be resisted. Surprises of this sort, however, are numerous, and when we
remember the lack of hard roads, the absence of any postal facilities,
and the difficulties and cost of any sort of communication, it is
astounding to find how well acquainted the local justices were with the
statutes, and to what an extent they succeeded in administering them.
Miss Trotter's investigations have evidently much impressed this upon
her, and her preface gives an excellent summary of the conclusions at
which she has arrived.
The great majority of the men who took their share in the government
of England in the seventeenth century had neither learning nor
culture; some probably were not able to write their own names;
nevertheless, through being made responsible for the well-being
and good order of the little community to which they belonged,
they gained a considerable amount of political education. The work
of local government, carried on voluntarily from father to son
through untold generations, has produced certain characteristics--a
moderation of outlook, a reasonableness and sanity of mind, an
intensely critical faculty and a political insight--which are typical
of our race.... There is a fear lest the masses through ignorance
of the work of their forefathers may demand a centralisation of
governmental functions, which is alien to the character of the
English Constitution.
The author has earned public thanks for bringing to light these
interesting records of an interesting period. It should be compulsory
for every education authority to use this and similar works as part of
the historical instruction given in all our schools. Such books would
clothe the dry bones of history, as ordinarily taught, in a so much
more attractive garb that lessons might become a pleasure instead of
a penance. The Royal Commission on Public Records received a letter
from M. Paul Meyer, of the Ecole des Chartes, in which he says: "_En
Angleterre tout est en désordre_," referring to our widely scattered
and unorganised records. This Royal Commission is doing a great service
in trying to bring order out of chaos, but it is not its function to do
for the general reader what a book like this may do--bring to life in a
handy and digested form some of the buried records of our past.
POLITICS AND ECONOMICS
BALKAN PROBLEMS AND EUROPEAN PEACE. By N. BUXTON and C. L. LEESE. Allen
& Unwin. 4_s._ 6_d._ net.
Among all the ignorances of the British public there is none more
calamitous than its ignorance of the Balkan peoples and of their
importance in European politics. We persist even now in lumping them
together as a set of semi-savage tribes, who may be manipulated by the
civilised Powers in this way or that, but who ultimately will have
to fight it out among themselves like the Kilkenny cats. Any book
that is not mere partisan propaganda, that will throw light on that
dark corner of Europe, is to be welcomed. And this little volume,
slight though it is, is all to the point. Its authors are experts,
and practical experts, in their subject. Mr. Noel Buxton especially
has known the Balkans, as few Englishmen have known them, for twenty
years, and in the early days of the war he went there as the accredited
agent of the British Government to try to attach Bulgaria to our
cause. The story of our diplomatic failure is sketched for us in rapid
outline. "Allied diplomacy," Messrs. Buxton and Leese say, "exerted
no comprehensive activity, but at intervals made isolated efforts to
please one State or another by promises, some of which proved only
contradictory and embarrassing to action in another direction demanded
by circumstances a little later." We were handicapped, they say, by
the policy of Russia. We were handicapped also by ill-grounded fears
of alienating Serbia and Greece. The final chapters of the book deal
with the future prospects in the Balkans. They were written before the
conclusion of the Bulgarian Treaty, and most of the things which they
deprecate have found a place in that Treaty. Many Englishmen will not
regret this; but no reader of Mr. Buxton will believe that his plea
for Bulgaria is based on hostility to Serbia or Greece or Rumania, or,
indeed, on anything but a single-minded desire for lasting peace in the
Balkans.
THE SKILLED LABOURER, 1760-1832. By J. L. HAMMOND and BARBARA HAMMOND.
Longmans. 12_s._ 6_d._ net.
This book is the third of Mr. and Mrs. Hammond's important studies
of that period of English history which fell between 1760 and 1832.
