since that date? Even now they do not say more than this: "We are in favour of having the power proposed by clause 3 in the Bill, and we should regret if the opportunity which presents itself of obtaining that power for us were to be lost; and they add, "We are altogether opposed to the proposal which we understand has been put forward to create forthwith councils in all the larger provinces, and we desire to make that point clear. We see no present necessity for a general change of this character, and it should be made, if it is to be made, only in the light of experience." GOVERNMENT BY SUGGESTION. They have embraced alterations which have made it radical and democratic. The Secretary of State says he has not pressed his views upon them. He has only "suggested." The power of suggestion on susceptible subjects is now an established fact; and it is preferable to believe that we have in this case an example of a well-known psychological phenomenon, than to suspect the Government of India of playing Polonius to the Secretary of State's Ham This being so, the House of Lords were not inclined to go back from their decision, and Lord Morley did not press his motion to a division. If the power were given, it might be used next day by the Secretary of State. The Government of India cannot be trusted to stick to their guns. They have no stable opinions or convictions. They have eagerly accepted reforms which are very much the opposite of their own proposals. The general tenor of their scheme was cautious and conservative. let. LORD MORLEY AND MR GOKHALE. It will be remarked that the Government of India refer to the proposal which they believe has been put forward to create councils forthwith. It is pertinent to ask from what quarter this proposal has been made. It is to be found in two documents. One is Mr Gokhale's note which he says he laid in September last before the Secretary of State. The other is the report of the Royal Commission upon decentralisation which was published last Both these authori month. VOL. CLXXXV.—NO. MCXXII. ties, as they may be called for shortness, agree in recommending the substitution of Governors appointed from England for Lieutenant-Governors and the creation of Councils, Mr Gokhale says, of three or four members, of whom one or two are to be Indians; the Hobhouse Commission say of not less than four members, "which they add will permit of the strengthening of the administration by the inclusion of specially qualified natives of India." The ultimate object 2 R note. and the probable result of to clause 3 of the Bill are, it seems to us, indicated by these quotations. Mr Gokhale's note has been mentioned once or twice in this paper. It is connected with an amusing episode in the debate. Mr Gokhale, it appears, wrote a note on the reform question and submitted it to the Secretary of State in September last. In it he embodied his latest ideas on reforms. When the Blue-books were published he found that a former memorandum of his written three years ago with much less advanced ideas was included, whereas his latest utterance was omitted. On the 12th January he asked the Government of India to include the latter note in any further papers they might issue. Meanwhile, however, to secure publication he gave the paper to The Friend of India,' who published it on January 21. · The matter has been brought before the British public by two correspondents of The Times,' one of whom-"Suum Cuique," in a very able letter -presses strongly for the publication of the note by the Secretary of State. Lord Morley deemed it necessary to make a personal explanation of the matter to the House of Lords. But he has not thought fit as yet Lord Morley had of course a perfect right to consult Mr Gokhale, and to adopt his proposals if he thought them good. It is quite natural that, to two men of intellect seeking out a solution of the same problem, similar and even identical methods should occur. Such instances are known to have happened even in the case of very remarkable inventions. But when the problems before the two thinkers are not only not the same in substance, but absolutely inconsistent, then the case becomes almost miraculous. Mr Gokhale's aim, it is believed, is to attain to complete representative government, at least on the Colonial model. Lord Morley, we know, considers that personal and absolute rule must be maintained in India, and he would have no hand in introducing even the beginnings of parliamentary government. That the same means should be advocated by Mr Gokhale and by Lord Morley, under these circumstances, is somewhat puzzling. Lord Morley wants to breach the Bureaucracy; the Dakkani Brahmin wants to breach the British Dominion. Will the one lead to the other? There is some reason for asking the Secretary of of State, "Quo Vadis?" Printed by William Blackwood and Sons. BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE. No. MCXXIII. MAY 1909. VOL. CLXXXV. A MAN'S MAN. BY IAN HAY, AUTHOR OF THE RIGHT STUFF.' Partner (after several collisions). I should think you were more at home in a boat than a ballroom, Mr Rudderford! Little Bobby Rudderford (the famous Oxbridge coxswain). Yes; and by Jove, I'd sooner steer eight men than one woman, any day!-Punch. BOOK ONE.-DEALS WITH A STUFF THAT WILL NOT ENDURE CHAPTER ONE.-NAVAL MANEUVRES. A UNIVERSITY college varies its facial expression about as frequently as The Sphinx and about as violently as a treaclewell. This remark specially applies between the hours of breakfast and luncheon. The courts, with their monastic cloisters and inviolable grass-plots, lie basking in a sunny obliviousness to the world outside. Their stately exclusiveness is accentuated rather than diminished by the glimpse of an occasional flying figure in a cap and gown, or the spectacle of a middle-aged female of a discreet and VOL. CLXXXV.