thoroughfare was derided as "chimer- | Englishmen allowed the quiet beauty ical." Now, in the case of the limita- of their land to be disturbed for want tions hitherto placed upon private of recourse to the principles which liberty of action the sacrifice imposed govern every other department of acon each individual is often grave. tivity except that which is concerned Compulsory education, for example, with the appeal to the eye; just as we deprives many a struggling father of wonder now, with a comforting sense the earnings of his boys for several of superiority, at the folly of our ancesyears. The ultimate advantage to so- tors, who left the protection of life and ciety is not always obvious or intel- property at night to the care of a deligible to those affected. Yet every crepit old watchman, and who trusted one now conforms readily to the stand-conservancy to chance. ard prescribed by law, as if it were an It is for us, to whom this matter aparticle of elementary morality. It is, pears one of urgent moment, to follow therefore, the merest bogie of the as best we may in the footsteps of the pessimist imagination to suppose that pioneers to whom we owe the blessings there will be any difficulty about re- that their descendants take for granted. straining a handful of pushing trades- They were lectured and derided by the people from destroying, in ignorance pompous persons of the day, who, beor wantonness, a large part of the cause they were destitute of businessvisible wealth of the country. The like imagination, prided themselves on advertisers themselves have no strong practical insight. The reformers of inducement to persist in this peculiar former days did not squander on the form of publicity hunting. What they invention of fanciful difficulties the each severally desire is relative, not energies which were needed for propaabsolute, notoriety. The old practi-gating sound opinions. The speed with tioners will have the advantage of their which our cause will triumph depends past activity, and have, therefore, a wholly upon the willingness of each selfish motive for acquiescing in regu- one of us to do his best within his own lation. And many of them, I hasten sphere. to add, will hail with intense relief a bar upon a morbid phase of competition which uselessly diverts a good deal of their capital to unproductive channels. Most of them resort to the practice of disfigurement only in selfdefence; only because some of their rivals have started in the repulsive line. For those who, on good grounds or bad, still desire to puff their wares there are plenty of other methods open.

The proposition that indiscriminate placarding is not good for trade as a whole, and that the existing license is not valued by vendors as a class, may appear to those who have not thought the matter out a paradox; but to those who have considered the data it is a truism.

So far from regarding the purpose we have in view as a quixotic dream, the present writer is persuaded that in the next decade people will be puzzled to understand how or why patriotic

But on what lines? To answer the question would be to rewrite the programme of the National Society for Checking the Abuses of Public Advertising. Here I can but sketch in vague outline the heads of effort. (1) We make no secret of our aversion to the disfiguring emblems. As a result, we find that nine people out of ten we speak to are converted already at any rate to the essential unsightliness of the things. If we see that a particular commodity is puffed, or that a particular establishment is made conspicuous by means which appear to us inconsistent with decent regard for the rights of passers-by, we take pains to find out a commodity which is not an occasion of offence, and a shop that is conducted on neighborly principles. By doing this we not only enjoy the luxury of a good conscience, and generally get the article we want at a lower price, but most effectually spread the light of right doctrine. Nothing

does more to interest a respectable | general architectural design. It is the shopkeeper in the movement than a higgledy-piggledy, "stick-them-up-anysimple request that he will keep in where " system that mainly offends at stock something that one cau take on present. The substitution of posters his recommendation. It is, so far, a which, if not always "things of reversion to the old fashion of honor- beauty," are at least not "pains forable retail trade. Little by little, as ever," for the things that stare at us the observance of our golden rule week after week and year after year grows, the dealer and middleman will from glazed frames and japanned find that the articles "asked for" are plaques, would rob a railway journey not the articles recommended by the of half its unpleasantness. Torture Boards; and at last it will dawn on the intelligence of the nostrum-mongers themselves that the roadside game is played out, and that they must try new ways which are not aggressively anti-social. We, further, are not ashamed or afraid to rouse people to the sense of the value of rural scenes, and of the interesting aspects of town life. Through the schoolmaster we seek to influence the young, and implant in them the perceptions which, in a well-ordered England, will hereafter open up to them an inexhaustible source of unbought happiness.

