i68 



The Review of Reviews. 



THE DELHI DURBAR. 



Indian Opinion. 



TiiK Modern Review for January is grateful, but 

 only subduedly grateful, for the Delhi boons. The 

 editor says : — 



Whatever the genesis of the ch-inges, let us on this solemn 

 occasion bow down in all humility before the throne of the 

 Most Hiyh and pray to him to teach us wherein lies true 

 strength and the way to conserve it. Let us not forget, too, in 

 the midst of our rejoicings, all who Iiave suffered, directly or 

 indirectly, on account of' the partition and for undoing the 

 partition. 



Among the Durbar boons which will be appreciated is the 

 grant of fifty lakhs for popular education. The amount is not 

 large, considering the vast extent and population of India, but 

 it will be a blessing if it foreshadows a policy of universal 

 education. 



Among the boons that have been missed are commissions for 

 Indian soldiers, the grant of the right of volunteering to 

 Indian citizens, and the liberation of prisoners who have been 

 guilty only of political offences. 



How THE Durbar Affected the Crowd. 



'l"he February Blachcood contains an account of 

 the Durbar from the crowd, which is much more 

 interesting than any amount of gorgeous rhetoric from 

 the Press stand. After the King passed, the writer 

 reports the gossip that followed : — 



One other topic, too, w.as a common one, and showing, 

 perhaps, how the great machinery of goverrmient pinches as it 

 grinds. Never, said' the old country folk, had the police been so 

 miluban, so kind. It was no longer " J/iil jao,'' and "Get 

 away out of this," and " .Serve you right if you do get run 

 over !" but "Would you be so good as to move along," and 

 " Grandfer, mind the motor," and the like. " No doubt," as 

 one old farmer said, "the Bm/s/icVi had given orders to the 

 police to treat his subjecis properly ; it w.is only real BaJs/ui/is 

 who thought of poor folk in the streets." .A.!rd a ragged leper 

 by the roadside waving the flics from its (you could hardly say 

 his) face, with fingcrless stumps, cried in a voice forged on 

 anvils hot with pain, that the Queen herself had heard and 

 ordered relief. Wherever one \\'ent, wherever one listened, was 

 the same chorus of contentment that i\\eBaJs/iah had come and 

 been seen by his people, and stirred the pride of other days. 



In the streets all the school children had been provided with 

 a medal bearing the heads of their Majesties, and showed them 

 off eagerly, and even away in the village schools a similar dis- 

 tribution had been m.ade. In all the streets ;he veterans paraded 

 their intense satisfaction — for had not his .Majesty actually spent 

 over an hour going down their ranks, speaking to almost every 

 one, and making kindly remarks in their own language ? It is 

 good to cherish the mtn who have carried the eagles, and the 

 Jirtdshah had not forgotten. " When," said one triumphant old 

 man, who had been serving as a mace-bearer, "did a king in 

 the Mogul days ever allow such as me to come within a luuulred 

 feet of hiin, but this Biilshiih has shaken hands with me, and- 

 called me faithful, and the (Juccn has given nie a medal ; was 

 ever such a Raj before ? " 



Lord Moulicy's Mautvrdo.m. 



Sir W. Weddcrburn, writing in the Coiileiiiporary 

 Rti'iav, thus sums ui) the inner history of these great 

 events : — 



The Partition oT Bengal was the central fact. Krom the 

 biginning Lord Morley held that it was wrong ; he declared it 

 lo be " wholly and decisively " against the wishes of the people, 

 liat he was faced by two impossibilities. On the one hand, the 

 conciliation of Itulia was impossible tuiless the r.irliiion u'as 



rectified ; on the other hand, the passing of the Reform .\cl, 

 on which the future of India depended, was impossible unless 

 the rectification w,as postponed. Accordingly he postponed the 

 rectification, taking upon himself a long martyrdom of repioach, 

 both in India and in this country. He insured the success of 

 his great scheme of reform, and at the psychological moment he 

 stood aside, and left to others the crowning of the edifice. 



WORLD SCOUTS v. BOY SCOUTS. 



The American Magazine for January contains a 

 very interesting illustrated paper on " World Scouts," 

 written 'by Albert J. Nock. Mr. Nock is an enthu- 

 siastic admirer of Sir Franci.s Vane, publishes an 

 excellent portrait of Sir ^Francis as the frontispiece, 

 and declares that he is " the most remarkable and 

 interesting man that I had the fortune to meet in all 

 Europe. This is Sir Francis Vane, si.xth in line 

 from the Sir Harry Vatie of Cromwell's time. Sir 

 Francis Vane is an aristocrat of the purest type." 

 Mr. Nock says : — 



The original .Scout movement was a stroke of genius, nothing 

 else. ."Ml honour to Sir Robert Baden-Powell for it. His 

 scheme was one of the few that light up the centuries. It inter- 

 preted the instincts and aspirations of boyhood and suggested 

 the direction they should lake. Too much cannot be said for 

 it ; it cannot be overpraised. But the collective selfishness 

 that we miscall patriotism laid hold of it and drove it awry. 

 Selfishness in boy, man or nation is bound to go wrong. Now 

 the thing is, to show the organisers of the original Seoul 

 movement that they have made a false step. The ideal of 

 patriotism to be set before boys is the ideal of the World 

 .Scouts, — an ideal that has no spark of racial animosity. 



Sir Francis Vane has founded the World Scouts on 

 an anti-military basis, and has restored the movement 

 to its proper bearings : — 



It has been a wonderful success. In the few months of their 

 existence the muster-roll has gone up to fifty thousand, and is 

 growing daily by shoals. There are World Scouts of England. 

 Australia, Fr.ince, Germany, even of Russia. Mr. Slobody- 

 anikov. Master of the first Classical Gymnasium at Kherson, 

 was in London in July and addressed a Scout parade at .Soulh- 

 wark. Italy has Scout Corps in thirty-five cities and villages. 

 The King of Italy reviewed them recently, and many of tiie 

 most prominent Italians are engaged in the movement. The 

 peace sentiment is strong in Italy, and the Scout idea takes hold 

 at once. 



Now, being turned off from following a false ideal of 

 chivalry, the Scout learns indirectly how lo gel at the true. 

 Scouts are started out in twos and threes, as I w.as continually 

 seeing them in the London streets, to find something good that 

 neetls tloing and do it. Perhaps it is some old woman that 

 needs to be piloted over a crowded crossing ; perhaps a cat or 

 dog to be rescued from cruelty ; perhaps a child to be fished 

 out of the Thames. 



Mr. Nock concludes his article by suggesting that 

 the .\merican Boy Scouts should all become World 

 Scouts. He says : — 



America, with its half million boy Scouts already enrolled, is 

 the very place to effect a substantial federation of the World 

 Scouts with the original movement. American boys are the 

 ones to say that the Boy Scout ideal is not half large enough or 

 half progressive enough to suit. 



I venture to ask Mr, Roosevelt whether he might not sec hi:; 

 own way to a permanent place in tlie world's history by leailing 

 the slurily march of American childhood through paths of real 

 chivalry and real adventure towards the pure ideal of ciiild- 

 hood's natural romance. 



