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Mr. JOHN LANE'S NEW BOOKS

WITH THE RUSSIANS IN MONGOLIA

By H. G. C. PERRY AYSCOUGH and R. B. OTTER-BARRY

With an Introduction by Sir CLAUDE MACDONALD, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., etc. With 50 Illustrations from Photographs and a Map. Demy 8vo. 16s. net.

GLOBE." This study of Russian policy in Mongolia cannot be neglected by anyone who desires to understand the problems of the Far East."

ON THE LEFT

LEFT OF
OF A THRONE: A PERSONAL

STUDY OF JAMES, DUKE OF MONMOUTH By Mrs. EVAN NEPEAN
With 36 Illustrations, the majority from Portraits of the Period never before reproduced.
Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.
[Ready Feb. 24

THE TOWER OF THE MIRRORS, and Other Essays

Upon the Genius of Places By VERNON lee

Author of "The Enchanted Woods," "The Spirit of Rome," etc. Crown 8vo.
3s. 6d. net.
[Ready Feb. 24

A NEW VOLUME OF POEMS

THE LONELY DANCER BY RICHARD LE GALLIENNE

Crown 8vo. 5s. net.

Mr. JAMES DOUGLAS in the STAR.—"Mr. Le Gallienne in this volume is master of many moods, his love of lovely words is a delight, and we all ought to be grateful to a troubadour so gallant for singing so passionately outside our prison walls.''

FOOD AND FLAVOUR

A Gastronomic Guide to Health and Good Living By HENRY T. FINCK
With numerous Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 6s. net.

FACTS OF SOCIALISM BY JESSIE WALLace hughan

Author of "American Socialism of the Present Day" Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW By G. K. CHESTERTON

A NEW EDITION. Bound in Cloth. Is. net.

THREE IMPORTANT NAPOLEONIC STUDIES

NAPOLEON AT BAY, 1814 By F. LOraine petre
Author of "Napoleon's Last Campaign in Germany," etc.

With Maps and Plans. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.

GLOBE." A wonderful story. . . . A serious study of a great masterpiece in the art of war."

THE LOVE AFFAIRS OF NAPOLEON

By JOSEPH TURQUAN

Translated from the French by J. LEWIS MAY. A New Edition. With 8 Illustrations.
Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net.

[Ready shortly

THE COMIC KINGDOM By RUDOLF PICKTHALL

With 16 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net.

PALL MALL GAZETTE.-"A pleasant and informing little book about Elba and its King."

SIX-SHILLING NOVELS

THE PURPLE MISTS (Fifth Edition) By F. E. MILLS YOUNG

SUNDAY TIMES-"Miss Mills Young has never written a more powerful story."
THE STRONG HEART By A. R. GORING THOMAS

[Ready Feb. 24

A new novel by the author of "Wayward Feet," containing many brilliant studies of character.
GARDEN OATS (Second Edition) By ALICE HERBERT
OBSERVER." This delightful story. Mrs. Herbert has achieved another brilliant success."

THE IRON YEAR By walter blOEM Translated by STELLA BLOCH
SUNDAY TIMES.-" A tense and compelling story."

SOMEBODY'S LUGGAGE By F. J. RANDALL, Author of "Love and the Ironmonger," etc.
A delightfully farcical story of mistaken identity caused by a familiar type of tin box.

GREAT DAYS By FRANK HARRIS, Author of "Unpath'd Waters," etc.

DAILY NEWS.-" Certainly not since Stevenson have we had a story so full of the fun of adventure."

WHEN WILLIAM CAME By H. H. MUNRO (SAKI)

Author of "The Unbearable Bassington," etc.

TIMES.-" A remarkable tour de force is worked out with great cleverness. Remarkably clever satire."

THE HAT SHOP By Mrs. C. S. PEEL

PALL MALL GAZETTE.-"Mrs. Peel is sincerely to be congratulated on her vivid picture."

SIMPLE SIMON By A. neil Lyons

Author of "Arthur's," etc. With Illustrations by G. E. PETO

MORNING POST.—" Genius. We use this dangerous word without apology of the most incisive of contemporary writers.

