such a nucleus, a new Party ernment; it means that France will be inevitable. The work has turned her back upon the of smashing the Conservative heroes who saved her in the Party, auspiciously begun at war, and has put her trust in Westminster, will be carried traitors. on, and when Mr Lloyd George, that spirited champion of British supremacy, has been invited to join with his ancient colleagues, all will be as it was before, and the great champions of disunion and disintegration will be able again to enjoy the "stunts "-that, we believe, is the elegant name they gave to their anticswhich brought pride and glory to them, and bitter disaster to the British Empire.

For

The result of the French Elections is a heavy blow to the peace of Europe and to the security of France. four years France has enjoyed, under the guidance of M. Poincaré, a settled government, an event unique in the annals of the Republic. The last Chamber, moreover, contained not a few distinguished men, who were something better than professional politicians, and who were glad to think more intently of service than of reward. The fair hopes which the presence of these men gave to their country, that politics would be lifted above the greed and clamour incident to them, are disappointed. The defeat of M. Poincaré means far more than that this calm and resolute leader may disappear from public life: it means that a deep shadow has been cast upon the prospect of decent and honourable gov

What, then, has happened! The Left Bloc (the bloc des Gauches) has triumphed over the National Bloc, upon whose support M. Poincaré relied, and the Radical Socialists, supported by the Socialists, find themselves with a majority. Inscrutable are the ways of democracies, and it is, perhaps, ploughing the sand to discover the cause of this sudden change. But it may be said that for the present the hopes of "our German friends," as Mr MacDonald calls them, need not be raised too high, that the policy of the Ruhr had little weight with the electorate. Whoever it may be that comes into office, the policy of M. Poincaré, which aimed, and still aims, at security, will not, we hope, be changed. What seems probable is that, apart from the common gamble of politics, which is generally recognised as the voice of God, the electors of France saw the chance of fuller pockets in a return to Radical Socialism. M. Poincaré showed a wish to tax them, and this wish always appears intolerable to the free and independent citizen, whose ambition it is to live upon the work and thrift of others. As our own election was decided on the patriotic cry, "Your food will cost you more," so the election in France was won by those who resolutely refused to help their country by higher contributions.

ad the returns of the
elections, indeed, is to
nd how incapable is a
cy, with universal suf-
choose efficient rulers.
y seems a fatal bar,
levelling days, to any
> aspires to aid in the
ent of his country. We
mber, when our own
Government was
we were asked to look
n the fitness of our
isters, but upon their
"Look at A.," we
d. "He began in a
, and there he is now
ary of State." Or,
the simplicity of B.,
head of a great de-
, once a poor lad in a

proved during the last four
years a wise counsellor, and
is therefore held unfit to re-
present a French constituency.
It is difficult to think of the
French Chamber deprived of
the eloquence and criticism
of M. Léon Daudet. That he
should have been put out to
make way for a Socialist is
little less than a tragedy. The
fearless leader of a small band
of Conservatives, the gallant
champion of the humanities,
he has held his own for four
years against the fury of his
opponents, and has succeeded
in forcing his honest unpopular
opinions upon the Chamber.
Moreover, he has been sincere
in action as well as in speech.
When the Chamber, after the
manner of Chambers elected
by universal suffrage, voted
higher salaries for its members,
M. Daudet was almost alone in
refusing to accept the increased
salary until the victims of
the war were pensioned, and
insisted that the money due
to him should be devoted
to lightening the lot of neg-
lected soldiers.
In lected soldiers. Happily for
France, exclusion from the
Chamber will not silence M.
Daudet's power of persuasion.
He is still master of his journal,
'L'Action Française,' in whose
columns he has preached for
years, and for years, we hope,
will continue to preach, the
doctrines of a sane and sound
conservatism. With M. Maur-
ras, the greatest living writer
of prose in France, at his side,
he has striven to reawaken in
his country the wise belief in
kings, and to counteract by

We confess that we bishness of this kind and contemptible. If a supreme virtue in een in mine or factory, of our rulers would elieve, they are guilty vulgarity who call to their happy fate. bad as though an should boast his birth ionaire his gold. In our rulers we should what this man is or what he was. Nor, electorate clears its he popular cant, are kely to be governed - well.

tions in France, then, plete condemnation emocratic principle. highly distinguished have been ruthlessly The famous General au, who helped to etory for France, has

L

precept and example the baleful sort, only the collapse of deeffects of romanticism. If these mocracy itself. two political political philosophersMM. Daudet and Maurras-had their way, the ancient provinces of France would once more direct their own affairs, and would at last escape the paralysing influence of Hebrew prefets and centralisation. But M. Daudet is rejected of Paris, and will find, perforce, in his journal the chance of persuading his countrymen which is denied him in the Chamber.

