5778T 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 by the prevalence of another "critical" fashion, equally foolish, and even more fantastic-that, namely, of tracing literary genius to racial origin, and constructing elaborate pseudo-scientific theories as to the general influence of such origin on the national literature at large. When the fashion is at its height to bestow legitimate praise upon a meritorious writer is to lend a helping hand, not only to the organizers of a "boom," but to the fanatics of a e." The history of the so-called Celtic Renaissance supplies a case in point. Within the last few years the attention of the critical has been arrested by several new writers of Celtic origin, who have found their chief material in Celtic poetry and legend. These they have handled with a force and beauty which has been generally recognized by all capable critics, and nothing was really wanting to their just and ample appreciation except that the fanatical race-theorist should leave them-and us-- alone. But this, of course, is exactly what the fanatical race-theorist declines to do. He has seized upon their productions as so many triumphantly significant sprouts from his absurd genealogical tree; and it is now becoming difficult to do justice to the high imaginative power and true poetic gift of writers like Miss Fiona Macleod or Mr. W. B. Yeats without indirectly encouraging the upholders of the preposterous doctrine that all, or nearly all, that is best in English literature has been due to an unsuspected infusion of Celtic blood. It is not, indeed, denied that various reputed Saxons have left behind them a certain amount of more or less memorable literary work; but an examination. of their pedigree will always, we are assured, reveal the presence of a Celtic strain. And it was the Celt in them that did it-the Celt whose peculiar characteristic it thus seems to be to produce immortal poetry and prose, not by himself, but exclusively by Saxon proxy. Occasionally, it is true, we are summoned with much flourishing of trumpets to admire the original work of some forgotten or neglected Celt. These remarks, in fact, have been suggested by an occasion of this kind-the publication, within a short interval of each other, of a "Life" and of a volume of the "Selected Poems" of Clarence Mangan. These two books we review, to-day in another column. But of the con- tents of the latter, let it suffice to say that, though not without scattered traces of poetic power, they afford no sort of justification for the rhapsodies of the bard's A well-known author once wrote a newspaper letter to prove that all men were equal. The thesis was not H to apply this theory of equality to the minds of men, Surely at the Invention of the Celtic Renaissance moors or the bogs produced anything so fine as "The Haunters and the Haunted," or anything at all approaching the excellence of that little masterpiece? Indeed, the Isle of Man has lately given us fiction, but one should speak nothing but good of the living. The pure Celt has done nothing of the best in English literature, and extremely little of the second best. In the highest place of all his name is never uttered; two or three of the family take a low place at the second table. If every syllable written by men of undoubted and undiluted Celtic blood were to vanish to-morrow from our literature, the achievement of England would remain splendid and illustrious as ever. If, then, the pure Celt is never found among the Immortals and rarely among the Heroes, what becomes of the theory which allows merit to "Hamlet," "Kubla Khan," and "The Scarlet Letter," and then debits the merit to an imaginary strain of Celtic blood in the authors? The pure stream has been proved insipid; how, then, should it gain flavour by dilution? Even an Irishman would not try to strengthen weak whisky by adding water to it. It would be much more plausible to contend that such small merit as may be discovered in Celtic work is due to a faint trace of non-Celtic ancestry. This, of course, is not to maintain that an admixture of Celtic blood absolutely bars the way to all literary achievement. In the most sacred canon only English names are written, but one might perhaps compile a respectable list of men of mixed race who have done well amongst the second best. Poe's ancestor emigrated from Ireland, and it is possible that the family had intermarried with the true Irish-it is possible that a Celtic strain may stand for something in the account of the occasionally admirable, if often unequal, work that Poe accomplished. It is absurd to pretend that the Celt is everything, but we would not contend that he has done absolutely nothing. The original Arthurian legend was feeble enough certainly when it issued from Wales, for it lacked Guinevere and Lancelot, and the San Graal. and yet this rude story of a British chieftain and his Saxon wars became in the hands of Englishmen and Northmen the supreme and Royal book of the Morte d'Arthur. Arthur came to us in a coarse homespun robe, and we have clothed him in white samite, mystic, wonderful; the rough terminal stone has become the Marble Faun. But It is to be understood, of course, that we have only discussed the Celt as he appears in English literature. Hidden away in his native language there may be epics better than the Odyssey, romances more enchanted than Don Quixote, high comedies that surpass Pantagruel. Homer and Cervantes and Rabelais have been translated, while the Celt, remembering, perhaps, the tale of Ossian, has concealed his masterpieces. We have not yet seen that "velvet suit" concerning which Dr. Johnson once spoke a parable. And it may be that the Turanian races, the peoples that were akin to Babylon, that great city, the nations that the Celts subdued, were in truth the inventors of Celtic "glamour"; from their secret hoards. perhaps, the fairy gold was stolen by the Conqueror. But however that may chance to be, our English Immortals hold their session on white thrones for ever, unvanquished, eternally crowned. Reviews. Industrial Democracy. By Sidney and Beatrice Webb. 2 Vols. 9×5ĝin., xxix. +929 pp. London, New York, and Bombay, 1897. Longmans. 