** " UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND 1900-1920 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND 1900-1920 A JOURNALIST'S LOG OF TWENTY REMARKABLE YEARS BY J. R. RAYNES THE SWARTHMORE PRESS LTD. 72 OXFORD STREET, LONDON, W. 1 1920 This above all, to thine own self be true, -> i And it must follow, as the night the Jay ; Thou canSt not then be false to any man. I DEDICATED TO ALL MY FRIENDS T is usual, I think, for an author to dedicate his first book to some close friend who has had a conspicuous influence upon his life. This book I dedicate to all my friends, beginning with my parents, to whom I owe an overwhelming debt ; to my devoted wife, to whom my debt is not a whit less ; to my schoolmasters, and to a wide circle of kindly and helpful friends in several towns of England. This is their book, and of their fashioning. I N\A gladly acknowledge my vast indebtedness to the goodness of those whom I have known intimately. They have embraced all classes, all parties and all creeds, and in all these I have found good intent and great earnestness. In this Pageant of England, told as I have seen it unfold during ^ these twenty very remarkable years, I have sought to keep as close to recognized truth as possible. That is to say, I have omitted r expressions of view which I hold to be true, but which others would oppose as fallacy. Where it has been essential to express views, they are mine, and of no party creed. The truth may be tame, but it is eternal. It is out of exaggeration that contradiction springs and sectional animosity is aroused by rival camps indulging in extremities. Something is wrong with England, and its social grievances need righting. Thousands of young men who fought for England are leaving England, and we need them all. In a pastoral chapter a description of rural England is attempted, and in such fair regions, which I have ventured to call Colonial England, there is room for new towns and new developments. City vi THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND life is congested and artificial, and a hopeful sign of the year is the rising of numerous garden suburbs. We are moving more surely than some may realize towards better times. I have used the example of the tapestry weavers, who only occasionally get a glimpse of their picture, as an illustration of what has been taking place these twenty years. A great design is being worked out, and to all the weavers with tangled threads my story is dedicated. May they all clearly realize that a new England is emerging, and that its form will be enriched by public service, not by thoughts of self. The heart of England is sound, and its tone is healthy. We have a reputation for " losing every battle but the last " and the last in this case is the winning of the Peace. Many specifics are offered : So many prayers, so many creeds, So many paths that wind and wind ; While just the art of being kind, Is all the sad world needs. Lastly, this volume is dedicated with affection to all my colleagues of the Press, that gallant army of five thousand cheery " Nujjers," who have progressed while they have recorded progress. I have said very little about the Press, for this volume is not introspective, nor personal. When I shyly began in journalism there was no National Union of Journalists, no guaranteed wage, no guarantee of anything, not even of next week's work. The outward Bohemianism of pressmen, which revealed itself in unconventional dress and traces of snuff and a partiality towards whisky is dying away, but it is replaced by a mental Bohemianism of a new genera- tion, thrice precious, and it will yet result in a revolt against *' stunts " ordered for full operation against certain persons or ideas by one or two monopolists who control circulations running into millions. Newspaper enterprises have been bought up, editors changed, and policies re-moulded to capture public opinion for an aspiring group. This is not in the interests of journalism, nor of public life. The truly independent Press is not yet evolved, and organized Labour, which dilates about the " kept " Press, DEDICATION vii has not evolved any other type. Probably the great reliable Press of the future will emerge from the extension of the freedom of the Press to all opinions and all possible information, and the abandonment of feverish " stunts " to stimulate artificial circu- lation. The modern newspaper is a wonderful production, and in the last five years it has recorded almost daily events and state- ments of world-wide importance and of permanent value. I should be an ingrate if I failed to add that my personal experience has been one of remarkable freedom in the Press. For eight years now I have known no dictator or controller in the slightest form, beyond the Press Bureau and my own conception. From the Press Bureau we were inundated with instructions and re- minders, hundreds of them, during the war period. Some of them were disquieting, to be read and burned with fire, and the contents disclosed to no living person. The censorship cer- tainly went beyond bounds of necessity and wisdom. It touched not only things military, but industrial and even political, and it was enforced by extraordinary vigilance and smart penalties upon offending newspapers. It imposed a new and irksome phase upon journalism, and greatly added to the anxieties of those who had to retain familiarity with countless restrictions. It is my great hope that the numerous facts, figures and dates given in this volume, cloaked as kindly as possible in incident, story, and comment, will be more than acceptable to large numbers of young journalists, teachers, social students and others who will always have to study the greatness of these twenty years, during which motor transport has been evolved, the turbine dis- covered, the aeroplane devised, and the cinema added to our diversions. It is essentially the period of the ascent of women to full citizenship, and also it is the period of the bursting of the storm-cloud so long expected in Europe. If some readers should feel a lack of fascination in the civil history of the war period, I would remind them that its extraordinary changes are too recent to be viewed in correct perspective. Ten years hence, I hope, they will be looked back upon with astonishment, and the record will reach its true value. In the main, the task of compiling viii THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND this book has been delightful, but I cannot forget that thousands of fine young men who were in their cradles when I began news- paper work are in their graves to-day. They gave their lives for you and for me, and we are left to see the swallows and the June roses come again. They died for freedom, and the great call floating over the channel in the path of the rising sun every morning is that you shall live for freedom, and take the noblest part of which you are capable. New houses are going up, new ideas finding expression and new hopes are being uttered. The next twenty years will reap or lose the reward of a great sacrifice. " Your castles are in the air," wrote Thoreau, " that is where they should be ; now put the foundations under them." We have reached the time of foundation building, and all who lend a hand are my friends. To all of them I respectfully dedicate this volume. J. R. R. SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS SECTION ONE THE OPENING OF THE CENTURY CHAPTER I PAGE In the Beginning Destiny and First Impressions . . 3 CHAPTER II Our Township Plain and Homely Folk First Experiences ? A Miners' Strike A Tactful Chief Constable The First Motor-car ...... 9 CHAPTER III The South African War Famine in India The Boxer Insurrection The Last Election without Motors A Comedy of Electricity Names of the year . 1 9 CHAPTER IV Death of Queen Victoria Memories of Her Reign King Edward VII The Australian Commonwealth Motors and " Motor Balloons " The Cyclist's Ichabod ! ....... 28 CHAPTER V Personal Observations End of the South African War Chivalrous Welcome to Boer Generals The Japanese Treaty The Continental Triple Alliance Passive Resistance The Coronation of King Edward John Kensit's Wycliffe Preachers \ . . . 36 \ x THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND CHAPTER VI PAGE Change of Scene When Kings Travel Days in the Dukeries A Bold Baronet Reporting Pit for Pat The German Gypsies ...... 47 CHAPTER VII Votes for Women Adventures with Suffragettes " Magic Lantern's " Escape Hilarious Scenes A Golf Green Mystery Explained . . . . . .V 56 CHAPTER VIII A National Diary : being a review of the perplexities of Public Men The Dogger Bank Episode The 1906 Election 66 SECTION TWO A NATION IN FULL BLOOM CHAPTER IX In Arcady The Ancient Town Golden Marsh and Green Wold An Idyll of Birds and Flowers Colonial England The Hiring Fair The Annual Trek Where Shepherds Lead their Flocks . . y 77 CHAPTER X Land, Air and Sea Records The Territorial Army Old Age Pensions Pageants and Exhibitions Peace and Plenty Mr. Asquith becomes Prime Minister Talk of War The Licensing Bill England's Faith in Dreadnoughts The European Chess-Board The Grayson Incident .' . . . ." .88 CHAPTER XI The Land Song Days with Lloyd George Two Stormy Elections Adventures on the Road A Political Drama Lords and Commons .... 97 SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS xi CHAPTER XII PAGE Great Political Issues The Budget Rejected Lords v. Commons A Constitutional Crisis The Parliament Bill Direct or Political Action . . . .107 CHAPTER XIII Death of King Edward The Rubber Boom Polar Expe- ditions Captain Scott's Fate The Osborne Judgment Payment of Members Norman Angell Vindicated An Arrest by Wireless . . . . 117 CHAPTER XIV Our Great Cities Contrasts in London Modern Industrial Centres Tragedy and Hope The Northern Univer- sities Adult Education Trade Unionism 128 SECTION THREE THE ORDEALS OF WAR \ CHAPTER XV he Coronation of King George A Day with the Fleet The Titanic goes down Mystery Airships by Night The Ulster Volunteers Darkening Clouds . . 141 CHAPTER XVI Tragedy and National History Embassies at High Pressure Summary of Ominous Telegrams Deutschland Ueber Alles War Declared The Instant Effects The Bank's Black Week 152 CHAPTER XVII Smiles and Tears Dame Rumour The First Belgians The First Wounded Frightfulness The Lusitania Sunk The Coalition Formed The Munitions Act National Registration The Derby Scheme The Censorship Two Budgets . . . .166 xii THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND CHAPTER XVIII PAGE A Civil History Bogus Barbarities All Lights Out War and Education Women in Industry Scarcity of Doctors Drink Control The Tapestry Weavers Fortunes in Rags . . . . . .178 CHAPTER XIX Conscription of Men Medical Examinations The Tri- bunals The Departing Hosts The Engineers' Revolt Mr. Asquith Resigns In a Work Centre . . 189 CHAPTER XX Days with the Wounded The Gallant R.G.A. England, Queen of the Sea A Soldier's Ghost Story . . 202 CHAPTER XXI The Profiteers Ration Cards Many Controllers The Paris Resolutions The Russian Revolution America Joins Up Compulsion Still The Lansdowne Com- mittee The Armistice . . . . .210 CHAPTER XXII Peace Celebrations The Kaiser's Departure The Thrones of Militarism A Plea for Peace Politics of the Rifle Useful Acts of Parliament The General Election . 225 CHAPTER XXIII The Post-War Period Famine and Indemnities The Belgians' Farewell An Industrial Crisis The Coal Commission The Peace Terms The League of Nations International Labour Leaping the Atlantic Reconstruction Land of Hope and Glory The Author's Appeal The Events of 1920 . . .236 INDEX 273 SECTION ONE THE OPENING OF THE CENTURY CHAPTER I In the Beginning Destiny and First Impressions. " T N the beginning was the word." And in the last JL resort also will be the word. Potent weapon, more powerful than any high explosive, its effect is not momen- tary, but abiding. A speech may be as startling as a battery of artillery, but a book with a purpose is more effective in its conquest than all the armies that ever marched in the long history of battles. The English language is surely a glorious instrument, and he who understands its infinite possibilities, and has the art of presenting them, is furnished with the power to sway nations for good or ill. It is, therefore, supremely true that the pen is mightier than the sword. Indeed, the pen has caused, and may yet cause, unless it is wisely directed, millions of armed men to march. It can overthrow Governments, and leave the deeds of statesmen in the parliaments of the world as a dim memory beside the abiding freshness of an author who may in his day have been obscure. This truth I felt but partially and unconsciously rather more than twenty years ago, when the fascination of the pen was strongly upon me and I felt that to enter the Fourth Estate would verily be to enter the Kingdom of Heaven in the flesh. And this truth I feel more strongly now, after playing a " remote, melancholy, slow " part in the production of the Press. Sometimes I dream of great 3 4 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND white clouds of paper falling from the heavens and burying me gently amid my own manuscripts produced during those happy, active, and rapidly passing years. I feel glad that I was born to see these great days, to be a close witness and a scribe of many of their events, and to nurse a hope of England and the brotherhood of man, for all that I have seen of sorrow and hilarity, of riches and poverty, of war and peace. 'Tis all a chequer board of nights and days, Where destiny with men for pieces plays. There is something much more profound in that statement of the Persian philosopher than you have probably realized. Or why should I be destined to look upward every time a bird calls, and to feel a thrill of childish joy when one of the pretty songsters comes near ? I cannot help it now, because as a little child I peeped through the cracks between the battens of the bedroom floor and saw there, within six inches of my eye, the pale blue eggs of a starling and the glossy sheen of the parent birds looking so brilliant in that close view. Destiny did that for me, just as destiny caused a friend of mine to first realize he was alive when standing under the canopy of a gypsy's tent, while a swarthy Romany chal played the violin. He, later in life, was irresistibly drawn to the gypsies ; he learned the Romany tongue, lectured and , wrote books on gypsies, and until his death, hastened by the sorrows of war, no gypsy caravan passed within ten miles of his home in sweet rural England without going that way to call. That momentary impression upon an infant mind remained indelibly there, and has blessed thousands. Even so I have felt my city friends guilty of sacrilege for talking while a goldfinch sang. THE LURE OF REPORTING 5 So also it was with the Press. My second earliest impression of childhood, and the first view I had of an occupation in the great world was of reporters instead of starlings. I saw this circle of young men writing some- thing in books, and when other people cheered our member, they took no notice. Their pencils made strange and wonderful signs on paper, and all the pencil points seemed to be having a frolic over little hills and level plains. Then, on a hot summer afternoon in 1892, when the whole school was drowsy with the warm still air, and we young ten-year-olds felt moist and restless, our school- master suggested that we should spend an hour in writing essays on what we should like to be ! Foolscap sheets that looked the size of acres were served out, and sixty boys in a large elementary school in a country town of Derbyshire began to write how much they would like to be certain things. Seeing that the little town was surrounded by collieries, and was near to the " Hills of Annesley, bleak and barren, where my thoughtless childhood wandered," as Byron wrote, it was not surprising that many boys decided to be colliery managers and deputies, or farmers, or keepers, or policemen, or soldiers, or sailors, and their imagination was roaming over the paper while I halted. Half the hour had passed before, in desperation, I wrote the first line, " I should like to be a Reporter." The trouble was that I knew nothing about the business ; for reporters just came on the scene like swallows, from nowhere, and vanished again to some distant clime. Well, I did my best, and how elated I was when the good master expressed the hope that some day I might be a reporter. Ah, my lad, if you had realized then how ill-requited is the average journalist for his great care, his enterprise, and sometimes his genius, would you have halted ? If you had seen 6 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND eighteen dark months ahead in which you would receive only 6s. a week as a learner, and it would leave only a penny a day for dinner, and even David Copperfield was a prince to you, with his sixpence a day, would you have chosen journalism ? If you had foretasted the alternate days of bowls of soup with a slice of bread, or Yorkshire pudding and gravy, or have foreseen the kindness of the red-haired waiter towards your youthful shabby gentility, would you have chosen journalism ? If you had foreseen twenty years of inconspicuous toil during night and day, many arduous journeys and narrow escapes, long fags at the desk and long " takes " at political meetings and Assize Courts, and all for just a living wage, without 100 to bless yourself with at the end of the twenty years, would you have chosen journalism ? Yes, I would, and I would again to-day were the choice to be mine again. For the last eight years I have worked in intimate association with a community of 120 active journalists, and I have never heard one word spoken in anger amongst them. They have shared each other's joys and sorrows, met peer and peasant with equal sang-froid, and extinguished all rivalry. But I anticipate. Schooldays ended in the summer of 1899, and I was launched upon the world full of the knowledge and confidence of youth, to seek a situation. There was a bye-election proceeding near by and a good Liberal candidate was fighting the cause of democracy. He was a wealthy baronet, and the eyes of all England seemed upon that constituency. Polling clerks were wanted and I was engaged to fold up speeches and election addresses, to direct envelopes and to insert photographs of our political hero. The scale of pay astonished me, and so did the " regardless of expense " motto about all our A START IN JOURNALISM 7 meals. Week after week we worked at full pressure, long hours every day, while public excitement rose to a high pitch. Each week I carried home a wage almost equal to my father's, and with what proud delight did I carry it ! But greater than a big wage, fine meals, and peeps into the political machine, was a visit paid by the editor of the local newspaper. He was gathering information, and public notices at So much a line, and to me fell the dis- tinction of handing him the documents that were to appear in the newspaper ! He talked with me as if there was no distinction between himself and ordinary men and casually remarked that Hamel, his reporter, was leaving him. Hamel, a very prince in my eyes, and leaving too. I flushed deeply, but did not dare to utter the impossible hope that his announcement created. He must have noticed the sudden start and the hope instantly suppressed, for he continued, "John, should you like to come on the newspaper ? " Should I ! How emphatically I assured him and re-assured him that nothing in the world could so delight me as to be given a chance, and I would work hard and I knew shorthand and "I'll write you an offer," he said, in quite an off-hand manner, as if this sort of thing happened every day. That evening I walked on air ! Newspapers gave me greater elation that day than they have ever yielded since, though they have fed me, clothed me and housed me these twenty years. Now I have brought you to the brink of that stream on which we launch away into public life. Hereafter we will rely not upon memory but upon my diary, written from boyhood, and we will take the course of events as they come, widening out to the full tide of national life. Therefore let us ring up the curtain, and look at the great pageant of England during twenty of the most vital years of its history, at events that 8 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND were epoch making. We will survey England in the national and local aspect during a period that has proved a veritable transition from nineteenth century ideas to the post-war era, full of hopes, doubts, fears and great possi- bilities. CHAPTER II Our Township Plain and Homely Folk First Experiences A Miners' Strike A Tactful Chief Constable The First Motor-car. SURELY no young man could start a career in life under more congenial circumstances than I did. Truly, I did live in " an old-fashioned town," among plain, homely hill folk. New inspiration came to me every day from the fact that the very steep hill which I ascended every morning from home to the office had been walked just as often as I walked it by one of England's most charming writers of rural scenes, William Howitt, whose birthplace I passed daily, and never, I think, without a thought backward down the years. The evening walk was a positive tumble down hill, it was so steep, and always one thought, uninvited and still unavoidable, came over me as I beheld those majestic hills rising and falling at every point. The thought coupled with those eternal and majestic hills was just this : A thousand ages in Thy sight, Are like an evening gone. The crystal air, and the effort caused by the hills, free then from the clang of electric trams, conduced to a foundation of perfect health, which has endured much since. The people were as rugged and impressive as the land- scape, and in their kindly way they regarded me as 9 io THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND peculiarly their own. Had not my grandfather been surveyor of that parish, measuring the length of roads and frontages by notches on his cart wheels ? Did not my ancestors for nearly two hundred years back lie resting in a peaceful churchyard near by ? And thinking of burial grounds, I fancy much of the goodness of these people must have been impressed upon them by a great examplar. In the beautifully situated local burial ground was a conspicuous monument erected by public subscription to the memory of one Dr. Donovan, who for many years travelled this extensive district winter and summer, night and day, to relieve patients in distress, and never was known to present a bill, not to rich or poor. Old inhabitants spoke of him with veneration, and told how on his faithful pony he plodded through snowstorms and floods and gales, gave of his best, only received what payments were sent out of a sense of honour, and treated all people alike. He was much beloved, and never short of the means of life, and when he passed away all the villages around wept for that great man who had been gathered to his fathers. I rather think the people are still paying the bill to Dr. Donovan in their kind treatment of every one else. Then for inspiration, too, every road and bypath, and every old character, finds a place in abiding literature, thanks to the love of William and Mary Howitt. Even many of the trees have singular and special mention, and no parish outside the Lake District has a more literary collection of trees. For the Howitt estate, trees were secured from the homes of many poets, and it was my great delight to make this discovery, and to set out in search of those trees. The old farmer at his early milking looked in amaze when I told him where other trees used to stand, and what they were until modern estate development spoiled the collection to make way for showy little houses. Near LIFE IN A COUNTRY TOWN 11 by, too, was the residence of England's first Astronomer Royal, James Flamsteed, for whom Greenwich Observatory was built, and there he and Sir Isaac Newton collaborated to chart the heavens and to make it possible for all to understand natural laws, and for mariners to cross the wide seas in safety. Most delightful it was, too, in the early summer, to gather a basket of primroses or violets or bluebells before breakfast, to watch little white cotton tail rabbits scampering about, and to see kingfisher or goldfinch darting as visions of perfect beauty. On these early morning tours, afoot or by bicycle, I got more abiding news, hot from Nature's press, than I often got in a whole day of busy engagements. There is a delightful intimacy in small towns, and it has great value, far transcending the minor disadvantages. You know everybody, and they trust you. An accident to one person is everybody's business, a wedding is a town's talk, and a funeral is a message of silence to all. I confess that I was more impressed with local events then than I have ever been in wiring thousands of words on national events since. To the journalist in particular a country training is of distinct value, for his duties are manifold, his engagements marvellously varied, and he is constantly tuned up to accuracy and care because he is meeting the same people all the time. If he falls ill they are all solicitous, and the councillor and the policeman alike call to know all about it. Your city junior lacks these advantages, and has none that fully compensate for them. Will you permit me, therefore, to introduce you first to a passing glance of the daily pageant of a small country town, such as you, a Londoner, or a Lancastrian or York- shireman would declare off-hand to be the last place God made. But even here, and in all the small places like it, is a well-ordered, law-abiding, self-contained community, 12 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND fulfilling its great service to England. Here are miners, a constant stream of them, crossing the market square on their way home. It is the middle of the afternoon, and the sun looks down on their clothes dark with coal dust, and their faces darker still from the same cause. To a stranger they all look much alike, and quite unrecognizable in their uniform blackness of visage. But to some of us the sense of darkness has long passed and every countenance is clear and distinct. The miners, who penetrate into the bowels of the earth to keep us warm in winter, are the favourite butt of all grumblers and profiteers, but I love them yet. Have I not seen the bad and good in them ? Once I stood at a pit head when the cage had crashed, and twenty men were hurled down that frightful chasm. Then I saw these men in grimy pit dirt transformed into minis- tering angels, risking life, without hesitation, to help. I saw fathers embrace and kiss farewell to sons who would have passed hence before the stretcher was raised to the ambulance van. Many miners I have known killed by falls of roof and by explosions of after-damp, and I have seen them, after being washed clean of coal dust, remaining blue with bruises. In deep pits and shallow pits I have been with them, seen instances of the risks they run, and have wondered how long science will think it necessary to keep half a million sturdy Britishers in the mines day by day. A new policeman, quite an autocrat, came to our town, and he had a very poor opinion of miners. He knew they drank and gambled and swore, and he set himself upon a holy crusade to efface these evils from the worthy town. A small group of them, headed by one Samson, a tall and powerful fellow, set themselves the task of effacing the policeman, and one dark night, in a dark nook, they molested the policeman and placed him, unconscious, over A CHIEF CONSTABLE'S TOBACCO 13 a garden wall ! But it was the wrong policeman ! The mistake caused them deep chagrin, and especially as they all suffered terms of imprisonment. We had a miners' strike of a very serious character, and the entire district was depressed into abject poverty for several weeks. One afternoon, when privation was reaching a desperation point, a long procession of miners marched into the market square, headed by a black flag. Order had hitherto been preserved by the Dublin Fusiliers and by numerous mounted police, but on this particular afternoon neither of these forces was visible. As the miners filed into the square, there entered the Chief Constable of the district. He was a very young man holding a degree and he was consummating a boyish desire to be a fine policeman. In the last twenty years I have come into contact with many brave and astute policemen, but I have not since seen an incident to equal in courage and sagacity the action of this afternoon of which we are speaking. The Chief walked, wearing mufti, and escorted by his little terrier, to the head of the procession, and stopped it to hold palaver with the leaders. They at once avowed their intention to march to the pit and set the head stocks on fire. The Chief told them it was a highly foolish and dangerous project, and that, if they went, they would find the Fusiliers in their way, and many miners' wives would be widows in the morning. He talked quietly and kindly, with perfect composure, although the moment was of tremendous import, and as he talked he produced a huge pouch of tobacco. ** How long is it since you had a smoke ? " he asked the leaders. " Fortnight," replied one peremptorily, and " four days " replied a second. " Fill up," he said, " and pass the pouch along." 14 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND It was passed along, and one could trace its course by the rising of curls of smoke and striking of matches. " What do you say ? " said some ; and some were for going and some were against. " Now, my lads," said the Chief, " You are not going, for I don't want any of you hurt. Take a march round the town and hold a meeting here. You may have good news to-morrow." They took the march and held the meeting, and the Fusiliers, gay with their busbies and scarlet tunics, marched back to town. That night the soldiers showered money through the Town Hall windows for the children. That night, too, we had hopeful news in the office, and the town was full of rumours of settlement. At noon on the following day the glad news of industrial peace came and one of our dear old souls assembled all the miners in the market square. They cheered the news again and again, and then, all standing bare-headed, soldiers and police drawn up into ranks alongside, they all sang the Doxology, and as the strain of nearly a thousand voices arose with Praise God from Whom all blessings flow I saw the Chief Constable remove his helmet and bend to hide his tears. Strife ! my brothers, so easily launched by misunder- standing and selfishness on both sides, is awful in its effects, and after many experiences of great strikes I declare they are rarely worth while. They are tragedies without reward. When the first motor-car penetrated these parts it created a profound sensation. It seems scarcely credible in these days of motor haulage and swift conveyance in carriages as luxurious as drawing-rooms that this enormous business was in its infancy twenty years ago, yet so it was. The NINETEENTH OR TWENTIETH CENTURY? 