Review of Reviews, 1/12/13. 



NOTABLE BOOKS. 



loi s 



very best when the Puck-like side of 

 him came to the front. And he fought 

 for Parnell as he had fought for Brad- 

 laugh. 



The story of the foundation of Triitli 

 is given by its editor, Mr. R. A. Bennett, 

 and an entertaining story it is, in which 

 all ordinary journalistic arrangements 

 are often presented upside-down. Its 

 first title was to have been " The Lyre," 

 and, when " Truth " was decided on, 

 some jester who had heard of the title 

 asked, "What is Truth?" Mr. Labou- 

 chere replied with the quip, " Another 

 and a better ' World.' " Mr. Voules was 

 selected to do the donkey-work, and 

 well he did it, never daring to take a 

 holiday far out of town for fear Mr. 

 Labouchere should calmly decide that 

 the paper need not come out for a week 

 or so. Commenced without any idea 

 of its becoming a money-making con- 

 cern, it soon began to yield a large in- 

 come, and, incidentally, prevented Mr. 

 Labouchere from attaining his second 

 ambition — to be a Cabinet Minister- - 

 for the Queen would have nothing to 

 do with the editor of Truth. 



Mr. Labouchere's attitude with re- 

 gard to the Boer War needs no telling 

 here. With Mr. Stead, he shared un- 

 popularity, and the opinion that the 

 best settlement that could be made at 

 the close of the war would be worse for 

 all parties than the settlement which 



could have been effected by tact and 

 self-restraint had the Boers never been 

 goaded into war. Yet the last speech 

 he made in the House was against the 

 second readin.g of the Women's En- 

 franchisement Bill, because they could 

 not take a place in the battlefield. 



He was nearly seventy-four, and had 

 been longing to retire to his beautiful 

 villa near Florence. Never a reverent 

 man, and a Vandal as regards art or 

 ancient things, he had bought Michael 

 Angelo's villa, and talked of uprooting 

 the old trees, turning the house inside 

 out and electric light on. 



In 19 lo Mrs. Labouchere died sud- 

 denly, and in 191 1 Mr. Labouchere 

 phys'cal strength began to weaken. He 

 lost his old friend, Sir George Lewis, 

 and felt the loss deeply. As simply as 

 a child tired with play he took to his 

 bed on January iith, and died at mid- 

 night four days later. Mr. Thorold 

 w rites : — 



The earliest remark of Mr. Labouchere's 

 that I have recorded in this book was a jest, 

 and so was the last I heard him utter. On 

 the afternoon of the day before he died, as I 

 was sitting: at his bedside, the spirit lamp 

 that kept the fumes of eucalyptus in constant 

 movement about his room, through some 

 awkwardness of mine was overturned. Mr. 

 Labouchere, who was dozing", opened his 

 eyes at the sound of the little commotion 

 caused by the accident, and perceived the 

 fiare-up. "Flames.^" he murmured, inter- 

 r -gratively. " Not yet, I think.'" He laughed 

 quizzically, and went off to sleep ag:ain. 



THE G.O.M. OF SCIENCE. 



The Revolt of Democracy. By Alfred 

 Russel Wallace. (Cassell and Co. 2/6 net.) 



An artisan remarked the other day, 

 " Whilst we work, we think, for our 

 labour is largely mechanical. Quite 

 otherwise is it with the professional 

 man, doctor, lawyer, and the like : their 

 thoughts must dwell chiefly upon their 

 work and so remain in a groove, whilst 

 we look at every side. 



Alfred Russel Wallace, who died on 

 November 6th was the grand old man 

 of science, but he was more than that. 

 It would almost seem as if he had had 

 the entree to city eating-houses where 

 artisans gather and where many-sided 

 aiscussions are held, for he sees right 



into the heart of the social problem, and 

 shows the only way to industrial peace. 

 Half of the book before us gives the 

 pith of the thoughts of the aged Presi- 

 dent of the Land Nationalist Society 

 concerning the workers' claim and the 

 duty of the Government. The first part 

 contains his life-story, by James Mar- 

 chant, brief and yet wonderfully com- 

 plete, and so this little volume has the 

 double value of an insight into the win- 

 ning character of a great man, a resume 

 of the diff'erence in Wallace's opinion 

 and Darwin's upon the subject of 

 natural selection, and the summing \^\^ 

 of the philosophy of a lifelong worker 

 in the cause of the wage-earner. 



