No More Learning

CATALOGUES
113
would be waste of space for us now to
CHATTO & WINDUS
give details of the play, as his action has
Mr. Andrew Carnegie has written an important
COOK & SON
142
secured so large a measure of support for
and interesting foreword.
EDUCATIONAL
113
it from the daily press. We can but acclaim
WAR OR PEACE.
ENO'S FRUIT SALT
142
him the most altruistic “publicity agent
A Present Day Duty and a Futuro Hope. By
EXHIBITIONS
113
H. M. CHITTENDEN. Large crown 8vo, cloth,
HEINEMANN
58, net.
INSURANCE COMPANIES
142
SIR JOSEPH BEECHAM has made arrange-
KING & Son
143 Unsurpassed as a Birthday or Wedding Gift.
ments to transfer the whole of the production LECTURES . .
113
LORNA DOONE: a Romance of Exmoor
of the successful fairy-play, The Golden LONGMANS & Co.
115
Land of Fairy Tales,'
By R. D. BLACKMORE. Dulverton Edition. 218.
now being per-
Low & Co.
140
net. Large Paper Edition, on specially manufactured
formed at the Aldwych Theatre, to the
MACMILLAN & Co.
116 paper-made to last 1. 000 years. Binding to match.
20,000
MAGAZINES, &c.
114
Opera - House, St. Helens, where
250 only printed. £3 3s. net.
MISCELLANEOUS . .
118
Full illustrated prospectus free on application.
children will be guests at different per-
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
formances.
PAUL & Co.
114, 142
Patrons of the Opera must possess this important
PRINTERS . .
work,
THE production of Hippolytus' (Prof.
SALES BY AUCTION
114
THE STANDARD OPERA GLASS.
Gilbert Murray's version) has been pro.
SHIPPING . .
142 By CHARLES ANNESLEY. Containing the detailed
visionally fixed by the Poetry Society for
SITUATIONS VACANT
plots of 153 Celebrated Operas. Smill crown 8vo
113
March 16th. A special feature of the
(64 by 4)), 520 pp. , cloth, 48. Bd.
SITUATIONS WANTED
performance will be the chanting in unison Smith, ELDER & Co.
113
142
of a chorus specially selected from the ranks TYPE-WRITERS, &c.
London:
of the Society. The play is being produced
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & CO. , LTD. ,
UNWIN
116
by Mr. Robert Stephenson.
Overy House, 100, Southwark Street, S. E. , and Tudor
WARD, LOCK &
House, 32, Warwick Lane, E. O.
6
138. 3d.
1
6
PAGE
143
113
. .
115
148
. .
of the age.
116
141
. .
1
114
113
co.
114


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No. 4398, FEB. 10, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
151
CONTENTS.
PAGE
151
152
153
. .
OLD IRISH LIFE. .
NAVAL STRATEGY
154
155-156
167-158
158
SALE
158
LIST OF New BOOKS
LITERARY GOSSIP
SCIENCE AMERICAN
To a
PERMIAN
VERTEBRATES ;
GOSSIP
168-170
NEXT WEEK
170-171
171-172
172
99
by a complaisant press as almost to be fattered myself that it was in repose. On
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1912. tedious.
the other hand, I think that my habit of easy
The theatrical side of Dickens added has always refreshed and strengthened me
self-abstraction and withdrawal into fancies,
to his effectiveness as a man who saw
in short intervals wonderfully. I always
CHARLES DICKENS
himself always before the public, but seem to myself to have rested far more than
served to reduce his modesty, though the I have worked, and I do really believe that I
same remained as the crowning grace have some exceptional faculty of accumu-
BISHOP ERNEST WILBER FORCE
of his greatness. He knew his powers, lating young feelings in short pauses, which
LOCAL HISTORY (The Oak Book of Southampton;
The
Story of Coventry; Lincoln Royal Charters ; Cam.
and used them to good purpose. Essen- obliterates a quantity of wear and tear. ”
bridge under Queen Anne; Wifela's Combe ; The tially he was a reformer and a democrat- So the work goes on;
Manor and Township of Allerton; London North
one day he is
of the Thames)
a reformer with a brilliant and inexhaust- “ abominably used up,” but quickly
FRENCH BOOKS AND GERMAN TRANSLATIONS (Le ible sense of humour, and a democrat from restored to his “
Réalisme du Romantisme ; Nouvelles Études sur
usual beaming manner.
