r REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS THE BIRTH-TIME OF THE WORLD and other Scientific Essays. By J. JOLY, M.A., Sc.D., F.R.S. With 28 Plates and 15 Illustrations. Cloth, los. 6d. net. "Professor J. Joly, in his volume of brilliant essays . . . has given us a volume of extra- ordinary interest and suggestiveness in which he brings before us many of the deepest things of modern physical science in a prose setting that it is a literary joy to possess." The Contemporary Re-view. T. FISHER UNWIN, LTD. LONDON CORNELIUS DREBEL (1572-1634), THE INVENTOR AND BUILDER OF THE FIRST SUBMARINE. (From an old work by Drebel in the British Museum,) Frontispiece. REMINISCENCES ANTICIPATIONS BY J. J,OLY, M.A., Sc.D., F.R.S. PROFESSOR OP GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OP DUBLIN j FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN; HON. I.L.I)., MICHIGAN: VICE- PRESIDENT ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY J WARDEN OP ALEXANDRA COLLEGE; COMMISSIONER OP IRISH LIGHTS. WITH NINE ILLUSTRATIONS T. FISHER UNWIN LTD LONDON: ADELPHI TERRACE First published in 1920 All rights rtservtd PREFACE ONE tacitly recognised use of a Preface is to provide the diffident author with an opportunity of fastening the blame for the appearance of his book upon somebody else. In the present case I think I am correct in saying that this book owes its existence to the suggestion of certain of my friends who, after the appearance in 1915 of a volume of scientific essays and addresses, counselled me to issue a corresponding collection of lay essays i.e., such as are not specially directed towards scientific subjects. This volume contains a selection of essays of this kind. Towards the conclusion of the war I was in the States on an educational mission. Facts regarding American educational institutions and ideals of which I had been ignorant, or which I had failed to realise, then came to my knowledge. This occasioned two of the essays con- tained in this book that on the British Educational Mission and that on " International Education." These are in point of date the latest written. There are many anticipations in those essays. My desire to spread, in any way in my power, the doctrines preached by the 5 PREFACE British Mission in the States proved an additional in- centive to the issue of this volume. Of the other essays, two are holiday reminiscences the " Visit to the Foze Rocks " and the Tour of the Lighthouses. The Edgeworth essay is a vindication of the claims of a man who is now only remembered as the parent of a very distinguished authoress and lovable woman. But his claims to fame are clear and undeniable. The fact that he was an ancestral relative of my own has not, I hope, biased my judgment on that point. The reappearance of the account of the defence of Trinity College during the Sinn Fein Rebellion calls, I think, for no justification. So far as I know, it is the only account of that incident written by one who lived within the College walls throughout those terrible days. It is accurate in every particular so far as it was in my power to make it so. The essay on " The Origin of the Submarine " is, of course, a product of war-time thoughts. In it, too, are many anticipations, some of which, although written down many generations ago, have been, in our day, realised in a remarkable manner. The earliest of the essays is the discussion on "Perpetual Motion." The topic is indeed scientific, but it is science in a very popular garb. 6 PREFACE I have to thank the Royal Dublin Society for permission to reprint the paper on the British Educational Mission; and Mr. George Blackwood for his kind consent to the reissue of " The Origin of the Submarine " and " The Defence of Trinity College during the Sinn Fein Re- bellion," both of which originally appeared in BlackwoocTs Magazine. The representatives of the late Captain Deane formerly the valued Inspector to the Irish Lights Board kindly supplied the photographs (taken by Captain Deane) illustrating the paper on the Irish Lighthouses. Messrs. Hely of Dublin were so good as to contribute the photographs appearing with the Defence of Trinity College. The fine view of the entrance gate of the Washington University of St. Louis is borrowed by kind permission from the handbook to that splendid institution. J. JOLY. IVEAGH GEOLOGICAL LABORATORY, TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN. April, 1920. CONTENTS FAGB PREFACE - 5 I. PERPETUAL MOTION - - - - 13 II. A VISIT TO THE FOZE ROCKS - - - 22 III. WITH THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL MISSION IN AMERICA 5! IV. A CRUISE OF INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES - QO V. RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH ... jy) VI. INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION - - - 1 73 VII. THE ORIGIN OF THE SUBMARINE ... jg6 VIII. IN TRINITY COLLEGE DURING THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 21 8 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS CORNELIUS DREBEL (1572-1634) - Frontispiece PAGE THE FOZE ROCKS - 50 ENTRANCE GATE OF WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY - facing 66 VIEW FROM CLARE ISLAND - 108 CLARE ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE - IIO TORMORE ROCKS - 124 RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH 150 TRINITY COLLEGE AND BANK OF IRELAND - 224 SACKVILLE STREET AFTER THE REBELLION - 258 II REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS PERPETUAL MOTION IN 1897 a Scientific Conversazione was organised by the Royal Dublin Society and held in Leinster House. On this occasion there appeared in the descriptive catalogue of the exhibits the following item under the name of the present writer: " Perpetual Motion: The sphere hanging in the glass shade is retained from falling by the silk thread to which it is attached. This is the only function of the thread. The ball is, nevertheless, moving in a most complicated manner and with great velocity at a rate, in fact, of many thousands of miles per hour." In the actual exhibit the glass shade was omitted. A brightly polished brass sphere, about 4 inches in diameter, hung from the lofty ceiling of the room by a fine wire, and was so located over the centre of a large table as to be well out of reach of spectators standing around the table. The comments on this exhibit were instructive and in some cases amusing. A locally well-known and effective 13 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS lecturer on popular science was heard to explain to a select audience that the sphere was in point of fact rotating at a high velocity, a fact which was artfully concealed by the high polish of its surface. He suggested a magnetic arrangement moving beneath the table. His audience agreed with him as to the facts, and some declared that they could plainly detect the spinning of the sphere. At intervals during the evening similar statements were heard, and at all times investigators were to be observed staring long and fixedly at the ball. It is probable that not one in a hundred understood the real nature of the exhibit, obvious as it was. For, in truth, it was just what it claimed to be perpetual motion, pure and simple, and without deceit of any kind. Our ancestors for many generations looked for this thing perpetual motion. They linked wheels and springs and weights so that the falling weight wound up the spring or turned the wheel, and was in turn carried up to its original position by spring or wheel endlessly. They connected water-wheels and reservoirs so that the reservoir supplying water to the wheel not only kept this turning, but was replenished by pumps or impossible siphons worked by the wheel. They invoked every force in Nature of which they had cognisance; and many of their devices were, on paper, most promising. But when the contrivances came to be tested, friction, the demon, invariably spoiled all. Or, again, the demon disguised himself in other forms. Sometimes he was 14 PERPETUAL MOTION pure " stiction," so that the machine would not start at all; or he was capillarity or surface tension in some unlooked-for form, so that the baffled inventor, outwitted by the evil essence, inevitably found that his wheel really turned for a longer time if stripped of the clever devices intended to perpetuate its motion throughout eternity. So our forerunners for generations struggled with the problem and got no nearer to its solution. And even in our own younger days we felt the fascination of the subject, and longed to find "something" which, once set going, might be put under a glass shade and would then go for ever. Was this work all in vain ? Far from it. Man has never tried after any intellectual ideal without benefit to himself. It is not alone that by the mere exercise of his faculties he lifts himself to a higher level, but that by his mistakes alone can he learn. All knowledge and truth are founded in ignorance and error. It matters not that he seeks to turn lead into gold, or endeavours to find the elixir of life, or seeks to foretell his own future. He is fulfilling his destiny in the mere putting of the question to Nature. Sanity and dominion ultimately lie in that direction. In alchemy chemistry had its foundations, and in astrology astronomy sought to find itself through ages of darkness. Medical science began in the search for endless life. And so also the dupes of perpetual motion set men thinking about the laws of mechanics and hydrostatics. '5 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS So far back as Galileo's time the problem of perpetual motion was actually solved. In the Principia Newton gives the solution as follows: Lex I. Corpus omne perseverare in statu suo quiesccndi vel movendi uniformiter in directum, nisi quatenus illud a viribus impressis cogitur statum suum mutare. (Every body continues in its state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight line, except in so far as it may be compelled by force to change that state.} It follows on the truth of this law that, so far from perpetual motion being difficult to realise or of rare occurrence, it really represents the general state of Nature. It is the state of rest which is of rare occurrence and is difficult to realise: if, indeed, it exists at all among material systems. And strange perversion of all pre- conceived ideas if a body is set in motion it will go on moving unlesswe in some way restrain it. Perpetual motion is all around us, and is only obscured to our view when we specially invoke the exploits of the above-mentioned demons of friction, capillarity, etc., by trying to realise it within a machine. These demons exclusively influence and haunt mechanical contrivances wherein we seek to restrain matter by matter, and cause solids or liquids to partake of differential motions. For then, indeed, we cause the momentum we wish to conserve to degrade into molecular movements, and through the actions of friction, viscosity, or collision, to become dissipated as heat; so that the initial store of energy drains away and 16 PERPETUAL MOTION leaves the parts of our machine mutually at rest final end of all our hopes. But if the moving body be cast into space so that it travels in the free aether, the true law of motion is revealed. The body moves for ever, exactly in the direction of its final impulsion and with neither gain nor loss of energy. Its motion may be rectilinear or it may be a spin or rotation. Unless the aether reacts upon matter in some undefined manner, after eternal time it will still be travelling rectilinearly or still be spinning. And if we divide the equator of the rotating body according to its rate of revolution, we possess in it a clock which will keep perfect time and tell us of the flight of seconds or of millions of years. Such a timepiece might serve the Deity to mark the birth, growth, and death of solar systems, its dreadful spin continuing unchanged after thousands of such transitory events have come and gone. But returning to the philosopher it is evident that he is not in a position to cast forth his wheels or spheres into interstellar space, and we get back to the question whether the first law of motion will help us to find that " something " which may be placed under the glass shade and will go for ever. The answer is in the affirma- tive, although the contrivance may in some particulars be disappointing. Nevertheless, philosophically, it is perpetual motion and, to boot, is very instructive. Take the simplest case the spinning sphere. We I 7 B REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS support the sphere by the finest wire or thread imaginable say, by a quartz fibre. The upper end of the fibre is attached inside to the top of the covering glass shade. The shade rests on a stand which can be rotated, by clockwork or otherwise, with a perfectly uniform motion and velocity. Difficulties must not stand in our way at this stage. Suppose, now, we start the rotation of the stand, carrying with it, of course, the shade which is supported upon it. Immediately a torque or twist is transmitted through the fibre to the suspended sphere. This begins to rotate. As it gathers momentum the torque dies out of the fibre. The air beneath the shade is also rotating, and may help forward the sphere until the rate of rotation of the sphere is the same as that of the shade and stand. We can make sure that the torque tending to turn the sphere is finally eliminated by slowing down the motion of the shade by a little. The sphere is now turning faster than the shade, and the torque is exerted the opposite way and tends to carry energy from the sphere to the shade. If we leave the clockwork set to this slower rate, we are assured that we are not driving the suspended sphere by any supply of energy from outside. The sphere is, in fact, spinning in virtue of the First Law of Motion. It will do so at its present rate for ever or so long as we do not interfere with it by air currents, effects of terrestrial magnetism, or retarding or accelerating force transmitted through the fibre. Every one of these interfering causes 18 PERPETUAL MOTION may, however, be guarded against. We have true per- petual motion under our glass shade. We gave the sphere its initial store of energy, and we simply guard it from such material encounters as must waste this energy, and as the result we have realised perpetual motion. The energy expended in realising the conditions within the shade is not in the smallest degree spent upon the turning body within. We might easily assure ourselves of this by providing a sensitive optical arrangement which would indicate the presence of even the smallest torque in the fibre. We may also vary the pressure of the air down to the most perfect vacuum attainable. The apparatus is a demonstration of perpetual motion and of the First Law. What is the difference between this experiment of ours and the mechanical contrivances of our ancestors ? Just this: The ancients wished to make a self-contained machine which of its own self would eliminate the resistances which arise in friction, viscosity, etc. They were really seeking to create energy. They had realised neither the First Law (or at least had not grasped its real significance) norHhe law of the conservation of energy. We only keep the sphere going in our machine by jealously conserving the energy originally imparted to the sphere. In order to do this effectively we have to guard rigorously against differential material motions, such as inevitably generate those impressed forces which result in changing the state of the moving body. We know 19 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS perfectly well that from nothing comes nothing, and that to expect the energy to remain undiminished in the turning sphere and at the same time to call upon it to ward off external constraints is to demand impossibilities so far as the laws of Nature are concerned. It matters not how small a demand we make upon the store of energy in the sphere. The conditions of perpetual motion vanish immediately we take anything at all. The ancients, then, failed in not recognising their limitations. The progress of science may be described as the ascertainment of what can and what cannot be done. When we have got to the length of estimating the cost of this machine and the amount of use it will be to us apart from its educational value, in which respect it quite ranks with Atwood's machine we are naturally gratified to find that an equally effective contrivance is realisable at trifling expense by taking advantage of the conditions under which we, as dwellers on a moving planet, live and move and have our being. It is true that terrestrial motion labours under the disadvantage of not being quite perpetual owing to tidal and other causes of retardation. But it is perpetual enough; and, besides, its want of permanence may, philosophically, be regarded as accidental and not inherent in the funda- mental conditions. Accordingly I suspended the brass sphere in the middle of the large exhibition room. What was the sphere doing ? It was travelling round the centre of the earth 20 PERPETUAL MOTION at the rate of about one thousand miles per hour, and it was travelling at the same time round the sun at a rate about sixty-four times as fast. To these must be added a velocity through space, along with the sun, which probably equals or exceeds the orbital velocity of the earth. And these extraordinary velocities are in no way conveyed to it by the suspending wire. The role of the wire is merely to keep it from falling under the attraction of terrestrial gravity. It is easy to prove this. For if the wire is pulling the sphere along against resistances, the sphere must continually lag somewhat behind the point of support of the wire. But we know that the most delicate tests would show no such lag. Again, the motion of the sphere is not imparted to it by the air in the room. If we established the most perfect vacuum in the exhibition room the motion of the brass sphere would be quite uninfluenced. The fact must be faced. The sphere is moving of itself. It is, indeed, guided in space, in common with the earth, by the gravitational attractions which are carried to it through the aether or in some other manner ; but its motion is perpetual motion, for it conserves the momentum which it possesses as part of the earth, and which was imparted to the matter of which it is composed when a world was in the making and energies of various kinds were concentrating into the spinning of the new-born celestial vortex. 21 II A VISIT TO THE FOZE ROCKS ON the south and south-west coast of Ireland fiord-like inlets admit the Atlantic far into the land. The origin of these geographical features, to which the coast owes its diversified character anid supreme beauty, is not far to seek. A glance at the geological map reveals the secret. The mountainous peninsulas which separate the fiords and project into the ocean are composed of hard grits, slates, and conglomerates. On the other hand, where the waters now prevail at one time were softer and more soluble materials. These in part still remain at the head of the fiords. Into these materials the ocean cut its way during many thousands of years of denudation, and by their removal the fiords came into existence. The hard and durable mountains which have successfully withstood the sea and the weather are of ancient Devonian sediments; the materials which have been excavated were of the succeeding Carboniferous period, and mainly calcareous in character. The whole great structure finds herein the simplest explanation. The fiord of Dingle is the most magnificent of these inlets. Its southern shores are walled by mountains 22 A VISIT TO THE FOZE ROCKS which rise from the sea to heights of over 2,000 feet, Valencia Island forming part of their most westerly extension. The northern wall of the fiord consists of the chain of the Dingle mountains, of which Brandon, attaining a height of 3,126 feet, is monarch. This peninsula is terminated by Eagle Mountain, a graceful cone about 1,700 feet high ; but it is continued beneath the sea, and reappears in the form of islands for yet another 10 miles to the west. The width of the noble fiord between these mountain walls is from 6 to 12 miles, and its length nearly 20 miles. The outermost islands of all are the Foze Rocks. They are, in point of fact, the most westerly land of the United Kingdom. They lie at about 10 miles from the end of the Dingle peninsula. Between them and the mainland intervene the islands of Vickillane, Nabro, Tearaght, Tooskert, and Blasket. It seems certain that this chain of islands is simply the work of countless years of denudation. If the surface of the ocean could here be lowered some 300 or 400 feet, an exposed ridge would extend right out to the Foze. But no one who has seen these islands stand out one beyond the other into the west and glow red-hot, as it might seem, in the sunset can deplore the effects of time. They constitute in every change of sky and weather one of the most beautiful features of the scenery. The Foze include two islands separated by about one mile. The Great Foze is great only by comparison with 23 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS the Little Foze; for it is but a speck upon the chart a rock some 120 yards long and rising to 92 feet over the sea. The Little Foze is really a group of partially sub- merged rocks, the highest of which is but 26 feet above sea-level. The coast of this part of Kerry is a land of wonders, of which the passing traveller sees little or nothing. Inland of the head of the fiord of Dingle the richly coloured bogs sweep back to the wild and majestic ridge of the McGillicuddy Reeks. The sands of the dunes of Inch and Rossbehy glitter in their green-grey silver and gold. Along their far-stretching strands the waves tumble in the sunlight, revealing beneath their white crests the burning green heart within. Sea birds soar in the blue above, uttering their wailing cries. And the mountains ! To-day they are sethereal blue beneath the open sky; to-morrow, under a threatening heaven, when the seagull's call is louder, they are a rich purple; and yet a day later they are of the grey of steel. Then come the rains, and a shaft of light striking down into the hollows of Drung Hill or Knocknadober reveals to you that their real colour is like that burning green you saw in the breaking wave; and all the blues and purples are but illusions colours of the atmosphere, not of the mountains. He who has, upon a blue day, or, it may be, upon a day of drifting lights and showers, looked from the road above Kells, northward across the level floor of the sea 24 A VISIT TO THE FOZE ROCKS towards the mountains of the Dingle range, is ever after haunted by the recollection of its divine beauty. It is a revelation which cannot be forgotten. The traveller must return and look again. And I have seen it at sunset, a caldron, as it were, of incandescent clouds, islands, and mountains: a Holy Grail of blood-red fire to worship devoutly ever after. Yes ! the traveller sees but little of these things. Whether at Doaghs (Dooks), on the hills above Kells, or, most impressive of all, on the outermost sands of Inch, the hourly and daily changes of sea, sky, and mountain must be observed if the scenery is to be fully realised. It is of such mobility of light and colour as to respond to every passion of the sky, and on some days of rapid change it might seem almost to throb in waves of beauty. We can imagine some wanderer from the western sea, when the world was younger, thinking that this land he had reached must be a dream or the creation of magic, sent to beguile him from his thoughts of heaven. To those who have not seen the reality my words may appear fanciful. To those who have seen it they will still appear inadequate. Just now from my tent at Doaghs I have been wondering at the delicate shades of blue which serve to define one mountain from another in the long vista of the Dingle range. Fainter and yet fainter grow the successive shades till the form of Eagle Mountain has become almost part of the azure itself and the union of earth and sky is consummated. This 25 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS morning these same hills wore the rich purple of the pansy; and then a shower came, dropping down like some delicate curtain, and one after the other the mountains vanished illusive spirits that they are. And again had earth responded to the passion of heaven. Only by pure good fortune can the passing traveller see these things, and the essence of it all is revealed to him alone who watches day after day at early morning, at midday, or at fading twilight. Such is the land which called us to see once again its charms in the summer of 1908. My party consisted of three. We had many times been mutual sharers in yachting adventures, and when we found ourselves at Valencia and learned that a spell of unusually calm weather had for some time prevailed upon the coast, we seriously discussed the possibility of attempting a long-contemplated visit to the Foze Rocks. The reasons for undertaking such an expedition and the peculiar difficulties attending it will be gathered from what follows. If you look at the geological map of this region you will find that, while the several larger islands mentioned above are carefully coloured to show the particular kind or age of the rock of which they are composed, the Foze Rocks are discreetly left untinted. Why ? Because their nature and age were not certainly known to the geologists who industriously compiled the information from which the map was prepared. 26 A VISIT TO THE FOZE ROCKS Herein we find one very good reason for visiting these islands. Nothing but an actual landing can determine the nature of the rock, and some interesting questions will be answered if this information can be ascertained. Why, then, has this not already been accomplished ? The reason is found in the difficulty of effecting a landing upon these remote islands. There are no good landing-places upon them. A bad or indifferent landing-place is simply useless when the prevailing swell of the Atlantic has to be reckoned with. The difficulties encountered in such cases are well known, and often represent a formidable obstacle to lighthouse construction. Indeed, many of the island lighthouses can in ordinary weather only be visited by aid of the derrick provided for the purpose. This is erected high on the rock, and from it a rope is let down till it dangles just above the boat containing the landing-party. On to a loop provided at the extremity of the rope the adventurous visitor steps, just as the boat rises to the top of the great Atlantic swell. As he does so he finds his boat gone from under him, sunken down into the hollow of the sea. Then the windlass ashore is worked by a couple of men, and the visitor is hoisted into mid air. He hangs dizzily suspended for a minute or two, and, when he is brought to the right altitude, he is pulled round by a guide-rope and steps from his giddy conveyance on to the rocks. In rough weather this performance may be quite im- possible. 27 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS Now, on a rock unprovided with this sort of artificial help the difficulties of landing are, of course, enormously increased; for it is not safe to bring the boat up to the rocks lest it be dashed to pieces or swamped. If it touches the rocks in the downward fall of the wave it will assuredly be either broken up or capsized. Or, again, if it cannot be got away quick enough when the wave is sinking, the mass of water pouring off the ledges of the rock may swamp it. A vertical rock with good foothold and good handhold may enable a landing to be effected in moderate weather. Or, if above such a rock there is a] shelf at just such a level as the boat reaches at the top of its swing, a landing may be made. Failing these conditions, landing cannot be attempted if there is any appreciable oscillation of the sea. And as the Atlantic is only rarely without some swell upon these rocky coasts, it follows that rocks like the Foze may be approached again and again in the finest weather, and the would-be explorer has to retire baffled. Indeed, these very Foze Rocks have to my certain knowledge been approached repeatedly with all the advantages of steam navigation, and the landing-party has had to give it up. Season after season has the adventure been attempted, and from no lack of skill or courage, but simply from the weather conditions, has the enterprise been abandoned of necessity. This is the explanation of the blank space upon the map of the Geological Survey. Many years ago the Great Foze was under consideration 28 A VISIT TO THE FOZE ROCKS as a lighthouse station. The importance of its position is obvious. The whole of the group of islands to landward of it might be guarded by a light placed upon it ; and as the rock itself is steep-to with nothing outside it to the westward, a ship keeping its light in view would be clear of all dangers, assuming that the light was screened over the inner islands. A landing was at that time effected on the Great Foze, but, on account of an alleged uncertainty as to the stability of the island, the scheme was abandoned, and the more northerly island of Tearaght selected instead of it as a lighthouse station. There are rocks immediately outside of this latter island; these rocks and the Foze lying to the south of it must be reckoned with by the mariner who approaches near this light. I have found only scant record of this former landing upon the Great Foze, and the only information arising out of that visit as to the nature of the rock is the statement that the rock was a " trap." This landing on the Foze took place forty- five years ago. In discussing our chances of effecting a successful landing we had fully in mind the several factors con- cerned, and were well aware that many similar attempts had met with failure. We possessed no artificial means of propulsion, and as the needful weather conditions rendered sailing unreliable, the labour of rowing the whole way out to the rock and back about 30 miles had to be faced. But this should be easily accomplished in day- light, supposing we maintained a rate of 3 miles per hour. 29 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS We accordingly hired a four-oared boat, and engaged the services of three native boatmen to assist in rowing it. Now, if the only difficulty in getting to the Foze consisted in pulling 30 miles in calm water, it would be hardly worth while to say anything more about our journey out and back. Unfortunately, a very much more serious difficulty beset our enterprise. The per- sistently calm weather, which alone can render a successful landing probable, is on this coast usually attended with fog. And the present weather is no exception. Day after day the fog lay upon the sea, and the larger and nearer islands remained invisible from the coast. Now, if the fog was really dense enough to hide the small rocks of the Foze from view at a distance of a few hundred yards, there was, evidently, a very grave risk that we might miss them altogether and have all our labour for nothing. In such a case the compass alone can guide us; and with a good compass and in the absence of tidal currents, wind drift, etc., astonishingly accurate courses may be run. In the present case the only compass available was a small pocket instrument of the usual fixed-card construction. It was, in short, not a mariner's compass, and in consequence was much more difficult to use and more liable to error. We had also to reckon with tides which, according to the chart, attained rates of a knot and a half, and set transversely to our course. This last factor was the most disconcerting of all; for accurate allowance for the effects of these 30 A VISIT TO THE FOZE ROCKS currents in taking us from our course was not possible. Their effects upon us must vary not only with the state of the tide, but with our position. When all was con- sidered, and when on the morning of our departure the 3rd of August we found the fog as thick as ever, we made up our minds to very probable failure. We started, therefore, with but little of the stimulus which proceeds from hopeful anticipations. Moreover, we were aware that the enterprise was not free from risks other than that of mere disappointment, for rapid weather changes are frequent on this coast. However, the glass was fairly steady, and the probabilities of continued calm were in our favour. We left Valencia at about 8 a.m. on the 3rd of August, 1908. We took the oars for spells of twenty minutes at first. As there were six of us the strain was not severe. Our course was, accurately, N.W. and half a point W. No land of any kind was now visible. Indeed, our vision probably penetrated less than a quarter-mile. Our course would take us within about 3 miles of Vickil- lane, a position we might reach in from three to four hours. Till then there was no prospect of sighting any land whatever; and, indeed, even when nearest to Vickillane, with the present weather conditions, it was certain we would see nothing of it. All the conditions therefore pointed to the probability that the first land visible to us would be the Great Foze rock if we were so fortunate as to hit it off. 31 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS A very light wind sprang up a couple of hours after we had left the harbour, and, as it appeared we could hold it, we ran up a sail. At first it helped us a little, but presently it went ahead, and we must tack to it if we were to use it at all. This procedure I did not like, for it lessened our chance of attaining an object. However, there was a general wish to keep the sail up, and we began taking short legs, carefully adjusted to our course and of equal duration. This temporary relief was justified; for, in point of fact, unless some clearing came in the fog our chance of finding the Foze was, in any case, infinitesimal. But we had not long been consoling ourselves with this reflection when the wind entirely dropped. The sail fell flat against the mast, and mast and sail were lowered. The rowing then was steadily continued. Towards midday we reckoned that the island of Vickillane should be at a distance of about 4 miles on the starboard bow. A careful lookout was kept for it. Another half-hour and it should be on our beam. Sud- denly it was sighted, but only the upper part of it. This island, which is nearly a mile in length, rises abruptly out of the sea, attaining a height of about 400 feet. It is therefore conspicuous in clear weather at a con- siderable distance. The fact that we now saw its upper rocks hazily through the fog showed that the fog was densest near the surface of the water. The sight greatly increased our hopes, for we ran a good chance of seeing 32 A VISIT TO THE FOZE ROCKS the highest summit of the Great Foze at a distance of about a mile if the condition of the fog did not again get worse. But presently the fog closed over Vickillane, and we were left to our speculations as to the limits of visibility. With a white shimmer of reflected light, but coal black in colour, the Atlantic stretched to our little horizon. Looking over the side of the boat, one might fancy oneself floating above some world of night and darkness in which the eye sees nothing because there is nothing to see. And, indeed, this idea is no mere fancy. The beautiful phenomenon of the coal-black sea is referable to the perfect purity of the water. There is nothing beneath its surface to reflect the light from above. It possesses, in fact, many of the optical properties of a void; and as it sends back to the eye not the feeblest trace of light, it presents just such an appearance as would space itself if viewed from a world without an atmosphere. Clouds and blue sky are atmospheric phenomena. Outside the atmosphere the sky would look inky black save where one's eyes encountered the white and naked disk of the sun, or the brilliant, dimensionless points of the stars. Into the black water beneath us we actually see to astonishing depths; but there is nothing to tell us of the depth to which our vision plumbs. The living inhabitants are hidden from us. The smaller are mostly transparent, and their spheres, disks, or streamers float in the water unseen by our eyes. Only when drawn 33 c up in the silken net, washed into water and regarded in suitable illumination, can we appreciate the wealth of life and beauty of the plankton which inhabits that translucent region. And again, the larger life, fish of every sort, by the remorseless action of natural selection, have acquired such a blackness over those parts of their bodies which are exposed to the keen eyes of enemies regarding them from above whether in the upper waters or in the air that they, too, are invisible to us. We discourse on these matters, partly to pass the time; partly, no doubt, to conceal from ourselves the sense of failure which is growing stronger in us every minute. For we have now been out about five hours, and as we estimate our progress as not less than 3 miles to the hour, we ought to be at the Foze already. But it remains shrouded from view. Our vision may now extend about one quarter-mile, we think. Quite possibly, then, we have missed the tiny islands we are seeking, and are now pulling steadily out into the ocean, leaving them further astern every moment. If this has happened we are indeed doomed to complete failure, for we know not how to mend our course. Have we passed the rocks on the port or on the starboard ? There is nothing to tell us, and no other land is visible from which any idea of our position can be obtained. There is no use specu- lating upon the cause of our failure. It is, indeed, pretty certain that it is to be ascribed to the strong tidal currents. 34 A VISIT TO THE FOZE ROCKS In considering the effects of these we had been in hopes that they would in a great degree correct one another's effects, owing to their changes with the tide. But it seemed to us now that in this we were disappointed. It was during a moment of anxious silence that we first became aware of a melancholy sound of wailing proceeding from the fog somewhere far ahead. Simul- taneously we paused upon our oars and listened with feelings of the most indescribable astonishment, not to say alarm. And, indeed, the sounds were so eerie, and so startling in their mere existence in such a place, that fear was a very excusable sensation. Then there was a pause in the dreary sounds, and we asked each other what the sounds could possibly be. Not one of us could hazard a probable guess. The boatmen alone had a theory. It was a banshee, they said, for certain. But there they are again. Long-drawn moans such as might be emitted by some weak soul condemned to death without reprieve. Now they stop, dying away, and now they break out afresh. The same conviction, wild as it might appear, came simultaneously to us all. There must be shipwrecked people on the Foze. Our visit may be providentially timed. This explanation is, of course, quite possible, especially in view of the weather conditions which have now for many days prevailed on the coast. But, unless we were listening to the near moans of people on the verge of death, the sounds are not such as would be made by men 35 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS seeking help. We were, however, very sure now that we were going straight for the Foze. Physical explanations were, of course, discussed. It is known that a peculiar formation of caves in the rocks may, under the action of the ocean swell, cause strange moaning noises, as the air is driven in, and again sucked back, through openings in the rock. But, again, as we listen, this theory is abandoned. There are plainly many voices concerned in this melancholy chorus. There was now considerable danger that our crew would absolutely refuse to go forward. With minds a prey to every form of superstition, overmastering fears might well lead to positive mutiny. Underlying my own feelings of apprehension was, of course, the conviction that a perfectly natural explanation must exist for the mysterious sounds. But the men who made up our crew could have no such reassuring belief. Their faces plainly expressed their thoughts. They watched us sulkily, repeating their conviction that all was not right. We asked them if they had ever heard such sounds before. They said they had not. Upon this we said there might be many simple explanations of such sounds; and as there was at least the possibility that they proceeded from beings in distress, it was plainly our duty to get forward as fast as we could. This was not altogether a wise speech, addressed to such an audience. There is a strange and dreadful belief among the seafaring natives of this coast that 36 A VISIT TO THE FOZE ROCKS it is a fatal act to rescue those whom the sea claims as its victims. The idea seems to rest upon a pagan personi- fication of elemental forces. The sea must be satisfied; and if the struggling wretch is picked from the water, his rescuer will surely be required as an expiatory offering. So I have heard this dreadful superstition explained. Certain it is that deplorable and frightful results occa- sionally follow. It is now but a few years since a mackerel boat overladen with fish was swamped on this very coast, at the entrance to Valencia Harbour, where a heavy ground swell frequently prevails. This occurred near midnight upon a dark night. There was an accompanying fishing-boat which could easily have picked up the drowning men, but it proceeded upon its way into the harbour fled the spot, in fact, every ear closed to the cries of the rictims of the sea. The keeper and assistant- keeper of the lighthouse listened with horror to the despairing sounds quite close to them ; but they could do nothing, being in accordance with lighthouse regula- tions unprovided with any sort of boat. The part played by the surviving crew only came to light some days later, in the bar-room of the public-house. In the chapel, I am glad to say, the senselessness and cowardliness of the crime were the subject of severe condemnation on the ensuing Sabbath. With such a superstition in their minds our crew may have been affected by our exhor- lation in precisely the opposite manner to that which we intended. 37 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS As we advanced, now pulling with increased speed, the sounds grew in loudness, still ever preserving their human tone and sorrowful character. Some voices there were which keened more loudly than the others, and there were variations of key; some were a little higher or a little deeper than others, but no accent of hope ever mingled in the chorus. Fancy might well run wild with us. It is fog, fog, fog, nothing but fog all around. I think for an instant that the whole thing is a nightmare. The fog has entered into our souls. We are back in the world's history 3,000 years. These are the Syrens of Ulysses, and they are singing to our destruction. Or we are hearing the wailing of Stygian souls wrested from the Guardian Monster of the tomb and permitted for a brief spell to proclaim their sorrows to the light of day. Or, perhaps, we are now about to discover some unknown creature of the sea ! And now the sounds seem strangely near. We look round continuously from our oars, for we are near the solution of the mystery. Someone cries out, " What is that ?" It is a vast blackness looming right ahead, coming down on us through the fog like the bow of a great vessel. Yes, it is indeed the Great Foze which we have hit off as by a miracle. And look ! Man-like beings swarm upon its black rocks and gaze upon us with large startled eyes. Syrens ? Mermaids ? No, but seals (Phocida) the beautiful mammals which inhabit 38 A VISIT TO THE FOZE ROCKS these wild coasts. And now they fly our presence. They slide and waddle down the steep rocks. A splash and they are gone, vanished like a vision. The barren island stands desolate and alone before us, and the only sounds we hear are those of the water running in and out of the gullies in the rocks. There was no doubt of it. We actually heard their voices die away as they sighted the terrifying apparition of our boat. The explanation was found. We hold water with our oars and look upon each other. Why had we not thought of this simple solution of the mystery ? We had, in fact, actually once before heard such sounds in the remote waters of an inlet on the west coast of Mull, and at that time made sure that seals were responsible for it. No other animal makes such a weirdly human sound. Off the sands of Doaghs they appear in a colony with every fall of the tide. Many a time since then we have heard them making moan to the booming of the distant Atlantic, when waters are low and the night is dark. Strange creatures, almost human in intelligence ! persecuted by man because he and they seek the same prey, although we may be sure the seal is guilty of none of the wanton waste of life which attends man's depredations. As we approach yet closer to the rocks many of the seals return to our neighbourhood, swimming round the boat. Some of them swim on their backs beneath the water, and look up at us with their dog-like eyes. One 39 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS would conclude that they had never seen man or boat before. The pace and power of their swimming is a joy to watch. Although they are air-breathers, they possess enviable powers of diving, and their strength is extraordinary. We once tried to capture a baby seal in a Scottish loch. The tiny thing, although we had it hunted into shallow water, was quite impossible to hold, and made a triumphant escape into the depths. The cause of the strange moaning of the seal has, so far as I am aware, never been explained. Whenever the seal finds himself on land he appears to indulge in this sad music. The sounds may well be described as musical. The note is rich and full, and carries a considerable dis- tance, certainly over 3 miles. And yet it does not appear to be a very loud sound when heard near-by. It seems hard to imagine that the musical gift is confined to either sex, for, listening to the crying of a seal colony, it always seems as if every individual must share in the performance. During the recent summer (1916) we had an opportunity of observing this habit of the seal at fairly near distance. We happened to be one afternoon at the very extremity of the Rossbehy dunes. Beyond this point, with a deep and rapid arm of the sea intervening, lies, at a distance of about three-quarters of a mile, a bank which uncovers at low water. This is the regular basking-place of one or more seal colonies, and has been so now for several years. Sure enough, a colony of some fifteen or twenty 40 A VISIT TO THE FOZE ROCKS individuals of various sizes were to be seen reclining on the sloping sands or waddling about, apparently at play. The melancholy sounds came to us in fitful bursts : indescribably mournful they were. After listening some time we lay down upon the sand at the water's edge and did our best to howl across the intervening strip of water in the same weird fashion. For some little time there was no effect. Presently they were all looking across at us. We howled more dismally than ever. Now they were thoroughly roused. Simultaneously they all disappeared off their bank. The next thing we saw, after a remarkably short interval, was the appearance of a grey and shiny head looking at us from the water quite near-by. Others then appeared, each with placid head, inspected us for a few seconds, probably made up their minds that we were a fake, and disappeared into the secrecy of the sea. They are very human in their subjection to feelings of curiosity. To return to my narrative. The romance of the mournful music being now quite ended, we turn our attention to the rocks. A glance strengthens the sus- picion that we are dealing with a lava, and that the whole island is indeed composed of this variety of rock. But it is necessary to land in order to make sure of this inference. In spite of the dead calm, this is by no means easy. The eternal breathing of the Atlantic is not really quieted. The black water rises slowly upon the rocky walls draped 41 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS in olive-brown weed, lifting every tendril, and again descends, followed by showers of white foam, where the water runs back from pools and ledges. Landing on such ledges means a wetting at least. We explore the coast of the tiny island, and even discuss the possibility of swimming ashore. But at one place, where the swell at this state of the tide just mounts to the top of a smooth weed-covered wall of rock, but leaves the ledge above uncovered, we discover a likely spot. The boat is backed in stern on to the rock. Four rowers stand by with oars ready to pull off at a signal. Then, just as the stern rises to the ledge one of the party jumps from the stern seat. The signal is given, and a simultaneous pull on the oars removes the boat from the risk of crashing down on possible dangers concealed beneath the weeds. Two of us land in this manner. To leave the boat in sole charge of hands of whom we know nothing does not appear to be a prudent course, apart from other con- siderations. Climbing the smooth black rock, we find everywhere the same materials. It is undoubtedly a dense and compact lava. To all appearance it was formed as an injection or as the base of a deep submarine flow. For there is no sign of the porous structure or layers of ashes which generally characterise surface outflows of volcanic lavas. A botanical examination, with but poor results, is made by one of the party. There are nothing but algae to reward the search . Some of the rock-pools high on 42 A VISIT TO THE FOZE ROCKS the island are brackish, and, plainly, are partly filled with rain-water. All appearances suggest that in winter the sea makes a clean breach over the entire island. No more wild and exposed position exists in the world. We each land in turn, and remove with the aid of hammer and chisel a considerable number of rock samples. That the rock had indeed been visited in former years is proved by finding the rusted remains of an iron stanchion em- bedded in it. This is doubtless a relic of the time when its availability to serve as a lighthouse station was being investigated. We had attained the island at about 1.30 p.m.; it was now a little after 2 o'clock. We returned to the boat and rowed for the Lesser Foze. Upon it I landed. The rock was similar in character to that of the larger island. Most of it was only just above the highest wash of the swell, and I paid for my visit the trivial penalty of wet feet. I splashed about among rock- pools filled with gorgeous sea- anemones and often lined with the dark purple sea-urchins. Everywhere was abundant oar-weed. We had now been absent from Valencia more than six hours. It was necessary to have some consideration for those we had left behind, and who would be anxious if darkness fell before our return. So we said farewell to these rocks, immemorial outposts of a continent, and left them to their loneliness. A moment later and they were lost in the fog. We had settled down to our task of rowing back to Valencia. 