BOOKS OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2162, 30 May 1914, Page 9

BOOKS OF THE DAY.

THE TWENTY NEW "BOHNS."

"IN THE COCKPIT OF EUROPE."

"MR. SPEAKER." Mr. Michael M'Donagh's studios of tho House of Commons and of the every-day life of tho British Parliamentarian are always agreeably informative and very readable. His latest ivorlt, "The Speaker of tho House" (Methueu and Co.), is devoted to tho liist-ory of the Speakership, that highest, most onerous, most honourable position in which tho House of Commons can placo one of its members. The Speakership is a highly responsible position. It involves a heavy strain upon the physical as well as the mental powers of its occupant. But it

has its compensations. The Speaker 1 .enjoys a salary of £5000 a year, and has a splendid residence in a wing of the famous I'alaco of Westminster. He lias at least four or five months' holiday a year, and after ten or twelvo years' service ho retires with a. peerage and the substantial pension of £4000 a year. The dignity of the position is also nigh. The Speaker is' tho First Commoner of the Realm, and in tho public eye the office ranks next, perhaps, to that of the Prime Minister. Ono Speaker, Arthur Onslow, elected in 1725, continued in possession of the Chair for thirty-three years, through five successive ' Parliaments, but in these later times the sessions are longer, the sittings more protracted,, and, as it is now ,tho rule to elect men of a certain maturity of . age to the position, tho occupants are generally well content to hold ■ tho office for some ten or twelve years. Of the last three Speakers, : Henty Bouverie -Brand sat for twelve Arthur Wellesloy P?el eleven years,, and William Court Gully ten years. When Mr. Gully retired from the Chair in 1905, taking the title .of Lord Selby, the choice of tho Unionist Government, then in power, was Mr. James 'William Lowther, who had acted: as Chairman, of Committees and Deputy-Speaker for ten years. Mr. : Lowther, like Mr. Peel, declines to follow the traditional rule of being a cleanshaven Speaker. Until the days of the later Stuarts, tho Speakers always wore beards, but soon began a long succession of clean-shaven Speakers, which was not broken until 1883, when Mr. Peel assumed tho position. He, lik§ Jlr. Lowther, wore a beard.

porter Drinking in tho Chair. ' Mr. M'Donagh has many curious storffes to tell of past; Speakers. Speaker Cornwall, who held tho position from -1780 to 1789, "indulged during the sittings of the House in frequent draughts of porter,!' "foaming tankards" of his favourite liquor being brought to him in. tho -course of the evening from. Bel-, l'amy's.- Wraxiill, in' liiij rather'scandalous but amusing "Memoirs," says /tho porter sometimes proved too powerful for the Speaker, and "produced inconvenienccs," as ho nicely puts it. Cornwall's habit naturally'' afforded a chance for the political satirists of his day. Thus in "The Rolliad," we find the lines ' . . - Like sad Prometheus fastened to the rock, si/In vain ho looks^forSwty' clock'; ?'ln vain-.,the , . porter tries, -. ; And nods to Bellamy's 'for "fresh ;;■'"• supplies. ,- ' The Most Choleric Speaker. ' '■'.The. "most choleric" Speaker the' House has known,was Sir Fletcher Norton, a Tory, elected in 1770. To Norton is .credited the unique distinction of a Speaker having his words "taken down" as disorderly, .tho result being a.'violent wrangle which lasted six hours. Sir Wm. Meredith haying complained that the Speaker "had used Hm very ill" (in 1 censuring him for asking whether a certain motion—concerning John Wilkes— could bo brought forward in two parts), Norton said, ''In candour, I did expect ho would have communicated his motion to me, but I-find I ani.not to expect candid treatment from that gentleman." Immediately there were cries of "Take down his words." The Clerk of tho House, admittedly in a very aw&vard position, declined to tako down tho words until the Speaker gave his consent and directions. Filially, a member named Dowdesw:ell moved that "tho words of the Speaker, from tho Chair, are disorderly, importing an improper reflection on a member of this House, and dangerous to the freedom of debate in this Hon«c." This was duly seconded, and a longthy and .acrimonious debate ensued. In the end tho irato Speaker calmed down, tho wrath of the injured Meredith was appeased, and, tho motion being put from the Chair, as the Journals say, "it passed in tho negative." On another occasion Norton camo into conflict with Royalty itself, for having altered in tho preface to a Money Bill the words,, "Beyond - Your Majesty's .expense" trt "beyond Your Majesty's wants." Chnrlcs James Fox and the Whig Opposition on this occasion supported tho Speaker,- and tho Corporation of London gave Norton the, Freedom of tho City for "having declared in manly terms the real state of the Nation to His Majesty on tbo Throne." The certificate of freedom, enclosed though it was in a gold box , worth fifty guineas, tho Speaker declined to accept. But Georfto 111 did not forgot, and as the result of his influence, with Lord North, the Ministerial nominee in the next Parliament was not Norton, but Cornwall.