Together with _The Village Labourer_ and _The Town Labourer_ it makes
a remarkable trilogy. It is marked by the same scholarly research,
the same vividness of presentation, the same polished style as its
predecessors. Some readers may perhaps find it of slightly less general
interest: if it is so, it is simply because its scope is rather more
limited. In _The Village Labourer_ the authors gave an account of the
enclosures of common lands and of the agricultural labourers' rising
of 1830; in _The Town Labourer_ they drew a very striking picture of
the civilisation of the time, of the governing classes as well as
of the poor, of the new social and economic conditions. The present
volume gives us the history of certain selected bodies of workers
during the same period. It is, in fact, a detailed account of the
Northumberland and Durham miners, the cotton and woollen and worsted
operatives, the Spitalfields silk-weavers, and the framework knitters,
together with a very full description of the Luddite risings in the
Midlands and in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Mr. and Mrs. Hammond have
made very large use of the Home Office Papers, and they have been
able to throw a great deal of new light on their subject. Their tale
is, of course, a gloomy one--a tale of desperate struggles against
grinding poverty and serfdom, of wages, often family wages, of 10s.
a week or less in times of dear living, of a working day of anything
from twelve to eighteen hours, of tiny children in the mines and the
mills, of passionate strikes and brutal repressions. The chapters on
the Luddite riots are of especial importance: they are the best, if
not the only, connected account of that little-known episode in the
annals of industry. They will remove the wrong impression, which, as
Mr. and Mrs. Hammond say, is widely prevalent, that these troubles
originated in Nottingham over the introduction of new and improved
stocking-frames. In fact, the cause was not new machines at all, but
the adaptation of old machines to the manufacture of a new and inferior
kind of article. And the workmen had the sympathy and support of many
of the employers in their campaign against the degradation of the
industry. Not the least remarkable feature of the story of Luddism is
the part played by spies and _agents provocateurs_. The military, the
local magistrates, and the Government all had their spies, and the wide
extent of the mischief done by those vile creatures is very thoroughly
exposed by Mr. and Mrs. Hammond. One of them, by name Oliver, _alias_
Richards, _alias_ Hollis, has a chapter all to himself. He was "a
person of genteel appearance and good address, nearly six feet high,
of erect figure, light hair, red and rather large whiskers, and a
full face, a little pitted with the small-pox. His usual dress was
a light fashionable-coloured brown coat, black waistcoat, dark-blue
mixture pantaloons, and Wellington boots." He was a special pet of
Lord Sidmouth, and in 1817 he performed the inestimable services of
fomenting sedition in the Midlands and the North and of getting quite a
number of poor and ignorant men hanged, transported, or imprisoned.
Altogether, _The Skilled Labourer_ is a book which puts every student
of history very deeply in the debt of Mr. and Mrs. Hammond.
IN THE SIDE SHOWS: OBSERVATIONS BY A FLIER ON FIVE FRONTS. By CAPTAIN
WEDGWOOD BENN, M.P., D.S.O., D.F.C. Hodder & Stoughton. 12_s._ net.
Captain Wedgwood Benn's experiences in the side shows may well fill
with envy those whose lot was cast in the main theatre of the war.
We confess that we took up his book rather doubtfully--for who was
not long ago surfeited with stories from the front? But we found it,
after all, full of diverting adventures in many lands, as well as in
the water and the air. It is written straightforwardly, without that
straining after effect which marred so many of its kind. Captain Benn
began his military career in 1914 in the Middlesex Yeomanry. He was
bored, like every one else, at Ismailia: he fought and was bored again
at Gallipoli. Then he was fortunate enough to get into the Naval Air
Service. He flew in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. He bombed the
Turks near Aden, passed the time of day over the telephone to the King
of the Hedjâz at Mecca, made a brief "Cook's Tour" to the Sudan and was
presently "observing" in Palestine, blowing up portions of the Bagdad
Railway, and commanding an astounding mixed force of British soldiers
and French sailors in Castelorizo, near Adalin. After this he comes
home on leave, gets his "wings," and is off to Taranto to join the
Adriatic Barrage, the aerial force whose task was to keep the Austrian
submarines out of the Mediterranean. Finally, after Caporetto, he is
on the Piave fronts attached to General Plumer's force. He apparently
managed from there to do a good deal of sight-seeing up and down Italy,
and he has some amusing tales of the people and places he visited. He
also took part in the melodramatic adventure of Alessandro Tandura, the
Italian spy who was dropped from an aeroplane in the Austrian lines.
This is the best adventure in the book, and must be read to be properly
appreciated.
