the Tank Corps; and if the other arms of our fighting forces get
histories as good they will be fortunate. It contains the whole story
of the machine and of those who manned it--invention, manufacture,
organisation, training, use--from the nebulous beginnings in the minds
of the various gentlemen whose claims to paternity are now being
disputed to the last battle of 1918. The information has an air of
final authority: official reports are backed with copious personal
narrative. There is no attempt at fine writing; the book is a long
series of short paragraphs containing essential facts. Yet, when
occasion demands, the authors' terse sentences are far more vivid and
more full of emotion than are the elaborate pages of the professional
battle-painters. This is never more noticeable than in their chapter
on the "Battle of Cambrai," where the fortunes of the whole Tank
experiment were at stake. Nothing is elaborated, yet we see very
vividly the whole panorama of those days of intense surreptitious
preparation, and the final overwhelming advance against the enemy,
whose suspicions had been aroused too late. The authors finally dispose
of the story that the General's last order to his Tanks told them to
"do their damnedest." "That spurious fosterling he hated the more the
more he perceived its popularity." The authentic Order is given: a
brief restrained document ending "5. I propose leading the attack of
the Centre Division." This he did, in the "Hilda," which reached the
outposts line in the van of the battle, General Elles standing with
his head through the hatch picking up targets for the gunners. The
"Hilda's" flag was several times hit, but not brought down. It was at
this battle that sixteen Tanks were knocked out by one gun, served
single-handed by a German officer, who died at his post. The story of
the Tanks that crossed a canal on the back of another does not seem to
be verified. The authors' conclusion is that "in the phase at which
military science has arrived, and at which it will probably remain for
a generation, a superior force of Tanks can always top the scales of
the military balance of power." The illustrations are many and well
chosen. We recommend the book, both as a work of reference and as a
book to read.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN: THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC. By FRANCIS GRIERSON. With an
introduction by John Drinkwater. John Lane. 5_s._ net.
Mr. Grierson states that Abraham Lincoln was "the greatest practical
mystic the world has known for nineteen hundred years," thus
unnecessarily challenging comparisons with Saint Teresa and others. His
book, both as an effort to sustain this thesis and as a book to read,
is something of a disappointment. Some of his earlier works--notably
the beautiful _Valley of Shadows_--are closely thought and admirably
written; the best have never had in full the credit they deserve. But
the present volume is little more than a small scrap-book of other
people's impressions and anecdotes of Lincoln, sprinkled with Mr.
Grierson's not very profound comments and assertions to the effect that
we are now at the end of a dispensation, and are emerging into "the
mystical dawn of a new day." That Lincoln was a very great and a very
good man we know, and that he lived in the light of conscience. Of such
we can never be told too much, and the book might well serve as an
introduction to more elaborate biographies. But we cannot say that Mr.
Grierson adds anything to our knowledge. He tells us of Lincoln's sense
of duty, his dedication to the service of his kind, his premonitions.
"One of the most memorable mystical demonstrations ever recorded in any
epoch occurred in the little town of Salem, Illinois, in August, 1837,
when Lincoln was only twenty-three years of age," and "some of his
deepest thoughts on the mysteries of life and death were never voiced
by this man, who never spoke unless he deemed it imperative to speak."
The New York _Times_ says this or that, the _Spectator_ says so-and-so;
Lincoln was a "unique" manifestation of the Supreme Mind, like Moses.
"The American people were at that time practical, democratic seers,
without whom the greatest practical mystic could not have existed."
These passages are not cheering. There is an introduction by Mr. John
Drinkwater, who says something and says it clearly.
MEN AND MANNERS IN PARLIAMENT. By SIR HENRY LUCY. Fisher Unwin. 10_s._
6_d._ net.