15 first motor-car came chuffling through our town, in the year 1900, and one of the spectators near to me was a Methodist Sunday-school teacher, of venerable years. As he saw this strange horseless vehicle hurrying down a hill he put his hands together, and with trembling lips prayed for the safety of those poor men in the runaway cart ! The good man seriously thought that the horse had run away ! When he saw it mount the corresponding hill he was perfectly amazed. It was a poor thing truly, in comparison to modern automobiles, but despite its comparatively rude structure, it was the herald of the new era, the twentieth century. The century began in war, and it has continued in war. In its first years there was all the thrill of news of battle from South Africa, but the spirit of controversy was quite strong enough at home to maintain a heated news- paper argument as to whether the year 1900 was really the first year of the twentieth century or the closing year of the nineteenth. This question was furiously argued by numerous correspondents, and a leader on the wonderful achievements of the closing century brought down sharp abuse. On Monday, January ist, the Lord Mayor of a neighbouring city wished the aldermen and councillors and burgesses a happy New Year ** on this opening day of the closing year of the nineteenth century." One corres- pondent worked out a complete record " of the beginning and ending, the birth and death, of all the centuries in the Christian dispensation, past, present and future," and he endeavoured to prove by his figures that we were still in the nineteenth century. Other correspondents showed how, if you had a hundred oranges, and ate one orange a year, you would have eaten all of them at the end of the ninety-ninth year, and, therefore, 16 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND needed a new supply of oranges ; in other words, a new century of good round years. An official dictum that the twentieth century had begun, left many correspondents doubtfully shaking their wise heads, but the official fact remained. A certain liveliness, if I may use a now familiar military phrase, was also manifest in our office. Printers are notorious for jests and snuff-boxes, and in my first office both were distinctly in evidence. Our foreman compositor loved both, and the evidence of snuff was clear by the colour of his waistcoat down the centre, and the evidence of a spirit of fun was clear from the practical jokes he played on the errand boys and apprentices. Every new boy was subjected to some new and brilliant escapade and I clearly remember seeing one dispatched in great haste with a bucket to run to the gas works for two-pennyworth of gas to start the " blinking " engine ! And away went that poor boy in deadly earnest. On another occasion a boy was sent from the packing-room below to the stock-room two floors higher to " Give my compliments to Mr. Jones and ask him to kindly send me the yarnamatoot block." " The what ? " asked the boy respectfully. " The yarnamatoot block, fellow ! can't you say it ? " replied the foreman. " Yes, sir." " Then go and say it to Mr. Jones and be careful." Away went the boy to Mr. Jones. " Mr. Robinson's compliments, sir, and will you please send him the yarnamatoot block." " The what ? " " The block, sir." " Oh, he must mean this ; mind how you go with it," and Mr. Jones indicated a huge block of wood, a massive piece of tree trunk, similar to those seen in butchers' shops, PRINTING OFFICE HUMOUR 17 and just like one astray, if such a heavy article could accidentally stray. The boy surveyed it nervously, and well the poor boy might, but, quite undaunted, he began to lever it towards that giddy flight of stairs. " Better not go first, let the block go first," said Mr. Jones dryly, and by slow degrees the boy got the tre- mendously weighty article to the brink of the first stair. Just at that moment it chanced that the governor, passing from the composing to the machine room, looked up the stairs. He paused but for a moment as he saw that heavy block slip the first step, and knew that nothing could save it. There was nothing at all dignified in the way the governor departed. The block came with one impetuous rush, smashing stairs, bruising on both sides, and ending with a tremendous crash at the foot. And there, too, was the boy ! With his puny strength he had tried to steady its first step, and he had come toppling down behind it. Let us draw a veil over the subsequent noise made about it. In these days of the segregation of the mentally unfit, it might be mentioned that our community was replete not only with magistrates, councillors, guardians, industrial workers, brass bands, and sundry other amenities of civil- ization, but it possessed a choice assortment of village idiots. The glory of Mr. Dick's kite-flying was eclipsed by these young men who played horses together round the streets, and paraded beside the drummer of the Salvation Army. They drove imaginary herds of cattle with loud shouts and much cracking of whips, and took many a pair of unseen horses with great care down our steep declines. They would sing hymns interspersed with fearful language, do any errand for a penny, and get a ton of coal in for two- pence. i8 They never quarrelled, they seemed very happy, and forced their attentions on nobody. But the Mental Deficiency Act has kindly removed this obtrusion from our midst and it is far better so. CHAPTER III The South African War Famine in India The Boxer Insur- rection The Last Election without Motors A Comedy of Electricity Names of the Year. r I "HE South African War was the outstanding event J. of the first two years of this century. A state of war had been declared on October 12, 1899, between this country and the republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, and the war fever ran high in this country. War considerations overwhelmed all others, but at the beginning of 1900 none ever dreamed that the war would be so prolonged. The entire Boer population in the two States was little more than half a million, just the population of a respectable city. The maximum force at the disposal of the enemy was at the most 75,000 men, aided by European arms which had been transferred over British lines labelled as " pianos " and other hard goods. There were German artillery experts, French and even British officers assisting the enemy, and another factor of enormous value to the Boers was their close familiarity with the vast territory over which they maintained a guerilla warfare for three years. There was division in England about the justice of the war, and Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Mr. Lloyd George, Mr. Leonard Courtney, Mr. Labouchere, Mr. W. T. Stead and many others found themselves unable to support the Government in its prosecution. It was regarded by them as a war for mining and capitalist interests, '9 20 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND launched on reasons easily secured by the actions of certain holders of big South African interests. Lord Salisbury, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, Mr. Balfour, Mr. St. John Brodrick and others, just as warmly contended that the war was just and, unless we were a cowardly nation desiring to evade Imperial responsibilities, it was unavoidable. The Liberal party was acutely divided by it, and Sir Edward Grey, Lord Rosebery, Mr. Asquith, Mr. Haldane and several others vehemently dissociated themselves from the declarations of the anti-war speakers at the Queen's Hall, at Exeter Hall, at Birmingham, Leeds and other centres. I have lively recollections of many of these controversial meetings, and the rough play that followed them. The taking of Spion Kop, the relief of Ladysmith, of Kimberley and Mafeking, were all made occasions for war demonstrations in London and in 1 practically all the centres of the country. Great processions were organized on these occasions ; there was the blare of brass bands, excited cheering, and often the smashing of windows for the good of the cause. Several times I was out long after midnight as a witness of scenes of tumult. In Mr. Chamberlain's " raging and tearing propaganda " he declared with great intensity of feeling "that there were no Little Englanders in the Colonies, and if there were, the Colonies would know how to deal with them." This remark was wildly cheered, and I always fancied that certain people in England drew an inference, probably never intended, of how to deal with so-called " Little Englanders " here. Hence Mr. Lloyd George had to don the uniform of a policeman to escape the disorderly crowd waiting for him outside Birmingham Town Hall, and other people, not having these facilities to hand, came off with less good fortune. The public was regaled daily with stories of Boer atrocities, and told that these vulgar people ate OUR TROOPS IN SOUTH AFRICA 21 eggs which were partly incubated. Excitement rose to almost fever heat over the impending relief of Mafeking, and when the fact was accomplished England went into hysteria. London was jubilant, and so was the smallest village. But the South African War did not overwhelm all other interests. Famine and plague were jointly ravaging India, and millions of unhappy natives died. A relief fund started in London realized 100,000 in ten days, and the supreme efforts made to save human life reflected a finer side to imperial enthusiasm. Personally, I am not a Little Englander, and I look with hope and complete confidence to a magnificent future for the British Empire. Even if a sound League of Nations proves a forlorn hope, I invite trust in the Empire as a great guarantee for the world's peace. England was touchy and feverish during 1900, and the Press conducted not only news of war, but controversy with the biting Press of France and Germany. There was talk of war with France, and dangerous speculation as to the comparative fitness of the two nations. Mr. Chamberlain, at Birmingham, administered a sharp reproof to a German Minister who had protested against alleged atrocities by the British in the Transvaal. Mr. Chamberlain's declaration was that the conduct of our troops compared very favourably with that of the German troops in 1870-71 ; and that he did not thank a foreign Minister for gratuitous advice. This retort created a sensation, and the German Emperor, who had previously telegraphed his good wishes to President Paul Kruger, made the very happy remark that the Press of his country was throwing stones and the Governments would have to pay for the broken glass. There was the age-long discussion once again of an offensive by Russia through Persia and into Afghanistan, directed towards 22 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND India. Press and public alike revealed a state of per- plexity, and the possibility of great continental develop- ments out of the war then running its course. Those developments were fourteen years in maturing, but they came about, and with disastrous consequences. Nor was America too friendly, again judging by the printed word. Neither motors nor aeroplanes were used during the South African War, and it was the last great war fought without these mechanical aids. Enormous numbers of horses were needed and balloons were used for observation posts. Trench warfare was of a crude character compared to its great development fourteen years later, and barbed wire entanglements were small and feeble by comparison to the death-traps to be stretched later across France and Belgium. Great tracks of South Africa were devastated by numerous fires during the war. It may have been necessary to burn farmsteads and holdings as the troops advanced, but it was war, and they were burned and terrible suffering was caused as a consequence to Boer women and children. So soon as the facts of its acute nature were known in this country, relief missions were organized, and Mrs. Henry Fawcett headed a body of devoted ladies who waged war against pestilence and famine. Disease slew thousands of our men, more indeed, than did the Boer bullets, and a Commission sat afterwards in private to investigate the whole conduct of the war, reporting, eventually, in the year 1903. Ireland, that perennial fount of political troubles, was very much in the public eye in 1900. In that year Queen Victoria commanded that all Irish regiments in the Army should be allowed to wear the shamrock on St. Patrick's Day, a concession that was deeply appreciated by all the sons of Erin with the colours. Parenthetically may I remark that 1900 also saw a decided abandonment of the THE WEARIN' O' THE GREEN 23 gaiety of Army uniforms. Nineteenth-century regiments have been brilliant in scarlet, blue and gold, and an inter- national procession of troops through London was a picturesque spectacle. It was the veldt warfare of South Africa which taught the dire need of protective colouring for soldiers, and khaki and field grey came into military affairs never to pass out again so long as armies remain. But to get back to the shamrock, which was responsible for that diversion, its application to the Army immensely popularized the " wearin' o' the green," and it softened very materially the anti-English sentiments of Dublin. So much so that a few weeks later (April 2nd), Queen Victoria crossed to Ireland and in the course of three weeks' visit had many extremely civil receptions without any untoward incident. John Ruskin died on January 20th of 1900, leaving published works that will delight all who love splendid English diction. His views on art and beauty were exquisitely expressed in simple but most effective language, and even his views on political economy were worth studying for the lofty expressions he used. He was born February 8, 1819, a few months before Queen Victoria, and when the two names were associated in many an obituary notice it was little thought that the Sovereign would only survive a few months longer. Her last Parliament, as it proved : the fourteenth of her reign, and the twenty-sixth of the United Kingdom, was opened by Royal Commission, and its seventh and closing session was far from happy. There were dissolution rumours within a month, and the autumn saw a keenly contested " khaki " election. A vigorous election campaign without motors is hardly realizable now, but the mechanical vehicle was then in its experimental stage, and no candidate would risk the welfare of his electors by such conveyances. Horse buses and horse 24 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND trams were in general use and it was the bright hey-day of the carriage and pair. Horse breeding had reached its climax as a consuming hobby, and the super-rich had not dreamed of 'phoning the garage for a Rolls Royce or Daimler. Electric trams had begun to clang along the streets, even on the same streets as the old horse cars, but the latter were left as effete and slow, unable to get up hills and shy to come down them by comparison with the new system which scoffed at gradients, thanks to the power of the mysterious "juice." One tramway manager I knew was always dubious about this invisible element and for months after his cars were propelled by power, he kept his stables well littered with straw, always ready for horses. " This stuff that no man ever seen yet will be gone some fine morning," he said to me, " and they'll go back to the good old hoss. I can't stand this idea of holding handles and drivin' nowt ! " A very great improvement in the transit facilities of London was made in the same year by the opening of the Central London Railway from the Bank to Shepherd's Bush. The story of London's rapid tube and underground service is a romance of science in itself, for as London has widened its borders, so it has quickened its pace to eliminate distance, until the mammoth is to-day a very good place to avoid as much as possible ! The addition I have referred to was opened by the Prince of Wales on June 27th. For months past many anxious eyes had been turning towards China, where a Boxer insurrection was menacing all European interests, and " foreign devils " were in very real danger. There were alarming reports about the fate of the Pekin Legations, and on July I yth the country was deeply stirred by the sensational and very circumstantial reports of the fall of the Legations and the murder of the inhabitants. These reports were chiefly confined to one THE BOXER INSURRECTION 25 halfpenny newspaper, but The Times published obituary notices of the officers and residents in the British Legation, thus confirming the worst fears. Several other well-con- ducted journals contained no hint of such a calamity, and in subsequent issues threw doubt on the whole story. Within a few days came the very welcome news that on July 2ist the Legation was safe, and on August 1 5th it was relieved by allied forces. The only loss, it was then discovered, was of the German Plenipotentiary, who was killed in the street. During this effort of allied forces in China, German, British, French and Japanese fought side by side and cheered each other on, although the newspapers of London, Berlin and Paris were creating friction between those nations. President Kruger was cheered in Paris, and received in audience by Queen Wilhelmina. Count Zeppelin was experimenting with his huge airships, and the world seemed on the qui vive for unknown troubles. An event was soon to fall of such magnitude as to still idle gossip and give pause to all conspirators. That event was entirely unthought of when, on December iQth, a memorial service was held in St. Paul's Cathedral for those who had fallen in South Africa. It was a great occasion, and similar services were held in almost all the churches of the land. It had been a year of sacrifice for England, and as yet the clouds were gathering more darkly. In the same month Parliament had re-assembled, with Lord Salisbury as Prime Minister. His Government had secured a complete victory in the election, having 402 supporters, against 186 Liberal and Labour members, and 82 Irish. A political event of some interest was the holding of the first annual conference of the Labour Party. It was a minute affair compared with those which I attended in 1919 and 1920, but it was the start of the separate and distinct National Labour Party. 26 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND While these events were transpiring, the South African War was proceeding vigorously. On February 28th Ladysmith was entered by Lord Dundonald, greatly to the relief of General Sir George White and his defending forces. Just twenty years after this event London has found a place of honour for an equestrian statue of the defender of Ladysmith. On March 2yth General Joubert, Commander-in-Chief of the Boer Forces, died, and on May i yth Mafeking was relieved by Colonel Mahon. Baden-Powell, who had defended it since October I5th of 1899, was gazetted General, and he was lionized at the Cape and in this country. During this campaign very important messages were flashed by heliograph to divisional headquarters, and there was every reason to believe they were read and copied by the enemy. Such a recollection is in vivid contrast to the methods used in later continental warfare. The names of the year were essentially military Lord Roberts, Lord Kitchener, Sir Redvers Buller, Sir John French, Sir George White, and General Gatacre and their countenances were familiar in nearly every household. Lord Roberts was made Commander-in-Chief in South Africa on September 3Oth, with Lord Kitchener as his Chief of Staff. On October 20th Sir Redvers Buller returned, arriving on November gth. There was at that time a general feeling that he had not been quite fairly treated, and the crowds gave him a tremendous ovation. A year later he was put on the retired list and on half-pay in consequence of a speech, but every letter from soldiers who had served under General Buller breathed devotion and admiration for him, and that spirit permeated England. I was a witness of the wild enthusiasm of the people for General Buller. I saw soldiers kneel before him and old ladies, whose sons had been with him, kissed his hand. Standing head and shoulders above most men, he was for EMINENT SOLDIERS 27 two years after his return an idol of the people. To-day Lord Roberts, Lord Kitchener and Sir Redvers Duller have all passed to their long home, and the old controversy might be allowed to sleep with them. CHAPTER IV Death of Queen Victoria Memories of Her Reign King Edward VII The Australian Commonwealth Motors and " Motor Balloons "The Cyclist's Ichabod ! THE mimosa, the beautiful and fragrant emblem of Australia, was much in evidence on January i, 1901, for on that day Lord Hopetown, as Governor-General, first inaugurated the Australian Commonwealth. This vast colony had rapidly developed since the wild gold rush of forty years previously and Sydney and Melbourne had each grown into first-class cities of the Empire, with populations of something like half a million each. The Queen sent a message her last to Australia conveying her good wishes for the growth and prosperity of the Commonwealth, and Australia was much to the fore in all public gatherings. London had a further interest two days later in extending a tremendous welcome home from South Africa to Earl Roberts, who, on the previous day, had received his earldom and the honour of K.G. from the Queen at Osborne. On January i6th the Queen was out driving, and on the i8th there was national regret at the announcement in the Court Circular that the Queen was not in her usual health, and " was to abstain for the present from transacting business." The next day's bulletin was still more ominous, that " the Queen was suffering from great physical prostration, accompanied by symptoms that cause anxiety." The mood of sorrow was manifest 28 QUEEN VICTORIA'S DEATH 29 everywhere during these days of silent watching. Social and festive gatherings were abandoned and concerts were cancelled. At midnight on the 20th the Osborne bulletin stated that " The Queen's condition has late this evening become more serious, with increased weakness and dimin- ished power of taking nourishment." On the same day the German Emperor arrived in London, having cancelled all the festivities in connection with the two hundredth anniversary of the German monarchy, in order to express his personal concern for Queen Victoria. By January 2ist public opinion was profoundly stirred throughout the world by the prevailing belief, destined soon to prove correct, that Queen Victoria's last hours had arrived, and that a reign without precedent for distinction and advancement was rapidly winding to a close. The bulletins from Osborne were posted at the Mansion House in London and at provincial Town Halls and post offices. There were continual groups around these notices, and one man would be seen reading out the brief message to others around. Old and young of all classes were deeply moved. The last significance was attached to the announcement that the German Emperor, accompanied by the Prince of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of York, and the Duke of Connaught, had left London for Osborne. Any firm hopes of the Queen's recovery had now gone, and during January 22nd bulletins were issued hourly, indicating that the Queen was " slowly sinking," and in the evening the sorrowful, but now expected, tidings sped over the wires of the world that Queen Victoria expired at 6.30 p.m., " surrounded by her children and grandchildren," of whose presence she was quite conscious. The astonishingly deep effect upon the public indicated what a very real place the Queen had won in the minds and hearts of the nation during her sixty-four years' reign. The Jubilee in 1887 30 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND and the Diamond Jubilee in 1897 had been observed with universal rejoicing, and at her death a nation went into black. Indeed, the outward signs of personal loss were marked all over the world. The vast majority of people had known no other British sovereign, and only the few veterans could look beyond her reign. She was the first constitutional sovereign and the greatest. When the Lord Mayor of London received the telegram from the Prince of Wales, the blinds of the Mansion House were lowered, and the State bell at St. Paul's began its ominous toll, which continued for two hours. The whole of London closed down, including all places of amusement, and throughout England the same rule was spontaneously observed. The period of Queen Victoria's reign had seen the emancipation of children from factory labour, and of women from work down the mines. It witnessed a distinct advance in the standard of life of all classes, the rise and develop- ment of several great cities from small beginnings, a great extension of railways and the passing of the stage coach. It saw the world belted with a network of telegraph and telephone lines, the construction of ocean greyhounds, and, greater than all these, a new and more lofty conception of human life. Public health measures passed from the spasmodic and haphazard to the organized and systematic. Free education was already uplifting the populace and the extended franchise had brought Parliament into closer touch with the ordinary householder. Her death, there- fore, marked an epoch of uncommon brilliance, and there is small wonder that all people thought very deeply during those dramatic days of January, 1901. King Edward arrived in London on January 23rd and informed the Privy Council that day of his desire to be known as Edward VII, leaving the name Albert to A SILENT FUNERAL MARCH 31 be exclusively associated with one his father. He took the oath as monarch, and on January 24th there was all the traditional ceremony of proclamation. The body of the late Queen was carried by highlanders and bluejackets to the Royal Yacht Alberta, on which it was conveyed across the Solent between lines of British and foreign warships, to Portsmouth Harbour, the entire front being thronged by thousands of spectators of this imposing spectacle. All night the yacht lay at anchor within the harbour, and next morning the body was conveyed by train to Victoria Station, London. The coffin was met by a gun carriage, drawn by the same eight cream horses used in the Jubilee procession of 1897. Millions of people lined the route to Paddington Station, and as the solemn procession came into view it was noticed that the German Emperor, the King of England and the Duke of Connaught, came behind the coffin as chief mourners, and close by were the Kings of Portugal and Greece, the King of the Belgians, the German Crown Prince, Prince Henry of Prussia, and some forty royal personages. All the nations of the earth were represented in that historic procession. At Windsor the body was conveyed to the Albert Memorial Chapel and on February 4th it was transferred to the Mausoleum at Frogmore. The day of the funeral was intensely cold and the greater part of England lay under a deep white mantle of snow. From the capital this was rapidly cleared, but in many provincial towns this white carpet had a most striking effect. Long processions of mourning poeple marched to many parish churches in a profound silence. The usual sound of marching men was effectively muffled by nature's own silencer and there comes before my vision as I write this marvellous panorama of sharp black and white and a great silence until all are gathered within the doors, and the 32 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND strains of the organ lead off that hymn I had heard so often at interments of lesser note : " Now the labourer's task is o'er." Several times I had seen Queen Victoria at public functions, bowing repeatedly to right and left in acknowledgment of plaudits, but over this last great muster to her name there fell an appropriate hush, even of the footfall, and men communed in whispers. The German Emperor's birthday occurred while he was in this country January 2yth and on the occasion he was appointed a Field-Marshal in the British Army, the Crown Prince being invested with the Order of the Garter. A few days later King Edward and Queen Alexandra opened Parliament in State, and the King pro- ceeded on a visit to Germany. A trial which created world-wide interest took place in July. It was that of Earl Russell on a charge of bigamy. He was found guilty and sentenced to three months' imprisonment. This trial and sentence did much to disabuse the public of a notion that there is one law for the rich and another for the poor. In many years of Assize Court experience I have acquired a profound admiration for the impartiality of British courts of justice. Every alleged offender has a fair trial, and a chance to prove his or her innocence, and if guilt is proved, the law is no respecter of persons. This high tradition has had incalculable effect upon the native races of all colours and climes in the Empire. Several times I saw great popular demonstrations in honour of General Baden-Powell after his return in July of 1901, and for a period I found it a duty to veritably travel with Earl Roberts, the most popular little soldier of his time. There were local demonstrations all over England to welcome home village heroes from the war, and practically every church has its memorial to the THE FIRST SUBMARINES 1901 33 young men whose bones are whitening under the African veldt. On September 6th an event occurred in America which startled the world. It was the shooting of President McKinley at the Chicago Exhibition by a man with whom he was actually shaking hands at the time. The callous manner of this assassination caused a universal sense of horror and repulsion. Eight days later the President succumbed to his wounds, the third holder of his office to meet death by similar treachery. London had its own anxiety at the time, no less than a virulent outbreak of small-pox. In September, 151 cases were notified in a week, and these were rapidly doubled to 396 ; three months later the weekly cases numbered 945, and the decline did not set in until the weekly total had reached 1,554. The Navy Estimates provided for submarines for the first time, and British experiments began with under- water vessels. It is interesting to read the speeches at this point and to find that no practical service whatever was expected from these new craft ! They were merely to ascertain why other Navies were building them and to see in how far the new craft might be a menace to the British Navy. I saw some of these early submarines, and very remarkable vessels we all thought they were, popping up out of the water like whales coming up to blow, and then gliding into harbour much like a row of cigars strung together. But looking backward from 1920, they really were very small, very insecure and very experi- mental. They were, however, the beginning. The development of motor-cars and continental speed races, led to the issue of Local Government regulations in 1901 relative to locomotives on highways. Hitherto it had been technically illegal for an automobile to proceed at a speed greater than five miles an hour, or to go through 34 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND traffic without a man walking in front with a red flag ! The law was more honoured in the breach than the observance, but the regulations which I have mentioned were the first basis of the law as now applied to motors on the highways. The advent of the motor gave a new diversion