8/9/2019 February 4, 1899

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1.052

THE P THE

Theoutbreak at Manila,which has

been long expected, occurred on Satur-

.day,and he ratification of th e peace

deaty followed, almost inevitably,

on

Monday. Very few of our public men

have the courage to stand UP ag$nst a

military excitement. Any one who wants

toknow how ourstatesmen

at

Wash-

ington

felt

on

hearing of the rebel at-

tac kb n our lines

at

Manila, W i l l do Well

to read Sir George Trevelyans fourth

and fifth chapters of his ecently pub-

lished American Revolution, describing

th e stat e of mind of George

111.

and- his

cabinet after they got the news of Lex-

ington knd BunkerHill. A glance, too.

at Burke on Conciliation with America

will suggest some useful reflections. He

will not findmuch talk of justice, 1

mercy,

o r

conciliation, or peaceful rela-

tions, or t rad e, or commerce, or kindli-

ness, in the Iucubrationsof these states-

men, bnt much about lawful authorW

and dignity and treason and wick-

.

edness andnatlo nal prestige andre-

bellion andinsolenceThere is no-

thing better known in history than the

armed conquerors vocabulary.

There ha.d been a vigorous censorship

of telegrams, and the military ispatches

had.led us to believe that the Filipinos

were quieting down and acquiescing in

our rule.

It

appears hat hiswasnot

true, and that ur agents reallyknew

no-

thing, or very 1ittlG abou t the feelings

o

thenati ves; hat he American people

were as

111

informed about the Filipinos

BY the BWlpinos about us. Hadhey

known

anythingabout us, the y would

not have indulged in an armed outbreak

on

or

about the very day

on

which the

vote was to be taken

ou

the treaty in the

Senate. By calm discussion, by appeals to

the easonandsense of justi ce of th e

American people, they were makmg con-

sldcrable hkadway; by taklng arms, they

have undoubtedly injured heir cause,

even i f theyhavenot helped ours. It

remmds

11s

of Cerveras coming out of

Santiago to be destroyed just

as

Shafter

was thinking of retreating.

But the treaty is now really of little

consequence. The news from Manila

confirms what we said the other day as

to its having given us nothing except a

rig ht to conquer,

i f

we could, in retu rn

for 20,000,000;

or

in other words, what

the lawyers all

zn

actlon.

Spain could have delivered the goads,

they m ight have possibly been worth the

money; but wenty millions of dollars

for

the

right o ry o do what Spain

has been vainly rying

t o

d o for many

Years, makes itseem as

i f

we had bought

a

pig in

a

poke. Judging rom

t h e

experience o f theSpanlar ds, this war

may la st long. In every engagement we

shall undoubtedly killmoreFilipinos

than they will kill of

us,

and cause more

misery among these creat ures than they

can posslbly cause among us, and keep

the worldwondering over thestrange-

-

ness of the business h which Amerlca is

engaged 1n the hundred and tenth year

of its existeuce. What fills us with most

apprehension, andwe should th ink would

do most o

keep

Mr. McKinley awake

atnigh t, s he act recorded by Prof.

Worcester i n hi s book on the archi pela-

go,

tha t he tactics by which he EL-

tives were a ble to achieve so many suc-

cesses againsttheSpanla rds were to

draw them into the interior in pursuit,

andhen disappear, leavinghem

in

some unhealthy r ea on to wrestlewith

malaria, Againstdisease, neither Mau-

sers nor Gatllngs

nor

Maxims will avail

us.

But,:ahowever the - hin g now goes,

therearecer tain reflections which no

enlightened and clvillzed mancanes.

cape. We, haveapparently ushed nto

this

business withas

little

preparation

or forethoug ht as nto he Cuban war.

We

got

hold of the notiod that it would

be a good thing to a nnex1,200 islands at

the oth er end of tho world, simply be-

cause we won

a

naval victoryovera

feeble Power in theharbor of one of

them, and because people like Griggs

of

New Jerseywanted some glory We

then went to work t o buy 1,200 islands

without any knowledge of their extent,

population, limate,productions, or of

the feelings,wishes, or capaclty of the

inhabitants. We did not even know

their number. Whllen thls state of

ignorance, fa r fro m tryi ng to conciliate

them,assure hem of

our

good inten-

tions, disarm their suspicions of us-men

of a different ace, eligion, and an-

guage, of whom they had only recently

heard-we issuedone of th e most con-

temgtuous and insulting proclamations a

conqueror has ever ssued, announcing

to them

that

their most hated, andsecu--

lar enemy had sold them to us, and that

if

they

did

not submit cpietly

t o

the sale

we should kill them freely.

