  contracts  given  out  by  them. 

(7)  Sundry  expressions  of  opinion  in  commendation  of  '  the  extension  of  co- 
operative societies,'  '  combination  amongst  the  workers,'  '  technical  education,' 
and  '  efforts  now  being  made  to  encourage  thrift,  promote  temperance,  improve 
dwellings,  and  raise  the  tone  of  living.' 

There  was  extremely  little  definite  and  practical  guidance  for  Par- 
liament in  all  this.  It  was  good  and  sound  so  far  as  it  went,  but  it 
went  a  very  little  way.  The  real  crux  of  the  problem  is  that  consider- 
able quantities  of  articles  are  being  produced  in  our  midst  under 
conditions  and  at  rates  of  payment  which  barely  enable,  and  in  many 
instances  are  quite  insufficient  to  enable,  those  who  make  them  to 
sustain  life  even  in  the  most  meagre  fashion,  although  they  work  for 
excessively  long  hours.  The  lime-washing  of  workshops,  domestic 
And  other,  and  the  prevention  of  overcrowding  in  them,  would  not  and 
has  not  altered  the  conditions  in  these  respects  of  the  homes  of  the 
liome  workers  who  work  in  their  own  rooms,  where  they  do  not  employ 
anyone  else,  and  which  are  consequently  not  technically  '  domeatic 
workshops.'  It  is  also  useless  to  talk  to  these  poor  people  about 
•co-operative  societies,  combination  among  the  workers,  thrift  and 
raising  the  tone  of  living.  What  they  need  is  better  payment  for  a 
day's  work.  Given  that,  all  the  rest  is  possible  through  wise  legisla- 
tion and  combined  and  individual  effort,  but  without  it  they  are 
helpless  and  hopeless.  Consequently  the  problem  to  which  we  are 
driven  back  is,  How  can  the  earnings  of  these  people  be  improved  ? 

An  instructive  illustration  of  the  way  in  which  the  efforts  of 
Government  Departments  and  other  public  bodies  to  secure  the  pay- 
ment of  better  rates  to  the  workpeople  in  connexion  with  their  con- 
tracts may  be  frustrated  was  given  in  evidence  before  our  Committee. 
When  these  bodies  embody  in  their  contracts  a  condition  that  the 
workpeople  shall  be  paid  certain  rates,  some  employers  who  secure 
the  work  make  the  payment  of  the  rates  specified  a  means  of  requiring 
the  workpeople  to  do  other  work  for  other  customers  at  less  than  the 
usual  rates.  That  is  to  say,  as  a^condition  of  obtaining  some  of  • 


1908    A  MINIMUM  WAGE  FOR  HOME  WORKERS    515 

the  better-paid  work  the  employe  has  to  do  a  quantity  of  other  work 
at  exceptionally  low  rates.  Thus  his  total  earnings  are  no  better  or  very 
very  little  better  than  they  would  have  been  if  the  public  work  had 
not  been  paid  for  at  better  rates.  Some  public  bodies  require  all 
the  work  on  their  contracts  to  be  done  in  factories.  Obviously  that 
does  not  increase  the  earnings  or  in  any  way  improve  the  position  of 
the  home  workers. 

The  prohibition  of  home  work,  by  which  is  meant  the  prohibition 
of  the  employment  of  persons  who,  in  the  rooms  in  which  they  live, 
work  at  the  production  of  articles  for  sale,  is  advocated  by  some.  It 
is  contended  that  it  is  the  home  workers  who  do  not  always  depend 
on  their  earnings  for  their  livelihood,  who  work  irregularly  or  regularly 
to  supplement  the  family  income,  and  those  who  have  to  work  at  home 
And  have  to  take  such  rates  of  payment  as  they  can  get  because  they 
are  feeble,  inefficient,  or  have  children,  or  invalids,  or  aged  persons  to 
look  after,  who  keep  down  the  rates  of  payment,  and  render  it  possible 
for  employers  to  get  their  work  done  without  incurring  the  cost  of 
renting  factories  and  putting  down  plant  and  machinery,  which  would 
make  the  piece  rates  paid  yield  better  earnings  because  the  output  of 
the  workers  with  efficient  appliances  and  steam  power  would  be 
much  greater.  It  is  urged  that  so  long  as  employment  of  workers  at 
home  is  allowed,  the  number  of  wives  and  daughters,  whose  husbands 
and  fathers  are  in  employment,  who  will  be  willing  to  add  to  the 
family  income,  and  of  others  who  are  incapable  of,  or  unsuited  for, 
or  are  unwilling  to  undertake  regular  and  constant  factory  work,  will 
be  so  great,  and  so  capable  of  almost  indefinite  increase,  that  it  will 
l)e  impossible  to  drive  all  the  work  into  properly  equipped  modern 
factories  in  which  the  articles  can  be  most  economically  produced 
and  much  better  earnings  for  the  workers  rendered  possible.  The 
advocates  of  prohibition  say,  and  with  great  truth,  that  much  of  this 
home  work  represents  the  survival  of  an  obsolete  and  antiquated 
system  of  production  which  is  only  kept  in  existence  at  the  expense  of  a 
great  amount  of  misery  to  a  large  number  of  people,  and  that  it  would 
be  really  kindness  to  the  workers  as  a  whole  and  in  the  long  run  to 
put  an  end  to  it.  It  was  felt,  however,  by  our  Committee  that  this 
would  be  a  very  drastic  step.  There  is  a  large  amount  of  work  done  by 
'women  in  their  own  homes  which  is  not  attended  by  any  of  the  dis- 
tressing conditions  which  it  is  desired  to  abolish,  and  where  the  earnings 
Are  an  extremely  welcome  addition  to  the  family  or  personal  income. 
In  many  rural  districts  in  various  parts  of  the  United  Kingdom  a 
considerable  amount  of  home  work  is  done  in  spare  time  under  con- 
ditions which  are  decidedly  healthy.  Its  prohibition  could  only  be 
justified  under  such  grave  public  necessity  as  has  certainly  not  yet 
been  proved. 

A  proposal  has  been  made  that  it  should  be  rendered  illegal  to 
give  out  work  to  be  done  at  home  unless  the  worker  had  obtained  a 

H  M  2 


516  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

licence,  the  conditions  of  obtaining  and  retaining  which  would  be  that 
the  premises  in  which  the  work  was  to  be  done  were  clean  and  whole- 
some, properly  lighted  and  ventilated,  and  would  not  be  overcrowded 
by  the  number  of  persons  who  would  work  in  them.  What  is  the  precise 
real  object  of  this  proposal  is  not  very  clear.  On  the  face  of  it  it 
appears  to  be  calculated  to  accomplish  either  too  much  or  too  little. 
If  the  real  object  be,  as  seems  probable,  to  abolish  home  work  in 
the  houses  of  the  very  poor,  it  is  a  very  drastic  step  and  this  seems 
to  be  a  clumsy  way  of  doing  it.  If  the  step  were  a  desirable  one,  it 
would  be  better  to  take  it  frankly  by  direct  enactment.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  the  ostensible  object  be  the  real  one  and  the  aim  is  to  secure 
better  sanitary  conditions  in  homes  where  work  is  done,  the  desired 
end  can  be  accomplished  in  a  simpler  way  and  with  far  less  incon- 
venience, loss,  and  anxiety  to  a  class  of  people  whose  difficulties 
should  not  be  increased  unnecessarily. 

The  Report  of  our  Committee  suggests  a  simple  method  by  which 
a  complete  list  of  all  home  workers  in  each  locality  can  easily  be 
obtained  at  a  minimum  of  trouble  to  all  concerned,  and  it  points  out 
that: 

If  the  provision  of  Section  9  of  the  Public  Health  Act,  1875,  with  respect  to 
factories  and  workshops  which  are  not  kept  in  a  cleanly  state,  or  are  ill  ventilated 
or  over-crowded,  were  extended  to  rooms  in  which  home  work  is  done,  much 
good  would  be  done.  If  these  provisions  were  accompanied  by  power  being 
given  to  the  Inspectors  of  the  Local  Authority  and  the  Factory  Inspector  to 
inspect  rooms  in  which  home  work  is  done,  a  great  improvement  in  structural 
and  domestic  cleanliness  would  be  brought  about. 

But  none  of  these  suggestions  grapple  with  the  real  difficulty — 
the  smallness  of  the  earnings.  The  most  stringent  regulations  as  to 
the  issue  of  licences  based  on  compliance  with  requirements  as  to 
cleanliness,  ventilation,  &c.,  might  easily  put  a  stop  to  home  work  for 
which  the  pay  is  by  no  means  extremely  poor,  and  permit  it  to  con- 
tinue in  numberless  cases  where  a  poor  woman  works  for  a  miserable 
pittance  in  a  spotlessly  clean  living  room ;  but  there  is  no  reason  for 
thinking  that  they  would  increase  the  earnings  of  a  single  home  worker. 

The  proposal  to  which  the  most  public  attention  has  been  directed 
is 'one  for  establishing  Wages  Boards  in  selected  trades  and  giving 
them  power  to  fix  the  minimum  rates  that  may  be  paid  to  workers 
in  those  trades.  The  payment  of  a  lower  rate  than  the  one  fixed  to 
be  a  punishable  offence.  The  boards  would  be  composed  of  repre- 
sentatives of  employers  and  workpeople  in  equal  numbers,  with  an 
independent  chairman.  A  Bill  (the  '  Sweated  Industries  Bill ') 
embodying  this  proposal  passed  its  second  reading  in  the  House  of 
Commons  this  year,  and  was  referred  to  the  Select  Committee  from 
whose  Report  I  have  already  quoted  freely. 

The  clause  in  the  Bill  which  defines  the  '  manner  of  calculating 
the  minimum  rate  of  wages  '  runs  thus  : 


1908    A  MINIMUM  WAGE  FOR  HOME  WORKERS    617 

(1)  The  minimum  rate  of  wages  fixed  by  a  Wages  Board  may  be  calculated 
either  by  time  or  by  piece  work,  or  so  as  to  give  an  employer  the  option  of  paying 
either  by  time  or  by  piece  work,  except  that  in  case  of  work  given  out  from  a 
factory  or  workshop  or  other  place  to  be  done  elsewhere  it  shall  be  calculated  by 
piece  work  only. 

(2)  The  minimum  rate  of  wages  may  be  fixed  for  any  kind  or  kinds  of  work 
in  a  trade,  and  may  be  different  for  different  kinds  of  work  and  for  different 
parts  of  the  district,  as  the  board  think  fit. 

(3)  The  minimum  rate   of  wages  may  be  fixed  for  any  class  or  classes  of 
persons  employed  in  a  trade,  and  may  be  different  for  different  classes  of  persons 
employed,  as  the  board  think  fit. 

The  particular  phase  of  the  underpayment  or  insufficient  earning 
question  which  has  impressed  itself  most  vividly  on  the  public  mind 
is  that  of  the  home  workers,  and  especially  the  women  home  workers. 
There,  undoubtedly,  we  have  the  problem  in  its  most  aggravated  form. 
It  is  there  also  that  the  workers  are  the  most  helpless  and  the  most 
difficult  to  organise — indeed,  under  present  conditions,  it  is  practically 
impossible  to  organise  them  effectively,  or  in  any  way  to  help  them  or 
place  them  in  a  position  to  help  themselves.  Theirs  is  the  most  pressing 
and  urgent  phase.  Theirs  is  the  case  which  the  Select  Committee  was 
specifically  appointed  to  consider,  and  it  is  with  special  reference  to 
the  circumstances  and  difficulties  of  their  position  that  the  practicability 
and  probable  success  or  otherwise  of  any  suggested  remedy  must  be 
investigated.  The  possibility  and  prospect  of  improving  their  lot 
and  condition  is  the  test  to  which  proposals  should  be  submitted. 

Would  Wages  Boards,  as  proposed  in  the  Sweated  Industries 
Bill,  be  a  practicable  and  effective  remedy  for  the  evils  with  which 
they  are  designed  to  cope  ?  An  important  feature  of  home  work  is  that, 
necessarily,  it  is  piece-work.  Payment  by  time  is  obviously  impossible 
when  the  work  is  done  away  from  the  premises  of  the  employer 
and  no  check  can  be  applied  to  any  statement  of  the  time  alleged  to 
have  been  worked.  But  fixing  piece  rates  is  very  different  from  and 
much  more  complicated  and  difficult  than  fixing  time  rates.  For 
piece-work,  rates  of  payment  would  have  to  be  fixed  for  every  varia- 
tion of  every  process,  of  every  size,  of  every  design  and  pattern  of 
every  description  and  quality  of  every  article.  In  some  trades, 
especially  where  fashion  is  the  dominating  factor,  these  are  not  only 
almost  innumerable  but  are  constantly  changing.  A  further  serious 
practical  difficulty  is  that  an  extremely  important  phase  of  the  com- 
petition between  employers  in  many  trades  is  the  incessant  endeavour 
to  produce  new  designs,  shapes,  and  patterns,  and  get  them  into  the 
hands  of  their  customers  before  other  makers  have  an  opportunity 
of  seeing  them  and  imitating  or  rivalling  them.  Clearly,  it  would  be 
impossible  to  require  these  new  ideas,  designs,  and  patterns  to  be  sub- 
mitted to  a  Wages  Board  on  which  competing  employers  and  work- 
people in  the  employ  of  rival  makers  were  sittings  On  the  other 
hand,  if  the  fixing  of  rates  of  payment  for  new  articles,  designs,  and 


518  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBY  Sept, 

patterns  were  deferred  until  they  had  become  known  on  the  market, 
it  would  be  found  that  in  most  trades  an  opening  had  been  left  in  the 
Act  through  which  a  coach  and  four  could  easily  be  driven.  When 
the  time  arrived  for  fixing  the  rate  of  payment  it  would  frequently  be 
found  that  if  further  new  designs  &c.  were  not  already  supplanting  the 
previous  ones,  some  slight  alterations  and  variations  would  be  intro- 
duced which  would  make  the  pattern  technically  and  legally,  though 
not  actually,  a  new  one. 

When  this  phase  of  the  subject  is  being  considered  it  is  essential 
to  bear  in  mind  that  there  is  a  great  difference  between  an  arbitrator 
or  a  board  of  conciliation  fixing  piece  rates  for  a  trade,  in  which  both 
the  employers  and  the  workers  are  organised  and  have  mutually 
agreed  to  the  settlement  of  rates  of  payment,  and  a  board  dealing 
with  unorganised  trades  and  fixing  rates  which  would  have  to  be 
enforced  in  a  court  of  law.  In  the  one  case  evasion  would  not  be 
tolerated.  It  would  be  a  breach  of  honour  and  good  faith,  and  would 
lead  to  an  abandonment  of  a  mode  of  settlement  which  both  sides 
value  and  desire  to  retain.  In  the  other  case  those  who  desired  to 
evade  the  decisions — to  which  possibly  they  had  personally  not  been 
parties  either  directly  or  indirectly,  and  which  they  only  felt  bound 
to  obey  in  their  strict  legal  interpretation  and  because  they  were 
compelled  to  do  so — would  probably  find  it  easy  so  to  vary  the  size, 
quality,  or  pattern,  by  omitting  or  altering  some  trivial  details,  as  to 
make  it  difficult  to  prove  in  court  that  the  lower  rate  which  was  being 
paid  was,  in  fact,  a  payment  for  precisely  the  article  and  work  for 
which  the  Wages  Board  had  fixed  a  higher  rate. 

It  was  these  considerations  which  induced  me  to  suggest  to  our 
Committee,  in  the  Draft  Report  which  I  prepared  for  their  considera- 
tion and  was  unanimously  adopted  by  them  as  the  basis  of  their 
ultimate  Report,  that  we  should  recommend  that  Wages  Boards 
should  be  established  for  certain  selected  trades,  and  that  the  fixing 
of  a  minimum  time  rate  of  payment  for  the  whole  of  the  home  workers 
in  the  trade  in  the  district  for  which  it  acted  should  be'.the  foundation 
of  the  work  of  each  board  and  be  practically  its  first  duty. 

In  my  opinion,  this  recommendation  of  a  minimum  time  rate  is 
fundamental.  It  is  probable,  if  not  indeed  certain,  that  upon  its 
adoption  depends  the  success  of  the  experiment  of  Wages  Boards  as 
applied  to  those  home  workers  with  whose  lot  our  committee  was 
mainly,  and  the  legislature  should,  I  think,  primarily,  be  concerned. 
The  conclusion  seems  to  be  unavoidable  that  unless  there  be,  as  a  kind 
of  solid  bottom  or  foundation  to  the  whole  system,  a  clear  and  easily 
applied  test  of  a  minimum  rate  of  payment  below  which  no  piece 
rates  shall  be  allowed  to  fall,  it  will  be  impossible  in  many  trades  to 
construct  any  scale  or  log  of  piece  rates  that  will  form  a  net  so  closely 
woven  and  so  co'mprehensive  as  to  prevent  any  number  of  devices  and 
evasions  slipping  through  its  meshes. 


1908    A  MINIMUM  WAGE  FOR  HOME  WORKERS    519 

It  no  doubt  appears  anomalous  that  the  basis  of  the  operations  of 
the  Wages  Boards  should  be  a  time  rate  of  payment,  when,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  whole  of  the  home  workers,  to  whom  alone  it  is  at  first 
proposed  to  apply  the  proposals  of  the  Committee,  are  paid  by  piece 
rates,  and  none  of  them  would  ever  be  paid  a  time  wage.  What  is 
intended  is  that  the  minimum  time  wage  should  be  a  kind  of  standard, 
measure  and  test.  The  proposal  is  that  no  piece  rate  should  be 
allowed  if  it  were  less  than  would  enable  an  average  home  worker 
working  steadily  at  it  for  a  specified  time  to  earn  at  least  the  minimum 
time  wage  for  that  trade  in  that  district.  To  pay  a  lower  rate  than  that 
minimum  would  be  an  offence  for  which  the  employer  paying  it  would 
be  punishable.  If  a  charge  were  made  against  any  employer  that 
some  rate  which  he  was  paying  was  below  the  minimum,  a  court  of 
summary  jurisdiction  would  have  to  be  satisfied  that  a  worker  of 
average  skill  and  industry  could  not  at  that  rate  earn  the  equivalent 
of  the  minimum  time  rate.  This,  of  course,  would  only  be  in  those 
cases  where  the  Wages  Board  had  not  already  fixed  a  minimum  piece 
rate  for  that  particular  article  or  process.  Wages  Boards  would  fix 
such  piece  rates  as  they  deemed  proper,  subject  to  the  condition  that 
they  must  not  be  less  than  would  enable  an  average  worker  to  earn 
the  minimum  time  wage. 

In  this  way — and,  as  it  appears  to  me,  in  this  way  alone — can  we 
satisfactorily  avoid  the  great  practical  difficulty  of  fixing  piece  rates 
for  every  conceivable  variation  in  size,  pattern,  quality,  and  class  of 
every  article,  and  also  the  serious  trouble  that  would  arise  if  new  designs 
and  articles  had  to  be  submitted  to  a  board  of  rival  makers  and  workers 
before  they  had  been  put  upon  the  market.  Piece  rates  would  at 
once  be  fixed  for  everything  which  was  of  an  ordinary  size,  pattern, 
or  quality ;  and  gradually  very  comprehensive  logs  of  prices  would 
be  built  up,  while  the  minimum  time  rate  would  ensure  that  where 
piece  rates  had  not  been  fixed  by  the  board  the  actual  rate  paid 
should  not  yield  an  average  worker  less  than  the  minimum  time 
rate. 

It  should  not  be  necessary  to  point  out  that  this  proposal  does  not 
mean  that  it  would  be  compulsory  that  the  rate  of  payment  should  be 
such  as  would  enable  every  individual  home  worker  to  earn  the 
minimum  time  wage,  still  less  does  it  mean  that  the  worker  should  not 
be  paid  a  higher  rate.  All  that  would  be  required  would  be  that  an 
average  home  worker  should  be  able,  at  the  particular  piece  rate,  to 
earn  not  less  than  the  minimum  time  wage.  The  slow,  the  infirm, 
the  inefficient,  and  the  aged  would  earn  less,  but  that  would  be  not 
because  the  rate  of  payment  to  them  was  lower  but  because  their  out- 
put was  less.  The  fact  that  payment  for  home  work  is  always  at  piece 
rates  simplifies  the  problem  by  ensuring  that,  when  once  a  piece  rate 
for  an  article  has  been  fixed,  the  earnings  of  the  individual  workers 
will  be  in  proportion  to  their  ability,  power,  and  industry.  It  will  not 


520  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

prevent  the  employment  of  the  feeble  and  the  slow  because  they  cannot 
earn  the  minimum  time  wage.  They  will  be  at  liberty  to  earn  what 
they  can  by  working  for  not  less  than  the  minimum  piece  rate. 

The  proposal  that  Parliament  should  fix  a  minimum  rate  of  payment 
is  a  new  departure  in  industrial  legislation  which  is  certain  to  be 
discussed  in  many  quarters  in  a  critical  spirit.  I  doubt  that  any 
substantial  objection  based  on  principle  can  be  maintained.  As  our 
committee,  which  comprised  representatives  of  almost  all  phases  of 
political  thought,  unanimously  adopted  the  following  expression  of 
opinion  on  this  point,  I  venture  to  reproduce  it  : 

Upon  the  question  of  the  general  policy  of  Parliament  fixing,  or  providing 
for  the  fixing,  of  a  minimum  rate  of  payment  for  work,  below  which  it  should 
be  illegal  to  employ  people,  your  Committee  are  of  opinion  that  it  is  quite  as  legiti- 
mate to  establish  by  legislation  a  minimum  standard  of  remuneration  as  it  is  to 
establish  such  a  standard  of  sanitation,  cleanliness,  ventilation,  air  space,  and 
hours  of  work.  If  it  be  said  that  there  may  be  industries  which  cannot  be  carried 
on  if  such  a  standard  of  payment  be  enforced,  it  may  be  replied  that  this  was 
said  when  the  enactment  of  many  of  the  provisions  of  the  Factory  and  other 
similar  Acts  was  proposed,  and  public  opinion  supported  Parliament  in  deciding 
that,  if  the  prognostication  were  an  accurate  one,  it  would  be  better  that  any 
trade  which  could  not  exist  if  such  a  minimum  of  decent  and  humane  conditions 
were  insisted  upon  should  cease.  Parliament,  with  the  full  approval  of  the 
nation,  has  practically  so  decided  again  and  again,  when  enactments  have  been 
passed  forbidding  the  carrying  on  of  specified  industries,  unless  certain  minimum 
conditions  as  to  health,  safety,  and  comfort  are  complied  with.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  there  is  any  more  important  condition  of  individual  and  general  well- 
being  than  the  possibility  of  obtaining  an  income  sufficient  to  enable  those 
who  earn  it  to  secure,  at  any  rate,  the  necessaries  of  life.  If  a  trade  will  not 
yield  such  an  income  to  average  industrious  workers  engaged  in  it,  it  is  a  parasite 
industry,  and  it  is  contrary  to  the  general  well-being  that  it  should  continue. 
Experience,  however,  teaches  that,  the  usual  result  of  legislation  of  the  nature 
referred  to  is  not  to  kill  the  industry,  but  to  reform  it.  Low-priced  labour  is 
a  great  obstacle  to  improvement.  It  discourages  invention,  and  removes  or 
prevents  the  growth  of  a  great  stimulus  to  progress  and  efficiency.  The  direct 
and  early  result  of  prohibiting  unsatisfactory  conditions  in-  industrial  life  is 
almost  invariably  to  direct  the  attention  of  the  most  competent  minds  in  and 
about  the  trade  to  the  production  and  introduction  of  such  improvements  in 
machinery,  methods,  and  processes  as  will  enable  the  industry  to  continue 
under  greatly  improved  conditions,  and  be  carried  on  with  greater  success  than 
before.  In  our  judgment  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  similar  beneficial 
results  to  all  concerned — employers,  workpeople,  and  the  general  public — to  those 
which  have  followed  the  establishing  of  minimum  conditions  of  other  kinds  in 
various  departments  of  industrial  life,  would  follow  the  establishing  by  law 
of  minimum  rates  of  payment  for  such  classes  of  workers  as  experience  has  shown 
are  unable  to  secure  for  themselves  rates  of  payment  for  work  which  may  reason- 
ably be  regarded  as  even  the  lowest  upon  which  an  average  worker  can  exist. 

Curiously  enough,  there  are  some  people  who  fully  accept  the  argu- 
ment of  this  paragraph,  and  warmly  support  the  proposal  that  Wages 
Boards  should  be  established  to  fix  piece  rates,  and  yet  object  to  the 
proposal  that  those  boards,  and  indeed  anyone  else,  should  fix  a 


1908    A  MINIMUM  WAGE  FOR  HOME  WORKERS    521 

minimum  time  rate.  I  confess  that  I  have  thus  far  entirely  failed  to 
understand  their  position,  and  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  it  is  the 
phrase  *  minimum  wage  '  which,  for  some  hitherto  unexplained  reason, 
has  for  them  terrors  which  a  minimum  piece  rate  does  not  arouse. 
But  in  principle  there  is  no  difference  between  them  as  proposed  by 
our  Committee. 

A  more  practical  objection  is  the  suggestion  that  the  law  could  not 
be  carried  out — that  is  to  say,  that  it  would  not  be  possible  to  enforce 
a  prescribed  minimum  rate  of  payment.  Those  who  suggest  that 
difficulty  are  almost  always  thinking  of  minimum  piece  rates  only.  I 
have  already  referred  to  some  of  the  methods  of  evasion  which  are 
possible  in  connexion  with  piece  rates,  and  have  pointed  out  that  the 
minimum  time  rate  would  supply  the  means  of  defeating  most  of  those 
which  are  suggested.  The  only  substantial  means  of  evasion  that 
would  remain  would  be  those  where  the  collusion  between  the  employer 
and  the  employed  was  so  complete  that  either  the  under-payment  was 
never  discovered  or  challenged,  or,  when  challenged,  both  parties  to 
the  evasion  lied  persistently,  harmoniously,  and  successfully.  All  laws 
are  liable  to  some  evasion.  In  these  cases  the  general  body  of  workers 
would  be  strongly  interested  in  preventing  evasion  by  others,  and  would 
always  be  on  their  guard  to  expose  and  prevent  it.  Other  employers 
would  be  in  the  same  position.  The  risks  of  detection  would  be  great, 
and  the  universal  odium  to  which  the  convicted  employer  would  be 
subjected  would  be  so  severe  a  punishment  that  my  impression  is 
that  the  evasions  would  not  be  numerous  or  formidable,  and  certainly 
not  sufficiently  so  to  counterbalance  to  any  appreciable  extent  the 
benefits  which  the  law  would  confer. 

The  suggestion  that  some  industries  can  only  exist  under  the 
conditions  of  under-payment  which  now  prevail,  and  that  great  dis- 
tress will  be  caused  if  they  are  destroyed,  did  not  meet  with  the 
endorsement  of  our  Committee.  They  supported  the  sounder  opinion, 
that  low  payment  and  cheap  production  are  often  incompatible,  that 
the  one  is  certainly  not  necessarily  the  result  of  the  other,  and  that 
'  competition  must  be  met  by  increased  efficiency,  not  by  low  wages.' 
Some  confidence  must  be  placed  in  the  common-sense  of  those  of 
whom  the  Wages  Boards  will  be  composed.  The  employers  and 
workers  on  them  will  be  engaged  in  the  trades  with  regard  to  which 
they  will  have  to  fix  the  rates  of  payment.  They  will  be  deeply 
interested  in  avoiding  doing  anything  that  would  kill  or  seriously 
curtail  the  industries  by  which  they  live.  Should  they  make  a  mis- 
take they  will  speedily  feel  the  effects  of  it,  and  it  will  be  in  their 
power  to  rectify  it. 

An  important  feature  of  the"  Report  of  our  Committee  is  that 
*  in  view  of  the  fact  that  this  proposal  represents  a  very  considerable 
new  departure  in  industrial  legislation,  and  fully  realising  the  many 


522  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Sept. 

difficulties  that  surround  it,'  we  recommend  that  Parliament  should 
proceed  tentatively  and  apply  the  experiment  to  home  workers  in 
a  limited  number  of  trades.  Those  suggested  are  tailoring,  the  making 
of  shirts,  underclothing  and  baby-linen,  and  the  finishing  processes 
of  machine-made  lace,  and  it  is  recommended  that  power  be  given  to 
the  Home  Secretary,  on  application  and  inquiry  being  made,  to  direct 
that  a  Wages  Board  be  established  for  home  workers  in  those  or  any 
other  trades  in  any  district. 

My  Draft  Report  suggested  that  the  experiment  should  be  limited 
to  women  home  workers,  as  their  case  is  the  most  difficult  and  urgent, 
and  they  are  individually  and  collectively  the  least  able  to  help  them- 
selves, and  consequently  most  need  the  assistance  of  legislation.  The 
general  opinion  of  the  Committee,  however,  was  that  it  was  undesirable 
to  make  any  difference  in  the  law  as  regards  the  sex  of  workers.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the  home  workers 
"whose  earnings  and  conditions  of  labour  are  such  as  are  intended  to 
be  brought  within  the  scope  of  the  operations  of  the  proposed  Wages 
Boards  are  women.  The  number  of  men  home  workers  whose  rates 
of  payment  would  be  expected  to  be  determined  by  these  boards  are 
extremely  few. 

A  more  important  point  which  had  to  be  considered  was  whether 
the  boards  should  fix  the  minimum  rates  of  payment  for  all  the 
workers  in  the  trades  for  which  they  were  established — that  is,  for 
workers  in  factories  and  workshops  as  well  as  for  home  workers. 
It  was  decided  to  recommend  the  limitation  of  their  operations  to 
home  workers.  My  reasons  for  supporting  that  view  were  :  For  the 
most  part  the  case  of  home  workers  is  a  special  and  distinct  one,  and 
should  be  considered  and  dealt  with  separately.  The  conditions  under 
"which  employes  work  in  factories  with  machinery  plant  and  steam 
power  are  entirely  different  from  those  under  which  home  workers 
•earn  their  livelihood.  Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  fact 
that  modern  machinery  driven  by  steam  power  will  do  far  more  work 
in  a  given  time  than  hand  machines,  and  infinitely  more  than  can  be 
done  without  any  machine.  A  thoroughly  up-to-date  sewing-machine 
will  do  from  four  to  six  times  as  much  work  in  an  hour  as  an  ordinary 
treadle  machine.  The  superiority  in  output  of  the  most  modern 
machines  for  making  button-holes  and  doing  other  special  work  is 
•even  greater.  Consequently  the  earning  power  of  the  two  classes  of 
workers,  if  the  rate  of  payment  per  article  or  process  be  the  same,  is 
•enormously  different.  In  factories  and  workshops  it  is  usual  for  the 
employer  to  provide  many  such  incidentals  as  thread,  needles,  paste, 
glue,  string,  brushes,  which  the  home  workers  have  to  provide  for  them- 
selves. The  employer  of  the  home  worker  saves  much  in  the  way  of 
rent,  rates,  taxes,  lighting  and  heating  of  premises,  and  interest  on 
•capital  sunk  in  machinery  and  plant.  The  home  worker  loses  much 


1908    A  MINIMUM  WAGE  FOR  HOME  WORKERS    523 

time  in  waiting  at  the  warehouse  for  the  work  to  be  given  out  and  taken 
in.  Clearly  it  would  not  be  reasonable  and  satisfactory  for  a  board  the 
representatives  of  the  employes  on  which  were  entirely  or  chiefly 
factory  workers  to  fix  the  rates  of  payment  for  home  workers  or  vice 
versa.  The  interests  of  the  factory  workers  and  of  the  home  workers 
would  often  be  more  or  less  antagonistic.  The  home  workers  would 
feel  that  the  more  the  work  was  done  in  factories  or  workshops  the 
less  there  would  be  for  them  to  do  at  home,  and  the  factory  workers 
would  have  the  same  feeling  with  regard  to  work  done  by  home 
workers.  It  would  be  inevitable  that  the  representatives  on  the 
boards  of  the  class  of  workers  who  had  secured  their  election  would 
endeavour  so  to  frame  the  determinations  that  they  would  benefit 
their  section  of  the  workers,  probably  to  the  neglect,  possibly  to  the 
injury,  of  the  others,  by  so  fixing  the  rates  as  to  drive  the  work  in 
their  own  direction. 

One  of  the  difficulties  of  the  home  work  problem  is  that  the  people 
are  so  helpless,  and  entirely  without  organisation.  It  will  not  be  easy 
to  get  them  to  meet  or  act  together,  or  to  secure  the  election  or  selection 
by  them  of  suitable  representatives  for  the  boards.  The  factory  hands 
work  together,  have  much  more  leisure,  and  are  far  more  capable 
of  organisation  and  united  action.  There  cannot  be  any  doubt  that 
in  most  cases  where  factory  and  home  workers  had  to  elect  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  workers  for  the  Wages  Board,  the  factory  workers 
would  dominate  the  situation  and  the  board  would  be  a  factory 
workers'  as  distinguished  from  a  home  workers'  board.  That  is 
very  undesirable.  What  is  wanted  is  that  attention  should  first  be 
directed  to  the  home  workers'  section  of  the  problem.  It  is  the  most 
urgent,  difficult,  and  distressing  phase,  and  the  boards  should  con- 
centrate on  it.  The  representatives  of  the  workers  on  them  should 
distinctly  and  unmistakably  be  representatives  of  the  home  workers. 
The  inclusion  of  factory  workers  would  defeat  that,  divert  attention, 
and  probably  cause  the  failure  of  the  experiment  by  rendering  it  in- 
effective or  abortive  as  an  effort  to  improve  the  condition  and  position 
of  the  home  worker.  The  inclusion  of  factory  and  workshop  workers 
will  doubtless  follow  in  due  time,  but  I  think  that  success  at  first  will 
depend  very  much  on  limiting  the  operations  of  the  boards  to  home 
work,  and  thus  compelling  them  to  concentrate  upon  and  grapple  with 
the  problems  which  it  presents.  When  that  has  been  done,  and  the 
home  workers  have  been  more  or  less  organised  and  taught  by  ex- 
perience to  look  after  their  interests  on  the  boards,  it  will  probably 
be  possible  and  desirable  to  extend  the  sphere  of  the  operations  of 
those  bodies  to  all  the  workers  in  the  trades  for  which  they  act. 

It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  say  exactly  how  much  Wages  Boards 
would  be  able  to  accomplish.  One  thing  they  could  do — and  it  would 
be  a  substantial  gain — would  be  to  level  up  the  rates  of  payment  to 


524  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY     Sept.  1908 

those  paid  by  the  best  employers  in  the  trades  for  which  they  acted. 
There  are  very  few  employers  who  would  not  be  glad  to  have  this  done. 
The  fixing  of  a  minimum  rate  of  payment  and  conditions  below  which 
neither  they  nor  their  competitors  should  be  allowed  to  go  would 
eliminate  one  very  disagreeable  and  unsatisfactory  form  of  competi- 
tion. It  cannot  be  done  by  mutual  agreement.  The  force  of  law 
behind  it  is  necessary  to  render  it  effective. 

THOS.  P.  WHITTAKEB. 


The  Editor  of  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  cannot  undertake 
to  return  unaccepted  MSS. 


THE 


NINETEENTH 
CENTURY 

AND   AFTER    ; 


No.  CCOLXXX  -  OCTOBER  1908 


THE  VALUE  OF  CANADIAN  PREFERENCE 

A   REPLY  TO   THE  EDINBURGH  REVIEWER 

THE  July  number  of  the  Edinburgh  Review  contained  an  article  entitled 
'  Lord  Milner  and  Canadian  Preference,'  in  which,  in  addition  to  the 
familiar  general  arguments  of  the  Free  Importers,  an  attempt  was 
made  to  prove  that  the  preference  accorded  in  the  Canadian  Tariff  to 
goods  of  British  origin  was  of  little  or  no  value.  The  reviewer  selected 
as  his  text  certain  sentences  in  a  speech  of  mine,  which,  taken  out  of 
their  context,  made  me  to  appear  to  say  something  I  never  intended. 
The  personal  controversy  between  myself  and  the  Edinburgh  is  a 
matter  of  small  importance  ;  neither  am  I  concerned  to  answer  the 
general  arguments  of  the  article,  with  one  exception.  But  the  question 
of  fact,  whether  or  not  Canadian  preference  has  been  of  value  to 
British  trade,  is  a  matter  of  such  immense  importance  that  I  am  not 
content  to  leave  unchallenged  the  statement  of  the  case  presented 
by  the  Edinburgh.  I  hold  that  statement  to  be  absolutely  misleading. 
I  believe  that  the  figures,  when  closely  examined,  leave  no  room  for 
doubt  that  the  preference  has  been  of  the  greatest  value.  I  have 
unfortunately  been  prevented  by  other  work  from  giving  as  much  time 
as  I  should  have  wished  to  the  elaboration  of  the  following  tables 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  380  626  N  N 


526 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY 


Oct. 


before  going  to  Canada,  as  I  am  just  about  to  do  for  some  months. 
But,  though  with  more  time  I  could  have  made  the  case  still  stronger, 
I  venture  to  think  that  even  the  statement  here  presented  is  sufficient 
to  dispose  of  the  statistical  portions  of  the  Edinburgh  article.  Therefore, 
as  the  question  is  a  burning  one,  and  as  I  am  convinced  that  the  loss  of 
the  preference,  which  is  seriously  threatened  by  our  vaunted  policy 
of  '  slamming,  barring,  and  bolting  the  door '  in  the  face  of  the  over- 
sea Dominions,  would  be  a  national  disaster,  I  think  it  desirable  to 
call  attention  to  these  figures  without  delay.  They  speak  for  them- 
selves, and  I  will  confine  my  comments  on  them  within  the  smallest 
possible  compass. 

First  of  all  let  me  deal  with  the  one  general  argument  of  the 
Edinburgh  Reviewer  to  which  it  seems  necessary  to  refer.  That  writer 
makes  great  play  with  certain  large  figures  illustrating  the  growth  of 
the  population,  revenue,  and  trade  of  the  United  Kingdom  during  the 
last  century.  '  Our  imports,'  he  says,  '  are  more  than  seventeen 
times  the  value  they  were  in  1825,  and  our  exports  are  nearly  nine 
times  as  valuable  as  in  that  year.'  In  the  absence  of  comparison 
with  the  corresponding  figures  for  other  countries  how  does  this 
prove  our  fiscal  policy  to  be  wise  and  theirs  foolish  ?  These  figures 
may  indeed  make  an  impression  on  the  unreflecting.  But  it  is  not 
difficult  to  produce  figures  showing  an  even  greater  expansion  in  the 
trade  of  countries  which  have  a  system  of  protection.  I  can  illustrate 
this  by  applying  to  Germany  and  the  United  States  the  tests  of 
increased  population,  foreign  trade,  and  tax-revenue  which  the 
Edinburgh  applies  to  the  United  Kingdom.  This  is  done  in  the 
following  table,  which  compares  in  the  main  the  changes  between  the 
years  1871  and  1906. 

COMPARATIVE  STATISTICS  or  PROGRESS  IN  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM, 
GERMANY,  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES,  1871-1906. 


- 

United  Kingdom 

Germany 

United  States 

1871 

1906 

1871 

1906 

1871 

1906 

Millions 

Population  

Tax  Revenue  * 
Imports  (special) 
Exports  (special) 

31-0 

44-2 

41-1 

61-4 

39-6 

84-2 

Million  £ 

66-5 
270 
223 

129-8 
523 
367 

14-2  2 
141  3 
145  3 

51-1 
422 
324 

79-1 
108 
78 

114-5 
255 
358 

The  Edinburgh  Reviewer  desires  me  to  feel  reassured  as  to  the 
progress  of  the  United  Kingdom,  because  its  population  has  increased 

1  S.  Kosenbaum  on  '  Food  Taxation  in  the  United  Kingdom,  Germany,  France,  and 
the  United  States,'  Journal  of  the  Royal  Statistical  Society,  June  1908. 

2  1875.  s  1880. 


1908    THE  VALUE  OF  CANADIAN  PREFERENCE    527 

by  13,200,000  in  the  last  thirty-five  years,  and  he  asks  me  to  accept 
this  growth  as  a  final  proof  of  the  great  wisdom  of  our  fiscal  system ; 
but  then  I  find  that  in  the  same  period  the  population  of  Germany 
has  grown  by  20,300,000,  and  that  of  the  United  States  by  44,600,000. 
Nor  do  his  comparisons  of  trade  figures  carry  any  greater  conviction 
to  my  mind.  Taking  the  figures  of  '  special '  trade,  instead  of  those 
of  '  general '  trade  referred  to  by  him  (not  because  these  figures  better 
confirm  my  case,  but  only  because  they  are  more  readily  obtainable 
in  a  comparable  form  for  different  countries),  it  is  doubtless  a  sign 
of  progress  that  our  imports  for  home  consumption  have  increased  by 
253,000,0002.  and  our  exports  of  domestic  produce  by  144,000,0002.  in 
the  period  1871  to  1906.  But  as  an  argument  for  the  superiority  of  our 
fiscal  system  even  these  large  totals  fail  absolutely  when  we  look  at 
the  yet  larger  and  more  striking  totals  on  the  other  side.  The  exports 
of  the  United  States  have  increased  by  280,000,0002.  in  the  same 
period  of  thirty-five  years  ;  while  German  imports  have  increased  by 
281,000,0002.,  and  exports  by  179,000,0002.  in  no  more  than  twenty- 
six  years  (comparable  figures  for  years  before  1880  are  not  available). 
Perhaps  the  Edinburgh  is  right  in  placing  the  British  increase  to  the 
credit  of  the  British  fiscal  system.  He  must,  however,  if  he  is  con- 
sistent, place  the  greater  increase  of  Germany  and  the  United  States 
to  the  credit  of  the  fiscal  systems  of  those  countries. 

In  the  following  table  the  above  figures  are  restated  in  a  somewhat 
simpler  form.  Instead  of  absolute  values  I  give  here  the  percentage 
increases  of  the  population,  tax-revenue,  imports,  and  exports  of  each 
of  the  three  countries.  They  show  that  in  the  period  under  review, 
with  a  free-import  fiscal  system  in  the  United  Kingdom  and  a  pro- 
tective system  in  Germany  and  the  United  States,  the  progress  of  the 
United  Kingdom  has  been  surpassed  to  an  extraordinary  degree  by 
that  of  the  other  two  countries. 

INCREASES  (PER  CENT.)  OP  POPULATION,  REVENUE,  AND  FOREIGN 
TRADE  IN  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM,  GERMANY,  AND  THE  UNITED 
STATES,  1871-1906. 


United  Kingdom 

Germany 

United  States 

Population  .       .  ." 

43 

49 

118 

Tax  Revenue 

96                      260  4 

45 

Imports  (special)      "/_  .    .fty. 

94 

199' 

136 

Exports  (special)          .        . 

65 

123  5 

356 

How  can  it  be  contended  that  these  figures  prove  the  superiority 
of  the  British  over  the  German  system  ?  Personally  I  should  be  most 
reluctant  to  attempt  to  draw  any  conclusion  as  to  fiscal  policy  from 
these  unanalysed  totals.  I  deprecate  the  superficiality  of  that  form 
of  argument.  But  if  it  is  sought  to  use  the  increase  of  the  population 

4  1875-1906.  »  1880-1906. 

MX] 


528  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

and  trade  of  the  United  Kingdom  as  an  argument  for  Free  Trade  it 
is,  at  any  rate,  reasonable  to  point  to  the  even  greater  increase  in  the 
population  and  trade  of  Germany  to  show  the  futility  of  such  reasoning. 

With  that  remark  I  will  turn  from  the  general  arguments  of  the 
article  to  the  portion  which  is  of  more  immediate  importance — 
the  attempt  to  show  that  I  drew  unjustified  inferences  from  the 
statistics  of  Canadian  trade  with  reference  to  the  value  of  preference. 
A  great  many  figures  are  quoted  from  Canadian  and  British  Blue- 
books  to  prove  that  preference  is  of  little  or  no  value.  The  principle 
underlying  the  selection  of  these  figures  is  frankly  stated  at  the  outset. 
'  In  dealing  with  commercial  statistics,'  the  reviewer  says,  '  the  late 
Lord  Salisbury's  advice  "  to  take  wide  views  and  to  consult  large 
maps  "  especially  holds  good.'  With  all  respect  I  demur  entirely 
to  the  principle  and  to  the  analogy  on  which  it  is  based.  The  reason 
for  consulting  large-scale  maps  is  that  they  enable  us  to  realise 
important  geographical  details  which  are  less  visible  in  maps  drawn 
on  a  smaller  scale.  But  the  effect  of  studying  the  trade  of  a  country, 
or  indeed  any  statistical  material,  in  huge  unanalysed  totals  is  to 
obscure  essential  details.  Commercial  statistics  in  a  mass  can  be 
manipulated  to  prove  or  disprove  anything.  But  when  you  come 
to  examine  them  closely  and  in  detail  they  are  less  pliable. 

In  the  speech  which  the  reviewer  criticises  I  was  attempting,  no 
doubt  very  imperfectly,  to  examine  the  effect  of  preference,  not 
upon  the  total  trade  of  Canada,  but  upon  those  classes  of  imports 
into  Canada  in  which  the  United  Kingdom  is  principally  interested, 
and  upon  the  competition  between  us  and  our  chief  commercial 
rivals  in  supplying  Canada  with  these  articles.  That,  as  it  seems  to 
me,  is  the  thing  which  matters  to  us.  My  contention  was,  and  is, 
that  since  the  introduction  of  preference  we  have  been  gaining  ground 
in  that  competition,  whereas  before  the  introduction  of  preference 
we  were  losing  ground.  If  that  is  true,  then  it  is  immaterial  that 
Canada  imports  an  increasing  quantity  of  goods  of  a  class  which  we 
do  not  supply.  It  is  nihil  ad  rem  to  say,  as  the  Edinburgh  does, 
that  in  the  thirty-one  years  preceding  the  grant  of  preference  the 
proportion  of  British  goods  in  the  total  of  Canadian  imports  was 
greater  than  in  the  seven  years  succeeding  that  grant.  These  huge 
totals  obscure  the  relevant  facts.  Let  us  look  at  the  matter  more 
closely,  and  the  lesson  will  be  very  different.  No  doubt  it  is  true 
that,  alike  before  and  after  preference,  the  proportion  of  Canada's 
imports  derived  from  the  United  Kingdom  shows  a  progressive  decline, 
compared  with  the  proportion  of  her  imports  from  all  other  countries, 
including  the  great  and  growing  industrial  and  commercial  country 
which  is  her  immediate  neighbour.  The  absolute  amount  of  Canada's 
imports  from  the  United  Kingdom  may  or  may  not  increase.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  it  did  not  increase  at  all,  but  declined,  for  about 
fifteen  years  preceding  the  grant  of  preference,  whereas  it  has  greatly 


1908    THE   VALUE  OF  CANADIAN  PREFERENCE    529 


increased  since.  But  the  proportion  of  her  imports  from  the  United 
Kingdom  to  her  imports  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  though  the  rate 
of  decline  may  be  greater  or  less,  must  in  any  case  decline  with  the 
expansion  of  Canadian  trade  in  new  directions  and  the  growth  of  her 
needs,  including  those  which  the  United  Kingdom  is  unable  and  does 
not  attempt  to  supply.  Take  the  totals  of  her  imports  at  any  two 
stages  of  her  progress,  and  the  proportion  of  such  imports  drawn  from 
the  United  Kingdom  is  sure  to  be  smaller  at  the  later  than  at  the 
earlier  stage.  And  so  the  comparison  of  that  proportion  in  the  years 
before  preference  and  in  the  years  after  preference  proves  nothing  at 
all.  There  are  constant  and  inevitable  influences  at  work  to  reduce, 
not  the  absolute  amount,  but  the  proportion  of  British  imports.  The 
effect  of  these  influences  preference  does  indeed  mitigate,  and  greatly 
mitigate,  but  it  cannot  outweigh  them.  But  because  preference 
cannot  do  everything,  does  it  follow  that  it  does  nothing  at  all,  or  so 
little  as  to  be  of  small  account  ?  I  maintain  that,  in  respect  of  those 
branches  of  trade  which  it  can  reasonably  be  expected  to  affect — that 
is  to  say,  those  branches  in  which,  duties  apart,  the  British  importer 
stands  a  reasonable  chance  in  the  Canadian  market,  and  against 
those  competitors  who  do  not  possess  overwhelming  advantages  of 
another  kind — preference  has  been  of  momentous  benefit  to  the  United 
Kingdom. 

If  we  look  at  the  main  classes  of  articles  in  which  we  are  in  active 
competition  with  foreign  countries  that  benefit  becomes  unmistakably 
clear.  To  prove  it  I  need  only  take  the  same  groups  of  articles  as 
the  Edinburgh  Reviewer,  but  I  carry  my  examination  further  back 
and  bring  in  the  year  1890  as  well  as  1898  and  1906,  to  which  he 
confines  himself  ;  and  I  also  separate  '  all  other  countries  '  (i.e.  than 
the  United  Kingdom)  into  '  United  States r  and  '  other  countries.' 

VALUE,  IN  MILLIONS  OF  DOLLARS,  OF  CERTAIN  DUTIABLE  IMPORTS 
INTO  CANADA  PROM  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM,  UNITED  STATES,  AND 
ALL  OTHER  COUNTRIES. 


- 

United  Kiugdom 

United  States                Other  Countries 

1890 

1898         1906 

1890 

1898 

1906 

1890 

1898 

1906 

Woollens  . 

1008 

6-22    14-74 

•14 

•25 

•62 

•80 

1-51 

2-09 

Iron  and    steel    and 

manufactures 

5-18 

1-92      7-59 

5-01 

10-65 

29-37      -53 

•32 

1-35 

Cotton     and     ruanu 

factures 

3-11      3-09      6-49 

•75 

1-33 

2-15       -10 

•29 

•92 

Flax,  hemp,  and  jute 

1-37  ,    1-28      2-45 

•03 

•06 

•12      -02 

•08 

•52 

Silk   . 

1-78       1-23       1-92 

•12 

•15 

•31 

•25 

•62    2-10 

Fancy  goods 

1-24       1-00 

1-48 

•26 

•33 

•57 

•37 

•46     1-31 

Hats,  caps,  Ac.                   -73  ,      -73 

1-08 

•48 

•65 

1-10 

•02 

•02 

•10 

Earthenware,  &c.               '52        -45 

•99 

•07 

•08 

•28 

•11 

•14 

•43 

Drugs,  &c.                           -32  \      -30 

•81 

•48 

•62 

1-01 

•43 

•38 

•52 

Oilcloth     . 

•16 

•17 

•73 

•05 

•05 

•18 

— 

— 

— 

Leather 

•17 

•15 

•50      -79 

1-45 

2-42 

•21 

•06 

•08 

Carpets 

•14 

•08 

•31      -02 

•05 

•03 

•01 

•01      -08 

— 

24-80 

16-62 

39-09    8-20 

15-67 

38-16 

2-85 

3-89 

9-50 

530  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Oct. 

To  appreciate  this  table  it  is  necessary  carefully  to  compare  the 
period  preceding  the  grant  of  preference,  1890-1898,  with  that 
succeeding  it,  1898-1906.  The  Edinburgh  Reviewer's  choice  of  years, 
or  rather  his  neglect  of  the  course  of  Canadian  trade  prior  to  1898, 
the  first  year  after  preference,  has  led  him  into  error.  He  says  :  '  The 
total  value  of  the  twelve  groups  of  dutiable  imports  from  the  United 
Kingdom  rose  from  16,627,737  dollars  in  1898  to  39,095,419  dollars 
in  1906,  an  actual  increase  of  22,467,682  dollars,  or  135  per  cent.  The 
corresponding  value  of  dutiable  imports  from  all  countries  other 
than  the  United  Kingdom  rose  from  18,569,987  dollars  6  in  1898  to 
47,658,756  dollars  in  1906,  an  actual  increase  of  29,088,869  dollars,  or 
156  per  cent.  And  this  far  greater  actual  increase,  as  well  as  percentage 
increase,  was  achieved  in  face  of  the  "  preference  "  being  granted 
on  all  these  groups  to  the  United  Kingdom.'  The  argument  would 
be  downright  disingenuous  if  the  reviewer  had  ever  studied  the 
statistics  for  the  years  before  1898.  If,  instead  of  looking  only  at  the 
period  since  preference  was  granted,  he  had  looked  also  at  the  previous 
period,  and  had  compared  the  course  of  trade  since  preference  with 
the  course  of  trade  before  it,  he  would  never  have  allowed  himself 
to  make  the  above  grossly  one-sided  statement.  It  is  true  that 
between  1898  and  1906  dutiable  imports  from  the  United  Kingdom 
in  the  above  twelve  classes  increased  by  22,470,000  dollars,  or  135  per 
cent.,  while  from  the  United  States  the  increase  was  22,490,000  dollars, 
or  144  per  cent.  ;  but  in  the  previous  eight  years  the  imports  from 
the  United  Kingdom  had  steadily  and  largely  declined  by  8,180,000 
dollars,  or  33  per  cent.,  while  the  imports  from  the  United  States 
had  increased  by  7,470,000  dollars,  or  91  per  cent.  It  may  be  that 
the  larger  increase  in  the  case  of  the  United  States  was  achieved 
'  in  face  of  the  preference  ' ;  but  that  in  this  same  period  the  British 
trade  showed  any  increase  at  all,  or  that  the  United  States  increase 
was  not  even  much  greater  than  it  proved,  can  only  be  explained 
by  the  existence  of  the  preference. 

If  the  foregoing  table  be  closely  examined  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  decline  in  imports  from  the  United  Kingdom  in  the  period 
1890-1898  occurred  not  in  two  or  three  groups  alone,  but  in  eleven 
out  of  the  twelve  groups  selected  by  the  reviewer ;  in  the  twelfth 
group  (oilcloths)  there  was  an  increase  of  about  10,000  dollars.  In 
the  same  interval  the  imports  from  the  United  States  showed 
increases  in  every  group.  On  the  other  hand  since  preference  was 
granted  there  have  been  in  each  of  the  twelve  groups  to  which  the 
preference  applies  considerable  increases  in  British  imports,  in  some 
cases  greater,  in  others  less  than  in  the  corresponding  imports  from 

0  There  is  a  mistake  in  the  Edinburgh  Reviewer's  figures.  The  imports  of  leather 
goods  from  '  all  other  countries  '  in  1898  should  be  1,512,000  dollars  instead  of 
512,000  dollars,  and  this  figure  should  consequently  be  19,569,987  dollars  instead  of 
18,569,987  dollars. 


1908    THE  VALUE  OF  CANADIAN  PREFERENCE    581 

the  United  States.  And  when  the  examination  is  carried  out  with 
even  greater  minuteness  of  detail  than  I  have  here  attempted,  the 
course  of  trade  being  followed  not  in  groups  but  in  separate  items, 
and  not  in  periods  of  eight  years  but  year  by  year — an  examination 
which  is  possible  with  the  aid  of  the  '  Trade  and  Navigation  Accounts  ' 
instead  of  the  '  Trade  and  Commerce  Accounts  '  employed  by  the 
Edinburgh  reviewer  as  well  as  by  myself  in  this  article — an  eye 
being  always  kept  on  the  changes  of  tariff  and  increases  of 
preference,  the  conclusion  is  irrefutable;  for  it  is  then  found  that 
in  practically  every  case  the  change  in  the  course  of  British  trade 
took  place  in  1897,  when  British  imports  first  received  a  pre- 
ference over  the  United  States,  and  to  an  even  more  marked 
extent  in  1900,  when  the  preference  was  appreciably  enlarged 
and  was  in  operation  against  all  foreign  countries.  It  appears  to 
me  that  demonstration  can  go  no  further.  Is  there  any  possibility 
of  ignoring  the  significance  of  these  figures  ?  The  date  of  the  grant 
of  preference  marks  a  clear  turning-point  in  the  competition  between 
the  United  Kingdom  and  all  foreign  countries.  Where,  before 
preference,  we  were  decidedly  losing  ground  we  have,  since  preference, 
been  as  decidedly  gaining  it.  Let  those  who  belittle  preference 
produce  some  other  cause  which  can  account  for  the  change. 

This  improvement  in  our  position  relative  to  the  United  States 
after  the  grant  of  preference  in  respect  of  those  articles  in  which  we 
compete  in  the  Canadian  market  is  a  fact  of  first-rate  importance. 
Its  significance  is  in  no  way  obscured  by  the  huge  totals  of  imports 
from  the  United  States,  including  as  they  do  many  things  which  we 
do  not  produce  as  well  as  many  others  in  which,  for  obvious  reasons, 
we  do  not  compete  with  them  on  anything  like  equal  terms.  Throw 
the  sword  of  Brennus  into  the  scale,  and  the  other  weights  count  for 
little.  It  is  by  lumping  together  all  the  imports  from  the  United 
States  that  the  Edinburgh  Reviewer  has  succeeded  in  obscuring  in  his 
unanalysed  totals  the  effect  of  preference,  which  is  so  clear  in  the 
analysed  figures.  Even  preference,  I  fully  admit,  unless  indeed  it 
be  carried  to  unjustifiable  extremes — if,  that  is  to  say,  Canada  were  to 
impose  really  prohibitive  duties  on  United  States  imports,  which 
nobody  desires  or  dreams  of — even  preference  cannot  enable  the 
United  Kingdom  to  compete  with  the  United  States  on  even  terms 
in  the  Canadian  market  except  with  regard  to  a  certain  number  of 
articles.  Proximity  alone  is  bound  to  exercise  a  very  potent  influence. 
On  all  goods  in  the  price  of  which  the  cost  of  carriage  is  a  predominant 
factor  it  would  need  much  more  than  an  advantage  of  one-third 
in  the  rate  of  duties,  amounting  to  an  average  of  less  than  10  per 
cent,  of  the  value  of  the  goods,  to  enable  British  manufacturers  to 
compete,  in  the  heart  of  Canada,  with  those  of  Pennsylvania  and 
Massachusetts.  But  proximity  is  not  the  only  advantage  which  the 
United  States  possess.  They  have  also  the  advantage  of  a  greater 


532  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

similarity  of  conditions,  which  enables  the  Canadian  market  to  be 
catered  for  as  an  additional  market  to  the  United  States  for  the  same 
classes  of  goods  instead  of  as  a  totally  different  market  possessing 
exceptional  requirements.  Thus  in  Canada,  as  in  the  United  States, 
there  is  abundance  of  water  power,  and  the  provision  of  machinery 
for  utilising  this  power  is  naturally  easier  for  a  United  States  manu- 
facturer, who  produces  turbines  and  water-wheels  for  the  two  countries, 
than  for  a  British  manufacturer,  who  has  practically  no  other  than 
the  Canadian  market  for  this  description  of  goods.  Moreover  there 
is  another  factor,  on  which  the  Edinburgh  Reviewer  rightly  insists, 
and  which,  especially  of  late  years,  has  exercised  a  great  influence 
in  stimulating  the  demand  for  United  States  goods  as  compared  with 
British.  I  refer  to  the  great  influx  of  United  States  settlers  into 
Western  Canada.  Not  only  do  these  immigrants  exceed  those  from 
the  United  Kingdom  in  numbers,  but,  man  for  man,  they  greatly 
exceed  them  in  wealth.  They  are  better  customers,  and  it  is  only 
natural  that  their  custom  should  go  to  their  country  of  origin  rather 
than  to  a  distant  country,  of  different  habits,  with  whose  products 
they  are  not  familiar.  It  is  a  common  experience  that  every  colony, 
in  the  first  instance  at  any  rate,  tends  to  draw  its  supplies  from  the 
Mother  Country  rather  than  from  foreign  lands.  And  the  United 
States  colonists  of  Western  Canada  are  no  exception  to  the  rule. 

And  yet,  when  all  is  said  and  done,  the  effect  of  preference  is  clearly 
visible  in  the  competition  of  the  United  Kingdom  with  the  United 
States.  I  dwell  upon  this  because  it  is  the  strongest  possible  case, 
the  case  of  a  country  in  our  competition  with  which  preference  has 
the  greatest  difficulties  to  overcome.  In  the  case  of  our  other  principal 
rival,  Germany,  the  change  since  the  introduction  of  preference  is 
much  more  marked.  But  even  in  the  case  of  the  United  States  if 
preference  cannot  wholly  outweigh  the  great  and  manifold  advan- 
tages which  the  rival  country  possesses  it  does  to  an  appreciable 
extent  counteract  them.  The  disproportion  between  the  increase 
of  United  States  imports  into  Canada  and  the  increase  of  British 
mports  is  largely  due  to  the  vast  amount  of  United  States  trade 
with  Canada  in  goods  which  the  United  Kingdom  does  not  produce 
and  therefore  cannot  supply.  If  we  confine  ourselves  to  articles 
which  the  two  countries  are  equally  capable  of  producing  the 
difference  is  far  less  marked.  Above  all  there  is  that  marked  contrast 
of  tendency  to  which  I  have  called  attention  between  the  period 
antecedent  to  the  grant  of  preference  and  the  period  subsequent  to 
it.  The  table  on  p.  529  shows  a  number  of  classes  of  goods,  and  they 
are  the  most  important  to  us,  in  which  the  United  Kingdom  has 
competed  with  the  United  States  with  much  greater  success  since 
the  grant  of  preference  than  before  it.  To  these  may  be  added  glass 
and  earthenware,  cordage,  paper,  metals  (other  than  iron  and  steel) 
and  manufactures  thereof,  tobacco,  pipes,  &c. 


1908    THE  VALUE  OF  CANADIAN  PREFERENCE    683 

And  now  let  me  sum  up  briefly.  I  maintain  that  experience  in  the 
case  of  Canada  shows — and  this  experience  is  not  confined  to  Canada 
— that  preference  is  capable  of  effecting  what  I  claim  for  it.  When 
British  goods  are  competing  with  foreign  goods  in  any  part  of  the 
Empire  on  more  or  less  equal  terms  even  a  moderate  preference 
on  British  goods  will  turn  the  scale  in  their  favour.  Where  they 
are  competing  at  a  slight  but  decided  disadvantage  preference 
can  neutralise  that  disadvantage.  But  where  the  disadvantage 
is  very  great,  owing  to  distance  or  other  natural  causes  of  a 
preponderating  character,  or  even  to  the  settled  habits  or  customs 
of  the  importing  community,  no  preference  that  I  either  expect 
or  desire  to  see  imposed  can  wholly  counteract  that  disadvantage, 
though  it  may  certainly  mitigate  it.  In  other  words,  preference 
cannot  work  miracles.  But  it  can  and  does  exercise  so  great 
an  influence  on  the  course  of  trade  that  it  is  well  worth  making 
some  effort,  and  even  some  sacrifice,  in  order  to  maintain  and  extend 
it.  I  think  the  time  has  come  when  all  fair-minded  Free  Importers 
may  be  reasonably  asked  to  admit  this,  as  some  of  them,  including 
the  present  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  have  admitted  it. 

MlLNER. 


584  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 


THE    EUCHARISTIC    CONGRESS 


IN  the  annals  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  this  country,  the  Eucharistic 
Congress  will  take  rank  as  an  event  of  historic  importance.  In  the 
memory  of  those  who  took  part  in  it,  it  will  live  as  the  wonderful  week 
in  which  they  have  gazed  upon  scenes  such  as  have  never  been  wit- 
nessed by  their  fathers  even  from  the  days  of  St.  Augustine.  For  the 
first  time  in  history  seven  Cardinals — one-tenth  of  the  whole  Sacred 
College — have  met  together  in  England.  Their  meeting  had  for  its 
setting  a  combination  of  all  those  elements  which  stir  most  deeply  the 
religious  feelings  of  Catholics.  The  presence  of  a  Papal  Legate  ;  the 
multitude,  from  all  lands,  of  bishops  and  clergy  in  which  were  com- 
mingled home  and  foreign,  East  and  West,  Latin  and  Teuton  ;  the 
splendour  of  the  Liturgy  which  included  the  Byzantine  rite  as  well  as 
our  own  ;  the  enormous  concourse  of  the  faithful,  not  only  filling 
the  vast  cathedral  but  flooding  far  and  wide  the  streets  around  it ; 
the  crowded  sectional  meetings  at  which  were  read  such  excellent 
papers  as  those  of  Abbot  Gasquet  and  Dom  Chapman  and  Lord  LlandafT  5 
above  all,  the  faith  and  fervour  which  went  forth  in  devotion  to  the 
Blessed  Sacrament  and  loyalty  to  the  Holy  See,  and  tuned  in  the 
deepest  of  all  harmonies  the  hearts  of  all  from  the  stately  Cardinal- 
Legate  down  to  the  tiniest  child  that  bent  lowly  its  infant  head  at  the 
'  Veneremur  cernui ' — all  these  are  parts  of  a  picture  which  is  never 
likely  to  be  forgotten  by  those  who  beheld  it.  Even  the  dramatic 
element  was  forthcoming  in  the  startling  incident  of  the  Government 
intervention.  Albeit  a  circumstance  of  an  external  and  secondary 
order,  it  seemed  to  be  psychologically  timed  by  Mr.  Asquith  so  as  to 
produce  the  maximum  effect  of  public  prominence,  and  the  awakening 
of  a  deep  thrill  of  passionate  resentment,  in  which  the  wounded  sense 
of  liberty  and  citizenship  and  patriotism  was  blended  with  that  of 
religion.  It  can  only  be  said  that  the  Prime  Minister  in  taking  such 
a  step  was  building  more  wisely  than  he  knew  for  the  complete 
success  of  the  Congress. 

By  those  who  know  most  of  such  Congresses  in  the  past  the  success 
of  the  one  which  has  just  been  held  is  regarded  as  phenomenal.  The 
Eucharistic  Congresses  assemble  for  the  renewal  and  expression  of 


1908  THE   EUCHARISTIC  CONGRESS  685 

devotion  to  the  Blessed  Sacrament,  and  it  is  intelligible  that  there 
should  be  between  Catholics  in  various  countries  something  of  a  pious 
and  laudable  rivalry  in  the  attainment  of  that  object.  Eighteen 
previous  Congresses  have  taken  place  in  different  parts  of  Catholic 
Christendom,  and  they  have  all  been  in  their  measure  marked  with 
an  international  character.  It  is  at  this  moment  a  matter  of  holy 
pride  to  the  Catholics  of  England  that  in  the  number  of  prelates,  clergy, 
and  faithful  united  in  homage  to  the  Eucharist,  the  Congress  in  London 
has  eclipsed  all  others,  and,  be  it  added,  with  this  pride,  they  have 
felt  in  no  small  degree  a  deepening  of  their  pride  in  their  country 
and  in  their  fellow-countrymen,  recognising  as  they  do  that  in  no 
other  land  could  the  work  of  the  Congress  have  been  carried  out  amid 
more  courteous  and  generous  expressions  of  sympathy  upon  the 
part  of  the  general  public  than  it  has  been  here  in  the  midst  of  the 
capital  of  the  British  Empire.  Were  it  only  for  this  drawing  together 
more  closely  of  the  ties  of  national  fellowship,  Catholics  would  still 
owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  the  Eucharistic  Congress. 

The  success  of  the  Congress  has  been  many-sided,  but  whatever 
be  the  advantages  which  we  may  enumerate  as  accruing  from  its 
assembly,  undoubtedly  that  which  is  first  in  our  gratitude,  as  it  was 
first  in  the  purpose  of  its  promoters,  is  the  spiritual  good  which  has 
been  wrought  by  it.  No  thoughtful  mind  will  undervalue  the  edifica- 
tion which  is  given  by  the  spectacle  of  tens  of  thousands  of  people 
joining  in  a  public  act  of  faith  and  worship,  nor  the  helpfulness  of  a 
majestic  ritual  and  uplifting  Church  music,  nor  the  imposing  effect  of 
stately  surroundings,  and  least  of  all  of  the  manifold  evidences  of  Unity 
and  of  Catholicity,  which  thrill  the  worshippers  with  that  sense  of 
reality  which  is  too  deep  for  words.  But  however  beautiful  and 
dignified  was  this  outer  and  visible  accompaniment,  precious  above 
and  beyond  it  is  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  which  is  wrought  within 
souls.  It  is  in  this,  the  interior  and  spiritual  good,  that,  first  of  all 
and  most  of  all,  we  count  the  gain  of  the  Eucharistic  Congress.  The 
Congress  with  its  wonderful  vision  of  Cardinals  and  clergy  and  kneeling 
crowds  has  come  and  gone,  but  there  remains  with  us  the  conviction 
that  multitudes  of  the  Catholic  people  have  been  drawn  more  closely 
to  Christ  and  stand  nearer  to  Him  to-day  as  the  Bread  of  their  life, 
and  the  Source  of  their  spiritual  strength,  and  the  Friend  of  their 
earthly  pilgrimage.  Every  Catholic  altar  in  the  land  has  its  group, 
more  or  less  numerous,  of  fervent  and  frequent  communicants,  and 
those  who  are  engaged  in  the  ministry  of  souls  have  in  their  daily 
experience  plentiful  proofs  of  how  strongly  and  deeply  rooted  is  the 
belief  and  devotion  of  the  Holy  Eucharist  in  the  souls  of  the  Catholic 
people.  But,  even  to  them,  the  events  of  the  Congress  have  come  as  a 
revelation.  Men  and  women  and  children  in  thousands  have  pressed 
forward  to  the  altars  for  Holy  Communion,  and  never  in  the  whole  his- 
tory of  the  Church  in  this  country  has  there  been  a  greater  outburst 


586  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Oct. 

of  love  and  devotion  to  the  Mass  and  to  the  Blessed  Sacrament.  We 
love  to  think  that  such  a  renewal  must  be  to  some  extent  a  national 
as  well  as  an  ecclesiastical  advantage.  Directed  as  it  is  to  what 
Catholics  hold  to  be  the  very  fountain  source  of  essential  strength, 
its  effect  ought  to  be,  in  the  measure  of  their  sincerity,  to  invigorate 
the  fibre  of  their  Christian  character,  and  to  make  them  good  citizens 
as  well  as  good  Catholics.  A  movement  which  brings  them  to  use 
more  fervently  the  great  Sacrament  of  Peace  and  Love  ought,  in 
uniting  them  more  closely  to  Christ,  to  fill  them  more  abundantly 
with  the  spirit  of  charity  and  loyalty,  and  goodwill  towards  their 
fellow-countrymen.  I  venture  thus  to  express  what  I  may  call  the 
primarily  Catholic  view  of  the  Eucharistic  Congress,  because  it  seems 
to  me  that,  rightly  understood,  such  great  Eucharistic  gatherings, 
wherever  they  may  be  held,  cannot  but  have  a  civic  as  well  as  a 
spiritual  beneficence,  and  also  because  it  is  a  satisfaction  to  think 
that  the  generous  attitude  of  the  public  at  large,  who  have  looked  on 
respectfully  if  not  sympathetically  from  without,  should  have  a  return 
in  the  form  of  a  benefit  which  all  can  appreciate.  Here  if  the  advantage 
is  thus  appraised  on  what  may  seem  a  lower  plane  of  value,  it  is  not 
meant  for  a  moment  to  exclude  its  higher  aspect.  The  heart  of 
England  is  still  Christian  and  religious,  and  Catholics,  while  realising 
how  much  there  is  in  their  faith  that  fundamentally  differs  from  that 
of  the  majority  around  them,  feel  that  they  can  trust  their  fellow- 
countrymen  well  enough  to  be  sure — more  sure  than  ever — that  this 
nation  is  never  likely  to  quarrel  with  them  because  they  practise  an 
act  of  their  religion,  and  especially  an  act  of  love  and  homage  to 
Christ  in  the  Holy  Communion.  On  the  contrary,  they  know  well 
that  there  are  many  who,  while  they  cannot  follow  us  in  faith,  reckon 
that  every  act  of  religion  sincerely  practised  must  be  a  gain  to  the 
religious  feeling  of  the  nation  as  a  whole,  and  welcome  every  honour 
paid  to  Christ  with  sympathetic  appreciation.  The  spiritual  and  the 
religious  fruit  of  the  Congress  is  thus  paramount  in  the  mind  of  the 
Catholic  body,  and  no  other  considerations  in  the  after-glow  may  be 
allowed  to  dim  or  depreciate  its  significance. 

Compared  with  this,  the  real  work  and  the  real  success  of  the 
Congress,  the  intervention  of  the  Government  in  regard  to  the  pro- 
cession may  be  described  as  a  ripple  upon  the  surface.  No  doubt  the 
ripple  was  one  of  deep  indignation,  for  religious  indignation  is  the 
deepest  of  its  kind,  and  those  who  watched  the  faces  of  the  mighty 
audience  at  the  Albert  Hall  on  Saturday  evening,  or  heard  the  em- 
phatic comments  which  passed  freely  from  lip  to  lip  amongst  the 
crowds  waiting  outside  the  cathedral  on  Sunday  morning,  will  gauge 
how  deeply  the  feeling  of  the  Catholic  body  has  been  stirred  by  what 
it  has  felt  to  be  at  once  a  violation  of  its  rights  and  an  indignity 
offered  to  its  religion.  In  the  outer  domain  of  Catholic  action,  the 
incident  is  much  too  important  not  to  be  followed  up  to  its  con- 


1908  THE  EUCHARISTIC  CONGRESS  587 

sequences,  but  here  it  will  be  sufficient  to  note  the  precise  position 
which  preceded  so  unexpected  and  so  regrettable  a  development. 

The  Eucharistic  Congress  which  has  just  taken  place  is  but  one 
of  a  series  which  has  been  held  year  by  year  in  various  parts  of  Christen- 
dom, and  in  all  such  meetings  the  acts  of  devotion  to  Christ  in  the 
Holy  Eucharist  have  been  appropriately  crowned  and  completed  by 
a  public  procession  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament.  When  it  was  decided 
that  the  Eucharistic  Congress  of  this  year  should  be  held  in  London, 
it  became  a  question  of  how  far,  and  in  what  manner,  this  part  of  the 
programme  would  be  practicable.  The  very  reason  why  the  Church 
allows  the  Blessed  Sacrament  to  be  taken  out  of  the  sanctuary,  and 
carried  publicly  along  the  highways,  is  that,  especially  in  Catholic 
lands,  she  is  dealing  with  the  multitudes  of  the  faithful  far  beyond  the 
number  that  could  be  accommodated  even  in  the  largest  church,  and 
she  naturally  wishes  that  these  should  have  an  opportunity  of  taking 
their  part  in  the  homage  offered  to  the  Holy  Eucharist.  That  may  be 
taken  as  one  at  least  of  the  raisons  d'etre  of  her  public  processions. 
From  this  it  naturally  follows  that  in  the  mind  and  intention  of  the 
Catholic  Church  such  processions,  by  their  very  meaning,  postulate 
that  they  shall  take  place  in  the  midst  of  a  Catholic  people,  and  that 
they  shall  pass  through  the  believing  and  adoring  multitude  from 
whom  Christ  in  the  Blessed  Sacrament  shall  receive  the  tribute  of 
Faith  and  worship.  On  the  other  hand,  it  never  could  be  either 
the  purpose  of  the  Church,  or  the  interest  of  religion,  that  the  Sacred 
Host  should  be  obtruded  or  paraded  in  the  presence  of  a  public  which 
in  its  overwhelming  majority  has  ceased  to  believe  in  the  Real  Pre- 
sence, and  therefore  cannot  conscientiously  render  to  it  that  honour 
which  those  who  do  believe  feel  as  conscientiously  to  be  its  due.  Such 
an  obtrusion  would  be  as  repugnant  to  the  soul  of  the  Catholic  as  it 
would  be  both  inconsiderate  and  unfair  to  the  conscience  of  the  non- 
Catholic.  The  more  so,  as  in  the  mind  of  the  Church  the  procession 
of  the  Blessed  Sacrament  is  not  only  an  act  in  which  the  people  do 
honour  to  the  Real  Presence,  but  pre-eminently  one  in  which  the 
Real  Presence  confers  an  honour,  beyond  all  words,  upon  the  people, 
and  such  honour  plainly  presupposes  conditions  of  corresponding 
faith  and  devotion.  These  elementary  principles  of  Catholic  belief, 
which  are  those  of  good  sense  and  good  taste  as  well,  are  sufficiently 
obvious  to  all,  and  if  they  are  mentioned  here  it  is  only  to  indicate 
how  utterly  beside  the  mark  is  the  suspicion  entertained,  apparently 
by  a  mistaken  few,  that  the  Catholic  Church  in  this  country  had 
organised  the  proposed  procession  of  the  Host  in  the  spirit  of  ostenta- 
tion or  bravado,  or  with  a  view  of  thrusting  her  sacred  mysteries  upon 
the  attention  of  a  Protestant  public.  In  truth,  one  could  hardly 
conceive  anything  which  is  farther  from  the  mind  of  the  Catholic 
authorities  than  such  an  obtrusion,  or  anything  which  they  feel  would 
be  more  fatal  to  the  spirit  and  work  of  the  Church  in  this  country* 


538  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

Needless  to  say  that  the  Sacred  Host  is  to  us  much  too  sacred,  that  we 
should  seek  to  put  it  in  the  front  of  the  denominational  fray,  and  that, 
whatever  be  our  warfare,  we  shall  know  how  to  strengthen  ourselves 
in  its  strength,  without  borrowing  the  methods  of  the  '  Battle  of  the 
Standard.' 

It  will  then  be  asked,  If  this  be  the  case,  why  was  the  procession 
of  the  Host  made  a  part  of  the  programme  in  the  recent  Congress  ? 

The  answer  is  that  it  was  so  arranged  because  the  holding  of  such 
a  procession  was  felt  to  be  quite  in  harmony  with  the  principles 
just  mentioned,  and  this,  I  think,  may  be  made  plain  by  a  simple 
statement  of  the  facts.  ' 

In  the  first  place,  when  it  was  proposed  by  some  over-zealous 
promoters  that  the  procession  should  take  place  in  Victoria  Street, 
or  some  of  the  greater  thoroughfares  near  the  cathedral,  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Westminster  at  once  vetoed  the  proposal.  On  the  other 
hand,  as  the  work  of  organisation  developed,  the  necessity  of  holding 
such  a  procession  for  Catholics  outside  the  limits  of  the  cathedral 
itself  became  more  and  more  apparent.  The  unprecedented  demand 
for  Congress  tickets  already  assured  the  committee  that  the  cathedral 
would  be  filled  up  to  its  utmost  capacity  by  some  eight  thousand 
people.  Besides  this,  the  Archbishop  had  a  notification  that  more 
than  70,000  Catholics  would  come  to  take  their  part  in  the  act  of 
homage  to  the  Blessed  Sacrament.  As  a  matter  of  fact  they  were 
joined  by  Catholics  arriving  by  special  trains  from  many  parts  of 
England  and  abroad,  so  that  the  crowd  assembled  on  Sunday  evening, 
the  13th,  has  been  estimated  by  some  at  more  than  150,000.  It 
became  a  question  of  finding  room  for  this  multitude  of  Catholics, 
and  of  arranging  some  way  by  which  they  could  fulfil  their  desire  of 
joining  in  the  worship  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament.  They  were  prac- 
tically the  overflow  of  the  congregation  assembled  inside  the  cathedral, 
and  there  was  no  alternative  but  to  allow  them  to  occupy  the  cathedral 
precincts  and  the  streets  adjoining.  Fortunately,  those  streets  lent 
themselves  very  aptly  to  the  purpose.  While  the  Archbishop  most 
wisely  forbade  any  occupation  of  the  main  streets,  or  anything  which 
could  inconvenience  the  public  traffic,  it  so  happens  that  around 
the  cathedral  there  are  a  number  of  smaller  streets,  which  on  Sundays 
are  all  but  deserted.  Into  these  it  was  arranged  that  the  overflowing 
multitude  of  Catholics  should  be  directed,  and  it  was  decided  that  the 
procession  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament  which  would  be  held  in  the 
cathedral  should  then  issue  from  its  walls,  and  pass  amongst  these 
thousands  of  the  faithful  in  order  that  they  too,  as  well  as  their  more 
privileged  brethren  within  the  cathedral,  might  satisfy  their  devotion 
and  have  their  share — many  of  them  had  travelled  all  night  for  it — 
in  paying  homage  to  their  Lord  in  the  Holy  Eucharist.  Their  right 
as  citizens  to  pass  into  these  streets  was  beyond  doubt,  and  further, 
the  police  authorities,  whose  conduct  throughout  has  been  beyond 


1908  THE   EUGHAHISTIC   CONGBESS  .     589 

praise,  and  whose  knowledge  of  the  whole  district  is  unquestionable, 
had  assured  the  Committee  that  no  difficulty  would  be  found  in  the 
maintenance  of  order.  At  the  same  time  similar  assurances  were 
forthcoming  from  many  residents  along  the  proposed  route  that,  far 
from  offering  any  opposition,  they  would  welcome  gladly  the  spectacle 
of  a  procession  in  their  neighbourhood.  It  was  under  these  condi- 
tions, with  every  issue  maturely  weighed,  and  every  precaution 
duly  taken,  that  the  Committee  obtained  the  Archbishop's  sanction 
for  the  procession  of  the  Host  to  be  held  within  the  limits  of  the  re- 
stricted area  of  quiet  side-streets  surrounding  the  cathedral.  Such 
a  procession  was  clearly  an  extension  of  the  procession  in  the  cathedral 
made  to  meet  the  wants  of  an  overflowing  Catholic  congregation. 
It  might  be  said  that  for  the  moment  the  circumstances  of  the  most 
Catholic  country  were  in  a  manner  reproduced  in  miniature  in  and 
around  the  cathedral,  and,  in  view  of  the  fact,  it  was  felt  that  it 
would  be  a  harsh  and  cruel  course  to  deprive  so  many  thousands  of 
Catholics  of  their  part  in  an  act  of  worship  to  which  they  had  so 
fervently  looked  forward. 

There  may  be  indeed  various  opinions  upon  the  desirability  of 
holding,  under  any  circumstances,  processions  of  the  Blessed  Sacra- 
ment in  the  streets  of  London,  but  in  the  specific  case  in  point  it 
would  be  difficult  to  see  how  the  Committee  could  well  have  acted 
otherwise.  Certainly  it  would  be  unjust  to  suppose  that  their  action 
was  inspired  by  any  wish  to  obtrude  a  procession  of  this  kind  upon 
the  general  public.  It  was  never  meant  for  the  general  public,  but 
for  the  multitude  of  the  Catholic  faithful  who,  in  their  tens  of  thousands, 
could  not  find  room  inside  their  cathedral.  Such,  I  take  it,  is  the 
presentment  of  the  facts  as  gathered  from  those  who  are  best  qualified 
to  know,  and  it  is  in  their  light  that  one  can  best  form  a  judgment  of 
the  events  which  followed. 

Mr.  Asquith,  in  yielding  to  the  influences  which  urged  him  to 
prohibit  the  procession,  took  his  stand  upon  its  supposed  illegality. 
It  is  well  known  that  in  the  passing  of  the  Catholic  Emancipation 
Act  nearly  eighty  years  ago,  several  grudging  reservations  in  the 
shape  of  certain  disabilities  were  allowed  to  survive  by  way  of  con- 
cession to  the  fears  and  prejudices  which  lingered  in  the  minds  of  the 
opponents  of  the  measure.  It  is  not  easy  to  imagine  that  there 
are  men  who  still  exist  in  the  atmosphere  of  that  period,  and  for  whom 
in  that  respect  the  progress  of  the  last  eighty  years  seems  to  count  for 
nothing,  and  thus  Catholics  generally  had  come  to  believe  that  most 
of  these  relics  of  penal  days  had  long  since  become  obsolete  by  their 
simple  and  utter  anachronism.  They  felt  that  to  believe  otherwise 
would  have  been  to  do  an  injustice  to  the  good  sense  of  their  fellow- 
countrymen.  Now  it  appears  that  these  provisions,  bolstered  by  a 
proclamation  of  1852,  are  galvanised  into  vigour  and  are  invoked  to 
interdict  processions  of  the  kind  that  had  been  arranged  for  at  the 


540  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Oct. 

recent  Congress.  Whether  they  are  obsolete,  or,  as  some  say,  only 
obsolescent,  is  a  matter  which  may  be  left  to  the  lawyers.  While 
law  is  law,  and  not  against  conscience,  Catholics  will  obey  it.  But 
if  the  disabilities  in  question  are  still  to  be  dignified  by  the  name  of 
law,  then  Mr.  Asquith  has  done  good  service  in  pointing  out — in  what 
was  surely  the  most  telling  way  which  he  could  have  chosen  for  the 
purpose — such  a  blot  upon  the  Statute  Book,  in  order  that  public 
opinion  may  be  aroused  to  the  fact,  and  that  the  law  may  be  speedily 
altered.  The  case  from  the  Catholic  standpoint  is  too  plain  to  need 
proof,  and  it  has  been  stated  with  admirable  clearness  and  force  in 
the  letter  of  the  Archbishop  to  the  Premier.  Catholics  give  to  the 
Crown  and  the  Constitution  the  same  support,  and  certainly  the  same 
loyalty,  as  their  fellow-subjects,  and,  doing  so,  they  claim  to  have  the 
same  protection  and  the  same  rights,  and  that  in  the  exercise  of  these 
rights  the  law  of  the  land  shall  not  discriminate  against  them.  That 
is  only  to  say  that,  giving  all  that  others  give,  they  claim  all  that 
others  claim.  They  cannot  ask  more,  and  in  self-respect  they  cannot 
accept  less.  Nor  can  one  suppose  for  a  moment  that  the  public 
opinion  of  the  country  would  wish  them  to  do  otherwise.  The 
nation's  honour  lies  quite  as  much  in  righting  us  as  ours  lies  in  being 
righted. 

In  the  meantime,  the  incident  of  the  Government^,  prohibition 
was  not  without  a  certain  diplomatic  interest.  To  prohibit  the 
procession  pure  and  simple  would  have  been  for  the  Government 
itself  to  go  beyond  the  limits  of  the  law,  and  would  have  placed  it  in  a 
false  position.  It  would  have  also  created  a  very  grave  danger,  for  if 
the  resentment  of  the  tens  of  thousands  assembled  in  the  streets  of 
Westminster  was  at  the  mere  change  in  the  procession  all  but  un- 
controllable, one  can  readily  imagine  what  it  would  have  been  had 
they  been  told  that  there  was  to  be  no  procession  at  all.  From  both 
the  false  position  and,  as  far  as  possible,  from  the  da*nger,  the  Prime 
Minister  was  rescued  by  the  statesmanlike  action  of  the  Archbishop. 
By  a  wise  alteration  in  its  character  the  procession  was  brought  within 
the  technical  provisions  of  the  law,  and  at  the  same  time  was  enabled 
to  be  held  in  such  a  way  as  to  appease  at  least  in  some  measure  the 
angry  disappointment  of  the  crowd,  who  happily  vented  in  the  acclama- 
tion of  the  Legate  the  pent-up  feelings  which  otherwise  would  have 
shaped  themselves  into  anything  but  blessings  on  the  Premier.  What 
would  have  been,  and  ought  to  have  been,  a  quiet  and  devotional 
procession  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament  through  the  Catholic  multitudes 
kneeling  in  silent  adoration  as  it  passed,  became  a  triumphant  ovation 
to  the  Papal  representative,  amid  wild  enthusiasm  and  frantic  cheer- 
ing by  the  thousands  who  lined  his  path.  If  all  is  well  that  ends  well, 
there  must  have  been  many  who  in  witnessing  the  touching  scenes 
of  Catholic  fervour  along  the  route  of  the  procession  will  have  more 
than  half  forgiven  Mr.  Asquith  in  the  silence  of  their  hearts.  . .,; 


1908  THE  EUCHARISTIC   CONGRESS  541 

In  a  way,  it  is  encouraging  that  Mr.  Asquith  should  have  appealed 
to  reasons  of  law,  even  though  the  law  be  a  somewhat  spectral  one. 
It  reminds  us  that  we  are  living  in  a  country  which  happily  possesses 
the  highest  and  healthiest  conception  of  liberty,  and  of  law  as  the 
national  assertion  of  individual  right.  In  that  conception,  there  are 
rights,  and  amongst  them  those  of  meeting  and  of  peaceful  procession, 
which  are  held  to  be  naturally  and  inalienably  vested  in  the  constituent 
individuals.  When  law  is  in  technical  conflict  with  such  rights,  sooner 
or  later  right  asserts  itself,  and  if  the  law  is  wrong  it  can  be  rectified. 
Amongst  a  people  possessing  as  their  birthright  this  conception  of 
freedom,  everything  is  to  be  hoped  for.  It  stands  out  in  refreshing 
contrast  to  those  Statolatrous  doctrines  obtaining  in  certain  countries 
abroad  which  make  for  civic  servility,  and  place  all  public  action,  and 
in  it,  the  natural  right  of  men  to  meet  or  to  walk  together,  at  the 
mercy  or  good  pleasure  of  the  Civil  Power,  represented  by  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  day.  At  least  Mr.  Asquith  has  not  come  to  that,  and 
we  have  the  breadth  of  the  Channel  between  us  and  such  degrading 
theories.  In  the  long  run  it  is  more  desirable  that  things  should  be 
regulated  by  even  a  bad  law  than  by  the  caprice  of  a  Minister.  If 
the  law  is  bad,  it  can  be  bettered,  and  Mr.  Asquith's  action  will 
unwittingly  have  done  more  than  most  things  in  that  direction. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  it  is  allowable  to  think  that  it  is  not  in  connexion 
with  this  episode  of  Government  intervention  that  the  Eucharistic 
Congress  in  London  will  be  longest  and  best  remembered.  The 
strenuous  struggle  and  vindication  of  freedom  and  equality  in  matters 
of  civic  right  is,  no  doubt,  all  that  is  laudable  and  inevitable,  but  there 
is  quite  another  mentality  amid  the  beautiful  ways  of  peace  which 
we  associate  with  our  devotion  to  the  Blessed  Sacrament.  It  is 
rather  upon  the  scenes  which  gather  around  it  that  the  memory  will 
linger  in  recalling  the  wonderful  week  of  the  Congress.  The  Wednesday 
evening,  with  the  solemn  entry  of  the  Cardinal-Legate  proceed- 
ing under  the  silken  canopy  up  the  nave  of  the  densely  thronged 
cathedral — the  six  Cardinals  enthroned  upon  the  dais  and  represent- 
ing Spain,  Milan,  France,  Belgium,  Ireland  and  America — the  hundred 
bishops  in  the  chancel  standing  up  with  mitres  lowered  in  reverence 
at  the  reading  of  the  Apostolic  Brief — the  weird  glory  of  the  Byzan- 
tine liturgy  with  its  object-lesson  of  Rome's  far-reaching  breadth  of 
ritual  comity,  and  its  harking  back  to  the  centuries  of  our  early 
Christian  origins — the  charming  procession  of  the  schools  in  which  the 
little  children  cheered  in  their  own  shrill  way,  and  fairly  danced  with 
glee  as  they  waved  their  handkerchiefs  in  defiling  before  the  Legate — 
the  wonderful  fervour  of  the  faithful  massed  together  on  the  early 
Sunday  morning  in  the  enormous  throng  around  the  cathedral  doors, 
singing  from  time  to  time  their  favourite  hymns  to  the  Blessed  Sacra- 
ment to  while  away  the  long  hours  that  must  elapse  before  the  opening 
— the  Pontifical  High  Mass  sung  by  the  Cardinal  Legate  girt  by 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  380  0  0 


542  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

hundreds  of  the  Episcopate  and  clergy  and  a  concourse  of  some  eight 
thousand  souls — the  solemn  bestowal  of  the  Apostolic  Blessing  and 
its  proclamation  in  Latin  and  in  English  to  the  vast  congregation 
— and  last  of  all,  and  perhaps  most  of  all,  the  thrilling  moment 
on  that  September  Sunday  evening,  when  the  Host  was  carried  in 
procession  out  of  the  cathedral  towards  the  sea  of  eager  faces  that 
were  waiting  eagerly  without ;  when  the  thousands  inside  heard  and 
caught  up  the  strains  of  the  0  Salutaris  Hostia  which  was  being  sung 
by  the  tens  of  thousands  outside,  and  when  amid  the  sacred  silence 
which  spoke,  as  words  never  can  speak,  a  multitude's  faith  and  adora- 
tion, the  Cardinal  gave  the  Benediction  from  the  loggia  over  the  great 
porch  of  the  cathedral ; — these  are  the  things  that  are  still  most  in 
our  thoughts,  and  that  the  little  ones  who  were  held  up  in  arms  to 
witness  them  will  tell  to  their  grandchildren  in  the  long  years  to  come. 
Little  marvel  if  amid  such  impressions  we  find  that,  with  the  best 
will  in  the  world,  we  are  forgetting  to  think  about  Mr.  Asquith. 

J.   MOYES. 

Westminster  Cathedral  Clergy  House. 


1908 


CAN   ISLAM  BE    REFORMED? 


THE  many  liberal  movements  which  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 
century  have  been  smouldering  in  the  Muhammadan  world  have 
suddenly  blazed  up  into  the  light  of  day,  and  Europe  has  been  taken  by 
surprise  at  the  sight  of  Turks  and  Persians  demanding  a  constitutional 
government ;  but  to  those  who  have  had  an  opportunity  of  watching 
the  progress  of  liberal  and  modern  ideas  among  Muhammadans 
it  has  long  been  evident  that  some  such  attempt  to  arrest  the  imminent 
decay  of  Islam  would  soon  be  made.  Not  only  in  Egypt  and  India, 
where  Moslems  are  most  directly  exposed  to  the  influence  of  European 
thought,  but  in  Asiatic  Turkey  and  Persia,  and  even  in  Afghanistan, 
Moslems  are  being  affected  by  ideas  which  are  in  their  origin 
European,  however  much  their  presentment  may  have  been  changed 
to  commend  them  to  Oriental  audiences.  I  am  not  afraid  to 
say  that  in  the  best  minds  these  ideas  have  found  a  welcome  upon 
their  own  merits,  from  their  innate  superiority  over  the  ideas  which 
they  dispossessed.  But  their  acceptance  by  the  generality  has  un- 
doubtedly been  enormously  stimulated  by  the  desire  to  escape  from 
the  ruin  which  is  impending  over  the  Muhammadan  world.  '  The 
sword  has  departed  from  Islam '  is  a  phrase  which  I  have  frequently 
heard  upon  the  lips  of  Indian  Muhammadans  ;  and  we  may  wel) 
believe  that  wherever  Muhammadans  are  gathered  together,  whether 
in  the  bazars  of  Kabul,  or  the  caravanserais  of  Tripoli,  or  beneath  the 
shadow  of  the  Ka'bah,  this  is  the  absorbing  subject  of  conversation  ; 
and  when  stories  have  been  exchanged  of  the  successful  aggressions 
of  the  French,  the  English,  and  the  Russians,  the  question  must  often 
be  asked,  '  How  have  the  Franks  succeeded  in  achieving  such  pre- 
ponderance as  to  be  able  to  triumph  over  the  Faithful  ?  '  Here  and 
there  an  intrepid  thinker,  like  my  friend  Mr.  Sayyid  Husain  Bilgrami, 
will  lay  bare  the  true  source  of  the  disease  and  say  frankly  to  his 
people,  '  We  lost  the  qualities  which  gave  us  empire  long  before  we 
lost  empire  itself.'  But  these  bitter  truths  cannot  be  relished  by  the 
masses  ;  it  is  more  congenial  to  national  self-love  to  believe  that  it 
is  not  moral  or  intellectual  superiority  which  has  given  Christendom 
its  predominance,  but  rather  that  this  predominance  is  due  to  some 
specific  contrivance  or  artifice  of  which  the  Franks  have  the  secret, 

543  002 


544  THE    NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

and  that  if  the  Moslems  could  but  learn  the  trick  of  it  they  would  be 
able  to  make  head  against  Christendom  as  easily  as  they  did  of  old. 
And  what  more  natural  than  to  suppose  that  Parliamentary  institutions 
are  such  a  device  ?  How  plausible  it  must  appear  to  a  people  whose 
affairs  are  mismanaged  by  a  self-indulgent  despot  that  the  reason  of 
Western  supremacy  is  that  in  Europe  public  affairs  are  directed  by  a 
council  composed  of  the  best  and  wisest  elders  of  the  nation,  and  that 
by  this  means  the  favouritism  and  corruption  which  have  brought  the 
Islamic  kingdoms  so  low  are  avoided.  The  leaders  are  not  victims 
of  these  facile  delusions ;  they  know  that  the  Moslems  have  a  long 
and  weary  way  to  go  before  they  can  come  up  with  the  van  of  European 
progress  ;  none  the  less,  these  delusions  have  helped  the  cause  of 
reform,  for  the  new  ideas  would  have  made  but  slow  progress  did  they 
not  commend  themselves  to  the  people  as  specifics  for  the  malady 
from  which  they  were  suffering. 

Can  the  leaders  bring  their  movement  to  a  successful  issue  ?  Can 
the  social  structure  of  Islam  be  brought  into  harmony  with  modern 
ideas  ?  This  is  a  question  in  which  half  the  Chancelleries  of  Europe 
are  vitally  interested,  inasmuch  as  a  constitutional  government  is  an 
obvious  impossibility  in  Moslem  countries  if  Moslem  society  is  incapable 
of  reform.  Lord  Cromer,  who  has  been  in  close  contact  with  Muham- 
madan  statesmen,  who  can  write  of  them  with  genuine  friendship, 
does  not  hesitate  to  answer  this  question  with  an  emphatic  negative. 
'  It  should  never  be  forgotten,'  he  says  in  the  second  volume  of  Modern 
Egypt,  '  that  Islam  cannot  be  reformed.  That  is  to  say,  that  reformed 
Islam  is  Islam  no  longer.'  This  is  not  a  chance  phrase,  an  obiter  dictum 
of  secondary  importance  ;  it  is  the  bed-rock  upon  which  his  conclusions 
regarding  the  future  rest.  '  Islamism,'  he  says  elsewhere,  '  as  a  social 
and  political  system,  though  not  as  a  religion,  is  moribund.'  The  con- 
cern of  Muhammad  Beyram  to  bring  Islam  and  its  ways,  into  harmony 
with  modern  society  he  describes  as  an  attempt  to  square  the  circle, 
and  he  closes  his  admirable  portrait  of  him  with  these  gloomy  words  : 

We  may  sympathise,  and  for  my  part  I  do  heartily  sympathise,  with  the 
Muhammad  Beyrams  of  Islam,  but  let  no  practical  politician  think  that  they 
have  a  plan  capable  of  resuscitating  a  body  which  is  not  indeed  dead  and  which 
may  yet  linger  on  for  centuries,  but  which  is,  nevertheless,  politically  and 
socially  moribund  and  whose  gradual  decay  cannot  be  arrested  by  any  modern 
palliatives,  however  skilfully  they  may  be  applied. 

This,  of  course,  is  a  conjecture  about  the  future  which  time  alone  can 
prove  or  disprove,  but  it  is  presumably  based  upon  observation  of  the 
present ;  indeed,  it  is  but  another  way  of  presenting  a  charge  which  has 
often  before  been  brought  against  Muhammadans,  the  charge,  namely, 
that  Islam  is  rigid  and  inelastic,  incapable  of  change  and  therefore 
incapable  of  reform.  Lord  Cromer  himself  shares  this  popular  opinion. 
'  Islam,'  he  asserts,  '  speaking  not  so  much  through  the  Koran  as  the 
traditions  which  cluster  round  the  Koran,  crystallises  religion  and  law 
into  one  inseparable  and  immutable  whole,  with  the  result  that  all 


1908  CAN  ISLAM  BE   REFORMED?  645 

elasticity  is  taken  away  from  the  social  system.'  Here,  then,  is  the  root 
of  Lord  Cromer's  pessimism  and  the  source  of  many  other  prophecies 
about  the  imminent  decay  of  Islam.  Never  was  there  a  generalisation 
made  in  more  flagrant  defiance  of  the  facts.  Far  from  being  inelastic, 
Muhammadan  opinions  have  changed  in  the  past,  are  changing  now,  and 
will  presumably  continue  to  change  in  the  future.  The  alleged  rigidity 
of  Islam  is  a  European  myth,  for  the  groundlessness  of  which  there  is 
overwhelming  evidence.  The  myth,  it  is  charitable  to  suppose,  arose 
from  the  fact  that  Muhammadans  themselves  are  averse  to  such  an 
expression  as  the  '  reform  of  Islam.'  Islam  is  the  name  of  a  divine 
revelation,  and  the  suggestion  of  reforming  it  gives  them  something 
of  the  shock  which  a  Christian  would  experience  on  hearing  of  a  pro- 
posal to  '  amend  the  Gospel.'  But  has  this  horror  of  '  amending  the 
Gospel '  ever  stood  in  the  way  of  reform  in  Christendom  ?  The 
infallibility  of  Holy  Writ  must  be  the  starting-point  of  all  reformers. 
Those  who  go  further  and  pretend  to  a  new  revelation,  like  the 
Mormons  or  the  Babis,  are  founding  a  new  religion,  not  reforming  an 
old  one.  From  Wyclif  to  Tolstoi  every  Christian  reformer  has  claimed 
not  to  amend  the  Gospel,  but  to  bring  to  light  its  true  meaning,  which 
the  Churches  had  perverted  or  misunderstood,  and  in  the  same  way 
the  Muhammadan  reformer  has  claimed  not  to  '  reform  Islam,'  but  to 
show  his  people  the  error  of  their  ways,  and  bring  them  back  to  the 
practice  and  understanding  of  the  true  faith,  as  it  was  practised  and 
understood  by  the  companions  of  the  Prophet ;  his  professed  object 
has  not  been  to  alter  but  to  restore,  a  formula  under  which  the  greatest 
reforms  in  all  ages  have  been  accomplished.  Protestants,  at  least, 
should  not  find  it  hard  to  understand  his  position,  for  the  great  re- 
formers of  the  sixteenth  century  appealed  exactly  in  the  same  way  to 
Scripture,  to  the  early  Fathers,  and  the  practice  of  the  primitive 
Church  against  the  errors  of  Rome. 

A  convincing  proof  that  Muhammadan  opinion  is  susceptible  of 
change,  and  therefore  of  reform  (under  a  conservative  formula)  is  to 
be  found  in  the  number  of  sects  or  heresies  into  which  the  Islamic 
world  is  divided ;  for  what  is  a  heresy  but  an  attempt  at  reform  ? 
If  the  attempt  fails,  the  reform  is  confined  to  a  sect,  it  remains  a 
heresy.  If  it  is  accepted  by  the  majority  of  the  believers,  it  becomes 
the  orthodox  faith,  but  in  any  case  the  movement  was,  in  the  eyes 
of  the  founders,  a  change  for  the  better — that  is,  a  reform.  The 
power  to  throw  out  new  sects  is  a  vital  function.  It  indicates  that 
thought  is  not  stagnant,  but  that  the  people  are  adapting  their 
religious  beliefs  to  the  changing  ideas  of  the  age.  Islam  has  never 
for  long  lost  this  vital  power.  As  early  as  the  third  century  of  the 
Hijra  it  was  believed  that  Islam  was  divided  into  seventy-two  (or 
seventy-three)  sects,  and  though  in  the  sixth  century  the  celebrated 
theologian  Fakhruddin  al  Razi  (quoted  by  Dr.  Goldziher)  main- 
tained that  the  number  of  divergences  upon  the  fundamental  dogmas 
of  religion  was  not  so  great,  he  yet  recognised  that  if  differences  of 


546  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

secondary  importance  were  reckoned  this  number  should  be  more  than 
doubled.  Since  Fakhruddin  died  (606  A.H.)  many  sects  have  decayed 
and  many  others  have  sprung  up  in  their  place.  The  great  Wahabi 
movement  of  the  eighteenth  century  of  our  era,  which  came  into  being 
in  the  very  cradle  of  Islam  itself,  is  alone  sufficient  indication  that  the 
capacity  of  reform  resided  in  Muhammadan  society,  and  was  not  depen- 
dent upon  external  inspiration.  In  modern  times,  under  the  stimulating 
influence  of  European  ideas,  new  sects  are  multiplying  with  amazing 
rapidity  under  our  eyes.  In  Hughes's  Dictionary  of  Islam  authority 
is  quoted  for  the  assertion  that  there  are  no  fewer  than  150.  In  the 
Panjab,  that  fruitful  nursery  of  religious  dissent,  Islam  is  honeycombed 
with  sects  of  which  very  few  have  ever  come  upon  European  records. 
They  are  of  every  variety.  At  one  end  of  the  scale  are  the  Ahl-i-Koran, 
the  people  of  the  Koran,  who  reject  the  traditions  and  interpret  the 
Koran  by  the  Koran  itself,  which  means  in  practice  that  they  put 
the  spirit  above  the  letter  of  Holy  Writ.  At  the  other  extreme  are 
the  Ahmadiyya  Musalmans,  or  followers  of  the  recently  deceased 
Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad  of  Kadian,  who  styled  himself  '  the  Promised 
Messiah  '  ;  these  sectaries  were  prudent  enough  to  send  a  synopsis 
of  their  beliefs  to  the  compilers  of  the  census  of  1901,  from  which 
it  appears  that  '  the  characteristic  mark  of  this  sect  is  that  it  not 
only  reprobates  the  doctrine  of  the  jehad  (Holy  War)  with  the  sword, 
but  does  not  even  look  forward  to  its  enforcement  at  any  future 
time.  Wars  undertaken  for  the  propagation  of  religion  it  regards  as 
absolutely  unlawful.'  This,  no  doubt,  was  comfortable  doctrine  to 
the  English  officials  who  had  to  compile  the  census,  but  perhaps  the 
most  characteristic  teaching  of  the  sect  is  the  emphasis  laid  by  them 
Upon  peace  and  good-will,  which  the  name  Ahmadiyya  is  supposed  to 
indicate.  I  have  purposely  selected  for  mention  sects  which  have 
grown  up  in  the  lap  of  Islam  itself,  and  which  cannot,  like  the  Nechari 
doctrines  of  the  late  Sir  Sayyid  Ahmad,  be  traced  to  a  European 
source  ;  but  even  in  this  case  the  influence  of  Europe  may  easily  be 
overrated.  The  term  Nechari  is,  indeed,  derived  from  the  English 
word  '  nature,'  and  connotes  the  modern  scientific  conception  that  God 
does  not  interfere  with  the  course  of  Nature,  for  Sir  Sayyid  was  no 
believer  in  rniracles  ;  but  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  he  knew  very 
little  English,  and  that  his  first  impulse  to  heterodoxy  was  not  given 
by  European  speculation  but  by  the  teaching  of  the  Wahabis,  and  that 
to  the  end  his  mind  moved  in  Oriental  and  not  in  Western  channels  of 
thought.  The  growth  of  new  sects  in  Muhammadan  India  has  no 
doubt  its  parallel  in  Persia  and  Turkey,  though  where  the  press  is  not 
free  such  movements  long  escape  observation  and  record  ;  but  in 
Egypt  Lord  Cromer  has  himself  observed  that  the  teaching  of  the  late 
Mufti  Muhammad  Abduh  forms  a  striking  parallel  to  the  teaching  of 
Sir- Sayyid  Ahmad. 

I  am  tempted  to  lay  stress  upon  the  multiplication  of  new  sects 


1908  CAN  ISLAM  BE   REFORMED?  547 

because  evidence  of  this  kind  is  positive  and  palpable.  The  mere 
number  of  new  sects  is  in  the  nature  of  a  statistical  criterion  of  the 
capacity  to  reform ;  but  it  is  a  very  imperfect  measure  of  the  extent 
to  which  Musalmans  are  adapting  their  religious  opinions  to  the  spirit 
of  the  time.  To  join  a  distinct  sect  is  to  make  a  public  profession  of 
a  change  of  view ;  it  is  an  extreme  sacrifice  which  every  man  whose 
opinions  have  been  modified  does  not  feel  called  to  make.  Perhaps 
the  greatest  changes  of  all  are  those  which  take  place  almost  imper- 
ceptibly and  without  any  violent  wrench.  Men  who  have  imbibed 
something  of  modern  thought  re-read  their  Scriptures  in  the  light 
of  their  new  acquirements  ;  those  parts  of  Holy  Writ  which  do  not 
correspond  with  their  present  needs  make  but  a  slight  impression, 
and  fade  into  the  background  of  their  mental  vision.  Whereas  other 
parts,  to  which  they  had  perhaps  hitherto  paid  little  attention,  give 
a  direct  answer  to  the  immediate  wants  of  the  soul.  These  are  read 
and  re-read,  and  become  of  supreme  importance.  The  Scripture  indeed 
remains  the  same,  but  the  emphasis  laid  upon  its  various  passages  is 
altered.  It  would  not  be  just  to  say  that  men  pick  out  of  Scripture 
the  passages  which  suit  them  and  disregard  the  rest,  for  the  process  is 
performed  unconsciously.  But  the  result  is  much  the  same  as  if  they 
had  done  so.  The  texts  which  were  most  commonly  in  the  mouths 
of  the  Fifth  Monarchy  men  were  obviously  not  those  from  which 
James  Martineau  drew  his  inspiration,  because  the  spirit  in  which  they 
read  the  Bible  was  so  different  from  his  ;  and  a  similar  change  has 
come  over  the  Moslem  world.  In  the  twentieth  century  it  is  natural 
that  Muhammadans  should  be  most  attracted  to  those  passages  in  the 
Koran  in  which  the  spiritual  side  of  Islam  is  most  emphasised  ;  to  an 
outsider  it  appears  as  if  the  whole  creed  by  this  re-reading  had 
become  more  humane.  In  India  a  not  inconsiderable  number  of 
my  Muhammadan  acquaintances  believe  that 

(1)  The  use  of  force  for  the  propagation  of  the  faith  is  forbidden 

by  Islam. 

(2)  That  Islam  enjoins  monogamy. 

(3)  That  slavery  is  inconsistent  with  Islam,  which  asserts  the 

brotherhood  of  man. 

These  opinions  indicate  a  stupendous  advance.  Half  a  century  ago  no 
friend  of  the  Muhammadans,  however  sympathetic,  would  have  believed 
in  the  possibility  of  their  existence.  Hughes,  in  his  Dictionary  of 
Islam  (published  in  1885),  declares  that  Muhammadanism  teaches  the 
exact  opposite  in  all  three  cases.  Other  departures  from  that  rigid 
code  which  Europe  persists  in  ascribing  to  Islam  occur  to  me,  such  as 

(1)  Moslems    ought  to  welcome  science   and   knowledge  from 

whatever  source. 

(2)  The  sacrifice  of  animals  is  undesirable  and  not  obligatory. 

(3)  Islam  does  not  impose  the  dogma  of  predestination. 


548  THE    NINETEENTH  CENTUEY  Oct. 

The  last,  indeed,  was  a  doctrine  of  the  Mutazilah  (founded  in  the  second 
century  of  the  Hijra),  who  contended,  among  other  things,  that  man 
was  a  free  agent ;    in  many  respects  the  young  generation,  as  Mr. 
Ameer  Ali  has  said,  is  tending  unconsciously  towards  these  Mutazalite 
doctrines.     The  point  however  which  I  wish  to  emphasise  is  that  these 
opinions  are  not  peculiar  to  Europeanised  Moslems,  but  are  held  by 
many  who  are  scrupulous  in  the  observation  of  fast  and  prayer,  and  who 
have  never  cut  themselves  off  from  the  communion  of  the  orthodox. 
I  have  known  a  case  in  which  the  more  modern,  or  liberal,  view  was 
defended  by  a  Muhammadan  who  knew  no  European  language,  and 
was  attacked  by  a  man  educated  in  Europe.  •  A  Turkish  doctor,  who 
had  come  to  India  to  study  the  treatment  of  cholera,  once  came  to  lunch 
with  me  at  Aligarh,  and  I  asked  the  distinguished  Indian  scholar, 
Maulavi  Shibli  Nomani,  to  meet  him.     Our  conversation  dragged  a 
little  at  first  because  it  had  to  be  conducted  in  three  languages,  French, 
Persian,  and  Urdu,  but  it  happened  to  fall  upon  the  question  of  poly- 
gamy, and  then  it  became  brisk  enough.     The  Turkish  doctor,  in 
defence  of  his  views,  was  explaining  to  me  in  French  what  charm 
there  was  in  variety,  and,  pointing  to  some  roses  on  the  table,  he  re- 
marked how  much  more  pleasing  it  was  to  have  a  bunch  of  them  than 
a  single  flower.     Maulavi  Shibli,  who  knew  just  sufficient  French  to 
understand  the  drift  of  our  remarks,  grew  visibly  more  agitated  as  we 
proceeded.     At  last  he  broke  forth  in  indignant  reprobation,  rained 
upon  the  unhappy  doctor  a  shower  of  texts  from  the  Koran  and  the 
Hadis,  and  triumphantly  demonstrated  that  the  views  he  held  were 
directly  repugnant  to  the  true  faith ;    the  man  of  science  was  com- 
pletely discomfited  and  had  to  withdraw  under  cover  of  the  excuse  that 
he  was  no  theologian.     Examples  such  as  this  could  be  multiplied 
indefinitely,  and  show  to  my  mind  that  the  reform  of  Muhammadan 
opinion  which  is  said  to  be  impossible  is  actually  taking  place  in  India. 
From  all  I  can  learn,  the  same  change  is  taking  place  in  other  civilised 
Muhammadan  countries,  and  I  was  not  surprised  to  observe  that  one 
of  the  demands  presented  by  tLe  populace  to  the  Sultan  of  Turkey 
during  the  revolutionary  crisis  was  that  he  should  put  away  his 
liberal  establishment  and  restrict  himself  to  one  consort  in  the  future. 
I  know  that  some  Christian  controversialists  say, '  Oh,  if  Islam  is  so 
changed  as  to  tolerate  liberal  ideas,  it  is  no  longer  Islam.'    Why  not  ? 
If  the  people  continue  to  call  themselves  Moslems  and  continue  to 
derive  their  inspiration  from  the  message  of  Muhammad,  I  cannot 
see   how  they  can  be  denied    the  name.     No  religion  is  ever  an 
unchanging  body  of  doctrine ;    from  generation  to  generation  it  is 
readjusted  to  satisfy  the  changes  of  human  thought.     Christianity  can 
rightly  boast  that  it  has  always  shown  itself  singularly  capable  of  such 
development,  and  that  in  spite  of  Ecumenical  Councils  its  real  creed 
has  never  been  stereotyped.     Had  an  observer  as  intelligent  as  Lord 
Cromer  visited  Europe  in  the  fifteenth  century,  he  might  with  great 


1908  CAN  ISLAM  BE   REFORMED  ?  549 

plausibility  have  argued  that  Christianity  without  a  priesthood  was 
Christianity  no  longer ;  but  would  anybody  in  the  twentieth  century 
dream  of  asserting  that  Presbyterians  are  not  Christians  ?  For  my 
part  I  would  not  deny  the  epithet  Christian  to  any  one  of  the  links  in 
that  long  chain  of  ideas  which  connects  General  Booth  with  Calvin 
and  Hildebrand,  and  for  the  same  reason  I  do  not  withhold  the  name 
Moslem  from  any  body  of  men  who  express  their  outlook  upon  the 
universe  in  terms  of  Islam.  I  confess  I  look  forward  not  only  with 
hope  but  with  confidence  to  a  great  reform  in  the  Muhammadan  world, 
to  '  the  regeneration  of  a  fallen  people,'  as  we  say  at  Aligarh.  I  see 
that  the  Muhammadans  find  no  obstacle  in  their  religion,  rightly  con- 
ceived, to  the  adoption  of  European  education  and  scientific  ideas  ; 
that  the  men  who  hold  these  views  are  not  only  intellectually  but 
morally  superior  to  their  forefathers  ;  and  that,  though  there  has  been 
a  loosening  of  the  hold  which  their  faith  has  upon  some  of  the  young 
men,  a  large  proportion  of  them  retain  an  unquestioning  belief  in  their 
religion,  and  all  of  them,  including  even  the  agnostics,  cherish  a 
singularly  warm  affection  for  the  Prophet  Muhammad  and  a  pride 
in  their  Moslem  heritage. 

I  see,  then,  no  reason  for  accepting  Lord  Cromer's  dictum  that 
Islamism  as  a  social  system  is  moribund  ;  but,  for  reasons  which 
are  in  no  way  connected  with  the  Muhammadan  faith,  I  fear  that 
many  obstacles  will  be  found  in  the  path  of  political  reconstruc- 
tion. It  is  true  that  social  reform  is  an  indispensable  condition 
of  political  reform,  but  the  possession  of  the  domestic  virtues 
does  not  necessarily  imply  political  capacity  ;  it  cannot  be  pre- 
tended that  because  a  people  are  virtuous  in  private  life  they  are 
therefore  capable  of  originating  and  working  political  institutions 
competent  to  replace  the  despotism  by  which  all  Muhammadan 
countries  have  hitherto  been  governed.  That  Turks  and  Persians 
should  desire  to  start  some  sort  of  Parliamentary  government  is 
natural.  The  evil  against  which  they  are  for  the  moment  most 
anxious  to  protect  themselves  is  arbitrary  despotism,  and  as  Mr. 
Reshid  Sadi  said  in  the  Times  of  August  4,  '  human  ingenuity  has 
so  far  devised  no  efficacious  means  of  controlling  such  sovereign  power 
but  parliamentary  institutions.'  But  parliamentary  institutions 
cannot  be  established  and  put  at  work  as  machinery  can  be  erected 
and  set  running  ;  they  depend  for  their  success  upon  the  people  who 
have  to  work  them — that  is  to  say,  upon  a  great  mass  of  individuals 
who  have  had  no  previous  experience  of  politics.  If  it  were  merely 
a  question  of  reforming  the  public  services,  and  even  of  nominating 
a  capable  assembly,  that  would  not  present  a  very  grave  difficulty. 
There  must  be  patriotic  and  educated  Turks  in  sufficient  numbers  to 
fill  all  these  places.  But  representative  institutions  postulate  that  this 
patriotism  and  this  education  and  capacity  for  dealing  with  public 
questions  should  be  diffused  among  the  people  at  large.  The  whole 


550  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

body  of  the  people,  or  at  least  the  whole  electorate,  must  have  the 
capacity  to  associate  together  for  public  ends,  and  this  capacity  is  not 
so  much  a  matter  of  intelligence  or  even  honesty  as  of  temper  and 
habit.  Men  who  have  been  used  to  work  together,  in  whatever  public 
cause,  it  may  be  only  to  collect  subscriptions  or  to  run  an  orphanage 
or  to  safeguard  a  threatened  interest,  learn  to  give  and  take,  to  sub- 
ordinate private  to  public  interests,  to  trust  each  other,  to  follow 
a  leader,  in  one  case  to  guide  opinion  and  to  take  responsibility  in 
another ;  they  acquire  rather  by  practice  than  precept  the  temper 
necessary  for  working  political  institutions. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  Muhammadans  have  hitherto  had  little 
practice  in  this  association  for  public  purposes.  Arbitrary  monarchs 
have  always  been  jealous  of  the  existence  of  power  in  local  bodies, 
and,  indeed,  of  any  power  that  was  not  derived  from  themselves. 
Louis  XIV,  as  Saint-Simon  tells  us,  was  jealous  of  the  few  privileges 
which  remained  to  the  French  nobility,  because  ,^ 

il  ne  vouloit  de  grandeur  que  par  emanation  de  la  sienne.  ...  II  sentoit  bien 
qu'il  pouvoit  accabler  un  seigneur  sous  le  poids  de  sa  disgrace,  mais  non  pas 
1'aneantir  ni  les  siens,  au  lieu  qu'en  precipitant  un  Secretaire  d'Etat  de  sa  place 
ou  un  autre  ministre  de  la  meme  espece,  il  le  replongeoit,  lui  et  tous  les  siens, 
dans  la  profondeur  du  neant  d'oA  cette  place  1'avoit  tire. 

The  same  malignant  vanity  in  Oriental  despots  has  killed  out  all  but 
the  rudest  germs  of  political  institutions  in  Muhammadan  countries. 
Muhammadans  like  to  think  that  because  the  Commander  of  the  Faithful 
was  in  early  days  elected  by  a  sort  of  popular  vote,  therefore  demo- 
cratic government  is  natural  to  all  Moslems.  I  fear  that  a  precedent 
which  has  been  in  abeyance  for  twelve  centuries  carries  little  weight  in 
practical  politics.  I  do  not  see  that  Socialism  in  Christendom  derives 
any  assistance  from  the  fact  that  the  early  Christians  held  all  their 
goods  in  common.  Muhammadans  must  build  up  their  institutions 
with  the  materials  which  the  last  two  or  three  hundred  years  have 
put  into  their  hands,  and  I  am  compelled  to  recognise  that  their  task 
is  a  difficult  one,  for  these  materials  are  extremely  scanty.  But  the 
difficulty  of  their  task  is  not  due  to  their  religion,  but  to  the  previous 
existence  of  a  centralised  despotism,  and  it  is  only  fair  to  recognise 
that  Christian  Kussia  is  confronted  with  exactly  the  same  problem. 
Indeed,  any  autocracy  which  manages  all  a  people's  affairs  for  them  and 
permits  them  to  do  nothing  for  themselves,  weakens  their  power  of 
self-government,  and  the  more  efficient  the  autocracy  the  more  the 
political  capacity  of  the  people  is  atrophied.  This  may  partly  explain 
the  fact  mentioned  by  Lord  Cromer  that  '  the  Turco-Egyptians,  who 
might  perhaps  have  been  able  to  govern  the  country  in  a  rude  fashion 
in  1883,  were  incapable  of  doing  so  when  the  full  tide  of  civilisation 
had  set  strongly  in ' — that  is  to  say,  by  the  time  that  Lord  Cromer 
had  raised  the  Administration  to  so  high  a  pitch  of  efficiency. 

Perhaps  it  is  of  good  augury  for  the  political  future  of  Muhammadan 


1908  CAN  ISLAM  BE  REFORMED?  561 

countries  that  Oriental  despotisms,  though  excessively  centralised, 
have  rarely  been  highly  efficient,  and  that,  through  weakness  rather 
than  policy,  they  have  usually  been  obliged  to  leave  some  power 
in  the  hands  of  sections  of  the  people.  Thus,  for  example,  the  village 
has  usually  been  allowed  to  manage  its  own  affairs  ;  the  religious 
leaders  of  certain  communities  have  often  been  given  authority  over 
their  own  co-religionists ;  and  certain  noble  families  exercise,  de  facto, 
a  great  deal  of  power  in  their  own  localities.  These  are  germs  from 
which  indigenous  political  institutions  might  perhaps  be  developed. 
These  and  all  other  forms  of  self-government  native  to  the  soil  should 
be  carefully  cherished,  for  the  people  will  work  them  better  than  any 
theoretically  superior  institutions  with  which  they  are  not  familiar. 
Situated  as  the  Muhammadans  are,  they  need  to  preserve  all  the  elements 
which  conduce  to  the  stability  of  their  social  order,  for  if  they  attempt 
to  reconstitute  their  government  upon  abstract  principles,  they  may 
find,  in  the  pregnant  words  of  Taine,  that  what  they  hoped  was  a 
revolution  may  prove  to  be  dissolution. 

THEODORE  MOBISON. 


552  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 


TURKEY   IN   1876 

A   RETROSPECT 

AT  a  time  when  the  attention  of  Europe  has  been  arrested  by  recent 
events  in  Turkey  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  recall  something  of  the 
history  of  that  country  during  the  period  which  immediately  preceded 
the  promulgation  of  the  short-lived  and  ill-fated  Constitution  of  1876. 
By  so  doing  we  shall,  perhaps,  gain  some  insight  into  the  causes  which 
led  to  the  cold  and  even  hostile  reception  accorded  to  it  in  England — 
a  reception  which  unfortunately  greatly  encouraged  the  Sultan  to  set 
about  quickly  to  recover  his  authority  and  to  re-establish  the  auto- 
cratic form  of  government  which  had  been  so  fatal  to  the  prosperity 
of  the  Empire. 

In  many  respects  the  political  position  of  Turkey  to-day  closely 
resembles  that  of  1876,  but  there  are  now  two  hopeful  factors  which 
were  then  entirely  absent :  namely,  the  friendly  attitude  of  Russia  and 
the  sympathetic  disposition  of  Europe  in  general  towards  the  new 
Constitution.  In  1876  great  ignorance  prevailed  as  to  the  conditions 
of  the  country,  and  people  were  accustomed  to  divide  the  inhabitants 
roughly  into  '  Turks '  and  '  Christians.'  This  ignorance  has  very 
largely  disappeared,  and  the  world  has  realised  something  of  the 
difficulty  attending  on  the  government  of  so  many  different  nation- 
alities, whose  mutual  antipathies  and  sympathies  depend  far  more 
on  racial  than  religious  distinctions. 

The  troubles  which  came  upon  Turkey,  beginning  with  the  Herze- 
govinian  insurrection  in  1875,  followed  by  the  wars  with  Servia  and 
Montenegro,  the  rising  in  Bulgaria  with  its  bloody  repression,  the 
unfortunate  Conference  of  Constantinople,  and  the  disastrous  war  with 
Russia,  were  beyond  all  question  attributable  to  the  once  famous 
though  now  almost  forgotten  Drei- Kaiser- Bund,  or  league  for 
common  action  between  the  Governments  of  the  three  Northern 
Empires.  The  effect  of  it  was  to  secure  for  Russia  the  whole  weight 
of  Austria  in  pursuing  her  traditional  policy  of  weakening  and  em- 
barrassing Turkey,  though  this  was  far  from  being  contemplated  or 
intended  by  Count  Andrassy,  who  was  then  at  the  head  of  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  Government.  Austria,  when  she  went  into  the  alliance, 
no  doubt  hoped  to  check  the  Russian  intrigues  in  Turkey,  but  she 


1908  TURKEY  IN  1876  558 

speedily  became  entangled  in  the  tortuous  Muscovite  policy.  The 
consequences  of  the  Drei- Kaiser- Bund  quickly  became  apparent  in 
the  breaking-out  of  the  Herzegovinian  insurrection  in  July  1875, 
which  began  immediately  on  the  return  from  banishment  to  Monte- 
negro of  a  number  of  turbulent  Bosnians  in  favour  of  whom  the 
Russian  Embassy  had  strongly  interceded.  They  first  attacked  and 
murdered  a  party  of  Turkish  travellers,  and  then  robbed  and  burnt 
the  villages  whose  inhabitants  refused  to  join  them,  and  in  this  way 
their  numbers  were  soon  increased,  though  at  first  by  very  unwilling 
recruits.  The  country  had  been  so  quiet  that  there  was  no  force  at 
hand  to  put  down  the  disturbance,  and  when  the  Governor  asked 
for  a  couple  of  hundred  men  the  Russian  and  Austrian  Embassies 
remonstrated,  urging  the  Porte  not  to  give  unreal  importance  to  an 
insignificant  rising.  Advice  to  do  nothing  being  always  agreeable  to 
the  Porte,  that  course  was  followed,  and  this  farce  took  place  again 
and  again.  The  Governor-General  continued  to  beg  in  vain  for  re- 
inforcements as  the  movement  acquired  greater  extension,  his  applica- 
tions being  always  counteracted  by  the  objections  of  the  three 
Embassies.  So  little  did  Russia  conceal  her  sympathy  with  the 
rebellion  that  the  chiefs  used  to  meet  and  concert  their  plans  at  the 
house  of  M.  Yonine,  her  Consul-General  at  Ragusa,  and  on  one  occa- 
sion when  an  insurgent  chief  was  killed  the  Russian  flag  was  displayed 
at  half-mast,  and  the  Consul  attended  the  funeral  in  full  uniform. 
The  Austrian  frontier  was  under  the  charge  of  Count  Rodich,  Governor- 
General  of  Dalmatia,  and  his  feelings  being  strongly  Slavophil  he 
permitted  the  armed  bands  when  too  hotly  pressed  to  pass  over  the 
frontier,  where  they  could  not  be  pursued.  They  received  supplies 
and  ammunition,  and  reappeared  in  another  quarter,  and  this  in  spite 
of  assurances  from  Vienna  that  any  armed  body  crossing  over  into 
Austria  would  be  at  once  disarmed  and  interne.  Under  these  circum- 
stances it  is  hardly  surprising  that  the  insurrection  grew  in  extent 
and  went  on  for  month  after  month,  till  the  three  Powers  determined 
to  take  the  matter  in  hand,  and  the  Andrassy  Note  was  issued  in 
December  1875.  This  proving  fruitless,  it  was  followed  in  the  month 
of  May  by  the  famous  and  equally  fruitless  Berlin  Memorandum, 
which  our  Government  were  afterwards  blamed  for  having  rejected 
instead  of  amending,  by  which  course  it  was  said  they  had  prevented 
common  action  by  the  European  Powers.  There  is  little  justice  in  the 
accusation,  for  the  Drei-Kaiser-Bund  itself  had  put  an  end  to  all 
general  concert. 

The  Prime  Ministers  of  the  three  Emperors — Prince  Gortchakow, 
Prince  Bismarck,  and  Count  Andrassy — met  at  Berlin,  and  there,  with- 
out consultation  or  communication  with  any  other  Government,  drew 
up  the  famous  Memorandum,  simply  informing  the  different  Cabinets 
by  telegraph l  of  its  substance,  and  contemptuously  asking  that  their 
'  May  13th.  See  Turkey  3,  1876,  No.  248. 


554  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

adherence  should  at  once  be  telegraphed  back  ;  for  the  three  Chancellors 
did  not  consider  it  necessary  to  remain  at  Berlin  long  enough  to  allow 
of  their  receiving  written  answers,  or  discussing  any  observations 
or  objections  which  others  might  wish  to  make.  The  Memorandum 
was  flung  to  us  as  an  intimation  of  the  decision  of  the  three  Emperors, 
to  which,  indeed,  we  might  give  our  adhesion,  but  without  a  hint  that 
any  amendment  would  be  listened  to.  The  terms  of  the  Memorandum 
were  such  as  to  make  it  difficult  to  believe  that  its  authors  can  ever 
have  supposed  it  likely  to  lead  to  a  pacification,  for  it  was  evidently 
far  more  calculated  to  insure  a  prolongation  than  a  termination  of 
the  struggle.  The  objections  to  the  Memorandum  were  mercilessly 
exposed  by  Lord  Derby  in  a  conversation  with  Count  Munster,  the 
German  Ambassador,2  and  the  refusal  of  the  Government  to  have 
anything  to  do  with  it  was,  at  the  time,  unanimously  approved  by  all 
parties  in  England  ;  it  was  not  till  later  that  Mr.  Gladstone  reproached 
them  for  the  course  they  had  followed.  This  famous  document  had 
at  last  rather  an  ignominious  end.  It  was  to  have  been  presented  to 
the  Turkish  Government  by  the  representatives  of  the  three  Powers 
on  the  30th  of  May  1876,  and  on  the  morning  of  that  day  Sultan  Abdul 
Aziz  was  deposed.  There  was  then  a  little  hesitation  as  to  what  was 
to  be  done  about  it ;  for,  while  the  Russians  wished  it  to  be  presented 
to  the  Ministers  of  the  new  Sultan  as  soon  as  he  was  recognised,  Count 
Andrassy  supported  by  Prince  Bismarck  was  in  favour  of  delay,  the 
result  being  that  after  standing  over  for  a  time  it  was  allowed  to  drop 
without  ever  having  been  presented  at  all.  Such  was  the  end  of  this 
famous  instrument,  which,  though  never  acted  upon,  contributed  much 
to  keep  alive  the  insurrection  and  to  encourage  the  Servians  and 
Montenegrins  in  their  preparations  for  war,  by  convincing  them  that 
foreign  pressure  would  in  the  end  be  laid  upon  the  Turkish  Government. 
For  some  time  before  the  year  1875  grave  symptoms  of  discontent 
had  manifested  themselves  throughout  Turkey.  The  government 
of  the  country  had  up  to  1871  been  in  the  hands  of  Aali  and  Fuad 
Pashas,  two  men  of  such  marked  ability  and  strength  of  character 
that  even  Sultan  Abdul  Aziz  felt  their  authority,  and,  though  he  chafed 
under  it,  could  not  emancipate  himself  from  their  control.  During 
their  administration  Turkey  had  made  slow  but  distinct  progress, 
but  when  both  Aali  and  Fuad  Pashas  died  in  1871  the  Sultan  made 
Mahmoud  Nedim  Pasha  Grand  Vizier,  and  from  that  time  forward 
began  a  reign  of  corruption  and  oppression  throughout  the  land. 
Appointments  of  all  kinds  were  purchased  through  the  Imperial  harem ; 
the  salaries  of  officials  of  all  grades  remained  in  arrears  or  unpaid, 
while  the  Sultan  and  his  favourites  squandered  millions  with  the 
most  boundless  extravagance.  This  state  of  affairs  brought  to  the 
front  a  strong  party  of  reform,  at  the  head  of  which  stood  Midhat 
Pasha.  This  remarkable  man  had  distinguished  himself  as  Governor- 
2  See  Turkey  3,  1876,  No.  259. 


1908  TURKEY  IN  1876  555 

General  of  the  vilayet  of  the  Danube  by  his  firm,  impartial  rule, 
his  probity,  and  the  success  with  which  during  his  Governorship  he 
developed  the  resources  of  the  province.  He  saw  that  nothing  could 
save  the  country  from  ruin  but  a  complete  change  in  the  whole  system 
of  government,  and  to  this  end  he  applied  himself  with  the  most 
absolute  fearlessness  and  self-abnegation. 

It  was  in  the  year  1875  that  the  word  '  Constitution '  was  first 
pronounced,3  when  a  Pasha  of  high  position  came  to  our  Ambassador, 
Sir  Henry  Elliot,  and  explained  to  him  that  a  '  Constitution  '  was  the 
object  the  reforming  party  had  in  view.  It  may  perhaps  be  said  that 
while  Midhat  Pasha  and  a  few  enlightened  men  who  had  enjoyed  the 
advantages  of  a  more  liberal  education  saw  the  necessity  for  drastic 
reform  the  bulk  of  the  nation  was  indifferent ;  but  this  is  far  from  the 
truth.  Behind  Midhat  Pasha  and  his  principal  henchmen  stood  a  large 
and  determined  body  of  men,  Mussulmans  and  Christians,  who  fully 
realised  that  the  only  salvation  for  the  Empire  lay  in  the  adoption  of 
a  representative  form  of  government  which  would  completely  control 
the  finances  and  would  not  only  guarantee  personal  safety  and  liberty 
to  all  men,  irrespective  of  race  and  creed,  but  insure  an  absolutely 
impartial  administration  of  justice.  The  most  conspicuous  of  Midhat 
Pasha's  followers  were  the  Softas  or  students  of  the  Sheri,  or  sacred 
law,  and  many  Mollahs  and  Ulema  also  played  a  prominent  part 
in  promoting  the  cause  of  reform.  The  revolution  brought  about 
by  the  Constitutionalists,  including  the  deposition  of  Sultan  Abdul 
Aziz,  was  conducted  with  such  moderation  and  in  so  orderly  a  fashion 
that  there  is  little  doubt  English  sympathy  would  have  been  warmly 
enlisted  had  not  two  events  occurred  which  aroused  throughout 
Europe  such  intense  indignation  that  all  other  feelings  were  utterly 
extinguished.  These  events  were  the  Salonica  massacre  and  the 
Bulgarian  atrocities.  In  both  these  cases,  as  in  almost  all  of  those 
where  the  Mohammedans  have  given  way  to  an  outburst  of  fanatical 
violence  against  the  Christians,  it  was  the  latter  who  had  themselves 
provoked  it.  Even  at  times  when  the  most  perfect  goodwill  prevails 
between  Christians  and  Mussulmans  anything  like  a  slight  upon  their 
religion,  or  of  the  nature  of  an  insult  to  their  women,  will  in  a  moment 
rouse  a  quiet  Mohammedan  population  to  a  state  of  frenzy,  rendering 
them  capable  of  every  excess ;  and  in  the  case  of  Salonica  both  these 
causes  of  provocation  had  been  given  in  the  most  offensive  form.  A 
Bulgarian  girl,  living  in  a  village  not  far  from  Salonica  and  belonging 
to  a  not  over-respectable  family,  had  a  Turkish  lover,  and  one  day, 
declaring  that  she  had  become  Mohammedan,  she  went  to  her  lover's 
home.  His  family  refused  to  keep  her  till  her  conversion  to  Islamism 
had  been  registered  by  the  authorities.  In  order  that  this  formality 
might  be  gone  through  she  was  sent  next  day  by  rail  to  Salonica, 

8  See  '  The  Death  of  Abdul  Aziz  and  of  Turkish  Reform,'  by  Sir  Henry  Elliot, 
Nineteenth  Century,  February  1888. 


656  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

accompanied  by  the  Hodja  of  the  village  and  an  Arab  woman,  and 
her  mother  went  by  the  same  train.  On  her  arrival  at  Salonica 
a  Christian  mob  collected,  and  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the  police 
they  pulled  off  her  yashmak  and  feridgee,  hustled  her  into  the  American 
Vice -Consul's  carriage,  and  took  her  to  the  American  Consulate.  The 
Turkish  population  were  now  aroused.  They  armed  during  the  night, 
and  on  the  day  following  a  large  body  of  Mussulmans  went  to  the 
Government  House  or  Konak  and  demanded  that  the  girl  should  be 
brought  back,  warning  the  Governor  that  if  he  could  not  deliver  her 
from  the  Christians  they  would  attack  the  American  Vice-Consulate 
and  rescue  her  themselves.  The  Pasha  thereupon  sent  a  message  to 
the  Vice-Consulate  demanding  the  immediate  presence  of  the  girl, 
but  received  as  an  answer  an  intimation  that  she  had  left  the  house. 
The  angry  crowd  then  left  the  Konak  and  went  to  a  neighbouring 
mosque,  where  it  was  soon  swelled  by  a  still  greater  number  of  Mussul- 
mans. About  this  time  M.  Moulin,  the  French  Consul,  and  Mr.  Henry 
Abbott,  the  German  Consul,  passed  the  mosque  ;  they  were  seized 
by  the  crowd  and  forced  into  it.  The  mob  was  fast  becoming  furious, 
and  notice  of  the  Consuls'  danger  was  sent  to  the  Governor,  who  arrived 
on  the  spot  with  a  few  of  the  principal  Turks.  He  entered  the  room 
adjacent  to  the  mosque  where  the  Consuls  had  taken  refuge,  and  strove 
to  pacify  the  crowd.  Meanwhile  a  message  was  sent  by  Mr.  Henry 
Abbott  to  his  brother  desiring  him  to  deliver  up  the  girl ;  but  a  delay 
occurred  in  her  arrival,  the  mob  forced  its  way  into  the  room,  and 
killed  the  two  Consuls  before  the  eyes  of  the  Governor,  who  behaved 
with  disgraceful  cowardice,  for,  though  striving  to  calm  the  rioters 
with  words,  neither  he  nor  his  police  used  their  weapons.  After 
murdering  the  two  Consuls  the  mob  was  proceeding  to  the  American 
Vice-Consulate  when,  most  providentially,  they  were  met  by  the 
girl,  who  had  been  discovered  mainly  through  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Blunt, 
the  English  Consul,  and  who  was  being  escorted  to  the  Konak  to  be 
handed  over  to  the  authorities  ;  the  crowd  thereupon  fired  a  feu  de 
joie  and  dispersed. 

While  these  events  were  taking  place  at  Salonica,  Constantinople 
was  in  the  midst  of  a  revolution.  The  deposition  and  death  of  Sultan 
Abdul  Aziz  and  the  murder  of  the  Ministers,  followed  by  the  war  with 
Servia  and  Montenegro,  the  attempted  insurrection  in  Bulgaria 
and  its  barbarous  suppression,  and  the  illness  and  deposition  of 
Sultan  Murad  the  Fifth,  succeeded  each  other  within  the  space  of  a 
few  months;  and  the  following  extracts  from  letters  written  at  the 
time  by  the  writer  of  this  article  may  perhaps  serve  to  give  some  idea 
of  the  state  of  feeling  then  prevalent  among  all  classes  and  races  at 
Constantinople  during  these  memorable  weeks : 

Constantinople  :  May  17th,  1876. 

You  may.be  glad  of  an  account  of  what  is  taking  place  here.  After  the  murder 
of  the  two  Consuls  at  Salonica  great  excitement  prevailed  at  Constantinople  ; 
the  Softas  and  Mollahs  were  known  to  be  arming,  and  the  Christians  concluded 


1908  TURKEY  IN   1876  557 

that  these  war-like  preparations  were  directed  against  them,  and  began  to  arm 
in  self-defence,  though  the  Turks  took  advantage  of  every  occasion  that  offered 
itself  to  impress  upon  the  Europeans  and  the  native  Christians  that  they  had 
no  designs  against  them.  On  Friday  the  llth  a  large  body  of  Softas  went  to 
the  Palace,  demanded  to  see  the  Sultan's  first  secretary,  and  gave  him  a 
petition,  which  he  was  made  to  swear  he  would  give  to  his  master.  Among 
other  requests  the  petition  insisted  upon  the  removal  of  the  Sheikh  ul  Islam 
and  the  Grand  Vizier,  Mahmoud  Nedim  Pasha,  whom  the  Softas  justly  con- 
sidered the  author  of  many  of  the  troubles  now  crowding  on  Turkey ;  and 
another  petition  containing  the  same  demands  was  handed  to  the  Sultan  as  he 
returned  from  a  drive.  All  these  proceedings  were  conducted  with  the  utmost 
decorum ;  and  in  the  evening,  when  the  fall  of  the  obnoxious  Grand  Vizier 
became  known,  the  panic  would  have  entirely  subsided  had  not  General 
Ignatiew  chosen  to  surround  his  Embassy  and  Consulate  with  a  guard  of  three 
or  four  hundred  Croats  and  Montenegrins.  Pera  was,  of  course,  fearfully 
agitated.  Many  people  watched  all  night,  and  others  sent  to  see  if  the  British 
Embassy  was  also  defended ;  these,  hearing  all  was  quiet  round  our  Embassy, 
went  away  reassured.  Next  day,  when  the  new  Grand  Vizier  Mehemet  Rushdi 
Pasha  went  to  the  Porte,  a  great  crowd  was  assembled  to  see  him  pass  ;  in  this 
crowd  there  were  many  Softas  and  Mollahs,  but  they  all  vied  with  each  other 
in  showing  civilities  to  the  Christians  present.  Mehemet  Rushdi  Pasha  is 
highly  respected  by  all  parties,  but  he  is  an  old  man,  and  the  Softas  consider — 
as  almost  everyone  whose  opinion  is  worth  having  does — that  Midhat  Pasha  is 
the  only  man  that  can  do  anything  to  save  Turkey. 

So  far  the  Revolution  reflects  great  credit  on  its  authors.  They  have  shown 
discretion,  moderation,  and  judgment ;  but  if  they  do  not  obtain  their  requests 
no  one  can  tell  what  may  arise.  Perhaps  it  is  hardly  possible  for  anybody  who 
is  not  on  the  spot  to  comprehend  the  general  detestation  in  which  the  Russian 
Ambassador,  General  Ignatiew,  is  held.  Greeks  and  Turks  alike  declare  that 
he  is  responsible  for  much  of  their  misery ;  he  is  the  talk  of  the  town,  and  even 
his  friends  do  not  attempt  to  conceal  the  fact  that  there  is  no  man  in  the 
Empire — not  «ven  Mahmoud  Pasha  excepted — who  is  looked  upon  with  such 
hatred.  The  English,  on  the  contrary,  are  in  high  favour,  and  I  think  it  would 
touch  many  people  in  England  if  they  knew  how  the  Turks  look  up  to  us  and 
feel  that  our  country  is  their  only  friend.  I  think,  too,  many  people  would 
sympathise  with  the  Softas  if  they  understood- their  motives.  They  wish  for  a 
constitution  and  for  better  government ;  they  are  never  tired  of  assuring  the 
Christians  that  they  have  nothing  to  fear,  that  they  wish  for  the  happiness  of 
all  the  Sultan's  subjects ;  and  they  have  behaved  so  admirably  that  everyone 
gives  them  credit  for  the  best  intentions.  When  their  patience  was  put  to  the 
test  by  the  Russians  and  Austrians  surrounding  themselves  with  the  natural 
foes  of  Turkey  they  took  every  precaution,  and  effectually  prevented  any 
disturbance  by  forbidding  any  of  their  followers  from  going  to  Pera  I  suppose 
the  Bulgarians  are  now  objects  of  pity  and  sympathy  to  many  people.  They 
certainly  deserve  pity,  for  their  country  is  laid  waste — but  not  by  the  Turks. 
Bands  of  Christians  enter  the  villages  and  order  the  men  to  join  them,  and  if 
refused  obedience  fire  the  village  ;  in  many  places  Greeks  and  Christians  assist 
the  Turks  against  the  insurgents,  who  often  behave  with  great  barbarity.  The 
English  community  were  much  alarmed  at  one  time,  and  numbers  of  the 
women  and  children  have  left.  I  confess  I  am  glad  ;  for  if  there  is  to  be  any 
kind  of  row,  women  are  better  out  of  it,  and  of  course  the  mob  cannot  be  trusted 
in  any  large  town.  A  curious  episode  that  took  place  two  or  three  days  ago 
may  serve  to  show  you  the  kind  of  feeling  there  is  here  with  regard  to  General 
Ignatiew.  The  Levant  Herald  published  an  article  against  him ;  it  was 
excessively  impudent,  offensive,  and  personal,  but  perfectly  true.  It  was  read 

VOL.  LXIV-No.  380  PP 


558  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBY  Oct. 

by  all  classes  with  so  much  delight  that  here,  where  public  opinion  usually 
goes  for  nothing,  many  people  thought  the  Government  would  not  dare  to 
suspend  the  newspaper.  The  insult  offered  to  the  Bussian  Ambassador  was  too 
great  to  be  overlooked,  and  the  paper  was  suspended ;  but  hundreds  of  cards 
have  since  poured  in  upon  Mr.  "Whitaker  from  Pashas  and  Christians  of  every 
kind.  In  spite  of  the  universal  poverty  that  number  of  the  Levant  Herald  is 
now  selling  at  two  francs  apiece,  and  various  offers  have  been  made  to 
indemnify  the  editor  by  subscriptions,  all  of  which,  however,  he  has  very 
properly  refused. 

A  control  over  the  finances  is  what  the  Softas  particularly  wish  to  obtain , 
as  they  cannot  submit  any  longer  to  see  millions  squandered  by  the  Palace. 

Constantinople  :  June  1st,  1876. 

A  great  event  has  taken  place :  Abd-ul-Aziz  is  deposed,  and  Murad  the  Fifth 
has  ascended  the  throne,  amid  general  acclamations,  and  without  a  drop  of 
blood  being  spilt.  Ever  since  the  Softas'  demonstration  and  the  fall  of 
Mahmoud  Pasha  perfect  tranquillity  has  reigned  in  the  city,  but  the  most 
remarkable  freedom  of  speech  prevailed.  The  Turks  of  all  stations  did  not 
hesitate  to  declare  that  they  must  have  a  Constitution,  adding  that  if  the  Sultan 
did  not  grant  one  it  would  be  obtained  without  his  consent.  Almost  everyone 
expected  some  great  event  to  take  place  soon,  but  it  was  hardly  to  be  hoped 
that  so  complete  a  revolution  could  be  made  in  so  orderly  and  peaceable  a 
manner.  Everything  was  admirably  disposed,  so  as  to  insure  the  public  safety, 
and  the  only  inconvenience  from  which  we  suffered  was  the  occupation,  for  a 
few  hours,  of  the  telegraph  offices,  which  did  not  receive  or  transmit  messages 
till  past  noon.  But  this  was,  after  all,  a  wise  precaution,  which  no  doubt  pre- 
vented false  or  alarming  messages  from  flying  all  over  Europe.  The  accounts 
of  how  the  revolution  took  place  all  agree  pretty  well.  The  most  generally 
received  version  is  that  Hussein  Avni  Pasha,  the  '  Seraskier,'  was  at  the  Palace 
the  evening  before  the  blow  was  struck,  that  he  requested  the  Sultan  to  pay 
the  troops  from  his  private  funds,  that  the  request  was  badly  received,  and 
that  he  left  the  Palace ;  that  he  was  sent  for  back  again,  but  made  an  excuse, 
and  received  a  second  order  to  appear,  coupled  with  a  threat,  upon  which  he 
communicated  with  his  colleagues,  and  settled  with  them  to  hasten  the  hour. 
At  half-past  four  A.M.  the  Palace  of  Dolmabagtche  was  surrounded,  on  the  land 
side  by  troops,  on  the  water  by  steam-launches  and  boats,  and  a  message  was 
sent  to  the  Sultan  intimating  that  he  was  deposed  by  the  will  of  the  people, 
and  that  he  was  requested  to  leave  the  Palace  in  his  caique,  which  was  waiting 
for  him,  and  to  go  to  a  kiosk  on  the  Seraglio  Point.  On  seeing  that  he  was 
helpless  he  submitted  to  his  fate  with  dignity,  and  obeyed.  A  salute  of  a 
hundred  and  one  guns  was  fired  in  honour  of  Murad  the  Fifth.  At  half-past 
six  A.M.  the  new  Sultan  drove  to  the  Seraskierat,  where  he  was  received  with 
enthusiasm.  He  sat  on  a  dais  in  the  kiosk,  with  the  gates  wide  open ;  and  high 
and  low,  from  the  greatest  Pasha  to  the  poorest  hamal,  entered  to  do  him 
homage  and  kiss  his  feet.  After  about  two  hours  he  was  told  it  would  be  well 
to  return  to  take  possession  of  the  Palace,  which  he  accordingly  did,  driving 
over  in  a  private  carriage.  The  great  news  was  heard  with  joy  by  all.  When 
a  crier  proclaimed  the  Sultan,  Murad  the  Fifth,  in  the  streets,  a  Christian 
crowd, assembled  at  the  'Bourse,'  seized  him,  carried  him  round  in  triumph, 
and  finished  by  presenting  him  with  150  pounds  as  a  reward  for  being  the 
bearer  of  good  news.  In  the  provinces  the  same  delight  is  felt,  Christians  and 
Turks  being  bound  together  by  the  same  feelings  of  joy  and  relief.  As  yet 
little  more  is  known,  except  that  Murad  the  Fifth  has  given  up  all  his  valuable 
farms  and  the  treasure  found  in  the  Palace  to  the  State ;  but  some  disappoint- 


1908  TURKEY  IN  1876  659 

ment  is  felt  that  the  sum  found  in  bullion  is  not  large,  as  great  expectations 
have  been  entertained,  and  are  hardly  realised,  though  there  is  about  eight 
millions  in  Consolides,  a  mass  of  diamonds,  and  about  350,000  pounds,  all  of 
which  will  probably  go  to  help  to  get  the  State  out  of  its  difficulties.  Of  course 
it  would  have  been  better  if  more  ready  money  could  have  been  found,  though 
this  is  better  than  nothing. 

June  2nd. — It  was  known  last  night  that  a  million  and  a  half  of  ready 
money  was  found,  and  more  is  expected  to  appear,  but  this  will  at  any  rate 
pay  the  troops.  The  ex-Sultan  has  been  treated  with  kindness  and  respect ; 
he  is  allowed  to  have  his  family  with  him,  and  his  nephew  sent  to  Assure  him 
that  he  should  always  continue  to  treat  him  with  deference,  and  asked  if  he 
wished  for  anything.  The  ex-Sultan  replied  that  he  had  hardly  room  enough 
in  the  Seraglio,  and  begged  for  a  larger  Palace.  This  was  immediately  pro- 
mised him,  and  he  is  to  go  to  one  which  was  built  for  Sultan  Murad,  near 
Chere'gan,  but  which  he  did  not  inhabit.  Do  you  not  think  that  the  Turks 
have  acted  admirably  ?  They  have  got  rid  of  a  man  who  ruined  the  country, 
proclaimed  religious  equality,  and  all  without  any  disturbance,  in  the  most 
orderly  manner  possible. 

England,  France,  Austria,  and  Italy  dressed  ship  in  honour  of  Sultan 
Murad,  but  the  Russian  and  Prussian  ships  remain  undressed. 

Constantinople :  June  15th,  1876. 

Since  I  last  wrote  everything  has  remained  quiet,  and  nothing  has  disturbed 
our  equanimity,  save  the  suicide  of  Sultan  Abd-ul-Aziz.  Even  that  did  not 
disturb  people's  minds  much.  A  few  evil  tongues,  of  course,  declared  that  he  had 
been  murdered,  but  they  are  effectually  silenced  by  the  unanimous  verdict  of 
the  doctors  who  attended  the  inquest.  I  believe  that  as  far  as  can  yet  be  seen 
affairs  are  progressing  tolerably  well.  Economy  is  the  order  of  the  day,  and  the 
Sultan  has  so  far  given  up  the  sumptuous  habits  of  his  predecessor  that  he  goes 
out  driving  in  Pera  in  a  simple  open  carriage,  attended  only  by  four  servants. 
If  he  carries  the  same  simplicity  into  all  his  actions,  it  may  do  something 
towards  checking  the  ridiculous  expenditure  of  the  Palace.  All  the  accounts 
we  have  received  of  his  character  are  decidedly  good.  There  seems  to  be  no 
doubt  that  he  is  amiable,  liberal,  and  inclined  to  do  what  his  Ministers  think 
fit ;  what  remains  to  be  seen  is,  if  he  has  determination  enough  to  stand  by  the 
right  men  should  difficulties  arise  in  the  Cabinet.  His  father  was  certainly 
deficient  in  strength  of  mind,  but  his  grandfather,  Mahmoud  IV.,  had  enough 
for  many  generations.  The  Greek  population  is  overcome  with  joy  at  the 
change  of  government,  and  have  throughout  these  difficult  times  behaved  with 
a  discretion  and  moderation  which  are  certainly  as  much  to  be  admired  as 
wondered  at.  The  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  they  saw  the  country  was  on  the 
brink  of  ruin,  and  they  feared  that  the  much-hated  Russians  would  step  into 
the  shoes  of  the  Turk.  Now,  though  they  do  not  love  the  latter,  they  all  agree 
that  he  is  a  far  better  master  than  the  former  would  be,  and  hatred  of  the 
Russians  has  caused  a  reaction  in  favour  of  the  Turk.  I  am  afraid  horrors  go 
on  in  Bulgaria,  on  both  sides,  to  a  dreadful  extent ;  but  one  thing  is  satisfactory, 
and  that  is  that  not  a  single  complaint  has  been  brought  against  the  regular 
troops.  Even  men  who  are  decidedly  anti-Turkish  bear  witness  to  this,  and  say 
that  the  Bashi-Bazouks  are  the  perpetrators  of  any  atrocities  that  occur,  so 
that  if  only  troops  enough  could  be  sent  to  the  revolted  provinces  all  horrors 
would  at  once  cease.  My  father  is  much  better  than  he  was,  though  not  nearly 
so  strong  as  he  ought  to  be  ;  at  any  rate,  he  has  the  satisfaction  of  not  having 
worked  in  vain.  English  influence  is  everything,  and  the  enthusiasm  and  love 
for  England  boundless  ;  the  soldiers  and  common  Turks  have  learnt  the  words 
'  God  save  the  Queen,'  and  greet  any  Englishman  they  meet  with  them. 

p  p  2 


560  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

When  Mamma  and  I  went  to  see  the  Sultan  go  to  mosque  at  St.  Sophia  we 
were  cheered  by  the  crowd,  and  the  only  national  anthem  played  besides  the 
Turkish  was  '  God  save  the  Queen.' 

June  19th. — When  I  last  wrote  to  you  all  was  quiet  and  peaceful,  but  next  day 
Constantinople  was  startled  and  horrified  by  the  murder  of  Hussein  Avni  Pasha 
and  Reshid  Pasha.     I  think  almost  everyone's  first  thought  was  :  What  a  mercy 
it  is  that  Midhat  Pasha  has  escaped !     It  would  indeed  have  been  a  misfortune 
which  nothing  could  have  mitigated.     The  murderer  was  a  young  Circassian, 
brother  to  the  late  Sultan's  third  wife  and   former   aide-de-camp  to  Prince 
Yussuf  Izzeddin.    He  had  been  several  times  ordered  by  Hussein  Avni  Pasha  to 
join  his  regiment  at  Bagdad,  but,  strong  in  his  Palace  influence,  had  always 
refused ;  he  had  been  placed  under  arrest  two  or  three  days  before  the  murder 
was  committed,  and  was  only  released  that  evening  on  his  declaring  himself 
ready  to  start  for  Bagdad  next  day,  and  begging  to  be  allowed  to  spend  the 
evening  with  his  family.     He  went  first  to  Hussein  Avni's  own  house  and 
asked  to  see  him.    On  finding  that  he  was  attending  a  Council  at  Midhat  Pasha's 
house  he  followed  him  there,  and  managed,  after  some  difficulties  from  the 
servants,  to  enter  the  room  where  the  Ministers  were  sitting ;  he  then  drew  a 
revolver  and  shot  Hussein  Avni.     As  you  may  imagine,  there  was  a  great 
commotion  among  all  those  stout,  unarmed  old  men.     The  Minister  of  Marine, 
Achmet  Kaiserly  Pasha,  seized  him  from  behind,  but  he  cut  and  slashed  at  him 
with  a  long  knife  and  compelled  him  to  leave  go  and  take  refuge  with  the 
Grand  Vizier  in  the  next  room.     He  then  finished  Hussein  Avni,  shot  Ilcshid 
Pasha,  and  attempted  to  force  his  way  into  the  room  where  the  Grand  Vizier 
and  one  or  two  others  were  holding  the  door  shut  with  all  their  might.    He 
would  just   have   effected  his   entrance  into   the  room   when  the   Zaptiehs 
arrived,  and  he  turned  and  stood  at  bay  defending  himself  with  four  revolvers, 
his  sword  and  knife.     After  he  was  taken,  having  received  six  bayonet-wounds, 
one  of  which  was  right  through  his  body,  he  managed  to  kill  another  man, 
having  in  all  slain  seven  men  and  wounded  eight  others.     He  was  hung  the  day 
before  yesterday  on  the  plane-tree  in  the  open  space  in  front  of  the  Seraskierat ; 
his  body  was  left  exposed  all  that  day,  and  crowds  went  to  see  it.     He  had 
refused  to  have  his  wounds  seen  to,  but  still  had  strength  to  walk  up  to  the 
tree  and  fasten  the  rope  round  his  neck  himself.     He  seems  to  have  been  a 
regular  wild  beast,  his  only  motive  for  all  that  hideous  slaughter  being  private 
revenge.     The  only  thing  one  can  say  of  him  in  his  favour  is  that  he  was 
reputed  the  best  shot  among  the  Circassians,  and,  like  many  other  wild  beasts, 
was  desperately  brave.     His  antagonist,  the  courageous  old  Minister  of  Marine, 
is  fortunately  not  seriously  hurt.    Before  it  was  known  that  the  murder  was  a 
mere  act  of  vengeance,  considerable  uneasiness  prevailed  everywhere,  but  now 
it  has  subsided.     Indeed,  a  curious  and  not  very  generous  feeling  has  arisen  in 
many  minds,  and  that  is  that  it  is  perhaps  a  mercy  that  poor  Hussein  Avni 
Pasha  did  not  survive.    It  was  thought  by  many  that,  in  spite  of  the  excellent 
part  he  had  lately  played,  he  would  become  a  great  danger  and  oppose  the 
more  liberal  party.    Be  this  as  it  may,  his  death  is  not  very  deeply  regretted, 
as  far  as  I  can  see,  by  any ;  but  Turks  and  Christians  all  rejoice  in  the  most 
unfeigned  manner  that  the  bullet  aimed  at  Midhat  Pasha  missed  its  destination. 
It  is  a  fearful  thing  when  so  much  depends  on  the  life  of  one  man.     I  fear 
there  must  be  considerable  danger  to  the  leading  Pashas  and  the  Sultan  from 
the  number  of  people  lately  dismissed  from  the  Palace.    Abd-ul-Aziz's  house- 
hold consisted  in  all  of  six  thousand  souls,  the  present  Sultan's  comprises  only 
three  hundred  ;  so  that  there  must  be  about  four  thousand  four  hundred  dis- 
contented men  wandering  about,  if  you  allow  nine  hundred  as  the  women's 
part  of  the  establishment,  which  is,  of  course,  powerless.     It  would  have  been 


1908  TURKEY  IN  1876  561 

better  if  they  could  have  been  more  gradually  dismissed,  but  that  would  have 
hardly  been  consistent  with  the  present  system  of  rigid  economy. 

I  am  sorry  to  hear  from  you  that  the  late  Sultan's  suicide  is  not  believed  in. 
There  really  is  no  doubt  that  he  put  an  end  to  his  days  himself,  and  that  the 
poor  Sultana  Valide  herself  gave  him  scissors  with  which  to  do  the  deed,  after 
they  had  been  refused  him  by  his  attendants.  I  wish  you  could  talk  to 
Dr.  Dickson  about  it ;  he  is  perfectly  convinced  that  no  hand  but  the  Sultan's 
own  could  have  inflicted  the  cuts  which  caused  his  death.  There  was  not  the 
slightest  mark  or  bruise  about  him,  and  several  other  circumstances  render  it 
certain  that  there  was  no  foul  play.  It  seems  rather  hard  on  the  present 
Sultan  that  his  uncle's  death  should  be  attributed  to  him,  for  from  what  is 
known  of  him  he  seems  more  likely  to  sin  from  over-kindness  of  disposition 
than  the  contrary.  The  sword-girding  has  been  put  off  on  account  of  the 
Sultan  being  unwell.  I  am  sorry  ;  for,  as  it  is  sure  to  produce  a  great  crowd 
and  excitement,  I  cannot  help  wishing  it  well  over.  It  would  be  very  undesir- 
able that  any  ill-will  should  be  manifested  by  the  crowd  towards  the  Russians, 
whose  unpopularity  rather  increases  than  diminishes,  and  a  crowd  can  never 
be  quite  trusted  not  to  display  its  real  feelings. 

The  extract  following  is  from  a  letter  written  after  the  Servian 
war  had  broken  out : 

July  8th. — The  nation  is  really  responding  very  nobly  to  the  appeal  for  help 
to  carry  on  the  war  which  has  been  made  to  it ;  those  who  have  money  give  it, 
not  only  the  rich  but  the  poor,  and  those  who  have  none  bring  sacks  of  flour, 
rice,  &c.  I  was  a  good  deal  struck  the  other  day  by  an  Armenian  lady,  who 
used  to  be  very  violently  anti-Turkish,  taking  the  Turkish  side  and  talking 
about  noire  patrie,  a  thing  she  would  never  have  done  formerly  ;  but  I  hope 
the  feeling  is  general,  for  the  Christians  seem  as  determined  to  resist  foreign 
aggression  as  the  Turks.  Numbers  of  Albanian  Christians  and  others  join  the 
Turkish  standard  as  volunteers.  If  any  danger  to  the  Christians  is  ever  to  be 
apprehended  here,  it  will  be  entirely  owing  to  the  way  in  which  a  crusade  has 
been  preached,  and  is  being  preached,  against  Mohammedanism.  The  war  has 
had  as  yet  nothing  of  a  religious  character,  but  it  may  become  so  if  the  Turks 
are  at  length  persuaded  that  all  Christians  are  against  them. 

July  80th. — The  Sultan's  illness  is  the  gravest  preoccupation  we  have.  It 
was  at  first  kept  a  dead  secret,  but  now  everyone  is  talking  about  it,  and  we  are 
almost  the  only  people  who  still  lower  our  voices  when  it  is  mentioned,  and  all 
Constantinople  is  kept  in  a  state  of  great  anxiety  by  it.  The  poor  man  himself 
is  certainly  much  to  be  pitied,  for  when  he  ascended  the  throne  he  had,  there 
is  no  doubt,  the  very  best  intentions,  which  would  have  been  carried  out  had 
not  his  health  given  way  from  the  repeated  shocks  which  he  sustained  im- 
mediately after  his  accession,  and  which  have,  I  fear,  completely  broken  him 
down. 

When  we  saw  him  two  months  ago  he  was  a  pleasant,  very  young-looking 
man — ridiculously  young-looking  for  his  age,  almost  boyish ;  now  those  who 
have  lately  seen  him  go  to  mosque  say  he  looks  like  an  old  man,  and  his  hair  is 
quite  white.  He  must  have  suffered  terribly  to  turn  grey  so  rapidly. 

August  8lst. — The  boom  of  a  hundred  and  one  guns  has  just  announced  to 
us  the  accession  of  a  new  Sultan  !  Heaven  grant  that  Abdul  Hamid  the  Second 
may  reign  longer  and  more  happily  than  Murad  the  Fifth,  though  it  seems 
almost  foolish  to  look  forward  very  hopefully  to  the  new  reign,  after  the  cruel 
disappointment  that  blighted  our  high  hopes  at  Sultan  Murad's  accession. 


THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

It  is  certainly  the  most  melancholy  accession  a  Sovereign  can  have.  Sultan 
Abdul  Hamid  mounts  the  throne  by  deposing  a  brother  with  whom  he  had 
always  been  on  good  terms.  He  finds  his  country  surrounded  by  foes  and  his 
treasury  empty — it  is,  indeed,  a  cheerless  prospect. 

The  insurrection  which  for  years  past  had  been  planned  by  the 
Slav  committees  broke  out  in  Bulgaria  on  the  2nd  of  May.  The 
revolutionists,  led  by  priests  and  schoolmasters,  intended  first  to 
destroy  the  railways  and  bridges  throughout  the  vilayet,  but  an 
accident  led  to  the  premature  outbreak  of  the  revolt  and  they  resorted 
to  the  less  efficacious  method  of  massacre.  At  Otloukeuy 4  eighty 
Mussulmans  were  slain,  and  at  Bellova s  and  other  places  the  rising  was 
attended  with  unspeakable  horrors.  The  Mussulmans  rose  in  self- 
defence,  and  their  reprisals  more  than  equalled  the  excesses  which  had 
called  them  forth.  Unfortunately  there  were  but  few  regular  troops 
in  the  country,  and  the  uncontrolled  Bashi-Bazouks  carried  fire  and 
sword  through  defenceless  villages.  The  whole  of  England  was  roused 
to  indignation  ;  the  cruelties  practised  on  the  Christians  were  re- 
presented as  being  part  of  an  unprovoked  attack  on  an  unarmed  and 
peaceful  population,  the  provocation  was  entirely  overlooked ;  Mr. 
Gladstone  lent  the  aid  of  his  genius  and  influence  to  the  cause  of  the 
insurgents,  and  few  people  dared  to  raise  their  voices  in  opposition  to 
the  outburst  of  abuse  now  poured  out  with  almost  equal  fury  upon 
her  Majesty's  Government,  the  British  Ambassador,  and  the  Turks. 
Before  this  storm  had  spent  itself  Servia  declared  war  on  the  1st  of 
July,  and  Montenegro  followed  her  example  a  few  days  later.  The 
Progressive  Government  at  Constantinople  thus  found  itself  confronted 
by  all  the  difficulties  arising  not  only  from  a  change  of  regime,  but  by 
insurrection,  war,  and  the  state  of  health  which  incapacitated  the  new 
Sultan  from  governing. 

The  delay  in  the  inauguration  of  the  new  era  which  was  thus 
occasioned  caused  much  uneasiness.  The  Grand  Council  had  already 
pronounced  that  an  organic  reform  was  necessary,  and  Midhat  Pasha 
would  have  been  ready  to  take  the  bold  course  of  promulgating  the 
Constitution  even  before  the  change  of  Sovereigns,  which  had  become 
imperative,  had  been  effected,  had  not  Mehemet  Rushdi  Pasha,  the 
Grand  Vizier,  shrunk  from  the  responsibility  of  such  a  step.  He 
pointed  out  that  the  proposed  object  of  the  Constitution  was  to  limit 
or  abolish  some  of  the  prerogatives  of  the  Crown,  and  asked  if  such 
concessions  could  be  made  by  a  Sovereign  who  was  not  in  a  condition 
to  understand  them.  Would  not  their  validity  be  contested  by  all 
who  were  opposed  to  them  and  by  the  new  Sovereign  ?  In  spite 
of  the  strength  of  these  arguments  the  bolder  course  would  probably 
have  proved  the  better  and  safer. 

Sultan  Murad's  illness  having  been  pronounced  by  a  well-known 
specialist  to  be  incurable,  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid  ascended  the  throne 

4  Turkey  3,  1876,  No.  57.        ••  Turkey  3,  1876,  No.  289. 


1908  TURKEY  IN  1876  568 

on  the  31st  of  August,  and  six  weeks  later  a  proclamation  was  issued 
announcing  a  general  scheme  of  reform  for  the  whole  Empire,  but  the 
formal  Constitution  which  was  to  give  it  effect  was  still  withheld. 

Meanwhile  quiet  had  been  restored  in  Bulgaria ;  the  Mussulmans 
had  recovered  from  the  panic  under  which  they  had  committed  their 
excesses,  any  renewal  of  which  was  now  made  impossible  by  the 
presence  of  a  large  body  of  regular  troops ;  the  devastated  villages 
were  being  rapidly  rebuilt — partly  by  the  Government  and  partly  by 
public  subscriptions — and  the  dispersed  inhabitants,  including  many 
hundreds  who  had  been  counted  among  the  slain,  were  quietly  re- 
turning to  their  homes.  On  the  other  hand,  no  progress  was  made 
towards  repressing  the  insurrection  in  Bosnia ;  Servia  and  Monte- 
negro were  still  at  war  with  Turkey ;  and  although  Montenegro  had 
obtained  some  advantages,  Servia,  in  spite  of  all  the  underhand  Russian 
assistance  in  money,  arms,  and  officers,  was  so  hopelessly  beaten  that 
the  Russian  Government,  which  had  originally  declared  that  if  the 
Servians  chose  to  make  an  unprovoked  attack  they  would  leave  them 
to  their  fate,  now  felt  it  necessary  to  come  forward  in  their  defence. 
They  proposed  therefore  that  a  Conference  should  be  held  at  Constan- 
tinople at  which,  without  the  presence  or  participation  of  a  Turkish 
representative,  conditions  should  be  laid  down  and  forced  upon  the 
Sultan ;  but  none  of  the  other  Governments  were  willing  to  fall  in 
with  a  proposal  which  was  regarded,  especially  by  England  and 
Austria,  as  an  attack  on  the  independence  of  Turkey.  While  rejecting 
the  Russian  proposal,  however,  her  Majesty's  Government  declared 
their  readiness  to  take  the  initiative  of  inviting  a  general  Conference 
of  the  Powers,  including  Turkey,  at  which  it  was  hoped  that  it  might 
be  possible  to  come  to  some  arrangement ;  and  in  the  invitations  sent 
to  the  other  Governments  the  object  was  stated  to  be,  first,  the 
conclusion  of  peace  between  Turkey,  Servia,  and  Montenegro,  and, 
secondly,  the  pacification  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  by  means  of  a 
system  of  local  or  administrative  autonomy,  which,  as  far  as  was 
applicable,  should  be  extended  to  Bulgaria,  so  as  to  insure  the  popu- 
lations there  from  further  maladministration.  The  Porte  was  very 
unwilling  to  agree  to  the  holding  of  a  Conference,  and  only  gave  way  on 
receiving  the  most  solemn  assurance  that  the  independence  of  Turkey 
should  be  fully  respected.  Had  this  engagement  been  observed  all 
might  yet  have  gone  well ;  but  when  the  Conference  at  length  assembled, 
after  nine  formal  meetings  of  the  foreign  plenipotentiaries  had  been 
held  at  the  Russian  Embassy,  without  the  participation  of  the  Turkish 
representatives,  the  latter  found  themselves  confronted  by  a  scheme 
of  which  General  Ignatiew  was  the  principal  author,  and  which  he 
designated  as  '  the  irreducible  minimum  of  the  demands  the  accept- 
ance of  which,'  he  said,  *  his  Government  felt  sure  all  the  Christian 
representatives  would  consider  themselves  in  honour  bound  to  impose 
upon  the  Turks.' 


564  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

The  scheme  which  was  thus  roughly  to  be  forced  upon  the  Turks 
contained  several  clauses  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  independence 
of  the  Empire,  which  we  had  so  lately  promised  to  respect ;  but  Lord 
Salisbury,  our  leading  plenipotentiary,  placing  undue  confidence  in 
General  Ignatiew's  knowledge  of  Eastern  affairs,  refused  to  believe 
that  the  Porte  would  dare  to  reject  any  demands  which  were  sup- 
ported by  all  the  Powers.  Finding,  however,  that  the  Turkish  pleni- 
potentiaries' objections  to  the  '  irreducible  minimum  '  could  not  be 
overcome,  some  of  the  demands  most  objected  to  by  them  were 
subsequently  considerably  modified.  These  demands  were  :  The  pro- 
posed new  territorial  divisions  affecting  five  of  the  existing  Vilayets, 
the  admission  of  a  body  of  foreign  troops  under  the  orders  of  an 
International  Commission,  and  the  confinement  of  the  Imperial  troops 
to  the  fortresses  and  principal  towns.  The  Porte  met  the  new  pro- 
posals in  a  conciliatory  spirit,  and  when  the  plenary  Conference 
assembled  for  the  ninth  and  last  time  the  only  points  about  which 
any  difficulty  remained  were  those  respecting  the  nomination  of  the 
Governors  General  and  the  International  Commission,  and  so  anxious 
was  the  Turkish  Government  to  avoid  war  that  with  a  little  goodwill 
these  difficulties  would  also  have  been  overcome.  But,  hopeful  as  the 
situation  then  was,  the  leading  members  of  the  Conference  were  too 
deeply  committed  to  the  principle  of  coercion  to  bring  themselves  to 
adopt  a  conciliatory  course,  and  an  ultimatum  was  embodied  and 
delivered  to  the  Porte  by  the  envoys  collectively,  an  answer  to 
which  was  requested  within  a  week.  If  it  proved  unsatisfactory  the 
Ambassadors  were  at  once  to  leave  Constantinople. 

Two  days  before  the  last  Conference  the  Porte,  according  to 
custom  on  very  serious  occasions,  convoked  a  Grand  Council  of  the 
most  important  personages  of  the  Empire — to  the  number  of  237 — 
comprising,  besides  Mohammedans,  representatives  of  all  the  different 
Christian  communities,  the  Patriarchs  being  represented  by  their 
delegates,  in  order  that  they  might  be  informed  of  and  consulted  upon 
the  proposals  submitted  by  the  Conference.  The  scene,  according  to 
accounts  given  by  both  Christian  and  Mussulman  members,  was  most 
deeply  impressive.  Midhat  Pasha  opened  the  proceedings  by  a 
speech  of  such  a  pacific  tendency,  and  pointed  out  in  such  strong 
language  the  dangers  to  which  the  Empire  would  be  exposed  by  war 
with  Russia,  that  murmurs  of  disapprobation  were  raised  against 
him,  and  without  a  single  dissentient  voice  the  Council  pronounced 
an  unequivocal  rejection  of  the  proposals  concerning  the  nomination 
of  Governors  and  the  International  Commission,  which,  it  was  de- 
clared, must  be  rejected  at  all  hazards,  however  great  these  might 
be.  The  Council  unquestionably  represented  the  universal  feeling 
of  the  populations,  Mussulman  and  Christian,  between  whom  there 
was  exhibited  a  cordiality  and  good-fellowship  such  as  there  had 
probably  never  before  been  an  example  of  in  the  Turkish  Empire. 


1908  TURKEY  IN  1876  665 

A  striking  appeal  to  the  Grand  Vizier  was  made  by  the  representative 
of  one  of  the  Christian  Churches  with  the  warm  approval  of  all  the 
others.  He  said  that  as  the  decision  to  be  come  to  might  lead  to  war 
it  was  essential  to  know  the  character  to  be  given  to  that  war.  If  it 
was  to  be  a  religious  war,  the  Christian  populations  could  not  be  ex- 
pected to  sympathise  with  it ;  but  if,  on  the  contrary,  it  was  to  be  a 
war  for  the  honour  and  independence  of  the  Empire,  in  which  all 
felt  an  equal  interest,  then  the  Christians  would  join  with  their  Mussul- 
man fellow-subjects.  The  speech  was  universally  applauded  by 
members  of  the  Ulema,  who  called  out :  '  You  go  to  church  and  we  go 
to  mosque,  but  we  all  worship  the  same  God  ;  we  are  subjects  of  the 
same  Empire,  and  mean  to  live  together  as  brothers.'  As  a  further 
proof  of  the  harmony  then  prevailing,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  after 
the  breaking-up  of  the  Conference,  when  it  was  universally  known 
that  Sir  Henry  Elliot  had  strongly  opposed  the  demands  of  the  Russian 
Ambassador,  who  professed  to  have  been  acting  solely  in  the  interests 
of  the  Christian  populations,  the  heads  of  all  the  Christian  Churches 
in  the  Empire — the  Greek  Patriarch,  the  Armenian  Orthodox  Patriarch, 
and  the  Vekil  of  the  native  Protestant  Church — as  well  as  the  leading 
Mussulmans  sent  him  addresses  conveying  the  expression  of  their 
regret  at  his  departure  and  a  warm  recognition  of  his  services. 

The  first  object  for  which  the  Conference  had  been  called  was  stated 
to  be  the  conclusion  of  peace  with  Servia  and  Montenegro,  an  object 
which  might  have  easily  been  attained,  but  the  Conference  had  so 
exclusively  devoted  itself  to  a  scheme  of  administration  for  Bulgaria 
that  when  its  final  dissolution  was  announced  it  was  found  that  the 
first  object  for  which  it  had  been  convoked  had  been  forgotten.  Thus 
the  war  continued,  a  condition  of  affairs  eminently  favourable  to 
Russia  in  the  hostilities  upon  which  she  was  herself  resolved. 

Meanwhile  the  Constitution  had  been  proclaimed  on  the  23rd  of 
December,  the  day  of  the  first  plenary  meeting  of  the  Conference,  the 
members  of  which,  imagining  it  to  have  been  invented  merely  as  a 
pretext  for  refusing  some  of  the  proposals  on  which  they  were  insisting, 
received  it  not  only  with  coldness  but  with  scarcely  veiled  hostility. 
Had  they  been  at  all  aware  of  the  serious  nature  of  the  reform  move- 
ment and  of  the  earnestness  of  the  men  who  were  striving  to  carry  it 
through,  they  would,  no  doubt,  have  assumed  a  very  different  attitude. 
The  Constitution  as  now  promulgated  differed  in  several  important  re- 
spects from  that  originally  drafted  by  Midhat  Pasha,  the  Sultan  having 
refused  to  accede  to  clauses  regulating  the  amount  of  the  Civil  List, 
and  providing  for  the  foundation  of  mixed  schools  open  to  all  creeds, 
and  the  abolition  of  slavery.  Still,  incomplete  as  the  new  Constitution 
undoubtedly  was,  and  falling  short  of  what  had  been  hoped  for  by  its 
authors,  it  is  certain  that  this  derided  Charter  contained  much  that 
would  have  proved  of  inestimable  value  in  reforming  the  Turkish 
administration  in  the  only  way  in  which  it  can  ever  be  reformed — 


566  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

that  is  to  say,  by  recognising  in  the  people  the  right  of  control  over 
the  finances,  by  rendering  the  Ministers  and  officials  responsible  to 
the  representatives  of  the  nation,  by  establishing  the  absolute  equality 
of  all  Ottoman  subjects  irrespective  of  race  or  creed,  and  by  guarantee- 
ing their  persons  and  property  against  arrest  and  spoliation.  Owing, 
however,  to  the  hostile  attitude  assumed  by  Europe  towards  the 
Turkish  reformers,  it  became  possible  for  the  Sultan  to  banish  Midhat 
Pasha  and  his  principal  followers  and  to  recover  unchecked  the  whole 
of  his  despotic  power. 

During  the  two  sessions  held  by  the  National  Assembly  before  its 
final  extinction  the  representatives  of  both  the  Christians  and  Mussul- 
mans fully  vindicated  their  fitness  for  Constitutional  institutions. 
Though  bereft  of  their  leaders,  they  acted  with  great  fearlessness, 
criticising  the  acts  of  the  Government  with  perfect  freedom,  making 
known  the  abuses  going  on  in  the  provinces,  and  refusing  to  vote 
the  money  asked  for  when  they  deemed  the  amount  excessive  or  the 
object  undesirable.  There  was  no  jealousy  between  the  members 
representing  the  different  races,  and  nothing  could  have  been  more 
promising. 

Thirty-two  years  have  elapsed  since  these  events,  and  the  Young 
Turkey  party  have  steadfastly  kept  before  them  the  ideal  then  first 
proclaimed,  of  freedom  and  equality  for  all.  Quietly  and  untiringly 
they  have  worked,  in  exile  and  danger,  never  losing  heart,  with  the 
one  great  object  in  view.  Is  it  too  much  to  hope  that  with  England 
as  a  sympathetic  observer  of  their  efforts,  and  Russia  no  longer  bent 
on  conquest  but  herself  occupied  with  internal  reforms,  the  hour  has 
at  length  struck  when  the  united  progressive  elements  in  the  nation 
may  accomplish  what  has  hitherto  seemed  past  the  wit  of  man — 
namely,  the  peaceful  solution  of  the  Eastern  Question  ? 

GERTRUDE  ELLIOT. 


1908 


THE  EAST  AFRICAN  PROBLEM 


THE  real  originator  of  British  East  Africa  was  the  young  Scottish 
explorer,  Joseph  Thomson,  who  died  in  1895  at  the  age  of  thirty-seven, 
after  having  obtained  for  the  Koyal  Niger  Company  their  cardinal 
treaty  with  the  Sultan  of  Sokoto  (thus  laying  the  foundation  of 
Northern  Nigeria),  and  having  completed  the  work  of  Sir  Alfred 
Sharpe  and  the  present  writer  in  the  planning  of  British  Central 
Africa.1 

Whilst  Thomson  was  returning  from  his  expedition  to  Kavirondo 
and  the  Victoria  Nyanza  in  1884,  the  writer  of  this  article  was  making 
the  first  treaties  at  Taveita  and  around  Kilimanjaro,  on  which  the 
East  African  sphere  of  influence  was  based  in  1885-6. 

These  treaties  (though  two  Kilimanjaro  agreements  were  abandoned 
to  Germany)  were  also  the  basis  of  the  Imperial  British  East  Africa 
Company,  which  was  founded  somewhat  half-heartedly  in  1886-7 
and  received  a  charter  in  1888.  In  this  year  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir) 
George  Mackenzie  was  sent  out  as  the  Company's  Administrator,  and 
by  his  statesmanlike  dealings  with  the  slavery  question  in  the  Mombasa 
district  (he  released  the  slaves  but  spent  a  considerable  sum  of  money 
compensating  the  Arab  owners)  undoubtedly  saved  the  infant  pro- 
tectorate from  inclusion  in  the  great  Swahili-Arab  rising  against  the 
intrusive  white  man,  which  for  more  than  a  year  taxed  the  resources 
of  the  German  Empire. 

1  In  the  surveying  and  treaty-making  of  British  Central  Africa  Joseph  Thomson 
attended  more  particularly  to  the  Bangweulu  region,  the  geography  of  which  he  did 
much  to  elucidate.  His  first  great  African  journey,  when  he  was  only  twenty-one, 
was  with  Keith  Johnston  (Koyal  Geographical  Society),  who  died  soon  after  the 
expedition  started.  On  this  occasion  Thomson  went  on  alone  and  performed  a  most 
important  piece  of  geographical  exploration  (1879-80)  between  Nyasa  and  Tanganyika. 
Sir  John  Kirk  desired  afterwards  to  employ  him  as  a  leading  official  of  the  Sultan  of 
Zanzibar  in  what  is  now  German  East  Africa ;  but  Thomson  did  not  get  on  well 
with  the  Sultan  in  this  position.  After  his  remarkable  '  Gold  Medal '  journey  to  the 
Victoria  Nyanza  by  the  eastern  route  (with  all  its  attendant  discoveries)  he  carried 
out  his  successful  and  politically  important  Sokoto  expedition  (1885) ;  then  explored 
Central  and  Southern  Morocco  as  no  other  British  traveller  has  done.  He  will  always 
be  remembered,  amongst  other  qualities,  for  his  extraordinary  success  in  dealing  with 
natives.  He  penetrated  some  of  the  most  unknown  and  hostile  parts  of  Africa,  and 
scarcely  once  had  recourse  to  weapons  of  offence.  It  is,  indeed,  a  lacking  sense  of 
the  fitness  of  things  in  the  East  African  Administration  that  there  should  be  no 

567 


668  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

Another  notable  recruit  of  the  East  Africa  Chartered  Company 
was  Sir  Frederick  Lugard,  the  man  who  brought  Uganda  within  the 
range  of  the  British  Empire.  A  glance  at  the  list  of  officials  serving 
in  the  Uganda  and  East  Africa  Protectorates  in,  let  us  say,  1906  would 
be  sufficient  to  show  that  the  Chartered  Company  must  have  chosen 
its  men  carefully  for  their  service  to  have  stood  the  test  of  such  a 
length  of  time  and  so  many  trying  circumstances.  One  merit  usually 
about  the  old  '  Company '  officials  was  their  knowledge  of  native 
languages  and  their  sympathy  with  the  natives.2 

In  July  1895  the  Imperial  Government  assumed  the  direct  control. 
The  immediate  results  of  the  transference  from  the  Chartered  Com- 
pany's rule  were  not  happy — a  guerilla  warfare  with  the  coast  Arabs 
and  their  allies  which  lasted  for  nine  months.  .  Whether  the  Company 
would  have  staved  off  this  struggle — connected  in  its  origin  with 
the  '  slave  '  question — is  doubtful.  Sooner  or  later  there  would  have 
been  a  trial  of  strength  between  the  British  and  the  Arab  princes, 
descended  from  the  Islamic  invaders  of  the  twelfth  and  seventeenth 
centuries.  Sir  George  Mackenzie's  merit  lay  in  his  postponing  this 
inevitable  contest  for  some  seven  years,  during  which  period  the 
British  had  been  enabled  to  carry  out  Thomson's  idea  of  an  advance 
on  Uganda  and  the  heart  of  Equatorial  Africa  by  a  direct  route  to  the 
Victoria  Nyanza,  over  a  country  delightful  and  healthy  to  the  traveller 
after  the  first  120  miles. 

It  was  really  this  discovery  by  Thomson  (to  which  the  German 
traveller  Fischer  contributed)  of  the  high,  healthy,  well-watered, 
well-wooded  plateaus  of  Eastern  Equatorial  Africa  (so  temptingly 
open  to  foreign  settlement  by  their  cool  climate  and  absence  or  paucity 
of  indigenous  people)  which  clinched  the  resolve  of  Sir  William 
Mackinnon  and  his  friends  to  come  to  the  assistance  of  a  faint-hearted 
Unionist  Ministry  in  1887-8,  and  put  up  money  for  the  founding  and 
maintenance  of  this  East  African  Chartered  Company  ;  though  by  its 
very  aims,  policy,  and  limitations  the  Company  stood  to  profit  little, 
if  at  all,  by  the  acquisition  of  these  vacant  lands.  As  a  commercial 
concern — because  its  policy  was  the  very  antithesis  of  that  of  the 
King  of  the  Belgians — the  Company  was  probably  a  predestined 
failure.  To  develop  East  Africa  to  the  general  advantage  of  the 
Empire  and  of  the  East  Africans  required  our  vast  Imperial  resources. 

statue  or  memorial  to  Joseph  Thomson  at  Mombasa,  or  Nairobi,  on  the  Eastern 
shores  of  the  Victoria  Nyanza,  or  elsewhere  on  the  map  of  that  vast  protectorate, 
which  arose  from  his  pioneer  journeys  in  1882-4. 

2  I  agree  with  Professor  Gregory  (The  Foundation  of  British  East  Africa,  p.  152) 
that,  though  the  Chartered  Company  came  to  an  end  in  1895  through  the  exhaustion 
of  its  funds  and  an  inability  to  make  the  country  pay  its  administrative  expenses,  its 
'  career  was  disinterested  and  honourable.'  Its  high  motives  '  were  forgotten  in  the 
obloquy  of  failure,  and  its  end  was  marked  by  unmerited  insult  and  contempt.'  This 
much  might  be  added  :  the  Company  left  a  good  name  behind  it,  and  in  taking  its 
employe's  into  Government  service  the  new  Administration  under  the  Foreign  Office 
preserved  the  goodwill  of  the  indigenous  natives. 


1908  THE   EAST  AFRICAN  PROBLEM  569 

In  eight  years  the  Chartered  Company  had  spent  all  its  subscribed 
capital — 500,OOOZ.  ? — and  when  it  was  finally  wound  up  shareholders 
had  to  be  content  with  half  their  money  back,  and  the  balance  in  a 
long-deferred  vote  of  thanks  from  the  Empire  at  large  for  the  truly 
Imperial  service  they  had  performed. 

It  is  true  that  the  idea  of  a  British  East  African  colony  was  not 
first  conceived  or  ever  held  with  much  enthusiasm  by  Sir  William 
Mackinnon.  This  remarkable  man,  who  was  practically  the  founder 
of  the  British  India  Steam  Navigation  Company  and  of  the  East 
African  steamship  service,  had  tried  several  costly  experiments  on 
the  African  coast — road-making  and  so  forth.  Unfortunately,  it  was 
in  the  pro-Thomson  days,  and  he  chose  the  unhealthier  regions  opposite 
Zanzibar  for  his  attempts  to  open  up  East  Africa.  The  first  persons 
definitely  to  suggest  actual  British  settlements  in  inner  East  Africa 
were  the  late  Mr.  Gladstone  and  Lord  [Edmond]  Fitzmaurice. 
These  suggestions  were  made  after  reading  the  present  writer's  reports 
on  Kilimanjaro  and  the  information  compiled  by  Joseph  Thomson. 
But  their  proposals  (to  be  found,  I  think,  in  the  African  Blue-books 
of  1884-5)  were  temporarily  deferred  by  Sir  John  Kirk,  who  was 
obliged  to  point  out  diplomatic  difficulties  connected  with  the  Sultan 
of  Zanzibar  and  French  treaty  rights.  Meantime  Germany,  not  being 
bound  by  the  same  engagements,  stepped  in  and  secured  Kilimanjaro 
(to  which  she  had  as  good  a  claim  as  ourselves  after  the  explorations 
of  Baron  Vanderdecken  and  Dr.  Fischer).  Lord  Salisbury,  when  he 
succeeded  Mr.  Gladstone,  was  equally  interested  in  East  African 
possibilities,  but  his  Chancellors  of  the  Exchequer  (especially  the  late 
Lord  Goschen)  were  most  averse  to  adventures  in  Africa — West,  East, 
Central,  and  South.  Sooner  than  risk  Imperial  expenditure  in  these 
directions  they  would  have  preferred  to  see  all  Africa  pass  under  other 
flags.  (I  am  speaking  of  the  days  prior  to  1890.) 

It  is  much  too  soon  for  a  definite  verdict  to  be  passed.  They  may 
have  been  right,  and  the  Imperialists  eager  for  vast  African  empires 
wrong.  But,  at  any  rate,  the  parsimony  of  the  Treasury  (which 
did  not  become  reconciled  to  African  investments  until  it  was  under 
Sir  William  Harcourt)  was  the  direct  cause  of  the  calling  into  existence 
of  these  chartered  companies. 

That  of  East  Africa  in  the  years  that  followed  1887  secured  for 
us,  bit  by  bit,  the  whole  vast  area  between  the  Indian  Ocean,  the 
Congo  State,  the  Egyptian  Sudan,  and  the  confines  of  Somaliland. 
They  outbid  and  outwitted  equally  patriotic  Germans,  as  sensible 
as  we  were  of  the  supreme  advantages — strategic  and  economic — 
of  Equatorial  East  Africa.  It  would  be  a  disheartening  anti-climax 
to  these  efforts — to  say  nothing  of  the  superb  national  venture  of  the 
Uganda  railway,  which  has  centupled  the  value  of  this  domain — 
if  by  any  policy  of  hesitancy  or  drift  we  lost  the  legitimate  reward 
we  might  expect  for  the  expenditure  of  some  seven  and  a-half  millions 


570  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

sterling  of  national  and  private  treasure,  the  heroic  journeys  of 
explorers,  the  life  work  of  Sir  John  Kirk,  and  the  ready  acquiescence 
of  so  many  negro  tribes,  grateful  for  release  from  Arab  and 
Somali  slave-raiding  and  the  terror  inspired  by  the  uncontrolled 
Masai. 

The  problem  of  East  Africa  is  not  a  simple  one,  like  that  of  Uganda. 
The  Uganda  Protectorate  is  mainly  a  black  man's  country  on  account 
of  its  average  climate,  elevation,  and  existing  circumstances.  There 
are,  it  is  true,  small  areas  of  country  in  Western  Ankole  and  Toro, 
situated  at  5000  feet  and  over,  and  suited  by  climate  to  the  health 
of  Europeans.  But  these  spots  are  too  small  in  area  and  too  much 
connected  with  native  claims  to  affect  the  general  conclusion,  that  in 
mapping  out  the  future  of  the  Uganda  Protectorate  we  must  consider 
it  to  be  a  confederation  of  negro  kingdoms  and  states,  merely  under 
general  British  supervision. 

But  EAST  AFRICA  is  different,  mainly  because  such  a  large  propor- 
tion of  its  territories  are  above  an  altitude  of  5500  feet  (consequently 
enjoying  a  sub-temperate  climate),  are  thinly  inhabited  by  nomads, 
or  are  quite  uninhabited.  Moreover,  a  notable  section  of  its  population 
is  non-negro  and  requires  a  sterner  control  than  do  the  docile  Bantu 
and  Nilotic  tribes  of  Uganda.  In  1903  the  Uganda  railway  was 
completed  to  the  shores  of  the  Victoria  Nyanza.  What  was  then 
the  situation  of  the  East  Africa  Protectorate  ? 

The  coast  region  over  an  attenuated  triangle  between  Kwaihu  and 
Lamu  on  the  north  and  the  German  frontier  on  the  south  was  fairly 
well  settled  by  negroes  and  half-caste  Arabs,  together  with  Indian 
traders  in  the  coast  towns,  and  a  few  Persians,  Somalis  and  Galas. 
The  base  of  this  triangle  extended  between  the  eastern  slopes  of 
Kilimanjaro  and  the  coast  at  Wasein,  and  it  was  here  that  a  dense  negro 
population  extended  farthest  inland  from  the  sea.  The  river  Sabaki  was 
the  limit  of  this  abundant  population  on  the  north.  Beyond  that, 
the  thickly  settled  regions  were  confined  to  a  narrow  coast  strip  up 
to  Lamu  and  Port  Durnford  on  the  north.  The  lower  course  of  the 
Tana  Kiver  and  the  country  between  the  Middle  Tana  and  the  Athi- 
Sabaki  was  largely  depopulated  owing  to  Somali  and  Gala  raids  or 
wars,  and  to  the  absence  of  a  sufficient  water  supply.  Even  now 
this  region  is  very  little  known. 

The  coast  province  is  styled  '  Sayyidieh,'  or  the  Sayyid's  land 
(Sayyid  or  Lord  being  the  correct  title  of  the  Sultan  of  Zanzibar). 
Here  is  settled  that  vigorous  Swahili  population  compounded  of 
Arab  and  negro  intermixture.  A  strip  of  country  fifteen  miles  wide 
along  the  coast  has  an  abundant  rainfall  and  supports  a  dense  tropical 
vegetation.  In  all  this  district  there  has  been  no  thought  of  foreign 
settlement,  unless  it  be  in  the  form  of  Indians  acquiring  land  for  trading 
and  plantation  purposes  from  the  Arabs  or  Bantu  negroes. 

Inland  of  Sayyidieh  the  railway  traversed  a  region  of  somewhat 


1908  THE   EAST  AFRICAN  PROBLEM  671 

arid,  steppe-like  character,  covered  with  thorn  bushes,  impossible 
in  its  undeveloped  state  as  a  home  for  settled  people,  except  along  the 
rare  watercourses.  This  description,  although  it  refers  to  a  relatively 
narrow  belt  in  the  south,  may  be  taken  to  cover  a  very  large  part 
of  the  actual  area  of  British  East  Africa  in  the  north,  north-east  and 
centre.  The  average  altitude  is  between  1000  and*  3000  feet;  the 
surface  is  stony  (with  some  overlying  basaltic  or  igneous  rocks) ;  there 
are  occasional  lakelets,  pools  or  water-holes,  more  often  than  not  of 
brackish  water ;  the  vegetation  is  acacia  thorn  scrub  of  an  exaggerated 
type,  dreary-looking  Sanseviera  sword-plants  (valuable  for  their  fibre), 
and  thin,  coarse  grass  in  the  rainy  season.3  The  average  rainfall 
over  this  steppe  country  is  scarcely  twenty  inches  per  annum,  except 
in  favoured  regions  like  the  Tana  Valley. 

West  of  this  '  Nyika  '  or  thorn  desert  one  reaches  the  much  more 
pleasing  Kamba  country,  the  province  of  UKAMBA.  The  average 
altitude  rises  from  3000  to  6000  feet  between  the  eastern  limits  of 
Ukamba  and  the  Kikuyu  Hills,  and  often  exceeds  6000  in  the  Kitui 
Mountains.  This  region  of  Ukamba — north  of  the  railway  line  in  1903 — 
had  a  noticeable  native  population  of  good-looking  Bantu  negroes, 
the  A-kamba,  who  were  agriculturists.  Among  them  were  settled  a 
few  Scottish  missionaries ;  and  adventurous  Europeans,  attracted  by 
the  splendid  sport,  were  beginning  to  take  up  farms  or  concessions  of 
land.  The  southern  part  of  Ukamba  (south  of  the  railway  line)  had 
already  been  made  a  game  reserve,  advantage  being  taken  of  the  then 
small  native  population  (chiefly  Masai). 

West  of  Ukamba  were  the  two  new  provinces  taken  over  from  the 
Uganda  Protectorate  in  1 902 — Naivasha  and  Kisumu.  These  stretched 
to  the  shores  of  the  Victoria  Nyanza  and  northwards  to  Lake  Eudolf. 
With  the  doubtful  exception  of  the  rather  hot  and  low-lying  country 
between  Baringo  and  Rudolf  (3300  to  1300  feet)  these  provinces 
were  perfectly  colonisable  by  Europeans,  but  at  that  period  had  very 
few  white  inhabitants  outside  the  railway  and  Government  employes. 
The  native  population  was  curiously  unequal.  On  the  Lumbwa 
and  Nandi  uplands  it  was  very  thick  in  places ;  still  more  so  in  the 
eastern  coast  lands  of  the  Victoria  Nyanza  (Bugizii)  and  the  lower 
Nyando  valley  (Ja-Luo).  But  much  of  the  36,000  square  miles  of 
these  two  western  provinces  was  a  lovely  wilderness,  tenanted  only  by 
vast  herds  of  game,  or  covered  by  magnificent  forest  too  dense  for  the 
animals  of  the  grassland  and  retaining  a  special  fauna  of  West  African 
relationships. 

There  was  also  the  glorious  country  round  Mount  Kenya.  This, 
which  has  since  been  formed  into  a  separate  province,  is  one  of  the 
earthly  paradises  to  be  found  here  and  there  under  the  British  flag. 

3  There  are  however  several  areas  of  fine  forest  due  to  a  high  local  rainfall  or  to 
underground  springs.  The  extensive  region  north  of  the  Tana  is  by  no  means  without 
great  potential  value. 


672  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

It  had  in  1903  a  fairly  abundant  but  very  patchy  native  population  of 
settled  Bantu  negroes  and  nomad  Masai  and  Andorobo: 

The  Tanaland  Province,  with  its  capital  at  Lamu  on  the  coast,  had 
a  small  Bantu  population  along  the  upper  and  lower  courses  of  the 
Tana,  with  waspish  clans  of  Gala  and  Somali  and  helot  tribes  of 
Gala  speech  living  on  or  about  the  Middle  Tana,  or  in  the  coast  belt. 
There  was  a  fairly  thick  Swahili  population  in  the  small  Sultanate 
of  Witu  and  in  the  vicinity  of  Lamu.  All  this  region,  except  high  up 
the  Tana,  was  unhealthy  and,  away  from  the  coast  or  watercourses, 
arid  and  uninviting. 

North  of  Tanaland  stretched  the  rest  of  British  East  Africa,  of 
which  very  little  is  known  to  this  day,  inhabited  along  the  Juba  and  near 
the  coast  by  the  Ogadein  Somali  (with  whom  in  1903  we  had  barely 
finished  fighting),  and  elsewhere  by  Gala  peoples  and  other  Negroid 
types  apparently  allied  to  the  Masai  and  Andorobo.  So  far  as  is 
known,  this  vast  region  of  Upper  and  Lower  Jubaland  (some  100,000 
square  miles  in  extent)  will  not  prove  attractive  to  European  settlers 
on  account  of  its  fierce  heat,  relative  aridity,  and  remoteness  from 
means  of  transit.  But  in  course  of  time  and  under  the  Pax  Britannica 
it  may  become  the  home  of  two  or  three  millions — or  even  more — 
of  Gala  and  Somali  pastoral  tribes,  breeding  large  numbers  of  camels, 
goats  and  sheep.  The  Bantu  negroes  will  increase  as  an  agricultural 
population  along  the  banks  of  streams  and  rivers,  and  are  likely,  in  the 
Juba  Valley  especially,  to  grow  cotton. 

In  1903  this  unorganised  northern  portion  of  the  Protectorate 
had  not  come  within  the  range  of  practical  politics.  The  authorities 
at  that  period,  beyond  vaguely  suggesting  it  as  a  home  of  refuge  for 
the  persecuted  Russian  Jews,  had  developed  no  plans  for  a  region 
best  left  to  itself,  a  region  associated  in  its  coastward  portions  with 
unsuccessful  and  very  expensive  native  wars.  The  country  which 
the  British  Government  had  to  dispose  of  in  1903,  after  the  railway 
was  finished,  consisted,  all  told,  of  about  105,000  square  miles,  of  which 
about  75,000  square  miles  were  already  occupied  or  had  been  guaranteed 
to  a  native  (negro)  population  of  nearly  three  millions.  There  re- 
mained about  30,000  square  miles  of  absolu'.ely  unoccupied  land,  which 
the  British  Government  might  fairly  attribute  to  itself  as  its  guerdon 
for  the  costly  boon  of  the  Uganda  Railway,  and  which  it  might  sell, 
lease,  or  distribute  in  the  special  interests  of  Great  Britain  and  of  the 
East  Africa  Protectorate. 

Many  schemes  were  suggested,  some  distinctly  altruistic.  For 
example,  seven  or  eight  thousand  square  miles  of  the  Was'  engishu 4 
or  Nandi  plateaus  were  to  be  bestowed  on  the  emigrating  Jews  of 

4  Was*  or  Uas1  engishu,  means  '  striped  cattle,'  and  is  a  name  applied  to 
the  nearly  extinct  agricultural  Masai  north-west  of  the  Rift  valley.  They  were  killed 
out  (very  nearly)  by  civil  wars  between  Masai  tribes.  There  are  other  and 
mysterious  indications  of  vanished  peoples  in  this  beautiful  piece  of  country. 


1908  THE  EAST  AFRICAN  PROBLEM  678 

Russia  and  Roumania,  and  an  expedition  was  sent  out  to  report  on 
their  suitability.  The  Swiss  surveyors  and  agricultural  specialists  who 
went  with  this  expedition  reported  against  the  land,  and  the  Govern- 
ment's offer  lapsed.  It  is  this  land  now  that  the  Boer  settlers  are 
seeking  to  acquire.  As  to  the  Jewish  Committee,  which  declined  the 
Was'  engishu  Plateau,  I  can  only  say  they  must  be  expecting  the 
rediscovery  of  Eden,  for  a  more  splendid  piece  of  virgin  land  exists 
nowhere  in  the  world. 

Other  schemes  have  been  mooted  of  Persian  agricultural  colonies, 
of  Panjabi,  and  other  Indian  settlements  in  the  Tana  and  Lower 
Sabaki  valleys  ;  and  no  doubt,  if  the  Somalis,  Galas,  and  kindred  tribes 
could  be  pacified  and  confined  in  their  range  to  definitely  allotted 
areas,  there  is  much  of  the  hot  country  in  Jubaland  and  the  Lower 
Tana  basin  that  might  very  well  accommodate  large  Indian  colonies. 

But  there  remain  for  immediate  consideration  these  30,000  square 
miles  of  land  with  a  temperate  healthy  climate  and  without  native 
owners  in  the  Ukamba,  Naivasha,  Kenya,  and  Kisumu  provinces.  The 
black  man  is  amply  provided  for  both  in  the  uplands  and  the  lowlands, 
the  Somali  and  Gala  negroids  have  many  thousands  of  square  miles 
to  roam  over,  there  is  ample  space  for  the  incoming  Hindu  and  the 
Africanised  Arab  :  surely  some  attempt  might  be  made  to  implant 
white  settlers  on  the  unoccupied  balance  of  30,000  square  miles  of 
and,  so  peculiarly  adapted  for  their  needs  as  regards  climate  ? 

To  a  certain  extent  this  question  was  answered  at  the  beginning  of 
this  century,  when  inducements  were  offered  to  persons  of  property  to 
acquire  land  on  a  large  scale  from  the  Government,  and  subdivide  it 
again  among  smaller  holders.  Between  1900  and  the  middle  of  1908 
something  like  2,100  whites  have  settled  in  inner  East  Africa,  of 
whom  about  70Q  are  Boers  and  about  1400  British  or  English-speaking 
Afrikanders.  ;  Nearly  300  Boers  have  also  arrived  in  this  last  month 
of  July,  presumably  to  settle  on  the  Was'  engishu  Plateau.5  There 
are,  consequently,  about  1,000  Boers  (possibly  this  is  an  over-estimate) 
now  in  British  East  Africa. 

An  East  African  correspondent  writes  to  me  : 

At  present  the  only  white  colonists  who  are  settling  down  permanently  in 
the  country  are  the  Boers,  and  there  are  signs  that  those  already  there  are  the 
forerunners  of  a  large  influx  from  the  Transvaal.  The  Boers  are  useful  as 
transport  riders  and  contractors  in  a  new  country,  where  their  primitive  waggons 
still  suit  local  conditions,  and  they  are  as  a  rule  law  abiding  ;  but  as  settlers 
they  will  never  make  a  prosperous  colony.  They  may  be  said  to  be  of  a  mollus- 
cous type,  sluggish  yet  tenacious.  They  take  up  large  farms,  but  do  not  develop 
the  land  to  any  great  extent,  and  therefore  do  not  export  anything.  In  some 

5  At  present  the  Boer  settlers  in  East  Africa  are  distributed  thus : — (1)  In  the 
Lukenya  Hills,  in  Machako's  country  (Ukamba  Province) ;  (2)  on  the  east  of  the  road 
between  Fort  Hall  and  Nairobi  (Ukamba) ;  (3)  on  the  Was'  engishu  Plateau :  this 
latter  (writes  a  correspondent)  '  they  have  earmarked  for  themselves,  and  they  have 
formed  the  intention  of  creating  here  a  continuous  solid  Boer  settlement — a  Boer 
State,  in  short.' 

VOL.  LXlV-No.  S80-'  Q  Q 


574  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

aspects  they  are  comparable  to  Asiatics,  inasmuch  as  they  live  on  an  altogether 
lower  plane  of  civilisation  to  most  Europeans.  They  subsist  mainly  on  niealie 
(maize)  meal,  local  coffee,  and  '  biltong,'  or  sun-dried  flesh,  obtained  from  the 
meat  of  the  wild  game.  Many  live  to  a  great  extent  by  poaching  game,  and  this 
is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  great  attractions  of  East  Africa  to  the  Boer :  it  is  not 
yet  '  shot  out.'  They  sometimes  encourage  natives  on  their  lands,  to  the  annoy- 
ance of  their  neighbours,  allowing  the  negroes  to  bring  their  cattle  out  of  the 
native  reserves  on  to  the  Boer  farms.  For  the  right  to  graze  the  native  pays  the 
Boer  an  occasional  calf  or  heifer.  As  this  practice  is  liable  to  spread  cattle 
diseases  it  is  now  being  checked  by  the  new  regulations  governing  the  movement 
of  live  stock. 

The  Boers  are  nearly  always  married,  and  are  accompanied  by 
their  wives  and  large  families.  On  the  other  hand,  the  British,  or 
even  Afrikander  (i.e.  British  South  African)  settlers  are  usually  un- 
married. It  is  therefore  obvious  that  the  Boer  in  this  respect  has  the 
advantage,  and  has  come  there  to  stay,  not  merely  to  make  a  planter's 
or  grazier's  competence  and  retire  to  the  English  countryside  or 
suburb. 

The  British  immigrants  into  East  Africa  (from  the  homeland  or 
the  daughter  nations)  are  divisible  into  four  classes  :  (1)  Those  who 
without  capital  have  come  out  to  fill  small  employments  or  to  find 
work ;  (2)  those  who  have  a  limited  capital  of  about  300Z.  or  400Z.  ; 
(3)  those  whose  capital  is  at  least  1200Z. ;  and  (4)  the  representatives 
of  syndicates  or  companies  with  a  capital  sufficient  to  work  large 
rubber,  fibre,  or  cotton  areas. 

It  may  be  more  convenient  to  review  these  categories  in  detail 
in  the  inverse  order  of  their  enumeration. 

Class  4  represents  men  against  whom  many  unfair  things  are  said 
if  they  succeed  and  equally  bitter  things  if  they  fail.  They  are  usually 
the  first  to  be  attracted  to  a  country  like  East  Africa.  They  may  be 
willing  to  speculate  with  their  own  or  other  people's  capital,  but  as 
they  take  great  risks  of  losing — the  pioneers  generally  do  lose — they 
attempt  to  cover  these  risks  by  asking  for  concessions  which  appear 
enormous  in  the  rare  cases  where  the  enterprise  succeeds,  but  which  are 
generally  forfeited  or  become  derelict  where  it  fails.  They  are  treated 
as  Shylocks  by  a  section  of  the  Press,  and  are  constantly  being  refused 
the  pound  of  flesh.  Like  the  Chartered  Company,  they  are  usually 
ihe  invention — and  sometimes  the  victims — of  Governments  who  are  in 
a  hurry  to  make  colonies  '  pay,'  yet  who  cannot  themselves  find  money 
with  which  to  speculate  in  mineral  research,  cotton-planting,  rubber- 
tapping,  or  transport  organisation.  There  are,  however,  only  ten  con- 
cessionnaires— individuals  or  syndicates — to  whom  any  large  amounts 
of  land,  mining,  or  forest  rights  within  the  healthy  area  have  been 
allotted  by  the  East  African  Administration,  and  amongst  these 
about  1000  square  miles  have  been  distributed  (half  of  this  to  the 
Uplands  of  East  Africa  Syndicate).  As  a  concessionnaire  Lord  Dela- 
mere  is  specially  noteworthy  for  his  experiments  in  sheep-breeding, 


1908  TEE  EAST  AFRICAN  PROBLEM  675 

which,  together  with  those  of  the  Government  experimental  farm, 
have  greatly  improved  the  prospects  of  East  Africa.  About  another 
1000  square  miles  have  been  parted  with  to  several  hundred  applicants 
in  smaller  lots.  In  all,  scarcely  more  than  2000  square  miles  of  the 
healthy  land  of  the  Upland  provinces  have  been  alienated  as  yet,  out 
of  the  30,000  square  miles  available  for  ultimate  European  colonisation. 

Class  3  comprises  the  settlers,  mostly  British  and  not  very 
numerous,  who  have  started  with  a  capital  of  not  less  than  12001.,  and 
are  not  likely  under  present  circumstances  to  make  rapid  fortunes  ; 
but  if  they  have  invested  their  capital  intelligently  in  farming  and 
are  growing  suitable  products  and  treating  their  employes  consider- 
ately, they  may  (in  the  opinion  of  those  who  know  the  country)  make 
a  comfortable  living.  American  maize — especially  the  kind  known 
as  Hickory  King — beans  suitable  for  export  to  Europe,  and  the 
rustless  varieties  of  wheat  such  as  '  Glugas,'  seem  to  be  the  products 
giving  the  best  return  per  acre.  As  regards  wheat  grown  under 
favourable  circumstances  on  the  uplands  of  East  Africa,  the  yield  per 
acre  is  an  average  of  twenty-one  bushels,  as  against  fourteen  in  North 
America  and  only  seven  in  South  Africa  (thirty  to  thirty-two  bushels 
in  England).  Wheat  is  now  being  extensively  planted  by  the  large 
landowners.  As  regards  profitable  live  stock  on  the  highlands,  Berkshire 
pigs  flourish  and  a  properly  organised  bacon  factory  is  being  founded. 
Dairy  farms  pay  well,  and  the  money  now  being  laid  out  so  wisely 
by  the  local  administration  in  fencing  is  checking  the  straying  of 
native  herds  and  the  consequent  spread  of  disease — of  those  cattle 
plagues  which  periodically  depopulated  the  bovines  of  East  Africa,  wild 
and  tame.  Here,  indeed,  the  white  man,  by  his  authority,  practical  good 
sense,  veterinary  science,  and  bacteriology  has  justified  his  presence 
in  a  country  magnificently  endowed  but  sorely  troubled  by  the  real 
Devil — the  blind  reactionary  forces  of  Nature.  Wool-bearing  sheep 
thrive  in  these  cooler  parts  of  East  Africa.  Breeding  for  wool  is  now 
firmly  established  as  a  local  industry.  The  upland  country  (above 
5000  feet)  being  scarcely  ever  without  remembrance  of  rain,  there  are 
no  fodderless  droughts  to  contend  with,  as  in  Australia.  Ostrich- 
farming  also  on  the  grassy  plains  promises  very  well.  The  ostrich 
is  obviously  at  home  here,  yet  the  indigenous  wild  breed  is  not  quite  so 
suitable  for  feather-producing  as  the  North  or  South  African  types.6 
These,  however,  can  be  readily  obtained  from  both  Egypt  and  Cape 
Colony. 

In  the  more  tropical  lands  that  are  well  watered,  in  the  coast  belt 
along  the  Indian  Ocean  or  down  near  the  Victoria  Nyanza  (in  the 
Nyando  Valley),  companies  and  concessionnaires  or  individuals  are  at 
work  preparing  Sanseviera  fibre,  planting  coffee  or  Ceara  rubber.  If 

•  But  in  Sir  James  Sadler's  last  Report  (No.  557),  from  which  a  good  deal  of  the   ' 
information  in  this  article  is  derived,  it  is  stated  that  the  feathers  of  the  indigenous 
birds  compare  very  favourably  with  those"*of  South  Africa  (p.  22). 

Q  Q  2 


576  THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Oct. 

these  tropical  plantations  are  successful,  as  they  promise  to  be,  they  will 
help  the  highland  farmers  by  offering  them  a  further  market  for  their 
flour,  potatoes,  milk,  butter,  eggs,  bacon,  vegetables,  and  European 
fruits  (which  last  grow  splendidly  in  the  cooler  country). 

Class  2 — the  European  settler  with  a  very  small  capital — has  not 
been  altogether  a  success.  The  majority  of  this  type  came  from 
South  Africa  and  established  themselves  in  this  Equatorial  region  on 
a  false  basis.  They  did  not  intend  working  with  their  own  hands,  but 
proposed  hiring  the  native  to  work  for  them.  In  fact,  some  of  them — 
the  pioneers  of  this  class — told  the  present  writer  that '  it  would  destroy 
the  white  man's  prestige  if  he  were  seen  by  a  negro  working  with  his 
hands.'  It  was  apparently  the  white  man's  business  to  ride  about  and 
inspect ;  in  fact,  unconsciously,  the  spirit  of  the  old  slavery  days  in- 
fluenced their  minds  and  spoke  through  their  lips.  If  my  o  svn  experience 
may  count  with  them  for  anything,  they  may  take  it  from  me,  who 
have  travelled  many  times  and  now  for  many  years  through  Africa — 
North,  East,  South,  West,  and  Central — that  the  white  man  loses 
prestige  nowhere  by  setting  a  good  example  to  the  negro  and  working 
in  his  shirt-sleeves.  Were  the  British  engineers  on  the  Uganda  Rail- 
way not  respected  ?  Or  on  the  Sierra  Leone,  Gold  Coast,  Lagos 
Railways  ?  Are  missionaries  in  the  great  industrial  missions,  Catholic 
and  Protestant,  not  respected  ? 7 

It  is  settlers  of  this  type — and  they  are  not  confined  to  East  or 
South  Africa — who  make  the  loudest  outcry  about  the  lazy  negro 
and  are  most  strongly  in  favour  of  forced  labour.  Consequently,  the 
men  of  Class  2  are  not  the  best-loved  of  the  white  immigrants,  either 
by  the  officials  or  by  the  natives.  With  the  latter  they  show  them- 
selves most  unsympathetic,  looking  upon  them  as  so  many  automata, 
from  whom  a  fixed  amount  of  work  must  be  extracted  in  a  given  time 
for  a  minimum  wage. 

Yet  (writes  an  East  African)  this  middle  class  of  settler  contains  some  very 
hard-working,  admirable  fellows,  and  if  one  considers  the  conditions  under 
which  they  work  it  is  easy  to  understand  their  difficulties  and  their  irritability. 
When  it  is  their  planting  time  it  is  also  the  planting  time  of  the  natives  ;  their 
harvests  coincide  with  the  natives'  harvests.  Nevertheless,  it  is  at  these  seasons 
that  they  demand  the  most  abundant  supply  of  native  labour,  and  curse  the 
impotency  of  the  Local  Government  because  it  cannot  force  the  natives  to  satisfy 
an  immediate  demand  for  low-priced  labour. 

It  may  be  inferred  from  the  foregoing  remarks  that  the  man  with 

7  The  noxious  idea  that  the  white  man  is  always  to  be  foreman  and  never  labourer, 
that  it  '  lowers  his  prestige  '  in  the  eyes  of  the  '  natives  '  if  he  is  seen  working  with 
his  hands,  is,  together  with  whisky,  sapping  the  foundations  of  the  British  Empire, 
and  must  be  eradicated.  Of  course  there  are  climatic  reasons  which  in  most  cases 
make  it  impossible  for  the  white  man  to  work  as  a  navvy  or  a  gardener  in  parts  of 
the  West  Indies  and  tropical  America,  West  Africa,  the  coast  of  East  Africa,  and  in 
India.  Therefore,  these  are  not  '  white  man's  countries."  But  when  the  climate  is 
not  against  it  the  white  man  must  wield  the  pick  and  spade,  hoe  and  drill,  shears  and 
lasso,  as  much  as  the  yellow  man  or  the  black.  If  the  white  man  is  to  remain  master 
and  teacher,  and  here  and  there  a  monopolist,  he  must  be  equal  to  all  pursuits  and 
achievements. 


1908  THE  EAST  AFRICAN  PROBLEM  577 

300Z.  is  unlikely  to  succeed.  This,  however,  is  only  the  case  if  he  poses 
as  a  capitalist  and  an  employer  of  labour.  On  these  lines  he  will  soon 
get  into  difficulties  ;  but  if  he  enters  East  Africa,  as  he  would  Canada, 
determined  to  work  with  his  own  hands  his  small  capital  will  prove 
a  blessing  instead  of  a  curse.  The  great  thing  is  to  eliminate  the 
idea  with  which  he  has  come  possessed — that  black  labour  is  as 
cheap  as  it  appears  on  the  surface.  Kuli  labour  is  very  cheap  in 
India,  but  the  Asiatic  labourer  transported  -to  Africa  has  not  proved 
an  invariable  success.  If  the  Indian  operative  is  at  all  skilled  he 
requires  high  pay  (in  Africa) ;  his  food  is  more  expensive  or  tiresome 
to  procure  than  that  of  the  indigenous  black  man  ;  he  falls  sick  oftener, 
and,  in  short,  is  rather  a  doubtful  bargain.  The  Indian  settler — free 
colonist — in  East  Africa  may  be  a  success.  Indians  are  very  useful 
as  skilled  workmen,  &c.,  but  I  doubt  if  they  are  going  seriously  to 
ease  the  labour  difficulties  of  Africa.  These  must  be  solved  in  the 
main  by  the  friendly  co-operation  of  white  and  black. 

At  present  negro  labour  in  East  Africa  is  capricious  and  uncertain. 
Desertion  is  distressingly  frequent,  and  deserters — breakers  of  con- 
tracts— are  hard  to  trace  owing  to  the  facility  with  which  negroes 
change  their  names,  and  the  ease  with  which  they  pass  from  one  part 
of  the  Protectorate  to  another.  At  one  time  they  may  be  dressed 
with  the  amplitude  of  the  Arabised  Swahili  or  the  '  mission  boy,'  at 
another  they  may  appear  as  naked  savages.  Legal  identification  is 
very  difficult.  Then,  again,  the  agricultural  tribes  dwelling  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  white  men's  farms  or  plantations — Giriama,  Nika, 
Taita,  Taveita,  Kamba,  Kikuyu,  Pokomo — have  prospered  greatly 
under  our  protectorate  and  are  busily  engaged  on  their  own  farms, 
'  mashamba,'  and  plantations,  and  do  not  work  for  hire.  That  being 
so  and  as  they  have  acquitted  themselves  of  their  taxes,  who  is  going 
to  make  them  work  against  their  will  ?  Certainly  not  any  official  of 
the  British  Government.8  Even  if  such  a  policy  were  sanctioned 
as  this  end,  it  would  soon  lead  to  a  devastating  revolt.  The  extra- 
industrious  Lake  tribes,  like  the  Kavirondo — to  say  nothing  of  the 
resources  of  the  Uganda  populations — must  be  discounted,  unfortu- 
nately, because  of  the  danger  lest  they  might  carry  sleeping  sickness 
(dormant  in  the  veins  of  many  of  them)  into  East  Africa.  They  are, 
however,  available  as  a  labour  force  for  the  Western  settlements  ;  but 
the  present  writer  found  in  1900-1  that  the  Kavirondo  and  other 
Lake  tribes  were  very  sensitive  to  the  cold  of  the  highlands  above  an 
altitude  of  6500  feet,  where  the  white  man  regains  his  vigour  and 
prefers  to  settle. 

8  I  would  not  deny  the  assertions  made  by  some  East  African  colonists  that  the 
natives  are  somewhat  lightly  taxed  in  proportion  to  the  benefits  and  facilities  they 
receive.  No  doubt  in  the  course  of  time,  taxation,  especially  of  unmarried  men  and 
nomads,  will  increase.  At  present  the  native  does  not  contribute,  proportionately  to 
the  area  of  land  occupied  and  the  improved  conditions  of  life,  his  fair  quota  of  the 
administration  expenses. 


678  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

The  cattle-keeping  people  (Masai,  Nandi,  Lumbwa,  &c.)  are  not 
very  numerous,  and  only  care  to  engage  for  cattle-keepers  or  shepherds. 
The  Somalia  are  domestic  servants  (of  the  best),  traders,  guides, 
interpreters,  and  would  not  dream  of  engaging  to  till  the  fields. 

In  Queensland  at  one  time  it  was  asserted  that  the  cultivation 
of  sugar  could  not  be  carried  on  without  Kanaka  labour.  Now,  to 
ensure  a  '  White '  Australia,  the  Polynesians  and  Melanesians  have 
been  repatriated  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  Australian  is  thrown  mainly 
on  his  own  resources.  Instead  of  diminishing,  the  output  of  sugar 
has  actually  increased.  Of  course  machinery  has  come  into  play  in 
labour-saving  devices,  and  machinery  will  play  a  similar  part  in  East 
Africa.  Fortunately,  oxen  are  a"gain  cheap  in  East  Africa  now  that 
the  various  cattle  diseases  are  abated,  and  they  are  of  a  type  that  is 
easily  broken  in,  very  docile.  Already  they  are  much  used  in  ploughing, 
instead  of  the  negro  man  or  woman,  with  their  pre-historic  hoes,  hack- 
ing up  the  ground.  Of  course,  in  spite  of  all  these  provisos  and  draw- 
backs and  exaggerations  and  theories,  some  degree  of  negro  labour 
is  always  available ;  but  planters  and  farmers  must  try  to  employ 
fewer  labourers  and  pay  them  better.  '  It  would  probably  astonish 
most  of  our  East  African  farmers,'  writes  a  well-known  East  African 
who  also  knows  his  England,  '  if  they  inquired  of  an  English  farmer 
the  number  of  hands  he  employs  in  proportion  to  the  acreage  of  his 
farm.' 

But  still  the  labour  problem  is  the  problem  with  the  white  settlers, 
the  large  and  small  capitalists  of  East  Africa,  and  some  solution  must  be 
found.  Is  a  most  promising  colony  to  collapse  at  the  very  beginning  of 
its  success  ?  There  will  soon  be  thousands  of  sheep  to  be  shorn  in  the 
Rift  Valley,  the  supply  of  pigs  and  the  demand  for  European  labour 
at  the  bacon  factories  before  long  will  be  very  considerable;  brick- 
layers, carpenters,  masons,  superior  mechanics  are  required  in  many 
directions.  Are  these  indispensable  elements  in  the  community  to 
be  filled  up  from  India  or  China  ?  Or  for  the  want  of  them  is  East 
Africa  to  languish  undeveloped  until  such  time  as  the  mission  schools 
can  turn  out  highly-trained  negroes  who — with  the  sleeping  sickness 
terror  set  at  rest — may  fulfil  these  requirements,  and  thus  by  degrees 
create  a  predominantly  black  East  Africa  with  a  few  white  landlords  ? 
The  Boers  seemingly  will  not  apply  themselves  here  (any  more  than 
in  South  Africa)  to  anything  but  a  pastoral  life  and  perhaps  to  a  primi- 
tive transport  service.  They  will  do  for  the  plateaus  of  East  Africa 
what  they  once  did  for  the  Transvaal  and  the  Orange  State — kill 
out  the  game,  neglect  or  destroy  the  forests,  and  perhaps  reduce  the 
negro  tribes  to  a  mild  serfage.  Locust  plagues  will  go  unchecked ; 
in  fact,  it  may  be  the  history  of  inner  South  Africa  (without  the  in- 
valuable Huguenot  element)  before  the  British  intervened. 

Of  course  the  Boers  are  now  British  subjects,  and,  like  the  natives 
of  India  or  Hong  Kong,  have  the  right  to  take  full  advantage  of  their 


1908  THE   EAST  AFEICAN   PROBLEM  679 

Imperial  citizenship.  But  it  was  the  taxpayers  of  the  United  King- 
dom alone  who  found  the  money  for  the  entire  East  African  adventure, 
Uganda  Railway  and  all.  The  Indian  Government  assisted,  it  is  true, 
by  lending  brave  soldiers  for  the  more  serious  fighting,  and  workmen 
for  constructing  the  Uganda  Railway.  Indian  commerce  has  for  a 
hundred  years  fructified  the  East  African  coast  belt.  So  far  as  moral 
claim  to  waste  land  is  concerned  the  rights  of  the  Indian  native  must 
be  ranked  after  those  of  the  person  born  in  Great  Britain  or  Ireland. 
The  claim  to  consideration  of  the  South  African — Boer  or  Afrikander — 
is  no  greater  than  that  of  the  Australian,  Mauritian  or  Maltese.  It  is, 
in  fact,  a  little  vexatious  of  the  Boers,  with  all  South  Africa  up  to  the 
Zambezi  to  colonise,  that  they  should  be  making  a  dead  set  at  the 
30,000  square  miles  of  choice  uninhabited  land  in  East  Africa.  But, 
of  course,  if  they  are  first  in  the  field  with  their  application  it  must  be 
attended  to,  especially  as  the  Indians,  should  they  come,  will  probably 
claim  to  settle  on  the  hotter  lands  outside  these  little  paradises. 

Can  we  do  nothing  in  the  matter  ?  Must  we  follow  our  favourite 
policy  of  drift  ?  I  know  that  Government  Departments  have  had  a 
horror  of  initiating  great  movements,  of  taking  risks,  of  being  other- 
wise than  colourless  ;  so  that  in  case  of  failure  they  might  seem  blame- 
less ;  have  had,  I  say,  for  fortunately  men  of  character  belonging  to 
both  sides  of  the  House,  and  permanent  officials,  no  longer  content 
to  be  Providences  without  a  personal  policy,  have  done  recently  bold, 
drastic  things  with  the  national  money  and  authority,  at  home  and 
abroad,  ahead  of  public  opinion.9  '  Did  not  always  have '  I  might  add, 
since  the  measures  which  were  taken  in  the  eighteenth  and  early  nine- 
teenth centuries  to  colonise  America,  Australia,  and  South  Africa  were 
not  less  bold  than  the  scheme  I  am  about  to  outline  for  the  filling  up 
of  East  Africa,  a  scheme  which  has  already  been  discussed  by  com- 
petent persons  in  England  and  East  Africa. 

The  Local  Government  Board,  the  London  Municipalities,  and 
charitable  organisations  are  said  to  spend  something  like  800,000?.  per 
annum  on  the  unemployed,  out-of-works,  and  other  able-bodied  men 
and  women  who,  often  through  no  fault  of  their  own,  are  on  their  beam- 
ends  and  do  not  know  where  to  turn  for  work  and  sustenance.  I  have 
met  with  not  a  few  cases  myself,  in  my  own  studies  of  London — ex- 
soldiers  or  naval  seamen,  who  have  married  and  attempted  to  find  a 
niche  somewhere  in  the  life  of  the  great  cities  or  in  the  country,  and  yet 
are  every  now  and  then  out  of  a  job,  hollow-eyed,  and  hideously 

9  Witness  the  measures  recently  taken  for  the  development  of  British  West  Africa 
on  lines  which,  though  distinctly  advantageous  to  European  commerce,  are  primarily 
conceived  in  the  interests  of  the  indigenous  negroes.  I  wish  those  persons — mem- 
bers of  Parliament  and  sincere  philanthropists — who  are  rightly  anxious  about  the 
justice  of  Imperial  policy  would  visit  Sierra  Leone  in  the  coming  winter.  The 
administration  of  the  Protectorate  behind  the  ancient  '  colony  '  of  Sierra  Leone  is  an 
object-lesson.  Sierra  Leone— once  the  white  man's  grave— is  only  ten  days' steam 
from  Southampton,  and  its  scenery  is  in  many  parts  exceedingly  beautiful. 


580  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

anxious  as  to  their  home.  The  Salvation  Army,  and  organisations  and 
persons  I  have  known,  have  helped  these  people  drifting  along  the  edge 
of  despair  out  to  a  life  in  some  colony — truly  blessed  in  comparison  ; 
the  husband  perhaps  first,  the  wife  afterwards,  or  more  often  the  hus- 
hand  has  sent  himself  for  the  wife  out  of  earnings  saved  in  the  first 
two  years.  Or  unmarried  men  have  gone  out  of  London  misery  into 
colonial  sunshine,  and  have  been  able  to  marry  later  on. 

But  it  is  becoming  increasingly  difficult  to  place  moneyless,  not- 
altogether-skilled  people  in  Canada,  Australia,  New  Zealand,  and 
other  self-governing  divisions  of  the  Empire  which  have  got  beyond 
the  experimental  stage  and  can  afford  to  pick  and  choose  their  immi- 
grants. Why  not  therefore — very  cautiously — try  East  Africa, 
the  healthy,  unoccupied  uplands  of  East  Africa,  with  the  double 
purpose  of  peopling  at  any  rate  a  proportion  of  these  beautiful  lands 
with  British  settlers  and  of  lessening  the  pressure  of  misery  to  some 
small  degree  on  those  who  can  find  no  continuous  and  healthy  employ- 
ment in  the  old  country  ?  The  Society  for  finding  Employment  for 
Soldiers  and  Sailors  could,  I  am  sure,  propose  a  number  of  suitable 
candidates.  Married  men  under  forty-seven  years  of  age,  without 
children  (or  who  are  able  to  leave  their  children  temporarily  in  the 
care  of  friends)  might  be  given  the  preference.  The  country  is  not 
quite  sufficiently  developed  yet  for  unattached  spinsters.  In  some 
ways  the  ideal  candidate  would  be  the  unmarried  strong  young  man, 
who,  if  he  prospered  after  the  first  two  years,  might  apply  to  have  his 
future  wife  sent  out  to  him.  Everything  that  was  wise  might  be 
done  to  encourage  women  coming  out  equally  with  men.  Experience 
with  missionaries  and  Government  officials  has  shown  that  women 
stand  the  climate  and  conditions  of  life  in  normal  India  and  Africa 
no  worse  than  men.  Two  irrefragable  conditions  of  selection  should  be 
adopted  for  the  men  and  women  '  assisted-settlers  '  sent  out  to  East 
Africa  :  good  health  and  good  character.  No  one  of  known  alcoholic 
habits  should  be  enrolled  and  everything  possible  should  be  done  to 
impress  on  these  people  the  tttter  hannfulness  of  spirit-drinking  in  the 
tropics.  Complete  abstinence  should  be  upheld  as  the  best  extreme 
for  puzzled  people.  It  might  not  be  unpractical,  either,  to  give  them 
simple  manuals  of  the  Swahili  language,  of  which  the  more  intelligent 
might  acquire  the  rudiments  before  entering  on  their  new  life. 

Perhaps  with  care  and  prudence  500,  or  even  later  a  thousand 
of  these  British  settlers  with  strong  arms  but  no  capital  might  be 
drafted  annually  into  the  East  Africa  Protectorate.  It  would  be 
unwise  to  send  them  out  in  special  shiploads  or  larger  parties  than 
100  at  a  time.  Very  likely  the  best  organisation  to  undertake  the 
transport,  conduct,  and  settling-down  might  be  a  committee  delegated 
by  the  Crown  agents  or  the  Emigrants'  Information  Office.  A  local 
committee  consisting  mainly  of  officials  (but  with  some  unofficial 
element)  might  be  established  in  East  Africa  to  control  and  direct  the 


1908  THE   EAST   AFRICAN  PROBLEM  581 

whole  plan  locally,  as  to  selection  of  land  and  everything  else.  The 
Emigration  Information  Office  would  supervise  all  the  arrangements 
on  this  side.  No  persons  should  be  despatched  from  this  end  until  the 
local  authorities  were  ready  to  receive  and  locate  them,  and  as  little 
delay  as  possible  should  elapse  between  the  arrival  of  the  emigrants  at 
Mombasa  and  their  location  on  their  farms  or  in  their  temporary 
dwellings.  The  cost  of  the  experiment,  however,  should  be  borne 
in  the  first  instance  by  the  Home  Departments  who  were  interested 
in  finding  this  means  of  livelihood  for  the  out-of-work  and  destitute 
people  of  our  town  and  country. 

The  Colony  would  provide  the  vacant  land  necessary  for  these 
experiments.  This  agricultural  land  in  suitable  localities  (healthy, 
of  course)  might  be  cut  up  into  blocks  of  thirty  acres  each,  every 
alternate  block  being  open  for  allotment.  Twenty  acres  should  be 
allotted  to  each  candidate,  with  the  right  to  take  up  the  remaining 
ten  acres  after  one  year.  The  vacant  blocks  of  land  in  between  the 
holdings  would  be  available  for  further  individual  expansion. 

The  terms  of  the  holdings  should  not  be  freehold  (except  by  pur- 
chase at  local  prices),  but  a  perpetual  rent  of  a  few  shillings  per  annum, 
with  reversion  to  the  Crown  if  unoccupied  for  more  than  one  year, 
or  if,  after  a  reasonable  period,  a  proportion  of  the  thirty  acres  was  not 
cultivated.  If  the  Crown  resumed  possession  there  should  be  com- 
pensation to  the  late  holder  for  any  buildings  or  permanent  improve- 
ments due  to  his  own  expenditure.  Terms  might  further  be  arranged 
whereby  ownership  of  the  ground  allotted  might  be  granted  after 
(say)  ten  years'  occupation  and  cultivation.  Advances  and  loans 
by  the  Local  Government  might  to  a  reasonable  degree  be  regarded  as 
a  first  mortgage  on  the  little  estate.  But  all  these  details  could  be 
safely  left  to  be  worked  out  and  controlled  by  the  Land  Board  in 
East  Africa,  and  this  department,  under  the  supreme  direction  of 
the  Governor,  would  certainly  take  a  liberal  view  of  all  questions 
where  hard-working,  praiseworthy  settlers  were  concerned.  The 
conditions  as  to  development  should  not  be  burdensome,  the  first 
object  of  this  plan  being  to  create  a  home  for  a  British  settler  wherein 
he  or  she  may  be  happy  and  by  means  of  which  they  may  become 
colonists  and  workers  who  will  assist  generally  in  the  development  of 
East  Africa. 

Tools,  ploughs,  oxen,  should  be  lent  by  the  local  Government  upon 
reasonable  terms,  and  a  system  of  co-operative  use  should  be  called 
into  existence  whereby  a  group  of  farms  afforded  each  other  mutual 
help  with  the  means  supplied.  Some  trouble  and  some  expense 
should  be  gone  to  (partly  contributed  by  the  Home  organisation 
finding  the  funds  for  this  experiment  and  the  Local  Government 
profiting  eventually  by  its  success)  in  assisting  the  colonist  to  erect 
healthy,  suitable  dwellings  for  European  occupation  on  his  farm.  These 
need  not  be  costly.  The  wood  could  be  for  the  most  part  supplied 


682  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

from  the  local  forests.  This  and  corrugated  iron  for  the  roofing 
would  be  the  principal  materials,  at  any  rate  for  temporary  dwellings. 
If  there  was  any  adjoining  piece  of  land  with  suitable  clay,  the  whole 
group  of  farmers  might  be  encouraged  to  make  and  bake  bricks  (every 
missionary  knows  how)  and  gradually  build  themselves  comfortable, 
wholesome  dwelling-houses  of  brick  and  mortar,  with  tiled  roofs  and 
tiled  floors.  Missionaries  do  this  sort  of  thing  often  with  their  own 
hands  :  why  might  not  reasonable  intelligent  men  and  women  outside 
the  missionary  fold  ? 

Seed-corn,  seed-potatoes,  and  the  seeds  of  other  useful  plants 
and  food  crops  ;  fowls,  geese,  ducks,  pigs,  goats  and  other  live-stock 
might  also  be  issued  to  these  settlers  at  Government  expense,  the 
cost  (as  low  as  possible)  being  debited  to  the  settler  in  common  with 
the  other  advances,  to  be  paid  off  out  of  his  earnings  or  the  selling 
price  of  his  farmstuff. 

One  implicit  condition  of  selection  as  a  Government-aided  settler 
in  East  Africa  would  be  that  every  man  for,  at  any  rate,  ten  years 
after  his  arrival  should,  while  in  the  Colony,  join  the  volunteer  force 
and  submit  himself  to  such  local  training  as  may  be  exacted  from 
such  a  force,  besides  sharing  with  the  local  volunteers  in  a  liability 
to  serve  in  defence  of  the  Colony  as  ordered  by  the  Governor  and 
Commander-in- Chief.  The  Local  Government  no  doubt  would  arrange 
to  make  some  small  compensatory  payment  to  the  man  while  absent 
from  his  farm  on  obligatory  training  or  when  on  active  service.  For 
this  reason  of  the  special  usefulness  of  these  settlers  as  an  armed 
force  which  might  be  called  upon  in  emergencies  to  defend  the  Colony 
from  internal  or  external  trouble  it  is  important  that  they  should  be 
selected  as  much  as  possible  from  ex-soldiers,  naval  seamen,  marines, 
or  men  used  to  arms  and  perhaps  to  discipline.  In  any  case  they 
should  be  of  good  physique.  Men  of  this  description  have  come 
out  for  work  on  the  Uganda  Railway  or  overland  telegraph,  and  then, 
when  construction  was  finished  and  staffs  cut  down,  have  taken  small 
plots  of  land  near  the  railway  with,  it  may  be,  a  capital  in  hand  of 
only  a  few  rupees.  By  dint  of  sheer  hard  work  they  have  at  the  end 
of  a  year  and  a  half  made  quite  a  comfortable  living  and  put  by 
money  in  the  bank. 