43 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS When nearing the coast we saw the not very unusual sight of one of the great Basking Sharks enjoying a siesta upon the surface of the sea. These fish are sometimes termed Sun Fish, although the name is more correctly applied to a relatively small animal which, however, possesses the same curious habit of " basking." The larger fish (Selache maxima] which we now saw is, in fact, the largest fish in the North Atlantic, attaining a length of 30 feet or even more. It is hunted for its oil in the manner of whale-fishing, by harpooning. As much as from i to 1 1 tons of oil is taken from a single fish. This shark is said to be harmless to unaggressive man, as its teeth, although numerous, are small; but when hunted it has been known to stave in the sides of a large boat by a blow of its powerful tail. Its habit of basking renders it conspicuous at a considerable distance; for clouds of gulls then hang above it or perch upon the partly exposed body, feeding, it is said, upon crustaceans, etc., adhering to the skin of the somnolent monster. On nearer approach the large and conspicuous dorsal fin may be recognised projecting high out of the water. This rocks to and fro as the fish is swayed by the swell. It is a strange sight. The true Sun Fish (Orthagoriscus mola] presents a very similar appearance at some little distance. Its much less dimensions easily distinguish it when seen closer. It is commercially valueless. If another brief digression be excused, the following adventure with one of these great fish may be worth 44 A VISIT TO THE FOZE ROCKS recording. Some few years before the date of my narra- tive we were making a passage from Bearhaven to Valencia in a lo-ton cutter, the Woodcock, a sturdy and seaworthy boat if ever there was one. Light and baffling winds held us up, and the heavy swell which prevailed did not serve to accelerate our pace. Such were the conditions when we found ourselves under the frowning cliffs of Bray Head cliffs which receive the Atlantic waves on the south coast of Valencia Island. Here we rolled for some time with only enough wind to keep the main sheet taut. It was not a comfortable position, for there appeared to be an indraught with the swell which continually set us inwards towards the rocks. If the wind completely failed we might have trouble. Suddenly a flock of gulls was observed between us and the shore, suggesting either a Sun Fish or a Basking Shark, or, possibly, a shoal of fish. Then we saw the great fin flapping to and fro, which plainly told us it was one of the former. It happened that my skipper was an ambitious man as well as a bold and dexterous one. He asked leave to have a try at catching the fish, re- presenting the matter as of possible monetary advantage to the crew in general and to himself in particular. He stated that the fish before us was certainly the kind containing the oil, and that he knew of as much as four or five pounds being obtained for the oil of a single fish. Of course we consented, although it was not plain to 45 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS us how the thing was to be done, with the appliances available on board. Mat Ward that was my skipper's name informed us that he proposed lassoing the animal, and stated that the spinnaker brace a new galvanised wire rope with a manilla fall for securing on board was just the thing. Upon this he fashioned a running noose and proceeded to climb from the bowsprit on to the bobstay. I had the tiller at the time, and filling her on the star- board tack we were now between the shark and the land stood out seawards towards the drowsy monster. The assemblage of gulls screamed and flew away at our approach; but the big fin was still there, flapping on the swell as before. Bringing the Woodcock into the wind, as if we were about to pick up a mooring buoy, it was easy to give her just so much way as to very slowly approach the shark. I could not see what went on forward, but my friends relate that Mat got the loop right over the head and body of the animal, almost down to the great dorsal fin. If he accomplished this feat the fish was very securely roped, for the lower fins of the animal, which are nearer to the head, would have pre- vented the rope from readily slipping forward. What- ever he actually accomplished, he succeeded in thoroughly awakening the monster. Then something happened. There was a cry of " He is sounding !" and lo ! we were taken in tow. Control of the Woodcock's course had left my hands. Mat shouted to me to keep her to star- 46 A VISIT TO THE FOZE ROCKS board, but I was helpless. The tightly strained rope slipped along the rail of the starboard bow, and as it did so the yacht began to heel over. This was decidedly alarming. We knew nothing of the strength of the fish to which we were attached. There was no means at hand for cutting adrift. More and more we heeled under the struggles of the huge animal. Then blessed and hoped-for relief ! there was a loud crack and the fish was gone. It was fortunate for the curtailment of our period of anxiety that Mat had made the manilla fall fast on the mast. The brace had gone at the manilla. I lost a new brace and the shark, doubtless, suffered from tight-lacing for some time. It is not always prudent to attempt the unknown. At about 7 o'clock we sighted the Valencia lighthouse, appearing like a white ghost out of the fog. No breath of wind assisted to lighten our labours. We had again made a very straight course. We landed at 7.30 o'clock. This is not designed to be a record of scientific in- vestigation, so I will only say here a word as to the geological aspect of our expedition. The rocks which occur upon the westerly headlands of the Dingle peninsula pre-eminently at Clogher Head are well known to geologists as being of exceptional interest. Here are found plentiful fossils of Silurian age and, intermingled with them, lavas and volcanic ashes. Now, this indicates that these lava flows occurred 47 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS in Silurian times. They must have flowed out upon the floor of the sea upon which the dead remains of Silurian life were accumulating. There are only two other localities known in the United Kingdom where there is similar clear evidence of volcanic activity during Silurian times. This paucity of volcanic activity during this great epoch of the world's history is all the more remarkable because the preceding age that known as the Ordovician period was characterised by very abundant volcanism. In South and North Wales, in the Lake District, in South Scotland, in County Dublin, in Wicklow and Waterford, etc., contemporaneous Ordovician volcanic materials have been abundantly found. This period has been in consequence described as an Age of Fire. The cessation of volcanic activity in Great Britain and Ireland during the ensuing period is remarkable. Any evidence for its continuance is therefore of special interest. The rocks of the Dingle peninsula furnish such evidence, contrary to the general testimony of Silurian rocks in the United Kingdom. As I have said, the Dingle peninsula is undoubtedly prolonged in the outlying islands. Of these, Vickillane shows an association of fossils of Silurian age and volcanic materials not very different from that upon the main- land. The northern promontory of this island is rich in Silurian fossils. The main body of the island is composed of lavas, some of which are highly vesicular; A VISIT TO THE FOZE ROCKS some of them are banded. There is every appearance of cooling under surface conditions. Part ot the lava is indeed a pumice, which is always a surface product of volcanism. The fact now ascertained that the Foze Rocks are formed out of lavas probably belonging to the same great series of flows brings up the Silurian volcanic area of this remarkable district to a total of not less than 10 miles in westerly extension, most of this being concealed beneath the Atlantic. What vicissitudes these island-forming lavas may have undergone since they originally solidified we cannot say. But they probably cooled down when the world was not less than some 90 millions of years younger than it now is, and it is certain that their sculpturing into their present form by the patient attack of the Atlantic waves took many scores of thousands of years to accomplish. Till late that night, after our fatigue had disappeared, we recalled reminiscences of the years which one by one had slipped away. Such talk has always a prevailing tone of melancholy. Perhaps as the result of our long experience of the day, perhaps as partly inherent in the subject of our conversation, a sense of drifting, of drifting on a shoreless sea, seemed to take possession of me and to pervade all my thoughts. There was the feeling of groping and uncertainty, of being borne along in bright but baffling light above some unfathomed region of darkness. These feelings would not be shaken off. 49 D REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS Perhaps we all felt them. Our talk died away into silence. I think we were then hearing an echo of the strange music with which our outward journey had ended. Then we went out for a little under the stars. The sky had cleared. Midnight had long passed, but the dawn was not yet. We heard afar the booming of the Atlantic, and the sounds seemed to harmonise with the mystery of the night. THE FOZE ROCKS. Ill WITH THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL MISSION IN AMERICA AN ESSAY DIRECTED TOWARDS IRISH RECONSTRUCTIONAL PROBLEMS* WITH the downfall of German influences on Anglo- Saxon higher education, and more especially the weakening of those influences on American University ideals, the need for more intimate mutual understand- ing between American and British Universities came into being. This was early recognised in America. And it was in response to the invitation of the American Council of National Defence that the Foreign Office recently sent representatives of the British Universities to the States to visit the leading American Universities and to discuss with American educational experts the steps proper to the development of a more intimate association of the academic life of both countries, the interchange of students and professors being more especially kept in view. It is evident that the object is one of international importance; not only with respect to the advancement * Lecture delivered before the Royal Dublin Society, February the 5th, 1919. 51 of learning and the benefit to research which must attend an intermingling of the University life of the two countries, but because an even more important result may confidently be expected to arise: the strengthening of the bonds binding together the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race. We may be sure that no League of Nations, no Entente, can either equal in effectiveness or replace sympathetic mutual understanding and the possession of similar ideals. Alike in origin and language, with a great literature in common, with similar democratic aspira- tions, it only remains for the free intermingling of the British and American peoples to cement the whole into a great world influence on the side of truth, justice, and peace. By the migration, more especially, of young Univer- sity students is this supremely important result to be most certainly achieved. In his boyhood the man can effect this wonder. It is then he receives impres- sions most readily. It is then he makes his lifelong friendships. And, given a sustained migration of University students in both directions, an ever-in- creasing sympathy between the peoples must arise. These influences permeate rapidly in democratic com- munities. Increased circulation in other ranks of society must follow. Mutual distrust, founded upon ignorance and want of sympathy, will disappear, and an over- whelming influence on the side of peace will ensue. The 52 THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL MISSION boy has won the world's salvation on the battlefield: it is for him now to win the world's peace on the playground. Such is the great idea underlying the Balfour Mission, the reticence of official diction not- withstanding. And our quest had also a curious archaic aspect which was many times vividly before me, more espe- cially when our train was running hour after hour through the primeval forests and more remote regions of the American continent. Then, especially when twi- light came on, the endless receding panorama, as seen from our observation car, suggested some strange journey into the past. What were we out for ? To put back the hands of the clock. In the Middle Ages the student travelled from one University to another. He traversed the long and adventurous roads separating the studium generate of his city from some similar place of learning elsewhere. Surely the Angel of Peace was by his side and guided his footsteps ! With the intensified religious rivalry attending the Reformation that beneficent custom ceased from Europe. The Angel veiled her face and withdrew to a better world. The wandering student disappeared, the long highways knew him no more, and this sacred bond between the young of all civilised lands, instead of growing in strength, was destined to dissolve and disappear. Yes ! the purpose of our mission is to put back the hands of the clock, to restore the old con- ditions, and to invoke once more if it might be that 53 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS departed Angel to a world weary of war and longing for the blessings of enduring peace. So great an ideal might well transform the melancholy landscape with " the light that never was on sea or land." We left the Mersey on September the 28th, 1918. A large convoy of returning transports along with several destroyers accompanied us for a couple of hundred miles. We were thereafter alone on the ocean. We reached New York on October the gth. There is not time in this lecture to tell of our wanderings. I must, however, bear testimony to the generous hospitality which was everywhere extended to us; to the perfect organisation which spared us all the trouble of travel, and provided us with a recognised educational expert as a travelling companion; to the honour which was accorded to us. We were received and most hospitably entertained by President Wilson at the White House a building which, as the President reminded me, is architecturally similar to this Leinster House in which we are now assembled. In Canada we were graciously received by His Excellency the Governor-General and Her Excellency the Duchess of Devonshire. I would much like to tell you of the kindly and high-minded men Presidents, Deans, and Professors of the Great Univer- sities whom we met: men, very often, of world-wide reputation. But I must pass on, because not only must I keep before you the object of the mission as being bound up with the reconstruction of the world, but I 54 THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL MISSION must also dwell upon the subject of the educational reconstruction of Ireland. I had been to the States rather more than twenty years ago. The changes in the great cities which had arisen in the interval between then and now were strikingly apparent. But I soon came to see that the changes were not confined to material development. If I do not err, the people themselves have advanced towards a more idealistic civilisation and towards higher aspirations. And the idealism of modern America is largely directed to educational aims of the wisest and most far-reaching kind. This is the sanest- outcome of a democratic civilisation. And the more thoughtful Americans clearly recognise that only in this direction is democracy assured of a great future. But I think a large number of Americans derive their zeal in the cause of education simply from the fact that they are child-lovers. We had only been a couple of days in New York when we were taken to visit a privately built and endowed elementary school some thirty miles up the Hudson. We ran out on motors through the autumn glories of scarlet, green, and gold, past exquisite glimpses of the beautiful river and its lofty overhanging cliffs, till we reached Mr. Vanderlip's home. He himself took us over his school. It is perfect in every respect within and without. Why had he built it, and why does he spend a fortune upon its excellent teaching staff ? He wished the children, poor and rich, of his locality to have a really 55 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS good school in which they might learn to become good men and women. His own little children attend it. There was no mistaking the sincere enthusiasm which governed his actions. I believe Mr. Vanderlip to be a type in modern America. We are not without such men here. Witness the beneficent play centre of St. Patrick's Park in this city. Witness St. Stephen's Green, and much private effort over the country. Lest you should think I am possessed with exaggerated ideas on the subject of American ideals of education, I shall quote here from a very staid report issued some years ago by the English Board of Education: "The cause at which the nation is at one from the Washington Senate to the slum settlement in New York or Chicago is that of the education of the people. Public education is felt to be of the art of nation-building; it is for this that at the present moment the flag of the nation stands rather than for Imperialism or any other purely political development." This was written eighteen years ago. It is even more true to-day. The high value placed on education in America is shown in many ways by the large sums spent by the several States on the State Universities and on the primary and secondary schools; by the completeness and elaborate- ness of all those institutions ; and, above all, the generous multiplication of splendid schools everywhere, even in quite remote regions. Some States of but a couple 56 THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL MISSION of million inhabitants spend more money on their colleges and technical institutes than the entire income of all the Universities and colleges of the United Kingdom. The enthusiasm for education is also shown in the great and increasing literature on the subject. The general interest in it is soon perceived by the visitor. Speak on the subject to the average frequenter of the city club, to your neighbour at dinner, or in the railway carriage, whether man or woman, interest is instantly awakened. You get new ideas and often details of information with which you were unacquainted. The vast number of educational experiments it is an experimental science is another witness of the trend of national thought. Finally, you have the unanswerable evidence of the munificent donations given by private individuals often anonymously or in memory of friends to the schools and Universities. The American ideal of school and University educa- tion is one of democratic equality. There exist, indeed, class schools, and to some extent class Universities, but these are privately endowed. Co-education is general in the public schools, and it exists in varying degrees in most of the Universities. Another broad principle prevails in school and University education. No sectarian distinctions are permitted. In short, the unifying principle is recognised as primary in the American scheme of education. The varying national- ities which flock to America can never develop into " 57 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS good citizens if either religious or political differences are allowed to prevail in school life. The child is taught self-abnegation and subordination to the interests of the State. In other words, he is brought up to the highest ideal of citizenship. And the school is designed to be in the words of a United States Commissioner of Education " the symbol of an eternal unifying spirit." But don't let it be thought that there is no religion in the land; that the Bible is not read; that the churches are empty. This would be an error. Those who desire evidence on this point should read the able Report on Moral Education in American Schools (from which I have already quoted) issued by the British Board of Education in 1902. My own experience is that religion in the Universities is carried into everyday life in a manner uncommon in this country. We were received at Illinois with an allegorical representation of the friendship between Britannia, Illinois, and Canada. It was made the occasion of a solemn religious ceremony, closing with prayer and the Benediction. A couple of thousand people, at least, took part. The churches attached to the Universities or associated with the students are well filled on Sundays. The Y.M.C.A. is active everywhere, and all religious denominations are represented. Handbooks are issued, and handsome settlement houses are open to the students. I have here one of these handbooks. The Preface is written by the president of the University. 58 THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL MISSION The Bible is read in most of the public schools. Some- times this is definitely enjoined by law of the State, as in the case of the City of New York, with its five million inhabitants, where the rule stands: "Sect. 134. All the schools of this City under the jurisdiction of the Board of Education shall be opened with reading a portion of the Holy Scripture without note or comment." The Lord's Prayer, too, is very often recited. But public money will be denied to any school which teaches the tenets of any particular religious sect. There are many Universities associated with special creeds eg., the fine Catholic University of America, at Washington ; the Boston (Catholic) College, Chestnut Hill. Others are essentially Protestant e.g., the Boston Uni- versity. Such institutions are not supported by the State. The American child is born into a world which in many social particulars differs from our own. He, as a social unit, claims equality with all his little fellow- citizens. His eyes may first see light in a garret; the complaints of poverty may be the first sounds to reach his ears; but the moment he enters on his school life perhaps at three and a half years when he is brought to the Kindergarten or to the Montessori school, he is, in virtue of his sacred humanity, a being having claims upon the State equal to those of the child of the million- aire. At six he enters the Elementary School. In these early years he is taught side by side with other little citizens of every grade of society. 59 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS I would like at this point to give you some idea of the spirit which underlies American and Canadian education. In addressing the Canadian teachers, the President of the Winnipeg Normal School makes this beautiful appeal : " Would you hear your country's call ? I bring you here those who are my hope. I bring you the children of the wealthy and the children of the poor. I bring you those who differ in race and in language, in custom and in tendencies. I bring you the physically strong and the physically weak; the mentally sound and those to whom Nature has not given a full measure of strength. I bring you my boys and my girls who are to be the fathers and mothers in this great land. Will you accept them all ? Out of this heterogeneous combination can you bring unity ? Can you reconcile wealth and poverty so that the feeling of a common brotherhood will prevail ? Can you teach British, French, Germans, Scandinavians, Icelanders, and Poles that in this free land all are equally worthy if unreservedly they accept the honour and perform the duties of true citizenship ? Can you rise above distinctions in creed so as to forget that we have Jew and Gentile, Catholic and Protestant ? Can you, in recognising to yourself distinctions of every kind, so order your work that these will not be a source of separation and contention, but the very elements of strength in a nation in which the ideal of brotherhood prevails ?" 60 THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL MISSION In the Elementary School the boys and girls are taught together. They learn English, mathematics, Nature studies, writing, physical culture, and singing, throughout the eight years. For lesser periods history and drawing are taught. During the last two years the boys learn carpentry and the girls household arts. These are very popular subjects. Latin is optional. I cite the curriculum in the public Elementary Schools of Chicago. When the child attains fourteen years the parent may terminate his school education just as here in Ireland. This is admittedly a blot on State education in America, a blot which I was told would probably soon be removed. The Fisher Act has lately removed it from English school education. If the boy's education is continued after his time in the Elementary School is accomplished, he passes into the Secondary or High School, and spends four years there. In the High School English and Latin are taught for the whole four years, but a modern language may be substituted for Latin. Physical culture, music and drawing, also run for the four years. Algebra and geometry and other sciences are taught for lesser periods. There are many optional subjects. And very often the career in the High School is replaced by one in a School of Commerce or some other vocational institution which combines general education with some bread- 61 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS winning subject of instruction. I believe I am correct in adding that courses in civics or " citizenship " are now included in all, or nearly all, American public school curricula. To teach the relation of the individual to the State and the supreme importance of the interests of the latter are the objects in view. The High Schools of America are wonderful wonder- ful in accommodation, in equipment, and in the spirit which appears to prevail between teacher and pupil. The relations of pupil and teacher are, according to our ideas, peculiar. The teacher is on a footing of equality with the pupil to an extent which we would deem in- jurious. Some claim for this the advantage that the pupil in consequence reveals his defects more readily. It need hardly be said that more than this is aimed at by the laxness of the American system. Pages might be, and have been, written about what is intended. Briefly, it is to treat the child as a reasonable being; to train him to self-control under the guiding influences of the teacher's personality and the public opinion of the class. In short, the aim is " character-building." The personality of the teacher is admittedly the most important factor, and this factor cannot have full play if there is a formal relationship between teacher and pupil. The want of ceremonial diffidence towards the school-teacher, coupled with the mixing of all grades of society, would appear to impose a heavy burthen on the teacher. And so they do. It is said that European teachers almost invariably 63 fail to handle an American school class. There is no corporal punishment or at least it is very rare. An unruly child is sent home and his attendance suspended for a period. Whatever be the defects of the system, it certainly sends up to the colleges boys and girls equal to our best. And the events attending conscription in America seem to show that a great law-abiding and patriotic middle and labouring class exists in the United States. I was anxious to obtain an insight into American methods of school-teaching. At Houston, in Texas, I asked to be allowed to take lessons in the Junior High School. This was gladly granted. My first lesson was in Hygiene. The teacher was a lady. There were about twelve boys and as many girls between, say, fourteen and sixteen years of age. The boys and girls sat on separate benches. The teacher sat at a table on which were bell-glasses covering preparations of gelatine which bore evidence of bacterial infection. The children had, evidently, on a previous occasion, themselves made these cultures. The questions ran like this: Q. What did you do to this plate ? A.I put my finger on it. Q. Why did you do that ? A . To see if there were bacteria on my finger. Q. Are there other sources of bacteria ? A. Oh yes, lots. My saliva, the air, objects lying about. And so on, the boys doing most of the answering. My next lesson was a Nature-study. The subject was common rocks a subject I have myself sometimes en- 63 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS deavoured to teach. The teacher was an elderly gentle- man. He seemed pleased to have a contemporary pupil. I sat in the back row. A couple of dozen boys, or rather more, made up the class. The rock specimens came round, and the boys said what they were and where they had*come from. I gathered that the children had themselves collected the specimens. One came to me. A sweet little fellow on my right thought I was " stuck." " Sandstone," he said in a whisper. And so it was. May the Good Angel whose privilege it is to look after little children protect and reward him ! For the years of life, the long years, fell from me, and I had risen from the grave. My school friends in their angelic youth were by my side. The dream lasted but a moment . Then it was broken; it faded and was gone. These children were probably derived from various nationalities. Some were Jewish in features. All were spotlessly clean and nicely dressed. Their faces were frank and open. The boys were manly little fellows. My presence seemed to make no difference; I was just greeted with friendly glances. To say the truth, I rather envied teachers who seemed in such perfect sympathy with their pupils. The College or University receives the boy when he is about eighteen. Between a College and a University there is often but little distinction. Generally the University is associated with the graduate school of research leading to the higher degrees i.e. t to the 64 THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL MISSION M.A. and Ph.D. and with the schools of the older professions, Divinity, Law, and Medicine. The College course is typically for four years, leading to a bacca- laureate in Arts or Science, the B.A. and the B.S. A large number of the Universities are State Universities. These are supported by the several States, often by means of a land-grant made to the University. Such institutions generally possess a Faculty or School of Agriculture. The endowed Universities such as Har- vard, Yale, Johns Hopkins have nothing to do with Agriculture. Some of these are fabulously wealthy, and their graduate schools constitute the finest educa- tional achievement of America. In all the great Universities there is a most lavish provision of equipment. Nothing is wanting either for study or research, so far as money can supply it. The health physical and mental of the students is con- scientiously provided for. In some cases e.g., Pennsyl- vania the boy is under medical supervision the whole time, and the sports he takes part in depend on the restrictions imposed by the University Medical Staff. He must get credit for a couple of hours' gymnastic training per week, and must learn to swim in his first year. The teaching staff are more numerous than in our Universities. There may be twenty or more teachers of English, for example, and the study of that subject may be subdivided into ninety or more courses. And 65 E so for other subjects. It must be remembered that the numbers of students dealt with are very great, up to 8,000 in one University, or even more. A study of any one of the great Universities e.g., Yale, Harvard, Michigan, Pennsylvania, etc. is most impressive, not only on the score of accommodation and equipment and, very often, the high order of architectural beauty attained by the buildings, but because of the sterling qualities of the men who conduct these great institutions, and, indeed, of the students who attend them. The lads, so far as I met them, were just like the best of our own. If I had a boy to send, I would gladly give him if only for his own sake a session in one of these great Uni- versities. It would be an education in itself. It is no wonder that the alumni of these great institutions later in life, if fortune smile upon them, return to their parent and lavish their wealth upon her. Such University benefactors have often been poor indeed in their student days. Here, in a book of Students 1 Aids, issued by Harvard, the most select of the Univer- sities, we have a list of the means by which a boy may supplement his income. He may be a janitor, a waiter, a professional shopper, etc., and even a " man to personate Santa Glaus." The latter was poorly paid; he earned but half a dollar. The family cows have been driven to the college campus and the milk sold to fellow-students. Goldsmith and Linnaeus had the like experience in their day. In this land of right-thinking and divine 66 ENTRANCE GATE OF A GREAT UNIVERSITY OF THE MIDDLE WEST WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, ST. LOUIS, MO. To face page 66. THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL MISSION charity such students are honoured because of their efforts. Notwithstanding the great work which American education has accomplished and the excellent material it turns out, there are many American writers who criticise their system on two points, which it is pro- fitable for us to consider. It is said that purely infor- mational teaching in contradistinction with cultural teaching prevails to too great an extent in the schools. It is an old belief of my own that one generation cannot educate the next. Hence giving information to the boy is of less importance than training his intellect so that he may later in life take a clear and correct view of the environmental factors of his time. The second point is that too much is sacrificed to the demo- cratic ideal. For on this, in America, is based the idea that segregation of the clever boys and girls is unfair to the less clever ones. Hence there are no honour courses in the Universities and colleges. Now, the evil here is that we fly in the face of that great law prevailing throughout Nature the law of the survival of the fittest, Nature's seemingly most merciless but really most beneficent law. We in Great Britain are unquestionably right in favouring the clever boy; he is of more value to the State than the stupid lad. And besides, it is very doubtful if we injure the latter by the segregation of intelligence. We have not yet in Ireland risen to the idea of a 67 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS University in really close touch with the life of the people. The State University of America seeks by every means to get into touch with the life of the State. It most effectively does this by its many-sided educational functions. There is a strong and increasing influence of the University on the Schools. It aims at becoming the real head of the whole educational system. It trains a large part of the Secondary School teachers; it co- operates with the public authorities in determining their standards; and it offers free education to students residing in the State. Let us consider the relation between State University and Public School in Illinois, for example. By a law of the State of Illinois, passed in 1911, it is possible for the voters in the State to organise a High School in any compact and contiguous territory of over 1,000 inhabitants. In consequence of this the Township High Schools, 16 in number in 1900, rose to 263 in 1916. It is believed that there will be 1,000 of them before very long. The University of Illinois influences these schools through its inspections, matriculation examina- tion, and bulletins. The moment a student enters the High School his acquaintance with the University begins. He finds the syllabus laid down to meet the University requirements; his teachers are in communication with the Educational Faculty of the University; and the School is periodically paraded before the University inspector. The University holds an annual conference which the teachers attend (Kevins' "Illinois"). In 68 THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL MISSION all this there is much for us to ponder on, here in Ireland. But there is another direction in which the American State University gets into touch with the wants of the people: by its agricultural teaching and research. We may, again, illustrate this by the case of the University of Illinois. At Illinois the work done for the State by the College of Agriculture attached to the University falls under three general heads: activity in research; dissemination of advice and information by correspondence; teaching in the College and in other institutes. An extensive physical and chemical analysis of the soil of Illinois has been made by the University. It is a general State soil survey. A detailed one, even down to 5-acre lots, is being carried out. These investigations are a necessary basis for scientific methods of agriculture. Important results have already been arrived at. Experi- ments are being made on crop-production, milk-production, and meat-production. The saving of millions of dollars is said to have been effected by these experiments. In the Nutrition Laboratory of the University experi- ments have been conducted on the influence of different kinds of feeding stuffs on the growth, fattening, and nutrition of beef, cattle, swine, and lambs; and these have established the best rations for such animals. These experiments were extended to human diet. Conclusions of the greatest importance were arrived at by these well- 69 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS known investigations. It would be impossible here to go into the work on experimental entomology or on the very different subject of fuels. Enough has been said to show the practical spirit which animates much of the work of the University. That such undertakings would not be suited to our older Universities in these countries will be held by many. Still, I think we are steadily moving in that direction. The older Universities of America were at first equally slow to embark on practical technology and such sub- ects as Commerce, Journalism, etc. Thus Columbia University, although supported and urged by influential business men, hesitated for a decade before she embarked on Commerce, fearing an injurious reaction on the older faculties. Yet to-day many Universities give degrees in such subjects, and we have not thought it derogatory te the dignity of Trinity College to encourage the subject of Commerce. Nor have we stopped at Commerce. We have pursued the descensus Averni so far as Agriculture. While, however, willing to follow in the steps of the young institutions of America so far, it is probable that so long as our educational system in Ireland from bottom upwards remains as it is, any further steps to follow American precedent in its completeness must be attended with difficulty. The educational hold which the State University has on the community is largely due to the Secondary or High School system of the country. We have no such organised High Schools here in Ireland. 70 THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL MISSION Of course, our class distinctions and religious denomina- tional distinctions would, in any case, render it impossible to establish any unifying University influence at the present time. Still, I think there is room for much valuable University influence on the Secondary Schools of this country; not only on private schools, but on public schools. It constitutes an important branch of re- constructional work, needing much thought, knowledge, and experience to successfully develop. For I am con- vinced it is the sort of influence which should be invited and developed, not enforced or created. It would ultimately result in the several Universities of this country getting into touch with such larger Secondary Schools as were in sympathy with the ideals of the University. The bond need not amount to affiliation, but might involve advice, inspection, and the training of teachers, and even in some cases the teaching of the more advanced pupils by University teachers in scientific subjects more especially. Then, too, the University might conduct examinations and endorse leaving certifi- cates Such a friendly alliance would benefit all parties the students, the schools, and the Universities and I think it would be welcomed by many masters of Secondary and Intermediate Schools. When we come to consider the agricultural functions of the State Universities of America with reference to our own country, we must refrain from suggestions or conclusions till we have studied a different type 7* REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS of institution which in the United States and in Canada has done splendid work for Agriculture. I refer to the Agricultural College. We may take as example the Iowa State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, the headquarters of which are at Ames. I have here a report specially prepared for the British Educational Mission by the Director. We shall confine our attention to the Division of Agriculture. The work of the Agricultural Division includes three major lines of organisation. These are 1. The College. 2. The Experiment Station. 3. The Extension Service. We must again curtail our studies by confining our attention to the work of the Experiment Station. The Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station has for its object to study the agricultural problems of the State. These it summarises thus: 1. Improvement of crops and live stock by breeding. 2. Improved methods of growing and marketing farm crops. 3. Maintenance of the fertility of soils. 4. New and better methods of feeding and handling live stock. 5. Manufacture and marketing of dairy products. 6. Growing and marketing of fruit and truck crops. 72 THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL MISSION 7. Control of insect pests and plant diseases. 8. The housing of live stock and storing of crops. 9. Systems of farm management. 