Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



3^9 



BRITISH DEMOCRACY AND FOREIGN POLICY. 



In tho .\iniitetith Century and Ajter Mr. N'cel 

 Buxton writes on diplomacy in Parliament. He 

 points out that the upper clas.s, which has long lost 

 its administrative domination over home government, 

 retains it in foreign affairs. This upper class is almost 

 entirely Conservative, and Parliamentary control has 

 been dormant. " Thus at the very moment when 

 international forces are becoming more- democratic, 

 progressive and pacific, the inspiration of our diplomacy 

 lends to grow more discordantjvith the public opinion 

 it should represent." 



The Foreign Office suffers not only from the natural 

 infirmities of all officialism, but from the abnormal 

 misfortune of being practically free from criticism. 

 It has the dangerous security of isolation, and the 

 further danger of restricted competition for places in 

 its service. The candidate has not only to pass the 

 gauntlet of nomination, which is intended to limit 

 the profession to members of the Upper Ten, but has 

 to show that he has private means to the extent of 

 not less than £400 a year. A great deal more than 

 £400 a year is necessary, his official pay being a 

 negligible quantity. Hence the men who take up 

 diplomacy are in many cases rich men who want an 

 interest in life, or who intend to retire after a few years. 

 'I'he writer urges the amalgamation of Foreign Office 

 and diplomatic services, and, as in other .States, an 

 interchange between the diplomatic and consular 

 service, 'i'he arguments for our privileged caste 

 system arc that the diplomatist should be able to 

 make himself freely acquainted with people of impor- 

 tance. But in these days real power resides 

 increasingly in classes outside the Upper Ten. Now- 

 adays, of what use to the Foreign Minister would be 

 a nian who mainly studied the rich } One of the 

 difficulties we have to contend with is the impression 

 .often made by ICnglishmen abroad, the sense of his 

 own nation's sujjeriority, which makes him .show a 

 genial contempt of less favoured people. This does 

 not point to retaining the method of a privileged caste. 

 Englishmen are sneered at for their " typical coiffure 

 and monocular equipment," still more for their prefer- 

 ence for golf as against work, which discounts the 

 Englishman from the point of view of utility to a 

 needy Government; and for " snobbism," to an 

 extent unknown amongst French or Germans. Mr. 

 Buxton presses for adequate pay and appointment 

 by merit. Official committees of Parliament in the 

 end will, .Mr. Buxton thinks, be forced upon us, but 

 in the meantime unofficial committees are in existence. 

 They form a protest against the obscurantist doctrine 

 of diplomacy, tli<- concealment from the public of the 

 general outlines of our foreign policy. " Liberals feel 

 that this is based on an assumption, as to the designs 

 1 and powers o( one great Continental .State, which 

 I cannot be sub^t.lntiated ; and it is felt that the 

 policy is virtually dictated by a very small number 

 of permanent men at the Foreign Office and in 

 <liplomacy." 



THE IDEAL PUBLIC-HOUSE. 



i;v Mr. F. E. Smith. 

 In a paper in the Nineteenth Century, entitled " True 

 Lines of Temperance Reform." Mr. F. E. Smith 

 sketches his owti ideal of the public-house. He says :— 



The ideal public-house would be, allowing, of course, plenty 

 of scope for local variations, a commodious and decent Ijuilding, 

 into which any.passer-by might enter and call for any reasonable 

 kind of refreshment — food or drink, the Latter alcoholic or 

 non-alcoholic. He should be able to consume these refresh- 

 ments comfortably scaled in a room well lit, warmed and 

 ventilated. lie should be able not only to smoke, but if he 

 chose, to obtain the materials for smoking also on the premise?. 

 The place should be so repulable that, whatever his social 

 position, he could enter it opinly, and even take his wife and 

 children witli him and find suitable refreshment there for them. 

 If he were alone he should be able to call for or purchase in the 

 house newspapers and magazines If he had any business to 

 transact there should be a telephone on the premises for his 

 use. If he had one or more friends, and the party desired 

 amusement other than conversation, they should be able to call 

 for cards, chess or dominoes, or quoits and bowls in the country. 

 Or, if they desired more passive amusement, there should be 

 music to listen to. The humblest inn could provide an hour or 

 two a day of piano playing ; the richer — the large houses in 

 wealthy towns— could furnish a small orchestra and a vocalist 

 or two. And there is no reason why dancing should not be 

 permitted under due guarantees of respectability. 



This is the ideal public-house. Such a house as this would 

 add to the innocent enjoyment of the people, and would be an 

 incentive to temperance and good order. No one would 

 misbehave himself in such surroundings by drinking to excess, 

 or by any other form of disorder ; public opinion would make 

 such conduct impossible. Upon young people of the working 

 and lower middle classes such a house would exercise a positive 

 influence for good. It would improve their manners, and might 

 improve their morals. They would be better in such a house 

 than in prowling streets and lanes at night ; and they would 

 avoid that boredom which is the fruitful parent of all kinds of 

 mischief. 



Can this ideal be realised ? It evidently can. There are 

 difficulties in the way, of course. Has any reform ever been 

 known that has not had to encounter difficulties? 



.Ml this beautiful prelude leads up to the significant 

 onclusion that among the things wanted are the 

 removal of a few useless restrictions from the Statute 

 Hook, and an end of confiscatory attacks upon the 

 trade. Ahem ! 



JOHN MILTON, JOURNALIST. 



Undkr this title Mr. J. B. Williams recalls how 

 Masson discovered in the Register of the Company of 

 Stationers that : — 



on March 20;h, 1651, the printer, Thomas Ncwcombe, entered 

 six copies of Merairius J\-lit:c.s "hy order of Mr. Milton," 

 (ind that all the entries of this weekly " newsbook," up to 

 January 29lh, 1652 (when Milton's name no longer appears), 

 were "under the hand of Mr. Milton." 



As Mcnurius roliluus appeared every Thursday, the last o 

 the six copies first authorised by Milton must have been the 

 number published on Thurs<lav, Match 20th, and the first. 

 No. 35, published on February 6lh, 1651. The last number 10 

 which he gave his "impiimatur" was No. S5, issued on 

 January 22nd, 1652. Thus for a year all 1 ut a week, Milton, 

 cjlher .IS licenser or "author," was connected with the news- 

 paper press. 



Mr. Williams suggests that John Hall, poet and 

 pami)lileleer, very largely assisted Milton. 