Shaker Brand and tho Irish alisfs. ' It was. not until 1880 that the .first measure for the punishment of delibor ato obstruction was adopted—the "naming" of a member "for persistently and wilfully obstructing the business 'of the House, for abusing the rules of tho House, or for disregarding the authority of'the Chair." This was during Speaker Brand's term of office. Early in 1881 the longest sitting of the House took place. ■ The Irish Nationalists, led by Parnell, were opposing Forster's "Protection of Person and Property Bill," which suspended tho Habeas' Corpus Act. This was tho Bill under the operations of 'which hundreds of Irishmen wero subsequently imprisoned without trial as "suspects," on the war- < rant of the Lord Lioutenant. After a' three nights' debate, Gladstone announced on Monday, January 31, thjjl, tho Government would obtain the first reading of the Bill before tho Houso adjourned. This let loose the full -'flood of Nationalist wrath and obstruction. There were' frequent scenes. One member, Mr. Milbank, called the attention of the Deputy-Speaker to tha fact that Mr. Biggar had referred to him as "a b—-y fool." Mr. Biggar, on his side, complained that Mr. Millbank had said, "Biggar, you're a mean, impudent •scoundrel."' Tho obstruction continued until nine o'clock on the Wednesday morning, when Speaker Brand made the historic declaration that on his own responsibility ho proposed to closo the debate. For this action there was 'no authority under the Standing Orders, but it' subsequently transpired, that the Speaker had been promised the support of both the Prime' Minister and the Loader of the, Opposition. , "Tho dignity, credit, and authority of paid Mr. Brand, reading from his manuscri/vt in slow and solemn tones, "and ■i '

it is necessary that they should bo vindicated." He thou declared lie would best carry out tho will of tho Houso by declining to call upon any moro tho House arc seriously threatened," members to speak. .The Nationalist amendment, against the Coercion Bill, was put, and' declared lost by 164 to 21), leavo to bring in the Bill was granted, and at half-past nine, after a continuous sitting of 41i hours (a rccord, for tho House of Commons, still unbroken), tho Houso adjourned. Parnell was out of tho Houso at the time, having left the Chamber to get a few hours' sleep. The Nationalists cried: "Privilege! Privilege!" most of them leaving the Chamber before the vote was taken.

Speaker Feel "On.Jhe Pounce." , Speaker Peel, who' followed Speaker Brand, had many stirring experiences with tho Irishmen. He was most keenly alivo to his dignity. Mr. M'Donagh records an occasion when Sir Wiu. Harcourt camo into conflict -with the Chair, and emerged therefrom decidedly second' best. Peel could bo "gently persuasive" when any of file rules of the Houso were unwittingly disregarded, but "ho was all anger and relentless in the case of a deliberate breach of the rules of decorum, or an impertinent and perverse trifling with the House, or blustering arrogance and oefiance on tho part of a member." Says Mr. M'Donagh:— He showed himself, on such occasions, a terrific upholder of order , by sweeping down on the offending ' member in clouds of wrath. Nothing could be more sharp and per-' emptory than his cry of . "Order! Order I",and, delivered in a manner most expressive' of indignant displeasure and stern rebuke, it usually silenced the most turbulent. . . . It was easy to tell by . his physical restlessness in the Chair, and the mentally disquietd look on his face, when he anticipated a breach of order. "You are too much on tho pounce," said an angry Irish memher—Mr. Edward Harrington— once, smarting under his reproof. Tho remark was disrespectful, but it-was highly graphic; "On the pounce" just' expressed atti- ■ tudo of Mr.. Peel, ' sitting on the edge of the Chair, anxious and impatient, his hands Q'grasping. tho arm-rests, a look of pain and 'displeasure on his face, and leaning forward in' a crouching attitude, ready to swoop at, tlie proper moment. swiftly and sternly, on the offender, and nip the incipient dis- , order in the bud."

