270 



The Review of Reviews. 



LABOUCHERIANA. 



Mr. G. W. E. Russell contributes to Conihill 

 several characteristic reminiscences of the -late Mr. 

 Labouchere : — 



lie wa> the oracle of an initiated circle, anJ tlie smoking- 

 room of the House of Commons w.ts his slirine. Tiiere, poised 

 in an American rocking-chair and delicately toying with a 

 cigarette, he unlocked the varied treasures of his well-slored 

 memory, and threw over the changing scenes of life the mild 

 light of his genial philosophy. It was a chequered experience 

 that made him what he was. 



HIS " ARTS OF ROMANTIC NARRATIVE." 



He delighted to call himself " the Christian Member 

 for Northampton," in contrast to his colleague, Mr. 

 Bradlaugh. Mr. Russell gently insinuates that the 

 Christian grace of veracity was not characteristic of 

 Labby :— 



I have spoken of the flavour of unreality which was imparted 

 to Labouchere's conversation by his affected cynicism. A 

 similar effect was produced by his manner of personal narrative. 

 Ethics apart, I have no quarrel with the man who romances to 

 amuse his friends ; but the romance shoidd be so conceived and 

 so uttered as to convey a decent sense of probability, or at least 

 possibility. Labouchere's narratives conveyed no such sense. 

 Though amusingly told, they were so outrageously and palpably 

 impossible that his only object in telling them must have been 

 to test one's credulity. I do not mind having my leg pulled, 

 but I dislike to feel the process too distinctly. 



These arts of romantic narrative, only partially successful in 

 ihe smoking-room, were, I believe, practised with great eflect 

 on the electors of Northampton. 



No powers of divination could have ascertained what 

 Labouchere really believed, but I think it was easier to know 

 what he really enjoyed. 



HOW HE WAS SHUT OUT OF THE CABINET. 



Of his exclusion from the Liberal Cabinet in 1892 

 Mr. Russell says, speaking of Mr. Gladstone : — 



He became Prime Minister for the fourth time, and formed 

 his last Cabinet. But he did not find a place in it for 

 Labouchere. licforc he submitted his list to the Queen, he 

 had received a direct intimation that he had better not include 

 in it the name of the editor of I'ruth. On this point Her 

 Majesty was reported to be '* very stiff." Whether that stiffness 

 encountered any corresponding, or conflicting, stifi'ness in the 

 Prime Minister I do not know ; but for my own part I believe 

 that "the Grand Old Man" acquiesced in the exclusion of 

 " Henry " without a sigh or struggle. 



HIS HATRED OF " NONCON. POPES." 



Mr. Russell quotes a letter of the end of iyo6, in 

 which Labouchere wrote : — 



As for the Education liill, 1 do not love Bishops, but I hate 

 far more the Noncon. Popes. Either you must have pure 

 Secularism in public schools, or teach religion of some sort ; 

 and, allho' I personally am an Agnostic, I don't see how 

 -Xtianity is to be taught free from all dogma, and entirely 

 creedlcss, by teachers who do not believe in it. This is the 

 play of " Hamlet " without Hamlet, and acted by persons of his 

 ]>hiloso]>hic doubt. 



" LABBY " ON " JOEY." 



In the same magazine Sir Henry Lucy, in his 

 '■ .Sixty V'ears in the Wilderness," devotes several 

 pages to Labouchere. In a letter of 1886 Labby thus 

 de.scribes Chamberlain : — 



r)ver-bumptiousness is liis weakness. lie imagines that he is 

 the Radical I'arty, and that all depends on him. This is true 

 in Birmingham. Outside they regard him, much as the 



Apostles would have regarded Judas, if he had come swagger- 

 ing in to supper with an orchid in his buttonhole, and said that 

 the Christian religion would not go on, if his " flower " were 

 not adopted, and he recognised as its chief exponent. He is 

 utterly spoilt by the adulation of his fellow-townsmen, and has 

 to learn that England is not Birmingham. 



THE WONDERFUL CAVES OF WESTERN 

 AUSTRALIA. 



In the February \y unhur Mr. C. P. Conigrave gives 

 a fascinating account, with striking illustrations, of 

 the caves found in Western Australia. The Govern- 

 ment has wisely taken precautions to safeguard these 

 natural treasures. In Yallingup there is a series of 

 caverns and chambers, the vestibule of which is known 

 as " The Theatre," and is ht up with electricity. 

 The Wallcliff Cave consists of a cluster of stalagmites 

 which have assumed the shape of a mighty outstretched 

 hand, some five feet in height, known as " The Devil's 

 Hand." Mammoth Ca\e has been wrought by the 

 action of a watercourse. Within, on all sides, are 

 great boulders, massive pillars which rise to the roof, 

 and strange and grotesque formations appear on every 

 side. The cave is twelve chains in length. It com- 

 pletely penetrates a large hill. There have been 

 found in it the remains of the great extinct marsupial 

 diprotodon. Giant Ca\e contains a huge chamber 

 600 feet in length, with vast dome for roof 60 feet 

 from the floor, wherein is found the " Fairies' Ball- 

 room." The Lake Cave, only recently discovered, is 

 singularly like a subterranean Polar sea — everything 

 white, pure crystal white. Its most remarkable 

 feature is the suspended table, which measures 15 feet 

 in length and 4 feet in breadth, the stalactitic supports 

 being several feet in circumference and remarkably 

 corrugated. The Yanchep Caves are only thirty-five 

 miles to the north of Perth. 



WHAT JAPAN HAS DONE IN MANCHURIA. 



Mr. Lindsay Russell, speaking to the Japanese 

 in the Orienlal Review for February, says that Japan's 

 main achievements in Manchuria during six years 

 have been the construction of 189 miles of railroad 

 over a mountainous country, the widening of its 

 gauge, then the reduction of its gauge in the South 

 Manchurian Railway on taking it over from Russia, 

 and the conversion of the entire road (470 miles) to 

 the standard gauge and its equipment with American 

 rolling-stock. 'I'he town of Dairen now compares 

 favourably with any town in America of 60,000 in 

 population. The Japanese concession at Mukden is 

 becoming a modern model city. What Mr. Russell 

 thinks the most remarkable achievement of all is thai 

 Japan has created one of the greatest industries of 

 modern times — the bean and bean-oil trade, nowf ' 

 Manchuria's chief export and greatest wealth-producer . 



A VERY realistic sketch of the French student of 

 to-day is given in the Lady's Realm by Rowland' 

 Strong. 



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