THE IRRESISTIBLE INTRUDER By William cainE

Author of "Hoffman's Chance," etc.

ACADEMY.-"Mr. Caine has achieved the impossible. . . . the love story is one of the tenderest and best since 'Lorna Doone.'
BEHIND THE BEYOND By STEPHEN LEACOCK

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Author of Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town," "Nonsense Novels," etc. With Illustrations by A. H. FISH. 3s. 6d. net.

PUNCH.-"I can see 'Behind the Beyond' breaking up many homes, for no family will be able to stand the sharp, short yelps of laughter which must infallibly punctuate the decent after-dinner silence when one of its members gets hold of the book."

JOHN LANE,

THE BODLEY HEAD.

LONDON & NEW YORK

Printed for the NEW OUTLOOK Co., LTD., by SrOTTISWOODE & Co. LTD., New-street Square, London, E.C., and Published at 167 Strand, London, W.C., every Saturday Morning. Sole Wholesale Agents for Australia. New Zealand, and South Africa (Central News Agency): Gordon & Gotch, London, Melbourne Sydney, Brisbane, Perth (W.A.) and Cape Town.-Saturday, February 21, 1914

The Outlook

A WEEKLY REVIEW OF POLITICS, ART, LITERATURE, AND FINANCE,

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EITH must convince even Mr. Asquith that the Home Rule Bill must pass the test of a General Election. We are tired of quoting his own dictum to the effect that no Act of constitutional importance should be passed

283 FIRST GLANCE AT NEW BOOKS

time for such protracted sittings. But we shall not accept the statement of the Daily News as anything more than a pious assumption. Lord Lansdowne is not one to rush blindly into an untenable position. Whether there be abstainers or not, no difficulty will be experienced in forming judicial tribunal which will defy fair criticism.

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when there was evidence that electoral confidence in the Government was waning. We are still more tired of the IF Radicals and their newspapers had any sense of hypocritical defence that every Socialist vote given against humour, they would realise that they are giving themselves the Ministerial candidate is a vote in favour of Ministerial and Lord Murray away by all this malevolent fury at the policy. Such an argument is claptrap. These three-cornered peers' motion. Lord Murray himself volunteered his willcontests are not undertaken by the Labour Party with the ingness to "clean up" the whole affair. If the wish was hope of winning the seats but with the set purpose of defeat- sincere, he should welcome the opportunity of demonstrating ing the Radicals, and, as we point out elsewhere, it is per- the purity of his motives and the insignificance of his want missible to assume that in a straight fight the majority of of judgment. In the same spirit the Cadbury and Mond these votes would be given to the Opposition. Let us Press should be grateful to the House of Lords for providing compare the present polling with the figures of the last an occasion for the last of the immaculate triumvirate to triangular election, that of January 1910. The Labour vote emerge from the ordeal as spotless as they profess to believe has increased by only 622; the Ministerial vote has decreased him. As for pretending that everything connected with the by 1,987; the Unionist vote has increased by 619. More- Marconi business has been "cleaned up," that is all flapover there appears to have been some seven hundred absten- doodle. Lords Ampthill and Lansdowne have struck terror tions. How these votes would have been given it is into the very marrow of the Coalition. A House of Lords. impossible to say, but it is fair to assume that there was a Committee will be such a vastly different thing from that proportion of good Radicals who declined to assist the candi-"select" body which was dominated by a Booth, a Faldate chosen for them. By no sort of juggling can this loss coner, and a Willie Redmond. Members will not be of a seat, true to Radicalism since the Reform Act, be entrusted with guilty secrets and with briefs to head witregarded as anything but an irreparable rebuff to the Coalition nesses off dangerous ground. There will be no packed and all it stands for. majority to browbeat the chairman and rule out any evidence that does not tell in favour of the defendants. A just and impartial hearing is the last thing that Radicalism has any use for.