10. Social surveys of rural committees. A large staff is employed. The projects of investiga- tion at present under way number about one hundred. A project has to be considered and approved by the Director after being outlined by the members of the staff. The creation of an experimental farming station of similar scope in this country would be the best of all reconstructive acts. There can be no doubt of its use- fulness and of the need for it, for there is really nothing like this in Ireland. There is much good work of agri- cultural propaganda going on, but a properly organised and properly staffed experimental farming station does not exist here. Many years ago this project was very carefully con- ^ sidered by the Council of the Royal Dublin Society. It was deemed to be, financially, within the ability of the Society to carry through. We got valuable encourage- ment from Sir Alfred D. Hall, then Director of Rotham- stead, who considered such a station, as apart from the work of Rothamstead, desirable, owing to the dif- ferences in agricultural and climatic conditions in Ireland and England. The matter fell through at the time. To-day we might perhaps hope for Government support. jt is a scheme which must affect the wealth of the 73 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS Empire. I believe it is again under consideration. I think we ought to stop considering it, and get it done. Much of the value of such an Experimental Agricul- tural Station would be lost if it was not made available for agricultural instruction. It is in this connection it comes, properly speaking, within the scope of my remarks. The opportunities offered by it would be of inestimable service to all those institutions in Ireland which offer teaching in Agriculture. All alike should be allowed, under certain conditions, to enter students for practical instruction. There are two other branches of education in the States to which we here in Ireland should pay special attention Commercial and Technical. The establishment of Commercial Schools taking the place of the High School and receiving boys who have finished with the Elementary School is a com- paratively recent development. I inspected a beautiful institution of this kind at Boston. It held some thirteen hundred boys, all under eighteen years of age. There is, of course, a general educational course as well as a business course. The boys are given opportunities in the great business houses of Boston to acquire a practical knowledge of their profession. They may even earn considerable sums of money in this way. The Director told me that last summer under the pre- vailing war conditions his boys earned a total of over 70,000 dollars. He had a table showing the earnings of 74 THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL MISSION the different grades. While such Commercial High Schools are comparatively recent, the commercial or business course in the High School is an older institution. The first University of America to found a School or Faculty of Commerce was Pennsylvania. This was in 1881, by a private endowment. University Schools and Colleges of Commerce are now everywhere, and enormous numbers of students attend them. Fifteen years ago there were over 190,000 commercial students in the States. I have no recent figures. The completeness of the curricula and the choice of courses open to the student are well deserving of study. In some colleges elaborate counting-houses, reproducing all the fittings and trappings of a large commercial house, are provided, and fictitious paper money is dealt with. Business correspondence is carried on with other schools or among the pupils. The Amanu- ensis Course (Shorthand, Typewriting, etc.) is largely patronised by women. Pennsylvania offers a four years' course in Finance and Economy leading to the B.E. Economics, and shorter courses in Commerce and Industry, in Social Work, Business Practice, Banking, Diplomacy, and International Law. It is impossible to go further into the subject here. The study of the scope and methods of commercial teaching in the United States would be most profitable. If we did things in this country the way we ought to do them, we would send an expert in commercial educa- 75 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS tion to America to study its recent developments. I believe the Royal Dublin Society would do good by taking such a step. A full report would benefit the whole country, and would help our Irish University and School authorities to decide on the curricula best adapted to Irish needs. Turning to the subject of technical training, we are again in the difficulty of having to dismiss in a few words a subject on which volumes might be written. When all is said, the most wonderful educational feature of America is the Technical Laboratory. Yet, strange to say, it is just possible that before many years are out the University laboratory may no longer hold a first place in the estimation of the engineer or electrician. There appears to be a tendency towards teaching the pupil by actual experience in the shop or factory. At Cincinnati this is carried out, and very successfully carried out. The student works for a fortnight in the shops and then studies for a fortnight in the University alternately. He is paid for his work in the shops at current rates. But, of course, not every University is so placed as to be able to offer its students the requisite number and variety of engineering workshops. A half- way " proposition " as an American would say is for the works to supply to the University the latest machines on loan. The object in both cases is to get over the recognised difficulty of always providing up-to- date machinery and appliances. One thing is worth 76 THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL MISSION noting. There seems to be always the most cordial desire on behalf of the big works to help the University and the student. The scale on which the Technical Laboratories are built and equipped cannot be realised by any descrip- tion. At Illinois I saw one of the great railway loco- motives bodily brought, into the laboratory on a siding for testing and experiment by the students. At Michigan there was a full-sized naval design tank, and experiments were going on upon wax models of submarines, etc. I envied this more than anything I saw. At Yale the engineering shop is just like a large works, with travelling crane traversing the entire shop, so that the heaviest machines could be carried about and grouped in any way. This is a favourite feature. I have seen in the larger institutions separate laboratories for experi- ments on reinforced concrete, for stone-testing, concrete- testing, metal and timber testing; and separate labora- tories for steam engines, internal combustion engines, for hydraulic machinery, electric generators, electric motors; all manner of lathe work and metal work; foundries for casting; and these all leading up to the finer work of the physical laboratory, where, with delicate instruments, furnace temperature, spectroscopic work, electrical measurement, etc., were dealt with. And from these one passes finally into the endless research resources of the great physical and chemical depart- ments. All are open to the student. Nothing too good 77 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS for education ! Of the many great Institutes of Tech- nology and Schools of Technology of America I have no time to speak. The Massachusetts Institute is recog- nised as the largest of its kind in the world. When are we going to reconstruct our methods and opportunities for teaching technical science in Ireland ? We have municipal schools here and there. Our College of Science in Dublin is a credit to us. But the whole subject requires to be handled in a broad way, on quite a different scale. The first thing would be to get the schools. And I believe they should be graded in the matter of equipment. A comparatively inexpensive equipment would do for boys of, say, fourteen to sixteen. Such schools would teach the elements of mechanical training along with a course in English, Mathematics, etc., and they should not be segregated in the big cities. They should be scattered over the small towns of Ireland. When the boy had run, say, a two-year course in this technical school, I would if he proved suitable draft him into a larger city training school. That school should endeavour to obtain the support of local manufacturers, who would accept for instruction, in return for such help as the lads could render, a small number of the older boys. The final step would be the College of Science, the University, or apprenticeship in the works. There is ample material to feed such a training system. The " one too many," instead of leaving his native land, would become a help and a support to her. Money 78 THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL MISSION spent on the building and equipment of a hundred such schools in Ireland would be well invested. If only we could get our authorities to see that herein that is, in matters educational is the saving of this country ! It is customary to talk of the temptations of the towns. The temptations of the country are far worse. Few not naturally ballasted with strong common sense or good education can stand the loafing at country fairs, or the holiday and there are plenty of them spent sitting on a wall, in the lamentable occupation of nursing one's grievances, reviving old ones and imagining new ones. Upon the subject of Primary Education in Ireland it is difficult to say much. It is hedged round with controversial questions. It is said that difficulties have been raised in the way of the extension of the excellent Fisher Act. Any radical improvement must involve continuation schools; for the greatest evil of all in this country is the early age of withdrawal of the children. It is quite true what a recent writer has stated that the vast majority of our youth receive no education after thirteen or fourteen. The figures speak for them- selves. In the last Report of the National Board we read: "The average number of pupils over three and under fifteen years of age, the limits of age defined in the Act of 1892, Sec. 18, Subsec. (5), in daily attendance was 483,732. The total average attendance of those who were fifteen and above was 10,586, or 2-1 per cent, of 79 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS the total number in average daily attendance." The teaching is, I do not doubt, good. The fault is there is not enough of it. What becomes of a child withdrawn at fourteen years of age ? He is put to herd cattle, weed the fields, run messages, etc., and what should be the most important years of mental growth are given over to mental atrophy. The consequence is arrested mental development and a useless citizen, or, possibly, one worse than useless. I believe a large part of our troubles in this country are due to this great sin of omission by the State. We seldom consider how much of our troubles is due to our own acts. There is no such thing as equilibrium in animate communities of any sort. There is continual unrest. There is nothing in itself unhealthy in such un- rest. On the contrary, rest means stagnation and decay. The danger is of such unrest finding vent in acts injurious to the community. The American is quite aware of this when he teaches his children subordination to the interests of the State citizenship, in other words. The child should be kept in school till he learns something of these things. In Ireland the poor parent will tell you that he wants the wages or the assistance of the child. He cannot afford to keep him at school. This is, doubtless, very often true. When it is, the State should devise means of recompensing the parent. The child is too valuable an asset to be let go adrift. 80 THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL MISSION I have suggested elsewhere a palliative something not so good as a continuation school, but better than nothing; something which, in many cases, would give the child opportunities for good reading in his home after he is withdrawn from school. I would endeavour to accomplish this in two ways. I would have a juvenile lending library hi every National School, and I would issue a Juvenile Journal every week, to be delivered gratis at the parents' cottage. On this weekly I would spare no expense. Good paper, good pictures, good stories, short instructive articles, simple problems to be worked, and prizes to be won prizes worth having. In order to get the child into the way of reading this Journal, I would begin its issue before his retirement from school, and then influence him to read it and win prizes. Such a paper might influence the parent also and lighten the darkness the unspeakable darkness of the winter evening in the country cabin. Neither politics nor de- nominational religion would find a place in its pages. A Catholic and a Protestant Censor might sit with the editorial staff if desired. I know of a parish in Co. Kildare, and of a Vicar who once lived there and who is now sixty years dead. He established, at his own expense, a lending library for the poor of his parish. There was a considerable children's library. Vicar and Parish Priest worked this library in concord, desiring simply to brighten the lives of the people; and till death closed the labours of the moving 81 F REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS spirits of this simple charity, these little books, which I have before me, circulated among the villagers. Of the good that was done I have no record. That it has left no record I do not believe.* Is there anyone here who wants evidence of the defect of primary education in this country ? To him I would say, Go into their cabins. Do you really believe that these people are unteachable ? Do you believe that girls kept in school till they had learned something of housecraft would live in such surroundings ? It is little use teaching housecraft or hygiene to children leaving at fourteen. They leave, not only before they understand these things, but while they are still too young to have any voice in home affairs. Yes, we suffer in every way for our sins of omission. There is no better invested money than money spent on education. Our American cousins have recognised this long ago. It is the biggest lesson to be learned from America. If you won't spend money on educa- tion, you have to spend far more in trying to curb the * Perhaps I should finish this story of an unrecorded life. The Vicar died young, while still almost a boy. Yet he had time to do a good deal. For one thing he trained the village boys to form a band; the Irish have a natural gift for music. He died in Co. Dublin, and the coffin was brought by rail to Kildare. There were many dreary miles between the railway station and the village churchyard. It was winter, and snow was on the ground. The parishioners carried the coffin the whole way, the priest taking his turn with the others. Eleven years later I know these people still remembered. And yet it is often said the Irish are ungrateful. 82 THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL MISSION evils of ignorance. Neglect the dwellings of the poor, and your children catch the fevers of the slums. Neglect the educational needs of the people, and the unrest of life, which ought to be a healthful unrest, marking progress onwards and upwards, turns to bitterness and strife. The last purely educational question I shall touch upon is the starvation of the Universities in this country that is, in Great Britain. We are no worse off here than in England. The financial provision made by our Government for University, medical, and higher technical education in the United Kingdom is about 500,000 annually (England and Wales get 300,000; Scotland, 84,000; and Ireland, 100,000). The total annual income of all the Universities and University Colleges in the British Isles, including the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, is about 2,000,000. The income of the Universities and Colleges of the United States is 20,000,000. This does not include benefactions, which are much in excess of donations in England. The purely Agricultural and Technical Colleges of the United States receive an annual income of 7,000,000. The population ratio is about 4 to 10. What are the primary consequences of this national parsimony ? In America there were in 1914, 34,000 students in Colleges of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts; in Britain the corresponding number including all technical students was 4,000. 83 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS The first Report (1915-1916) of the British Advisory Council for Scientific and Industrial Research pointed out that the primary conditions of success for its opera- tions was a largely increased supply of competent researchers. But you cannot get your researchers unless you increase the number of the University students from which the researchers come. And again, unless you endow the Departments of Research in the Univer- sities, you cannot expect high efficiency. There is another reason why it is hard to get research students in this country, and that is because we have not yet got over the examination fetish. In America all manner of valuable appointments are won by ability in research. This has frequently been pointed out by writers on American education. The primary evil here is want of financial provision for young researchers to use the new word in our Universities. This is a subject on which I could say so much that it seems better to say nothing. In America the education of the teacher takes a more important place than it has hitherto done in this country. This is, of course, work of the most funda- mental importance. The physiological psychology of the child has been a prominent study for the last twenty years in the States, as well as the study of the develop- ment of the instincts of childhood and stages of mental growth. When pedagogical teaching and training were more recently introduced as graduate subjects in the THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL MISSION American Universities, pedagogy assumed the place of an experimental science. In the Universities of Chicago and of Columbia what has been called a Laboratory of Educa- tion has been long established with very valuable results. The monographs issued from the former school by Professor Dewey are well known. This is work of which but little seems to have been done in Ireland. Our University schools of education are not what they should be. They are laudable in design, but they are understaffed. They are, in fact, starved. They do not take the position they are entitled to occupy among the other schools of the University. As a science for University study and research of the first importance, education has nowhere in Ireland received adequate recognition, so far as I am aware. The College of Teachers in Columbia University had a staff of more than seventy special teachers some years ago. The School of Educa- tion in the University of Chicago has seventy- five in- structors to-day. Well staffed and highly organised Elementary and High Schools are associated with the University, in which the practice of teaching and the experimental work are carried out. It will be quite obvious that similar University develop- ments in this country are out of the question so long as the existing financial restrictions continue. In thinking over our distressful educational state it has sometimes seemed to me that an Irish Educational Conference or Convention might do good. It might at 85 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS least lead to a clear statement of our wants in practical or technical education. For there is always the danger and I have felt it a good deal in writing on the subject that no one individual is competent to look at the extremely complex questions arising in connection with education from all points of view; for, really, no one person can hope to know enough about them. A Con- vention gathered from North, South, East, and West might remedy this. I have taken you to America, but told you nothing about the many cities we saw there, the kindly and great men we met, the triumphs of science and art which were shown to us. My own deep impression coming away is that a wonderful future lies before that great land a destiny of which its people are well deserving, for they are winning it for themselves. They have built up their nation on the sure foundations of wise and sane education. If the great object of the British Educational Mission is to be accomplished, it is to this land we should send our boys for a portion of their academic career, so that they will get to know those cousins of theirs. Only good can come to them by paying such a visit. They will make friends with lads as worthy and as high- minded as themselves. They will see for themselves something of the great educational and social work being done on the other side of the Atlantic. But, above 86 THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL MISSION all and before all, it is through their agency alone that enduring peace can be secured for the world. Get the lads to mix, and leave the rest to time. The day will come when these men will grow into professional and commercial influence. Some will sit in Parliament or in Congress, and the other land will be to them shrined in a thousand personal memories. Thus only will peace be assured to the world. It is no unreal dream. It is the making of history in the light of human nature. No greater cause has ever been committed to the University. Leagues, Ententes, are but " scraps of paper " when the supreme test comes. One thing only can make peace permanent: mutual understanding and respect. What is true of individuals is true of nations. Therein is the reconstructive policy of the world. Those who never will grow old who never will grow old because they gave their golden years to England claim from us that we carry this great thing to its fruition. It is well with the world so long as we remember this. The only danger is " lest we forget." How are we to accomplish this important end ? The Americans are enthusiastic on its behalf. They will do their part of that be assured. How are we to do ours ? I have little doubt that best of all would be Travelling Scholarships, founded in our Universities, to pay the cost of the lad's journey and extra expenses in the other country such scholarships to be founded in the name of those who have fallen. And in this way 87 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS the memory of the great sacrifice will be perpetuated, and the object for which it was made be realised. Will those who have lost near relatives in the war support this cause, supreme above all others ? Could any greater monument be raised to the fallen ? Can we who are old do any better thing ? And it applies to the women of the Empire as it applies to men. We should have Edith Cavell Travelling Scholarships in every Woman's College or Co- educational Institution in the Kingdom, enabling a girl to go to Bryn Mawr or Holyoke or other Women's College in the States. She would go to win honour for the institution which sent her; to play her part in strengthening the bonds between the Nations; to accomplish the work for which some young brother gave his life his all. Is not this the true way of accomplishing the great end in view ? Not by Treasury grants, but by voluntary offerings from the heart of the Nation, the very names of the Scholarships telling our successors for all time that they must not forget. Yes, as we sail away from New York, we have many things to think upon. The Statue of Liberty looms darkly through the wet December twilight. The torch held aloft is hidden in obscurity. But it needs little imagination to see its clear shining. It shines over a whole vast continent. It shines over mighty cities and over humble log huts remote in virgin forests. And by its light we see a great people intent upon their work, THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL MISSION never pausing, never doubting, never tiring, still ever striving after their high ideals. What are those ideals ? Pre-eminently these these which are, and ever will be, inseparably associated the wise upbringing of the little children and the peace of the world. IV A CRUISE OF INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES THE rumble of the anchor chain brought me on deck in the early dawn of the I2th July, 1918. The s.s. Alexandra was just beginning to move. Sleeping Knightstown* was being slowly left astern. The dawn was a late one, for mists lay on every hilltop and the sky was heavy above. Yet it was dawn, and the shadows of night were melting away. There was a fresh but silent wind, so that the only sounds were the murmur of our engines a gentle sound at this speed and the lapping of the little harbour waves against the ship. Mystery and gloom were over all, but there was a grateful sense of peace. And now we near the two blinking lights which guard the Harbour Rock and, turning till they are in line, make for the harbour entrance at half speed. The light on Cromwell Point is burning, but hidden from us in this position. Then the last of Beginnis Island its seaward * Valentia Harbour, Co. Kerry, at which port I joined the Tour of Inspection. The coast from Dublin to Valentia had already been inspected when my cruise began. 90 basaltic cliffs is passed, and Doulus Head beyond lies stretched away to starboard, a dark and sinister monster crouching between sea and sky; for the clouds are on his summit. Nothing of the islands without is seen. They are hidden in gloom and mist and still prevailing night. The coast we are leaving astern dwindles to a dark outline ere Inishnabro and Inishvickillane become visible shadows. Of the further and smaller Foze Rocks nothing is visible. In the increasing light the two islands become separ- ately and more clearly visible, and by taking bearings from the chart the Great Foze is picked up, looking like a dark vessel dimly seen through the gloom. We are now making for the channel between Inishnabro and Inish- vickillane, a passage in which there is anchorage, safe from many winds, far out in the Atlantic. Of the two islands, Inishvickillane deserves a moment's attention. Inishvickillane is a remarkable island. It rises steep-to from the sea, save on the side facing Inishnabro, where landing may be effected and a somewhat precipitous path found to the desolate plateau some 300 or 400 feet above. On this rocky and, in places, grassy plateau a lonely couple formerly dwelt, winter and summer, inhabiting a rude hut built under the shelter of a rock. Their livelihood was obtained by trapping the lobsters which frequent the weed-covered rocks below, an occupa- tion which must often have been attended with no little danger both from precipice and wave. The lobsters were 91 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS fetched away by passing fishing-boats anchoring in the sound between the islands. These visitors, in exchange for the lobsters, left behind the necessaries of life. It is said that this couple lived thus for half a lifetime. Then the man died, and his wife still inhabited the desolate spot for yet a few more years. When first I visited this island, on geological matters intent, now many years ago, no trace remained, save the ruins of the hut, of the only inhabitants Inishvickillane had known in the memory of man. But it is the geological structure of the island that will most attract the visitor. The western end up which you climb is composed of a soft, yellowish rock filled with fossil remains of a very remote fauna that of the old Silurian epoch. Reaching the summit and traversing the island longitudinally, one soon comes on the ancient lava which composes the greater part of the island, and which undoubtedly forms its foundations far beneath the ocean. This lava is surprisingly fresh in appearance. It is of the same age as the fossils, which it probably overflowed in some eruption beneath the Silurian sea. Part of it is so sponge-like in structure as to present but little difference from modern pumice. This is not easily reconcilable with the fact that it must have been exposed to many thousands of years of subaerial influences, as well as to those changes sometimes not easily defined which affect every ancient rock. The denser part of this lava is of the same general character as that forming 92 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES the Foze Rocks far to the south-west, and is not essen- tially different from the lava of Clogher Head on the Dingle peninsula. There is, therefore, continuity of structure between the islands and the promontory of Dingle, showing that the islands are but the submerged spur of a former mountain range which at one time carried the fiord-like structure of Dingle Bay many miles further into the Atlantic. The heave of the Atlantic is smoothed away in the shelter between the islands. The frowning rocks rise at either side to meet the vapours which wreath their summits. The sound converges to the north-west, and presently we emerge from the narrows and the object of our visit Inishtearaght comes into view. It, too, is a cloud pillar, a supporter of the heavens. In shape, colour, and geological age, it differs from the neighbour- ing island. It is of another kind of rock, and shows no sign of igneous origin. On the south-west end is congre- gated the group of small buildings which constitute the entourage of the lighthouse, the very top of which is alone seen from this point of view. Our vessel comes to rest. We emit a prolonged blast from our whistle and hoist the yellow and red signal flags, which say, "Is landing practicable?" For a little time there is no answer. Then Lieutenant Keppel, lowering his glass, says, " Good landing on north side." This is a landing-place seldom used by the Com- 93 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS missioners. It is a wild spot. A spur of the island extends northwards. It reaches high into the heavens, but beneath it is pierced by a tunnel through which the Atlantic surge boils, swaying back and forth among rocks projecting from beneath. A cold and powerful blast of air now blows through thi tunnel over these agitated waters and bears right upon the landing-steps. Around us the scene is grand in the extreme. The island cliffs stretch up and up to giddy heights into the drifting vapours above. Those white dots far up are goats which, oblivious of the depths beneath, seek their livelihood in places where the foot of man cannot tread. The colouring of the precipices is beautiful: olive-green and old gold with lichen-like incrustations of grey and brown which but a short time ago must have been glorified by the exquisite tint of the sea-pink, for its faded remains crowd every cranny and in countless numbers cover this vertical garden of the Atlantic. These variegated rocks end beneath in black precipices, against which the indigo-black waters rise and fall, whiten into snowy loveliness, and again turn to blackness. We look into those depths, so very black, so exquisitely pure. Life is there, but life without hope and without love, without pity, without memory of the past or dreams of the future. Why the strange difference between the two worlds ? We float above a world of nightmare. These thoughts arise, and in some way seem in harmony with the melancholy and despairing cry of the seagull, which all 94 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES the time never ceases to call to the echoing, reverberating heights above. Up the steep and winding stairs, cut in the tough conglomerate of which the island is composed, we take our way. Some 300 steps bring us to the col connecting this spur of the island with the main body of the rock. We pass over the col, and then descend a little in order to reach the lighthouse. From this height we look over a great expanse of ocean. The Foze lie out beyond in the loneliness of the Atlantic, forgotten and abandoned vestiges of a mighty continent; for they are in truth the most westerly land of Europe. To the left a giddy track skirts the precipice, a track which in former years, not without shrinking, I trod. It is said that now it is no longer practicable. The lighthouse on the Tearaght should never have been built where it is. The proper site was, as I believe, the Greater Foze. But some not well-founded appre- hensions as to the stability of the hard and seamless lava of the more westerly island led to the selection of the Tearaght. The result is that the Foze remains as an outlying danger which the Tearaght light cannot guard. Here we are in the midst of the curious assemblage of engine-house, oil-stores, dwelling-houses, etc., which form part of the appurtenances of a modern first-class light station. Three oil-engines stand ready to compress air, by means of rotary blowers, for the consumption of 95 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS the foghorn. In a neighbouring house is the battery of tall, green-painted oil-tanks, suggesting the tragedy of All Baba on a modern scale. Through a shelter passage, roofed in, we pass to the lighthouse. The light is a group- flashing one two flashes and then forty-five seconds of darkness, and then two flashes in the next fifteen seconds. The principal landing-place is on this, the western, side of the island, and here a derrick serves to land supplies, machinery, etc., and occasionally the visitor. Other derricks located further up enable heavy goods to be carried still higher. Having, along with the Inspector, Commander Davis, investigated some matters of dispute among the keepers, and seen to the perfect order of the machinery, we pre- pare to quit this curious place of exile. Here on the way we notice a level patch carpeted with the leaf of the sea-pink, where in more lax times children of the light- keepers were allowed to play at every stage of unthinking childhood: death, by fall over the giddy heights, lurking within a few feet of the playground. Now, wives and children must live ashore in the comfortable and civilised dwellings built by the Commissioners on Valencia Island, where schooling and medical attendance, etc., are available. Presently we are back on the Alexandra, after the usual scramble aboard for our ship is most generally boarded in a seaway and await breakfast with appetites whetted by four and a half hours of exercise. 96 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES At this early stage of our cruise the reader should become acquainted with the nature and objects of the voyage upon which he has embarked. The lighthouses of the United Kingdom are under the management of three separate Boards. English light- houses are controlled by the Elder Brethren of Trinity House; Scottish lighthouses are controlled by the Com- missioners of Northern Lights; and Irish lighthouses by the Commissioners of Irish Lights. The duties dis- charged by these Boards include matters relating to the erection of new lighthouses, the installation of new lightships, the alteration of existing lights, the continual care of the same, and of the various sound or fog signals round the coasts. Harbour lights and signals are in general not under their control, but are managed by local harbour Boards, who must obtain the sanction of the Commissioners to the erection or alteration of local lights, etc. The well-being of the crews which man the various lighthouses and lightships also comes under the care of the Light Boards. It is part of their duty, also, to enforce discipline. An annual inspection has to be carried out, when the efficiency and perfect order of every station must be inquired into. In the case of the Irish Lights, the Inspecting Committee which is selected from the more experienced members of the Board must, on their tour of inspection, visit some seventy-five lighthouses and eleven lightships. A fast and able ship is required to take round the Committee 97 G REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS in order that so extensive a tour may be completed in a reasonable time. The s.s. Alexandra discharges other important duties also, such as shifting buoys, transporting stores, etc. In these last duties she is supplemented by a couple of lesser steamers, also be- longing to the Commissioners. The Alexandra is a vessel of 618 tons, and attains a speed of 14 knots. She is a good sea-boat, and is surprisingly steady in rough water. Seaworthiness and handiness are essential qualities in a boat which may have to meet heavy weather and has to negotiate small harbours and narrow channels. The officer in charge must possess an intimate knowledge of the entire Irish coast, a qualification which her present commander Captain Hill possesses in a quite ad- mirable degree. The landing-parties are in command of one of the senior Commissioners. Life on board is very comfortable. Each Commissioner possesses his own cabin. But the real charm is not in the creature comforts, but in the endless dream of the tossing, limitless ocean; the sky, the islands, the changing scenery; the wild and beautiful Irish weather; the sun and the wind; the clear diaphanous distance and the drifting vapours; the clouds weeping down in rain, forming and vanishing among the mountains which guard the coasts; the sea-bird flashing his snowy whiteness in the blue. All these things, part of the mystery and poetry of our relations with Nature, together make up the dream of the sea: to some more than to others, doubtless, but in 98 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES no little degree to all. And mingled with this pageantry of Nature comes the interest of the landing-party: the rock climb, the human interest of the work we are doing. And, to come to more material considerations, there is no lack of exercise where four or more lofty light stations have to be scaled in the day. There is quite enough to cause some of us to reflect on the sad passage of the years. And what about the lives of the men who inhabit the lighthouse ? The question may well be asked with interest, for these are indeed valuable men. Well, to some extent, it depends upon the kind of station to which for the time being the keeper is attached. There are mainland stations i.e., coast lighthouses; then there are island stations, where the lighthouse is on an island having some inhabitants; lastly, there are rock stations, where the light-keeper and his companions are com- pletely isolated, with only the waves and sea-birds for company. Inishtearaght, which we have just visited, is a typical rock station. The lightships constitute a separate category. The nature of the several stations will be better under- stood as our journey progresses. Here something should be said, however, as to the system of promotion in the service and the pay attached to it. There are several grades of seniority: Probationary Keepers, Super- numerary Keepers, Assistant Keepers, Assistant Keepers of five, ten, and fifteen years' seniority, Principal Keepers, 99 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS Principal Keepers of five years' standing. The value of these posts in salary, clothing, pension, sick pay, life assurance, house, garden, and coal, amounts to from 128 to 268 per annum at the present time. These incomes compare favourably with the earnings of a mechanic or fitter, which may be taken as amounting to from 157 to 194 per annum. An engine fitter may earn as much as 230 per annum. Nor in the building trade would such high wages be obtainable. (I quote from Sir John P. Griffith's Report, recently drawn up at the request of his brother-Commissioners.) The work is monotonous, and although it is not hard work, there may be considerable exposure to the weather. Then there is the drawback of isolation. All must take their turn of the rock and island stations. Separation from wife and family is involved for some weeks at a time. The man's home is far out on the sea, on the rock. The children and the mother live ashore in special buildings, and the education of the former is one of the cares of the Commissioners. In the course of his promotion the light-keeper must at intervals officiate at all the several sorts of stations for stated periods. During his residence on rock stations there are compensatory allowances which render these stations desired by thrifty men. The relief steamers of the Commissioners pay periodical visits, weather permitting, and land fresh provisions, letters, newspapers, literature, etc. The light-keeper is not permitted to keep a boat 100 of any kind. If he wants medical help he signals to the shore, when the local medical man, in the pay of the Commissioners, attempts the passage to the rock and the operation of landing on the same. In the depth of winter this may prove a trying adventure. Upon island stations women are allowed to dwell under certain circumstances. In such stations the official dwellings attached to the lighthouse may present the appearance of comfortable and happy homes. The walls are hung with the photographs of relatives or with coloured prints from the public journals. All is clean and bright and shipshape. There may be even evidence of considerable culture: good books, piano, flowers, and not a little endeavour after decoration. And the men themselves ? Quiet, diffident, responsible fellows, they at once inspire respect. On the whole it seems a desirable existence; the turmoil of life to some extent replaced by the tumult and restlessness of the sea. They ought to become philosophers, poets, natu- ralists, etc., but fortunately they do not. A dreamy temperament would probably result in dismissal. In- attention while on duty is a capital crime in this service. The keeper whose duty it is to attend to a light for so many hours and who falls asleep at his post or neglects to keep watch on the weather or to rewind the heavy clock-work which drives the rotating lenses may, and probably will, if reported, find himself dismissed from the service. He is fortunate if loss of seniority is the 101 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS only punishment inflicted upon him. If this is deemed severe, let the reader reflect on the other side of the picture the vessel and its living freight heading to destruction while the keeper takes his nap ! The voyage along the north shore of the Dingle penin- sula commands some of the finest scenery of the kind in the United Kingdom. First come the graceful and more lowly summits of the Seven Sisters, guarding the entrance to that treacherous shelter, Smerwick Bay, wherein many years ago it was my fate to be trapped by a change of wind. Then, in preparation for Brandon, higher hills appear, and finally Brandon himself lifts his 3,200 feet out of the Atlantic. He carries upwards his velvety heights and hollows, his green robe nourished by the Atlantic mists, high into the heavens. The play of chequered, shifting sunlight is now exquisite. The giant seems to have donned a mood of shyness, and to wish to conceal his vast mass among diaphanous vapours through which his verdant heights glow with evanescent colour, a colour near that most lovely of all the glorious company of the colours, the fluorescent green which uranium gives to glass. His green fire lightens and again fades as we recede from him, and when, opposite Tralee Bay, we look back, he is still intermittently showing his shy beauty. To whom ? To the sea-bird only ! How lavish Nature is ! Here, near-by, is the spot so fatal to the false and disloyal Casement, whose arrest, when landing near Tralee from a German submarine, saved Ireland from evils 102 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES even far more calamitous than those that befell her in the Rebellion of Easter, 1916. And now we pass Kerry Head, and stand across the mouth of one of the finest bays in Ireland, that which receives the waters of the Shannon. Far within we see three M.L. boats at work in their search for the elusive submarine. How gladly, many years ago, we made that bay after an 8o-mile voyage from Valencia through shifting fogs, high winds, and big seas, in our lo-tonner, almost without help of chart. We slept sound in Tarbert Harbour that night ! The coast from Loop Head to Aran Island where next we are to stop is almost uniformly precipitous and dan- gerous to the sailor. Small villages at long intervals show their straggling houses where the cliffs give place to sandy shores. Of these, Kilkee is the most frequented. The cliffs of Moher are well known. They rise perpen- dicularly from the sea to a height of over 600 feet. But we are at such a distance from the coast that their impressiveness is lost to us. This coast reminds one of the Normandy coast, where villages nestle in the hollows opening to the sea. But here the villages are fewer and the sense of loneliness more prevailing. Nor can we lament this difference, for we have not the art of building beautifully. Kilkee seen from the sea is hideous, a settlement of monotonous lodging-houses, rectangular and dispiriting. There is yet another difference. The ever presence of a vast, receding ocean, reaching westward, is absent from the 103 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS Norman coast. La Manche is a channel and nothing more. Here the cliffs mark thu meeting of ocean and continent, and gain from this a dignity entirely wanting to the French coast. It is this feeling of vastness of sea and land which, doubtless, subconsciously underlies our thoughts as we gaze on the land coming to us out of the mists and slowly passing into obscurity sternwards. The geographical reality leads the mind along the track of far-reaching and unending things : the sorrowful lot of man, although dwelling in a world of beauty. The sun might rise and set everywhere upon his happiness, but greed will pre- vail. There is enough and more than enough for all, but each will take beyond his share, as if the fell laws of the organic affected the very soul of man, making the world the battlefield, the hell, it has now become. The lighthouse on Inisheer, the South Aran Island, which would be classed as an island station, is easily reached from the south landing-place. The luminous beam is carried round by reflection from a rotating mirror which floats on mercury. The light which is in the focus of the mirror is derived from three incandescent mantles giving a total luminous radiation equivalent to 4,500 candles. This type of construction is one which till recently might be classed as somewhat out of date. It has now been revived, and a lighthouse giving a light of very exceptional power has recently been described at the French Academy which contains reflecting mirrors to the 104 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES entire exclusion of glass. It has been erected off the coast of Tunis. There is a red sector on the Aran light guarding a rock in the channel between the island and the mainland. The coloration of the light is effected by nitration through a sheet of glass tinted by colloidal gold dissolved in the glass. After many trials, Mr. C. W. Scott, the engineer of the Irish Lights Board, decided on this form of light filter as the least wasteful of light. Having inspected this installation, we sail for Galway, where we are to replenish our store of coal. Tuesday, the 3oth of July, is passed in coaling, never a very clean job; and as it is preferable to be ashore than on board, we spend some time visiting or sight-seeing in the town. It is a town which is almost without natural beauty of outlook, but which boasts of much historical interest and the finest salmon river in Ireland. The University College, the Western College of the National University of Ireland, is a very fine building. I have spent many quiet days in its examination halls and museum, and, naturally, take this opportunity of revisiting it. The feeling dominant in one's mind on entering this beautiful structure is wonder at its location in this obsolete and decadent town. Of the town itself I shall not speak save to call the attention or awaken the memory of the reader respecting the wild and terrible story attached to the Lynch Stone. It would be hard to find a tale surpassing it in dramatic force. The circumstances appear to be well authenticated . 