S54 ''^iM^ ss^'/> if (?ottt6U Hntttcratta Sltbrarg Htljara, JJfin ^ark BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF HENRY W. SAGE 1891 Cornell University Library AC8.C94 P8 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029631805 POLITICAL AND LITERARY ESSAYS ^^^m. MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO DALLAS • SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO POLITICAL & LITERARY ESSAYS THIRD SERIES BY THE EARL OF CROMER •i MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 1916 he COPYRIGHT PREFACE Some apology is perhaps necessary for the title given to this work. It is called Political and Literary Essays because I have thought it desir- able to preserve the title which was given to the two volumes which preceded it. As a matter of fact, however, with the exception of a review of Sir Sidney Lee's Life of Shakespeare and perhaps of the Essay on " Lord Curzon's War Poems," the subjects treated are wholly political. The greater portion of them deal, either directly or indirectly, with matters connected with the all-absorbing question of the day — the War. On this subject I cannot pretend to have said anything beyond what has been already stated, in different language, by other politicians and journalists, many of whom can speak with greater authority than myself. But, having recently been debarred by ill-health from taking any part in political affairs in other spheres of action, it has interested me to write these Essays, and it may perhaps interest some few of my country- men to read them. I have, therefore, ventured to republish them. vi PREFACE All have appeared either in the Spectator, the Quarterly Review, the Nineteenth Century and After, or the National Review. They are re- published by permission of the editors of these periodicals. I have also to thank Lord Curzon of Kedleston and his publishers, Messrs. George Allen & Unwin, for allowing the republication of the Introduction which I wrote to the collec- tion of Lord Curzon's speeches entitled Subjects of the Day. CROMER. London, March 1916. CONTENTS I. Lord Curzon's Imperialism 11. Lord Curzon's War Poems III. Modern Austria IV. Germany and Eastern Europe . V. Nationalism in the near East . VI. The Suicide of the Turk VII. The Ri^GiME of the Young Turk VIII. The Diplomacy of the War IX. The German Historians X. An Ethical Iconoclast . XI. Pan-Germanism . XII. Germania Mendax XIII. German Military Ethics XIV. German Patriotism XV. The Teaching of Patriotism XVI. The Germanization of Slesvig . XVII. Democracy and Diplomacy XVIII. Political Ideals . XIX. The Morality of Nations XX. The New Europe XXI. The Neutrality of America 1 15 23 50 57 67 75 82 91 102 110 120 129 142 150 164 173 184 192 203 211 viii CONTENTS PAGE XXII A Neutral on the War 219 XXIII. John Hay 228 XXIV. South America 237 XXV. South of Panama 245 XXVI. War-time Letters 254 XXVII. The Politician Wordsworth . 261 XXVIII. The Chinese Revolution 270 XXIX. Japan . 278 XXX. Java .... 287 XXXI. Governor Pitt . 295 XXXII. The Thiers Memoirs . 302 XXXIII. Delane of the " Times " 312 XXXIV. Shakespeare .... 320 Index . . . . 329 LORD CURZON'S IMPERIALISM.^ At the Colonial Conference of 1907 one of its most distinguished members (Mr. Deakin) asked a very pertinent question. Galled by the obstructions which are the inevitable result of partisan warfare, he indignantly asked whether party politicians intended to emulate Saturn. " Is the party system," he said, " to destroy everything but itself ? " Lord Curzon's speeches, of which a very judicious selection has been made by Mr. Chapman Huston, add another item to the abundant testimony which might be furnished that Mr. Deakin's question may now be answered with a distinct negative. A great national crisis has, for the time being at all events, purged the dross from a system whose excesses appeared but a short time ago to constitute a real national danger. When we find fighting side by side with a leading Conservative politician such as Lord Curzon a Radical philosopher like Mr. Frederic Harrison, who forty-five years ago warned his countrymen that, alone amongst civilized nations, " the very germ of international morality " was wanting in l^russia, a Socialist such as Mr. Blatch- 1 Subjects of the Day. By Earl Curzon of Kedleston, K.G. Edited by Desmond M. Chapman-Huston, with an Introduction by the Earl of Cromer. George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. London, 1915. 1 B 2 LORD CURZON'S IMPERIALISM i ford, an impulsive but warm-hearted and courage- ous demagogue such as Mr. Lloyd George, together with numberless others to whom an ardent desire for peace has heretofore been as the breath of their nostrils, and who now have re- gretfully to admit that the country which gave birth to Goethe has also produced such political abortions as Treitschke and Bernhardi — a siu'e indication is given that a harmony of discords has been created such as the British political world has never known at any former time.