(4) So far, it will have been observed, the agencies invoked are purely moral. But we cannot dispense with the assistance of the legislature. So long as there is no authoritative control, the community will be at the mercy of any one stupid enough not to know that he is doing harm, or selfish enough to disregard the injury he inflicts. Laws against theft would be useless if there were not a moral sense in favor of probity; but the moral sense would soon disappear from a people among whom theft was not treated as a crime. Every one under(2) The taxation of exposed adver- stands the value of order in a crowded tisements is a matter which requires thoroughfare; but if there were no thought and careful handling. But, constables to regulate traffic, there unquestionably, any impost would at would be a hopeless block of vehicles once render unprofitable a large class and jostling of pedestrians. A single of sporadic bills which, I am glad to ill-conditioned person could make the say, are already condemned and de- good feeling and good sense of the plored by the respectable bill-posting others of no avail. I have not, I hope, firms. Assuming that taxation would said anything that reflects on the pertend to diminish the total area of dis-sonal character of the average adverplay at any one time, it does not follow tiser. I have not scoffed at his taste or that printers and bill-stickers would upbraided him with greed. There is lose, for the bills must be changed more frequently, and more careful workmanship will become habitual.

even a pathetic side to the incessant efforts of advertisers to neutralize each other's attempts to catch the eye. (3) Concerning railways, we are very Their desire to ply a profitable trade is well aware of the obligations which the in itself no more despicable than the directors are under to the shareholders, acquisitive instinct which leads proand of the connection between adver- fessional men to obtain a competence tising-rents and dividends. We make by services which are of real imporno extravagant demands upon the vir- tance to the commonweal. I desire tue of the managers, being content to rather to rest the case for regulation on urge them in their own interest, as well the truth which underlies nearly the as out of compassion for innocent pas- whole body of our legislation - that sengers, who have never done them any there are certain things which every harm, to assign definite spaces in the individual as a separate unit has an stations for the exhibition of announce-inducement to do, but which it is good ments, these spaces being so planned for all the individuals composing the as to have a harmonious relation to the social aggregate to prohibit. "We live

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it will

in an advertising age.' "We are all galling instances of abuse occur, advertisers nowadays." Trade is be said, in large cities, on shops, factocut-throat competition." Be it so. ries, and other places which come unFor myself, I feel very strongly that der the saving clause. I have no title this humiliating description is grossly to speak for others; but for myself I unjust to our times. The number of wish to say that I look forward with callings in which artificial notoriety absolute confidence to the time when counts for anything is not considerable the use of the alphabet in public places when the vast volume of our industry for the purpose of catching the public and commerce is taken into account. eye will be subject to as rigid and But let us assume that, owing to the effectual municipal ordinances as housecomplexity and bewildering bulk of construction, the drainage of private modern society, owing to the decay of premises, the disposal of refuse, street personal relations and of the spirit of traffic, street music, the combustion of local patriotism, there is a temptation smoke, and many other things, now to seek custom by impressing the are. Regulation would be a simple memory through the much-enduring matter of rule and scale, and when in eye. What then? As soon as primi- force would work a marvellous transtive man discovered that the spirit of formation. We should hear no more acquisitiveness was rife, it saw the the doleful heresy that cities are neceswisdom of protecting the physically sarily vulgar and ugly. We should weak against the physically strong. wake up to the enjoyment of the picThere was a reason for the existence of turesque and other elements of interest footpads; but restraints on highway in which our English towns abound, robbery followed. Similarly, although the disposition to assault the nerves of wayfarers with striking arrangements of vivid colors is quite intelligible, the wholesale indulgence of the propensity involves, as a necessary corollary, in civilized jurisprudence, provisions for saving those who are using a public road from molestation in the exercise of an undoubted right.