105 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS The Lynch Stone is a small stone built into a wall, high up, behind the cathedral. It bears a skull and cross-bones and this inscription: 1524 REMEMBER DEATHE VANITI OF VANITI AN ALL IS BUT VANITI. A modern entablature placed near-by explains the dreadful significance of these dreary words: they com- memorate the stern execution of an only son at the hands of his own father. James Lynch Fitzstephens was Mayor of Galway. He had much business traffic with Spain, and on one ill-omened occasion brought the only son of his Spanish host back with him from Spain on a visit to Ireland. Fitzstephens also had but one child a wild, uncontrolled, but far from graceless youth. The Spaniard unfortunately gained the affections of a lady of high estate who was already beloved by young Fitzstephens. The assassination of the Spaniard was the result. Then, after full trial, and despite the entreaties of the townsfolk who idolised the guilty youth the just magistrate, failing to find any other executioner, hanged from that window high up, with his own hand, his unfortunate, erring, and well-beloved boy. One other tale of Galway before we go on our way. D. C. Heron was the author of A Constitutional History of the University of Dublin, a somewhat dreary work having a distressing tone of complaint about it. The author was a keen angler, and frequented Galway to 106 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES enjoy the wonderful salmon-fishing. One day he hooked a very large fish just above the bridge in Galway town. At the same moment he fell to the ground and expired of heart disease. Next day the Galway Chronicle gave a full account of the sad affair. It reviewed the life of the deceased, and recounted his merits as father, as husband, and as a distinguished author, and ended thus: " However, we are sure our readers will be glad to learn that our respected fellow-citizen, Mr. Cornelius O 'Flaherty, who happened to be an eye-witness of the sad occurrence, with great presence of mind, seized hold of the rod, to which the fish was still attached, and after an exciting struggle suc- ceeded in landing a splendid salmon of 15 pounds weight." The fact is a Galway audience would never pardon the loss of a fish, whatever other calamities might befall. The operation both of entering and leaving the dock in Galway harbour for a vessel of our size was one of extreme difficulty. There were only a few inches to spare at the sharp turn which has to be made within the gates. It was managed with consummate skill by the local pilot, who, all the time, looked and talked as if nothing par- ticular was happening. July 3is/. We leave Galway after a red sunrise and threaten of rain. The weather grows more sombre as the town fades from view, and with glass falling and considerable swell from the west and a strong wind, the prospects are not favourable. The only bad result, however, is our failure to land at the light of Eragh, 107 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS on the outermost Aran Island. And so we turn from the inhospitable island and, altering course a little to northward, make for Slyne Head. This is reached at about 12.30, and on the north side a landing is effected. The lighthouse stands side by side with another and now disused structure of like character. In former years the erection of two lighthouses was a method of duplicating a light. The light is fixed white towards the sea and red towards the land. Nothing more sublime in coastal scenery than the rolling in of the great masses of water upon the surround- ing rocks can be imagined. The mountainous black rollers become lit with a deep heart of green, then turn to snow-drifts through which the rocks, iron black, emerge. From the balcony around the lantern the wild chaos attending the break up of the advancing armies of billows is impressively seen. It is a really magnifi- cent and enthralling spectacle. The day now settles down into one of oppressive heat. We are in a world of islands, among which the swell of the Atlantic rapidly dies. Low rain-clouds come far down over the mountains. Little by little the intricacies of the coast become unravelled. We pass High Island and stand towards Inishbofin. This is a low and fairly extensive island, and one of particular interest. Many years ago I paid it a visit. The King of Bonn Mr. Allies then reigned supreme. His low wooden house, lined with valuable furs, hospitably received us. He 108 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES lived the year round among his unsophisticated subjects, save for an annual holiday of six weeks, which was generally spent in London. It is a really extraordinary kingdom. Peace reigns within it. Life flows on mono- tonously in the mere toil of living. Fish are caught, sold, or eaten. Sheep supply wool, from which the clothes of all are manufactured by the women-folk. And so from cradle to grave. Inishturk comes next a more mountainous island than Bonn, with cliffs to seaward of well-known magni- ficence. A few fisher-folk dwell on this remote spot. The island of Clare is now in view. The lighthouse is on the north side, at the most northerly extremity of the island. From it the view is exquisite. To the north, across a narrow sea, rise the graceful summits of Achill, monarch of all the western isles. Eastward lies the deeply cut recess of Clew Bay, and beyond this the main- land and the beautiful cone of Croaghpatrick. Westward the ever-present infinity of the Atlantic. How steeped in history and tradition is all this region ! Grana Uaile's tomb U on this island, and the strange personality of the Elizabethan heroine haunts the tower that once was hers. It is a vain endeavour to call up the image of the Queen of the Isles, but certain it is that qualities of rare power and fascination must have been combined in one who could create a name which has survived the obliterative influence, the historic denudation of the centuries. The light on Clare Island is placed too high. It stands 109 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS at an elevation" of 341 feet. It is the highest in the service. The advantage of greater visibility is more than annulled by its frequent total invisibility in the fogs and mists which hang round the summits of the hills. It is interesting to note that this light was an early one in the annals of Irish lighthouses. It dates from the year 1806. The point on which the lighthouse stands is by no means the highest point of the island, which rises to 1,500 feet on its westerly coast, sheer from the Atlantic. Such is the stupendous breakwater which, receiving the on- slaught of the wildest waters of the earth, gives shelter to the beautiful bay within. There is no doubt that this island of Clare is one of the sweetest isles of the West. It is at once fertile and untamed. It is a little kingdom to itself, having its own traditions. Indeed, the 500 or 600 inhabitants, who cultivate its fields and fish on its shores, might very logically claim that same self-deter- mination for which a considerable number of the dwellers on the neighbouring island clamour. Leaving Clare, our course is towards the land, and leads us to the remarkable archipelago which fills the eastern or landward side of Clew Bay. The scene is like none other. Sometimes called the Bay of the 365 Islands, the name seems hardly an exaggeration. The most remarkable feature is the exact resemblance of the islets one with another. All expose to seaward a protect- ing beach of large rounded boulders. Arising from this is a verdant mound, abrupt upon the seaward face, no INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES more gently inclined to landward. All are about of an equal height from 80 to 100 feet. Alike in length and width, all are elongated east and west. The resemblance to the eye is bewildering. The map reveals differences which the eye fails to appreciate. The navigation to the towns of Newport or Westport would, to a stranger, be very difficult. The structure of these strange islets appears to be alike. The elevated mound is of stiff boulder clay, and the foundation is a very fossiliferous limestone of Carboniferous age. The remarkable and confusing similarity is due to the uniformity of the conditions attending their formation. A uniform sheet of boulder clay resting on limestone was cut into from the west by oceanic denudation. The progress of denu- dation proceeded alike everywhere. Channels were cut landward. The falling rock boulders were washed away, and the channels deepened till the present considerable depths were attained. This action is still progressing, but the attack is delayed by the resistance of the heaped- up boulders protecting the remains of the originally uniform sheet of boulder clay. It is surprising that such breakwaters should permit of so steep a descent into the sea. Our vessel lies quite close to the shore of Inishgort. One might toss a pebble on to the beach. We have ample water, nevertheless. The lighthouse on Inishgort guards the approach to the little town of Newport, an approach which winds in and out among these bewildering islands. in REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS August ist. Leaving Inishgort at about 8 o'clock, we round the wild rocks of Achill Head an hour later. Mists hang over the higher mountains inland. The colouring is all in the most sombre tints. The black water, heavy grey clouds, dark rocks, represent the pre- vailing tone. Alone the sheen of sodden verdure here and there among the receding hills relieves the mono- chrome. There is sufficient swell to render the landing at the next light station Blackrock Island doubtful. Accordingly we await the answer to our signal with some anxiety. The answer is favourable: the steps are said to be available. But nearer approach renders it evident that they are not available or, at the least, not available to a party such as ours. The roll of the sea rises some 10 or 12 feet upon them, swamps the whole landing- place, and falls in a snowy cataract over the vertical side and down the very steps we are expected to climb. This occurs so frequently as to render the operation clearly unsafe. There only remains the use of the derrick fixed on the rocks far above our heads. This giddy method of locomotion consists in lifting by rope the passenger, who stands with one foot in a loop of the rope, right out of the boat and winding him up to the level of a rocky plateau far above. When thus brought to a level some 70 or 80 feet above the sea, the derrick is swung round and the traveller brought verti- cally over his landing-place. He is then let down till he is in a position to step out of the rope and stand on terra- 112 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES firma. It is not without risk of knocks and scrapes and possibly of a ducking, and, of course, it is essential to hold on. The depth looks a giddy one, and the victim swings through the air with appalling freedom. He spins, too, and is, in fact, reduced to the state of a human spider. For the time being the most important thing in the universe is the rope to which he clings. Safety from a bad bumping when just about to land entirely depends on the skill of those who man the windlass. As this is not infallible, it happens on the present occasion that one of the party is landed on his back, and but for the timely aid of members of the party already landed the conse- quence might have been more serious. The way to the lighthouse is then upwards by steep and giddy steps cut and built in the rock. The elevation of the light is 283 feet, and it can be seen in clear weather a distance of 22 miles. Its chief function is to guard the entrance into Blacksod Bay. The light, which is occulting, is supplied from a 5o-millimetre mantle. It shows white to sea, and red landward. The rock on which the light- house stands is gneissic granite, with rather remarkable veins of yellow quartz. The operation of regaining the boat is apparently an easier one than that of leaving it. But in reality it is attended by risks of a more insidious nature. For instance, cases are known in which an inexperienced traveller has let his foot slip through the loop of the rope in his efforts to free himself from the same. His position 113 H REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS is then not enviable. The boat into which he expected to step has fallen away from him in the hollow of the sea, and he remains hanging from one foot and head downwards, so that his head may be battered by the boat when this mounts on the top of the next wave, or if the boat has shifted from under him he has the experience of being helplessly ducked. Our next stopping-place is at a lesser light, that at the inner entrance to Blacksod Bay. It is a shore light, and of relatively feeble power. An interesting feature of this place is the granitic exposure to seaward, near the light- house. At first sight one sees an evenly bedded rock, the beds sharply differentiated and of uniform thickness. The unwary would certainly diagnose a bedded sandstone. Nearer inspection shows it to be a very beautiful granite with yellow and pink felspar a rock that should prove valuable for architectural as well as for paving-sett purposes. Our course, leaving this station, is again west- ward. But before attaining the distance of Blackrock we turn northward, and, passing between the main- land and the off-lying islands, we make for Eagle Island. This island is, on the present occasion, fairly easy of access. It is only a matter of stepping from the stern of the boat just at the moment when it rises to the very summit of the swell. There is an upright rod at the boat's stern to steady the traveller, and as he grasps a rope 114 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES thrown to him from the shore, assisting himself thereby, stout hands seize him and safety is assured. The light- house stands some 200 feet over the sea-level. It is near the edge of the cliff, but in spite of this great elevation green seas may actually attain its altitude. In 1895, during a storm, a row of lighthouse dwellings and offices were demolished by these tremendous seas. And to-day the large blocks of cut granite coping-stones of walls now demolished lie about in every direction. It takes such evidence to render the fact credible. The testimony of the resident keepers is that green seas at times actually break over the lighthouse dwellings and fall into the shelter- yard enclosed by them. The difficulty of explain- ing so great an elevation of the water remains. The particular slope of the gneissic granite, of which the island is composed, towards the incoming seas is doubtless involved. A careful examination of the conditions would be interesting. The light is occulting with certain groups of flashes in the minute, and shows red over certain sectors. It would be designated as a group occulting light. The red sectors deal with particular dangers. The burners consist of six concentric wicks of circular form fed by paraffin. This type of burner in Tyndall's day was the best available, and received much praise from the great Irish scientist (" Recent Experiments on Fog Signals," discourse at Royal Institution, 1878), and in its final form was due to Sir James Douglas, of Trinity House, whose brother, REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS Mr. William Douglas, was builder of the Fastnet. To-day it is out of date. I would have liked to linger in this spot for a time longer than our business permitted. The petrological interest of the locality was obviously considerable. The off-lying island and the mainland display the same com- plex of gneissic granite and parallel interpenetration of basic veins. The latter are often of lustrous black mica separated by layers of white felspar. The folded structure of these veins is often beautifully delicate. We are, of course, now in the region of Dalradian rocks, and such materials extend along the coast for many miles. A small and very beautiful little bird was handed to me by the principal keeper. It had reached the island that morning pursued by three hawks. The keeper had killed it with a stick. As none of our party could name it even with the help of Morris's British Birds, which we had in the ship's library we sent it to Professor Patten, of the University of Sheffield, who has for many years studied our Irish birds, residing for that purpose in our lighthouses during certain periods of the year. The bird turned out to be an immature starling. Professor Patten adds that starlings are among the commonest birds at light stations. Six o'clock that afternoon sees us at Broadhaven Bay, where, after inspecting the small harbour light, we return to our ship for dinner and our evening's rest. On the next morning our intention of starting for 116 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES Killybegs is frustrated by a dense fog, which hangs with obstinate persistency over land and sea. Although at intervals it lifts locally, its rapid return seems to show an extensive fog-bank. The more pessimistic spirits predict a three-day fog. At 2 in the afternoon, however, the weather has so far cleared as to permit of a start. The Stags a formidable and remarkable group of off- lying rocks huddled together, black and sinister are picked up a little later. We then stand down the foggy coast, opening one misty headland after the other, till at 4 o'clock Downpatrick Head is reached. The course from this to Killybegs is across Donegal Bay to Carigeen Head. The visibility is small, about one mile, and although occasional gleams of sunlight reach us, we might have been on a shoreless sea. There is but little swell. What there is seems to pass the ship from stern to bow. The little sea-parrot, swimming in the water, hurries away in wild alarm at our sudden appearance, and, like Satan in Paradise Lost, " With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way, And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies." Gannets, too, are frequently passed. They behave with more sense and dignity, swimming quietly aside as we glide past. Carigeen Head and the stupendous cliffs of Slieveleague are sighted at about 7.30, and by 8 o'clock the lighthouse of St. John's Point and its buildings seem to stand far off, high in the sky, gleaming through the fog, a celestial 117 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS vision of perfect whiteness an optical illusion well known to sailors. Rounding the dangerous shoals extending from the headland, we land on the west side of the Point, stepping on to mighty beds of limestone. The lighthouse is, by order of the Admiralty, closed and reserved for war purposes. It is much crowded by coast- guards and coast-watchers. At the date of the publica- tion of the second edition of Alan Stevenson's book, 1831, we read: "The Commissioners of the Ballast Office, Dublin, have resolved upon the erection of a lighthouse upon St. John's Cape, on the coast of Donegal, on the north side of Donegal Bay. It is intended to be a stationary light, and will appear like a star of the first magnitude." It was established that same year, and still retains its original character. In passing, it may be new to some of my readers to hear that the Alan Stevenson referred to was one of a family of very distinguished light- house engineers, and that Robert Louis Stevenson was born of the same stock. It is but a short distance from St. John's Point to Killybegs Harbour. Here our mails, from which we have been separated for several days, await us. We are along- side the jetty. To-morrow coaling begins early. The 3rd of August saw us visiting the sights of Killybegs. First there is the carpet factory, where very handsome and durable carpets are manufactured. Most of the employees are girls. It is not running at its best just now, war conditions having cut down sales and reduced the 118 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES number of hands. Then there is the industrial school, conducted by clergy of the Roman Catholic Church. Just now it, too, is not at its best, although the practice band makes a very deafening row. From this racket we gladly get away. It is very hot (it always appears so when you come ashore), and I make my way to the once hospitable White House, now closed since the lamented death of Sir Charles Ball, Bart. The gardener, an old friend, insists on sending a bouquet of flowers to decorate our dinner-table. At lunch the Commander of the port joins us. We start, in hazy sunshine, at 3 in the after- noon, for more northern regions. We again pass under the cliffs of Slieveleague, rising steeply from the sea to a height of 1,950 feet. It is the bisection of a mountain. Landslips appear to be not infrequent. What seems to be a recent one is even now visible, the Atlantic having not yet succeeded in washing away the fallen debris. These great heights are less vertical than they appear to be as seen from the sea. Tracks far up permit of the natives traversing their slopes. Turning northwards out of Donegal Bay, we head for a very beautiful green islet Rathlin O'Birne. It is a rocky plateau about 100 feet over the sea. Scaling the granite cliffs, we find ourselves on a level sweep of green verdure from which the lighthouse rises at the seaward edge. The view shorewards is beautiful, although obstructed somewhat by the haze. At foot of the light- house I pick up a little hedge warbler, a lovely little bird. 119 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS What care and love were once expended on the tiny, perfect creature! The keepers tell us that hundreds of Mother Carey's chickens (stormy petrels) are sometimes killed in a single night by the fascination and dazzle of the light. By 5.30 our inspection is concluded, and we steer for Aranmore. Headlands in unending procession we are still passing. Then at length we leave the land where deep Boylagh Bay recedes, and for a couple of hours we traverse landless regions, because of the low visibility, watching for the first shadow of Aranmore or Aran Island. An outlier of fantastic and precipitous form first appears, and then the island, which is a considerable one, and which rises to a height of some 700 feet. We land at the extreme north-west headland in a minute natural harbour, which is continued through the rocks in one of those run-through caves arising from marine denudation . It is a savage spot, and to the music of the seagull's cry we ascend the steps which lead to the lighthouse above. The lighthouse shows a lower light guarding outlying rocks, and a top light at an altitude of 233 feet and visible for 22 miles in clear weather. Both lights are derived from incandescent mantles. It has been arranged that some of us cross the island on foot, joining the ship in Aran Roads on the other side, our anchorage for the night. The walk of 4^ miles across the island traverses the wildest region imaginable. Not 120 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES a human dwelling is within sight once the lighthouse and coastguard stations are left behind. Our journey takes us some 500 feet above sea-level. We pass high up a lonely tarn Lough Shore. What must these desolate and treeless moors be like when the winter gales from the Atlantic sweep across them ? a suitable setting for some tale of sorrow and revenge formed in the brain of a Bronte ! Suddenly there bursts upon our view a panorama of island and sea having elements of mystery and beauty such as I have never seen excelled. We seem to look over endless islets, and beyond them mountains appear to float in the sky. We ask ourselves which is land and which is cloud. The one has taken on all the semblance of the other. The sad evening sky has, in fact, folded away in celestial distances visions of sea and land of ethereal beauty. We pause, rendered dumb by the holy peace of the scene. It is sin to speak, for the silence seems part of the heavenly vision. The cottages inhabited by the few inhabitants of Aranmore now appear beneath us, scattered over the hill- side. The people gaze curiously upon us. A handsome race they are, both in face and figure, more especially in their early years. The very few trees on the island are gathered here. Descending to the little pier, we are met by the pinnace and taken aboard. We can see from the bridge that Aran Roads is formed by the off-lying island of Calf, and cannot be sheltered in northerly gales. A night of rain and thunder-storm ushers in the 121 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS 4th of August. The air is limpid this morning from the night's precipitation, and the scenery is exquisite. But to the eye of the sailor the defective shelter cannot be forgiven. Even now the ship heaves to the roll of the Atlantic. We lie opposite the small pier from which we embarked last night. Leabgarrow village straggles up the slopes behind. In the sea around us the various dangers are marked by beacons of various pattern. Everywhere, save northward, low rocky shores enclose the harbour. There is an endless profusion of shoals and islets around us. It is a beautiful Sunday morning. The only sounds are the lapping of the waves and the cries of the gulls. The usual bustle on board has died away. Apparently everyone is either washing or shaving . Presently a search- party is formed to look for a church, and our ranks are thinned by the departure of a boat-load . There is nothing to do for those who are left save to enjoy the quiet peace and charm of our surroundings. Thus Sunday morning passes. After lunch we fit the Evenrude to the dinghy, and explore the most extraordinary coast structure I have ever seen. It is a perfect maze of deep water-ways penetrating the granite in every direction, twisting and turning, but all carrying water which under tidal influence is now flowing rapidly. A difficult place for a sailing- yacht, but safe enough for a motor-boat. Amidst this archipelago there is a hotel. Villas, too, have been planted on some of the islands. 122 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES August 6th. We start at 6.30 for Tory Island, which we reach some two hours later. This island is one of the most remarkable on the Irish coast. It may be said to mark the north-west corner of Ireland, standing some 7 miles off the nearest shore. Shelter to passing vessels it offers none, but has played a sad and terrible part in this war. To many unfortunate crews it has been the first place of refuge. The open bay in which we land is strewn with the flotsam and jetsam of the sea. Broken ships' boats; fragments of barrels and of floatable objects of all kinds are on the beach. We are informed that many hundreds of barrels of valuable oil have been washed up intact an asset of much value to the inhabitants, for here fuel ranks among God's choicest blessings. Oil worth 7 IDS. per barrel is gladly used to render the cold of winter more tolerable. The fact is, the sole fuel found on the island is the shallow turf stripped from the sandy fields. As I write I have one of these sods before me. It is 90 per cent, freestone and 10 per cent, grass-root. Nothing more. But soaked in oil it will serve to warm the cabin. As we walk from the beach to the lighthouse we see the wretched sods which are here called turf, piled in heaps to dry ere winter comes on. This island is full of interest and has very distinctly a " history." The inhabitants pay no rent. A gunboat the Wasp was in 1884 sent to enforce payment, but the ship was lost, with all hands save six, on the savage coast. Since then the island has become a " Nation," 123 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS and helped by the Congested Districts Board and by doles of fuel from the mainland, as well as supplies of food, the inhabitants have gallantly maintained their rights; an example to all who do not choose to pay their debts. But it was always a place of lawlessness. In remotest times of Irish history piratical races doubtless forerunners of the present inhabitants are said to have inhabited it. Its present population may number some 300 or 400 souls. To do them justice, they certainly are bold and hardy fishermen, and make their livelihood in the face of dangers and hardships untold. There is some agriculture, but it cannot amount to much. At the lighthouse the principal keeper complains that milk is almost unprocurable. He has to divide i pint daily among his five children ! Meat, too, cannot be had. It is questionable if this station should not be treated as a rock station under all the circumstances. The manufacture of kelp or rather its burning goes on extensively. The seaweed is heaped on the shore and fired when dry. The slaggy product is filled into sacks and sent away. Its principal value is for the extraction of iodine. There is nothing in Nature's Kingdom of Wonders more curious than the fact that while it is difficult or impossible to detect this substance iodine in seawater, the algas, notably kelp, have the power of extracting it and accumulating it in large quantities. Its abundance in kelp is fairly astonishing. Heat a little of this burnt kelp in a retort, and in a few minutes the 124 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES violet-coloured vapour of iodine fills the flask. When cold the glass is sparkling within with the glittering crystals of the element. What is the good of it ? Look in Thorp's Dictionary of Applied Chemistry and you will see. We find, then, that this little island, so primitive that sleigh- carts are still used to transport potatoes, kelp, etc., and which is a law unto itself, is yet a feeder to the great world without, one small member of the body corporate of civilisation. The lighthouse displays its light about 130 feet over sea-level. The form of the light system is peculiar. There are three radiants placed one above the other. Each has its own lens system, and the three lens systems revolve together. The light is obtained from batswing burners in great numbers, which flare up at intervals. The system is due to the late Mr. Wigham. It is wasteful and necessitates an unwieldy lantern, which seems to have escaped destruction from winter storms by miracu- lous intervention only. There is a foghorn fed by blowers driven by a gas-engine. Returning towards the mainland, and now going eastward for the first time, we reach the mouth of Lough Swilly a little after midday. The light at Fanad Point is of modern pattern. The radiant is an incandescent mantle. The installation is compact and workmanlike. There is a small side-light low down in the tower looking west and guarding the Limeburner Rock. All travellers in these parts know of the magnificent 125 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS proportions and splendid scenery of Lough S willy. It would be hard to find a more impressive marine landscape than that which is presented to the view at the entrance of this Lough. The vista of wide smooth water extending far into the land and the stately hills thrown back from the eastern shore afford a soul-satisfying scene. But to-day the greed and cruelty of man are here in evidence at every turn. Nature cries "Peace!" where there is no peace. We are approached by a police ship and given a signal number admitting us to the Lough. Crossing to Dunree Head, we are told that big guns are everywhere concealed above and around us. The little lighthouse is as a symbol of the truthfulness of peace amidst the deceit of war. It is only a pretty cottage with a lantern built out as a sort of bow- window from one of the rooms, but it shows a light powerful enough to be seen a distance of 13 miles in clear weather. The radiant is simply a strong two-wick oil lamp. Our next objective is Buncrana Pier. But in order to attain to this point, which is far up in the Lough, we must pass the great anti-submarine boom which crosses the Lough from side to side. At one point this boom is open, and here there are two Gate Ships trawlers, to whom it is left to open or close the boom. Our signal number procures us admission, and soon after we land at Buncrana. There is here an unwatched flashing light. It is quite a simple affair. It can run for six months without attention, burning night and day. At this station the circumstances enable the light to be cut off during daytime. The little 126 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES harbour is crowded with lifeboats which have reached the Lough from submarined vessels, and which exhibit various devices to keep them afloat. What scenes of misery and terror they tell of ! Retracing our way, we are subjected to some delay at the Gate Ships owing to necessary formalities exacted by the Admiral in command. The important lighthouse of Inishtrahull was to have been our next point of call, but the visit was destined never to come off. The glass was falling rapidly as we left Buncrana, and rain coming on. These symptoms of bad weather increase as we stand out to sea. The visibility soon becomes so diminished that during the showers it can be no more than a quarter of a mile at best. For a time it was hoped that we could effect a landing before the conditions grew too bad, but while yet some 3 or 4 miles from the lighthouse this hope had to be abandoned, and it was decided to turn back and make for Lough Foyle. During a clearing the coast is again picked up. Proceeding some distance up the Lough, we anchor for the night at Moville. Next morning (the 6th of August) we inspect Inishowen Lighthouse before breakfast, on Dunagree Point. It has an east and a west light about 150 yards apart. Both are fixed. There is a powerful fog-signal giving a low and a high note of two seconds' duration each, and separated by an interval of three seconds. This is repeated once in the minute. Clockwork, of course, regulates this automatically. 127 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS We have been warned by signal on leaving Lough Swilly that we must not attempt Rathlin Sound at low water because of the mines located therein by the Admiralty. At Portrush we say good-bye to our Chairman Mr. George Thompson, the Senior Commissioner of the Service and, with the feeling of naughty boys bereft of the wise control of their guardian, pursue our way. At a little after noon we land on Rathlin Island, to which the remainder of our day is to be devoted. This island, as all travellers know, is rich in traditions in which the long story of Irish invasions is involved. The wild sound between it and the mainland has been the scene of many boating accidents and of the loss of many ships. At Church Bay we see the upturned bottom of the Drake, a British war-ship recently torpedoed, which sank and turned turtle while endeavouring to run aground in the shallows of the bay. She now lies, one bilge keel exposed to view, a piteous sight and probably a total loss. But our present object is not concerned with war nor yet with archaeology and history, but with the practical examination and study of lighthouses. No place on the Irish coast affords to-day a better opportunity of pursuing this study than does Rathlin Island. For here we have a lighthouse embodying the latest advances in lighthouse engineering, and furthermore have the advantage of being conducted over it by the engineer Mr. Scott who has been concerned hi its design and erection. This light- house is intended to lead into and guard the western 128 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES entrance to Rathlin Sound, a sound of the utmost im- portance to shipping. It is accordingly located at Bull Point. The completion of the structure has been delayed by the war, and the light has not yet been actually lit. But the installation possesses features which are deserving of special attention. I have already referred to the doubtful advantage of installing lights at high altitudes. Bull Head, although a very commanding position, offers a site open to serious objection on the score of being too elevated. The engineer has accordingly constructed the new lighthouse low down on the face of the cliff. This, however, has involved many engineering difficulties. The rock is a basalt which, for a considerable depth, is weathered and rotten and liable to continued downward move- ment. A vast concrete glacis at a slope of 45 degrees has been applied to the steeply sloping face of the rock. This glacis surrounds and protects the lighthouse and its out-offices from the dangers of landslip and the deeper denudation of the cliff. Steps in the glacis enable the slopes to be easily traversed. The fog-signal apparatus is placed at the top of the glacis; the lighthouse has been placed at its lowest point. The dwelling-house which houses the staff is a four-story building. We enter it from above, and, descending through its neat and orderly apartments, find ourselves, when we reach the lowest story, actually in the lighthouse. The lantern is located, in fact, at the base of the building. This is an original 129 I REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS feature, for the disposition is the reverse of that which is customary. The light installation is of the most recent type. For those who know little on this subject I shall presently say a few' explanatory words. There is a four-sided revolving focal system of glass prisms and lenses. In the centre of this great cylinder is the light which emanates from an incandescent mantle on the whole the best radiant yet invented. Every detail of the apparatus before us is of the best that technical skill can produce. ,The sound-producing machinery is not less perfect. At a level considerably above the top of the dwelling- house already referred to a diaphone is located. Of this instrument a little must be said further on. Beneath the diaphone-house is the oil-storage house, which can be enlarged at will by the use of screens made of thin ferro-concrete. The oil gravitates downwards through a copper pipe till it reaches the oil-engines three in number which compress the air required for the diaphone, and which is led upwards along the slope of the glacis by a large wrought-iron pipe recessed in its surface. A branch pipe from the descending oil-supply feeds the lighthouse burners. A visit to a station such as this is very impres- sive, and should make the critic hostile to scientific education if such exists think, and think gravely. Science, however much it may appear " abstract," or 130 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES however much it may be " applied," is still only the art of helping ourselves. And with that self-help are bound up ambitions which are the noblest actuating mankind: the search for truth, truth for its own sake, and truth for the alleviation of suffering. Much of our practical philanthropy, all of our great physical concepts of the universe, emanate from the workshop and the study of the scientist. He who has never entered into the ethics of science fails to look beyond the laboratory, beyond the mathematical analysis. The body is perceived plainly enough, but not the soul which dwells therein. He is like some visitor to this great lighthouse who perceives only the oil-engines and the lenses and the burners and the sleeping diaphone. These things in themselves appear no more than curious and perhaps interesting. But now on some dark and stormy night place him on a vessel battling its way through the waters of Rathlin Sound the Caldron of Brecain and ask him what he thinks of that merciful light which leads him from afar, a veritable star of hope. Or, even more insidiously dangerous, expose him to the horrors of a deep fog among the rushing tides of this narrow channel, and ask him if ever he heard music to equal the marvellous note which the siren cries to the baffling atmosphere. Nor will even such an experience endow him with the vision which perceives the soul that animates the body. Still the most beneficent factors in Man's upward progress displease him. Still his opposition to science continues. REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS But this is just because he himself has missed that education which science alone can impart. Rathlin Island is bare and dreary on its upper reaches, and for the most part it consists of an elevated plateau rising on steep cliffs from the sea. Around Church Bay the most fertile tracts are gathered. Less than a mile from this is situated the remains of Bruce's Castle, wherein the national hero of Scotland saw the spider. As seen from the south side, the island is composed of the same basalt which extends from the Giant's Causeway right up northward to Jura and even to Iceland. It is possible that the deep waters dividing the outcrops of this lava are, in fact, entirely due to marine denudation acting on a single lava sheet of some thousands of square miles in area, such as now constitutes the Deccan in India or the basalt plain of Idaho. Mingled with and intruded by this lava we see, on the south cliffs of Rathlin, the remains of the Cretaceous chalk which forms so much of the cliff scenery near the Giant's Causeway. The mingling of basalt and chalk boulders on the beach at Church Bay produces an extraordinary appearance, the one being so intensely black and the other so purely white. The whole of Rathlin strongly reminds one of the rock features of Jura, Mull, Eigg, and much of Skye. In the afternoon we inspect the temporary light and sound signal at Rue Point. This has been put up by the Commissioners at the command of the Admiralty, pending the erection of a more permanent structure. The light 132 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES is an acetylene unwatched light, blinking automatically, such as we saw at Buncrana. The sound signal is of more- 4nterest. It is an acetylene gun, a comparatively recent invention. The explosive mixture of air and acety- lene is made up in the explosive chamber of the gun by an automatic and very ingenious mechanism which regulates the proportions of the two gases. When the mixture is formed in the closed chamber a spark fires it, and a very sharp and loud report is produced, carrying a distance of from i to 5 miles, according to weather conditions. It is a sound of excellent quality, and the ensuing night being foggy we have ample opportunity of judging of it. The location of this temporary installation is open to criticism, for in bad weather seas sweep around the light scaffolding supporting the apparatus, and, owing to the great quantities of floating wreckage now in these waters, the survival of the structure must be regarded as purely providential. Our final inspection on Rathlin is of Rathlin Lighthouse, on the north side of the island. To reach this we have to land at the beach in Church Bay, passing close to the upturned wreck of H.M. warship Drake, already referred to. A walk of if miles brings us to the lighthouse. Rathlin Lighthouse is an old institution, having been established so long ago as 1856. It is placed at Altacarry Head, and does good service to shipping. At present, by order of the Admiralty an order which may denote wisdom, but to ordinary intelligence is inscrutable the 133 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS light is reduced in strength by various devices, so as to be invisible save at quite near distances. Normally it is a modern incandescent-mantle light, occulting, and visible in clear weather at a distance of 21 miles. There is a fog-signal consisting of the antiquated signal gun fired in the open. At this gun the gunners must stand hour after hour, through rain and storm, loading and firing at the regulated intervals. Arrangements are being completed whereby this system will be replaced by the detonation of high-explosive cartridges. This is effected from a weather shelter which keeps the operator fairly comfortable. The operation of firing involves placing the cartridge in a sling, which is done within the shelter, then turning a handle which carries the cartridge clear of the shed and sufficiently above it. A circuit is then closed within the shed, and the explosion follows. In the intervals of firing the keeper may possess his soul in peace. I fail to see why the whole operation could not be conducted automatically. Quite a simple mechanism would suffice to feed and fire at regulated intervals the high-explosive cartridges. August jib. At 7 a.m. we start, and at 7.30 are turning round Fair Head. We have at length arrived on the east side of Ireland. To the north-east there is a gleaming, hazy sea, through which, like a shadow, appears the land of the Mull of Cantyre. This place is a high-road to many memories, at least to one of our little party memories of conditions which never can be restored in " future times 134 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES or years unborn." Youth plays its magic part, trans- muting by its alchemy earthly to heavenly substance. Will old age do as much ? In those mists which lie over the far-stretching waters there steals a little cutter. On her deck the young adventurers await the wind. But the light airs only just shake the topsail a very little. The spinnaker hangs limp. And now on deck they find some pleasant sailor's job to beguile the time, and every moment has its pleasures; for youth, heedless of its mortality, reigns supreme. Inscrutable mystery of flowing time 1 The difference between then and now ! For see, the little vessel grows fainter and fainter in the distance now she is but a shadow, and now she is gone, and I know not whether to be glad or sorry that I have seen her once again. The dangerous rocks known as the Maidens are reached a few hours later, and we drop anchor in the rapid tide race which swirls between these islands. The depths are considerable, some 80 fathoms quite close to the rocks. This group of granite islands stands some 3 miles from the shore, and constitutes a very serious danger to shipping. The lighthouse formerly there were two, but the inner one is now dismantled is lit by an incandescent mantle. Many changes must have taken place in this installation since its establishment in 1829. To-day it is a flashing light of sufficient power to be visible some 13 miles. The principal keeper showed us a tern, two snipe, and a cuckoo killed the previous night by striking the dazzling glass lantern. 135 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS At noon we are at Mew Island, the outer Copeland Island. Here there is but an old-fashioned Wigham burner. The siren is worked for our benefit. It is a double siren, and may be heard many miles under good conditions. The coast is hidden in fog for the most part. It is familiar to sailors as a foggy region. To meet bad weather between the Copelands and Dundrum Bay, whether fog, strong winds, or high seas, was my general expectation in my yachting days. One of the worst nights I ever spent was on a passage from Belfast Lough to Ardglass. The booming of the gun of the Southrock Lightship is vividly present in my memory as we now approach the most northerly of the two lightships which guard this very dangerous coast. As we approach the Skullmartin Lightship the tide is ebbing so strongly that our boat is dropped some couple of hundred yards to the south of the lightship in order that we may more easily make her. Those who have not been aboard a lightship would find it hard to conceive of men dwelling in such a place. Here is a little vessel, chained out in the open sea, of necessity taking all that conies. She has neither sails nor engine. (In American waters the lightship is very often provided with the latter.) The most she can do, and the best she can hope for, is to stay where she is. And to secure this result she carries in reserve a mighty anchor and chain which can be let go at a moment's notice, should any disaster befall that which now holds her up to the seas. A few lashings only 136 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES have to be severed and the reserve anchor falls from her port bow. Cleanliness and tidiness characterise the little ship. Her decks, both upper and lower, are spotless. The men eat and sleep forward. The principal keeper or skipper sleeps aft. He calls the roll when we are assembled on the deck. Each man salutes as his name is called. At the names of absentees the skipper himself salutes. The lantern is constructed of plain glass, and is fixed on top of a stout mast. We ascend to it by an iron ladder from the deck. It is lit by ten burners. The main-mast carries two half globes for purposes of identification during daylight. In time of fog or thick weather she explodes a fog-signal twice in quick succession every ten minutes. For our benefit one is exploded, during which operation everyone covers his ears. The explosive is carried in a small cartridge, and is swung out on a sling and exploded after the manner already described on the occasion of our visit to Rathlin Island. There is not much to do aboard in time of fair weather. At night the machinery which keeps the light system rotating (it turns once in two minutes) has to be kept wound up. But this is a trifling labour. On the other hand, it is not a pleasant place in dirty weather, and the fog-signal work is exacting. A little later we visit the Southrock Lightship, which is anchored a few miles further south. Her light, which also is white, flashes twice in forty-five seconds. 