^ This strange and hallowed union brings home to us a fact which possibly many of us never fully realized before — the fact that we are all democrats here. Our differences of opinion, albeit they are at times acute, pale into insignificance before the sinister spectre of German absolutism. I hope and believe that, with very rare exceptions, all, from the nearly non-existent Tory of the old school to the ultra-democratic member of an extreme Radical club, recognize that we are now fighting for the freedom which for ages past has been the pectdiar appanage of the Anglo-Saxon race, and without which that spurious imitation of true civilization, termed German Kultur, would afford the keynote to the further progress of the world, and thus pronounce an irrevocable divorce between wisdom and morality on the one hand and learning on the other. Even in normal times Lord Curzon can scarcely be regarded as an extreme political partisan. Reading between the lines of his numerous public utterances, it is easy to see that, like most states- men of wide sympathies and enlarged political vision, he at times chafes at the fetters imposed by the necessities of party connections. Mr. ^ The formation of a Coalition Ministry since this Introduction was written confirms the correctness of the view stated above. LORD CURZON'S IMPERIALISM 3 Chapman-Huston has, therefore, very wisely excluded from this collection of speeches most of those utterances of relatively ephemeral interest which deal with party issues. The only excep- tions are two speeches, one on Home Rule in Ireland and the other on the Finance Bill of 1909 — the latter being a subject on which, in spite of my general sympathy with Lord Curzon's political creed, I was unable to share his views. Some portion of that speech is, indeed, devoted to combating the arguments which I advanced — but to my great regret advanced in vain — in order to convince the House of Lords that the Bill should be allowed to become law. I cannot say what impression the perusal of Lord Curzon's speeches will make on the mind of the general reader. Neither can I flatter myself with the illusion that any commendation emanating from myself will excite an interest beyond what may naturally be evoked by their intrinsic merits. But I may go so far as to say that to myself Mr. Chapman-Huston's publication is extremely welcome, for I regard Lord Curzon as the most able, as he is certainly by far the most eloquent, exponent of that sane Imperialism to which this country is wedded as a necessity of its existence. " We have," Lord Curzon says, " to answer our helm, and it is an Imperial helm, down all the tides of Time." The main tenets of the code which governs and, at all events in the recent past, has always governed British ex- pansion have almost passed into commonplaces in so far as those who have devoted special attention to the subject are concerned. The recent action of all, whether of British or non- British origin, who owe allegiance to King George V., has, indeed, shown to an astonished and, in the case of our enemies, a deeply dis- 4 LORD CURZON'S IMPERIALISM appointed world, the priceless fruits which the adoption of that wise and righteous code has secured to its authors. But it may be doubted whether it is even yet fully understood by the mass of the British public. The platform senti- mentalist still at times claims a monopoly of that sympathy for subject races the value of which no rational Imperiahst will be disposed to under- rate, oblivious of the fact that in order to produce a full measure of beneficial results sympathy must, as Lord Curzon very rightly points out, be accompanied by strength, courage, and, above all, by accurate knowledge. We still at times hear insinuations that the great desire of that splendid Indian Civil Service, whose prowess Lord Curzon vaunts in noble and inspiring words, and every member of which feels, in a greater or less degree, that he " has his hand on the pulse of the universe," is to maintain in ignoble thraldom the people whose moral and material welfare is the ceaseless object of their solicitude. The fallacy that every Imperialist agent is possessed with an insane desire to enlarge the area of territories painted red on the map of the world is far from being extinct. It may con- fidently be anticipated that when, as may not improbably happen, Mesopotamia is added to the dominions of the Crown and the British and Russian frontiers become conterminous — a con- summation which it has for more than a century past been the main object of Anglo-Indian states- manship to avoid — it will be forgotten that no warmer advocate of Persian independence ever existed than an Imperialist Viceroy, and that this political misfortune, as I should term it, was due, not to the vaulting ambition of some purely imaginary " prancing Pro-Consul," but to the fact that, in the purchase of the Persian LORD CURZON'S IMPERIALISM 5 oilfields, a Government and Parliament of marked democratic tendencies rushed into a very im- portant undertaking without any due apprecia- tion of the gravity of its proceedings or of the ultimate consequences which those proceedings would probably involve. It is well, therefore, that the wishes and aspirations of rational Imperialists should be reiterated by a foremost representative of the Imperial