THE decision to appoint a Select Committee of peers to investigate Lord Murray's case is still causing great perturbation in Radical circles, and the general uneasiness is reflected in the Ministerial Press. The Daily News, for example, maintains a brave air of discovering a "Tory plot" in every development, a device which should not deccive even its own readers. The latest discovery is that certain noble earls, "of the highest distinction, and held in esteem by both parties," have expressed their repugnance to the inquiry by refusing to serve on the Committee. We wonder if these highly distinguished and esteemed peers confided this sentiment to "P. W. W.," or how the Daily News chances to be their confidant. It is no more reasonable to suppose that Lord Lansdowne can command the time of every Unionist member of the House of Lords than that the Government could have chosen any member of the Coalition for the House of Commons Committee. It is not everyone who is able or self-sacrificing enough to spare the

FOR a doomed Chamber the House of Lords is showing quite amazing vitality, and it may justly be asserted that its debates have rarely reached a higher level of interest than during the present Session. The debate on politics in rural districts, which took place on Tuesday, was a case in point, for the Unionist speeches made on that occasion constituted the best defence of the English landlord and the most effective attack upon his impudent traducers that have yet been made. Lord Willoughby de Broke's speech was excellent, and made amusing play with the Marquess of Lincolnshire and his shooting tenants. The marquess does not preserve; and it may of course be presumed that there is nothing worth. mentioning to shoot. As the speaker said, his talk of tenants playing where they like, shooting where they like, and voting as they like, is simply cant. Lord Lucas, asked to

produce cases of political persecution, mentioned a few more or less dubious instances, and admitted that they were the rare, the very rare, exception to the general rule. But, as Lord Lansdowne rightly pointed out, Mr. George does not quote such cases as being rare, but intentionally implies that every landlord resorts to such methods; while the obvious meaning of the more violent passages of the Chancellor's land-bursting speeches is that every tenant or labourer lives in daily fear that he will be the object of a political or religious persecution conducted by his landlord.

THE debate on National Insurance, initiated by Mr. Hamilton's motion for an impartial inquiry into the working of the Act, exposed once again the multitudinous weaknesses and injustice of the measure. Not only oppressive upon worker and employer alike, entirely illusory as regards its monstrous promises, and insolent in its method of administration, the Act is now seen to be thoroughly unsound actuarially, and likely to bring to ruin a vast number of societies built up by the voluntary thrift of the people. Mr. George's defence of his scheme was even feebler than usual; the inevitable vituperation in which he indulged was spiritless; and even he was forced to admit that an inquiry would be necessary sooner or later, but intimated that the later it took place the better-presumably for him and his political friends. Particularly weak were his references to the employers' contributions, especially in view of the fact that a large number of the biggest employers in the North, men of his own party, are strongly opposed to the measure, declaring that it penalises a firm for being a large employer of labour, and is in reality a tax upon industry that hits hardest the very people whom, according to its advocates, it was devised to benefit.

As for the cheap ridicule which Mr. George attempted to throw upon the practicability of an alternative scheme upon a voluntary basis, all that he displayed thereby was his own invincible ignorance of the whole subject. Had he gone to Denmark instead of Germany for inspiration he would have found a very network of voluntary State-aided insurance covering the whole industrial life of the country. As with his land proposals, when he avoids all reference to the successful Continental experience of the peasant-proprietor, so in his Insurance Act he avoids all that could lead him to right conclusions. His whole attitude is that of a Socialist agitator, who would introduce slavery in the name of freedom. His peasants are first to be ticketed with the insurance badge of their class, and are then to be rack-rented by the State or a local council. It is to be hoped that Mr. Bonar Law's renewed assurance that he is in favour of a voluntary system, if it can be established upon a practicable basis, will be made known to the electors of every constituency throughout the country.

MR. HARCOURT's speech on Tuesday, in which he defended his censure of Mr. Corfield, was perhaps the most perfect indictment of the Government's policy in Somaliland that could possibly have been formulated.