Sir Henry Lucy's reprint of his notes on the Disraeli Parliament of
1874 will find a place in that world-museum where a bottle containing
the Bruce's spider stands next on the shelf to the original kettle
which inflamed the young imagination of George Stephenson. They were
published serially in (how distant it all seems!) the _Gentleman's
Magazine_, and a set of bound volumes of that venerable periodical
found its way (by the steam-packet, no doubt) to the young republic
of the United States. There in the beautiful new-world calm of the
Chancellor Green Library, at Princeton, the old printed words in
their quaint black-letters met the young eye of Woodrow Wilson, a
smart student of his seniors, Chatham, Burke, and Brougham, of the
more recent writings of Lord Macaulay, then recently dead, and of the
positively burning message of the still more topical Mr. Bagehot. But
it was Sir Henry Lucy, not yet dubbed a Knight, who produced, if we may
believe the official biographer--and Sir Henry does--an "influence ...
on his broadening thought." The debt was very gracefully acknowledged
by the President long afterwards in a letter which pays tribute to "the
interest you stirred many years ago in the action of public affairs in
Great Britain." He added that he would always think of Sir Henry as one
of his instructors.
The whole story is one more example of the ineradicable romanticism of
the New World which led Henry James to the belief that great leaders
in England conversed intelligently (if not always quite intelligibly)
and drew Whistler to dramatise the Thames. One sees the American
undergraduate hanging spellbound over Sir Henry Lucy's parliamentary
notes, and rising from the table with bright eyes and burning cheeks
to mutter, as he walked out among the chipmunks and prairie foxes, "I
too will hold assemblies in the grip of my eloquence like the Right
Honourable George Sclater-Booth; in me Mr. Knatchbull-Hugessen shall
have his transatlantic counterpart." And one is inclined to wonder, as
one rambles through the pages of what the President, remembering his
constitutional obligations to the American language, described as "The
Syndicated London Letter," which of these amiable pages of political
gossip it was that finally tilted the young Wilson on to that inclined
plane which led to Washington and the Galerie des Glaces. Was it the
picture of Mr. Disraeli on the Treasury Bench, impassive, arms folded,
forelock well in evidence, or the more vivacious scenes in which Mr.
Bright, Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. Lowe chased one another across the
Mid-Victorian stage? No one except Mr. Wilson can say. But the anecdote
lends point to the reissue of Sir Henry's notes, which always possess a
high interest for political historians, apart from the addition which
the story makes to their intrinsic value.
THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF LADY DOROTHY NEVILL. By RALPH NEVILL. Methuen.
18_s._ net.
This is a most disappointing book. Of Lady Dorothy's charm and
intelligence we have had evidence in the two volumes published in
her lifetime, and edited by Mr. Nevill. She certainly deserved a
biography which should preserve for posterity a true portrait of one
who typified what was best and most likeable in a state of society
that became historical even in her lifetime. Unfortunately, Mr. Nevill
has been content to give us merely gleanings of his mother's notebooks
and post-bag. He makes no effort at all at formal biography, keeps
no sequence, and betrays no sense of proportion. The writing of the
book is slack and formless, as, for instance, in such sentences as the
following:
No one probably knew more about the inner social history of her time
than Lady Cork; a very clever woman, who long after she had ceased
to be able to leave her couch, owing to her numerous visitors, kept
herself excellently posted as to everything of interest which was on
foot. At the time of the Druce case, being a confirmed invalid, her
evidence, which would have completely put any claimant out of court,
was taken on commission.
The book is full of writing as careless as this, and is, in
consequence, very trying to read. All one can do is to search through
the volume for amusing stories of the world Lady Dorothy Nevill
adorned, and to make some guess at the character of the woman who
could number among her friends Lord Clanricarde, Father Dolling, Lord
Beaconsfield, Mr. Chamberlain, Lord Lytton, and Mr. John Burns.
The second task is difficult. One knows her better from that glowing
portrait by Watts--which we wish Mr. Nevill had reproduced--than from
any of her letters given here. She was not a good letter-writer, though
better than some of her correspondents. She had both generosity and an
aptitude for mischief, stout prejudices, but a lovable curiosity which
prevented her being their slave. Her Toryism was of the "Young England"
variety, and never stopped her from making friends where she could. Her
wit seems to have been a wit of personality rather than of mind, almost
a spiritual glow which is rarely apparent in the printed page. Of her
family life we are told practically nothing--not even the date of Mr.
Reginald Nevill's death is given.