to village constables, who in this year began to abandon the systematic prosecution of cyclists for travelling at a speed greater than twelve miles an hour. Up to 1901, the cyclist had been the premier speed merchant. His mount had steadily evolved from the giddy old " ordinary," which really ought to have been called the " extraordinary," seeing that it gave a first-class rise in the world, and an unrivalled view of the surrounding country, if it did just chance to kick, which it persisted in doing very frequently. A small saddle perched above a five feet wheel was not the most secure of seats, and the nature of the departure from it was entirely decided by the loose stones or the well- directed cap of some youngster in hiding ! In the year with which I am dealing the " ordinary " and the " bone- shaker " were frequently met on the roads, but the pneumatic tyred safety, with a free wheel and powerful brakes and variable gears, was the fairy of all conveyances. It was fashionable for Princesses to ride bicycles then, and huge crowds assembled to witness track racing, while doughty feats were performed in endurance and speed tests from Land's End to John o' Groat's. Old people marvelled at the speed and security of these wonderful mounts, produced with delightful elegance by many British firms. Ichabod ! thy glory is departed. Motor pacing and motor racing had begun, and the hard limbed push pedallist found himself relegated to a minor place by noisy, smelly and ungainly motor-cars. The first motor fire engines were started, and then came motor bakeries, motor kitchens, even motor savings banks, and the passing of the horse, man's MOTOR BALLOONS 35 faithful friend, was heralded in the rattle of the new traffic. And " motor balloons " were attracting much attention, too. It was confidently declared that man could ride the air, in whatever direction he might choose, except on windy days ! The solution was the motor balloon and in several countries desperate adventures were being made on structures weird and wonderful, such as the aviator of 1920 would shudder at. How well I recall interviewing the inventor of an aeroplane which he guaranteed to rise and to remain under control without an engine ! Then, on October iQth, M. Santos Dumont startled us all by circling the Eiffel Tower in his navigable balloon. Many condemned such experiments as tempting Providence, but only by struggle and sacrifice does man conquer. On December i6th I heard Lord Rosebery make his brilliant speech at Chesterfield, which he opened with the Question, " Well, gentlemen, what do you think of it all ? " He was in splendid form, and his silver voice positively rang out as the great orator of the nation analysed the political issues of the day, such as Education, Home Rule, our continental relations, and the controversy over the South African War. In the Budget of the year the Income Tax had gone up to is. 2d. in the pound and the fact was loudly deplored by all subject to income tax. Would they deplore a is. 2d. income tax now, I wonder ? CHAPTER V Personal Observations End of the South African War Chival- rous Welcome to Boer Generals The Japanese Treaty The Continental Triple Alliance Passive Resistance The Coronation of King Edward John Kensit's WyclhTe Preachers. WHEN enjoying breakfast with an eye on the news- paper, did you ever fully realize that great tragedy often lies behind those little paragraphs tucked away in the lower half of pages ? That lesson was deeply impressed upon me in those early years, when it was a frequent duty to accompany the Coroner to remote towns and villages, where a jury would be sworn in " to diligently inquire and a true presentment make of all such matters and things as shall be laid before you." Even the jury of twelve good men and true has gone now, except for cases of a grave character, but I wonder how many hundred juries I have seen extending the hand over the table to touch the Bible, and then " kiss the book," in token of sincerity. The British Constitution is based upon good citizenship, and a phase of junior and adult education that is sadly neglected in this country is the study of administrative government. The vast majority of people in this country do not under- stand the great structure of the jury system, of the magis- tracy, of the courts of justice from the Petty Sessions to the House of Lords, or even of municipal government. Many young people who are conscious of a need for greater 36 PUBLIC LIFE IN ENGLAND 37 knowledge, and solicit adult education, take to philosophy and economics before they can spell, and they remain ignorant of the rudiments of citizenship until, it may be, they are elected to hold public office. Then suddenly a new world of responsibility opens before them, and England looks bigger, fairer, and more majestic than she did. That is why the agitator undergoes a mental expansion when he becomes an administrator. He sees so much that he never knew before. He sees men of wealth who might retire into luxury devoting all their days to public service. As guardians of the poor they are to be seen handing round the tobacco to aged workhouse inmates ; as councillors they are immersed in street improvements and local developments ; as members of an asylum board they visit the very tragic domicile of the insane ; and as members of some Charity Committee they visit orphanages and romp with little fatherless bairns. This was how life opened out to me in those early years of this century, and I began to see how much good work is done quietly. Of pomp and profligacy I saw something, too. There is an intimate contact between London and every part of the country, and occasionally it was my duty to go " up to town " at the behest of some county family or local squire to duly record for the local residents the splendours of a society wedding. On these functions, and on balls and dances at the country residence, money would be spent with profligacy. There was money for thousands of fairy lights, money for banks of exotic blooms, money for exquisite meals at the highest possible cost per head which could be lavished upon one night's appetite for food and drink. Glittering coronets would float about the ball- room, escorted by gentlemen in hunting pink and solemn black and white. There was money for the best continental band and as much money spent on a night's pleasure as ^ ...iw L* 38 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND would feast half the county. I always found that a description of these nights, including the consummate culinary work of the wonderful French chefs, was intensely popular. Factory girls and charwomen were particularly careful to study them and the great middle class made it a solemn duty to know all about them. I remember looking on at one such brilliant scene in a ballroom, and feeling impressed suddenly with the thought that the lives of all the princes and princesses of fairyland were but tawdry imitations of these young people, the climax of the ages, able to gratify every whim and wish. But I did not find happiness there, not always. I found that pleasure of the kind became a feverish cult all too often, and that in these stately homes of England where money pronounced itself from gilded furniture and even gilded wall-paper, there was a painful lack of contact with the real England which produced its wealth, fought its battles, and made the nation. The impression came strongly upon me that some of these lives were not only selfish but useless, and more than once I have driven away from such engagements in the darkness of night, quite grateful that by accident of birth my lot had not been cast in that artificial stratum called Society. But while lessons of this kind were sinking into my plastic and fresh mind, and finding utterance only in my diary, national affairs were moving forward, and with these it was the duty of a newspaper office to maintain contact. Early in 1902 King Edward received a gift of 200,000, which he decided to devote to the relief of tuberculosis. This munificent gift, it was disclosed, came from Sir Ernest Cassel, and the cause to which it was devoted was one of the most urgent in the country. The great white plague has no right to exist in our healthy climate, and it only flourishes on the frightfully unhealthy conditions the nineteenth century imposed upon our great industrial THE ANGLO-JAPANESE TREATY 39 centres. Men, women and children, thousands of them every year were martyrs to this disease, and new hope and new determination and a new holy crusade were started by this gift. Palliatives like sanatoria will never eradicate consumption. It is in the very walls of bad houses, and dark streets reek with it. In Charles Dickens's day it was not at all the thing to take a house facing the sun, because that would cause furnishings and wall-paper to fade. In 1902 landlords charged sixpence more rent on the sunny side. That is the great human need sunlight in the workshop and the home and in leisure. The Marquess Ito, of Japan, was in this country at the time, and discussion rapidly turned from sanatoria to the land of chrysanthemums. On January 3Oth of 1902, Lord Lansdowne and Baron (afterwards Viscount) Hayashi, signed a treaty between Great Britain and Japan, under which it was agreed that if either Power became involved in war with another nation, the other Power should remain neutral ; but if either of the contracting parties were attacked by more than one foreign nation, then the other Power should afford active help, making common cause against the enemy. This announcement aroused high controversy. It was both defended and denounced with vigour, and alleged reasons and motives were given in profusion. Before six months had passed the Triple Alliance was renewed between Italy, Austria and Germany. These treaties gave rise to speculation upon foreign affairs at a time when domestic politics caused keen party strife, notably in respect to the Education Bill. This measure, after passing through all its stages, led to that remarkable political demonstration known as passive resistance. Thou- sands of Nonconformists refused in the period 1903 to 1906, to pay that portion of the rate devoted to uphold religious and sectarian teaching of a character with which 40 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND they could not agree. Their goods and chattels were distrained upon in lieu of payment, and the articles seized were sold by auction to realize the rates. Some of these sales were lively in the extreme. At those I attended I saw auctioneers literally smothered with flour, and police helmets splashed with eggs. In common with many others, my father's home was distrained upon, but I was never an admirer either of the policy or of the " demon- stration," as it was called. That digression, however, has carried us beyond a period of far more important events, to which we must now return. On March 23rd of 1902 hopes of peace in South Africa rose high, as the Boer " Government " arrived at Pretoria under a flag of truce, expressing a desire to proceed under British escort to interview Mr. Steyn, President of the Orange Free State, as to arriving at terms of settlement. This was allowed, but British operations proceeded in the meantime, and on April i8th the Boer delegates left Pretoria to confer with delegates in the field. For the next few weeks indications became very obvious that the Boer resistance was over and that guerilla warfare was at last terminating in spasmodic surrender by the scattered forces. On May I4th large numbers of Boer leaders arrived at Pretoria on their way to Vereeniging, where they proposed to hold a general peace conference among themselves. This conference selected delegates to return to Pretoria to discuss a settlement with the British. They arrived on the i8th and included Messrs. Botha, Steyn, Delarey, De Wet, Schalk Burger, Beyers, Muller, Celliers and Hertzog. On the following day Lord Milner arrived in Pretoria to take part in the peace conference. There was now the utmost optimism as to an early and satisfactory peace, and on May 22nd, when the King and Queen opened the Royal Military Tournament, there was PEACE IN SOUTH AFRICA 41 a most fervent tone about the ovation which London accorded them. On May 3ist the Boers concluded their conference at Vereeniging, which had included about 160 of them, and they came into Pretoria. At 10.30 p.m. that day they all signed the document of surrender, the terms of which were signed for Great Britain by Lord Milner and Lord Kitchener. The news of this settlement caused world-wide satisfaction, and there was rejoicing and bell ringing in every part of England. June ist of 1902 will long be remembered by all who happened to be in London on that day. The war was said to have cost this country the lives of 1,072 officers and 20,870 men, and in money 222,974,000. A Viscounty was conferred upon Lord Kitchener, who was promoted to the rank of General at the same time. On June 5th the House of Commons marked the conclusion of war by passing reso- lutions of thanks to the Forces, and voting 50,000 to Viscount Kitchener for his services. On the following day it was reported that the Boers were surrendering their munitions and themselves, and that most amicable relations existed between the British and Boer forces. Those of us who have had experience with the British Tommy can visualize the heartiness of the exchange between the two sets of men. I can vividly recall the great thanksgiving services for the conclusion of peace, held on June 8th, the one at St. Paul's Cathedral being attended by the King and Queen, by the Prince and Princess of Wales, and by numerous guests who were assembling in this country for the impending Coronation. On June nth Colonel Arthur Lynch, M.P. for Galway City, arrived in this country after service with the Boers, and he was at once arrested on a charge of high treason. He was tried at Bow Street, found guilty and sentenced, but was subsequently granted a free pardon. Lord Kitchener 42 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND telegraphed on June I7th that all the surrenders in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony were completed, and totalled 18,400. Their losses during the war were computed to be 3,700 killed or died of wounds, and 32,000 prisoners, of whom 700 died. It was impossible to compute their wounded with any accuracy. On July I2th Lord Kitchener arrived at Paddington, accompanied by General French, and as the two famous soldiers drove to St. James's Palace, they were enthusiastically cheered by enormous crowds. Both had added to their brilliant military reputations. It was on the day of their return that Mr. A. J. Balfour became Premier, in succession to Lord Salisbury. To conclude this rapid survey of the South African War it may be added that Generals Botha, de Wet, and Delarey and ex-President Steyn and his wife came to this country, were received by the King and Ministers, and were heartily cheered by the public. Londoners took particular interest in the elusive de Wet, whose exploits added to the gaiety of nations, even amid the tragedy of war. The British military leaders received the Freedom of the City of London and gifts of plate, and similar compliments by several provincial cities. On their triumphal tours I saw Lord Kitchener and Lord French. They presented a marked contrast in physique, Lord Kitchener being even taller than General Buller and of more pro- portionate build, while General French was scarcely taller than Lord Roberts, but slightly heavier. The terms of peace provided for unconditional surrender, and absorption into the British Empire of the Transvaal and "the Orange Free State. Certain liberal conditions * . . accompanied this stipulation. The death penalty was not to be inflicted upon any Boers for fighting for their country, the Dutch language was to be used in the Law Courts when it was considered necessary, and an Imperial grant THE POSTPONED CORONATION 43 and loans were conceded to enable the Boers to re-settle themselves in the devastated areas. Lord Kitchener congratulated the Boers on their gallant resistance and welcomed them as citizens of the British Empire. Four years later, when Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman came into power, complete local autonomy was granted to the new Colonies, and they proved of valuable assistance in a greater trial destined to test the Empire ere many years had rolled. But affairs at home were even more absorbing at the time than the settlement of the South African War. Peace had been celebrated on June ist and afterwards all public interest turned upon the forthcoming Coronation of King Edward and Queen Alexandra. This important ceremony had been fixed for June 26th and festivities and celebrations were being arranged in all parts of the country. Many distinguished visitors had arrived from the Colonies and other countries for the occasion, and all arrangements had advanced to completion, when, on June 24th, great public consternation and profound regret were caused by the dramatic announcement that the King was very ill, and that the Coronation ceremony and festivities would be abandoned. The official bulletin to this effect was signed by Lord Lister, Sir Thomas Smith, Sir Francis H. Laking, Sir Thomas Barlow and Sir Frederick Treves. It stated that the King was suffering from perityphlitis, and the surgical operation necessary was immediately and successfully performed by Sir F. Treves. Throughout June 25th the environs of Buckingham Palace were visited by eager and anxious crowds, resorting there to read the bulletins posted as to the condition of the royal patient. On June 26th the list of Coronation honours was published, and the new Order of Merit instituted by the King received several additions. The bulletins were all distinctly favour- 44 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND able and by June 28th the King was pronounced out of danger. Many local committees were highly perplexed about events arranged for the 26th. The decorations were already up and processions, sports, bands, shows, illuminations and bonfires arranged for. Some few towns decided to carry on and to celebrate a function which they were confident would not be long adjourned. A large number modified their programmes and gave teas to young and old, but abandoned all other festivities. The majority cancelled all they could, and decided to rejoice when the Coronation was an actual event. In my district opinion was sorely divided, and thus it happened that on June 2 6th a prancing grey horse gaily bedecked took me along in a lengthy Coronation procession and on August gth, the same horse, similarly caparisoned, and prancing more than ever, took me along with a second Coronation procession. Sunday, June 29th, was marked by services of intercession, and on the same day the King was removed to a couch for some hours. On July 3rd 500,000 poor people of London were entertained to dinner as the guests of the King, and the various metropolitan centres at which the huge catering task was accomplished were visited by the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duchess of Fife, Duke and Duchess of Connaught, Princess Christian, and other members of the Royal Family. The pleasure of these great gatherings was enhanced by the bulletin stating that the King was definitely out of danger. During July His Majesty was reported to be in excellent health, and to be gaining strength every day. By his command the Coronation was appointed to take place on Saturday, August gth. The interval was spent by the King and Queen at Cowes. On August 8th, two days after the return to London, the King addressed a letter to his people in which he stated that he looked upon the Coronation as THE FIRST. COLONIAL CONFERENCE 45 one of the most important and solemn events of his life, and he expressed heartfelt appreciation for the deep sympathy which had been manifested towards him during the time his life was in imminent danger. There had been rehearsals of the procession to Westminster Abbey, and of the ceremony itself inside on August 4th and 5th and a " full dress " rehearsal on the 6th. The Coronation of King Edward and his Consort, Queen Alexandra, took place in Westminster Abbey on the gth as arranged, the ceremony being marked by one of the most representative gatherings of every phase of British and Colonial public life. The route of the royal procession from Buckingham Palace was by way of the Mall, Horse Guards Parade and Parliament Street. After the historic ceremony, the King and Queen wore their crowns as they rode along Parliament Street, Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, Pall Mall, St. James's Street, Piccadilly and Constitution Hill. Along the whole of this route there were dense enthusiastic crowds, and after the return to the Palace there was tremendous cheering when Their Majesties appeared on the balcony in their robes and crowns. London and all the provincial centres were most brilliantly illuminated during the evening. Special commemorative services were held in all places of worship on the following day. Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, the Colonial Secretary, had wisely used the advantage of the presence of many Colonial Premiers and representatives to hold a Colonial Conference, which opened on June 3Oth and concluded its sittings in November, when a statement of its business was published. They agreed that such conferences should be held every four years ; that Colonial contributions towards the maintenance of the Navy should be increased, and a subject which opened out a strenuous political campaign continued during the next ten years that the principle 46 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND of preferential trade between Great Britain and the oversea Dominions would stimulate commercial intercourse. It was agreed that the metric system should be adopted as soon as possible, and that cheap postage should be effected throughout the Empire. During recent years Mr. John Kensit and his Wycliffe preachers had caused great perturbation to a number of parish priests by protesting during services against forms of ritual to which they objected. Their speeches and acts of protest had led to acrimonious scenes in many parishes in various parts of England and on September 25th, at Birkenhead, Mr. John Kensit, who was a book- seller in Paternoster Row, was assaulted by roughs and seriously injured by a chisel which, thrown from the crowd, struck him on the head. He died on October 8th. The latter part of the year was marked by a visit of the German Emperor, who was the guest of King Edward at Sandringham on November Qth, the King's birthday. He also visited the Earl of Lonsdale at Lowther Castle, and the Earl of Rosebery at Dalmeny House. During his tour in the North I well remember his hearty laughter as he strolled round an old world garden, arm in arm with the editor of a certain famous newspaper ! CHAPTER VI Change of Scene When Kings Travel Days in the Dukeries A Bold Baronet Reporting Pit for Pat The German Gypsies. TIMES change, and we with time, and the year 1903 found me in a larger Midland town, with the Dukeries not far away. Perhaps life in a town of fifty thousand to a hundred thousand people is as amenable a life as any town can offer. In your very small town or village many abilities run to seed and even busy men go wrong for the want of occupation. More village schoolmasters commit hara-kiri than any other class of schoolmasters, and more village pastors cause consistory courts than any other pastors. A local factotum gets swelled head very rapidly in a village, and gets an impression that because he is monarch of all he surveys he is monarch of every- thing else. - Bigness in a mental sense is not derived from small surroundings, and there is more intolerance, gossip and sensation in the village than the city. Your teeming city affords that constant variety and contact which sharpens the wit and produces the mentally alert, widely tolerant and always interested crowd. But for these great ad- vantages and amenities a price is paid in crowded^houses, narrow streets and sunless alleys. There is an artificiality about these conditions which divorces people from the soothing influence of the land ; 47 48 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND of the changing season in the country side. The medium size town has many advantages. It has a composite, communal life. It is not too big for you to get to know everybody who is anybody, nor too small to offer many of the amenities of city life. Its inhabitants are very house- proud, and every such town is the best, most progressive and most ancient town of its kind in this our realm. Into such a town was I launched during 1903, with a big and constant run of varied engagements, travelling hither and thither to sip of the best over half a county. The next few years were full of activity and change, and a larger view of England unfolded before me. Near by was that extensive and richly wooded region known as the Dukeries, and I was soon to discover that this very beautiful region of Sherwood Forest was to produce more first-class stories than I expected. After a week of heavy nights it was exquisite to ride away into those glorious drives down to Welbeck or Thoresby or Clumber to see squirrels playing about in the sunlight, to gather wild roses or honeysuckle, or to see the wonderfully rich tints of autumn creep over the miles of woods. In spring, summer and autumn the Dukeries were feasts of colour and in the course of years of business and pleasure I became happily intimate with every road, drive and bypath. I knew the favourite haunts of the deer, and how best to reach the stately avenues of copper beeches, only excelled by those at Burnham and Versailles. Here, by the rose- covered porch of the village church, the great Sherwood Forest with its gnarled old oaks opens out dramatically to view, and one may wander on in peace unobserved, except by startled deer and squirrels and indignant pheasants and partridges. Linnets and goldfinches trill merrily in the gorse and furse bushes, and wild flowers grow in profusion Small wonder then that King Edward almost annually AN UNCONVENTIONAL M.P. 49 visited the Dukeries to shoot or to attend Doncaster races, and on each occasion of these visits it was my duty for a week or so to chronicle the King's day. It was here I first saw a royal shoot and marvelled at the almost unfailing accuracy of the King's aim at birds high in the air. The precision of these shots by the King and some other members of the royal party was something to wonder at. There was, too, all the bustle and care involved in the travelling of the royal household. How often I have watched the movements of that venerable detective, Sir Patrick Quinn, as he moved about his precautions for the security of the royal train. Arrivals and departures of the King were familiar, and it was always very interesting to notice the minute arrangements involved by a royal visit. The royal train was a delightful thing, and the King's saloon was always supplied with the daily newspapers of the various parties for his personal examination. Several times I saw King Edward and Queen Alexandra on ceremonial visits, and again in the woods on days of pleasure and, most interesting of all, perhaps, at dances arranged in the ducal residence. Hereabouts let me introduce the most unconventional member of Parliament I ever knew. He was very wealthy, being a great steel and coal-owner, and he lived in a con- siderable degree of luxury, but he was one of the most interesting, most natural and most fearless men I ever expect to meet. He was a baronet, too, and soon he will be recognized by hundreds who knew him in life, and remember that his death was as dramatic as his life. He called at my house one Sunday afternoon in August, a hot, bright day, and asked me to accompany him to a meeting. He was wearing a suit of white flannels, white sloucher hat, and white boots. Waiting for him was a carriage and pair of handsome black horses ; footman and coachman 50 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND on the box, and he, without a waistcoat, was going to address a brotherhood meeting ! It was his invariable and kindly practice to let me know when he was " going to say something " and one could always take him at his word ! It was he who was challenged to repeat outside the House of Commons a certain statement he had made inside, and at the first opportunity he did so, having widely announced the fact beforehand that he would do so. How well I recall that excited meeting, and the calm and deliberate manner in which the offending sentence was twice repeated, to make sure that they all got it dis- tinctly. A libel action ensued and a verdict for 3,000 damages was returned. Into the merits of the statement we need not go, but the member certainly believed every word he said. On another occasion he called for me with a huge yellow motor-car, and arrived at our meeting he launched a terrible indictment of a neighbouring town as the worst in England, and likened it to a Sodom and Gomorrah ! That night he drove me through an intense snowstorm to a central post office to wire his speech to the Press. It created a great sensation and most profound indignation in the town so exposed. He was publicly challenged to withdraw or prove his statement, and he accepted an invitation to visit the town and at a public meeting to prove or withdraw his statement. I shall never forget the intense excitement of that meeting. He proceeded to prove his statement by disclosing the most appalling figures as to drinking, and showed that for some time he had a complete staff of clerks in its licensed premises each Saturday night, checking all details and recording them in figures. He proved how many women were there with babies, how many adults sat or lay on the floors, how many had to be assisted home, and how many were prosecuted. No drama AN AFFRAY WITH POACHERS 51 could equal in interest the change of mood which swept over that great meeting. From anger it turned to surprise, to sensation, to absolute repentance, and as the member gave further figures of the hundreds who came to his doors for soup and dripping, it became ashamed. He told of many threats of violence he had received, and told the miners that he feared none, because his knuckles were as hard as theirs ! These were more than human stories, for they were having an effect on the social life of England and I have good reason to believe those carefully collected figures had much to do with the later ban upon children entering licensed premises. I had personally seen some appalling tragedies of drinking amongst the miners of that district, and its regeneration began from that sensational night. I have mentioned that the death of this baronet was as unconventional as his life. He knew he was dying, and that a certain period of life remained to him, but he continued his public life, inside Parliament and outside, until the very day one Saturday afternoon that he was found dead in his chair. Newspaper experiences are exceedingly varied. To be an efficient journalist one has to preserve a close contact with national politics, with the international temperature, and with local events. One night, after getting over the wires an important statement by a Minister, I met a police sergeant who was one of several in the force told off for a raid on poachers. I believe that miners and many other workers have an instinctive, natural and incurable love of hunting the wild, and that our game laws are unjustifiably harsh and narrow. They are redolent of the times in which they were framed, and many of our country squires would be happier men if they could forget the laws that preserve unto themselves every hare, rabbit and other ground game. I have seen hungry men with hungry 52 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND children sent to prison for poaching, and the poaching consisted of a couple of rabbits ! Once a police inspector in my presence offered a poacher 5 for his outfit. " No fear," he replied. " When my kids are hungry I'm fetching a rabbit there's plenty." Well, on this night of political excitement, I saw a joint raid of police and keepers upon poachers, and it proved a stiffer and more serious battle than either party had ever dreamed of. So soon as the forces of law and order broke from cover, shots rang out and flashes of fire came from guns. A policeman fell headlong, and the others con- tinued the assault. There was a fight with staves, truncheons and gunstocks, and out of that serious melee men on both sides emerged with broken arms and damaged heads. I made myself useful in a first-aid sense, very sorry to have seen such a battle over Nature's food supply. The police got high praise and deserved it. The men had long terms of imprisonment, but I am not so sure they fully deserved it. The chairman of an Urban District Council rather offended me about this time. It was my custom to attend the monthly meetings of some half-dozen of these local authorities, and very happy our relations always were. One of these authorities had a chairman whose constant boast it was that he in his all greatness was a self-made man. He had, like Mr. Bounderby in Hard Times, none but himself to thank for the 80,000 or so to his credit at the bank. Generally he was most amicable, and even affable and he would generally start off at local gatherings by the remark, " Hi ham wondering why hi ham here." We regarded it as a kindness to touch this gentleman's speeches for him, and to interpret as closely as possible what we thought his ungrammatical expressions intended. But one night, rising in his place at the Council meeting, WHERE IGNORANCE IS BLISS! 