137 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS It is a puzzle to thinking people how the unthinking manage to pass their lives. Here are eight men, including the skipper, marooned on a lonely vessel. Books are delivered to them periodically by the Board's steamers, but they are not in evidence. They possess none of the resources which exist for the illiterate who live ashore. It results that they really have nothing to do for the greater part of the time. They may drop a cast overboard in hope of catching a fish . They smoke and, perhaps, they whistle. Off duty I do not doubt they play cards. But what a life ! Mental atrophy must soon set in and render mental exertion impossible. One would think that they would like to better themselves by study of the signal books, the one book I noticed on board. But no. A question addressed to the skipper by Commander Davis appeared to elicit no response. These eight men inflict voluntarily upon themselves all the horrors of imprison- ment under conditions which might attend a life of interest as well as of relaxation. We passed St. John's Point late in the afternoon, and as this station had already been inspected from the land, we stand on for Carlingford Lough. The wind was fresh and the sea rising when at 7 o'clock we turned into the Lough. The entrance to this beautiful Lough is narrow and tortuous, but it is well marked out by buoys, some of which are lit. We pass on the starboard hand the wrecks of the ill-fated steamers, the Connemara and the Retriever, which collided here not many months ago with loss of all 138 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES lives save one. Half an hour later we drop anchor opposite Greenore. The beauty of the view was only made apparent when at sunset the sky cleared to the west and a flood of light fell over the distant mountains which surround Newry. To the left all was gloom. The limpid glory of sunset led the eye into the far distance. The sky was barred across by golden bars, and from between these emanated tints which words can never recall. For they flow from tint to tint with infinite variation. The burning green slowly changes to a forget-me-not blue and, attending the chang- ing vision, the cloud-bars, which were gold a little time ago, take on a rose-red colour. It was one of those sunsets which one tries to remember, but vainly. The colours can be only inadequately recalled " For they are of the sky, And from our earthly memories fade away." The next day the 8th of August is to be our last day. We start at seven in light windy weather. Dundalk could not be visited under the conditions. Rockabill that strange most northerly exposure of the great mass of the Leinster granite was reached before 10 o'clock. There is here a flashing light with a red sector landward. Our chief interest was in the diaphone. This is a siren having much novelty of construction. Before we part company I shall say a little about this instrument to the reader. An inspection of the Kish Ligntship, some 10 miles off Kingstown Harbour, completes our labours, and brings 139 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS to an end a tour throughout which both in my comrades and in my duties I was indeed singularly fortunate. It seems just possible that a very few of my readers may be sufficiently interested in what they have read to desire to know a little, in a general way, of the marvels of the modern lighthouse. It will have been gathered that there are two distinct branches of lighthouse work the pro- duction of the light signal for the mariner's direction in clear weather, and the production of sound signals to serve his needs in foggy or thick weather. The modern lighthouse bears little resemblance to the Pharos of our grandparents. Both in the methods of light-production and in the means by which the light is concentrated and distributed there is but little in common between the old and the new. Some ninety years ago the Howth or Bailey Lighthouse is thus described : " This light is stationary, appearing like a star of the first magni- tude at a distance of four or five leagues, or at lesser distances in a hazy state of the atmosphere " (Alan Stevenson's British Pharos, 1831). Now, what is the Bailey like to-day ? On the Commissioners' Chart of Irish Lights we read this description of it: " Wh. Fl. 30 sees.; P. 950,000; S.F.S. i min." This written in full, is: "White; flashing every thirty seconds. Power 950,000 light units. Siren fog-signal sounding every minute." This light is seen at a distance of 17 miles, which means an enormous increase of power over the fixed light of 1831. One asks with very natural curiosity 140 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES as to what this installation was like in the early times when it was first established that is, in 1671. But of this we know little. Lighthouses lit by fire-signals date back to remote antiquity.* A flashing light is one which lightens for a short time and remains obscured for a much longer time. The interval between the flashes supplies the sailor with the means of identifying the station. It is of vital importance that the light should be visible as far as possible in thick weather; hence every effort is made to increase the penetration of the beam. The penetration of the light is increased in two ways by providing the most powerful radiant, and by concen- trating this into a seaward-reaching, parallel beam. Large incandescent-mantle burners fed by oil-gas provide what is perhaps the most powerful and at the same time practical light yet devised. Several mantles may combine to increase the light. Such relatively large radiants are found to penetrate a foggy atmosphere better than smaller radiants such as the arc light. Science has not only given these splendid modern radiants, it has provided the means of collecting the rays with but little loss into a parallel beam. This is done by use of lenses or by reflectors. There is some loss of visible rays attending the use of lenses, and this is in favour of * The old name for a lighthouse Pharos is derived from an island of that name off Alexandria where a beacon was main- tained in remote times (about 300 B.C.). 141 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS reflectors. At the present time the majority of lighthouses are fitted with lenses. But the lenses are quite peculiar in construction. The use of one large lens, sufficiently big to collect the greater part of the rays, would be very inconvenient. For if the beam is to flash it must be caused to sweep round the horizon, reaching the sailor, wherever he may be, but only being seen by him during the time the beam travels past his vessel. This necessitates carrying the lens round the light. The genius of Fresnel surmounted the difficulty of making a lens which should at the same time be both large and light by building up a skeleton lens of concentric prisms. The prisms surround concentrically a small central lens, and they are so formed and oriented as to combine with the central lens in bending the beam into a parallel sheaf of rays. In very many lighthouses four such optical systems surround the light, enclosing it completely, so that four divergent beams making right angles one with another radiate from the lighthouse. When this system is rotated the sailor sees four flashes for one complete turn. In such a modern lighthouse we see a great rotating house of glass, built up of limpid prisms. It is sufficiently large to allow of three or more people standing and walking round within it. We climb up a little iron ladder, and squeezing ourselves through an opening in the floor of the glass house, we find ourselves in what, by daylight, looks like a house of fairy prismatic lights. A key is turned, and this house begins to rotate around us, uniformly and 142 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES without noise or vibration. When we examine as to how so smooth a motion is brought about we will find that the whole prismatic house is floating on mercury, with only some roller guides to stop any lateral movement. In the centre is the burner. This the keeper lights, and now we feel like a moth under the shade of a lamp. The light is insufferable. And if it is insufferable here, where the rays are divergent, what must it be like without the house of prisms where the rays are focused in a parallel beam ? Perfect order and perfect precision of workman- ship are required if this wonderful combination of an unfailing light and unerring mechanism is to possess a degree of reliability commensurate with the grave functions it must perform. Not for one hour in the year, not for one minute, must the light fail. And storms must be countered. Look at the heavy sheets of plate glass which house the whole delicate structure, and you will understand how storms are defied on these wild and elevated positions. A more powerful light than the Bailey is in the service that of the Bull Rock, off Co. Kerry, having a power of 1,150,000 units. The Fastnet Light shows a beam of 750,000 candle-power. A few months after my trip as a Commissioner came to a close I was in a liner approaching the coast of Ireland from the States: at 3 o'clock in the December morning I was up to see this beautiful light flashing afar off. No star of the first magnitude ever equalled it for brightness. It seemed to come up out 143 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS of the utter darkness, grow to burning brightness, and pass away like a note of swelling music. Wonderful and deafening are the fog-signals. The visitor has to be cautious how he exposes his ears to the sound of the explosive signal or to the soul-shattering cry of the siren at close quarters. The nervous effect may be felt long afterwards as a mild form of shell shock. Their voice is intended, not for the near listener, but to carry for miles, and to shout down the roar of the storm. As I have related, at Rockabill we listened to the performance of a diaphone lately installed at that station. It emits four blasts close together every minute. The diaphone is a comparatively recent invention. It was originally developed in Canada just before the war. It is a modified siren having, in many respects, advantages which the siren does not possess. Sound-signalling is attended with many difficulties when it is desired to transmit the sound through the atmosphere. Signalling through the water is both more economical and reliable, but then the sailor requires to have his ship fitted with special apparatus for hearing the submarine sounds. This is a drawback which at the present time is steadily diminishing, but which still must be reckoned with. Sound-signalling through the air can be heard by all if it is heard at all. Although the loudest sounds may, under certain weather conditions, refuse to carry, still it must be a primary object to make the signal as loud as possible. 144 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES The diaphone gives a very loud sound, and the note emitted is, at a little distance, a very pure tone i.e., free from upper harmonics. After re-embarking from Rocka- bill, we cruised in the neighbourhood in order to judge of the penetrating quality of the blasts. They end with a very characteristic grunt, which is advantageous for purposes of identification. The note was, otherwise, beautifully pure and penetrating. It might be thought that nothing would be easier than to generate a sound as loud as one desired. It is quite otherwise. The loss of power in generating sound is enormous. Only quite a small part of the expended energy goes to form sound waves: in many musical instruments little more than one part in a hundred. Hence it comes about that when it is desired to generate a sound which will be heard a distance of, say, 10 miles, the siren will be consuming power at the rate of 100 horse- power while it is emitting the blast. Up to as much as 600 horse-power have been used to generate the siren blast at certain British signal stations. The difficulty of meeting this large output of work is, of course, greatly lessened by the fact that it is required but for the few seconds during which the sound is being generated. An oil engine of 8 or 10 horse-power continually running, and storing compressed air in a sufficiently large and strong reservoir, would work such great sirens if the blast be short enough; for the accumulated work of the engine will be concentrated into this brief period. This is just how 145 K REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS the diaphone is worked at Rockabill. The power of a continuously running engine is stored for the blasts. A siren, as many know, consists of a fixed disk with many small perforations. A movable disk, also carrying small perforations, rotates over this fixed disk and con- centrically with it. When any of the perforations coin- cide, the air which is stored under high pressure behind the fixed disk rushes out with great violence, almost explosively. The note is produced by the rapid succession of such puffs. The perforations are so sloped that the air rushing out both generates and maintains the rapid rotation of the movable disk. As the rate of rotation rises from slow to fast, the note ascends in pitch. This is what gives to the siren its wailing character. In some cases the siren is given the form of one cylinder rotating within another. In the diaphone the construction is very different. There is no rotating disk or cylinder. The instrument consists of one cylinder oscillating or reciprocating within another. The compressed air surrounds the outer cylinder. Slots cut transversely to the axis of the cylinders penetrate the walls of each. When these slots coincide the air rushes into the hollow space within the inner cylinder. This space is, at one end, open to the air. The puffs, entering the inner cylinder with great force and at rapid intervals, cause sound waves to issue from the mouth of the inner cylinder. They are received into a trumpet carefully designed to strengthen the note being emitted. It is 146 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES only necessary to add that the vibration back and forth of the inner cylinder or hollow piston is maintained by the air-flow on the same principle as prevails in the ordinary siren. Mr. Louis V. King has recently shown that the note of this instrument is by no means pure when heard at close quarters. The overtones die out, however, at a little distance from the mouth of the trumpet. There is much wasted sound in these overtones. King's measurements have demonstrated that the output of purely acoustic energy by the diaphone was as much as 8 per cent, of the energy of the compressed air used in driving this instru- ment, a result probably unsurpassed by any other sound producing instrument. That Mr. King whom I subse- quently had the pleasure of meeting at Montreal is on the right track in investigating fog-signal apparatus by scientific evaluation of efficiency I am convinced. And how endlessly marvellous is Nature ! Sound, as all know, consists of small pressure variations transmitted through the atmosphere, the particles of air vibrating back and forth in the direction of propagation. In the case of a just audible sound the change of pressure will be only about the ten-millionth part of an atmosphere, and the back and forth displacement of the particles about the two-millionth of a centimetre, a distance less than the wave-length of yellow light. These figures are for a note of about 180 vibrations per second, a deep note. A middle C of 256 vibrations per second would have yet 147 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS smaller characteristics. Our ears can pick up these minute differences of pressure and amplitude of motion. We can hear and we can distinguish the note. Let us now turn to the sense of sight that other sense to which the lighthouse station is designed to appeal. Lord Rayleigh has shown that the stream of energy entering the eye from a candle flame seen from a distance of 2 miles is just about equal to the stream of energy entering the ear when the sensation of sound is awakened. The just audible note and the just visible light require about the same energy expended on nerve stimulus. Our senses are refined to a degree which almost staggers compre- hension ! Truly we are one with Nature ! And the future of the lighthouse ? Wonderful things are in store for it. It shall speak to the mariner by voices which neither storm nor fog can silence. Under- water signalling by morse code or by telephony, and wireless telephony in the aether, are to-day accomplished facts. On the other side of the Atlantic there is in operation even now a lighthouse which cries to the mariner while he is yet afar off the name of the station he is approaching, and if he comes too near warns him of his danger, the mariner hearing these voices in his telephone. But more than this has been accomplished. By sending through the water and through the aether signals simultaneously emitted the sailor can determine his distance from the land by a simple measurement of the lag of the submarine signal on the aethereal. And this is information most 148 INSPECTION OF IRISH LIGHTHOUSES precious to him. He becomes, in fact, possessed of powers which transcend those conferred by his senses alone even in the clearest daylight. All this is for the lighthouse and the lightship in the near future. But Science, serene goddess, wears these new and priceless jewels in her diadem with meekness, and keeps her steady eyes fixed on the sky where this is growing red in the sunrise. 149 V RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH* THE traveller from Dublin to Sligo by the Midland Great Western Railway passes the small station of Edgeworths- town some few miles before he comes to the town of Longford. The county of Longford is a remarkable county. In it was born Oliver Goldsmith, and in it Maria Edgeworth spent almost her entire life and wrote her exquisite novels. Edgeworthstown is only a small place a neat, plain village. Edgeworthstown House, wherein Richard Lovell Edgeworth and his daughter Maria lived, is still there and in possession of the family. And here this same family have lived since 1583. They have given their name to the village. Indeed, this family seem to have a remarkable gift of locally impressing their influence. It is said that Edgeware Road in London is named from another branch. The first of the family who came to Ireland became Bishop of Down and Connor. He left his property to his brother, and from him the succeeding generations descended. Not many miles from Edgeworthstown House is a * A discourse delivered before the students of the Royal College of Science, Dublin. 150 RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH (l8l2), THE INVENTOR OF THE MODERN SYSTEM OF ROAD CONSTRUCTION. To face page 1 50. RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH residence called Firmount, where, at one time, resided the celebrated Abbe Edgeworth, the prelate who attended the unfortunate Louis XVI. to the scaffold and received his last confession. But it is not my present purpose to speak of the charm- ing and lovable novelist Maria Edgeworth, nor yet of her relative, the learned and faithful Abb6; but of one of the most remarkable inventors and engineers which the United Kingdom has produced, Richard Lovell Edgeworth. Richard Lovell Edgeworth is known to a few as the father of Maria. His claim to fame as the most advanced road engineer of his time has been long ago forgotten by the public, and is known to a limited number only of that expert part of it who ought to know of his work. What he accomplished I shall endeavour to show. But first a brief sketch of his life. He was born at Bath in the year 1744. His father was a lawyer. His mother was the daughter of a Welsh judge. She was a woman of worth and intelligence who, according to Richard Lovell Edgeworth 's own account, did much to save him from himself; for he was by temperament some- what ungovernable and subject to violent outbreaks of passion. At the birth of Richard Lovell his mother, by some mismanagement, became paralysed upon one side and remained so till her death, which occurred while he was yet a child. In his autobiography he gives us two scenes from his childhood which I am tempted to reproduce because of REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS the educational moral contained in them. The first was an incident which occurred in his seventh year. A gentle- man a Mr. Deane was delayed by the sickness of his wife at a wretched inn at Edgeworthstown. The mother of Richard Lovell attended to the sick lady and invited her to her house. Mrs. Edgeworth subsequently called upon the Deanes in Dublin. Mr. Deane was a man of scientific tastes, and was at the time constructing a working model of the solar system. He was also experimenting upon the effects of electricity upon paralysis. In grati- tude to Mrs. Edgeworth he desired to try his treatment on the afflicted lady. Young Edgeworth, after much entreaty, obtained leave to be present. There was a short circuit which baffled Mr. Deane. The youthful spectator found it, and Mr. Deane was so pleased with him that he invited him to see his workshop next morning. There he saw some of the mysteries of machinery for cutting the teeth of clock wheels, and was shown his first globe of the world. Also he saw a siphon in operation, and had the construction of an organ bellows explained to him. " He bestowed praise upon my attention and upon what he was pleased to call my intelligence, so that from the pleasure I received and the impression made upon my mind that morning I became irrevocably a mechanic." Now, this is one picture, and having looked upon it we will look upon another. The boy had come to be nine years old. A clergyman of the neighbouring village was engaged to teach him 152 RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH Latin. This man in former years had led Oliver Gold- smith over the threshold of learning. " He put into my hands, without any previous inauguration, that universal book of knowledge, Lilly's Grammar. Never can I forget the amazement, or rather the stupor, which overwhelmed my mind when I read and attempted to learn by heart the first definition in this learned manual. By pure dint of reiteration, I got my lessons with tolerable success; but I am satisfied that my pedagogue augured ill of the young squire. I, however, like other boys, drudged on through thick and thin. I got through Tristts (sad) without any misfortune; but the first and only punishment I ever suffered in the cause of classical literature was occasioned by Felix (happy), and I well recollect the cause of my failure and disgrace. While I learned my lesson by rote, I had the trick of standing upon one leg, buckling and unbuckling my shoe. When I came to repeat my lesson, my master insisted upon my standing still and on both my legs. My memory was directly at a fault. My associa- tions were broken, and I could not go on through hie hcec hoc et felix without taking up my forbidden foot. A good whipping, as it is called, cured me of the trick, and of what appeared to be obstinacy or stupidity." Richard Lovell Edgeworth, who later became one of the most clear-sighted exponents of education of his time, had evidently much in his own youthful experience to reflect upon. After this preliminary teaching he was sent to school in Warwick, where his Irish brogue made him an 153 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS object of ridicule. Later he was transferred to Drogheda School, where his English accent made him equally an object of ridicule. He entered Dublin University when nearly seventeen years of age as Fellow Commoner. It was not then the custom to plague Fellow Commoners with lectures. His residence in Trinity was passed in dissipation of every kind. He was removed and entered at Oxford after six months. While at Oxford he made a runaway match, of which, as he admits, he subsequently repented. This union resulted in the birth of Maria Edgeworth. His first wife died young, and subsequently he married three times and had a total of twenty-two children. Some of these died in childhood. One gathers the impression in reading his life that Maria was the angel of his household. By her all the successive stepmothers were treated with affection and devotion, and as they passed one by one to the grave she became as a mother to their little children, giving to each one the benefit of her patient and enlightened in- struction and a share of her boundless affection. But Richard Lovell Edgeworth was himself, in spite of his somewhat too numerous matrimonial ventures, an amiable, lovable man. Maria bears eloquent testimony to all her father did for her and for her literary work. It is recorded that the system of education which he and his gifted daughter evolved, and which finally received publication in two bulky volumes, had the happiest results at home. 154 RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH In a household as large as a school and consisting of children of every age, the voice of discontent was not once heard for months at a time. I may remark here that much of the practical turn which father and daughter gave to their methods forestalls certain features of the Montessori system, so deservedly popular to-day. Richard Lovell Edgeworth was intimate with many of the most remarkable men of his time. Between him and Thomas Day, more especially, an enduring friend- ship existed. This high-minded but quite extraordinary man is remembered as the author of Sand ford and Merlon. Richard Lovell and Maria were in some part the originators of that delightful book, having written a tale on practical education called Harry and Lucy, which suggested to Day the idea of Sand ford and Merton. As I have already said, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, so far as the general public is concerned, is known only for the fact that he was the father and literary associate of Maria Edgeworth. But his claims to fame as inventor, scientist, and engineer are beyond dispute. His genius is sui generis. He is neither a Rennie, a Brunei, nor a George Stephenson. He is himself, and his work possesses characters which make it unique. He was not trained to engineering as a profession, nor yet to science. And, indeed, in those days schools of engineering were unthought of. His pursuits were matters of taste, for he was a well- to-do man, a rich country squire. But his work is marked throughout with a foresight and with an originality which 155 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS placed him ahead of his contemporaries in the subjects which he handled. His first practical work was in civil engineering. It would appear that he was, partly for matrimonial reasons, a sort of exile in France after his first marriage. The Rhone was then being diverted at its point of juncture with the Saone. The idea was to give the beautiful city of Lyons more room for expansion. Edgeworth seems to have given valuable advice to the French engineers, and in consequence found employment as a helper in the undertaking. He was then in his twenty-ninth year. His success in this work probably gave him self-confidence. He must have soon, of necessity, recognised that he was superior to most other men in intelligence. When he returned to his own country he settled down to the im- provement of his estate (his father having died), to the civilising of his tenants, and to a continuous succession of mechanical and scientific experiments and publications. It was characteristic of his genius that he regarded nothing as perfect, but endeavoured to improve upon his own work all his days. He spent intermittently many years on a system of telegraphy which was finally adopted and applied by the Government in Ireland ; and the then marvellous feat was accomplished of sending a message from Dublin to Galway in eight minutes. This was long before the time of the electric telegraph, and, curiously enough, philosophically speaking, Edgeworth's system was in many respects 156 RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH identical with the wireless of to-day. Edgeworth proposed to erect a succession of gigantic pointers or semaphores at distances of about 20 miles, and within view of one another. The arms at each station were to be three in number, and by their positions to indicate one of the eight figures, o to 7. A vocabulary was worked out in detail whereby these numbers in their countless combina- tions might convey any idea which it was desired to telegraph. Now, if when the first station which we may call A moves one or more of its pointers, B imme- diately imitates these motions, and as B moves its pointers C also makes the same movements, and so on, it is evident that a message may be sent with astonishing rapidity over very long distances. At night-time these pointers were distinguished by attached white lights. Thus the Government, at a time when the fastest mode of transit was by post-horses, at a rate of perhaps 10 or 12 miles per hour, might find itself at any hour of the day or night able to transmit its behests all over the country in a few minutes. I think you will admit that this was a very clever idea and deserving of more success than the blundering laxity of the Govern- ment would permit to it. Edgeworth first tested his telegraph near Edgeworths- town in the year 1794. He then, having found it to be a perfect success, endeavoured to induce the Government to take the matter up. But the Government would not listen to him. He offered to connect Dublin with Cork 157 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS by fourteen stations erected at his own expense, but still the Government would have none of it. Two months after this final rebuff the French were reported off the Irish Coast and threatening invasion. Then the Govern- ment would very gladly have had Edgeworth's system of telegraphy at their disposal. There was such confusion in the military higher command that cannon and cannon- ball of different calibre were hastily sent off to repel the French invasion. A change of wind, and not the cannon- balls which would not fit the cannon, saved Ireland from the horrors of invasion. After this Richard Lovell Edge- worth again offered his invention to the Government, and the lesson being now learned, there was established between Dublin and Galway the telegraphic connection to which I have referred above. Some of the signal stations were fortified as, for instance, the third one from Dublin at Cappah. Maria Edgeworth thus speaks of her father's actions in this matter: " In 1803 my father was again intent upon an object in which he had formerly met with disappointment sufficient to have damped the ardour and disgusted the patriotism of most men." We feel inclined when we read of all this to ask if the Government of those days was very different from the Government which rejected the recent patriotic offers of the Brothers Wright. After a hundred years the attitude towards science has remained much the same. At various times during his long life he worked at the important subject of springs applied to carts, and the best 158 RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH conditions for easy cart and carriage traction. In 1788 a memoir on the subject from his pen appears in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. The celebrated Dr. Hooke, contemporary of Sir Isaac Newton, in the time of Charles II., showed that the effect of springs was to make travel in carriages much easier to the traveller. But this distinguished philosopher seems to have over- looked a matter of not less importance viz., that springs applied to carts and carriages reduced the effort required for traction. The reasons for this statement are simple enough, but people a hundred years ago were not so much in the habit of asking the why and wherefore of things as we, under the increasing influence of scientific modes of thought, are to-day. Edgeworth's way of representing the matter was simply that, whereas the carriage without springs must suddenly rise to the full height of the obstacle encountered by the wheel, the carriage with springs is not thus suddenly compelled to rise against the influence of its inertia, but the spring is compressed, and by its change of shape allows the obstacle to be surmounted with comparatively little upward displacement of the carriage. It is true that other questions are involved if a complete account of the matter is sought. Thus we have to consider the resilience of the spring and the consequent lesser loss of energy resulting from the bending and unbending of a spring compared with the loss of energy which attends percussion and strains set up in an inelastic carriage frame. Much of Edgeworth's work on 159 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS the subject was experimental, and many and very ingenious are the experiments he describes. He un- doubtedly established his case. He found that a carriage with springs, moving at 4 miles per hour, had in ease of traction an advantage over one without springs, moving at the same pace, as 5 to i. There was no subject to which Edgeworth gave so much thought as this of carriage construction and traction. He saw clearly the great waste of time and money in- volved in the shocking roads and clumsy carriages of the period. Absurd ideas were prevalent as to the shapes, sizes, and positions of carriage wheels; the proper direction in which to apply the tractive force ; and the best mode of enlarging the carrying capacity of stage-coaches. Again and again he appeals for national experiments, offering to spend his own money in the cause, and urging that the economy of millions must attend experiments costing thousands or hundreds. His pleading was to a large extent in vain. He suffered the usual fate of men who are in advance of their time, and who live in a badly educated community. This subject was naturally bound up with the subject of road-making. Here we touch on the chief and most successful advances made by Richard Lovell Edgeworth. At a time when road-making and mending were relegated to quite ignorant men, and in consequence were without the slightest claim to any scientific basis, Edgeworth formulated a thoroughly scientific procedure, based on 160 RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH correct first principles. He stands as one of the most far-seeing and scientific road engineers of all time. True, his methods may have been independently developed by others at about the same period. But of Edgeworth's complete originality of ideas and independence there can be no doubt; and, in point of fact, so far as I have been able to ascertain, actual priority of publication rests with him. And I may add that while Macadam may have independently arrived at the proper and scientific theory of road-making, his general procedure is not that which is practised to-day, whereas Richard Lovell Edgeworth's is in every particular. It is necessary to acquire some impression of the state of the public roads in Edgeworth's time. The roads in Ireland were then on the whole better than they were in England. This was due to the fact that the roads of Ireland were managed by the Grand Juries, who appear to have paid some little attention to them. But they were exceedingly bad according to our modern views. The well-known Arthur Young, in his Six Months' Tour, published in 1770, writes of the roads in the North of England : " To Wigan, by Turnpike. I know in the whole range of language no terms sufficiently expressive to describe this infernal road. Let me most seriously caution all travel- lers who may accidentally propose to travel this terrible country to avoid it as they would the devil, for a thousand to one they break their necks or their limbs by over- 161 L REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS turnings or breakings down. They will here meet with ruts which I actually measured 4 feet deep and floating with mud only from a wet summer. What, therefore, must it be after winter ? The only mending it receives is tumbling in some loose stones, which serve no other purpose than jolting a carriage in the most intolerable manner. These are not merely opinions, but facts; for I have actually passed three carts broken in those 18 miles of execrable memory." Law and Clarke well-known authorities give striking diagrams to illustrate the methods of road-formation prevailing in about the year 1809. To these the reader is referred. The original road was taken across country with little or no preparation of the land. Not only so, but there was no thought as to limiting the gradient or inclination. In point of fact as Edgeworth points out the gradient did not much matter, for the badness of the roads in any case called for teams of horses even on the flat. Of course a track which was only prepared by flinging a few stones of any size or shape on the surface of a field soon fell into ruts. Then, when the ruts became quite impassable the road was " indicted " by the Parish Sur- veyor, and steps were taken to mend it. The method of mending was to give to the road such a circular convexity that water must run off. But the convexity was so over- done that all traffic had to run just on the top of the curve, the sides being positively dangerous for a loaded vehicle. 162 RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH The result was the rapid formation of fresh ruts, which, of course, the convexity completely failed to drain. The Parish Surveyor was now left with a surface such as can only be described as complete chaos. Repair had become practically impossible. The deep ruts filled with mud and water were dealt with by throwing into them clods, rushes, stones great and small, which were soon swallowed up. It is well known that travellers in those days made their wills previous to undertaking a long journey by stage-coach or post-chaise. To the danger of " overturnings and breakings down " was added that of thieves, against which all passengers carried blunderbusses. Such was the state of road engineering when Edgeworth began his study of the subject. He appears to have first stated his views on road-making to a Government Com- mittee on the 1 4th of March, 1808. I have seen this state- ment. The use of a deep layer of broken stone of various sizes and of fine gravel applied at the top to fill interstices is specified. In 1813 his book entitled An Essay on the Construction of Roads and Carriages appeared. It reached a second edition in 1817. I have before me the first edition. It is now a scarce book. In the Preface the author states that the subjects dealt with had occupied his attention for nearly half a century. In this work a complete account of the modern method of making roads by stones broken to a uniform size, known as " mac- adamising, ".is described. The theory is simple enough, but it is one which may well have escaped the attention 163 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS of early road-makers. If a sufficiently deep layer of small angular stones are exposed to the action of wheels passing over it, the angular stones bit by bit tend to settle together, surface to surface that is, the flat faces tend to move into juxtaposition. There is a principle at work. The volume of the whole layer tends to become the smallest possible in yielding to the passing weight. This necessi- tates the disappearance of interstices. Accordingly the flat faces must work into contact either by movements or by fracture. But by this contact of the flat faces the whole road becomes more nearly to the condition of one uniform sheet of stone, and the layer loses its original looseness of structure and binds together into a homo- geneous mass. Edgeworth undoubtedly recognised this principle, and thus describes the construction of a road according to his views: " When the substratum of a road is unsound it should be covered with faggots of brushwood, with the branches of fir-trees, or with furze and heath. Flat stones, if they can be had, should then be laid over the faggots, and upon these stones of 6 or 7 pounds weight, and lastly a coat of 8 or 10 inches of pounded stone. The pounded stone for all such roads should be broken by weight or measure. . . . The depth of broken stone here mentioned is sufficient for any road : two-thirds of the quantity will make an excellent road at a distance from any great town. No covering of any sort should be laid on the pounded stone, except clean angular gravel that may 164 RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH insert itself between the interstices of the stones, but no more should be used than will thus sink to a level with the surface. No stones larger than an inch and a half in diameter should be suffered to remain on the road; where much inaccuracy in this respect is suspected, an iron ring may be employed as a gauge." That Edgeworth is here giving his own ideas seems certain. For one thing, they differ in important particu- lars from those of Macadam, as we shall presently see. A little further on in his book he states that he repaired and kept in order for two years 8 miles of road in his locality according to the procedure he describes. His views were not, therefore, untried at the date of publica- tion of his book. With respect to the methods of breaking the stone Edgeworth recommends hand labour, but dis- cusses the possibility of effective machinery. The book is tersely written and filled with sensible, practical sugges- tions throughout. As regards the question of the proper curvature to confer on a road, Edgeworth is of opinion that it should be only such as will keep the road from being worn hollow in the intervals between the times of repair. Those who know something of modern road- making will recognise that Richard Lovell Edgeworth describes, in short, the modern procedure in every detail. What is the reason for the use of angular gravel applied as a dressing to the newly made road ? It is this I The void space between the broken stone or " metal " (as it is termed) is at first very considerable not less than some 165 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS 30 per cent, of the entire volume. Now, this space will, under the pressure and impact of the wheels, be filled to a large extent by pieces broken off the metal, or by parts of it which have actually been reduced to powder. Edge- worth's procedure has for its object the preservation of the original metal from this source of destruction. He supplies the angular fragments, which must come from somewhere. The shaip gravel fills the larger interstices, and serves to lock or bind the metal together. It does this not only by filling the spaces, but by the influence of its sharp corners and projections. The question then arises, Why should world-wide fame be accorded to Macadam and the name of Edgeworth be left in obscurity? We cannot consider this point, of course, without entering into Macadam's position in the matter. John Loudon Macadam, who was born in 1756 and was therefore junior to Edgeworth was a road engineer or surveyor by profession. He passed his youth in America, and returned to Scotland his native land- in 1.783. He became manager of the roads in Ayre, and in 1815 became surveyor of roads in Bristol. It was at this place that he first practised on a large scale the system of road-making known by his name. Aitken one of the chief living authorities on road engineering states that Macadam had previously put his methods in opera- tion in Ayre. But he quotes no authorities for this state- ment. I can find no earlier publication of his views than 166 RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH the report of the Government Committee of 1811, to which he communicated his views under date of the I3th of May, 1811. This is quoted by Edgeworth in his synopsis of reports of the various Government Committees which at that time were appointed to consider these matters. Here is Edgeworth's epitome of Macadam's evidence: " The object is to have a road smooth, hard, and flat. A road of small broken stone to a depth of 10 inches will be durable. Stones should be broken small, in general not exceeding a cubic inch. Road to be quite flat. Broken stone to be alone used." The last sentence finds amplification in Mr. Aitken's book, wherein it is stated that Macadam strongly condemned the use of binding material of any sort for filling up the interstices. Macadam's methods therefore involve a considerable divergence from modern practice. Now, as to the date at which Macadam may have first used broken stone for making roads it is probably impossible to arrive at any reliable information. In his evidence he refers to experimental roads of short lengths upon which he had tested his methods. One thing is, however, certain. The method of metalling was unknown to Telford in 1802. This engineer, who in all his work is distinguished by the most minute and painstaking atten- tion to detail, issued a specification for the Highland roads in 1802 in which he defines: "On a dry bottom ground gravel of a proper quality and from which all stones above the size of a hen's egg shall have been previously taken 167 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS shall be laid to a depth of 14 inches at the centre and 9 inches at sides." It seems quite incredible that so thorough-going an engineer as Telford undoubtedly was should not have made himself acquainted with the principles of metalling with broken stone, if these had been known at the time. Later, in his detailed specification for the great road connecting Glasgow and Carlisle, Telford uses very different words: "The metalling to consist of two beds, or layers viz., a bottom course of stones each 7 inches in depth to be set by hand. . . . The top course to be 7 inches depth, and to consist of broken stones not more than 6 ounces weight, and to pass through a ring z\ inches diameter. These to be hard whinstone." But this specification was written in 1816. Road engineers have taken divergent views on the question of priority involved. Thus, Law and Clarke in their excellent treatise claim unreservedly for Edge- worth's priority. They also point out that Edgeworth's use of filling material is now adopted by the best surveyors, whereas it was condemned by Macadam. Aitken supports Macadam's priority, but not on any citation of priority of publication. While there is no doubt that Macadam's influence did much to introduce the use of metalling, and that from his professional position he had many more opportunities than Edgeworth had of demonstrating its utility, Macadam's practice departed in important details from that of modern engineers: he condemns filling materials, and he wants 168 RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH quite flat roads. On the other hand, Edgeworth's practice is identical with modern ideas. Again, we have publica- tion by Edgeworth of the essential features of the method at a date before Macadam had said anything on the matter. That is a brief statement of the case. Similar cases of posthumous injustice are by no means uncommon. Hadley's sextant was invented by Newton. The Crooke's tube was anticipated by Varley. J. J. Waterston was the originator of the kinetic theory of gases, but others got the fame. I believe that no quite fair-minded person can acquiesce in the silence which hangs over Edgeworth's work on the modern theory and practice of road-making. Honour to whom honour is due. We see from all this what an interesting place is Edge- worthstown. And I believe those who go there will still see the village church with the spire which Richard Lovell Edgeworth erected. I do not think that any other spire in the United Kingdom was erected in the same manner. For in fact the spire was built upon the ground and within the tower which now supports it. It is a structure of iron framing, slated and painted to represent stonework. When the spire was completed the whole countryside assembled to see it hoisted up into its place. A bugle announced the beginning of the ascent. There was breathless silence. Men stationed above slowly turned the windlasses. Gradually the spire rose into view, emerging from the top of the tower. First came the gilt arrow and ball which tops the spire, then the slates 169 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS appeared, and in eighteen minutes from the start the spire stood in full view. It was then secured in its place and the connection with the lightning conductor completed. That night there was a violent storm of wind, rain, and thunder. The family eagerly looked forth next morning to see if the tower had survived the elements. The only unconcerned person was Richard Lovell, who, it is said, was inclined to reprove his family for their fears. A prophet is not always honoured as he should be in his own home. The spire after one hundred years is said to be still sound and unmoved. Edgeworth was not only public-spirited ; he was a man of indomitable energy. A Commission to inquire into the nature and extent of the bogs of Ireland and to determine whether they could or could not be reclaimed was appointed by Parliament. One of the Commissioners sought Edgeworth's aid. Although much reduced by illness at the time, Richard Lovell said he could only die, and he would rather die doing something than doing nothing. He took over the survey and examination of 34,500 English acres of bog. In wet autumn weather he tramped those deep and wet bogs, often going for fifteen hours without food. He was then in his sixty-fifth year. Instead of killing him, it did him a lot of good. His report on the bogs was published in 1810. He believed in the possibility of reclamation, and endeavoured to carry out some of his ideas. He was stopped by the legal expenses involved. Endless litigation arose on questions 170 RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH of boundary, and Edgeworth had to give up his scheme of reform. To the end of his life he worked with unremitting zeal. Now it was in the interests of his tenants, by whom he was beloved, now it was at literary work, in which he was joined by his talented daughter, or he was experimenting still on new forms of carriages and wheels. He wrote an essay on Irish Bulls, which recounts many curious examples of Hibernian wit. It is said that the secretary of an English agricultural society bought the book with a view to learning the writer's views on cattle-breeding, and was greatly disgusted when he opened the book and found what was in it. We find Richard Lovell Edgeworth as late as 1815 and 1816 making experiments on wheeled carriages for the Royal Dublin Society. He was then dying of an incurable disease, and he knew it, but still he worked on with undiminished cheerfulness and activity. The end came on the i3th of June, 1817. There is no doubt that Richard Lovell Edgeworth possessed not only something of the imaginativeness of genius, but that " capacity for taking infinite pains " which has been defined as the essence itself of genius. And with all he had a vein of strong common sense, a quality often denied to genius, and a quality which is absolutely essential to the successful engineer. It was the combina- tion of suggestiveness with common sense which enabled Edgeworth to do his life's work. The inventor's ideas come from his imaginativeness and suggestiveness. The 171 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS power of being able to say whether this or that idea will " work " or will not " work " is simply a matter of common sense. I do not think any other estimate of Edgeworth's place in the annals of science is required : he was at once a highly sensible and an imaginative man. His ideas impelled him to work. Men work either because of their ideas or because of their greed. The noble words of Maria Edgeworth which close one of the chapters added by her to his autobiography may well conclude this short study of a good man and in many ways a great man : " In Science it is not given to man to finish; to persevere, to advance a step or two, is all that can be accomplished, and all that will be expected by the real philosopher. . . . It is tempting to human ingenuity, and still more to vanity, to raise, each man after his own fashion, a little pyramid of human knowledge; but not only will he be more useful to science, but the memory of his labours will be the more likely to endure, who has been content to work humbly, along with others, even if he have added but one stone, one morsel of cement, to the great solid edifice." 