Mr. M'Donagh traces the history of the Speakership from its initiation in Edward the Third's reign, up to the present day, and gives a. series of interestiiif; pen-portraits of the more notable occupants of tho Chair. He describes the maimer of election of; a Speaker, tho rights, responsibilities, and powers of the office, and incidentally gives a most instructive account of the whole official inner working of tho House' of Commons. The illustrations include Speakers, views of UMJfoli'se'&f' Commons, etc. An unusually detailed index is an excellent feature. (New Zealand price, 12s. : 6d.) .

The'latest batch of twenty new volumes in that excellent series, Bolm's Popular Library (London, George Bell and Sons, per. ffhitcombe. and Tombs), is exceptionally interesting.in that it includes several works of which' the copyright has not expired, and others which have long been* out of print. A volume ■of "Emerson's Poems", completes ail Emerson set of five volumes, the first four of which had previously', appeared, and two little-known British, poets. Vaughau and Blake, are represented by' reprints from' the well-known Aldine Poets' series, the typography being of a noticeable elegance. To the Blake volume an interesting "prefatory memoir is contributed by that sound and discerning critic, W. M. Eossetti. In addition to the better-known "Songs of Innocence" and the "Later Poems," Mr. Rossett-i has included a dramatic poem, "King Edward tho Third," written when its author was still in his 'teens. - "The Sacred Poems of Henry Vaughan,'"Tho Silurist," aro also' reprinted from the Aldino edition of 1882, and.are prefaced by a biographical sketch of Vauglian from the. pen of the Rev. 11. F. Lyte. This is the .best editibn (outside that published -in the Muses'■ Library) that we have. So tastily produced and cheap a reprint should bo very welcome to students'of seventh century verse. History, so strong a feature of the previous batch, is here represented by Mr.' George Hooper's fine study of later nineteenth century warfare. "The Campaign of Sedan and Downfal of the Sccond Empire," first published in 1897, and still recognised as one- of tho soundest, most unprejudiced accounts of Franco's military debacle .that is available to purely English readers. A useful feature of the book is a series of detailed military maps showing the disposition of tho contending' armies at Woe'rth, Spicheren. Colombe:-Nouilly, VionvillcMars la Tour, Gravolotte, and Sedan. A genoral map of the war-field is also#, given, and there is a full index. Students of military history should (specially welcome this excellent publication. "Five Essays" by Macanlay,, with an introduction :bv R.' H. Gretton, whoso recent-ly-published "History of Modern England" lias been so well reviewed, is l'another attractive title. For the essays 'on Johnson and Pitt, this little volume is well worth a modest fifteonpence.

Messrs. Bell and. Sons hold the copyright of ninny English translations of famous works by foreign writers, and tlicy nro wisely including a selection from these in the new Bolin Library. Anna Swanwick's version of Goethe's' Faust" (both- parts) lias always been highly esteemed by English students of the brilliant drfftnatic fantasy ivhich chiefly made famous the name of the Poet Philosopher of Weimar, and in its latest edition forms, a suitable accompaniment to the English translation of Goethe's great autobiographical work, "Poetry and Truth from My Own Life," which was included among the first twenty volumes of this admirable series. Other foreign authors represented in the new batch are tlio Eussian novelist. Alexander Poushkin ("Prose Tales"') and all Italian. Alessandro Maimmi ("Tlio Betrothal"). Poushkin, who had a most romantic, career, was a poet, plavwright, dramatist, as well as novelist. Byronic influence is noticeable in much of his work, wliicli, however, is remarkable in these "Prose Tales" at least, for a comparative absence of -that spirit of pessimist wliicli is curiously characterises so much Russian fiction. Ho died at the early ago of thirty-eight.'as tlio result of a duel with his wife's brother-in-law. Manzoni, whose famous historical novel, "I Promcssi Sposo" (a story of Milan in tjic seventeenth century), here appears in an English translation, under the title of "The Betrothal," has always been a favourite author in Italy and France. Born in ISO 6, lie died in 1873. The wide range of Bohn's Library is also Droved by a reprint of Taylor's