Thls

was

bad enough, but what made

t

worse was

tha t it was all, as a matter of fact,

un-

true. Is there in

any

historybut Spa-

nishhistory a record of statesmanshlp

like this?

SOUE

WHOLBSO IE

A good many people are trou bled by

the difficulty we have had in getting a

treaty ratified

by

the Senate, and some

are in favor of dispensing altogether

wlth senatoria l consent, Tanner fashion,

when the Executive happens to be in a

hurryand tha t he people are

with him-whlch IS simply another form

of the French &at. But when the

present crisis is all over, whether we an-

nex or do not annex , conquer or do not

conquer, we believe there are few men

who care for the fut ure

of

America; who

will not acknowledge that the delays and

difficulties which the Presid ent has en-

countered, contan a lesson of the high-

8st value.

Nothmg

is more tempting,

and, herefore , more full of

danger

for

[Vol.

68 No. 1754

~

weak men, than a too su bservient public

Thissminentlyrue of taxat ion.

Readiness

t o

pay taxes, fornstance,

seems to be an d is a political virtue, and

yet

it is not very far from being a vice,

f o r it may, and probably will, prove a

great encouragement to extravagance.

There could not have been worsema-

terial for a political martyr t-han Wilkes

was

in

England, or a more unworthy

ad-

dition o he House of Commons, and

yet the fight made on his behalf proved

one of the most important contr ibution s

evermade tonglish cmmtitutional

hberty,nd one oi the mostalu-

able lessons ver pv en o he Legis-

lature.

When President Mc?3nley came, drunk

with glory and with flatt ery, out of the

Spanish war, he evidently forgot that

was underanycorlstituhonalrestraint,

and undertook, as his proclamation

of

December

21

showed, to dispose

of

the

Philippines in an address to the inhabi-

tants hat he irst Napoleon, in he,

heigh t of h is power, might have issued.

Nothing could have served so effectually

to recall him to a sense of hi s real situa-

t i o n ~ a s he delay and difficulty he

has

had in getting he reaty hrough he

Senate. Weither he nor any of his suc-

cessors for many years to come, will for-

get hatwen he mostsuccessful war

wiI1 not suffice to make the ratifi cat ion

of a tre aty easy. The Senate will always

contam bad men, cranky, men, suspi-

cious men, and jealous men, who, even

if

theycannot defeat a Presidents pro-

jects, will keep h ~ m indful tha t he s

servant and not

a

master

But the Sonate is not the only useful

restraint

on

him.

Hls

terror about pos-

sible ivals for thenext erm s an-

other.

A

President who, lik eearly

everyapresident in thepast, seeks se

cond term, has, in th e irstplace, to keep

strict watch on posslble riva ls, and see

to it that they do not secure an undue

share of credit o r glory. Possible rivals

is, in fact, the bogie which has haunted

the mag inat ion of both President Mc-

Kinley and

his

Syndicate ever since the

outbreak of the Spanishwar.Every

President sees in

this

theone serious

political objection to going

t o

war. The

object of nearly every politi cian in seek-

ing war in America since 1512 has been

to secure glory for electioneering pnr-

poses A Presidential candidate, there-

fore, who is already in the Presidential

chair, has

t o

keep a vigilant eye on such

of

his

subordinates as are n an y way-

connected wi th the war, lest they acqulre

an undue share

of

milita ry credit. Over

a year before the ontbreak of th e Spa-

nish war, a well-informed correspondent

wrote

t o -

us hat he best guarantee

against an attack on Spain was that the

President could not himself tak e he

field, and that the glorywould almost

certainly fall into the hand s of some un-

known military man, who might thereby

succeed in wresting the nextPresidentiatl

8/9/2019 February 4, 1899

2/5

Feb. 9,

18991

-term from even the Advance Agent a

Prosperity.

This fact had byn o means escaped th

attention. of the McKinley Syndlcatc

and, in looking over t he field to e

who most needed watchmg, the

first

o b

ject of suspicion was natur ally ,the Com

mander of the army. If he were t o b

allowed to go to he scene of action

the polltical consequences might provl

dlsastrous, ndhe was therefore tu

dlously kept at home and discredited

a :

far as posslble. Bu t o keep rlvaas ou

of

the field and yetmake some moae

fo r the Syndicate mas

no

easy matter

for

no sooner

had he Commander-in.