53 he expressed a wish to say, by the leave of the Council, a few personal words. His eyes turned to me, and all other eyes turned to me, and I felt that fame was about to be thrust upon me. " I wish these 'ere gentlemen of the Press," he said, " and 'specially one gentleman of the Press, would just report what I ses, and not what they think I ought to say." This admonition and more was addressed to me, and late that night I told my governor of my disgruntled state. Subject to his approval I suggested a retort. It was to report that gentleman's chief speech exactly as he uttered it, and in quotation marks. My chief assented, and it appeared. Now in life it is an invariable rule that if you say some- thing unkindly critical about a person, you meet that person shortly after. So it was also with this chairman of the Council. The day following that unkind issue I was in his town again, in the centre of a huge sports crowd, gathered to enjoy the excitement of record-breaking cyclists. And who should be making across the field from the grand stand to the Press table but my victim ! This looked decidedly awkward, so one of my colleagues undertook to arm him off and explain that I was very busy. But nothing could dissuade him, and on he came. I sallied forth to meet him and he certainly looked happy enough. " My word," he exclaimed, " but you can report ! You're a champion ! It's pit for pat, every word I said, and thank you ! " Quaint and pretty old ceremonies survived through the centuries thereabouts. In one parish there was football for everybody on Shrove Tuesday. Early in the morning a football was kicked off in the market square by a leading citizen, and every citizen, young and old, of both sexes, followed the ball. The entire township formed one running crowd in pursuit of that elusive ball. All day long they 54 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND followed it, into the river and out again, and through the woods they had to go. Old residents came back once a year to join in the ancient game, and none were happy who had not secured at least one kick. The game would be talked about for half a year, and it had its valuable effect on the social intimacy and kindliness of everybody in that little town. In a village near by the Rogation days were marked by the blessing of the crops, and a picturesque and impressive ceremony I always thought it. For three days the vicar, his wardens and his choir, in surplices, would tour the parish, visiting every farm, encircling the fields, singing psalms and suitable hymns as they went. The good farmer was thankful for the ceremony of Rogation, and always had refreshments ready when the procession reached the farm at last. It was while I was here, too, that all the country was disturbed over the migration of a numerous caravan, described as the German Gypsies. The first experience I had with them was rather startling. Realizing something out of the ordinary, I cycled eastward to meet them, guided only by the published stories of their movements. Even- tually I came upon this numerous colony of swarthy olive- faced nomads, making a study fit for a master to execute on canvas. Their vans were drawn up on the wide grassy borders on each side of the road and their horses were cropping the short grass. A group of men, in sloucher hats over their bronzed faces and with brass-studded belts around their drab clothes, sat round a fire on the grass. But the most disconcerting feature was the discovery of two large bears lying on the road-side, their shaggy coats full of dust and their beady little eyes set upon me. Without dismounting (for I seriously contemplated having to run for it) I shouted to the men, and pointed at the bears, upon which one of the men came lurching forward with a pole THE GYPSIES AND THE BEARS 55 and stood by the bears as I passed. But in the way of conversation or information there was " nothing doing." I didn't know Romany, and they professed not to know English, just as they did when they walked into butchers' shops, laid a big grimy hand upon a handsome leg of mutton, and tendered half a crown. I saw them several times later, when the police removed their wheels to prevent further advance, or restored their wheels and diverted them to a common. I noticed they possessed fleet dogs to catch hares, and well-spurred game cocks to catch pheasants, and knew that they knew a thing or two. But their coming and their going was a tragedy for them, and they always excited my sympathy. The hostility they endured, the obvious signs of defensive along their route, were due more to ignorance than to causes, until the unhappy wanderers were driven to actual need, when they raided gardens for food and created hostility. CHAPTER VII Votes for Women Adventures with the Suffragettes " Magic Lantern's " Escape Hilarious Scenes A Golf Green Mystery Explained. CXACTLY when the militant movement began to L-/ enforce equality of treatment between the sexes it would be difficult to tell. I have on my bookshelves several bound volumes of The Freeholder, The Guardian and sundry other two-hundred-year-old publications, bound in enduring leather, and printed in old English letterpress. In several numbers I find reference to the political influence of women and the methods by which they intend to extend that influence. Political clubs for women, drawing-room influence over a dish of tea, and other means were con- sidered, and in the Freeholder of April 9, 1723, the genial editor remarks that previously political arguments have been applied like Hudibras' spur, which he applied to one side of his horse only, not doubting the other side would keep pace with it ! Writers and politicians were reproved as being too ready to presume that women were but the garniture of a nation, the gentle accompaniment, solace and pleasure of that master of the universe, the Britisher. In good Queen Anne's time it was recognized that women handled many political questions, even woollen garments were patriotic institutions, for were they not home -spun ? A cup of tea or coffee or chocolate was aromatic of the foreigner exploiting us, and a French waiter was a potential 56 WOMAN'S CLAIM TO EQUALITY 57 spy. It was declared with anxiety that if the elevation of women were carried much further in England, we should have a mighty invasion of ladies from all the foreign courts, anxious to share the pleasures of this happy land. Petticoat government has been alleged against many a Cabinet to its profound annoyance but with some truth, and Milton carried us back to the Garden of Eden, when he makes Adam exclaim : All higher knowledge in her presence falls degraded, Wisdom in discourse with her loses, discountenanced, and Like folly shows : Authority and reason on her wait. I could quote many proofs of the recurrence of this demand. Each extension of the franchise during the nineteenth century raised it anew, and many distinguished women pointed at the anomaly of the ignorant labourer, without an idea beyond a spade and a pint pot, voting, while cultured and zealous women were denied a vote. Appeals to reason drew a large measure of agreement from the sterner sex that the claim was just and that something must be done about it. Still Governments came and went, until, in the first decade of the twentieth century, women adopted other methods, and the second decade had not completed its course ere the whole body politic abdicated, and the world of women was astounded at its rapid victory. Reviewing the modern movement which culminated in the Representation of the People Act of 1918, we find that the first demonstration for enfranchisement of women was held in the Queen's Hall, on March 14, 1905, while Mr. Balfour was in office, and for the next eight years the holders of office at Westminster had the time of their lives. In the great election campaign of 1906, when the Liberals, led by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, secured such a notable victory, many candidates were heckled on this 58 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND question, and in numerous cases they promised their support. On April 25th Mr. Keir Hardie submitted a motion to the House of Commons for the enfranchisement of women and it was talked out ! There was an immediate scene in the House of Commons, uproar developing in the Ladies' Gallery. Honourable members, perhaps conscience- stricken, gazed up in anguish at the now abolished grille, where they saw attendants removing ladies who still shouted protests as they vanished down the stairs. In December came a better organized repetition, and several women were convicted and sent to prison, as they refused to pay the fines or to recognize the Court, thereby deeply hurting the magisterial dignity. On February gth of 1907 there was a great demonstration of suffragists outside Westminster Palace, and it led to riotous and turbulent scenes. Vast crowds of people assembled, and these crowds increased on such nights of demonstration until Trafalgar Square, Parliament Street, Whitehall and every approach to the House was blocked by the enormous gathering. On March 8th of 1907 a Bill to enfranchise women was talked out, followed by a great demonstration of protest on March 20th, at which there were seventy-six arrests, but none were sent to prison. In January of 1908 Mr. Haldane was severely heckled in Glasgow, and on the 1 7th Downing Street was veritably raided by an army of women, a number of whom were locked up. Their broad sashes and banners had become familiar when Mr, Asquith assumed office as Prime Minister in April of 1908. He, poor man, was destined to bear the full brunt of the feminine offensive for the next six years. There were several marches and demonstrations in June, and on the 2 ist it was estimated that 250,000 people had assembled in Hyde Park. On June 30th an attempt to present a petition to the Prime Minister led to further arrests and EXCITEMENT AT WESTMINSTER 59 the smashing of windows. Lady Astor was not the first lady to startle the House of Commons, for on the night of October I3th the precincts of the House were stormed by ladies. The avalanche was beyond the control of the guard, and one lady succeeded in entering the House itself, on the floor of which she raised the cry of " Votes for Women." This incident was very unsettling for those members occupying the green benches, but the majority were already outside watching the tide of battle between mounted police, exercising wonderful patience, and deter- mined women exercising every faculty they possessed to achieve their object and to impress an indifferent Parliament. Mounted police were not allowed to impede them, and in a fracas of this sort I more than once saw educated but highly athletic young women throw horse and rider too. It was accomplished by the application of the subtle art of ju-jitsu to the equine world. A knee vigorously pressed into the horse's fore legs caused him to cross them, and the exertion of strength before he could regain his solid balance accomplished the fall. Often with hair and clothing disarranged they would continue the struggle against con- stantly increasing police posses, until the cooling influence of the hose-pipe relieved the pressure on the front ranks of the police. The horses were admirably handled in these difficult incidents at Westminster. They would push sideways at the solid block of people in the politest style, and tread in the gentlest " by your leave " manner on protruding boots. I should weary the reader were I to continue to enumerate all the dates memorable in the strife for women's suffrage. Their attitude certainly aroused animosity, and repeated declarations were made in Press and Parliament that they were impeding and even destroying their own cause by their actions. The unco guid of politics became exasperated as 1910 passed into 60 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND 1911, and 1912 became 1913, and far from abatement, still the battle grew. Women emulated Houdini by chaining themselves to the grille in a manner which dis- tracted the anxious attendants and obstructed Parliament. They went to prison gladly for the cause, and scores of them underwent all the nauseating agony of the hunger strike, a method which affected not only many a fair complexion, but shook sound constitutions. Forcible feeding was a repulsive operation, disgusting to all concerned, and " The Cat and Mouse Act " under which invalided prisoners were released for a period, only to be re-arrested as soon as they were physically fit for another round, was a form of refined legislative cruelty. At many a political meeting in the campaigns of 1909 and 1910 provincial audiences made their first acquaintance with militant suffragettes. In all cases of front rank meetings, addressed by Cabinet Ministers or Front Opposition Bench members, special precautions were taken at the hall for a period up to twenty-four hours before the meeting. The Yeomen of the Guard do not search the vaults of the House more thoroughly than did police and hall-keepers search their halls at that time. All the resources of the Scarlet Pimpernel were outdone in this display of feminine ingenuity. During that campaign of which I have more to say elsewhere, I heard Mr. Asquith, Mr. Lloyd George, Lord Haldane, Sir Edward Grey and other ministers, and at every meeting was " the voice." It floated into the hall as soon as the speech had begun, and disorder arose at once. It was reminiscent of the ventriloquial feats in Valentine Vox, and the search of stewards would finally locate it, sometimes in the false roof, where a girl would lie on a stout beam to call through a ceiling ventilator ! Sometimes it was under the platform, and again it would h ide in the organ. No sooner was the girl removed, generally DETECTIVES OUTWITTED 61 very dusty, sometimes positively black and very hungry, and no sooner was the cheering and laughter ended, than it began again and laughter rose higher as the searchers started out again. The handling some of these women received was not always of the gentlest, and more than one of them came precipitately down a back staircase. How- ever, they never quailed, and raids on their headquarters failed to chill their ardour. If one fell out exhausted, fifty were ready to take her place. Let me tell you now just a little of the adventures of one bright young suffragette during that period. You may have been very angry with her at the time, but it is over now and we can laugh together over those exploits. We will call this girl " Magic Lantern," and a bonny young thing she was. She was arrested on a dashing exploit, sentenced to imprisonment, and adopted the hunger strike. Ten days later the prison governor had to liberate her, on peril of losing her life. She was transferred very ill to the house of a friend, and around this house was drawn a cordon of detectives, for " Magic Lantern " was exceed- ingly elusive. Now, when very smart young detectives are constantly in contact with very smart young suffragettes, the law of England is not the only law operating, and official courtesies are apt to ripen into friendship. This may have conduced to some of the escapes that amazed the country, but the country can rest assured that not even Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson could vie with all the resources of the gentler sex. On a detestably dark night a trader's motor-car drew up at the back door of the house, and two detectives had a look at the errand boy who tapped at the door. Some one called " come in," and a basket of goods was emptied on the kitchen table. The door opened again, the errand boy emerged with the basket, and stepped into the car. The cordon opened out, and 62 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND away went the tradesman's delivery van. But that " boy " who came out in white overalls and cloth cap, with a basket on " his " arm, was " Magic Lantern " ! While the police continued their watch she lay unconscious from weakness, but she was being whirled away into the country. Outside the town and waiting fully equipped for a long journey was a powerful touring car. To this " Magic Lantern " was transferred and the shop overalls were aban- doned. Away sped the car, but the night was very dark, and thirty miles hence it ran into the ditch ! Here was a hopeless plight for " Magic Lantern " and her friendly driver ! Their united efforts could not get the car back to terra firma^ and their discomfiture was made more com- plete by the sound of a heavy tread and the flash of a bull's-eye lantern ! " What yer doing here ? " said this arm of the law. " Can't you see," replied the driver, very anxious to keep the ray of the lantern off his companion. " Can't you see I've run the car into the ditch ? " " Been having a night out, I guess," said the constable. " A rum go this ! " " If you'd give a hand, constable, instead of hinting, we could soon have the car right." " Righto ! " The policeman laid tunic, belt and helmet on the grass, put his shoulders to the car, and their united efforts righted it ! " Magic Lantern " was in and invisible immediately, and half-a-crown requited the policeman. While he was resuming the garb of the law and cogitating on the '* rum go," the car was eating up miles. But the police are very astute. Within a few hours a car was traversing the same road bent upon arrest. The quest was vain, for by a route devious and impossible to follow, " Magic Lantern " slept and rested in the fresh air while the Metropolis came nearer. DANCING TO FREEDOM 63 Soon afterwards she was arrested in another melee and again sentenced. Again, too, she underwent the hunger strike, and was released for her health's sake. Her resting place this time was an inland spa, a delightful little town, but there went the official cordon with the usual instruction to check every person who might enter or leave that house. Moreover, they had a car garaged close by, always ready for service. This was the state of affairs one evening when a most weird procession emerged from a fancy dress ball close by. They were all young people, advancing in couples, and all oddly garbed. They sang a war song as they approached the house under police observation. They passed in at the front and out at the back, and round the block and in at the front again. Here was a desperate situation for that handful of police ! How could they possibly check who came in and who passed out ? Certain it was that a young man who entered in a blue coat came out with a red one, and the man in the white hat emerged with a blue one. The variety of dress, the number of nurses, and other details, took some grasping. Another exasperating detail was that after each exit a couple fell out of the canter and strolled over the green. Still more distracting, a motor-car sans passenger, swept past. It was too obvious for anything. The garage doors swung open and away went the police car. It stuck to the leader all the way round the town, and round again and round still again. For two mortal hours these cars pursued each other, for are not the police orders adamant, and was not the order to keep that car in sight ? After the two hours' joy ride the driver of the first pulled up at the premier hotel, lit a cigarette, and looked sublimely indignant when another car pulled up abruptly behind his, and a rude fellow jumped from it to watch who alighted from car No. I. Alas ! there was not a lass, for the police car was no sooner 64 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND engaged than " Magic Lantern " was gliding out of the town and towards London in another car. The reader will have seen long ago how easy it was for her to dance away with the rest, unwatched in spite of full knowledge that she was escaping. Nor was " Magic Lantern " again arrested. After the triumph, and after the war, I look back now with a good deal of amusement upon those hilarious nights and days. Long after midnight I have been trying to follow over the telephone the exploits of these champions of their sex. I have seen them dislodged from dark cup- boards, and from all manner of nooks and corners. I have seen them startle venerable magistrates during police court proceedings, and cause a look of holy terror to darken the faces of the famous statesmen of our time. They smashed the jewel case in the Tower of London with a hammer and in general " played steam " with the political machine. They dropped combustible chemicals into letter boxes and caused their contents to fire. They played havoc with golf greens all over England in a manner that positively bewildered stewards and detectives. In a night the greens would turn brown and burned, even when a policeman on the green knew that no living person had been near the green all night. This weird experience had become frequent before it was realized that the harm was done by golfers in the noon-day sunshine, who scattered a powder from minute casters, and then the dew of night completed the work ! We were all wondering whatever would happen next, and even if the business of government would become impossible, when the war drums sounded and there was the marching of men. All know how the women behaved. A truce was called to all hostility, the ranks were closed and the militants became makers of munitions, became ministering angels to the wounded and VICTORY AT LAST 65 took their share in every war activity. Two years later I was passing through one of our largest military hospitals when I met a ward sister whose features seemed familiar. She recognized me too, and as I bent over the patient I had gone to see I remembered the brave days of old. We both smiled and said nothing. Yes, they won the vote. They deserved it, they were worthy of it, they struggled for it and sacrificed for it, and received it with the gratitude of the nation to the Women of England. But Britishers do so like the opportunity of giving as a favour what they ought to concede as a right. CHAPTER VIII A National Diary : being a review of the perplexities of Public Men The Dogger Bank Episode The 1906 Election. I HA VE lively recollections of two of us going over from the same office to Welbeck to report Mr. Joseph Chamberlain when he spoke in the Riding School there in his campaign for preferential tariffs. Two of us tran- scribed four columns by midnight that night and the lino- type operators were on top of us all the time, carrying away every slip as it was written. Ever since the Colonial Conference, Mr. Chamberlain's view had become very clear, and on May I5th of 1903 he began his advocacy of import tariffs at a great demonstration in Birmingham. A few months later he resigned his seat in Mr. Balfour's Cabinet to devote himself to this campaign, around which for some years turned every election, and even yet every candidate for Parliamentary honours feels himself obliged to declare his attitude on this question. Mr. Chamberlain was a brilliant, dashing speaker, very confident and strikingly assertive in his manner. He had a practice of specializing upon the chief industry of the district in which he was speaking, and this afforded ample scope to Mr. Asquith's trenchant replies, when the latter followed on a tour of the country in reply. It was a great oratorical duel, and both views had strong support. Mr. Chamberlain was climbing uphill, as it were, against public opinion, and the 66 THE PROTECTION CAMPAIGN 1903 67 general elections of 1906 and 1910 gave a perfectly clear indication of popular feeling. They were most fervid meetings, and sometimes the cheering was so intense, so spontaneous, that the roar of it would recur in our sleep all night through. This was especially tiresome at times of frequent meetings with short intervals between them, until some of us positively dreamed Tariff Reform and Free Trade. I have sat between two telegraphists in the Post Office, producing copy to keep both of them going, with cheers reverberating through my mind in spasmodic crashes. Ireland and temporary issues like the importation of Chinese labour into South Africa added zest to the fray. There was, too, that extraordinary report, published in August of 1903, of the incompetence and muddle displayed in the management of the South African War. Well, every war is just a mass of blundering mismanagement. It arises out of mismanagement, it is backed by mismanaged enthusiasm, and exploited for gain by the mismanagers. Wars are as avoidable as strikes, but for a war all classes cheer until the bill comes home, and for a strike only the striker cheers. There were momentary sensations which startled the country for a period out of its political prejudices, such, for example, as the self-inflicted death of that brilliant soldier, Sir Hector MacDonald, who, on his return journey from Ceylon, shot himself in Paris. This painful incident occurred on March 25, 1903, and it tragically terminated a career without precedent in the British Army, for this intrepid soldier was the first who had risen from the ranks to wear a general's plumes. There was the Moat Farm tragedy at Clavering, culminating in the sentence of death upon Dougal, four years after his terrible crime, all trace of which he had been so careful to obliterate. Again, profound interest was taken in the issue of a warrant for 68 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND Whitaker Wright, his arrest in New York, his trial and sentence to seven years' imprisonment for fraud by issuing false statements of his undertakings, and for excitement there was his death by poison within a few minutes of the sentence. All England was absorbed, too, in the Humbert safe episode, for when opened in Paris this rich depository of Madame, on which she had contracted extensive debts, was found to be empty. There were numerous after-war crimes of a domestic and local character, but above and beyond them all rolled the ceaseless tide of national and international affairs. The Prince and Princess of Wales rode across London in a tramcar from Westminster to Tooting, thereby inaugurating the L.C.C. electrical car service of to-day. There was much travelling of Royal Houses, the King being notably almost tireless in his exchange of visits to continental monarchs. No monarch could be so observant of these amenities as King Edward, for in succession he was in Berlin, Vienna, Rome, Paris, Madrid, and Lisbon. President Loubet came to England, thereby closing an era of suspicious comments about the two nations, and a few months later came the Anglo-French Convention. Early in 1904 came the war between Russia and Japan as a sequel to recent friction, and this country signed a deed of neutrality which was severely tested in October by the Dogger Bank incident. This extraordinary outrage upon the defenceless fishing trawlers was committed on the night of October 2ist by the Russian Baltic squadron, on its passage down the North Sea. The captain, in a fit of desperate nervousness, opened fire on the little fishing fleet. The Crane was sunk, her skipper and third hand being killed, and all on -board were wounded. Other vessels were severely damaged and crews badly injured. The Russian Fleet calmly continued its course without reporting, THE DOGGER BANK EPISODE 1904 69 and nothing was known until the battered fishing boats put into Hull. The national indignation was most intense, and on October 28th Mr. Balfour, the Prime Minister, announced at Southampton that the Tsar and Russian Government had expressed profound regret, promised liberal compensation, and had detained the Fleet at Vigo for the return of the officers implicated. The Premier added that a joint inquiry would be held by representatives of nations under the Hague Convention. Next Admiral Rozhvestvensky, commander of the Baltic Fleet, claimed that he was attacked by Japanese torpedo boats, one of which he sank. So high did feeling run that the Home, Channel, and Mediterranean Fleets were ordered to " be in readiness to co-operate." A few months later, com- pensation of 65,000 was paid over by the Russian Ambassa- dor, and Albert Medals were presented by the King to several of the men concerned. Captain Scott with his vessel The Discovery, and other members of the Antarctic expedition, arrived at Spithead on September loth, and a round of receptions and lectures began. Poor Scott a few years later died nobly, away in the great white regions which drew him as they draw the compass, but to that we shall make future reference. Religious revivals, Welsh and otherwise, were booming at the same period. The Torrey- Alexander Mission was running in London, and " Count your many blessings " became as familiar as any pantomime tag. Numerous war memorials were unveiled all over the country, taking divers forms, but the sentiment was the same, the perpetuation of the memory of those who had fallen in South Africa. Even while these valedictory speeches were being made, ex-President