IRIS and GERDA MORGAN. Cambridge: Bowes & Bowes. 21_s._
THE FOUNDATIONS OF MUSIC. By HENRY J. WATT. Cambridge University
Press. 18_s._
BELLES-LETTRES
FROM FRIEND TO FRIEND. By LADY RITCHIE. Murray. 6_s._
SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY AND OTHER LITERARY PIECES. By SIR JAMES GEORGE
FRAZER. Macmillan. 8_s._ 6_d._
THE LONDON VENTURE. By MICHAEL ARLEN. Heinemann. 4_s._
A CYPRESS GROVE. By WILLIAM DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN. C. J. Sawyer.
6_s._ 6_d._
THE DIALL OF PRINCES. By DON ANTHONY OF GUEVARA. (Scholars' Library.)
Philip Allan. 10_s._ 6_d._
THE STORY OF PURTON. A Collection of Notes and Hearsay gathered by
ETHEL M. RICHARDSON. Simpkin, Marshall. 7_s._ 6_d._
ESSAYS ON POETRY. By GEORGE O'NEILL, S.J. Fisher Unwin. 5_s._
THE CISTERCIANS IN YORKSHIRE. By J. S. FLETCHER. S.P.C.K. 17_s._ 6_d._
BIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIRS
THE LIFE OF THOMAS COUTTS, BANKER. By ERNEST HARTLEY COLERIDGE. Two
volumes. John Lane. 42_s._
VICTORIAN RECOLLECTIONS. By J. A. BRIDGES. Bell. 7_s._ 6_d._
FURTHER INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A MINING ENGINEER. By E. T.
McCARTHY. Routledge. 25_s._
CLASSICAL
THUCYDIDES. With an English translation by C. FOSTER SMITH. In four
volumes. Vol. I. PLUTARCH'S LIVES. With an English translation by
BERNADOTTE PERRIN. In eleven volumes. Vol. VIII. MARTIAL. EPIGRAMS.
With an English translation by WALTER C. A. KER. In two volumes.
Vol. I. AUSONIUS. With an English translation by HUGH G. EVELYN
WHITE. In two volumes. Vol. I. LIVY. With an English translation by
B. O. FOSTER. In thirteen volumes. Vol. I. Books I. and II. HOMER.
THE ODYSSEY. With an English translation by A. T. MURRAY. In two
volumes. Vol. II. THE CORRESPONDENCE OF MARCUS CORNELIUS FRONTO.
Edited and for the time translated into English by C. R. HAINES. In
two volumes. Vol. I. (The Loeb Classical Library.) Heinemann. 7_s._
6_d._ each.
DRAMA
PLAYS OF THE RIDINGS. By F. W. MOORMAN. Elkin Mathews. 2_s._ 6_d._
PROBLEMS OF THE ACTOR. By LOUIS CALVERT. Simpkin, Marshall. 7_s._
THE CHOICE. A Play in Four Acts. By ALFRED SUTRO. Duckworth. 2_s._
6_d._
EDUCATION
THE CHILD'S UNCONSCIOUS MIND. The Relations of Psycho-Analysis to
Education. By WILFRID LAY. Kegan Paul. 10_s._
FICTION
THE STRONGEST. By GEORGES CLEMENCEAU. Eveleigh Nash. 7_s._
THE CHORUS GIRL AND OTHER STORIES. By ANTON TCHEHOV. (Vol. VIII. of
the Stories of Tchehov.) Chatto & Windus. 3_s._
THE STRANGE CASE OF MR. JOCELYN THEW. By E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM.
Hodder & Stoughton. 7_s._
THE EVERLASTING ARMS. By JOSEPH HOCKING. Hodder & Stoughton. 5_s._
THE GAEL. By EDWARD E. LYSAGHT. Maunsel. 6_s._ 6_d._
FULL CIRCLE. By MARY AGNES HAMILTON. Collins. 7_s._
HOW THEY DID IT. By GERALD O'DONOVAN. Methuen. 8_s._
PIRATES' GOLD. By DAVID WHITELAW. Hodder & Stoughton. 7_s._
LADIES-IN-WAITING. By KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN. Hodder & Stoughton. 7_s._
FAREWELL TO JANYMORE. By M. A. RATHKYLE. Fisher Unwin 3_s._ 6_d._
HISTORY
SOME SOURCES OF HUMAN HISTORY. By W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE. S.P.C.K.