We are

not concerned with Mr. Harcourt's opinion of Mr. Corfield, believing as we do that censure was the highest honour he had in his power to bestow. But we are concerned with the degradation to which he and his colleagues in the misgovernment of the Empire have submitted British prestige throughout the world. The betrayal of the Somali friendlies is one of a number of infamies; and, as one speaker rightly put it, in disobeying orders that should never have been given Mr. Corfield was, in the truest sense, defending the honour of his country. As Mr. Baird said in his criticism Mr. Harcourt was guilty, not of an error of judgment, but an error of instinct; and we have a right to expect that the Colonial Secretary should display the instinct of an Englishman. He might have added, "of a gentleman of any nationality." Unfortunately, though we have a right, it is obvious we have no reason to expect anything of the

kind.

MR. LLOYD GEORGE has actually made an apology, and withdrawn a statement "in the most unqualified manner." I he recipient of this unique favour is the member of the Chancellor's Glasgow audience who was accused of having obtained admission by means of a forged ticket, and was violently ejected for asking "What about Marconis?" Mr. George's excuse for his spiteful suggestion is that the observation, so obviously intended to be personally offensive, "could not have emanated from one who was at the time enjoying the hospitality of the Liberal Association." No, it is seldom that his packed meetings are disturbed by hostile interruptions: the Liberal Association sees to it that the only punctuations are "Cheers" and "Laughter." We do not know if the prospect of litigation constrained Mr. George to break his rule, but it is useful to know that a solicitor's letter did on this occasion produce an apology.

THE debate on the traffic in honours, which occupied the House of Lords on Monday, was the occasion of many good speeches and should do something to check the laxity that admittedly prevails. Probably the truth will be found to lie somewhere between the witty cynicism of Lord Ribblesdale and the austere gravity of Lord Milner. It is obvious of course that honours should not be made the merchandise of a caucus; on the other hand contributions to Parliamentary funds cannot be made a disqualification. Hereditary dignities need wealth if they are to be maintained adequately; hence of course wealth must not debar; but it is easy to discriminate. Honours are for those who have deserved well of their country, and a great captain of modern industry may be as justly honoured as was a great captain of war in the days when the military caste was supreme. When however it is noted that honours are being granted where all just qualifications are to seek, it is natural that the public should become uneasy; and this uneasiness the debate on Monday last, and the acceptance by all parties of the general principles laid down, should do something to allay.

THE landing of the Deported Nine was a very tame affair after all, in spite of the heroics of the official Labour leaders and the tempestuous bellowings of militant Socialism. Instead of landing to the sound of trumpets, the misguided deportees at first seemed reluctant to leave the ship, upon which they declared they had been illegally placed and upon which they were determined to remain. This decision they explained over the side of the ship to the amazed deputation that had gone out in boats to greet them. But on Mr. Henderson explaining that all the Labour world was agog, and that banquets, entertainments, and even mass meetings had all been arranged, the dejected agitators cheered up and decided to come ashore, which they did. Possibly these heroes of the moment were desperate fellows in South Africa, but after reading the descriptions of the landing, and seeing their portraits in the halfpenny papers, we cannot help thinking that less heroic measures than an alleged illegal deportation might have sufficed for their effectual suppression. Happily however their arrival must prove embarrassing to the "Good" and other Samaritans of the present Government; hence we have no reason to complain that General Botha had the happy idea of sending them where they could do most injury to our pro-Boer Government. It is clearly a case of poetic justice, tempered by ingratitude.

THE events of the week may certainly be said to centre round the brilliantly characteristic success of the United States in developing its policy of utter lawlessness in the Republic .which has the misfortune to be its neighbour. President Woodrow Wilson can now congratulate himself that his generous gifts of the supplies of United States arms factories to the bandit generals of the Mexican insurrection have not fallen into idle or unappreciative hands. It may be reasonably said that the odds are a hundred to one that the weapons which murdered Mr. Benton came across the American border. If any semi-robber State of Central Asia were to pass caravans of arms and ammunition to tribes

of marauders within the English or the Russian frontiers, we know that the semi-robber State would be extinct a short time after. But the United States of North America can furnish with weapons all the murderers in Mexico, and can continue to claim the right to extend the Arcadian shelter of the Monroe doctrine over the Western Hemisphere.

