lb 
LAND cS: W A T 1-: R 
June ci, lijiG 
in the midst of a torrent of niisrcpri-scntation and mis- 
un<>-'rstanding, in the face of dirticulties of incalculable 
gravity, enveloped by cabals, tugged at oti this side by the 
fierce partisans of his own school, assailed on that side by 
the suspicions of the opposing school, he has p\irsued the 
one dominating purpose of his policy with unHinching 
tenacity. He has turned a blind eye to the cabals, he 
has been patient with the impatient, he has led this 
body of thought by persuasive tolerance from one side 
and that body of opposed thought from the other side, 
he has smoothed away personal hostilities and softened 
ancient political asperities, and all the time he has been 
collaborating to make the foundations of the Alliance 
deep and enduring. The stem ordinance of restraint that 
he has imposed upon himself has carried him through 
crisis after crisis. In the eyes of his enemies he is always 
about to fall and at the, end of every attack he is seen 
to be more firmly rooted than before. 
Mr. Asquith's Influence 
And the reason is as creditable to his traditional 
opponents as to his own merits. The influence which he 
exercises over the Conservative members of the Cabinet 
is notorious. It has brought them under the censure of 
a certain ' section of their Press which openly charges 
them w ith the betrayal of their cause. It is a foolish 
and unjust charge. The truth is that, Uke Mr. Asquith, 
they are living to-day for a cause more precious even than 
their party. They sec in Mr. Asquith a disinterested 
passion, a liigh sense of public duty, an entire forgctful- 
ness of self, r^d a masculine comprehension of the com- 
plex factors of the struggle that command fheir confidsnce 
and draw out the best that is in them, " I went into the 
Cabinet " said one of them " believing that Asquith was 
an extinct force : to-day 1 know he is the only thinkable 
leader in this emergency." 
He has made mistakes, as Pitt made them, as Lincoln 
made them, as everyone who has to deal with the in- 
tractable elements of human life and the incalculable 
forces vi war must make them. But in the large estimate 
which the future will form of the mighty doings of this 
time, it is not a very hazardous forecast to say that the 
achievement of Mr. Asquith will stand out as the supreme 
personal contribution to the victory that awaits us. He 
has ke]it a cool head and a iirm judgment in the midst 
of a reeling world. He has carried every element of the 
nation with him step by step in the task of converting 
it into one vast instrument of war. He. has formed the 
nucleus around which the various and often conflicting 
forces of a Democratic society have cohered for a common 
purpose, and he has kept the mind of the country steadily 
lixed on the great end. In a very real sense he represents 
that English rock of dogged purpose and unfaltering 
endurance upon which the schemes of Napoleon finally 
broke and upon which those of the Kaiser are doomed 
to break. They will break all the sooner because, happier 
than Pitt, he has been able to keep the Alliance, on whose 
integrity victory depends, invulnerable to the machina- 
tions of the enemy. 
Kitchener's Grave 
By James Douglas 
Nobly her warrior sleeps with Drake and Hood 
In the old grey shrine whose walls are her green waves, 
Hero not least of her heroic brood. 
Soldier of soldiers in her gra\'e of graves. 
Her tears are salt as her own spindrift blown. 
Her heart is sad as her own sea-mew's cry, 
Over her eyes a mist of grief is thrown. 
But his voice whispers : " Britain shall not die ! " 
Out of the deep he calls, out of the deep 
His valiant voice rings like a clear sea-bell, 
Out of his sleep he calls, out of his sleep : 
" Go for\varcI, Britain ! Forward ! All is well ' " 
While on her head the battle-thunders broke, 
While round her face the battle-lightnings played, 
Her seas were sorrowing o'er their grudging stroke, 
Her waves were grieving o'er the shroud they made- 
Her billows knew the warp and woof they wove. 
Have they not woven it a thousand years ? 
Bitter their guardianship, and dark tlieir love, 
And pitilessly pitiful th'eir tears. 
Stand strong, thou smitten isle ! Glory in death 
More glorious tlian too much inglorious life. 
Stand, as he stood, like granite : breathe thy breath, 
As he breathed his, in calm, unwearying strife. 
" Death in the tide of duty full and free. 
Death in the wind of victory brave with brine. 
Death in the arms of my unconcpiered sea — 
If thir, be (1( ath." quoth Britain, " be it mine ! " 
L'ndcr Three i-laf^s, by St. Clair Livingston and Ingeborg 
Steen-Hansen (Macmillan and Co., 3s. Od. net) is a concise 
and rather impersonal record of tlu; work of two nurses in 
Belgium. France, and Serbia. The most attractive part of 
the i>ook is that wliich deals with work in Serbia before its 
final overrunning liy tiernians and Biilgarians. The last 
chapter of the book curries the story on to the retreat from 
Monastir, and one feels ^ the end that even the fate of 
Belgium is better than tliat of Serbia. As a study of life 
among the human wreckage of war, this book is one of the 
best that has yet appeared. 
Raemaekers' Gift. 
With a total of nearly four million pounds, the Times 
Red Cross Fund stands as one of the most remarkable 
charitable enterprises of the war — and, in fact, as one of 
the greatest contributions to the relief of suffering ever 
organised by a private corporation. A recent contribution 
of note to the fund is made by Louis Raemaekers, who 
has given the first set of signed proofs of his cartoons to 
be sold in aid of the Fund for the benefit of the French 
and British Red Cross Societies. 
The nominal value of this set of. artist's proofs of the 
world famous cartoons, of which there are 150 subjects, 
is one guinea each, but this set, forming the first im- 
pressions taken from the approved plates, would naturally 
be of greater \-alue than even under normal circumstances. 
This is still farther enhanced by the fact that each plate 
is stamped with a die which records that it was given by 
the artist, whose signature it also bears, in aid of the work 
of the French and British Red Cross Societies. 
The work of Louis Raemaekers is well known to readers 
of L.AND & W.\TER, in black and white i-eproduction , but 
this set is produced in " four-colour facsimile," which 
gives practically the same delicacy and power as in the 
original drawings — only an expert could tell the difference 
if reproductions and originals were placed side by side. 
Such subjects as " The Yscr," corpses floating on 
their way to Calais, " The German Tango," " Barbed 
Wire," and " The Zeppelin Triumph," have already won 
world-wide fame. The gift of this set of proofs is worthy 
of its object ; Raemaekers has given the best that is at 
his command in aid of the greatest humane enterprise 
that the war has called into being. The full set of 150 
subjects has already been purchased by Lord Furncss. 
Sortcs Sbahespcaviaiux 
B, SIR S UNEV LEE 
Earl Kitchener. ^ ,. , , ,, , 
• C wittmely death ! 
Kint Lc«r. IV.. Ti.. 256. 
Thou ha{d)$l that in thee indeed^ which 
I have greater reason to believe novo than 
ever, I mean purpose, courage and valour. 
Oihello. IV.. ii.. 216-8. 
Thou art mighty yet; 
Thy spirit walks abroad. 
Julius Gtcsar. V., iii.. 94-5. 
