THE ENGLISH: A GOSSIP.*

Goon gossip is a delightful thing, and Mr. Fox's book of light studies of the English from 1909-1922 is distinctly good gossip. He seizes on our sympathies at once by his very attractive opening. For a man of his imagination, and quick and generous affection for the Mother Country, his first glimpse of England was so absolutely appropriate that, if one did not know Mr. Fox and his habit of doing the right thing and running the right chances, one would say that his first peep at England was a clever fake. He landed at Liverpool in May, 1909, and, like other travellers, was rushed up to Ruston by an express in the dark, and so saw nothing of rural England. He wanted to drive from Euston to the Savage Club, but he fortunately happened upon a hansom cabdriver who was expert in artistic-and sensational arrivals.: Accordingly he was driven to Westminster Bridge and then along the Embankment to the Savage Club. Thus Mr. Fox

• The English, 19W-1922: a Gossip. By Frank Fos. Loudon: Jaw Murray. (Os. net]

saw London first, like Wordsworth in his sonnet from West- minster Bridge—London lying with all her ghosts open to the moonlight. He could see the dome of St. Paul's and the Nelson Column in front of him, and behind him were the Houses of Parliament and the stately avenue of the river. No wonder that he calls the cabman splendidly dishonest !

And now came his first and most dramatic daylight sight of England. He was at once carried off on a week-end visit to Oxford and All Souls, his host being Mr. Amery, the present First Lord of the Admiralty. One may imagine what he felt on his journey to Oxford on a fine May day. The rest shall be given in Mr. Fox's own words :

"I wonder to how many people who have spent all their lives in a new country there comes the strange good fortune to have their first dinner in England with the Fellows of All Souls ? It was for me an occasion of reverent delight. I sat between Mr. Amery and Sir John Simon, two typical young leaders of different schools of English thought. Both talked, it seemed, for the special benefit of the stranger and in an hour I seemed to know a very great deal of English public life. Sir John Simon was very engaging in con- versation, a lambent play of humour and fun in all his talk. I think it was owing to Mr. Amery that somehow I contrived not to go wrong on any point of ritual and marched out in the proper manner to dessert. He was a most charming host and made it a business afterwards to introduce me to many aspects of English life. He was so pleasant that it was grateful to find afterwards that he was such a stalwart in public life—one of the few men on their way to the Front Bench who was, for example, not afraid to pledge himself to National Service."

"The impression formed that night at Oxford of the young men of England was not afterwards effaced—of a race earnest, seriously- intentioned but with an abounding sense of humour. The ' dude ' I have rarely encountered on his home soil and I have almost come to the conclusion that that type is raised in England mainly for the export market. Certainly many specimens find their way to the Dominions and give rise to the impression sometimes that the average rich young man of England is an exquisitely-accoutred ass, who, separated from his clothes, would lose claim to notice. I found the average young man of England a very earnest and serious worker who makes real sacrifices of personal comfort to serve the public interest in some direction—sacrifices that certainly would not be made by the average young Colonial in the same circum- stances. At All Souls, dinner with its quaint ceremonial, and the talk afterwards, lasted until midnight, and then my host took me out to see Oxford by moonlight. The first day in England ended in that atmosphere of enchantment."

"Several times since that first evening at All Souls I have visited Oxford, generally as a guest ; once to lecture to certain dons and undergraduates on Australian social conditions ; once as a repre- sentative of London in a fencing team to discover that with the epee sword Oxford was not supreme. But I have never (happily) got to anything approaching a pert familiarity with that shrine of noble dreams and tranquil aspirations. I own that I feel it difficult to write of Oxford at all, though (perhaps unfortunately) I am able to write with facility of many things. There is something of rebuke towards shallow generalisations and easy judgments in the atmosphere of the place—an atmosphere of the Round Table. Perhaps others have felt the same awe. There is astonishingly little in the poetic literature of England about Oxford, seeing that so many poets have lived and studied there. Since Oxford is typical of the best of English life, it is fitting that it should be a place of very sweet and dignified gardens. There is a grandeur and an elegant simplicity in Oxford gardens ; and the Oxford trees are surely the finest in all the world. I like to recall that it was in a measure built around trees. Did not William of Waynilete com- mand that Magdalen be built against an oak that fell a hundred years before, aged six -hundred years; • and Sir Thomas Whiteway learn in a dream to build a college where there was a 'triple elm tree' "

Could there be a better or more delightful lightning descrip- tion of Oxford or a better conceived linking of Oxford with the life of England ?

The keen edge of the Oxford episodes allows us little further room for comment or quotation. Mr. Fox writes a notable chapter on English Journalism. In it he says many pleasant and sympathetic things about our journalism in general and the Spectator in particular. Ills picture of Lord Northcliffe is sympathetic, if not quite adequate or fully rounded ; but in the course of this study he says a very true thing. "He was very sentimental, and therefore could be cruel, but did not like to see the sufferings of those to whom he had to be cruel." Mr. Fox sent some articles to the Daily Mail which the editorial staff did not like, though Lord Northcliffe had asked for them. Here the great Napoleon of Journalism showed that curious indecision in matters in which he was not competent to judge and knew he was not competent, which was one of his characteristics. Finally he decided to chance it and publish the articles.

Mr. Fox continues as follows :—

"That week the Spectator said something very appreciative of my impressions of England. Lord Northcliffe sent me a triumphant (Continued on next page.) letter. We were right,' he said. 'If the Spectator thinks a thing

is good, it is good in the eyes of the best class of Englishmen."

It was a subject on which naturally we think Lord North- cliffe was frilly competent à express an opinion, though it may sound egotistical to say' So in this context. Lord Northcliffe, as he would have probably admitted himself, was no judge of literature and had no criterion in regard to it or any ihrm of serious journalism. He was, however, an extremely successful judge of the methods of publicity. As the words we have just quoted show, he made no attempt whatever to decide whether a thing was good in the abstract. He praised the Spectator not because it knew a good thing, but because it had a knack of knowing what would seem good in the eyes of a certain class of Englishmen. He would, no doubt, have said in the same way that, if the Daily Mail thought a thing good, it would be good in the eyes of that immense- public which may be called the "middle cut" in all classes and divisions of our society.

We will end our review of this Interesting book by quoting from an account of a conversation between the author and Lord Robert Cecil. Mr. Fox asked Lord Robert what were "his first promptings in polities "—meaning theroby to ask whether there was any public man, or any speech, or any book which first set his thoughts on Parliament and Govern- ment. Lord Robert could not recall any first prompting, and then he continued :—

" I seem to have been always interested in public life; • yes, as a boy even. . It came as the natural thing, I suppose. Nor can I remember any particular personage in the public life of the past whose speeches Or 'acts shaped my course towards politics. The younger Pitt perhaps. His ideas were very attractive. Castlereagh, too. Yes, of course, the early Cecils the Elizabethan and the Jacobean Cecils—two very different characters really, though their careers seem much alike. And .I think, on the whole, I am more sympathetic to the Lord Burlcigh of Elizabeth's time than to the Robert Cecil of James's time. I am attracted to what I consider was the keynote of Burleigh's policy—to avoid internal dissensions and to make England a really united nation."

The last sentence is an admirable summary of what ought to be the Unionist policy—the avoidance of internal dissensions

and the making of England a really united nation.

J. ST. LOE STRA CHEY.