translation of "Select Works" of I'lotinus, the apostle of Nco-Platonism. An interesting preface—with a lengthy bibliography—is contributed by Jlr. G. 11. S. Mead, and Taylor's own introduction to the first edition is also reproduced in full. To many to whom Plotinus is a mere name, Taylor's famous translation, now accessible in so ehoap and handy a form, will show what solution one of the most penetrating minds of antiquity had to offer of problems in religion and philosophy that are"insi,steiitly pressing upon us to-day. From Plotinus to tho "Arabian. Nights" is a change indeed. Messrs. Isell . now give us two volumes of what is to.be a three-volume edition of Lane's version of those romantic and often grotesquely extravagant, yet ever fascinating, Oriental Stories which liavo delighted so nijiny thousands of readers. Lane's version is, it may bo noted, quite the best for family reading, which can certainly not be said of thq versions by Payne and Bur toil. As Mr.. Stanley Lane Poole puts it, ill his preface, "The Arabian Nights" is not a prurient book, but in the original it frankly describes things that we do not tajk about, and it was inevitable that it must be carefully cleansed of such details if it were to bo placed in everyone's hands." Galland, the Frenchman who was the earliest translator of "The-Nights," omitted one-third moro than, did Lane. Tho chief defect of Lane's version, . is its somewhat ponderous style, but its accuracy as a translation lias never been questioned, and • this new and-remark-ably Cheap edition should give "The Nights" a widespread now popularity with English readers.

Messrs. Bell arid Sons still. hold the copyright of many..-of Anthony Trollope's novels, and I am glad to see they have now completed the re-issue, in this series, of tho famous' "Barsetshire Novels," from which, as I have remarked on previous occasions, so truthful and' entertaining a description can be 'gleamed of English upper middle class society of tho Victorian era. In the last "batch" had appeared "The Warden" and "Barchester Towers.' Six more volifmes, completing the '•'Barchester" set, are now issued. ( These are that long—it runs into 600 pages—and excellent ' novel "Dr: Thome" (to my mind, one of-the most human and most interesting of all Trollope's novels); "Framley Parsonage," wRh its moral of "don't get into debt," and its essentially intimate.- studies <)f clerical and county family, life; "The Small House'- at Allington," which ,"Liber" can well remember - 'reading when it originally appeared ill serial form in tho .'dear old yellow-covered "Cornhill.""and which has one of the sweetest and dearest heroines, Lily Dale, to be found in English fiction; and "The Last Chronicles of Barset," in whjcli our old; friend Mrs. Proudie appears for the last time. At,the risk of being considered a-hopeless old fogey, I 'still swear by Trollope's "Bar-| Chester Series,"' and only the' other, day was-rejoiced to como on an essay by that admitted exemplar of the ultraliterary criticism, Mr.-Henry Jamos.i in ' which they . are 1 hailed as being .-well deserving of .permanent popularity.'.' But read them,' I pray you,, in their' proper'-,order. - ;

Outside the Pouslikiii stories, the most 'attractive,, to ■'me, of this new hatch of "Bohn'-s" is ' a . work I have left to, the last. ' This is "Trelawney's "Adventures. of a Younger Sou" (2 vols.) It is a -work-I had often heard of. but never read, and having read it, I can warmly commend it here'. Its author, Edward John Trelawney, ■ a Cornishman, of course, was in' many ways a very remarkable man. He was at sea on a three-decker when Trafalgar was fought; he was a privateer in the Ejist Indies while Napoleon marched oil Moscow; lie kindled Shelley's funeral #4'£?4js to °d .'M ho Grecian canip,- laiid- fo.ujsi trior.., freedom 011 the. heights of Parnassus; .Be married tlio daughter'of. ah Arab private, and as his second'-wife," the sister of a. Greek brigand^-.Lander immortalised him iii one of liis "Imaginary . Conversations," Swinburne wrote a poem to his memory, and in his later years— ho lived to the great ago of eightj''eight, he'was painted by Millais, as'the fugged mariner of ; -"Tho North-West Passage." His "Adventures'.' make excellent reading. ?Ther,o.is a touch of M.'jrryatt'in tli6 naval scenes; he anticipated Conrad's pictures of Malaysia; lie'■reminds me, hero and there,' of Michael Scott in "Tom Cringle's Log"; and thero is much liioro than a mere suggestion of George Borrow.' That in his "Adventures" he mingled flotion with autobiography, is ' likely enough. So did Borrow. So, before Borrow, did" that sad rascal Jacques Casanova do Se'ingalt; and, so before Casanova, did that romantic and sinister iigu're .of the Renaissance, Bonevenuto Cellini. No doubt, tho Byronic influonco was responsible for 'tho occasional > flight's' of flamboyant romanticism which vary the general and quite Defoe-like insistence •on detail in "The Adventures,", but once you get the Trelawney flavour,' as it were, on the palate, you read on and on,, without any quarrelling- with rvo style. Messrs. Bell and Sous deserve the thanks of all who love a personal quality in literature, for having- reprinted these extraordinary yarns of the adventure-loving Cornishman.V As with tho previous -issues- in this excellent series, the type is .large and clear, the binding, neat, comely, and fairly strong —in' a word or two, the format is all that could be desired; and the price is but- fifteenpence a volume! Bell's. Popular Library is eminently deserving of a wide and permanent popularity.'' t 1 ■ ;

