having no one fit to govern. "Avec des anneaux de plomb, on ne fera jamais une chaine d'or." But what builds up the fibres of character is not the habit of acting independently so much; for the bending of the will to the faithful execution of orders is also an excellent discipline -it is rather "la lutte contre le mal." It is odd that M. Clamageran should overlook this. And though it is hoped by Socialists that "le mal" would be diminished by Socialism, there is no fear that it would be so extinguished as to be no longer the pièce de resistance of life.

It is easy to see that the author writes in reaction from certain practices and tendencies in his own country. We are having, at the present day, a somewhat unpleasant reminder that "the corruption of the best is the worst." When the State is liable to behave as it has with regard to the Dreyfus trial, no sincere politician would view the extension of its function with anything but alarm. M. Clamageran has some startling statements on this subject. He says, for instance (p. 153), "that child-labour, though excluded from factories, is still allowed in the wine-shops, where, of course, it is much more objectionable, because of the powerful liquor interest." Again

"Les ports militaires, les arsenaux inutiles dans bien des cas pour la flotte, sont entretenus à grands frais pour ne pas mécontenter les ouvriers qu'ils occupent, les fonctionnaires et les agents qui leur sont attachés, les populations groupées autour d'eux" (p. 156).

But the most remarkable confession is one which it is worth quoting in full, in view of the recent discussions on French colonization. It must be remembered that the author is a member of the Senate.

"Les colonies sont l'exemple le plus éclatant de ces pratiques dangereuses. Quelques-unes prennent une extension énorme, embrassent des territoires immenses, non pour être habitées par des immigrants, les immigrants manquent, ou ne peuvent travailler et multiplier sous des climats pénibles pour des hommes de race européenne; on ne cherche pas non plus dans ces colonies des exploitations fructueuses ou une augmentation des affaires commerciales; dès qu'un commerçant, un industriel ou un agriculteur audacieux prospère, on lui crée mille embarras, on le tourmente, on le décourage, on le flétrit, dans la prisse, au parlement et ailleurs du nom de spéculateur ou d'accapareur. Que cherche-t-on ? Un débouché pour les fonctionnaires " (p. 157).

Of the three agencies mentioned above, it is to individual effort that M. Clamageran looks in the first place. He points out, as has often been noticed, that inventions and the extension of civilization do not necessarily increase the sum of human happiness, "L'alcool plus abondant crée l'alcoolisme" (p. 10). It is the development of character that is wanted. This should be helped, so far as it can, by voluntary

associations. Nor are the forces of religion to be despised.

After

all, says M. Clamageran, when all other enemies are overcome, there will still remain one great enemy-the king of terrors-Death. And it is to some extent as a narcotic against this evil, that he takes under his wing, in a somewhat shamefaced way, religion. He feels it necessary to apologize for it, in a section entitled "L'abus ne justifie l'exclusion." But on examination what he appreciates is seen to be, not so much the assistance of supernatural power to enable men to grapple with life, but the belief in this power. It is not God for whom M. Clamageran cares, but religion. The distinction is worth noticing, because it accounts for much of the weakness of social theorists.

pas

On the whole this cannot be called a strong book. Lucidity has been carried to the verge of commonplace. In order not to interrupt the flow of language, the author has decided to confine himself to generalizations, which are often merely truisms. In English we have a much better instance of a work on these lines-Raleigh's Elementary Politics, which, though much shorter, and embracing a wider field, does give something to bite at on each subject (compare, for instance, the two on the right to bequeath property: Raleigh, p. 130; Clamageran, p. 140). And a distinct fault in a book of this sort is that authorities are hardly ever quoted; p. 121 is one of the few exceptions. All introductions ought to introduce, not merely to the subject, but to other sources of information on it. Apart from these faults, the book is as useful as introductions usually are.

on the great advance There is far more (though

Miss Vida Scudder is to be congratulated shown by her second work over her first. still not always sufficient) concentration of thought; and the first two chapters, on "William Langland and the Middle Ages," and on "The Utopia of Sir Thomas More," are altogether admirable. The third chapter, on "The Age of Jonathan Swift," is equally good from a literary point of view, but considering that the name which heads it is that of one of which the author avers that he had no "social idealism" whatever, one cannot help wondering that twenty-four pages of good writing should have been devoted to proving an avowed negative.

These three chapters make up the First Part of the book—“The England of our Forefathers." The twelve following ones are devoted

to "The England of our Fathers," the names which stand out in the headings being those of Dickens and Thackeray, George Eliot, Carlyle, Ruskin and (M.) Arnold. But surely, if any name deserved to begin a series of "social idealists," Wordsworth's is that name. Not on account of his and Coleridge's early "pantisocracy," but for that abiding sense of the value of man as man-to use a phrase frequently on Maurice's lips-which lies at the root of all true social ideals, that sense which inspired, as late as 1837 at least, the sonnet beginning "Feel for the wrongs to universal ken Daily exposed," and concluding with the noble words

"Feel for all, as brother men.

Rest not in hope want's icy chain to thaw
By casual boons and formal charities;
Learn to be just, just through impartial law,
Far as ye may, erect and equalize;

And what ye cannot reach by statute, draw
Each from his fountain of self-sacrifice."1

"Far as ye may, erect and equalize "-is there no social ideal there? Can there be a stronger protest against the devil's and Nietzsche's gospel of selfish individualism—and alas! also too many a Christian's doctrine of religious individualism-than the putting into the forefront what one can 66 reach by statute," and on the second rank only individual "self-sacrifice"?