Of  course  the  settlers,  providing  they  fulfil  conditions  as  to  resi- 
dence and  perhaps  cultivation  to  a  reasonable  degree,  are  not  to  be 
obliged  only  to  gain  a  living  by  farming.  Provided  they  do  not  make 
an  unfair  use  of  their  twenty  or  thirty  acres  and  Government  loan  of 
house  and  materials,  they  should  be  left  free  to  follow  any  honest  avo- 
cation that  presents  itself.  They  would  represent,  in  fact,  a  labour 
force  above  all  things.  Many  clerkships  in  the  service  of  the  Govern- 
ment or  of  the  merchants,  instead  of  being  given  to  Goanese  (Portu- 
guese Indians),  might  be  filled  by  Britishers  with  a  decent  school  board 
or  army  education.  The  Local  Government  and  big  contractors  employ 
hundreds  of  Indian  artisans  whose  pay  varies  from  41.  to  Ql.  per  month. 


1908  THE  EAST  AFRICAN  PROBLEM  583 

These  men  are  often  of  poor  constitution  and  do  not  always  stand  the 
cold  of  the  upland  country.  They  might  easily  be  replaced  by  English, 
Irish,  Scottish  workmen  who  would  work  twice  as  hard  (even  within 
the  limits  of  an  eight-hour  '  day  ')  and  who  could  therefore  be  retained 
at  double  the  cost  of  the  Indian.  Thousands  of  pounds  are  annually 
sent  away  from  East  Africa  to  India  in  wages  paid  to  Indian  carpenters, 
masons,  and  other  skilled  workmen  which  might  just  as  well  go  into 
British  pockets.  There  would  still  remain  plenty  to  do  for  the  Indian 
in  the  hot  coast  lands  quite  outside  this  special  colonisation  scheme. 
Of  course  East  Africa  is  not  ripe  yet  for  trades'  unions  and  leagues 
for  equalising  wages  and  hours  of  labour,  such  as  in  our  own  crowded 
country  have  been  gradually  making  life  possible  and  endurable 
for  the  workers-with-their-hands.  These  organisations  are  somewhat 
strangling  the  enterprise  of  Canada  and  Australia,  and  would  be  still 
more  out  of  place  in  East  Africa. 

The  sheep-farming  industry  of  the  Rift  Valley  will,  as  before 
mentioned,  require  soon  an  adequate  supply  of  white  shearers.  Most 
of  the  persons  concerned  in  this  industry  declare  that  the  Masai 
and  other  negroes  called  in  as  sheep-shearers  have  very  little  sense  of 
responsibility,  or  kindly  feeling  towards  the  sheep  :  they  spoil  the 
fleeces  and  injure  the  animals.  With  a  colony  of  thirty-acre  settlers 
growing  up  alongside  the  bigger  farms  a  supply  of  men  who  could  be 
taught  to  shear  would  be  at  hand,  and  the  result  would  be  mutually 
beneficial. 

As  regards  the  use  to  which  these  '  small '  settlers  could  put  their 
own  plots  of  ground,  there  is  (besides  agriculture  and  actual  food- 
crops)  pig-breeding  for  the  great  bacon  factories.  The  pig  is  the 
ideal  beast  for  the  poor  man  in  East  Africa.  These  animals  hardly 
cost  anything  to  feed  on  an  East  African  farm.  Sweet  potatoes 
grow  here  like  weeds  and  are  ideal  fattening  food  for  pigs,  besides  being 
exceedingly  palatable  for  human  beings.  Another  point  in  East 
African  pig-keeping  which  is  favourable — a  point,  indeed,  which 
should  be  taken  into  account  in  all  these  proposals — is  that  there  is  no 
winter.  Consequently  pigs  can  be  fed  on  the  produce  of  the  ground 
all  the  year  round.  This  climatic  advantage  of  the  East  African 
highlands  must  be  insisted  on.  It  is  a  most  important  asset  in  the 
50,000  square  miles  of  plateau  country  in  the  Ukamba,  Kenya, 
Naivasha,  and  Kisumu  provinces,  25,000  of  which  at  least  are  still  open 
to  European  settlement.  There  is  not  only  no  winter  in  these  equa- 
torial regions,  but  there  is  no  intolerable  summer  heat  nor  prolonged 
drought.  You  have  here  an  ideal  climate,  a  perpetual  English  July. 

Poultry-rearing  for  this  reason  is  a  valuable  adjunct  for  the  poor 
settler.  The  poultry  supply  of  Nairobi  and  Mombasa  is  in  the  hands 
of  natives  who  stroll  in  intermittently  hawking  the  small  bantam- 
like  fowls  from  door  to  door.  The  egg-supply  is  unorganised,  and  at 
times  eggs  are  almost  unprocurable.  Yet  in  both  uplands  and  low- 


584  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTUtiY  Oct. 

lands  European  fowls,  turkeys,  ducks  (and  peacocks,  I  might  add) 
thrive  remarkably  well.  Geese  of  European  breeds  do  not ;  the  best 
breed  of  geese  for  East  Africa  is  the  domesticated  Chinese  goose  (a 
very  handsome  bird)  so  common  and  so  cheap  in  India.  My  opinions 
on  poultry-keeping  are  based  on  my  own  experiments  in  Uganda,  on 
Kilimanjaro,  and  in  the  very  similar  regions  of  British  Central  Africa. 
They  are  confirmed  by  the  results  of  some  very  interesting  experiments 
tried  by  one  of  the  railway  engineers  on  the  Eastern  verge  of  the  Mau 
plateau. 

Bee-keeping  also  will  probably  prove  a  useful  addition  to  the 
'  small  man's  '  income.  The  Akamba  tribe  exports  many  tons  of 
beeswax  annually,  selling  it  at  about  one  shilling  per  pound.  The 
honey  is,  however,  wasted  or  made  into  native  beer,  and  more 
delicious  honey  no  one  could  desire  to  taste. 

European  fruits  can  also  be  grown  to  advantage  on  the  uplands, 
except  possibly  peaches  and  plums.  But  at  present  the  supply  of 
this  most  necessary  ingredient  of  diet  in  Africa  is  almost  totally  lacking. 
Residents  have  still  to  depend  on  the  mangoes,  pineapples,  and  delicious 
oranges  sent  up  from  the  coast  lands  ;  but  the  supply  of  these  tropical 
fruits  is  inadequate,  and  the  prices  charged  are  often  exorbitant  in  the 
European  settlements  of  the  far  interior.  Oranges  and  limes,  it  might 
be  mentioned,  thrive  everywhere  in  East  Africa  below  an  altitude 
of  9000  feet.  European  vegetables  grow  most  satisfactorily,  except 
celery.  These,  too,  might  be  cultivated  by  the  poor  man,  not  only  for 
his  own  eating,  but  for  sale.  The  potatoes  grown  on  the  Kikuyu 
highlands  are  already  famous ;  but  as  they  are  perishable  (especially 
if  long  detained  at  Mombasa,  owing  to  the  discouragingly  infrequent 
trains  and  the  defective  ocean  steamer  service)  the  market  is  a  fluc- 
tuating one,  and  the  small  farmer  has  recently  been  warned  against 
making  potatoes  his  staple  crop. 

Of  course,  another  great  need  of  the  British  colonists  of  East 
Africa  is  a  direct  and  efficient  British  line  of  steamers  plying  between 
England  and  Mombasa,  calling  in  also  at  Aden,  to  connect  with  India, 
Berberah  (Somaliland),  Kismayu,  Port  Durnford,  Lamu,  Mombasa  and 
Zanzibar.  Such  a  line  would  do  wonders  to  develop  British,  Indian 
and  native  commerce  in  these  rich  but  much-neglected  regions.  At 
first  this  line  would  have  to  be  heavily  subsidised  to  enable  it  to  compete 
with  the  admirably  conducted  French  and  German  steamers ;  and 
in  return  for  this  subsidy  a  high  rate  of  speed  should  be  exacted  and 
decent  food  and  cabin  accommodation.  Those  of  us  who  do  not  travel 
much  are  scarcely  aware  how  bad  is  the  food  and  cooking,  how  in- 
different the  cabin  accommodation,  on  several  of  the  British  lines 
which  serve  India  and  the  South  and  East  African  coasts.  Many  a 
death  is  attributable  to  shocking  discomfort  from  these  causes  in  the 
Red  Sea. 

Of  course  at  present  no  one  who  is  a  free  agent  would  travel  out  to 


1908  THE   EAST  AFRICAN  PROBLEM  685 

East  Africa  by  steamers  under  the  British  flag,  if  they  desired  to  com- 
bine on  this  not-too-agreeable  voyage  cleanly  and  spacious  cabin 
accommodation,  good,  simple,  wholesome  food,  civility  of  stewards, 
freedom  from  taxation,10  and  rapidity  of  transit.  But  this  discrepancy 
between  the  passenger  steamers  of  the  three  nations  is  partly  due  to  the 
large  subsidies  given  by  the  German  and  French  Governments.  The 
establishment  of  the  East  African  Line  has  greatly  benefited  German 
commerce.  A  freight  rebate  is  granted  to  German  shippers,  which 
naturally  reacts  in  favour  of  German  goods  and  against  those  of  other 
nations.  This  is  particularly  noticeable  in  the  hardware  and  cotton 
goods  trade.  In  a  similar  way  with  exported  produce,  the  London 
market  is  not  so  readily  approached  when  the  produce  is  carried  in 
German  or  French  shipping  lines  having  their  bases  at  Hamburg  and 
Marseilles. 

If,  however,  a  steady  stream  of  assisted  colonists  could  be  sent  out 
to  East  Africa,  which  in  time  would  gradually  quicken  the  passenger 
and  goods  traffic,  the  subsidy  might  be  decreased,  and  finally  become 
simply  an  Imperial  guarantee  of  a  maximum  transport  revenue  to  the 
steamship  line,  provided  a  standard  of  efficiency  were  maintained  in  food, 
comfort,  and  speed — an  Imperial  guarantee,  for  surely  first  India,  and 
later  British  South  Africa,  and  perhaps  Australia,  might  see  their  way 
to  relieving  the  mother  country  of  the  whole  burden  of  such  an  ex- 
periment, since  the  commerce  of  these  other  portions  of  the  Empire 
might  profit  by  the  development  of  East  Africa  ?  And  in  return  for 
such  an  Imperial  subsidy  a  rebate  similar  to  that  granted  by  Germany 
to  German  shippers  might  be  granted  by  us  to  the  merchants  of  the 
British  Empire  employing  this  line  of  steamers. 

The  problem  of  native  reserves  is  not  yet  quite  settled.  Out  of 
heedlessness,  negro  tribes  have  occasionally  received  as  a  reserve  or  as 
actual  allotments  slices  of  cool  upland  when  they  might  just  as  well 
have  been  given  tracts  of  warm  country  as  well  suited  to  their  needs, 
but  not  adapted  for  European  settlements.  Thus  native  tribes  are  a 
good  deal  split  up  (sometimes)  in  their  locations.  If  there  was  any 
motive  guiding  the  local  administration  in  these  matters  it  was  the 
desire  to  avoid  solidarity  in  the  distribution  of  native  forces.  But 
this  policy  also  weakens  the  (possible)  White  and  Indian  settlements. 
If  these  are  dotted  about  in  little  enclaves  there  is  much  more  difficulty 
in  defending  them  than  if  they  were  formed  into  respectably  large 
communities.  In  fact,  the  ideal  arrangement  of  East  Africa  would 
be  a  series  of  counties  or  administrative  divisions,  largely  identical 
with  racial  or  tribal  divisions.  There  might  be  several  little  Englands, 
a  little  Scotland,  a  Boerland,  a  new  India,  a  Galaland,  a  southern 
Somaliland,  a  Swahili  province,  Masailand,  Kikuyu  county,  Nandi 
county,  and  so  on.  Each  of  these  divisions  might  in  the  future  have 

"'  The  unofficial  taxation  on  board  most  British  steamers  is  becoming  intolerable 
to  poor  passengers.  Subscriptions  and  testimonials,  sweeps  and  charities  to  say 
nothing  of  tips.  \>  \  - 


MAP  1. 


The  white  areas  on  the  map  of  British  East  Africa  show  the  extent  of  land  colon isnble  fty  Europeans 
so  far  as  climate  is  concerned. 

MAP  2. 


The  white  areas  show  the  approximate  extent  of  land  open  for  European  colonisation  after  Native 
reserves  and  future,  claims  are  taken  into  account.  The  darker  tint  in  the  Native  reserve  area 
shows  the  land  occupied  by  Negroes  (including  Masai  and  Nilotes).  The  lighter  tint  indicates  a 
;  population  mainly  Negroid-Caucasian,  such  as  Gala  and  Somali.  These  regions,  inhabited  by  the 
H  ami  tic  Negroids  (Gala,  &c.),  are  thinly  populated,  and  might  offer  considerable  scope  for 
Hindu  immigration.  The  patch  marked  (1)  is  the  Northern  Masai  reserve,  which  might  well  be 
exchanged  for  patch  (3),  at  present  held  open  for  Europeans.  Patch  (2)  is  the  Southern  Masai 
reserve.  The  black  line  is  the  Uganda  Kail  way. 


1908  THE   EAST  AFRICAN  PROBLEM  587 

considerable  powers  of  self-government,  and  when  a  franchise  was 
introduced  it  could  be  given  with  no  regard  to  colour  or  race,  but  only 
with  regard  to  a  basis  of  literacy  and  intelligence.  The  British 
Governor  and  his  representative  council  would  be  supreme  over  all. 

There  might  be,  for  example,  a  simple  compact  Masai  reserve. 
The  southern  of  the  two  reserves  already  allotted  to  the  Masai  might 
be  enlarged  to  the  westward,  and  the  northern  reserve  applied  to 
Europeans  or  Bantu  negroes.  This  might  be  effected  by  sinking 
artesian  wells  in  the  southern  reserve  which  would  open  up  for 
cattle-grazing  infinitely  larger  tracts  than  are  now  used  by  the  Masai 
in  this  region. 

Many  of  the  negroes  of  East  Africa,  it  must  be  remembered,  have 
only  taken  to  the  hills  and  cold  plateaus  because  they  were  incessantly 
raided  in  the  lo,w,  lanqls.  Now  that  security  for  life  and  property  is 
established,  many  of  them  with  no  permanent  settlements  or  improve- 
ments at  present  to  their  credit  would  willingly  take  up  locations  in 
the  hotter  lowlands ;  not  perhaps  the  Masai,  but  certainly  the  Bantu. 

Another  problem  to  be  tackled  scientifically  is  that  of  the  pre- 
servation of  game.  In  order  to  preserve  the  wild  animals  of  East 
Africa  from  rapid  extinction  at  the  hands  of  reckless  game-slayers — 
European,  Goanese  and  Somali — very  large  areas  (30,000  square  miles 
in  all)  were  marked  off  as  game  preserves.  Much  of  this  land  is 
eminently  well  suited  to  colonisation.  On  the  other  hand,  a  good 
deal  of  Jubaland  and  the  Tana  country  would  equally  well  serve 
the  purposes  of  national  parks  for  game  preservation.  But  these 
*  parks  '  in  little  might  be  dotted  all  over  the  protectorate. 

In  one  way  and  another  it  might  at  any  rate  be  assumed  that  we 
have  in  the  southern  and  western  parts  of  British  East  Africa  at  least 
25,000  square  miles  of  healthy,  unoccupied  land  open  eventually 
(when  roads  are  extended  and  railways  likewise)  to  British  settlement. 
These  25,000  square  miles  of  fertile,  well-watered  soil  should  in  time 
maintain  a  vigorous  white  population  of  at  least  100,000.  '  White  ' 
Natal,  on  an  area  of  only  about  10,000  square  miles,  supports  already 
a  vigorous  British  and  Dutch  population  of  100,000.  The  100,000 
white  English-speaking  East  Africans  would  become  in  time  a  powerful 
factor  in  the  development  and  control  of  all  East  Africa,  especially 
in  friendly  alliance  with  the  Germans  and  Italians. 

But  to  start  with,  East  Africa  wants  a  completed  scientific  survey 
and  an  ideal  land  settlement ;  literally  an  '  ideal,'  to  be  registered  and 
then  to  be  achieved  by  degrees,  without  haste,  injustice,  violence, 
petty-mindedness,  or  caprice.  The  whole  possession  of  205,000  square 
miles  is  worth  this  outlay  as  an  Imperial  speculation  ;  but  the  outlay 
should  not  be  the  unbusinesslike  unplanned  dribbling  away  of  the 
funds  of  the  United  Kingdom  taxpayer,  but  an  Imperial  loan  to 
be  contracted  by  the  State  of  East  Africa  and  paid  off  out  of 
her  future  wealth. 

H.  H.  JOHNSTON. 


588  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 


THE    FIGHT   FOR    UNIVERSAL    PENNY 
POSTAGE 


UNIVERSAL  penny  postage  may  well  be  described  as  a  scheme  whereby 
any  inhabitant  of  our  planet,  white,  black,  or  yellow,  may  be  enabled 
for  the  sum  of  one  penny  to  communicate  with  any  other  at  the  lowest 
possible  rate  and  the  highest  attainable  speed — Englishman  with 
German,  Frenchman,  Italian,  or  Russian ;  European  with  American ; 
Asiatic  with  Australian  or  African — so  that  when  one  soul  has  some- 
thing to  say  to  another,  neither  colour,  nor  religion,  nor  creed,  nor 
diplomacy,  nor  national  antipathy,  nor  latitude  nor  longitude,  nor 
poverty,  nor  any  other  barrier,  shall  stand  between  them.  It  is  a 
grand  yet  simple  assertion  of  the  brotherhood  of  nations ;  it  is  a  change 
that  threatens  no  interests  and  benefits  all  mankind. 

I  purpose  to-day  to  tell  the  story  of  our  fight  for  universal  penny 
postage  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  and  to  indicate  as  briefly 
as  possible  the  present  situation  and  the  difficulties  to  be  overcome 
to  complete  this  grand  and  beneficent  work.  Let  us,  in  the  first  place, 
glance  at  the  high  postage  rates  from  Great  Britain  to  her  Colonies 
twenty-five  years  ago,  and  the  extraordinary  anomalies  then  existing. 
At  that  time  I  found  that  while  no  less  than  300,000  emigrants  left 
our  shores  annually,  never  to  return,  the  postage  of  a  letter  to 
Australia  was  6d.,  and  to  India  5d.,  while  the  rate  from  France  or 
Germany  to  these  countries  was  only  2%d.  This  high  rate  of  postage 
caused  correspondence  between  relatives  and  friends  to  be  sent  at 
only  rare  intervals,  and  after  a  brief  period  to  cease  altogether. 

On  the  30th  of  March,  1886,  I  was  fortunate  in  winning  by  ballot 
in  the  House  of  Commons  the  first  place.  I  took  advantage  of  it  to 
move  the  following  resolution :  '  That  in  the  opinion  of  this  House 
the  time  has  arrived  for  the  Government  of  this  country  to  open 
negotiations  with  other  Governments  with  a  view  to  the  establish- 
ment of  a  universal  international  penny  postage  system.'  In 
submitting  this  to  a  crowded  House  I  pointed  out  that  it  was  obvious 
to  every  mind  that  by  the  supply  of  a  cheap,  rapid,  and  trustworthy 
method  of  communication  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  not  only 
had  our  people  high  and  low  enjoyed  a  means  of  continuous  intercourse 


1908  UNIVERSAL  PENNY  POSTAGE  589 

and  fellowship  with  absent  friends,  not  only  had  works  of  charity 
been  facilitated,  sympathies  enlarged,  and  unity  of  feeling  promoted, 
but,  in  addition,  an  incalculable  stimulus  had  been  given  to  trade  and 
industry  of  every  kind  and  degree.  On  these  grounds  I  asked  that 
penny  postage  be  extended  to  our  Colonies  and  foreign  nations ;  I 
pointed  out  that  new  and  distinct  advantages  would  be  secured  by 
this  extension  to  the  whole  world.  These  were,  first,  the  promotion 
of  brotherly  feeling  with  the  millions  of  Englishmen  dwelling  in  our 
Colonies,  and,  secondly,  the  creation  and  fostering  of  a  feeling  of 
solidarity  and  common  interest.  I  then  proceeded  to  describe  the 
conditions  of  the  emigrant  to  Australia  and  to  America,  pointing 
out  that  the  mass  of  these  exiles  were  persons  in  the  humblest  circum- 
stances, who  worked  for  a  daily  wage  and  had  to  calculate  every 
farthing  of  expenditure,  and  with  whom  economy  most  often  began 
by  the  giving  up  an  expensive  correspondence,  and  so  practically 
casting  off  all  the  ties  which  bound  them  to  the  land  of  their  fathers. 
I  read  a  number  of  letters  from  the  most  influential  men  in  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  in  favour  of  universal  penny  postage  ;  in  conclu- 
sion, I  prayed  the  House  of  Commons  to  make  intercourse  between 
our  sundered  coasts  as  easy  as  speech,  as  free  as  air.  I  entreated  them 
to  tolerate  no  longer  this  unworthy  great  postal  profit  on  the  expres- 
sion of  our  fraternal  sympathies  and  on  the  natural  development  of 
our  trade.  And  I  foretold  that  this  reform,  when  it  is  ours — as 
it  soon  must  be — would  confer  a  widespread  benefit  on  commerce, 
would  bring  new  happiness  into  myriads  of  homes  here  in  this  country, 
and  scattered  by  the  brimming  margent  or  the  long  wash  of  the 
Australasian  seas,  over  pathless  prairies  in  America,  over  tractless 
plains  in  Australia,  and  along  glancing  equatorial  streams,  and  it 
would  form  the  last,  and  not  the  least,  tenacious  of  the  ties  that 
bound  our  Colonies  to  their  Mother  Country.  During  the  debate 
that  followed  there  was  a  feeling  prevailing  in  the  House  that  it  would 
be  wise  as  a  first  step  to  confine  penny  postage  to  the  Colonies  of  the 
British  Empire,  and,  in  order  not  to  lose  any  advantage,  I  got  a  friend 
of  mine  to  move  an  amendment — simply  asking  for  imperial  penny 
postage.  There  was  no  chance  of  putting  this  amendment  to  the  test  of 
a  division,  and  in  the  meanwhile  the  Financial  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
was  put  up  to  reply  on  behalf  of  the  Government.  He  pointed  out  that 
the  Government  was  then  losing  1000Z.  a  day,  or  more  than  360,000?. 
a  year,  over  the  present  packet  service,  and  it  would  be  ruinous  to 
agree  to  the  resolution  proposed  by  the  honourable  member  for 
Canterbury.  A  vote  was  then  taken  on  the  motion  for  universal 
penny  postage,  and  I  was  defeated ;  but  I  had  the  satisfaction  of 
taking  into  the  lobby  with  me  142  members  of  Parliament,  to  each 
of  whom  I  had  the  honour  twelve  years  later  of  presenting  a  silver 
penny  on  the  day  of  our  first  great  victory. 

From  the  hour  of  our  defeat  in  1886  no  Government,  and  especially 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  380  B  K 


590  TEE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBY  Oct. 

no  Postmaster-General  in  England,  had  any  rest.  To  the  whole 
Press  of  the  United  Kingdom,  from  The  Times  to  the  smallest 
newspaper  in  the  country,  deep  thanks  are  due  for  their  loyal 
and  consistent  support  of  the  movement  for  Universal  Penny 
Postage. 

One  would  imagine  that  there  would  be  no  difficulty  in  carrying 
out  our  great  scheme  with,  at  our  back,  such  strong  support.  I  learned, 
however,  for  the  first  time  a  startling  truth  :  I  discovered  that  England 
was  ruled  by  officials.  I  may  say  at  once  that  no  Minister  dare  enter 
office  and  hope  for  a  successful  administration  if  he  has  the  misfortune 
to  be  unable  to  work  with  his  officials,  or  if  he  opposes  their  views, 
and  I  am  prepared  to  give  half  a  dozen  instances  of  the  truth  of  what 
I  now  affirm. 

The  campaign  for  universal  penny  postage,  and  as  a  first  step 
imperial  penny  postage,  really  began  on  the  day  of  the  first  defeat  of 
the  measure  in  Parliament.  Let  the  files  of  The  Times  and  the  150 
volumes  of  Hansard  before  me  tell  the  story.  Pages  of  the  business 
paper  were  rilled  with  questions  of  a  tormenting  character  to  the 
Postmaster-General  or  his  representative.  Every  weak  point  in  the 
postal  administration  was  held  up  to  the  scorn  and  ridicule  of  the 
British  public.  I  published  throughout  the  land  sixty  reasons  for 
the  adoption  of  imperial  penny  postage.  Every  chamber  of  com- 
merce in  England,  Ireland,  and  Scotland  passed  special  resolutions 
in  its  favour.  I  visited  almost  every  civilised  country  in  the  world 
and  learned  by  heart  almost  every  Postal  Guide.  There  was  a  very 
grave  danger  of  tiring  or  boring  the  House  of  Commons  while  attacking 
the  Post  Office,  the  unfortunate  Postmasters-General,  and  their  sub- 
ordinates ;  happily  this  danger  was  averted.  For  a  rest  from  penny 
postage  I  was  successful  in  interesting  and  amusing  the  public  and 
keeping  the  Post  Office  officials  busy  by  publishing  in  The  Times  a 
list  of  sixty  inland  postal  reforms  demanded  by  an  exasperated  public 
from  the  mandarins  of  St.  Martin's  le  Grand.  I  carried  most  of  these 
reforms.  Many  afternoons  were  passed  by  amusing  revelations  which 
caused  a  good  deal  of  laughter  and  good-humour — such  as  whether 
my  right  honourable  friend  was  aware  that  he  charges  in  a  telegram 
'  mother-in-law '  as  one  word  and  '  father-in-law  '  as  three ;  Newcastle- 
on-Tyne  as  one  word,  St.  Leonards-on-Sea  as  three  words ;  M.P.  as 
two  words  and  m.p.  as  one  word,  and  M.P.  as  two  words  and  P.M.  as 
one  word  ;  Charing  Cross  as  two  words  and  St.  Pancras  as  one  word — 
the  latter  because  it  is  the  name  of  a  saint. 

In  1889  and  1890,  in  furtherance  of  my  postal  scheme,  I  visited 
the  United  States  of  America  and  had  long  conferences  there  with 
the  Hon.  John  Wanamaker,  the  Postmaster-General  in  the  Harrison 
Administration,  and  he  expressed  the  greatest  sympathy  with  the 
object  of  my  visit.  It  is  not  necessary  to  publish  the  enormous 
correspondence  on  the  subject  of  penny  postage  with  America  during 


1908  UNIVERSAL   PENNY  POSTAGE  591 

the  past  eighteen  years.  It  is  enough  to  state  that  the  Postage  Com- 
mittee of  the  United  States  Government  in  1890,  while  expressing 
themselves  favourable,  reported  that  they  were  in  favour  of  including 
Germany  in  the  reduction  to  the  penny  rate  when  the  time  came. 
I  sent  the  whole  of  the  correspondence  to  Lord  Salisbury  and  Mr. 
Goschen.  On  my  return  to  England  I  was  assailed  in  the  bitterest 
possible  manner,  in  the  organ  of  the  Imperial  Federation  League,  for 
including  the  United  States  in  the  scheme  for  imperial  penny  postage. 
The  writer  charged  me  with  having  sacrificed  the  imperial  character 
of  the  scheme.  In  other  words,  he  said  that  by  admitting  a  foreign 
country  to  the  benefit  of  the  reform  we  spoilt  its  character.  Need- 
less to  say,  the  answer  I  gave  was  not  calculated  to^trengthen 
the  position  of  the  Imperial  Federation  League,  and  it  shortly 
after  crumbled  by  the  decisive  action  of  Lord  Rosebery.  At  this 
moment  I  would  like  to  say  that  I  was  considerably  buoyed  up 
in  tny  work  by  two  letters  sympathising  with  the  objects  of  my 
campaign — one  was  from  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  the  other  from 
Lord  Rosebery. 

In  the  diaries  of  the  work  to  advance  imperial  penny  postage, 
and  kept  day  by  day  for  twelve  years,  I  find  a  long  official  letter  signed 
by  Sir  Stevenson  Blackwood,  the  able  official  head  of  the  Post  Office 
for  many  years.  It  was  the  habit  of  Sir  Stevenson  Blackwood  to  give 
evidence,  and  his  own  individual  opinion,  and  on  this  commence  his 
letters  in  reply  to  complaints,  '  I  am  directed  by  the  Postmaster- 
General  to  inform  you,'  etc.,  as  if  the  Postmaster-General  was  the 
originator  of  the  dictum  he  proceeded  to  lay  down.  As  a  proof  of 
this  I  may  give  an  amusing  incident.  On  a  Select  Committee  (of  which 
I  was  a  member)  to  inquire  into  the  expenditure  of  the  Post  Office, 
Sir  Stevenson  Blackwood  declared  that  halfpenny  postage  did  not 
pay,  that  there  was  a  loss  on  halfpenny  postage,  and  that  all  the 
Post  Office  profit  of  3,000,0002.  a  year  was  made  out  of  penny  letters. 
This  may  or  may  not  be  true ;  but  Sir  Stevenson  Blackwood  embodied 
this  evidence  in  the  Select  Committee's  report,  and  for  years  and 
years,  when  any  complaint  was  made  to  the  Post  Office  of  halfpenny 
postage  regulations,  Sir  Stevenson  Blackwood  replied  as  follows  :  '  I 
am  directed  by  the  Postmaster-General  to  inform  you  that  a  Select 
Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  has  reported  that  there  is  a 
loss  on  halfpenny  postage,  and  under  these  circumstances  your  request 
cannot  be  complied  with.'  Now,  Sir  Stevenson  Blackwood's  letter 
against  imperial  penny  postage  was  ostensibly  written  at  the  dictation 
of  Mr.  Raikes,  the  Postmaster-General,  but  I  affirm  that  the  statements 
in  this  official  letter  were  entirely  at  variance  with  the  private  views 
of  the  political  head. 

In  a  brilliant  article  The  Times  demolished  the  arguments  of  the 
Post  Office  against  imperial  penny  postage.  In  1890  the  jubilee  of 
inland  penny  postage  was  celebrated  by  the  Post  Office.  Mr.  Raikes, 

R   R  2 


592  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

in  making  the  speech  of  the  evening,  extolling  the  success  of  inland, 
penny  postage,  took  advantage  of  the  occasion  to  denounce  an 
extension  of  it  to  all  parts  of  the  Empire.  He  especially  mentioned 
India,  and  asked  how  it  was  possible  to  expect  an  increase  of  corre- 
spondence to  justify  penny  postage  to  that  country.  Three  months 
afterwards  I  had  the  high  satisfaction  of  publishing  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Fanshawe,  the  Postmaster-General  of  India,  showing  that  our  corre- 
spondence had  increased  with  India  70  per  cent,  during  the  previous 
ten  years. 

The  next  skirmish  with  the  British  Post  Office  took  place  in  the 
Koyal  Colonial  Institute.  Lord  Albemarle  was  in  the  chair,  and  I 
read  a  paper  on  'Imperial  Penny  Postage.'  The  Post  Office  officials 
came  in  their  numbers,  and  a  nephew  of  Rowland  Hill's,  Mr.  Pearson 
Hill,  made  a  strong  denunciatory  speech  against  my  proposal.  I  had 
the  satisfaction  of  telling  him  that  it  would  make  his  relative  turn 
in  his  grave  to  hear  his  utterances. 

Wearying  of  the  continual  attacks  on  the  Postal  Administration, 
the  Postmaster-General  agreed  to  an  all-sea  or  fourpenny  route  to 
Australia.  This  was  by  some  people  considered  a  great  boon ;  but 
the  following  year  Mr.  Goschen,  in  his  Budget  speech,  announced  amid 
great  cheers  that  he  would  make  a  reduction  to  2%d.  for  letters  to  all 
the  British  Colonies.  This  was,  of  course,  gratifying  to  the  people 
of  the  British  Colonies,  who  had  for  many  years  enjoyed  a  2^d.  rate  to 
France,  Germany,  and  other  foreign  countries. 

Meanwhile  Postmasters-General  and  official  heads  of  the  Post 
Office  would  come  and  go ;  the  departure  of  most  of  them  would  be 
signalised  by  a  complimentary  dinner  to  me  and  our  comparing  notes 
of  our  fight. 

After  a  particularly  hard  battle,  the  Postmaster-General  in  1892 
sent  a  circular  letter  to  all  the  Colonies  in  the  Empire  advocating  a 
universal  2d.  rate  for  letters  and  a  penny  postcard  transmissible 
everywhere.  The  letter  conveying  this  proposal  is  a  gem  in  its  way. 
I  give  the  last  paragraph  : 

Sir  James  Fergusson  attaches  importance  to  the  institution  of  penny  post- 
cards transmissible  everywhere,  because  he  thinks  her  Majesty's  Government 
would  be  in  a  strong  position  if,  while  resisting  further  attacks  on  postal 
revenue  by  insisting  upon  the  advantages  of  a  moderate  uniform  tariff,  they 
were  able  also  to  point  to  the  penny  postcard  as  realising  the  idea  of  '  ocean 
penny  postage  '  or  '  imperial  penny  postage '  within  the  limits  of  what  is 
reasonable. 

I  am,  etc., 

(Signed)     S.  A.  BLACKWOOB. 

With  a  rancour  unsurpassed  the  postal  mandarin  did  not  hesitate 
to  ask  for  a  2d.  postage  rate,  on  the  plea  that  it  would  silence  the 
agitator  for  a  penny  post.  This  proposal  fell  to  the  ground. 

A  new  Ministry  came  into  power.     One  morning  I  received  the 


1908  UNIVERSAL  PENNY  POSTAGE  593 

letter  from  Lord  Rosebery  already  referred  to,  in  which  he  said  that 
on  the  way  to  Osborne  to  receive  the  seals  of  office  he  spoke  to  the 
Postmaster-General  on  the  subject  of  imperial  penny  postage,  and 
he  hoped,  '  with  all  my  heart,  our  wishes  may  be  realised.'  He  little 
expected  how  helpless  his  Postmaster-General  would  be  in  the  hands 
of  the  officials.  Notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  Lord  Rosebery,  and 
even  of  Sir  William  Harcourt,  who  was  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
and  whose  letters  to  me  I  would  like  to  publish,  the  movement  made 
no  progress  in  consequence  of  the  strenuous  opposition  of  the  Post 
Office.  I  devoted  three  years  to  continuing  the  agitation.  I  got  two 
very  wealthy  Australians — the  Hon.  Sir  J.  W.  Clarke  and  Sir  Samuel 
Wilson — to  unite  with  me  in  sending  to  the  Government  a  bank 
guarantee  against  loss  by  the  establishment  of  imperial  penny  postage. 
The  new  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  wrote  to  me  that  he  would  not 
accept  the  guarantee. 

Meanwhile  the  Postal  Union  held  its  quinquennial  meeting  in 
Washington,  and  at  this  the  British  delegates  again  proposed  2d. 
universal  postage  as  a  reply  to  the  agitation  for  penny  postage  ; 
the  motion  was  defeated  by  a  large  majority.  Shortly  afterwards 
two  circulars  were  sent  out :  one  from  the  Government  of  Great 
Britain,  proposing  a  2d.  postage,  and  a  second  from  the  Canadian 
Government,  proposing  a  three-cent  or  l^d.  postage.  In  order  to 
come  to  some  decision  in  the  matter  of  those  two  circulars  a  con- 
ference of  the  representatives  of  the  Empire  and  India,  of  the  Crown 
Colonies  and  the  Colonies  enjoying  responsible  government,  was 
called  together  in  England,  ostensibly  '  to  consider  the  question  of 
postage  within  the  British  Empire.'  The  conference  met  for  the 
first  time  in  the  Westminster  Palace  Hotel,  London,  on  the  28th  of 
June  1898.  The  Duke  of  Norfolk,  Postmaster-General,  represented 
the  United  Kingdom ;  Sir  William  Mulock,  Postmaster-General, 
Canada ;  Sir  David  Tennant,  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope ;  Mr.  Kisch, 
British  India ;  Sir  Clement  Hill,  the  Protectorates  under  the  Foreign 
Office ;  Mr.  A.  A.  Pearson,  the  Crown  Colonies ;  the  Agents- 
General  of  the  six  Colonies,  Australia ;  the  Hon.  W.  P.  Reeves, 
New  Zealand ;  Sir  James  Winter,  Newfoundland ;  and  Sir  Walter 
Peace,  Natal.  It  should  here  be  stated  that  during  the  three  weeks 
over  which  the  conference  lasted,  though  only  three  formal  meetings 
were  held,  the  most  active  interviews  and  communications  were 
passing  between  the  above  delegates,  assisted  as  they  were  by  the 
wise  counsels  of  Lord  Strathcona,  the  High  Commissioner  of  Canada. 
The  Duke  of  Norfolk  in  a  mild  way,  and  the  official  representatives 
of  the  British  Post  Office  in  a  most  vigorous  manner,  did  everything 
possible  by  speech  and  verbal  communications  to  induce  the  delegates 
to  agree  to  2d.  postage.  On  the  other  hand,  I  had  printed  and  impressed 
on  all  the  members  the  views  of  Mr.  Chamberlain,  who  had  stated  a 
year  before  '  that  no  money  consideration  would  stand  in  the  way  of  the 


594  THE  NINETEENTH  CBNTUfiY  Oct. 

British  Government  in  cheapening  communication  between  England 
and  the  other  parts  of  the  Empire'  It  should  be  here  stated  that  the 
Duke  of  Norfolk,  though  Postmaster-General,  was  not  a  member  of 
the  British  Cabinet ;  he  .had  been  clearly  misled  by  his  officials, 
who  had  assured  him  privately  that  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
would  not  support  Mr.  Chamberlain.  The  Duke  of  Norfolk  was 
led  to  malje  the  public  announcement  to  the  conference  that  Mr. 
Chamberlain's  statement  '  was  clearly  nothing  more  than  the  expres- 
sion of  a  wish  by  an  individual  statesman.'  At  the  conclusion  of  the 
second  meeting  of  the  conference,  on  the  5th  of  July,  I  wrote  a  most 
urgent  letter  to  Mr.  Chamberlain,  telling  him  of  the  treachery  of  the 
Post  Office  authorities  in  asking  the  great  conference  to  pay  no 
attention  to  his  authoritative  statement  on  imperial  penny  postage. 
I  begged  him  to  take  immediate  action. 

The  third  meeting  of  the  delegates  from  all  parts  of  the  Queen's 
dominions  was  held  on  the  12th  of  July  1898.  Sir  William  Mulock 
proposed  the  following  resolution  :  '  That  it  is  advisable  in  the  interests 
of  the  British  Empire  that  the  rate  of  postage  for  the  conveyance  of 
letters  throughout  the  entire  extent  of  the  Empire  be  reduced  from 
the  present  rate  of  twopence-halfpenny  per  half -ounce  to  one  penny.' 
Sir  David  Tennant  seconded,  and  Sir  William  Peace,  Agent-General 
for  Natal,  supported  the  resolution.  It  was  carried  by  seven  votes 
to  five.  The  scene  that  followed  was  best  expressed  by  the  notable 
utterance  of  Mr.  Reeves,  the  brilliant  representative  of  New  Zealand. 
He  rose  and  said  :  '  The  declaration  of  the  imperial  acceptance  of 
penny  postage  had  come  upon  the  Australian  representatives  like  a 
thunderbolt,  especially  after  the  statements  made  by  the  British 
Post  Office  authorities  at  the  previous  meeting.'  Thus  to  Mr. 
Chamberlain  was  due  the  credit  of  carrying  the  last  ramparts  against 
imperial  penny  postage.  The  British  Government, ,  on  the  motion 
of  Mr.  Chamberlain,  had  given  imperative  instructions  to  the  British 
postal  officials  to  vote  for  imperial  penny  postage. 

After  the  conference  the  representative  of  India  walked  over  to 
the  House  of  Commons  and  told  me  that  I  had  won — that  imperial 
penny  postage  was  carried.  I  hardly  slept  that  night.  At  five 
o'clock  The  Times  was  brought  to  my  bedside,  confirming  the  glorious 
news.  At  luncheon  at  the  Carlton  Club  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  crossed 
the  floor  to  congratulate  and  shake  hands  with  me,  and  from  that 
moment  he  acted  in  the  most  generous  manner  in  carrying  out  to  the 
full  the  wishes  of  the  conference.  Every  British  mailship  on  the  ocean 
was  declared  a  British  post  office  for  penny  letters,  and  so  far  as  the 
Government  of  England  was  concerned  imperial  penny  postage  was 
triumphant  for  ever.  A  few  of  the  Colonies  held  out,  but  at  last  all 
came  into  the  arrangement. 

On  the  25th  of  March  1905  the  following  correspondence  took 
place  between  Lord  Stanley  and  myself : 


1908  UNIVERSAL   PENNY  POSTAGE  595 

General  Post  Office,  London :  March  25,  1905. 

DEAR  HENNIKER  HEATON,— I  cannot  allow  the  bald  statement  which  will 
appear  in  Monday's  papers,  to  the  effect  that,  so  far  as  this  country  is  concerned, 
a  penny  postage  rate  will  come  into  force  with  Australia  on  April  1,  to  be  the 
first  announcement  to  you  of  the  fulfilment  of  one  of  your  postal  dreams. 
You  have  worked  for  this  reform  with  untiring  energy,  and  I  am  glad  to  think 
that  I  am  the  first,  though  I  shall  certainly  not  be  the  last,  to  congratulate 
you.  Credit  to  whom  credit  is  due,  and  I  should  be  the  last  to  deny  to  you 
the  credit  of  having  to  a  great  extent  contributed  to  the  success  of  negotiations 
which  have  terminated  in  a  manner  agreeable  alike  to  you  and  to  me.  I  trust 
now  you  will  devote  your  attention  to  trying  to  induce  the  Commonwealth  to 
lower,  at  the  earliest  possible  moment,  their  tariff  to  a  penny,  so  that  the 
imperial  penny  postage  between  ourselves  and  the  Colonies  may  be  complete. 

Yours  sincerely, 

STANLEY. 

House  of  Commons,  S.W. :   March  27,  1905. 

MY  DEAR  POSTMASTER-GENERAL, — Only  those  who  have  grown  grey  in  the 
pursuit  of  some  high  and  cherished  aim  can  understand  the  feelings  with  which 
I  read  your  kind  and  congratulatory  message  to  me,  announcing  the  inclusion 
of  Australia  in  the  scope  of  imperial  penny  postage.  At  last  my  reproach  is 
removed,  and  an  invidious  exception,  which  went  to  my  heart,  is  put  an  end 
to.  No  longer  shall  I  be  pained  by  reading  such  notices  as  '  Penny  postage  to 
all  parts  of  the  Empire  excepting  Australia,'  or  '  Postage  to  all  foreign  countries 
and  Australia,  2J<7.' 

But  my  feelings  are  of  small  concern.  It  only  remains  for  me,  as  a  humble 
representative  of  public  opinion  in  this  matter,  to  tender  you,  as  Postmaster- 
General,  Mr.  Austen  Chamberlain,  as  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  and  Mr. 
Alfred  Lyttelton,  Colonial  Secretary,  and  I  ought  to  add  the  editor  of  The  Times, 
the  sincere  felicitations  and  gratitude  of  our  countrymen  on  the  happy  com- 
pletion of  the  imperial  penny  postage  scheme.  It  had  already,  like  the  sections 
of  an  unfinished  railroad,  produced  considerable  benefits.  But  so  long  as  the 
island  continent  stood  aloof  there  was  a  kind  of  stigma  attaching  to  it,  which  is 
now  removed  for  ever.  You  have  forged  the  last  link  in  the  intangible  chain 
that  binds  the  widely  scattered  fragments  of  the  King's  dominions  into  one 
solid  mass.  You  have  thrown  the  mantle  of  imperial  unity  over  the  shoulders 
of  the  Sovereign.  You  have  struck  the  '  Lost  Chord '  in  the  Imperial 
symphony,  and  one  grand,  perfect  chorus  ascends  over  land  and  sea. 

Let  me  mention  that  I  have  the  strongest  and  most  authoritative  assurances 
that  Australia  will  reciprocate  your  action  at  the  earliest  possible  moment. 
I  have  never  expressed  impatience  on  the  subject  of  her  attitude,  since  I  know 
that  the  adoption  of  the  penny  rate  to  England  would  involve  the  reduction  of 
her  inland  rate  to  a  penny,  and  a  consequent  annual  loss  of  250,OOOZ. 

I  ought  not  to  conclude  this  letter  of  gratitude  for  a  particular  reform,  great 
as  it  is,  without  expressing  my  sense  of  the  value  of  numerous  improvements 
effected  in  the  postal  and  telegraphic  system  under  the  administration  of 
yourself  and  your  two  predecessors,  Mr.  Austen  Chamberlain  and  Lord 
Londonderry. 

I  am,  yours  very  faithfully, 

J.  HENNIKER  HEATON. 

On  Christmas  Day  1898  imperial  penny  postage  was  inaugurated. 

The  presentation  of  the  freedom  of  the  City  of  London  to  me  in  a 
gold  casket,  and  of  the  freedom  of  the  City  of  Canterbury,  in  1899,  were 
events  necessarily  taken  advantage  of  to  continue  the  agitation  for  the 


596  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

completion  of  our  work  for  universal  penny  postage.  The  Right  Hon. 
Sir  J.  G.  Ward  sent  me  a  magnificent  letter  from  New  Zealand,  declaring 
for  universal  penny  postage,  and  shortly  afterwards  I  received  the 
following  cable  message  from  him  : 

Wellington,  New  Zealand :  Aug.  17, 1900. 
To  HENNIKER  HEATON,  M.P.,  House  of  Commons,  London. 

I  have  much  pleasure  in  informing  you  that  New  Zealand  introduces  universal 
penny  postage  from  the  1st  January  next.  It  will  be  a  fitting  commemoration 
of  the  new  century,  and  will  add  another  link  to  the  chain  of  empire. 

J.  G.  WARD, 

Postmaster-General. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  publication  of  this  telegram  in  The 
Times  aroused  general  interest.  Italy,  some  small  European  States, 
Egypt,  and  the  United  States  of  America  agreed  in  succession  to 
New  Zealand  sending  her  letters  to  them  for  Id.  postage.  I  may 
add,  en  passant,  that  the  three  thousand  American  sailors  visiting 
New  Zealand  the  other  day  had  the  pleasure  of  posting  their  letters 
there  for  one  penny  each  to  their  homes  in  the  United  States  under 
the  arrangement  made  by  my  friend,  now  Prime  Minister  of  New 
Zealand. 

Meanwhile  I  had  been  pouring  ridicule  on  the  absurd  arrange- 
ment of  our  having  penny  postage  to  India  and  Australia,  to  Gibraltar, 
Malta,  and  Aden,  but  in  Egypt  the  traveller  had  to  pay  2%d.  postage. 
I  bombarded  the  Foreign  Office  ;  on  every  voyage  .through  the  Suez 
Canal  I  got  up  a  petition,  and  every  passenger  on  board  the  P.  &  0. 
and  Orient  steamers  signed,  protesting  against  Egypt  not  being 
included  in  the  penny  postage  scheme.  Lord  Kitchener  told  me  he 
was  strongly  in  favour  of  the  proposal.  The  last  petition  was  signed, 
on  my  voyage  to  Australia  in  August  1905,  by  the  Governor  of  Queens- 
land, Lord  Chelmsford,  and  many  other  influential  passengers  ;  there 
were  200  signatories  in  all.  When  I  got  to  Honolulu 'on  my  return 
voyage  in  December  I  found  a  cablegram  from  my  friend  his  Excellency 
Saba  Pasha,  Postmaster-General,  conveying  the  joyful  news  of  the 
adoption  of  penny  postage  by  Egypt.  It  is  very  amusing  to  read  the 
two  notifications  of  penny  postage  issued  on  the  5th  of  December 
1905 — the  one  from  the  British  Post  Office,  warning  the  public  that 
penny  postage  was  only  granted  to  Egypt  as  an  exceptional  thing ; 
while  Egypt's  announcement  was  a  declaration  that,  while  adopting 
penny  postage  to  England,  it  was  to  be  given  to  every  other  country 
in  the  world  (i.e.,  universal  penny  postage)  that  would  agree  to  the 
proposal.  So  at  every  stage  the  British  postal  officials  fought  inch 
by  inch  against  imperial  and,  afterwards,  universal  penny  postage. 

The  most  disgraceful  action  of  the  British  postal  magnates  was 
the  ignoring  Parliamentary  instructions  to  claim  the  right  of  freedom 
for  England  to  establish  penny  postage  with  the  Colonies  of  the 
Empire.  These  officials  actually';  moved  a  resolution  at  the  Vienna 


1908  UNIVERSAL   PENNY  POSTAGE  597 

Postal  Union  to  kill  this  scheme  and  to  bind  England  not  to  extend 
penny  postage  to  the  Colonies.  This  was  prepared  and  moved  and 
carried  by  the  British  delegates ;  I  exposed  the  whole  plot  in  an 
article  published  in  this  Review. 

In  April  1906  the  Postal  Union  Conference  was  held  in  Rome, 
when  nearly  all  the  civilised  nations  of  the  world  sent  their  repre- 
sentatives. The  Postmaster-General  of  New  Zealand,  Sir  Joseph 
Ward,  submitted  in  an  eloquent  speech  universal  penny  postage  ; 
he  was  supported  by  the  Postmaster-General  of  Australia,  the  Hon. 
Austin  Chapman,  and  his  Excellency  Saba  Pasha,  the  Postmaster- 
General  of  Egypt.  The  proposal  was  rejected,  although  it  had  the 
support  of  the  delegates  from  the  United  States  ;  the  British  delegates, 
representing  the  Postmaster-General  of  England,  abstained  from 
voting.  I  had  meanwhile — that  is,  on  the  10th  of  August  1905 — 
formed  a  league  for  the  establishment  of  universal  penny  postage. 
The  Times,  on  the  10th  of  October  1905,  published  a  whole  page  of 
most  eloquent  letters  from  eminent  public  men  in  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland — peers,  members  of  Parliament  (Conservative,  Liberal,  Irish, 
Socialist,  and  Labour  members),  archbishops,  bishops,  and  clergy  of 
all  denominations,  lord  mayors  and  provosts,  etc.,  etc. — in  favour  of 
universal  penny  postage.  This,  backed  up  by  a  strong  leading 
article  and  the  unanimous  support  of  the  London  and  provincial 
Press,  made  a  great  impression.  On  the  3rd  of  July  1906  I  summoned 
together  a  great  deputation  of  members  of  Parliament  and  other 
representative  men  in  the  Grand  Committee  Room  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  to  meet  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  and  Postmaster- 
General  of  England,  to  ask  for  penny  postage  to  the  United  States  of 
America.  No  fewer  than  108  members  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
twenty-four  ex-members,  Senator  the  Hon.  Nicholas  Longworth  of 
the  United  States,  many  peers,  bankers,  and  presidents  of  chambers 
of  commerce,  were  present.  After  introducing  the  deputation  and 
stating  our  views,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  and  the  Postmaster- 
General  expressed  themselves  favourable  to  the  object,  but  regretted 
that  the  finances  of  the  country  at  present  would  not  stand  the  loss 
of  revenue. 

His  Excellency  the  Hon.  Whitelaw  Reid,  at  the  Independence  Day 
banquet  in  London  on  the  following  day,  the  4th  of  July,  said  : 

The  American  people  hope  for  closer  and  cheaper  communications  with  all 
other  nations  as  the  best  means  of  promoting  better  acquaintance  and  per- 
petuating friendship.  They  were  gratified  to  find  the  British  apostle  of  penny 
postage  at  this  moment  focussing  his  efforts  on  what  ought  to  be  the  easy 
task  of  persuading  the  authorities  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  that  it  was  as 
cheap  to  carry  a  letter  from  London  to  New  York  as  from  London  to  Calcutta, 
or  from  New  York  to  Manila,  and  quite  as  useful.  (Loud  cheers.) 

At  the  instance  of  Sir  James  Blyth  (now  Lord  Blyth)  I  com- 
municated with  a  number  of  the  richest  men  in  the  United  Kingdom, 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

including  Mr.  Carnegie,  and  the  result  was  that  I  was  able  to  address 
the  following  letter  to  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  and  the 
Postmaster-General : 

House  of  Commons :  July  23rd,  1906. 

GENTLEMEN, — You  have  both  expressed  sympathy  with  the  movement  for 
securing  penny  postage  to  the  United  States,  and  I  am  persuaded  you  so  fully 
recognise  the  importance  of  securing  this  hoon  for  the  people  of  the  English- 
speaking  world  that  you  will  heartily  co-operate  with  us. 

The  question,  then,  is  how  and  when  can  money  be  found  to  cover  the 
initial  sacrifice  of  revenue.  A  preliminary  question  arises  as  to  the  amount  of 
the  sacrifice.  When  that  is  known  there  will,  I  am  happy  to  be  able  to  state, 
be  no  further  difficulty.  If  you  will  appoint  a  small  Committee  of  the 
Treasury  and  postal  officials,  together  with  a  few  representative  men  of 
business — amongst  these  Sir  Edward  Sassoon,  Sir  James  Blyth,  the  Earl  of 
Jersey,  Sir  Charles  Palmer,  and  two  others — to  settle  the  probable  loss  ot 
postage  and  estimated  increase  of  revenue  consequent  on  the  development 
of  correspondence  under  penny  postage  in  each  of  the  first  three  years,  I  ana 
prepared  to  place  in  your  hands  a  bank  guarantee  for  the  amount,  bearing 
names  honoured  on  every  exchange.  These  names  I  am  ready  to  place 
confidentially  before  you. 

Although  this  may  be  considered  an  unprecedented  proposal,  I  can  show  you 
parallel  cases.  The  signatories  do  not  anticipate,  in  view  of  the  leaps  arid 
bounds  to  be  expected  in  postal  revenue,  that  any  heavy  burden  will  fall  upon 
them. 

I  would  earnestly  press  for  an  immediate  settlement  of  this  great  question, 
so  deeply  interesting  to  the  two  great  sections  of  our  race. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

J.  HENNIKEE  HEATON. 

I  received  the  following  reply  from  the  Postmaster-General : 

General  Post  Office  :  July  80. 

DEAR  HENNIKER  HEATON, — I  am  in  receipt  of  your  letter,  for  which  I  am 
obliged,  and  I  have  talked  the  matter  over  with  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer.  As  we  have  already  publicly  explained,  both  the  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer  and  myself  are  in  favour  in  principle  of  the  extension  of  penny 
postage  to  the  United  States  of  America.  We  do  not  see  our  way,  however,  to 
accept  private  donations  for  public  purposes  of  this  description.  The  question 
of  a  reduction  of  postage  to  America  must,  I  am  afraid,  stand  over  until  the  state 
of  the  Exchequer  admits  of  the  step  being  taken.  Until  that  time  arrives  it 
would  be  premature  to  inquire  whether  the  United  States  Government  would 
themselves  be  in  favour  of  a  restrictive  union. 

Yours  very  truly, 

SYDNEY  BUXTON. 

Meanwhile  I  had  the  quiet  but  effective  support  of  his  Excellency 
the  Right  Hon.  James  Bryce,  the  British  Ambassador  to  Washington, 
and  through  the  friendly  offices  of  Mr.  Nicholas  Longworth  and  of 
Mr.  Morton  Frewen  I  was  able  to  open  up  correspondence  with  the 
Hon.  G.  0.  L.  Meyer,  Postmaster-General  of  America,  who  gave  the 
subject  instant  and  sympathetic  attention.  To  my  great  joy  he 
addressed  to  me  the  following  private  letter,  which,  now  that  Anglo- 


1908  UNIVERSAL   PENNY  POSTAGE  699 

American  penny  postage  has  been  established,  I  take  the  liberty  of 
publishing  in  full : 

Washington  :  July  17, 1907. 

MY  DEAR  SIR, — Referring  to  your  letter,  I  desire  to  inform  you  that  I  have 
given  the  question  of  two-cent  (penny)  postage  between  England  and  the 
United  States  careful  consideration,  and  I  am  favourably  inclined  towards  the 
proposition  of  establishing  a  restricted  union  with  England,  providing  for  a 
letter  rate  of  two  cents  for  each  half-ounce.  You  will  notice  that  for  a  letter 
weighing  two  ounces  this  would  figure  out  the  same  as  the  Universal  Union 
rate  of  eight  cents  established  at  the  last  Convention  in  Rome.  You  assured 
me  that  the  British  Parliament  is  most  anxious  to  carry  out  two-cent  postage 
reform  so  far  as  America  is  concerned.  What  I  desire  to  learn  from  you  is 
the  attitude  of  your  postal  authorities,  for  this  reason :  that  if  there  is  a  fair 
opportunity  of  making  an  arrangement  with  your  Government  to  establish  a 
two-cent  postage  rate  for  each  half-ounce,  I  would  endeavour  to  be  in  London, 
if  possible,  about  the  early  days  of  September,  but  I  do  not  wish  to  make  the 
trip  without  a  favourable  prospect  of  accomplishing  the  desired  result.  I  write 
you  informally  and  unofficially,  in  order  that  you  may  advise  me  informally 
what  the  possibilities  are  and  what  the  attitude  of  your  Postmaster-General 
would  be  in  this  matter. 

Yours  very  truly, 

(Signed)  G.  0.  MEYER, 

Postmaster-  General. 

The  letter  reached  London  two  days  after  my  departure  for 
Australia,  and  I  received  it  in  Sydney  thirty  days  later.  I  took 
immediate  action  by  communicating  its  contents  to  Sir  Joseph  Ward, 
Prime  Minister  of  New  Zealand,  who  transmitted  it  by  cable  to  the 
Colonial  Office,  with  a  strong  expression  of  hope  that  the  British 
Government  would  accept  the  offer  of  the  United  States  of  America. 
(New  Zealand  had  already  penny  postage  to  the  United  States.) 
I  also  wired  the  message  to  the  most  powerful  men  in  England,  begging 
their  influence  with  the  Government.  Alas !  nothing  was  done! 
I  returned  to  London  as  rapidly  as  I  could,  and  had  many  anxious 
interviews  with  Ministers  and  with  my  friends  on  the  subject  of  the 
momentous  offer  of  the  United  States.  Lord  Curzon  and  others 
advised  me  that  it  was  more  than  the  British  Government  dared  to 
do  to  refuse  this  offer  from  the  Postmaster-General  of  America. 
I  was  aware  that  the  Postmaster-General,  Mr.  Sydney  Buxton,  was 
personally  always  favourable  to  Anglo-American  penny  postage. 
What  I  feared  most  was  that  the  Post  Office  officials  were  putting 
serious  obstacles  in  the  way ;  notably  that  there  were  many  internal 
postal  reforms  of  great  urgency  requiring  settlement  before  Anglo- 
American  penny  postage  could  be  or  ought  to  be  considered. 

Early  in  January  I  received  the  following  letter  from  the 
Postmaster-General : — 

General  Post  Office,  London  :  January  1908. 

MY  DEAR  HENNIKER  HEATON, — In  your  letter  to  me  the  other  day,  in 
reference  to  penny  postage  to  America,  you  said,  speaking  of  the  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer,  '  We  have  given  him  a  bank  guarantee  against  loss ;  we 
have  handed  to  him  the  offer  of  the  Postmaster- General  of  the  United  States, 


600  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

•agreeing  to  reciprocate  by  establishing  penny  postage  to  England ;  and,  finally, 
I  have  undertaken  to  point  out  a  means  of  making  up  for  any  suggested  loss. 
Can  human  beings  do  more  ?  ' 

I  have  shown  him  your  letter,  and  he  is  at  a  loss  to  know  to  what  you  are 
referring.  He  does  not  recollect  any  communications  of  the  nature  described 
passing  between  you  and  him.  Perhaps  you  will  let  me  know  what  you  had 
in  mind. 

Yours  very  truly, 
J.  Henniker  Heaton,  Esq.,  M.P.  SYDNEY  BUXTON. 

I  was  able  to  give  a  satisfactory  reply  to  this  letter,  but  beyond 
kind  interviews  with  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  no  progress 
was  made. 

In  February  Lord  Blyth,  who  for  twenty-five  years  had  always 
shown  great  sympathy  for  universal  penny  postage,  had  a  long  inter- 
view with  the  Postmaster-General,  pointing  out  the  great  importance 
of  the  Government  accepting  the  offer  of  America.  He  declared 
that  if  he  were  in  the  Postmaster-General's  place,  or  in  that  of  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  he  would  not  be  able  to  sleep  comfortably 
until  this  wise  reform  had  been  put  to  the  credit  of  the  Liberal  party. 
On  the  19th  of  March  Lord  Blyth  addressed  the  following  interesting 
letter  to  Mr.  Sydney  Buxton  : 

March  19,  1908. 

DEAR  ME.  BUXTON, — At  the  risk  of  being  considered  as  great  a  nuisance  as 
a  mutual  friend  of  ours,  I  cannot  help  writing  to  you  after  yesterday's  interview, 
as  I  still  feel  that,  in  the  interest  of  our  party  and  the  country  alike,  there  is 
no  measure  calculated  to  bring  such  lasting  honour  to  the  authors,  or  confer 
such  far-reaching  benefits  on  our  people,  as  the  extension  of  the  penny  post  to 
the  United  States. 

While  the  present  Government  are  striving  to  pass  measures  which — no 
matter  how  just — are  bound  to  bring  them  numberless  enemies,  it  passes  my 
comprehension  why  they  should  neglect  to  pass  a  measure  which  would  only 
gain  them  friends  and  which  could  bring  them  nothing  but  popularity. 

Your  arguments  about  the  cost  are  to  me,  or  to  anyone  with  whom  I  have 
conferred  outside  the  Ministry,  altogether  unconvincing,  for  instead  of  involving 
great  cost  to  the  country,  as  many  of  your  other  measures  must  necessarily  do, 
this  one  reform  would  most  certainly,  within  a  very  short/period,  yield  quite  a 
harvest  of  increased  revenue,  although  that  would  form  but  a  very  small  part 
of  the  benefit  to  the  nation. 

Holding  these  views,  as  I  do,  mosistrongly,  I  feel  I  should  not  be  doing  my 
duty  if  I  did  not  avail  myself  of  every  opportunity  of  making  them  known,  both 
privately  and  publicly. 

I  am  so  afraid  that  if  this  question  is  not  speedily  settled  some  political 
mischance  may  occur  to  place  the  opposite  party  in  power,  and  give  to  them 
the  credit  of  this  great  and  inevitable  reform,  that  you  can  so  easily  carry,  with 
the  goodwill  and  applause  of  all  parties. 

I  can  only  hope  you  will  forgive  my  persistency. 

I  am,  dear  Mr.  Buxton, 

Yours  very  truly, 
...  i  BLYTH. 

In  April  I  received  a  telegram  from  a  friend  in  Washington  stating 
that  an  important  letter  had  been  received  from  theJPostmaster- 


1908  UNIVEESAL  PENNY  POSTAGE  601 

General  of  England,  agreeing  on  certain  terms  to  the  American  pro- 
posal ;  but,  whatever  was  the  nature  of  the  proposal,  it  evidently  was 
not  quite  acceptable.  I  had  no  intimation  of  the  points  at  issue ; 
I  suspected  that  the  Americans  wanted  a  half-ounce  weight  for  a 
penny  letter  in  the  place  of  an  ounce.  Whatever  the  hitch  in  the 
negotiations,  the  ominous  silence  for  many  weeks  greatly  disturbed 
us ;  I  had  almost  daily  conferences  with  my  friends,  and  especially 
Lord  Blyth.  On  almost  the  last  day  of  May  I  wrote  to  the  American 
Ambassador,  asking  for  an  interview  with  him  for  Lord  Blyth  and 
myself.  He  appointed  the  following  morning  at  eleven.  His  Excel- 
lency received  us  most  courteously  at  Dorchester  House.  We  pointed 
out  to  him  that  this  was  the  year  of  the  Franco-British  Exhibition ; 
that  special  efforts  were  being  made  to  signalise  that  event  by  the 
introduction  of  penny  postage  between  France  and  England ;  that 
only  a  few  days  before  I  had  in  the  House  of  Commons  introduced  a 
strong  deputation  from  the  French  Chamber  of  Commerce  asking  the 
Postmaster-General  for  this  great  reform ;  but  that  we  and  the  whole 
of  the  British  people,  while  anxious  for  penny  postage  with  France, 
felt  strongly  that  the  first  step  should  be  Anglo-American  penny 
postage — that  is,  penny  postage  between  all  the  English-speaking 
nations  in  the  world.  We  took  care  to  emphasise  the  fact  that  King 
Edward  had  more  British-born  subjects  in  the  United  States  of 
America  than  in  all  parts  of  the  British  Empire  outside  the  United 
Kingdom.  Lord  Blyth  here  said  that  he  knew  from  private  informa- 
tion that  the  British  Government  were  wondering  why  no  reply  had 
been  sent  from  Washington  to  their  proposal  sent  some  weeks  before. 
The  American  Ambassador  was  most  sympathetic,  but  we  left  with 
his  simple  assurance  that  he  would  carefully  consider  the  matter. 
We  knew  that  he  had  for  many  years  been  a  great  friend  of  the  move- 
ment, and  history  in  future  years  may  give  us  the  important  cable 
message  which  he  sent  to  his  Government  on  that  pleasant  Thursday 
afternoon.  On  the  Sunday  evening  we  know  he  was  in  possession  of 
a  favourable  answer  from  Washington ;  on  Tuesday  evening,  with 
great  kindness,  Mr.  Sydney  Buxton  wrote  me  a  confidential  note, 
asking  me  to  be  present  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  following 
afternoon,  when  he,  amidst  great  cheering,  announced  that  penny 
postage  had  been  arranged  between  the  British  Empire  and  the 
United  States  of  America.  The  same  evening  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
thanking  him  in  these  words  : 

MY  DEAR  POSTMASTER-GENERAL, — We  reformers  know  that,  after  all  the 
exertions  we  may  make,  we  are  helpless  until  the  Minister  is  found  who  will 
propose  the  desired  reform  to  Parliament.  When  I  contemplate  the  probable 
results  of  this  great  measure  of  unity — Anglo-American  penny  postage — between 
the  two  English-speaking  nations,  I  can  only  think  of  one  of  those  great 
national  cycles  of  wind  and  wave  that  bear  the  benefits  of  clime  and  fertility 
to  all  parts  of  the  world.  And  I  think  of  the  mild,  beneficent  influences  of  the 
mighty  Gulf  Stream,  which  for  ages  has  set  in  from  the  west  to  bless  our  shores. 


602  TEE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

It  is  now  for  us  to  acknowledge  the  equally  real  and  beneficial  stream  of 
sympathies  which  come  from  the  same  quarter. 

The  date  fixed  for  Anglo-American  penny  postage  was  the  1st  of 
October.  A  large  number  of  friends  united  with  me  to  get  it  in- 
augurated on  the  4th  of  July,  Independence  Day ;  but  without  success, 
readily  understood.  If  this  could  have  been  arranged  it  would  be 
both  significant  and  appropriate. 

So  far  I  have  endeavoured  to  give  a  bare  outline  of  the  battle  for 
universal  penny  postage  up  to  the  present  day.  The  only  regret  I 
have  is  that  room  cannot  be  found  for  the  enumeration  of  the  names 
of  the  large  number  of  strong  and  progressive  public  men — notably 
Mr.  W.  T.  Stead,  Sir  William  Holland,  Sir  Edward  Sassoon,  Sir  Walter 
Peace,  Sir  William  Mulock,  Sir  David  Tennant,  etc. — who  during 
those  years  of  toil  and  struggle  helped  us  onward  in  the  work  and 
rendered  such  great  service  to  the  cause. 

I  cannot  conclude  this  article  without  referring  to  our  work  in  the 
future  to  complete  universal  penny  postage.  I  will  briefly  state  that 
there  are  only  50,000,000  letters  annually  sent  from  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  to  foreign  countries  not  yet  enjoying  penny  postage. 
The  number  of  letters  delivered  in  the  United  Kingdom  last  year 
was  2,800,000,000,  so  that  the  number  sent  abroad  at  the  high  rate  is 
merely  a  drop  in  the  ocean.  The  increase  of  letters  posted  in  Great 
Britain  every  year  is  100,000,000,  so  that  this  increase  within  the 
United  Kingdom  itself  is  double  the  total  number  of  letters  sent 
abroad  in  the  whole  year.  I  will  deal  with  this  question  more  fully 
at  a  future  time,  but  I  shall  be  greatly  mistaken  if  another  year  elapses 
before  the  completion  of  universal  penny  postage. 

J.  HENNIKER  HEATON. 


1908 


DANTE  AND   SHAKESPEARE 


AT  first  thought  we  might  be  inclined  to  consider  Dante  and  Shake- 
speare as  too  different  both  in  aim  and  in  method  to  admit  of  any 
extended  comparison.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  two  poets  are 
seldom  compared  at  all,  whereas  it  seems  only  natural  to  think  of 
Dante  and  Milton  together.  But  deep  reflection  and  protracted  study 
must  convince  us  of  the  closer,  more  vital  kinship  of  the  stern  Floren- 
tine exile  and  the  genial  poet  of  Merry  England.  This  kinship  it  is 
my  primary  purpose  to  establish  as  respects  a  few  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  life  and  of  art,  because  it  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  relative 
merit  of  these  two  giants  among  modern  poets  until  we  can  look 
beyond  their  necessary  differences  to  their  common  perception  of  what 
consummate  poetry  must  be. 

Obviously  Dante's  power  to  portray  actual  life  and  to  apprehend 
sympathetically  the  universal  element  in  life  must  be  found  equal  to 
Shakespeare's,  if  we  are  not  to  adjudge  him  the  inferior  poet.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  necessary  to  ascertain  whether  Shakespeare  satisfies 
the  demands  of  modern  philosophy,  which  says  of  the  poet — and  the 
truth  of  the  statement  is  undeniable — that  he  must  possess  a  '  unitary 
conception  of  the  meaning  and  larger  relations  of  human  life,'  that  his 
appreciation  of  life  in  detail  must  be  '  determined  by  his  interpretation 
of  the  meaning  of  life  as  a  whole.'  This  is  the  case,  as  we  must  all 
admit,  with  Dante ;  and  unless  Shakespeare  gives  us  such  interpreta- 
tion of  life  in  its  full  meaning,  he  will  be  obliged  to  yield  the  palm  in 
this  one  respect  to  Dante. 

Since,  then,  a  poet's  universality  depends  largely  upon  his  philo- 
sophical attitude  towards  life,  let  us  first  consider  some  of  Shakespeare's 
ideas  about  life.  As,  however,  it  is  sometimes  said  in  disparage- 
ment of  Dante  that  his  poetry  suffered  from  his  partisanship,  we  must 
ascertain,  by  way  of  preliminary,  whether  Shakespeare,  too,  did  not 
have  decided  convictions  about  the  problems  of  life  which  assailed 
the  characters  he  drew.  It  is  frequently  asserted  that  Shakespeare 
seldom  represented  his  own  views  on  any  subject;  Ruskin  and 
Pater  agree  with  the  Dante  scholar  Gardner  that  it  was  necessary 
that  Shakespeare  should  '  lean  no  way,'  but  that  he  should  be  re- 
moved from  '  all  influences  which  could  in  the  least  warp  or  bias  his 

603 


604  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

thoughts.'  Gardner  asks  whether  the  phrase  *  the  impartiality  of 
Shakespeare'  does  not  *  at  once  reach  the  very  root  of  the  essential 
difference '  between  him  and  Dante.  Doubtless  it  would  be  a  great 
shock  to  the  nerves  of  these  gentlemen  to  be  told  that  if  Shakespeare 
were  really  impartial,  as  they  say,  we  should  be  obliged  to  condemn 
him  to  a  place  among  Dante's  neutrals,  hated  almost  as  much  as 
Lucifer  himself,  and  considered  unworthy  of  a  place  in  Hell  proper 
simply  because  they  leaned  no  way.  But  how  can  a  great  poet  be 
impartial  ?  We  must  feel,  with  Dowden,  that  Shakespeare  makes 
it  clear  and  emphatic  whether  he  would  have  us  side  with  Goneril  or 
Cordelia,  with  Edgar  or  the  traitor.  And  are  we  not  conscious  of  a 
decided  love  of  law  and  order  on  the  part  of  Shakespeare  even  in  all 
the  confusion  in  King  Lear  ?  Has  Shakespeare  left  us  in  the  dark 
as  to  whether  he  thought  the  deeds  of  Brutus  and  Cassius  should 
triumph,  and  must  triumph  ultimately,  or  the  idea  embodied  by 
Julius  Csesar,  the  spirit  of  Csesar  ?  Brutus,  looking  upon  Cassius 
dead,  exclaims  : 

0  Julius  Caesar,  them  art  mighty  yet  I 

Thy  spirit  walks  abroad,  and  turns  our  swords 

In  our  own  proper  entrails. 

Critics  are  agreed  that  in  Henry  the  Fifth  Shakespeare  portrayed  his 
ideal  of  manhood,  and  his  ideal  king,  but,  forsooth,  how  could  he  have 
an  ideal  if  he  leaned  no  way  ?  Of  the  English  historical  plays  Dowden 
asserts  that  they  reveal  '  Shakespeare's  convictions  as  to  how  the 
noblest  practical  success  in  life  may  be  achieved.' 

Since,  then,  we  cannot  call  Shakespeare  impartial  in  the  sense 
that  he  lacked  definite  convictions,  and  since  it  is  not  derogatory  to 
Dante  that  he  had  definite  convictions,  let  us  now  seek  to  discover 
the  opinions  of  Shakespeare  in  regard  to  some  of  the  very  questions 
which  most  interested  Dante.  It  is  an  accepted  theory  of  criticism 
that  when  an  author  reiterates  certain  ideas,  these  may  be  considered 
his  own  personal  views ;  let  us  therefore  choose  ideas  often  repeated 
by  Shakespeare.  Inasmuch  as  both  Dante  and  Shakespeare  dealt 
especially  with  the  problem  of  evil  in  the  world,  let  us  ask  first  what 
Shakespeare  considered  the  cause  of  sin.  Listen  to  Edmund  in 
King  Lear : 

'  This  is  the  excellent  foppery  of  the  world,  that,  when  we  are  sick  in  fortune, 
— often  the  surfeit  of  our  own  behaviour, — we  make  guilty  of  our  disasters  the 
sun,  the  moon,  and  the  stars:  as  if  we  were  villains  by  necessity ;  fools  by  heavenly 
compulsion ;  knaves,  thieves,  and  treachers,  by  spherical  predominance ;  drunkards, 
liars,  and  adulterers,  by  an  enforced  obedience  of  planetary  influence  ;  and  all  that 
we  are  evil  in,  by  a  divine  thrusting  on.' 

Add  the  words  of  Cassius  : 

Men  at  some  time  are  masters  of  their  fates : 
The  fault,  dear  Brutus,  is  not  in  our  stars, 
But  in  ourselves,  that  we  are  underlings. 


1908  DANTE  AND   SHAKESPEARE  605 

And  the  words  of  Helena  : 

Our  remedies  oft  in  ourselves  do  lie, 
Which  we  ascribe  to  heaven  :  the  fated  sky 
Gives  us  free  scope,  only  doth  backward  pull 
Our  slow  designs  when  we  ourselves  are  dull. 

Now  see  how  emphatic  Dante  is  in  saying  the  same  thing — namely, 
that  sin  is  deliberate  perversion  of  free  will.  Marco  Lombardo,  asked 
by  Dante  the  cause  of  sin,  replies  that  if  men  refer  the  cause  to  heaven 
they  are  denying  the  power  of  free  will,  which  cannot  be  denied,  and 
the  reasoning  mind  is  '  uninfluenced  of  the  stars  ' ;  he  adds  : 

If  then  the  present  race  of  mankind  err, 

Seek  in  yourselves  the  cause,  and  find  it  there. 

Furthermore,  to  Dante  sin  was  not  merely  an  excess  of  evil,  for  Virgil 
tells  him  that  even  if  the  creature  pursues  the  good  '  with  more  ardor 
than  behooves,'  sin  is  inevitable  and  punishment  certain,  so  that  love 
becomes  the  determinant  cause,  not  only  of  good,  but  of  evil.  Does 
Shakespeare  agree,  and  may  we  all  agree,  that  this  is  an  eternal  truth  ? 
He  expresses  the  principle  both  abstractly  and  concretely  : 

There  lives  within  the  very  flame  of  love 
A  kind  of  wick  or  snuff  that  will  abate  it ; 
And  nothing  is  at  a  like  goodness  still ; 
For  goodness,  growing  to  a  plurisy, 
Dies  in  his  own  too-much. 

This  principle,  expressed  under  circumstances  where  we  should  least 
expect  it,  is  strongly  confirmed  by  Shakespeare,  and  strikingly  illus- 
trated in  his  portrayal  of  Timon  of  Athens,  of  whom  Dowden  says  : 
'  Precisely  because  the  goodness  of  Timon  is  so  indiscriminating,  so 
lax  and  liberal,  it  is  not  veritable  goodness,  which,  as  Shakespeare 
was  well  aware,  has  in  it  something  of  severity.'  *  Born  to  do  benefits 
to  all  men,'  his  brothers,  Timon  carelessly  consumes  his  living  in  kind 
deeds,  and  then  when  he  first  becomes  aware  of  sin  in  the  world,  he 
has  not  the  strength  of  character  to  endure,  and  he  falls ;  excessive 
love  of  good  has  become  the  determinant  cause  of  evil. 

And  what  may  be  said  of  the  consequences  of  sin  ?  We  all  know 
how  vividly  Dante  portrays  these  consequences  in  the  Inferno ;  did 
Shakespeare,  also,  feel  convinced  that  '  Whatsoever  a  man  soweth 
that  shall  he  also  reap  '  ?  We  are  just  as  sure  in  reading  Shakespeare 
as  in  reading  Dante  that  evil  never  prospers  permanently,  but  is  de- 
feated and  punished  even  in  this  life — that,  as  Macbeth  says  : 

This  even-handed  justice 

Commends  the  ingredients  of  our  poison'd  chalice 
To  our  own  lips. 

Hamlet,  too,  testifies  that 

Foul  deeds  will  rise, 

Though  all  the  earth  o'erwhelm  them,  to  men's  eyes. 
VOL.  LXIV— No.  380  S  S 


606  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

And  Buckingham  in  Richard  the  Third  : 

Thus  doth  he  force  the  swords  of  wicked  men 

To  turn  their  own  points  on  their  masters'  bosoms. 

Concrete  illustrations  of  this  truth  of  course  abound — Macbeth, 
Othello,  Coriolanus,  Timon,  Cleopatra,  Goneril  and  Regan,  and  others. 
Though  we  do  not  see  the  actual  physical  torments  which  Shake- 
speare's criminals  suffer,  as  we  do  in  the  case  of  the  sinners  in  the 
Inferno,  yet  the  mental  anguish  of  Othello,  of  Macbeth,  and  of  Lear, 
for  example,  is  sufficient  proof  of  the  reality  of  punishment,  even  on 
earth.  Moreover,  that  the  essential  nature  of  punishment  is  mental, 
as  conceived  by  Shakespeare,  is  evident  from  the  numerous  occasions 
when  we  see  criminals  actually  tormented  by  an  evil  conscience,  even 
in  the  midst  of  their  crimes.  For  example,  Richard  the  Third  exclaims  : 
'  0  coward  conscience,  how  thou  dost  afflict  me !  '  Conscience, 
except,  perhaps,  in  degenerates  like  lago,  is  sure  to  awaken  at  last, 
as  Gonzalo,  in  The  Tempest,  asserts  : 

Their  great  guilt, 

Like  poison  given  to  work  a  great  time  after, 
Now  'gins  to  bite  the  spirits. 

Why  does  Beaufort,  in  Henry  the  Sixth,  so  fear  death  ?  Why  would 
he  fain  live  on,  if  only  life  without  pain  could  be  gained  in  exchange 
for  England's  treasure  ?  Why,  indeed,  save  that,  as  the  king  per- 
ceives : 

Ah,  what  a  sign  it  is  of  evil  life, 

Where  death's  approach  is  seen  so  terrible  ! 

Just  as  emphatic  is  Shakespeare's  reiterated  opinion  that,  as  someone 
has  well  phrased.it,  '  conscience  is  but  the  prophecy  of  another  con- 
demnation more  terrible  still.'  The  Bastard  in  King  John  is  sure  that 
if  Hubert  did  the  deed  of  death,  he  is  condemned  '  beyond  the  infinite 
and  boundless  reach  of  mercy.'  Henry  the  Fifth  declares  that, 
although  men  '  can  outstrip  men,  they  have  no  wings  to  fly  from  God.' 
Even  Claudius  knows  that  though  the  law  can  be  bought  out  here  on 
earth,  '  'tis  not  so  above,'  because 

there  the  action  lies 

In  his  true  nature  ;  and  we  ourselves  compell'd, 
Even  to  the  teeth  and  forehead  of  our  faults, 
To  give  in  evidence. 

Now  turn  to  Dante's  Inferno,  which  depicts  the  actual  eternal  punish- 
ments to  which,  as  we  have  just  seen,  Shakespeare  condemned  his 
criminals,  and  notice  how  physical  torment  is  always  a  symbol  of 
mental  anguish.  Watch  the  avaricious  and  the  prodigal  for  ever 
hurled  against  one  another,  like  great  weights  which  clash  together, 
one  band  calling  to  the  other,  '  Why  holdest  thou  so  fast  ?  '  and  the 
second  responding,  '  Why  castest  thou  away  ?  '  Here  the  punish- 
ment is  evidently  increased  by  the  thought  about  it  shown  in  these 


1908  DANTE  AND   SHAKESPEARE  607 

questions.  Again,  do  not  the  rueful  waitings  and  the  lamentations 
of  the  carnal  sinners  reaping  the  whirlwind,  denote  mental  agony  as 
surely  as  the  moans  signify  physical  pain  ?  Let  Francesca  answer  : 

Love,  that  in  gentle  heart  is  quickly  learn' t, 
Entangled  him  by  that  fair  form,  from  me 
Ta'en  in  such  cruel  sort,  as  grieves  me  still ; 


And  then  : 


No  greater  grief  than  to  remember  days 
Of  joy,  when  misery  is  at  hand. 


Let  Ugolino  add  his  word  : 

I  call  up  afresh 

Sorrow  past  cure  ;  which,  but  to  think  of,  wrings 
My  heart,  ere  I  tell  on't. 

All  this  punishment,  all  this  mental  anguish,  seen  in  Hell,  Dante 
intended,  as  he  himself  tells  us  in  the  letter  to  Can  Grande,  as 
indicative  of  the  punishment  undergone  by  sinners  on  earth  itself. 
Dante  and  Shakespeare  thus  agree  as  to  the  inevitableness  of  punish- 
ment, both  in  this  world  and  in  the  next,  and  also  with  regard  to  its 
essentially  spiritual  nature.  Dante  goes  still  further  and  classifies 
sins  according  to  their  greatness  ;  for  example,  among  the  lesser  sins 
punished  in  the  upper  circles  of  Hell — the  sins  of  incontinence  in 
general — avarice  is  put  lower  down  than  lust.  Does  Shakespeare 
make  any  such  classification  ?  In  a  conversation  between  Malcolm 
and  Macduff,  after  lust  is  mentioned  as  one  of  the  sins  of  '  boundless 
intemperance  ' — Dante's  incontinence  of  course — Malcolm  remarks 
that  he  is  avaricious  as  well  as  lustful,  whereupon  MacdufE  replies  : 

This  avarice 

Sticks  deeper,  grows  with  more  pernicious  root 
Than  summer -seeming  lust. 

And  how  about  sins  of  a  deeper  dye  ?  To  Dante,  treachery  of  various 
kinds  was  the  most  loathsome  of  crimes.  And  is  not  treachery  the 
sin  which  Shakespeare  most  often  punishes,  and  always  with  death, 
because,  like  Dante,  he  considered  it  a  crime  against  society  ? 
Examples  would  be  superfluous.  Shakespeare,  too,  said  that  treachery 
and  murder  '  ever  kept  together,'  illustrating  this  thought  concretely 
by  Macbeth,  for  example.  In  Macbeth  the  murderer,  three  of  the 
kinds  of  fraud  most  hated  by  Dante  are  combined — treachery  to 
kindred,  to  guests,  and  to  one's  benefactor  and  lord.  Dante  shows 
the  same  close  connexion  between  treachery  and  murder  by  putting 
Brutus  and  Cassius  with  Judas  in  the  lowest  pit  of  Hell. 

As  Shakespeare's  ideas  about  the  cause,  the  nature,  and  the  degrees 
of  sin,  so  far  as  he  has  expressed  them,  coincide  exactly  with  Dante's, 
so  do  the  two  poets  conceive  of  a  man  as  ruined  by  only  one  sin, 
whatever  others  he  may  fall  into  as  the  result  of  that  one.  To  take 
only  one  typical  case  out  of  the  vast  number  of  Dante's  sinners,  he 

8   S   2 


608  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

punishes  Boniface  the  Eighth  for  simony  alone,  and  Boniface  the 
Eighth  was  notorious  for  the  great  variety  of  his  crimes.  Hamlet 
is  sure  that  '  the  stamp  of  one  defect '  is  enough  to  ruin  an  otherwise 
good  man,  and  the  reason  may  be  given  in  the  words  of  Richard  the 
Third: 

But  I  am  in 
So  far  in  blood  that  sin  will  pluck  on  sin. 

The  murder  of  Duncan  leads  to  that  of  Banquo,  but  ambition  is 
emphasised  as  the  root  of  Macbeth's  sin  of  murder.  Pride  overthrew 
Coriolanus,  jealousy  Othello,  '  imperious  self-will '  Lear,  voluptuous- 
ness Antony  and  Cleopatra,  and  so  on. 

Let  us  turn  now  for  a  brief  moment  to  the  conception  of  the  good, 
and  especially  to  the  underlying  idea  of  Purgatory.  Did  Shakespeare 
conceive  of  a  purgatorial  process  as  distinctly  as  he  did  of  the  inevit- 
ableness  of  punishment  ?  The  idea  of  Purgatory  is  this,  that,  though 
a  man  sin,  yet  because  he  was  created  good  and  sin  is  only  a  perversion 
of  will,  he  may  still  be  open  to  the  influence  of  good  and  thus  be  saved. 
As  Dante  intended  his  Inferno  to  show  the  reality  of  punishment  on 
earth,  so  did  he  mean  that  the  Purgatorio  should  show  that  living  men 
undergo  the  purgatorial  process.  Shakespeare,  the  poet  of  the  human 
heart,  could  not  ignore  this  truth ;  accordingly,  he  expresses  it  ab- 
stractly in  the  line 

There  is  some  soul  of  goodness  in  things  evil, 

and  he  expresses  it  concretely  in  The  Winter's  Tale,  where  Leontes  is 
represented  as  living  out  the  years  in  atoning  for  his  sin,  until  the  good 
in  him  triumphs.  Posthumus,  too,  is  a  notable  illustration  of  the 
leavening  effect  of  innate  goodness  upon  a  perverted  will.  Such  a 
process  of  purgation  as  Leontes  illustrates,  Shakespeare  evidently 
considered  laborious.  Hamlet  says  to  his  mother : 

Refrain  to-night, 

And  that  shall  lend  a  kind  of  easiness 
To  the  next  abstinence :  the  next  more  easy. 

This  reminds  us,  of  course,  of  Virgil's  words  of  encouragement  to 
Dante  as  he  toils  up  the  mount  of  Purgatory,  one  sin  being  wiped 
from  his  brow  with  each  ascent,  the  relief  that  he  feels  and  the  greater 
ease  of  the  next  step  being  very  apparent. 

As  Shakespeare  knew  a  purgatorial  process,  so  did  he  know  a 
terrestrial  Paradise,  reached  in  The  Tempest,  with  its  Prospero — the 
greatest  height  of  serenity  attained  by  Shakespeare.  The  last  period 
of  Shakespeare's  literary  activity  shows  the  man  who  had  emerged 
'  out  of  the  depths  '  unto  *  the  heights,'  the  man  who  had  known  evil, 
and  felt  the  pangs  of  injustice,  but  who  had  come  to  Realise  that 
'  sweet  are  the  uses  of  adversity.'  The  Timon  within  Shakespeare's 
own  breast  had  been  conquered,  even  as  Dante's  besetting  sins  were 
blotted  out  by  the  purifying  fire,  and  therefore,  as  Dowden  says, 


1908  DANTE   AND  SHAKESPEARE  609 

Shakespeare  was  able  to  write  Timox  of  Athens,  and  '  could  dare  to 
utter  that  wrath  against  mankind  to  which  he  had  assuredly  been 
tempted,  but  to  which  he  had  never  wholly  yielded.'  It  almost  seems 
as  if  we  were  reading  about  Dante,  in  the  Purgatorio,  for  as  with  Shake- 
speare, so  with  Dante,  indignation  with  the  world  was  succeeded  by  the 
serenity,  the  joy,  and  the  peace  of  reconciliation  and  forgiveness. 

We  have  seen  that,  in  respect  to  moral  philosophy,  Shakespeare 
and  Dante  are  akin.  It  would  be  easy  to  show,  also,  that  in  some 
of  their  political  ideals,  such  as  their  convictions  as  to  a  man's  duty 
to  his  country  and  the  relations  of  the  individual  to  the  community ; 
in  their  thoughts  about  the  duties  of  kings;  and  the  dangers 
that  beset  kings ;  in  their  hate  of  outward  show  and  pomp  as  in 
their  realisation  of  the  fact  that  high  birth  does  not  create  nobility 
of  character — that  in  all  these  Shakespeare  and  Dante  are  also  akin. 
But  having  obtained  a  sufficient  philosophical  basis  for  our  con- 
sideration of  the  poets'  treatment  of  actual  life,  we  must  now 
turn  to  the  portrayal  of  character  as  found  in  Dante  and  Shakespeare. 
Three  questions  especially  must  be  answered,  in  order  to  judge  of 
Dante  as  compared  with  Shakespeare  in  respect  to  the  power  of 
depicting  actual  life.  First,  are  Dante's  characters  real  ?  Secondly 
do  we  come  to  know  them  as  thoroughly  as  we  do  those  in 
Shakespeare's  dramas  ?  And,  thirdly,  does  Dante  show  a  knowledge 
of  human  nature  in  as  great  a  variety  of  its  aspects  as  does  Shake- 
speare ?  Our  first  question  answers  itself,  for  no  one  ever  thinks  of 
doubting  the  reality  of  Dante's  characters ;  even  those  who  most 
insist  upon  the  allegorical  interpretation  of  Beatrice  admit  that  she 
is  too  real  to  be  wholly  allegorical.  Moreover,  Beatrice  is  as  real  a 
woman  when  enthroned  in  glory — and  this  is  the  wonder  of  it — as 
when  she  modestly  walked  the  streets  of  Florence  and  thrilled  the 
youthful  Dante  with  her  sweet  salutation.  Dante's  Beatrice  combines 
the  sweetness  and  lovableness  and  strength  of  Imogen,  the  ideality  of 
Miranda,  the  purity  of  Isabella,  the  intellectuality  of  Portia,  the 
reserve  of  Ophelia,  the  dignity  of  Hermione,  the  tenderness  of 
Desdemona,  the  depth  of  intense  devotion  of  Cordelia.  She  is 
thus  intensely  human  and  real,  though  at  the  same  time  she  is 
the  Beatrice,  symbolic  of  Theology,  whose  religious  zeal  and 
spirituality  are  found  in  none  of  Shakespeare's  characters.  As  for 
Virgil,  whatever  he  may  symbolise,  however  idealised,  he  is 
always  the  helpful  friend,  .the  human  poet  whom  Dante  had  loved 
and  looked  to  for  inspiration  even  from  youth.  Virgil's  humanity 
may  be  most  felt,  perhaps,  when  we  see  him  carrying  Dante  in  his 
arms,  and  when  we  notice  with  what  emotions  he  is  overcome  at 
various  stages  of  the  journey,  as  when  he  is  angered  at  the  refusal 
of  the  demons  to  unbar  the  gates  that  lead  to  the  city  of  Dis. 

And  what  of  Francesca  ?  We  see  her  not  merely  as  a  spirit  con- 
demned to  Hell,  but  as  a  woman  capable  of  noble  love  and  true 


610  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

devotion,  tender,  sympathetic,  possessing  the  delicate  grace  of  sweet 
womanliness,  yet  fallen  and  doomed.  It  is  her  life  on  earth,  her  sin, 
her  frail  humanity,  which  we  feel  even  more  than  her  punishment. 
And  so  with  each  and  all  of  the  people  whom  we  meet  throughout  this 
strange  journey ;  their  reality  is  what  most  impresses  us.  This 
reality  will  become  more  apparent  as  we  try  to  answer  our  second 
question,  namely,  do  we  come  to  know  Dante's  characters  as  thoroughly 
as  we  do  Shakespeare's  ?  Probably  nine  persons  out  of  ten  would, 
at  first  thought,  answer  this  question  in  the  negative,  and  the  reason 
of  all  would  be  the  same ;  it  may  be  given  in  the  words  of  a  Dante 
scholar  who  might  be  expected  to  be  more  favourable  to  Dante. 
Gardner  says  that '  there  is  no  development,  as  there  is  in  Shakespeare, 
no  interaction  of  character.'  But  this  answer  must  not  be  allowed 
to  pass,  as  is  so  often  the  case,  without  critical  examination.  Just 
what  is  meant  by  the  phrase,  '  development  of  character '  ?  That 
Macbeth  is  a  different  man  when  convicted  of  murder  from  the  Mac- 
beth who,  at  the  beginning  of  the  play,  heard  the  witches  echo  his  own 
secretly  cherished  desires  and  intentions,  which  needed  but  the  spark 
of  opportunity  to  kindle  into  a  blaze  ?  Is  Cordelia's  love  developed 
by  her  father's  misfortunes  in  the  sense  that  it  first  becomes  apparent 
when  the  play  is  half  over  ?  Is  Lear's  insanity  a  sudden  phenomenon, 
brought  on  by  the  circumstances  with  which  the  drama  opens  ?  Or 
do  we  feel  that  it  was  inevitable,  brought  on  by  a  long  chain  of  causes 
which  reach  far  back,  and  which  Shakespeare  makes  us  know  ?  The 
only  real  development  of  character  that  the  greatest  poets  show  us 
is  the  coming  into  actuality,  as  Aristotle  would  say,  of  potentialities, 
or,  as  a  modern  critic  has  put  it,  '  the  blazing  up  of  powers  and  pas- 
sions out  of  quiescence  into  activity,'  and  this  is  only  development  in 
the  sense  that,  as  the  same  writer  says,  '  Every  act  .  .  .  and  every 
outbreak  of  passion '  is  '  one  link  in  the  causal  chamin  determining 
as  well  as  indicating  character.'  That  Shakespeare  recognised  this 
principle,  he  may  himself  testify  : 

There  is  a  history  in  all  men's  lives, 
Figuring  the  nature  of  the  times  deceased  ; 
The  which  observed,  a  man  may  prophesy, 
With  a  near  aim,  of  the  main  chance  of  things 
As  yet  not  come  to  life,  which  in  their  seeds 
And  weak  beginnings  lie  intreasured. 
Such  things  become  the  hatch  and  brood  of  time. 

In  discussing  what  is  apparently  a  marvellous  change  in  Henry  the 
Fifth  from  the  wild  Prince  Hal  to  the  wise  and  noble  king,  Canterbury 
and  Ely  decide  that  miracles  are  past,  and  the  prince  merely  '  obscured 
his  contemplation  under  the  veil  of  wildness,'  and  it  grew  fastest 
in  the  night.  What  Shakespeare  really  does  is  to  concentrate  in  the 
supreme  moment  of  a  man's  life  his  whole  past,  and  in  this  critical 
moment  are  implicit  all  the  spiritual  changes  which  every  life  must 


1908  DANTE  AND  SHAKESPEARE  611 

show.  Take,  then,  Macbeth ;  when  we  first  see  him  affected  by  the 
witches'  speech,  we  know  what  he  desires,  and  will  do  ;  when  we  see 
him  later,  come  to  a  realising  sense  that  all  that  should  accompany 
old  age,  respect,  love,  and  joy,  cannot  be  his,  there  is  a  flood  of  light 
shed  backward,  and  forward  too,  in  such  a  way  that  we  see  his  life 
whole,  reflected  in  this  supreme  moment  which  we  had  foreseen  from 
the  very  beginning.  And  what  of  Lear  ?  When  heartbroken,  con- 
scious that  it  is  now  too  late,  he  cries  in  despair,  '  Cordelia,  stay  a 
little  ' ;  are  we  surprised  ?  His  entire  life  is,  rather,  spread  out  before 
us,  its  final  despair  the  necessary  consequence  of  its  early  mistrust. 
Hudson  says  of  Lear  that  he  is  among  Shakespeare's  finest  instances  of 
the  art  of  representing  in  the  '  to-day  .  .  .  the  slow  cumulative  result 
of  a  great  many  yesterdays,'  and  this  not  by  way  of  narrative,  but  by 
suggestion,  '  the  antecedent  history  being  merely  implied,  not  related, 
in  what  is  given.'  This  is  the  art  of  the  Greek  tragedians,  and  of 
Pindar.  And  this  is  precisely  the  power  of  Dante,  as  all  commentators 
are  practically  agreed.  Take  an  instance  typical  of  all  the  rest  of 
Dante's  characters ;  when  we  see  Francesca  reaping  the  whirlwind, 
and  listen  to  her  few  simple  words,  the  whole  story  of  her  past  life  is 
flashed  before  us  as  if  by  lightning.  We  see  both  her  and  Paolo,  who 
shares  with  her  in  Hell  the  consequences  of  their  sin,  not  merely  on 
that  eventful  day  when  the  reading  of  Lancelot  overpowered  them, 
but  in  all  the  stages  of  their  devotion,  from  its  first  innocent  beginnings 
to  the  time  when  Francesca's  husband,  doomed  to  a  place  in  Hell, 
called  Caina,  even  now  awaiting  him,  so  cruelly  separated  the  lovers, 
as  it  seemed.  But  there  is  more  than  this  ;  in  the  suggestion  of 
Francesca's  indignant  husband,  who  tore  Paolo  from  her,  we  have 
a  glimpse  of  the  interaction  of  character,  for  Dante  succeeds  in  making 
vivid  the  husband's  watchful  jealousy,  and  its  effect  upon  the  lovers, 
who  try  to  conceal  their  passion,  and  we  cannot  help  thinking  of  the 
three  people  together  in  all  their  relations. 

Equally  impressive,  as  revealing  Dante's  power  of  suggesting  both 
the  past  history  of  a  life  in  its  supreme  moment  and  the  interaction 
of  various  characters,  is  the  story  of  Ugolino,  who  tells  of  his  betrayal, 
imprisonment,  and  death  by  starvation.  He  tells  it,  as  he  says,  for 
the  express  purpose  of  casting  infamy  on  the  name  of  his  betrayer. 
As  we  see  disclosed  the  past  wickedness  of  Ugolino,  his  intrigue  with 
the  leader  of  his  enemies,  who  subsequently  betrayed  him,  and  as  we 
see  this  betrayer,  Ruggieri,  tortured  in  Hell  by  Ugolino  himself,  we 
have  interaction  of  character  reaching  even  into  eternity.  And, 
besides  this,  the  whole  strife  between  Guelph  and  Ghibelline,  with  its 
intrigues  and  influences  of  men  upon  men,  which  Dante  knew  only 
too  well,  is  vividly  flashed  before  us.  These  episodes  of  Ugolino  and 
of  Francesca  which  we  have  been  considering  give,  it  is  true,  the 
clearest  pictures  of  the  interaction  of  characters  to  be  found  in  the 
Divine  Comedy  ;  but  clear  suggestions  of  the  influences  of  one  or  more 


612  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

lives  over  another  life  are  frequent,  as  in  the  story  of  the  conversion 
of  Statins  from  Paganism,  or  in  that  of  the  man  who  held  both  keys 
to  Frederick's  heart.  In  order  to  be  still  surer  that  Dante  possessed 
the  power  to  portray  the  interaction  of  characters  whenever  it  accorded 
with  his  artistic  purpose,  we  have  only  to  read  the  Vita  Nuova.  Here 
interaction  of  characters  is  evident  in  the  episode  of  the  lady  who 
served  Dante  as  a  screen  to  conceal  his  love  for  Beatrice  ;  confused  by 
Dante's  continued  gaze,  she  looked  round  at  him  many  times,  thereby 
causing  comment,  and  Dante,  perceiving  this,  made  use  of  her  for 
several  years.  Then  at  the  marriage  feast  the  sight  of  Beatrice  caused 
Dante  to  tremble,  and  his  confusion  was  observed  by  her  friends,  who 
began  to  mock  him,  which  so  increased  his  faintness  and  throbbing 
of  the  heart  that  a  friend  was  obliged  to  take  him  out.  Again,  while 
Dante  was  mourning  Beatrice's  death  he  saw  a  fair  lady  looking  down 
on  him  '  from  a  window  with  a  gaze  full  of  pity  !  '  He  withdrew  lest 
she  should  observe  his  abject  condition.  Whenever  he  was  seen  of 
this  lady,  she  grew  pale  and  '  of  a  piteous  countenance,  as  though  it 
had  been  with  love  ; '  and  this  effect  of  Dante  upon  her  reacted  upon 
him,  for  he  went  often  to  see  her  for  the  express  purpose  of  observing 
his  effect  upon  her,  and  it  brought  tears  to  his  eyes.  Although  this 
story  may  be  wholly  allegorical,  yet  it  is  told  in  such  a  realistic  way 
that  Dante's  power  of  portraying  the  interaction  of  characters  cannot 
be  doubted.  That  he  did  not  oftener  use  this  power  in  the  Divine 
Comedy  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  poem  did  not  demand  such  portrayal 
of  character,  as  would  have  been  the  case  if  Dante  had  chosen  to 
write  a  drama. 

We  have  now  found  that  in  two  totally  different  types  of  literature 
there  is  used  the  same  method  of  depicting  character,  that  of  pre- 
senting the  supreme  moment  of  a  life  in  which  the  past  is  reflected 
and  the  future  foreshadowed ;  and  we  have  seen,  also,  that  Dante 
has  let  us  know  the  various  influences  which  have  made  a  character 
what  it  is  at  the  crucial  moment  in  which  it  is  portrayed.  We  must 
therefore  answer  our  second  question  with  a  strong  affirmative,  and 
assert  that  we  do  come  to  know  Dante's  characters  through  and 
through. 

Although  we  cannot  here  answer  fully  our  third  question  as  to 
the  extent  of  Dante's  knowledge  of  human  life,  as  to  how  the  range 
of  his  characters  compares  with  Shakespeare's,  we  must  pause  long 
enough  to  indicate  the  only  right  way  of  dealing  with  this  large 
problem.  Dante,  of  course,  gives  us  no  Falstaff,  no  Sir  Toby,  no 
Bottom,  no  Malvolio,  because  such  characters  would  be  utterly  in- 
congruous in  the  Divine  Comedy,  for  here  all  faults  are  seen  in  their 
ultimate  relations,  and  thus  cannot  present  a  comic  appearance. 
If  any  choice  had  to  be  made,  we  must  feel  that  Dante  has  chosen  to 
present  characters  who  have  far  more  influence  over  us  than  Falstaff 
and  Bottom  and  all  the  clowns  of  Shakespeare,  and  this  because  the 


1908  DANTE  AND   SHAKESPEARE  618 

serious  side  of  life  is  of  greater  importance  than  the  comic  side,  tragedy 
more  universal  than  comedy.  It  is  significant  that  in  Shakespeare's 
greatest  period,  the  period  of  the  tragedies,  laughter  was,  as  Dowden 
says,  '  tragic  and  terrible  ' ;  because  the  problem  of  evil  most  con- 
cerned the  poet  then,  and  consequently  his  satire  was  not  that  of 
Love's  Labour's  Lost,  but  *  the  deep  or  fierce  complaint  against  the 
world,  of  a  soul  in  agony,  the  frenzied  accusations  of  nature  and  of 
man  uttered  by  Lear,  or  the  Juvenalian  satire  of  the  Athenian  misan- 
thrope.' It  is  with  the  works  of  this  period  of  tragedy,  when  Shake- 
speare's power  reached  its  height,  that  the  Divine  Comedy  must  be 
compared,  and  it  is  exactly  the  same  kind  of  satire  found  in  the  plays 
of  this  period  which  we  find  in  Dante ;  witness  the  mockery  of  Pope 
Nicholas  the  Third,  whose  head  is  stuck  in  a  pit  from  which  only  his 
feet  protrude.  Notice  here  the  subtle  way  in  which  Dante  manages 
at  the  same  time  to  satirise  other  wicked  Popes  still  alive,  for  one  of 
whom  he  is  himself  mistaken,  while  the  coming  of  the  other  one  is 
predicted  by  Nicholas  as  he  waits  to  be  pushed  lower  down  into  the 
pit  by  Boniface  the  Eighth. 

That  Dante  knew  life  in  its  diversified  aspects,  that  his  characters, 
though  not  numerous,  present  all  the  essential  traits  of  Shakespeare's, 
and  show  wonderful  variety,  is  recognised  by  such  an  authority  as 
Dean  Church,  who  says  :  '  Nowhere  else  in  poetry  of  equal  power 
is  there  the  same  balanced  view  of  what  man  is,  and  may  be  ;  no- 
where so  wide  a  grasp  shown  of  his  various  capacities,  so  strong  a 
desire  to  find  a  due  place  and  function  for  all  his  various  disposi- 
tions.' The  same  unquestioned  authority  adds  that '  where  he  stands 
contrasted  in  his  idea  of  human  life  with  other  poets,  who  have  been 
more  powerful  exponents  of  its  separate  sides,  is  in  his  large  and 
truthful  comprehensiveness.'  That  Dante's  range  of  characters  does 
not  coincide  with  Shakespeare's  is  of  far  less  significance  than  the 
fact  that  the  intuitive  perception  of  character,  the  power  to  create  a 
large  variety  of  types,  coupled  with  the  ability  to  discriminate  sharply 
between  individuals,  Dante  undoubtedly  shares  with  Shakespeare. 

We  have  shown  the  kinship  between  Dante  and  Shakespeare  as 
regards  the  power  to  depict  actual  life  ;  we  must  now  consider  briefly 
their  kinship  as  indicated  in  manifestations  of  creative  power  other 
than  the  portrayal  of  character.  When  poets  such  as  these  feel 
intensely,  as  they  must  in  order  to  make  us  feel  as  they  feel,  they 
show  the  depth  of  their  emotion  far  more  through  self-command 
and  restraint  than  by  diffuse  expression.  Moreover,  such  intense 
emotion  must  be  expressed  with  sufficient  simplicity  and  plainness 
to  reveal  sincerity,  while  at  the  same  time  the  effect  may  be  heightened 
by  appeal  to  the  imagination  through  imagery.  Examples  of  this 
power  of  restrained  emotion  in  Shakespeare  will  readily  occur  to 
every  one,  as  exhibited,  for  instance,  in  parts  of  Lear's  touching 
farewell  to  Goneril,  in  Lear's  agony  over  Cordelia's  dead  body,  and 


614  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

in  Othello's  words,  '  But  yet  the  pity  of  it,  lago  !  0  lago,  the 
pity  of  it,  lago  ! '  From  Dante  take  that  wonderful  passage  in 
the  Purgatorio  where  Beatrice  descends  and  rebukes  the  poet. 
As  long  as  Beatrice  reproaches  Dante,  he  stands  '  without  sigh  or 
tear,'  but  when  her  bitter  words  have  ceased  to  flow,  and  the  angels 
break  out  in  a  strain  of  sympathy,  then 

As  snow,  that  lies, 

Amidst  the  living  rafters  on  the  back 
Of  Italy,  congeal' d,  when  drifted  high 
And  closely  piled  by  rough  Slavonian  blasts  ; 
Breathe  but  the  land  whereon  no  shadow  falls, 
And  straightway  melting  it  distils  away, 
Like  a  fire -wasted  taper  :  thus  was  I, 
Without  a  sigh  or  tear,  or  even  these 
Did  sing,  that  with  the  chiming  of  heaven's  sphere 
Still  in  then*  warbling  chime  :  but  when  the  strain 
Of  dulcet  sympathy  express'd  for  me 
Their  soft  compassion,  more  than  could  the  words, 
'  Virgin  !  why  so  consumest  him  ?  '  then  the  ice, 
Congeal' d  about  my  bosom,  turn'd  itself 
To  spirit  and  water  ;  and  with  anguish  forth 
Gush'd,  through  the  lips  and  eyelids,  from  the  heart. 

Could  feeling  be  more  intense,  yet  expressed  with  greater  restraint, 
in  an  image  more  perfect,  and  in  words  more  simple  and  golden  ? 

Such  power,  found  constantly  in  the  Divine  Comedy,  marks  the 
master  poet.  We  hear  so  much  about  Dante  as  philosopher,  politician, 
astronomer,  historian,  and  so  on,  that  we  are  in  danger,  as  someone 
has  said,  of  praising  him  not  so  much  for  his  poetry,  which  is  of  the 
highest,  as  '  for  the  accessories  and  accidents '  of  his  work.  As 
attention  is  now  called  to  some  of  the  chief  poetic  qualities  of  the 
Divine  Comedy,  Dante's  kinship  with  Shakespeare  will  be  indicated 
wherever  possible.  With  respect  to  one  or  two  of  the  qualities  which 
it  is  important  to  notice  in  Dante,  the  kinship  is  not  so  clear,  but  the 
qualities  must,  nevertheless,  be  briefly  considered  in  order  to  gain 
any  real  idea  of  Dante's  poetic  power. 

Dante's  intuitive  perception,  to  which  we  have  already  alluded, 
piercing  to  the  very  heart  of  everything,  seizing  its  essential  charac- 
teristics, together  with  his  ability  to  reveal  to  us  by  a  flash,  yet  clearly 
and  distinctly,  just  what  he  himself  has  seen,  and  felt,  and  thought, 
is  a  sure  sign  of  the  consummate  artist.  For  example,  a  man's  very 
soul  is  often  disclosed  to  us  by  a  single  stroke,  as  when,  in  the  circle 
where  the  violent  against  nature  are  punished,  Dante  recognises  the 
scorched  face  of  a  much  respected  friend,  a  well-known  scholar  who 
may  possibly  have  taught  Dante  in  his  youth,  Brunette  Latini.  Dante 
says  merely,  '  What,  Ser  Brunetto,  are  you  here  ?  '  but  he  makes 
us  see  the  man's  uncleanness,  his  sin  so  common  at  the  time  that 
Dante  felt  compelled  to  rebuke  it,  and  could  not  spare  even  a  beloved 
friend,  but  made  him  an  eternal  example  of  his  type.  Sometimes 


1908  DANTE  AND  SHAKESPEARE  616 

a  deep,  far-reaching  thought  is  flashed  before  our  minds,  as  when  the 
idea  of  the  heaven  which  has  been  the  ultimate  goal  of  Dante  through- 
out his  journey — an  idea  which  involves  whole  systems  of  Greek  and 
scholastic  philosophy  combined — is  impressed  upon  us  in  the  few 
simple,  beautiful  words  : 

Forth  from  the  last  corporeal  are  we  come 
Into  the  Heaven,  that  is  unbodied  light ; 
Light  intellectual,  replete  with  love  ; 
Love  of  true  happiness,  replete  with  joy  ; 
Joy,  that  transcends  all  sweetness  of  delight. 

Then  we  have  pictures  of  child-life,  pictures  of  Italian  country  life, 
with  many  of  its  homely  details,  scenes  of  natural  beauty,  and  a 
glorious  sunrise,  clearly  brought  before  our  very  eyes  by  a  stroke.  We 
fairly  revel  in  the  beauty  of  the  flowers  and  the  sweetness  of  the  music 
which  Dante  thus  instantaneously  makes  so  real  to  us ;  yet  we  see, 
also,  beyond  and  beneath  the  poet's  love  of  the  beautiful,  a  definite 
purpose — that  of  rendering  clear  and  distinct  and  emphatic  the 
thought  that  underlies  it  all,  the  idea  which  suggested  the  fair 
imagery.  Examples  from  Shakespeare  of  this  power  of  flashing  things 
vividly  before  the  imagination  are  numerous.  The  depth  of  Cordelia's 
devotion,  the  character  of  Desdemona,  the  personality  of  Miranda, 
the  etherealness  of  Ariel,  are  known  to  us  intimately,  not  from  long 
descriptions  or  through  many  words  spoken  by  these  characters, 
but  because  the  poet's  intense  emotion  and  keen  insight  enabled  him  to 
throw  off  at  a  glance  bits  of  human  nature  as  living  sparks  from  the 
white  heat  of  his  imagination.  His  descriptions  of  flowers,  and  trees, 
and  birds  show  the  same  power,  as  in  the  closing  song  of  Love's  Labour's 
Lost,  from  which  there  breathes  the  very  spirit  of  spring,  and  the  spirit 
of  winter  too,  yet  how  few  the  lines  ! 

Another  element  in  the  poetic  power  of  the  Divine  Comedy  is  '  the 
great  reach  behind  the  verse,'  as  Lowell  so  happily  calls  it.  Nothing  is 
ever  lost,  words  are  too  precious  to  be  wasted  ;  if  at  the  threshold  of 
Hell  we  see  Dante's  courage  fail  at  the  thought  of  the  dread  journey 
before  him,  and  then  restored,  even  as  a  flower,  bowed  down  by  the 
frosty  air  of  night,  is  renewed  by  the  morning  sun,  we  may  forget  the 
allusion  for  a  time,  but  on  the  threshold  of  Paradise  we  see  the  actual 
resuscitation  of  a  plant  in  the  spring  after  the  winter's  blasts  have 
seemingly  deprived  it  of  all  life,  and  then  we  begin  to  realise  that 
this  same  idea  of  revival  from  apparent  death,  suggested  at  the  very 
beginning  of  the  journey,  is  a  vital  part  of  the  whole  Divine  Comedy, 
the  underlying  thought  of  the  Purgatorio  which  makes  Paradise 
possible.  In  Shakespeare's  dramas,  also,  '  the  reach  behind  the  verse  ' 
is  often  one  of  the  great  things  to  be  noted.  Sometimes  Shakespeare 
strikes  the  keynote  of  the  whole  drama  at  the  very  beginning,  as  in 
Macbeth,  his  greatest  synthesis.  Two  illustrations  from  Macbeth 
must  suffice  to  show  the  powerful  reach  of  apparently  insignificant 


616  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

words,  which  nevertheless  embody  the  spirit  of  the  whole  play.  Just 
after  Macbeth  has  decided  upon  the  murder  of  Banquo,  he  says  : 

Good  things  of  day  begin  to  droop  and  drowse  ; 
Whiles  night's  black  agents  to  their  preys  do  rouse. 

The  night  of  sin  is  closing  over  a  human  soul,  and  it  is  this  which 
the  tragedy  of  Macbeth  shows  us  so  powerfully,  both  as  a  whole  and 
in  these  few  words.  Then  the  underlying  idea  of  the  play  is  also 
expressed,  as  it  should  be,  by  Lady  Macbeth.  She  came  to  a  realising 
sense  of  her  crimes  before  her  butcher  husband  did  and  her  words 

foreshadow  his : 

Nought's  had,  all's  spent, 
Where  our  desire  is  got  without  content : 
'Tis  safer  to  be  that  which  we  destroy 
Than  by  destruction  dwell  in  doubtful  joy. 

As  for  other  elements  of  poetic  power  in  the  Divine  Comedy,  even 
the  most  casual  reader  must  perceive  that  the  contrasts  and  the 
similes  are  among  Dante's  greatest  glories.  One  of  the  most  striking 
of  the  innumerable  contrasts  is  the  appearance  of  God's  angel  in  Hell, 
come  to  undo  the  gates  of  the  city  of  Dis,  kept  barred  by  the  demons. 
As  for  the  similes,  which  cannot  be  separated  from  their  context 
without  injury,  we  must  read  the  Divine  Comedy  to  gain  any  real 
impression  of  the  naturalness,  the  truth,  the  beauty,  and  the  appro- 
priateness of  them.  The  instinctive  speeding  of  Paolo  and  Francesca 
to  Dante,  whose  perfect  understanding  of  them  and  whose  sympathy 
they  feel,  is  likened  to  the  return  home  of  doves  impelled  by  fond 
desire.  The  gradual  dropping  of  the  shades  into  Charon's  boat  is 
compared  with  the  lifeless  falling  of  leaves  in  autumn.  The  spirit  of 
Cacciaguida  darts  from  the  cross  of  the  Holy  Warriors  as  a  shooting 
star  on  a  summer's  night  darts  across  the  heavens,  and  as  no  star  is 
lost  from  its  place  in  the  sky,  so  neither  does  any  gem  of  the  cross 
drop  from  its  foil.  Beautiful  in  themselves,  even  the  least  of  them 
always  shedding  its  light  over  a  whole  canto,  these  similes  constantly 
attract  our  attention  ;  but  since  they  are  never  used  for  their  own 
sakes,  we  are  irresistibly  swept  on  and  on  by  the  rapid  current  of 
sustained  grandeur  and  ever-increasing  glory. 

We  are  sometimes  carried  away,  also  '  with  the  rush,  the  beauty, 
the  inexhaustible  vitality '  of  Shakespeare's  imagination.  Hotspur, 
asking  where  is  'the  mad-cap  Prince  of  "Wales,'  is  answered  by  Sir 
Richard  Vernon  in  words  which  contain  nine  different  similes,  yet 
without  confusion  and  with  great  force  : 

All  furnish'd,  all  in  arms, 
All  plumed  like  estridges  that  with  the  wind 
Baited,  like  eagles  having  lately  bathed  ; 
Glittering  hi  golden  coats,  like  images  ; 
As  full  of  spirit  as  the  month  of  May, 
^  And  gorgeous  as  the  sun  at  midsummer  ; 

Wanton  as  youthful  goats,  wild  as  young  bulls. 


1908  DANTE  AND   SHAKESPEARE  617 

I  saw  young  Harry,  with  his  beaver  on, 
His  cuissos  on  his  thighs,  gallantly  arm'd, 
Rise  from  the  ground  like  feathered  Mercury, 
And  vaulted  with  such  ease  into  his  seat, 
As  if  an  angel  dropp'd  down  from  the  clouds, 
To  turn  and  wind  a  fiery  Pegasus 
And  witch  the  world  with  noble  horsemanship. 

Who  shall  say  that  Shakespeare  does  not  share  Dante's  power  of 
succinct  expression  in  similes  that  are  at  once  truthful  and  appropriate, 
as  well  as  beautiful  ?  As  for  contrasts  in  Shakespeare's  dramas, 
who  has  not  been  impressed  with  the  alternation  of  tragedy  and 
comedy  in  many  of  his  plays  ? 

It  has  been  said  that,  in  spite  of  the  fascination  of  Dante's  similes 
in  themselves,  we  can  hardly  pause  to  admire,  so  rapidly  and  irresistibly 
are  we  swept  on  and  on  by  the  rapid  current  of  sustained  grandeur  and 
ever-increasing  glory.  Shakespeare,  too,  knew  the  art  of  climax, 
but  the  drama  naturally  does  not  furnish  opportunity  for  any  such 
heaping  up  of  climaxes  as  was  possible  for  Dante  to  give  us  in  a  longer 
poem.  And  here,  of  course,  Shakespeare  must  be  left  out  of  account, 
through  no  fault  of  his,  as  we  consider  briefly  one  of  the  greatest 
elements  in  the  poetic  power  of  the  Divine  Comedy — namely,  the  art 
of  leading  us  from  climax  to  climax.  From  the  apparently  incom- 
parable beauties  of  the  Terrestrial  Paradise  we  ascend  higher  and 
ever  higher,  the  increased  beauty  of  every  step  being  reflected  in 
Beatrice's  face.  Even  the  sparkles  and  the  flowers  of  the  river  of 
pure  light  are  but  shadowy  of  the  truth.  By  partaking  of  this  river 
of  light  and  of  life,  transformed  into  a  lake  of  still  greater  peace,  our 
eyes  are  strengthened  that  we  may  behold  the  flowers  become  God's 
saints,  and  the  sparkles  His  angels,  the  saints  imaged  in  a  snow-white 
rose,  into  which  one  while  the  angels,  like  to  bees,  descend,  and  another 
while  return  to  the  place  whence  their  work  grows  savorous.  Has  the 
poet  any  resources  left  wherewith  to  show  us  the  final  vision  of  the 
Holy  Trinity  ?  Like  Pindar,  he  still  has  arrows  left  in  his  quiver,  and 
they  can  rise  higher  than  those  of  any  other  mortal  singer.  Beatrice 
ascends  to  her  throne  ;  theological  discussion  is  at  an  end  ;  St.  Bernard, 
symbolic  of  intuitive  perception,  shows  us  God  face  to  face  through 
the  vision  of  the  Blessed  Virgin.  From  the  sublime  to  the  sublimer, 
then  to  the  sublimest,  Dante  has  brought  us,  though  we  know  not 
how,  and  this  is  art  indeed. 

It  would  seem  as  if  in  the  Paradiso  Dante  must  lose  his  hold  upon 
earth,  and  thus  fail  as  a  poet  of  humanity.  But  it  is  just  here  that  his 
grasp  seems  firmest,  and  his  poetic  power  greatest.  When  we  reach 
the  Empyrean,  expecting  to  lose  ourselves  in  mere  ecstasy  and 
mysticism,  the  danger  of  forgetting  our  actual  lives  seems  to  have 
been  anticipated  by  Dante,  for  he  takes  us  for  a  brief  moment  straight 
down  to  earth  by  showing  us  wicked  Popes  who  have  prevented 


618  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

such  harmony  of  papal  and  temporal  power  as  he  zealously  desired. 
The  greatest  political  needs  of  Italy,  and,  as  Dante  conceived,  of  the 
whole  world,  are  thus  by  a  flash  thrust  upon  our  attention  even  while 
we  ourselves  are  inclined  to  shake  off  the  things  of  the  world,  and  to 
rest  in  contemplation  :  the  sternest  lessons,  the  greatest  duties  of 
our  daily  lives  are  held  before  us  just  for  an  instant  ere  we  are 
permitted  to  lose  ourselves  in  the  joys  of  heaven.  Other  means,  too, 
Dante  uses  for  showing  us  the  real  connexion  between  earth  and 
heaven, '  the  objects  of  sight  and  of  faith.'  Things  known  to  us  all — 
sound,  motion,  light — are  employed  to  convey  the  poet's  impression 
of  heaven  ;  smiles,  the  power  of  eye  over  eye,  the  power  of  the 
human  voice  to  instil  courage,  the  fear  felt  at  a  sudden  awakening  in 
a  bright  light — such  concrete  facts  and  actual  sensations  are  constantly 
used  to  make  us  feel  the  reality  of  it  all. 

Having  seen  the  kinship  between  Dante  and  Shakespeare  as  regards 
a  few  of  its  many  manifestations,  and  having  seen  that  Dante  was  a 
supreme  poet,  we  are  now  in  a  position  to  consider  some  of  the  chief 
ways  in  which  Dante  differs  from  Shakespeare.  It  was  said  in  the 
beginning  that  '  a  poet's  appreciation  of  life  in  detail  must  be  deter- 
mined by  his  interpretation  of  life  as  a  whole '  if  his  universality  is 
to  be  all  that  it  should  be.  Shakespeare  could  appreciate  life  in  detail, 
in  its  endless  variety,  but  not  one  of  us  can  feel  that  this  appreciation 
is  determined  by  any  unitary  conception  of  life  as  a  whole,  by  any 
underlying,  pervading  philosophy  of  life,  and  most  commentators 
take  this  view.  Shakespeare  had,  as  we  have  seen,  definite  convic- 
tions as  to  special  problems,  such  as  that  of  evil,  he  had  an  immense 
fund  of  common-sense  wisdom,  and  because  he  upheld  the  right  and 
eschewed  the  wrong  his  dramas  have  a  strong  moral  influence.  But 
we  get  from  Shakespeare  no  sense  of  a  controlling  power  that  orders 
the  whole  universe,  nor  does  he  give  us,  as  he  might,  a  few  large, 
clear  principles  as  a  basis  for  the  partial  solution,  at  least,  of  some  of 
the  hard  problems  of  existence.  Rather  do  we  get  from  Shakespeare, 
as  a  modern  philosopher  has  put  it,  '  much  to  philosophise  about, 
but  no  philosophy.'  A  still  severer  critic,  in  speaking  of  the  fact 
that  we  need  a  certain  totality  in  our  views,  asserts  that  '  we  can 
hardly  find  in  Shakespeare  all  that  the  highest  poet  could  give,'  because 
'  fulness  is  not  necessarily  wholeness,  and  the  most  profuse  wealth 
of  characterisation  seems  still  inadequate  as  a  picture  of  experience, 
if  this  picture  is  not  somehow  seen  from  above  and  reduced  to  a 
dramatic  unity — to  that  unity  of  meaning  that  can  suffuse  its  endless 
details  with  something  of  dignity,  simplicity,  and  peace.'  But  this 
statement,  though  containing  elements  of  truth,  goes  too  far,  for  just 
such  a  picture  Shakespeare  does  show  us  as  respects^certain  factors 
of  human  life.  Indeed,  his  power  of  perceiving  causal  relations  in 
life  has  raised  him  above  all  other  English  poets.  But  his  limitation, 
as  contrasted  with  Dante's  comprehensiveness,  consists  in  this,  that 


1908  DANTE  AND  SHAKESPEARE  619 

he  has  done  merely  with  certain  factors  of  human  life  what  Dante 
has  done  with  the  facts  of  the  universe,  that  he  has  grasped  here  and 
there  a  law  of  life,  here  and  there  a  group  of  laws,  but  without  relating 
and  uniting  them  with  the  laws  of  the  universe.  Dante,  on  the 
other  hand,  has  grasped  these  same  laws  of  human  life  all  together, 
synthetically,  and  has  made  them  seem  a  part  of  God's  universal  plan 
for  all  that  He  has  created,  and  has  thus  given  us  far  deeper  insight 
than  has  Shakespeare  into  the  mysteries  of  existence.  Although 
Shakespeare  makes  us  feel  that  there  may  be  order  even  in  con- 
fusion, as  in  King  Lear,  yet  we  cannot  get  from  him  any  such 
sense  of  security  and  serenity  as  are  ours  when,  with  Dante,  we 
have  gone  the  whole  round  of  creation  and  found  all-pervasive  law 
controlling  everything  in  material  and  spiritual  life.  Furthermore, 
both  Shakespeare  and  Dante  embody  a  multitude  of  facts  in  their 
works ;  to  these  particulars  Dante  has  given  organic  unity,  a  perfec- 
tion of  form  which  permits  the  removal  of  scarcely  the  minutest  part. 
But  from  Shakespeare's  most  perfect  synthesis,  Macbeth,  we  may 
remove  large  portions  without  affecting  the  whole.  This  could  not 
be  if  Shakespeare  had  assimilated  the  laws  of  the  universe,  the  laws 
of  life,  and  the  laws  of  art  as  perfectly  as  did  Dante.  We  must 
say,  then,  that  Shakespeare  had  no  '  unitary  conception  of  the  meaning 
and  larger  relations  of  human  life,'  and  that,  in  consequence,  his  great 
universality,  whereby  he  transcends  all  other  English  poets,  is  itself 
transcended  by  Dante's. 

In  their  methods  of  treating  religious  questions,  also,  the  differences 
between  Dante  and  Shakespeare  are  necessarily  striking,  yet  even  here 
their  spiritual  kinship  is  greater  than  might  be  supposed.  Shake- 
speare's purpose  was  primarily  dramatic,  and  the  exigencies  of  his  art 
as  well  as  the  demands  of  the  public  for  whom  he  wrote  prevented  his 
discussion  of  religious  matters  as  freely  as  it  was  natural  and  expedient 
for  Dante  to  discuss  them.  That  Shakespeare's  religious  feelings  were, 
however,  deep  and  sincere  no  one  can  doubt  who  appreciates  with  what 
awe  and  reverence  he  stood  before  the  mysteries  of  God,  and  who  is 
touched  by  his  sweet  Christian  charity  and  tender  human  sympathies. 
Whereas  Dante  tried  to  visualise  the  next  world  it  was  surely  enough 
for  his  purposes  that  Shakespeare  believed  in  the  eternal  power  of 
goodness  and  truth,  purity  and  love,  and  that  he  condemned  sinners 
to  everlasting  punishment  as  uncompromisingly  as  did  Dante. 
Although  Dante,  by  his  vision  of  mortal  man  united  in  spirit  with  his 
divine  Brother  and  Friend,  may  bring  some  of  us  into  a  closer,  more 
personal  touch  with  God  than  does  Shakespeare,  yet  the  more  we  enter 
into  the  spirit  of  Shakespeare,  the  surer  do  we  become  of  his  great 
religious  capacities.  This  can  be  felt  in  other  ways  than  by  watching 
the  practice  of  Christian  virtues  on  the  part  of  so  many  of  his 
characters  ;  for  example,  Shakespeare's  ideal  hero  and  king,  Henry  the 
Fifth,  constantly  realised  his  dependence  upon  God,  like  a  true  king 


620  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBY  Oct. 

considering  himself  the  representative  of  a  divine  Ruler.  Again,  Shake- 
speare's strong  religious  sense  is  manifest  in  his  belief  in  the  control  of 
the  universe  by  law  and  order  and  harmony,  and  in  obedience  to 
natural  law  as  essential  to  man's  welfare.  This  principle  Shakespeare 
expressed  both  abstractly  and  concretely,  abstractly  in  a  fine  passage 
which  almost  redeems  the  coarseness  of  Troilus  and,  Cressida ;  and 
concretely,  in  presenting  Richmond  as  the  champion  of  God's  cause, 
victorious  where  Richard  the  Third  failed  because  he  had  inverted  the 
natural  moral  order  of  things,  dashing  himself  to  pieces,  as  Dowden 
puts  it,  '  against  the  laws  of  the  world  which  he  has  outraged.'  We 
may  rejoice  that  Shakespeare  discerned  this  essentially  religious 
principle,  an  idea  which  dominates  the  whole  Divine  Comedy ;  it  did 
not,  however,  become  with  him,  as  with  Dante,  the  power  that  con- 
trolled even  the  least  detail  of  his  art. 

It  is  indeed  surprising  that  Shakespeare,  a  man  of  the  Renaissance, 
writing  for  men  of  the  world,  should  have  been  so  far  above  his  age  as 
respects  religious  feeling.  But  it  is  still  more  surprising  that  Dante, 
a  Medievalist  to  whom  religion  was  supreme,  should  have  had  the 
unerring  judgment  of  a  true  creative  artist  which  prevented  him  from 
emphasising  the  spiritual  and  religious  capacities  of  man  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  other  elements  of  his  nature.  The  fact  that  Dante  wrote 
not  as  a  mere  mystic,  but  as  a  seer  who  knew  men's  hearts  through 
and  through,  even  as  Shakespeare  knew  them,  places  him  in  the  front 
rank  of  poets  ;  but  at  the  same  time,  it  is  his  mysticism,  the  religious 
symbolism  of  the  Divine  Comedy,  which  does  most  to  raise  him  above 
Shakespeare.  Although  we  could  hardly  expect  religious  symbolism 
in  Shakespeare's  dramas,  yet  in  the  Divine  Comedy  which  combines  so 
many  of  Shakespeare's  greatest  qualities,  its  presence  is  as  a  halo  of 
surpassing  loveliness  and  power.  Since  art  sprang  from  religious 
symbolism,  there  lies  deep  in  the  heart  of  man  that  which  always 
responds  to  its  appeal,  and  feels  it  as  an  added  charm  in  a  beautiful 
poem  ;  hence  to  many  of  us  the  name  of  Dante  means  far  more  than 
does  the  name  of  Shakespeare. 

Though  we  may  marvel  at  Dante's  power  to  visualise  Hell,  with 
all  its  stern  realities,  though  the  sweet  humanity  of  the  Purgatorio 
lifts  us  up  into  the  serenity  of  God's  peace,  it  is  chiefly  to  the  Paradiso 
that  we  must  turn  for  our  deepest  knowledge  and  appreciation  of 
Dante  as  a  poet,  for  here  he  has  come  nearer  than  any  other  poet  to 
accomplishing  the  impossible  task  of  making  the  finite  apprehend  the 
Infinite  ;  he  has  shown  us  mortal  man  at  last  united  in  mind,  in  will, 
in  desire,  in  perfect  love,  with  his  Creator.  He  has  thus  gone  beyond 
the  boundaries  of  any  art  otherwise  known  to  us ;  though  he  himself 
realised  his  limitations,  his  successes,  as  compared  with  his  failures  to 
suggest  the  glories  of  heaven,  are  so  remarkable  that  we  must  feel 
that  Dante  shows  us,  as  no  other  poet  or  painter  can,  what  art 


1908  DANTE  AND  SHAKESPEARE  621 

should  strive  to  do,  that  he  has  proved  the  value  of  attempting,  at 
least,  to  scale  the  loftiest  heights. 

As  with  Dante  we  finally  behold  the  form  of  our  own  image  painted 
in  the  Eternal  Light,  like  unto  that  Light  itself,  we  are  left  with  a 
deeper  understanding  of  the  mystical  union  of  the  Divine  and  the 
human,  and  are  left,  also,  with  a  sense  of  the  reality  of  a  vision  to  which 
we  ourselves  may  look  forward  with  hope,  and  faith,  and  joy.  In 
closing,  I  can  only  echo  the  words  of  Dean  Church,  who  perhaps 
more  than  anyone  else  has  entered  into  the  spirit  of  Dante,  and 
who  says :  '  Those  who  know  the  Divina  Commedia  best  .  .  .  know, 
and  would  wish  others  also  to  know,  not  by  hearsay,  but  by 
experience,  the  power  of  that  wonderful  poem.'  Yes,  by  experience, 
for  only  as  we  go  to  Dante  in  our  daily  lives  for  help,  and  courage,  and 
comfort,  for  strength,  and  joy,  and  peace,  for  renewed  faith  in  our 
fellow-men,  for  power  to  look  into  and  to  read  the  mysteries  of  nature 
and  of  the  human  heart,  for  a  deeper  knowledge  of  God,  for  firmer 
trust  in  God's  justice  and  love — only  thus  can  we  even  begin  to  know 
and  to  appreciate  the  beauty  and  the  power  of  the  Divine  Comedy. 

MARY  WINSLOW  SMYTH. 


VOL.  LXIY— No.  »80  T  T 


622  THE  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Oct. 


THE   CHAOS   OF  LONDON   TRAFFIC 


TIME  flies  !  It  seems  like  yesterday,  but  eight  years  have  gone  by 
since  Mr.  Charles  Booth  brought  home  to  many  of  us  that  the  lack 
of  facilities  of  locomotion  threatened  the  well-being  of  London. 

It  is  nearly  six  years  since  his  Gracious  Majesty,  acting  on  the 
advice  of  the  Ministry  of  that  day,  commissioned  certain  '  trusty  and 
well-beloved '  subjects  *  to  inquire  into  the  means  of  locomotion  and 
transport  in  London,  and  to  report.' 

It  is  more  than  three  years  since  one  of  the  strongest  and  most 
conscientious  Koyal  Commissions  which  ever  sat  came  to  the  end  of 
its  labours  and  delivered  itself  of  these  words  : 

It  is  imperatively  necessary  in  the  interests  of  public  health  and  public 
convenience,  and  for  the  prompt  transaction  of  business,  as  well  as  to  render 
decent  housing  possible,  that  the  means  of  locomotion  and  transport  in  London 
and  its  adjacent  districts  should  be  improved ;  they  are  seriously  defective,  and 
the  demands  and  needs  of  the  public  are  annually  increasing. 

What  has  been  done  ? 

To  begin  with,  let  us  be  clear  on  one  point.  The  Commissioners 
prophesied  truly.  '  The  demands  and  needs  of  the  public,'  the  cry 
for  better  '  means  of  locomotion  and  transport,'  have  increased  and 
are  ever  increasing.  It  remains  for  us  to  consider  whether  they  are 
being  fairly  met. 

It  is  the  teaching  of  history  that  nearly  all  developments  of  this 
nature  which  make  for  the  material  advantage  of  the  people  must  be 
the  joint  work  of  two  agencies. 

Individuals  have  ideas  which  they  pursue  along  what  are  some- 
times rather  narrow  lines. 

They  may  be  animated  by  philanthropy,  by  ambition,  by  love  of 
scientific  progress,  or  by  the  desire  to  make  money.  Therefore  they 
require  watching. 

Sometimes  it  will  be  well  for  the  authorities  to  assist  them  by  all 
the  means  in  their  power,  for  there  are  things  which  individual  effort 
cannot  accomplish  without  aid.  At  other  times  they  must  be  curbed 
or  even  repressed. 

For  the  improvement  of  locomotion  in  London  were  wanted  both 
the  spirit  of  invention  and  dash  of  private  enterprise  and  the  guidance 


1908          THE   CHAOS   OF  LONDON   TRAFFIC  623 

and  discriminating  assistance  of  some  supervising  intelligence.     No- 
body can  say  that  the  first  has  been  found  wanting. 
The  Commissioners  said  again  : 

Increased  modern  methods  of  locomotion  and  transport  are  much  needed, 
both  to  facilitate  movement  within  the  central  area  and  to  facilitate  access  to 
and  from  and  within  the  suburbs  for  those  who  work  in  London  and  live 
outside.  • 

Already,  as  they  wrote,  the  inventors  were  supplying  *  modern 
methods  '  hitherto  undreamt  of,  and  the  financiers  had  commenced 
to  pour  out  money  like  water.  Both  have  gone  on  ever  since.  Kail- 
ways,  tubes,  and  tramways  have  been  spreading  far  and  wide,  and 
on  the  top  of  all  came  the  rapid  evolution  of  the  motor  vehicle,  which, 
whether  it  is  to  be  considered  a  blessing  or  a  curse,  is  at  any  rate 
epoch-making  and  progressive. 

Years  hence,  when  the  prejudice  has  died  down,  and  when  our 
genius  for  compromise  has  settled  the  motor  problem  once  and  for 
all,  it  will  occur  to  some  serious  student  of  the  comparative  merits 
and  demerits  of  individualism  and  collectivism  to  preach  a  most 
instructive  sermon  with  the  motor-car  as  his  text.  He  will  point  out 
how  this  nation,  obsessed  with  the  belief  that  the  English  were  the 
great  horse-lovers  of  the  world,  in  the  past  practically  ruled  mechani- 
cally propelled  traffic  off  its  public  roads.  By  collective  action  the 
many  horsekeepers  imposed  upon  the  few  mechanicians  the  man 
who  walked  in  front  with  the  danger-flag.  It  was  the  simplest  and 
most  effective  bar  to  advancement  in  locomotive  facilities  that  could 
ever  have  been  imagined,  and  it  lasted  for  two  generations.  Then  the 
days  arrived  when  one  individual  thought  of  the  pneumatic  tyre  and 
another  of  the  petrol  engine.  The  nation  woke  up,  suddenly  remem- 
bered that  it  claimed  also  to  lead  the  world  in  the  making  and  the 
use  of  machinery,  and  abolished  the  man  with  the  flag. 

The  effect  was  magical.  At  once  individualism  took  the  bit  between 
its  teeth  and  bolted.  It  had  an  immediate  and  overwhelming  triumph. 
As  a  result,  invention  ran  riot,  the  face  of  the  country  was  changed 
and  had  to  be  revalued. 

It  was  the  quickest  revolution  ever  known. 

But,  while  we  have  gone  back  to  the  pre-railroad  conditions  of  an 
open  land,  there  is  this  difference,  that,  tolls  having  been  abolished, 
nine-tenths  of  the  people  who  make  use  of  the  main  roads  are  gaily 
irresponsible.  Quite  naturally  there  is  now  a  revulsion  towards  the 
suppression  of  the  individual,  and  a  collective  demand  for  fresh  laws, 
and  laws  that  shall  be  obeyed.  I  should  be  sorry  to  try  to  forecast 
the  accomplished  facts  with  which  my  serious  student  will  have  to  deal 
towards  the  end  of  his  discourse,  but  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  he 
will  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  it  is  equally  short-sighted  to  crush 
the  individual  or  to  fail  to  control  him. 

Now,  what  has  happened  of  late  in  London  is  that  the  individual, 

T  T  2 


624  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

having  been  called  in  and  implored  to  exercise  his  inventive  faculties 
and  put  down  his  money  in  a  good  cause,  has  responded  nobly.  Rail- 
way dividends  have  shrunk  while  the  various  great  companies  have  vied 
with  each  other  to  carry  their  passengers  more  cheaply  and  more  com- 
fortably. Sixteen  millions  have  been  buried  in  the  bowels  of  the 
earth  in  the  pious  hope  that  some  day  they  will  bring  in  an  adequate 
return.  Half  the  engineers  in  England  are  working  to  improve  road 
carriages  of  one  sort  or  another.  When  we  come  to  consider  the 
streets  to-day  there  are  nearly  as  many  horses  as  there  used  to  be ; 
but  there  is  a  great  deal  besides.  The  horsed  tramways,  which 
numbered  332  on  the  1st  of  January  1904,  had  indeed  shrunk  by  the 
31st  of  July  this  year  to  257  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  between  the 
same  dates  the  electric  cars  had  increased  from  192  to  924.  For 
cabs  and  omnibuses  the  following  are  the  police  figures  of  vehicles 
licensed : — 

Mechanical  cabs    Mechanical  omnibuses 

1904  ....  2  81 

1905  ....  19  241 

1906  ....  96  783 

1907  ....  723  1,205 

1908  (only  up  till  July  31)  1,380        697 

As  regards  the  general  motor  traffic,  whereas  up  to  the  end  of  1904 
only  5,023  motor  vehicles  had  been  registered  in  London,  by  the  31st 
of  July  1908 — in  less  than  four  years — this  number  had  grown  to 
25,067. 

The  result  of  all  this  has  been  a  glut  of  modern  methods  super- 
imposed upon  the  old  methods,  overlapping  of  schemes,  waste  of 
money,  chaos  and  indignation  meetings. 

Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  ?  While  the  'individual,  let  loose  on  the 
town,  has  been  galloping,  the  authorities  have  hardly  stirred ;  and 
his  Majesty's  Government  has  ignored  the  fact  that  tie  Traffic  Com- 
missioners foresaw  the  chaos  and  knew  that  it  would  require  reducing 
to  order,  and  that  their  labours  led  them  unanimously  to  one  con- 
clusion— dominating  their  whole  report — the  paramount  necessity 
for  a  controlling  hand.  They  recommended  a  non-elected  Traffic 
Board,  and  defined  what,  in  their  opinion,  its  duties  should  be. 
Why  has  it  not  been  appointed  ? 

Governments  exist  for  carrying  on  the  business  of  the  country 
and  also  as  a  target  for  those  who  hold  political  opinions  of  an  opposite 
colour.  But  it  is  never  well  to  push  the  latter  too  far,  and  there  are 
moments  at  which  a  Government  in  a  difficulty  must  command  the 
respectful  sympathy  even  of  its  opponents.  So,  when  one  gentleman 
who  has  just  been  frightened  out  of  his  life  by  a  motor-bus,  and  another 
gentleman  who  cannot  work  by  day  or  sleep  by  night  because  a  train 
goes  past  his  house,  cry  out  in  chorus,  '  Why  on  earth  don't  they  do 
what  the  Commission  recommended  and  set  up  a  Traffic  Board  and 


1908         THE   CHAOS   OF  LONDON  TRAFFIC  625 

be  done  with  it  ?  '  it  is  only  right  that  they  should  learn  how  awkwardly 
his  Majesty's  present  advisers  are  placed.  What  may  seem  to  some 
people  only  a  small  matter  of  the  appointment  of  yet  another  Board 
raises  in  a  democratic  bosom  the  whole  question  of  Local  Government, 
and  before  any  such  appointment  could  take  place  certain  prominent 
politicians  would  be  compelled  to  eat  a  good  many  of  their  old  speeches. 
In  their  turn  they  have  cried  out  over  and  over  again,  amid  the  applause 
of  those  who  do  not  know  the  facts,  *  What  on  earth  is  the  use  of  the 
London  County  Council  if  it  cannot  control  the  traffic,  of  its  own 
county  ?  ' 

I  am  afraid  that  here  we  arrive  at  the  root  of  the  whole  trouble, 
the  anomalous  position  which  the  great  central  authority  occupies 
in  regard  to  this  question. 

When  we  come  to  consider  '  control,'  our  first  duty  is  to  get  clearly 
into  our  heads  how  matters  stood  three  years  ago,  when  the  Com- 
missioners reported,  and  to  realise  that  there  was  then  nobody  whose 
business  it  was  to  take  a  comprehensive  view  of  this  important  sub- 
ject. Innumerable  people  had  fingers  in  the  pie.  At  one  end  were  the 
Borough  Councils,  the  road  authorities  within  their  own  limits,  at  the 
other  end  Parliament,  considering  schemes  in  Committee ;  in  between, 
the  Metropolitan  Police  with  a  general  discretion  as  regards  the  safety 
of  the  public.  There  were  those  responsible  for  the  interests  of  Greater 
London  ;  those  who  guarded  the  peculiar  privileges  of  the  City ;  and, 
lastly,  the  tramway  authority,  that  strenuous  body,  the  County 
Council,  with  its  army  of  officials  and  its  numerous  committees  probing 
deep  into  all  the  problems  of  life.  But  among  its  committees  there 
was  none  told  off  to  advance  the  claims  of  general  traffic,  nor  had 
there  ever  been — since  tramways  monopolised  the  Council's  energies — 
anything  that  could  be  so  described,  with  the  exception  of  a  special 
committee  called  together  temporarily  for  the  purpose  of  compiling 
evidence  to  be  laid  before  this  particular  Royal  Commission.  The 
Parliamentary  Committee  watched  Bills  which  might  affect  the  people 
of  London.  The  Improvements  Committee  widened  roads,  giving 
special  prominence  to  tramway  routes.  The  curiously  misnamed 
Highways  Committee  sat  as  a  Board  of  Directors  whose  business  it 
was  to  make  a  success  of  the  tramway  enterprise  in  which  the  Council 
had  embarked  the  ratepayers'  money.  Such  was  their  unquestionable 
duty ;  but  it  had  become  doubly  so  because  the  then  leaders  of  the 
Council  were  endeavouring  to  educate  London  to  a  belief  in  Municipal 
Trading,  and  had  made  rash  promises  of  huge  tramway  profits. 
Naturally,  the  appointment  of  a  Traffic  Committee,  which  would  be 
compelled  to  view  impartially  all  forms  of  locomotion,  which  would 
actually  have  to  help  such  doughty  competitors  as  railways  and  tubes 
and  omnibuses — even  to  the  prejudice  of  the  Council's  tramways — 
would  have  been  extremely  inconvenient.  And  if  it  would  be  in- 
convenient for  the  Council  itself  to  appoint  a  Traffic  Committee, 


626  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

how  much  worse  would  it  be  if  there  were  brought  into  being  an 
extraneous  body  which  could  not  be  relied  upon  to  be  sympathetic 
towards  the  realisation  of  past  Progressive  promises  !  We  see  that  the 
majority  of  the  last  Council,  by  entering  with  great  zest  into  a  specula- 
tion with  only  one  of  the  many  forms  of  locomotion,  had — quite  un- 
intentionally and  most  unfortunately — not  only  ruled  themselves 
out  of  court  as  the  controllers  of  London  traffic,  but  been  compelled 
to  stand  forward  as  the  protagonists  of  unrestrained  competition — in 
other  words,  of  chaos. 

Our  next  duty  is  to  think  out  what  we  mean  by  '  control,'  and, 
making  use  of  the  experience  we  have  gained  since  the  Commission's 
report  familiarised  us  with  the  idea,  to  count  up  the  advantages  we 
might  reasonably  expect  to  get  from  it.  It  would  be  impossible  to 
travel  all  over  the  wide  field  of  improvement  suggested  by  the  Com- 
mission ;  but  let  us  endeavour  at  any  rate  to  catalogue  some  of  the 
grievances  which  are  voiced  at  this  moment,  and  speculate  as  to 
whether  a  controlling  Traffic  Authority,  if  such  existed,  would  be 
helping  us  to  get  rid  of  them  and  how  it  would  be  setting  to  work. 

It  may  be  well  to  begin  with  the  City,  it  is  a  good  example  of  all 
the  trouble,  for  it  is  the  real  hub  of  the  universe  and  therefore  bound 
to  suffer  '  locomotion  '  diseases  in  their  most  acute  form.  In  the  City 
they  complain  of  congestion  and  danger  and  noise,  and  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  their  complaint  is  justified.  But  let  them  remember 
that  the  very  breath  of  life  to  the  City  is  its  central  position,  its 
popularity,  the  necessity  that  all  trade  should  focus  there.  Not  so 
long  ago  they  were  complaining  that  it  was  hard  to  get  to  the  centre, 
and  they  cannot  expect  men  and  goods  to  be  spirited  there  and  spirited 
away  again.  There  is  another  point.  Let  them  note  that  the  City  is 
only  face  to  face  with  the  difficulty  which  long-distance  through- 
traffic  is  now  bringing  home  to  every  country  town  .and  village  in 
England  :  the  rediscovery  that  all  the  spokes  of  a  wheel  lead  in  to  the 
hub  !  The  City  Fathers  of  old  prided  themselves  on  this.  Every  road 
led  to  them.  Everything  had  to  pass  through  their  gates  and  pay 
tribute  to  their  importance.  They  preferred  that  men  should  be 
obliged  to  travel  and  trade  across  their  territory.  It  meant  much 
money  to  them  then.  To-day,  if  their  trouble  is  insupportable,  some 
of  that  money  must  be  disbursed.  But  it  is  neither  essential  nor  fair 
that  the  whole  burden  should  fall  on  the  City.  If  the  '  Square  Mile ' 
is  congested  many  others  are  equally  to  blame  for  the  congestion  and 
interested  in  its  removal.  The  Corporation  may  be  enthroned  in  the 
centre,  but  around  it  is  London,  not  only  commercial,  but  residential 
and  fashionable,  while  outside  is  East  Anglia  blocked  at  her  very 
front  door.  Then  the  Great  Eastern  and  other  railway  companies, 
the  various  tubes,  the  tramways,  the  omnibuses  and  every  trading 
and  private  vehicle,  not  to  speak  of  the  bicyclists  and  pedestrians, 
are  all  in  the  tangle,  fighting  for  their  own  hands.  Could  we  have  a 


1908          THE   CHAOS   OF  LONDON  TBAFFIC  627 

better  instance  of  the  want  of  some  impartial  intelligence  which  could 
gather  together  all  the  needs  and  annoyances,  all  the  schemes  and 
activities,  and  knock  out  of  them  some  comprehensive  and  practical 
solution  ?  The  traffic  is  necessary  and  must  be  accommodated 
somehow.  If  to-day  motor-omnibuses  are  altogether  ruled  out, 
countless  people  will  have  to  walk.  If,  in  order  to  please  those  whose 
business  lies  in  Old  Broad  Street,  the  Bank,  and  not  Liverpool  Street, 
is  made  the  terminus  of  those  coming  from  the  West  End,  fancy  the 
wild  turmoil  round  the  Mansion  House  !  If  the  man  to  whom  noise 
is  the  supreme  grievance  has  his  way,  imagine  the  horror  of  the 
hornless  gliding  car  of  Juggernaut,  the  more  silent  the  more  deadly ! 
For  the  time  will  soon  come  when  nearly  every  station  van  and  brewer's 
dray  will  be  horseless.  This  is,  indeed,  not  a  problem  which  can  be 
solved  by  police  regulations. 

A  far-seeing  wide-eyed  authority  would  have  many  ideas  to  play 
with.  Street-widening  and  its  heavy  cost,  in  places  somewhat  reduced 
by  arcading ;  overhead  roads  and  their  ugly  nuisance ;  subterranean 
routes,  whether  shallow  or  deep  level,  and  the  difficulty  of  their 
approaches ;  even  the  new-fangled  rolling  platform  and  the  old-fashioned 
River  Thames  ;  all  would  come  within  its  purview.  And  not  only 
would  it  have  the  power  of  getting  round  one  table,  introducing  to 
each  other  and  smoothing  over  the  divergent  views  of  the  conflicting 
interests  which  would  have  to  pull  together  for  the  common  good — 
and  generally  find  the  money  to  pay  the  piper — but,  if  the  recom- 
mendations of  the  Royal  Commission  were  fully  carried  out,  it  would 
be  its  duty  at  times  to  suggest  that  the  people  would  be  benefited 
by  help  from  public  funds.  In  carrying  out  the  comprehensive 
scheme  which  is  required  to  cover  the  town  with  a  network  of  traffic 
facilities,  there  will  be  found  certain  gaps  upon  which  private  enter- 
prise could  not  justify  to  itself  heavy  expenditure.  The  need  for  this 
unremunerative  linking  up  is  the  only  sound  argument  in  favour  of 
the  general  municipalisation  of  traffic  services,  but  it  could  surely 
be  met  by  the  encouragement  of  a  paternal  Government  acting  on  the 
advice  of  a  strong  Traffic  Authority.  Such  encouragement  could 
take  many  forms  besides  cash  advances. 

But  let  us  get  back  to  the  City.  If  we  analyse  its  troubles,  we 
shall  find  that  they  are  due  to  three  causes.  Traffic,  in  it,  across  it, 
and  to  Liverpool  Street  Station.  If  we  probe  a  little  deeper  we  shall 
find  that  a  really  satisfactory  settlement  of  the  Liverpool  Street 
difficulty  would  practically  include  the  others.  The  fact  that  half 
London,  has,  perforce,  to  traverse  the  City  if  they  wish  to  get  to 
the  Great  Eastern  terminus  makes  one  think.  Why  have  all  the 
many  proposals  to  extend  the  Central  London  Railway  come  to 
grief  ?  Such  an  extension  would  help  a  great  deal,  and  even  more 
if  the  extraordinary  oversight  of  its  non-connexion  with  the  Piccadilly 
Tube  at  Holborn  were  rectified.  Is  the  extension  impossible,  or  is  it 


628  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUET  Oct. 

only  hung  up  waiting  for  the  appointment  of  a  Traffic  Authority  ? 
If  there  are  obstacles  in  the  way  of  a  deep-level  tube,  why  not  a  shallow 
road  ? 

Here  I  should  like  to  put  forward  a  suggestion  for  what  it  is  worth. 
The  main  sewers  may  make  it  difficult  to  accomplish,  but  it  is  part 
of  our  creed  that  few  things  are  impracticable  to  modern  engineering. 
It  is  almost  always  only  a  question  of  whether  benefits  will  repay 
expenditure.  Would  it  not  be  possible  to  have  a  shallow  subway 
system  linking  up,  in  some  places  directly,  in  others  by  short  ap- 
proaches, all  the  more  important  traffic  points  ?  These  are  the  various 
termini — not  necessarily  dead  ends,  at  which  people  debark  from 
trains  and  trams  and  omnibuses,  for  such  a  subway  as  I  suggest 
would  be  a  substitute  for  most  of  the  omnibuses — as  well  as  certain 
prominent  buildings  and  street  corners.  If  such  a  subway  were 
feasible  it  might  take  the  shape  of  an  irregular  figure  of  eight,  or  of  a 
double  gourd,  with  its  base  at  the  Mansion  House  station,  its  head  at 
Liverpool  Street,  and  its  waist  at  the  Bank.  Exclusive  of  its  ap- 
proaches it  would  be  about  a  mile  and  a  half  long,  but  perhaps  half  a 
mile  of  distance,  perhaps  five  minutes  of  time,  would  be  the  outside 
limit  of  the  use  that  most  people  would  make  of  it.  Through  it  would 
travel  continuously,  save  on  Sundays  and  at  certain  hours  of  the 
night,  some  simple  form  of  tramway  or  moving  platform.  It  would 
provide  a  second  storey  road  for  passengers,  keep  them  ofl  the  streets, 
and  speed  them  almost  to  their  actual  destinations.  Incidentally,  it 
would  be  popular  in  bad  weather.  On  the  street  surface  widening  would 
become  less  necessary,  noise,  smell,  and  danger  would  all  be  reduced. 
It  would  be  a  universal  link,  competing  with  nobody,  for  its  one 
object  would  be  to  feed  and  assist  all  existing  forms  of  locomotion. 
This  is  an  important  point,  for  such  a  subway  must  be,  ostensibly, 
free  I  Let  nobody  hold  up  their  hands  in  holy  horror.  They  must 
remember  that  the  circumstances  are  quite  exceptional  and  that 
something  has  to  be  done.  Of  course  it  would  cost  money,  both  to 
make  and  to  maintain  :  but  much  expenditure,  both  capital  and 
maintenance,  is  saved  where  no  ticket  offices,  no  clerks,  no  collectors, 
are  required.  This  is  a  question  of  substituting  an  underground  road 
for  urgent  street  improvements  on  the  surface  which  would  be  equally 
costly  and  equally  unremunerative  ;  and  the  car  or  platform  would  be 
much  on  the  principle  of  a  tube  lift,  a  convenience  to  save  people's 
legs  and  take  them  in  the  direction  they  wish  to  go ;  only  in  this  case 
horizontally  instead  of  vertically. 

There  are  two  questions  to  consider.  The  first  is  :  would  people 
use  it  ?  Why  should  they  not  ?  They  pay  to  use  the  tubes.  Are 
they  likely  to  object  to  being  carried  for  nothing  ?  The  second 
question  is  :  Who  would  pay  for  it  ?  There  can  be  but  one  answer  : 
those  who  would  be  in  the  position  to  benefit  by  it.  It  would  be 
their  joint  enterprise,  and  its  cost  would  be  collected  indirectly,  some 


1908          THE  CHAOS   OF  LONDON  TRAFFIC  629 

portion  through  the  rates,  some  portion  through  those  agencies  which 
are  responsible  for  bringing  people  to  the  City.  Remember  that  it 
was  stated  in  evidence  before  the  Royal  Commission  that  a  million 
and  a  quarter  people  enter  and  leave  the  City  daily.  It  would  be  a 
matter  of  arrangement,  an  arrangement  which  could  only  be  carried 
out  by  some  independent  authority  with  a  wide  area  of  supervision 
and  great  influence  with  the  innumerable  interests  concerned  and 
with  the  powers  that  be.  It  should  not  be  beyond  the  bounds  of 
human  ingenuity  for  such  an  authority  to  arrange  that  in  the  long  run 
the  expense  should  be  fairly  apportioned. 

So  much  for  one  suggestion.  May  I  throw  out  one  other  ?  Is  it 
absolutely  necessary  that  half  the  Liverpool  Street  and  East  and  West 
through  traffic  should  trouble  the  City  at  all  ?  As  a  matter  of  fact 
the  shortest  route,  not  only  from  Oxford  Street  but  even  from  Picca- 
dilly Circus,  to  Mile  End  Road,  to  both  Essex  and  the  Docks,  passes 
north  of  the  city.  Such  a  route  could  start  from  Holborn  Circus  and 
take  Liverpool  Street  Station  in  its  way.  At  Victoria  we  see  that  a 
terminus  can  be  attacked  in  flank.  By  a  judicious  use  of  lifts  it  can 
even  be  attacked  from  the  rear.  I  do  not  know  what  such  a  road 
would  cost,  and  the  County  Council's  experiences  in  Kingsway  show 
that  recoupment  in  such  schemes  is  often  slow  of  coming,  but  the 
expense  could  never  be  so  great  as  that  of  an  attempt  to  seriously  widen 
the  main  avenues  of  the  centre.  Making  roads  round  does  not  always 
conduce  to  prosperity,  as  many  a  thriving  country  town  now  keen  to 
be  quit  of  motor  traffic  will  eventually  find  out,  but  it  would  be 
difficult  to  '  side-track  '  the  City  of  London.  Again  this  is  a  proposal 
which  could  not  even  be  discussed  without  first  getting  numerous 
sharply  conflicting  interests  into  line.  A  wise  authority  would  settle 
what  such  a  road  was  to  carry  before  a  single  house  was  demolished. 

From  the  City,  and  the  costly  lesson  it  teaches  us  of  the  miscal- 
culations of  the  past,  it  is  natural  to  turn  to  Greater  London,  to  study 
how  a  common-sense  nation,  having  profited  by  experience,  is  now 
safeguarding  the  future.  The  centre  is  suffering  from  a  want  of  main 
speed  roads,  what  is  being  done  to  ensure  that  no  such  disaster  can 
ever  happen  outside  ?  Is  it  credible  that  the  answer  is — nothing  ? 
The  Hams  to  the  east ;  Tottenham,  Finchley,  and  Willesden  on  the 
north ;  Baling,  Brentford,  and  Kingston  on  the  west ;  Wimbledon, 
Croydon,  and  Bromley  on  the  south,  are  all  closing  in  on  London 
and  blocking  her  exits.  The  old  arteries  leading  from  the  Metropolis 
are  none  too  wide  even  for  the  increasing  uses  of  these  townships  and 
to  carry  their  tramways.  This,  at  the  moment  when  the  traffic  of 
England  is  going  back  to  the  roads,  when  it  is  essential  for  the  business, 
the  pleasure,  for  the  very  life  of  London,  that  between  her  and  the 
country  outside  there  should  be  free  communication  !  If  it  were  not 
so  condemnable  it  would  be  laughable.  Who  is  to  blame  ?  Nobody. 
It  is  nobody's  business.  It  is  beyond  the  reach  of  the  County  Council, 


680  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

and  the  surrounding  authorities  cannot  be  expected  to  rush  in  and 
spend  large  sums  for  the  advantage  of  their  big  neighbour.  We  can 
be  certain  of  two  things  :  that  all  these  suburbs  will  continue  to  expand, 
and  that  the  use  of  motor  vehicles  in  and  out  of  London  will  enor- 
mously increase.  The  old  main  roads  are  already  congested,  they  will 
soon  be  choked.  It  will  then  be  too  late  to  move.  It  is  almost  too  late 
now.  Fifteen  years  ago  it  might  have  been  easy  to  lay  out  from  the 
four-mile  radius  main  avenues,  a  hundred  yards  wide,  capable  of 
carrying  all  the  traffic  which  can  ever  be  anticipated,  north,  south, 
east,  and  west.  It  is  like  the  Sibylline  books.  To-day  only  two  are 
possible.  One  leads  out  to  a  comparatively  small  area  in  the  east,  but 
the  other  could  still  be  made  the  road  gate  of  London.  Who  will  save 
it  ?  Personally  I  have  been  watching  it  for  years,  seeing  the  gap  narrow- 
ing and  the  cost  mounting  up.  With  others  I  waited  for  the  advent 
of  a  Traffic  Board.  Then,  last  year,  when  a  Traffic  Authority  seemed 
further  off  than  ever,  some  of  us  made  an  effort,  at  any  rate,  to  preserve 
a  motor-road.  So  far  the  effort  has  not  been  successful.  It  was  beset 
with  difficulties.  Government  departments  were  interested,  but  not 
ready  themselves  to  undertake  the  expenditure.  Local  authorities 
were  more  anxious  to  safeguard  their  own  positions  than  to  speculate 
as  to  future  necessities.  It  is  not  their  rrle  to  be  imaginative.  The 
very  motorists  were  shy  of  supporting  a  proposal  which  might  be 
taken  to  imply  that  it  was  their  business  to  provide  their  own  tracks. 
Everybody  was  cautious,  every  man  was  quite  rightly  looking  after  the 
interests  with  which  he  himself  was  identified ;  and  there  was  in 
existence  no  responsible  authority  in  a  position  to  take  the  matter  up, 
to  get  certain  people  together,  and  say,  '  This  may  or  may  not  be  the 
best  scheme  or  the  best  way  to  do  it,  but  it  is  worth  considering, 
worth  talking  over ;  let  us  at  any  rate  see  that  we  are  not  letting  a 
chance  slip.'  Meanwhile  the  gate  is  closing  fast.  If  only  one  of  the 
really  rich  men,  one  of  the  few  who  have  command  of  large  sums, 
would  come  forward,  he  might  keep  it  open  until  the  Government 
Have  made  up  their  minds  on  *  Traffic.'  In  the  end  he  would  not 
lose  by  it. 

We^have  looked  at  the  centre  and  at  the  outer  ring,  but  all  over 
the  town  the  same  cry  is  going  up  :  *  When  are  we  to  have  somebody 
to  arrange  our  traffic  ?  '  There  is  too  much  of  it  in  one  place  and  too 
little  in  another.  There  is  waste  at  a  time  when  London  is  experien- 
cing the  trouble  of  tight  money.  In  every  public  department  to-day 
there  is  a  desire  to  co-ordinate  expenditure,  here  we  are  the  prey  of 
senseless  competition.  In  every  direction  two  capitals  are  being 
expended  to  do  the  work  of  one.  What  soon  will  be  the  use  of  both 
horsed  cabs  and  motor  cabs  ?  Even  to-day  nobody  will  take  a 
hansom  if  they  can  get  a  '  taxi.'  The  old  order  is  bound  to  go  to  the 
wall.  Would  it  not  be  wiser  and  fairer  to  state  now  that  five  years 
hence  no  horsed  cabs  will  be  licensed  to  ply  for  hire  within  the  four- 


1908         THE  CHAOS  OF  LONDON  TRAFFIC  681 

mile  radius  ?  We  must  remember  that  London  must  be  treated  in 
an  exceptional  way.  Such  a  regulation  would  greatly  reduce  its 
congestion.  Tramways  and  omnibuses  each  have  their  uses  ;  but  it 
is  both  absurd  and  dangerous  that  they  should  run  side  by  side  at  the 
same  pace.  They  fight  for  the  same  passenger  and  pick  him  up  and 
set  him  down  in  front  of  the  same  shop.  The  whole  area  wants 
covering  with  facilities  of  locomotion,  spread  out  like  a  net,  linked 
together,  feeding  each  other,  every  variety  with  its  special  duty  to 
perform  and  never  in  excess. 

To  arrange  this,  to  see  that  the  people  are  served  and  their  legiti- 
mate grievances  satisfied,  that  they  are  helped  on  their  way  and 
saved  from  danger  and  nuisance,  that  their  trade  is  not  hampered 
nor  their  rest  at  night  disturbed,  and,  through  it  all,  to  keep  a  steady 
unprejudiced  outlook  right  ahead,  to  foresee  the  requirements  of  the 
future,  to  watch  the  developments  of  property,  to  work  with  it  and, 
without  unduly  repressing  private  enterprise,  still  to  take  care  that 
public  interests  are  not  jeopardised — this  is  no  light  task.  At  present 
nobody  is  even  attempting  it. 

A  year  ago  the  London  County  Council  requested  the  late  Prime 
Minister  to  receive  a  deputation  on  this  subject.  His  last  illness 
prevented  the  interview  which  had  been  arranged.  After  the  recess 
we  are  going  to  Mr.  Asquith  to  ask  for  a  Traffic  Authority.  What 
will  be  his  reply  ?  He  is  bound  to  admit  that  something  must  be 
done.  We  may  or  may  not  learn  that  London  Government  is  once 
more  in  the  melting-pot,  and  that  the  Council's  area  and  duties  are 
to  be  increased  ;  but,  at  any  rate,  we  shall  probably  be  told — as  the 
Progressives  tell  us  at  Spring  Gardens — that  the  Government  has 
already  appointed  a  special  branch  of  the  Board  of  Trade  on  purpose  to 
meet  our  views,  and  that  Sir  Herbert  Jekyll  has  been  designated  to 
look  after  traffic.  It  is  true,  and  probably  no  better  nucleus  around 
which  a  Traffic  Authority  could  be  put  together  is  possible ;  but  Sir 
Herbert  requires  assistance.  He  has  no  colleagues ;  I  believe  he  has 
no  staff,  no  powers,  and  no  command  of  money.  He  can  do  nothing, 
and  he  is  doing  nothing  beyond  bringing  and  keeping  up  to  date  the 
information  laid  before  the  Royal  Commission.  Some  day  h*e  may 
be  a  most  useful  member  of  a  new  authority,  to-day  he  is  only  a  stop- 
gap put  in — as  though  time  was  no  object — to  save  the  face  of  the 
Government  while  it  halts  between  two  opinions.  For  there  can  be 
no  more.  We  can,  I  think,  rule  out  all  candidates  except  a  specially 
constituted,  non-elected  Board,  as  recommended  by  the  Royal  Com- 
mission, and  the  County  Council.  Is  the  last  a  possibility  ? 

At  the  first  blush  it  seems  ridiculous  even  to  ask  the  question. 
Here  is  a  body  representing  the  whole  of  London  and  presumably 
erery  interest  in  it ;  a  body  which  sits  continuously  and  works  very 
hard ;  which  has  ramifications  extending  in  every  direction  and 
exploring  all  the  strata  of  society.  It  is  already  responsible  for  housing, 


632  TEE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

for  the  Building  Act,  for  street  improvements,  and  for  most  of  the 
open  spaces.  It  also  has  the  command  of  money.  Are  we  to  be  told 
that  this  body  is  incapable  of  exercising  a  general  supervision  over 
those  facilities  of  traffic  upon  which  the  life  of  the  town  depends  ? 

Let  us  seriously  consider  the  three  reasons  which  are  urged  in 
support  of  this  contention. 

Incidentally  I  should  say  that  we  need  no  longer  count  on  the 
somewhat  vague  distrust  with  which  in  the  past  those  who  had  any- 
thing to  lose  regarded  the  Council,  and  for  a  very  simple  reason. 
The  theory  that  the  '  Progress  '  of  the  Progressives  is  not  politics  is 
exploded.  For  fifteen  years  many  a  Londoner  voted  in  the  dark. 
To-day  we  are  all  frankly  political.  It  may  be  a  misfortune,  but  it 
is  nobody's  fault,  for  it  was  bound  to  come.  It  is  probable  that  one 
curious  result  will  be  that  the  Council  will  always  be  of  the  colour  of 
the  Parliamentary  Opposition.  London  will  be  anxious  to  show  her 
independence  and  her  power  to  goad  on  a  Government  which  she 
considers  slow  to  move  or  to  restrain  one  whose  pace  she  thinks  too 
fast.  But  one  thing  is  certain.  The  Council  has  become  a  microcosm 
of  Parliament,  and  the  members  are  drawn  from  the  same  classes 
and  are  interchangeable.  No  more  is  to  be  feared  from  one  than  from 
the  other — nor  hoped. 

This,  to  a  certain  extent,  disposes  of  the  first  objection.  It  has 
been  rightly  claimed  that  the  control  of  the  Traffic  Authority  must  be 
continuous  and  independent  of  party  changes ;  in  other  words,  that  it 
must  be  the  work  of  paid  permanent  officials,  reporting  to  the  people's 
representatives.  As  long  as  the  officials  are  fearless  and  of  a  high 
grade,  and  are  given  a  fairly  free  hand,  as  long  as  they  are  placed  in  a 
position  which  will  enable  them  to  take  wide  and  far  views,  does  it 
now  matter  so  very  much  whether  the  representatives  to  whom  they 
report  sit  at  Westminster  or  Spring  Gardens  ? 

The  second  objection  is  more  troublesome  to  overcome.  I  have 
endeavoured  to  show  that  in  the  interests  of  London  it  is  vital  that 
her  main  lines  of  communication  must  be  kept  open.  If  the  Pro- 
gressive proposal  for  a  large  increase  of  the  Council's  area  should 
mature,  this  would  go  to  meet  the  difficulty ;  but  it  is  barely  con- 
ceivable that  Romford,  Barnet,  Watford,  and  Kingston,  all  of  which 
should  be  included  in  the  domain  of  a  Traffic  Authority,  will  ever  be 
incorporated  in  one  huge  municipality.  Without  going  so  far  as  that, 
however,  it  might  be  possible  to  arrange  that  over  the  suburban 
railway  and  tramway  systems  and  the  great  trunk  roads  those 
responsible  for  London,  her  existence  and  her  growth,  should  have 
some  jurisdiction.  I  am  afraid  it  would  make  for  friction  and  endless 
complication  in  all  matters  of  expenditure,  it  would  be  a  scheme 
striking  at  the  heart  of  local  administration,  but  the  objections  are 
not  quite  so  insuperable  as  to  rule  it  out  altogether. 

It  is  the  third  objection,  the  working  of  the  tramways,  the  funda- 


1908          THE  CHAOS   OF  LONDON  TRAFFIC  683 

mental  law  that  a  competitor  cannot  be  a  judge,  which  is  the  fatal 
obstacle  to  the  end.  It  is  not  enough  to  say  that  the  Municipal 
Reform  party  now  in  power  have  made  no  rash  promise  of  profits, 
and  that,  unhampered  by  pledges,  they  can  afford  to  look  at  the  ques- 
tion from  the  broad  point  of  view  of  the  advantage  of  London  !  We 
cannot  get  away  from  the  fact  that  the  financial  necessities  of  its 
great  tramway  business  must  always  influence  the  Council's  actions. 
Moreover,  the  Municipal  Reformers  will  not  be  in  power  for  ever. 
It  is  not  enough  to  say  that  the  people,  now  that  they  know  that 
there  were  no  profits,  have  at  last  begun  to  understand  that  there 
never  could  have  been  or  ought  to  have  been  profits ;  that  the  only 
correct  way  of  carrying  on  a  municipal  service  is  to  make  receipts 
and  expenditure  balance  as  near  as  may  be,  to  make  it  self-supporting 
and  no  more ;  that  if  you  are  making  a  genuine  realisable  profit  over 
a  service  you  must  be  unfairly  overcharging  those  ratepayers  who 
make  use  of  that  service  ! 

Municipal  Reform  can  do  a  great  deal,  but  it  cannot  turn  the 
whole  electorate  into  an  incorruptible  and  infallible  judicial  bench. 
Fancy  the  feelings  of  the  railway  and  omnibus  companies  if  they 
heard  that  the  tramway  authority  was  to  put  its  foot  upon  their 
necks  !  Fancy  how  the  tramway  users  would  vote  if  it  was  brought 
home  to  them  that  their  fares — on  their  own  municipal  tramway 
system — were  being  raised  while  a  Tube  was  being  helped  to  pay 
dividends  !  Alas  !  for  the  frailty  of  poor  human  nature.  The  thing 
cannot  be  done. 

If  the  London  County  Council  is  to  be  the  Traffic  Authority  we  are 
logically  driven  towards  two  alternatives,  both  of  which  are  possible 
to  a  Radical  and  impossiole  to  a  Unionist  Government.  We  must 
have  no  competition  at  all,  or  we  must  have  open  competition  under 
absolutely  impartial  control.  The  first  alternative,  which  would 
be  fought  to  the  last  ditch  by  all  Conservatives  and  by  many  Liberals, 
is  to  make  the  Council  take  over,  weld  together,  and  administer  all 
the  collective  forms  of  traffic  in  the  London  area — railways  and  tubes 
and  omnibuses.  The  second,  which  will  be  disapproved  of  by  all 
Socialists  and  some  others,  is  to  compel  it  to  make  over  once  more 
to  private  enterprise  the  London  County  Council  tramway  system. 
Only  a  Radical  Government  could  even  suggest  this  last  without 
laying  itself  open  to  misrepresentation. 

If  neither  alternative  commends  itself  to  Ministers,  then  the  Council 
drops  out,  and  they  must  give  us  such  a  Traffic  Board  as  the  Royal 
Commission  recommended,  or  London  must  meekly  bow  her  head  and 
submit  to  chaos. 

The  responsibility  is  with  them. 

GEORGE  S.  C.  SWINTON. 


634  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 


THE  METHOD   OF  PLATO 


THE  study  of  Plato  as  pure  literature  has  been  carried  as  far  as  it  will 
go.  No  great  writer  ever  desired  less  to  be  estimated  by  his  style 
alone.  For  if  on  the  one  hand  the  image  of  the  ideal  Republic  fades 
away  into  the  heavens,  on  the  other  hand  the  precepts  for  its  regula- 
tion are  singularly  definite 'and  precise.  The  Platonic  Socrates  in 
the  Dialogue  seems  to  be  always  struggling  between  the  emptiness 
of  human  life  and  the  importance  of  prescribing  its  details.  Nobody, 
according  to  this  theory,  was  fit  to  govern  his  own  conduct,  even 
though  he  were  employed  in  controlling  the  conduct  of  others.  The 
servitude  of  the  body  was  necessary  for  the  freedom  of  the  soul. 
Everyone  engaged  in  commerce  was  a  public  servant,  and  the  indi- 
vidual had  no  existence  apart  from  the  State.  Socrates  himself  was 
prevented  by  an  internal  monitor  from  taking  a  prominent  share  in 
public  business.  The  rest  of  the  world  had  to  be  content  with  a 
knowledge  of  their  own  unfitness,  and  a  determination  to  reach 
authority  by  the  path  of  obedience.  Whom  were  they  to  obey  ? 
Not  the  old,  for  they  were  worn  out.  Not  the  young,  for  they  were 
untrained.  Education  was  indispensable  to  the  ruler,  and  education 
must  be  as  wide  as  life.  It  must  be  intellectual,  moral,  practical, 
philosophical,  scientific,  and  not  poetical.  It  could  hot  be  profitably 
imitated,  or  adequately  described.  Panhellenic  in  its  scope,  it  was 
to  reject  only  the  barbaric  or  foreign  element  in  human  nature.  It 
was  to  show  that  justice  could  not  be  discovered  without  ascertaining 
the  best  form  of  political  constitution,  and  at  the  same  time  demon- 
strate the  impossibility  of  a  State  continuing  to  flourish  without 
a  foundation  of  justice.  That  justice  was  the  interest  of  the  stronger 
is  the  paradox  which  Socrates  undertakes  to  refute,  while  pretending 
that  he  cannot  refute  it.  Every  man,  being  in  a  minority  of  one,  must 
be  dependent  upon  his  neighbours.  Yet  no  character  which  does 
not  suffice  for  itself  has  any  support  upon  which  to  lean.  The  essence 
of  poetry  being  falsehood,  it  is  obviously  unfit  for  the  instruction  of 
the  young,  especially  where  it  is  dramatic  in  substance  without  being 
dramatic  in  form.  The  characters  in  a  play  do  not  profess  to  speak 
the  opinions  of  the  author.  In  an  epic  or  a  narrative  poem  the  poet 
himself  is  responsible  for  the  whole.  Plato  did  not  shrink  from  any 


1908  THE   METHOD   OF  PLATO  685 

conclusion  to  which  his  reason  led  him.  To  follow  the  argument, 
whatever  direction  it  might  take,  was  an  essential  part  of  the  Platonic 
philosophy.  A  substantial  reality  was  assumed  to  be  inherent  in 
dialectical  forms.  Even  a  Greek  idiom  must  have  a  definite  meaning. 
It  could  not  be  a  mere  artifice  of  grammarians.  There  was  a  philo- 
sophical reason  for  it,  worth  finding  out.  In  reading  Plato  we  always 
have  to  remember  the  dual  process  of  his  mind,  which  worked  at  one 
and  the  same  time  in  the  highest  sphere  of  thought  and  in  the  most 
technical  form  of  language.  He  seems  to  be  continually  saying, 
'  If  you  cannot  show  a  flaw  in  the  premisses,  you  must  accept  the 
conclusion.'  Unlike  Aristotle,  he  aimed  at  being  a  great  reformer. 
Aristotle  was  satisfied  with  knowledge.  To  Plato  knowledge  was 
only  valuable  in  so  far  as  it  raised  the  level  of  human  life.  He  was 
convinced  that  living  by  ideas  would  deliver  the  world  from  the 
ills  which  oppressed  it.  The  practical  employment  of  philosophy 
degraded  it,  not  because  it  was  practical,  but  because  it  was  nothing 
else.  The  cultivation  of  the  intellect  was  the  supreme  end,  for 
without  intellectual  cultivation  man  was  unfit  for  civic  duty,  and 
as  purely  selfish  as  if  there  were  no  one  to  be  considered  but 
himself. 

Macaulay  has  contrasted  Plato  with  Bacon,  but  the  antithesis  is 
misleading.  Plato  never  depreciates  the  results  of  mental  activity 
when  he  maintains  that  it  is  a  good  in  itself.  It  is  in  his  eyes  as 
important  to  the  mind  as  life  to  the  body,  and  therefore  to  be  con- 
sidered apart  from  its  effects  or  consequences.  With  them  he  does 
not  really  deal.  Anyone,  he  thought,  could  see  the  tangible  value  of 
applied  science.  The  influence  of  thought  upon  the  mind  can  only  be 
appreciated  by  a  philosopher,  and  by  him  cannot  be  misunderstood. 
To  define  justice  by  describing  the  State  is  to  explain  the  intellectual 
essence  of  morality.  The  State  is  an  unconscious  imitation  of  human 
character,  the  soul  being  identical  with  sovereignty,  and  the  passions 
in  the  widest  sense  of  the  term  corresponding  with  the  variety  of 
political  motives.  Aristotle  developed  Plato's  conception  of  the 
State,  and  blended  it  with  the  forms  of  government  which  he  saw  in 
Greece.  But  that  is  only  one  side,  and  not  the  most  important  side, 
of  Plato's  philosophy.  To  Plato  morality  was  as  definite  as  mathe- 
matics and  as  inevitable  as  sensation.  He  aims  at  showing  his 
opponents  that  they  are  against  reason  because  reason  is  against 
them.  Of  course  there  are  many  other  elements  in  the  Dialogues. 
Plato  was  a  great  literary  artist,  who  never  forgot  the  object  of  exhibit- 
ing Socrates  as  the  discoverer  of  truth  by  the  elimination  of  error. 
He  was  a  dramatist,  who  had  to  bring  all  his  characters  into  their 
appropriate  places.  But  his  supreme  and  ultimate  object,  at  least 
in  the  Republic,  was  to  fuse  and  blend  the  public  and  private  virtues 
of  the  citizen.  He  is  never  directly  didactic.  He  stands  aside  and 
allows  the  argument  to  prevail  by  its  own  strength.  Lene  tormentum 


686  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUEJ  Oct. 

ingenio  admovet.  He  is  determined  that  the  reader  shall  convince 
himself.  Aristotle  divides  and  classifies.  For  Plato  there  is  only 
one  kind  of  knowledge,  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  which  are 
identical  with  truth  and  error.  What  is  theoretically  true  cannot 
be  practically  false,  and  what  is  foolish  cannot  be  right.  Through 
all  the  intellectual  mazes  of  the  Socratic  method  these  simple  postu- 
lates are  always  assumed.  Everything  else  has  to  be  proved. 

Something  of  course  must  be  assumed.  For  where  there  are  no 
premisses,  there  can  be  no  conclusion.  Yet  Socrates  is  always  ready  to 
meet  in  argument  those  who  contest  even  the  very  point  from  which 
he  starts.  He  baffles  them,  not  by  attacking  their  position,  still  less 
by  defending  his  own,  but  by  leading  them  gently  into  a  path  where 
their  errors  are  unmistakable.  He  takes  the  place  of  every  man's 
conscience,  not  by  putting  forward  any  claim,  but  by  answering  them 
according  to  their  wisdom  or  folly.  This  was  the  one  form  of  con- 
troversy in  which  the  Greek  intellect  had  not  been  trained.  Incapable 
of  misunderstanding  an  argument,  it  yet  depended  upon  antagonism. 
Plato  brought  out  the  fact  that  reason,  if  it  be  genuine,  must  be 
independent  of  external  circumstances,  and  prepared  to  face  any 
difficulty  that  might  arise.  He  showed  that  an  imposing  surface  of 
logical  rhetoric  might  rest  upon  no  foundation,  and  that  the  simplest 
inquiry  might  bring  it  to  the  ground.  Socrates  did  not  choose,  or 
Plato  did  not  choose  for  him,  the  methods  by  which  the  Sophists 
were  confuted.  Their  own  weapons  were  turned  against  themselves. 
They  could  not  fairly  complain  of  the  arbitrament  to  which  they 
had  themselves  appealed,  or  refuse  to  take  up  the  challenge  which 
they  had  thrown  down.  They  had  either  to  let  judgment  go  by 
default,  or  to  accept  the  lead  of  Socrates,  and  take  the  consequences. 
If  he  led  where  he  seemed  to  follow,  and  they  followed  where  they 
seemed  to  lead,  they  were  responsible,  and  not  ,he.  The  science 
by  which  they  were  exposed  was  precisely  the  science  which  they 
offered  to  teach  and  which  they  were  paid  for  teaching.  Plato  would 
have  wasted  his  time  in  urging  the  superiority  of  other  methods. 
He  allowed  the  Sophists  to  be  tried  by  their  own.  By  no  other  means 
could  he  have  produced  the  results  which  he  achieved.  He  was  not 
satisfied  with  a  comparison  of  machinery.  His  aim  was  to  demon- 
strate that  by  no  ingenuity  of  mechanism  could  the  performer  escape 
the  truth.  He  seemed  to  give  his  opponents  every  advantage,  because 
he  fought  in  the  lists  arranged  by  them.  He  knew  that  only  in  that 
way  could  he  substitute  their  admissions  for  his  own  refutations, 
and  make  them  do  his  work  by  confessing  themselves  in  the  wrong. 
If  the  man  convinced  against  his  will  is  of  his  own  opinion  still,  the 
man  conducted  from  his  own  premisses  to  conclusions  which  follow 
from  them  has  no  escape  from  acquiescence. 

The  Socratic  method  was  not  an  external  apparatus  employed  for 
a  purpose.    It  was   the    natural  development  of  human  faculties 


1908  TEE   METHOD  OF  PLATO  687 

along  the  path  to  which  they  pointed  themselves.  When  the 
opponents  of  Socrates  seem  to  have  no  chance,  it  is  not  so 
much  that  he  is  taking  advantage  of  them  as  that  they  have 
given  away  their  own  case,  abandoned  the  controversy  between 
him  and  them.  It  is  they,  not  he,  who  start  irrelevant  topics, 
and  raise  side  issues.  He  always  returns  to  the  main  principle, 
to  the  question  which  they  have  proposed.  He  has  no  system,  and 
does  not  seek  to  construct  one.  His  object  is  to  accompany  those 
with  whom  he  talks  along  a  road  which  they  see  as  they  advance 
lying  open  before  them.  He  is  not  their  guide.  He  only  shows  them 
the  way  which  reason  takes.  The  simplicity  of  his  method  is  dis- 
guised by  poetical  and  metaphorical  language.  But  it  will  be  found 
that  he  infers  nothing  to  which  they  have  not  given  their  assent  by 
implication  beforehand.  He  cares  nothing  for  unwilling  submission 
to  forced  results.  He  desires  merely  to  lead  men  on  through  an 
inevitable  chain  of  causes  and  effects.  Those  who  lectured  him 
soon  found  that  he  was  the  master  and  they  were  the  pupils.  Their 
positions  were  quietly  and  insensibly  reversed  without  their  being 
able  to  point  out  the  particular  step  at  which  the  process  occurred. 
They  dictated  to  him,  not  he  to  them.  He  had  no  ambition,  and 
desired  no  fame.  He  was  a  disturbing  element,  because  he  explained 
to  other  people  the  inner  workings  of  their  own  minds.  If  he  seemed 
to  be  assuring  teachers  that  they  could  not  teach,  it  was  because 
he  used  their  own  arguments  and  showed  where  they  logically  led. 
That  their  materialism  was  inconsistent  with  reason  he  deduced  not 
from  extraneous  sources,  but  from  reason  itself.  He  invited  them 
to  pursue  their  own  course,  not  to  stop  short  by  the  way.  It  was 
not  his  fault  if  they  failed  to  understand  their  own  mental  plight. 
That  at  least  was  the  line  he  took  with  them.  If  his  ideals  were 
different  from  theirs,  he  left  them  to  insist  upon  the  fact.  What  he 
did  was  to  fight  them  with  their  own  tactics  without  seeming  to 
fight  them  at  all.  He  made  many  enemies  and  few  disciples,  because 
the  discovery  of  truth  was  not  the  aim  of  those  who  would  have 
taught  him,  and  whom  he  taught.  They  wanted  his  admiration,  not 
his  help. 

Unless  we  are  to  believe  that  the  whole  story  of  the  Republic  was  a 
figment  of  Plato's  imagination,  we  must  suppose  that  the  Socratic  con- 
clusions did  proceed  from  the  premisses  of  the  Sophists  themselves. 
What,  then,  were  the  conclusions  so  formed  ?  They  were  partly  social, 
and  partly  personal.  They  affected  man  as  an  element  in  the  State, 
and  also  as  an  assemblage  of  qualities  or  characteristics.  Men  were 
never  all  good,  or  all  bad.  Nor  was  it  possible  to  separate  a  man 
from  his  fellow-creatures,  to  consider  him  as  existing  for  himself  alone. 
He  must  be  a  citizen,  or  he  must  be  a  bundle  of  impulses,  feelings, 
tendencies  this  way  or  that.  Is  a  State  determined  by  the  characters 
of  its  inhabitants,  or  are  the  characters  of  the  inhabitants  moulded 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  380  U  U 


688  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

by  the  form  of  the  State  ?  Plato  believed  that  in  the  solution  of  this 
question  would  be  found  the  answer  to  the  problem,  how  justice 
could  be  connected  with  the  individual  as  well  as  with  the  corporate 
life.  Government  implies  the  rule  of  the  stronger.  Yet  the  rule  of 
the  stronger  is  in  private  life  the  consecration  of  injustice.  How 
far  does  the  Republic  answer  the  question  whether  these  conflicting 
doctrines  can  be  reconciled  ?  It  does  not  end  with  any  formal  con- 
clusion, as  it  does  not  begin  with  any  definite  programme.  At  no 
point  in  the  Dialogue  is  there  an  abandonment  of  one  purpose,  or 
an  adoption  of  another.  If  the  argument  gradually  passes  from  the 
personal  to  the  political  aspect  of  human  nature,  that  is  because 
the  distributive  quality  of  justice  requires  to  be  examined  on  a  large 
and  varied  scale.  Socrates  is  not  satisfied  with  proving  that  popular 
notions  of  it  are  inadequate.  He  sets  himself  also  to  account  for  the 
origin  of  those  ideas,  and  for  their  influence  upon  men's  minds.  If 
nobody  was  less  dogmatic  than  he,  nobody  clung  with  more  pertinacity 
to  a  position  he  had  once  taken  up.  To  guide  while  seeming  to  follow 
was  the  essence  of  his  teaching,  or  rather  to  let  Reason  decide  for  him, 
and  not  to  question  her  decrees.  He  always  represents  himself  as 
quite  irresponsible — the  servant,  not  the  master,  of  the  discussion 
into  which  he  had  been  brought.  He  simply  made  the  best  of  the 
circumstances  in  which  he  found  himself,  whatever  they  might  be. 
And  what  were  they  ?  Athens  was  a  slave-holding  democracy  in 
which  military  service  was  compulsory,  and  representative  govern- 
ment was  unknown.  Its  power  was  maintained  by  a  navy,  and  the 
people  themselves  were  the  sovereign  authority.  A  purer  form  of 
democracy  there  has  never  been,  nor  a  more  highly  cultivated  type  of 
legislative  machinery. 

Nevertheless,  or  perhaps  all  the  more,  this  political  type  illustrated 
the  imperfection  of  all  human  contrivances,  and  their  inadequacy  to 
express  the  real  or  ideal  essence  of  things.  The  society  in  which 
Plato  and  Socrates  lived  could  not  be  made  to  correspond  with  any 
philosophical  conception.  The  mind  in  its  search  for  truth  had  to 
work  independently,  to  move  in  the  imaginative  region  which  is  above 
and  beyond  the  business  of  life.  The  object  of  examples  was  to  show 
that  the  general  rules  to  which  they  belonged  had  a  separate  existence 
of  their  own.  The  rules  were  not  composed  from  the  particular 
instances.  The  particular  instances  were  constructed  from  the  rules. 
The  number  of  actual  cases  could  make  an  ideal  case.  An  ideal  case 
was  able  to  contain  any  number  of  actual  cases.  Such  at  least  was 
the  Platonic,  or  Socratic,  doctrine,  without  which  Plato,  or  Socrates, 
is  unintelligible,  even  if  the  soundness  of  his  other  positions  be  taken 
for  granted. 

Plato  regarded  Athenian  loyalty  as  too  narrow  a  sentiment 
for  a  citizen  of  Greece,  though  he  was  as  ready  as  anyone  to 
exclude  foreigners,  those  who  were  not  Greeks  at  all,  from  the 


1908  THE   METHOD   OF  PLATO  689 

privileges  which  he  would  have  made  Panhellenic.     He  wrote  in 
the  decline  of  Athenian  power  after  the  fall  of  Pericles,  to  whom 
indeed  he  apparently  traced  many  of  the  evils  which  he  condemned. 
It  was  certainly  not  from  any  tenderness  for  despotism  that  he  in- 
veighed against  democracy,  nor  from  any  sympathy  with  the  despot 
that  he  urged  the  necessity  of  some  absolute  authority,  beyond  which 
a  dispute  could  not  be  carried.     He  desired  that  the  authority  should 
be  reason.     But  whose  reason  was  it  to  be  ?     To  escape  from  the 
rule  of  the  majority  without  substituting  for  it  some  other  form  of 
domination   equally   inconsistent   with   personal   freedom   was   the 
problem  which  the  Platonic  Socrates  laid  down.     He  tested  every 
sort  of  Constitution  from  that  point  of  view,  and  found  them  all 
wanting,  the  Athenian  most  of  all.     For  in  Athens  there  was  neither 
stability  nor  cohesion,  merely  the  triumph  of  popular  rights  without 
regard  for  duty  or  consequence.     What  he  wanted,  and  could  not 
find,  was  the  State  which  promoted  individual  excellence,  and  at 
the  same  time  made  law  the  handmaid  of  liberty.     That  no  such 
State  existed  in  Greece  he  was  well  aware.     The  idea  of  discovering 
it  beyond  the  ramparts  of  Hellenism  seemed  remote.     It  could  there- 
fore only  be  created  in  the  mind.     But  the  process  of  creating  it  would 
reform  the  mind  itself.     If  the  oligarchic  mind  was  narrow,  and  the 
despotic  mind  was  cruel,  and  the  democratic  mind  was  shifty,  by 
what  mixture  of  qualities  could  a  mind  be  made  at  once  steady  and 
strong  ?     For  ordinary  Constitution-making  Plato  had  no  taste.     He 
looked  for  a  city  which  had  foundations,  whose  builder  and  maker 
was  God.     He  believed  in  nothing  material,  except  so  far  as  it  signified 
some  veiled  and  hidden  truth.     Law  without  right  could  only  do 
harm.   Right  without  laws  had  no  authority,  and  became  the  laughing- 
stock of  the  cynic.     Law  and  right  combined  would  need  no  force, 
because  they  would  be  as  persuasive  as  they  were  powerful.     Such 
at  least  was  the  moral  which  Socrates  endeavoured  to  draw,  and 
towards  which  his  otherwise  inexplicable  reasoning  always  led.     In 
his  eyes  the  difficulties  of  life  arose  from  the  perpetual  conflict  between 
convention  and  reality,  between  the  material  and  the  ideal,  between 
policy   and   wisdom,    between   assumption   and   truth.     The   world 
must  be  philosophical  before  it  could  be  practical,  or  it  would  be 
neither  one  nor  the  other.     That  men  of  the  world  do  not  understand 
their  own  business  was  an  integral  part  of  the  Socratic  paradox. 
Socrates  was  reckoned  a  bad  citizen  because  he  would  not  concern 
himself  with  what  he  held  to  be  the  solemn  trifling  of  current  politics, 
meaningless  in  the  eye  of  reason,  and  profitless  to  the  soul.    He  never 
denied  that  he  would  make  a  bad  citizen  of  a  bad  State.     But  then 
what  was  the  remedy  for  the  evil  which  he  admitted  ?     It  was  not 
to  bring  the  individual  down,  but  to  bring  the  State  up.     It  was  to 
frame   a   commonwealth   so   perfectly   adjusted  that   every   citizen 


640  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

would  feel  in  his  natural  place,  and  act  accordingly.  Certainly  this 
was  no  half-measure.  Nor  did  Socrates  hold  out  any  hope  that 
anything  less  would  avail.  He  was  ready  in  his  own  peculiar  fashion 
to  reason  with  all  comers,  until  their  premisses  had  led  them  to  his 
conclusions  by  a  method  of  which  they  could  not  dispute  the  validity, 
little  as  they  might  relish  the  object  or  the  result.  If  the  Sophists 
had  not  professed  to  know  more  than  Socrates  knew  he  might  have 
adopted  a  different  line  with  them.  But  if  his  arguments  were 
negative  his  results  were  positive. 

It  is  not  the  mere  process  of  argument  with  which  Socrates  was 
concerned.  His  opponents  could  use  that  as  well  as  he.  Only  they 
always  found  that  it  led  them  his  way,  and  not  their  own.  Unless 
they  refused  to  argue  altogether,  they  had  no  choice.  To  deny  the 
Socratic  premisses  was  the  only  way  of  disputing  the  Socratic  con- 
clusions. After  the  first  step  the  whole  course  followed  by  inevitable 
stages  until  the  end  was  reached.  But  it  was  not  the  perfection  of 
the  machinery  upon  which  Socrates  insisted.  It  was  the  effect  of  that 
arrangement  upon  the  mind.  He  had  no  taste  for  syllogisms  or  logic- 
chopping.  He  aimed  at  metaphysical  truth,  truth  in  its  highest 
sense,  an  idealism  which  would  lose  its  essence  by  being  realised,  as 
perhaps  all  idealism  does.  The  forms  of  Plato  were  more  real  to  him 
than  living  man,  if  only  because  each  of  them  comprised  the  qualities 
of  many  men,  the  substance  of  various  characters  fused  into  a  single 
whole.  Plato  never  admitted  the  antagonism  of  the  abstract  and 
the  concrete.  They  were  to  him  different  forms  of  the  same  truth. 
The  opposition  which  mattered  was  between  true  and  false,  good  and 
bad,  and  it  was  as  prominent  in  practice  as  in  theory.  So  at  least  it 
seemed  to  him.  A  sound  argument  could  not  lead  to  an  unsound 
conclusion,  the  truth  of  the  premisses  being  assumed.  Of  course 
a  mere  logician  could  say  as  much  as  this.  But  Plato  invested  the 
bare  demonstration  with  all  the  charm  of  intellect  and  fancy,  poetry 
and  imagination,  rhetoric,  though  he  despised  it,  and  art,  though  he 
wrote  it  down.  It  is  the  extreme  complexity  of  Plato's  simplicity 
that  makes  the  difficulty  of  understanding  it.  Well  has  it  been  said 
that  simplicity  is  a  work  of  art.  Nothing  is  harder  to  produce  than 
what  appears  inevitable,  such  as  the  greatest  poetry  and  the  most 
perfect  prose.  Plato's  aim  was  to  combine  excellence  of  style  with 
truth  of  fact,  and  to  bring  out  a  right  conclusion  by  methods  which 
could  not  be  repudiated  except  by  repudiating  reason  itself.  If  he 
sometimes  seems  to  beg  the  question  and  assume  what  he  has  to 
prove,  that  is  because  his  conclusion  follows  so  directly  from  his 
premisses  that  it  cannot  even  be  intercepted  on  the  way. 

Socrates  had  against  him  keen  intellects  as  well  as  constituted 
authorities,  and  he  never  refused  to  argue  with  them.  He  allowed 
them  to  choose  their  own  ground,  knowing  that  there  could  be  only 


1908  THE  METHOD   OF  PLATO  641 

one  result  of  a  rational  contest  between  him  and  them.  Although  he 
never  lost  sight  of  his  object,  he  did  not  let  it  divert  his  mind  from  the 
means  by  which  alone  it  could  be  achieved.  He  had  to  deal  with 
men  who  lived  by  argument,  who  regarded  a  verbal  proposition 
as  a  fact,  who  had  ceased  to  distinguish  between  a  logical  process 
and  a  tangible  performance.  He  beat  them  in  their  own  way, 
never  concealing  his  opinion  that  truth  was  attainable  by  other  and 
better  forms  of  approach.  '  The  wisest  of  men,  because  he  knew  his 
own  ignorance,'  he  knew  also  that  ignorance  was  comparative,  and 
that  the  fallacies  from  which  his  mind  was  free  were  hindrances, 
not  aids,  to  knowledge.  There  was  no  form  of  intellectual  effort 
which  he  had  not  tried,  no  kind  of  mental  investigation  he  had  not 
practised.  Where  he  seemed  unable  to  follow  a  chain  of  reasoning, 
he  really  perceived  an  impregnable  barrier  to  further  progress.  An 
exhaustion  of  all  possible  errors  was  his  way  of  arriving  at  truth. 
That  was  why  all  attempts  to  refute  him  failed.  Plato  never  hides 
the  difficulties  of  the  Socratic  process.  His  genius  and  eloquence 
illuminate,  and  do  not  obscure.  They  show  the  argument  stretching 
from  premisses  to  conclusion,  from  start  to  goal.  When  we  read 
of  Socrates  in  Xenophon,  the  accessories  drop  away,  and  we  see 
the  simplicity  of  the  teaching  without  the  trappings  of  Plato's 
incomparable  style. 

'  The  one  remains,  the  many  change  and  pass.'  Xenophon 
shows  that  Plato  did  not  invent  Socrates.  He  gives  the  charac- 
teristics by  which  the  man  would  always  be  known.  But  it 
is  to  Plato  we  must  go  if  we  would  understand  the  depth  of  the 
Socratic  philosophy,  its  comprehensive  grasp  of  wisdom  and  truth, 
its  steadfast  adherence  to  the  principles  which  do  not  change.  Plato 
wrote  for  a  generation  that  knew  all  the  circumstances  of  his  master's 
career,  that  could  check  him  in  details,  howsoever  incapable  of  appre- 
ciating the  hidden  depths  of  his  metaphysical  creed.  We  know 
Socrates  from  Plato  as  well  as  we  know  Johnson  from  Boswell,  and 
yet  everything  which  passes  through  the  Platonic  crucible  comes  out 
of  it  with  the  hardness  as  well  as  the  gleam  of  gold.  If  it  is  impossible 
to  think  of  Socrates  without  Plato,  or  of  Plato  without  Socrates, 
that  may  be  explained  by  the  literary  accident  that  Plato  made 
Socrates  the  principal  character  in  his  matchless  Dialogues.  Neither 
is  merged  in  the  other.  We  have  Socrates  as  he  appeared  to  Plato, 
and  Socrates  as  he  appeared  to  Xenophon.  The  difference  cannot 
be  in  Socrates  himself,  nor  in  his  methods,  nor  in  his  doctrines.  Where, 
then,  does  it  lie  ?  It  lies  in  the  perennial  contrast  between  truth  as 
understood  by  the  philosopher  and  fact  as  perceived  by  the  man  of 
the  world.  Xenophon  fastened  upon  the  practical  objections  to 
democratic  government  which  Socrates  was  fond  of  urging.  Plato 
perceived  that  they  were  objections  to  all  forms  of  government  which 


642  TSE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

had|hitlierto  been  tried  among  men,  and  indeed  to  all  systems  which 
men  were  capable  of  constructing  until  they  entirely  changed  their 
whole  outlook  upon  the  world.  If  it  is  impossible  to  consider  the 
State  apart  from  the  individual,  or  the  individual  apart  from  the 
State,  a  political  question  must  be  a  moral  question,  and  the  best 
type  of  polity  must  bear  the  closest  resemblance  to  the  best  type  of 
character.  That  is  the  true  meaning  of  the  comparison  between 
morality  and  politics,  the  essence  of  the  Platonic  or  Socratic  doctrine 
on  the  subject.  Whether  we  speak  of  the  citizen  as  a  man,  or  the 
man  as  a  citizen,  we  equally  imply  and  acknowledge  an  identity  in  the 
relative  position  of  the  two  towards  policy  on  the  one  hand  or  morality 
on  the  other.  It  is  vain  to  look  in  Plato  for  instruction  upon  political 
problems  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term.  To  do  so  is  profoundly 
to  misunderstand  him.  It  was  part  of  his  philosophy  that  politics 
could  not  be  understood  by  themselves,  and  had  to  be  studied  as  part 
of  truth,  which  comprehended  all  time  and  all  existence.  He  had 
no  prejudice  against  the  Athenian  Constitution  as  such.  He  saw  the 
advantages  as  well  as  the  drawbacks  of  democracy,  the  differences 
between  the  Athenian  democracy  and  a  democratic  ideal,  the  contrast 
between  the  standard  of  philosophy  and  the  standard  of  the  world. 
The  only  way  to  reconcile  them  was  to  try  them  both  by  the  touch- 
stone of  pure  reason,  which  would  leave  only  their  sound  parts  intact. 
It  has  been  said  that  Plato  cannot  be  refuted  because  his  reason- 
ing, like  an  endless  chain,  leaves  no  room  for  refutation.  But  if  that 
were  so,  or  at  least  if  it  were  a  complete  account  of  the  matter,  Plato 
would  have  reached  no  positive  result  at  all,  and  the  Republic  would 
prove  as  little  as  the  Iliad.  The  destruction  of  falsehood,  even  the 
exposure  of  fallacies,  leaves  a  substance  which  has  undergone  the 
hardest  process  to  which  truth  can  be  subjected,  and  has  by  that 
method  been  made  definite,  if  not  practical.  While-  the  opponents 
of  Socrates  were  dissecting  phrases,  and  chasing  shadows,  he  was 
always  in  quest  of  the  light  beyond,  the  vision  behind  the  veil.  The 
profoundest  conviction  of  his  mind  was  that  thorough  knowledge 
coincided  with  goodness,  that  the  simple  man  perceived  for  himself 
what  only  the  philosopher  could  explain,  that  moral  difficulties  dis- 
appeared with  the  removal  of  intellectual  misapprehensions,  that 
the  distinction  between  intellect  and  character  did  not  correspond 
with  any  real  difference  at  all.  He  refused  to  believe  that  reason 
could  be  a  blind  guide  if  it  were  not  perverted  by  influences  of 
character  and  motive.  Otherwise  life  would  be  an  endless  contradic- 
tion, and  to  argue,  even  with  oneself,  would  be  futile,  because  no  trust- 
worthy result  could  be  attained.  A  man  could  even  be  judge  in  his 
own  cause  if  he  followed  reason  steadily,  and  listened  to  nothing 
else.  No  one  except  Plato  has  worked  this  theory  out,  and  insisted 
upon  its  full  logical  significance.  Socrates  proved  such  a  disturbing 


1908  THE   METHOD   OF  PLATO  648 

element  that  he  was  put  out  of  the  way.  But  though  the  Athenian 
public  got  rid  of  the  man,  they  could  not  get  rid  of  the  doctrine.  The 
proposition  that  what  is  wrong  is  necessarily  foolish,  and  what  is 
wise  is  necessarily  right,  has  never  died  out,  and  cannot  die.  It  does 
not  depend  upon  the  glamour  of  Plato's  eloquence.  It  rests  upon  a 
foundation  which  nothing  can  shake. 

HERBERT  PAUL. 


644  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 


HEALTH  AND    THE  BOARD    OF 
EDUCATION 


IT  is  not  common  in  Parliamentary  history  that  the  same  measure 
should,  in  two  consecutive  years,  pass  both  Houses  of  Parliament, 
with  the  approval  of  both  parties.  It  would  seem  unlikely  that 
anything  passed  with  such  impressive  unanimity  and  such  unusual 
repetition  should  prove  a  failure  administratively.  Such,  however, 
seems  likely  to  be  the  history  of  the  present  law  with  regard  to  the 
medical  inspection  and  treatment  of  school-children. 

The  provisions  in  question  were  first  introduced  in  the  unfortunate 
Education  Bill  of  1906.  They  were  received  with  general  approval ; 
they  passed  the  House  of  Lords  without  any  difficulty,  but  finally  went 
down  in  the  general  wreck  of  that  ill-starred  measure.  The  next  year 
the  Government  announced  that  they  meant  to  re-introduce  the  non- 
controversial  parts  of  the  late  Bill.  This  they  did  in  a  highly  mis- 
cellaneous measure,  which  was  passed  under  the  title  of  the  Adminis- 
trative Provisions  (Education)  Act,  1907.  The  most  important  part 
of  that  Act  is  contained  in  a  few  words  in  Clause  13.  They  are  so 
important  as  to  be  worth  quoting  in  full :  .- 

The  powers  and  duties  of  a  local  education  authority  under  Part  III.  of  the 
Education  Act  of  1902  shall  include  .  .  .  the  duty  to  provide  for  the  medical 
inspection  of  children  immediately  before,  or  at  the  time  of,  or  as  soon  as 
possible  after,  their  admission  to  a  public  elementary  school,  and  on  such  other 
occasions  as  the  Board  of  Education  may  direct,  and  the  power  to  make  such 
arrangements  as  may  be  sanctioned  by  the  Board  of  Education  for  attending  to 
the  health  and  physical  condition  of  the  children  educated  in  public  elementary 
schools. 

The  distinction  between  the  optional  and  the  compulsory  part  of  the 
clause,  between  the  '  powers  '  and  the  '  duties  '  of  the  local  education 
authority,  will  be  noticed.  It  is  perhaps  worth  while  to  mention  that 
the  clause  as  originally  introduced  was  entirely  optional,  and  con- 
sisted of  the  latter  half  only  of  the  present  clause.  An  amendment 
to  render  the  clause  compulsory  was  introduced.  This  received  the 
strong  and  emphatic  support  of  Mr.  Balfour.  He  said,  in  speaking 
on  the  amendment,  '  that  unquestionably  the  speeches  which  had 


I 

1908  HEALTH  AND  THE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION  645 

been  made  must  have  proved  to  all  those  who  heard  them  that  an 
immense  benefit  could  be  done  to  the  children  of  the  present  generation 
if  some  such  scheme  as  that  suggested  by  the  hon.  gentleman  who 
moved  the  amendment  were  adopted,'  *  and  he  concluded  by  saying 
that  the  Government  were  the  best  judges  of  the  practical  difficulties, 
but  that  for  his  part  '  he  hoped  that  they  were  not  insuperable,  and, 
further,  that  if  they  carried  out  the  scheme,  which  was  one  of  first-rate 
importance,  it  would  be  done  thoroughly.'  Cheered  and  fortified  by 
the  support  of  the  Leader  of  the  Opposition,  the  Government  next 
year  were  emboldened  to  add  the  compulsory  part  of  the  clause.  The 
measure,  therefore,  is  in  no  sense  party.  The  credit  of  its  introduction 
is  due  to  the  Government.  The  credit,  however,  of  its  re-introduction 
in  a  stronger  form  is  unquestionably  due  to  the  Opposition. 

There  is,  however,  reason  to  fear  that  the  good  intentions  of  Parlia- 
ment may  be  disappointed  by  the  administrative  action  of  the  Govern- 
ment. The  loose  and  vague  words  of  the  clause  leave  great  powers  to 
the  Board  of  Education ;  and  it  seems  probable  the  policy  of  the 
Board,  though  well-intentioned  enough  in  itself,  may  do  great  harm. 
The  danger  is  that  the  local  authorities  may  be  alarmed  and  disgusted 
by  the  elaborate  demands  of  the  Department,  and  that  the  Act  may  be 
brought  into  disrepute  by  the  introduction  of  a  costly  and  unpractical 
scheme.  Most  local  authorities  have  no  practical  experience  of  the 
matter.  The  medical  department  of  the  Board  has  not  yet  kept  its 
first  birthday.  The  wise  policy  would,  therefore,  have  been  to  begin 
gradually,  to  allow  each  local  authority  to  work  out  its  own  scheme, 
and  to  make  experiments.  The  Board  have  acted  otherwise.  The 
new  Code  issued  in  July  makes  medical  inspection  a  necessary  condition 
of  obtaining  the  ordinary  school  grant 2 ;  and  what  the  Board  mean  by 
medical  inspection  is  defined  by  three  circulars  (Circulars  576,  582, 
596).  In  the  first  place,  the  minimum  medical  inspection  required 
by  the  Act  is  quadrupled  by  the  Board.  The  Act  says  that  each  child 
must  be  examined  at  least  once,  at  its  entry  into  school.  The  Board 
says  it  must  be  examined  four  times.3  The  Board  further  defines  what 
is  necessary  in  order  to  attain  the  '  minimum  of  efficient  medical 
inspection.'  This '  minimum '  includes  the  whole  of  the  previous  history 
of  the  illnesses  which  the  child  has  passed  through,  and  the  '  effects  of 
these ' ;  the  family  history,  if  that  appears  interesting ;  and  entries  under 
twenty-four  separate  heads  regarding  the  child's  present  condition. 
These  entries  start  with,  the  child's  height  and  weight  (to  be  recorded 
both  in  English  and  metric  measures),  and  conclude  with  questions 
on  matters  needing  such  elaborate  examination  as  '  mental  con- 
dition,' state  of  '  heart,'  '  lungs,'  and  '  nervous  system.'  The  Board 
prescribes,  in  short,  the  kind  of  examination  required  by  a  specially 
scrupulous  insurance  company.  An  annual  statement  of  the  '  facts 

1  Times,  July  17,  1906,  p.  6.  *  Code,  1908,  par.  25  (c). 

*  Circular  582,  p.  1,  par.  4,  and  accompanying  schedule. 


646  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

disclosed,'  arranged  under  the  twenty-four  headings,  must  also  be 
submitted.4  It  is  true  that  the  Board  in  the  same  document  expresses 
the  opinion  that  the  elaborate  examination  prescribed  will  not  take  very 
long.  It  is  obvious,  however,  that  to  answer  adequately  all  the  twenty- 
four  questions,  leaving  out  of  account  the  child's  history  and  that  of 
its  family,  must  take  a  considerable  time.  Consequently,  the  burden 
placed  on  the  local  authority  is  exceedingly  severe,  while  the  practical 
benefit  to  the  child  appears  uncertain. 

Now,  the  danger  of  these  elaborate  requirements  is  a  very  real  one. 
It  is,  that  the  time  and  resources  of  the  local  education  authorities  will 
be  wasted  in  fulfilling  the  minutiae  of  the  departmental  requirements, 
and  that  no  money  or  energy  will  be  left  for  carrying  out  those  fruitful 
experiments  from  which  true  progress  may  be  hoped.  The  matter  is 
one  of  public  interest.  What,  above  all,  is  wanted  is  more  knowledge. 
It  seems,  therefore,  that  it  may  be  useful  to  discuss  what  has  been  done 
by  the  only  education  authority  which  has  had  practical  experience 
on  a  large  scale,  and  the  lessons  which  may  be  drawn  from  that 
experience.  Let  us,  therefore,  consider  in  detail  the  problem  as  it 
presents  itself  in  London. 

As  is  tolerably  well  known,  the  origin  of  public  uneasiness  in  the 
matter  was  the  Report  of  the  Inspector-General  for  Recruiting  in  the 
year  1902,  followed  by  an  article  from  Sir  Frederick  Denison  Maurice 
in  the  Contemporary  Review  ;  and  from  that  time  the  journalistic 
world  was  considerably  occupied  with  what  it  called  '  the  physical 
deterioration  of  the  race.'  Then  came  the  Report  of  the  Committee 
on  Physical  Deterioration.  That  report  may  not  be  unfairly  summed 
up  as  a  piteous  cry  for  more  light : 

The  Committee  believe  that  their  labours  will  result  in  giving  matter  for 
reflection  to  those  who  realise  the  importance  of  evidence  towards  the  deter- 
mination of  issues  of  such  uncertainty  and  complexity,  and  that  these 
persons  .  .  .  will  await  the  necessary  steps  being  taken  to  secure  that  body  of 
well- sifted  and  accurate  information  without  which  it  is  impossible  to  arrive  at 
any  conclusion  of  value  as  to  the  general  problem.5 

To  obtain  these  facts  the  Committee  seem  chiefly  to  have  relied 
on  the  medical  examination  of  school-children.6 

The  direct  consequence  of  this  report  was  the  Act  under  discussion. 
In  England  generally  the  facts  needed  have  not  yet  been  obtained. 
In  London  things  are  otherwise.  London  is  five  or  six  years  ahead 
of  the  rest  of  England  (with  the  possible  exception  of  Bradford.)  As 
far  back  as  1902  the  London  School  Board  began  systematic  medical 
inspection.  It  started  with  the  idea  of  excluding  from  school  children 
who  were  dangerous  to  others,  and  of  selecting  children  who  needed 
special  instruction.  Step  by  step,  however,  dealing  with  one  subject 

4  Circular  596,  p.  5,  par.  6  (d). 

5  Report  of  Inter-Departmental  Committee  on  Physical  Deterioration,  pp.  92,  93. 

6  Ibid.  p.  91. 


1908  HEALTH  AND  THE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION  647 

after  another,  and  gradually  increasing  its  staff,  this  system  of  medical 
inspection  has  been  greatly  extended.  There  are  now  in  London  three 
school  doctors  employed  full  time,  two  employed  half-time,  twenty- 
three  employed  for  quarter-time,  and  thirty-two  school  nurses  under  a 
superintendent.  Different  matters  have  been  dealt  with  at  different 
times,  and  with  varying  degrees  of  thoroughness,  as  the  Council 
extended  its  field  of  operations.  The  same  result  has,  however,  been 
found  in  one  department  after  another.  It  was  uniformly  found  that 
inspection  created  a  desire  for  treatment ;  that  too  often  the  demand 
of  the  parents  produced  no  corresponding  supply ;  and  that,  in 
consequence,  after  a  certain  time  no  further  progress  was  made. 

The  eyesight  of  the  children  was  first  examined  ;  and  it  is  probable 
that  the  present  arrangements  are  susceptible  of  but  little  improve- 
ment. After  a  preliminary  test  by  the  teachers,  the  Council  oculist 
visits  the  schools  and  selects  the  children  in  need  of  treatment.  A 
communication  is  then  sent  to  the  parent,  pointing  out  that  the  child's 
vision  is  defective,  and  urging  him  to  obtain  medical  advice.  The 
teachers,  it  should  be  added,  have  shown  most  praiseworthy  interest 
in  the  matter,  and  have  energetically  pressed  the  need  for  treatment 
on  the  parents.  Now  a  parent  who  wants  a  prescription  for  a  pair  of 
spectacles  has  three  courses  open  to  him.  He  may  go  to  an  eye- 
specialist  and  pay  a  fee  of  a  guinea  or  two  ;  he  may  attend  a  hospital 
as  an  out-patient ;  or  he  may  go  to  an  optician  and  get  advice  from  an 
unqualified  tradesman.  This  exhausts  the  list  of  possible  alternatives. 
The  general  practitioner  does  not,  and  usually  cannot,  deal  with 
what  are  called  refraction  cases ;  and  even  the  friendly  societies,  in 
such  circumstances,  content  themselves  with  indicating  the  suitable 
hospital,  or  with  procuring  letters  for  their  members.  The  danger  of 
applying  to  an  unqualified  tradesman  is  obvious.  For  the  ordinary 
prosperous  artisan  the  eye-specialist  is,  of  course,  out  of  the  question. 
There  remain  the  hospitals  ;  and,  most  unfortunately,  the  out-patient 
departments  of  the  London  hospitals  are  altogether  unable  to  meet 
the  demand.  The  first  result  of  inspection  was  a  great  increase 
in  the  number  of  child  out-patients.  Instantly  the  most  urgent 
remonstrances  were  received  from  the  hospitals;  and  these  remon- 
strances have  continued,  growing  in  urgency,  till  the  present  time. 
The  London  Hospital,  Moorfields  Hospital,  the  Great  Northern 
Hospital,  St.  George's  Hospital,  the  Victoria  Hospital,  and,  in  fact, 
nearly  all  the  principal  London  hospitals,  make  the  same  complaint. 
Their  out-patients'  departments  are  flooded,  and  their  resources  are 
overstrained,  by  the  number  of  cases  of  children  attendirig  from  the 
London  schools.  At  the  same  time,  the  demands  which  the  hospitals 
find  so  burdensome  are  only  a  fraction  of  what  is  needed.  In  1903, 
for  instance,  the  Council  doctor  re-examined  2298  children  three 
months  after  the  date  of  the  first  inspection.  It  was  found  that 
36  per  cent,  had  had  '  some  sort  of  advice.'  The  percentage  figures,  it 


648  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

was  added,  however,  appeared  much  better  than  the  reality.7  Much 
the  same  results  appear  from  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Association  for 
the  Supply  of  Spectacles  in  London  Elementary  Schools.  In  the 
report  for  1907  we  read  : 

The  committee  obtained  through  the  help  of  the  head  teachers  in  some 
schools  lists  of  the  children  who  needed  spectacles  and  those  who  obtained 
them.  .  .  .  We  give  the  actual  figures  obtained  from  the  teachers  in  two  poor 
schools,  a  girls'  and  a  boys',  in  similar  circumstances.  It  appeared  here  that 
fifty-nine  girls  and  thirty- eight  boys  were  reported  by  the  London  County 
Council  oculist  as  having  defective  sight.  Of  the  girls,  twenty-three  did  not 
obtain  prescriptions,  twenty  obtained  spectacles,  one  was  not  ordered  to  wear 
glasses  by  the  prescribing  surgeon  at  the  hospital,  and  the  remainder  had  left 
and  could  not  be  traced.  Of  the  boys,  twenty-three  did  nothing,  three  obtained 
glasses,  and  no  information  could  be  procured  with  regard  to  the  remainder. 
In  more  than  one  case  it  appeared  that  the  child  had  attended  hospital  once, 
and  had  either  not  used  the  '  drops  '  ordered,  or  had  not  returned  as  directed. 
The  girls'  department  had  been  the  subject  of  a  very  special  effort  on  the  part 
of  the  head  teacher,  and  the  result  may  fairly  be  taken  to  represent  the  best 
that  the  teachers  can  do  unaided  in  a  really  poor  neighbourhood.  The  difficulty, 
here  and  elsewhere,  is  the  difficulty  of  procuring  advice. 

As  far,  therefore,  as  eyesight  is  concerned  the  result  of  medical 
inspection  has  been  to  show  that  for  many  children  medical  advice 
is  both  desirable  and  unattainable.  The  practical  good  effect  is 
strictly  limited  in  amount,  and  does  not  appear  likely  to  increase. 

Much  the  same  result  follows  from  inspection  in  other  matters. 
The  condition  of  the  children's  teeth  is  very  bad  indeed,  and  the 
parents  in  London  take  hardly  any  interest  in  the  matter.  Here, 
however,  inspection  has  been  made  in  sample  rather  than  in  bulk. 
Comparatively  few  schools  have  been  examined,  and  these  rather 
with  a  view  of  collecting  information  than  of  obtaining  practical  results. 
As  far  as  the  writer  is  aware,  too,  only  two  head  teachers  have  taken 
up  the  matter  with  any  energy.  With  regard  to  .the  teeth  of  the 
children,  therefore,  the  position  is  much  what  it  was  with  regard  to 
their  eyes  before  1900.  The  need  for  treatment  exists,  but  neither 
the  demand  nor  the  supply.  The  need  is  very  great.  An  interesting 
paper  was  read,  for  instance,  by  Mr.  Wallis  before  the  last  Congress  on 
School  Hygiene.  The  writer  gave  detailed  accounts  of  the  examina- 
tion of  the  teeth  of  245  children  in  a  school  in  the  South  of  London. 
Of  these  245,  four  were  considered  to  have  healthy  sets  of  teeth. 
'  The  total  absence  of  any  skilled  dental  treatment '  was  also  noticed. 
Much  the  same  results  appear  from  a  statement  submitted  by  the 
British  Dental  Association  to  the  Inter-Departmental  Committee  on 
Medical  Inspection  and  School  Feeding.8  The  statement,  after  giving 
elaborate  tables,  and  discussing,  in  the  light  of  these  tables,  the  number 

7  School  Board  for  London.     Report  of  the  Medical  Officer,  1903,  p.  17. 

8  Report  of  Inter- Departmental  Committee  on  Medical  Inspection  and  Feeding  of 
Children  attending  Public  Elementary  Schools,  vol.  ii.  Appendix  VI.  p.  281. 


1908  HEALTH  AND  THE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION  649 

of  recruits  to  the  army  rejected  on  account  of  bad  teeth,  winds  up  with 
these  remarkable  words :  '  The  foregoing  tables,  and  the  knowledge  that 
the  teeth  of  children  in  elementary  schools  are  from  a  dental  standpoint 
almost  entirely  neglected,  show,  we  think,  why  our  army  loses  so  great 
a  number  of  possible  recruits.'  The  private  dentist,  like  the  eye- 
specialist,  is  a  little  beyond  the  reach  of  the  ordinary  artisan  ;  and 
the  hospital  accommodation  is  very  small  indeed.  It  is  probable 
enough,  however,  that  want  of  treatment  is  not  responsible  for  more 
than  about  half  of  the  mischief  existing.  Of  the  245  children  men- 
tioned above,  only  three  used  a  tooth-brush.  A  good  deal  might  be 
done  to  teach  that  dirt  is  disgraceful.  With  the  spread  of  that  idea 
many  of  the  evils  complained  of  would  disappear.  In  consequence, 
the  need  for  treatment,  though  considerable,  is  not  on  the  gigantic 
scale  that  the  figures  given  might  appear  to  indicate.  It  is  clear, 
however,  that,  in  the  present  circumstances,  to  inspect  the  teeth  of  all 
London  children  would  be  a  mere  waste  of  money.  Additional  know- 
ledge is  not  needed  ;  and  it  is  difficult  to  see  what  practical  good  to 
the  children  would  follow. 

In  the  same  way,  the  ears  of  the  children  in  certain  selected  schools 
have  been  examined,  and  a  class  has  been  found  who  are  in  urgent  need 
of  help.  These  are  the  children  with  discharging  ears.  Among  the 
poorer  schools  such  a  condition  is  not  very  uncommon.  In  1907,  for 
instance,  1006  children  between  ten  and  fourteen  were  examined.9 
Out  of  these  seventy-three  were  found  to  be  suffering  from  '  chronic 
suppuration '  of  the  ears.  Such  a  condition  is  extremely  dangerous, 
sometimes  to  life,  and  sometimes  to  hearing,  and  needs  most  careful 
and  assiduous  treatment.  The  ears  should  be  attended  to  two  or  three 
times  a  day  by  a  skilled  nurse,  acting  under  the  constant  super- 
vision of  a  doctor.  No  out-patients'  department  and  no  dispensary 
can  possibly  provide  such  treatment.  In  consequence  a  large  number 
of  the  very  poor  receive  no  treatment  at  all.  Some  pull  through  ; 
some,  it  is  to  be  feared,  die ;  and  the  remainder  ultimately  present 
themselves  as  candidates  for  schools  for  the  deaf.  Children  deaf  from 
this  cause  account  for  a  very  considerable  proportion  of  the  deaf  who 
are  being  educated  at  the  public  expense.  In  1906,  for  instance, 
215  fresh  cases  of  deaf  children  were  examined  for  admission  to 
special  schools.  Of  these,  we  are  told,  forty-two  showed  some 
remains  of  hearing,  and  these  were  '  mostly  cases  of  neglected  middle- 
ear  suppuration.' lu 

Now,  medical  inspection  may  be  useful  in  two  ways  :  first,  in  accu- 
mulating facts ;  secondly,  in  procuring  some  good  to  the  individual 
examined.  In  this  particular  case  it  would  seem  that  the  first  had  been 
sufficiently  secured  by  an  examination  of  samples,  and  that  the  second 

•  Report  of  the  Medical  Officer  (Education)  of  the  L.C.C.  1907,  p.  24. 
'•  Ibid.  1906,  p.  40. 


650  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTUBY  Oct. 

was  at  present  practically  unattainable.  It  is  hard  to  see  how  matters 
would  be  further  advanced  by  an  examination  of  all  London  children. 
It  would  take  too  long  to  give  other  instances  in  detail.  Generally 
it  may  be  said  that  much  the  same  situation  exists  with  all  those 
cases  that  are  beyond  the  scope  of  the  general  practitioner,  but 
which  are  not  sufficiently  serious  to  be  treated  as  in-patients  at  a 
hospital.  In  all  these,  for  statistical  purposes,  it  is  superfluous  to 
examine  all  school-children  repeatedly ;  and  it  is  not  easy  to  see 
what  other  purpose  can  be  served. 

To  turn  to  another  branch  of  the  same  work,  similar  results  have 
arisen  with  regard  to  inspection  for  cleanliness.  Here,  too,  inspection 
has  done  great  good  up  to  a  certain  point.  Here,  too,  matters  are  at  a 
standstill.  A  good  deal  is  done  in  London  to  secure  '  cleanliness.' 
Cleanliness  in  this  connexion  has  a  strictly  technical  meaning,  and 
signifies  simply  freedom  from  vermin.  It  is  not  generally  known 
what  a  scourge  vermin  may  be  among  the  poorer  London  children. 
In  1904,  for  instance,  when  the  children  were  first  properly  examined, 
we  hear  of  a  school  where,  out  of  242  girls,  only  eighty-seven  were 
found  to  be  '  clean ' ;  and  of  a  total  of  2422  girls  seen,  1067  were 
verminous.11  The  original  attitude  of  the  parents  cannot  be  better 
illustrated  than  by  the  remark  of  a  mother  made  in  answer  to  some 
remonstrances  on  the  point  from  the  head  mistress.  Gazing  on  the 
populous  head  of  her  offspring,  the  mother  said,  with  all  that  pensive 
pride  so  often  noticed  in  the  possessors  of  hereditary  disease,  '  That 
runs  in  our  family  ;  I  was  just  the  same  at  her  age.'  Much,  however, 
has  since  been  done.  A  large  staff  of  nurses  now  examine  the  children's 
heads.  The  parents  of  the  dirty  are  warned,  and  when  nothing  is 
done  exclusion  and  prosecution  follow.  The  magistrates  have  shown 
themselves  most  willing  to  deal  severely  with  such  cases.  The  improve- 
ment in  the  schools  is  marked.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find  now  those 
cases  of  really  bad  sore  heads  which  so  commonly  distressed  the 
visitor  in  the  first  years  of  the  century.  So  far  all  is  well.  Humanity 
has,  however,  unfortunately  evolved  two  species  of  parasites ;  and 
while  the  local  authority  deals  successfully  with '  pediculosis  capitis,' 
'  pediculosis  corporis  '  is  still  unchecked  in  the  schools.  In  plain 
English,  in  most  parts  of  London  nothing  is  done,  or  can  be  done  at 
present,  with  the  children  whose  clothes  are  infested  with  lice.  The 
difficulty  is  very  real.  The  eggs  are  laid  in  the  clothes.  They  cannot 
be  dislodged,  and  nothing  but  a  sufficient  degree  of  heat  destroys 
them.  If  a  thick  suit  or  dress  is  once  infested,  nothing  can  be  done 
but  to  bake  it  or  buy  a  new  one.  For  people  in  extreme  poverty  one 
is  as  impossible  as  the  other.  They  have  neither  proper  ovens  nor 
spare  money.  So  strongly  is  it  felt  to  be  a  mere  useless  cruelty  to 
prosecute  people  in  such  circumstances  that  the  County  Council  does 
11  L.C.C.  Report  of  the  Medical  Officer  (Education),  1904,  p.  10. 


1908  HEALTH  AND  THE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION  661 

nothing.  Children  in  this  condition,  in  most  parts  of  London,  attend 
school,  a  misery  to  themselves  and  a  danger  to  others.  Here  and  there, 
it  is  true,  suitable  public  stoves  are  provided  for  this  purpose.  Two 
Borough  Councils,  those  of  St.  Pancras  and  Marylebone,  have  made 
thoroughly  good  separate  provision  for  children.  Some  of  the  remain- 
ing boroughs  have  made  none ;  and  the  rest  are  in  some  cases  willing  to 
take  children,  but  only  at  the  houses  used  for  cleaning  verminous 
adults.  Sometimes  the  place  is  the  casual  ward,  sometimes  the 
shelter  for  persons  turned  out  of  their  houses  for  cleaning  purposes. 
In  all  cases  the  stations  used  for  adults  are  frequented  by  the  most 
undesirable  persons  in  London.  It  is  impossible  for  an  education 
authority  to  take  the  responsibility  of  compelling  children  to  attend 
such  places.  In  consequence,  here  too  it  does  not  appear,  under 
present  circumstances,  as  if  much  more  could  be  done  merely  by 
inspection. 

Such,  then,  has  been  the  general  result  in  London  of  the  inspection 
of  school-children.  That  result  has  been  to  show  that  inspection  is 
useful,  but  useful  in  an  exceedingly  limited  sphere,  and  somewhat  to 
dash  the  hopes  of  those  who,  like  the  members  of  the  Inter-Depart- 
mental Committee,  expected  that  inspection  was  the  key  to  all  diffi- 
culties. It  seems,  therefore,  unfortunate  that  the  Board  of  Education 
should  choose  precisely  this  time  to  make  an  elaborate  and  expensive 
system  of  inspection  compulsory. 

Parliament  has  placed  the  duty  of  caring  for  the  health  of  the 
children  upon  the  local  education  authority,  and  the  consequent 
expenses  on  the  education  rate.  Doubtless  there  is  hardly  any 
manner  in  which  public  money  can  be  more  profitably  expended  ; 
but  the  importance  of  the  subject  increases  the  danger  of  wasteful 
and  inconsiderate  action.  Education  is  costly ;  the  education  rate 
evokes  no  conspicuous  enthusiasm  among  the  ratepayers  ;  and  to 
make  the  Act  unpopular  with  the  local  authorities  would  be  nothing 
short  of  national  misfortune.  At  present  there  is  much  goodwill 
and  a  general  interest  in  the  subject.  This  is  shown  by  the  experiments 
which  have  been  made,  sometimes  by  private  charity  and  sometimes 
from  public  funds.  At  Cambridge,  for  instance,  a  '  dental  school 
clinic  '  has  been  established  ;  and  at  Bradford  a  similar  institution 
for  eye  and  skin  diseases.  The  Cambridge  institution  is  supported  by 
private  charity  ;  the  Bradford  institution  from  the  rates.  Both  are 
free,  a  thing  which  at  first  sight  appears  hardly  necessary  or  desirable. 
Such  attempts,  however,  indicate  a  great  and  growing  interest  in 
matters  relating  to  the  health  of  school-children.  Nothing  could  be 
more  likely  to  damp  that  interest,  and  even  to  convert  it  into  hostility, 
than  the  introduction  of  a  compulsory  and  costly  scheme  of  doubtful 
practical  benefit.  In  their  different  memoranda,  and  particularly  in 
their  latest  circular,  the  Board  show  their  knowledge  of  the  need  for 


652  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

new  experiments  and  a  real  desire  to  foster  them.  It  is  not  likely, 
however,  that  the  advice  of  the  Board  will  bear  fruit,  or  that  any  large 
use  will  be  made  of  the  optional  parts  of  the  Act  if  the  Board  insist 
on  so  rigid  an  interpretation  of  the  compulsory  part.  A  reasonable 
liberty,  advice  and  encouragement  rather  than  compulsion,  is  what 
the  local  authorities  need  from  the  Board. 

A.  SUSAN  LAWRENCE. 


1908 


REVOCATION  OF  TREATY  PRIVILEGES  TO 
ALIEN-SUBJECTS 


INTERNATIONAL  Treaties,  or  Conventions,  may  be  divided  into  two 
classes.  One  class  may  prescribe  and  define  the  sovereign  inter- 
national relations,  rights,  duties,  privileges,  and  responsibilities  of 
the  respective  Treaty  nations,  such  as  relate  to  peace  and  war,  contra- 
band of  war,  neutrality,  alliances,  guarantees,  or  to  the  territorial 
possessions,  or  boundaries,  of  their  respective  nations ;  or  such 
other  questions  of  la  haute  politique  extdrieure,  as  may  affect  their 
sovereign  relations,  inter  se,  as  members  of  the  society  of  nations. 

Another  class  of  Treaties  may  concede  the  allowance,  and  pre- 
scribe the  conditions,  of  subordinate,  or  '  alien-subject,'  privileges, 
or  commercial  concessions,  under  which  the  ah" en-subjects  of  another 
nation  are  privileged  to  share  with  the  home-subjects  of  the  conceding 
nation  in  certain  of  their  natural  rights  respecting  the  trade  and  com- 
merce, coast-fisheries,  territorial  admission,  transit  of  persons  or  goods, 
residence,  or  user  of  territorial  easements  to  all,  or  to  designated 
classes,  of  the  subjects,  or  citizens,  of  other  nations.  This  class  of 
alien-subject,  or  commercial,  concessions  comes  within  the  doctrine 
of  International  Law  that :  *  A  State  may  voluntarily  subject  itself 
to  obligations  to  another  State,  both  with  respect  to  persons  and 
things,  which  would  not  naturally  be  binding  upon  her.  These  are 
servitutes  juris  gentium  voluntariae.' l  Other  classifications  of  Treaties 
have  been  made  by  various  authorities  on  International  Law,  which 
divide  them  into  more  classes  than  those  suggested  above.8 

The  generally  assumed  doctrine  of  International  Law  on  the 
question  of  the  prerogative  power  of  a  nation  to  abrogate,  or  vary, 
Treaties  has  been  thus  stated  :  *  Private  contracts  may  be  set  aside 
on  the  ground  of  what  is  technically  called  in  English  law  the  want 
of  consideration,  and  the  inference  arising  from  manifest  injustice, 
and  want  of  mutual  advantage.  But  no  inequality  of  advantage, 
no  Usion,  can  invalidate  a  Treaty.' 3  Further,  as  Vattel  says  :  '  An 

1  Phillimore's  International  Law  (3rd  Ed.),  v.  1,  p.  391. 

*  Hall's  International  Law  (5th  Ed.),  p.  360. 

*  Phillimore'e  International  Law  (3rd  Ed.),  v.  2,  p.  76. 

VOL,  LXIV— No.  380  658  XX 


654  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

injury  cannot  render  a  Treaty  invalid.  If  we  might  recede  from  a 
Treaty  because  we  found  ourselves  injured,  there  would  be  no  stability 
in  the  contracts  of  nations.' 4  But  without  impeaching  this  assumed 
doctrine  as  applicable  to  Treaties  which  deal  with  the  higher  inter- 
national rights  and  responsibilities  of  nations,  as  sovereignties,  it 
will  be  found  that  it  has  not  been  universally  accepted  by  other 
authorities  on  International  Law  as  applicable  to  gratuitous 
or  reciprocal  privileges  conceded  to  the  subjects  or  citizens  of 
foreign  nations  ;  nor  by  some  nations  even  in  the  higher  relations  of 
sovereignties  inter  se ;  as  when  Russia  in  1871  sought  to  revoke  the 
provision  in  the  Treaty  of  1856,  which  '  in  perpetuity  interdicted 
to  the  flag  of  war '  the  Black  Sea  and  its  coasts.  The  protocol  of 
the  signatory  Powers  to  the  original  Treaty  declared  that  '  it  is  an 
essential  principle  of  the  Law  of  Nations  that  no  Power  can  liberate 
itself  from  the  engagements  of  a  Treaty,  nor  modify  the  stipulations 
thereof,  unless  with  the  consent  of  the  contracting  Powers,  by  means 
of  an  amicable  arrangement.' 5  To  apply  such  an  absolute  doctrine 
to  Treaty  concessions  respecting  trade  and  commerce,  coast-fisheries, 
transit  of  persons  or  goods,  or  other  municipal  privileges  in  certain 
natural  rights  of  the  home-subjects  of  a  nation  to  the  alien-subjects 
of  another  nation  would  involve  the  unconditional  surrender  of  an 
inherent  and  inalienable  prerogative  of  sovereignty — in  other  words,  a 
perpetual  national  servitude  to  the  alien-subjects  of  another  nation, 
which  would  be  an  international  degradation  of  its  amour-propre  as  a 
nation — not  sovereign  independence  and  international  equality. 