5_s._
NAVAL HISTORY AND NATIONAL HISTORY. By J. HOLLAND ROSE. Cambridge
University Press. 2_s._ 6_d._
A GUIDE TO THE INDIA OFFICE RECORDS, 1600-1858. By WILLIAM FOSTER,
C.I.E., Registrar and Superintendent of Records. For the India
Office: Constable. 2_s._
LAW
A SELECTION OF CASES ILLUSTRATIVE OF ENGLISH CRIMINAL LAW. By
COURTNEY STANHOPE KENNEY. Fourth Edition. Cambridge University
Press. 15_s._
NAVAL AND MILITARY
THE LAST CRUSADE. By DONALD MAXWELL. John Lane. 25_s._
A GALLOPER AT YPRES. By MAJOR and BREVET-LIEUT.-COLONEL PATRICK
BUTLER, D.S.O. Fisher Unwin. 15_s._
THE DEFEAT OF AUSTRIA AS SEEN BY THE SEVENTH DIVISION. By the REV. E.
C. CROSSE, D.S.O. Year Book Press. 7_s._ 6_d._
THE PARAVANE ADVENTURE. By L. COPE CORNFORD. Hodder & Stoughton.
7_s._ 6_d._
THE ROMANCE OF THE BATTLE LINE IN FRANCE. By J. E. C. BODLEY.
Constable. 7_s._ 6_d._
INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR. By REAR-ADMIRAL SIR DOUGLAS
BROWNRIGG. Cassell. 12_s._ 6_d._
POETRY
FLORA. A Book of Drawings. By PAMELA BIANCO. With Illustrative Poems
by WALTER DE LA MARE. Heinemann. 25_s._
THE HAPPY TREE AND OTHER POEMS. By GERALD GOULD. Blackwell. 3_s._
6_d._
THE GUARDS CAME THROUGH. By ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE. Murray. 2_s._ 6_d._
THE NEW NAVY AND OTHER POEMS. By REAR-ADMIRAL RONALD A. HOPWOOD, C.B.
Murray. 4_s._ 6_d._
THE AUSTRALIAN AND OTHER VERSES. By WILL H. OGILVIE. Sydney: Angus &
Robertson. London: Milford. 4_s._ 6_d._
THE YOUNG GUARD. By E. W. HORNUNG. Constable. 3_s._ 6_d._
A PRISONER OF PENTONVILLE. By "RED BAND." Elkin Mathews. 2_s._ 6_d._
THE PEDLAR. By RUTH MANNING-SANDERS. Selwyn & Blount. 3_s._ 6_d._
TWIXT CLYDE AND TWEED. By GILBERT RAE. Erskine Macdonald. 5_s._
POLITICS, ECONOMICS, etc.
THE PEACE IN THE MAKING. By H. WILSON HARRIS. The Swarthmore Press.
6_s._
THE BOLSHEVIK ADVENTURE. By JOHN POLLOCK. Constable. 7_s._ 6_d._
THE STATE AND REVOLUTION. By V. I. ULIANOV (N. LENIN). Allen & Unwin.
3_s._
CLERICAL INCOMES. An Inquiry into the Cost of Living among the
Parochial Clergy. By Eleven Diocesan Contributors. Edited with an
introduction by J. HOWARD B. MASTERMAN. Bell. 6_s._
BEFORE THE WAR. By VISCOUNT HALDANE. Cassell. 7_s._ 6_d._
EDUCATION BY VIOLENCE. Essays on the War and the Future. By HENRY
SEIDEL CANBY, Professor in Yale University. The Macmillan Co. 6_s._
6_d._
LEAGUES OF NATIONS. Ancient, Mediæval, and Modern. By ELIZABETH YORK.
The Swarthmore Press. 8_s._ 6_d._
THESE THINGS SHALL BE. By GEORGE LANSBURY. The Swarthmore Press.
1_s._ 6_d._
THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. By the Right Hon. SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK, Bt.
Stevens. 10_s._
A SHORT PRIMER OF INDUSTRIAL HISTORY. By W. RIDDICK. Independent
Labour Party. 6_d._
THE PEACE TREATY AND THE ECONOMIC CHAOS OF EUROPE. By NORMAN ANGELL.
The Swarthmore Press. 2_s._ 6_d._
THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT. By KARL KAUTSKY. Translated by
H. J. STENNING. National Labour Press. 2_s._ 6_d._
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF S. PAUL. By the REV. DAVID SMITH. Hodder &
Stoughton. 21_s._
LECTURES ON INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY. By BERNARD MUSCIO. Routledge.