Chief been cut off frommllitary glorJ

than he began to

nose.

ahout the

con,

tra cts , n offence hardly legs serious

than winning battles, and the more out.

rageous ecame th e public had bee1

so thoroughly Intoxicated t hat It had be.

come patriotismnot o complaln

oj

anythinghe Syndicate did. Stlll, thf

substitution

of

a frlendly board f o r 2

legal statuto ry court o f inquiry revealec

to the public the anxiety of t he Syndi-

cate about theirlans

This

was Increased by the appearance

on

t h ~

scene of Roosevelt and

his

Rough Rid-

ers, and their success m the field, and

worse thanall , Roosevelts success in

New Pork.This made another candi-

date to be looked aft er and discredited

Roosevelts civil-service perrformancee

and hIs mode of deallng-with abusee

have made h1m s till more objectionable,

b u t they ave undoubtedly, by mere

orce of contrast, imposed very serious

restraint on the Syndlcate, who, i f freed

from .it, would undoubtedly havere-

velled in spolls during the coming year,

especially

m

administering our new pos-

sessions.

W e

have little doubt that he

I

beautiful colonial civil service which %e

were to have after Deweys victory, has

longbeen

a

joke in heWar Depart-

ment, over which the revered McKinley

has smiled faintly.

To sum up, we believe that we may

durmg henextyear expect extremely

Valuable results rom he ,necessity of

keeping an eye

on

both Miles and Roose-

velt.Peace, friends,hathhervictorles

no

less renowned than warNeither

Al-ger, nor Corbin, norEaganshe

man to flinch wlien there is important

work o be done, but we must not ex-

p e a irresponsibleassault to displace

them. The necesslty of watchlnghe

two

rivals

will, however, we maybe

sure, preventhe execution of many

brillian t schemes Of one th in g~ wemay

be certam: The displeasure

of

the Pre-

sident a t th e course of th e commanding

general w ~ l l ot fmdexpression in a

COUrt-martid or court of inqu iry.The

more hkely way of disposing of him

WilY- be th at descrihed in he

S m

on

Thursday: .

While nobody

1s

In

a

posltlon s&

what

thing

t o

actlon relieving Gen. Miles

the decmon of the President mll

be,

every-

- . .

T h e N a t i o n .

of

hls dutles wkhout.the formality

of

an

nf

ficlal or

a

by a

mllitary

body

Pubhc inquiries arenasty hmgs,

which we have had enough. We advisf

the^ public to Beep- a close watch or

the iFritated Eagan, o see what hap-

pens to him. -

.UOIZLEPS WAR17ING8.

The speech which

Mr.

Morley made

tc

his Scotch const ituent s three weeks agc

was

nominally on the political sltuatior

in England- It really dealtalmost exclu

slvely with the q u h o n of imperialism

which Is cutting through Engllsh partiet

as it is throu gh American. The politica

ora tor s are few who can discuss a loca

condition in^

a way to illustrate universa

truths, but John Morley is one of them

His penetrating analysis of British h y

per-imperialism, h is account of it s ,drift

his

warningsagainst hedangers intc

which it is recklessly running,are sc

clothed

UPOP

with

the qualities

of thc

higherstatesmansh ip hat hey Et

thc

Imperialistic mania

in

any

country. They

are a s profitable

for

reproof and correc

tion to Americans as to Englishmen.

Inaddition ohisothermerits,

Mr.

MorIey has he rare political virtue of

not dreading o tand alone. he has

written in one of his essays of the aw-

ul

loneliness

of

life; but the loneliness

3f a pubIic man cIea.vmg to principle

when a l l others orsakehimand flee,

does n ot rightenJohn Morley in he

least. He like s

as

well as a ny ma n to be

mlth a party-espousing vital truth, but if

t

is

a

question between party and truth,

he prefers o be lonely with the truth .

I he English Conservatives ha$e been

:horoughly Jingoed, and the largernum-

ser

of

Liberal eadershave unafter

:he false gods of imperialism; but Mr.

Uorley refus es to allow himself to

sli11

tnd to drift a few yards to-day, a few

nore yards to-morrow, into the adoption

f , or acquiescence in, a course

of

policy,

spirit and a temper which he believes

rom the bottom of his heart to be in-

urious to our materialprosperity, to our

iationalcharacter,and o hestrength

Lud safety

of

Imperial State. Bu t

l e takes his position withsuch simple

hgnity, he has

at

his command such re-

iources

of

philosophy and such

an

arse-

la1of language, th at really, after read-

ng his speech, one feels hat t

is

not

le

that

is

lonely, but the othe r fellows.

do

man wbo

had once been the object

If

Morleys finest sarcasm could get

nuch true comfort

out

of having been

roved

to

be silly along with great num-

lers.