school. Cicero gave utterance to the very wise maxim that the first qualification necessary to an orator who aspires to guide the political destinies o£ his countrymen is that he should know his subject. Ad consilium de re- publica dandum, caput est nosse rempublicam. No living Englishman, at all events in so far as the management of the overseas dominions of the Crown are concerned, fulfils the Ciceronian requirement to a greater extent than Lord Curzon. Moreover, apart from considerations of this nature, the utterances of a statesman who, at a time when public opinion generally was strongly in favour of limiting our military preparations to the necessities of home defence, had the foresight to prophesy that before long we might be fighting for the independence of Belgium, are surely at the present moment worthy of special attention. It is perhaps too much to hope that Lord Curzon's speeches will find many readers outside the limits of the British Dominions. Neverthe- less, at a moment when a desperate effort is being made to substitute German for British world- power, much that Lord Curzon says may well afford food for the reflection of neutral nations, and especially for those of our own kith and kin on the other side of the Atlantic. They may profitably ask themselves whether, if a succession 6 LORD CURZON'S IMPERIALISM i of rulers imbued with absolutist Prussian prin- ciples had for more than a century sat on the Viceregal throne adorned by a long line of states- men from Warren Hastings downwards, a leading Indian Prince would, at the close of that period, have been found to offer spontaneous homage to the memory of the founder of Prussian rule in India. I trow not. Yet one of the leading Indian Princes (the Maharaja of Nepal) expressed in 1907 his surprise that the memory of the victor of Plassey had " remained for so long unhonoured in marble." They may ask why, instead of the occurrence of that anti-British outbreak which was confidently anticipated by the ill-informed politicians of Berlin, the natives of India rallied to the defence of the British Crown, and they will find the answer in Lord Curzon's words. " Why are these men coming ? What has induced them to volunteer to take part in our fighting ? They are thousands of miles away. They cannot hear the thunder or see the smoke of the guns. Their frontiers have not been crossed, their homes are not in jeopardy. They are not our kith and kin ; no call of the blood appeals to them. Is it not clear that they are coming because the Empire means something to them much more than mere government or power ? It speaks to them of justice, of righteousness, of mercy, and of truth. They have no desire to exchange that rule for the Prussian sabre or the jackboot of the German trooper. They have no desire to change that rule for any other. If any testimony was ever required to the feelings by which they are actuated and to the success of the fundamental principles by which we have endeavoured to rule them, surely it is to be found in this convincing and overwhelming demonstration." From another and somewhat more personal LORD CURZON'S IMPERIALISM 7 point of view the republication of these speeches is, I think, to be welcomed. Lord Morley, in his Life of Gladstone, remarks, with great truth, that it is far more difficult for a politician to get rid of a spurious reputation than it is to acquire one that is genuine. Most of the leading agents in the execution of British Imperial policy, and none more than Lord Curzon, have at times suffered from the popular misapprehensions in- dicated by Lord Morley. It is eminently desirable that the British public should understand some- thing of the character and shoiild appreciate the true nature of the motives which guide the actions of those who take a leading part in British political life. The actions and opinions of Lord Curzon, in common with those of all other politicians, are, of course, a very legitimate subject for criticism, but he has a fair right to claim that the motives which dictated those actions and the process of reasoning which led to the formation of those opinions should be taken from his own lips rather than that they should be judged by the light of the interpretation often erroneously placed upon them by hostile or ill- informed critics. What inferences may, there- fore, be garnered from these speeches as to the principal motives which have inspired Lord Curzon in dealing with public affairs, and notably with those associated with Imperialist policy ? In the first place, it is clear that Lord Curzon is animated by a sincere and perfervid patriotism. He displays none of that tepid cosmopolitanism which, when carried to an extreme, as is not unfrequently the case, degenerates into an ignoble depreciation of his country's worth. The love of his native country, that root which in the doggerel but profoundly true verse of the poet Churchill " never fails to bring forth golden 8 LORD CURZON'S IMPERIALISM fruit," burns brightly within him. He is ever seeking to hnk the actions of the present with the grandeur of the historic past. The interest which he has persistently displayed in the pre- servation