EVEN the epidemic of illness which has troubled French garrisons during the late inclement weather has been utilised by the anti-militarist Republicans for the exercise of their detestable hostility to their country's power and welfare. The motions introduced by the Socialist and Radical Parties in the French Chamber during the week, with the professed object of protecting the health of the troops, were really worked in a way to assist the prejudice against military service by reckless exaggeration of the hardships of a soldier's life. It is the fact that a great many of the barracks in France are far from reaching sanitary perfection. A Radical majority in the Parliament has however often preferred to squander on other matters funds which ought to have been applied to the national defence. The very overcrowding in the barracks, produced by the return to the Three Years' System, was really due to the Radical diminution of the Army requiring sudden measures to restore its strength in face of the dangerous situation on the German frontier.

THE Uniate rite is a concession to Oriental Catholics who prefer the Eastern Liturgy to the Roman, while acknowledging the primacy of the Pope. A large body of Uniates in Hungary belong to the Roumanian nationality, and the Magyar Government has endeavoured to break their national position by forcibly absorbing Roumanian congregations into dioceses governed by Magyar bishops. In this way twelve thousand Roumanians were forced last year under the Magyar Bishop Miklossy at Debreczin. Though there is no religious persecution in the strict sense, there is racial persecution of the worst kind in this policy. The anti-Austrian Roumanians outside of Hungary now find sympathisers among the oppressed Uniates; and, though the Úniates themselves are a law-abiding folk, their prolonged ill-treatment by the Magyars exposes them to the temptation of Russophil revolutionists, who promise them liberation and offer them vengeance. It must be admitted with regret that Magyar rule over Croats and Roumanians is quite as brutal as Prussian despotism in Posen.

If the Magyars were not the most obstinate of offenders in their racial fanaticism, they might be warned of the failure, as well as the wickedness, of their action towards their fellow-citizens of different nationality by the entire unsuccess of the Prussian barbarity towards Poles. The Vice-President of the German Reichstag himself, a leader of an important political party, has just admitted, in the BEFORE leaving the subject of France, we should mention Magdeburg Gazette, how it is that the Germans are a grave subject of disquiet which French Colonial policy districts have been under Prussian rule for a century and a diminishing instead of the Poles. "Although the Polish gives the defenders of Australian interests. The con-half, it is Polish nationality that constantly advances in spite dominium between France and England with regard to the of all efforts to promote German colonisation. The Polish New Hebrides is used by the French Colonial authorities in language grows, not only in the country districts, but in the a manner injurious alike to English settlers and to the native population. The lawless class of trader, which abounds in Kaiser's birthday without provoking hostile criticism." The Even the German flag cannot be hoisted on the French colonies in the Pacific, receives support or impunity ultra-Magyars should learn a lesson from the ultra-Germans, in his nefarious business of supplying gunpowder and alcohol to the aborigines, thus fostering tribal wars and bestial intoxication, both being a serious danger to the English settlements.

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or worse disasters will follow.

WHETHER to effect a diversion or to create an additional complication, a Socialist deputy in Italy has added to the variety of the Parliamentary stage by raising the religious question in the acutest form perhaps of which it is susceptible in Catholic countries. Just when popular comGiolitti and the Vatican, it occurred to a leading member of the Socialist Party to announce that, in order to prevent regrettable errors, he would propose a new law securing the priority of celebration of the civil ceremony before the ecclesiastical rite in all marriages for the future. To the surprise of the Socialists and the anger of the Catholic deputies, the Premier promptly arose and announced that, the Government would bring in such a measure themselves.

In connection with the alcohol trade carried on by the French in the New Hebrides it may be remembered that last week we drew attention to the ravages which sellers of strong drink are propagating under the shield of Frenchment was most busy with the alleged alliance between M. citizenship among the Moorish labouring classes in Morocco. Whole streets of alcohol shops have arisen even in holy Fez, where-before French protection-the Moslem Sultanate always maintained sobriety at least. Although the French Government has officially divorced itself from the profession of Christianity, it is Christendom at large which bears the responsibility for these destructive vices throughout the Moslem world.