6_s._ 6_d._
THE TESTING OF A NATION. By RANDALL THOMAS DAVIDSON, Archbishop of
Canterbury. Macmillan. 6_s._
THE PROMISE OF LIFE. By the REV. C. HARRINGTON LEES. Morgan & Scott.
3_s._
THE MODERN CRAZE OF SPIRITUALISM. By the REV. F. B. MEYER. Morgan &
Scott. 6_d._
UPON GOD'S HOLY HILLS. By C. C. MARTINDALE, S.J. Washbourne. 3_s._
6_d._
A GIRL'S IDEALS. By MRS. ARMEL O'CONNOR. Ludlow: Mary's Meadow Press.
2_s._
GREAT FRENCH SERMONS FROM BOSSUET, BOURDALOUE, AND MASILLON. (Second
Series.) Edited by the REV. D. O'MAHONY. Sands.
AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY. By WILLIAM McDOUGALL. Methuen.
7_s._ 6_d._
A FRAGMENT OF THE HUMAN MIND. By JOHN THEODORE MERZ. Blackwood.
12_s._ 6_d._
SCIENCE
PLEASURE-UNPLEASURE. By A. WOHLEGEMUTH. Cambridge University Press.
14_s._
PSYCHOLOGY OF THE NORMAL AND SUBNORMAL. By HENRY HERBERT GODDARD.
Kegan Paul. 25_s._
APPLIED CHEMISTRY. By C. KENNETH TINKLER and HELEN MASTERS. Crosby
Lockwood. 12_s._ 6_d._
OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY OF BOTANY. By R. J. HARVEY GIBSON. Black.
10_s._
THE LONDON
MERCURY
_Editor_--J. C. SQUIRE _Assistant-Editor_--EDWARD SHANKS
Vol. I No. 5 March 1920
EDITORIAL NOTES
As we write a deputation is to wait upon Mr. Fisher, President of the
Board of Education, in order to press the claims of a National Theatre.
"Why Mr. Fisher?" it may be asked--a member of the deputation was, in
fact, asked the question. The Board of Education cannot establish a
National Theatre; the Treasury would scarcely allow Mr. Fisher to make
a grant to the National Theatre fund; and whatever the advantages of a
National Theatre and the elevating influence which might conceivably
be exercised by the drama, few people think of it _primarily_ as
educational in the narrow sense of the word. The answer given to
the question was: "Because he's the nearest approach we've got to a
Minister of Fine Arts."
* * * * *
We suppose that in this special connection the answer was a true one.
The President of the Board of Education may be supposed to stand in a
closer relation with the drama than other Ministers, though had other
arts been under consideration other Ministers would have been thought
of. Had domestic architecture been the deputation's concern it would
have addressed itself to the Minister of Health, and within a narrow
range Sir Alfred Mond at the Office of Works actually performs some
of the functions of a Minister of Fine Arts. The fabric of the Houses
of Parliament is under his care; his predecessors, Lord Harcourt and
Lord Beauchamp, left their marks upon it. It was the Office of Works
which commissioned and supervised the later frescoes on staircase and
corridor at Westminster, and it is its business to see that alterations
are made consonantly with the character of the structure. But this is a
very minor thing compared with the vast field in which the Government
does at present exercise functions in which æsthetic considerations are
largely involved.
Let us, for a moment, ignore the things which might be done--such as
the subsidisation of a National Theatre--and think of a few of the
things which have been done, or are habitually done. At this moment
a Government department is supervising, or preparing to supervise,
the erection of hundreds of thousands of houses. These houses will
materially affect the architectural landscape. Design, the suitability
of materials to local features and traditions, these things are of
immense importance; what is done depends upon the competence, the
information, the industry, the numerical sufficiency, and the domestic
influence within the Department of the Ministry of Health's experts.
Many departments build, or arrange for building to their own designs,
numerous large public structures, or exercise, or could exercise, a
determining pressure upon the design of buildings erected by local
authorities. You cannot go many miles along the English coast without
finding a barracks, and when you find it you will not like it. We
have a complex of public museums which are the particular care of no
Minister. We have an immense Government printing business which is
directly under the Treasury; it is no powerful person's concern to see
that its publications are well produced. Our Mint produces coins, our
Post Office produces stamps, our War Office produces medals. The most
important medal ever produced by the British Government is the large
memorial bronze plaque which is to be given to the next-of-kin of
nearly a million fallen. The last, word as to the nature of this, and
the process by which it should be made, rested first (we believe) with
the Contracts Branch of the War Office, which has been incorporated
in the Ministry of Munitions. We have mentioned but a few typical
illustrations of the confused, haphazard way in which the State is in
operative contact with the Arts; and even then we have not mentioned
the most recent and striking instances, the commissioning of a large
number of war pictures by a "Minister of Information" who happened
to want to see contemporary art well represented in the Imperial War
Museum, and the employment of both British plays and British drawings
as "propaganda abroad"--the _Salome_ incident may be recalled.