of ancient monuments is, it may con- fidently be conjectured, not wholly archaeological. He bids us visit the homes of great men in order that we may more fully understand their lives. He dwells with affectionate tenderness on the " unequalled country scenery of England "- — its old-time villages, its mediaeval mansions, its village churches " with their sacred tale of by- gone history and romance," and he exhorts us to do whatever is possible to save these picturesque relics of the past from the ever-increasing menace of the grimy factory and the pinchbeck villa. When he passes Whitehall he sees in imagination " the courtly figure of Charles I." ascending the scaffold, and on arrival in Old Palace Yard he remembers that "it is the place where the old tournaments and trials by battle were held, where the head of Guy Fawkes was struck off, and where the wife of Sir Walter Raleigh carried away the severed head of her husband in a bag." He wishes us to beautify London, and in doing so to beware lest we efface any of the memories of its chequered and illustrious past. He sings " Floreat Etona " at the top of his voice, and recalls with pride that it was with those words on his lips that one of his schoolboy contem- poraries fell, shot through the heart, whilst leading a cavalry charge against a savage South African foe. He recognizes that the kindred and occasionally rival institution of Harrow can turn out patriots of equal gallantry and value. He cherishes " the atmosphere of broad and liberal culture which emanates from the halls and quadrangles of Oxford," and he trusts that LORD CURZON'S IMPERIALISM 9 that ancient seat of learning, when " revivified and re-endowed," will become " a potent instru- ment for moulding the character and increasing the usefulness of the Anglo-Saxon race." But it is the heroic deeds of his countrymen rather than the external aspects of his native country which more especially supply fuel to the large-hearted patriotism of Lord Curzon. Equally with another and deep-thinking Imperialist, Sir Alfred Lyall, his imagination is set aglow by the " frontier grave " celebrated in Newbolt's touch- ing and inspiriting verse.^ He recounts with pride how Englishmen like Captain Scott and his comrades have been found willing to lay down their lives " for a great idea." He bids us re- member the noble epitaph, surpassing in its terse, virile, and pathetic simplicity even the words cut on the tomb of a seventh-century saint in the Cathedral of Ely,^ which were inscribed on the rude cross covering the remains of that gallant soldier who walked out to certain death in a shrieking Antarctic snowstorm in order to save the lives of his friends : " Hereabouts died a very gallant gentleman." It is well to re- member such deeds and the words which record them. They should appeal trumpet-tongued to future generations of Captain Gates' country- men. Yet amidst all these manifestations of a very legitimate patriotism there is not the slightest trace of that lust for power and domination for their own sake which has been rightly stigmatized 1 Qui procul hinc — ^the legend's writ, The frontier grave is far away — Qui ante diem periit Sed miles, sed pro patria. " Lucem tuam Ovino Da, Deus, et requiem. Amen. 10 LORD CURZON'S IMPERIALISM by moralists from the days of Tacitus downwards. The Imperiahsm which Lord Curzon favours is not that of nation- devouring Rome, whose heavy hand, albeit its weight was to some extent tempered by the humanizing influence of Hellas, numbed the intellect and chilled the nascent aspirations of the subject races which fell under her sway. Rather is it a vivifying force on which the populations incorporated into the British Empire may readily graft and develop all that is best in their own national characteristics. Whilst dwelling, in language which deserves to take a high place even amongst the noble records of British oratory, on the services rendered by the veterans of the Indian Mutiny, Lord Curzon is careful to remind his audience that out of the chaos and suffering of that stormy period there sprang " a new sense of peace and harmony, bearing fruit in a high and purifying resolve. Never let it be forgotten that the result of the Mutiny was not merely an England victorious, but an India pacified, united, and started once more upon a wondrous career of advance and expansion." Lord Curzon fully recognizes that the main, and indeed the only true justification of Imperialism, is to be found in the uses to which the Imperial power is applied. " The real cement of Empire is brotherhood, and the real basis of brotherhood is mutual understanding." The material interests of the mother-country, important though they be, must be waived aside if they conflict with the interests and aspirations of the dependency. A higher standpoint than any material advantage must be adopted. " Never sacrifice a subject interest — that is, the interest of a subject dependency or possession — to exclusively British interests. Do not force upon your dependencies a pohcy which may be LORD CURZON'S IMPERIALISM 11 distasteful or unsuitable to them, merely because it is advantageous to yourselves. The