74 



The Review of Reviews. 



A PLEA FOR CONSCRIPTION, 



By Lord Milner. 



Lord jMilner contributes to the United Service 

 Magazine a plea for conscription, based, first, upon 

 the duty of maintaining the Balance of Power in 

 Europe, and, secondly, upon the need for improving 

 the morale and the physique of Britons at home. 



FOR THE BALANCE OF POWER. 



He says : — 



It is no use even beginning to discuss the creation of a 

 military system suited to our needs while we are confined 

 within the narrow limits of voluntary enlistment. The main- 

 tenance of that Balance of Power is vital to our superiority at 

 sea, which again is vital to the security of the British Empire. 

 Hut, in order to help to maintain that Balance, we require an 

 army, and no puny army. 



The first step, at any rate, should be to make the Territorial 

 .\rmy a reality, by giving the whole of our able-bodied youth 

 some six months' service in its ranks, and by preparing them for 

 that period of service by general cadet training at school. 

 There is always much to be said for building on existing 

 foundations. 



Let us begin at any rate by creating a genuine Territorial 

 .■\rmy. It may be that, once it has been created, and military 

 service is stripped by experience of its imaginary terrors, the 

 nation will decide that the Citizen Army, or a portion of it, 

 should be liable, in case of supreme emergency to Ije determined 

 by Parliament, to serve not only at home but abroad. 



AS A GREAT SOCIAL REFORM. 



Belief in the sufficiency of our existing land forces appears a 

 ilangerous delusion. 



To my mind the military training of the nation would be, 

 not only in itself a great social reform, but a foundation for 

 many others. 



1 have lived many years of my life abroad. My belief in the 

 value of military training is based on what I have myself seen 

 of its effect upon foreign nations. To my mind, it is a complete 

 delusion to think that such training, kept within reasonable 

 limits, is, in the vast majority of cases, otherwise llian a great 

 gain to the men who have to undergo it. No doubt it has many 

 unpleasant, m.iny inconvenient incidents. But, apart from the 

 benefit of the physical training, apart from the moral benefit, 

 immense as it is, of the discipline — of the habits of method, 

 precision, order, cleanliness, and self-control — military training 

 has also a distinct economic value. 



GOSSIP ABOUT THE DUKE. 



Mr. Bernard Holland furnishes Blackwood for 

 January with a reply to his critics and some memories 

 of the Dulce of Devonshire. Some incidents may be 

 quoted here. One relates to August i6tli, 1892 : — 



'the Duke soon appeared, looking unusually well dressed, 

 with a white waistcoat, and gave me some instiuclions about 

 work. .'Kn hour later or so he came in again, gave me more 

 instructions, and said that he was going ilown to Holton Abbey. 

 He added, " I suppose you have heard of the domestic event? " 

 1 said imliffcrenlly, " Ves," thinking of quite another matter. 

 He looked rather surprised, • said no more, and went aw.iy. 

 ■Soon afterwards Lascelles ' old nic that in the inlcrval between 

 these two visits the Duke had been married at the iJown .Street 

 Chul-ch to the Duchess of Manchester. I had heard nothing 

 previously. 



.Mr. Holland contrasts the dulness of life at " Hard- 

 wick Hall, more jrlass th&'i wall," where the Duke and 



Duchess of Devonshire were stayino^, with AVhittinge- 

 hame, with its large and cheerful family party of all 

 ages around Mr. Balfour : — 



The story of the Duke saying, " I fell asleep, and dreamed 

 that I was addressing the House of Lords : when I awoke I 

 found that I was," is at any rate ben trovato. It is certainly 

 true that immediately after concluding his troublesome speech 

 in the Lords, which contained his explanation of the circum- 

 stances attending his resignation in 1903, when, moreover, he 

 was not very well, he fell visibly and soundly asleep, without 

 waiting to hear what anyone would say of it. 



A Plea for Songs in English. 



In the December number of the National Rrrie^c 

 Mr. Paul England pleads for the use of English on 

 the concert platform. The greater public who take 

 a genuine pleasure in good singing, he says, have an 

 unconquerable prejudice against songs in a foreign 

 tongue which they do not understand. It is not the 

 music of Schubert, Lowe, or Brahms that they object 

 to, but the foreign words. If the singers would only 

 bring forward songs from the treasure-houses of 

 France, Germany, and Italy in good English transla- 

 tions they would have their immediate reward in tlie 

 responsiveness of their hearers. Mr. England advises 

 those who wish to foj-ward the cause of opera in 

 English to begin with the concert platform. Our 

 skilful verse-writers need not disdain to render the 

 foreign words into suitable English verse, and singers 

 should recognise that if the English words are good 

 it is not derogatory to their art to sing them. By so 

 doing they would command an infinitely wider field 

 than is otherwise possible, and in a rneasurable 

 distance of time we might have the satisfaction of 

 having the operas of every country sung in English 

 by English men and women. 



Mr. Stanhope Forbes at Newlyn. 

 The work of .Mr. Stanhope A. Forbes is the subject of 

 the extra Christmas number of the Art yournal, with 

 Mr. C. Lewis Hind as the writer of the letterpress. 

 It is a handsome and interesting number, contain- 

 ing no fewer than four coloured plates, besides over 

 fifty other illustrations. Mr. Forbes, who was born at 

 Dubliri in 1857, attained the distinction of R.A. last 

 year. Early in 1884 he started from London with 

 the intention of spending a few months in the district 

 of Land's End, and Mr. Hind suggests 1885 as the 

 first date of the Newlyn school of painting, the year 

 in which Mr. Forbes exhibited ".\ Fish Sale on a 

 Cornish Beach," the first of a long series painted in 

 the grey, equable light of Newlyn. .Soon other artists 

 settled at Newlyn, and the walls of various galleries 

 bear witness to the esteem in which the paintings of 

 the Cornish school are held. In 1899 Mr. and Mrs. 

 Forbes founded their Art .School at Newlyn. Mr. 

 Forbes likes teaching. One of Iris recreations is music 

 fplaying the 'cello). 



