Revit'ir uf Renetrs. 119100. 



Leading Articles. 



279 



cation Bill. Tht-re would be as little opposition to 

 the much-needed expenditure of two and a-half mil- 

 ?• lions on higher education. He says : — 



Besides, the poorest would not grudge a farthing per 

 quarter pound of tea if they couid feel some pride iu its 

 expenditure, even if it were unproductive expenditure; if, 

 for instance, hy aid of a fraction of it. the National Gal- 

 lery were made the pride and envy of Europe. Still less 

 : would they grudge it if they could feel that it relieved sOme 

 burden or contributed to enjoyment. .\nd in selecting tea 

 as an instance. I select the severest test of all. Why should 

 we pay taxes and get nothing for them but bare neces- 

 earies? Are we never to use a- surplus for the good of the 

 country, for developing its possibilities, for encouraging all 

 their energies on the part of its citizens? At present, what 

 the people get. besides necessaries, for the larger part of 

 their contribution to the national excheriuer. is some plear 

 sure in the Royal Family and some opportunity for spec- 

 tacular display in Army and Navy. 



THE ETERNAL WANT OF PENCE. 

 He in\eighs against that eternal want of pence 

 which vexes public men, and says : — 



f The world, a-s managed by man. is a strange spectacle: 

 \ it is full of earnest eftort and all kinds of human endea- 

 " vour for the amelioration of society and the good of man- 

 kind: private people are willing to give not only their 

 labour, but largely of their means also, to belp on this 

 cause and that; but in spite of all this admirable effort 

 the world seems smitten with a mania for just spoiling 

 every eftort ;it improvement by withholding the financial 

 condition of success. In the midst of any amount of self- 

 sacrificing labour for the good of the community, this is 

 the blight. Every public and beneficent enterprise is ham- 

 pered by poverty, and is left to the capricious goodwill of 

 the benevolent. 



WHAT MIGHT BE DONE WITH SURPLUSES 

 He mentions agriculture, and the feeding of the 

 people : — 



Then there is the whole subject of pathology, and the in- 

 Testigation of obscure diseases. Here, ever since Pasteur, 

 is territory crying out for exploration ; discoveries must be 

 lying ready to be picked up almost. Splendidly-trained 

 young fellows will sacrifice their lives in eager wish to get 

 at the root of diseases which kill people like flies, but they 

 are hampered by lack oi means. In trojjical medicine some- 

 thing hits been begun, largely by private and University 

 enterprise, but there are many other branches also. I can- 

 not think that people really prefer to die or see others die 

 of cancer rather than pay for a proper investigation of it. 



I feel sure that some result — meteorological and other — 

 would result from the electrification of the atmospliere on 

 a hirge scale. Growing crops might be assisted: rain might 

 be produced: fog might be dissipated. No one can tell for 

 certain what would happen until the experiment is tried; 

 it would be costly, but laboratory exi>eriments sufficiently 

 justify the attempt, and the result may be one of consider- 

 able importance in some regions of the British Empire. 



I do not touch on housing questions, and the unemployed, 

 and unfed children, and old age pensions: for all these are 

 difficult and painful subjects, the treatment of which de- 

 mands det;iiled knowledge; but niile.ss we apply wisdom 

 and eTiterprise to public expenditui-e, the nation will have 

 to immerse itself in wretched problems such as these, which 

 it ought to have overcome long ago, and it will become de- 

 cadent. 



A rich nation, he savs in clc/sing. In the judicious 

 administration of its superfluous revenue, could con- 

 tribute its quota towards elev.iting the standard of 

 humanity and increasing the spiritual momentum i;f 

 the world. 



A PLEA FOR REGIMENTAL OFFICERS, 



By Lord Dougla.s Compton. 

 The foiinial of the Royal J'nitcd Service Instilii- 

 iioii publishes a paper by Major Lord Douglas J. 