meaning of Empire is, not to impose on dependencies the will of the mother-country or master power, but to effect a harmonious co-ordination of the in- terests of the whole." Again, Lord Curzon says, there should be "no Roman wall of military defence, no Chinese wall of selfish exclusiveness, but a wall of human hearts built around our Empire, a wall which, when all other defences crumble and give way, will perhaps avail to keep it safe." Allegiance to the Crown constitutes, indeed, an invaluable link between the various scattered units of the British Empire. But why does it fulfil this useful function ? Because the Monarchy constitutes " the embodiment of an idea, the expression of an ideal which we fondly believe is blessed from on high, and which we hope will redound to the blessing and advantage of untold millions of the human race." Quotations from Lord Curzon's speeches in- culcating the same lesson as in those already cited might be multiplied, but sufficient has been said to show that, far from entertaining the vulgar and unworthy views sometimes attributed to British Imperialists, Lord Curzon speaks with dignified gravity — I might almost say with rever- ential awe — of the duties of Empire and of the heavy responsibilities imposed on the British Government and nation. Addressing the youths who year by year issue forth to the uttermost parts of the' earth from our schools and colleges with the honour and reputation of England in their keeping, he exhorts them to " lead clean and healthy lives," to miss no opportunities for following " noble and unselfish ends," and he adds this eloquent description of the mission which the Anglo-Saxon race is called upon to 12 LORD CURZON'S IMPERIALISM perform : " Wherever unknown lands are waiting to be opened up, wherever the secrets or treasures of the earth are waiting to be wrested from her, wherever peoples are lying in backwardness or barbarism, wherever new civilizations are capable of being planted, or old civiUzations of being revived, wherever ignorance or superstition is rampant, wherever enlightenment and progress are possible, wherever duty and self-sacrifice call — there is, as there has been for hundreds of years, the true summons of the Anglo-Saxon race." There is, of course, room for wide differences of opinion as regards the particular methods which should be adopted in the execution of the Imperial policy which Lord Curzon advocates, as also in respect to the time when those methods should be applied. But this is not the moment to discuss points of this nature. The main question on which not only Englishmen but, indeed, all the civilized world have now to form an opinion is whether the basic principle of Lord Curzon' s Imperialism should be maintained, or whether it should be swept away and give place to the wholly antagonistic ideals which would prevail if the Prussian dream of world dictatorship were realized. A comparison between the spirit which pervades Lord Curzon's speeches and the recent Report of Lord Bryce's Committee on the behaviour of the German Army in Belgium would materially help an impartial neutral to form a judgment on this important subject. I conclude this brief Introduction Avith some remarks conceived in a somewhat lighter vein. In some respects Englishmen are remarkably elastic — more so, I think, than any other members of the European family. I could give numerous instances, which are within my own experience, to show how readily young men fresh from the LORD CURZON'S IMPERIALISM 13 English schools or universities adapt themselves to new surroundings and speedily identify them- selves with the interests of the people over whom they are called to rule. But on certain points the Englishman never shakes off his insular habits. Lord Curzon in one of his speeches says : " From my own experience, I would say that the first thing an Englishman does in the outlying portions of the Empire is to make a race-course ; the second is to make a golf-course." I can confirm the correctness of this testimony. In 1872, I landed on the island of Perim, where the ship bearing Lord Northbrook to India stopped in order to enable him to form an opinion as regards an important question then pending connected with the erection of certain fortifica- tions. The island of Perim is surely one of the most desolate and inhospitable spots on the face of the globe. Its sun-baked surface consists of glistening black rock and of sand. There is not a vestige of vegetation on the whole island. Neither is there any natural water supply. I gathered during my brief visit that the principal inhabitants of the island were scorpions, one of which is to be found under almost every stone. The lighthouse-keeper, who together with a young officer in command of a detachment of Sepoys formed the total white population of Perim, took me to the top of the lighthouse, whence the whole of the island was visible. After alluding to other objects of local interest, he pointed to an arid waste of sand and said, " That is the race-course." As there was no four-footed beast on the island I expressed my surprise, and inquired whether any races had ever taken place. He was unable to answer this question, but he assured me that the particular locahty which he indicated had " always been called the race-course." 