Chateaubriand ; Life's Basis and Life's Ideal; The
early days with the power and position when he is writing Little Dorrit,' there
Jay of the Nibelung Men)
to make himself heard. These fortunate
comes another confession :
" That won-
circumstances —one might almost call derful man the writer thereof is in that
OUR LIBRARY TABLE (In Dickens Street; Scott
Originals ; The Rise of the Novel of Manners)
them paradoxes-made him a mighty state of weary excitement which is a
169 influence for good, and the keenness he part of him at such periods. "
164 showed as a priest of humanity is ex- letter he sent from Birmingham in the
hibited as clearly in his work as an editor glow of one of his wonderful readings in
SOCIETIES ; MEETINGS NEXT WEEK; GOSSIP 166—168
as anywhere. The novels reveal him, of 1867 Wills adds in pencil :-
FINE ARTS-HISTORICAL PORTRAITS; LA SOCIÉTÉ DU
DIX-HUITIÈME SIÈCLE ET SES PEINTRES ; ENGLISH course, as a pungent critic of the work-
PROVINCIAL PRINTERS TO 1557 ; THE SOCIETY OF
house system, the delays of Chancery law,
This letter, so illustrative of one of the
TWELVE, AND OTHER EXHIBITIONS ; PERSEPOLIS; and many another scandal sanctified by will—I think ought decidedly to be published
strong sides of C. D. 's character-powerful
Music-W. A. MOZART; GOSSIP; PERFORMANCES
long usage ; but here the humour and in justice to Forster and myself, who dis-
sentiment make the purpose less clear, suaded him from America-which killed
DRAMA-MEDEA ; THE DRONE, AND OTHER PLAYS; and there are obvious yieldings to the him eventually. "
LE THÉATRE D'IBSEN ; GOSSIP
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
desires of a spoilt public. In Household
Words and Au the Year Round the
reformer Dickens fully recognized the kindness
stands firm ; he is not to be bullied by he did not really need to make money so
and judgment of Wills's remonstrance ;
anybody; and he is seen training with
LITERATURE
elaborate care and tireless zeal a host of fast, but he would go ; the theatrical
young men to take up his work, " the element in him was not to be gainsaid.
raising up of those that are down, and Cables from America tell his friend of
the general improvement of our social the prodigious success. Illness and another
condition. ”
prodigy follow : we find the ready writer
CHARLES DICKENS.
in 1868 at a loss for a Christmas idea,
The papers which were reprinted in the
1001. reward at Gad's to any-
CHARLES DICKENS was born on February
“ National Edition
offering
of his works show
7th, 1812, and the customary Centenary how many dark corners he illuminated"; 1 body who could suggest a notion to satisfy
celebration is now upon us, having, indeed, but this was but a small part of his work
The letters, as a whole, are, as we have
been anticipated last year by theatrical in Household Words and its successor.
enterprise. His fame was never more secure
Mr. Rudolph Lehmann has done well in said, too much concerned with the technical
than at the present time ; edition after showing the public the correspondence business of a literary editor to be easy to
edition of his works pours from the press ;
preserved by his great - uncle, William read, but here and there we find the in-
a whole cyclopædia of fact and conjecture, Henry Wills, Dickens's right-hand man imitable flashes of fancy and humour.
illustration and comment, has gathered for so many years of editorship. The Wills is credited with an entirely imaginary
round his text; new illustrators seek to letters in themselves, while doing infinite play, 'The Larboard Fin'; Forster is
The Lincolnian Mammoth” with his
vary the traditional rendering of Phiz; and credit to both men, are not easy to read,
that last and dubious consecration of a being generally confined to matters of special turn of patronizing speech; and
classic—to be distorted to make a British business—the rejection of this article, the the nuisance of one of the vast army of
mendicants is turned to fun :-
school task-has just been achieved with improvement of that; but they are
* Pickwick. ' Since the publication of wonderful tribute to the energy, the tact
“A foreign gentleman-with a beard-
Forster’s ‘ Life' we are able to see some and infinite resource of Dickens. Wills name unknown, but signing himself A
points of Dickens's character and talent was at once a delightful and admirable Fellow Man,' and dating from nowhere
declined, twice yesterday, to leave this house
in clearer perspective, though critical assistant, and he could not have had a
study of the master has not been abundant, much more exigent chief in the matter for any less consideration than the insignifi.