Kruger died in Switzerland and was conveyed to Pretoria for burial, the ceremony taking place there on December i6th of 1904. A notable event in February 70 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND of 1905 was the balloon journey from London to Paris in six hours, and on May igth came the opening of that great triumph of engineering skill, the Simplon Tunnel, which had been started simultaneously from both ends, and excavation finished perfectly in the heart of the mountains on February 24th. Mr. Balfour resigned office as Prime Minister on December 4th, and on the following day Sir Henry Campbell- Bannerman became Prime Minister. The first month of 1906 why will they always have general elections in midwinter ! saw the election campaign in full swing. One of the early sensations was the defeat of Mr. Balfour in East Manchester, but Mr. Chamberlain and the other Unionist members received increased majorities in Bir- mingham. Mr. Brodrick was defeated at Guildford, Mr. Chaplin at Sleaford, and Mr. Walter Long at Bristol. The last result was announced on February I3th, the Liberal party being returned to power with a majority of 104 over all the other parties combined. It was a sweeping success, due in large measure to the reaction of the khaki wave of 1900, the fact that the Unionist Government had outstayed its welcome, and further in part to the personal qualities of the new Premier. This second Parliament of King Edward's reign elected Mr. James Lowther as Speaker, Mr. Speaker Gully having announced his intention to retire prior to the election. His Majesty formally opened Parliament on February igth, and just as hope springs eternal in the human breast, so does a new programme from a new Parliament, but hopes and programmes are alike in one important respect : they do not anticipate the events of to-morrow and gang aft agley. Many a Government has been hoist on its unfulfilled pledges, although it has given valuable service in dealing with events as they arise. During this strenuous election THE NATIONAL SERVICE LEAGUE 1906 71 campaign of 1906 there appeared The Tribune^ heralded with all kinds of novel advertising in London. It was a sort of Liberal Daily Telegraph^ but lacking, unfortunately for its promoters, those pages heavy with advertising revenue, which only time and influence can erect. The dramatic story of its life and execution within twelve months has been extensively told, and I will only remark that the fluttering out of its brief life was more than a misfortune for the Liberals, and a very emphatic object-lesson to the public of the fact that the newspaper is a mighty and adventurous undertaking and that its success is in the hands of the advertiser rather than the public. The loss of The Tribune was keenly disappointing to journalists of all parties, for it had stepped immediately into the front rank of news- papers, and deserved a better fate. The general election campaign had scarcely closed when Lord Roberts began to urge the 'great importance of a scheme of Imperial Defence, his mind steadily concentrating upon a National Service League, which in subsequent 'years he strenuously advocated. His advice was that every able-bodied male citizen should undergo compulsory military training in preparation for any national emergency. The veteran soldier probably knew much more than he ever publicly told of the great probability of such an emer- gency, but the only practical result of his advice was the establishment of voluntary leagues in nearly all centres, the members of which took regular shooting practice at the butts. The summer witnessed great scenes at Birming- ham, in celebration of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain's seventieth birthday. The use of motor-cars had advanced so rapidly in the six years as to justify an investigation and report by a Parliamentary Committee. Speed had become a cult by road and rail, and an express train was run from Cardiff to 72 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND Newcastle in 8 hours. Speed, however, has its disasters as well as its triumphs, and in the same summer there occurred two shocking railway disasters. On July ist the American boat train came to grief at Salisbury, and as a result of the wreck 28 persons lost their lives and many were injured. The jury attributed this calamity to excessive speed. Then on September igth an express from King's Cross left the rails at Grantham, and twelve persons were killed. The confusion and horror arising from the sudden overthrow of a heavy train can only be realized by those who have been on the scene of such a disaster. The wrecked vehicles, with their twisted axles and shredded timber, give an im- pression of awe, and a powerful locomotive battered to ruin conveys an idea of impact such as nothing else imparts. On one occasion I was able to assist injured passengers in an accident of lesser note, but I still recall the sense of pain at the discovery of the dead, and the instinctive impulse to keep quite a long way from trains for some time afterwards. When we consider that our highly organized express service depends so largely upon the human element, and that our main lines are still lacking automatic devices which would add enormously to safety, it is remarkable that these accidents are so few. If a medical man makes a mistake in a prescription he might kill one patient, but if an engine- driver or signalman makes a mistake, he may kill a score. And while discussing railways and railwaymen we might mention that it was in 1906 that the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants decided to join forces with the political Labour party, a decision which culminated in the resig- nation of the secretary of that organization, Mr. Richard Bell, M.P., because he declined to obey the mandate of his members. The incident created a great deal of public discussion, but as causes are greater than individuals, the tide rolled on, and the N.U.R. of to-day is a vital element RAILWAYS AND RAILWAYMEN 73 in the Labour party. The outstanding controversy of the year, however, was the subject of demonstrations of dimen- sions great or small, in all parts of the country, for and against Compulsory Training. The Channel Tunnel proposal was more seriously advocated than formerly, but it was adversely reported upon by military authorities, and made the basis of thrilling fiction as to the possibility of landing hostile forces at Dover for breakfast, and for a time the projected railway under the sea was abandoned. SECTION TWO A NATION IN FULL BLOOM CHAPTER IX In Arcady The Ancient Town Golden Marsh and Green Wold An Idyll of Birds and Flowers Colonial England The Hiring Fair The Annual Trek Where Shepherds Lead their Flocks. I " T T AVE you applied for the Lindsey job ? " asked a I 1 colleague of mine as we were travelling together in the train one day in 1906. "No," I answered; " tell me about it." And thus it came about that I found myself at a railway carriage window one morning, and I was inside the carriage going away to pastures new, and on the platform were a group of good friends to see me off. It was a happy departure, and during the journey I contemplated the amenities of rural life, bought the Farmer and Stockbreeder, and became immersed in agri- culture. When the train swept round that final curve which brought my future home into view, I was in a mood of enthusiasm about village life, with visions of rabbit shooting and of following the chase. I saw myself using a pony to follow the hunt when the week's work was over, and even making the pleasure profitable. Then the town, as I said, swept into view. It was just a cluster of red tiled buildings of brick and stone, gathering thickly around the most stately, the most graceful and exquisite church spire in this bonnie land. For six years and more I lived under the shadow of that marvellous piece of tapestry in stone, and every day I loved it, and my last glance from the train which bore me away from that peaceful town for 77 78 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND ever was to enjoy again and for as long as possible, those delicate and symmetrical proportions rising into the blue vault of heaven. I have seen that lofty steeple looking radiant with ghostly whiteness in the mist of summer nights, and seen it richly illuminated by moonlight, and in every degree of light it has a new beauty to reveal. Plenty of people would weary of the town were it not for the fascination of that spire which even Salisbury can scarcely equal. So my first study of grey and red was impressive, and I noticed an abundance of trees about. They intrude close around the station, and are visible from the main streets. Long may they flourish. Just after my arrival the clock in the church struck twelve, so solemnly, so slowly, so deeply, that it gave me the pace, the speed register of the town at once. Try rushing there, and you are out of harmony with the civic tone, and become suspect. Here curfew is still rung, and the evening calm is real, for there are no glaring music- hall lights, and no rushing motors from the theatres. Here, most appropriately, Alfred Tennyson attended school for four years, and from his surroundings as much as his studies received that education which fitted him to become the great Victorian Laureate. Here his first published works saw the light of print also. Here the Lincolnshire Rebellion of 1536 began, to be followed by terrible retribution in executions at Tyburn and in the quaint and cobbled market-place. Here King John was a visitor, and he would therefore know the ex- tensive and varied county far better than the stupid monarch Henry VIII, who described Lincolnshire as " the most brute and beastly county in this our realm, a county of flats, fogs, and fens." Indeed, I had the billiard- board impression of the county until I saw the steep and richly wooded hills of Lindsey, those rolling verdant wolds, A REGION BY THE SEA 79 famed for giant red cattle and powerful shire horses. True, there is no Peak of Derbyshire here, no Wharfedale, no Sherwood Forest ; no Lake District, but there is just a little of all, a glorious panorama of wood and field and farmstead, of rippling trout streams and sweet valleys, of golden marsh and green wold. Beyond the hills is England, the point of contact being Lincoln, whose Queen of Minsters kindly surveys this region nestling down by the sea. Along the whole belt of marsh, and into the hills, one traces the influence of Danish invasion by names, and even by physique. Nearly all the streets are " gates," and my streets were successively Westgate, Southgate, and Kidgate. We had also Upgate, Chequer-gate, Engine- gate, Northgate, Ramsgate and many gates which I fear have passed from memory now, but they all tell of Norse occupation. How strange it seems that in May of 1920 the names of these remote streets were made familiar to the world by a catastrophe unexampled in any English town. The poignant tragedy of The Mill on the Floss has been enacted on the grand scale, for an avalanche of water caused by a waterspout or cloud-burst destroyed twenty lives, and in its sweep through the centre of this ancient town, in which I sojourned awhile, it has wrecked houses and bridges and caused great devastation. There was not only a Lincolnshire dialect, but a distinct vocabulary, especially applied to natural things. The weather was " hunch " one day and " owrey " another. In Yorkshire, Christmas is marked by spice cake, but here the particular delicacy was spiced beef, and succulent slices indeed they were. Old English customs still remain, and during the month of December, night by night, the band plays hymns and carols very quietly in the streets. At an interval a bandsman calls out in the night, " Good-evening, ladies and gentleman, it's eleven o'clock and a fine night." 8c THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND We had no factory chimneys, no smoke of industry, and no dirt. The air was clean and crisp, fresh from the sea or the wolds, and people lived long. It was here I took unto myself a wife and rented a house : quite a manse, with a pleasant old-fashioned garden of fruit-trees and giant ferns and fuchsias and Solomon's Seal. Eggs were sixteen for a shilling, fresh from the farm, and I was passing rich on 3 a week. One could plant seeds, and hear the hunts- men's horns in the fields afar. The milk only travelled fifty yards from the byre to my door. The air was laden with the sweet scent of flowers, and the song of the birds filled the summer day. At dawn on a spring morning the chorus would be almost overwhelming, and as the sun rose, so did I, to greet the fair countryside almost at my door. We Britishers grumble much about our cold winds and rains and fogs, but we have yet the best climate Nature has to offer, with all the golden strands of the Indies included. We get a touch of all : a momentary wave of Arctic cold and a fleeting season of torrid heat. We acclimatize well, and therefore face the climate of any other land. When my apple-trees came into bloom, and I looked on their exquisite pink and white, I knew why Browning wished to be in England again, and why sentimental letters came from distant lands in May. In my garden I could watch the thrush moulding the lining of her nest with her speckled breast, and just up the road I could gather the pilewort The first gilt thing That wears the trembling pearls of spring. There were woods carpeted with daffodils and later with a countless number of lilies of the valley. I rejoice that every year since a basket of those fresh lilies has come to me. There were banks of violets, sweet smelling after THE CALL OF ENGLAND 81 the sun had taken the dew from them, and banks of bright primroses of wondrous size. In all these things I rejoiced exceedingly and, like Lavengro, realized that the wind on the heath is good. There was constantly in the ear the musical tinkle of the gear of horses, and the lowing of cattle. In the pinewoods were numerous squirrels for company, and how merry it was to see them at play ! There were lambs beyond number, and trout and kingfishers alike haunted the stream that rippled under the old stone bridge at the end of Westgate. The nightingale sang by night close to the centre of the town, and out in the country I heard and saw that great songster several times at high noon. Our foliage was not coated with dust of motors, but preserved its delicious green to the fall. Here the first swallows came, and soon I located a boiler-man who, on April 1 2th of every year, put down the first scraps of his dinner for the new arrivals. He expected them that day and was seldom disappointed. He was as delighted as a child when he heard the first twitter of the birds as they darted in at the open door and alighted full of trust in front of those hissing boilers. They had responded once again to the unfathomable call of England, a call which pulsates through the entire bird and fish kingdoms. Those vast fields of grain ripening into harvest are unforgettable too. In the green stage, the myriads of ears stood erect, but as the sun bronzed the wheat and put the golden sheen on the barley and opened out the rustling oats, they all alike bowed their heads to their fate the service of humanity. Anon came the great reaping machines, cutting and binding the sheaves. Until long after railway trains rushed through the country, sickle and flail survived in agriculture, and it is only in the last half-century that mechanical devices have been applied to the fields. 82 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND In the town itself an air of great peace prevailed. One could walk the whole length of certain streets without seeing a soul, and as this frequently happened I marvelled where the population would be on which to build a news- paper circulation, and whence an audience would be gathered to discuss public questions. In the main shopping streets one would count six people at once many times, but the general experience was one of silence. There was no dinner-time rush of employees, no train, and a motor horn brought tradesmen to their doors. There was no elec- tricity, and thereby hangs a tale. The Corporation really wanted electricity and a Local Government Board Inquiry was promoted to secure a loan. But the inspector unkindly arrived on the previous day, and in the main hostelry that evening heard " The Corporation " discussing civic weak- nesses that gave the show away. We had gas in most houses and a little in the streets, but not on those nights of the month when the moon was supposed to be on duty. On such nights the darkness was often inconvenient to such an uninitiated person as myself, and to visitors who came to see our retreat. Thus, one guest of mine, out one night to discover the post office, asked of some figure in the market square which building was the post office, but the dark figure in question returned no answer, for it was the parish pump. And another guest, colliding on the footpath one night, apologized instantly for the bump, only to discover that his courtesy was addressed to a lamp-post. As may well be imagined, it was a town of " characters " almost too numerous to describe. One of its leading citizens was prone to imbibe too much, and I met him in the dusk of one evening, wending his way towards home from his favourite haunt. He had had the great misfortune to drop his hat, and it was beyond his capacity to pick it up. He had therefore resorted to the THE COUNTRY FAIR 83 ingenious expedient of kicking it along before him ! On arrival at his home he opened wide the door, kicked his hat through, and followed solemnly after. The very quaintness of this district produced " copy," and what was not copy locally, the daily newspapers would wire requests for in full detail. Candlemas and Martinmas were real things here, and a fair was a serious business affecting everybody. The merry-go-rounds, menageries, and cinemas which arrived at such times were but the accompaniment to the stern business of the day, which was the hiring of farm servants. At these annual hiring fairs hundreds of men and maids hired themselves out for the year. There were recognized values for ploughmen, shepherds, horse- men, wagoners, dairymaids, domestic servants, and youths. When a bargain was made between master and man, there would be a slap of the hand, called a handshake, and the payment of a shilling, called a fastening penny. Then lads and lassies, their destiny settled for a year, repaired to the fair to make merry for the day. Most of the men wore for these high-days, holidays, and Sundays, suits of velvet corduroy resplendent with numerous pearl buttons. There would be twenty down each velvet legging, and a profusion of larger pearl buttons for jacket and waistcoat. The girls were generally bedecked with one or more of the brilliant artificial flowers and tinsel plumes sold in the fairs, and a crowd of thousands of them would patrol the streets for the whole day. These were the great days of the year for shopkeepers, and on the event of a fine or wet fair turned their prosperity for a year. Footpaths were lined with stalls, and every trader exhibited his best. Towards evening the great recessional began, for on every road would be seen a line of farmers' heavy wains, drawn by those huge shires, and occupied by the well-laden families who for the rest of the year would live quiet, uneventful, 84 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND unnoticed lives about the farmstead in some remote parish. Carriers' carts ambled along, their occupants keenly dis-r cussing the fair, the hiring of George or Jenny, and the bargains of the cheapjacks. In these villages we had no black and silver hearses or mourning coaches for funerals. If a villager died, a great farmer's wain, drawn by two massive horses, bore the coffin to the peaceful little churchyard. There would be touches of black ribbon and laurels about the harvest wagon and the horses, and the mourners and neighbours followed afoot. If it was a yeoman farmer who had gone, four of his best horses would draw the wain, and as one watches these rural corteges coming over the fields from the farm to the last resting-place, one realizes a simple dignity and grandeur not derived from the expensive pageantry of cities. Many of these farmers carried responsibilities and risks far greater than business men in urban centres ; with farms running to thousands of acres, and single fields containing up to 600 acres each, they had to think in big figures and to look carefully ahead. These farmers of Lindsey were masters of their craft, and the big men of the county were all men who specialized in something. Probably the heaviest and most productive shorthorn cattle are the Lincoln reds of ponderous frame. The biggest and most fleecy sheep are the Lincoln long wools, and the shire horses I have mentioned are on the way to rivalling the elephant in weight and strength. I have seen five hundred people sit down to lunch at a farm sale of pedigree stock, and the company will include buyers from all parts of the world. One sees 800 bid for a single sheep, two thousand for a dairy cow, and a like sum for a fine shire. Nor are these the only special features of the livestock reared in Lindsey. There are numerous stud farms for bloodstock and hunters, and here I saw hunters perfectly FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD 85 trained to open gates with their mouths. The same care was devoted to crops, and all the thought and conversation of the region turned upon farming. All politics were viewed from the standpoint of the milk-pail, and I got the impression of being in a farmer's paradise, a happy hunting- ground for lovers of the soil and its yield. Even infants took their share in the feeding of poultry, pigs and calves, and the hoeing or gathering of potatoes. It was not an expansive life for these people ; there were no larger views, no need for daily newspapers except by those who held considerable farms and watched market prices, and there was no wide social life. Yet they were good people and kind, and rich farmers, country squires, and peasants alike knew how to extend hospitality to man and horse. The people of premier importance were the auctioneers, lawyers, and estate agents, for the largest employers were the shop- keepers. This was Colonial England, far removed from the bustle and business of the Midlands, of Lancashire, and of the West Riding. Most of its residents had never seen London. Their favourite jokes were against the pitiable ignorance of townsmen who thought wheat grew up pea rods ! and that " turmits " grew on bushes ! Here one saw good shepherds, replete with smock and crook, and it was literally true that the sheep knew their voice and followed them. All our roads were gritty with the perpetual tread of flocks of sheep. Constantly one encountered large flocks following the lead of the shepherd, a dog, or sometimes two, bringing up the rear. The intelligence and training of these dogs was a never-ending source of wonder, and their patience was a marked character- istic. ^ Yet when off duty they could prove a positive menace to the stranger whose arrival at the farm they might resent. 86 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND April 6th of each year was a most exciting and important day in the simple annals of the poor, for it was Leaving Day for the married workers : a sort of general post to pastures new. At the wayside cottage early in the morning one would see the good housewife weeping as she leaned against the door standing ajar, the key of which she was about to surrender to another. Fond associations were being severed by no desire of hers, and all her household goods had crossed the threshold ^o be loaded into an open farm wagon. Habitually astir by daylight, the great trek hither and thither across the marsh or from marsh to wold or vice versa, was in full swing before most townspeople have drawn their blinds to let in the morning sun. By noon the scanty furniture would be deposited in the new cottage, the good man of the house would report himself to his new master, and the children would be exploring the new locality. That was what a change of situation meant in those plains of peace, and it was only by such migration that the workers preserved their independence. The wage of 14 to 30 a year, according to physical value, was supplemented by a plot to till, a side of bacon or so many bags of " taats " for the year. Farmers too often made it their personal business to know the politics of their " hands," and while some were tolerant and forgiving, it was not always so. There were those who had a decided objection to housing Radicals, and as to a Socialist, he was almost unknown in the land. The consequence of becoming such a backslider was too great to contemplate. It was a great and curious land this of mine, in which there were sharp distinctions between (i) the parson and the squire, (2) the tenant farmers, and (3) the landless and dependent labourers. Political meetings in remote villages were often silent, expressionless gatherings, unless the politics were those of the parson and the squire, and then an air of FREEDOM OF THOUGHT 87 geniality would prevail, all labourers would be invited, and in all probability a rabbit-pie supper would be an added seduction. Freedom of thought is a priceless jewel, and the history of the freedom of thought is just a romance of triumph over persecution, but the light of this freedom has not come over my Arcady yet. I had to feel, while dwelling in this beautiful border of England, that more was thought of cattle than men, and that feudal serfdom, banished from the great populous heart of England, survives around its edges, whence it will eventually be cast into the sea near by. CHAPTER X Land, Air, and Sea Records The Territorial Army Old Age Pensions Pageants and Exhibitions Peace and Plenty Mr. Asquith becomes Prime Minister Talk of War The Licensing Bill Faith in Dreadnoughts The European Chess-Board The Grayson Incident. THE period 1906 to 1910 was full of enterprise and achievement. Mankind was reaching out to new conquests in many directions, and every day was interesting. Marconi's system of wireless telegraphy was being steadily improved and developed and extended by an agreement with the British Government to girdle the Empire. There was nothing private about it, happily, and sound waves once cast upon the air were received and read by all installa- tions within the range of the transmitter. Thus the " S.O.S. " call of a ship in distress at sea was heard and responded to by ships of all nations on the water. Trade competition, jealousy and racial animosity, sank to their true insignificance when human life was in danger, and ships flying the flags of several countries would rush through the dark waters stirred by that only competition which can survive the supreme test the competition to save others and to assist the distressed. Men were venturing into the air, placing reliance on navigable balloons and airships. In France, M. Clemenceau ascended with the war balloon, " Patrie," sailed over Paris, and circled the Eiffel Tower. In the same year, 1907, the British airship, " Nulli Secundus " ascended from Aldershot, travelled over London, 88 THE BRIGHTNESS OF 1907 89 to the great amazement of that city, and alighted at the Crystal Palace, only to be badly damaged by a storm while at her moorings there. Count Zeppelin was persevering with his special craft over Lake Constance, and the Wellman airship set out on its most hazardous effort to reach the North Pole. Nor was it in the air alone that records were being made. In the same summer the Lusitania, the world's largest liner at that time, left Liverpool on her first trip to New York. She made record journeys both out and home, her shortest time at sea being 4 days 18 hours. Little was it dreamed at that time that this famous vessel would subsequently figure in history for an infinitely tragic reason. Motor-cars, too, were advancing rapidly in reliability, speed and elegance, and the Olympia Show of 1907 displayed a variety of design and power which indicated that England was taking a premier place in their manufacture. On June 3Oth S. F. Edge drove a car 1,581 miles inside the twenty-four hours at Brooklands, and I later saw him make a speed of 94 miles an hour in a shorter test. Pedal cyclists were endeavouring to retain a place in that era of record breaking, and one, A. E. Wills, performed the amazing feat of pedalling 60 miles in the hour behind motor pacing. It was a time of beautiful civic pageants in many cities, and of brilliant exhibitions. There was national and even world-wide prosperity, and the spending power of money was at the highest point of the twentieth century. There was peace and sunshine, and a general disposition to jubilate because no international clouds darkened the sky. The attire appropriate to Lady Godiva in the Coventry pageant was one of the controversies of the season and in all respects 1907 was as daylight by comparison with the indescribable darkness of 1917. One of the piquant incidents that added 90 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND to the gaiety of nations was the theft of the Ascot Gold Cup while the races were proceeding. This audacious theft astounded those responsible for the safety of the trophy and it baffled all attempts at solution. This exploit was quickly followed by one of equal audacity at Dublin Castle, from which some thousands of pounds worth of jewellery and State regalia were extracted. Dublin Castle certainly has looked down upon more daring and desperate enter- prises since that time, but the twentieth century story of Ireland is a story to itself, a story thrilling and wonderful, containing exploits and deeds of cool adventure beside which much historical romance pales into mere interest. There was quite a storm of suspicion and nervousness over Army affairs during the year. In January Mr. (afterwards Lord) Haldane, laid a scheme for a national army before the House of Commons in a three hours' speech. It involved the dissolution of the militia and the volunteer forces and the creation of a newer, more efficient, better trained, but smaller Territorial Army. No modern Minister of War knew more than did Mr. Haldane of Continental conditions, and it was his duty to his post to design the best force possible so long as forces were necessary. It succeeded the Birrell Education Bill as the subject of general discussion, and military and civil opinions were alike divided. Sentiment and efficiency seemed to have clashed, but the proposal rolled on its way, and March 3ist of 1908 saw the close of the old Volunteer Force. There were valedictory parades, reviews and torchlight marches in many towns, and appropriate speeches were delivered by mayors and aldermen. On that night I was standing by the mayor of a certain town at one of these ceremonies. Assembled in the square were all the red-coated " Saturday Afternoon Soldiers " as they had been called, and around them a large crowd of cheering people. An officer called "LIGHTS OUT!" 91 for the signal " Lights Out " as the bugle herald of the passing of the old force. Now the Mayor knew little of military signals, but he was most anxious to oblige and he was standing on the