Of  the  nations  which  have  not  accepted  the  above 'in  its  entirety 
as  a  recognised  doctrine  of  International  Law  the  United  States  has 
been  the  most  pronounced,  for  it  has  furnished  the  largest  number 
of  modern  instances  of  the  exercise  of  the  prerogative  powers  of 
abrogation,  or  variation,  of  Treaties  entered  into  by  it  with  foreign 
nations.  And  respecting  the  second,  or  '  alien-subject,'  or  commercial 
class  of  Treaties,  its  Supreme  Court  has  said  :  '  A  Treaty  may  contain 
provisions  which  confer  certain  rights  upon  the  citizems,  or  subjects, 
of  one  of  the  nations  within  the  territorial  limits  of  the  other,  which 
partake  of  the  nature  of  local  municipal  law,  and  which  are  capable 
of  enforcement  as  between  private  parties  in  the  courts  of  the  country. 
The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  places  such  provisions  as  these 
in  the  same  category  as  other  laws  of  Congress,  and  they  may  be 
repealed,  or  modified,  by  an  Act  of  a  later  date,' 6  without  the  assent 
of  the  foreign  nation  with  which  the  Treaty  has  been  made. 

By  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  its  legislative  powers 
are  vested  in  two  departments  of  the  Supreme  Government :  (a)  by 
Article  I.,  which  provides  that  '  all  legislative  powers  herein  granted 

4  Vattel's  Law  of  Nations,  p.  194. 

8  Wheaton's  International  Law  (1878),  p.  712. 

•  Head,  Money  Cases  (1884),  112  U.S.  580. 


1908  TBEATY  PRIVILEGES  TO  ALIEN-SUBJECTS  655 

shall  be  vested  in  a  Congress  of  the  United  States,  which  shall  consist 
of  a  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  ' ;  and  (6)  by  Article  II., 
which  provides  that  '  the  President  shall  have  power,  by  and  with 
the  consent  of  the  Senate,  to  make  Treaties,  provided  that  two-thirds 
of  the  Senators  present  concur.' 

Then  Article  VI.  declares  that  three  instruments,  viz.  : 

(a)  This  Constitution  and  (b)  the  laws  of  the  United  States  which  shall  be 
made  in  pursuance  thereof,  and  (c)  all  Treaties  made,  or  which  shall  be  made 
under  the  authority  of  the  United  States,  shall  be  the  supreme  law  of  the  land  ; 
and  the  judges  of  every  State  shall  be  bound  thereby,  anything  in  the  Constitu- 
tion or  laws  of  any  State  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

These  articles  of  the  Constitution  received  an  early  interpretation 
by  Chief  Justice  Marshall  in  their  Supreme  Court :  '  Where  a  Treaty 
is  the  law  of  the  land,  and  as  such  affects  the  rights  of  parties  litigating 
in  Court,  that  Treaty  as  much  binds  those  rights,  and  is  as  much  to 
be  regarded  by  the  Court,  as  an  Act  of  Congress.' 7  And  the  repealing 
effect  of  a  Treaty  over  the  previous  legislative  acts  of  State  Legisla- 
tures had  been  earlier  declared  by  the  same  Supreme  Court  that 
'  a  Treaty,  as  the  supreme  law,  overrules  all  State  laws  on  the  same 
subject,  to  all  intents  and  purposes.' 8 

It  may  be  conceded  generally  that  whenever,  under  a  constitutional 
government,  a  Treaty  becomes  operative  by  itself,  its  confirmation 
by  a  legislative  act  is  not  necessary.  But  where  it  imports  a  contract, 
or  where  money  is  required  to  be  appropriated,  or  territory  to  be 
ceded,  in  each  of  such  cases  a  legislative  act  becomes  necessary  before 
the  Treaty  can  be  given  the  force  of  law ;  for  the  public  revenue 
cannot  be  appropriated,  nor  national  territory  be  ceded  (except  as 
a  result  of  war)  by  the  Treaty-making  power  of  a  Government.0 

The  Congressional  power  of  abrogation  was  first  exercised  by  the 
United  States  in  1798,  by  '  An  Act  to  declare  the  Treaties  heretofore 
concluded  with  France  no  longer  obligatory  on  the  United  States.' 
After  a  preamble  reciting,  among  other  grounds,  that  the  Treaties 
with  France  had  been  '  repeatedly  violated  on  behalf  of  the  French 
Government,'  it  enacted '  that  the  same  shall  not  henceforth  be  regarded 
as  legally  obligatory  on  the  Government  or  citizens  of  the  United 
States.' 10 

The  alleged  cause  was  a  decree,  or  legislative  act,  of  the  French 
Directory  of  1796  which  declared  that  '  every  vessel  found  at  sea, 
loaded  in  whole  or  in  part  with  merchandise  the  production  of  England, 
or  of  her  dependencies,  shall  be  declared  good  prize,  whoever  the 
owner  of  the  goods  or  merchandise  may  be,'  thereby  abrogating  the 

'  United  States  v.  Schooner  Peggy  (1801),  1  Cranch  (U.S.),  103. 

8  Ware  v.  Hylton  (1796),  Three  Dallas  (U.S.),  199  ;  Moore's  Digest  of  International 
Law,  v.  5,  ss.  777  and  778. 

•  American  and  English  Encyclopedia  of  Law  (2nd  Ed.),  v.  28,  p.  480 ;  Damodhar 
Qordhan  v.  Deoram  Eanji  (1876),  1,  Appeal  Cases,  332. 

10  Statutes  at  Large  (U.S.),  v.  1,  p.  578,  c.  67. 

z  z  2 


656  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

Treaty  of  1778,  which  provided  that  '  free  ships  shall  give  freedom 
to  goods  on  board  of  the  ships  of  the  subjects  of  either  nation,  contra- 
band goods  excepted.'  n 

A  case  with  Russia  affecting  this  subordinate  class  of  trade  and 
commerce,  under  a  Treaty  of  1832,  which  provided  that  no  higher 
duty  than  25  dollars  per  ton  should  be  chargeable  on  Russian  hemp, 
raised  the  same  question.  By  a  subsequent  Act  of  Congress  the 
duty  was  raised  to  40  dollars  per  ton.  An  action  was  brought  in  a 
United  States  Court  for  a  refund  of  the  extra  duty ;  but  the  Court 
said  :  '  To  refuse  to  execute  a  Treaty  for  reasons  which  approve 
themselves  to  the  conscientious  judgment  of  a  nation  is  a  matter 
of  the  utmost  gravity  and  delicacy,  but  the  power  to  do  so  is  preroga- 
tive, of  which  no  nation  can  be  deprived  without  deeply  affecting  its 
independence.' 12  In  a  later  case,  involving  the  same  question,  the 
Court  said  :  '  Congress  may  render  a  Treaty  inoperative  by  legisla- 
tion in  contradiction  of  its  terms  without  formal  allusion  at  all  to  the 
Treaty ;  thus  modifying  the  law  of  the  land  without  denying  the 
existence  of  the  Treaty  or  the  obligations  thereof  between  the  two 
Governments  as  a  contract.' 13 

This  latter  mode  has  been  applied  to  Canada  on  more  than  one 
occasion  by  the  United  States.  Shortly  after  Jay's  Treaty  of  1794 
the  Executive  of  the  United  States  nullified  the  3rd  Article  of  that 
Treaty,  which  provided  that '  it  shall  at  all  times  be  free  to  the  subjects 
and  citizens  of  both  nations  freely  to  pass  and  repass,  by  land  or 
internal  navigation,  into  the  respective  territories  of  the  two  nations, 
and  freely  to  carry  on  trade  with  each  other.'  It  further  provided 
that  all  goods  and  merchandise  (not  prohibited  by  law)  should  '  freely, 
for  the  purposes  of  commerce,  be  carried  into  the  United  States  by 
His  Majesty's  subjects  ;  and  such  goods  or  merchandise  shall  be 
subject  to  no  higher  duties  than  those  payable  by  the  citizens  of  the 
United  States  on  importations  of  the  same  on  American  vessels  into 
.the  Atlantic  ports  of  the  said  States.'  The  duty  payable  on  such 
importations  at  the  Atlantic  ports  was  16|  per  cent.,  but  the  United 
States  enforced  the  payment  by  Canadians  of  a  duty  of  22  per  cent, 
at  the  inland  ports  along  the  Canadian  boundary  line ;  and  also  a 
fee  of  6  dollars  for  a  licence  to  trade  with  the  Indians,  not  chargeable 
against  American  traders  ; 14  and  so  turned  into  diplomatic  irony  the 
closing  words  of  the  Article  : 

As  this  Article  is  intended  to  render  in  a  great  degree  the  local  advantage 
of  each  party  common  to  both,  and  thereby  to  promote  a  disposition  favourable 
to  friendship,  and  good  neighbourhood,  it  is  agreed  that  the  respective  Govern- 
ments will  mutually  promote  this  amicable  intercourse,  by  causing  speedy  and 

11  American  State  Papers,  Foreign  Relations,  v.  2,  pp.  169-182. 

12  Taylor  v.  Morton,  2  Curtis  (U.S.),  454. 

13  Ropes  v.  Clinch  (1871),  8  Blachford  (U.S.),  804. 

14  American  State  Papers,  Foreign  Relations,  v.  3,  p.  152. 


1908  TREATY  PRIVILEGES  TO  ALIEN-SUBJECTS  657 

impartial  justice  to  be  done,  and  necessary  protection  to  be  extended  to  all 
concerned  therein.15 

A  similar  policy  was  adopted  in  1875  by  Congress  imposing  a 
customs  duty  on  the  tin  cans  in  which  Canadian  fish  oil  and  fish 
were  entitled  by  Article  21  of  the  Treaty  of  Washington  of  1871  to 
be  imported  into  the  United  States  '  free  of  duty.'  The  Act  of 
Congress  enacted  :  '  That  cans  or  packages  made  of  tin  or  other 
material,  containing  fish  of  any  kind  admitted  free  of  duty  under 
any  law  or  Treaty,' 1G  should  be  subject  to  a  specific  duty,  though  the 
tin  cans  when  opened  were  necessarily  destroyed,  as  unsaleable  and 
useless.  The  effect  of  this  legislation  was  declared  by  the  British 
Minister  to  '  prohibit  entirely  the  importation  of  fish  from  Canada 
into  the  United  States  and  to  render  the  stipulation  of  the  Treaty 
illusory.' 17  Canada  passed  no  retaliatory  duty  on  American  tin  cans 
containing  fish  coming  into  Canada  under  the  same  Article. 

The  diplomatic  relations  between  the  United  States  and  China 
furnish  several  illustrations  of  the  congressional  revocation  of  Treaties 
affecting  subordinate  international  privileges,  or  concessions,  to  the 
subjects  of  that  Empire. 

By  what  is  known  as  the  Burlinghame  Treaty  with  China  of 
1868  it  was  provided  that  citizens  of  the  United  States  visiting,  or 
residing,  in  China,  and  Chinese  subjects  visiting,  or  residing,  in  the 
United  States,  should  reciprocally  enjoy  the  same  privileges,  immuni- 
ties, and  exemptions  in  respect  to  travel  or  residence  as  might  then 
be  enjoyed  '  by  the  citizens  or  subjects  of  the  most  favoured  nation  ' ; 
and  that  they  should  also  reciprocally  enjoy  all  the  privileges  and 
immunities  of  the  public  educational  institutions  under  the  control 
of  either  nation  '  as  were  enjoyed  in  the  respective  countries  by  the 
citizens  or  subjects  of  the  most  favoured  nation.' 

The  first  Congressional  variation  of  the  provisions  of  this  Treaty 
was  made  in  1875,  by  which  contracts  of  service  with  Chinese  subjects 
were  declared  void  within  the  United  States.13 

•  In  1880,  another  Treaty  with  China  provided  that  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  might  regulate,  limit,  or  suspend  the  coming, 
or  residence,  of  Chinese  labourers  in  the  United  States,  '  but  may 
not  absolutely  prohibit  it.' 19 

Notwithstanding  the  Treaty  concession  of  such  reciprocal  resi- 
dential, trade,  and  educational  privileges  '  as  were  accorded  to  the 
citizens,  or  subjects,  of  the  most  favoured  nations,'  Congress  passed 
an  Exclusion  Act  in  1888,  depriving  Chinese  subjects  of  several  Treaty 
privileges.20  On  appeal,  the  Supreme  Court  held  that  '  the  Exclusion 

14  Treaties  and  Conventions  between  the  United  States  and  Other  Powers,  p.  319. 
18  Statutes  at  Large  (U.S.),  v.  18,  p.  308,  c.  36. 

17  Canada  Sessional  Papers  (1877),  v.  10,  No.  14,  p.  6. 

18  Statutes  at  Large  (U.S.),  v.  18,  p.  477,  c.  141. 

19  Compilation  of  Treaties  in  Force  (U.S.),  1899,  p.  118. 

20  Statutes  at  Large  (U.S.),  v.  25,  pp.  476  and  504,  cc.  1015  and  1064. 


658  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUEY  Oct. 

Act  of  1888  was  in  contravention  of  the  express  stipulations  of  the 
Treaty  of  1868  and  of  the  Supplementary  Treaty  of  1880  ' ;  and  that 
it  was  '  a  constitutional  abrogation  of  the  existing  Treaties  with 
China  ' ;  adding  : 

The  power  of  the  exclusion  of  foreigners,  being  an  incident  of  sovereignty 
belonging  to  the  Government  as  part  of  the  sovereign  powers  delegated  by  the 
Constitution,  the  right  to  its  exercise  at  any  time,  when,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
Government,  the  interests  of  the  country  require  it,  cannot  be  granted  away,  or 
restrained,  on  behalf  of  any  one.  The  inherent  powers  of  Government  are  delegated 
in  trust  and  are  incapable  of  transfer  to  other  parties.  Nor  can  their  exercise 
be  hampered  when  needed  for  the  public  good.  The  exercise  of  these  public 
trusts  is  not  the  subject  of  barter  or  contract.  Whatever  license  Chinese  labourers 
may  have  obtained  is  held  at  the  will  of  the  Government,  revocable  at  any  time  at 
its  pleasure.  Unexpected  events  may  call  for  a  change  in  the  policy  of  the  country. 
.  .  .  The  rights  and  interests  created  by  a  Treaty  which  have  become  so  vested 
that  its  expiration,  or  abrogation,  will  not  destroy  or  impair  them,  are  such  as 
are  connected  with  and  lie  in  property,  capable  of  sale  and  transfer,  or  other  dis- 
position ;  not  such  as  are  personal  and  untransferable  in  their  character.  But  far 
different  is  the  case  where  a  continued  suspension  of  the  exercise  of  a  prerogative 
power  is  insisted  upon  as  a  right  because  by  the  favour  and  consent  of  the 
Government  of  the  nation  it  has  not  heretofore  been  exercised.  .  .  .  Between 
property  rights  not  affected  by  the  termination,  or  abrogation,  of  a  Treaty, 
and  expectations  of  personal  benefits  from  the  continuance  of  existing  Treaty 
legislation,  there  is  as  wide  a  difference  as  between  realisation  and  hopes.21 

And  the  Supreme  Court  also  held  that  the  sovereign  and  legislative 
powers  of  the  Government  to  exclude  aliens  from  the  territory  of  the 
United  States,  who  claimed  the  Treaty  privilege  of  entering  its  territory, 
were  incident  to  the  inherent  prerogatives  and  sovereignty  of  the 
nation,  which  could  not  be  surrendered  to  the  subjects  of  foreign 
nations  by  the  Treaty-making  power  of  that  Government ;  and  that 
such  Treaty  privilege  of  entering  the  territory  of  the  United  States 
was  revocable  at  any  time  whenever  the  sovereign  interests  of  the 
Government  demanded  it,  and  the  natural  rights  of  its  citizens  were 
injuriously  affected.  This  inherent  prerogative  of  sovereignty  to  ex- 
clude aliens  from  British  territory,  and  to  prescribe  what  conditions  it 
pleases  to  the  permission  to  enter  and  reside  in  it,  has  been  approved 
by  the  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council,  and  is  therefore 
equally  the  law  of  the  British  Empire.22  And  the  doctrine  of  Inter- 
national Law  concurs  that :  '  no  stranger  is  entitled  to  enter  the 
boundaries  of  a  State  without  its  permission,  much  less  to  interfere 
with  its  full  exercise  of  supreme  dominion.' 23 

The  Supreme  Court's  decision  as  to  '  intransferable  privileges ' 
harmonises  with  the  Roman  Law  which  declares  :  Servitutes  per- 
sonales  include  usufructus  and  are  enjoyable  by  sufferance  or  for- 
bearance and  subject  to  jus  domini.  The  usufructuarius  cannot  alter 

21  Chinese  Exclusion  Case  (1889),  130  U.S.  581. 

2t  In  re  Adam  (1837),  1  Moore,  P.O.  460 ;  Attorney-General  of  Canada  v.  Cain 
(1906),  App.  Cases  542. 

23  Phillimore's  International  Law  (3rd  Ed.),  v.  1,  p.  221. 


1908  TREATY  PRIVILEGES  TO  ALIEN-SUBJECTS  659 

the  form  or  grant  of  the  thing  which  the  dominus  utilis  can.  The 
first  cannot  grant  away  his  right,  the  latter  can.  Such  rights  as 
these  are  for  mutual  accommodation,  and  are  consequently  of  a 
private  nature  ;  but  they  will  not  be  valid  where  they  perniciously 
affect  the  public  good.24 

The  fishing  privileges  conceded  to  the  trade  class  of  '  American 
fishermen '  by  the  Treaty  of  1818  are  within  this  rule  as  being 
intransferable  to  other  trade  classes  in  the  United  States. 

These  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  have  now  become  incor- 
porated into  the  International  Law  of  the  United  States  ;  and  have 
attained  the  authority  of  precedents  controlling  the  Treaty-making 
power  of  that  Government  respecting  the  class  of  Treaties  conceding 
'  alien-subject '  or  commercial  privileges  in  what  are  defined  as  *  the 
natural  rights  of  home-subjects  '  ;  and  must  therefore  be  accepted  as 
exceptions  to  the  generally  assumed  doctrine  of  International  Law, 
quoted  in  the  beginning  of  this  article ;  and  as  establishing  a  distinc- 
tion in  the  applicability  of  that  assumed  doctrine  between  Treaties 
respecting  the  higher  international  rights  and  relations  which  affect 
nations,  as  sovereignties  'inter  se,  and  Treaties  which  concede  '  alien- 
subject'  or  commercial  privileges  in  the  natural  rights  of  the  home- 
subjects  of  the  conceding  nation.  For  a  consistent  succession  of 
precedents  have  an  authentic  force  in  International  Law,  and  are 
also  invaluable  in  diplomacy.  And  if  accepted  as  authoritative 
precedents  by  other  nations,  as  governing  their  Treaty-making  powers 
with  the  United  States,  their  international  force  cannot  fairly  be  re- 
pudiated by  its  Government,  as  not  being  equally  within  the  inherent 
prerogative  powers  of  such  other  nations,  nor  questioned  on  the 
ground  that  such  nations  are  not  entitled  to  recognise  and  apply 
them  as  reciprocal  and  authoritative  precedents  in  their  international 
relations  with  the  United  States. 

The  ratio  suasoria  of  these  precedents  seems  to  lead  to  this  con- 
clusion :  The  prerogatives  of  sovereignty  are  regal  trusts  vested  in 
the  sovereign  as  the  executive  authority  of  the  nation,  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  natural  rights  and  property  of  his  subjects,  and  for  the 
promotion  of  their  welfare  and  good  government ;  and  in  the  execution 
of -the  regal  trust  of  the  maintenance  of  the  territorial  inviolability 
and  sovereignty  of  the  nation,  it  is  not,  unlimitedly,  within  the  Treaty- 
making  power  of  such  executive  authority,  as  the  temporary  trustee 
of  the  national  sovereignty,  to  concede  to  a  foreign  nation  for  the 
benefit  of  the  commerce  or  personal  privileges  of  its  citizens,  either  for 
a  limited  time,  or  in  perpetuity,  or  '  in  common,'  any  title,  or  interest, 
or  privilege,  in  the  natural  rights  or  property  to  which  his  home- 
subjects  are  entitled.  But  wherever  such  executive  authority  concedes 
gratuitously,  or  reciprocally,  either  by  Treaty,  or  by  what  is  known  as 

21  Colquhoun's  Roman  Civil  Law,  v.  2,  pp.  17  and  93. 


660  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

Comity,25  any  such  title,  or  interest,  or  privilege  in  the  natural  rights 
or  property  of  the  home-subjects  to  citizens  of  a  foreign  nation,  such 
concessions  are  always  subject  to  the  inherent  prerogative  right  of 
revocation  at  any  time,  whenever  the  natural  rights,  property,  or 
welfare  of  the  home-subjects,  or  the  interests  of  state  policy,  or  the 
maintenance  of  the  territorial  inviolability  and  sovereignty  of  the 
ceding  nation,  require  such  revocation. 

And  sustaining  this  reasoning  and  also  the  natural  rights  of  sub- 
jects in  the  public  property  of  the  nation — of  which  its  coast-fisheries 
form  a  part — Vattel  is  equally  explicit : 

It  is  but  just  to  say  that  the  nation  ought  carefully  to  preserve  her  public 
property  and  not  to  dispose  of  it  without  good  reason,  nor  to  alienate,  or  charge 
it  but  only  for  a  manifest  public  advantage,  or  in  case  of  a  pressing  necessity. 
The  public  property  is  extremely  useful,  and  even  necessary  for  the  nation  ; 
and  she  cannot  squander  it  improperly  without  injuring  herself,  and  shamefully 
neglecting  the  duty  of  self-preservation.  As  to  the  property  common  to  all  the 
citizens,  the  nation  does  an  injury  to  those  who  derive  advantage  from  it,  if  she 
alienates  it  without  necessity,  or  without  cogent  reasons.  .  .  .  The  prince,  or  the 
superior  of  the  nation,  being  naturally  no  more  than  the  administrator,  and  not 
the  proprietor,  of  the  State,  his  authority  as  sovereign,  or  head  of  the  nation, 
does  not  of  itself  give  him  a  right  to  alienate,  or  charge,  the  public  property. 
If  he  exceeds  his  powers  with  respect  to  this  property,  the  alienation  he  makes 
of  it  will  be  invalid  ;  and  may  at  any  time  be  revoked  by  the  nation.26 

Respecting  Treaties  which  concede  voluntary,  or  unequal,  servi- 
tutes,  without  reciprocal  privileges  or  concessions,  Hautef  euille  sustains 
the  exception  to  the  generally  assumed  doctrine  of  International  Law 
quoted  above,  and  says  : 

Treaties  are  in  general  obligatory  on  the  nations  which  have  consented  to 
them  ;  however  they  have  not  this  quality  in  an  absolute  manner  (cependant 
Us  n'ont  pas  cette  qualitd  d'une  maniere  absolue).  The  unequal  Treaty,  or  even 
the  equal,  conceding  the  gratuitous  cession,  or  surrender,  of  an  essential  natural 
right — that  is  to  say,  that  without  which  a  nation  cannot  be  considered  as  existing 
still  as  a  nation  .  .  .  (these  Treaties)  are  not  binding  (ne  sont  pas  obligatoires). 
They  exist  as  long  as  the  two  nations  persist  in  desiring  their  existence.  But 
each  of  the  two  has  always  the  right  to  discontinue  (le  droit  de  les  rompre)  that 
which  affects  the  cession  of  an  important  natural  right  by  anticipating  the  other 
party  in  denouncing  the  Treaty.  The  reason  of  the  hi  validity  of  transactions 
of  this  nature  is  that  these  natural  rights  of  this  quality  are  inalienable,  and  to 
make  use  of  an  expression  of  the  civil  law,  they  are  '  out  of  commerce  '  ('  hors  le 
commerce  ').  It  is  so  of  Conventions  ...  in  which  essential  natural  rights  are 
affected,  which  operate  only  on  the  private,  and  secondary,  interests  of  the 
people.  But  even  if  they  have  been  declared  perpetual,  they  have  no  existence 
but  by  the  continuation  of  the  two  wills  which  have  created  them.  The  stipula- 
tion of  perpetuity  has  no  other  effect  than  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  renewing 
the  Convention.87 

25  '  Comity  extended  to  other  nations  is  no  impeachment  of  sovereignty.  It  is  the 
voluntary  act  of  a  nation  by  which  it  is  offered ;  and  it  is  inadmissible  when  contrary 
to  its  policy,  or  prejudicial  to  its  interests ':  Bank  of  Augusta  v.  Earle  (1839), 
13  Peters  (U.S.),  p.  589. 

28  Vattel's  Law  of  Nations,  pp.  116-7. 

"  Hautefeuille's  Des  Droits  et  des  Devoirs  des  Nations  Neutres  (3me  Ed.),  v.  1, 
p.  xiii.  '  Hautefeuille  is  the  author  of  the  ablest  treatises  on  the  science  of 


1908  TREATY  PBIVILEGES  TO  ALIEN-SUBJECTS  661 

Other  authorities  hold  similar  views.  Heffter  says  that  a  State 
may  repudiate  a  Treaty  when  it  conflicts  with  '  the  rights  and  welfare 
of  its  people.'  Bluntschli  says  that  while  a  State  may  be  required 
to  perform  the  onerous  engagements  it  has  contracted,  it  may  not  be 
asked  to  sacrifice,  in  the  execution  of  Treaties,  that  which  is  essential 
to  its  potentiality,  or  the  development  of  its  resources ;  or  to  per- 
form acts  which  have  become  greatly  modified  by  time,  and  of  which 
the  execution  has  become  incompatible  with  present  affairs  ;  and  it 
may  consider  such  Treaties  null.28  Fiore  says  that  '  Treaties  are  to 
be  looked  upon  as  null  which  are  in  any  way  opposed  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  free  activity  of  a  nation,  or  which  hinder  the  exercise  of 
its  natural  rights.'  But  these  views  are  not  entirely  concurred  with 
by  some  English  writers.  One  writer,  however,  who  does  not  concur, 
admits  that  'internationally,  as  no  superior  coercive  power  exists, 
and  as  enforcement  is  not  always  convenient,  or  practical,  to  the 
injured  party,  the  individual  State  must  be  allowed  in  all  cases  to 
enforce,  or  annul,  for  itself  as  it  may  choose.' 29 

It  was  well  said  by  Chief  Justice  Jay  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  that  *  the  contracts  of  sovereigns  are  made  for  the 
benefit  of  all  their  own  subjects,  and  therefore  every  sovereign  is 
interested  in  every  act  which  necessarily  limits,  impairs,  or  destroys, 
that  benefit.  Whatever  injuries  result  to  his  subjects  run  back  from 
them  to  their  sovereign.'  And  he  further  said  that  *  a  voluntary 
validity  of  a  Treaty  is  that  validity  which  a  Treaty  that  has  become 
voidable  by  reason  of  violations,  afterwards  continues  to  retain,  by 
the  silent  volition  and  acquiescence  of  the  nations.' 30 

Of  the  many  Treaties  between  Great  Britain  and  foreign  nations 
few  appear  to  have  caused  so  much  international  friction  as  those 
which  affect  the  international  relations  between  Canada  and  New- 
foundland and  the  United  States,  especially  the  concession  of  the 
commercial  and  personal  privileges  set  out  in  the  Fishery  Article  of 
the  Anglo-American  Treaty  of  1818,  by  which  Great  Britain  generously 
conceded  to  the  '  inhabitants  of  the  United  States  '  who  follow  the 
trade  of  '  American  fishermen '  to  have,  for  ever,  in  common  with 
the  subjects  of  his  Britannic  Majesty,  the  'liberty  to  take  fish  of 
every  kind  '  in  the  coast-waters  along  the  shores  of  the  Magdalen 
Islands,  and  from  Mount  Joli  to  Blanc  Sablon,  on  the  Quebec-Labrador 
coast  of  Canada ;  and  from  the  Rameau  islands  to  Cape  Ray  and 
round  to  the  Quirpon  islands  on  the  southern,  western,  and  northern 
coasts  of  Newfoundland  ;  and  from  Blanc  Sablon  in  Labrador,  along 
its  southern  and  eastern  coasts  to  and  through  the  Straits  of  Belle  Isle, 
and  thence  northwardly  indefinitely  along  the  Labrador  coasts  of 

International  Law  that  have  appeared  in  France  '  :  Whtaton  on  International  Law, 
by  Lawrence,  p.  21  n. 

28  Bluntschli's  Droit  International  Codifi6  (5me  Ed.),  pp.  244  and  263. 

m  Hall's  International  Law  (5th  Ed.),  pp.  352  and  358. 

30  Jones  v.  Walker,  2  Paine  (U.S.),  688. 


662  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

Newfoundland ;  with  the  liberty  to  dry  and  cure  fish  in  any  of  the 
unsettled  bays,  harbours,  and  creeks  (from  the  Rameau  .islands  to 
Cape  Ray)  on  the  southern  coast  of  Newfoundland ;  and  the  further 
liberty  to  enter  all  bays  or  harbours,  for  shelter,  or  repairing  damages, 
or  procuring  wood  and  water.31  According  to  Hautefeuille  the 
stipulation  '  for  ever  '  has  no  other  effect  than  to  avoid  the  necessity 
of  renewals,  and  is  not  binding  in  this  class  of  Treaties. 

But  in  any  event  this  '  liberty  to  take  fish  '  in  common  with  British 
subjects  cannot  permit  the  assertion  of  any  jarring  claim  of  an  inde- 
pendent immunity  from  British  laws,  nor  of  any  right  which  could 
prejudice  or  limit  the  earlier,  and  pre- Treaty,  natural  rights  of  such 
British  subjects  to  fish  in  their  own  coast- waters,  as  regulated  by 
British  and  Colonial  fishery  laws. 

During  the  negotiations  for  the  Treaty  of  Ghent,  1814,  the  British 
plenipotentiaries  informed  the  American  Commissioners  that  '  the 
privileges  formerly  granted  to  the  United  States  of  fishing  within  the 
limits  of  British  coast- waters,  and  of  landing  and  drying  fish  on  British 
coasts,  would  not  be  renewed  gratuitously  or  without  an  equivalent.' 32 
But  in  1818  the  British  Government  reversed  this  policy  by  stating  : 
'  In  estimating  the  value  of  the  proposal '  (to  take  fish  of  every  kind 
in  the  coast- waters  of  Canada  and  Newfoundland)  '  the  American 
Government  will  not  fail  to  recollect  that  it  is  offered  without  any 
equivalent '  of  either  a  financial  consideration  or  the  reciprocal 
privilege  of  fishing  within  the  United  States  coast-waters ;  3;i  thereby 
bringing  this  gratuitous  concession  of  a  Colonial  natural  right  within 
Hautefeuille's  class  of  '  unequal  Treaties,'  which  he  declares  '  are  not 
binding,'  and  which  Bluntschli  and  Fiore  class  as  '  null.' 

Furthermore,  this  gratuitous  concession  has  long  been  an  '  entang- 
ling alliance,'  which  has  been  productive  of  much  international  friction 
with  the  United  States,  chiefly  caused  by  the  assertion  by  its  Govern- 
ment of  untenable  claims  to  certain  territorial  rights,  within  the 
Colonial  coast-waters,  and  of  the  immunity  of  American  fishermen 
from  the  British  and  Colonial  municipal  laws  which  are  binding  on  the 
subjects  of  the  Crown  in  both  Canada  and  Newfoundland  ;  and  also  of 
some  grave  instances  of  the  misuse  by  American  fishermen  of  these 
gratuitous  fishery  privileges  within  the  Colonial  coast-waters. 

The  coast  mileage  of  the  Treaty  concession  of  these  fishery  privileges 
gratuitously  granted  to  American  fishermen  extends  along  about 
2520  miles  of  the  teeming  fish-wealth  of  the  coast-waters  of  Canada 
and  Newfoundland;  and  now  that  questions  affecting  these  fishery 
privileges  are  about  to  be  submitted  to  the  Hague  Tribunal,  it  is 
hoped  by  the  Colonial  subjects  of  the  Crown  who  are  to  be  affected 
by  its  decision,  that  Great  Britain  will  raise  for  discussion,  or  adjudica- 

81  Treaties  and  Conventions  between  the  United  States  and  Other  Powers,  p.  350. 
32  American  State  Papers,  Foreign  Relations,  v.  3,  pp.  705  and  708. 
83  Ibid.  v.  4,  p.  365. 


1908  TREATY  PBIVILEGES  TO  ALIEN-SUBJECTS  668 

tion,  the  claim  of  an  inherent  prerogative  revocation-power,  similar 
to  that  exercised  by  the  United  States,  as  illustrated  by  the  prece- 
dents cited  in  this  article,  so  as  to  enable  her  to  relieve  her  Colonies 
from  any  future  misuse  of  these  gratuitous  fishery  privileges,  and  from 
repetitions  of  the  aggressive  claims  which  have  caused  so  much  inter- 
national friction  between  herself  and  her  Colonies  and  the  United 
States  in  past  years.  For  it  should  be  nationally  and  seriously  realised 
by  Great  Britain  that  the  fish-wealth  of  these  Colonial  coast-waters 
is  the  natural  property  of  the  Colonial  subjects  of  the  Crown,  as  part 
of  their  food  supply,  and  also  as  being  valuable  to  them  as  one  of  their 
commercial  assets  for  Colonial  revenue  and  trade  purposes. 

The  earlier  misuse  of  these  fishery  privileges  by  American  fisher- 
men was  thus  summarised  by  Lord  Bathurst  in  1816  :  '  It  was  not 
of  fair  competition  that  his  Majesty's  Government  have  reason  to 
complain,  but  of  the  pre-occupation  of  British  harbours  by  the  fishery 
vessels  of  the  United  States,  and  the  forcible  expulsion  of  British 
vessels  from  places  where  their  fisheries  might  be  advantageously 
conducted.' 3l  And  later  Lord  Salisbury,  in  forwarding  a  report  of 
the  naval  officer  at  Newfoundland  in  1878  to  the  United  States 
Government,  said : 

The  report  appears  to  demonstrate  conclusively  that  the  United  States 
fishermen  committed  three  distinct  breaches  of  the  law  ;  and  that  in  the  case  of 
a  vessel  whose  master  refused  to  desist  from  fishing  on  Sunday,  in  violation  of  the 
law  of  the  Colony,  threatened  the  Newfoundland  fishermen  with  a  revolver. 

The  breaches  of  the  law  were  (1)  fishing  with  seines ;  (2)  fishing 
during  the  close  season  ;  and  (3)  fishing  on  Sunday. 

The  naval  officer  further  reported  that  the  American  fishermen 
were  interfering  with  the  rights  of  British  fishermen,  and  their  peaceful 
use  of  the  coast  occupied  by  them,  and  of  their  huts,  gardens,  and 
lands  granted  by  their  Government.35 

The  reply  of  the  United  States  to  this  was  the  assertion  of  the 
immunity  of  American  fishermen  from  British  laws,  which  was  thus 
met  by  Lord  Salisbury  : 

I  hardly  believe  that  Mr.  Evarts  would  in  discussion  adhere  to  the  broad 
doctrine  which  some  portion  of  his  language  would  appear  to  convey,  that  no 
British  authority  has  a  right  to  pass  any  kind  of  laws  binding  on  Americans 
who  are  fishing  in  British  waters  ;  for  if  that  contention  be  just,  the  Treaty  waters 
must  be  delivered  over  to  anarchy.36 

The  same  immunity  from  British  laws  has  again  been  asserted  by 
Mr.  Secretary  Root  in  1906  : 

Great  Britain  has  asserted  a  claim  of  right  to  regulate  the  action  of  American 
fishermen  in  the  Treaty  waters,  upon  the  ground  that  these  waters  are  within 
its  territorial  jurisdiction.  This  Government  is  constrained  to  repeat  emphatically 
its  dissent  from  any  such  view.  An  appeal  to  the  general  jurisdiction  of  Great 
Britain  over  the  territory  is,  therefore,  a  complete  begging  the  question." 

S4  American  State  Papers,  Foreign  Relations,  v.  4,  p.  356. 

M  Foreign  Relations  (U.S.),  1878-9,  pp.  284-5.  »•  Ibid.  p.  323. 

ST  Correspondence  respecting  the  Newfoundland  Fisheries  (1906),  p.  13. 


664  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Oct. 

The  chronic  misuse  of  the  Treaty  privileges  of  fishing  and  this 
frequent  repudiation  of  British  laws  violate  a  doctrine  of  International 
Law  long  recognised  and  enforced  by  the  United  States :  '  Aliens 
while  within  our  jurisdiction  and  enjoying  the  protection  of  our  laws 
are  bound  to  obedience  to  them,  and  to  avoid  disturbances  of  our 
peace  within,  or  acts  which  would  compromise  it  without,  equally  as 
citizens  are.' 38 

And  the  British  doctrine  concurs  :  '  Every  individual,  on  entering 
a  foreigp  country,  binds  himself,  by  a  tacit  contract,  to  obey  the  laws 
enacted  in  it  for  the  maintenance  of  the  good  order  and  tranquillity 
of  the  realm.'  39 

The  doctrines  of  jus  inter  gentes  as  to  national  territorial  inviola- 
bility and  sovereignty  which  govern  the  decision  of  this  question,  the 
experience  of  chronic  misuse,  and  of  international  friction  and  in- 
convenience, the  repudiation  of  British  laws  thereby  '  delivering  the 
Treaty  waters  over  to  anarchy,'  the  natural  rights  of  her  Colonial  sub- 
jects in  their  public  property,  and  the  consequent  necessity  for  their 
relief  under  the  supporting  authority  of  the  precedents  given  above, 
should  guide  Great  Britain  in  presenting  their  case  before  the  Hague 
Tribunal. 

THOMAS  HODGINS. 

88  Moore's  Digest  of  International  Law,  v.  4,  p.  10. 

39  Phillimore's  International  Law  (3rd  Ed.),  v.  1,  p.  454. 


1908 


THE  POET  IN  'HIGH  ALPS' 


Grenoble 


THE  towns  of  France  are  generally  led  up  to,  with  sufficient  dignity, 
along  broad  roads,  by  avenues  of  trees.  It  is  the  distinction  of  Grenoble 
that  it  is  led  up  to  by  avenues  of  mountains.  North  and  south  of 
the  not  too  vast  but  ample  city  whose  broad  and  quiet,  half -deserted 
quays  flank  the  Isdre — whose  bridges  cross  its  waters  to  the  old-world 
suburb  that  lies  under  the  first  of  the  hills — there  stretch,  not  roads 
of  approach,  but  straight,  wide  valleys,  green  and  rich,  and  civilised 
and  Southern,  and  by  either  side  of  them  a  succession  of  mountains, 
symmetrical  and  similar,  stand  like  sentinels  posted  along  the  stately 
way. 

What  city,  I  wonder,  could  be  entirely  worthy  of  such  magnificence 
of  approach  ?  Would  Rome  be  ?  Or  Paris  ?  Would  either  seem 
to  us  as  quite  the  gem-stone  for  so  superb  a  setting  ?  There  must  be 
proportion  and  appropriateness.  But  somehow  Grenoble,  surrounded 
by  a  Nature  splendid,  august,  has  yet  no  air  of  being  dwarfed  or 
minimised.  The  great  land  that  enfolds  it — that  has  the  dignity 
of  Poussin's  world,  and  Puvis  de  Chavannes's — suits  somehow  the 
grey,  widespread  town  with  squares  and  towers,  and  with  its  broad 
stream  sweeping  on  to  so  remote  a  sea. 

The  River 

The  river — any  river — is  almost  a  personality.  The  Is6re,  here 
at  Grenoble,  is  like  some  new  acquaintance  with  a  Past  we  wot  not 
of — a  Future  that  we  cannot  discern.  We  know  the  river's  life  no 
more  than  our  last  friend's — all  that  has  brought  it  to  the  particular 
point  at  which  we  meet  it  and  see  its  current  rushing  by  the  green 
fields,  or  the  vineyards,  or  the  quays,  busy  or  silent,  on  which  we 
chance  to  stand.  And  our  impression  of  it — like  our  impression  of  a 
person — is  formed  less  by  itself  than  by  whatever  is  about  it — by  the 
particular  decor  that  gives  to  it  its  ugliness  or  charm.  Then,  again, 
it  is  itself  changed,  or  it  seems  so,  by  each  town,  each  countryside, 
it  flows  through.  Indolent  there  and  ineffectual,  here  it  is  given 
vivacity,  impulse,  and  strength.  And,  again  like  the  person — or  like 

665 


666  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBT  Oct. 

the  person's  inmost  soul — it  is  in  essentials  the  same,  whatever  phase 
or  facet  the  circumstances  lead  it  to  present.  Like  the  inmost  soul,  it 
is  alone,  itself,  even  when  it  seems  most  pressed  upon  by  neighbouring 
things.  The  things  that  crowd  about  it  now  have  still  no  part  in  it. 
It  came  from  heights  and  under  skies  foreign  to  them,  and  passes  on 
to  lands  that  they  have  no  relation  with,  and  shores  they  never  touch. 

Hantes  Alpes 

Words — English  words  especially,  which  lack  the  quality  of 
colour — cannot  paint  mountains  that  have  eluded  Turner's  Art. 
Turner,  indeed,  succeeded  better  with  mountains  than  did  most  men  ; 
yet  he  succeeded  only  partially,  and  then  when  least  elaborate.  He 
failed  most  when  bent  on  chronicling  them  with  intricacy  and  exact- 
ness— failed  least  in  brilliant,  summary  suggestions  of  his  latest 
years — those  1845  sketches — the  visions  which  went  begging,  Euskin 
relates,  after  the  veteran's  last  journey. 

Since  then,  what  English  painter — and  I  know  of  no  French  one — 
what  painter  has  dealt  adequately  with  baffling  giants  that  from 
immense  bases  lift  themselves  stage  by  stage  to  the  translucent 
skies  ?  I  think  pleasantly — yes,  even  gratefully — of  William  Stott 
of  Oldham,  who  was  poetic  sometimes.  The  modern  connoisseur 
admits,  of  course,  Brabazon,  who  is  poetic  always ;  and,  now  that 
Watts's  Landscape  has  come  to  be  known,  Watts,  with  whom  dignity 
was  a  natural  possession.  Each  of  these  painters  saw  the  beauty, 
the  ethereal  charm,  and  touched  the  theme  delicately.  Each  has 
given  worthy  hints.  But  how  much  lies  altogether  outside  of  and 
beyond  their  fine  suggestions  of  the  scale  and  majesty  and  strength  of 
the  hills  ! 


The  Magic  South 

The  Genevese  Toppfer,  straying  beyond  Switzerland,  to  what 
was  after  all  a  neighbouring  land  to  him — the  Duchy  of  Savoy — was 
artist  and  observer  sufficiently  to  recognise  that  in  that  land  was 
charm  unknown  to  his  own — he  saw  a  world  that  had  '  Swiss  mountains 
and  an  Italian  sky,'  he  said. 

But  why  great  mountains  should  be  always  '  Swiss,'  and  soft  and 
noble  skies  always  '  Italian,'  Toppfer  did  not  explain — he  chose  his 
words,  made  his  comparisons,  with  the  small  knowledge  of  his  day. 
Seeing  Savoy,  he  did  not  really  see  in  it  either  Italy  or  Switzerland, 
or  quite  the  blend  he  fancied  of  the  two.  Still  less  would  he  have 
seen  either  of  these,  or  their  best  characteristics  mixed,  had  he  gone 
one  step  further,  and  passed  from  Annecy  or  Aix  into  Dauphine. 
What  he  had  really  was  a  foretaste  of  the  magic  South ;  and  in 
Dauphine  that  foretaste  is  larger  and  more  marked. 


1908  THE  POET  IN  '  HIGH  ALPS'  667 

So  much  for  Toppfer  !  One  puts  it  that  way  perhaps,  if  one 
considers,  reasons,  analyses.  About  it  one  feels  differently. 

What  I  see  in  Savoy,  as  '  through  a  glass,'  a  little  '  darkly,'  and 
in  Dauphine  with  more  divine  distinctness,  is  just  the  least  familiar 
side  of  the  great  face  of  France,  turned  gravely  and  benignantly 
towards  her  lover. 


Partial  Eclipse 

'•  A  Paris  newspaper,  the  D6bats  or  the  Matin,  reaching  these  recesses 
of  the  hills,  informed  us  that  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  was  happening 
to-day  :  total  near  Barcelona,  and  very  visible  in  many  regions — even 
here.  Particularly  here,  as  far  as  its  effects  are  concerned,  as  I  should 
judge,  having  now  experienced  it :  our  little  village  of  La  Grave  agog 
about  it,  all  the  heart  of  the  afternoon  :  the  smoked  glasses  of  every 
school-child  of  the  place  reminding  me  how  far  had  penetrated  Science 
and  curiosity  ;  and  a  commotion,  as  it  were,  of  Nature — a  sensation, 
to  say  the  least — having  brought  together,  in  affable  accord,  persons 
not  previously  accustomed  to  acknowledge  each  other  :  the  race- 
glass  of  a  German  tourist,  on  whom  I  had  not  looked  with  favour, 
having  been  offered  to  me  with  civility,  not  to  say  with  effusion. 
Thus  is  Mankind  made  one. 

Extraordinary  were  the  physical '  effects  ' — extraordinary,  without 
a  shade  or  a  suggestion  of  darkness.  The  world  was  suddenly  livid. 
Violet  hues,  unearthly,  weird — the  presage,  one  might  well  have 
thought,  of  some  great  change  undreamt  of,  that  knew  no  precedent 
and  had  no  certain  end — passed  into  the  Landscape.  And  not  that 
alone.  A  something  in  the  very  blood,  I  felt,  excited  all  one's 
being.  I  was  elated  :  I  must  mount  the  hillside  :  I  must  walk  with 
vigour. 

What  was  it  really  happened  ?  The  weird  light  did  not  account 
for  one's  sensations.  It  was  a  change  of  temperature  so  rapid  that 
it  came  like  a  shock — or  a  fillip.  I  had  scarcely  guessed  at  it.  But 
my  German  tourist,  learned,  observant,  assured  me  that  here  at 
La  Grave  in  ten  minutes  the  thermometer  fell  seven  degrees — much 
more  upon  the  actual  mountain.  And  the  landlord,  standing  by, 
bade  me  notice  that  on  the  other  side  of  the  valley,  under  the  crests 
of  the  Meige,  the  long  cascade  that  is  in  truth  a  slow  and  constant 
melting  of  the  ice  and  snows  had  ceased  to  be — the  snows  congealed  ; 
the  glacier  silent,  immovable,  its  coldness  reaching  us  like  a  grip. 
That  was  the  explanation  of  one's  feeling.  For  the  nonce,  one  was  in 
different  latitudes — or  upon  different  summits. 

That  is  now  over.  All  is  now  as  it  was — again — the  grip  relaxed  : 
the  world  released  :  one's  pulses  quieted  :  and  the  familiar  sunshine  of 
late  Summer  days  flooding,  as  yesterday,  these  hilla  of  France. 


668  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

Monsieur  Roblat 

There  have  been  placed  by  me  at  table — for  what  reason  I  am 
unaware — at  what  was  my  own  table  more  or  less — three  people 
whom  I  like  ;  and  so  I  have  not  bargained  for  their  removal ;  nay, 
quite  alone  for  several  days,  I  am  thankful  for  their  presence.  One 
of  them  chiefly  interests  me — Monsieur  Roblat.  The  others — Madame 
de  Sabre,  Madame  de  Vigne,  both  of  them  young — are  decorative 
background  to  Monsieur  Roblat's  sad  and  noble  gravity.  They  are 
his  friends  :  nothing  more  than  his  friends — but  of  a  different  world  ; 
and  it  might  perhaps  be  the  subject  of  a  subtle  inquiry,  '  What  brings 
them  together  ?  '  The  curiosity  of  the  hotel  is  very  likely  roused  at 
this  moment  on  the  theme.  What  brings  them  together  is  more  than 
I  can  say.  A  common  association  with  some  fourth  person,  probably 
—who  may  be  a  figure,  even  a  dominating  figure,  in  Monsieur  Roblat's 
Past.  I  drop  that  part  of  the  matter. 

But  Monsieur  Roblat  himself  ?  Although  he  listens  with  amiability 
and  acquiescence  to  the  views  and  the  opinions  they  propound, 
you  feel  his  real  mind  is  not  at  all  with  his  attractive  friends.  This 
poor,  kind,  noble  Jewish  gentleman  is  silent  while  they  prattle — is 
tragic  in  the  midst  of  their  lightness.  He  comes  to  me,  I  confess — 
here  within  the  field  of  my  just  momentary  vision — a  figure  still 
shadowy,  out  of  the  dark.  Curiously  considerate — aiming  always  at 
doing  people  kindnesses — thoughtful  for  young  and  old,  for  bourgeois 
and  peasant  quite  as  much  as  for  our  rare  great  lady — I  know  it  in  a 
dozen  ways  already— his  face,  in  quietude,  looks  ineradicably  sorrow- 
ful. This  hotel  life  and  his  attractive  friends,  the  excursions  he  takes 
with  them — for  he  has  been  a  climber  in  his  time,  and  knows  this  land 
and  can  be  useful  to  them  now — all  that  is  but  a  passing  show  to  him. 
Such  things  move  on  the  mere  surface  of  his  life  to-day. 

I  am  not  sure,  however,  that  he  is  not  visiting  this  land  because  of 
deeper  memories  of  it,  and  more  poignant  hours.  Or  is  he  here  that 
the  remembrance  of  poignant  hours,  passed  in  far  other  scenes,  may 
gradually  be  deadened  ?  And  will  they  be  ?  I  know  nothing. 

Only  I  know  that  learned,  interesting,  highly  informed,  sagacious 
as  he  is,  the  most  profound  impression  on  Monsieur  Roblat's  mind, 
at  present,  is  that  of  his  own  suffering.  And  not  bereavement  only — 
disillusionment.  In  the  French  phrase,  which  so  imaginatively 
hints  at  that  which  is  too  much  to  define,  '  il  est  revenu  de  bien  des 
choses  ' — '  come  back  from  many  things  ' — and  what  things  who  shall 
say  ?  I  know  only,  they  are  things  that  have  bowed  down  his  soul. 

Napoleon 

In  the  scraps  of  distantly  gathered  conversation  in  which  Monsieur 
Roblat,  Madame  de  Sabre  and  Madame  de  Vigne  take  part,  Napoleon's 
name  is  often  uttered.  Frequent  and  deep  appears  their  interest  in 


1908  THE   POET  IN  '  HIGH  ALPS'  669 

that  historic  figure.  But  now  I  have  discovered  that  the  personage 
the  ladies  are  appraising  with  brightened  eyes  is  not  the  Napoleon  of 
History,  but  a  Napoleon  of  the  hills.  Of  all  French  guides  the  most 
intrepid  and  most  certain,  Napoleon  has  gently  piloted  these  ladies 
among  the  shoals  and  quicksands  of  the  mountains.  And  then,  upon 
the  morrow  of  some  conspicuous  triumph,  he  will  walk  slowly  up  from 
the  village  to  the  forecourt  of  the  Hotel,  and  while  these  ladies  stand 
flatteringly  about  him — as  women  will,  attendant  on  an  oracle — 
Napoleon  slowly  prophesies  of  weather,  and  advises  programmes. 

If  their  admiration  had  always  been  directed  to  as  manly  and  as 
modest  a  figure !  A  little  slow  of  speech,  but  with  chosen  words 
and  clear-cut  thought  even — absolutely  intelligent — Napoleon  is  in 
truth  interesting  company.  This  stalwart  son  of  the  High  Alps, 
a  mountaineer  in  Summer,  is  in  Winter,  Madame  de  Vigne  tells  me — 
well,  not  a  Parisian,  but  an  inhabitant  of  Paris.  Some  undefined 
department  of  the  Leather  trade — he  is  '  dans  les  cuirs,'  he  says, 
whatever  that  may  mean — knows  him  as  an  expert.  And  so  in 
Winter  months  I  shall  now  picture  this  bronzed  figure  of  the  moun- 
tains as  he  goes  his  slow  and  steady  way  amidst  the  alertness,  the 
excitability,  the  pallor  of  Belleville. 

Italian  Youth 

Everywhere  in  -.evidence  in  this  Le  Lautaret  Hotel — about  its 
rooms,  its  terraces  at  breakfast  time,  about  its  gardens — is  an  Italian 
youth  who  affects  my  nerves  prejudicially.  Twenty  years  old, 
possibly — well-dressed,  well-groomed — he  is  presumably  educated, 
but  has  nothing  to  do.  The  youth  has  ever  the  appearance  of  begin- 
ning ;  but  he  is  never  performing.  His  hat  upon  his  head,  his  garments 
disposed  as  if  for  an  excursion,  nails  driven  into  his  boots  probably- 
such  is  his  prowess  ! — at  all  events  bearing  with  him  at  every  hour, 
ostentatiously,  a  walking-stick  with  pointed  iron  at  the  end  for  high 
ascents — my  youth  prowls  round  with  eyes  in  search  apparently  of 
somebody  who  never  comes,  and  in  this  state  of  expectation,  and,  as 
it  were,  only  momentary  abeyance,  passes  the  day,  except  at  meal- 
times, when  he  is  seen  in  company  of  female  relatives  who,  with  him, 
in  a  tongue  mellifluous  but  inexpressive,  gabble  incessantly  of  trivial 
things. 

He  represents,  I  fear,  a  type  common  enough  in  modern  Italy,  and 
straying  here  beyond  its  borders — the  idler  without  opulence,  but 
without  obligation  :  Youth  with  no  aim,  no  taste,  no  serious  care, 
no  impulse,  no  initiative — when  urged  at  all,  urged  only  from  without — 
the  prey  of  circumstance,  the  toy  of  chance,  and  the  first-comer's 
puppet. 


VOL.  LXIV— No.  380 


670  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

Those  Young  French  Faces 

Those  young  French  faces,  so  intact  physically — new  and  un- 
blemished, gay  and  fresh  and  good — are  most  of  all  delightful  by 
reason  of  the  contrast  their  activity  affords  with  the  far  deeper 
fascination  of  their  times  of  passiveness  and  of  quiescence — the  times 
in  which  there  moves  on  them  no  longer  the  slight  life  of  the  moment : 
the  spell  instead  is  their  suggestion  of  so  many  Pasts — the  Pasts  of 
all  their  Race  ;  careers  and  passions  finished,  and  hopes  dead — so  that 
in  their  'eyes  of  youth,'  seemingly  saddened,  and  in  their  expressive, 
flexible  lips,  there  speaks  the  Romance  of  twenty  generations  of 
civilisation  and  of  charm — of  subtlety,  of  suffering,  of  disillusion,  of 
a  resigned  tenderness.  Those  young  French  faces  ! 


Hermance :  Le  Lautaret 

Nothing  sad,  however,  about  Hermance ;  nothing  grave  even, 
except  that  she  is  sensible — her  head  '  screwed  on  her  shoulders ' — but 
certainly  no  burden  of  inherited  responsibility ;  only  so  much  of 
youth  and  spirit  and  impeccable  beauty — in  a  new  world,  it  seems, 
a  new  creature. 

And  what  is  Hermance  physically  ?  To  talk  about  her  form  and 
colour,  her  tallness,  elasticity,  her  eyes,  her  shining,  sparkling,  energetic 
hair,  would  be  still  in  great  measure  to  rest  on  the  outside  of  things  ; 
no  one  of  these  being  the  essential  part  of  her,  though  they  all  count  in 
her  effect.  Her  voice,  pitched  pleasantly,  and  used  so  well,  so  ready 
and  decisive  in  her  perfect  speech  of  France — to  name  that,  to  insist 
upon  its  cadences,  the  tone's  expression  of  the  flexible  soul,  may  be 
to  bring  you  nearer  to  her. 

Instantly  merry,  instantly  indignant.  Un  mot  vif  for  the  thing  of 
which  she  disapproves  ;  and  then  it  is  all  over.  Instantly  forgiving. 

Caractere  gai — she  knows  it,  and  she  says  so.  And  such  a  tempera- 
ment of  hopefulness  and  brilliant  courage  will  be  a  strong  defence 
against  assaults  of  Time — against  the  troubles  of  all  days. 

Those  who  feel  her  personality  are  raised,  when  she  is  present,  to 
a  level  not  their  own.  To  the  dispirited  some  gladness  and  endurance 
then  seems  possible — in  contact  with  a  being  who  has  so  much  of  them. 
She  is  a  tonic  to  the  sante  morale. 

Affectionate,  Hermance  inspires  affection ;  and  volatile,  she 
scatters  pleasure.  Yet  shall  I  still  be  understood  a  little  if  I  add  this  ? — 
that  her  effect  on  you  seems  less  the  effect  of  a  delightful  girlhood  than 
of  a  beneficent  physical  force.  You  think  of  Hermance,  with  her 
twenty  years — well,  as  a  woman  certainly — but  above  all  things  as  of 
some  widespread  natural  power — as  of  a  flash  of  morning  light :  as  of 
the  freshness  of  the  travelling  wind. 


1908  THE  POET  IN  'HIGH  ALPS'  671 

Good-bye,  Dauphind  ! 

Descending  to  Bourg  d'Oisans  yesterday — to  the  great  valley  with 
the  poplars — from  the  mountains  by  La  Grave,  I  felt,  while  tasting  the 
suave  beauty  of  the  newer  landscape,  a  keener  thirst  for  the  hills. 
Upon  the  summits — amidst  the  bareness  of  Le  Lautaret,  in  that  exalted 
silence — I  had  longed  for  Brianpon  and  its  encircling  chain,  and  just 
a  touch  of  the  Provence  which  is  Romance  to  me — for  it  is  nothing 
but  Provence  which  lies  below  this  last  '  strong-place '  in  the 
mountains — and  I  had  descended  to  Bourg  d'Oisans,  within  reach  of 
the  railways  and  Paris. 

But,  once  within  sight  of  our  more  ordinary  world,  there  came  to 
me  a  yearning  for  one  Good-bye  to  the  mountains.  I  felt  a  call,  a  very 
summons,  to  the  heights.  And  so  I  said  to  my  chauffeur,  this  morning, 
that  the  auto  must  turn,  and  must  retrace  the  road  that  it  had  followed 
yesterday — that  great  route  nationale  whose  state  and  engineering 
assure  me  I  am  nowhere  but  in  France. 

And  so  to-day,  in  five  hours'  steady  journeying,  I  have  mounted 
the  slopes  and  been  again  to  the  summits,  and  seen  the  greyness, 
and  seen  the  vegetation — the  black-green  of  the  pines,  the  foliage  of 
the  larch,  the  sunny  and  gold-green  meadows,  the  incomparable 
grace  of  the  poplar  on  the  lowlands,  the  hillsides  now  rich  and  radiant 
— a  turn,  and  they  are  suddenly  austere.  And  at  Le  Lautaret  itself, 
I  have  beheld  the  bare,  grey  crags  and  scanty,  precipitous  pasturage, 
and  have  looked  along  the  downward  slopes  towards  lower  mountains, 
behind  which  lurks  Brianp on  and  its  promise  of  the  South. 

Thus  have  I  had,  of  all  Dauphine,  as  it  were,  one  last  vision.  And 
to  Dauphine  a  Good-bye.  '  Again  some  day  ?  '  '  Again  next  year  ?  ' 
one  asks  one's  self.  What  does  the  Future  hold  ?  Again  never  ? 

FREDERICK  WEDMORE. 


Y   Y    2 


672  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 


THE  ROYAL    OPEN-AIR  STATUES 
OF  LONDON 


THE  progress  which  is  being  made  with  the  great  memorial  to  Queen 
Victoria,  opposite  Buckingham  Palace,  will  probably  cause  not  a  few 
people  to  turn  their  attention  to  the  royal  statues  that  are  dotted 
about  London,  in  more  or  less  conspicuous  places  ;  it  may  also,  it  is 
to  be  hoped,  cause  those  responsible  for  the  decoration  of  the  metropolis 
to  consider  the  advisability  of  filling  up  the  numerous  lacunae  that 
exist ;  for  some  of  the  most  notable  of  those  who  have  ruled  over 
this  country  are  still  lacking  what  of  immortality  a  statue  can  give. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  the  Sovereigns  of  England  would  appear  to  have 
had  something  less  than  justice  done  them  in  this  respect,  at  least  in 
the  capital  of  the  Empire  ;  for  either  are  they  without  such  memorials 
at  all,  or  they  have  received  statuary  fame  in  a  sadly  belated  manner  ; 
while  in  most  cases  the  statues  that  have  been  erected  have  been  placed 
in  such  isolated  positions  that  many  of  them  are  but  little  known 
even  to  those  who  are  no  strangers  to  the  complexity  of  London. 
Indeed  not  a  few  people  would  find  it  difficult  to  satisfactorily  answer 
a  carefully  formulated  examination  paper  on  the  subject,  or  even 
to  reply  intelligently  to  the  casual  inquiry  of  a  stranger  to  the 
metropolis.  Where,  for  instance,  does  William  the  Third  bestride 
his  ambling  charger  ?  How  many  statues  are  there  of  Queen  Anne, 
and  where  do  they  stand  ?  Where  are  we  to  look  for  Kichard  the 
First,  and  Charles  the  Second,  and  George  the  First  ? 

Even  those  who  have  some  hazy  notions  as  to  the  positions  occupied 
by  the  statues  of  these  sovereigns  would  be  hard  put  to  it  to  name 
the  date  of  their  erection  or  the  sculptors  who  executed  them.  And 
this  is  the  more  to  be  deplored  inasmuch  as  a  representative  and 
complete  series  of  royal  statues  would  help  to  form  a  vivid  com- 
mentary on  the  history  of  the  country,  and  would  present  to  us  in 
plastic  form  the  embodiments  of  what  are  often  otherwise  but  dim  and 
shadowy  personalities. 

From  Charles  the  First  to  Victoria,  the  series  of  statues  of  British 
monarchs  is  a  fairly  complete  one  ;  but  before  Stuart  times  only  four 
sovereigns  are  represented  :  Richard  the  First,  by  Baron  Marochetti's 


1908    ROYAL  OPEN-AIR   STATUES   OF  LONDON    673 

equestrian  figure  in  front  of  the  House  of  Lords  ;  Henry  the  Eighth 
at  the  main  entrance  to  St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital,  erected  in  1702  ; 
Edward  the  Sixth  *  in  the  first  court  of  St.  Thomas's  Hospital,  the 
work  of  Scheemakers,  and  originally  set  up  by  Charles  Joyce  in  1737 
in  an  earlier  building  of  the  hospital ;  and  Queen  Elizabeth  over  the 
side  entrance  of  St.  Dunstan's  in  the  West,  a  statue  which  originally 
graced  the  west  front  of  the  old  Ludgate,  and  one  of  the  few  relics 
which  survived  the  Great  Fire  of  London. 

When  Temple  Bar  was  still  an  interesting  though  cumbersome 
memorial  of  past  times,  four  more  sovereigns  stood  in  effigy  upon  it, 
notably  James  the  First,  Anne  of  Denmark,  Charles  the  First,  and 
Charles  the  Second,  the  work  of  an  indifferent  sculptor  named  Bush- 
nell  who,  not  inappropriately,  died  mad  in  1701.  The  selection  of 
Stuarts  to  decorate  Temple  Bar  was  due  to  the  fact  that  they  were 
placed  there  during  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Second  in  1670 ;  but 
notwithstanding  this,  the  statue  of  Anne  of  Denmark  was  for  long 
popularly  supposed  to  represent  the  great  Elizabeth ;  and  on  the 
anniversary  of  that  Queen's  accession  a  wreath^ of  gilded  laurel  and 
a  golden  shield  with  the  motto  '  The  Protestant  Religion  and  Magna 
Charta  '  were  affixed  to  the  figure  ;  while  Roger  North  states  that  the 
Pope  in  effigy  was  solemnly  burned  beneath  it,  what  time  the  assembled 
crowd  was  accustomed  to  shout  lustily  : 

Your  popish  plot  and  Smithfield  threat 

We  do  not  fear  at  all, 
For  lo  !  beneath  Queen  Bess's  feet 

You  fall,  you  fall,  you  fall  I 
O  Queen  Bess  !  Queen  Bess  !  Queen  Bess  ! 

although  it  was  really  the  somewhat  colourless  consort  of  James  the 
First  who  was  standing  proxy  for  the  fair  Virgin  throned  in  the 
West ! 

One  other  great  name  must  be  mentioned  as  amongst  the  rulers 
of  this  country  prior  to  the  Stuarts  who  have  received  statuary 
immortality — that  of  Boadicea ;  and  the  fearless  wife  of  Prasutagus, 
king  of  the  Iceni,  still  seems  to  defy  the  Roman  legions,  in  Thorny- 
croft's  group  which  was  placed  in  its  present  position,  at  the  corner 
of  Westminster  Bridge,  in  1898. 

Probably  the  most  beautiful  statue  in  London  is  that  of  Charles 
the  First,  at  Whitehall,  the  first  equestrian  statue  ever  erected  in 
London ;  in  any  case  the  sad  fate  of  the  monarch,  the  hold  he  still 
exerts  over  the  minds  of  the  people,  the  interesting  history  attached 
to  the  work,  and  the  legend  surrounding  the  fate  of  its  sculptor,  all 
combine  in  endowing  it  with  an  interest  which  is  absent  from  any  other 
statue  in  London,  perhaps  in  the  world.  As  most  people  know,  it 

1  There  was  formerly  another  statue  of  Edward  the  Sixth  over  the  entrance  to 
Christ's  Hospital  in  Newgate  Street,  now  demolished. 


674      ,  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTUBY  Oct. 

was  the  work  of  Hubert  le  Sueur,  a  pupil  of  John  of  Bologna,  and  was 
executed  in  1633,  at  the  charge  of  Lord  Treasurer  Weston,  and  not, 
as  has  frequently  been  stated,  of  Lord  Arundel.  Lord  Weston  intended 
the  statue  for  his  gardens  at  Roehampton,  and  the  agreement  between 
him  and  the  sculptor  provided  for  '  the  casting  of  a  horse  in  brasse, 
bigger  than  a  great  horse  by  a  foot ;  and  the  figure  of  His  May  King 
Charles  proportionable,  full  six  foot.'  It  was  also  arranged  that  Le 
Sueur  should  discuss  the  matter  with  '  His  Majesty's  riders  of  great 
horses,'  which  is  interesting  as  proving  that  no  pains  were  spared  to 
make  the  work  complete  and  accurate.  The  sum  agreed  upon  was 
6001.,  '  for  the  full  finishing  the  same  in  copper,  and  setting  it  in  the 
place  where  it  is  to  stand,'  and  the  time  given  for  its  completion  was 
eighteen  months. 

There  is  a  traditionary  story  to  the  effect  that  when  completed, 
Le  Sueur  challenged  anyone  to  find  fault  with  the  work,  and  that  upon 
someone  pointing  out  that  the  saddle-girth  had  been  forgotten,  the 
sculptor  in  a  fit  of  mortification  committed  suicide.  Unfortunately 
for  the  anecdote,  the  saddle-girth,  although  not  very  noticeable,  can 
still  be  distinguished  ! 

The  statue  was  not  yet  erected  at  the  commencement  of  the  Civil 
War,  and  it  was  therefore  sold  by  Parliament  to  one  John  Rivett  or 
Rivet,  a  brazier  living  at  The  Dial,  near  Holborn  Conduit,  according 
to  Walpole,  with  strict  injunctions  that  it  should  be  broken  up  ;  and, 
inasmuch  as  fragments  of  brass  were  sold  by  Rivett  to  devoted 
royalists,  as  mementoes  of  the  Royal  Martyr,  the  contract  appeared 
to  have  been  duly  carried  out ;  when  lo  !  at  the  Restoration,  the 
statue  was  produced  safe  and  sound  from  the  cellar  where  the 
wily  brazier  had  carefully  hidden  it. 

Kennett,  in  his  Register  for  1660,  mentions  the  finding  of  the 
statue,  and  the  application  of  the  Earl  of  Portland  (the  son  of  Lord 
Treasurer  Weston)  to  the  House  of  Lords  for  its  restitution  to  himself. 
This  was  granted ;  but  whether  Rivett  proved  recalcitrant,  or  was 
able  to  satisfy  the  Lords  of  his  legal  right  to  the  statue  by  purchase, 
does  not  appear ;  in  any  case,  it  is  probable  that  he  made  a  good 
fight  for  it,  as  it  was  not  till  1674  that  the  figure  was  finally  placed 
in  its  present  position,  the  site  being  selected  as  that  on  which  Queen 
Eleanor's  Cross  originally  stood,  and  where,  later,  Harrison  and  certain 
other  regicides  were  executed.  The  beautiful  pedestal  on  which  the 
horse  stands  was  the  work  of  Joshua  Marshall,  Master  Mason  to 
the  Crown,  who  was  also  responsible  for  some  of  the  decorations  to 
Temple  Bar,  and  not,  as  Walpole  states  and  as  is  generally  supposed, 
of  Grinling  Gibbons. 

Sir  Christopher  Wren  made  two  drawings  for  the  base,  which  were, 
however,  not  used,  although  one  was  very  similar  to  Marshall's  design  ; 
but  Sir  Christopher  superintended  the  erection  of  the  statue  to  which 
on  each  succeeding  30th  of  January  'people  pay  that  reverence  as 


1908     BOYAL   OPEN-AIR   STATUES   OF  LONDON    675 

they  pass  '  as  Waller,  in  the  lines  he  wrote  when  it  was  first  set  up, 
said  they  then  did. 

Le  Sueur's  name  and  the  date,  1633,  is  inscribed  on  the  near  fore- 
foot of  the  horse.  The  George  which  hung  round  the  King's  neck  has, 
however,  disappeared,  the  hole  from  which  it  was  suspended  being 
still  visible,  while  the  sword  with  its  buckles  and  straps  was  stolen 
on  the  night  of  the  13th  of  April  1810.  These  were  said  to  have 
been  subsequently  picked  up  by  a  porter  named  Moxam,  and  the 
Board  of  Green  Cloth  apprised  of  the  circumstance.2  If  this  was  so, 
then  it  is  probable  that  they  were  restored  to  the  statue  and  a  second 
theft  perpetrated,  for  report  has  it  that  they  disappeared  again  in 
1844,  on  the  occasion  of  Queen  Victoria's  opening  the  Royal  Exchange. 
In  any  case,  they  no  longer  decorate  the  statue. 

In  1855  the  pedestal  was  repaired  by  Sir  G.  G.  Scott,  who  took  the 
opportunity  of  more  securely  fastening  the  feet  of  the  horse  to  the 
marble  slab  on  which  it  rests. 

Collectors  of  eighteenth  century  broadsides  will  remember  a 
Jacobite  effusion  entitled  '  A  Dialogue  between  the  Old  Black  Horse 

at  Charing  Cross  and  the  New  One,  with  a  Figure  on  it  in  H 

Square,'  in  which  '  King  Charles's  black  nagg '  is  supposed  to  make 
its  way  to  Hanover  Square,  and  hold  discourse  with  '  a  strange  Beast ' 
on  which  sat  one  that '  look't  like  a  lout,  and  was  dress'd  like  a  King,' 
the  latter  being  a  statue  of  George  the  First  which  appears  to  have 
been  formerly  in  the  centre  of  Hanover  Square,  but  of  which  all  trace 
seems  to  be  lost. 

If  only  one  statue  remains  of  Charles  the  First,  his  successor  is 
luckier,  for  there  were  at  one  time  at  least  four  of  Charles  the  Second 
in  London.  One  of  these,  the  work  of  Grinling  Gibbons,  formerly 
occupied  the  centre  of  the  large  quadrangle  of  the  Royal  Exchange 
where  now  that  of  Queen  Victoria  stands,  but  when  the  latter  was 
erected  Charles  was  removed  to  the  south-east  angle.  At  a  later  date 
her  late  Majesty  was  more  chary  of  allowing  the  removal  of  a  statue 
to  make  place  for  one  of  herself ;  for  when  it  was  suggested  that  the 
figure  of  Queen  Anne  in  front  of  St.  Paul's  should  be  taken  away  for 
a  like  purpose,  she  immediately  vetoed  the  proposal,  saying  that  she 
in  her  turn  might  be  removed  to  make  way  for  a  successor  if  such 
a  precedent  were  created. 

The  other  existing  statue  of  Charles  the  Second  was  also  the  work 
of  Grinling  Gibbons  and  stands  in  the  grounds  of  Chelsea  Hospital, 
appropriately  enough,  since  the  inception  of  that  institution  was 
due  to  Nell  Gwynn.  It.  was  the  gift  of  Tobias  Rustat,  page  of  the 
backstairs  to  the  King,  who  was,  besides,  a  benefactor  to  the  Hospital 
iteelf  to  the  extent  of  1000Z. 

Of  those  statues  of  Charles  the  Second  which  have  disappeared, 

2  Gentleman's  Magazine,  1810. 


676  THE    NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

one,  as  we  have  seen,  once  formed  part  of  the  decoration  of  Temple 
Bar,  while  another  formerly  stood  in  the  centre  of  Soho  Square.  This 
was  the  work  of  Caius  Gabriel  Gibber,  the  father  of  the  better  known 
Colley  Gibber.  It  had  an  elaborate  base  with  emblematical  figures 
representing  the  Thames,  Severn,  Tyne,  and  Humber,  and  altogether 
gave  Gibber  some  claim  to  Cunningham's  remark  that  '  he  must  be 
regarded  as  the  forerunner  of  whatever  is  poetic  in  the  sculpture  of 
Great  Britain.'  In  1876  the  statue,  having  become  damaged,  was 
removed  to  the  grounds  of  Frederick  Goodall,  the  Royal  Academician, 
at  Harrow  Weald. 

One  other  statue  of  Charles  the  Second  once  stood  in  London  in 
the  Stocks  Market  in  Walbrook,  but  it  probably  perished  in  the  Great 
Fire  which  destroyed  the  market  itself.  I  say  it  was  a  statue  of 
Charles  ;  I  ought  perhaps  rather  to  have  said  that  it  was  intended 
to  represent  the  Merry  Monarch,  for  here  is  what  Pennant  writes 
about  it :  'In  it  (the  Stocks  Market)  stood  the  famous  equestrian 
statue,  erected  in  honour  of  Charles  the  Second  by  his  most  loyal 
subject  Sir  Robert  Viner,  Lord  Mayor.  Fortunately  his  lordship 
discovered  one  (made  at  Leghorn)  of  John  Sobieski  trampling  on  a 
Turk.  The  good  knight  caused  some  alterations  to  be  made  and 
christened  the  Polish  monarch  by  the  name  of  Charles,  and  bestowed 
on  the  turbaned  Turk  that  of  Oliver  Cromwell ! '  Walpole,  however, 
puts  a  slightly  better  complexion  on  the  matter  by  affirming  that  the 
statue  '  came  over  unfinished  and  a  new  head  was  added  by  Latham.' 

James  the  Second  is  represented  by  a  single  statue  ;  but  it  is  one 
of  great  merit,  and,  being  the  work  of  Gibbons,  it  could  hardly  be 
otherwise.  It  was  executed  in  lead,  and  was  erected  on  the  31st  of 
December  1686,  or,  as  some  authorities  say,  on  New  Year's  Day, 
1687,  in  the  precincts  of  Whitehall.  Tobias  Rustat,  whom  we  have 
seen  engaged  in  a  like  pious  act  with  regard  to  the  effigy  of  Charles 
the  Second,  paid  for  it.  It  has  been  pointed  out  as  an -evidence  of 
the  mild  character  of  the  1688  Revolution  that  this  statue  was  allowed 
to  remain  undisturbed  on  the  spot  on  which  it  had  been  set  up  two 
years  previously.  The  inscription  on  the  pedestal,  which  was  only 
added  when  the  statue  was  removed  from  its  original  position,  runs  : 
'Jacobus  Secundus  Dei  gratia3  Anglise,  Scotise,  Franciee  et  Hibernise 
rex,  fidei  defensor,  MDCLXXXVI,'  and  this  in  conjunction  with  the 
fact  that  the  King  is  habited  as  a  Roman  is  supposed  to  be  responsible 
for-  the  fact  that  it  was  once  popularly  believed  to  represent  Julius 
Caesar ! 

Not  uncharacteristic  of  the  fate  of  the  monarch  has  been  the 
destiny  of  this  figure.  Left  disdainfully  alone  during  the  Revolution, 
it  was  in  1897  brought  from  its  harbour  of  refuge  behind  the  Ban- 
queting Hall  into  a  temporary  glare  of  publicity  by  being  placed  on 

3  This,  by  a  curious  error,  has  been  written  '  gratise  ' — and  has  been  allowed  to 
remain  so ! 


1908     ROYAL   OPEN-AIR   STATUES   OF  LONDON    677 

the  small  green  patch  next  to  old  Gwydyr  House.  A  few  years  since 
it  was  again  sent  roaming,  and  now  it  stands,  forgotten  of  most 
people,  but  more  appropriately,  near  the  Admiralty,  and  facing  the 
Mall,  where  it  is  to  be  hoped  it  will  be  allowed  to  remain  long  enough 
to  become  habituated  to  the  new  condition  of  things  obtaining  in 
this  quarter  of  the  town. 

Walpole  very  properly  speaks  of  '  a  great  ease  in  the  attitude  and 
a  classic  simplicity '  in  this  figure,  and  he  mentions  that  Vertue  once 
met  with  an  agreement  signed  by  Gibbons  for  its  erection,  the  price 
being  300?.,  to  be  paid  in  instalments.  Peck  in  his  '  Desiderata 
Curiosa '  gives  a  list  of  Rustat's  benefactions  where  an  entry  shows 
that  the  1000Z.  paid  by  that  loyal  subject  included  the  payments  both 
for  this  statue  and  that  of  Charles  the  Second  at  Chelsea.  When 
Whitehall  was  destroyed  by  fire  the  statue  of  James  the  Second 
was  surrounded  by  flames,  whereupon  some  wit  of  the  period  remarked 
that  it  was  the  first  time  the  King  had  ever  stood  fire  ! 

The  '  little  Dutchman '  had  till  recently  but  one  statue  '  in  London, 
although  he  is  to  be  found  thus  commemorated  both  in  Dublin  and 
Glasgow,  but  he  stands  in  the  centre  of  the  most  notable  of  London 
Squares — that  of  St.  James.  His  statue  has  a  somewhat  curious  history. 
In  1697  the  idea  was  mooted,  and  the  figure  was  ordered  to  be  erected ; 
indeed  matters  went  to  the  length  of  the  selection  of  materials — it  was 
to  have  been  of  brass,  and  the  design  for  the  base  was  to  have  included 
mottoes  and  emblematical  figures.  For  some  reason  or  other  nothing 
appears  to  have  been  done  until  1721,  when  the  sculptor  David  tried 
to  get  up  a  subscription  for  a  statue,  not  of  William,  but  of  George 
the  First.  Being  unsuccessful,  the  matter  lapsed  until  three  years 
later,  when  one,  Samuel  Travers,  who,  as  Luttrell  tells  us,  was  a 
Member  of  Parliament,  and  Surveyor  General  of  their  Majesties'  lands 
in  succession  to  Mr.  H.  Harbord  who  died  in  1693,  left  a  sum  of  money 
4  to  purchase  and  erect  ...  an  equestrian  statue  in  brass  to  the 
glorious  memory  of  my  master,  King  William  the  Third.'  The  sole 
effort  made  to  fulfil  this  bequest  was  to  set  up  the  pedestal.  However, 
in  1806,  the  money  thus  left  having  been  discovered  among  some 
unclaimed  dividends,  the  younger  Bacon  was  commissioned  to  execute 
the  statue,  not  in  brass,  but  in  bronze.  For  many  years  it  stood  in 
the  centre  of  the  basin  of  water  which  formerly  occupied  the  site  of 
the  present  garden,  and  which  was  not  drained  off  until  some  sixty 
years  since. 

If  King  William  is  badly  off  in  the  matter  of  statues,  his  sister-in- 
law,  Queen  Anne,  has  less  reason  to  complain,  for  there  are  two 
presentments  of  her 5  in  London ;  the  better-known  one  being  that 

4  There  is  a  statue  of  William  in  front  of  Kensington  Palace,  recently  presented 
to  his  Majesty  the  King,  as  representing  the  English  people,  by  the  German  Emperor. 

5  The  statue  in  Queen  Square,  Bloomsbury,  is  frequently  supposed  to  be  of  Queen 
Anne,  but  it  really  represents  Queen  Charlotte,  and  was  erected  by  General  Strode. 


678  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

in  front  of  St.  Paul's  which  marks  the  western  boundary  of  the  old 
cathedral.  This  statue  is  a  modern  rendering  of  the  -former  one, 
substituted  in  1886,  and  the  work  of  Messrs.  Mowlem,  Burt  and 
Freeman.  The  original  was  executed  in  1712,  by  Francis  Bird,  and 
is  now,  according  to  Mr.  Hare,  preserved  at  Holmhurst,  near  Hastings. 

Although  Mackay,  in  his  Journey  through  England,  speaks  enthusi- 
astically of  Bird's  work,  Dr.  Garth  wrote  some  scurrilous  lines  on  it, 
aimed  at  the  person  of  majesty  rather  than  at  the  representation  of 
it ;  while  a  French  writer  made  it  the  occasion  for  a  wholesale 
onslaught  on  the  sculpture  of  this  country  :  '  a  1'egard  de  la  sculpture,' 
says  our  author,  '  le  marbre  gemit,  pour  ainsi  dire,  sous  des  ciseaux 
aussi  peu  habiles  que  ceux  qui  ont  execute  le  groupe  de  la  reine  Anne, 
place  devant  1'Eglise  de  St.  Paul.'  Indeed,  the  statue  was  furiously 
abused  on  all  sides  as  a  work  of  art ;  but,  as  far  as  one  can  tell,  it  had 
at  least  the  merit  of  being  like  the  Queen.  Bird,  the  sculptor,  received 
250L  for  the  figure  itself,  220Z.  for  the  four  allegorical  figures  at  the 
base,  and  50L  for  the  coat-of-arms  on  the  pedestal. 

It  is  a  pity  the  writer  of  the  lines  quoted  above,  and  others  who 
found  fault  with  the  figure,  had  not  seen  or  remembered  the  beautiful 
statue  of  the  Queen  which  now  stands  in  a  niche  in  Queen  Anne's 
Gate,  at  the  point  where  a  wall  formerly  ran  across  the  street  and 
gave  the  place  a  little  more  the  semblance  of  the  square  which  it 
formerly  was.  This  statue  was  originally  placed  above  the  portico 
of  St.  Mary-le-Strand ;  but  that  this  was  only  a  temporary  resting- 
place  is  proved  by  Gibbs,  the  architect  of  the  church,  who,  in  his 
Book  of  Architecture,  states  that  it  was  intended  to  surmount  a  column 
250  feet  high,  which  was  to  have  been  placed  80  feet  from  the  west 
front  of  the  church.  This  column,  he  adds,  was  approved  by  the 
Commissioners  (for  the  fifty  churches  projected  at  this  time),  but 
the  death  of  the  Queen  caused  the  matter  to  be  laid  aside.  As  the 
church  was  commenced  in  1714  and  finished  three  years  later,  it  is 
probable  that  this  marks  the  approximate  period  when  the  statue 
was  removed  to  what  was  then  Queen  Square,  Westminster ;  but 
this  is  as  uncertain  as  is  the  name  of  the  sculptor ;  indeed,  the  only 
fact  generally  accepted  about  the  statue  is  that  on  every  anniversary 
of  her  death  the  Queen  descends  from  her  pedestal  and  solemnly 
perambulates  the  square  three  times  ! 

As  we  have  seen,  Queen  Anne  stands  in  front  of  St.  Paul's,  and 
very  nearly  occupied  a  similar  position  before  St.  Mary-le-Strand, 
but  it  was  reserved  for  her  successor  to  actually  surmount  the  top  of 
a  church,  and  on  the  summit  of  Hawksmoor's  ridiculous  steeple  of 
St.  George's,  Bloomsbury,  *  a  master-stroke  of  absurdity,'  as  Walpole 
calls  it — which,  by  the  by,  is  to  be  seen  in  the  background  of  Hogarth's 
Gin  Lane — you  shall  see  his  gracious  majesty  gazing  at  the  sky ! 
The  figure  was  erected  at  the  expense  of  William  Hucks,  a  rich  brewer, 
who  died  soon  after,  in  1740.  It  is  hardly  surprising  that  a  feature 


1908     ROYAL   OPEN-AIR   STATUES   OF  LONDON    679 

lending  itself  so  easily  to  satire  should  have  called  forth  the  following 
contemporary  epigram  : 

When  Henry  the  Eighth  left  the  pope  in  the  lurch, 
The  Protestants  made  him  the  head  of  the  Church  ; 
But  George's  good  subjects,  the  Bloomsbury  people, 
Instead  of  the  Church  make  him  head  of  the  steeple. 

In  addition  to  the  statue  of  George  the  First,  which  is  said  to  have 
once  occupied  a  position  in  the  central  garden  of  Hanover  Square, 
another  and  still  more  notorious  image  of  the  monarch  once  stood  in 
the  capital.  This  was  Van  Nost's  equestrian  figure  of  the  King  which 
was  originally  at  Canons,  the  seat  of  the  '  Princely  Chandos,'  and  which 
was  set  up  in  the  centre  of  Leicester  Square  by  Frederick,  Prince  of 
Wales,  it  is  supposed,  to  annoy  his  father,  George  the  Second.  It  was 
unveiled  by  the  Prince  with  great  ceremony  on  the  19th  of  November 
1748,  which  day  was  the  anniversary  both  of  his  birth  and  of  that  of 
Charles  the  First ;  and  in  this  latter  connexion  it  is  a  curious  fact 
that  Van  Nost  had  modelled  the  horse  from  Le  Sueur's  beautiful 
work  at  Charing  Cross.6 

When  Wyld's  great  globe  occupied  the  centre  of  the  Square  in 
1851,  the  statue  was  let  down  into  a  pit  dug  for  that  purpose  beneath 
the  building ;  and,  on  the  removal  of  that  stupendous  eyesore,  was 
again  placed  in  situ.  In  process  of  time  the  central  garden  of  the 
Square  became  a  mere  rubbish  heap  and  a  receptacle  for  all  the 
refuse  of  the  neighbourhood ;  while  the  statue  itself  was  treated  to 
various  indignities,  culminating,  on  the  night  of  the  17th  of  October 
1866,  in  the  horse  being  painted  white  with  black  spots  stencilled 
over  it,  a  fool's  cap  being  placed  on  the  head  of  majesty,  and  a  broom- 
stick against  his  shoulder — for  he  had  already  lost  an  arm,  as  his 
horse  had,  a  hind  leg  and  a  forefoot.  On  the  24th  of  February  1874 
the  miserable  relic,  which  had  been  sold  two  years  previously  for  16L 
was  finally  removed,  as  it  should  have  been  long  before. 

Van  Nost  was  responsible  for  yet  another  statue  of  George  the 
First,  which  has,  however,  long  since  disappeared.  This  was  the 
gilt  equestrian  figure  erected  by  Sir  Richard  Grosvenor  in  the  centre 
of  Grosvenor  Square,  when  that '  great  builder  '  developed  his  property 
in  this  neighbourhood.  It  was  set  up  in  August  1726,  and  in  the 
Daily  Journal  for  the!7th  of  that  month  is  an  account  of  the  ceremony. 
The  spot  on  which  the  statue  stood  was  practically  that  once  occupied 
by  Oliver's  Mound,  a  fortification  erected  by  the  parliamentary 
troops  during  the  Great  Rebellion,  from  which  Mount  Street  takes 
its .  name. 

6  This  was  not  the  first  time  that  a  model  had  been  taken  from  this  statue,  for  in 
1719  leave  was  given  to  Mr.  John  Hoest  for  the  same  purpose  for  a  statue  of 
George  the  First.  Can  this  have  been  the  statue  which  was  formerly  in  Grosvenor 
Square,  which  was  made  by  Van  Nost,  and  erected  in  1726  ? 


680  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

The  statues  of  George  the  First  do  not  seem  to  have  been  lucky, 
for  this  one,  soon  after  its  erection,  was  subjected  to  the  indignity 
of  being  dismembered,  and  a  traitorous  paper  affixed  to  the  pedestal ; 
and  although  Sir  Kichard  Grosvenor  did  all  in  his  power  to  bring 
the  perpetrators  of  the  deed  to  justice,  offering  100Z.  for  their  appre- 
hension, they  were  never  discovered. 

Of  George  the  Second  no  statue  exists  in  London ;  and  although 
one  once  stood  in  the  centre  garden  of  Golden  Square,  representing 
the  monarch  habited  as  '  an  antique  Roman,'  also  the  work  of  Van 
Nost,  and,  like  that  of  George  the  First,  formerly  at  Canons,  it  has  long 
since  disappeared,  and  can  only  be  seen  in  Bowles's  view  of  the  square. 

Even  George  the  Third  is  to-day  only  represented  by  a  single 
statue,7  that  in  Cockspur  Street,  the  work  of  M.  C.  Wyatt,  unveiled 
on  the  3rd  of  August  1836,  by  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  and  repre- 
senting his  Majesty  in  a  prodigious  pigtail,  and  riding  an  excellent 
horse,  in  silk  stockings  !  in  fact,  as  he  appeared  when  reviewing  the 
Volunteers  in  Hyde  Park  in  1803, s  although  one  of  the  monarch, 
which  has  disappeared,  formerly  occupied  a  position  in  the  central 
garden  of  Berkeley  Square,  and  was  executed  by  Beaupre,  under 
the  direction  of  Wilton,  for  the  Princess  Amelia.  It  exhibited  the 
King  as  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  was  erected  in  1766  (removed  in  1827), 
when  it  was  subjected  to  a  good  deal  of  criticism,  as  most  statues  are, 
Mason  sneeringly  referring  to  it  as  a  '  Phidian  work,'  while  Allen 
speaks  of  the  '  clumsy  '  pedestal  which  supported  it. 

As  with  his  father,  so  with  George  the  Fourth  ;  one  statue  remains, 
one  has  disappeared.  The  former  may  be  seen  by  all  men  at  the 
north-east  corner  of  Trafalgar  Square,  waiting,  it  would  seem,  for  a 
companion  at  the  other  corner  of  the  Square,  and  apparently  waiting 
in  vain.  Perhaps  this  is  as  it  should  be,  for  surely  no  appropriate 
companion  can  be  found  for  that  so  incomparable  '  first  gentleman 
of  Europe  '  !  The  equestrian  figure  was  the  work  of  Chantrey,  and 
was  originally  intended  to  surmount  the  Marble  Arch  when  it  stood 
in  front  of  Buckingham  Palace.  The  King,  who  was  fond  of  seeing 
reproductions  of  his  august  person,  ordered  the  statue  himself  in 
1829,  and  agreed  to  pay  9000  guineas  for  it — certainly  a  royal  sum  ; 
but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  only  paid  a  third  of  the  amount,  the  second 
instalment  being  found  by  the  Office  of  Woods  and  Forests  on  the 
completion  of  the  work,  and  the  last  by  the  Treasury  in  1843,  after 
the  sculptor's  death  ! 

The  other  statue  of  the  King,  a  miserable  one,  we  are  told,  gave 
its  name  to  King's  Cross,  which  was  formerly  known  as  Battle  Bridge. 
The  figure,  which  was  set  up  in  honour  of  the  Bang's  accession,  was 
mercifully  removed  in  1842.  It  was  made  of  composition  and  was 

7  If  we  except  the  one  in  Somerset  House  precincts,  the  work  of  Bacon. 

8  It  was  originally  intended  that  this  statue  should  stand  on  the  site  now  occupied 
by  the  Guards'  Memorial 


1908    ROYAL   OPEN-AIR   STATUES   OF  LONDON    681 

about  11  feet  high.  It  surmounted  an  octagon-shaped  building,  first 
used  as  a  police-station  and  afterwards  as  a  public-house ;  and  the 
basis  of  the  nose  of  the  statue  is  said  to  have  been  a  drain-tile  ! 

We  must  journey  to  the  heart  of  the  City  to  find  William  the 
Fourth,  who  stands  at  the  junction  of  King  William  Street,  Cannon 
Street,  and  Eastcheap,  and  seems  to  direct  the  unresting  traffic  over 
London  Bridge.  The  statue  was  the  work  of  Samuel  Nixon,  and 
was  erected  in  its  present  position  on  the  site  practically  of  the  Boar's 
Head  Tavern,  made  famous  by  Shakespeare,  in  1844.  The  base  is 
formed  of  two  blocks  of  granite  of  prodigious  weight,  and  as  the 
District  Railway  runs  beneath,  special  precautions  had  to  be  taken 
to  support  it  while  the  line  was  in  course  of  construction. 

Apart  from  figures  forming  integral  portions  of  public  buildings, 
such  as  that  over  the  entrance  to  the  Victoria  Tower  at  Westminster, 
and  that  in  the  centre  of  the  facade  of  the  new  Victoria  and  Albert 
Museum,  to  mention  but  these,  there  are  only  two  statues  of  Queen 
Victoria  in  London.9  One  is  appropriately  the  work  of  the  Princess 
Louise,  Duchess  of  Argyll,  well  known  as  an  accomplished  artist.  It 
was  erected  a  few  years  since,  and  represents  the  late.  Queen,  when 
young,  seated  and  crowned,  holding  the  sceptre  and  orb,  and  gazing 
towards  that  memorial  which  the  people  erected  as  a  recognition  of 
the  great  qualities  and  blameless  life  of  Prince  Albert.  Readers  of 
Mr.  Barrie's  Little  White  Bird  will  not  need  to  be  reminded  that  this 
statue  of  the  Queen  is  referred  to  in  that  delightful  book  as  '  The 
Big  Penny.' 

The  other  statue  of  Queen  Victoria  stands  on  the  Middlesex  side 
of  Blackfriars  Bridge,  and  was  set  up  in  1896  by  Sir  Alfred  Scale 
Haslam,  as  a  token  of  loyalty.  It  is  the  work  of  C.  B.  Bird,  who 
executed  it  in  1893.  It  seems  strange,  considering  the  length  of  her 
reign,  the  splendour  of  her  rule,  and  the  great  qualities  of  her  mind, 
but  above  all,  the  remarkable  hold  she  had  on  the  affections  of  the 
people,  that  only  two  statues  at  present  exist  of  Queen  Victoria  in 
the  capital  of  the  Empire ;  but  perhaps  it  is  the  very  fact  of  her 
memory  being  so  firmly  enshrined  in  the  hearts  of  her  subjects  that 
makes  any  outward  reminder  of  her  personality  unnecessary. 

The  statues  of  royal  personages  other  than  sovereigns  in  London 
seem  to  properly  demand  a  word ;  one  of  them,  indeed,  fitly  holds 
an  inseparable  place  by  the  side  of  the  great  Queen — that  of  her 
beloved  Consort,  Prince  Albert,  of  whom  there  are  three  in  London. 
One  of  these  is  the  equestrian  figure  on  Holborn  Viaduct,  which  was 
executed  by  Bacon,  and  unveiled  in  1873.  The  Prince  is  shown 
saluting  the  City  of  London  and  appropriately  gazing  towards  the 

9  There  is  one  in  the  centre  of  the  Eoyal  Exchange  by  Lough,  and  of  course  the 
great  memorial  to  the  Queen  in  front  of  Buckingham  Palace,  now  in  course  of 
erection,  will  contain  one  ;  also  there  is  one,  together  with  that  of  the  King  and  the 
late  Duke  of  Clarence,  in  the  Temple  Bar  Memorial. 


682  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

east,  where  the  wise  men  dwelt.  The  cost  of  the  statue  was  defrayed 
by  an  anonymous  donor,  while  the  Corporation  voted  the  sum  of 
2000JL  for  the  pedestal  on  which  it  rests. 

The  second  statue  is  that  which  stands  near  the  Albert  Hall  in 
what  were  formerly  the  grounds  of  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society, 
and  leased  by  that  body  from  the  Commissioners  of  the  1851  Exhibi- 
tion. Prince  Albert  opened  these  gardens,  which  had  been  laid  out 
by  Mr.  Nesfield,  on  the  5th  of  June  1861,  and  therefore  the  statue 
has  a  raison  d'etre  for  its  position ;  especially  as  it  faces  the  Royal 
College  of  Music  and  is  in  close  proximity  to  those  vast  buildings 
in  which  science  and  art  go  hand  in  hand  in  the  education  of  the 
people — all  matters  this  enlightened  Prince  ever  had  closely  at  heart. 

The  third  statue 10  is  the  colossal  gilt  figure  which  occupies  the 
centre  of  the  Albert  Memorial.  It  is  by  Foley,  who  was  also  responsible 
for  perhaps  the  finest  of  the  four  emblematic  groups  at  the  base,  that 
representing  Asia.  The  Memorial  was  erected  from  the  designs  of 
Sir  Gilbert  Scott,  the  cost,  120,000?.,  being  defrayed  by  public 
subscription,  aided  by  a  grant  from  Parliament  of  50,OOOZ.,  and  further 
supplemented  by  a  contribution  from  Queen  Victoria. 

A  little-known  statue  of  a  royal  personage  is  that  of  the  Duke 
of  Kent,  by  Gahagan,  at  the  north  end  of  Portland  Place  ;  a  very 
obvious  one,  that  of  the  Duke  of  York,  second  son  of  George  the  Third, 
which  stands  on  the  top  of  the  great  column  in  Carlton  House  Terrace, 
on  the  site  of  that  Carlton  House  where  he  so  often  indulged  in  the 
unholy  revels  of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  The  statue,  set  up  on  the 
llth  of  April  1835,  is  the  work  of  Westmacott;  while  the  column, 
124  feet  high,  was  designed  by  Wyatt ;  and  both  were  erected  by 
public  subscription,  a  wondering  posterity  still  asking  itself  why. 
Some  wit  once  said  that  the  Duke  was  placed  there  to  be  beyond  the 
reach  of  his  creditors ;  in  any  case,  he  seems  during  his  life  to  have 
extracted  sufficient  money  from  the  country  generally  to  have  obviated 
the  necessity  for  asking  the  public  to  subscribe  to  a  posthumous 
statue !  u 

One  other  effigy  which  requires  a  fe\fr  words  has  long  since  dis- 
appeared. It  represented  the  Duke  of  Cumberland — the  Butcher — 
'  in  his  habit  as  he  lived,'  and  was  erected  in  Cavendish  Square  in 
1770  by  Lieut. -General  Strode,  the  sculptor  being  John  Cheese,  who 
executed  it  in  lead  gilded  over. 

The  inscription  on  the  pedestal  was  as  follows  : 

William,  Duke  of  Cumberland,  born  April  15th,  1721— died  Oct.  31st,  1765. 
This  equestrian  statue  was  erected  by  Lieutenant -General  William  Strode, 
in  gratitude  for  his  private  friendship,  in  honoiir  of  his  public  virtue, 
November  4th,  Anno  Domini,  1770. 

10  There  is  also  one  by  Lough  in  the  Eoyal  Exchange. 

11  In  The  Examiner  for  April  12,  1835,  there  is  an  account  of  the  raising  of  the 
statue  to  the  top  of  the  column. 


1908     ROYAL   OPEN-AIR   STATUES  OF  LONDON    683 

This  extraordinarily  worded  effusion  naturally  gave  rise  to  a  good 
deal  of  criticism  ;  as  did  the  fact  that  the  Duke  was  represented  in 
the  military  garb  of  the  period,  and  not,  as  had  hitherto  been  the 
rule,  in  classic  attire.  Even  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  found  fault  with 
this,  and  in  his  Tenth  Discourse  took  occasion  to  remark  that  '  in  this 
town  may  be  seen  an  equestrian  statue  in  a  modern  dress,  which 
may  be  sufficient  to  deter  modern  artists  from  any  such  attempt.' 

The  figure  was  removed  in  1868  in  order  to  be  recast,  but  for  some 
reason  or  other  it  was  never  replaced,  and  its  fate  is  still  open  to 
conjecture. 

Taken  as  a  whole,  the  royal  statues  in  London  are  not  satisfying, 
inasmuch  as  for  no  less  than  four  of  Charles  the  Second,  counting 
those  which  have  disappeared,  we  have  two  of  Victoria  ;  George  the 
Fourth  is  represented  and  Edward  the  Third  neglected ;  Henry  the 
Fifth,  Edward  the  First,  and  William  the  First  have  none  of  them 
been  honoured  in  this  way;  but  James  the  Second  stands  by  the 
Admiralty,  and  George  the  First,  against  all  the  canons  of  art  and 
good  taste,  dominates  the  steeple  of  a  church  ! 

E.  BERESFORD  CHANCELLOR. 


684  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 


PRINCE    BULOW 

AN    APPRECIATION 


THE  present  German  Chancellor  is  one  of  the  very  few  continental 
statesmen  whose  speeches  frequently  attain  to  headlines  and  double 
columns  in  the  British  Press,  privileges  it  rarely  grants  to  any  foreigner. 
Many  of  his  phrases  have  become  international  catchwords  like  those 
of  Bismarck  and  Disraeli ;  and  his  opinions  are  quoted  and  criticised 
as  having  an  importance  to  Europe  equalled  only  by  those  of  some  four 
or  five  rulers  and  outstanding  personalities,  with  whom  the  general 
public  is  far  better  acquainted.  All  his  movements  are  carefully 
chronicled,  and  every  declaration  of  policy  receives  the  gravest  atten- 
tion, both  within  and  beyond  the  limits  of  his  own  country.  Few 
public  men  of  the  present  day  have  been  so  savagely  attacked  or  so 
warmly  defended,  and  few  indeed  can  be  said  to  hold  so  dominating 
an  influence  on  the  world's  affairs. 

But  if  he  is  one  of  the  most  striking,  he  is  also  one  of  the  least  under- 
stood, of  the  personalities  of  contemporary  history.  It  is  possible  to 
read  long  and  intimate  descriptions — more  or  less  reliable — of  the  likes 
and  dislikes,  the  daily  life,  and  personal  traits  of  a  score  of  smaller 
celebrities  ;  but  the  study  which  shall  deal  even  ever, so  lightly  with 
the  aims  and  convictions,  the  life  apart  from  politics,  in  a  word  the 
real  self,  of  the  highest  official  of  the  German  Empire  has  yet  to  be 
written. 

Of  Prince  Billow  the^German  Chancellor,  the  world  hears  much 
but  knows  little  ;  of  Bernhard  von  Billow  the  man,  it  knows  absolutely 
nothing.  No  doubt,  as  far  as  his  private  life  is  concerned,  this  is 
owing  to  his  own  reserve,  to  the  almost  studied  aloofness  from  any- 
thing like  the  self-revelations  so  freely  given  by  other  prominent 
actors  in  the  political  drama — his  own  Sovereign  or  President  Roose- 
velt for  example.  For  it  is  one  of  his  many  paradoxes  that  while  few 
statesmen  are  so  accessible  to  the  Press,  or  so  frank  and  courteous 
in  their  dealings  with  it,  so  long  as  it  is  concerned  merely  with  questions 
of  policy ;  yet  if  a  correspondent  attempts  to  get  the  faintest  personal 
note  into  the  interview  (be  he  German  or  foreign)  he  is  gently  but  firmly 
baffled,  and  that  in  such  a  way  that  not  the  most  intrepid  of  American 


1908  PRINCE  BULOW  685 

reporters  has  hitherto  succeeded  in  breaking  through  the  fence  of  t^cjt 
reticence  and  quiet  dignity  with  which  Prince  Billow  surrounds  him- 
self.    This  is  to  be  regretted,  because  the  great  majority  of  people  are 
of  Abraham  Lincoln's  opinion,  that  *  the  man  I  don't  understand  is  the 
man  I  don't  like,'  and,  moreover,  the  public  is  apt  to  consider  that  it 
has  a  sort  of  vested  right  to  know  as  much  as  it  chooses  of  the  inside 
life  of  anyone  who  is  prominently  before  it,  and  to  resent  any  curtail- 
ment of  such  right  accordingly.    Also  it  is  very  difficult  to  judge  a 
man's  political  work  with  any  justice  if  one  knows  nothing  of  the 
deeper  motives,  the  guiding  principles,  which  are  the  source  of  his 
actions.     Prince  Billow  is  now  in  his  eleventh  year  of  office — from 
1897  to  1900  as  Foreign  Secretary,  and  thence  onward  as  Chancellor 
of  the  Empire.     Looking  back  over  this  period,  many  will  think 
they  can  detect  great  inconsistencies  and  serious  mistakes,  as  well  as 
brilliant   achievements  and  undoubted  progress.     But  most  of  his 
critics  ignore  two  facts  in  their  survey.     Firstly,  the  terrible  difficulties 
— especially  with  regard  to  foreign  affairs — which  beset  him  on  every 
hand,  difficulties  not  of  his  own  making,  for  he  either  inherited  them 
from  the  former  Chancellor  or  encountered  them  afresh  from  a  too- 
impulsive  Sovereign,  bent  on  being  to  a  great  extent  his  own  Foreign 
Minister  and  easily  influenced  by  other  counsels  than  those  of  his 
responsible  advisers.     Secondly,  that  German  politics  cannot  under  any 
circumstances  be  measured  by  British  standards,  and  that,  therefore, 
thanks  to  the  hopeless  division  of  parties,  the  predominant  influence 
of  the  Crown,  and  many  other  factors,  much  that  would  be  incompre- 
hensible in  English  Parliamentary  life  is  a  simple  necessity  of  political 
existence  in  Germany. 

His  eight  years  as  Chancellor  have  been  practically  one  long  series 
of  conflicts — with  the  Socialists  on  home  government,  with  some 
hostile  Court  influence  on  foreign  affairs,  with  the  Centre  on  Colonial 
questions,  and  finally  with  extremists  of  all  parties,  who  would  cheer- 
fully wreck  the  Empire  in  order  to  carry  out  some  theory  of  their 
own,  or  to  serve  the  '  particularist '  interests  of  their  special  State  as 
against  the  welfare  of  the  whole.  But  in  spite  of  all  this  he  can  look 
back  on  a  great  deal  of  good  work  accomplished — accomplished,  too, 
in  the  teeth  of  difficulties  such  as  might  well  have  dismayed  a  man  less 
resolute  of  will,  less  dauntless  of  heart.  Almost  the  first  speeches 
he  made  in  the  Reichstag  dealt  with  the  Boer  War  ;  and  since  every 
sentence  that  could  possibly  be  twisted  into  offence  to  British  ears 
has  been  quoted,  or  rather  misquoted,  a  dozen  times,  I  should  like  to 
draw  attention  to  a  brief  but  noble  tribute  paid  to  British  soldiers 
in  the  course  of  a  speech  made  at  the  very  time  when  popular  sentiment, 
not  only  in  Germany  but  all  over  the  Continent,  was  most  strongly 
opposed  to  Great  Britain.  He  said  :  '  Let  us  never  forget  that  the 
British  Army  in  South/,' Africa  has  shown  the  world  that  its  soldiers 
know  how  to  die.'  His  first  task  of  great  moment,  the  revision  of  the 
VOL.  LXIV— No.  380  Z  Z 


686  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

tariff,  was  not  carried  through  the  Reichstag  without  a  long  and  bitter 
fight,  but  it  ended  in  victory ;  and  the  seven  important  commercial 
treaties  successfully  concluded  on  this  new  basis  falsified  all  the  pre- 
dictions of  the  Chancellor's  enemies.  I  must  now  touch  lightly  on  that 
much -vexed  question,  the  Morocco  Crisis  ;  but  only  in  so  far  as  it 
immediately  concerns  Prince  Billow,  for  this  is  neither  the  place  nor 
the  time  to  indulge  in  reflections  on  an  event  far  too  recent  and  too 
complicated  for  even  the  most  unprejudiced  to  pronounce  any  his- 
torical verdict  upon  it. 

But  there  have  been  attempts  made  to  represent  him  as  at  any 
rate  primarily  responsible  for  the  tension  caused  in  Franco-German 
(and,  by  a  kind  of  reflex  action,  Anglo-German)  relations  during 
that  period.  This  I  believe  to  be  a  most  utter  perversion  of  the  true 
facts  of  the  case.  It  was  not  the  existence  of  France's  ententes,  but 
the  undisguised  hostility  towards  Germany  with  which  her  then  Foreign 
Minister  strove  to  imbue  them,  that  awoke  that  suspicion  and  resent- 
ment in  the  German  people  which  rendered  a  crisis  of  some  sort 
inevitable. 

Now  that  the  clouds  are  dispersed — at  any  rate  for  a  time — I  think 
no  sensible  person  can  doubt  that  it  was  not  the  Anglo-French  Agree- 
ment, or  the  good  understanding  to  which  it  testified,  but  the  continued 
slights  and  provocations  of  M.  Delcasse  which  threatened  Europe  with 
the  danger  of  war.  For  that  there  was  such  a  danger  no  one  who 
was  in  Germany  during  the  summer  of  1905  can  question  for  a  moment. 
It  is  all  very  well  for  M.  Delcasse  to  say  that  Germany  would  never 
have  gone  to  war  merely  for  Morocco — Prince  Billow  said  as  much 
himself  in  the  Reichstag ;  but  he  added  that  any  Great  Power  worthy 
the  name  will  fight  to  the  last  gasp  if  it  believes  its  prestige,  its  honour, 
and  thereby  the  very  safety  of  its  existence,  threatened.  And  there 
we  come  to  the  crux  of  the  whole  matter.  Rightly  or  wrongly,  the 
great  majority  of  Germans  did  believe  their  country  -so  threatened. 
They  may  have  been  mistaken,  but  at  least  they  were  sincere,  and  it 
was  in  that  very  sincerity  that  the  danger  lay. 

Now,  it  has  been  suggested  that  throughout  the  crisis  two  distinct 
policies  were  being  pursued  in  Berlin — one  by  the  Kaiser,  favourable 
to  France,  the  other  by  Prince  Billow,  hostile  to  her.  To  those  who 
know  the  German  Constitution  such  an  idea  is  absurd  on  the  face  of 
it ;  for  since  no  Chancellor  can  hold  office  a  day  longer  than  the 
Kaiser  chooses,  and  since  Kaiser  and  Chancellor  must  be  in  constant 
touch  with  each  other,  owing  to  the  former's  personal  control  of 
State  affairs,  it  is  fairly  evident  that  a  serious  difference  on  vital 
questions  of  policy  (which  this  most  certainly  would  have  been)  must 
lead  to  the  instant  resignation  of  the  Chancellor.  It  is  quite  true  that 
Prince  Billow's  enemies  tried  to  prejudice  the  Kaiser  against  him, 
but  his  Majesty  was  far  too  loyal  to  his  First  Minister  to  heed  such 
counsels  ;  and  that  Minister  undoubtedly  exerted  his  influence  with 


1908  PRINCE  BULOW  687 

his  impetuous  Sovereign  in  the  cause  of  peace — of  course,  '  peace  with 
honour,'  and,  so  far  as  it  could  be  assured,  security  for  Germany. 
When  the  French  declared  their  willingness  to  go  to  the  Algeciras 
Conference,  and  so  virtually  dismissed  M.  Delcasse,  the  acute  tension 
passed  away  and  Germany  gradually  forgot  her  anger  and  alarm. 
But  of  one  thing  I  feel  very  sure,  and  that  is  that  if  ever  the  full  and 
true  history  of  the  Moroccan  incident  is  revealed  Prince  Billow  will 
stand  out  as  a  peace-maker  rather  than  a  peace-breaker.  The  harass- 
ing worries  of  that  time  told  on  his  health,  which  had  already  withstood 
years  of  constant  overwork.  He  would  not  spare  himself,  and  it  was 
•characteristic  of  him  that,  ill  and  worn  out  as  he  was,  he  insisted  on 
being  present  at  a  foreign  affairs  debate  in  the  Reichstag  and  person- 
.ally  vindicating  his  policy.  The  result  was  a  severe  fainting  fit,  which 
compelled  even  him  to  take  a  brief  respite  from  his  overwhelming 
routine  of  work. 

After  a  long  absence,  not  by  any  means  all  holiday,  he  returned  to 
Berlin,  soon  to  prove  himself  in  his  old  fighting  form  during  the  brief 
.and  stormy  session  which  preceded  his  dramatic  dissolution  of  Par- 
liament. Indeed,  the  great  speech  on  the  foreign  relations  of  Germany 
which  he  made  in  the  Reichstag  on  the  14th  of  November  1906  was  one 
•of  the  most  brilliant  ever  heard  in  that  Assembly.  But  the  powerful 
Catholic  'Centre'  Party  which  had  for  so  long  supported  him  on 
inational  questions — and  especially  with  regard  to  those  laws  widening 
;and  furthering  Social  Reform  which  have  been  one  of  the  most  note- 
worthy achievements  of  his  policy — suddenly  failed  in  their  allegiance. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  this  was  owing  less  to  dissatisfaction 
with  the  Colonial  Estimates  of  the  Government  (the  ostensible  cause 
/of  the  quarrel)  than  to  their  attack  on  the  new  Colonial  Minister,  Herr 
Dernberg — an  attack  which  it  was  believed  would  have  resulted  in  his 
instant  dismissal. 

Prince  Bulow,  however,  was  not  the  man  to  throw  over  one  of  his 
^ministerial  colleagues  at  the  bidding  of  a  few  party  leaders,  even  though 
they  were  among  his  moet  influential  supporters.  He  has  been  called 
•*  Napoleonic '  in  his  discipline,  but  invariably  kind  and  considerate 
-to  his  subordinates  and  loyal  to  his  fellow-ministers.  Demanding 
jfrom  them  the  same  unsparing  devotion  to  their  work  which  he  gives 
himself,  he  had  long  been  anxious  to  secure  a  more  efficient  head  of  the 
•Colonial  Office. 

In  Herr  Dernberg  he  had  at  last  found  one,  and  therefore  it  would 
"have  been  an  injury  to  the  Empire  to  sacrifice  him,  as  well  as  an 
impossibility  to  the  Chancellor's  chivalrous  nature.  I  think  I  have 
said  enough  to  show  that  though  the  conflict  with  the  Centre  is  deeply 
to  be  regretted,  yet  at  the  time  it  was  a  political  necessity,  as  well  as 
a  point  of  personal  honour.  For  the  Colonial  question  had  become 
<of  such  grave  consequence  to  Germany  that  to  suffer  interference  in 
it  from  a  section  of  the  Reichstag,  however  important,  would  have 

z  i  2 


688  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

been  an  act  of  criminal  weakness  on  the  part  of  the  statesman  respon- 
sible. The  dissolution  and  the  results  of  the  following  elections  are 
too  well  known  to  need  recapitulation  here.  The  Liberal-Conserva- 
tive *  Bloc  '  which  now  constitutes  the  Government  majority  appears 
to  form  but  a  frail  bulwark  for  the  best  interests  of  Germany — for  that 
it  is  to  her  best  interests  that  the  present  Chancellor  should  remain 
in  office  I  most  firmly  believe.  Fresh  questions,  such  as  the  Polish 
Bill,  too  rashly  criticised  by  sentimentalists  who  have  little  or  no 
knowledge  of  Prussia's  complicated  and  thorny  task  with  regard  to  her 
disloyal  Polish  subjects,  and  the  more  pressing  difficulty  of  the  Prussian 
franchise  affair,  seem  only  too  likely  to  split  up  the  Nationalist  parties. 
No  one  will  deny  that  the  present  electoral  system  of  Prussia  is 
miserably  inadequate  ;  but  to  alter  it  at  once  to  the  '  one  man  one 
vote '  plan  would  be  to  encounter  all  those  dangers  inseparable  from 
too  violent,  and  above  all  too  sudden,  a  change  in  the  structure  of 
the  State.  As  the  Empire  already  possesses  universal  suffrage  the 
question  can  hardly  be  as  urgent  as  the  Socialists  strive  to  make  it 
appear.  What  is  needed  is  a  policy  of  sane  and  moderate  reform ; 
but  the  nations  are  slow  to  learn  from  history,  and  from  Nature  her- 
self, that  all  great  and  enduring  progress  is  made  gradually. 

In  spite  of  these  difficulties,  however,  the  differences  between  the 
right  and  left  wings  of  the  Bloc  have  been  composed  at  least 
temporarily,  and  the  session  which  opened  so  stormily  closed  in  com- 
parative calm. 

It  is  as  grand  an  aim  as  ever  statesman  set  before  him,  this  brave 
attempt  of  Prince  Billow's  to  teach  the  German  people  the  real 
meaning  of  Constitutional  Government ;  but  whether  it  is  possible 
for  it  to  succeed  under  the  present  political  conditions  may  well  be 
doubted.  Yet  even  if  it  fails  there  are  some  failures  which  are  nobler 
than  success,  and  a  new  element — the  vox  populi — will  have  been 
brought  into  German  politics,  never  wholly  to  disappear. 

The  great  problem  of  the  re-organisation  of  the  national  finances 
is  one  on  which  the  various  sections  that  make  up  the  Bloc  are 
grievously  divided,  and  it  seems  well-nigh  impossible  that  any  practical 
scheme  can  be  evolved  which  will  at  all  reconcile  the  conflicting  views 
of  this  unstable  majority  on  whose  continued  existence  that  of  the 
Chancellor  himself,  politically  speaking,  perhaps  depends. 

Nevertheless  he  has  fought  and  won  so  many  desperate  parlia- 
mentary battles  in  the  past,  that  it  is  surely  not  too  much  to  hope 
that  the  old  dauntless  courage,  the  old  superb  power  as  a  leader  of 
men  will  enable  him  yet  again  to  overcome  the  terrible  obstacles 
which  confront  him,  and  to  build  up  a  really  strong,  united,  and  trust- 
worthy majority  out  of  the  chaos  of  parties  that  now  compose  the 
Bloc. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  a  firmly  established,  pacifically  inclined 
German  Government  is  one  of  the  best  guarantees  for  European  peace. 


1908  PRINCE  BULOW  689 

An  excited  nation  is  often  a  quarrelsome  nation,  and  it  is  better  for 
the  whole  world  that  so  important  an  item  of  it  as  Germany  should 
be  quiet,  contented,  and  prosperous.  It  is  scarcely  needful  to  emphasise 
Prince  Billow's  earnest  and  consistent  efforts  to  place  the  mutual 
relations  of  Germany  and  Great  Britain  on  a  more  cordial  and  friendly 
basis.  In  his  speeches,  personally,  and  above  all  in  his  actual  foreign 
policy,  he  has  done  his  utmost  to  remove  misunderstandings  and  to 
avoid  friction.  The  kindly  hospitality  to  the  British  journalists  who 
visited  Berlin  last  year,  the  straightforward  declarations  of  policy, 
and  the  warm-hearted  approval  of  every  scheme  for  enabling  the  two 
nations  to  know  more  of  each  other,  and  so  to  like  each  other  better, 
will  be  fresh  in  the  memory  of  all.  It  is  probable  that  nothing  has 
damaged  the  cause  of  Anglo-German  friendship  more  than  the  recent 
German  Navy  Bill,  and  the  distrust  it  has  aroused  in  a  country  whose 
very  existence  depends  on  her  naval  supremacy.  That  Great  Britain 
must  retain  this  supremacy  unchallenged  is  a  fact  recognised  by  vir- 
tually every  party  in  the  State.  But  it  should  be  remembered  that 
Germany  has  never  pretended  to  have  either  the  will  or  the  ability 
to  challenge  it,  and  that  in  view  of  the  changes  wrought  in  naval 
warfare  by  the  practical  demonstrations  of  the  Russo-Japanese  con- 
flict and  the  introduction  of  more  powerful  battleships,  every  first- 
class  Power  has  been  compelled  to  re-organise  its  naval  defences. 
Germany  is  not  the  only  Power  who  has  started  building  Dread- 
noughts— France,  Japan,  and  the  United  States  have  done  the  same, 
and  they  are  not  suspected  of  designs  on  their  neighbours'  property. 
It  is  only  fair  to  admit  that  Germany  has  at  least  one  obvious  reason 
for  strengthening  her  fleet — namely,  the  rapid  development  of  her 
trade  and  mercantile  interests,  and  her  responsibilities  as  a  Great  Power 
to  protect  her  subjects  settled  in  foreign  lands,  tasks  which  she  must 
render  it  strong  enough  to  perform.  Surely  the  fault  lies  rather  in 
the  unsatisfactory  state  of  feeling  between  the  two  countries  than  in 
any  measures  which  either  of  them  may  deem  it  necessary  to  take  in 
their  own  defence. 

I  feel  that  any  sketch  of  Prince  Billow's  political  career  would  be 
incomplete  without  a  brief  allusion  to  the  so-called  '  Camarilla.'  It 
is  probably  true  that  a  small  clique  bitterly  inimical  to  him,  both  per- 
sonally and  politically,  had  a  certain  amount  of  influence  in  Court 
circles,  though  I  think  this  has  been  much  exaggerated.  Their 
hostility  was,  of  course,  carefully  concealed  from  the  Emperor,  but 
nevertheless  it  constituted  a  real  danger.  For  the  painful  denouement 
which  finally  removed  these  persons  from  the  arena  of  public  life  the 
Chancellor  was  not  in  any  way  responsible,  directly  or  indirectly. 
It  will  be  said,  perhaps,  that  he  ought  to  have  warned  the  Emperor 
against  them.  But  the  answer  to  this  is  that  he  had  no  proofs,  and 
that  it  would  be  impossible  for  a  Minister  to  rid  himself  of  his  enemies 
by  advancing  unsubstantiated  accusations  concerning  them  to  his 


690  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

Sovereign.  It  only  remains  to  be  said  that  political  antagonism  in 
Germany  is  disgraced  by  a  ferocity  and  unscrupulousness  for  which 
England  happily  has  no  parallel.  No  slander  is  too  dastardly,  no  lie 
too  outrageous,  to  be  employed  for  the  purpose  of  discrediting  an 
adversary. 

I  have  spoken  of  Prince  Billow's  '  enemies,'  and  that  word  is  not 
by  any  means  too  forcible  to  describe  the  intimidation  and  the  spiteful 
intrigues  which  any  statesman  with  a  resolute  policy,  disdainful  alike  of 
bribes  and  threats,  has  to  encounter  when  he  holds  the  supremely 
difficult  post  of  German  Chancellor. 

Turning  from  the  official  to  the  more  personal  side  of  his  character, 
perhaps  the  first  thing  to  strike  anyone  who  has  even  a  slight 
acquaintance  with  his  private  life  is  the  contrast  between  the  im- 
perturbable, almost  cynical  attitude  assumed  in  public  and  the  gracious, 
kindly,  chivalrous  nature  revealed  to  those  who  know  the  real  man — 
a  nature  retaining  the  magic  charm  of  sincerity  and  singleness  of  heart, 
in  spite  of  that  wide  knowledge  of  the  world  and  brilliant  culture 
which  have  made  him  one  of  the  foremost  diplomatists  in  Europe. 
With  most  people  the  outside  veneer  disguises  the  commoner  material 
underneath,  but  with  Bernhard  von  Biilow  it  is  the  exact  opposite — the 
veneer  is  assumed  in  order  to  hide  the  beauty  of  that  which  underlies 
it.  It  is  for  this  reason  that,  although  he  is  justly  acknowledged  to 
be  a  great  orator,  his  speeches  are  in  a  sense  misleading,  for  if  they 
occasionally  reveal  his  true  character,  they  are  more  often  mere 
brilliant  tours  de  force,  epigrammatic,  flippant,  almost  reckless ; 
but  representing  after  all  rather  fireworks  thrown  up  to  dazzle  and 
bewilder  than  the  steady  light  of  his  resolute  purpose. 

It  may  as  well  be  admitted  at  once  that  this  is  a  dangerous  attitude 
for  any  man  to  take  up  with  regard  to  public  opinion,  for  it  is  safer 
to  court  popularity  than  to  despise  it ;  and  since  the  world  generally 
takes  you  at  your  own  valuation,  it  is  the  wisest  plan  to  proclaim  your 
virtues  from  the  housetops. 

But  there  is  a  certain  type  of  temperament  which  is  proud  to  such  a 
degree  that  it  prefers  being  misjudged  to  explaining  itself.  Those 
who  belong  to  it  have  to  pay  the  price  of  their  pride,  sooner  or  later, 
but  even  then  they  suffer  in  silence.  If  ever  the  day  should  come  when 
the  Fourth  Chancellor  is  driven  from  office  like  his  great  predecessor, 
his  enemies  will  not  be 'gratified,  as  were  those  of  Bismarck,  by  a  storm 
of  passionate  protest ;  for  where  the  pride  of  one  led  to  self -vindica- 
tion, the  pride  of  the^  other  would  seal  his  lips  from  anything  sterner 
than  a  careless  jest.  The  beau  sdbreur  of  debate,  Prince  Biilow  is 
never  merciless  to  his  opponents,  relying  more  on  the  weapon  of  good- 
tempered  irony  than  on  the  savage  invective  to  which  the  Keichstag  is 
so  much  addicted.  But  it  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  imagine  that 
the  airy  manner  which  so  exasperates  his  foes  has  nothing  deeper  and 
more  earnest  beneath  it ;  not  that  it  is  an  affectation,  for  it  springs 


1908  PRINCE  BULOW  691 

from  that  sunny  disposition  and  keen  sense  of  humour  which  are  the 
best  aids  for  keeping  heart  and  temper  unspoiled  in  the  cruel  strain 
of  political  life. 

When  one  remembers  the  crushing  weight  of  responsibility,  the 
overwork,  and  the  many  anxieties  to  which  he  is  constantly  exposed, 
this  indomitable  buoyancy  of  spirit  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  gifts 
he  possesses. 

In  personal  appearance  the  Chancellor  is  a  worthy  representative 
of  that  Mecklenburg  aristocracy  the  gallant  bearing  of  whose  members 
made  such  an  impression  on  the  great  Napoleon  that  he  said  to  his 
Marshals  :  '  I  can  make  you  into  kings,  but  not  into  Mecklenburg 
nobles.'  Tall,  with  a  stately  carriage  of  the  head  and  shoulders  which 
gives  him  grace  and  distinction,  he  has  the  broad  brow  of  intellect, 
and  a  mouth  and  chin  (clean-shaven  except  for  the  soldierly  moustache) 
which  show  courage,  energy,  and  decision.  But  it  is  the  eyes  which 
arrest  attention — eyes  beautiful  and  fearless,  that  meet  you  with  a 
directness  and  sincerity  rare  indeed  in  any  class,  but  for  a  diplomatist 
almost  unique.  It  is  a  face  steadfast,  proud,  and  self-reliant ;  yet 
with  a  sunny-tempered  kindness  and  grace  in  it  which  wins  straight  to 
the  heart. 

A  man's  faith  is  a  sacred  thing,  not  to  be  lightly  commented  on 
by  strangers  ;  and  it  is  only  possible  to  allude  very  briefly  here  to  the 
deep  religious  feeling,  which  is  shown  sometimes  even  in  his  speeches  ; 
but  those  who  ignore  or  overlook  this  aspect  know  very  little  of  his 
true  character.  It  is  many  years  now  since  he  married  the  beautiful 
and  gifted  woman  whose  devoted  comradeship  has  made  an  unfailing 
background  of  love  and  sympathy  for  a  life  politically  so  stormy,  and 
eventful.  To  those  who  have  seen  them  together  it  is  difficult  to  think 
of  one  apart  from  the  other,  so  perfect  is  the  community  of  thought 
and  interest.  And  if  the  Princess  wishes — as  it  is  said  sometimes 
that  she  does — for  a  life  in  which  there  would  be  no  anxiety  for  his 
safety,  a  life  in  which  they  would  be  able  to  have  more  time  to  them- 
selves, and  to  dwell  far  from  the  noise  and  strife  of  the  great  new-built 
metropolis  of  Central  Europe  ;  yet  there  is  no  more  gracious  hostess, 
no  more  helpful  Minister's  wife,  to  be  found  in  any  of  the  world's 
capitals  than  the  present  German  '  Reichskanzlerin.'  It  is  at 
Norderney,  the  little  storm-swept  island  in  the  North  Sea,  where  they 
have  spent  the  summer  holidays  for  some  years  past,  and  where  their 
charm  of  manner  and  kindness  of  heart  have  made  them  universally 
beloved,  that  they  are  able  for  a  few  short  weeks  to  enjoy  the  freedom 
from  public  life  and  the  simple  open-air  pleasures  which  they  find  so 
refreshing  after  the  stress  of  the  Berlin  Parliamentary  season.  But 
even  here  the  whole  forenoon  is  generally  occupied  with  work,  and  it 
is  only  after  lunch  that  the  waiting  '  Kurgaste  '  are  rewarded  by 
the  appearance  of  the  Chancellor,  almost  invariably  accompanied  by 
his  wife,  his  favourite  white  carnation  in  his  buttonhole,  and  a  service- 


692  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTUMY  Oct. 

able  countrified  stick  in  his  hand,  setting  out  for  one  of  those  long 
rambles  over  the  sand-dunes,  or  by  the  sea,  in  which  they  both  take 
such  a  delight.  At  Norderney,  too,  Prince  Billow  can  indulge  to  his 
heart's  content  in  the  riding  of  which  he  is  so  passionately  fond,  for 
there  is  any  amount  of  splendid  galloping  to  be  had  on  the  well-nigh 
boundless  expanse  of  firm,  level  shore.  But  this  forms  only  a  brief 
interlude  in  that  life  of  earnest  work  whose  many-sided  activities 
leave  so  little  room  for  recreation  of  any  sort. 

In  trying  to  sum  up  the  general  trend  of  Prince  Billow's  policy, 
I  think  I  cannot  do  better  than  quote  from  one  of  his  own  speeches  : 

I  cannot  govern  this  country  solely  for  the  benefit  of  Catholics,  or  solely  for 
the  benefit  of  Protestants,  any  more  than  I  can  conscientiously  govern  with  the 
support,  and  therefore  wholly  in  the  interests  of,  any  one  of  the  great  political 
parties.  That  might  secure  my  own  majority,  but  not  the  true  welfare  of  the 
State.  I  am  willing  to  co-operate  with  any  party  which  has  this  at  heart ; 
and  it  is  my  duty  to  hold  the  balance  even  between  conflicting  interests  to  the 
best  of  my  ability,  and  strive  always  to  promote  the  good  of  the  whole,  giving 
justice  to  all,  but  favour  to  none. 

No  one  who  knows  modern  Germany  can  deny  that  it  is  just  such  a 
brave,  yet  moderate  and  far-sighted  policy  as  this  which  she  requires 
at  the  present  time.  For  there  is  no  doubt  that  she  stands  now  at  a 
very  critical  period  in  her  history.  The  extraordinary  and  rapid 
increase  in  national  prosperity  has  brought  in  its  wake  a  great  wave 
of  materialism  which  is  fraught  with  the  gravest  dangers  to  the  State. 
'  Where  there  is  no  vision  the  people  perish,'  and  the  practical 
Hedonism  of  some  phases  of  the  national  life,  more  particularly 
in  the  great  cities,  is  deadly  alike  to  soul  and  body.  Bismarck's 
proud  boast,  '  We  Germans  fear  God  and  no  one  else,'  will  cease  to 
be  true  if  the  old  steadfast  faith  is  undermined,  for  the  nation  which 
has  forgotten  the  fear  of  God  has  taken  the  first  step  towards  learning 
the  fear  of  man.  All  who  love  Germany  must  earnestly,  hope  that  she 
will  speedily  win  back  that  noble  idealism  which  is  so  especially  the 
heritage  of  her  people.  But  the  grandest  code  of  ethics  never  availed 
to  save  one  soul,  much  less  to  uplift  and  inspire  a  nation  ;  and  the  great 
need  for  Germany  to-day  is  not  so  much,  as  some  would  have  us 
believe,  Liberalism — some  wonder-working  formula  of  self-government 
— as  the  old,  old  need  of  humanity :  '  Back  to  Christ.'  Prince  Billow's 
wise  and  patient  statesmanship  seeks  first  to  educate  the  people  to 
a  better  sense  of  what  is  desirable  and  what  is  attainable  in  the  national 
existence,  and  meanwhile  to  gradually  give  them  more  and  more  power 
of  self-government,  by  enhancing  the  importance  of  the  Reichstag  to 
an  extent  never  known  before  in  German  politics,  and  by  striving  to 
draw  from  that  body  all  the  elements  making  for  good  in  the  State, 
and  fuse  them  together  into  a  governing  majority  which  shall  be 
patriotic  but  peaceful,  loyal  to  the  old  traditions,  but  steadily  pro- 


1908  PRINCE  BULOW  698 

gressive  towards  new  and  wider  ideals.  He  has  to  a  remarkable  degree 
that  indefinable  charm,  often  called  '  personal  magnetism '  for  want 
of  a  more  accurate  description,  and  few  who  have  experienced  it  can 
form  a  perfectly  impartial  opinion  with  regard  to  him ;  but  of  this  I 
am  sure — there  is  no  more  gifted  or  noble  personality  in  present-day 
European  politics  than  the  Fourth  Chancellor  of  the  German  Empire. 

SIDNEY  GARFIELD  MORRIS. 


694  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 


THE    TRANSVAAL    TO-DAY 

FROM  A    WOMAN'S  POINT  OF   VIEW 


WHAT  is  the  Transvaal  to-day  ? 

Gazing  from  one  of  the  highest  points  outside  Johannesburg,  the 
eye  wanders  over  miles  of  wild,  impressive  country.  To  the  right 
a  belt  of  trees  rises  like  an  island  on  the  swelling  plain ;  to  the  left, 
beyond  the  irregularly  scattered  houses,  a  sweep  of  uncultivated  veld 
stretches  to  the  Pretoria  hills ;  beyond  those  hills  loom  the  Magalies- 
berg  mountains,  rugged  and  austere,  usually  outlined  strong  and 
bold  against  the  hard,  bright  sky,  yet  often  shrouded  in  mist,  like  a 
mist  of  regret  for  the  dead  who  lie  there,  almost  forgotten,  among  the 
steep  kopjes  and  the  shadowy  valleys — those  dead  who,  alas  !  almost 
seem  to  us  now  to  have  given  their  lives  for  a  vain  cause. 

To  the  eye  the  Transvaal  is  a  magnificent  country,  full  of  space, 
full  of  possibilities,  and  full  of  welcome.  It  is  a  country  in  which  all 
men  ;  farmers,  prospectors,  miners,  engineers,  should  find  ample  scope 
in  which  to  make  a  living.  Not  only  is  the  earth  abundantly  rich  in 
minerals,  but  the  soil  is  so  fertile  that  if  the  modern  methods  used  in 
other  countries  were  applied  to  it,  it  would  soon  be  converted  from 
a  great  desert  into  flowering  gardens,  smiling  fields,  and  thick  forests. 
As  it  is  now,  however,  the  Transvaal  is  merely  one  huge  monument 
to  the  memory  of  slaughtered  soldiers,  blighted  lives,  and  wasted 
energy,  money,  and  time.  It  is  also  a  vast  playground  for  treachery. 
The  old  white  flag  trick  is  being  enacted  over  and  over  again  upon 
another  field.  Under  the  promise  of  peace  and  amity,  under  the 
pretext  of  retrenchment  and  reorganisation,  hundreds  are  being 
hurled  daily  towards  starvation  and  degradation.  Here  an  unfortu- 
nate clerk  is  mulcted  of  his  300Z.  a  year,  there  other  poorly  paid  civil 
servants  have  their  local  and  marriage  allowances  cut  off ;  but  a 
wealthy  Boer  farmer  obtains  a  pension  of  1000L  a  year  ! 

I  am  afraid  that  few  men  sitting  at  ease  in  London  can  realise 
to  what  an  extent  the  last  few  years  in  South  Africa  have  been  wasted, 
or  can  understand  what  the  present  situation  means  to  those  who 
lived  in  either  of  the  Dutch  republics  before  the  war.  Then,  though 
our  right  to  live  in  the  country  of  our  choice  was  questioned,  and 


1908  THE   TRANSVAAL    TO-DAY  695 

existence  there  rendered  difficult  by  the  persistent  sneers  levelled 
at  us  and  at  everything  British,  we  all  felt  that  the  state  of  things 
could  not  last.  We  all  knew  that  though  the  British  lion  is  hard  to 
rouse,  when  aroused  he  is  awake  to  some  purpose  ;  and  when  war  was 
declared,  we  told  each  other,  we  home-makers  in  a  new  land,  that 
deliverance  was  at  hand. 

War  was  declared,  and  from  all  parts  of  the  globe  the  angry  sons 
of  England  hurried  to  defend  the  rights  of  their  brethren  and  the 
honour  of  the  flag. 

For  myself,  though  war  meant  parting  for  a  time,  it  seemed  more 
tolerable  than  what  has  followed,  because  of  our  hope.  Besides,  I 
was  allowed  to  join  my  husband  before  many  months  had  passed, 
and  was  thus  able  to  share  with  him  the  trials  of  the 
campaign. 

It  was  a  life  of  haunting  anxiety,  often  aggravated  by  personal 
ill-health,  by  the  wail  of  a  sick  child,  the  sight  of  a  little,  wan,  pinched 
face,  and  the  knowledge  that  a  dear  one  was  ailing  for  lack  of  neces- 
sities which  were  readily  available  to  the  Boer  women  and  children 
in  the  concentration  camps.     There  is  nothing  picturesque  or  romantic 
about  modern  warfare  ;  it  is  monotonous  and  tedious  in  the  extreme  ; 
and  long  before  the  end  my  ears  had  grown  tired  of  listening  to  the 
ceaseless  tramp  of  men  marching  to  their  death,  tired  of  the  distant 
echo  of  rifles  and  the  occasional  booming  of  big  guns.     When  it  was 
over,  however,  there  followed  a  sense  of  satisfaction.     The  insults 
had  been  wiped  out ;  English  women  and  men  could  hold  up  their 
heads  and  gaze  the  world  in  the  face.     To  be  told  that  one  belonged 
to  a  nation  of  cowards  had  been  the  least  of  the  gibes  flung  at  the 
English  settlers  by  those  who  owed  allegiance  to  their  sovereign — 
an  insult  that  is  as  hard  for  a  woman  to  bear  as  for  a  man  !     Indeed, 
after  the  war  things  began  to  improve  in  a  remarkable  manner,  for 
the  Boers  had  found,  it  seemed,  that  the  English  were  not  a  nation  of 
cowards,  and  that  it  would  be  better  to  live  at  peace  with  them.     It 
was  then  that  the  great  pronouncement  was  made  :  Racialism  was 
dead  !     '  Your  late  enemy  will  in  all  probability  become  your  ruler — 
we  were  told — you  must  not  only  work  with,  but  under  him.     You 
must  love  him,     More  than  that,  you  must  immediately  forget  that 
you  ever  fought  against  him,  although  you  have  proof  in  your  family 
of  what  that  long  war  cost  you  in  the  shape  of  a  child  who  will  be 
an  invalid  for  life  owing  to  the  hardships  endured.     You  must  bury 
even  the  smallest  memory  of  that  unrighteous  campaign,  and  inci- 
dentally the  memory  of  the  friends  you  lost  in  it.     You  must  kiss 
your  late  enemy  on  both  cheeks.     You  must  put  away  all  recollection 
of  his  many  deeds  of  treachery  in  the  past,  and  trust  him  with  your 
entire  future  career  and  prosperity.'     If  we  agreed  to  bury  the  hatchet 
in  this  complete  manner,  what  a  harvest  were  we  not  supposed  to  reap 
from  it ! 


•696  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

To  begin  with,  the  terms  Briton  and  Boer  were  to  be  obliterated. 
Shame  on  anyone  who  used  them  !  We  were  to  become  Africanders, 
Transvaalers,  Springboks,  yet  members  of  that  great  British  Empire 
of  which  we  were  all  so  inordinately  proud.  South  Africa,  and  in 
particular  the  Transvaal,  was  to  become  the  richest  asset  of  that 
wonderful  Empire,  and  all  the  dwellers  in  the  Transvaal  who  valued 
and  loved  it  were  to  combine  to  defeat  the  rapacious  capitalists  and 
greedy  fortune-seekers,  who  only  came  to  rob  the  land,  then  leave  it 
again.  It  was  to  be  a  white  man's  land,  a  married  man's  land,  not 
a  land  of  grass  widowers  and  extravagant  women. 

The  previous  Government  had  been  too  lavish ;  over-generous 
salaries  had  been  given  to  men  who  did  nothing  discernible  to  earn 
them  and  who  had  done  little  noteworthy  in  the  past.  These  men  in 
most  cases  had  no  wish  to  remain  in  the  land,  neither  had  they  fought 
for  it  on  one  side  or  the  other ;  they  had  merely  come  like  vultures 
when  the  fray  was  over,  and  when  they  had  gorged  enough  they 
would  fly  away  again.  It  was  through  them  the  country  was  being 
ruined,  and  this  must  cease.  Retrenchment  was  certainly  to  take 
place,  but  married  men  with  large  families  were  to  have  first  con- 
sideration, more  especially  the  men  who  kept  their  families  in  the 
Transvaal. 

These  golden  schemes  were  all  propounded  to  us  before  the  elec- 
tions. It  soon  became  a  common  thing  to  see  Dutchmen  slapping 
Englishmen  on  the  back,  and  to  hear  them  calling  each  other  '  old 
chap,'  to  hear  of  them  hobnobbing  at  sports,  and  shooting  side  by  side. 

At  times  this  sudden  change  from  a  deep-seated  hatred  to  a  full- 
blown friendship  on  the  part  of  so  conservative  and  tenacious  a  people 
as  the  Boers  seemed  strange  to  us  ;  still,  as  trees  grow  quickly  in  the 
Transvaal,  why  should  not  love  and  new  ideals  grow  quickly  also  ? 
Thus,  on  promises  which  seemed  so  full  of  good  sense  and  fair  play, 
and  also  on  the  votes  of  a  number  of  thoroughly  deludjed  Englishmen, 
the  Boer  ministry  came  into  power,  and  everyone  predicted  that  it 
would  not  be  long  before  the  prosperity  of  the  country  would  be  well 
and  lastingly  assured. 

Eagerly  men  leaped  into  matrimony,  while  others  who,  for  the 
sake  of  economy,  had  kept  their  families  in  England,  now  hastily 
recalled  them.  A  hint  also  began  to  be  circulated  that  a  knowledge 
of  Dutch  would  soon  not  be  merely  useful,  but  absolutely  essential, 
and  all  those  who  could  command  a  few  words  of  the  Taal  began  to 
exercise  those  words  with  zeal,  while  others,  who  would  have  jeered  at 
the  idea  of  learning  it  a  few  years  ago,  now  commenced  to  do  so. 
Parents  also  hurriedly  decided  to  send  their  children  to  school  in  the 
Transvaal,  and  letters  were  written  to  Dutch  friends  and  acquaint- 
ances of  the  pre-war  days,  letters  full  of  the  spirit  of  conciliation, 
almost  of  veiled  regret  at  the  past  years  of  discord. 

These  letters  remained  unanswered.     Instead  of  the  prophesied 


1908  THE   TRANSVAAL    TO-DAY  69T 

universal  brotherhood,  never  did  Boer  appear  less  friendly  to  Briton. 
Disquieting  rumours  soon  began  to  spread  that  the  Government  was 
appointing  various  commissions  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  all  depart- 
ments, with  a  view  to  cutting  down  expenses,  and  consequently 
salaries  and  staff.  Singularly  enough,  the  retrenchments,  once 
started,  seemed  solely  at  the  expense  of  the  hard-working  English 
official. 

Christmas  came  and  went — not  a  very  pleasant  Christmas  for 
any  of  us  along  the  Band — and  insecurity,  not  to  say  actual  privation, 
increased.     Depression  was  universal.     Men  who  used  to  drive  to- 
their  work  now  began  to  patronise  the  trams  ;  others  who  had  always 
gone  into  town  by  tram  either  studied  how  they  could  make  the 
cheapest  fare  answer  or  took  to  walking  the  entire  way.     Men  who 
had  always  gone  to  hotels  or  restaurants  for  dinner  suddenly  dis- 
covered that  it  suited  their  health  better  to  eat  sandwiches  ;  some- 
times the  few  sandwiches  meant  for  one  man's  midday  meal  served, 
to  feed  a  still  more  unlucky  mortal  who  otherwise  would  have  starved. 
With  every  successive  week  the  stream  of  workers  deprived  of  their 
livelihood  grew  larger.     Some  struggled  homewards.     Others  stayed 
in  the  Transvaal 'buoyed  up  with  the  hope  that  things  would  surely 
improve,  only  to  find  themselves  brought  so  low  that  they  were  forced; 
to  resort  to  unskilled  work  for  a  maintenance.     Many  well-educated; 
men  were  actually  reduced  to   working  in  the  sewerage  trenches  at 
a  wage  of  from  2s.  Qd.  to  4s.  a  day. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  it  became  apparent  that  by  a  *  white- 
man's  land  '  the  Boers  meant  a  land  in  which  Englishmen  would  be 
compelled  through  want  to  accept  lower  wages  than  the  niggers ; 
and  that  by  a  '  married  man's  land  '  they  meant  a  land  for  the  Dutch 
family.  Englishmen  began  to  grow  afraid  of  being  seen  speaking  to- 
Englishmen.  To  be  British  meant  to  find  that  every  avenue  of  decent 
employment  was  closed.  With  the  dwindling  Civil  Service  the  shops 
and  stores  began  to  close  down,  furniture  sales  became  more  and  more 
common,  and  everywhere  auctioneers  could  be  heard  yelling  at 
apathetic  crowds  who  gathered  in  sale  rooms  for  the  purpose  of  killing 
time,  not  for  the  sake  of  buying.  The  pawnshops  alone  did  a  thriving 
trade,  and  among  the  various  things  with  which  men  parted  in  order 
to  realise  a  few  shillings  were  King's  and  Queen's  medals.  Heirlooms, 
jewellery,  works  of  art,  and  even  dresses  were  also  sacrificed — the 
jewellery,  &c.,  being  sent  to  Europe  for  sale  in  foreign  towns;  the 
clothes  often  finding  their  way  on  to  the  backs  of  overfed  Kaffirs 
who,  with  well-starched  collars  round  their  grimy  necks  and  jeers 
in  their  goggling  eyes  and  on  their  puffy  lips,  shoved  us  unlucky 
members  of  the  paramount  race  superciliously  out  of  their  path. 
One  even  heard  cases  of  Europeans  begging  for  food  and  shelter  from 
the  natives,  but  the  natives  have  no  sympathy  for  poverty  among 
whites.  Well  the  black  man  knows  that  if  he  were  treated  as  *  the 


698  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

Britisher '  is  being  treated  in  the  Transvaal  now,  there  would  be  a 
mighty  outcry  at  home  ;  he  knows  that  his  own  welfare  has  been  care- 
fully safeguarded,  and  this  knowledge  increases  his  insolence.  His 
growing  conviction  that  white  men,  and  consequently  white  women, 
are  of  no  importance,  coupled  with  the  reductions  in  the  police,  have 
led  to  a  recrudescence  of  ghastly  crimes,  unfit  to  mention. 

With  every  successive  proof  of  his  power  the  Dutchman's  dis- 
satisfaction with  all  things  English  increased.  Guttural  voices  openly 
proclaimed  that  in  this,  the  country  of  the  Dutch,  Dutch  children 
should  not  learn  English.  Neither  would  their  parents  continue  to 
adopt  British  methods  of  education.  Had  it  not  been  proved  long 
ago  that  the  old  methods  were  better  and  more  suited  to  South  Africa  ? 
Was  not  South  Africa  once  again  a  Dutch  country,  to  be  ruled  by  the 
Dutch  ?  Why  also  should  there  be  so  much  talk  about  developing 
the  land  ?  The  land  was  already  producing  too  much  ;  it  was  pro- 
ducing more  than  the  Boer  farmer  could  consume,  and  he  was  being 
driven  to  the  absurd  expense  of  exporting  !  Rampant  again  was  the 
old  lazy  Boer  spirit,  which  was  always  suspicious  of  progress,  even  if 
it  spelt  prosperity,  because  at  the  same  time  it  might  spell  work. 
A  little  anecdote  illustrative  of  this  peculiar  point  \>i  view  may  not 
here  come  amiss.  A  Boer  girl  once  told  me  that  her  brothers  used 
to  play  marbles  with  the  eggs  which  they  found  on  the  farm  in  great 
quantities.  When  I  expressed  horror  at  the  wanton  waste,  she 
replied  :  '  What  would  be  the  use  of  collecting  the  eggs  ?  It  means 
a  lot  of  work  for  nothing ;  all  one  can  get  for  them  in  town  is  5s.  or 
7s.  a  dozen  ;  who  would  trouble  to  work  for  so  little  ?  Better  let  the 
boys  play  marbles  with  them.'  This  is  the  spirit  of  the  back- veld 
Boer  who  to-day  rules  the  Transvaal  and  will  soon  rule  South 
Africa. 

Never  has  the  antipathy  to  modern  improvement  and  to  those 
who  are  best  qualified  to  maintain  it  been  more  disastrously  shown 
than  in  the  destruction  of  the  South  African  Constabulary.  Men 
who  have  spent  their  lives  from  youth  in  forces  such  as  the  Basutoland 
and  Bechuanaland  Police,  who  speak  both  Dutch  and  the  native 
languages,  and  who  have  a  real  knowledge  of  the  native  races, 
.are  now  deprived  of  the  work  for  which  they  alone  are  suitable. 
The  services  of  many  stalwart  Colonials  have  also  been  discarded. 
Canadians — some  of  whom  had  served  with  the  North- West  Police — 
Australians,  and  New  Zealanders  have  been  labelled  '  not  wanted,' 
•and  literally  worried  out  of  the  country.  Among  these  are  many 
who  had  grown  to  care  for  the  Transvaal,  and  had  hoped  to  make 
it  their  home.  They  were  quite  ready  and  willing  to  get  on  with  the 
Dutch,  in  whom  they  took  a  genial  interest ;  they  were  ready  to 
impart  to  them  their  greater  knowledge  of  the  world ;  and  they  set 
them  a  valuable  example  of  order  and  cleanliness,  for  the  Boer  is 
proverbially  slovenly  and  careless  about  his  person,  dirty  in  his  house, 


1908  THE   TRANSVAAL   TO-DAY  699 

his  horses,  and  his  farm.  The  constabulary  also  formed  a  valuable 
link  between  scattered  villages  and  farmhouses.  But  the  Dutch 
were  suspicious  of  them.  To  the  farmer  they  were  strangers  who 
had  no  business  in  the  South  African  veld  ;  to  the  politician  they  were 
advanced  men  who  might  teach  the  ignorant  Boer  to  think  and  act 
for  himself  and  not  as  his  leaders  told  him.  Besides,  as  Colonials, 
these  men  should  have  fought  for  the  Eepublics,  not  against  them — 
this  is  a  point  on  which  the  Dutch  will  never  give  in,  or  understand 
the  absurdity  of  the  theory — and  as  they  fought  against  the  Republics, 
out  of  South  Africa  they  must  go.  And  so  they  are  going,  back  to 
their  own  homes,  vowing  that  never  again  will  they  fight  for  the 
Empire.  Once  they  were  proud  to  call  themselves  '  sons  of  the 
Empire,'  now  they  are  Canadians,  or  Australians,  as  the  case  may  be, 
nothing  more. 

The  Transvaal  to-day  is  not  only  a  grave  where  wasted  energies 
and  shattered  ideals  lie  heaped ;  it  is  also  ,  the  dumping-ground 
of  squandered  British  money.  I  do  not  refer  to  the  big  sums 
expended  by  capitalists,  but  to  the  modest  hundreds,  often  paid  with 
difficulty  by  the  small  man,  in  the  shape  of  ill-spared  monthly  instal- 
ments. Have  not  numerous  clerks  and  officials,  men  of  all  descrip- 
tions, in  fact,  laid  out  all  they  could  possibly  afford,  and  often  a  great 
deal  more,  in  the  hope  of  eventually  becoming  their  own  landlords  ? 
The  great  idea  of  the  majority  in  any  South  African  town  is  to  own 
their  own  house ;  and  quite  rightly  too,  if  they  are  going  to  live  per- 
manently in  the  country.  There  are  hundreds  of  such  houses  empty 
now.  Those  who  struggled,  and  often  stinted  themselves,  to  pay  the 
interest  on  the  capital  sum  have  lost  everything.  They  might  as  well 
have  spent  the  money  on  themselves  and  enjoyed  life  a  little 
more. 

Curiously  enough,  Germans,  Italians,  and  other  foreigners  seem 
to  get  on  in  the  Transvaal ;  indeed,  on  a  Saturday  night  one  almost 
questions  whether  it  is  really  a  British  colony  or  not.  The  Dutch 
tolerate  foreigners,  even  if  they  do  not  like  them,  but  their  feeling  for 
the  English  is  very  different.  The  Dutch  want  to  see  the  English 
starve  or,  as  they  themselves  say,  '  go  under.' 

No  doubt  there  were  many  mistakes  made  in  the  first  settlement 
of  the  country  after  peace  was  declared,  but  even  the  mistakes  might 
eventually  have  turned  out  for  good  if  matters  had  only  been  left 
alone  once  set  going.  Rubinstein  said  that  if  all  the  false  notes  he 
played  could  be  collected  at  the  end  of  one  of  his  concerts,  there 
would  be  enough  of  them  to  make  a  sonata,  but  I  do  not  suppose  that 
his  hearers  ever  realised  that  a  false  note  had  been  struck.  If  he  had 
paused  to  correct  it,  he  would  only  have  been  advertising  a  mistake. 
So  it  has  been  with  the  Transvaal.  Because  of  a  few  errors  the  entire 
symphony  was  stopped,  the  rhythm  was  changed,  and  the  result  is 
discord  and  confusion. 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

One  of  the  most  substantial  mistakes,  from  a  woman's  point  of 
observation,  was  undoubtedly  the  volunteer  movement.  It  was  like 
everlastingly  rehearsing  a  funeral  before  the  eyes  of  a  lately  bereaved 
parent.  By  the  time  peace  was  declared,  people  were  so  tired  of 
martial  law  that  they  did  not  even  care  to  read  about  it,  and  this 
mimic  reproduction  of  a  military  occupation  only  served  to  irritate. 
It  forced  one  to  live  those  hateful  days  of  war  over  again ;  and  to 
make  it  still  more  vexatious  it  was  principally  the  men  who  had  done 
little  during  the  campaign  whose  names  became  so  prominent  during 
sham  fights ;  yet  I  am  told  that  they  proved  as  useless  on  the  drill 
ground  and  at  amateur  warfare  as  they  had  done  on  active  service. 
Majors,  captains,  and  colonels,  how  plentiful  they  have  been  on  the 
Rand  these  last  few  years,  and  what  little  claim  they  have  to  these 
titles  !  Officers  in  the  T.M.R  or  C.S.A.E.V.  they  are  no  doubt, 
but,  when  playtime  is  over,  nothing  more  than  clerks  in  some  big 
store  or  traffic  superintendents.  I  have  heard  it  remarked  that  the 
volunteers  formed  a  link  between  Dutch  and  English,  but  I  also 
happened  to  hear  that  the  Dutchmen  joined  the  volunteers  with  a 
laugh  up  their  sleeves  at  the  chance  of  learning  British  methods  of 
warfare,  also  at  the  chance  of  once  more  getting  hold  of  a  rifle  and 
ammunition,  Furthermore,  it  was  a  heavy  expense  to  the  country. 
Even  volunteers  are  not  mobilised  for  nothing,  and  armoured  trains 
do  not  dash  up  and  down  the  line  without  consuming  coal  and  water 
and  tearing  up  the  road.  It  would  have  been  better  for  the  country 
if  the  money  thrown  away  on  the  volunteers  had  been  spent  in  firmly 
establishing  the  South  African  Constabulary,  for  in  a  country  like 
the  Transvaal  the  police  force  is  an  absolute  necessity,  while  the 
volunteer  system  there  is  merely  another  word  for  recreation  or 
inefficiency. 

Personally,  among  the  many  pictures  which  the  weary  sound  of 
the  bugles  always  brings  back  to  me  are  two  which  perhaps  I  may  be 
permitted  to  mention. 

The  first,  a  squad  of  dusty  soldiers  coming  slowly  across  the  barren 
country,  some  toiling  wearily  on  foot,  others  mounted  on  thin,  half- 
starved  horses.  With  them  a  herd  of  wretched  sheep  and  a  few 
waggons  drawn  by  lean  oxen ;  leaner  still  the  faces  of  the  women 
and  children  peering  out  with  red,  tear-dimmed  eyes  from  the  waggons. 
A  small  column  of  soldiers  is  bringing  in  some  Boer  families  to  the 
concentration  camps.  Probably  most  of  those  womenrare  still  alive, 
and  on  a  Sunday  afternoon,  as  they  listen  to  the  bugling  of  the  volun- 
teers, the  sound  must  recall  that  bitter  period  when  they  were  obliged 
to  accept  the  hospitality  of  their  enemies,  and  they  spit  at  their  men- 
kind  for  even  venturing  to  whisper  the  word  '  conciliation.' 

The  second,  a  horse  lying  on  the  square  of  a  Transvaal  dorp. 
Every  few  minutes  the  dying  animal  raises  its  head  and  looks  round 


1908  THE   TRANSVAAL   TO-DAY  701 

in  dumb  appeal.  The  hardened  troopers,  however,  go  past  unheeding, 
and  before  the  sun  has  set  in  the  cloudless  sky  away  on  the  edge  of 
the  treeless  plane,  the  tired  life  has  flown.  This  picture  is  symbolical 
to  me  of  the  present  position  of  the  British  in  the  Transvaal,  and  of 
those  who  have  lately  been  expelled  from  that  country.  It  is  the 
English  characteristic  to  suffer  in  silence.  We  lie  down  in  patience, 
dogged  and  dumb  we  meet  death,  and  those  who  ought  to  help  us 
walk  by  unheeding. 

We  English  in  South  Africa  are  not  asking  for  charity,  but  justice, 
for  our  right  to  work — to  live.  We  do  not  even  ask  to  be  compen- 
sated for  our  ruined  homes,  though  the  Boer  has  been  duly  compen- 
sated for  the  home  which  he  lost  in  his  warfare  against  the 
British  ! 

At  this  present  time  there  are  many  old  people,  both  at  home 
and  in  South  Africa,  who,  till  recently,  considered  the  future  of  their 
sons  assured,  and  were  preparing  to  end  their  own  days  in  well-earned 
ease,  but  who  now  have  to  face  the  necessity  of  helping  their  children 
and  grandchildren.  Single  women  also  are  depriving  themselves 
rather  than  see  a  brother  or  a  sister  want.  It  is  hard  on  them,  and 
hard  also  on  the  sons  and  brothers  who,  after  many  years  of  strenuous 
work,  find  that  they  have  to  depend  on  those  who,  according  to  the 
laws  of  nature,  should  be  depending  on  them.  Have  we  not  a  right 
to  the  land  in  which  we  have  made  our  home,  under  the  approval  and 
protection  of  the  Mother  Country  ?  Our  children  who  were  born 
yonder,  and  are  now  exiles  with  us,  are  sick  with  longing  for  it.  More 
than  we,  they  yearn  for  the  peculiar  glamour  of  that  land,  the  magic 
buoyancy  of  the  air,  the  mesmeric  enchantment  of  the  starry  nights. 
Why  should  such  power  over  our  lives  have  been  given  to  this  narrow- 
minded,  egotistical  people,  with  its  deep-seated  resentment  against 
our  race  ?  It  might  well  have  been  foreseen  how  they  would  use 
this  power. 

I  wonder  if  the  Government  at  home  realise  to  what  an  extent  the 
Boers  are  unfit  for  the  privileges  they  so  gaily  granted  them.  They 
want  to  close  the  country  to  every  avenue  of  progress.  Already  the 
train  service  from  towns  like  Port  Elizabeth  to  the  Hand  has  been 
reduced  to  three  times  a  week.  Already  there  is  a  whisper  that  the 
train  service  from  Cape  Town  will  be  limited,  and  that  soon  there 
will  be  no  regular  mail  from  England.  By  degrees  they  will  get 
back  to  the  old  days  of  trek  oxen.  The  Boers  do  not  want  to  en- 
courage prospecting,  because  they  do  not  want  the  prospector.  If 
more  wealth  were  to  be  discovered  in  the  country  it  would  mean 
more  work.  Like  the  dog  in  the  manger  they  sit  on  gold  reefs  and 
growl  at  every  man  who  wants  to  come  and  turn  the  wealth  of  the 
land  to  some  account ;  they  do  not  want  it  for  themselves,  but  neither 
must  anybody  else  have  it.  They  are,  moreover,  indulging  in  a  policy 
of  petty  revenge  and  spite.  The  men  who  fought  against  them  are 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  380  8  A 


702  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Oct. 

marked,  and  their  sons  will  be  marked  after  them.  They  do  not 
care  if  by  trampling  on  them  they  ruin  the  country  ;  let  it  be  ruined, 
providing  they  can  rid  the  country  of  hated  names.  The  spy,  the 
fence-sitter,  the  camp-follower,  the  man  who  tried  to  serve  both  sides, 
may  be  allowed  to  remain  a  little  longer,  but  those  who  took  an  active 
part  against  these  self-styled  elect  of  God  must  go. 

Ask  a  Dutchman  straight  if  he  is  grateful  to  England  for  her 
recent  unprecedented  magnanimity,  and  he  will  prevaricate.  Bis 
eyes  will  grow  shifty,  he  will  twiddle  his  thumbs  and  with  forced 
laugh  he  will  exclaim,  '  Man  !  If  there  is  one  thing  I  admire,  it's  the 
way  you  English  can  make  pals  with  us.  I  feel  right  knocked  into  a 
heap  by  it.'  He  lays  a  slight  emphasis  on  the  words  '  you  English,' 
it  is  an  emphasis  of  contempt,  for  to  him  this  policy  of  conciliation  is 
the  policy  of  fear.  '  They  are  afraid  of  us,'  is  what  the  Boer  really 
thinks  on  the  subject.  '  They  don't  want  to  set  us  against  them 
again ;  they  only  won  by  a  fluke ;  just  wait  and  see  what  we  will  do 
next  time.'  Then  he  looks  up  at  the  Union  Jack  floating  in  the  sky, 
and  wishes  in  his  heart  that  next  time  was  come. 

We  all  know  the  old  proverb  about  setting  a  beggar  on  horse- 
back ;  to-day  in  the  Transvaal  the  beggar  is  sitting  on  horseback 
with  a  long  sjambok  in  his  hand,  and  his  late  enemy  lies  beneath  his 
horse's  feet.  Is  there  no  one  who  will  dare  to  interfere  ? 

This  is  the  Transvaal  to-day.  A  land  of  cruel  want,  where  the 
wind  comes  laden  not  only  with  dust,  but  with  the  sobs  and  wails  of 
a  despairing  people,  who  find  themselves  being  literally  trodden  down 
to  the  level  of  Kaffirs.  It  is  a  land  of  emptiness,  of  bankrupt  sales 
and  growing  desolation.  There  are  gold  reefs  and  tin  fields  crying 
for  development,  but  it  is  of  no  avail  for  the  prospector  or  the  miner 
to  go  to  the  Transvaal  in  search  of  employment.  There  are  miles 
and  miles  of  uncultivated  land  waiting  for  the  plough,  but  it  is  useless 
for  young  Britishers  to  go  out  there  to  settle  and  farm.  -For  the  land, 
with  all  that  is  in  it  or  upon  it,  belongs  to  the  white  Boer,  who  will 
cringe  and  beg  and  steal  and  fight,  but  must  not  work.  He  promised 
his  great-grandfather  that  he  would  never  work,  for  it  is  a  disgrace  ; 
and  he  must  do  everything  in  the  same  way  that  his  great- 
grandfather did  ;  and  he  must  never  allow  himself  or  his  children 
to  be  led  astray  by  modern  ways,  which  are  the  invention  of  the 
devil. 

We  did  not  feel  very  uneasy  about  ourselves  when  we  first  heard 
the  word  '  retrenchment,'  for  my  husband,  though  still  in  the  very  prime 
of  life,  had  been  for  twenty-three  years  on  the  fixed  establishment  of 
the  Civil  Service ;  but  as  time  dragged  on  we  began  to  grow  anxious. 
By  degrees  men  were  signalled  out  and  numbered  among  those  to  go 
who  should  have  been  quite  safe,  according  to  the  promises  made  in 
the  early  days  of  electioneering.  Even  then  we  did  our  best  to  believe 
in  the  good  intentions  of  our  new  allies,  for  no  one  likes  to  suspect 


1908  THE   TRANSVAAL  TO-DAY  703 

that  pledges  can  be  so  quickly  forgotten,  promises  so  easily  broken. 
The  words  '  anxiety  '  and  '  suspense '  were  nothing  new  to  me,  for  I 
had  sat  in  Bloemfontein  for  over  two  months  before  war  was  declared 
with  my  boxes  ready  packed,  waiting  the  verdict  to  leave  ;  but  this 
was  worse.  Day  after  day  I  remained  at  the  house  watching  for  my 
husband's  return  from  town,  and  day  after  day  he  arrived  with  the 
same  sentence  on  his  lips  :  '  No  news  yet,  but  I  believe  I  am  all  right.' 
Some  days  he  would  come  back  with  a  tantalising  report  of  a  better 
billet  and  higher  pay;  other  afternoons  he  would  be  disturbed  by 
hints  that  all  salaries  were  to  be  reduced,  and  that  the  very  necessary 
local  and  marriage  allowances  were  to  be  stopped.  This  would  mean 
an  evening  of  futile  calculations  and  useless  resolutions,  which  would 
always  end  in  the  decision  that  it  would  be  madness  to  make  any 
move  until  we  were  quite  certain.  In  fact,  it  was  fully  twelve  months 
before  we  learnt  what  our  fate  was  to  be,  and  until  two  weeks  prior 
to  knowing  it  my  husband  was  still  hearing  that  same  old  sentence, 
'  You  are  all  right.'  In  addition  to  the  fact  that  he  had  been  in  the 
Civil  Service  for  so  many  years  he  held  letters  from  imperial  officers, 
given  to  him  during  the  war,  to  the  effect  that  he  was  to  lose  none  of 
his  past  service  or  privileges  ;  but  it  was  now  questioned  whether  the 
letters  of  military  officers  given  during  the  heat  of  war  were  in  any 
way  binding ;  and  on  the  strength  of  a  small  clause  in  the  Cape  Civil 
Service  rules  and  regulations,  whereby  a  man  can  be  placed  on  tem- 
porary pension,  he  was  shoved  aside  on  the  retrenched  list.  He 
wished  to  appeal,  as,  according  to  the  rules  and  regulations,  an  appeal 
is  permissible,  but  this  was  curtly  refused  him.  He  was  told  that  as 
he  was  only  placed  on  '  temporary  pension,'  no  discussion  could  be 
entered  into  on  the  subject  of  how  he  had  been  treated. 

As  '  temporary  pension '  meant  an  income  not  quite  a  quarter  of 
what  his  salary  had  been  and  no  chance  of  re-establishment,  and  as 
in  the  Transvaal  there  was  now  to  be  no  progress,  and  therefore  no  work, 
and  especially  no  fair  play,  the  outlook  was  hopeless.  We  sold  our 
furniture  at  a  complete  loss  and  started  home  with  our  five  children, 
the  youngest  only  six  months  old.  Needless  to  say,  I  could  afford  no 
nurse.  For  the  second  time  we  were  refugees,  but  now,  with  how 
much  more  desperate  prospects  !  Home  we  came  to  London  to  swell 
the  ranks  of  ill-used  British  subjects  clamouring  for  employment, 
which  employment  is  encouragingly  promised  us  over  here,  but  is 
somehow  like  the  tail  lamp  of  a  train,  always  vanishing  round  some 
far  curve.  Indeed,  to  use  another  metaphor,  one  feels  inclined  to 
cry  out  with  the  famous  Alice,  '  Jam  yesterday  !  Jam  to-morrow  ! 
but  never  jam  to-day.'  It  is  very  easy  for  those  in  affluent  circum- 
stances to  say  '  wait,'  but  what  suffering  this  waiting  means  to  some  ! 
The  problem  of  trying  to  make  the  limited  amount  in  the  bank  last 
for  an  unlimited  time  is  at  present  the  only  reward  of  those  who 
served  their  country  a  few  years  ago. 


704  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY        Oct.  1908 

Reward  !  I  hear  an  indignant  voice  cry,  '  Loyalty  should  need 
no  reward.'  Granted,  but  why  should  it  be  punished  ? 

Our  case  is  typical  of  numberless  others.  There  are,  of  course, 
isolated  instances  of  '  Britishers  '  who  fought  for  the  Empire  during 
the  war,  who  are  still  holding  their  positions  in  South  Africa,  and  much 
is  made  of  this  fact.  The  reason  why  they  swim  when  others  sink  is, 
however,  neither  far  to  seek  nor  satisfactory  when  found.  Either 
they  have  married  Dutch  girls  with  influential  Boer  relations,  or  else 
they  are  themselves  only  English  on  the  father's  side,  and  in  manner 
and  thought  are  as  thoroughly  Dutch  as  the  mothers  who  bore  them. 

EMILY  OLIVIA  CAROLIN. 


The  Editor  of  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  cannot  undertake 
to  refoirn  unaccepted  MSS. 


THE 


NINETEENTH 
CENTUBY'.V'. 

!;      AND   AFTER 


No.  CCCLXXXI— NOVEMBER  1908 


THE    CRISIS    IN    THE    NEAR    EAST 

I.    THE   AUSTKO-HUNGAKIAN  CASE 

THE  month  of  October  1908  inaugurated  a  new  phase  in  the  Balkan 
problem.  By  a  series  of  events  which  were  from  the  outset  clothed 
in  what  is  technically  called  a  fait  accompli,  the  entire  aspect  of  the 
various  local,  international,  and  semi-international  relations  of  the 
States  and  nations  in  the  South-Eastern  Peninsula  has  assumed  a 
new  shape  and  novel  potentialities.  For  days  nothing  short  of  a 
very  serious  conflict  of  interests  was  expected  to  follow,  and  it  can 
hardly  be  denied  that  the  waves  of  deeply  agitated  political  and 
religious  passions  surged  over  parts  of  Europe  with  no  ordinary 
vehemence.  The  interests  involved  are,  in  more  than  one  case,  of  a 
far-reaching  character,  and,  directly  or  indirectly,  the  whole  of 
Europe  pays  close  attention  to  the  issue  of  a  crisis  that  only  a  few 
years  ago  no  one  would  have  believed  to  be  amenable  to  a  solution 
other  than  that  of  war. 

Fortunately  for  the  higher  interests  of  all  concerned,  the  arbitra- 
ment of  war  has  not  been,  nor  will  it  be,  resorted  to.  We  are  there- 
fore in  a  position  to  take  a  more  dispassionate  and  a  calmer  view 
of  the  events  of  October  1908.  In  fact,  so  rapidly  have  events  and 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  381  705  3  B 


706  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

persons  moved  during  the  last  weeks,  that  it  is,  I  take  it,  quite  possible 
to  find  one's  bearings  and  to  fix  the  perspective  of  the  latest  '  crisis 
in  the  Near  East '  with  tolerable  certainty.  In  order  to  do  so,  I 
considered  it,  of  course,  my  principal  duty  to  secure  the  most  authentic 
and  authoritative  information  at  the  very  quarters  where  the  events 
and  faits  accomplis  had  originated.  This  valuable  information  was 
granted  me  at  first  hand  and  in  a  liberal  manner.  As  in  all  great 
political  moves  and  measures,  there  was,  no  doubt,  in  the  latest 
Balkan  events  more  than  one  consideration,  motive,  or  preparatory 
action  which  has  never  found  its  way  into  the  official  documents 
which  were  put  at  my  disposal.  It  may,  nevertheless,  be  safely  stated 
that  both  the  principles  and  the  essential  facts  can  very  well  be 
gathered  from,  and  properly  valued  on,  the  basis  of  the  information 
obtained.  This,  I  hope,  will  contribute  to  a  clearing  of  the  atmosphere, 
and  to  the  conviction  that  in  this  latest  Balkan  crisis,  as  in  most 
other  crises  of  life,  Necessity  has  played  a  greater  part  than  has 
Malice. 

I. 

The  latest  Balkan  crisis  implies  events  in  several  Balkan  States, 
and  it  will  be  conducive  to  greater  clearness  as  well  as  to  greater 
justice  if  we  treat  of  each  of  these  States  separately.  I  will  accordingly 
first  treat  of  the  recent  measures  of  Austria-Hungary  ;  then  of  those 
of  Bulgaria ;  and  finally  of  the  aspirations  of  the  Servians  and 
Montenegrins.  Inasmuch  as  the  interests  of  Turkey  proper  must 
necessarily  be  taken  into  consideration  in  the  discussion  of  each  of 
the  preceding  points,  it  is  unnecessary  to  treat  of  Turkey  separately. 
First,  then,  as  to  Austria-Hungary. 

In  1866  the  Austro-Hungarian  Empire  lost  her  last  possessions  in 
Italy,  the  province  of  Venise.  It  was  but  natural  that  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  Government  was  constantly  looking  out  for  Compensation 
for  the  great  territorial  losses  of  1859  and  1866.  It  is  to  the  present 
day  not  yet  clear  in  what  quarters  arose  the  idea  of  offering  Austria- 
Hungary  compensation  in  the  Balkans.  Some  say  it  originated  in 
Russia  ;  others  maintain  it  was  a  suggestion  of  Bismarck.  It  is  not 
unlikely  that  something  to  that  effect  was  planned  at  the  Ballplatz 
of  Vienna  too.  '  Halb  zog  sie  ihn,  hcdb  Jiel  er  hin,'  as  Goethe  says. 
At  any  rate,  when  at  the  Congress  of  Berlin,  in  1878,  the  proposal 
was  brought  before  the  Powers,  it  met  with  great  favour,  England 
especially  manifesting  great  zeal  in  the  recommendation  of  an  '  occupa- 
tion '  of  two  Turkish  provinces  by  Austria-Hungary.  It  was  in  reality 
one  of  those  moves  on  the  chess-board  of  Europe  which  enables  all 
the  partners  concerned  to  indulge  in  the  satisfaction  of  having  made 
a  '  good  '  move.  Bismarck  was  glad  to  think  that  Austria-Hungary 
was  henceforth  obliged,  in  her  own  interest,  to  deviate  considerably 
from  the  lines  of  Russian  policy  in  the  Balkans.  Russia,  on  the  other 


1908         THE   CEIS1S  IN   THE   NEAR   EAST  707 

hand,  was  not  dissatisfied  to  see  Austria-Hungary  settle  down  in  the 
Balkans,  where,  by  anticipated  victories  over  the  Turks,  Russia  hoped 
soon  to  have  the  upper  hand.  England  could  not  but  feel  sympathy 
for  the  improvement  in  the  Balance  of  Power,  which,  while  adding 
nothing  to  the  strength  of  Germany,  was  likely  to  increase  the  prestige 
and  resources  of  Austria-Hungary.  It  is  superfluous  to  labour  the 
reasons  why  the  proposal  of  compensation  in  the  Balkans  was  particularly 
agreeable  to  Austria-Hungary.  If,  then,  we  cast  a  last  parting  glance 
on  the  famous  treaty  of  1878,  as  far  as  it  concerns  the  present  crisis  in 
the  Near  East,  we  are  fortified  in  the  conviction  that  what  was  then  done 
was  a  matter  not  of  neighbourly  or  friendly  kindliness,  but  a  measure 
growing  out  of  the  necessities  of  the  European  balance  of  Power. 

By  Article  XXV.  of  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  Austria-Hungary  was 
empowered  to  occupy  and  to  administer,  to  the  exclusion  of  any  other 
sovereign,  the  two  Turkish  provinces  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina. 
These  two  mountainous  and  beautiful  provinces  were  then,  as  they 
are  to-day,  inhabited  by  a  people  speaking  the  same  Slav  languages 
(Croato-Servian),  but  in  point  of  religion  divided  into  half  a  million 
Mohammedans,  a  little  over  half  a  million  Greek  Orthodox,  and  about 
three  hundred  thousand  Roman  Catholics.  The  men  are  much  more 
numerous  than  the  women.  The  two  provinces  join  the  southern 
border  of  Austria-Hungary,  and  constitute  the  hinterland  of  Dalmatia 
on  the  Adriatic.  They  were,  before  1878,  the  most  northern  of  the 
European  dominions  of  Turkey.  They  gave  Austria-Hungary  a 
leverage  in  the  Balkans  ;  and  since,  by  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  Austria- 
Hungary  was  even  charged  with  the  purely  military  administration 
of  the  Sanjak  of  Novibazar,  to  the  south  of  Bosnia,  the  Dual  Monarchy 
seemed  to  have  received  the  tacit  mandate  to  advance  to  what  is 
relatively  very  near  to  Novibazar — to  the  Aegean  Sea. 

Austria-Hungary,  in  accepting  the  task  of  full  and  uncontrolled 
administration  and  government  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina,  at  once 
set  to  work  in  the  most  efficient  way.  It  will  be  well  to  remind  the 
reader  that  the  '  occupation  '  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina  by  Austria- 
Hungary  was,  from  the  standpoint  of  international  law,  essentially 
different  from  the  occupation  of  Cyprus  or  Egypt  by  Great  Britain. 
In  the  case  of  Cyprus  the  administration  of  the  island  is,  by  the  Con- 
vention of  the  4th  of  June  1878,  concluded  at  Constantinople  between 
Great  Britain  and  Turkey,  expressly  tied  down  to  a  condition  which 
places  its  temporary  character  beyond  a  doubt.  It  is  needless  to 
dwell  on  the  specific  nature  of  Great  Britain's  hold  on  Egypt.  The 
'  occupation  '  of  Egypt  by  Great  Britain  is,  from  the  standpoint  of 
international  law,  even  much  more  indistinct  and  amorphous.  It  is 
undoubtedly  a  necessary  fact ;  it  is,  nevertheless,  legally  an  indistinct 
state  of  things.  In  the  Statesman's  Year-Book,  under  '  Egypt,'  not 
a  trace  of  the  real  position  of  Great  Britain  on  the  Nile  can  be  found. 

The  occupation  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina  by  Austria-Hungary 

3  B  2 


708  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

was  of  quite  a  different  character.  As  in  all  the  dominions  of  Turkey, 
formerly  and  at  present,  the  various  European  Powers  had,  by  so- 
called  Capitulations  or  Treaties,  obtained  the  right  of  administering 
justice  to  their  subjects  who  happened  to  stay  in  Turkish  Bosnia 
and  Herzegowina,  in  a  court  of  law  consisting  of  consuls  or  judges 
taken  from  among  the  citizens  of  the  European  Power  in  question, 
and  not  from  among  the  Turks.  Both  in  Cyprus  and  in  Egypt  this 
system  of  Capitulations  is  still  in  force,  in  spite  of  the  British  occupa- 
tion. It  was  entirely  different  in  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina.  Once  these 
provinces  were  occupied  by  Austria-Hungary,  no  European  Power 
claimed,  even  in  a  single  case,  the  rights  given  by  the  former  Capitula- 
tions applying  to  the  two  provinces  ;  and  all  Europe  at  once  recog- 
nised that  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina  were  henceforth  within  '  the 
comity  of  nations,'  in  that  they  had  passed  into  the  sovereign  rights 
of  an  acknowledged  Power.  No  stronger  proof  of  absolute  sovereignty 
could  possibly  be  advanced.  Much  of  the  law  administered  in  the 
two  provinces  is  indeed  still  Turkish  law ;  for,  the  agrarian  customs 
and  usages  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina  being,  as  they  are,  very  much 
at  variance  with  those  prevailing  in  either  half  of  the  Dual  Monarchy, 
it  was  necessary  to  leave  the  old  Turkish  law  of  Real  Estate  more  or 
less  untouched.  This,  however,  cannot  affect  the  right  of  sovereignty 
as  de  facto  exercised  by  Austria- Hungary  in  all  matters  connected  with 
the  administration  of  law.  As  a  further  consequence  of  that  Austro- 
Hungarian  right  of  absolute  sovereignty  de  facto,  the  Bosniaks 
and  Herzegowinians  were  at  once  subjected  to  the  law  of  general 
military  service  obtaining  in  Austria-Hungary,  and  the  recruits  of  the 
two  provinces  were  sworn  in  as  soldiers  of  the  Emperor-King  of 
Austria-Hungary.  In  the  same  way,  treaties  of  commerce,  and  all 
international  acts  referring  to  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina  were,  since 
1878,  concluded  by  the  authorities  of  Austria-Hungary  alone.  Even 
in  a  minor  fact  of  public  life  that  absolute  sovereignty  de  facto  of 
Austria-Hungary  in  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina  manifested  itself  in 
the  least  doubtful  manner.  According  to  the  criminal  code  in  force 
in  the  two  provinces  before  the  recent  change  of  status,  any  person 
insulting  the  Emperor-King  of  Austria-Hungary,  or  a  member  of  his 
family,  was  subject  to  the  penalties  of  lese-majest£  proper  (§§  140 
and  141) ;  whereas  similar  insults  directed  against  the  Sultan  of 
Turkey  were,  like  those  levelled  at  any  other  crowned  head,  subject 
to  the  minor  penalties  of  ordinary  defamation  (§  445).  Of  all 
the  former  rights  of  the  Sultan  in  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina,  two 
formal  privileges  alone  remained  in  force.  One  was  the  permission 
given  to  the  Mohammedan  Bosniaks  to  mention,  in  their  prayers, 
the  name  of  the  Sultan.  The  other  was  the  permission  to  hoist  on 
such  Turkish  Minarets,  where  it  had  been  customary  to  do  so,  the 
Ottoman  flag  during  prayer-time.  It  would  be  impossible  to  invest 
these  two  privileges  with  the  faintest  semblance  of  the  power  of  real 
sovereignty. 


1908         THE   CRISIS   IN  THE   NEAR   EAST  709 

For  thirty  years,  then,  Austria-Hungary  exercised  in  Bosnia  and 
Herzegowina  all  and  every  right  and  privilege  of  absolute  sovereignty. 
This  is  not  the  place  to  show  in  detail  that  those  rights  and  privileges 
were,  by  Austro-Hungarian  officials,  exercised  to  the  lasting  benefit 
of  the  two  provinces.  In  several  weighty  communications  sent  by 
various  Englishmen  to  The  Times  in  the  month  of  October  enough 
has  been  said  to  bear  out  the  well-known  impression  of  the  great 
efficiency  of  Austro-Hungarian  administration  in  Bosnia  and  Herze- 
gowina. Thirty  years  ago  there  were  no  railways  in  the  provinces  ; 
now  there  are  over  one  thousand  miles  of  railway,  over  two  thousand 
miles  of  telegraph  lines,  and  nearly  four  hundred  miles  of  telephone 
wire.  Close  on  seventeen  million  letters  and  postcards  are  now 
forwarded  in  the  provinces  where  formerly  the  postal  service  was  ex- 
ceedingly primitive.  These  and  similar  facts  all  testifying  to  the  great 
work  of  civilisation  done  by  Austria-Hungary  in  a  country  that  had 
for  centuries  been  in  a  state  of  neglect  and  stagnation,  have  long  since 
been  made  familiar  to  the  conscience  of  Europe.  Nobody  seriously 
doubts  them,  and  it  is  superfluous  to  insist  upon  them.  What,  how- 
ever, must  be  insisted  upon  is  the  legal  fact  that  this  occupation, 
with  all  its  de  facto  exercise  of  absolute  sovereign  power,  was  by  the 
Congress  of  Berlin  meant  to  be  entrusted  to  Austria-Hungary,  not 
as  that  of  Cyprus  was  to  Great  Britain — that  is,  for  a  limited  period — 
but  for  an  unlimited  one.  In  other  words,  it  cannot  seriously  be 
maintained  that  the  Congress  of  Berlin  viewed  the  '  occupation ' 
of  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina  by  Austria-Hungary  in  a  light  other 
than  that  of  an  absolute  cession  veiled  temporarily  in  the  guise 
of  one  of  those  legal  fictions  which  both  in  private  and  public  law 
are  only  meant  as  preliminary  makeshifts  for  subsequent  realities  of 
a  different  character.  Nor  did  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  view  it  in  any 
different  light.  Whatever  process  of  legal  interpretation  may  or  may 
not  be  applied  to  the  Convention  of  the  21st  of  April  1879,  made,  in 
further  elaboration  of  the  Berlin  Treaty,  by  Austria-Hungary  and 
Turkey ;  one  point  remains  stable,  clear,  and  unanswerable — to  wit, 
that  the  Sultan,  in  Articles  II.  and  IV.  of  the  said  Convention,  stipu- 
lated, as  the  only  rights  of  active  sovereignty  which  he  could  and  did 
claim,  the  religious  privileges  mentioned  above,  and  the  circulation 
of  Ottoman  coins  as  legal  tender  in  the  two  provinces.  Of  these  two 
rights,  the  first  is  purely  moral ;  and  the  second  has,  by  contrary  usage, 
long  since  become  objectless.  In  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina  there  has, 
these  twenty  years,  been  no  coin  circulating  other  than  Austro- 
Hungarian  coin. 

To  the  Western  mind,  long  since  used  to  definite  and  clear  delimita- 
tions, both  in  political  institutions  and  in  political  territory,  the 
indistinct  legal  measures  frequently  applied  in  Oriental  or  African 
politics  offer  more  than  one  difficulty.  The  progress  of  international 
history  in  Central  and  Western  Europe  has  made  for  greater  plasticity 
and  simplicity,  whatever  complications  may  still  prevail  in  the  home- 


710  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

policy  of  the  various  nations.  The  present  German  Empire  is  not  a 
fiction,  as  was  '  the  Holy  Koman  Empire  of  the  Germanic  Nation.' 
Its  territory  is  completely  rounded  off  and  neatly  demarcated  to 
within  a  square  inch.  Its  organisation,  as  a  public  and  international 
body,  is  absolutely  clear,  and  lends  itself  to  no  fictions  whatever. 
The  same  holds  good  of  Austria-Hungary,  Switzerland,  France, 
Holland,  Belgium,  and,  of  course,  of  the  oldest  of  all  self-contained 
realms,  of  Great  Britain.  The  same  quality  does  not,  however, 
attach  to  countries  in  the  south-east  of,  or  outside,  Europe.  In  those 
parts  of  the  world  the  conflicting  interests  of  the  dominating  European 
Powers  have  up  to  very  recent  times  found  it  almost  impossible  to 
promote  the  crystallisation  of  political  relations  in  forms  of  definite, 
clear-cut,  and  unequivocal  outlines.  All  the  contrivances  by  means 
of  which  Western  and  Central  Europe  used,  in  the  fifteenth,  sixteenth, 
seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  centuries,  to  patch  up  differences  between 
States  and  nations,  between  denominations  and  sects,  or  dynasties 
and  peoples,  and  which  contrivances  have  since  the  French  Revolution 
been  either  in  abeyance  or  radically  removed ;  all  these  enclaves, 
'  public  or  international  servitudes,'  '  constitutional  fictions,'  and 
inarticulate  '  arrangements  '  of  political  problems  have  of  necessity 
been  the  order  of  the  day  in  the  Balkans.  Politics,  more  especially 
international  policy,  are,  however,  not  altogether  a  legal  process  ;  it 
is  pre-eminently  an  historical  one.  Thus,  in  the  present  case,  it 
cannot  possibly  be  denied  that,  while  the  above  temporary  con- 
trivances and  fictions  had  their  complete  raison  d'itre  as  long  as  the 
political  life  of  the  Balkan  nations  was  in  a  state  of  backwardness, 
they  can  no  longer  be  held  to  fulfil  a  useful  function  at  a  time  when 
the  political  maturity  which  in  Central  and  Western  Europe  has 
caused  their  disappearance  has  at  last  reached  the  Balkan  Peninsula 
too.  In  one  word,  the  Balkans,  too,  have  arrived  at  that  stage  of 
political  life  when  crystallisation  in  forms  of  unequivocal  outlines 
becomes  a  matter  of  urgent  necessity.  Fictions  will  no  longer  do ; 
patched-up  compromises  and  obnoxious  servitudes  can  no  longer 
be  endured.  Those  temporary  contrivances  have  outlived  them- 
selves, and  bring  the  nations  still  enduring  them  into  a  constantly 
increasing  maze  of  impasses. 

This  is  precisely  what  has  happened  in  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina. 
The  position  of  Austria- Hungary  in  the  two  provinces  '  occupied ' 
by  her  became,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  almost  unbearable.  As  invariably 
happens  in  such  cases,  Austria-Hungary  was  placed  between  two 
evils,  and  had  to  decide  which  of  the  two  was,  if  submitted  to,  the 
lesser  of  the  two.  One  evil  was  an  unavoidable  conflagration  in  and 
around  the  two  provinces,  owing  to  the  constant  intrigues  and  smould- 
ering revolt  of  the  Southern  Slavs,  principally  the  Servians,  who 
hoped  to  avail  themselves  of  the  false  position  and  legally  fictitious 
sovereignty  of  Austria-Hungary  in  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina  for  the 
purpose  of  a  sort  of  Pan-Servianisin.  Of  these  very  serious  intrigues 


1908         THE   CRISIS   IK   THE   NEAR   EAST  711 

I  will  at  once  give  the  requisite  data  from  official  and  partly  unpub- 
lished sources.  At  present  we  shall  briefly  indicate  the  second  evil 
hinted  at  above.  It  consisted  in  a  formal  incorrectness,  which  did  not 
entail  any  substantial  damage  on  any  of  the  non-Turkish  nations  in 
the  Balkans,  nor  on  the  Great  Powers,  and  which  conferred  upon  the 
most  interested  party,  on  the  Turks  proper,  a  considerable  advantage. 
This  formal  incorrectness  was  the  declaration  by  Austria-Hungary, 
made  on  the  7th  of  October  last,  to  the  effect  that  she  annexed  the 
two  provinces  ;  or,  in  other  words,  that  she  named  her  actual  and 
complete  sovereignty  by  its  true  name. 

It  is  quite  alien  to  the  purpose  of  this  article  to  attempt  denying 
that  in  the  action  of  Austria-Hungary  there  was  an  element  of  formal 
incorrectness  towards  the  Powers  who  had,  in  Article  XXV.  of  the 
Berlin  Treaty,  entrusted  Austria-Hungary  with  the  occupation  and 
complete  administration  of  the  two  provinces.  It  is  not  contended 
that  if  a  previous  effort  had  been  made  to  obtain  the  consent  of  the 
Powers  the  procedure  would  have  been  more  incorrect.  On  the 
contrary,  the  procedure  would,  in  that  case,  have  been  formally  more 
correct.  Nor  is  it  here  meant  to  use  the  tu  quoque  argument,  for 
which  the  history  of  all  the  Great  Powers  concerned  supplies  more 
than  a  goodly  number  of  precedents.  It  is  even  not  intended  to  press 
the  well-known  tacit  condition  of  all  international  treaties,  the  clause 
rebus  sic  stantibus,  to  its  finest  ramifications.  All  that  it  is  here  meant 
to  state  is  this,  that  Austria-Hungary  found  herself  in  the  course  of 
the  last  two  years  in  a  condition  of  what  is  commonly  called  force 
majeure,  in  consequence  of  which  she  was  compelled  to  choose  the 
lesser  evil,  as  the  one  that  was  most  likely  to  bring  about  the  desired 
improvement  not  only  fully,  but  also  as  speedily  as  no  other  procedure, 
least  of  all  an  international  conference,  can  ever  bring  about. 

II 

It  is  now  necessary  to  give  a  full  statement  of  the  facts  which  placed 
Austria-Hungary  in  the  position  of  being  under  the  pressure  of  force 
majeure  over  two  years  before  the  new  regime  in  Turkey  proper  pro- 
foundly altered  the  entire  political  aspect  of  the  Balkans.  All  of 
those  facts  come  back  to  the  indubitable,  well-organised,  and  most 
dangerous  attempts  of  the  Servians  and  Croatians  to  oust  Austria- 
Hungary  from  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina.  To  the  English  reader,  to 
whom  Servia  or  Croatia  appear  merely  as  small  fry,  such  attempts 
and  efforts  on  the  part  of  a  little  nation  against  a  great  Power  do  not 
seem  to  be  invested  with  much  importance.  However,  a  very  short 
reflection  of  how  these  factors  are  constituted  in  reality  will  induce 
even  a  casual  observer  to  view  Servian  and  Croatian  intrigues  and 
agitation  in  Austria-Hungary  in  quite  a  different  light. 

Croatia,  Slavonia,  Styria  and  Carinthia,  let  alone  Istria,  or,  in 
other  words,  entire  provinces  of  Austria-Hungary,  are  teeming  with 


712  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

several  millions  of  Southern  Slavs  who  talk  practically  the  same 
language  with  their  immediate  neighbours,  the  inhabitants  of  Bosnia, 
Herzegowina,  and  Servia.  If  we  add  the  very  numerous  Serb-speaking 
population  of  the  south  of  Hungary  proper,  we  may  safely  state  the 
remarkable  fact  that  the  whole  south  of  Austria-Hungary  is  in  its 
vastly  preponderating  majority  a  mass  of  people  who  naturally,  and 
still  more  in  consequence  of  continuous  and  active  propaganda,  deeply 
sympathise  with  the  political  aspirations  of  the  Slavs  in  Servia  and 
in  Bosnia-Herzegowina,  and  even  in  Montenegro.  If,  then,  the 
Servian  secret  propaganda  of  the  filovensJci  Jug,  or  the  '  Slav  South,' 
as  their  association  is  called,  should  be  allowed  to  advance  on  the 
lines  hitherto  trodden  by  it,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Austria- 
Hungary  would  soon  be  confronted  with  a  revolt  of  nations  who  are 
still  in  the  epic  stage  of  heroic  traditions  and  have  at  all  times  been 
desperate  fighters.  As  compared  with  such  a  danger,  the  Polish 
peril  in  Eastern  Germany  is  a  mere  child's  play ;  and  it  has  hitherto 
not  yet  been  noticed  that  the  benevolent  attitude  of  the  German 
Emperor  to  Austria-Hungary  is,  in  the  present  case,  not  quite  unin- 
fluenced by  the  fact  that  the  troubles  obviated  by  the  act  of  the 
7th  of  October  refer  to  another  Slav  centre  of  disturbance.  The 
Slav  danger,  whether  in  Poland  or  in  the  south  of  Austria-Hungary, 
is  not  a  mere  bogey. 

This  will  perhaps  suffice  to  show  the  importance  of  Slav  agitations 
in  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina,  in  a  general  way.  The  impression  is  in- 
definitely intensified  by  a  closer  study,  first  of  the  Press  of  the  agitators, 
then  of  their  deeds.  As  to  the  Press  it  is  probably  not  out  of  place 
to  remark  that  in  those  parts  of  the  world  political  journals  may  be 
said  to  wield  considerably  more  influence  than  they  do  in  western 
countries.  Literature  proper  there  is  very  little  among  the  South 
Slavs.  The  average  South  Slav  will  read  hundreds  of  newspapers 
before  he  will  read  one  book  proper.  The  passion  for  political  dis- 
cussion, unremittingly  going  on  in  all  the  numberless  cafes,  inns,  and 
restaurants  of  Bosnia,  Servia,  Croatia,  is  kept  up  almost  exclusively 
by  the  local  Press.  It  is  under  these  circumstances  impossible  to 
minimise  the  influence  of  a  political  organ  which  reaches  the  in- 
habitants of  the  smallest  village  and  has  practically  free  scope  for 
the  spread  of  its  propaganda. 

The  Servian  Press  in  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina  has  published 
innumerable  inflammatory  articles,  the  declared  purpose  of  which 
is  to  oust  Austria-Hungary  from  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina.  It  was 
said  in  that  Press,  day  after  day,  that  the  occupation  of  the  two  pro- 
vinces was  only  a  provisional  measure ;  that  the  Sultan  was  their 
true  ruler,  whereas  Emperor-King  Francis  Joseph  I.  was  only 
their  Upravitelj,  or  pacificator.  The  Sultan  is  called  na$  uzviseni 
luverain,  our  genuine  sovereign.  The  ordinances  and  decrees  of  the 
Austria-Hungarian  Government  for  the  two  provinces  have,  that 
Press  says,  no  legal  power,  in  that  Austria-Hungary  act  only  samovlj'no, 


1908        THE   GRISTS  IN  THE  NEAR   EAST  71:} 

or  arbitrarily,  illegally.     Of  the  people  it  is  said  that  it  is  'sweated.' 
The    Austro-Hungarian    officials    are    mere    '  gladnice*    or    beggarly 
loafers.     In  the  newspaper  called  Otadlbina,  published  at  Banjaluka, 
there  appeared,   on   the   14th  (27th)  of  September   1907,  an  article 
under  the  title  *  Posljednje  vrijem,'  or  the  End  of  Times,  giving  a  most 
lugubrious  and  totally  untrue  picture  of  the  alleged  misery  of  the 
people  in  the  two  provinces.     In  the  same  paper,  No.  8,  the  29th  of 
February  (the  12th  of  March)  1908,  there  appeared  a  leader  which  in 
expression  and  tendency  could   not  possibly  be  more  inflammatory. 
It  is  there  said  as  the  upshot  of  the  situation  in  the  Balkans  :  '  Bratu 
brat,  Svabi  rat ! '  i.e.  '  To  our  brethren  we  shall  be  brothers,  to  the  Svab 
(Austrian)  we  will  be  enemies.'    Racial  war  is  openly  threatened. 
Articles  of  a  similar  tendency  appear  not  only  in  papers  published 
at  the  capital  of  Bosnia,  in  Serajewo,  more  particularly  in  the  Srpska 
Rijet,  but  also  in  Croato-Servian  papers  published  in  Dalmatia,  such 
as  the  '  Dubrovnik '  of  Ragusa.     As  early  as  the  21st  of  April  (4th  of 
May)  1907,  the  '  Narod '  of  Mostar  openly  declared  that  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  occupation  in  the  two  provinces  must  incontinently  cease, 
or  that  otherwise  the  ensuing  Revolution  will  destroy  Austria  as  a 
dynamite  bomb  does  a  house.     The  '  Musavat '  of  Mostar  frequently 
had  articles  to  the  same  effect.     The  Christmas  numbers  of  these 
papers  are  full  of  poems  imploring  the  people  in  the  most  passionate 
manner  to  free  themselves  from  the  yoke  of  the  foreigner.     '  Now  is 
the  time  to  die  for  the  holy  cause  of  Liberty,'  says  Skrgo,  one  of  the  best- 
known  local  poets,  in  one  of  his  Christmas  carols.     In  the  '  Musavat ' 
of  Mostar,  No.  13,  of  the  16th  of  April  1907,  a  '  jurist '  discusses  the 
Article  XXV.  of  the  Berlin  Treaty  and  tries  to  show  in  guarded  but 
distinctly  provocative  language  that  no  mayor  of  a  town  in  Bosnia 
can  legally  be  held  to  swear  fealty  to  any  one  else  than  to  the  Sultan 
of  Turkey.     Since,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  all  Bosnian  mayors  take  the 
oath  to  the  Emperor-King,  it  is  easy  to  see  in  what  intention  this 
article  was  written.  <  So  seditious  were'the  articles  in  the  Srpska  Rijet 
of  Serajewo  that  that  paper  has,  before  the  end  of  September  last, 
been  confiscated  not  less  than  seventy-five  times.     This  paper,  as  well 
as  the  Otadzbina  of  Banjaluka,  is  really  the  property  of  the  Servian 
Government  represented  by  a  certain  Gligorije  Jeftanovich,  who  was 
handed  the  sum  of  30,000  Austrian  crowns,  with  which  sum  he  bought 
shares  in  the  printing  concern  of  the  paper.     The  editors  of   the 
Srpska  Rijet,  although  the  paper  is  published  in  the  capital  of  Bosnia, 
at  Serajewo,  have  always  been  Servians.     In  fact  the  whole  pan- 
Servian  Press  in  the  two  provinces  is  directed  from  the  so-called 
'  Cultus-Section  '  at  Belgrade,  the  capital  of  Servia,  where  one  Spa- 
laykovich  is  entrusted  with  the  propaganda.     In  addition  to  news- 
papers the  Servian  and  Croatian  agitators  have  at  times  flooded  the 
country  with  pamphlets  of  all  sizes,  one  more  incendiary  in  tone  and 
spirit  than  the  other.     And  lest  the  cool  outsider  underrate  the  force 
and  momentum  of   all  these  agitations  by  means  of   the  written  or 


711  THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Nov. 

spoken  word,  it  is  sufficient  to  adduce  the  following  facts  :  As  a  result 
of  all  the  seditious  articles,  pamphlets,  addresses,  the  Bosnian  in- 
habitants of  a  large  number  of  places  in  Bosnia  have  as  late  as  Sep- 
tember last  tried  to  organise  meetings  and  to  draw  up  memorials, 
the  avowed  and  una vowed  objects  of  which  were  disloyalty  to  the 
Austro-Hungarian  authorities.  The  names  of  the  places,  where'  these 
movements  have  taken  place,  and  partly  visited  by  various  fines  and 
penalties,  are  D.  Tuzla,  Zvornik,  Kljuc,  Puracii,  Gornji  Vakuf,  Prafia, 
Jezero,  Petrovac,  Stelae",  Otoka,  Serajewo,  Prestenica,  Jeruske, 
Gorjevac,  and  others. 

So  far  we  have  considered  only  the  verbal  activity  of  the  relentless 
foreign  enemies  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  regime  in  Bosnia  and  Herze- 
gowina.  If  now  we  go  to  their  deeds,  we  are  at  the  outset  confronted 
with  the  fact  that  no  less  than  15,000  Mauser  rifles  and  bombs  made 
in  the  artillery  arsenal  of  Kragujevatz  in  Servia  were,  in  autumn  1907, 
brought  by  the  conspirators  to  the  frontiers  of  Bosnia  and  there 
deposited  in  a  blockhouse  called  Krajtchinovacz,  as  also  in  the  Servian 
monastery  of  Banja  near  Priboj.  Some  of  those  bombs  were  sent  to 
Montenegro,  where  they  were  seized  by  the  authorities  on  the  5th  of 
November  1907.  The  Servian  conspirators,  it  appears,  wanted  to 
exterminate  the  members  of  the  family  of  the  Prince  of  Montenegro, 
together  with  that  Prince,  so  as  to  facilitate  thereby  the  union  of  all 
the  Western  Balkans,  including  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina,  under  the 
leadership  of  a  Servian  dynasty.  Servian  bands,  under  a  Servian 
ex-Minister  of  War,  whose  name  was  General  Atanatzkovich,  and  with 
the  moral  and  material  support  of  Servian  patriotic  associations,  such 
as  the  '  SrpsJca  Bratsha,'  and  the  '  Kolo  Srpskich  Sestara,'  raided 
Austro-Hungarian  territory.  Officially,  of  course,  the  existence  of 
these  bands  was  repeatedly  denied.  It  is  nevertheless  beyond  a 
doubt  that  Servian  officers  and  Servian  soldiers  were,  with  the 
connivance  of  the  Servian  Government,  sent  into  -Macedonia,  as 
well  as  into  the  regions  bordering  on  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina,  with 
the  manifest  object  to  create  mischief  and  spread  the  spirit  of 
revolt.  Fethi  Pasha,  the  Turkish  envoy  at  Belgrade,  knew  every 
movement  of  those  bands,  and  M.  Simich,  one  of  the  most  active  of 
the  Servian  agitators,  made  no  secrets  about  them  to  earnest  inquirers. 
Nor  can  it  be  a  mystery  to  whosoever  studies  the  latest  history  of  the 
Servian  aspirations  that  they  have  long  since  learned  to  use  the 
assassin's  knife  as  an  ordinary  political  weapon.  It  is,  amongst  other 
things,  an  ascertained  fact  that  Prince  Ferdinand  of  Bulgaria  has,  as 
a  rule,  and  certainly  since  1904,  abandoned  any  intention  of  travelling 
through  Servian  territory,  except  in  profound  secrecy,  and  with  the 
passport  of  a  merchant.  At  Sofia  they  will,  so  they  say,  not  be 
surprised  to  find  some  day  or  other  the  same  sort  of  bombs,  filled 
with  '  Schneiderit '  or  with  '  Wassit,'  that  were  found  at  Cetinje,  in 
Montenegro. 

It  can  under  these  circumstances  not  be  a  matter  of  surprise 


1908         THE   CRISIS   IN   THE  NEAR   EAST-  715 

that  all  this  vast  amount  of  revolutionary  activity  on  the  part  of  the 
Pan-Servians  has  finally  led  to  the  formation  of  an  organisation,  the 
secret  plans  of  which  were  revealed  by  M.  George  Nastich  in  his 
pamphlet '  Finale  '  (1908).  In  that  remarkable  publication  we  read  the 
elaborate  '  Statute  '  of  the  '  Organisation '  hatched  out  in  Servia 
for  '  the  Liberation  of  all  South  Slavs,  or  Slovenes,  Croatians  and 
Servians,'  which  is  meant  in  the  first  place  for  the  people  of  Bosnia 
and  Herzegowina.  The  contents  of  this  lengthy  Statute,  the  facsimile 
of  the  original  Servian  draft  of  which  lies  before  me,  consists  of  eleven 
sections  :  (1)  Introduction  (On  the  Situation  ;  showing  it  to  be  '  ripe  ' 
for  action,  i.e.  for  ousting  Austria-Hungary  from  '  South  Slavia  ') ; 
(2)  name  of  the  organisation,  which  runs  :  '  South  Slav  Revolutionary 
Organisation ' ;  (3)  object  of  the  organisation  ('  complete  liberation  of 
all  the  South  Slavs ')  ;  (4)  character  of  the  organisation  ('  revolu- 
tionary ') ;  (5)  area  of  activity  ('  wherever  Slovenes,  Croatians,  and 
Servians  dwell,'  the  Bulgarian  being  as  yet  excluded)  ;  (6)  schedule 
of  work,  in  seven  sub-sections — (a)  work  on  the  propaganda  ;  (6)  pre- 
paratory labours  ;  (c)  relation  to  Governments  and  parties  ;  (d)  rela- 
tion to  foreign  countries  ;  (e)  supply  of  money ;  (/)  absolute  secrecy  ; 
(g)  agitation  in  the  Austro-Hungarian  Army ;  (7)  head  office  in 
America  ;  (8)  membership,  in  eight  sub-sections  ;  (9)  branch  organisa- 
tions ;  (10)  tactics  of  the  organisation  ('  to  use  anything  and  everything 
likely  to  promote  the  object ');(!!)  epilogue.  This  vast  organisation, 
meant  to  undo  all  Austro-Hungarian  prestige,  or  power  in  the  two 
provinces,  was  concocted  at  Belgrade,  and  drawn  up  by  Milan  Pribiche- 
wich,  aided  by  Bude  Budisavljewich  and  by  Wasso  Pribiohewich. 

These,  then,  were  the  facts  staring  the  Austro-Hungarian  Govern- 
ment in  Bosnia-Herzegowina  in  the  face.  There  was  in  1907  and  1908, 
to  the  exclusion  of  any  reasonable  doubt,  a  wide  and  dangerous 
revolutionary  movement  among  the  South  Slavs,  the  one  clear  and 
unmistakable  object  of  which  was  to  '  liberate  '  the  Slovenes,  Croatians 
and  Servians,  i.e.,  among  others,  the  Bosniaks  and  Herzegowinians, 
from  the  '  yoke  '  of  Austro-Hungarian  sovereignty.  I  do  not  for  a 
moment  hesitate  to  admit  that  had  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina  been 
an  internationally  acknowledged  member  of  the  Austro-Hungarian 
Empire,  such  as  is  Styria  or  Carinthia,  the  revolutionary  activity  of 
the  Pan-Slovenes,  or  Pan-Servians,  could  have  been  readily  dealt 
with  by  Austria-Hungary  without  her  drawing  upon  ultimate  resources 
of  diplomacy,  and  without  leaving  the  ordinary  way  of  quelling  dis- 
turbances. It  can,  on  the  other  hand,  not  be  denied  that  under  the 
actual  circumstances  in  1907  and  early  in  1908  Austria-Hungary  was 
most  seriously  handicapped  in  her  natural  desire  to  defend  her  sphere 
of  legitimate  governance.  Once  Bosnia  and  Herzegowina  are  formally 
annexed  by  the  Dual  Monarchy,  it  is  comparatively  easy  to  foil  or 
reduce  revolutionary  movements  by  the  legal  means  of  repression. 
But  as  long  as  Austria-Hungary  is  not,  in  law  as  well  as  in  fact,  the 
acknowledged  sovereign  of  the  two  provinces  she  is  not  in  a  position 


716  -   THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

to  strike  firmly.  A  Servian  intriguing  in  Bosnia  is,  legally,  intriguing 
in  Turkish  territory.  How  can,  under  the  circumstances,  Austria- 
Hungary  take  him  to  task  with  becoming  severity  and  expedition  ? 
One  hesitates  ;  one  compromises  ;  that  is,  one  renders  the  situation 
more  and  more  embroiled  and  more  and  more  weak.  If,  again,  one 
is  provoked  beyond  the  limit  of  endurance,  as  undoubtedly  Austria- 
Hungary  has  been  by  the  Slovene  revolutionaries,  then  nothing 
remains  but  war  proper.  To  the  incessant  cabals  and  plots  of  the 
Slovenes  and  Servians  the  Austro-Hungarian  Government  could  have 
replied  in  one  way  only — by  marching  on  Belgrade.  This  means 
war,  and  would  have  been  only  another  confirmation  of  the  experience 
which  Austria-Hungary  had  in  1878,  when,  despite  the  mandate  of  the 
Powers,  she  had  to  conquer  the  two  provinces  by  a  regular  campaign. 
I  do  not  in  the  least  attempt  to  press  this  point.  Yet  it  is  perfectly 
clear  that,  just  as  Austria-Hungary  was  obliged  to  possess  herself  of 
Bosnia  and  Herzegowina  by  right  of  war,  or  droit  de  conquete,  even 
so  she  would  have  unavoidably  been  driven  to  maintain  that  conquest 
by  a  new  war  with  the  South  Slavs.  This  much  the  most  prejudiced 
of  her  critics  cannot  but  admit. 

When  things  had  come  to  that  pass,  when  war  seemed  the  only 
issue  out  of  an  intolerable  situation,  the  Turks  by  their  otherwise 
admirable  political  revival  precipitated  events  in  such  a  manner 
that  a  statesman  of  the  calibre  of  Baron  Aerenthal  had  no  other 
choice  left.  By  the  introduction  of  constitutional  government  into 
Turkey  it  became  at  once  manifest  that  the  people  of  Bosnia  and 
Herzegowina  might  claim  to  be  represented  in  the  Parliament  of 
Constantinople.  As  a  matter  of  fact  agitators  have  claimed  it ;  see 
especially  the  Srpska  Rijec  of  the  22nd  of  September  1908.  Nor  could 
it  be  said  that  the  law  of  Europe  was  formally  against  such  claims. 
In  reality  it  strengthened,  nay  encouraged,  such  claims.  For  were  not 
Bosnia  and  Herzegowina  still  Turkish  in  law  ?  The  new  Constitution 
in  Turkey  thus  added  a  most  dangerous  weapon  to  the  arsenal  of  the 
countless  foreign  enemies  of  and  secret  plotters  in  Austro-Hungarian 
Bosnia  and  Herzegowina.  The  time  had  come.  Austria-Hungary 
needed  a  fait  accompli  to  obviate  war,  and  to  render  her  position  at 
least  endurable.  To  submit  the  question  to  a  Conference  would  have 
involved  months,  perhaps  years  of  negotiations,  without  absolutely 
insuring  peace.  In  an  ever-famous  case  Austria -Hungary  had  acquired 
the  conviction  that  even  the  formal  previous  consent  of  the  Powers, 
obtained  by  means  of  laborious  and  costly  negotiations,  did  not  obviate 
the  terrible  war  of  the  Austrian  Succession.  On  the  other  hand,  a 
firm  action  would,  it  was  confidently  hoped,  obviate  war.  The  events 
have  justified  this  expectation.  Can  it  be  seriously  called  in  question 
that  Austria-Hungary  has,  by  its  act,  rendered  war  in  the  Balkans 
a  matter  of  very  doubtful  possibility  ?  That  process  of  crystallisation 
which  has  in  the  last  thirty  years  been  the  dominating  principle  of  the 
historic  growth  of  the  Balkans ;  that  process  making  for  clearness, 


1908         THE   CRISIS  IN   THE  NEAR   EAST  717 

accurate  delimitation  of  power,  and  peace — that  process  was  under- 
stood and  acted  upon  by  Baron  Aerenthal.  Is  that  really  a  crime  ? 
Is  an  act  based  on  the  prompt  understanding  of  the  meaning  of  historic 
currents  or  ideas  to  be  considered  an  infraction  of  the  law  of  nations  ? 
Above  the  law  of  nations  there  is  the  history  of  nations  and  its  superior 
law.  What  can  more  conclusively  prove  that  than  the  fact  that  there 
is  in  the  Chancelleries  of  Great  Britain,  France,  or  Russia,  not  the 
slightest  doubt  about  the  anticipation  that  the  annexation  of  Bosnia 
and  Herzegowina  will  in  an  eventual  Conference  not  be  discussed,  but 
simply  referred  to  (constate)  ?  Baron  Aerenthal  has  done  in  1908 
what  the  Congress  of  Berlin  did  in  1878 — he  has  entered  on  the  registers 
the  results  of  historic  forces.  If  he  has  done  that  somewhat  faultily 
in  externals,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that,  as  he  did  not  in  the  least 
mean  to  insult  the  Powers,  so  the  Powers  do  not  at  all  mean  to 
resent  it  gravely.  Force  majeure  is  an  accepted  principle.  If  ever 
a  statesman  was  under  the  pressure  of  force  majeure  in  the  true  sense 
of  the  term,  Baron  Aerenthal  was.  This  is  clearly  understood  in 
London,  Paris,  Berlin,  and  St.  Petersburg.  It  will  undoubtedly 
be  taken  for  granted  at  the  forthcoming  Conference.  This  and 
nothing  more  is  meant  when  Austria-Hungary's  '  unwillingness  '  to 
join  the  Conference  is  mentioned.  There  is  no  unwillingness  to  correct 
formal  incorrections.  There  is  unwillingness  to  admit  that  historic 
necessities  were  wanton  breaches  of  law. 

III. 

When  the  present  article  was  commenced  I  intended  to  treat  of 
Bulgaria  in  some  detail.  However,  the  process  of  crystallisation 
repeatedly  referred  to  as  the  feature  of  contemporary  politics  in  the 
South-East  of  Europe,  has  been  proceeding  with  such  rapidity  that  a 
formal  and  cordial  understanding  between  Turkey  and  Bulgaria  is 
now  almost  a  certainty,  if  not  a  fait  accompli.  In  Bulgaria,  too,  the 
historic  growth  of  events  and  facts  so  outstripped  the  growth  of  legal 
doctrines  that  it  became,  for  Prince  Ferdinand  and  his  people, 
a  mere  matter  of  necessity  to  render  the  situation  more  defined  and 
clear  by  articulating  the  facts  in  the  form  of  an  imperatively  needed 
declaration  of  independence.  The  Turks  themselves  have  admitted 
this  much  by  their  deeds  and  their  conciliatory  attitude  to  Bulgaria, 
if  not  by  words.  As  soon  as  hopeful  negotiations  were  started  by  the 
former  vassal  and  suzerain,  all  Europe  applauded  both  the  magna- 
nimity of  the  Turk  and  the  boldness  of  the  Bulgarians.  Under  these 
circumstances  it  is  not  necessary  to  add  any  further  details  to  a  question 
the  satisfactory  solution  of  which  is  close  at  hand. 

As  regards  the  various  aspirations  of  the  Servians,  it  is  difficult 
to  see  what  '  compensation  '  the  Powers  in  conference  could  possibly 
offer  them.  Territorial  compensation  could  be  given  only  at  the 
expense  of  the  Turks  or  of  Austria-Hungary.  The  former  is  excluded 


718  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

by  the  official  declaration  of  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Russia  ;  the 
latter  cannot  seriously  be  thought  of  for  a  moment,  in  that  it  would 
constitute  the  classical  casus  belli  in  the  Balkans.  Servia  will,  no 
doubt,  obtain  a  seat  on  the  Danube  Commission  and  certain  privileges 
not  accorded  her  in  the  Treaty  of  1883.  Her  Pan-Slovene  or  Pan- 
Servian  aspirations  are  for  the  time  being  doomed  to  failure.  In  all 
the  preceding  statements  of  fact  regarding  the  revolutionary  actions 
of  Servia  in  Austro-Hungarian  territory,  I  did  not  at  all  mean  to  sit 
in  moral  judgment  on  a  nation  so  old,  so  valiant,  and  so  gifted.  I 
stated  the  facts  ;  I  drew  the  logical  conclusion  from  them ;  but  it  is 
far  from  me  to  condemn  the  Servians  altogether.  They  try  to  do 
what  all  nations  attempt  doing  :  they  want  to  assert  themselves. 
According  to  the  geographical  and  historical  situation  in  space  and 
time,  each  nation  does  that  in  its  own  way.  All  I  claimed  was  the 
right  of  Austria-Hungary  to  do  it  in  her  way. 

The  case  of  Montenegro,  which  amounts  to  a  rectification  of  the 
servitudes  imposed  upon  Montenegro  by  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  and  at 
present  belonging  to  Austria-Hungary,  is  quite  different.  Those 
servitudes  can  largely  be  rectified,  and  that  rectification  will  without 
any  doubt  meet  with  much  sympathy  on  the  part  of  Austria-Hungary. 

The  upshot,  then,  of  the  much-maligned  actions  of  Austria -Hungary 
on  the  one  hand,  and  of  Bulgaria  on  the  other,  is  this,  that  the  peren- 
nial crisis  in  the  Near  East  has  been  advanced  by  several  most  impor- 
tant steps  towards  a  permanent  regulation  and  crystallisation  of  the 
indistinct,  amorphous,  and  thus  dangerous  situation  in  the  Balkans. 
Turkey  may  perhaps  effectively  claim  some  financial  indemnification 
from  Austria-Hungary ;  at  any  rate,  she  can  obtain  again  full  control 
of  the  Sanjak  of  Novibazar,  which  Baron  Aerenthal  spontaneously 
offers  to  her.  She  may  also  hope  to  improve  her  international  posi- 
tion by  an  abrogation,  or  partial  reformation,  of  her  Capitulations. 
The  question  of  the  Dardanelles  will  not  be  raised  at  present.  Crete 
is  in  reality  no  difficulty  whatever.  The  new  constitutional  regime 
in  Turkey  has  evidently  come  to  stay,  and  the  probable  friendship 
between  Bulgaria  and  Turkey  will  be  a  very  strong  guarantee  of  peace 
in  the  Balkans.  War  has  been  obviated,  and  no  substantial  damage 
has  been  entailed  on  any  one  of  the  Powers,  great  or  small.  Has 
crisis  ever  been  more  salutary  ?  Can  the  statesman  by  whose  thought 
and  promptitude  the  larger  part  of  this  so-called  crisis  has  been  brought 
about,  be  characterised  by  no  fitter  title  than  that  of  a  law-breaker  ? 
To  him  and  to  many  an  anonymous  politician  in  the  Balkans  all 
Europe  owes  no  small  gratitude  for  the  clearing  of  a  political  horizon 
on  which  ominous  storm-clouds  used  to  gather  with  fatal  celerity. 
The  amour  propre  of  several  Powers  may  have  felt  uneasy  as  long  as 
the  necessities  under  which  Baron  Aerenthal  acted  were  not  known. 
It  is  hoped  that  these  necessities  will  now  be  understood  with  some- 
what greater  readiness. 

EMIL  REICH. 


1(J08 


THE   CRISIS  IN   THE  NEAR  EAST 

II.    THE  BULGARIAN  POINT  OF    VIEW 


THE  Bulgarian  proclamation  of  independence  and  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  declaration  that  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  have  been 
incorporated  with  the  Empire  as  a  Crown  dominion  have  brought 
about  a  crisis  in  the  Near  East  which  it  has  been  very  generally  assumed 
must  increase  the  state  of  political  instability  that  has  been  for  so 
many  years  a  menace  to  the  peace  of  Europe.  The  disregard  shown 
by  the  rulers  alike  of  the  Dual  Monarchy  and  of  the  Balkan  Principality 
for  the  provisions  of  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  and  the  precipitation  with 
which  they  have  acted,  without  even  communicating  their  intentions 
to  the  signatories  of  that  treaty,  certainly  afford  grounds  for  this 
apprehension  ;  but  a  calm  and  impartial  examination  of  the  causes 
which  have  combined  to  produce  the  present  undoubtedly  critical 
situation  will  serve  to  show  that  the  final  outcome  of  the  present 
turmoil  will  be  to  ameliorate  the  situation  in  the  Near  East  and  to 
produce  a  degree  of  stability  which  could  not  have  been  expected  to 
result  merely  from  the  establishment  of  constitutional  government 
in  Turkey,  important  as  that  reform  may  prove  to  be  in  removing 
some  of  the  causes  of  unrest. 

The  Treaty  of  Berlin,  concluded  ovf r  thirty  years  ago,  was  of  the 
nature  of  a  compromise  ;  it  was  not  founded  upon  any  principles  of 
scientific  statesmanship  ;  it  did  not  take  into  account  the  natural 
aspirations  of  the  peoples  for  whom  it  professed  to  legislate,  but  was 
designed  merely  to  maintain  the  equilibrium  which  then  happened  to 
exist  in  the  Near  East.  Even  then  the  existence  of  new  forces  had 
to  be  recognised,  and  the  treaty  itself  formally  approved  and  sanctioned 
the  beginning  of  the  dismemberment  of  Turkey  ;  for  it  gave  complete 
independence  to  Roumania,  Servia,  and  Montenegro,  and  handed 
over  to  Russia  the  territories  of  Ardahan,  Kars,  and  Batoum,  until 
then  undisputed  parts  of  the  Turkish  dominions  in  Asia.  It  was 
soon  followed  by  the  practical  severance  of  Cyprus  and  Egypt,  and, 
later  on,  of  Crete  from  the  Turkish  Empire  ;  while  in  1881  the  greater 
part  of  Thessaly  and  Epirus  passed  to  Greece.  The  signatory  Powers 
have  been  in  discord  over  every  clause  of  the  treaty,  and  more  especially 

719 


720  THIS  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

during  the  last  five  years  as  regards  the  solution  of  the  Macedonian 
question,  the  immediate  and  direct  cause  of  the  present  crisis.  It  is 
very  evident,  now  that  it  is  too  late,  that  had  this  question  been  solved 
by  the  Powers,  neither  Bulgaria  nor  Austria-Hungary  would  have 
ventured  in  the  present  case  to  take  independent  action.  Everybody 
is  aware  that  certain  of  the  Powers  were  in  reality,  for  various  reasons, 
not  anxious  for  a  solution  ;  and  this  proves  that  the  Berlin  Treaty, 
for  whose  maintenance  intact  they  were  all  responsible,  had  in  fact 
already  become  a  dead  letter.  That  is  to  say,  events  had  proved 
that  the  task  which  Europe  undertook  when  framing  this  treaty  was 
beyond  her  resources  at  an  epoch  when  civilisation  was  developing 
with  such  rapidity  in  the  Balkan  Peninsula. 

'  La  force  prime  le  droit.'  Had  Austria  and  Bulgaria  not  pos- 
sessed powerful  armies  they  would  not  have  cared  to  risk  incurring 
the  displeasure  of  the  Concert. 

It  has  become  usual  to  minimise  the  importance  of  the  Dual 
Monarchy  in  foreign  questions  owing  to  the  existence  of  serious 
internal  dissensions.  It  is  now  seen  that  on  a  foreign  question  of 
serious  moment  the  Crown  can  rely  upon  a  united  army  ;  the  posses- 
sion of  this  formidable  armed  force  has  enabled  Austria  to  carry  out 
a  strong  policy.  In  a  similar  way  Bulgaria  has  ventured  to  realise 
her  ambition  to  become  an  independent  monarchy  because  she  pos- 
sesses a  well-equipped  and,  in  proportion  to  her  population,  large  army, 
in  which  every  able-bodied  man  is  anxious  to  serve  his  country. 

That  it  was  ungenerous  to  seize  the  moment  when  the  institutions 
of  Turkey  were  in  a  state  of  transition  cannot  be  denied  ;  but  it  must 
be  remembered  that  one  of  the  reforms  most  prominently  announced 
by  the  New  Party  was  the  reorganisation  of  the  military  forces,  and 
it  was  perhaps  too  much  to  expect  that  international  chivalry  should 
go  so  far  as  to  induce  the  smaller  State  to  wait  until  her  big  adversary 
was  perchance  ready  to  take  the  offensive  and  to  endeavour  to  re- 
occupy  Eastern  Roumelia.  By  the  Peace  of  St.  Stephano,  which 
brought  the  Russo-Turkish  War  to  an  end  in  1878,  Eastern  Roumelia 
was  assigned  to  Bulgaria  as  an  integral  part  of  the  Principality.  But 
the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  which  followed  immediately,  nullified  this 
arrangement,  and  the  province  remained  under  Turkish  rule.  The 
Christian  inhabitants  were  by  no  means  satisfied,  however,  and  in 
response  to  their  appeals  Bulgaria  occupied  the  country  in  1885 ; 
an  agreement  was  then  drawn  up  between  Turkey  and  the  Powers 
under  which  the  ruler  of  Bulgaria  has  since  administered  Eastern 
Roumelia.  Though  it  is  to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  part  of  Bulgaria, 
Turkey,  had  she  desired  to  raise  the  question,  might  with  some  show 
of  reason  have  maintained  that  the  international  status  of  Roumelia 
was  still  that  of  an  autonomous  Turkish  province,  and  have  claimed 
that  the  constitutional  reform  recently  achieved  in  Constantinople 
entitled  her  to  resume  its  administration. 


1908  THE   CRISIS   IN   THE   NEAli   EAST  721 

It  is  generally  admitted  that  the  injury  inflicted  upon  Turkey  has 
been  entirely  moral,  for  she  has  lost  no  territory  over  which  she 
exercised  direct  authority,  while  she  has  obtained  the  withdrawal  of 
foreign  troops  from  the  Sanjak  of  Novi  Bazar,  a  very  considerable 
advantage.  It  is  most  satisfactory  that  she  has  behaved  with  admir- 
able calm  and  patriotism,  and  that  no  weakening  of  the  New  Party  is 
apparent  as  the  result  of  recent  events. 

Other  States  have  been  deterred  from  asserting  their  pretensions 
solely  by  their  military  weakness.  Servia,  whose  hopes  of  expansion 
have  been  in  large  measure  frustrated,  has  naturally  been  the  loudest 
in  her  protests.  Her  claims,  however,  to  an  eventual  aggrandisement 
through  the  acquisition  of  part  of  the  provinces  which  have  just  passed 
to  Austria  are  based  upon  no  more  solid  grounds  than  that  their  Slav 
population  is  of  Servian  extraction.  Such  a  reason  as  the  affinity 
of  races  has  never  yet  been  admitted  when  considering  the  solution 
of  the  Macedonian  question.  In  the  case  of  Servia,  again,  we  see  how 
force  is  the  main  factor ;  for  could  she  dispose  of  an  army  equal  to 
that  of  Bulgaria,  she  would  have  long  since  marched  westwards  and 
given  Austria  more  trouble  than  she  cared  for  to  repel  her. 

The  Turkish  Empire,  at  the  moment  of  its  greatest  expansion 
some  five  centuries  ago,  held  the  whole  of  the  vast  peninsula  from 
the  Mediterranean  and  Adriatic  to  the  Black  Sea,  stretching  north- 
wards to  the  gates  of  Vienna,  where  the  Ottoman  advance  was  at 
length  checked  by  Western  Europe.  While  compelled  gradually  to 
retire  the  Turks  still  held  for  a  long  time  all  the  country  from  the 
Mediterranean,  northwards,  as  far  as  and  including  modern  Servia  and 
Roumania,  and  embracing  Greece,  Macedonia,  and  Bulgaria.  Though 
conquered,  however,  the  national  spirit  of  the  original  inhabitants  of 
these  lands  was  not  extinguished,  and  found  its  opportunity  in  the 
gradual  decay  and  weakening  of  Turkey. 

Greece,  greatly  aided  by  British  sympathy,  was  the  first  to  earn 
her  independence  by  the  war  of  1821-9.  By  the  Treaty  of  Berlin, 
signed  in  July  1878,  the  independence  of  Montenegro,  Servia,  and 
Roumania  was  formally  recognised,  and  each  received  a  considerable 
accession  of  territory  ;  while  Bulgaria  became  an  autonomous  Princi- 
pality, owning  only  a  nominal  allegiance  to  the  Sultan.  It  is  clear, 
therefore,  that  the  process  of  the  disintegration  of  Turkey  was  attended 
by  a  corresponding  increase  in  the  degree  of  independence  granted  to 
countries  which,  after  being  at  one  time  integral  parts  of  the  Ottoman 
dominion,  won  first  the  relative  independence  of  autonomous  pro- 
vinces and  finally  achieved  the  freedom  of  sovereign  States.  In  the 
case  of  Bulgaria  it  could  but  be  expected  that  history  would  repeat 
itself,  as  soon  as  she  had  gathered  the  necessary  strength  to  enforce 
her  will  and  to  strike  out  to  free  herself. 

It  has  perhaps  been  too  hastily  assumed  in  some  quarters  that  the 
motive  of  Austria,  in  proclaiming  the  final  annexation  of  territories 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  381  3  0 


722  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

already  practically  her  own  in  everything  but  name,  was  to  cast  dis- 
credit upon  the  new  Turkish  administration,  and,  by  weakening  its 
prestige,  to  pave  the  way  for  the  re-establishment  of  the  corrupt  and 
weak  autocracy.  This  policy  would,  however,  be  short-sighted, 
inasmuch  as  a  strong  Turkey,  while  never  a  danger  to  Austria  her- 
self, might  some  day  be  of  no  little  value  to  her  in  aiding  her  to  resist 
the  pressure  of  other  Powers.  It  seems  not  unreasonable  to  suppose 
that  Austria's  policy  has  been  quite  other,  and  that  it  has  been 
directed  against  the  Southern  Pan-Slav  union.  It  is  notorious  that 
there  has  been  for  many  years  past  a  widespread  movement  amongst 
the  Slavs  south  of  the  Danube,  of  whom  there  are  at  least  some  twelve 
millions  when  the  Bulgarians,  Servians,  Bosnians,  Herzegovinians, 
Montenegrins,  and  Croatians  are  included,  towards  a  union  of  interests, 
whilst  each  separate  State  maintained  autonomy.  Austria  has  been 
well  aware  of  the  danger  which  such  a  combination  would  have  created 
for  her  at  a  moment  in  the  future  when,  perhaps,  she  might  have  to 
face  internal  complications  coupled  with  grave  external  troubles  ; 
the  policy  followed  at  the  present  crisis  has  indefinitely  postponed,  if 
it  has  not  rendered  entirely  impossible,  the  realisation  of  these  Slav 
hopes.  By  the  incorporation  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  as  integral 
parts  of  the  Empire  a  wedge  is  driven  between  Servia  to  the  east  and 
Montenegro  and  Croatia  to  the  west  and  north.  Bulgaria,  also,  has 
alienated  more  than  ever  the  friendship  of  Servia  and  Montenegro  by 
the  advantage  she  has  gained ;  and,  her  present  ambition  satisfied,  she 
will  not  be  disposed  to  embark  on  a  policy  of  adventure  merely  with 
the  object  of  assisting  her  Balkan  Slav  rivals. 

The  withdrawal  of  her  troops  from  Novi  Bazar  is  strong  testimony 
that  Austria  has  no  designs  against  Turkey. 

The  suggestion  that  German  interests  have  been  advanced  by  the 
recent  annexation  and  declaration  of  independence  will  not  bear 
examination.  Germany's  influence  in  the  Near  East  has,  on  the 
contrary,  received  a  decided  check,  for  Turkey  no  longer  feels  the 
same  friendship  and  confidence  ;  the  greatest  sufferers,  Montenegro 
and  Servia,  are  anxious  to  take  any  opportunity  which  may  arise ; 
whilst  Bulgaria,  no  more  friendly  in  reality  to  German  influence  in 
Macedonia  than  heretofore,  holds  ready  her  powerful  army  to  assist 
in  driving  back  a  German  advance  which  might  seek  in  the  future 
to  clear  the  way  to  Salonika. 

The  net  result  of  recent  events  in  the  Near  East,  therefore,  if  no 
fresh  complications  arise,  is  that  the  aspirations  for  a  Southern  Pan- 
Slav  union  and  German  influence  in  the  Balkans  have  received  a 
considerable  check ;  Turkey  gains  a  material  advantage  in  the  with- 
drawal of  the  Austrian  troops ;  the  prospects  of  a  better  understanding 
between  Turkey  and  her  northern  neighbours  are  improved  ;  and  the 
chances  of  a  pacific  settlement  of  the  Macedonian  question  are  far 
greater  than  at  any  time  since  the  Powers  began,  now  more  than 


1908  THE   CRISIS  IN   THE   NEAR   EAST  728 

five  years   ago,  actively   to   interfere  in  the  administration  of  that 
province. 

If,  and  when,  a  European  Conference  assembles  its  first  duty 
will  be  to  take  stock  of  the  actual  situation  in  the  Balkans,  of  the 
growth  of  national  life  in  Bulgaria,  and  of  the  progress  which  that 
country  has  made  in  civilisation,  in  education,  and,  let  it  be  added, 
in  the  art  of  war.  It  will  have  to  say  whether  Bulgaria  has  not 
vindicated  her  right  to  independence  and  to  take  her  place  among 
the  sovereign  nations  of  Europe.  The  Bulgarians  are  a  small  people, 
but  they  have  all  the  elements  of  greatness,  a  love  of  liberty,  a  love 
of  knowledge,  capabilities  of  self-government,  and  capabilities  also  to 
make  great  sacrifices  to  retain  what  they  have  won.  Europe,  and 
least  of  all  Great  Britain,  cannot  pretend  for  ever  to  keep  them  in 
leading-strings.  The  Treaty  of  Berlin  has  served  its  purpose,  tant 
bien  que  mal ;  the  time  has  come  for  the  revision  of  its  provisions  in 
the  face  of  new  conditions. 

PERCY  H.  H.  MASSY. 


3  c  2 


724  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 


THE    CRISIS  IN   THE  NEAR  EAST 

III.  EUROPE  AND    THE    TURKISH  CONSTITUTION : 
AN  INDEPENDENT   VIEW. 


IT  was  at  the  very  outset  of  the  recent  events  in  the  Near  East  that 
the  public  opinion  of  Europe  betrayed  an  uncommon  degree  of 
ignorance  and  want  of  experience  in  political  and  social  matters  in 
connexion  with  the  problem  before  us.  To  begin  with,  the  great 
surprise  caused  by  the  success  of  the  Young  Turkey  party  is  quite 
incomprehensible.  It  was  in  1864  that  I  met  by  chance  a  few  young 
Turkish  gentlemen,  engaged  upon  editing  a  revolutionary  paper, 
called  Mukhbir,  i.e.  '  The  Correspondent,'  directed  against  the  then 
almighty  Aali  Pashi,  whose  absolutist  tendencies  had  long  ago  raised 
the  anger  of  the  younger  Turkish  generation,  who  were  brought  by  a 
smattering  of  Western  political  views  into  collision  with  the  ruling 
spirit  at  the  Sublime  Porte.  As  time  advanced  the  opposition  grew 
stronger  and  stronger,  and  the  object  of  their  attack  was  not-  only 
single  high  dignitaries,  but  their  criticism  extended  also  to  the  precincts 
of  the  imperial  palace,  whose  officials  were  accused  of  all  kind  of 
vices  and  misdeeds,  and  particularly  of  leading  astray  the  sacred 
person  of  the  Padishah,  whom,  at  that  time,  nobody  ventured  to  assail. 
It  is  very  natural  that  after  the  death  of  Sultan  Ab'dul  Aziz,  and 
during  the  terribly  absolutist  and  ruinous  rule  of  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid, 
the  number  of  the  Young  Turkish  party  should  have  attained  excessive 
dimensions  and  embraced  not  only  the  easily  inflammable  young 
members  of  the  Turkish  society,  but  even  many  of  the  Efendis  and 
Pashas  of  a  riper  age  ;  nay,  ladies  and  young  girls  took  part  in  secret 
societies,  and  as  an  occasional  contributor  to  Turkish  revolutionary 
papers,  and  as  a  well-known  friend  to  the  Turkish  nation,  I  have  got 
letters  in  my  possession  in  which  ladies  render  thanks  for  my  sym- 
pathies shown  to  their  nation  and  encourage  me  to  further  participa- 
tion in  their  cause.  Considering  the  very  faint  knowledge  the  Yildiz 
camarilla  could  acquire  in  spite  of  the  host  of  dearly  paid  spies  and 
delators,  we  must  not  wonder  at  all  that  the  Western  world  remained 
in  utter  darkness  with  regard  to  the  part  played  by  Young  Turkey 
in  the  Ottoman  Empire.  The  number  of  Turkish  revolutionary 
papers  had  grown  up  like  mushrooms,  their  editors  expelled  from  one 


1908  THE   GRISTS   IN  THE   NEAR   EAST  725 

place  took  refuge  in  another.  London,  Paris,  Brussels,  Geneva, 
Athens,  Alexandria,  and  Cairo  were  successfully  used,  and  the 
publications  of  the  revolutionary  committees  being  looked  upon  as 
literary  dainties  went  off  quickly  in  Turkey.  Turkish,  being  a 
language  with  which  but  a  limited  number  of  Orientalists  are  con- 
versant, was  not  within  easy  reach  of  our  politicians  and  publicists, 
and  the  proceedings  of  Young  Turkey  remained  for  a  long  time 
shrouded  in  mystery.  Of  course  single  explosions  of  the  carefully 
laid  mines  could  not  be  prevented,  and  the  quiet  outbreak  of  dis- 
content in  Kastamuni,  Erzerurn,  Bitlis  and  a  few  other  places  may 
be  well  looked  upon  as  the  forerunners  of  the  military  rising  in  Mace- 
donia. In  fact,  the  proper  commencement  of  the  Turkish  revolution 
dates  from  the  time  when  the  meeting  of  the  '  Committee  of  Union  and 
Progress'  declared  itself  to  have  left  the  field  of  mere  theory  and 
entered  the  arena  of  political  activity,  which  is  equivalent  to  saying  : 
We  are  now  strong  enough  to  come  out  publicly  and  to  fight,  if 
necessary,  for  the  sacred  principles  of  Right  and  Liberty. 

Now,  to  speak  candidly,  I  am  far  from  pretending  that  the  firm 
decision  and  the  strong  will  of  the  Young  Turkish  party  would  have 
become  master  of  the  situation  if  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid  had  had 
sufficient  means  to  clothe,  feed,  and  pay  his  army  regularly,  and  if 
his  soldiers  had  not  looked  with  envy  upon  the  gendarmery  under 
the  command  of  European  officers.  No  !  To  go  about  hungry, 
naked,  barefooted,  and  unpaid  is  a  sacrifice  too  onerous  even  for  the 
most  patriotic  man,  and  I  am  ready  to  admit  that  zealous  and  patriotic 
officers,  like  Enver  and  Niazi,  would  hardly  have  succeeded  in  their 
very  risky  undertaking  if  the  aforesaid  privations  and  sufferings  of 
the  soldiers  had  not  acted  in  their  favour.  But  at  the  same  time  I 
cannot  help  saying  that  the  state  of  affairs  created  by  the  horrible 
and  abominable  doings  of  the  Yildiz  clique  could  not  have  gone  on 
for  any  length  of  time.  The  straw  which  broke  the  back  of  the 
Turkish  camel  was  ready  at  hand,  and,  assuming  that  the  catastrophe 
might  have  been  staved  off  for  a  year  or  two,  there  is  not  the  slightest 
doubt  that  the  apple  was  steadily  ripening,  and  in  any  case  would 
have  fallen  into  the  lap  of  the  well-prepared  party  of  Young  Turkey. 