and has, indeed, been resented by those of “punctuality and dispatch,” of that cant one of 'twenty pounds. I have had
who point to him as an undoubted genius, brightness so easy to him, and that per- a policeman waiting for him all day. ”
with the corollary that genius can do petual discovery of the apt which is the The struggle with those whose inten-
nothing wrong. The superior person may ideal of the journalist. But, as editor, tions were much better than their English
call him a Philistine of genius, and there Dickens would allow no writing down leads to some strong language ; but we
is enough truth in the description to to any part of his audience: “I always do not doubt that it was deserved. We
suggest a reason for his immense influence. hold that to be as great a mistake as only wish that the press of to-day showed
Later consideration has revealed the fact can be made. " Who can wonder that anything like the same zeal for lucidity
that Dickens might have been, or was, amid all these incessant labours, with and the proper use of our mother tongue.
a great actor. We need not regret the his big novels on his hands as well, he Mr. Lehmann has done his editing with
partial suppression of that side of him ; found even his indefatigable spirit re- care, and is able to correct the dates pre-
we have so many of them nowadays, and duced to a state of “nogoism” and viously ascribed to several letters. The
their achievements are so bolstered up
used-up-ed-ness" ? He was restless, story is made coherent by introductions,
like a little boy kept up late at night, but much of the detail remains unex-
as Mr. G. K. Chesterton has well said, plained, and was not worth going into.
Charles Dickens Editor. By P. C.
Lehmann. (Smith, Elder & Co. )
and we have this revealing confession of Some of the matter, such as the brief
his temperament
biographies of well-known journalists,
Characters from Dickens : a Portfolio of 20
Vandyck Gravures from the Drawings by “I shall never rest much while my
seems to us to imply a low standard of
F. G. Lewin.
With an Introduction by faculties last
, and (if I know myself) have a public knowledge. Every one is familiar
B. W. Matz. (Chapman & Hall. ).
certain something in me that would still be by this time with the cause of the dissension
The Dickensian, 1911. (Chapman & Hall. ) active in rusting and corroding me, if I between Dickens and Thackeray. On
me.
a
as


## p. 152 (#128) ############################################

152
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4398, FEB. 10, 1912
>
as
>
to
6
0
1
C
11
-
RE
the other hand, the average reader may
when Miss Callwell comes to describe
like to be reminded of a charming book, oud Irish Life. By J. M. Callwellfamily, that she attains a very high level.
her own memories of Ross, the seat of her
James Payn's 'Some Literary Recollec- Old
tions,' and the story of the proceeds of a
(Blackwood & Sons. )
Her experience is certainly ample, since
first article in Household Words being
she recollects the great storm of 1839 and
converted into a Berkshire pig, which In this most entertaining volume Miss the havoc it wrought in the West. She
was meant as a gift for a Devonshire Callwell
, whom we had credited with omits, however, one curious effect, of
tutor, but ran away at Bristol. We notice belonging to the other sex, gives us a
which she may be glad to hear from us.
the discovery of Sala and Wilkie Collins, picture of what Galway was in the days from that day on, we used to be told,
and the immense zest with which details of its greatness and its decay ; she also fairies became extremely scarce. They
of the theatre were arranged. Alas! the gives us sketches of the peregrinations of
was all blew away in the great storum,
Guild of Literature and Art failed, and two observers through Ireland in the
we have often heard it expressed.
Bulwer Lytton's play ‘Not so Bad as later eighteenth century. Their books are
She tells us, among many characteristic
well known to students of Irish social stories, one of a poor woman who refused
We Seem' was, as somebody said, not so
good as it ought to be.