plinth just against the tap that controlled the lights of the square. What more natural, therefore, than that on hearing the captain call " Lights Out," he obligingly put them out ! The entire scene was suddenly immersed in darkness, and the Mayor, hearing a suspicion of laughter in the ranks, asked very anxiously, " He meant these lights, didn't he ? " On the morning of April ist, the Territorial Force was in being, and those who feared it involved the wreckage of military efficiency soon received consolation in the delivery of real field guns for artillery, and rifles for infantry. Another political subject of note which was ripening into maturity was the provision of Old Age Pensions. They had been strenuously advocated for many years, but every succeeding Chancellor evaded this problem. Quite early in the year 1907, a deputation of Liberal and Labour members waited upon the Prime Minister (Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman) and the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Asquith), and received a very sympathetic reply. " I cannot make provision this year," said Mr. Asquith, " and it will be difficult next year, but in the following session I shall be able to introduce provision for such a scheme." There were those who feared it was evasion, there were those who decided it was another political get-out, others who felt heart-sickness from hope long deferred, and still some who believed this beneficent provision was entering the field at last. Between the promise and the fulfilment, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman fell ill and resigned, and on the following day, April 6th of 1908, Mr. Asquith became Prime Minister. Lady Bannerman had passed away 92 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND since the triumph of 1906, and her distinguished husband did not long survive his retirement. At that time Mr. Lloyd George was engaged at the Board of Trade, coming into the limelight as a settler of industrial disputes, a notable example of 1907 being that on the railways. The year 1908 was one of marked political importance and social unrest. In that year the continental menace was fanned a little stronger for confirmation of which see the Year Books and Press and in that year sites were chosen and plans and designs approved for the hospitals that were to receive our battered armies in the Great War. True, they were not called military hospitals but training colleges and the like, and the public did not know how the War Office chose the sites and made ready. The surprise to the public was the alacrity with which all peaceful uses terminated six years later, and the War Office took possession of its own to fulfil its own purposes. The Old Age Pensions Act a beneficent thing in meagre figures passed its third reading in January of 1908 by 315 votes to 10, making provision of 5/- weekly to persons seventy years of age and over who had been British subjects for twenty years, had not been convicted of crime, and had not received poor law relief for twelve months. For the 572,000 poverty stricken veterans of the fray for whom this measure was framed there was a stipulation that no income exceeding 31 los. per annum could come within the scope of assistance. From certain quarters came the terrible outcry about the colossal cost of this undertaking 13,000,000 a year, about the pauperizing of the aged, and about the need for a contributory scheme to compel some years of thrift before payment was allowed. But St. Stephen's bowed to popular feeling, as the vote indicates, and on January ist of the following year Old Age Pensions became payable at every post office. THE DREADNOUGHT IN 1908 93 There were other fruitful sources of discussion, notably the Licensing Bill, which proposed the gradual elimination of 30,000 licenses on a compensation basis levied on the trade. In its first form it was a fairly heroic measure, but vested interests battered it and mutilated it almost beyond recognition. " The Trade " demonstrated in every town, and the discovery of its secret power came as a revelation to many. However, after all the storm had subsided, there was a little step on the upward way to record. Contemporary with this storm over Britain's beverages, the coal-owners were protesting against the proposed eight hours' day for miners ! Armaments were also furiously debated, and the Dread- nought, the fast and all big-gun warship, was the fascination of the hour. Militarists felt the sudden inspiration that England's destiny rested upon Dreadnoughts, and thereafter came a ferevish competition between nations for the construction of Dreadnoughts and super-Dreadnoughts. Demands for the reduction of armaments and for a declaration of peaceful intent fell upon cold ears. Ever since the Balkan and Russian upheavals of 1905, there had been continually increasing discussion of the storm centres of Europe and in 1908 Europe was picturesquely described as a vast chess board with monarchs as pieces in the squares, and Foreign Ministers as the unseen players of a mystic game. Even during the discussion, King Edward, that much travelled monarch, made a continental tour in which he met the Tsar of all the Russias at Reval, the German Emperor, the Austrian Emperor, President Loubet of France and the Foreign Secretaries of Russia and France. Was he, I wonder, ever during his reign cognizant of the furtive correspondence proceed- ing at that time ? Did he ever know about those extraordinary letters, only disclosed long after, between 94 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND " Willy " and " Nicky " and the secret imbroglios being fixed up during that summer, creating an entanglement of plot, counterplot, and distrust that must lead to disaster ? Surely King Edward, the Peacemaker, did not know ? There was a note of unrest at home, too, and the per- centage of unemployment, which had been steadily rising for some three years, caused agitation when it came to 9 '4 per cent of the total working population. Labour's " Right to Work " Bill was introduced, placing responsi- bility on the State to find work for the vast army of unem- ployed. This agitation led to a dramatic and most unusual scene in the House of Commons, when Mr. Victor Grayson, the young and zealous Socialist member of Colne Valley, drew the attention of the House to this urgent problem. He was out of order, as he had been the previous night, and refusing to obey the order of Mr. Speaker he was removed from the House and suspended. The sight of this pale-faced young man being removed, abandoning in all probability his Parliamentary career, made a profound impression upon the House, and when the country learned of it next morning the impression was even deeper and wider. Attention had suddenly and effectively con- centrated upon the hunger marches and the privation, and amongst the Parliamentary successes of these two decades Mr. Grayson must be accorded a place of honour. There were subjects, too, of passing interest well worthy of mention here. On January ist of 1908, the Offices of the Public Trustee had been opened to the public, and this useful State Department has enjoyed an ever increasing confidence and clientele since. On September i6th Wilbur Wright ascended in a mechanically propelled aeroplane and succeeded in flying thirty miles in forty minutes. EARLY EFFORTS WITH AEROPLANES 95 This astounding performance thrilled the world, for it had proved the heavier than air machine to be practicable, and the aeroplane at once entered the British vocabulary. A British Army aeroplane was tried on October I4th, but not with such conspicuous success. For a time triumph lay with those intrepid brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright, self-taught scientists living in Dayton, Ohio, who had designed an engine light and reliable enough to make flight possible. French and British aeronauts were struggling hard for the mastery of the air, and a period of progress chequered with tragedy was dawning. What British airman of 1920 would dare to cross the Channel on the Antoinette machine with which Latham gave an exhibition flight round Blackpool Tower in 1 909, and actually assayed the Channel crossing, and nearly succeeded ! In the summer of 1919, I saw the Antoinette in question tucked under one wing of a Kangaroo, with a giant Handley Page close by, and as one looked at that frail little propeller with blades like metal paddles for a canoe, its feeble wings, its limbering engine and ill-shapen body, one shuddered at the daring of the man who entrusted his life to its keeping. The Druce claimant case concerning the title and estates of the Duke of Portland was heard, and to establish or disprove certain evidence the Court ordered the grave of Thomas Druce to be opened at Highgate Cemetery. One witness was later sentenced to four years' imprisonment for perjury during the trial and the claim was not established. In that year the Labour Party Conference decided for Socialism by a card vote of 514,000 to 469,900. Miss Florence Nightingale, greatest of all war nurses, was pre- sented with the Freedom of the City of London, but was too aged and infirm to receive the honour personally. In 96 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND that year lights on vehicles became compulsory by night, and in that year too, the white roads of old England began to vanish under the hard surface of tar macadam. We had definitely entered the era of turbine engines, motors, petrol and mechanical service in general. CHAPTER XI The Land Song Days with Lloyd George Two Stormy Elections Adventures on the Road A Political Drama Lords and Commons. MANY a great victory has been secured on the inspiration of a song. The Roundheads sang and caused the Royalist hosts to tremble ; Hus and his flock sang undaunted by the Pope and all the Austrian cavalry. The American Northern army marched to victory singing : John Brown's body lies moulding in the dust, But his soul goes marching on. Dante stirred the spirit of Italy to lofty heights, and in France the " Marseillaise " evoked a veritable frenzy of zeal. The poems of Charles Wesley did as much as the sermons of his brother John to found Methodism, and the British import duties on corn were abolished as much by the Corn Law rhymes as by Sir Robert Peel. One can survey the whole world of poetic inspiration from the Book of Job down to Masefield and even to " Tipperary " and the test holds good. Good poetry is not simply prose crystallized ; it is something far loftier than mere rhyme ; it is a glorious inspiration for good. Its riches colour the dullest lives, and the world's best gifts are not excluded by low wages, nor yielded to the richest profiteer. Song only breaks from emancipated souls, and its effect is to 8 97 98 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND elevate countless people out of the dull plane of life for a period. The disgruntlement of the twentieth century will not be allayed either by direct action for conquest, or by suppression of restlessness by armed force. We shall not be ourselves again until the war-tried nations get back to better ways and realize that Tennyson and Wordsworth were greater than Wellington and Gordon ; that Burns and Goldsmith were as pearls beside the forgotten military leaders of their day. There is more inspiration in Maeter- linck's Life of the Bee than in whole libraries of alleged romances of militarism. So long as we are too busy with the traffic of the day to cut through and resort awhile to the good society of great thinkers and writers, just so long will there be something rotten in, the state of Denmark, and will our newspapers be morbid chronicles of trouble, with racing tips for diversion. This little dissertation is provoked by the remembrance that in 1909 there were signs of inspiration amongst the people, and the dry bones in the valley were knitting together. There came a clash between Lords and Commons, and the popular will was decidedly in favour of curtailing the veto of the Lords. Another great issue precipitated that year related to land monopoly. It was a year in which Liberalism looked like justifying itself and accomplishing great purposes. All over England people sang " The Land Song " with fervour, and the refrain " God gave the Land for the People " was familiar as well as true. New notes of challenge were sounding, and there was every prospect that if only that viper which leaves its slime on all it touches militarism could be kept oS the track, life was going to be worth living. But we had Lord Charles Beresford and Earl Roberts stumping the country, drawing attention off national affairs to a suspicion of what was happening across the North Sea. Still, throughout 1909 and 1910 A NOTABLE DEFECTION 99 attention was most closely focused on home affairs and the proposal to tax land values and to abolish the veto of the House of Lords evoked a political storm well worth participating in. Catering for a district in which the land was of supreme and direct importance, and in which party feeling ran very high indeed, I soon saw signs of strife. Now our member was a formidable person, held in high esteem by Methodism for good and sufficient reasons, and revered by Liberals for his long and stalwart advocacy of their cause. He was a railway magnate and possessed great wealth ; he was a Parliamentary lawyer of profound experience, and a man whose word was his bond. His interests were vast and manifold, and touched several countries. Finally, he was a baronet, a forceful speaker and possessed a name almost to conjure with. Despite all his activities, he found time to write me scores of intimate and kindly letters, and when he was touring his constituency, the close contact developed an esteem on my part which survived all that followed and continues yet. Well, this great man came down to deliver his views on the land question, bringing his own carriage and pair with his special train. A few hours before the meeting he sent for me, and over lunch gave me the notes of his speech. This was the first sentence : " The Liberal Government is marching to disaster as certainly as Napoleon marched to Waterloo ! " I had heard rumours, but this instantly confirmed the worst fears of desertion from the Party. There was a crowded meeting that night, and I wired a thousand words to thirty newspapers. The sensation of this defection " took " of course, but it caused me great sorrow to send it. Our next night's meeting was at a village on the wolds, and early in the afternoon I drove out there for tea. It was the time of wild roses and honeysuckle and the world ioo THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND was sweet, but for its political turmoil. As I drove my horse into the inn yard, the groom remarked, " His lordship wants you, waiting for tea." I found " his lordship " in the best room of the inn, awaiting tea. He was very kind to me, but concerned that I differed from his views. Tea without an appetite is a cold business, and after an exchange of views diametrically opposed, I left the inn to walk in the cool of evening among the roses. Shortly afterwards the member joined me there. " There is still time to save the situation," I urged. " Go all out for the House of Lords to-night and put heart into the people. Make some strong declaration for democracy, for all our sakes." But it was of no avail. The schoolroom rapidly filled for the evening meeting, and this was how that dear old chairman opened, " Ladies and gentlemen, I have in my hand this morning's Daily Mail (and how those hands trembled with emotion). It was ever a liar (loud cheers) and surely it lies to-day (louder cheers). It says here that our member says the Liberal Government is marching to but I canna' say more. I call upon our member" (subdued cheers). Our member, obviously feeling acutely the sadness of this parting of the ways, emphasized his views of the previous night, and protested against the Budget in trenchant terms. The Daily Mail was right. The meeting sadly terminated, and the member turned to me. " You may be right," he said, " but I cannot help saying what I feel. I understand I have a deep ford to cross to-night, and my driver is not used to this country. Is it difficult ? " "If you will allow me," I said, " I will see you across, and my horse is all right." " On no account," he replied, " but if you would be PARTING OF THE WAYS 101 so kind as to drive your horse in advance over the ford, and just put your lights on it for my driver to see his way, I should be very grateful." This I did, and the ford being safely crossed our member for seventeen years alighted to say good-night. " I feel curiously depressed, to T night," he said. " I understand this ford is the boundary of my division ? " " Yes, sir," I replied, " and I feel acutely depressed. I have an idea we have had our last campaign together." So, indeed, it proved, for a deputation speedily journeyed to London, and in that beautiful town-house suggested resignation. Our member had committed political self- destruction, and his political strength of a dozen years ago is forgotten. Time, however, heals many grievances, and some years later the freedom of the town whose name the division carries was presented in recognition of many services, and the member's portrait in oils hangs in the Town Hall. A biting cartoon in the Daily Chronicle hit off this dramatic episode, and I keep it, sharp as it is, along with many estimable letters. In our villages telegrams were regarded as missives of horror. A telegram represented tragedy, and I did not realize this fully until one day I sent a telegram to a labourer in the marsh to let me see a letter he had received from a famous politician. Why such an important document should have been addressed to him possibly even the writer himself could not explain, the only important fact being an intimation to me that such a letter had been sent. Well, two hours after sending the telegram I heard the clatter of a galloping horse in the street, and it halted abruptly at my office. The heavy tread of some one panting was heard on the stairs, and an exhausted and excited man tossed a letter on to my table. ** That's it," he panted, " but don't ever send me a 102 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND telegram again. Us folks don't like them things. Keep the letter. I haven't read it and don't want it." Millions of people read that important letter next day. There was a heavy storm at sea one night and I was driving towards the coast to attend a political meeting of phenomenal interest. My faithful horse could not make progress against that sand-laden gale and I was decidedly late. Approaching this remote village, and passing the important proclamation that " London papers can be obtained here at noon," I noticed a man in the road. Forming a megaphone with his hands he shouted " Drive straight to the meeting, they're waiting." " They must wait," I answered, as I pulled up. " You come up here. I am going to see my horse safely in, and to get some peppermint before I see the meeting." The poor man seemed astounded. " But the chief speaker's waiting for you," he exclaimed. " They really must wait," I had to answer. Anon we entered that densely packed schoolroom to discover a minister of religion talking against time. At our entrance he collapsed suddenly, and the speaker took possession. The politics of the night were largely local but exciting to all present. A poor man died of heart failure ere the close of that trenchant speech. This painful incident brought the meeting to a hasty conclusion, and in the confusion I heard rockets being fired for the lifeboat, and instantly political sentiments were obscured by great anguish over a vessel in distress on such a night. Already it was aground on those gentle sands where children delight to play, and by morning it was dashed to pieces by the waves. I mention it because of the instant trans- ition from political animosity to the close bond of humanity, all anxious to do something for those in peril on that awful night. MR. LLOYD GEORGE IN 1909 103 The next candidate held views in absolute harmony with the labourers of the division. He would tax land values and curb the power of the House of Lords, and away went the new campaign with gusto. Mr. Lloyd George came down, a visit which Tory landlordism strongly resented, and the scenes of that night will ever be memorable. It was impossible for the Chancellor, as he then was, to address an overflow meeting, on account of the menacing crowd. Many windows were smashed, and many eggs, tomatoes, fish-heads and potatoes spattered on to the blinds and the walls. In the streets outside a large force of police had to use their batons freely, and the sound of cracking heads was sickening. There were cordons of police inside the hall and outside the hall, and I wrote my telegrams in an ante-room with the Chancellor. He was got safely away by a clever ruse, but ere the little one-horse cab had proceeded a hundred yards half a dozen men sprang at it. One seized the horse's head and others pushed at the side of the rapidly moving cab. Its near wheels had risen from the ground when a police sergeant dashed into the road, and there was a rapid crack, crack of the baton. Two or three men fell and others bolted, and I found the sergeant lying prostrate in the road. As I unhooked the neck-band of his tunic he rallied and said "Thank God it's you, I thought they'd got me." Towards midnight an incensed crowd raised a cry to burn a certain house where they suspected the Chancellor of being. He was in fact there, and an attempt at arson would have been made had not an esteemed political friend of theirs declared vehemently that the Chancellor was already in the night mail ! There was much guerilla warfare, too, for large numbers of men carried batons, and sanguinary conflicts took place with the police by night. 104 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND I was with Mr. Lloyd George again on the night the election of January 1910 opened, and I asked for his fore- cast. " You can say with confidence that the Govern- ment will be returned," he said. " What Leeds and Bradford do to-day all England will do to-morrow, but notably in the industrial North." Again I saw him escorted by a torchlight procession on the eve of the December election, and attended two meetings of his on the following day. What fervid and crowded meetings they were ! How deeply stirred were the people, and how resentful were all the powers of landlordism. I saw him lionized in London as I had seen him lionized in his own division, and again in a certain drawing-room I talked with him afterwards of those lively times, over which he laughed heartily. Then his ardour cooled and a distinct Chamberlain tendency revealed itself. I saw him as Prime Minister addressing a huge crowd of war profiteers in the West Riding, and the people were outside to see him pass. He had taken a place as one of the world's pre-eminent men and 1919 saw him lionized by all the forces of reaction. He was the ally of Clemenceau, the curb on President Wilson, the friend of monopoly. The Press had ceased to sling Limehouse at him, but sang fulsome praises of this darling of the gods, their buttress against revolution. But, Mr. Lloyd George, are you quite so happy in the counsels of the great, the doyen of capital, as you were in 1909, when buffeted, abused, and attacked, you led the hope of the people, and toiled up-hill ? Have you not turned down the easy track, and missed the mountain-top ? I fancy you have. There now ; this " Welsh Wizard " has trailed me off for a decade. Let us hark back to our election campaign, during which it was strongly impressed upon me by political agents and speakers to emphasize the fact that the THE BLACK HAND GANG! 105 ballot is secret. One would think it so unnecessary, yet every canvasser implored electors to believe it, and were not always believed. " You say so," said one labourer, " but the last thing our gaffer said to me was this : * I shall be at the count, remember,' and besides, why do we give our names when we go in to vote ? " No, many of them still decline to believe that the ballot is secret. In that campaign we had our motor cushions ripped open by knives, we had ropes fastened obliquely across the road to bring us down ; we had cars rendered useless by the cutting of wires ; and we were stoned and showered with gravel as we sped along country roads. After one very trying adventure of this sort I returned home at I a.m. to find my wife weeping in the street outside, overjoyed to hear the motor again. She had received an anonymous letter during my absence from " The Black Hand Gang " declaring that her husband was on his last journey, and would be carried home in the morning ! I had that letter traced down to a coterie of women ! The ringleader was punished for it, but not publicly. There were adven- tures not due to animosity : adventures with horses and motors, our substitutes for trains. An election involves a count, and it fell to me in collab- oration with the police to work the little oracle that brought the successful candidate to the count, despite the awkward mood of the opposition. The count over, the member and his good wife, who had helped so devotedly, stepped on to the balcony to return thanks, when a stone struck the lady's right eye with most serious effect. The victor was escorted by the police through that surging crowd much like a prisoner is escorted out of a wild Saturday night scene. The vanquished was drawn in an open io6 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND carriage by cheering crowds, gaily bedecked, with pink. But he, too, has gone to his long home. Still, the Budget went through, even through the House of Lords. And after all it was not much to fight about, was it ? CHAPTER XII Great Political Issues The Budget Rejected Lords v. Com- mons A Constitutional Crisis The Parliament Bill Direct or Political Action. BUT it would hardly do to dismiss so lightly, with just a story of personal reminiscence, a period of such great importance ; involving as it did questions which are not yet settled and struggles which must be repeated. There was a very great disturbance of the waters during the years 1909 and 1910 and it was by no means confined to the land. It embraced the entire social outlook, and was largely based on the struggle for improving the condition of the people. In the world of Christian religion, the Rev. R. J. Campbell's " New Theology " was creating a flutter in the ecclesiastical dovecots, and large audiences flocked to hear him speak or preach. Mr. Campbell enjoyed, and I hope may long enjoy, a generous measure of that factor described as personal magnetism. His large, brilliant eyes, wonderfully open face and general bearing of dignified seriousness, impressed all who saw and heard him. His voice was of that supreme quality which vast audiences could hear clearly without any approach to shouting, and his message was of a nature to open wide the flood gates of inquiry and thought. Christian Science, the discovery and faith of Mary Baker Eddy, was evoking ridicule and winning adherents continually, and that absorbing study in introspection, Psycho-Analysis, was entering the field 107 io8 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND as a healing power for mental distress. In the dramatic and art world the censorship, and the autocracy of the absolute veto upon plays, was being strongly resented. Mr. W. Willett had submitted his Daylight Saving Bill to confer the benefit of an hour's extra sunshine upon the people during summer days, but the people again proved the fact that they dislike the intrusion of new ideas, and Mr. Willett's measure waited outside the door. I was in correspondence with him during this period, but this benefactor of all workers had gone to his long home ere the need for economy forced, not simply our indifferent country but all Europe, to adopt his simple and effective method of harmonizing our hours with the seasons. Syndicalism was being breathed across the continent, and in England the long forsaken need for Town-Planning was at last forcing itself to the front. It was therefore a great time, in which it was good to be alive and to bear a part. Over all other subjects, however, towered that of the new eagerness in political matters. The Budget of 1909, introduced by Mr. Lloyd George, proposed to tax land values, license values, and other socially created values. This was a new principle in taxation, which had been based upon individualism through a long succession of Chancellors like Harcourt, Gladstone, Peel, Huskisson and even Pitt. The new principle was a response to the ever-increasing realization of some grotesque anomalies of landlordism, and to the pressure of the Labour party and the disciples of Henry George to make land monopolists pay for their privilege. The land values duties were in themselves trivial and fanciful, but it was the principle that brought resistance, and dukes were as conspicuously to the fore then as they were a decade later in the contro- versy over mineral royalties. Briefly stated, the land duties proposed were (i) Increment duty ; (2) Leasehold THE BUDGET OF 1909 109 reversion duty ; (3) Undeveloped land duty. A second Doomsday Book was involved in the proposed survey and valuation of all land and it was proposed that half the yield should be devoted to relief of local taxation. The Chancellor's task was to provide a revenue of 164,152,000, which involved the raising of an extra sixteen millions in taxation, and a nation which ten years later was to think in terms of thousands of millions shuddered at this terrible sum. How well I recall the laughter in the House of Commons when Mr. Philip Snowden said he hoped to see a Chancellor having the courage to bring forward a Budget for three or four hundred millions. The crowded House was positively hilarious over such a joke ! The Budget was introduced in April, and a perfect crescendo of abuse fell upon it. It was re-cast in July, and 250 Government amendments to its proposals appeared on the Paper ! Times change, and now that " F. E. " has become Lord Chancellor, with Mr. Lloyd George as Prime Minister, it is interesting to recall how Mr. F. E. Smith of 1909 wrote of Mr. Lloyd George : " It is true that Mr. Lloyd George, with that effrontery with which he conceals a lack of statesmanship, gravely assured his Newcastle audience that the Cabinet had spent weeks, even months, in the preparation of every detail. But if you put a frivolous mob-orator at the Exchequer you must expect," etc., etc. The opposition was determined, even tempestuous, and it was marked by very subtle reasoning. It admitted that an overwhelming case could be made out for municipal taxation of undeveloped land and that it was absurd for a local authority to levy rates on purely agricultural value and pay anything up to 250 years' purchase if it desired to acquire the land. But the Budget which opened the way to putting these anomalies right was stoutly resisted. no THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND The Chancellor's " mob-orator " speech at Limehouse on July 30th shocked all polite circles of the Opposition into crocodile tears, and Mr. Alexander Ure, Lord Advocate of Scotland, was held up to daily contempt for