And Tennyson, had he no right to a chapter of his own? Does Miss Scudder know what a spur to many an enthusiastic young working man, thirsting after a "social ideal," and fainting in his thirst, have been those lines of the "Golden Year "

To him who works, and feels he works,

That same grand year is ever at the door," ?

With Tennyson only twice mentioned, one is not surprised that Maurice and Kingsley have no chapter to themselves, whilst Matthew Arnold has (his father not being even named). Miss Scudder has

'I may here mention that a man who, by his lectures and journalistic writings especially, exercised a very great influence over the English and Scotch working class in the middle of this century, originally an Owenite, at the last a Christian Socialist, the late Lloyd Jones, was passionately fond of Wordsworth's poems. VOL. IX.-No. 2.

T

evidently the greatest admiration for Matthew Arnold, and brings out the best of him :

"His stress on sweetness and light leads straight to his conviction of the responsibility of the privileged: a responsibility that can never rest till the highest joys of life become the common heritage. If he pleads for culture, he seeks a culture which all can share; if he deprecates action, it is simply because action is premature. He bears in his soul the unquenchable modern desire for the good of the collective whole.

"He who works for sweetness and light, works to make reason and the will of God prevail. He who works for machinery, he who works for hatred, works only for confusion. Culture looks beyond machinery, culture hates hatred; culture has one great passion, the passion for sweetness and light. It has one even yet greater -the passion of making them prevail. It is not satisfied till we all come to a perfect man; it knows that the sweetness and light of the few must be imperfect until the raw and unkindled masses of humanity are touched with sweetness and light" (Culture and Anarchy, ch. i.).

Miss Scudder's characterizations of Carlyle and Ruskin are in like manner as interesting as they are sympathetic, and the volume ends in a "conclusion" on "Contemporary England," with references to sermons by Canon Gore and Canon Scott Holland, and to the Christian Social Union as "the Society which has done most to foster the social principle in the English Church" (p. 316). Her concluding words must be quoted :

"Perhaps it is no dream that the long separation between democracy and Christianity draws to a close, and that as the slow years pass by, the love of God and man may find, in their sacramental union, freedom for more perfect collective expression than has ever yet been seen on earth.”

What has been said above will show that Social Ideals in English Letters is a work of unusual ability, thoughtfulness, and interest,— good in itself, and perhaps best through what there remains in it of imperfection, as proceeding evidently not from limitation of mind, but from incomplete development. It holds the clear promise of a yet riper future.

J. M. LUDLOW.

1. HOUSING OF THE WORKING CLASSES, with a description. of the Richmond Municipal Cottages. By Alderman W. THOмPSON. [50 pp. 4to. 2s. 6d. Broad. Richmond, 1899.] 2. ENGLISH COUNTRY COTTAGES. By J. L. GREEN, F.S.S. [235 pp. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. Rural World Publishing Co. London, 1899.]

Alderman Thompson's memorandum seems a very simple, practical, and hopeful method of providing homes for working men; as simple a process (and this is saying much) as it is imperative. Indeed, the

reader begins at once to wish he were a hundred-headed municipality, that he might go and do some work after this pattern; for "private enterprise," he is told, "has been to all intents and purposes everywhere a conspicuous failure."

The memorandum contains (1) a review of the present conditions and cause of overcrowding; (2) a concise indication of the powers given by law for its remedy; and (3) descriptions of the efforts already made in large towns of England and Scotland; plans, estimates, and views of cottages or flats, with tables of the expenses and profits of building houses, not only for the regular workers, but for the more "casual" class below.

Moreover, it deals almost exclusively with facts. There is very little of "this ought to be," still less of "it is shameful that this is not; " " far less, indeed, than in the useful little book on English Country Cottages just brought out by Mr. J. L. Green. Perhaps the facts with regard to country dwellings are actually more serious, or perhaps they have come more lately under consideration; at any rate, Mr. Green speaks out plainly enough. "The state of country cottages," he says in his preface, "is mostly very inferior, . . . and in numerous cases so deplorable as to make desirable the interference of the local authorities, or in their default the Government." "The causes "of disease and health-destruction in our villages " are in the main removable, and ought to be removed. . . . An increase of the wages paid to the labourers will not of itself enable the labourer to improve his physical or moral position in this matter. He must, even in that event, be supplied with a house fit for him and his family to live in."

This sounds far more "thorough" than the quiet remark in the Richmond pamphlet, that the existing accommodation is "insufficient in quantity" and "inferior in quality," and that "unfortunately the excess of the demand for cottages over the supply enables landlords to increase the rents when any outlay is made for repairs or sanitary purposes, so that the tenants dare not insist upon their cottages being put in a proper state of repair." The author marks his standpoint still more clearly by pointing out that, in towns, houses for working men may always be built at a profit; statements, provided in most cases by the municipalities which have erected such dwellings, show with only two exceptions a modest and satisfactory balance. Where this is absent the causes are easily explained, and in only one case does a loss appear unavoidable-that of buildings in the rural union of Thingoe, East Anglia; and this may perhaps be accounted for by an opinion quoted in Mr. Green's book, that "to expect a profit from cottage property without screwing the tenants" is "regarded as impossible."