history, but not to the general reader, who
will therefore find them new, and very in- husband. She said she required every
to employ a doctor to visit her dying
Of Wills himself and his wife, great teresting. Lastly, she supplies from the penny she had to give her good man a
in Scottish humour, the Preface offers
some pleasant
glimpses
. There were differ- store of her own
memories delightful things decent wake. We can quote a Northern
a
ences, of course, between him and his about the life in Galway sixty years ago, parallel, where a man prayed his squire
chief, in the most serious of which, con-
and the doings of her grandfather, Martin
to come and see his wife, who was danger-
of Ross, and her cousin, Martin of Ballyna- ously ill. The squire refused on the
cerning R. H. Horne, Wills seems to us
distinctly in the right; but the friendship hinch. The
latter was the king
of Western ground that he was no doctor,
and neither
distinctly in the right; but the friendship Connaught more than Lord Clanricarde could nor dared prescribe for her. But
which speedily grew up between them was
was in Eastern Galway, and was the finest he urged the man to send for the local
unclouded to the end, and we cannot doubt
that the affection of Dickens was fully follies of the Irish gentry, all of whom had
specimen in his day of the virtues and
physician. The answer was,
6 No! if
deserved. There are portraits of Dickens, English blood in their veins, to which doctor”; and he added piously, after a
you won't come to see her, I 'll send for no
Wills, Wilkie Collins, and Thackeray, they owed most of their daring. There
whom Dickens wished to rebuke for
pause, If the Lord wants her, He must
distorted praise of the Charterhouse; and is no question that the tribes of Galway have her. ” The
real motive was doubt-
were all English settlers, yet were there less the same in both cases
- sordid
there is a good Index.
The twenty Vandyck gravures which popular sense ?
any people more typically Irish, in the
economy, but the contrast in the ex-
cuse well illustrates the contrasts of race
represent Mr. Lewin's ideas of Characters popular sense ?
‘
from Dickens' are well reproduced, and a The only part of the book which we will and creed, which we could develope at
notable addition to illustrations of the criticize is the chapter on the ‘Penal
length, if there were space for such a
digression.
novels. Mr. Lewin swells the protest Laws,' in which the author, going beyond
against the excessively fantastic quality of her own experience, has, we think, been The later chapters of the book supply
Phiz, and, though his drawings are un- misled by the current views of national- a great number of these good stories,
equal, most of them are decidedly good. istic authors. Even Lecky was carried
some very old, but many to us new, and
Pickwick remains as he was ; his figure is away by their dissimulation. ' No doubt
told in such a way that the Irish reader
fixed for ever ; but we applaud the novel the text of the Penal Laws, mostly copied feels himself taking part in a bright con-
|
conceptions of Mr. Squeers, the Fat Boy, from Louis XIV. 's Règles against the versation, to which he longs to contribute
and Silas Wegg, as well as the courage Huguenots, was horribly tyrannous. But his share. The author tells us, for ex-
which makes Little Nell something less there is ample evidence that they were ample, of a weary fox-hunter startled
than a beauty. Sydney Carton is ex- almost a dead letter, and that people from his slumbers in an inn by some
cessively sentimental, and hardly worn have to hunt for cases in which their fumbling about his head, and finding
enough in the face. The related figures injustice was put in practice. A good a with knife standing over
in the background are slightly, but effec-proof of this is the fact that the same
tively sketched.
story has done such yeoman's duty, and
Mr. Matz introduces the drawings in is repeated in all the books on the subject. ““I'm sorry to be disturbin' ye, sir,' was
a proper spirit of enthusiasm, and points It is concerned with a Catholic gentleman the apology, but, sure, the house was out
out the lasting vitality of Dickens's whose fine pair of horses were claimed by of pillows intirely, an' we put a side of bacon
under honor's head. I was just con-
conceptions. The generic term "a fat
a Protestant as being worth more than 51. thrivin to get a few rashers off for the
boy” recalls, he remarks,“ the one and each, the result being that the owner shot quality's breakfast without disturbin’ ye,
only fat boy who matters at all. ” We them rather than submit to such spolia- when woke. '
may add that in this case Nature has tion. It appears again in the present book,
plagiarized from Dickens. Kent has to but reduced to a one-horse affair
Kent has to but reduced to a one-horse affair.
The Has the venerable author heard of another
day a man who was a famous fat boy of names of the actors in the tragedy we occasion on which a waiter disturbed a
Gargantuan proportions.
have never found mentioned, and it was weary man, and told him it was time to
evidently thought as great an outrage get up, to which he strongly objected ?