Such  being  the  case,  as  proved  by  evident  facts,  I  do  not  see  the 
reason  of  the  great  surprise  which  the  recent  events  in  Turkey  have 
created  in  Europe.  The  collapse  of  the  Hamidian  rule  was,  as  the  result 
of  a  long  misrule,  unavoidable,  and  in  the  face  of  this  phenomenon 
we  have  no  reason  to  wonder  at  the  unanimity  manifested  in  the 
movement ;  we  must  not  be  struck  by  the  fact  that  the  whole  went  off 
without  bloodshed,  and  that  the  revolution  was  accomplished  in  a 
peaceful  and  quiet  manner  hitherto  unheard  of.  We  may  reasonably 
ask  ourselves  :  Whose  blood  should  have  been  shed  ?  There  was  no 
opposition,  since  the  whole  nation  indiscriminately  belonged  to  the 
Young  Turkey  party;  no  social  or  religious  objection  could  have 


726  THE  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Nov. 

been  raised,  since  the  teachings  of  the  Koran  clearly  prohibit  the 
application  of  despotic  and  autocratic  measures ;  and  no.  government 
is  legal  if  it  proceeds  without  taking  counsel  with  public  opinion, 
which  we  call  Parliament.  The  Koran  says  :  '  V'amruhum  shura 
bainuhum,'  i.e.  'the  Prophet  commanded  they  must  take  counsel; '  and 
further  it  is  said  :  '  Any  obnoxious  measure  taken  after  consultation  is 
preferable  to  a  salutary  measure  taken  arbitrarily.'  There  is  besides 
the  standard  principle — '  Kulli  islam  nurr,'  i.e.  all  Moslems  are  free, 
and  one  must  be  intentionally  blind  to  pretend  that  Constitution 
and  Parliament  do  not  suit  the  social  and  moral  conditions  of  the 
Mohammedans,  and  that  there  is  no  hope  for  a  successful  introduction 
of  these  Western  institutions  amongst  Mohammedan  peoples. 

Unfortunately,  the  proper  and  just  appreciation  of  the  real  state  of 
affairs  in  Turkey  has  always  been  checked  partly  by  ignorance,  partly 
by  a  preconceived  notion,  tending  to  show  that  we  Europeans  are 
the  sole  chosen  people  for  progress  and  civilisation,  and  that  the 
man  in  Asia  will  be  always  prevented  by  climate,  religion,  and 
racial  peculiarities  from  attaining  that  degree  of  culture  on  which  we 
pride  ourselves  to-day.  Ideas  like  these  have  found  expression  in  the 
writings  of  eminent  English  scholars  and  politicians,  and  even  the 
regenerator  of  Modern  Egypt,  whose  high  capacities  are  justly  admired 
by  everybody,  is  a  sceptic  on  this  question.  Without  trespassing 
beyond  the  limits  of  modesty,  I  beg  leave  to  say — Anch1  io  son  pittore — 
I,  too,  have  seen  something  of  the  Near  East,  and  as  my  fifty-two 
years  of  intimate  connexion  with  various  nations  of  the  Mohammedan 
world  have  given  me  an  insight  into  the  social,  moral,  and  political 
conditions  of  the  Near  East,  I  cannot  help  saying :  the  aforesaid  dis- 
paraging criticism  is  certainly  wrong.  Turkey  is  decidedly  on  the 
path  of  progress,  many  features  of  her  national  characteristics  have 
changed  and  are  continually  changing ;  but  similar  observations  can 
be  only  made  after  a  careful  comparison  between  Turkey  half  a  century 
ago  and  Turkey  of  to-day.  When,  fifty-two  years  ago,  living  in  a 
Turkish  family  as  a  teacher,  I  tried  to  explain  natural  phenomena 
in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  physics,  which,  of  course,  ran  against 
the  superstitious  notions  of  my  pupils,  I  was  derided  and  persecuted. 
Foreign  languages  were  at  that  time  hardly  taught ;  girls  grew  up 
without  any  instruction  at  all ;  and  even  leading  statesmen  were 
utterly  ignorant  of  the  geography  and  history  of  their  own  country, 
not  to  mention  that  of  the  Western  world.  If  we  look  at  Turkey  of 
to-day  we  shall  be  surprised  at  the  great  advance  in  the  field  of  public 
instruction  and  the  steadily  spreading  enlightenment.  Not  only 
central  places,  but  even  small  towns  have  got  their  Rushdie  and 
Idadie  (normal  and  middle)  schools,  where  modern  sciences  and 
European  languages  are  freely  taught  and  the  younger  generation 
of  Turkish  society  is  brought  up  in  a  way  which  will  forcibly  strike 
the  unbiassed  European  visitor. 


1908  THE   CRISIS   IN   THE   NEAH   EAST  727 

The  spiritual  progress  is  particularly  reflected  by  the  simplification 
of  the  language  and  by  the  extraordinary  innovations  on  the  field  of 
literature.  The  modern  Turkish  writer  has  divested  himself  of  the 
bombastic  Asiatic  phraseology  and  of  the  sickening  poetical  metaphors. 
He  imitates  the  French  and  English  authors,  whose  standard  works 
are  steadily  being  translated  into  Turkish ;  his  muse  begins  to  be  more 
Western  than  Eastern  ;  and  even  in  the  field  of  exact  sciences  there  are 
Turks  who  have  gained  distinction,  and  amongst  other  instances  I  may 
quote  the  fact  that  parts  of  the  Hedjaz  railway  were  constructed  by 
Turkish  engineers.  The  consequence  of  these  and  many  other  signs  of 
progress  manifests  itself  in  the  entire  change  of  views  and  ideas.  Hun- 
dreds, nay  thousands,  of  the  younger  Turkish  generation  of  to-day 
have  thoroughly  imbibed  the  political  and  social  tendencies  of  the 
West ;  they  cannot  be  looked  upon  any  longer  as  Asiatics,  but  as 
Europeans,  and  as  modern  Europeans,  who  naturally  found  themselves 
strangers  in  Turkey  under  the  Hamidian  rule,  and  who  had  to  break 
the  fetters  in  spite  of  the  despotic  form  of  government.  If  I  add  to 
these  short  outlines  of  the  spiritual  and  cultural  change  in  Turkey 
the  fact  that  intercommunication  with  Europe  has  of  late  immensely 
increased  and  that  our  high  schools  and  capitals  are  frequently  visited 
by  all  classes  of  Turkish  society,  the  reader  will  easily  comprehend 
the  reason  of  the  success  of  the  Young  Turkey  party ;  nay,  he  will 
get  the  conviction  that  a  nation  which  struggles  so  hard  for  her  re- 
generation cannot  relapse  into  the  former  barbarism,  but  will  on 
the  contrary  try  all  means  and  resources  to  advance  steadily  on  the 
path  of  modernisation,  and  to  accomplish  the  work  begun  by  Sultan 
Mahmud,  and  continued  by  Reshid,  Aali,  Fuad,  and  other  reformers. 
I  see  there  are  many  Europeans  who  are  afraid  of  a  reactionary  move- 
ment and  who  see  already  the  havoc  caused  by  the  unbridled  fanaticism 
of  obscurant  Mollas.  There  is  no  fear  of  such  a  movement.  The 
influence  of  Young  Turkey  spreading  all  over  the  country  is  strong 
enough  to  prevent  an  eventual  outbreak  on  the  part  of  those  who, 
not  out  of  principle,  but  for  personal  interests,  are  anxious  to  reinstall 
the  former  reign  of  disorder  and  anarchy  and  to  profit  by  it.  There 
is  undoubtedly  a  vast  amount  of  problems  to  be  solved  and  extra- 
ordinary difficulties  to  be  surmounted,  and  it  is  idle  to  conceal  from 
ourselves  the  manifold  dangers  in  the  way  of  the  reformers,  for  faults 
and  misgivings  of  many  hundred  years  cannot  be  corrected  in  a  few 
weeks  and  months.  The  hatred  and  animosity  existing  centuries  ago 
in  a  heterogeneous  country  between  the  various  creeds  and  races 
cannot  be  easily  removed,  and  the  common  bond  of  an  Ottoman 
nationality  will  not  be  so  quickly  realised  as  Young  Turkey  hopes 
and  desires. 

If  the  Ottoman  Empire  were  out  of  the  way,  and  not  in  close 
proximity  to  Europe,  we  might  well  look  with  calm  indifference  upon 
her  struggle  and  her  future.  But  unfortunately^this  is  not  the  case. 
Many  European  vital  interests,  political  and  material,  are  strictly 


728  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

interwoven  with  the  destinies  of  the  Near  East,  and  the  slightest  shock 
in  Turkey  makes  itself  felt  even  in  the  remotest  part  of  Europe. 
It  is  for  this  reason  that  every  friend  of  the  peace  and  tranquillity  of 
our  world  must  support  and  encourage  the  Turk  in  his  present  efforts 
towards  civilisation,  and  in  his  arduous  task  to  heal  the  wounds  of 
the  unfortunate  regime  of  the  past  thirty- two  years.  Nobody  will  deny 
that  the  Young  Turkey  party  has  shown  so  far  great  moderation  and 
wisdom  in  all  their  doings,  and  there  has  hitherto  been  no  revolutionary 
movement  in  the  world  which  went  off  without  any  vindictive  act 
and  without  feelings  of  revenge  against  the  criminal  tyrannic  power 
overthrown.  Young  Turkey  has,  therefore,  full  right  to  claim  our 
assistance  in  its  need  and  our  indulgence  towards  the  unavoidable 
mistakes.  Judging  the  present  situation  in  Turkey  from  this  point 
of  view,  the  recent  political  changes  in  the  Balkans  are  much  to  be 
regretted,  for  they  augment  the  troubles  in  store  for  the  reformers, 
they  discredit  the  foresight  and  capability  of  those  who  have  put  them- 
selves at  the  head  of  affairs,  for  they  will  be  accused  of  having  pre- 
cipitated the  country  into  a  danger  which  the  former,  although  detested, 
reign  has  wisely  avoided.  Austria-Hungary,  which  has  bestowed  so 
many  blessings  upon  the  occupied  provinces,  raising  them  from  dire 
anarchy  and  misrule  to  flourishing  conditions,  might  have  assisted 
the  consolidation  of  the  new  rule  in  Turkey  and  encouraged  the 
new  men  in  power  by  postponing  the  act  of  annexation  for  a  year 
or  two,  as  from  such  an  indulgence  very  little  or  no  injury  might 
have  accrued  to  the  policy  of  the  Dual  Monarchy,  whose  strong 
position  cannot  be  shaken  by  the  plots  and  vapourings  of  the  minor 
Balkan  countries.  If  the  European  Powers  are  earnestly  bent  upon 
the  avoidance  of  troubles  in  the  Near  East,  and  if  they  have  sincerely 
made  up  their  mind  to  assist  the  process  of  revival  and  invigoration 
of  Turkey,  then  they  must  give  a  trial,  and  a  fair  trial,  to  the  Young 
Turkey  party.  They  must  forget  the  old  animosities  and  rivalry, 
and,  reflecting  upon  the  immeasurable  calamity  and  disaster  resulting 
from  an  utter  collapse  in  Turkey,  they  will  obviously  understand 
the  necessity  of  sincerely  supporting  the  new  regime  in  Turkey  as 
the  only  means  for  a  restoration  of  order  and  as  the  bulwark  against 
the  threatening  danger  of  a  great  European  war. 

It  is  certainly  most  afflicting  that  up  to  the  present  there  are 
very  few  relieving  signs  on  the  political  horizon  of  Europe.  There  is 
only  one  country,  namely,  Great  Britain,  which,  remaining  faithful 
to  her  old  principle  of  lending  assistance  to  the  liberal  aspirations 
of  oppressed  nations,  has  come  out  unequivocally  in  defence  of 
Young  Turkey,  and,  as  proved  by  the  letter  of  King  Edward 
to  the  constitutional  Sultan,  has  manifested  official  interest  in  the 
future  development  of  affairs  in  the  country  of  her  old  ally.  The 
rest  of  Europe,  far  from  sharing  these  sympathies,  has  taken  the 
role  of  a  dumb  spectator,  and  is  not  at  all  content  with  the  benevolent 
policy  of  the  Cabinet  of  St.  James's.  Voices  have  become  loud,  saying  : 


100S          THE   CRISIS   JN   THE  NEAR   EAST  729 

England  has  no  right  to  oppose  the  annexation  of  Turkish  pro- 
vinces, as  she  will  undoubtedly  annex  Egypt,  and  she  is  certainly 
the  last  of  the  European  Powers  entitled  to  complain  of  the  policy 
of  grab,  followed  by  her  centuries  ago  over  all  the  globe.  I  dare  say 
to  such  accusations  one  might  easily  answer :  England  has  not  yet 
annexed  Egypt,  and  if  England  had  been  zealous  for  the  conquest 
of  other  nations,  the  Union  Jack  .would  flutter  over  a  far  greater 
realm  than  the  present.  Nor  do  the  motives,  to  which  the  British 
sympathies  for  Turkey  are  ascribed,  answer  to  the  real  state  of  things. 
An  opinion  is  prevalent  on  the  Continent  that  the  British  position 
in  India  compels  the  policy  of  the  Cabinet  of  St.  James's  to  support 
Turkish  affairs,  and  to  court  by  this  policy  the  sympathies  of  the 
sixty  million  Mohammedans  in  India.  It  is  only  defective  knowledge 
in  matters  connected  with  India  that  underlies  this  argument,  for 
the  Moslem  subjects  of  the  English  Crown  are  much  more  in  need  of 
British  sympathies  than  vice  versa.  In  a  word,  the  majority  of  Euro- 
pean nations  have  hitherto  shown  themselves  very  lukewarm  towards 
the  Turk,  who  tries  by  all  possible  means  to  gain  the  affection  of 
the  mighty  West,  and  who  will  certainly  take  great  care  not  to  ruin 
the  reputation  won  by  the  wonderful  moderation  and  wisdom  hitherto 
shown,  through  some  rash  and  inconsiderate  step.  It  is  only  a  pity 
that  the  details,  which  have  oozed  out  from  the  interview  between 
Izvolski  and  Grey,  have  had  a  depressing  effect  on  the  Bosporus, 
and  that  the  Turks  begin  to  despair  of  their  future.  There  is  no  reason 
for  scepticism.  I  am  sure  the  Turks  will  take  great  care  to  avoid 
war  with  any  of  their  neighbours  ;  for  it  must  be  fresh  in  their  memory 
that  the  result  of  the  victories  of  their  arms  in  Servia  and  in  Greece 
was  futile  and  void,  and  the  same  will  be  the  case  if  they  vanquish  the 
Bulgarians.  It  is  much  wiser  to  endure  temporary  humiliations  and  to 
prepare  the  country  for  a  better  future  than  to  wage  a  war,  if  even 
victorious,  of  a  doubtful  issue.  As  to  the  Turkish  disappointment 
in  the  help  expected  from  England,  the  good  Osmanli  patriots  ought 
to  consider  that  England  cannot  run  against  the  policy  of  the  whole 
world  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  sympathies  of  the  British  nation 
and  of  the  Government  are  an  asset  of  immense  value  in  the  great 
task  of  reforms  before  them.  For  the  present,  the  Turks  are  mostly 
in  need  of  peace  in  order  to  open  up  the  vast  resources  of  their  country 
and  to  prepare  and  pave  the  way  for  the  introduction  of  reforms, 
a  work  in  which  the  counsel  of  a  sincere  friend  will  prove  of  great  use. 
As  far  as  my  personal  information  from  Constantinople  goes,  the 
Young  Turkey  party  have  decided  to  avoid  any  warlike  complication 
and  rather  to  turn  their  eyes  towards  the  great  problem  of  remodelling 
and  reshaping  the  administration  of  the  country  than  to  follow  the 
path  of  empty  glories. 

A.  VAMBKRY. 

Budapest  University  :  October  22,  1908. 


730  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Nov. 


THE  MILITARY  SITUATION  IN   THE 
BALKANS 


THREE- AND-THIRTY  years  ago  the  late  Colonel  Valentine  Baker  (Pasha) 
published  a  work  entitled  Clouds  in  the  East.  Within  a  few  months 
of -its  publication  the  clouds  burst ;  the  storm,  happily,  was  localised, 
but  never  since  that  date  has  the  political  horizon  in  the  Near  East 
been  at  '  Set  fair.'  During  those  three-and-thirty  years  I  have 
devoted  no  inconsiderable  time  to  the  study  of  the  Near  Eastern 
Question.  I  have  accompanied  the  Turkish  Army  in  two  campaigns, 
and  have  learnt  to  appreciate  the  value  of  the  Turkish  soldier  and  the 
defects  of  the  Turkish  military  administration.  I  have  paid  repeated 
visits  to  all  the  countries  of  the  Near  East,  and  have  seen  their  armies 
at  work  in  camp  as  well  as  in  quarters.  I  count  amongst  my  friends 
officers  in  all  these  armies,  and  I  trust  that  nothing  I  have  here 
written  will  be  construed  into  an  unfriendly  act.  Clouds  are  still 
in  the  Near  East ;  for  the  past  five  years  they  hung  dark  and 
lowering,  threatening  at  any  moment  to  deluge  Europe  with  blood ; 
then,  thanks  to  the  discipline  of  the  Turkish  Army  and  the  marvellous 
powers  of  command  exercised  by  a  group  of  young  officers,  they  were 
for  the  moment  dispersed  and  Europe  breathed  freely  again.  The 
danger  is  only  momentarily  passed,  its  causes  still  exist — the  racial 
hatred  between  Greek  and  Bulgar,  the  religious  feud  between  Islam 
and  Christianity,  the  land  hunger  of  neighbouring  States.  No  sane 
man  can  believe  that  the  bitter  wars  which  have  been  waged  for  the 
past  thousand  years  will  cease  because  Turkey  has  been  endowed 
with  a  Constitution.  In  the  first  delirium  of  joy,  when  Greek 
metropolitan  and  Bulgarian  bishop  embraced  on  public  platforms, 
when  Moslem  khodja  and  Jewish  rabbi  pledged  each  other  in  the 
cause  of  universal  brotherhood,  some  few  believed  that  a  new  era 
had  dawned  in  the  Near  East ;  but  signs  are  abundant  that  we  have 
not  yet  reached  the  Millennium. 

The  Eastern  Question  is  far  from  settled,  and  there  is  a  strong 
opinion  amongst  the  statesmen  in  the  Near  East  that  it  never  will  be 
settled  until  it  has  been  submitted  to  the  arbitrament  of  war.  That 


1903     MILITARY  SITUATION  IN  THE  BALKANS     731 

war  may  be  delayed  for  years,  it  may  break  out  at  any  moment ;  all 
the  elements  of  danger  exist,  the  mine  is  charged  witlTexplosives, 
the  train  is  laid  ;  who  knows  when  the  match  may  be  applied  ? 

Within  the  last  few  weeks  public  attention  has  been  directed  to 
the  Turkish  Empire  and  to  the  wonderful  manner  in  which  a  change 
has  been  effected  in  its  form  of  government.  Little,  however,  is  known 
of  the  armies  of  those  States  which  claim  an  interest  in  the  settlement 
of  the  Eastern  Question.  In  the  following  pages  I  have  endeavoured 
to  give  a  succinct  account  of  the  military  systems  in  vogue  in  the  Near 
East.  Before  dealing  with  the  nations  separately,  I  will  endeavour 
very  briefly  to  explain  what  the  various  military  systems  have  in 
common. 

(1)  Military  service  in  all  is  obligatory,  commencing  as  a  rule  at 
the  twentieth  and  lasting  until  the  fortieth  or  forty-fifth  year.     This 
liability  is  divided  into  three  periods,  the  first  being  spent  in  the 
Active  Army,  the  second  period  in  the  Reserve,  and  the  third  in  the 
Territorial  Army,  which  is  only  liable  for  service  in  case  of  grave 
national  danger. 

(2)  The  territorial  system  is  in  vogue  in  all.     The  countries  are 
divided  into  a  certain  number  of  military  districts,  each  furnishing 
one  or  more  units  of  all  branches  of  the  Army. 

(3)  The  squadron  is  the  tactical  unit  of  cavalry  regiments,  which 
are  divided  into  four  (in  the  case  of  Turkey  five)  squadrons,  the  peace 
strength  varying  from  sixty  to  one  hundred  men  and  horses  ;  in  war 
the  strength  is  increased  to  about  two  hundred.     In  all  the  countries 
very  great  difficulty  would  be  experienced  in  bringing  the^regiments 
to  a  war  strength. 

(4)  Infantry  regiments  are  composed  of  four  battalions  each  of 
four  companies,  the  peace  establishment  of  a  company  varying  from 
eighty  to  one  hundred  men,  the  war  strength  being  250.     The  arm  of 
the  infantry  in  Turkey  and  Servia  is  the  Mauser  ;  in  Roumania  and 
Bulgaria  the  Mannlicher ;    and  in  Greece  the  Mannlicher-Schonauer 
rifle. 

(5)  The  artillery  is  in  course  of  reorganisation  in  all  the  armies. 
Turkey  and  Roumania  have  selected  the  Krupp ;  Bulgaria,  Greece, 
and  Servia  the  Schneider-Canet  quick-firing  field-gun.     In  all,  the 
calibre  of  the  field  and  mountain  artillery  is  7 '5  centimetres  (about 
3  inches).     The  whole  of  the  Turkish  Army  in  Europe  is  now  armed 
with  the  quick-firing  gun.     Bulgaria  also  has  her  new  field  armament 
complete ; '  Roumania  hopes  to  receive  the  balance  of  her  equipment 
in  the  course  of  the  next  few  months ;    but  some  time  must  elapse 
before  Greece  and  Servia  are  fully  equipped. 

1  Bulgaria  has  yet  to  receive  eight  howitzer  and  eight  mountain  batteries,  with 
148  rifle  calibre  Maxims. 


732 


THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURA 


Nov. 


(1)    TURKEY 

Situated  in  three  continents,  Turkey  possesses  an  area  of  upwards 
of  1,150,000  square  miles,  with  a  population  variously  estimated 
at  from  24,000,000  to  30,000,000  souls,  composed  of  various  races 
and  various  creeds,  many  of  which  are  fanatically  hostile  to  each 
other.  Its  land  frontiers  are  conterminous  with  no  less  than  ten 
different  nations,  whilst  its  long  stretch  of  sea-coast  and  its  many 
practically  defenceless  harbours  are  at  the  mercy  of  the  fleets  of  those 
Powers  which  have  more  or  less  advanced  their  claim  to  the  reversion 
of  certain  portions  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  Nevertheless,  the  '  Sick 
Man '  is  by  no  means  at  the  point  of  death,  and  has  recently  given 
undeniable  proofs  of  renewed  vitality.  For  military  purposes  the 
Empire  has  been  divided  into  seven  districts,  each  the  headquarters 
of  an  Army  corps,  with  two  independent  divisions  in  the  more  in- 
accessible portions  of  the  Empire.  These  are  situated  as  follows  : 


The  First  Army  Corps,  with  headquarters  at  Constantinople 
Second  ,         Adrianople 

Salonica 
Erzingjan 
Damascus 
Bagdad 


Third 

Fourth 

Fifth 

Sixth 

Seventh 


Sana'a  in  the  Yemen 


The  two  independent  divisions  have  their  headquarters  at  Medina, 
in  the  Hedjaz,  guarding  the  holy  cities  of  Mecca  and  Medina,  and 
at  Tripoli  in  Northern  Africa.  Of  the  seven  Army  corps,  three 
have  their  headquarters  in  Europe  and  four  in  Asia.  Until  the 
declaration  of  the  Constitution  on  the  24th  of  July  last  the  term 
universal'  service  was  hardly  applicable  to  the  military  system  of 
Turkey.  All  Christians  were  exempt,  paying  a  small  tax  of  6s.  8d. 
per  head  in  lieu  thereof.  Moslems  in  the  capital  and  in  Scutari  in 
Albania  were  also  legally  exempt ;  whilst  the  Arabs  in  the  Yemen, 
the  Kurds,  and  the  inhabitants  of  Tripoli,  resolutely  refused  to  obey 
the  call  to  arms.  Albanians  served  when  it  so  pleased  them,  and 
could  only  be  relied  on  in  time  of  war.  The  whole  military  burden 
fell  on  some  10,000,000  Moslems  of  Central  Anatolia  ;  now  Christian 
as  well  as  Moslem  will  be  called  on  to  serve  ;  and  it  is  difficult 
to  see  how  Albanian,  Arab,  Kurd,  or  Tripolitan  can  escape  the 
net  of  military  discipline.  The  whole  system  will  need  reorganisa- 
tion, and  at  the  present  moment  a  very  strong  committee,  under 
the  presidency  of  that  fine  old  soldier  Ghazi  Moukhtar  Pasha,  is 
sitting  at  the  War  Office  to  discuss  what  must  be  an  exceedingly 
intricate  question. 

The  liability  to  military  service  commences  at  the  twenty-first 
birthday  and  continues  until  the  man  is  forty.  The  first  nine  years 
are  passed  in  the  Nizam  or  Active  Army,  three  years  with  the  Colours 


1908     MILITARY  SITUATION  JN  THE  BALKANS     783 

and  six  in  the  Reserve ;  at  the  conclusion  of  the  Nizam  service  men 
are  passed  into  the  Redif  or  First  Reserve,  in  which  they  remain  for  a 
further  period  of  nine  years.  Having  completed  their  service  in  the 
First-Class  Redif,  men  are  transferred  into  the  Ilavah  or  Second-Class 
Redif,  in  which  they  remain  for  two  years. 

The  normal  strength  of  an  Army  corps  is  fixed  as  follows  : 

(a)  One  division  of  cavalry,  composed  of  three  brigades,  each 
consisting  of  two  regiments,  with  a  battery  of  horse  artillery. 

(6)  Two  divisions  of  infantry,  each  consisting  of  two  brigades, 
with  one  rifle  battalion  ;  the  brigade  being  composed  of  two  regiments 
each  of  four  battalions. 

(c)  One  regiment  of  artillery,  consisting  of  thirty  field  and  six 
mountain  batteries,  with  a  certain  proportion  of  howitzer  batteries, 
varying  with  the  situation  of  the  Army  corps. 

The  above  consist  entirely  of  Nizam  troops — that  is,  men  with  the 
Colours.  In  consequence,  however,  of  the  condition  of  affairs  in 
Macedonia  and  the  Caucasus,  and  the  fact  that  the  Bulgarian  Army 
was  superior  in  numbers  to  the  second  and  third  Army  corps,  a  change 
was  made  in  the  establishment  of  the  corps  in  Thrace,  Macedonia, 
and  Kurdistan.  The  fourth  corps  was  permanently  increased  by  one, 
and  the  second  and  third  corps  by  two  complete  Nizam  divisions  ; 
whilst  a  fifth  division  was  brought  over  from  the  Army  corps  at 
Damascus  and  temporarily  attached  to  the  third  corps.  The  Reserve 
of  the  Nizam  contains  a  sufficiently  large  number  of  men,  not  merely 
to  bring  units  up  to  war  strength,  but  also  to  furnish  men  to  fill 
the  wastage  of  a  campaign. 

The  Redif 

The  First-Class  Redif  Infantry  is  organised  into  regiments,  brigades, 
and  divisions,  with  Staffs  complete.  In  the  Greek  War  of  1897, 
and  later  still  in  Macedonia,  on  the  Persian  frontier,  in  Yemen,  and 
more  recently  in  Kurdistan,  brigades  and  divisions  of  Redif  infantry 
have  been  mobilised  and  have  done  excellent  service.  The  first  six 
Army  corps  have  four  Redif  infantry  divisions,  each  being  composed 
of  two  brigades  of  two  regiments,  the  division  consisting  of  thirty-two 
battalions.  The  first  three  corps  have  also  a  division  of  Redif  cavalry, 
comprising  four  regiments.  There  would  be  much  difficulty  in  horsing 
these  troops.  At  present  there  is  no  organisation  for  the  Redif  artillery, 
but  this  will  doubtless  soon  be  remedied,  six  field  batteries  being 
attached  to  each  Redif  infantry  division. 

The  First-Class  Redif  consists  entirely  of  men  who  have  done 
their  nine  years  in  the  Nizam,  and  is  a  most  valuable  force.  The 
Ilavah  or  Second-Class  Redif  consists  in  part  of  men  who  have  passed 
through  the  ranks  of  the  Nizam  and  the  First- Class  Redif,  but  more 
largely  of  men  who  have  altogether  escaped  military  service  owing  to 
the  annual  contingent  of  recruits  being  in  excess  of  the  men  required 


784  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

for  Nizam  service.  It  is  consequently  of  doubtful  value,  and  as  yet 
has  no  higher  organisation  than  that  of  battalions.  In  the  first  five 
Army  corps  there  are  forty-two  divisions  of  these  troops  ;  the  sixth 
and  seventh  corps  have  no  Second-Class  Redif. 

Officers 

The  officers  of  the  Turkish  Army  are  drawn  from  two  sources : 
those  in  the  engineers  and  artillery,  and  the  greater  number  of  those 
in  the  infantry  of  the  Nizam,  from  the  military  colleges  ;  whilst  the 
officers  of  the  Redif  are  mainly  men  who  have  risen  from  the  ranks. 
From  the  Academy  on  the  Golden  Horn  about  one  hundred  officers 
are  annually  drafted  into  the  engineers  or  artillery.  There  are  now 
six  colleges  for  the  education  of  the  officers  of  cavalry  and  infantry  : 
one  at  Pancaldi,  a  suburb  of  the  capital,  and  one  at  the  headquarters 
of  the  second,  third,  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  Army  corps.  From  these 
about  600  cadets  are  annually  passed  into  the  Army.  The  system 
of  military  education  is  sound.  The  cadet  is  caught  early  ;  at  the  age 
of  from  ten  to  twelve  boys  may  enter  one  of  the  thirty-six  elementary 
military  schools  which  are  distributed  throughout  the  Empire.  Here 
they  receive  a  general  education,  special  attention,  however,  being 
paid  to  modern  languages  and  to  such  subjects  as  will  be  of  use  to  the 
lads  in  their  after-career.  At  the  age  of  fourteen,  if  the  boy  has 
reached  a  certain  standard,  he  is  transferred  to  one  of  the  nine  superior 
military  schools,  styled  Rushdieh,  where  he  remains  until  he  is  seven- 
teen, when,  after  a  searching  examination,  he  is  admitted  either  into 
the  Academy  for  the  scientific  branches  or  into  one  of  the  six  military 
colleges  for  cavalry  and  infantry.  Here  the  education  is  purely 
military,  but  particular  attention  is  paid  to  European  languages  ;  all 
cadets  must  take  up  two  languages,  French  being  obligatory,  either 
Russian  or  German  being  the  second.  In  the  Naval  College  at  Halki, 
for  which  there  is  also  a  preparatory  school,  English  is  the  obligatory 
language. 

In  no  army  in  Europe  has  more  progress  been  made  in  the  education 
of  its  officers  within  the  past  thirty  years  than  in  that  of  Turkey. 
The  younger  officers  are  full  of  zeal,  and  certainly  the  equals  of  those 
in  the  Balkan  States.  The  new  military  map  of  the  Bulgarian  and 
Greek  frontiers  would  do  credit  to  the  corps  of  Royal  Engineers ;  it 
is  entirely  the  work  of  young  Turkish  officers.  Of  their  linguistic 
attainments  everyone  speaks  in  the  highest  terms.  As  to  their  other 
soldierlike  qualities,  the  events  of  last  July  show  them  in  a  light 
which  reflects  the  highest  credit  on  their  moral  qualities  and  on  their 
tact  and  judgment. 

The  Kurdish  Hamidieh  Cavalry 

I  have  alluded  to  the  disinclination  of  the  Kurds  for  regular  military 
service.  This  has  been  overcome  by  the  organisation  of  a  special 


1908     MILITARY  SITUATION  IN  THE  BALKANS     785 

force  of  cavalry,  named  after  the  Sultan,  to  whom  the  idea  is  due, 
Hamidieh  Cavalry.  It  consists  of  two  regiments  of  regular  hussars 
attached  to  the  second  corps,  and  of  sixty-six  other  regiments, 
varying  in  strength  from  two  to  six  squadrons,  drawn  from  the 
different  Kurdish  tribes  according  to  their  numbers.  These  regiments 
are  commanded  by  their  tribal  chiefs,  they  wear  a  special  uniform, 
provide  their  own  horses,  lances  and  sabres,  and  are  only  liable  to 
be  called  out  in  time  of  war.  . 

The  Turkish  Soldier 

As  to  the  fighting  qualities  of  the  Turkish  soldier  there  is  no  dis- 
pute. Lord  Wolseley — no  mean  judge — who  has  seen  him  in  action, 
described  him  as  '  the  finest  soldier  in  the  world.'  He  is  a  marvellous 
marcher,  apparently  incapable  of  fatigue ;  accustomed  to  frugal  fare 
all  his  life,  he  is  content  if  he  gets  his  ration  of  bread  or  biscuit  daily. 
The  commissariat  of  such  an  army  is  simple  enough  :  an  occasional 
meat  meal,  a  few  sheep  distributed  amongst  the  men  on  one  of  their 
religious  festivals,  a  fairly  liberal  supply  of  tobacco,  a  cup  of  coffee 
if  possible  to  begin  the  day  with,  vegetables  in  plenty  when  they  are 
to  be  obtained,  is  all  they  ask.  Even  when  bread  and  tobacco  run 
short,  when  meat  and  vegetables  are  not  forthcoming,  an  appeal  to 
their  finer  feelings  will  stifle  all  grumbling ;  whilst  the  distribution 
of  a  few  piastres  after  a  stiff  fight  and  the  gift  of  a  Medjidieh  to 
the  wounded  are  more  than  enough  to  rouse  drooping  spirits  and  to 
kindle  again  the  lust  for  war. 

(2)  BULGARIA 

Bulgaria,  in  which  Eastern  Rumelia  must  of  course  be  included, 
has  an  area  of  upwards  of  38,000  square  miles  with  a  population  of 
more  than  4,000,000  souls.  For  many  years  the  principality  has 
devoted  its  energies  to  perfecting  its  military  system,  and  I  believe 
it  is  universally  conceded  that  the  Bulgarian  Army  stands  head  and 
shoulders  above  that  of  any  of  the  other  States  in  the  Near  East. 
The  peace  strength  of  the  Army  is  64,000,  capable  of  expansion  in 
time  of  war  to  300,000.  The  training  is  most  severe,  but  officers 
and  men  have  thrown  themselves  heart  and  soul  into  their  task, 
with  the  result  that  the  Army  may  now  be  considered  fit  for  any  work 
it  may  reasonably  be  called  upon  to  perform. 

Service  is  of  course  obligatory,  and  all  men  are  liable  to  serve 
in  the  Active  Army  from  their  eighteenth  to  their  fortieth  year,  with 
a  further  liability  of  six  years  in  the  Landwehr.  The  period  with 
the  Colours  is  two  years  in  the  infantry,  three  in  the  other  arms. 
The  average  number  of  young  men  becoming  liable  to  service 
annually  is  some  60,000,  of  whom  last  year  47,000  were  found  fit ; 
of  these  22,600  were  retained  for  their  full  term  of  Colour  service, 


736  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

and  24,000  for  six  months'  training  only.  During  the  annual 
mano3uvres  in  1897  no  less  than  120,000  men  were  under  arms.  The 
high  standard  of  training  and  discipline  excited  the  admiration  of 
all  the  military  attaches  present. 

The  principality  is  divided  into  nine  military  districts,  with  head- 
quarters at  Sofia,  Philipopolis,  Sliven,  Shumla,  Rustchuk,  Vratza, 
Dubnitza,  Eski  Zagra,  and  Plevna.  Each  division  is  again  sub- 
divided into  four  regimental  districts  under  the  command  of  an  officer 
specially  concerned  with  the  recruiting  duties  of  his  zone.  Each 
divisional  district  has  to  furnish  recruits  for  four  regiments  of  infantry, 
one  regiment  of  artillery,  and  the  usual  proportion  of  other  arms. 
The  peace  establishment  of  a  division  (which  in  time  of  war  auto- 
matically expands  into  an  Army  corps)  is  laid  down  at : 

(a)  One  regiment  of  cavalry  composed  of  two  squadrons  only. 

(&)  One  regiment  of  artillery  consisting  of  nine  field  batteries. 

(c)  Two  brigades  of  infantry  each  comprising  two  regiments  of 
four  battalions. 

In  addition  to  this  force,  there  is  a  cavalry  division  of  two  brigades 
(the  first  has  its  headquarters  at  Sofia,  the  second  at  Dobrudj) ;  a 
regiment  of  mountain  artillery,  and  one  of  4'7-inch  howitzers — the 
former  of  nine,  the  latter  of  eight  batteries.  The  horses  for  the 
artillery  and  for  the  cavalry  divisions,  as  well  as  for  the  Bodyguard, 
are  purchased  in  Hungary ;  those  for  the  divisional  cavalry  are 
purchased  locally,  or  are  supplied  from  the  Government  studs,  which 
are  now  doing  good  work. 

The  Bulgarian  infantry  is  composed  of  thirty-six  regiments,  which 
in  peace  have  an  establishment  of  two  battalions  only,  each  with  four 
companies.  The  main  idea  underlying  the  organisation  is,  that  on 
mobilisation  each  company  shall  automatically  expand  to  a  battalion 
by  the  inclusion  of  the  reservists  of  the  Active  Army — a  battalion 
expands  into  a  regiment,  a  regiment  into  a  brigade,  and  a  brigade  into 
a  division.  So  far  as  the  rank-and-file  are  concerned,  this  presents 
no  great  difficulty,  but  the  question  of  a  sufficient  supply  of  officers 
and  sectional  leaders  has  not  been  satisfactorily  settled.  The  actual 
deficiency  in  infantry  officers  is  stated  to  be  1700. 

Officers 

The  officers  of  the  Army  are  obtained  from  two  sources  :  (a)  The 
Military  College  at  Sofia,  and  (6)  non-commissioned  officers  of  superior 
education,  who  have  to  undergo  a  course  of  practical  training  at  the 
college  in  order  to  qualify  for  the  commissioned  grades.  This  college, 
which  is  one  of  the  most  perfect  institutions  of  its  kind  in  Europe,  is 
not  intended  solely  for  those  who  wish  to  embrace  a  military  career, 
but  the  majority  of  the  pupils  from  the  nature  of  their  environment 
naturally  gravitate  to  the  Army.  Cadets  enter  at  the  age  of  ten, 
and  until  their  fifteenth  year  follow  a  general  course  of  education ; 


11)08     MILITARY  SITUATION  IN  THE  BALKANS     737 

they  then  begin  to  specialise,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  after 
passing  a  stiff  examination,  are  admitted  to  the  various  arms  according 
to  their  position  in  the  final  lists. 

Sergeants  of  infantry  of  good  education,  who  have  served  two 
years  with  the  Colours,  may  on  the  recommendation  of  their  command- 
ing officers  be  admitted  to  the  non-commissioned  officers'  school  at 
Sofia,  where  they  undergo  a  two  years'  technical  course ;  after  examina- 
tion they  are  gazetted  lieutenants  and  posted  to  the  Active  Army. 

A  school  for  officers  of  the  Reserve  has  recently  been  established 
at  Sofia.  Young  men  of  good  education  who  are  drawn  for  the  annual 
contingent  are  admitted,  provided  they  have  obtained  certain  diplo- 
mas ;  they  then  can  go  through  a  two  years'  course,  at  the  expiration 
of  which  they  are  attached  to  a  corps  for  twelve  months'  practical 
instruction,  and  on  the  recommendation  of  their  commanding  officers 
are  gazetted  as  lieutenants  of  the  Reserve  and  are  called  out  for 
training  with  men  of  their  class  and  year. 

Three  instructional  battalions  have  been  formed  where  selected 
N.C.O.s  are  trained  for  the  important  position  of  sectional  leaders 
in  the  event  of  war.  Notwithstanding  all  these  efforts,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  the  supply  of  officers  in  Bulgaria  is  by  no  means  suffi- 
cient for  the  large  force  that  she  expects  to  be  able  to  put  into 
the  field.  One  point  must  not  be  overlooked.  The  Bulgar  is  a  glutton 
for  work,  he  shows  marked  aptitude  for  picking  up  military  lessons, 
and  the  officers  are  indefatigable  in  their  efforts  to  instruct  their  men. 
Summer  and  winter  is  alike  to  them,  and  it  may  truly  be  said  that 
Sofia  is  the  only  capital  in  the  Near  East  where  no  officers  are  to  be 
seen  in  cafes  or  restaurants  until  sunset. 

The  total  strength  of  the  Bulgarian  Army  when  mobilised  for  war 
may  be  roughly  estimated  at  200,000  infantry,  7000  cavalry,  with 
500  guns,  and  there  are  sufficient  trained  men  in  Bulgaria  not  merely 
to  bring  the  force  up  to  its  full  war  strength,  but  also  to  furnish  a 
body  of  180,000  reservists  ready  to  fill  casualties,  with  about  70,000 
Landwehr  for  the  defence  of  strategical  points  and  the  lines  of  com- 
munication. It  is  anticipated  that  mobilisation  would  occupy  seven 
days.  In  the  construction  of  her  railways  Bulgaria  has  always  borne 
in  mind  the  necessity  for  strategic  lines. 

(3)  GREECE 

Although  Greece,  like  Rumania,  cannot  strictly  speaking  be  con- 
sidered one  of  the  Balkan  States,  yet  there  is  no  doubt  that  she  must 
be  looked  upon  as  such  when  discussing  the  question  of  peace  or  war 
in  the  Near  East.  Her  northern  frontier  marches  with  the  southern 
frontier  of  Turkey  in  Europe,  and  it  is  the  daydream  of  every  pious 
son  of  Hellas  that  the  Hellenic  peninsula  shall  one  day  be  welded 
into  a  new  Empire  of  Byzantium.  Before  that  dream  can  be  realise,! 

VOL.  LXIV-JSo.  381  3D 


738  THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY  Nov. 

the  Army  of  Greece  will  require  reorganisation.  The  paper  organisa- 
tion is  therej;  it  is  (true,  but  for  fighting  purposes  the  Army  of 
Greece  is  non-existent.  Successive  Ministries,  owing  to  financial 
considerations,  have  been  unable  to  deal  with  Army  reform  in 
a  drastic  manner,  and  it  was  only  in  the  year  1904  that  a  law 
was  passed  which,  when  carried  into  effect,  will  produce  some 
sort  of  a  fighting  machine.  Four  years  have  elapsed  since  that 
law  was  carried  through  the  Chamber,  and  much  yet  remains  to 
be  accomplished.  It  is  an  ungracious  task  to  criticise  adversely 
the  Army  of  a  nation  whose  hospitality  one  has  enjoyed,  and 
for  which  one  has  a  sincere  regard,  but  Greek  officers  know  as 
well  as  I  do,  that  the  present  condition  of  the  Army  is  deplorable, 
and  further  that  it  is  not  of  their  making.  Officers  alone  cannot 
make  an  Army,  and  so  long  as  two-thirds  of  them  are  retained  with 
units  which  for  ten  months  out  of  the  twelve  are  mere  cadres,  without 
men  or  horses,  it  is  impossible  to  keep  zeal  at  boiling  point. 

The  population  of  Greece  in  round  numbers  is  2,600,000  souls,  and 
the  revenue  amounts  to  5,200,OOOL,  of  which  just  one-tenth,  or  520,0002., 
is  set  aside  for  the  Military  Budget.  The  peace  establishment  of 
the  Army  is  laid  down  at  20,500  men,  but  for  motives  of  economy 
only  some  9000  are  kept  with  the  Colours.  The  war  strength  is 
officially  given  at  82,000,  but  during  the  war  with  Turkey  Greece 
could  only  mobilise  57,000,  and  at  the  annual  manoeuvres  held  during 
the  month  of  September  1908  the  total  numbers  called  out  were 
about  30,000. 

Military  service  is  obligatory,  the  many  exemptions  which  used 
to  exist  having  been  swept  away  by  the  law  of  1904.  On  completing 
their  twenty-first  year  all  men  become  liable  for  service,  and  this 
liability  continues  for  thirty  years,  being  thus  distributed : 

1  year  and  2  months  with  the  Colours  of  the  Active  Army, 
10  years  „    10        „        „      „    Reserve    „          •„ 

8     „    in  the  Territorial  Army,  and 
10     „         ,,      Reserve  of  the  Territorial  Army. 

These  limits  are  not  strictly  adhered  to,  many  men  after  six  months' 
training  are  drafted  into  the  gendarmery,  police,  or  as  orderlies  at 
the  several  Ministries.  The  Colour  service  of  fourteen  months  is 
manifestly  inadequate  for  the  proper  training  of  either  artillery  or 
cavalry  soldiers.  Although  about  24,000  men  become  annually  liable 
for  service,  only  some  7000  are  called  up  for  service,  the  remainder 
are  at  once  drafted  into  the  Reserve  of  the  Active  Army  without 
having  undergone  any  training  whatever. 

Officers 

Officers  are  recruited  from  (a)  the  Military  College  at  Athens, 
which  supplies  officers  for  all  arms ;  and  (b)  from  selected  non-com- 


1908     MILITARY  SITUATION  IN  THE  BALKANS     739 

commissioned  officers  who  are  admitted  to  the  Military  College  after 
having  served  two  years  in  the  grade  of  sergeant  and  if  under 
twenty-five  years  of  age ;  at  the  end  of  a  two  years'  course  they  are 
gazetted  as  officers. 

Cadets  who  enter  the  Military  College  direct  must  have  passed  all 
the  classes  at  the  Gymnasium  at  Athens,  when  they  are  allowed  to 
compete  for  admission  provided  they  have  reached  their  fourteenth 
year.  They  spend  five  years  at  the  college,  and  on  passing  out 
have  their  choice  of  the  branch  of  the  Service  according  to  their 
position  at  the  final  examination.  Officers  posted  to  the  artillery  or 
cavalry  undergo  a  further  period  of  training  at  the  mounted  school 
before  joining  their  units. 

Officers  of  the  Territorial  Army  are  drawn  from  recruits  who  have 
passed  through  the  Gymnasium  at  Athens,  and  who  wish  to  avoid  the 
drudgery  inseparable  from  service  in  the  ranks.  Having  satisfied 
their  commanding  officer  of  their  aptitude  for  the  Service,  they  pass 
two  months  as  privates,  two  as  corporals,  two  more  as  sergeants,  they 
are  then  drafted  to  the  Military  College  at  Corfou,  where  they  remain 
three  years  and  then  are  given  commissions  as  lieutenants  in  the 
Reserve,  and  come  out  for  training  whenever  the  privates  of  their  year 
are  summoned. 

The  average  age  of  officers  in  the  Army  is  very  high,  few  reach 
the  rank  of  captain  under  twenty  years'  service,  and  grey-headed 
lieutenants  are  common  enough  in  all  branches.  The  age  limit  for 
retirement  is  rarely  enforced,  and  the  consequence  is  that  command- 
ing officers  of  units  are,  as  a  rule,  long  past  their  work. 

Organisation 

The  kingdom  is  divided  into  three  military  districts,  with  head- 
quarters at  Larissa,  Athens,  and  Missolonghi;  each  furnishes  the 
recruits  for  one  division,  which  is  composed  of  : 

2  brigades  of  infantry  (12  battalions). 

2  battalions  of  Evzones  or  riflemen. 

1  regiment  of  cavalry  (4  squadrons). 

1  regiment  of  artillery  (12  field  and  2  mountain  batteries). 

At  the  present  moment  two  out  of  the  three  regiments  of  cavalry 
are  quartered  at  Athens,  and  practically  the  whole  of  the  artillery, 
only  one  battery  being  at  Larissa.  This  is  of  little  consequence,  the 
railway  is  now  open  between  Athens  and  Larissa,  so  that  troops 
can  easily  cover  the  240  miles  between  the  two  places  in  twelve  hours. 
A  second  means  of  communication  exists,  so  long  as  Greece  does  not 
allow  Turkey  to  retain  command  of  the  sea.  Troops  can  be  con- 
veyed by  sea  to  Volo  and  thence  by  the  Thessalian  railway  to  Larissa, 
a  distance  of  but  thirty-seven  miles. 

The  cavalry  consists  of  three  regiments,  each  composed  of   four 

3  D  2 


740  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Nov. 

squadrons,  but  at  present  only  one  squadron  per  regiment  is  per- 
manently maintained  on  an  effective  footing  with  men  and  horses 
complete.  Many  of  the  officers  have  served  with  the  armies  of  the 
Great  Powers,  and  are  only  too  anxious  to  see  their  arm  maintained  at 
its  proper  strength. 

The  artillery  consists  of  three  regiments,  which,  under  the  new 
organisation,  will  be  composed  of  twelve  field  and  two  mountain 
batteries.  Regiments  have  but  one  battery  maintained  in  an  effective 
condition,  with  officers,  N.C.O.s,  men  and  horses  complete ;  the  con- 
sequence is  that  when  recruits  come  up,  or  when  reservists  assemble 
prior  to  manoeuvres,  everyone  has  to  work  at  high  pressure,  and  the 
rust  of  the  preceding  ten  months  of  enforced  leisure  is  barely  rubbed 
off  before  the  period  of  stagnation  again  sets  in. 

Infantry  regiments  consist  of  three  battalions,  but  except  during 
manoeuvres  and  during  the  early  training  of  recruits,  only  one  battalion 
per  regiment  is  maintained  in  an  effective  condition,  the  other  two 
being  mere  cadres,  without  men.  In  addition  to  the  twelve  regiments 
of  the  infantry  of  the  Line  there  are  eight  battalions  of  Evzones  or 
riflemen.  These  battalions  are  always  maintained  in  an  effective 
condition,  and  are  the  corps  d' elite  of  the  Greek  Army ;  during  the  war 
of  1897  they  covered  themselves  with  glory. 

Since  the  Crown  Prince  assumed  command  of  the  Army,  and  more 
especially  since  he  has  been  associated  with  Mr.  Theotokys,  the  present 
Premier,  who  also  is  Minister  of  War,  many  reforms  have  been  intro- 
duced, the  infantry  have  been  re-armed  with  the  Mannlicher-Schonauer 
rifle,  one  of  the  best  shooting  weapons  in  Europe.  The  artillery  is 
in  course  of  being  supplied  with  the  Schneider-Canet  gun,  undoubtedly 
the  best  field-gun  after  our  own.  The  whole  frontier  has  been  carefully 
surveyed,  and  excellent  maps  are  now  being  printed  in  Vienna  for  the 
use  of  the  Army.  Men  are  now  systematically  instructed  in  field  train- 
ing and  field  firing,  annual  manoeuvres  are  regularly  held,  and  it  is  an- 
ticipated that  next  year  a  Bill  will  be  brought  in  authorising  all  units 
to  be  maintained  at  their  full  peace  strength.  Another  step  in  the  right 
direction  has  been  the  passing  of  a  law  which  compels  an  officer  on 
entering  Parliament  to  quit  the  Active  Army.  At  the  last  election  320 
officers  posed  as  candidates ;  as  each  officer  was  entitled  to  four  months' 
leave  in  order  to  push  his  candidature,  it  may  readily  be  believed  that 
discipline  suffered.  A  scheme  is  also  on  foot  for  the  organisation  of 
a  Territorial  Army,  but  as  yet  nothing  has  been  published  on  this 
subject.  Until  this  has  been  carried  out  Greece  could  only  mobilise 
in  case  of  war  the  following  troops  : 

3  regiments  of  cavalry, 
36  batteries  of  field  artillery, 

6  batteries  of  mountain  guns,  and 
44  battalions  of  infantry. 


(4)  ROUMANIA 

The  gallantly  displayed  by  the  Roumanians  in  the  war  of  1877, 
the  heroic  conduct  of  the  King  in  all  the  affairs  round  Plevna,  and  the 
fact  that  for  thirty  years  he  has  consecrated  his  life  to  the  organisa- 
tion of  the  Roumanian  Army  has  drawn  the  attention  of  soldiers 
more  to  the  Army  of  that  kingdom  than  to  those  of  the  other  States 
in  the  Near  East.  In  its  constitution  it  presents  many  differences  from 
other  armies,  being  composed  of  two  distinct  classes.  The  one  illite- 
rate, in  which  the  men  are  compelled  to  undergo  the  usual  two  years' 
training ;  the  other  (styled  Schimbul)  consisting  of  men  of  good  educa- 
tion, who  are  dismissed  to  their  homes  after  a  short  period  of  instruction, 
but  who  come  up  for  periodical  trainings  and  weekly  parades  in  order 
that  they  may  keep  abreast  of  their  comrades  ;  this  latter  class  is  being 
gradually  eliminated  or  at  any  rate  reduced  to  small  proportions. 

Roumania,  with  an  area  of  50,700  square  miles  and  a  population 
of  close  on  six  and  a  half  millions,  maintains  on  a  peace  footing  an 
Army  of  but  65,000  men,  but  owing  to  her  peculiar  military  organisa- 
tion she  has  a  Reserve  of  half  a  million  trained  soldiers  on  which  to 
draw  in  the  event  of  war.  The  Army  may  be  thus  divided  : 

(a)  The  Active  Army,  with  its  Reserve,  numbering  some  240,000 
men,  in  which  men  serve  for  nine  years — the  Colour  service  being  two 
years  in  the  infantry,  three  in  the  cavalry  and  artillery. 

(6)  The  Militia,  in  which  the  period  of  service  is  six  years ;  this  has 
a  strength  of  about  130,000. 

(c)  The  Landsturm,  about  160,000  strong,  in  which  men  are  liable 
to  a  further  period  of  ten  years'  service. 

The  liability  thus  extends  from  the  twenty-first  to  the  forty-sixth 
year,  and  it  is  calculated  that  some  90,000  youths  become  liable 
annually,  of  these  one-third  from  one  cause  or  another  are  either 
exempt  or  found  unfit.  Of  the  remainder  about  10,000  are  passed 
into  the  Schimbul  or  second  category,  leaving  50,000  recruits  available 
for  the  Active  Army. 

The  Schimbul  Troops 

The  manner  of  utilising  the  Schimbul  recruits  is  peculiar.  Each 
regiment  of  infantry  consists  of  three  continuous-service  and  one 
Schimbul  battalion,  whilst  nine  regiments  of  cavalry  are  entirely 
composed  of  Schimbul  men.  The  recruits  of  this  category  are  posted 
to  their  units  in  the  spring,  when  they  undergo  ninety  days'  training 
and  are  then  dismissed  to  their  homes.  In  the  autumn  they  are  again 
called  out  for  thirty  days'  training  during  the  period  of  the  annual 
manoeuvres,  and  then  for  the  remaining  eight  years  of  their  service  in 
the  Active  Army  they  have  to  attend  the  annual  mano3uvres  for  thirty 
days'  training.  In  addition,  they  have  to  parade  at  their  battalion 


742  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

or  squadron  headquarters  on  twenty-eight  Sundays  in  the  year  for 
drill  and  inspection.  Cavalry  recruits  have  to  provide  themselves  with 
a  suitable  horse  or  to  deposit  20L  for  the  purchase  of  one.  As  Schimbul 
corps  are  composed  of  men  of  superior  education,  it  is  considered  that 
the  training  they  undergo  renders  them  the  equals  of  their  comrades 
who  have  to  go  through  the  full  period  with  the  Colours. 

Distribution  of  the  Army 

Roumania  has  been  divided  into  four  Army  corps  districts,  to 
each  of  which  a  large  tract  of  Government  land  has  been  allotted 
for  the  field  training  of  the  troops.  The  headquarters  are  respectively 
at  Craiova,  Bukarest,  Jassy,  and  Galatz.  These  districts  are  again 
subdivided,  the  second  corps  at  Bukarest  furnishing  three,  the  other 
corps  two  divisions.  The  normal  strength  of  an  Army  corps  has  been 
fixed  at : 

2  divisions  of  infantry  composed  of  two  brigades,  with  a  rifle 

battalion,  or  thirty-four  battalions  in  all. 
1  Militia  brigade  of  eight  battalions. 
1  cavalry  brigade  of  two  regiments. 
1  regiment  of  artillery  of  twelve  field  batteries. 

The  infantry  consists  of  thirty-four  regiments  of  the  Line,  with  nine 
battalions  of  rifles.  On  mobilisation  the  reservists  of  the  Active  Army, 
consisting  of  six  annual  contingents  (continuous-service  as  well  as 
Schimbul  men)  join  their  respective  battalions,  thus  completing  them 
to  war  strength.  The  first  line  of  the  Reserve  or  Militia  is  at  once 
organised  into  battalions  ;  these  assume  the  numbers  of  the  Line 
regiments  of  their  cir conscription,  and  are  formed  into  brigades,  two 
of  which  are  attached  to  each  corps  for  convoys,  escorts,  guarding 
lines  of  communication,  &c.,  leaving  the  Active  Army  free  for  its 
legitimate  work  of  fighting. 

The  cavalry  consists  of  seventeen  regiments  ;  of  these  six  are  lancers, 
and  owing  to  their  red  uniform  are  styled  Rosiori.  The  remaining 
eleven  are  hussars  and  are  called  Calarasi.  The  whole  of  the  Rosiori 
and  two  of  the  Calarasi  regiments  are  composed  of  continuous-service 
men,  and  form  two  cavalry  divisions  which  are  not  attached  to  any 
Army  corps.  The  remaining  nine  Calarasi  regiments  are  composed  of 
Schimbul  men,  and  are  attached  one  to  each  of  the  nine  divisions. 
Here  again,  as  in  the  case  of  the  infantry,  the  whole  of  the  highly  trained 
men  in  the  cavalry  are  available  for  their  legitimate  duties,  the  task  of 
furnishing  escorts,  guards,  and  convoys  falling  on  the  Schimbul  regi- 
ments. The  eight  continuous  -  service  regiments  are  mounted  on 
Hungarian  horses,  the  Schimbul  troops  on  country  breds. 

The  artillery  of  the  Roumanian  Army  is  organised  into  thirteen 
regiments.  Of  these  four  are  styled  Corps  Artillery,  and  are 
composed  of  six  field  and  two  howitzer  batteries;  they  are 


1908     MILITARY  SITUATION  IN  THE  BALKANS     743 

under  the  orders  of  the  commanders  of  the  four  Army  corps.  The 
remaining  nine  regiments  are  attached  to  the  nine  infantry  divisions, 
and  consist  of  nine  field  batteries.  The  draught  horses  are  purchased, 
as  a  rule,  in  Russia ;  riding  horses  in  Hungary.  Studs  are  now  being 
established,  and  are  doing  good  work. 

Officers 

Military  education  in  Roumania  is  universal,  and  a  course  of 
military  instruction  forms  a  part  of  the  curriculum  in  every  school. 
This  commences  when  boys  have  reached  their  tenth  year.  The 
kingdom  has  been  divided  into  five  military  districts,  under  a 
captain,  with  a  selected  staff  of  subalterns  and  N.C.O.s,  there 
being  an  inspector-general  over  the  whole.  Boys  have  four  hours' 
drill  a  week,  and  as  they  grow  older  lectures  are  given  on  their 
own  and  foreign  armies  and  on  elementary  military  subjects; 
they  then  go  through  a  course  of  ball  practice  with  carbines,  and 
finally  indulge  in  simple  tactical  exercise ;  the  result  is  that  when  they 
join  their  units  they  are  already  acquainted  with  the  A  B  C  of  their 
profession,  and  soon  shake  down  into  their  places  as  good  soldiers. 
Lads  take  very  kindly  to  their  work,  and  officers  find  that  the  training 
of  recruits  is  far  more  quickly  and  satisfactorily  carried  out  than  when 
yokels  joined  straight  from  the  plough. 

There  are  two  cadet  schools  for  the  training  of  young  officers — 
the  one  at  Craiova,  the  other  at  Jassy.  They  are  primarily  intended 
for  the  sons  of  officers,  but  those  of  civilians  are  admitted  on  payment 
of  201.  a  year.  The  age  of  entry  is  fourteen,  and  boys  remain  for 
three  years,  when,  after  passing  an  examination,  they  are  transferred 
to  either  the  artillery  or  the  infantry  cadet  college  at  Bukarest. 
In  these  colleges  the  course  of  study  lasts  two  years,  and  successful 
candidates  are  gazetted  to  their  respective  arms.  Civilians  are 
admitted  to  these  colleges  after  undergoing  a  severe  competitive 
examination,  and  a  certain  number  of  non-commissioned  officers  are 
also  admitted  on  the  recommendation  of  their  commanding  officers, 
provided  they  are  under  twenty-six  years  of  age.  After  passing  a 
prescribed  course  which  lasts  one  year  they  are  gazetted  to  the  infantry. 

(5)  SERVTA 

Servia  has  an  area  of  18,750  square  miles,  with  a  population  of 
2, 500,000  souls,  and  is  for  military  purposes  divided  into  five  districts, 
with  headquarters  at  Nish,  Valyevo,  Belgrade,  Kraguevatz,  and 
Zaietchar.  These  are  again  subdivided  into  four  regimental  districts, 
each  providing  one  infantry  regiment,  with  the  usual  proportion 
of  the  other  arms.  Liability  to  service  commences  when  a  man 
has  reached  his  twenty-first  and  continues  until  the  forty-fifth 
year.  The  first  ten  years  are  spent  in  the  Active  Army,  the  Colour 


744  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

service  being  two  years  in  the  infantry,  three  in  the  other  arms. 
Men  are  then  transferred  to  the  Reserve,  in  which  they  remain  five 
years,  and  they  then  pass  into  the  Territorial  Army  for  a  further 
period  of  ten  years.  The  annual  recruit  contingent  averages  22,000 
men,  of  whom  about  one-half  are  retained  for  service ;  those  who  are  in 
possession  of  a  diploma  from  the  Gymnasium  serve  for  six  months  only, 
when,  if  they  pass  a  satisfactory  examination,  they  are  gazetted  as 
lieutenants  to  the  Reserve,  and  are  called  out  for  training  with  the 
men  of  their  own  contingent. 

In  war  a  Servian  division,  which  is  the  highest  form  of  organisation, 
comprises  : 

2  brigades  of  infantry  (16  battalions). 

1  division  of  artillery  (12  batteries). 

1  regiment  of  divisional  cavalry. 

The  kingdom  would  be  able  to  put  into  the  field  five  of  such  divi- 
sions, with  a  cavalry  division  in  addition  comprising  two  brigades  of 
two  regiments  each  with  a  horse  battery. 

In  time  of  peace  regiments  of  infantry  are  composed  of  three 
battalions,  a  fourth  being  formed  on  mobilisation.  The  four  com- 
panies of  a  battalion  vary  according  to  the  season  of  the  year  ;  in 
the  summer  they  are  from  eighty  to  one  hundred  strong,  in  winter 
they  rarely  muster  more  than  forty  privates.  During  the  annual 
manoeuvres  they  are  brought  to  war  strength. 

The  cavalry  consists  of  four  regiments,  which  in  time  of  war 
would  form  the  two  cavalry  divisions;  the  five  regiments  required 
for  the  five  divisions  would  be  improvised  from  reservists  and  mounted 
on  country  or  stud-bred  horses ;  the  regular  cavalry  are  mounted  on 
Hungarian  horses. 

The  artillery  consists  of  five  regiments,  each  of  nine  batteries  ; 
when  the  new  gun  arrives  the  batteries  will  be  reduced  to  four  instead 
of  six  guns  and  the  number  of  batteries  in  a  division  increased  to 
twelve.  The  artillery  is  certainly  the  best  armed  in  Servia;  the 
officers  are  perfectly  tireless  in  their  devotion  to  their  duty,  and  have 
raised  their  branch  to  a  high  state  of  efficiency. 

It  has  been  the  custom  to  decry  the  Servian  Army,  but  having 
seen  it  pretty  often,  both  in  quarters,  in  camp,  and  at  manoeuvres,  and 
having  visited  every  military  station  in  the  kingdom,  I  must  confess 
that  I  have  been  struck  by  the  marching  powers  of  the  men  and  the 
thoroughness  with  which  the  officers  imparted  instruction.  During 
the  summer  the  troops  pass  the  greater  part  of  the  time  in  camp, 
when  the  horses  are  in  the  open,  thus  hardening  both  men  and  horses. 
The  Servian  is  an  excellent  marcher,  almost  if  not  the  equal  of  the 
Bulgarian,  and  that  is  saying  a  great  deal.  I  have  seen  a  brigade 
parade  at  4  A.M.,  when  a  small  cup  of  Turkish  coffee  was  served  out; 
the  men  would  return  to  camp  late  in  the  afternoon,  having  been 


1908     MILITARY  SITUATION  IN  THE  BALKANS     745 

marching  or  fighting  for  from  eight  to  twelve  hours,  and  they  would 
find  a  good  meal  of  meat  and  vegetables  awaiting  them.  It  was  rare 
to  see  a  man  fall  out. 


Officers 

There  is  a  Military  Academy  at  Belgrade  which  supplies  the  greater 
part  of  the  officers  of  the  Army.  Those  of  the  artillery  and  engineers 
being  entirely  recruited  from  this  source.  The  age  of  entry  is  seven- 
teen and  the  course  lasts  four  years.  The  education  is  thoroughly 
practical,  but  owing  to  a  variety  of  circumstances  the  cadets  are  too 
much  given  to  politics,  and,  like  their  confreres  at  the  college  in  Sofia, 
have  played  their  part  in  more  than  one  drama  which  has  had  for  its 
object  the  upsetting  of  a  dynasty.  The  stamp  of  officer  turned 
out  is  undeniably  good,  and  so  far  as  quality  is  concerned  the  Servian 
officer  is  undoubtedly  the  equal  of  those  in  the  other  Balkan  armies. 
There  are,  unfortunately,  too  few  of  them,  and  at  present  there  is  a 
wide  cleavage  between  the  two  parties  in  the  kingdom. 

Servia  claims  to  possess  close  on  300,000  trained  soldiers  available 
for  war ;  whatever  may  be  the  actual  numbers,  and  by  some  the  figures 
are  put  as  low  as  220,000,  there  is  no  doubt  that  she  has  a  sufficient 
number  to  bring  the  Army  up  to  a  war  footing  and  to  supply  the 
wastage  of  a  campaign.  The  supply  of  rifles  is,  however,  dangerously 
short,  and  two  years  must  elapse  before  the  artillery  has  received  its 
complete  equipment  of  Sclmeider-Canet  guns. 

GENERAL  CONSIDERATIONS 

The  following  table  gives  the  actual  force  that  each  nation  can 
dispose  of,  as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  ascertain  : 


- 

Turkey 

Bulgaria 

Greece 

Ho  iiu  ia  uia 

Servia 

CAVALRY  : 

Regular  Regiments 

41 

10 

3 

17 

4 

Reserve 

12 

— 

— 

— 

5 

Irregular     . 

66 

— 

— 

— 

— 

ARTILLERY  : 

Horse  Batteries 

28 

2 

1 

4 

2 

Field          „ 

188 

84 

18 

66 

45 

Mountain  „ 

60 

9 

6 

6 

6 

Howitzei*  „               i  '  i   )    : 

82 

6 

— 

8 

2 

INFANTRY  : 

Active  Army  Battalions 

375 

72 

44 

136 

60 

First  Reserve        „ 

884 

216 

(?) 

68 

20 

Territorial              „ 

688 

(?) 

(?) 

(?) 

(?) 

The  present  situation  is  one  that  gives  rise  to  much  food  for  thought. 
The  political  condition  of  affairs  in  the  Near  East  changes  from  day  to 
day.  Friendly  Powers  of  to-day  will  be  bitter  enemies  to-morrow. 
A  few  short  years  ago  war  between  Bulgaria  and  Roumania  seemed 


746  THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY  Nov. 

inevitable,  now  they  are  fast  friends.  Three  years  have  scarcely 
elapsed  since  Kings  Peter  and  Ferdinand  embraced  with  effusion, 
whilst  the  press  of  Belgrade  and  Sofia  were  loud  in  favour  of  the  union 
of  the  Slavs  in  the  Balkans.  About  the  same  time  Athens  received 
a  deputation  of  Roumanians  with  delirious  enthusiasm.  Now  all 
diplomatic  relations  between  the  two  countries  have  been  suspended. 
In  1897  Greek  was  flying  at  the  throat  of  Turk  with  frenzied  cries  as  to 
his  indefeasible  claim  to  Byzantium,  now  it  would  seem  that  Greece 
is  ready  to  fight  by  the  side  of  the  Turk  against  Slav  aggression. 
Within  the  past  few  weeks  we  have  seen  Turkey  converted  into  a 
Constitutional  monarchy,  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  annexed  by 
Austria,  Bulgaria  declared  a  kingdom,  and  Crete  throw  off  the  last 
vestige  of  the  Turkish  yoke  ;  so  that  it  needs  a  brave  man  to  pro- 
phesy as  to  what  the  morrow  may  bring  forth. 

Whether  the  future  brings  peace  or  war,  I  am  convinced  that 
Turkey  is  in  a  position  to  hold  her  own  in  the  Balkans.  Her  Armies 
are  ready  to  take  the  field.  Her  Fleet  commands  the  sea.  The 
Bulgarian  Army  is  spoken  of  with  respect,  and  I  have  the  highest 
opinion  of  its  officers  and  men,  but  to  assert  that  Bulgaria  can  place 
300,000  men  in  the  field  is  to  talk  vainly.  In  these  days  of  long 
extended  lines  a  plentiful  supply  of  highly  trained  officers  is  more 
than  ever  necessary.  Bulgaria  does  not  possess  these.  I  doubt 
whether  she  has  more  than  enough  for  188  battalions  of  her  Active 
Army,  leaving  the  remaining  100  for  Home  Defence.  The  Greek 
Army  must  for  the  next  few  years  be  considered  line  quantite 
negligeable.  The  Roumanian  Army  is  in  all  respects,  except  with 
regard  to  its  artillery,  ready  to  take  the  field,  but  Servia  must  like 
Greece  be  put  out  of  court  for  a  war  against  Turkey.  She  has  yet 
to  receive  the  greater  part  of  her  new  quick-firing  guns,  and  her 
supply  of  small  arms  is  not  sufficient  for  the  equipment  of  the  whole 
of  her  infantry. 

In  1877  Turkey  was  able  to  hold  Russia  at  bay  for  nine  long 
months,  then  she  possessed  no  railways  in  Asia,  and  but  the  one  short 
line  in  Europe  connecting  Constantinople  with  Philipopolis.  Now 
the  Asiatic  railways  have  brought  the  headquarters  of  the  Redif  divi- 
sions of  the  first  three  Army  corps  within  four  days  reach  of  the  Bul- 
garian frontier.  The  European  railways  run  parallel  to  and  behind 
that  frontier.  Military  roads  have  been  pushed  up  to  the  north, 
rivers  have  been  bridged,  field-works  thrown  up  at  all  strategic  points, 
depots  of  arms  and  provisions  constructed,  and  a  plan  of  campaign 
drawn  up  in  collaboration  with  Field-Marshal  Von  der  Goltz  which 
provides  for  every  eventuality.  The  new  mobilisation  scheme  provides 
for  the  massing  of  350,000  men  on  the  Bulgarian  frontier  within 
one  week  of  the  Declaration  of  War,  and  a  study  of  the  distribution 
of  troops  in  the  Near  East  clearly  shows  the  immense  superiority 
possessed  by  Turkey. 


1908     MILITARY  SITUATION  IN  THE  BALKANS     747 

There  are  two  factors  that  make  for  peace  in  addition  to  the 
laudable  efforts  of  the  British  Cabinet.  One  is  the  determination 
of  His  Majesty  the  Sultan  not  to  be  drawn  into  hostilities,  and  the 
second  the  fact  that  the  armies  of  the  more  bellicose  of  the  States 
are  not  prepared  for  war. 

C.  B.  NORMAN. 

Volo. 


P.S. — I  venture  to  add  a  few  words  on  the  composition  of  the 
Austro-Hungarian  armies.  The  active  army  of  the  Dual  Monarchy 
is  under  a  common  Minister  of  War  (Reichs  Kriegministerium) ;  the 
Landwehr  of  each  nation  are  under  separate  Ministers  of  Defence  in 
Vienna  and  Buda  Pesth.  Austria  is  divided  into  eight  and  Hungary 
into  seven  military  districts,  each  providing  an  army  corps  to  the 
active  army,  whilst  in  addition  Austria  furnishes  115  battalions  of 
Landwehr  infantry,  and  six  of  Landwehr  cavalry  ;  Hungary  furnishing 
ninety-four  battalions  of  infantry  and  ten  regiments  of  Landwehr 
hussars.  The  active  army  consists  of  110  regiments  of  infantry,  of 
four  battalions  each,  with  twenty-seven  rifle  battalions  ;  the  cavalry 
of  forty-two  regiments  of  six  field  and  one  depot  squadron  each ;  the 
artillery  of  240  horse  and  field  batteries,  sixteen  mountain  and 
forty-five  Howitzer  batteries.  The  infantry  arm  is  the  '315-inch 
Mannlicher,  the  field  artillery  being  equipped  with  a  3-inch  quick-firing 
gun  and  the  Howitzer  batteries  with  a  4'7  or  6-inch  Howitzer.  There 
are  four  regiments  of  infantry  recruited  in  the  recently  annexed 
provinces,  with  headquarters  at  Vienna,  Gratz  and  Buda  Pesth ;  only 
one  battalion  of  each  regiment  is  permitted  to  serve  in  Bosnia-Herze- 
govina. So  far  as  is  known  at  present  the  garrison  in  those  provinces 
consists  of  thirty-five  battalions  and  eleven  mountain  batteries,  but 
as  the  army  corps  at  Hermanstadt,  Temesvar,  Gratz,  and  Agram 
have  been  warned  for  mobilisation,  Austria  is  able  to  move  immense 
forces  to  the  southward  without  delay. 


748  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 


SWEATING    AND    WAGES    BOARDS 


A  SERIES  of  dramatic  exhibitions  has  revealed  to  an  easy-going  public 
the  existence  of  a  vast  amount  of  labour  carried  on  in  over-crowded 
homes,  by  women  and  children  working  their  very  lives  out  for  wages 
which  do  not  suffice  to  replace  the  daily  wear  and  tear  of  life,  and 
under  conditions  of  ceaseless  and  heartless  struggle  with  starvation, 
with  sickness,  and  with  filth.  These  workers  do  not  share  in  our  social 
progress.  Their  wages  do  not  increase  ;  their  hours  of  drudgery  do 
not  diminish  ;  life  comes  to  them  with  no  fresh  brightness.  They 
live  on  the  margin  of  industry,  picking  up  a  precarious  living,  and 
their  children,  under-fed,  ill-cared  for,  uneducated,  over-worked, 
are,  in  due  time,  launched  out  into  Society,  incapable  as  workers 
and  dangerous  as  citizens,  the  recruits  which  perpetuate  the  ranks 
of  casual  labour  and  unemployable  men.  Factory  inspectors  never 
visit  them  because  no  Factory  or  Workshop  Law  has  yet  been  devised 
to  deal  with  the  complicated  and  elusive  conditions  of  their  work. 
They  are  supposed  to  be  entered  upon  lists  in  the  possession  of  District 
Councils,  but  every  return  of  the  lists  published  by  the  Home  Office 
shows  that  these  are  imperfect,  and  that  often  little  trouble  is  taken 
to  make  them  accurate.  Sanitary  law  is  applied  most  imperfectly 
to  their  home  conditions.  They  baffle  school  attendance  officers. 
They  are  on  the  outskirts  of  social  organisation  and  are  not  subject 
to  its  conditions  nor  reached  by  its  laws. 

This  is  not  by  any  means  the  first  time  that  a  consciousness  of  this 
class  has  troubled  the  public.  Every  now  and  again  some  scandal 
of  clothing  made  in  fever  dens  has  agitated  us,  and  in  1890  Lord 
Dunraven's  House  of  Lords  Committee  presented  a  report  valuable 
alike  for  its  facts  and  suggestions,  which  was  much  discussed  at  the 
time,  which  was  imperfectly  used  by  Parliament  and  the  Home  Office, 
and  which  was  speedily  forgotten.  Since  then  an  important  report 
on  home  work  was  published  by  the  Women's  Industrial  Council 
(in  1897)  based  upon  a  careful  inquiry  into  some  hundreds  of  individual 
cases,  and  a  similar  investigation  was  conducted  in  Scotland  by  the 
Glasgow  Council  for  Women's  Trades.  But  the  public  remained 
indifferent,  until  in  1906  the  exhibitions  to  which  I  have  referred 
were  begun,  and  certain  Australasian  experiments  had  added  a  new 


1908  SWEATING  AND    WAGES  BOARDS  749 

practical  interest  to  the  problem.  A  Select  Committee  was  appointed 
in  1907  by  the  House  of  Commons  to  inquire  and  report  upon  the 
subject,  whilst  Mr.  Aves  was  sent  by  the  Home  Office  to  Australasia 
to  study,  amongst  other  things,  the  working  of  anti-sweating  legislation 
there.  The  reports  of  Mr.  Aves  and  the  Select  Committee  have  just 
been  published,  and  Parliament  may  now  be  expected  to  do  something 
on  the  matter.  But  what  ought  it  to  do  ? 

I. 

As  a  preliminary  to  any  action,  one  would  have  expected  a  careful 
investigation,  such  as  was  conducted  by  the  Dunraven  Committee,  into 
two  fundamental  matters.  First,  to  what  extent  does  the  evil  exist, 
and,  more  particularly,  is  it  greater  or  less  than  it  was  when  the  last 
inquiry  was  made  ?  And,  second,  why  does  it  exist,  and  what 
industrial  and  economic  causes  contribute  to  it  ?  The  Select  Com- 
mittee, however,  has  given  us  no  information  on  these  points,  and 
has  made  no  attempt  to  put  a  value  upon  the  conflicting  statements 
of  different  witnesses.  Sir  Thomas  Whittaker,  in  the  article  which 
appeared  in  the  September  issue  of  this  Review,  suggests  that  the 
woeful  accounts  are  by  discontented  and  dreamy  Socialists  or  Tariff 
Reformers,  whilst  the  optimistic  statements  are  made  by  those  who 
have  '  rare  faculties  of  accurate  observation  '  ! 

The  Committee  specially  has  shirked  the  task  of  presenting  to  us 
some  clear  analysis  of  the  causes  of  sweating.  It  is  true,  that  it 
opens  its  report  with  a  classification  of  sweated  persons.  Sir  Thomas 
Whittaker  quoted  the  passage  in  his  article,  so  I  need  only  summarise 
it.  The  sweated  workers  belong  to  one  of  three  groups  : 

(1)  Single  women,  widows,  deserted  or  separated  wives,   wives 
whose  husbands  are  ill  or  unable  to  work. 

(2)  Wives  of  men  out  of  employment. 

(3)  Wives  and  daughters  of  men  in  regular  employment  who 
usually    select    pleasant    work,    and    as    a    rule    work    for    short 
hours. 

Now  this  classification  omits  the  most  typical  class  of  all — the 
wives  and  daughters  of  men  in  regular  or  casual  employment  which 
never  yields  a  sufficient  family  income,  and  who,  therefore,  cannot 
select  pleasant  work,  but  belong  to  the  lowest  grade  of  sweated 
workers.  Commenting  upon  this  classification,  Miss  Clementina 
Black,  who  has  an  unusually  full  knowledge  of  the  facts  of  the  problem, 
says  that  it  is  '  curious  and  rather  sad  to  observe  '  that  the  Committee 
is  '  not  really  familiar  with  the  problem  of  home  work.  ...  As  far  as 
my  experience  goes,  a  larger  group  than  any  of  these  is  that  of  wives 
who  work  because  the  wages  of  their  husbands  are  too  small  to  keep 
the  family.'  l 

1  Women's  Industrial  News,  September  1908,  p.  68. 


750  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

These  omissions  from  and  mistakes  in  the  Select  Committee's 
report  at  once  rouse  the  suspicions  of  those  who  see  the  gravest 
danger  in  treating  this  problem  in  a  slip-shod  manner  by  a  House  of 
Commons  willing  to  yield  to  the  clamour  of  sentiment  very  properly 
raised  against  an  appalling  evil,  but  too  impatient  or  unwilling  to 
master  the  real  nature  of  the  problem. 

As  was  expected,  the  Committee  has  reported  in  favour  of  Wages 
Boards.  Most  of  its  active  members  were  committed  to  that  pro- 
posal before  any  evidence  was  taken.  The  Boards,  according  to 
the  report,  are  to  be  confined  to  certain  sections  of  the  clothing 
trades  ;  their  decisions  are  to  apply  to  '  home-workers  only '  ;  the 
machinery  is  to  be  a  Board  composed  of  equal  numbers  of  employers 
and  employed  with  an  impartial  chairman  ;  the  wages  to  be  fixed  are 
to  be  time  wages,  with,  in  the  case  of  standard  work,  piece  wages 
settled  by  the  Board,  and,  in  the  case  of  variable  work,  piece  wages 
not  fixed  by  the  Board  but  sufficiently  high  to  enable  an  average  worker 
to  earn  a  fixed  time  rate  ;  a  Court  of  Summary  Jurisdiction  is  to  enforce 
the  Board's  decisions. 

This  proposal  is  perhaps  startling  to  many  people,  but,  in  view  of 
the  present  trend  of  legislation  and  of  the  collectivist  axioms  upon 
which  both  Liberal  and  Unionist  Governments  have  been  proceeding, 
it  is  not  revolutionary.  It  introduces  no  new  principle  into  industrial 
law,  and  other  general  arguments  upon  which  it  is  justified — for 
instance,  that  an  industry  which  can  exist  only  on  sweated  labour 
is  not  good  for  a  State — will  not  be  disputed  by  anybody.  I,  at  any 
rate,  belonging  to  a  school  of  politics  the  fundamental  tenet  of  which 
is  that  the  State  must  now  actively  co-operate  with  the  individual 
in  order  to  secure  liberty  and  well-being  for  the  individual,  raise  no 
objection  in  principle  to  the  project. 

But  there  is  a  test  of  legislation  which  becomes  more  important 
as  State  activity  increases.  All  State  interference  is  not  wise  ;  some 
of  it  is  objectionable  ;  some  of  it  is  futile  ;  unless  discrimination  is 
shown  the  wise  will  become  involved  in  the  foolish  and  nothing  but 
harm  can  result.  Whatever  may  be  the  merits  or  demerits  of  the 
principles  of  legislation,  the  advocates  of  the  actual  proposals  must 
show  that  they  apply  to  the  characteristics  of  the  problems  they 
propose  to  solve,  and  that  they  can  be  enforced.  It  is  really  to  those 
questions  that  Sir  Thomas  Whittaker  chiefly  addressed  himself  in  the 
article  to  which  I  am  referring,  and  it  is  only  in  so  far  as  the 
Parliamentary  Report  deals  with  them  that  it  is  of  any  value.  In  a 
happy-go-lucky  way  people  may  think  we  can  cure  poverty  by  increas- 
ing wages  ;  or  they  may  say  '  The  miners,  the  ironworkers,  and  other 
trades  have  Conciliation  Boards  which  fix  wages  from  time  to  time  ; 
let  us,  therefore,  secure  for  the  home-worker  such  boards  by  legislation, 
because  she  cannot  get  it  through  her  own  efforts ;  and  the  result 
will  be  the  same.'  Reflections  like  these,  although  they  are  the  common 


1908  SWEATING  AND    WAGES  BOARDS  751 

assumptions  of  the  Wages  Boards'  advocates,  only  show  the  mental 
sluggishness  of  well-intentioned  people. 

If  one  has  in  mind  the  general  efficiency  of  a  trade,  one  need  not 
hesitate  about  a  wages  policy.  A  liberal  reward  for  labour  means 
efficiency  in  production.  That  is  the  case  for  trade  unions.  Dealing 
as  they  do  with  industry  organised  at  its  best,  being  mainly  confined 
to  skilled  artisans  or  to  workers  working  costly  machinery  in  ex- 
pensively conducted  factories,  they  have,  by  protecting  the  interests 
of  labour,  forced  into  a  higher  and  higher  efficiency  the  whole  machinery 
of  production.  High  wages  benefit  a  trade  as  a  whole.  They  are 
the  impulse  which  makes  it  properly  organise  itself.  We  may  say, 
for  instance,  that  the  clothing  trade  would  be  much  more  efficiently 
organised  for  productive  purposes  if  there  were  no  coats  and  trousers 
made  by  home-workers.  That  I  firmly  believe. 

But  what  does  this  mean  for  those  sections  of  trades  on  the 
margin  of  organisation — the  low  forms  of  production — the  home 
work  which  exists  because  it  is  sweated  ?  The  economies  which 
make  them  possible  are  derived  largely  from  the  low  pay  of  workers. 
Suppose,  however,  the  same  pressure  were  brought  to  bear  upon  these 
marginal  sections  which  Trade  Unionism  brings  to  bear  upon  the 
well  equipped  and  organised  sections  of  the  same  trade.  What 
would  happen  ?  We  would  not  see  the  operation  of  that  benignant 
philanthropy  which  animates  Sir  Thomas  Whittaker  and  his  friends, 
and  which  they  express  when  they  say  '  Let  us  improve  these  poor 
people  by  increasing  their  wages '  ;  we  would  see  the  operation  of  a 
totally  different  law.  The  disorganised  sections  would  tend  to 
disappear  as  the  increased  wages  put  an  end  to  the  industrial 
conditions  under  which  sweating  is  possible.  The  trade  and  the 
community  would  be  enormously  benefited,  but  '  these  poor  people  ' 
would  not  be  benefited.  They  would  be  eliminated.  To  abolish 
home  work  directly  and  honestly  may  be  cruel ;  to  go  to  the  home- 
worker  and,  under  guise  of  helping  her,  to  deprive  her  of  her  work 
altogether,  is  cruelty  of  a  superfine  character.  Commenting  on  what 
actually  took  place  when  Wages  Boards  were  begun  in  Victoria, 
Mr.  Aves  says  :  '  The  reports  bear  witness  that  an  improvement  in 
one  direction  was  only  secured  by  increased  suffering  in  another.' 

That  something  like  this  would  happen  was  present  to  the  minds 
of  the  Parliamentary  Committee  in  a  vague  and  confused  way.  For, 
when  the  Committee  came  to  consider  how  widely  the  net  of  the  Wages 
Boards  should  be  thrown,  it  found  itself  in  a  dilemma.  After  all  the 
fuss  that  has  been  made  about  the  beneficence  of  this  proposal, 
obviously  an  anti-climax  is  reached  if  the  Boards  are  only  to  apply  to 
home  work.  Not  only  are  there  wages  at  sweating  levels  in  factories, 
but  the  very  work  which  is  sweated  in  homes  is  the  same  as  is  sweated 
in  workshops.  It  was  therefore  proposed  to  extend  the  operations  of 
the  Boards  to  whole  trades  so  as  to  include  factories  and  workshops, 


752  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

but  that  was  defeated.  The  Chairman,  in  his  article  published  in  this 
Keview,  explained  that  he  is  in  favour  of  the  restriction  because 
home  work  conditions  are  different,  because  a  worker  in  a  factory 
using  a  sewing-machine  driven  by  power  can  do  four  to  six  times  as 
much  work  as  a  worker  at  home  using  a  treadle  machine.  '  Con- 
sequently,' he  concludes,  '  the  earning  power  of  the  two  classes  of 
workers,  if  the  rate  of  payment  per  article  or  process  be  the  same,  is 
enormously  different.' 

The  dilemma  here  involved  has  never  been  faced  by  the  advocates  of 
Wages  Boards.  Are  there  to  be  two  rates  of  wages,  one  for  factory  and 
one  for  home  work,  or  is  there  to  be  one  rate  for  both  ?  If  the  minimum 
weekly  pay  is  to  be  the  same  for  those  working  treadle  machines  as  for 
those  working  power-driven  ones,  work  done  at  home  will  have  to  carry 
with  it  a  three  or  four  times  higher  scale  of  piece  pay  than  similar  work 
done  in  a  factory.  For  a  third  or  a  fourth  of  the  production  the 
home-worker  is  to  receive  the  same  wages  as  the  factory  worker. 
This  would  at  once  wipe  out  of  existence  a  large  part  of  home  work. 
Hence,  a  common  minimum  wage  is  impossible.  Any  attempt  to 
impose  it  would  immediately  throw  great  numbers  of  home-workers 
upon  the  Poor  Law. 

If,  then,  a  common  scale  is  to  be  surrendered,  one  of  two  things 
can  be  done.  There  can  either  be  two  scales,  one  for  home  and  one 
for  factory  work,  or  the  home-worker  alone  may  be  dealt  with.  The 
section  of  the  Committee  which  proposed  to  apply  Board  decisions  to 
factories  had,  judging  by  the  report,  not  considered  the  effect  of 
its  amendment,  which,  under  the  circumstances,  was  very  properly 
defeated,  and  a  two-scale  proposal  was  not  discussed.  In  actual 
results  its  effect  would  probably  be  little  different  from  that  of  the 
recommendations  of  the  Committee  to  confine  the  Board's  decisions 
to  work  done  at  home.  I  believe  that  everyone  who  thinks  out  the 
problem  in  detail  will  agree  that  the  proposal  of  the  Committee  is  the 
better  of  the  alternatives,  however  futile  it  may  otherwise  be,  if  the 
intention  really  is  to  help  the  home-worker  without  abolishing  her 
altogether.  We  must,  therefore,  consider,  in  relation  to  actual  facts, 
the  recommendation  as  it  stands. 

Sir  Thomas  Whittaker  says  quite  truly  that  if  the  scope  of  the 
authority  of  the  Board  is  to  be  limited  to  home  work,  the  constituency 
from  which  its  representatives  are  to  be  drawn  must  also  be  limited. 
Clearly  it  would  not  be  reasonable  and  satisfactory  for  a  Board,  the 
representatives  of  the  employees  on  which  were  entirely  or  chiefly  fac- 
tory workers,  to  fix  the  rates  of  payment  for  home-workers  or  vice  versa. 
The  same  consideration  applies  to  the  representatives  of  the  employers. 
Now,  how  is  such  a  Board  to  work  ?  In  the  first  place,  it  will, 
obviously,  try  to  retain  the  economies  of  home  work  so  that  it  may 
exist  in  spite  of  factory  competition.  Moreover,  our  knowledge  of 
the  home-worker  shows  that  she  is  not  only  easily  frightened  by 


1908  SWEATING  AND    WAGES  BOA1WS  763 

threats  of  loss  of  work,  but  has  no  very  high  demands  at  best,  so  that 
the  minimum  which  such  Boards  will  fix  will  not  be  above  the  economic 
margin  of  home  work,  nor  allow  a  satisfactorily  high  standard  of  life. 
An  attempt  was  made  to  embody  in  the  report  of  the  Committee  the 
following  :  '  Your  Committee  have  received  evidence  showing  the  fear 
of  some  home-workers  that  if  the  conditions  of  their  employment  are 
made  more  stringent  they  may  be  prevented  from  obtaining  any  home 
work  at  all.'  The  Committee  refused  to  insert  this,  but  the  evidence 
is  on  their  minutes.  Only  those  who  have  come  into  personal  contact 
with  home-workers  in  the  mass  know  how  truly  that  rejected  paragraph 
expresses  home-workers'  feelings. 

How  far  the  minimum  reward  of  labour  can  be  raised  and  yet 
retain  the  economy  of  home  work  depends  largely  upon  what  profit 
is  made  from  home  work. 

At  an  early  stage  of  the  inquiry  the  usual  evidence  was  given 
of  instances  of  clothing  made  at  home  for  next  to  nothing  and  sold  in 
the  West  End  at  high  prices.2  But  assuming  the  figures  to  be  perfectly 
accurate,  they  do  not  help  us  in  the  least  to  a  solution  of  the  problem. 
As  this  is  really  the  economic  crux  of  its  case,  the  Committee  should 
have  taken  careful  pains  to  analyse  the  final  price  into  its  various  costs, 
commissions  and  profits,  so  that  we  could  see  what  margin  there 
is  for  increased  cost  of  labour.  From  other  more  careful  sources  we 
have  evidence  on  this  point.  The  selling  prices  given  in  Appendix  VII. 
to  the  first  volume  of  evidence  offered  to  the  Committee  have  been 
submitted  to  a  very  competent  investigator  of  much  experience, 
and  she  states  "  the  price  at  which  sweated  goods  are  sold  is  put 
higher  than  it  really  is,"  and  in  her  report  she  enters  into  details 
in  proof  of  her  statement.  The  fact  is  that  only  a  small  proportion 
of  sweated  goods  are  sold  at  high  rates.  Match-boxes,  tooth-brushes, 
babies'  clothes,  corsets,  wearing  apparel,  artificial  flowers,  gloves, 
beading  work,  slippers,  shirts  made  under  sweated  conditions  are, 
as  a  rule,  sold  cheap,  and  the  consumer  as  such  shares  in  the  ad- 
vantages of  sweating.  There  are  exceptions,  but  they  are  only  ex- 
ceptions, even  if  they  are  glaring. 

The  cases  of  articles  made  at  home  for  next  to  nothing  and  sold 
for  high  prices  are  drawn  from  a  very  small  class  which  repre- 
sents hardly  an  appreciable  percentage  of  the  total  volume  of  work 
done.  As  those  who  have  been  studying  this  problem  in  minute  detail 
for  some  years  have  insisted,  the  home-worker  is  competing  nob  with 
other  home-workers,  but  with  factory  production  and  its  great  econo- 
mies. For  a  long  time  the  cheap  home  hand-worker  delayed  the 
introduction  of  a  buttonholing  machine ;  hook  and  eye  carding  by 
hand  is  now  being  pushed  back  by  the  menace  of  a  machine ;  the 
home-worker  in  the  hosiery  trade  has  lost  process  after  process  after  a 
struggle,  as  machine  after  machine  has  been  introduced.  Th?s  can  be 
-  See  Appendix  VII.  to  Report  of  Committee  for  1907. 

VOL.  LXlV-No.  381  3  E 


754  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

said  of  nearly  every  home-work  process,  from  making  match-boxes 
to  tooth-brushes.  A  good  deal  of  home  work  is  given  out  more  because 
of  use  and  wont  than  because  it  really  pays,  and  even  in  the  fancy 
departments  of  ladies'  tailoring  and  dressmaking,  where  individual 
attention  is  required,  and  where  the  work  is  not  usually  repetition, 
an  intelligent  employer  finds  that  it  pays  him  to  have  it  done  in  his 
own  workrooms.  He  saves  middlemen's  profits  and  commissions  ; 
the  supervision  is  better ;  there  is  less  risk  of  spoiling  material,  and, 
taken  all  round,  the  work  is  much  more  satisfactorily  produced.  A 
well  equipped  and  managed  factory  or  workroom  paying  fair  wages 
can  run  home  work  with  its  sweating  very  hard.  The  home-worker 
sitting  on  a  board  with  her  employer  will  fix  wages  at  a  point  wliich 
will  allow  competition  between  the  home  and  the  workshop  or  the 
factory  to  continue,  and  the  result  will  be  something  exceedingly 
insignificant.  The  Wages  Boards  recommended  by  the  Committee 
will  not  abolish  sweating.  There  is,  indeed,  a  grave  danger  that  they 
will  intensify  it,  for  the  women  crushed  out  of  the  Wages  Boards' 
trades  will  only  turn  to  the  unregulated  ones,  to  make  their  condition 
harder  and  their  sweating  blacker. 

If  we  examine  the  proposals  of  the  Parliamentary  Committee,  to 
ascertain  how  far  they  meet  the  practical  difficulties  of  administration, 
we  are  again  left  in  a  state  of  mind  little  short  of  amazement. 

How  is  the  minimum  wage  to  be  fixed  ?  Quite  properly,  the 
Committee  says  that  it  must  be  on  a  time  basis — so  much  per  week — 
but  that  in  actual  working  the  rate  will  have  to  be  enforced  by  piece- 
work prices  fixed  by  estimating  that  an  average  worker  would,  upon 
such  prices,  be  paid  the  weekly  minimum.  It  is  admitted  that  the 
actual  piece  rates  will  vary  greatly,  and  that  the  employer  who  is 
struggling  to  retain  sweating  advantages  could  render  the  administra- 
tion of  a  rigid  price  list,  Like  those  fixed  by  voluntary  Conciliation 
Boards  of  Trade  Unions  and  Employers'  Federations,  quite  im- 
possible, because  he  could  modify  his  work  so  that  it  would  not  be 
exactly  what  was  specified  in  the  piece  schedules  as  fixed  by  the 
Boards.  The  advocates  of  Wages  Boards,  therefore,  propose  a  vague, 
fluctuating,  and  uncertain  administration,  depending  upon  the 
discovery  of  an  average  worker,  and  the  opinion  of  a  magistrate  as 
to  what  this  hypothetical  average  worker  should  be  paid  for,  say,  an 
extra  button  or  a  row  of  stitching  on  a  coat,  or  an  insertion  of  lace  in 
a  lady's  blouse.  Now,  how  can  any  judge  ever  estimate  the  very  fine 
margins  which  separate  legal  from  illegal  payments  for  small  piece 
operations  in  relation  to  a  minimum  weekly  wage  ?  What  evidence 
about  an  average  worker  can  possibly  make  it  clear  to  the  judicial 
mind  whether  a  special  piece  of  work  should  be  paid  for  at  6d.,  G^d., 
or  (j^d  ?  Besides,  an  average  worker  is  only  part  of  the  data  required. 
There  must  also  be  average  machines  which  the  average  worker 
uses  ;  and,  in  addition,  an  order  of  average  amount  in  some  trades. 


1908  SWEATING   AND    WAGES   BOARDS  765 

A  witness  told  the  Committee  that  in  making  Gibson  costumes,  the  first 
one  could  not  be  done  at  a  satisfactory  price  because  time  was  taken 
in  learning  how  to  fit  the  pieces,  trimmings,  etc.  together,  but  that 
when  she  had  two  or  three  of  the  same  design  to  do,  the  prices  which 
were  sweating  prices  for  the  first  were  fairly  good  when  averaged 
over  the  whole  order.3  A  court  of  summary  jurisdiction,  adjudicating 
upon  all  the  consideratipns  which  determine  what  is  an  average 
worker  and  average  conditions,  would  be  an  impossible  authority  for 
enforcing  the  law,  and,  indeed,  no  inspector  could  ever  be  so  sure 
of  his  facts  as  to  risk  prosecuting.  The  trade  union  agreements  have 
none  of  this  complexity  and  elusiveness  about  them.  They  are  for 
standard  work,  and  specify  precisely  what  they  mean. 

The  use  of  this  expression  '  average  worker '  really  indicates  the 
impracticability  of  the  whole  proposal.  Sir  Thomas  Whittaker  admits 
at  last  that  an  elaborate  schedule  of  piece  rates  cannot  be  enforced 
by  an  inspector,  but  falls  back  upon  the  even  more  impracticable 
proposal  to  make  a  magistrate  assess  the  capacity  of  an  average 
worker.  Even  if  such  an  assessment  were  possible,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  much  sweating  arises  from  prices  which  to  an  average 
worker,  working  under  the  best  conditions — for  instance,  the  owner 
of  a  sewing-machine  with  all  the  latest  appliances — are  quite  satis- 
factory. Indeed,  it  is  generally  forgotten  that  a  part  of  home  work 
is  very  well  paid  and  is  in  no  sense  sweated,  and  that  a  still  larger 
part  of  it  is  sweated  only  in  the  sense  that  it  is  done  by  unskilled 
fingers,  or  under  conditions  which  make  average  work  impossible, 
and  that,  in  such  cases,  a  Wages  Board  could  not  fix  a  higher  mini- 
mum than  now  exists,  but  which,  nevertheless,  with  bad  machines 
and  feeble  workers  is  in  reality  a  sweating  rate. 

The  Parliamentary  Committee  recorded  its  objection  to  a  pro- 
posal for  licensing  all  home-workers,  on  the  ground  that  a  large  staff 
of  inspectors  would  be  required.  The  Committee  seemed  to  assume 
that  it  is  easier  to  inspect  for  wages  payments  than  for  sanitation. 
The  fact  is,  that  nothing  is  more  difficult  than  to  enforce  the  obser- 
vance of  wages  standards  in  unorganised  trades.  Where  agreements 
have  been  come  to  between  masters  and  men's  unions,  experience 
has  shown  that  breaches  are  common  in  proportion  to  the  weakness 
of  the  unions,  and  a  Wages  Board  determination,  if  it  is  to  be  worth 
the  paper  on  which  it  is  written,  must  be  enforced  by  frequent  visita- 
tion, conducted  by  an  exceedingly  large  staff  of  inspectors.  One  has 
only  to  spend  a  few  days  in  the  home-work  districts  of  London, 
Manchester,  or  Leeds,  to  appreciate  what  impossibilities  the  task  of 

3  Miss  Holden's  statement  was  :  '  Q.  3614.  How  long  does  it  take  you  to  make 
that  garment? — A.  If  you  get  thoroughly  into  it,  it  will  take  about  3  or  34  hours,  but 
over  the  first  one  I  will  sometimes  take  nearly  all  day. 

'  3615.  Does  that  mean  you  could  make  two  or  three  a  day  ?— If  you  get  thoroughly 
into  them  ;  not  any  more,  if  that.' 

Sal 


756  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

enforcing  Wages  Boards  decisions  involves.  But  the  Committee  has 
nothing  to  say  about  this,  although  for  every  inspector  required  for 
licensing  at  least  two  will  be  required  for  enforcing  Wages  Board 
decisions. 

One  further  instance  of  the  Committee's  failure  to  appreciate 
the  character  of  the  problem  it  was  discussing,  and  of  its  ill-con- 
sidered proposals,  will  suffice.4  It  is  well  known  that  the  office  of 
middleman  is  an  important  one  in  the  mechanism  of  home  work. 
He  is  a  most  useful  person  :  he  fetches,  he  distributes,  he  co-ordinates, 
but  he  uses  his  position  to  exploit.  Evidently,  in  any  Wages  Board 
system  he  has  to  be  taken  into  account,  for  if  the  wages  fixed  are 
to  be  subject  to  his  commission  he  will  be  able  to  keep  down  the 
actual  pay  of  the  workpeople  to  its  present  level.  He  controls  the 
supply  of  unfinished  material,  and  so  he  can  exact  his  price.  Increased 
wages  given  by  Wages  Boards  will  only  mean  increased  commissions 
to  the  middleman,  unless  legislation  prevents  such  a  thing.  Now, 
the  Committee's  recommendation  on  this  point  is :  'It  is  very 
desirable  that,  wherever  practicable,  work  which  is  given  out  to  be 
done  by  workers  at  their  homes  should  be  delivered  and  collected 
by  persons  in  the  direct  employ  and  pay  of  the  employer.'  But  what 
are  the  facts  ?  It  is  not  desirable  from  the  employer's  point  of  view 
that  this  should  be  done.  Indeed,  the  opposite  is  the  case.  The  inde- 
pendent middleman  who  takes  the  work  out  in  bulk,  and  accepts 
responsibility  for  its  proper  return,  is  one  of  the  great  economies 
of  the  home-work  system.  To  some  extent,  the  Committee  was  aware 
of  this,  and  so  it  added  a  further  recommendation  : 

It  would  tend  to  facilitate  the  adoption  of  this  arrangement  if  it  were  pro- 
vided that  in  ascertaining  whether  the  piece  rates  paid  were  such  as  would  • 
yield  an  average  worker  not  less  than  the  fixed  minimum  wage,  allowance 
should  be  made  for  the  time  occupied  in  obtaining  and  returning  the  materials 
and  articles.  That  is  to  say,  the  time  so  occupied  should  be  regarded  as  part  of 
the  average  worker's  week. 

This  is  really  very  absurd,  and  perhaps  one  makes  a  mistake  in 
treating  it  seriously.  We  might  as  well  ask  employers  to  pay  for  the 
time  spent  by  their  factory  workers  in  going  to  and  fro  between  their 
homes  and  their  workplaces.  The  suggestion  is  a  feeble  attempt  to 
conceal  the  fact  that  the  Committee  has  been  baffled  by  the  problem 
of  the  middleman.  If  Parliament  were  to  consider  it  seriously,  the 

4  I  cannot  help  pointing  out  as  well  that  the  Committee's  recommendation  that 
the  Public  Health  Act  of  1875,  Section  91  (which  is  repeatedly  quoted  as  Section  9), 
should  be  extended  to  include  home  work,  shows  in  a  very  unpleasant  way  how  ill- 
equipped  the  Committee  was  to  deal  with  its  reference.  The  simple  fact  is  that  this  is 
the  Section  already  used  for  practically  all  the  inspection  of  home-workers  by  local 
authorities,  and  it  is  regarding  its  operations,  amongst  other  provisions,  that  the 
Committee  says,  in  a  previous  section  of  its  own  report,  '  these  provisions  of  the 
existing  law  have  failed  to  produce  any  real  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  home- 
workers.' 


1908  SWEATING  AND    WAGES  BOARDS  757 

effect  would  be  that  every  home-worker  under  Wages  Boards  would 
be  told  to  deal  with  a  middleman,  because  the  giver-out  of  work  did 
not  see  his  way  to  pay  for  time  consumed  in  obtaining  articles  from 
and  returning  them  to  his  warehouse  ;  or  only  those  workers  living  in 
overcrowded  areas  near  warehouses  would  be  employed.  A  proposal 
to  kill  off  the  independent  middleman  who  lives  by  commissions  on 
wages  thus  turns  out  to  be  a  plan  for  giving  him  a  new  advantage.! 

II. 

• 

The  humanitarian  heroics  of  Wages  Boards  as  a  remedy  for  sweating 
break  down,  as  all  other  heroics  do,  when  faced  with  the  facts  of  life.  If 
they  could  have  succeeded  anywhere,  it  would  have  been  in  Australia, 
where  they  have  been  tried  in  various  forms  since  1897.  The  country 
was  small,  its  industry  was  simple,  its  population  was  but  a  handful 
and  was  not  herded  into  great  centres ;  its  industrial  inspection  was 
child's  play ;  it  was  protected  by  a  tariff  which  enabled  it  to  maintain 
high  standards  of  exchange,  and,  therefore,  high  nominal  wages,  and, 
above  all,  it  was  inspired  by  the  pioneer  spirit  which  responds 
generously  to  simple  human  demands,  and  is  not  oppressed  and 
stifled  by  the  experiences  which  meet  older  states  of  how  legislation 
so  often  misses  its  mark,  and  how  the  beneficent  expectations  of  a 
Bill  mysteriously  change  into  the  cold  disappointments  of  an  Act. 

And  yet,  in  spite  of  all  its  special  advantages,  Australia  has  little 
to  show  for  its  Wages  Boards.  The  system  has  been  twice  investi- 
gated by  trained  men.  Mr.  Victor  S.  Clark  examined  its  results  for 
the  United  States  Government,  and  Mr.  Aves  for  our  own.  Both 
warn  us  against  accepting  the  statements  of  Wages  Boards'  advocates 
that  opinion  in  Victoria  is  in  favour  of  the  Boards.  The  majority  still 
clings  to  the  idea  as  being  sound — for  the  same  reason  as  it  clings  to 
a  belief  in  the  advantages  of  Protection.  But  every  scheme  has  had  to 
be  amended  and  re-amended.  Mr.  Aves  writes  in  his  Report  (p.  10)  : 

I  desire,  in  drawing  attention  to  the  diversity  and  change  of  opinion,  to 
emphasise  the  mistake  that  is  made  when  the  Acts  are  regarded  as  though  they 
were  in  any  sense  stereotyped  in  form,  as  though  there  was  a  united  opinion, 
even  a  united  class  opinion,  concerning  them  ;  and,  perhaps,  greatest  fallacy  of 
all,  as  though  the  opinions  held  were  stable. 

That  is  the  conclusion  to  which  I  came  when  in  Australia  two  years 
ago.  The  Australian  people  had  committed  themselves  to  compulsory 
arbitration  in  varying  forms.  They  were  proud  of  it.  It  had,  indeed, 
suited  some  of  their  conditions  most  admirably,  and,  for  the  time 
being,  it  had  even  served  them  well.  But  the  most  vital  fact  about 
it  to  me  was,  that  as  Australian  industry  became  complicated  and 
the  spirit  and  ethics  of  a  hardened  commercialism  were  growing 
upon  the  country,  the  arbitration  system  too  was  hardening  and  at 
important  points  it  was  breaking  down ;  it  was  not  meeting  new 


758  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Nov. 

conditions — conditions  very  old  with  us.  New  Zealand  was  therefore 
introducing  revolutionary  amendments  to  its  arbitration  law  which 
were  bringing  its  Government  into  conflict  with  organised  labour — 
the  hitherto  determined  supporter  of  arbitration.  The  workers  of 
Victoria  were  full  of  complaints  about  the  existing  Wages  Boards' 
mechanism,  and  I  was  assured,  both  publicly  and  privately,  that 
unless  it  were  amended  drastically  it  might  as  well  be  abolished 
altogether.  Mr.  Clark,  in  his  book  (The  Labour  Movement  in  Austral- 
asia, p.  244),  says  '  The  essential  fact  is  that  the  present  condition 
is  unstable.'  • 

A  habit  has  arisen  of  assigning  to  the  Victorian  Wages  Boards 
(the  best  representatives  of  this  experiment  which  can  be  quoted) 
all  the  increases  in  wages  and  improvements  in  industrial  conditions 
of  those  affected  by  them  that  have  blessed  Victoria  in  recent  years  ; 
and  this  mistake  has  been  encouraged  by  the  form  which  the  reports 
of  the  factory  inspector  take.  In  these  reports,  under  each  trade 
affected  by  Boards,  there  is  a  statement  regarding  wages  like  this  : 
'  In  [date],  before  the  Determination  came  into  force,  the  average 
wage  in  this  trade  was  -  —  ;  last  year  it  was  -  — .  These  figures 

indicate  a -general  average  increase  of for  each  employee  in  the 

trade.' 

The  implication  of  this  form  of  statement  is  that  the  improve- 
ment in  wages  is  an  effect  solely  of  the  Wages  Board. 

Both  Mr.  Clark  and  Mr.  Aves  warn  us  against  these  superficial 
assumptions.  The  year  1896,  when  Wages  Boards  were  first  formed, 
was  one  of  the  darkest  in  Victoria's  industrial  history.  Unemploy- 
ment was  general,  respectable  families  were  in  great  straits,  and  an 
abnormal  amount  of  home  work  was  being  done  temporarily  until  the 
upward  movement  took  place.  The  recovery  since  then  has  been  on 
ordinary  and  normal  lines  upon  which  the  influence  of  Wages  Boards 
has  been  difficult  rather  than  easy  to  trace.  The  really  effective  anti- 
dote to  sweating  in  Victoria,  according  to  the  information  I  was  able 
to  gather  on  the  spot,  was  the  Factory  Law  of  1896,  which  provided, 
amongst  other  things,  that  places  where  home  work  was  done  should 
be  registered  and  watched  by  the  factory  inspector.  There  is  some 
difference  of  opinion  as  to  how  to  distribute  the  credit  for  the  reduc- 
tion of  sweating  in  Victoria,  but  the  more  closely  one  investigates  the 
course  of  its  decline,  the  less  one  sees  the  effect  of  Wages  Boards. 

It  is  of  particular  interest,  moreover,  to  discover  how  Wages 
Boards  have  acted  under  conditions  similar  to  ours.  For  instance, 
where  there  is  a  population  akin  to  our  foreign-born  people  sweated 
in  London,  Leeds,  Manchester  and  elsewhere,  or  where  there  is  an 
economic  class  of  sweated  people  whose  very  existence  is  threatened 
by  a  forced  increase  in  wages,  what  has  happened  ?  We  have  such 
a  situation  illustrated  in  the  Chinese  furniture  works  of  Melbourne. 
Cheapness  of  production,  secured  by  the  sweating  of  employees, 


1908  SWEATING  AND   WAGES   BOARDS  759 

keeps  the  Chinese  furniture  trade  going.  Every  conceivable  attempt 
has  been  made  to  make  this  trade  conform  to  the  decisions  of  the 
Furniture  Wages  Board.  But,  naturally,  both  employers  and  employees 
have  combined  to  prevent  the  payment  of  the  increased  wages  which 
would  ruin  their  trade,  with  the  result  admitted  by  the  Chief  Factory 
Inspector  in  several  Annual  Reports  : 

From  the  Chinese  point  of  view  it  means  eithei-  giving  up  the  manufacture 
of  furniture  or  evading  the  minimum  wage.  Under  these  circumstances  I  am 
unable  to  get  any  reliable  information  from  the  Chinese  workmen  as  to  what 
wages  they  receive,  and  I  have  once  more  to  admit  I  know  of  no  way  of 
compelling  the  employers  to  pay  the  legal  rates. 

Upon  this  point,  Mr.  Aves  says  that  evasions  are  discovered  owing 
to  the  smallness  of  the  community  '  unless  there  be  active  collusion. 
In  that  case,  there  is  an  admitted  helplessness.'  The  employee 
threatened  with  the  loss  of  his  work  by  the  apparent  blessing  of  high 
wages  declines  the  high  wages  and  conspires  with  his  employer  to 
defeat  the  intention  of  the  law. 

But,  outside  this  particular  case  of  the  Chinese,  there  is  no  uniformity 
of  opinion  regarding  the  enforcement  of  decisions.  I  was  told  by 
church  workers  and  other  people  interested  in  social  questions  that 
work  was  being  done  in  Melbourne  at  prices  which,  when  reduced  to 
English  exchange  values,  would  be  very  bad ;  and  if  these  cases  are 
few,  it  must  be  remembered  that  Melbourne  is  not  such  a  very  large 
town.  Mr.  Aves  reports  that : 

Tn  reply  to  a  question  as  to  how  often  the  home-workers  among  the  white 
workers,  for  instance,  were  visited,  I  was  informed  that  they  were  not  visited 
once  a  year,  although  some  during  that  period  might  be  seen  six  times.  Neither 
could  it  be  asserted  that  they  were  visited  once  in  two  years. 

He  thinks,  in  spite  of  this,  that  '  the  general  position  with  regard  to 
outworkers  is  known.'  I  was  assured  by  persons  whom  I  consider 
to  be  reliable  that  that  is  not  the  case  ;  and  Mr.  Clark  states  (p.  147) 
'  I  have  seen  large  bundles  of  clothing  going  out  of  factories  [in  Mel- 
bourne] to  be  made  up  by  contractors  who  were  evading  Board 
Determinations.' 

But  the  most  important  matter  of  all  is  the  discovery  of  how  far 
the  disorganised  women  workers  have  had  their  wages  raised — even 
if  only  apparently — by  Wages  Boards.  The  conclusions  appear  to 
be  as  follows  : 

(1)  After  the  first  Determination  practically  no  change  has  taken 
place.  '  Males  have  been  almost  the  sole  gainers  from  revisions,' 
says  Mr.  Aves.  A  new  classification  has  been  made  in  the  confectionery 
and  jam  trades  which  partly  improves  and  partly  worsens  condi- 
tions ;  and  increases  of  2s.  per  week  have  been  secured  by  women 
making  wire  mattresses  and  leather  goods.  No  other  changes  in 
wages  have  been  made. 


760 


THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


Nov. 


(2)  Taking  the  trades  where  any  appreciable  percentage  of  women 
are  employed,  those  not  subject  to  Wages  Boards  show  an  increase 
of  wages  on  the  average  of   12s.   5%d.  per  week,  whilst  the  Wages 
Boards'  trades  show  an  increase  of  8s.  lO^d.    From  these  figures  no 
conclusion  except  a  negative  one  as  regards  Wages   Boards  can  be 
drawn. 

(3)  If  we  take  the  recorded  wages,  we  have  to  accept  the  same 
conclusions.     On  the  average,  wages  have  increased  in  the  clothing 
trade  by  8d.  per  week  since  1896,  in  dressmaking  by  9d.  since  1903, 
by  IQd.  in  jam-making  since  1900,  by  lid.  in  shirt-making  since  1896, 
by  Is.  8d.  in  underclothing  since  1898  ;  and  these  are  the  chief  women's 
trades  regulated  by  Boards.     When  the  average  for  adults  alone  is 
slightly  better  than  these  figures  it   is  always  dragged  down  by  an 
increase  in  juvenile  labour.     The  minimum  for  adults  fixed  by  Boards 
in  these  trades  respectively  is  20s.,  16s.,  14s.,  16s.,  16s.  per  week. 
Here,  again,  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  failure  of  Wages  Boards  ; 
more  particularly  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  purchasing  power 
of  money  is  appreciably"  less  in  Victoria  than  in  this  country.     In 
this  connection  it  is  also  to  be  noted  that  rarely  in  the  case  of 
unorganised  women  are  wages  paid  over  the  fixed  minimum. 

(4)  How  far  Wages  Boards  have  steadied  wages  and  kept  them  up 
to  the  minimum,  mean  though  it  may  be,  is  another  question  of  some 
importance.      The  average  wages  paid  through  a  series  of  years  in 
regulated  and  unregulated  trades  help  us  to  a  conclusion  on  this 
matter.     We  can,  for  instance,  compare  clothing  and  boots,  which 
are  regulated,  with  hosiery  and  tobacco,  which  are  unregulated. 


Clothing 
Boots 

Hosiery 
Tobacco 


18% 

1897 

1898 

1899 

1900 

1901 

1902 

1903 

1904 

1905 

1906 

.«.  rf. 

15  5 
13  4 

s.   d. 
15    8 
12    7 

t.    d. 
18    8 
14    7 

s.  d. 
18  6 
14  11 

s.  d. 
18  1 
14  7 

.«.  rf. 
18  8 
15  8 

*.   d. 
18    8 
14    8 

*.  d. 
18  0 
14  0 

*.  rf. 
17  1 
JS10 

s.  d. 
16  9 
18  8 

t.  d. 
16  9 
14  2 

12  2 
15  5 

11    7 
1411 

10  10 
15    8 

11  8 
18  0 

11  4 
16  7 

12  5 

17  8 

12    8 
1610 

11  8 
17  5 

13  4 
17  2 

18  8 
18  5 

14  2 
1810 

For  these  figures  Mr.  Aves  is  responsible.  Once  more  it  is  the  negative 
result  of  Wages  Boards  which  is  most  striking.  '  The  effect  upon 
wages  appears  to  be  inconsiderable,'  are  Mr.  Aves'  words. 

(5)  Owing  to  the  Factory  Acts  and  the  power  of  the  Labour 
Party  in  industry,  home  work  occupies  a  '  place  of  very  secondary 
importance,'  although  it  is  now  growing,  and  the  inspectors  admit 
that  a  good  deal  of  it  is  unlicensed.  The  statistics  of  wages  given 
are  those  of  factories  alone.  '  No  wages  returns  of  home  work  are 
published.'  The  effect  of  Wages  Boards  upon  the  home-worker's 
income  is  therefore  not  known,  although  I  was  informed  by  those 
who  had  done  some  investigation  into  the  subject  that  the  statutory 
minimum  of  ±d.  per  hour  is  not  exceeded,  and  is  not  always  reached. 


1908  SWEATING   AND    WAGES   BOARDS  761 

(ft)  This  experience  has  been  acquired  at  a  time  when  every  economic 
tendency  for  an  increase  in  wages  has  been  in  operation,  more  particu- 
larly a  great  shortage  of  women's  labour.  Mr.  Aves  says  '  It  is 
"  the  same  everywhere,"  I  was  told  by  a  group  of  women  whose 
experience  gave  them  abundant  opportunities  of  knowing  :  employers 
"  cannot  get  experienced  workers."  A  dressmaker  could  expand 
her  business  "  at  once  "  if  she  could  only  obtain  experienced  workers.' 
Factory  development  has  swallowed  up  all  available  labour,  and  no 
opportunities  have  been  given  for  the  perpetuation  of  sweating 
conditions. 

(7)  Finally,  a  general  conclusion  must  be  expressed.  The  opera- 
tions of  these  Boards  (but  far  more  in  the  organised  men's  than  in  the 
unorganised  women's  trades)  have  an  influence  in  concentrating  atten- 
tion upon  wages.  They  have  in  some  measure  taught  by  compulsion 
the  economy  of  high  wages,  which  has  been  a  gain  ;  but  they  have 
also  misled  the  workpeople  into  forgetting  that  wages  are  but  relations 
— are  but  measures  of  exchange.  I  have  not  known  labour  leaders  to 
be  less  aware  of  the  difference  between  nominal  and  real  wages  than 
those  of  Australasia. 

Such  are  the  meagre  results  of  Wages  Boards  where  they  have 
been  tried  under  conditions  of  extraordinary  advantage. 

III. 

The  misfortunes  of  the  sweated  worker  appeal  with  irresistible 
force  to  people's  hearts.  Some  consequently  seek  peace  of  mind  by 
doing  something — anything.  They  speak  of  sweating  as  though 
it  were  some  simple  phenomenon  which  is  capable  of  a  simple 
remedy.  They  decline  to  consider  details  ;  they  trust  to  Providence, 
luck,  and  their  own  good  intentions.  Their  arguments  are  pious 
opinions.  They  are  what  Sir  Thomas  Whittaker  describes  as  '  pills- 
for-earthquakes  reformers.'  They  have  proposed  Wages  Boards 
and  produced  the  most  imperfectly  considered  Report  which  this 
Parliament  has  published. 

The  problem  of  sweating  requires  a  different  treatment.  It  must 
be  analysed  into  its  causes.  How  are  the  wages  of  the  bread-winner 
to  be  raised  ?  How  is  casual  labour  to  be  decasualised  ?  How  is 
unemployment  to  be  prevented,  or  treated  when  it  occurs  ?  What 
can  be  done  for  the  widow  with  little  children  and  no  other  possessions  ? 
What  succour  can  we  give  to  the  industrial  sick  ?  For  it  is  these 
difficulties  that  together  form  the  problem  of  sweating.  Obviously, 
increasing  the  wages  of  women  workers  at  home  barely  touches  any 
of  these  questions.  An  increase  in  the  value  of  the  wife  as  a  bread- 
winner is  one  of  the  most  pernicious  things  that  could  happen  in  view 
of  the  present  disintegration  of  family  life  caused  by  the  inability  of 
large  classes  of  men  to  secure  sufficient  wages  to  be  a  family  income. 


762  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Nov. 

The  widow  having  to  take  care  of  young  children  cannot  properly 
take  part  in  the  exacting  labours  of  home  work,  driven  hard  by  factory 
competition.  She  has  to  be  helped  through  her  children.  Let  them 
be  boarded  out  with  her,  and  let  it  be  seen  that  she  takes  proper  care 
of  them.  Next  year,  the  Government  has  promised  to  deal  with  the 
problems  of  unemployment  and  of  casual  labour  ;  and  whether  it 
redeems  its  promise  or  not,  if  the  moral  aversion  to  sweating  were 
used  as  a  political  leverage  to  compel  the  Local  Government  Board 
to  take  some  positive  and  constructive  action  on  this  subject,  per- 
manent good  would  be  done.  The  influence  of  Old  Age  Pensions  is 
apparent,  and  if  these  can  be  supplemented  by  a  system  of  sickness 
and  other  accident  insurance,  further  poisoned  sources  of  sweating 
will  be  dried  up.  Above  all,  we  must  diminish  the  causes  which  tend 
to  casualise  home  work.  This  can  be  done  only  by  making  the  home- 
worker  feel  that  she  is  part  of  the  ordinary  and  regular  army  of  workers, 
and  not  a  kind  of  industrial  creature  of  the  gutter,  snatching  a  crust 
here  and  a  scrap  there.  This  can  best  be  secured  by  a  system  of 
Licensing — not  the  meaningless  proposal  of  the  Parliamentary  Com- 
mittee to  register,  but  the  giving  of  a  licence  to  a  person  enabling  her  to 
work  on  certain  premises  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the  inspector,  are  fit 
for  being  used  for  the  purpose.  This  would  at  once  discourage  every 
home-worker  who  is  only  a  casual,  working  one  week  and  not  another, 
and  would  tend  to  do  for  the  whole  class  which  remains  the  same 
thing  which  the  proposed  Labour  Registries  are  going  to  do  for  the 
casual  male  workers.  Test  the  need  of  the  home-worker  by  putting  her 
to  a  little  trouble  to  obtain  a  licence,  and  the  apparent  inconvenience 
in  reality  places  her  in  a  much  better  position  by  ridding  her  of  that 
casual  fringe  from  which  springs  so  much  of  her  distress.  The  sweated 
home-worker  must  go,  but  the  humane  and  true  way  to  abolish  her 
is  to  put  an  end  to  the  conditions  which  create  her.  Her  misfortunes 
are  independent  of  her  being  sweated.  Sweating  is  an  effect,  not  a 
cause.  The  impatient  pessimist  who  must  do  something  hastily  and 
dramatically  to  try  and  persuade  himself  that  he  is  an  optimist  with 
a  conscience,  is  not  satisfied  with  this  attack  on  the  causes  of  sweating, 
but  the  fact  remains  that  sweating  can  be  cured  not  by  a  concentrated 
pill,  but  by  a  general  policy  expressing  itself  in  many  directions. 
Wages  Boards  misdirect  our  energies  and  create  a  cumbersome  indus- 
trial machinery,  which  may  look  well,  but  which  will  not  work  ;  only 
an  attack  in  detail  upon  the  several  causes  of  sweating  can  have  a 
permanent  and  beneficial  effect  upon  our  industrial  condition  and 
upon  the  victims  of  its  shortcomings. 

J.  RAMSAY  MACDONALD. 


1908 


HOW    SWITZERLAND    DEALS    WITH    HER 
UNEMPLOYED 


THE  Swiss  are  an  eminently  frugal  people  :  everything  that  smacks 
of  waste  is  in  their  eyes  the  veriest  anathema  ;  and  it  is  to  them  a 
source  of  real  satisfaction  that  no  other  people  on  the  face  of  the 
earth  can  make  a  penny  go  quite  so  far  as  they  can.  And  they  are 
as  practical  as  they  are  frugal :  when  they  have  a  difficult  problem 
to  solve,  instead  of  wasting  time  lamenting  that  it  should  be  there 
to  be  solved,  they  straightway  set  to  work,  in  a  common-sense  fashion, 
to  consider  how  the  solving  can  best  be  done.  They  have  other  good 
qualities,  too,  of  course  ;  still,  it  was  because  they  are  frugal  and 
practical,  rather  than  because  they  are  humane  or  anything  else, 
that  they  first  began  grappling  with  unemployment  as  a  subject  of 
vital  importance,  not  only  to  the  unemployed  themselves,  but  to 
the  whole  community. 

It  was  realised  clearly  in  Switzerlaad,  already  many  long  years 
ago,  that  a  working  man  who  is  unemployed  is,  if  left  to  himself, 
prone  to  become  unemployable.  He  takes  to  the  road  in  search  of 
work,  and  on  the  road  drink  is  cheaper  than  food,  besides  being  more 
easily  procured.  A  glass  of  schnapps  is  more  comforting,  too,  than 
a  hunch  of  bread,  when  one  is  down  on  one's  luck  and  may  have  to 
sleep  in  a  ditch.  Nor  is  drink  the  only  danger.  It  is  the  easiest  thing 
in  life  to  drift  into  loafing  ways  :  they  are  few  and  far  between,  indeed, 
who  can,  for  very  long  at  a  time,  tramp  up  and  down,  day  in,  day  out, 
looking  vainly  for  work,  without  losing  the  desire  to  find  it. 

It  was  realised  also  and  equally  clearly,  many  long  years  ago, 
that  for  the  community  to  allow  any  one  of  its  members,  who  could 
be  kept  employable,  to  become  unemployable,  is  sheer  wasteful 
folly,  if  for  no  other  reason  than  because,  when  once  he  is  unem- 
ployable, the  community  must  support  him — must  support  his  chil- 
dren, too,  if  he  has  any.  Although  Switzerland  differs  from  England 
hi  that  no  one  there  may  claim  relief  as  a  right,  a  self-respecting 
community  cannot  anywhere,  in  this  our  day,  leave  even  the  most 
worthless  of  its  members  to  die  of  starvation.  Besides,  even  if  it 
could,  such  a  proceeding  would  be:  fraught  with  difficulties,  especially 

768 


764  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

in  a  country  where,  as  in  Switzerland,  the  government  is  democratic. 
For  although  there  are  undoubtedly  both  men  and  women  capable 
of  starving — some  of  them  actually  do  starve — without  disturbing 
their  neighbours  by  unseemly  wails,  they  form  but  a  small  minority 
of  any  population  ;  and  with  the  vast  majority  it  is  quite  otherwise. 
The  vast  majority  it  is  practically  impossible  to  leave  to  starve, 
because  of  the  uproar  they  would  make  while  starving.  For  them  the 
community  must  provide  board  together  with  lodging,  if  they  cannot 
provide  it  for  themselves  ;  and  they  cannot,  if  they  are  unemployable. 
It  behoves  the  community,  therefore,  as  a  mere.matter  of  self-interest — 
so,  at  least,  it  is  argued  in  Switzerland — to  do  everything  that 
can  be*  done  to  prevent  their  being  unemployed,  lest  they  become 
unemployable. 

This  is  a  point  on  which  all  cantons  alike  hold  decided  views. 
Throughout  the  country,  indeed,  there  is  a  strong  feeling  that  any 
man  who  is  out  of  work  must  be  helped  to  find  work  ;  and  this  not 
so  much  for  his  own  sake,  as  for  the  sake  of  the  whole  community — 
to  guard  against  his  being  a  cause  of  expense  to  it,  instead  of  being, 
as  he  ought  to  be,  a  source  of  income.  There  is,  however,  an  equally 
strong  feeling  that,  when  the  work  is  found,  the  man  must,  if  neces- 
sary, for  his  own  sake  as  well  as  the  sake  of  the  community,  be  made 
to  do  it ;  to  do  it  well,  too.  Practically  everywhere  in  Switzerland, 
while  it  is  held  to  be  the  duty  of  the  authorities  to  stand  by  the  genuine 
work-seeker  and  help  him,  it  is  held  to  be  their  duty  also  to  mete  out 
punishment  to  the  work-shirker,  and  force  him  to  earn  his  daily 
bread  before  he  eats  it.  No  toleration  is  shown  to  the  loafer,  for  he 
is  regarded  as  one  who  wishes  to  prey  on  his  fellows,  and  take  money 
out  of  the  common  purse  while  putting  none  into  it.  On  the  other 
hand,  what  can  be  done  is  done,  and  gladly,  to  guard  decent  men 
from  all  danger  of  becoming  loafers  through  mischance,  or  misfortune. 

In  England  a  man  may  deliberately  throw  up  ene  job,  and, 
without  ever  making  an  effort  to  find  another,  remain  for  months 
in  the  ranks  of  the  unemployed,  steadily  deteriorating  all  the  time 
into  an  unemployable.  Meanwhile,  no  one  has  the  right  to  say  him 
yea,  or  nay,  unless  he  applies  for  poor  relief.  In  Switzerland,  however, 
it  is  otherwise.  There  is  no  resorting  to  workhouses  as  to  hotels  there  ; 
no  wandering  round  the  countryside  extorting  alms  while  pretending 
to  look  for  work.  For  begging  is  a  crime  and  so  is  vagrancy ;  and 
in  some  cantons  the  police  receive  a  special  fee  for  every  beggar  or 
vagrant  they  arrest.  If  a  man  is  out  of  work  there,  he  must  try  to 
find  work ;  for  if  he  does  not,  the  authorities  of  the  district  where 
he  has  a  settlement  will  find  it  for  him,  and  of  a  kind,  perhaps,  not 
at  all  to  his  taste — tiring  and  badly  paid.  And  he  cannot  refuse  to 
do  it,  for  if  he  does  he  may  be  packed  off  straight  to  a  penal  work- 
house, an  institution  where  military  discipline  prevails,  and  where 
every  inmate  is  made  to  work  to  the  full  extent  of  his  strength, 


1908    SWITZERLAND   AND   HER    UNEMPLOYED     765 

receiving  in  return  board  and  lodging  with  wages  of  from  a  penny  to 
threepence  a  day.  And  when  once  he  is  there,  there  he  must  stay, 
until  the  authorities  decree  that  he  shall  depart ;  for  as  a  penal  work- 
house is  practically  a  prison,  he  cannot  take  his  own  discharge,  and 
the  police  are  always  on  the  alert  to  prevent  his  running  away.  No 
matter  how  long  his  sojourn  lasts,  however,  it  does  not  cost  the  com- 
munity a  single  penny ;  for  in  Switzerland  these  penal  institutions 
are  self-supporting.  Some  of  them,  indeed,  are  said  to  be  a  regular 
source  of  income  to  the  cantons  to  which  they  belong. 

Then  in  England  a  man  may  lose  his  work  through  no  fault  of 
his  own,  simply  because  times  are  bad ;  and  although  he  may  strive 
with  all  his  might  and  main  to  find  something  or  other  to  do,  he  may 
fail.  He  may  be  driven  by  the  sheer  force  of  circumstances  over 
which  he  has  no  control  whatever  into  joining  the  ranks  of  the  unem- 
ployed ;  nay,  let  him  struggle  as  he  will,  he  may  even,  if  his  strength 
or  his  heart  fail  him,  be  driven  into  becoming  an  unemployable.  Mean- 
while it  is  no  one's  real  business  to  give  him  a  helping  hand,  and  try  to 
keep  him  from  drifting  downwards.  No  matter  how  deserving  he  may 
be,  how  sober,  industrious,  and  thrifty,  the  community  in  most  districts 
takes  no  more  thought  for  him  than  for  the  veriest  drunken,  lazy  wastrel. 
It  looks  on  the  two  with  an  equal  eye,  and  is  just  as  willing  to  give 
aid  to  the  one  as  to  the  other.  The  casual  ward  and  the  workhouse 
stand  open  to  all  the  unemployed  alike  ;  and  all  the  unemployed 
alike,  no  matter  how  worthy  or  how  worthless,  have  an  equal  chance, 
so  far  as  the  community  is  concerned,  of  becoming  unemployable. 

In  this  case  also  in  Switzerland  it  is  otherwise  :  there  is  no  classing 
of  the  unemployed  by  casualty  or  misfortune  with  the  unemployed 
by  laziness  or  misconduct  there  ;  no  meting  out  to  them  of  the  same 
measure.  On  the  contrary,  as  a  matter  both  of  justice  and  good 
policy,  considerable  trouble  is  taken  to  distinguish  between  the  two 
classes,  so  that  each  may  be  dealt  with  according  to  it  merits.  The 
man  who  is  out  of  work  through  his  own  fault,  and  because  he  does 
not  wish  to  be  in  work,  is  treated  as  a  criminal,  and  sent  as  a  prisoner 
to  a  penal  institution ;  while  the  man  who  is  out  of  work  in  spite 
of  his  earnest  endeavour  to  be  in  work,  is  helped  without  being  sub- 
jected to  any  humiliation  whatever.  It  is  much  more  easy  there, 
however,  than  it  is  here,  it  must  be  admitted,  to  distinguish  between 
unemployed  and  unemployed  ;  as  there  every  working-man  has  his 
'  papers,'  i.e.  documents  which  are  given  to  him  by  the  authorities 
of  the  district  where  he  has  his  settlement,  and  which  contain  full 
information  as  to  where  and  by  whom  he  has  been  employed  in  the 
course  of  his  life.  Still  there  is  no  reason  why  we  too  should  not 
have  '  papers,'  as  their  cost  would  practically  be  nil ;  and  it  could 
be  no  disgrace  to  any  man,  and  might  sometimes  be  a  great  con- 
venience to  a  respectable  man,  to  have  always  at  hand  proof  that  he 
is  not  a  wastrel. 


766  TEE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

In  most  districts  in  Switzerland  there  is  a  special  fund,  out  of 
which  grants  are  made  to  respectable  persons  who  are  temporarily 
in  distress,  owing  to  lack  of  employment;  and  these  grants  entail 
neither  the  disgrace,  nor  yet  the  disabilities,  entailed  by  poor  relief. 
In  most  districts,  too,  the  authorities  make  it  part  of  their  business 
to  try  to  provide  lucrative  work  for  persons  who  cannot  provide  it 
for  themselves.  They  pay  them  regular  wages,  but  lower  wages  than 
a  private  employer  would  pay  them  for  similar  work ;  and  some- 
times, instead  of  paying  them  in  money,  they  pay  them  in  kind. 
Then  relief-in-kind  stations,  i.e.  casual  wards  organised  on  philan- 
thropic lines,  are  now  maintained  in  every  part  of  industrial  Switzer- 
land for  the  exclusive  use  of  the  respectable  unemployed :  and 
drunkards,  criminals  and  loafers  are  never  allowed  to  cross  the 
threshold  of  these  places. 

No  one  is  admitted  to  a  Swiss  relief-in-kind  station  unless  his 
papers  show  that  he  has  been  in  regular  work  within  the  previous 
three  months,  and  out  of  work  for  at  least  five  days  ;  unless  they  show 
also  that  neither  the  police  nor  his  own  district  authorities  have  any 
reason  for  looking  on  him  askance.  He  who  is  admitted,  however, 
is  made  welcome,  and  is  treated  with  consideration  as  a  respectable 
man  whom  misfortune  has  befallen.  If  he  arrives  at  midday,  he  is 
given  a  dinner,  and  is  told  exactly  where  his  best  chance  lies  of  finding 
work  in  the  whole  district.  For  attached,  as  a  rule,  to  a  station  is  a 
labour  bureau,  which  is  in  close  touch  with  all  the  employers  for 
miles  around,  and  in  communication  with  all  the  other  labour  bureaux 
in  the  canton,  as  well  as  with  the  central  bureau  for  the  whole  country 
at  Zurich.  If  he  arrives  in  the  evening,  he  is  provided  with  supper 
and  a  comfortable  bed  ;  and  on  the  following  morning  with  breakfast. 
All  this  gratis,  and  without  his  ever  being  asked  to  do  a  single  stroke 
of  work.  When  once  he  has  been  to  a  station,  however,  he  may  not 
return  there  until  at  least  six  months  have  passed  ;  and  he  may 
not,  as  a  rule,  stay  more  than  one  night  at  the  same  station.  Still, 
if  he  is  foot-sore  and  weary,  and  manifestly  in  need  of  a  rest,  he  is 
allowed  to  remain  longer,  and  is  given  the  chance  of  washing  his 
clothes  and  putting  them  in  order.  For  the  very  raison  d'etre  of  these 
places,  it  must  be  noted,  is  to  help  the  respectable  unemployed  to 
find  employment,  not  only  by  telling  them  where  it  is  to  be  found, 
but  by  keeping  them  fit,  physically  as  in  all  other  ways,  while  they 
are  finding  it.  For  they  who  manage  them  are  alive  to  the  fact  that 
employers  give  the  preference  to  the  fittest  when  engaging  hands. 

These  stations  are  a  semi-private  institution  :  they  were  organised 
and  are  managed  by  local  non-official  committees,  which  have  formed 
themselves  into  an  intercantonal  union,  and  all  work  together.  They 
are  supported  partly  by  voluntary  contributions,  and  partly  by 
state,  municipal,  and  communal  grants.  The  Poor  Law  authorities 
have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  them  ;  great  care,  indeed,  is  token 


1908    SWITZERLAND  AND   UEE    UNEMPLOYED    767 

to  keep  them  free  from  everything  connected  with  poor  relief,  and 
to  emphasise  the  fact  that  they  are  there  for  the  benefit  not  of 
paupers,  but  of  men  who,  although  temporarily  in  distress  owing  to 
lack  of  employment,  are  striving  to  escape  becoming  paupers. 

For  respectable  work-seekers  a  relief-in-kind  station  is  a  real 
boon,  for  they  can  go  there  not  only  without  losing  their  self-respect, 
but  without  running  aDy  risk  of  being  pauperised.  For,  although 
at  a  station,  they  are  helped  in  all  possible  ways  to  find  work,  if  they 
are  doing  their  best  to  find  it  for  themselves ;  let  them  but  relax  their 
efforts,  and  show  signs  of  a  willingness  to  remain  without  it,  and 
they  are  at  once  thrown  on  their  own  resources.  The  police,  who  are 
in  cjose  co-operation  with  the  station  officials,  always  keep  a  sharp 
watch  on  the  unemployed,  especially  on  such  as  are  sojourning  in 
these  refuges ;  and  if  they  find  them  refusing  work  when  it  is  offered 
under  reasonable  conditions,  or  accepting  it  and  losing  it  through 
carelessness,  laziness,  or  any  other  fault  of  their  own  ;  or  lounging 
by  the  wayside,  or  in  public-houses,  instead  of  betaking  themselves 
where  they  have  been  told  there  is  the  chance  of  a  job,  the  fact  is 
reported,  with  the  result  that  there  is  made  on  their  papers  a  note 
which  prevents  their  ever  again  crossing  the  threshold  of  any  station. 
At  the  end  of  three  months  from  the  day  they  leave  work,  they  forfeit, 
in  any  case,  their  right  to  go  to  any  station,  as  by  the  law  that  prevails 
in  these  institutions  it  is  only  men  who  h^ve  been  in  regular  em- 
ployment during  the  previous  three  months  who  are  eligible  for 
admission. 

Besides  these  stations,  there  are  in  Zurich,  Berne,  Bale,  Geneva, 
Neuchatel,  and  St.  Gall  Herberye  zur  Heimat,  i.e.  home'-inns,  where 
working-men,  if  without  lodgings,  may  stay  with  their  wives  and 
children  for  a  time  at  very  small  expense,  or  even  in  some  cases 
gratis.  There  are  also,  in  the  chief  industrial  centres,  Wdrmestuben 
(warm  rooms),  provided  either  by  the  authorities,  or  by  some  private 
society,  where  the  unemployed  may  pass  their  days  while  waiting 
for  work. 

Akeady  hundreds  of  years  ago  the  Swiss  were  dealing  with  their 
unemployed  on  common-sense  lines,  and  for  the  express  purpose  of 
preventing  their  becoming  a  charge  on  the  community.  And,  curiously 
enough,  they  were  guided  by  precisely  the  same  principles  then  as  they 
are  guided  now.  They  were  every  whit  as  sure,  when  Zwinglius  was 
their  social  law-giver,  as  they  are  to-day,  that  to  help  the  work-seeker, 
while  harrying  the  work-shirker,  is  an  act  of  good  policy  as  well  as  of 
righteousness.  They  had  much  the  same  methods,  too,  of  helping 
and  of  harrying  then  as  they  have  now  :  hundreds  of  years  ago  it  was 
their  custom  to  provide  work  for  persons  who  professed  to  be  unable 
to  provide  it  for  themselves  ;  their  custom,  too,  to  see  that  the  work 
provided  was  done.  Already  in  1637  Zurich  was  maintaining  a  penal 
workhouse  to  which  it  sent  its  wastrel  population  ;  and  in  1657  Berne 


768  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Nov. 

built  for  itself  a  similar  institution.  From  that  time  until  some 
twenty  years  ago,  the  state  of  things  in  Switzerland  remained  prac- 
tically the  same,  so  far  as  the  unemployed  were  concerned.  And  even 
then,  although  a  notable  change  was  made,  it  was  a  change  that 
consisted  not  in  replacing  old  methods  by  new  ones,  but  in  supple- 
menting the  old  by  new.  In  the  more  important  cantons  the  com- 
munity, instead  of  contenting  itself  with  taking  thought  for  the 
unemployed,  as  it  had  theretofore,  began  to  take  thought  also  for  the 
employed,  began  to  try  to  help  them — or  rather  to  show  them  how 
to  help  themselves — not  to  be  unemployed,  and  how  to  be  inde- 
pendent even  if  unemployed.  Up  to  1890  social  reformers  in  Switzer- 
land busied  themselves  chiefly  with  schemes  for  providing  the  un- 
employed with  employment ;  since  then  the  schemes  they  have  had 
most  at  heart  have  been  schemes  for  enabling  the  employed  to  insure 
against  unemployment,  and  to  remain  employable  even  if  unem- 
ployed. For  now  that  Switzerland  is  to  a  certain  extent  an  industrial 
state,  a  new  order  of  things  has  arisen,  one  under  which  it  is  prac- 
tically impossible  sometimes  to  provide  employment  for  all  who  need 
it,  owing  to  the  large  number  who  require  it  all  at  the  same  time. 

In  the  winter  of  1890  there  was  great  distress  in  Switzerland  : 
trade  was  so  bad  that  half  the  factories  in  the  country  had  closed 
their  doors,  and  every  town  was  thronged  with  men  and  women 
seeking  vainly  for  work.  District  authorities  were  at  their  wits' 
end ;  for,  let  them  strive  as  they  would,  they  could  not  find  work  for 
all  who  clamoured  for  it ;  and  when  they  took  to  dispensing  charity 
their  Poor  Funds  were  soon  empty.  A  very  bitter  feeling  arose,  there- 
fore, among  the  working  classes,  one  to  which  they  gave  voice  freely 
at  the  Labour  Congress  that  was  held  in  the  spring  of  1891.  At  this 
congress  the  Recht  auf  Arbeit  was  the  burden  of  many  speeches  ;  and 
for  the  first  time  the  cry  was  raised  for  insurance  against  unemploy- 
ment. A  petition  was  drawn  up,  calling  upon  the  •  Bundesrath  to 
insert  in  the  Federal  Constitution  an  article  recognising  the  right  of 
every  Swiss  subject  to  have  work  to  do,  and  to  receive  adequate  wages 
for  doing  it ;  calling  upon  it  also  to  devise  some  method  of  insuring 
against  unemployment.  The  Bundesrath,  of  course,  refused  the 
petition.  Still  the  public  conscience  was  troubled  ;  for  it  seemed  an 
intolerable  thing  that  men  who  were  able  to  work,  and  eager  to  work, 
should  be  driven  into  accepting  poor  relief  or  charity  because  they 
could  find  no  work  to  do,  even  though  they  sought  it  diligently. 

The  trade  depression  continued,  and  in  the  winter  of  1891  Dr. 
Wassilieff,  a  well-known  Labour  leader,  held  an  inquiry  in  Berne  for 
the  purpose  of  finding  out  to  what  extent  unemployment  really  pre- 
vailed there.  His  report  caused  much  heart-searching,  as  it  proved 
incontestably  that  a  large  section  of  the  working  classes  were  without 
employment,  and  were  therefore  living  just  from  hand  to  mouth, 
within  hailing  distance  of  starvation.  It  proved  also  incidentally 


1908    SWITZERLAND  AND  HER    UNEMPLOYED    769 

that  they  who  were  unemployed  then  would,  the  chances  were,  be 
unemployed  again  and  again,  as  their  unemployment  was  the  inevit- 
able outcome  of  the  new  state  of  things  that  had  arisen,  owing  to  the 
industrial  development  of  the  country. 

No  sooner  were  the  results  of  Dr.  Wassilieff's  inquiry  known 
than  the  fact  was  recognised,  in  Berne  at  any  rate,  that  the  country 
was  face  to  face  with  a  terribly  difficult  problem  ;  and  there  and 
then  it  was  decided,  in  a  characteristically  practical  fashion,  that  an 
attempt  must  be  made  to  solve  it.  Men  of  all  classes  and  callings 
met  together  ;  and,  having  formed  themselves  into  a  committee,  set 
to  work  to  study  the  whole  unemployed  question,  with  a  view  to 
finding  a  remedy  for  the  evils  entailed  by  unemployment.  While 
this  committee  was  still  sitting,  Dr.  Wassilieff  organised  a  Berne 
Labourers'  Union,  arid  drew  up  for  the  benefit  of  its  members  a  scheme 
for  insuring  against  unemployment.  He  proposed  that  the  Union 
should  maintain  an  Unemployed  Fund,  to  which  all  the  members 
should  contribute  ;  and  that  the  Municipality  should  pay  into  it 
out  of  the  rates  at  least  3000  francs  a  year.  Out  of  this  Fund  regular 
allowances  were  to  be  paid  to  such  of  the  labourers  as  were  out  of 
work,  in  winter,  through  no  fault  of  their  own. 

Dr.  Wassilieff  having  laid  his  scheme  before  the  committee,  the 
members  modelled  on  it  a  scheme  of  their  own,  under  which  it  was 
proposed  that  any  Labour  Union  that  would  organise  an  Unemployed 
Fund,  and  pay  allowances  to  those  belonging  to  it  when  out  of  work, 
should  receive  from  the  Municipality  an  annual  grant  equal  in  amount 
to  hah*  the  sum  of  the  allowances  paid.  When  this  project  was  brought 
before  the  Municipal  Council,  several  of  the  Councillors  opposed  it 
strongly,  holding  that  to  give  public  money  to  funds  belonging  to 
Unions  was  practically  to  offer  a  bribe  to  men  to  become  Unionists. 
A  Commission  was  appointed,  therefore,  to  consider  not  only  the  merits 
and  demerits  of  the  scheme  in  question,  but  the  whole  subject  of 
insurance  against  unemployment.  Within  two  months  the  Com- 
missioners pronounced  emphatically  in  favour  of  this  form  of  insurance, 
arguing  that,  for  the  well-being  of  the  State,  it  was  almost  as  neces- 
sary as  insurance  against  sickness  or  accident.  And  they  recom- 
mended that  an  Insurance  Bureau  should  be  organised  immediately, 
not  for  any  one  class  of  workers,  however,  but  for  all  classes  ;  and 
not  by  Trades  Unions,  or  any  other  section  of  the  community,  but  by 
the  Municipality  representing  the  whole  community.  This  was  a 
point  on  which  they  laid  great  stress,  arguing  that,  as  unemployment 
affects  the  whole  community,  the  whole  community  must  join  in 
battling  against  it.  Unfortunately,  they  gave  no  statistics  to  prove 
what  the  cost  of  the  battling  would  actually  be,  although  they  pro- 
posed that  the  expense  it  would  entail  on  the  community  should  be 
limited  to  5000  francs  a  year. 

The  Municipality  decided  at  once  to  act  on  the  recommendation 

VOL.  LX1V— No.  381  8  F 


770  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

of  its  Commissioners ;  and,  as  an  experiment,  to  give  a  trial  for  two 
years  to  the  scheme  they  had  drawn  up.  In  April  1891  there  was 
opened  in  Berne  the  first  Municipal  Bureau  for  Insurance  against 
Unemployment  the  world  had  ever  seen. 

The  Bureau  was  organised  on  voluntary  lines  ;  any  Swiss  subject 
might  insure  in  it,  but  no  one  need  insure  unless  he  chose.  Those 
who  did  insure  were  required  to  pay  40  centimes — a  fraction  less  than 
4:d. — a  month  each  into  the  Bureau  fund  ;  and  in  return  they  secured 
the  right  to  an  allowance  of  a  franc  if  alone-standing,  or  a  franc  and  a 
half  if  with  others  dependent  on  them,  for  every  day,  up  to  sixty 
days,  they  were  out  of  work  in  winter  through  no  fault  of  their  own. 
Employers  were  not  required  to  contribute  to  the  fund,  but  it  was 
hoped  that  they  would  do  so  voluntarily. 

During  the  first  year  404  men  insured  in  it ;  but  50  of  them  were 
struck  off  the  list  because  they  did  not  pay  their  fees  regularly.  Of 
the  remaining  354,  216  were  out  of  work  in  the  winter,  and  applied 
for  help.  Work  was  found  for  50  of  them,  and  the  other  166  received 
allowances.  These  allowances  amounted  to  6835  francs,  while  the 
fees  the  men  paid  amounted  to  only  1124  francs.  The  following 
year  things  were  a  little  better,  but  only  a  little  ;  for,  although  126 
new  members  joined  the  Bureau,  67  names  were  removed  from  the 
list.  In  the  course  of  the  winter  226  of  the  insured  were  out  of  work, 
and  219  of  them  received  allowances  amounting  to  9684  francs  ; 
while  the  fees  of  all  the  insured  together  amounted  only  to  1366 
francs.  Thus,  when  in  1895  the  time  came  for  weighing  the  experi- 
ment in  the  balance,  no  one  could  claim  that  it  had  proved  a  success. 
Still,  there  was  a  strong  feeling  that  it  must  not  be  abandoned,  as  it 
might,  if  worked  differently,  prove  a  success  in  the  future.  It  was 
bound  to  prove  a  success,  indeed,  its  managers  maintained,  if  only 
working-men '  of  all  classes  could  be  induced  to  throw  in  their  lot 
together  and  insure  against  unemployment.  As  it  was1,  it  was  only 
the  unskilled  who  insured ;  and  even  among  the  unskilled,  only 
those  who  were  likely  to  be  unemployed.  This  was  proved  by  the 
fact  that,  in  the  first  year  the  Bureau  existed,  61  per  cent,  of  the 
men  belonging  to  it  were  out  of  work.  It  was  proposed,  therefore, 
that  insurance  against  unemployment  should  be  made  compulsory ; 
and  as  this  was  beyond  the  power  of  the  Municipality,  Dr.  Wassilieff 
appealed  to  the  Cantonal  Government  to  frame  a  measure  on  the  same 
lines  as  that  on  which  the  Courts  of  Trade  are  founded,  conferring  on 
district  authorities  the  right  to  organise,  in  co-operation  with  the 
State,  insurance  against  unemployment  on  compulsory  lines.  He 
even  showed  them  how  it  could  be  done,  as  he  drew  up  for  them  a 
Compulsory  Insurance  Bill. 

The  Bill  was  received  with  enthusiasm,  and  the  Minister  of  the 
Interior  announced  his  intention  of  adopting  it  as  a  Government 
measure.  He  changed  his  tone,  however,  when  he  found  that,  although 


1908    SWITZERLAND  AND  HER    UNEMPLOYED    771 

the  mass  of  the  workers  were  in  favour  of  it,  the  better  paid  among 
them  were  bitterly  opposed  to  it,  regarding  it  as  an  attempt  to  levy  a 
tax  on  them  for  the  benefit  of  their  less  well-to-do  comrades.  Besides, 
if  it  were  passed,  the  whole  canton  would  be  flooded  with  underpaid 
labour  from  other  cantons,  they  said.  The  end  of  it  was,  the 
Cantonal  Parliament,  while  expressing  warm  sympathy  with  the  aim 
of  the  Bill,  decided  that  the  subject  with  which  it  dealt  was  not  ripe 
for  legislation. 

Meanwhile  the  Berne  Voluntary  Insurance  Bureau  was  pursuing 
the  even  tenor  of  its  way.  It  was  reorganised  in  1893  and  again  in 
1900.  Since  then  it  has  developed  into  an  extremely  interesting  and 
useful  institution.  It  is  now  joined  to  another  and  still  more  useful 
institution,  the  Berne  Municipal  Labour  Bureau,  the  two  being  housed 
in  the  same  building  and  worked  together.  They  are  under  the 
direction  and  control  of  a  managing  board,  consisting  of  nine  members, 
three  of  whom  are  elected  by  the  men  who  insure  and  three  by  their 
employers,  while  three  are  appointed  by  the  Municipal  Council. 
These  directors  hold  office  for  four  years ;  and  at  the  end  of  every  year 
they  render  an  account  of  their  stewardship  to  the  Municipal  Council. 
Three  of  the  directors  watch  over  the  working  of  the  insurance  bureau  ; 
three  over  that  of  the  labour  bureau  ;  while  one  acts  as  president, 
another  as  vice-president,  and  another,  again,  as  treasurer.  The  actual 
work  of  the  bureaux  is  done  by  three  paid  officials,  the  manager,  the 
manageress,  and  a  clerk.  The  manager  is  directly  responsible  to  the 
directors  both  for  what  he  does  himself  and  what  is  done  by  the  other 
officials.  All  the  bureaux  officials,  whether  honorary  or  paid,  carry  on 
a  regular  propaganda  to  induce  men  in  good  times  to  insure  against 
unemployment  in  bad  times.  The  insurance  bureau  is  open  only  to 
men  ;  but  the  labour  bureau  is  open  both  to  men  and  women. 

Any  man  who  lives  in  Berne,  whether  a  Swiss  subject  or  not,  may 
now  insure  against  unemployment  in  the  municipal  bureau,  providing 
he  is  able  to  work  and  not  above  sixty  years  of  age.  All  that  he  has  to 
do  is  to  apply  to  the  bureau,  either  directly,  or  through  his  employer  or 
his  Union,  for  an  insurance  book,  and  fasten  into  it  every  month  an 
insurance  stamp  of  the  value  of  70  centimes.  In  return  for  these 
70  centimes  a  month  he  secures  the  right  to  a  money  allowance  for 
every  day,  up  to  sixty  days,  that  he  is  out  of  work  during  the  months 
of  December,  January,  and  February,  provided  that  he  has  been  in 
work  for  at  least  six  months  in  the  course  of  the  year,  provided  also 
that  he  has  not  lost  his  work  through  laziness,  disorderly  conduct,  or 
any  other  fault  of  his  own,  and  that  he  has  not  refused  work  offered 
to  him  on  reasonable  conditions.  A  man  who  is  unemployed  because 
he  is  unemployable,  whether  from  illness  or  any  other  cause,  cannot 
claim  an  allowance  ;  nor  can  one  who  is  out  on  strike,  or  who  has 
belonged  to  the  bureau  for  less  than  eight  months,  or  who  is  in  arrears 
with  his  fees.  For  the  first  thirty  days  the  unemployed  allowance  is 

3  F  2 


772  THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY  Nov. 

a  franc  and  a  half  a  day  each  for  men  who  are  alone-standing,  and 
two  francs  for  those  who  have  others  dependent  on  them  ;  and  for 
the  remaining  thirty  days  it  is  as  much  as  the  directors  can  afford  to 
make  it — anything  from  80  centimes  to  a  franc  and  a  half.  If  the 
directors  refuse  to  grant  a  man  an  allowance,  or  if  they  reduce  his 
allowance  at  the  end  of  thirty  days  below  what  he  thinks  it  ought  to 
be,  he  may  appeal  against  them  to  the  Court  of  Trade.  The  unem- 
ployed elect  two  of  themselves  to  watch  over  their  interests  and  see 
that  each  of  them  receives  his  due. 

The  directors  are  bound  to  grant  an  allowance  to  every  member 
of  the  bureau  who  fulfils  the  conditions  under  which  allowances  may 
be  claimed.  As  one  of  these  conditions  is,  however,  that  the  claimant 
must  be  out  of  work  through  no  fault  of  his  own,  they  take  it  for 
granted  that  every  claimant  is  anxious  to  be  in  work  ;  and,  therefore, 
before  giving  him  one  penny,  they  try  to  find  work  for  him.  The 
manager  of  the  insurance  bureau,  it  must  be  remembered,  is  also  the 
manager  of  the  labour  bureau,  and  as  such  is  in  constant  communication 
with  all  the  employers  of  labour  in  the  canton,  as  well  as  with-  all 
the  labour  bureaux  in  the  country.  He,  therefore,  knows  to  a  nicety 
the  state  of  the  labour  market,  and  can  say  at  once  where,  if  any- 
where, work  is  to  be  had.  And  members  of  the  insurance  bureau  are 
allowed  to  travel  on  all  the  State  railways  at  half  the  usual  fares, 
when  in  search  of  employment.  If  he  reports  to  the  directors  that 
there  is  no  work  anywhere,  they  apply  to  the  Municipal  Board  of 
Works  to  start  at  once  some  undertaking  that  would,  perhaps,  other- 
wise not  be  started  until  later.  For  they  have  an  agreement  with  this 
Board  that  all  municipal  work  shall,  so  far  as  possible,  be  done  in 
December,  January,  and  February,  and  by  members  of  the  insurance 
bureau.  Thus  they  have,  as  a  rule,  a  fair  amount  of  work  to  offer 
during  these  months  ;  and  anyone  who  refuses  it  when  offered  forfeits, 
of  course,  his  claim  to  an  allowance.  Allowances  are  granted,  in  fact, 
only  in  cases  in  which  work  cannot  be  provided  and  only  until  it  can. 
The  men  who  receive  them  are  required  to  present  themselves,  twice 
every  day,  in  the  bureau  waiting-room  to  see  if  the  manager  has  a 
job  for  them. 

rg*l  On  the  1st  of  April  1905  the  insurance  bureau  had  593  members, 
and  196  more  joined  it  in  the  course  of  the  year  ;  while  175  were 
struck  off  its  list,  either  because  they  had  died,  or  because  they  had 
failed  to  pay  their  fees.  On  the  1st  of  April  1906  it  had  614  mem- 
bers ;  and  it  gained  126  more  during  the  year,  while  it  lost  169.  In  the 
winter  of  1905-6,  234  of  the  insured,  i.e.  38  per  cent.,  were  out  of  work 
and  received  either  work  or  allowances.  Of  these  63  per  cent,  were 
under  fifty  years  of  age,  and  only  9  per  cent,  were  above  sixty.  In  the 
winter  of  1906-7,  out  of  571  members,  239,  i.e.  42  per  cent.,  announced 
themselves  as  being  out  of  work.  Fifty-five  per  cent,  of  the  239  were 
under  fifty  years  of  age,  and  fifteen  were  above  sixty.  The  bureau 


succeeded  in  providing  114  of  them  with  work,  and  granted  allow- 
ances to  the  rest. 

In  1905-6  the  full  expenditure  of  the  insurance  bureau,  exclusive 
of  rent  and  salaries — the  Municipality  provides  the  building  for  both 
the  bureaux  and  pays  their  three  officials — was  6480  francs  ;  and  in 
1906-7  it  was  10,438  francs.  In  1905-6,  6228  francs  out  of  the 
6480  went  directly  to  the  insured  in  allowances  ;  and  in  1906-7, 
9804  francs  out  of  10,438.  In  the  former  year  office  expenses 
amounted  only  to  123  francs,  and  in  the  latter,  to  375. 

In  1905-6  the. income  of  the  bureau  was  19,022  francs,  viz. — 

Francs 

Members'  fees w        .  4,702 

Employers'  voluntary  contributions   ....  1,356 

Other  presents 229 

Municipal  grant  (fixed  in  amount)      ....  12,000 

Interest  on  capital 735 

Total »''•'''.     19,022 

In  1906-7  its  income  was  17,948  francs,  viz. — 

Francs 

Members'  fees '    ,.  3,822 

Employers'  voluntary  contributions   ....  1,043 

Other  presents 76 

Municipal  grant 12,000 

Interest  on  capital 1,007 

Total 17,948 

Thus,  even  without  any  municipal  grant  at  all,  the  insurance 
bureau  in  1905-6  would  have  paid  its  way  and  have  had  a  balance 
to  the  good  of  542  francs  ;  while  in  1906-7  its  deficit  would  have 
been  only  4490  francs. 

The  labour  bureau  works  on  a  much  larger  scale.  In  1905-6, 
13,361  men  and  women  applied  to  it  for  work,  and  it  found  work  for 
6582  of  them.  The  next  year,  15,509  persons  applied  for  work,  and 
8365  of  them  received  it.  Beyond  its  share  of  the  salaries  of  the  three 
officials  and  of  the  rent  of  the  building  where  it  is  housed,  the  labour 
bureau  receives  nothing  from  the  Municipality.  Nor  does  it  need 
anything ;  for,  although  when  acting  for  employers  or  employees 
belonging  to  Berne  it  does  its  work  gratis,  it  charges  a  small  fee  when 
acting  for  aliens  ;  and  these  fees  cover  its  expenses. 

Neither  of  these  bureaux  entails  any  great  expense  on  the  com- 
munity, it  must  be  noted,  and  they  both  render  it  good  service. 
And  they  will  assuredly  render  it  much  better  service  in  days  to  come 
than  they  render  it  now.  For  that  in  labour  bureaux  and  insurance 
against  unemployment  lies  the  true  solution  of  the  unemployed 
problem  there  seems  little  doubt.  Only,  for  it  to  be  the  true  solu- 
tion, the  insurance  must  be  compulsory ;  as  otherwise,  they  who 
insure  against  unemployment  will  always  for  the  most  part  be  they 


774  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

who  are  going  to  be  unemployed.  And  unfortunately  therein  is  a 
great  difficulty ;  for  no  really  satisfactory  scheme,  on  compulsory 
lines,  for  this  form  of  insurance  has  yet  been  devised  in  Switzerland, 
in  spite  of  all  the  attempts  that  have  been  made,  not  only  in 
Berne,  but  in  St.  Gall,  Bale,  Zurich,  and  Lausanne.  Still,  many  heads 
are  now  at  work  trying  hard  to  devise  one,  and  the  firm  belief  prevails 
that  one  will  be  devised  before  long. 

Meanwhile  there  is  no  just  standing  aside  with  folded  hands 
waiting.  On  the  contrary,  while  financial  experts  are  grappling  with 
one  unemployed  problem — insurance — the  very  man  in  the  street  is 
grappling  with  another ;  and  his  problem  is  even  more  important, 
perhaps,  than  the  experts'.  Within  the  last  few  years  there  has  arisen 
in  Switzerland  a  great  popular  movement,  the  end  and  aim  of  which 
is  to  secure,  so  far  as  possible,  the  working  classes  against  unemploy- 
ment, by  securing  them,  nolentes  volentes,  against  unemployableness. 
There  is  something  very  like  a  crusade,  indeed,  being  carried  on 
there  against  everything  that  tends  to  make  men  unemployable. 

In  Switzerland,  as  elsewhere,  labour  bureaux  statistics  prove 
clearly  that,  excepting  during  industrial  crises,  the  overwhelming 
majority  of  the  unemployed  always  belong  to  the  unskilled  class  ; 
while  the  personal  experiences  of  bureaux  officials  go  far  towards 
proving  that  the  majority  of  them  are  more  or  less  unemployable, 
because  either  drunken,  lazy,  or  unfit.  In  the  chief  cantons,  there- 
fore, men  and  women  of  all  degrees  have  formed  themselves  into 
societies  ;  and  have  set  to  work,  in  co-operation  as  a  rule  with  the  local 
authorities,  to  try  to 'bring  about  the  virtual  extinction  of  the  un- 
employed class  by  preventing  new  recruits  from  joining  it.  With 
them  it  is  a  regular  business  to  watch  over  the  young,  and  see  that 
their  ringers  and  their  eyes  are  trained  as  weh1  as  their  brains  ;  and 
that  each  one  of  them  is  fitted,  so  far  as  in  him — or  her — lies,  to 
become  a  skilled  worker. 

In  almost  every  national  school  there  are  now  technical  classes, 
and  a  boy  must,  whether  his  parents  wish  it  or  not,  learn  some  handi- 
craft before  he  leaves  ;  while  a  girl  must  learn  sewing  and  laundry 
work  as  well  as  cooking  and  housewifery.  There  are  technical  con- 
tinuation schools,  too,  both  for  boys  and  for  girls,  where  they  may 
learn  gratis  anything  from  millinery  to  higher  mathematics.  In 
several  cantons  Poor  Law  authorities  are  expressly  forbidden  to  allow 
the  children  under  their  care  to  become  unskilled  labourers ;  and 
these  authorities  cannot  free  themselves  from  their  responsibility  for 
the  maintenance  of  a  State  child  until  it  has  learnt  a  lucrative  calling. 
Parents  who  neglect  their  children,  who  allow  them  to  absent  them- 
selves from  school,  or  who  do  not  do  their  best  to  put  them  in  the  way 
of  becoming  useful  self-supporting  citizens,  are  regarded  and  treated 
as  criminals.  One  of  the  functions  of  labour  bureaux  is  now  to 
arrange  for  the  apprenticeship  of  boys  whose  parents  cannot  be 


1908    SWITZERLAND  AND  HER    UNEMPLOYED    776 

trusted  to  arrange  for  it  wisely.  Masters  are  directly  responsible 
to  the  local  authorities  for  the  technical  training  of  their  apprentices ; 
and  if  they  fail  in  their  duty  to  them,  they  may  be  punished.  In 
some  places  they  are  required  to  see  that  their  young  employees  go 
to  a  night  school.  Thus  for  the  future  no  boy,  unless  he  be  mentally 
defective,  will  be  forced  to  join  the  unskilled  class,  no  matter  how 
poor  or  neglectful  his  parents  may  be.  And  if  he  is  not  thrifty  and 
sober,  as  well  as  skilled,  the  blame  will  assuredly  be  his  own.  For  in 
every  school  thrift  is  now  taught  as  carefully  as  arithmetic  ;  and 
teachers  are  required  to  use  their  personal  influence  over  their  pupils 
to  induce  them  to  put  into  a  savings  bank  any  few  pence  they  may 
have.  They  are  required,  too — this  by  decree  of  the  Bundesrath — 
to  make  them  understand  that  alcohol  is  something  which  it  behoves 
them  neither  to  touch  nor  yet  to  handle. 

Nor  do  either  local  authorities  or  private  societies  content  them- 
selves, in  Switzerland,  with  battling  against  unemployableness  in  the 
workers  of  to-morrow ;  they  battle  against  it  also,  and  almost  as 
eagerly,  although  much  less  hopefully,  in  the  workers  of  to-day. 
There  are  cantons  where  the  life  of  any  man  who  even  tries  to  loaf 
is  made  a  burden  to  him,  and  where  at  the  first  sign  of  alcoholism  the 
patient  is  packed  off  to  a  home  for  inebriates.  For  the  Swiss,  being 
a  robust  race,  have  no  scruples  whatever  about  setting  at  naught 
individual  rights,  when  these  rights  either  clash  with  the  interests  of 
the  community,  or  threaten  to  entail  on  it  expense.  Switzerland 
claims  to  be  the  freest  of  lands  ;  but  no  man  is  free  there  to  be  idle, 
unless  he  can  prove,  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  district  authorities,  that 
he  has  the  means  wherewith  to  provide  for  himself  and  those  de- 
pendent on  him  without  working.  Nor,  even  if  he  has  the  necessary 
means,  is  he  always  free  to  drink  at  his  own  discretion.  Whether  he 
is,  or  is  not,  depends  on  the  temper  of  his  local  authorities,  who  may, 
if  they  choose,  imprison  in  homes  for  inebriates  habitual  drunkards, 
so  as  to  prevent  their  setting  their  fellows  a  bad  example ;  just  as  they 
may  imprison  in  penal  workhouses  loafers,  even  before  they  become 
a  burden  on  the  community,  so  as  to  prevent  their  ever  becoming  a 
burden. 

Both  homes  for  inebriates  and  penal  workhouses  are  regarded  in 
Switzerland  as  '  bettering  '  institutions  ;  and  they  who  are  sent  there 
are  sent  to  be  bettered — cured  of  their  moral  infirmities. 

While  local  authorities  deal  with  drunkards,  private  societies — 
the  Blue  Cross,  the  Gemeinniitzige  Gesellschaft,  and  many  others — 
make  it  their  business  to  try  to  prevent  drinking ;  and  in  this  they 
have  the  hearty  support  of  all  the  authorities  alike,  from  the  Bundes- 
rath downwards.  When  the  Bundesrath  handed  over  to  the  Cantonal 
Governments  the  yield  of  the  spirit  monopoly,  it  stipulated  that  one- 
tenth  of  it  should  be  devoted  to  promoting  temperance  and  com- 
bating alcoholism.  And  only  a  few  months  ago  it  went  a  step  further, 


776  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

as  it  prohibited  the  manufacturing  of  absinthe  ;  and  it  is  now  taking 
measures  to  guard  against  its  being  imported.  Any  society  for  the 
promotion  of  temperance  receives  a  grant  from  the  spirit  monopoly 
fund,  if  it  can  prove  that  it  is  doing  its  work  well.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  preach  temperance  to  obtain  one  ;  for  they  who  deal  out  the  grants 
recognise  the  fact  that  it  is  not  always  by  preaching  that  temperance 
is  best  promoted.  Half  the  men  who  resort  to  public-houses  do  so 
because  they  have  no  decent  fireside  of  their  own  by  which  to  sit ; 
and  more  than  half  of  those  who  drink,  drink  because  wholesome, 
well-cooked  food  is  not  within  their  reach.  The  Swiss,  therefore,  very 
wisely  class  societies  for  housing  the  working  classes,  or  for  providing 
cheap,  wholesome  food,  as  temperance  societies,  and  grant  them 
subsidies.  Year  by  year,  indeed,  a  larger  and  larger  section  of  those 
among  them  who  fight  against  alcoholism,  and  through  alcoholism 
against  unemployableness,  are  coming  to  look  on  decent  housing  and 
good  food  as  their  surest  weapons  ;  and  on  good  food  as  a  surer 
weapon,  even,  than  decent  housing.  That  is  why  there  are  now 
springing  up  on  all  sides  people's  kitchens,  where  a  hungry  man  is 
provided  for  4d.  with  as  much  as  he  can  eat — a  three-course  dinner. 
That,  too,  is  why  social  reformers  are  now  going  forth  into  the  high- 
ways and  byways,  and  are  literally  forcing  girls  and  women  to  come 
in  and  be  taught  how  to  cook.  They  try  to  teach  them  also  how  to 
take  care  of  their  babies,  and  how  to  make  their  homes  comfortable  ; 
still,  the  first  lesson  of  all  that  they  teach  them  is  how  to  cook  a  good, 
cheap  dinner.  For  all  Switzerland  is  now  alive  to  the  fact  that  if 
men,  whether  unemployed  or  employed,  are  not  to  become  unemploy- 
able, they  must  be  kept  from  drink  ;  all  Switzerland  is  alive  to  the 
fact,  too,  that  it  is  hopeless  work  trying  to  keep  them  from  drink, 
unless  they  are  properly  fed. 

EDITH  SELLERS. 


1908 


THE   PROBLEM  OF  AERIAL   NAVIGATION 


IN  the  September  number  of  this  Review  Professor  Simon  Newcomb 
has  written  a  most  interesting  article  under  the  above  heading. 
Interesting  it  is  as  embodying  the  ideas  of  a  profound  thinker,  and 
also  as  presenting  a  view  of  the  subject  such  as  is  opposed  to  that 
more  generally  held.  He  concludes  by  asking  that  if  his  conclusions 
are  ill-founded  their  fallacy  will  be  shown.  The  gist  of  his  article, 
I  take  it,  may  be  summarised  as  that,  in  his  opinion,  (1)  aerial  naviga- 
tion is  not  likely  in  the  near  future  to  become  of  such  importance  as 
seems  generally  supposed,  and  (2)  that  whatever  utility  may  be 
accomplished  in  this  line  will  be  due  to  the  propelled  balloon  rather 
than  to  the  dynamic  flying  machine.  I  venture  to  take  a  diametrically 
opposite  view,  and  shall  attempt  to  show  that  it  is  likely  to  form  a 
problem  of  the  very  highest  moment  to  Englishmen,  and  that  this 
will  result  more  particularly  from  the  introduction  of  the  '  flyer.' 
I  have  reason  to  hold  more  decided  views  on  the  matter  now,  for  since 
reading  the  article  I  have  had  an  opportunity  of  travelling  some  miles 
through  the  air  in  the  marvellous  machine  of  Mr.  Wilbur  Wright. 
Such  an  experience  is  calculated  to  prejudice  one  strongly  in  favour 
of  this  means  of  transport,  and  to  make  one  realise  what  a  vast  future 
there  is  before  us  in  the  realms  of  the  air.  To  sit  in  a  comfortable 
seat,  and,  without  effort,  free  from  any  jolting  or  unpleasant  motion, 
to  be  wafted  through  the  air,  at  forty  miles  an  hour,  with  a  regularity 
and  certainty  which  is  surprising,  gives  one  food  for  reflection  indeed. 
The  feeling  of  safety  which  this  clever  and  experienced  aeronaut 
inspires  in  one  displaces  all  fear  of  danger. 

In  order  to  discuss  the  first  of  the  conclusions  it  will  be  necessary 
to  have  in  mind  some  idea  of  the  means  by  which  the  air  is  to  be 
navigated,  and  this  makes  it  necessary  to  begin  by  considering  the 
latter  of  the  two  statements,  that  is  the  asserted  superiority  of  the 
propelled  balloon  over  the  '  flyer.' 

THE  INEFFICACY  OP  THE  PROPELLED  BALLOON. 

First  let  me  explain  that  in  disparaging  the  poor  old  airship,  which 
in  the  past  I  have  so  often  extolled,  it  is  only  to  show  that  the  flying 
machine  is  preferable  ;  the  gas-bag  is  useful  enough  if  we  have  nothing 
else  withfwhichrto  navigate  the  air. 

777 


778  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

A  balloon  must  be  very  large.  It  is  sometimes  forgotten  by 
inventors  and  others  that  the  whole  principle  of  the  ascent  depends 
on  the  displacement  of  the  air.  A  balloon  must  be  of  such  a  volume 
as  to  displace  a  mass  of  air  more  or  less  equal  to  its  entire  weight. 
Air  weighs  about  76  Ibs.  per  thousand  cubic  feet.  So,  no  matter 
how  light  the  materials  used  or  how  ethereal  the  gas,  the  apparatus 
must  have  a  bulk  of  over  a  thousand  cubic  feet  for  every  76  Ibs.  that  is 
required  to  be  lifted.  But  great  bulk  implies  two  drawbacks.  It 
must  offer  great  resistance  to  propulsion,  which  necessitates  powerful 
engines  to  drive  it  at  any  speed  through  the  air,  and  speed  is  all- 
important  in  aerial  navigation. 

The  second  drawback  to  great  bulk  is  the  difficulty  in  housing  the 
apparatus  when  on  the  ground  and  protecting  it  from  strong  winds 
and  weather. 

Then  the  material  of  which  a  balloon  is  made  must  be  costly.  It 
must  be  very  light,  and  is  therefore  liable  to  be  easily  damaged.  It 
must  be  absolutely  gas-tight,  for  if  it  be  leaky  its  buoyancy  soon 
decreases.  A  mere  pinhole  involves  a  steady  loss  of  gas;  so  that 
it  has  to  be  constructed  of  a  very  special  material  and  with  infinite 
care,  which  implies  great  expense.  The  actual  cost  of  the  gas,  too, 
to  fill  the  immense  balloon  is  no  mean  item  of  expense,  and  it  is  bound 
to  require  frequent  replenishing.  Owing  to  the  varying  volume 
of  the  gas  with  changes  of  temperature,  it  is  necessary  to  carry  ballast 
or  complicated  means  of  regulating  the  altitude.  This  again  involves 
increasing  the  capacity  of  the  balloon.  The  housing  and  the  handling 
of  the  machine  when  on  the  ground  all  add  to  the  expense. 

The  inflammability  of  the  gas  is  a  constant  source  of  danger, 
and,  for  war  purposes,  where  it  may  be  desirable  to  use  firearms,  it 
seems  very  unsuitable.  And,  '  her  vulnerability  is  obvious,'  as  the 
author  owns. 

There  is  a  vague  possibility  of  improvement  in  these  respects. 
The  gas  might,  conceivably,  be  made  uninflammable,  and  a  multitude 
of  cellular  compartments  might  render  it  less  liable  to  leakage,  and 
so  on,  but  this  is  going  into  the  uncertainties  of  the  future  which  we 
need  not  discuss. 

To  recapitulate,  any  gas-borne  airship  must  be  : 

(1)  Bulky.     Therefore  comparatively  slow  for  given  engine-power, 
and  difficult  to  handle  when  on  the  ground. 

(2)  Costly,  both  to  build  and  to  maintain. 

(3)  Fragile  and  liable  to  damage. 

ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  AEROPLANE. 

To  compare  a  flyer  on  the  aeroplane  principle  with  a  dirigible 
balloon,  let  us  suppose  a  machine  very  similar  to  that  now  used  by 
the  Wrights.  The  illustration  shows  at  a  glance  the  comparative 


1908     THE  PROBLEM  OF  AERIAL  NAVIGATION    779 


sizes  of  the  two,  both  being  small  machines  capable  of  carrying  two 
people. 

The  advantages  of  the  aeroplane  are  that  two  or  three  men  could 
hold  it  on  the  ground  even  in  a  gale,  and  it  could  easily  be  housed 
under  the  lee  of  a  house  or  wood.  A  shed  to  keep  it  in  is  comparatively 
easy  and  cheap  to  construct.  The  resistance  of  the  air  to  the  pro- 
pulsion of  such  a  machine  is  very  small,  so  that  it  should  be  capable 
of  travelling  infinitely  faster  for  the  same  propulsive  power.  Since 
the  covering  need  not  be  gas-tight,  it  can  be  made  of  cheaper  material, 
and  where  the  balloon  costs  thousands  of  pounds,  the  flyer  need 
not  cost  as  many  hundreds.  The  cost  of  the  gas  is  done  away  with, 
and,  requiring  but  little  assistance,  the  working  costs  would  be  much 


SIDE  VIEW. 


smaller.     Finally,  from  the  military  point  of  view,  it  is  practically 
invulnerable  to  bullets,  nor  is  it  liable  to  catch  fire. 

We  now  come  to  another  point,  the  most  important  of  all.  I  haVe 
already  said  that  in  aerial  navigation  speed  is  everything.  To  success- 
fully navigate  the  air  it  is  essential  to  be  able  to  go  at  a  rate  faster 
than  that  of  any  ordinary  wind  that  may  be  encountered.  As  this 
often  attains  to  twenty  or  thirty  miles  an  hour,  a  machine  incapable 
of  overcoming  such  can  never  hope  to  be  a  practical  success.  Now 
airships  have  been  made  to  achieve  this,  but,  though  they  may  still 
be  improved  upon  to  some  extent,  there  does  not  seem  to  be  much 
hope  that  they  can  ever  greatly  exceed  such  a  speed.  They  might 


780  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

perhaps  succeed  in  travelling  forty  miles  an  hour,  but  even  then  they 
would  only  be  able  to  do  their  ten  miles  against  a  strong  wind,  which 
is  not  a  very  practicable  rate.  With  the  air-car  it  is  different.  It  has 
been  proved  theoretically  that  the  faster  an  aeroplane  is  driven  the 
more  economical  it  is.  The  pressure  of  the  air  evidently  increases 
about  in  proportion  to  the  square  of  the  speed  ;  that  is  to  say,  if  an 
apparatus  of  given  area,  travelling  at  twenty  miles  an  hour,  develops 
a  pressure  under  it  of  500  Ibs.,  then,  if  propelled  at  forty  miles  it 
should  lift  not  only  double  the  weight,  but  four  times  as  much,  or 
2000  Ibs.  In  order  to  get  the  machine  to  travel  double  the  speed 
it  may  perhaps  be  necessary  to  increase  the  engine  power  fourfold, 
but  let  the  original  engine  weigh  250  Ibs.  and  we  could  still  easily 
afford,  if  required,  to  put  in  an  engine  of  four  times  the  weight,  and  we 
should  then  be  able  to  carry  double  the  useful  load  as  well. 

ASSERTED  DISADVANTAGES. 

I  think  the  above  arguments  are  so  entirely  in  favour  of  the  gasless 
machine  as  to  put  the  balloon  entirely  out  of  the  question.  But  is  this 
a  one-sided  view  ?  Let  us  see  what  Professor  Newcomb  has  to  say : 
'  There  are  several  drawbacks  to  every  form  of  flyer,  either  of  which 
seems  fatal  to  its  extensive  use,  and  which,  taken  together,  throw  it 
out  of  the  field  of  competition.' 

His  first  objection  to  a  machine  on  the  aeroplane  principle  is  that, 
depending  on  its  area  for  support,  the  larger  the  weight  to  be  carried 
the  larger  must  the  horizontal  surface  be.  Hence  to  make  a  machine 
to  carry  double  the  weight  involves  enlarging  the  surface  in  proportion. 
But  as  the  surface  is  spread  horizontally  it  requires  greatly  additional 
weight  of  framework  to  bear  the  strain.  Yes ;  but  in  the  first  place 
we  do  not  here  propose  discussing  the  use  of  any  machine  very  much 
bigger  than  those  now  in  use,  and,  secondly,  the  surfaces  need  not 
necessarily  be  spread  out  in  one  plane  ;  by  arranging  them  one  above 
another,  a  very  large  area  of  support  can  be  got  without  adding 
much  to  the  weight  of  construction.  Then,  again,  I  have  just  pointed 
out  that  by  increasing  the  speed  we  can  increase  the  lift  without 
adding  to  the  area,  and  as  speed  is,  for  other  reasons,  so  desirable, 
it  is  highly  probable  that  efforts  will  be  made  to  augment  the  speed 
and  so  carry  greater  loads  for  the  same  sized  machine. 

In  nature  we  find  that  the  area  of  the  wings  of  insects  and  birds 
does  not  increase  in  at  all  the  same  ratio  as  their  weight.  Thus  a 
gnat's  wings  have  a  surface  corresponding  to  49  square  feet  for  1  Ib. 
of  weight,  a  bee  presents  some  5  square  feet,  while  a  sparrow  has 
under  three,  a  pigeon  1J,  and  a  vulture  only  f  of  a  square  foot  per 
pound.  If  this  sort  of  proportion  were  carried  on  we  should  find 
that  our  large  machines  do  not  call  for  nearly  the  same  relative  area 
as  the  smaller  ones. 

The  next  asserted  objection  to  the  flyer  whose  support  is  due  to 


1908     THE  PROBLEM  OF  AERIAL  NAVIGATION    781 

its  progress  through  the  air  is  that  it  cannot  stop  to  have  its  machinery 
repaired  or  adjusted.  This  is  partially  true,  but  it  is  a  matter  of 
degree.  The  engines  could  be  stopped  for  a  few  seconds  while  the 
machine  soars  downwards.  Then,  when  we  get  experienced  in 
practical  flight,  it  seems  quite  probable  that  we  shall  be  able  to  take 
advantage  of  the  wind  currents  and  soar  like  the  great  birds.  It  might 
then  be  possible  to  remain  for  long  periods  on  end  sailing  around 
without  the  assistance  of  any  motor.  But,  besides  all  this,  the 
stoppage  of  the  engine  is  hardly  likely  to  be  of  frequent  occurrence 
in  the  future,  when  better  forms  of  motor  are  obtainable.  How  often 
does  a  steamer  or  a  locomotive  have  to  stop  to  adjust  the  engine  ? 

We  now  get  to  another  drawback  which  is  very  real  ;  but  it 
applies  equally  to  the  propelled  balloon.  This  is,  that  an  aerial  machine 
cannot  be  navigated  for  long  out  of  sight  of  the  ground.  Once  it 
rises  into  a  cloud  or  becomes  enveloped  in  fog,  it  is  impossible  to  tell 
which  way  one  is  going.  The  aeronaut  is  then  in  the  same  position 
as  the  mariner  at  sea,  but,  exposed  to  rapid  and  varying  currents  of 
wind,  he  cannot  rely  on  '  dead  reckoning.'  Fog  must  always  be  a 
hindrance  to  aerial  navigation.  Yet  so  it  is,  to  a  large  extent,  to 
marine  navigation. 

When  Professor  Newcomb  comes  to  speak  of  the  larger  the  ship 
the  greater  the  power  and  speed,  this  can  only  apply  to  two  airships 
on  the  same  model ;  the  remark  cannot  refer  to  the  comparison  between 
a  bulky  airship  and  a  compact  aeroplane.  But  even  this  statement  is 
not  quite  a  happy  one.  He  says  that '  at  the  present  moment  the  two 
largest  ships  afloat  are  also  those  of  highest  speed.'  He  apparently 
forgets  the  dashing  destroyers  racing  at  thirty-five  knots  an  hour,  or 
the  still  smaller  motor-boats  and  hydroplanes. 

So  much,  then,  for  the  arguments  in  favour  of  the  airship  as 
opposed  to  the  gasless  flyer. 

THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  AERIAL  NAVIGATION. 

We  now  come  to  the  second  and  chief  problem  of  the  discussion, 
that  is  as  to  whether  aerial  navigation  is  likely  in  the  near  future  to 
become  of  real  importance ;  that  is  to  say,  whether  an  aerial  machine 
is  likely  to  be  able  '  to  compete  with  the  steamship,  the  railway,  or 
the  mail-coach  in  the  carriage  of  passengers  or  mails.' 

Having  decided  that  a  machine  of  the  aeroplane  type  is  preferable 
to  a  dirigible  balloon,  let  us  adopt,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  the  notion 
of  an  apparatus  very  similar  to  that  now  used  by  the  Wrights,  but 
perhaps  slightly  larger,  so  as  to  carry  three  or  four,  and  able  to  attain 
a  greater  speed,  say  fifty  miles  an  hour.  Let  this  be  capable  of  travel- 
ling for  several  hours  on  end,  of  going  up  to  say  1000  feet,  and  to 
negotiate  all  ordinary  winds.  Considering  the  enormous  strides 
made  within  the  last  year  or  two,  it  seems  not  at  all  unreasonable  to 
hope  that  we  may  have  such  a  vessel  within  the  next  year  or  two. 


782  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

The  carriage  of  passengers  and  mails  is  one  thing,  but  it  is  quite 
another  matter  to  compare  the  airship  to  an  express  train,  as  Professor 
Newcomb  does  later  on,  and  discuss  the  relative  coal  consumption, 
presuming  it  to  carry  the  same  burden.  He  shows  that  the  main 
resistance  which  a  train  travelling  at  high  speed  has  to  encounter  is 
that  of  the  air,  but  he  omits  to  point  out  that  while  the  air  resistance  to 
a  train  is  wholly  one  of  retardation,  in  a  well-designed  flying-machine 
almost  the  whole  effort  is  utilised  in  lift. 

But  it  seems  hardly  necessary  to  discuss  the  question  of  utilising 
an  airship  for  the  transport  of  heavy  goods  ;  no  one,  I  think,  looks 
upon  that  as  a  likely  accomplishment  for  a  long  time  to  come. 

The  chief  sentence  of  the  whole  of  Professor  Newcomb's  article 
that  I  take  exception  to  is  this  ;  '  Any  use  that  we  can  make  of  the 
air  for  the  purpose  of  transportation,  even  when  our  machinery 
attains  ideal  perfection,  will  be  uncertain,  dangerous,  expensive, 
and  inefficient,  as  compared  with  transportation  on  the  earth  and 
ocean.' 

We  will  consider  each  of  these  points  in  turn. 

Uncertain. — Fogs  may  delay  traffic,  so  may  gales  of  wind.  But 
both  of  these  affect  shipping  to  a  very  large  extent,  if  not  trains,  and 
as  a  rule  would  only  occur  during  a  few  hours  in  a  month.  Though 
adverse  winds  may  reduce  the  speed  of  travel,  this  is  purely  a  question 
of  the  speed  with  which  the  machine  can  travel.  If  motor  cars  can 
now  exceed  100  miles  an  hour  along  a  road  there  seems  every  likeli- 
hood of  air-cars  being  able  in  future  to  greatly  exceed  this.  If  capable 
of  going  150  miles  an  hour,  a  gale  blowing  forty  miles  per  hour  would 
make  nt)  serious  difficulty. 

Dangerous. — It  is  very  generally  supposed  that  it  is  dangerous  to 
travel  through  the  air,  this  assumption  probably  being  due  to  a  large 
extent  to  the  fact  that  several  inventors  in  their  crude  appliances,  and 
without  experience,  have  come  to  grief.  But  with  a  perfected  machine 
one  can  hardly  imagine  what  can  happen  to  upset  it  in  mid-air. 
Barring  collisions,  which,  on  account  of  the  greater  space,  should  be 
much  rarer  than  collisions  at  sea,  and  such  accidents  as  the  breaking 
of  a  shaft  or  catching  fire,  it  is  difficult  to  see  what  could  happen.1 
Then  people  often  imagine  the  horror  of  falling,  after  a  mishap,  through 
thousands  of  feet  to  the  ground,  forgetting  that  in  all  probability  nine- 
tenths  of  the  traffic  will  be  conducted  within  twenty  or  thirty  feet  of 
the  ground.  So  that  the  effects  of  an  accident  would  not  be  much 
more  serious  than  in  other  modes  of  travel. 

Expensive. — Why  ?  An  air-car  to  carry  two  or  three  will  certainly 
not  cost  as  much  as  a  motor  car.  Its  upkeep  will  probably  prove 
far  less  since  there  are  no  expensive  tyres  to  wear  out,  nor  is  there  the 
same  continual  shaking  and  vibration.  The  speed  and  directness 

1  The  breaking  of  a  propeller  blade,  such  as  occurred  so  unfortunately  in  Mr. 
Orville  Wright's  machine,  is  hardly  likely  to  happen  again. 


1908     THE  PROBLEM  OF  AERIAL  NAVIGATION    783 

of  the  route  from  door  to  door  will  certainly  render  flying  an  economical 
mode  of  transport. 

Inefficient. — As  a  means  of  travel,  the  air-car  promises  to  be  the 
most  delightful  possible.  Probably  much  faster  than  any  other  means 
of  getting  from  place  to  place,  and,  as  I  have  just  said,  very  likely  one 
of  the  cheapest.  For  the  transport  of  mails  and  light  goods  the  same 
arguments  apply.  If  Mr.  Wright  has  already  carried  an  extra  weight 
of  240  Ibs.,  there  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  possibility  of  carrying 
light  loads.  There  appears  to  be  no  difficulty  whatever  in  steering 
or  in  landing  on  any  desired  spot.  Why,  then,  should  it  be  deemed 
inefficient  ? 

Considering  all  these  facts,  and  that  improvements  are  bound  to 
follow,  there  seems  to  be  every  likelihood  that,  in  future,  travelling 
through  the  air  will  offer  so  many  advantages  that  it  will  become  a 
common  means  of  getting  from  place  to  place.  Then,  by  superseding 
other  methods  of  transport,  it  will  grow  into  a  subject  of  great  im- 
portance and  create  new  and  wide-spreading  industries. 

AERIAL  WARFARE. 

The  employment  of  the  aerial  vessel  as  an  instrument  of  war  is 
probably  the  most  important  question  at  the  present  moment  for  our 
naval  and  military  authorities  to  consider. 

Professor  Newcomb,in  referring  to  this  subject,  begins  by  dismissing 
the  flyer  as  '  out  of  the  question,'  and  adds  '  the  airship  proper  or 
enlarged  balloon  is  the  only  agency  to  be  feared.'  Yet  he  then  points 
out  how  vulnerable  such  a  vessel  is,  and  how  '  a  single  yeoman  could 
with  his  rifle  disable  a  whole  fleet  of  airships  approaching  within  range 
of  his  station.'  It  seems  to  me  that  this  fact  alone  puts  the  airship 
out  of  the  question,  that  is  as  a  really  practical,  dependable,  and 
important  instrument  of  war.  The  flyer,  on  the  other  hand,  presents  a 
much  more  difficult  target,  and  is  comparatively  invulnerable,  since 
one  or  two  bullets  are  not  likely  to  affect  it  in  the  least,  and  even  shells 
may  pass  right  through  an  aeroplane  without  bringing  it  down. 

It  is  pointed  out  that  a  conflict  between  rival  airships  is  likely 
to  be  short ;  both  would  probably  soon  be  riddled  by  bullets  and 
brought  to  earth.  But  this  is  not  the  case  with  gasless  machines. 
They  would  hold  a  balloon  at  their  mercy.  The  duel  between  such 
I  will  leave  to  the  imagination. 

There  are  two  distinct  methods  of  utilising  air-craft  for  war* 
First,  that  most  usually  discussed,  is  as  a  means  of  rising  high  into 
the  air  to  obtain  a  wide  view  of  the  country  round,  to  soar  at  an 
altitude  above  the  range  of  projectiles,  to  float  over  towns  and  for- 
tresses and  drop  bombs  upon  them.  The  extent  to  which  damage  can 
be  done  by  dropping  explosives  from  a  height  can  at  present  be  but  a 
matter  of  speculation.  It  may  prove  to  be  serious,  but  it  may  be 
found,  as  Professor  Newcomb  points  out,  that  the  difficulties  are  so 


784  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

great  that  not  very  much  is  possible  of  accomplishment  in  this  line. 
For  such  purposes  the  balloon  may  perhaps  be  considered  almost  the 
more  suitable. 

There  is,  however,  the  other  method  which  seems  to  me  that 
most  likely  to  be  of  real  use,  at  all  events  in  the  early  days  of  aerial 
navigation,  yet  it  is  one  that  has  seldom  been  referred  to  in  writings  or 
discussions  on  the  subject.  This  is  the  use  of  a  swiftly  moving  small 
machine  skimming  over  the  ground  and  seldom  rising  to  any  height 
except  to  clear  such  obstacles  as  trees  and  houses.  Such  a  machine 
should  prove  invaluable  in  war.  For  reconnoitring  it  may  be  compared 
to  the  cavalry  horse,  but  with  the  following  advantages  :  it  would  be 
far  speedier,  could  go  across  any  country  whatever,  taking  walls, 
rivers,  and  other  obstacles  '  in  its  stride,'  it  could  probably  carry  two 
or  three  men,  so  that  one  could  devote  his  whole  attention  to  observa- 
tion, and  it  could  when  necessary  rise  to  obtain  a  distant  view. 

As  for  vulnerability,  the  air-car  would  be  no  worse  than  the  horse, 
and  if  the  seats  and  engines  were  rendered  bullet  proof,  it  could  hardly 
be  brought  down  by  rifle  fire.  For  reconnaisance,  for  despatch  de- 
livery, for  raids  into  the  enemy's  territory,  such  a  means  of  transport 
would  be  unsurpassed. 

The  question  of  invasion  is  one  in  which  the  British  public  takes  a 
more  general  interest.  Professor  Newcomb  concludes  that  '  England 
has  little  to  fear  from  the  use  of  airships  by  an  enemy  seeking  to 
invade  her  territory.  .  .  .  The  key  to  her  defence  is  the  necessary 
vulnerability  of  a  balloon.'  But,  again,  what  about  the  flyer  ?  If  such 
machines  can  be  proved  to  be  practicable,  and  not  too  expensive, 
they  will  soon  be  adopted  by  the  military  Powers,  not  by  ones  and  twos 
as  with  the  costly  airships,  but  by  the  hundred.  We  know  that  these 
machines  can  be  made.  There  can  be  no'  reasonable  doubt  but  that 
they  will  be  immensely  improved  during  the  next  year  or  two. 

Now  I  would  seriously  ask,  What  valid  reason  is  there  why,  within 
a  few  years'  time,  a  foreign  nation  should  not  be  able  to  despatch  a 
fleet  of  a  thousand  aerial  machines,  each  carrying  two  or  three  armed 
men  and  able  to  come  across  to  our  shores  and  land,  not  necessarily  on 
the  coast,  but  at  any  desired  inland  place  ?  The  majority  of  the  men 
could  be  landed  while  the  flyers  could  be  sent  back  for  further  supplies. 
No  defence  seems  possible  against  invasion  by  such  a  fleet,  since, 
like  a  swarm  of  locusts,  its  destination  cannot  be  guessed,  and,  after 
settling,  it  may  rise  again  and  swoop  down  on  some  fresh  place,  while 
an  hour  later  it  may  have  returned  to  its  base,  having  wrought  havoc 
in  the  district  of  its  descent. 

All  this  may  sound  like  a  flight  of  fancy,  but  let  us  remember  that 
Wright  has  already  accomplished  flights  with  a  passenger  of  double  the 
distance  across  the  Channel.  Let  us  bear  in  mind,  too,  that  10,000 
such  machines  would  probably  not  cost  much  more  than  one  modern 
battleship.  The  only  system  of  defence  that  I  can  see  is  (Irish  though 


it  may  sound)  to  form  a  similar  fleet  to  attack  the  homes  of  those  that 
dare  to  visit  our  shores  unasked. 

Then  let  us  be  prepared.  It  is  not  enough  for  our  naval  and  military 
authorities  to  shirk  the  matter  by  saying  that  they  do  not  consider  it 
likely  to  be  serious.  The  question  is  whether  there  is  any  sort  of 
possibility  of  this  mode  of  warfare  developing  into  one  of  importance. 
If  there  is,  it  demands  our  most  serious  consideration,  and  the  British 
taxpayer  must  put  his  hand  in  his  pocket  and  provide  the  wherewithal 
to  place  us  at  least  on  a  par  with  any  foreign  nation  which  attempts 
to  form  a  large  aerial  fleet. 

B.  BADEN-POWELL. 


VOL.  LXlV-No.  381  3  G 


786  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 


INDIA     UNDER    CROWN    GOVERNMENT, 

1858-1908 


IT  is  now  just  fifty  years  since  Lord  Canning,  on  the  1st  of  November, 
1858,  in  a  grand  durbar  held  at  Allahabad,  published  the  Royal 
Proclamation  concerning  the  '  Act  for  the  Better  Government  of 
India.'  By  this  Act,  only  passed  after  acrimonious  party  discussion 
in  Parliament,  the  Crown  assumed  the  direct  control  of  the  vast 
empire  gradually  built  up  during  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  by  the 
East  India  Company,  which  originally  began  its  operations,  in  1600, 
as  a  small  body  of  merchant  adventurers. 

During  Lord  Dalhousie's  governor-generalship,  from  1848  to  1856, 
the  territorial  responsibilities  connected  with  the  already  large  British 
dominions  in  India  were  increased  by  the  annexation  of  the  Punjab 
in  1849,  and  of  the  central  portion  of  Lower  Burma  in  1852,  while 
Satara  in  1849  and  Jhansi  and  Nagpur  in  1853  were  escheated  through 
lapse  of  natural  heirs.  Oudh,  too,  after  many  solemn  warnings 
throughout  long  years  of  misrule,  was  annexed  without  a  blow  in 
February  1856,  just  before  Lord  Dalhousie  left  India. 

Although  peace  seemed  assured,  Lord  Canning,  his  successor,  was 
somewhat  apprehensive  concerning  trouble,  for  there  was  much 
latent  discontent.  Lord  Dalhousie's  policy  of  escheat  on  lapse  of 
heirs  and  his  annexation  of  Oudh  had  raised  bitter  animosity  among 
the  ruling  classes  ;  while  the  commencement  of  trunk  railways  and 
telegraph  lines  in  1853  had  an  unsettling  effect  upon  the  population 
generally,  and  upon  the  Bengal  Army  especially. 

These  feelings  were  wrought  upon  by  the  dethroned  princes  and 
those  disappointed  through  escheat ;  and  soon  the  cloud  about  which 
Lord  Canning  was  apprehensive  arose,  and  burst  prematurely  in  the 
shape  of  a  revolt  of  the  native  troops  at  Meerut  on  the  10th  of  May, 
1857,  whence  it  rapidly  extended  to  the  whole  of  the  Bengal  army. 
The  high-caste  Hindus  forming  the  bulk  of  the  Bengal  army  had 
always  been  troublesome,  and  had  thrice  before  mutinied — at  Patna 
in  1764,  for  increased  pay  and  allowances  ;  throughout  Bengal  in  1780, 
to  avoid  the  sea  voyage  to  Madras  ;  and  at  Barrackpore  in  1824, 
when  they  refused  to  go  to  Burma  by  sea.  But  the  immediate 


1908      INDIA    UNDER   CROWN  GOVERNMENT        787 

cause  of  this  mutiny  in  1857  was  the  issue  of  the  then  newly  invented 
cartridges,  which  were  greased  with  the  fat  of  animals  abhorrent  to 
both  Hindus  and  Mahomedans.  It  was  purely  a  military  uprising  ; 
but  its  suppression  necessitated  two  and  a  half  years  of  strenuous 
warfare ;  and  in  place  of  overwhelming  us  with  ruin,  it  resulted  in 
the  abolition  of  the  East  India  Company  and  the  assumption  of  direct 
government  by  the  Crown,  whereby  the  British  position  was  greatly 
strengthened. 

The  Mutiny  furnished  strong  proof  of  the  need  for  improving 
communications,  and  after  the  proclamation  of  peace  throughout 
India  on  the  8th  of  July,  1859,  railway  construction  was  pushed  on 
rapidly,  while  assurances  were  given  to  the  loyal  princes  and  rajahs 
that  henceforth  adopted  heirs  would  be  recognised  and  there  should 
be  no  further  escheat  through  lapse  of  natural  heirs. 

During  the  remainder  of  Lord  Canning's  viceroyalty,  till  March 
1862,  attention  was  given  to  improving  the  finances,  which  had  been 
greatly  damaged  through  the  enormously  heavy  charges  incurred 
during  the  mutiny  ;  while  judicial  matters  were  improved  by  the 
introduction  of  the  Civil  Procedure  Code  in  1859,  the  Penal  Code  in 
1860  (originally  drafted  by  Macaulay  in  1837),  and  the  Criminal 
Procedure  Code  in  1861.  And  a  step  of  the  first  importance  was  taken 
when  the  Indian  army  was  re-organised  on  the  recommendations  of  a 
Commission  in  1859  (see  page  796). 

Lord  Elgin,  Canning's  successor,  who  died  in  November  1863, 
worked  hard  during  his  short  tenure  of  office,  and  with  patient  self- 
denial,  adhered  to  his  resolve  that  '  we  must,  for  a  time  at  least,  walk 
in  paths  traced  out  for  us  by  others.' 

Sir  John  (afterwards  Lord)  Lawrence,  who  then  went  out  as 
Viceroy,  was  a  man  cast  in  a  different  mould ;  and  he  had  already  the 
largest  possible  experience  of  Indian  affairs.  His  chief  aims  were 
internal  administrative  improvements  and  the  development  of  the 
natural  resources  of  the  country  by  railway  extension  and  irrigation. 
He  settled  the  long-pending  disputes  between  the  landowners  and  the 
peasantry  in  Oudh  ;  he  re-organised  the  Native  Judicial  Service  ; 
he  created  the  Indian  Forest  Department ;  and  he  did  much  for 
sanitation  and  education.  But,  despite  a  rigid  economy,  which 
made  him  unpopular,  he  found  himself  hampered  by  financial 
difficulties  through  the  revenue  remaining  stationary,  while  expendi- 
ture was  constantly  and  inevitably  increasing.  These  difficulties 
were  aggravated  by  the  Bhutan  War  in  1864,  resulting  in  annexation, 
and  by  the  great  famine  in  Orissa  and  a  serious  commercial  crisis  in 
1866,  followed  by  further  scarcity  in  Upper  India  in  1868.  His 
foreign  policy  of  '  masterly  inactivity '  in  seeking  to  maintain  the 
status  quo  by  non-intervention  in  transfrontier  affairs  produced  stormy 
criticism. 

To  Lord  Mayo,  who  became  Viceroy  in  January  1869,  the  dia- 

3  o  2 


788  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

advantages  and  limitations  of  the  '  masterly  inactivity '  policy  were 
fully  apparent.  While  he  knew  that  active  interference  was  dangerous, 
he  saw  the  need  of  exercising  '  that  moral  influence  which  is  inseparable 
from  the  strongest  power  in  Asia.'  Thus,  when  the  Amir  of  Afghani- 
stan came  to  a  durbar  at  Ambala  in  March  1869,  the  Viceroy  was 
unable  to  promise  the  subsidy  and  the  support  in  every  emergency 
which  were  asked  for,  though  otherwise  the  meeting  was  satisfactory. 
And  although  he  found  himself  forced  into  a  Lushai  expedition,  to 
check  tribal  raids  into  Cachar,  the  wise  frontier  policy  he  adopted 
was  thus  summed  up  early  in  1872  : 

I  have  frequently  laid  down  what  I  believe  to  be  the  cardinal  points  of 
Anglo-Indian  policy.  They  may  be  summed  up  in  a  few  words.  We  should 
establish  with  our  frontier  States  .  .  .  intimate  relations  of  friendship  ;  we 
should  make  them  feel  that,  though  we  are  all-powerful,  we  desire  to  support 
their  nationality ;  that  when  necessity  arises  we  might  assist  them  with 
money,  arms,  and  even  perhaps,  in  certain  eventualities,  with  men.  We 
could  thus  create  in  them  outworks  of  our  Empire.  .  .  .  Further,  we  should 
strenuously  oppose  any  attempt  to  neutralise  those  territories  in  the  European 
sense,  or  to  sanction  or  invite  the  interference  of  any  European  power  in  their 
affairs. 

With  the  feudatory  princes  in  India  he  established  cordial  rela- 
tions, and  one  of  the  fruits  of  this  was  the  foundation  of  colleges  at 
Ajmir  and  Kathiawar  for  the  education  of  the  sons  of  rajahs  and 
nobles.  These  satisfactory  signs  of  loyalty  and  friendship  were 
strengthened  by  the  visit  of  Prince  Alfred,  Duke  of  Edinburgh,  in 
1869,  when  the  native  rulers  and  princes  of  India  were  first  brought 
into  direct  personal  touch  with  our  royal  family. 

During  Lord  Mayo's  viceroyalty,  cut  short  by  his  assassination  in 
February  1872,  further  advances  were  made  in  administrative  reform 
and  in  developing  the  resources  of  India,  while  great  financial  im- 
provements were  also  effected.  He  did  much  for  agriculture,  and 
his  interest  in  railway  extension  and  other  public  works  led  to  his 
taking  charge  of  the  Public  Works  Department  in  addition  to  Foreign 
Affairs,  always  the  special  department  of  the  Viceroy.  To  him  was 
due  the  more  rapid  extension  of  railways  through  the  adoption  of  the 
metre-gauge  on  all  but  the  great  trunk  lines.  But  the  chief  event 
of  his  administration  was  the  inception  of  a  policy  of  local  self- 
government  to  relieve  over-centralisation,  already  troublesome,  by 
introducing  a  system  of  financial  contracts  establishing  more  definite 
relations  between  the  Imperial  and  the  Provincial  Governments,  which 
has  been  of  great  benefit  to  local  administrations. 

Lord  Northbrook,  who  next  held  office  from  May  1872  to  March 
1876,  endeavoured  to  effect  further  financial  improvements  ;  but  his 
efforts  were  impeded  by  the  deficiency  caused  through  depreciation 
in  the  value  of  the  rupee,  owing  to  the  demonetisation  of  silver  in 
Europe  after  the  Franco-German  War,  and  through  large  outlay  being 
incurred  in  relief  works  during  the  Lower  Bengal  famine  of  1874. 


1908       INDIA    UNDER   CROWN  GOVERNMENT        789 

Two  very  important  political  events  happened,  however,  in  1875. 
The  first  of  these  was  the  deposition  of  the  Gaekwar  of  Baroda  for 
misrule,  disloyalty,  and  attempts  to  poison  the  British  Resident ;  and 
practical  proof  was  then  given  of  the  sincerity  of  the  declaration  made 
in  1859  as  to  the  abolition  of  escheat  on  lapse  of  direct  heirs  ;  for  a 
young  child,  a  distant  relative  of  the  deposed  Gaekwar,  was  raised 
to  the  throne.  And  the  other  great  event  was  the  visit  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  now  his  Majesty  King  Edward  the  Seventh,  Emperor  of 
India,  during  the  cold  season  1875-6,  when  the  personal  relations 
thus  established  greatly  strengthened  the  loyalty  of  the  native  princes. 

During  Lord  Lytton's  viceroyalty,  from  April  1876  to  April  1880, 
still  more  was  done  to  strengthen  by  outward  signs  the  ties  uniting 
Britain  and  India.  On  the  1st  of  May  1876  Queen  Victoria  assumed 
the  title  of  Empress  of  India  ;  and  on  the  1st  of  January  1877  this 
assumption  of  title  was  proclaimed  in  a  great  durbar  held  at  Delhi, 
the  ancient  capital  of  the  Mogul  emperors.  And  that  the  Indian 
army  was  a  factor  to  be  reckoned  with  in  other  parts  of  the  British 
Empire  was  demonstrated  by  native  troops  being  despatched  to  Malta 
and  Cyprus  in  1878,  when  war  with  Russia  seemed  imminent — an 
example  that  was  followed  during  the  Egyptian  War  of  1882,  the 
Boer  War  in  1899,  and  the  expeditions  to  China  in  1900  and  Somali- 
land  in  1903. 

Misfortunes,  however,  soon  came.  In  1876  the  rains  failed  in 
southern  India,  and  a  great  famine  ensued,  which  extended  in  1877-78 
right  across  India  into  the  Punjab,  and  necessitated  relief  measures 
costing  eight  million  pounds.  This  financial  strain  was  increased  by 
the  continual  shrinkage  in  the  value  of  the  rupee,  so  that  loans  of 
5,000,OOOJ.  had  to  be  raised  in  1877  and  1879,  followed  by  much 
larger  loans  later  on.  And  just  when  this  serious  famine  ended,  India 
became  embroiled  in  an  Afghan  war  in  1878,  through  Shere  Ali's 
intriguing  with  Russia,  and  refusing  to  receive  a  British  envoy  while 
cordially  welcoming  a  Russian  mission.  Shere  Ali  fled  before  the 
invading  force,  and  his  son  Yakub  Khan  was  recognised  as  Amir 
under  the  treaty  of  Gandamak  in  May  1879.  Possession  was  obtained 
of  the  three  north-western  mountain  passes  through  which  the  in- 
vasion of  India  is  possible,  and  thus  a  '  scientific  frontier  '  was  acquired. 
But  a  weak  point  in  the  treaty  was  the  stipulation  that  a  British 
Resident  should  be  received  at  Kabul ;  for  in  August  1879  the  Resident 
and  all  his  staff  were  massacred,  and  another  war  ensued.  This 
resulted  in  Yakub  Khan's  deposition  and  the  raising  of  Abdur  Rahman, 
a  descendant  of  Dost  Mahomed,  to  the  Amirship  in  March  1880 — just 
when  a  general  election  in  Britain  drove  the  Conservative  Cabinet 
from  office  and  necessitated  Lord  Lytton's  resignation.  So  far  as 
internal  administration  was  concerned,  Lord  Lytton  extended  Lord 
Mayo's  decentralisation  system,  especially  as  regards  financial  matters 
concerning  local  Governments  ;  and  he  abolished  the  inland  customs 


790  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

which  impeded  the  movement  of  trade  across  India.  But  in  the 
partial  repeal  of  the  cotton  duties  he  truckled  to  the  exigencies  of 
party  politics  at  home,  instead  of  defending  the  special  interests  of 
India  committed  to  his  charge  (see  page  799). 

It  was  about  this  time  that  the  vernacular  newspapers  began  to 
become  scurrilous,  and  to  abuse  the  entire  liberty  granted  to  the  Press 
during  Sir  Charles  Metcalfe's  temporary  governor-generalship  in  1835. 
So  virulent  were  the  attacks  made  by  native  newspapers  upon  officials, 
and  so  inflammatory  was  their  growing  influence,  that  a  Press  Censor- 
ship had  to  be  established  in  March  1878. 

Lord  Ripon's  administration,  extending  from  April  1880  to 
November  1884,  began  before  the  Afghan  War  was  ended  ;  but  after 
its  conclusion,  in  the  autumn  of  1880,  no  other  military  operations 
were  necessary  than  the  suppression  of  frontier  raids  by  the  Waziris 
in  1882,  and  the  Akhas  in  Assam  in  1883.  Thus  he  was  left  free  to 
deal  with  internal  reforms.  He  improved  the  agricultural  depart- 
ment on  lines  suggested  by  the  Famine  Commission  in  1880,  and 
published  the  Provisional  Famine  Code  in  1883,  which  has  since  been 
of  untold  benefit.  He  also  did  much  to  promote  vernacular  educa- 
tion, and  to  enable  the  Mahomedan  population  to  profit  more  than 
hitherto  from  State-aided  instruction.  But  the  most  important  and 
far-reaching  of  his  measures  were  the  impetus  given  from  1882  onwards 
to  the  extension  of  local  self-government,  both  by  municipalities  and 
by  rural  boards,  and  of  the  elective  principle  in  connexion  therewith  ; 
the  repeal  of  the  Vernacular  Press  Act  of  1878  in  1883,  thus  paving 
the  way  for  many  of  the  troubles  of  recent  years  ;  and  the  Criminal 
Procedure  Amendment  Bill  of  1882-84,  introduced  by  the  legal 
member,  Mr.  Ilbert. 

This  '  Ilbert  Bill '  was  an  attempt  to  extend  over  all  European 
British  subjects  the  jurisdiction  of  the  district  criminal  courts,  irre- 
spective of  the  race  or  nationality  of  the  presiding  judges.  It  was  an 
ill4imed  and  unnecessary  measure  ;  and  it  raised  a  storm  of  indigna- 
tion among  the  Europeans.  Slumbering  racial  prejudices  and  innate 
antagonism  were  at  once  quickened  into  open  animosity,  which  has 
never  since  then  been  laid  at  rest  or  even  closely  veiled.  Calcutta 
was  wild  with  excitement.  While  this  excitement  was  at  its  height 
the  editor  of  the  Bengali  newspaper  was  sentenced  to  two  months' 
imprisonment  for  libelling  Mr.  Justice  Norris,  and  a  monster  meeting 
of  Hindus  was  held  to  protest.  After  an  immense  amount  of  friction, 
an  amended  Act  was  finally  passed  in  January  1884,  by  means  of  a 
compromise  which  provided  that  all  European  British  subjects  could 
claim  a  jury,  and  that  the  only  natives  empowered  to  try  Europeans 
should  be  members  of  the  Civil  Service  holding  the  rank  of  district 
magistrate  and  sessions  judge. 

To  these  three  great  measures  for  which  Lord  Ripon  is  responsible 
— the  extension  of  a  representative  principle  unsuited  to  the  country, 


1908      INDIA    UNDER   CROWN  GOVERNMENT        791 

the  repeal  of  the  Vernacular  Press  Act  of  1878,  and  the  racial 
antagonism  awakened  by  the  Ilbert  Bill — are  due  in  no  small  degree 
the  fact  that  local  conditions  are  now  so  very  different  from  what 
they  were  when  Lord  Randolph  Churchill  could  assert  in  his  Budget 
speech,  on  the  6th  of  August  1885,  that  '  In  India  there  is  no  public 
opinion  to  speak  of,  no  powerful  Press,  and  hardly  any  trammels  upon 
the  Government  of  any  sort  or  kind.'  In  that  speech  Lord  Ripon's 
frontier  policy  and  military  unpreparedness  were  also  bitterly 
criticised,  and  called  '  not  only  a  blunder  but  a  crime,'  because 
proper  precautions  had  not  been  taken  to  protect  India  from  the 
dangers  threatening  through  Russia's  advance  southwards  in  Asia. 
Britain  was  startled  when  Russia  swooped  down  upon  Merv  and 
threatened  to  approach  closer  to  the  Indian  frontier ;  and  '  then 
followed  the  fruitless  frontier  negotiations,  and  Lord  Ripon  came  home 
and  Lord  Dufferin  went  out,  not  one  hour  too  soon  for  the  safety 
of  India  and  the  tranquillity  of  the  East.' 

Lord  Dufferin's  viceroyalty,  from  December  1884  to  December 
1888,  was  happily  a  period  free  from  famine,  and  was  on  the  whole 
the  most  prosperous  time  during  these  last  fifty  years  under  Crown 
Government.  But  the  favourable  opportunity  thus  presented  for 
improving  internal  conditions  was  interfered  with  by  the  growing 
financial  pressure  caused  by  a  continuous  decline  in  the  rupee.  So  he 
re-imposed  the  income-tax,  which,  first  levied  after  the  mutiny,  had 
been  increased  and  then  abolished  as  a  bad  form  of  taxation  by 
Lord  Mayo.  The  state  of  political  affairs  was  also  serious  on  both  the 
north-western  and  the  south-eastern  frontiers  of  India.  In  April 
1885  the  Amir  came  to  a  durbar  at  Rawalpindi,  where  the  relations 
of  India  and  Afghanistan  were  strengthened  in  view  of  the  danger 
arising  from  the  Russian  advance ;  and  a  loan  of  10,000,OOOZ.  had  to 
be  adopted  in  order  to  put  the  north-western  frontier  in  a  thorough 
state  of  defence.  A  Boundary  Commission  was  appointed  in  concert 
with  Russia  to  delimit  the  Afghan  northern  and  western  frontiers, 
and  while  it  was  at  work  the  Russian  troops  fell  upon  the  Afghans  at 
Penjdeh.  This  '  Penjdeh  incident '  nearly  resulted  in  war  being 
declared  against  Russia,  and  occasioned  a  great  spontaneous  outburst 
of  loyalty  from  the  Indian  princes.  In  November  1885  the  long 
course  of  unfriendly  action  on  the  part  of  the  Court  of  Ava  culminated 
in  such  contemptuous  disregard  of  treaty  rights  and  rejection  of 
diplomatic  overtures  as  to  necessitate  a  third  Burmese  War.  Man- 
dalay  was  occupied  without  resistance  ;  King  Thibaw  was  deported  to 
India  ;  and  in  default  of  any  Burmese  prince  who  could  be  relied  on 
to  behave  properly  and  maintain  friendly  relations,  the  whole  of 
Upper  Burma  and  the  tributary  Shan  States  were  annexed  on  the 
1st  of  January  1886 — for  nearly  all  the  royal  princes  had  been 
massacred  shortly  after  Thibaw's  accession  to  the  throne  in  1878. 
This  large  annexation  caused  no  surprise  in  India,  and  created  no 


792  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

alarm  among  the  feudatory  princes,  to  one  of  the  chief  among  whom, 
the  Maharaja  Sindhia,  the  hereditary  rock-fortress  of  Gwalior  was 
restored  in  exchange  for  Jhansi  town  as  a  token  of  friendship.  The 
outburst  of  loyalty  on  the  part  of  the  native  princes  in  offering  support 
in  troops  and  money  for  fighting  Kussia  in  1885  was  strengthened 
and  intensified  at  the  Jubilee  of  the  Queen-Empress  in  1887,  when 
most  of  the  great  Indian  princes  took  part  in  the  ceremonial  pro- 
cession in  London.  And  in  India  itself  this  great  occasion  was  chiefly 
commemorated  by  the  Lady  Dufferin  Jubilee  Fund  for  establishing 
maternity  hospitals  and  providing  female  medical  aid  to  the  women 
of  India,  a  work  that  has  been  of  immense  benefit. 

Under  Lord  Lansdowne's  viceroy alty,  from  December  1888  to 
January  1894,  the  north-western  frontier  defences  were  strengthened 
and  the  mountain  passes  secured  against  invasion,  as  Russian  aggres- 
sion on  the  Pamirs  again  threatened  serious  danger.  Friendly 
relations  with  Afghanistan  were  also  improved  by  delimiting  the 
boundaries  and  increasing  the  annual  subsidy  paid  to  the  Amir. 
And  the  bonds  between  the  feudatory  princes  and  the  British  Govern- 
ment were  made  closer  by  accepting  their  offers  to  contribute  men, 
arms,  and  money  to  the  defence  of  India.  This  resulted  in  the  organisa- 
tion of  an  Imperial  Service  Corps  in  addition  to  the  regular  British 
Army — a  magnificent  spontaneous  gift,  which  speaks  volumes  for 
the  loyalty  of  these  native  princes  to  a  strong  and  efficient  British 
administration,  though  under  a  weak  Government  this  well-equipped 
subsidiary  army  might  possibly  become  a  dangerous  support  to  rely 
upon. 

Minor  frontier  troubles  of  course  sprang  up  from  time  to  time, 
the  most  serious  of  which  was  a  revolution  in  Manipur,  when  the 
assassination  of  the  Chief  Commissioner  of  Assam  necessitated  a 
military  occupation  and  a  reconstitution  of  the  native  Government 
in  1891  (which  has* been  handed  over  to  the  new  Raja  on  his  attaining 
his  majority  in  1907). 

Except  in  part  of  Madras,  in  1888,  India  was  not  during  Lord 
Lansdowne's  time  cursed  with  famine  ;  but  the  financial  position 
grew  worse  from  the  further  depreciation  of  the  rupee,  which  had 
now  sunk  to  fourteen  pence.  So  serious  was  the  loss  thus  occasioned, 
that  in  1893  the  first  step  towards  currency  reform  was  taken  in 
closing  the  Indian  mints  to  the  free  coinage  of  silver — a  temporary 
palliative  that  failed  to  effect  any  permanent  improvement,  for 
another  loan  of  £10,000,000  was  necessary  to  meet  the  ordinary 
requirements.  Local  self-government  was  also  slightly  extended 
by  the  nomination  of  a  larger  non-official  element  in  the  Provincial 
Legislative  Councils  under  an  Act  passed  by  the  British  Parliament 
in  1892. 

Lord  Elgin's  administration,  from  January  1894  to  January 
1899,  was  greatly  hampered  by  the  low  value  of  the  rupee,  which 


1908      INDIA    UNDER   CROWN  GOVERNMENT        798 

sank  to  thirteen  pence  in  1895.  Import  duties  abolished  in  1882  had 
to  be  reimposed,  yet  the  finances  drifted  from  bad  to  worse,  for  a 
serious  famine  occurred  in  1896-7,  which  extended  over  nearly  one- 
third  of  India,  affecting  nearly  one-fourth  of  the  total  population, 
and  necessitating  an  outlay  of  £6,000,000  on  relief  works.  And  con- 
currently with  this,  bubonic  plague  broke  out  in  1896,  which  com- 
mitted fearful  ravages  and  has  never  yet  been  got  rid  of.  The  measures 
taken  to  restrict  and  eradicate  this  pestilence  awakened  the  easily 
aroused  suspicions  of  the  population,  and  caused  panic  and  rioting. 
The  vernacular  press  teemed  with  such  inflammatory  articles  that 
it  was  found  necessary  to  make  more  stringent  the  law  against 
seditious  writing,  and  to  accommodate  plague-measures  as  nearly  as 
possible  to  native  ideas. 

Despite  these  internal  troubles  much  solid  work  was  effected 
in  frontier  delimitation  with  Russia  on  the  Pamirs,  and  with  France 
and  Siam  in  Further  India,  and  in  the  reorganisation  of  the  Indian 
Army  under  proposals  submitted  by  Lord  Lansdowne.  In  place 
of  the  old  Presidency  system  of  three  separate  armies  for  Bengal, 
Bombay,  and  Madras,  the  Indian  Army  was  now  placed  under  one 
Commander-in-Chief,  and  divided  into  four  lieutenant-generalships. 
A  proof  of  the  efficiency  thus  attained  was  soon  given  in  1897,  when 
all  the  border  tribes  from  Chitral  to  Baluchistan  rose  against  the 
British  garrisons,  and  had  to  be  suppressed  by  military  expeditions. 
But  though  Indian  affairs  looked  very  gloomy  in  1897,  yet  a  cheerful 
gleam  was  thrown  by  the  enthusiasm  evoked  among  the  native 
prmces  at  Queen  Victoria's  Diamond  Jubilee. 

The  historical  events  of  the  last  ten  years,  including  the  brilliant 
viceroyalty  of  Lord  Curzon  of  Kedleston,  from  January  1899  to 
April  1904,  the  temporary  governor-generalship  of  Lord  Ampthill, 
governor  of  Madras,  Lord  Curzon's  second  term  from  December 

1904  (following  upon  re-appointment  in  August)  till  his  resignation 
in  November  1905,  and  Lord  Minto's  administration  from  November 

1905  onwards,  are  too  recent  to  need  more  than  the  briefest  recapi- 
tulation. 

Lord  Curzon's  first  great  measure  was  the  fixation  of  the  rupee 
at  one  shilling  and  fourpence  in  1899.  This  gave  financial  stability 
by  steadying  exchange,  and  helped  greatly  to  develop  trade  and 
commerce.  But  no  sooner  had  the  financial  horizon  thus  been  made 
clearer,  than  it  again  became  clouded  by  the  most  terrible  famine 
ever  known.  Over  seven  million  pounds  were  spent  in  relief  measures, 
and  the  total  loss  to  Government  was  estimated  at  fifty  millions 
sterling.  And  since  then  hardly  a  year  has  passed  without  some  part 
of  India  suffering  from  serious  scarcity  or  famine.  Nevertheless, 
important  improvements  were  made  in  railway  extension,  irriga- 
tion, agriculture,  education,  and  other  departments  of  the  Govern- 
ment. 


794  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

As  regards  Imperial  ideas,  Lord  Curzon  tar  outshone  any  of  his 
predecessors.  The  formation  of  the  Imperial  Cadet  Corps  for  young 
native  princes  and  nobles  was  only  one  among  many  evidences  of 
this  fact.  He  knew  the  value  of  a  strong  appeal  to  the  Imperial 
spirit  of  India,  and  the  best  way  of  making  it.  The  great  durbar 
held  at  Delhi  on  the  1st  of  January  1903,  to  celebrate  the  coronation 
of  the  first  British  Emperor  of  India,  in  which  His  Majesty's  only 
surviving  brother  took  part,  was  probably  the  most  gorgeous  spectacle 
the  world  has  ever  seen.  It  appealed  to  the  native  princes  and  the 
Indian  people  in  a  way  that  nothing  else  has  ever  done  throughout 
the  history  of  British  rule,  while  Lord  Curzon's  arrangement  of  the 
subsequent  Indian  tour  of  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales  in  1905-6 
also  tended  greatly  to  stimulate  Imperial  ideas. 

When  Lord  Curzon  returned  to  England  in  April  1904,  on  his 
full  term  of  office  expiring  without  any  successor  having  been  ap- 
pointed, he  was  considered  the  greatest  governor-general  since  Lord 
Dalhousie's  time.  But,  important  as  were  the  internal  reforms  he 
had  introduced  in  developing  trade  and  commerce,  improving  ad- 
ministration, effecting  useful  measures  of  decentralisation,  and 
strengthening  local  self-government,  it  was  a  mistake  .to  reappoint 
him  for  another  term.  No  man  should  twice  hold  this  viceroyalty, 
the  most  magnificent  office  under  the  Crown.  Lord  Curzon's  insistence 
on  necessary  university  reforms  had  raised  intense  excitement  and 
made  him  very  unpopular  among  the  Hindus  of  Bengal,  and  had 
led  to  much  abusive  and  seditious  writing.  Hence  one  of  his  last  acts, 
in  relieving  the  overworked  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Bengal  and 
improving  the  administration  of  Eastern  Bengal  and  Assam  by 
forming  a  new  province,  met  with  such  a  storm  of  Hindu  opposition 
as  would  probably  never  have  been  raised  had  this  wise,  common- 
sense  redistribution  of  work  been  left  to  a  new  Viceroy,  against  whom 
the  Hindus  had  as  yet  no  open  animosity.  And  thus,  too,  would 
have  been  avoided  the  strong  difference  in  opinion  which  arose  in 
1905  between  him  and  Lord  Kitchener,  Commander-in- Chief  since 
1902,  who  had  already,  with  the  Viceroy's  full  consent,  effected 
important  reforms  in  army  organisation.  Other  Commanders-in- 
Chief  had  previously  objected  to  unrestrained  criticism  of  their  pro- 
posals by  a  junior  officer,  the  Military  Member  of  the  Viceregal 
Council ;  but  now  flint  and  steel  met,  and  Lord  Curzon's  resignation 
was  generally  looked  upon  as  being  not  merely  an  extreme  form  of 
protest,  but  also  a  virtual  acknowledgment  of  defeat.  This  was  a 
very  serious  misfortune,  for  anything  that  tends  to  weaken  the  supre- 
macy of  the  Viceroy,  the  Emperor's  personal  representative,  must 
necessarily  depreciate  his  influence  in  the  eyes  of  the  feudatory 
princes  and  of  the  whole  of  India. 

On  his  arrival  in  November  1905,  Lord  Minto  found  many~parts 


1908      INDIA    UNDER   CROWN  GOVERNMENT        796 

of  India  seething  with  sedition ;  and  as  things  gradually  went  from 
bad  to  worse,  prominent  agitators  were  first  deported,  then  Acts 
were  passed  for  proclaiming  disturbed  districts  and  preventing  sedi- 
tious meetings,  for  penalising  any  improper  use  of  explosives,  and 
for  restraining  seditious  articles  in  newspapers. 

It  is  a  very  serious  state  of  affairs  which  now  marks  the  Jubilee 
of  Crown  Government  in  India,  despite  all  the  administrative,  com- 
mercial, and  other  improvements  that  have  taken  place  since  the 
'  Act  for  the  better  Government  of  India '  came  into  force  on  the 
1st  of  November  1858.  Our  frontiers  are  strong  and  well  protected  ; 
nearly  30,000  miles  of  railway  have  been  built  since  the  Mutiny,  and 
communications  of  every  sort  have  been  improved  to  an  extent  that 
could  hardly  have  been  dreamed  of  then  ;  old  irrigation  works  have 
been  improved,  and  new  ones  laid  out ;  famines  have  been  fought 
against,  and  as  much  has  been  done  as  caste  and  other  prejudices 
will  permit  in  the  way  of  preventing  epidemic  diseases  and  improving 
sanitation  generally ;  educational  establishments  have  been  multi- 
plied ;  every  administrative  department  has  been  largely  extended 
and  greatly  improved  ;  every  branch  of  home  and  foreign  trade  and 
commerce  has  been  encouraged  and  greatly  expanded ;  and  many 
other  evidences  might  be  enumerated  of  so-called  '  material  and 
moral  progress,'  effected  only  too  often  at  the  cost  of  the  petty  village 
handicraftsmen  and  of  rural  industries.  As  regards  the  people  them- 
selves, however,  much  of  this  progress  and  improvement,  demon- 
strated on  thousands  of  pages  of  official  statistics,  has  perhaps  been 
of  somewhat  doubtful  advantage. 

These  changes,  due  to  Western  civilisation  and  energy,  all  tend, 
especially  near  the  main  lines  of  communication,  to  disturb  the  ad- 
mirable equanimity  characteristic  of  the  Indian  peasant,  and  to 
Weaken  and  gradually  undermine  the  ancient  social  systems  that 
have  endured  throughout  previous  governmental  changes  of  a  purely 
Eastern  type.  Fresh  wants,  formerly  unknown  and  unfelt,  have  been 
created.  And  in  satisfying  these  the  peasantry  is  now  often  worse 
off  than  formerly ;  for  under  our  local  government  policy  the  authority 
of  the  larger  landowners  is  being  undermined,  and  under  our  agrarian 
laws  rapacious  money-lenders  can  obtain  a  hold  upon  the  cultivated 
lands  that  they  would  once  have  been  unable  and  unwilling  to  make 
good.  As  regards  British  rule  itself,  too,  the  last  few  years  have 
furnished  abundant  evidence  that  our  Government  is  hated  by  some 
of  the  educated  classes,  and  especially  among  the  Hindus,  for  as  yet 
the  Mahomedans  and  Sikhs  are  still  but  little  discontented  with  our 
dominion.  This  discontent  is  not  due  to  any  defect  in  the  British 
administration,  whose  even-handed  justice  is  almost  universally 
admitted.  Nor  is  it  due  to  bureaucratic  oppression,  for  in  this 
respect  the  Indian  Services  may  well  challenge  comparison  with  those 
of  any  other  country.  But  conspiracy  is  rife  among  the  Hindus. 


796  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Nov. 

These  widespread  seditious  conspiracies,  with  dangerous  euphe- 
mism merely  called  '  unrest,'  are  due  to  four  causes  :  (1)  %hat  we  are 
an  alien  race,  because  it  would  be  contrary  to  human  nature  to  expect 
any  nation,  or  any  congeries  of  nations  such  as  India  is,  to  feel  any- 
thing but  discontented  under  foreign  dominion  ;  (2)  that  the  system 
of  education  on  purely  Western  lines  adopted  from  1835  onwards  has 
borne  very  different  fruit  from  what  was  then  expected ;  (3)  that 
our  difficulties  in  South  Africa  in  1899-1901,  and  the  victories  of  Japan 
over  Russia  in  1904-5,  have  inspired  many  malcontents  with  a  desire 
to  try  and  overthrow  British  rule  in  India,  regardless  of  what  the 
consequences  would  be  if  such  schemes  were  successful ;  and  (4)  that 
the  aspirations  raised  through  the  Royal  Proclamation  of  the  1st 
of  November  1858  have  only  partially  been  fulfilled  in  so  far  as 
regards  the  portion  which  said  :  '  And  it  is  Our  further  Will,  that, 
so  far  as  may  be,  Our  subjects,  of  whatever  race  or  creed,  be  freely 
and  impartially  admitted  to  offices  in  our  Service,  the  duties  of  which 
they  may  be  qualified  by  their  education,  ability,  and  integrity  duly 
to  discharge.' 

With  regard  to  our  alien  dominion  over  a  population  vastly  out- 
numbering our  own,  it  should  never  be  forgotten  that  we  won  India 
by  the  sword,  and  that  we  hold  it  by  force  of  arms  only.  Our  empire 
in  India  rests  entirely  on  military  efficiency  and  preparedness  for 
every  emergency.  The  moment  our  strength  becomes  too  feeble  to 
wield  properly  the  keen  two-edged  weapon  of  our  British  and  native 
armies,  our  Indian  empire  must  collapse  and  pass  to  those  strong 
enough  to  grasp  the  golden  opportunity  of  conquest.  No  prize  in  the 
world  is  so  tempting  and  so  rich,  both  actually  and  potentially,  as 
India,  with  its  population  of  three  hundred  millions,  its  great  cities 
and  seaports,  its  broad  fertile  valleys,  its  vast  and  valuable  forests, 
its  huge  railway  and  irrigation  systems,  its  gold,  coal,  oil,  and  other 
sources  of  untold  wealth. 

In  1856  the  Indian  army  consisted  of  45,104  European  and  235,221 
native  troops  ;  and  now,  in  1908,  it  consists  of  75,702  Europeans  and 
148,996  natives.  There  are  thus  about  30,000  more  European  soldiers 
than  before  the  Mutiny,  and  86,000  fewer  natives.  Despite  the  very 
large  increase  of  territory  caused  by  the  Burma  annexation  in  1886, 
this  is  actually  somewhat  less  than  the  standard  fixed  by  the  Peel 
Commission  in  1859  : — 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  will  be  necessary  to  maintain  for  the  future 
defence  of  India  a  European  force  of  much  greater  strength  than  that  which 
existed  previous  to  the  outbreak  of  1857.  The  amount  of  such  force  should  .  .  . 
be  about  80,000.  .  .  .  The  amount  of  native  force  should  not,  under  present 
circumstances,  bear  a  greater  proportion  to  the  European,  in  cavalry  and 
infantry,  than  two  to  one  for  Bengal,  and  three  to  one  for  Madras  and  Bombay 
respectively. 

And  twenty  years  later,  in  1879,  the  Eden  Commission  also  said  : 


1908       INDIA    UNDER   CROWN  GOVERNMENT        797 

'  We  believe  that  a  reduction  of  the  British  infantry  in  India  would 
be  the  worst  form  of  economy  which  could  be  adopted.'  Yet  in  1882-3 
Lord  Ripon  allowed  the  British  Army  to  fall  to  10,000  men  below 
its  proper  strength,  a  false  economy  which  might  have  had  disastrous 
results. 

It  is  now  generally  admitted  that  a  mistake  was  made  when 
Macaulay's  recommendations  were  embodied  in  Lord  William 
Bentinck's  Resolution  of  March  1835,  '  that  the  funds  appropriated  to 
education  would  be  best  employed  on  English  education  alone.9  The 
Hindus,  and  especially  the  quick-witted  Bengalis,  have  chiefly  profited 
by  this  system ;  and  as  suitable  employment  could  not  be  provided 
for  all  those  thus  educated  on  Western  lines,  a  class  of  clever  and 
discontented  men  has  gradually  sprung  up  which  is  doing  all  it  can  to 
misrepresent  and  thwart  British  aims,  to  hinder  the  regular  course 
of  administration  and  undermine  its  stability,  and  to  transform 
slumbering  racial  prejudices  into  active  antagonism  and  violent 
hatred.  These  revolutionaries  know  how  powerful  an  instrument  the 
Press  can  become  in  clever  hands.  Checked  temporarily  by  the 
Vernacular  Press  Act  of  1878,  they  grew  bolder  after  its  repeal  in 
1883  ;  and  for  the  last  twenty-five  years  the  evil  has  been  growing. 