But in applying to the facts as we find them the cardinal principle, our society proceeds with the caution and reserve proper to a body which describes itself as "National." It does not dream of prohibition. It does not propose to arm the central authority with any powers, nor does it ask that regulation, even in local hands, shall be universal or of one pattern. Only the rural districts come within the scope of the Rural Advertisements Bill; interference with notifications on land and premises relating to business conducted thereon is expressly excluded. In brief, the county councils are simply to have a discretionary power of framing bye-laws for regulating strictly advertising display.

Some will object that we make too small a demand. Some of the most

when architecture, ancient and modern, is allowed a fair chance. Apart from what it is the custom to call æsthetic considerations, the requirements of business would necessitate some restrictions of the present chaos of aunouncements on shop-fronts and the eclipse of façades by mammoth hanging letters. The advertising mania should surely stop at swamping in the deluge of what are erroneously called signboards the identity of individual shops that customers may really wish to find.

But this vision of the future has nothing to do with the Rural Advertisements Bill. I could not deny myself the chance of winning posthumous fame as a seer, but as a social politician I am a cold-blooded opportunist. I think the passing of the Rural Advertisements Bill, or some similar measure, will mark the turning-point in the contest between the forces which make for restfulness and order in the aspect of our world of England, and the forces which make for vexatious confusion. Yet I do not anticipate from it any wide and immediate effect. We should fail in our larger purpose if we aimed beyond the scope of every-day experience. Trade would flourish mightily if

the practice we desire to abate ceased | highway or the stream - both portions altogether out of the land; but every of the public domain - I do not say trader does not know this. We are all that every where there would be zeal creatures of habit, little addicted to for their suppression; but in many inlooking beyond the tip of our nose, and stances they are resented by the neighsharp business men are more ordinary borhood as gross affronts. People who than ordinary people. They must be do not value scenery for themselves guided gently, led step by step into may easily become aware that, as an that fuller realization of what is truly attraction to visitors, it is worth pro"practical," which, with eyes open, tecting from ravage; and in tourist they cannot see. If we were to believe tracks especially innkeepers, car ownone set of pessimists, county councillors ers, and others who live by exercising are such absolute Philistines that they hospitality towards paying guests, have will never be induced to use the powers a direct interest in keeping the prospect with which we wish to invest them. clear of blots. For reasons of a more We take comfort, however, when we romantic hue the vicar and the squire learn from another school of despond- would sometimes appeal to the county ent advisers that your county coun- council to save their pretty village from cillor is a fussy creature, whose only the visitation of the providence which delight is to exalt his office and dom-scatters enamelled plaques over a land ineer over his fellows; to stick his that no longer smiles. No one would, blundering broom of bye-laws into I imagine, espouse the cause of those every quiet household corner. It is my who stick printed screeds on the rocks good fortune to be able to take a more wherever the coast is particularly fine. charitable and cheerful view of the Regular bill-sticking associations (as nature of the county councillor. I has been told already) are keen in their think he will wish to do very much hatred of the flying poster. There is what he is convinced local feeling one type of the touting notice encounstrongly desires, and will not be per-tered on every country road which, I suaded to stir till the signs of local think, moves to disgust and anger every eagerness are very clear. Being in this honest man. To bring to a summary pleasant frame of mind, I anticipate close a list which might be indefinitely that the bye-laws will be framed with a extended, I may allude to the prevailview to enabling the authorities to in- ing practice of pasting bills on walls terfere where the need of interference and palings which are private property, is glaring. Again and again represen- in opposition to the will of the owner. tations are made to municipal bodies This, surely, is a case in which authorregarding some particular outrage. ity should afford more protection than The residents in a body complain; the it now does to those who wish to order council sympathizes with them; but their own possessions with a careful the clerk, repressing his private indig- regard for the general comfort. nation, declares officially that the law I have suggested in several places as it stands gives no power of granting that the custom of advertising disfigredress. Sometimes, by a legal fiction urement is due to an instinct of rivalry which assumes danger to life or limb, and imitation which often is quite disor public morals, measures are taken to severed from intelligent calculation. abate the nuisance. In such cases our We may rely on the play of enlightshort and simple measure for amending ened competition for the growth of the —or, rather, supplying an accidental counteracting tendency. At present, if omission in-local government law the intrinsic attractiveness of St. would operate to the delight of every Mary's-on-the-Sandhills is impaired by one. As to the structures reared in the blaze of placards on the pier, the fields or by the riverside, whose only beach, and the esplanade, the chairman reason for existing is the chance of of the local board is comparatively wounding the eyes of those using the apathetic, because he knows that if the