The orator had a

splendid and Power-

ul in which he paid his respects

o t h e

Jingo

clergy. His own reputed

thei sm lent just needed edge

to

his

ebuke of Christi an apologists fo r war.

le had for ext aclerical addr ess at

a

leeting

of

the Congregational Union,

u

whichwere all heusual mumbling.

1 3

clauses t o the effect that we conld not be

for Peace

at

any price, t hat there we3-e

Worse things than war, that we lived in

a wor ka-d ay world not likely to adopt

at once the higher

laws

of religious-hfe.

Wha t a spectacle It was, cried Mr.or-

ley, t o see good men in the excruciating

dllemma of dreading

t o

be

Jingo,

and

Yet dreadmg stil l more to be though t f o r

Peace at any price. The fighting bishops

of the Mlddle Ages could notave

seemed more out of place as holy men.

Worse things,-than

wa r So

thereare

worse thi ngs han smallpox and delirl-

urn tremens: but Y O U do not expect your

physician

to

console you with the redec-

Lion. It was _tr ue hat we lived in a

pract.lcal world; -bj%t-qFast not fo? men

Who believed In th e hJgher aws to In-

sist upop carrying hem precisely Into

that practical world? Otherwlse, you had

mly to imagine theseclergymen in com-

pany with heFor ty Thieves, and yon-

woultl hear them saying, We are for the

Ten Commandments, bu t still his IS a

work-a-day world, we cannottand

hloof from the practica l business of life,

knd me ar e otorheTen Command-

nents at any price. This was what was

-apidly becoming of the Decalogue, an d

ts for the Golden Rule the modern cleri-

:a1 verslon of that

was,

Alwaysswim

mth he stream,

Mr Morley rosealmost o prophetic

kature when he denounced the common

tnd complacent rem ark that Gordon is

tvenged by the slaughter of 10,000 men

t t Omdurman. It was an impious and

lishonoring notionhathat heroic

nan, as merclful as he was fearless, was

ike some implacable pagan deity who

teeded to be appeased by hecatombs

of

sacrifice." Equally trenchant and

,earchmg

.was

Mr. Morley on the ques-

Ion

o i conquest i n order to make trade;

lutcbery of natlves In order tomake

,laces for^ aspiring Scotch youthHe .

sked

his

Scottish audlence if they had

lade

ug

their minds once for all that It

3 right t o kill people because It is good

o r trade. If theyhadnot consldered

hat nicequestion or a patlonwith a

onscience, they should do so at once,

or

th e doctrine was spreading. Morleys

ccount of th e five points. of the Jin go

reed we must cite entire It was s fol-

3w.s:

11

terntory worth cguirmg: econd.

First, that territory

was

territory, and

Tat

a.11

terrltory, especially

I

anybody

hap-

rice

or; third, that CountryPossessed

to

want It ,

was

worth

any

lepurse of Fortunatus, bulg~ngandover-

owing

with-gold.

m a was free to fling rml-

ons here and there wlth.the certainty that

enlgnant

f a me s

would, by mamc, make

?em good

and let easywlth

bvlsh hand and free conscience.

urth article of the-creed was-Do not

le slightest regara to the opiumns

af

other

ations

and you have no share whatever in

le ccllectloe responslbilityof civilisea

eople

as jointguardlans

of the

mterests

Ipeace and good order to the state system

Europe.

The fifth article

of

the Jingo

eed \vas that

the

interests of

the

people

i thls country-and be heredrew no

d1S-

nctionatweenlasses and masses-ad-

mcement

in

all

the of mvihzed

l l f b

b

8/9/2019 February 4, 1899

3/5

I O 4

gulrements,

were

completcb

and

and them needs

and their

condary

and ubordinate . -

The warning which

Mr.

Morley gave

that imperialism would break down dis-

astrously

on

the financial side, was 'pe-

culiarly

one

for Amerlcans

to

take o

heart.We re aving ur at ears

nom, but does notall experienceshow

tha t they will -be followed by lean Years?

The burdens which are barely tolerable

now will become then toogrievous to

be borne. Thermyndavynd

the whole

blown

foreign ervice will

then

be

in

danger

of

being starved.

60-

cia1 discontent will rear a more threat-

ening head than ever New blows will be

levelled at property and ,.public security.

Exploitation

of

the- -waste placesio f the

earth

f o r

the benefit of capitalistscwill

surely lead to spoliation

of

capitalists in

their

o w n

land.This is in special de-

gree the danger of a free nation

Smitten

with the thlrst for territorialggrandize-

ment nd

the

paganpride

of

empire.