It is fitting that we should close our then as it would be now. We are glad
notice with a reference to The Dickensian, to see the horror of the tale reduced this stairs to have breakfast, and ye must get
“ But the gentlemen is waitin' down-
for which Mr. Matz is also responsible. time. There were certainly scores of
Among the features of interest in last Catholic gentlemen in those days who without me?
Why must I ? Can't they go on
I don't know them, and
year's volume are an article by Mr. E. J: owned good horses, and even took part in don't want their company. Go away, and
Hardy on Yorkshire Schools ? (one of the the horse - races so fashionable in the leave me alone. ”
few cases in which a search for the Ireland of 1740-80; and it is now shown on that it 's the tablecloth ye are sleepin' on,
Ah, don't ye know
“ original is legitimate); a letter- the unbiased evidence of strangers, who and we can't do without it? ”
hitherto, we believe, unpublished—from knew all about these Penal Laws, that
Dickens to Mr. J. S. Herbert, reporting the most prosperous district of Ireland
One old story is spoilt here in the telling.
dishonesty on the part of a ticket-collector
was one almost exclusively occupied by It is that of the innkeeper whose wine
on the North Kent line; and · Some Notes
Roman Catholics.
was so excellent that he was knighted by a
on Plagiarism,' by Mr. J. Cuming Walters.
drunken Lord Lieutenant who spent the
Mr. Walters seeks to show that Reade, But we pass willingly from this slight night there. In the morning the man
in chap. xxviii. of “ Put Yourself in his and natural flaw in a book not pro- was sent for and asked to regard it as
Place,' was plagiarizing from Dickens's fessedly historical, yet presenting a picture mere frolic, to which he replied that he
* Poor Man's Tale of a Patent. '
of a social life gone by for ever. It is I was quite ready to do so,
but that her
a
a
man
a
him :
2
ye
a
up. "
G
66
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## p. 153 (#129) ############################################

No. 4398, FEB. 10, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
153
9
the one
war
was
we
we
Here, he rightly says, “ we touch the
Ladyship would not hear of it. ” According
to Miss Callwell he said : I must consult
NAVAL STRATEGY.
secret of England's success against Powers
my wife on the matter,” and her reply is
so greatly superior to herself in military
WE congratulate ourselves on the good
then given.
!
fortune which brought us nearly at the strength"-a secret first penetrated by
Bacon, who gave it words in the “ famous
When we read about the splendours of
same time essays by Mr. Corbett and
aphorism,
old Galway, we cannot but regret that Capt. Mahan, the two men who may
the author did not tell us more of St. be called the official exponents of naval
* He that commands the sea is at great
Nicholas's Church, which is one of the strategy in their respective countries liberty, and may take as much or as little of
few old churches still in use in Ireland. -Great Britain and the United States ;
the war as he will, whereas those that be
The south aisle, for example, is about and the more so as from the difference theless in great straits. ”
strongest by land are many times never-
12 ft. wider than either the nave or north of their positions
a civilian
aisle, which is surely most exceptional; (a barrister), the other a naval officer The full meaning of this, Mr. Corbett
and there are among the tombs of the they approach their subject from thinks, remained hidden to many, till
-
tribes at least one of great beauty, and different directions, and have treated Clausewitz, blundering in the dark,
several of much interest. The architecture it on different lines ; so that we have stumbled across it, but did not live to
of the streets, where the great stone the interest of watching how, by different know what it was. “To the end," he
mansions of the merchants are falling routes, they arrive at results essentially says, it would seem that Clausewitz
to pieces, shows a style quite peculiar, the same. They are, to begin with,
which is well worth a monograph by a entirely at one in holding war by sea as
was unaware that he had found an expla-
specialist. According to Miss Callwell, much à chapter of war as war by land ; problems in history – the expansion of
nation of one of the most inscrutable
or rather her authorities, Galway was and if Mr. Corbett treats of it as such at England, at least so far as it has been due
ruined suddenly and completely by its greater length and with greater emphasis to successful war. That a small country
a
capture by Cromwellians, who
turned out than Capt. Mahan, it is perhaps because with
a weak army should have been able
the tribes, occupied the city, burnt stair: he is writing for a people which-rooted to gather to herself the most desirable
cases and panellings, and left it a mass of though it is in maritime power-applies regions of the earth, and to gather them at
ruins. If this be all true, it is again the term
only to the Army ; is a paradox to which such Powers find it
something curiously exceptional, for it the Secretary for War deals with the hard to be reconciled. The phenomenon
never the policy of Cromwell to Army only, and the War Office directs seemed always a matter of chance-an
destroy the trade of a thriving city, and of the administration of the Army. Thus, accident without any foundation in the
one that did not resist his army, or cause while Capt. Mahan devotes himself essential constants of war. It remained
him loss. But Irish history is so full of to establishing the equality of the ad- for Clausewitz, unknown to himself, to dis-
.