his champion- ing of the cause. Mr. E. G. Hemmerde, K.C., waxed brilliant on the theme, and even succeeded in hammering it into the heads of farmers that this principle meant relief for them. I well recall going to a meeting with him during the height of this controversy, when for some minutes his audience refused to hear a word, but continued loudly to boo. At last the astute young politician got a few words in, " I knew quite well that I was coming to an agricultural constituency " he said, " but I never expected to hear cows in the Town Hall." A roar of laughter followed and the audience suffered him gladly. Liberalism had very badly let down the land question during the Cobden and Bright campaign to terminate the corn duties. There was promise at that time of free trade being carried to its logical conclusion, the freedom to trade without the im- position of ever-increasing rents to squeeze dry the efforts of farmer and shopkeeper alike. The controversy I am now dealing with, ignited by the Budget of 1909, again gave promise of the land question being settled, and until it is settled this country must be saddled with subsidies to farmers, or the alternative of high prices for food and the eventual import tariff. Form IV caused more uproar than all the registration forms of the war period, because it touched money and not men. It was a first revelation of Mr. Lloyd George's penchant for forms, and other indications followed in the National Health Insurance Forms, The Labour Exchange Forms, and a vast cloud of war forms and papers too numerous even to count. We entered the " fill up a form " style of negotiation in that year. A POLITICAL CRISIS in The much revised Budget was read a third time in the House of Commons on November 4th and on November 1 6th Lord Lansdowne gave notice of motion to reject the measure. This he moved in a trenchant and effective speech on November 30th and the rejection was carried by 350 votes to 75. A constitutional crisis of great magnitude had thus developed, and on December 2nd Mr. Asquith in a crowded and excited House of Commons moved a resolution declaring that the action of the House of Lords was a breach of the Constitution. This was carried by 349 votes to 134, and at Plymouth on the following day Lord Lansdowne defended the action of the Peers vigorously. By way of retort Mr. Lloyd George declared that he would not remain a member of a Liberal Cabinet unless it had power to pass progressive measures in a single Parliament. This issue caused politics for a time to transcend even racing in popular interest. Large demonstrations and mass meetings were held all over the country, as the issue had to be taken to the people for a verdict. At Criccieth I saw Mr. Lloyd George received by his own constituents with such warm fervour as I have never seen equalled by any audience. It was under the tremendous pressure of this campaign that he burst into tears. I saw special correspondents of the London Con- servative Press stand on their chairs to cheer the Chancellor as he came to the platform at the vital meetings of that period. I saw audiences in almost a frenzy of enthusiasm, and saw the Strangers' Gallery of the House of Commons applauding when Mr. Asquith, in clear, calm terms, issued the ultimatum to the Peers. Liberalism counted for something then. The election campaign was concluded on February 9, 1910, having commenced on January I4th and the Government was returned with a majority of 124. Shortly after the House had re-assembled, Mr. Asquith ii2 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND announced his intention to put forward resolutions on the question of the veto of the other House. The first, respecting Money Bills, was carried by 339 votes to 237. On April 27th the Finance Bill came in, a year delayed, and it was carried by 324 votes to 231, being again ready for submission to the Peers. Within a few days King Edward's death referred to in the next chapter hushed all the clamour, and on May nth both sides of both Houses joined in paying tribute to the esteemed Monarch so suddenly removed. During that month of muffled animosity, Mr. Asquith and Mr. Balfour had discussed the inadvisability of taking measures involving a constitutional crisis at the beginning of a new reign, and a Veto Conference was the outcome, the members, four from each Party, being Mr. Asquith, Mr. Balfour, Lord Crewe, Lord Lansdowne, Mr. Lloyd George, Lord Cawdor, Mr. Birrell and Mr. Austen Chamberlain. Twelve meetings of this Committee had been held when, on July 2Qth, Mr. Asquith announced that it was considered necessary and desirable to continue the discussions, but after they had sat twenty-one times no agreement was arrived at and another election was immediately discussed as essential. On November igth Mr. Asquith opened the campaign at the National Liberal Club, devoting himself entirely to the case against the House of Lords. On the 28th of that month Parliament was dissolved, having continued only ten months, the shortest period in twenty-five years of Parliamentary history. Home Rule entered largely into the speeches, as Mr. Redmond had declared that Home Rule would soon be an accomplished fact if the Lords' veto were removed. The general election commenced on December 3rd, the last of the pre-war period, and the Parliament which assembled at its close little thought what a long and THE SECOND ELECTION OF 1910 113 memorable stay it was to have or that the whole world outlook would change ere its members again faced the electorate. Mr. Joseph Chamberlain was already out of the fray, although he was returned for West Birmingham and signed the roll of members. He was indeed, a pitiful semblance of his former virility, and the general public never knew how really stricken he was when he was wheeled forward in a bath chair to make his mark for the last time as a member of Parliament. On December 2ist the last elections were over, showing a net gain of two seats to the Government, which returned with a majority of 126. And this, be it mentioned in parenthesis, was the last general election under those disqualifications which classed women, infants, peers, idiots, lunatics and aliens as alike ineligible to vote. The Parliament Bill again proceeded on its way, assisted by the *' Kangaroo " closure, which allowed the chairman to make a selection from the thousand amend- ments, and in May Mr. Asquith said the Government regarded it as an obligation to propose a scheme of recon- stitution of the Upper House within the lifetime of the present Parliament, if time permitted. On July 20th of 1911 the Parliament Bill passed its third reading in the Lords in a severely amended form. In recommitting the Bill to a hostile house of Peers, Mr. Asquith sent a letter to Mr. Balfour and Lord Lansdowne, intimating the Government's refusal to accept the Lords' amendments, and stating that if it was found necessary, the King had assented to the creation of sufficient peers to secure the passage of the Bill ! This letter, read at a meeting of Peers at Lansdowne House, fell like a bombshell, and created a profound sensation throughout the country. Now dilution applied to workshops is an excellent thing, the peers say. In workshops it gives all a chance, it assures ample workers, it expedites that beloved thing production, n 4 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND and it stops ca'canny. But applied to the Peerage ! Never ! A " No Surrender " group sprang into being at once, and great wrath was displayed in both Houses. In the House of Commons on July 24th a continuous uproar prevented Mr. Asquith from making a statement regarding the question. Lord Lansdowne and Mr. Balfour pointed out the futility of such protests, but the venerable Lord Halsbury took the leadership of the " Last Ditchers " or the " Die Hards " as they were variously termed. Then, on August loth, the House of Lords abdicated and meekly passed the Parliament Bill with a very ill grace, but with a good and sufficient majority of 131 to 114. Mr. Balfour later moved a vote of censure on the Government for having advised the Crown to take such a course and in reply, by the King's permission, Mr. Asquith disclosed the corres- pondence. This closed for a period a controversy of great importance, one which had been frequently discussed but never boldly grappled during the last two centuries. It was over the House of Lords and the creation of Peers that those lifelong colleagues and brilliant associates Steele and Addison severed their distinguished literary partnership and became rival pamphleteers, after their joint conquest in The Toiler, The Spectator, and The Guardian. Dr. Johnson always deplored this incident, but it was only the first and by no means the last, personal severance over the same issue. I have dealt at considerable length on this episode because of its great importance. The division on August loth in the House of Lords was the most momentous made over a long period, and there has been nothing like it since. The Parliament Act, as it then became, cut down the absolute veto of the Lords to a suspensory veto, and it did not attempt the re- constitution of that House on democratic principles, a task which awaits democracy. DIRECT OR POLITICAL ACTION? 115 Meantime, Labour Exchanges, and State Insurance, on lines which need no explanation, had been introduced and were on their way to adoption. The Declaration of London, dealing with International Law for Naval Warfare, had been agreed upon and varyingly discussed, and Mr. Andrew Carnegie had submitted a plan for compulsory arbitration before going to war. Proportional Representation as an electoral system was coming into vogue abroad and was being more actively discussed here. There was dissatisfaction over the deplorable failure of the Small Holdings Act, which did not accomplish the purpose it was intended to meet, but began the upward climb of the price of land, a tendency that reached astounding heights by 1920. The Boy Scouts had increased to a membership of 300,000 and scout-craft and the skill of " Silver Wolf," " Wolf-cub " and the rest of them gratified the imagination of boyhood. The cry of " make the foreigner pay " was still heard in the land, and the demand for " two keels to one " was becoming clamant. It is fashionable in certain ultra-democratic quarters to-day to belittle political action, and to extol the decisive qualities of direct industrial action. Wild speakers appeal to the gallery by deriding Parliament and telling the unskilled that the remedy is in their hands, regardless of the " gas house." Some are inconsistent enough to have secured a place in Parliament and then to give precedence to direct action. Political action is to direct action as splendour is to squalor, as light to darkness. Direct action, indeed, is the expedient of gross mental darkness. It may some day be needed, but as a substitute for political action it is grotesque. Numbers of people in all parts of England have sacrificed deeply for long years to build up a great democratic policy, which can be attained by political work. Are all these efforts to be thrown on the scrap heap, because n6 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND for want of foresight and patience, certain unskilled leaders of unskilled men desire to enjoy a little cheap popularity ? Will this incompetent and ill-balanced group wreck our great outlook and laugh at the wreckage ? No, they will not, for England is too sensible. I am led to a reflection like this after surveying the really fundamental crisis of 1910 and feeling an impulse towards a greater in the coming day. It may not have had direct relationship to the price of bread or the hours of work, and may therefore have seemed academic to many toilers, but in actual fact it was Point One of a forward programme, the beginning of real political action of a character which cannot be resumed until democracy is itself again. I am too old . fashioned also to subscribe to the new superior cult which loftily preaches that the days of Parliament are numbered and that but a few more years shall roll ere we all, like Macaulay's New Zealander, gaze at the ruins of what was once the Mother of Parliaments. A great liner on a voyage needs a captain and a crew and perfect order and control or there is disaster on the high seas. So with the ship of State ; we must have a course charted and defined by the passengers, and a crew to accomplish the journey. The State must remain a real thing, not confused with bureaucracy, for we must always retain a central and expressive force, essentially National in its character, but international in sentiment. The trouble with democracy to-day is that we have too many cults, with little demi-gods shouting in cul-de-sacs to distract the progressive forces. In 1909 we had begun to sound the trumpets around the walls of Jericho, but too many dropped them in the rush after the war-drums. They have not been found again yet and when they are sounded, many who were once trumpeters will be discovered, I fear, inside the walls, lured by war profits and honours. CHAPTER XIII Death of King Edward The Rubber Boom Polar Expeditions Captain Scott's Fate The Osborne Judgment Payment of Members Norman Angell Vindicated An Arrest by Wireless. ONE of the greatest newspaper feats ever accomplished in the history of the British Press was that executed on the night of May 6, 1910. Only that morning, the announcement had appeared that King Edward VII was confined to Buckingham Palace suffering from an attack of bronchitis, but the public was totally unprepared for the rapid and tragic developments of that day. That the King had caught a chill at Sandringham early in May was known and the bulletins were couched in terms of serious import, but probably only four medical men knew the real need to convey a serious impression. Certainly King Edward did not take the matter seriously, for he took lunch with his friends as usual, had coffee and a cigar in the afternoon, and when Queen Alexandra, who had only arrived in London the previous night, visited the King at 4 p.m. he remarked " I feel very unwell " and collapsed. The King never spoke again and at 11.45 p.m. the same night he had passed away. Just upon midnight an official bulletin issued by Sir. F. H. Laking and three other physicians reported that His Majesty had breathed his last in the presence of Queen Alexandra, the Prince and Princess of Wales and other members of the Royal Family Just after 12.30 "7 n8 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND midnight Lord Knollys said to the group outside Buckingham Palace, " Gentlemen, the King is dead." The Prince of Wales dispatched a telegram to the Lord Mayor of London stating " I am deeply grieved to inform you that my beloved father, the King, passed away peacefully at 1 1.45 to-night." The tragic announcement was thus made in simple form at an hour when the nation was asleep, but every newspaper office was a hive of intense industry. This was a classic occasion to rise to, accompanied by every possible difficulty as to time and pressure. All the nation knew at breakfast next morning, even in the remotest parts of England, that the angel of death had passed over the land in the night and most people would vaguely realize that an almost incredible feat had been accomplished by the newspapers. Every ounce of effort had to be put forward that night, and whole pages of the news of the day, dear as the heart's blood to contributors, were ruthlessly scrapped to cater for the only essential fact of the night the King was dead. It seemed utterly incredible, but it was true, and not a moment could be lost in speculation. The Press rose with a wonderful alacrity and great ability to the occasion, and in an astonishingly short time enormous supplies of well-written and well-illustrated records of the life, reign and death of King Edward were dispatched all over Great Britain. King Edward's intense popularity was beyond question, and the cause of it was his frank humanity. He never posed but lived his own life in an easy, natural and generous manner. Poverty or suffering touched at once his deepest chords, and his personal philosophy of life seemed to be the recognition that as we all only pass this way once, it is advisable to make the journey of life as pleasant as possible, both for yourself and everybody else. Thus he travelled freely as a Monarch, enjoyed races and had a cordial place THE DEATH OF KING EDWARD 119 for all types and classes of men. He had received the title of " Edward the Peacemaker " because his visits to foreign capitals generally stopped the pens of those unscrupulous enough to create friction between nations. Looking backwards now to his reign and the earlier period, one sees a distinct change in the public outlook. There was less of the exclusive arrogance of " Britannia rules the waves " and more intimate contact with the men of other lands. Anglo-German Leagues sprang up and the workers of England and Germany organized exchange visits ; and the sooner we get back to that happy system the better will be the national outlook. The body of the late King lay in state in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace for three days, after which it was conveyed to Westminster Hall, where half a million people filed past the bier during three days. The funeral procession on May 2Oth was preceded by a service conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and was marked by every sign of national sorrow. King George, who had attended his first Privy Council and had been duly proclaimed with stately ceremony on May yth, walked with the German Emperor and several other crowned heads. On June 23rd, the sixteenth birthday of the Duke of York was marked by his receipt of the title of Prince of Wales, the occasion being honoured by great festivities at Carnarvon. Sir Ernest Cassell found a very happy means of marking the new reign by presenting a sum of 200,000 to found an Anglo-German Institute, to assist English workers in Germany and German workers in England. This royal year will always be remembered, too, as the year of the extraordinary boom in rubber shares. Malayan planters had found the cultivation of the tree to be remarkably profitable and friends of theirs at home were the first to get the hint of this lucrative investment. That started 120 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND the impetuous wave and the inordinate demands of the motor trade for rubber made the thing obvious. Good Para rubber was selling at 53. id. a pound in January of 1909, but it had advanced to 12s. id. a pound by April of 1910 and with its advance in price rose the margin between the cost of production and selling price and rose also the value of shares. Enormous sums went into new rubber plantations in any part of the globe where rubber would grow, and the remarkable feature of the run was that many of those who did the best were totally inexperienced investors. There came the thrilling announcement that Commander Peary had reached the North Pole on April 6th of 1909, and on his return he was able to disprove the claim made by Dr. Cook, his countryman, that he had done the same. Peary, who was an experienced Polar explorer, had left New York in the Roosevelt on July 6th of 1908, and wintered at Cape Sheridan. After his success and safe return he resumed naval duties, being subsequently pro- moted to the rank of Admiral, and he died in March, 1920. Captain Scott started out on his ill-fated but glorious expedition to the South Pole, near to which the most unique sepulchre ever erected to the memory of man was placed as a memorial to his gallantry. It is isolated amid the darkness and storm of the great ice barrier, recording on a stout cross the simple but ennobling facts of the episode, that Captain R. F. Scott, R.N., Dr. E. A. Wilson, Captain L. E. C. Oates, Lieut. H. R. Bowers and Petty Officer E. Evans died there on their return from the South Pole on March 25th of 1912. I would fain quote extensively from that marvellous diary of ten pencilled volumes found safely with the brave dead in that lonely tent. One cannot read it without being moved to intense admiration and to higher resolve. Lying storm-bound, far from human aid, Captain Scott, facing the inevitable end, calmly records CAPTAIN SCOTT'S FATE 1912 121 the circumstances that led to disaster. Every detail of the organisation of food supplies, clothing and depots for the seven hundred miles' stretch to the Pole and back worked out perfectly, but the unexpected happened. Seaman Evans sustained concussion of the brain and died, and a fearfully intense head wind with a temperature varying from minus thirty to minus forty-seven degrees, hampered progress. Then Captain Gates fell sick, and walked from the tent into the dark blizzard to die alone " as a very gallant gentleman." The brave band had actually reached a point eleven miles from the old " one ton " camp, with fuel for one hot meal and food for two days, but " for four days we have been unable to leave the tent " says the poignant record. " We are weak, writing is difficult, but for my own sake I do not regret this journey, which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardship, help one another, and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in the past." " These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale." This was written, and all the silent tragedy concluded just a few days before England rejoiced on April ist at the message from Captain Scott which said " I am going forward with a party of five men, and am sending three back under Lieut. Evans." They reached the South Pole in February of 1912, and there found Amundsen's tent and the Norwegian flag which he planted there. The Terra Nova returned to New Zealand with the tragic news, and with the most wonderful collection of records and photographs ever secured by an expedition. I heard Commander Evans, who had taken charge, tell with deep emotion the story of the search party and their discovery of the tragedy on November roth of 1912. I saw all those wonderful films and photographs and afterwards saw a memorial unveiled to the memory of Captain Gates. 122 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND Returning to home conditions from that departure, we find organized labour very seriously concerned over the Osborne Judgment, which made it impossible for them to make a compulsory levy for purposes of Parliamentary representation. The House of Lords had given this judgment against the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants on December 2ist of 1909, on an appeal by Walter V. Osborne, and it was vital to the interests of trade unionism. Injunctions based upon it were issued against several unions, and it promised the wreckage of political action. The case was argued with great earnestness in the House of Commons on April I3th of 1910, and it was seriously noticed, for the Attorney-General, Sir W. Robson, suggested that in some degree the trade union grievance might be mitigated by the payment of members and of election expenses. Several Liberal speakers were opposed to the Labour claim, and the subject was talked out, but the new position had opened up immediately the necessity for the payment of members of Parliament. This really was not the establishment of a new precedent but the revival of a very old custom. An Act of 1 544 speaks of the customary rate of a Knight of the shire as four shillings for every day of the Parliamentary session and two shillings or more for a burgess with allowances for "so many dayes as everie suche Knight and Burgesse may reasonablie jorney and resorte from their habitacions or dwellinge places to the saide Highe Courtes of Parliament." Andrew Marvell, who died in 1679, was a paid M.P. and he and his colleague received 6s. 8d. daily as payment from Hull. In return for this they furnished reports to the citizens of the proceedings of Parliament. As the payment was made from local funds there was much local grumbling, and aspirants generally promised, as an election inducement, to serve freely. They did, but they took THE PAYMENT OF MEMBERS 123 their price in worse ways, the favourite of which was land enclosure. These anti-social practices led to stronger grumbling and in 1780 a Parliamentary Committee reported that members ought to be paid. Fox was in favour of the payment of members, and the Chartists declared for it, but Osborne, a railway porter, succeeded in bringing to pass a reform they all had failed to introduce. The Osborne judgment made a State payment immediately essential, and it stepped into the front rank of political issues. The next Budget made the requisite provision, and on August loth of 191 1, the Chancellor moved that " in the opinion of this House provision shall be made for the payment of a salary at the rate of 400 a year to every member of the House," excluding those members in receipt of a salary as Officer or Minister. This was carried by 256 votes against 158 and on August I5th the sum of 252,000 was voted for the purpose. On September ist the members received the first quarter's instalment. Well, it has always seemed to me that the nation has been exceedingly parsimonious, and therefore foolishly blind to its own interest, in this matter. The payment of members still remains at 400 a year, a figure which obviously does not meet the cost of living in London. We are therefore reduced to the position that a member with a private income can afford the luxury of being an M.P., and the member without a private income finds his first duty is to secure such work as shall assure an income. Practically all the great trade unions maintain a voluntary Parliamentary fund to contest elections and to assist members, but it should not be imagined that democracy is adequately represented by members who are (a) enjoying private incomes or (b] nominated from trade unions. There is a great political movement which is obliged to rely upon candidates of one of those types, or to invoke a candidate 124 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND who may have admirable abilities for the work, but who always earned his living, and shrinks from the economic prospect of 400 a year. I assume that legislators are valuable : that they are doing exceedingly important work, although sometimes they do it very badly, and that we ought to have the opportunity of selecting the very fittest men for the work. At present we cannot do that, for 400 a year can be secured in peace and quietness by a managing clerk, draughtsman, tradesman, traveller or canvasser. We need, therefore, I think, to set a new standard of value upon legislation, and to realize vigorously that it would be a business proposition to this nation to pay 1,000 a year to its legislators, and to expect the money's worth in things accomplished. While the nations were whispering " Is it war ? " with bated breath, while our armaments' bill was rising to one hundred millions per annum, what time spies were being talked of and convicted, and Mr. Haldane made the House shudder by a dissertation on high explosives, and told the members he had a cordite walking stick in the lobby ; a meteor flashed across the European sky. It was a book written by one who signed himself " Norman Angell," and it was on Europe's Optical Illusion. Seldom has a book created so lively a controversy in the exclusive circles of high politics. The writer sought to show what the bitter facts of experience have since shown, that the piling up of huge armaments was absurd and unreasonable. He demonstrated fairly convincingly that no country can do harm to another one by war without doing itself almost as much harm and that, in fact, no country can permanently enrich itself by victory over another nation. Indeed, he asserted that victory would prove almost as disastrous as defeat. This was an argument bold, new and refreshing. It created a deep sensation, and study circles were formed THE GREAT ILLUSION 125 all over this country and others to analyse the reasoning of this pundit. The militants of France, England and Germany scoffed at it. Were there not examples to prove the opposite ? Did not Germany in Alsace, did not we in Egypt, did not every nation with a kick in it prove the glory and profit of conquest ? The book did not cause a halt in the active and increasing preparations for war with somebody somewhere. The needs of Germany for a colony for her teeming population had been already turned down by the authority of the Press, and big ships, big guns, big armies, were the antidote to such stuff. Great towers of powder and shot were erected, and you know how with a roar they fell, and in the ruins ? Turkey, Bulgaria, Austria and at last Germany herself cried mercy. Ha ! ha ! there was a great and rich nation, thrifty, industrious, prosperous, her very soil teeming in natural wealth, beaten to her knees. Oh, she deserved to be, and she was. Here were the conquering Allies, representing offended virtue in the great tragedy of Europe, and they could enter in to enjoy the spoils. The whole land screamed with the newspaper cry of rich indemnities and the yohn Bull placards were a disgrace to the spirit of the nation. The barriers were smashed at last, the guns were silent now, and with muffled tread our devoted, heroic, magnificent soldiers entered the promised land of milk and honey. They entered at Vienna and wept. The officers wired to their General " For God's sake tell them," but not yet, for old John Bull was not ready for the shock of this disclosure of Europe's Great Illusion. They entered at Cologne, and General Plumer sent that immortal telegram to the Supreme Council of Dunderheads at Paris apportioning the spoils on paper, to say that unless the starving civilians were fed, he could not answer for the discipline of the troops. They had entered Cologne and wept. But not yet, not 126 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND yet, England was not ready to realize the Great Illusion. Five thousand millions were talked of and all Europe was bleeding and starving. Now we, with an empty exchequer, using American money to compete with America, have got to loan money to Germany to start her competing with us again. We want her goods and she wants ours ; no nation can live unto itself alone. The cup of militarism has been drained to its bitter dregs. All the artificial elation is over, and we awake in the chill of the morning with a sad head, to realize there is no new world, but a good one wrecked. Great Britain herself is reduced to poverty and almost bankruptcy, the Great Illusion has dawned, and Norman Angell comes forward as the conspic- uous success of the war. He comes forward as the ambassador of peace and his plea is not based upon sentiment but cold business fact. He has translated the great gospel of peace on earth into terms of cash and economics. He has emerged from the supreme test as the only reliable prophet of what would be the result of the war. Other writers who at the same time were provoking old prejudice and tilting a lance in the cause of freedom were John Galsworthy, Geo. Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, G. K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc and Arnold Bennett. I dare not intrude upon the reader a discussion of these able writers and their messages, but each was shaping public thought to a wider outlook. The populace was far more interested in Crippen than in all these, Angell included. Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, an American, was suspected of the murder of his wife, Belle Elmore, a music hall artiste, whose mutilated remains were discovered in a North London cellar. A world- wide search began and the criminal was arrested in mid-ocean by means of wireless telegraphy. He was on an outward- bound Canadian steamer, accompanied by his typist, Ethel A MAGIC TOUCH 127 le Neve. He was arrested and tried, found guilty and sentenced to death at the Central Criminal Court on October 22, 1910. World-wide interest was evinced in the case on account of the effectiveness of wireless telegraphy. Romance had anticipated submarines and aeroplanes, but it had not anticipated such a dramatic episode as this magic touch of the hand of the law upon a fugitive far away on the waters. CHAPTER XIV Our Great Cities Contrasts in London Modern Industrial Centres Tragedy and HopeThe Northern Universities Adult Education Trade Unionism. ABOUT seventy-eight per cent, of the people of this country inhabit the towns, and there is every excuse for their so doing. What proportion of these town dwellers reside in the dozen or so great cities can soon be annotated by the curious, but their very greatness indicates that cities have decided amenities. It certainly is a notable fact that the standard of health is admirable in our great centres, and that on a town " moor," where not a blade of grass relieves the sombre view, the children at play present a very fair sample of young England. In the delightful sylvan surroundings of north, south, east and west, and in the mountain regions of Wales, I have found housewives and children alike often looking far from well, and indeed in many cases consumptive, and have discovered a better standard in the crowded trams of congested cities. There are reasons for this, the first being one of the ele- mentary science of sanitation. It is delightful to extol the virtues and graces of rural places after a sojourn in the country, but for regular, for keeps, so to speak, for winter as well as summer, give me the town. That may be a case in which heredity chooses the environment, for my mother was born in London and I was born in Manchester, and I have some sympathy with the old lady who left the LIFE IN LONDON 129 country because it was too noisy, and secondly because you couldn't tell what time of the year it was. She missed the hawkers of watercresses and spring onions, and the baskets of primroses and violets on the streets, and she chose the town. Undoubtedly the English city of to-day lays the world at the feet of people of leisure. The great men of politics, literature, art, science and every world in which we delight are only names to the villager, but in the cities they are seen and known in the flesh. I could subscribe a most formidable list of eminent people of our times whom I have seen and heard and perchance spoken with in the last ten years. In time they all come under your journalistic ken, and you learn their little foibles and personalities, and when one of them makes a sensation some day you exclaim "That's just like him." If you must live in a city, and read Dean Hole as your means of enjoying a garden, this is one of your compensations, but there are others. When you have the choice, choose a good city, with attractive surroundings, and if you choose the one in which I am now writing, you will have chosen the best of them all. London is very attractive, and I love to walk the West End. A house in Kensington Palace Gardens or Park Lane costs a "sight o' money," and the average man living in London really lives in two places. He spends hours each day in a provoking, soul-destroying scramble from the dull suburb where he sleeps to the roaring centre where he works. That must have its compensations, however, or there wouldn't be those crushes. If it is sheer necessity without a hope of something better, I am sorry for millions of people, but when I join in strap- hanging in London I don't hear this chorus of protest. London people love a show, and they get all the big shows, the national processions, the pageants, the exhibitions, and shop windows like miles of fairyland. If you look about IO 130 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND London on a Saturday night, with scores of little suburban markets drawing their own crowds of shoppers, who get their food and return to their little flat or maisonette, do you ever think of the ways of the ant and the series of ant-hills ? Forgive me saying it, but I do. In London I have dined expensively and exquisitely at other people's expense mainly and have stayed in that luxurious West End ; and in London, also, near the Embankment, I have enjoyed tea served for two for threepence inclusive. And a white table-cloth was spread for our three halfpence each ! In London I knew a man who had twenty ways of cooking oatmeal, and he declared there was nothing like a handful of oatmeal, boiled and stirred for twenty minutes, to make you feel you had enjoyed a famous blow-out. Dear fellow, his mind was always 200 miles due north, and when one day a beneficent Yorkshireman offered him a railway ticket back to the land of his fathers, he wept, then ran for King's Cross station. For five hours he sat on the platform ere that precious train came in, and then he left London for ever. When I was coming up to London, his mind turned to penny herrings and bowls of oatmeal, and he always looked very sorry. Your provincial city offers the same wonderful contrasts in life, not quite so extensively as London, but still very acute. You bump up against new studies every day, and meet men of every clime and race. They keep your mind expanding to embrace east and west, and the mental exercise is good. Here wealth vaunts itself, but is no richer than its surroundings. Rich and poor walk the same streets, and rub shoulder to shoulder, whereas in the village the peasant would step off the path for the squire to pass by. In the provincial city it is not a long way home and you don't burrow like a mole to get there. Down in the industrial parts you shall feel pangs of sorrow that so many POVERTY AND SQUALOR 131 thousands live in such gloomy streets, with such meagre amenities of life. The picture-house and the pot-house are the evening diversions, and the missioner is the most distinguished visitor. In these back courts and alleys are tenements below the street level, in which the sun has never shone, and the only light is reflected from a white- washed wall four feet from the window. Heavy trains rumble over the archways near by, and even the archways are tenanted, for people must live somewhere. In London I have seen men sleeping in boxes under shop-windows, and on counters after the sales are over, and in provincial cities I have seen them in conditions almost as bad. In such surroundings, squalid in the extreme, do you wonder that people cease to care and display a terrible indifference to life ? The old man dying in the garret is alone and uncared for and only mutters resentment and suspicion at any intrusion. The room is in a deplorable state, but who cares, for it will be vacant soon and then it can be cleared. A child screwed up in a broken chair downstairs is clearly fading away. Her face is pallid and thin, and the poor mother has buried three and will bury this one soon, and lacks a single idea of emancipation. Here in one room are a dead baby, two juvenile invalids, and a drunken father snoring in the chair. Down here I met a dear old man who always carried a list of things he could do without. It was a long and sad list, and he learned by experience to add to it. When I met him he had recently taken off his threepence a week for bacon. I missed him one day and found he had made his last shopping round. He had gone to where he will not have to carry a list of things he ought not to have done without. Wealth and comfort are delightful things, but they look so hollow when one comes up against misery and want which a little generosity could remove. In our city I know a woman 1 32 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND who sells laces, and slips off occasionally to see her child, which looks up wonderingly as to where its mother, its all in all, goes to. She goes to sell laces to thoughtless passers-by. We have a vast and poignant mass of poverty in our city, even in 1920, and polite society does not like to hear about it. We have Jewish, Irish, Italian and even Japanese quarters in our city, all full of peculiar interest, and we have the great British industrial quarters, where the steam hammers bang and furnaces glare and metal runs white and hot. No city has such varied industries, for here you can see not only all the staple trades but the glass-blower, the clay-pipe maker, the silk-hat maker, the gun-stock maker, and a whole lot of curious callings. A vast city is an epitome of the world. A city by night is very interesting. It begins with the crowds assembled in halls and places of amusement. A hundred large audiences at once enjoying the entertainment they have chosen, while night-schools and lectures are almost legion in number. Then comes the homeward rush of cars, and a gradually quietening peace. The great arc lights shine down upon the policemen, street- sweepers, and a few belated passengers. The midnight cars roll away, the hot-chestnut man turns homeward, the motor-sweepers creep out like creatures of the night and hurry about their work. The very statues seem to hold conversation in the stillness, and the great black buildings look down on the deserted scene. And a red glow in the sky tells of furnaces unceasingly at work, and of men toiling in hot foundries and steel works while the world sleeps. The great institutions of a modern city will unfold a wonderful story. The infirmaries, hospitals, maternity homes, and various nursing homes are all full and all need enlarging. They are all doing a gracious and glorious GREAT HUMANITARIAN WORK 133 work, and eminent surgeons, devoted doctors and willing nurses move about on their many errands of mercy. The police can tell you a fascinating story of their side of city life, and the fire brigade maintains silent watch and ward for the alarm which will bring the great motor engines clanging along the streets. A very great work proceeds in our modern cities, and the responsible administrators need to be men who specialize in civic affairs even more keenly than upon their own business. It is impossible for any councillor to grasp all the municipal work, and most will devote themselves to three subjects, trusting their colleagues to grasp some others. There are physical tragedies in cities, to be looked upon with awe. A procession of sightless children is simply a saddening volume of accident, neglect, and racial sin, and a loud appeal to humanity is made by the school of deaf and dumb, whose tutors accomplish the superhuman in imparting knowledge to these strange classes. All our English cities of 1920 represent a great humani- tarian work proceeding very quietly. There are Babies' Welcome Associations to furnish milk and clothing to mother and infant ; there are homes for little children, where the matron represents the resurrection and the life to wasted little frames. I have known a still-born baby to receive the breath of life from a matron, and to become a healthy vigorous infant in an hour, with full prospects of healthy life. I have seen the unwanted child, deserted on a door-step on a winter's night, taken up tenderly by a vigilant policeman, and received in all kindness by nurses who try to replace the inhuman mother. There are powers of darkness in a city, and crews of depredators who haunt dark ways to way-lay, to rob and to seduce. But beyond, and greater than, all these malevolent influences, the light of day is dawning, and the fight between good and evil 134 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND is being steadily and continually won by the good. Not in all England to-day shall you find such a community as the beggars and thieves of Axe Lane, who made Goldsmith shrink with horror ; nor can you find those evil dens and conditions that were so prevalent when Dickens wrote. The passing years tell a story of the upward rise to a wholesome outlook and give inspiration to the time when all men and women shall be worthy and delightful members of society, and when the " unwanted " infant shall be no more. I am glad to live under the friendly shade of University towers. As I write by night I can hear the cheers of students at festive gatherings, and when the eye and hand get weary I pause awhile to cheer mentally. There is fun on foot, and it's the call of the blood. I have seen our students ride elephants, capture tram-cars, and parade in the oddest Jazz costumes, but I never knew them to wilfully do hurt to any man. Later I saw these young men drilling for war. Early every morning, in sunshine and in frost, during the early months of the European War, these young men of England mustered in the pleasant field by my house, to drill for army life. Morning by morning they came along with a swing, all clad in white woollen sweaters, singing with gusto : Here we are, Here we are, Here we are again. They were our herald of the morning. My garden wall presented a near way to the field and I fancy many a gallant young fellow leapt the wall who later leapt just as blithely " over the top " and met death in Flanders. As the sun shines now of a morning I think of them, and wish they were here to leap the garden wall. Our northern Universities are great institutions. They may not have the classical traditions of Oxford and Cambridge ; WORKERS AND EDUCATION 135 and they may not draw Eton boys and Girton girls, but they have a splendour of their own. Who, until the twentieth century dawned, would have imagined carpenters, fitters, printers and clothiers hastening off after a hard day's work to the University to study biology, botany, economics, literature and other subjects ? But they do so here. Who would have imagined the sons and daughters of workmen coming into residence at a University, and taking degrees in science, art and medicine ? But they do so here. Who would have imagined learned professors, after a day of classes, hastening off in the evening over half a county in a perfect network, to take history or astronomy with a band of workmen ? But they do so here. And I am filled with hope and enthusiasm for the future of England when I realize that these extensive Universities are not big enough, that their class rooms and professors are not numerous enough, to meet the ever increasing demand for their services. That is one of the inspirations of a great city, that the faces of the young people are towards the light, and in but a little time, comparatively, we shall be emerging from the gloom, with education as the golden key to an era when every person shall aspire to nobility, sincerity, tolerance and ability. There are many other means of education, very wide- spread, and touching all the land, but in the cities they are vividly centralized. The Workers' Educational Association is doing a wonderful work, and, just as it should, it imparts a helpful and social atmosphere to its activities. And how very many Sunday mornings I have tramped through the snow to find a warm fire and a cheery welcome from an Adult School circle, gathered together to sing, to worship and to discuss the things worth while. Local Education Committees furnish admirable facilities, notably in the large centres, for evening education. Here you shall see 136 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND boys as entranced young alchemists as they watch test- tubes over the Bunsen jet. Co-operative Societies vie with each other to furnish educational lectures and classes for their members, and as I look round our city of an evening I utter the belief and hope that more men are gathered together in discussions of this kind than in all the bar- parlours of bung. What a notable change this is from the statement of Mr. A. J. Mundella in the 'eighties that in certain regions of East London four shillings and threepence was spent on drink for every penny on education. In our darkest slum regions there is the light of welcome to a settlement, and we can take heart of grace from a survey of the city. Nor should Trade Unions be forgotten in the scheme of things educational. Indeed, the change is probably more notable here. Twenty years ago, ten years ago, even five years ago, it was essential to hold branch meetings on licensed premises to assure an attendance. To-day it is not so. Hundreds of branches meet by preference on unlicensed premises, and when the element so foolishly described as " brawn " meets on industrial business, the discussions are often most able and valuable. Even ten years ago the Trade Union Congress was not exactly a gathering of angels. They who attended will smile and know what I mean. There is a change to-day ! It is most emphatic, and the few dear old " Die Hards " of rougher times look on in surprise. In this great field of organized labour there are ten thousand men to-day as capable as only ten were when this century dawned. It has been my duty for some years now to examine every month some hundreds of trade union branch reports. These are mainly written by the men who are drivers and firemen on the railway service, and they are admirably done. The continual rise in standard in these hundreds of reports tells LETTERS FROM TRADE UNIONISTS 137 me plainly that workers are selecting as their leaders and executors men qualified by education and calm judgment. I receive many nicely couched typewritten letters from slaters, quarrymen, porters and turners. They cherish the work, and give of their best, because they have the fine incentive to service. Trade Unionism passes these offices round continually, and is indeed raising the status of the workers in more than a material sense. But from the contemplation of city life we must take a departure. My particular desire is to tell the story of the years : twenty years of wonderful import to the history of England. Let us, therefore, resume the narrative. SECTION THREE THE ORDEALS OF WAR CHAPTER XV The Coronation of King George A Day with the Fleet The Titanic goes down Mystery Airships by Night The Ulster Volunteers Darkening Clouds. r ~T'HE Coronation of a King is always an interesting 1 event in the history of a nation, and England was jubilant on Thursday, June 22nd of 1911, for the Coronation of King George V. Since last a George occupied the throne of England enormous changes have taken place, and the contrast is just about as sharp between the calibre of the earlier Georges and the King who was crowned with the good will and esteem of everybody on the day mentioned. London had become the world's Mecca for the moment, and the day was an epitome of the reign then opening. It began in sunshine, touching the sombre grey of London with a golden hue ; it passed into cloud and rain and opened out again to a calm eventide. Very early there were millions astir, and crowded galleries, platforms and pavements watched the initial pageantry of Life Guards cantering about, with white plumes above their burnished helmets. A little procession of Crimean veterans evoked a kindly cheer, and then the Chelsea Pensioners, black hatted, grey bearded, scarlet coated, and much bemedalled, created interest. Most of them could Shoulder a crutch To show how fields were won. H2 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND and they looked proudly on the multitude assembled to witness the procession. Signals were passing between the roof of Buckingham Palace and the Abbey, and then, at 10.30, there were sharp staccato terms of command to soldiers holding the route, looking severe in scarlet and pipeclay, and a general rigid tension set upon everything. The golden coach was emerging from the Palace gates for the journey through the West End. The carriages passed slowly by, the windows splashed with rain, and (here I must quote the description of a London newspaper) " A cheer broke from the crowd, armed with newspapers. It was for the last coach. At the window appeared a flaxen head, a thin, narrow and boyish face, lighted by two smiling eyes full of good humour. It was the German Crown Prince." Of another coach I quote this description : " On the front seat were three little princes in Highland dress ; on the back seat was a handsome little boy trying to look grown- up, and a sweet little girl in white, whose desire to bow prettily and do the right thing almost precipitated her off the seat and out of the carriage window every time she acknowledged the delighted cheers." May the Prince of Wales and the Princess Mary forgive my temerity in thus quoting. Then followed the Royal Horse Guards, in red plumes, blue tunics, and shining breastplates, mounted on black chargers ; then even sailors on horseback, and motley groups of men from Britain overseas ; then the great gilded coach, so massive and resplendent ; and the King and Queen were being conveyed to their crowning. It was one of London's greatest days of festival, and it passed, with its tremendous concourse of people, without any unpleasant incident. There was all the historic observance about the ceremony in Westminster Abbey, and the second part of the Coronation, on the THE BRITISH NAVY 143 following day, consisted of a procession by the King and Queen through the streets of London, accompanied by the Dominion Premiers and the Indian Princes, with troops from various parts of the Empire. The Coronation week concluded with a Naval review on June 24th, nearly 200 warships being drawn up in most impressive array off Spithead. The British Navy is a tremendous proposition, as you realize for the first time when passing along the lines of the great grey ships of war. I have seen them lying asleep by night as one leaves the grey coast of England, when lights twinkle out over the waters, and dark monsters lie squat on the waves. In an extended order they seem to the imagination to belt half the English coast, and searchlights are ever ready to examine the unexpected. Shells, be it added, were as ready as lights, for in an inspection of one of the great ships of the line, in the summer of 1911, my attention was drawn to those endless chains by which shells are drawn up from the explosive store to the guns. There were shells in the chain, shells in the store, and shells behind the guns. When there were " incidents " afoot, the Navy bustled with ominous activity. Cutters and submarines moved about on the water, and standing high like grim gaunt giants, with enormous gun barrels protruding over the side, were the first-class ships. Those guns move around and up or down with incredible facility, and the great shells that can wreck a town or sink a ship are fired by the pulling of a trigger much like a revolver trigger. Go down below on a great Dreadnought, as I have done, and you shall descend seven and even nine floors deep, down below the water, down where the air-tight safety compartments are, down where the turbines are, down where the men hold sacrifice posts at times of danger. The captain's bridge is a study in the fine art of war and navigation. Here one reads the whole face of the waters 144 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND around without looking up, and here one may signal the master gunner or the chief engineer or the pilot instantly. A day with the Fleet is most memorable. Dear old British Fleet, so majestic, so courageous, we of the land return our deep thanks for your service. At great sacrifice you fed us during those awful years, and allowed no hostile foot to tread this land. The very ship over which I was taken with such kindness from officers and men is now below the waves ; for she sank in defence of England. All honour to the Fleet, which saved us in the emergency caused by duplicity. May there never again be such a call for the heroism of the sea. Early in the year 1912 the oldest monarchy on earth, with a history going back to the time of Abraham, that of China, fell, and the Emperor abdicated in a most decent sort of manner. When the Chinese Republic was established the dethroned Monarch very politely said that from the people's hearts the will of Heaven is discernible : how can we, therefore, he exclaimed, oppose the desire of millions for the glory of one family. Many crowns and thrones have fallen since that time, but none with such grace and courtesy as that. These Chinese episodes were overwhelmed by interests at home, for we had scarcely emerged from the serious railway strike of 1911, during which mounted troops paraded the streets, and the business of the country was dislocated, when two others threatened, one by the miners and the other by the doctors ! The British Medical Association was in revolt against the scale of pay fixed for panel patients under the National Insurance Act. They threatened to make the whole scheme unworkable, and would not enrol panel patients. They foresaw the destruction of family practices, and big rounds for little returns in future, but after a conference with Mr. Lloyd THE TITANIC GOES DOWN 1912 145 George and a number of crowded provincial meetings, the doctors accepted. Some of them accepted thousands of patients. They had queues of patients to enrol, and found a very good thing where they had suspected a very bad one. In July of 1912 came that awful colliery disaster at Cadeby, in South Yorkshire, when the sudden loss of eighty lives grieved the nation, and solemnly reminded all classes once again of the risks undertaken by miners in their conquest of nature's storehouse. The King visited the scene and descended the neighbouring mine of Elsecar. The great cotton lock-out was causing loss, hardship and acrimony in Lancashire, and Hush ! There comes wild, almost unthinkable news of awful tragedy at sea, the incredible announcement that the Titanic has struck an iceberg and is lost. The first incomplete message struck like an iceberg itself through all England, and we all shuddered as if we were on deck. Surely, surely there was some mistake ? Within an hour came confirmation of the worst ; the unsinkable was sinking, and two Continents reeled under this staggering blow of the greatest calamity which has ever occurred at sea since the Spanish Armada was destroyed. The Titanic, the new and glorious White Star liner, was the largest ship in the world. She had received a magnificent send-off from Southampton on Wednesday, April loth, on her first voyage to New York with a full complement of passengers. All told there were 2,340 souls aboard, and if ever passengers could look forward to a thoroughly enjoy- able crossing, it was that concourse of people waving their adieus from bridge and deck as the great vessel headed up the Solent for the open sea. A romantic interest surrounded the vessel, and there was keen competition for places on board. Shortly before midnight on Sunday, April I4th, when this newest leviathan was cutting the deep at full ii 146 THE PAGEANT OF ENGLAND speed ahead, there was a wild impact, a heavy grinding, and man's mightiest creation was reduced to a crumbling toy by the forces of nature. The Titanic, pride of the shipbuilders, had made her first and last voyage, and bowed to her fate under the stars. We who saw the great vessel, with her glorious apartments, her fine equipment, and well-stocked store-rooms ; her graceful lines and four huge funnels which could accommodate two street trams in each, little dreamed that her history was to be so brief and terrible. At noon on April loth, Captain Smith from the bridge gave the signal to " Let go " from the landing stage, but at noon five days later the proud ship, her proud captain, and 1,634 other souls were below the waves. The fatal crash and the grinding had not alarmed all on board. She was the Titanic, and they resumed their cards or their rest. But very soon the order to put all women on the lifeboats caused a full realization of catastrophe. All women and children were transferred to boats amid heart-rending parting scenes. The wireless operator was sending out over the waters to the last the S.O.S. signal. The Virginian, the Baltic, the Olympic and the Carpathia picked up the sad message, and a great life saving race over hundreds of miles began. No doubt many of the 705 who were saved, after terrible dangers and hardships, owed their lives to this despairing message and the response. The men stood calm on the decks as the vessel sank to the water-line. Great waves broke over her, and soon the bridge was engulfed. She sank rapidly. Captain Smith's last call " Be British " sounded just before he disappeared in the swirl, and a frightful scene had reached its climax. Many distinguished and useful men died that night, and many homes were bereft. There followed the agonizing wait for lists of the missing, and the memorial services for the dead. Seven days after the Titanic had sailed England was IRELAND IN 1913 147 in mourning. On May 2nd the Board of Trade Inquiry was opened into the disaster, and on July 3 49. 117-119 King George, 119, 141-142 Kitchener, Earl, 26, 41, 216 Kruger, Pres. Paul, 69 Labour Party, 25, 95, 191, 261 Land Song, 98 Lansdowne Committee, 220 Lenin, N., 266 Licensing Bill (1908), 93 Lindsey (Lines), 77-87 Lord's Veto, 111-112, 114 Louth Flood, 270 Lusitania, 89, 172 Medical Boards, 193 Final Report, 257 Military Service Acts, 189-192, 196, 220 Military Tribunals, 195 Motor Balloons, 35 Motor Cars, 14, 33, 71, 89 Munitions Ministry, 175 Nationalization, 240, 244 National Registration, 191 National Service, 196 Navy, British, 143 Old Age Pensions, 91, 92 Osborne Judgment, 122 Panel Doctors, 144 Paris Resolutions, 215-216 Passive Resistance, 39 Payment of Members, 122- 123 Peace Celebrations, 225 Peace Terms (Summary), 249- 251 Pensions Ministry, 215 Picture Houses, 148 Poison Gas, 174 Press Censorship, 177 Prince of Wales, 142 Profiteering, 210-211 Profiteering Tribunals, 239 Queen Victoria, 28-32 Railway Strike (1919), 252 Railways, 72, 147, 163 Ration Cards, 214 Reconstruction, 251 Rubber Shares Boom, 119 Rural Life, 81-87 Russian Revolution, 217 Russia (Follow Russia Conven- tion), 218 Sankey, Sir John, 240 Scott, Captain, 120 Secret Service, 169, 197 Small Pox (in London), 33 South African War, 19, 26, 4 o Spa Conference, 265 Special Constables, 181 INDEX 275 Spies, 150-151 St. Patrick's Day, 22 Submarines, 33 Suffragettes, The, 56-65 Taxation of Land Values, 108 Telephones, 148 Territorial Force Formed, 90 T.N.T. Poisoning, 183 Titanic Sunk, 145-146 Trade Cards, 197 Trade Unionism, 136 Triple Alliance, 39 Unemployment Donation, 237 Universities, Northern, 134 Veto Conference, 112 Village Funerals, 84 Votes for Women, 56-65 War Bread, 183 War Costs In Money, 253 In Men, 254 Waste Collection, 187 Wilson, President, 173, 219 Wireless Telegraphy, 88, 146 Women in Industry, 182 Women's Franchise, 61-65 Wool Profits, 271 Zeppelins, 25, 171, 181 Printed in Great Britain by UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED WOKING AND LONDON SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. 1 UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA LOb LIBRARY