It will

overstrain its resources, and will

turn and rend at home the leaders who

have ured

it

intoperilsanddisasters

abroad.The only emedy, for English-

men or Americans, is

to

insist upon dls-

cusslon and deliberation; and not to for-

sake

f o r

-one smgle hour ':those prin-

ciples and professions, that temper and

that aith, which came

Bown

to hem

from the great men who begat them."

THE TEEATRE

The report hat

a

billwlll be ntro-

ducedbefore long in the Sta te Senate,

the object

of

which

is

to establish he

office of Theatrical Censor i n New Po rk

city, suggests ome serious reflections

There can be no doubt that something of

the kind

is

wanted in hiscity badly

enough, but

it

would be

a

good~deal bet-

ter to iet conditions remain as they are

than to intrust

he

powers of such

an

of-

fice to an unworthy or incapable person.

It

is not difficult to imagme the sort of

man who would be selected for Theatri -

cal Censor

by

ourpresent rulers. The

post would afford opportunities f o r s0m.e

of thevery lchest picliings tha t ever

eame withw the grasp of a hungry poh-

L~

ticlan.He would be able o exact tr i-

butenot only from hebetterkind

of

theatrical managers,but from he pro-

prietors of every music hall and varlety

show in he metropolis. Thevery ast

thing

in

the world that he would think

about would be

the

effect

of

a perform-

ance

upon

pubhc morals. His only

ob-

ject would be to mak e the giving of any

entertainment,without he payment

oi

tribute,as dlfficult as posslble

Everybody knows that an active stage

censorship exists

in

all the greater

ropean cities, and everybody knows alsc

that

our

very foulest dramatic importa.

tlons

come tous rom the^ countrie:

where the censorship

IS

supposed t o bc

the

strictest.The-explanation

o

thi::

Th ' e N a t i o n .

act

is that

the Continental censors con-

ernhemselves chiefly

with

political

entiment,

and

carevery ittle indeed

houtanymere offence to decency

or

norality.Here,

of

course, there s no

Lemand for politicalcensorship. We

hould need an officer somewhat akin to

he examiner of plays

in

London,

a

wsi ty scholar of eminence who

has

de-

rated many years to the study of thea-

rical liter ature, and is able to compre-

tend the scope and province

of

the thea-

reHe confines his supervision almost

ntirely

to

matters affecting questions

of

ropriety, and, being entirely above

d l

:uspicion of political influence or pecu-

uary interest,

it is

very seldom ;that.one

f

his -4ecisions is oppos-ed or disputed.

IP

fact,

sol

little

i s

heard?of. him

thzt

:crmparatively few persons are aware of

lis

existence or

of

th e authority which

le exercises. The appointment

of

such a

nan in

this city, with ample discrebon-

v y

powers and an absolute guarantee

of

ion-interference, might be beneficial, but

n

the present circumstances it would be

:oily to l o o k for

any

such Utopian occur-

mence.

Nevertheless, it

is

high time that some

rteps were taken to check the increasing

:ecklessness

and

audacity

with

which

:he lower order of our thea tric al enter-

ainers are seeking to fill their pockets

b y

pandering o hebaser nstincts

of

the vulgar crowd. No theatre-goer

:an fail to be impressed wlth the extra -

Drdinary development of license

upon

:he New Pork stage, which practically

Lhe stage

of

the whole countl'y, within

che last twenty-five years. In the palmy

days

of

th e old Union Square Theatre,

lor

insiance, in the

seventies,

there was

3

constant outcry in conservative quar-

ters against what was called the demo-

ralizing influence of the English adapta-

tions of the contemporary French emo-

tional drama, which were so popular at

that time. The nfluence of some of them,

be sure, wa6

not

particularly whole-

some, but all of them were submitted

a pretty careful process of expurgation,

and the evil in them, as

a

rule, was

only

darkly suggested and never openly. ex-

pzessed.

It

1 s

not

so

very long ago that

tbe utterance

of

a

Very common, almost

meaningless, oath

upon

the boards

of

the

Madison Square Theatre was esented a?

anoutrage

upon

the feelings of

a

re-

fined and elicate audience. No scru-

ples of

this

kind are discernible in thc

conduct of the spectators in

OUT

moderr

theatres. mereas,

in

the olden days,

:

mere allusionwas resented, th e actua;

representation of the

thmg

itself

is

nan

watched wlth approv3.1

and

even eager.

ness, an d in many cases

the

more rea

theabomination, he morevigorous i

the applause.

There can be

no

doubt tha t the

dissemination of theverbaland picto

rialhorrors of the yellow press

is

re

sponsible to a very arge extent,

i f no

entirely,

for the demosalieatio~

[VOI. 68 NO. 1754

nto which the tas te of the midd le lass-

hat

is

of

the t heatre-suppor ting class-

,ppears to have fallen.