Many of the anecdotes in the book are old, but we have not met this
before. Lady Pollington, Lady Dorothy Nevill's sister, "adored dancing,
her love of which may be realised when it is stated that the night
before her only son was born she was at Lady Salisbury's dance in
Arlington Street till one-thirty and her son was born at three." New
to us also is the story of the petition presented to the United States
Congress "by some zealots who entertained strong religious objections
against the use of oil." Mr. Nevill does not assign its precise date,
but gives it as an instance of "mid-Victorian bigotry."
The signatories to this remarkable document prayed that a stop
might be put to the irreverent and irreligious proceedings of
various citizens in drawing petroleum from the bosom of the earth,
thus "checking the designs of the Almighty," Who, they said, had
undoubtedly stored it there with a view to the last day, "when all
things shall be destroyed."
Mr. Nevill tells us one thing about his mother which possibly reveals
her character and the temper of her time more truly than anything else
in the book: it seems to belong to the England of General Gordon and
Lady Burton. Lady Dorothy practised illumination, presumably as taught
in the once popular Owen Jones' volume.
One of the works she executed was Hood's _Song of the Shirt_, another
was _The Service for the Burial of the Dead_, which she finished and
signed in 1848, when twenty-two years of age--a curious instance of
the strange mixture of seriousness and vivacity which went to form a
highly original mind.
POLITICS AND ECONOMICS
INDUSTRY AND TRADE. By ALFRED MARSHALL. Macmillan. 18_s._ net.
Dr. Marshall's well-known _Principles of Economics_ was published as
long ago as 1890. For many years he continued to work at the volume
with which he designed to follow that, but weak health, as well as
heavy professional duties and much time devoted to the public service,
made his progress slow. It is only now, therefore, after an interval
of nearly thirty years, that he has been able to complete the present
book. And even so his scheme is not yet complete, for there is still
a companion volume to come, which will deal with "influences on the
conditions of man's life and work exerted by the resources available
for employment; by money and credit; by international trade; and by
social endeavour."
_Industry and Trade_ is a monument of lucidity and carefulness. Every
student of economics will read it with interest, even though it does
not appear to throw much new light on the problems it discusses. Dr.
Marshall traces out for us in a general way the technical evolution
of industry, both in this country and elsewhere. We have an analysis
of the conditions which produced in turn the industrial leadership
of Britain, of France, of Germany, of the United States. We have a
minute discussion of the dominant tendencies of business organisations,
the expansion of the unit, the application of scientific method, the
problems of joint-stock companies, of banking, of marketing. And
finally the question of monopolies is examined--the American and
German experience of trusts and cartels, the great movement towards
aggregation, federation, and co-operation in British trade. Dr.
Marshall writes throughout in a spirit of large and rather fatherly
benevolence, here reproving some "anti-social practices" of trade
unionism, there gently censuring abuses of power by a trust. It is
admirable, of course, but there are times when his elaborate avoidance
of partisanship and his cautious non-committal attitude leave the
reader a little perplexed. Dr. Marshall tells us that his aim has
been to present as accurate a picture as he can without advocating
any particular conclusions. This is very well in a general way, but
where an economic problem becomes an ethical problem a conclusion may
not be an altogether bad thing. There are two chapters devoted to a
consideration of "Scientific Management," in which the author has
certainly achieved an almost superhuman impartiality. He thinks, as
everyone does, that there is much that is valuable in the application
of efficiency methods in industry. He does not think that the worker
need be unduly strained by scientific management. He is apparently
doubtful about the danger of monotony that it introduces. Finally, he
suggests that "though it be true that scientific management diminishes
the need of the operative for resource and judgment in small matters,
it may help him ... to estimate the characters of those who bear
large responsibilities. Unless and until he can do that, democratic
control of industry will be full of hazards." True, but some bolder
critics will turn back a few pages and refer to a quotation given of
some of Mr. F. W. Taylor's principles: "All possible brain-work should
be removed from the shop and centred in the planning department,
leaving for the foreman and gang-bosses work strictly executive in
its nature.... Each man must ... adapt his methods to the many new
standards and grow accustomed to receiving and obeying directions
covering details large and small, which in the past have been left to
his individual judgment." Will a manipulation of human beings on these
lines really make ideal "democratic controllers of industry"? Leaving
the desirability or undesirability of such control out of the question
it will certainly be argued that Mr. Taylor's is not the way to get
it. However, Dr. Marshall admits that American methods of scientific
management will need to be somewhat modified before they can obtain a
very wide acceptance in British industry. He does not discuss how they
are being modified in their application in this country, where a good
many experiments are actually being made.