Now and then Captain Benn interrupts his narrative to discuss an idea
or a problem. The most notable of these interludes is his criticism of
our military system. He can find little to say in praise of it. The
much-vaunted discipline seems to him to mean only mechanical obedience.
The "system" puts a premium on waste of time, on the "spit and polish"
spirit; it discourages ideas, imagination, initiative. And most of
the higher officers are monuments of stupidity and ignorance. In all
this there is no doubt much truth. But a good many of his readers will
suspect that Captain Benn was exceptionally unfortunate in the senior
officers he met.
IRELAND A NATION. By ROBERT LYND. Grant Richards. 7_s._ 6_d._ net.
Many Englishmen are now sick of the "Irish Question"; many are ashamed
of it. Some have argued an inconsistency between our attitude to Poland
or Czecho-Slovakia or Jugo-Slavia and our attitude to Ireland. Others
have come to feel that damage is done to our reputation abroad, both
among friends and enemies, by our Irish policy. Mr. Lynd knows how
to gauge public opinion here as well as in Ireland, and he seizes
the opportunity to press home the point that the Irish problem is an
international problem. His argument, which is as closely reasoned as
it is eloquent, is that England can save herself and save the world
only by saving Ireland. What does saving Ireland mean? "It means," says
Mr. Lynd, "the immediate surrender of Ireland into the hands of the
Irish people, to rule it either as a republic or a dominion, according
as the people themselves decide."
Many, of course, made up their minds on the matter long ago; but
Mr. Lynd is by no means satisfied with all who profess themselves
friends of Ireland. He has some pungent remarks on what he calls
"the hesitating sort of Liberal" who wants to give Ireland a
carefully-conditioned measure of self-government which will prevent
her from abusing her liberty or inconveniencing England. But there are
others who are still baffled by Ulster. It is not that they think of
the Irish as "a mob of Celts" instead of as a nation. The trouble is
that we are apparently confronted by two nations--two irreconcilable
nations. What has Mr. Lynd to say to that? He says firstly, bluntly,
that Ulstermen are Irishmen, and that "the Ulster question" is an
invention of British Statesmen. "Cabinet Ministers have no moral
objection whatever to coercing Ireland. If they have any objection
to coercing Ulster, it is not on moral grounds, but because Ulster
provides them with a plausible palliation for their guilt in denying
freedom to a race of white men." He cannot, of course, disregard the
Ulstermen's fear of Home Rule. He can only argue that it is an utterly
unreasonable fear; for "Ulster is much more likely to dominate an Irish
Parliament than to be dominated by it."
Mr. Lynd does not confine himself to the mere politician. He has much
that is of profound interest to say on the Irish soldier, on Ireland's
record in the war, on Irish literature, and Irish poetry. His book is
one which ought to be read by everyone who cares for Ireland--and still
more by those who do not.
AGRICULTURE AND RURAL LIFE
COTTAGE BUILDING IN COB, PISÉ, CHALK, AND CLAY: A Renaissance. By
CLOUGH WILLIAMS-ELLIS, with an Introduction by Mr. ST. LOE STRACHEY.
Published by _Country Life_, London. 6_s._ net.
This little volume of unassuming proportions marks a period in the
evolution of housing the people of this country. Perhaps the word
_revolution_ is more apt in this connection, for it indicates either
a reversal of the wheel of time, taking us back to ancient methods,
or a completion of the circle, bringing us round again to the use
of building materials which Nature has provided to the hand of the
builder. The author addresses himself particularly "to those who
have in the past built only with stone, brick, concrete, timber, and
plaster, etc.," but there are many people to-day thinking of building
who never thought of it before; for the scarcity of houses (not merely
of the five-roomed cottage but of the ten or twelve-roomed middle-class
house), with the consequent inevitable increase in rent, to say nothing
of the contumely of house-agents and their kind, are giving rise to a
wonder if there is no alternative to tenancy. To all such this book
will be of value, for not only will it widen the field of possibility,
but it is packed with definite facts, which have involved much labour
in their compilation. To build with either of the materials named in
its title will appear to the uninitiated, i.e., to all those who only
think of brick and stone houses, as being worthy of the man who "built
his house upon the sand"; but plenty of instances are given to show
that if proper though simple methods of construction are followed, such
houses will last for many generations. We well remember our surprise
when, some twenty years ago, we first saw in Leicestershire and
Warwickshire a number of what were locally termed "mud" cottages, and
found on enquiry that many of them were from two to three hundred years
old.