And if one department of France has for its representative the ineffable M. Malvy, another has permitted its free choice to fall upon M. Marty, the Black Sea mutineer, who described himself on his poster as "Ex-convict, liberated by the will of the People." We can, in truth, almost believe that, were women permitted to sit in the Chamber, Berton, the murderess of Marius Plateau, a gallant soldier, would by this time be a legislator. M. Caillaux alone is excluded. Though he escaped from prosecution with his life, he is not yet permitted to visit Paris, or to take part in the government of the country which he has dishonoured. He has not been prevented from using his influence in his own department to return his chosen candidates to Parliament. M. Caillaux is, indeed, a far greater enemy to France than any other Frenchman. Whatever he does seems to be forgiven or forgotten by those of his countrymen who think with him. His spokesmen are in the Chamber which as yet he cannot enter. But some day the privilege will be given him, and then the fortune of Germany will be made. Meanwhile it seems clear that, though hostile leaders may express their just indignation, the electors of France cling, as by habit, to the malefactors who have won their respect. There was once a deputy, M. Wilson by name, the son-in

The worst crime of the democracy, clearly demonstrated in the French elections, is that it willingly chooses the traitor in preference to the hero. By what impulse of the crowd this crime is forced upon a stupid electorate-and all electorates are stupid-we do not know. We We do know that France, having rejected the great soldier, General de Castelnau, has sent M. Malvy to the Palais Bourbon. Now M. Malvy has but recently returned to France after five years of banishment, sentence inflicted upon him for treason. While his brave fellow countrymen were dying on the field of battle for the honour and safety of France, he was doing his best to aid the enemy. And he is now not only free to go and come as he chooses; he is a highly paid member of a popular Chamber, and is once more in a position to do his country an injury. It is difficult to explain this gross example of cynicism or short memory. We can see in it, and other examples of the same

volved in the scandal
ather-in-law, was still
to the Chamber with
amations of his con-
Nothing availed to
him. The Chamber
to coventry. On the
when the deputies
Versailles and break-
the celebrated Reser-
Wilson was forced to
-t, a solitary man;
had a word to throw
and at election after
the town of Loches
at the head of the poll.
at M. Malvy, a far
screant than M. Wilson,
ned to Parliament,
too be outlawed by
ws?
We fear not.
gments of men are
ow than they were
years ago, and it is
t of democracies to
all but the honest

President Grèvy, who, then the only security possible against revolution and confiscation is that the weakness of the ministry should keep it out of mischief. In Sweden, we believe, the problem was for many years solved by a simpler method. The Socialists were in a majority, and, conscious of their own incapacity to govern or to administrate, left the responsibilities of office to the Conservatives. Not much harm was done. The king's Government was decently carried on, and the Conservatives, knowing themselves tenants and not freeholders, abstained cheerfully, according to their wont, from the superfluous business of legislation. In France, we fear, this good example will not be followed; but, though she may go through a period of unsettled government, her Radical Socialists will not be strong enough to do much harm; and there can be little sting in the tail of twenty-nine Communists.

er, there is one ray of France in her sad The Left Bloc, the ocialists and Radicals, ing a majority, may e, will not be in power. ation, briefly, differs much from our own. ay MacDonald is not , though he holds 1, fortunately for us, ve full expression to ns. MM. Briand and hould they be asked government, will be for lack of strength to late their critics. If ; ministry be a neceswise and old country ce (or like England),

As Mr Masefield once said, you have added a name to the "He talked of Elizabethan roll of English poets, and one books and people much as that can never be overlooked. though they were alive in the Certainly his long-neglected streets outside, like the time ghost ought now to be rejoiccome back." For him the time ing in Elysium." If Campion's had not come back: it was ghost rejoiced, Bullen charac always there; and by a natural teristically uttered a note of sympathy he lived where the warning. He presently foresaw Elizabethans themselves would that Campion, lately recovered, have (and had) been at home. "now ran the risk of uncritical It was Stratford which shel- adulation," and he thought it tered him, in the heart of right that he, his only begetter, Shakespeare's own country; should thus moderate the enand Bullen had not far to go thusiasm of his readers. Moderif he would encounter the ation is, indeed, the mark of shades of Shakespeare and all Bullen's criticism. He was Drayton and other unforgotten too sound a scholar, he knew worthies of Warwickshire. And too well the drudgery of mak when he visited London, in- ing a fair text, to lose himself frequently, it was natural that in a mist of vague admiration. he should take up his abode He gathers together the few in Southwark, which might facts that can be found of remind him at once of Chau- Campion's life and character, cer's pilgrims and of Shake- and then lets him speak for speare's theatre. Nor was there himself. He was a physician; the slightest suspicion of pose he wrote a volume of Latin in this choice of abode. Bullen verse, a treatise on versificawas incapable of pose or affec- tion, in which he condemns tation, and he visited South- the practise of rhyming, which wark not as a curious tourist, he had always followed, and indulging a whim, but as a an essay on counterpoint. For true Elizabethan, who could the rest, says Bullen, he "tells not be asked to care for a in one of his epigrams that he London which had grown up was lean, and that he envied after his time. fat men; he tells us, too, the names of a few of his friends." Though his fame stood high in his own time, "his poetry was quickly forgotten, being hidden away in music-books that nobody opened." Thus writes Bullen, and he praises especially Campion's sureness of touch and variety. 66 Whatever he essayed," so he brings his chapter to an end, "he did well: he always found the

He writes of the Elizabethans out of the fulness of knowledge and sympathy. Thomas Campion, one of the poets celebrated in this admirable book, he brought back from oblivion. "I must congratulate you as cordially as I thank you," wrote Swinburne to Bullen when he had completed his discovery. "In issuing this first edition of Campion's works,