* * * * *
In general, the book presents us with a pretty bright picture of
capitalist industry. There is much that needs to be altered, yet
progress, we are reminded, has been great: education has spread, the
standard of comfort of the working-class has risen enormously, and
"both competition and combination in Anglo-Saxon countries generally
have been more inclined to construction than to destruction: emulation
has often given an incitement to exertion stronger than that which
was derived from the desire for gain...." We are not to be led away,
therefore, by large socialistic schemes of reform. Collectivism
would be unfavourable to the best solution of men for the most
responsible work in industry; National Guilds "look only at the surface
difficulties of business" and promise to lead us into nothing but
chaos.
INFLATION. By J. SHIELD NICHOLSON, M.A., Sc.D., LL.D., F.B.A.
(Professor of Political Economy in the University of Edinburgh). King.
3_s._ 6_d._ net.
Until the other day we all thought we were threatened with national
bankruptcy, and a great many people think so still, despite the recent
rapid conversion to optimism of the Government and the House of
Commons. Professor Nicholson, we are sure, is not one of those who are
impressed by the change. His interesting and outspoken little book may
be summed up in two sentences--"The principal cause of the disorder of
the body politic is the abuse of paper money," and "Our present need
is to get back to a sound monetary system and to get rid of the mirage
of inflation." He does not believe in the theory that an internal debt
"makes no difference": that it is merely a transference from one set
of pockets to another. And he does not think that the burden of the
debt can be removed either by a capital levy or by a continuance of
inflation, which, as he gloomily observes, is a popular remedy, both
with the industrial and commercial classes. If that continues, its
evils will continue--high profits, high wages, higher prices, and a
general scarcity. The great practical difficulty is to stop the rise
in prices. It may be done partly by greater output and lower profits,
partly by reduced public expenditure, but, above all, by a reduction in
the volume of paper currency. For that, Professor Nicholson observes,
moral courage is needed, and also hard thinking.
IRISH IMPRESSIONS. By G. K. CHESTERTON. Collins. 7_s._ 6_d._ net.
"These are the notes of a visit to Ireland during the dark days when
a last effort was made to undo the blunders that had wrecked the
great promise of Irish recruitment." Mr. Chesterton, in lamenting the
fact that a large section of the Irish population remained neutral in
the war, blames both sides. The case against England and the British
Government is familiar; but, he argues, however badly Ireland may
have been treated in the past, and however the Irish situation was
mishandled in the early days of the war, the Sinn Feiners are still to
be blamed. They were as men who should have abstained from Marathon
because of a quarrel with some archon, or refused to fight Attila
because of a grievance against Ætius. All civilization was at stake;
that being so, even the claims of nationality should have been, if
necessary, postponed--though, in fact, they would have been actually
assisted had Ireland made the plunge. Mr. Chesterton states with
characteristic force the existence of a definite Irish nationality, a
thing to be perceived in any Irish home. As a practical politician he
believes that the extreme demand for separation can still--though time
presses--be effaced if Dominion Home Rule is offered. The bargaining
peasant lives in the fighting rebel; and when even the last Home Rule
scheme was postponed a genuine disappointment was to be seen throughout
Ireland.
This is his central case. He argues it characteristically: that is
to say, his method of exposition, by means of rapid generalizations,
digressions, witticisms, allusions, will fascinate those who believe
there is great sagacity behind his fireworks, and irritate or bore
those who habitually dislike him. In making out a case for Ireland he
also makes out a case for a rural, a Catholic, and a "distributive"
civilisation. Everywhere there are quotable sayings. He speaks of "the
brilliant bitterness of Dublin and the stagnant optimism of Belfast."
