284 



I he Heview of Heviews, 



March iO, 1906. 



THE ARRIVAL OF THE LABOUR PARTY. 



Mr. E. E. Kellett, -M.A., reviewing Mr. Justin 

 M'Carthy^s " History of Our Own Times," in tiie 

 London 'Quarterly Rcviau, thinks that the emergence 

 of Imperialism is not the chief factor of the last 

 decade. Rather would he find its chief characteristic 

 to be the birth of a kind of t-nlightened Socialism, 

 the progress of the Woman question, but e^-en more 

 notablv the advent of Labour. Writing before the 

 elections had taken place, his words are worth 

 quoting : — 



With Labour, organised, powerlul, and self-conscioua. the 

 nation of the near future will have to deal. Parties are 

 at present formed largely on their attitude to issues of 

 another kind; tliej' will soon be formed almost solelj- on 

 their attitude to labour issues. It may l)e that at last 

 the middle classes will unite to present a solid front asjainst 

 a combination of the aristocracy w.th ilie working classee: 

 it may be that they will endeavour to unite with their 

 social superiors. But, for good or evil, they will have to 

 face the Labour Party and a new and formidable set of 

 demands, 'ihev must make up their minds how to deal 

 with it. Without striving or crying, the working classes 

 have, during the last few ye;irs, asserted their share in the 

 national existence as tliey never (iid before. 



The Labour Party also has the strength that comes of 

 independence, they are solid, and they stand apart, owing 

 allegiance to no Whip, and all the more likelv to be 

 courted equally by Government and Opposition. With the 

 determination, now so fixed, that Parliament shall cease 

 to be a, mere liouse of postponement and palaver, it is prac- 

 tically certain that great and far-reaching measures will 

 be passed. Old-age pensions, for example, may well be- 

 come a reality in a few months. 



The Economic Rcviav contains a paper on the 

 South Wales coal trade by V. L Jones, which gives 

 the following information on the way in which Welsh 

 labour supports its Parliam«nt.Tr\ and municipal 

 developments : — 



The South Wales Miners' Federation, since 1952, has voted 

 an annual parliamentary levy of Is. per member for direct 

 Labour representation. This ftyid already supports two 

 Ms. P.. and is capable of maintaining another eight. At 

 present there are five miners' candidates nominated, and a 

 few more are likely to be brought out in time for the 

 General Elect'on. One or two of them have safe heats, and 

 most of them fair chances of success. On local public 

 bodies Labour representation was greatly strengthened at 

 the last November elections. The borough of Merthyr, 

 which received its charter last year, out of a total council 

 of twenty-four returned twelve Lai)our members. One of 

 these, a miners' agent, was elected as the first Mayor of 

 the new borough. Moreover, the miners of South Wales as 

 a body voluntarily granted a substantial sum to help to 

 meet the expenses of this Mayor during his rear of of&ce. 

 Such is the trend of events in the Labour movement in 

 Wales. 



THE MAKING OF A DICTIONARY. 



In the World's Work Mr. R. M. Leonard gives 

 some particulars of the manner of making the great 

 " English Dialect Dictionary," which has occupied 

 Professor Joseph Wright, of Oxford, for nine years, 

 the first part having appeared in July, 1896, and the 

 last in October, 1905. Professor Wright, who is just 

 fifty years old, did not learn even to read until he 

 was practically a man, having been put to work at 

 seven years of age in a mill, at 3s. 3d. a week. 

 Eight years after having begun to learn his letters, 

 he matriculated at London University, having been 

 most of that time w^orking for his living sixty-five 

 hours a week. He succeeded Professor Max Miiller 



as Professor of Comparative Philology at Oxford. 

 The Dictionary contains some 100,000 words and 

 about 500,000 quotations and references to glos- 

 saries : — ■ 



The ■■ Dialect Dictionary " includes, «o far as possible, the 

 complete vocabulary of all dialect words which are still in 

 use or are known to liave been in use at any time during 

 tiie last two hundred years in Scotland. Ireland, England 

 and Wales. It also includes American and Colonial di.alect 

 words which are still in use in Great Britain and Ireland, 

 or w^hicli are to be found in early printed dialect books 

 and glossaries. All words occurring both in the literary 

 language and the dialects, but witn some local peculiarity 

 of meaning in the latter, are also included. 



There is also a great deal about popular customs 

 and superstitions, rural games, and pastimes. The 

 entire cost of this monumental work, which, as is 

 pointed out, can never become superseded or out of 

 date, has been ;^20,ooo. The smallness of the bill, 

 considering the greatness of the work, is largely due 

 to ha\ing the copy carefully subedited and ready 

 six months before being set up, authors corrections 

 being thus largely avoided. Mrs. Wright has sub- 

 eilited almost the whole work (from volume B), and 

 the whole staff assisting Professor Wright consisted 

 of well-paid, highly educated women. The Diction- 

 ary has been issued to time as punctually as a daily 

 newspaper. 



EASTERN IDEAS OF FEMALE BEAUTY. 



In the Grand Magazine Mr. Y . Boyle pn^sents cer- 

 tain Eastern views of beauty. He reminds us that 

 even the Japanese, who love anything foreign if it be 

 good, are not reconciled to European beauty. He 

 says : — 



Certainly the contrast between a Japanese girl, five feet 

 high, with vellow-white skin and narrow eyes, and a ruddy 

 voung English giantess must be startling at first. But 

 the words of Professor Okakura suggest, though he was 

 too polite to speak plainly, that the latter is positively 

 distasteful, and so remains, more or less, after any length 

 of time. 



After remarking on the Oriental objection to 

 European ruddiness, he says that as the Westerns 

 take the rose as a standard simile for beauty, so the 

 Orientals take the moon. He goes on: — 



In his valuable treatise on Malay Magic, Mr. Skeat gives 

 a list of the charms attributed to a young beauty by her 

 admirers of that race, collected from popular ballads. 

 Her forehead is like a one-day-old moon— of course. Her 

 eyebrows, arched like a fighting-cock's spur, are pictured 

 clouds; her cheek resembles a slice of mango— we hope 

 the reader can appreciate this remarkable simile; her 

 nose reminds one of the opening jasmine bud, and her 

 hair of the wavv blossom-shoots of the areca palm. Ber 

 head is shaped like a bird's-ege, her fingers are spears of 

 lemon-grass or else quills of porcupine, her eyes like the 

 splendour of the planet Venus, and her lips like the fissure 

 of a pomegranate. 



According to the Hindu Code of Manu, it is urged 

 that a decent young man should marry a girl that 

 would "walk gracefully, like a young elephant." 

 •• In the epics and love verse of India the heroine 

 swims or sways, or even rolls, like an elephant, as a 

 matter of course." The Moors delight in women 

 with projecting front teeth, and of twenty-stone 

 weight. Moles are adored by Arabs, Persians and 

 Indians, especially upon the cheek. 