172 VI INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION* THAT " there is no new thing under the sun " is a much- abused saying. It has the authority of the wisest of men, so it must be true. But it is run away with, more especially by those who are most profound in all manner of book-learning. Within the scholastic soul it wells up as something which is at once consolatory, self-exculpatory, and at the same time condemnatory of those foolish ones who would endeavour to disturb the landmarks of human knowledge and advance its boundaries. " What is the use of your researches ?" said a learned classic once, in my hearing. " You can find out nothing that is not already known." And then followed the narration of an incident in the career of a certain learned and hard- working Provost of Trinity College, to point his remarks and confirm his argument. But not only is the classic prone to run away with it: the unamiable scientific critic makes even a worse use of it. Your claim to some great work , after years of labour, is to be forfeited for all time because some aimless suggester of possibilities once upon a time perhaps one hundred years ago cursorily hints * An undelivered address to Alexandra College, Dublin. 173 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS at the principle involved. Only when death has removed the personality of the envied is the voice of envy silenced, and, very often, not even then. Having in common with other seekers after Science suffered much in this direction, I hasten to state that there is nothing whatever new in this humble essay. I make no claim whatever to originality. I am as the reed which bends to the blast. So far as this essay goes, Solomon is quite in the right. It is all as old as the hills. I endeavour here only to crystallise into system what is now desultory practice. We must go back a long way to find the origin of International Education in fact, to the Middle Ages. Interterritorial, not to say international, freedom of transfer from one studium generate to another then pre- vailed. The roaming student saw life in various Uni- versity institutions before his culture was completed and he himself might aspire to become a teacher. The custom expired under the influence of the mutual jealousies following on the Reformation. Thereafter the boundaries of creed limited the field of the University's influence. A wandering student might contract pernicious heresy if his wanderings took him outside these boundaries. Actual prohibitions against attendance at foreign Uni- versities were not uncommon. And thus a custom which we to-day must regard as a most beneficent one came to an end. Not finally, for in the post-University travels of the young man of rank the custom long survived. 174 INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION But in this form it was confined to the wealthy, to whom neither the cost of the journey which must have been considerable, especially when a tutor-companion accom- panied it nor the expenditure of time were matters of importance. More effectively, perhaps, was the early custom preserved in the wanderfahr of the German student, and often of the poor student. The wander jahr, in the aggregate, must have done good service to civilisa- tion even when it came as a period of exile to the traveller and he " dragged at each remove a lengthening chain." It is an episode which enters picturesquely into the life of many a German writer of distinction. The educational benefit must have been considerable. Now, the sort of culture wl:ich was derived from this international wandering of the student is just what I mean by International Education. Its value is so great in its every aspect that I think it should be and will be restored (and possibly in our own time) as a feature of University education. And when it comes I believe it will be regarded as the crowning benefit to the student of a University career. But it has even a higher claim to support, as we shall see. The recent British Educational Mission to the United States has opened up the subject. The purpose of the Mission was to consider the steps proper to the closer approximation of the academic life of the two countries, more especially by interchange of teachers and students. A new and fresh conception of International Education 175 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS is the chief outcome of that Mission. After many scores of conferences, private discussions, and public debates, what I term " International Education " has emerged as a practical aim which involves consequences so im- portant that it must either be carried into effect or serious blame must rest somewhere. The central and supreme reason for the migration of students in both directions across the Atlantic is the increased mutual sympathy and understanding between the peoples which may be expected to follow. To anyone who knows the conditions prevailing on both sides of the Atlantic this result must seem inevitable. The student who crosses, going westward, will find many false concep- tions swept away before he is very long among the Americans. Now, this result will affect the future of the world. Imagine a few hundred British boys migrating to the States each year and an equal number of American lads coming to us, and consider what the effects must be after a decade. We find these students grown into manhood. They are rising into influence in professions or in business. Some may later on sit in Parliament or in Congress. In the mind of each is the recollection of a year a happy year spent in the Other Country. The friendships of boyhood are the longest lasting of all. They are those which are made in the playground, in the lecture-room, in the campus. Each one of these men is an influence on his surroundings. The Other Side ceases to be so 176 INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION far away, and a people already allied by many ties, by a literature in common, by like democratic ideals, by long extending historical associations, with the passing of each year must grow into deeper and truer understanding and friendship. Such men, bound to the Other Country by a thousand recollections of boyhood, will each one be an influence for peace when international difficulties arise, and it will be just so much the harder for whispering tongues to poison truth. In the unanimous recommendation of the members of the Mission and in the warm approval which this inter- change of students has received in America we have, I believe, a promised realisation of International Education. The student at some time in his University career per- haps in the last year of undergraduate life, or perhaps in a post-graduate year and while he is studying for his pro- fession or for a higher degree takes ship and spends an academic year in the States, entering one of the great Colleges or Universities; pursues his reading under the instniction of American professors; mingles in American University life; travels in the States during the Long Vacation, and returns to finish his work in his own Uni- versity. This is the best form of International Education. We must assume that only a relatively small fraction of the students in any University attain this advantage. But, observe, it involves necessarily a certain lesser degree of International Education for those who remain at home. For the American students come to us. Perhaps some 177 M REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS 20 per cent, of our college rooms will be occupied by those cousins of ours. Our stay-at-home students chum with them; play with them; in the College Club fraternise with them ; in the debating societies and scientific associations discuss all manner of things with them. Here is a second-rate but very excellent and valuable portion of International Education for those of our students who do not go abroad. It is, of course, not intended to convey the idea that International Education must involve interchange with America only. Other Allied Nations might be invited to send their students to our Universities, and we might send our students to theirs. But when all is said and there is much to be said in favour of such migration, the fact remains that the interchange of students with America far transcends in importance any other scheme of migration which may be suggested. Several considerations contribute to this conclusion. Among these may be mentioned the fact that many here possess erroneous views about our cousins. This has come home to me with special force, and, I may add, in some cases with special pain, since my return from the States. In pleasing contrast are the opinions expressed by our young officers who have met the American boys at the Front. They know them. Not many days ago one of these officers wearing that little bit of white and purple ribbon on his breast said to me of the " Yanks ": " I found them very nice every one of them, but very 178 INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION reckless: most of their casualties arose from their reck- lessness. No; I never heard any boasting." Now, here is the opinion of one who knows. When more of us know as much about them the world will be a safer and a happier place to live in. At this stage in the democratic growth of the world we find herein the leading reason for International Education. Yes, International Education will make the world a safer place to live in. Such a disaster as recently befell our poor lads all over the world will become more and more improbable as the peoples know each other better. Leagues of Nations, Ententes, never can and never will replace sympathetic mutual understanding. We may now profitably consider the place of Inter- national Education as part of the scheme of the student's mental development. The great educationists have taught us that for each stage of young life there is an appropriate educational need. The little child at first belongs to the home to the mother, we may say. Later he belongs to the home mainly, but partly to the State. At this stage the need for his contemporaries for the first time arises, and this need is satisfied at the Montessori School or at the Kinder- garten. There, unknown to the child, he nestles under the brooding love of some of the world's greatest bene- factors: Pestalozzi, Froebel, Montessori. Later still the little student enters the Elementary School. There his contemporaries If the teacher is wise play a great part 179 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS in his life; and the Selbstthatigkeit, which Nature has implanted in him, is permitted to call out his faculties, and development proceeds from within outwards. This is continued into the High School I am now following the course of American education. In the High School the blessed effects of liberty still are given full play. But ever more and more the home gives place to the State. The fourth stage is the University. The teaching is now widened and deepened in scope. His contemporaries play the chief part in his development. The boy begins to read the newspaper with intelligent interest. He is led to think and act for himself as a young citizen. The sin and sorrow of life are brought home to him in many ways. Interest in the events of the day occupy him more and more. His earlier views are modified, and the great real educational influences of his generation are hard at work telling him about the social world in which he lives. But if the University does no more for him, it leaves his cosmos essentially bounded by the frontiers of his own country. University education as now pursued leaves him at that. International Education should be, and I believe will be, the fifth stage. A good citizen should know other people than his own. The educational value of this is greater, in a sense, than all he has previously learned in his University. It is not alone what he learns, but what he unlearns. There are other social ideals and social institutions, other modes of government, other systems 180 INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION of education, other views on what human relations ought to be, than his own. Contact with another people daily, hourly contact, dwelling with them, alone can give him real, living knowledge of all this. When this has sunk into him and become part of his outlook on life, then is he prepared in the highest sense. He has become a responsible citizen of utmost value to his country. And this must ever be the true test of the work of the University. He has received the crown of citizenship. We notice that the history of the boy's education is, or should be, all along directed against that day when he receives the call of the State that call which is the highest thing which happens in a man's life. His country wants him. And whether it be to fill some responsible post or to vote as a citizen, she wants his wise judgment in questions of justice between man and man; on questions of national education; of internal politics; of economics; but above all she requires his guidance in her dealings with other nations, and, in his knowledge of other peoples, to help her to preserve the peace of the world. Whether his work be for Science, for Literature, or for Art ; whether he work to enrich human knowledge or to discharge any of the thousand duties which the complexity of modern civilisation has created, his country relies on him, above all, when the fateful hour arrives, to help her to deal with some great people to help her as only one filled with sympathy, with brotherly feelings towards that people, can help her. For this supreme call he should 181 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS make ready while he is still young, for the day of the call will surely come. His answer to that summons can never be what it ought to be unless the University does its duty towards him whose preparation for it has been confided to her care. How does our University of to-day leave the clever boy ? He takes honours in his undergraduate years and then he graduates, and if he wants anything more we offer him what ? A higher degree say, in the humanities. The young man responds to the offer. He retires into the library, spins himself into a cocoon of learned books, and after a longer or shorter period emerges as "a ripe scholar." This is the history of many of the best of our students. After this he looks for a Chair or a Mastership. My contention is that in this process we neglect to put the real coping-stone on the edifice we have been building mp so patiently. The higher degree is very good in itself, but something has been left undone that ought to have been done. In short, it should be a function of the University to hold open to the more able student the opportunity of seeing the world from the standpoint of another people. Public money or private endowment expended on this object would be the best conceivable investment. The boy holds the future in his hand. We really cannot and do not educate (in the higher meaning of the word) the next generation. Each generation educates itself. All we can do is to see to the development of mind and body, 182 INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION and open to the boy the opportunity of free contact with his generation; And manifestly his " generation " is not a local thing. The millions of Americans now rising into manhood are just as much part of the generation of a lad in Trinity College as are the young men of his own country. They may, as regards the Selbstthdtigkeit of his times, be even more important than his own countrymen : for it may be that the effects of their thoughts may emerge triumphant in the social development of his race. Another aspect of the importance to the State of Inter- national Education is presented by the foregoing argu- ment ; for in it we see the special reason for knowledge of other peoples apart from the question of friendly relations. If we are to keep our place in the progress of civilisation such problems as are presented to us by American civilisa- tion should be in the minds of all responsible citizens. Government Educational Reports are all very well : they never can present the complete case. Neither newspapers nor books can bring it home like the spoken word the ideas gathered from contemporaries holding various opinions in matters ethical or political. The most interesting thing in America to-day is that great fruition, now plainly displayed, of the national labours expended in education; the consequences of the application of the democratic ideal to education at every stage. On this matter the coming generation in Britain will probably be called on to declare their views one way or the other. This alone constitutes a reason, and a 183 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS pressing reason, for International Education. Its im- portance can only be understood when we survey the nature of the problem involved. The fundamental question is entirely a practical one one of procedure : How far may the democratic ideal pre- vail in education ? The American has answered this in his own way; we have answered it in ours. Who is in the right in this matter America or England ? Is it wise and right to send our children to a High School where they meet every class of society, or is it better to segregate the classes as we do in this country ? A few years ago I would, unhesitatingly, have voted for the latter practice. To-day I hesitate. Education is an experimental science. Alone the results of this or that system can be trusted to show whether it be good or whether it be bad. And, even then, the good and the bad may be so slightly differentiated during a reasonable period of observation that the truth may be hard to attain. Our school system, we may claim, has worked well. The test of the war was a severe one, and the schoolboy came out of it with credit. Again, we produce great men in every branch of human endeavour. Why not leave well enough alone ? True ! but is our system going to bear the test of the coming more advanced democratic relations of Society ? How does the matter stand in the States ? Exactly what is said above for our system might be said of the school system of America. And in addition 184 INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION we might point to some things I think good things which may reasonably be ascribed to the school system of that country. The idea of brotherhood is abroad between all classes of society in America. It is the earliest lesson learned in the schools. It is carried into College life, and is an integral part of social life. I came home on a White Star Liner full of American Y.M.C.A. workers. Some were motor-drivers; some were wealthy business men; some were University Professors. I attended their debates and their entertainments. I met them everywhere. There was no condescension on the one hand, no self- assertion on the other. Neither the one attitude nor the other was, I believe, even thought of. I was continually thinking how much better these different classes must understand one another in America than they do in England. In the Universities of the States even at Harvard the student who works for his bread and puts himself through by his own exertions, even if it be by waiting at table on his brother-students, by gate-keeping, etc., so far from being despised or shunned, is respected for his toil. He is admitted to the Fraternities on a footing of perfect equality. Surely this is as it should be. And, again, whence that beneficent and wise interest in education all through the States ? Is it not founded on that democratic ideal pervading school life ? Rich and poor meet to drink at the same fountain. And the 185 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS fountain is for the rest of life a holy thing and a precious memory as the well-spring of the life-giving waters of freedom, equality, and mutual sympathy. The interest in education is so deeply ingrained in all that it seems the one topic in which everyone is interested. It reveals itself practically in all manner of ways which must have the most far-reaching influence on the future of the country. I take the following from a financial journal just issued. It refers to the estate of Joseph Raphael de Lamar, who died recently a resident in New York. He was a native of Holland, who ran away from home for a life before the mast. Going into mining, etc., in the States he made a large fortune. He bequeaths ten million dollars to be divided between the Medical Schools of Columbia, Johns Hopkins, and Harvard. His will dictates certain emi- nently important subjects for medical investigation, and the results are to be published " not only in scientific journals for physicians and scientists, but also and this I more especially enjoin on the legatees by popular publication, public lectures, and other appropriate methods, to give to the people of the United States generally the knowledge concerning the prevention of sickness and disease, and also concerning the conservation of health by proper food and diet." How did this man acquire his wondrous and wise enthusiasm for education ? The answer is, I think, evident. He found himself, after a rough life, received as one of a vast brotherhood, all animated with devotion to that great educational system 186 INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION which had founded their solidarity. Small wonder that he acted as he did. The humane and enlightened will of Mrs. Russell Sage was noticed in the same journal. Every direction of human benevolence, but primarily education, finds recognition in this great testament: for great it is. Education sinks deep in America. I shall brave the risk of being accused of vanity and tell you of an incident that occurred at Detroit. Sir Henry Jones one of my fellow-Commissioners one day told me that a man wished to speak to me : I would find him cleaning the large glass doors of the hotel. When I got to the great swinging entrance doors I found an elderly man, in his shirt-sleeves what we here would call, to our shame, a " common " man rubbing away at the glass. He surprised me by telling me he had read a book which I had written. And, although it is a rather advanced book, I found he had indeed read it and, I believe, understood it. The English student going to the States will find this enthusiasm for education brought home to him in other ways than by the splendid Universities with their fine buildings and lavish equipment. In Cincinnati, if he studies engineering, he will spend a bi-weekly period alternately in the University and in the engineering shops of the city. He will be paid at current rates for his work in the shops. If he is a medical student, by a somewhat similar arrangement with the General Hospital, he is likely to find paid work. Everywhere the student receives sympathy. The great Universities and Colleges 187 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS vie with one another in providing the most educational and healhtful surroundings for the student. In the Fraternities he finds himself in an atmosphere not of idleness and dissipation but in one of ambition for such University honours as will bring credit to the House. Much of this devotion to the student's interests irre- spective of wealth, ability, or rank is founded in the democratic creed of the American. The historical development of this creed is instructive. The educational ideal and we must always bear in mind that the American ever seeks to find a practical outcome of his ideals originated in the difficult social problems which confronted the States since the Declaration of Independence. The attraction of a real and whole- hearted democracy developing under favourable economic conditions drew millions of the enterprising, the oppressed, the discontented, the poverty-stricken, the failures, if you like, from all parts of the earth. How unite this hetero- geneous horde into a homogeneous commonwealth ? Either by means of the education given to the rising generation or not at all. The alternative to wise fra- ternal education was a rabble. There must be no politics and no sectarian religion in the schools, or dissension will result. The American, in short, of necessity developed the system which has proved so successful. Quick to learn, he soon realised the precious- ness of the thing he had created. " Nothing too good for education " became the national watchword. Let us 188 pursue this history to our own day. It is sufficiently wonderful. The reason why America entered the war is clearly and directly traceable to her educational system ! What overwhelming spiritual force urged her to so serious a step ? Her whole-hearted devotion to the great ideal of brotherhood, the opposite pole of German civilisation. For that ideal is something infinitely precious in the eyes of the American. And must we not honour him for it ? It is something which has grown up on American soil; and the rains which have watered it and the sunshine which has warmed it are of his own sky, a sky spread like a watching heaven over the little children of the land. I have not wandered from my theme. My point is that in the democratic ideal of American education we find much to reflect upon and much to study to study on the spot. Herein is an argument for International Education which, again, is unanswerable. For the alternative is to shut our eyes to the evolution of the great world outside. Talk to the average British University man on this topic and you will find either ignorance of the facts or erroneous deductions based on them. The real greatness, the real humanity, which are behind it all, he has never thought about. Pursuing our consideration of International Education from our own British standpoint, the personal educational advantages to the student of a sojourn in the States next claim our attention. On this subject, again, the ignorance of the average Briton is encyclopaedic. To one returning 189 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS from the States, with a memory filled with what he has seen in the Universities and Colleges, there is, in this, an element of the ludicrous, if it was not for its very serious influence on any united action respecting student migration. To-day the States offer to the student his choice of some 120 Universities and Colleges, every one of which attains the high standard imposed by the Association of American Universities and recommended by that body for the acceptance of their Bachelor's degrees by foreign Universities. Many of these institutions are world- renowned. All may be relied on for good teaching and careful attention to the student's well-being: some are absolutely lavish in the laboratory and library facilities which they offer. Everything that money can supply is offered to the research student. It is easy for the student to place himself under men of well-known ability and even of world-wide fame. And a curriculum is presented to him which surpasses both in scope and detail that of our British Universities. As an example, in one University we find the subject of Engineering divided into the following courses of four years' duration : Civil Engineering; Architectural Engineering; Electric Engineering; Mechani- cal Engineering; Mining Engineering; Municipal and Sanitary Engineering; Railway Civil Engineering; Rail- way Electric Engineering; Railway Mechanical Engineer- ing. The student can read in advance the curriculum for each of these College careers, and judge for himself 190 INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION of its thoroughness and completeness. It is not alone in the Professions we find this careful specialisation. It is, for instance, optional for the graduate student to study his own language and literature along special lines under special teachers, and he may combine these studies with such allied subjects as will conduce to his progress. On the subject of Pedagogy it is safe to say there are no such schools elsewhere in the world. The schools of post- graduate research have been justly described as the crown of American University education. It is difficult to form any idea of what these great institutions will be like in a few years, for their present rate of growth is astounding. Those of our students who are fortunate enough to work in those schools will return to their country with a realisa- tion of the spirit of advance which animates education in the New World. And what about the social life of the American Univer- sity or College ? Judging by the young men who con- tribute to it, the British student will find himself quite at home. The provision for club life and for gymnastics and athletics leaves so far as a visitor can judge nothing to be desired. Nor is the ethical influence of beautiful grounds and beautiful buildings wanting in many cases. Among the six score Universities and Colleges accredited by the American Association of Universities the student will find a choice which is embarrassing. American student life on a large scale is best experienced at the greater institutions, such as Columbia, Harvard, Yale, 191 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS Princeton, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Chicago, etc.; and in these Universities he will often find special resources which may be absent in lesser institutions. There will be a more numerous staff, permitting of greater specialisa- tion. And, of course, some of the professors will stand very high in the academic world. The latter feature will often decide the choice of the student. But there are many who would rather elect to live in less populous communities. To these the Colleges offer a most attractive choice. Such places as Amherst, or Haverford for men, or Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, or Holyoke for women, present a picture of sylvan retirement most inviting to the student. And it must not be thought that the more pensive life will be purchased by sacrifice of thoroughness in teaching, of extensive curricula, or of provision for research. A study of the catalogues of such Colleges soon relieves one of such a fear. Indeed, many Colleges specially provide for post-graduate work and confer the higher degrees. Excellent laboratories, museums, libraries, and beautiful dormitories and frater- nity houses, will be found, as well as the most complete provision for the student's training in gymnastics and athletics. And in these smaller institutions, also, the visitor frequently finds himself face to face with men whose fame has crossed the Atlantic. Such are the advantages which the higher education of America offers to students seeking International Education on her shores. But, it may be asked, what about the American ? 192 INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION What inducement has he got to come to our Universities ? What can he learn from our civilisation which will benefit him ? The answer may be given as it was often given to me when I asked these very questions in the States. He comes to us primarily to work under our great teachers and great investigators. Often it happens that in coming he enters into the tradition of his Race. For his pro- genitors were here long ago. Perchance they were British College boys. The same Halls may have received them. Those portraits which look down on him portraits of men whose greatness alone is remembered and whose frailties are forgotten looked down also on his progenitors. And, beyond the University, England's hills and villages whisper to him names he has venerated since his childhood. In estimating so great an ethical influence we must remember that often these things are his as they are ours. His fathers, too, played their part in the travail of the Nation's spiritual birth. Roundhead or Cavalier they must have been.* His social studies will not be fruitless. We, also, have our good things, and we, too, have originated much that has been beneficial to mankind. The Rhodes Scholar will tell you how highly he prizes the educational value of his sojourn in England. One topic, only, remains for consideration. How may International Education be realised on this side of the * The ancestors of Washington, Jefferson, and Madison are said to have been Royalists I 193 N REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS Atlantic as an important part of the University career ? It is a question of ways and means. The student who goes to the States and who lives economically in a Univer- sity must be prepared to spend about 100 in the academic year of nine months. To this travelling expenses will add, say, 50. We may take the entire outlay as 150. But the normal expenses of the student must be deducted. We may take the balance as 80. This must be the value of a travelling scholarship. If the State undertook the travelling expenses or the student were carried in a Government vessel, half this sum would suffice. In this country the Universities are not in a position to increase their outlay. They are badly enough off as it is. Unless the public or the Government take up the matter, nothing really effective can be done. I think the most desirable way of all would be by the foundation by the relatives of those who have fallen and by the public of Memorial travelling scholarships. In what better manner could our heroes be commemorated ? Not only would their sacrifice be thus for ever held in memory, but the object for which it was made would be promoted. Although I am addressing a woman's College, I have hitherto left unsaid the bearing of International Education on such an institution as ours. Many of our girls pass to Universities. In them let us hope there will be travel- ling scholarships both for men and for women. And, of course, they might be founded here in Alexandra College; I would prefer this if I had the choice. If you 194 INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION saw Bryn Mawr, if you saw Holyoke, if you saw Wellesley, you would long to go. I earnestly hope you will get the opportunity. If I were electing from your number to such a scholarship I would preferably choose one who had lost some dear relative in the war. She, more than another, would feel that every American friendship she made was a contribution a spiritual contribution towards that great object for which the sacrifice was offered up. For it is in very truth one more bond and deem it not a little or a feeble thing uniting those great peoples in whose hands reposes the future of the world. February 1919 195 VII THE ORIGIN OF THE SUBMARINE ALTHOUGH the development and final success of the sub- marine has been rendered possible only by the discoveries of recent years, the building of a ship to navigate beneath the surface of the sea is an old event. The invention dates back not much less than 300 years, to a time when the practical realisation of the idea might seem impossible. For how build such a ship out of timber ? And how propel it when no form of engine was available ? Again, how dwell within it when death from suffocation must so very soon put an end to the voyage ? It might appear as if there was no escape from these difficulties. And yet, in spite of all, the idea was made a reality by the genius of one forgotten man. Let us follow the clues which the writings of the seventeenth century extend to us in our search for the true and first inventor. A small calf -bound volume, which shows not a little of the wear and tear of time and usage, lies before us. On the title-page is the comprehensive title of the period : Mathematical Magic : or the Wonders that may be performed by Mechanical Geometry. In Two Books. 196 THE ORIGIN OF THE SUBMARINE Concerning Mechanical I we ? & Being one of the most easy, pleasant, useful (and yet most neglected) parts of Mathematics. Not before treated of in this Language. By J. Wilkins, late Ld.Bp. of Chester. London : Printed for Edw. Gellibrand at the Golden Ball in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1680. Opposite the title-page appears: Effigies Reverendi ad- modum viri Johannis Wilkins nuper Episcopi Cestriensis ; beneath a portrait of the Bishop. He wears canonicals and the contemporary wig. It is a thoughtful, sensitive face. This man is not our looked-for inventor. But in his book are many strange thoughts on the submarine, and from it we learn to whom we must pay the tribute of discovery. The time-stained leaves are rilled with rude prints of impossible machines. The learned Bishop takes his reader in hand with all the enthusiasm of the dreamer. If we doubt, he appeals to the ancients, and authority is used to enforce the logic of his endless arithmetic. We have levers and pulleys and geared wheels multiplying effort to the uprooting of huge trees, the motive power being a gentle breeze issuing from the lips of a cloud- encircled cherub. Nay, he tells us how we may add up geared wheels to the point of moving the world itself. The only trouble is that the naughts accumulate to such an extent that the numbers become unreadable. Each time we count up the naughts we get a different result. 197 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS The book is " a most easy, pleasant, and useful " reductio ad absurdum of mechanical principles. And yet John Wilkins (1614-1672) was no small man. In his day he ranked high as theologian and natural philosopher. He was one of the eight men who founded the Roj'al Society; and it is said that, far more than any one of the other seven Seth Ward, Robert Boyle, Sir. W. Petty, John Wallis, Jonathan Goddard, Ralph Bathurst, and Christopher Wren our learned Bishop was the actual founder. It is most profitable to contem- plate the writings of this man. They convey an idea of the scientific atmosphere of the times. Bear in mind that we are dealing with the thoughts of a prominent man of his day. Let us look at his pages a little closer. We arise from them with the predominant thought: "How did Newton escape all this ?" Here are learned comparisons of the Catapultae of the ancients and " the gunpowder instruments now in use." Here we have the subtlety of an inquiry as to how we may contrive a machine which will move just as slowly as the heavenly bodies are swift. Through page after page of such ideas there runs that effort of the mind which is never manifest but with the higher spirits, and is always pathetic to get free from the limitations of the senses. " It is certain," he says, " that our senses are extremely disproportioned for comprehending the whole compass and latitude of things." With such matters as pertain to the lever, the wedge, 198 THE ORIGIN OF THE SUBMARINE and the geared wheel, the first part of the book is occupied. The Second Book goes into more diversified problems. Here in the first chapter we have the " Wind Gun." This is nothing more nor less than an air-gun. " The force of it in discharge is almost equal to our powder guns." And the Bishop ends his reflections on the subject by suggesting what is essentially a machine-gun ! The sailing chariot follows. Clocks subject ever fascinating to the mechanician come next, and we are told of a watch so minute "as to be contained in the form and quantity of a jewel for the ear, where the striking of the minutes may constantly whisper unto us how our lives do slide away by a swift succession." Which is surely worthy even of Jeremy Taylor. From these discourses we are led to the subject with which the present essay is concerned. For in Chapter V. we are confronted with a disquisition, in many respects startling, on the possibilities of the submarine. But the Bishop makes no secret of the fact that the invention is none of his, but belongs to a yet earlier pioneer. Here are the heading and opening words of Chapter V.: " Concerning the possibility of framing an Ark for Sub- marine navigation. The difficulties and conveniences of such a contrivance. "It will not be altogether impertinent unto the dis- course ... to mention what Marsennus doth so largely and pleasantly descant upon, concerning the making of a ship, wherein men may safely swim under water. 