These  Hindu  patriots  trying  to  undermine  all  India  with  secret 
societies  do  not  scruple  to  use  as  tools  men  fanatic  enough  to  become 
bomb-throwers  and  assassins,  who  attain  the  glory  of  martyrdom 
on  expiating  crimes  instigated  by  leaders  careful  not  to  come  within 
reach  of  the  penal  law.  Where  this  seditious  movement  is  going  to 
end,  no  one  can  yet  say.  No  reasonable  political  concessions  will 
dispel  the  hatred  that  is  being  stirred  up  to  the  utmost  degree  against 
British  rule.  No  one  can  wish  to  revive  the  dreadful  memories  of 
the  Mutiny  massacres  ;  but  unless  much  sterner  action  than  hitherto 
be  now  taken  to  suppress  sedition  and  to  punish  severely  every  form 
of  instigation  to  crimes  arising  from  seditious  teaching,  the  horrors  of 
1857  are  likely  to  be  repeated. 

Only  those  who  have  lived  long  there  can  understand  India  and 
can  realise  the  grave  dangers  now  threatening  the  lives  of  our  fellow- 
countrymen  in  many  ungarrisoned  up-country  stations — and,  worse 
still,  the  lives  and  the  honour  and  chastity  of  our  fellow-countrywomen. 
Prompt  and  stern  action  now  may  prevent  the  shedding  of  an  ocean 
of  blood  in  the  near  future. 

Besides  these  revolutionary  conspirators,  however,  there  are  also 
large  bodies,  mainly  composed  of  much  more  respectable  men,  who, 
in  the  '  National  Congress  '  and  other  associations,  and  in  their  Press 
organs,  are  doing  all  they  can  to  obtain  a  far  larger  share  in  influencing 
the  administration  than  is  possible  at  present  under  the  most  liberal 
schemes  of  decentralisation  and  local  self-government.  They  know 
that  for  political  purposes  organisation  and  continual  appeals  to 
public  attention  are  the  way  to  attain  success,  and  they  act  energeti- 


79$  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

cally  upon  this  knowledge.  Naturally,  the  editors  of  vernacular 
newspapers  are  leading  members  in  all  such  movements ;  and  the 
power  of  the  Press  was  enormously  magnified  in  their  eyes  when,  in 
1905,  they  saw  Mr.  Morley,  a  former  editor  of  the  Fortnightly  Review, 
become  the  mighty  though  invisible  overlord  issuing  orders  to  the 
Viceroy,  vetoing  or  approving  proposals,  controlling  and  directing 
Government  policy,  and  enforcing  his  higher  authority  upon  one 
whom  they  once  regarded  as  subordinate  only  to  the  Crown.  But 
now  they  have  long  known  that  this  magnificent  Governor- General 
can  be  compelled  to  become  almost  a  mere  puppet  in  the  hands  of  a 
party  politician,  the  Secretary  of  State  for  India. 

The  agitation  which  these  congresses  and  associations  have 
organised  is  both  political  and  economic.  Its  political  side  is  Swaraj, 
or  '  own  government,'  a  purely  home-rule  movement ;  while  its 
economic  side  is  Swadeshi,  or  '  own  country,'  a  movement  for  the 
protection  and  encouragement  of  Indian  industries  against  both 
British  and  foreign  manufactures. 

As  regards  Swaraj,  serious  discontent  is  found  chiefly  among  the 
Hindus,  and  not  as  yet  among  the  Mahomedans.  In  his  recent  address 
to  the  Deccan  branch  of  the  All-India  Moslem  League,  the  Aga  Khan, 
head  of  the  Khojah  Moslems,  urged  that 

British  rule  ...  is  an  absolute  necessity.  Therefore  I  put  it  to  you  that  it  is 
the  duty  of  all  true  Indian  patriots  to  make  that  rule  strong.  .  .  .  This  is  a 
duty  which  lies  not  only  upon  Mahomedans,  but  equally  upon  Hindus,  Parsis, 
and  Bikhs — upon  all  who  are  convinced  of  the  benevolence  of  British  rule.  If 
there  are  any  among  the  less  thoughtful  members  of  the  Hindu  community 
who  think  they  can  snatch  temporary  advantage  by  racial  supremacy,  let 
them  pause  and  think  upon  all  they  would  lose  by  the  withdrawal  of  that 
British  control  under  which  has  been  effected  the  amazing  progress  of  the  past 
century. 

Aa  regards  Swadeshi,  certainly,  so  far  as  fiscal  matters  are  con- 
cerned, the  history  of  the  Indian  tariff  under  Crown  Government  has 
been  one  long  and  almost  continuous  betrayal  of  Indian  interests  in 
order  to  woo  the  Lancashire  vote  for  party  purposes. 

During  the  last  days  of  the  East  India  Company  as  a  trading 
corporation  the  Indian  tariff  was  on  lines  similar  to  those  now  desired 
by  fiscal  reformers  for  Britain.  In  1852  the  import  duties  levied  on 
many  important  articles  were  differentiated  for  British  and  foreign 
manufacture?.  On  British  cotton  and  silk  piece  goods,  woollen  goods, 
marine  stores,  and  metals  there  was  a  5  per  cent,  duty,  and  on  cotton 
thread,  twist,  and  yarn  3|  per  cent. ;  while  twice  those  amounts  were 
levied  on  foreign  goods.  Lord  Canning  first  attacked  this  differentia- 
tion in  1857,  and  proposed  to  equalise  the  duties  on  British  and 
foreign  merchandise,  and  to  abolish  export  duties  and  increase  import 
duties.  Owing  to  the  Mutiny,  the  consideration  of  his  proposals 
was  deferred  till  1859,  when  the  import  duties  on  British  goods  were 


1908      INDIA    UNDER   CEOWN  GOVERNMENT        799 

doubled.  Intense  dissatisfaction  was  aroused  among  British  mer- 
chants in  India,  and  in  1860  the  import  duties  were  reduced  and  the 
export  duties  abolished — a  sacrifice  of  revenue  being  made  at  the 
instigation  of  the  British  Cabinet.  This  change  seriously  affected 
local  industries,  often  petty  but  important  to  the  people,  and  caused 
much  hardship  to  the  poorer  peasantry.  In  1870  and  1871  Lord  Mayo 
amended  the  import  and  export  duties,  but  no  differentiation  was 
made  between  Britain  and  foreign  countries. 

In  those  days,  before  the  commercial  development  of  America 
and  Germany,  the  Indian  tariff  was  fixed  with  a  view  to  secure  British 
interests,  for  Britain  was  then  still  the  great  producer  and  distributor 
of  manufactured  goods.  But  Lancashire  was  jealous  of  the  cotton- 
spinning  mills  erected  at  Bombay,  and  applied  political  pressure 
during  the  parliamentary  election  of  1874.  This  resulted  in  a  new 
Tariff  Act  in  1875,  when  a  5  per  cent,  import  duty  was  retained  for 
revenue  purposes,  while  all  export  duties  were  abolished  except  those 
on  rice,  indigo,  and  lac.  But,  to  conciliate  the  Lancashire  interests, 
the  Conservative  Cabinet  in  November  1875  urged  that  the  import 
duty  on  cotton  goods  should  be  gradually  abolished.  Though  a 
strong  free-trader,  Lord  Northbrook  declined  to  sacrifice  this  necessary 
revenue,  saying  :  '  It  is  our  duty  to  consider  the  subject  with  regard 
to  the  interests  of  India,  and  we  do  not  consider  that  the  removal  of 
the  import  duties  upon  cotton  manufactures  is  consistent  with  these 
interests.' 

In  1877  the  Lancashire  interest  got  Parliament  to  pass  a  resolution 
that  the  Indian  import  duties  on  cotton  goods  were  '  protective  in 
their  nature  '  and  should  '  be  repealed  without  delay.'  Lord  Lytton 
yielded  to  this  pressure  and  exempted  from  duty  some  cotton  imports 
with  which  the  Bombay  mills  were  supposed  to  compete.  This  con- 
cession failed  to  satisfy  Lancashire,  and  further  pressure  was  put 
upon  the  Indian  Government.  Though  a  large  majority  of  his  Council 
considered  that '  the  measure  has  all  the  appearance  of  the  subordina- 
tion of  the  reasonable  claims  of  the  Indian  administration  to  the 
necessities  of  English  politics,'  as  famine  and  currency  depreciation 
were  now  severely  straining  the  Indian  finances,  yet  Lord  Lytton 
overruled  his  Council,  and  in  1879  exempted  from  import  duty  all 
coarse  cotton  goods  '  containing  no  finer  yarn  than  30s  '  (i.e.  30  hanks, 
each  840  yards  =1  Ib.) ;  and  in  sanctioning  this  desired  betrayal  of 
Indian  interests  the  Secretary  of  State,  Lord  Salisbury,  had  also  to 
overrule  the  majority  of  the  members  of  his  own  Council.  But  this 
political  trick  did  not  save  the  Conservatives  from  defeat  at  the  polls 
in  1880. 

Finances  improving,  Lord  Bipon  in  1882  abolished  all  the  remaining 
import  duties  except  those  on  salt  and  liquors ;  and,  save  for  a  small 
duty  on  petroleum  in  1888,  no  fresh  import  duties  were  re-imposed 


800  THE  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Nov. 

till  1894,  after  a  deficit  of  two  millions  in  1893.  In  1894  the  Herschell 
Commission  reported  that  '  the  re-imposition  of  import  duties  .  .  . 
would  excite  the  least  opposition,'  and  might  even  be  popular ;  but 
to  avoid  irritating  Lancashire  they  added  that  any  re-imposition  of 
cotton  duties  would  be  strongly  opposed.  So  the  new  Tariff  Act  of 
March  1894  re-imposed  a  special  import  duty  on  most  articles,  but 
exempted  cotton,  machinery,  coal,  raw  and  railway  materials,  grain, 
and  some  miscellaneous  articles.  This  cotton  exemption  was  strongly 
opposed  in  the  Viceregal  Legislative  Council ;  and  in  December  1894 
a  new  Act  was  passed  applying  the  5  per  cent,  duty  to  cotton  yarns 
and  goods,  though  Lancashire  was  favoured  by  a  countervailing 
excise  duty  of  5  per  cent,  being  put  on  the  finer  classes  of  yarns  '  above 
20s '  spun  in  India  and  likely  to  compete  with  British  yarns.  But 
Lancashire  agitated  in  Parliament,  and  in  January  1895  the  Secretary 
of  State,  Sir  Henry  Fowler,  agreed  to  reconsider  the  matter  '  with  a 
view  to  carry  out  loyally  the  declared  intention  to  avoid  protective 
injustice.' 

Before  action  could  be  taken,  the  Conservatives  returned  to  power 
in  June  1895,  pledge-bound  and  anxious  to  conciliate  the  British 
cotton  vote.  So  the  new  Secretary  of  State,  Lord  George  Hamilton, 
adopted  the  Lancashire  view  that  there  should  not  be  '  an  artificial 
dividing  line  at  20s,  or  any  other  count,'  unless  import  duties  were 
abolished  as  from  1882  to  1894.  Despite  strong  protests  from  influen- 
tial members  of  the  Legislative  Council,  Lord  Elgin  yielded  to  this 
pressure,  sacrificed  Indian  interests,  and  passed  the  Cotton  Duties 
Act  of  1896,  levying  a  3|  per  cent,  excise  duty  on  all  cotton  goods 
spun  at  any  Indian  mill.  Coarse  Indian  fabrics,  hardly,  if  at  all, 
competing  with  fine-spun  British  goods,  were  thus  for  the  first  time 
taxed,  thereby  raising  the  price  of  the  scanty  clothing  of  the  poorer 
classes  throughout  India  without  benefiting  British  cotton-spinners, 
and  interfering  greatly  with  the  manufacture  of  yarns  and  piece-goods 
in  India. 

Almost  the  only  spontaneous  fiscal  action  permitted  to  India 
has  been  the  imposition  in  1899  of  a  countervailing  duty  on  bounty-fed 
sugar  from  Germany  and  Austria,  which  was  in  1902  extended  to 
imports  from  other  countries.  But,  as  Lord  Curzon's  Government 
pointed  out  in  1904,  with  regard  to  the  entrance  of  India  into  an 
inter-Imperial  preferential  scheme  for  placing  protective  duties  on 
British  manufactures  and  higher  duties  on  foreign  manufactures, 
this  reform  would  be  impracticable  owing  to  past  experience  having 
too  clearly  shown  that  British  manufacturing  interests  always  prevent 
India  from  obtaining  full  fiscal  freedom. 

When  the  Indian  budget  annually  comes  before  Parliament  an 
appeal  is  usually  made  to  raise  Indian  affairs  above  party  strife, 
although  it  is  ridiculous  to  pretend  that  under  Crown  Government 


1908       INDIA    UNDER   CROWN  GOVERNMENT        801 

the  administration  of  India  does  not  always  strongly  reflect  the 
political  colour  of  the  party  in  power.  If  the  present  British  Cabinet 
have  any  real  desire  to  set  a  good  example  in  this  respect,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  effect  a  great  improvement  in  the  Government  of  India, 
let  them  carry  out  proper  measures  of  decentralisation  by  abolishing 
the  Governorships  of  Bombay  and  Madras,  which  are  useless  anachron- 
isms in  these  days  of  improved  communications,  and  are  only  main- 
tained for  purposes  of  political  patronage  (at  India's  expense)  as  part 
of  the  spoils  in  party  warfare  ;  and  let  them  transform  all  the  existing 
local  governments  and  administrations  into  Provincial  Lieutenant- 
Governorships,  each  with  its  own  Legislative  Council.  This  would 
strengthen  and  simplify  the  Government  of  India,  because  it  would 
permit  of  decentralisation  on  a  far  larger  and  more  economical  and 
efficient  scale  than  the  Hobhouse  Commission  is  being  allowed  to  deal 
with.  Neither  as  regards  territorial  area,  population,  revenue,  nor 
amount  and  importance  of  work  is  there  now  any  justification  for  the 
Governor  of  Bombay  or  of  Madras  being  still  partially  exempt  from 
the  supreme  authority  of  the  Governor-General,  or  being  still  per- 
mitted to  have  his  own  Council  and  to  correspond  directly  with  the 
Secretary  of  State,  and  to  have  far  higher  pay  and  privileges  than 
are  accorded  to  the  Lieutenant-Governors  of  Bengal,  the  United 
Provinces,  the  Punjab,  Burma,  and  Eastern  Bengal.  This  desirable 
reform  would  only  be  a  logical  sequence  to  the  reorganisation  of  the 
Indian  army  under  one  Commander-in- Chief  in  1894 ;  and  the  con- 
solidation of  authority  which  has  been  of  such  conspicuous  benefit 
in  military  matters  is  equally  necessary,  and  will  be  equally  beneficial, 
in  the  administration  of  the  various  civil  departments. 

The  Government  needs  all  the  strengthening  that  can  be  given 
by  rational  reform  of  this  sort,  for  it  would  be  useless  to  deny  that 
the  greater  part  of  India  is  seething  with  sedition.  Yet  we  are  only 
reaping  a  harvest  of  our  own  sowing.  Twenty-five  years  ago  the 
Viceroy  sent  out  by  a  Liberal  Cabinet  strewed  broadcast  the  seeds 
from  which  have  sprung  many  of  the  thorns  now  thickly  besetting 
the  path  of  the  present  Liberal  Secretary  of  State.  And  it  cannot 
have  been  altogether  by  chance  that  the  worst  outbreak  of  popular 
sedition  ever  experienced  in  India  synchronised  almost  exactly  with 
the  return  of  the  Liberals  to  power  in  1906. 

Fifty  years  ago  we  were  still  in  the  throes  of  the  Mutiny.  What 
now  threatens  India  is  not  another  revolt  of  the  native  troops,  but 
a  general  rising  of  the  population,  urged  on  by  demagogues.  This 
dangerous  agitation  can  still  easily  be  restrained,  just  as  hill  torrents 
can  be  controlled  near  their  source  ;  but  if  it  be  allowed  to  gather 
strength,  it  will  some  time  or  other  flood  the  country  and  do  untold 
damage.  As  was  truly  said  in  the  Quarterly  Review  of  last  July,  the 
time  when  this  strong  current  of  sedition  must  prove  most  dangerous 

VOL.  LX1V— No.  381  8  H 


802  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

will  be  when  we  become  embroiled  in  a  life-and-death  struggle  with 
any  other  Great  Power.  In  such  case  we  shall  have  to  face  a  far 
worse  revolt  than  that  of  fifty  years  ago  ;  and  if  we  are  not  then  still 
in  full  command  of  the  ocean  highways  between  Britain  and  India, 
our  great  Indian  Empire  may  become  shattered  and  be  wrested 
from  us.  To  adopt  necessary  measures  of  proper  protection  is  a 
matter  that  should  certainly  be  raised  altogether  above  the  sphere 
of  party  politics,  and  above  the  wrangle  of  political  opportunists. 

J.  NISBET. 


1908 


AN   UNKNOWN  POET 

THERE  lately  came  to  my  hands,  from  one  wholly  unknown  to  me 
even  by  name,  a  tiny  volume  of  thirty-five  sonnets,  which  I  hold  to 
be  of  exquisite  quality  and  of  origin  quite  unique.  They  are  the 
groans  of  a  bereaved  husband  for  the  loss  of  a  beloved  wife  —  written 
day  by  day  in  presence  of  her  last  illness,  of  her  dead  body,  of  her 
burial,  and  the  first  desolation  of  his  old  home.  There  is  in  these 
daily  devotions  a  poignant  ring,  a  vivid  reality,  an  intense  realism, 
which  mark  them  off  from  all  literary  elegies  of  any  kind.  And  as 
being  the  consecration  of  married  love  in  rare  form,  I  judge  them  to 
have  a  truly  unique  origin.  To  my  ear  their  language  has  a  melody 
and  a  purity  such  as  no  living  poet  can  surpass. 

The  intensity  of  passion  felt  on  such  a  bereavement  by  a  sensitive 
nature  is  unhappily  far  from  rare.  And  perhaps  many  a  cultivated 
spirit  has  sought  to  express  such  grief  in  words.  But  the  world 
has  not  seen  these  outpourings  of  soul  ;  or  they  have  been  composed 
when  years  have  passed  to  veil  the  keenness  of  sorrow.  The  elegies 
which  live  in  immortal  poetry  record  a  friend,  a  lover,  a  genius,  or  a 
hero,  as  do  the  undying  lines  of  Dante  or  of  Petrarch,  of  Shelley  or 
of  Tennyson.  When  Milton  in  his  dream  saw  his  '  late  espoused 
Saint  brought  to  him  like  Alcestis  from  the  grave,'  he  unluckily  re- 
minded us  of  Admetus,  who  was  not  an  heroic  husband.  Indeed,  since 
the  lovely  sonnets  of  Rossetti,  I  cannot  recall  any  poem  written  by  a 
bereaved  husband  in  the  very  presence  of  the  coffin  and  the  grave  of  an 
adored  wife,  in  which  he  has  so  laid  bare  the  extremity  of  his  despair. 

Now,  the  quality  of  these  sonnets  which  stirred  me  before  I  had 
read  three  of  them  was  their  directness  of  stroke,  the  simplicity  of 
speech,  scorning  the  least  concession  to  literary  colour.  Without 
ornament,  trope,  image,  or  any  artificial  grace,  they  have  that  pathos 
inscribed  on  marble  in  the  best  Greek  epitaphs.  They  remind  me  of 
that  wailing  elegy  on  Atthis  of  Cnidos  —  also  by  an  unknown  author  — 
could  the  author  be  any  but  her  husband  ?  — 

'Ayj/a,  TTOi/Auydr/Tf,  ri  TrfvdifjLov  vnvov  laveis 

dvbpos  OTTO  OTcpvav  uvnoTe  6ti(ra  Kapa 
Qtlov  fpr/fiuxraa-a  TOP  ovKf'rt  •  crol  yap  es  *At8a«/ 


1  It  is  Epitaph  li.  in  Mr.  Mackail's  beautiful  collection.  '  Atthis,  holy  one,  much 
bewept,  how  is  it  that  thou  art  sleeping  the  sad  sleep,  thou  who  never  yet  pillowed 
thy  head  away  from  the  bosom  of  thy  husband,  thou  who  hast  left  desolate  thy 

803  3  H  2 


804  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

Had  these  reiterating  dirges  of  a  present  sorrow — ringing  slowly 
with  the  monotone  of  a  funeral  bell — had  they  been  less  simple,  direct, 
and  chiselled  in  form,  they  would  have  been  painful.  We  should 
shrink  from  being  in  the  presence  of  such  agony,  in  touch  with  a 
living  soul  so  broken,  so  hopeless,  face  to  face  with  all  the  realities  of 
such  a  fate.  But  the  words  in  their  stern  self-restraint,  their  dignified 
self-abandonment,  in  their  quiet  disdain  of  art,  seem  to  me  to  have 
a  true  art  of  their  own. 

Nor  could  we  endure  to  have  these  elegies  prolonged  ;  for  the  very 
note  of  them  is  to  avoid  all  thoughts  extraneous  to  the  ever-present 
sense  of  bereavement  and  loneliness.  But  in  a  very  short  collection 
of  sonnets  the  sense  of  continuous  and  abiding  grief  is  deeply  impres- 
sive. When  I  received  a  copy  of  these  poems — I  know  not  from 
whom — I  wrote  through  the  publisher  to  the  author  to  express  my 
interest,  and  to  urge  him  to  complete  and  revise  the  series.  This  he 
has  now  done  and  has  issued  them  in  an  enlarged  edition.  They 
now  form  forty-five  sonnets,  each  of  fourteen  lines.  Nearly  all  belong 
to  the  few  months  past  since  the  grave  was  closed.2  The  author 
insists  on  keeping  his  personality  strictly  undisclosed. 

The  close  of  the  first  sonnet  sounds  the  theme  of  the  requiem 
music  which  is  extended  in  the  order  of  an  elaborate  fugue : 

0  love,  my  love  long  since,  my  love  to  be, 

O  living  love,  for  evermore  my  own, 
Mine  in  the  spaces  of  eternity, 

Mine  in  the  worlds  that  circle  round  God's  throne, 
Mine  by  dear  human  love's  sealed  benison, 
And  mine  by  His  vast  love  in  whom  all  love  is  one. 

In  the  Prelude  (Sonnet  ii.)  the  poet  replies  to  one  who  doubted 
if  so  sombre  a  monotone  were  not  to  place  bonds  on  art.  His  heart 
is  with  the  nightingale — not  with  the  lark.  He  feels  the  glory  of  the 
morning  bird  on  high — but  his  own  song  is  attuned  to  the  songster 

of  the  night : 

Twin  songs  there  are,  of  joyance,  or  of  pain  ; 

One  of  the  morning  lark  in  midmost  sky, 
When  falls  to  earth  a  mist,  a  silver  rain, 

A  glittering  cascade  of  melody  ; 
And  mead  and  wold  and  the  wide  heaven  rejoice, 

And  praise  the  Maker  ;  but  alone  I  kneel 
In  sorrowing  prayer.     Then  wanes  the  day  ;  a  voice 

Trembles  along  the  dusk,  till  peal  on  peal 
It  pierces  every  living  heart  that  hears, 

Pierces  and  burns  and  purifies  like  fire  ;  v 

Again  I  kneel  under  the  starry  spheres, 

And  all  my  soul  seems  healed,  and  lifted  higher, 
Nor  could  that  jubilant  song  of  day  prevail 
Like  thine  of  tender  grief,  0  Nightingale. 

Theius  to  a  living  death  ?     For  with  thee  all  hope  of  our  living  has  passed  into  outer 
darkness.1 

••*  Thysia  :  An  Elegy.   New  edition.   Enlarged.   (George  Bell  &  Sons.   1908.   12mo.) 


1908  AN   UNKNOWN  POET  806 

The  whole  series  of  poems  belongs  to  the  solitary  voice  that 
'  trembles  along  the  dusk.' 

To  the  world  which  is  so  prone  to  look  for  enjoyment  he  says  : 

Even  as  a  bird  when  ho  has  lost  his  mate 
Fills  all  the  grove  with  his  melodious  wrong, 

So  I,  who  mourn  a  grief  more  passionate, 
To  you,  O  world,  address  my  harsher  song  ; 

Yet  scorn  it  not ;  sing  with  me,  if  ye  will ; 
My  sorrow  is  your  sorrow — yours  my  hope. 

It  was  in  the  spring  of  last  year  that  the  signs  of  mortal  illness 
were  too  plain  to  be  denied.  She  still  lived  (Sonnet  v.) : 

Her  one  poor  hand  holds  a  resplendent  prize, 
The  one  white  violet  I  digged  at  morn. 

As  the  year  grew,  the  summer  brought  back  the  rose  to  her  cheek, 
and  to  the  husband's  heart  the  hope  that  the  bitterness  of  death  was 
past : 

Near  where  the  violets  grew,  as  days  went  by, 
I  found  a  budding  hope,  and  bore  it  home. 

The  end  came  on  the  27th  of  November  (Sonnet  vii.) : 

I  watch  beside  you  in  your  silent  room  ; 

Without,  the  chill  rain  falls,  life  dies  away, 
The  dead  leaves  drip,  and  the  fast  gathering  gloom 

Closes  around  this  brief  November  day, 
First  day  of  holy  death,  of  sacred  rest — 

Dear  heart,  I  linger  but  a  little  space, 
Sweet  wife,  I  come  to  your  new  world  ere  long. 

Between  death  an<J  funeral  the  stricken  man  cries  out : 

Relentless  Death,  could  you  not  spare  me  this  ? 
Could  you  not  strike  at  me — your  happiest  stroke  ? 

I  only  live,  where  all  is  yours,  0  Death. 
On  the  last  day  of  November  comes  the  funeral  (Sonnet  ix.) : 

The  sun  sinks  with  a  visage  of  despair, 

And  freezing  vapours  like  a  nightmare  fall ; 

Death  on  the  earth  beneath,  Death  in  the  air, 
Where  the  bell  tolls,  and  heaven  is  one  vast  pall. 

He  returns  home  to  his  '  barren  house  left  desolate '  to  feel 
himself  now  indeed  Alone  (Sonnet  x.)  : 

The  bier,  the  bell,  the  grave,  silence,  and  night 
And  you  are  laid  in  that  cold  ground,  and  gone  ? 

But  over  it  the  affrighted  star&  will  shiver, 

And  the  world  weep,  and  the  wind  moan  for  ever. 


806  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

Weeks  pass,  and  Christmas  Day  arrives,  but  it  brings  no  joy  nor 
rest: 

No  Christmas  bells  I  hear  ;  one  slow  bell  rings 
Its  monotone  of  death  within  my  breast. 

He  seeks  change  of  scene  by  the  seashore  : 

Brj  &'  OKetav  irapa  ffiva  7roAv$Xoi(T|3oio  daXdavTjs, 

but  he  wanders  '  back  to  the  little  home  he  left  forlorn,'  his  '  weary 
feet  turn  from  the  sullen  sea.' 

There  is  a  cruel  picture  of  The  Deserted  House  (Sonnet  xii.) : 

I  watch  within  your  silent  room  once  more  ; 

Without,  the  dead  leaf  shivers  in  the  blast ; 
Your  broken  comb,  your  glove  are  on  the  floor, 

The  cold  clouds  see  them,  and  they  shudder  past, 
Startled  they  look  upon  the  empty  bed, 

The  vacant  chair,  the  couch  left  desolate, 
The  dying  flowers  that  saw  you  lying  dead, 

And  me,  who  bow  beneath  my  sorrow's  weight, 
Who  only  hear  that  bell's  sad  monotone — 
'  Alone,  alone,  for  evermore  alone.' 

The    wedding    day    comes   round,   but  only   adds   a   new   pang 
(Sonnet  xiii.)  : 

My  voice  but  tears,  my  music  but  a  moan, 
And  my  last  wish  in  your  lone  grave  to  sleep. 

He  unexpectedly  discovers  her  portrait : 

I  kiss  your  silent  lips,  sad,  sad  relief, — 

Ah  !  God,  for  those  sweet  words  they  used  to  say. 

The  New  Year  has  no  message  of  relief  (Sonnet  xvi.)  : 

Comes  the  New  Year ;  wailing  the  north  winds  blow  ; 

In  her  cold,  lonely  grave  my  dead  love  lies  ; 
Dead  lies  the  stiffened  earth  beneath  the  snow, 

And  bunding  sleet  blots  out  the  desolate  skies. 
I  stand  between  the  living  and  the  dead ; 

Hateful  to  me  is  life,  hateful  is  death. 

Sorrow  grows  only  more  real  by  time  (Sonnet  xviii.)  : 

Weeks  pass  ;  I  stand  beside  your  grave  again  ; 

Yet  is  my  agony  not  less,  but  more, 
And  like  a  river  widening  to  the  main, 

Deeper  it  flows,  if  calmer  than  before. 

Two  snowdrops  lift  their  white  heads  from  the  clay  ; 
They  come  like  ghosts  of  buried  memories. 

It  is  again  Early  Spring  (Sonnet  xxi.)  : 

Alone  I  wander  forth  in  early  spring, 

And  tell  my  sorrow  to  each  tender  flower  ; 

By  that  dear  bank  where  the  white  violets  grew, 
The  violets  slept  beneath,  as  she  sleeps  now. 


1908  AN   UNKNOWN  POET  807 

The  first  part  of  the  collection,  entitled  Death  and  Love — the 
strictly  funeral  part — closes  with  Sonnet  xxv.,  inscribed  Our  Grave. 
I  must  cite  it  entire  from  its  simple  purity  of  thought,  and  to  my  ear 
an  exquisite  melody  in  the  minor  key : 

Where  the  bird  warbles  earliest,  and  new  light 

Wakes  the  first  buds  of  spring  ;  where  breezes  sleep 
Or  sigh  with  pity  half  the  summer  night, 

While  the  pale  loving  stars  look  down  to  weep, 
There  lies  our  grave  ;  a  slender  plot  of  ground 

"Tis  all  of  earth  we  own  ;  no  cross  ;  no  tree, 
Nothing  to  mark  it,  but  a  little  mound  ; 

But  there  my  darling  stays  ;  she  waits  for  me, 
The  lily  in  her  hand  ;  and  when  I  come 

She  will  be  glad  to  greet  me,  and  will  say, 
'  Your  lily,  dearest,  gives  you  welcome  home.' 

But  oh  !  dear  Lord,  I  hunger  with  delay  ; 
Tell  me,  blest  Lord,  shall  I  have  long  to  wait  ? 
For  I  must  haste,  or  she  will  think  me  late. 

To  the  first  part  of  the  poem  there  is  now  added  a  second  part — 
the  utterance  of  a  grief  more  chastened  and  at  last  lighted  up  with 
sure  hope  of  blissful  reunion  in  the  world  to  come.  For  this  writer 
is  profoundly  saturated  with  religious  faith  in  a  future  life.  He  is 
now  sure  that  the  parting  will  not  be  for  long  : 

So  listen,  love,  to  this  sad  threnody, 
This  song  of  death  by  one  who  soon  must  die. 

He  continues  to  dwell  in  memory  on  the  loving  nature  of  her  whom 
he  has  lost — '  thy  way  was  sweet  self-sacrifice  ' — he  revisits  the  grave 
and  '  marvels  at  the  summer  flowers '  which  surround  it.  He  recalls 
their  wedding  and  the  first  rapture  of  their  married  life,  the  incidents 
of  their  existence  in  one  soul,  and  the  anniversaries  of  each  birthday, 
wedding  day,  and  journeys  together.  In  early  summer  her  birthday 
is  come  ;  he  will  rise  and  gather  once  again 

The  summer  posy  that  she  knew  so  well. 

He  calls  aloud  to  her  favourite  flowers  : 

So,  orchis,  come,  and  woodbine,  as  of  old  ; 

Come  to  my  darling,  each  fair  flower  that  blows  ; 
Cowslip  and  meadow-cress,  and  marigold, 

The  last  sweet  bluebell  and  the  first  sweet  rose. 

Then  the  flowers  listen  and  answer  joyfully  : 

We  come,  we  come :  O  lead  us  to  our  Queen, 
But  the  sad  poet  replies  : 

Nay,  gentle  flowers,  my  weary  steps  must  rove. 
And  lay  you  on  the  grave  of  her  you  love. 


808  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

He  meditates  on  the  full  meaning  of  the  maxim  to  which  the  lives 
of  both  were  devoted  : 

There's  nothing  we  can  call  our  own  but  Love. 

He  realises  more  fully  than  ever  that  in  mutual  love  alone  can  the 
true  path  of  life  be  found,  as  also  the  essential  power  of  true  religion  : 

Love  is  self -giving  ;   therefore  love  is  God. 

This  meditation  leads  the  poet  on  to  a  fine  sonnet  on  immortality, 

beginning  : 

Hear,  0  Self -giver,  infinite  as  good, 

The  series  of  sonnets  then  passes  into  a  strictly  devotional  tone — 
on  the  spiritual  meaning  of  a  sacred  sorrow,  on  the  regenerating  power 
of  such  trials  of  the  heart  : 

Hope  humbly,  then,  sad  heart,  through  all  thy  pain  ; 
Yea,  choose  thy  sorrow  as  thy  chiefest  gain. 

He  acknowledges  at  last 

By  pain  alone  is  wisdom  perfected. 

He  now  dedicates  his  verses  to  Truth,  Sorrow,  Faith,  Hope.  Even 
a  sleepless  night  has  its  message  to  the  soul  as  he  gazes  on  the  spangled 

sky  and  notes 

The  tranquil  march  of  heaven's  majesty, 

and  so  the  constellations  above  suggest  an  unlimited  and   unending 
aspiration  of  good  to  be  : 

Yea,  like  the  night,  my  dream  of  infinite  good 
Is  beautiful  with  stars  in  multitude. 

But,  at  last,  as  the  poem  closes,  hope,  and  the  just  resolution  to 
work  out  the  appointed  time  of  life,  take  the  place  of  despair  and 
the  hunger  for  death.  And  in  the  final  sonnet — addressed  To  the 
Lord  God — the  poet  manfully  declares  that  he  '  will  not  rest  before 

•  the  grave  ' : 

Let  me  fight  on  ;  teach  me  to  choose  Thy  way. 

And  find  eternal  peace  in  her  dear  love  and  Thine. 

As  will  have  been  observed,  the  forty-five  sonnets  are  all  cast  in 
the  familiar  English  form — not  in  the  lovely,  but  for  us  impossible, 
Italian  type.  It  is  the  scheme  of  Shakespeare's  sonnets  ;  and  clearly 
that  is  the  rhythm  which  the  poet  has  kept  before  him  as  his  ideal. 
One  who  has  read  the  brief  extracts  in  this  paper  will  have  seen  the 
rare  gift  of  melody  which  they  show.  It  was  his  fine  sense  of  music 
which  arrested  my  own  attention  when  the  humble  volume  first  came 
into  my  hands.  But  I  will  cite  one  or  two  detached  lines  which  to 
my  ear  ring  with  a  truly  poignant  thrill. 


i 


1908  AN  UNKNOWN  POET  809 

Take  these  lines  of  autumn  season  : 

Hark  !  how  it  mourns  around  the  empty  folds, 
Or  sighs  amid  the  ruined  marigolds. 

To  my  mind  the  sonnet  entitled  Vespers  (xxvi.)  opens  with  a 
quatrain  of  exquisite  modulation  : 

I  love  to  watch  the  sunset  gold  grow  dim 
On  the  lone  peak  of  some  enchanted  fell, 

To  catch  the  murmur  of  a  vesper  hymn, 
Or  far-offjullabv  of  vesper  bell. 

•4 

What  time  the  bird  of  woe  through  deepening  shade, 
Flutes  his  wild  requiem  o'er  the  buried  sun. 

And  a  stronger  clarion  is  heard  in  the  sonnet  entitled  Woman 
(xxvii.),  which  opens  thus  : 

Why  do  the  ages  celebrate  in  song, 

Man,  or  the  deeds  of  man,  crowning  with  bays 

The  warrior,  the  oppressor,  and  the  wrong, 
And  leave  unsung  woman's  diviner  praise  ? 

Of  his  own  verses  the  poet  speaks  : 

Like  soft,  recurrent  moanings  of  the  dove. 

Or,  again,  his  wreath  of  song  is 

The  first  to  wither  on  the  grave  of  Love. 

It  is  too  much  the  fashion  of  our  day  to  require  in  poetry  a  subtle 
involution  of  thought,  cryptic  parables,  the  '  curious  felicity ' — or 
rather  the  laborious  '  curiosity  ' — of  precious  phrase,  such  as  may 
rival  the  ambiguity  of  a  double  acrostic  in  a  lady's  journal.  There 
are  some  who  will  hardly  count  anything  poetry  unless  it  need  many 
a  re-reading  to  unravel  its  inner  connotations.  And  for  the  sake  of 
this  subtlety,  or  rather  as  a  hall-mark  of  this  superfine  '  mentality,' 
as  they  call  it  in  their  jargon,  they  desiderate  an  uncouthness  of  diction, 
or  at  least  a  sputtering  cacophony  of  strident  discords,  that  would 

have  made  Quintilian  stare  and  gasp. 

For  my  part,  I  have  no  taste  for  conundrums  rhymed  or  un- 
rhymed.  I  will  read  no  poetry  that  does  not  tell  me  a  plain  tale  in 
honest  words,  with  easy  rhvthm  and  pure  music.  The  true  pathos 
ever  speaks  to  us  in  simple  utterance,  not  in  tortured  tropes  and 
mystical  allusions,  as  Dante's 

that  day  we  read  no  more, 

or  Wordsworth's 

and  never  lifted  up  a  single  stone. 


810  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

I  find  this  simple  directness  of  speech  in  this  unknown  poet.  Every 
line  has  a  meaning  entirely  obvious  and  definite.  It  needs  no  com- 
mentary, no  second  reading  to  unriddle  it,  no  special  society  to 
discover  and  to  unfold  its  beauties.  And  its  music  is  that  of 
Beethoven's  AdeMda,  or  of  Gluck's  Orfeo — Che  faro  senza  Euridice  ? 

It  is  sad — yes,  it  is  bitterly  sad — cruel  in  its  fate ;  and  yet  how 
common,  almost  universal,  in  its  bereavement !  The  world,  I  know, 
shrinks  to-day  from  anything  that  is  sad.  With  ostrich-like  folly 
it  turns  its  eyes  away  from  what  is  painful.  I  know  no  worse  sign 
of  moral  weakness  and  childish  frivolity  than  its  artificial  shudder  at 
all  that  is  sad  and  tragic. 

By  pain  alone  is  wisdom  perfected. 

FREDERIC  HARRISON. 


1908 


BERLIN    REVISITED    BY   A    BRITISH 
TOURIST 


TWENTY-EIGHT  years  are  apt  to  bring  changes  enough  in  the  lives 
of  individuals,  but  in  few  human  beings  can  the  flight  of  time  have 
wrought  a  more  complete  transformation,  both  to  the  outward  and 
to  the  inward  eye,  than  in  the  Emperor  William's  capital  since  the 
early  'eighties. 

There  are  not  a  great  many  places  indeed  where  the  traveller, 
who  returns  after  so  long  an  interval,  can  take  up  his  station 
and  look  round  with  any  complete  sense  of  recognition.  The  chief 
of  these  is,  of  course,  the  approach  from  the  Thiergarten  by  the 
Brandenburg  Gate,  whence  the  long  and  stately  lines  of  Unter 
den  Linden  in  spite  of  many  new  constructions  present  their  well- 
remembered  aspect.  And  here  close  at  hand,  if  you  are  in  luck's  way, 
the  soldiers  in  their  historic  uniforms  still  come  rushing  out  of  the 
little  guard-house  to  salute  the  passing  of  some  eminent  personage 
with  all  the  complicated  ceremonial  used  by  their  forefathers  in 
the  days  of  the  great  Frederick.  On  the  left  the  French  Embassy, 
as  of  old,  arrests  the  eye  by  a  peculiar  grace  of  proportion  and  outline 
which  distinguishes  it  amongst  more  imposing  neighbours.  Lower 
down  loom  the  buildings  of  the  Wilhelm  Strasse,  still  eloquently 
reminiscent  of  the  overshadowing  presence  which  brooded  over  them 
then,  forging  thunderbolts  for  the  world  outside  the  Fatherland.  A  few 
minutes'  further  stroll  brings  us  to  the  plain  stone  mansion  with  its 
long  array  of  unveiled  windows  on  the  first  floor,  blank  now,  but 
how  full  of  memories  !  That  one  next  the  corner  framed  a  sight 
not  easily  to  be  forgotten  when  the  traveller,  then  a  schoolgirl/ passed 
this  way  last  time  and  was  suddenly  bidden  to  look  up.  Two  figures 
were  plainly  visible  through  the  clear  glass,  in  no  way  screened  from 
public  observation.  One  seated  at  a  table,  white-haired,  white- 
whiskered,  was  obviously  talking  eagerly  as  he  looked  up  at  the  other 
with  the  massive  head  standing  beside  him,  the  deep-set  eyes  gazing 
out  across  the  wide  public  place  and  the  busy  traffic  of  the  city's 
life,  seeing  not  that  evidently,  but  what  other  visions  past  or  future, 
near  or  far  away,  in  which  his  master's  subjects  no  doubt  played  their 

811 


812  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

unconscious  part  ?  Who  could  say  ?  It  was  a  sight  which  made 
the  stranger  stand  still  involuntarily  and  draw  in  his  breath  ;  but  the 
good  Berliners  were  evidently  too  familiar  with  it  to  pay  much  heed 
as  they  hurried  by,  intent  on  their  own  concerns.  No  doubt,  though, 
the  passing  glances  occasionally  cast  up  at  those  two  stark  watch- 
dogs of  the  Fatherland  keeping  their  vigilant  guard,  must  have 
given  an  added  sense  of  security  to  the  citizen  intent  on  his  more 
trivial  round,  and  perhaps  also  to  the  humbler  workers,  without 
whom  Prince  Bismarck  himself  could  have  fashioned  no  edifice  of 
Empire. 

That  window  now  is  bare  and  empty.  One  of  the  figures  sits 
in  effigy,  it  is  true,  mounted  on  a  charger  close  by  upon  a  pile  of 
cumbrous  masonry  which  blocks  the  river  facade  so  fine  in  its  simplicity 
of  the  old  Schloss,  which  has  been  the  scene  of  so  many  Hohenzollern 
pomps  and  festivals.  Certain  feminine  figures  of  portentous  size 
are  grouped  about  the  horse  and  his  rider.  These  sylphs  at  first 
appeared,  it  is  declared,  in  native  beauty  unadorned  by  all  the  massive 
draperies  which  clothe  them  now  in  deference  to  public  opinion ;  the 
good  citizens  of  Berlin  having  stoutly  objected  to  classic  traditions  in 
attire  for  the  emblematic  females  who  form  the  bodyguard  of  their 
first  Emperor. 

His  successor,  beloved  of  so  many  hearts,  has  found  com- 
memoration most  appropriate  in  the  fine  museum  called  by  his  name 
in  which  the  magnificent  art  collections,  lavishly  acquired  for  the 
city  of  Berlin,  have  been  lately  so  beautifully  arranged.  Here  there 
is  neither  space  nor  capacity  to  speak  of  the  wealth  of  treasures  which 
dazzle  you  on  every  wall  in  the  larger  rooms  ;  but  perhaps  a  word 
may  be  allowed  upon  the  rare  pleasures  provided  by  the  presiding 
genius  of  the  galleries  in  those  little  cabinets,  leading  out  of  one  another, 
into  which  the  visitor  may  pass  and  find  such  fresh  delight  and  repose. 
For  it  is  here  that  certain  pictures  have  found  not  only,  space  but  an 
actual  home.  These  rooms,  their  walls  covered  with  dim  harmonious 
brocades,  hold  just  a  few  treasures  in  each,  arranged  with  such  con- 
summate art  that  all  sense  of  gallery  and  museum  is  forgotten.  You 
find  yourself  in  a  moment  transported  to  quite  another  atmosphere, 
to  the  smaller  palace  chambers  of  some  princely  collector  of  another 
age,  for  whom  the  painters  painted  and  the  craftsmen  wrought  the 
things  you  see  before  you,  destined  to  occupy  the  places  where 
they  are.  The  Kyks  Museum  at  Amsterdam,  the  Musee  Plantin  at 
Antwerp,  or  the  best  of  the  Italian  palace  collections  hardly  convey  a 
more  complete  sense  of  absolute  harmony  and  fitness.  Each  perfect 
thing  is  shown  not  only  to  its  own  best  advantage,  but  all  are  combined 
so  as  to  form  parts  of  a  scheme.  A  Tuscan  painting,  delicate  and 
glowing,  is  companioned  on  each  side,  say,  by  sconces  of- the  same 
period  and  worthy  of  their  place  ;  they  would  light  also  some  little 
masterpieces  in  bronze  of  the  same  period,  while  below  is  a  chest  of 


1908  BERLIN  REVISITED  818 

wonderful  Florentine  workmanship,  and  opposite  the  best  examples 
of  Delia  Robbia  ware  and  a  tazza  of  Benvenuto  Cellini  fill  the  space 
where  you  would  expect  to  see  them  in  just  such  a  Florentine  chamber. 
The  same  plan  holds  good  as  you  pass  from  one  room  to  another. 
What  a  delight,  too,  awaits  the  traveller  when  he  meets  the  masters 
of  the  old  German  school  in  another  chamber,  a  revelation  of  splendid 
colour  and  design  to  those  of  us — and  that  is  necessarily  the  great 
majority — who  have  scant  acquaintance  with  their  unsuspected 
magnificence.  All  find  themselves  in  company  with  other  works  of 
artist-craftsmen  who  in  those  days  had  recognised  no  divorce  or 
incompatibility  between  different  forms  of  beauty  in  the  making. 

The  particulars  must  be  left  to  Baedeker  and  to  higher  powers 
with  authority  to  speak  in  these  matters.  Yet  it  is  hard  to  forbear 
all  mention  of  the  delight  with  which  these  rooms  impress  them- 
selves on  the  memory  of  a  British  tourist,  of  the  way  in  which  Rem- 
brandt's warrior  with  the  brass  helmet,  for  instance — that  vision  of 
the  seared  and  dinted,  unconquerable  fighter,  battered  with  a  hundred 
fights — haunts  one  as  on  a  crowded  wall  he  might  not  have  power  to 
do  to  the  full ;  .or  of  the  unforgettable  radiance  of  Holbein's  Merchant 
of  Basle,  whose  extraordinary  grace  of  design  and  beauty  of  colour 
required  all  that  amount  of  clear  wall-space  which  it  has  now  been 
given.  How  one  goes  back  to  the  deep  rose-coloured  carnation  in 
the  tall  vase,  recalling  the  colour  of  the  velvet  sleeves  and  leading  up, 
slim  and  graceful,  to  the  delicate,  dreamy  face  above  it,  and  the 
suggestions  of  a  business  life  in  a  background  more  beautiful  to  the 
eye  than  any  merchant's  office,  whether  in  Basle  or  in  London  or 
Berlin,  could  offer  to-day  !  Well,  one  loves  without  knowledge,  and 
the  professional  critic,  no  doubt,  is  the  only  person  who  has  a  right 
to  express  himself  in  these  matters  ;  so  to  him  be  left  the  manner  of 
it,  but  to  all  is  given  the  sheer  delight  even  without  his  guiding 
hand. 

It  is  impossible  to  think  without  many  a  sigh  of  treasures  equally 
beautiful  and  rare,  scattered  in  different  obscure  corners  of  various 
London  museums,  bronzes,  jewellery,  furniture,  and  so  on.  Why 
should  they  not  be  brought  together  again  into  the  company  of  the 
painters  of  their  own  age  ?  Even  in  Berlin  this  conception  has  not 
been  carried  nearly  far  enough  ;  in  London,  only  the  Wallace  Collection 
here  and  there  hints  at  it.  The  material  obstacles  are,  no  doubt,  so 
great  as  to  be  almost  insurmountable,  but  all  difficulties  declared  to 
be  insurmountable  are  likely  to  remain  so  until  a  generation  arises 
which  loses  all  consciousness  of  them  in  view  of  a  desired  end.  Thus 
the  uninitiated,  the  British  tourist,  arranges  for  a  future  in  which  there 
will  be  no  more  great  bare  galleries  whose  walls  are  plastered  thick 
with  paintings,  jostling  each  other,  encroaching  on  one  another, 
dazzling,  dazing,  bewildering,  exhausting  with  a  perfect  chaos  of 
beauty. 


814  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Nov. 

In  another  place,  the  Pergamon  Museum,  the  way  in  which  the 
fragments  of  the  great  altar  to  Poseidon  have  been  carefully  pieced 
together  and  a  reconstruction  practically  effected  is  only  another 
example  of  that  laborious  working  with  a  view  to  the  whole  rather 
than  to  kaleidoscopic  chaos  of  details  which  is  so  characteristic  of 
every  branch  of  modern  German  activity. 

Indeed,  when  the  traveller  turns  reluctantly  from  the  splendours 
within  doors  and  passes  to  the  glaring  white  streets  rising  line  upon 
line,  one  after  the  other,  all  exactly  alike  round  and  about  Berlin, 
he  could  wish  for  a  less  magnificently  ordered  uniformity,  for  some 
sign  of  individuality,  for  some  tokens  from  the  past,  if  only  a  remnant 
of  the  charming  irregular  roofs  and  towers  now  only  to  be  seen  in  old 
prints  and  pictures  of  the  former  city  on  the  Spree.  How  they  oppress 
one  those  miles  of  symmetrical  streets  and  boulevards  of  pompous 
design,  all  as  much  alike  and  mathematically  symmetrical  as  the  rows 
of  Imperial  troops  on  the  Tempel  Hof  ground  on  a  review  day  !  The 
concessions  made  to  poor  humanity  in  the  way  of  sculptural  or  other 
adornment  follow  the  same  law  of  reiteration,  fixed  and  made  im- 
mutable, it  is  said,  in  obedience  to  an  omniscient  ruler  and  compass. 
In  *  la  vieille  Allemagne  '  originality  and  individuality  found  a  genial 
soil,  it  is  otherwise  under  the  rule  of  modern  Prussia. 

A  search  for  old  landmarks  and  historic  links  (apart  from  the 
Schloss  itself)  is  most  easily  rewarded  by  a  visit  to  the  Hohenzollern 
Museum,  a  moderate-sized  and  somewhat  secluded  palace,  occupied  by 
the  great  Frederick  during  his  precarious  existence  as  Crown  Prince, 
in  the  lifetime  of  that  appalling  old  turk,  Frederick  William  the  First. 
Here  again  the  sacred  right  of  guidance  must  be  left  to  Baedeker, 
or  let  us  rather  say  to  individual  vagary,  that  most  irresistible  and 
delightful  of  all  guides.  Here  it  is  the  lover  of  history,  and  above  all 
of  historical  personalities,  rather  than  the  artist,  who  finds  his  reward. 
Only  a  few  of  the  paintings  have  much  artistic  value,'  though  many 
have  immense  interest  of  another  kind.  One  passes  quickly  by  the 
somewhat  desolating  procession  of  the  families  of  successive  Electors 
who  filled  the  space  between  him  of  Brandenburg  the  founder  of 
Prussian  supremacy  (a  real  mailed  fist  that !)  and  the  furious  old  tyrant 
who  was  with  such  difficulty  restrained  from  taking  the  life  of  his 
firstborn ;  but  Frederick  was  destined,  as  we  know,  to  play  out  his 
part.  Of  greater  interest  than  these  wooden  faces  on  the  wall  are  the 
objects  below,  which  speak  more  eloquently  of  personalities.  The 
array  of  old  Frederick  William's  pipes  recalls  the  vivid  descriptions 
in  the  Margravine  of  Bayreuth's  Memoirs,  of  those  terrible  smoking 
parties  at  which  the  compulsory  guests  gathered,  trembling  with  the 
same  misgivings  that  haunted  Alice's  friends  at  the  Duchess's  garden- 
party,  and  with  at  least  as  much  foundation.  To  how  many  rages 
and  storms  did  that  array  of  flageolets  and  flutes  belonging  to  her 
great  brother  give  rise  on  the  part  of  their  appalling  parent  ?  The 


1908  BERLIN  REVISITED  815 

beautifully  printed  volumes  of  Frederick  the  Great's  poems,  all  scored 
and  corrected  by  the  author's  own  hand,  possess  an  interest  not 
intrinsically  belonging  to  those  elaborate  effusions  as  they  were  given 
to  the  world.  Many  letters  exchanged  between  him  and  Voltaire  can 
be  read  ;  there  is  certainly  more  vitality  here  than  in  the  stilted 
pastorals  of  the  royal  author. 

There  is  another  room  close  by  from  which  it  is  hard  indeed  to 
tear  oneself  away,  for  here  it  is  impossible  not  to  realise  with  special 
vividness  something  of  the  lovely  and  radiant  presence  which  has 
left  its  traces  on  this  motley  and  pathetic  collection.  There  are  the 
escritoire  and  the  very  pen  that  she  used  for  some  of  those  enchant- 
ing letters  which  have  fortunately  been  preserved.  That  travelling 
writing-case  was  doubtless  used  during  the  long  flights  from  the  French 
conqueror  northwards  to  ice-bound  Memel  through  the  bitter  winter 
weather  after  the  disasters  of  Jena.  Here  is  a  piece  of  half -finished 
embroidery,  those  are  her  little  satin  slippers  all  creased  and  worn,  and 
her  very  dresses  with  the  short  waists  and  sleeves,  all  dim  and  faded  now. 
A  hundred  things  that  were  hers  and  speak  of  her  intimate  daily  life  give 
one  a  feeling  of  having  intruded  into  her  privacy.  What  right  have  we 
amongst  the  personal  possessions  of  this  most  feminine  dead  woman, 
at  once  so  delicate  and  so  strong,  of  so  stout  a  heart  and  so  gracious 
a  charm  ?  Louisa  at  all  stages  of  her  short  life  smiles  down  upon  us 
from  her  pictures  on  the  walls,  most  often  as  the  beautiful  Crown 
Princess,  radiant  with  happiness,  that  happiness  which  she  had  the 
secret  of  creating  from  the  least  promising  materials  and  preserving 
through  all  vicissitudes;  lovely  and  beloved  of  her  subjects,  long 
before  the  evil  days  came  to  prove  how  well  she  deserved  the  title  of 
'  mother  of  her  people  '  which  they  bestowed  upon  her  before  she  was 
twenty-one  !  She  died  at  thirty-four,  worn  out  in  their  service,  having 
striven  as  hard  to  save  her  country  from  the  overwhelming  tide  of 
Napoleonic  victory  as  any  of  her  general*,  and  certainly  more  dreaded 
than  they  by  the  conqueror  himself,  who  stooped  to  the  basest  weapons 
of  coarse  libel  and  calumny  to  undermine  that  popular  devotion  of 
which  he  realised  the  strength  and  the  danger.  He  himself  has  told 
how  near  he  came  to  yielding  up  something  of  his  spoils  at  her  exquisite 
intercession  during  that  momentous  interview  at  Tilsit,  which  was 
so  fatefully  interrupted  by  the  always  inopportune  Frederick  William 
the  Third.  It  is  no  wonder  that  Queen  Louisa  is  an  adored  memory 
in  her  own  country ;  in  others  also  she  holds  her  place  as  not  least 
amongst  the  company  of  heroic  figures  in  her  day.  Here,  amongst 
these  feminine  possessions  of  hers,  lingers  more  than  a  touch  of  her 
personality ;  in  the  tokens  of  a  delicate  taste,  in  all  these  pretty 
faded  things  that  she  wore  and  handled,  chose  and  used.  Here  we 
come  much  more  closely  in  touch  with  the  personal  dignity  and  re- 
finement of  the  woman  and  the  Queen  than  in  that  much-vaunted 
theatrical  monument  by  Kauch  at  Charlottenburg,  where  the  effigy 


816       THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY      Nov. 

suggests  nothing  so  much  as  a  restless  sleeper,  covered  with  much- 
creased  folds  of  draperies,  fretted  by  uneasy  tossings  ;  neither  the 
repose  and  dignity  of  death  nor  the  joyous  vitality  of  the  woman  are 
to  be  found  there. 

Passing  out  of  the  house  of  memories,  it  was  interesting  to  stroll 
homewards  again  by  way  of  Unter  den  Linden  in  the  company  of 
an  elderly  companion,  of  that  fine  blond  type  to  which  the  Emperor 
Frederick  belonged,  at  any  rate  physically,  doubtless  quite  as  much 
in  other  ways  as  well.  It  is  happily  still  to  be  met  with  fairly  often 
in  North  Germany,  though  by  no  means  characteristic  of  the  present 
generation  in  Prussia,  descended  rather  from  that  '  vieille  Allemagne  ' 
which  has  already  passed  away,  to  the  infinite  loss  and  lamentation 
of  sister  countries.  It  was  easy  to  laugh  at  Pumpernickel,  but  it  was, 
when  all  is  said,  a  cheap  laughter.  What  does  the  world  not  owe  to 
some  of  those  little  courts,  which  were  so  often  the  centre  of  a  splendid 
intellectual  life,  the  safe  harbour  of  refuge  of  the  great  spirits  who 
would  otherwise  have  had  to  grind  their  hearts  out  in  unrecognised 
squalor  to  earn  a  scanty  subsistence  ? 

The  company  of  this  gentle  giant,  so  sage  and  so  simple,  the  man 
of  learning  with  the  child's  heart,  not  only  undazzled  but  absolutely 
disturbed  and  distressed  by  all  material  pomp  and  circumstance  in 
daily  life,  was  an  encouraging  reminder  that  the  spirit  of  that  '  vieille 
Allemagne '  is  after  all  not  crushed  out  either  by  Prussian  militarism 
or  by  the  rapid  growth  of  wealthy  materialism  in  North  Germany  as 
in  other  countries.  Rather  it  is  the  vital,  unquenchable  spirit  which 
still  gives  its  own  special  greatness  to  the  German  race.  The  dust 
of  the  show,  the  braying  of  trumpets,  all  the  clamour  of  the  circus  folk 
may  fill  the  foreground,  but  behind  all  one  may  still  perceive  the  ever- 
lasting service  of  the  altar,  that  great-hearted  selfless  devotion  to  the 
things  of  the  mind,  that  carelessness  of  the  things  of  the  world,  which 
strike  one  as  the  real  inspiration  of  Germany  from  generation  to 
generation. 

Pursuing  our  leisurely  way  on  the  less  crowded  side  of  the  great 
avenue,  there  flashed  towards  us,  with  a  sudden  clash  and  clatter  of 
accoutrements  and  a  vision  of  gorgeous  uniforms,  a  group  of  splendid 
riders  on  horses  befitting  them,  a  gorgeous  note  of  colour  and  self- 
assertion  against  the  grey  sky  of  the  dull  autumn  day.  How  could 
the  Anglo-Saxon  stranger,  unused  to  such  spectacles,  fail  to  be 
impressed  and  to  say  so  ? 

'  A  fine  sight  ?  '  repeated  the  giant  in  a  genial,  reflective  growl. 
'  Well,  well,  it  may  be  so  perhaps.  But  I  tell  you  what  I  call  one  fine 
sight,  one  real  fine  sight.  It  was  a  King  who  did  come  to  visit  us  in 
Germany,  in  a  tweed  travelling  suit  and  a  felt  hat ;  no  guards,  no  arms, 
no  uniforms  for  him,  no  parade  at  all ;  just  a  simple  traveller  from 
England,  he  came  to  us  in  a  plain  suit  like  any  other  man.  "  There," 
we  said,  "  is  one  who  knows  his  people  well,  and  they  know  him. 


1908  BERLIN  UE  VISIT  ED  817 

He  understands  what  they  want,  their  needs,  their  troubles,  so  he 
can  help  them."  That,  I  tell  you,  was  a  fine  sight  for  us,  and  it  is  one 
we  shall  not  forget.'  He  swept  off  his  hat  as  he  spoke  to  salute  the 
remembrance  of  that  plain  suit  which  stood  for  so  fair  a  symbol 
in  his  mind.  It  was  a  tribute  almost  childish  in  its  outspoken 
simplicity,  but  none  the  less  Worthy  of  a  Caesar  in  its  profound 
sincerity. 

That  night  the  English  travellers  were  entertained  again  by  hos- 
pitable German  friends  and  met  with  still  further  surprises.  For  how 
many  years  have  we  not  meekly  bowed  our  heads  at  home  while  the 
wholesale  superiority  of  all  Teutonic  educational  systems  has  been 
dinned  into  our  ears  in  stormy  chorus  by  many  leaders,  or  shall  we  say 
followers,  of  modern  pedagogy  ?  What  awe-inspiring  names  from 
German  shrines  have  been  thundered  at  us  when  we  have  ventured  to 
suggest  a  haunting  doubt  as  to  the  results  of  a  system  with  compart- 
ments of  machine-made  exactness,  into  which  the  innocents  are  to 
be  fitted  almost  as  soon  as  they  draw  breath  in  a  troublesome  world, 
in  order  that  they  may  all  be  drilled  after  one  model,  in  a  round  of 
appallingly  well-organised  pursuits,  too  often  miscalled  by  the  hallowed 
name  of  play  !  It  was  left,  however,  to  our  German  friends  to  give 
utterance  in  good  set  terms  to  revolutionary  sentiments  on  the  subject 
such  as  we  had  barely  ventured  to  harbour  in  our  own  hearts,  and 
indeed  they  carried  them  a  great  deal  further  along  the  line  of  later 
development  and  secondary  education.  The  party,  though  small, 
was  quite  a  representative  one  of  the  upper  professional  class.  All 
were  men  of  the  world  in  the  best  and  widest  sense  ;  all  themselves 
highly  educated,  one  or  two  of  exceptional  experience  in  commercial 
or  other  large  affairs  of  national  importance,  men  marked  out  for 
honour  in  their  own  country,  and  acquainted  with  ours.  One  indeed 
had  travelled  widely  in  our  Empire  also,  and  had  been  a  welcome  guest 
at  many  Indian  regimental  messes  as  well  as  at  official  and  private 
houses,  both  there  and  in  South  Africa  and  other  colonies.  He  sighed 
as  he  spoke  of  changes  in  his  career  which  must  now  put  an  end  to 
these  excursions  and  replace  them  with  a  laborious  sedentary  life  in 
Berlin. 

Of  course  the  question  of  education  in  the  two  countries  soon  arose, 
not  solely  on  account  of  the  presence  of  English  guests  perhaps  ;  one 
quickly  becomes  aware  that  the  number  of  political  or  social  subjects 
which  can  be  comfortably  discussed  in  general  society  in  the  Emperor 
William's  capital  is  limited  by  considerations  it  is  difficult  for  us  to 
realise  at  home  in  the  present  century.  Our  travelled  friend  listened 
in  grave  silence  for  a  time  to  sincere  English  tributes  to  various  features 
of  Gernaan  secondary  education,  then,  to  the  petrified  astonishment  of 
the  foreign  visitors  he  remarked  quietly  : 

'  When  my  sons  are  old  enough  I  shall  send  them  to  an  English 
public  school.' 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  381  3  I 


818  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

'  And  I  too,'  echoed  after  a  moment's  pause,  as  if  gathering  up  his 
courage,  one  of  his  friends  who  is  an  authority  on  many  public  questions 
in  Germany. 

*  I  also,'  said  a  third,  while  their  wives  smiled  their  acquiescence 
from  opposite  sides  of  the  table. 

This  was  indeed  astonishing  ;  we  had  to  take  breath  before  our 
curiosity  found  voice. 

'  Tell  us  first,'  said  one  of  the  speakers,  '  why  you  are  so  surprised.' 

'  What  will  our  boys  learn  at  Eton  or  Harrow  or  another  of  your 
great  schools  ?  '  demanded  somebody  else. 

To  answer  these  conundrums  on  the  spur  of  the  moment  to  an 
eager  and  highly  critical  German  audience  with  the  proper  combination 
of  truth  and  patriotism  was  no  slight  undertaking,  but  it  had  to  be 
attempted,  however  haltingly. 

*  Out  of  books  little,  as  compared  with  the  boys  in  our  gymnasia  ; 
yes,  that  we  understand,  but  there  are  other  things.     What  about 
those  other  things  ?     Please  to  con-tin-ue.' 

So  it  was  necessary  simply  to  take  the  plunge  boldly,  even  if  with 
some  misgivings  as  to  possible  consequences  ;  yet  there  was  obviously 
no  real  danger  of  giving  offence  to  people  so  open-minded,  so  genial, 
so  much  in  earnest.  A  chorus  of  acclamations  in  fact  greeted  a  co- 
operative effort  to  sum  up  the  principal  characteristics  of  that  public 
school  life  of  ours  which  has  been  so  scathingly  denounced  of  late  years 
by  many  educational  enthusiasts  at  home. 

'  Ach,  yes  !  But  that  is  just  what  we  want,  what  we  cannot  get 
for  our  sons  here.  That  they  shall  learn  to  be  men,  to  rely  on  them- 
selves, to  keep  order  for  themselves,  to  govern  for  themselves,  to  speak 
the  truth  always  and  take  the  consequences,  to,  how  you  call  it,  '  play 
the  game  ' ;  all  that  is  so  good,  so  admirable,  and  that  is  what  we  look 
for  in  vain  here.  It  is  character-building — and  the  greatest  of  all 
things  is  character-building  !  ' 

Oh  !  shades  of  the  prophets  ;  oh  !  sacred  shrine  at  Gotha  ;  oh  ! 
vision  of  long  lines  of  German  learned  sages,  what  rank  heresy  has 
broken  out  amongst  you  now !  The  amazement  of  the  foreign  visitors 
broke  forth  again. 

'  No,  no  ! '  said  our  hosts,  '  that  is  not  what  our  boys  are  taught. 
They  come  home  to  us  from  school  stuffed  with  learning  if  you  like, 
but  so  stuffed,  so  overworked,  that  they  forget  it  quickly,  while  they 
are  over-disciplined,  over- trained,  watched  over  and  arranged  for 
until  they  cannot  stand  alone  or  take  responsibility  for  themselves. 
There  is  the  military  service  as  you  say,  to  follow,  yes  certainly, 
but  that  means  more  discipline,  more  obedience,  no  greater  expansion 
for  personality.  We  want  personalities  ;  we  want  a  governing  class 
with  public  school  traditions  for  our  colonies,  if  our  colonies  are  to  be 
any  use  to  us  at  all.' 

'  Yes,  it  is  all  true,'  chimed  in  the  other  father  of  boys.     '  What 


1908  BERLIN  REVISITED  819 

Germany  needs  and  must  have  if  she  is  to  have  a  real  colonial  empire, 
is  the  class  of  administrators  trained  in  the  playing  fields  such  as  are 
turned  out  in  numbers  year  by  year  from  your  public  schools.  Such 
young  fellows  as  I  have  met  everywhere  carrying  on  the  work  of  your 
colonies,  sturdy  and  self-reliant  without  arrogance,  for  their  school- 
fellows have  seen  to  that ;  ruling  well  almost  by  instinct ;  apparently 
unconscious  of  their  crushing  responsibilities  in  solitary,  uncivilised 
countries,  for  they  are  able  to  govern  coloured  races,  even  when  mere 
savages,  and  to  win  their  confidence  and  even  affection  at  the  same 
time.  Never  doubting  themselves  of  the  possibility  of  such  achieve- 
ment, not  even  thinking  about  it,  not  thinking  much  at  all,  perhaps, 
but  quite  often  succeeding,  seldom  not  succeeding,  in  fact.  Such 
a  rilling  class  we  must  have,  if  we  are  to  keep  over-seas  colonies,  and 
we  think  that  only  by  the  same  sort  of  character-building  can  we  raise 
one  like  yours — for,  again,  the  greatest  of  all  things  is  character- 
building.' 

Another  day,  however,  showed  a  different  aspect  of  German  life, 
with  little  enough  here,  alas  !  to  flatter  our  national  complacency. 
This  visit  to  Berlin  formed  part  of  a  tour  of  inspection  by  the  official 
members  of  the  party  of  certain  great  industrial  workshops,  owned 
and  directed  by  English  enterprise  in  various  North  German  and  other 
continental  towns.  In  the  neighbourhood  of  Berlin  these  works  are 
of  immense  extent,  and  many  thousands  of  artisans,  both  skilled  and 
unskilled,  are  employed  on  them.  A  visit  there  soon  aroused  com- 
parisons melancholy  indeed  to  those  who  may  chance  to  have  some 
acquaintance  with  the  life  of  the  English  industrial  worker.  It  was 
impossible  to  walk  about  the  great '  shops  '  (I  use  the  word,  of  course, 
in  its  technical  sense)  filled  with  the  busy  throngs  of  men  intent  on 
their  daily  toil,  and  not  to  be  struck  first  of  all  with  their  great 
superiority  in  physique  and  bearing  to  any  similar  collection  of  indoor 
workers  at  home.  It  did  not  lie  only  in  the  straight,  up-standing 
figures,  the  finely  developed  chests  and  the  well-carried  heads  which 
bore  their  obvious  testimony  to  the  results  of  military  training.  There 
was  something  more  than  this,  a  difference  difficult  to  define  exactly, 
but  one  which  gradually  impressed  itself  forcibly  upon  the  observer 
standing  apart  and  watching  closely  for  a  time.  It  lay  perhaps  in  the 
impression  of  definite  purpose  conveyed  by  all  their  movements,  in 
the  well-directed,  intelligent  energy  which  went  to  all  their  actions, 
in  the  absence  of  slouching  and  of  all  that  unnecessary  and  aimless 
casting  about  of  uncertain  limbs  and  persons  which  is  so  commonly 
to  be  seen  in  the  shiftless,  undrilled  majority  of  youths  belonging  to 
the  same  class  at  home.  The  difference  between  movements  habitually 
trained  to  carry  out  definite  purposes  and  those  untrained  is  greater 
than  one  can  realise  without  the  opportunity  of  watching  results  in 
workers  of  both  systems,  or  rather  in  those  of  system  and  of  absence  of 
system. 

312 


820  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTUEY  Nov. 

It  was  impossible  not  to  think  with  a  pang  of  those  groups  of 
weakly,  narrow-chested  youths  at  home  who  hang  about  the  streets 
after  working  hours  are  over  and  move  with  slouching  gait,  ungainly 
and  aimless  in  their  movements,  whether  at  work  or  at  ease,  and  of 
their  round-shouldered,  stooping  elders  who  form  so  sadly  large  a 
proportion  of  any  industrial  crowd  in  our  country.  Even  their  clothes 
showed  a  far  higher  standard  of  neatness  and  that  attention  to  the 
person  in  small  things  which  means  so  much,  a  truism  too  often 
ostentatiously  neglected  by  others  as  well  as  by  working  men  in 
England.  In  German  workshops,  as  indeed  in  most  continental 
countries,  the  men  wear  long  washing  blouses  or  overalls  to  cover  their 
neat  garments  during  working  hours  ;  they  are  removed  at  closing 
time,  and  the  wearers  are  thus  able  to  walk  away  from  the  works  with 
their  clothes  free  from  all  signs  of  soil  or  dust,  while  each  man,  be  it 
noted,  wore  a  white  collar  and  looked  as  neat  and  trim  as  his  English 
comrades  appear  on  Sundays  and  holidays.  Moreover,  every  work- 
man on  the  place  is  compelled  to  take  a  daily  bath  before  he  leaves  in 
the  admirable  bathrooms  lavishly  provided  ;  imagine  such  an  institu- 
tion as  a  compulsory  bath  anywhere  but  in  the  workhouses  of  our  own 
free  and  enlightened  country  ! 

The  burning  question  of  universal  military  training  for  our  own 
people  does  not  lie  within  the  scope  of  such  stray  and  amateur  observa- 
tions as  thesej  but  it  was  impossible  to  pass  from  one  of  these  German 
workshops  to  another  and  not  to  feel  many  a  sad  qualm  instead  of  any 
sense  of  pride  in  the  comparison  perpetually  forced  upon  one  between 
the  physique  and  bearing  of  the  products  of  two  systems.  The 
thought  of  those  whom  one  cannot  help  coming  to  look  upon  as  the 
victims  of  immunity  in  our  own  country  was  melancholy  and  even 
humiliating  here.  No  abstract  views  on  the  sin  of  militarism  or  the 
desirability  of  disarmament  can  alter  the  tangible  results  in  develop- 
ment so  plainly  to  be  seen.  The  best  friends  and  well-wishers  of  our 
own  working  youths  must  desire  for  them  that  healthy  muscular 
expansion  together  with  the  bracing  of  the  moral  fibre  obtained  by 
the  discipline  of  control  which  alone  can  set  them  free  to  fulfil  any 
useful  purpose  in  life. 

It  may  be  of  interest  to  mention  here  the  conclusion  arrived  at 
by  the  authorities  of  the  immense  industrial  enterprise  to  which  I  refer 
in  this  article.  It  has  been  in  existence  for  over  eighty  years,  and  the 
number  of  hands  employed  in  different  continental  countries  is  con- 
tinually increasing  as  its  boundaries  are  ever  enlarging.  Over  and 
over  again  their  reports  show  that  the  amount  of  work  performed  and 
the  individual  efficiency  of  the  workman  vary  in  each  State  exactly 
in  proportion  to  the  stringency  of  its  laws  for  the  enforcement  of 
military  service.  Thus  the  German  ifc  more  competent  and  does  a 
better  day's  work  than  the  Belgian  worker,  whose  service  is  more  often 
evaded,  and  is  in  any  case  less  thorough,  and  so  the  scale  varies  in  the 


1908  BERLIN  REVISITED  821 

different  countries  of  Western  Europe.     Such  is  the  tale  told  by  the 
labour  managers'  report  sheets. 

To  return,  however,  to  our  own  glimpses  of  work-a-day  life  in 
North  Germany — a  country  of  our  kinsmen  after  all — the  last  impres- 
sion was  by  no  means  the  least  pleasant  of  our  stay.  In  nothing 
perhaps,  does  the  standard  of  civilisation  show  itself  more  plainly 
than  in  the  commissariat  of  the  working  classes.  In  the  works  we 
were  visiting,  a  co-operative  kitchen  had  been  arranged  which  provided 
dinner  daily  for  the  hands  at  the  cost  of  sixpence  a  head.  We  gladly 
accepted  an  invitation  to  visit  the  scene  of  operations  as  the  hour  drew 
near.  In  the  large,  bare  dining-hall  long  tables  were  neatly  laid  out 
with  all  the  necessary  array  of  bright  cutlery  and  glass.  There  were 
no  tablecloths,  but  dainty  cleanliness  and  order  prevailed  every- 
where, while  the  most  appetising  odours  from  the  adjoining  kitchen 
penetrated  through  the  open  doors.  We  found  it  small,  but  as  spot- 
lessly clean  and  neat  as  though  the  campaign  of  its  daily  labours  were 
not  even  then  at  its  full  height.  A  thick  soup  was  giving  out  a  most 
savoury  invitation  from  large  cauldrons  on  one  side,  while  some 
species  of  solid-looking  ragout  was  competing  with  it  in  its  own  stewing- 
pans  on  the  other.  It  was  presently  transferred  to  the  great  white 
dishes,  and  most  attractively  served  up  with  a  generous  garnish  of 
neatly  arranged  vegetables  and  a  separate  salad.  The  coffee  which 
was  to  follow  bubbled  pleasantly  in  the  great  cans.  How  many  of 
our  workers  sit  down  daily  to  a  meal  so  abundant,  well  cooked  and 
well  served  as  this  sixpenny  dinner  ?  For  this  visit  fell  upon  an 
ordinary  day  of  the  common  round,  in  no  way  distinguished  from  any 
other,  the  dinner  absolutely  <l  la  fortune  du  pot.  Remembering  the 
prices  quoted  in  Berlin  for  all  articles  of  food,  and  more  especially  the 
enormous  cost  of  butcher's  meat,  the  results  achieved  before  our  eyes 
seemed  to  be  nothing  less  than  a  miracle,  even  for  the  powers  of  the 
gifted  German  Hausfrau.  Suddenly  recollections  of  certain  con- 
stituents which  we  have  all  heard  of  as  figuring  not  seldom  in  the 
fleshly  part  of  a  German  workman's  menu  rose,  not  without  unpleasing 
sensations,  to  a  prejudiced  insular  mind.  On  closer  inspection  it  was 
seen  that  what  looked  like  solid  joints  were  really  formed  of  finely 
minced  meat.  Now,  of  what  might  this  sausage-like  substance  really 
be  composed  ?  Artful  questions  addressed  to  the  two  smiling  and 
competent  women  presiding  over  the  kitchen  and  its  cauldrons  pro- 
duced cheery  answers,  still  more  artful  in  their  evasiveness.  Curiosity 
outran  discretion  in  conversation  with  our  guide,  but  he,  whether 
from  subtlety  or  ignorance,  left  it  unsated  and  only  shook  his  head, 
with  : 

'  Ah  !  the  cooks  have  their  secrets.  We  must  not  inquire  into 
them,'  but  there  was  a  twinkle  in  his  eye  which  was  by  no  means 
satisfying. 

Well,  whatever  its  component  parts,  that  stew,  judging  by  its 


822  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

smell  and  appearance,  was  above  criticism,  and  when  a  stampede 
across  the  yard  announced  the  host  of  diners,  it  became  evident  that 
their  appreciation  was  tempered  by  no  misgivings,  while  their  looks 
carried  conviction  that  good  digestion,  which  alas  !  does  not  always 
wait  on  appetite,  was  the  common  lot  of  the  clients  for  whom  those 
excellent  women  catered  with  mysterious  but  successful  art. 

With  wages  at  about  the  same  rate  as  our  own,  with  rents  as  high 
as  in  any  of  our  large  cities,  with  provisions  considerably  dearer,  how 
is  it  that  the  average  German  workman  can  lead  a  life  so  much  higher 
in  the  scale  of  comfort  and  civilisation  than  is  found  in  the  correspond- 
ing English  home  ?  Of  course  I  do  not  refer  to  the  fortunately  large 
number  of  exceptions  amongst  our  own  ranks,  to  those  admirable 
wives  who  have  attained  to  the  secret  of  making  much  out  of  little, 
who  are  imbued  with  that  respect  for  small  details  the  lack  of  which 
wrecks  so  many  English  enterprises,  large  and  small,  and  none  more 
than  the  great  industry  of  home-making.  But  who  is  not  aware  of  the 
hugger-mugger  discomfort  which  too  often  prevails  amongst  our 
English  industrial  workers,  of  that  carelessness  about  small,  insidious 
matters  which  may  appear  unimportant  and  are  certainly  trouble- 
some, but  which  count  for  so  terribly  much  in  maintaining  the  standard 
of  self-respect  and  of  respect  for  others  in  the  home  they  share  ?  Those 
who  could  speak  with  the  authority  of  knowledge  assured  us  that  only 
in  exceptional  cases  in  Germany  do  the  working  men's  wives  at  home 
show  less  capacity  and  skill  in  all  domestic  arts  than  our  friends  the 
cooks  who  provided  such  admirable,  cheap  dinners  for  an  army  of 

hungry  toilers  every  day  from  that  small  clean  kitchen  in  the  M 

works  near  Berlin. 

Why  should  so  different  a  state  of  things  prevail  with  us  ?  The 
dreary  question  is  always  being  asked  :  let  us  hope  the  conundrum 
will  some  day  be  happily  answered.  To  muddle  along  and  to  muddle 
through  is  the  tradition  sanctified  by  use  so  far  in  our 'country,  and 
will  doubtless  continue  to  be  so  until  the  day  when  the  trumpet 
awakens  the  sleepers  who  lie  about  the  heart  of  our  Empire  and  lay 
their  heavy  weight  on  its  circulation.  But  it  was  certainly  cheering 
to  be  told  that  in  most  of  the  great  works  belonging  to  the  Association 
I  refer  to,  the  managers  and  engineers  appointed  are  often  English, 
as  it  is  found  that  they  can  generally  manage  the  workmen  with 
considerably  less  friction  than  is  the  case  with  their  own  fellow- 
countrymen.  For  Germany,  like  other  continental  countries,  has 
troubles  enough  of  her  own,  dark  and  menacing  too.  What  do  we 
know  here  of  those  bitter  and  deadly  class  hatreds  with  their  violences 
of  assertion  met  with  violences  of  repression,  to  speak  of  which  is  far 
beyond  the  scope  of  the  amateur  observer  ?  Thoughtful  men,  as  has 
been  seen,  are  searching  eagerly,  almost  desperately,  for  the  right  means 
of  raising  the  administrative  class  they  lack,  men  trained  to  rule, 
endowed  with  that  talent  for  authority  which  it  seems  is  a  special 


1908  BERLIN  REVISITED  828 

heritage  of  the  English  race.  The  recent  visit  of  Herr  Dernberg  to 
inquire  into  our  colonial  methods  shows  that  the  need  is  felt  in  high 
quarters  to  be  a  pressing  one.  Let  us,  whatever  our  national  defi- 
ciencies, continue  to  be  thankful  that  year  by  year  numbers,  often 
little  more  than  boys,  can  still  step  out  of  the  ranks  to  seize  the  torch 
as  it  is  handed  on  at  the  outposts  of  civilisation  and  maintain  the  tradi- 
tion of  white  justice  and  mercy  and  good  rule.  Their  very  names 
are  often  unknown  beyond  the  immediate  sphere  of  their  activities 
and  their  official  superiors.  Yet  it  is  they  who  are  quietly  carrying 
the  burden  of  Empire,  whether  in  the  heart  of  India  or  in  remote 
African  swamps,  the  friends  as  well  as  the  rulers  of  the  coloured  races, 
the  wonder-workers  who  bring  prosperity  to  crops,  and  save  lives 
without  number  from  destruction,  even  if  their  strange  decrees  against 
the  time-honoured  vengeance  of  the  chiefs  and  the  tribes  are  past 
comprehension.  Most  English  homes  have  their  share  in  the  muster- 
roll,  and  for  those  who  compose  it  we  lay  our  gifts  of  thankfulness 
upon  the  altar,  praying  that  the  number  of  them  may  not  fail  in 
our  country,  in  spite  of  all  the  powers  at  present  fighting  against 
them  at  home.  For  while  we  have  them  the  day  of  Ragnarok  is 
surely  still  a  distant  one,  so  let  us  pray  for  peace — and  keep  our 
powder  dry. 

MABEL  C.  BIRCHENOUGH. 


824  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 


NURSES  IN  HOSPITALS 


IT  is  admitted  generally,  and  by  medical  men  as  freely  as  anybody, 
that  the  nursing  of  a  patient  is  often  only  a  little  less  important  than 
the  medical  treatment.  In  certain  cases  nursing  may  be  given  even 
the  first  place  among  the  agencies  employed  to  restore  the  sufferer  to 
health. 

Of  how  great  moment  therefore  is  it  not  only  that  the  nurses 
should  go  through  the  full  course  of  training  now  recognised  as  indis- 
pensable, but  that  the  women  who  enter  upon  the  work  should  be 
of  the  right  sort.  That  nursing  threatened  at  one  time  to  become 
a  fashionable  pursuit  was  a  pure  misfortune,  and,  although  much 
good  has  come  of  the  entry  into  the  nursing  ranks  of  a  superior  and 
educated  class  of  women,  certain  inconveniences  and  some  positive 
evils  have  followed  the  injudicious  exaltation  of  nurses  and  nursing, 
and  a  consequent  encouragement  of  small  feminine  vanities  which  are 
strangely  out  of  place  when  allied  to  a  calling  concerned  with  issues 
so  grave.  Some  men  who  contrive  to  make  themselves  heard  of  in 
connection  with  the  art  of  nursing  appear  unable  to  treat  the  subject 
seriously.  Jocularity,  not  without  its  uses  upon  occasion,  can  be 
better  employed  than  in  treating  matters  intimately  associated 
with  human  suffering,  and  to  many  whose  business  it  is  to  bcv 
acquainted  with  the  painful  details  of  a  sick-room  and  the  offices 
demanded  of  a  nurse  the  facetious  attitude  so  frequently  struck 
by  speakers  and  their  light  references  to  '  pretty  nurses '  are  little 
short  of  nauseous. 

It  is  quite  true  that  appearances  have  their  importance  and  should 
be  taken  into  consideration  with  other  qualifications.  We  may 
safely  assume  that  no  matron  would  choose  her  probationers  from 
applicants  with  marked  physical  blemishes,  and  while  absolutely  dis- 
carding '  prettiness  '  as  a  recommendation  she  would  wisely  give 
preference  to  those  who  were  personally  pleasing.  A  somewhat 
amusing  illustration  of  the  opposite  view  was  afforded  by  a  lady 
desirous  to  introduce  a  probationer,  who,  after  recounting  the  several 
virtues  of  her  nominee,  added,  as  a  final  and  convincing  utterance, 
'  and  she  is  exactly  the  sort  of  woman  for  the  work,  because  she  is 
positively  ugly.' 


1908  NURSES  IN  HOSPITALS  825 

That  a  woman  who  contemplates  nursing  ought  to  be  strong,  well 
made,  and  of  good  presence  goes  without  saying,  and  never  ought 
she  to  be  of  sour  or  forbidding  aspect.  Certain  moral  qualities  which 
we  bracket  together  as  '  character '  are  essential  to  a  good  nurse, 
and  some  clue  to  their  existence  should  be  found  in  her  appear- 
ance and  bearing.  If  she  impress  by  her  amiability,  patience,  and 
natural  aptitude,  which  together  constitute  grace,  she  will  be  attrac- 
tive in  the  right  sense,  and  so  far  as  her  personality  is  concerned 
she  will  be  fittingly  equipped  for  an  introduction  to  her  onerous 
duties. 

What  all  hospitals  want  is  a  sufficiency  of  suitable  raw  material 
from  which  to  develop  the  accomplished  nurse.  Many  of  the  young 
women  who  offer  themselves  appear  to  have  no  serious  view  of  the 
work  they  are  proposing  to  take  up,  and  some  are  wholly  ignorant 
of  the  essentials.  The  gravity  of  the  occupation  cannot  be  too  much 
insisted  upon.  Yet  women  have  been  heard  to  announce  their  inten- 
tion to  become  nurses  for  '  the  fun  of  the  thing,'  and  the  motives  of 
others  are  made  manifest  by  a  refusal  to  enter  a  hospital  which 
is  without  the  accompaniment  of  a  medical  school.  From  such 
applicants  may  patients  and  hospitals  alike  be  saved  ! 

In  a  lengthy  letter  denouncing  the  system  of  '  living  in  '  for  nurses, 
to  which  the  Times  has  given  prominence  recently,  and  favourable 
comment,  we  read  much  of  the  claims  of  nurses,  but  little  or  nothing 
of  .their  duties  either  to  the  patient  or  to  the  hospital.  If  the  writer 
represented  any  section  of  nurses  it  would  be  one  whose  services 
the  hospitals  could  well  afford  to  forego.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  suggestion  that  any  considerable  minority  of  nurses  object 
to  living  in  appears  unwarranted.  It  cannot  be  too  strongly 
insisted  that  nursing  is  a  calling  demanding  of  its  followers, 
if  they  are  to  excel,  a  measure  of  self-obliteration  which  to  minds 
dominated  by  ideas  of  personal  advantage  and  advancement  may 
appear  foolishness,  but  is  essential  to  the  true  nurse.  This  does  not 
mean  that  the  woman  who  takes  up  nursing  must  be  necessarily 
indifferent  to  matters  affecting  her  own  health  and  well-being.  Regard 
to  them  is  reckoned  among  her  duties.  But  she  must  be  capable  of 
giving  them  their  rightful,  which  is  a  secondary,  place.  To  insist 
upon  the  advantages  to  herself  of  *  living  out,'  very  questionable  at 
best,  partakes  too  much  of  the  attitude  of  the  domestic  servant  to 
whom  all  things  are  ancillary  to  the  evenings  '  off.'  Nursing  to  those 
who  undertake  it  with  wholesome  minds  is  something  more  than  a 
means  of  living,  or  of  earning  a  wage,  or  of  gratifying  a  personal  am- 
bition, and  the  best  of  nurses  will  more  often  need  a  kindly  reminder 
of  what  is  due  to  herself  than  an  insistence  upon  the  demands  of  her 
duty  to  others.  One  whose  chief  craving  is  for  room  '  to  live  her  own 
life,'  as  the  cant  of  the  day  has  it,  and  to  divest  herself  as  often  and 
as  much  as  may  be  of  her  nursing  environment,  ought  to  be  ipso  facto 


826  TEE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

debarred  from  the  occupation.  To  the  real  nurse  nursing  is  the 
chiefest  thing  in  life.  It  is  an  art  imperious  in  its  exactions  and 
demanding  in  full  measure  the  absorption  of  soul  essential  to  the 
true  artist. 

History  shows  that  nursing  had  been  undertaken  by  women,  and 
also  by  men,  in  all  ages,  but  nothing  can  be  found  to  indicate  that 
a  course  of  serious  training  was  regarded  -until  lately  as  requisite 
or  even  desirable.  To  our  later  and  educated  perceptions,  when  a 
training  extending  over  three  whole  years  is  necessary,  it  seems 
little  short  of  ludicrous  that  less  than  fifty  years  ago  certain  women 
should  have  been  sent  forth,  labelled  as  nurses,  after  six  weeks  in 
hospital,  to  work  without  payment  among  the  poor,  while  as  recently 
as  1870  the  so-called  '  training '  of  a  nurse  at  Guy's  Hospital  was 
limited  to  a  period  of  six  months. 

These  facts  are  more  remarkable  because  in  1852  Miss  Florence 
Nightingale  had  issued  her  Notes  on  Hospitals.  This  publication 
dealt  carefully  with  the  question  of  nursing  and  obtained  so  much 
and  so  favourable  attention  that  in  1854,  when  the  Crimean  war  broke 
out,  Miss  Nightingale,  as  all  the  world  knows,  was  invited  by  the 
Government  to  organise  and  superintend  the  nursing  of  the  sick  and 
wounded.  Yet  even  Florence  Nightingale,  pronounced  and  whole- 
hearted as  was  her  dissatisfaction  with  things  as  they  were,  and  com- 
prehensive as  was  her  understanding  of  the  importance  and  future 
possibilities  of  nurse-craft,  thought  that  the  training  of  a  nurse  could 
be  completed  in  a  year.  In  this,  as  in  many  other  fields  of  acquired 
knowledge,  appetite  has  grown  with  feeding.  Many  who  began  with 
little  or  no  thought  beyond  the  performance  of  their  defined  daily 
duty  have  plied  their  minds  to  good  purpose  ;  they  have  mastered  the 
lesson  presented  to  them,  and,  making  the  conclusions  of  others  their 
own  starting-point,  have  pressed  forward  to  become  leaders.  Thus 
progress  is  achieved.  Ardent  brains  illumine  new  vistas  and  light 
the  way  towards  a  perfection  which,  if  never  reached,  is  always 
seductive.  Florence  Nightingale  will  remain  the  acknowledged  pioneer 
in  the  art  of  nursing,  and  although  much  is  done  now,  and  much 
required,  of  which  she  never  felt  the  want,  her  example  still  abides 
with  us  as  a  living  power. 

If  ever  there  was  an  occupation  to  which  only  those  who  have 
a  distinct  call  should  turn  their  attention,  surely  it  is  nursing.  The 
somewhat  grotesque  idea  attributed  to  the  German  Emperor,  that 
in  a  model  community  every  man  would  be  a  soldier  and  every  woman 
a  nurse,  would  need  only  an  attempt  at  realisation  to  be  found  hope- 
lessly impracticable.  Of  the  two  it  is  more  easy  to  picture  cripples 
and  cowards  as  capable  soldiers  than  a  woman  destitute  of  essential 
inbred  qualifications  proving  anything  but  an  encumbrance  when 
posing  as  a  nurse.  A  woman  is  scarcely  justified  in  taking  to  nursing 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  getting  a  living.  Though  she  succeed  in  passing. 


1908  NURSES  IN  HOSPITALS  827 

• 

her  examinations,  and  in  obtaining  her  cap  and  apron,  she  will  start 
minus  the  nursing  spirit,  and  every  patient  who  comes  under  her  care 
will  be  robbed  of  something  he  ought  to  have.  The  loss  of  this  some- 
thing, not  quite  definable  but  very  real,  may  not  be  present  to  his 
dulled  invalid  senses  ;  and  if  it  is  so  much  the  worse,  but  the  skilled 
observer  will  readily  detect  the  want  of  it,  and  to  the  patient  its 
absence  may  mean  increase  of  discomfort  and  not  impossibly  a 
lessening  of  his  chances. 

To  state  this  fact  is  to  offer  one  illustration  of  the  complexity 
of  detail  which  pervades  hospital  domestic  life.  In  order  that  no 
patient  shall  receive  less  than  the  maximum  of  benefit  his  case  admits 
of,  the  conscientious  matron  or  sister  is  constantly  bringing  her 
trained  mind  to  bear  upon  the  nursing  problem  presented  by  every 
case  of  grave  illness  passed  into  the  wards.  Into  her  dispositions 
must  enter  a  consideration  not  only  of  the  nurse's  knowledge  but 
of  her  aptitude,  not  only  of  her  skill  but  of  her  temperament.  The 
merits  of  a  nurse  must  be  judged  also  in  reference  both  to  the  parti- 
cular case  to  be  nursed  -and  to  the  particular  person  who  has  the  mis- 
fortune to  be  the  case.  He  cannot  be  regarded  rightly  as  merely 
one  unit  in  the  ward.  He  is  a  human  entity.  Patients  whose  ailments 
are  similar  will  take  their  illnesses  quite  differently,  and  although 
it  is  impossible  to  study  every  patient's  whims,  yet  if  the  purpose 
of  treatment  and  nursing  is  to  afford  him  the  utmost  benefit  they 
are  capable  of  yielding,  some  heed  of  his  idiosyncrasies  must  be  taken, 
and  this  means  that  the  nurse  first  available  must  not  be  necessarily 
the  one  allocated.  The  ability  to  decide  accurately  and  promptly 
upon  the  nurse  and  nursing  methods  best  adapted  to  a  given 
patient  is  among  the  qualities  demanded  every  day  of  a  matron  and 
sister. 

When  we  are  dealing  with  any  considerable  aggregation  of  human 
beings  we  find  them  as  various  in  mental  equipment  as  in  features. 
Uniformity  is  at  most  superficial,  and  subjected  to  the  exacting  search 
medical  and  nursing  experts  are  capable  of  applying,  nurses  will 
reveal  differences  as  fundamental  as  atoms  of  dust  under  a  microscope. 
If  children  of  the  same  parents,  bred  amid  the  same  environs,  given 
the  same  teaching,  and  subjected  to  the  same  code  of  discipline,  rarely, 
if  ever,  fail  to  be  diverse,  how  much  more  palpable  must  this  elemen- 
tary truth  become  when  the  subjects  are  full  grown  before  training 
begins,  and  when  character  and  disposition,  much  more  than  simple 
ability,  are  essential  to  the  finished  product.  Hence  arises  one  of  the 
hardest  problems  connected  with  the  training  and  manipulation  of 
nurses — how  to  fit  them  into  the  general  plan  and  yet  make  the  best 
use  of  their  individual  qualities.  The  difficulty  of  getting  a  number 
of  women  to  adopt  the  same  mental  attitude  towards  their  work  and 
to  pull  together  harmoniously  is  nowhere  more  felt  than  in  hospitals. 
If  young  women  who  are  wishful  to  become  nurses  could  undergo  a 


828  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

• 

preliminary  preparation  before  taking  a  part  in  hospital  life,  or  if  all 
probationers  could  start  equipped  with  an  equality  of  common  sense, 
difficulty  would  vanish.  One  would  suppose  that  a  nurse  would  be 
especially  convinced  of  the  importance  of  health,  yet  efforts  to  keep 
the  nursing  staff  physically  fit  cannot  be  relaxed,  chiefly  because  the 
nurses  are  themselves  indifferent.  Familiarity  with  sickness  and 
hourly  demonstrations  of  the  ills  to  which  flesh  is  subject  seem  in 
some  instances  only  to  breed  contempt  for  precaution,  and  the  reckless 
neglect  of  ordinary  rules  of  which  some  educated  and  skilful  nurses  are 
capable  in  their  own  cases,  and  occasionally  beyond  them,  takes  high 
place  among  things  incomprehensible.  Provision  for  '  off  duty '  hours 
may  be  liberal,  but  there  is  always  the  question  whether  the  time  at 
the  disposal  of  the  nurse  is  judiciously  expended.  Not  infrequently 
she  will  be  indisposed  to  take  open  air  exercise.  She  will  plead  fatigue, 
a  headache,  anything,  in  order  to  gain  undisturbed  possession  of 
her  bedroom,  and  a  morning  passed  in  bed  is  regarded  as  the  ideal 
opening  for  the  '  day  off.'  Some  nurses  will  be  averse  from  regularity 
at  meals,  and  some  will  make  free  of  the  opportunities  afforded  by 
the  ward  kitchen  to  supplement  or  to  evade  the  common  table.  The 
appetites  of  nurses  are  a  constant  source  of  solicitude.  The  matron 
has  not  only  to  win  from  the  authorities  the  liberty  to  provide  a 
varied  and  attractive  menu,  but  she  has  to  reckon  with  individual 
tastes  and  aversions,  which  may  disappoint  all  her  efforts. 

Those  whose  business  embraces  the  sordid  details  of  a  complicated 
domestic  organisation  and  an  endeavour  to  induce  general  content- 
ment find  that  a  most  prolific  source  of  discouragement  and  failure 
centres  in  the  commissariat.  To  cater  for  any  large  body  of  people 
is  a  thankless  office.  Scarcely  any  two  of  them  will  agree  upon  what 
is  appetising,  and  nurses  have  a  reputation  among  those  who  know 
them  best  for  being  especially  difficult  to  satisfy.  '  I  never  eat  fish,' 
cries  one  ;  '  nor  I  poultry,'  says  another.  '  Beef  always  makes  me  ill '  ; 
'  I  don't  mind  shoulder  of  mutton,  but  I  can't  touch  leg ' ;  '  boiled 
beef  !  why  it's  only  fit  for  navvies  ! '  are  echoes  of  actual  utterances. 
Those  who  dislike  joints  lightly  cooked  usually  describe  them  as 
'  raw,'  while  those  who  '  like  the  gravy  in  the  meat '  will  as  constantly 
refuse  a  dish  because  '  it  is  dried  up  to  nothing.'  A  sirloin,  described 
by  an  irate  sister  in  a  moment  of  inspiration  as  a  '  cinder,'  afterwards 
supplied  a  well-appreciated  dinner  in  the  servants'  refectory,  where 
criticisms  levelled  at  the  fastidiousness  of  nurses  find  their  loudest 
expression.  Sometimes  nurses  merely  '  go  without,'  and  the  matron's 
efforts  to^  discover  their  objections  meet  with  little  success.  '  It's 
nothing,  I  don't  feel  hungry.'  But  whispered  grumblings,  formal 
complaints,  and  an  occasional  round-robin  testify  to  the  spirit  of 
discontent  which  no  liberality  seems  equal  to  banishing  altogether. 

One  element  of  suitability  for  training  ought  to  be  maturity. 
'  Girls  '  are  altogether  out  of  place  in  a  calling  which  demands  the 


1908  NURSES  IN  HOSPITALS  829 

essentials  of  a  well-balanced  mind.  Hospitals  might  advantageously 
agree  upon  an  age  limit ;  at  present  custom  varies,  and  while  some 
institutions  make  twenty-five  years  the  minimum  others  will  accept 
as  a  probationer  an  applicant  not  yet  twenty.  That  girls  should  be 
allowed  to  pass  from  schools  to  hospitals  appears  shocking,  and  it 
is  nothing  to  the  point  to  say  that  boys  do  so.  The  qualities  required 
of  a  nurse  and  the  influences  she  should  exercise  are  something  quite 
apart  from  anything  looked  for  in  a  medical  student,  and  they  cannot 
exist  where  womanhood  is  lacking. 

It  may  be  remarked  how  valuable  would  be  the  addition  of  a 
small  staff  of  male  nurses  to  the  equipment  of  every  hospital.  They 
would  not  supplant  the  work  of  the  women,  but  they  would  sup- 
plement it  by  taking  over  certain  definite  functions  when  required 
in  respect  of  male  patients.  This  is  a  reform  long  urged  by  educated 
opinion  and  consistently  advocated  by  the  chief  organs  of  the  medical 
press.  In  some  hospitals  the  clinical  clerks  and  students  undertake 
those  duties  which,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  should  never  be  allotted 
to  a  woman. 

Perhaps  it  comes  in  some  degree  of  the  undue  proportion  of  too 
youthful  members  in  the  nursing  body  that  from  time  to  time  the 
tendency  to  gossip  of  even  fully  trained  nurses  calls  for  public  com- 
ment. The  evil  is  one  of  magnitude.  A  nurse  who  forgets  what  is 
due  to  herself  and  the  patient  she  serves  so  far  as  to  prattle  about  her 
duties  and  her  performances  is  unfitted  for  the  calling  she  has  assumed. 
When  she  discourses  to  her  younger  sisters,  her  girl  friends,  and 
others  of  her  various  experiences  in  hospital  and  private  work  ;  when 
she  weighs  volubly  the  relative  merits  of  doctors ;  when  she  raises 
the  curtain  drawn  over  the  sick-room  and  re-enacts  its  scenes,  even 
to  the  reproduction  of  the  ravings  of  delirium  ;  when  she  tells  lightly 
of  grave  operations  at  which  she  has  assisted,  and  talks  glibly  of  the 
cases  she  has  '  pulled  through,'  she  shows  at  once  the  deficiencies  of 
her  character  and  the  exuberance  of  her  vanity.  She  shows,  too,  how 
immeasurable  is  the  distance  separating  her  from  the  ideal  nurse — 
the  '  ministering  angel '  who,  when  she  really  does  possess  corporeal 
existence,  of  her  loyalty  hides  much  that  concerns  her  patient  in  the 
shadow  of  her  wings.  In  this  connection  some  nurses  might  well 
take  example  from  the  medical  mind  of  which  they  see  so  much,  and 
imitate  a  reticence  never  to  be  too  highly  commended,  which,  in  their 
relations  with  the  outside  world,  the  vast  majority  of  doctors,  surgeons, 
and  students  make  absolute  and  impenetrable. 

It  may  be  accepted  as  an  axiom  that  no  amount  of  training  will 
transform  a  probationer  wanting  in  personal  suitability  into  a  good 
nurse.  Some  requisite  qualities  are  native  :  they  cannot  be  grafted. 
Mr.  Sydney  Holland,  who  has  rendered  many  services  to  nurses  and 
would  not  be  suspected  of  any  feeling  for  them  but  one  of  friendship, 
put  this  fact  plainly  some  time  ago  in  his  Lectures  to  Nurses.  '  There 


880  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

is  no  magic  in  training,'  he  says,  writing  with  a  full  knowledge  of  his 
subject;  'training  cannot  make  a  hard  woman  into  a  nurse;  not 
three  years  and  not  twenty  years  will  make  a  nurse  of  a  woman  unless 
she  has  the  nursing  character  in  her.'  Few  people  with  experience 
will  refuse  to  echo  these  words.  Inefficiency  in  a  nurse  is  much  more 
often  due  to  want  of  character  than  to  a  lack  of  intelligence  or  a 
capacity  to  learn  the  mere  technicalities  of  her  art,  and  many  a  nurse 
who  has  passed  examinations  with  distinction  would  be  among  the 
last  to  whom  her  matron  would  entrust  the  care  of  a  patient  at  a 
crisis.  It  is  nothing  but  misleading  to  suppose  that  the  moral  aptitude 
which  counts  for  so  much  in  nursing  will  come  with  practice.  The 
work  itself  will  never  raise  the  characters  of  those  who  have  adopted 
it  as  a  pastime,  or  only  as  a  means  of  maintenance.  On  the  contrary, 
the  wrong  woman,  so  far  from  improving,  will  deteriorate.  She  will 
become  the  '  harder  '  for  her  training  and  the  coarser  for  her  familiarity 
with  the  details  and  jargon  of  the  sick- ward.  The  nurse  who  approaches 
to  the  ideal  will  perceive  that  something  of  what  is  asked  of  her  lies 
beyond  the  furthest  limit  of  the  most  exacting  sense  of  duty.  It  will 
beckon  to  her  from  the  region  where  bides  that  moral  sense  of  the 
unachieved  which  forbids  us  to  rest  content  with  mere  performance 
and  ever  demands  of  us  fresh  sacrifices. 

This  feeling  will  be  at  its  strongest  when  the  actuating  impulse 
has  a  religious  origin  and  the  tendance  of  the  sick  appears  as  a  sacred 
mission.  Careful  reflection  and  observation  will  as  surely  convince 
us  of  the  truth  of  this  as  the  records  of  history  corroborate  it ;  and 
although  the  practical  needs  of  hospitals  forbid  a  demand  for  any- 
thing approaching  to  a  religious  test,  yet  in  the  positive  absence  of 
religious  instinct  a  nurse  will  never  attain  to  the  highest  standard, 
nor  will  she  be  able  to  exercise  the  subtle  and  humanising  power  which, 
when  possessed  in  full  degree,  causes  her  to  be  regarded  in  her  ward 
with  a  feeling  akin  to  reverence.  An  interesting  index  to  a  nurse's 
personality  is  supplied  by  her  attitude  towards  the  chaplain.  Here 
she  has  an  opportunity  to  exhibit  that  ethical  difference  between 
the  ministrations  of  the  doctor  and  the  nurse.  If  the  latter  makes 
evident  that  she  has  no  welcome  for  the  chaplain  and  no  sense  of 
possessing  anything  in  common  with  him  respecting  her  patient,  we 
may  be  sure  she  is  not  quite  conscious  of  her  whole  duty  and  is  failing 
in  some  of  her  opportunities.  The  influence  for  good  or  evil  possible 
to  sister  or  nurse  is  only  to  be  appreciated  by  those  who  have  shared 
the  hospital  life.  A  hospital  is  necessarily  a  place  of  pain,  but  it  is 
within  the  power  of  a  good  nurse  to  make  it  to  many  a  sufferer  a 
haven  of  peace.  The  comfort  and  well-being  of  the  patients  of  a  ward 
depend  absolutely  upon  the  character  and  disposition  of  the  nurses, 
and  especially  of  the  head  nurse  or  sister  who  is  its  resident  mistress. 
Each  ward  is  a  household  in  itself,  and  a  matron  will  be  more  con- 
cerned to  possess  trustworthy  sisters  than  to  attempt  an  unremitting 


1908  NURSES  IN  HOSPITALS  .     881 

supervision  of  details,  quite  impossible  in  a  large  hospital.  The 
diversity  presented  by  different  wards  in  the  same  hospital  is  remark- 
able. The  qualifications  of  the  sister  are  faithfully  reflected  in  her 
surroundings,  and  a  rapid  survey  will  enable  the  educated  eye  and 
ear  to  find  signs  which  unmistakably  testify  to  efficiency  or  the  reverse. 
Efficiency  in  a  nurse  means  much  more  than  is  customarily  associated 
with  the  term.  It  is  not  achieved  by  a  mechanical  discharge,  how- 
ever precise,  of  the  technical  duties  of  nursing,  nor  by  keeping  the 
ward  in  spotless  condition  and  supplied  with  flowers  and  other  evidences 
of  good  taste.  These  outer  manifestations  are  valuable,  but  they  are 
also  merely  consequential.  The  burnishing  of  a  lamp  will  not  make 
it  yield  light.  If  it  is  to  illuminate,  the  living  flame  must  be  there  ; 
and  the  flame's  suffusiveness  suggests  the  enlightening  yet  intangible 
presence  of  certain  moral  elements  which  if  too  subtle  to  be  defined  are 
real  enough  to  be  felt.  When  the  influences  of  high  personal  character 
are  absent  from  a  ward  its  atmosphere  ceases  to  be  wholesome  ;  when 
they  are  present,  of  course  in  combination  with  the  other  requisites, 
their  effect  is  almost  magical.  There  is  nothing  that  more  certainly 
elevates  the  work  of  nursing  than  the  evidence  that  beyond  the  skill 
of  the  trained  nurse  lie  the  sympathy,  the  tenderness,  and  the  self- 
sacrifice  of  the  true  and  earnest  woman.  Where  the  moral  fibre  is 
strongest  training  will  give  the  best  results.  Some  women  never 
acquire  the  quick  sense  which  enables  them  to  detect  instantly  a 
want  of  material  order  and  cleanliness,  palpable  though  it  may  be 
to  the  more  discerning.  Similarly,  there  are  others  who  are  as  in- 
capable of  realising  the  absence  of  the  more  elusive  elements  of  sweet- 
ness and  refinement  as  of  appreciating  their  beauty  and  value  when 
present.  The  discipline  of  a  ward  ruled  by  the  very  gentlest  of 
sisters  who  ever  displays  moral  dignity  is  transcendently  more 
thorough  and  effective  than  that  maintained  by  the  scold  whose 
severity  has  no  grace  in  it.  The  former  always  generates  a  sense  of 
confidence  and  comfort,  which  appeals  to  all  brought  within  its  scope, 
and  so  helps  to  marshal  them  in  its  defence.  Thus  it  is  that  a  tem- 
porary residence  in  a  well-conducted  ward  often  proves  a  great  moral 
gain  to  the  patients,  who  learn  for  the  first  time  perhaps  the  pleasant 
consequences  following  upon  domestic  quietude  and  regularity.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  influence  of  the  cleverest  nurse  who  displays  no 
deep  solicitude  and  never  gains  the  confidence  or  affection  of  her 
patients  may  be  baneful ;  while  if  she  shows  no  respect  for  suffering, 
and  seeks  to  substitute  mere  animal  cheeriness  for  the  sympathy 
often  best  expressed  by  reticence,  she  is  likely  to  become  loud  and 
garrulous,  and  to  invite  a  fatal  familiarity. 

Nurses  habitually  careless  respecting  the  subjects  upon  which 
they  converse  with  patients,  apt  to  jest  with  them,  to  bandy  retorts, 
or  who  make  clear  the  fact  that  they  do  not  give  their  work  the  first 
place  in  their  lives,  cannot  look  to  keep  their  proper  position  or  to 


832     .  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

impose  upon  those  in  their  charge  the  restraint  never  more  necessary 
than  in  a  sick-ward.  Some  nurses  honestly  believe  that  by  an  assump- 
tion of  gay  and  easy  manners  they  help  to  cheer  the  sufferers,  and  by 
making  hospital  life  '  bright '  conduce  to  their  welfare.  They  will 
talk  of  their  love  affairs,  of  the  pleasures  of  their  '  evenings  off ' ;  they 
will  sing  snatches  of  light  songs,  and  they  will  contrive  to  convey 
effectually  to  the  minds  of  the  patients  the  conviction  that  nursing 
is  to  them  nothing  more  than  a  trade.  Such  women  ought  never 
to  have  taken  to  nursing,  and  the  authorities  unfortunate  enough  to 
depend  upon  them  can  scarcely  hope  to  prevent  a  rapid  deterioration 
of  ward  life. 

No  nurse  can  safely  smother  the  patient's  belief  that  her  offices 
are  performed  with  an  elevation  and  detachment  of  mind  which 
imparts  to  them  a  measure  of  sanctity.  She  may  be  thoroughly 
human,  but  her  humanity  must  stop  short  of  comradeship,  and 
though  she  may  be  rightly  regarded  as  a  friend  it  must  always  be 
as  a  friend  occupying  a  somewhat  higher  plane — one  to  be  looked  up 
to  and  whose  friendship  never  deteriorates  to  favouritism.  Patients 
who  are  not  disposed  to  this  view  at  the  outset  of  the  hospital  inter- 
lude in  their  lives  may  be  speedily  brought  to  it  if  the  circumstances 
are  favourable.  Some,  usually  women  and  often  of  the  poorest  type, 
will  begin  by  regarding  the  nurse  as  a  housemaid,  and,  pleased  with 
the  novelty  of  the  position  as  they  understand  it,  will  become  exacting 
and  dictatorial.  A  nurse  possessed  of  character  will  easily  apply  the 
correction  without  an  approach  to  resentment,  and  by  judicious 
handling  may  convert  patients  of  this  sort  into  silent  worshippers. 
If  all  her  efforts  in  this  direction  fail,  at  least  she  will  be  conscious  of 
duty  discharged  under  unpropitious  conditions,  and  at  no  time  must 
she  make  obvious  her  disappointment.  A  good  nurse  will  exhibit 
the  same  bearing  alike  to  the  grateful  and  the  ungrateful.  So,  too, 
she  will  recognise  the  obligations  attaching  to  her  calling  even  when 
she  is  on  leave.  Every  uniform  imposes  upon  the  individual  wearer 
a  duty  to  the  whole  body  entitled  to  wear  it,  and  so  long  as  a  nurse's 
clothing  displays  her  occupation  she  cannot  assert  even  the  limited 
independence  of  women  in  general.  Among  the  weaker  examples  of 
their  craft  it  sometimes  happens  that  the  uniform  which  should 
provide  their  protection  helps  to  their  undoing.  The  disposition,  not 
wholly  unwarranted,  to  regard  nurses  as  prone  to  light  and  unbecoming 
conduct  is  due  to  the  fact  that  some  who  wear  the  nurse's  dress  are 
wholly  wanting  in  the  nursing  character,  and  the  reputation  of  nurses 
generally  suffers  from  the  lapses  of  a  minority.  Vanity  and  love  of 
attracting  attention  appear  to  be  actuating  causes,  and  the  culprits 
do  not  seem  able  to  realise  that  very  few  people  witness  without 
aversion  the  spectacle  of  uniformed  nurses  behaving  unwomanly. 
But  in  justice  it  must  be  remembered  that  many  women  without  a 
particle  of  claim  to  the  title  of  nurse  masquerade  in  nurse's  garb, 


1908  NURSES   IAT   HOSPITALS 

sometimes  of  their  own  will,  because  they  think  it  becoming  ;  some- 
times because  a  certain  class  of  employers  require  their  maids  to  be 
thus  dressed  when  out  in  charge  of  their  children  and  perambulators. 

When  we  pass  from  the  consideration  of  the  personal  qualities 
of  the  sister  or  nurse,  which  affect  more  particularly  her  relations 
with  the  patients,  and  examine  the  status  she  officially  occupies 
in  the  hospital  community,  we  find  that  her  position  loses  none  of 
its  importance.  It  is  fraught  with  opportunities.  The  almost  in- 
variable view  of  the  house  physicians  and  house  surgeons  is  that 
the  nurses  are  there  to  work  under  their  orders  and  direction,  and 
are  charged  with  few  duties  beyond  those  appertaining  to  medical 
necessities.  Thus  there  is  no  room  for  any  authority  independent 
of  their  own,  and  with  a  weak  matron  in  office  it  is  not  impossible 
that  this  view  may  be  accepted.  In  that  case  the  chief  safeguards 
of  the  philanthropic  side  of  hospital  work  are  greatly  weakened. 
The  vanity  of  some  nurses  may  be  tickled  by  the  belief  that  they 
move  within  the  purview  of  the  profession,  and  are  allied  with  it 
to  an  extent  enabling  them  to  put  off  the  lay  character,  which  they 
regard  as  a  disability ;  but  the  more  sensible  majority  are  capable 
of  seeing  that  implicit  obedience  to  medical  orders  in  respect  of  treat- 
ment is  compatible  with  an  attitude  towards  the  patients  and  the 
hospital  not  wholly  suggestive  of  the  doctor,  and  the  performance 
of  many  duties  altogether  outside  his  ken,  which  to  neglect  is  to 
surrender  some  of  the  highest  privileges  of  nursing. 

If  the  moral  sanitation  of  hospitals  is  to  be  preserved,  there  are 
overwhelming  reasons  why  the  supremacy  of  the  matron  in  respect 
of  the  nursing  staff  and  her  independence  of  the  house  physician 
should  be  carefully  upheld.  The  fact  that  the  matron  is  a  permanent 
officer  of  mature  age,  whose  fitness  is  determined  not  only  by  con- 
siderations of  technical  training  but  of  personal  character,  while 
the  residents  are  possessed  of  little  equipment  beyond  that  of  students, 
and  are  chosen  more  particularly  for  their  achievements  in  the  school, 
is  in  itself  sufficient  to  enforce  this  view.  Moreover,  as  their  associa- 
tion with  the  hospital  has  no  element  of  permanency,  the  holders 
of  resident  offices  never  advance  in  age  or  knowledge  of  the  world, 
and  no  expectation  can  be  entertained  of  the  qualities  which!~come 
naturally  to  the  capable  by  the  passage  of  time. 

It  is  a  misfortune  for  hospitals  that  with  the  developments  of 
recent  years  somewhat  similar  difficulties  have  arisen  in  respect  of 
the  nurses'  term  of  service.  At  one  time  it  was  nothing  unusual  for 
sisters  and  nurses  to  spend  many  years  in  the  same  hospital,  and  to 
regard  it  as  a  home.  Naturally  their  efficiency  grew  with  their  service, 
and  while  they  performed  their  duties  with  devotion  their  relations 
with  the  hospital  were  those  of  affection.  Now  few  nurses  are  ready 
to  identify  themselves  with  the  institution  in  which  they  work.  They 
not  uncommonly  hold  themselves  aloof  from  it,  and  working  in  a 

VOL.  LXIV-No.  381  3  K 


884  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

spirit  of  complete  indifference,  are  ever  intent  upon  change.  A  sister 
or  a  nurse  whose  training  is  completed,  if  she  enters  upon  a  situation 
in  the  wards,  will  often  contemplate  remaining  one  or  two  years 
at  most.  She  flits  from  hospital  to  hospital,  and  admits  frankly  that 
her  object  is  to  gather  what  varied  experience  she  can,  and  as  quickly 
as  possible  afterwards  to  quit  hospital  life.  It  comes  about,  therefore, 
that  hospitals  depend  in  an  increasing  degree  upon  the  services  of 
probationers  in  various  degrees  of  rawness,  who,  as  they  become  useful 
and  reliable,  give  place  to  other  novices.  Although  one  undeniable 
duty  of  hospitals  is  to  train  nurses  and  to  send  them  forth,  not  the 
less  the  proportion  of  untrained  women  in  the  wards  should  be  kept 
strictly  within  bounds.  At  present  more  is  very  often  entrusted  to 
them  than  is  desirable.  An  ideal  hospital,  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  patients'  welfare,  would  employ  none  but  experienced  and 
seasoned  nurses,  and  if  hospital  finance  were  not  the  almost  hopeless 
thing  it  is,  a  first  step  towards  domestic  reform  would  be  the  payment 
of  better,  and  consequently  more  enticing  and  satisfying,  wages  to 
the  nursing  staff. 

There  are  many  duties  to  be  learned  by  a  probationer,  which  ought 
to  be  preliminary  to  her  entry  upon  the  actual  nursing,  and  if  the 
novice's  attention  were  confined  to  these  during  her  first  months  of 
residence  she  would  become  better  grounded  than  she  usually  is. 
For  want  of  this  initial  training  many  nurses  not  only  never  acquire 
the  quick,  instinctive  perception  which  instantly  fastens  upon  defects,  . 
but  they  are  unable  to  appreciate  the  need  for  it.  Tidiness,  one  would 
think,  should  come  naturally  to  a  woman  who  aspires  to  be  a  nurse ; 
yet  so  superficial  in  some  is  the  sense  of  its  importance  that,  though 
their  wards  may  be  well  kept,  they  are  very  slatterns  in  their  own 
rooms.  A  trained  eye  is  microscopic,  and  small  things  are  not  over- 
looked. A  smeared  window-pane,  a  littered  fireplace,  a  picture  hung 
awry,  blinds  unevenly  drawn,  cupboard  or  locker  doDrs  left  open, 
any  one  of  a  multitude  of  little  matters  of  this  kind,  which  are  the 
concern  of  every  good  housewife,  cannot  be  witnessed  without  sug- 
gesting disorder  in  a  ward  possibly  in  all  other  respects  well  kept. 
Yet  how  great  is  the  difficulty  of  impressing  this  fact  upon  a  nurse 
hardened  in  carelessness  !  Not  many  years  ago  a  nurse's  training 
embraced  many  duties  which  now  devolve  upon  '  ward-maids,'  and 
whatever  may  be  said  in  favour  of  relieving  nursing  of  menial  labour, 
nurses  are  now  less  thorough  and  the  appearance  of  the  wards  has 
suffered  by  the  change.  Probationers  who  under  the  old  conditions 
would  have  felt  a  pride  in  burnishing  the  pots  and  pans  of  the  ward 
kitchen  now  resent  a  suggestion  that  they  should  make  use  of  a  hearth- 
broom  or  duster,  return  an  escaped  cinder  to  the  grate,  or  stop  to 
pick  up  a  piecejof  dropped  paper. 

Then,  again,  how  few  sisters  and  nurses  appear  to  have  mastered 
the  rudiments  of  knowledge  in  respect  of  warming  and  ventilation ! 


1908  NURSES   IN   HOSPITALS  885 

Often  the  appliances  are  systematically  neglected  or  misused.  Rarely 
is  there  a  display  of  the  intelligence  which  enables  the  most  to  be 
made  of  them.  The  orthodox  hospital  ward  possesses  a  row  of  windows 
on  either  side,  and  a  suggestion  that  when  a  keen  east  wind  is  blowing, 
and  temperature  is  low,  the  inlet  of  air  should  be  from  the  west  or 
south,  or  that  upon  a  sweltering  day  in  summer  the  windows  on  the 
shady  side  should  be  open,  while  upon  the  sunny  side  windows  and 
blinds  should  be  kept  closed,  is  usually  received  with  astonishment 
and  question.  Yet  attention  to  these  details  materially  assists  towards 
the  maintenance  of  the  equable  temperature  which  is  the  aim  of 
every  well-trained  nurse. 

The  number  of  youthful  and  untrained  nurses  employed  by 
hospitals  furnishes  an  additional  and  cogent  reason  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  matron's  authority,  unhindered  by  any  direct  inter- 
ference or  overruling  by  the  medical  officers.  No  doubt  care  must 
be  taken  to  preserve  nurses  from  the  injustice  which  sometimes 
comes  of  the  exercise  of  sole  power.  A  right  of  way  to  some  tribunal 
of  appeal  ought  always  to  exist,  and  its  unrestricted  use  can  be  upheld 
by  flawless  academical  reasoning.  Nevertheless  the  way  should 
run  through  the  matron's  office. 

When  a  sister  or  nurse  fails  in  interest  for  the  hospital,  and  ex- 
hibits indifference  to  everything  which,  with  limited  comprehension, 
she  regards  as  lying  outside  her  nursing  duties,  the  institution  loses 
the  valuable  assistance  towards  economy  which  nurses  in  charge  of 
wards  are  especially  able  to  render.  In  her  requisitions  she  affects  the 
doctor's  customary  disregard  of  ways  and  means,  and  as  naturally 
resents  any  attempt  to  inquire  into  and  control  the  consumption 
of  the  goods  entrusted  to  her  keeping  and  disposal.  Sometimes  she 
is  merely  indifferent :  in  that  case  her  training  is  open  to  criticism, 
and  even  in  the  best  schools  of  training  it  is  astonishing  how  little  is 
taught  of  the  need  of  frugality,  and  of  that  careful  and  microscopic 
attention  to  the  little  details  of  ward  expenditure  which  none  but 
sisters  and  nurses  can  give  effectively. 

Bills  may  be  vastly  swollen  by  systematic  neglect  of  very  small 
matters.  To  contemplate  extravagance  superficially  is  to  have  little 
appreciation  of  its  bulk  in  the  cube.  One  sister  will  use  double  the 
quantity  of  coals  which  suffices  for  another  in  charge  of  a  ward  pre- 
cisely similar.  And  it  is  more  than  likely  that  the  temperature  records 
of  the  last-named  will  prove  the  more  satisfactory.  In  the  one  case 
the  sister  makes  it  her  business  to  see  that  the  warming  of  the  ward 
is  properly  controlled,  and  holds  some  one  subordinate  responsible ; 
in  the  other  she  is  simply  heedless,  and  probationers,  ward-maids, 
and  even  patients  are  all  free  of  the  coal-box.  So,  too,  in  regard  to 
lighting,  linen,  surgical  dressings,  breakages,  and  the  manifold  items 
of  hospital  expenditure  there  may  be  diversity  between  different 
wards,  ranging  from  scrupulous  economy  to  reckless  extravagance. 

3  K  2 


886  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

What  makes  waste  in  small  things  so  disastrous  is  that  in  respect 
of  many  items  a  daily  automatic  multiplication  ensues,  portentous 
enough  to  produce  a  very  serious  effect  upon  the  well-being  and 
stability  of  the  institution.  Sisters  and  nurses  who  rightly  realise 
their  whole  duty  to  the  hospital  they  serve  will  not  think  it  derogatory 
to  give  a  high  place  to  a  never-ceasing  solicitude  for  the  prevention 
of  waste.  Unhappily  the  attitude  of  some  of  those  to  whom  nurses 
look  for  guidance  is  not  one  which  the  hospitals,  whether  as  trainers 
or  employers,  can  regard  with  whole-hearted  satisfaction.  Efforts 
to  raise  the  status  of  nurses  and  to  afford  them  protection  from  the 
competition  of  trespassers  upon  the  field  of  private  nursing,  whether 
regarded  from  the  standpoint  of  the  nurse  or  the  patient,  are  nothing 
but  praiseworthy,  but  the  aims  of  those  who  seek  to  create  a  '  pro- 
fession '  of  nursing  rigidly  fenced  off  from  all  lay  influence  and  con- 
trol cannot  be  anything  but  antagonistic  to  the  established  principle 
of  lay  government  in  hospitals.  Nurses  in  whom  the  '  professional ' 
spirit  is  at  full  strength  are  usually  scornful  of  such  small  matters 
as  economy,  and  just  as  unwilling  to  condescend  to  a  lay  level  of 
thought  in  respect  of  ward  management  as  the  most  self-assertive 
of  the  clinical  clerks  whom  they  consciously  or  unconsciously  imitate. 
Evidence  has  been  forthcoming  recently  of  a  revolt  from  the 
earlier  belief  that  doctors  ought  to  have  a  determining  voice  in  the 
councils  of  the  nurses,  but  none  is  offered  of  a  conviction  that  it 
would  be  best  nurses  should  cease  to  pose  before  the  laity  as  satellites 
of  the  profession  of  medicine.  In  hospitals — and  we  are  not  now  dis- 
cussing what  happens  outside  them — the  doctors  are  always  at  hand, 
and  may  be  trusted  to  safeguard  their  own  position,  but  so  much 
that  is  important  to  the  institution  and  the  patients  lies  beyond  the 
medical  scope  of  vision  and  interest  that  no  government  can  be 
reckoned  efficient  which  is  not  able  to  make  its  authority  felt  and 
respected  by  the  nurses  from  the  point  where  the  doctors'  rightful 
prerogative  ends. 

B.    BURFORD   RAWLINGS. 


1908 


A    DUPE   OF  DESTINY 


ABOUT  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  there  was  living  in 
Scotland  a  small  stonemason  of  the  name  of  Robert  Paterson,  who, 
through  the  genius  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  is  still  known  to  posterity  by 
his  local  appellation  of  Old  Mortality.  A  fierce  old  Presbyterian, 
his  religious  enthusiasm  outweighed  every  earthly  consideration,  and 
his  wife  with  her  five  children  often  found  herself  left  penniless  while 
her  husband  pursued  the  promptings  of  his  fanaticism.  She  there- 
fore started  a  small  school  to  support  her  family  while  Robert  Paterson 
followed  a  vocation  more  in  harmony  with  his  temperament.  He 
rode  from  kirkyard  to  kirkyard  through  the  lowlands  of  Scotland 
gratuitously  erecting  tombstones  over  the  graves  of  the  Covenanters, 
or  laboriously  deepening  with  his  chisel  the  names  of  the  martyrs 
upon  the  stones  already  erected.  At  last  there  were  few  church- 
yards in  Ayrshire,  Galloway,  or  Dumfriesshire  where  the  work  of  his 
tool  could  not  be  seen,  easily  distinguished  from  the  designs  of  any 
other  artist  by  the  primitive  rudeness  of  the  emblems  of  death  and  of 
the  inscriptions  which  adorned  the  memorials  of  his  own  creation. 

For  forty  years  Old  Mortality  thus  laboured  without  fee  or  reward, 
till  one  day  in  deep  snow  he  was  found  dead  by  the  roadside,  with 
his  old  pony  standing  beside  him  and  his  self-imposed  task  ended 
for  ever.  It  is  on  record  that  the  cost  of  his  interment,  including 
'  Bread  and  Chise  at  the  Founral,  also  1  pint  of  Rume  and  1  pint  oj 
Whiskie,'  amounted  to  the  modest  sum  of  21.  Is.  Wd.,  and  as  he  was 
buried  in  a  grave  which  could  not  afterwards  be  traced,  he  who  had 
spent  the  best  years  of  his  life  erecting  tombstones  over  many  less 
worthy  than  himself  sleeps  with  no  token  to  mark  his  last  resting- 
place. 

Little  can  Old  Mortality,  as  poor  and  hungry  he  bent  over  his 
self-imposed  task,  have  dreamed  that  in  the  future  his  grandson 
would  be  one  of  the  richest  men  in  another  hemisphere,  the  father  of 
a  queen,1  sister  by  marriage  to  the  conqueror  of  Europe,  and  the 
father-in-law  of  a  vicereine,  sister  by  marriage  to  the  vanquisher 
of  that  conqueror.2  No  doubt  with  his  mind  bent  sternly  on  the 
greater  issues  of  Eternity,  Old  Mortality  would  have  scoffed  at  such 

1  See  footnote  on  the  last  page  of  this  article. 

2  Mary  Caton,  when  the  widow  of  Bobert,  son  of  William  Patterson,  married  the 
Marquis  Wellesley,  biother  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington. 

8»7 


888  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBY  Nov. 

earthly  considerations ;  yet  imagination  cannot  but  dwell  curiously 
on  the  contrast  afforded  by  that  humble  figure  of  the  old  fanatic  and 
the  world-wide  importance  of  his  immediate  descendants  and  those 
with  whom  his  descendants  were  to  be  allied. 

The  youngest  son  of  Old  Mortality,  John  Paterson,  became  an 
impecunious  farmer  in  Ireland.  The  father  of  a  large  family,  in  the 
year  1766  he  sent  one  of  his  sons,  William  Paterson,  then  a  boy  of 
fourteen,  out  to  Philadelphia  to  earn  his  living  as  circumstances  might 
dictate.  The  lad,  landing  destitute  and  homeless  in  a  new  world,  was 
better  equipped  for  the  struggle  before  him  than  the  most  sanguine 
could  have  anticipated.  By  dint  of  industry,  enterprise,  and  a  shrewd 
business  capacity,  his  advancement  was  as  rapid  as  it  was  surprising. 
He  was,  ere  long,  respected  by,  and  the  friend  of,  all  the  prominent 
Americans  of  his  day ;  he  cemented  his  good  fortune  by  marriage  with 
a  lady  of  irreproachable  social  position,  and  finally  he  became  one 
of  the  foremost  merchant  princes  of  his  adopted  country,  as  well  as 
one  of  the  largest  estate  owners  in  Maryland. 

On  the  6th  of  February  1785,  just  nineteen  years  after  William 
Paterson  (or  Patterson  as  his  name  is  now  usually  spelt)  had  landed 
as  a  little  penniless  waif  in  a  new  world,  there  was  born  to  him  the 
daughter  who  by  a  strange  freak  of  fate  was  destined  to  be  the  wife 
of  a  king  and  the  sister-in-law  of  an  emperor,  who  was  to  disturb  the 
peace  of  the  greatest  conqueror  of  modern  times,  to  produce  a  rupture 
between  a  pope  and  a  monarch,  and  to  become  a  brilliant  leader  at 
foreign  courts,  where  her  beauty,  her  wit  and  her  romantic  history 
were  to  make  her  conspicuous  among  the  most  remarkable  women  of 
the  century. 

Elizabeth  Patterson,  the  great-granddaughter  of  Old  Mortality, 
doubtless  inherited  something  of  the  uncompromising  inflexibility  of 
her  Presbyterian  forefathers.  Her  character  early  showed  an  element 
of  fatalism  which  the  circumstances  of  her  life  were  -to  accentuate. 
From  her  childhood  her  brain  was  clear,  keen  and  cool,  her  tempera- 
ment ambitious,  determined  and  passionless.  Qualities  such  as 
these  make  for  mastery,  and  when  united  to  a  beauty  so  rare  as  that 
with  which  she  was  endowed,  are  calculated  to  sway  the  destinies  of 
mankind.  Yet  when  she  made  her  debut  in  Baltimore  at  the  age  of 
eighteen,  a  simple  girl  who  had  never  yet  left  her  home,  no  one  pre- 
dicted for  her  a  fate  more  remarkable  than  that  which  immediately 
befell  her,  when  she  was  accepted  as  the  reigning  belle  of  Baltimore. 
'  She  possessed,'  we  are  told,  '  a  pure  Grecian  contour,  her  head  was 
exquisitely  formed,  her  forehead  fair  and  shapely,  her  eyes  large  and 
dark,  with  an  expression  of  tenderness  which  did  not  belong  to  her 
character,  and  the  delicate  loveliness  of  her  mouth  and  chin,  the  soft 
bloom  of  her  complexion,  together  with  her  beautifully  rounded 
shoulders  and  tapering  arms  combined  to  form  the  loveliest  of  women.' 

But  tragedy  followed  hard  upon  the  footsteps  of  the  beautiful 


1908  A   DUPE   OF  DESTINY  889 

girl.  The  very  year  of  her  debut  there  came  to  America  Jerome 
Bonaparte,  a  minor,  the  youngest  brother  of  the  First  Consul  of  France. 
Honours  of  every  kind  were  lavished  upon  so  important  a  visitor,  he 
was  made  the  lion  of  society,  and  at  the  Fall  races  he  was  introduced 
to  Miss  Patterson,  the  belle  of  Baltimore,  the  rich  merchant's  lovely 
daughter. 

Legend  clings  lovingly  about  this  first  meeting  betwen  Jerome 
and  his  future  wife.  One  story  runs  that  Elizabeth  became  entangled 
in  a  gold  chain  which  formed  part  of  the  magnificent  attire  of  Lieutenant 
Bonaparte  ;  and  while  he  endeavoured  to  release  her,  she  recalled,  with 
a  sense  of  inevitability,  a  strange  prophecy  made  to  her  as  a  child  that 
one  day  she  would  be  a  great  lady  in  France.  Another  story  relates 
that  Jerome  had  been  forewarned  that  '  to  see  Elizabeth  Patterson 
was  to  marry  her,'  and  vowing  that  nothing  would  ever  induce  him  to 
marry  an  American,  he  had  facetiously  nicknamed  her '  ma  belle  femme ' 
before  he  saw  her.  One  thing,  however,  is  certain — Elizabeth  has  left 
on  record  how  she  was  clad  on  that  memorable  day  of  her  life.  She 
wore  a  chamois-coloured  gown,  of  very  scanty  dimensions,  a  lace 
neckerchief  and  an  enormous  hat  covered  with  pink  gauze  and  ostrich 
plumes.  From  under  this  bewildering  headgear  her  flawless  face 
looked  out  in  its  brilliant  witchery  and  made  havoc  with  the  heart  of  the 
susceptible  young  Frenchman.  Black-haired  and  dark-eyed,  small, 
graceful,  spare,  and  with  delicate  hands  like  a  woman,  Jerome 
Bonaparte  had  sufficient  good  looks  to  win  his  way  readily  with  the 
opposite  sex ;  fuel  was  therefore  but  added  to  the  flame  now  kindled 
from  the  recognition  that  while  other  women  treated  him  with  the 
adulation  to  which  he  was  accustomed,  this  haughty  young  beauty 
viewed  him  with  an  indifference  which  she  took  no  pains  to  conceal. 
Too  late  Jerome  realised  that  to  see  her  was  *to  admire,  to  admire  was 
to  love.  He  renounced  France,  Napoleon,  riches,  glory,  nay  even 
the  far  from  remote  chance  of  regal  splendour,  if  only  he  might  become 
the  husband  of  the  beautiful  American.  And  to  Elizabeth  herself 
the  prospect  suddenly  held  out  to  her  was  sufficiently  dazzling.  A 
fate  for  which  her  rare  gifts  befitted  her  fired  her  imagination.  Her 
indifference  was  transformed  to  enthusiasm.  It  is  said  that  in  vain 
her  father,  dictated  by  motives  of  prudence,  pointed  out  the  probability 
of  intervention  on  the  part  of  Napoleon,  and  sought  to  end  an  infatua- 
tion of  which  he  feared  the  consequences.  The  fidelity  of  the  lovers 
survived  an  enforced  separation,  and  Elizabeth  sealed  her  fate  by  the 
declaration  that  she  would  rather  be  the  wife  of  Jerome  Bonaparte 
for  an  hour  than  that  of  any  other  man  living  for  a  lifetime. 

Every  detail  was  forthwith  planned  to  ensure  the  validity  of  the 
union.  The  religious  ceremony  was  to  be  performed  by  the  Bishop 
of  Baltimore,  the  Primate  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  United  States, 
and  the  civil  contract  was  drawn  up  with  every  precaution  against  its 
future  rejection,  Mr.  Patterson  further  pinning  his  faith  to  the  fact 


840  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

that,  although  Jerome  might  be  making  a  union  which  would  not  be 
considered  binding  in  France,  the  Catholic  Church  refuses  to  annul 
marriages  for  irregularities  which  can  be  rectified. 

At  last,  on  Christmas  Eve,  1803,  just  two-and-a-half  years  after 
Old  Mortality  had  been  laid  to  rest  in  his  nameless,  snow-clad  grave 
in  far-away  Scotland,  the  celebrated  wedding  of  his  descendant  took 
place.  The  thoughts  of  all  Baltimore  centred  on  the  event.  For 
the  momentous  occasion  the  bridegroom,  at  least,  presented  an 
appearance  which  would  seem  strange  to  modern  eyes.  The  wedding 
costume  of  Jerome,  still  preserved  by  the  Baltimore  Bonapartes,  was 
a  purple  satin  coat  ornamented  with  lace  and  richly  embroidered,  the 
tails  of  which,  lined  with  white  satin,  came  down  to  the  heels,  after 
the  fashion  of  the  Directory.  Short  satin  breeches,  silk  stockings, 
shoes  with  diamond  buckles,  and  powdered  hair  completed  his  attire, 
which  was  more  ample  than  that  of  his  bride,  who  seems  to  have  had 
a  marked  aversion  to  any  superfluity  of  raiment.  Her  costume, 
religiously  preserved  by  her  till  the  day  of  her  death,  presented  an 
admixture  of  daring  and  simplicity  which  was  perhaps  characteristic. 
Although  the  possessor  of  a  magnificent  trousseau,  she  chose  for  the 
ceremony  a  dress  of  fine  white  muslin,  which  she  had  often  worn 
before,  and  which,  despite  rich  embroidery  and  costly  lace,  remained 
calculated  to  reveal  as  well  as  to  enhance  the  natural  grace  of  her  form, 
since  it  was  as  scanty  in  quantity  as  it  was  flimsy  in  quality.  '  All 
the  clothes  worn  by  her  might  have  been  put  in  my  pocket,'  related 
an  astonished  guest ; '  her  dress  was  of  muslin  of  extremely  fine  texture. 
Beneath  her  dress  she  wore  but  one  single  garment.' 

On  every  hand  Elizabeth  received  congratulations  on  her  brilliant 
fortune ;  and  the  weeks  which  followed  were  perhaps  the  happiest 
of  her  life.  The  great  Consul,  the  Sphinx  of  Europe,  was  silent,  and 
hopes  of  his  ultimate  reconciliation  to  the  match  must  have  flattered 
the  thoughts  of  the  young  couple.  The  rest  of  the  Bonaparte  family 
expressed  to  the  bride's  brother  their  unqualified  approval  of  it ;  and 
Lucien  preached  defiance.  '  The  Consul,'  he  said,  '  is  to  be  considered 
as  isolated  from  the  family.  All  his  ideas  and  actions  are  dictated  by 
a  policy  with  which  we  have  nothing  to  do.  We  still  remain  plain 
citizens,  and  as  such  we  feel  highly  gratified  with  the  connection. 
Our  present  earnest  wish  is  that  Jerome  may  remain  where  he  now 
is  and  become  a  citizen  of  the  United  States.' 

To  a  couple  less  ambitious  than  Jerome  and  his  bride  such  advice 
might  have  been  palatable,  but  love  and  obscurity  suited  as  ill  with 
the  views  of  Elizabeth  as  with  those  of  her  husband.  And  the  rapid 
march  of  events  served  to  intensify  this  attitude.  On  the  18th  of  May 
1804  Napoleon  proclaimed  himself  Emperor  of  .the  French,  and  on 
the  2nd  of  December  following,  in  the  midst  of  one  of  the  most 
magnificent  scenes  ever  witnessed,  he  and  Josephine  were  crowned  at 
Notre  Dame,  while  Lucien  and  Jerome,  the  two  brothers  who  had  not 


1908  A   DUPE   OF  DESTINY  841 

bowed  to  his  supreme  will,  found  themselves  consigned  to  the  obscurity 
they  had  courted,  and  excluded  ignominiously  from  the  Imperial 
dynasty. 

But  before  that  date  Napoleon  had  spoken  and  had  left  no  doubt 
respecting  his  attitude  towards  his  brother's  marriage.  In  March  1804, 
the  American  Ambassador,  having  endeavoured  to  bring  about  a 
favourable  reception  of  the  news,  was  forced  to  report  his  failure.  The 
First  Consul  was  incensed  against  his  brother,  inexorable  in  his  denial 
of  the  legality  of  the  union.  Moreover  he  held  that  Jerome  had  been 
guilty  of  a  heinous  offence,  and  that  nothing  but  the  most  abject 
submission  on  the  part  of  the  offender  could  efface  his  error.  Other- 
wise let  Jerome  look  to  himself. 

'  Sole  fabricator  of  my  destiny,'  Napoleon  had  announced  hotly, 
'  I  owe  nothing  to  my  brothers.  If  Jerome  does  nothing  for  me,  I 
will  see  to  it  that  I  do  nothing  for  him.'  Later,  Napoleon  issued 
his  orders  in  '  the  most  positive  manner  '  that  no  money  was  to  be  sent 
to  the  citizen  Jerome,  that  he  was  to  return  to  his  duty  with  the  first 
French  frigate  sailing  for  France,  and  that  '  the  young  person  with 
whom  he  had  connected  himself,'  and  who  was  not  his  wife,  should 
never  be  allowed  to  set  foot  on  French  territory. 

News  travelled  slowly  in  those  days,  and  the  decision  of  Napoleon 
reached  Jerome  simultaneously  with  the  news  of  the  great  event  of  the 
18th  of  May,  so  that  in  the  same  moment  Jerome  knew  himself  to  be 
the  brother  of  an  emperor  and  commanded  to 'renounce  the  woman 
he  loved. 

This  final  realisation  of  their  worst  fears  must  have  come  like  a 
thunderbolt  into  the  midst  of  the  gay  social  life  of  the  young  couple. 
Feted,  admired,  intoxicated  with  the  cup  of  happiness  but  newly 
placed  within  her  grasp,  the  beautiful  Elizabeth  saw  it  about  to  be 
dashed  from  her  lips  by  the  inflexible  will  of  the  supreme  egoist  of 
Europe.  Yet  with  wealth,  power,  and  regal  splendour  in  the  balance, 
the  stake  was  too  stupendous  to  be  lightly  renounced.  No  doubt 
Elizabeth  read  aright  a  character  which,  as  even  her  contemporaries 
recognised,  held  much  that  was  curiously  akin  to  her  own,  and  thus 
knew  that  with  Napoleon  but  one  consideration  might  cany  weight. 
To  him  a  woman's  heart  and  a  woman's  happiness,  nay,  honour  and 
morality  itself,  were  as  mere  bubbles  with  which  to  oppose  his  iron  will. 
To  him  the  members,  of  her  sex  were  at  best  mere  tools  to  further 
his  unscrupulous  ambition,  to  furnish,  through  their  sons,  eternal 
food  for  cannon,  or  to  cement  a  victory  by  an  alliance  with  a  con- 
quered foe.  Yet  one  weapon  was  hers  to  ply.  If  Josephine,  the 
Creole,  could  enact  the  part  of  an  empress,  was  not  she,  Elizabeth 
Bonaparte,  better  equipped  for  the  part  of  a  queen  ?  She  would 
meet  Napoleon  on  his  own  ground.  He  had  but  to  see  her  to  know 
her  fitted  to  further  his  schemes.  With  her  youthful  witchery,  her 
wit  as  keen  as  a  blade,  her  indisputable  charm  before  which  all 


842  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

succumbed,  had  not  nature  fashioned  her  for  the  wife  of  a  ruler  of 
men  ?    Was  she  not  born  to  sway  a  Court  and  to  grace  a  throne  ? 

And  if  Napoleon  had  seen  her,  how  would  the  history  of  Europe 
have  been  affected  ?  Speculation  lingers  over  the  chance,  for  there 
is  little  doubt  that  Elizabeth,  the  wife  of  the  weak  and  fickle  Jerome, 
was  in  much  the  true  complement  of  his  imperious  brother,  and,  by 
right  of  her  ambition,  her  courage  and  her  dauntless  will  was  more  in 
harmony  with  the  temperament  of  Napoleon  than  was  the  ill-controlled 
Josephine  or  the  insipid  Marie-Louise.  '  Elizabeth,'  it  was  remarked? 
'  by  her  wit,  beauty,  and  ambition  would  have  helped  Napoleon  to 
rise,  while  her  prudence,  common  sense,  and  practical  wisdom  would 
have  taught  him  when  to  stop  in  his  dazzling  career.'  But  Elizabeth 
missed  her  destiny ;  she  and  the  conqueror  of  Europe  never  met, 
though  even  from  afar  her  pride  and  strength  of  character  never 
failed  to  exercise  a  fascination  over  the  man  who  had  constituted 
himself  her  most  implacable  foe. 

From  the  presence  of  British  warships  and  from  one  cause  or 
another,  the  final  departure  of  the  young  couple  for  France  was 
delayed  until  1805,  when,  after  a  prosperous  voyage,  they  reached 
Lisbon  on  the  2nd  of  April.  There,  for  the  first  time,  Elizabeth  felt 
the  power  of  her  enemy.  She  was  not  allowed  to  land,  and  an 
ambassador  from  Napoleon  coming  on  board,  demanded  to  know 
what  he  could  do  for  Mm  Patterson.  '  Tell  your  master,'  she  replied 
proudly,  '  that  Madame  Bonaparte  is  ambitious,  and  demands  her 
rights  as  a  member  of  the  Imperial  family '  ;  an  answer  which  pleased 
and  attracted  Napoleon  without  shaking  his  determination. 

It  was  obvious  that  under  such  conditions  Jerome  must  face  his 
brother  alone.  At  Lisbon,  therefore,  the  young  couple  bade  each 
other  what  they  believed  to  be  a  brief  farewell,  little  dreaming  that 
only  once  again  were  they  ever  to  meet,  and  then  under  circumstances 
which,  in  the  early  days  of  their  love,  either  would  have  repudiated 
as  impossible. 

Elizabeth  thus  left  a  stranger  in  a  foreign  land,  surrounded  by 
enemies,  vainly  sought  refuge  in  some  friendly  country.  She  soon 
found  that  all  the  ports  of  continental  Europe  were  closed  against 
her  by  order  of  Napoleon,  and  began  to  fear,  with  good  reason,  that 
her  life  would  be  attempted.  It  was  whispered  that  those  who  inter- 
fered with  the  plans  of  the  great  Napoleon  had  been  known  to  quit 
this  world  with  a  haste  which  could  not  always  be  accounted  for  by 
natural  causes.  Elizabeth,  therefore,  in  trepidation,  sailed  for  England, 
where  she  arrived  at  Dover  on  the  19th  of  May  1805,  and  sought  per- 
mission to  land,  a  request  which  was  at  once  granted.  So  great  was 
the  excitement  to  see  her  that  the  Prime  Minister,  Pitt,  had  to  send  a 
military  escort  to  keep  ofi  the  immense  crowds  which  had  assembled 
to  watch  her  disembark.  The  Times  of  that  date  thus  comments  upon 
the  event : — 


1908  A   DUPE   OF  DESTINY  848 

The  beautiful  wife  of  Jerome  Bonaparte,  after  being  refused  admittance  into 
every  port  in  Europe  where  the  French  influence  degrades  and  dishonours 
humanity,  has  landed  at  Dover,  under  the  protection  of  a  great  and  generous 
people.  This  interesting  lady,  who  has  been  the  victim  of  imposture  and 
ambition,  will  here  receive  all  the  rights  of  hospitality  which,  whatever  may  be 
the  conduct  of  America,  Great  Britain  will  never  forget,  nor  omit  to  exercise 
towards  her  with  a  parental  hand.  The  contemptible  Jerome  was,  for  form's 
sake,  made  a  prisoner  at  Lisbon.  His  treachery  towards  this  lovely  Unfor- 
tunate will  procure  him  an  early  pardon,  and  a  Highness-ship,  from  the 
Imperial  swindler,  his  brother. 

It  is  interesting  to  find  that  Napoleon's  comment  on  the  situation 
has  also  survived.  '  Miss  Patterson,'  he  wrote  to  Jerome,  '  has  been 
in  London  and  caused  great  excitement  among  the  English.  This 
has  only  increased  her  guilt ' !  The  logic  of  thus  condemning  a  course 
which  he  had  himself  rendered  inevitable  is  peculiarly  characteristic. 
For  three  months  Elizabeth  perforce  remained  in  England,  while  the 
English  papers  carefully  chronicled  all  her  doings  with  a  minuteness 
and  a  sympathy  which  she  found,  or  pretended  to  find,  irksome.  On 
the  7th  of  June  her  son  was  born  at  Camberwell,  and  was  named 
Jerome  Napoleon  Bonaparte.  Later,  that  same  year,  mother  and 
child  returned  to  America. 

For  a  time,  it  is  said,  Jerome  tried  as  earnestly,  as  he  failed 
ignominiously,  to  move  the  determination  of  Napoleon.  '  Your 
marriage  is  null.  I  will  never  acknowledge  it,'  was  Napoleon's  answer 
to  his  representations  ;  and,  after  dictating  in  peremptory  terms  to 
Madame  Mere  that  she  was  to  revoke  her  approval  of  Jerome's  '  intrigue 
with  Miss  Patterson,'  Napoleon  added  brutally  :  '  Speak  to  his  sisters 
that  they  may  write  to  him  also,  for  when  I  have  pronounced  his 
sentence  I  shall  be  inflexible,  and  his  life  will  be  blasted  for  ever.'  The 
Emperor  next  ordered  Pope  Pius  the  Seventh  to  publish  a  Bull 
annulling  the  marriage,  but  here,  for  the  first  time,  the  autocrat  found 
his  power  defied.  The  Pope  refused,  and  on  this,  as  on  one  or  two 
subsequent  occasions,  held  his  ground  with  an  obstinacy  which  rivalled 
Napoleon's  own.  A  story  runs  that  one  day,  tired  out  with  the  vain 
endeavour  to  force  the  Pontiff  to  consent  to  measures  which  his 
conscience  disapproved,  Napoleon  said  to  one  of  his  Ministers  :  '  Why 
do  you  not  try  what  ill-treatment  can  do,  short  of  torture  ?  I  authorise 
you  to  employ  every  means.'  '  Mais,  Sire,'  was  the  humorous  reply, 
'  que  voulez-vous  que  1'on  fasse  d'un  homme  qui  laisse  geler  1'eau 
dans  son  benitier  sans  se  plaindre  de  n'avoir  pas  du  feu  dans  sa 
chambre  ?  '  The  wrath  of  Napoleon,  however,  found  expression 
when  he  imprisoned  the  indomitable  Pontiff  in  the  Chateau  of  Fon- 
tainebleau,  a  place  where,  by  a  curious  irony  of  fate,  he  himself  was 
subsequently  to  sign  the  abdication  of  his  own  throne. 

Meanwhile,  the  prediction  of  the  Times  with  regard  to  Jerome's 
conduct  and  its  reward  found  ample  fulfilment.  For  a  few  weeks, 
indeed,  Jerome  persisted  in  his  refusal  to  renounce  his  beautiful  wife  ; 


844  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

and  from  April,  when  he  left  her  at  Lisbon,  to  the  following  October, 
he  continued,  in  passionate  letters  to  her,  to  renew  his  protestations 
of  eternal  fidelity.  But  it  is  doubtful  if  these  ever  deceived  the  clear 
brain  of  the  woman  he  had  left  for  ever.  Jerome,  susceptible  by 
temperament  and  of  lax  morality,  was  not  of  a  nature  long  to  resist 
the  pressure  brought  to  bear  upon  him.  His  resolution  melted  before 
the  combined  promises  and  threats  of  Napoleon,  and  he  proved  as  wax 
in  the  hands  of  his  dictatorial  brother.  He  consented  to  a  divorce, 
and  as  a  reward  he  was  created  a  prince  of  the  empire,  an  admiral 
of  the  French  navy,  and  finally  King  of  Westphalia ;  while,  on  the 
12th  of  August  1807,  within  four  years  of  his  first  marriage,  he 
espoused  the  Princess  Frederica  Catharina,  daughter  of  the  King  of 
Wurtemberg. 

What  must  have  been  the  thoughts  of  the  woman  he  had  abandoned 
as  she  learnt  the  accounts  of  that  regal  wedding,  and  reflected  on  the 
royal  pomp  and  the  brilliant  throne  which  she  alone  had  a  right  to 
share  ?  She  saw  herself  left  a  mere  injured  heroine  of  romance,  an 
object  of  curiosity  and  pity  to  her  fellow-townsfolk,  condemned  to 
a  life  of  obscurity  such  as  her  nature  abhorred,  while  a  rival  enjoyed 
the  splendid  fate  which,  by  civil  and  religious  law,  should  have  been 
hers.  For  hours,  it  is  said,  she  would  stand  before  the  glass  gazing 
at  the  wonderful  loveliness  which  had  won  for  her  a  crown  that  she 
might  never  wear.  The  bright  and  joyous  girl  whose  beauty  had 
captivated  the  heart  of  the  fickle  Jerome  was  changed  to  a  cold  cynical 
woman,  whose  unsatisfied  ambition  was  henceforth  to  entail  upon  her 
a  life  of  intolerable  ennui,  and  whose  sarcasm  was  admired  and  feared. 
'  She  charms  by  her  eyes  and  slays  by  her  tongue,'  was  said  of  her, 
and  Jerome  himself  was  to  experience  the  biting  cynicism  of  the 
wife  whose  love  he  had  changed  to  gall.  For  her  enemy  Napoleon, 
indeed,  Elizabeth  retained  the  respect  which  one  strong  nature  can 
feel  for  another  :  '  The  Emperor,'  she  wrote  in  1849,  '  hurled  me  back 
on  what  I  hated  most  on  earth — my  Baltimore  obscurity.  Even  that 
shock  could  not  destroy  the  admiration  I  felt  for  his  genius  and  glory.' 
But  for  the  man  who  had  won  her  love  and  then  cast  it  aside  she  felt 
only  the  most  profound  contempt,  which,  however,  she  had  the  dignity 
to  cherish  in  silence.  Twice  only  is  she  known  to  have  given  public 
expression  to  it.  When,  later  in  life,  Jerome  offered  her  the  title  of 
Princess  of  Smalkalden,  with  200,000  francs  a  year,  she  declined  the 
offer  and  accepted  instead  a  yearly  pension  of  60,000  francs  from 
Napoleon.  Jerome  expressed  his  indignation  at  such  conduct. 
'  I  prefer,'  she  explained,  '  to  be  sheltered  under  the  wings  of  an 
eagle  than  to  be  suspended  from  the  bill  of  a  goose.'  When  Jerome 
offered  her  a  residence  in  Westphalia,  she  answered  that  '  It  is  indeed 
a  large  kingdom,  but  not  large  enough  to  hold  two  Queens.''  Napoleon, 
it  is  said,  was  so  pleased  with  the  spirit  of  this  answer  that  he  caused 
to  be  conveyed  to  her  his  willingness  to  do  for  her  whatever  did  not 


1908  A    DUPE   OF  DESTINY  846 

interfere  with  his  own  schemes.  '  Tell  him,'  she  said  for  the  second 
time  in  her  life,  '  I  am  ambitious.  I  desire  to  be  a  Duchess.'  But  the 
promise  to  comply  with  this  request,  though  given,  was  never  fulfilled. 
And  the  Baltimore  obscurity  which  she  loathed  ate  into  her  very 
soul.  The  smart  of  her  position  may  be  traced  in  her  correspondence  ; 
and  one  cannot  but  remark  that  it  is  not  the  loss  of  the  lover  of  her 
youth  and  the  husband  of  her  choice  which  she  deplores,  her  plaints 
are  all  directed  against  the  brilliant  fate  which  she  has  missed,  the 
unsatisfied  ambition  of  which  she  is  the  prey. 

All  my  desires  must  be  disappointed  [she  wrote  bitterly  to  Lady  Morgan], 
and  I  am  condemned  to  vegetate  for  ever  in  a  country  where  I  am  not  happy. 
You  have  a  great  deal  of  imagination,  but  it  can  give  you  no  idea  of  the  mode 
of  existence  inflicted  upon  us.  ...  Commerce,  although  it  may  fill  the  purse, 
clogs  the  brain.  I  am  condemned  to  solitude. 

Again  and  again  she  complains  of  the  '  long  weary  unintellectual 
years  inflicted  on  me  in  this  my  dull  native  country  to  which  I  have 
never  owed  advantages,  pleasures  or  happiness.  .  .  .  Society,  con- 
versation, friendship  belong  to  older  countries  and  are  not  yet  culti- 
vated in  any  part  of  the  United  States  which  I  have  visited.  .  .  .  ' 
And  on  another  occasion  she  writes  to  her  father  : 

It  was  impossible  to  bend  my  tastes  and  my  ambition  to  the  obscure  destiny 
of  a  Baltimore  housekeeper,  and  it  was  absurd  to  attempt  it  after  I  had  married 
the  brother  of  an  Emperor.  I  often  tried  to  reason  myself  into  the  courage 
necessary  to  cotnmit  suicide  when  I  contemplated  a  long  life  to  be  passed  in  a 
trading  town  where  everything  was  so  disgusting  to  my  tastes  and  where  every- 
thing so  contradicted  my  wishes.  I  never  could  have  degraded  myself  by 
marriage  with  people  who,  after  I  had  married  a  Prince,  became  my  inferiors. 

She  congratulated  herself  that,  at  least,  those  by  whom  she  was 
surrounded  recognised  the  gulf  which  intervened  socially  and  intel- 
lectually between  herself  and  them,  and  did  not  attempt  to  bridge  it. 

The  people,  I  believe,  thought  with  me  that  neither  nature  nor  circumstances 
fitted  me  for  residing  in  Baltimore.  At  least,  I  judge  so  from  the  profound 
respect  and  homage  they  have  ever  shown  me,  and  I  believe  they  perfectly 
agreed  with  me  that  both  my  son  and  myself  would  be  in  our  proper  sphere  in 
Europe.  I  would  rather  have  died  than  marry  anyone  in  Baltimore. 

Only  in  Europe  did  Elizabeth  find  the  panacea  for  much  which  she 
had  suffered.  Between  the  years  1815  and  1834  she  visited  the  Conti- 
nent, and  as  Bonstetten  said  of  her :  '  Si  elk  riest  pas  Reine  de  West- 
phalie,  elle  est  au  moins  reine  des  caBurs.'  In  her  wanderings  through 
Europe,  the  deserted  wife  of  Jerome  was  a  person  apart,  a  queen  un- 
crowned— incognito,  but  still  a  queen.  Her  position  was  unique ; 
she  upheld  it  by  reason  of  her  beauty  and  her  charm.  Her  tragic 
history  silenced  enmity,  her  tact  and  grace  gained  devotees,  her 
exquisite  dress  and  jewels  roused  universal  admiration,  and  her  repu- 
tation remained  untarnished.  At  every  Court  which  she  graced  by 


846  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTUBY  Nov. 

her  presence  she  was  a  welcome  and  an  honoured  guest ;  though  she 
disclaimed  any  pretensions  to  being  a  femme  d'esprit,  she  was  the 
friend  of  the  celebrated  men  and  women  of  her  century ;  despite  the 
fact  that  her  tongue  could  sting,  her  savoir  faire  counteracted  the 
wounds  made  by  a  too  ready  wit.  She  always  refrained  from  criticising 
the  actions  of  her  fellow-creatures.  '  If  I  saw  a  woman  enter  a  room 
on  her  head,  or  in  the  costume  of  Venus  de  Medici,'  she  said  once, 
'  I  should  never  remark  upon  it,  being  certain  that  she  must  have 
some  excellent  reason  for  conduct  so  eccentric.'  Yet  her  involuntary 
comments  upon  her  contemporaries  are  none  the  less  striking  and 
betray  shrewd  powers  of  observation.  On  being  introduced  to  Miss 
Edgeworth,  for  instance,  there  is  unconscious  humour  in  her 
criticism :  '  She  has  a  great  deal  of  good  sense,  which  is  what  I 
particularly  object  to  in  my  companions,  unless  accompanied  by 
genius.'  Could  a  few  words  better  sum  up  the  impression  produced 
upon  her  by  a  character  so  out  of  harmony  with  her  own  ? 

But  invariably  her  remarks  upon  men  and  things  are  apt,  while 
occasionally  her  sallies  acquired  a  European  celebrity.  A  retort 
which  she  made  to  Mr.  Dundas  was  repeated  with  zest  throughout 
the  Continent.  At  a  large  dinner-party  he  was,  to  his  annoyance, 
deputed  to  take  down  Madame  Bonaparte,  and  having  already  suffered 
from  her  sarcasm,  he  determined  now  to  be  even  with  her.  After  the 
soup  he  turned  to  her  with  a  malicious  smile  and  asked  her  whether 
she  had  read  Captain  Basil  Hall's  book  on  America  ?  Madame 
Bonaparte  replied  in  the  affirmative. 

'  Well,  Madame,'  said  Mr.  Dundas  triumphantly,  '  did  you  notice 
that  Captain  Hall  pronounced  all  Americans  vulgarians  ?  ' 

'  Yes,'  answered  Madame  Bonaparte  quietly,  '  and  I  am  not 
surprised  at  that.  Were  the  Americans  the  descendants  of  the  Indians 
or  of  the  Esquimaux  I  should  be  astonished,  but  being  the  direct 
descendants  of  the  English  it  is  inevitable  they  should  be  vulgarians.' 

Yet  however  brilliant  her  career,  through  it  all  runs  the  intolerable 
sadness  of  the  woman  who  had  missed  her  destiny.  Disappointment 
and  disillusion  taint  all  her  utterances.  Bereft  of  the  love  which 
had  deluded  her  girlish  fancy,  of  the  power  which  had  appealed  to 
her  ambition,  of  the  crown  to  which  she  was  legally  entitled,  the 
dazzling  fate  which  should  have  been  hers  served  eternally  to  mock 
her  imagination. 

I  have  been  in  such  a  state  of  melancholy  [she  wrote  at  one  time]  I  have 
wished  myself  dead  a  thousand  times.  All  my  philosophy,  all  my  courage  are 
insufficient  to  support  the  inexpressible  ennui  of  existence,  and  in  those  moments 
of  wretchedness  I  have  no  human  being  to  whom  I  can  complain.  What  do 
you  think  of  a  person  advising  me  to  turn  Methodist,  the  other  day,  when  I 
expressed  just  the  hundredth  part  of  the  misery  I  felt  ?  I  find  no  one  can 
comprehend  my  feelings. 

I  perceive  [she  said  on  another  occasion]  content  was  no  end  of  our  being.  .  .  . 
I  wonder  that  people  of  genius  marry.  .  .  .  Marrying  is  almost  a  crime  in  my 


1908  A   DUPE   OF  DESTINY  847 

eyes,  because  I  am  persuaded  that  the  highest  degree  of  virtue  is  to  abstain 
from  augmenting  the  number  of  unhappy  beings.  If  people  reflected  thoy 
would  never  marry. 

And  at  the  age  of  forty-seven  she  wrote  : 

I  am  dying  with  ennui,  and  do  not  know  in  what  way  a  person  of  my  age 
can  be  amused.  I  am  tired  of  reading"  and  of  all  ways  of  killing  time.  I  doze 
away  existence.  I  am  too  old  to  coquet,  and  without  this  stimulant  I  die  with 
ennui.  I  am  tired  of  life,  and  tired  of  having  lived. 

And  still  from  afar  she  watched  the  career  of  Jerome  ;  his  regal 

*  O 

entry  into  his  kingdom,  clad  in  green  and  gold,  with  a  royal  bride 
beside  him ;  the  magnificent  extravagance  of  his  parvenu  Court ; 
the  extortions  under  which  his  subjects  groaned  ;  the  infideb'ties 
which  his  wife  ignored  ;  the  idle  luxury  in  which  he  passed  his  days  ; 
the  inordinate  love  of  pomp  and  display  by  which  he  made  himself 
ridiculous.  With  bitter  satisfaction  she  must  have  seen  how  Napoleon 
had  defeated  his  own  aims,  how  for  the  shadowy  gain  of  a  royal 
alliance  he  had  separated  Jerome  from  the  love  which  alone  might 
have  worked  his  salvation,  and  might  have  given  him  that  stability  of 
character  for  lack  of  which  his  days  were  void  of  honour  and  glory. 
And  when  she  knew  Jerome  shorn  of  his  mock  grandeur  and  kingship, 
bankrupt,  dishonoured,  a  fugitive  upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  she 
must  have  dreamed  how,  with  herself  as  his  queen,  her  brain,  her  will, 
her  ambition  might  have  shaped  his  career  far  otherwise.  Yet  it  was 
but  a  sorry  triumph  that  another  life  had  been  wrecked  beside  her  own ; 
and  as  in  silence  Elizabeth  contemplated  the  trend  of  events,  no 
expression  of  vindictiveness  ever  escaped  her  against  the  man  whose 
weakness  had  wrought  her  such  grievous  wrong.  Once,  and  once  only, 
in  a  dramatic  moment  of  her  life  did  she  see  him  again.  In  the  year 
1822  she  was  in  the  Gallery  of  the  Pitti  Palace  in  Florence  when  she 
suddenly  came  face  to  face  with  Jerome  and  the  Princess  of  Wurtem- 
berg.  The  former  started  as  his  glance  fell  on  the  woman  he  had  not 
seen  for  seventeen  years,  and  he  whispered  hurriedly  to  the  Princess 
by  his  side :  *  That  is  my  American  wife.'  In  that  brief  instant  a 
subtle  triumph  might  have  flashed  across  the  consciousness  of  Eliza- 
beth, for  while  Jerome  was  bereft  of  all  for  which  he  had  offered  her 
as  a  sacrifice,  she,  courted  and  feted  throughout  Europe,  had  won 
admiration  and  honour  from  her  fellows  such  as  his  brief  kingship 
had  never  gained.  But  Elizabeth  passed  him  by  without  a  word, 
and  has  not  even  left  on  record  her  feelings  at  that  strange  encounter. 
'I  could  not 'return  to  Florence,'  she  wrote  afterwards  with  quiet 
dignity,  '  because  Prince  Jerome  went  to  live  there,  having  no  desire 
ever  to  meet  him.'  She  had  done  with  romance  as  she  had  done  with 
happiness,  and  had  learnt  to  scoff  at  all  love  which  was  not  mercenary. 
To  her  father  she  wrote  urgent  letters  to  guard  her  son  from  '  the 
absurd  falling  in  love  which  has  been  the  ruin  of  your  family  ' ;  though 
elsewhere  she  confesses  wearily  that,  for  a  woman,  married  life  is  best, 


848  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

since  even  quarrels  with  a  husband  are  preferable  to  the  ennui  of  a 
solitary  existence.'  Yet  when  the  Duchesse  d'Abrantes  published 
twelve  volumes  of  Memoirs  and  therein  related  everything  respecting 
the  Bonaparte  family,  Elizabeth  wrote  with  a  magnanimity  which  does 
her  honour, '  I  have  refused  to  give  her  any  anecdotes,  either  of  Prince 
Jerome  or  of  myself ;  she  has  already  said  enough  of  ill  of  him  and 
more  of  my  beauty  and  talents  than  they  deserve.' 

And  the  man  who  had  wrought  her  a  more  deliberate  ill  than  the 
husband  who  had  abandoned  her,  the  man  whose  strength  had  worked 
upon  his  brother's  weakness,  lived  to  acknowledge  her  worth.  In  St. 
Helena  Napoleon  spoke  with  admiration  of  her  talents  and  regretted 
the  shadow  he  had  cast  upon  her  life.  He  had  been  told  of  her  enthu- 
siasm for  his  genius,  and  one  day,  speaking  of  her,  he  said  sadly  to 
Bertrand  :  '  Those  whom  I  loaded  with  kindness  have  forsaken  me, 
those  whom  I  wronged  have  forgiven  me.'  This  tribute  is  the  more 
striking  in  that  Napoleon  knew  his  appreciation  to  be  shared  by  the 
man  who  was  his  greatest  foe.  The  Duke  of  Wellington  always 
professed  for  Elizabeth  a  profound  admiration  and  friendship  ;  and 
it  is  perhaps  illustrative  of  the  strangeness  of  her  position  that  the 
favourite  pet  of  this  sister-in-law  of  Napoleon  was  a  little  dog  which 
had  been  given  to  her  by  the  Victor  of  Waterloo. 

Yet,  to  the  last,  the  ill-fortune  which  had  been  hers  continued  to 
haunt  her  footsteps.  Her  father  never  understood  or  sympathised 
with  her.  On  his  death,  out  of  his  enormous  wealth,  with  unnecessary 
bitterness  he  bequeathed  to  his  '  disobedient  daughter  Betsy '  only 
a  few  small  houses,  and  although  this  property  ultimately  proved 
far  more  valuable  than  he  had  anticipated,  nothing  could  erase  the 
intentional  hurt  of  such  a  bequest.  Her  son,  too,  disappointed  her, 
in  that  he  failed  to  make  the  brilliant  match  which  she  had  planned 
for  him,  and  marrying  an  American,  sank  contentedly  into  the  life 
of  obscurity  against  which  she  had  always  inveighed.  '  When  I 
first  heard  that  my  son  could  condescend  to  marry  anyone  in  Balti- 
more, I  nearly  went  mad,'  she  wrote.  '  I  repeat,  7  would  have  starved, 
died  rather  than  have  married  in  Baltimore  !  '  Nor  did  she  succeed 
in  her  energetic  attempt  to  secure  recognition  of  that  son's  legitimacy 
upon  the  death  of  King  Jerome,  his  father.  Later,  this  recognition 
was  accorded  by  Napoleon  the  Third,  yet,  upon  the  fall  of  the  Empire, 
when  she  put  forward  the  claim  of  her  grandson  to  be  considered  heir 
to  the  throne  of  France,  it  met  with  little  success,  and  ere  then  the 
fate  which  she  most  dreaded  had  come  upon  her.  '  I  hope  that 
Providence  will  let  me  die  before  my  son,'  she  had  prayed  throughout 
life  ;  but  her  son  predeceased  her,  and  in  her  old  age  she  would  remark 
pathetically  :  '  Once  I  had  everything  but  money,  now  I  have  nothing 
but  money.' 

Moreover,  that  old  age  was  fated  to  be  passed  in  the  surroundings 
which  had  been  most  antagonistic  to  her  throughout  her  life.  When 


1908  A   DUPE   OF  DESTINY  849 

in  1834  she  returned  from  Europe  to  look  after  her  property  in  Balti- 
more, her  dislike  of  everything  American  showed  itself  even  in  her 
choice  of  fashions,  for  she  then  brought  with  her  a  supply  of  finery. 
including  twelve  bonnets,  which  she  asserted  were '  to  last  her  as  long 
as  she  lived.'  Yet  she  remained  always  the  centre  of  observation 
there,  her  doings  and  sayings  were  chronicled  with  respect.  A  famous 
black  velvet  bonnet  with  an  orange-coloured  feather  is  always  identi- 
fied with  her  later  years,  as  was  also  a  red  umbrella  which  it  is  said 
she  carried  with  her,  either  open  or  shut,  every  time  she  issued  out  of 
doors  for  forty  years.  At  the  theatre  or  at  an  evening  party  she 
invariably  wore  a  black  velvet  dress  with  a  low  neck  and  short  sleeves, 
a  magnificent  necklace  of  diamonds  and  other  superb  jewellery. 
She  still  commanded  the  admiration  of  the  people  she  affected  to 
despise,  even  while  she  complained  sarcastically :  '  In  America  there 
are  no  resources  except  marriage,'  and  laid  stress  on  the  fact  that 
'  it  was  impossible  for  me  ever  to  be  contented  in  a  country  where 
there  exists  no  nobility,  and  where  the  society  is  unsuitable  in  every 
respect.  .  .  .  My  happiness  can  never  be  separated  from  rank  and 
Europe.'  Even  in  the  matter  of  religion  the  glamour  of  the  rank  to 
which  she  aspired  influenced  her  inclination.  If  she  adopted  any 
form  of  faith,  she  said,  it  should  be  the  Roman  Catholic,  because  that 
was  '  a  religion  of  kings — a  royal  religion.'  Her  niece  who  was 
present  exclaimed  :  '  Oh,  aunt,  how  can  you  say  such  a  thing  ?  You 
would  not  give  up  Presbyterianism  !  '  To  which  the  descendant 
of  Old  Mortality  replied  :  '  The  only  reason  I  would  not  is  that  I 
should  not  like  to  give  up  the  stool  my  ancestors  sat  upon.' 

And  still  her  beauty  was  remarkable,  and  still  there  was  about  her 
that  strange,  hard  brilliancy  which  attracted  while  it  repelled,  and 
which  exercised  an  extraordinary  fascination  over  all  with  whom 
she  came  into  contact.  The  cold  dignity  with  which  she  met  and 
supported  a  life-long  tragedy,  the  half-bored  contempt  with  which 
she  treated  '  the  slings  and  arrows  of  outrageous  fortune,'  the  un- 
broken calm  which,  outwardly,  was  hers  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave, 
and  to  which  was  attributed  her  long  life  and  prolonged  beauty — 
all  these  are  evidences  of  a  temperament  which,  if  it  failed  to  be  sym- 
pathetic, was  attractive  by  reason  of  its  peculiarity.  For  the  woman 
who  had  witnessed  some  of  the  most  stirring  events  of  history,  who  in 
her  own  person  had  been  victimised  through  the  course  of  those 
events,  preserved  to  the  last  the  freedom  from  emotion  which  had 
characterised  her  early  years. 

Born  while  the  Bourbons  were  on  the  throne,  the  childhood  of 
Elizabeth  Patterson  must  have  been  thrilled  with  tales  of  the  deluge  of 
blood  which  swept  before  it  the  principalities  and  powers  of  France. 
Her  womanhood  saw  the  rise  of  Napoleon  and  bowed  angrily  before  his 
invincible  might.  She  saw  him  boldly  ascend  the  throne  which 
Louis  the  Sixteenth  had  vacated  for  the  scaffold  ;  she  watched  his 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  381  3  ^ 


850  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

star  attain  its  zenith,  wane,  vanish,  and  flash  forth  again  in  a  mockery 
of  its  old  brilliance,  ere  it  was  extinguished  in  eternal  night.  She  saw 
dynasty  succeed  dynasty  and  revolution  succeed  revolution  in  the 
land  of  her  adoption  from  which  she  was  an  exile.  She  died  while 
France  was  trying  the  experiment  of  a  third  republic  and  declared 
in  her  last  hours  that  the  people  of  Europe  were  tired  of  kings  and 
empires.  Yet  throughout  all  the  phases  of  that  eventful  time,  on 
which  she  could  not  look  with  indifference,  since  with  it  her  own  fate 
was  involved,  she  maintained,  outwardly  at  least,  that  strange  unbroken 
apathy  which  bewildered  while  it  fascinated  those  who  witnessed  it. 
For  her  plaints  are  but  the  plaints  of  a  fretful  child  ;  in  view  of  a  life- 
long tragedy  her  greatest  grievance  is  the  ennui  to  which  it  has  left 
her  the  prey  ;  and  the  fiercest  storms  of  life  passed  over  her  without 
more  than  ruffling  the  even  tenour  of  her  existence.  Was  that  strange 
exterior  calm,  after  all,  but  the  mask  by  which  a  proud  spirit  concealed 
an  incurable  hurt  ?  or  was  it  that  the  strongest  emotion  of  which 
Elizabeth  Bonaparte  was  capable  was  but  the  petulance  of  a  spoilt 
child  who  has  been  baulked  of  the  toys  which  it  coveted  ? 

Who  shall  say  ?  There  is  something  strangely  pathetic  in  the 
fact  that,  despite  her  ineradicable  contempt  for  Jerome,  she  still 
believed,  or  wished  others  to  believe,  that,  although  overborne  by  the 
pressure  of  circumstance,  that  fickle  lover  of  her  youth  had  ever  been 
faithful  to  her  at  heart.  '  Jerome  loved  me  to  the  last,'  she  asserted 
after  his  death  ;  '  he  thought  me  the  handsomest  woman  in  the  world, 
and  the  most  charming.  After  his  marriage  with  the  Princess,  he 
gave  to  the  Court  painters  several  miniatures  of  me,  from  which  to 
make  a  portrait,  which  he  kept  hidden  from  the  good  Catharine.' 
Was  she  right  ?  All  we  know  is  that  Jerome  bore  the  name  of  a 
libertine  and  a  betrayer,  and  that,  at  the  age  of  ninety-four,  the 
woman  who  was  his  wife  died  as  she  had  lived,  placid,  blameless, 
picturesque,  pathetic,  a  flawless  figure  in  a  romantic- setting,  solitary 
in  death  as  in  life,  to  the  last  a  dupe  of  destiny.3 

A.  M.  W.  STIRLING. 

3  It  is  perhaps  necessary  to  state  my  reason  for  adhering  to  the  belief  that 
Elizabeth  Bonaparte  was  a  descendant  of  Old  Mortality,  since  of  late  years  this  fact 
has  been  called  in  question.  In  Notes  and  Queries,  4th  series,  vol.  vii.  p.  219,  this 
descent  is  denied  by  Mr.  Baylis  on  the  reputed  authority  of  Jerome  Bonaparte's 
descendant,  Madame  Bonaparte,  who,  in  1870,  is  said  to  have  stated  that  her  family 
name  had  always  been  spelt  Patterson,  and  had  therefore  no  connexion  with  the  Scotch 
Patersons.  In  Notes  and  Queries,  5th  series,  vol.  ii.  p.  97,  it  is  again  contradicted 
owing  to  a  report  having  first  gained  credence  that  Elizabeth  was  the  daughter  of 
Old  Mortality's  son  John.  When,  therefore,  it  was  discovered  that  her  father's  name 
was  William,  this  was  accepted  as  proof  that  the  whole  story  of  her  descent  from  the 
old  Covenanter  was  an  error. 

Andrew  Lang,  in  his  Editor's  Introduction  to  Old  Mortality,  Border  edition,  1901, 
also  accepts  this  conclusion,  and,  stating  that  '  This,  of  course,  quite  settles  the 
(juestion,''  forthwith  pronounces  Elizabeth's  traditional  connexion  with  Old  Mortality 
to  be  an  exploded  myth, 


1908  A    DUPE   OF  DESTINY  851 

Tho  fact  is  that  both  assertions  on  which  rest  the  denial  of  that  descent  are 
erroneous. 

With  regard  to  the  first,  although  it  is  rash  to  draw  deductions  from  the  extremely 
variable  spelling  of  surnames  in  a  former  generation,  and  more  particularly  in  the 
class  to  which  Old  Robert  Paterson  belonged,  proof  is  in  existence  that  the  statement 
attributed  to  Madame  Bonaparte  is  entirely  inaccurate.  Robert  Paterson,  the  brother 
of  Elizabeth,  who  bore  the  Christian  name  of  his  great-grandfather,  constantly  signed 
his  surname  in  the  manner  which  Madame  Bonaparte  denies  to  have  been  the  case. 
In  1811  he  visited  Holkham  with  his  beautiful  wife,  nee  Mary  Caton,  and  in  his 
subsequent  correspondence  with  Coke  of  Norfolk  his  letters  are  all  signed  Paterson. 
So  likewise  are  those  of  his  father,  William,  who  was  a  keen  agriculturist  and  a 
constant  correspondent  of  Coke.  These  letters  are  still  extant,  as  are  others  of  that 
date  from  friends  of  both  father  and  son,  spelling  this  surname  in  the  same  manner. 
With  regard  to  the  second  statement,  based  on  the  mistaken  identity  of  Eliza- 
beth's father,  this  error  appears  to  have  originated  with  Mr.  Train,  who  is  said  to 
have  supplied  Sir  Walter  Scott  with  the  memoranda  for  his  preface  to  Old  Mortality. 
Thus,  while  Mr.  Train  asserts  that  '  John  Paterson  of  Baltimore  had  a  son  Robert 
and  a  daughter  Elizabeth,'  we  find  Sir  Walter  Scott  stating  with  equal  confidence 
that  '  Old  Mortality  had  three  sons,  Robert,  Walter  and  John.  .  .  .  John  went  to 
America  in  the  year  -1~~6,  and  after  various  turns  of  fortune  settled  at  Baltimore.' 
This  should  probably  read,  '  John's  son  William  went  to  Philadelphia  in  ^766  and 
afterwards  settled  in  Baltimore.'  On  the  other  hand,  though  immaterial  to  the 
present  question,  it  is  quite  possible  that  John,  the  father,  may  have  followed 
William,  the  son,  out  to  America  ten  years  after  the  latter  landed  in  Philadelphia ; 
and  this  is  borne  out  by  a  cutting  from  an  old  Inverness  Courier,  of  which  the  date 
has  unfortunately  been  lost,  but  which  is  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  Richard  Caton,  the 
present  Lord  Mayor  of  Liverpool,  a  descendant  of  Richard  Caton,  father  of  Mary,  the 
beautiful  Mrs.  Robert  Pat(t)erson.  This  states  that  the  family  of  Old  Mortality 
'  experienced  a  singular  variety  of  fortune.  One  of  Ms  sons  went  to  America,  via 
Belfast,  and  settled  in  Baltimore,  where  he  made  a  large  fortune.  He  had  a  son 
who  married  an  American  lady  .  .  .  this  son's  daughter  was  married  to  Jerome 
Bonaparte.' 

However,  since  we  know  beyond  all  possibility  of  doubt  that  Elizabeth's  father 
was  a  Presbyterian  emigrant  from  Ireland  to  America  about  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  we  need  not  dwell  on  the  improbability  that  two  men,  both  bear- 
ing a  similar  surname,  and  both  with  a  similar  legend  attached  to  that  name,  should, 
within  a  few  years  of  each  other,  have  both  emigrated  from  Ireland  to  America, 
should  both  have  made  their  fortunes,  and  both  ultimately  have  settled  in  Baltimore, 
yet  that  they  had  no  connexion  with  each  other,  and  indeed  do  not  appear  to  have 
known  of  each  other's  existence  in  that  then  comparatively  small  society  of  successful 
merchants.  But  of  one  thing  we  may  be  certain.  With  the  confusion  dispelled  which 
resulted  from  mistaking  Elizabeth's  grandfather  for  her  father,  all  the  weight  of 
evidence  goes  to  prove  that  she  who  described  Presbyterianism  as  '  the  stool  my 
ancestors  sat  upon '  was  undoubtedly  the  great-granddaughter  of  Old  Mortality,  and 
that  the  tradition  cherished  by  her  family  and  by  the  descendants  of  the  Caton  family 
may  be  accepted  as  reliable. 


3  L  2 


852  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 


THE  SUPPLY  OF  CLERGY  FOR    THE 
CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


THE  reluctance  of  men  to  take  Holy  Orders  in  the  Church  of  England, 
which  is  so  noticeable  a  feature  of  the  present  time,  is  a  matter  of 
more  than  ecclesiastical  interest.  It  affects  not  only  the  existing 
clergy,  but  also  the  laity ;  and  not  the  Church  laity  alone,  but  the 
nation  as  a  whole.  In  my  experience,  when  Dissenters  are  godly 
men  and  women,  they  have,  as  a  rule,  no  hostility  to  the  Church  and 
its  work.  They  know  that  it  is  a  great  force  making  for  righteousness, 
and  they  would  be  sorry  to  see  its  spiritual  power  weakened.  Even 
if  the  Church  be  disestablished  it  will  still  be  the  Church  of  England, 
and  will  continue  to  hold  a  position  which  no  other  religious  body 
can  hope  to  rival.  It  will  do  so,  that  is,  if  its  sons  and  daughters  be 
faithful  to  it,  and  if  an  adequate  supply  of  recruits  be  forthcoming  to 
fill  the  gaps  in  the  ranks  of  its  clergy.  In  the  present  day,  when  there 
are  so  many  incitements  to  mere  materialism,  when  there  are  so  many 
social  evils  to  be  combated — to  say  nothing  of  more  directly  spiritual 
work — it  is  a  national  loss  if  the  Church  is  weakened  -through  a  defi- 
ciency of  candidates  for  her  ministry,  or  if  the  candidates  she  gets  are 
not  always  of  the  right  kind.  That  there  is  this  deficiency,  in  numbers 
at  all  events,  is  notorious.  The  increase  in  the  clergy  is  far  from 
being  proportionate  to  the  increase  of  the  population.  To  prove  the 
want  of  men  it  is  not  necessary  to  consult  statistics,  though  these  are 
available  for  those  who  care  to  refer  to  them.  Anyone  who  sees  the 
Church  newspapers  may  mark  the  same  advertisements  for  curates 
running  week  after  week,  or  re-appearing  at  intervals  for  months 
together.1  Whenever  the  clergy  forgather  in  any  numbers  there  are 
sure  to  be  mutual  inquiries  whether  anyone  knows  of  a  likely  curate, 
and  complaints  that  advertisements  bring  no  answers,  or  at  least 
none  from  the  right  sort  of  man.  The  report  recently  presented  by 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury's  Committee  appointed  to  investigate 

1  At  the  Manchester  Church  Congress  the  Bishop  of  Liverpool  stated  that  there 
were  four  hundred  curacies  vacant  in  England  and  Wales, 


1908  THE   SUPPLY  OF  CLERGY  858 

this  subject  bears  the  same  witness,  as  does  also  the  Encyclical 
Letter  issued  by  the  Archbishops  and  Bishops  assembled  in  the 
late  Lambeth  Conference.  What  is  the  cause  of  this  state  of 
things  ?  That  it  is  a  serious  question  for  the  Church  is  manifest, 
and  I  venture  to  think  that  it  is  hardly  less  serious  for  the  nation  as  a 
whole.  We  are  told  that  the  great  Nonconformist  bodies  have  also 
a  difficulty  in  recruiting  their  ministry,  but  with  that  I  have  no  concern. 
Yet  the  nation  as  a  whole  cannot  afford  to  be  Indifferent  to  the  work 
of  the  religious  bodies  in  her  midst.  Some  of  that  work  can  be  tabu- 
lated, but  a  great  deal  of  it  never  comes  under  public  observation,  and 
cannot  do  so.  Who  can  estimate  the  restraining  power  of  religion 
in  the  teeming  masses  of  our  population  ?  There  are  volcanic  forces 
fermenting  beneath  the  surface  which  are  only  partly  kept  in  check 
by  the  police  and  by  the  physical  restraint  which  can  be  exercised 
by  a  civilised  society.  It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  controlling 
influence  of  religion,  even  where  there  is  little  or  no  open  recognition 
of  it.  Remove  this  influence,  and  the  consequences  are  incalculable. 
If  the  ministry  of  the  Church  be  crippled  for  want  of  men  this  influence 
must  be  weakened,  and  in  time  become  even  more  inadequate  to  cope 
with  evil  than  it  is  now.  Attempts  are  being  made,  and  with  some 
measure  of  success,  to  promote  the  flow  of  candidates  for  Holy  Orders 
by  the  establishment  of  ordination  funds.  This  is  as  it  should  be. 
When  a  young  man  has  the  vocation,  and  has  given  proof  of  his  probable 
fitness  for  the  sacred  office,  it  is  a  thousand  pities  that  he  should  be 
debarred  from  proceeding  merely  by  the  want  of  money.  To  provide 
the  means  in  suitable  cases  is  an  obvious  and  proper  thing  to  be  done 
by  those  who  possess  this  world's  wealth.  But  these  funds  do  not 
meet  the  need.  There  is  still  an  insufficient  supply  of  men,  and  one 
asks,  Why  ? 

There  are  no  doubt  more  causes  than  one,  there  usually  are  for  any 
far-reaching  result.  But  the  present  writer  believes  that  if  one  or  two 
of  the  causes  were  more  generally  recognised,  and  a  more  vigorous  effort 
made  to  remove  them,  very  much  might  be  accomplished.  At  present 
things  are  allowed  to  go  on  pretty  much  as  they  have  been  for  years 
past,  and  the  real  source  of  the  mischief  is  scarcely  touched.  I  have 
nothing  new  to  say,  nothing  that  has  not  been  said  by  one  or  another 
over  and  over  again ;  but  I  wish  to  bring  together  a  few  ideas  which  may 
be  fruitful  in  suggestion.  Many  think  that  the  only  cause  for  the 
deficiency  which  all  deplore  is  the  inadequacy  of  clerical  incomes, 
and  of  course  that  is  a  potent  cause ;  but  it  is  not  the  only  one,  and 
something  is  being  done  to  remedy  it,  though  that  something  is  far 
from  being  adequate.  But  I  do  not  think  that  the  prospect  of  a 
small  income  is  the  chief  cause  which  is  at  work  Small  incomes  are 
expected  by  those  who  enter  upon  this  career,  and  there  are  to-day  in 
England  numbers  of  earnest  young  men  who  are  not  afraid  to  endure 
hardness  for  the  sake  of  Jesus  Christ.  To  the  question  of  income 


854  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Nov. 

1  will  return  later.  At  present  let  me  say  that  the  causes  which  I 
have  in  mind  are  two  in  number,  though  the  latter  is  complex  and 
requires  the  examination  of  several  other  causes  to  account  for  it. 
These  two  causes  are,  first,  the  difficulty  felt  by  many  in  subscribing 
to  the  Formularies  of  the  Church  ;  and,  second,  the  disinclination  of  the 
existing  clergy  to  act  as  recruiting  officers. 

1 .  The  candidate  for  Orders  is  required  only  to  express  his  assent 
to  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  of  Religion,  and  to  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  and  of  the  Ordering  of  Bishops,  Priests,  and  Deacons,  and  to 
assert  his  belief  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  England,  as  therein 
set  forth,  is  agreeable  to  the  Word  of  God.     Such  a  general  declaration 
is  not  veiy  onerous  ;  but  every  candidate  for  Orders  hopes  in  course 
of  time  to  be  promoted  to  a  charge  of  his  own,  and  he  knows  that  he 
must  then  '  read  himself  in  '  by  publicly  reciting  the  whole  of  the 
Articles  in  church  on  the  first  Sunday  after  his  admission.     Now  the 
Articles  are  historically  of  very  great  interest  and  importance,  but 
anyone  who  looks  through  them  will  see  how  remote  the  greater  part 
of  them  are  from  the  questions  which  agitate  men's  minds  to-day. 
And  when  they  do  come  in  contact  with  ideas  of  present  interest 
they  too  often  come  into  conflict  with  them  as  well.     Is  it  not  of 
Professor  Jowett  that  the  story  is  told,  how  on  one  occasion  someone  said 
to  him, '  But  you  cannot  sign  the  Articles  again,'  whereupon  he  replied : 
'  Oh  yes,  I  can,  as  often  as  you  like  !  '    Most  of  us  get  very  much 
into  this  frame  of  mind,  finding  it  easy  enough  to  express  a  general 
assent,  which  is  all  that  is  required.     Where  we  have  a  difficulty 
about  any  particular  Article  a  way  out  can  usually  be  found  by  inter- 
preting it  either  strictly,  according  to  the  letter,  or  generally,  according 
to  the  spirit.     Thus  many  of  the  clergy  are  glad  to  adopt  the  Trac- 
tarian  reading  of   Article  xxii.,  which,  as  any  plain   man  can  see, 
intends  to  stigmatise  belief  in  '  Purgatory,  Pardons,  Worshipping  and 
Adoration,  as  well  of  Images  as  of  Keliques,  and  also  .Invocation  of 
Saints,'  as  a  '  Romish  Doctrine,'  and  as  '  a  fond  thing  vainly  invented, 
and  grounded  upon  no  warranty  of  Scripture.'     But  we  all  hold  that 
there  must  be  some  kind  of  development  after  death,  though  we  may 
not  call  it  Purgatory,  and  there  are  a  few  who  desire  to  re-introduce 
the  Invocation  of  Saints.     Consequently  it  is  convenient  to  notice 
that  the  exact  words  of  the  Article  are, '  The  Romish  Doctrine  concern- 
'ing  Purgatory  ...  is  a  fond  thing,  vainly  invented.  .  .  .  '     Mark, 
'  the  Romish  Doctrine  ' ;  so  that  it  is  the  Romish  doctrine,  and  that 
alone,  which  by  the  actual  words  is  condemned,  and  therefore  I  may 
hold  what  doctrine  I  choose  on  these  subjects  so  long  as  it  is  not  the 
Romish  one.     Article  iv.  is  an  instance  where  the  other  mode  of  escape 
is  available.     According  to  this  Article,  Christ  not  only  rose  from  the 
dead,  but  ascended  into  heaven,  '  with  flesh,  bones,  and  all  things 
appertaining  to  the  perfection  of  Man's  nature.'     It  is  impossible  that 
any  educated  man  can  now  hold  the  crude  idea  of  the  Ascension  which 


1908  THE  SUPPLY  OF  CLERGY 

is  here  implied.  What  we  mean  by  the  Ascension  of  Christ  is  His 
withdrawal  from  the  world  of  sense  into  the  spiritual  sphere,  and  that 
involves  the  spiritualising  of  His  body.  This  is  involved  in  St.  Paul's 
statement  that  '  flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God.'  * 
We  can,  however,  readily  believe  that  human  nature  realises  its  per- 
fection rather  without  flesh  and  bones  than  with  them,  and  so  we  can 
freely  accept  the  general  teaching  of  the  Article,  that  Christ  ascended 
with  *  all  things  appertaining  to  the  perfection  of  Man's  nature/ 
albeit  we  cannot  endorse  the  details. 

In  one  or  other  of  these  ways  even  those  Articles  which  cause 
special  difficulty  can  be  accepted,  while  it  is  easy  to  give  a  general 
assent  to  them  as  a  whole.  But  how  are  they  regarded  by  the  in- 
genuous youth  now  at  the  universities  ?  I  have  no  special  informa- 
tion, but,  unless  all  indications  are  misleading,  the  modern  modes 
of  thought  which  are  permeating  even  the  most  ancient  seats  of 
learning  make  even  a  general  assent  more  and  more  difficult.  The 
younger  generation  is  being  trained  to  keep  an  open  mind  on  all 
other  subjects,  and  it  does  not  see  why  it  should  be  so  closely  tied 
down  in  religion.  That  there  must  be  a  rule  of  faith  if  the  Church 
is  to  hold  together,  and  if  she  is  to  preserve  her  status  as  a  branch 
of  the  Church  Catholic,  is  obvious  and  will  be  admitted  by  all ;  but 
why  not  be  content  with  the  Apostles'  and  Nicene  Creeds  ?  It  will  be 
asked,  '  Then  what  about  the  Athanasian  Creed  ?  Is  that  not  to  be 
retained  ?  '  To  which  question  I  for  one  should  answer,  '  Certainly  not 
as  a  symbol  for  recitation  in  the  congregation.'  Its  doctrinal  state- 
ments may  be  a  valuable  definition  of  Christian  verities,  but  the 
'  Damnatory  Clauses  '  are  entirely  out  of  place  in  public  worship. 
I  fail  to  see  that  the  '  Synodical  Declaration  made  by  Convocation  of 
the  Province  of  Canterbury  in  1873,  and  re-affirmed  in  1879,'  improves 
matters  much.  This  declaration  asserts  that  this  Creed  '  doth  not 
make  any  addition  to  the  faith  as  contained  in  Holy  Scripture  ' ;  and 
further,  '  the  warnings  in  this  Confession  of  faith  are  to  be  understood 
no  otherwise  than  the  like  warnings  in  Holy  Scripture,  for  we  must 
receive  God's  threatenings  even  as  His  promises,  in  such  wise  as  they 
are  generally  set  forth  in  Holy  Writ.'  So  when  we  say  at  the  end  of  the 
Quicunque  VuU,  '  This  is  the  Catholic  Faith  :  which  except  a  man 
believe  faithfully,  he  cannot  be  saved  '  we  claim  (or  Convocation  does) 
that  the  declaration  is  to  be  understood  as  '  the  like  warnings  in  Holy 
Scripture  ' !  Nor  do  I  see  that  we  are  greatly  helped  by  the  new 
translations  put  forth  from  time  to  time.  There  is  one  before  me, 
issued  by  the  S.P.C.K.  in  1905,  '  compiled  by  a  layman,  with  Preface 
by  the  Very  Kev.  J.  L.  Darby,  D.D.,  Dean  of  Chester.'  In  this  version 
the  above  sentence  reads  thus :  '  This  is  the  Catholic  Faith  which  except 
a  man  have  believed  faithfully  and  firmly  he  cannot  be  in  a  state  of 

*  1  Cor.  xv.  50. 


B56  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

salvation.' 3  How  is  this  an  improvement,  except  in  verbal  accuracy  ? 
And  in  any  case,  neither  it  nor  any  other  new  translation  is  adopted  in 
the  Prayer  Book.  The  congregation  is  still  invited  to  declare  that 
unless  a  man  believe  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  as  set  forth  in  this 
document  '  he  cannot  be  saved,'  and  as  a  rule  the  more  thoughtful 
members  of  the  congregation  are  silent. 

Every  attempt  to  abolish  the  public  recitation  of  the  Quicunque 
Vult  meets  with  determined  opposition,  but  in  my  humble  judgment 
every  advocate  of  its  retention  ought  to  ask  himself  the  plain  question, 
Is  the  above  quoted  statement  true,  or  not  ?  If  we  really  hold  that 
everyone  who  does  not  so  believe  '  cannot  be  saved,'  the  retention  of 
the  Creed  is  essential ;  it  would  be  cruel  to  withdraw  the  warning . 
When,  however,  we  think  of  the  good  and  holy  men  who  have  been 
unable  to  accept  its  definitions  we  dare  not  assert  that  the  statement 
is  true.  The  Declaration  of  Convocation  adds  after  what  was  quoted 
above,  '  Moreover  the  Church  does  not  herein  pronounce  judgment 
on  any  particular  person  or  persons,  God  alone  being  the  Judge  of  all.' 
That  this  is  a  very  proper  explanation  of  the  Church's  attitude  may  be 
at  once  allowed  ;  but  what  it  amounts  to  is  this,  that  the  Creed  has 
just  pronounced  that  unless  you  believe  these  definitions  you  '  cannot 
be  saved,'  and  now  Convocation  explains  that  the  pronouncement 
has  no  personal  application  :  '  My  dear  sir,  or  madam,  who  do  not 
thus  think  of  the  Trinity,  we  do  not  presume  to  say  that  you  cannot  be 
saved.' 

Now  no  man  can  be  ordained  deacon  till  he  is  at  least  twenty-three 
years  of  age,  and  by  that  time  many  will  have  been  repelled  from 
the  ministry.  I  do  not  mean  that  they  will  have  been  repelled  by  the 
Athanasian  Creed  alone,  or  even  by  that  Creed  plus  the  Articles,  but 
that  these  act  as  checks  to  enthusiasm,  which  is  likely  to  be  checked 
still  more  by  other  influences  which  I  am  now  about  to  discuss. 

II.  I  have  said  that  there  is  a  disinclination  on  the  part  of  the 
existing  clergy  to  act  as  recruiting  officers  for  the  ministry,  and  I  believe 
that  statement  to  be  absolutely  true.  This  disinclination  is  not 
universal.  There  are  still  many  clergy  who  do  their  best  to  induce 
suitable  boys  and  youths  to  dedicate  themselves  to  the  Church's 
service,  but  more  frequently  I  am  afraid  they  discourage  rather  than 
encourage  the  aspirant.  Certainly  it  is  not  nearly  so  customary  as  it 
used  to  be  for  the  priest's  son  to  follow  in  his  father's  steps.  This  fact 
may  be  partly  accounted  for  by  the  many  other  openings  which  are 
now  available,  and  partly  by  the  straitened  circumstances  which 
prevent  the  fathers  from  paying  for  the  necessary  education.  But 
another  and  most  important  factor  is  the  reluctance  of  fathers  to  ask 
their  sons  to  embark  on  a  career  in  which  themselves  or  their  friends 

3  In  1906  the  York  Convocation  adopted  a  re-translation  in  which  this  sentence  is 
thus  rendered  :  '  This  is  the  Catholic  Faith  :  which  except  each  man  shall  have 
believed  faithfully  and  firmly  he  cannot  be  saved.' 


1908  THE   SUPPLY   OF  CLERGY  867 

have  been  so  harshly  treated.     Nor  are  they  more  inclined  to  encourage 
other  people's  sons  to  do  so. 

(1)  Everyone  who  embarks  on  a  career,  whatever  it  may  be, 
hopes  in  the  course  of  some  reasonable  time  to  achieve  an  independent 
position,  and  fathers  do  not  willingly  enter  their  sons  in  a  profession 
where  such  a  prospect  is  remote.  As  things  are  at  present  there  must 
be  many  men  in  the  ministry  of  the  Church  of  England  who  never 
attain  independence.  Loud  as  are  the  complaints  of  an  insuffi- 
cient supply  of  men,  the  Church  is  multiplying  assistant  clergy  far 
more  rapidly  than  she  can  provide  them  with  independent  spheres  of 
labour.  In  large  populous  parishes,  instead  of  subdividing  into 
smaller  parishes,  she  puts  one  man  at  the  head,  with  three,  four,  or 
even  more  assistant  clergy  under  him.  Possibly  the  parishes  are 
better  worked  thus,  and  the  clergy  exist  for  the  parishes,  not  the 
parishes  for  the  clergy.  Yet  it  is  worth  considering  what  is  to  become 
of  these  men  after  a  while.  Nothing  can  be  happier,  in  the  great 
majority  of  cases,  than  the  position  of  an  assistant  curate  for  the  first 
few  years  of  his  ministry.  When  he  has  a  capable  parish  priest  over 
him,  from  whom  he  may  learn  the  practical  duties  of  his  work,  and 
congenial  colleagues  whose  labours  he  shares,  his  position  is  almost 
ideal — for  a  time.  But  afterwards  ?  Generally  speaking  an  assistant 
curate  is  required  to  be  always  young,  to  be  unmarried,  and  to  be 
always  ready  at  his  vicar's  every  beck  and  call.  This  would  be  all 
very  well  if  he  could  look  forward  to  having  a  parish  of  his  own  in  a 
few  years.  He  would  have  learnt  to  rule  by  obeying.  But  what  is 
all  very  well  at  twenty-five  or  thirty  is  less  so  at  thirty-five  or  forty, 
and  still  less  at  forty-five  or  fifty.  By  this  time  it  is  increasingly  hard 
to  obtain  employment,  for  in  nineteen  cases  out  of  twenty  incumbents 
say,  *  I  must  have  a  young  man,'  and  in  most  cases  they  are  right. 
If  the  chief  duties  of  the  assistant  curates  are  (as  in  many  cases  they 
are)  to  sing  a  musical  service,  and  to  run  clubs,  bands  of  hope,  lads' 
brigades,  and  numerous  other  organisations,  unquestionably  young 
men  are  wanted.  The  older  men  are  not  wanted ;  and  by  this  time 
patrons  begin  to  pass  them  by.  They  think,  very  naturally,  that  if 
there  were  anything  in  the  man  he  would  have  been  promoted  before. 
And  even  if  the  man  is  promoted  at  last  there  is  always  the  chance 
that  he  will  be  a  less  efficient  incumbent  than  he  would  have  been  if  the 
promotion  had  come  earlier.  The  iron  has  entered  into  his  soul ; 
too  long  a  period  of  subservience  has  robbed  him  of  some  of  his  initia- 
tive. There  are  hundreds  of  men  in  subordinate  positions  to-day 
simply  because  they  have  not  private  incomes,  and  so  have  been 
unable  to  accept  offers  which  have  been  made  to  them ;  or  they  have  not 
received  the  offers  because  it  was  well  known  that  they  could  not 
afford  to  accept  them.  And  every  one  of  these  is  a  standing  advertise- 
ment against  poor  men  being  so  rash  as  to  take  Holy  Orders.  The 
Church  apparently  does  not  care  that  many  of  her  servants  are  in  this 


858  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

state.  Does  she  realise  that  in  all  probability  every  one  of  them 
costs  her  several  fresh  young  lives  which^might  j  have  been  devoted 
to  her  ministry  were  it  not  for  the  '  object-lesson  '  before  their  eyes  ? 
'  Look  at  So-and-so,'  urge  their  friends — '  a  clever  man,  a  gentleman, 
but  still  a  curate  after  all  these  years.  Serve  God  in  some  other 
sphere.'  '  And  they  do.  It  must  not  be  understood  from  this  that 
the  majority  of  assistant  curates  are  in  the  condition  just  described. 
Of  course  the  majority  do,  after  more  or  less  waiting,  get  presented  to 
benefices,  and  that  especially  if  they  have  served  for  a  time  in 
certain  show  parishes  (as  I  take  leave  to  call  them)  where  young  men 
who  are  comfortably  off  are  content  to  work  for  a  few  years  with  little 
or  no  stipend,  for  the  sake  of  the  experience  and  of  the  name.  Against 
this  I  have  not  a  word  to  say.  But  both  in  these  parishes  and  in 
others  which  are  not  so  well  known,  there  is  too  often  one  drawback  to 
the  ideal  condition  of  which  I  wrote  a  little  way  back,  and  that  is  that 
it  is  impossible  to  get  time  for  reading.  The  neglect  of  study  by  the 
clergy — who  are  too  much  engrossed  in  other,  and  apparently  more 
pressing  duties — is  bound  to  tell  on  their  efficiency  in  the  long  run. 
The  following  remark  which  I  met  with  lately  in  a  paper  by  Mrs. 
Creighton  came  upon  me  (who  am  a  very  '  ordinary  '  man)  with 
somewhat  of  a  shock,  as  I  venture  to  think  it  will  on  many  of  my 
brethren.  Writing  of  the  lack  of  interest  in  Church  work  often 
shown  by  '  the  clever  well-educated  girl,'  Mrs.  Creighton  says :  '  The 
women  whom  she  sees  concerned  in  [Church  matters]  are  not  those 
who  strike  her  as  being  the  most  interesting,  neither  do  the  sermons 
she  generally  hears  inspire  her  with  much  respect  for  the  intellect  of 
the  ordinary  clergy.  They  do  not  seem  to  her  to  be  in  touch  with  the 
real  life  about  which  she  cares.' 4  But  I  am  straying  from  my  subject, 
except  indeed  that  this  remark  touches  the  question  whether  the 
Church  is  getting  the  right  material  even  if  in  insufficient  quantity. 
It  makes  me  fear,  too,  that  a  friend  of  mine  may  have  spoken  more 
truly  than  he  intended  when  by  a  slip  of  the  tongue  he  asked  me, 
'  Will  you  come  and  help  my  people  to  do  penance  by  preaching  to 
them  one  Wednesday  evening  in  Lent  ?  '  Alas,  it  is  likely  that  I 
have  often  made  people  to  do  penance,  and  not  only  in  Lent ! 

(2)  I  have  already  referred  to  the  inadequacy  of  clerical  stipends  iu 
many  cases,  and  I  now  return  to  the  point,  though  it  is  one  about  which 
I  do  not  wish  to  say  a  great  deal.  Real  attempts  are  being  made  to 
augment  the  smaller  incomes,  but  a  much  more  energetic  and  general 
effort  must  be  made  if  this  reproach  is  to  be  removed.  As  things  are, 
patrons  are  often  unable  to  appoint  the  man  whom  they  would  wish 
because  they  are  obliged  to  consider  his  private  means.  In  my 
judgment,  no  private  patron  ought  to  retain  in  his  own  hands  the 
presentation  to  a  benefice  without  sufficient  income.  Public  patrons, 
such  as  bishops  or  deans  and  chapters,  cannot  help  themselves,  but 
4  Pan-Anglican  Papers,  No.  7,  p.  7. 


1908  THE   SUPPLY  OF  CLERGY  859 

private  patrons  ought  either  to  augment  the  income  or  to  abandon 
the  right  of  presentation.  May  I  mention  two  cases  within  my  own 
experience  ?  In  the  first  a  patron  was  known  to  be  looking  for  a  man 
to  fill  a  vacancy,  and  a  common  acquaintance  of  us  both  wished  to  bring 
my  name  before  him.  After  making  preliminary  inquiries,  he  wrote  to 

me : '  The  patron  thinks  that  any  man  appointed  to ought  to  have 

at  least  £200  a  year  of  his  own.'  In  the  second  case  I  actually  received 
a  letter  offering  me  the  living  if  I  had  sufficient  private  means  to  suit 
the  views  of  the  patron.  It  is  plain  enough  that  in  both  these  cases  the 
patrons  were  looking  for  a  man  to  spend  in  the  parishes  money  which 
ought  to  have  come  out  of  their  own  pockets.  Yet  what  were  they  to 
do  ?  The  '  livings '  were  not  livings  at  all,  but  starvings,  and  the  patrons 
were  right  in  thinking  that  no  clergyman  ought  to  attempt  to  live  in 
those  parishes  on  his  official  income  alone.  What  I  maintain  is  that  if 
they  could  not  themselves  provide  a  '  living  wage,'  they  should  give 
up  the  right  of  presentation.  At  present  the  depth  of  a  man's  purse 
is  over  and  over  again  the  principal  test  of  his  fitness  to  undertake  the 
cure  of  souls  in  a  given  locality.  For  an  incumbent  to  be  well  off  is 
undoubtedly  an  enormous  advantage  to  himself  in  almost  any  parish, 
whether  well  or  ill  endowed,  but  the  advantage  for  the  parish  is 
questionable ;  and  if  the  rich  man's  successor  be  poor  he  will  find 
many  and  many  a  reason  to  lament  his  predecessor's  wealth. 

(3)  In  treating  of  inadequate  incomes  I  have  been  as  brief  as 
possible,  both  because  a  good  deal  of  attention  is  already  being  given 
to  the  question,  and  also  because  I  want  to  discourse  rather  more 
at  large  on  another  branch  of  the  same  subject — viz.  the  outgoings 
from  the  parson's  stipend.  That  a  clerical  income  is  seldom  what  it  is 
represented  as  being  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge,  but  outside 
the  clergy  themselves  few  people  realise  how  large  are  the  deductions 
which  must  be  made.  A  friend  of  mine  was  offered  a  parish  which 
nominally  was  worth  500Z.  a  year,  with  a  house.  He  went  to  see  it, 
and  afterwards  told  me  that,  apart  from  every  other  consideration,  he 
simply  could  not  afford  to  take  it,  although  he  had  a  comfortable 
private  income.  To  begin  with,  there  was  a  deduction  (for  what 
purpose  I  forget)  of  100J.  a  year,  so  that  what  would  really  come  into 
his  hands  would  be  only  400/.  Then  he  found  that  there  were  two 
churches  to  be  served,  and  he  would  be  obliged  to  keep  a  curate,  paying 
him  entirely  out  of  his  own  pocket.  This  reduced  the  income  to  250/. 
Kates  and  taxes  came  to  about  80Z.  And  finally  the  house  and 
grounds  were  on  such  a  scale  that  he,  with  his  family,  could  not  keep 
them  up  and  live  comfortably  on  the  balance  supplemented  by  his  own 
resources.  It  will  be  said  that  this  is  an  extreme  case.  Let  us  hope 
it  is,  but  the  same  sort  of  thing  is  continually  happening,  though 
perhaps  on  a  smaller  scale.  The  net  income  is  nearly  always  much 
less  than  the  gross,  but  this  is  to  be  expected  and  can  be  allowed  for. 
The  annoying  thing  is  that  from  the  so-called  net  income  further 


860  THE  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Nov. 

deductions  must  be  made,  especially  on  first  entering  upon  a  living,  or 
on  quitting  it.  Again,  few  but  the  clergy  themselves  realise  the  burden 
of  dilapidations,  fees,  &c.  The  simplest  way  of  bringing  home  the 
facts  to  the  minds  of  my  readers  will  be  to  recur  once  more  to  my  own 
experience.  In  doing  so  I  wish  to  make  it  plain  that  I  am  not  com- 
plaining of  my  own  lot,  which  is  much  better  than  that  of  many  others. 
Looking  at  the  existing  state  of  affairs  as  disinterestedly  as  I  can  (and 
I  do  not  profess  or  claim  to  be  altogether  disinterested),  I  am  bound 
to  confess  that  the  income  of  the  parish  which  I  have  the  honour  of 
serving  (though  small)  is  not  out  of  proportion  to  the  work  to  be  done, 
and  the  house  is  not  out  of  proportion  to  the  income.  Many  benefices 
with  larger  populations  have  smaller  incomes,  and  are  burdened  with 
parsonages  more  suitable  for  the  squire  of  the  parish  than  for  the 
parish  priest.  But,  be  the  size  of  the  house  what  it  may,  there  are 
'  dilapidations  '  to  be  taken  into  account.  One  cannot  resign  one's 
living  without  meeting  the  demands  of  the  Diocesan  Surveyor,  and 
even  when  the  voidance  occurs  through  death  the  deceased's  estate 
(if  any)  is  charged  with  the  cost  of  repairs.  My  predecessor  here 
served  the  parish  for  twenty-five  years,  during  which  time  he  accom- 
plished a  great  deal  of  good  work.  During  that  time  part  of  his  re- 
muneration from  the  Church  was  a  house  rent  free.  But  when  he  died 
his  estate  was  mulcted  of  over  200Z.  to  pay  for  repairs  to  the  house 
and  outbuildings.  Many  cases  are  worse.  Where  there  are  farm  build- 
ings, walls,  or  other  erections  on  the  glebe,  all  must  be  put  into  a  state 
of  thorough  repair  at  whatever  cost.  It  is  perfectly  legal,  but  is  it 
fair  ?  Think  how  it  acts  to  the  detriment  of  the  Church's  work.  A 
man  grows  old  in  a  parish,  or  is  enfeebled  by  bad  health,  and  his  con- 
science tells  him  that  he  ought  to  resign.  But  he  cannot.  Not  only 
is  there  the  loss  of  income  to  be  faced — often  that  would  be  endurable — 
but  there  is  an  immediate  outlay  of  perhaps  200/.  or  300Z.  or  more. 
Unable  to  find  the  money,  the  man  hangs  on  till  his  death,  when  the 
charge,  now  all  the  heavier,  is  met  out  of  his  life  assurance  (if  any),  or 
devolves  upon  his  successor.  His  successor  is  bound  to  find  the 
money,  and  remit  it  to  Queen  Anne's  Bounty  within  six  months.  If  he 
fails  to  recover  it  from  his  predecessor's  estate,  or  to  find  it  himself,  or 
to  raise  it  by  applications  all  round,  the  sum  may.  be  lent  by  Queen 
Anne's  Bounty,  the  repayment  becoming  a*n  annual  charge  on  the 
benefice.  It  is  true  that  once  the  repairs  have  been  executed  the 
Diocesan  Surveyor's  certificate  holds  good  for  five  years,  except  in 
case  of  culpable  neglect,  and  the  certificate  may  be  renewed  every 
five  years.  All  this,  however,  costs  money,  which  narrow  means 
cannot  afford.  It  is  hard  enough  to  do  the  repairs  which  appear  to 
be  necessary  ;  it  is  harder  to  have  to  pay  a  heavy  fee  to  an  official, 
courteous  and  competent  though  he  may  be,  and  usually  is. 

This  brings  me  to  the  question  of  fees,  and  again  a  concrete  instance 
will  be  more  instructive  than  any  amount  of  general  declamation. 


1908  THE   SUPPLY  OF  CLERGY  8«l 

Well,  then,  my  own  fees  on  entering  upon  my  small  parish  were  as 
follows  : — 

'.'      x.     tl. 

Institution '               .         .  1)  14     <> 

[nduotion •  •    •;        .  0  10    0 

Bishop's  Order  (Dilapidations)      .        .        .        .  .<  1  11     <> 

Diocesan  Surveyor 12    9    2 

Registering  Certificate  of  Completion  of  Work     .  050 


Total         .     £24  10     2 

The  Diocesan  Surveyor's  charges  were,  of  course,  in  respect  of 
dilapidations,  the  repair  of  which,  as  has  already  been  stated,  was 
paid  for  out  of  my  predecessor's  estate.  The  items  of  this  bill  are  of 
interest.  I  omit  dates. 

£  s.  d. 
For  Survey  and  Report  on  Vicarage  House,  Offices, 

Gardens,  Glebe  and  Buildings 550 

For  Survey  and  Report  on  Glebe  Lands  more  than  three 

miles  from  the  Vicarage 110 

For  Additional  Copies  of  Report,  134  folios  at  4d.  .  248 

For  an  Inspection  and  Certificate  for  100Z.  under  Section  44  1116 
Paid  Fee  to  Registrar  for  Extract  from  Tithe  Apportion- 

ment  and  Map 050 

For  Certificate  under  Section  44  and  Certificate  in 

Triplicate  under  Section  40,  for  five  years      .        .         .        220 

£12    9     2 

The  only  item  which  requires  a  comment  is,  I  think,  that  '  For  an 
inspection  and  certificate  for  100Z.  under  section  44.'  This  means 
that  100Z.  of  the  dilapidation  money  (lodged  with  Queen  Anne's 
Bounty)  was  required  to  pay  the  contractor  at  a  certain  stage,  accord- 
ing to  agreement,  and  in  order  to  procure  this  sum  a  certificate  had 
to  be  furnished  at  the  cost  of  II.  Us.  Qd. 

The  fees  enumerated  above  are  by  no  means  unusual ;  in  fact, 
they  may  often  be  exceeded,  especially  when  first-fruits  and  tenths 
are  due.  I  make  no  complaint  against  the  officials  entitled  to  the 
fees,  from  whom  I  have  always  received  courteous  treatment ;  but  I 
ask,  Is  it  fair  that  an  incumbent,  entering  upon  the  work  of  a  parish, 
with  all  his  personal  expenses  of  removal  and  furnishing,  should  havo 
such  burdens  laid  upon  him  ?  What  is  a  really  iniquitous  fee  is  now 
to  be  mentioned.  By  the  Incumbents  Resignation  Acts  it  is  possible, 
in  certain  circumstances,  for  a  broken-down  parish  priest  to  retire 
with  a  proportion  not  exceeding  one-third  of  the  income  of  his  benefice. 
For  this  the  fees  are  5s.,  payable  to  the  Registrar,  and  10Z.  to  the 
bishop's  secretary,  '  payable  in  moieties  by  the  outgoing  and  incoming 
incumbents.'  Mark  the  irony  of  this  arrangement.  The  outgoing 
man,  who  is  losing  the  greater  part  of  his  professional  income,  pays 
5Z.  2s.  6rf.  for  the  share  which  is  left,  and  the  incoming  man,  whose 
professional  emoluments  are  thus  reduced,  pays  the  same  amount. 


862  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

The  burden  of  the  fees  which  are  levied  on  the  clergy  has  another 
evil  effect  besides  those  which  have  been  already  noted.  It  helps  to 
keep  men  in  parishes  when  a  change  would  be  better  both  for  the  people 
and  for  themselves.  One  of  the  evils  from  which  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land is  suffering  is  the  stagnation  of  life  in  parishes  which  have  for  too 
long  a  period  been  served  by  one  man.  A  hard  and  fast  rule  that 
after  so  many  years  the  incumbent  must  move  on  would  probably 
not  be  advisable,  and  would  certainly  not  be  practicable  ;  but  there 
ought  to  be  greater  facilities  for  removal  in  cases  where  it  is  felt  to  be 
desirable.  That  man  is  to  be  pitied  who,  while  still  capable  of  good 
work,  realises  that  he  has  done  all  that  he  can  in  his  present  sphere  of 
labour,  but  is  prevented  from  seeking  another  by  the  knowledge  that 
the  change  would  mean  an  outlay  for  the  repairs  of  dilapidations  and 
for  fees  which  he  cannot  afford.  There  must  be  many  a  good  man 
eating  his  heart  out  to-day  because  the  Church  keeps  him  where  his 
usefulness  is  past,  while  elsewhere  he  could  do  good  work  for  her  and 
her  Head. 

Some  time  ago,  in  a  sermon  which  was  reported,  and  which  I  re- 
member reading  (it  was  preached,  I  think,  at  Cuddesdon),  the  Bishop 
of  London  adverted  to  the  want  of  clergy,  and  asked  how  it  was  that 
in  almost  every  watering-place  or  favourite  residential  town  there  are 
so  many  retired  clergy.  Has  their  love  grown  cold  ?  he  inquired,  or 
what  is  the  reason  that  they  (those  of  them  who  are  not  disabled )  are 
not  engaged  in  active  work  ?  I  am  not  myself  in  the  secret,  but  I  can 
make  a  guess  at  the  answer,  and  I  do  not  think  that  I  shall  be  far 
wrong.  Most  of  them  must  be  men  who  have  found  it  impossible  to 
meet  all  the  financial  and  other  demands  which  were  made  on  them 
as  incumbents.  Their  private  means  may  be  just  sufficient  to  live  on, 
if  supplemented  by  what  they  get  for  taking  '  occasional  duty,'  but 
they  are  not  sufficient  to  discharge  all  their  obligations  as  parish 
priests,  and  to  pay  a  large  share  of  the  cost  of  working  the  parishes, 
which  apparently  is  what  the  laity  of  the  Church  expect  of  their  clergy. 

In  circumstances  such  as  I  have  briefly  sketched,  is  it  any  wonder 
that  men  grow  disheartened  ?  And  is  it  any  wonder  that  they  are 
not  enthusiastic  in  seeking  candidates  for  the  ministry  ?  The  griev- 
ance would  not  press  so  heavily  if  ours  were  a  missionary  Church,  striv- 
ing to  set  up  the  banner  of  the  Cross  where  it  had  never  yet  been 
firmly  planted.  In  that  case  men  would  die  at  their  posts  as  readily  and 
as  uncomplainingly  as  a  soldier  or  sailor  at  his.  Nay,  how  often  do 
they  complain  openly,  as  it  is  ?  But  this  is  a  land  of  professedly 
settled  religion  ;  there  is  seldom  call  for  martyrdom,  though  God  knows 
that  in  the  slums  of  great  cities  the  life  is  not  far  removed  from  it ; 
and  the  Church  which  the  clergy  serve  is  '  the  richest  Church  in  the 
world.'  That  is  what  galls.  The  aggregate  wealth  owned  by  in- 
dividuals who  profess  and  call  themselves  Churchmen  must  be  enor- 
mous, and  yet  they  allow  these  financial  burdens  to  oppress  the 


1908  THE    SUPPLY   OF  CLERGY  868 

clergy.  This  is,  I  am  convinced,  the  real  cause  that  so  many  men 
have  shaken  themselves  free  from  parochial  responsibility,  and  that 
the  bulk  of  the  clergy,  whether  actively  engaged  or  no,  show  no  con- 
suming zeal  in  drawing  the  younger  generation  to  the  Church's  service. 
A  young  man  who  is  already  hesitating  about  the  obligation  of  sub- 
scription is  likely  to  be  altogether  disheartened  by  the  knowledge  that 
if  ordained  he  may  very  possibly  remain  a  curate  all  his  life,  or  if 
presented  to  a  '  living  '  he  may  find  the  outgoings  so  large  as  to  make 
a  very  serious  diminution  of  the  already  meagre  stipend  which  he  is 
supposed  to  receive. 

If  there  be  any  truth  in  this  argument  the  Church  ought  to  set 
herself  seriously  to  remove  the  grievances  of  the  men  who  are  doing 
her  work.  If  she  allows  them  to  continue  she  is  not  only  discouraging 
many  of  her  present  clergy,  thus  preventing  them  from  giving  her 
their  best  work,  but  she  is  drying  up  the  future  supply  of  clergy  at  its 
source.  That  the  Church's  loss  would  also  be  the  nation's  is  my 
conviction,  as  I  have  already  said,  and  I  do  not  think  it  will  be  con- 
tested. The  nation  cannot  afford  any  preventable  diminution  of  the 
forces  which  make  for  righteousness,  and  which  help  men  and  women 
of  all  classes  to  cultivate  the  spiritual  side  of  life.  It  is  my  belief  that 
if  these  forces  are  to  be  maintained  in  the  Church  of  England  there 
must  be  a  relaxation  of  subscription,  and  there  must  be  a  removal 
of  the  financial  burdens  of  which  I  have  written.  There  can  be  no 
such  effective  recruiting-officers  for  the  ministry  as  the  clergy  them- 
selves, but  if  they  are  to  be  enthusiastic  in  the  cause  they  must  be 
more  fairly  treated.  It  will  be  said,  perhaps,  that  the  leaders  of  the 
Church  have  other  and  more  pressing  problems  engaging  their  atten- 
tion just  now,  and  that  this  question  can  wait.  No  doubt  other 
problems  may  seem  more  immediately  urgent,  but  I  venture  to  think 
that  in  the  long  run  no  other  will  prove  so  important.  As  one  of  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  clergy,  I  do  not  presume  to  formulate  a  policy, 
but  I  know  '  where  the  shoe  pinches,'  and  I  have  dared  to  draw  atten- 
tion to  the  facts.  The  matter  ought  to  be  taken  in  hand  at  once, 
for  the  force:?  antagonistic,  not  only  to  the  Church  of  England,  but  to 
all  religion,  are  growing  in  strength,  and  when  the  enemy  is  thunder- 
ing at  the  gates  it  will  be  too  late  to  begin  to  ask  why  the  ministry  is 
undermanned. 

Ante  equidem  summa  de  re  statuisse,  Latini, 
Et  vellem,  et  fuerat  melius  :  non  tempore  tali 
Cogere  concilium,  cum  muros  obsidet  hostis. 

G.  E.  FFBENCH. 


864  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 


THE   CAVALRY  OF   THE    TERRITORIAL 

ARMY 


IN  order  to  be  able  usefully  to  consider  the  strength  and  composition 
of  the  cavalry  branch  of  Mr.  Haldane's  new  Territorial  Army  it  is 
necessary,  as  a  preliminary,  to  endeavour  to  apprehend  the  position 
in  which  that  Minister  found  himself  placed  when  he  undertook  his 
task,  for  it  must  be  obvious  that  the  social,  political,  and  economical 
boundaries  which,  in  various  degrees,  hedge  in  the  aspirations  of  every 
reformer,  are  sure  to  exercise  a  preponderating  influence  over  the 
decisions  arrived  at.  In  the  case  of  Mr.  Haldane  it  may  be  assumed 
that  the  Cabinet  of  which  he  is  a  member  was  unanimous  in  its  deter- 
mination to  reduce  the  expenditure  on  the  Army  very  considerably 
below  what  it  had  been  during  the  last  few  years  of  the  preceding 
Administration.  The  Cabinet,  moreover,  was  agreed  on  the  important 
point  that,  in  spite  of  the  enormous  increase  in  the  annual  Army 
Estimates,  the  Army  itself  was  actually  in  a  more  chaotic  condition 
and  less  prepared  for  active  service  than  it  was  before  the  outbreak 
of  the  last  South  African  war.  Mr.  Haldane's  position  was  therefore 
no  easy  one.  Like  Mr.  Brodrick  and  Mr.  Arnold-Forster,  he  had  a 
mandate  from  his  Government  and  from  the  country  to  reorganise 
the  Army,  but,  unlike  his  two  predecessors,  so  far  from  having  practi- 
cally absolute  control  of  the  purse-strings,  his  acceptance  of  his  office 
was  entirely  dependent  upon  his  adhesion  to  the  economical  policy  of 
his  colleagues. 

Organisers,  and  particularly  British  political  organisers,  have 
naturally  fallen  into  one  of  two  grooves.  Either  they  have  come  to 
their  post  with  the  preconceived  notion  that  they  are  perfectly  aware 
of  what  is  necessary  to  be  done,  and  that  all  that  remains  to  do  is  to 
issue  the  instructions  which  have  perhaps  already  been  written  out, 
or,  accepting  the  suggestion  of  incomplete  knowledge  of  their  new 
duties,  they  have  set  themselves  to  the  business  of  assimilating 
the  ideas  of  their  permanent  or  expert  officials.  As  he  has  himself 
frequently  told  us,  it  was  into  the  latter  of  the  two  grooves  that 
Mr.  Haldane,  upon  accepting  office,  decided  to  place  himself.  Unlike 
some  other  War  Ministers,  however,  Mr.  Haldane  has  not,  after  hearing 
the  opinions  of  his  officials,  concluded  to  follow  their  advice  blindly, 


1908     CAVALRY  OF   THE    TERRITORIAL   ARMY     865 

but  rather  to  blend  the  result  of  their  knowledge  with  the  outcome  of 
his  own  deliberations  and  to  endeavour  to  bring  the  whole  into  line 
with  the  political  situation. 

To  achieve  a  result  which  has  been  received  with  so  much  praise 
and  so  little  constructive  criticism  as  has  been  the  Territorial  Army 
Bill  is  admittedly  no  easy  matter,  and  Mr.  Haldane's  modest  statement 
that  he  spent  the  first  year  of  his  official  life  as  War  Secretary  in 
sitting  in  a  comfortable  chair,  smoking  vast  quantities  of  large  cigars, 
and  merely  listening  to  his  many  eager  advisers,  can  by  no  means  do 
justice  to  his  own  capacity  in  successfully  sifting,  sorting,  and  storing 
away  for  future  reference  the  enormous  mass  of  expert  opinion  which 
was  placed  before  him.     What  must  have  greatly  increased  Mr.  Hal- 
dane's difficulties  also  is  the  uncontrovertible  fact  that  this  expert 
opinion  varied  greatly  in  almost  every  detail.     It  would   be  im- 
possible within  the  limits  of  any  one  article  to  give  all  the  remedies 
which  trained  soldiers  have  proposed  as  the  only  possible  method  of 
rendering  the  Army  efficient.     The  majority  of  military  men,  however, 
appear  to  start  the  basis  of  their  schemes  on  the  assumption  either 
that  the  maximum  number  of  recruits  that  can  be  obtained  is  the 
scale  by  which  success  should  be  measured,  or  that  the  first  considera- 
tion should  be  that  the  various  branches  of  the  Army  must  all  bear  their 
proper  proportions  towards  the  sum  total  of  the  whole.     The  expo- 
nents of  the  various  schemes  which  are  based  on  the  first  of  these 
two  axioms  of  course  lay  the  greatest  stress  upon  their  opinion  that 
no  man  who  is  prepared  to  offer  himself  to  undergo  any  form  of  military 
training  should  be  refused  the  opportunity  of  doing  so.     They  contend 
that,  so  long  as  conscription  is  taboo,  everything  imaginable  should  be 
done  to  foster  the  military  spirit  of  the  nation,  in  order  that  in  time  of 
war  there  should  be  as  large  a  number  as  possible  of  partially  trained 
men  to  reinforce  the  foreign  service  army  and  to  fill  the  ranks  of  those 
troops  destined  for  home  defence.     They  maintain  that  a  partially 
trained  man  is  a  much  more  useful  article  than  a  man  with  no  training 
whatever,  and  that  to  place  any  check  in  time  of  peace  upon  the 
volunteering  spirit  of  the  nation  might  result  in  time  of  war  in  finding 
that  this  most  valuable  asset  had  been  totally  destroyed.     On  the 
other  hand,  those  experts  who  are  in  favour  of  properly  balanced  units 
declare  that  to  train  an  enormous  mass  of  infantry  without  paying 
any  regard  as  to  whether  or  not  it  is  provided  with  transport  and 
hospital  services,  or  as  to  whether  the  corps  of  engineers,  artillery,  and 
cavalry  stand  in  their  proper  proportions  with  regard  to  the  size  of  this 
mass  of  infantry,  is  needlessly  to  waste  money  which  might  to  much 
better  advantage  be  spent  elsewhere.     They  repudiate  the  contention 
of  the  first  party  concerning  the  destruction  of  the  volunteering 
spirit,  pointing  out  that,  from  time  immemorial,  the  auxiliary  forces 
have  been  snubbed  and  starved,  but  that,  whenever  the  slightest 
hope  has  been  aroused  as  to  the  possibility  of  the  volunteers  being 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  381  3  M 


866  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Nov. 

brought  into  collision  with  a  foreign  enemy,  thousands  of  the  very 
best  possible  type  of  recruit  have  at  once  come  forward  to  take  their 
places  in  the  ranks. 

As  to  which  of  these  two  parties  is  in  the  right  is  a  point  which  it 
is  extremely  difficult  to  decide  on.  Certainly  it  would  be  a  most 
deplorable  thing  if,  when  they  were  wanted,  volunteers  failed  to 
appear.  Equally  certainly  it  is  a  most  fallacious  argument  to  main- 
tain that  because,  let  us  say,  a  particular  district  maintains  six  weak 
battalions  of  infantry  mustering  3000  rifles,  therefore  the  same 
district  can  be  put  down  as  certain  to  produce  3000  men  ready  to 
distribute  themselves  among  the  various  component  parts  of  an  army. 
Nobody  can  deny,  however,  that  it  is  a  very  extravagant  way  of 
raising  troops  to  maintain  the  headquarters  staff  of  six  corps  when 
there  are  only  men  enough  to  fill  three,  or  to  keep  men  on  the  strength 
who  are  persistent  bad  shots  or  who  are  physically  unfit  for  active 
service.  It  must  be  admitted,  too,  that  an  army  which  is  propor- 
tionately short  in  every  branch  of  its  services  with  the  exception  of 
its  infantry,  would  be  very  greatly  handicapped  when  in  the  presence 
of  a  hostile  force  whose  numerical  strength  is  the  same  but  whose 
composition  is  more  just. 

It  is  perhaps  in  the  solution  of  this  problem  that  the  strength  and 
independence  of  Mr.  Haldane's  character  shows  itself  most  clearly. 
Without  accepting  the  views  of  either  party  in  their  entirety,  his 
decision  has  undoubtedly  given  considerable  satisfaction  to  both. 
More  especially  is  this  the  case  with  the  question  of  proportions. 
His  task  here  was  one  of  exceptional  difficulty,  but  it  will  be  generally 
admitted  that  he  has,  on  the  whole,  acquitted  himself  admirably 
well.  In  order  to  make  a  start  with  his  scheme  he  was  forced  to 
select  one  branch  which  should  serve,  in  point  of  size,  as  the  model 
on  which  the  other  branches  should  be  fashioned.  No  doubt,  if  it 
had  been  possible,  Mr.  Haldane  would  have  been  glad  to  have  taken 
the  field  artillery  branch  of  the  auxiliary  .services  as  his  standard  in 
view  of  the  supreme  importance  which  military  experts  attach  to  this 
arm.  The  almost  total  absence  of  a  mobile  artillery  however,  while 
indicating  clearly  enough  the  urgent  need  for  some  change  in  our 
system,  yet  formed  an  insuperable  barrier  to  its  selection  for,  had  it 
been  chosen,  the  total  strength  of  the  Territorial  Army  would  have 
been  infinitesimally  small.  Driven  to  abandon  this  standpoint, 
Mr.  Haldane  would  appear  to  have  now  turned  to  the  mounted  branch 
as  the  most  suitable  for  his  purpose.  Here  he  has  met  with  better 
fortune  inasmuch  as  the  mounted  infantry  of  the  auxiliary  forces  or, 
as  it  is  now  to  be  called,  the  cavalry  of  the  Territorial  Army,  muster 
some  27,000  rifles,  which,  in  its  proportion  of  one-tenth  of  the  whole, 
would  give  a  second-line  army  of  about  the  size  the  Cabinet  was  pre- 
pared to  sanction.  It  is  true  that  Continental  armies  appear,  at  a  first 
glance,  to  maintain  a  much  higher  proportion  of  cavalry  than  this  ; 


1908     CAVALRY  OF   THE   TERRITORIAL    ARMY    867 

a  proportion  which  varies,  in  the  case  of  the  French  and  German 
armies,  between  one-sixth  and  one-seventh.  It  must  be  remembered, 
however,  when  studying  these  figures,  that  these  are  peace  strength 
only,  that  a  very  small  percentage  of  the  cavalry  belong  to  the  reserve, 
and  that,  when  the  whole  of  the  reserve  has  been  called  to  the  colours, 
the  proportion  sinks  again  to  about  a  tenth  of  the  whole. 

These  27,000  men,  while  forming  a  force  of  about  the  required 
strength,  yet  leave  no  margin  over  for  the  conducting  of  experiments, 
and  Mr.  Haldane  must  have  seen  at  once  that  his  principal  difficulty 
was  how  to  draw  up  such  a  scheme  of  military  districts  as  would 
enable  each  to  contain  within  its  area  a  sufficiency  of  cavalry  recruit- 
ing ground.  To  have  cut  down  the  mounted  branch  in  any  particular 
district  just  because  it  happened  to  produce  more  than  its  proper 
proportion  would  have  been  fatal  to  the  success  of  his  plans.  Such 
proceedings  are  not,  of  course,  unknown.  Mr.  Haldane's  predecessor, 
Mr.  Arnold-Forster,  reversing  the  policy  of  encouragement  initiated  by 
Mr.  Brodrick,  struck  heavily  at  the  mounted  corps  of  the  auxiliaries. 
Regiments  which  were  over  strength  were  ordered  to  discontinue 
recruiting  until  the  surplus  of  men  had  been  absorbed,  and  squadrons 
were  reduced  to  a  lower  level,  while  no  attempt  whatever  was  made, 
by  the  provision  of  extra  corps,  to  take  advantage  of  the  flourishing 
state  of  the  recruiting  market.  In  common  justice  to  Mr.  Arnold- 
Forster,  however,  it  is  only  right  to  point  out  that  this  action,  de- 
plorable in  itself  and  disastrous  in  its  effects  on  the  late  Government, 
was  not  the  rash  decision  of  a  man  who  had  paid  no  attention  to  his 
subject,  but  was  the  outcome  of  a  deliberate  line  of  policy  which 
admittedly  had  for  its  object  the  discouragement  and  reduction  of 
the  auxiliary  forces  in  order  that  more  money  should  be  released 
for  the  benefit  of  the  regular  army.  This  was  a  perfectly  straight- 
forward argument,  and  is  one  which,  however  unpopular  in  the 
country  at  large,  unquestionably  finds  many  adherents  among  regular 
officers  themselves. 