25/-n. The two volumes of "Industrial Democracy" complete the laborious examination of trade unions, which Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb have carried on for some half-dozen years. There is no question as to the excellence of the new work, in which an attempt is made to describe the inner life of trade unions, to trace their development, and to predict their future. "Industrial Democracy" and "The History of Trade Unionism" are examples of an order of literature in which Sociology is poor; facts collected with as much care as a naturalist would show in exploring the flora and fauna of a new region; statements of importance made at first hand; chapter and verse as a rule given for the authors' assertions; and from time to time admissions making against their conclusions. They complain that little encouragement and aid are given by wealthy men or the community to systematic inquiries into the many unsolved social problems of interest to our time. "At present in London, the wealthiest city in the world, and the best of all fields for sociological investigation, the sum total of the endowments for this purpose does not reach £100 a year." It is suggested that definite inquiries by competent investigators, supplied with the requisite funds, should be set on foot. We have our doubts about the value of such a suggestion. A Le Play, or, we may add, a Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb, are not to be procured by providing out-of-pocket expenses. But such investigators could take no better model than some of the chapters of " Industrial Democracy," and would do well to meditate on the practical hints given at pages x. and xi. of the preface. The authors have much to tell about trade unionism that is new. They show how, from a state of "primitive democracy," like that of the citizens of Uri or Appenzell, every member taking part on a footing of equality in the government of the union, has been evolved an organization more complete and better suited to the functions of unionism. The mass meeting is replaced by the meeting of delegates with special and limited authority. The referendum is adoptedthere is a direct appeal to the whole body of members. But the referendum, in its turn, fails, owing to "the inability of the ordinary man to estimate what will be the effect of a particular proposal. What democracy requires is assent to results; what the referendum gives is assent to projects." A weak, unskilled committee is replaced by a highly-trained general secretary. Representative institutions begin to appear, and unionism promises to have its highly-trained civil service. The authors' description of the movement towards the conception of " the solidarity of each trade as a whole," the limitation of local powers, the forming of a strong central executive, and of a common purse is instructive, and, no doubt, in the main, accurate the more accurate that exceptions to these tendencies are noted. For example, while the English and Scotch members of the same trade find no difficulty in "pooling" their interests, the Irish, for some reason, hold aloof. The authors' "combined plan of studying documents and men" has produced an account with fulness of details never before given of the actual working of trade unions. The chapters on "The Method of Collective Bargaining," "Arbitration," ," "The Method of Legal Enactment," "The Standard Rate," "The Normal Day," "Sanitation and Safety," though written much too diffusely and loosely, and with many irritating repetitions, will be an arsenal of weapons wherewith employers and workmen may arm themselves in their strifes. Any one who wishes to see a fair statement of the arguments on both sides of the controversies which the introduction of improved machinery has aroused might study the chapter on "New Machinery and Processes." The authors do not overrate the value of their narrative when they say : Those thousands of working-class democracies, spontaneously growing up at different times and places, untrammelled by the traditions or interests of other classes, perpetually recasting their constitutions to meet new and varying conditions, present an unrivalled field of observation as to the manner in which the working man copes with the problem of combining administrative efficiency with popular control. So long as Mr. and Mrs. Webb are narrators of facts which they have collected they carry us along with them. The limitations of the book, its defects as a scientific. analysis of trade unionism are revealed when they discuss, as they do at great length, the questions of principle underlying all the technicalities which no one before them had mastered. Not "Industrial Democracy " here and elsewhere is the theme; why should that be equivalent to trade unionism in any of the many forms here investigated? indigenous to Germany, it is still there a plant with a doubtful future; the German Socialist workman finds the methods described in these volumes too slow and circuitous. And, if trade unionism is to cover the field of industry, why assume that its evolution will be similar to that observed here? The history of the "Knights of Labour" is in many ways strikingly unlike that of any English union, That the industry of the future will be based on democratic principles is a doubtful assumption. There is a graver defect in these volumes, one which, with all their merits, prevents them taking a place in the best economic literature. The authors are at one with economists in believing in the hopelessness and injustice of the contention of the older school of unionists that they have "vested interests" in their trades, and could arbitrarily limit the number of apprentices or stereotype antiquated methods in order to protect a privileged class. "All trade unionists feel the doctrine of vested interests to be out of place. The modern passion for progress, demanding the quickest possible adaptation of social structure to social needs, has effectually undermined the assumption that any person can have a vested interest in an occupation." A weakness of the book is that it does not place the projects put forward for the regeneration of industry on any firm scientific basis. We hear much of a "national minimum," which "will prevent any industry being carried on under conditions detrimental to the public welfare," or, to quote another description, which will "impose conditions, below which no employer is allowed to drive even his most necessitous operatives." There are soft places in the book; places where a crowd of details obscures the reasoning; passages which do not deal fairly and squarely with obvious difficulties. The method of collective bargaining, notwithstanding its advantages, is pronounced inferior for many purposes to "the method of legal enactment "-in plain English, to an Act of Parliament, imposing the will of the majority of voters on the |