199 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS " That such a contrivance is feasible and may be effected is beyond all question, because it hath been already experimented here in England by Cornelius Drebbel; but how to improve it unto public use and advantage, so as to be serviceable for remote voyages, the carrying of any considerable number of men, with provisions and commodities, would be of such excellent use as may deserve some further inquiry." Two names are here mentioned in connection with the genesis of the submarine. We shall first inquire into the part played by Mersennus. F. Marini Mersenni was a French theologian and philo- sopher who was born in 1588 and died in 1648 . He started life with the disadvantage of humble birth, but he lived to be the author of many profound books. Finally he fell a victim to that ignorance of science which he spent his life in combating. An ignorant doctor, letting the blood of the philosopher, opened an artery instead of a vein, the result being death from exhaustion in a few days. In his will he left his body to the furtherance of medical science. Of his many works one only concerns us: the Cogitata Physico Mathematica, which was printed in Paris in the year 1644. This treatise covers the whole ground of contemporary science, inclusive of music and navigation. In that section of Mersenni's book which deals with navigation there is a subsection entitled Navis sub aquis natans. It is apparently written in complete ignorance -* 200 of any prior work experimental or conjectural on the subject. It is entirely speculative. As we read it we find it difficult to escape the conclusion that Bishop Wilkins's couple of references to Mersenni are scarcely sufficient to satisfy the claims of literjjry morality. With- out any notable exception, every idea put forward by the Bishop is to be found in the Cogitata. But let us be charitable. The earnest which the life of Wilkins gives of high thoughts and deeds, the esteem in which he was held by contemporaries whose names stand high even among the most venerated of his times, are sufficient reasons for discarding the first impression of plagiarism. Frailties, physical rather than moral, will account for such things. However, the reader must bear in mind, when later in this essay he resumes the chapter penned by Wilkins, that the ideas are those of Marini Mersenni. But it is time now to turn to the second name mentioned by Wilkins, that of Cornelius Drebbel. Who was this man who is credited with actually making and working a submarine early in the seventeenth century ? Cornelius Drebbel, we are informed by the Dictionary of National Biography, was born in Alkmaar in Holland in the year 1572, of a family of good position. He seems to have begun life as an artist and engraver. In 1604 he came to England, probably with Constantin Huygens, father of the great mathematician, and himself a man of no small fame. In England Drebbel was taken into favour by James I. and given residence in Eltham House, near 201 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS London a royal residence long since demolished. These favours were in return for the many inventions presented to the King by the young Dutchman. Among these inventions was a " perpetual motion " which won European fame, and which seems to have had a really long run for a thing of the kind. The Hon. Robert Boyle refers to it, and expresses his opinion that it was worked by a thermometer that is, by the thermal changes of volume from day to day of some large volume of liquid or gas. And so it well might be, for the repre- sentation of this machine which survives shows the work- ing parts a sort of floating orrery carried upon a pedestal capable of holding concealed a considerable volume of the working substance. Of course, such a contrivance was no more perpetual motion than would be a wheel kept rotating by the winds or by the tides. Whether Boyle's conjecture is correct or not, we are sure that the thing was something in the nature of a trick. Drebbel went to Prague at the invitation of the Em- peror of Germany, Rudolph II., himself an ardent student and patron of science. He returned to England, probably in 1512, after the death of the Emperor. But being appointed tutor to the son of the Emperor Ferdinand II., he again took up his residence in Prague. This was a responsible and honourable post, and sufficiently indi- cates the high status of Drebbel among his contemporaries. Unfortunately for Drebbel, the Thirty Years' War broke out, Prague was besieged and captured by the Elector 202 THE ORIGIN OF THE SUBMARINE Palatine, Frederic V., and the inventor was thrown into prison and ruined. James I. of England, however, pro- cured his release, and England remained thereafter his home till his death in 1634. He is mentioned as being present at the funeral of his august Master, and in later life it is recorded that he took charge of certain fire-ships sent by Buckingham against the besieged forces of La Rochelle. Again he is referred to as being concerned with a company formed to drain the fens of Eastern England. There is no doubt that Drebbel enjoyed among his contemporaries a wide reputation for scientific attain- ments. He was, indeed, credited with much which he could not legitimately have claimed. He was, for instance, reputed to possess such control of the weather as to be able to produce rain and cold from the sky at his will. It is said that he on one occasion practised these powers to the confusion of his royal master when the latter expressed some scepticism. It is certain that he discovered a valuable dye and invented something of the nature of a mine or torpedo, which was operated by a new explosive. According to Pepys, Drebbel's son, many years later in 1662 tried to induce the Admiralty to take up this invention. We may be sure, unsuccessfully. Drebbel's standing among the men of science of his time sufficiently appears from the terms in which Robert Boyle speaks of him. Boyle lived among and with his contemporaries in a remarkable degree. He held Drebbel in high esteem. He refers to him as a " deservedly famous 203 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS mechanician and chymist." This should be ample vindi- cation of the charge of charlatanism which is said to have been directed against him by some few of his contem- poraries, for Boyle was both a wise and a just man. The precise date of Drebbel's invention of a submarine boat is not forthcoming from surviving references to the subject. But we appear safe in concluding that it was between the years 1610 when he returned to England after his first visit to Prague, and 1623. As regards the earlier limit, the Prince of Wurtemberg came to England in 1610 and inspected the " perpetual motion " machine. His secretary's account of the visit is extant. It refers to the perpetual motion, but says nothing about a sub- marine boat. So interesting a matter could hardly have been passed over if the boat had existed at the time. More especially is this probable in the light of the interest shown in Drebbel. Cornelius is thus described by the secretary of the Prince: "The inventor's name was Cornelius Trebel, a native of Alkmaar, a very fair and handsome man, and of very gentle manners, altogether different from such like characters "(!). As regards the later limit, two letters are known, dated the 2ist December, 1622, written by the eminent French philo- sopher and antiquarian, Peiresc (1580-1637). Peiresc had shortly before quitted England, and now writes to his friends Camden and Selden as to the truth of the inventions of Cornelius Drubelsius, who is in the service of the King of Great Britain, and residing in a house 204 THE ORIGIN OF THE SUBMARINE near London. He refers to the perpetual motion, the submarine boat, and the telescope and microscope. The mention of the telescope and microscope refers un- doubtedly to a belief, then current, that Drebbel had invented these instruments. The truth seems to be that he merely brought them for the first time into England, from Holland. These letters fix the date of the inven- tion of the submarine as prior to 1623. We know little about the details of Drebbel's sub- marine boat. A Dutch writer C. van der Woude writes about Drebbel in 1645 : " He built a ship in which one could row and navigate under water, from West- minster to Greenwich, the distance of two Dutch miles, even five or six miles, or as far as one pleased. In the boat a person could see under the surface of the water and without candle-light as much as he needed to read in the Bible or any other book. Not long ago this remark- able ship was yet to be seen lying in the Thames or London river." Of importance is the evidence of the Hon. Robert Boyle. In his New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall (Oxford, 1660) he mentions that Drebbel " is affirmed by- more than a few credible persons to have contrived for the late learned King James a vessel to go under water, of which tryal was made in the Thames with admired success, the vessel carrying twelve rowers besides pas- sengers, one of which is yet alive, and related it to an excellent mathematician that informed me of it. Now 205 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS that for which I mention this story is, that having had the curiosity and opportunity to make particular enquiries among the relations of Drebbel and especially of an in- genious Physician (Dr. Kuffler) that marry 'd his daughter concerning the grounds upon which he conceived it feasible to make men unaccustomed to continue so long under water without suffocation, or (as the lastly mentioned person that went in the vessel affirms) without incon- venience, I was answered that Drebbel conceived, that 'tis not the whole body of the Air, but a certain Quint- essence (as Chymists speak) or spirituous part of it, that makes it fit for respiration, which being spent, the re- maining grosser body or Carcase (if I may so call k) of the Air, is unable to cherish the vital flame residing in the heart ; so that (for ought I could gather) besides the mechanical contrivance of his vessel, he had a chemycal liquor which he accounted the chief secret of his sub- marine navigation. For when from time to time he perceived that the finer and purer part of the Air was consumed or over-clogged by the respirations and steams of those that went in his ship, he would by unstopping a vessel full of this liquor, speedily restore to the troubled Air such a proportion of vital parts as would make it again for a good while fit for respiration, whether by dissipating or precipitating the grosser exhalations or by some other intelligible way I must not now stay to examine." Boyle then states that Drebbel kept the nature of the liquor a close secret, and justifies his own 206 THE ORIGIN OF THE SUBMARINE inquiry because of " the man and his invention being extraordinary." Much of the foregoing information respecting Drebbel's submarine is to be found collected in W. B. Rye's England as seen by Foreigners in the Days of Queen Elizabeth and James the First (London, John Russell Smith, 1865). It leaves us with little doubt that, failing equally good evidence for some yet earlier candidate for the honour, we must adjudge Cornelius Drebbel the inventor of the submarine. He more especially claims this acknow- ledgment on the well-attested fact that he actually put the invention to the test of trial, and for the times successful trial. He may have got the idea from some previous writer. It is one which must come to the mind of a thoughtful man who looks out over the sea and re- flects on the life which freely moves therein : just as from remote times man yearned for the wings of the dove. But had anyone ever before the courage and skill to go down into the sea in a ship ? True, the diving-bell appears to have been a yet earlier accomplishment. But we cannot regard the bell as anticipating the boat. The difficulties to be overcome in the construction of the bell are quite different and relatively trifling. We may not, indeed, assume that in all cases of invention the fact of accomplishment confers priority. But in the case which we are considering the merit of successful trial so far exceeds the mere conception that our attitude undoubtedly satisfies the claims of equity. We must 207 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS accordingly adjudge Cornelius Drebbel, the Dutchman, to be the inventor of the submarine. Of the genius of Drebbel there can be no doubt. There is the repeated testimony of his wise and just contem- porary, Robert Boyle. He writes of him: " It is certain that Drebbel, that great, singular, learned mechanician, did by help of this instrument [the thermometer] make a dial continually to move of itself regularly showing both the time of the day and the motions of the heavens." Boyle's endeavours to learn the chemical secrets of Drebbel are also testimony to his opinion of him. It was custom- ary in those days to preserve secret new discoveries more especially those of chemical nature. We see some- thing of this even in the case of Newton's discoveries. It is said by Rye that Drebbel published little of value. He wrote on the nature of the elements a book which was reprinted in Dutch, in Latin, and in German. The book is very scarce. There is a portrait of Drebbel in some of the editions, revealing a head and face of rare power.* Drebbel appears to have preserved his chief discoveries secret transmitting them, probably, as heirlooms. We may well ask what were the chemical discoveries which enabled Drebbel to accomplish the feat of sub- marine navigation. It is quite certain that no closed vessel of reasonable dimensions could have contained sufficient air for the respiration of twelve hard-worked men during a journey from Westminster to Greenwich, * See frontispiece. 208 THE ORIGIN OF THE SUBMARINE at the fastest pace we may ascribe to the vessel. Almost nothing as to the chemistry of the air was known at the time. It was 150 years before the researches of Priestley and Lavoisier. And although Van Helmont (1577-1644) had got so far as to recognise the existence of different kinds of gas, he regarded air as an element. Hooke, in 1665, attempted a theory of combustion which approxi- mated, although vaguely, to the facts. John Mayow, in 1681, published the conclusion that respiration and combustion are analogous phenomena. But these ad- vances were not available to Drebbel. We can only suppose that, either by accident or by research, Drebbel had discovered the property of certain substances e.g., a. solution of quicklime in water of removing from respired air its poisonous properties. It is to be regretted that Boyle did not penetrate Drebbel's secret; but he leaves no doubt that Drebbel had divined the complex nature of the atmosphere, and had attained to an idea of what his liquor accomplished. That being so, we must accord Drebbel a high place among the pioneers of chemical science. The absorption of the carbon dioxide would have enabled the voyage to be much prolonged. Com- pressed air may have been carried. Pipes going to the surface, assisted by circulating fans or pumps, would, of course, also have enabled the voyage to be accomplished. But if this is the explanation, we must suppose Boyle to have been quite deceived, and the information given to him untruthful. As we shall presently see, Wilkins 209 o REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS (that is to say, Mersenni) also discusses the difficulty of respiration in the submarine. He wrote at a later date, and there is reference to the supposed discovery, by a French diver, of a liquor potent to rejuvenate the air rendered poisonous by usage. It is plain that Drebbel's success in overcoming this difficulty was considered by his contemporaries as not the least remarkable part of his accomplishment. As regards other details, the recapitulation of Mersenni 's views contained in Bishop Wilkins's extraordinary book may help us. It is not improbable that some of the suggestions put forward had actually been carried out by Drebbel. Thus the method of propulsion was probably that described in the Mathematical Magic. But in com- pleting our interrupted extract from the Bishop's work we must not father on the great inventor of the sub- marine the absurdities of the philosopher. The Bishop proceeds: " Concerning which there are two things chiefly con- siderable ( many difficulties with their remedies, great conveniences. *' The difficulties are generally reducible to these three heads. " r. The letting out, or receiving in any thing, as there shall be occasion, without the admission of water." This first difficulty is to be overcome thus: " Let there be certain leatheren bags made of several bignesses ... for 2IO THE ORIGIN OF THE SUBMARINE the figure of them being long and open at both ends. Answerable to these let there be divers windows, or open places in the frame of the ship, round the sides of which one end of these bags may be fixed, the other end coming within the ship being to open and shut as a purse. Now if we suppose this bag thus fastened to be tyed close about towards the window, then anything that is to be sent out may be safely put into that end within the ship, which being again close shut, and the other end loosened, the thing may be safely sent out without the admission of water. " So again, when any thing is to be taken in, it must be first received into that part of the bag towards the window, which being (after the thing is within it) close tyed about, the other end may then be safely opened. It is easy to conceive, how by this means any thing or person may be sent out, or received in, as there shall be occasion; how the water, which will perhaps by degrees leak into several parts, may be emptied out again, with divers the like advantages. Though if there should be any leak at the bottom of the vessel, yet very little water would get in, because no air could get out. " 2. The second difficulty in such an Ark will be the motion or fixing of it according to occasion ; The direction of it to several places, as the voyage shall be designed, without which it would be very useles, if it were to remain only in one place, or were to remove only blindfold, without a certain direction; And the contrivance of this 211 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS may seem very difficult, because these submarine Naviga- tors will want the usual advantages of winds and tides for motion, and the sight of the heavens for direction. " But these difficulties may be thus remedied; As for the progressive motion of it, this may be effected by the help of several Oars, which in the outward ends of them shall be like the fins of a fish to contract antf dilate. The passage where they are admitted into the ship being tyed about with such leather bags (as were mentioned before) to keep out the water. It will not be convenient perhaps that the motion in these voyages should be very swift, because of those observations and discoveries to be made at the bottom of the sea, which in a little space may abundantly recompence the slowness of its progress. " If this Ark be so ballast as to be of equal weight with the like magnitude of water, it will then be easily moveable in any part of it. " As for the ascent of it, this may be easily contrived, if there be some great weight at the bottom of the ship (being part of its ballast) which by some cord within may be loosened from it; As this weight is let lower, so will the ship ascend from it (if need be) to the very surface of the water; and again as it is pulled close to the ship, so will it descend. " For the direction of this Ark the Mariners needle may be useful in respect of the latitude of places; and the course of this ship being more regular than others, by reason it is not subject to Tempests or unequal winds, 212 THE ORIGIN OF THE SUBMARINE may more certainly guide them in judging of the longitude of places. "3. But the greatest difficulty of all will be this, how the air may be supplied for respiration. How constant fires may be kept in it for light and for the dressing of foods. . . . Eight cubic feet of air will not serve a Diver for respiration above one quarter of an hour: the breath which is often sucked in and out, being so corrupted by the mixture of vapours, that nature rejects it as unservice- able. Now in an hour a man will need at least 360 re- spirations, betwixt every one of which there shall be ten second minutes, and consequently a great change and supply of air will be necessary for many persons and any long space." One way out of the difficulty is to make the vessel itself " of large capacity, that as the air in it is corrupted in one part, so it may be purified and renewed in the other; or if the mere refrigeration of the air would fit it for breathing, this might be somewhat helped by bellows, which would cool it by motion." And we are further treated to the suggestion that " it is not altogether improbable " that the mere circulation of air around a lamp or fire maintained in the boat might serve to purify the air as in the " first and second Regions " (of the atmosphere). Finally, the Bishop refers to Mersenni for a reported discovery by " one Barricus, a Diver." whereby a man " might easily continue under water for six hours together." From the discussion of this diffi- culty by Mersenni and Wilkins it is evident that they 213 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS knew nothing of Drebbel's methods of encountering it. We gather, too, from their remarks how intense was the prevailing ignorance on the subject of respiration, and how far in advance of his times was the inventor of the submarine. But " the many advantages and conveniences of such a contrivance," as set forth by the Bishop and Mersenni, are the most extraordinary part of the whole matter. They are carefully enumerated as follows: " i. 'Tis private; a man may thus go to any coast of the world invisibly, without being discovered or pre- vented in his journey. "2. 'Tis safe; from the uncertainty of Tides and the violence of Tempests, which do never move the sea above five or six paces deep. From Pirates and Robbers which do so infest other voyages ; from ice and great frosts which do so much endanger the passages towards the Poles. "3. It may be of very great advantage against a Navy of enemies, who by this means may be undermined in the water and blown up. " 4. It may be of special use for the relief of any place that is besieged by water, to convey unto them invisible supplies, and so likewise for the surprisal of any place that is accessible by water. " 5. It may be of unspeakable benefit for submarine experiments and discoveries, as, The several proportions of swiftness betwixt the ascent of a bladder, cork, or any 214 THE ORIGIN OF THE SUBMARINE other light substance, in comparison to the descent of stones or lead. The deep caverns and subterraneous passages where the sea water in the course of its circula- tion doth vent itself into other places, and the like. The nature and kinds of fishes, the several arts of catching them, by alluring them with lights, by placing divers nets about the sides of this Vessel, shooting the greater sort of them with guns, which may be put out of the ship by the help of such bags as were mentioned before, with divers the like artifices and treacheries, which may be more successively (sic) practised by such who live so familiarly together. These fish may serve not only for food, but for fewel likewise, in respect of that oyl which may be extracted from them; the way of dressing meat by lamps, being in many respects the most convenient for such a voyage. "The many fresh springs that may probably be met with in the bottom of the sea, will serve for the supply of drink and other occasions. " But above all, the discovery of submarine treasures is more especially considerable, not only in regard of what hath been drowned by wrecks, but the several precious things which grow there, as Pearl, Coral Mines, with innumerable other things of great value, which may be much more easily found out, and fetcht up by the help of this, than by any other usual way of the Urinators (divers). "To which purpose the great Vessel may have sorce 215 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS lesser cabins tyed about it, at various distances, wherein several persons, as Scouts, may be lodged for the taking of observations, according as the Admiral shall direct them. Some of them being frequently sent up to the surface of the water, as there shall be occasion. " All kinds of arts and manufactures may be exercised in this Vessel. The observations made by it may be both written, and (if need were) printed here likewise. Several colonies may thus inhabit, having their Children born and bred up without the knowledge of land, who could not chuse but be amazed with strange conceits upon the discovery of this upper world." Some part of this might be regarded as the lively wit of an amusing essayist. But there is nothing in the solemn Mersenni or learned Bishop Wilkins to suggest mere joking. The standpoint of seventeenth-century science must be borne in mind. Authority and superstition still held dominion over such thinkers as Mersenni and Wilkins. They are so accustomed to accept mere hearsay that their world becomes filled with ideas the most grotesque, which pass for facts. The Bishop, indeed, introduces many of his statements without even the sanction of any identi- fiable witness. Something is " storied " and forthwith becomes worthy to enter into the category of the possible or the probable. He is, for instance, endeavouring to establish the thesis that flying might become a possible human accomplishment if only it were sufficiently prac- tised. This is how he backs up his theory: "And, "he says, 216 THE ORIGIN OF THE SUBMARINE " it is storied of a certain young man, a Sicilian by birth, and a Diver by profession, who had so continually used himself to the water, that he could not enjoy his health out of it. If at any time he stayed with his friends on the land, he should be so tormented with a pain in his stomach, that he was forced for his health to return back again to the Sea, wherein he kept his usual residence; and when he saw any ship, his custome was to swim to them for relief, which kind of life he continued till he was an old man, and dyed." This yarn is good enough to prop his argument ! And there was no one to laugh at them. The lesser minds were in still worse plight. To them the distinction between fable and fact was even more indefinite. Wilkins and Mersenni were learned men and stood far uplifted above their fellows; but still they had not risen clear of the mists and seen the light which to-day is shed even upon the humble in life. 217 VIII IN TRINITY COLLEGE DURING THE SINN FEIN REBELLION BY ONE OF THE GARRISON EASTER MONDAY, the 24th of April, 1916 not yet one fortnight old as I write looked a day of peaceful thoughts if ever there was one. It was cool, bright weather. The Dublin hills stretched away to the south-west, a picture of immovable repose in the afternoon light. Down the Dundrum road a band of the Veteran Volun- teers the " G.R.'s " came swinging along at a steady pace, their faces towards the City. An officer on horse- back led them. As he passed us, we recognised in him Major Harris, of the Officers' Training Corps of the University of Dublin. He stopped us. " Have you heard that the Sinn Feiners have risen in Dublin, and seized the General Post Office and Stephen's Green, and shot several of the police?" The Veterans passed on their way to the City, leaving us bewildered. Some of them were to meet death within an hour of that instant ! Peace indeed ! Rather madness and bloodshed this fine holiday afternoon. To a change so astounding the mind at first refuses to adapt itself. The blessed isolation 218 TRINITY COLLEGE from the horrors of invasion, for which we daily give thanks, suddenly replaced by that worst of all forms of strife civil war. For the danger of the Sinn Fein is known to all in Ireland save, apparently, to the authorities. It is not only a danger in itself, but it possesses all the potential danger of the spark amidst the gunpowder. And now at last it is at hand, and to each one comes the same thought to seek his duty and to do it. To him who has not the great obligation of defence of wife and family during the unknown dangers of the coming night the cause of law and order and of the institutions which he holds dearest may appeal for all he can give. In the minds of each one of us the same question is being de- bated, and the claims upon him weighed one against the other. And to each the littleness of a few years of life speaks with the same quieting voice. I was in Trinity College by four o'clock. I had already been in the City that same morning visiting a sick friend. There were then no signs of the fatal events proceeding elsewhere. The Post Office was actually being seized at the time I was sitting by my friend's bedside. But now how different ! Carriage traffic had almost ceased, and crowds hurried, partly in terror, partly in curiosity, about the streets. An occasional shot was heard. But it soon became evident that the Rebels were virtually in possession of the City. I left Trinity cautiously by one of the side gates of which I possessed a key. I was anxious to ascertain, if possible, 219 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS the magnitude of the movement and to get some idea of the numbers engaged in it. I visited the General Post Office, the central building in Sackville Street. It was a wreck. Glass littered deeply the path and pavement in front of it. Armed men stood behind its shattered windows. Useless barricades had been piled up within mail-bags, evidently filled with letters, to keep out bullets ! Chairs and tables through which bullets would pass almost as easily ! And, peering out from their defences, the unhappy warriors threatened with their rifles the scared crowd which alternately approached and ran away. At one window a mere boy was still knocking out the glass with the butt of his rifle. Above the building floated a huge green banner with the inscription in white letters, "Irish Republic." Truly Der Tag had come 1 But oh, how pitiful ! A fantastic chimera, and death the sure and certain wage ! The Rebels were moving about freely in the streets. All seemed armed with rifles. The police had entirely disappeared. They had done all they could, and some had offered their lives in a vain endeavour to save the City. St. Stephen's Green, which I next visited, was closed. A sort of barrier had been placed within the large gate facing the foot of Graf ton Street. Behind it stood, with set face and in Sinn Fein uniform, an armed man. He held his rifle at the ready. But neither military nor police contested his supremacy. A couple of lads of seventeen or eighteen years of age lay on the grass near 220 TRINITY COLLEGE by. They, too, were armed and equipped with rifle and bandolier. A man in a small crowd remarked to me on the juvenile appearance of these Sinn Feiners. What, indeed, could they know of right and wrong ? What could they do to save themselves even if they knew the truth ? It was a pitiful sight. One formidable-looking man of maturer years lay stretched in the most approved attitude, with rifle immovably directed towards Grafton Street. I estimated that if the distribution of men around the Green was everywhere such as it was at this point, 400 or 500 men might be within. One comforting inference could be drawn. No German officer was re- sponsible for such strategy. For no officer in his senses would shut his men in an enclosure commanded by tall buildings on every side, from any one of which almost every corner of the Green could be reached. And as it turned out, this was just what the Sinn Feiners found to their cost a few days later. I returned to the College but little wiser than I had left it. From the first the gates had been closed, and no unknown person allowed to enter. What force was within ? I had come in almost direct from the meeting with Major Harris, and as he must moderate his pace to that of his men on foot, and as I was on a bicycle, it seemed unlikely that even by this time he could have returned. Inquiry confirmed this view. At the Head- quarters of the Officers' Training Corps I heard that several officers in khaki had been fired on, and it was 221 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS believed to be doubtful if Major Harris would ever reach the College. In point of fact he never did. Approaching the town, the Veterans divided into two parties. One of these was under command of Major Harris. The other, under command of Mr. Browning, was ambushed and badly cut up by the Rebel fire. The survivors of both parties were finally driven to take refuge in Beggar's Bush Barracks, then in a state of siege, and into which they only penetrated by climbing over a back wall. The " G.R.'s " had gone on their route-march, as was their wont, totally unprovided with weapons of defence. Thus it happened that Trinity College seemed almost without defenders. Major Tate, the C.O., was unfor- tunately away. But Captain Alton, of the O.T.C.; Lieutenant Luce, of the Royal Irish Rifles, who was home from the front on sick leave; and Lieutenant Waterhouse, were fortunately at hand. A few boys in khaki were about. There was no doubt of the seriousness of the position Help from military or police was not to be expected for some time possibly for some days. That the College had not already been captured was most inexplicable. It was obviously the most central and commanding position in the city. There was the additional attraction of the military stores of the O.T.C. depot. In this were kept some hundreds of service rifles and many thousands of rounds of ammunition. The loot of the buildings would supply many requirements of those in possession. And once captured, nothing but the whole- 222 TRINITY COLLEGE sale destruction of buildings, containing the most precious heirlooms of the ancient University, would suffice to dislodge the enemy. I visited the Provost He faced the position with which he had been so suddenly con- fronted with calmness. Then I left for home by the Lincoln Place gate, having first received promise of a rifle when I returned. It was highly probable that no daylight attack would now be made, so there was ample time for a bicycle ride to the suburbs to inform my small household of my intention to remain in the College during coming events. It was about six o'clock by the time I got back to the College. The ride in proved an anxious one. I had rather thoughtlessly put on a Swedish leather jacket which bore somewhat the appearance of a uniform. I had a pistol in my pocket. Several groups of the enemy seemed on the point of challenging me. It was evident I had made myself an object of suspicion, and capture was the best I could hope if I was stopped and sear hed. But at length I got back to the Lincoln Place gate and was admitted. A message had been got through to Beggar's Bush Barracks, and we knew that help from that quarter was no longer possible. By great good luck eight Anzacs, who had been on leave in the city, had taken harbourage in the College. The total number of defenders amounted to forty-four. Sentries had, of course, already been posted at the gates, and others were stationed at important points of obser- 223 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS vation. After my arrival I spent some time on the roof of the Physical Laboratory, with a view to its utilisation as a point of observation during hours of daylight. Then came orders to sandbag the back windows of the O.T.C. Headquarters. This was laborious work, but the younger men made light of it; filling the bags below and carrying them up the stairs. After this a little time was left me in which to practise the use of the service rifle. The pattern was new to me, but in half an hour, and under the instruction of one of the Cadets, I was sufficiently familiar with it to feel confidence that I could fire and refill with fair rapidity. To rank as a good shot with a rifle to which one was unaccustomed, under conditions when probably the sights could not be seen, was, of course, out of the question. But on the other hand, there was the comforting reflection that if attacked the fighting must necessarily be at close quarters and accurate shooting would not be required. Evidently under such circumstances the principal matter was to master the , purely mechanical conditions of quick loading and hand- ling. With these comforting thoughts I practised myself upon the rifle till I felt at home with it. I was also so fortunate as to get a dozen cartridges for my pistol, for which I had but one cartridge on entering the College. The geography of the College ground requires some description for the benefit of those unacquainted with Dublin. The grounds of Trinity College cover about 224 TRINITY COLLEGE 35 acres, and form a roughly quadrangular area having a width of about 900 feet and a length of about 2,000 feet. This area is surrounded by the most important thorough- fares of Dublin. The quadrilateral extends its greatest length in, approximately, a west to east direction. The principal buildings of the College the magnificent Library, the Examination Hall, the Dining Hall, the Provost's House, the School of Engineering (building beloved by Ruskin), as well as the fine Belfry and the living-rooms of the students and of the staff lie in the western half . The splendid frontal buildings of the College, with their exquisite pavilions, command a city view unsurpassed by any in the United Kingdom, the broad thoroughfares of Westmoreland Street, Dame Street, and Grafton Street converging to the spacious pavement fronting the fa9ade of the College. At the eastern end of the Park are placed the modern buildings housing the various Schools of Science, many of which have been recently built by the Chancellor of the University, Viscount Iveagh. The Headquarters of the O.T.C. are placed along the extreme eastern boundary of the College grounds, and thus lie outside, as it were, the group of the Science Schools. Between the group of buildings lying to the west end and that lying to the east end of the Park there intervenes an open space devoted to the recreation of the students in normal times. Just now the existence of this area constitutes an added difficulty in the defence of the College. And it is an aggra- 225 p REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS vation of the difficulties that telephonic connection between the west and east ends of the Park does not exist. For the City Exchange is closed to us, and this was the normal means of communication. Even to a novice this evil was at once apparent, and I thought of searching the Physical Laboratory for a telephone, which might be installed as a field telephone, but I feared that the requisite leads would certainly fail us. This want involved a serious degree of isolation of the main points of defence of the College. The difficulties of the defence were obvious even to an unskilled observer. The railings and walls which bound the south and north sides of the Park are scalable at any point. The wall on the northern boundary is skirted by a lane, which may be in the enemy's hands. It is. moreover, commanded by the rear of the houses of Brunswick Street, which also he may hold. The railings separating the south boundary of the Park from Nassau Street are by no means unscalable. So much for the College Park. As for the practice-grounds of the O.T.C., in which my first sentry duties lay, on the east side they are separated from a lane by a high wall surmounted by barbed wire. But this would not be a serious obstacle, and the lane is open at both ends to the entry of the Rebels. Moreover, the houses of Westland Row from their rear overlook almost the entire grounds from this eastern side. If they harboured the enemy and he knew how to shoot, it 226 TRINITY COLLEGE would render existence difficult for the garrison. The north end of the O.T.C. grounds is further overlooked by the high embankment of the Loop Line from Westland Row Terminus. And there was ocular evidence that the Sinn Feiners held the railway and patrolled the embank- ment. Under such conditions we began our watch of the College on the night of Easter Monday. This estimate of our difficulties must be read as that of one unacquainted with the art of war, and who had no share in planning the defensive steps actually taken. My beat extended from the small side door leading into the Chemical Laboratory (and so into the College Park) to the large gate opening near the main Lincoln Place entrance of the College Park. The inner gate, which limited my beat, had for better security been barricaded with a military waggon. Without, the couple of sentries watching the Lincoln Place gate could be observed and were within hail. It was part of my duties to keep in touch with these sentries, and to convey to Headquarters any alarm they might transmit to me. I had also to keep under observation the wall separating this part of the grounds from the lane, and to observe the rear of the houses overlooking the grounds. Night now slowly closed in. The City without was plainly in a state of chaos. Shots rang out every now and again. Distant shouts and challenges were heard. Sometimes a more rapid succession of shots suggested more serious fighting. Slowly the precincts around 227 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS became indistinct. Impending dangers, unknown dis- asters, seemed to fill the gloom. Was this indeed to be, perhaps, the last night of our ancient University ? The question is no mere extravagance of the imagination. For so much of the very existence of so venerable a foundation is bound up with its century-old buildings, with its literary and artistic treasures, that sack and con- flagration in a single night might obliterate practically all but its memory from the earth. So might perish Ireland's most priceless treasure the University of Berkeley, Goldsmith, Burke, Hamilton, and Lecky. A sentry must not indulge in imaginings. I endeavoured to banish gloomy forebodings from my mind and to school my attention entirely into the immediate present. The thought of what might or might not happen, either to my College or to dear ones passing the night exposed, perhaps, to serious dangers, I drove from my mind. And, indeed, there was enough to claim immediate attention. There was constant coming and going through the now dark passage leading from the side door into the Park. Each individual must be challenged and recognised. In intervening moments the walls and buildings opposite must be watched. There were now only the City lights without, reflected from the cloudy sky, to shed any light in the space around me. A cause of uneasiness soon became apparent. Two adjoining windows just over- looking my beat, I discovered, had been recently opened. No lights were within. If the enemy was in possession 228 TRINITY COLLEGE of these windows, not 60 yards away, he might cover me at his leisure, and having disposed of me, then pick off anyone entering through the side door. He could from his position shoot right into the latter, and it was possible he had enough light to do so. But for these evils there was no remedy. The strict order given to all sentries and patrols was, " No firing till attacked." And, of course, even if an individual did show himself at the open windows, he might be only a curious observer. And presently I became aware that the hypothetical individual had become a reality. Someone was within a man, apparently, with white shirt-sleeves. I strained my eyes to discover what he was doing, and when I did so he drew back and vanished in the darkness within. Obviously he held the whip hand, and there was nothing for it but to trust to luck. Slowly the hours passed. I kept this post for four hours, during the latter half of which time I had the company of a second sentry. Then I was relieved; and as my dinner had consisted of a single sandwich, I was glad to look for something to eat at Headquarters. It was cold enough to make a hot drink very desirable. Bright lights are not permissible at Headquarters. In the kitchen only a feeble lamp dispels the gloom and reveals the incessant but quiet bustle which prevails. Cadets in their great-coats are pushing in and out. The sounds of eating and drinking are mingled with ques- tions and opinions as to what is happening. There is an 229 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS atmosphere of expectancy which is not allowed, save inferentially, to reveal the anxiety which all most certainly feel. The talk is all in a low tone, as if the Sinn Feiner was listening without. It is reported that the Castle has been captured by the Rebels, and is strongly held. The office of the Daily Express, and both Guinness's brewery and Jacob's biscuit factory are believed to have also been taken. There are but few military in the city, and they can barely hold their barracks. It appears, then, that our own chances depend entirely on the speed with which troops can be brought up from the Curragh or from Belfast. Some think that the capture of the General Post Office means that telegraphic communication with England is cut, and that assistance from the other side of the Channel must consequently be long delayed. It is certain that- the railway termini, or some of them, have been taken by the Rebels. Of this we have good evidence. Rebels have been seen patrolling the embankment overlooking our little territory. I myself, riding past the previous evening it is now past midnight saw heaps of barrels thrown over the high walls of Harcourt Street terminus, apparently with a view to making barricades in the street beneath. The porters expelled from the station crowded the steps. What might the object of all this be? There was only one answer: to delay the arrival of troops in the City. These matters are discussed. The Anzacs listen; they say but little. They are magnificent of physique and lithe of figure. How keen of eye 230 TRINITY COLLEGE and what unerring shots they were we soon came to know. On the fire a huge pot holds water for making cocoa and for washing plates. There is bully beef and bread, and there is a sack full of apples. You dip your cup someone else has just been drinking out of it into the hot water; you shake a little cocoa powder into it, and you drink when the beverage is cool enough. Nearly everyone smokes, and few smoke anything but cigarettes. I am offered so many that I feel as if we were back in those apostolic days when men had all things in common. I have just prepared a cup of cocoa and got some bully beef. The word " alarm " is said in a low voice at the door, and the speaker hurries off. Almost immediately we are without in the cool night air listening. A violent fusillade can be heard in the direction of the front gate of the College. The immediate alarm, however, is said to have come from our men posted on the roof of one of the Westland Row houses. They had been given a signal lantern red light for danger, white for safety. It now seemed certain that the apprehended attack was about to be delivered. Concerted attacks at several points were probable. But at this stage it was impossible to say at what point our defence might first have to be directed. With rifles on cock we stood for about a quarter of an hour awaiting orders. The City lights reflected from the clouds dimly showed us the walls, but no foe appeared. Our patrols were out, and it was prob- 231 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS able that the first call to action would come in the form of a shot fired at an invading enemy. But no further alarm came. The distant firing was directed not against the College. And the attack was not on us. The guard was to be relieved immediately. The selected men, of which I was one, marched off. We went round the Park relieving sentries. Finally, I was given a post of observation over the lane-way without the eastern boundary- wall of the O.T.C. grounds already referred to. This lane can be observed for a considerable distance up and down through chinks in a great rolling door opening into it. It was an irksome duty, for the chinks must be carefully investigated at each turn of one's beat. With- out, the lane remains silent and empty, as seen by the light of an electric lamp which burns at one end of it. All things come to an end. Grey dawn slowly breaks. Objects insensibly become more and more distinguishable. At about 3.30 o'clock I am relieved, and return to Head- quarters. Those off duty are lying down on the floor of a large store-room almost in darkness, for the light of dawn is as yet but feeble. Alongside forms lying prone, with rolled-up coats for pillows and one blanket serving as mattress and covering, sleep comes soon. But before yielding to oblivion I could not help brief thoughts on matters psychological. I had lately been worrying a good deal about various things, and often dreaded, rather than courted, a comfortable bed. I was now a more contented individual than I had been for weeks. And 232 TRINITY COLLEGE it may be, I thought, that this is just the reason why so many return healthy and cheerful from the Front. The life of action is perhaps, after all, the happiest. I have been making a grand mistake all along. That boyish instinct for the Navy was perhaps the truest wisdom. But now it is too late a day. This present episode can only be a late farewell to what might have been. But let me sleep while I can. There is only a feeble flicker of candle-light in the room, and one of the shrouded warriors snores soporifically. I am off " Turn out ! We are going to evacuate this bally place, and all the stores are to be removed." Alas ! I had been but fifteen minutes asleep ! But it is a wise decision. The quadrangles of the College we might indeed hold for some time. This open and almost defenceless courtyard must, in the event of attack, simply become a shambles. Shots, mostly revolver shots, fired from Nassau Street into the College Park, as reported by patrols, warned us what to expect. The sandbags are brought down from the windows, for they will be wanted elsewhere; the rifles are carried off on field stretchers, and, along with the ammunition, are transported to the quadrangles. Finally, every article which might prove of use to the enemy, such as clothes, provisions, blankets, culinary vessels, china, etc., is heaped upon one of the great military waggons in the yard and dragged away to the Front Square of the College by a train of men. Someone suggests leaving a 233 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS few dummy men in the windows. The idea is obviously good. A few caps are judiciously arranged on props in partial concealment, the building is locked up, and we evacuate our fort with such a brilliant exemption from casualties as marked the retreat from Gallipoli. Daylight has now fully come, and the more concen- trated garrison is to be distributed in various coigns of vantage in the quadrangles. One of the great windows on the stairs ascending to the Regent House is assigned to me, in company with Sergeant-Major B . These front windows of the College command a view which extends the whole length of Dame Street. In the farthest distance is visible the corner-house, the office of the Daily Express, which is held by the Rebels. Opposite to it is the City Hall, which may be regarded as an out- lying part of the Castle premises. In the foreground is the wide pavement, having the Bank of Ireland on the right and beyond it the Royal Bank. To the left the buildings form a curved facade, which flows into Grafton Street. Here are some of the finest offices in Dublin. Grattan's statue and the equestrian statue of King William of Orange stand in the midst of the pavement. These regions are now empty. Neither friend nor foe appears the former because not strong enough to march the streets, and the latter because of the rifle-fire from the College. The Anzacs had been above on the roof of the College since an early hour. Owing to the strict order received 234 TRINITY COLLEGE from the Irish Command not to fire until attacked, many chances of " potting '? Rebels had been missed. But later in the morning this order had been withdrawn. Already before daylight a despatch-rider of the enemy had been brought down by the fire of the Anzacs. It was wonderful shooting. He was one of three who were riding past on bicycles. Four shots were fired. Three found their mark in the head of the unfortunate victim. Another of the riders was wounded and escaped on foot. The third abandoned his bicycle and also escaped. This shooting was done by the uncertain light of the electric lamps, and at a high angle downwards from a lofty building. The body was brought in. Later I saw him. In no irreverent spirit I lifted the face-cloth . He looked quite young ; one might almost call him a boy. The handsome waxen face was on one side concealed in blood. Poor boy ! What crime was his ? That of listening to the insane wickedness and folly preached by those older arid who ought to be wiser than he. And was not he, after all, but one of those who carry to its logical conclusion the long crusade against English rule which for generations has kept peace from Irish hearts ? More honest than many of his teachers, he has been led into crime and now pays the penalty. It is true, if truth exists at all, that this life cut short and the rancour and bitterness with which it was filled are as much the handi- work of the " constitutional " agitator as of many who are doomed to summary execution for this night's work. 235 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS When will England appreciate the Irish temperament ? When will our rulers learn that these rash and foolish sons of the Empire require quiet and resolute government, sane education, and protection from the fanatic and the agitator, to whose poison they are at present exposed from their earliest years ? Tuesday, the 25th of April, was now a new day. The events of the past night seemed folded away, as if but a troubled dream. What would the new day bring forth ? When might help be expected ? With advancing day the numbers in the streets increased. It was evident that the public even yet had not realised the dangers of the streets. Shots from roof and windows did not seem to deter the curious from risking his life. Not a few were aimed from the roof and windows of the College at snipers lurking in surrounding buildings. One window in the top storey of a large insurance office was an object of special suspicion. A man and a woman had shown themselves at it more than once. They had been seen to fire into the streets beneath. The shooting from the College was undeniably good. The window was turned away at a sharp angle from the College, and was distant about a hundred yards. Nevertheless, spirts of lime and powdered stone were sent flying from its embrasure at every shot. Whoever was within was certainly either very foolhardy or very stupid. To look forth even for the fraction of a second under such conditions was courting death. 