He stood alone by the fire of his cosy writing-room to face his dark hour. It was four o'clock of a winter afternoon, and the gloom of night was already gathering over London. The ragged grey clouds seemed to concentrate themselves in the sky and bend lower and lower over the city. That mechanical waif of civilization, the lamp

visitors take flight to St. Ann's-below- | its hands before it, having failure as the-Cliff they will find the ungracious companion. That time had come to objects there in similar profusion. But John Elliot. when St. Ann's wakes up to a regard for its amenities, even to the extent of purging its pier of the accretions, the era of intelligent competition will have commenced, and little by little communities will discover that it does not pay to allow a few people to make money by practices, otherwise useless, which spoil the trade of their neighbors. It would be more flattering to na- lighter, was going his jerky round in tional pride, I own, to hope that eman-Eaton Square, inserting his mysterious cipation was to be obtained at once by pole intrusively into the privacy of the some great outburst of enthusiasm; gas-lamps, and changing their gloom to but it is our English way to do things glitter. As John Elliot stood gazing slowly, and to effect even a beneficial over the stained glass that formed a revolution by reliance on the free play bulwark between the interior of his of local judgment and mole-like pru- | sanctum and the curious glances of dence. If those who view with shame passers-by, the lamplighter's dark figand grief the loss of so much that was ure paused opposite to him. The pole lovely and pleasant in the Britain of was thrust up into the lamp. A tremour fathers will add patience and mod-bling tongue of flame shot forth. The eration to patriotic zeal; if they will lay aside the longing for a cataclysm, and make the most of the mere turning of the tide, our children may inherit a land worthy of their love.. But if we are content to nurse an impotent disdain, posterity will, with good cause, reproach us, and not the defacers, with the doom to which we leave them; for the deformities which beset us now are but signs and tokens of the desolation that must be hereafter.

RICHARDSON EVANS.

From Temple Bar.

A MAN OF PROMISE.
I.

dark figure hurried on and disappeared round the corner. John Elliot looked at the flame and sighed heavily. Why had not the hidden force that had dowered him so richly with ambition, touched his imagination with a torch until the fire of genius sprang up within him to light the souls of men? It seemed hard.

He had desired so deeply to be a genius.

In the years of youth he had thought he was one. In manhood he had begun to doubt it. Now he doubted no longer; he knew. He had to face the fact of the everlasting lack in him of what he longed for with a passion that was engrossing. He felt very bitter. That he was rich and well known was A LONG struggle for fame, if unsuc- no consolation to him. So many men cessful, does not, as a rule, tend to had money, so many men had position. the sweetening of a character. There Even the respectable eminence he had comes a time when even the most attained to in the world of letters gave vaulting ambition is forced to recognize the insufficiency of means to an end; when the most hopeful mind, parleying with itself in one of the silent colloquies that make up so much of any thoughtful life, must relinquish its greatest and most permanent desire, and, as it were, sit down at last with

to him merely a point of view from which he could see more clearly than many others the heights that he could never scale. Better to be in the valley, he thought to himself, and to take an interest in the little streams and the grasses, and to ignore altogether mountains that are inaccessible. He wished,