Rei'iew of Revieint. IjlljOS. 



Leading Articles. 



495 



THE LIBERAL GOVERNMENT'S FIRST SESSION. 



If we are to believe the writer of " Musings With- 

 out Method," in Blackwood's Magazine, the first ses- 

 sion of the Liberal Government has been merely 

 one long series of unparalleled ineptitudes. He 

 does, howe\er, believe some trust can be placed in 

 Mr. Morlev and Sir Edward Grey, and also '■ that 

 thev will have the honesty — rare in politicians of 

 their colour — to resign if impious hands are laid 

 upon their departments." 



Nothing hut megalomania can explain the bad 

 taste of Sir Henrv Campbell-Bannerman's '' La 

 Duma est morte. Vive la Duma I' Such a leader 

 •cannot expe(-t efficient followers : and we have Mr. 

 Asquith unable either to show a surplus or reduce 

 taxation ; Mr. Lloyd-George too busv stumping the 

 country to master the policy of his own Govern- 

 ment ; Mr. Haldane permitting his representative 

 in the Commons to '" prate of the Hague Confer- 

 ence as though that debating society could really 

 impose its views upon the nations of Europe " ; 

 and all the other Ministers, but the two exceptions 

 afore-mentioned, misconducting themselves in 

 various ways. 



THE TR.\DES DISPtTTE.S BILL. 



The object of this Bill is '■ to place the working- 

 man above and beyond the law.'' It has served 

 Mr. Keir Hardie as a scorpion with which to lash 

 the Prime Minister: — • 



If this monstrous measure passes, every species of il- 

 legality will be legalised by our cra\en-hearted Goveni- 

 Dient. 



There is nothing left but for the masters and mt-n 

 to organise private militias and fight it out, as in 1892 

 matters were fought out between Pinkerton's armed 

 detectives and Mr. Carnegie's workmen in Penn- 

 sylvania. And yet Sir J. Lawson Walton was brave 

 enough to question the wisdom of this measure ; 

 Mr. Asquith, also, " was as bold as brass," and 

 questioned it likewise ; " Mr. Haldane was equallv 

 valiant " : — 



But it is the cnuraRe of Bob Acres, and it oozes out at 

 the approach of tlie first braggart that comes along. And 

 it is not possible to find a single word of excuse for these 

 pusillanimous lawyers. 



THE NKW TRANSVAAL CONSTITUTION. 



Naturally this meets with no favour from 

 Maga, which, truth to tell, is too much carried 

 away to write with its usual ability. The Constitu- 

 tion " is an act of revenge taken bv the Pro-Boers." 

 Manhood suffrage for the Transvaal when England 

 is not yet thought fit for it ! But other big colonies 

 have manhood suffrage — which Maga forgets. 

 It is far worse than Majuba, this new Constitution, 

 because it is a surrender after twenty-five vears' ex- 

 perience of the folk of Majuba. Our present Go- 

 vernment — 



cherishe* a sentimcn'al hatred of England. It consists 

 of caTu»ibal8 eager lo make a meal of their nearest 

 relations. 



And so on. This contemptible Government is 



committed to class legislation in its extremest 

 form : — 



Next to the working-man it best loves the degenerate. 

 For his comfort it is prepared to sacrifice the Army, the 

 Nayy, the safety of the Empire. That the children of the 

 degenerate may be fed. housed, and educated, that the 

 degenerate himself may receive a pension, or even sit (for 

 £300 a year) in the House of Commons, it is eager to tax 

 the upper class until its estates are cut into small hold- 

 incs. and ita galleries and libraries sliipped to America, 

 and to drive the middle-class out of existence. 



Nothing is left us but the worship of the parish 

 pump, since the Empire does not interest degene- 

 rates. And even that slender consolation is not 

 long to be left us, since pump, parish and all must 

 soon be annexed by the foreigners to gain whose 

 good opinion we have forfeited our skill and our 

 strength. Thus Maga. 



ABDUL HAMID AND PAN=1SLAM1SM. 



The uncertain state of the Sultans health lends 

 additional interest to the opening article in Black- 

 wood's Magazine for September, the anonymous 

 writer of which says that history will some day 

 recognise the present Sultan as — 



one of the most striking figures, and within certain obvious 

 limitations, perhaps even one of the master-minds of our 

 times. 



SULTAN and KHALIF. 



Abdul Hamid II., two years after his accession 

 (which was in 1876), had to cede much of his tem- 

 poral dominions in order, in fact, to keep any of 

 them. To compensate himself for this he has 

 revived the spiritual authority to which he lays 

 claim as heir to the Khalifate. He has been equally 

 bent on restoring his authority as absolute monarch, 

 and on preserving what empire was left him against 

 further encroachments of Christendom. The old 

 bureaucracy helped him to get rid of any traces of 

 constitutionalism; but Abdul did not, as they ex- 

 pected, put on again the bureaucratic fetters. Min- 

 istry rapidlv succeeded Ministry, each one leaving 

 in Abdul's hands a portion of the power w^hich once 

 belonged to the Porte — 



until at last the rambling pile of Government buildings in 

 Stamboul is tenanted ly mere clerks. Ministers and Excel- 

 lencies though still they may be styled, whose sole busi- 

 ness it is to register and to carry out the unquestioned be- 

 hests of their Imperial master. Tlie Sublime Porte has 

 come to be little more than a polite fiction. From one 

 end to the other. Turkey is ruled from Yeldiz Kiosk, 

 where, surrounded by a Pretorian guard and a scarcely 

 less numerous army of spies, Abdul Hamid holds in his 

 hands every thread of the military and civil administr.a- 

 tion throughout the whole Empire. 



This absolute despotism the writer considers 

 .•Vbdul's signal achievement as Sultan, and it is the 

 more absolute because so firmly rooted in his 

 spiritual power as Khalif. " Astute " is the best 

 word to describe his policy. " In the world of 

 Islam there can be no nationalities," said Abdul, 

 knowing well that there can be and are many, 

 and that their racial jealousies are a safeguard 

 again dreaded disloyal combinations. Hence 

 Syrians, Circassians, Kurds, Arabs and Albanians, 