With  all  the  many  disadvantages  against  which  the  War  Minister 
has  had  to  struggle,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  in  one  respect  at  least  he 
has  been  a  very  lucky  man,  inasmuch  as  he  has  found  this  force  of 
27,000  '  cavalry  '  ready  to  his  hand.  Had  he  desired  to  produce  a 
similar  scheme  prior  to  Mr.  Brodrick's  tenure  of  office  in  Pall  Mall, 
his  difficulties  would  have  been  vastly  increased.  Up  to  that  time  the 
auxiliary  cavalry  had  been  in  a  very  bad  way  indeed.  They  consisted 
almost  entirely  of  yeomanry,  for  the  volunteer  mounted  infantry 
movement  was  then  only  in  its  infancy.  The  yeomanry  themselves 
had  dwindled  away  until  barely  10,000  men  underwent  a  short 
annual  training  of  about  eight  working  days.  Fortunately  enough 
for  the  force,  Mr.  Brodrick  was  encouraged  by  the  events  of  the 
South  African  war  to  believe  that,  properly  handled,  the  yeomanry 
might  again  figure  respectably  among  the  other  branches  of  the 

3  H  2 


THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

auxiliary  army.  The  results  of  his  endeavours,  honourable  to  himself 
and  beneficial  to  the  country,  fully  equalled  the  most  sanguine  expec- 
tations. In  the  very  short  space  of  time  which  elapsed  between  his 
first  taking  the  force  seriously  in  hand  and  his  retirement  from  office 
owing  to  being  made  the  scapegoat  for  the  late  Government  in  con- 
nexion with  their  mismanagement  of  the  regular  army,  Mr.  Brodrick 
not  only  doubled  the  period  of  the  permanent  training,  but  very  nearly 
trebled  the  strength  of  the  force  itself,  besides  instituting  a  number  of 
reforms  which  have  very  greatly  contributed  towards  the  immense 
improvement  which  has  taken  place  in  the  discipline  and  morale  of 
this  valuable  asset  in  national  defence. 

At  this  point  it  would  not  perhaps  be  out  of  place  to  consider  briefly 
out  of  what  beginnings  the  present  Imperial  Yeomanry  has  grown. 
Roughly,  its  origin  may  be  said  to  have  been  practically  conterminous 
with  the  outbreak  of  the  French  Eevolution  in  1789.  Mounted 
auxiliary  corps  had  of  course  been  raised  at  various  times  long  before 
that  date,  but  until  then  there  does  not  seem  to  have  been  any  coherent 
scheme  for  maintaining  local  cavalry  corps  to  act  with  the  militia 
and  volunteers  of  their  districts.  While  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  fear  of  foreign  attacks  on  our  coast-line  was  the  principal 
reason  which  induced  the  Government  of  that  day  to  sanction  the 
raising  of  this  irregular  cavalry,  it  would  be  ridiculous  not  to  admit 
at  once  that  this  force  was  meant  to  act  in  a  double  capacity,  and  that 
it  was  hoped,  as  indeed  the  event  proved,  that  the  yeomanry,  being 
raised  from  the  most  respectable  and  industrious  section  of  the  nation, 
would  be  of  the  greatest  assistance  in  supporting  the  magistracy  of  the 
rural  districts  in  the  maintenance  of  law  and  order.  That  the  yeo- 
manry frequently  performed  these  duties  and  invariably  carried  them 
out  with  probity  and  ability  is  matter  of  history  ;  that,  in  the  execu- 
tion of  their  orders,  they  should  have  incurred  the  hostility  of  that 
part  of  the  community  whose  prosperity  would  appear  to  depend  upon 
the  degree  of  immunity  it  enjoys  from  receiving  its  due  reward  for  the 
actions  it  has  committed  is  of  course  not  to  be  wondered  at  and  fully 
explains  the  persistent  divisions  which  used  to  be  taken  by  a  certain 
class  of  members  of  Parliament  whenever  the  Yeomanry  Vote  came 
up  for  discussion. 

As  might  have  been  expected,  these  bodies  of  yeomanry  when  first 
raised  consisted  only  of  the  smallest  units  known  in  the  cavalry  army  ; 
that  is,  of  troops.  These  troops  were  quite  independent,  and,  for 
some  years  at  least  after  the  raising  of  the  force,  no  attempt  was  made 
by  the  authorities  to  train  the  men  on  more  combined  principles. 
While,  however,  it  is  probable  that  the  yeomanry  of  the  Napoleonic 
era  were  less  capable  of  moving  in  mass  formations  than  their  repre- 
sentatives of  the  present  day,  there  cannot  be  any  doubt  that,  in 
some  directions,  they  were  vastly  superior  to  anything  except  the 
very  best  we  can  now  produce.  In  those  days  practically  every  man 


1908     CAVALRY  OF   THE   TERRITORIAL   ARMY    869 

who  joined  the  yeomanry  was  an  expert  horseman  and  was  mounted 
on  a  good  hunter  which  was  his  own  property.  This  is  a  circumstance 
which,  in  the  consideration  of  the  value  of  irregular  cavalry,  is  of  the 
very  highest  importance.  In  time  of  war  there  is  no  single  cavalry 
virtue  which  can  by  any  stretch  of  imagination  be  placed  upon  the 
same  plane  with  that  of  horsemanship.  It  was  not  superiority  in 
discipline,  drill,  courage,  or  armament  which  enabled  Benningsen's 
Cossacks  at  Eylau  to  overthrow  Murat's  Cuirassiers  so  completely 
that,  within  the  space  of  a  few  minutes,  the  veterans  of  Austerlitz 
and  Jena  were  hurled  back  with  a  loss  of  over  five  hundred  killed. 
It  was,  in  point  of  fact,  nothing  but  the  sheer  superiority  in  horse- 
manship of  the  Cossacks  by  which  they  were  enabled  to  wheel  and 
strike  whenever  and  wherever  they  chose.  Nowadays,  unfortunately, 
a  very  different  state  df  affairs  pertains  in  yeomanry  regiments. 
An  enormous  proportion  of  the  horses  are  hired  annually,  and  even 
where  men  are  stated  to  have  brought  their  own  horses  it  will  be  very 
frequently  found  that  these  horses  have  been  merely  hired  or  borrowed, 
and  that  the  rider  knows  little  or  nothing  of  the  characteristics  of 
his  mount.  Moreover  the  horses  themselves  would  compare  badly 
indeed  with  those  ridden  by  typical  yeomen  of  a  past  generation. 
With  the  improvement  of  secondary  roads  and  the  introduction  of 
mechanical  transport,  the  necessity  for  a  well-put-together  horse  which 
could  be  relied  on  to  travel  fast  and  far  over  tracks  of  the  worst 
description  has  almost  disappeared.  At  the  present  time  anything 
which  can  shuffle  quickly  down  an  asphalt  pavement  and  which  has 
ever  carried  a  saddle  is  considered  quite  good  enough  for  yeomanry 
work.  Certainly  it  is  true  that  in  all  our  country  corps  there  will 
still  be  found  men  who  are  as  well  mounted  and  are  as  good  horse- 
men as  any  that  could  have  been  produced  a  hundred  years  ago. 
There  are  also  numerous  examples  among  those  regiments  which 
are  raised  in  urban  districts  of  men  who  are  excellent  performers 
on  any  kind  of  mount  they  happen  to  be  provided  with.  But,  even 
when  the  fullest  allowance  has  been  made  in  this  direction,  it  must 
still  be  admitted  that  the  horsemanship  of  the  force  is  very  far  below 
what  it  used  to  be. 

It  is  not  only  in  purely  physical  characteristics  either  that  the 
yeomanry  cavalry  has  undergone  a  great  change.  What  kind  of  a 
force  could  not  the  energy  of  the  present  War  Secretary  have  pro- 
vided us  with  had  he  directly  inherited  the  magnificent  material 
left  to  his  successors  by  Mr.  Pitt  ?  We  have  been  accustomed  of  late 
to  refer  with  pride  to  the  patriotic  enthusiasm  which  supplies  us,  out 
of  a  population  of  nearly  45,000,000,  with  a  total  auxiliary  force 
of  about  370,000  men.  Can  we  justifiably  continue  to  reflect  on  this 
fact  with  pride  when  we  remember  that,  in  the  year  1813,  with  a 
population  of  barely  18,000,000,  and  at  a  time  when  the  complete 
destruction  of  the  French  marine  had  rendered  preposterous  all  fears 


870  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Nov. 

of  invasion,  we  maintained  an  auxiliary  army  of  almost  exactly 
equal  strength — to  be  accurate,  372,000  men  ?  Nor,  from  Mr.  Haldane's 
point  of  view,  is  even  that  the  most  noteworthy  fact.  To  him  the 
most  tantalising  consideration  must  be  that  out  of  this  great  force 
no  fewer  than  68,000  men  were  admirable  irregular  cavalry.  Truly  we 
must  in  the  past  have  been  badly  served  by  some  of  our  Ministers 
when  we  consider  that  the  strength  of  the  auxiliary  cavalry  which,  if 
it  had  increased  in  proportion  to  the  population,  should  now  muster 
140,000  men,  has  been  allowed  to  slip  down  to  a  fourteenth  of  that 
number  and  is  still  less  than  a  fifth. 

Recriminations  and  regrets,  however,  are  not  the  materials  out 
of  which  an  army  can  be  built  up,  and  the  really  important  point 
to  reflect  on  is  whether  or  not  the  cavalry  of  the  Territorial  Army 
is  sufficiently  well  armed,  trained,  and  equipped  to  carry  out  its 
duties  successfully  in  the  presence  of  hostile  regular  cavalry.  Here 
we  at  once  approach  very  delicate  ground.  It  must  be  remembered 
that  the  equipment  and  training  of  the  yeomanry  have  always  been 
proceeded  with  in  accordance  with  the  opinions  expressed  by  regular 
soldiers  at  the  War  Office.  Now  it  has  already  been  shown  that 
soldiers  themselves  do  not  invariably  think  exactly  the  same  thoughts. 
Consequently  it  would  be  unjust  to  conclude  that  all  soldiers  are  .in 
favour  of  the  present  drill  formations  or  the  present  equipment.  Both 
the  drill  and  the  armament  date  from  the  late  South  African  war. 
It  is  said  that  the  soldiers  learnt  certain  '  lessons '  out  there,  and  all 
fair  critics  will  probably  admit  that,  in  regard  to  mere  fighting  and 
campaigning,  our  regulars  did  not  show  such  a  marked  superiority 
to  their  agricultural  foemen  as  might  have  been  hoped  for  having 
regard  to  the  16,000,0002.  or  thereabouts  which  had  for  several  years 
been  spent  upon  the  upkeep  and  training  of  the  regular  army.  It  is 
possible  therefore  that  there  really  were  some  lessons  to  be  learnt. 
What  there  seems  to  be  a  little  doubt  about,  however,  in  the  minds  of 
some  soldiers  is  as  to  whether,  in  this  particular  question  of  arming 
and  drilling  the  yeomanry,  the  right  conclusion  has  been  drawn  from 
the  lesson  that  was  taught. 

Undoubtedly  a  certain  school  of  officers  returned  from  South 
Africa  greatly  impressed  by  the  success  obtained  and  the  immunity 
from  danger  enjoyed  by  the  Boer  mounted  infantry  even  when  in  the 
immediate  presence  of  our  best  and  most  highly  trained  cavalry. 
Whether  this  particular  school  formed  a  majority  in  the  regular  army 
is  a  moot  point,  but  they  did  most  certainly  dominate  the  War  Office. 
These  officers  argued  that  as  our  highly-trained  regular  cavalry  had 
on  various  occasions  been  approached  and  roughly  handled  by  mounted 
infantry,  and  as,  with  one  brilliant  exception,  the  cavalry  had  totally 
failed  to  make  the  mounted  infantry  pay  for  their  presumption,  there 
was  therefore  not  the  slightest  hope  that  the  yeomanry  cavalry  would 
be  likely  to  improve  upon  or  even  equal  the  record  of  the  regulars. 


1908     CAVALRY  OF   THE   TERRITORIAL   AltMY     871 

They  proceeded  to  contend  that  mounted  infantry  work  was  much 
more  quickly  and  easily  learnt  than  was  that  of  cavalry,  that  mounted 
infantry  had  just  proved  their  great  value  in  warfare,  and  that  it  was 
only  by  adopting  mounted  infantry  tactics  that  the  yeomanry  could 
ever  hope  to  face  foreign  regular  cavalry  successfully. 

Other  equally  intelligent  and  well-trained  officers  of  the  regular 
army  have  argued  very  differently,  and  their  argument  unfortunately 
amounts  to  a  rather  sharp  criticism  of  their  own  service.  They  hold 
that  the  failure  of  the  cavalry  to  cut  up  the  Boer  mounted  infantry 
was  certainly  partly  due  to  the  excellence  of  the  Boers  as  mounted 
infantry,  but  that  it  was  mainly  caused  by  a  great  want  of  initiative 
and  a  deplorable  ignorance  of  the  art  of  horsemastership,  an  ignorance 
which  they  claim  was  evident  even  in  the  highest  ranks.  These 
officers  will  not  believe  that  the  Boer  mounted  infantry  was  good 
merely  because  it  had  little  to  learn.  They  maintain  that  the  Boer 
mounted  infantryman  had  been  learning  all  hia  life,  and  that  the 
superiority  he  displayed  to  all  except  the  very  best  of  our  irregulars 
was  owing  partly  to  his  quick-wittedness,  partly  to  his  fine  eyesight, 
partly  to  his  cleverness  in  taking  cover  and  in  snap-shooting,  but 
far  more  than  anything  else  to  his  excellence  as  a  horseman  and  a 
horsemaster.  Nothing  will  persuade  these  officers  that  it  is  possible 
to  manufacture  good  mounted  infantry  quickly.  So  far  from  this 
being  the  case,  they  insist  most  strongly  that  mounted  infantry  require 
to  be  taught  not  only  the  whole  art  of  horsemanship  as  learnt  by 
the  cavalryman,  but  also  the  whole  duty  of  the  infantry  soldier,  which 
is  in  itself,  they  declare,  a  business  of  years.  They  refuse  to  accept 
the  decision  of  those  who — quoting  the  opinion  of  that  most  gallant 
warrior,  Marshal  Ney,  expressed  a  few  hours  after  his  fifth  and  success- 
ful assault  upon  the  bloodstained  ruins  of  Klein  Gorschen,  when  the 
desperate  valour  of  the  untrained  conscripts  of  the  3rd  Corps  at  last 
wore  down  the  stern  resistance  of  the  whole  of  the  Prussian  Guard — 
hold  that  the  age  and  training  of  the  infantry  soldier  are  matters  of 
little  moment.  To  such  arguments  they  retort  with  considerable 
truth  that  the  conditions  of  warfare  have  altered  very  greatly  since  the 
battle  of  Bautzen,  that  the  infantryman  has  now  a  great  deal  more  to 
learn  than  he  had  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  that  the  remark  of  the 
Prince  of  the  Moskwa  to  General  Dumas  as  well  as  the  letter  of 
Napoleon  to  Augereau  when  in  front  of  Lyons,  should  be  accepted 
more  as  generous  tributes  from  brave  men  to  brave  men  than  as  the 
deliberate  opinion  of  veteran  soldiers  on  the  result  of  their  experiences. 

As  a  natural  sequence  to  the  holding  of  these  views,  the  mal- 
contents have  expressed  the  conviction  that  the  armament  of  the 
cavalry  of  the  Territorial  Army  is  founded  on  an  erroneous  theory, 
and  that  some  weapon  of  offence  and  defence  suitable  to  mounted  men 
should  certainly  be.  provided.  Here,  again,  of  course,  there  is  con- 
siderable diversity  of  opinion  as  to  the  arm  which  should  be  selected. 


THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

The  lance  is  admittedly  a  very  deadly  weapon,  feut  it  is  urged  by  many 
that  the  training  of  the  Territorial  cavalryman  will  be  far  too  short 
for  the  use  of  the  lance  to  be  properly  learnt.  The  revolver  also 
has  many  admirers,  especially  among  those  who  have  studied  the 
campaigns  of  the  Federals  and  Confederates  during  the  War  of  Seces- 
sion in  the  United  States.  Even  the  revolver,  however,  simple  though 
its  mechanism  may  be,  is  a  comparatively  useless  weapon  until 
accuracy  of  shooting  has  been  acquired,  and  accurate  practice  with 
the  revolver  is  a  feat  which  is  not  learnt  in  a  day  or  even  in  a  month. 
The  advocates  of  the  sword,  too,  are  very  numerous,  but  these,  again, 
are  subdivided  into  those  who  incline  to  the  straight,  claymore  type, 
and  those  who  prefer  a  variation  of  the  Eastern  scimitar  pattern. 
This  also  is  a  matter  for  experts,  and  is  not  one  in  which  the  opinions 
of  amateurs  can  or  should  have  any  weight  except  in  so  far  that  it  is 
obvious  enough  that  an  effective  thrust  is  much  more  easily  learnt 
than  is  that  drawing  cut  which  makes  the  tulwar  such  a  terribly 
effective  weapon  in  the  hand  of  the  expert  swordsman. 

Contemplation  of  the  cavalry  section  of  Mr.  Haldane's  scheme 
must  in  fact  drive  observers  to  conclude  that,  if  the  idea  is  to  produce 
a  mounted  force  capable  of  contending  successfully  with  an  equal 
number  of  either  cavalry  or  infantry  of  the  stamp  which  an  invader 
would  be  likely  to  throw  upon  our  shores,  it  is  foredoomed  to  failure, 
but  that,  if  the  intention  is  merely  to  provide  a  cavalry  force  of  the 
same  calibre  as  the  rest  of  the  Territorial  Army,  there  is  every  proba- 
bility that  the  existing  yeomanry  will  amply  fill  the  bill.  We  are 
therefore  thrown  back  on  the  old  argument  as  to  whether  it  is  better 
to  have  a  small  number  of  the  very  best  trained  troops  obtainable  or  a 
large  number  of  men,  of  a  better  and  more  intelligent  class,  it  is  true, 
but  greatly  inferior  to  the  regulars  in  military  education.  Mr.  Haldane 
has  decided  on  the  latter  system  ;  he  is  a  politician,  and  it  is  probable 
that  most  of  his  critics  will  agree  that  the  crushing  snub  administered 
by  the-^public  to  the  scheme  of  Mr.  Arnold-Forster  really  left  his 
successor  in  office  no  option  but  to  reverse  a  policy  which,  whatever  its 
intrinsic  merits  may  have  been,  was  certainly  most  unpopular. 

CABDIGAN. 


HAS   ENGLAND    WRONGED   IRELAND  ? 


IT  appears  unhappily  to  be  the  fact  that  Irish  hatred  of  England  is 
not  the  offspring  of  the  Home  Rule  quarrel  alone  or  likely  to  die  with 
that  question,  but  has  been  rooted  in  the  Irish  breast  and  is  carried 
into  every  land  in  which  the  Irish  dwell.  This  opens  a  most  doleful 
prospect,  and  one  which  would  have  been  most  deeply  deplored  by 
the  writer's  Irish  friends  and  political  associates  of  former  years. 
Combined  with  the  conflict  of  English  parties,  it  seems  to  make  a 
happy  settlement  almost  hopeless. 

I  am  glad  (says  the  Rev.  Father  Caraher,  addressing  a  great  Irish  meeting 
in  California)  to  see  the  Irish  people  arming  and  practising  the  use  of  rifles  and 
instruments  of  war.  For  centuries  they  have  been  borne  down  under  the  tyran- 
nic weight  of  English  rule.  In  every  city  of  the  world  where  a  patriotic  Irish- 
man lives,  on  Tuesday  the  green  flag  of  Ireland  will  be  waved.  We  must  make 
a  success  of  our  celebration,  for  great  things  depend  upon  it.  It  will  reflect  the 
spirit  of  Ireland  throughout  the  world,  and  some  day  it  will  bring  about  the 
raising  of  the  green  flag  where  it  belongs.  The  Union  Jack  of  England  will  be 
hauled  down  and  torn  in  pieces,  and  200,000  armed  men  will  march  into  the 
county  of  Cork  and  drive  the  English  into  the  sea. 

The  harangue,  it  seems,  brought  the  whole  of  a  great  audience 
to  its  feet  in  a  spontaneous  burst  of  applause  which  lasted  many 
minutes.  This  was  in  the  United  States  and  the  Far  West ;  but  the 
Canadian  Parliament  has  deemed  it  expedient  more  than  once  to  pass 
resolutions  in  favour  of  Home  Rule,  in  spite  of  reproof  from  the 
Home  Government,  to  satisfy  Irish  feeling  in  Canada. 

Irish  history,  in  all  that  relates  to  the  conduct  of  England  to 
Ireland,  is  perverted  to  the  service  of  hatred.  Nor  is  this  done  by 
Irish  patriots  only ;  it  is  apt  to  be  done  by  English  supporters  of 
Home  Rule.  '  England '  is  charged  with  things  which  belong  to  the 
account  of  the  Normans,  the  Papacy,  or  the  general  convulsions  of 
Europe,  political  or  religious. 

It  was  about  1866  that  Guizot,  walking  with  an  English  visitor 
in  the  garden  at  Val  Richer,  when  the  conversation  touched  on  Ireland, 
stopped  and  with  an  emphatic  wave  of  the  hand  said,  *  The  conduct 
of  England  to  Ireland  for  the  last  thirty  years  has  been  admirable.' 
Reminded  of  the  State  Church,  which  had  not  been  then  disestablished, 
he  recognised  the  exception,  but  repeated  with  renewed  emphasis  his 

878 


874  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

first  words.  Guizot  was  not  an  Anglo-maniac ;  as  a  French  Minister 
he  had  more  than  once  come  into  collision  with  England. .  His  friend 
did  not  ask  him  what  he  thought  of  the  continuance  of  the  abuse  and 
hostility,  when  in  the  eyes  of  an  impartial  observer  like  himself  the 
treatment  had  been  admirable. 

In  1866  the  English  people  had  not  themselves  been  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  a  really  representative  Parliament  for  much  more  than  one 
generation.  Ireland  had  received  her  share  of  parliamentary  reform. 
Catholic  emancipation  had  been  carried  four  years  earlier.  Ireland 
had  shared  other  Liberal  measures  with  England  and  Scotland,  notably 
those  for  the  establishment  and  improvement  of  public  education- 
She  has  since  obtained  disestablishment  while  England  has  not. 

Coercion  there  has  been,  no  doubt,  but  it  was  inevitable.  At  a 
time  when  the  writer  was  in  Dublin  an  agrarian  murder  was  com- 
mitted. The  Council  met,  and  the  Attorney-General  was  asked 
whether  he  had  obtained  information  about  the  case.  He  replied 
that  he  was  perfectly  informed,  that  he  knew  by  whom  the  murder 
had  been  committed,  and  who  had  been  the  accomplices  watching 
the  roads  to  guard  the  murderer  against  surprise.  But  he  added  that 
he  should  not  think  of  at  once  going  to  trial ;  every  witness  would 
perjure  himself ;  the  only  chance  of  a  verdict  was  delay.  The  law 
has  had  to  deal  with  people  whose  moral  ideas  had  been  by  an 
unhappy  destiny  perverted  and  who  had  murder  in  their  hearts. 

The  attitude  of  Irish  politicians  towards  England,  and  their  habit 
of  appealing  to  the  enemies  of  England  in  the  United  States,  have  not 
made  it  easier  for  the  English  promoters  of  reform  in  Ireland  to  gain 
the  support  of  their  own  people. 

The  Irish  land  question  is  one  of  extreme  difficulty.  But  it 
cannot  be  said  that  it  has  been  neglected  by  English  legislatures,  or 
that  they  have  not  done  their  best  to  solve  it  aright.  There  may  be 
people  no  doubt  ready  to  solve  the  difficulty  by  a  sweeping  measure 
of  confiscation,  the  effects  of  which  apparently  would  be  the  loss  by 
rural  Ireland  of  its  heads,  reckless  multiplication  of  the  peasantry, 
and  the  turning  of  more  land  from  pasture  into  potato  ground,  the 
reverse  of  what  agriculturists  declare  the  best  policy.  The  Celtic 
Irish  do  not  appear  to  be  specially  successful  as  farmers  in  the  United 
States.  They  certainly  were  not  said  to  be  so  in  the  district  of  the 
United  States  where  the  writer  spent  some  time.  The  Norman 
peasant  does  pretty  well  on  a  small  holding.  But  the  Norman  peasant 
is  very  industrious,  very  thrifty,  and  not  so  philoprogenitive  as  the 
Celt.  The  culture  which  is  the  most  profitable  must  surely  in  the  end 
prevail. 

Let  the  accuser  of  England  cross  the  water  and  see  the  Ireland  in 
America.  He  would  be  struck  at  once  by  one  thing  most  creditable 
to  the  Irish — the  warmth  of  family  affection  which  has  brought  so 
many  thousands  of  the  race  across  the  water,  the  first  settlers  of  the 


1908      HAS  ENGLAND    WRONGED  IRELAND/        875 

family  paying  out  of  their  earnings  the  passage  of  the  rest.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  would  be  told  what  the  Irish  have  been  as  a  political 
element ;  what  powers  have  been  able  to  command  their  votes  ;  how 
the  American  statesman  views  their  influence.  He  would  be  told 
that  they  have  been  the  most  unfeeling  tramplers  on  the  negro.  He 
would  be  told  that,  in  the  middle  of  the  Civil  War,  the  Irish  having 
risen  in  New  York  against  the  draft, 

spreading  over  the  city,  raised  a  cry  against  '  the  nigger '  ;  forced  their  way 
into  hotels  and  restaurants  where  coloured  servants  were  employed  ;  sacked  an 
asylum  for  coloured  children  (it  had  several  hundreds  of  those  little  helpless 
inmates),  the  women  in  the  mob  carrying  off  beds,  furniture,  and  such  other 
property  as  could  be  removed — they  then  set  the  building  on  fire  ;  an  armoury 
not  far  distant  shared  the  same  fate.  In  the  lower  part  of  the  city  an  attack 
was  made  on  the  office  of  a  newspaper — the  Tribune — specially  obnoxious  to 
the  rioters  on  account  of  its  supporting  the  Government ;  the  omnibuses  and 
street  cars  were  stopped  ;  the  railroads  and  telegraphs  cut ;  factories,  machine 
shops,  shipyards,  &c.,  were  forcibly  closed  ;  business  was  paralysed.  In  all 
directions  the  unoffending  negroes  were  pursued  in  the  streets  ;  some  were 
murdered  ;  their  old  men  and  infirm  women  were  beaten  without  mercy  ;  their 
houses  were  burnt ;  one  negro  was  tied  to  a  tree,  a  fire  kindled  under  him,  and 
he  was  roasted  to  death.1 

On  this  occasion  the  Americans,  when  they  got  up  troops,  quelled 
the  rising  with  a  vigour  at  least  as  decisive  as  that  which  would  have 
been  displayed  on  a  like  occasion  by  the  British  Government.  Next 
year  a  repetition  of  the  outbreak  was  apprehended.  But  an  American 
general  came  into  the  harbour  with  troops,  called  the  leaders  of  the 
Irish  before  him,  and  told  them  that  if  there  was  any  disturbance  he 
would  hold  them  personally  responsible.  There  was  no  disturbance. 
A  character  may  have  very  bright  and  winning  features  and  yet  stand 
in  need  of  firm  government. 

The  prime  authoress  of  all  the  unhappiness  which  we  admit  and 
deplore  appears  to  have  been  Nature,  who  formed  the  two  islands  and 
placed  them  as  they  are  relatively  to  each  other  and  to  the  continent. 
In  the  age  of  predatory  and  roving  wars,  invasion  of  the  lesser  island 
by  the  greater  there  was  pretty  sure  to  be. 

Ireland  in  the  dawn  of  her  history  was  tribal,  and  tribalism  means 
disunion  and  general  weakness,  though  by  union  under  a  war-king 
tribal  Ireland  was  enabled  to  repulse  the  Dane.  Tribal  Ireland  had 
a  brilliant  missionary  Church  of  which  the  touching  monument  is 
lona.  But  if  the  Round  Towers  were,  as  is  supposed,  places  of  refuge, 
the  tribal  state  would  seem  not  to  have  been  a  commonwealth  of  law. 
Of  one  race  all  the  tribes  may  have  been,  and  they  may  have  had  a 
code  of  customs  ;  but  they  could  hardly  have  been  called  a  nation. 
The  history  of  Dermott  and  Strongbow  does  not  seem  to  point  to  the 
existence  of  any  powerful  and  centralised  government. 

After  the  Dane,  who  left  some  little  settlements  on  the  coast,  the 

1  History  of  the  American  Civil  War  (Hi.  442).    By  John  William  Draper. 


876  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

next  invaders  of  Ireland  are  the  Normans,  like  the  Danes  a  roving 
and  marauding  race,  who  present  themselves  in  the  eleventh  century 
as  the  special  soldiers  of  Father  Caraher's  spiritual  chief  and  bear  the 
banner  of  Papal  aggrandisement  at  Hastings.  Hildebrand,  the  real 
creator  of  the  Papacy,  found  them  the  useful  instruments  of  his 
ambition,  while  he  lent  to  their  enterprise  his  spiritual  consecration. 
He  demanded  homage  of  William  the  Conqueror,  but  the  Conqueror 
was  too  strong  to  concede  it,  though  Hildebrand  was  allowed  to  crush 
the  national  Church  of  England  and  instal  Ultramontanism  in  its  place. 
The  conquest  of  Ireland,  irregularly  commenced  by  the  Norman 
adventurer  Strongbow,  was  presently  pressed  and  formally  achieved 
by  his  king.  The  marauding  and  Papal  banner  passed  from  Hastings 
to  Ireland.  But  Henry  the  Second,  weaker  than  the  Conqueror, 
paid  homage,  and  Ireland  thus  passed  under  the  suzerainty  of  the 
Papacy,  combined  with  and  consecrating  the  dominion  of  the  foreign 
raider. 

The  Norman  kingdom  of  Ireland  had  been  too  hastily  and  weakly 
founded  on  the  nominal  submission  of  the  tribal  chiefs.  The  power 
of  England  was  distracted  by  European  conflicts.  The  consequence 
was  the  permanent  division  of  the  island  between  the  Celtic  tribe -land 
and  the  feudal  province  of  the  Norman ;  the  people  of  one  differing 
radically  in  blood,  language,  character,  and  customs  from  that  of 
the  other.  This  was  the  original  source  of  all  the  evil,  and  for  it 
'  England  '  is  no  more  responsible  than  she  is  for  the  Fall  of  Man. 

Had  the  Norman  conquest  of  Ireland  been  complete,  like  the 
Norman  conquest  of  England,  the  result  would  have  been  the  same — 
ultimate  fusion  and  a  united  nation.  Unhappily,  owing  to  the  dis- 
traction of  the  English  power  and  to  local  obstacles,  the  conquest 
remained  incomplete,  and  the  result  was  the  permanent  and  disastrous 
division  of  Ireland  between  what  remained  of  Celtic  tribalism  and 
the  Pale, 

War  between  the  tribes  and  the  feudal  Pale  went  on  incessantly. 
It  was  pretty  much  a  battle  between  a  dog  and  a  fish,  the  man-at- 
arms  failing  to  penetrate  the  woods  and  bogs  which  were  the  strong- 
hold of  the  tribesman,  the  tribesman  being  unable  to  stand  against 
the  man-at-arms  in  the  field.  The  scene  was  varied  for  a  time  by  the 
Scotch  invasion  under  Edward  Bruce,  who  during  his  run  of  success 
made  general  havoc,  and  apparently  led  some  of  the  feudal  lords  of 
the  Pale  in  the  chaos  to  change  their  character  and  become  lords  of 
tribal  combinations.  At  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages  the  Pale  was 
reduced  to  a  small  circle  round  Dublin,  and  evidently  was  in  a  state 
of  great  internal  disorder.  Its  condition  being  wretched,  it  was  no 
doubt  largely  filled  with  riff-raff.  Civilisation  and  law  of  course  made 
no  way.  The  Lancastrian  Government  of  England  was  at  enmity 
with  the  Pale,  which  was  Yorkist,  and  caused  to  be  passed  Poynings' 
Act,  by  which  it  was  enacted  that  all  existing  English  laws  should  be 


1908      HAS   ENGLAND    WRONGED  IRELAND?        877 

in  force  in  Ireland,  and  that  no  Parliament  should  be  held  in  Ireland 
without  the  sanction  of  the  king  in  Council,  who  should  also  be  em- 
powered to  disallow  statutes  passed  by  the  Irish  Houses.  This,  of 
which  Irishmen  speak  as  a  felonious  extinction  of  the  independence 
of  the  Irish  nation,  was  apparently  in  fact  a  suppression  of  the  law- 
lessness of  the  Pale.  The  policy  of  the  early  Tudors  appears  to  have 
been  the  delegation  of  the  government  of  Ireland  to  an  Anglo- Irish 
chief  ;  but  it  was  soon  found  that  the  chief  governed  for  himself. 

The  conquest  was  weak  and  protracted,  consequently  cruel. 
England  had  always  France  or  Scotland  on  her  hands.  Then  came 
the  Civil  War  between  York  and  Lancaster,  when  Ireland  fell  for  a 
time  into  the  hands  of  York  and  was  thus  brought  into  conflict  with 
Lancaster,  victorious  under  Henry  the  Seventh.  To  charge  England 
at  the  present  day  with  the  consequences  of  these  remote  events,  or 
with  any  part  of  Ireland's  historical  inheritance  of  misfortune,  is  no 
more  rational  than  it  would  be  to  charge  her  with  the  mischief  wrought 
by  a  catastrophe  of  Nature.  Had  Edward  the  First  been  free  to 
complete  the  annexation  of  Ireland  and  her  union  with  England,  as 
it  seems  he  designed,  all  these  dark  pages  might  have  been  torn  from 
the  book  of  Fate.  . 

Professor  Richey,  a  recognised  authority,  says  : 

From  the  date  of  the  attempt  to  reduce  the  Irish,  in  the  reign  of  Richard  the 
Second,  to  1535,  the  condition  of  the  tribes  had  not  improved,  but  rather  retro- 
graded. The  evils  of  the  Celtic  system  were  aggravated,  its  counterbalancing 
advantages  were  obsolete  and  forgotten.  The  several  tribes  were  devoid  of  any 
central  authority  or  bond  of  union.  The  idea  of  nationality  had  disappeared  ; 
although  the  English  were  styled  strangers  and  invaders,  the  national  union  of 
the  native  tribes  had  not  been  attempted  for  two  centuries. 

But  can  it  be  said  that  the  tribal  union  had  ever  been  in  the  full  sense 
national  ?  There  had  been  a  king  to  lead  in  war  and  there  was  a  code 
of  tribal  customs,  but  otherwise  probably  the  tie  was  loose.  Can 
there  be  truly  said  now  to  be  an  Irish  any  more  than  an  Anglo-Saxon 
nation  ? 

It  is  needless  to  say 'what  was  the  effect  of  religious  war  of  the 
most  deadly  kind  added  to  that  of  race  by  the  Reformation.  It 
appears  from  the  narrative  of  Cuellar,  a  Spaniard  cast  ashore  from 
the  Armada  on  the  Irish  coast,  that  the  common  Irish  were  in  a  very 
low  state  of  civilisation.  Cuellar  treats  them  as  savages.  It  seems 
that  they  robbed  and  stripped  Spaniards,  their  fellow  Catholics  and 
allies,  cast  ashore  from  the  Armada. 

Burghley  and  his  colleagues  had  shown  their  statesmanship  nobly 
by  their  foundation  of  Trinity  College.  But  their  plans  of  political 
organisation  were  at  once  wrecked  in  the  deadly  war  of  race  and  of 
religion  which  raged  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth ;  the  last 
of  the  Celts  being  led  by  chiefs  who  were  a  cross  between  the  tribal 
and  the  feudal.  At  the  opening  of  the  reign  of  James,  the  last  of  these 


878  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

had  submitted  and  fled.  His  vast  domain  in  the  north  of  Ireland 
was  confiscated  and  sold  to  English  and  Scotch  settlers,  Protestants, 
the  Scotch  vehemently  so,  who  in  effect  formed  a  new  Pale  in  the 
north  of  the  island,  with  laws,  ideas,  and  customs  not  less  alien  than 
had  been  those  of  the  Norman  Pale  to  the  laws  and  the  customs  of 
the  Celts  ;  added  to  which  was  now  the  more  deadly  antagonism  of 
religion.  Infuriated  by  the  loss  of  their  lands  under  what  to  them  was 
an  alien  land  law  treating  as  private  and  forfeitable  that  which  belonged 
to  the  whole  tribe,  as  well  as  moved  by  religious  antagonism,  the  Irish 
Catholics  of  Ulster  rose  upon  the  intruders,  chased  them  out  of  the 
territory,  and  savagely  massacred  a  number  of  them  unquestionably 
large,  though  it  may  have  been  over-stated.  There  ensued  a  long  and 
deadly  war  of  races  and  sects,  carried  on  contemporaneously  with  the 
Civil  War  in  England,  and  ended  at  last  by  Cromwell,  whose  treatment 
of  the  garrison  of  Drogheda,  cruel  as  it  was,  and  a  deep  stain  upon  a 
character  generally  humane,  was  in  accordance  with  the  custom  of 
war  in  those  days,  and  fell  far  below  the  atrocity  of  Papal  generals 
such  as  Alva  and  Tilly.  The  transplantation  of  the  Papal  land- 
owners from  the  north  of  Ireland  to  the  south  was  again  a  cruel 
measure,  but  after  the  Ulster  massacre  it  would  surely  have  been 
perilous  to  leave  the  dispossessed  and  the  dispossessor,  the  Catholic 
and  the  Protestant,  together.  The  government  of  Ireland  under  the 
Protector  was  unquestionably  good,  as  the  royalist  Clarendon  testifies, 
and  a  remarkable  advance  in  material  prosperity,  in  Ulster  at  least, 
was  its  fruit. 

The  policy  of  the  worthy  Ormonde,  Viceroy  under  Charles  the 
Second,  was  peace  and  moderation.  Under  him  the  poor  island  had 
a  glimpse  of  happiness.  But  with  James  the  reaction,  political  and 
religious,  came  into  power.  At  the  Eevolution  Ireland  once  more 
became  a  hapless  battle-ground  of  civil  war,  political  and  religious, 
and  Irish  Protestantism  made  what  was  near  being  its  last  stand 
behind  the  walls  of  heroic  Derry.  There  was  a  general  persecution 
and  maltreatment  of /Protestants  by  the  Catholics  ominous  of  some- 
thing worse.  There  was  a  sweeping  proscription  by  a  Catholic  Parlia- 
ment of  the  Protestant  proprietary  of  the  island.  Then  followed  in 
turn  an  outpouring  of  the  vengeance  of  the  victor  in  the  thrice-hateful 
Penal  Code,  which  was,  however,  the  offspring  not  so  much  of  English 
as  of  Protestant  Irish  fear  and  hatred.  Of  fear  and  most  natural  fear 
be  it  remembered,  on  the  part  of  its  authors,  it  was  an  offspring,  as 
well  as  of  hatred.  It  was  in  fact  largely  a  measure  of  self-defence 
keeping  power  out  of  most  dangerous  hands.  What  would  have  been 
the  fate  of  the  Irish  Protestants  if  James,  instead  of  William,  had 
triumphed  ?  They  had  been  warned  by  the  great  Act  of  Attainder 
at  home.  But,  looking  across  the  sea,  what  did  they  behold  ?  The 
Edict  of  Nantes  perfidiously  revoked ;  a  worthy  and  loyal  peasantry 
guilty  of  no  crime  'but  being  Protestants  maltreated,  plundered,  out- 


1908       HAS  ENGLAND    WRONGED  ItiELAND?        879 

raged,  given  up  to  the  license  of  a  brutal  soldiery,  driven  from  their 
homes  and  their  country.  With  such  memories,  and  with  such  perils 
still  impending,  the  tyranny  of  Louis  the  Fourteenth  threatening  to 
add  itself  to  that  of  James  the 'Second,  some  excuse  may  be  made  for 
the  authors  of  the  Penal  Code.  It  was  at  all  events  not  merely  religious 
intolerance,  but  religious  intolerance  combined  with  real  and  most 
natural  fear  that  gave  it  birth.  As  soon  as  that  fear  had  passed  away* 
practical  if  not  legislative  mitigation  seems  to  have  begun.  The 
social  breach  unhappily  could  not  be  healed,  nor  could  Irish  gentle- 
men, natural  leaders  of  the  Catholic  peasantry  whom  the  Penal  law 
had  driven  into  exile,  be  recalled  to  Ireland.  To  continental  armies, 
some  of  them  hostile  to  England,  great  was  the  gain.  There  was  a 
military  Ireland,  not  unlaurelled,  in  Catholic  Europe.  In  Ireland 
another  sharp  division,  another  Pale,  as  it  were,  of  race,  religion,  and 
class  had  been  formed. 

A  more  disastrous  situation  than  that  of  a  country  with  a  land- 
owning oligarchy  and  a  peasantry  alien  to  it  in  race,  language,  and 
religion,  the  bitter  memories  of  a  deadly  war  between  the  two  being 
still  fresh  and  its  wounds  bleeding,  the  malice  of  fortune  could  not 
have  devised.  Unutterably  degraded  and  cruel  was  the  lot  of  the  serf. 
But  James  the  Second,  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  and  Home  were  not 
less  responsible  than  the  England  even  of  that  day.  Much  less  can 
the  England  of  this  day  be  held  answerable. 

For  her  share  in  the  Penal  Code,  England  had  to  plead  that  her 
own  rights  and  liberties  had  been  attacked  by  a  Catholic  king  with' 
Jesuits  as  his  advisers,  the  Catholic  despot  of  France  as  his  ally,  and 
Catholic  Ireland  as  his  ardent  supporter.  Her  escape  had  been 
narrow. 

It  is  fair  in  condemning  Protestant  intolerance  in  general  to  re- 
member what  the  attitude  and  practices  of  the  Papal  Church  then 
were.  The  fires  of  the  autos-da-fe  were  still  burning.2  There  were 
autos-da-fe  in  Mexico  as  late  as  1815.  It  is  not  on  the  charge  of 
intolerance  that  the  liegemen  of  the  Papacy  in  Ireland  will  put  the 
Orangemen  to  shame. 

In  defence  of  the  protectionist  policy,  excluding  Irish  goods  and 
killing  Irish  trades,  which  English  manufacturers  and  producers  forced 
on  their  Government,  thereby  naturally  estranging  even  Ulster  and 
preparing  her  for  revolution,  there  is  not  a  word  to  be  said,  saving  that 
it  was  the  prevailing  folly  of  the  time.  Pitt  when  he  came  on  the  scene 
did  his  best  for  free  trade  between  the  countries,  but  his  offer,  having 
been  reduced  by  the  selfishness  of  the  English  manufacturers,  was 
rejected  by  the  Irish  Parliament,  which  had  better  have  accepted  the 
instalment  and  afterwards  bargained  for  more. 

After  the  union   of   Scotland   with   England,   which  proved   so 

*  See  a  frightful  proof  of  this  in  a  note  to  Lord  Mahon's  History  of  England 
<i.  107). 


880  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Nov. 

beneficial  to  Scotland,  Ireland  held  out  her  hand,  but  was  unhappily 
repelled,  owing,  it  seems,  to  fear  of  the  character  of  the  Irish  popula- 
tion, though  Protectionist  cupidity  no  doubt  did  its  part.  Thus  was 
formed  the  growing  element  of  discontent  in  which  Swift,  exiled  to 
Ireland,  found  play  for  his  own  spleen. 

As  the  Protestant  gentry  were  politically  the  privileged  body  in 
Ireland,  it  must  have  been  as  much  the  tariff  as  any  political  or 
administrative  grievance  that  caused  the  rising  of  the  Volunteers  for 
independence  of  England,  whose  hands  were  then  tied  by  the  war  with 
the  American  colonies.  The  Castle  Government  was  one  of  shameless 
corruption,  but  a  misuse  of  Crown  patronage,  or  official  corruption 
of  any  kind,  could  hardly  have  seemed  to  traders  in  rotten  boroughs 
a  sufficient  cause  for  a  revolution.  The  relief  which  the  change 
brought  to  the  Catholic  serf  was  not  religious  freedom  and  equality, 
or  a  real  share  in  legislation  and  government,  but  merely  the  electoral 
franchise  to  be  exercised  subject  to  landlord  influence  and  giving  no 
real  hold  upon  Parliament.  The  nation  to  which  Grattan  bowed  in 
adoration  was  in  effect  still  not  so  much  a  nation  as  a  Pale  ;  nor,  when 
disaffection  broke  out,  could  anything  be  more  ruthless  than  the  Irish 
Parliament's  treatment  of  the  people.  Repeal  agitators  of  the  present 
day  in  identifying  their  cause  with  that  of  the  Volunteers  as  a  body 
are  surely  astray,  j 

After  the  hideous  civil  war  of  '98  between  races  and  religions  ; 
after  the  alliance  of  Irish  with  French  revolution ;  after  the  narrow 
escape  of  Ireland  from  French  conquest,  besides  the  proof  that  the 
Protestant  oligarchy  and  the  Catholics  would  not  live  on  fair  terms 
and  happily  together,  could  a  statesman  like  Pitt  fail  to  see  the  neces- 
sity of  bringing  the  two  islands  under  the  same  legislature  and  govern- 
ment ?  The  Union  was  carried,  like  other  contested  measures  in 
those  days  of  loose  political  morality,  by  means  more  or  less  corrupt, 
especially  by  a  lavish  creation  of  titles.  The  notion  that  the  sums 
paid  to  the  owners  of  Irish  rotten  boroughs  were  bribes,  it  may  be 
assumed,  is  no  longer  entertained.  The  Viceroy  Cornwallis,  writing 
from  Dublin,  testifies  that  the  measure,  when  passed,  was  proclaimed 
without  adverse  demonstration  of  any  kind.  In  the  general  election 
which  followed  in  Ireland,  the  question  of  the  Union  was  not  an  issue. 
Of  the  three  principal  opponents  of  Union  in  the  Irish  Parliament, 
all  took  their  seats  in  the  United  Parliament :  Foster  accepted  office, 
Plunkett  formally  withdrew  his  opposition  to  the  Union,  and  Grattan, 
while  he  continued  to  move  for  Catholic  emancipation,  refused  to  join 
in  agitation  with  O'Connell.  That  Pitt  would  have  carried  Catholic 
emancipation  if  he  could,  that  he  was  perfectly  sincere,  no  candid 
mind  can  doubt.  He  could  not  overcome  the  stolid  prejudices  of 
the  king  ;  his  sincerity  he  proved  by  retiring  from  office.  It  was  by 
national  necessity  the  most  absolute  that  he  was  afterwards  recalled 
to  power. 


1908      HAS  ENGLAND    WRONGED  IRELAND?        881 

That  three  such  men  as  Grattan,  Foster,  and  Plunkett  could  come 
in  as  they  did  immediately  after  the  Union  seems  proof  in  itself  that 
patriotism  might  have  acquiesced  in  it  from  the  first,  and  that  it  was 
not  solely  the  creature  of  corruption. 

Ireland  had  become  the  scene  of  a  faction  fight  the  most  hellish, 
with  mutual  massacres,  flogging,  picketing,  pitch-capping,  and  every 
sort  of  destructive  outrage.  People,  we  are  told,  were  at  last  afraid 
to  fry  bacon  lest  the  swine  might  have  been  fed  on  human  flesh. 
But  these  were  the  doings  of  Irish  factions  before  the  Union,  and  it  is 
not  to  the  account  of  the  people  of  England  that  they  should  be  set 
down.  The  Parliament  of  Ireland,  to  which  Grattan  had  bowed  as 
the  nation  impersonated,  looked  on,  doing  nothing  in  the  interests 
of  mercy,  but  letting  loose  martial  law  and  passing  Acts  of  Indemnity 
for  all  atrocities  committed  on  the  side  of  repression,  even  those  of 
Judkin  Fitzgerald.  What  is  there  to  warrant  the  assumption  that 
had  the  Union  not  taken  place  these  men  would  have  let  power  out 
of  their  own  hands,  given  Ireland  a  really  popular  government,  passed 
Catholic  emancipation,  and  made  over  the  land  to  the  peasant  ?  It  was 
by  leading  English  members  of  the  United  Parliament  that  Catholic 
emancipation  at  last  was  carried. 

Since  that  time,  it  may  be  truly  said,  legislative  reform  and  improve- 
ment have  advanced  in  the  two  countries  with  nearly  even  step. 
Sad  necessity,  which  it  is  idle  to  deny,  made  an  exception  in  the  case 
of  the  criminal  law.  O'Connell  with  his  virulence  did  his  best  to 
keep  up  an  estrangement  between  the  two  countries  and  make  con- 
cession difficult.  Ireland  has  suffered  under  exploitation  by  political 
adventurers  such  as  Sadleir  and  Keogh,  painted  to  the  life  by  an 
Irish  hand. 

It  is  not  denied,  O'Connell  himself  testified,  that  in  the  famine 
England  and  Scotland  did  their  best  to  succour  Ireland,  though  this 
unfortunately  did  not  prevent  the  renewal  of  bitter  language  on  the 
Irish  side.  Agitation  against  the  Union  had  become  an  Irish  calling. 
It  has  made  the  task  of  the  real  friends  of  reform  in  Ireland  very  hard. 

O'Connell's  original  object  was  Catholic  emancipation,  which, 
warmly  supported  from  the  beginning  by  British  Liberalism,  was 
presently  conceded.  But  he  had  taken  his  place  as  a  leader  and 
monarch  of  agitation,  and  he  was  evidently  determined  to  retain  his 
throne.  From  Catholic  emancipation  he  went  on  to  the  repeal  of  the 
Union  and  was  defeated  in  the  House  of  Commons  by  an  overwhelming 
vote,  followed  by  an  address  to  the  king  pledging  the  House  to  stand 
by  the  Union.  From  that  time  everything  that  was  or  went  wrong 
in  Ireland,  the  sufferings  of  the  peasantry  from  over-population, 
from  unthrift,  from  the  treacherous  potato,  and  from  evils  which 
are  the  sad  heritage  of  a  disastrous  history,  has  been  charged  to  the 
account  of  the  Union,  and  Repeal  has  been  the  cry.  Sympathy  with 
this  crusade  and  contributions  to  it  have  been  sought  wherever  hatred 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  381  3  N 


882  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUR7  Nov. 

of  England  could  be  found.  It  must  be  owned  that  British  faction, 
pandering  to  Irish  Anglophobia  for  votes,  has  to  bear  a  part  and  no 
small  part  of  the  blame. 

The  agitation  for  Repeal,  however,  made  comparatively  little  way 
under  the  immediate  successors  of  O'Connell.  The  peasantry,  simple- 
minded  as  they  were,  must  have  had  an  inkling  of  the  fact  that  the 
Union  after  all  was  not  the  source  of  the  potato  blight.  The  priest- 
hood, at  all  events,  after  Catholic  emancipation,  had  got  pretty 
much  what  it  wanted,  and  could  not  relish  the  connexion  with  con- 
tinental revolution  and  scepticism  into  which  the  Repeal  movement 
had  got,  and  which  bred  '  Young  Ireland.'  Smith  O'Brien's  rising 
ended  in  widow  McCormack's  cabbage  garden.  It  was  when  Parnell 
united  the  agrarian  with  the  political  movement  that  the  active 
interest  of  the  Irish  peasantry  in  the  political  movement  was  revived, 
and  that  movement  became  formidable  again. 

Even  so,  however,  a  movement  with  no  more  military  force  than 
could  be  crushed  by  a  policeman  in  a  cabbage  garden  would  not 
have  become  formidable  to  the  Empire  had  it  not  been  for  the  mad- 
ness of  British  faction  which  angled  for  support  in  Irish  discontent. 
Gladstone  had  at  first  not  only  opposed  Home  Rule,  but  anathematised 
it  in  the  very  strongest  terms,  proclaimed  the  arrest  of  Parnell  to  a 
shouting  multitude  at  Guildhall,  thrown  him  and  his  leading  followers 
into  prison.  But  he  found  that  this  had  cost  his  party  and  his  general 
policy  the  Irish  vote.  He  must  have  seen  also  that  the  Conservatives 
were  beginning  to  flirt  with  the  Irish  against  him.  Then  he  suddenly 
turned  round,  took  Parnell's  hand,  and  ultimately  brought  in  a 
measure  of  Home  Rule  giving  Ireland  virtually  a  Parliament  of  her 
own,  and  in  addition  to  it  a  representation  in  the  Imperial  Parliament, 
to  bend  by  intrigue  its  councils  to  her  will.  That  the  House  of  Commons 
could  by  a  considerable  majority  pass  such  a  measure  as  Gladstone's 
Home  Rule  Bill  is  surely  a  proof  both  of  the  character  of -government 
by  party  and  of  the  need  of  a  second  Chamber  to  guard  the  nation 
against  the  tendencies  of  the  popular  House. 

Gladstone's  Home  Rule  Bill  would  have  been  virtually  Repeal 
of  the  Union.  After  giving  Ireland  legislative  and  executive  power 
of  her  own,  there  would  have  been  little  use  in  saying  that  these  were 
to  be  exercised  subject  to  the  legislative  and  executive  power  of  Great 
Britain.  The  restriction  could  never  have  been  patiently  endured. 
British  supremacy  would  have  dwindled  into  a  form  like  the  Royal 
veto.  This  would  be  worse  than  the  grant  of  independence  outright, 
since  it  would  involve  a  series  of  quarrels,  while  Great  Britain  would 
not  be  free  from  Irish  responsibilities.  Between  union  and  separa- 
tion the  choice  must  apparently  be  made.  What  the  Home  Rule 
party  demands  is  nationality,  which  implies  complete  separation. 

There  seems  to  be  no  general  forecast  of  the  course  which  things 
would  take  in  Ireland  were  she  left  to  herself.  The  influence  of  the 


1908      HAS  ENGLAND    WRONGED  IRELAND?        888 

priesthood  would  at  first  at  all  events  be  great,  and  would  practically 
be  used  by  them  as  delegates  of  the  Papacy.  The  Roman  Catholic 
Church  in  Ireland  and  that  in  French  Canada  are  probably  about 
the  two  best  things  that  Roman  Catholicism  has  to  show.  I  never 
heard  in  Ireland  anything  about  the  character  and  lives  of  the  priest- 
hood that  was  not  favourable  from  an  ecclesiastical  point  of  view.  In  a 
head  of  Maynooth  I  had  a  friend  who  was  as  liberal-minded  as  he  was 
good.  But  Maynooth  could  not  fail  to  be  very  narrowing.  A  young 
peasant  was  there  kept  for  a  series  of  years  in  intellectual  seclusion, 
after  which  he  would  go  forth  into  the  world  proof  against  all  but 
Church  influences,  and  with  his  mind  absorbed  in  the  objects  of  his 
profession.  Progress  would  be  hardly  possible  under  such  rule. 
The  country  would  be  lucky  if  there  were  no  backsliding  in  its  civilisa- 
tion. To  be  under  the  dominion  of  the  Papal  priesthood  is  of  course 
also  to  be  under  the  dominion  of  the  Pope,  whose  will  would  be  made 
known  through  his  delegate.  But  Ultramontanism  and  '  Modernism  ' 
are  evidently  coming  into  collision.  Quebec  shows  us  what  an  Ireland 
ruled  by  the  priesthood  would  be. 

The  demands  of  the  Church  upon  the  pockets  of  the  people  are 
apparently  beginning  to  be  felt. 

It  is  the  tendency  of  the  Irish  generally  in  both  hemispheres  to 
follow  popular  leaders,  and  it  is  equally  the  tendency  of  ambitious 
men  of  the  upper  class  to  furnish  them  with  the  leaders  to  follow. 
Political  adventurers  would  probably  be  numerous.  O'Connell  and 
Parnell  were  both  of  them  agitating  for  an  object  which  lifted  them 
out  of  the  depths  of  political  adventure.  But  the  ordinary  political 
adventurer  will  be  found  vividly  painted  by  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  in  his 
Parnell  Movement.  Sadleir  and  Keogh  were  extreme  specimens  of  a 
class.  The  people  have  been  trained  too  much  to  look  to  agitation 
instead  of  looking  to  self-exertion  for  improvement  of  their  lot. 
That  there  would  be  a  general  settling  down  to  steady  industry  and 
commerce  cannot  surely  be  very  confidently  assumed. 

An  agrarian  movement  of  the  radical  kind  would  sweep  away 
the  landed  proprietary,  who  might  otherwise,  if  they  would  take 
earnestly  to  their  duty,  be  the  best  leaders  of  the  people  in  the  rural 
districts.  A  landed  proprietor,  whether  in  England  or  Ireland,  who 
resides  constantly  on  his  estate  and  does  his  duty  to  his  people,  giving 
them  such  guidance  and  help  as  is  in  his  power,  earns  perhaps  a  not 
inconsiderable  portion  of  his  rent. 

What  would  be  the  position  of  British  and  Protestant  Ulster  left 
to  the  political  mercy  of  an  overwhelming  majority  of  Roman  Catholics 
and  Celts  traditionally  hostile  ?  Could  England,  to  whom  Ulster  has 
always  been  faithful,  afford  to  see  her  wronged  ?  Would  there  not 
be  intervention  on  the  part  of  England,  met  perhaps  by  appeals  to 
foreign  intervention  on  the  other  side  ? 

The  writer,  when  in  Ireland,  lived  a  good  deal  with  the  ex-Chancellor 


884  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY       Nov.  1908 

Lord  O'Hagan,  Sir  Alexander  McDonnell,  and  other  men  of  that  stamp, 
as  heartily  attached  to  Ireland  and  as  thoroughly  conversant  with  her 
interests  as  it  was  possible  to  be.  Those  men  would  have  protested 
as  strongly  as  any  Fenian  against  wrong  done  to  their  country.  At 
the  same  time  they  were  wholly  outside  party,  which  surely  in  this 
distracting  business  has  had  too  much  to  do. 

The  aim,  however,  of  these  few  pages  is,  not  to  settle  the  Irish 
question,  which  is  the  arduous  task  of  statesmen,  but  to  help  a  little 
towards  it,  if  possible,  by  plucking  out  the  historic  thorn. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  Edward  the  Seventh  has  not  made  his  last 
visit  to  Ireland.  The  frequent  presence  of  Royalty  in  Ireland  might 
do  much  to  improve  feeling.  Between  Henry  the  Second  and  George 
the  Fourth,  the  Irish,  a  people  much  swayed  by  personal  attachment 
and  fond  of  Royalty,  never  saw  their  king  except  in  a  hostile  character, 
as  in  the  case  of  Richard  the  Second,  or  as  an  enemy  of  England,  as  in 
the  case  of  James  the  Second. 

P.S. — I  have  just  read  Paraguay  on  Shannon,  which  seems  to 
make  a  strong  case  against  the  political  influence  and  interference 
of  the  priesthood.  My  words  of  commendation  refer  only  to  the 
character  and  influence  of  the  priesthood  in  its  proper  sphere. 

GOLDWIN  SMITH. 


The  Editor  of  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  cannot  undertake 
to  return  unaccepted  MSS. 


THE 


NINETEENTH 
CENTUBY 

AND   AFTER          " 

XX 


No.  CCCLXXX1I— DECEMBER  1908 


THE    TWO-POWER    STANDARD    FOR    THE 

NAVY 

AT  the  present  moment  public  interest  in  the  programme  of  ship- 
building for  the  Koyal  Navy  is  greater  than  it  has  been  since  the 
Naval  Defence  Act  of  1889  was  introduced.  Many  circumstances 
have  contributed  to  this  re-awakening.  Determined  efforts  are  being 
made  by  Germany  to  produce  a  formidable  war-fleet ;  the  Law  of 
1900  has  been  amended  and  supplemented  by  successivej^laws, 
culminating  in  the  great  programme  approved  by  the  Reichstag  at 
the  commencement  of  the  present  year.  Concurrently  with  this 
abnormal  activity  in  Germany  there  has  occurred  a  considerable 
diminution  in  the  British  Vote  for  new  construction,  and  a  reduc- 
tion in  the  number  of  warships  laid  down.  Every  student  of  naval 
affairs  is  familiar  with  the  reasons  given  by  the  Government  for 
this  temporary  slackening  in  our  rate  of  shipbuilding.  They  are  two- 
fold :  first,  it  is  claimed  and  universally  admitted  that,  at  present, 
British  naval  supremacy  is  well  assured,  and  that  the  margin  of  our 
naval  power  is  ample  ;  second,  that  it  has  been  intended  to  give 
practical  proof  of  the  desire  of  the  British  Government  and  people 
VOL.  LXIV— No  382  885  3  0 


886  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

to  encourage  a  limitation  of  expenditure  on  armaments,  so  far  as 
can  be  done  without  prejudice  to  that  '  indisputable  superiority  on 
the  sea,'  which  is  of  vital  necessity  to  the  existence  and  well-being 
of  the  Empire.  The  Hague  Conference  having  demonstrated  the 
hoplessness  of  reaching  an  agreement  in  regard  to  such  a  limitation, 
and  in  view  of  the  determined  action  of  Germany  and  its  effects 
upon  the  shipbuilding  programmes  of  other  countries,  the  question 
now  naturally  arises  whether  or  not  the  time  has  arrived  for  taking 
corresponding  action  here,  and  embarking  without  delay  on  a  large 
and  necessarily  costly  programme  of  new  construction.  In  some 
quarters  it  has  been  asserted  that  the  delay  has  already  been  too 
long  continued,  that  risks  have  been  incurred  which  can  be  remedied 
only  by  urgent  and  special  measures,  and  that  if  this  is  not  done  at 
once  our  naval  supremacy  will  disappear  three  or  four  years  hence. 
In  support  of  this  view  it  is  pointed  out  that  since  March  1907 
Germany  has  laid  down  seven  battleships  and  three  armoured  cruisers 
of  the  largest  size  and  most  powerful  types,  whereas  our  shipbuilding 
programmes  for  the  last  two  financial  years  have  included  only  four 
battleships  and  one  cruiser  of  comparable  types.  Moreover,  the 
German  programme,  as  recently  amended,  provides  for  laying 
down  in  each  of  the  three  years  1909-11  three  battleships  and 
one  armoured  cruiser,  and  for  meeting  the  large  further  increase 
in  expenditure  consequent  thereon.  In  1904-5  the  German  Vote 
for  new  construction  and  armaments  was  (in  round  figures)  4,645,OOOZ.  ; 
in  the  current  financial  year  it  is  8,366,400Z.  ;  and  for  1909-10  is 
to  be  10,988,000?.  On  the  other  hand,  the  British  Vote  for  new  con- 
struction and  armaments,  which  exceeded  13,500,OOOZ.  in  1904-5, 
has  gradually  fallen  to  8,660,0002.  this  financial  year,  and  is  lower 
than  it  has  been  during  the  present  century.  The  average  British 
Vote  for  ten  years  has  been  about  10,600,OOOZ. 

These  and  other  figures  have  been  freely  used  for  the  purpose  of 
awakening  public  sentiment  and  securing  prompt  action  in  laying 
down  a  considerable  number  of  new  ships.  The  balance  of  opinion 
on  the  subject,  so  far  as  can  be  judged  from  a  persual  of  many  articles 
and  speeches,  is  that  at  least  six  and  possibly  seven  battleships, 
exceeding  in  dimensions  and  fighting  powers  any  existing  vessels, 
ought  to  be  laid  down  at  an  early  date,  and  pressed  forward  rapidly 
to  completion  in  order  to  make  our  naval  position  secure  in  1912. 
The  total  outlay  involved  in  this  programme  would  be  from  twelve 
to  fourteen  millions  sterling,  and  it  is  urged  that  it  should  be  finished 
within  two  and  a  half  years.  There  are  large  outstanding  liabilities 
on  vessels  of  various  classes  now  in  process  of  construction,  and  the 
proposed  additional  programme  would  necessitate,  therefore,  a  great 
increase  in  the  Vote  for  shipbuilding  and  armaments  in  1909-10 
and  the  following  financial  year.  In  addition,  there  are  considerable 
increases  in  naval  expenditure — more  or  less  automatic  in  character, 


1908      TWO-POWER  STANDARD  FOR  THE  NAVY    887 

and  therefore  unavoidable — which  must  be  provided  for  next  year, 
as  was  explained  in  detail  by  the  writer  in  the  April  number  of  this 
Review.  In  these  circumstances  it  is  of  extreme  importance  to 
examine  closely  the  reasons  which  have  been  advanced  in  support 
of  this  new  shipbuilding  programme.  Everyone  will  agree  that  if 
the  additions  to  our  fleet  are  really  necessary  they  must  be  provided 
at  all  costs.  The  incident  will  be  regrettable,  but  if  the  need 
exists  it  must  be  met,  and  no  good  purpose  can  be  served  by 
spending  time  and  thought  in  ascertaining  who  may  have  been  re- 
sponsible for  the  unsatisfactory  conditions  which  make  this  '  spurt ' 
in  shipbuilding  imperatively  necessary.  On  the  other  hand,  unless 
there  is  an  absolute  necessity  for  an  immediate  increase  in  our 
naval  force,  it  is  preferable  not  to  commence  so  many  ships  simul- 
taneously, and  to  concentrate  such  great  expenditure  within  a  very 
limited  period.  From  the  national  point  of  view  it  is  desirable 
to  approximate  more  closely  to  a  uniform  rate  of  expenditure  ; 
from  the  industrial  point  of  view  it  is  preferable  to  maintain  a 
fairly  constant  and  regular  flow  of  orders  for  warships  and  their 
armaments. 

In  passing,  allusion  may  be  made  to  an  argument  that  has  been 
put  forward  lately  in  favour  of  large  immediate  orders  for  warships, 
on  the  ground  that  this  action  would  relieve,  to  some  extent,  the 
prevailing  depression  and  unemployment  in  the  shipbuilding,  en- 
gineering, and  steel-making  industries  of  Great  Britain ;  while  it 
would  enable  contracts  to  be  placed  at  low  prices.  This  statement 
is  unquestionably  true,  but  it  might  be  applied  equally  well  to  many 
other  classes  of  Government  orders.  While  sympathising  heartily 
with  industries  which  would  be  benefited  by  an  immediate  commence- 
ment of  a  considerable  number  of  warships,  the  writer  is  of  opinion 
that  their  claims  to  consideration  are  not  special  or  pre-eminent  as 
compared  with  other  industries.  The  subject  should  be  dealt  with 
as  a  whole  if  dealt  with  at  all ;  and  there  must  be  consideration  and 
decision  of  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  aid  which  the  Government 
should  or  ought  to  give  towards  the  employment  of  labour  in  periods 
of  industrial  depression. 

The  fundamental  question  to  be  examined  in  connexion  with 
British  programmes  for  warship-building,  including  that  for  1909-10, 
is,  What  is  necessary  for  the  defence  of  the  Empire  and  the  main- 
tenance of  our  naval  supremacy  ?  The  responsibility  for  dealing 
with  this  matter  rests  upon  the  Government,  acting  under  the  advice 
of  the  Admiralty,  and  in  many  technical  matters  under  the  special 
guidance  of  naval  members  of  the  Board.  The  writer  has  no  intention 
to  join  the  ranks  of  the  '  naval  experts  '  who  have  been  freely  ten- 
dering advice  in  regard  to  the  number  and  types  of  new  ships  which 
ought  to  be  laid  down  without  delay.  His  long  experience  of  official 
life  and  responsibility  convinces  him  that  any  such  action  on  his 

3  o  2 


888  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

part  would  be  undesirable  and  unnecessary.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  is  of  opinion  that  the  case  presented  to  the  public  recently  by 
advocates  of  a  great  shipbuilding  programme  has  been  exaggerated, 
and  that  the  comparisons  of  British  and  foreign  fleets  which  have 
been  made  have  been  in  some  respects  misleading.  It  is  proposed, 
therefore,  in  this  article  to  draw  attention  to  certain  facts  that  appear 
to  have  been  either  misunderstood  or  overlooked,  although  their 
due  and  fair  consideration  is  essential  to  a  correct  appreciation  of 
the  existing  naval  situation. 

On  the  12th  of  November,  the  Prime  Minister — in  answer  to  a  ques- 
tion of  Mr.  Lee  (formerly  Civil  Lord  of  the  Admiralty) — stated  in  the 
House  of  Commons  that  the  Government  '  accepted  the  two-Power 
standard  of  naval  strength,  as  meaning  a  preponderance  of  ten  per 
cent,  over  the  combined  strengths  in  capital  ships  of  the  two  next 
strongest  Powers.'  Mr.  Asquith  then  confirmed  the  adherence  of 
the  present  Government  to  a  formula  which  has  been  adopted  by 
successive  Governments  during  the  last  twenty  years.  Lord  Tweed- 
mouth  had  made  a  similar  announcement  during  the  naval  debate  in 
the  House  of  Lords  on  the  18th  of  March,  and  other  members  of  the 
Government  on  different  occasions  have  said  the  same  thing.  Apart 
from  these  public  declarations  of  policy,  it  is  obvious  that  the  respon- 
sibility for  fixing  the  proper  standard  for  the  naval  and  military  forces 
of  the  Empire  must  always  rest  upon  the  Government  of  the  day.  In 
some  quarters,  however,  there  has  been  a  confusion  of  ideas  on  this 
matter,  and  it  has  been  assumed  that  responsibility  for  fixing  this 
standard,  although  nominally  resting  on  the  Government,  is  really 
borne  by  the  Board  of  Admiralty.  The  true  function  of  that  Board 
is  to  advise  the  Government  in  regard  to  the  numbers  and  types 
of  ships  which  are  required  to  be  added  to  the  existing  fleet  from 
time  to  time,  in  order  that  the  standard  laid  down  by  the  Govern- 
ment may  be  secured.  The  members  of  the  Board  are  responsible 
for  the  arrangement  and  execution  of  shipbuilding  programmes,  as 
well  as  for  the  training  of  the  personnel,  the  organisation  and  disci- 
pline of  the  Royal  Navy,  the  maintenance  of  the  fleet  in  an  efficient 
condition,  and  all  other  matters  which  affect  its  readiness  and  fitness 
for  war.  These  duties  are  sufficiently  varied  and  onerous  to  tax 
severely  the  ability  and  energy  of  the  members  of  any  Board  of 
Admiralty,  and  especially  of  the  naval  members.  The  professional 
and  technical  business  of  the  Admiralty  is  distributed  amongst  the 
members  by  the  First  Lord,  and  may  be  varied  at  his  discretion. 
Of  course  the  limitation  of  official  responsibility  does  not  preclude 
individual  members  of  the  Board  of  Admiralty  from  forming  and 
expressing  opinions  as  to  the  sufficiency  or  insufficiency  of  the 
standard  of  naval  force  laid  down  by  the  Government  under  which 
they  are  serving.  When  that  standard  has  been  publicly  declared, 
as  is  the  case  at  present,  there  is  also  no  bar  to  the  free  expression 


1908      TWO-POWER  STANDARD  FOR  THE  NAVY    889 

of  opinion  as  to  its  sufficiency  by  any  naval  officer  or  British  citizen. 
In  fact,  instances  are  not  lacking  in  which  the  condemnation  of  an 
officially  accepted  standard  by  educated  public  opinion  has  led  to 
its  modification.  The  two-Power  standard,  however,  runs  no  risk 
of  revision  at  present. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  standard  was  proposed  by  a 
Committee  of  three  distinguished  admirals  appointed  in  1888  to 
consider  and  report  on  the  naval  manoeuvres  of  that  year.  The 
members  of  the  Committee  were  Sir  William  Dowell,  Sir  Vesey  Hamil- 
ton, and  Sir  Frederick  Richards  (now  Admiral  of  the  Fleet).  Their 
report  was  remarkable  in  many  respects,  and  it  bore  fruit  subse- 
quently in  the  well-considered  and  far-reaching  policy  which  was 
carried  into  practical  effect  during  the  long  and  distinguished  service 
of  Sir  Frederick  Richards  as  First  Naval  Lord.  In  these  days  of  short- 
lived memories  it  may  be  permitted  to  quote  the  following  passage  : 

If  England  could  '  consistently  with  national  honour '  control  the  question 
of  peace  or  war  there  would  be  no  need  for  haste  in  bringing  up  her  naval  force 
to  the  standard  required  for  insuring,  under  Providence,  a  successful  issue  to  a 
struggle  for  the  freedom  of  the  seas  ;  but,  as  there  seems  nothing  to  support  the 
belief  that  she  would  have  any  option  in  the  matter,  when  it  suited  another  great 
Power  to  challenge  her  maritime  position,  we  are  decidedly  of  opinion  that  no 
time  should  be  lost  hi  placing  her  Navy  beyond  comparison  with  that  of  any  two 
Powers.  Without  particularising  her  possible  antagonist,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
but  that,  were  England  involved  in  a  maritime  war,  and  she  were  to  resume  her 
natural  rights  as  a  belligerent — which  appear  to  have  been  voluntarily  laid 
aside  by  the  Declaration  of  Paris  in  1856 — complications  with  neutral  States 
would  inevitably  ensue,  and  her  whole  commercial  position  and  the  immense 
carrying  trade  by  which  it  is  sustained  would  be  jeopardised  at  the  outset,  were 
war  to  be  forced  upon  her  at  a  time  when  her  Navy  was  weak.  No  other  nation 
has  any  such  interest  in  the  maintenance  of  an  undoubted  superiority  at  sea  as 
has  England,  whose  seaboard  is  her  frontier. 

England  ranks  among  the  great  Powers  of  the  world  by  virtue  of  the  naval 
position  she  has  acquired  in  the  past,  and  which  has  never  been  seriously  challenged 
since  the  close  of  the  last  great  war.  The  defeat  of  her  Navy  means  to  her  the 
loss  of  India  and  her  Colonies,  and  of  her  place  among  the  nations.  Without 
any  desire  to  question  the  sums  annually  granted  by  Parliament  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  services,  we  cannot  but  note  the  disproportion  in  the  appropria- 
tion when  the  magnitude  of  the  issues  involved  is  taken  into  consideration. 
It  would,  ha  our  opinion,  be  far  more  in  consonance  with  the  requirements 
of  the  nation  by  the  provision  of  an  adequate  fleet  to  render  invasion  an  im- 
possibility, than  to  enter  into  costly  arrangements  to  meet  an  enemy  on  our 
shores  (instead  of  destroying  his  '  Armadas  '  off  our  shores)  ;  for,  under  the 
conditions  in  which  it  would  be  possible  for  a  great  Power  to  successfully  invade 
England,  nothing  could  avail  her  ;  as,  the  command  of  the  sea  once  being  lost, 
it  would  not  require  the  landing  of  a  single  man  upon  her  shores  to  bring  her 
to  an  ignominious  capitulation,  for  by  her  Navy  she  must  stand  or  fall. 

In  1888,  and  for  many  years  after,  the  two-Power  standard  possessed 
a  very  real  meaning  and  remained  unquestioned.  France  and  Russia 
owned  the  two  most  powerful  war-fleets,  were  in  practical  alliance, 
and  adjusted  their  shipbuilding  programmes  in  such  a  fashion  as  to 


890  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Dec. 

match  or  attempt  to  match  the  British.  At  present  the  foreign 
relations  of  this  country  are  radically  changed,  and  so  is  the  naval 
situation.  Under  the  pressure  of  financial  necessities  and  the  para- 
mount claims  of  the  land  forces,  France  has  dropped  from  the  second 
place  in  the  war-fleets  of  the  world.  The  Kussian  Nav}7  has  been 
for  a  time  practically  effaced  by  the  disasters  of  the  war  in  the  Far 
East.  The  United  States  of  America,  spurred  on  by  experience  gained 
during  the  war  with  Spain  and  by  action  taken  elsewhere,  has  created 
a  powerful  fleet  and  can  now  fairly  claim  the  position  long  occupied 
by  France,  being  second  only  to  Great  Britain.  Germany  aspires 
to  an  equally  proud  position,  and  is  carrying  out  a  huge  programme 
of  shipbuilding  as  well  as  making  a  corresponding  increase  in  personnel, 
and  completing  great  works  on  land — on  the  North  Sea  Canal'  and  at 
naval  ports — to  provide  for  the  accommodation,  maintenance  and 
effective  use  of  her  fleet.  In  these  circumstances  a  new  interpretation 
of  the  two-Power  standard  has  become  necessary.  There  remain, 
however,  differences  of  opinion  in  regard  to  the  proper  interpretation 
to  be  given  to  the  formula.  Since  Mr.  Asquith  made  the  state- 
ment unreservedly  accepting  the  two-Power  standard,  the  sugges- 
tion has  been  made  that  it  should  be  restricted  to  European 
Navies  in  its  practical  application ;  and  that,  even  by  implica- 
tion, it  should  not  be  assumed  that  the  war-fleets  of  the  English- 
speaking  peoples  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  will  ever  be  arrayed 
against  one  another.  Such  an  event  appears  incredible  and  ought 
never  to  occur.  Neither  is  it  probable  that  France  and  Germany 
will  be  found  united  against  Great  Britain  in  naval  warfare.  Yet 
history  and  experience  teach  us  that  events  and  alliances  which 
appeared  to  be  impossible  have  come  to  pass  ;  and  in  framing  British 
naval  programmes  it  is  well  to  err  on  the  side  of  excess  in  strength. 
A  British  Navy  of  supreme  power  is  undoubtedly  one  ,of  the  greatest 
guarantees  of  the  peace  of  the  world,  and  the  adoption  of  the  two- 
Power  standard  in  its  broadest  sense  ought  not  to  give  offence  in  any 
quarter,  because  no  other  country  depends  for  its  existence  upon  a 
command  of  the  sea.  In  reply  to  questions  asked  on  November  23, 
Mr.  Asquith  stated  in  the  House  of  Commons,  that  '  under  existing 
conditions,  and  under  all  foreseeable  circumstances  '  the  phrase  '  two 
next  strongest  Powers  '  must  be  taken  to  mean  '  the  two  next  strongest 
Powers,  whatever  they  may  be,  and  wherever  they  may  be  situated.' 
Thus  interpreted  he  regarded  '  the  two -Power  standard  as  a  workable 
formula,'  by  which  our  superiority  at  sea  can  be  secured. 

Having  accepted  the  two-Power  standard  as  a  rough-and-ready 
working  rule,  its  practical  application  involves  decisions  on  many 
important  points.  Is  '  the  preponderance  of  ten  per  cent,  in  capital 
ships '  to  be  determined  simply  by  numerical  comparisons,  or  by  the 
consideration  of  the  aggregate  offensive  and  defensive  powers  of  ships 
ranking  as  '  capital '  ?  How  are  the  qualities  constituting  a  '  capital ' 


1908      TWO-POWER  STANDARD  FOR  THE  NAVY    891 

ship  to  be  defined  ?  How  are  the  aggregate  fighting  powers  of  two 
differently  constituted  fleets  to  be  measured  for  individual  vessels  or 
totalled  for  the  fleets  ?  What  allowances  are  to  be  made  for  differences 
always  existing  between  the  total  numbers  of  ships  appearing  on  the 
Effective  List  of  a  Navy,  and  the  numbers  actually  in  efficient  condition 
and  ready  for  service  at  any  moment  ?  Besides  these  there  are  many 
other  questions  that  must  be  asked  and  finally  answered  by  the 
responsible  authority — and  for  the  Royal  Navy  that  authority  un- 
doubtedly must  be  the  Board  of  Admiralty. 

In  dealing  with  this  vital  matter  certain  fundamental  considera- 
tions have  to  be  regarded.  The  available  strength  of  a  Navy  in  any 
and  every  class  of  ship  at  a  given  moment  depends  on  the  numbers 
which  are  complete,  thoroughly  efficient  and  ready  for  service.  Ships 
which  are  building,  however  far  advanced,  must  not  be  taken  into 
account ;  nor  must  ships  which  are  dismantled  and  undergoing  large 
repairs  ;  or  ships  which  have  become  inefficient  in  propelling  apparatus, 
armaments  and  all  other  features  contributing  to  fighting  efficiency. 
The  presence  of  '  lame  ducks  '  in  a  fleet  means  loss  of  combatant 
power  and  strategical  capability  in  the  fleet  as  a  whole.  Each  naval 
department  knows,  or  should  know,  what  weaknesses  of  this  nature 
exist  in  the  fleet  of  which  it  has  charge  ;  but  it  cannot  be  so  well 
informed  about  the  actual  condition  of  foreign  Navies.  There  is  no 
excuse  for  a  policy  which  temporarily  neglects  or  postpones  adequate 
financial  provision  for  the  upkeep  and  repairs  of  all  completed  ships 
which  are  still  continued  on  the  Effective  List  of  a  fleet.  There  are 
temptations  no  doubt  to  do  this,  in  order  to  reduce  expenditure  or  to 
devote  money  to  other  objects,  such  as  new  construction.  The  writer 
has  repeatedly  dealt  with  this  matter  in  this  Review  and  elsewhere, 
and  would  again  assert  his  conviction  that  failure  to  provide  liberally 
for  the  maintenance  and  repairs  of  the  ships  on  the  Effective  List  of 
the  Royal  Navy  is  inexcusable  and  dangerous.  '  Paper  '  ships  are  of 
no  service  in  the  day  of  battle. 

In  making  comparisons  between  the  strengths  of  fleets  it  is  also 
unwise  to  concentrate  attention  on  vessels  of  the  latest  types  in  whose 
design  it  has  been  possible  to  take  advantage  of  the  most  recent 
inventions  and  improvements  ;  and  to  treat  vessels  of  earlier  date  as  of 
little  worth,  or  as  negligible  quantities.  Ever  since  steam-propulsion 
began  to  supersede  sail-power,  iron  and  steel  to  take  the  place  of 
wood,  modern  rifled  guns  to  be  employed  instead  of  cast-iron  smooth- 
bore guns,  and  armour  to  be  used  for  defence,  it  has  been  true  that  the 
rapid  introduction  of  new  types  of  warships  has  involved  relative 
depreciation  in  the  fighting  powers  of  their  predecessors.  This  law 
is  of  universal  application.  The  terms  '  obsolescent '  and  '  obsolete,' 
as  applied  to  warships  of  no  great  age,  have  been  in  use  for  half  a 
century  ;  but  their  employment  has  been  more  frequent  and  general 
since  the  '  Dreadnought  era  '  began  four  years  ago.  Consequently 


892  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Dec. 

there  has  been  created  a  popular  impression  that  something  new  and 
unprecedented  happened  when  the  Dreadnought  type  was  introduced. 
In  the  June  number  of  this  Review  the  writer  showed  that  history  is 
simply  repeating  itself  in  the  Dreadnought  of  1905.  The  Dreadnought 
of  1873  in  her  day  embodied  similar  fundamental  ideas  and  was  no 
less  remarkable.  Reference  to  that  article  will  show  moreover  that 
there  is  not  universal  acceptance  of  the  view,  put  forward  again  and 
again  during  the  last  four  years,  that  the  present  Dreadnought  type  is 
immensely  superior  in  fighting  efficiency  to  all  its  predecessors.  If  what 
has  been  claimed  for  that  type  were  admitted,  it  would,  however, 
still  remain  true  that  the  existing  naval  supremacy  of  Great  Britain 
does  not  depend  entirely,  or  even  chiefly,  upon  the  possession  of  a 
certain  number  of  ships  of  great  size  and  high  speed  each  armed  with 
many  12-inch  guns  of  long  range  and  great  power.  The  war-fleet  of 
Britain  or  of  any  other  country  must  be  considered  as  a  whole.  Com- 
mand of  the  sea  depends  upon  our  possession  of  a  sufficient  aggregate 
power  in  all  types  of  capital  ships  still  remaining  on  the  Effective 
List.  In  addition  to  these  capital  ships  the  Royal  Navy  must  possess 
other  and  less  powerful  vessels  in  sufficient  numbers  and  of  suitable 
types  to  perform  efficiently  numerous  and  important  duties — as  auxi- 
liaries to  fleets,  and  for  the  protection  of  British  interests  throughout 
the  world.  Unless  all  these  requirements  are  fulfilled  the  needs  of  the 
Empire  cannot  be  met,  even  if  we  were  possessed  of  surpassing  force 
in  Dreadnoughts  or  any  other  type  of  capital  ship. 

The  foregoing  statements  are  truisms,  no  doubt ;  but  in  some 
circumstances  it  is  desirable  to  restate  and  enforce  truisms.  The 
extremely  narrow  view  which  has  been  taken  in  recent  discussions 
of  the  coming  programme  of  shipbuilding  justifies  what  has  been  said  ; 
because  it  has  been  tacitly  assumed  that  the  maintenance  of  British 
naval  supremacy  depended  wholly  or  chiefly  on  our  possession  of  a 
superiority  in  numbers  of  ships  of  the  Dreadnought  type.  It  is  this 
view  of  the  matter  which  has  led  to  the  suggestion  that  six  or  seven 
improved  Dreadnoughts  should  be  laid  down  immediately  in  order 
that  they  may  be  ready  for  service  in  1911.  It  cannot  be  supposed 
that  such  a  restricted  view  of  the  subject  has  received  or  will  receive 
official  sanction.  It  may  be  anticipated  that  in  framing  their  pro- 
gramme the  Admiralty  will  neither  ignore  nor  unduly  depreciate 
the  value  attaching  to  earlier  types  of  capital  ships  ;  seeing  that  these 
ships  constitute  the  main  strength  of  the  existing  British  fleet.  Vessels 
of  comparable  types  occupy  an  equally  important  position  in  foreign 
Navies  at  the  present  time,  and  our  business  is  to  deal  first  with 
existing  forces,  immediately  available  for  employment  in  hostilities 
if  war  broke  out ;  although  attention  must  also  be  given  to  ships 
building  and  their  possible  dates  of  completion. 

Not  one  foreign  vessel  of  the  Dreadnought  type,  or  designed  as  a 
rival  to  that  type,  is  completed,  nor  is  one  likely  to  be  ready  for  service 


1908      TWO-POWER  STANDARD  FOR  THE  NAVY    898 

until  next  year  has  well  advanced.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Royal 
Navy  at  the  close  of  this  year,  besides  the  Dreadnought  herself,  will 
have  available  three  Invincibles — all  with  single-calibre  big-gun  arma- 
ments— in  addition  to  the  Lord  Nelson  and  Agamemnon,  which  in 
offensive  and  defensive  powers  compare  favourably  with  the  Dread- 
nought and  closely  resemble  in  armament  the  most  recent  types  of 
French  battleships  now  building.  Furthermore  we  have  three  other 
battleships  of  the  Temeraire  type,  which  were  described  by  Lord 
Tweedmouth  as  '  infinitely  better  than  the  Dreadnought,'  now  rapidly 
approaching  completion.  The  two  German  battleships  and  the  large 
cruiser  Blucher  first  laid  down  as  replies  to  the  Dreadnoughts  and 
Invincibles  will  not  be  completed  until  the  latter  part  of  1909  ;  two 
more  and  a  large  armoured  cruiser  are  intended  to  be  finished  in  1910, 
before  which  date  the  Royal  Navy  will  have  been  reinforced  by  three 
St.  Vincents,  which  Lord  Tweedmouth  described  as  '  a  great  advance  ' 
on  the  Temeraires.  In  the  United  States  the  Michigan  and  South 
Carolina  are  to  be  completed  by  contractors  at  the  end  of  1909,  and 
the  North  Dakota  and  Delaware  in  the  summer  of  1910.  Consequently 
in  1910  the  Royal  Navy  will  possess  twelve  battleships  and  cruisers 
of  the  latest  types,  as  against  six  comparable  ships  possessed  by 
Germany  and  four  belonging  to  the  United  States.  France  will  not 
finish  any  of  the  six  first-class  battleships  now  building  until  1911  ; 
in  the  course  of  that  year  it  is  proposed  to  complete  four,  and  the  other 
two  are  to  be  completed  in  the  following  year.  So  far  as  these  types 
are  concerned,  therefore,  the  Royal  Navy  during  the  next  two  years 
will  retain  a  considerable  superiority  in  numbers  over  the  three  most 
powerful  fleets  combined,  even  if  their  programmes  of  construction  are 
completely  realised  and  no  delays  occur  from  non-preventible  causes. 
At  the  present  time,  moreover,  quite  apart  from  this  superiority  in  most 
recent  types  of  capital  ships,  the  British  Navy  is  capable  of  meeting 
any  possible  combination  of  the  two  strongest  war-fleets  of  other 
Powers.  Before  substantiating  this  statement  it  may  be  noted  that 
if  the  popular  view  were  correct — viz.  that  the  introduction  of  the 
Dreadnought  type  in  1905  greatly  depreciated  the  value  of  all  preceding 
vessels — the  Admiralty  of  that  day  must  have  committed  an  act  of 
folly  without  precedent  in  the  history  of  the  Royal  Navy.  This 
conclusion  rests  upon  the  unquestioned  fact  that  before  the  Dread- 
nought was  laid  down  in  1905  our  naval  supremacy  was  greater  than 
it  had  been  at  any  time  since  armour  and  modern  armaments  were 
introduced,  largely  in  consequence  of  the  virtual  destruction  of  the 
Russian  fleet.  It  surely  could  not  have  been  deliberately  intended 
to  weaken  that  supremacy — consisting  as  it  did  of  types  then  generally 
accepted  and  imitated  elsewhere — by  entering  upon  a  policy  which 
necessarily  involved  a  serious  depreciation  in  value  of  existing  warships. 
If  this  was  not  intended  then  it  follows  that  the  Admiralty  did  not 
andjdoes  not  endorse  the  opinions  freely  expressed  at  the  time  of  the 


894  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

Dreadnought's  commencement  or  believe  that  her  advent  involved 
a  complete  revolution  in  naval  construction.  Mr.  McKenna,  at  all 
events,  made  it  abundantly  clear  that  he  did  not  endorse  that  view 
in  one  of  the  first  speeches  delivered  by  him  in  the  House  of  Commons 
after  he  became  First  Lord.  He  then  said,  and  most  people  will  agree 
with  the  statement,  that 

down  to  the  last  three  years  the  battleship  superiority  of  this  country  over 
Germany  was  very  considerable.  It  was  generally  assumed  that  the  introduction 
of  the  Dreadnought  had  altered  the  whole  relations  between  the  two  countries. 
Valuable  as  most  people  now  agreed  the  Dreadnought  was,  as  a  new  type  of  ship, 
no  one  would  assert  that  the  existence  of  the  Dreadnought  nullified  the  existence 
of  the  previous  kinds  of  ships.  Those  must  be  taken  into  account  in  striking  a 
balance  between  the  two  Powers. 

It  may  be  of  assistance  to  readers  desirous  of  mastering  the  facts 
if  an  attempt  is  made  in  popular  language  to  describe  the  existing 
naval  situation,  and  to  illustrate  the  standing  of  the  Royal  Navy 
relatively  to  the  hypothetical  combination  of  any  two  of  the  three 
most  powerful  foreign  fleets.  The  public  mind  has  been  much  dis- 
turbed by  statements  of  an  alarmist  character,  in  which  great  promi- 
nence has  been  given  to  future  possibilities,  while  little  has  been 
said  about  existing  conditions.  A  few  preliminary  explanations  must 
be  given,  in  order  that  the  method  of  tabulation  and  comparison 
adopted  may  be  clearly  understood. 

The  distinction  between  '  battleships  '  and  '  armoured  cruisers  ' 
has  been  diminishing  in  recent  years.  In  the  battle  of  Tsushima 
Togo  associated  the  two  classes  and  treated  his  armoured  cruisers 
as  '  capital  ships  '  forming  part  of  his  line  of  battle.  It  may  be  taken 
for  granted  that  this  example  will  be  followed  in  future  naval  actions. 
Differences  in  manosuvring  power,  even  if  they  exist  between  the 
units  in  a  fleet,  obviously  become  of  comparatively  small  importance 
when  actions  are  fought  at  very  long  ranges  ;  the  power  of  '  quick 
turning '  in  small  spaces  by  individual  ships  in  these  ciscumstances 
is  not  of  the  same  value  as  it  was  formerly.  In  all  large  Navies, 
however,  some  vessels  classed  as  armoured  cruisers  are  very  mode- 
rately armed  and  protected ;  so  that  they  could  not  be  treated 
as  '  capital  ships  '  or  included  in  the  line  of  battle.  In  dealing 
with  the  following  tables  this  difference  will  be  allowed  for  roughly, 
although  the  writer  recognises  that  the  matter  is  one  on  which  there 
is  room  for  difference  of  opinion  and  that  his  classification  may  be 
criticised.  It  has,  however,  been  fairly  applied  to  each  fleet. 

As  to  the  *  life  '  on  the  Effective  List  which  may  reasonably  be 
assigned  to  battleships  and  armoured  cruisers,  it  may  be  said  that 
the  latest  German  law  takes  twenty  years.  The  '  Cawdor  '  Return 
takes  twenty-five  years  for.  battleships  and  twenty  years  for  armoured 
cruisers,  which  was  the  German  practice  until  the  present  year.  In 
the  following  tables  twenty  years  from  the  date  of  launch  has  been 


1908      TWO-POWER  STANDARD  FOR  THE  NAVY     896 

taken  for  both  classes.  This  bears  more  hardly  on  the  British  list 
than  on  the  others.  For  instance,  the  battleships  Nile  and  Trafalgar 
of  the  Royal  Navy  are  shut  out,  whereas  vessels  such  as  the  German 
Brandenburgs  or  the  United  States  Oregons  are  retained,  although  they 
are  greatly  inferior  to  the  two  British  ships  in  offensive  and  defensive 
power. 

Displacement  tonnages  are  given  on  the  tables,  and  deserve  con- 
sideration in  making  comparisons,  especially  between  warships  of 
which  the  designs  have  been  prepared  at  or  about  the  same  date. 
No  claim  can  reasonably  be  made  for  the  possession  by  British  naval 
architects  of  skill  superior  to  that  of  foreign  competitors.  Inventions 
and  improvements  made  in  one  country  soon  become  known  else- 
where, and  are  made  use  of  or  rivalled.  Hence  it  may  be  assumed 
that  the  designs  for  warships  prepared  at  or  about  the  same  date  in 
different  countries  will  be  carried  out  under  practically  equal  conditions. 
The  displacement  tonnage,  or  total  weight,  of  a  warship  is  the  capital 
with  which  the  designer  works.  He  may  and  does  distribute  the  total 
displacement  differently  according  to  the  views  of  the  naval  authority 
whom  he  serves,  and  to  some  extent  according  to  his  own  ideas. 
For  different  classes  of  ships  the  distribution  is  necessarily  different. 
In  a  battleship  the  percentages  of  displacement  assigned  to  armour- 
protection  and  armament  are  generally  greater  than  the  corresponding 
percentages  in  an  armoured  cruiser ;  while  the  percentages  assigned 
to  propelling  machinery  and  fuel-supply  in  the  cruiser,  with  higher 
speed  and  greater  engine-power,  would  usually  be  larger  than  that 
for  the  battleship.  As  improvements  are  made  in  armour  and  its 
powers  of  resistance  in  proportion  to  thickness  are  increased,  the 
weight  of  protective  material  per  unit  of  armoured  area  may  be 
and  has  been  considerably  diminished  in  association  with  a  certain 
power  of  resistance  to  perforation.  Consequently  a  mere  comparison 
of  tabulated  thicknesses  of  armour  carried  by  two  ships  of  different 
dates  of  construction,  protected  by  different  qualities  of  armour, 
would  be  fallacious.  Furthermore,  unless  regard  is  paid  to  the  area 
protected  by  armour  as  well  as  the  thicknesses  of  plating  in  two  ships 
of  the  same  date  of  design  and  with  armour  of  the  same  quality,  wrong 
conclusions  may  be  reached  as  to  comparative  defensive  powers. 
Similarly  in  regard  to  armaments  careful  note  must  be  taken  of  the 
date  of  construction  of  guns,  since  weapons  of  later  design  are  greatly 
superior  to  earlier  guns  of  the  same  calibre  in  range,  power  and  accuracy. 
Great  improvements  have  been  made  also  in  regard  to  the  propelling 
apparatus  of  warships,  enabling  large  economies  to  be  effected  in  the 
proportion  of  weight  of  machinery  to  power  developed  or  in  the 
expenditure  of  fuel  to  generate  a  certain  power ;  and  in  this  way  it 
has  been  made  possible  to  attain  higher  speeds  and  greater  capacity 
for  steaming  over  long  distances.  These  are  only  samples  of  the 
difficulties  arising  and  requiring  to  be  dealt  with  when  comparisons  of 


896 


THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


Dec. 


fighting  efficiency  are  attempted  between  individual  ships  ;  and  the 
problem  becomes  still  more  complex  when  squadrons  or  fleets  are 
compared.  Some  writers  on  the  subject,  it  is  true,  have  treated  these 
difficulties  in  a  light-hearted  fashion,  and  produced  formulae  or  modes 
of  comparison  which  are  quite  satisfactory  to  themselves,  on  which 
they  base  professedly  accurate  and  authoritative  estimates  (or  typical 
'  numbers  ')  indicating  relative  fighting  value.  No  one  really  familiar 
with  the  subject  accepts  these  estimates  ;  it  is  therefore  unnecessary 
to  say  more  about  them.  All  that  need  be  added  is  that  in  any 
examination  made  of  the  tables  the  fact  should  be  recognised  that 
the  larger  displacement  of  one  ship  of  given  date,  when  compared  with 
another  ship  of  about  the  same  date,  ought  to,  and  as  a  rule  does, 
indicate  the  possession  of  one  or  more  superior  qualities,  either  in 
defence,  armament,  fuel  supply,  or  equipment.  The  point  is  impor- 
tant, as  for  many  years  British  ships  have  been  deliberately  made 
larger  in  displacement  than  their  contemporaries  of  corresponding 
classes  in  foreign  Navies.  One  cause  of  this  was  for  many  years  the 
fixed  determination  to  endow  our  ships  with  larger  supplies  of  fuel, 
ammunition,  stores,  and  equipment,  so  that  they  should  be  superior 
to  rivals  in  sea-keeping  capacity,  and  should  be  able  to  make  '  the 
British  frontier  an  enemy's  coast.'  No  doubt  in  the  day  of  battle 
offensive  and  defensive  powers  must  play  the  greatest  part ;  but  speed 
and  coal-endurance  are  very  important  factors  in  naval  strategy,  and 
their  increase  necessarily  involves  greater  size  and  cost. 

In  Table  I  there  are  enumerated  certain  particulars  for  completed 
battleships  less  than  twenty  years  old.  Table  II  contains  correspond- 
ing details  for  armoured  cruisers.  Table  III  gives  a  list  of  armoured 
ships  still  building  or  completing,  and  the  dates  at  which  it  is  anticipated 
they  will  be  ready  for  service.  Taking  Tables  I  and  II,  the  following 
results  (in  round  figures)  are  obtained  for  ships  completed  at  the  end 
of  1908  : 


Battleships 

Armoured  Cruisers 

Grand  Totals  for 
Armoured  Ships 

Ships 

Tons 

Ships 

Tons 

Ships 

Tons 

United  States  . 

26 

340,500 

15 

186,500 

41 

527,000 

France       .... 

20 

230,200 

20 

185,000 

40 

415,200 

Germany  .... 

24 

282,700 

8 

78,500 

32 

361,200 

United  States  and  France 

46 

570,700 

35 

371,500 

81 

942,200 

United  States  and  Germany 
France  and  Germany 

50 
44 

623,200 
512,900 

23 

28 

265,000 
263,500 

73 

72 

888,200 
776,400 

Great  Britain  . 

52 

753,900 

38 

468,300 

90 

1,222,200 

So  far  as  these  comparisons  go,  therefore,  Great  Britain  possesses 
a  great  preponderance  in  armoured  ships,  and  the  latest  definition 
of  the  two-Power  standard  is  fulfilled.  It  may  be  thought  that 
the  foregoing  summary  does  not  fairly  represent  relative  naval 


1908      TWO-POWER  STANDARD  FOR  THE  NAVY    897 


forces,  since  the  tables  include  *  obsolescent '  battleships  and  cruisers 
which  are  obviously  unfitted  for  the  line  of  battle.  This  criticism, 
however,  must  be  applied  all  round,  and  less  affects  British  ships  than 
it  does  foreign  ships.  Some  guidance  can  be  found  for  dealing  with 
this  difficulty  in  Parliamentary  Paper  No.  Ill  of  1907,  wherein  the 
Admiralty  put  on  record  their  view  of  the  subject  so  far  as  battle- 
ships are  concerned.  In  this  Paper  seven  Royal  Sovereigns,  the  Hood, 
Renown,  and  two  Centurions  were  classed  as  obsolescent  in  the  British 
list  given  in  Table  I ;  total,  eleven  ships,  of  146,550  tons.  In  the 
German  list,  five  Kaisers  and  four  Brandenburgs  were  similarly  treated  ; 
total,  nine  ships,  of  94,500  tons.  In  the  French  list,  the  four  Amiral 
Trehouarts,  of  26,300  tons,  were  not  included  in  the  first  class.  In  the 
United  States  list  the  Iowa  and  three  Oregons  were  treated  as  obso- 
lescent, and  the  Texas  was  not  included  in  the  first  class  ;  five  ships, 
of  48,550  tons.  Making  these  deductions,  the  corrected  totals  of 
completed  battleships  would  stand  as  follows  : 


Average 

' 

Ships 

Tons 

Displacement 

in  Tons 

United  States  . 

21 

292,000 

13,900 

France       .... 

16 

203,900 

12,750 

Germany  .... 

15 

188,200 

12,550 

United  States  and  France 

37 

495,900 

United  States  and  Germany 

36 

480,200 

France  and  Germany 

31 

392,100 

Great  Britain    ... 

41 

607,300 

14,800 

In  considering  this  summary  it  is  important  to  remark  that  the 
deductions  made  from  the  British  list  consist  of  vessels  still  fit  for  ser- 
vice and  of  much  larger  individual  displacement,  as  well  as  greater 
fighting  value,  than  the  vessels  deducted  from  foreign  lists. 

Turning  to  Table  II,  there  is  no  official  guidance  available,  and 
personal  opinion  must  be  exercised  in  selecting  armoured  cruisers 
which  may  fairly  be  treated  as  capable  of  taking  part  in  fleet  actions 
in  association  with  battleships.  It  is  prpposed  to  omit  from  the 
British  list  the  six  Devonshires  and  ten  Monmouths,  although  the 
former  are  certainly  not  incapable  of  meeting  some  so-called  battle- 
ships in  foreign  fleets  on  more  than  equal  terms,  having  regard  to 
defensive  as  well  as  offensive  powers.  The  total  deduction  would 
then  be  sixteen  ships,  of  163,000  tons.  Applying  similar  methods  to 
German  armoured  cruisers,  the  Roons  and  three  vessels  of  the  Prinz 
class,  which  are  not  superior  to  the  Devonshires,  must  be  deducted  : 
a  total  of  five  ships  and  45,100  tons.  From  the  French  list  must 
disappear  all  except  the  Leon  Gambetta  and  Gloire  classes  ;  or  ten  ships, 
of  71,500  tons.  From  the  United  States  list  must  be  struck  out  the 
Milwaukees,  which  closely  resemble  the  Monmouihs,  as  well  as  the 
Brooklyn  and  New  York,  which  have  only  a  very  small  amount  of  thin 


898 


THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


Dec. 


side-armour  ;  that  is  to  say,  five  ships,  of  46,400  tons.  Making  these 
deductions,  the  comparative  force  in  armoured  cruisers  would  stand 
as  follows  : 


— 

Ships 

Tons 

Average  Displacement 
of  Oruiser 
in  Tons 

United  States     

10 
10 

140,000 
113,400 

14,000 
11,300 

Germany     .... 
United  States  and  France 
United  States  and  Germany 
France  and  Germany 
Great  Britain 

3 
20 
13 
13 
22 

33,400 
253,400 
173,400 
146,800 
305,200 

11,100 
13,900 

Combining  these  revised  lists  of  battleships  and  cruisers,  the  figures 
are  : 

Ships  Tons 

.     31  432,000 

.     26  317,300 

.     18  221,600 

.     57  749,300 

.     49  653,600 

.     44  538,900 


United  States  . 
France       .... 
Germany  .... 
United  States  and  France 
United  States  and  Germany 
France  and  Germany 
Great  Britain    . 


63 


912,500 


Limits  of  space  prevent -the  comparison  of  other  classes  of  completed 
British  and  foreign  ships,  nor  could  a  similar  method  be  followed 
in  regard  to  cruisers  not  attached  tox  fleets.  The  numbers  and  types 
of  cruisers  and  smaller  vessels  required  for  the  Royal  Navy  must  be 
governed  by  the  special  requirements  of  the  British  Empire  and  not 
by  an  enumeration  of  corresponding  vessels  in  foreign  fleets.  In 
other  words  the  two-Power  standard  does  not  apply  ;  and  the  matter 
is  one  that  can  only  be  dealt  with  satisfactorily  by  the  naval  authori- 
ties. There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  the  practical  cessation 
of  cruiser  construction  from  1904  to  the  present  year  and  the  '  scrap- 
ping '  of  many  useful  vessels  of  the  class  in  the  same  period  have  very 
seriously  reduced  our  available  force,  and  that  much  requires  to  be 
done  to  make  good  these  losses.  In  our  torpedo  flotillas  also  there 
is  a  necessity  for  continuous  reconstruction  and  due  regard  to  action 
taken  abroad.  Still,  on  the  whole  the  Prime  Minister  stated  the  simple 
truth  in  a  recent  speech  :  '  No  one  who  is  conversant  with  the  facts  can 
impugn  the  proposition  .  .  .  that  the  British  Navy  is  at  this  moment 
fully  equal  to  any  responsibilities  that  could  conceivably  be  thrown 
upon  it.'  This  proposition  is  not  disputed,  but  it  is  desirable  in 
existing  circumstances  not  merely  to  accept  the  proposition,  but 
to  realise  how  great  is  the  margin  of  superiority  we  possess  in  conse- 
quence of  the  continued  and  systematic  efforts  made  during  the 
past  twenty  years  by  all  Governments  which  have  held  office.  It  is 
also  worth  noting  at  the  present  time  that  our  superiority  remains 


1908      TWO-POWER  STANDARD  FOR  THE  NAVY    899 

assured,  even  if  no  account  is  taken  of  the  Dreadnought  and  Invin- 
cibles  laid  down  in  1905,  or  of  the  fact  that  early  next  year  three 
improved  Dreadnoughts  (Temeraires)  will  be  added  to  the  available 
force.  In  dealing  with  the  new  shipbuilding  programme  these  facts 
must  not  be  overlooked,  or  unduly  minimised.  It  is  the  strength  of 
our  fleet  as  a  whole  that  determines  our  safety  or  danger — not  our 
strength  in  any  single  type  or  class  of  ships. 

Turning  to  ships  now  building  or  completing,  the  facts,  so  far  as 
can  be  ascertained  at  present,  are  summarised  in  Table  III  for  both 
battleships  and  armoured  cruisers.  Taken  in  connexion  with  preceding 
statements  respecting  ships  completed  and  available  for  service,  and 
the  large  margin  of  power  in  our  favour  shown  to  exist,  this  list  of 
new  construction  and  anticipated  dates  of  completion  must  be  re- 
garded as  entirely  satisfactory.  It  is  true  in  all  cases  that  unforeseen 
and  uncontrollable  circumstances  may  cause  the  entry  of  ships  into 
service  to  be  delayed,  and  the  larger  the  programme  is  in  relation 
to  the  warship-building  resources  of  a  country,  the  greater  must  be 
the  risk  run  in  that  direction.  In  the  case  of  Germany  this  risk  is 
greatest,  because  the  programme  in  course  of  execution  and  that 
contemplated  during  the  next  three  years  makes  excessively  large 
demands  upon  the  industrial  resources  of  that  country.  Already 
orders  for  large  ships  have  been  placed  with  firms  having  little  or 
no  experience  with  work  of  that  class,  no  doubt  because  more  ex- 
perienced firms  have  or  will  have  their  hands  kept  full.  On  the  side 
of  the  manufacturers  of  armour,  gun-mountings,  and  auxiliary 
machinery  of  all  kinds,  the  pinch  must  be  felt  in  Germany  owing 
to  abnormal  demands  made  by  the  new  programme.  These  circum- 
stances may  be  transitory,  but  they  take  time  and  great  expenditure 
for  rectification.  Private  firms  are  not  disposed  to  embark  on  large 
and  costly  extensions  of  premises  and  plant  unless  they  can 
obtain  guarantees  of  future  work  which  will  enable  them  to  recoup 
their  outlay.  In  this  country,  thanks  to  the  great  programmes  of 
naval  contruction  devised  and  executed  during  the  last  twenty  years, 
with  most  of  which  the^  writer  has  been  intimately  concerned,  this 
development  of  resources  for  building,  arming,  and  equipping  war- 
ships has  been  carried  to  a  point  which  meets  and  possibly  exceeds 
all  probable  requirements  now  that  the  demands  for  foreign  warships 
to  be  built  in  Great  Britain  are  less  than  they  have  been  in  the  past. 

The  subject  was  dealt  with  in  detail  elsewhere  by  the  writer  some 
time  ago,  and  need  not  be  discussed  further  now.  It  is  most  im- 
portant to  note,  however,  that  in  many  recent  utterances — some  of 
which  have  approached  a  condition  of  panic  for  which  there  was 
not  a  shadow  of  justification — it  has  been  assumed  that  the  period 
of  construction  of  large  battleships  and  armoured  cruisers — fixed 
by  the  German  Naval  Bills  at  about  three  years,  and  for  which  the 
financial  provision  hafe  been  correspondingly  adjusted — might  be 


900  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

considerably  abridged,  and  probably  would  be.  Already  the  German 
programme  has  failed  to  keep  pace  with  the  rate  of  progress  assumed  ; 
as  was  anticipated  by  the  writer  would  happen  when  ships  of  novel 
design  and  unprecedented  dimensions  were  undertaken.  It  is  said 
too— perhaps  on  insufficient  authority — that  the  designs  of  the  later 
ships  will  differ  from  those  of  vessels  already  laid  down  ;  if  this 
happens  the  recurrence  of  delays  may  be  expected,  more  especially 
if  the  heavy  armaments  are  altered  from  11-inch  to  12-inch  guns. 
The  German  Admiralty  are  reported  to  have  asked  the  leading  private 
firms  to  state  what  periods  of  construction  could  be  guaranteed  for 
building  and  completing  large  armouied  ships,  and  the  answers  varied 
from  twenty-four  to  thirty  months.  The  authority  who  states  these 
facts  suggestively  adds  : 

In  each  case  the  reservation  was  made  that  the  promised  results  could  only 
be  realised  provided  ordnance  was  promptly  delivered.  .  .  .  Krupp's  vast  works 
at  Essen  represent  the  unknown  quantity  ;  for  upon  this  firm  must  fall  the  whole 
burden  of  supplying  the  new  German  leviathans  with  armour  and  artillery. 
...  It  is  recognised  in  Germany  that  in  case  of  emergency  the  supply  of  guns 
and  armour  might  be  unequal  to  a  severe  strain,  and  there  is  talk  of  erecting 
a  national  arsenal  at  some  point  adjacent  to  the  coast.1 

In  the  United  States,  thanks  to  private  enterprise,  the  resources 
for  warship-building,  including  the  manufacture  of  armour  and 
armaments,  are  much  in  excess  of  present  requirements  or  of  any 
prospective  programme  of  construction  ;  yet  experience  has  led  to 
the  allowance  of  three  years  as  the  period  of  construction  for  the 
largest  classes  of  warships.  In  France,  when  it  was  decided  to  lay 
down  six  battleships  of  the  Danton  class  in  one  year,  there  was  anxious 
consideration  of  the  sufficiency  of  the  national  resources  for  carrying 
out  this  programme  of  work  in  a  reasonable  time.  The  final  decision 
was  to  allow  four  years  for  the  completion  of  the  vessels,  and  it  appears 
probable  that  they  may  not  all  be  finished  within  the  stipulated 
period. 

Financial  considerations  play  a  no  less  important  part  than  in- 
dustrial capacity  in  warship-building  programmes.  Germany  and 
France  have  worked  out  in  detail  the  incidence  of  expenditure  esti- 
mated to  fall  on  each  financial  year  over  which  their  programmes 
extend,  on  the  basis  of  the  periods  of  construction  assigned.  If  any 
attempt  were  made  to  quicken  the  rate  of  construction  the  annual 
expenditure  would  have  to  be  correspondingly  increased  ;  and  already, 
as  is  well  known,  a  considerable  part  of  the  cost  of  the  increase 
to  the  German  Navy  is  being  borne  by  loan.  Moreover,  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Dreadnought  type  in  this  country  in  1905  has 
led  the  German  authorities  to  increase  considerably  the  cost  of  each 
unit  in  the  new  fleet.  At  first  it  was  intended  to  have  battleships  and 
armoured  cruisers  of  much  less  size  and  costjthan  those  now  building, 
1  Navy  League  Annual,  1908,  p.  181. 


1908      TWO-POWER  STANDARD  FOR  THE  NAVY    901 

but  when  the  British  Admiralty  adopted  18,000  tons  as  the  dis- 
placement of  the  Dreadnought  and  17,250  tons  as  that  of  the  Invin- 
cible class,  the  German  Navy  Bill  was  amended,  and  vessels  of  equal 
or  greater  individual  power  were  provided  for  at  greatly  increased 
cost.  For  example,  the  original  estimate  for  each  armoured  cruiser 
was  1,375,000?.  (including  armament),  but  the  later  estimate  is  about 
1,800,OOOZ.  Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  that  the  most  recent  decision 
to  supplement  the  Navy  Bill  of  1906,  and  to  quicken  construction  by 
shortening  the  official  '  life  '  of  battleships  on  the  Effective  List, 
followed  upon  the  publication  (in  July  1907)  of  Lord  Tweedmouth's 
statement  as  to  relative  strength  of  war-fleets,  first  made  in  the 
House  of  Lords  in  reply  to  a  speech  by  his  predecessor.  That  official 
paper  showed  (as  remarked  above)  that  in  the  opinion  of  the  Ad- 
miralty nine  out  of  a  total  of  twenty  completed  German  battleships 
were  '  considered  obsolescent  in  type.'  No  wonder,  therefore,  that 
fresh  force  was  given  to  the  agitation  promoted  by  the  German  Navy 
League  for  a  large  and  immediate  increase  of  the  fleet.  To  this  cause 
must  be  largely  attributed  the  action  taken  in  passing  the  Law  of 
1908,  the  effect  of  which  will  be  to  secure  the  laying  down  in  the 
four  years  1908-11  of  twelve  battleships  and  four  large  cruisers, 
instead  of  seven  battleships  and  four  large  cruisers  as  provided  for 
under  previous  laws.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  action  taken 
by  Germany  has  been  greatly  influenced,  if  not  absolutely 
prompted,  by  action  taken  by  the  British  Admiralty  since  1904. 
If  the  traditional  British  policy  had  been  followed — viz.,  to  wait 
until  foreign  Navies  have  committed  themselves  to  new  programmes 
and  then  to  take  steps  to  match  or  surpass  their  efforts,  making  sure 
that  our  ships  are  completed  at  least  as  soon  as  their  rivals — it  is 
probable  that  very  large  expenditure  in  both  countries  would  have 
been  saved.  The  pace  was  forced  by  us  in  1905-7,  and  now  the  bill 
has  to  be  paid.  May  it  be  hoped  that  the  lesson  will  not  be  forgotten 
in  present  circumstances ! 

Assertions  have  been  made  of  late  that  British  superiority  in 
speed  of  construction  for  warships  has  been  forfeited,  as  least  as  far 
as  Germany  is  concerned.  In  support  of  this  contention  comparisons 
are  produced  of  the  periods  actually  occupied  in  building  a  number 
of  ships  in  the  two  countries  during  recent  years.  Obviously  these 
actual  periods  of  construction  may  be,  and  for  many  British  warships 
have  been,  determined  by  other  considerations  than  the  desire  to 
finish  ships  at  the  earliest  possible  dates.  Some  delays  have  been  due 
to  strikes  and  labour  difficulties,  none  of  which  are  peculiar  to  Great 
Britain.  Indeed,  as  German  industries  have  been  developed  similar 
delays  have  occurred  there.  In  other  cases  financial  difficulties  experi- 
enced by  contracting  firms  have  involved  serious  delays  in  the  execu- 
tion of  work,  and  this  has  accounted  for  the  longest  periods  occupied 
in  building  British  warships  within  the  last  ten  years.  In  the  case 

VOL.  LX1V— No.  S82  8  P 


902  THE  NINETEENTH  fiENTUBY  £  Dec. 

of  dockyard-buili  ships,  the  time  actually  occupied  is  usually  deter- 
mined by  Admiralty  authorities  as  part  of  their  scheme  for  employ- 
ment and  expenditure  for  particular  financial  years,  and  if  necessary 
it  could  be  shortened.  The  official  Admiralty  view  is  that  there  is 
no  difficulty  in  building  simultaneously  a  considerable  number  of 
large  armoured  ships,  and  completing  each  ship  in  about  two  years 
from  the  date  of  laying  down.  No  one  familiar  with  the  facts  as  to 
the  manufacturing  resources  of  this  country  can  doubt  the  possibility 
of  doing  this  if  it  is  thought  desirable,  or  of  shortening  that  time 
in  cases  of  emeigency.  No  doubt  the  case  of  the  Dreadnought  has 
given  rise  to  some  misapprehension,  but  it  is  in  no  way  a  represen- 
tative case,  as  can  be  seen  by  turning  to  this  Review  for  April  1906, 
in  which  full  explanations  were  given  of  the  special  circumstances 
and  arrangements.  What  is  essential  in  our  programmes  of  con- 
struction is,  however,  what  was  mentioned  above  :  British  ships 
must  be  laid  down  at  such  dates  as  will  ensure  their  completion  as 
soon  as,  and  preferably  somewhat  earlier  than,  the  times  when  their 
rivals  will  be  finished.  Our  unrivalled  resources,  greater  experience, 
and  larger  command  of  labour  in  the  shipbuilding  trades  enable 
the  Admiralty  to  make  a  later  start  on  British  ships,  and  yet  to  fulfil 
this  essential  condition.  Not  to  avail  ourselves  of  this  superiority 
is  to  forfeit  many  and  great  advantages,  the  value  of  which  has 
been  demonstrated  again  and  again.  It  is  unwise  for  us  to  take  the 
lead — as  was  done  four  years  ago — in  forcing  on  expenditure  at  a 
moment  when  our  naval  supremacy  is  already  well  assured.  Such 
action  can  only  tend  to  provoke  corresponding  increase  in  the  ex- 
penditure of  other  Powers,  and  so  to  demand  a  still  further  growth 
of  British  expenditure.  Mr.  McKenna  put  the  case  strongly  and 
clearly  at  Glasgow  in  October  last.  He  said  : 

The  worst  possible  policy  for  us  to  pursue  is  to  fall  behind  in  our  naval  equip- 
ment, as  we  should  thereby  risk  the  safety  of  our  country  ;  but  the  next  worst 
policy  is  needlessly  to  make  the  pace  in  expenditure  on  armaments.  By  doing 
so  we  should  set  the  fashion  in  large  naval  expenditure,  we  should  exhaust 
ourselves  prematurely,  and  we  should  reduce  our  power  to  expend  when  occasion 
required.  .  .  .  Any  rise  in  the  general  level  of  naval  power  throws  a  heavier 
burden  on  us  than  on  any  other  naval  country,  and  it  is  the  height  of  unwisdom 
in  us  to  invite  foreign  nations  to  increase  their  expenditure  by  any  uncalled- 
for  parade  of  our  naval  strength. 

The  Prime  Minister,  speaking  at  Leeds  nearly  at  the  same  time, 
repeated  and  emphasised  what  he  had  said  in  the  House  of  Commons 
in  March  : 

We  here  hi  Great  Britain  start  with  a  large  margin  of  superior  strength, 
and  by  keeping  our  attention,  as  we  do,  upon  what  is  actually  being  done  in 
other  quarters  we  can  always,  with  the  resources  which  we  possess,  maintain 
that  margin  intact.  .  .  .  We  not  only  do  not  want  to  take  the  lead ;  w«  want 
to  do  everything  in  our  power  to  prevent  a  new  spurt  in  shipbuilding. 


1908      TWO-POWER  STANDARD  FOR  THE  NAVY    903 

These  are  sane  and  wise  words,  indicating  a  return  to  a  well-proved 
policy,  the  departure  from  which  four  years  ago  has  cost  this  country 
much  and  will  cost  it  more,  if,  as  we  are  told,  the  German  Navy  Bill  is 
'  like  the  laws  of  the  Medes  and  Persians,'  and  certain  to  be  carried 
out  now  that  it  has  been  framed. 

Advocates  of  the  commencement  of  another  great  programme  of 
new  construction  in  the  next  financial  year  have  dwelt  upon  the 
large  reductions  in  the  British  Vote  for  new  shipbuilding  and  arma- 
ments since  1904.  It  may  be  of  interest,  therefore,  to  state  how  our 
actual  expenditure  on  these  services  during  recent  years  compares 
with  the  corresponding  expenditure  of  other  countries.  Details 
can  be  found  in  Mr.  Thomasson's  Return  (No.  281  of  1908).  Taking 
the  ten  financial  years  from  1899-1900  to  1908-9  (inclusive),  the 
total  sums  voted  have  been  as  follows  (round  figures)  : — 

£ 

United  States     .       .       .       .  (     .       .       .       .  62,800,000 

France •'     .       .       .       .  63,100,000 

Germany     .       .       .       .       . '     .       .       .       .  50,732,000 

Great  Britain 105,934,000 

In  considering  these  figures  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  cost 
of  building  ships  in  this  country  is  less  than  the  cost  elsewhere.  In 
the  United  States  and  in  France  it  is  very  considerably  greater  than 
here  ;  while  German  shipowners  find  it  advantageous  to  place  large 
orders  in  this  country.  According  to  Lloyd's  Returns  the  tonnage 
of  merchant  ships  built  here  for  German  owners  in  the  three  ye'ars 
1905-7  reached  a  total  of  234,000  tons,  while  the  total  tonnage  launched 
in  Germany  was  848,650  tons.  If  the  inadequate  allowance  of 
25  per  cent,  excess  of  cost  is  made  for  the  United  States  and  France, 
and  no  similar  allowance  is  made  for  German  excess  of  cost,  it  will 
be  seen,  therefore,  that  over  this  long  period  Great  Britain  has  exceeded 
considerably  the  two-Power  standard  on  the  side  of  expenditure  on 
additions  to  naval  armaments.  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
sums  expended  here  have  been  less  profitably  employed  than  money 
spent  abroad.  Consequently  so  far  as  this  comparison  can  form  a 
guide  to  the  maintenance  of  naval  supremacy  we  have  fresh  reason 
for  satisfaction  and  for  confidence  in  facing  the  future. 

From  the  foregoing  statements  it  will  be  concluded  that  no  case 
can  be  made  out  for  entering  immediately  upon  and  rapidly  executing 
a  large  and  costly  further  programme  of  new  construction.  At 
present  our  position  is  one  of  assured  supremacy  at  sea  provided 
our  completed  ships  are  maintained  in  efficient  condition ;  while 
the  programme  of  shipbuilding  now  in  hand  provides  for  its  con- 
tinued maintenance  over  the  next  three  years,  even  if  theie  is  no 
check  in  the  execution  of  the  German  programme.  We  have  full 
information  as  to  the  intentions  of  foreign  naval  authorities  in 
the  immediate  future,  so  far  as  numbers  of  ships  and  rate  of 

3  F  2 


904  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

expenditure  are  concerned ;  and  with  our  superior  shipbuilding 
resources  can  over-match  foreign  performance  in  time  and  cost. 
Unfortunately  the  policy  of  official  secrecy  which  the  Admiralty  intro- 
duced and  declared  to  be  necessary  in  the  public  interest  when  the 
Dreadnought  and  Invincible  types  were  introduced  in  1905  has  been 
adopted  and  carried  out  more  thoroughly  in  Germany.  Up  to  that 
date  the  German  Admiralty  freely  published  the  particulars  of  their 
new  designs  for  warships  ;  now  they  keep  them  secret,  and  even  for 
warships  which  are  launched  and  being  completed,  no  authoritative 
statement  of  armour  and  armament  is  available.  In  this  case  a 
false  step  was  clearly  made  in  this  country,  since  we  can  no  longer 
make  our  new  designs  with  full  knowledge  of  the  latest  foreign  designs, 
and  ensure  that  for  ships  completed  at  or  about  the  same  date  our 
vessels  are  superior  to  their  contemporaries.  Thanks  to  the  example 
set  by  our  Admiralty,  it  is  now  necessary  for  our  designers  to  work 
more  or  less  in  ignorance  of  the  latest  foreign  practice. 

The  heroic  programme  of  shipbuilding  which  has  been  declared 
to  be  absolutely  necessary  is  based  upon  an  opinion  that  our  main- 
tenance of  naval  supremacy  depends  chiefly  upon  our  continued 
possession  of  superior  numbers  of  ships  designed  on  the  Dreadnought 
and  Invincible  lines  with  successive  improvements.  This  view  has 
been  shown  to  be  both  narrow  and  erroneous.  There  is  undoubtedly 
a  considerable  body  of  naval  opinion  which  is  adverse  to  this  view 
and  which  does  not  approve  of  the  '  single -calibre  big-gun  '  armament 
or  of  the  distribution  of  armour  in  the  Dreadnoughts.  It  is  highly  desir- 
able that  consideration  should  be  given  to  that  opinion  and  that  exhaus- 
tive trials  should  be  made  with  the  Dreadnought  and  Invincibks  in  work 
at  sea,  in  squadrons  consisting  chiefly  of  earlier  and  well-proved  types 
of  ships,  so  that  their  comparative  merits  and  demerits  may  be 
ascertained  and  reported  upon  by  experienced  and  impartial  naval 
Commanders-in-Chief .  Up  to  date  no  exhaustive  trials  ,of  this  nature 
appear  to  have  been  made,  and  this  ought  not  to  continue  true. 
Independent  cruises  of  individual  ships,  however  extended  and  how- 
ever remarkable  as  proofs  of  steaming  capability,  are  not  sufficient, 
nor  can  they  yield  such  valuable  results  as  service  in  squadrons  supply. 
This  method  has  been  followed  with  all  preceding  types  of  new  war- 
ships during  the  past  twenty  years,  and  has  been  highly  beneficial. 
It  should  be  again  applied  without  delay,  and  the  results  should  be 
utilised  in  preparing  future  designs.  Time  is  still  available,  and  the 
need  is  unquestionable. 

Now  that  the  Government  has  definitely  fixed  the  standard 
of  force  for  the  Royal  Navy,  it  must  be  trusted  to  give  practical  effect 
to  that  decision  to  lay  down  the  appropriate  numbers  and  types  of 
ships,  and  to  see  that  their  dates  of  completion  for  service  are  satis- 
factory. It  is  wise,  no  doubt,  to  ascertain  and  carefully  consider  the 
general  trend  of  naval  opinion  before  deciding  on  the  programme, 


1908     TWO-POWER  STANDARD  FOR  THE  NAVY     906 

as  has  been  done  repeatedly  in  the  past.  But  the  final  responsibility 
for  the  national  defences  must  rest  with  the  Government,  on  whose 
behalf  the  Prime  Minister  publicly  declared  not  many  days  ago  the 
fixed  intention 

to  maintain  an  indisputable  superiority  at  sea  .  .  .  not  for  purposes  of  aggression 
and  adventure,  but  that  they  may  fulfil  the  elementary  duty  we  owe  to  the 
Empire  to  uphold  beyond  the  reach  of  successful  attack  from  outside  our 
commerce,  our  industry,  and  our  homes. 

W.  H.  WHITE. 


NOTE. — Since  the  above  was  written  Mr.  McKenna  has  supplied  the  following 
information  in  reply  to  a  Parliamentary  question,  for  the  effective  fighting  tonnage  of 
the  following  navies  : 


Vessels  under  twenty  years  of  age  . 
Vessels  twenty  years  of  age  and  over 

Total  tonnage 


Great  Britain 
Tonnage 

1,749,874 
103,011 

1,952,885 


France 
Tonnage 

Russia 
Tonnage 

Germany 
Tonnage 

592,699 

114,874 

241,778 
48,543 

561,932 
66,372 

707,573 

290,321 

028,304 

906 


TEE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


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1908      TWO-POWER  STANDARD  FOR  THE  NAVY    907 


TABLE  III. 
Battleships  and  Armoured  Cruisers.    Building  and  Completing. 


Tons 

To  be  Completed  it 

GREAT'BRITAIN. 

Bellerophon  type 
St.  Vincent        .... 
New  Battleship  l 
New  Armoured  Cruiser  l  . 

3 
3 

1) 

ir 

55,800 
57,750 

38,000  (guess) 

1909  (early) 
1910 

1911 

8 

151,550  (approximate) 

GERMANY. 

Nassau  type 
Rheinland  type. 
Ersatz  Beowulf  type 
Blucher  —  armoured  cruiser 
F  and  G  —  armoured  cruisers 

2 
2 
3 
1 
2 

35,500 
90,000 

14,760 
38,000  (approximate  | 

1909  (end), 
,1910 
11911 
1909 
1910-11 

10 

178,260 

FRANCE. 

Danton  type     .... 
Kenan  type—  armoured  cruiser 

6 
2 

108,000 
27,500 

1911-12; 
1909 

8 

135,600 

UNITED  STATES. 

Michigan  type  .... 
Delaware  type  .... 
Utah  type  ' 

2 

2 

9, 

32,000  j 
40,000 
40,000 

1909  (end) 
1910 
1911 

^t"'  ' 

6 

112,000            :   4 

Orders  just  placed. 


908  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 


THE  BERLIN  CRISIS 


IT  may  be  permitted  me  to  preface  the  subjoined  reflections  with 
an  allusion  to  the  first  German  Emperor. 

On  the  occasion  of  a  great  popular  ovation  in  his  favour,  which 
took  place  not  many  years  before  his  decease,  Kaiser  Wilhelm  I., 
the  grandfather  of  the  present  wearer  of  the  German  Imperial  crown, 
is  known  to  have  turned  to  a  personage  in  his  immediate  en- 
tourage and  to  have  said  with  a  smile  :  '  This  is  very  agreeable 
to  behold  now  ;  but  there  was  a  time  when  these  same  people  received 
me  here  in  quite  a  different  spirit.'  This  monarch  not  only  outlived 
his  days  of  unpopularity  in  Germany,  but  reigned  for  many  years 
beloved  beyond  measure  by  the  people  of  his  narrower  Fatherland 
and  by  the  whole  population  of  the  German  Empire.  Yet  he  also 
was  a  firm  upholder  to  the  very  last  of  the  sentiments  of  monarchy 
as  understood  by  the  Prussian  Hohenzollerns.  It  is  true  that  as 
Deutscher  Kaiser — President  of  the  Confederate  League  known  as 
the  German  Empire — he  took  care  to  be  shielded  in  all  official  acts 
in  the  eyes  of  the  people  by  the  Chancellor,  as  his  responsible  minister  ; 
but  that  Chancellor  was  Bismarck,  whose  power  during  the  first 
Emperor's  reign  knew  hardly  any  limit.  It  should  not  be  for- 
gotten that  Kaiser  Wilhelm  I.  issued  in  1882  tne  following 
Rescript : 

It  is  therefore  my  will,  that  both  in  Prussia  and  in  the  legislative  bodies  of 
the  Empire,  no  doubt  shall  be  allowed  to  exist  as  to  the  constitutional  rights 
of  myself  and  my  successors  to  conduct  the  policy  of  my  Government  personally, 
and  that  the  idea  shall  always  be  contradicted  that  the  inviolability  of  the 
person  of  the  King  or  the  necessity  of  responsible  counter-signature  has  taken 
away  the  character  of  my  Government  documents  as  independent  Royal 
decisions.  ,  .< 

These  words  can  well  be  recalled  to  mind  when  contemplating  the 
crisis  brought  about  by  the  Daily  Telegraph's  publication,  '  The 
German  Emperor  and  England,'  of  the  28th  of  October  last. 

Kaiser  Wilhelm  II.  has  been  continuously  reproached  through- 
out his  reign  for  his  predilection  for  '  personal  government,' 
*  absolutism,'  and  '  autocracy.'  A  crisis  connected  with  these  very 


1908  THE   BERLIN   CRISIS  909 

charges  was  nearly  brought  about  so  recently  as  1906,  just  before  the 
last  elections  to  the  Reichstag.  Hence  the  nation  was  fully  prepared 
to  manifest  its  indignation  at  the  very  next  unqualified  display  of 
what  was  regarded  as  '  personal  regime.'  The  outburst  of  anger  that 
arose  simultaneously  throughout  the  German  Empire  after  the  pub- 
lication of  the  so-called  '  Kaiser  Interview,'  was  tantamount  to  an 
explosion  of  pent-up  dissatisfaction  that  has  been  taking  root  deeper 
and  deeper  every  year  in  Germany  in  all  classes  of  the  population, 
and  amongst  people  of  all  shades  of  political  opinion  for  some  time 
past.  After  the  last  memorable  dissolution  of  the  Reichstag,  and 
during  the  elections  that  subsequently  followed,  resulting  in  a  tre- 
mendous set-back  to  Social-Democracy,  and  in  the  establishment 
of  the  Liberal-Conservative  majority  in  the  Reichstag,  I  repeatedly 
pointed  out  that  Germany  was  going  through  a  state  of  unarmed 
revolution,  that  a  Liberal  spirit  was  pervading  the  whole  Empire, 
and  that  the  national  demands  would  have  to  be  considered  and 
conceded.  In  an  article  entitled  '  Wilhelm  II.,'  that  appeared  in  the 
Westminster  Gazette  on  the  llth  of  November  of  last  year,  the  day  their 
German  Majesties  arrived  in  England  on  a  visit  to  the  King  and  the 
Queen,  I  wrote  on  the  question  of  the  Kaiser's  '  personal  government ' 
as  follows  : 

The  question  of  '  personal  government '  and  '  autocracy '  has  been  con- 
stantly before  the  public  during  Wilhelm  II. 's  reign  ;  and  it  was  brought  to  a 
head  before  last  year's  elections  for  the  Reichstag.  It  appears  now  that  the 
astuteness,  that  has  always  characterised  the  rule  of  the  Hohenzollerns, 
will  not  forsake  the  reigning  monarch  at  the  present  critical  stage  of  national 
development.  Wilhelm  II. 's  personal  predilections  take  him  back  to  the 
principles  of  Frederick  the  Great  and  the  Great  Elector,  and  further  than  this 
also,  to  the  mystic  rights  and  power  of  the  former  wearers  of  the  Imperial  crown. 
There  was  a  danger  of  a  rift  in  the  relations  of  sovereign  and  people  when  the 
Emperor  seemed  to  show  that  he  laid  more  stress  on  his  romantic  ideas  of  bygone 
days  than  did  the  people  he  governs.  Prussians  and  Germans  are,  beyond  doubt, 
as  a  whole,  imbued  with  the  monarchic  spirit ;  and  if  the  Crown  and  the  Ministers 
lead  them  according  to  the  spirit  of  the  age  and  the  requirements  of  modern 
civilisation,  there  is  no  probability  of  the  realisation  of  a  modern  State  on  the 
lines  of  Socialism  and  anti-monarchic  principles  either  in  Prussia  or  Germany. 
The  people  want  to  see  their  monarchical  traditions  brought  into  harmony  with 
modern  life,  and  would  not  brook  the  revival  of  doctrines  from  the  dusty 
archives  of  the  buried  past.  They  do  not  fail  to  appreciate,  and  they  are  not 
likely  under  favourable  conditions  to  forget  in  the  future,  the  services  rendered 
by  the  Hohenzollerns  to  Prussia  and  to  Germany.  If  then,  as  seems  probable, 
Wilhelm  II.  and  his  Chancellor  have  grasped  the  fact  that  constitutional 
concessions  must  be  made  to  satisfy  the  liberal  spirit  of  its  age,  a  pacific  develop- 
ment cannot  fail  to  be  the  consequence  ;  and  this  must  redound  to  the  strengthen- 
ing of  Prussia  and  of  the  German  Empire  at  home  and  abroad.  .  .  .  The  agree- 
ments between  the  Crown  and  the  people  in  Prussia  made  in  1848  will  have  to 
be  revised  in  some  measure  suitable  to  the  development  of  the  Prussian  people, 
who  are  no  longer  the  rudis  indigestaque  moles  of  bygone  days. 

I  have  quoted  this  passage,  written  just  over  a  year  ago,  partly 
because   it   will    serve   as    a    pendant    to    the    criticism    used    by 


910  TEE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

the  German  Reichstag  and  by  the  German  Press  during  the  past 
month  on  the  questions  of  the  day— constitutional  government 
and  personal  regime  ;  and  partly  because  His  Majesty  the  Kaiser 
last  year  himself  expressed  his  endorsement  of  the  situation 
as  therein  depicted.  I  received  on  the  16th  of  November  1907, 
as  was  then  mentioned  in  the  Westminster  Gazette,  a  message  from 
Windsor  to  the  effect  that  the  Kaiser  was  much  pleased  with  the 
contents  of  the  article.  On  the  18th  of  November,  after  the 'successful 
issue  of  the  historic  meeting  between  Kaiser  Wilhelm  and  Prince 
von  Bulow,  the  National  Zeitung,  one  of  the  chief  organs  of  the 
National  Liberal  Party — the  party  of  the  leading  authorities  in 
manufacture  and  commerce  in  the  Empire — wrote  :  '  This  act  of 
renunciation  will  be  greeted  with  the  most  joyful  satisfaction  by 
the  whole  German  people.  A  new  epoch  is  approaching.  Rome  was 
not  built  in  a  day.  The  national  desires  of  the  people  are  nearing 
accomplishment. ' 

Before  the  National  Zeitung  could  speak  in  this  strain  the  German 
Empire  had,  however,  been  shaken  to  its  very  foundations  for  nearly 
a  fortnight  by  a  tremendous  crisis  the  like  of  which  it  has  not  faced 
since  its  renovation  nearly  thirty-nine  years  ago.  As  soon  as  Germans 
learnt  through  the  semi-official  Norddeutsche  Allgemeine  Zeitung  that 
the  utterances  attributed  to  the  Kaiser  by  an  English  newspaper 
on  the  28th  of  October  were  to  all  intents  and  purposes  authentic, 
they  felt  themselves  from  one  end  of  the  Empire  to  the  other 
awakened  to  the  sense  that  the  Kaiser's  idea  of  personal  regime  had 
carried  him  so  far  as  to  allow  himself  to  further  his  personal  policy 
by  means  of  an  interview  in  a  foreign  newspaper.  '  There  was  en- 
kindled,' said  Herr  Bassermann  before  the  Reichstag,  '  a  torrent  of 
boundless  amazement  and  deep  grief.'  The  leader  of  the  National 
Liberals  added  that  revelations  of  such  a  kind  would  make  the 
entire  world  speak  of  dissension  in  German  policy.  '  Tl\ere  is  a  want 
of  confidence  in  German  policy,'  he  said  ;  '  we  see  at  a  glance  why 
German  policy  now  meets  with  obstacles  and  resistance.'  Owing 
to  this,  the  feeling  of  respect  for  the  wearer  of  the  crown  was  be- 
coming impaired,  and  there  was  an  almost  unanimous  protest  against 
the  Kaiser's  personal  regime  and  intervention  in  the  official  policy 
of  the  Empire.  '  We  wish,'  he  added  in  the  name  of  his  party,  '  so 
far  as  it  is  possible,  for  trustworthy  guarantees  against  the  inter- 
vention of  the  personal  regime.'  And  before  he  sat  down  he  declared 
with  the  approval  of  the  House  : 

It  is  the  desire  of  my  friends  that  the  Kaiser  should  be  thoroughly  informed 
with  regard  to  these  proceedings  (loud  cheers)  .  .  .  Although  fully  convinced 
that  even  these  utterances  of  our  Kaiser  sprang  from  his  deep  anxiety  for  the 
welfare  of  his  people,  we  must  give  expression  to  the  earnest  desire  that  the 
Kaiser  will,  in  his  political  activity,  impose  upon  himself  the  reserve  proper  to  a 
Constitutional  ruler. 


1908  THE   BERLIN  GRISTS  911 

Dr.  Wiemer,  for  the  Radicals,  corroborated  the  previous  speaker 
by  declaring  that  the  article  in  question  had  filled  the  entire  nation 
with  erabitterment,  consternation,  and  rage,  because  it  was  felt 
that  '  confidence  in  our  trustworthiness  had  been  shaken.  Every- 
where it  had  been  recognised  that  Germany's  prestige  had  received 
a  severe  blow.'  The  trend  of  his  speech  was  to  show  that  the  so-called 
'  interview  '  had  been  interpreted  in  Germany  as  a  crass  specimen 
of  personal  regime  which  was  distasteful  to  the  nation  in  its  entirety. 
Constitutional  Government  was  what  was  wanted :  the  Minister, 
not  the  Sovereign,  should  be  responsible  to  the  people.  The  Socialist 
leader,  Herr  Singer,  complained  that  the  Reichstag  was  itself  in  part 
responsible  for  what  had  taken  place  because  it  had  not  hitherto 
restrained  the  glorification  of  the  personal  regime.  What  Dr.  Heyde- 
brandt,  a  Conservative  Deputy,  then  added  was  significant.  It  was 
as  follows  : 

It  is  a  question  here  of  a  sum  of  anxieties,  of  doubts  and  disquietudes,  which 
has  been  collecting  for  a  long  time  past,  even  in  circles  as  to  whose  fidelity  to  the 
Kaiser  and  the  Empire  there  has  hitherto  never  been  any  doubt.  ...  It  would 
do  the  Fatherland  no  good  to  whitewash  the  affair. 

Prince  Hatzfeldt,  of  the  Imperial  party,  who  stands  in  great 
favour  with  the  Kaiser,  impressed  upon  the  House  that  the  Chancellor 
and  not  the  wearer  of  the  crown  was  the  responsible  personage  in 
the  State.  For  the  Centre  party,  Dr.  von  Hertling,  who  holds  the 
reputation  for  being  a  speaker  who  always  takes  a  temperate  view  of 
things,  went  so  far  as  to  state  frankly  : 

We  do  not  agree  with  what  the  Emperor  has  said,  and  are  anxious  that  his 
words  should  not  be  regarded  abroad  as  representing  the  aims  of  German  policy. 
.  .  .  We  are  obliged  now  to  say — now  at  last  we  see  the  ground  for  the  incom- 
prehensible distrust  of  the  foreigner  towards  our  policy.  .  .  .  What  had  created 
among  the  people  so  terrible  a  discontent  and  embitterment  and  feeling  of  the 
very  deepest  grief  and  depression  was  that  the  German  Emperor  did  not  in  every 
moment  think  and  feel  as  a  Qerman.  (Loud  applause.) 

The  South  German  Deputy,  Herr  Haussmann,  of  the  People's 
party,  held  the  attention  of  the  House  for  a  long  time.  He  said  : 

It  is  not  only  the  citizen  who  is  overcome  by  fear  and  alarm,  not  only  the 
lower  classes  and  the  artisans  who  have  accustomed  themselves  to  a  point  of 
view  which  makes  it  easier  for  them  to  condemn.  In  all  classes  of  the  population, 
even  in  the  officers'  casinos,  the  same  view  is  found.  In  their  judgment  of  the 
situation,  all  classes  are  at  one.  ...  In  my  opinion  the  chief  misfortune  is  that 
the  hitherto  unjustified  appearance  of  a  hemming-in  policy  has  received  through 
these  observations  a  documentary  justification.  ('Very  true'  from  various 
sides  of  the  House.)  The  phrase  has  been  spoken — '  I  will  not  suffer  pessimists.' 
The  mouth  that  uttered  this  phrase  has  created  pessimists  by  millions.  (Cries 
of  'Very  true.') 


912  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

At  the  close  of  his  speech  Herr  Haussmann  said  amidst  loud  cheers 
from  the  left  of  the  House  : — 

The  chief  thing,  however,  is  that  we  must  pass  over  to  a  really  Constitutional 
manner  of  Government,  which  we  can  do  without  a  change  in  the  Constitution. 
After  what  lias  happened,  even  the  Conservatives  cannot  defend  the  personal 
regime.  ...  If  nothing  happens  now,  the  next  election  will  be  fought  by  the 
German  nation  with  this  parole. 

What  did  the  Chancellor  say  to  the  heavy  indictment  against 
his  sovereign  that  he  had  to  listen  to  ?  For  two  days  his  Majesty's 
person  was  drawn  into  the  debates  of  the  Imperial  Diet,  and  he  was 
subjected  to  most  scathing  criticism  from  all  sides.  Not  once  was  a 
deputy  called  to  order  !  Prince  von  Biilow,  speaking  on  the  first  day, 
declared  that  grave  injury  had  been  caused  by  the  publication  in 
the  Daily  Telegraph.  Lower  down  we  shall  see  how  he  characterised 
the  '  interview  '  as  such.  He  added  that  immediately  on  reading  the 
article  in  question,  as  to  the  disastrous  consequences  of  which  he 
could  not  for  a  moment  be  in  doubt,  he  sent  in  his  resignation,  taking 
upon  himself  full  responsibility  for  the  mistakes  which  had  been 
made  in  handling  the  manuscript.  And  he  followed  this  up  with  the 
following  significant  declaration  : 

Gentlemen  !  recognition  that  the  publication  of  these  utterances  has  not 
in  England  had  the  effect  anticipated  by  his  Majesty  the  Emperor  ;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  in  Germany  has  called  forth  great  excitement  and  painful  regret,  will 
— this  firm  conviction  I  have  won  in  these  sad  days — induce  his  Majesty  the 
Kaiser  in  future  to  impose  upon  himself,  even  in  his  private  conversations,  that 
reserve  which  is  indispensable  to  a  consistent  policy  and  to  the  authority  of  the 
Crown.  If  that  were  not  so,  neither  I  nor  any  of  my  successors  could  accept 
responsibility  for  it. 

Herr  Haussmann's  picture  of  the  irritation  that  has  pervaded  all 
classes  against  the  Kaiser  throughout  Germany  during  the  past  few 
years  is  no  exaggeration.  Discontent  has  not  merely  been  rampant 
amongst  the  lower  ranks  of  the  population,  which  may  be  said  to  be 
mainly  under  the  influence  of  eloquent  agitators.  It  has  been  observed 
with  amazement  by  foreigners  having  access  to  the  highest  spheres  of 
society  in  the  capital  of  the  Empire  that  the  actions  and  sayings  of 
the  sovereign  were  being  criticised  with  a  freedom — nay  license — by 
persons  whose  loyalty  to  the  Crown  had  never  been  called  in  question ; 
were  being,  indeed,  criticised  in  terms  of  malevolence  and  disapproval 
quite  unknown  in  former  times :  terms  that  would  have  brought  the 
utterers  to  gaol  for  lese  majeste  under  Bismarck's  regime.  Even  the 
guests  of  the  Eoyal  Castle  and  wearers  of  his  Majesty's  uniform  have 
been  known  to  dilate  with  as  much  warmth  of  expression  against 
Imperial  utterances  as  did  the  most  pronounced  democratic  mal- 
contents in  the  land.  More  especially  has  this  been  the  case  since 
the  opening  of  the  Moroccan  question.  Domestic  incidents,  too, 
connected  with  men  who  had  for  years  enjoyed  the  friendship  and 


1908  THE  BERLIN  CBISIS  918 

confidence  of  the  monarch,  have  served  to  intensify  that  seething 
discontent  and  general  malaise  that  the  Kaiser  has  so  often  branded 
as  pessimism,  not  knowing  that  the  main  cause  of  it  all  was  the  pre- 
vailing misunderstanding  between  himself  and  his  people.  The  Kaiser 
did  not  know  that  there  was  that  shadow  between  himself  and  the 
nation  referred  to  rather  late  in  the  day  during  the  crisis  by  the  Nord- 
deutsche  Allgemeine  Zeitung,  It  has  been  freely  said  in  Berlin  that, 
after  the  outbreak  of  this  crisis,  it  came  to  the  ear  of  the  Kaiser  that 
very  unseemly  remarks  concerning  his  Majesty's  person  were  going 
the  round  of  the  officers'  mess-rooms  in  the  capital,  and  that  his 
Majesty  was  naturally  extremely  indignant  thereat.  There  may  be 
a  grain  de  vSrite  in  the  narrative,  because  it  has  been  noteworthy  during 
the  last  few  days  that  his  Majesty's  officers  in  the  German  capital  have 
avoided  all  mention  of  politics  in  society. 

The  Daily  Telegraph  on  the  day  that  it  published  the  article 
announced  that  it  had  received  its  communication  from  a  source  of 
such  unimpeachable  authority  that  the  message  conveyed  therein  could 
be  commended  to  the  attention  of  the  public.  This  communication 
was  described  by  its  author,  who  calls  himself  a  retired  diplomatist, 
as  '  a  calculated  indiscretion,'  but  nevertheless  as  the  substance  of  a 
lengthy  conversation  which  he  had  recently  had  with  the  German 
Emperor.  He  distinctly  implied,  moreover,  that  what  he  called  a 
'  calculated  indiscretion  '  was  tantamount  to  a  message  from  the 
Kaiser  to  the  British  nation,  his  Majesty  being  sincerely  desirous  of 
eradicating  from  the  British  mind  the  obstinate  misconception  of  the 
character  of  his  feelings  towards  England. 

Prince  von  Billow's  estimate  of  the  so-called  '  interview,'  as  given 
before  the  German  Reichstag,  was  couched  in  the  following  terms  : 

His  Majesty  the  Emperor  at  various  times  made  in  the  presence  of  private 
English  personalities  private  statements,  which  have  been  linked  together  and 
published  in  the  Daily  Telegraph.  I  cannot  help  doubting  whether  all  the  details 
of  these  conversations  have  been  accurately  reported. 

In  reply  to  Prince  von  Billow's  description  of  the  interview,  the 
Daily  Telegraph  submitted  : 

It  should  be  sufficient  to  say  that  the  interview  was  not  sought  by  the  Daily 
Telegraph,  that  publication  was  not  given  to  a  document  of  so  serious  a  character 
until  every  possible  step  had  been  taken  to  make  sure  that  publicity  was  in 
accordance  with  the  wishes  of  the  sovereign  concerned,  and  that  the  matter 
contained  in  the  interview  represented  the  considered  opinions  of  bis  Majesty 
himself. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Prince  von  Biilow  was  perfectly  justified  in 
doubting  the  full  accuracy  of  many  of  the  statements  made  in 
the  interview,  and  in  adding,  in  respect  to  some  of  them,  that 
the  colours  had  been  laid  on  too  thickly,  and  that  too  strong  ex- 
pressions had  been  chosen.  The  first  part  only  of  the  '  interview ' 


914  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

reflects  with  what  may  be  said  to  be  real  accuracy  the  sentiments 
of  the  Kaiser,  and  it  is  not  only  devoid  of  exaggeration  but  under- 
states the  Kaiser's  case.  In  these  introductory  sentences  the 
author  gives  a  brief  summary  of  conversations  of  a  very  frank  and 
open  nature  that  the  Kaiser  had  had  with  various  people  at  Cron- 
berg  on  the  occasion  of  the  visit  of  the  King  in  August  last.  In 
these  sentences  he  cannot  be  charged  with  having  laid  on  the 
colours  too  thickly ;  in  my  opinion,  which  is  formed  from  what  I 
know,  he  has  said  considerably  less  than  he  could  have  disclosed  if 
he  desired  to  do  so.  The  German  Emperor  was  exceedingly  irate 
during  last  summer  at  the  continued  suspicion  of  his  own  actions 
rampant  in  certain  quarters  in  England,  and  notably  over  an  article 
that  appeared  in  London  dealing  with  the  diplomatic  history  of  the 
Boer  War.  In  this  frame  of  mind  he  complained  in  private  conversa- 
tions in  very  forcible  language  at  Cronberg,  and  referred  specially  to  his 
speech  delivered  at  the  Guildhall  in  November  of  last  year  when,  as  he 
said,  he  opened  his  heart  to  the  British  nation  and  took  them  into  his 
full  confidence.  An  explanation  of  this  part  of  the  interview  is  given 
in  the  following  paragraph  from  Prince  von  Billow's  Reichstag  speech  : 

Above  all,  we  should  not,  in  preoccupation  with  the  material,  lose  sight  of 
the  psychological  side.  For  two  decades  our  Kaiser's  efforts  have  been  directed, 
often  under  very  difficult  conditions,  towards  bringing  about  friendly  relationship 
between  England  and  Germany.  In  these  earnest  and  sincere  efforts  he  has  had 
to  struggle  with  obstacles  which  would  have  discouraged  many.  Sympathy 
with  the  weaker  is,  indeed,  an  amiable  trait,  but  it  led  to  unjust  and  often 
unrestrained  attacks  on  England  ;  and  unjust  and  hateful  attacks  have  also  been 
made  on  Germany  from  the  English  side.  Our  intentions  were  misrepresented. 
Plans  were  attributed  to  us  of  which  we  had  never  thought.  The  Kaiser,  however, 
filled  with  the  weighty  and  accurate  conviction  that  this  condition  was  an 
impossibility  for  both  countries,  and  a  danger  for  the  civilise4  world,  was 
imperturbably  faithful  to  his  idea,  and  held  firmly  to  the  goal  which  he  had  set 
himself.  In  general,  a  grave  injustice  is  done  to  our  Emperor  by  every  doubt 
as  to  the  purity  of  his  intentions,  his  ideal  sentiments,  and  his  deep  love  of  the 
Fatherland.  Gentlemen,  we  wish  to  avoid  everything  that  looks  like  an 
excessive  suing  for  foreign  favour,  or  in  any  way  resembles  inconsistency  or 
caprice,  but  I  know  that  the  Kaiser,  precisely  because  he  was  conscious  of 
having  always  worked  industriously  and  sincerely  for  an  understanding  with 
England,  felt  hurt  by  attacks  which  misrepresented  his  best  views. 

In  these  words  we  can  see  between  the  lines  an  effort  on  the  part 
of  the  German  Chancellor  to  explain  the  Kaiser's  reasons  for  co- 
operating with  the  author  of  the  manuscript  that  found  its  way  to 
the  office  of  the  Daily  Telegraph  ;  for  he  goes  on  to  say  :  '  The  Kaiser, 
in  private  conversations  with  English  friends,  sought  to  prove  by 
reference  to  his  attitude  at  a  time  of  difficulty  for  England  that  he 
had  been  misunderstood  and  unjustly  judged.' 

In  September  an  article  appeared  in  the  Deutsche  Revue,  entitled 
'  German  Intrigues  against  England  during  the  Boer  War,'  by  '  One 
Who  Knows.'  This  article  was  a  defence  of  German  policy  during 


1908  THE  BERLIN  CRISIS  915 

the  Boer  War ;  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  scant  attention 
paid  to  it  was  not  without  influence  on  those  responsible  for  the 
'  Kaiser  Interview  '  as  it  subsequently  appeared  in  the  Daily  Telegraph. 
There  is  one  passage  in  the  German  article  to  which  attention  may  be 
rawn.  It  is : 

Thus  the  line  of  our  official  policy  at  the  beginning  of  the  Boer  War  was 
defined  once  and  for  all.  How  difficult  it  was  to  maintain  it  in  face  of  the  feelings 
of  the  nation  that  were  in  part  friendly  to  the  Boers  almost  to  fanaticism  is 
well  known.  That  it  was  maintained  despite  the  warm-hearted  but  short- 
sighted expressions  of  sentiment  in  the  country,  and  despite  the  efforts  from 
abroad  to  draw  us  away  from  it,  is  the  lasting  merit  of  the  Kaiser  and  Count 
(now  Prince)  Billow.  At  the  very  outbreak  of  the  war  the  Secretary  of  State 
(for  Foreign  Affairs)  gave  Sir  Frank  Lascelles  the  following  declaration :  '  As 
long  as  we  can  count  on  respect  for  our  rights  and  due  regard  for  our  interests, 
the  German  Government  will  not  co-operate  during  the  hostilities  in  any  com- 
bination, and  will  not  join  any  grouping  of  Powers  that  might  cause  incon- 
venience to  the  British  Government.' 

I  am  not  in  a  position  to  confirm  or  deny  the  latter  part  of  this 
statement ;  but  one  may  assume  that  its  accuracy  could  be  easily 
tested.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  writer  of  this  article  had  access  to 
official  sources  of  information  in  Berlin.  The  anonymous  author  of 
the  Daily  Telegraph  '  interview '  was  unnecessarily  reserved  in  laying 
on  his  colours  in  his  opening  paragraph  ;  it  is  therefore  strange  that 
he  quoted  as  coming  direct  from  the  Kaiser  the  phrase  that  mis- 
representations and  distortions  of  his  Majesty's  words  and  actions 
were  looked  upon  by  him  as  '  a  personal  insult '  which  he  felt  and 
resented.  If  his  Majesty  had  been  properly  informed,  he  would 
have  known  that  the  vast  majority  of  the  British  nation  had  no 
sympathy  with  these  misrepresentations  and  distortions  ;  and,  in 
that  case,  he  would  have  been  the  last  to  blame  them  for  the  actions 
of  others.  It  is  well  known  that  Kaiser  Wilhelm,  who  assumes  an 
active  and  leading  part  in  politics,  is  of  a  very  sensitive  nature,  and 
that  he  invariably  takes  it  as  a  personal  insult  to  himself  when  the 
German  or  the  foreign  Press  wilfully,  as  he  interprets  their  action, 
misrepresent  and  twist  in  an  unfavourable  sense  his  pacific  intentions 
and  assurances.  This  exaggerated  sensitiveness  is  of  purely  German 
origin,  and  is  common  to  most  Germans  in  public  as  well  as  private 
life,  and  constantly  leads  to  misunderstandings  which  would  other- 
wise be  impossible. 

It  may  be  respectfully  submitted  to  his  Majesty  that  no  fair  critic 
in  or  out  of  his  own  country  desires  wilfully  to  insult  him.  In  giving 
his  consent  to  the  publication  of  the  '  interview  '  that  caused  the 
acute  crisis  through  which  the  German  Empire  passed  during  the 
month  of  November,  it  is  absolutely  beyond  question  that  his  Majesty's 
main  object  was  to  try  to  effect  an  improvement  in  the  relations  of 
Germany  with  Great  Britain.  He  was  doubtless  persuaded  to  believe 
that  where  the  voice  of  others — even  of  the  Chancellor — found  no 


916  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

hearing,  his  own  would.  For  certain  reasons  the  '  interview  '  did  not 
have  the  desired  effect  in  England  ;  but  his  Majesty  must  have  noted 
with  satisfaction  that  at  the  time  of  its  appearance  and  throughout  the 
crisis  the  tone  of  the  criticism  of  the  British  Press  was  both  respectful 
to  himself  and  friendly  to  Germany.  It  was  at  once  felt  that  the  subject 
was  in  the  main  a  domestic  matter  for  Germany  ;  in  this  sense  it  was 
taken  up  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  German  Empire. 
The  words  used  by  Sir  Edward  Grey  in  a  speech  at  Scarborough  on  the 
19th  of  November  are  noteworthy  in  this  connexion,  and  may  be  com- 
mended to  the  careful  attention  of  the  German  Emperor,  the  German 
Foreign  Office,  and  the  German  nation.  Our  Foreign  Secretary, 
referring  to  the  debates  in  the  Reichstag  on  the  German  crisis,  said  : 

Therefore,  my  only  reason  for  introducing  this  subject  at  all  is  this — that 
the  circumstances  of  those  debates  in  the  German  Parliament  were  such  as  to 
cause  the  representatives  of  the  various  parties  of  the  people  in  Germany  to 
speak  their  mind  with  exceeding  freedom.  Anyone  who  has  followed  those 
debates  would  have  observed  that  not  one  word  was  said  by  the  representatives 
of  any  party  in  Germany  which  indicated  on  the  part  of  the  Germans  any 
hostility  towards  this  or  any  other  country  (cheers).  /  should  like  that  this  should 
be  noted,  should  be  appreciated,  should  be  reciprocated  and  reflected  in  any  language 
which  is  used  in  this  country  towards  the  German  nation.  (Renewed  cheers.) 

Before  dealing  with  the  inaccuracies  in  the  '  interview '  that 
Prince  von_Bulow  exposed,  let  me  state  that  the  English  '  diplomatist,' 
who  wrote  the  '  interview  '  that  did  the  Kaiser  such  an  ill  turn  in 
his  own  country,  asked  his  Majesty  not  to  let  his  name  be  known. 
His  secret  has  been  loyally  kept  in  Berlin,  and  he  himself  has  calmly 
looked  on  whilst  a  series  of  other  men's  names,  at  the  head  of  which 
stands  that  of  the  late  Ambassador,  Sir  Frank  Lascelles,  have  been 
dragged  before  the  public,  and  the  authorship  of  his  imperfect  work 
has  been  attributed  successively  to  them.  Surely  the  assumption  of 
an  anonymous  position  in  such  a  matter  is  not  justifiable  ! 

The  most  palpable  inaccuracy  in  the  interview  is  contained  in 
the  lines  wherein  the  Kaiser  is  made  to  say  :  '  The  prevailing  senti- 
ment among  large  sections  of  the  middle  and  lower  classes  of  my  own 
people  is  not  friendly  to  England.'  These  words,  if  really  from  the 
Kaiser's  mouth,  would  have  been  exploited  for  all  they  were  worth 
by  British  fomentors  of  strife  with  Germany ;  it  is  precisely  what 
they  have  been  saying  for  years,  notwithstanding  the  emphatic 
denial  given  to  such  sentiments  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  land.  But  Prince  von  Bulow  denied  that  the  Kaiser  could 
have  made  such  a  statement,  adding  : 

Between  Germany  and  England  misunderstandings  have  occurred,  regrettable 
and  serious  misunderstandings  ;  but  I  know  myself  to  be  at  one  with  this  entire 
House  when  I  say  that  the  German  nation  desires  peaceable  and  friendly  rela- 
tions with  the  British  nation  on  the  basis  of  mutual  respect — ('Very  true') — and 
I  note  that  speakers  of  all  parties  have  expressed  themselves  in  this  sense. 


1908  THE   BE  EL  IN  CRISIS  917 

And  they  had  done  so  in  the  most  unequivocal  terms,  those  that 
had  already  spoken,  and  the  others  who  rose  later  made  similar 
protestations.  Herr  Bassermann,  the  National  Liberal  leader,  declared 
that  the  deputies  in  the  Reichstag  must  protest  against  the  assertion 
that  the  German  nation  in  its  great  majority  was  not  friendly  but 
even  hostile  to  England  ;  and  his  words  were  greeted  with  loud 
cheers  from  all  parties.  Herr  Wiemer  declared  that  if  the  Kaiser 
really  believed  that  a  hostile  feeling  towards  England  prevailed 
amongst  the  German  people,  he  was  not  correctly  informed.  Herr 
Singer,  for  the  Socialists,  stated  :  '  The  assertion  that  the  middle 
and  lower  classes  in  Germany  were  hostile  to  England  was  a  positive 
blow  in  the  face  of  actual  facts.'  On  behalf  of  the  Centre  party, 
that  returned  over  a  hundred  members  to  Parliament,  Dr.  von 
Hertling  emphatically  declared  that  it  was  simply  untrue  that  the 
great  majority  of  the  German  people  were  not  friendly  to  England. 
And  Herr  Haussmann,  a  South  German  barrister,  who  is  a  leading 
member  of  the  South  German  Radical  or  People's  party,  delivered 
an  extremely  eloquent  and  pregnant  speech,  in  the  course  of  which 
he  submitted  :  '  We  desire  friendship  with  England,  for  whose 
achievements  we  have  the  very  greatest  respect.' 

The  above  words  are  conclusive  evidence  of  the  inaccuracy 
of  the  anonymous  diplomatist's  report  of  his  conversation  with 
the  Kaiser.  But  have  not  numerous  deputations  from  England 
been  continuously  hearing  on  German  soil  similar  protestations  for 
some  years  past  ?  I  think,  too,  I  may  claim  to  speak  with  some 
authority  on  this  subject.  Two  years  ago  I  conducted  six  intelligent 
British  workmen  from  Gainsborough  through  the  chief  industrial 
districts  of  Germany.  They  came  in  contact  with  manufacturers 
and  workmen  in  all  parts  of  the  Empire,  starting  at  Crefeld  and  ending 
up  their  tour  at  Hamburg,  after  having  carefully  traversed  the  main 
manufacturing  districts  in  Rhineland  and  Westphalia,  Bavaria  and 
Saxony.  One  of  these  men  wrote  to  me  after  his  return  to  England 
about  his  experiences  during  the  tour.  He  concluded  his  letter  as 
follows  :  '  Many  pleasant  memories  will  linger  in  my  mind  of  the 
kind  wishes  expressed  towards  England  by  Germans  of  every  station 
of  life.'  A  couple  of  months  after  their  departure  I  had  the  honour 
of  being  received  in  audience  by  his  Majesty  the  Kaiser,  who  spoke 
at  length  to  me  about  the  impressions  these  workmen  had  taken 
away  with  them  from  Germany.  His  Majesty  told  me  that  Count 
von  Posadowsky,  the  Imperial  Home  Secretary  for  the  Interior,  had 
given  him  full  reports  of  the  journey,  in  which  he  (his  Majesty)  had 
taken  great  interest.  He  was  greatly  pleased  to  learn  that  the  British 
workmen  had  everywhere  convinced  themselves  that  the  reports  of 
German  animosity  towards  England  were  false,  and  that  they  had 
seen  no  trace  of  such  a  feeling  either  amongst  their  German  comrades 
or  amongst  the  employers  of  labour.  They  had  been  received  with 

VOL.  LX1V— No.  382  3  Q 


918  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

every  token  of  friendship,  and  manufacturers  had  shown  such  confi- 
dence in  them  that  they  had  on  their  own  initiative  shown  them 
their  labour  books,  had  answered  every  question  put  them  concerning 
wages  and  the  conditions  of  labour,  and  had  given  them  every 
facility  for  making  inquiries  of  the  men  in  the  works  ;  from  the 
Socialist  officials,  too,  every  possible  assistance  had  been  accorded 
them.  His  Majesty  concluded  by  expressing  a  hope  that  similar 
commissions  of  British  workmen  would  frequently  come  over  to 
Germany,  and  that  deputations  of  German  workmen  would  also  be 
sent  to  England. 

The  oftener  they  come,  the  better  (said  his  Majesty) ;  it  is  an  advantage 
for  the  two  nations  that  people  of  all  ranks  in  the  two  countries  should  come 
in  contact  with  one  another.  Let  them  come  over  as  often  as  possible  from 
England.  We  have  nothing  to  hide  from  them  and  shall  always  be  pleased  to 
show  them  anything  we  have  to  show. 

Some  months  afterwards  a  London  Sunday  paper  published  a 
series  of  articles  about  Germany,  and  a  good  deal  was  stated  therein 
about  alleged  German  hostility  towards  England.  I  consulted  Count 
von  Posadowsky,  the  Imperial  Home  Secretary,  on  the  subject,  and 
he  assured  me  most  emphatically  that  all  the  talk  about  the  hostility 
of  Germans  towards  England  was  nothing  but  malignant  falsehood. 
He  said  he  had  instituted  full  inquiries  on  this  subject  through  his 
officials  who  were  spread  all  over  the  Empire,  and  the  reports  he  had 
received  showed  him  that  there  was  not  the  slightest  foundation  for 
the  legends  on  this  subject  sent  to  England. 

The  German  people  awaited  with  anxiety  the  result  of  the  memor- 
able interview  between  Kaiser  and  Chancellor  on  the  17th  of  Novem- 
ber. The  Kaiser  listened  to  Prince  von  Billow  and  recognised  the 
seriousness  of  the  situation.  The  Chancellor  spoke  the  plain  and 
unvarnished  truth  to  his  Sovereign.  Wilhelm  the  Second  at  once 
perceived  where  his  duty  as  a  sovereign  lay.  The  Chancellor,  the 
Reichstag,  the  Prussian  Ministers,  the  Federal  Council  Committee 
for  Foreign  Affairs,  the  Press  of  all  shades  of  political  thought,  voicing 
the  unanimous  feeling  of  the  people,  had  spoken  unanimously  to  the 
effect  that  constitutional  methods  were  demanded  in  place  of  personal 
regime  and  the  personal  intervention  of  the  monarch  in  foreign  affairs^ 
and  that  the  system  that  had  been  followed  during  the  past  years  of 
his  Majesty's  reign  was  not  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  age 
and  the  aspirations  of  modern  Germans,  whilst  at  the  same  time 
it  was  injurious  to  Germany's  interests  abroad.  His  Majesty  acted 
promptly  and  yielded,  and  his  action  is  described  now  as  the  most 
popular  step  he  has  taken  since  he  came  to  the  throne.  His  will 
was  proclaimed  as  follows  : 

Unswerved  by  exaggerations  of  public  criticism,  which  he  feels  to  be  unjust, 
he  regards  it  as  his  foremost  imperial  duty  to  secure  the  consistency  of  the 
policy  of  the  Empire  while  safeguarding  constitutional  responsibilities. 


1908  THE   BERLIN  CRISIS  919 

Accordingly  his  Majesty  the  Kaiser  approved  the  declarations  made  by  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Empire  in  the  Reichstag  and  assured  Prince  Billow  of  his 
continued  confidence. 

However  dissatisfied  some  journals  are  at  the  above  declaration, 
it  must  be  assumed  that  the  door  is  now  open  for  an  understanding 
between  the  Crown,  the  first  Minister  of  the  Crown,  and  the  deputies 
of  the  Imperial  Diet  on  the  question  of  constitutional  reforms.  In 
agreeing  on  the  17th  of  November  to  Prince  von  Billow's  view  of  the 
situation,  his  Majesty  obviously  admitted  the  necessity  of  granting 
the  guarantees  demanded  by  the  Reichstag.  He  did  so  of  his  own  free 
will  in  deference  to  the  wishes  of  the  nation,  and  we  shall  soon  find 
that  the  nation  will  repay  him  with  gratitude  for  showing  that  he 
knows  as  a  Hohenzollern  how  to  play  his  part  as  Deutscher  Kaiser 
and,  as  his  great  forbear  put  it,  as  the  first  servant  of  the  State. 

The  old  cordial  relations  between  Kaiser  and  people  will  now  be 
restored.  Kaiser  Wilhelm  the  Second  will  never  wilfully  do  anything 
to  lose  the  favour  and  affection  of  his  people  ;  if,  as  in  the  present  case, 
he  transgresses  against  their  well-founded  wishes,  he  will  find  a  way 
for  setting  things  right  again.  When  the  Kaiser  said  at  the  Berlin 
Rathaus  on  the  21st  of  November,  '  rising  clouds  shall  never  separate 
me  and  my  people  by  casting  a  shadow  betwixt  us  '  he  showed  Germany 
that  he  had  admitted  his  error  and  had  yielded  to  the  wishes  of  the 
people. 

Public  attention  has  been  almost  exclusively  diverted  during  the 
present  crisis  in  Germany  to  its  constitutional  issues,  so  that  another 
very  important  issue  which  is,  as  far  as  I  can  gather,  very  closely 
connected  with  the  special  desire  of  the  Kaiser  and  his  Government, 
to  be  on  amicable  terms  with  Great  Britain,  has  been  kept  in  the 
background.  Kaiser  Wilhelin's  utterances  at  the  Guildhall  in  Novem- 
ber of  last  year  and  his  speech  this  summer  on  the  Franco- German 
frontier  are  ample  evidence  to  all  but  those  who  will  not  attach 
weight  to  his  Majesty's  words  that  he  desires  and  works  for  peace. 
But  there  are  other  cogent  factors  that  make  for  the  maintenance  of 
peace  besides  the  personal  wishes  of  sovereigns.  It  has  frequently 
been  said  in  Germany  during  the  past  year  that,  had  the  German 
Empire  been  involved  in  a  war  a  couple  of  years  ago,  it  would  have 
taken  the  field  with  certain  misgivings  on  account  of  the  relative 
inferiority  of  its  artillery,  but  that  now  there  would  be  absolutely 
no  risk  of  failure,  as  the  new  guns  had  placed  the  country  in  a  position 
of  vast  superiority  over  its  neighbours.  As,  however,  war  cannot  be 
carried  on  alone  with  men  and  weapons,  and  as  a  nation  requires  the 
'  sinews  of  war  '  as  well,  there  are  at  this  juncture  very  cogent  reasons, 
besides  the  real  and  well-founded  love  of  peace  of  the  monarch  and 
the  nation,  for  Germany  to  remain  on  terms  of  amity  with  her 
neighbours.  In  military  circles  there  is  doubtless  a  good  deal  of  talk 
about  tension  with  the  western  neighbour ;  but  it  must  be  admitted 

3  a  2 


920  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

that,  despite  frictions  of  more  or  less  anxious  nature,  both  sides  have 
of  late  acted  with  coolness  and  common-sense,  so  much  so  indeed  as 
to  have  recently  evoked  a  very  warmly  indited  and  significant  com- 
pliment from  Sir  Edward  Grey.  According  to  the  opinion  of  the 
most  eminent  financiers  in  Berlin,  a  campaign  just  now,  despite  the 
military  strength  of  the  Empire,  would  be  very  fatal  to  its  financial 
condition.  Politicians  and  statesmen,  being  now  fully  occupied  with 
reforms  in  the  imperial  finances,  would  be  aghast  if  their  labours 
were  suspended  by  an  outbreak  of  war.  Whether  or  not  the  financial 
difficulties  under  which  the  German  Empire  is  now  labouring  are 
of  a  temporary  nature  only,  and  are  likely  to  be  soon  tided  over,  is  a 
matter  upon  which  well-known  financial  authorities  do  not  absolutely 
agree.  In  military  circles  the  views  on  this  point  are  of  an  optimistic 
nature,  and  it  is  said  there  that  the  prevailing  difficulties  will  soon 
be  surmounted ;  but  in  certain  well-informed  financial  circles  a  very 
gloomy  view,  as  far  as  I  can  learn,  is  taken.  It  is  there  said  that  no 
small  anxiety  prevails  owing  to  the  commission  of  certain  inexplicable 
mistakes,  and  that,  if  wanted,  real  difficulty  would  be  experienced  in 
the  raising  of  a  loan.  In  any  case  my  financial  informants  declare 
emphatically  that  Germany  could  not  possibly  entertain  the  idea 
of  any  big  undertaking  involving  indefinite  expenditure,  even  if  she 
wished  to  do  so,  for  at  least  a  couple  of  years. 


II 

r  f  The  trend  of  the  discussion  in  Germany  on  the  subject  justifies 
us  in  believing  that  the  sole  object  Kaiser  Wilhelm  had  in  con- 
senting to  the  publication  of  the  Daily  Telegraph  '  interview '  was  to 
effect  an  improvement  in  the  relations  between  Germany  and  Great 
Britain — a  task  which,  as  Prince  von  Billow  rightly  saidj  his  Majesty 
has  diligently  applied  himself  to  for  two  decades.  The  Prince  told 
the  Reichstag  that  the  Kaiser  had  recognised  that  the  publication  in 
question  had  not  had  that  effect  in  England  which  was  anticipated 
for  it.  No  great  nation  could  like  to  be  told  that  the  plan  of 
campaign  against  its  foe  had  been  drawn  up  by  a  foreign  potentate  ! 
What  would  Germans  have  said  if  they  were  assured  that  the  Tzar 
or  the  Emperor  of  Austria  had  drawn  up  the  plan  of  campaign  in 
1870-71  and  not  Moltke  ?  And  if  they  were  assured  that  this  was  so 
by  the  monarchs  themselves  ! 

The  object  of  the  remaining  lines  of  this  paper  is  to  try  to 
show  to  the  Kaiser  and  to  the  German  nation  that  there  is  no 
prospect  whatever  of  a  real  friendly  understanding  between  Britain 
and  Germany  until  an  agreement  shall  have  been  effected  between 
the  two  countries  on  the  question  of  naval  expenditure.  This 
is  the  only  real  point  of  difference  between  Britain  and  Germany ; 


1908  THE  BERLIN  CRISIS  921 

but  it  is  a  point  about  which  the  Germans  take  a  one-sided  view. 
The  Germans  declare  that  they  must  have  a  fleet  adequate  to  protect 
their  coasts,  their  oversea  interests,  and  their  commercial  relations  ; 
that  this  fleet  must  be  strong  enough  to  stand  up  against  any  foe 
whatever,  strong  enough  to  force  the  most  powerful  assailant  to 
think  twice,  nay  thrice,  before  deciding  to  attack  it.  This  language 
seems  to  Britons  to  be  ill-chosen,  because  it  can  only  refer  to  Britain  ; 
and  in  England  we  can  conceive  of  no  reason  why  Britain  should 
attack  Germany  unless  forced  to  do  so  by  an  act  of  aggression  on 
the  part  of  Germany.  The  language  is  as  unfortunate  as  that  used 
by  Prince  von  Billow  on  the  19th  of  November  in  the  Reichstag, 
when  he  declared  that  Germany's  economic  progress  had  transformed 
the  once  friendly  feelings  entertained  by  at  least  a  section  of  the 
British  people  for  Germany  into  mistrust  or  apprehensions  of  a 
particular  character,  by  which  he  meant  apprehension  of  an  invasion 
of  England  by  Germany.  The  feelings,  as  it  appears  to  me,  of  the  mass 
of  Britons  for  Germany  are  quite  friendly  ;  and  Germans  are  now  held 
in  far  higher  estimation  in  England  than  they  were  thirty  or  forty 
years  ago. 

Prince  Billow  declared  that,  as  Germany  had  been  compelled  to 
take  up  world  policy,  the  new  Empire  was  obliged  to  provide  itself 
with  a  navy  adequate  for  the  protection  of  German  coasts,  of  German 
oversea  interests,  and  of  German  commerce.  '  We  had  to  build  this 
fleet,'  said  the  Chancellor,  '  and  we  had  to  build  it  quickly.' 

Very  well.  Germany  had,  according  to  her  view,  to  build  this 
fleet ;  and  nobody  in  Britain  contests  her  right  to  build  whatever 
fleet  she  likes.  But  we  do  in  Britain  step  in  and  protest,  not  against 
Germany's  right  to  build  a  large  fleet,  but — and  that  is  a  very  different 
thing — against  the  enormous  expenditure  that  her  new  point  of  view 
forces  upon  our  own  citizens.  We  consider  that  Germany  is  building 
a  much  larger  fleet  than  is  necessary  for  the  mere  defensive  purposes 
she  says  she  has  in  view  ;  and  as  we  are  bound  from  the  very  conditions 
of  our  existence  to  strengthen  our  naval  armaments  in  proportion 
as  our  neighbours  and  other  countries  strengthen  theirs  we  resent 
what  we  consider  to  be  the  thrusting  of  unnecessary  expenditure  upon 
us.  Sir  Edward  Grey  summed  up  the  situation  at  Scarborough  as 
regards  our  navy  a  few  days  ago  : 

Take,  for  instance,  our  naval  power.  We  uiuat  have  and  we  must  maintain 
it.  It  must  be  a  naval  power  equal  to  meet  and  to  overcome  any  probable 
combination  which  might  be  brought  to  bear  upon  us,  because  without  that 
we  cannot  protect  what  we  have.  There  is  no  half-way  house,  as  far  as  we  are 
concerned,  in  naval  affairs  ;  there  is  no  half-way  house  between  complete  safety 
and  absolute  ruin. 

We  are  an  island  Power,  and  our  island  population  depend  upon 
their  food  supplies  from  abroad.  If  our  coasts  were  blockaded  by  a 


922  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

superior  hostile  naval  force,  our  people  would  be  starved  ;  but  if 
Germany's  coasts  were  blockaded,  she  would  obtain  that  amount  of 
corn  and  supplies  of  other  kinds  which  she  does  not  produce  herself 
from  inland  countries  untouched  by  a  naval  blockade. 

Let  us  consider  the  relative  tasks  of  the  two  navies.  The  United 
Kingdom  and  Ireland  alone,  not  taking  in  the  Colonies,  have  a  coast 
line  to  defend  very  much  longer  than  that  of  Germany.  The  tonnage 
of  that  shipping  of  the  British  Empire  that  has  to  be  defended  was  in 
1907-08  18,320,668  tons,  whilst  that  of  Germany  was  4,110,562— 
i.e.,  roughly,  in  the  proportion  of  4|  to  1.  The  total  trade  of  the 
whole  British  Empire  that  has  to  be  defended  amounted  in  1905  to 
1,366,706,0002.,  that  of  Germany  to  650,985,294*.— i.e.,  roughly,  as 
2  to  1.  Now  I  respectfully  submit  that  with  only  these  figures  before 
us  the  British  argument  holds  good  that  the  German  Navy  is  relatively 
to  our  own  larger  than  is  necessary. 

The  British  arguments  do  not  appeal  to  the  Germans  because  they 
say  '  our  Navy  construction  law  was  passed  in  1900,  and  this  law 
limits  our  number  of  battleships  to  thirty-eight,  but  it  establishes 
that  number  as  the  limit  to  be  obtained.'  We  do  not,  of  course,  ask 
Germany  to  repeal  her  law  or  even  to  amend  it ;  but  we  point  out  that 
the  increase  of  the  size  and  fighting  strength  of  the  new  type  of  battle- 
ship now  adopted  by  all  naval  Powers  has  vastly  increased  the  amount 
of  naval  expenditure.  Of  course  Germany's  new  naval  policy  and 
her  naval  programme  have  created  a  new  condition  of  things  in  the 
North  Sea.  We  consider  that  a  discussion  on  this  subject  would  be 
profitable  and  might  help  to  ameliorate  the  political  relations  of  the 
two  countries.  Both  Kaiser  Wilhelm  and  King  Edward  have  been 
working  for  the  peace  of  the  world.  King  Edward  said  at  Wilhelms- 
hohe  :  '  Your  Majesty  knows  that  it  is  my  greatest  wish  that  only 
the  best  and  pleasantest  relations  should  exist  between  the  two 
nations.'  The  King  is  bound  to  accept  the  naval  policy  of  his  people. 
This  policy  is  to  build  two  Dreadnoughts  for  every  one  that  Germany 
builds.  But  our  Government  want  the  German  Government  to 
have  a  discussion  on  the  question  of  naval  expenditure.  Why  should 
this  discussion  not  take  place  between  two  Great  Powers  whose 
Sovereigns  and  Governments  aim  at  the  maintenance  of  general  peace 
and  desire  mutual  good  relations,  and  whose  peoples  are  eminently 
pacific  in  their  sentiments  ?  The  olive  branch  was  actually  held  out 
by  Britain  when  the  King  went  to  Cronberg  last  August,  and  the 
German  Government  have  long  known  that  the  British  Government 
are  ready  to  discuss  this  matter.  As  long  as  the  question  of  naval 
expenditure  is  not  discussed  between  Berlin  and  London  no  visits  of 
sovereigns,  no  exchanges  of  politeness  between  the  monarchs  and 
sections  of  their  people,  will  be  of  any  avail  for  the  dissipation  of 
that  mutual  distrust  that  prevails  and  has  long  prevailed.  And  until 
some  settlement  be  arrived  at,  the  two  countries  will  not  be  on  terms 


1908  THE  BERLIN  CRISIS  928 

of  good  relations  with  each  other.  The  question  of  good  relations 
between  Britain  and  Germany  depends  solely  on  Germany's  disposition 
to  discuss  this  question  with  us. 

The  rejection  of  the  olive  branch  by  the  Kaiser  at  Cronberg  has 
crystallised  public  opinion  in  Great  Britain  ;  and  it  may  now  be 
said  that  the  Liberal  British  Cabinet  have  absolutely  decided  on  a 
considerably  enlarged  naval  programme.  This  is  the  result  of 
Germany's  unyielding  attitude.  No  Government  in  England  could 
retain  its  position  if  it  were  to  reject  the  will  of  the  nation  on  this 
point.  No  Liberal  Government  would  accept  a  policy  of  huge 
expenditure  in  naval  construction  for  the  mere  love  of  doing  so  ; 
they  are  merely  carrying  out  a  policy  of  stern  necessity. 

As  things  are  it  is  of  course  impossible  for  the  British  Government 
again  to  approach  his  Majesty  or  the  German  Government  on  the 
subject  of  a  reduction  of  naval  expenditure  and  armaments,  for  they 
might  thereby  expose  themselves  to  an  undesirable  rebuff ;  but  I 
firmly  believe  that  the  door  is  not  closed  to  such  a  discussion. 
Indeed,  I  am  disposed  to  emphasise  most  emphatically  the  assurance 
that  the  proposal  for  a  discussion  on  the  subject  of  naval  armaments 
and  expenditure  would  be  welcomed  in  a  very  friendly  spirit  in 
Downing  Street  as  well  as  at  the  British  Admiralty  if  the  slightest 
indication  of  a  desire  for  such  a  discussion  were  given  from  Berlin. 

It  is  stated  in  naval  circles  in  Berlin  that  recent  events  will  not 
exercise  the  slightest  influence  on  German  naval  expenditure  generally 
or  on  the  German  naval  estimates  for  the  ensuing  year.  In  fact  we 
are  told  that  the  item  for  new  construction  and  armaments  for 

1909  has  increased  by  nearly  2|  millions  of  pounds,  to  not  far  short  of 
11,000,0002.,  as  compared  with  8,358,2602.  last  year. 

I  repeat  that  until  this  wretched  naval  rivalry  between  Britain 
and  Germany  shall  have  been  brought  to  an  end,  it  is  almost  useless 
to  talk  of  bringing  about  those  good  relations  between  the  two  countries 
for  which  Prince  von  Bulow  tells  us  that  Kaiser  Wilhelm  has  laboured 
for  the  last  two  decades.  And  I  go  further  and  submit  that,  as  the 
condition  of  Anglo-German  relations  is  a  most  weighty  factor  in 
European  politics,  the  prevailing  unrest  in  Europe  is  bound  to  continue 
until  this  question  is  solved.  It  is  in  the  power  of  the  Kaiser,  the 
Chancellor,  and  the  Reichstag  to  pave  the  way  for  such  a  solution 
which  will  bring  about  that  state  of  good  political  relations  between 
the  two  countries  which  both  sides  desire. 

J.  L.  BASHFOED. 


924  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 


WATCHMAN,     WHAT    OF    THE    NIGHT?' 


'  Let  me  beg  of  you  not  to  believe  for  one  moment  that  an  inexperienced, 
inadequately  trained  second  line  of  citizen  soldiers  could  cope  successfully  with 
the  thoroughly  organised,  highly  trained  troops  that  would  assuredly  be  selected 
for  an  attack  on  this  country.' — Earl  Roberts  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
the  23rd  of  November,  1908. 

IN  the  August  issue  of  this  Review  I  was  permitted  to  bring  before 
its  readers  the  precariousness  of  our  Home  Defence.  It  was  to  the 
educated  men  and  women  of  the  country  that  my  remarks  were 
specially  addressed,  and  I  have  reason  to  know  that  the  article  went 
home  to  them.  From  a  gentleman  at  a  very  large  town,  I  received 
a  letter  saying  that  several  ladies  had  read  what  I  had  written,  and 
were  so  impressed  by  it  that  they  had  asked  him  to  write  to  me  to 
give  them  counsel  as  to  how  they  could  exert  their  influence  prac- 
tically, in  inducing  others  to  aid  in  averting  the  dangers  to  which, 
owing  to  its  precariousness,  our  Home  Defence  is  exposed  to-day. 
This  general  reception  of  the  article  is  eminently  satisfactory,  because 
it  shows  that  the  mind  of  England  is  gradually  awakening  to  the 
importance  of  Home  Defence  ;  and  that  the  mental  soil  on  which 
literary  seed  may  fall  is  no  longer  unreceptive,  hard  or  stony  as  it 
was  a  short  time  ago,  but  is  ready  to  receive  and  is  rapidly  becoming 
prepared  to  assimilate,  with  results  beneficial  to  the  nation,  seed 
sown  in  future.  Again,  therefore,  do  I  return  in  these  pages  to  the 
subject  of  Home  Defence,  and  with  the  same  class  of  readers  specially 
in  view. 

In  August  I  pointed  out  that  though  at  that  time  the  inter- 
national political  barometer  was  pointing  to  '  Set  Fair,'  yet  some 
sudden  and  unexpected  change  might  occur  in  the  atmosphere  of  these 
politics,  and  the  needle  whirl  round  to  '  Stormy.'  Not  being  either 
prophet  or  seer,  little  did  I  anticipate  the  immediateness  of  the  '  fall ' 
which  has  since  taken  place.  True  it  is  that  the  needle  is  now  back 
at '  Calm,'  but  whether  the  lull  is  due  to  the  actual  dying  out  of  the 
storm,  or  is  the  precursor  of  an  approaching  devastating  cyclone, 
not  even  the  most  far- seeing  and  experienced  political  navigators 
can  tell.  Fortunately  we  have,  at  the  national  helm,  men,  whom  all, 
irrespective  of  party,  recognise  deservedly  as  '  strong  men,'  careful 


1908      'WATCHMAN,    WHAT  OF   THE  NIGHT?'      925 

of  the  needs  and  the  honour  of  the  Empire.  Doubtless,  however 
optimist  they  may  be,  they  in  no  way  ignore  the  possibility  of  being 
confronted  with  the  worst ;  and  necessarily  one  of  the  very  first  pro- 
blems before  them  for  consideration  is  the  eventual  distribution  of  the 
sea  forces  and  the  land  forces  of  the  Empire  to  meet  the  heavy  and 
sometimes  conflicting  requirements  of  Imperial  Policy,  Imperial 
Defence,  and  of  the  Security  of  the  Home.  It  is  with  the  last  only 
that  I  am  here  concerned ;  and  let  me  again  warn  my  reader,  as  I  did 
four  months  ago,  of  the  irresistible  temptation  that  the  possible 
dispersion  of  our  militant  forces  over  the  whole  huge  area  of  Imperial 
war  operations  may  offer  for  a  determined  dash  at  the  heart  of  the 
Empire.  What  we  have  to-day  to  consider  is,  whether  in  this  case  we 
are  now  ready — or  if  not  now,  when  we  shall  be  ready — not  only  to 
meet  and  repel  that  possible  intruder  successfully,  but  also  give 
him  such  a  lesson  as  will  effectually  deter  him,  or  any  other  Power 
similarly  inclined,  from  essaying  the  experiment  again. 

Now  it  always  seems  to  me  that  our  rulers,  no  matter  to  whichever 
political  party  they  belong,  steadily  abstain  from  openly  and  honestly 
telling  us  the  whole  truth  as  regards  these  vitally  important  questions. 
The  whole  truth  is  known  to  every  would-be  hostile  Power  in  the 
world  ;  it  is  an  '  open '  secret ;  the  wisdom  of  withholding  it  from  us, 
the  inhabitants  of  Great  Britain,  is  wisdom  of  the  '  ostrich '  states- 
manship order,  so  here  I  give  my  personal  reading  and  interpretation 
of  the  secret. 

We  are  not  ready ;  at  our  present  rate  of  preparation  we  shall  not 
be  ready  before  the  fatal  '  Too  Late  '  knell  is  sounded  ;  and  finally, 
the  methods  of  preparation  adopted  by  the  Government  and  the 
War  Office  are  miserably  inadequate  and  futile,  and  can  result  only 
in  the  production  of  a  defence  of  the  paper  and  cardboard  kind. 

These  are  strong  assertions,  but  as  the  first  is  on  all  hands  admitted 
to  be  true,  it  is  necessary  for  me  to  justify  only  the  two  others  ;  and  I 
can  justify  them  '  to  the  hilt '  !  And  in  doing  so  I  deliberately  appeal 
to  the  people  against  the  Government  and  the  War  Office  combined. 
But  in  taking  this  apparently  strange  and  presumptuous  course 
I  am  merely  endeavouring,  as  one  of  the  people,  to  act  in  the  spirit 
of  the  really  grave  and  solemn  injunctions  imposed  on  us,  at  a  time 
when  our  defensive  condition  at  home  was  strictly  analogous  to  what 
it  might  become  to-morrow  should  the  flames  of  war  burst  out  in 
Europe,  by  one  of  the  greatest  statesmen  whose  names  are  recorded 
in  our  national  annals.  In  May  1901,  during  the  Boer  war,  we 
were  well  on  the  way  to  the  exhaustion  of  our  military  resources ;  we 
were  pouring  out  of  Great  Britain  to  South  Africa  not  only  every  real 
soldier,  but  every  man  on  whom  we  could  lay  hands,  and  whose  only 
qualification  as  a  soldier  was  the  soldier's  dress  he  wore.  Of  regular 
soldiers  we  were  well-nigh  bereft  at  home ;  and  of  guns,  those  of  us 
behind  the  scenes  knew  that  there  were  barely  forty  pieces  of  field 


926  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

artillery  with  which  to  fight  our  battles  against  an  invader  who 
would  have  come  amply  provided  with  guns ;  and  now  in  1908,  ac- 
cording to  a  statement  made  recently  on  the  express  authority  of  Mr. 
Haldane  at  a  large  public  meeting,  the  conditions  would  be  almost 
precisely  the  same  should  the  Territorial  Army  find  itself  suddenly 
entrusted  with  the  defence  of  Great  Britain.  On  the  13th  of 
November  Lieut.- General  Sir  Edmond  Elles,  as  Mr.  Haldane's  mouth- 
piece, warned  us  that,  then,  the  whole  of  the  Regular  Army  would  have 
been  sent  out  of  the  country — a  really  appalling  statement.  It  would 
be  consequently  on  untrained  soldiers — and  with,  it  is  true  perhaps, 
more  field  guns,  but  those  in  the  hands  of  incompetent  gunners — that, 
according  to  this  ministerial  announcement,  the  protection  of  our  home 
against  the  most  highly  trained  troops  in  Europe  will  depend.  With 
this  terrible  and  awful  future,  as  honestly  and  authoritatively  placed 
before  us  500  or  600  people  who  were  present,  I  turn  back  to  1901,  to 
find  perhaps  light,  or  at  all  events  '  leading.'  I  find  it,  and  on  it  I  act, 
secure  in  the  wisdom  of  my  counsellor.  That  counsellor  is  none  other 
than  the  late  Lord  Salisbury,  in  whose  hand  at  that  time  were  the 
reins  of  power.  No  one  knew  better  than  he  did  our  well-nigh 
desperate  military  condition  for  Home  Defence  then  ;  no  one  would 
realise  better  than  he  our  condition  as  it  might  be  to-morrow.  On 
the  9th  or  10th  of  May  1901,  speaking  at  the  Albert  Hall  to  the 
members  of  the  Primrose  League,  he  counselled  the  people  of  Great 
Britain  in  the  words  that  follow  : 

It  [preparation  for  Home  Defence]  can  only  be  set  on  foot  in  the  parishes, 
it  is  not  a  thing  that  can  come  from  the  centre  ;  but  if  once  the  feeling  can  be 
promulgated  abroad  that  it  is  the  duty  of  every  able  [?  bodied]  Englishman  to 
make  himself  competent  to  meet  the  invading  enemy,  if  ever — God  forfend — 
in  the  course  of  time  an  invading  enemy  should  appear — if  you  once  impress 
on  him  that  the  defence  of  the  country  is  not  the  business  of  the  War  Office  or  of  the 
Government,  but  the  business  of  the  people  themselves,  learning  in  their  own  parishes 
the  practice  and  the  accomplishments  which  are  necessary  to  make  them  for- 
midable in  the  field — you  will  then  have  a  defensive  force  which  will  not  only 
repel  the  assailant  if  he  come,  but  will  make  the  chance  of  the  assailant  so  bad 
that  no  assailant  will  ever  appear. 

These  are  remarkable  words :  Lord  Salisbury  could  not  have 
intended,  however,  that  they  should  be  taken  literally ;  it  was  the 
true  principle  of  sound  Home  Defence  that,  even  with  some  exaggera- 
tion, he  was  seeking  to  impress  on  the  country  in  that  hour  of  dire 
need.  The  universality  of  the  duty  of  all  able  men  to  participate 
in  the  defence  of  the  home,  and  in  preparing  themselves  for  that 
participation  :  this  is  the  teaching,  this  is  the  real  counsel  of  Lord 
Salisbury.  And  he  seems  almost  to  say  in  as  many  words,  '  it  is  for 
you,  the  people,  not  to  wait  for  the  Government  and  the  War  Office 
to  find  out  how  far  you  are  willing  to  go  in  this  matter,  and  meanwhile 
for  them  to  advance  with  only  slow,  uncertain  and  faltering  steps ; 
it  is  for  you,  the  people,  to  tell  the  Government  and  the  War  Office 


1908      'WATCHMAN,    WHAT  OF   THE   NIGHT?'      927 

plainly  and  decisively  how  far  you  will  go  ;  and  then,  with  them  does 
lie  the  business  of  leading  you  there  as  a  defensive  power  in  the  country.' 
And  it  is  to-day  the  mistake  of  these  authorities,  that  not  only  are  they 
ignorant  of  how  far  the  people  are  willing  to  go,  not  only  do  they  seem 
to  take  no  measures  to  feel  the  pulse,  to  '  take  the  temperature  '  of  the 
blood  of  the  people  on  this  matter,  but  with  wearying  reiterancy  on 
every  possible  occasion  they  declare  that  the  people  will  never  go  so 
far  as  all  experience  teaches  us  is  the  only  safe  and  reliable  haven  of 
safety.  Their  conduct  is  like  that  of  a  physician  who  says  to  a 
patient,  '  My  friend,  you  are  a  weak  invalid ;  I  have  a  medicine  here 
which  I  know  would  make  you  well  and  strong,  but  I  know  you  won't 
take  it,  therefore  I  do  not  even  ask  you  to  do  so,  and  I  will  put  it  aside.' 
No  wonder  the  patient  does  not  even  try  to  find  out  anything  about 
the  medicine  and  what  it  really  is. 

I  purpose,  therefore,  now,  as  one  of  the  people,  to  sketch  as  briefly 
as  possible  some  of  the  horrors  before  us  in  the  case  of  invasion,  the 
best  method  for  saving  ourselves  from  those  horrors,  and  the  abso- 
lute futility  and  childishness  of  the  plans  which  in  their  ignorance 
of  how  far  we  are  '  prepared  to  go  '  the  Government  and  the  War 
Office  alike  are  pressing  us  to  adopt. 

Taking  into  account  the  far  too  general  indifference  shown  to 
this  matter  of  Home  Defence  by  the  majority  of  the  dwellers  in  our 
island,  I  am  often  led  to  ask  myself  whether  the  men  and  women 
in  England,  Scotland,  and  Wales  have  the  very  faintest  idea  of  what 
the  presence  of  an  enemy  who  has  effected  a  landing  on  our  shores, 
and  is  intent  on  pushing  on  further  inland,  really  means  to  every 
dweller  in  that  part  of  the  country  which  is  in  the  enemy's  occupation. 
Of  course  the  troubles  indirectly  caused  all  over  the  land,  even  away 
from  the  area  where  the  enemy  actually  is — the  fall  in  public 
confidence,  the  disruption  of  business,  the  interruption  of  the  means 
of  transit  for  even  the  most  ordinary  necessaries  of  life,  and  the 
resulting  riot  and  confusion — would  be  felt  from  John  o'  Groat's 
to  Land's  End,  but  it  is  more  of  the  direct  effects  that  I  am 
thinking  now.  Strange  to  my  mind  it  is  that  when  talking  of 
this  matter  of  invasion  I  have  very  rarely  met  women  who  seem 
to  take  any  interest  in  the  matter ;  they  seem  to  regard  it  as  purely 
a  man's  question,  a  matter  for  the  fighters  alone.  They  neither 
know  nor  realise  that  in  invasion,  or  even  in  the  mere  temporary 
occupation  of  a  district,  a  town,  or  a  village  by  invaders,  it  will  not  be 
the  men,  it  will  be  themselves,  the  women  and  their  families,  that 
will  be  the  sufferers,  the  victims.  Let  me  take  for  illustration  the 
district  and  village  or  large  central  town  of  what  I  will  call  '  Burley.' 
Enter  the  foreign  invaders.  Nowadays  those  invaders  will  be  men  held 
tight  in  bonds  of  discipline,  far  tighter  than  those  our  soldiers  know. 
Judging  from  what  took  place,  or  rather  what  did  not  take  place  in 
France  in  1870-71,  and  to  the  not  generally  recognised  but  well- 


928  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

deserved  credit  of  the  German  invaders,  our  women  will  be  safe  from 
those  crimes  of  violence  and  lust  which  were  common  in  war  only 
a  hundred  years  ago.  But  short  of  these,  there  are  no  extremities 
leading  to  misery,  suffering  and  death  to  which  the  intruders  will  not 
go.  The  first  demand  of  the  '  men  in  possession '  will  be  shelter  and 
food.  Fortunate  will  the  women,  the  children,  and  the  infirm  old 
fathers  be,  if  to  them  remain  even  an  outhouse  or  shed  for  cover ; 
fortunate  for  them  if  for  sustenance  are  available  some  of  the  crumbs 
which  may  fall  from  the  invaders'  tables.  And  after  days  of  misery 
and  of  semi-starvation  they  rejoice  to  find  the  invaders  moving  away. 
But  a  shot  is  heard ;  soon  afterwards  a  volley  :  some  young  son  has 
been  accused  of  firing  on  the  unwelcome  intruders.  With  short  shrift, 
a  volley  terminates  his  brief  life  ;  and  then  punishment  on  the  village 
for  the  outrage.  But  the  few  pence,  shillings,  or  perhaps  pounds  in  their 
pockets  to  make  up  the  fine  are  not  sufficient,  and  as  the  intruders 
leave,  smoke  and  fire  burst  out  from  the  houses,  and  the  women  and 
children  find  but  ashes,  instead  of  a  home  ;  and  nowhere  in  their  own 
old  homes  is  anywhere  to  lay  their  heads — death  from  starvation  and 
exposure  is  the  only  end.  Then  with  this  sorrow  and  anguish  the 
anxiety  for  the  dear  ones  far  away  fighting,  but  whose  life  of  action 
and  excitement  takes  from  them  half  the  weight  of  the  troubles  of  the 
time.  Are  not  the  women  of  this  country  right  in  seeking  to  know 
what  the  Government  and  the  War  Office  are  doing  to-day  for  their 
future  protection  ? 

And  now  to  the  measures  which  the  combined  authorities  are 
taking  to  preserve  us — old  men,  mothers  of  families,  and  children — from 
all  these  horrors.  These  great  people  have  apparently,  for  purposes  of 
Home  Defence,  grouped  Lord  Salisbury's  able-bodied  men,  constituting 
the  manhood  of  Great  Britain,  into  two  classes,  the  '  Have  No  Timers  ' 
and  the  '  Have  Some  Timers.'  To  which  of  these  groups  a  man  may 
elect  to  attach  himself  is  the  man's  affair,  not  that  of  the  authorities. 
The  first-named  includes,  therefore,  not  only  the  men 'whom,  in  the 
general  interest,  it  would  not  be  well  to  take  away  even  temporarily 
from  civil  occupations,  and  young  fellows  who  are  perhaps  the  only 
breadwinners  in  poor  families,  but  all  the  host  of  shirkers  who  like  to 
have  time  for  amusement  or  for  making  their  money  whilst  the  care 
and  security  of  the  home  where  that  money  is  being  amassed  is 
voluntarily  undertaken  for  them  by  other  people  who  may  die  or  be 
maimed  in  the  possible  death-struggle. 

So  the  only  material  out  of  which  to  form  the  Army  for  Home 
Defence  is  that  furnished  by  the  group  of  '  Have  Some  Timers '  ;  and 
as  regards  these  the  County  Associations  move  heaven  and  earth  to 
secure  proselytes,  and  then  they  coax  them,  when  obtained,  to  remain 
with  them,  in  one  district  at  all  events,  by  limiting  the  teaching  to 
only  those  details  which  flavour  of  '  beer  and  sugar.'  AH  things 
regarded  by  soldiers  as  disagreeable  but  absolutely  necessary  in- 


1908     'WATCHMAN,    WHAT  OF   THE  NIGHT?'       929 

gredients  in  the  life  of  a  real  soldier  are  either  deliberately  suppressed, 
or  hidden  away  in  the  obscurity  of  a  back  place.  But  even  then  the 
'  some  time '  at  disposal  is  at  disposal  at  irregular  intervals  only. 
The  hour  or  day  which  suits  one  man  does  not  suit  another.  What 
could  be  learnt  in  seven  days'  steady  continuous  work  may  have  to 
be  spread  over  seven  weeks  in  one  case,  seven  months  in  another. 
But  there  must,  however,  be  some  minimum  of  work  to  justify  the 
acceptance  and  retention  of  even  a  '  Have  Some  Timer  '  as  a  defender 
of  our  homes.  And  lately  we  have  been  told,  on  the  highest  authority, 
that  during  the  first  year  of  training  each  of  our  noble  defenders  must 
put  in  forty  drills  of  one  hour  each  during  the  365  days  ;  it  is  hoped 
that  he  will  be  good  enough,  and  that  it  will  suit  his  personal  con- 
venience and  the  convenience  of  other  people  under  whom  he  may  be 
working  in  civil  life,  to  spend  fourteen  days  out  of  the  365  in  a  camp  ; 
and,  finally,  to  qualify  him  to  try  and  hit  with  a  bullet  an  enemy 
who,  be  it  remarked,  may  be  half  hidden  or  perhaps  on  the  fast  run 
100  to  1000  yards  distant,  he  will  be  allowed  to  fire  in  the  365  days 
no  fewer  than  twenty-eight  times  a  loaded  rifle.  In  the  follow- 
ing 365  days  he  is  regarded  as  officially  stamped  with  the  badge  of 
honour  '  Trained  Soldier.'  And  to  these  soi-disant  soldiers  we,  the 
people  of  Great  Britain,  may  have  to  entrust  the  defence  of  our  homes 
(when  all  our  Regular  Army  is  out  of  the  country)  against  the  onset  of 
the  very  best  of  continental  soldiers,  each  of  whom  has  undergone  for 
two  whole  years  the  severest  of  continuous  training. 

My  readers  surely  need  not  know  aught  of  the  technicalities  or 
the  details  of  learning  the  work  of  a  soldier  in  order  to  determine  the 
relative  value  o|  a  forty-hour  soldier  and  a  two-year  soldier.  Let 
them  apply  this  marvellous  form  of  learning  the  soldier's,  the  Home 
Defender's  trade  to  any  trade  or  profession  in  civil  life,  whether  that  of 
medicine,  land  surveying,  dressmaking,  carpenter,  bricklayer,  tinker, 
or  tailor.  Would  they  trust,  buy  from,  or  employ  any  one  of  these 
civilian  '  Have  Some  Timers  '  ? 

And  now  I  will  narrate  briefly  what  in  connexion  with  this  business 
of  the  people,  this  defence  ol  our  homes,  took  place  on  the  13th  of 
November  last,  at  a  meeting  at  which  I  was  present,  in  a  Surrey  district 
to  which  I  have  already  given  the  name  of  '  Burley.'  The  population 
of  *  Burley  '  district  is  about  14,000,  but  of  these  some  4000  are  troops 
lying  on  the  outskirts  ;  they  come  and  go,  and  take  no  part  in  the 
affairs  of  '  Burley  ' ;  it  may  be  remarked,  however,  that  they  furnish 
to  '  Burley  '  an  object-lesson  in  the  art  of  '  soldier  manufacture.' 

My  '  Burley '  has  its  peculiarities  :  it  comprises  one  very  old  but 
small  village,  one  old  large  village,  one  large  and  rapidly  expanding 
modern  village.  In  '  Burley  '  are  to  be  found  nearly  all  classes  and 
many  creeds :  some  half-dozen  civilian  residents  of  considerable  private 
means  ;  then  not  a  few  residents  of  the  retired  Indian  or  retired  British 
officer  type,  the  latter,  with  one  or  two  sad  and  lamentable  exceptions, 


980  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

being  of  the  strictly  conservative  order.  In  '  Burley '  are  sbme 
officers  on  the  Active  List ;  but  these  are  birds  of  passage,  and 
neither  '  Burley '  nor  its  concerns  have  much  interest  for  them. 
And  then  we  come  to  what  is  real  '  Burley,'  a  very  large  number 
indeed  of  the  professional  and  tradesmen  class,  with  a  still  larger 
number  of  people  employed  by  them,  and  a  strong  contingent  of 
the  so-called  '  working  classes.'  These  are  '  Burley '  in  deciding 
local  questions.  And  on  the  13th  of  November  representatives  of  all 
these  classes  came  to  the  local  Drill  Hall  at  the  invitation  of  the 
County  Association  to  consider  whether  *  Burley '  should  contribute 
a  company  to  the  Territorial  Army.  *  Bigwigs,'  representing  both 
the  Government  and  the  War  Office,  were  on  the  platform,  and  they 
spoke  first,  dangling  the  '  Have  Some  Timers  '  system  of  defence 
seductively  before  '  Burley,'  and  assuring  '  Burley '  that  any  other 
system  would  not  be  accepted  in  this  country.  And  the  information 
as  to  the  working  weakness  of  the  system,  arising  from  the  absence 
of  the  whole  of  the  Regular  Army  in  our  time  of  peril,  and  entrusting 
the  safety  of  '  Burley  '  to  the  forty-hour  soldiers,  was  actually  volun- 
teered from  the  platform,  or  was  elicited  by  simple  questions.  Then 
up  rose  an  old  hand,  well  known  to  '  Burley,'  and  he,  bearing  in  mind 
Lord  Salisbury's  decisive  statement  that  the  matter  was  one  for 
'  Burley  '  alone  and  not  for  the  occupiers  of  the  platform,  propounded 
for  consideration  a  system  universally  adopted  in  almost  all  other 
countries  in  the  civilised  world,  with  the  warranty  of  experience  to 
back  it  up.  That  system  is  very  simple,  and  may  be  briefly 
described  as  follows  : 

The  names  of  all  and  every  one  of  the  young  men  of  '  Burley ' 
within  the  prescribed  ages  are  put  in  a  jar  or  bag.  Say  that  for 
training  for  our  defence  thirty  young  men  out  of  the  300  or  400 
whose  names  are  in  the  jar  are  required.  The  thirty  to  go  would 
be  those  whose  names  are  drawn  first  from  the  jar.  "Among  these 
might  be  found  the  eldest  sons  of  a  peer  and  of  a  millionaire,  both 
fresh  from  Eton  and  intent  on  a  real  good  time  in  the  immediate 
future.  Naturally  these  young  fellows  suggest  '  exemption,'  offering 
to  find  in  '  Burley '  a  couple  of  other  young  men  quite  willing  for 
a  good  pecuniary  payment  to  take  their  places  as  '  substitutes.' 
But  this  '  substitute  '  system  was  one  of  the  many  contributory 
causes  to  the  downfall  of  France  in  her  hopeless  struggle  against 
the  German  invaders  in  1870.  The  exemption  would  not  be 
allowed  or  even  taken  into  consideration.  Into  the  ranks  they 
both  go ;  but,  in  their  very  natural  desire  to  serve  on  pleasanter 
terms,  they  would  soon  learn  how  to  become  efficient,  and  emerge 
to  play  during  the  remainder  of  their  service  the  part  of  non- 
commissioned officers  or  even  officers,  in  positions  of  trust  and 
responsibility  corresponding  to  their  educational  as  well  as  their  social 
position.  And  so  the  drawing  goes  on,  impartially  and  without  respect 


1908      'WATCHMAN,   WHAT  OF  THE  NIGHT?'      981 

of  persons ;  but  now  it  pauses,  for  names  have  come  out  which  show 
the  system  on  its  compassionate  side — the  name  of  a  young  fellow 
the  support  either  of  his  widowed  mother  and  young  brothers  and 
sisters,  or  of  old  parents  whose  only  refuge  in  his  absence  must  be  the 
'  house.'  This  name  remains  on  the  list,  but  the  young  fellow  is 
for  the  present  exempted,  and  is  to  be  called  out  only  in  the  very 
last  extremity.  But  besides  these  there  are  exemptions  of  particular 
cases  in  the  interest  of  the  public.  And  now,  though  forty  or 
fifty  names  have  had  to  be  drawn,  the  tale  of  thirty  is  complete. 
A  higher  Power  than  ours  has  determined  the  order  of  the  drawing 
of  the  lots  ;  neither  wealth,  social  position,  nor  personal  influence  has 
been  taken  into  account :  in  the  chances  of  the  drawing  it  has  been 
share  and  share  alike,  the  sons  of  the  peer  and  of  the  road-sweeper  had 
precisely  the  same  chances  of  serving  or  of  not  serving.  Those  young 
men  whose  names  were  not  drawn  have  run  their  chance  with  the 
others ;  they  in  no  way  shirked  their  liability  to  service,  and  can,  as 
men,  look  their  selected  comrades  in  the  face  without  feeling  aught 
of  shame  or  self-reproach.  This  principle  of  filling  the  ranks  of  the 
Territorial  Army,  '  Burley,'  in  spite  of  cold  looks  from  the  platform, 
eventually  decided  on  as  best  for  all  the  homes  in  '  Burley.'  And  then 
what  to  substitute  for  the  present  make-believe  training  ?  It  had 
been  pointed  out  at  a  previous  gathering  that  one  year  of  continuous 
steady  training,  backed  up  as  it  would  be  by  the  instincts  of 
patriotism  and  self-preservation,  would  suffice.  Patriotism  and 
sentimental  considerations  alone  are  of  little  value  in  war ;  by  resting 
on  a  basis  of  thorough  training  and  the  self-confidence  engendered 
thereby,  it  is  hoped  that  they  will  render  the  one-year  British  soldier 
the  equal  of  the  two-year  soldier  intruder. 

And  then  from  the  painfully  obvious  hostile  platform  came  the 
question  to  the  audience  :  '  Do  you  desire  to  add  the  following  words 
to  your  consent  to  the  request  to  contribute  a  company  from 
"  Burley  "  to  the  Territorial  Army  ? 

"We,  the  men  and  women  of  the  district,  present  at  this  meeting,  desire 
to  place  on  record  our  opinion  that  the  time  has  arrived  when  it  shall  be  the 
law  of  the  land  that  men  of  all  classes,  from  highest  to  lowest  alike,  shall  be 
equally  liable  to  undergo  preparation  for  the  defence  of  our  common  home; 
and  further,  that  that  preparation,  whilst  lasting  as  short  a  time  as  possible, 
shall  be  thorough,  complete,  and  effectual." ' 

The  reply  was  decisive.  A  seconder  being  called  for,  both  a  civilian 
resident  and  another  civilian  who  is  the  owner  of  one  of  the  largest 
businesses  in  '  Burley '  competed  for  the  position,  whilst  from  the 
back  of  the  hall,  from  the  '  working  class,'  came  a  cry,  '  We  all 
second  it ! '  So,  with  but  five  or  six  dissentients,  this  large  thoroughly 
representative  meeting  of  '  Burley '  had,  following  Lord  Salisbury's 
wise  counsel,  thrown  over  both  Government  and  War  Office  as 
possessing  no  locus  standi  at  present  in  the  matter;  had  regarded 


982  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

it  as  '  Burley's '  own  business,  and  plainly  told  the  representatives 
of  the  powers  that  be,  who  were  present,  that  '  Liability  to  service 
in  defence  of  the  home  ought  to  be  Universal  on  the  manhood  of  the 
Land,  and  that  fact,  not  fiction,  should  be  the  principle  of  the  training.' 
And '  Burley '  was  heard  to  say,  later  on,  in  conversational  intercourse : 
'  We  did  not  understand  this  system  until  it  was  explained  to  us  at 
the  meeting ;  why  not  get  rid  of  those  horrid  names  "  Compulsory 
Service  "  and  "  Conscription,"  and  call  it  what  it  really  is,  "  Universal 
Liability  for  Home  Defence  "  ?  ' 

Right  glad  was  I  at  this  breaking  clear  of  official  influence,  of 
official  views.  '  Burley '  as  one  of  the  legion  of  communities  which 
constitute  Great  Britain  had  conclusively  shown  the  unreliability  and 
the  gratuitous  character  of  the  official  assumption  that  the  country 
will  not  even  look  at  any  form  of  home  defence  better  than  that 
afforded  by  the  '  Have  Some  Timers.'  '  Burley '  had  demanded 
real  in  lieu  of  sham  defence. 

And  then  uprose  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  His  Majesty's  representative 
in  the  county  ;  and  to  my  utter  amazement,  this  high  official,  in  his 
parting  words,  instead  of  expressing  recognition  and  approval  of  the 
real  patriotic  spirit  shown  by  '  Burley,'  and  thereby  encouraging  other 
communities  in  our  county  to  follow  our  example,  deliberately  uttered 
words  of  discouragement  by  assuring  us  that  it  would  be  ten  years 
before  the  House  of  Commons  would  accept  the  principles  involved. 
However,  '  Burley  '  remains  horribly  obstinate,  and  perhaps  prefers 
to  accept  as  a  counsellor  the  late  Lord  Salisbury  rather  than  the 
present  Lord  Lieutenant  of  the  County  of  Surrey. 

And  I  doubt  not  that  other  communities  will  ere  long  follow  our 
lead ;  and  '  Burley  '  may  ever  feel  proud  of  itself  and  thoroughly 
self-satisfied  in  having  acted  as  the  pioneer  of  Great  Britain  on  the 
way  to  sound  and  efficient  defence  of  our  families,  our  hearths  and  our 
homes. 

In  conclusion,  let  me  contrast  the  line  taken  by  the  military  authori- 
ties a  few  years  ago,  when  Lord  Wolseley  was  in  power,  with  that  taken 
by  the  same  authorities  now.  In  the  course  of  a  discussion  at  the  Royal' 
United  Service  Institution,  when  the  term  '  gates  of  wood  '  had  been 
used  as  expressing  the  value  of  our  then  Home  Defenders,  the  Volunteer 
Force,  Lord  Wolseley,  whilst  admitting  the  justice  of  the  designation, 
openly  said  that  if  we  cannot  get  gates  of  iron  it  was  better  to  have 
'  gates  of  wood  '  than  none  at  all.  But  he  in  no  way  concealed  from 
the  public  his  opinion  of  the  inadequacy  of  the  gates  as  gates. 
Nowadays  the  authorities  seem  studiously  silent  as  to  the  inadequacy 
of  this  same  force  with  only  its  name  changed.  They  know,  quite 
as  well  as  did  Lord  Wolseley,  that  the  security  it  can  give  is  not  of  a 
sufficiently  high  order ;  yet  they  talk  of  it  and  to  it  as  if  it  was  the 
thing  really  wanted,  the  only  thing  needful.  They  seem  to  think  that 
the  grand  old  British  spirit  has  died  out — that  combination  of  the 


1908      'WATCHMAN,    WHAT  OF  THE   NIGHT?'       988 

spirits  of  the  mastiff  and  the  bull-dog — and  has  degenerated  into  that 
of  the  name  so  appropriately  applied  to  their  Force — the  '  Terriers.' 
My  belief  is  that  the  old  spirit  is  not  dead,  it  is  only  latent.  Let  the 
authorities  boldly  and  honestly  tell  their  '  Terriers  '  that  they  are  as 
guardians  of  our  homes  '  Terriers '  only,  and  nothing  better.  Let  them 
tell  the  country  that  we  must  have  gates  of  iron,  and  that  at  present 
the  country  is  giving  only  '  gates  of-  wood.'  My  firm  conviction  is 
that  my  fellow  countrymen  and  countrywomen  alike  will  rise  to  the 
appeal ;  and  willingly  placing  in  the  hands  of  the  authorities  the 
good  material  needed,  they  will  insist  on  the  right  manufacturing 
and  the  high  tempering  of  the  material  for  its  purpose,  and  then  our 
gates  will  be  gates  of  iron  or  steel  indeed,  and  will  be  strong  enough 
to  stand  whatever  strain  from  oversea  would-be  invaders  may  bring 
to  bear  against  them. 

LONSDALE  HALE. 


VOL.  LXIV— No.  382  3  B 


934  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 


AN  EDUCATIONAL    SURRENDER^ 


FOR  some  years  past  an  increasing  number  of  Churchmen  have  asked 
but  one  question  in  reference  to  each  fresh  attempt  to  deal  with  the 
religious  difficulty  in  elementary  schools  :  Does  it  make  the  State 
deal  out  absolutely  equal  measure  to  all  forms  of  religious  teaching  ? 
Unfortunately  not  one  of  them  has  been  able  to  stand  this  test.  They 
have  been  measures  of  varying  degrees  of  merit  in  other  respects,  but 
they  have  uniformly  failed  in  this  one.  Still  the  situation  had  one  en- 
couraging feature.  There  was  a  real  advance  on  the  part  of  Churchmen 
towards  the  acceptance  of  the  principle.  They  might  not  always  show 
a  very  clear  understanding  of  what  was  involved  in  equality,  but  at  least 
they  recognised  that  it  did  not  become  them  to  put  up  with  anything 
short  of  it.  To-day  this  vital  principle  is  threatened  by  a  new  and 
formidable  combination  of  forces.  The  Liberal  Government  has  intro- 
duced a  third  Bill,  quite  as  destructive  of  equality  as  either  of  its  pre- 
decessors, but  differing  from  them  in  being  brought  forward  with  an 
imposing  array  of  official  support  from  the  Church.  It  was  easy  to 
get  Churchmen  to  oppose  an  Education  Bill  when  it  was  backed 
only  by  Mr.  Birrell  or  Mr.  McKenna,  but  the  present  measure  has 
claims  which  were  wanting  in  both  the  others.  It  is  as  much  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury's  Bill  as  it  is  Mr.  Runciman's.  It  embodies 
not  merely  what  the  Government  are  prepared  to  concede,  but  what 
the  leaders  of  the  Church  are  prepared  to  accept.  This  fact  does 
undoubtedly  give  the  Bill  of  1908  a  marked  advantage  over  all  that 
have  gone  before  it.  It  cannot  be  dismissed  with  the  single  criticism 
that  it  violates  the  principle  of  equality.  When  Churchmen  are  asked 
by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  by  a  majority  of  the  bishops, 
to  hold  out  a  friendly  hand  to  Mr.  Eunciman's  proposals,  they  are 
bound  to  give  them  most  careful  examination. 

It  can  hardly  be  needful  to  show  that  the  new  Bill  does  go  directly 
in  the  teeth  of  equality  of  treatment  as  regards  religious  teaching. 
I  do  not  believe  that  its  authors  themselves  would  give  any  other 
description  of  it.  Still,  it  is  prudent  to  take  nothing  for  granted, 
and  I  will  therefore  set  out  at  starting  what  the  Government  propose 


1908  AN  EDUCATIONAL   SURRENDER  985 

to  do  for  the  two  forms  of  religious  teaching — Undenominational  and 
Denominational : 

(1)  In  every  school  provided  by  the  local  education  authority 
Undenominational  instruction  must  be  given  on  five  mornings  in  the 
week ;  Denominational  instruction  may  be  given  (if  accommodation 
'  can  reasonably  be  made  available  ')  on  two  mornings  in  the  week. 
Thus  the  relative  importance  of  Undenominational  and  Denominational 
teaching  is  determined  by  the  Bill  to  be  as  five  to  two. 

(2)  Undenominational  instruction  is  established  by  the  State  and 
paid  for  by  the  State  ;  Denominational  instruction  must  be  provided 
and  paid  for  by,  or  on  behalf  of,  such  parents  as  happen  to  value  it. 
The  one  is  treated  as  a  matter  of  universal  utility — something  for 
which  Parliament  thinks  it  necessary  to  provide  a  time  and  a  place  ; 
the  other  is  treated  as  something  which  may  have  some  value  for  A  or  B 
— there  is  no  accounting  for  tastes  in  religion  any  more  than  in  food — 
but  of  which  the  State,  whose  business  it  is  to  care  for  the  community 
as  a  whole,  knows  nothing.     Whatever  other  merits  a  compromise 
founded  on  these  two  foundations  may  have,  inequality  is  written 
large  on  both  of  them. 

When  the  majority  of  the  bishops  ask  Churchmen  to  accept  such 
a  measure  as  this  it  is  only  respectful  to  assume  that  they  have 
some  reason  for  what  they  do.  They  have  opposed,  and  success- 
fully opposed,  other  -Bills  coming  from  the  same  quarter,  though 
to  eyes  which  have  not  received  some  special  enlightenment  they 
seem  less  objectionable  than  this  one.  What  is  it  that  has 
worked  this  miraculous  change  ?  Undoubtedly  '  compromise '  is 
a  word  which  has  a  great  charm  for  Englishmen,  and  I  am 
quite  conscious  that  to  advise  the  rejection,  absolute  and  final, 
of  any  arrangement  which  bears  this  attractive  heading  is 
to  damage  one's  cause  at  starting.  But  the  merit  of  a  com- 
promise, or  rather  its  title  to  be  called  a  compromise,  depends 
upon  its  human  content.  Whom  does  it  include  ?  The  answer 
commonly  given  to  this  inquiry  explains  the  failure  of  many  seem- 
ingly promising  settlements.  They  have  swept  in  those  who  do  not 
greatly  care  how  a  question  is  decided  while  they  have  left  out  those 
to  whom  that  decision  is  a  matter  of  passionate  concern.  These 
last  are  sufficiently  damned  by  being  labelled  '  Extremists.'  Yet  in 
matters  of  religion  <his  is  always  a  dangerous  policy.  It  satisfies  a 
very  large  class — the  class  which  is  chiefly  anxious  to  get  a  controversy 
safely  under  ground.  But  where  religious  differences  are  concerned 
premature  burial  is  often  no  burial.  Before  the  grave  can  be  filled  up  the 
dead  man  has  risen  from  it  and  is  as  great  a  nuisance  as  ever.  If  I  am 
right  in  my  estimate  of  Mr.  Runciman's  Bill  this  is  exactly  what  will 
happen  if  it  is  passed.  The  forces  formerly  in  the  field  will  be  in  the 
field  again.  Those  who  have  hitherto  striven  to  prevent  the  adoption 
of  a  settlement  will  next  year  be  striving  to  upset  a  settlement  which 

3  R  2 


936  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

has  been  adopted.  If  anyone  is  inclined  to  make  light  of  this  prospect 
I  would  ask  him  to  recall  the  history  of  the  present  Education  Act. 
Few  Bills,  I  should  say,  were  better  framed  from  the  point  of  view 
of  any  moderate  man  than  this  ill-fated  measure.  I  doubt  whether 
even  those  who  disliked  it  foresaw  the  resistance  it  would  arouse. 
For  two  generations  Nonconformists  had  contentedly  taxed  themselves 
for  the  support  of  Denominational  schools  ;  who  could  have  supposed 
that  a  law  which  did  no  more  than  rate  them  for  the  same  purpose 
would  evoke  such  a  storm  of  opposition  ?  The  admirers  of  the  Act 
assured  us  that  all  this  display  of  passion  meant  nothing — that  sensible 
Nonconformists  would  treat  it  with  contempt,  while  the  few  enthu- 
siasts who  might  try  to  keep  up  the  agitation  would  soon  get  tired  of 
carrying  it  on  at  the  sacrifice  of  their  spoons  and  teapots.  It  took  a 
General  Election  to  undeceive  these  sanguine  politicians ;  yet  the  very 
men  who  read  them  the  lesson  three  years  ago  seem  quite  unable  to 
apply  it  to  themselves  now  that  the  tables  are  turned. 

I  should  say  all  this  if  the  opposition  to  Mr.  Runciman's  Bill  were 
really  the  work  of  Extremists.  But  is  it  ?  I  can  only  say  that  if  it  is 
the  word  has  taken  on  quite  a  new  meaning.  I  say  nothing  of  the 
'  strangers  '  whose  presumption  in  addressing  a  letter  to  their  clergy 
has  so  much  disturbed  certain  of  the  bishops,  though  I  should  have 
thought  that  the  close  co-operation  of  men  so  unlike  in  character, 
in  views,  and  in  antecedents  as  Lord  Hugh  Cecil,  the  Dean  of  Canter- 
bury and  Lord  Halifax  would  have  shown  how  inapplicable  the 
common  division  into  Moderates  and  Extremists  is  to  present  circum- 
stances. But  when  we  pass  beyond  the  leaders  so  suddenly  raised 
to  the  chief  place  among  the  assailants  of  the  Bill,  whom  do  we  find 
among  the  rank  and  file  of  their  supporters  ?  I  declare  that  when 
I  hear  the  National  Society  called  Extremist,  I  feel  as  though  I  had 
suddenly  been  privy  to  some  monstrous  profanity.  If  ever  there  was  a 
living  embodiment  of  caution,  bordering,  some  might  say,  on  timidity, 
I  should  have  thought  it  was  this  venerable  institution.  Yet  the 
Consultative  Committee  met  on  the  very  day  on  which  the  Bill  was 
read  a  first  time,  and  by  ninety-six  votes  to  thirty-nine  refused  '  to 
advise  Churchmen  to  accept  any  settlement  which  gives  preferential 
treatment  to  Undenominational  as  compared  with  Denominational 
schools  or  teaching.'  It  is  a  new  thing  for  the  National  Society  to 
find  itself  in  open  opposition  to  the  majority  of  Ae  Episcopate,  and, 
considering  its  history  and  character,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  see 
in  the  Society's  novel  attitude  an  overmastering  sense  of  the  grave 
character  of  the  situation  which  the  action  of  the  bishops  has  created. 

But  this  is  not  a  solitary  example.  Next  to  the  National  Society 
there  are,  I  should  say,  no  men  less  open  to  the  charge  of  being 
Extremists  than  the  members  of  the  Representative  Church  Council. 
I  do  not  claim  for  this  body  that  it  has  any  specially  good  title  to  the 
name  it  bears.  Probably  neither  the  Clerical  nor  the  Lay  House  can 


1908  AN  EDUCATIONAL   SURRENDER  987 

quite  be  taken  as  a  fair  sample  of  those  whom  in  name  it  represents.  The 
Clerical  House  is  simply  the  Lower  Houses  of  the  two  Convocations — 
assemblies  in  which  only  beneficed  clergy  are  represented  and  greatly 
overweighted  by  a  large  official  element.  As  to  the  Lay  House,  though 
I  cannot  say  much  for  the  method  in  which  it  is  elected,  its  members 
are  for  the  most  part  the  same  men  who  are  to  be  seen  on  the  platform 
of  every  meeting  for  Church  objects,  and  form  the  backbone  of  every 
Diocesan  Committee.  To  give  a  body  composed  of  men  of  this  type,  in 
addition  to  a  long  list  of  deans,  canons,  archdeacons  and  rectors,  the 
title  of  Extremists  is  surely  a  misleading  use  of  the  term.  Yet  this  is 
the  body  which  no  longer  ago  than  last  May  declared  for  the  principle 
of  equality,  and  that  in  very  unusual  circumstances.  Sir  Alfred 
Cripps  had  brought  forward  a  resolution  pledging  the  Council  to 
support  a  '  just  measure  to  secure  in  all  districts  to  Nonconformists 
no  less  than  to  Churchmen  such  religious  teaching  as  they  desire  for 
their  children.'  The  Bishop  of  Wakefield  had  moved  an  amend- 
ment, the  gist  of  which  was  well  described  by  the  seconder  as  urging 
upon  Churchmen  the  duty  of  first  paying  '  for  sound  Christian  teach- 
ing in  schools  '  out  of  the  rates,  and  then  paying  out  of  their  own 
pockets  any  extra  money  required  for  Denominational  teaching.  The 
plain  issue  thus  raised  was  excellently  argued,  and  when  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  rose  to  put  the  question  he  took  the  unusual 
course  of  himself  winding  up  the  debate  and  imploring  the  Council 
to  vote  with  the  Bishop  of  Wakefield.  A  more  impressive  speech 
I  have  seldom  listened  to,  and  I  remember  thinking  at  the  time  that, 
unless  the  opponents  of  the  amendment  were  very  resolute,  it  must 
inevitably  be  carried.  But  they  were  resolute.  When  the  votes 
were  taken  the  amendment  was  defeated  by  77  votes  to  59  in  the 
Clerical  House  and  103  to  80  in  the  Lay  House.  Even  among  the 
bishops  five  were  found  faithful  to  the  principle  of  equality,  though 
I  am  sorry  to  say  that  the  most  conspicuous  name  in  this  minority 
now  heads  the  list  of  the  supporters  of  Mr.  Runciman's  Bill. 

All  this,  it  is  true,  happened  seven  months  ago,  but  the  Arch- 
bishop, though  he  must  have  known  that  his  negotiations  with  the 
Government  would  reach  their  final  stage  about  the  time  that  the 
Licensing  Bill  left  the  Commons,  has  taken  no  steps  to  get  this  vote 
reversed.  The  Council,  indeed,  is  his  own  creation,  but  when  a  great 
artist  is  no  longer  pleased  with  his  work  he  prefers  to  keep  it  with 
its  face  to  the  wall.  It  is  a  main  feature  in  the  new  Episcopal  policy 
that  the  opinions  of  Churchmen  should  be  taken  for  granted,  and  this 
may  help  to  explain  the  indignation  of  some  of  their  number  at  the 
attempt  made  by  Lord  Hugh  Cecil,  the  Dean  of  Canterbury  and  Lord 
Halifax  to  obtain  information  for  the  Archbishop  as  to  the  mind  of 
Churchmen  '  in  reference  to  the  negotiations  now  in  progress.'  I  do 
not  wonder  that  they  are  angry.  No  one  can  be  expected  to  like  seeing 
his  own  proper  work  done  for  him  because  he  has  neglected  to  do  it 


938  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

for  himself.  But  had  I  been  in  their  counsels  I  should,  I  think,  have 
advised  silence  as  the  wiser  course.  They  thought  it  better  that  his 
Grace  should  conduct  these  negotiations  without  any  further  infor- 
mation as  to  the  mind  of  Churchmen  in  regard  to  them.  Better,  it 
may  have  been,  from  the  point  of  view  of  their  immediate  success, 
but  hardly  better  as  regards  the  permanent  acceptance  of  the  measure 
that  is  to  be  founded  on  them. 

In  this  pre-arranged  uncertainty  as  to  what  Churchmen  think  of  the 
compromise  we  are  reduced  to  inquiring  what  they  ought  to  think 
of  it.  Now  any  useful  effort  to  get  at  the  meaning  and  value  of  the 
third  Education  Bill  must  begin  with  the  recognition  that  it  involves 
a  very  real  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  Nonconformists.  They  have  come 
forward  with  a  large  concession.  They  have  consented  to  the  admis- 
sion of  Denominational  teaching  into  all  Council  schools.  Now,  for 
the  first  time,  these  schools  are  to  be  profaned  by  the  intrusion  of 
catechisms  and  formularies  distinctive  of  particular  denominations. 
The  sacrifice  is  all  the  more  bitter  that  it  carries  with  it  a  slight  to 
their  favourite  method  of  administration.  Just  when  local  option 
is  on  the  eve  of  being  applied  to  the  licensing  of  public-houses,  it  is  to  be 
denied  any  share  in  the  admission  of  Denominational  teaching  into 
Council  schools.  It  is  important  to  bear  all  this  in  mind  because  I  have 
little  doubt  that  it  weighed  greatly  with  the  Archbishop.  He  did  not 
wish  to  be  behind  the  Nonconformists  in  generosity.  But  a  conces- 
sion which  has  cost  the  makers  of  it  a  great  deal  may  be  quite  worth- 
less to  those  to  whom  it  is  offered.  So  far  as  it  is  so  in  the  present 
instance  it  makes  the  compromise  mischievous  as  well  as  worthless. 
Churchmen  get  something  which  they  do  not  value,  while  Noncon- 
formists see  their  gift  rejected  as  altogether  inadequate  to  the  situation. 

But  why  is  this  compromise  worthless  to  Churchmen  ?  It  would 
be  enough  to  say,  by  way  of  answer,  that  it  sets  up  in  every  elementary 
school  included  under  the  Bill  one  particular  form  of  religious  teaching 
and  invests  it  with  all  the  sanctions  that  can  be  conferred  by  State 
provision  and  State  payment.  Whatever  else  this  may  be,  it  is  not 
equality,  and  in  the  absence  of  stronger  evidence  I  submit  that  it  is 
still  unproved  that  one  section  of  Churchmen  is  prepared  to  accept 
anything  less.  That  section  asks  nothing  which  it  is  not  willing 
that  others  should  have  also.  It  wants  nothing  for  the  Church  of 
England  which  it  is  not  prepared  to  share  with  all  other  Churches. 
It  has  no  objection  to  simple  Bible  teaching  being  given  to  all  children 
whose  parents  desire  it.  It  only  insists  that  every  other  form  of  religion 
which  is  desired  by  parents  shall  be  given  on  the  same  conditions. 
My  Nonconformist  friends  think  my  attitude  towards  Undenomi- 
national teaching  unreasonable ;  I  think  their  attitude  towards 
Denominational  teaching  unreasonable.  Both  feelings  are  now  of 
long  standing  and  neither  of  them  seems  likely  to  undergo  any  change. 
Why  then  should  we  go  on  striving  after  an  unattainable  agreement, 


1908  AN  EDUCATIONAL   SURRENDER  989 

or,  what  is  worse,  make  believe  that  a  settlement  which  only  pleases 
one  of  us,  if  that,  is  likely  to  make  the  situation  better  ?  If  they  will 
not  pay  for  religious  teaching  which  I  like  and  they  dislike,  I  have 
no  wish  to  make  them  do  it.  Is  it  fair  or  reasonable  in  them  to  insist 
on  my  paying  for  religious  teaching  which  I  dislike  and  they  like  ? 
I  am  told  on  all  sides  that  those  who  value  simple  Bible  teaching 
are  an  immense  majority  of  my  countrymen.  In  that  case,  they 
cannot,  surely,  find  much  difficulty  in  paying  out  of  their  own  pockets 
for  the  religion  they  so  much  love. 

I  pass  on  from  the  principle  of  the  proposed  compromise  to  its 
probable  results.  We  are  asked  to  give  up  all  but  a  very  few  Church 
schools,  to  see  our  religious  teaching  admitted  to  a  back  seat  in  the 
Council  schools,  and  to  find  in  this  last  provision  an  equivalent  for 
what  we  have  surrendered.  To  my  mind  the  permission  to  come  into 
the  Council  schools  is  worse  than  exclusion  from  them.  I  will  leave 
on  one  side  the  questions  likely  to  arise  out  of  the  provision  that  limits 
us,  when  we  have  got  inside  a  Council  school,  to  such  accommodation 
as  can  'reasonably  be  made  available.'  I  will  assume  that  every  local 
Education  Authority  will  do  their  best  to  make  the  task  of  the  Denomi- 
national teacher  easy,  that  they  will  take  trouble  in  distributing  the 
existing  class-rooms,  that  if  need  be  they  will  build  new  class-rooms 
for  the  purpose.  I  confine  myself  tq  the  effect  on  the  parents  of  this 
ostentatious  inequality  between  Denominational  and  Undenominational 
teaching.  They  have  been  accustomed  in  a  Council  school  to  receive 
the  latter  kind.  If  the  two  now  started  on  an  equal  footing — both 
given  at  the  same  time  and  on  the  same  days,  and  paid  for  out  of  the 
same  pockets — the  newly  introduced  teaching  would  still  have  an  initial 
disadvantage.  Of  this,  however,  Churchmen  would  have  no  right  to 
complain.  It  is  the  drawback  incident  to  a  new  arrangement.  But 
when  the  new  teaching  is  allowed  on  sufferance  on  two  days  in  the 
week,  and  has  to  be  paid  for  by  whatever  voluntary  agency  that  has 
undertaken  to  keep  the  hat  in  circulation,  what  chance  is  there  that 
the  average  parent  will  go  out  of  his  way  to  choose  it  in  preference 
to  the  familiar  teaching  which  he  sees  given  every  day  in  the  week, 
and  paid  for  out  of  rates  levied  on  the  whole  community  ?  In  these 
days  the  State  could  not  more  clearly  proclaim  that  it  thinks  this 
particular  kind  of  teaching  the  best.  Give  Churchmen  a  fair  field,  and 
I  do  not  doubt  that  they  will  hold  their  own  in  it.  It  does  not  follow 
that  they  will  be  able  to  hold  their  own  against  all  the  prestige  con- 
ferred by  exclusive  State  patronage  and  State  payment. 