"Modern industrial society," he says, "is fond of problems, and
therefore not at all fond of solutions."
Arguing that on the outbreak of war England abjured her pro-Teutonist
delusions, he says the Sinn Feiners fatally played with the thing they
had always denounced:
That is why the Easter rising was really a black and insane blunder.
It was not because it involved the Irish in a military defeat; it was
because it lost the Irish a great controversial victory. The rebel
deliberately let the tyrant out of a trap; out of the grinning jaws
of the gigantic trap of a joke.
"Imperialism," he observes, "is not an insanity of patriotism; it is
merely an illusion of cosmopolitanism." Such epigrams--and there is
always something in them--are all over the book; but in two places,
where he is talking of the war and of Kettle's death and where he
celebrates the Christian virtues of charity and humility, he reaches an
eloquence almost comparable to that of the magnificent passage at the
close of his _Short History of England_. That passage deserves to go
into all anthologies of English prose henceforth compiled.
THE HANDMAIDEN OF THE NAVY. By G. S. DOORLY. Williams & Norgate. 6_s._
net.
There are still two books which ought to be written about the war.
One is a real novel of the adventures and sufferings of the Merchant
Service, and the other is a historical account of the partnership
between the Navy and the Merchant Service, and that marvellous convoy
organisation which unobtrusively won the war. Mr. Doorly ought to help
with the latter, but we hope he will not attempt the former. These
stories, collected under a cumbrous and not too accurate title, are a
painstaking but disappointing attempt to deal with both. Mr. Doorly
has not the literary gifts necessary to do complete justice to the
human side of his subject, though he faithfully pictures the very real
camaraderie which the convoy established between the naval officer and
the mercantile marine. All his sailors are of the "hearty" type made
familiar by "Bartimeus" and the Press. His troopships "plough their way
across the leagues of ocean towards the great-little island home." The
sinking of a ship is "another foul victory for the wretched Hun." It is
a pity, because Mr. Doorly has clearly had a wide experience, and gives
the fullest account we have yet seen of the intricacies and anxieties
of convoy organisation and escort work, though the convoy of his
stories is a primitive affair compared with the perfected form of 1918.
He is technically accurate and very thorough, and does not shrink from
explaining such complexities as the methods of "zigzagging," and he has
an eye for the humorous sides of submarine warfare. But his accounts of
exciting moments frankly do not excite, and the merchant captain who
says "'Tut-tut,' swallowing a lump in his throat," does not move us as
perhaps he should. Yet it is an interesting little book, and until the
theme receives the treatment it deserves, we hope it will be read.
POLAND AND THE POLES. By A. BRUCE BOSWELL. Methuen. 12_s._ 6_d._ net.
This is a useful and interesting book. It is, as Mr. Boswell says
in his Preface, a series of essays. In these essays he deals with
the Polish people, their national characteristics, their country,
history, literature, music, and art, their industry and commerce, and
their future. Poland, which has for centuries exercised a fascination
over the romantic mind, always makes good reading; and Mr. Boswell
communicates his enthusiasm. He is perhaps not altogether untouched
by that partisanship which seems almost inevitably to fall upon the
foreigner who becomes intimately associated with any nation. The truth
is that all the peoples of the earth have so many good qualities that
it is impossible for anyone who is brought into contact with any one
of them not to feel for it occasionally as a lover or a child. Mr.
Boswell certainly feels for Poland as a lover, and his book is none
the worse for that. At first, however, we thought that he was to
prove one of those whose love of a particular nation engenders hate
of other nations. Indeed, we hardly think that he is altogether fair
to Russians, Jews, and others. But his prejudices are mild compared
to those of most historians, and, despite his frank bias towards the
Polish outlook, when he comes to deal with so vexed a question as that
of the Ukraine he displays a praiseworthy impartiality.
SPORT
SUCCESS IN ATHLETICS AND HOW TO OBTAIN IT. By F. A. M. WEBSTER, T. J.
PRYCE JENKINS, and R. VIVIAN MOSTYN. Sidgwick & Jackson, 10_s._ 6_d._
net.