Building by-laws effectually put a stop to the use of any such
materials as those under consideration, wherever by-laws were in
operation. They were looked upon by the officials of many local
authorities and by other well-meaning but short-sighted people as a
gleam of sunshine on a dark world: they were to check jerry-building
and prevent bad housing. Though this ray of light first shed its
beams upon a startled world so long ago as 1858, through the Local
Government Act of that year, we are now discovering that jerry-building
is as rampant as ever, housing conditions are, in very many places,
execrable, and that by-laws sometimes only act as a deterrent to men
who want to build. Parliament in its wisdom has passed quite a number
of Acts since the year named dealing with the subject, which might have
been admirable if they could have been administered by supermen. As,
however, this duty fell to the lot of ordinary mortals, by-laws have
actually prevented the use of improved methods and materials, which
happened to be unknown at the time the old ones were drawn up. These
have been somewhat relaxed in recent years, but even to-day it is to be
feared that a serious proposal to build with Pisé, or Cob, might cause
the sudden death of many respected representatives of Bumbledom. The
Ministry of Health have expressed the view that further relaxation in
the direction of allowing such materials might be permitted, but many
local authorities would, we suppose, require more than that to induce
them to adopt the suggestion.
For the moment cost is of even more importance than longevity, and if
the usual materials are to be insisted upon the building of cottages
and small houses on economic lines is impossible. Transport is one of
the large items in the cost of construction; but if the heaviest and
bulkiest materials are on the spot, this item can be almost entirely
eliminated. It is, therefore, not unreasonable to hope that local
authorities will give every facility, nay, encouragement, to use any
suitable material, rather than insist upon the letter of their by-laws.
The author's view is as follows, but it must be borne in mind that the
builder is not always a free agent:
Formerly he who carried bricks into Merioneth or the Cotswolds, or
slates into Kent, or ragstone-rubble into Middlesex, was guilty of
no more than foolishness and an æsthetic solecism. Under present
conditions such action should render him liable to prosecution and
conviction on some such count as "wasting the shrunken resources of his
country in a time of great scarcity."
Mr. St. Loe Strachey contributes an instructive and amusing preface,
the humour of it giving point to his own experiences. No one has done
more than he in trying to find the cheapest suitable material for
cottages; in Pisé he has rediscovered the very thing he wanted. As one
who served under his chairmanship on the Committee of the First Cheap
Cottage Exhibition at Letchworth Garden City in 1905, the present
reviewer is glad to offer a tribute to his persistence and success. The
illustrations in this book are both interesting and instructive.
ANTHROPOLOGY
THE MYSTERY OF EASTER ISLAND: THE STORY OF AN EXPEDITION. By MRS.
SCORESBY ROUTLEDGE. Sifton, Praed, & Co. 31_s._ 6_d._ net.
Any map of the Pacific will show a minute dot standing by itself
far to the eastward of any other island south of the line, yet some
2000 miles away from the American coast. This is Easter Island, long
famous as a land of archæological wonders. Apart from these it is an
unattractive place, consisting of a triangular patch of volcanic rock,
grass-covered, bare of trees, waterless but for the rain that collects
in the craters of its extinct volcanoes, and, of course, wind-swept
and harbourless. At present it serves as a cattle-ranch managed in
the interests of a Chilian company, the natives, no more than 250 in
all, being huddled into a single village on the west coast in order
to keep them out of mischief. Formerly, however, there were enough of
them to form ten clans, who kept things merry with their local feuds.
The navigators of the eighteenth century, Roggeveen, who discovered
the island, Gonzalez, Cook, and La Pérouse, estimate their number at
anything from 700 up to 2000 souls.