* * * * *
Is there not an overwhelmingly strong case for a Ministry of Fine
Arts? We know there are always those who, when the suggestion is made,
drop the curtain in their minds at once with contemptuous remarks
about "official art." What they ignore is that we are bound to have
"official art," that it could not conceivably be worse than it is, and
that proper organisation would at least give an occasional intelligent
Minister a chance. Design at present is everybody's business and
nobody's business. It is not to be expected that even the most æsthetic
of War Ministers should much preoccupy himself with the "elevations"
of barracks, that the best of Ministers for Education should devote
his days to the physical appearance of schools and training colleges,
that the First Lord of the Admiralty should mind what his Stores
look like, or that even new Government buildings in the middle of
London, though they do engage serious attention sometimes, should be
anything but bad. The Office of Works itself, which actually builds,
is principally concerned with seeing that So-and-so gets so many rooms
and So-and-so has his partition pulled down. There is no specialist
authority in engraving or metal work. Ministers and officials sometimes
consult experts, but it is a matter of chance what sort of experts
they will consult. In no capital, not even in Berlin, are there uglier
Public Offices than there are in Whitehall, or more pretentious
ones. As for the immense amount of War Office building, the Guards
Barracks at Chelsea may stand as a type. We commend them as a medicine
for anyone who suspects himself of exaggerated national vanity. Our
museums are starved. Readers will remember the ridiculous cheeseparing
at Bloomsbury early in the war which, combined with the ruthless
occupation and closing of museums and galleries, reduced many able and
devoted public servants almost to despair. Had these institutions been
under the control of a Minister whose prime concern they were, they
would have had a higher status in Whitehall and he could have fought
for them, as it was no one's interest or business to fight for them.
* * * * *
We believe that in many regards a Minister of Fine Arts would preserve
us from the worst infamies, and that a good Minister of Fine Arts
would have great opportunities of doing more than that. For certain
things he should be directly and solely responsible to Parliament:
the art galleries and those museums which are not first and foremost
technological. It should rest with his department at least to sanction
all designs for public buildings erected by the central authorities,
and it might act in consultative capacity to other authorities.
His staff should include men capable of originating, obtaining, or
vetoing designs for any other department doing work in which design is
important. For the Stationery Office, though it be primarily a (not
very well run) publishing business, we do not see why that should
not be bodily transferred to him. The "format" of most Government
publications is disgraceful, both from the point of view of appearance
and from that of convenience, and were they better produced they might
be better marketed. We are not under the illusion that any Minister
of Fine Arts would initiate great revolutions in Art, but he could
certainly greatly increase our facilities and add to the comfort of our
walks abroad. And, where a subsidy for some definite object such as
the National Theatre is wanted, he would be as the mouthpiece of the
State and a Minister amongst Ministers far more likely to be able to
do something than Mr. Fisher or any other existing Minister. We hope
shortly to return to the subject, one of the few at all impinging on
politics with which we feel entitled to deal.
Several correspondents have written drawing our attention to the prices
paid at the sale of Lord Foley's library and to _Truth's_ comments
on them. The facts in brief are these. The Ruxley Lodge library was
sold locally; there were few, if any, bidders for the important books,
except a number of London booksellers, and the sums fetched were
deplorably small. All four Shakespeare Folios (the third imperfect)
were there. They fetched £100, £46, £28, and £20 respectively.
Two months ago the Britwell copy of the first brought in £2300 at
Sotheby's. Thirteen first editions of Shelley fetched £52 the lot, and
Keats's _Endymion_ and _Lamia_ volumes produced £7 between them. Some
valuable books were lumped in with bundles of miscellaneous books and
went for a song; it is likely that, with such cataloguing, many rare
and valuable works may have escaped mention except as "and others": our
contemporary goes so far as to say that "there is every probability
that in this way old books worth hundreds, even thousands, of pounds
were disposed of for a few shillings."
* * * * *
It is really deplorable that owners, or their executors and legatees,
should suffer thus. Nobody grudges dealers their fair profits, nor
does any one deny that a dealer, like anybody else, is entitled to
pick up bargains because he knows what the other side doesn't know.