14 LORD CURZON'S IMPERIALISM When I arrived in Cairo, less than a year after the battle of Tel-el-Kebir had been fought, every department of the Administration was in a state of the utmost confusion. Nevertheless, a race- course had already been laid out and a grand- stand erected. A golf-course followed after a short interval. May 17, 1915. II LORD CURZON'S WAR POEMS ^ " Spectator" July 17, 1915 It was inevitable that the passions, hopes, and sorrows which have been evoked by the death- struggle in which the great nations of Europe are now engaged should elicit an outburst of song. What more fitting subject for a sad but proud and patriotic threnody could, indeed, be found than the " Roll of Honour," which now appears with mournful regularity in the columns of the daily Press, accompanied, as is often the case, with illustrations which bring home to us in a manner heretofore unknown to the present genera- tion the lugubrious pathos of Pericles' beautiful metaphor that " the loss of the youth of the city was as if the spring was taken out of the year " ? Is any theme more calculated to inspire the Muse of Poetry than the prolonged agony of heroic Belgium ? Can anything be imagined more apt to stir those emotions which form the raw material of poetry than the sight of the champions of true civilization and high morality standing forth, sword in hand, to crush a system whose triumph would blast the progress of the human race, enthrone an ignoble materialism in the 1 War Poems, and other Translations. By Lord Curzon of Kedleston. London : John Lane. 4s. 6d. net. 15 16 LORD CURZON'S WAR POEMS place of those high ideals towards which the most enlightened spirits of modern times have for years past been painfully yet strenuously groping their way, and thrust upon the world a moral bankruptcy far less excusable than the savagery of ancient or mediaeval times, inasmuch as the errors of the past were largely due to ignor- ance, whereas it is sought to defend those of the present and to obscure their moral obliquity by a learning which is real and by a ratiocination which is pseudo-scientific and spurious ? It was also inevitable that, in the expression of their sorrows, sympathies, and aspirations, classical students should often revert to the use of those languages which, whether in prose or poetry, have for ages past served as models for the expression of human thought. Thus Sir Herbert Warren, when he read the touching tribute paid by a poet of genius (Sir Henry Newbolt) to old Cliftonians fallen on the battlefield, found that the stately English lines " rang in his head," and forthwith " shaped themselves into Greek." ^ More re- cently a poet who, in the Eton College Chronicle, cast a thin veil of anonymity over his personality by signing with the initials " G. M.," mourned the death of a gallant young Etonian, the heir to wealth and title, who gave his life for his country, in lines which, in spite of Lord Curzon's very apposite reserve as to the views which an ancient Greek would have held about the productions of the most erudite of modern scholars, are never- theless so essentially Greek in sentiment as to embody a bitter wail over the cruelty of that obscure deity (0eo? areVapTo?) — the "Unknown God," whom the Athenians " ignorantly wor- shipped " — who has inflicted such terrible woes on suffering mankind. ^ Spectator, April 10, 1915. LORD CURZON'S WAR POEMS 17 Lord Curzon in his brief preface almost apologizes for having joined the throng of those statesmen and politicians who have preceded him in falling victims to the " amiable hobby " of translation. For two reasons no apology is necessary. One is that the translations them- selves possess great intrinsic merits. The other is that, although Lord Curzon has made himself the mouthpiece of ideas conceived by others, he has by no means, in assuming the part of a translator, sunk his own vigorous personality. His unswerving patriotism, his high sense of duty, his admiration and sympathy for all those deeds and thoughts which call forth eulogistic or sympathetic treatment, are clearly discern- ible whether he is giving us an English version of the French of Verhaeren and Cammaerts, or of the Greek of Demosthenes and the Antho- logists. Lord Curzon has, of course, had to consider the great stumbling-block which lies in the path of every translator. To what extent is paraphrase permissible ? Great poets have before now suc- cumbed to the temptation, which is ever present to the mind of the translator, of acquiring greater freedom of speech in translating by neglecting the precise words of the original poem and merely embodying the main facts, principles, or senti- ments which the poet has wished to set forth. Others have gone further and have not hesitated to introduce entirely fresh matter of their own, either because they have thought it topical to the ideas of the original author, or because the imperious necessities of rhyme or metre have constrained them to the adoption of this course. The precision of