This  then  is  the  settlement  which  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
asks  us  to  welcome.  After  years  of  conflict  Churchmen  are  called 
upon  to  see  their  religion,  and  every  other  religion  that  possesses 
a  definite  creed,  taught  on  sufferance  and  with  special  marks  of  in- 
feriority attached  to  it.  I  do  not  wish  to  use  hard  words.  As  regards 
the  Archbishop  I  believe  that  this  compromise  appeals  to  him  on  its 


940  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

merits,  and  it  is  only  just  to  say  that  his  speech  at  the  Representative 
Church  Council  on  the  7th  of  May  made  this  clear.  Some  of  his 
supporters  in  the  Episcopate  are  more  recent  converts  to  the  preferen- 
tial treatment  of  Undenominational  teaching,  but  even  of  them  I  will 
not  say  that  they  have  betrayed  the  great  cause  entrusted  to  them. 
Before  a  man  can  be  a  traitor  he  must  know  what  he  is  doing,  and 
I  do  not  think  that  this  is  true  in  their  case.  But  I  do  say  that  the 
bishops  have  allowed  themselves  to  go  astray  after  the  mirage  of  a 
National  Church  and  a  National  Creed,  and  that  in  doing  this  they  have 
forgotten  that  thjey  are  officers  not  of  the  people  of  England  but  of  the 
Church  of  England.  This,  however,  is  not  an  explanation  that  can 
give  us  much  comfort.  Errors  that  are  not  intentional  may  be  just  as 
disastrous  as  if  they  were,  and  the  consent  of  the  Episcopal  majority — 
happily  it  is  only  a  majority — to  Mr.  Runciman's  proposals  is  a  con- 
spicuous example  of  the  class.  Whether  it  will  be  possible  to  defeat 
these  proposals  in  Parliament  it  is  too  early  to  say.  But  at  least  we 
can  do  our  utmost  towards  this  end.  We  have  leaders  already — 
better  we  could  not  desire — and  before  long  it  may  appear  that  they 
will  have  no  lack  of  followers.  But  even  if  the  Bill  be  passed  it 
will  only  be  the  beginning  of  a  fiercer  fight  than  any  of  which  this 
ill-starred  question  has  yet  been  the  cause.  In  proportion  as  the 
Archiepiscopal  compromise  makes  its  way  it  will  be  found  to  have 
brought  into  the  educational  controversy  not  peace  but  a  sword. 

D.  0.  LATHBURY. 


1908 


DANGER  IN     INDTA 


IT  is  always  advisable  to  look  facts  in  the  face.  To  cry  peace  when 
there  is  no  peace  may  be  easy ;  but  to  do  so  is  as  futile  as  to  plough 
the  sand  of  the 'seashore.  India  is  seething  with  sedition.  That,  in 
plain  English,  is  the  gist  of  the  matter.  In  Indian  phraseology  the 
voice  of  patriotism  is  abroad.  Whatever  there  may  be  in  a  name, 
the  facts  in  their  rock-bed  are  identical.  Indians  (we  may  no  longer 
speak  of  them  as  natives  of  India),  so  far  as  they  possess  an  articulate 
voice,  are  tired  of  us,  and  desire  to  be  done  with  us  once  for  all.  Minor 
grievances,  be  their  sum  and  substance  what  they  may,  go  for  nothing ; 
they  merely  fringe  on  this  one  and  only  cry,  India  for  the  Indians. 
Mr.  Tilak,  the  spokesman  of  Western  India,  whose  sympathy  with 
bombs  has  led  to  his  involuntary  journey  to  the  salubrious  climate 
of  Burmah,  has  stated  in  his  writings  and  public  speeches  over  and 
over  again  that  nothing  but  complete  independence  will  satisfy  the 
aspirations  of  his  countrymen.  Self-government  in  the  sense  in  which 
it  is  possessed  by  Australia,  Canada,  and  South  Africa  is  a  step  which 
would  meet  with  his  august  approval,  always  provided  that  it  is 
recognised  as  a  step  and  nothing  more.  And  the  fact  must  be  admitted 
and  grasped  that  this  is  the  keynote  of  the  situation.  To  the  educated 
and  patriotic  Indian  it  is  a  matter  of  supreme  indifference  whether 
British  administration  in  India  is  good,  bad,  or  indifferent.  It  is 
sufficient  to  him  that  it  is  foreign,  and,  in  logical  conclusion,  must 
be  got  rid  of.  If  bombs  can  hasten  the  process,  by  all  means  use 
bombs. 

But  let  it  not  be  supposed  that  the  Indian  to  whom  we  refer  will 
admit  that  there  is  anything  good  in  British  rule.  If  we  are  to  believe 
all  that  he  will  tell  us,  the  tyranny  perpetrated  from  day  to  day  by 
the  Government  and  its  servants  exceeds  anything  that  can  be  con- 
ceived of  as  existing  in  Russia.  As  compared  with  a  Lieutenant- 
Governor  or  a  Chief  Commissioner  of  to-day,  Jenghiz  Khan  and 
Nadir  Shah  were  ministering  angels.  Through  the  medium  of  the 
native  Press,  the  speeches  of  itinerant  political  agitators  who  traverse 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  the  circulation  of  leaflets,  public 
and  private  meetings,  and  private  correspondence  from  one  end  of 
the  country  to  the  other,  it  is  impressed  upon  all  concerned,  or  not 

941 


942  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

concerned,  that  the  British  Government  of  India  consists  of  men 
devoid  of  human  feelings,  destitute  of  conscience,  honour,  or  morality, 
whose  sole  object  is  to  wring  the  uttermost  farthing  from  the  most 
oppressed  and  miserable  people  in  the  world.  It  matters  not  what 
the  Government  does.  Whatever  it  does,  or,  for  the  matter  of  that, 
leaves  undone,  it  is  always  imbued  with  the  most  sinister  of  motives  ; 
and  the  cloven  hoof  is  invariably  discernible,  be  the  action  or  inaction 
ostensibly  ever  so  innocent.  Provided  sufficient  mud  is  thrown,  a 
certain  percentage  is  likely  to  stick ;  and  the  mud  to  which  we  refer 
is  peculiarly  sticky.  Credulous,  illogical,  suspicious  to  a  degree,  the 
Indian  is  not  unnaturally  convinced  that  if  Government  seldom,  if 
ever,  takes  any  steps  to  contradict  these  statements,  to  disprove 
these  slanders,  they  must  be  true.  When  the  most  blatant  and 
inflammatory  articles  in  the  newspapers  are  read  out  to  an  ordinary 
crowd  of  peasants  under  the  village  pipal-tree  when  the  day's  work 
is  over,  is  it  wonderful  if  Rama  says  to  Govind,  '  Is  this  all  true  ?  ' 
and  Govind  replies,  '  It  is  set  in  print ;  it  must  be  true  '  ? 

And  so  goes  on  the  work  of  exciting  discontent  and  raising  feelings 
of  disaffection  against  the  Government.  It  is  not  a  difficult  task  to 
persuade  a  peasantry  that  Government,  who  is  the  landlord,  is  taking 
from  them  three  or  four  times  the  rent  to  which  it  has  any  just  claim. 
It  matters  nothing  that  in  point  of  fact  the  rent,  or  land  tax,  is 
exceedingly  low,  much  lower  than  it  was  under  any  administration 
that  preceded  our  own  ;  it  matters  nothing  that  now  in  native  States 
the  land  is  far  more  highly  rented  than  in  British  India.  Such  facts 
go  for  nothing.  For  us  the  one  fact  that  is  patent,  indisputable,  and 
must  be  looked  in  the  face  is  this,  that  sedition,  discontent,  agitation — 
call  it  what  you  will — is  not  confined  to  the  educated  classes,  but  is 
surging  over  the  whole  of  India,  from  Lahore  to  Rangoon,  and  Delhi 
to  Tuticorin. 

Accentuated  as  the  revolutionary  feeling  has  been  of  late  years, 
it  is  not  altogether  new.  It  began  to  assume  prominence  during  the 
viceroyalty  of  Lord  Ripon,  when  that  visionary  statesman  accorded 
his  recognition  to  the  National  Congress.  This  self -constituted 
representative  assembly  has  consistently  played  the  part  of  lago 
to  the  very  susceptible  Indian  Othello.  It  has  usurped  the  function 
of  the  Extreme  Left.  It  is  now  divided  into  two  parties — the 
Nationalists  or  Extremists  on  the  one  hand  and  the  Moderates  on 
the  other.  Their  domestic  differences  may  be  left  to  themselves  to 
decide.  They  are  of  little  import  to  us.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the 
main  divergency  between  Mr.  Tweedle-Dum,  Nationalist,  and  Mr. 
Tweedle-Dee,  Moderate,  is  that  the  former  wants  to  get  rid  of  us 
to-day,  while  the  latter  is  willing  to  defer  the  process  until  to-morrow. 
'  Bande  Matheram  ! '  (Hail,  motherland !)  is  the  cry  of  both  and  of 
every  one.  *  Who  are  the  English  ?  '  '  Why  are  they  here  ?  '  '  Why 
are  we  enslaved  ?  '  '  Remember  our  glorious  past,  our  heights  of 


1908  DANGER  IN  INDIA  948 

civilisation  at  a  time  when  the  ancestors  of  these  islanders  painted 
themselves  with  woad  or  wore  the  skins  of  wild  beasts  !  '  History  is 
not  the  strong  point  of  the  Indian  of  to-day.  Such  are  the  parrot- 
cries  that  echo  through  city  and  jungle.  Freedom,  independence, 
emancipation,  no  more  foreign  rule,  are  the  platform  shibboleths. 

Is  India  a  nation  ?  Do  its  inhabitants  constitute  a  *  people '  ? 
A  vast  deal  hinges  upon  this  question.  English  writers  on  India  and 
its  affairs  are  never  tired  of  impressing  upon  us  that  the  answer  is 
most  assuredly  in  the  negative.  What  have  the  Punjabi,  the  Mahratta, 
the  Madrassi,  and  Bengali  in  common  ?  Just  so  much,  English  writers 
will  tell  us,  as  the  Scotchman  of  Sutherlandshire  and  the  Italian  of 
Naples.  India,  we  are  almost  tired  of  hearing,  is  as  large  as  Europe, 
putting  aside  Russia  and  Scandinavia,  with  as  great  a  population,  as 
many  diverse  and  heterogeneous  nationalities,  differing  from  each 
other  in  language,  in  custom,  in  religion,  and  in  everything  that 
makes  for  individuality ;  and  we  might  as  well  speak  of  the  Indian 
nation  as  the  European  nation.  Except  for  the  comparatively 
brief  period  of  British  rule,  India  was  never  under  one  Government. 
The  Great  Moghul  failed  to  achieve  what  we  have  done,  and  was 
unable  to  exert  his  authority  over  the  whole  of  the  sub-continent. 
Therefore,  we  are  told,  the  various  populations  that  compose  India 
can  never  be  one. 

To  this  contention  Young  India  opposes  the  most  emphatic  contra- 
diction. India  is  a  nation,  a  people,  a  country :  its  interests  and 
aspirations  are  one  and  unique.  Railways,  telegraphs,  post-office, 
the  Press,  education,  knowledge  of  English,  have  welded  into  one 
harmonious  whole  all  the  manifold  centrifugal  forces  of  its  vast  area. 
Young  India  will  quote  Switzerland  as  an  example  of  a  country 
with  several  languages  and  two  conflicting  religions,  and  yet  un- 
doubtedly constituting  a  nation.  If  the  only  tongue  in  which  the 
Madrassi  and  the  Bengali  can  communicate  is  English,  so  let  it  be. 
It  is  sufficient  that  a  medium  of  communication  exists.  And  it  does 
exist.  The  educated  Indian  speaks  and  writes  in  English  as  easily 
as  in  his  own  mother-tongue.  It  is  in  English  that  the  most  vehement 
tirades  against  British  rule,  whether  printed,  spoken,  or  dealt  with 
in  private  correspondence,  «are  hurled  across  the  land.  Politically 
speaking,  Lahore  is  a  suburb  of  Calcutta. 

The  fact  cannot  be  gainsaid  and  must  be  reckoned  with.  India 
as  a  whole,  as  a  political  unit,  has  found  a  voice.  There  is  a  national 
India,  as  there  is  not  a  national  Europe.  India  is  articulate,  and 
its  universal  cry  is  for  independence.  The  demand  is  fostered  in  a 
thousand  ways.  There  are  endless  societies,  open,  secret,  and  semi- 
secret,  all  actuated  with  one  aim — national  independence.  Shiva ji 
clubs,  taking  rise  in  Western  India,  where,  two  centuries  and  a  half 
ago,  the  hero  of  the  cult,  the  great  Mahratta  patriot,  raised  his  forces 
in  the  wild  valleys  of  the  Western  Ghauts  and  expelled  the  Mogul 


944  TEE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

power  from  Maharashtra,  have  extended  to  the  teeming  plains  of 
Bengal,  where  the  name  of  Shiwaji  and  his  Mahratta  horsemen 
represented  nothing  but  murder,  bloodshed,  and  robbery.  What 
matters  this  if  the  weapon  is  one  that  can  be  used  against  the  Govern- 
ment ?  Shiwaji's  birthday  is  celebrated  from  one  side  of  India  to 
the  other  ;  and  the  moral  pointed  out  to  millions  of  credulous  listeners 
is  that  another  Shiwaji  may  at  any  moment  arise  to  deal  with  the 
English  as  the  Mahratta  chieftain  did  with  the  Emperor  of  Delhi. 
Everything  is  turned  and  twisted  into  the  same  purpose  ;  and  the 
annual  Gunpati  celebration,  which  was  merely  a  period  of  holiday  - 
making  and  rejoicing,  is  converted  into  a  political  celebration  for 
the  dissemination  of  seditious  or  patriotic  speeches,  whichever  be  the 
right  term  to  employ. 

The  native  Press,  whether  issued  in  English  or  the  vernacular,  is 
filled  with  the  most  abominable  vituperations  against  Government 
and  its  -servants.  Is  it  wonderful  that  European  officials  should 
become  exasperated  when  the  most  harmless  and  innocent  action  is 
immediately  seized  upon  as  a  peg  on  which  to  suspend  endless  abuse 
and  obloquy  ?  Nothing  is  spared ;  nothing  is  sacred.  English- 
women (I  blush  to  have  to  write  it)  are  persistently  said  to  go  to 
dances  for  the  purpose  of  prostitution.  One  editor  went  to  gaol  for 
a  peculiarly  vile  article,  purporting  to  caricature  an  assembly  held 
by  Lord  Curzon,  entitled  '  A  Durbar  in  Hell.'  Day  after  day,  week 
after  week,  the  same  stream  of  vilification  on  Government  in  general 
and  its  servants  in  particular  is  issued  broadcast.  Caliban  has  been 
given  a  tongue  wherewith  to  curse  his  Prospero.  An  occasional 
prosecution  serves  but  to  make  a  martyr  and  a  hero  of  the  patriot 
who  is  for  a  time  provided  with  board  and  lodging  at  Government 
expense.  A  wise  Indian  administrator,  Mountstuart  Elphinstone, 
emphatically  condemned  the  introduction  of  a  free  Press  into  a 
country  whose  liberty  was  always  synonymous  with  licence. 

Of  all  the  departments  of  the  Government  of  India  the  one  which 
has  most  signally  failed  is  the  educational.  '  Manners  makyth  man  ' 
was  the  aphorism  of  William  of  Wykeham ;  but  Indian  schools  and 
colleges  have  absolutely  failed  to  instil  manners  or  discipline,  not  to 
speak  of  morals,  into  the  students  committed  to  their  charge.  Lakhs 
and  lakhs  of  rupees  are  expended  upon  Government  and  aided  institu- 
tions, with  the  result  that  there  are  annually  turned  out  legions  of 
young  men  with  a  smattering  and  veneer  of  education,  all  possessed 
with  the  same  ambition,  to  obtain  a  post  in  Government  service  or 
else  take  to  the  law.  Needless  to  say  the  supply  of  aspirants  for 
these  two  professions  entirely  exceeds  the  demand.  Those  who 
fail  to  gratify  their  wishes  become  the  most  bitter  calumniators  of  the 
Government  whose  bread  they  hoped  to  eat ;  and  a  considerable 
moiety  falls  back  for  its  roti  and  ghee  upon  the  founding  of  ever-new 
virulent  anti-Government  journals.  It  might  be  supposed  that  an 


1908  DANGER   IN  INDIA  945 

employment  so  boomed  was  not  always  remunerative  ;  but,  apart 
from  other  things,  the  demand  for  spicy  articles  is  ever  on  the  increase  ; 
and  if  this  fails  it  is  easy  to  squeeze  money  out  of  a  rich  fellow- 
countryman  by  threatening  him,  if  he  does  not  subscribe  liberally  to 
the  editorial  funds,  with  undesirable  revelations  in  the  pages  of  the 
unscrupulous  print  regarding  various  unsavoury  details  of  his  private 
life. 

The  average  Indian  student  from  the  age  of  ten  to  twenty  is  a 
fearsome  creature,  as  different  from  a  Rugby  or  a  Harrow  boy  as 
can  possibly  be  imagined.  He  has  no  respect  for  his  masters,  who 
are  for  the  most  part  afraid  of  him  ;  and  it  is  a  long-standing  cry  of 
the  parents  that  he  has  no  longer  the  least  regard  for  their  authority. 
The  general  effect  of  English  education  is  to  knock  on  the  head  the 
old  religious  views  of  collegians  without  substituting  anything  in 
their  place.  All  sense  of  veneration  is  lost,  and  irresponsible  inde- 
pendence springs  up  in  the  patriotic  soul  of  the  young  Mukarji  or 
Ramchandra.  Admirers  of  Indian  curiosities  could  collect  a  fine  supply 
of  Indian  brass  in  the  educational  institutions  that  a  paternal  Govern- 
ment has  scattered  about  the  land.  The  importation  of  a  few  ex- 
perienced masters  from  English  public  schools  might  have  a  very 
salutary  effect  upon  young  India  in  statu  pupillari.  The  idea  of  the 
Indian  student  of  the  summum  bonum  of  a  half -holiday  is  to  attend 
a  political  meeting  and  drink  in  rabid  and  offensive  criticism  of  the 
British  raj.  But  if  this  desirable  form  of  entertainment  is  only  avail- 
able where  there  is  not  a  half-holiday,  French  leave  is  easily  forth- 
coming. Politics  before  lessons  any  day ;  and  politics  have  only 
one  meaning — '  agin  the  Government.'  Nor  is  this  craze  limited  to 
the  students.  Numbers  of  Indian  teachers  in  vernacular  schools 
have  taken  prominent  parts  in  political  agitation  ;  and  the  demoralising 
effect  of  this  upon  young  minds  cannot  be  exaggerated.  The  result  of 
all  this  is  that  Indian  schools  and  colleges  are  neither  more  nor  less 
than  disseminaries  of  crude  and  poisonous  opinions.  In  this  con- 
sideration the  course  of  studies  must  not  be  overlooked.  While  the 
senior  students  are  saturated  with  the  principles  of  liberty  and  self- 
government,  as  expounded  by  Mill,  Spencer,  Huxley,  and  so  on,  the 
younger  ones  are,  necessarily  perhaps,  brought  up  upon  English 
history,  which  to  them  presents  an  attractive  spectacle  of  successful 
rebellion  against  established  government,  from  Magna  Charta  to 
the  expulsion  of  James  the  Second.  Resistance  to  the  monarchy  is 
impressed  upon  them  as  a  virtue,  and  the  lesson  is  taken  to  heart. 
One  portion  of  our  history  that  is  especially  revelled  in  is  the  American 
War  of  Independence  ;  and  the  hearts  of  the  rising  generation  are 
stirred  by  the  thought  of  another  Boston  tea  party  in  Bombay 
harbour,  or  on  the  Hughli,  with  a  similar  happy  sequel. 

Agitation  is  in  the  air.     Agitate,   agitate,   always  agitate,   has 
caught   on.     A  thousand    causes    contribute  to  this.     The  success 


946  TEE   NINETEENTH  CENTUBY  Dec. 

achieved  by  Japan  against  Russia  has  had  an  incalculable  effect 
upon  India.  Hitherto  the  very  word  '  Russ  '  had  been  a  wherewithal 
to  strike  terror  into  the  Hindoo  and  Mahometan.  But  lo  and  behold 
an  Asiatic  nation  dared  to  oppose  this  mighty  empire  of  which  even 
the  English  were  supposed  to  be  afraid,  and  emerged  victorious  from 
the  life-and -death  struggle.  Here  was  an  object-lesson.  Is  the 
Indian  inferior  to  the  Japanese  ?  Is  Japan  to  be  independent,  glorious, 
one  of  the  nations  of  the  world,  a  great  power,  and  the  Indian  to 
continue  crushed,  subdued,  bled,  a  worm  that  will  never  turn  ? 
Bande  Matheram  !  God  forbid.  What  Japan  has  done  India  can  do. 
It  is  only  a  question  of  time,  so  young  India  thinks,  and  the  same 
splendid  result  will  be  ours. 

But  the  struggle  with  Japan  is  not  the  only  lesson  that  the  Russian 
Empire  can  provide.  Not  external  only,  but  internal  affairs  can 
point  a  moral.  Was  not  Russian  autocracy  much  on  all  fours  with 
British  bureaucracy  in  India  ?  Did  not  the  Russian  people  stand  up 
and  gird  themselves  hip  and  thigh  to  shake  off  the  oppression  which 
coerced  them  in  the  name  of  the  Czar  of  all  the  Russias  ?  The  weapons 
used  were  secret  societies,  anarchism,  nihilism,  strikes,  boycott,  bullets, 
and,  above  all,  bornbs.  The  result,  so  at  all  events  the  Indian  thinks, 
was  success  ;  for  is  there  not  now  a  Duma,  a  parliament  which  can 
impose  Magna  Charta,  Habeas  Corpus,  and  goodness  knows  what  not, 
upon  the  oppressors  of  the  poor  ?  Use  the  same  weapons  in  India, 
and  the  same  result  must  be  achieved.  Such,  at  all  events,  is  the  word 
that  has  gone  forth  from  Calcutta,  and  is  published  in  the  streets  of 
Bombay.  The  same  weapons,  especially  the  last,  the  bomb.  That 
apparently  has  come  to  stay.  The  fact  that  to  no  small  extent  in- 
fluenced the  jury  that  convicted  Mr.  Tilak  of  sedition  was  that  among 
his  papers  were  found  detailed  lists  of  the  ingredients  necessary  for  the 
manufacture  of  explosives.  School  boys  scheme  to  obtain  substances 
with  which  to  prepare  bombs  from  hospitals  and  chemists'  shops,  and 
throw  the  crude  articles  which  they  turn  out  into  the  streets  at  night 
from  the  top  of  their  houses  to  see  what  effect  they  will  produce. 

And  if  Russia  has  obtained  a  parliament  in  one  way,  other  countries 
have  succeeded  in  arriving  at  the  same  panacea  for  all  evils  in  some 
fashion  or  another.  A  few  years  ago  it  took  nearly  all  the  resources 
of  Britain  to  subdue  a  comparatively  insignificant  number  of  Boer 
farmers  who  had  drawn  their  swords  and  rebelled  against  the  Supreme 
Government.  The  Boers  were  conquered,  and  within  an  amazingly 
short  period  of  time  they  were  given  that  self-government  for  which 
Indians  are  striving  in  vain.  The  Transvaal  and  the  Orange  River 
Colony  possess  parliaments  and  Home  Rule  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
they  strove  to  the  utmost  of  their  ability  to  drive  out  the  British  flag 
from  South  Africa.  It  must  be  admitted  that  this  unexampled  act 
of  magnanimity  is  not  a  little  puzzling  to  Indians,  if  indeed  the  be- 
wilderment is  limited  to  them.  The  bitterness  of  the  comparison  is 


1908  DANGER   IN  INDIA  94? 

accentuated  by  the  allegation  that  while  one  of  the  causes  of  the  Boer 
war  was  the  ill-treatment  of  Indians  by  the  Government  of  President 
Kruger,  so  far  from  the  slightest  relief  having  been  afforded  by 
British  rule  in  the  two  colonies,  our  Indian  fellow-subjects  who  were 
formerly  chastised  with  whips  are  now  chastised  with  scorpions. 

Nor  are  there  wanting  other  sets  of  circumstances  to  adorn  the 
tale.  Are  Persians  to  be  considered  superior  to  Indians  ?  Are  they 
better  educated,  more  advanced  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  and  the 
learning  of  the  West  ?  Have  they  grander  traditions  and  a  nobler 
history  ?  Yet  Persia  has  now  its  parliament ;  while  Indians,  who 
can  quote  Shakespeare  more  freely  than  Englishmen,  lecture  on 
metaphysics,  and  argue  a  nice  point  of  law  to  the  distraction  of  a 
judge  or  jury,  are  considered  worthy  of  nothing  higher  in  the  way  of 
citizenship  than  what  is  to  be  found  in  a  seat  on  a  municipality  or  a 
district  local  board  !  Is  this  contemptuous  treatment  of  a  nation, 
asks  the  university  fledgeling,  to  be  endured  ?  Even  Turkey  has 
now  its  Constitution ;  and  the  same  arguments  and  comparisons, 
always  to  the  detriment  of  the  British  Administration,  are  trotted  out 
over  and  over  again. 

Hatred,  suspicion,  mistrust,  these  are  the  feelings  which  are  to-day 
the  most  pronounced  on  the  part  of  Indians  towards  the  ruling  race. 
Unscrupulous  agitators  scour  the  country  and  do  their  utmost  to 
spread  their  pestilential  opinions.  They  do  not  hesitate  to  tell  their 
credulous  listeners  that  Government  deliberately  spreads  plague  in 
order  to  bring  about  a  decrease  in  the  population,  and  that  the  virus 
of  the  fell  disease  is  carefully  instilled  in  the  wells  for  the  furtherance 
of  this  amiable  purpose.  Cholera  and  smallpox  are  equally  employed 
as  vehicles  for  the  same  vile  end  ;  and  in  the  case  of  the  latter  proof 
is  obvious  from  the  operation  which  Government  denominates  vacci- 
nation !  Sugar  and  flour  for  sale  in  the  bazaars  are  impregnated 
with  the  blood  of  bullocks  in  order  that  the  high-caste  vegetarian 
Hindoos  may  be  defiled.  The  employment  of  compressed  paper 
tablets  in  the  shape  of  coins,  wherewith  to  teach  school  children 
to  count,  is  sufficient  proof  that  the  powers  that  be  intend  to  withdraw 
all  metal  coin  from  circulation,  and  issue  tokens  of  leather  and  pig-skin 
in  order  that  the  religion  of  both  Mahometans  and  Hindoos  may  be 
destroyed.  It  is  difficult  to  argue  with  a  people  so  credulous  and 
childish  as  this.  But  it  is  useless  to  blink  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that 
the  people  at  large  are  saturated  with  ridiculous  ideas  of  this  kind, 
and  that  sooner  or  later  the  feelings  engendered  by  the  dissemination 
of  the  vilest  misrepresentations  must  inevitably  be  represented  by 
characteristic  action. 

What,  it  may  be  asked,  does  the  Indian  patriot  look  forward  to, 
if  his  magnum  opus  is  achieved,  and  the  English  turned  out  of  his 
country  ?  From  the  present  Secretary  of  State  for  India  downwards 
we  have  but  one  conception  of  the  situation.  That,  it  need  hardly 


948  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

be  stated,  is  that  chaos,  rapine,  and  bloodshed  would  cover  the  land. 
A  stalwart  Sikh  chieftain  when  asked  his  opinion  on  this  subject 
replied  with  a  sardonic  smile  that  in  three  weeks  there  would  not  be 
a  virgin  or  a  rupee  left  in  Bengal.  The  hardy  tribes  of  the  north  would 
make  their  happy  hunting  grounds  in  the  lower  provinces,  as  in  the 
good  old  days  before  the  Pax  Britannica  was  established.  But  Young 
India  thinks  of  none  of  these  things.  He  attaches  untold  importance 
to  education  and  knowledge.  He  can  pass  examinations  and  draft 
official  correspondence,  he  thinks,  as  well  as  we  can.  He  is  not  only 
as  good  as  we  are,  but  immeasurably  superior.  He  is  entirely  capable 
of  self-government,  and  the  management  of  his  own  national  affairs. 
Let  him  somehow  get  Swaraj,  and  everything  will  be  for  the  best  in 
the  best  of  ah1  possible  countries.  As  to  any  details  he  is  an  absolute 
Gallic.  Whether  Mr.  Tilak  is  to  be  the  President  of  the  future  Indian 
Republic,  or  whether  some  other  arrangement  be  devised  ;  whether  the 
country  is  to  be  administered  as  one  Government,  or  to  consist  of  the 
United  States  of  India ;  whether  he  would  retain  the  British  Army, 
under  his  own  orders  of  course,  like  the  Scottish  guard  of  the  old 
French  kings,  to  stiffen  his  battalions  against  a  Russian  or  German 
invading  army — these  and  all  cognate  questions  can  be  deferred  until 
the  hated  foreign  administration  ceases  to  trouble  his  beloved  country. 
That  is  the  point  that  requires  to  be  grasped.  The  articulate  voice 
of  India  speaks  with  no  uncertain  sound.  Swaraj,  and  an  end  of 
foreign  rule.  Their  own  rule,  they  insist,  could  not  be  worse  than  ours 
— would  assuredly  be  better.  Even  if  it  were  less  efficient  it  would 
be  preferable.  Would  Englishmen,  it  has  been  asked,  like  to  be 
ruled  by  Chinamen,  even  if  the  administration  by  Celestials  were 
more  admirable  than  that  of  the  English  themselves  ?  And  Young 
India  holds  that  we  English  to  .his  countrymen  represent  the  barbarism 
that  the  Anglo-Saxon  attaches  to  the  idea  of  the  Chinese.  In  such 
circumstances  it  is  singularly  undesirable  to  emulate  the  proverbial 
ostrich,  and  hide  our  faces  from  disagreeable  facts. 

II 

Young  India  is  a  singularly  bad  student  of  Indian  history.  In  the 
jaundiced  view  of  the  '  failed  B.A.,'  prior  to  the  advent  of  British 
rule  there  existed  throughout  his  country  a  golden  age  in  which 
happiness  and  prosperity  were  universally  enjoyed.  The  everlasting 
wars  in  which  from  time  immemorial  the  whole  land  was  plunged 
are  all  forgotten  by  this  budding  ruler  of  India.  No  famines,  he 
seriously  believes,  ever  troubled  his  fortunate  progenitors  in  the 
palmy  days  when  the  children  of  Bhawani  and  Indra  were  undisturbed 
in  their  dominions.  This  notwithstanding  that  Indian  records  tell 
us  of  famines  beyond  comparison  more  devastating  than  those  within 
our  own  experience,  and  in  which  the  absence  of  communications 


1908  DANGER   IN  INDIA  949 

prevented  the  application  of  any  remedial  measures.  Plague,  ho 
thinks,  came  only  with  the  English,  forgetful  of  its  awful  ravages  in 
bygone  days  ;  forgetful  that  vast  cities  like  old  Goa  and  Bijapore 
were  depopulated  by  it,  and  that  the  wife  of  the  emperor  Aurunzebe 
was  one  of  its  victims.  That  under  Moghul  viceroys  and  deputies 
human  heads  were  accepted  in  lieu  of  land  revenue  has  passed  out  of 
remembrance.  The  endless  internecine  contests,  the  frightful  religious 
intolerance,  the  hopeless  insecurity  which  compelled  the  peasant 
to  plough  his  field  with  his  matchlock  by  his  side,  and  left  him  no 
assurance  whatever  that  he  would  be  allowed  to  reap  what  he  had 
sown  ;  the  ravages  of  Pindharies,  whose  playful  way  of  inducing  the 
village  banker  to  hand  over  his  wealth  was  to  insert  his  head  into  a 
bag  of  red-hot  ashes ;  the  systematised  murder  by  Thugs,  the  corruption 
and  venality  of  the  so-called  courts  of  justice — all  these  things,  so  far 
as  Young  India  is  concerned,  might  never  have  existed. 

But  even  admitting  that  he  will  acknowledge  the  existence  of 
some  few  grains  of  wheat  in  what  he  would  designate  this  vast  granary 
of  chaff,  he  has  one  invariable  reply.  At  all  events  the  money  did  not 
go  out  of  the  country.  Next  in  order  to  the  main  fact  that  we  are  in 
India  at  all,  this  is  his  stock  grievance — that  the  money  now  goes  out 
of  the  country,  while  it  formerly  did  not.  Facts  are  the  last  thing 
that  the  Indian  cares  to  assimilate,  and  that  in  actuality  the  case  is 
that  under  British  rule  money  comes  into  the  country  is  one  that 
never  occurs  to  him.  Certainly  he  is  doing  his  best  at  the  present 
time  to  interrupt  this  process  by  inducing  an  atmosphere  of  political 
insecurity  which  makes  the  capitalist  hesitate  to  invest  his  money 
in  a  country  whose  inhabitants  appear  intent  upon  driving  out  the 
only  settled  government  which  they  ever  possessed.  Railways, 
coasting  steamers,  roads,  vast  systems  of  canals  and  irrigation  which 
have  turned  the  wilderness  into  fertile  land,  telegraphs,  post  office, 
tramways,  factories,  mills — all  these  blessings  of  civilisation  are  due 
to  the  British  capital  which  has  been  poured  into  India.  If  the  Govern- 
ment can  borrow  in  London  for  reproductive  public  works  at  less 
than  four  per  cent,  and  make  a  profit  of  six  or  more  per  cent,  upon  its 
outlay,  the  gain  to  the  country  needs  no  demonstration  ;  but  the 
payment  of  the  four  per  cent,  to  the  London  capitalist  is  stigmatised 
as  robbery,  and  the  ceaseless  cry  goes  forth  that  the  wealth  of  the 
country  is  being  drained  away.  Australia,  Canada,  the  Argentine, 
not  to  speak  of  other  countries,  are  only  too  glad  to  borrow  money 
from  England  for  the  development  of  their  territories  ;  and  when  the 
capital  thus  obtained  pays  hand  over  fist  there  is  no  talk  of  ruination 
consequent  on  the  necessity  of  paying  the  lender  his  interest.  There 
is  plenty  of  capital  available  in  India ;  but  a  paltry  three  or  four  per 
cent,  has  no  temptation  to  the  investor  when  money-lending  at  what 
may  come  to  cent,  per  cent,  before  the  transaction  is  terminated  is 
within  his  capability. 

VOL.  LX1V— No.  382  3  S 


950  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

In  close  relationship  to  the  grievance  that  the  money  goes  out 
of  the  country  is  the  destruction  of  native  industries.  Perhaps  the 
most  prominent  of  these  is  weaving.  The  village  hand-weaver  has 
undoubtedly  suffered  ;  though  India  is  not  the  only  country  in  which 
the  introduction  of  machinery  and  manufactures  on  a  large  scale 
has  extinguished  the  humble  loom.  But  if  individuals  have  been 
driven  to  seek  other  occupations  the  population  as  a  whole  has 
gained.  For  one  man  who  has  lost  his  employment  many  have  ob- 
tained remunerative  occupations  in  the  spinning  and  weaving  mills 
which  have  sprung  up,  not  only  in  the  Presidency  towns,  but  in 
numerous  mofussil  centres,  and  threaten  to  compete  seriously  with 
Manchester.  But  there  are  none  so  blind  as  those  who  refuse  to  see, 
and  Young  India's  eyes  are  persistently  closed  to  patent  facts. 

To  consider  all  the  minor  grievances  which  are  constantly  set 
forth  in  the  Press  and  on  the  platform  would  take  more  space  than 
could  here  be  afforded.  A  few,  however,  may  be  referred  to.  One 
of  them  is  the  administration  of  the  forests.  These  are  the  property 
of  Government,  and  they  constitute  domains  of  immense  value. 
Under  previous  administrations  they  received  scant  attention ;  and 
the  denudation  of  vast  areas  which  were  once  rich  reserves  of  timber, 
apart  from  the  loss  to  the  resources  of  the  State,  exercised  a  dele- 
terious effect  upon  the  rainfall.  The  reafforestation  of  the  forest 
lands  has  for  many  years  constituted  one  of  the  most  important 
points  of  our  administration.  The  forest  department,  after  many 
years  of  struggle,  at  length  pays  its  way.  But  the  conservation  of 
these  invaluable  estates  is  represented  as  an  intolerable  grievance. 
Why  not  allow  anyone  who  likes  to  cut  down  as  many  trees  as  he 
may  desire  for  the  building  of  a  house  or  farmstead  ?  Why  not  permit 
the  cattle-owner  to  pasture  his  cows,  buffaloes,  and  goats  in  the 
recesses  of  the  forests,  regardless  of  the  injury  that  they  must  neces- 
sarily do  to  the  young  growth  ?  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  utmost  con- 
cessions compatible  with  the  spread  of  arboriculture  are  freely 
granted,  passes  for  grazing  being  issued  upon  the  payment  of  a 
nominal  fee.  But  nothing  less  than  the  right  to  play  havoc  with 
the  plantations  which  are  protected  in  his  own  interest  will  satisfy 
the  peasant  proprietor.  Argument  is  unavailing  in  the  face  of  per- 
sistent determination  to  listen  to  none ;  and  Indian  editors  write 
sensational  paragraphs  on  the  tyranny  of  the  British  raj  in  connection 
with  forests  on  behalf  of  those  in  whose  interests  they  would  not 
themselves  lift  a  little  finger. 

The  more  personal  grievances  of  the  educated  classes  may  be 
briefly  considered.  The  first  of  these  is  that  youths  who  wish  to 
compete  for  the  Indian  Civil  Service  are  compelled  to  undertake 
the  expensive  journey  to  England,  and  undergo  the  still  more 
expensive  training  in  that  country.  There  should,  they  insist,  be 
simultaneous  examinations  in  Calcutta,  Madras,  and  Bombay.  That 


1908  DANGER   IN  INDIA  961 

certain  Indian  members  of  the  Service  have  been  efficient  officers 
may  be  frankly  admitted.  But  their  success  is  due  to  their  training 
at  English  universities  ;  and  they  would  certainly  not  have  attained 
it  under  other  conditions.  Kipling's  reflection  that  they  know  little 
of  England  who  only  England  know  has  its  converse  :  they  know 
little  of  England  who  do  not  know  England  itself  at  all.  Simultaneous 
examinations  in  India  would  mean  that  Indians  would  enter  the 
Service  without  that  social  and  liberal  education  and  training  which 
only  England  can  afford.  Not  only  this,  but  with  the  Indian  facility 
for  cramming  and  passing  examinations,  the  cadre  of  the  Service 
would  soon  for  the  most  part  be  filled  by  Indians,  most  of  them 
Hindoos,  and  most  of  these  Bengalis,  to  the  exclusion  of  Englishmen. 
It  would  be  impossible  to  maintain  the  high  standard  of  British 
administration  in  such  circumstances,  if,  indeed,  the  administration 
could  continue  to  exist  at  all. 

But  over  and  above  all  these  and  many  other  cries  which  are 
too  numerous  to  capitulate,  always  excepting  the  fact  that  we  are 
there  at  all  and  the  alleged  drain  of  money,  is  the  vexed  social 
question.  Kipling  may  be  again  referred  to  :  East  is  East,  and  West 
is  West,  he  tells  us  ;  and  never  the  two  shall  meet ;  and  endeavours 
which  have  been  made  over  and  over  again,  chiefly  by  us,  to  refute 
this  maxim  have  ended  in  failure.  In  every  station  in  India  there 
is  a  club  and  a  gymkhana,  or  perhaps  one  institution  combining  the 
two.  Practically  in  one  and  all  of  these  it  is  laid  down  in  the  rules 
that  no  native  of  India  may  become  a  member.  If  there  is  occasionally 
an  exception  it  is  only  on  behalf  of  some  Indian  who  is  a  judge  or  a 
magistrate.  No  independent  barrister  would  have  the  faintest  chance 
of  admission,  although  when  reading  for  the  Bar  in  London  he  may 
have  been  a  welcome  guest  in  good  houses.  A  set  of  tennis  in  which 
Europeans  and  Indians  were  playing  together,  especially  if  any  of 
the  former  were  Englishwomen,  would  be  a  thing  unheard  of.  The 
subject  is  a  thorny  one,  and  there  is  much  to  be  said  on  behalf  of, 
as  well  as  against,  this  cleavage.  The  French  and  the  Portuguese 
were  hail  fellow  well  met  xvith  the  Indians,  and  they  failed.  We  have 
been  exclusive,  so  to  speak,  white  Brahmins,  and  we  hold  the  country. 
There  are  many  Hindoo  and  Parsee  clubs  to  which  no  European 
would  be  admitted  as  a  member.  Perhaps  the  Indian  who  is  received 
into  London  society  would  hardly  have  so  cordial  a  welcome  if  he 
possessed  a  wife,  or  wives,  locked  up  in  his  house  in  the  suburbs, 
upon  whom  he  would  consider  it  profanation  for  his  host  to  cast  his 
eyes.  Whatever  may  be  said  for  and  against,  the  fact  remains  in- 
disputable that  Europeans  will  not  accept  Indians  on  equal  terms  in 
society,  and  equally  the  fact  remains  that  to  the  Indians  this  consti- 
tutes an  intolerable  slur.  It  is  not  in  the  least  that  the  Indian  would 
be  happier  were  the  social  door  opened  to  him,  but  he  is  intensely 
aggrieved  and  slighted  because  it  is  closed. 

3  s  2 


952  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Dec. 

Thus  for  one  reason  after  another  the  spirit  of  antagonism  is 
abroad.  If  there  was  anything  needed  to  stimulate  the  dislike,  to 
inflame  the  suspicion  and  hatred,  with  which  the  Indian  regards 
the  ruling  race  (as  if  the  mere  term  were  not  sufficient !),  it  is  the 
action  of  certain  Englishmen  who  tell  him  that  the  treatment  accorded 
him  by  their  countrymen  is  intolerable,  and  that  he  is  intellectually, 
morally,  politically,  their  superior.  In  the  Napoleonic  wars  there 
were  always  Englishmen  who  avowedly  sympathised  with  the  enemies 
of  their  country.  In  the  Transvaal  war  there  were  pro-Boers  ;  and 
now  we  have  the  edifying  spectacle  of  itinerant  members  of  Parlia- 
ment courting  popularity  with  Indians  by  pandering  to  their  worst 
prejudices  and  aiding  the  cause  of  sedition.  The  harm  done  by 
Mr.  Keir  Hardie  during  his  peregrinations  in  India  is  incalculable. 
Allowances  may  be  made  for  his  ignorance,  but  what  allowances 
can  be  made  for  retired  members  of  the  Indian  Civil  Service  who  on 
their  return  to  this  country  devote  themselves  to  the  vilification 
of  the  Government  which  they  have  served,  and  on  whose  pension 
they  subsist,  and  to  assuring  our  Indian  fellow-subjects  that  they 
are  the  most  persecuted  and  ill-treated  of  mankind  ?  To  refer  to 
these  gentlemen  by  name  would  be  to  advertise  them.  It  is,  to  say 
the  least,  inexplicable  how  old  familiar  friends  who  have  done  us 
this  dishonour  can  be  allowed  to  retain  their  pensions. 

Is  there  no  other  side  to  the  shield  ?  Let  us  see.  Our  reflections 
have  been  principally  concerned  with  British  India.  There  are, 
however,  the  Native  States.  That  some  of  the  ruling  chiefs  have 
no  personal  predilection  for  Englishmen  is  no  secret.  But  it  is  equally 
true  that  they  are  fully  aware  that  their  political  existence  is  in- 
separably bound  up  with  our  own,  and  their  interests  are  identical 
with  those  of  the  British  raj.  But  consistency  and  logic  are  of  frugal 
growth  in  the  East.  An  agitator  against  any  particular  Native  State 
will  meet  with  scant  ceremony  in  the  borders  of  that  jurisdiction  ; 
nevertheless  agitators  against  British  administration  find  sympathetic 
audiences  in  many  of  the  States,  nor  do  they  meet  with  much  inter- 
ference from  the  State  authorities.  But,  on  the  whole,  it  may  be 
anticipated  that  in  the  hour  of  need  the  resources  of  native  princes 
would  be  employed  in  our  behalf. 

But  in  British  India  ?  Frankly  it  must  be  conceded  that  there 
is  but  little  silver  lining  to  the  cloud.  The  Parsees,  of  course,  are  on 
our  side,  but  they  constitute  a  community  that  is  numerically  in- 
ferior to  our  own,  and  they  are  looked  upon  as  foreigners  by  Hindoos 
and  Mahometans.  It  is  confidently  asserted  that  Mahometans  at 
all  events  are  for  us.  Certainly  the  followers  of  the  Prophet  have 
no  wish  to  be  ruled  by  Hindoos,  and  that  is  a  not  impossible  finale 
of  the  present  agitation.  Apart  from  that,  why  should  they  be  on 
our  side  ?  They  are  accorded  religious  freedom,  as  is  everyone  else  ; 
but  they  are  worsted  day  by  day  in  the  struggle  for  existence  by 


1908  DANGER  IN  INDIA  953 

the  Hindoos.  Everything  now  goes  by  examination,  and  Mahometans 
in  intellectual  competition  are  left  far  behind  by  the  hereditary 
opponents  of  their  faith.  Government  may  build  special  colleges 
for  Mahometans  and  express  a  desire  to  give  them  all  encourage- 
ment ;  but  the  loaves  and  fishes  of  Government  employment  go  to 
the  successful  passer  of  examinations,  and  the  Mahometans  are  left 
on  one  side.  In  the  case  of  district  local  boards  and  municipalities 
the  Mahometan  minority  asks  for  special  representation,  but  their 
request  is  not  granted.  There  is  no  great  reason  for  Mahometans 
to  enthuse  on  our  administration ;  and,  in  fact,  what  have  they,  or 
for  the  matter  of  that  have  such  Hindoos  as  vaunt  their  loyalty,  done 
for  us  in  the  existing  stormy  period  ?  Except  to  pass  resolutions 
condemning  bombs  and  asseverating  their  devotion  to  the  Crown, 
they  have  done  practically  nothing ;  their  professions  have  not 
crystallised  into  facts.  In  the  Bombay  riots  that  were  engineered 
on  the  occasion  of  the  trial  of  Mr.  Tilak,  the  Indian  justices  of  the 
peace  did  nothing  to  justify  their  existence.  Those  who  pose  as  our 
friends  have  to  learn  that  mere  protestations  do  not  inspire  our  confi- 
dence in  their  goodwill  and  friendship.  Our  enemies  almost  excite 
our  admiration  by  their  ceaseless  energy,  activity,  and  determination. 
Our  friends  expect  us  to  be  satisfied  with  empty  words. 

But,  it  will  be  urged,  however  gloomy  be  the  picture  of  Indian 
society  in  general,  the  native  army  is  splendidly  loyal  and  above 
suspicion,  and  this  is  fortunately  true.  In  the  last  few  years  overtures 
have  been  made  to  many  a  regiment  by  sedition-mongers  to  rise 
against  their  English  masters,  with  the  sole  result  that  the  advances 
have  been  ignominiously  rejected.  But  even. here  excessive  confi- 
dence might  be  misplaced.  Mountstuart  Elphinstone,  whose  opinion 
on  a  free  Press  has  been  quoted,  spoke  of  the  native  army  as  a  delicate 
and  dangerous  machine  which  a  little  mismanagement  might  easily 
turn  against  us.  As  compared  with  1857,  it  has  to  be  remembered 
that  there  exists  no  king  of  Delhi  whose  flag  might  tempt  them  to 
swerve  from  their  allegiance  to  ours.  Sepoys  are  hardly  likely  to 
mutiny  on  behalf  of  Tilak  Maharaj.  Nevertheless  the  army  has  its 
grievances.  It  is  not  disloyal ;  but  a  spirit  of  discontent  is  abroad. 
The  work  that  is  expected  of  officers  and  men  has  enormously  in- 
creased of  late  years.  There  used  to  be  the  drill  season  in  the  cold 
weather  ;  now  it  is  drill  season  all  the  year  round,  with  everlasting 
manoeuvres  and  field  exercises  and  insistence  on  a  far  higher  standard 
in  musketry.  Their  uniform,  they  say,  is  worn  out  nowadays  with 
deplorable  rapidity,  and  they  have  for  the  most  part  to  replace  it 
at  their  own  cost,  and  no  high  posts  in  the  Service  are  available 
for  them.  The  war-worn  Subedar  who  has  fought  for  the  Sirkar  in 
a  dozen  campaigns,  whose  breast  is  covered  with  medals,  is  under 
the  orders  of  the  youngest  subaltern  from  Sandhurst ;  while  he 
learns  that  in  the  French  army  in  Algeria  and  the  Russian  army 


954  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

in  Khiva  a  Mahometan  may  rise  at  least  to  the  rank  of  major,  and 
have  officers  from  Paris  or  St.  Petersburg  under  his  command. 
The  units  who  compose  the  native  regiments  come  from  the  villages 
and  are  of  the  people,  and  there  is  no  specific  reason  why  their  interests 
should  diverge  from  those  of  the  population  at  large.  Officers  and 
men  cannot  but  be  aware  of  the  sedition  that  is  flaunted  abroad ; 
and  they  must  ask  themselves  whether  a  Government  that  allows 
itself  to  be  so  consistently  vilified  is  in  truth  worthy  of  their  support. 
While  at  present  the  behaviour  of  the  army  is  admirable,  it  might 
be  rash  to  expect  it  to  resist  indefinitely  the  temptations  to  which 
it  is  necessarily  exposed. 

The  events  of  the  last  few  weeks  accentuate  the  gravity  of  the 
existing  situation.  The  attempt  upon  the  life  of  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  Bengal,  an  officer  whose  attitude  to  the  Indian  races  has 
been  more  than  sympathetic,  demonstrates  that  the  war  of  assassina- 
tion accepted  by  the  leaders  of  sedition  is  against  Englishmen  as 
Englishmen,  apart  from  their  personal  characteristics.  The  public 
demonstration  in  Calcutta  on  the  occasion  of  the  funeral  of  Kanai, 
who  was  hanged  for  the  murder  of  the  approver  Gossain  in  the  Alipore 
jail,  points  unmistakably  to  the  opinion  of  the  public  regarding 
sedition  and  anarchism.  There  is  but  scant  encouragement  to  be 
derived  from  the  Calcutta  telegram  which  informs  us  that  '  the  im- 
mense majority  of  Indians  are  loyal,  but  are  sitting  on  the  fence, 
because  they  mistrust  British  power  to  protect  them.'  The  murder  of 
approvers  and  of  police  officers,  coupled  with  the  mutilation  of  the 
statue  of  Queen  Victoria  at  Nagpore,  justifies  the  English  newspaper 
headings,  '  Unrest  in  India,  Popular  Sympathy  with  Disloyalty.' 

Our  enemies  in  India  are  many ;  our  real  friends  on  whom  we 
can  rely  in  case  of  need  are  not  so  many.  The  articulate  voice  of 
India  that,  not  without  some  justice,  claims  to  represent  the  majority, 
emphatically  records  its  conviction  that  we  ought  to  leaye  the  Indians 
to  themselves  and  depart  bag  and  baggage.  Let  this  fact  be  recog- 
nised ;  let  the  converse  be  also  recognised,  that  our  rule,  in  spite 
of  mistakes,  is  on  the  whole  a  just  and  beneficent  rule,  and  that  its 
supersession  would  only  result  in  untold  misery  to  millions  and  millions 
of  people  who  live  happily  under  its  segis,  and  that  we  have  not 
the  slightest  intention  of  repudiating  the  responsibilities  which  under 
Providence  constitute  our  most  sacred  charge. 

EDMUND  C.  Cox. 


190R 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHURCH 


WHENEVER  an  intellectual  question  of  moment  and  difficulty  comes 
into  vogue,  there  are  apparently  two  possible  ways  of  deciding  it. 
It  may  be  decided  by  reason  or  by  authority.  The  world  hardly 
realises  how  many  of  its  beliefs  it  accepts,  and  must  accept,  on  trust 
from  authority.  Not  one  man  in  a  thousand  affects  to  understand 
the  principles  of  philosophy  or  logic  or  therapeutics  or  poetry  or  art. 
A  man  believes  that  there  are  such  principles,  and  that  they  demand 
and  deserve  his  assent ;  but  what  they  are,  or  how  it  is  that  they  are 
such  as  they  are,  or  why  it  is  his  duty  to  accept  them,  he  could  not 
satisfactorily  explain  even  to  himself.  Upon  the  whole  he  believes 
what  others  who  are  wiser  than  he  believe  ;  he  admires  or  rejects 
what  others  who  are  wiser  than  he  admire  or  reject ;  he  follows  the 
experts,  and  he  is  justified  in  following  them ;  or  at  least  his  know- 
ledge of  their  judgments  tends  unconsciously  to  colour  his  own. 
And  where  the  authority  is  ancient  and  venerable  and  enjoys  a 
traditional  repute  of  many  centuries,  and  appeals  to  deeply  rooted 
instincts  of  human  nature,  it  is  apt  to  be  respected  when  it  asserts 
itself,  not  only  within,  but  actually  outside  its  legitimate  province  ; 
it  is  easily  obeyed,  and  it  is  not  resisted  without  a  sense  of  painful 
effort.  But  in  the  long  run  it  is  always  authority  which  rests  upon 
reason,  and  not  reason  upon  authority.  Authority,  even  when  it 
is  most  imperious,  is  obeyed  in  intellectual  questions  because  it  is 
believed,  rightly  or  wrongly,  to  have  reason  behind  it. 

Thus  a  parent  issues  orders  to  his  child,  but  he  does  not  and  cannot 
always  give  his  reasons  for  them ;  he  expects  them  to  be  obeyed 
because  they  are  his.  But  the  ultimate  justification  of  the  child's 
obedience  is  that  the  orders  are  reasonable,  as  issuing  from  the  larger 
and  longer  experience  of  the  parent.  Similarly  a  Church  may  assert 
her  supremacy  over  faith  and  morals ;  she  may  demand  and  exact 
from  her  members  an  unquestioning  loyalty  to  her  dictates ;  but  she 
must  first  show  reasonable  evidence  for  a  belief  in  her  title  to  discipline 
and  direct  the  human  conscience.  Here,  as  everywhere,  reason  is 
the  ultimate  base  of  authority.  Indeed  it  is  evident  that  no  exercise 
of  private  judgment  is  so  serious  as  the  renunciation  of  private 

955 


956  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Dec. 

judgment  for  all  a  lifetime.  But  authority  which  is  its  own  final 
warrant  neither  possesses  nor  merits  respect. 

It  would,  however,  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  authority,  although 
it  may  be  clearly  founded  upon  reason,  can  claim  to  cover  the  whole 
field  of  human  knowledge.  There  are  questions  which  no  authority 
can  decide  ;  for  the  decision  of  them,  in  their  nature,  rests  elsewhere. 
No  power  on  earth  can  convince  me  that  I  have  seen  what  I  have  not 
seen,  or  have  not  seen  what  I  have  seen ;  or  that  I  like  what  is  dis- 
agreeable to  my  taste,  or  dislike  what  is  agreeable  to  it.  The  evidence 
of  my  senses,  so  far  as  it  reaches,  unless  indeed  they  are  plainly  subject 
to  delusion,  is  final.  If  this  law  does  not  apply  to  such  a  doctrine  as 
Transubstantiation,  the  reason  is  that  the  doctrine  as  held  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  however  mysterious  in  itself,  is  not  properly 
concerned  with  phenomena  falling  under  the  domain  of  the  senses,  but 
with  the  substance  or  essence  which  lies  beyond  them.  But  whether 
the  earth  moves  round  the  sun  or  the  sun  round  the  earth,  whether  Julius 
Caesar  died  by  the  hands  of  assassins  in  the  Senate  House  at  Rome 
on  the  Ides  of  March  in  the  year  44  B.C.,  whether  and  when  Columbus 
sailed  to  the  West  and  discovered  America,  who  wrote  the  Letters  of 
Junius  or  the  Ikon  Basilike — these  are  typical  questions  of  a  kind  upon 
which  authority  can  pronounce  no  final  judgment :  they  belong  to 
physical,  or  historical,  or  literary  science.  So,  too,  whether  St.  Peter 
visited  Rome  or  not,  and,  if  so,  how  long  he  remained  there,  and  what 
his  relation  was  to  the  Christian  Church  at  Rome,  are  questions  of 
history  and  not  of  faith  ;  they  cannot  be  decided  by  authority.  All 
that  authority  can  do — and  that  only  because  of  the  importance  of 
the  issue — is  to  make  men  hesitate  before  they  accept  certain  possible 
or  probable  results  of  historical  science.  But  if  literary  criticism  is 
competent  to  determine  the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  the 
Letters  of  Junius  and  of  the  Ikon  Basilike,  there  can  be  no  valid 
a  priori  reason  why  it  should  not  equally  determine  the  genuineness 
and  authenticity  of  the  Pentateuch,  or  the  Psalms,  of  the  Book  of 
Isaiah,  or  the  Gospels,  or  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul.  No  question  would 
seem  to  lie  more  properly  within  the  sphere  of  literary  criticism  than 
the  origin,  date,  and  history  of  certain  books.  If  authority  apart 
from  reason  can  settle  these  questions,  it  can  settle  any  question. 
But  here,  too,  in  proportion  as  the  issue  at  stake  is  serious,  men  will 
rightly  hesitate  before  assenting  to  conclusions  which  are  or  may  be 
novel  and  painful  in  themselves  and  possibly  dangerous  to  the  interests 
of  Christian  society.  They  will  hesitate,  but  they  will  not  refuse  in 
the  end  to  accept  whatever  conclusions  are  justified  by  evidence. 

The  rival  principles  of  authority  and  criticism  in  sacred  literature 
correspond  with  the  two  great  divisions  of  Western  Christendom. 
The  Church  of  Rome  appeals  to  authority.  The  Protestant  Churches 
rely  upon  criticism.  The  Church  of  Rome  bases  her  appeal  upon  her 
intrinsic  right  to  determine  all  questions  of  faith  and  morals,  and 


1908  THE  BIBLE   AND   THE   CHURCH  957 

therefore  all  questions,  such  as  the  inspiration  of  Holy  Scriptu^, 
which  pertain  directly  or  indirectly  to  faith  and  morals.  The  Pro- 
testant Churches  rely  upon  criticism,  as  believing  that  an  unfettered, 
unbiassed  inquiry  into  the  origin  of  historical  records  is  the  only 
course  which  is  perfectly  loyal  to  the  rights  of  the  human  intellect 
and  conscience. 

It  has  sometimes  been  held,  in  view  of  Chillingworth's  famous 
dictum,  that  the  Protestant  Churches  take,  and  are  bound  to  take,  a 
stricter  view  of  the  Bible  than  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  as  the 
Scriptures  themselves  are  the  title-deeds  of  Protestantism,  and  a 
Protestant  cannot  afford  to  let  their  authority  be  called  in  question. 
But  the  fact  is  that  Protestantism  is,  for  good  or  for  evil,  the  home 
of  Biblical  scholarship.  The  strongest  guarantee  for  the  free  study 
of  the  Bible  is  the  value  set  upon  the  Bible  itself.  Where  the  results 
of  criticism  are  subject  to  an  official  censorship,  few  results  will  be 
attained,  and  still  fewer  will  be  published  to  the  world.  Truth  demands 
complete  liberty  of  thought  and  teaching. 

The  attitude  of  the  Church  of  Rome  on  the  one  hand  and  of  the 
Reformed  Churches  on  the  other  towards  Biblical  criticism  deserves 
to  be  historically  considered.  In  view  of  certain  recent  Papal  utter- 
ances, and  especially  of  the  Encyclical  Letter  Pascendi  Gregis,  it  is 
sometimes  argued  that  Pope  Pius  X.  has  authoritatively  laid  a  burden, 
as  novel  as  it  is  grievous,  upon  the  members  of  his  Church.  That  he 
has  tightened  the  fetters  in  which  Biblical  criticism  or  Biblical  opinion 
moves,  so  far  as  it  moves  at  all,  within  the  Church  of  Rome  is  un- 
doubtedly true.  But  the  fetters  were  forged  before  his  time,  and  his 
predecessor  riveted  them  on  the  Church  in  an  Encyclical  Letter  of 
his  own,  '  Upon  the  Study  of  Holy  Scripture  ' — the  letter  commonly 
cited  from  its  initial  words  as  Providentissimus  Deus.  It  will  be  worth 
while  to  summarise  the  conclusions  of  this  remarkable  document. 

According  to  the  Pope,  it  would  be  impious  either  to  regard  inspira- 
tion as  limited  to  certain  portions  of  the  Bible  or  to  admit  the 
possibility  of  error  in  the  sacred  writers.  It  would  be  intolerable  to 
concede  that  Divine  inspiration  relates  to  matters  of  faith  and  morals 
and  to  these  alone.  For  when  the  truth  is  at  stake,  no  one  is  entitled 
to  argue  that  it  is  not  so  important  to  consider  what  God  said  as  what 
was  His  purpose  in  saying  it.  All  the  books  which  the  Church  receives 
as  sacred  and  canonical  have  been  entirely,  and  in  all  their  parts, 
composed  under  the  dictation  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  Divine  inspira- 
tion, so  far  from  leaving  room  for  any  possibility  of  error,  not  only 
excludes  it,  but  excludes  it  without  any  qualification,  inasmuch  as 
God,  who  is  the  Supreme  Truth,  cannot  in  His  nature  be  the  Author 
of  any  sort  of  error.1  The  complete  immunity  of  all  the  Scriptures 
from  error  has,  the  Pope  declares,  been  the  most  positive  belief  of 
all  the  Fathers  and  doctors  of  the  Church.2  It  follows  that  the  idea 
1  De  Studiis  Scrivturce  Sacrce,  p.  22.  -  Ibid.  p.  24. 


958  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

of  any  contradiction  between  the  sacred  writers,  or  of  any  opposition 
in  any  one  of  them  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Church,  must  be  repudiated 
as  foolish  and  false. :i  It  follows  too  that  as  God,  the  Creator  and 
Euler  of  all  things,  is  also  the  Author  of  the  Scriptures,  there  cannot 
be,  either  in  the  natural  universe  or  in  the  records  of  history,  anything 
at  variance  with  the  Scriptures.4 

Upon  the  character  of  inspiration  the  Pope  speaks  as  plainly  as 
upon  the  fact : 

It  is  idle  (he  says)  to  pretend  that  the  Holy  Spirit  made  use  of  men  like 
instruments  for  writing,  as  though  a  falsehood  might  have  fallen  from  the  lips, 
not  indeed  of  the  original  Author,  but  of  the  inspired  writers.  For  the  Holy 
Spirit  moved  and  incited  them  to  writing  in  such  a  way  by  His  own  supernatural 
virtue,  and  stood  by  them,  as  they  wrote,  in  such  a  way  that  they  at  once  and 
the  same  time  rightly  conceived  and  sought  faithfully  to  record,  and  did  in 
suitable  language  and  with  infallible  truthfulness  express,  all  such  things  and 
only  such  things  as  He  commanded.  If  it  were  not  so,  He  would  not  Himself 
be  the  Author  of  Holy  Scripture  as  a  whole.'1 

That,  although  Holy  Scripture  was  composed  under  immediate 
Divine  inspiration,  its  true  and  genuine  meaning  cannot  be  ascertained 
outside  the  Church 6  is  a  doctrine  essential  to  the  position  of  the  Church 
of  Rome.  But  it  would  seem  that  the  Pope  goes  so  far  as  to  claim 
for  his  Church  the  exclusive  power  of  determining  literary  questions 
which  affect  the  nature  and  history  of  particular  books  of  the  Bible ; 
for  he  condemns  the  pretence  '  which  passes  under  the  respectable 
name  of  the  Higher  Criticism,'  that  it  is  possible  or  right  to  pronounce 
judgment  upon  the  origin,  integrity,  and  authority  of  any  book  *  from 
what  are  called  internal  evidences  alone.' 7  But,  in  fact,  if  authority 
of  itself  can  decide  any  critical  question,  it  can  decide  the  genuineness 
of  such  a  passage  as  the  famous  text  relating  to  the  Three  Heavenly 
Witnesses  (1  John  v.  7) ;  and  the  Pope  has  not  scrupled  to  decide  it. 
For  after  much  controversy  the  question  was  formally  submitted  to 
the  Congregation  of  the  Inquisition  :  '  Is  it  safe  to  deny  or  at  least 
to  throw  doubt  upon  the  authenticity  of  the  text  of  the  Three  Heavenly 
Witnesses  ?  '  The  reply  of  the  Congregation,  given  on  the 
13th  of  January  1897,  was  '  No.'  Two  days  later,  on  the  15th,  it  was 
approved  and  confirmed  by  the  Pope.8 

3  De  Studiis  Scripture?  Sacra;,  p.  15.  4  Ibid.  p.  25.  5  Ibid.  p.  23. 

6  Ibid.  p.  17.  7  Ibid.  p.  20. 

8  See  La  Question  Biblique  chez  les  Catholiques  dc  France  an  xixe  Siecle,  par 
Albert  Houtin,  oh.  14,  especially  pp.  237-8  (2'  Edition,  1902).  The  following  is  the 
official  record : 

"  Feria  iv  die  13  lanuarii  1897  In  Congregations  Generali  S.  Bom.  et  U.  Inquisi- 
tionis  habita  coram  Em"  et  Eevmii  Cardinalibns  contra  haereticam  pravitatem  Genera- 
libus  Inquisitoribus,  proposito  dubio  : 

"  Utrum  tuto  negari  aut  saltern  in  dubium  revocari  possit,  esse  authenticum  textum 
S.  loannis,  in  epistula  prima  cap.  v.  vers.  7,  quod  sic  se  habet :  Quoniam  tres  sunt 
qui  testimonium  dant  in  coelo  :  Pater,  Verbum,  et  Spiritus  Sanctus  ;  et  hi  tres  unum 
sunt?  Omnibus  diligentissime  examine  perpensis,  praehabitoque  DD.  consultortim 
voto,  iidem  Eminentissimi  Cardinales  respondendum  mandaverunt : 


1908  TEE   BIBLE  AND   THE   CHURCH  969 

Pope  Leo  XIII.,  indeed,  goes  far  beyond  the  warrant  of  the 
Vatican  Council  and  a  brtiori  of  the  Council  of  Trent. 

The  Vatican  Council  declared  only  that  the  books  of  the  Old  and 
the  New  Testaments,  as  wholes  and  in  all  their  parts,  were  to  be 
received  as  sacred  and  canonical,  and  were  to  be  so  received  because 
they  had  been  composed  under  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
and  because  God  Himself  was  the  Author  of  them ;  also  that  it  was 
the  function  of  the  Church  to  decide  upon  the  interpretation  of  Holy 
Scripture,  and  that  whatever  the  Church  had  held  and  holds  to  be 
the  true  meaning  was  the  meaning.  By  the  books  of  the  Old  and  the 
New  Testaments  the  Council  understood  such  as  were  enumerated 
by  the  Council  of  Trent  and  contained  in  the  Vulgate  Translation.9 

The  Council  of  Trent  limited  itself  in  the  following  way  :  it  defined 
the  Holy  Scriptures  and  the  unwritten  tradition  of  the  Church  as  the 
channels  of  Divine  '  truth  and  discipline  ' ;  it  drew  up  a  catalogue 
(index  in  the  Latin)  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  which  included,  as  is  well 
known,  the  Apocryphal  Books  ;  it  declared  that  the  Vulgate  transla- 
tion was  to  be  '  treated  as  authentic  in  public  readings,  discussions, 
sermons,  and  expositions  ' ;  and  it  prohibited  any  such  interpretation 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures  as  should  be  '  contrary  to  the  sense  which  is 
held,  as  it  has  ever  been  held,  by  Holy  Mother  Church,  whose  office 
it  is  to  judge  the  true  meaning  and  interpretation  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, or  even  contrary  to  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  Fathers.' 10 

This  language  of  the  Council  of  Trent  Perrone  applies,  in  a  spirit 
which  has  been  generally  accepted  among  Roman  Catholics,  to  the 
difficult  question  of  inspiration.  He  speaks  of  '  Divine  Inspiration  ' 
as  '  extending  at  least  to  the  facts  and  the  doctrines  involved  in  them  ' 
(saltern  ad  res  atque  sententias  in  eis  contentas),  and  as  implying 

not  only  that  the  sacred  writers  are  exempt  from  any  taint  of  error,  however 
slight,  as  is  the  traditional  theory  of  inspiration,  but  also  that  it  was  the  one 
God  who  moved  them  to  take  to  writing,  and  that  in  all  their  writing  they  had 
a  positive  assistance  (adststentia  positiva)  at  their  side  ;  hence  it  is  God  alone 
who  ought  in  strictness  to  be  regarded  and  treated  as  the  Author  of  the  sacred 
books. 

He  adds  : 

The  reason  of  the  limitation  in  the  words  '  at  least  as  regards  facts  and 
doctrines  '  (saltern  quoad  res  et  sententias)  is  that,  as  the  Church  has  refused  to 
define  or  to  decide  the  question  agitated  among  the  schoolmen  whether  God 
dictated  also  the  actual  words,  sentences,  and  paragraphs,  we  had  no  wish  to 
mix  up  in  a  lighthearted  manner  a  personal  controversy  with  the  doctrine  of  the 

"  Negative. 

"  Feria  vero  vi  die  15  eiusdem  mensia  et  anni,  in  solita  audientia  R.  P.  D.  assessor! 
S.  Officii  inapertita,  facta  de  suprascriptis  accusata  relatione  SSmo  D.  N.  Leoni 
Papae  XIII.,  Sanctitas  Sua  resolutionem  Eminentissimorum  Patrum  approbavit  et 
confirmavit."  There  is  an  interesting  correspondence  upon  this  decree  in  the 
Guardian  of  the  19th  and  26th  of  May  and  of  the  9th  and  16th  of  June. 

*  Sessio,  iii.  cap.  2.  10  Ibid.  iv. 


960  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTUBY  Dec. 

Church,  and  therefore  we  confined  our  proposition  to  the  matter  (ad  rei  substantiam) 
without  which  a  true  Divine  inspiration  cannot  exist  and  is  actually  incon- 
ceivable. 

His  conclusion  is  in  agreement  with  the  decree  of  the  Council  of  Trent, 
that  *  one  God  is  the  Author  of  the  canonical  books  of  both  Testa- 
ments (utriusque  fcederis),  in  the  sense  that  all  the  books  and  every 
particular  book  of  the  canon  ought  to  be  treated  as  sacred  and  divine, 
or,  if  you  will,  as  divinely  inspired  ' ;  and  he  bases  it  upon  the  authority 
of  the  Church,  '  who  has  always  so  believed  and  so  taught  in  accordance 
with  the  doctrine  which  she  learnt  from  Christ  and  the  Apostles  and 
delivered  by  unbroken  tradition  to  all  who  came  after  them  and 
imparted  to  her  children  as  a  loving  mother  and  an  infallible  teacher 
of  truth.'  u 

Even  in  Perrone's  guarded  statement  the  authority  of  the  Church — 
i.e.  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church — upon  such  a  question  as  inspira- 
tion occupies  a  place  which  Protestant  theology  cannot  concede  to 
it.  Neither  the  fact  and  the  nature  of  inspiration  nor  indeed  the 
canon  of  Holy  Scripture  itself  can  be  accepted  at  this  time  of  day 
upon  the  authority  of  the  Church  apart  from  the  reasonable  judgment 
of  informed  and  enlightened  religious  minds.  For  upon  the  historical 
and  literary  facts  of  religion  there  is  not,  nor  can  there  be,  any  other 
court  of  final  judgment  than  reason.  And  if  upon  the  spiritual 
truths  of  religion  the  court  is  not  reason  in  itself,  but  the  spirit  of 
man  enlightening  his  reason,  it  is  because  in  religion,  when  it  touches 
the  infinite,  there  is  and  must  be  an  element  transcending  reason  ; 
and  it  is  not  the  reason,  but  the  spiritual  faculty  of  man,  which  is  most 
nearly  akin  to  the  nature  of  God. 

Modern  Biblical  criticism,  then,  in  its  extreme  development,  if  it 
is  dangerous  to  Protestant,  is  still  more  dangerous  to  Eoman  Catholic 
Christianity ;  to  Judaism,  I  may  add,  it  is  practically  fatal.  For 
the  history  of  the  Jews,  as  a  people  chosen  by  God,  is  bound  up  with 
the  authority  and  authenticity  of  the  Old  Testament.  And  if  there 
is  no  uniquely  divine  element  in  Jewish  literature,  neither  is  there 
any  such  element  in  Jewish  history. 

But  to  come  back  to  the  Papal  Letter  :  Its  general  effect  is  to  set 
the  Bible,  including  the  Apocrypha,  on  a  pinnacle  of  absolute  per- 
fection beyond  and  above  all  discussion  or  dispute.  Perhaps  the 
difference  between  the  modern  Roman  Catholic  and  the  modern 
Protestant  view  of  the  Bible  cannot  be  more  clearly  displayed  than 
by  the  juxtaposition  of  two  characteristic  sentences.  In  the  language 
of  Pope  Leo  XIII.  '  the  books  of  the  Bible  must  not  be  regarded  like 
ordinary  books.'  12  Nearly  half  a  century  ago,  when  Biblical  criticism, 
at  least  in  England,  was  in  its  infancy,  the  late  Professor  Jowett, 

11  Prcslectiones  Theologicce,  vol.  ii.,  Part  II.,  p.  51  (edit.  1842). 

12  De  Studiis  Scriptures  Sacra:,  p.  8.     '  Neque  enim  eorum  ratio  librorum  similis 
atque  communium  putanda  est." 


1908  THE  BIBLE  AND   THE   CHURCH  961 

writing  upon  the  interpretation  of  Scripture  in  Essays  and  Reviews, 
laid  down  the  rule  :  '  Interpret  the  Scripture  like  any  other  book '  ; 
and  this  rule  he  elucidated  in  the  words  :  '  The  first  thing  is  to  know 
the  meaning,  and  this  can  only  be  done  in  the  same  careful  and  impar- 
tial way  that  we  ascertain  the  meaning  of  Sophocles  and  Plato.' 13  All 
criticism  of  the  Bible  depends  upon  this  rule.  For  in  the  critical  or 
scientific  point  of  view  inspiration  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  an  axiom 
from  which  flow  special  principles  of  exegesis  applicable  to  the  Bible 
and  the  Bible  alone.  If  it  is  anything,  it  is  in  itself  a  conclusion  of 
Biblical  study.  In  other  words,  the  student  of  the  Bible  does  not 
start  from  inspiration  ;  if  he  believes  in  inspiration  at  all,  he  believes 
in  it  as  an  induction  from  the  facts  which  he  studies. 

The  Higher  Criticism,  as  it  is  now  generally  called,  is  the  applica- 
tion of  critical  methods,  not  to  the  text,  but  to  the  matter  and  style 
of  the  sacred  writings.  Such  criticism  in  the  Reformed  or  Protestant 
Churches  must  be  held  to  be  legitimate  and  desirable.  For  Pro- 
testantism, alike  in  its  nature  and  in  its  history,  welcomes  the  light. 
It  could  not  justly  violate  the  unity  of  the  Church  on  grounds  of 
reason  and  then  repudiate  the  authority  of  reason  over  itself.  It 
could  not  dethrone  the  Church  to  enthrone  the  Bible  as  a  tyrant 
over  the  intellect  and  conscience  of  humanity.  There  are  often,  or 
always,  germinal  principles  in  a  great  movement ;  and  even  if  they 
are  slow  in  asserting  themselves,  yet  in  the  long  run  their  triumph 
is  sure.  As  religious  liberty  was,  so  to  say,  in  the  blood  of  Protestant- 
ism, and  could  not  but  win  its  way  soon  or  late,  so  it  was  certain  from 
the  first  that  the  free  criticism,  like  the  free  reading,  of  the  Bible 
would  one  day  prevail  in  the  countries  of  the  Reformation.  For, 
however  imperfectly  some  of  the  founders  and  leaders  of  Protestantism 
or  their  successors  might  comprehend  the  great  principle  of  rational 
liberty,  the  Reformation  set  up  sanctified  reason,  once  and  for  all,  as 
the  sole  and  sovereign  authority  in  historical  and  literary  questions  ; 
and  if  modern  theologians  of  the  Reformed  Churches  were  to  abrogate 
the  supreme  right  of  reason  over  such  questions,  they  would  abrogate 
the  justification  of  their  own  being. 

But  in  fact  the  Reformers,  with  Luther  at  their  head,  not  only 
accepted  the  principle,  but  in  some  degree  adopted  the  methods,  of 
modern  Biblical  study.  They  treated  the  books  of  the  Bible  with  a 
bold  freedom  which  was  strongly  critical  if  it  was  not  wholly  scientific. 
They  felt  no  scruple  about  making  a  comparison  or  contrast  between 
two  or  more  books  in  point  of  dignity  and  authority.  They  could 
point  to  differences  of  character  in  originality,  or  morality,  or  spirituality 
among  the  books  ;  they  could  dispute  and  decide  questions  of  author- 
ship or  leave  them  undecided  ;  they  could  set  one  book  or  one  part  of 
a  book  above  another  ;  they  could  entertain  widely  various  opinions 

11  Essays  and  Reviews,  '  On  the  Interpretation  of  Scripture,'  p.  458  (tenth 
edition). 


962  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Dec. 

upon  inspiration,  whether  generally  or  in  reference  to  particular 
writings  ;  and  all  this  they  could  do  and  freely  did  without  disparage- 
ment, as  it  seems,  in  their  own  minds  or  in  the  world  of  theology  to 
the  unique  position  of  the  sacred  literature  which  had  long  been 
collected,  as  a  whole,  into  the  book  of  books  or  the  Bible. 

I  do  not  say  that  the  principles,  or  methods,  or  resources  of  the 
early  Reformers  were  the  same  as  those  of  the  modern  higher 
critics,  but  only  that  their  attitude  towards  the  Bible,  in  its  freedom 
of  treatment,  was  the  same.  They  are  as  far  as  the  critics  themselves 
from  taking  all  the  books  of  the  Bible  or  all  parts  of  the  books  to 
be  equally  authoritative  and  valuable. 

Let  me,  then,  quote  the  actual  language  of  the  Reformers. 

Luther  expressed  himself  in  many  passages  of  his  writings,  and 
especially  in  the  first  part  of  his  Table  Talk  (Tischreden),  with  a  vigour 
and  vivacity  all  his  own.  He  speaks  again  and  again  of  the  Bible 
and  of  all  its  books  as  '  the  Word  of  God.'  He  insists  upon  its  '  in- 
expressible majesty  and  authority.'  n  He  sees  in  it  the  salvation, 
not  of  individuals  only,  but  of  States.15  If  he  were  asked  what  is  the 
distinction  of  the  Bible  as  a  whole  from  all  other  books,  he  would 
answer  that  it  consists  in  the  subjects  of  which  the  Bible  treats  and 
the  way  in  which  it  treats  them — such  subjects  as  Faith,  Hope  and 
Charity,  Human  Sin,  Divine  Redemption,  and  the  Future  Everlasting 
Life.15  That  the  Son  of  God  became  man  in  order  to  do  away  with  sin 
and  deliver  men  from  death  is  what  no  book  teaches  but  the  Bible. 
So,  too,  no  book  teaches  the  nature  of  sin,  the  law,  death  and  the 
victory  over  sin,  but  the  Bible  alone.17  Above  all,  the  Bible,  and  the 
Bible  alone,  reveals  Jesus  Christ.  The  watchwords  of  the  Bible,  in 
Luther's  conception,  are  Jesus  Christ  and  Justification  by  Faith. 
But  having  arrived  at  these  watchwords  by  his  study  of  the  Bible,  he 
proceeds  to  apply  them,  as  tests  of  inspiration,  to  the  several  books 
of  the  Bible  itself,  and  especially  of  the  New  Testament:  If  a  book 
contains  the  truth  as  he  conceives  the  truth  it  is  inspired,  canonical, 
apostolical.  If  it  does  not,  it  is  none  of  these  things.  To  quote  some 
words  from  his  preface  to  the  Epistles  of  St.  James  and  St.  John : 
'  What  does  not  teach  Christ  is  not  apostolical,  although  it  were  the 
teaching  of  St.  Peter  or  St.  Paul.  Conversely,  what  teaches  Christ 
would  be  apostolical,  although  it  were  the  work  of  Judas,  Annas, 
Pilate,  and  Herod.' 18  Thus  Luther's  canon  of  canon icity,  as  it  may 
be  called,  is  purely  subjective.  It  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  authority 
of  manuscripts,  or  the  testimony  of  the  Fathers,  or  the  estimate  tradi- 
tional in  the  Church.  It  depends  simply  and  solely  upon  his  own 

14  Tischreden,  vol.  Ivii.  p.  50.  In  all  references  to  Luther  the  volumes  and  pages 
are  those  of  his  Samtliche  Werke,  edited  by  Plochmann  and  Irmischer  (Erlangen, 
1826-1857). 

13  Ibid.  vol.  Ivii.  p.  8.  l6  Ibid.  vol.  Ivii.  p.  4. 

17  Vermischte  Predigten,  vol.  xix.  p.  165. 

is  Yorrgfig  aufdie  Episteln  S.  Jakobi  u.  Juda,  vol.  Ixiii.  p.  157. 


1908  THE  BIBLE   AND   THE   CHURCH  <J68 

view  of  the  teaching  which  it  is  natural  and  proper  to  expect 
in  a  Book  divinely  inspired.  And  if  his  canon  is  not  completely 
and  absolutely  arbitrary,  the  reason  is  only  that  it  is,  as  he  believes, 
itself  determined  by  the  contents,  or  some  of  the  contents,  of  the 
Bible. 

There  can  be  no  wonder  that,  when  Luther  had  laid  down  in 
this  arbitrary  manner  what  an  inspired  or  apostolical  book  must  be, 
he  should  treat  the  books  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament  with 
singular  liberty,  extolling  some  and  depreciating  others,  comparing  and 
contrasting  them,  speaking  of  better  books  and  inferior  books,  thanking 
God  from  his  heart  for  some  and  devoutly  wishing  that  others  could  be 
taken  out  of  the  Bible. 

To  the  Old  Testament  he  ascribed  apparently  a  sort  of  secondary 
inspiration.  '  Moses  and  the  prophets,'  he  says,  '  preached ;  but  in 
them  we  do  not  hear  God  Himself ;  for  Moses  received  the  law  from 
the  angels ;  his  authority  is  therefore  different,  it  is  less  august ;  for 
with  his  preaching  of  the  Law  he  urges  people  only  to  good  works. 
It  follows  that,  when  I  hear  Moses  urging  to  good  works,  I  feel  as 
though  I  were  hearing  one  who  delivers  the  order  or  speech  of  an 
emperor  or  prince.  But  that  is  not  to  hear  God  Himself.' 19 

To  speak  of  particular  books :  Luther  draws  a  broad  line 
between  the  Books  of  Kings  and  of  Chronicles ;  the  former,  he 
says,  deserve  more  credence  than  the  latter.20  The  Book  of  Job 
is  a  drama  (argumentum  fabulce)  representing  the  imaginations 
of  the  poet,  not  the  actual  words  and  deeds  of  an  historical 
character ;  it  may  have  been  written  by  Solomon.21  Ecdesiastes 
is  only  a  fragment,  part  of  a  treatise  designed  to  '  frighten  kings, 
princes,  and  nobles.' 22  Like  the  Proverbs,  like  the  Canticles,  it 
is  not  a  work  of  Solomon's  own  composition,  but  probably  a  col- 
lection of  his  sayings  put  together  by  scholars  of  a  later  date.2;i 
To  Esther,  as  to  the  Second  Book  of  the  Maccabees,  he  is  so 
hostile  that  he  '  could  wish  they  were  non-existent,'  for  they  are 
too  Jewish,  and  there  is  much  that  is  heathenish  and  disagreeable  in 
them.24  The  Song  of  Solomon,  or  Canticles,  too,  '  looks  like  a  composite 
book  taken  down  by  others  from  Solomon's  mouth.' 25 

He  thinks  that  no  prophet  wrote  down  his  prophecy  in  its  present 
form,  but  that  the  disciples  of  a  prophet  would  take  down  the  words 
at  different  times  and  eventually  gather  them  into  a  book.26  The  pro- 
phecies of  Israel,  as  they  stand,  are  not  arranged  in  chronological 
order  and  are  frequently  confused.27 

"  Auslegung  des  6.  7.  u.  8.  Kapitels  des  Evangeliums  JoJiannis,  vol.  xv.  p.  357. 

20  Tischreden,  vol.  Ixii.  p.  132.  2I  Ibid.  p.  133.  -  Ibid.  p.  128. 

'a  Vorrede  auf  den  Prediger  Solomo  (1524),  vol.  Ixiii.  p.  40. 

".  Tischreden,  vol.  Ixii.  p.  131. 

2S  Vorrede  auf  den  Prediger  Solomo,  vol.  Ixiii.  p.  41. 

29  Tischreden,  vol.  Ixii.  p.  132. 

*7  Vorrede  auf  den  Propheten  Jesaiam,  vol.  Ixiii.  p.  51. 


964  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

It  seems  that  Jeremiah  did  not  compose  the  book  of  his  prophecies 
in  the  present  form  ;  they  were  taken  down  fragmentarily  from  his  lips, 
and  afterwards  incorporated,  without  regard  to  their  chronological 
sequence,  in  a  book.28 

'  The  story  of  Jonah,'  he  says,  '  is  so  gross  as  to  be  absolutely  in- 
credible :  it  sounds  more  like  an  absurdity  than  any  poet's  fable  ;  and 
did  I  not  find  it  in  the  Bible  I  should  laugh  at  it  as  a  lying  tale.' 2a 

Luther's  judgment  upon  the  Apocryphal  Books  I  may  pass  over 
as  being  alien  from  the  purpose  which  I  have  in  view.  But  his  criti- 
cism as  applied  to  the  New  Testament  is  sufficiently  outspoken. 

Thus  he  freely  discusses  which  are  the  best  books  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  his  conclusion  is  as  follows  : 

The  Gospel  of  St.  John,  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  especially  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  and  the  first  Epistle  of  St.  Peter  are  the  true 
kernel  and  marrow  of  all  the  books  ;  they  may  fairly  be  regarded  as  the 
principal  books,  and  a  Christian  in  the  present  day  should  be  advised 
to  read  them  first  of  all  and  most  of  all,  and  by  daily  reading  to  make 
himself  as  familiar  with  them  as  with  his  daily  bread.30  Then  he 
gives  his  reason  for  this  preference  : 

'  For  in  these  there  are  not  many  works  and  miracles  of  Christ 
described ;  but  you  find  a  masterly  exposition  of  the  way  that  faith 
in  Christ  conquers  sin,  death,  and  hell,  and  gives  life,  righteousness, 
and  felicity,  and  that  is  the  true  sort  of  Gospel,  as  you  have  heard.' 

Luther  deliberately  sets  the  preaching  of  Christ  above  His  works  ; 
'  for  the  works  do  not  help  me,  but  His  words  give  life,  as  He  Himself 
says,  John  v.  51.'  It  is  on  this  principle  that  he  prefers  the  Gospel 
of  St.  John  as  well  as  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  Peter  to  the 
Gospels  of  St.  Matthew,  St.  Mark,  and  St.  Luke.  He  concludes  : 

In  short,  the  Gospel  of  St.  John  and  his  first  Epistle,31  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul, 
especially  the  Epistles  to  the  Romans,  Galatians,  and  Ephesians,  and  the  first 
Epistle  of  St.  Peter  are  the  books  which  set  Christ  before  your  «yes  and  teach 
everything  that  you  need  to  know  for  your  soul's  health,  even  if  you  should 
never  see  and  hear  any  other  book  or  any  other  teaching.  It  follows  that  the 
Epistle  of  St.  James  is  a  regular  epistle  of  straw  in  comparison  with  these  books  ; 
for  there  is  nothing  of  the  Gospel  about  it. 

It  will  be  worth  while  to  illustrate  Luther's  treatment  of  the 
New  Testament  by  reference  to  his  actual  language  about  the  books 
which  he  esteemed  most  highly  or  disparaged  most  gravely.  The 
language  will  show  how  wide  a  difference  he  made  between  them. 
And  his  censure  or  depreciation  of  certain  books  will  be  even  more 
significant  than  his  praise  of  others. 

28  yorrede  uber  den  Proplieten  Jeremia,  vol.  Ixiii.  p.  61. 

49  Tischreden,  vol.  Ixii.  p.  148.     Cp.  Der  Prophet  Jona  ausgelegt,  vol.  xli.  p.  371. 

30  yorrede  auf  das  Neue  Testament  (1522).  Welchs  die  rechten  und  edligsteu 
Biicher  des  Neuen  Testaments  sind,  vol.  Ixiii.  p.  114. 

:"  Of  the  2nd  and  3rd  Epistles  of  St.  John  Luther  says  only  that  '  they  too  have 
a  true  apostolical  spirit.'  Vorrede  auf  die  drei  Epistcln  S.  Johannis,  vol.  Ixiii.  p.  154. 


1908  THE  BIBLE  AND   THE   CHURCH  965 

Of  the  Gospel  of  St.  John  he  says  that  it  is  '  the  principal  Gospel ' 
(Haupt-Evangelion), '  far,  far  above  the  other  three  Gospels.' 3a  Of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  : 

This  is  the  true  masterpiece  of  the  New  Testament :  it  is  the  purest  of  all 
Gospels.  It  deserves  that  not  only  should  a  Christian  learn  it  by  heart — every 
word  of  it — but  that  he  should  occupy  himself  with  it  every  day  of  his  life  as 
with  the  daily  bread  of  his  soul.  It  is  impossible  to  read  the  Epistle  or  to  study  it 
too  often.  The  more  familiar  it  is,  the  more  exquisite  and  more  delightful  it 
becomes.'3 

And  again :  '  It  seem.3  that  St.  Paul  in  this  Epistle  designs  to  give  a 
summary  expression  of  the  whole  Christian  and  Evangelical  doctrine.' 3I 
Of  the  First  Epistle  of  St.  Peter :  '  It  is  a  truly  Christian  lesson  or 
sermon,'  and  then,  as  showing  why  he  valued  it  and  did  not  value 
the  Epistle  of  St.  James,  he  adds  : 

If  a  man  wishes  to  preach  the  Gospel,  it  must  be  in  brief  the  Gospel  of  the 
resurrection  of  Christ.  Whoever  does  not  preach  that,  is  no  Apostle,  for  that 
is  the  supreme  article  of  our  faith  ;  and  the  genuine  books — the  noblest  books- 
are  such  as  most  clearly  teach  and  impress  the  truth  of  the  resurrection.  It 
is  a  natural  inference  that  the  Epistle  of  St.  James  is  not  a  true  apostolical 
Epistle,  for  it  does  not  contain  a  single  syllable  relating  to  these  things.35 

The  Epistle  of  St.  James,  as  has  already  been  seen,  incurred  from 
Luther  much  disparaging  criticism.  It  was  in  his  eyes  not  the  work 
of  St.  James ;  it  was  not  the  work  of  an  Apostle  ;  it  did  not  exhibit 
the  characteristics  of  an  apostolical  writing ;  it  did  not  represent  the 
true  apostolical  doctrine.36  Elsewhere  he  explicitly  rejects  the  apo- 
stolical authorship  of  the  Epistle  on  the  grounds  (1)  that  its  teaching 
upon  the  relation  of  faith  and  works  is  opposed  to  the  teaching  of  St. 
Paul ;  (2)  that  it  makes  no  mention  of  Christ's  passion,  or  His  resur- 
rection, or  His  Spirit ;  (3)  that  it  contradicts  St.  Paul's  view  of  the 
law ;  (4)  that  its  author  quotes  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  and  speaks  of 
himself,  not  as  an  Apostle,  but  as  a  pupil  of  the  Apostles,  although  St. 
James  was  an  Apostle,  and  although  he  was  pub  to  death  by  King 
Herod  in  the  early  days  of  the  apostolical  history.37 

The  Epistle  of  St.  Jude,  according  to  Luther,  is  not  the  work  of  an 
Apostle.  It  was  written  by  someone  who  speaks  of  himself  not  as  an 
Apostle  but  as  a  disciple  of  the  Apostles.3*  It  is  evidently  an  abstract, 
if  not  a  copy,  of  the  Second  Epistle  of  St.  Peter.  It  may  have  well 
been  the  work  of  some  pious  man,  who  had  read  the  Second  Epistle 

"  Vorrede  auf  das  Neue  Testament  (1522).  Welchs  die  rechlen  und  edligatcn 
Biicher  des  Neuen  Testaments  sind,  vol.  Ixiii.  p.  115. 

33  Vorrede  auf  die  Epistel  S.  Paul  an  die  EOmer,  vol.  Ixiii.  p.  119. 

34  Ibid.  vol.  Ixiii.  p.  137. 

34  Episteln  S.  Petri  gepredigt  und  ausgelegt,  vol.  li.  p.  337. 

38  Prediglen  ilber  die  Episteln  am  viertcn  Sonntage  nach  Ostern,  vol.  viii.  p.  268. 
Cp.  Predigten  iiber  die  EvangeUen  am  Tage  der  heiligen  drei  Klinige,  vol.  x.  p.  366. 
37   Vorrede  auf  die  Episteln  S.  Jnkobi  und  Jiida,  vol.  Ixiii.  p.  150. 
s»  Ibid.  vol.  Ixiii.  p.  158.    Cp.  Die  Epistel  S.  Judas,  vol.  Hi.  pp.  273,  284. 
VOL.  LX1V— No.  382  8  T 


966  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Dec. 

of  St.  Peter  and  had  borrowed  his  language  from  it.  It  is  not  without 
its  value  ;  but  it  cannot  be  reckoned  as  one  of  the  principal  books 
which  lay  the  foundation  of  the  faith.3& 

There  still  remain  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  and  the  Apocalypse. 

The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  Luther  approves,  as  it  accords  with 
his  theological  system.  He  calls  it  a  '  strong,  mighty,  and  elevated 
Epistle.'  He  values  it  for  exalting  '  the  lofty  article  of  faith  in  the 
Godhead  of  Christ.'40  In  particular  he  dwells  with  satisfaction  upon 
the  doctrine  of  the  eternal  priesthood  of  Christ  as  set  forth  in  Hebrews 
vii.41  But  he  does  not  believe  the  Epistle  to  be  the  work  of  St.  Paul 
or  of  any  Apostle.42  Who  the  author  was  is  a  matter  of  dispute, 
but  it  is  not  important.  Some  persons  think  he  was  St.  Mark,  others 
St.  Luke.  Luther  himself  suggests  Apollos,  not  indeed  as  though  the 
suggestion  were  his  own  original  idea,  but  it  commends  itself  to  his 
judgment.43 

He  deals  with  the  Apocalypse  as  with  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 
Its  authority  is  an  open  question.  In  1522  he  could  write  '  As  to  the 
Apocalypse  of  John ;  I  would  let  everybody  think  as  he  will.  I 
would  have  nobody  bound  to  agree  with  me  in  my  fancy  or  judgment. 
I  speak  as  I  feel. .  What  I  miss  in  this  book  is  not  simply  that  I  do 
not  regard  it  as  apostolical  or  prophetical.  It  is,  first  and  foremost, 
that  the  Apostles  do  not  concern  themselves  with  visions,  but  prophesy 
in  clear,  dry  language ;  and  so  do  Peter,  Paul,  and  Christ  Himself  in  the 
Gospel :  in  fact  it  is  the  function  of  the  apostolical  office  to  speak  of 
Christ  and  of  His  actions  in  clear  terms  and  without  any  figure  or 
vision.' 44 

He  gives  a  curious  reason  for  disbelieving  the  apostolicity  of  the 
Apocalypse.  It  is  that  the  writer  of  it  recommends  his  own  book 
in  a  manner  to  which  the  other  books  of  the  New  Testament  afford 
no  parallel,  and  threatens  the  vengeance  of  God  upon  anyone  who 
should  be  guilty  of  adding  to  it  or  taking  aught  away  from  it  (Apoc. 
xxii.  18,  19).  Then  he  comes  back  to  his  old  standard  of  authen- 
ticity in  the  words  : 

It  is  in  my  eyes  reason  enough  for  not  holding  the  Apocalypse  in  high  esteem 
that  Christ  is  neither  taught  nor  recognised  in  it.  Yet  this  is  the  primary  duty 
of  an  Apostle,  according  to  His  own  words  in  Acts  L  :  '  Ye  shall  be  My  witnesses.' 
I  stick,  then,  to  the  books  which  give  me  the  pure,  unclouded  picture  of  Christ.45 


39  Vorrede  auf  die  Episteln  S.  Jakobi  und  Juda,  vol.  Ixiii.  pp.  156-8. 

40  Predigten  iiber  die  Episteln  am  III.  Christtage,  vol.  vii.  p.  181. 

41  Der  110  Psalm  gepredigt  und  ausgelegt,  vol.  xl.  p.  139. 

42  Vorrede  auf  die  Epistel  an  die  Ebraer,  vol.  kdii.  p.  154. 

43  Etlige    (meinen)    St.    Apollo,    vol.    vii.    p.    181.       '  Dieser    Apollo    ist    ein 
ochverstandiger  Mann  gewest ;  die  Epistel  Hebraorum  ist  freilich  sein  '  (Vermischte 
redigten,  vol.  xviii.  p.  38). 

4t  Vorrede  ziur  O/enbanmg  S.  Johannis,  vol.  Ixiii.  p.  169.     (This .Vorrede,  which 
appeared  in  1522,  was  omitted  by  Luther  in  the  later  editions  of  his  New  Testament.) 
«  Ibid.  p.  170. 


1908  THE  BIBLE   AND   THE   CHURCH  967 

Twenty-three  years  later,  in  1545,  he  wrote  : 

It  is  the  opinion  of  some  ancient  Fathers  that  the  Apocalypse  is  not  the 
work  of  the  Apostle  John,  as  appears  in  book  iii.  of  the  Ecclesiastical  History, 
ch.  25.  We  must  let  the  authorship  remain  in  that  uncertainty.  But  we  would 
not  prevent  anyone  from  believing  it  to  be  the  work  of  the  Apostle  John  or  any- 
body else,  as  he  chooses.4*5 

The  following,  then,  may  be  said  to  be  the  principal  conclusions  of 
Luther's  criticism  as  applying  to  the  Bible  and  particularly  to  the 
New  Testament :  that  the  history  of  books  may  be  uncertain,  that  the 
authenticity  of  books  may  be  uncertain ;  that  books  are  to  be  received 
or  not  as  canonical,  not  upon  external  evidence,  but  according  as  they 
do  or  do  not  correspond  in  matter  and  manner  with  the  Gospel ;  and, 
finally,  that  it  is  in  the  power  of  the  Christian  conscience  to  determine 
what  the  Gospel  is.47 

Luther's  arbitrary  treatment  of  the  Bible  has  often  been  used, 
as  a  weapon  of  offence,  alike  by  sceptical  critics 4S  who  have  denied  the 
reality  of  inspiration,  and  by  Roman  Catholic  divines 19  in  their  contro- 
versy with  Protestantism.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  avoid  the  feeling  that 
a  critic  who  might  choose  some  other  test  of  apostolicity  or  authen- 
ticity than  Luther's  would  be  justified  upon  the  strength  of  his  example 
in  recognising  some  books  of  the  Bible  and  not  others  as  inspired,  and 
in  neither  recognising  nor  rejecting  the  same  books  as  Luther  himself. 
But  all  that  it  is  necessary  for  me  now  to  urge  is  that,  if  Luther  was  an 
unsound  and  unsatisfactory  critic  of  the  Bible,  at  least  he  was  a  critic. 

Erasmus  was  not  less  liberal  than  Luther  in  his  Biblical  criticism. 
In  his  commentary  on  St.  Matthew  ii.  6  he  writes  : 

As  the  Divine  Spirit,  who  governed  the  minds  of  the  Apostles,  suffered  them  to 
live  in  ignorance  of  certain  things,  and  sometimes  to  fall  into  errors  of  judg- 
ment or  disposition,  not  only  without  any  injury  to  the  Gospel,  but  so  as  to  con- 
vert their  error  itself  into  a  support  of  the  faith,  He  may  have  so  modulated 
the  instrument  of  the  Apostles'  memory  that,  even  if,  as  being  human,  they 
forgot  something,  so  far  from  diminishing  the  faith  in  Holy  Scripture,  it  should 
actually  enhance  the  faith  in  the  eyes  of  persons  who  might  otherwise  have 
disparaged  it  as  a  forgery.  .  .  .  That  Heavenly  Spirit  ordered  this  whole  mystery 
of  our  salvation  by  secret  counsels  and  methods  hidden  from  human  intelligence. 
It  is  not  in  our  power,  nor  would  it  be  in  accordance  with  Christian  modesty, 
to  lay  down  by  what  means  He  regulated  His  business.  Christ  alone  is  called 
the  Truth  ;  He  and  He  only  was  free  from  all  error.  ...  It  is  true  that  the 
highest  authority  is  due  to  the  Apostles  and  Evangelists  ;  but  it  may  be  that 
Christ  had  some  secret  purpose  in  allowing  a  human  element  to  reside  even  hi 
them,  as  He  saw  that  this  element  itself  was  conducive  to  the  restitution  of 
mankind.  He  might  have  delivered  His  disciples  from  all  ignorance  and  error, 


46  Vorrede  auf  die  0/enbarung  S.  Johannis,  vol.  Ixiii.  p.  159. 

47  Upon  the  whole  subject  of  Luther's  attitude  towards  the  Bible  see  Schenkel, 
Wesen  des  Protestantismus,  vol.  i.  §  6  ;   Hogenbach,   Textbook  of  tlie  History  of 
Doctrines,  vol.  ii.  §  248. 

4i  See,  e.g.,  JBretschneider,  Luther  an  unsere  Zeit,  ch.  13,  especially  §§  86,  87. 
19  See  Chillingworth,  The  Religion  of  Protestants,  ch.  2. 

3  T  2 


968  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Dec. 

but,  as  Augustine  says  :  '  Peter  fell  away  after  he  had  received  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  his  fall  was  such  as  merited  Paul's  stern  rebuke.  Paul  and  Barnabas 
quarrelled  ;  yet  how  could  they  have  quarrelled  unless  one  or  other  of  them  was 
in  error  ?  But  do  we  really  suppose  that  the  authority  of  all  Scripture  is 
shaken,  if  it  contains  anywhere  the  very  slightest  error  ?  Surely  it  is  probable 
that  in  all  the  manuscripts  upon  which  the  Catholic  Church  now  depends  there 
is  not  one  so  accurate  as  to  be  wholly  and  absolutely  free  from  defects  caused 
either  by  accident  or  by  design.'0 

Similarly,  in  his  Commentary  on  Acts  x.  38,  he  says  : 

It  is  not  in  my  opinion  necessary  to  ascribe  every  characteristic  of  the 
Apostles  at  once  to  a  miracle.  They  were  men — they  were  sometimes  ignorant, 
sometimes  mistaken.  Even  after  receiving  the  Holy  Spirit  Peter  is  rebuked  and 
instructed  by  Paul,  Paul  and  Barnabas  disagree,  and  the  disagreement  goes  so 
far  that  they  part  company.  It  may  well  have  been  more  suitable  to  the  Gospel 
of  Christ  that  it  should  be  published  in  a  simple,  inartistic  style,  and  that  the 
language  of  the  Apostles  should  correspond  with  their  dress,  their  food,  their 
genoral  life,  except  indeed  in  respect  of  their  devotional  spirit ;  for  so  it  would 
be  impossible  for  the  pride  of  human  eloquence  to  arrogate  to  itself  any  part 
in  this  matter."'1 

Melanchthondid  not  occupy  himself  much  with  theories  of  inspira- 
tion ;  there  is  no  clear  estimate  of  them,  I  think,  in  any  one  of  the 
various  editions  of  his  Loci  Theologici.  But  it  is  evident  that  he  held 
no  strict  view  of  apostolical  inspiration,  if  only  from  the  following 
passage  : 

The  Apostles  do  not  err,  that  is  to  say,  in  doctrine,  but  they  do  sometimes 
err  in  the  application  of  doctrine.  .  .  .  Paul  and  Barnabas  disagreed,  but  there 
was  no  error  of  doctrine.  Peter  was  censured  by  Paul ;  there  was  no  error  of 
doctrine,  but  there  was  an  infirmity  or  whatever  it  is  to  be  called  ;  Peter  was 
right  in  his  doctrine  and  sentiment ;  at  the  same  time  there  was  infirmity  in  his 
practice.52 

For  the  difference  between  doctrine  and  the  application  of  doctrine 
is  so  shadowy  that  it  lends  itself  to  almost  any  theory,  however  lax, 
of  the  authority  proper  to  apostolical  utterances.  '  There  is  no  trace  in 
Melanchthon,'  says  Heppe,63 '  of  a  proper  theory  of  inspiration.' 

Zwingli  again  generally  avoids  questions  of  Biblical  criticism.  He 
propounds  no  theory  of  inspiration.  But  in  his  sermon  '  On  the  Clear- 
ness and  Certainty  of  Infallibility  of  the  Word  of  God  ' 54  he  seems  to 

50  Critica  Sacra,  torn.  vi.  p.  61.  51  Ibid.  torn.  vii.  p.  2249. 

52  Postilla,  part  ii.  p.  950  (in  Corpus  Reformatorum,  edit.  Bretschneider). 

53  Die  Dogmatik  dcs  Dcutschen  Protestantismus,  p.  223. 

51  Werke,  i.  pp.  53  sqq.  (edit.  Schuler  &  Schultless,  Ziirich,  1828).     The  following 
passage  may  be   quoted    in   his  own  words  :    '  Nimm  ein  giiten  starken  \vyn  !  dev 
schmeckt  dem  gsunden  wol,  inacht  in  frolich,  starkt  in,  erwarmt  im  alles  bliit ;  der 
aber  an  einer  sucht  oder  fieber  krank  lit  mag  in  nit  schmecken,  will  gschwygen  trinken, 
wunderet  sich  dass  in  die  gsunden  trinken  mogend.     Das  bschicht  nit  us  bresten  des 
wyns  aber  us  bresten  der  krankheit.    Also  ist  das  Gottsamt  ganz  gerecht  an  im  selbs 
und  zu  gvitem  dem  menscben  geoffnet ;   wers  aber  nit  erlyden  mag,  nit  versten,  nit 
annemen  will,  ist  krank.' 


1908  THE   BIBLE   AND    THE    CHURCH  969 

rest  the  divinity  and  authenticity  of  Holy  Scripture  upon  the  moral 
and  spiritual  effects  which  it  produces  in  healthy  souls.  In  fact  he 
takes  inspiration  for  granted  ;  he  observes  and  welcomes  the  effects  of  a 
belief  in  it,  but  he  does  not  trouble  himself  to  inquire  what  it  is  or  in 
what  it  consists. 

There  is  no  need  to  multiply  quotations  as  showing  the  general 
spirit  of  the  Reformers  in  reference  to  the  criticism  of  Holy  Scripture. 
I  will  add  only  a  quotation  from  the  great  publicist  Grotius.  He  says 
with  evident  reference  to  Luther,  '  They  who  rejected  the  Epistle  of 
James,  and  in  some  instances  rejected  it  in  a  controversial  spirit, 
had  reasons  for  so  doing,  but  not  honourable  reasons ;  they  saw  that 
the  Epistle  was  an  obstacle  to  their  theories.'  Then  he  adds  : 

It  is  true,  as  I  said,  that  the  books  contained^  the  Hebrew  Canon  were  not 
all  dictated  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  That  they  were  written  with  a  pious  intention 
(cum  pio  animi  motu)  I  do  not  deny  ;  this  was  the  judgment  of  the  great  Synagogue, 
and  by  that  judgment  the  Hebrews  stand  in  this  matter.  But  there  was  no 
need  that  the  Holy  Spirit  should  dictate  history  ;  it  was  enough  that  the  writer 
should  depend  upon  his  memory  in  regard  to  events  of  which  he  had  been  an  eye- 
witness or  upon  his  accuracy  in  copying  the  historical  records.  It  is  not  clear, 
too,  what  is  meant  by  '  The  Holy  Spirit,'  for  it  may  be  taken  to  mean  either,  as 
I  have  taken  it,  the  Divine  Inspiration  (afflatum)  such  as  was  enjoyed  by  the 
regular  prophets  and  intermittently  by  David  and  Daniel,  or  the  pious  intention, 
or  the  faculty  which  prompted  them  to  utter  salutary  precepts  of  life  or. political 
and  civil  truths,  according  to  the  interpretation  of  '  the  Holy  Spirit '  given  by 
Maimonides  in  his  discussion  of  those  historical  or  moral  writings.  If  St.  Luke's 
writings  had  been  dictated  by  the  Divine  Inspiration  (afflatu)  he  would  sooner 
have  appealed  to  it  for  his  authority,  as  the  prophets  do,  than  to  the  witnesses 
upon  whom  he  relied."  So,  too,  where  he  was  an  eye-witness  of  Paul's  actions  he 
had  no  need  of  inspiration  (afflatu)  to  dictate  them.  Why  is  it,  then,  that  Luke's 
books  are  canonical  ?  It  is  because  the  early  Church  pronounced  them  to  be 
written  in  a  pious  and  faithful  spirit  and  upon  matters  of  the  highest  moment 
to  salvation.iu 

But  to  this  consensus  of  opinion  among  the  Reformers  there  is 
one  notorious  exception.  It  was  not  Luther  but  Calvin  who  incul- 
cated upon  the  Reformed  Churches  a  narrow  and  rigid  theory  of 
inspiration.  What  his  theory  was  the  following  passages  of  his 
Institutio  r'7  may  show  : 

Inasmuch  as  oracles  are  not  given  from  Heaven  every  day,  and  there  are 
extant  only  the  Scriptures  in  which  God  has  been  pleased  to  consecrate  His  truth 
to  continual  remembrance,  their  only  title  to  full  authority  among  the  faithful 
is  that  they  are  believed  to  have  issued  from  Heaven,  and  that  to  listen  to  them 
is,  as  it  were,  to  listen  to  the  actual  living  voice  of  God  Himself. 

Faith  in  the  doctrine  (of  the  Scriptures)  is  not  established  until  we  are  con- 
vinced beyond  the  possibility  of  doubt  that  its  Author  is  God. 

There  are  hi  the  Scriptures  many  visible  signs  that  it  is  God  who  speaks  in 
them,  and  these  signs  prove  that  their  doctrine  is  heavenly. 

64  St.  Luke,  i.  1-4. 

is  Votum  pro  Pace  Ecclesiastica.     De  Canonicis  Scripturis  (Opera   Theologica 
vol.  iv.  p.  672.     Edit.  1732). 

"  Instiiittw  Christiana  Iteligiouis,  lib.  i.  cap.  7  (edit.  1559). 


970  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTUEY  Dee. 

The  witness  to  the  inspiration  of  Holy  Scripture,  according  to 
Calvin,  is  the  Holy  Spirit  in  ourselves. 

Under  the  illumination  of  His  virtue  or  power  we  believe  no  longer  by  our 
own  judgment  alone  or  the  judgment  of  others  that  the  Scripture  is  from  God  ; 
but  we  go  beyond  all  human  judgment  and  determine  with  a  certainty  beyond 
certainty,  even  as  if  we  beheld  in  them  the  Divinity  of  God  Himself,  that  they 
have  descended  to  us  by  the  agency  of  men  from  the  very  lips  of  God. 

Calvin  takes  a  certain  pleasure  in  dwelling  upon  the  literary 
crudeness  or  rudeness  of  the  sacred  writings,  as  though  it  were  the 
will  of  God  that  they  should  derive  their  power,  not  from  the  graces 
of  style,  like  classical  Greek  and  Roman  books,  but  from  the  sublime 
mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  which  they  revealed.58  But  he 
speaks  with  evident  horror  of  the  sceptics  who  would  deny  that  there 
ever  was  such  a  person  as  Moses,  or  that  he  was  the  author  of  the 
books  which  bear  his  name ;  it  would  be  as  reasonable,  he  says,  to 
dispute  the  existence  of  Aristotle  or  Cicero  as  the  existence  of  Moses. 
A  single  quotation  will  show  the  vehemence  of  Calvin's  dogmatism  : 
*  Quid  ergo  aliud  quam  proterviam  suam  plus  quam  caninam  produnt 
isti  blaterones  dum  supposititios  libros  esse  mentiuntur,  quorum 
sacra  vetustas  historiarum  omnium  consensu  approbatur  ? '  Calvin 
may  have  been  the  best  commentator  upon  Holy  Scripture  in  the 
first  generation  of  the  Reformers,  but  he  was  certainly  not  the  best 
critic. 

As  regards  the  inspiration  of  Holy  Scripture  then  there  is  in  general 
such  a  difference  of  attitude  or  temper  between  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  and  the  Churches  of  the  Reformation  as  corresponds  with 
their  several  and  frequently  opposite  principles  ;  and  this  difference, 
so  far  from  lessening,  has  become  deeper  and  wider  in  the  centuries 
since  the  Reformation.  It  could  hardly  have  been  otherwise,  since 
the  discipline  of  thought  has  grown  ever  laxer  without,  and  more 
stringent  within,  the  Church  of  Rome.  The  gain  has  not  been  all  on 
one  side.  Liberty  in  religious  matters  is  always  the  condition  of 
progress,  as  progress  is  of  truth.  But  that  a  Church  should  teach 
with  authority  upon  the  highest  subjects  of  human  interest  would  be 
a  good  thing  if  only  it  could  be  shown  that  the  Church  teaches  what 
is  right  or  at  least  does  not  teach  what  is  wrong.  The  Church  of 
England  possesses  no  such  authoritative  voice  as  the  Church  of  Rome  ; 
it  is  not  from  Bulls  and  Encyclical  Letters,  but  from  the  writings  of 
her  great  divines  that  her  mind  on  matters  of  theology  must  be  learnt ; 
and  in  regard  to  inspiration  these  divines  take  their  stand  decidedly 
and  decisively  with  the  Reformers.  Some 59  among  them  there  may  be 
who  for  themselves  have  held  a  rigid  mechanical  theory  of  inspira- 

i8  Institutio  Christiana  Beligionis,  lib.  i.  cap.  3. 

59  E.g.  apparently  Archbishop  Bramhall,  Sermon  upon  His  Majesty's  Kestoration 
(Works,  vol.  v.  p.  115,  Library  of  Anglo-Catholic  Theology),  and  Bishop  Wilson, 
Sermon  xxv.  ( Works,  vol.  ii.  p.  282,  ibid.) 


1908  THE  BIBLE   AND   THE   CHURCH  971 

tion,  but  even  they  have  not  pretended  that  such  a  theory  was  binding 
upon  Churchmen  or  had  received  the  formal  sanction  of  the  Church  ; 
and  the  greater  number  have  boldly  declared  for  intellectual  and 
spiritual  freedom  in  their  estimate  of  Scriptural  inspiration. 

It  will  be  enough  to  cite  as  witnesses  six  of  the  most  eminent 
apologists  for  Christianity  or  for  the  Church  of  England — Hooker, 
Tillotson,  Berkeley,  Butler,  Horsley,  and  Paley. 

Of  Hooker  I  may  remark  that  his  liberal  attitude  towards  Holy 
Scripture  is  more  easily  inferred  from  his  whole  conception  of  ecclesi- 
astical politics  than  proved  by  particular  passages  of  his  writings. 
But  his  argument  in  the  first  book  of  the  Laws  of  Ecclesiastical  Polity 
for  reason  as  an  authority  correlative  with  Holy  Scripture,  and  in 
the  second  book  against  Holy  Scripture  as  the  sole  sufficient  rule  of 
human  conduct,  is  in  effect  a  plea  for  such  use  of  the  Bible  as  would 
at  once  become  impossible  if  the  Bible  were  held  to  be  mechanically 
inspired.  Two  sentences  of  his  are  especially  luminous  in  this 
regard  : 

Albeit  Scripture  do  profess  to  contain  in  it  all  things  that  are  necessary 
unto  salvation  ;  yet  the  meaning  cannot  be  simply  of  all  things  which  are 
necessary,  but  all  things  which  are  necessary  in  some  certain  kind  or  form  ;  as 
all  things  which  are  known  by  the  light  of  natural  discourse  ;  all  things  which  are 
necessary  to  be  known  that  we  may  be  saved,  but  known  with  presupposal  of 
knowledge  concerning  certain  principles  whereof  it  receiveth  us  already  per- 
suaded, and  then  instructeth  us  in  all  the  residue  that  are  necessary."0 

Again : 

'  Whatsoever  is  spoken  of  God  or  things  appertaining  to  God  otherwise  than 
as  the  truth  is,  though  it  seem  an  honour,  it  is  an  injury.  And  as  incredible 
praises  given  unto  men  do  often  abate  and  impair  the  credit  of  their  deserved 
commendation  ;  so  we  must  likewise  take  great  heed,  lest  in  attributing  unto 
Scripture  more  than  it  can  have,  the  incredibility  of  that  do  cause  even  those 
things  which  indeed  it  hath  most  abundantly  to  be  less  reverently  esteemed.''1 

Archbishop  Tillotson,  after  asserting  the  inspiration  of  '  the  penmen 
of  the  books  of  Scripture,'  alike  of  the  Old  and  of  the  New  Testament, 
goes  on  to  say  :  ';2 

But  if  anyone  enquire  further  how  far  the  penmen  of  Scripture  were  inspired 
in  the  writing  of  those  books,  whether  only  so  far  as  to  be  secured  from  mistake 
in  the  delivering  of  any  message  or  doctrine  from  God,  or  in  the  relation  of  any 
history  or  matter  of  fact,  yet  so  as  they  were  left  every  man  to  his  own  style 
and  manner  of  expression  ;  or  that  everything  they  wrote  was  immediately 
dictated  to  them,  and  that  not  only  the  sense  of  it,  but  the  very  words  and  phrases 
by  which  they  express  things,  and  that  they  were  merely  instruments  or  penmen, 
I  shall  not  take  upon  me  to  determine  ;  I  shall  only  say  this  in  general,  that 
considering  the  end  of  their  inspiration,  which  was  to  inform  the  world  certainly 
of  the  mind  and  will  of  God,  it  is  necessary  for  every  man  to  believe  that  the 
inspired  penmen  of  Scripture  wore  so  far  assisted  as  was  necessary  to  this  end  ; 
and  he  that  thinks  upon  good  ground  that  this  end  cannot  be  secured  unless  every 

»  Book  i.  eh.  14,  p.  1.  "  Book  ii.  ch.  8,  p.  7. 

M  Sermon  clxviii.,  Of  the  Faith  and  Persuasion  of  a  Divine  Revelation. 


972  THE    NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

word  and  syllable  were  immediately  dictated,  he  hath  reason  to  believe  it  was  so  ; 
but  if  any  man  upon  good  grounds  thinks  the  end  of  writing  the  Scripture  may 
be  sufficiently  secured  without  that,  he  hath  no  reason  to  conclude  that  God, 
who  is  not  wanting  in  what  is  necessary,  is  guilty  of  doing  what  is  superfluous. 
And  if  any  man  is  of  opinion  that  he  might  write  the  history  of  those  actions  which 
he  himself  did  or  was  present  at,  without  the  immediate  revelation  of  them, 
or  that  Solomon  by  his  natural  or  acquired  wisdom  might  speak  those  wise 
sayings  which  are  hi  his  Proverbs  ;  or  the  Evangelists  might  write  what  they 
heard  and  saw,  or  what  they  had  good  assurance  of  from  others,  as  St.  Luke 
tells  he  did  ;  or  that  St.  Paul  might  write  for  his  cloak  and  parchments  at  Troas, 
and  salute  by  name  his  friends  and  brethren,  or  that  he  might  advise  Timothy 
to  drink  a  little  wine,  &c.,  without  the  immediate  dictate  of  the  Spirit  of  God, 
he  seems  to  have  reason  on  his  side.  For  that  men  may,  without  an  immediate 
revelation,  write  these  things  which  they  think  without  a  revelation,  seems 
very  plain.  And  that  they  did  so,  there  is  this  probable  argument  for  it,  because 
we  find  that  the  Evangelists  in  relating  the  discourses  of  Christ  are  very  far  from 
agreeing  in  the  particular  expressions  and  words,  though  they  do  agree  in  the 
substance  of  the  discourses  ;  but  if  the  words  had  been  dictated  by  the  Spirit  of 
God,  they  might  have  agreed  in  them.  For  when  St.  Luke  differs  from  St. 
Matthew  in  relating  what  our  Saviour  said,  it  is  impossible  that  they  should 
both  relate  it  right  as  to  the  very  words  and  forms  of  expression  ;  but  they  both 
relate  the  substance  of  what  He  said.  And  if  it  had  been  of  concernment  that 
everything  which  they  wrote  should  be  dictated  to  a  tittle  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
it  is  of  the  same  concernment  still  that  the  providence  of  God  should  have 
secured  the  Scriptures  since  to  a  tittle  from  the  least  alteration  ;  which  that  it  is 
not  done,  appears  by  the  curious  readings  both  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament, 
concerning  which  no  man  can  infallibly  say,  that  this  is  right  and  not  the  other. 
It  seems  sufficient  in  this  matter  to  assert  that  the  Spirit  of  God  did  reveal 
to  the  penmen  of  the  Scriptures  what  was  necessary  to  be  revealed  ;  and  as 
to  all  other  things,  that  he  did  superintend  them  in  the  writing  of  it  so  far  as  to 
secure  them  from  any  material  error  or  mistake  in  what  they  have  delivered. 

Bishop  Berkeley,  in  the  Sixth  Dialogue  of  his  Alciphron  on  the 
Minute  Philosopher,  discusses  with  admirable  wisdom  the  character 
of  Holy  Scripture.  In  it  he  makes  Euphranor  say : r>3 

That  some  few  passages  are  cited  by  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  out 
of  the  Old,  and  by  the  Fathers  out  of  the  New,  which  are  not  in  so  many  words 
to  be  found  in  them,  is  no  new  discovery  of  minute  philosophers,  but  was  known 
and  observed  long  before  by  Christian  writers,  who  have  made  no  scruple  to 
grant  that  some  things  might  have  been  inserted  by  careless  and  mistaken 
translators  into  the  text  from  the  margin,  others  left  out,  and  others  altered  ; 
whence  so  many  various  readings.  But  these  are  things  of  small  moment,  and 
which  all  other  ancient  writers  have  been  subject  to  ;  and  upon  which  no  point 
of  doctrine  depends  which  may  not  be  proved  without  them.  .  .  .  But  to  make 
the  most  of  these  concessions,  what  can  you  infer  from  them,  more  than  that  the 
design  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  was  not  to  make  us  exactly  knowing  in  circum- 
stantials, and  that  the  Spirit  did  not  dictate  every  particle  and  syllable,  or  preserve 
them  from  every  minute  alteration  by  miracle  ?  which  to  believe  would  look 
like  Rabbinical  superstition.  ...  I  never  thought  or  expected  that  the  Holy 
Scripture  should  show  itself  Divine  by  a  circumstantial  accuracy  of  narration, 
by  exactness  of  method,  by  strictly  observing  the  rules  of  rhetoric,  grammar 
and  criticism,  in  harmonious  periods,  in  elegant  and  choice  expressions,  or  in 
technical  definitions  and  partitions.  These  things  would  look  too  like  a  human 

"3  Works,  vol.  ii.  p.  234  (edit.  1871). 


1908  THE  BIBLE  AND   THE   CHURCH  973 

composition.  Methinks  there  is  in  that  simple,  unaffected,  artless,  unequal, 
bold,  figurative  style  of  the  Holy  Scripture  a  character  singularly  great  and 
majestic,  and  that  looks  more  like  Divine  inspiration  than  any  other  composi- 
tion that  I  know. 

Bishop  Butler,  in  the  chapter  of  his  Analogy  ti4  entitled  *  Of  our 
incapacity  of  judging  what  were  to  be  expected  in  a  Revelation ;  and 
the  credibility,  from  analogy,  that  it  must  contain  things  appearing 
liable  to  objection,'  argues  as  follows  : 

As  we  are  in  no  sort  judges  beforehand,  by  what  laws  or  rules,  in  what  de- 
gree, or  by  what  means,  it  were  to  have  been  expected  that  God  would  naturally 
instruct  us  ;  so  upon  the  supposition  of  His  affording  us  light  and  instruction  by 
revelation,  additional  to  what  He  has  afforded  us  by  reason  and  experience,  we 
are  in  no  sort  judges,  by  what  methods  and  in  what  proportion  it  were  to  be 
expected  that  this  supernatural  light  and  instruction  would  be  afforded  us.  ... 

In  like  manner  we  are  wholly  ignorant  what  degree  of  new  knowledge  it 
were  to  be  expected  God  would  give  mankind  by  revelation,  upon  supposition  of 
His  affording  one,  or  how  far,  or  in  what  way,  He  would  interpose  miraculously, 
to  qualify  them,  to  whom  He  should  originally  make  the  revelation,  for  com- 
municating the  knowledge  given  by  it  and  to  secure  their  doing  it  to  the  age 
in  which  they  should  live,  and  to  secure  its  being  transmitted  to  posterity.  .  . 
Thus  we  see  that  the  only  question  concerning  the  truth  of  Christianity  is  whether 
it  be  a  real  revelation,  not  whether  it  be  attended  with  every  circumstance 
which  we  should  hare  looked  for  ;  and  concerning  the  authority  of  Scripture, 
whether  it  be  what  it  claims  to  be,  not  whether  it  be  a  book  of  such  sort  and  so 
promulged  as  weak  men  are  apt  to  fancy  a  book  containing  a  divine  revelation 
should.  And  therefore,  neither  obscurity,  nor  seeming  inaccuracy  of  style, 
nor  various  readings,  nor  early  disputes  about  the  authors  of  particular  parts, 
nor  any  other  things  of  the  like  kind,  though  they  had  been  much  more  con- 
siderable in  degree  than  they  are,  could  overthrow  the  authority  of  the  Scripture, 
unless  the  Prophets,  Apostles,  or  our  Lord  had  promised  that  the  book  containing 
the  divine  revelation  should  be  secure  from  those  things. 

Bishop  Horsley,  whose  celebrated  controversy  with  Dr.  Priestley 
lends  to  his  words  a  peculiar  weight,  says  :  !i5 

It  is  most  certain,  that  a  Divine  revelation  if  any  be  extant  in  the  world  .  .  . 
must  be  perfectly  free  from  all  mixture  of  human  ignorance  and  error  in  the 
particular  subject  in  which  the  discovery  is  made.  ...  In  whatever  relates 
therefore  to  religion,  either  in  theory  or  practice,  the  knowledge  of  the  sacred 
writers  was  infallible,  as  far  as  it  extended,  or  their  inspiration  had  been  a  mere 
pretence.  .  .  .  But  in  other  subjects  not  immediately  connected  with  theology 
or  morals,  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  their  minds  were  equally  enlightened, 
or  that  they  are  even  preserved  from  gross  errors.  .  .  .  Want  of  information  and 
error  of  opinion  in  the  profane  sciences  may,  for  anything  that  appears  to  the 
contrary,  be  perfectly  consistent  with  the  plenary  inspiration  of  a  religious 
teacher,  since  it  is  not  all  knowledge,  but  religious  knowledge  only,  that  such  a 
teacher  is  sent  to  propagate  and  improve.  In  subjects  unconnected  therefore 
with  religion,  no  implicit  regard  is  due  to  the  opinion  which  an  inspired  writer 
may  seem  to  have  entertained*  in  preference  to  the  clear  evidence  of  experi- 
ment and  observation,  or  to  the  necessary  deduction  of  scientific  reasoning 
from  first  principles  intuitively  perceived.  Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the 

•«  Part  ii.  oh.  3. 

05  Sermon  xxxix.— a  permon  preached,  curiously  enough,  for  the  Humane  Society. 

\ 


974  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Dec. 

authority  of  the  inspired  teacher  lessened,  in  his  proper  province,  by  any 
symptoms  that  may  appear  in  his  writings  or  error  or  imperfect  information 
upon  other  subjects. 

Bishop  Horsley's  strong  advocacy  of  freedom  in  judging  the  Holy 
Scriptures  cannot  fairly  be  said  to  be  compromised  by  the  personal 
sentiment  which  induces  him  to  add  : 

Though  I  admit  the  possibility  of  an  inspired  teacher's  error  of  opinion  in 
subjects  that  he  is  not  sent  to  teach  (because  inspiration  is  not  omniscience,  and 
some  things  there  must  be  which  it  will  leave  untaught) — though  I  stand  in  this 
point  for  my  own  and  every  man's  liberty,  and  protest  against  any  obligation 
on  the  believer's  conscience  to  assent  to  a  philosophical  opinion  incidentally 
expressed  by  Moses,  by  David,  or  by  St.  Paul,  upon  the  authority  of  their 
infallibility  in  divine  knowledge — though  I  think  it  highly  for  the  honour  and 
the  interest  of  religion  that  this  liberty  of  philosophising,  except  upon  religious 
subjects,  should  be  openly  asserted  and  most  pertinaciously  maintained — yet 
I  confess  it  appears  to  me  no  very  probable  supposition  .  .  .  that  an  inspired 
writer  should  be  permitted  in  his  religious  discourses  to  affirm  a  false  proposition  in 
any  subject  or  in  any  history  to  misrepresent  a  fact,  so  that  I  would  not  easily, 
nor  indeed  without  the  conviction  of  the  most  cogent  proof,  embrace  any  notion 
or  philosophy,  nor  attend  to  any  historical  relation,  which  should  be  evidently 
and  in  itself  repugnant  to  an  explicit  assertion  of  any  of  the  sacred  writers. 

Paley,  discussing  the  connexion  of  Christianity  with  Jewish 
history,  says  : 

In  reading  the  apostolic  writings  we  distinguish  between  their  doctrines  and 
their  arguments.  Their  doctrines  came  to  them  by  revelation  properly  so 
called,  yet  in  propounding  those  doctrines  in  their  writings  or  discourses  they 
were  wont  to  illustrate,  support  and  enforce  them  by  such  analyses,  arguments 
and  considerations  as  their  own  thoughts  suggested." " 

And,  again  : 

Undoubtedly  our  Saviour  assumes  the  divine  origin  of  the  Mosaic  institution. 
.  .  .  Undoubtedly  also  our  Saviour  recognises  the  prophetic  character  of  many 
of  their  ancient  writers.  So  far,  therefore,  we  are  bound  as  Christians  to  go. 
But  to  make  Christianity  answerable  with  its  life  for  the  circumstantial  truth 
of  each  separate  passage  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  genuineness  of  every  book, 
the  information,  fidelity,  and  judgment  of  every  writer  in  it,  is  to  bring,  I  will 
not  say  great,  but  unnecessary  difficulties  into  the  whole  system.  These  books 
were  universally  read  and  received  by  the  Jews  of  our  Saviour's  time.  He 
and  His  Apostles,  in  common  with  all  other  Jews,  referred  to  them,  alluded  to 
them,  used  them.  Yet,  except  where  He  expressly  ascribes  a  divine  authority 
to  particular  predictions,  I  do  not  know  that  we  can  strictly  draw  any  con- 
struction from  the  books  being  so  used  and  applied,  beside  the  proof,  which  it 
unquestionably  is,  of  their  notoriety  and  reception  at  that  time."7 

And,  again  : 

I  have  thought  it  necessary  to  state  this  point  explicitly,  because  a  fashion 
revived  by  Voltaire,  and  pursued  by  the  disciples  of  his  School,  seems  to  have 
much  prevailed  of  late,  of  attacking  Christianity  through  the  side  of  Judaism. 
Some  objections  of  this  class  are  founded  on  misconstruction,  some  on  exag- 

66  Evidences  of  Christianity,  Part  III.  ch.  2.  "7  Ibid.  Part  III.  ch  3. 


1908  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CHURCH  975 

geration  ;  but  all  proceed  upon  a  supposition,  which  has  not  been  made  out  by 
argument,  viz.  that  the  attestation,  which  the  Author  and  first  teachers  of 
Christianity  gave  to  the  divine  mission  of  Moses  and  the  prophets,  extends  to 
every  point  and  portion  of  the  Jewish  history  ;  and  so  extends  as  to  make 
Christianity  responsible  in  its  own  credibility  for  the  circumstantial  truth  (I  had 
almost  said  for  the  critical  exactness)  of  every  narrative  contained  in  the  Old 
Testament. 

Such  are  the  facts,  and  it  is  impossible  to  dwell  upon  them  or  to 
think  of  them  at  all  without  a  feeling  of  devout  thankfulness  that, 
while  so  many  truths  and  theories  of  truths  have  been  defined  in 
Christian  history,  there  is  not,  nor  has  ever  been,  an  authoritative 
definition  of  inspiration.  Nowhere,  as  it  seems,  might  the  Church 
have  fallen  more  easily  into  error  ;  nowhere  has  she  been  more  happily 
saved  from  falling.  Upon  one  who  holds  as  I  do  that  not  a  little  of 
the  higher  Biblical  criticism  of  the  present  day  is  so  arbitrary  and  pre- 
carious as  to  be  in  grave  danger  of  incurring  the  scholarly  contempt  of 
after-ages,  it  seems  to  rest  as  a  special  obligation  that  he  should  profess 
his  complete  allegiance  to  the  principle  of  free,  unbiassed  research 
in  the  study  of  the  Bible.  Ecclesiastical  history  is  often  a  warning 
against  definitions.  For  there  are  truths  which  are  best  understood 
when  least  formulated  ;  they  cannot  flourish  or  live  within  barriers. 
But  inspiration  is  not  defined  in  any  decree  of  any  (Ecumenical  Council 
or  in  any  article  or  formulary  of  the  Church  of  England.  Now  and 
again  there  has  been  an  attempt  made  to  define  it,  but  without  the 
sanction  of  antiquity  or  catholicity,  in  some  confession  or  catechism 
of  some  of  the  Reformed  Churches.  And  if  it  seems  to  be  defined 
in  the  Church  of  Rome  by  the  Encyclical  Letter  Providentissimus 
Deus,  the  definition  is  recent  and  unscholaiiy,  and  it  places  the  Church 
of  Rome  on  a  lower  level  than  the  Reformed  Churches  in  respect  to  the 
scientific  criticism  of  the  Bible.  That  the  Church  should  for  so  many 
centuries  have  uniformly  exhibited  such  reticence  upon  a  grave  issue, 
where  it  was  so  natural  a  temptation  to  define  what  was  universally 
regarded  as  a  vital  matter,  cannot  but  seem  to  Christian  minds  an 
instance  of  the  Divine  Providence  guarding  the  corporate  life  and 
energy  and  faith  of  Christendom.  For,  whatever  may  be  the  con- 
clusions of  honest,  reverent  scholarship  as  to  the  fact  or  the  nature 
of  inspiration,  they  cannot  in  themselves  be  justly  assailed  as  being 
either  un-Christian  or  anti-Catholic. 

J.  E.  C.  WELLDON. 


976  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  i)ec. 


SANE    TEMPERANCE    LEGISLATION 
IN  ROUMANIA 


THE  Koumanian  Government  has  recently  introduced  laws  endeavour- 
ing to  abate  the  growth  of  alcoholism  throughout  the  country,  which 
cannot  but  be  interesting  to  this  country  in  view  of  the  licensing 
legislation  lately  discussed  at  Westminster. 

It  may  be  said  at  once  that,  although  the  Roumanian  Government 
has  not  hesitated  to  take  the  most  extreme  measures  against  the 
public-house  keepers  in  the  country  districts,  including  summary 
closing  within  a  period  of  a  few  months,  it  was  never  actuated  by 
rabid  temperance  motives,  nor  did  it  seek  by  its  legislation  to  prevent 
altogether  the  drinking  of  alcohol.  In  fact,  it  was  clearly  recognised 
that  whether  there  were  prohibition  or  not  there  would  still  be 
drinking,  and  the  object  of  the  Roumanian  legislation  was  therefore 
directed  more  towards  the  encouragement  of  the  drinking  of 
beverages  with  a  lesser  percentage  of  alcohol  and  the  instituting  of 
regulations  against  drunkenness.  To  quote  the  words  of  the  Minister 
of  Finance,  when  the  wine-growers  reproached  him  for  destroying 
their  livelihood  by  his  law  :  '  As  far  as  the  viticulturists  are  concerned 
there  has  never  been  a  law  conceived  which  is  more  favourable  to 
them.  Its  object  is  not  the  suppression  of  the  drinking  of  spirituous 
beverages,  but  the  regulation  of  the  drinking  so  as  to  make  alcoholism 
disappear.' 

It  would  be  a  great  benefit  to  the  country  if  each  Roumanian 
were  able  to  drink  a  little  tzouica  (plum  brandy)  and  a  glass  of  wine 
at  each  meal,  instead  of  only  drinking  water  during  the  week  and 
becoming  drunk  on  Sunday  by  drinking  all  sorts  of  strong  drinks. 
Recognising  that  limiting  the  number  of  public-houses  does  not  in 
any  way  mean  limiting  the  amount  of  drink  consumed,  the  Roumanian 
Minister  of  Finance  wisely  decided  to  remove  as  many  as  possible  of 
the  evil  consequences  of  drink,  and  by  education  and  encouragement 
to  promote  that  side  of  the  sale  of  alcohol  which  might  even  be 
beneficial  to  the  population,  instead  of  gradually  bringing  Roumania 
under  the  sway  of  alcoholism. 


1908        SANE   TEMPERANCE   IN  ROVMANIA          977 

Prohibition  in  America  had  shown  that  the  legal  decision  that 
it  should  be  impossible  to  obtain  alcohol  stimulated  rather  than 
discouraged  the  craving  for  drink.  It  must  be  remembered,  however, 
that  in  encouraging  the  drinking  of  wine  and  beer  in  Roumania,  the 
law  encourages  as  a  beverage  a  wine  which  is  much  less  potent  than 
those  of  Italy,  Spain,  or  Portugal,  the  Roumanian  wine  containing 
from  6  to  8  per  cent,  of  alcohol  as  compared  with  15  or  20  per  cent, 
in  other  countries.  The  law  visits  with  severe  punishments  all  public- 
houses  which  do  not  sell  wine  and  beer  but  confine  themselves  to 
tzouica  and  other  strong  spirits.  There  is  no  regulation  limiting 
the  number  of  public-houses  which  deal  only  in  wine  and  beer 
and  do  nob  sell  strong  spirits.  The  only  regulation  restricting  free- 
dom of  sale  of  wine  is  that  imposing  heavy  penalties  upon  the  sale 
and  especially  upon  the  manufacture  of  artificial  wine.  While  the 
law  is  essentially  a  law  against  the  spread  of  alcoholism,  it  works  out 
in  practice  as  a  measure  to  encourage  the  replacing  of  brandy  by 
wine  as  a  beverage.  A  close  study  of  the  question  of  limitation  of 
licences  in  all  countries  convinced  the  Roumanian  Government  that 
while  such  limitation  alone  does  not  limit  the  amount  of  drink 
consumed,  it  does  undoubtedly  render  more  easy  the  supervision 
and  enforcement  of  the  regulations  both  against  alcoholism  and 
drunkenness. 

It  must  not  be  imagined,  however,  that  Roumania  is  a  drunken 
country.  What  the  Government  has  decided  to  do  is  to  prevent 
such  a  state  of  things  coming  to  pass  by  taking  measures  betimes 
to  limit  and  control  the  worst  elements  of  the  sale  of  alcohol.  It 
may  even  be  affirmed  that  Roumania  is  one  of  the  European  countries 
where  alcoholism  is  the  least  widely  spread.  It  was  felt  to  be 
urgently  necessary  to  take  such  measures  as  would  prevent  it  increas- 
ing unduly,  and  to  ensure  that  the  drinking  of  alcoholic  beverages 
should  only  serve  to  strengthen  the  worker  when  engaged  in  the 
hardest  tasks,  instead  of  brutalising  him  and  rendering  him  incapable 
of  work  during  one  or  two  days  each  week.  The  Roumanian  popula- 
tion is,  if  anything,  too  temperate  in  eating  and  is  not  unduly  addicted 
to  drinking ;  but  there  exist  certain  regions  in  which  brandy  has  already 
produced  deplorable  results,  and  where  the  effects  of  alcoholism 
are  already  to  be  observed.  This  is  sufficient  proof  that  if  the  future 
generations  are  not  to  bear  the  curse  of  alcoholism,  steps  must  be 
taken  to  limit  its  force.  In  order  that  the  impression  may  not  be 
spread  in  foreign  countries  that  the  enactment  of  such  law  indicates 
a  too  rapid  development  of  alcoholism  in  Roumania,  it  is  interesting 
to  glance  at  the  statistics  of  the  Swedish  expert,  Sundbarg.  The 
consumption  of  alcohol,  in  its  different  forms  as  wine,  beer,  brandy, 
has  been  calculated  by  the  Swedish  statistician  in  its  equivalent  of 
absolute  alcohol  : 


978  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

Ill  Pints    •  In  Pints 

In  France     '.'"  '/•    .       .  '    .  27-77  In  Servia 14-80 

Belgium  .  "Vj    ':  ""J  V'  %.  22-01  „  England  .       .     ''.  *'*.       .  14-29 

Spain       .  .     ' '.<'•""  .  .  21-08  „  Austria-Hungary    .       .       .  13-98 

.Denmark.  ...  .  19-02  „  Holland    .       .      ,vu   -*P     .  11-02 

,  Switzerland  ....  .  18-77  „  Russia  ..,,,    . .  ,.      ..,„.,,    .••  9-11 

,  Italy        .  .       .       .  .  18-02   !    „  Sweden     .       ..«    /      -    , '.  7-75 

.,  Portugal  .  .       .       .  .  17-67  „  Norway    .       .    '    . '  ' '  .'     ".  4-65 

„  Germany  ....  17-93  „  Finland    .      ''-.* "" ".'   "'  .r'J  V  3-20 

The  figures  given  for  Roumania  show  17'04  pints  of  absolute  alcohol 
per  head,  but  this  quantity  is  obviously  incorrect,  owing,  in  the 
first  place,  to  the  impossibility  of  obtaining  exact  statistics  of 
the  Roumanian  population,  and,  in  the  second  place,  because  the 
percentage  of  alcohol  in  wine  and  brandy  has  been  regarded  as  the 
same  as  in  other  European  countries,  whereas  it  is  very  considerably 
less — Roumanian  wine  containing  8  per  cent,  as  against  10  per  cent, 
of  absolute  alcohol  in  ordinary  wine,  and  tzouica  containing  20  per  cent, 
of  absolute  alcohol  instead  of  50  per  cent,  elsewhere.  The  Roumanian 
State,  however,  is  in  a  position  to  control  absolutely  the  figures  as  to 
population  and  as  to  the  quantity  of  alcohol  sold  in  the  country, 
and  its  constituents.  For  the  last  three  years  the  total  amount  of 
absolute  alcohol  consumed  was  5,873,720  gallons,  which,  divided 
amongst  a  population  of  6,700,000,  gives  an  annual  consumption  of 
7'04  pints  per  inhabitant,  which  is  approximately  the  average  con- 
sumption in  Sweden. 

It  must  not,  however,  be  imagined  that  drunkenness  is  more 
prevalent  in  a  country  where  the  consumption  of  alcohol  per  head 
during  a  year  is  high,  than  in  a  country  such  as  Sweden  or  Roumania, 
where  a  comparatively  small  amount  is  consumed  each  year.  In  a 
prosperous  country  a  greater  quantity  of  alcohol  may  be  consumed 
without  producing  so  much  drunkenness  as  would  be  the  case  with 
a  smaller  consumption  in  a  poor  country.  For  instance,  in  France 
the  consumption  per  head  is  nearly  twenty-eight  pints,  whereas  in 
Russia  the  consumption  is  nine  pints.  This  would  seem  to  prove 
that  drunkenness  should  be  three  times  as  bad  in  France  as  in  Russia. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  the  opposite  is  the  case.  The  French  workman, 
who  earns  much  and  who  is  accustomed  to  live  well,  takes  a  small 
quantity  of  brandy  and  wine,  or  two  glasses  of  wine,  at  each  meal 
without  it  affecting  him.  The  Russian,  like  the  Roumanian  workman, 
works  six  days  each  week,  only  drinking  water  with  his  meals,  but  on 
a  Sunday  he  drinks  at  a  sitting  as  much  as  the  French  workman  in 
two  or  three  days.  Not  only  that,  but  he  drinks  without  eating  at 
the  same  time,  and  becoming  drunk,  remains  unfit  for  work  for  two 
days,  and  then  resumes  his  regime  of  water.  It  is  evident  that  a  man 
who  is  working  may  drink  a  litre  of  wine  at  his  three  meals  without 
ever  being  drunk,  and  this  with  impunity,  besides  his  seven  litres 
of  wine  a  week.  On  the  other  hand,  a  man  who  would  drink  on 


1908        SANE   TEMPERANCE  IN  ftOUMANIA  979 

Sunday  at  a  sitting  two  litres  of  wine  or  their  equivalent  in  brandy, 
or  both,  would  inevitably  become  drunk,  although  his  weekly  total 
of  alcohol  is  only  a  third  of  that  of  the  other  man.  It  must  also  not 
be  imagined  that  because  the  amount  of  alcohol  consumed  per  head 
in  Roumania  in  statistics  is  the  same  as  in  Sweden  there  is  the 
same  amount  of  drunkenness.  Sweden,  although  not  a  rich  country, 
is  more  developed  in  civilisation,  and,  although  it  is  not  long  ago  that 
drunkenness  was  regarded  as  a  national  curse,  the  temperance  societies 
and  wise  laws  have  worked  such  a  miracle  that  to-day  the  Scandinavian 
population  is  considered  rightly  as  the  most  sober  in  Europe  as  far 
as  regards  drink.  The  absence  of  prosperity  in  the  Roumanian 
country  communes  and  the  lack  of  intelligently  methodical  drinking 
bring  about  a  greater  extent  of  drunkenness  than  in  Sweden.  In 
passing,  it  may  be  mentioned  also  that  absolute  statistics,  such  as  those 
given  by  Sundbarg  are  purely  theoretical,  depending  upon  the  social 
conditions  in  the  country.  Thus,  in  a  country  where  the  population 
increases  enormously,  as  in  Roumania  with  its  additional  100,000 
persons  yearly,  a  greater  proportion  of  the  population  is  composed 
of  children  who  do  not  drink  ;  and  thus  it  may  be  reckoned  that  in 
Roumania  one  person  in  every  four  drinks  alcohol,  while  in  France 
the  proportion  is  one  in  two.  This  is  another  reason  why  France 
figures  with  such  a  large  consumption  of  wine  per  head.  The 
Roumanian  Government  is  prepared  to  witness  with  equanimity  an 
increase  of  the  total  amount  of  alcohol  consumed,  since  this  would 
prove  an  increase  of  prosperity ;  and  if  the  increase  were  accompanied 
by  more  sane  and  methodical  habits  of  drinking,  would  consider  that, 
instead  of  becoming  a  curse,  the  drinking  of  alcohol  might  become  a 
benefit  to  the  population  at  large. 

The  two  principal  reasons  given  by  the  Roumanian  Government 
for  the  introduction  of  this  law  are  set  forth  in  the  following  statement 
of  the  Minister  of  Finance : 

The  repression  of  drunkenness  by  the  regulation  of  the  conditions  under  which 
the  public-houses  may  be  held,  making  the  tenant  dependent  upon  the  authori- 
ties, instituting  a  wide  and  continual  supervision  of  a  special  character  over  this 
trade,  and  by  enacting  punishments  of  immediate  application  both  against  the 
public-house  keeper  who  encourages  too  heavy  drinking  and  against  the  con- 
sumer who  becomes  drunk.  Being  unable  seriously  to  admit  that  the  repression 
of  drunkenness  can  be  reached  while  continuing  the  liberty  of  trade  in  spirituous 
drinks,  the  idea  of  its  monopolisation  followed  naturally.  But  it  is  not  for  the 
profit  of  the  State  that  we  found  this  monopoly  ;  it  is  for  the  profit  of  the  rural 
communes,  with  a  view  to  afford  them  new  means  for  material  and  moral  progress, 
of  which  means  they  have  so  urgent  a  need  at  present. 

One  objection  which  they  raised  against  this  law  was  that  the 
Roumanian  Government  would  have  arrived  at  the  same  result  had 
stricter  police  measures  been  enacted  against  the  public-houses  and 
against  drunkenness  such,  as  exist  in  France  and  England.  The 
Government,  however,  did  not  hesitate  to  regard  this  objection  as 


980  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Dec. 

coming  from  those  whose  interest  was  all  in  the  extended  development 
of  alcoholism.  These  persons  knew  well  that  even  -the  existing 
police  regulations  remained  too  frequently  unavailing  as  long  as 
they  remained  the  masters  of  the  public-houses  and  of  the  sale  of 
strong  drink.  Even  in  countries  where  the  police  are  more  efficiently 
organised  than  in  Roumania  the  results  prove  that  laws  and  regula- 
tions against  excessive  drinking  are  of  little  avail.  In  France,  for 
instance,  where  there  are  435,000  public-houses,  there  exist  count- 
less laws  and  regulations  against  drunkenness.  These,  however,  are 
powerless  against  the  influence  of  the  public-house  keepers.  In 
France  there  are  pronounced  each  year  from  65,000  to  98,000  sentences 
against  drunkenness,  but  the  public-house  continues  perfectly  freely 
to  manufacture  for  the  courts  the  annual  contingent  of  criminals. 
In  England  also,  where  there  are  156,000  public-house  keepers,  and 
where  there  are  more  than  250,000  sentences  against  drunkenness 
each  year,  the  drink  evil  does  not  show  any  signs  of  diminishing. 

Indeed,  so  far  from  the  example  of  England  and  France  encouraging 
Roumania  to  adopt  the  measures  existing  in  those  countries,  it  has 
rather  inspired  the  Roumanian  Government  with  a  very  wholesome 
fear  that,  unless  measures  be  taken  at  once,  Roumania  may  fall  as 
effectually  into  the  hands  of  the  public-house  keepers  and  brewers 
as  have  two  great  civilised  countries  of  the  west.  In  France  it  is  no 
exaggeration  to  call  the  public-house  keeper  the  Grand  Elector ;  and 
Dr.  Bertillon  was  right  when  he  wrote,  '  Electoral  reasons  much 
more  than  fiscal  are  leading  the  French  people  to  brutalisation  by 
alcohol.'  In  England  the  Roumanians  saw  whither  Free  Trading, 
applied  to  the  public-house,  would  lead  a  country.  They  saw  that 
the  public-house  keepers  and  the  manufacturers  of  beer  and  alcohol, 
representing  a  capital  of  about  200,000,OOOZ.,  aspired  to  direct  the 
policy  of  the  nation  to  suit  their  own  ends.  The  Roumanian  Minister 
of  Finance  thus  summed  up  the  English  situation  : 

By  their  great  number,  and  by  the  enormous  capital  which  they  possess,  they 
defy  both  public  morality  and  the  noble  efforts  of  the  temperance  societies. 
Their  ends  are  vice  and  the  alcoholisation  more  and  more  undisputed  of  the 
nation.  This  is  where  England  has  come  with  freedom  in  the  drink  trade. 
We  Roumanians  are  not  yet  there,  but  we  must  admit  frankly  that  the  last 
moment  has  come  in  which  it  is  possible  to  take  such  measures  to  prevent  us 
from  arriving  at  that  deplorable  state. 

The  Minister  also  recalled  the  words  of  Lord  Rosebery  in  1895, 
when  he  said  :  - 

I  am  not  a  fanatic  on  the  subject  of  temperance,  but  I  say  that  the  free 
condition  of  our  dealings  in  alcoholic  drinks  is  a  serious  danger,  and  for  two 
reasons  :  first,  because  the  consumption  of  alcohol  is  too  high  ;  and  secondly, 
because  this  trade  acquires  too  great  power  in  the  State.  If  the  State  does  not 
hasten  to  become  the  master  of  the  drink  trade,  it  is  the  drink  trade  which  will 
become  the  master  of  the  State. 


1908        SANE   TEMPEEANCE  IN  BOUMAN1A  981 

It  was  because  the  Roumanian  Government  became  convinced 
that  as  long  as  the  trade  in  drink  remained  free  every  effort 
would  be  useless,  as  the  public-house  keeper  would  dispose  of  both 
money  and  drink,  the  most  powerful  means  of  stifling  all  attack, 
that  it  determined  to  boldly  take  those  measures  which  would  prevent 
the  drink  trade  from  becoming  the  master  of  the  country. 

The  Roumanian  Government  decided  to  confine  the  application 
of  the  monopoly  law  to  the  public-houses  in  the  rural  districts,  and 
by  placing  them  under  the  most  stringent  control  of  the  State  officers 
to  defend  the  country  sufficiently  from  the  evils  of  alcoholism.  The 
answer  to  those  who  wondered  that  the  public-houses  of  the  towns 
were  not  also  included  in  the  working  of  this  law,  lies  in  the  fact 
that  the  great  majority  of  the  population  of  Roumania  live  by  agri- 
culture, and  are  therefore  to  be  found  in  the  country  districts.  The 
9268  villages  of  Roumania  are  peopled  by  1,073,930  Roumanian 
families,  which,  with  an  average  of  five  members  to  each  family,  gives 
a  total  of  5,370,000  souls.  The  population  of  the  towns  only  amounts 
to  about  1,330,000  persons,  or  one-fifth  of  the  whole  population,  and  in 
the  towns  there  is  a  very  considerable  proportion  of  foreigners.  To-day 
there  exist  7000  public-houses  in  all  the  towns  of  Roumania,  and 
measures  will  be  taken  that  this  number  shall  not  increase,  but  on 
the  contrary  shall  automatically  diminish  as  the  existing  public- 
houses  are  closed  for  one  reason  or  another.  It  is  foreseen  that  within 
a  comparatively  short  time  the  number  will  be  so  much  reduced 
as  no  longer  to  constitute  a  political  or  social  danger.  In  the  country 
districts,  however,  the  possibility  of  adequate  police  supervision  is 
enormously  increased  with  a  decreased  number  of  public-houses, 
and  owing  to  the  many  attendant  evils  combined  with  the  sale  of 
drink  in  the  country,  and  taking  into  consideration  the  fact  that 
the  country  population  is  less  highly  educated  than  that  of  the  towns, 
it  is  of  the  first  importance  to  rescue  the  peasants  from  this  danger. 
The  following  description  given  by  Mr.  Bertillon  of  the  Russian  rural 
public-house  keeper  describes  very  accurately  the  same  individual 
in  Roumania : 

The  public -house  keeper  is  a  scourge,  he  is  an  infamous  usurer  lending  upon 
every  article  belonging  to  the  peasants,  on  his  house,  on  his  cattle,  on  his  clothing, 
including  even  those  actually  being  worn.  Naturally  all  these  objects  have  to 
be  redeemed  at  ridiculous  prices.  The  peasant,  finding  himself  most  frequently 
quite  beyond  the  possibility  of  paying  back  the  amount  advanced  when  it  falls 
due,  is  totally  ruined,  together  with  his  family.  Even  after  this  the  money- 
lender public -house  keeper  finds  the  means  of  exploiting  him  and  of  brutalising 
him :  he  will  sell  him  alcohol  on  credit,  to  be  paid  for  by  a  certain  amount  of 
work  to  be  done  at  a  future  date.  He  speculates  upon  this  imprudent  under- 
taking and  sells  it  to  the  landed  proprietora. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  agrarian  risings  of  1907  were 
largely  caused  by  the  exactions  of  these  publican  usurers,  who  worked 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  382  3  U 


982  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTUEY  Dec. 

hand  in  hand  with  the  land  trusts.  It  was,  in  fact,  these  agrarian 
risings  which  demonstrated  clearly  to  the  Government  the  immediate 
necessity  of  taking  steps  to  improve  the  situation.  There  were  many 
examples  before  the  Roumanian  Government,  but  many  of  these 
were  unacceptable  owing  to  the  fact  that  they  placed  as  the  first 
reason  for  repressive  action  a  moral  object  that  was  the  defence  of 
the  nation  against  moral  and  physical  decay,  brought  about  by  the 
abuse  of  alcoholic  drinks.  Any  possible  fiscal  side  which  the  reform 
might  entail  was  given  a  very  secondary  place,  and  in  fact  the 
State  relinquishes  all  profit  in  favour  of  the  rural  districts.  It  was 
finally  decided  that  the  moral  object  desired  could  not  be  obtained, 
and  had  never  been  obtained  elsewhere,  save  by  means  of  the 
monopolisation  of  the  retail  sale — that  is  to  say,  by  means  of  the 
monopolisation  of  public-houses.  This  is  the  system  adopted  in 
Norway  and  Sweden  and  in  Finland  with  the  most  excellent,  results. 
This  decision  does  not  in  any  way  prevent  the  Roumanian  Govern- 
ment from  also  taking  adequate  precautions  for  the  rectification  of 
all  alcohol  produced.  Such  rectification  ensures  that  the  drinking 
of  alcohol  is  attended  with  less  evil  results,  and  it  is  interesting  to 
remark  that  the  purer  the  alcohol  the  less  pleasant  the  taste  to  the 
consumer.  All  manufacture  of  alcohol  from  grain  and  from  potatoes 
is  prohibited  unless  such  alcohol  be  rectified  :  only  such  distilleries 
are  allowed  to  work  which  possess  the  most  perfect  apparatus  for 
distillation  and  rectification  and  are  provided  with  a  Government 
tell-tale  through  which  every  drop  of  alcohol  must  pass.  This  control 
also  permits  of  very  adequate  taxation,  and  actually  the  revenues* 
from  this  source  are  500,OOOZ.  The  monopolisation  of  the  manufacture 
of  alcohol  could  have  no  financial  interest  save  an  adverse  one  after 
the  action  of  the  monopolisation  of  the  public-houses,  since  the  diminu- 
tion of  drinking  must  necessarily  be  in  direct  opposition  to  the  financial 
interests  of  the  producer. 

In  Russia,  in  order  to  combat  alcoholism,  recourse  was  had  also 
to  the  monopolisation  of  retail  sale,  but  in  quite  another  way.  In 
Russia  the  State  neither  manufactures  nor  rectifies  alcohol,  nor 
does  it  sell  wholesale.  The  Government  simply  suppressed  the  public- 
house  without  any  consideration  for  the  public-house  keeper,  and 
opened  in  its  place  a  certain  number  of  shops.  A  State  employe 
without  any  interest  in  the  sale  sells  the  alcohol  in  bottles  of  the 
monopoly.  Anybody  can  buy  alcohol  in  these  shops  in  any  quantity 
and  take  it  anywhere  he  wishes.  The  Russian  idea  was  that  the  public- 
houses  with  the  system  of  mutual  trading  encouraged  drinking,  and 
that  if  these  meeting-places  were  suppressed  there  would  be  less 
temptation  to  the  population  to  drink.  This  proved  a  mistaken  idea, 
since  the  peasants  simply  appointed  certain  houses  in  each  village 
as  impromptu  public-houses  where  they  meet  and  drink  without 
any  control  whatever.  The  only  benefit  from  the  Russian  system 


1908        SANE   TEMPERANCE  IN  ROUMANTA  988 

is  that  the  alcohol  is  rectified,  and  that  the  results  of  drinking  it  are 
therefore  less  harmful.  It  is  very  interesting  to  note  that  the  Russian 
province  where  the  consumption  of  alcohol  shows  the  greatest  de- 
crease since  the  institution  of  the  Russian  monopoly  is  in  Bessarabia, 
which  is  peopled  by  Roumanians.  In  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Finland, 
a  monopoly  of  the  retail  sale  was  instituted,  but  at  the  same  time 
the  public-houses  were  preserved  without  any  reduced  number. 
These  public-houses  were  made  cleaner  and  more  comfortable,  so 
that  the  clients  preferred  to  drink  there,  and  are  thus  more  easily 
controlled  and  prevented  from  becoming  drunk,  and  punished  if  they 
do  become  drunk.  In  Bessarabia,  in  Switzerland,  as  well  as  in  Norway 
and  Sweden,  the  reduction  in  the  consumption  of  alcohol  has  resulted 
in  an  increased  consumption  of  wine  and  beer,  both  of  which  are 
drinks  much  less  harmful  than  brandy. 

The  Roumanian  Government  came  finally  to  a  conclusion  which 
may  be  summed  up  as  follows  :  '  The  monopoly  of  the  retail  sale 
together  with  the  public-house  placed  under  the  supervision  of  the 
commune  and  of  the  State.'  The  list  of  European  States  showing 
the  amount  of  alcohol  consumed  per  head  finishes  with  Norway, 
Sweden,  and  Finland,  the  three  countries  in  which  this  system  of 
control  has  been  put  into  force.  In  Roumania,  where  there  were  no 
such  temperance  societies  as  produced  the  legislation  in  Sweden  and 
Norway  against  alcoholism,  there  remained  only  the  initiative 
of  the  State  itself  to  institute  reform.  It  was  felt  that  even 
the  constituted  authorities  already  existing  are  not  too  perfect  to 
supervise  the  fight  against  alcoholism  adequately,  and  it  was  found 
necessary  to  devise  the  system  of  supervision  and  re-supervision 
to  ensure  success.  Thus  the  communal  authorities  are  confided  with 
the  working  of  the  monopoly  of  the  public-houses  in  the  villages; 
but,  because  there  would  be  a  fear  lest  the  public-house  should  not 
show  any  marked  improvement  as  to  morality  and  hygiene,  the 
communal  authorities  have  been  placed  under  the  most  severe  super- 
vision of  the  higher  State  authorities  in  order  to  force  them  to  do 
their  duty  with  regard  to  the  supervision  of  the  public-houses  and 
the  repression  of  vice. 

The  principal  points  of  the  law  may  be  resumed  as  follows:  in 
every  village  the  number  of  public-houses  is  limited  in  the  proportion 
of  one  public-house  to  one  hundred  families  ;  but  in  villages  containing 
less  than  150,  but  above  a  minimum  of  fifty  families,  a  public-house 
can  be  opened  if  the  village  be  situated  more  than  five  kilometres 
from  a  village  possessing  a  public-house.  In  no  case  can  a  new  public- 
house  be  established  at  a  less  distance  than  a  hundred  yards  from 
the  church  or  school  of  the  village.  The  right  to  sell  alcoholic 
drinks  in  retail  and  to  keep  public-houses  in  the  country  districts 
is  exclusively  reserved  to  the  commune.  The  municipal  councils 
decide  the  opening  or  the  suppression  oi  the  public-houses,  and  exercise 

3  c  2 


984  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

supervision  over  all  such.  The  revenues  from  the  public-houses  are 
never  to  be  added  to  the  ordinary  revenues  of  the  commune,  nor 
does  the  State  have  any  interest  whatever  in  these  revenues.  The 
public-house  revenue  is  to  constitute  the  special  fund,  which  in  no 
circumstance  may  be  used  for  ordinary  expenses  or  for  the  payment 
of  the  staff.  This  fund  will  be  employed  exclusively  for  objects  tending 
to  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  villages. 
The  law  defines  these  as  the  improvement  of  churches  and  schools 
or  of  communal  infirmaries,  the  founding  of  any  institution  destined 
to  spread  education  amongst  the  peasants,  the  creation  of  popular 
libraries,  the  creation  of  lecture  and  reading  rooms,  the  organisation 
of  popular  amusements  for  the  young,  the  opening  of  shops  for  manual 
work,  the  construction  of  bridges  and  culverts,  the  planting  of  plan- 
tations, the  draining  of  marshes,  the  regulating  of  torrents,  and  the 
purchase  of  bulls,  stallions,  rams,  or  boars  for  reproductive  purposes. 
Beyond  these  objects  every  other  outlay  from  the  special  fund  is 
formally  forbidden  by  the  law.  The  communal  public-houses  will  be 
let  by  public  tender  for  a  period  of  three  years  at  a  time,  or  else  will 
be  handed  over  by  agreement  to  temperance  societies.  It  is  worthy 
of  note  that  the  law  is  extremely  favourable  to  temperance  societies 
on  the  model  of  those  existing  in  Norway  and  Sweden — Samlag  and 
Bolag.  In  fact,  such  societies  are  the  only  bodies  possessing  the 
right  to  own  more  than  one  public-house.  It  is  further  decreed  that 
wherever  temperance  societies  with  limited  benefits  are  formed  in 
the  commune,  the  communal  authorities  shall  have  the  right  to 
enter  into  negotiations  with  such  societies  with  a  view  to  the  handing 
over  to  them  of  the  public-houses.  The  profits  of  public-houses  handed 
over  in  this  way  shall  be  devoted  in  the  first  place  to  the  payment 
of  the  interest  upon  the  capital  of  the  society  (with  a  maximum  of 
six  per  cent.),  and  the  remainder  will  be  placed  in  the  special  public- 
house  fund. 

Large  employers  of  labour,  such  as  owners  of  factories  or  works, 
have  the  right  under  certain  conditions  to  establish  a  public-house  ; 
but  should  their  workmen  form  themselves  into  a  co-operative  society 
with  the  object  of  possessing  their  public-house,  the  employer  is 
obliged  to  close  his  public-house  and  the  Minister  of  Finance  will 
withdraw  his  licence. 

The  direct  measures  taken  by  the  Government  against  alcoholism 
are  based  upon  a  careful  study  of  the  evil  habits  rooted  in  the  country 
which  it  is  necessary  to  destroy.  The  original  idea  of  the  Govern- 
ment was  to  include  in  the  law  a  provision  that  the  public-house 
keeper  should  be  a  State  official  deriving  no  benefit  from  the  sale  of 
alcohol.  This  ideal  publican  was,  in  fact,  to  be  encouraged  rather 
to  sell  other  drinks  than  alcoholic  ones,  since  he  would  have  received 
a  percentage  upon  the  sales  of  all  non-alcoholic  drinks  and  edibles. 
This  system  would  have  made  the  official  publican  much  more  anxious 


1908        SANE   TEMPERANCE  IN  ROUMANIA  985 

to  sell  the  goods  belonging  to  the  commune  than  the  communal 
alcohol.  This  original  proposal  met  with  a  storm  of  objections,  but 
the  only  objection  which  induced  the  Government  to  abandon  it 
was  that  such  official  publicans  would  become  political  instruments 
in  the  hands  of  whatever  Government  might  be  in  power.  In  Rou- 
mania  the  mayor  is  really  the  instrument  of  the  prefect,  who  himself 
is  that  of  the  Government  of  the  day.  Thus  a  change  of  Government 
would  bring  about  a  change  of  official  publicans.  The  abandonment 
of  this  ideal  publican  was  largely  the  cause  of  the  increased  facilities 
and  advantages  offered  to  temperance  societies,  who  would  naturally 
have  every  interest  in  preventing  excessive  drinking.  The  law 
actually  contains  the  following  provisions  with  regard  to  the  public- 
house  keeper  :  He  must  be  a  Roumanian  citizen,  knowing  how  to 
read  and  write,  at  least  twenty-five  years  of  age,  and  married  at  the 
time  of  the  conclusion  of  the  contract ;  he  must  be  known  as  a  man 
of  good  behaviour,  without  vices,  and  have  never  incurred  a  penal 
sentence  for  crimes  mentioned  in  the  law  of  licences.  The  assistant 
of  the  public-house  keeper  must  fulfil  the  same  conditions,  and  all 
the  servants  of  the  public-house  or  of  the  public-house  keeper  must  be 
Roumanians.  Nobody  except  the  public-house  keeper,  his  family,  his 
servants,  or  bona  fide  travellers,  may  sleep  on  the  premises.  Any  public- 
house  keeper  who  breaks  these  regulations  will  be  liable  to  a  fine  of  from 
81.  to  40Z.,  and  fora  second  offence  to  a  penalty  of  from  three  months' 
to  a  year's  imprisonment  and  the  cancelling  of  his  lease.  Any  public- 
house  keeper  possessing  more  than  one  public-house,  or  endeavouring  to 
do  so  through  an  agent,  is  liable,  together  with  this  agent,  to  a  fine 
of  from  201.  to  40?.  and  imprisonment  of  from  three  to  twelve  months, 
together  with  the  loss  of  his  lease.  With  regard  to  the  amusements 
allowed  in  the  public-houses,  it  was  rightly  considered  that  to  trans- 
form the  public-houses  simply  into  shops  without  meetings,  family 
gatherings,  dances,  music,  would  have  been  to  violate  the  traditions 
of  the  country,  and  to  show  at  the  same  time  real  cruelty  towards 
a  population  which  has  much  more  suffering  than  pleasure  in  life. 
Thus  the  law,  while  forbidding  all  games  of  cards  or  other  games 
of  chance,  allows  games  of  skill  such  as  skittles  and  billiards,  and  all 
amusements  such  as  dancing  are  allowed  in  accordance  with  ancient 
customs.  It  is  absolutely  forbidden  to  public-house  keepers  to  supply 
drinks  or  any  goods  on  credit.  Each  sale  must  be  made  against  cash 
paid  at  the  moment  of  sale.  It  is  also  forbidden  to  barter  drink  or 
any  goods  for  grain,  eggs,  poultry,  or  other  products  of  agricultural 
or  domestic  economy  (domestic  economy  was  added  owing  to  the 
tendency  of  public-house  keepers  to  endeavour  to  induce  the  peasants 
to  pledge  the  results  of  the  home  work  of  their  women,  such  as  em- 
broideries, &c.).  Neither  public-house  keepers  nor  their  wives  can, 
in  any  case,  either  directly  or  through  agents,  farm  land  belonging 
to  peasants.  Public-house  keepers  cannot  bring  actions  for  debts 


986  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

incurred  for  the  supply  of  drink,  nor  other  sums  of  money  paid  by  them 
in  connexion  with  agricultural  work  or  the  farming  of  lands  belonging 
to  peasants.  For  every  sale  on  credit  the  innkeeper  will  be  punished 
by  a  fine  of  five  times  the  value  of  the  drink  or  of  the  goods.  Should 
a  public-house  keeper  farm  land  belonging  to  peasants  he  will  be 
punished  by  a  fine  equal  to  the  value  of  the  farm  for  five  years,  and 
the  contract  will  be  cancelled.  Communal  public-houses  will  remain 
closed  until  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning  on  Sundays  and  recognised 
religious  holidays.  From  the  1st  of  April  to  the  30th  of  September  they 
will  close  at  nine  in  the  evening,  and  for  the  other  six  months  at  eight. 
On  all  election  days,  parliamentary  and  communal,  all  the  public- 
houses  in  the  country  districts  will  be  closed ;  in  the  town  districts 
only  those  will  be  closed  which  are  within  the  district  affected  by  the 
election.  Infringements  of  these  regulations  are  punished  severely 
by  fines  ranging  from  20s.  to  801.  Innkeepers  are  forbidden  to  serve 
drink  in  public-houses  to  children  aged  less  than  sixteen.  Neither 
may  they  serve  under  any  pretext,  or  under  any  pressure  or  threat, 
people  already  drunk,  or  such  as  are  included  in  the  public  list  of 
drunkards,  nor  shall  they  allow  to  enter  the  public-house  drunken 
people  or  women  of  notoriously  evil  character.  Public-house  keepers 
and  their  employes  are  expected  to  prevent  any  disorder  in  their 
houses  :  to  this  end  they  have  the  right  to  call  in  policemen  or 
gendarmes  to  restore  order.  No  excuse  for  having  broken  the  law 
owing  to  threats  or  violence  shall  be  allowed  to  protect  the  public- 
house  keeper.  Any  public-house  keeper  who  does  not  keep  wine 
on  his  premises  will  be  punished  by  a  fine  of  from  4Z.  to  121. 

Keeping  artificial  brandy  or  wine  on  the  premises  is  punishable 
by  a  fine  of  from  81.  to  201. ;  but  if  such  artificial  liquor  be  manufactured 
by  the  public-house  keeper  himself,  or  if  he  shall  have  tampered  with 
any  alcoholic  drinks,  the  fine  shall  amount  to  from  40?.  to  4001. 
A  second  offence  will  be  punished  by  a  double  fine  and"  loss  of  the 
contract.  Any  public-house  keeper  whose  contract  has  been  can- 
celled for  any  infringement  of  the  law  will  no  longer  have  the  right 
to  lease  a  public-house  or  to  be  associated  with  another  in  such  enter- 
prise, or  to  be  in  any  way  connected  with  a  public-house  under  any 
condition  whatever.  In  order  to  render  difficult  any  infringement 
of  the  regulations  with  regard  to  artificial  brandy  or  wine,  the  law 
enacts  that  whoever  shall  give  information  of  such  infringements 
shall  receive  50  per  cent,  of  the  fine  inflicted. 

With  regard  to  the  supervision  and  control  of  country  public  - 
houses,  the  Eoumanian  Government  has  multiplied  as  much  as 
possible  the  bodies  charged  with  these  duties  ;  and  this  because  of  the 
unfortunate  lack  of  confidence,  not  without  foundation,  of  the  rural 
mayor.  Thus  the  supervision  of  the  public-houses  will  be  exercised 
equally  by  the  communal  authorities  and  by  the  following  officials  : 
the  prefect,  the  financial  administrator,  the  administrative  inspector, 


1908        SANE   TEMPERANCE  IN  HOUMANIA  987 

the  agricultural  inspector,  the  financial  inspector,  and  the  doctor  of 
the  district.  The  municipal  authority  represented  by  the  mayor  or 
his  representative,  as  well  as  by  the  officials  mentioned  above,  have 
the  right  of  taking  notice  of  infringements  of  the  law  committed 
by  the  innkeeper  or  by  his  customers,  and  the  right  of  inflicting  such 
penalties  as  are  within  their  competence,  or  of  handing  over  to  the 
district  judge  cases  the  penalties  for  which  exceed  their  powers.  The 
prefect  and  the  above-mentioned  officials  have  also  the  duty  of  con- 
trolling the  mayors  and  their  representatives  and  noting  any  infringe- 
ments  which  these  may  commit  or  any  negligences  of  which  they 
may  be  guilty,  and  have  the  right  of  demanding  of  the  district 
judge  their  punishment.  Should  these  officials  prove  that  the  mayor 
has  not  exercised  his  right  of  punishing  infringements  of  the  law  on 
the  part  of  the  public-house  keeper  or  his  clients,  they  have  the  right 
of  condemning  immediately  the  guilty  persons  to  the  prescribed 
punishments,  and  the  mayor  to  a  fine  of  from  20  to  60  francs ;  this 
fine  must  be  paid  at  once,  the  punishment  of  the  mayor  being  without 
appeal  or  defence. 

With  regard  to  the  measures  taken  against  drunkenness  and 
drunkards,  great  care  has  been  shown  to  prevent  any  abuse  of  power 
so  dear  to  all  those  who  possess  a  small  amount  of  authority.  Thus 
in  the  towns  all  offences  of  drunkenness  are  judged  by  a  justice  of 
the  peace,  whereas  in  other  countries  light  punishments  may  be 
awarded  by  the  police.  In  the  villages  all  punishments  involving 
imprisonment,  even  for  only  twenty-four  hours,  may  be  awarded  by  the 
district  judges  alone.  Only  fines  are  imposed  by  the  administrative 
officials  whose  duty  it  is  to  supervise  the  public-houses.  In  other 
cases  the  proceedings  must  not  be  delayed,  and  the  judge  must  give 
the  sentence  within  three  days  at  most.  Care  is  also  taken  that 
persons  shall  not  be  arrested  for  drunkenness  unless  there  is  no  doubt 
possible,  as  shown  by  definite  actions,  that  they  are  drunk.  Thus 
the  law  provides  that  the  drunkard  is  one  who,  being  in  a  state  of 
drunkenness,  shall  seek  a  quarrel,  provoke  disorders,  or  fall  down 
in  the  street.  Such  drunkards  are  punished  by  a  fine  of  from  2  to 
20  francs.  In  the  case  of  a  second  offence  in  the  same  year,  imprison- 
ment for  twenty-four  hours  will  be  added  to  the  fine  ;  while  a  third 
offence  within  twelve  months  from  the  first  entails  three  days'  imprison- 
ment. After  this  third  sentence  the  district  judge  will  inscribe  the 
name  of  the  offender  on  a  drunkards'  list  similar  to  the  Black  List 
in  England.  The  great  difference,  however,  is  that  this  list  in  Roumania 
is  posted  up  publicly  in  all  the  town  halls  and  in  all  the  communal 
public-houses.  Persons  inscribed  on  this  list  may  no  longer  enter 
any  public-house,  either  in  their  own  commune  or  in  any  other  com- 
mune to  which  the  list  has  been  officially  communicated.  If  for  three 
successive  years  a  person  inscribed  upon  this  list  has  undergone  no 
sentence  for  drunkenness,  his  name  may  be  removed  by  the  district 


988  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

judge.  If,  however,  at  any  future  time  he  undergoes  a  sentence  for 
drunkenness,  his  name  will  remain  upon  the  list  for  the  rest  of  his 
life,  and  any  other  further  crimes  of  drunkenness  which  he  may 
commit  will  be  punished  by  fines  and  imprisonment.  These  are 
the  main  points  of  the  law  as  far  as  the  country  public-houses  are 
concerned. 

With  regard  to  the  town  public-houses,  the  law  does  not  provide 
against  them  directly,  and,  indeed,  benefits  them  indirectly.  The 
Government  has  decided  that  so  long  as  the  number  of  public-houses 
in  the  towns  does  not  increase,  the  regulations  against  drunkenness 
and  the  possibility  of  efficient  police  supervision  are  sufficient  to 
prevent  serious  danger  to  the  country.  The  number  of  public-houses 
existing  at  the  time  of  the  enactment  of  this  law,  either  in  the  town 
Communes,  communes  or  in  a  zone  of  one  kilometre  around  these 
may  not  be  increased  in  any  case.  Public-houses  which  close  may 
not  be  replaced  in  any  circumstances,  or  reopened,  and  it  is  hoped 
that  a  continuance  of  these  measures  will  result  in  there  remaining  but 
one  public-house  to  every  hundred  families.  Only  the  legitimate  or 
legitimatised  descendants  of  the  public-house  keeper  will  have  the 
right  to  continue  the  business,  on  condition  that  these  descendants,  or 
at  least  one  of  them,  exercises  in  person  the  profession  of  public-house 
keeper  in  his  father's  house.  In  the  case  where  the  heirs  are  minors, 
the  public-house  may  be  kept  by  the  guardian  until  their  majority. 
Public-houses  are  closed  either  voluntarily  or  by  the  neglect  of  pay- 
ments, or  by  the  closing  of  the  establishment  in  consequence  of  the 
law  for  licences  of  alcoholic  drinks,  and  cannot  be  again  reopened. 

With  reference  to  the  question  of  confiscation  or  compulsory 
closing  of  public-houses  in  Roumania,  the  Government  possesses  under 
the  laws  most  enviable  powers.  In  virtue  of  the  law  on  licences, 
the  Minister  of  Finance  has  the  right  to  withdraw  the  licence  and  to 
close  any  public-house  or  drinking-shop  which  does  not  conform 
with  the  law  of  the  monopoly  of  retail  sale.  Besides  this,  the  Minister 
of  the  Interior  can  request  that  the  licence  shall  be  withdrawn  from 
any  public-house  or  drink-shop  for  an  infraction  of  the  law,  and  the 
Minister  of  Finance  is  bound  to  conform  to  this  demand.  The  actual 
public-house  keepers  possess  no  hereditary  right,  and  only  exploit 
their  public-house  in  virtue  of  a  licence  given  them  by  the  Govern- 
ment. In  the  towns  the  public-houses  are  more  firmly  established, 
and  there  may  be  found  some  which  are  relatively  old  and  which 
have  been  in  one  spot  and  run  by  the  same  family  for  two  generations. 
There  is,  however,  no  instance  of  three  successive  generations  running 
a  public-house.  In  the  country  districts  the  case  is  not  similar, 
because  up  to  1864  the  public-house  as  a  rule  belonged  to  the  large 
proprietor,  it  being  his  exclusive  right.  This  right  the  proprietor 
generally  disposed  of  by  letting  it ;  and  those  who  rented  public- 
houses  were  principally  Jews  in  Moldavia  and  Greeks  in  Wallachia. 


989 

After  the  right  of  keeping  public-houses  became  free,  the  temporary 
character  of  these  holdings  was  preserved  amongst  foreign  public- 
house  keepers.  Later,  when  it  was  forbidden  to  strangers  to  have 
public-houses  in  the  country  districts,  this  continued  still  indirectly 
through  agents,  the  public-house  belonging  in  name  to  a  Roumanian, 
but  de  facto  to  a  stranger.  Recently  steps  have  been  taken  to  prevent 
this,  but  so  recently  that  the  Roumanian  public-house  keepers  have 
not  had  time  to  obtain  vested  interests. 

The  number  of  public-houses  in  the  country  fluctuates  enormously. 
When  the  agricultural  year  is  good,  public-houses  sprout  up  like 
mushrooms  after  rain  ;  but  when  the  year  has  been  bad,  public- 
houses  close  in  great  numbers.  It  is  very  rare  to  see  the  same  public- 
house  keeper  possessing  the  same  public-house  during  all  his  life  and 
leaving  it  afterwards  as  an  inheritance  to  his  children.  The  new  law 
leaves  in  existence  9000  public-houses  and  provides  for  the  extinction 
of  the  licences  of  about  4000.  This  number  is  not  much  more  than 
the  difference  between  the  number  of  public-houses  in  a  good  year  and 
in  a  bad  one.  Much  criticism  was  directed  against  the  Government, 
with  the  cry  of  what  will  become  of  the  unfortunate  public-house 
keepers  whose  houses  are  closed.  The  reply  was  that  this  criticism 
would  be  as  much  justified  in  any  year  of  agricultural  depression, 
and  that  the  public-house  keepers  as  a  rule  in  Roumania  carry  on  at 
the  same  time  other  occupations.  The  closing  of  the  public-house, 
therefore,  will  only  necessitate  their  adopting  the  same  course  that 
they  would  have  done  had  the  harvests  been  bad.  There  is,  for 
instance,  no  comparison  between  the  misfortune  for  these  relatively 
few  individuals  possessing  other  trades,  and  many  of  whom  are  not 
Roumanians,  and  that  which  befell  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men 
engaged  in  the  transport  of  goods  by  waggons  at  the  advent  of  the 
railway,  or  the  tens  of  thousands  of  independent  dealers  in  tobacco 
at  the  advent  of  the  State  monopoly.  Under  the  new  law,  actually 
the  public-house  keeper  was  placed  in  a  much  better  position,  having 
several  months  allowed  him  in  which  to  find  other  employment ; 
whereas,  when  the  Minister  exercises  his  right  to  withdraw  the  licence 
for  whatever  cause,  the  public-house  is  closed  on  the  spot. 

This,  then,  is  the  practical  application  on  the  part  of  the  Roumanian 
Government  to  achieve  sane  temperance  legislation,  neither  led  away 
by  rabid  teetotalism  nor  dominated  by  the  interests  of  the  producers 
of  alcohol.  It  is  twenty-six  years  since  the  idea  was  first  mooted, 
and  it  is  greatly  to  the  credit  of  the  actual  Government  that  it  has  at 
last  succeeded  in  overcoming  the  many  political  interests  leagued 
against  such  legislation,  and  that  it  has  been  able  to  take  effective 
measures  to  save  the  country  from  the  curse  of  alcoholism. 

ALFRED  STEAD. 


990  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Dec. 


THE  RULE   OF   THE  EMPRESS  DOWAGER 


THE  death  of  the  Empress  Dowager  of  China  recalls  some  incidents 
in  the  romantic  and  eventful  life  of  one  whose  subtle  powers  raised 
her  from  the  crowded  ranks  of  the  Imperial  harem  to  the  ancient 
throne  whence,  for  over  a  quarter  of  a  century,  she  has  ruled  over 
the  destinies  of  the  oldest  empire  in  the  world  with  an  ability 
that  places  her  among  the  most  striking  characters  in  the  records 
of  history.  Yehonala  was  the  youngest  daughter  of  a  Tartar  general 
who  died  at  his  post  on  the  Yangtze,  leaving  his  widow  with  a  family 
of  two  sons  and  two  daughters  in  straitened  circumstances.  The  first 
duty  of  the  widow  was  to  take  the  remains  of  her  dead  husband  for 
burial  at  his  ancestral  home  in  Peking,  so,  preparing  a  mourning  boat, 
with  its  blue  and  white  lanterns  and  other  insignia  of  woe,  she  em- 
barked on  it  with  her  children,  and  in  the  course  of  her  journey  arrived 
at  the  beautifully  situated  and  picturesque  town  of  Chinkiang, 
whence  the  boat  would  probably  have  proceeded  by  the  Grand  Canal 
to  Peking.  There  arrived  at  the  same  time  a  prefect  travelling  by 
water  to  a  new  station  on  promotion.  Wu-tu-fu,  the  prefect  of 
Chinkiang,  hearing  that  an  official  had  arrived  by  boat,  sent,  after 
the  Chinese  custom,  his  card  and  a  complimentary  gift  of  food,  with 
two  hundred  taels  which  the  messenger  by  mistake  conveyed  to  the 
mourning  boat.  The  widow  returned  her  most  grateful  thanks, 
assuming  that  the  prefect  was  a  friend  of  her  late  husband's.  Wu-tu-fu, 
seeing  the  mistake  that  had  been  made  and  understanding  that  the 
lady  was  in  straitened  circumstances,  chivalrously  determined  to 
spare  her  from  the  awkwardness  of  an  explanation,  so  sending  her 
three  hundred  taels  in  addition,  he  waited  upon  her,  assuming  the 
position  of  a  friend  of  her  husband's,  before  whose  coffin  he  performed 
the  ceremony  of  Kowtow.  The  mother  again  and  again  expressed  her 
gratitude  and  taking  her  youngest  daughter  by  the  hand,  offered  her 
to  him  for  adoption,  a  not  unusual  mark  of  friendship  in  China,  an 
offer  which  he  accepted,  as  the  child  was  very  attractive. 

Under  his  guardianship  Yehonala  remained  until,  at  the  age  of  six- 
teen, in  the  triennial  review  by  the  Emperor  at  Peking  of  the  daughters 
of  Manchu  officers  for  the  selection  of  young  ladies  for  the  Imperial 
household,  she  was  among  those  whose  fortune  it  was  to  be  chosen. 


1908        RULE   OF   THE   EMPRESS   DOWAGER          991 

In  the  Imperial  household,  or  harem  as  it  is  colloquially  termed, 
there  are  many  grades  ;  some  of  the  maidens  perform  the  duties  of 
ladies-in-waiting,  some  the  more  humble  services  of  ladies'  maids,  &c. 
The  ladies'  apartments  are  rigorously  guarded  by  eunuchs  from  all 
male  visitors  except  the  Emperor,  and  the  inmates  occupy  them- 
selves in  various  ways,  especially  in  the  work  of  embroidery,  in  which 
almost  all  Chinese  ladies  are  proficient.  Ail  these  young  ladies  are 
supposed  to  be  under  the  direction  of  the  Empress.  From  time  to  time 
the  Emperor  visits  the  apartment  and  selects  some  one  or  other  for  his 
attentions,  some  being  advanced  to  the  position  of  Imperial  concubine. 
To  this  position  Yehonala,  whose  name  was  now  changed  to  Tze  Hsi, 
was  promoted,  and  in  due  course  presented  the  Emperor  with  a  son. 
As  the  Empress  was  childless,  Tze  Hsi  became  at  once  of  great  impor- 
tance, increasing  her  influence  rapidly,  until  at  length  she  shared  with 
the  Empress  the  full  dignity  of  the  Dragon  Throne  with  all  its  gorgeous 
ceremonials. 

Some  years  later  Wu-tu-fu  was  reported  by  his  superior,  who 
recommended  his  punishment.  Tze  Hsi  was  by  this  time  Empress 
Dowager,  and,  recognising  the  name,  instead  of  punishing  she  promoted 
him.  The  superior  protested,  whereupon  she  again  promoted  him. 
The  overjoyed  Wu-tu-fu  proceeded  to  Peking  to  return  thanks,  which 
he  did  in  the  usual  fashion,  kneeling  before  the  throne  with  downcast 
eyes,  and  his  official  hat  placed  at  his  right  side  with  the  peacock 
plume  towards  the  Empress.  After  he  had  spoken,  the  Empress 
Dowager  said,  '  Do  you  not  know  me  :  look  up,  I  was  your  daughter.' 
His  joy  may  be  imagined.  The  Empress  Dowager  ultimately  conferred 
upon  him  the  Governorship  of  Szechuen. 

Much  has  been  written  of  her  malign  influence  during  the  half- 
century  of  her  predominance,  both  behind  the  throne  and  as  its 
apparently  all-powerful  occupant,  but  who  can  tell  the  real  moving 
power  amid  the  kaleidoscopic  intrigues  of  the  Imperial  city  ?  We  forget 
how  short  a  time  has  elapsed  since  China  was  practically  as  isolated 
from  all  Western  influence  as  in  the  days  of  Marco  Polo— indeed  more 
so — for  after  Ghengis  Khan  had  swept  over  Northern  Asia  and  South- 
Eastern  Europe  until  the  wave  of  conquest  broke  against  the  walls  of 
Buda-Pest  princes  and  ambassadors  from  the  West  visited  him  in  his 
Chinese  capital. 

The  opium  war  from  1840  to  1843  left  China  simmering  until  the 
breaking  out  of  the  Taiping  rebellion  in  1850,  and  for  seventeen  years 
the  Southern  Provinces  were  devastated  by  a  rebellion  that  cost  the 
lives  of  twenty-two  and  a  half  millions  of  people  before  it  was  finally 
extinguished  at  Suchow  by  the  military  capacity  of  Gordon,  ably 
seconded  by  Li  Hung  Chang.  In  the  meantime  the  repulse  of  our 
forces  in  the  attack  upon  the  Taku  forts  in  1859  was  followed  by  their 
subsequent  capture  by  the  allied  forces  of  France  and  England,  and 
the  advance  upon  Peking  and  burning  of  the  Summer  Palace  in  the 


992  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

following  year.  The  Emperor  with  the  Imperial  Court  had  fled  to 
Jeh-lo,  where  the  Emperor  died,  when,  on  his  death,  a  Nominal  Govern- 
ment of  eight  was  formed,  who  forthwith  entered  into  a  conspiracy 
to  make  away  in  secret  with  the  Empress  Dowager  and  the  young 
Emperor's  mother,  to  arrest  and  destroy  the  late  Emperor's  three 
brothers,  and  establish  a  regency  in  which  they  would  be  supreme. 
Fortunately  Prince  Kung  frustrated  their  machinations  and  brought 
the  two  Empresses  with  the  young  Emperor  safe  to  Peking.  The 
conspirators  were  arrested ;  two  princes  engaged  in  the  plot  were 
allowed  to  commit  suicide  and  the  others  were  executed.  Prince 
Kung  and  the  two  Empresses  then  constituted  a  regency  during  the 
minority. 

In  1870  occurred  the  massacre  of  Tientsin,  and  from  1870  to  1872 
the  Empire  was  in  the  throes  of  a  Mahomedan  insurrection.  In  1894 
China  was  again  at  war  with  the  Japanese,  with  disastrous  results, 
and  from  that  time  to  the  breaking  out  of  the  Boxer  uprising  she  has 
never  been  free  from  strained  anxiety  from  her  Northern  neighbour. 
Surely  no  woman  has  ever  lived  a  life  of  more  sustained  anxiety  than 
Tze  Hsi,  and  in  remembering  her  misdeeds  we  ought  not  to  forget  her 
difficulties  and  her  surroundings,  that  called  for  all  her  woman's  wiles 
and  evoked  at  times  a  ruthlessness  not  unknown  in  our  own  history. 

That  she  possessed  a  magnetic  charm  is  acknowledged  by  those 
who  have  been  admitted  to  her  presence,  and  glimpses  of  her  life 
within  the  veil  show  that  she  had  her  moments  of  merriment  and 
enjoyment.  The  cloud  that  has  rested  upon  her  name  of  late  has 
been  the  feeling  that  her  treatment  of  the  young  Emperor  was  as  cruel 
as  it  was  unjust. 

It  is  by  no  means  certain  that  the  young  Emperor  was  satisfied 
with  his  elevation  to  the  throne,  which  was  undoubtedly  in  the  light 
of  ancient  custom  a  usurpation  brought  about  by  the  dominant  in- 
fluence of  his  aunt.  He  had  read  and  had  heard  of  other  nations, 
and  probably  regretted  the  real  liberty  that  he  had  lost  in  being 
placed  in  a  position  of  splendid  isolation  and  practical  captivity. 
He  turned  eagerly  to  those  who  spoke  of  progress,  and  jumped  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  supreme  and  godlike  power  of  which  he  was 
assured  in  every  action  of  his  ceremonious  Court  was  able  to  effect 
at  onoe  changes  that  can  only  be  hoped  for  after  long  evolution. 
After  the  death  of  Marquess  Tseng  he  sent  for  Kang  yu  Wei,  an 
advanced  thinker  whose  literary  fame  was  at  its  zenith,  and  at  once 
adopted  his  views  that  China  could  be  regenerated  by  edicts  from 
the  throne  that  would  in  a  trice  change  the  customs  of  centuries. 
At  first  his  enthusiasm  for  Western  methods  was  received  by  the 
Empress  Dowager  with  apparently  good-humoured  amusement. 
It  is  said  that  on  one  occasion  he  ordered  some  thousands  of  European 
costumes,  and,  donning  one,  appeared  before  the  Dowager  Empress 
and  asked  her  how  she  liked  it.  She  answered  :  '  Very  nice  indeed, 


1908        RULE   OF   THE  EMPRESS  DOWAGER         998 

but,  having  admired  yourself  in  the  glass,  I  advise  you  to  go  to  your 
ancestral  hall  and  there  regard  the  portraits  of  your  ancestors  in  their 
proper  costume  and  judge  which  is  more  befitting  for  an  emperor.' 
It  is  hard  to  say  what  credence  can  be  safely  given  to  these  snatches 
of  palace  gossip,  but  the  incident  was  widely  accepted  in  well-informed 
Chinese  circles. 

At  length  matters  became  serious.  There  were  murmurs  of  an 
anti-dynastic  movement  in  the  ever-restless  South,  and  the  time 
seemed  inopportune  to  court  the  opposition  of  the  most  conservative 
people  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  Under  the  influence  of  Rang  yu  Wei 
six  edicts  were  prepared  of  an  almost  revolutionary  character.  The 
Chinese  were  to  adopt  Western  attire  and  to  cut  off  the  queue,  which 
was  the  badge  of  submission  if  not  of  loyalty  to  the  Manchu  dynasty, 
and  other  edicts  were  also  prepared  effecting  changes  in  the  entire 
system  of  administration.  The  Emperor  had  appointed  four  young 
men  to  act  as  assistants,  or  advisers,  to  the  Tsung  li  Yamen  in  matters 
of  reform.  One  of  these  young  men  was  sent  by  the  Emperor  to  Yuan 
ShiKai,  who  then  commanded  a  camp  about  twenty  miles  from  Peking, 
with  orders  to  Yuan  to  bring  his  troops  to  the  capital,  and  an  edict 
was  written  by  the  Emperor  decreeing  that  henceforth  the  Empress 
Dowager  should  take  no  part  in  official  matters,  and  that  Jung  Lu 
was  to  be  beheaded.  The  more  experienced  officials  were  alarmed 
by  the  youthful  enthusiasm  of  the  Emperor.  Such  edicts  might 
possibly  be  issued  and  enforced  by  a  conqueror  at  the  head  of  a  great 
army,  but  with  China  torn  by  internal  dissensions  the  result  might 
mean  an  upheaval  the  consequences  of  which  no  man  could  foresee. 
The  young  messenger  presented  the  edict  to  Yuan  Shi  Kai,  who,  instead 
of  proceeding  as  ordered,  informed  Prince  Tuan,  who  went  hot  haste 
to  the  Summer  Palace,  from  whence  the  Empress  Dowager  returned 
at  once  to  Peking,  first  sending  to  Jung  Lu  a  revocation  of  the  edict 
ordering  his  execution.  After  considerable  delay  Yuan  Shi  Kai 
went  with  the  messenger  to  Jung  Lu's  yamen.  The  young  man  was 
left  outside.  Yuan  went  in  to  Jung  Lu  and  the  two  stood  in  silence 
for  a  while.  Then  Jung  Lu  said,  '  You  have  a  message  for  me  ?  ' 
'  Yes,'  replied  Yuan,  '  but  I  cannot  deliver  it.'  Then  he  took  out  the 
triangular  symbol  that  is  always  sent  with  such  an  order  for  execution 
and  laid  it  on  the  table  saying,  '  I  cannot  deliver  my  message  from 
the  Emperor  to  you,  my  master  (he  had  been  a  pupil  of  Jung  Lu's), 
and  I  want  to  ask  your  advice.'  By  this  time  Jung  Lu  had  in  his 
possession  the  revocation  of  the  edict  by  the  Empress  Dowager  and 
had  made  his  preparation  to  march  his  own  troops  to  Peking.  This 
was  done,  and  the  coup  d'etat  followed.  The  Emperor  managed  to 
send  an  urgent  message  to  Rang  yu  Wei  to  fly,  but  the  other  reformers 
were  seized  and  executed. 

Rang  yu  Wei  is  a  graceful  writer  and  most  ardent  reformer. 
There  is  a  literary  magnetism  about  his  style  that  has  appealed  to 


994  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Dec. 

the  young  literati  who  have  accepted  him  as  their  leader.     He  desired 
to  have  changed  at  a  flash  the  crystallised  customs  of  all  the  centuries 
and  to  have  adopted  Western  costume,  Western  habits  and  modes  of 
thought,  while  at  the  same  time,  as  shown  by  his  book  on  reform,  he 
was  violently  anti-foreign.     China  for  the  Chinese  was  his  shibboleth, 
and  one  at  which  no  fair-minded  man  could  cavil ;  but  he  ignored 
the  danger  of  pouring  new  wine  into  old  bottles.     Had  the  edicts 
inspired  by  him  and  his  co-reformers  been  promulgated  the  convulsion 
of  China  was   inevitable.      In  his  flight  his  lucky  star  was  in  the 
ascendant.     On  receiving  the  Emperor's  warning,  Rang  yu  Wei  went 
at  once  to  Tientsin  and  proceeded  straight  on  board  a  steamer  that 
was  about  to  leave,  but  as  he  had  no  luggage  he  was  refused  per- 
mission to  proceed,  so  he  landed  and  waited  for  the  next  steamer, 
which  was  bound  for  Shanghai.     After  he  had  sailed  his  description 
was  telegraphed  from  Peking,  and  on  the  arrival  of  the  first  steamer 
she  was  searched.     The  description  was  also  received  at  Shanghai 
with  orders  to  arrest  him,  and  a  photograph  procured  ;  but  a  gentle- 
man who  saw  the  communication  went  out  in  a  launch  and  met  the 
ship  at  Woosung,  where  steamers  for  Shanghai  usually  anchor.     He 
found  Kang  yu  Wei  and  took  him  on  board  a  British  steamer.    H.M.S. 
Esk  was  ordered  to  accompany  the  steamer,  but  not  to  take  Kang 
yu  Wei  on  board.     She  lumbered  after  the  vessel  until  the  Pygmy 
was  met,  which  took  up  the  escort  until  the  Bonaventure  was  sighted. 
In  the  meantime,  on  the  return  of  the  Esk,  a  Chinese  warship  pursued 
the  steamer,  but  only  to  find  that  she  was  under  the  wing  of  the 
Bonaventure.     Had  Kang  yu  Wei  not  been  turned  off  the  first  ship 
boarded  by  him  he  would  doubtless  have  been  arrested  and  beheaded. 
Though  Kang  yu  Wei  is  in  exile  he  is  still  in  intimate  communica- 
tion with  China,  where  he  has  many  thousands  of  ardent  admirers,  and 
his  influence  is  a  distinct  factor  in  the  movement  of  Chinese  thought, 
which  may  be  divided  in  three  main  directions.    First,  of  those  who  are 
satisfied  with  old  conditions,  shrink  from  relations  with  foreigners,  and 
recognise  no  improvement  in  the  conveniences  of  Western  progress  ; 
second,  those  who  desire  reform  but  without  foreign  interference  ; 
third,  those  who  are  prepared  to  welcome  foreign  intercourse  and  ready 
to  adopt  any  means  by  which  moral  and  material  progress  may  be 
assured.    The  first  represents  inert  China ;    the  third  the  reformers 
whose  views  are  mainly  those  held  by  Chinese  students  from  foreign 
countries,  and  which  are  largely  accepted  by  the  Chinese  Christians ; 
while  the  second  embraces  all  the  spirits  of  unrest.     That  Kang  yu 
Wei,  ardent  reformer  as  he  is,   could   have   been  disloyal  to  the 
Emperor  or  the  dynasty  is  hardly  conceivable.     His  hatred  of  the 
Empress  Dowager  was  unbounded,  but  he  could  have  had  no  feeling 
but  loyal  affection  for  the  Emperor,  who  so  completely  abandoned 
himself  to  his  guidance.     His  demand  was  reform  of  China  from 
within,  but  in  the  South  the  feeling  went  farther.    The  Triad  Society, 


995 

the  most  dangerous  secret  society  in  the  Empire,  might  be  ready  for 
reform  from  within,  but  the  first  reform  demanded  by  them  was  the 
driving  out  of  the  Manchus  and  the  restoration  of  the  Ming  dynasty. 
This  was  the  state  of  feeling  in  the  early  part  of  1900,  when  the 
Boxer  movement  first  declared  itself. 

There  were  mutterings  of  this  movement  for  some  time  before 
the  actual  outbreak.    In  the  Central  Provinces  it  was  known  as  the 
Big  Knife  Society,  but  whether  it  was  anti-foreign  or  anti-dynastic 
was  not  known.     Its  origin  is  somewhat  obscure,  but  the  original 
members  practised  boxing,   and  taught  the  Chinese  view  of  that 
science  to  the  neophytes  ostensibly  to  enable  them  to  protect  their 
homes.     Mesmerism  was  also  practised,  and  adherents  were  assured 
that   by   the    operation  of    certain   motions   and  incantations    they 
would    become    invulnerable.      There    is    no  evidence  that   at  the 
beginning    the   Government  was  not   opposed  to   the   disturbance, 
but  as  it  increased  in  volume  it  became  plain  that  it  might  develop 
into  a  dangerous  anti-dynastic  power.     Before  any  decision  could 
be  arrived  at  it  was  necessary  to  investigate  the  claims  set  up  of 
invulnerability.      Prince  Tuan,   who  was  anti-foreign  to  the  core, 
was  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  Boxer  leaders,  and  at  his  instigation 
two  persons  were  sent  by  the  Empress  Dowager  as  a  commission 
to  report  upon  the  movement.     On  their  return  they  brought  with 
them  a  Boxer,  who  was  received  in  audience  with  the  commissioners 
— a  most  unusual  proceeding,  as  not  more  than  two  persons  are  under 
ordinary  circumstances  received  at  the  same  time.      Whether  the 
commissioners  were  influenced  by  Prince  Tuan  or  were  genuinely 
deceived,  they  reported  in  favour  of  the  Boxer  pretensions  to  occult 
power.      Whether  the   Empress  Dowager  was  convinced  or  doubted 
her  power  to  suppress  the  uprising,  she  took  the  line  of  least  re- 
sistance and  approved  of  the  anti-foreign  attack.    That  the  ministers 
were  divided  on  the  subject  is  well  known,  and  the  singular  inter- 
mittence  in    the    attacks    upon  the  Legations  afforded  evidence  of 
divided  counsels.     If  that  breach  of  international  honour  showed  a 
treachery  unthinkable  among  European  nations,  it  also  gave  occasion 
in  the  inner  circles  of  the  Government  for  a  tragic  proof  that  China 
possessed  among    her  statesmen  examples  of    heroic  independence 
and  devotion  to  principle.   When  the  attack  was  made  Hsu  Tsin  Hun 
and  Yuen  Chang,  both  members  of  the  Tsung  li  Yamen,  memorialised 
the  Empress  Dowager  that  the  attack  upon  the  Legations  was  a 
fatal  crime,  and  strongly  urged  that  the  Boxers  should  be    sup- 
pressed  at  all  hazards.    A  council  was  summoned   at   which  they 
urged  their  views,  and  suggested  that  some  members  should  be  sent 
to  consult  with  the  ministers.    Then  Li  Shan,  the  President  of  the 
Board  of  Revenue,  said :    '  Your  Majesty  and  Members  of  Council, 
this  attack  upon  the  Legations  of  friendly  nations  is  a  foolish  and 
criminal  act.     You  remember  how  China  suffered  from  a  war  with 


996  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

Japan,  and  you  now  want  to  war  with'  all  the  Powers  of  Europe  as 
well.  If  you  want  money  for  such  a  purpose  there  are  no  funds  in 
my  Treasury.'  Prince  Tuan  answered  that  Li  Shan  feared  for  his 
property  and  ought  to  be  beheaded.  Within  a  few  days  these  three 
men  were  arrested  and  executed.  This  episode  showed  the  character 
of  the  Empress  Dowager  in  its  darkest  side,  for  Li  Shan  had  been  her 
special  protege  ;  but  at  the  moment  the  influence  of  Prince  Tuan  was 
in  the  ascendant,  and  when  such  influence  is  brought  to  bear  upon  a 
masterful  and  despotic  woman  beset  with  difficulties  and  conscious  of 
grave  political  and  personal  danger,  restraint  is  apt  to  disappear. 

The  true  story  of  her  death  may  never  be  known,  but  it  ends  with 
dramatic  completeness  the  life  of  one  of  the  most  remarkable  women  of 
history — indomitable,  resourceful,  ruthless,  and  tender  by  turns,  but 
always  masterful ;  around  whom  love,  pity,  fear,  and  hatred  have 
hovered  with  their  lights  and  shadows  for  well  nigh  half  a  century. 

HENRY  A.  BLAKE. 


1908 


CHARL  O  TTE-JEANNE 

A  FORGOTTEN  EPISODE   OF  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


To  many  people,  English  people  especially,  France  begins  and  ends 
in  Paris— and  the  history  of  the  capital  is  the  history  of  the  country. 
In  thinking  of  the  horrors  of  1793  we  invariably  picture  Paris  to  our- 
selves, Paris  and  her  howling  mob  of  sans-culottes,  her  relentless  guillo- 
tine, and  her  sad  processions  of  white-faced  aristocrats  being  dragged 
through  her  streets  in  tumbrils  to  their  death.  Few  reflect  that  in 
reality  every  town  had  its  victims,  every  countryside  its  tragedies, 
very  real  to  the  sufferers  and  very  grave  in  their  results,  though  sinking 
into  insignificance  before  the  tyranny  and  wholesale  carnage  of  the 
capital — Marat-Manger  at  Nancy,  Lebon  at  Arras,  Fouche  at  Lyons, 
Schneider  at  Strasbourg,  and  Carrier  at  Nantes,  to  name  only  a  few, 
inaugurated  in  their  respective  districts  such  excessive  measures  of 
brutality  as  to  equal  if  not  exceed  the  horrors  of  Paris.  Nevertheless 
they  have  found  but  few  historians. 

Kecently  there  has  been  some  attempt  to  remedy  this  state  of 
things  and  occasional  monographs  have  appeared,  the  best  perhaps 
being  M.  Barbeau's  work,  The  History  of  Troyes  during  the  Revolution. 
In  Les  Vosges  pendant  la  Revolution  M.  Bouvier  also  endeavours  to 
throw  light  on  the  situation,  but  he  apparently  holds  a  brief  for  the 
criminal  tribunals  and  shows  himself  very  lenient  to  their  cruelties 
and  even  complimentary  to  their  government. 

For  some  idea  of  the  state  of  things  in  Nancy  at  this  date,  we 
have  to  depend  on  a  few  scattered  documents,  some  of  them  relating 
mainly  to  ecclesiastical  matters  ;  and  a  book  or  so  that  are  extremely 
inaccurate.  Therefore,  apparently,  people  have  supposed  that  Nancy 
escaped  more  or  less  completely  the  worst  phases  of  the  Reign  of 
Terror  and  that  the  department  of  the  Meurthe,  like  so  many  others 
of  the  remote  provinces,  remained  in  comparative  peace.  If  this  is 
true  of  the  others  it  is  not  of  Nancy.  The  following  description  of  the 
arrest  and  trial  of  Charlotte- Jeanne  de  Rutant,  taken  partly  from 
Cardinal  Mathieu's  researches  into  the  National  Archives  '  and  partly 

1  The  writer  is  indebted  to  the  late  Cardinal  Mathieu  for  his  permission  to  utilise 
the  result  of  these  researches  in  the  present  article. 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  382  997  3  X 


998  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

from  family  papers,  gives  an  example  of  the  obscure  tragedies,  of 
constant  occurrence  during  the  Kevolution,  of  which  all  traces  were 
for  a  long  period  lost  and  forgotten  for  want  of  an  historian. 

The  de  Rutants  were  a  family  of  good  extraction  ennobled  by 
Charles  the  Fourth  of  Lorraine,  and  several  of  its  members  had  at 
different  times  distinguished  themselves  in  the  service  of  the  State. 
On  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  many  emigrated,  but  Count  Louis 
Pierre,  the  head  of  the  family,  remained  on  at  Saulxures,  the  old 
family  chateau.  He  trusted  to  the  seclusion  in  which  they  lived, 
and  to  the  affection  and  respect  of  their  peasantry,  to  enable  them  to 
pass  through  the  troublous  times  unscathed.  Charlotte  and  Augustine 
de  Rutant  lived  with  their  father,  and  Andre,  the  only  son,  was  aide- 
de-camp  to  General  Biron.  He  had  distinguished  himself  in  the 
Army  of  the  Rhine,  and  is  mentioned  very  flatteringly  in  memoirs 
of  the  time. 

Charlotte,  the  younger  of  the  two  sisters,  was  at  this  time  a  girl 
of  twenty-two,  noted  for  her  intelligence  and  charm  and  the  firmness 
of  her  character.  There  is  a  miniature  in  the  possession  of  Augus- 
tine's descendants  which  shows  her  with  a  pointed  face,  dark  eyes, 
arched  eyebrows,  a  pile  of  powdered  hair,  and  an  expression  at  once 
mischievous  and  sweet. 

The  fancied  security  of  the  de  Rutant  family  was,  however,  rudely 
destroyed  by  an  unfortunate  accident.  A  letter  whose  authorship 
was  after  some  doubt  ascribed  to  Charlotte  was  intercepted.  It  was 
opened  at  Metz,  deciphered  and  forwarded  without  delay  to  the 
Comite  de  surveillance  at  Nancy  as  a  very  suspicious  document, 
probably  part  of  a  treasonable  correspondence  with  the  emigres.  The 
envelope  bore  this  address  :  '  Monsieur  de  Vigne,  Marchand  Epicier, 
Rue  St.  Pierre  a  Aix  la  Chapelle.'  On  the  enclosed  letter  there  was 
a  second  address  :  '  For  the  Mistress  of  Mdlle.  Henriette,'  and  finally 
on  the  top  of  the  last  page  a  third  superscription,  probably  indicating 
where  the  answer  was  to  be  sent,  '  Au  citoyen  Mathieu,  Place  de  la 
Republique.'  This  is  the  actual  wording  of  the  letter  : 

My  dear  friend, — I  am  so  glad  to  have  news  of  you.  Your  long  silence  had 
alarmed  me.  Do  not  talk  to  me  of  politics  for  the  news  wearies  me,  and  also 
if  your  letter  were  opened  and  contained  any  it  would  never  reach  me.  I  am 
very  sad  and  you  cannot  be  at  one  with  me  except  in  seeing  everything  at  its 
worst.  My  father  and  mother  are  well  and  uncles  and  cousins — they  assure  you 
of  their  respects  as  also  your  ladies. 

I  am  in  these  sentiments, 

Your  very  humble  servant  and  friend, 

CHARLOTTE-JEANNE. 

I  still  learn  English.     [And  then  added  in  English]  Answer  me  very  soon. 

This  was  apparently  all,  and  was  evidently  absolutely  innocent 
and  harmless.  But  the  committee  thought  the  three  blank  pages 
also  enclosed  must  signify  something,  and  if  quite  innocent  why  such 


1908  CHARLOTTE-JEANNE  999 

mystery  over  the  addresses  ?  After  much  deliberation  it  occurred 
to  them  that  it  might  be  written  with  invisible  ink — sympathetic  ink 
they  called  it  then,  it  was  much  in  vogue  and  the  sort  of  thing  con- 
spirators would  use.  Accordingly  they  held  it  to  the  fire,  when  the 
heat  brought  out  more  writing  and  the  mysterious  letter  lay  before 
them — none  too  easy  to  decipher.even  then  : 

At  last  my  dear  friend  I  can  again  have  news  of  you  but  I  fear  this  pleasure 
will  not  be  left  us  long,  for  our  compatriots  are  very  uneasy  and  terrified.  There- 
fore they  do  everything  they  can  to  annoy  us — I  shall  not  be  surprised  if  they 
shortly  arrest  us  all. 

They  have  already  disarmed  all  the  ci-devant  nobility  and  suspected  people. 
The  troubles  in  the  departments  continue  always,  so  it  appears,  but  we  know 
nothing  of  them  except  from  the  gazettes  that  are  all  false.  However,  they 
cannot  hide  everything,  and  it  is  easy  to  see  that  everywhere  there  is  an  encounter 
the  patriots  are  beaten.  They  have  been  terrified  of  Dumouriez,  who,  having 
still  at  least  ten  thousand  Frenchmen  under  his  standards,  causes  them  perpetual 
scares.  We  have  a  revolutionary  committee  at  Nancy  that  arrests  and  wishes 
to  guillotine  all  suspected  persons.  Happily  this  instrument  has  not  been  used 
as  yet ;  for  once  it  starts  '  Ware  the  aristocrats.'  Metz  is  putting  it  to  cruel  use. 
That  town  will  suffer  from  the  revenge  of  many.  Whilst  letters  are  still  allowed 
to  pass,  send  me  all  you  learn  and  if  it  is  known  what  army  is  destined  for  us 
and  if  M.  d'Autichamps  is  always  in  command.  There  is  a  restlessness  in  Paris 
and  all  over  France.  But  I  fear  there  will  be  the  usual  lack  of  prudence ;  the 
royalists  ought  not  to  show  themselves  until  our  avengers  can  support  them, 
otherwise  they  will  make  but  a  useless  splash.  I  am  corresponding  with  your 
dear  friend  de  Fribourg.  She  sent  me  yesterday  the  Passage  of  the  Rhine  at 
Spire  by  General  Wurmser.  May  God  watch  over  all  these  heroes  and  confound 
all  ...  who  oblige  them  to  expose  their  lives.  [This  phrase  is  not  in  the  family 
copy  but  in  the  act  of  accusation.]  The  Regent  has  sent  a  manifesto  to  Santerre, 
but  it  will  not  be  made  public  by  the  Government  of  Paris.  Give  me  your 
news  at  once.  Address  your  letter  to  Charlotte  and  put  on  the  envelope  the 
address  I  give  you  below.  My  parents  embrace  you,  so  do  I  with  all  my  heart. 
The  arrival  of  your  letter  was  &j  ete  for  the  whole  house.  Oh,  mon  Dieu  !  When 
shall  we  meet !  Tell  me  much  of  yourself  and  of  our  dear  Emigres.  They  are 
very  dear  to  us. 

The  original  of  this  is  to  be  found  in  the  Archives  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary Tribunal.  A  copy  is  among  the  family  papers,  and  I  have 
another  in  the  handwriting  of  her  sister  Augustine. 

It  is  easy  to  imagine  the  combined  excitement  and  vindictive 
triumph  the  discovery  of  this  letter  caused  the  members  of  the 
Comite  de  surveillance  at  Nancy.  It  was  probably  read  out  at  the 
Club  that  evening,  and  discussed  from  various  points  of  view.  It 
was  not  the  only  suspicious  circumstance  that  had  come  to  their  notice 
lately.  Other  letters,  not  so  incriminating  it  is  true,  had  been  dis- 
covered ;  a  mutiny  had  suddenly  broken  out  in  the  regiment  of  scouts 
quartered  at  Nancy ;  in  fact,  everything  to  their  mind  pointed  to 
an  organised  plot  with  the  tmiqris  to  cause  an  anti-revolutionary 

movement. 

The  soldiers  had  been  arrested,  the  writers  of  previous  letters 
interrogated,  it  remained  only  to  discover  and  punish  the  author 

3x2 


1000  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

of  this  treasonable  correspondence.  The  only  direct  indication  of 
identity  was  the  signature  '  Charlotte- Jeanne.'  No  one  could  identify 
the  mysterious  lady  who  wrote  thus  to  a  pretended  grocer  at  Aix-la- 
Chapelle.  Poor  Citoyen  Mathieu,  whose  name  appeared  on  the  in- 
criminating document,  was  at  once  arrested.  Naturally,  the  poor  man 
in  extreme  terror  denied  all  knowledge  of  the  affair,  but  was  finally 
frightened  into  the  admission  that  he  received  and  forwarded  the 
correspondence  of  the  de  Rutant  family,  his  predecessors  had  done  the 
same,  and  he  had  never  imagined  any  harm.  Also  that,  though  the 
de  Rutants  lived  mostly  at  Saulxures,  they  had  a  house  next  door  to 
his  in  the  Place  de  la  Republique,  and  finally  he  acknowledged  that 
one  of  the  young  ladies  was  called  Charlotte.  This  was  enough. 
The  trembling  apothecary  was  allowed  to  go  free  for  the  moment, 
and  an  expedition  was  immediately  organised  to  seize  the  offender 
before  she  could  receive  warning  and  escape  from  the  country. 
Accordingly  at  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  on  the  24th  of  April,  the 
Mayor  of  Saulxures  was  dragged  from  his  bed  and  requisitioned  to 
conduct  the  patrol  to  the  chateau,  to  put  seals  on  the  possessions, 
and  to  preside  at  the  arrest,  of  the  unfortunate  ci-devant  seigneur  and 
his  daughter.  The  mayor,  in  common  with  the  rest  of  the  commune 
of  Saulxures,  was  devoted  to  the  de  Rutants,  and  it  is  certain  that  he 
must  have  undertaken  his  unpleasant  task  with  great  unwillingness 
and  have  made  it  as  easy  as  he  could  for  the  prisoners.  It  is  more 
than  probable  that  he  warned  them  of  the  impending  trouble,  as  no 
incriminating  papers  were  found,  no  letters  from  emigres,  nothing ; 
and  yet  with  all  their  friends  and  relations  scattered  in  England, 
Belgium,  Italy,  they  must  have  kept  up  a  frequent  correspondence 
with  them  through  Mathieu  or  other  means.  Their  protestations  of 
innocence,  however,  availed  them  nothing,  and  father  and  daughter 
were  incarcerated  in  the  prison  of  the  '  Precheresses,'  once  an  old 
Dominican  convent,  in  the  street  now  known  as  the  Rue  Lafayette. 

Next  day,  however,  the  mayor  and  municipality  unanimously 
decided  on  a  petition  requesting  the  liberty  of  their  ci-devant  seigneur. 
Such  a  sign  of  respect  and  affection  was  rare  enough  in  those  days 
and  deserved  more  recognition  than  it  received.  This  was  the  de- 
claration : 

The  Municipality  of  Saulxures  hearing  that  their  late  seigneur  the  Citizen 
Rutant  and  his  youngest  daughter  were  arrested  last  night,  have  met  to  deliberate 
on  this  unforeseen  occurrence.  The  procureur  syndic  considers  that  the  Muni- 
cipality should  not  endeavour  to  penetrate  the  motives  that  have  caused  this 
arrest,  but  at  least  they  must  bear  witness  to  the  private  life  of  Citizen  Rutant 
and  his  family.  So  the  members  of  the  Municipality  declare  with  as  much 
truth  as  satisfaction  that  Citizen  Rutant  has  always  given  an  example  of  sub- 
mission to  the  decrees  of  the  National  Assembly,  that  no  one  can  reproach  him 
with  an  unpatriotic  act,  that  on  the  contrary  he  has  always  exhorted  his  fellow 
citizens  of  Saulxures  to  peace :  in  fact  he  cannot  be  suspected  of  want  of  patriot- 
ism, as  his  only  son  is  even  now  distinguishing  himself  with  the  army  ;  as  we  in 
common  with  all  the  public  have  learnt  through  the  newspapers. 


1908  CHARLOTTE-JEANNE  1001 

Here  follow  forty-four  signatures,  headed  by  those  of  the  mayor 
and  municipal  authorities.  Pulnoy,  the  neighbouring  hamlet,  ren- 
dered another  testimony  to  the  character  of  the  de  Rutants,  one 
that  was  all  the  more  touching  for  its  uneducated  style  and  spelling : 2 

La  communaute  r6unit  en  corps  pour  resoudre  plusieurs  affaires  et  sur  tout 
a  Tegard  du  Citoyen  Rutant  cy-devant  seigneur  du  lieu  j  pour  rendre  justice  a 
son  civisme  apres  avoir  entendu  qu'il  est  detenu  a  Nancy  sans  que  la  Commune 
en  sache  les  causes,  la  ditto  commune  peut  dire  avec  toutes  v6rite  que  le  dit 
Citoyen  Pierre  Rutant  ne  sa  jamais  ecart6  des  lois  et  qu'au  contraire  dans  le 
moment  qu'il  falait  des  assemblers  &  Saulxures  il  a  6t6  nomme  president  par  le 
peuple  ce  que  les  citoyens  de  Pulnoy  peuvent  certifier.  En  outre  il  peuvent 
dire  que  le  citoyen  Rutant  n'a  jamais  fait  aucun  semblant  de  quitter  son  chateau 
pour  s'emigrer,  qu'au  contraire  il  y  a  reste  assidue  pour  faire  battres  les  tresseaus 
de  grain  de  toute  espece,  pour  en  fournir  aux  indigents  au  prix  de  37  a  28  (livres) 
tandis  qu'on  le  vendait  dejas  aux  halle  &  Nancy  36  livre,  ce  qui  prouve  veritable- 
ment  son  scivisme,  et  la  commune  de  Pulnoy  ne  peut  que  douter  qu'il  a  6t6 
declar6  pour  un  autre  et  cy  on  lui  accorde  cette  petition  favorable  celas  ne  sera 
que  justice  en  foy  de  quoy  avons  signe. 

[Here  follow  nine  signatures.] 

The  brave  appeal  of  the  people  of  Saulxures  and  Pulnoy  had  no 
success.  A  few  days  after,  on  the  30th  of  April,  two  emissaries  of  the 
Convention,  recently  arrived  at  Nancy  with  unlimited  authority, 
took  up  the  affair,  and  issued  the  following  warrant : 

We  Antoine  Louis  Levasseur  and  Francis  Paul  Nicholas  Antoine  deputed 
envoys  of  the  National  Convention  to  the  department  of  the  Meurthe  and  the 
Moselle  sent  by  decree  dated  last  9th  of  March,  having  examined  two  letters,  one 
addressed  to  Aix-la-Chapelle  and  attributed  to  the  girl  Rutant  ordinarily  resident 
at  Saulxures,  and  containing  the  most  atrocious  and  anti-revolutionary  senti- 
ments traced  in  invisible  ink,  rendered  visible  by  art,  and  forwarded  to  the  Comite 
de  surveillance  of  Nancy  by  that  of  Metz,  the  other  attributed  to  the  woman 
Guillaume  addressed  to  her  husband  whose  ordinary  habitation  is  Nancy  .  .  . 
thus  after  having  deliberated  and  empowered  by  Article  8  of  our  code 
we  command  that  the  originals  of  the  letters  in  question  be  given  to  the 
Justice  of  the  Peace  Dufresne,  who  will  thereupon  go  to  the  village  of  Saul- 
xures and  take  off  the  seals  that  have  been  placed  on  the  papers  belonging  to 
the  said  Pierre  Louis  Rutant  and  his  daughter  Rutant  now  in  prison  in  this 
town.  The  Justice  will  verify  those  papers  that  can  be  compared  with  the 
original  letters,  will  hear  the  cp,se,  and  such  persons  as  he  shall  deem  suitable, 
particularly  Mathieu,  apothecary  of  the  Place  de  la  Carriere,  with  regard  to  the 
girl  Rutant.  The  said  Charlotte  Rutant  is  to  be  immediately  taken  under  safe 
guard  to  the  Paris  revolutionary  tribunal  whither  Dufresne  will  forward  his 
proofs  of  conviction.  Should  the  verification  of  the  papers  produce  proofs 
or  indications  of  a  criminal  correspondence  on  the  part  of  Rutant  pere, 
we  order  that  he  shall  be  also  conducted  before  this  same  tribunal,  otherwise 
said  Rutant  will  remain  under  arrest  at  Nancy  until  the  National  Convention 
orders  otherwise. 

Given  and  adjudged  at  Nancy, 
April  30,  1793. 

On  the  2nd  of  May,  Dufresne,  taking  with  him  Bertinet,  the  mayor, 
arrived  at  Saulxures  to  make  an  exhaustive  search.  He  describes 

»  As  this  would  lose  by  translation  I  give  it  in  the  original. 


1002  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUEY  Dec. 

how  he  saw  that  the  seals  placed  on  the  prisoner's  effects  were  intact, 
and  how  he  failed  to  find  any  documents  of  an  incriminating  nature 
in  the  room  of  Pierre  Louis  de  Rutant  '  looking  on  the  garden.'  The 
writing-table  belonging  to  Charlotte  should  also  have  been  searched, 
but  she  had  taken  away  the  key.  Rather  curiously,  Dufresne,  instead 
of  breaking  open  the  lock  as  might  have  been  expected,  waited  till  he 
could  get  the  key  from  the  prisoner. 

He  states  that  he  thoroughly  examined  the  effects  of  Charlotte 
Rutant  in  '  her  room  looking  on  the  Avenue  '  and  found  nothing  but 
some  eighty  pages  of  translation  of  the  Letters  ofjunius  and  a  washing 
bill  signed  '  Charlotte.'  This  he  took  away  for  the  purpose  of  com- 
paring the  writing  with  that  of  the  intercepted  letter ;  the  resemblance 
was  striking,  and  Dufresne  proceeded  to  further  interrogate  the  accused. 
She  denied  absolutely  all  knowledge  of  the  affair,  and  declared  she 
had  no  correspondence  with  any  Emigres.  This  is  on  the  face  of  it 
unlikely.  There  were  a  few  discrepancies  ;  for  instance,  in  the  letter 
the  author  mentions  her  mother  as  living,  whereas  Madame  de  Rutant 
had  been  dead  some  years.  Then  the  extremely  faded  state  of  the 
writing  would  make  any  unbiassed  person  hesitate  before  deciding 
that  they  were  in  the  same  hand  as  the  Letters  of  Junius.  But  still 
the  similarity  is  there  and  family  tradition  permits  no  doubt  on  the 
subject. 

According  to  M.  de  Dumast,  Charlotte  was  engaged  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Revolution  to  a  young  officer  in  the  King's  Regiment  at  Nancy 
who  emigrated  in  1792.  If  this  is  true,  her  affectionate  messages 
assume  a  different  meaning,  and  she  was  one  of  the  most  innocent 
and  touching  victims  of  the  Revolution.  Family  tradition,  however, 
differs  and  states  that  she  was  engaged  to  the  young  Irishman  in 
the  1st  Footguards,  Major  George  Bryan,  who  afterwards  married  her 
sister  Augustine.  Count  Pierre  de  Rutant  easily  proved  his  innocence 
of  all  complicity  in  any  plot,  but  was  detained  indefinitely  in  prison. 
Augustine  in  the  meanwhile  had  not  been  idle,  and  besieged  the 
authorities  with  petitions ;  her  object  being  at  least  to  defer,  if  she 
could  not  prevent,  her  sister's  departure  for  Paris.  She  knew  that 
once  there,  she  would  be  taken  before  the  dreadful  tribunal  established 
by  the  National  Convention  and  already  known  as  the  Tribunal  of 
Blood  ;  and  her  chances  of  release  would  then  be  very  slight.  Augus- 
tine had  an  address  printed  in  her  father's  name,  of  which  the 
following  are  extracts  : 

Citizens  !  An  unhappy  father  reduced  to  despair  by  the  violation  of  those 
laws  in  which  he  trusted  ;  in  his  sorrow  appeals  to  the  authorities  charged  with 
their  execution.  He  implores  them  to  use  the  constitutional  power  with  which 
they  are  invested  for  the  re-establishment  of  legal  order. 

Citizens,  my  daughter  is  accused !  at  least  I  must  suppose  so  from  her  detention 
and  the  interrogation  she  has  been  made  to  undergo. 

I  do  not  propose  to  discuss  the  accusation  in  itself  nor  to  inquire  how  an 
unsigned  letter,  without  any  precise  indication  to  show  that  the  author  is  the 


1908  CHARLOTTE-JEANNE  1008 

person  accused  and  who  disowns  it,  a  letter  seized  in  violation  of  public  trust, 
by  a  breach  of  confidence  that  the  law  declares  infamous,  and  criminal  and  liable 
to  severe  punishment,  can  serve  as  a  basis  for  a  judicial  inquiry — nor  how, 
supposing  the  authorship  verified,  a  personal  sentiment  expressed  privately  and 
surprised  so  to  speak  in  the  secrecy  of  the  mind,  could  possibly  form  an  object 
worthy  of  the  censure  of  the  law.  But  I  understand  (and  this  is  the  reason  of 
my  appeal)  that  my  daughter  is  to  be  taken  from  the  jurisdiction  of  her  natural 
judges  hi  order  to  be  transferred  to  Paris  and  there  taken  before  the  revolutionary 
tribunal.  The  removal  of  even  a  single  citizen  from  the  jurisdiction  of  his 
natural  judges  is  a  violation  of  the  rights  of  the  people  and  a  design  against  the 
power  and  functions  of  local  authority.  Citizens  !  to  you  therefore  it  belongs 
to  oppose  this  violation. 

It  is  not  sufficient  that  my  daughter  should  be  removed  from  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  local  authorities,  if  I  am  to  believe  the  rumour  they  wish  to  tear  her  from 
my  care  and  affection.  This  blow  is  a  very  heavy  one.  Citizens  !  either  I  am 
suspected  of  complicity  in  the  plot  imputed  to  my  daughter,  in  which  case  I 
should  according  to  the  law  continue  to  share  her  captivity  ;  or  my  examination 
must  have  proved  me  blameless  and  in  that  case  I  should  be  set  at  liberty,  and 
allowed  to  travel  freely  whither  my  affection  calls  me. 

What  can  be  the  object  of  my  detention  ?  Is  it  to  deprive  my  young  daughter, 
hardly  more  than  a  child,  of  the  consolation  and  counsels  of  paternal  love  ? 

Cruelty  such  as  this,  equally  barbarous  as  useless,  cannot  be  in  the  spirit 
of  the  constitution,  nor  in  the  meaning  of  the  law,  nor  in  the  heart  of  any 
individual  in  whom  there  remains  one  trace  of  humanity  and  justice. 

I  beg  therefore  that  my  daughter  be  left  to  the  jurisdiction  of  her  natural 
judges,  and  if  against  all  expectation  she  is  to  be  transferred,  I  ask  that  I  may 
be  permitted  to  follow  her,  either  as  a  fellow  prisoner,  or  at  liberty  as  her  natural 
defender,  counsellor,  and  father — who  signs  in  prison.  RUTANT. 

This  address  met  with  no  more  success  than  its  predecessors ; 
in  fact,  the  local  authorities  were  powerless,  and  intimidated  by  the 
presence  of  envoys  from  the  Convention  in  Paris  invested  with  abso- 
lute power.  These  latter  ordered  Charlotte's  instant  removal  to  Paris 
if  her  state  of  health  permitted.  Grief  and  confinement  had  already 
affected  a  constitution  none  too  robust,  and  Augustine  easily  per- 
suaded the  doctors  consulted  to  report  her  sister's  condition  as  serious. 
They  must  have  guessed  the  young  girl's  life  was  at  stake  more  than 
her  health,  and  they  appear  to  have  risen  to  the  occasion.  The  medical 
opinions  on  the  case,  of  Drs.  Lafitte,  Gormand,  Antoine,  and  Laflize, 
are  entered  in  the  dossier. 

After  having  examined  her  [they  report]  we  find  the  liver  much  congested, 
the  pulse  nervous,  the  chest  very  delicate,  palpitations  of  the  heart  very  frequent 
and  brought  on  by  the  slightest  movement.  We  do  not  think  that  she  can  travel 
without  the  greatest  danger,  and  she  ought  to  live  in  a  healthy  climate  and  follow 
a  suitable  treatment  prescribed  by  her  doctor. 

There  is  something  pathetic  and  ironical  in  the  suggestion  of  her 
place  of  residence.  They  must  have  perfectly  known  the  futility  of 
such  prescriptions  to  an  aristocrat  in  the  prisons  of  the  Revolution. 
However,  for  the  moment  their  verdict  was  accepted  and  Charlotte 
was  left  in  oblivion,  to  linger  in  the  prison  of  the  Precheresses. 
Probably  the  Revolutionary  Committee  was  occupied  with  more 


1004  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

important  cases  at  the  moment,  and  Augustine,  nursing  her  sister 
back  to  health,  hoped  once  more. 

But  an  unfortunate  incident  brought  their  name  again  to  notice 
and  all  hope  was  at  an  end.  The  gaoler,  Laplaigne,  was  a  horrible 
wretch,  who  spied  on  the  prisoners  and  blackmailed  and  exploited 
them  in  every  way.  He  probably  had  some  private  spite  against  the 
de  Kutants.  These  latter,  like  many  of  their  fellow-prisoners,  had 
their  meals  brought  in  from  outside  by  a  servant.  On  one  occasion 
M.  de  Rutant  gave  this  man  a  roll  of  silk,  requesting  him  to  bring 
back  another  like  it.  Laplaigne  noticed  the  silk  was  rolled  round 
a  piece  of  paper.  This  he  removed  and  substituted  the  following 
document,  which  he  then  unfolded  with  great  apparent  excitement : 

He  is  here  for  five  or  six  days.  He  will  return  again  to  Metz  until  March, 
when  he  thinks  that  town  will  be  no  longer  bearable.  He  tells  us  that  in  Luxem- 
bourg they  are  arranging  for  the  division  of  France  and  that  they  are  certain 
that  Lorraine,  the  Trois  Eveches,  and  Alsace  will  belong  to  the  Emperor.  \  God 
wills  it  and  we  shall  no  longer  have  to  suffer  from  these  patriots.  Those  monsters 
of  commissioners  had  not  yet  left  yesterday.  They  spend  their  days  here  doing 
all  the  harm  they  possibly  can. 

No  date  and  no  signature. 

Laplaigne  boasted  much  of  his  find,  but,  though  it  was  sent  to 
Dufresne  and  added  to  the  evidences  for  the  prosecution,  it  was  not 
thought  worthy  of  much  consideration. 

But  it  had  the  undesirable  result  of  drawing  the  attention  of  the 
paternal  Government  to  the  unfortunate  prisoners  of  '  les  Preche- 
resses.'  Marat-Manger  was  now  in  full  power,  ruling  with  a  heavy 
hand.  He  had  quickly  disposed  of  all  men  of  moderate  tendencies, 
and  the  Club  demanded  the  long- deferred  execution  of  the  orders  of 
Antoine  and  Levasseur. 

Accordingly,  on  the  7th  of  September  1793,  the  Captain  Rampont 
and  Gendarme  Leprot  received  the  order  to  '  withdraw-  the  citoyenne 
Charlotte  Rutant  from  the  prison  of  the  ci-devant  Precheresses  and 
to  conduct  her  to  Paris  with  the  least  possible  delay.' 

Augustine's  grief  was  great,  and  after  much  pleading  she  was 
allowed  to  accompany  her  sister  to  Paris  ;  but  the  poor  father  was 
detained  at  Nancy  a  prisoner,  to  suffer  alone  agonies  of  doubt  and 
fear  for  the  fate  of  his  best-loved  daughter.  What  poor  Charlotte 
felt,  who  shall  say  ?  The  letters  must  be  left  to  speak  for  themselves, 
these  faded  letters  that  still  show  traces  of  the  many  tears  that  fell 
on  them  : 

Paris :  12  Sept. 

For  my  dear  Father, — We  arrived  here  yesterday,  dear  Papa,  all  safely  and 
in  good  health.  I  expect  I  shall  be  taken  this  morning  or  at  latest  this  afternoon 
to  my  destination,  of  which  I  am  not  yet  positively  certain.  We  were  not  able 
to  see  Andre  and  M.  Perregaux  before  yesterday,  and  the  latter  I  even  did  not 
see  at  all,  but  my  sister  has  been  to  his  house.  These  gentlemen  think  it  not 
at  all  impossible  that  you  will  soon  be  set  at  liberty,  I  wish  for  this  with  all  my 


1908  CHARLOTTE-JEANNE  1005 

heart.  Whatever  comfort  you  may  find  in  the  society  of  our  dear  companions 
in  misfortune  I  would  much  rather  know  you  at  Saulxures  where  your  country 
surroundings  would  bring  you  peaceful  and  soothing  distraction,  and  I  feel  there 
is  more  comfort  there  for  the  sorrows  of  the  soul  than  can  be  found  in  the  plea- 
santest  society.  I  am  resolved  whilst  in  prison  to  see  as  few  people  as  possible. 
I  count  on  you,  dear  father,  to  excuse  me  to  all  our  friends  of  whom  I  could  not 
take  leave  before  starting,  but  I  had  need  of  all  my  courage  and  was  afraid  of 
breaking  down.  Remember  me  above  all  to  Mesdames  Bryan  and  Masson  and 
to  our  particular  friends  and  to  my  poor  Mignon  whose  interest  in  this  affair 
has  made  my  sorrows  easier  to  bear.  I  recommend  you  above  all  to  him  and 
to  Mesdames  de  Lathier  et  Coster.  Oh,  my  father,  how  sad  I  was  to  leave  you 
and  to  leave  you  in  prison,  Mon  Dieu  !  Mon  Dieu  !  I  am  very  grateful  to  my 
gaoler,  he  has  carried  out  his  orders  with  all  possible  humanity  and  goodness. 

Andre's  General  is  at  St.  Pdagie,. where  one  is  quite  comfortable.  My  dear 
sister  has  taken  near  here  a  small  lodging,  close  to  the  house  of  your  unfortunate 
friend,  who  could  not  take  her  in,  having  hardly  a  room  to  herself  in  her  own 
house.  In  any  case  prudence  would  have  prevented  my  sister  establishing 
herself  there.  At  any  rate,  mon  ami,  all  is  for  the  best  with  the  exception  of  this 
journey  which  separates  me  perhaps  for  long  from  you  and  all  my  friends.  Dear 
Papa,  Adieu !  Ah  !  how  hard  it  is  to  write  that  word  !  I  embrace  you  with  all 
my  heart,  but  that  is  very  heavy. 

Andre,  who  has  just  arrived,  tells  us  that  I  am  to  go  at  once  to  the 
Conciergerie.  This  is  a  blessing,  as  the  affair  will  go  more  quickly. 

CHABLOTTE. 

From  her  original  prison  at  St.  Pelagic  Charlotte  was  transferred 
to  the  Conciergerie,  but  she  remained  without  news  of  her  trial  till 
the  beginning  of  October,  seeing  her  brother  and  sister  frequently,  and 
they  in  the  intervals  between  their  visits  multiplied  their  attempts 
in  her  favour  and  paid  short  and  distracted  visits  to  the  sights  and 
monuments  of  the  capital. 

