It was pointed out by Charles Dickens in Little Dorrit, which remains
the most accurate and penetrating study of the genteel littleness of
our class governments in the English language, that whenever an abuse
becomes oppressive enough to persuade our party parliamentarians
that something must be done, they immediately set to work to face
the situation and discover How Not To Do It. Since Dickens's day
the exposures effected by the Socialists have so shattered the
self-satisfaction of modern commercial civilization that it is no longer
difficult to convince our governments that something must be done,
even to the extent of attempts at a reconstruction of civilization on
a thoroughly uncommercial basis. Consequently, the first part of the
process described by Dickens: that in which the reformers were snubbed
by front bench demonstrations that the administrative departments were
consuming miles of red tape in the correctest forms of activity, and
that everything was for the best in the best of all possible worlds,
is out of fashion; and we are in that other phase, familiarized by the
history of the French Revolution, in which the primary assumption is
that the country is in danger, and that the first duty of all parties,
politicians, and governments is to save it. But as the effect of this
is to give governments a great many more things to do, it also gives a
powerful stimulus to the art of How Not To Do Them: that is to say, the
art of contriving methods of reform which will leave matters exactly as
they are.
The report of the Joint Select Committee is a capital illustration of
this tendency. The case against the censorship was overwhelming; and the
defence was more damaging to it than no defence at all could have
been. Even had this not been so, the mere caprice of opinion had turned
against the institution; and a reform was expected, evidence or no
evidence. Therefore the Committee was unanimous as to the necessity of
reforming the censorship; only, unfortunately, the majority attached
to this unanimity the usual condition that nothing should be done to
disturb the existing state of things. How this was effected may be
gathered from the recommendations finally agreed on, which are as
follows.
1. The drama is to be set entirely free by the abolition of the existing
obligation to procure a licence from the Censor before performing a
play; but every theatre lease is in future to be construed as if it
contained a clause giving the landlord power to break it and evict the
lessee if he produces a play without first obtaining the usual licence
from the Lord Chamberlain.
2. Some of the plays licensed by the Lord Chamberlain are so vicious
that their present practical immunity from prosecution must be put an
end to; but no manager who procures the Lord Chamberlain's licence for
a play can be punished in any way for producing it, though a special
tribunal may order him to discontinue the performance; and even this
order must not be recorded to his disadvantage on the licence of his
theatre, nor may it be given as a judicial reason for cancelling that
licence.
3. Authors and managers producing plays without first obtaining the
usual licence from the Lord Chamberlain shall be perfectly free to do
so, and shall be at no disadvantage compared to those who follow the
existing practice, except that they may be punished, have the licences
of their theatres endorsed and cancelled, and have the performance
stopped pending the proceedings without compensation in the event of the
proceedings ending in their acquittal.
4. Authors are to be rescued from their present subjection to an
irresponsible secret tribunal which can condemn their plays without
giving reasons, by the substitution for that tribunal of a Committee of
the Privy Council, which is to be the final authority on the fitness of
a play for representation; and this Committee is to sit in camera if and
when it pleases.
5. The power to impose a veto on the production of plays is to be
abolished because it may hinder the growth of a great national drama;
but the Office of Examiner of Plays shall be continued; and the Lord
Chamberlain shall retain his present powers to license plays, but shall
be made responsible to Parliament to the extent of making it possible
to ask questions there concerning his proceedings, especially now that
members have discovered a method of doing this indirectly.
And so on, and so forth. The thing is to be done; and it is not to be
done. Everything is to be changed and nothing is to be changed. The
problem is to be faced and the solution to be shirked. And the word of
Dickens is to be justified.