the scholarly Bentley was shocked by the latitude which Pope allowed himself in translating the Iliad. "A very pretty poem, c 18 LORD CURZOM'S WAR POEMS Mr. Pope," he said, " but you must not call it Homer. " Lord Curzon has, therefore, very wisely decided to adhere as far as possible to the original text, but not invariably to discard paraphrase. " My object has been," he says, " nearly every- where, not to paraphrase, but to translate." A good example of the results to be obtained by this method is the translation of the celebrated epitaph on those who fell at the battle of Chaeronea which occurs in Demosthenes' oration " On the Crown." The fidehty of the translation is un- questionable, and although possibly the melody and harmonious flow of the English version would have gained if greater latitude had been allowed, it contains no line or expression which can fairly be said to jar on the ear of the English reader. It is, however, in the translation of the Belgian war poems that the results of Lord Curzon's methods may best be appreciated. " There is," he says, " a substantial identity in modern cultured thought and expression which renders the translation, e.g., of French or German lyrics into English one of no extraordinary difficulty." It will probably be conceded by all who read this volume that in this sphere Lord Curzon has been eminently successful. Indeed, inasmuch as prob- ably all of us yield more readily to the emotions excited by words addressed to us in our mother- tongue than by sentiments expressed in a foreign language, it is very possible that English readers will in some cases prefer the translations to the originals, in spite of the praise which may rightly be accorded to the French versions. One ex- ample must suffice. M. Cammaerts has embodied the self-sacrifice, the determination, and glowing patriotism of his countrymen in the stirring poem entitled " Chantons, Beiges, Chantons." Lord LORD CURZON'S WAR POEMS 19 Curzon's translation is no less spirited than the original. Here is one stanza : Reck not that your wounds are bleeding, Reek not that your voice is weak : Deeper than the roar of cannon, Higher than the battle-shriek. E'en although your wounds are bleeding, E'en although your heart-strings break, Sing of hope and hate unshaken, 'Neath this fair autumnal sun : Sing how, when the tempter whispered, " Sweet is vengeance, when 'tis done," Said we louder, " We are prouder, Mercy's garland to have won ! " In this case Lord Curzon has adhered closely to the original text, and he has given us in rhythmi- cal and faultless English a vivid impression of the lofty scorn and fiery indignation which the Belgian poet pours on the ruthless invaders of his native country. It is to the episodes connected with the war that we owe the publication of this attractive volume. But the general reader, and more especially the lover of classical literature, will rejoice at the opportunity which has thus been afforded to him of reading some other fugitive pieces unconnected with recent events which have from time to time been composed by Lord Curzon. In the domain of literature he displays a courage equal to that which full many a time he has shown in the field of politics and admini- stration. So competent, and at the same time so indulgent, a critic as Professor Mackail was not altogether satisfied with the translation by Shelley of Plato's " flawless lines," 'Aa-rrjp irplv nh eXa/MTre';, ctc. Undeterred, however, by the risk of criticism, Lord Curzon has given us two versions, one in English and the other in Latin, of this pearl amongst epigrams. Of these, priority 20 LORD CURZON'S WAR POEMS of merit must certainly be assigned to the trans- lation into the dead language. It is singularly felicitous : Stella prius vivis Eoa luce nitebas. At nunc Hesperio Manibus orbe nites. Indeed, some of Lord Curzon's most notable successes have been achieved in Latin verse. The rendering of CoUins's " Sleep of the Brave " is excellent. Lord Curzon has also not been deterred by the very qualified praise which has been meted out to a numerous band of translators, from the days of Cicero downwards, from giving us another version of the world-famous epitaph of Simonides on the Spartans who fell at Thermopylae. The attempt to render these few pregnant words into English hexameter and pentameter verse is, so far as I am aware, novel : — Stranger, go hence and say to the men who hold Lace- daemon — " Here, far away, we lie, proudly obeying her words ! " Symonds, in dealing with this epigram, says that none of the translations are " very good," and he expresses the opinion that the difficulty lies mainly in deciding whether p'^fiaat is, as Cicero held, to be considered as the equivalent of p-ijTpai<; {legibus), or should be construed " orders." A good deal may, of course, in this as in other cases, be attributed to the quasi-impossibility of rivalling in any modern tongue the terseness of an in- flected language. But the real difficulty lies outside the range of merely verbal criticisms such as that of Symonds. It sometimes occurs that by some happy chance or inspiration, as in the case of the EZTre' n?, 'iip