How, then, in such a solitary spot, inhabited by a handful of savages,
does it happen that hundreds of giant statues of stone are to be found,
not to speak of smaller statues of wood, curious rock-carvings, and
finally a script? A few passers-by had pleasantly trifled with the
problem, but a serious attempt to solve it had not been made until
Mr. and Mrs. Scoresby Routledge gallantly resolved to take the matter
in hand. The task before them was no light one; for in order to study
Easter Island one must first get there. So a yacht, the _Mana_, was
built for the purpose. The Polynesian word means "luck," and luck
certainly attended the little vessel on its long run of 100,000 miles.
Quite apart from the account given of Easter Island itself, the log
of the voyage provides the matter for a fascinating book, proving
as it does that there are many odd corners of the much-betravelled
earth which still await exploration. This becomes apparent as soon as
Magellan Strait is traversed, and the ship hazardously works her way
north through the intricate uncharted channels that run up the western
coast of Patagonia. It was hereabouts, by the way, that the _Dresden_,
after the Falkland fight, played hide-and-seek with our gunboats for
several months. Helped by many striking illustrations, we are enabled
to picture to ourselves the deep gorges overlooked by snowy peaks, and
the gaunt half-naked Indians that these waters precariously support.
Afterwards Selkirk's Island, Juan Fernandez, was visited, and when the
Easter Island investigations were complete, the expedition went on to
Pitcairn, the home of the descendants of the _Bounty_ mutineers, an
incidental consequence being that King George in due course received
at Buckingham Palace two loyal representatives of this, the smallest
of British Colonies. But space would fail if we dwelt further on the
nautical side of the adventure, complicated as it was by the fact that
during the greater part of the three years and four months during
which it lasted there were German foes above and below water to be
circumvented. Even Easter Island, it must be added, proved no haven
of refuge, for first von Spee's squadron and subsequently the armed
cruiser _Prinz Eitel Friedrich_ paid a call there, though luckily Mana
was away on both occasions.
Passing to the archæology, we must begin by gratefully recording
the fact that at length an adequate description is available of
the monuments as they exist to-day. Thanks to the maps, plans, and
pictures, every detail is brought home to the reader; while he cannot
complain that Mrs. Routledge's commentary, precise though it be, is
ever dull. She is indeed to be congratulated on having composed a
popular account that is likewise as far as it goes scientifically
sound; though it is to be hoped that the whole collection of evidence,
of which but a digest is presented here, will hereafter be published.
The expedition was evidently at great pains to survey, catalogue,
measure, photograph, and, so far as was necessary, actually disinter,
the entire mass of remains, despite their great number and the
considerable extent of country over which they are distributed. And
fortunately the stonework is still there to be studied, since it cannot
be easily removed or destroyed, as has mostly been the fate of the
woodwork, namely, the carved human figures, twenty to thirty inches
high, with their characteristic goatee beards and prominent ribs, and
the tablets on which the script was carved. Yet, if not altogether
demolished, the statues are in large part dethroned. Those at least
that decorated the burial platforms of Cyclopean architecture that
border the coast are all overthrown; how and why we can but guess. On
the other hand, there is a certain volcanic hill with many huge figures
still standing, both within the crater and along its outer skirts.
It was here that all the images were quarried; and many exist in a
half-finished condition, while some, including the largest of all,
sixty-six feet in length, were perhaps never meant to be completely
detached from the parent rock. Excavation at these quarries revealed
the whole process of manufacture, and proved that with stone tools
it was possible to hew the soft rock into shape, though the precise
manner of the transportation and erection of the unwieldy monsters,
while plainly creditable to human muscle, remains by no means easy to
discern.
Who were the makers? What did they mean to represent? At this point
we pass from description to explanation, from the ascertained to the
purely conjectural. Certain it is that the present natives have no
use for the statues, and are not only ignorant but likewise incurious
about their origin. Even by Cook's time, namely, in 1774, though
still standing, they were apparently ceasing to be respected; whereas
Roggeveen, in 1722, rightly or wrongly, saw in them objects of an
existing worship. Thus we seem to get at least a downward limit for the
epoch during which they were part of the living culture, and this view
is borne out by the relatively unweathered condition of some statues.
It would look, then, as if the direct and not very remote ancestors of
the present islanders were the image-makers, and not some mysterious
extinct race, such as has often been postulated. Further, the pendant
ear-lobes of the statues recall a practice hardly yet obsolete among
the population of to-day.