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8/9/2019 February 4, 1899
1/5
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 [email protected]
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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