fables
convenues that venture to
vantage which a force has when oper-
cover that explanation, and he reveals it
suspend our judgment till we hear the ating on internal lines, whether by sea or
to us in the inherent strength of limited
war, when means and conditions are favour-
matter critically discussed by an un- land, Mr. Corbett introduces his subject able for its use. '
biased historian.
with the remark that
We have spoken of the length and
Mr. Corbett is perhaps attributing too
are accustomed. . . . from lack of a
quantity of the author's experience. Not scientific habit of thought, to speak of naval
much weight to Clausewitz's discovery.
It
less valuable is the quality of it, for she strategy and military strategy as though
may
have been such to Continental
comes from a family which has main- they were distinct branches of knowledge Powers, but it was certainly known to
tained itself in spite of all the vicissitudes which had no common ground. The theory Clive and Pitt the best part of a hundred
of landlords, and still owns the old of war reveals that, embracing them both, years before Clausewitz wrote ;
and
Georgian house at Ross. Robert Martin, there is a larger strategy which regards the since to them, it was also, we may as-
a famous wit (often called Ballyhooley), ordinates their action and indicates the lines indeed, to whom it was of importance or
fleet and army as one weapon, which co-
sume, known to many others—to all,
lived and died in his mansion, and what on which each must move to realise the full interest, though they may not have given
his immediate relations can do is well power of both. "
known to the public in . The Recollections He is thus led on to illustrate the peculiar Mr. Corbett's service. By whatever name
it the technical names which are now at
of an Irish R. M. ' In the wild society
around them, and taking part in it strength of the two arms--sword, and it is called, however, the advantage is
all, this branch of the Martins survived buckler, perhaps, rather than “one very real, and has been practically known
and still survives. Any one who knows weapon "--acting in unison in what has by the English for more than 300 years.
Galway will appreciate a certain force which has been, in the main, to the Japan in her recent war against Russia
been happily called "amphibious war, Something of the same kind was held by
in the answer given to the question :
,
How does it come that co. Galway has advantage of Great Britain, and is for the possession of Korea. That the
the smallest percentage of lunatics in almost unknown to foreign nations. It material strength of Russia was enorm-
Ireland ?
“My dear sir, you must reflect is, primarily, that“ where the geographical | ously greater than that of Japan was
that in a population where everybody, is
conditions are favourable, we are able by manifest-
partially insane, it is not easy to pick of force our army will have to deal with”;
the use of our navy to restrict the amount
“so manifest that everywhere upon the
out the patients.
and secondly, that we have frequently enemy was regarded as the only admissible
Continent, where the overthrow of your
There were tragedies too, and the book been able
ends with one of the most affecting.
form of war, the action of the Japanese in
“ to establish ourselves in the territorial resorting to hostilities was regarded as
Martin of Ballynahinch, after a wild and object before our opponent can gather madness. Only in England, with her tra-
reckless life, died in 1847, at the very strength to prevent
that the dition and instinct for what an island Power
crisis of the great famine, leaving an only
daughter, heiress of 200,000 acres--the by endeavouring to turn us out. "
enemy. . . . must conform to our opening may achieve by the lower means,
Japan considered to have any reasonable
vast country beyond Lough Corrib. His
chance of success. '
debts were still "vaster, and his creditors, Some Principles of Maritime Strategy. By
swooping down upon his property, sold
The position was, in fact, somewhat
Julian S. Corbett. (Longmans & Co. )
everything and left the great heiress a
similar to that of the Allies in respect of
beggar, in the dolorous time when every
Naval Strategy compared and contrasted with
the Crimea in 1854–5, but more favourable,
the Principles and Practice of Military
one was full of his own troubles.
as there was no danger of a counterstroke,
She
Operations on Land. By Capt. A. T.
