SOME DANTEAN NEW YEAR'S POLITICAL WARNINGS. [To •THE EOrrOrL or

THE " SPECTLTOR.") SIR,—As a constant reader of the Spectator for nearly forty years, I have often during that period wished to give expression to an inward complacency of mine to the effect that we, your readers, were somehow or other a class apart; a kind of "chosen people "; all of us like the Ancient Greeks, philosophers in our way—in a word, Intellectual Aristocrats; and I particularly loved to figure ourselves as persons whose opinions on Politics, diverse as they might be, were the result of calm reflection, and not of mere Party, shibboleths; of " reasoned conviction " as Lord Morley used to call it; and that we were the slaves neither of Custom, Authority, Routine, nor Family Tradition.

Now this intellectual attitude, which I liked to feel was the bond of your readers, has, I venture to think, (and especially since the War) been heightened by the spirit of initiative, which the Spectator has taken; inasmuch as it has not waited, cap-in-hand, for the imprimatur of Parliament, or its routine in-and-out Ministries, but has boldly seized the initiative itself on all questions of the day as they arose; and has given us a provisional scheme of its own, to break our wits upon in advance; for which,

I trust, many of your readers besides myself, must hare felt abundantly grateful.

What then is the object of this letter? It is to take advantage of the New Year's usual call for calm reflection on the larger issues of the Past and the Future; and to suggest to your readers' consideration, a few points bearing on the wider problems of the War. For this purpose, I have dipped into the old rag-bag of my books, written years ago, to see how far any of their points, unnoticed at the time, will now stand the strain. If you will allow their introduction to your readers, I will promise to be as brief, if not as terse, as Tacitus himself.

The first larger proposition which I should like your readers to consider with me is what I have elsewhere called :—" The primal curse of mixing tribes or nations antagonistic in Race, Colour, or Creed, on the same area of political soil "—a proposition to which at the time I could only think of two men who would have given me a general all-round assent—the late Lord Cromer and Sir Francis Younghusband—each from his large historical knowledge, punctuated by his special experience as an administrator working for years in regions whore these unhallowed mixtures abound. What, then, were my examples?

(1) The mixing of the Negroes with the Whites in America— with the Negro vote (given under the dream of Absolute Equality) but having to be withdrawn at last by jugglery and political fraud. And with result of it all, what? In Morals—the raping of White women by Blacks; and in Law—lynching, and sometimes even the stake.

(2) The mixing of Catholics and Protestants in Ireland—a deadly antagonism, with the impossibility of any reconciliation or Political union except under the shadow of the Sword—while all the rest of the Anglo-Saxon world is free.

(3) The mixing of the Jews everywhere on the Continent—some persecuted; the rest of the Ghetto; by their stiff-necked clinging to their religion, bereaved of all but hope; waiting by the waters of Babylon in eternal patience, without a Promised Land or a home.

(4) But worse than all,—tho mixing and confounding of all these antagonisms alike, Racial and Religious—in the Balkans—not only the immediate occasion of the War, but, with the Germans in the background as conspirators, the means at hand of pushing it on for Germany's ultimate ends.

The above are remote and historical; and their effects, except by shooting whole nations in platoons, as irreversible as Fate. The pity of it all!

But what shall we say of those who with these warnings before them, seeing but not perceiving, and hearing but not under- standing—would do the same thing again to-morrow; and would mix you antagonistic Races with the same insouciance and light- hearted complacency, as they would the ingredients of a pudding; imagining it would improve not only the flavour, but the consistency and political digestibility of the mass! It seems incredible; but here are two examples for our warning within the last decade or so—both of which might well fill us with despair.

(1) The first was the hope, indeed the conviction, of all the Western nations, and of all their Political Parties, that the Proclamation of the " Young Turks " to give their subject races a " Constitution," would bring in a millennium in the Balkan East, —not by the mere good will expressed, but by that blessed word, " Constitution," which was thrown over them all alike, as a shining canoe'', with the legend, " Political Justice " white- painted on it; by means of whose magic efficacy, these wolves and lambs, cats and dogs, hawks and pigeons, would, as in a Barnum's " Happy Family," all lie down for the future peaceably together But as Hans Breitmann would say :—Where is that Constitution now? Or where, indeed, was it long before tho War, with these mixed and rival races, still spitting in each other's faces in the streets, as they passed?—" Constitution " and all !

(2) But worse than this, and in spite of all the lessons of History, was the proposal to import Asiatics into the Transvaal after the Boor War. This proposition was opposed by the Pontiffs of Abstract Political Equality—on what ground, thinks the reader? That they were not to be allowed, as even the Negroes in America were, to have full Civic Equality; the Ballot-box and its collaterals; and (horror of horrors!) the promiscuous Inter- marriage of this mingled herd of Chinese, Japanese, Whites and Blacks,—even if in the ensuing ages the landscape were piled up from earth to sky with their half-breeds;—with Mr. Wells beating the big drum, since then (in his Modern Utopia,) in behalf of this gentle persuader to harmony and peace!

Now, what shall we do with these Utopian Mixers of Races, should they again raise their heads after -the War? Something

Dantean, I fear Personally, I am a harmless, easygoing

individual, but politically—well, I would relegate them to one of the lower regions of the " Inferno "; as the appropriate companions of those whom Dante kept under the pitch and mud, with demons armed with forks prodding them down again as they arose!

And as for those who appeal to " Eternal Justice " in this cause,—I should put them, for their impiety in attempting to superintend Providence, in the samo circle, but upside down; with their body and legs free, in token of their well-meaning and high aspirations; but with their heads under, to prevent them from ever using again their tongues and pens in that cause!

My mond warning would be to those who in any land, should

weer mention again that thrice .accursed word—Laissez-faire—from devoticn to which not all the objurgations of Carlyle have been able to move them a jot for fifty rears; but whom the War has not- only awakened from- their dream, but after striking into silence, has extinguished. They are already in the Inferno—a melancholy gang, moving in slow funereal procession, pale, and as if in despair, and with their heads hooded. There they are, mming along, carrying their bankrupt doctrines hidden under their cloaks,—their " Do Nothing," " Let all drift,"—in the sight of the " Slackers," the " Not good form to be keen-ers," and all the other dead dogs and cats the war has thrown into the stream —all jostling along; with the followers of John Bright in the rear carrying in their pockets teat tubes to guard against poison; ander the blessed text of their master, "Let the buyer beware " for " Adulteration is only another form of Competition! "—and all attended by the wails of the herds who in their devotion have been poisoned by this paralysing Political drug. But as the War has already destroyed them as completely as the English Administration in India did Thungee—what can we do with them but, with Dante, hasten on, and avert our eyes as we pass; in the hope that they will leave no progeny !—I am, Sir, &c.,