But for dealers to combine at an auction in order to prevent a vendor
from having more than a tithe of the known market value of his goods
is another matter. We make no direct allusion to this particular sale.
We did not see the catalogue or the goods, and it is--at any rate for
the purposes of argument--conceivable that the best books may have been
in very bad condition. Nor do we suggest that there are not dealers in
London who keep outside rings and do not take part in "knock-outs." But
everybody knows that there are rings in all the important collectors'
trades, and that these rings frequently put up at auctions--and the
country auction gives them their best chance--the merest simulacrum of
competition bidding and retire to share out the loot among themselves.
In the new volume of Mr. Wilfrid Blunt's Diary there is an account of
the beginnings of the late Sir Hugh Lane's career, given to Mr. Blunt
by Sir Hugh's aunt, Lady Gregory:
She apprenticed him to Colnaghi at a hundred a year, where he learnt
his business of picture-dealing. He began his fortune, she tells me,
by an accident. He happened to hear of a picture which was for sale
in some remote country place, and travelled down to look at it, but,
having no money to buy, although there was almost no bidding, he was
obliged to let it go for a very small price. When the sale was over,
the bidders, who were all professional dealers, went to a public
house, and he with them, and it then turned out that they had been
standing in together not to bid, and they held a private sale of the
picture among themselves, dividing the price realised between them,
and as Lane was known to belong to Colnaghi's he was included in it,
and got £160 as his share.
We have heard, we remember, that the picture was a Hals; at all events
this illustrates the sort of thing that happens. Not long before the
war there was a considerable disturbance about the operations of an
alleged ring at Christie's; there were rumours of knock-outs in which
picture-dealers shared out enormous sums. It was widely argued that
this sort of operation should be legally defined as fraudulent and
legally punished. That nothing came of the agitation, in the light
of the fact that every honest man (which includes dealers who have
been forced into rings) sympathised with the agitators, suggests that
investigation opened up more difficulties than had been suspected.
* * * * *
People are again urging a legal remedy. It appears to us that it would
be impossible to enforce a law preventing rings and knock-out auctions.
Nobody can compel men to bid against each other if they have an
agreement--verbal and private--not to, and though large gatherings for
a knock-out might occasionally be detected (but proof of guilt would
be difficult), two or three are entitled innocently to gather together
and can easily do so for purposes not entirely innocent. An occasional
bad sale in London is bound to occur so long as rich private buyers
continue their modern practice of not attending sales. We don't think
anybody complained about prices when the Huth Library or Lord Vernon's
rarities were sold, and we have been to many quite ordinary sales in
Chancery Lane or Bond Street at which scarcely anything went for less
than the owners had probably paid for it a few years ago. There are
usually quite enough outsiders present to keep prices up, and it is
only by accident that an agreeable little collection sometimes goes at
a sacrifice. Moreover a private buyer, if he bids, is not harried as
he is in some minor rooms where other commodities are sold; and some
of the biggest dealers, if present, act entirely on their own. Such as
the conditions in London are we cannot see much hope of change, unless
and until (as we said) there is a return to the days when peers of the
realm bid against each other for the jewels of the Roxburgh Library
and their friends stood by them betting on the results. But the most
calamitous occurrences, those which take place away from London, might
easily be avoided if owners or executors would have a little sense. It
is hardly conceivable that Lord Foley took really expert advice about
his books; it is certain that if he knew anything about the market
in old books he would never have had his put up at a local auction.
Persons disposing wholesale of valuables, books, pictures, or china,
from country houses should never allow them to be sold in the country.
At Messrs. Sotheby's or Hodgson's, though a bad patch may now and then
be struck, books would never go for the prices fetched at Ruxley Park;
and when a really important collection comes up the big American buyers
are almost invariably present, and the only comment likely to be made
on prices is that there seems no end to their possible inflation.
* * * * *
Last month we stated in this place that we had recovered a few copies
of No. 1 of THE LONDON MERCURY. These are now exhausted. We shall have
no more copies, and if people send us money for No. 1 we shall only be
at the pains of returning it. We would advise those who are anxious to
get No. 1 to take steps to secure it privately, by advertisement or
through secondhand booksellers. We have still a certain stock of No. 2,
and new subscriptions may still begin as from that issue. We repeat our
invitation to readers who will be wanting binding cases for Vol. I. to
let us know.
LITERARY INTELLIGENCE