THE QUARTERLIES.
" PHs Home Rule Issue " is the subject of a closely reasoned editorial article in the Edinburgh. Its first part consists in a careful analysis of the Bill, and a comparison of its ostensible objects with its probable effects. Alike from the political and the financial points of view, Mr. Harold Cox believes the Bill to be a bad one, and he thinks this due to the fact that it is an attempt at a compromise between two incompatible ideals. The Government have been unable to make up their mind whether to give Ireland a form of colonial self-government or to make her a part of a wider federal system. " Like a drunken man who lurches first to one side of the pavement and then to the other, the Bill leans first to the side of complete self-government for the Irish people and then to the side of strict subordination to a British Parlia- ment. Such a Bill settles nothing ; instead it creates a hundred or more new grounds for quarrel between the two countries. It carries out not one of the objects which Liberals and Nationalists profess to have in view ; it can only lead to bitter disappointment and fresh agitation." Mr. Cox next proceeds to argue that, even if the Bill were likely to achieve its professed objects, there remain twe conclusive reasons why it should not become law, namely,
the opposition of Ulster and the lack of authority from Great Britain. He concludes by urging a Referendum upon the measure as being the only really satisfactory solution of the issue.—The subject of the Referendum is treated at greater length in an unsigned article which deals with " The Problem of Democracy and the Swiss Solution." This very interesting paper sets out to show that Swiss political institutions fulfil far better than those of England the two fundamental requirements of democracy, namely, " the frank and sure expression of the people's will, and the smooth working and stability of government." The writer describes in some detail the structure and functions of the Swiss Federal Government, of which the Referendum is an essential feature, and gives a most favourable picture of the effects which the Constitution has had both upon political life and upon the wider life of the nation.
Whereas, before 1848, says the writer, Switzerland was in serious danger of disintegration, "it is by the application of free and direct democracy to her Government, combined with that just recognition of and consideration for local character and opinion which the Cantonal system implies, that Switzerland has been able to overcome difficulties and racial differences, which in other countries have proved insuperable obstacles to unity."—An entertaining account is given by Mr. Gosse of the circumstances in which the French Academy originated early in the seventeenth century owing to the efforts of Valentin Conrart. The publication of the article coincides agreeably with the announcement of the author's appointment to the Legion of Honour.—Of the remaining articles we can only find space to mention a, discussion by Dr Holland Rose of the campaign which ended at Leipzic in 1813, and a plea by Mr. Heathcote Statham for a less narrow attitude towards architecture in London.
In the Quarterly an unsigned article deals at some length
with "The Two Land Campaigns." After discussing the nature of the evils from which agriculture is suffering in Great Britain to-day, the writer considers in turn the solutions put forward by the two chief political parties. With regard to the Radical proposals, he points out that by them "the land question will be primarily approached from the social and political standpoint, and only secondarily from that of agriculture " ; while of the demand for a minimum wage, which is perhaps the main feature of these proposals, he writes that " friction, suspicion, and discontent, together with a considerable displacement of labour, and some deterioration in its conditions, will inevitably follow in the train of an attempt to fix wages by Act of Parliament and official inter- ference." On the other hand, " the first point in the Unionist policy" must be " the restoration of confidence. The party is already pledged to oppose any further increase iu the fiscal burdens on land. But complete confidence can only be re-esta- blished by the definite assertion of principles. It would only increase the alarm if Unionists, in the vain hope of outbidding
their opponents in indefinite promises, break up the unity of the party by coquetting with the Socialistic tendencies of the
day." The article concludes by indicating the lines upon which the Unionist policy should be framed.—In the course of an interesting paper upon "Indian Progress and Taxation," Lord Cromer draws attention to the fact that "the fiscal system of India must of necessity be based not only upon light but upon very light taxation," owing to the extreme poverty of the population. He proceeds :—
"Demands for increased expenditure on sanitation, education, and other matters are cropping up on all sides. It may well be that the representatives of Indian opinion, whose claims to be regarded as representatives, it may be incidentally remarked, are not of any very assured validity, may lend a too-ready ear to these demands, and forget that there may be even worse evils than the continuance for a while of insanitary conditions and ignorance or illiteraoy. There never was a time, therefore, when it behoved both the Government of India and the Secretary of. State to offer a more resolute opposition to reforms, however laudable in themselves, if those reforms would involve increasing the burthen of taxation on the poverty-stricken masses of India."
—Mr. Ezra Pound contributes an article on " Troubadours, their Sorts and Conditions," which he illustrates with some charming quotations from mediaeval verse. He is anxious to show that humanity was much the same then as it is now, and "to suggest to the casual reader that the Middle
Ages did not exist in tapestry alone, nor in the fourteenth; century romances, but that there was a life like our own, no mere sequence of citherns and citoles, nor a continuou& stalking about in sendal and diaspre. Men were pressed for money. There was unspeakable boredom in the castles. The chivalric singing was devised to lighten the boredom ; and this very singing became itself in due time, in the manner of all things, an ennui."—We must not omit to mention, finally, a very interesting study on "Profit-Sharing," by Pro- fessor W. J. Ashley.
Previous page
