172 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



April 1, 1913. 



partisans of the cause which I represent, 

 be convinced that my gratitude towards 



them will only cease with my life. 1 



shall die with a feeling of profound 

 gratitude for Her Majesty the Queen 

 of England, for all the Royal Family, 

 and for the country where for eighteen 

 years I have received such cordial hos- 

 pitality. 1 appoint my beloved 



mother my only legatee (after certain 

 legacies which are named have been 

 paid.) 



CODICIL. 

 " I have no need to request my mother 

 not to neglect anything to defend the 



memory of my great-uncle and of my 

 father. I beg her to remember that so 

 long as there are Bonapartes the Im- 

 perial cause will have representatives. 

 The duties of our house are not extin- 

 guished with my life. When I am 

 dead the duty of continuing the work 

 of Napoleon I. and Napoleon III. falls 

 on the eldest son of Prince Napoleon, 

 and I hope that my beloved mother, in 

 seconding it to the utmost of her 

 power, will give us who will be no more 

 this last and supreme proof of affection. 

 " Napoleon, Chislehurst, Feb. 27th, 



1879." 



MARIE CORELLI ON WAR. 



The " star turn " on Naslts bill is 

 Marie Corelli, who contributes an ap- 

 peal against war, entitled " Savage 

 Glory." As might be expected, the ap- 

 peal is pitched in a very high key. The 

 argument is a comprehensive chal- 

 lenge : — 



Civilisation is a great word. It reads well 

 — it is used everywhere — it bears itself 

 proudly in the language. It is a big mouth- 

 ful of arrogance and self-sufficiency. The 

 very sound of it flatters our vanity and tes- 

 tdfies to the good opinion we have of our- 

 selves. We boast of "Civilisation" as if we 

 were really civilised — just as we talk of 

 "Christianity" as if we were really Chris- 

 tians. Yet it is all the veriest game of 

 make-believe, for we are mere savages still. 

 Savages in " the lust of the eye and pride 

 of life" — savages in our national prejudices 

 and animosities, our jealousies, our greed 

 and malice, and savages in our relentless 

 efforts to over-reach or pull down_ each ot)her 

 in social and business relations. If any com- 

 firmation of such a statement be needed, it 

 is found in the fact that war is still per- 

 mitted to exist. War is unquestionably the 

 thrust and blow of untamed savagery in the 

 face of civilisation. No special pleading can 

 make it anything else. 



This is, alas ! so much beating of the 

 air ; it has been said with greater 

 vehemence by anarchists and with more 

 restraint by Carlyle and Ruskin. 



Miss Corelli, faced with the " popu- 

 larity " of war, seeks to trace the causes, 

 and finds the offenders to be Jews and 

 journalists : — • 



Roughly speaking, most of the money ad- 

 vanced as interest for all important purposes 

 comes from the Jews. All nations are more 

 or less under the thumb of Israel, disguise it 

 as we will or may. No great scheme either 

 in peace or war can be started witihout Jew- 



ish gold and Jewish support. . . . Unc- 

 tuous newspaper articles lamenting the " hor- 

 rors " of war and disclaiming all responsi- 

 bility for fermenting and agitating the 

 motives of quarrel, are only so much mean- 

 ingless "copy." Whereas the very sugges- 

 tion of war is a paying "sensation" for 

 pressmen — it gives plenty of opening tor big 

 "head-lines" and attractive "posters," 

 which help to sell their penny or halfpenny 

 sheets to the best advantage. 



If the Press were really responsible 

 for war, peace would not be difficult of 

 attainment. 



Miss Corelli is horrified at the recent 

 development in the instruments of de- 

 struction : — - 



Another instrument of treachery is the 

 submarine — a truly devilish invention devised 

 for the avowed object of destroying war-ves- 

 sels by murderous action from the hidden 

 depths of the sea. 



And now, not satisfied with attack from 

 the secret depths of the ocean, we are pre- 

 paring to sihower bombs upon our enemies 

 from " military aeroidanes," so that the 

 hitherto neutral skies will be made spaces 

 of vantage for pitiless assault. All these 

 "civilised" inventions for the practice of 

 barbarity ought to give so-called " Chris- 

 tian " Empires food for serious thought, yet, 

 strange to say, it would seem that every new 

 and more murderous weapon of warfare is 

 hailed with columns of praise in the press 

 and such general acclamation as may truly 

 be called "savage," — ^for no "civilised" 

 community, educated according to all that 

 we boast of in our advanced state of pro- 

 or would rejoice over the con- 

 mere killing machines for the 

 their fellow-creatures. There- 

 be asked — Are we truly " civi- 

 it all a sham ? Are we really 

 humane, or as bloodthirsty as when, in our 

 aboriginal savagery, we cracked open the 

 skulls of our enemies with flint axe's? 



gress, could 

 struction of 

 slaughter of 

 fore, it may 

 lised," or is 