The  report  has  not  yet  been  made  [wrote  Augustine  to  her  father  on  the 
24th  of  September]  because  there  has  been  a  little  holiday.  We  have  reason  to 
hope  that  it  will  be  given  soon  and  be  favourable  to  us.  If  by  any  chance  it 
turns  out  otherwise  do  not  be  disturbed,  the  one  drawback  will  be  the  prolonga- 
tion of  our  separation.  I  have  just  come  from  the  Invalides,  where  everything 
is  in  perfect  preservation  and  I  saw  every  detail.  To-morrow,  or  the  day  after, 
I  go  to  see  the  King's  Garden.  As  for  the  theatre  I  have  been  pressed  to  go 
there,  but  nothing  will  make  me  enjoy  any  of  these  things  till  my  sister  is  in 
a  state  to  accompany  me.  Till  then  it  would  seem  to  me  horrible. 

On  the  25th,  Charlotte  tried,  like  her  sister,  to  reassure  her 
poor  father  by  redoubling  her  tenderness  as  the  decisive  moment 
approached : 

I  cannot  resist  the  lively  desire  I  have  to  write  to  my  excellent  friend  whose 
dear  letter  of  the  21st  I  read  with  delight  this  morning.  It  pleased  me  for  a 
hundred  thousand  reasons.  To  begin  with  it  is  very  kind  and  shows  me  that 
he  is  in  better  health  than  I  dared  to  hope  for  at  the  moment,  and  then  it  proves 
to  me  that  I  was  not  mistaken  in  counting  on  the  affectionate  zeal  that  our 
dear  companions  in  misfortune  have  shown  in  their  endeavours  to  soften  the 
sorrow  that  our  cruel  separation  causes  my  dear  friend  and  over  which  I  grieve 
always.  I  dare  not  tell  Augustine  I  am  writing,  she  would  scold  me  since  she  has 
forbidden  me  to  do  so,  but  reflecting  that  you  suffer  as  much  as  I  do  from  this 


1006  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Dec. 

privation,  I  have  hastened  to  my  horrible  prison  bureau  for  fear  someone  might 
come  and  prevent  me  !  They  encourage  me  to  hope  that  soon  I  shall  enjoy 
the  happiness  of  embracing  you.  0  mon  Dieu  !  How  distant  is  that  moment ! 
I  beg  you  will  scold  your  daughter  when  you  write  to  her,  as  she  will  see  nothing 
and  do  nothing  while  I  am  here.  It's  a  great  pity,  as  once  this  affair  is  settled 
I  shall  certainly  not  stay  in  this  country  longer  than  is  absolutely  necessary  for 
my  portrait  to  be  done,  and  I  wish  I  had  already  had  a  sitting  that  it  might 
be  finished  the  sooner.  My  stay  in  this  town  has  greatly  increased  my  liking 
for  the  country  and  even  for  solitude.  I  think  with  joy  of  our  lovely  woods, 
our  little  sitting-room  !  All  the  same  if  you  must  continue  to  dwell  in  the  town 
I  hope  that  even  as  a  special  favour  I  shall  obtain  permission  to  re-occupy  my 
little  room  near  yours.  I  long  for  that  place,  and  I  should  find  it  very  sweet  to 
be  reunited  to  you,  cJier  bon  ami,  and  to  all  the  people  I  have  left  with  so  much 
regret.  I  had  long  hoped  that  the  three  strangers  would  obtain  their  freedom, 
but  your  last  letter  to  our  friend  has  proved  the  contrary.  I  pity  with  all  my 
heart  that  interesting  Mrs.  Bryan  for  whom  I  have  a  real  affection.  Tell  her 
so,  I  beg  of  you.  Were  I  only  happy  enough  to  be  of  some  use  to  her  here, 
I  should  not  so  much  regret  this  odious  journey.  When  you  write  to  ma  bonne 
amie,  ask  her  what  has  become  of  the  young  flute -player.  I  am  very  glad  he 
is  not  here  with  me.  Adieu,  mon  excellent  ami,  if  I  see  you  soon  I  shall  no 
longer  believe  that  happiness  is  a  myth.  I  embrace  you  with  all  my  heart  and 
I  entreat  you  to  take  care  of  your  precious  health.  I  see  Andre  every  day  and 
sometimes  he  shares  my  breakfast.  He  does  his  utmost  for  me  and  he  is  more 
generous  than  I  could  have  been.  I  am  very  grateful  to  him. 

CHARLOTTE. 

Meantime  the  end  was  approaching.  The  delays  there  had  been 
up  to  now  in  judging  the  prisoner  were  caused  by  the  Revolutionary 
Tribunal  being  absorbed  by  two  other  affairs  which  excited  public 
enthusiasm  and  in  the  echoes  of  which  hers  was  overlooked.  In  the 
Conciergerie,  Charlotte  de  Rutant  found  herself  the  neighbour  of 
the  Queen  of  France  and  the  Girondins  whose  cases  were  proceeding 
at  the  same  time  as  hers  and  were  to  be  judged  shortly  after.  Never- 
theless she  was  not  forgotten.  On  the  13th  of  September  she  under- 
went a  preliminary  examination  before  the  Judge  Dobsent,  as  a 
sequel  to  which  the  suspicious  writings  were  put  in  the  hands  of  two 
experts,  Joseph  Harget  and  Nicholas  Blin.  On  the  29th  of  September 
the  experts  published  their  report,  where  they  stated  that  the  incrimi- 
nating letter  had  been  written  by  the  same  hand  as  the  washing-bill 
and  the  translation  of  the  Letters  of  Junius.  Thereupon  Fouquier- 
Tinville  drew  up  his  act  of  accusation  which  was  communicated 
to  Charlotte  the  2nd  of  October,  as  she  tells  us  herself  : 

October  2nd. 

I  have  received  my  act  of  accusation  this  morning.  Very  soon  I  shall  be 
judged,  and  the  knowledge  I  have  of  these  judges,  the  examples  I  have  before 
my  eyes  every  day,  do  not  leave  me  much  reason  to  hope.  I  think  they  would 
have  had  no  pretext  to  accuse  me,  had  they  been  just ;  but  they  are  far  from 
deserving  this  title  and  I  expect  the  worst.  I  have  long  desired  exile  in  the 
hopes  of  living  in  a  country  where  they  know  how  to  obey  the  laws  and  where 
they  have  some  sort  of  courage  in  which  the  whole  of  France  is  lacking.  Now 
that  I  know  that  I  may  have  to  stay  in  prison,  in  this  most  dreadful  town,  until 
the  time  of  exile,  I  feel  I  should  prefer  a  more  speedy  death  ;  which  would  afflict 


1908  CHARLOTTE-JEANNE  1007 

you  but  would  at  least  not  cause  you  the  terrible  fears  that  you  cannot  help 
having,  knowing  me  here  or  at  the  Salpetri^re.  All  the  same  you  must  get 
used  to  this  idea,  as  I  shall  not  have  the  choice  of  punishment.  Whatever  my 
sentence  may  be,  I  shall  hear  it  without  fear  or  shrinking  and  undergo  it  in  a  way 
that  will  be  worthy  of  my  unfortunate  father  and  myself.  Neither  you,  monami, 
or  any  of  our  friends  who  have  shown  me  so  much  affection  shall  have  reason  to 
blush  for  me,  I  swear  it !  Do  not  give  way  to  too  much  grief,  remember  that 
you  have  still  two  children  who  deserve,  more  than  you  can  possibly  think, 
all  your  tenderness.  Ah  !  mon  Dieu  !  how  dear  they  both  are  to  me.  Tell  them 
so,  my  father,  and  the  three  of  you  console  each  other.  If  I  die  (which  they 
do  not  yet  think  to  be  the  case)  I  only  regret  life  because  I  should  leave  behind 
me  relations  and  friends  who  will  still  suffer  many  evils,  it  is  all  I  see  !  If  I  am 
only  exiled  I  have  heard  this  evening  that  the  prison  in  which  I  am  most  likely 
to  be  detained  until  the  peace  is  not  even  as  severe  as  this  one.  One  of  my 
companions  was  sent  there  yesterday  and  is  very  pleased.  That  is  a  ray  of 
hope  for  you,  mon  bon,  mon  excellent  Pi-re,  As  for  me,  deprived  of  the  happiness 
of  seeing  you,  it  matters  little  where  I  live.  If  I  only  had  the  prospect  of  sharing 
your  solitude,  until  the  time  they  wish  to  send  me  further,  I  should  be  too  happy. 
Bonsoir,  mon  cher  bon  Ami,  until  the  decisive  moment  I  shall  write  to  you  every 
day.  I  met  here  the  citizens  Dupret  and  Mainviel  who  have  shown  me  much 
kindly  interest.  They  are  Girondins.  They  maintain  my  courage  by  praising 
it  more  than  it  deserves,  and  I  love  them  for  it. 

October  3rd. 

I  have  seen  my  counsel  this  morning,  mon  tendre  Pere,  he  thinks  your  daughter 
will  be  spared.  I  do  not  dare  adopt  this  idea,  it  is  too  consoling,  but  whatever 
the  fate  in  store  for  me,  if  I  could  but  see  you  again,  and  if  but  once  again  I  could 
feel  myself  clasped  in  your  arms  it  would  be  more  than  joy.  My  two  good 
friends,  Augustine  and  Andre,  work  and  agitate  for  me  with  all  their  hearts  and 
I  feel  deeply  all  they  do  for  me.  In  this  case  gratitude  is  so  sweet  that  I  hope 
all  my  life  never  to  discharge  my  debt  to  them.  I  entreat  you  to  be  brave,  0  mon 
meilleur  Ami,  who  is  there  who  does  not  need  to  be  so  in  these  times  ?  There  are 
some  who  have  no  single  consolation  left  to  help  them  bear  their  life,  you  have 
still  two.  Adieu,  Mon  Ami. 

On  this  same  3rd  of  October,  the  Minister  of  Justice,  Gohier,  incited 
without  doubt  by  some  denunciation,  wrote  to  Fouquier-Tinville 
to  ask  for  news  of  the  prisoner  from  Nancy.  '  Citizen !  Charlotte 
de  Rutant  has  been  convicted  of  correspondence  with  the  enemy, 
I  do  not  know  where  she  is,  but  I  demand  if  she  is  not  in  Paris  she 
should  be  taken  there  at  once.'  Gohier's  letter  bears  the  following 
endorsement :  '  Answered  the  4th,  that  the  evidence  has  been  received 
and  that  the  girl  Rutant  shall  be  judged  on  Saturday,  5th.' 

Augustine  and  Andre  redoubled  their  efforts,  multiplied  their 
applications,  prodigal  with  money  at  this  critical  moment.  In  a 
short  and  convincing  pamphlet,  entitled  Observations  rapides  d'apres 
lesquelles  il  ne  pent  y  avoir  lieu  a  accusation  contre  Charlotte  Rutant, 
the  untiring  sister  made  the  remarks  I  have  already  quoted  on  the 
writing  and  composition  of  the  intercepted  letter,  adding  another 
very  truthful  one  on  the  character  of  Charlotte  herself.  '  The  Letters 
of  Junius?  she  says,  '  speak  in  her  favour.  One  must  love  liberty 
very  much  and  very  honestly  to  find  pleasure  in  the  perusal  of  the 
writings  of  one  who  denounced  so  vigorously  the  excess  and  abuse 


1008  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

of  power.'  Charlotte  let  them  do  their  best  and  thanked  them, 
receiving  with  sweetness  the  words  of  hope  and  marks  of  sympathy 
showered  on  her  by  the  witnesses  of  her  courage  and  misfortune, 
particularly  by  the  daughter  of  the  concierge  Richard  and  by  the 
two  Girondins,  with  whom  she  conversed  every  day  through  the 
grating  that  at  the  Conciergerie  separated  the  men  and  the  women. 
But  she  had  little  hope,  and  thought  only  of  meeting  the  supreme 
trial  with  courage  : 

Oct.  4th.     Apres-midi. 

To-morrow,  without  fail,  my  fate  will  be  decided,  mon  excellent  Pere,  and  as 
I  require  all  my  courage  to  stand  and  face  a  crowd  of  people  mostly  more  disposed 
to  severity  than  mercy,  I  will  not  write  to  you  to-morrow  morning.  This  is 
very  likely  the  last  letter  I  shall  ever  write  to  you,  for  if  they  condemn  me  to 
perpetual  imprisonment  I  shall  be  deprived  of  this  one  consolation.  If  this 
letter  reaches  you  and  if  you  cannot  look  forward  to  the  happiness  of  embracing 
your  poor  Charlotte,  rest  assured  that  at  least  faith  and  honour,  which  she 
will  never  lose  sight  of,  will  sustain  her  hi  any  case.  Courage  !  and  still  more 
courage  and  resignation  !  and  God,  to  whom  I  pray  without  ceasing  for  my 
Father  and  my  friends,  will  not  abandon  us  !  Say  Farewell  to  all  for  me,  mon 
Ami.  If  it  is  beyond  my  power  to  see  them  again,  let  them  know  at  least  that 
I  always  think  of  them  and  shall  never  forget  them.  I  trust  to  your  goodness 
to  execute  the  wishes  of  your  unhappy  daughter,  with  the  exception  of  that 
concerning  Augustine.  As  my  property  will  be  confiscated,  it  is  no  longer 
possible.  Console  my  sister,  my  dearly-loved  sister,  whose  grief  tortures  me. 
You  must  yet  be  happy,  mon  meilleur  Ami,  in  making  the  happiness  of  your 
two  devoted  children.  If  you  deserve  to  be  their  Father,  they  are  also  worthy 
of  being  your  children. 

This  letter,  interrupted  by  Augustine's  advent,  was  finished  in  the 
evening  : 

Friday  night. 

I  have  just  spent  a  little  more  time  with  my  dear  sister,  mon  cher  Papa ;  she 
has  told  me  nothing.  She  spoke  to  me  only  from  the  fulness  of  her  heart.  Adieu  ! 
mon  Pere,  mon  Ami,  Adieu  pour  jamais,  Adieu  !  I  have  so  much  trust  in  God 
that  I  am  quite  calm  and  quite  resigned.  Remember  me  and  say  Farewell  to  all 
those  who  have  had  the  goodness  to  be  interested  in  my  misfortunes.  It  is  to 
them  and  to  their  loving  care  I  leave  you. 

CHABLOTTE  DE  RUTANT. 

These  are  the  last  words  of  Charlotte  de  Rutant  that  ever  reached 
Lorraine.  They  are  written  with  as  firm  a  hand  as  the  Letters  of 
Junius,  but  another  trembling  hand  has  written  on  top  of  the  first  page 
'  The  two  last  letters  of  my  dear  Charlotte.'  The  paper  is  all  stained. 
It  is  a  relic  that  has  been  cherished  with  many  prayers  and  many  tears. 

Many  writers  have  described  the  hall  where  the  Revolutionary 
Tribunal  sat  in  judgment  and  the  proceedings  of  the  Court,  but 
of  personal  description  of  the  trial  of  Charlotte  de  Rutant  there  is 
but  little  to  be  found.  Her  relations'  letters  were  very  guarded 
and  reticent,  possibly  from  motives  of  prudence.  From  the  official 
report  of  the  case  we  learn  that  she  appeared  before  the  tribunal 
the  5th  of  October  1793.  Dobsent  presided,  but  the  real  power  lay 
in  the  hands  of  Fouquier-Tinville,  the  Public  Prosecutor.  She  was 


1908  CHARLOTTE-JEANNE  1009 

immediately  preceded  by  two  cattle  drivers,  the  brothers  Bellenger, 
who  returning  to  their  country  after  taking  cattle  to  Metz  for  pro- 
visioning the  army  had  passed  through  Paris.  Lost  in  the  city  they 
had  inquired  for  an  inn  and  were  taken  to  one  by  the  citizen  Jean 
Denis,  called  '  Sans-Chagrin,'  with  whom  they  drank  freely  and 
whose  drinks  they  paid  for.  After  which  Sans-Chagrin  denounced 
them  as  having  said  that  they  would  avenge  the  death  of  the  King, 
and  place  the  Dauphin  on  the  throne,  and  that  Charlotte  Corday  was 
a  good  woman  who  had  done  well  to  slay  a  blackguard.  The  two 
unfortunates  condemned  to  death  protested  that  they  were  not 
Royalists  but  good  Republicans.  All  the  way  to  the  scaffold  they 
never  stopped  shouting  Vive  la  Rdpublique. 

This  shows  how  much  the  citizen  Sans-Chagrin  was  to  be  believed 
and  also  the  tendency  of  the  tribunal  that  was  to  judge  Charlotte 
de  Rutant.  This  is  the  resume  of  her  examination  : 

To  the  questions  asking  her  name,  country,  family,  &c.,  she  an- 
swered that  she  was  called  Charlotte-Jeanne  de  Rutant,  that  she  was 
twenty-two  years  old,  that  she  lived  with  her  father,  a  ci-devant  noble 
at  Saulxures,  that  she  had  a  brother  and  sister  both  unmarried,  that 
her  brother  was  aged  twenty-four,  and  in  Paris  as  aide-de-camp  to 
General  Biron  and  on  leave  because  of  wounds.  She  again  denied  any 
knowledge  of  the  intercepted  letter  and  the  paper  seized  by  Laplaigne. 

Charlotte  said  she  had  no  correspondence  with  the  emigres  since 
May  1792,  that  before  that  she  wrote  to  Mme.  d'Absac  at  Luxembourg. 

On  being  asked  her  opinion  and  her  father's  on  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, she  replied  that  her  father  and  she  desired  only  their  own  tran- 
quillity and  the  peace  and  happiness  of  France.  Asked  if  they  received 
much  company,  replied,  '  Very  little,  more  women  than  men.'  Asked 
if  she  knew  that  at  Luxembourg  they  were  working  for  the  dismember- 
ment of  France,  answered  that  no  one  had  told  her  so.  Asked  if  she 
had  spoken  ill  of  the  patriots,  replied  that  the  patriots  had  done  her 
no  harm,  that  before  her  arrest  the  commissioners  had  not  hurt  her, 
and  that  she  never  called  them  monsters. 

No  other  witnesses  were  examined  and  no  evidence  was  required 
beyond  the  papers  covered  with  pale  writing,  that  had  become  almost 

[invisible  since  the  month  of  May,  and  the  note  found  in  the  ball  of  silk. 
The  charge,  which  a  clerk  read  out,  was  short  and  limited  to  the  dis- 
covery of  the  two  documents,  especially  the  first  and  most  incrimi- 
nating. 

'  What  can  still  be  read,'  said  Fouquier-Tinville,  *  proves  easily 
enough  the  tendency  of  the  author.  It  appears  this  letter  was  ad- 
dressed by  the  said  Charlotte  Rutant  to  one  of  her  exiled  relations 
and  that  they  plotted  together  for  means  to  destroy  the  Republic, 
which  is  sufficiently  proved  by  contents  of  aforesaid  letter,  &c.' 

After  some  remarks  of  the  defendant's  counsel,  Chaveau-Lagarde, 
the  two  following  questions  were  put  to  the  jury  : 


1010  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Dec. 

(1)  Is  it  certain  that  in  the  department  of  the  Meurthe  it  has 
been  customary  to  keep  up  a  system  of  information  and  plotting  with 
the  enemies  of  France  with  a  view  of  favouring  the  success  of  their 
arms  on  Republican  territory  ? 

(2)  Is  Charlotte-Jeanne  Rutant  convicted  of  having  taken  part 
in  this  understanding,  in  having  kept  up  a  correspondence  with  the 
enemies  of  the  Republic  ? 

The  reply  consists  of  a  short  sentence,  signed  Dobsent :  '  The 
jury  declares  in  the  affirmative  on  the  above  questions,  the  5th  of 
October  1793.' 

Sentence  was  immediately  passed.  What  it  was  and  how  it  was 
executed  the  official  report  of  the  officer  Tirrart  leaves  us,  alas,  in  no 
possible  doubt : 

I,  Tirrart,  the  usher  of  the  Criminal  Tribunal,  was  present  in  the  Court  of 
Justice  of  said  Tribunal  to  witness  the  execution  of  the  sentence  passed  by  the 
Tribunal  yesterday,  the  5th,  against  the  prisoner  Charlotte -Jeanne  Rutant  that 
condemned  her  to  death,  whereupon  we  delivered  her  to  the  executioner  of  capital 
sentences  and  to  the  gendarmerie,  who  led  her  to  the  '  Place  de  la  Revolution ' 
of  this  city,  where  on  a  scaffold  erected  in  the  said  '  place,'  the  said  Charlotte - 
Jeanne  de  Rutant  in  our  presence  suffered  the  penalty  of  death. 

TIBRART  (Signed). 

This  was  entered   under  the  heading  '  Official  report  on  execution 
of  death  sentence — 1793,  2e  year  of  the  Republique.' 

In  the  original  French  many  curious  mistakes  are  to  be  noticed. 
There  is  no  month  given  and  Charlotte- Jeanne  is  mentioned  twice 
over  as  '  he.'  The  guillotine  and  its  agents  were  as  yet  only  accus- 
tomed to  masculine  victims.  Charlotte  was  the  fifth  woman  condemned 
to  death  by  the  Revolutionary  Tribunal,  the  second  since  Charlotte 
Corday  and  the  immediate  predecessor  of  Marie-Antoinette,  who 
followed  her  to  the  scaffold  after  an  interval  of  ten  days,  as  though 
Fouquier-Tinville  wished  to  strengthen  his  hand  with  practice  before 
striking  his  greatest  victim. 

The  years  have  passed  away.  The  generation  that  remembered 
the  Revolution  no  longer  exists,  old  memories,  old  traditions,  all  have 
faded,  and  now  in  her  beloved  Saulxures  only  a  few  very  old  people 
recall  the  stories  they  have  heard  of  '  Mademoiselle  Charlotte,'  and  tell 
with  reverence  the  tales  of  the  goodness  and  bravery  of  the  family 
of  the  ci-devant  lords  of  the  soil.  For  now,  alas,  strangers  live  at  the  old 
chateau  and  the  family  of  de  Rutant  is  extinct.  But  Charlotte  deserves 
to  be  not  quite  forgotten,  at  least  in  her  native  land  ;  so  long  as  there 
are  any  left  who  can  feel  pity  for  such  tragic  destinies  or  admiration 
for  the  high  courage  that  could  enable  a  mere  girl  to  meet  a  shameful 
death  with  as  much  bravery  as  any  of  the  heroes  of  Lorraine  who  fell 
facing  the  foe  on  the  field  of  battle — and  whose  fame  will  live  in  prose 
and  verse  for  ever. 

GWENDOLINE  BELLEW. 


1908 


THE    AMATEUR    ARTIST 


'  THEY  viewed  the  country  with  the  eyes  of  persons  accustomed  to 
drawing,  and  decided  on  its  capability  of  being  formed  into  pictures 
with  all  the  eagerness  of  real  taste.  A  lecture  on  the  picturesque 
followed,  and  he  talked  of  foregrounds,  distances  and  second  distances, 
side  screens  and  perspectives.' 

Mr.  Tilney  was  the  '  he,'  and  he  was  talking  to  Catherine  Morland. 
How  intelligent  and  interesting  their  conversation  sounds  !  Does  the 
young  lady  of  to-day  hear  the  like  observations  from  her  partners  ? 
Does  she  even  know  the  exact  meaning  of  '  side  screens  '  and  '  second 
distances  '  herself  ? 

The  period  of  Mr.  Tilney  is  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  but 
it  is  bridged  over  for  us ;  we  can  still  meet  with  those  who  were  the 
young  ladies  of  the  sixties  and  fifties,  and  who  retained  in 
some  measure  the  Tilney  tradition.  We  can  still  see  their  water- 
colour  sketches  and,  by  looking  at  these  products  of  the  Victorian 
era,  we  become  more  conscious  of  the  decay  of  amateur  art  in 
our  own. 

It  is  evident  that  in  Mr.  Tilney's  eyes  the  choice  of  a  suitable 
subject  and  the  making  of  a  picture,  not  a  study,  were  the  principal 
points  of  importance  to  the  artist.  This  tradition  continued  for 
another  fifty  years  or  so  ;  and  if  the  amateurs  of  the  later  date  did 
not  set  themselves  to  work  with  quite  the  same  cold-blooded  para- 
phernalia of  second  distances,  side  screens,  and  perspectives,  still 
they  looked  for  a  subject  that  would  make  a  picture.  Ruins  had  an 
almost  fatal  attraction  for  them ;  rustic  bridges,  groups  of  forest 
trees  with  glimpses  of  historic  mansions,  rocky  dells  (happily  not 
quite  so  frequent),  lakes  romantically  surrounded  by  hills — such 
were  the  subjects  that  appealed  to  them.  The  chosen  subjects 
of  to-day  are  only  too  well  known ;  the  wide  stretch  of  sea  and 
sand,  the  solitary  haystack,  the  marshland  with  the  horizon  lying 
very  high  up,  and  the  bit  of  road  leading  from  nowhere  to 
nowhere. 

From  a  recent  study  of  an  amateur  exhibition  I  find  that  the 
attitude  towards  the  picture  which  has  a  definitely  composed  subject 

1011 


1012  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

is  not  only  one  of  distaste  but  of  strong  moral  condemnation,  because 
a  definitely  composed  subject  is  not  a  humble  and  reverent  study  of 
nature.  But  to  my  mind  the  old-fashioned  amateur  water-colour 
sketches  showed  in  some  respects  a  more  genuine  observation  of 
nature  than  do  those  of  the  present  day.  In  spite  of  their  disregard 
of  tone,  these  early  water  colours  breathe  a  real  sense  of  beauty, 
a  feeling  not  only  for  a  pleasing  composition,  but  for  harmonious 
colouring  and  delicate  outline. 

Harmonious  !  delicate  !  Did  ever  anyone  hear  such  words  at 
a  Government  school  of  art  ?  '  Strong  '  and  '  bold  '  were  the  only 
complimentary  adjectives  I  ever  heard  applied,  and  the  more  muddy 
the  colour  and  undefined  the  form,  the  '  stronger  '  the  picture  appeared 
to  become. 

Sixty  years  ago,  when  the  amateur  studied  art,  she  began  by 
drawing  outlines  ;  later,  these  outlines  were  shaded  in  pencil ;  then 
followed  studies  in  sepia  ;  and  finally  she  arrived  at  water-colour 
painting.  Oils  were  unsuitable  for  ladies  ;  there  was  something  pro- 
fessional, almost  indecorous,  about  them.  I  cannot  but  feel  that 
the  early  Victorians  showed  some  of  their  usual  good  sense  in  this 
opinion. 

In  the  Tilney  period  there  was,  I  suppose,  a  traditional 
standard  of  elegance  and  taste ;  there  was  a  conventional  scheme 
of  colouring  which  the  amateur  would  naturally  make  use  of ; 
no  violent  colouring  was  seemly  in  water  colours.  Sixty  years 
later  you  still  painted  the  summer  foliage  in  raw  sienna  and  the 
grass  in  yellow  ochre,  feeling,  I  believe,  as  strong  a  conviction 
of  the  accuracy  of  your  representation  of  nature,  as  do  the  students 
of  our  day  with  their  unmitigated  greens — a  conviction,  perhaps, 
not  altogether  unjustifiable. 

We  may  say  roughly  that  the  difference  between  the.  old  tradition 
of  amateur  art  and  our  own  is  that  the  past  generation  aimed  at 
representing  beauty,  we  at  representing  truth.  Needless  to  say  we 
have  none  of  us  attained  our  ideal,  but  I  think  that  the  ideal  they 
set  before  themselves  was  the  more  suitable  one.  They  very  frequently 
produced  something  that  was  pretty.  I  never  can  understand  why 
people  object  to  having  their  pictures  called  pretty,  by  which  I  mean 
beautiful  in  a  rather  limited  and  conventional  sense.  It  is  something 
definite  to  have  attained  even  to  prettiness,  and  not  many  of  us  get 
much  further.  We  feel  that  after  thirty  years  of  art  schools  there 
should  be  many  thousands  of  women  who  know  and  like  what  is 
pretty,  or  who,  at  any  rate,  know  and  dislike  what  is  flagrantly 
hideous.  How  is  it,  then,  that  motor  caps,  the  modern  artistic 
photographs,  electric  light,  the  fancy  department  at  the  Army 
and  Navy  Stores  (to  name  at  random  a  few  abuses),  are  still 
amongst  our  most  popular  institutions  ?  It  seems  as  if  our  art 
education  had  done  but  little  to  form  taste.  Have  we*  had  a  really 


1908  THE   AMATEUR  ARTIST  1018 

artistic  and  beautiful  style  of  dress  since  the  death  of  the  last 
crinoline,  or  a  really  distinguished  style  of  doing  the  hair  since  the 
days  of  the  chignon  ?  Have  we  made  any  protest  against  the  growth 
of  advertisements  or  the  demolition  of  the  remnants  of  beauty  in  the 
suburbs  ? 

I  have  spoken  in  this  paper  of  the  student  as  '  she,'  because  the 
amateur  artist  is  generally  a  woman,  or  perhaps,  one  might  put  it, 
because  the  women  artists  are  generally  amateurs.  I  have  occasionally 
tried  to  find  out  what  becomes  of  the  innumerable  figures  in  long 
pinafores  that  idle  away  their  time  so  gaily  for  a  few  years  in  the 
schools  of  art.  Do  they  generally  become  professional  artists  ?  No 
the  greater  number  of  them  drift  into  philanthropy,  matrimony,  or 
inactivity.  Therefore,  in  considering  the  art  education  given  to 
women,  we  must  think  of  it  generally  as  given  to  amateurs,  and  the 
amateur's  art  education  is  to  my  mind  fully  as  important  as  the 
professional's. 

There  is  a  tendency  nowadays  to  look  down  on  amateurs  and 
to  drive  anyone  with  a  little  talent  into  the  ranks  of  unsuccessful 
professionals.  We  can  imagine  that  if  Jane  Eyre  had  been  showing 
her  portfolio,  with  its  curious  collection  of  corpses,  cormorants,  and 
heads  inclined  on  icebergs,  in  the  year  1909,  Mr.  Rochester  would 
have  said,  '  Oh,  but  you  ought  to  take  it  up  professionally  ;  you  ought 
to  go  and  study  at  a  school  of  art,'  and  we  may  guess  that  once  at 
the  school  of  art  there  would  have  been  no  more  curious  things  to 
show ;  the  masters  would  have  been  too  puzzled.  It  took,  indeed, 
much  less  to  puzzle  them.  The  subjects  for  the  Sketch-Club  had  in 
my  time  to  be  almost  exclusively  taken  from  the  Old  Testament, 
out  of  consideration  for  their  limitations.  On  one  occasion  Sintram 
was  chosen ;  but  the  criticism  was  so  ambiguous  that  it  was  found 
necessary  to  return  to  Abraham  and  Isaac. 

The  amateur  should  learn  from  her  artistic  education  to  find 
pleasure  in  natural  beauty,  in  good  pictures,  and  in  architecture  ;  she 
should,  in  fact,  try  and  recover  and  transmit  to  her  descendants  the 
elegant  tastes  of  Mr.  Tilney.  Does  the  education  she  receives  at  the 
schools  of  art  help  her  to  do  this  ? 

The  student  on  first  arriving  has  probably  in  her  head  the  old- 
fashioned  notion  of  an  outline  to  be  coloured,  but  this  is  instantly 
dispelled ;  for  in  as  far  as  the  schools  have  any  ruling  principle  it  is 
that  there  are  no  lines  anywhere,  but  only  different  masses  of  tone. 
She  is  plunged  into  difficulties  of  light  and  shade  before  her  eye  has 
had  any  training  in  proportion,  and  for  months  she  is  floundering  about 
trying  to  acquire  two  terribly  difficult  ideas  at  the  same  time.  Now, 
as  most  women  are  without  a  natural  sense  of  form,  she  will  probably 
emerge  with  some  understanding  of  tone,  and  none  whatever  of 
drawing.  I  was  confronted  at  the  beginning  of  my  studies  with 
VOL,  LX1V— No.  382  3  Y 


1014  TEE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

a  colossal  mouth.  Could  anything  be  more  unsuitable  for  the 
beginner  than  an  object  swelled  beyond  all  proportion  and  taken 
out  from  its  proper  surroundings  ?  After  some  studies  in  charcoal 
of  chunks  of  the  human  frame,  I  was  set  to  do  charcoal  heads  from 
the  antique.  After  all  too  few  of  these  I  was  provided  with  stumps, 
and  then  came  hours  and  hours  and  days  and  days  of  work  upon  one 
head,  of  finishing  when  one  had  scarcely  knowledge  enough  to  begin  ; 
and  oh !  how  weary  were  the  five  hours  at  the  studio  for  those  whose 
irrepressible  consciences  forced  them  to  work.  The  next  stage  was  to 
stump  the  heads  of  models  ;  the  model  came  for  a  month,  and  we 
stumped  his  head  for  sixty  hours.  Then  came  drawing  from  the  full- 
length  model.  Here  all  would  have  been  interesting  had  we  been  allowed 
to  vary  the  poses,  but  the  models  generally  refused  to  do  anything 
but  sit  classically  or  stand  heroically  with  a  pointer  in  the  hand, 
and  it  was  considered  rather  inhumane  to  ask  them  even  for  a  back 
view.  The  final  stage  of  the  curriculum  was  of  course  oil  painting 
from  life.  There  was  no  attempt  at  differentiation  of  the  pupils  ; 
we  were  all  regarded  in  the  light  of  embryo  portrait  painters.  '  But,' 
said  the  amateur  of  fifty  years  ago — now  an  old  lady  with  an  interest 
in  art — '  do  you  want  to  paint  portraits  ?  '  '  No,'  said  I ;  'I  want 
to  do  landscapes.'  '  But  why  don't  they  teach  you  that  ?  When 
I  was  young  we  had  a  master  who  took  us  out  to  paint  from 
nature.' 

It  is  true  that  one  summer  we  did  have  some  sketching  lessons 
once  a  week,  but  they  were  not  considered  an  important  part  of  our 
art  training,  and  we  had  the  same  harassed  master  with  too  many 
pupils  and  three  minutes  to  bestow  on  each.  At  the  first  lesson  he 
selected,  my  subject  for  me,  after  which  I  was  considered  to  have 
received  sufficient  instruction  on  this  most  important  point,  and 
henceforth  chose  for  myself,  one  lank  fir-tree  emerging  from  a 
shrubbery,  a  sand-pit  covered  with  ragwort,  and  the. like.  I  was 
told  to  put  a  few  dots  and  dashes  to  '  place  my  sketch,'  and  then  to 
fill  my  brush  chock-full  of  colour  and  water,  and  put  in  what  I  saw 
'  straight  away.'  But  it  needs  a  very  skilful  water  colourist  to  manipu- 
late a  large  brush  slopping  over  with  wet  paint ;  even  if  I  had  had 
an  outline  to  go  by,  I  should  have  streamed  about  all  over  it.  As  it 
was,  I  put  in  a  general  impression,  which  even  to  my  inexperienced 
eye  was  quite  unlike  what  I  saw,  covered  up  my  paper  somehow, 
and  had  finished. 

Of  course  the  idea  of  '  putting  in '  your  picture  irrevocably  right 
at  the  first  moment  is  the  proper  ambition  of  every  painter,  but  it 
is  quite  impossible  for  the  beginner  to  attempt  it,  and  attempting 
the  impossible  makes  her  perforce  content  with  a  lower  standard 
than  is  necessary. 

"We  remember  in  Miss  Yonge's  novels  the  heroine  takes  up  her 


1908  THE  AMATEUR   ARTIST  1015 

pencil  to  draw  with  loving  hand  the  venerable  tower  of  the  cathe- 
dral. That  was  the  day  of  the  Gothic  revival,  and  no  heroine  but 
could  tell  the  differences  of  Decorated  and  Perpendicular  at  a  glance. 
Students  of  our  day  do  not  learn  about  architecture  :  it  might  be 
the  Chinese  revival  for  all  they  know.  A  building  is  for  them  simply 
a  mass  of  tone,  and  any  detail  would  be  '  breaking  up  '  and  worrying 
the  mass.  We  were  never  given  any  instruction  in  the  history  of  art, 
the  old  masters  might  have  been  non-existent  for  all  we  heard  of 
them. 

The  only  really  delightful  and  interesting  part  of  the  instruction 
was  the  design  class  once  a  week.  It  was  not  compulsory,  and  we 
chose  our  own  subjects  and  worked  at  them  as  we  liked.  The  general 
tendency  in  subjects  in  my  time  was  towards  the  Pied  Piper  or  herds 
of  swine  throwing  themselves  into  the  sea. 

It  is  always  easier  to  find  out  the  faults  of  a  system  than  to  suggest 
remedies.  But  it  would  be  a  real  improvement,  I  think,  to  have  more 
variety  in  the  course ;  to  make  studies  of  flowers,  of  drapery,  of  archi- 
tectural ornaments ;  to  copy  drawings  of  the  old  masters,  to  visit 
the  National  Gallery  in  the  company  of  a  master  and  be  taught  to 
study  the  style  of  different  artists  ;  to  be  made  to  pose  the  model, 
and  to  learn  the  composition  of  groups  of  figures  by  the  posing  of 
several  students  together. 

But  to  my  mind  reform  is  most  needed  in  the  matter  of  the  master's 
daily  visit ;  the  master  whose  pathetic  and  imperturbable  politeness  to 
all  the  students  was  a  convincing  proof  of  his  lack  of  interest  in  any. 

At  the  beginning  of  her  career  the  student  wants  someone  buzzing 
at  her  elbow  every  five  minutes,  as  her  drawing  will  continually  be 
wrong,  and  she  will  have  no  knowledge  of  her  own  to  enable  her  to 
correct  it.  In  due  course  a  power  of  self-criticism  comes,  and  she 
should  not  need  a  master  to  tell  her  she  has  made  one  eye  larger 
than  the  other ;  and,  as  she  progresses,  she  wants  more  and  more  time 
to  herself  to  work  out  her  own  style  and  her  own  ideas.  But  at  what- 
ever stage  she  is,  the  master  appears  with  clockwork  regularity  to 
give  her  a  lesson  of  two  minutes.  Would  not  half  an  hour  once  a  week 
have  been  of  far  more  value  to  her  ?  She  could  then  have  shown 
him  work  that  was  really  her  own ;  she  could  have  received  the  en- 
tirely individual  attention  which  is  felt  to  be  essential  in  the  teaching 
of  the  other  arts.  None  of  my  school  of  art  teachers  made  me  feel 
that  my  progress  was  a  thing  of  supreme  importance  to  them,  nor  did 
they  make  me  feel  it  was  of  supreme  importance  to  myself.  Yet 
surely  the  only  really  essential  part  of  teaching  is  to  fill  the  student 
with  an  overmastering  enthusiasm. 

The  student  who  has  attained  an  average  amount  of  proficiency 
at  the  beneficent  institution  blessed  by  our  Government  may,  on 
leaving,  be  capable  of  doing  a  third-rate  portrait  under  a  master's 

3*2 


1016  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

eye.  With  this  knowledge  she  begins  to  paint  landscapes  from  nature 
with  no  one  to  help  her.  The  Victorian  amateurs  had,  as  I  have 
said,  tradition  to  help  them:  they  worked  with  masters  who  had 
inherited  certain  styles  of  painting  from  the  great  landscape  painters 
of  former  days.  The  students  of  to-day  have  no  opportunity  of 
knowing  the  favourite  styles  of  our  school  of  art  masters,  because 
they  did  not  paint  before  the  pupils,  and  they  did  not  direct  us  to 
have  any  style.  I  am  told  that  at  the  Ecole  des  Beaux- Arts  at  Paris 
a  rigid  conformity  of  style  is  insisted  on  and  no  individuality  is  en- 
couraged in  the  student.  It  may  be  thought  that  this  would  result 
in  a  crushing  of  all  originality;  but  real  originality  and  character 
will  always  come  out,  and  will  be  strengthened  by  the  student  having 
thoroughly  mastered  one  style  of  technique. 

I  see  in  those  old  water  colours  the  strong  influence  of  Prout, 
de  Windt,  and  the  charming  and  much  despised  Birkett  Foster. 
The  towns  of  the  amateur  ladies  have  caught  from  Prout  his  romantic 
spirit ;  they  might  be  towns  of  ballads  and  fairy  tales  ;  whereas  in 
our  modern  sketches  of  streets  one  can  only  feel  that  if  a  motor-car 
came  round  the  corner  no  one  need  be  surprised.  De  Windt  taught 
our  predecessors  the  beauty  of  the  heavy  richness  of  August  foliage  ; 
Birkett  Foster,  the  delight  of  the  multitudes  of  small  leaves  casting 
little  spots  of  shadow  on  the  ground.  What  a  real  joy  the  old  artists 
had  in  the  scenes  they  painted  !  I  think  it  must  be  on  that  account 
that  they  seem  so  real.  WThen  I  feel  the  peace  of  English  villages 
or  the  luxuriance  of  summer  leaves  I  am  often  reminded  of  these 
old  water  colours.  I  am  never  reminded  of  the  modern  ones  even 
by  nature  in  her  ugliest  moods. 

Our  modern  amateurs  would  despise  the  idea  of  this  or  that  subject 
being  suitable  for  them ;  they  do,  indeed,  '  rush  in  where  angels 
fear  to  tread.'  Who  has  not  seen  their  representations  of  heather 
with  purple  hills  in  the  distance — of  June  in  all  its  greenness  spread 
out  under  the  most  cobalt  of  skies  ?  In  composition  they  have  had 
practically  no  training.  If  you  are  continually  doing  a  life-size  head 
on  a  certain  sized  canvas,  all  the  composition  you  can  get  will  be 
the  moving  of  the  head  half  an  inch  to  one  side  or  another.  The  art 
of  composition,  which  consists  in  eliminating  certain  things  from 
the  landscape  and  adding  others,  is  rejected  by  this  generation  as 
unworthy.  Truth,  not  beauty,  is  their  aim.  Truth  and  beauty  may 
be  essentially  one,  but  it  would  be  rash  to  say  that  the  truth  of  the 
modern  amateurs  has  any  connection  with  beauty.  It  is  all  very 
well  for  established  artists  like  Brangwyn,  or  Sargent,  or  Augustus 
John  to  make  as  many  experiments  in  ugliness  as  may  seem  good 
in  their  eyes,  but  I  am  speaking  of  the  ordinary  little  people  who 
will  never  be  anything  better  than  amateurs.  Why  should  they  be 
making  their  small  efforts  to  be  ugly  too  ?  I  suppose  it  would  not 


1908  THE    AMATEUE    ARTIST  1017 

be  well,  even  if  it  were  possible,  to  return  to  the  style  and  point  of 
view  of  one  hundred  or  even  fifty  years  ago.  Each  generation  must 
have  its  own  way  of  looking  at  things,  and  we  are  told  that  ours  has 
made  some  progress.  Without,  however,  entirely  imitating  our  fore- 
fathers, I  wish  we  could  become  imbued  with  their  sense  of  beauty. 
If  our  education  would  but  give  us  that,  I  should  feel  that  no  more 
important  work  was  being  done  in  the  country  than  teaching  art  to 
the  amateur. 

A.  M.  MAYOR. 


1018  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 


THE  REPRESENTATION  OF   WOMEN 

I.     A    CONSULTATIVE   CHAMBER   OF   WOMEN 


THE  establishment  of  the  National  Women's  Anti-Suffrage  League 
is  to  many  of  us  an  event  of  great  and  cheering  importance ;  and 
there  seems  much  reason  to  hope  that  here,  as  in  America,  the  united 
efforts  of  educated  and  thoughtful  women  may  prove  a  sufficient 
barrier  in  the  path  of  the  electoral  revolution  with  which  we  are 
threatened.  But  some  of  the  supporters  and  well-wishers  of  the 
League  feel  that  the  question  before  us  is  not  simply  whether  women 
should  or  should  not  have  votes,  but  the  much  larger  and  more 
complicated  problem  of  the  right  division  of  labour  between  men 
and  women  generally,  and  of  the  most  effectual  and  otherwise  suit- 
able method  by  which  '  the  woman's  view  '  of  matters  of  national 
importance  may  be  ascertained  and  a  truly  feminine  influence  brought 
to  bear  upon  the  counsels  of  the  nation. 

It  seems  to  be  often  assumed  that  those  who  object  to  votes  for 
women  must  do  so  on  the  ground  that  women  have,  and  should  have, 
no  interest  and  no  voice  in  affairs  of  national  and  political  importance 
— that  our  objection  to  '  female  suffrage  '  is,  in  short,  the  outcome  of 
a  wish  that  women  should  confine  their  attention  entirely  to  domestic 
matters. 

This  is  an  entire  misapprehension  of  the  grounds  on  which  many 
of  us  are  combining  to  protest  against  the  proposed  change.  Our 
opposition  is  grounded  quite  as  much  on  the  desire  to  preserve  and 
intensify  purely  feminine  influences  on  public  life  as  on  the  fear  lest 
public  affairs  should  draw  away  the  time  and  attention  of  women 
from  the  yet  more  profoundly  important  matters  for  which  they  are 
primarily  responsible.  True  it  is  that  this  latter  fear  is  a  grave  one. 
In  a  former  article l  I  dwelt  on  the  serious  dangers  inseparable  from 
the  modern  desire  that  women  should  have  careers  apart  from,  and 
largely  incompatible  with,  the  domestic  vocation  which  used  to  be 
their  supreme  ideal.  But  even  in  that  article  I  suggested  the  pos- 
sibility of  some  constitutional  channel  for  the  expression  of  women's 
opinions.  While  feeling  as  strongly  as  ever  the  dangers  before  us, 
1  '  Women  and  Politics,'  NINETEENTH  CENTURY,  February  1907. 


1908        THE   REPRESENTATION  OF   WOMEN        1019 

my  present  object  is  to  disentangle,  if  possible,  the  element  of  right 
and  reasonable  desire  for  some  truly  feminine  share  in  the  national 
counsels  from  the  rash  and  violent  struggle  for  political  power,  whose 
present  methods  we  view  with  shame  and  dismay. 

All  right-minded  women  would  probably  wish  to  occupy,  whether 
in  national  or  domestic  affairs,  the  position  of  invited  and  trusted 
counsellors.  To  claim  as  a  right  an  equal  share  of  legislative  power 
is  not  only  a  different  thing  ;  it  is  a  thing  quite  incompatible  with  the 
occupation  of  the  position  of  invited  counsellors. 

I  believe  that  many  of  the  women  now  supporting  the  compara- 
tively reasonable  forms  of  agitation  for  '  female  suffrage  '  are  asking 
for  that  change  chiefly  for  want  of  clearly  recognising  this  distinction. 
They  feel,  with  abundant  reason,  that  it  is  absurd  and  mischievous 
that  voting  power  (which  from  year  to  year  becomes  more  and  more 
distinctly  political  power)  should  be  given  to  men  of  no  education 
at  all,  while  women  of  the  highest  intelligence  and  cultivation,  and 
often  of  large  experience  in  the  very  matters  most  urgently  requiring 
legislation,  should  remain  without  any  recognised  channel  for  the 
expression  of  their  opinions  and  wishes  as  to  measures  of  national 
importance.  But  many  of  them  seem  never  to  have  separated  the  idea 
of  co-operation  from  that  of  competition  in  the  region  of  politics,  or 
to  have  recognised  the  possibility  that  a  consultative  voice  might  be 
far  more  effectual  than  a  mere  share  in  electoral  power.  In  short, 
I  believe  that  a  consultative  Chamber  of  Women,  recognised  by 
Parliament,  would  satisfy  many  of  the  women  who  are  now  taking 
it  for  granted  that  votes  are  the  only  possible  channel  for  the  expres- 
sion of  their  opinion  on  legislative  questions. 

In  opposing  the  cry  for  '  female  suffrage  '  one  is  much  hampered 
by  the  ambiguity  of  the  term.  Many  of  those  who  discuss  it  are  far 
from  being  clear  in  their  own  minds,  or  at  least  explicit  in  their  lan- 
guage, as  to  what  it  amounts  to  and  involves.  I  have  met  with 
women  whose  enthusiasm  for  removing  a  disability  grounded  on 
sex  was  suddenly  changed  into  consternation  when  it  was  pointed 
out  to  them  that  the  ultimate  object  of  the  revolutionaries  was  to 
give  the  vote  to  all  women,  whether  married  or  single.  It  is  useless 
to  discuss  the  probable  effect  of  '  female  suffrage  '  in  the  abstract 
and  apart  from  the  question  how  far  it  is  to  go,  and  whether  it  is 
ultimately  to  involve  co-representation  (if  I  may  coin  such  a  word) 
in  Parliament.  For  my  own  part,  I  should  feel  less  objection  to  a 
Parliament  composed  of  men  and  women,  even  in  joint  session,  than 
I  do  to  the  thought  of  women  contending  with  men  for  the  election 
of  'one  male  representative  rather  than  another,  neither  of  whom 
can  possibly  be  really  competent  to  interpret  feminine  opinion.  Such 
a  plan  seems  to  me  to  combine  the  maximum  of  deterioration  with 
the  minimum  of  effect. 

I  suppose  that  no  one  who  has  considered  the  subject  very  seriously 


1020  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

expects  that  votes  for  women  householders  alone  would  ever  be  ac- 
cepted as  a  final  solution  of  the  problem.  '  Adult  suffrage  '  and  women 
in  Parliament  (as  well  as  everywhere  else — in  short,  the  obliter- 
ation of  all  distinctions  of  sex)  must  be  considered  as  the  goal  at 
which  the  present  agitation  is  aiming.  For  reasons  given  in  my 
former  article  above  referred  to,  it  seems  to  me  of  the  first  importance 
that  the  special  province  of  each  sex  should  be  clearly  defined,  and 
that  girls  should  be  trained  in  the  first  place  to  occupy  rightly  the 
province  which  Nature  has  allotted  to  them.  But  is  it  conceivable 
that  those  whose  highest  ideal  for  women  is  the  motherly  and  sisterly 
office  should  fail  to  feel  what  would  be  the  infinite  value  of  any  method 
by  which  such  influences  could,  without  injury  to  feminine  character, 
be  brought  to  bear  upon  legislation  ? 

It  seems  to  me  that  it  could  not  be  beyond  the  skill  of  constitu- 
tional experts  to  devise  such  a  method,  if  three  main  conditions  were 
kept  in  view,  on  each  of  which  I  will  say  a  few  words.  They  are  as 
follows  : 

1.  The  political   office  of  women  should  be  purely  consultative, 
not  legislative. 

2.  Women  should  be  elected  to  fill  this  office  by  women  only. 

3.  The  representatives  thus  chosen  should  deliberate  in  a  separate 
chamber. 

1.  My  dream  would  be  that  a  certain  number  of  representative 
women  (say  two  for  each  county)  should  meet  during  the  session  of 
Parliament  to  consider,  revise,  and  suggest  amendments  to  any  Bills 
sent  to  them  by  either  House,  at  its  own  discretion.  These  would,  of 
course,  be  chiefly  Bills  relating  to  social  subjects,  and  especially  those 
peculiarly  affecting  women  and  children,  e.g.  educational,  sanitary, 
and  poor-law  measures  ;  such  Bills  to  be  returned  to  the  House  in 
which  they  originated,  by  which  the  women's  suggestions  could  be 
either  adopted  or  rejected  as  the  House  saw  fit.  The  irifluence  of  the 
deliberately  declared  (and  fully  reported)  judgment  of  the  Women's 
Chamber,  or  Council,  could  not  fail  to  be  very  powerful ;  and  if  the 
women  did  their  part  with  wisdom  and  prudence,  it  might  be  bene- 
ficial beyond  anything  we  can  at  present  foresee. 

The  women  would  also  naturally  have  power  to  propose  or  suggest 
Bills,  as  well  as  to  criticise  those  on  which  their  judgment  was  desired 
by  either  of  the  present  Houses.  All  details  would  be  easily  worked 
out  if  once  the  principle  were  frankly  acknowledged  that  the  office 
of  women  in  public  affairs  should  be  consultative,  not  legislative. 

This  principle  flows  naturally  from  the  inevitable  preoccupation 
of  women  with  domestic  matters,  and  their  resulting  lack  of  knowledge 
and  experience  in  many  departments  of  business  and  politics.  Let 
the  opening  of  '  careers  '  to  women  go  as  far  as  is  conceivable,  it  can 
never  alter  the  fact  that  the  whole  burden  of  domestic  life — including 
the  care,  whether  in  their  own  families  or  as  a  profession,  of  children, 


1908       THE   REPRESENTATION  OF   WOMEN        1021 

the  sick,  and  the  poor— must  rest  mainly  upon  women  ;  and  however 
highly  we  may  rate  the  physical  strength  and  the  mental  powers  of 
women,  they  can  scarcely  be  supposed  to  be  so  far  greater  than 
those  of  men  as  to  make  it  possible  for  them  to  carry  on  at  the 
same  time  the  burdens  of  public  and  of  domestic  life.  The  women 
who  could  bring  the  necessary  leisure  and  experience  to  the  considera- 
tion of  public  affairs  would  as  a  rule  be  past  the  prime  of  life  ;  and  it 
would  be  sheer  waste  and  absurdity  for  them  to  attempt  to  grapple 
with  all  the  technical  business  and  details  with  which  Parliament  has 
to  deal ;  while  on  some  parts  of  its  work  the  rapid  insight  and  sym- 
pathies of  women,  as  well  as  their  special  experience,  might  qualify 
them  to  make  most  illuminating  suggestions. 

An  avowedly  consultative  Women's  Chamber  would  involve  none 
of  the  possibilities  of  strife  and  rivalry  which  are  so  obviously  in- 
separable from  the  mere  addition  of  women  (in  a  considerable  majority) 
to  the  electorate.  It  would  certainly  lead  to  a  greatly  increased 
mutual  acquaintance  and  (if  the  members  composing  it  were  tolerably 
well  chosen)  to  higher  mutual  esteem  between  the  sexes.  It  would 
afford  a  valuable  training  for  women,  and  it  might  set  an  example, 
which  would  not  be  without  its  influence  on  the  present  Houses  of 
Parliament,  of  detachment  from  party  spirit,  and  of  an  interest  con- 
centrated solely  on  the  moral  and  social  effects  of  the  measures  under 
consideration.  It  would  supply  in  many  directions  a  practical  know- 
ledge and  appreciation  of  details  which  is  scarcely  possible  to  men ; 
and  while  exempt  by  its  very  constitution  from  the  temptation  to 
strive  for  power,  and  from  the  practical  emergencies  of  a  governing 
body,  it  would  not  the  less  tend  to  purify  and  elevate  the  tone  of 
Parliamentary  debate,  by  importing  into  it  some  reflection  of  that 
domestic  criticism  which  goes  so  far  to  restrain  the  haste  and  to 
correct  the  judgment  of  the  masculine  mind  in  private  life.  We 
should  thus  be  modelling  our  national  counsels  on  the  pattern  of  a 
harmonious  home. 

The  main  reason,  after  all,  for  giving  to  the  Women's  Chamber 
a  consultative  character  only,  and  leaving  the  final  responsibility 
of  legislation  and  executive  government  with  men,  is  that  the  old 
proverb  is  still  true,  '  When  two  ride  on  one  horse,  one  must  ride 
behind.'  The  modern  impatience  of  any  kind  of  subordination  or 
discipline,  which  kicks  against  this  obvious  truth,  seems  to  some  of 
us  to  be  sapping  the  very  foundations  of  morality. 

2.  The  Representative  Women  should  be  elected  by  women  alone. 

It  seems  obviously  desirable  that  each  sex  should  elect  its  own 
representatives.  Whatever  else  is  doubtful  as  to  the  relation  of  the 
sexes,  it  is  matter  of  everyday  experience  that  the  judgment  of 
either  sex  about  individuals  of  the  other  is  liable  to  errors  from  many 
causes  other  than  mere  lack  of  information.  As  long  as  anything 
like  a  division  of  labour  and  distinction  of  provinces  is  kept  up  between 


1022  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

the  sexes,  women  will  of  necessity  be  unable  to  judge,  except  at 
secondhand,  of  much  of  the  professional  or  business  character  of 
men ;  and  men  will  be  equally  at  a  loss  to  estimate  for  themselves 
the  success  or  failure  of  women  in  the  purely  feminine  occupations 
in  which  the  majority  of  them  are  still  engaged.  And,  in  addition  to 
this  mutual  ignorance,  the  forces  of  personal  attraction  and  repulsion 
tend  to  disturb  and  bias  the  judgment  which  people  of  different  sexes 
form  of  one  another. 

If  the  women  composing  a  consultative  Chamber  were  to  be 
elected  by  what  might  be  called  feminine  suffrage,  the  vote  could 
be  safely  given  to  any  number  of  women,  married  as  well  as  single. 
There  would  be  no  disturbance  of  family  peace  by  differences  of 
opinion  between  husbands  and  wives  when  the  women's  vote  was 
to  be  given  for  their  own  Representative  only.  And  all  the  arrange- 
ments for  recording  the  women's  votes  could  be  made  with  special 
attention  to  the  proprieties  as  well  as  the  convenience  of  those  con- 
cerned. Meetings  to  which  no  men  should  be  admitted,  and  elections 
carried  on  with  equal  privacy,  need  have  no  tendency  to  lower  the 
dignity  or  overstrain  the  physical  powers  of  the  electresses. 

3.  The  third  condition — that  the  women  elected  should  meet 
and  deliberate  in  a  separate  Chamber  of  their  own — obviously  follows 
from  the  other  two.  In  such  a  Chamber  alone  would  the  true 
4  woman's  view  '  be  taken,  and  the  true  woman's  voice  heard.  In  a 
mixed  assembly  of  men  and  women,  of  the  size  of  our  present  Parlia- 
ment, no  woman  would  have  much  chance  of  making  herself  heard  ; 
and  the  excitement  of  debate  on  contentious  matters  could  not  but 
act  disastrously  on  feminine  nerves.  We  have  had  but  too  painful 
and  degrading  an  exhibition  in  the  last  few  months  of  the  intoxicating 
effect  of  such  excitement  on  women  of  a  certain  stamp.  The  pre- 
sence of  violent  and  excited  women  would  not  raise  the  tone  of  either 
House  of  Parliament,  while  they  might  themselves  be  irretrievably 
injured  by  their  exertions. 

But  the  deliberations  of  a  carefully  chosen  and  limited  number 
of  Representative  Women  might  be  conducted  with  a  high  degree  of 
method  and  calmness.  It  is,  perhaps,  not  very  generally  known 
that  such  an  experiment  was  actually  tried  for  more  than  a  hundred 
years  by  the  Society  of  Friends,  whose  supreme  legislative  authority 
had  always  been  the  Yearly  Meeting,  of  which  all  men  Friends  were 
members,  though  the  number  attending  it  has  usually  not  been  a 
tenth  part  of  the  actual  membership  of  the  Society.  Until  1907 
there  had  for  more  than  a  century  existed,  side  by  side  with  the  Yearly 
Meeting  proper,  a  Women's  Yearly  Meeting  without  legislative  power, 
in  which,  however,  all  matters  of  interest  to  the  Society  generally  were 
considered,  and  whose  discussions  were  fully  reported  in  the  Quaker 
periodicals.  There  had  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  Society  been 
separate  Women's  monthly  and  quarterly  meetings,  in  which  certain 


1908       THE    REPRESENTATION  OF   WOMEN        1028 

matters  specially  belonging  to  women  were  considered,  especially 
the  care  of  the  poor  and  of  children,  and  any  matters  affecting 
the  character  or  conduct  of  women  members— preliminaries  to 
marriages,  etc. 

These  separate  Women's  meetings  are  to  a  considerable  extent 
being  absorbed  into  joint  meetings,  in  which  men  and  women  de- 
liberate together  and  on  equal  terms.  The  change  is  a  matter  of 
regret  to  many;  it  has  not  been  fully  carried  out  in  the  smaller 
meetings,  and  in  the  Yearly  Meeting  it  is  too  recent  for  its  results 
to  be  as  yet  fully  apparent.  What  is  certain  is  that  the  old 
plan  of  a  separate  chamber  of  women  was  a  very  valuable  part  of 
the  Quaker  Parliament,  and  that  the  women's  judgment,  though 
technically  inoperative,  had  very  great  influence  and  weight.  It 
had  certainly  a  strongly  educative  effect  on  the  women  themselves, 
whose  proceedings  were  as  orderly  and  as  fully  recorded  as  those 
of  the  men. 

There  was  also  a  curious  practice  by  which  it  not  seldom  happened 
that  one  or  more  men  Friends  would  pay  a  visit  to  the  Women's 
Meeting,  or  one  or  more  women  to  the  Men's  Meeting.  I  cannot  doubt 
that  these  communications  had  often  a  special  value — partly  owing 
to  their  being  rather  infrequent.  Even  this  practice  might  suggest 
the  possibility  of  occasional  deputations  with  messages  between  the 
Houses  of  Parliament  and  a  Women's  Chamber,  in  any  cases  in  which 
the  matter  in  hand  could  be  better  explained  by  word  of  mouth  than 
in  writing. 

There  are,  however,  some  peculiarities  of  Friends'  meetings  which 
make  them  by  no  means  a  parallel  to  our  Houses  of  Parliament. 
The  Friends'  comparatively  modern  plan  of  joint  meetings,  while 
it  doubles  the  size  of  the  legislative  body  and  gives  women  a 
nominally  equal  share  in  its  deliberations,  could  never  lead  to  the 
disastrous  results  which  such  a  plan  would  have  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  because  in  Friends'  meetings  no  question  is  ever  put  to  the 
vote.  Our  principle  is  not  to  act  except  on  a  '  practical  unanimity,' 
and,  where  this  is  not  immediately  arrived  at,  to  adjourn  the  matter 
until  the  next  meeting,  when  with  time  and  patience  the  difficulty 
is  generally  found  to  have  disappeared.  Such  a  principle  could,  of 
course,  be  acted  on  only  where,  the  interests  at  stake  being  almost 
exclusively  religious,  there  can  never  be  any  hurry  in  dealing  with 
them ;  and  where  for  the  same  reason  there  is  a  strong  desire  for 
the  preservation  of  harmony. 

One  great  reason  for  seriously  considering  the  possibility  of  a 
Women's  Representative  Assembly  is  that  it  might  be  tried  as  a 
purely  temporary  and  experimental  measure.  The  time  might,  of 
course,  come  when  (as  has  happened  to  the  Women's  Yearly  Meeting 
of  the  Society  of  Friends)  the  Women's  Chamber  might  in  some  form 
or  other  become  absorbed  into  some  joint  assembly.  No  such  joint 
assembly  can,  however,  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  give  distinct 


1024  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

utterance  to  the  views  and  wishes  of  either  sex.  My  own  fear 
is  that  more  will  prove  to  have  been  lost  than  gained  by  the  absorp- 
tion of  the  feminine  element  into  the  legislative  body  of  the  Society 
of  Friends.  However  this  may  be,  such  an  absorption,  taking  place 
after  so  long  an  exercise  of  deliberative  faculties  by  generation  after 
generation  of  Quaker  women,  is  a  very  different  thing  from  the  sudden 
surrender  to  a  clamour  for  political  power  with  which  we  are  now 
threatened  as  regards  the  electorate,  and  perhaps  eventually  the 
Houses  of  Parliament. 

The  need  of  some  constitutional  channel  for  the  expression  of 
feminine  opinion  is  strikingly  illustrated  by  the  present  difficulty 
of  ascertaining  what  is  actually  the  prevailing  wish  of  British  women 
with  regard  to  the  suffrage.  I  quite  agree  with  the  opinion  expressed 
by  Mrs.  Chapman  (Nineteenth  Century,  April  1907)  that  this  wish, 
if  it  could  be  known,  ought  not  to  be  decisive ;  yet  I  cannot  think 
that  it  ought  to  be  entirely  disregarded.  The  question  ought,  I  think, 
to  be  carefully  weighed  by  the  whole  nation  ;  and  though  the  decision 
must  rest,  both  technically  and  in  fact,  with  the  actual  supreme 
authority,  Parliament,  as  at  present  constituted,  that  body  need  not 
act  without  full  consultation  with  the  women  so  deeply  concerned, 
and  so  fully  acquainted  with  much  of  which  men  can  never  be 
altogether  aware. 

I  must  believe  that  such  consultation,  could  it  be  arranged,  would 
be  as  welcome  to  men  as  to  women.  They  have  hitherto  championed 
our  cause,  and  the  cause  of  the  children,  the  sick,  and  the  poor,  with 
an  energy  and  a  noble  zeal  in  our  service  which  it  would  be  base 
in  us  to  forget.  If  we  could  be  worthily  represented  in  an  Assembly 
with  which  they  could  confer,  I  believe  that  they  would  be  not  only 
enlightened  and  helped  by  our  experience,  but  relieved  by  a  certain 
lightening  of  their  own  responsibility  as  regards  matters  bearing 
specially  on  the  interests  of  women. 

And  if  for  some  unforeseen  reason  the  experiment  proved  unsatis- 
factory, no  lasting  harm  would  have  been  done.  It  could  at  any  time 
be  superseded  by  some  other  method,  whether  in  the  direction  of  a 
more  or  less  close  association  of  women  in  the  national  counsels.  I 
will  not  say,  for  I  do  not  believe,  that  it  could  lead  to  our  total  ex- 
clusion from  them ;  but  even  that  would  not  cease  to  be  a  possibility 
should  experience  show  us  to  be  unfit  for  so  much  trust.  My  own 
belief  is  that  a  gradual  and  cautious  trial  of  the  experiment  of  feminine 
association  with  the  Legislature  in  the  capacity  of  Counsellors  elected 
by  themselves,  and  voluntarily  referred  to  by  Parliament,  would 
open  a  vein  of  hitherto  unsuspected  wisdom  and  tenderness  for  the 
great  benefit  of  all,  without  risking  any  lessening  of  those  impulses 
to  protection  and  reverence  for  women  which  lie  so  near  the  source 
of  all  manly  virtue. 

CAROLINE  E.  STEPHEN. 


1908 


THE  REPRESENTATION  OF   WOMEN 

II.     A    TORY  PLEA    FOR    WOMAN  SUFFRAGE 


IT  is  more  than  likely  that  the  Unionist  party  will  be  mainly  in- 
strumental in  carrying  female  suffrage.  In  this,  as  in  so  many  move- 
ments of  high  import,  Lord  Beaconsfield  pointed  the  way  more  than 
thirty  years  ago.  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Gore  Langton  on  the  29th  of  April, 
^1873,  Mr.  Disraeli  wrote  : 

I  was  much  honoured  by  receiving  from  your  hands  the  memorial  signed 
by  11,000  women  of  England,  among  them  some  illustrious  names,  thanking 
me  for  my  services  in  attempting  to  abolish  the  anomaly  that  the  parliamentary 
franchise  attached  to  a  household  or  property  qualification,  when  possessed 
by  a  woman,  should  not  be  exercised,  though  in  all  matters  of  local  government, 
when  similarly  qualified,  she  exercises  this  right.  As  I  believe  this  anomaly 
to  be  injurious  to  the  best  interests  of  the  country,  I  trust  to  see  it  removed  by 
the  wisdom  of  Parliament. 

He  repeated  this  opinion  upon  other  occasions,  and  more  than 
once  voted  for  female  suffrage  bills  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

The  parliamentary  history  of  the  movement  certainly  suggests 
that  it  may  expect  more  favourable  consideration  from  a  Conservative 
than  from  a  Liberal  Government.  In  1867,  although  the  subject 
was  then  unfamiliar  to  most  members,  Lord  Derby's  Government 
agreed  to  treat  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill's  amendment  to  the  Franchise  Bill  as 
an  open  question.  On  the  other  hand,  when  a  similar  amendment 
was  moved  to  the  Liberal  Franchise  Bill  of  1884,  Mr.  Gladstone 
brought  such  pressure  to  bear  upon  his  followers  that  many  Liberals 
voted  with  the  Noes  whose  sympathies  were  avowedly  with  the 
other  side.  Sir  Stafford  Northcote  argued  at  length  in  favour  of 
the  amendment,  and  the  great  majority  of  the  Conservative  members 
present  followed  him  into  the  Lobby.  The  opinion  of  the  rank  and 
file  of  the  Conservative  party  has  in  recent  times  been  expressed  at 
several  conferences  of  the  National  Union  in  favour  of  the  women, 
who  had  the  steady  support  of  the  late  Lord  Salisbury  and  the  equally 
steady  opposition  of  the  late  Mr.  Gladstone. 

It  may  be  true  that,  as  Thackeray,  I  think,  said,  every  woman 
is  a  Tory  at  heart ;  the  enfranchisement  of  women  might  turn  many 

1025 


1026  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

elections  against  the  Radicals.  But  the  support  of  the  Tory  leaders 
has  been  based  not  upon  calculations  of  party  advantage,  but  upon 
the  broad  principles,  repeatedly  recognised  in  legislation,  which  the 
disability  of  women  contravenes.  The  franchise  is  still  legally  based 
upon  property  qualifications  ;  we  still  profess  the  doctrine  that  taxa- 
tion and  representation  should  go  together.  Nevertheless,  we  refuse 
votes  to  women  who  are  called  upon  to  obey  the  law  and  to  pay  the 
taxes  the  law  imposes  and  who  support  the  same  burdens  as  men, 
although  their  capacity  to  deal  with  property  has  been  more  and 
more  fully  established  by  law.  They  have  been  left  to  share  with 
undergraduates  the  unenviable  distinction  of  bearing  part  of  the 
cost  of  bribery  commissions  for  the  investigation  of  the  electoral 
offences  of  their  enfranchised  brothers.  The  proposal  to  throw 
returning  officers'  expenses  upon  the  rates  would  impose  upon  them 
another  and  more  general  hardship  of  the  same  kind. 

The  effect  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  Franchise  Bill  upon  the  position  of 
women  ratepayers  was  well  put  by  that  typical  Tory,  Lord  John 
Manners,  in  the  debate  on  the  second  reading  : 

Take  the  case  of  one  large  and  influential  section  of  the  female  ratepayers — 
I  mean  female  farmers.  The  census  shows  that  in  1881  there  were  upwards 
of  20,000  female  farmers  in  England.  At  the  present  moment  not  one  of  these 
has  the  vote  for  parliamentary  purposes.  But,  then,  the  labourer  whom  she 
pays,  whom  she  maintains,  enables  to  live  in  his  cottage,  has  no  vote  now  ;  but 
pass  this  Bill,  and  what  happens  ?  Every  carter,  every  ploughman,  every 
hedger  and  ditcher,  every  agricultural  labourer  who  receives  wages  from  the 
female  farmer  will  have  the  privilege  of  exercising  the  vote  ;  but  the  female 
farmer  who  pays  the  wages,  who  is  so  important  a  factor  in  the  economy  of  the 
parish,  will  remain  without  the  vote. 

On  another  night  of  the  same  debate  Sir  Stafford  Northcote 
said  : 

If  you  make  a  capable  elector  the  test,  you  will  find  that  you  are  bound  to 
go  very  much  further  and  in  very  different  directions  in  some  respects  to  what 
you  have  done  in  order  to  complete  your  definition.  I  take  the  case  of  the 
female  franchise.  There  cannot  be  a  doubt,  if  you  ask  who  are  capable  electors, 
you  would  find  it  very  difficult  to  declare  that  the  females  who  are  in  a  certain 
position  as  taxpayers  and  ratepayers,  and  who  are  electors  for  municipal  pur- 
poses, are  not  capable  citizens,  and  that  they  should  not  be  included  in  the 
franchise. 

The  law  of  justice,  which  bids  us  not  arbitrarily  to  withhold  from 
one  what  we  give  to  another,  is  conspicuously  violated  by  the  re- 
quirement of  the  Registration  Act  of  1885,  that  the  female  employer 
shall  under  penalty  make  a  return  of  all  her  male  servants  in  order 
that  they  may  obtain  the  privilege  from  which  she  is  herself  debarred. 

The  Female  Suffrage  Bill  has  long  been  made  a  peg  for  irrelevant 
disquisitions  upon  the  intellectual  development  of  woman  and  upon 
her  place  in  nature.  Some  have  said  that  women  lack  the  highest 
mental  qualities  and  are  on  a  lower  educational  level ;  others  have 


1908         THE  REPRESENTATION  OF   WOMEN       1027 

pointed  to  the  ability  of  many  women  of  note  and  to  the  improved 
education  of  all  classes  of  women.  All  such  considerations  may  be 
laid  aside.  In  point  of  fact,  the  franchise  is  based  on  anything  but 
education.  Some  of  the  electors  in  Ireland,  Scotland  and  Wales 
cannot,  as  everyone  knows,  speak  a  word  of  English ;  many  others, 
in  all  parts  of  the  United  Kingdom,  cannot  read  or  write.  All  that  is 
expected  of  the  average  voter 'is  capacity  to  form  an  opinion  upon 
plain  facts  and  simple  arguments,  and  women  are,  as  a  whole,  quite 
as  competent  as  men  to  discharge  this  modest  duty. 

'  Politics,'  no  doubt,  '  are  not  women's  business.'  Politics  are 
also  not  the  '  business  '  of  most  men,  but  men  are  not  prevented  from 
attending  to  their  own  affairs  because  they  make  up  their  minds  how 
they  will  vote.  Is  it  contended  that  women  are  deteriorated  if  they 
take  any  interest  in  politics  ?  Members  of  Parliament  will  be  slow 
to  admit  that  their  own  female  relatives  should  be  debarred  from 
helping  them  in  their  political  contests,  or  from  discussing  their 
political  interests  and  prospects.  Of  late  years,  too,  the  importance 
of  the  work  of  women  in  connection  with  elections  has  been  enor- 
mously increased.  In  many  constituencies  women  have  been  elected 
members  of  the  local  Radical  caucus.  In  many  others  Conservative 
members  have  owed  their  return  to  the  Dames  of  the  Primrose  League 
and  the  Woman's  Tariff  Reform  Association,  whose  work  the  Liberals 
have  been  trying  to  counteract  by  means  of  rival  organisations.  It 
may  be  granted  that  women  often  hear  most  of  the  less  desirable  side 
of  politics,  to  wit,  its  personalities.  But  this  defect  might  in  some 
measure  be  cured — it  certainly  could  not  be  aggravated — if  the 
Female  Suffrage  Bill  became  law. 

Has  there  ever  been  a  time  in  the  history  of  our  world  when  women 
have  not,  in  one  way  or  another,  concerned  themselves  in  political 
affairs  ?  If  their  influence  has  not  been  always  openly  acknow- 
ledged, has  it  ever  ceased  to  be  great  ?  *  The  fate  of  the  child,'  said 
Napoleon  the  First,  '  is  always  the  work  of  his  mother ' ;  the  en- 
franchisement of  a  number  of  women  may  make  their  work  more 
direct  and  better  instructed,  but  cannot  make  the  influence  always 
exerted  by  women  more  real.  The  supporters  of  female  suffrage 
are  not  less  anxious  than  its  opponents  that  women  should  consider 
home  life  to  be  'their  proper  sphere.'  All  that  is  asked  is,  that 
women  now  disqualified  only  by  their  sex  shall  be  entitled  to  go  to 
a  polling-booth,  to  mark  a  voting-paper,  and  to  hand  it  to  the  returning 
officer.  Many  of  the  fears  which  female  suffrage  excites  must  be  due 
to  the  remembrance  of  election  riots  in  times  past.  Elections  under 
present  conditions  are  rarely  accompanied  by  violence;  there  is 
generally  less  trouble  in  getting  in  and  out  of  a  polling-booth  than  in 
leaving  a  theatre. 

It  cannot  be  maintained  that  marriage  is  woman's  only  calling 
when  there  is  a  great  numerical  disproportion  between  the  sexes, 


1028  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

and  many  hundreds  of  thousands  of  women  have  to  support  them- 
selves. The  occupations  of  women  are  no  longer  merely  domestic ; 
they  are  often  semi-public  teachers  in  our  schools,  inspectors  in  our 
factories,  employees  in  Government  offices. 

The  opponents  of  female  suffrage  are  fond  of  asserting  that '  women 
don't  want  votes,'  and  at  the  same  time  of  decrying  the  women  who 
have  come  forward  to  demand  the  franchise.  We  are  told,  almost 
in  the  same  breath,  that  if  a  woman  does  not  ask  for  a  vote,  she  would 
rather  not  have  it,  and  that,  if  she  does  ask  for  it,  she  is  '  unfeminine,' 
and  does  not  deserve  it — that  '  those  who  ask  sha'n't  have,  and  those 
who  don't  ask  don't  want.'  The  politicians  who  talk  thus  are  chiefly 
acquainted  with  woman  in  fortunate  circumstance ;  they  know  little 
or  nothing  of  women  operatives  to  whom  the  suffrage  might  be  a 
material  boon.  In  any  case,  a  Female  Suffrage  Act  will  not  place  a 
woman  who  does  not  wish  to  vote  in  any  harder  position  than  the 
many  thousands  of  male  electors  who  either  do  not  want  their  votes, 
or  at  least  never  trouble  to  use  them. 

The  physical  weakness  of  woman  is  a  wholly  irrelevant  considera- 
tion. Women  ought  not  to  be  excluded  on  the  ground  that  they 
cannot  become  soldiers  and  sailors,  while  we  cheerfully  enfranchise 
a  blind  man  or  a  cripple,  and  while  soldiers  and  sailors  are  for  the 
most  part  deprived  of  their  votes  by  the  mere  fact  of  enlistment. 
The  whole  tendency  of  civilised  government  has  been  not  to  em- 
phasise, but  to  equalise,  physical  differences.  '  The  civilised  societies 
of  the  West,'  says  Sir  Henry  Maine,  '  in  steadily  enlarging  the  personal 
and  proprietary  independence  of  women,  and  even  in  granting  to 
them  political  privilege,  are  only  following  out  still  further  a  law  of 
development  which  they  have  been  obeying  for  many  centuries.' 

The  opposition  to  the  Female  Suffrage  Bill  is  probably  mainly 
due  to  the  belief  that  it  is  only  '  the  thin  end  of  the  wedge.'  It  is 
argued  that  before  long  we  may  adopt  manhood  suffrage,  and  that 
the  enfranchisement  of  women,  if  carried  to  its  logical  result,  would 
enable  them,  in  virtue  of  their  numerical  preponderance,  to  swamp 
men  and  to  monopolise  power.  It  may  be  retorted  that  (if  this 
fantastical  forecast  is  to  be  taken  seriously)  women's  suffrage  would 
for  this  reason  present  a  strong  barrier  against  universal  suffrage. 

The  argument  that  if  women  had  votes  they  must  also  have  seats 
in  Parliament  is  a  patent  fallacy.  The  qualifications  for  membership 
of  an  electoral  college  need  by  no  means  be  the  same  as  for  member- 
ship of  the  elected  body.  The  physical  objection,  inapplicable  to  the 
question  of  the  suffrage,  is  obviously  material  to  the  fitness  of  women 
to  undertake  the  arduous  duties  of  representatives.  And  various 
classes  of  electors,  such  as  clergymen  and  civil  servants,  are  at  present 
excluded  from  the  House  of  Commons  ;  while  there  are  plenty  of 
local  governing  bodies  in  which  women  cannot  sit,  though  they  have 
votes  in  the  election  of  the  members. 


1908         THE  REPRESENTATION  OF   WOMEN        1029 

Women  have  unquestionably  some  separate  interests  which  are 
too  little  considered  in  Parliament.  The  Married  Women's  Property 
Act  of  1882  was  a  measure  of  justice  far  too  long  delayed  ;  there 
remain  matters,  such  as  the  guardianship  of  children  and  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  personality  of  intestates,  with  regard  to  which  the  law 
gives  them  less  than  fair  play.  But  it  is  needless  to  press  the  argu- 
ment that  women's  suffrage  is  needed  to  redress  women's  wrongs. 
Votes  should  be  given  to  them  less  on  the  ground  of  their  separate 
interests  than  in  order  to  enlist  more  of  their  influence  in  regard  to 
questions  of  general  interest.  The  barren  era  of  destructive  legislation 
is,  we  may  hope,  well-nigh  at  an  end,  and  social  questions  are  coming 
to  the  front.  The  Tory  party,  which  boasts  an  honourable  list  of 
achievements  in  the  constructive  work  of  social  housing  and  sanitary 
reforms,  should  be  the  first  to  welcome  assistance  in  proceeding 
further  on  the  same  path.  Legislation  of  this  kind  cannot  have  full 
effect  unless  it  has  the  personal  support  of  the  great  mass  of  the  com- 
munity ;  any  measure  that  will  cause  women  to  take  a  deeper  interest 
in  public  questions  will  thus  strengthen  the  hands  of  social  reformers. 

All  available  facts  go  to  show  that  women  will  not  make  less 
capable  electors  than  men.  Every  year  Parliament  delegates  more 
and  more  powers  to  local  authorities  for  which  women  can  now  vote. 
There  is  the  experience  of  some  of  our  great  colonies  and  of  some  of  the 
American  States,  and,  still  nearer  home,  that  of  the  Isle  of  Man. 
Women  exercise  about  a  fifth  of  the  lay  patronage  of  the  Church. 
For  a  century,  as  members  of  the  East  India  Company,  they  helped 
to  elect  the  directors  who  controlled  our  Indian  possessions.  They 
vote  as  proprietors  of  Bank  of  England  stock,  and  as  shareholders  in 
all  sorts  of  commercial  undertakings.  In  which  of  all  these  capacities 
have  they  failed  to  justify  confidence  ?  Above  all,  there  is  the 
experience  of  the  Crown.  No  three  male  sovereigns  can  be  named 
who  showed  greater  wisdom  than  Elizabeth,  Anne,  and  Victoria.  If 
women  can  thus  discharge  the  highest  functions  of  government, 
why  should  they  be  excluded  from  the  most  elementary  privilege  of 

citizenship  ? 

EDWARD  GOULDING. 


LXIV— No.  388 


1080  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 


HOW    WE    CAME    TO    BE    CENSORED    BY 
THE    STATE 

I.— THE   THIN  END   OF  THE  'WEDGE 


THERE  exists  in  the  theatrical  profession  a  law  that  is  sometimes 
written,  but  more  often  unwritten,  that  players  shall  not,  during 
the  course  of  a  performance,  address  the  audience  on  their  own 
account  apart  from  the  matter  set  down  for  them  to  speak.  Under 
some  older-fashioned  managements  I  have  seen  this  law  embodied  in 
the  printed  schedule  of  rules  and  regulations  at  the  back  of  a  contract 
form.  More  modern  managements  have  dropped  this  out,  together 
with  various  other  suggestions  for  good  behaviour  that  are  now 
left  to  the  tact  and  discretion  of  the  player — in  England  at  least, 
I  will  not  answer  for  America,  which  is  a  free  country,  and  where 
republican  methods  prevail.  But  the  desire  to  address  one's  audience 
is  sometimes  irresistible,  especially  when  that  audience  has  shown 
its  approval  or  disapproval  very  vehemently  and  unexpectedly. 
It  would  make  for  such  a  much  better  understanding,  and  in  these  days 
I  may  say  for  such  a  much  more  cordial  entente  with  the  body  of 
spectators  if  we  might  come  forward  and  speak  to  them. 

I  remember  reading  an  anecdote  about  a  Mrs.  Horton,  who  was 
playing  at  Drury  Lane  in  George  the  First's  reign,  and  appeared 
in  a  part  that  had  been  originally  acted  by  a  great  public  favourite. 
Mrs.  Horton  met  with  very  unkind  treatment  from  the  audience  on 
this  occasion,  according  to  the  evidence  of  a  contemporary.  She  bore 
this  with  patience  for  some  time.  At  last  she  advanced  to  the  front 
of  the  stage  and  said  to  the  persons  in  the  pit  who  were  hissing  her, 
'  Gentlemen,  what  do  you  mean  ?  What  displeases  you — my  acting 
or  my  person  ?  '  This  proper  display  of  spirit  recovered  the  spectators 
to  good  humour,  and  they  cried  out  with  one  voice,  '  No,  no,  Mrs. 
Horton,  we  are  not  displeased.  Go  on,  go  on  ! ' 

We  have  read  a  great  deal  latterly  among  authors,  actors,  and 
playgoers  that  all  is  not  well  with  the  drama  here  in  England.  The 
author  says  there  are  no  actors  and  actresses,  a  thing  I  deny;  the 
actor  says  there  are  no  plays,  a  second  thing  I  equally  deny ;  the 
playgoer  says  there  is  nothing  to  go  and  see ;  that  is  a  thing  I  cannot 


1908  THE   THEATRICAL   CENSORSHIP  1081 

deny,  but  if  I  may  be  allowed  to  put  my  finger  on  a  weak  spot  I  do 
most  certainly  believe  that  there  are  players,  playwrights,  playgoers, 
but  that  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  country  there  are 
very  few  with  a  theatrical  taste— a  sens  du  theatre,  as  the  French  call 
it — amongst  the  spectators. 

Reviewing  in  my  mind  how  and  why  this  is,  I  turn  to  the  history 
of  the  British  stage,  and  I  find  that  from  the  era  of  the  Reformation 
in  England  the  struggle  for  existence,  or  rather  for  supremacy, 
between  the  drama  and  the  public  goes  on  intermittently  but  con- 
tinuously down  to  the  Victorian  era. 

There  were  halcyon  days  of  drama  in  which  Hart,  Betterton, 
Harris,  Mrs.  Bracegirdle,  Mrs.  Barry,  and  Mrs.  Oldfield  successfully 
raised  its  banner.  There  were  glorious  eras  of  the  theatre  when 
David  Garrick,  Barry  and  Peg  Woffington,  Mrs.  Gibber  and  Kitty 
Olive,  were  the  heroes  and  heroines  of  the  town.  There  were  periods 
when  Edmund  Kean  and  the  Kembles  and  their  beautiful  sister  Siddons 
lent  dignity  and  majesty  to  such  plays  as  The  Castle  Spectre  and 
Pizarro. 

But  every  decade  almost  has  its  set-back  when  it  is  locked  in 
a  life-and-death  encounter  with  prejudice,  an  inherited  prejudice  among 
the  British  against  the  dramatic  art ;  a  prejudice  that  fastens  its  teeth 
into  the  throat  of  the  drama  and  wrestles  to  overthrow  it.     Why,  then, 
has  it  survived  at  all  ?     Because  the  dramatic  art  is  a  natural  outlet 
— a  Heaven-given  instinct  of  expression  in  the  human  mind.     It 
would  be  of  service  to  know  why  audiences  will  accept  to-day  what 
they  would  not  tolerate  yesterday,  and  what  perhaps  they  will  dislike 
to-morrow.     It  would  be  instructive  to  understand  in  how  far  the 
public  are  dictated  to  by  the  Press,  or  in  how  far  the  Press  are  spurred 
on  to  their  verdict  by  the  public.    For  this  reason  the  loss  of  the 
old-time  prologue  and  epilogue  is,  in  a  way,  regrettable.     Regrettable 
because,  albeit  they  were  often  frivolous  and  unliterary  in  flavour,, 
they  set  up  a  current  of  comprehension  with  the  spectator.    During  the 
Caroline  era,  it  is  true,  the  epilogue  and  the  prologue  were  full  of 
personal  allusions  and  intimate  details  about  the  private  life  of  the 
actors  and  authors  couched  in  terms  that  would  certainly  upset  the 
gentlemanlike  scruples  of  our  present  day.     I  cannot,  for  instance, 
picture  to  myself  any  actress  of  our  stage  starting  up  from  a  bier 
on  which  she  is  being  carried  away  as  a  corpse  and  crying  out,  as  did 
Miss  Eleanor  Gwynne  in  the  year  1665,  '  Hold  !  are  you  mad,  you 
damned  confounded  dog  ?     I  am  to  rise  and  speak  the  epilogue.' 
But  then  '  pretty,  witty  Nell,'  as  the  appreciative  chronicler  Samuel 
Pepys  calls  her,  was  not  over-squeamish ;  she  was  described  by  Bishop 
Burnet  as    the   '  indiscreetest  and  wildest  character  of    her  time.' 
But  there  is  this  to  be  said  for  the  epilogue,  that  it  put  the  spectator 
in  touch  with  the  player  before  he  went  home, '  and  so  to  supper,'  as 
Pepys  has  it,    He  went  home  with  something  of  sympathy  with  the 

3  z  2 


1082  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

hearts  that  were  beating  and  breathing  beneath  the  gold  lace  and 
tinsel  of  the  costume,  carried  away  something  of  a  human  memento, 
instead  of  dismissing  it  as  a  thing  paid  for  and  done  with,  to  be  put 
away  in  the  pigeon-hole  and  labelled  '  amusements  '  and  not  to  be 
taken  down  again  while  there  were  more  onerous  things  under  con- 
sideration. I  was  going  to  say  to  be  kept  for  Sundays  and  holidays 
when  I  remembered  that,  though  Literature  and  Music  are  thought 
fitting  accompaniments  for  the  Sabbath,  their  poor  little  step-sister 
Drama  is  to  stay  by  the  fire  in  her  rags  and  tatters,  bereft  of  her  fine 
feathers  of  the  workaday  week,  although  in  England,  up  to  the  days 
of  Charles  the  First,  there  were  stage  plays  on  Sundays.  When 
Gosson  wrote  his  School  of  Abuse  in  1579,  he  said,  '  The  players,  because 
they  are  allowed  to  play  every  Sunday,  make  four  or  five  Sundays  at 
least  in  every  week.'  That  would  argue  that  stage  plays  were  only 
represented  on  a  Sunday.  As  late  as  the  third  year  of  King  Charles 
the  First  a  contemporary  writes  : 

And  seldom  have  they  leisure  for  a  play 
Or  masque  except  upon  God's  holiday. 

According  to  some  authorities  such  performances  were  only 
abolished  after  a  scaffolding  had  fallen  down  in  the  Paris  Garden 
during  a  performance  on  Sunday,  the  13th  of  January  1583,  by  which 
eight  people  were  killed,  which,  as  William  Prynne  said  in  his  Histrio- 
mastix,  '  clearly  showed  the  interposition  of  Heaven.'  Let  it  not  be 
thought  that  I  am  desirous  of  losing  my  seventh  day  and  day  of  rest, 
but  I  think  sometimes  with  sorrow  of  the  many  men  and  women 
and  even  children  who  toil  through  the  six  days  without  relief  or 
gladness,  and  to  whom  a  play  by  William  Shakespeare  on  the  seventh 
day,  let  us  say,  would  be  the  means  of  arriving  at  the  divine  through 
the  inspiration  of  the  poet  himself,  and  if  I  have  spoken  of  the  play 
and  Sabbatarian  principles  it  is  because  I  am  going  to  try  and  show 
that  with  the  rigid  observation  of  the  Sabbath  as  understood  by 
Puritanism  a  hatred  of  the  theatre,  and  everything  pertaining  to  the 
theatre,  was  inoculated  in  the  British  people ;  an  inoculation  that 
presently  is  to  make  them  insensible  to  the  love  of  the  drama,  a  love 
which  I  contend  to  be  instinctive  in  almost  every  human  being. 

It  follows  in  logical  stages  from  the  destruction  of  pictures,  ikons, 
figures  representing  holy  characters  in  the  churches,  bare  places  of 
worship,  that  from  a  hatred  of  make-believe  and  a  detestation  of 
images,  there  must  come  a  dislike  of  anything  that  gives  colour,  or 
form,  or  materialisation  to  creed  or  imagination,  and  from  that  there 
is  only  one  step  to  vehement  abhorrence  of  the  stage  with  its  simulated 
passions  and  emotions,  with  its  make-believe  and  travesty,  with  its 
many-hued  pictures.  Kespectability  in  England  stands  for  every- 
thing that  is  unobtrusive  and  unimpressionable.  Yes,  we  have  a 
profound  contempt  for  anything  that  deals  in  feeling  and  personal 


1908  THE   THEATRICAL   CENSORSHIP  1038 

experiences  and  the  hundred  and  one  emotions  that  go  to  make 
up  the  actor's  art  fall  under  the  lash  of  an  Englishman's  contempt  and 
make  him  apply  frivolously,  without  understanding  why  he  does  so, 
the  terms  of  rogue  and  vagabond  to  the  actor. 

As  it  has  long  been  the  habit  for  the  greater  delectation  of  the 
anti-theatrite  to  believe  that  actors  and  actresses  legally  come  under 
the  heading  of  '  rogues  and  vagabonds,'  by  the  Act  passed  in  Queen 
Elizabeth's  reign,  I  may  here  perhaps  take  up  a  little  time  in  dwelling 
upon  the  origin  of  that  belief  and  the  reasons  for  that  Bill— one  that 
was  passed  as  much  for  the  security  of  the  public  as  of  what  we  might 
to-day  call  the  *  legitimate '  actor.  When  Henry  the  Eighth  broke 
up  the  monasteries  immense  masses  of  vagrants  and  itinerant  paupers 
of  no  visible  means  of  subsistence  were  let  loose  all  over  the  country 
that  had  formerly  found  food  and  shelter  in  the  rest-houses  of  the 
abbeys,  which  virtually  represented  the  casual  ward  of  our  present 
day.  These,  then,  had  to  be  legislated  for,  and  we  find  the  first  measure 
for  out-door  relief  or  Poor-law  Act  is  passed  in  1531.  But  though  we 
read  of  provisions  inflicting  condign  punishment  on  rogues,  vagabonds, 
and  sturdy  beggars  under  Henry  the  Eighth  and  Edward  the  Sixth 
there  is  no  mention  of  '  players,'  and  it  is  not  until  we  come  to  Queen 
Elizabeth's  Act  of  1572  that  we  find  them  included.  Now  the  reason 
for  this  is  not  difficult  to  understand.  In  the  earlier  reigns  there  was 
something  of  chaos  all  over  the  country  with  the  breaking  up  of  the 
old  faith  with  its  monkish  control  and  assistance,  and  in  all  probability 
the  country  was  overrun  by  the  shipwrecked  mariner  pitching  his 
tale  of  woe,  by  the  man  with  the  dancing  bear,  the  juggler,  the  rope- 
dancer,  the  strolling  minstrel,  and  the  sturdy  beggar  of  every  descrip- 
tion plying  his  nefarious  trade  in  the  same  way  that  we  are  accosted 
in  the  present  day  by  the  woman  with  a  baby  to  move  us  to  pity,  or  a 
box  of  matches  to  sell,  or  a  tray  of  shoe-laces  to  hawk,  and  the  people 
had  neither  leisure  nor  pleasure  for  a  dramatic  entertainment.  By  the 
time  Elizabeth  and  her  great  statesmen  had  brought  prosperity  and 
security  to  England  the  taste  for  interludes  and  plays  had  awakened,  and 
a  new  calling  or  a  means  of  making  money  had  produced  a  fresh  crop 
of  strollers  and  travelling  players  of  interludes,  and  they  set  up  their 
stages  in  inn-yards,  granaries,  barns,  or  whatever  building  was  available 
for  the  accommodation  of  an  audience.  We  can  readily  imagine  the 
nuisance  and  commotion  this  would  cause  in  street  of  town  or  village, 
and  when  we  realise  that  far  into  the  eighteenth  century  the  spec- 
tators even  pushed  their  way  on  to  the  stage  and  mingled  with  the 
players,  we  can  also  see  that  they  would  have  thronged  into  inn-yard 
or  building  when  there  were  no  three-foot  gangway  L.C.C.  regulations, 
and,  blocking  up  entrances  and  exits,  would  likely  have  extended 
far  into  the  open.  What  more  easily  roused  to  excitement  and 
sedition  than  the  adherents  of  the  old  faith  smouldering  with  a  sense 
of  injury,  and  the  adherents  of  the  new  faith  ready  to  tear  and  trample 


1084  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

on  their  enemies  in  the  name  of  authority.  It  must  be  remembered, 
too,  that  in  those  days  the  greater  body  of  the  population  never 
journeyed  or  travelled  out  of  their  counties.  Moving  from  place  to 
place,  save  among  the  very  rich  or  the  highly  born,  was  not  customary, 
and  thus  to  be  overrun  and  have  the  public  peace  destroyed  by  aliens 
from  another  county  was  a  serious  affair. 

In  1572,  therefore,  an  Act  is  passed  which  provides  thus :  Under  all 
fencers,  bearwards,  common  players  in  interludes,  and  minstrels  not 
belonging  to  any  baron  of  this  realm  or  toward  any  other  honourable 
personage  of  greater  degree  which  the  said  fencers,  common  players  in 
interludes,  and  minstrels  shall  wander  abroad,  and  who  have  not 
license  of  two  justices  of  the  peace  at  the  least  when  and  in  what  shire 
they  shall  happen  to  wander,  /shall  be  adjudged  and  deemed  rogues 
and  vagabonds  and  sturdy  beggars. 

All  would  have  been  well  had  it  remained  at  that.  But  doubtless 
the  actor  was  beginning  to  feel  self-confident  and  independent  of 
authority.  I  daresay  it  was  irksome  to  find  two  new  magistrates  on 
arriving  in  a  new  county,  and  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world  for  the 
actor  was  to  give  out  that  he  was  the  Earl  of  Essex's  servant,  or  belonged 
to  my  Lord  of  Leicester's  company  of  players,  and  thus  evade  the 
trouble  of  applying  for  a  new  license.  Then  out  comes  the  amended 
Act  of  1597,  in  which  this  clause  is  added  :  '  to  be  authorised  to  play 
under  the  hand  and  seal  of  arms  of  such  baron  or  personage,'  and  omits 
the  words  '  and  have  not  license  of  two  justices  of  the  peace  at  least.' 
Henceforth  the  actor  must  apply  to  his  patron  for  a  patent 
allowing  him  to  ply  his  calling,  unless  he  fears  not  to  be  punished 
under  the  heading  of  rogue  and  vagabond.  We  can  hardly  imagine 
that  insult  was  intended  to  be  conveyed  to  the  actor  when  we  find  the 
graceful  words  with  which  Elizabeth  grants  her  first  royal  patent  to 
players  '  as  well  for  the  recreation  of  our  loving  subjects  as  for  our 
solace  and  pleasure  when  we  shall  think  good  to  see  them,'  and  when 
a  century  later  the  austere  William  of  Orange  admits  the  actor  Betterton 
to  a  private  audience  and  grants  him  a  license  to  erect  a  theatre  in 
Lincoln's  Inn  Fields :  the  license  is  made  out  to  Thomas  Betterton, 
gentleman.  One  cannot  be  a  gentleman  and  a  rogue  and  a  vagabond 
at  one  and  the  same  time. 

We  have  it  on  record  that  a  taste  for  stage  plays  began  at  a  very 
early  date  in  England,  and  the  curious  custom  of  a  company  of  players 
being  attached  to  the  service  of  a  prince  or  nobleman  was  originated 
by  Richard  the  Third  when  he  was  Duke  of  Gloucester.  It  throws  a 
curious  light  on  this  monarch's  character,  which  we  are  accustomed 
to  regard  as  saturnine  and  treacherous,  to  think  that  not  only  was  he  a 
patron  of  the  drama,  but  actually  encouraged  the  taste  for  it  in  others 
by  permitting  his  retainers  to  go  on  a  provincial  tour  under  the  aegis 
of  his  name  at  such  time  as  they  were  not  employed  or  wanted  by 
himself.  This  custom  led  in  time  to  the  Act  of  1572,  of  which  I  have 


1908  THE   THEATRICAL   CENSORSHIP  1086 

already  spoken,  by  which  those  actors  who  were  attached  to  the  service 
of  any  noble  house  were  allowed  to  give  entertainments  when  and 
wherever  they  pleased,  provided  they  had  their  employer's  leave  to 
do  so.  The  art  of  acting  was  not  limited  to  the  mere  professional,  for 
the  amateur  actor  has  existed  in  all  ages  of  English  history.  We  find 
records  of  even  members  of  the  Church  writing  plays  that  are  inter- 
preted by  students  of  the  Universities  and  boys  of  the  public  schools, 
and  the  gentlemen  of  the  Inns  of  Court  spent  much  time  and  thought 
over  their  productions,  and  I  am  quite  sure  that  they  took  themselves 
quite  as  seriously  as  the  amateur  actor  of  to-day. 

When  I  mentioned  previously  the  element  of  danger  that  was 
to  be  found  in  the  acting  of  stage  plays  I  referred  to  the  peril  that 
might  arise  from  the  conflict  of  the  old  faith  and  the  new  in  a  country 
in  which  there  had  recently  been  a  change  of  religion,  when  nothing 
is  more  easy  than  to  arouse  fanatical  sentiments  through  the  medium  of 
the  stage  play,  and  at  this  time — and  perhaps  from  all  time,  when  we 
remember  that  the  first  regular  stage  play  we  read  of  is  one  on  the 
life  of  St.  Catherine,  composed  by  a  monk  called  Geoffrey — but  par- 
ticularly after  the  Reformation,  doctrinal,  and  therefore  political, 
allusions  are  allowed  to  creep  in.  It  is  interesting  to  find  that  the 
spirit  of  reformation  is  at  its  beginning  on  the  actor's  side  of  the 
curtain,  interesting  when  we  take  it  into  consideration  that  the  anti- 
theatrite  is  usually  to  be  found  in  the  ranks  of  Low  Church  rather  than 
of  High  Church  men. 

A  condemnation  of  sacraments  and  Masses  is  to  be  found  on  the 
stage  of  Edward  the  Sixth's  time,  and  when  a  solemn  dirge  and  Mass 
is  announced  for  the  soul  of  Henry  the  Eighth  a  '  solemn  '  play  is 
announced  for  the  same  hour  by  the  actors  at  Southwark,  principally 
out  of  a  mischievous  desire  to  test  which  has  the  greater  drawing  power, 
the  Mass  or  the  play.     This,  however,  gives  offence,  and  the  players 
are  requested  to  confine  their  energies  to  performances  at  home — 
that  is,  in  the  house  of  their  master  of  Dorset.     That  the  stage  was 
used  on  both  sides  for  the  airing  of  tenets  old  and  new  we  have  abundant 
proof.     At  one  moment  it  is  utilised  for  a  Protestant,  at  another 
moment  for  a  Komanist  propaganda,  and  in  1556  we  are  not  surprised 
to  find  the  strolling  player  forbidden  to  wander,  lest,  like  the  Pied 
Piper  of  Hamelin,  he  pipe  seditious  tunes  on  his  instrument  and  draw 
the  people  out  of  their  homes  to  paths  of  destruction.     So  anxious  is 
authority  regarding  the  stage,  so  jealous  is  it  of  its  influence,  that  in 
1557  we  find  a  play  called  A  Sackful  of  News,  apparently  founded  on 
a  ballad  of  the  period,  actually  prevented  by  the  Privy  Council  and 
the  actors  sent  to  prison.    The  manuscript  of  this  play  not  being 
extant  we  have  no  means  of  knowing  what  offensive  matter  it  con- 
tained, but  the  title  A  Sackful  of  News  is  suggestive  of  topical  allusions 
or  of  the  talk  of  the  town— much  like  the  French  revue,  I  should 
imagine,  of  the  present  day. 


1086  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

The  actors  are  released  after  twenty-four  hours,  as  the  play  was 
found  to  be  harmless,  in  spite  of  which,  however,  authority  thinks  it 
will  be  on  the  safe  side  by  forbidding  the  actors  of  the  City  of  London 
to  appear  at  any  other  time  than  between  All  Saints'  Day  and  Shrove 
Tuesday,  and  ordering  them  to  act  no  play  that  is  not  censored  by  the 
ordinary. 

This  is  significant.  It  is  the  commencement  of  the  struggle. 
Authority  has  awakened  to  the  power  of  the  stage. 

In  1564  Archbishop  Grindal  traces  the  plague  of  the  previous  year 
to  the  work  of  the  theatre  by  a  wonderful  process  of  reasoning — not 
on  account  of  a  germ  theory  engendered  by  a  mass  of  people  crowded 
together,  but  on  some  more  abstract  and  religious  hypothesis.  Later 
one  Gosson,  who  is  afterwards  Rector  of  St.  Botolph,  produces  a  book 
entitled  The  School  of  Abuse,  which  is  interesting,  less  for  its  in- 
vective against  the  theatre  than  for  the  description  of  an  audience. 
He  says  : 

In  our  assemblies  at  plays  in  London  you  see  such  heaving  and  shouting, 
such  pitching  and  shouldering  to  sit  by  woman,  such  care  for  their  garments 
that  they  be  not  trodden  on,  such  eyes  to  their  laps  that  no  chips  light  on  them , 
such  pillows  to  their  backs  that  they  take  no  hurt,  such  masking  in  their  ears  : 
such  giving  them  pippins  to  pass  the  time,  such  playing  at  footsaunt  without 
cards,  such  toying,  such  smiling,  such  winking  and  such  manning  them  home 
when  the  sports  are  ended  that  it  is  a  right  comedy  to  mark  their  behaviour. 

Whether  the  City  voiced  the  Church  or  the  pulpit  voiced  the  City, 
certain  it  is  that  the  City  and  Middlesex  magistrates  set  their  faces 
sternly  against  the  acting  of  plays.  At  this  time  we  find  all  plays 
performed  must  be  licensed  by  the  Lord  Mayor.  Indeed  at  one 
moment  the  Privy  Council  appears  to  be  ordering  the  Lord  Mayor  to 
forbid  plays  during  Lent,  at  another  we  find  the  player  petitioning  the 
Privy  Council  to  be  allowed  to  act '  now  that  the  sickness  hath  abated,' 
and  the  Privy  Council  praying  the  Lord  Mayor  to  allow  them  to  act  on 
any  day  but  Sunday.  It  seems  to  have  been  a  game  of  battledore 
and  shuttlecock  between  the  Privy  Council  and  the  City  magistrates, 
in  which  the  actor  was  the  unfortunate  shuttlecock  ;  but  they  certainly 
were  not  wanted  in  the  City,  and  Burbage  and  his  company  seek 
refuge  in  Blackfriars  outside  the  City  walls. 

With  the  accession  of  James  the  First  we  find  the  Privy  Council 
rebuking  the  Middlesex  justices  for  permitting  too  large  a  number 
of  playhouses,  and  forthwith  all  licensing  powers  are  adopted  by  the 
Crown.  From  this  moment  we  find  the  Master  of  the  Revels  is  being 
paid  the  fees  for  the  licensing  of  playhouses  and  actors. 

We  have  now  arrived  at  the  Stuart  period,  and  the  battle  begins 
in  good  earnest.  The  London  apprentices  selected  Shrove  Tuesday, 
1616-17,  to  lead  a  raid  on  the  Cockpit  or  Phoenix  Theatre  in  Drury 
Lane.  Books,  properties,  and  clothing  are  destroyed,  the  theatre 
wrecked,  and  the  Lord  Mayor,  appealed  to,  appears  to  have  taken 


1908  THE   THEATRICAL   CENSORSHIP  1087 

no  steps  to  punish  the  ringleaders  of  this  attack,  but  to  have  contented 
himself  with  waiting  until  the  anniversary  to  order  out  the  trained 
band  to  prevent  further  mischief.  At  Lambeth  Archbishop  Bancroft 
allows  interludes  to  be  enacted  before  him  by  his  own  gentlemen, 
while  in  the  City  an  obscure  preacher,  Sutton  by  name,  stands  up  and 
denounces  stagecraft  in  the  pulpit  of  St.  Mary's  Overy.  An  actor, 
Field,  writes  a  spirited  reply.  One  wonders  what  Shakespeare  himself 
would  have  thought  of  all  this. 

Certainly  the  poor  player  can  never  do  right.  When  rocked  in 
the  security  of  Protestantism  he  produces  a  Game  of  Chess,  in  which 
the  black  and  white  pieces  on  the  board  represent  the  Reformers  and 
the  Papists,  and  the  latter  party  gets  the  worse  of  it.  The  Spanish 
Ambassador  elects  to  find  a  political  allusion  in  it  and  the  play  is 
withdrawn— this  time  literally  on  account  of  its  unprecedented 
success  and  the  playwright  forthwith  committed  to  prison.  A  little 
later  the  East  India  Company  remonstrate  against  the  drama  called 
Amboyna,  dealing  with  a  massacre  perpetrated  by  the  Dutch,  and 
that  production  is  forbidden. 

A  pamphlet  entitled  A  Short  Treatise  against  Stage  Plays  appears 
in  1625,  and  among  other  specious  arguments  against  the  profession 
of  acting,  such  as  the  negative  one  that  there  is  no  authority  given  for 
the  actor's  calling  in  the  Holy  Writ,  ergo  it  must  be  unchristian,  the 
writer  says  that  if  going  on  the  stage  under  false  representations  of 
their  natural  names  and  persons  be  not  an  offence  against  the  Epistle 
of  Timothy  he  would  like  to  know  what  is !  But  the  only  possible 
reference  that  can  be  converted  into  an  allusion  of  this  kind  in  Timothy 
is  the  following  :  '  But  shun  profane  and  vain  babblings,  for  they  will 
increase  into  more  ungodliness.'  That  is  virtually  the  same  phase 
of  mind  that  I  referred  to  at  the  beginning  of  this  paper  to  be  found 
in  the  subconscious  part  of  every  English  man  and  woman's  brain.  It 
is  antagonistic  to  their  ideas  of  respectability  to  put  on  a  disguise  and 
to  imitate  nature. 

Now  comes  a  petition  from  Blackfriars  asking  for  the  removal  of 
the  players  on  a  practical  and  secular  ground  :  the  traffic  is  too  great 
for  the  convenience  of  the  inhabitants,  and  interferes  with  business 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  theatre.  That  looks  well  for  the  box-office  returns 
at  any  rate  ;  but  the  petitioners  artfully  throw  in  a  pinch  of  piety  to 
season  the  tradesman's  lament — christenings  and  their  attendant 
rejoicing,  burials  and  their  attendant  sorrows,  are  intruded  upon  by 
the  mob  thronging  to  the  playhouse. 

The  French  Queen,  Henrietta  Maria,  with  her  inborn  Gallic  taste  for 
the  drama,  steps  in  and  permission  is  given  to  the  players  to  continue  ; 
but  the  playhouses  are  limited  to  two :  one  on  Bankside,  where  the  Lord 
Chamberlain's  servants  may  play ;  another  in  Middlesex  is  granted  to 
AUeyn.  The  name  of  Alleyn  is  associated  in  our  mind  with  the 
beautiful  Dulwich  College,  built  on  his  estate  in  Surrey,  bought  out 


1088  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

of  the  wealth  he  made  in  the  Fortune  Theatre.  Nowadays  we  should 
be  too  superstitious  to  christen  an  enterprise  '  Fortune  '  if  we  expected 
it  to  thrive.  Dulwich  College,  endowed  for  a  master,  four  fellows, 
twelve  aged  poor  people,  and  twelve  poor  boys,  is  as  fine  a  monu- 
ment as  any  to  the  memory  of  an  actor.  Nevertheless  indignation 
and  the  prejudice  against  his  calling  roll  on  as  the  years  go  by,  accumu- 
lating in  wrath,  gaining  in  strength  and  fury,  until  it  bursts  over 
England  in  Prynne's  Histriomastix  of  1683,  The  Player's  Scourge  or 
The  Actor's  Tragedy,  by  William  Prynne,  utter  barrister  of  Lincoln's 
Inn.  A  more  wholesome  indictment  of  the  penning,  acting,  and 
frequenting  of  stage  plays  as  '  infamous,  unlawful,  and  misbecoming 
Christians  '  never  was  assuredly  put  to  paper.  But  one  of  the  historical 
facts  we  are  grateful  to  Prynne  for  telling  us  is,  that  they  have  now 
their '  female  players  in  Italy  and  other  foreign  parts,  and  in  Michaelmas 
1629 they  had  Frenchwomen  actors  in  a  play  presented  at  Blackfriars, 
where  there  was  great  resort.'  That  is  the  first  mention  of  women  on 
the  professional  stage.  According  to  a  letter  of  Thomas  Brande 
'  they  were  hissed,  hooted,  and  pippin-pelted  from  the  stage.'  Others 
say  they  made  great  profit  to  themselves.  A  propos  of  the  foreigners 
in  a  comedy  called  The  Ball,  by  Shirley  and  Chapman,  in  1639  Fresh- 
water says  this  :  '  You  must  encourage  strangers  while  you  live.  It 
is  the  character  of  our  nation ;  we  are  famous  for  dejecting  our  own 
countrymen.'  Freshwater  might  have  been  speaking  of  1908.  We 
are  denied  the  privilege  of  seeing  Granville  Barker's  Waste,  but  we  are 
treated  to  physiologic  emotions,  reminiscent  only  of  the  monkey- 
house,  if  spoken  in  a  language  we  do  not  understand. 

To  return  to  Prynne's  Histriomastix.  It  had  the  effect  of  calling 
the  lovers  of  the  stage  to  arms.  The  Inns  of  Court,  always  devoted  to 
the  pastime  of  acting,  enacted  a  brilliant  masque  before  Charles  the 
First  and  his  consort.  The  plays  at  Court  were  rehearsed  and  per- 
formed, and  Prynne  stood  in  the  pillory  on  a  charge  of  treason  in 
abusing  the  habits  of  his  Sovereign  :  he  was  condemned  to  lifelong 
imprisonment,  to  pay  a  heavy  fine,  and  to  lose  both  his  ears.  That  the 
unjustifiable  severity  of  the  sentence  took  its  own  revenge  and  had 
much  to  do  with  the  eventual  suppression  of  the  theatre  by  the 
Puritans  there  can  be  little  doubt.  It  culminates  in  the  Act  of  the 
llth  of  February  1647,  providing  that  all  stage  galleries,  seats,  and 
boxes  shall  be  pulled  down  by  warrant  of  two  justices  of  the  peace 
that  all  the  actors  of  plays  for  the  time  to  come  being  convicted 
shall  be  publicly  whipped  (how  relieved  Englishmen  of  all  time  must 
be  that  there  were  at  that  period  no  women  players  on  the  stage), 
and  all  spectators  of  plays  for  every  offence  shall  pay  five  shillings. 

After  the  Long  Parliament  the  release  of  Prynne  and  his  apotheosis 
is  significant ;  it  means  the  degradation  of  the  player,  the  mortification 
of  the  playwright.  It  is  to  the  satisfaction  of  my  profession  that 
the  actors,  their  occupation  gone,  took  up  arms  for  the  Sovereign 


1908  THE    THEATRICAL   CENSORSHIP  1089 

who  had  been  their  patron  and  defender,  with  the  exception  of  three, 
Lowen,  Taylor,  and  Pollard,  who  were  too  advanced  in  age.  Lowen, 
by  the  way,  will  presently  convey  to  Davenant,  who  transcribes  it 
to  Betterton,  what  Shakespeare  had  imparted  to  him  about  Hamlet 
and  Henry  the  Eighth.  All  the  others  fought  in  the  Civil  War.  Of 
importance  it  is  to  notice  that  though  Oliver  Cromwell  refused  to 
allow  a  single  verse  of  Shakespeare  to  be  recited  on'  the  festivities  of 
his  daughter's  marriage,  he  hired  buffoons  to  entertain  the  guests, 
and  a  great  deal  of  fun  was  got  out  of  the  Great  Protector  himself 
snatching  someone's  hat  and  sitting  on  it  to  conceal  it ;  of  importance 
because  that  attitude  of  contempt  for  the  drama  in  its  strenuous 
and  serious  aspect  has  survived  through  all  the  impertinence  and 
scurrility  of  the  Restoration :  through  all  the  intermittent  brilliancy 
of  the  Hanoverian  epoch  down  to  the  very  moment  in  which  we  are 
living.  Says  Cromwell :  '  Away  with  Shakespeare  and  his  descrip- 
tion of  human  passions.  It  offends  against  every  commandment  in 
the  Decalogue.  The  kind  of  fun  I  like  is  the  harmless  joke  of  sitting 
on  my  hat.'  A  joke,  by  the  way,  that  has  not  failed  to  amuse 
an  English  audience  ever  since. 

The  Royalist  struggle  over,  a  small  band  of  actors  who  had  fought 
for  the  King  again  prove  they  are  not  wanting  in  fearlessness.  They 
open  and  continue  to  perform  a  few  days  at  the  Cockpit,  and  then  the 
soldiers  are  down  on  them,  and  they  are  carried  off  through  the  streets 
in  their  stage  clothes  to  the  gate-house.  There  they  are  detained  for 
a  little  while,  but  not  before  they  are  stripped  of  their  theatrical 
wardrobe  and  properties — their  stock  in  trade,  as  it  were.  Evidently 
the  Puritans  are  not  above  turning  an  honest  penny  out  of  these 
miscreants.  In  Randolph's  Muses'  Looking-glass  we  read  something 
of  this  way  of  turning  religion  to  account  in  a  duologue  between  Mrs. 
Flowerdew  and  Mrs.  Bird,  Puritans  who  served  the  playhouse  with 
their  wares. 

FLOWERDEW  :  It  was  a  jealous  prayer  I  heard  a  brother  make  concerning 
playhouses. 

BIED  :  For  charity,  what  is't  ? 

FLOWERDEW  :  That  the  Globe, 

"Wherein,  quoth  he,  reigns  a  whole  world  of  vice, 
Had  been  consum'd ;  the  Phoenix  burnt  to  ashes  ; 
The  Fortune  whipt  for  a  blind  witch  ;  Black  Fryers 
He  wonders  how  it  escaped  demolishing 
At  the  time  of  Eeformation ;  lastly  he  wishes 
The  Bull  might  cross  the  Thames  to  the  Bear  gardens 
And  there  be  properly  baited. 

BIED  :  A  good  prayer. 

FLOWERDEW  :  Indeed  it  sometimes  pricks  my  conscience  I  come  to  sell  them 
pins  and  looking-glasses. 

BIRD  :  I  have  their  custom,  too,  for  all  their  feathers. 
'Tis  fit  that  we  which  are  sincere  professors 
Should  gain  by  infidels. 


1040  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

This  is  interesting,  not  only  for  its  characteristic  sentiment,  but 
for  the  mention  of  all  the  theatres  that  existed  at  the  accession  of 
James  the  First. 

At  this  time  when  the  drama  is  threatened  with  extinction  Holland 
House,  Kensington,  is  dear  to  us  for  the  part  taken  in  keeping  it 
alive  by  the  widow  of  that  Earl  of  Holland  whose  head  fell  on 
the  scaffold  in  1649.  She  arranged  performances  before  a  select  and 
small  circle  of  her  friends,  and  a  collection  was  made  for  them  after 
the  play.  By  ruse,  by  subterfuge,  by  advertising  a  theatrical  enter- 
tainment as  an  exhibition  of  rope-walking,  by  bribing  the  officer  at 
Whitehall  to  ignore  the  actors  at  Christmas  and  Bartholomew  Fair 
time,  the  theatre,  the  eternal  instinct  of  acting,  is  kept  alive  until 
General  Monk  bivouacs  in  London,  and  Rhodes,  an  old  prompter  of 
Blackfriars,  who  turned  bookseller  at  Charing  Cross  to  keep  himself 
going,  foots  it  to  Hyde  Park  and  obtains  a  license  to  act  from  the 
General  who  is  quartered  there,  and  joyfully  opens  the  Cockpit  at 
Drury  Lane  with  Betterton,  a  son  of  the  cook  of  Charles  the  First, 
an  actor  who  is  afterwards  with  his  wife  to  gain  and  uphold  the  respect 
and  confidence  of  kings  and  to  find  a  final  resting  place  in  Drury 
Lane. 

For  me  there  is  something  thrilling  in  this  renaissance  of  the 
theatre.  I  catch  something  of  the  whirl  and  ferment  of  transport 
that  must  have  eddied  round  and  about  the  narrow  streets  of  Drury 
Lane  when  Rhodes  hurried  back  with  the  license  in  his  pocket 
to  reopen  the  theatres.  Something  of  glorious  exhilaration  and  excite- 
ment that  there  was  all  to  win  and  nothing  to  lose  for  Betterton  and 
his  company  of  players  :  Betterton,  who  was  leading  man  at  twenty- 
two,  and  Kynaston,  who  played  the  women's  parts  and  made  such 
a  touching  and  beautiful  girl  that,  according  to  Downes,  '  it  has  been 
disputable  among  the  judicious  whether  any  woman  that  succeeded 
him  in  the  said  plays  so  sensibly  touched  the  audience  as  he.'  John 
Downes,  the  simple  prompter  or  book-holder  at  the  theatre  in 
Lincoln's  Inn  Fields  from  its  opening  in  1662  to  1706,  becomes  by  far 
the  most  important  figure  of  these  times,  as  it  is  mainly  to  his  laudable 
habit  of  keeping  a  record  of  plays  and  casts  that  we  are  indebted  for 
our  information  about  the  theatre  under  the  Restoration.  By  1662 
Thomas  Killigrew  and  Sir  William  Davenant  had  each  acquired  fresh 
patents  for  two  new  theatres  that  they  had  built :  Killigrew  in  Drury 
Lane,  with  the  King's  company ;  Davenant  in  Dorset  Gardens,  with 
the  Duke's  company ;  and  just  about  this  time  women  are  regularly 
engaged  as  actresses.  Of  course  queens  and  their  maids  of  honour 
and  English  ladies  of  rank  had  long  before  taken  part  in  the  dramatic 
entertainments  and  Court  revels ;  but  the  first  female  who  had 
appeared  on  the  stage  was  Mrs.  Coleman,  who  sang  in  a  performance 
of  The  Siege  of  Rhodes  at  Rutland  House,  when,  by  judiciously  calling 
it  an  opera,  Davenant  had  got  Cromwell  to  allow  the  performance — 


1908  THE   THEATRICAL   CENSORSHIP  1041 

on  the  old  principle,  I  assume,  that  what  you  cannot  speak  you  can 
sing. 

Genest,  however,  declares  it  was  on  account  of  Cromwell's  hatred 
against  the  Spaniards  that  he  permitted  it,  as  the  play  was  an  account 
of  their  cruelties  in  Peru.  Davenant  on  this  occasion  apologises 
for  the  narrow  limit  of  stage-room,  15  feet  in  depth  and  11  feet  in  height, 
so  that  the  new  scenery  designed  by  John  Webb  cannot  be  seen  to 
advantage.  John  Webb  was  the  famous  architect  and  son-in-law  of 
Inigo  Jones.  The  latter,  in  his  intervals  of  building  palaces,  had 
designed  scenery  for  the  Court  masques  and  revels  in  use  many  years 
before  this,  and  no  doubt  Webb  assisted  him  in  this  kind  of  decorative 
architectural  work. 

Davenant  having  played  some  musical  pieces  before  the  Restora- 
tion, Pepys  always  insists  on  calling  his  theatre  the  opera,  which  is 
confusing ;  in  fact,  the  whole  of  this  period  with  its  many  similarly 
named  characters  and  plays  is  not  easily  disentangled.  The  identity 
of  the  heroine  of  the  Roxalana  story  that  de  Grammont  tells  rather 
pathetically  has  been  thus  lost.  The  part  of  Roxalana  in  a  play 
called  The  Rival  Queens  had  been  played  by  a  beautiful  actress  with 
whom  the  Earl  of  Oxford  fell  in  love.  She,  being  as  virtuous  as  she 
was  beautiful,  would  have  nothing  to  say  to  him  until  he  proposed 
marriage  to  her,  and  he  basely  had  recourse  to  the  stratagem  of  having 
the  marriage  service  read  by  a  sham  priest  who  was  in  reality  a 
trumpeter  in  his  regiment.  When  the  deception  was  discovered  she 
threw  herself  at  the  King's  feet  to  demand  justice — some  say  with 
no  avail — but  de  Grammont  declares  that  the  King  obliged  Lord 
Oxford  to  make  a  handsome  settlement  on  her,  and  would  not  allow  him 
to  marry  during  the  lifetime  of  her  son.  De  Grammont  has  handed 
down  this  sad  little  story  to  us,  but  it  is  with  difficulty  that  we  trace 
the  part  to  a  Mrs.  Davenport,  who  is  also  interesting  as  being  one  of 
the  first  of  the  four  principal  actresses  engaged  by  Sir  William  Davenant, 
and  who,  according  to  Downes,  boarded  in  Davenant's  house,  and  was 
later,  he  says,  '  crept  the  stage  by  love.'  Downes  assures  us  also  that 
no  succeeding  theatre  for  many  years  gained  more  money  and  reputa- 
tion to  the  company  than  this,  and  when  a  play  called  Love  and  Honour 
is  produced  and  the  King,  the  Duke  of  York,  and  the  unprincipled 
Earl  of  Oxford  referred  to  give  their  Coronation  suits  to  Betterton, 
Harris,  and  Pryce,  it  is  evident  that  encouragement  in  high  places  can 
go  no  further  than  this,  and  it  is  now  the  vogue  for  the  successful  and 
fashionable  man  or  woman  about  town  to  become  a  dramatic  author. 
We  find  the  Dukes  of  Buckingham  and  Newcastle,  the  Earls  of  Bristol, 
Orrery,  Rochester,  Lansdowne,  Lord  Caryll,  Lord  Falkland,  Sir  Samuel 
Tuke,  Sir  Thomas  Killigrew,  Sir  Charles  Sedley,  the  Duchess  of  New- 
castle, all  producing  plays  for  the  stage.  Sir  Charles  Sedley  is, 
indeed,  so  like  the  handsome  actor  Kynaston  in  face  that  we  read  of 
an  unpleasant  little  affair  in  which  Sedley  takes  offence  at  Kynaston 


1042  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

aping  him  in  dress  and  manner,  and  sets  two  hired  ruffians  to  horse- 
whip the  actor  on  his  way  home — not  a  great  notion  of  fair  play ! 
But  the  incident  is  objectionable  from  another  point  of  view  :  though 
the  players  are  the  pampered  pets  of  the  upper  classes,  there  is  the 
same  insolent  disdain  of  them  that  was  the  mainspring  of  the  Puritan 
persecution  of  them  by  the  middle  classes. 

On  the  2nd  of  August  1664  Samuel  Pepys  casually  inserts  this 
momentous  statement  in  his  Diary — to  me  at  least  momentous  : 
'  To  the  King's  playhouse.  ...  I  chanced  to  sit  by  Tom  Killigrew, 
who  tells  me  that  he  has  set  up  a  nursery — that  is,  is  going  to  build 
a  house  in  Moorfields  where  he  will  have  common  plays  acted  ' ;  and 
among  the  State  papers  will  be  found  this  license  :  '  To  erect  a  nursery 
for  breeding  players  in  London  and  Westminster  under  the  oversight 
and  approbation  of  Sir  William  Davenant  and  Sir  Thomas  Killigrew  ' ; 
and  Pepys  tells  us  in  1668  : 

I  took  them  [his  wife  and  the  now  notorious  Deb]  to  the  Nursery  where 
none  of  us  ever  were  before.  The  acting  not  so  much  worse  because  I  expected 
as  bad  as  could  be.  However,  I  was  well  pleased  to  see  it  once,  being  worth 
a  man's  seeing  to  discover  the  different  ability  and  understanding  of  people  and 
the  different  growths  of  people's  ability  by  practice. 

Now  what  that  means  is  this,  that  in  1668  they  were  farther 
advanced  than  we  are  in  1908  in  their  understanding  of  the  require- 
ments of  the  stage.  There  were  to  be  no  tiros  foisted  on  the  un- 
suspecting spectator,  no  experimentalising  with  the  patience  of  the 
audience,  no  trifling  with  the  pence  and  shillings  of  a  critical  public 
by  the  engagement  of  untried  actors  and  actresses  in  leading  parts. 

Of  the  Tom  Killigrew  who  sat  near  our  friend  Samuel  this  theatrical 
epoch  appears  to  be  the  most  reputable  part  of  his  career.  He  had 
been  page  of  honour  to  Charles  the  First,  groom  of  the  bedchamber 
to  Charles  the  Second,  and  Resident  at  Venice  during  the  Common- 
wealth, from  which  republic  he  was  recalled  by  request  of  the 
Venetians  on  account  of  his  scandalous  irregularities.  Pepys  says 
of  him  that  he  heard  '  that  Tom  Killigrew  has  a  fee  out  of  the  King 
as  fool  or  jester,  and  may  with  privilege  revile  or  jeer  anybody — 
the  greatest  person — without  offence  by  the  privilege  of  his  place.' 
We  understand  therefore  that  he  must  have  been  a  privileged  friend 
of  old  Rowley's  ;  he  certainly  was  one  of  the  very  few  who  had  the 
courage  to  talk  to  him  openly  about  the  neglect  of  his  duties,  which 
the  King  seems  to  have  taken  in  good  part.  Nevertheless,  when 
Lord  Rochester,  a  lad  of  twenty-one,  boxed  Killigrew's  ears  in  the 
presence  of  his  Sovereign,  the  latter  passed  the  thing  by  and  he  publicly 
walked  up  and  down  with  Rochester,  as  Pepys  thinks,  '  to  the  King's 
everlasting  shame.'  Not  so  indulged  to  be  plain-spoken  as  Killigrew 
were  the  servants  of  the  King's  company.  If  they  offended  with  too 
pronounced  a  caricature  on  the  stage,  as,  for  instance,  when  Lacey, 
who  was  the  ideal  Falstaff  and  the  original  '  Bays  '  in  The  Rehearsal, 


1908  THE   THEATRICAL   CENSORSHIP  1048 

levelled  his  sarcasm  too  pungently  against  courtiers  in  a  play  by 
Howard  called  The  Silent  Woman,  the  King  locked  him  up,  and  this 
although  Lacey  was  one  of  Charles  the  Second's  favourite  actors, 
and  was  at  the  King's  request  continually  thrust  into  parts  allotted 
to  others.    Lacey,  on  his  release,  not  unnaturally  abused  the  poet 
Howard  for  putting  the  offending  words  into  his  part  of  Captain 
Otter,  to  which  the  author  retaliated  by  striking  Lacey  across  the 
face  with  his  glove,  and  Lacey  responded  by  a  sharp  rap  over  the  head 
with  his  cane.     But  for  Howard,  the  playwright  and  son  of  Lord 
Berkshire,  and  Jack  Lacey,  the  player  and  servant  of  the  King,  there 
were  different  codes  of  honour,  and  his  Majesty  delivered  his  judgment 
of  the  matter  by  as  bitterly  unfair  a  sentence  as  any  that  has  ever 
been  passed  on  the  unfortunate  player,  for  he  closed  the  playhouse 
and  deprived  the  rest  of  the  unoffending  company  of  their  daily 
bread.     If  therefore  such  justice  is  meted  out  to  them  from  their 
friend  and  patron,  how  shall  we  expect  the  players  to  fare  better  at 
the  hands  of  the  public  ?     On  another  occasion,  when  the  painted 
Louise  de  Kerouaille,   Duchess  of   Portsmouth,  who  on  account  of 
her  French  Papist  origin  was  abhorred  by  the  English  people,  was 
occupying  a  box  at  the  Duke's  Theatre,  a  few  of  the  virtuously  indignant 
Britons  who  nowadays  write  to  the  Times  rushed  to  the  playhouse 
with  drawn  swords  and  flaming  torches,  which  they  thrust  on  the 
stage  among  the  players,  causing  a  general  stampede  and  panic. 
The  King  avenged  this  insult  to  his  favourite — not  on  the  drunken 
gentlemen  whose  religious  scruples  were  offended  by  the  presence  of 
the  Komanist — but  by  shutting  up  the  house  till  the  innocent  players 
should  realise  the  extent  of  their  master's  displeasure.    However, 
it  must  be  owned  that,  balancing  one  story  with  another,  the  King 
was  usually  to  be  found  on  the  side  of  the  first  informer  who  approached 
him,  and  he  always  seemed  to  believe  the  first  version  of  the  story. 
It  is  the  old  principle  in  boxing  of  getting  in  the  first  blow.     Certain 
it  is  that  when  a  complaint  was  made  by  Mrs.  Marshall  of  a  cowardly 
attempt  to  carry  her  off  on  the  part  of  a  fashionable  hooligan  of 
the  period,  called   Middleton,  the  King  prohibits    gentlemen  from 
entering  the  dressing-rooms  of  the  ladies  of  the  King's  company,  a 
custom  that  until   then  had  been  most    unwarrantably  permitted. 
Where  the  Sovereign  does  not  take  an  active  part  in  the  administra- 
tion of  theatrical  affairs,  the  poor  player  is  no  better  off ;  for  he  falls 
under  the  equally  formidable  control  of  the  Sovereign's  representative, 
the  Lord  Chamberlain,  and  at  no  time  is  he — the  actor — allowed  the 
disposition  of  himself  and  his  work.     If,  for  instance,  a  player  takes 
himself  without  permission  from  one  patentee's  house  to  another,  the 
Lord  Chamberlain  seizes  him  and  confines  him  to  the  gatehouse. 

On  a  par  with  the  Portsmouth  incident  of  Charles  the  Second's  time 
was  the  Whig  and  Tory  contention  for  and  against  the  actor  Smith, 
who  was  before  the  public  between  1663  and  1696.  Smith  was  a  man 


1044  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

who  was  personally  both  respected  and  respectable,  and  whose  only 
offence,  according  to  a  contemporary,  was  that  of  being  a  celebrated 
actor,  who  was  insulted  behind  the  scenes  by  a  gentleman  of  James  the 
Second's  Court.  The  King  hearing  of  this  appears,  somewhat  singu- 
larly for  that  King,  to  have  had  a  correct  account  of  the  squabble, 
and  actually  took  the  part  of  the  actor,  forbidding  the  gentleman  the 
Court.  Forthwith  it  became  the  business  of  the  gentleman  to  avenge 
his  kind  against  the  player  and  make  a  demonstration  against  Smith 
on  his  appearance  on  the  stage.  The  actor,  realising  that  this  was  an 
organised  opposition,  retired  into  private  life  on  a  competent  fortune, 
and  only  returned  to  the  stage  eleven  years  after  by  special  request. 
His  return,  according  to  Dr.  Burney,  was  made  a  political  matter. 
I  owe  James  the  Second's  memory,  however,  a  debt  of  gratitude  for 
recognising  the  right  side  of  this  dispute.  Indeed,  he  and  his  Queen 
Mary  of  Modena  were  ever  to  be  found  doing  appreciative  acts  of 
courtesy  towards  the  players.  As,  for  instance,  when  Mrs.  Barry 
played  the  part  of  Elizabeth  in  a  play  called  The  Unhappy  Favourite, 
or  the  Earl  of  Essex,  Mary  of  Modena  sent  her  her  wedding  robe  and 
her  Coronation  mantle  as  a  mark  of  her  admiration.  The  Stuarts, 
whatever  their  faults,  were  always  quick  to  acknowledge  art,  and 
graceful  in  their  recognition  of  it.  Mrs.  Barry  was  the  actress  who 
so  aroused  the  admiration  of  that  humble  servant  of  the  theatre,  the 
prompter  Downes.  He  has  told  us  that  in  certain  parts  '  she  forces 
tears  from  the  eyes  of  her  audience,  especially  those  who  have  any 
sense  of  pity  for  the  distressed."  He  is  perhaps  not  quite  so  superlative 
as  when  he  speaks  of  Mrs.  Bracegirdle,  who  sang  so  sweetly  that  she 
caused  the  stones  of  the  street  to  fly  into  men's  faces  by  her  potent 
and  magnetic  charm. 

The  name  of  Mrs.  Bracegirdle  brings  me  to  the  murder  of  the 
actor  Mountford  by  Captain  Hill  with  the  connivance  of  the  dissolute 
Lord  Mohun,  but  I  will  not  go  into  that  in  detail.  Moilntford  appears, 
moreover,  to  have  been  an  exceptional  husband  to  the  well-known 
actress  who  afterwards  became  Mrs.  Verbruggen,  and  who  had  wandered 
up  and  down  in  agony  that  evening  trying  to  intercept  her  husband, 
having  been  warned  by  Mrs.  Bracegirdle's  friends  that  the  murderers 
meant  no  good  to  him.  There  is  a  little  detail  of  Mohun  and  Hill 
having  tried  to  carry  off  Mrs.  Bracegirdle  against  her  will,  but  she 
was  rescued  by  her  friends.  We  will  give  Mohun  the  same  benefit 
of  the  doubt  that  was  given  to  him  by  his  peers — that  he  was  not 
directly  helping  Captain  Hill.  In  a  previous  century,  when  Lord 
Dacre  had  been  present  at  the  killing  of  a  poacher,  Lord  Dacre  was 
executed  by  the  House  of  Lords  without  reprieve.  Thus  we  find  that 
the  life  of  a  poacher  who  is  caught  in  the  act  of  robbing  is  of  more 
value  than  that  of  an  innocent  actor  whose  only  crime  is  that  he  was 
suspected  by  his  murderers  of  being  in  love  with  Mrs.  Bracegirdle,  for 
whom  Captain  Hill  had  conceived  a  desperate  affection  that  was  not 


1908  THE   THEATRICAL   CENSORSHIP  1045 


reciprocated  by  her.  Again,  when  PoweU,  an  actor  who  aspires  to 
play  Betterton's  parts,  strikes  a  relative  of  his  manager's  in  some 
quarrel  at  Will's  coffee-house,  the  injured  individual  rushes  off  to  the 
Lord  Chamberlain's  office  to  obtain  redress.  That  official  being  absent, 
the  Vice-Chamberlain  orders  Drury  Lane  to  be  shut  up  for  several 
days  because  PoweU  had  been  allowed  to  appear  without  making  his 
apology,  the  manager  having  been  ignorant  of  the  Chamberlain's 
order  that  he  should  do  so. 

In  1696,  when  handsome  Hildebrand  Horden  was  run  through 
the  body  at  the  Rose  Tavern  in  Covent  Garden  by  Captain  Burgess, 
who  had  impertinently  sent  a  message  to  the  actors  in  the  adjoining 
room  to  cease  making  a  noise,  and  who  had  been  probably  answered 
in  kind  by  the  players,  Captain  Burgess  was  very  rightly  confined  in 
the  gatehouse ;  but  his  friends  rescued  him  with  short  clubs  and  pistols, 
and  later,  being  tried  for  the  murder  of  the  player  Horden,  he  was 
acquitted  as  being  in  no  way  accessory  to  it.  We  can  imagine  the  kind 
of  jury  that  would  think  a  player's  room  preferable  to  his  company  ; 
and  it  is  probably  the  same  sort  of  jury  that  in  1700,  when  Sir  Andrew 
Slanning  is  killed,  a  murder  that  is  in  no  way  connected  with  the 
theatre  save  that  he  is  killed  on  his  way  to  or  from  a  playhouse — it 
is  the  same  jury  very  probably,  I  should  say,  who  denounced  the 
stage  play  as  a  pastime  that  led  the  way  to  murder.  No  more  play- 
bills were  henceforth  allowed  to  be  posted  in  the  City,  '  and  the  grand 
jury  of  Middlesex  presented  the  two  playhouses  and  also  the  bear- 
garden as  nuisances  and  riotous  and  disorderly  assemblies.' 

It  must  be  owned,  to  be  entirely  just,  that,  according  to  a  custom 
probably  introduced  by  Christopher  Rich,  the  theatres  were,  as  is 
declared  by  a  contemporary,  Luttrell,  '  pestered  with  elephants, 
tumblers,  rope-dancers,  and  dancing  men  and  dogs  from  France.' 
If,  however,  we  blame  Rich  for  the  interpolation  of  such  a  programme, 
it  must  be  nevertheless  remembered  that  if  he  had  recourse  to  it 
at  all  it  was  because  very  likely  that  programme  filled  the  coffers  of 
his  treasury,  and  is  therefore  the  old  story  of  demand  and  supply.  It 
is  said  of  Rich  that  he  gave  his  players  more  leisure  and  fewer  days' 
pay  than  any  of  his  predecessors.  Rich  appears  to  have  been  a  mere 
theatrical  speculator  of  the  species  that  thinks  an  elephant  and  a 
tumbler  want  no  credit  for  their  performances,  whereas  the  actor  by 
his  success  may  become  a  dangerous  factor  with  the  public,  and 
might  dictate  a  manager's  policy. 

Colley  Gibber  tells  us  that  in  1682  a  union  of  the  two  companies 
was  projected  by  the  King's  recommendation  (which  perhaps  amounted 
to  a  command),  and  this  subjection  of  the  playhouse  to  the  Sovereign 
or  his  deputy,  the  Lord  Chamberlain,  continues  through  every  suc- 
ceeding reign,  though  to  William  of  Orange's  credit  be  it  admitted  that, 
when  appealed  to  on  behalf  of  Betterton  and  his  company  of  players 
against  the  money-grubbing  patentees,  he  granted  the  players  an 

VOL.  LXIV— No.  382  4  A 


1046  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

audience,  considering  them  *  as  the  only  subjects  he  had  not  yet  de- 
livered from  arbitrary  power,  and  promised  them  active  relief  and 
support,'  for  which  he  granted  them  a  special  license. 

But  even  in  1709,  when  the  order  for  silence  is  given  against  the 
patentees,  it  presses  on  the  players  and  punishes  them.  Petition  and 
counter-petition  are  presented  to  Queen  Anne  and  complaints  are 
made  of  the  interference  of  the  Lord  Chamberlain.  It  is  not  possible 
here  to  enter  into  detail  as  to  the  several  unions,  secessions,  and  recon- 
structions of  the  various  theatrical  companies  and  their  patentees ; 
but  as  an  example  of  the  Lord  Chamberlain's  power  it  may  be  interest- 
ing and  curious  to  state  that  in  1708,  owing  to  various  disputes  with 
the  patentees  concerning  the  actors'  benefits,  of  which  the  manager 
took  a  third  of  the  receipts,  an  application  to  the  Lord  Chamberlain 
immediately  produced  an  order  that  the  patentees  were  to  repay  the 
money  to  the  actors,  and  they  demurring  and  the  order  not  being  obeyed 
the  theatres  were  closed  down  and  the  actors  again  thrown  out  of 
work  for  not  receiving  the  moneys  due  to  them !  In  the  end  the 
unfortunate  players  humbly  petition  her  Majesty  to  allow  the  theatre 
to  be  reopened.  Rich  the  while  artfully  managed  to  keep  Drury 
Lane  in  his  possession,  and  was  not  finally  routed  until  an  attorney 
called  Collier  managed  to  get  possession  of  the  theatre  by  an  organised 
attack  on  the  playhouse  with  the  assistance  of  a  rabble.  By  the  time 
that  Collier  had  got  possession  of  it,  Rich  had  managed  to  carry  off 
everything  within  that  was  worth  moving,  and  had  escaped  by  a 
secret  exit. 

The  name  of  Collier  here  puts  me  in  mind  of  that  other  and  better 
known  Collier,  without  the  mention  of  whose  work  no  review  of  the 
stage  of  the  seventeenth  century  is  complete.  No  doubt  the  finding 
of  the  grand  jury  of  1700,  in  which  the  theatres  are  declared  a  nuisance, 
had  been  largely  influenced  by  the  appearance  in  1678  of  Collier's 
deservedly  well-known  View  of  the  Immorality  and  'Profaneness  oj 
the  English  Stage.  Now  Collier,  like  all  people  who  are  biassed,  is 
bent  on  proving  his  point,  nor  do  I  blame  him  for  that.  But  he  is 
more  or  less  engrossed  by  the  religious,  or  I  should  say  the  blasphemous, 
aspect  of  stage  plays.  One  must  cordially  agree  with  him  in  his 
detestation  of  a  priest  of  any  religion  being  held  up  to  ridicule  on  the 
stage,  and  nothing  is  more  abhorrent  than  the  kind  of  greedy,  unctuous 
parson,  or  the  foolish  tennis-playing  curate  that  our  modern  playwright 
delighted  in  portraying  only  a  few  months  ago.  Perhaps  the  most 
extraordinary  phase  of  this  revolting  epoch  in  the  history  of  dramatic 
literature  is  that  by  far  the  most  objectionable  and  unactable  plays 
were  written  by  women  such  as  Aphra  Behn  and  Mrs.  Manley.  The 
latter  had  rather  a  sad  story  in  her  early  youth,  something  of  a 
similar  one  to  that  of  poor  unhappy  Roxalana.  She  was  deceived 
into  wedding  her  guardian,  who  was  already  a  married  man.  As  for 
Mrs.  Aphra  Behn,  she  seems  to  have  been  one  of  those  adventurous 


1908  THE   THEATRICAL   CENSORSHIP  1047 

ladies  who  would  be  ready  to  help  on  any  intrigue  which  might  be 
of  account  to  her,  whether  political  or  amorous.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact 
that  even  to-day  the  realistically  outspoken  and  often  hideously 
naturalistic  novel  of  the  publishing  season  is  almost  invariably  the 
work  of  one  of  my  sex  ;  but  in  defence  of  stage  players  and  their  craft 
it  must  be  added  that  the  words  of  Dryden,  Congreve,  and  Vanbrugh, 
who  all  replied  to  Collier's  Abuse  of  the  Stage,  were  written  down  for 
the  actors  to  speak.  Actors  were  but  paid  interpreters  of  the  author, 
and  if  an  appetite  had  not  existed  for  strong  meat  among  the  public, 
if  the  society  and  fashion  of  the  day  had  not  demanded  this  kind  of 
fare,  it  would  rapidly  have  disappeared  from  the  stage.  Dryden  in 
his  epilogue  to  The  Pilgrims  says  this  in  his  own  extenuation  : 

That  poets  who  must  live  by  Courts  or  starve 
Were  proud  so  good  a  Government  to  serve, 
And  mixing  with  buffoons  and  fools  profane 
Tainted  the  stage  with  some  small  snip  of  gain  ; 
Thus  did  the  thriving  malady  prevail, 
The  Court  its  head,  the  poet's  but  the  tail. 

Proof  is  there  that  as  the  author  becomes  more  reticent  the  spec- 
tator becomes  more  rare,  until  at  the  end  of  the  century  opera,  panto- 
mime, tumbling,  rope-dancing,  are  resorted  to  in  order  to  attract  an 
audience.  The  stage  has  not  at  any  time  led  public  taste  in  England. 
It  has  merely  followed  it.  To  create  an  understanding  of  the  theatre 
by  financial  computation  more  capital  is  needed  than  the  results 
warrant.  If,  therefore,  Mrs.  Behn,  Mrs.  Manley,  Mr.  Dryden,  Mr. 
Otway,  Mr.  Vanbrugh,  and  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  could  command 
an  audience  by  the  stringing  together  of  objectionable  and  ugly  scenes 
during  the  Restoration,  it  was  because  these  authors  were  all  men 
and  women  who  associated  with  fashionable  society  that  paid  to  see 
their  plays,  and  because  they  knew  what  would  draw  at  a  moment 
when  women  perforce  went  in  masks  to  the  play  lest  they  should  hear 
something  that  might  bring  the  blush  of  shame  to  their  cheeks  or,  as 
the  Spectator  said  :  '  Some  never  miss  the  first  day  of  a  new  play  lest 
it  should  prove  too  luscious  to  admit  of  their  going  with  countenance 
to  the  second.'  Queen  Anne,  with  a  proper  sense  of  decorum,  perceived 
at  once  that  the  playhouses  needed  cleansing  and  sweeping  as  much, 
if  not  more,  before  the  curtain  as  behind,  and  a  royal  order  for  the 
better  regulation  of  auditorium  and  stage  was  issued,  that  no  person  of 
what  quality  soever  presume  to  go  behind  the  scenes  or  come  upon 
the  stage  either  before  or  during  the  acting  of  any  play,  that  no  persons 
go  into  either  of  the  theatres  without  paying  the  prices  established 
for  their  respective  places. 

As  most  of  these  misuses  continued  till  many  years  afterwards, 
it  may  be  assumed  that  if  these  commands  were  obeyed  at  all  it  was 
only  for  a  very  short  while.  This  latter  regulation  about  paying  for 
their  respective  places  is  due  to  the  usage  that  people  were  continually 

4  A  2 


1048  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

passing  into  the  theatre  on  every  and  any  pretext.  Pepys  often 
states  that  he  has  gone  into  both  playhouses  in  search  of  wife  or 
friends  and  seen  an  act  of  a  play  for  nothing  ;  or  if  a  spectator  did  not 
stay  the  whole  evening,  his  money  would  be  returned  to  him  on  leaving 
the  theatre. 

Suffice  it  to  recall  that  whenever  power  rested  rather  with  the 
actor  than  with  the  mere  lay  patentee,  who  was  exploiting  the  actor 
for  his  own  convenience,  prosperity  and  propriety  appear  to  have 
followed  the  flag  of  the  player,  and  we  are  shortly  to  find  in  a  few 
years  that  the  actors  are  entering  into  a  long  run  of  prosperity,  a 
period,  however,  which,  though  it  begins  in  the  later  days  of  Queen 
Anne,  belongs  rather  to  the  Georgian  era  of  the  theatre,  which  I 
shall  deal  with  hereafter.  When  the  drama  is  in  the  hands  of  mere 
merchants,  using  the  theatre  as  they  would  any  other  warehouse 
for  the  exploitation  of  saleable  goods,  I  contend  that  any  traffic 
is  introduced  into  it  that  will  persuade  the  public  to  part  with  their 
money,  and  the  quality  of  the  play,  the  excellence  of  the  interpretation, 
are  of  less  account  than  the  monetary  drawing  power  of  the  author 
and  the  actor  :  taste  is  neglected,  vulgarity  is  encouraged,  and  the 
decline  of  the  theatre  is  only  a  matter  of  time. 

So  far  I  have  endeavoured  to  show  that  the  theatrical  art  from  all 
time  has  been  the  Cinderella  of  the  arts.     I  have  endeavoured  to  prove 
up  to  this  point  that  silently — I  might  almost  say  slavishly — the  player 
has  borne  the  yoke  of  his  martyrdom  without  remonstrance.  Art  is  a 
rare  flower.     It  needs  sun  and  air  and  a  knowledge  of  cultivation  ; 
but  knowledge  without  sun  and  air  will  never  let  it  develop  to  its 
full  beauty  and  form  or  colour.     We  talk  of  the  freedom  and  laisser 
faire  of  the  Restoration  playwrights.     They  were  poisoned  by  the 
noxious  air  of  the  Court  and  the  proximity  of  evil.     Shakespeare 
reared  the  flower  of  his  genius  in  the  open  meadow  of  tolerant  England. 
When  he  died  we  were  already  in  the  clutches  of  intolerance.     Since 
then  the  public  has  been  nursed  on  prejudice  and  fattened  on  super- 
stition— superstition  that  it  is  ungodly  to  visit  the  playhouse.    In  the 
twentieth  century   they  think  we  have  overridden  the  superstition. 
We   have   materialists,  agnostics,   Christian   scientists,   spiritualists, 
theists ;  but,  roll  ourselves  in  every  blanket  of  faith  that  we  will,  the 
sickness  of  fanaticism  is  in  our  bones,  the  disease  is  in  our  system  .  .  . 
a  disease  that  has  left  us  without  sight  of  what  is  good,  without  taste 
for  what  is  palatable  in  the  theatre.     Our  taste  has  been  poisoned 
by  the  threats  of  eternal  punishment  that  have  been  rammed  down 
our  throats  for  generations.     Our  eyes   have   been   blinded  by  the 
fiery  flame,  the  Gehenna  that  has  been  painted  on  the  canvas  of  our 
imagination  for  centuries.    Our  senses  have  been  blunted  by  the  often 
repeated  doctrine  that  whatever  is  beautiful  must  be  bad  because  it 
appeals  to  the  senses.     No  State-ridden  art  will  ever  flourish,  whether 
the  stage  be  dictated  to  by  a  sovereign  emancipated  from  the  thraldom 


1908  THE   THEATRICAL   CENSORSHIP  1049 

of  the  Puritan,  or  by  a  State  given  back  to  the  tyranny  of  the  prole- 
tariat. It  is  all  one — it  is  a  thraldom — and  true  art  can  only  flourish 
with  freedom  and  with  liberty.  If  the  stage  take  too  much  liberty  the 
public  can  be  the  first  to  mark  its  displeasure  by  staying  away ;  if  it 
make  fun  of  what  is  foolish  the  public  can  laugh  and  correct  its  faults  ; 
if  it  ridicule  what  is  sacred  the  public  may  show  its  displeasure  by 
keeping  its  money  in  pocket ;  but  wherever  and  whenever  there  is  a 
green  shoot  of  tender  promise  let  it  be  spared  !  Let  it  not  be  cut  down 
because  it  is  out  of  place  in  a  municipal  scheme  of  public  gardens 
and  parks — it  may  become  a  great  tree,  giving  shade  and  shelter  to 
many  generations  in  the  centuries  to  come.  Dryden,  for  all  that  he 
admits  that  in  order  to  earn  a  living  he  plays  up  to  his  times,  knows 
what  a  play  should  be.  He  says :  '  A  play  is  an  imitation  of  nature  : 
we  know  we  are  deceived  and  we  desire  to  be  so ;  but  no  one  was  ever 
deceiv  d  but  with  a  probability  of  truth — nothing  is  truly  sublime  but 
what  is  just  and  proper.' 

I  cannot  help  feeling  that  Shakespeare  was  the  very  product  of  his 
time.  He  could  not  have  grown  to  his  full  strength  and  height  had  he 
been  born  even  a  quarter  of  a  century  later.  I  cannot  help  feeling 
that  there  will  never  be  another  Shakespeare  until  the  disdain  of  the 
theatre  has  passed  away,  and  until  the  British  people  can  dissociate 
the  idea  of  disrespectability  from  their  m  nd,  and  come  to  think  that 
to  assume  a  disguise,  to  represent  a  character,  to  portray  human 
emotions,  and  to  simulate  human  passions,  is  an  art  that  deserves  to 
be  ranked  with  the  glorious  arts  of  music,  of  painting,  of  sculpture, 
and  of  literature,  and  is  not  necessarily  one  of  pure  imitation. 

GERTRUDE  KINGSTON. 


(To  be  concluded.) 


1050  THE   NINETEENTH  GENTURJ  Dec. 


THE  NEW  IRISH  LAND   BILL 


THE  substitution  of  yet  another  measure  for  the  great  Land  Purchase 
Act  of  1903  is  a  matter  of  such  far-reaching  importance  not  only  to 
Ireland  but  to  the  United  Kingdom  that,  before  considering  the  Bill 
introduced  by  the  Chief  Secretary  on  the  23rd  of  November,  it  is 
desirable  that  the  English  reader,  in  particular,  should  remember 
that  fresh  legislation  is  not  due  to  failure  of  the  Land  Act  of  1903, 
but  is  due  to  its  success.  The  transfer  of  title  to  agricultural  land 
from  landlord  to  tenant  has  proceeded  so  rapidly  that,  in  view  of  the 
present  condition  of  the  money  market,  difficulty  is  experienced  in 
financing  the  Act.  The  nature  of  the  Act  of  1903  must  be  under- 
stood. It  was  not  a  mere  philanthropic  project.  It  was  a  sound 
investment  on  the  part  of  the  United  Kingdom  on  good  security 
for  the  attainment  of  an  object  of  great  national  and  Imperial  im- 
portance. And  in  order  that  the  reader  should  grasp  the  situation 
it  is  advisable  that  he  should  glance  back  on  the  recent  course  of 
agrarian  legislation  in  Ireland. 

Since  1860  twenty-six  Land  Acts  have  been  placed  upon  the 
statute  book,  the  most  notable  among  them  being  the  Act  of  1881 
which  secured  to  tenants  fixity  of  tenure,  fair  rents,  ,and  free  sale. 
The  sanction  for  that,  and  for  other  similar  Acts,  lay  in  the  assump- 
tion that,  owing  to  excessive  demand,  owners  of  land  were  able  to 
extort,  and  did  in  fact  extort,  exorbitant  rents  from  the  occupiers. 
A  small  minority,  it  was  claimed,  had  a  monopoly  of  an  article  necessary 
for  the  existence  of  the  great  majority  and  made  an  improper  use  of 
their  power.  On  that  hypothesis,  the  correctness  of  which  need  not 
be  discussed,  legislation  for  the  adjustment  of  rents  was  undoubtedly 
necessary ;  but  the  legislation  was  faulty  in  two  vital  particulars. 
The  Act  of  1881  not  only  deprived  landowners  of  rights  and  privileges 
inherent  in  ownership,  to  which  it  might  be  argued  they  had  morally 
forfeited  their  claim  through  misuse  ;  but  it  also  took  from  them 
tangible  property  in  the  shape  of  houses  and  buildings,  for  which  no 
compensation  was  given,  the  excuse  being  that,  though  the  Act  did 
deprive  the  landowners  of  some  of  their  property,  the  property  remain- 
ing to  them  would  become  so  greatly  enhanced  in  value  as  to  render 
compensation  unnecessary.  A  very  short  experience  sufficed  to 


1908  THE  NEW  IRISH  LAND  BILL  1061 

prove  the  speciousness  of  the  plea.  For  the  administration  of  the 
Act  a  commission  was  created  consisting  of  a  judicial  commissioner 
and  two  other  commissioners,  with  power  to  appoint  sub-commissioners 
to  value  land  and  assess  rents.  No  rules  or  guidance  of  any  kind 
were  given  to  the  commissioners  by  the  Act,  or  to  the  sub-commis- 
sioners by  the  Land  Commission.  No  system  was  devised  ;  no  basis 
laid  down  on  which  rents  were  to  be  fixed,  such  as  capacity  of 
the  soil,  prices  of  produce,  or  cost  of  labour.  Land  was  valued  and 
rents  were  assessed  apparently  according  to  the  impression  made 
upon  the  mind  of  the  individual  sub-commissioner  by  the  condition 
of  the  land  as  he  saw  it,  without  reference  to  the  condition  it  ought  to 
have  been  in  if  properly  treated.  The  inevitable  result  was  discontent 
all  round.  The  effect  of  the  Act  was  to  leave  landlords  smarting 
under  a  sense  of  injustice,  and  rendered  incapable  of  laying  out  a 
penny  upon  the  land ;  and  to  tempt  tenants  to  reduce  their  farms  to 
the  lowest  possible  condition  before  applying  periodically  to  have  a 
fair  rent  fixed.  The  consequence  was  that,  though  tenants  gained 
somewhat  by  the  transference  of  property  to  them,  and  greatly  by 
the  protection  of  judicial  rents  against  exorbitant  exactions,  the 
injury  to  the  industry — agriculture — was  permanent  and  great. 

It  was  always  felt  that  land  tenure  under  the  system  culminating 
in  the  Act  of  1881  was  in  a  transitory  state,  and  no  less  than  twenty- 
five  Acts,  with  the  object  of  restoring  single  ownership  by  enabling  the 
occupiers  to  buy  out  the  other  partner — the  landlord — were  passed 
between  1860  and  1896.    By  1900  the  Ashbourne  Acts,  as  they  are 
called,  had  become  inoperative.     Bankrupt  estates,  the  estates  of 
some  absentees  who  had  no  other  ties  in  Ireland,  had  been  sold  ; 
all,  in  fact,  that  might  be  classed  as  forced  sales  had  been  concluded. 
The  terms  of  the  Acts  were  not  such  as  to  induce  resident  landlords 
and  the  owners  of  solvent  estates  to  part  with  their  property,  and 
by  the  end  of  the  century  land  purchase  in  Ireland  had  practically 
ceased.    It  was  in  these  circumstances  that  the  then  Chief  Secretary, 
Mr.  George  Wyndham,  introduced  a  Land  Bill  into  the  House  of 
Commons  in  1902.     The  measure  was  condemned  by  landlords  and 
tenants  alike ;  and,  faced  with  opposition  on  all  hands  Mr.  Wyndham 
suggested  that  the  Bill  should  be  submitted  to  a  joint  conference  in 
order  to  remove  the  difficulties  which  threatened  to  destroy  it,  and 
to  enable  it  to  be  referred  to  a  Grand  Committee  as  a  non-contentious 
measure.    This  suggestion  came  to  nothing,  and  eventually  the  Bill 
was  dropped.  A  complete  impasse  was  reached,  and  the  circumstances 
were  full  of  gloomy  forebodings  for  the  future  of  Ireland.     But  in 
the  meantime  a  few  men  had  been  thinking,  and  from  thinking  took 
to  talking  and  writing  to  the  Press,  suggesting  the  possibility  of  some 
sort  of  conference  between  landlords  and  tenants  to  discuss  the  situa- 
tion.   It  would  be  an  interesting  study,  but  quite  out  of  place  here,  to 
trace  the  evolution  of  the  policy  of  conciliation  that  bore  its  first  fruit 


1052  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

in  the  Land  Conference,  for  that  conference  will  be  found  to  mark  a 
turning  point  in  Irish  history,  however  gloomy  the  immediate  outlook 
may  be.  Suffice  it  now  to  say  that  the  project  met  with  but  little 
support.  The  Landlords'  Convention  would  have  none  of  it — a  motion 
in  its  favour  by  Lord  Mayo  being  rejected  by  seventy-seven  to  four- 
teen. The  more  prominent  landlords,  when  approached,  refused  to 
entertain  the  idea.  Mr.  John  Redmond  counselled  the  tenants  '  to 
disregard  the  unauthorised  waving  of  white  flags  and  continue  to 
fight.'  The  only  assistance  the  movement  received  was  from  the  Chief 
Secretary,  Mr.  Wyndham,  who  said  '  that  any  conference  would  be  a 
step  in  the  right  direction  if  it  brought  the  prospect  of  a  settlement 
between  the  parties  nearer  ' ;  and  from  the  Times  which,  by  ex- 
pressing its  strong  disapproval  of  the  project,  convinced  many  Irish- 
men that  it  was  of  a  character  certain  to  be  beneficial  to  their 
country. 

In  spite  of  all  discouraging  indications,  and  there  were  many,  the 
idea  of  a  conference  took  root  and  grew,  until  it  became  evident  that 
the  advocates  of  conciliation  and  of  a  friendly  meeting  to  discuss  a 
matter  of  vital  importance  to  the  whole  country  were  voicing  the 
opinion  of  a  great  body  of  both  landlords  and  tenants.  A  small  Land- 
lords' Committee  was  formed.  A  poll  was  taken  of  all  the  landlords 
of  Ireland,  which  resulted  in  an  overwhelming  majority  in  favour 
of  meeting  the  tenants,  with  a  view  to  an  understanding  being  reached. 
In  face  of  favourable  expressions  of  public  opinion  throughout  Ire- 
land the  Nationalist  leaders  modified  their  views.  The  assenting 
landlords  were  again  polled  to  choose  representatives,  and  eventually 
the  Land  Conference  was  constituted  ;  the  representatives  of  the 
landlords  being  Lord  Mayo,  Lord  Dunraven,  Colonel  Nugent  Everard, 
Colonel  Hutcheson  Poe,  while  the  tenants  were  represented  by  Mr. 
John  Redmond,  Mr.  W.  O'Brien,  Mr.  T.  W.  Russell,  and  Mr.  T.  Har- 
rington, the  Lord  Mayor  of  Dublin. 

This  short  resume  indicates  the  manner  in  which  the  new  policy 
took  root  in  Ireland,  grew  and  bore  fruit  in  spite  of  strong  but  not 
unnatural  opposition.  It  is  not  strange  that  men  arrayed  in  opposite 
camps,  warm  from  the  fight,  were  at  first  suspicious  of  each  other ; 
but  all  opposition  was  overborne  by  the  sound  common-sense  of  the 
Irish  people,  an  asset  which  can  always  be  relied  upon  if  given  a  fair 
chance.  Realising  that  land  purchase  was  at  a  standstill,  they  came 
to  the  wise  conclusion  that  the  best  chance  of  putting  an  end  to 
landlordism  and  the  unsatisfactory  system  of  dual  ownership  lay  in 
friendly  conference  and  compromise. 

Space  forbids  even  a  pr&cis  of  the  recommendations  of  the  Con- 
ference, but  certain  principles  on  which  it  acted  must  be  mentioned. 
Briefly  they  were  : — 

(1)  That  dual  ownership  ought  to  be  abolished. 


THE  NEW  IRISH  LAND  BILL  1053 

(2)  That  it  could  be  abolished  only  by  the  creation  of  a  peasant 
proprietorship  m  its  place  through  sale  and  purchase. 

(3)  That  it  was  in  the  interest  of  the  community  that  the  expro- 
priated landed  gentry  should  remain  in  the  country. 

(4)  That  income  should  be  the  basis  of  price,  and  that  second 
term  rents  or  their  fair  equivalent,  less  10  per  cent,  for  cost  of  collec- 
tion, represented  income. 

(5)  That  landlords  should  receive  such  a  price  as  would,  when 
invested,  produce  income,  and  should  be  offered  some  inducement  to 
sell. 

(6)  That  the  price  tenants  gave  should  be  such  that  their  annual 
payment  of  interest  and  sinking  fund  should  represent  a  substantial 
reduction  on  their  second  term  rents  or  their  fair  equivalent,  and  that 
they  should  receive  some  inducement  to  buy. 

(7)  That  the  difference  between  the  price  which  the  owner  ought 
to  receive  and  the  occupier  ought  to  give  should  be  made  good  by  the 
State. 

(8)  That  the  *  wounded  soldiers  '  in  the  land  war— evicted  tenants 
—should  be  re-instated  in  their  old  holdings  with  a  view  to  purchase, 
or,   when  that  was  impossible,  should  be  provided  with  other  but 
equivalent  holdings. 

The  Conference  met  in  the  Mansion  House,  Dublin,  in  December 
1902,  and  the  report  was  published  on  the  3rd  of  January  1903.  The 
report  was  received  with  acclamation  by  every  public  body  and 
private  association  in  the  country.  It  was  realised  also  throughout 
the  United  Kingdom  that,  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Redmond  in  his  address 
to  the  London  branch  of  the  United  Irish  League,  '  England  had  now 
for  the  first  time  since  the  Union  a  chance,  at  a  ridiculously  small 
cost,  of  bringing  the  land  war  to  an  end.'  The  Government  of  the 
day  was  appealed  to.  The  leader  of  the  Irish  Nationalist  Party  seized 
the  first  opportunity  on  the  reassembling  of  the  House  of  Commons 
to  move  an  amendment  to  the  King's  Speech  '  humbly  to  represent 
to  your  Majesty  that  it  is  in  the  highest  interests  of  the  State  that 
advantage  should  be  taken  of  the  unexampled  opportunity  created  by 
the  Land  Conference  Agreement  for  putting  an  end  to  agrarian  troubles 
and  conflicts  between  classes  in  Ireland  by  giving  the  fullest  and  most 
generous  effect  to  the  Land  Conference  Report  in  the  Irish  Land 
Purchase  proposals  announced  in  the  Speech  from  the  Throne.' 
Advantage  was  taken  of  the  opportunity,  and  in  the  following  March 
Mr.  Wyndham  introduced  his  famous  Land  Bill  framed  on  the  report 
of  the  Land  Conference. 

It  would  be  a  vast  mistake  to  look  upon  the  Bill  of  1903  as  merely 
an  instrument  for  assisting  a  certain  number  of  occupying  tenants  to 
purchase  their  farms.  That,  though  a  desirable  thing  in  itself,  could 
not  be  considered  a  matter  of  urgent  necessity  or  of  great  national  or 
Imperial  concern.  The  Bill|had  a  far  wider  and  deeper  significance. 


1054  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

The  Conference,  subordinating  all  minor  considerations,  aimed  at 
a  remedy  for  a  disease  that  for  centuries  had  vitiated  the  life  of  Ireland. 
Parliament,  animated  by  the  same  spirit,  passed,  with  the  consent  of 
all  parties,  a  great  measure  of  healing  and  of  peace. 

The  Act  met  with  universal  approval.  Mr.  Redmond  declared 
that  '  if  successfully  and  reasonably  worked,  the  Act  would  in  a 
comparatively  short  space  of  time  bring  to  an  end,  once  and  for  all,  the 
struggle  of  centuries,  marked  as  it  has  been  all  through  by  suffering, 
by  sacrifice,  aye,  and  by  bloodshed  and  by  crime.'  It  decreed,  he  said, 
'  the  absolute  and  complete  abolition  of  landlordism,  root  and  branch 
.  .  .  with  the  consent  of  all  English  parties,  and,  what  may  seem 
more  extraordinary  still,  with  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  Irish 
landlords  themselves.'  After  referring  to  the  fact  that  the  Land  Act 
provided  the  money  for  the  complete  transfer  of  the  land  in  Ireland 
without  imposing  one  shilling  additional  burden  upon  the  tenants, 
Mr.  Redmond  added  : 

Nay,  more  than  that,  I  am  understating  the  case.  It  provides  that 
immediately  this  transfer  takes  place  all  rent  shall  instantly  cease,  and  the 
annual  instalment  which  the  tenants  will  be  called  upon  to  pay  for  a  specified 
and  limited  number  of  years  will  be  less  than  the  reduced  rents  which  they  are 
now  paying,  by  a  percentage  which,  while  naturally  it  will  vary  according  to 
the  circumstances  of  various  estates,  will  in  all  cases  where  the  people  act 
with  common  prudence  and  firmness  be  large  and  substantial. 

The  blessings  showered  upon  the  Land  Act  were  put  on  record 
in  the  name  of  the  whole  Irish  party.  At  a  meeting  of  the  National 
Directorate  of  the  United  Irish  League  in  Dublin,  presided  over  by 
Mr.  Redmond,  the  Land  Act  was  welcomed  as  '  the  most  substantial 
victory  gained  for  centuries  by  the  Irish  race  for  the  re-conquest  of  the 
soil  of  Ireland  by  the  people.'  It  was  looked  upon  as  heralding 
'  a  new  state  of  things,  in  which  all  Irish-born  men,  irrespective  of 
class  or  creed,  will  have  a  common  interest  in  labouring  unitedly  for 
the  national  rights  and  happiness  of  our  country.'  The  Directorate 
recognised  the  national  character  of  the  Conference,  and  the  Imperial 
nature  of  the  Act.  '  Amendments,'  they  said,  '  demanded  by  the 
National  Convention  have  been  conceded  in  Committee  to  an  extent 
to  which  no  great  Government  measure  in  relation  to  Ireland  has  ever 
before  been  modified  in  deference  to  the  demands  of  Irish  public 
opinion.'  They  attributed  the  *  happy  result '  of  the  Land  Act  to 

the  exertions  of  a  United  Irish  Party,  under  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Bedmond, 
and  of  Mr.  T.  W.  Russell's  Ulster  Tenants'  Rights  Association,'  and  to  '  the 
wisdom  and  active  good-will  displayed  by  that  section  of  the  landlord  leaders  who 
made  the  Land  Conference  possible,  and  the  loyalty  with  which  Mr.  Wyndham 
and  his  associates  in  the  Government  of  Ireland  endeavoured  to  make  good  his 
pledge  to  give  legislative  effect  to  the  recommendations  of  that  Conference,  as 
well  as  to  the  high  public  spirit  with  which  the  Liberal  Party  resisted  the 
temptation  to  extract  any  party  advantage  from  the  situation. 


1908  THE  NEW  IRISH  LAND  BILL  1055 

The  true  nature  of  the  Act  was  fully  recognised  by  Parliament.     In 
the  debate  on  the  introduction  of  the  Bill  Mr.  Wyndham  said  : 

There  are  two  alternatives  before  us.  We  can  prolong  for  another 
hundred  years,  for  another  hundred  and  fifty  years,  a  tragedy  which  is  none  the 
less,  which  is  indeed  the  more,  tragic  because  it  is  thin  and  long-drawn  out. 
Or,  we  can  to-day  initiate,  and  henceforth  prosecute,  a  business  transaction 
occupying  some  fifteen  years,  based,  in  common  with  all  sound  and  hopeful 
transactions,  upon  the  self-esteem,  the  probity,  the  mutual  good- will  of  all 
concerned.  All  interests  [he  added],  landlord  and  tenant,  Nationalist  and 
Unionist,  British  and  Irish,  can  hope  for  no  tolerable  issue  to  any  view,  con- 
stitutional, political,  economic,  which  they  severally  may  cherish  until,  by 
settling  the  Irish  Land  Question,  we  achieve  social  reconciliation  in  Ireland. 

And  Sir  H.  Campbell-Bannerman  said  : 

We  wish  to  see  an  end  put  to  the  disastrous  social  and  agrarian  conflict 
which  has  hindered  the  prosperity  and  advancement  of  Ireland.  We  also 
recognise  that  for  that  purpose  there  may  be  sacrifices  and  efforts  which  ought 
to  be  made  by  the  people,  not  only  of  Ireland  but  of  this  island,  and  not  only 
for  the  sake  of  Ireland,  but  for  the  sake  of  ourselves,  because  we  shall  directly 
be  advantaged,  quite  irrespective  of  anything  that  may  happen  within  the 
circuit  of  Ireland  itself. 

These  quotations  will,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  be  sufficient  to  remind  the 
reader  of  the  real  character  of  the  Act,  and  of  the  universal  appro- 
bation bestowed  upon  it  and  upon  the  Land  Conference,  the  founda- 
tion upon  which  it  was  built. 

The  Act  was  indeed  a  great  Imperial  measure  of  appeasement, 
designed  to  remove  a  cause  of  perpetual  unrest,  sapping  the  strength 
and  vitality  of  the  very  heart  of  the  Empire  ;  and  but  for  circum- 
stances unforeseen  its  purpose  would  have  been  admirably  fulfilled. 

Ireland  is  a  most  unfortunate  country.  When  her  hopes  burn 
brightest  something  always  happens  to  dim,  if  not  to  extinguish,  the 
flame.  The  success  of  the  Land  Conference  and  the  passage  of  the 
Act  of  1903  demonstrated  what  Ireland  when  united  could  accomplish. 
A  new  era  was  opened  to  her,  an  era  in  which  she  could,  utilising  the 
services  of  all  her  sons  and  undisturbed  by  perpetual  internal  strife, 
address  herself  to  necessary  reforms,  and  to  the  peaceful  development 
of  her  considerable  but  neglected  resources.  The  prospect  was  fair, 
but  two  circumstances,  over  one  of  which  she  has  no  control,  have 
conspired  to  mar  it.  The  new  spirit  ol  conciliation  that  rendered 
the  Land  Conference  and  the  Land  Act  possible,  met  with  violent 
opposition  in  influential  quarters.  While  public  opinion  in  favour 
of  the  new  policy  and  the  new  Act  ran  high  the  antagonism  was  veiled. 
Nevertheless  it  was  working  strenuously  beneath  the  surface,  and,  as 
the  first  burst  of  enthusiasm  naturally  waned,  it  became  evident  that 
superhuman  efforts  were  being  made  to  stir  up  the  mud  and  check 
the  smooth  flow  of  the  stream  which  promised  to  remove  from  Ireland 
the  main  cause  of  agitation  and  strife.  Conciliation  was  declared 


1056  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

anathema,  an  accursed  thing,  and  the  Land  Act  was  denounced. 
Conciliation  was  described  by  one  extremist  as  a  '  wretched,  rotten, 
sickening  policy ' ;  by  another  of  totally  different  political  views  as 
calculated  to  '  destroy  and  wet-blanket  every  really  good  public 
cause.' 

Mr.  Dillon,  speaking  at  Swinford,  said,  '  I  wish  to  Heaven  we  had 
the  power  to  obstruct  the  smooth  working  of  the  Act  more  than  we 
did.  It  has  worked  too  smoothly  to  my  mind.'  Numberless  instances 
of  this  lamentable  spirit  can  be  adduced  but  sufficient  is  said  to  convince 
those  who  do  not  closely  study  Irish  affairs  what  those  who  do  have 
long  since  been  forced  to  recognise,  that  a  strong  anti-national  party, 
hostile  to  land  settlement  or  the  settlement  of  any  other  question  by 
united  action,  exists  within  the  Nationalists'  ranks. 

This  is  the  '  pig-headed  poison  mad '  fight-at-any-price  party, 
organised  and  equipped,  against  which  the  unorganised  and  unequipped 
common-sense  of  the  people  has  to  contend.  It  dominates  the  party. 
Dry  rot  has  set  in,  and  resolutions  approving  of  the  Act  and  the  policy 
of  peace  passed  by  the  Nationalist  Party,  by  the  Directory  of  the 
United  Irish  League  and  by  the  National  Convention  have  crumbled 
into  dust.  This  policy,  if  mere  destruction  can  be  called  a  policy, 
was  ably  espoused  by  the  Freeman's  Journal.  Day  by  day,  month 
by  month,  year  by  year,  that  influential  organ  has  laboured  to  poison 
the  minds  of  the  people  against  the  Land  Act.  One  man  alone  who 
took  a  prominent  part  in  the  Land  Conference,  Mr.  William  O'Brien, 
has  openly  and  courageously  stood  his  ground  and  has  held  to  the 
resolutions  of  the  Parliamentary  Party,  the  Directory  and  the  National 
Convention.  It  is  necessary  to  mention,  and  even  to  lay  some  emphasis 
upon,  this  curious  phase  in  Irish  affairs  because  the  average  Englishman 
might  naturally  attribute  it  to  some  fatal  consequence  of  the  Land 
Conference  and  the  Land  Act.  Peace  is  the  consequence  of  the  Act 
and  peace  is,  by  the  reactionaries,  abhorred.  Many  reasons  within  the 
attributes  of  human  nature  may  account  for  this  strange  attitude. 
It  may  be  that  the  young  bloods  dream  more  of  executing  war 
dances  before  their  admiring  compatriots,  flourishing  the  scalps  of  their 
hereditary  foes  the  landlords,  than  they  do  of  the  welfare  of  their 
country,  or  that,  taking  a  slightly  less  selfish  view,  they  think  more 
of  the  glorification  of  party  than  of  the  well-being  of  Ireland ;  but  it 
is  sufficient  and  more  charitable  to  account  for  it  by  the  weird  delusion 
that  social  and  agrarian  strife  is  necessary  for  political  reform. 
Home  Eule  can  be  obtained  only  by  making  Ireland  difficult  to 
govern ;  difficulty  in  governing  the  country  can  be  created  only  by 
fomenting  social  disorder  and  agrarian  strife  ;  therefore  there  must 
be  no  conciliation  or  settlement  of  the  land  question.  That  appears 
to  be  their  simple  syllogism,  false  and  illogical  but  no  doubt 
honestly  believed.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the  fact  of  an  active  war- 
whoop  section,  defying  all  resolutions  of  the  party  and  bent  upon 


1908  THE  NEW  IRISH  LAND  BILL  1057 

disorder,  must  be  recognised  if  the  circumstances  of  Ireland  and 
the  possible  effect  of  legislation  on  those  circumstances  are  to  be 
understood. 

This  anti-conciliation  crusade  makes  the  reconcilement  of  differences 
difficult,  and  it  is  largely  responsible  for  the  financial  breakdown  of  the 
Act  of  1903.  Disorder  has  depressed  Irish  land  stock.  Had  Ireland 
been  permitted  to  pursue  her  way  in  peace,  little  difficulty  would 
have  been  experienced  in  financing  the  Act. 

The  practical  effect  of  the  war-at-any-price  campaign  upon  land 
purchase  has  been  small.  It  has  put  up  prices  and  has  slightly  im- 
peded the  operations  of  the  Act.  Sales  have  been  few  and  prices  high 
where  it  has  been  vigorously  preached,  and  where  conciliation  has 
been  most  in  evidence  sales  have  been  more  numerous  and  prices 
lower ;  but  it  has  not  really  impeded  the  march  of  the  Act.  In  spite 
of  all  opposition  the  Act  has  fulfilled  its  beneficent  mission.  It  is  not 
a  failure ;  on  the  contrary  it  is  a  gigantic  success.  The  sales  under  all 
preceding  Land  Purchase  Acts  from  1870  to  1903  amount  to  twenty- 
three  million  pounds.  The  sales  under  the  Act  of  1903  have  reached 
seventy-seven  millions  in  five  years. 

In  view  of  this  result  it  seems  evident  that  the  terms  under  which 
sales  and  purchase  have  been  effected  are  on  the  whole  considered 
reasonable  by  both  landlords  and  tenants,  that  the  Act  of  1903  offers 
a  fair  solution  of  the  land  question,  that  any  necessary  amendments 
could  easily  be  agreed  upon  in  the  spirit  and  by  the  methods  of  the 
Land  Conference,  and  that  if  the  Act  could  be  financed,  a  question 
which  has  vexed  and  paralysed  Ireland  for  centuries  would  in  a  few 
short  years  be  for  ever  settled. 

But  under  stress  of  financial  circumstances  Mr.  Birrell's  Bill  does 
materially  alter  the  existing  Act.  The  new  Bill  naturally  falls  into 
three  main  divisions.  It  deals,  firstly,  with  the  method  of  satisfying 
existing  agreements ;  secondly,  with  the  terms  and  conditions  under 
which  sales  are  to  be  made  for  the  future  ;  and  thirdly,  with  the  means 
to  be  adopted  for  grappling  with  what  is  known  as  the  congested 
districts  problem — that  is,  the  uneconomic  conditions  of  certain 
parts  of  Ireland.  The  Government  scheme  was  criticised  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  as  I  think,  unjustifiably,  for  gathering  up  all  the  threads 
of  the  Irish  land  question  into  their  hands,  and  endeavouring  to  deal 
with  the  whole  situation  in  all  its  main  aspects  at  once.  The  three 
phases  enumerated  above  differ,  it  is  true,  very  materially,  but  land 
purchase  underlies  them  all,  and  a  comprehensive  measure  is  for 
many  reasons  to  be  desired.  Nevertheless,  it  must  be  pointed  out 
that  the  scheme  for  a  settlement  of  the  congested  districts  question 
involves  purely  administrative  proposals,  about  which  a  great  dif- 
ference of  opinion  may  exist  among  those  who,  in  other  respects,  are 
in  accord  with  the  views  of  the  Government ;  and  that  to  force  agree- 
ment on  a  question  of  administration  under  threat  of  losing  the  whole 


1058  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

Bill  would  be  an  unjustifiable  attempt  at  coercion  upon  the  people 
who  do  not  inhabit  scheduled  districts. 

It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  enter  upon  a  detailed  examination 
of  a  Bill  not  yet  in  print,  and  a  cursory  review  of  Mr.  Birrell's  speech 
must  perforce  suffice. 

The  arguments  adduced  by  the  Chief  Secretary  are  largely  founded 
upon  the  assumption  that  land  has  been  selling  far  too  dear.  That 
land  has  fetched  higher  prices  under  the  Act  of  1903  than  under  the 
Ashbourne  Acts  that  preceded  it  is  of  course  conceded.  If  the  terms 
of  those  Acts  had  continued  to  bring  land  into  the  market  there 
would  have  been  no  need  for  a  Land  Conference  or  a  Land  Act.  The 
whole  object  of  the  Conference  was  to  devise  means  whereby  better 
prices  could  be  offered  without  unfair  detriment  to  the  tenants  ;  and 
the  value  of  the  Conference  and  of  the  Act  consists  in  the  attainment 
of  that  end.  Mr.  Birrell  appears  to  assume  that  prices  have  exceeded 
Land  Conference  terms.  That  may  be  so,  though  I  should  be  sorry 
to  pronounce  an  opinion  about  it,  but  certainly  not  to  any  great 
extent.  The  average  price  all  over  Ireland  is  22*9,  say  twenty-three 
years'  purchase  of  the  rent.  Taking  second  term  rents  only  into 
consideration,  the  average  price  is  24*7,  say  twenty-four  and  a 
half  years'  purchase.  It  may  be  safely  assumed  that  at  least  one 
year's  recoverable  arrears  are  included  in  that,  and  that  the  price 
for  the  land  is  in  the  one  case  twenty-two  and  in  the  other  twenty- 
three  and  a  half  years'  purchase.  Tenants  were,  according  to  the 
Land  Conference,  entitled  to  receive  on  buying  a  substantial  reduc- 
tion on  the  rents  they  were  paying.  It  was  considered  that  the 
annuity  payable  by  a  purchasing  tenant  ought  to  involve  a  reduction 
on  the  rent  of  from  15  to  25  per  cent. — the  mean  being  20  per  cent. 
The  Land  Act  retained  the  same  mean,  but  extended  the  limits.  The 
average  reduction  on  the  rent  all  over  Ireland  is  26*2  per  cent.  It 
would  appear,  therefore,  that  the  reduction  obtained  by  purchasing 
tenants  is,  on  the  average,  more  than  was  considered  necessary  by 
the  Conference  or  by  Parliament,  and  as  the  recommendations  of  the 
Conference  and  the  enactments  of  Parliament  were  deemed  fair  by 
all  parties  in  Ireland  and  in  Parliament,  that  cannot  be  considered 
an  unsatisfactory  result.  Doubts  have  been  thrown  upon  the  security 
of  the  State  ;  that  is  really  absurd.  It  is  ample. 

It  may  be  called  to  the  recollection  of  Englishmen  that  the  Act 
of  1881  set  up  a  tribunal  to  fix  fair  rents  for  periods  of  fifteen  years. 
These  became  known  as  first  term  and  second  term  rents.  In  fixing  first 
term  rents  an  average  reduction  of  20'7  per  cent,  on  the  original  rent  was 
made.  Second  term  rents  made  an  average  reduction  of  19*6  per  cent,  on 
the  first  term  rents.  The  average  further  reduction  on  second  term  rents 
involved  in  the  annual  payment  on  purchase  is  19 -7  per  cent.  The 
purchasing  tenant  is,  therefore,  paying  on  an  average  as  a  terminable 
annuity  a  sum  of  from  50  to  60  per  cent,  less  than  his  original  rent. 


1908  THE   NEW  IBISH  LAND  BILL  1059 

The  margin  of  security  is  pretty  good  ;  but  that  is  not  all.  The  tenant 
has  bought  only  the  landlord's  interest,  and  the  tenant's  own  interest 
is  a  very  valuable  asset ;  the  State  has  the  whole  of  the  property  as 
security  for  a  loan  amply  secured  by  a  moiety  of  it.  Nor  is  that  quite 
all.  Annuities  have  been  paid  with  absolute  punctuality,  and  if  they 
were  not,  the  local  Irish  authorities  are  responsible  for  default.  The 
State  runs  no  risk. 

To  turn  to  the  Bill.  As  to  pending  agreements — that  is,  agreements 
lodged,  but  for  which  advances  have  not  been  provided — it  is  satis- 
factory to  find  that  their  sanctity  is  recognised. 

Landlords  and  tenants  have  come  to  agreements  relying  upon  the 
good  faith  of  Parliament,  and  nothing  has  occurred  which  would 
justify  Parliament  in  varying  the  terms  upon  which  they  have  been 
framed.    The  Act  of  1903  contains  no  reservations  as  to  the  influence 
which  fluctuations   in  the  value  of    money  would  have  upon  the 
progress  of  land  purchase.     During  the  debates  in  Parliament  as- 
surances were  given  that  money  would  be  provided  to  complete  the 
transfer  of  all  the  land  in  Ireland  within  a  period  of  about  fifteen 
years.   Neither  the  landlords  nor  the  tenants  of  Ireland  are  responsible 
for  the  difficulty  which  is  experienced  in  financing  these  completed 
agreements.  As  matters  now  stand,  the  State  is  in  arrears  to  the  tune 
of  fifty-two  millions.    203,626  tenants  have  bought  their  holdings,  but 
are  unable  to  pay  for  them  because  loans  for  the  purchase  are  not 
advanced.    It  must  be  clearly  understood  that  these  transactions  are 
actual  sales.     Tenants  have  ceased  to  be  tenants ;  no  rent  is  paid. 
In  lieu  of  rent  ex-tenants  pay  as  a  rule  3|  per  cent,  on  the  purchase 
price.     They  would  only  pay  3£  per  cent.,  including  interest  and 
sinking  fund,  on  the  advance  if  they  could  only  get  it.   These  tenants 
are  losing  at  least  125,000/.  a  year  through  the  default  of  the  State, 
and  are  not  getting  any  nearer  the  liquidation  of  their  debt.    Owing 
to  the  uncertainty  consequent  upon  incessant  legislation,  the  loans 
secured  on  Irish  land  bear  an  exorbitant  rate  of  interest  ranging 
as  high  as  5  per  cent,  and  even  6  per  cent.     Trusting  in  the  honour 
of  Parliament,  encumbered  landlords  have  sold  in  the  belief  that  they 
could  invest  purchase  money  at  5  or  6  per  cent,  in  liquidating  mortgage 
debt,  and  that  belief  has  influenced  the  price.   Through  default  of  the 
State  they  are  unable  to  do  so.    They  are  paying  5  or  6  per  cent,  and 
are  receiving  only  3£  per  cent,  on  the  purchase  price  with  the  most 
deplorable   results.      Mr.   Birrell   does    not   apparently   realise    the 
gravity  of  the  case.       The  real  disadvantage  to  the  landlord,   he 
said,  consists  in  the  fact  that  he  is  heavily  mortgaged  and  has  to  pay 
a  high  rate  of  interest,  but  he  added  that  he  had  always  been  in  that 
position.     It  is  true  he  had  always  been  paying  a  high  rate  of  interest, 
but  he  had  been  in  a  better  position  to  do  so.    He  had  his  income 
derived  from  rent,  but  rent  has  ceased,  and  the  income  derived  from  the 
interest  paid  on  the  purchase  price  is  considerably  less  than  the  rent. 


1060  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  Deo. 

The  Bill  recognises  that  these  pending  agreements  must  be  settled 
with  cash  if  cash  is  demanded,  but  it  limits  cash  payments  to  five 
millions  a  year,  and  offers  in  lieu  of  cash  or  as  part  payment  guaran- 
teed 2f  per  cent,  land  stock  at  ninety-two.  If  cash  is  insisted  upon 
it  will  take  ten  years  or  more  to  liquidate  these  claims.  The  loss 
to  tenants  will  be  enormous  and  the  poorhouse  doors  will  open  for 
many  landlords.  If  stock  at  ninety-two  is  taken,  landlords  will 
sustain  a  loss  of  8  per  cent.  The  Chief  Secretary  does  not  apparently 
attach  much  importance  to  that.  All  his  argument  is  founded  on  the 
assumption  that  selling  landowners  have  made  extraordinary  good 
bargains,  far  above  anything  contemplated  by  the  Land  Conference. 
That  does  not  appear  to  be  the  case.  In  fact  he  himself  admits  that 
it  is  not.  Mr.  Birrell  tells  us  that  the  average  rate  of  purchase  is 
twenty-four  and  a  half  years  of  second  term  rent.  Taking  a  rent 
of  100Z.  as  an  example  and  assuming  3|  per  cent,  interest  to  be  paid 
on  the  purchase  price  pending  settlement,  he  explains  that  the  owner 
will  receive  86Z.  According  to  Land  Conference  terms  he  should 
receive  90Z.  He  makes  a  loss  of  4:1.  If  he  takes  stock  at  ninety-two 
he  makes  a  further  loss  of  81.,  and  Mr.  Birrell  forgot  to  mention  that,  as 
the  average  price  all  over  Ireland  of  all  rents  is  22 '9  years'  purchase, 
the  loss  to  a  landlord  may  be  heavier  than  he  admits.  The  provisions 
of  the  Bill  for  liquidating  accomplished  sales  are  insufficient.  A  grave 
danger  will  be  incurred  if  the  completion  of  these  existing  agreements 
is  not  consummated  within  a  reasonable  period,  because  in  the  mean- 
time an  intolerable  burden  is  being  borne  by  landlords  and  by  tenants. 
The  position  they  are  placed  in  is  very  cruel,  and  one  that  surely 
Parliament  ought  not  to  witness  unmoved.  If  default  does  not 
strictly  represent  a  definite  breach  of  faith  of  actual  pledges,  it  is  at 
least  directly  contrary  to  the  whole  spirit  of  the  assurances  which  were 
given  by  Parliament  when  the  Act  was  under  discussion,  and  to  the 
whole  object,  meaning,  and  intention  of  the  Act  itself.  Parliament 
gave  a  pledge  by  word  if  not  by  act  in  1903,  and  it  cannot  honestly 
go  back  upon  it. 

The  principal  condition  for  purchases  in  the  future  is  the  sub- 
stitution of  a  3  per  cent,  stock  for  the  present  stock  bearing  interest 
at  2f ,  and  the  payment  in  stock  at  market  prices  instead  of  in  cash. 
Two  objections  which  appear  unsurmountable  present  themselves  to 
this  proposition.  A  higher  interest-bearing  stock  necessitates  an 
increase  in  the  purchasing  occupier's  annual  charge  ;  and  paying  the 
selling  owner  in  a  fluctuating  stock  involves  fluctuating  prices.  Any 
change  in  the  annuity  rate  is  greatly  to  be  deprecated.  Assume — arid 
it  is  a  fairly  accurate  assumption — that  one  half  of  the  tenants  have 
already  bought,  and  that  the  other  half  buy  in  the  future.  The 
annuity  rate  of  the  second  half  will  exceed,  by  a  quarter  per  cent.,  the 
annuity  rate  of  the  first  half.  But,  it  may  be  argued,  no  injustice  will 
occur,  because  prices  will  be  proportionately  lowered.  Prices  have 


1908  THE   NEW  IRISH  LAND  BILL 


1061 


automatically  fixed  themselves  in  provinces  and  counties,  and  a  long 
and  bitter  conflict  might  take  place  before  another  standard  was 
established— an  eventuality  that  should  be  guarded  against  at  almost 
any  cost.  But  assume  prices  to  be  proportionately  reduced.  What 
would  happen?  No  real  grievance  would  exist,  but  an  apparent 
grievance  would  exist  quite  sufficient  to  give  the  agitator  his  oppor- 
tunity. The  first  half  tenants  would  be  urgently  reminded  that  they 
had  paid  so  many  years'  purchase  more  than  the  second  half  ;  and  the 
second  half  tenants  would  be  counselled  to  refuse  to  pay  a  higher 
annuity  than  the  first  half.  In  the  same  small  country  you  cannot 
expect  one  set  of  tenants  to  be  content  in  paying  a  higher  rate  of 
annuity  for  their  holdings  than  another  set  of  tenants  who  happen 
to  have  come  to  agreements  before  the  1st  of  November.  Nor  will 
the  earlier  purchasers  rest  easy  in  having  given  a  greater  number  of 
years'  purchase  than  their  later  purchasing  neighbours.  Such  a 
differentiation  would,  in  the  course  of  time,  be  certain  to  produce  dis- 
satisfaction if  not  turmoil.  It  would  be  a  premium  on  disorder. 
The  land  settlement  was  not  a  mere  commercial  measure  for  enabling 
B  to  buy  land  of  C.  It  was  a  scheme  of  social  reform  intended  to 
heal  the  old  wounds  which  for  years  past  have  contributed  to  retard 
the  progress  of  the  country.  If  only  for  this  reason,  therefore,  every 
possible  cause  which  might  lead  to  a  re-opening  of  those  wounds 
should  be  avoided.  On  the  assumption  that  a  higher  interest- bearing 
stock  must  be  issued,  which  in  parenthesis  I  do  not  accept,  can  any- 
thing be  done  to  avoid  increasing  the  annual  payments  of  the  tenants  ? 
It  seems  possible. 

No  additional  charge  can  in  justice  be  placed  upon  tenants. 
Depreciation  of  guaranteed  Irish  land  stock  is  largely  due  to  disorder 
in  Ireland,  and  it  is  hard  that  landlords  should  suffer  for  that ;  but 
some  sacrifice  may  in  equity  be  expected  from  them  because  their 
position  contrasts  favourably  in  two  respects  with  that  of  the  tenants. 
The  Act  of  1903  carried  out  Land  Conference  recommendations  for 
landlords  more  accurately  than  it  did  those  affecting  tenants,  and 
the  money  market  has  moved  in  their  favour.  The  Land  Conference 
considered  that  trustee  securities  would  yield  3£  or  at  most  3J  per 
cent.,  and  they  were  justified  in  that  assumption  in  1902.  But  since 
then  the  powers  of  trustees  have  been  enlarged,  and  gilt-edged  securi- 
ties have  so  declined  in  value  that  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  if  the 
Conference  met  to-day  they  would  amend  their  report  by  substituting 
3|  or  4  per  cent.  This  appreciation  in  the  income  to  be  obtained 
from  trustee  securities  is  due  to  exactly  the  same  causes  operating 
on  the  money  market  as  have  produced  the  deadlock  in  the  provision 
of  funds  for  financing  the  Act.  The  landlord  who  sells  to-day  can 
invest  to  an  advantage  proportionate  to  the  disadvantage  which  is 
experienced  by  the  Government  in  placing'Jrish^land  stock. 

The  Treasury  is  entitled  under  the  terms  of  the  Act  to  revise  the 
VOL.  LX1V— No.  382  4  B 


THE  ttlNETEENTB  CfiNfVtt?  Dee. 


distribution  of  the  grant  in  aid  commonly  called  the  bonus  as  from 
the  1st  of  November  last.  The  bonus,  I  may  explain  for  the  benefit 
of  English  readers,  was  the  sum  provided  as  a  free  gift  by  Parliament 
to  bridge  the  difference  between  the  sum  which  the  tenants  could 
afford  to  pay  and  that  which  the  landlords  could  afford  to  take.  It 
was  calculated  that  one  hundred  millions  would  suffice  to  transfer 
the  title  of  agricultural  land  in  Ireland  from  the  owner  to  the  occupier. 
Twelve  millions  were  given  as  a  free  bonus  to  be  distributed  at  the 
rate  of  12  per  cent.,  the  rate  to  be  revisable  every  five  years.  Of  this 
twelve  millions,  rather  more  than  8|  millions  have  been  distributed 
or  are  distributable  upon  agreements  for  sale  already  lodged,  and 
there  remains  of  the  bonus  only  about  three  millions  for  the  aid  of 
future  transactions.  The  exact  value  of  outstanding  property  cannot 
be  accurately  estimated.  Mr.  Wyndham  put  the  whole  amount  at 
100,000,0002.  Mr.  Birrell  assesses  it  at  180,000,0002.  It  is  impossible 
to  read  Mr.  Wyndham's  speech  on  the  introduction  of  the  new  Bill, 
without  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  though  his  estimate  was  a 
little  too  small,  Mr.  Birrell's  estimate  is  a  great  deal  too  high,  and 
it  is  perfectly  certain  that  if  the  Act  is  kept  within  its  legitimate 
field  of  operation,  the  original  estimate  of  100,000,0002.  will  not  need 
to  be  increased  beyond  20,000,0002.  or  at  most  30,000,0002.  Whether 
that  be  so  or  not,  the  Chief  Secretary  held  out  hopes  that  an  additional 
grant  in  aid  will  be  made.  It  will  indeed  be  wise  of  Parliament  if  it 
will  make  a  fresh  grant  in  aid  sufficient  to  bring  up  the  bonus  to 
12  per  cent,  on  whatever  sum  is  required  to  complete  the  operation  of 
land  purchase  ;  but  the  rate  of  distribution  of  the  bonus  should  be 
lowered.  The  difference  between  a  2|  per  cent,  and  a  3  per  cent. 
stock  must  be  met  somehow.  It  can  be  met  only  in  one  of  three  ways. 
By  increasing  the  tenants'  annual  payments,  which  is  most  inexpedient  ; 
by  a  prolongation  of  the  period  of  amortisation,  which  is  also  undesir- 
able ;  or  by  diversion  of  a  sufficient  proportion  of  the  bonus,  a  method 
which  does  not  appear  open  to  the  same  objection.  Landlords  have 
certainly  benefited  considerably  by  the  state  of  the  money  market, 
and  the  rate  of  bonus  could  be  equitably  reduced.  The  bonus  might 
be  divided  between  landlord  and  tenant.  The  Treasury  might  be 
empowered  to  devote  to  the  sinking  fund  sufficient  of  the  bonus  to 
balance  the  increasing  interest  the  tenant  will  have  to  pay  in  con- 
sequence of  the  issue  of  higher  interest-bearing  stock  ;  and  the  rest 
of  the  bonus  should  be  distributable  among  landlords.  Thus  the 
additional  burden  would  be  borne  without  disturbing  average  prices 
or  increasing  the  annual  payments  of  tenant  purchasers,  and  con- 
sequently with  less  friction  than  is  likely  to  occur  if  annuity  rates  are 
increased  and  prices  have  to  come  down. 

Finality  is  the  one  object  to  be  aimed  at.  Ireland  can  never  be 
quiet  until  land  purchase  is  allowed  to  proceed  with  all  possible  speed 
on  fixed  and  approved  lines.  Such  lines  are  incorporated  in  the  Act 


1908  THE  NEW  IRISH  LAND  BILL 


1063 


of  1903.  That  Act  has  proved  its  capacity,  if  financed,  to  deal  with  the 
problem,  and  its  main  provisions  ought  not  to  be  interfered  with. 
The  condition  of  the  money  market  cannot  be  foreseen.  It  may  not 
be  necessary  to  issue  stock  at  3  per  cent.,  but  if  the  bonus  is  applied 
in  the  manner  suggested  the  variations  in  the  market  might  be  auto- 
matically met.  Dear  money  means  good  investment  for  landlords 
and  implies  a  lower  rate  of  bonus.  Cheap  money  means  bad  invest- 
ment and  demands  a  higher  rate  of  bonus.  In  the  one  case  more,  and 
in  the  other  less,  of  the  bonus  .would  be  retained  by  the  Treasury. 
Fluctuations  of  the  market  might  be  met  without  injustice  by  periodic 
adjustment  of  the  rate  of  distribution.  The  bonus  is  the  one  element 
of  the  Act  of  1903  which  it  is  enacted  may  be  varied  without  infringing 
the  provisions  of  that  Act. 

What  are  called  the  Zones  are,  I  gather  from  Mr.  Birrell's  speech, 
to  be  in  some  way  interfered  with.  I  trust  not.  Objection  to  the 
Zones  is  a  mere  fad.  The  Land  Conference  decided  against  the 
opinion  of  some  of  its  members,  myself  included,  that  sales  should  be 
direct  between  landlord  and  tenant.  That  being  so  the  object  of  the 
Zones  is  to  expedite  sales.  They  mean  that  if  the  annuity  payable 
on  the  agreed  price  involves  a  reduction  on  the  rent  stated  to  be  a  fair 
reduction  by  the  Conference  the  sale  was  to  go  through  without  re- 
valuation of  the  land.  If  the  reduction  was  less  than  the  specified 
limit,  re-valuation  would  be  made  in  the  interest  of  the  mortgagee 
the  State,  and  if  the  reduction  exceeded  the  limit,  the  case  would  be 
investigated  in  the  interest  of  the  remainder-man  to  guard  against 
an  improvident  sale.  It  is  almost  ludicrous  of  the  Chief  Secretary  to 
declare  in  one  sentence  that  his  one  object  is  to  push  on  land  purchase 
and  in  another  sentence  to  speak  of  abolishing  the  Zones.  If  in  all 
cases  it  is  incumbent  upon  the  Estates  Commissioners  to  take  expert 
opinion  on  the  value  of  land,  to  hear  evidence  in  the  first  instance 
and  appeals,  a  century  or  more  will  not  suffice  to  conclude  land 
purchase  in  Ireland. 

A  new  method  of  applying  the  bonus  is  introduced.  It  is  to  be 
distributed  in  inverse  proportion  to  the  number  of  years  given  for 
the  property.  This  sounds  very  fair,  but  is  not.  The  encumbered 
owner  can  afford  to  sell  cheaper  than  the  unencumbered  owner.  He 
can  find  more  profitable  investment  for  his  money.  The  proposed 
method  of  distribution  imposes  a  penalty  on  prudence,  and  may 
possibly  interfere  with  the  wise  provision  of  the  Act  which  allows 
a  year's  arrears  to  be  included  in  a  purchase  price.  But  it  will  benefit 
those  among  the  landed  gentry  who  are  in  the  direst  need  and  for  that 
reason  it  may  be  unobjectionable.  Under  the  Bill  the  charge  for 
excess  stock  is  very  properly  assumed  by  the  State.  The  burden 
will  not  be  serious,  as  the  cash  issue  is  limited  to  the  fifty-two  millions 
required  to  satisfy  lodged  agreements  at  the  rate  of  five  millions  a 
year.  Guaranteed  2|  per  cent,  stock  is  offered  in  lieu  of  cash.  The 


4  u  2 


1064  THE    NINETEENTH  CENTURY  Dec. 

loss  involved  is  too  heavy.  The  price  should  be  95,  or  the  difference 
between  par  and  market  price  should  be  equally  divided  between  the 
Treasury  and  the  recipient  of  the  stock.  No  option  of  cash  payment 
obtains  in  future  transactions.  Landlords  must  take  the  new  3  per 
cent,  stock.  It  will  be  at  a  discount,  and  the  bonus  is  reduced  from 
12  to  3  per  cent.  The  combined  loss  will  be  too  great.  In  this  case 
also  the  difference  between  par  and  market  price  should  be  shared 
between  the  landlord  and  the  State  ;  and  an  additional  bonus  is 
essential.  Mr.  Birrell's  object  is  to  do  all  he  can  '  to  hasten  the 
progress  of  land  purchase.'  Has  he  in  his  anxiety  for  greater  speed 
pulled  the  wrong  lever  and  put  on  the  brakes  ?  The  Bill  in  its  present 
condition  appears  admirably  designed  to  bring  land  purchase  in 
Ireland  to  a  full  stop. 

Space  forbids  any  real  consideration  of  the  congested  districts 
problem.  It  differs  in  one  important  respect  from  what  may  be 
termed  ordinary  land  purchase.  In  the  latter  case  it  is  simply  a 
question  of  enabling  an  occupying  tenant  to  purchase  the  landlord's 
interest  and  thus  become  the  owner  of  the  fee  simple  of  his  farm. 
In  the  former  case,  and  looking  at  it  in  its  simplest  form,  untenanted 
land  is  required  either  to  add  to  existing  un-economic  holdings  or  to  be 
carved  into  small -but  economic  holdings  upon  which  migrants  from 
a  congested  district  may  be  settled,  and  in  the  case  of  untenanted  land 
both  interests  lie  in  the  owner. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  contemplated  action  of  the  State  is 
contrary  to  all  the  teachings  of  political  economy,  and  is  flying  right 
in  the  face  of  the  rigid  Manchester  school  of  Free  Traders  who  have 
always  claimed  that  trade  and  industry  should  be  permitted  to  find 
their  own  natural  channels  and  ought  not  to  be  diverted  by  artificial 
means.  But  the  terrible  condition  of  the  congested  West  fully  justifies 
the  interference  of  the  State,  even  though  the  land  acquired  may  be 
diverted  from  a  more  profitable  to  a  less  profitable  use  ;  but  the  opera- 
tion will  be  expensive,  and  I  doubt  if  the  allocated  funds  will  prove 
sufficient. 

The  Chief  Secretary,  with  delightful  naivete,  leaves  the  vexed 
question  of  migration  for  Ireland  to  decide  for  herself.  He  cannot, 
he  says,  offer  police  protection  to  migrants.  But  nevertheless  he  must 
settle  whether  land  is  to  be  compulsorily  acquired  solely  for  the  relief 
of  congestion,  or  may  be  devoted  to  other  purposes. 

Compulsory,, purchase  is  to  be  introduced.  I  have  no  horror  of 
compulsion,  of  course  on  fair  terms;  and  I  would  like  to  see  it 
universally  applied  for  many  reasons,  among  them,  because  partial 
application  seems  likely  to  cause  much  confusion.  Compulsory 
purchase  and  cash  payments  will  be  proceeding  alongside  of 
voluntary  sales  and  payments  in  depreciated  stock,  and,  to  add  to 
the  confusion,  two  departments  will  be  engaged  in  the  same  operation 
in  the  same  locality.  Therein  lies  the  weak  point  in  the  proposals 


1908  THE   NEW  IRISH  LAND   BILL  1065 

of  the  Bill.  The  Congested  Districts  Board  has  in  the  matter  of  land 
purchase  proved  a  comparative  failure.  They  have  done  some  good 
work  in  developing  fisheries,  improving  stock,  fostering  small  indus- 
tries and  in  technical  education,  and  all  that  business  is  to  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  Board  of  Agriculture  and  Technical  Instruction.  The 
Estates  Commissioners  have  bought  land  more  readily  and  cheaper 
than  the  Congested  Districts  Board,  and  the  land  purchase  business 
of  the  Board  might  with  advantage  be  transferred  to  them.  Over  a 
great  part  of  the  country  two  departments  with  their  separate  establish- 
ments will  be  working  side  by  side,  perhaps  in  harmony,  perhaps 
in  discord,  at  precisely  the  same  operation — land  purchase.  The 
Estates  Commissioners  who  understand  the  business  are  restricted 
in  their  area,  and  in  many  counties  will  be  unable  to  act  save 
by  permission  of  the  Congested  Districts  Board.  The  area  of  the 
Congested  Districts  Board,  who  do  not  understand  the  business,  is 
enlarged,  and  they  are  invested  with  extraordinary  powers.  Three 
bodies  are  doing  the  work  of  two,  and  Ireland  is  saddled  with  great 
and  unnecessary  expense. 

To  sum  up  the  situation.  The  Land  Act  of  1903  was  a  great 
measure  conceived  in  an  Imperial  spirit  designed  to  effect  a  revolution 
in  land  tenure  in  Ireland  necessary  for  the  well-being,  not  only  of 
Ireland  but  of  Great  Britain  and  the  whole  Empire.  It  has  proved 
successful  beyond  the  dreams  of  the  most  sanguine ;  but  its  success . 
has  proved  its  undoing.  The  Treasury  are  unable  to  find  money  to 
finance  the  Act,  without  incurring  a  loss  which  the  Government 
decline  to  sanction.  The  finance  of  the  Act  of  1903  has  been  severely 
criticised.  Considering  that  2|  per  cent.  Consols  stood  at  93fjJ-  when  the 
Act  was  passed,  Mr.  Wyndham  was  justified  in  assuming  that  sufficient 
money  could  be  raised  by  the  issue  of  stock  bearing  2|  per  cent, 
interest.  He  was  wrong,  but  if  '  virile  agitation '  had  not  been 
preached  in  Ireland,  and  if  sounder  financial  methods  had  been  adopted 
by  the  Treasury,  losses  on  flotation  would  have  been  comparatively 
small.  That  matter  cannot  be  investigated  in  this  article,  but  two 
facts  are  patent.  Disorder  has  depressed  Irish  land  stock,  and  the 
Treasury  have  not  acted  as  prudent  borrowers.  They  have  neglected 
favourable  opportunities  of  obtaining  comparatively  large  sums,  sums 
in  excess  of  their  immediate  requirements,  and  have  been  forced  to 
borrow  when  opportunities  were  unfavourable.  Why  his  Majesty's 
Government  have  shot  a  new  Land  Act  upon  the  country  at  a 
period  that  makes  it  impossible  that  it  can  be  passed  or  even  dis- 
cussed this  Session,  is  past  all  finding  out.  They  had  all  the 
material  before  them,  and  might  have  put  forward  their  proposals 
•at  least  nine  months  ago.  It  would  have  cost  a  mere  trifle  to  carry 
on  the  Act  of  1903,  while  Irishmen  had  an  opportunity  of  calmly 
considering  a  matter  of  such  vast  importance  to  their  country.  It 
will  cost  a  mere  trifle  to  carry  on  the  Act  now  for  a  short  time,  and 


1066  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY      Dec.  1908 

that  is  probably  the  best  solution  of  the  difficulty  before  us.  Finality 
is  the  one  thing  necessary  if  Ireland  is  to  be  saved  from  perpetual 
turmoil.  Finality  was  reached  by  the  Conference  and  the  Act  of 
1903.  No  one  will  deny  that  the  whole  great  peaceful  revolution 
would  be  accomplished  under  that  Act  in  five  or  six  years'  time  if 
funds  could  be  provided  ;  and  there  is  no  reason  why  under  the  same 
favourable  circumstances  the  settlement  of  the  congested  districts 
question  should  not  Jiave  proceeded  pari  passu  with  it.  It  is  all  a 
question  of  money.  True  statesmanship  would  recognise  the  wisdom 
of  charging  the  votes  with  the  annual  sum  necessary  to  provide  excess 
stock.  With  the  payment  to  Ireland  of  arrears  due  to  the  develop- 
ment grant,  and  with  better  methods  of  finance,  the  annual  sum  re- 
quired could  not  be  over  a  quarter  of  a  million  for  a  limited  number 
of  years  ;  and  it  would  be  a  gradually  declining  charge.  A  peaceful 
Ireland  would  not  be  dear  at  the  price.  It  seems  a  pity  to  re-open 
a  closed  question,  to  offer  encouragement  to  the  forces  of  disorder, 
to  run  the  risk  of  throwing  Ireland  off  the  peaceful  path  of  reform 
and  material  development  which  the  great  majority  of  her  people 
desire  to  tread,  and  all  for  the  sake  of  a  sum  that  represents  less 
than  one  halfpenny  in  the  pound  on  the  amounts  annually  voted  by 
Parliament. 

DUNRAVEN. 


Tlie  Editor  of  THE  (NINETEENTH  CENTURY  cannot  undertake 
to. return  unaccepted  MSS. 


INDEX  TO  VOL.  LXIV 


The  titles  of  articles  are  printed  in  italics 


ABB 

ABBAS    THE   SECOND,  Khedive 
of   Egypt,   and   British   control, 

85-100 
Abd-ul-Hamid  and  the  '  Young  Turks,' 

853-872 
Aerial  Navigation,  The  Problem  of, 

480-442 
Aerial  Navigation,  The  Problem  of: 

a    Reply    to    Professor    Newcpmb, 

777-785 
Agriculture  in  Norfolk,  its  indebtedness 

to  Coke,  321-380 
Alcoholism   and  temperance   in  Rou- 

mania,  976-980 
Alien- Subjects,  Revocation  of  Treaty 

Privileges  to,  658-664 
Alps,  High,  The  Poet  in,  665-671 
Amateur  Artist,  The,  1011-1017 
America,  North,  French   colonisation 

in,  108-121 
Anglican  Churches,  Autonomy  in  the  : 

Church  Reform,  268-265 
Anthropology,  The  Empire  and,  183- 

146 
Anti  •  Suffrage        Movement,        The 

Women's,  843-852 
Anti-suffragists   and  woman  suffrage, 

495-506 
Apollo    and    Dionysus   in   England, 

74-84 
Architecture,  sculpture,  and  painting 

at  the    Franco- British    Exhibition, 

266-277 
Army      reorganisation      under      Mr. 

Haldane,  26-87 

Art  sales  of  the  past  season,  469-478 
Artillery  in  the  Territorial  army,  26-87 
Asiatic      Immigration,     Our     Pro- 
tectorates and,  886-899 
'  Athanasian    Creed,'    The   Lambeth 

Conference  and  the,  44-47 
Austro- Hungarian  regime  in  Bosnia- 

Herzgowina,  705-718 

BADEN-POWELL  (Major  B.),  The 
Problem  of  Aerial  Navigation  : 
a    Reply   to    Professor    Newcomb, 
777-786 


BRA 

Balkan  crisis,  The,  and  the  European 

Powers,  705  -729 
Balkans,  The  Military  Situation  in 

the,  780-747 
Balloons  and   airships,   their    use   in 

warfare.  480-442 
Barbizon   school    of    painting,   Some 

specimens    at    recent    sales,    475- 

478 
Barker  (J.  Ellis),  The  Triple  Entente 

and  the  Triple  Alliance,  1-17 
Barnes  (J.  H.),  An  Actor's  Views  on 

Plays  and  Playwritinc/,  461-468 
Barnes  (Dr.  W.  Emery),  The  Lambeth 

Conference   and    the   "  Athanasian 

Creed,'  44-47 
Bashford  (J.  L.),    The  Berlin  Crisis, 

908-923 
Basque  celebrations  of  the  '  Month  of 

Mary,1  240-257 
Bastille,  The,  294-299 
Battleship  •  building,      British     and 

foreign,  885-907 
Battleships  for  Brazil,  207-214 
Bellew      (Mrs.),       Charlotte- Jeanne : 

a  forgotten  Episode  of  the  French 

Revolution,  997-1010 
Bengal,  Sedition  in,  16-25,  951-954 
Berlin  Crisis,  The,  908-928 
Berlin  Revisited  by  a  British  Tourist. 

811-828 

Bible,  The,  and  the  Church,  956-976 
Bilinski    (A.   Eustem    Bey   de),    The 

Turkish  Revolution,  858-872 
Birchenough    (Mrs.    Henry),    Berlin 

Revisited    by   a    British    Tourist, 

811-828 
Blake  (Sir  Henry),    The  Rule  of  the 

Empress  Dowager,  990-996 
Boer  government  and   treatment    of 

Englishmen  in  the  Transvaal,  694  - 

704 
Bonaparte  (Elizabeth),  granddaughter 

of  Old  Mortality,  887-851 
Bradley   (Rose   M.),    The    Month    of 

Mary,  240-257 
Brazil  and    the   new   Dreadnottghtx, 

207-214 


1068 


INDEX   TO    VOL.   LXIV 


BRI 

British   East   Africa,  its  possibilities, 

567-587 
British    men    and  women,   are  they 

deteriorating?  421-429 
British  monarchs,  London  statues  of, 

672-683 

British    Trade    and    Canadian     Pre- 
ference, 525-533 
Bulgaria,  Turkey,  and  the  Treaty  of 

Berlin,  719-723 
Bulgarian  army,  The,  736-738 
Billow,     Prince :     an    Appreciation, 

684-693 
Burnand  (Sir  Francis  C.),  Un  Peu  de 

Pickwick  &  la  Franqaise,  311-320 
Burnley    (Bishop    of),     The    Present 

Stage  of  Church  Reform,  38-43 ; 

II.  Autonomy     in     the     Anglican 

Churches,  258-265 


/CANADA  (French]  and  the  Quebec 

^  Tercentenary  :  an  English- 
Canadian  Appreciation,  233-239 

Canada  and  the  United  States,  Fishery 
disputes  between,  653-664 

Canada,  The  Forerunners  of  Cham- 
plain  in,  108-121 

Canadian  Preference,  The  Value  of, 
525-533 

Cardigan  (Earl  of),  The  Cavalry  of 
the  Territorial  Army,  864-872 

Carolin  (Mrs.),  The  Transvaal  To- 
day :  from  a  Woman's  Point  of 
View,  694-704 

Cavalry    of   the    Territorial  Army, 

.    The,  864-872 

Censored  by  the  State,  How  we  came 
to  be,  1030-1049 

Censorship  of  Fiction,  The,  479-487 

Champlain,  The  Forerunners  of,  in 
Canada,  108-121 

Chancellor  (E.  Beresford),  The  Royal 
Open-Air  Statues  of  London,  672- 
683 

Chaos,  The,  of  London  Traffic,  622- 
633 

Charlotte-Jeanne  :  a  forgotten  Epi- 
sode of  the  French  Revolution, 
997-1010 

Chase  of  the  Wild  Red  Deer,  The,  on 
Exmoor,  278-286 

Child-training  in  foundling  homes  and 
orphanages,  443-460 

China,  The  late  Empress  Dowager  of, 
990-996 

Church  of  England,  The  Supply  of 
Clergy  for  the,  852-863 

Church  Reform,  The  Present  Stage 
of,  38-43 

Churchill  (Mr.  Winston)  and  Indians 
in  Africa,  386-399 

Churchmen  and  the  Education  com- 
promise, 934-940 


EUR 
Clergy,  The  Supply  of^for  the  Church 

of  England,  852-863 
Coke  as  the  Father  of  Norfolk  Agri- 
culture :  a  Reply,  321-330 
Coleridge  and  Wordsworth  taken  for 

French  spies,  300-310 
Colonial  social  conditions  and  London 

poverty,  101-107 
Constitutional    government    for    the 

Church  of  England,  38-43,  258-265 
Consultative  Chamber  of  Women,  A, 

1018-1024 
Cox    (Sir    Edmund   C.),    Danger    in 

India,  941-954 
Cromer  (Lord)  and  the  Khedive,  85- 

100 

"nAMNATORY  clauses  of  the  '  Atha- 

JL/     nasian  '  creed,  38-47 

Dante  and  Shakespeare,  The,  603-621 

Destiny,  A  Dupe  of,  837-851 

Dicey  (Edward),  The  Kliedive  oj 
Egypt,  85-100 ;  A  Novel  Phase  of 
the  Eastern  Question :  Parliamen- 
tary Government  for  Egypt,  873- 
385 

Dimnet  (Abbe"  Ernest),  The  Neo- 
Royalist  Movement  in  France, 
287-293 

Dreadnoughts  for  Sale  or  Hire,  207- 
214 

Dunraven  (Earl  of),  The  New  Irish 
Land  Bill,  1050-1066 

TMGLESTON  (A.  J.),  Wordsworth, 
Jj  Coleridge,  and  the  Spy,  300-310 
East  African  Problem,  The,  567-587 
Eastern  Question,  A  Novel  Phase  of 

the  :    Parliamentary    Government 

for  Egypt,  373-385 
Eastern  Question,  The,  and  the  Turkish 

Constitution  of  1876,  552-566 
Edinburgh    Revieiv,    Lord     Milner's 

reply  to,   on  Canadian  Preference, 

525-533 
Education,    The   Board   of,   Health 

and,  644-652 

Educational  Surrender,  An,  934-940 
Egypt,  The  Khedive  of,  85-100 
Egyptian  aspirations  and  the  Turkish 

revolution,  373-885 
Elliot  (Gertrude),  Turkey  in  1876  :  a 

Retrospect,  552-566 
Empire,     The,     and    Anthropology, 

133-146 
Empress  Dowager,  The  Rule  of  the, 

990-996 
England,  Has  she  wronged  Ireland  ? 

873-884 

Episcopal  Churches  (Anglican),  Auto- 
nomy in,  258-265 

Eucharistic  Congress,  The,  534-542 
Europe  and  the  Turkish  Constitution 

— an  Independent  View.  724-729 


INDEX  TO   VOL.  LX1V 


1009 


EUR 

European  ententes  and  alliances,  1-17 
Exmoor,  The  Chase  of  the  Wild  Bed 
Deer  on,  278-286 

FAMINES,  rainfall,  and  destruction 
of  forests  in  India,  147- 161 
Ffrench  (Rev.  G.  E.),  The  Supply  of 

Clergy  for  the  Church  of  England, 

852-863 

Fiction,  The  Censorship  of,  479-487 
Fiennes  (Gerard),  Dreadnoughts  for 

Sale  or  Hire,  207-214 
Fishery  disputes  between  Canada  and 

the  United  States,  653-664 
Fitzgerald  (Admiral   C.   C.   Penrose), 

The  Unrest  of  Insecurity,  162-172 
Flying  machines,  Dynamic,  and  pro- 
pelled balloons,  777-785 
Forefathers,  Our,  Have  we  the  '  Grit' 

of*  421-429 

Forest  conservancy  in  India,  147-161 
Foundling  hospitals  and  orphanages, 

443-460 
France,  The  Neo-Eoyalist  Movement 

in,  287-293 
Franco-British   Exhibition,    Art    at 

the,  266-277 
Free  Trade,  A  Lesson  on  the  Effects 

of:  The  Roman  Empire,  181-185 
French-Canadian      tercentenary,     an 

English- Canadian  appreciation,  233- 

239 

French  pioneers  in  Canada,  108-121 
French  Reign  of  Terror,  Fate  of  the 

Rutant  family,  997- 1010 
French  translation  of  Pickwick,  311- 

320 
Fuller  (Sir  Bampfylde),  The  '  Vision 

Splendid '  of  Indian  Youth,  18-25 

pERMAN  Chancellor,   The,   Prince 

\J    Bulow,  684-693 

German  parties  and  the  '  Kaiser 
Interview,'  908-923 

German  preparation  for  war  contrasted 
with  British  unreadiness,  173-180 

German  work-a-day  life  as  seen  in 
Berlin,  811-823 

Gore-Booth  (Eva),  Women  and  the 
Suffrage :  a  Reply  to  Lady  Lovat 
and  Mrs.  Humphry  Ward,  495-506 

Goulding  (Edward),  The  Representa- 
tion of  Women :  A  Tory  Plea  for 
Woman  Suffrage,  1025-1029 

Great  Britain  and  the  Continental 
Powers,  1-17 

Gree  ce,  The  army  of,  788-744 

Greek  Orphic  associations  and  modern 
faddists,  74-84 

'  Grrit '  of  our  Forefathers,  Have  we 
the  t  421-429 

Grossmann  (Mrs.),  Poverty  in  London 
and  New  Zealand :  a  Study  in 
Contrasts,  101-107 


ITA 

TTALDANE'S    (Mr.)      Territorial 

-"•     Artillery,  26-87 

Hale  (Colonel  Lonsdale),  The  Insecu- 
rity of  our  Home  Defence  To-day, 
173-180  ;  «  Watchman,  what  of  the 
Night?'  924-933 

Hamon  (Augustin),  Un  Nouveau 
Moliere  :  a  French  View  of  Bernard 
Shaw,  48-63 

Harrison  (Frederic),  An  Unknown 
Poet,  808-810 

Harrison  (Mrs.  Frederic),  The  Bastille, 
294-299 

Hawkes  (Arthur),  French  Canada 
and  the  Quebec  Tercentenary :  an 
English- Canadian  Appreciation, 
233-239 

Health  and  the  Board  of  Education, 
644-652 

Heaton  (J.  Henniker),  The  Fight  for 
Universal  Penny  Postage,  588-602 

1  High  Alps,'  The  Poet  in,  605-671 

Hodgins  (Mr.  Justice),  Revocation  of 
Treaty  Privileges  to  Alien- Subjects, 
653-664 

Home  Defence,  The  Insecurity  of  our, 
To-day,  173-180 

Home  Defence,  Universal  liability  for, 
924-933 

Home  Rule  and  Irish  hatred  of  Eng- 
land, 873-884 

Home  Workers,  A  Minimum  Wage 
for,  507-524 

Hospitals,  Nurses  in,  824-836 

Hutchinson  (James  G.),  A  Workman's 
View  of  the  Remedy  for  Unemploy- 
ment, 331-342 


TMPERIAL    Yeomanry   and    Terri- 

1    torial  cavalry,  864-872 

India,  Danger  in,  941-954 

India,  The  Press  in,  1780-1908,  186- 

206 
India    under     Crown     Government, 

1858-1908,  786-802 
Indian  Famines  and  Indian  Forests, 

147-161 
Indian  immigration  in  South  Africa, 

386-399 
Indian  Youth,  The  '  Vision  Splendid  ' 

of,  18-25 
Individual,   The,   and  the    State,    in 

Plato's  Republic,  634-648 
Inspiration  of  the  Bible,  Roman  and 

Reformed  views   concerning,   955- 

975 
International  Law  and  fishery  disputes, 

653-664 
Ireland,  Has  England  wronged  her  ? 

873-884 

Irish  Land  Bill,  The  New,  1050-1066 
Islam,  Can  it  be  reformed  1  543-551 
Italia  (L')  Fa  Da  Se,  122-182 


1070 


INDEX   TO    VOL.   LXIV 


ITA 

Italian  agriculture  under  Imperial 
Eome,  and  free  trade,  181-185 

Italy,  North,  Shakespeare  and  the 
Waterways  of,  215-232 

TESSOPP  (Dr.)  on  Coke  and  Norfolk 
J      agriculture,  Eeply  to,  321-330 
Johnston  (Sir  Harry  H.),  The  Empire 

and    Anthropology,   133-146 ;  The 

East  African  Problem,  567-587 
Journal  pour  tons,  Le,  and  Dickens's 

Pickwick,  311-320 
Jubilee    of    Crown    Government    in 

India,  786-802 

KAISER,  The,  and  personal  govern- 
ment, 908-923 

Khedive  of  Egypt,  The,  85-100 
Kingston  (Gertrude),  How  we  came  to 
be  censored  by  the  State,  1030-1049 

T  AGDEN    (Sir  Godfrey),  Our  Pro- 

Jlj  tectorates  and  Asiatic  Immigra- 
tion, 386-399 

Lambeth  Conference,  The,  and  the 
'  Athanasian  Creed,1  44-47 

Land  purchase  in  Ireland,  1050-1066 

Lathbury  (D.  C.)>  -An  Educational 
Surrender,  934-940 

Lawrence  (A.  Susan),  Health  and  the 
Board  of  Education,  644-652 

Lawson  (Miss  Elizabeth)  and  General 
Wolfe,  400-420 

Lay  representation  in  Convocation, 
38-43,  258-265 

London  Traffic,  The  Chaos  of,  622- 
633 

Lord  (Walter  Frewen),  £'  Italia  Fa 
Da  Se,  122-132 

Louis  the  Fourteenth  and  the  Foun- 
tains of  Versailles,  488-494 

Lovat  (Lady),  Women  and  the  Suf- 
frage, 64-73  ;  a  Eeply  to,  495-506 

Low  (Frances  H.),  The  Orphanage  : 
its  Reform  and  Re-creation,  443- 
460 

MACDONALD  (J.  Ramsay),  Sweat- 
ing and  Wages  Boards,  748-762 
Man,   his  racial  attributes  and  future 

possibilities,  133-146 
Markham     (Violet     R.),    The    Fore- 
runners of  Champlain  in  Canada, 

108-121 
Massy  (Col.  Percy  H.  H.),  The  Crisis 

in  the  Near  East :  The  Bulgarian 

Point  of  View,  719-723 
Mayor  (Alice),  Amateur  Artist,  1011- 

1017 
Meath  (Earl  of),  Have  we  the  '  Grit ' 

of  our  Forefathers  ?  421-429 
Medical  inspection  of  school  children, 

644-652 


PAR 

Milner  (Viscount),  The  Value  of 
Canadian  Preference,  525-533 

Minimum  Wage,  A,  for  Home  Indus- 
tries, 507-524 

Mitra  (S.  M.),  The  Press  in  India, 
1780-1908,  186-206 

Moliere,  Un  Nouveau  :  a  French  View 
of  Bernard  Shaw,  48-63 

Month  of  Mary,  The,  240-257 

Morison  (Theodore),  Can  Islam  be 
Reformed?  543-551 

Morris  (Sidney  Garfield),  Prince 
Biilow  :  an  Appreciation,  684-693 

Moyes  (Monsignor  Canon),  The 
Eucharistic  Congress,  534-542 

Muhammadan  world,  Possibility  of 
regeneration  of  the,  543-551 

Mutiny,  The  Indian,  and  the  Jubilee 
of  Crown  Government,  786-802 


\TATIONAL  defence,  162-172,  173- 

11     180,  924-933 

Navy,  The  Two-Power  Standard  for 

the,  885-907 

Near  East,  The  Crisis  in  the,  705-718 
Neo-Royalist     Movement,      The,     in 

France,  287-293 
New  Zealand,  Poverty  in  London  and 

in  :  a  Study  in  Contrasts,  101-107 
Newcomb     (Professor     Simon),     The 

Problem  of  Aerial  Navigation,  430- 

442  ;  a  Reply  to,  777-785 
Newspapers,  English  and  vernacular, 

in  India,  186-206 

Nightingale  (Miss  Florence)  on  train- 
ing of  nurses,  826 
Nisbet    (J.),    Indian    Famines     and 

Indian    Forests,    147-161 ;     India 

under    Crown   Government,   1858- 

1908,  786-802 
Norfolk  Agriculture,    Coke    as    the 

Father  of:  a  Reply,  321-330 
Norman  (Capt.  C.  B.),  The  Military 

Situation  in  the  Balkans,  730-747 
Nurses  in  Hospitals,  824-836 

OLD   MORTALITY  (Robert  Pater- 
son)    and  Elizabeth    Bonaparte, 

837-851 
Ordination,  Dearth  of  candidates  for, 

and  grievances  of  the  clergy,  852- 

863 
Orphanage,    The :    its   Reform    and 

Re-creation,  443-460 
Owen    (Major-General    Charles     H.), 

Mr.  Haldane's  Territorial  Artillery, 

26-37 

PARIS  and  the    Bastille    in    1789, 
294-299 

Parliamentary    enfranchisement     and 
woman's  sphere,  64-73  ;  343-352 


INDEX  TO   VOL.  LXIV 


1071 


PAT 

Patterson  (Elizabeth),  granddaughter 
of  Old  Mortality  and  wife  of  Jerome 
Bonaparte,  837-851 

Paul  (Herbert),  The  Method  of  Plato, 
634-643 

Penny  postage,  International,  The 
Campaign  for,  588-602 

Pickwick,  Un  Pen  de,  a  la  Franqaise, 
811-820 

Picture  Sales,  Some  Recent,  469-478 

Plato,  The  Method  of,  634-648 

Plays  and  Play-writing,-  An  Actor's 
Views  on,  461-468 

Plays  of  Bernard  Shaw  compared  with 
those  of  Moliere  and  Ibsen,  48-68 

Poet,  An  Unknown,  808-810 

Poet,  The,  in  '  High  Alps,1  665-671 

Poverty  in  London  and  in  New 
Zealand :  A  Study  in  Contrasts, 
101-107 

Preference,  Canadian,  The  Value  of, 
525-533 

Prisoners  in  the  Bastille  under  Louis 
the  Sixteenth,  294-299 

'  Problem '  novels  and  impure  litera- 
ture, 479-487 

Protectorates,  Our,  and  Asiatic  Im- 
migration, 886-399 

Protestants  in  Ireland  and  Home 
Kule,  873-884 

Public  schools  (English),  German 
tributes  to,  817-819 

QUEBEC,     Three -hundredth    anni- 
versary of  the  founding  of,  233- 
239 

Quebec's  hero,  Wolfe,  and  his  love 
affairs,  400-420 

"HAWLINGS   (B.   Burford),   Nurses 

XI     in  Hospitals,  824-836 

Eeich  (Dr.  Emil),  Apollo  and  Dionysus 

in  England,  74-84  ;  The  Crisis  in 

tlie  Near  East:   The  Austro-Hun- 

garian  Case,  705-718 
Besurrection  of  Italy  and  the  House  of 

Savoy,  122-132 
Boberts   (W.),   Some  Recent  Picture 

Sales,  469-478 
Boman     Catholic     Church    and    the 

Eucharistic  Congress,  534-542 
Roman  Empire,   The  :    a  Lesson  on 

the  Effects  of  Free  Trade,  181-185 
Roumania,  Sane  Temperance  Legis- 
lation in,  976-989 
Royal  Open-Air  Statues  of  London, 

The,  672-683 
Boyalists,   Republicans,   and    Clerical 

democrats  in  France,  287-298 

OANDERS   (B.   A.),   The  Chase  of 
O     the  Wild  Red  Deer  on  Exmoor, 
278-286 


TEA 

Savoy,  Dauphine,  and  the  High  Alps, 

as  seen  by  poet  and  painter,  665- 

671 
Savoy,  The  House  of,  what  it  has  done 

for  Italy,  122-182 
School-children,  Medical  inspection  of, 

644-652 
Selden   (John)   and    political    liberty, 

74-84 
Sellers  (Edith),  How  Switzerland  deals 

with  her  Unemployed,  768-776 
Servian  army,  The,  744-746 
Shakespeare  and  the   Waterways   of 

North  Italy,  215-232 
Shakespeare,  Dante  and,  603-621 
Shaw  (Bernard),  A  French  View  of : 

un  nouveau  Moliere,  48-68 
Sin  and  human  life,   as   treated    by 

Dante  and  Shakespeare,  603-621 
Smith      (Gold  win),     Has      England 

^vronged  Ireland  ?  873-884 
Smyth  (Mary  Winslow),  Dante   and 

Shakespeare,  603-621 
Socrates  on  the  individual  and   the 

State,  634-648 
Sonnets  by  a  bereaved  husband,  803  - 

810 

South  Africa,  The  English  in,  694-704 
South   and  East  Africa  and    Indian 

immigration,  886-399 
Stag-hunting  in  Devonshire,  278-286 
Statham   (H.  Heathcote),  Art  at  the 

Franco- British    Exhibition,    266- 

277 
Statues,     The    Royal    Open-Air,    of 

London,  672-683 
Stead     (Alfred),     Sane     Temperance 

Legislation  in  Roumania,  976-989 
Stephen  (Caroline  E.),  Representation 

of      Women :      A        Consultative 

Chamber  of  Women,  1018-1024 
Stirling  (Mrs.),  Coke  as  the  Father  of 

Norfolk    Agriculture :    A     Reply, 

821-330  ;  A  Dupe  of  Destiny,  837- 

851 
Stoker    (Brain),    The    Censorship    of 

Fiction,  479-487 
Streets    of   London,   Congestion    and 

remedies,  622-638 
Suffrage,  Women  and  the,  64-78 
Sullivan    (Sir  Edward),    Shakespeare 

and  the  Waterways  of  North  Italy, 

215-232 
Sweated  industries  and   a  minimum 

wage,  507-524 

Sweating  and  Wages  Boards,  748-762 
Swinton  (Captain  George  S.  C.),  The 

Chaos  of  London  Traffic,  622-633 
Switzerland,  How  slie  deals  with  her 

Unemployed,  768-776 

rpE\NO    (Prince   di),    Tlut     Roman 
_L     Empire  :  a  Lesson  on  the  Effects 
of  Free  Trade,  181-185 


1072 


INDEX  TO   VOL.  LXIV 


TEM 

Temperance    Legislation,    Sane,     in 

Roumania,  976-989 
Territorial   Army,    The   Cavalry   of 

the,  864-872 
Territorial  Artillery,  Mr.  Haldane's, 

26-37 
Theatrical  Censorship,  How  it  arose, 

1030-1049 
Theatrical    plays     and    psychological 

problems,  461-468 
Thysia  :    an   Elegy,   by   a  bereaved 

husband,  803-810 

Training  for  hospital  nurses,  824-836 
Transvaal,    The,    To-day :   from    a 

Woman's  Point  of  View,  694-  704 
Treaty  Privileges  to   Alien- Subjects, 

Revocation  of,  653-664 
Triple  Entente,  The,  and  the  Triple 

Alliance,  1-17 
Turkey  in  1876  :  a  Retrospect,  552- 

566 

Turkish  army,  The,  732-736 
Turkish  Constitution,  and  the  Euro- 
pean Powers,  724-729 
Turkish  Revolution,  The,  353-372 

TTNEMPLOYED,  How  Switzerland 
U      deals  with  her,  763-776 
Unemployment,   A   Workman's  View 

of  the  Remedy  for,  331-342 
Universal  Penny  Postage,  The  Fight 

for,  588-602 

Unrest  in  India,  18-25,  941-954 
Unrest  of  Insecurity,  The,  162-172 

T7AMBERY  (Prof.  A.),  The  Crisis  in 
V      the  Near  East :  Europe  and  the 
Turkish     Constitution— an    Inde- 
pendent View,  724-729 
Versailles,  The  Fountains  of,  488-494 

WAGES  Boards  and  sweated  home- 
workers,  748-762 
War,  Use  of  aeroplanes  in,  783-785 


YEO 

Ward  (Mrs.  Humphry),  The  Women's 
Anti- Suffrage  Movement,  343-352; 
a  Reply,  495-506 

Water-colour  amateurs  in  the  Vic- 
torian era,  1011-1017 

Waterways  of  Lombardy,  Shake- 
speare's knowledge  of  the,  215-232 

Wedmore  (Frederick),  The  Poet  in 
'  High  Alps,'  665-671 

Welldon  (Bishop),  The  Bible  and  the 
Church,  955-975 

White  (Sir  William  H.),  The  Two- 
Power  Standard  for  the  Navy, 
885-907 

Whittaker  (Sir  Thomas),  A  Minimum 
Wage  for  Home  Workers,  507-524 

Willson  (Beckles),  Some  Unpublished 
Letters  of  General  Wolfe,  400-420 

Wolfe,  General,  Some  Unpublished 
Letters  of,  400-420 

Woman  Suffrage,  A  Tory  Plea  for, 
1025-1029 

Women  and  the  Suffrage,  64-73 

Women  and  the  Suffrage :  a  Reply  to 
Lady  Lovat  and  Mrs.  Humphry 
Ward,  495-506 

Women  home-workers  and  the  pre- 
vention of  sweating,  748-762 

Women,  The  Representation  of,  1018- 
1029 

Women's  Anti- Suffrage  Movement, 
The,  343-352 

Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  and  the  Spy, 
300-310 

Work  for  the  workless,  How  to  provide, 
331-342 

Work  -  shirkers  and  work  -  seekers, 
Swiss  methods  of  dealing  with,  763- 
776 

Wright's  (Mr.  Wilbur)  dynamic  flying 
machine,  777-785 

TTEOMANS     (Elizabeth     B.),    The 
JL     Fountains  of  Versailles,  488-494 


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