AT once the harmonious relations between the Giolitti

As we expected would be the case, the districts of Southern Albania, which have been agitated so long by the Cabinet and the Catholic and Moderate groups disappeared Greek propaganda, are now openly proclaiming their inde- with violence. There is nothing to be read in the organs pendence of every form of Albanian rule. The autonomy of the Vatican but the keenest protestations against perseof Epirus is said to be supported by thirty thousand well-cution, and the most emphatic declarations that the Minisarmed insurgents, who received an abundant equipment and terial project is a message of war. The general bulk of ammunition from within the Greek kingdom. When so much of Albania to the northward has been sacrificed by the Concert of Europe to Slav rapacity, it is not extraordinary that a Philhellenic section should expect a similar mutilation of Albania to the south.

THE savage resentment caused by the Magyar oppression of the non-Magyar races in Hungary has been illustrated by a peculiarly horrible dynamite outrage, committed evidently by anti-Magyar partisans against the Magyar Catholic bishop of the Uniate rite in the Hungarian district of Debreczin. The explosion was effected by a package delivered by parcel-post at the episcopal palace, with the result that half a dozen deaths and twice as many wounded are already reported. The Bishop Miklossy, against whom the outrage was especially directed, was almost alone to escape in the household.

Italian popular opinion, traditionally hostile to innovations in domestic life, are generally unfavourable to the alteration. On the other hand, the accusation of persecution is warmly denied by more than mere supporters of the Government, and all the elements of a first-class controversy are in evidence on all sides. Perhaps a brief review of both the hostile positions may be advisable on the brink of such a controversy.

THE problem is a very delicate one. On the traditional side it is pointed out that to force young people to subject themselves to the binding engagements of a purely civil ceremony will expose either of the parties to the danger of a refusal by the other to add any religious rite to a contract already complete in law. The religious party would be the victim of the opponent of religion. Scandals of this sort are already not quite infrequent. To make a new law, which

renders liability to such an affront absolutely compulsory upon the whole country, naturally provokes deep resent

ment.

So much for the view of the party which has always been in favour of religious marriages in Italy. But the adversaries of the traditional view are not without strong arguments, which appeal to some of the orthodox as well. It is pointed out that, under the law as it exists in Italy at present, only the civil ceremony has legal validity; and in a number of cases religious-minded persons, usually women, who have insisted on the priority of the religious rite, which to them is absolutely binding and complete, have been humoured deceitfully by their partners in this belief, with the result that they found themselves morally bound by engagements in which the non-religious partners had no share; the latter carefully avoiding the civil celebration by which they would have been bound by a legal obligation.

A SOCIALIST deputy, professing to be superior to the rivalries of Church and State, has proposed as an amendment a solution which has some of the merit of impartiality: "Place both civil and religious marriages on a basis of absolutely equal rights. Whether the parties be married before the priest or before the Registrar, let the marriage be always binding before the law. In this manner there can be no possibility of invalid ceremonies on any side. A Church marriage equally with a Registry marriage will be recorded by the State." This solution, which works admirably in the Church of England, would of course be accepted by the Italian Church Party; but the advocates of universal and compulsory secularisation will naturally reject a proposal involving no outrage to the rights of anybody. The Giolitti Government has not as yet announced its acceptance of this strangely judicious amendment by a Socialist. It is certain that the conflict is exciting Italy in the most delicate sentiments of family life. It will certainly make Parliamentary proceedings exceptionally animated while the contest lasts.

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stand the strain; for, in the words of the song, “they never would be missed."

If we return to the subject of the Poplar election, which by now is ancient history, it is that we may again point out the evil that results from the intrusion into such elections of third candidates who have no chance of election. Of course, the tremendous lowering of the Radical majority at Poplar was a source of justifiable gratification to Unionists, and proves that the electorate is becoming alive to the iniquity of the present Administration. But we knew that already, and what we really needed was the seat, which the Radicals retain. Virtually the Unionist candidate should have had a majority of four or five hundred. It is obvious that under such circumstances our electoral system breaks down, for it secures the retention of a Government against which a majority of the electorate cast their votes.

