176 



DISCOVERY 



Sir, 



To the Editor of Discovery 



I feel much honoured that the venerable Mr. 

 Oscar Browning, in his distant home, should have 

 thought it worth wliile to read my article in Discovery 

 on the "Concert of Europe," and I am delighted that 

 it should have called fortli from him so vigorous and 

 interesting a letter, even though he writes in criticism 

 of two of my remarks. 



The remarks to which he takes exception are for- 

 tunately purely incidental ; they do not in the smallest 

 degree concern the main thesis of my article. First, 

 he objects to my speaking of Napoleon's " escape " 

 from Elba, on tlie ground that it implies imprisonment. 

 Secondly, he protests against my calling tlie Hundred 

 Daj-s a " mad adventure," on the ground that Napoleon 

 was within his rights in undertaking it, and that the 

 French were justified in supporting him. 



The first is a mere question of terminology. It is 

 true that, owing to the insistence of Alexander I, a 

 pretence was made that Napoleon was free in Elba, 

 that he was a sovereign potentate, and that he had 

 simply exchanged one realm for another. But it 

 was a transparent fiction. Napoleon was no more 

 free than Elba was an empire. Dr. Emil Reich is not 

 far wrong when he bluntly calls Napoleon " a prisoner." 

 English and other ships patrolled the seas round the 

 island, and kept constant watch. Napoleon, in order 

 to get away, had to elude these vigilant vessels, and 

 therefore his departure from Elba was, in the strictest 

 sense of the term, an " escape." 



As to the " mad adventure " of the Hundred Days : 

 here we are in the doubtful regions of conflicting 

 opinion. Mr. Browning maintains that it was a 

 legitimate adventure. It might very well have been 

 legitimate and yet at the same time mad, because 

 doomed to certain failure. It would be a sufficient 

 defence of m}' phrase to show that, even apart from 

 the antagonism of Europe, Napoleon had not a chance 

 of permanent success. The " Liberal Empire " which 

 he proclaimed on his landing in France was no more 

 possible in 1815 than it was when his nephew pro- 

 claimed it half a century later. Mr. Browning, how- 

 e\'er, does not discuss the problem from the point of 

 view of possibility or prudence. He treats it as a 

 question of legitimacy or right. That is an entirely 

 different matter, and one with which I did not profess 

 to deal, either directly or indirectly, in my article. 

 If, however, I were called upon to discuss it, I should 

 be prepared to contend : (i) That the supporters of 

 Napoleon, who had been imposing upon half the 

 peoples of Europe " dynasties which they detested " 

 during the whole of the preceding decade, had little 

 cause for complaint if they were called upon to endine 

 the fate which they had freely inflicted ; (2) that the 



Concert of Europe, or the League of Nations, may be 

 occasionally compelled to do things which offend the 

 sensibilities of individual nations, and that on this 

 occasion the peril of leaving Napoleon at the head of 

 great armies in France was one which, in the interests 

 of Europe, it was impossible to allow. 



F. J. C. Hearnsh.aw. 

 King's College, 



London. 

 May I, 1920. 



The Discoveries in Crete 



By George Glasgow, B.A. 



[It is impossible to allow these pages to go to press 

 without indicating, no matter how inadequately, the 

 part played by Ronald Montagu Burrows, who died on 

 May 14, in the establishment of the facts which are here 

 recorded. Since 1900 the avalanche of new discoveries 

 in Crete had been so overwhelming, so revolutionary to 

 all former conceptions of Greek and European histon', 

 that scholars and general public alike were left wonder- 

 ing and at sea. In 1907 Burrows published hii 

 Discoveries in Crete (Murray), and by his complete 

 mastery of the enormous material available, his lucid 

 exposition of it, his brilliant interpretation, which in 

 many cases involved fundamental contributions tt' 

 knowledge, he pro\ided what was indispensably 

 needed. A second edition was called for in a few 

 months. The book stands as the classic authority on 

 the subject, and links its author's name with that of 

 Sir Arthur E\ans for all time in the work of establish- 

 ing the existence of a whole ci\-ilisation which existed 

 in the Mediterranean 4,000 years ago. 



Ronald Burrows should not have died so young. At 

 52 he was producing work in the \"ery ecstasy of his 

 form. He was incredibly, almost challengingly young, 

 and \agorous in his appearance and in his acti\it\', yet 

 mature in quality and achie\'ements. We shall ne\er 

 see all the final touches he was engaged in adding to 

 stiU another re\ised edition of The Discoveries in Crete ; 

 yet incomplete as they are — I have had the pri\ilege 

 of seeing them in manuscript — thej- wiU when pub- 

 lished raise the book to a still higher plane. There is no 

 need to dwell on Burrows' own excavations at Pylos 

 and Sphacteria and at Rhitsona. They are known to 

 all scholars as the brilliant work of a bra\c and resource- 

 ful discoverer, who never knew when he was beaten and 

 never failed to get to the bottom of formidable diffi- 

 culties. His great knowledge, clear and unerring per- 

 spective, and the infinite care with which he used them, 

 should have been spared to us for many years hereafter. 