actually went as an emigrant among the
Mahan. (Sampson Low & Co. )
such as compelled England and France
starving poor to America, where she The Betrayal : being a Record of. Facts It was thus that the earlier stages of the
to keep a powerful fleet in the Baltic.
died forgotten and unknown.
concerning Naval Policy and Administra-
tion from the Year 1902 to the Present Time. war were entirely to the gain of Japan ;
By Admiral Lord Charles Beresford. (P. S. when she afterwards lost sight of the
King & Son. )
advantage of limiting the terrain, and, by
7
us. . . . SO
was
3)


## p. 154 (#130) ############################################

154
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4398, FEB. 10, 1912
a
once
a
66
GE
f
man.
I
te
0
IL
on
CG
one
al
advancing into Manchuria, measured her this view as unsound; as shown to be so
strength against that of Russia, the result historically. Such a ' fleet in being,' inferior, | The Life of the Right Rev. Ernest Roland
was comparative failure. The mistake, should not be accepted by an enemy as a Wilberforce, First Bishop of Newcastle-
which cost her dear, Mr. Corbett attributes sufficient deterrent under ordinary circum.
to her being under the influence of the the Japanese did not so accept it. '
stances. It has not been so in the past, and
on-Tyne, and afterwards Bishop of
Chichester. By J. B. Atlay. (Smith,
Continental school of purely military
Elder & Co. )
strategy, which has “ a natural difficulty of the successful transport of the Japanese THE Bishop of Texas
He continues to speak in some detail
in conceiving a war-plan that does not
racily
culminate in a Jena or a Sedan. ”
army, notwithstanding the threat of the described his episcopal brother at Chi-
Russian “ fleet in being” in Port Arthur. chester as“ pretty well fixed. ” The same
When he passes on to speak of the But he does not decide whether the authority wrote years afterwards that
command of the sea,” Mr. Corbett forms Russian fleet was in real, tactical being, or for himself the Bishop's “ picture with
the eminently sane conclusion that only in visible being ; whether it had not his wife and children grouped round
even permanent general command can
been made so sensible of its inferiority to
him had symbolized. . . . a hundred
never, in practice, be absolute. No degree anything required of it as to be without
No degree anything required of it as to be without times the ideal of an Episcopal home in
of naval superiority can ensure our com-
any tactical value. This must be, as it the old Mother Country. " Bishop Ernest
”
munications against sporadic attack from always has been, a matter for the judgment Wilberforce himself referred to “ the almost
detached cruisers or even raiding squadrons, of the Commander-in-Chief. Hundreds of awe-ful happiness of his married life. ”
if they be boldly led and are prepared to instances might be adduced to show that A bishop at forty-three, a man not of
risk destruction. Even after Hawke's deci- visible and tactical being are by no his famous father's mark, but generally
sive victory at Quiberon had completed the
overthrow of the enemy's sea forces, a
means the same ; and that success in or conspicuous and successful, he may seem
British transport was captured between restraint from any operation must depend to the average layman the type of the
Cork and Portsmouth, and an Indiaman in on the correct solution of the problem. “ well-fixed
As it happens, he
sight of the Lizard, while Wellington's
complaints in the Peninsula of the insecurity has most to say is the necessity of con-
But the point on which Capt. Mahan
was more: strong, as the athletic figure
of his communications are well known. ”
and steadfast gaze shown in the frontis-
centration, to which he is driven by the piece of this volume suggest ; effective ;
When these last had any real meaning, existence the noisy existence, it would by no means all things to all men, but
they were due to the activity of American seem-of a party in the United States in esteemed in the long run by those who
privateers, which had not then felt the favour of dividing their fleet equally disagreed with him.
A
“missionary
heavy hand of the British Navy; but between the Atlantic and Pacific, so as to bishop,” he saw one clue to life, and fol-
there is no doubt about the breaches of be ready to meet, on the one side, any lowed it. He had, says his biographer,
security after Hawke's great victory, European enemy,
,
the other any
a burning love for his Master and
including, as they did, not only commercial Asiatic. In the present state of geo- Saviour, a fierce desire to win souls to
and other losses such as those just graphy, with no possible way for the two Christ. ” He prevailed in life, and at
named, but the celebrated cruise of divisions to join, except the long sea route the end he died swiftly and painlessly.
