NOTES 151 



which he is destined to spend the rest of his life. Doubtless the 

 Bumbles who manage these costly but almost useless concerns 

 will take off their hats to him whenever they see him — just as 

 the whole nation does to those who give it benefits in the lines 

 of art and science. Even the Times exclaims to the effect that 

 there is no class which has a greater claim on the nation than 

 disabled warriors, and we read that the nation is burning to 

 acknowledge the claim and to do its duty by these splendid 

 heroes. Precisely : but the values of things are usually measured 

 in currency. Let us see by how much cash this ardent spirit 

 will be measured. Supposing that the two or three hundred 

 thousand pounds a year which Parliament takes out of the 

 exchequer for its admirable government of the country should 

 be cut up amongst our disabled soldiers — how would that strike 

 the nation ? and why should not our Ministers of State work 

 merely for the honour of the thing, just as do our best scientific 

 investigators, poets, philosophers, and other people who perhaps 

 confer even larger benefits on the public ? Still further, if we 

 can pay thousands a year to any political adventurer for signing 

 his name to documents about which he knows little or nothing, 

 surely we might spare a little more money to those whose arms 

 and legs are blown off them in the trenches. We suspect that 

 at the end of the war this question will be raised somewhat more 

 insistently than it has been raised up to the present. 



A Hoped-for Revolution in Britain 



On May 11 Lord C. Beresford asked the Prime Minister in 

 the House of Commons, " Whether he would consider the 

 desirability of arranging that every man who had volunteered 

 for the war, and so risked his life in the service of, and defence 

 of the country, should be entitled at the age of twenty-one to a 

 Parliamentary vote during his lifetime, irrespective of other 

 qualifications ? " At the same time Mr. H. Terrell asked the 

 Prime Minister, " Whether he would give the House an 

 opportunity of discussing the question whether all men who 

 had recognised their duty to the country by serving in His 

 Majesty's naval and military forces during the war ought to be 

 given a voice in the management of the affairs of the country ? " 

 To these Mr. Asquith replied, " that he could only repeat that 

 the whole question of franchise and registration is receiving 

 careful and detailed consideration, and he hoped shortly to be 