—NO. MCXXIII, chastened appearance, who glides respectfully from one archway to another carrying a broom and a tin pail or— -alas for the goings-on that a cloistered cell may conceal behind its art - muslin curtains! — a tankard containing some gentleman's morning ale. In one corner, close to the Buttery door, you may behold one of the college cats, which appears to be combining a searching morning toilet with a course of practical calisthenics; and inside the massive arch of the gateway stands a majestic figure in a tall hat, 2 s whom appreciative Americans usually mistake for the Master, but who in reality occupies the far more onerous and responsible post of Head Porter. Perhaps the greatest variation from the normal is on a Saturday morning. Then the scene is is brightened by the vision of an occasional washerwoman, who totters bravely at one end of a heavy basket what time her lord and master (who has temporarily abandoned his favourite street-corner and donned Sabbath attire for this, his weekly contribution to the work of the world) sulkily supports the other. Undergraduates, too, are more in evidence than on other days. On most mornings they either stay indoors, to work or sleep, or else go outside the college altogether. "Loitering" in the courts is not encouraged by the authorities. Not that the undergraduate minds that, but it will probably cost him half-a-crown every time he does so, not because he loiters but because he smokes. The Old Court of St Benedict's College-it is hardly necessary to say that we are in Cambridge and not in Oxford: otherwise we should have said "Quad"-presents to us on the present occasion a very fair sample of a Saturday morning crowd. The observant eye of the Dean, looking down (like Jezebel) from an upper chamber, can discern— 1. Three washerwomen, with the appurtenances thereof. 2. One small boy delivering The Granta. 3. A solitary spectacled gentleman, of the type described by the University Calendar in stately periphrasis as "A Native of Asia, not of European Parentage (but more tersely classified by the rest of the community as "a nigger"), hurrying in cap and gown to secure a good place at the feet of some out-ofcollege Gamaliel. 4. A kitchen-man in white jacket and apron, bearing upon his head a tray containing a salmon mayonnaise, cutlets in aspic, and a special Cambridge dainty known as "Grassy Corner Pudding”—a fearsome compound of whipped cream and pistachio nuts. 5. A Buttery boy, walking close behind, with a basket containing bottles. Evidently some young gentleman is about to entertain angels-unawares so far as his bill-paying papa is concerned. 6. Four young men converg ing to a group in the centre of the court. Of these, two are attired in the undergraduate mode of the moment-tweed jackets with leather buttons, waistcoats of the Urim and Thummim variety, grey flannel trousers well turned up, clamorous silk socks, and heavy Highland shooting brogues. The third wears what the College Regulations describe rather ingenuously as "Athletic Dress." Pheidippides himself would have found it difficult to perform feats of prowess in a costume composed of split pumps, white duck trousers, and a blazer admirably quali fied to serve as a model of the Solar Spectrum. It may be mentioned in passing that, to the College Regulations, "Athletic Dress" is not in itself a costume in which it is possible to perform athletic feats, but one whose colour-scheme clashes with the sub-fusc standard which obtains in all college courts until 1 P.M.; such, in fact, as would tend to distract the eye and sap the diligence of those who traverse the courts on their way to lectures. In consequence, he who he who would be matutinally athletic must either keep his war paint somewhere out of college or drape himself in a conspirator's cloak and a sombrero as he flits from his rooms to the river or Fenner's. The fourth gentleman of the party was dressed, if not gorgeously, sufficiently respectably to warrant the assumption that he was not a member of the University. All four were smoking. The Dean, glancing in the direction of the gateway, and observing with sardonic satisfaction that the watchful Cerberus there was taking a note of the delinquency, returned to his work. Regardless of the prospective loss of halfa- crown apiece, the undergraduates exchanged cheerful greetings. "Hallo, Dishy-Washy!" There ensued an awkward pause, while Messrs Gussie and Towzer, nervously conscious of the presence of a stranger to whom they were about to be presented, looked intently at their boots and waited for the introduction to take place. The gentleman previously addressed as Dishy-Washy, a diminutive youth with wizened features, his name was Dishart-Watson, - cleared his throat. "Introduce my brother," he said huskily. "Mr Poltimore Mr Angus!" The gentlemen indicated shook hands with the visitor, and Mr Angus, after a mental effort, inquired "Come to see us go Head?" He giggled deprecatingly, to show that he did not really mean this. "Hope so," said DishyWashy's brother politely. "I hear you've got a pretty hot crew," he added. "First chop," said Mr Poltimore. "You just arrived?" "Yes; down from town this morning." "Oh! live there?" "Oxford man," interpolated Dishy-Washy swiftly. "Sent down," he added in extenuation. The other two nodded sympathetically, and the conversation proceeded more briskly. "Are you going to catch those chaps to-night, Dishy?" inquired Mr Angus earnestly. "Don't know," replied DishyWashy, who as coxswain of the St Benedict's boat enjoyed a position of authority and esteem in inverse ratio to his inches. "Duncombe's a good enough little oar, but you can't expect a man who weighs nine stone ten to stroke the boat and pull it along too. Of |