Thurot in the winter of 1759-60, which, through the Straits of Magellan, such a
On many pages of his record
though eventually suppressed, was able proposal seems as suicidal as it is ignorant; hesitates to say whether such a
to do much mischief before the end came. but there are apparently men in the United has been more fortunate or more good. ”
Similarly, Mr. Corbett will not allow the States who entertainit-men, too, of The quotation is from Stevenson’s memoir
magical influence which has been claimed some education,
since Capt. Mahan
has of Fleeming Jenkin, of which Mr. Atlay's
for the “ Fleet in Being,” even if that some hopes of showing them the absurdity work occasionally reminds us. The happy,
phrase be understood to mean a fleet which of it. But though able to read, such men warrior in life, especially ecclesiastical
is able and ready to issue from its harbour must be supposed to be ignorant of history, life, is not usually a good subject.
and to carry on warlike operations. Of or Capt. Mahan would have appealed to Writing at the request of Mrs. Ernest
course a fleet in merely visible or material the instances in which the French Navy, Wilberforce, and himself bearing one
being, without physical or moral strength, trying to effect a junction by the much of the honoured names of the Anglican
is not “ in being in
any tactical sense. shorter line from Toulon to Brest Bench, Mr. Atlay might pardonably have
That a fleet in being may often have through the Straits of Gibraltar, has been disconcerted by the conditions of
singular power in preventing or restraining suffered the shipwreck of its plan-as at his task, and fallen upon dullness. In fact,
the operations of an enemy is freely ad- Barfleur and La Hogue,
as at Lagos and Dr. Wilberforce lives again for those who
mitted, and Mr. Corbett quotes from a Quiberon Bay, as at Trafalgar. Still, knew him, lives now for those who knew
letter of Kempenfelt's the opinion that Mr. Corbett has shown that there are many him not. The historian of. The Victorian
such a squadron, composed of ships of conditions and some localities in which a
Chancellors' has not done better than in
the highest mobility, hanging on to the fleet may be properly and advantageously the clear and graceful prose of this
enemy's large fleet,
broken up into detachments, while still
biography.
“ « will prevent their dividing into separate in-Chief. It is a point on which we think Samuel, and born while his father was
held under the control of the Commander-
Ernest Wilberforce was the third son of
squadrons for intercepting your trade or
spreading their ships for a more extensive Capt. Mahan has dogmatized from the still Rector of Brighstone, although already
view. . . . Such a squadron will be a check special conditions forced on his notice.
and restraint upon their motions, and pre-
named by Bishop Sumner for the Arch-
vent a good deal of the mischief they might Lord Charles Beresford—too thick to be child; he made no mark at Harrow; and
Even as we write, the small volume by deaconry of Surrey. He was an unruly
otherwise do. '. . . . But [adds Mr. Corbett]
its power of preventing a particular opera- called a pamphlet—has been put into our at Oxford was remembered as a bruiser,
tion, such as oversea invasion, is another hands. A measured criticism of the with the most perfect of arms. His degree
matter which will always depend upon the conduct and policy of the Admiralty was the now obsolete“ honorary fourth. ”
local conditions. If the fleet in being might be fairly thought to have a direct Not on scholarship, but on character, his
can be contained in such a way that it is bearing on major strategy ; but this pub-
impossible for it to reach the invading, line lication seems to consist of condemnation he married at twenty-three and lost his
success was founded. Bereavement (for
of passage, it will be no bar to invasion. ”
rather than criticism, assertion rather than wife a few years later), the influence of
But of course, if "contained,” it is no argument, invective rather than reason. Dr. Woodford, later Bishop of Ely, and
longer in tactical" being. ” Even stronger Its aims, so far as we understand them, are
some years in a small Oxfordshire parish,
on this point, and possibly more practical, somewhat personal and political, and, in where he developed his specific gift of
is Capt. Mahan, who says :
either case, lie outside the field which we forcible, straight talk, conjoined to form
“The extreme school has gone so far as
try to cultivate.
him. His other great faculty of organiza-
to argue that [a Fleet in Being) will stop an
tion was developed at Seaforth, Liverpool,
expedition, or should do so if the enemy, bel
to which Gladstone (in his private capacity)
wise, I have for years contended against
presented him in 1873. He was naturally
pa
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