362 



The Review of Reviews. 



Pirrie, an Irish Scot born in Canada, who owns the 

 largest shipyard in Great Britain, and I had to add 

 that whenever he should see fit — may the day be 

 long distant 1 — the control of Harland and Wolff 

 would pass to the firm of J. Brown and Co. But 

 who are J. Brown and Co. ? Under the cover of 

 this English name we find the Scot lurking and the 

 Welshman in ambush. For the chairman of J. Brown 

 and Co., the head of the vastest industrial organisation 

 of our time, is Lord Aberconway, better known as 

 Sir Charles Maclarcn, a Scotchman by name and by 

 origin, who, with a Welsh fortune and a Welsh title, 

 dominates the armour-plate industry of Sheffield, the 

 Clydebank shipbuilding yards of Scotland, and who 

 will in due course of time straddle the Irish Sea and 

 control Harland and Wolff. 



But why labour this point ? Enough lias surely 

 been said to justify this lament over the dethroned 

 sovereign John Bull. But one thing must be added. 

 Those who have spent many hours pacing the outer 

 Lobby of the House of Commons must oft have 

 noticed, and perhaps sometimes have wondered at, the 

 fact that no one can enter the House of Commons 

 without passing under the window on which is 

 emblazoned the arms and the picture of St. David, 

 the patron saint of Wales. St. George guards the 

 portals of the House of Lords. The House of Commons 

 can only be approached through the gateway guarded 

 by St. David. ^Vherein there lies a parable. The 

 most puissant Minister of the Crown and the supreme 

 Lord of the Exchcfiucr of the Empire is none other 

 than the Welshman, David lay name, better known as 

 Lloj'd George, who has been raised up in these latter 

 days to wreak vengeance on the enemies of the 

 Cymri and establish the rule of the Celt over 

 the Saxon. The envious, blackhearted Saxon,' fore- 

 seeing the triumph of David, sought to slay him 

 in the streets of Birmingham, as Saul sought in old 

 times to .slay another David. But Lloyd George 

 escaped out of the hands of his persecutor wearing the 

 disguise of a policeman. Novvada\-s, casting off the 

 constable's uniform, he reigns supreme over the 

 national Treasury. 



When w'e turn to the Colonies we find Scotchmen 

 ivcrvwherc to the front. Last month Sir J. Ward, in 

 New Zealand, had to give way to a Scotch Premier in 

 the person of the Hon.T'homas Mackenzie. The Prime 

 .Minister of Australia is a Scotchman, Mr. Fisher, and 

 the strongest State Premier in the Commonweath is 

 Mr. McGowan. In South Africa the Prime Minister is 

 a Dutchman. Canada only the other day had as 

 Premier a Frenchman. All round the world the 

 Englishman humbly takes a bark scat. 



And vet, as our spirited contemporary — the Ens^lisii 

 7?acf— reminds us — " (a) England contributes over 

 i)o per cent, of the Imperial Revenue ; (/') 80 per cent, 

 nf the persntniel of the British Army aie Englishmen 

 (jour soldiers out of e\ery five !) : (r) above ()0 per 

 cent, of the personnel of the Royal Navy, the best in 

 the world, are English ! " 



.Ml that avails us nothing. We pay : ollurs spend. 



For John Bull is dethroned in the Empire which he 

 created, and the Scotchman, the Welshman, and the 

 Irishman occupy his vacant throne. 



The Session is monopolised by the junior partners. 

 Scotland and Wales have paralysed all legislation by 

 the coal strike, which has cost the English working 

 classes fifteen millions in wages alone. The rest of 

 the .Session is to be divided between the Disestablish- 

 ment of the Welsh Church and the Bill establishing 

 Home Rule in Ireland. Ever since 1868 Ireland has 

 demanded and obtained the lion's share of the atten- 

 tion of Parliament. It does not matter whether Whigs 

 or Tories fill the Ministry, the Irish piper sets the tune 

 to which the}' dance. Mr. Redmond, with his seventy- 

 three obcflient followers, holds the life of the Ministry 

 in the hollow of his hand. Whenever a crisis arises the 

 English -Ministers must "toe the line" or surrender 

 office. Money by the hundred millions is poured out on 

 the conversion of Irish tenants into Irish freeholders. 

 Labourers' cottages, light railways, a beneficent Provi- 

 dence in the shape of a Congested District Board, a new 

 university, anything and everything that Ireland asks 

 for Ireland gets, while John Bull humbly stands hat in 

 hand in the corridor waiting his turn. When Old Age 

 Pensions are distributed the Irish, who need them 

 least, receive the most. Wherever we turn it is the same 

 old story — " The Irish first ; you can wait." 



Some day, perhaps, the worm will turn. But then it 

 inav be too late. 



Now that we have realised our subjugation, we find 

 on every hand symbols of our conquest bv the 

 Celt. 



The cominonest objects which meet our eye when 

 we take our walk along the riverside blazon forth the 

 story of the triumph of the exultant conqueror. The 

 Monument, which like " some tall bully lifts its head 

 and lies," with its lying legend of the Fire of London, 

 is comparatively unnoticed. On the other side of the 

 Thames far loftier towers rise skyward, to attest the 

 victories and enforce the dominance of the Irish and 

 the Scotch. On one side of Waterloo Bridge one lofty 

 pile proclaims to the subject race that if they want 

 the cup that cheers but never inebriates they must 

 purchase the teas of an Irishman. But it is on the 

 other side of the Bridge that the supreme Scot dazzles 

 the eye from eventide till midnight by the most glaring 

 and insolent assertion of the ascendency of the North 

 Briton. Disdaining the commonplace resource. of mere 

 letters, the Scot assails and affronts the eye of every 

 passer-by, the literate or illiterate, by an illuminated 

 living picture of t^e triumphant hjbro, the embodiment 

 of the national genius clad in all the romantic dignity 

 of kilts, engaged the livelong night in filling his glass 

 with Scotch whisky, and pouring it down his insatiable 

 gullet. '' Behold," it seems to say, " the cause of the 

 downfall of John Bull ! — the secret of Scottish domina- 

 tion. Where is there an Englishman among all your 

 millions who can keep on drinking so much pure spirit 

 and pres('rve a le\el head ? But how easy it is to a 

 Scc)tchman ! " So let us bow down and worship the 

 superior race. 