236 TRINITY COLLEGE There can be no doubt that the accurate fire maintained from the College was an important factor in the salvation of the City. The Bank of Ireland (formerly the Irish House of Parliament) was otherwise unprotected, but no hostile being could have approached its doors. Its whole front was in view of the College. The sentries, which in ordinary times never cease to guard its doors, were absent, but the building was safe. An attempt was, in fact, made to take possession of its roof, but it was frustrated. The many important and stately buildings banks, insurance offices, business premises of Dame Street and Grafton Street were protected from the Rebel or from the looter in the same manner. The whole length of Westmoreland Street was kept clear by the College rifles ; and even the strongholds of the enemy in Sackville Street were assailed from the northern end of the College. Regarding the position as a wholt, the grounds and build- ings of Trinity College filled the function of a loyal nucleus, dividing the forces of the Rebels and keeping open to the troops some of the principal thoroughfares of the Cityi After being relieved, I joined the Anzacs on the roof. They were undoubtedly men fashioned for the enjoyment of danger. And certainly it would be harder to find nicer comrades. Alas for the thousands of these fine soldiers who have left their bonea on Gallipoli ! Breakfast was at length to be had in the College kitchen. Thither we repaired according as we got off duty. There was bully beef, with bread and tea, admin- 237 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS istered by the amazed but indefatigable French cook. Those who were silly enough to criticise the menu had something more to grumble about later on. The fact was, we were in a state of siege, and no preparations had been made even for the small garrison requiring support. Later in the day troops began to come into the City. They had, in fact, been marched direct from the Curragh to Kingsbiidge. Others came from Belfast. Within the College it was, of course, impossible to find out what was happening without. But every hour, as the day wore on, the sounds of firing in the City increased in volume. Troops of khaki-clad men, too, occasionally passed the College. For us the situation was evidently more hopeful. The Rebels would now hardly be in a position to under- take fresh conquests; they must hold their own if they could. Moreover, our garrison had somewhat increased in numbers. Partly the additions were refugee soldiers sent over by the Dublin Metropolitan Police, whose newly erected premises stand facing the Brunswick Street entrance to the College. Partly our recniits were O.T.C. men who had made their way in mufti to the help of their College. The great event of Tuesday was the recapture of the Daily Express offices by the military. We were at the time in ignorance of what was actually happening; for we were possessed with the idea that the Sinn Feiners held the Castle. When, therefore, we saw at the head of Dame Street men in successive waves rush across the 238 TRINITY COLLEGE street from the City Hall towards the Express offices, we thought they represented the enemy in process of expulsion from the Castle. As a matter of fact the waves of men were composed of the troops. From our position in front of the College we could see that a terrific fire was being directed against the Daily Express building : plaster and powdered brick were flying in showers from its fasade. This fire was to cover the advance of our soldiers. But in spite of this we saw, more than once, one of the running figures pitch forward and fall. It was expensive tactics; and later a better method of dealing with the Rebel strongholds was found when the artillery came into the City. The fight seemed to last a con- siderable time about an hour at its greatest intensity before the firing began to wane. Not till later did we learn that the final phase of the struggle took place, under deadly conditions for the soldiers, in the narrow passages of the newspaper office. But they were not to be withheld, and the Rebels were ultimately bombed out or captured. This event took place on the afternoon of Tuesday. Shortly after a small body of troops entered at the front gate of the College a welcome sight. But it was not certain if they were to remain for the night. In the course of the afternoon it became necessary, in view of certain operations to be undertaken by the Regulars, to ascertain if Butt Bridge, which spans the Liffey near the notorious Liberty Hall, was occupied or not. The necessary scouting was assigned to me. Two 239 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS of our O.T.C. cadets in mufti were to accompany me. We agreed that it was best not to remain together. I accordingly went by Tara Street, and my colleagues proceeded by Hawkins Street. My route being the shorter, I reached the bridge first. It was unoccupied. Being anxious to ascertain if Liberty Hall was occupied and in a state of defence, I crossed the bridge and traversed the pavement in front of the Hall. The building looked empty, but I noticed that some of the windows of the basement had been broken out. This, of course, might betoken the presence of inhabitants, and suggested sniping. As I could not turn back in front of the building, I walked past it, and turned when near the railway arches, crossing the street lower down. It was unwisely done. I had probably been seen from the Hall, for as I again passed in front of it two rifle shots were fired in rapid succession from one of the lower windows. I saw the smoke, so there was no doubt whence the shots came. If the intention was to hit me it was quite extraordinary they did not succeed, seeing that only some 30 or 40 yards intervened, and I was walking slowly. Two men just behind me, who seemed the only other pedestrians present, took to flight and ran across the bridge. This course I did not imitate, for 1 reasoned that as the bridge was commanded right across from the windows of Liberty Hall, flight might have the actual effect of drawing the fire of the Rebels. No more shots were fired, and I met my O.T.C. supports on the bridge. 240 TRINITY COLLEGE On the ensuing night, in spite of our better position, no precaution appeared to be relaxed by Captain Alton. My own duties lay at the railings and gate in the New Square, near No. 40. This house is at the end of the bay, and overlooks the entire central area of the Park. The rail- ings beneath it commands a view reaching across to Nassau Street. Here I passed two very cold hours peering across the lawn. I was to shoot anyone seen beyond the railings: none of our men were to quit the quadrangles. When relieved, my brother-sentry and I sought repose on the boards of the first floor of No. 40. But things were not so bad as they looked. Some mattresses were available, and I got half of one on which to sleep. My companion, however, deprived for so long a time of the pleasures of the cigarette, must have a preliminary smoke. He fell asleep with the weed unfinished. I was again unfortunate, for I had hardly dropped asleep when I was, by a mistake, summoned to duty. This time my business was to watch from the open window of the room in which we were. It was unpleasant work, for a very cold wind blew straight in, and, of course, there was no way of sheltering from it. Hour after hour passed. There was darkness within the room by express orders; even the dying fire had been screened from view of the window. Strange revolution of circumstances ! Many an hour I had sat in this very room along with that kindest and most courteous of men, the late Dr. Benjamin Williamson. 241 Q REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS His gentle spirit would, indeed, have viewed his old apartment with wonder the academic furniture all gone, and the floor closely covered by sleeping soldiers. Danger and strife where, for years without number, the only contests were those of wit against wit, and the only victories those which the mathematician claims when the refractory problem yields to investigation. Less than a year ago I was here with him. Towards morning, as the objects in the Park were becoming distinguishable in the strengthening daylight, I became aware that a party of five or six men were stealing from the trees at the remote side of the Park. I was on the point of firing. Indeed, it was while sighting that it seemed to me they were in khaki. This might be a ruse, and I confess to some moments of agonising inde- cision. I hastily roused a brother-sentry who had fallen into a state of well, mental abstraction, and asked him to use his eyes. He agreed with me that the invaders of the Park were in khaki. They were going eastwards, away from the residential part of the College, and had apparently entered from the Fellows' Garden. Their movements confirmed me in the idea that they were our own men; for they seemed to be avoiding detection, not from my side, but from the Nassau Street side of the Park. They were, to all appearance, inspecting the railings bordering that side of the grounds, and taking cover behind the shrubs which grow along this border. Pre- sently they passed behind the pavilion at the east end 242 TRINITY COLLEGE of the cricket-ground, and a moment afterwards I heard a rifle-shot fired from near by, followed by a second shot. The sentries in No. 38 had evidently opened fire. This was serious. The next moment there was a party running towards us. Even then I was not quite sure of my ground. I threw the window further open and shouted, " Who are you ?" The leading runner waved and called to us to cover them against fire from the railway. I now recog- nised one of our officers. It appeared that his party had really a narrow escape from a danger to which actors in this sort of warfare are peculiarly liable. The bullets which went near to hitting them were, in point of fact, from our own boys and they made tolerably good shooting. A very small misunderstanding may give rise to such incidents. It is certain that similar incidents were not uncommon in Dublin in the days which followed. The sharpshooters had acted strictly on injunctions; but I suppose, with the evidence before me, my failure to do so was excusable. I spent the rest of the night on this duty. When Wednesday the 26th of April at length came, I was glad to get away from that window. There was now no bread in the College and no sugar, and the hardness of the ship's biscuits was something of scientific interest. But for all that I have never had a more delightful breakfast than I had that morning. The kitchen was filled with men trying to eat the biscuits. The interesting historical narratives of current events made it difficult to remember 243 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS the duty of reporting oneself. I was again stationed at one of the front windows of the College. There were adventurous people to be seen in the streets as the day got older. The impelling force of curiosity would appear to rank with the strongest passions of man- kind. Here were bullets flying about, death lurking at every corner, and yet troops of foolish people running about the streets. There had been looting already in some of the shops, and in the midst of the broad pavement in front of the College a small ragged boy was rejoicing in a toy motor-car which was certainly value for three or four guineas. It was rather small for him, but he managed to sit in it and to pedal himself round Grattan's statue. Bullets were nothing to him. For the nonce he was of the fortunate ones, and a lordly toy was his to play with. In after-years this trivial sport will stand for the Great Rebellion in his memory. So it is with us all, if only we could see our actions and thoughts in the light of history. Troops were now coming into the College in large numbers. It was arranged, with the consent of the Provost, that the military in Dublin should take up Headquarters in the College. There was no doubt as to the mutual benefits to be derived from the arrangement. The weather had held out, and in the Park fresh young grass was found for the horses. The Examination Hall, the Engineering School, and part of the Dining Hall, were thrown open to the men. Owing to the absence 244 TRINITY COLLEGE of students, a very large number of chambers could be placed at the disposal of officers as well as of the rank and file. These rooms were all in part furnished, and contained good sleeping accommodation. But in truth the Tommies off duty had little to do with rooms. They lay about and slept in the open all day, rejoicing in the sward of the College courts and in the brilliant sunshine. The senior officers enjoyed the hospitality of the Provost. The immediate safety of the College was now assured. Our escape from utter destruction had indeed been mar- vellous. I heard the view commonly expressed among the officers that had the Sinn Feiners taken possession of the College buildings in force, nothing but shell-fire would have dislodged them. Having regard to the great strength of the place, no other course but one which must probably involve the ruin of the buildings would be justifiable. Nor would any policy of starvation have availed to save the priceless treasures of the College from the same fate which befell every public building in Dublin into which the Sinn Feiner entered. With the Library, enriched at the voluntary expense of soldiers, the most precious heirlooms of ancient Irish civilisation would perish ; with the exquisite School of Engineering, the most beautiful structure of the kind in the world would disap- pear; with the Provost's House, a treasury of art would vanish. Early on Wednesday Liberty Hall received its quietus. Two i8-pounders and the guns of H.M.S. Hclgi brought 245 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS up the Liffey, were used to demolish it. The noise was tremendous. To the general din was added the spitting of a machine-gun placed high on the tower of the Fire Brigade Station. When next I saw Liberty Hall its empty shell alone remained. Every floor had been blown out of it. It was stated that none of the Rebels had remained to face the attack. A few weeks ago I saw armed men keeping guard within this building to keep out the police: and this was known to, and suffered by, the authorities. It was known to, and noticed in, the Press. But nothing was done. Early in the day I went on duty at the Brunswick Street gate. This is the main entrance and exit for troops and others communicating with the east and north sides of the City. I soon found myself busy. A sentry was, of course, given to me. I was to deny or grant admission or exit according to circumstances. Every precaution had to be taken. The smaller door was opened only in face of fixed bayonet and after preliminary parley as to who was without. There appeared to be one evident oversight in the military precautions at this point. The large business premises of Messrs. M'Kenzie & Co. overlook this entrance and command it, more especially from the inner side. The building was apparently deserted. But if the enemy by any means gained access to it the gate would obviously be untenable. As we were still none too strong, and the numbers and intentions of the Rebels were unknown, it seemed prudent to occupy the building. 246 TRINITY COLLEGE Accordingly thirteen Regulars were put into it later in the afternoon. Its occupation continued till the Rebellion was substantially put down. Casualties began to come in. No. 15, a house in the College quadrangle known as Botany Bay and near the Brunswick Street gate, had been fitted up as an emergency hospital. It proved to be of the greatest value, not only for dealing with wounds, but for administering to the ailments of the soldiers within. The treatment of sore feet, for instance, was continually proceeding. A staff of Red Cross volunteers and members of the R.A.M.C. were available day and night. At one o'clock on Wednesday night, or rather on Thurs- day morning, I got off duty. The orders were that after midnight no one was to be allowed in or out. The custody of the gate became, therefore, a matter of sentry duty. I resigned it accordingly to the sentry and a night porter of the College a trustworthy man who had formerly served in the Army. I now looked for a place of repose. I had not had a total of two hours' sleep since Sunday night. Moreover, I was going lame from keeping on my boots for so long a time. This was the most imperative of my troubles. First I sought sleeping accommodation in No. 40. But the room was already full, and there were neither blankets nor mattresses for anyone. The fire was by order not lighted, and open window and door permitted a cold wind to blow upon the unprotected sleepers. From these 247 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS forbidding conditions I recoiled; and being too tired and footsore to go much farther, I retired to one of the labor- atories near by, and, spreading a College gown on the floor, slept till morning. I awoke so stiff from the effects of my hard bed that it took me about ten minutes to rise to a sitting attitude. We had now reached Thursday, the 27th of April. The quadrangles presented an extraordinary appearance. Some 4,000 troops were stationed in the College. Horses tied to the chains which enclosed the grass plots gave the place the appearance of a vast open-air stable or horse fair. Men stood in ranks or sprawled on the pavements or on the doorsteps anywhere sometimes closely packed and fast asleep in every conceivable attitude. Many of them had put in a hard night's work. A large number were of the Sherwood Foresters and of the South Staffordshire Territorials. Many of these men were very young, and most of them had but recently joined the Colours. Look- ing now at their sleeping forms and tired faces, one must remember that the work of rounding up and hunting down the Rebels is not only arduous, it is in the highest degree dangerous. Not a few of the officers and men who had been through these nocturnal and diurnal opera- tions told me that they would prefer being at the Front. At the Front, they said, you know the direction from which you may expect a bullet. Here the enemy is all round you. He lurks in dark passages and among chim- ney-stacks, and when at last you think you have hunted 248 TRINITY COLLEGE him down, you find yourself in possession of a peaceful citizen who gives some plausible reason for his presence. That these young fellows should be wearied after their night of peril and strenuous exertion was not to be won- dered at. On this day a dead soldier was brought in. He found burial in the Fellows' Garden, service being said by the Army Chaplain. This was not the only interment within the College grounds. Later, another soldier whose grave is now inscribed " Private A. C. Smith, 2373, loth Cavalry Res. Regt., killed 2Qth April, 1916 " was buried in the College Park. The boy despatch-rider was laid to rest at an earlier date. Then a little boy was brought in on a stretcher. He had been shot through the hand on Monday, and there was fear that the wound had become septic. The father accompanied him, but even in these circumstances was not admitted to the quadrangles. He told me that none of the family had tasted food since Monday night. The child looked very ill too ill to cry or to complain and on hearing this I left the man in charge of the sentry and made my way into No. 15 to suggest the application of internal as well as external remedies. Hot tea was given to the little patient. There was rapid revival. He thanked us in a voice which never rose above a whisper. The manners of these little Irish children are sometimes lovely, and this child had all the confiding and appealing way about him which constitutes their special charm. 249 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS And it was quite true. The people were starving. Food-supplies had early been exhausted or the shops had been closed. Wages had ceased, for there were no employers and no work to do. But wages would not have helped; there was nothing to buy. Relief of the starving was begun by the officers of the O.T.C. Later, on the Thursday, the Military Authorities humanely and wisely took the problem in hand. Stores were commandeered and warehouses opened, and the food distributed to the starving families. I heard that the people were so grateful they would do anything for the soldiers. But I was yet to see a more terrible tragedy. There was the sound of the ambulance bell without. The van was admitted. It seems that the horse had been shot and a riding-horse substituted, and they had difficulty in getting the van farther than the College. Accordingly they sought first-aid at our Red Cross station. A woman was lifted out. The stretcher dripped with her blood. A glance showed that death was not far from her. It was a face without hope. A shocking wound was hers. Shot through the lower part of the abdomen, the infernal bullet used by the Sinn Feiners had done work which must surely be fatal. They tried to plug the wound. A little later she was brought on to hospital, where she died. This woman had done no wrong. She was probably seeking food for her six little children when death met her. There will be no one to sing her sorrows in modulated 250 TRINITY COLLEGE verse. The guilty " Countess " may possibly one day evoke the strains of the bard. But this woman's anguish of farewell to her little children will be absorbed unnoticed save by these poor words in that great total of human sorrow which the mind cannot evaluate or even conceive. Two i8-pounder field-guns were now in the College. To-day they were used to break up an enemy stronghold. The Sinn Feiners had seized and fortified a fishing-tackle and ammunition shop overlooking Carlisle Bridge. From this they maintained a fusillade upon everyone within reach. The iS-pounders were brought out into Brunswick Street and anchored to the pavement by lifting some of the setts. They were trained on Kelly's shop (the stronghold referred to), the shells traversing the length of D'Olier Street. Eleven shells were put into the brick walls of the premises. What the effects were within we could form no conception, but great holes were torn in the walls. The shells (shrapnel), we afterwards heard, penetrated into the adjoining house beyond and damaged a valuable photographic stock. The story that these field-guns were brought to the top of the College is, of course, absurd. They could be neither maintained on, nor fired from, a foundation of slates and rafters, nor would it be a simple matter to hoist them up. Fires were now raging in the City. With the approach of night the flames lit the sky. In the lurid heavens the planet Venus shone with extraordinary brilliancy. As the struggle between the Military and the Rebels 251 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS became more and more a series of isolated combats, the streets grew ever more dangerous. Even at my post at the gate bullets were constantly singing overhead. Whence they came it was impossible to find out. The only risk here, however, was from a ricochet. A case of an i8-pounder shrapnel shell, emanating from an un- known source, fell in the Provost's garden. All this Thursday night firing continued, sometimes breaking out in one direction, sometimes in another. The vicious rattle of maxims, and the tap, tap, tap of some quick- firer wickedest sound of all mingled every now and again with the crash of bombs, filled the night with a sense of horror and danger. The streets were in many places barricaded and no one was permitted to pass. Indeed, only the Military were now to be seen on the streets. Even the police, if a message had to come to the College, crossed the street at the double. An hour past midnight on Thursday I left the gate in charge of the night watchman and the sentry and retired to rest on a sofa in the Fellows' Common-Room. This was a most luxurious indulgence. Conditions suggesting famine reigned in the College on Friday. And but for the plucky exertions of a mes- senger from the Junior Army and Navy Stores in D'Olier Street, even the Fellows' table might have been reduced to the ship's biscuits and bully beef which constituted the universal ration elsewhere. But the soldiers had known worse times and did not grumble. The lack 252 TRINITY COLLEGE of cigarettes alone disturbed Tommy's equanimity. There was a tobacconist nearly opposite my gate. This, being near the D.M.P. Office, felt, I suppose, under special protection, and opened to-day. On this becoming known, a deputation reached me from some of the Tommies to the effect that I would confer a great favour on them if I would buy them 10 ounces of cigarettes. They entnisted me with a one-pound note. I was pleased with this mission, for as janitor I discharged very un- popular duties. There was no conceivable excuse they did not urge to get out of barracks, and I pitilessly listened to none of them. One poor lad who had escaped by another gate, I hope was carried in on a shutter drunk ! Tommy is a forgiving creature. I got the cigarettes, and returned absolved and popular. If you want to study human nature that human nature which constitutes your fellow-countrymen mix with Tommies. There is no shade of affectation about them. " It is every one for himself in the Army," said one of them to me. And this is true of the lesser things. But Tommy hates really unfair dealing, and if selfishness leads to it he condemns it. He has a tender heart. I have seen a big man relieve of rifle and kit a footsore youngster on the march. And of his fine deeds in the field all know. Of course there are black sheep, but even the black sheep is, I suspect, not so black as he is painted. A handy article will be "pinched" by the black sheep. But he looks at things from a standpoint at which the theft is 253 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS insidiously refracted into the joke. It is not the less wrong. But in any case we may forgive the few un- righteous for the sake of the many righteous. Moreover, I hold the theory that, essentially, the humbler classes are more honest than the educated part of the com- munity. This theory is founded on observation, and I think it applies to the Army as it does to the rest of society. And then you must think of the things Tommy has to suffer hunger and cold and danger. Just realise what he has done for the terrified citizens of Dublin. After my few days with him I like him very much indeed. Perhaps the most taking feature of Tommy is his childishness. " Have you got aw lead, Guv'nor ?" " A what ?" " Aw lead." " He means a pencil," says a neighbouring interpreter. Well, I had not got the desired article, but I had a pen, which I lent him. A letter was being written, for a makeshift postal service had just been established. He showed it to me with evident pride. It began, " Dear Mother, I write these from here hoping they will find you as they leave me in the pink. . . ." After all, this is no divulgence of confidence. I give no names. I was consulted as to the address. Having assured him as to the perfect nature of the writing, T was asked by a young fellow near by to " vet " a letter of a more sentimental character. With stiff and difficult fingers, but with no shyness whatever, he was writing to " Dear Sweetheart." Every other line began with this address. The whole thing was the perfectly naive pleasure 254 TRINITY COLLEGE of the child in showing his accomplishments. It is impossible not to feel drawn to these fine men. Human nature is naturally beautiful to us, just as are the other phenomena of Nature. It is only when it is sullied by sins against the peace and goodwill of social life that it becomes ugly. I fear the rule that the sentry is not to speak was occasionally broken by me who ought to know better when in the dead of night we watched the gate together. I heard then the simple narrative of how home and occu- pation had been left for service of King and Country. Some were anxious as to what might be happening in their absence. But there was no boasting, no display of sacrifice, never a word of regret. They had only done what a brave man should do. Several instances occurred which well showed the effrontery of the enemy. He was evidently anxious to know what was going on within the College. More especially he was probably anxious to ascertain th mili- tary force within. On the Thursday two men thrust themselves in among a body of soldiers entering at the small door under my charge. They were, of course, instantly seized. One shammed a deadly enmity to the other man; refused to stand near him, and, declaring that he was himself an old soldier who wished to help us, accused the other individual of every wickedness. A bottle of whisky was found on this voluble person. The other man declared he had never before 4et eyes on his 255 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS accuser. I put a stop to the dispute by placing them each in one of the deep doorways of Botany Bay, under a guard. I was anxious that they should not see what was going on. The departure of the guns at this moment called me away. When I returned I found the two prisoners had been taken to Headquarters in the Front Square. Later, I heard they had been allowed to leave the College. They had probably ascertained everything they came to find out. Annoying as the incident was, it was impossible not to feel that the cool courage of these visitors deserved the success it met with. It was, I think, on the Thursday that a strange demand was made on the hospitality of the College. An operatic company, of well-known excellence, unaware of the extraordinary conditions prevailing in the City of Dublin, had reached the City on Wednesday. They found all the hotels closed and no possibility of getting accommodation. Eighteen members of the company took refuge with the Police. The Police sent across to my gate to know if hospitality mere housing within the College could be extended to them. Under the conditions, to grant this request was clearly impossible. Accordingly the stranded actresses and actors had to abide in the premises of the D.M. Police. Then a change came over that house of retribution. Strains of clever song and sounds of pleasant laughter reached my gate, mingled with the crack of distant rifles and the crash of bombs. Cheerful faces peered from door 256 TRINITY COLLEGE and window. Inexorable duty brought me across to the D.M.P. barracks that afternoon. The scene within was worthy of Gilbert and Sullivan at their best. The gigantic uniformed Inspectors grey of hair and upright of bearing beamed with parental indulgence upon the graceful forms which tripped down the stone stairs or laughed and sung in groups in the hall. Among all the experiences of a week of novelties this was not the least novel. It may safely be predicted that such a scene of mingled gaiety and tragedy will never again visit the halls of that building. The trite saying that laughter and tears are near together seemed exemplified. I was carrying on a conversation with one of the huge Inspectors. It was about the battle of Tallaght in 1867 the last Irish Rebellion. I was surprised to find that the Inspector was unacquainted with some of the most interesting facts of that extra- ordinary contest. I told him of how a dozen of the Con- stabulary captured some hundreds of armed Rebels, and to keep them from running away had cut their braces a clever ruse which might well be matter of instruction to a police force, and which, I hear, has been used at the Front in the case of German prisoners. 'But no, he had never heard of it, and was in great delight at the idea. Nor had he any reluctance in imparting it to the assem- bled company. " Mister Finnigan, Mister Finnigan," he shouted to a distant Inspector just as gigantic as himself, and just as paternal of countenance, " do you hear what says ? How they kept the Rebels 257 R REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS from running away ? They cut their braces. Ho, ho ho I" Then followed shrieks of laughter from giddy youth. There were some strange happenings, also, within the College. There were two cases of sudden lunacy: one among our own O.T.C.; the other case was that of a Sinn Fein prisoner. Lieutenant X gave us a horrifying account of the treatment dealt out to the latter, who was violent. " It took four of us to hold him down. We tied his hands behind his back, and we tied his feet together. Then we laid him on a table and wound ropes round him and the table. Finally we wrapped a blanket round his head." " I suppose," said one of the Fellows of the College, whose remarks are generally worth listen- ing to " I suppose you call that ' First Aid.' " The strangest part of the story was the effects on the prisoner. He was left in the mummified state for six hours. At the end of that time he was found to be quite sane except with regard to his political convictions. A feature of these curious times was the prevalence of extraordinary rumours as to what was going on in the world outside. The tendency to imagine the worst was consistently manifested in these reports. Verdun had fallen ; there had been a great naval battle disastrous to British supremacy; there had been a landing of Germans on the East Coast of England. With such items of news we were regaled, and on the most conclusive evidence. Nor were events nearer home more favourably reported. 258 tij O u: J o fa 2 3 j J 3 & n M u - p< X a u TRINITY COLLEGE The number of risings in the Irish counties and the strength of the Rebels were alike exaggerated. All this did not conduce to our peace of mind. Fortunately, the imme- diate surroundings were too engrossing to permit us to reflect on the calamities which appeared to be crowding upon Great Britain during our temporary sequestration from the newspapers. For, in point of fact, all postal connection with the outer world was cut off. Such local papers as appeared at first contained only the Military Proclamations. These were brought in by the soldiers, and proved disappointing reading. In the City the first (and last) number of the extraordinary Irish War Ntws had appeared on the Tuesday morning, a small and very seditious sheet, price one penny, and headed, " Vol I., No. i." It contained the proclamation of the Rebel leaders. On Friday the Military appear to have finally disposed of the Rebels in the General Post Office. It was only carried through by the all but complete destruction and burning of the building, the outer walls alone remaining. Fires were now increasing in number on the north side of the river. It was related that looting was going on on a most disgraceful scale. Shops of all sorts were broken open and the goods freely distributed to the citizens of the Irish Republic. Men stripped off their old clothes and dressed themselves anew in the open streets, donning fashionable suits. Women selected jewels for their personal adornment, and rich and rare were the gems they 259 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS wore on toil-stained fingers and grimy wrist. Watches were carried off heaped in aprons. Toys were given to the young. Fruit and champagne and other expensive luxuries were freely partaken of. The wines were in some cases retailed for a few pence the bottle. Book- shops only were immune from attack. It is related that some officers captured by the Rebels on Monday were conveyed by the enemy to a tobacconist's shop, and with true Irish hospitality were treated to the best cigars, the owner of the shop having fled. I myself engaged in looting operations. Barbed wire was required by the Military Authorities. As there should have been plenty of it in M'Kenzie's stores near the gate, I suggested a raid on these premises. But, in spite of a fairly complete search, none of the desired wire was to be found. We could only conclude that either the enemy had been before us or the owners had secreted it. All uncivilised organisms are thieves. A proclivity so natural must be attended in its gratification with pleasurable sensations. I can vouch for the very enjoyable nature of looting operations. On this Friday night I ventured on a cycle ride out to my house. The desire for a bath and a change had become a mania. I got a pass, and although strongly urged not to go, 1 traversed the dark streets in safety. Within the City all lights had been extinguished. Only an occasional shot or the challenge of a sentry showed that the City was inhabited. I carried a bicycle lamp 260 TRINITY COLLEGE as I most feared the attentions of our own men, who might well conclude I was an enemy despatch-rider. I was frequently challenged. I confess I was glad when I got into the lighted area outside the canal. I returned to the College early the ensuing morning. The streets were in a most dangerous state, and few ventured abroad. House-top fighting was specially lively in the neighbour- hood of Upper and Lower Mount Street. I had to call on a relative living in the former street. Bullets had been fired through her window, but, contrasted with many of the inhabitants of Dublin, she had but little annoyance. Saturday the 2Qth was to be my last day at the gate. There were now available many better fitted for such a duty. I was given leave for Sunday. In the'streets Saturday was marked by a certain liveliness. Prisoners were coming in or passing in batches all day. A poor and pitiable lot they looked. Surrenders were taking place all over the City: surrenders accepted on uncon- ditional terms only. The leaders were now in the hands of the authorities, and the Sinn Fein Rebellion was in a fair way to be a thing of the past, and to take its place in Irish history as one of the many insane rebellions which constitute its principal episodes. Late that night I accompanied Captain Alton to the top of the lookout tower of the Fire Brigade Station. The view northward was sublime and terrible. Acres of flame and red-hot buildings stretched across the middle distance. The lurid light, reflected on rolling clouds 261 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS of smoke, rose and fell as roof and walls toppled over. Fresh fires appeared to be springing into existence at a point to the north-east, and it really looked as if we were witnessing the wholesale destruction by the devouring flames of the entire northern side of the City. The night was still or the damage had been far greater than it was. The Brigade was said to be overwhelmed with the mag- nitude of the work assigned to it as well it might be; but undoubtedly it did invaluable service. And its work was in some cases done under the fire of the Rebels. Two and a half million pounds' worth of property were destroyed during the rising. And from this tower, looking over unhappy Dublin, stretching like a map beneath us, we seem to be reviewing the whole miserable story: the growth of lawlessness, dating back to days of cattle-driving and boycotting. To the landlords every evil was to be traced. Settle the land question and you would have a peaceful and prosperous Ireland. Well, the landlords are gone and now you have rebellion. The long, pernicious Aberdeen regime, year by year bringing authorit}' more and more into contempt ; the laxity towards the Larkinite movement; the folding of the hands, no matter what might be done in Liberty Hall. "We serve neither King nor Kaiser, but Ireland," stood for months writ across the face of that house of sedition; but still all was well. Then we have the pressure of Home Rule, leading to the arming of the North. Next comes the arm- TRINITY COLLEGE ing of the South. Finally arises the usual rift between the " constitutional " and the unconstitutional. All these long series of ominous events mishandled, or not handled at all, by a helpless Government. Hundreds of the untimely dead lie beneath us in the stricken City. Upon hundreds of others the shades of death are even now closing. The ruined, unhappy leaders are there now at length seeing all their own mis- chance. The pitiful dupes who took their word for the future of the "Irish Republic"; and now only look forward to death or penal servitude ! Others, just as guilty, lurking in hourly fear of detection ! The orphaned children crying for mother and father ! Ruined lives and ruined business ! All this and far, far more make up the tragedy at our feet. And the future ? Nothing can be more gloomy save the miserable present. Does anyone believe that this is indeed the end of madness in this unhappy land ? A bloody and desperate war to claim for its victims all we have most brave and most loyal. And when that is past our wretched domestic politics all over again, with the certainty that sacrifices for King and Empire will count for nothing. Is this sea of lambent flames, this harvest of death, a hopeful augury for the future of self- governing Ireland ? Who will be found to educate my fellow-countrymen to that self-control which accepts the victory in the Senate as the final verdict ? Who will be found wise and strong enough to waken them from 263 REMINISCENCES AND ANTICIPATIONS the phantasmagoria of vain and foolish dreams to the sober light of day ? Be very sure that till that measure of self-mastery is attained, and till that awakening is accomplished, this is not the end of violence. To-day you deal with the Sinn Fein: to-morrow you deal with Whom ? Truly our future is as lurid as those rolling clouds which, rising around us into the night, dissipate in space the hard- won wealth of the loyal citizens of Dublin. BILLING AND SONS, LTD,, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, ENGLAND THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. Series 9482 A 001 317343 o