Lieutenant-Colonel Pollock, tho author of "In the ' Cockpit ' of ;Europo" (George Bell'and Sons; per iAVhitcombe and Tombs), is a well-known : writer on military ."strategy. He lias put into fictional form his views on what lie believes to be tho "correct strategy and conduct" to bo observed by British commanders' were Germany to •declare war against France and Great 'Britain, and were' the' latter' Power to dispatch troops to the , Belgian-German frontier. Ho describes, wiith much.picturesque detail, two great battles, .the British and Belgian troops playing a conspicuously important part, and there ■is a fine air -of realism in his account of tho part played in the great s.trugglo by dirigibles and aeroplanes'. The Germans arc defeated,-one :-result. of their discomfiture being the secession of Saxonv, Hanover, and other States from the German Empire. The success of the Triple Entente is-d-ue ; very, largely, to tho courago of the Belgian Government, once it makes up its 'mind f.o relinquish its neutrality, in denuding Antwerp of regular troops in order ...Jliat efficient '•o'rees should bo more' usefully disposed elsewhere. Colonel Pollock ;s"ays in his preface: "In this case I have deliberately imagined Belgium adopting tho strategically sound course, though fully recognising that the -wrong thing might actually be dono in a "real war." Tho naval side of tho war is not enlarged upon. Only one great navali battle was fought during tho entire period of conflict, and that took placc between Dover and Osfrnd durijig the passago 'of the Channel'by the expeditionary forco:— Tactically tho result was indecisive, but strategically it was enough. The Germans lost moro ships than tlio British, .but tho latter wero in no condition' to complete what would have been a victory of very slight value had, they not possessed in'reserve so many obsolete or obsolescent vessels to replace at sea tho disabled' 'super- _ Dreadnoughts.' Tlie-J>attlo of Os-* tend left Germany with hardly a modern battleship that bad not suffered damage, which months of day and night labour would be required to repair. In the Mediterranean, a cleverly-contrived comedy of strate : gical deception brought about a,

tragedy for t-ho Austrian' feet, which was destroyed by iliB r AngloFrench. The Italian, fleet never afterwards dared to put to sea., though single ships made some da-r-----ing raids against British commerce, and occasionally with, success. 'J'iio principal moral kssm of the war - Was to emphasise the importance of numbers, not oaiy in first line, bat also in second.

A feature of the war is the part played by a force from India, which, (aii-dwl at Marseilles, defends the French froa* tier against Italian attacks. Russia at first moves slowly, but when once activo effectually checks Austria: and to Germany. Australian, Hew Zealand,; and Canadian contingents are also dispatched to Europe, the New Zealaiiuws (10,000 of them) landing at Marseilles just in tinio to hoar of the declaration of peace, but not too la-to to bo right royally entertained by the grateful aM jubilant Parisians. The personal - adventures, in the. war, of a yennsjs English . officer, and the effect df the war upon ovory-da.V life iii a country village, help to carry t.|ie story through as a pieco of fiction, brit the main interest and value of the book lies in its careful analysis of the probable happenings 011 the Belgian-German fro-n----'tier, and the disposition and movements of tho opposing forws. The author might, perhaps, have spared tis his somewhat biased views on British politics and politicians, but it is only natural for the soldier to despise the Biero talker, and, after all, Iris remarks are not ill-natural. Two maps of the territories where, the, fighting occurs should be most useful to the reader who takes the story, as it is meant to he taken, as a serious study of a probable situation.