When-

an appe-

ite for the morbid, the undlean, +d the

lrurient has been encouraged by surrep-

itlous reading,

it

requires grosser and

;rosser

means

of gratification. It was in

he music hal ls that the public demand

orwhat

is

commonly calledspicyen-

ertamment first discovered, and the

mnt was supplied with diabolical ce-

erity. The mostaudacious performers,

nale and female,degenerateswho had

)ecome notorious in Par is and Vienna,

,ome

of

whom had been expelled by the

~ollce

f

thoseprofligate cities

on

ac-

:ount

of

the ir -abominableexhibitions,

lot only

ound

a

refuge but

a

rich re-

sard

in

our music

halls.

They made for-

.unes for themselves and f o r thc men

sho hired them. It was the spectacle

of

h ~ srosperity,

so

easily if

so

vilely won,

.hat prompted the manage rs of certain

:econd and hird-rate heatres o enter

nto

active competition with them

in

the

lirection of public indecency.

It

would

mve beenbadenough if th e evil had

;topped there, but

of

late he directors

houses hitherto deemed respectable

lave not scorned to profit by presenting

jcenes upon

their

boards which,

upon

;he street, would call

f o r

the instant

in-

;erference of th e police. And

the

amaz-

.ng part of it

all

is that the audiences

vhich witness these atrocit ies unmoved,

Ire composed largely of men and women

If al l ages, possessing every outward in-

hcation of education and refinement.

There

is

no saying

t o

what depths this

iegradation of the st age and

of

the pub-

ilc may n o t proceed if some means he

Not found to punish the most notor ious

)Benders. There is a notion

on

the part

If

the public that

it

is the duty

of

the

better newspapers to act as mora l con-

ita.bles'in this mat ter , but he fact is,

that the newspapers,~although they can

encourage th e mischief

in

a

thousand

mays, arequite powerless,

as

thecase

now stands, to suppress

or

even greatly

to

mitigate

it.

Iilxperience has proved

beyond

all

possibility of do ubt hat

honest denunciation

of

a play

on

account

of

its uncleanness has no oth er esult

than he sending

of a

&at number

Of

readers to witness

it. rt

isWXortunately

the act tha.t somenewspapers outside

the admittedly yellow class, while feign-

ing virtuous

indignation,

contribute

enormously

t o

th e profits of this unclean

business, by publish ing minute detail s of

therosser offences perpetratedefore

thefootlights.

It is

difficult to believethat

a remedy

an

em1

so

glaring Cannot

be foundwithin he provisions

O f

the

common law.An-Indictment of two

O r

three managers at the Instiga tion of th e

District Attorney, and

a

prompt and re-

morseless rplegation

of

them to the eril-

tentiary,

i f

only

a

week

or

two,

on

the scor,e-of disorderly or indecent con-

duct, w-ould be more effective than

any

censorshipwhich is at allikely be

I - . I

8/9/2019 February 4, 1899

4/5

-Feb . 9,

18991 .

established the pat ronage of -Tam-

m a n y Hall. If t h e D ~ s t r i c t A t t o r n e y as

not t i me t o bestow upon

the consldera-

t i m ~f a question affecting so vi ta l ly

the moral

w_ell-being of the communi ty,

the

matter

might

be taken

in

h a n d b y

some

of

the societies for the prevention

of vice,which ould not easily

find

a

more impor tant subJect which to ex-

ercise

their

energies.

REMBRANDT I N LONDON.

LOXDON, January7 1899.

Whenn oubt, ttackheRoyal Aca-

demy, eems to be themotto of

a

certain

Section of theBrlti sh public. At rregul ar

vocation.

the tory

of

Acad:mlcal evils

intervals,

usuallyat moments of leastpro-

toldagaln.andagain

new

methods of re-

formare urgedupon ong-suffermg artists

Thiswinter, he ttaclihas come in he

shape of a large and elaborate treatise (The

Royal Academy. I ts Usesand Abuses). by

Mr. Laldlay, B.A,Barrister ndArtist

I

do not propose toenter nto Mr. Laidlays

argument. in theirst lace ecause my

--con cern ust now is not with he crimes

of

Mr. Laidlays methodsare ar too confused

the Academy, and, n he second, because

and involved. It seems

a

pity, so long as

he took upon himself the ask, hat he did

not et bout ccomplishlng it moreho-

roughly. The history of the Royal Academy,

writ ten .calmly and lspasslonately. would

be a far more loquent lea gamst t h s

much-abused nstitution han a wndyar-

raignment rompted,pparently, y some

personal grievance. From h e-timo of Gams-

borough, and thence onxvaad through the pe-

riod whenFusel1proclaimedhiswrongs,

,th ere has been reason enough o find fault:

but i t is not hkely hat Mr. Lardlay can be

and movements, and New Eng lish Art Clubs,

successful where commm1ons. and societies,

andnewspaper rusadeshave ailed, spe-

cially asartistshave he emedy in their

own hands f they really felt they~couldl en-

dure he nJustlce no longer. ~ . I Ioutsqers

ceased to sendLto th e Academy exhibitions,

if

they combined to boycott It,.the Academy

could~not survlve Exmy-years. The only m-

medi ate outcome of Mr. Laidlays book, how-

ever, has been he suggestlon hat a new,

a

liberal,a ust, a truly epresentatm e Aca-

demy be started yhe County Council,

whlch. Fhavingalready aken art under its

wing by-establishing a technical school as1 a

$val toJ SquJk Kensington. is considered by

itsadmxers,-tbbe eadyequipped osolve

any and all artlstic problems

in the country.

But I must confess, the perfo rmanc es of the

County Council as patron of art, so far, do

notnsplre Very great onfidence, nd as

. the scheme would adopt ll that sprac-

xallyworst 111 the old Salon, nd s, in

the face

of

the six thousand or more artists

In the c ountr y, it gayly calls for a gallery in

which^ every picture shall hang

on

the ine,

th e ast probably as lready been heard

O f it.

All this is very amusing-though perhaps

a

little tragic-in it s way; but

more

amus-

ing still 16 the wonderful uck that has at-

tended he Academy at this risis,

a

a t

Had Laidlay published

his3ooX-iin.

the

every other stage

of

its triumphant career.

been

at

once followed .by .a fresh -evil in

spring,hadhis ummlngup og o d evils

with

Is

accompany-

mg a id complaints

of

favoriiism

worse, he-might at least have run t he

:hance

of

sympathetic notice and discussion

But

it

so happens th at hardly has his book

zttracted heattention of thecriticswhen

the Royal Academy open s of -the most

importantwinterxhibitions it as ever

held. A ouple

of

years gohe Councll

decided that herewasno money in Old

Masters, and ast year and he year before

Millais and Lelghton were offered as a sub-

stitute.Butheupply- of modern Aca;

demical masters limited, and it seems o

have occurred to he Council that the Aca-

demys Wmnter--Garment

of

Repentance,

the wint er show has been defined, had its

moral value, even if it did not pay in actual

shillings. And Laldlay IS sllenced. and

municipal schemes discounted, and the Aca-

demy just1fiesits existence b@aa.nExhibltloq

of Rembrandtswhlch, i f but lncluded

The night^ Watch nd The- Syndics,

would be finer in many espects han he

muchmore oudlyadvertisedshow n Am-

sterdam. As

a

stroke

of

policy, nothmg

couldbemoremasterly:chance,certainly,

alwa.ys on-the sld e of the Royal Academy:

I

pomtedout

at

the ime hatmany

of

themost otable ictures a t Amsterdam

sent by Lord veagh: the ittl e Velasquez-

cameromEngland-theuperb ortraits

like boy belonging toLordSpencer;Lord

Northbrooksandscapeith its careful

study of hg ht; he Duke of Westminsters

beautiful :Gentleman with a Hawk nd

Lady

with a

Fan;. he Queens pictures

fromBuckinghamPalace . All these eap-

pear a t Burlington House,. togetherwith

many others from English- collections, hat

werenotseen in Holland. ndeed, the most

remarkable. feature

of

the show is the proof

it gives

of

the great numbers of fine Rem-

brand ts hat re owned inEngland.The

NatlonalGallery is not rawn ponor

contributions;onlyavery ew oreigncol-

lections ndmuseums have oaned heir

treasure : And yet.while the re were one

hundredand wenty-threepictures at Am-

sterdam,here are one undred

and

two

herei,-and thes e inc lude ~far ess rubblsh.

rubbish

seems. a- hardword to , use n

speakmg

of

Rembrandt, but a t Amsterdam

could not help feeling that

if

Rembrandt

did paint some of the- work ShONII~ltwould

be doing himnea ter honor to orgett

Where England

1s

poorest IS n the large sub-

ect pictures.But, fter ll, here rebut

:wo which fullyustain nd eservehe

:ame theyhave

won

forhim

No

one but

Sembrandt could have ainted TheSyn-

lics, though when you look at some of

his

nmor

groups,~ or nstance at TheShip-

~ull der and his WiferomBuckmgham

Jalace, whxh

IS

here,and whlch I had e-

nembered

as

on e of hismasterpieces, you

lvonder ow they would s tand he est

of

langlng- n heHaarlem Museum wlth he

great Regent.PicturesbyFranqHals.The

'Shipbuilder andhisWife IS one of his

;arlyworks, it is rue,and tmaybe-said

:hat t h e comparison is notaltogether just.