 C. Compton of the 9th (Qu<'en's) Roval Lancers 

 which deserves attention. The Army, he points out, 

 is suffering from a serious shortage of regimental 

 officers. LTnder the stress and strain of recent agita- 

 tion British officers are being compelled to study as 



if thc\ were all qualifying for Staff appointments. 

 As a result the sons of country gentlemen and of 

 soldiers, and others who have hitherto supplied the 

 bulk of commissioned officers, are not going into the 

 Arnn. The pay is too "small, the work is becoming 

 too hard. Lord Douglas Compton boldly proposes to 

 recognise facts as they are, and, as he cannot get 

 more money, to i)ut up with less work. At present 

 the Army consists of commissioned officers, non-com- 

 missioned officers, and rank and file. He would sub- 

 ordinate the first class into staff officers and regimen- 

 tal officers, and he would exempt the latter from 

 the grind of studies which could only be useful to 

 them if they joined the Staff. He thus summarises 

 his own proposals: — ■ 



1. Insist only on officers doing the work necessary to 

 make them thoroughly efficient as regimental officers, but 

 give every facility for. and encouragement to. all officers to 

 study the higher 'and all branches of their profession. 



2 Enlarge the Staff College, abolish competitive examin^ 

 tion for admission to it. encourage all officers recommended 

 by the officer commanding their unit to go through the 

 course, and make no exception to the rule that alter a 

 term of staft employment an officer must serve a term with 

 his regiment. 



3. Adopt :i system of specialists for all branches of mili- 

 tary science which it is not necessary for every officer to 

 know, such as signalling, field engineering, and miUtarJ 

 sketching, giving any officers who wish opportunities of at- 

 tending "classes where these subjects are t.a.ught. 



4. Insist on the niimlier of officers really reciuired being 

 present with their corps, and leave it to the officers com- 

 manding units to grant leave to the surplus as they think fit. 



5. .\Miid all interference with the way in which officers 

 clioose to spend their spare time and money; there are 

 many easier and more unwholesome ways than playing 

 polo' driving ix dr;ig, or even giving a ball. The most that 

 should be done is to insist that ail subscriptions to regi- 

 mental clubs, entertainments, etc.. he voluntary, with the 

 exception, of conrse. of those of mess. band, and furniture 

 funds. 



HENRIK IBSEN. 



BUhhi'ood's Magazine, in " Musings Withou-t 

 Method." asserts that " no man of letters in our time 

 has fought a keener fight and enjoyed a greater 

 triumph than Henrik Ibsen." And his greatest tri- 

 umyih is " that he has survived the pitiful indiscre- 

 tions of the Ibsenites": — 



Confident of his own powers, he has endured hostility, in- 

 ditlerence. and. wh;it is yet harder to bear, the wilful mis- 

 niulersta riding of enthusiasts. 



Rather than dO' uncongenial work, he would run 

 into debt ox condescend to begging-letter writing ! 



Tbsen's was the artistic temperament which could 

 not be thwarted or denied. Many different sections 

 of o|)inion h.nv tried to enrol hiu- under their ban- 

 ners, and nothing annoyed him more than to have his 

 \'ork judged from the political rather than from the 

 a'sthetic stamlpoint : — 



The soci;ilistfi. with whom he had not the smallest sym- 

 patliy. claimed this sturdy individualist for their own, and 

 bow bitterly he resented the claim appears again and again 

 in his letters. 



Tho.ugh a severe critic of his own work, he bad no 

 doubt that it would ultimately triumph: — 



"My hook is poetry," said he of the much-abused "Peer 

 Gynt." "and, if it is not, then it will be. The conception 

 of poetry in our coiintr.v, in Norway, shall be niade to 

 conform to the book. There is no stability in the world of 

 ideas. The Scandinavians are not Greeks." These are 

 br;ive words. br;ively spoken, and so far as "Peer Gynt" is 

 concerned, time has entirely justified them. 