LORD CHARLES BERESFORD, in his address to the Portsmouth Unionist Association, complained bitterly of the tactical errors of the Unionist leaders. Particularly did he blame them for not being sufficiently outspoken upon the debasement of public life which the Government has the debasement of public life which the Government has "Look at Wick," he remarked; "we have brought about. got an apology, but the Government have got Wick." Again, dealing with the Marconi scandal, he asserted that the Unionists could have got the Government out over that had they not been so ready to accept apologies. Of course, there is a good deal of truth in what Lord Charles said, especially with regard to the Marconi business, as to which the leaders of the Party might well be amazed at their With regard to Wick however it is difficult to see what own moderation-certainly the rank-and-file were, and are. more could be done than was done, so long as the law of bribery at elections does not take cognisance of false statements and insidious promises. It has always seemed to us that dishonestly to promise voters material advantages is as bad a form of bribery as to pay them five shillings a head honestly and have done with it.

THE paper read before the Surveyors' Institute by Mr. Ars longa, vita brevis. In the case of Sir John Tenniel Christopher Turnor, in which he discussed the conclusions life happily was not so short, and his art will endure for come to by the Liberal Land Inquiry Committee, was full of generations. It is thirteen years since he ended his half-interesting matter and was entirely free from all party bias. century of labour as the Cartoonist-in-Chief to the British nation. Much of his work is vividly remembered to this day. Dropping the Pilot" created almost a European sentiment, and back numbers of Punch in America, as in England, derive their principal value from the pictorial light he threw on contemporary history. But the memorial to him in most homes is Alice. He was to Lewis Carroll's masterpiece all that Phiz was to Pickwick. His Alice was the only Alice we really care about, and a new generation of artists who seek to bring her up to date have the loyalty of fathers and mothers to reckon with. Tenniel introduced a new form of art, and at his best was inimitable.

It was ingenious of Sir Walter Essex to endeavour to make Mr. Asquith indirectly responsible for the safety of members of Parliament who too rashly indulge in the perilous sport of flight. It is said that the members whom Sir Walter particularly desired the Prime Minister to influence were Mr. Churchill, Colonel Seely, and Mr. Balfour. Of course, with regard to the last-named we can understand Sir Walter's solicitude-politics, literature, and philosophy would alike be losers were anything to happen to Mr. Balfour. With regard to Mr. Churchill and Colonel Seely however it really seems that they have a right to please themselves-neither is exactly a national possession. In fact it may be that, when soaring over land and sea-vide the illustrated advertisement of Ministerial flights -they are at their best; at any rate they are out of serious mischief for the time being; and we trust that Mr. Asquith will see their sporting proclivities in this, the right and only light. Even if Mr. George took to looping at Hendon, or Mr. Handel Booth sea-planed to Bogota, our nerves could

While assenting to the conclusion that the wages of the agricultural labourer were too low, Mr. Turnor pointed out that Land Courts would prove a great evil, as they would only exist for the purpose of reducing rents-rents that were already less than could be economically justified. His assertion that low rental, low wages, and low farming go together deserves the closest attention, as it can be supported by hundreds of instances, as can the reverse statement that where rents are highest farming and wages are at their highest.

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PROFESSOR KEITH's lecture at the Royal Institution on An Anthropological Study of Some Portraits of Shakespeare and Burns," in which he claimed Shakespeare as a descendant of the round-headed people who invaded England in the Bronze Age, and Burns as a descendant of the people who lived in England and Scotland during the Neolithic period, was full of the most extraordinary fallacies. It is quite likely, of course, that his main contention was right, for the mixture of races in Great Britain is so complete that we all are probably descended from every ancient people of these islands. To deduce from the shape of the head the quality of genius however is another thing altogether, for it is common knowledge that children of the same parents may inherit some long and some round heads, while their characters may very well vary, so that the long-headed among the younger generation may present the same mentality as that of their round-headed ancestor. It seems to us that Professor Keith was playing with words when he spoke of Burns and Shakespeare being in "direct descent" from this or that people, when the probability is that they both sprang from a common stock of racial hybrids.

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