But I mention

t

only because to ee

It

Lgam

at the Academy~is toealize more than

?ver hat, great as an artist may be, it does

lot follow, the enthusiast is apt t o think,

;hat every thing^ he chooses to do must be

beyond- reproach The ther xcep tion, of

:ourse, is TheNightWatch,whichholds

place apart. Beyond these

two,

I thmk

wery one whohas eenRembrandts arge

iubj8st pictures. and who

1s

honest, wlll

106

mlt that

no

small measure

of

disappointment

mingleswith the dmirationheynspire.

There is one at Burlington House, Bel-

shazzars Feast, ent by he Earl of Derby,

which is weak color, so poor in draw-

ing. so common-pplace andvenrotesque

in

composition. that

you

Cannot understand

how themanwho was painting hat ame

Sh1pbulder nd hm Wlfe in 1633 could

haveommltted thi s indlscretlonabout

1636, thedate suggested

In

the catalogue.

Therere, however, two

or

three

of

hig

smaller Biblical and lassical ubjects tha t

are as lovely, as marvellous

in

their manner,

above all, ai it tl e Tobit

and

his

Wife, be-

as

theargcr canvases

are lsappomtlng;

longlng~to Sir FrancisCook, and not exhiblt:

ed- a t Amsterdam- rich,shadowy nterior,

witha glir&Fe,,.$ 2 ed ownand a bit of

&en through he wmdow hathelps to

remlndyou nihat

an

incomparable De Hooghe

Rembkandt would haveproved,had henot

been Rembrandt. There are one

or

two land-

scapesalso that

did

not find their way to

the Dutch show, especdl y he Marquess of

LansdownesM~ll.withtsich golden

glow, exhibited,

if

I am not mistaken, at the

Winter Exhlbltion a few years ago.

Butwhenall

is

said,itisin his portraitsthat

Rembrandt. was supreme, nd one or two

now at Burhngton House

I

do not remembeT

ever

t o

have seen. The most remarkable

Lord Penrhyns Lady with a Parrot, paint-

ed in 1657, l u s t a few years befose that state-

ly portrait of himself

now

111 the possession

of Lord veagh, at a time, thats,when ie

eyes were keenest to dlscern the beauiy and

plcturesquenessndoman ce of old age.

The old lady, in her simple black gown and

severe ap nd ollar, lttlng quletlywith

herarms estmg

on

thearms of thechair,

In her hand a handkerchief, in- the hands

P that

no

lessperfect Old Lady of the

Lusembourg, has all the serenity and dignity

of

Rembrandts inestpresentments of him-

self,when ge ad rizzled ls air nd

wrlnkledisowerfulace.Anotheror-

trait of peculiar nterest comes from Mr. J.

Pierpont organ and is called Portrait of

the Painter.: do not know on what

au--

thorlty- this tltle

is

given, and

I

fancy many

will- be dlsposed t o question-It: f o r the PIC-

ture epresents a handsomeyouth of appa-

rently not _mora than ifteen o r sixteen.

He

sl ts w ~ t h draming

on his

knees, from which

he looks up nddirectiy at you. his ace

eager nd erlous ndull

of

charm.But

there are certa in passages- in t, more par-

ticular ly in the trea tment of par ts of th e cos-

tume, that point to a lalerdate; he ech-

nique is that

of

a much more matureperlod

than he one suggested.The only explana-

tion is that the-canvas may have been begun

whenRembrandtwasstill heyouth-ltde-

picts,ndot the n finished, butept by

.

htm In h x studio and touched and

repainted-

irom ime

t o

time when he chanced to e-

member it, and his _seems hkely enough.

A ewather portra.lts have added nte-

rest of not eing so well known as t h e

greaternumber shown. There are everal

wonderful old women, there another much

younger woman, lent yLord Leconfield,

commonplace for Rembranrl-anearlywork

of

1635-but curious ior the~Vandyclr-like

grace of the poses and prettiness of the face:

andheres, to.0,

a

portrait

of

Alotte

Adriaans, of fouryears a later, thatalmost

suggestsolbein .

Amsterdam, upplementing hegreatna-

tional collections, one suppoeed. have

~

8/9/2019 February 4, 1899

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