Sentinel of March 14, 1925, there appeared an illuminating letter from a colliery check-weighman and branch secretary denouncing the system of piecework as tending" to divide man against man." In other words, no man is to be allowed to do more work than the least efficient man is capable of doing-or the least industrious man is willing to do. Another striking illustration of the same spirit is given by Mr. A. A. Mitchell in a paper read before the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow on January 23, 1924. He quotes from the notice posted at the door of the premises of the Building Trade Union: "You know that the longer you work the more the employer gets, and the greater the number of your unemployed fellow workers.'

It is this spirit that accounts for very many of the difficulties from which British industries are to-day suffering. The policy expressed may be unselfish in origin, but it is fatal to progress. Nor can it be maintained in a country which has to live by producing goods at a price that the rest of the world is willing to pay. It is therefore for the trade unions to decide whether they prefer to abandon this and similar economic follies such as the elaborate sub-division of trades which prevents one man from doing more than one job-or to face the disappearance of many of the industries on which the economic life of Great Britain has hitherto rested.

The saner men in the trade union movement have fully grasped the situation. Mr. W. A. Appleton for example in his Annual Report to the General Federation of Trade Unions for the year 1924, after giving figures to show the excessive density of the population of England, says: "From these figures it is apparent that England must extend her overseas trading or evacuate an appreciable percentage of her population." Under present labour conditions in this country we cannot extend our overseas trading; on the contrary its decline is inevitable. Therefore if the men engaged in these industries continue to insist that under no circumstances will they accept in England, what they describe as a lower standard of life, they must seek a living elsewhere.

That alternative is deeply resented by the modern socialistically-minded trade unionist. Yet throughout the centuries the desire of man to improve his standard of living has been the main cause of the movement of peoples. When a given area provides insufficient support for its population, emigration is the only

merciful way of immediately reducing the surplus. The population of England to-day, in spite of war losses, is at least two millions above the pre-war figure, and each year adds another three or four hundred thousand to the total. Among politicians Mr. Baldwin is almost the only man who has had the courage frankly to call attention to this root problem of over-population. Other politicians shirk the subject because they fear unpopularity. Ultimately the only way of dealing with the matter is by reducing the birth rate among the poorer wage-earning classes. That alone automatically adds to the standard of comfort attainable by poor families. But the process is necessarily a slow one and it is important to find some more immediate relief. The various official schemes for promoting emigration amount to practically nothing in comparison with the magnitude of the problem, and even those schemes are only half-heartedly supported by the Dominions. It may be suggested that the matter is one which the trade unions ought in their own interest themselves to tackle. If English trade unions, instead of sending missions to Russia to absorb Bolshevik fictions, would organize enquiries in Canada and Australia as to the best means of utilising the untouched natural resources of these huge countries for the surplus population of England, they might possibly secure some real progress. Their present policy only aggravates evils already more than sufficiently serious.

HAROLD COx

VOL. 241. NO. 492.

RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOKS

LIFE AND LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM.

By J. W. Mackail and Guy Wyndham. In Two Volumes. Hutchinson and Co. 42s. net.

In an illuminating introductory chapter to the "Life," Mr. Mackail finds the key to George Wyndham's character in his remarkable family history. He was descended on his father's side from the sixth Duke of Somerset," the Proud Duke," who had married the heiress of the Percys and so become the richest and most powerful of the whole territorial aristocracy. One of this nobleman's great houses, Petworth, was familiar to George Wyndham as the home of his uncle, the second Lord Leconfield. Wyndham's mother was a grand-daughter of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, "a name," "a name," says Mr. Mackail," remaining imperishable in song and story," and of the celebrated Pamela, the reputed daughter of Philippe d'Orléans and Madame de Genlis.

Thus with George Wyndham's aristocratic English ancestry were mingled Celtic and French strains to which may well be attributed much of his extraordinary charm and much also of his sensitive spirit, which were to give him so much affection and no little distress in life. George Wyndham's family life was intensely happy. Adored by his father and mother-" Hush! George is going to speak," was a phrase often used by his father-he found the same strong affection in his wife, the widowed Countess Grosvenor, in his own children, in his step-children, his brother Guy, and all his other relations. friends were innumerable and devoted, and yet all this affection never for a moment turned his head.

In political life, too, he made many friends; but in Parliament his manner was sometimes resented. He was not well equipped for the rough and tumble of political conflict, and it says much for his devotion to duty that he remained in Parliament for nearly twenty-five years, and filled high office in the ministry.

Mr. Mackail gives a detailed account of the Irish troubles, which finally drove Wyndham to resign his office of Chief Secretary, and his statement will leave no doubt in any mind of Wyndham's complete innocence of the underhand intrigues, which certain political opponents, and even supporters, were so unwise as to attribute to him at the time. Broken down in health from the strain of that most difficult post, it is possible that Wyndham allowed himself to overlook a letter which was to assume later a fictitious importance; but there his culpability ends. Of his literary talent, Mr. Mackail gives many examples, which place him out of the ruck, even though his style remained always a little too flamboyant for real excellence.

His flamboyant style was, however, merely the expression of his exuberant personality, and it is the personality revealed in them that

gives permanent interest to his letters, of which the present selection has been made by his brother, Colonel Guy Wyndham, his companion through most of his life.

The life and the letters together give an attractive portrait of a man greatly admired in his life and worthy of admiration by posterity for his great qualities of heart and mind.

THE HISTORY OF FIFE: From the Earliest Times to the Nineteenth Century. By James Wilkie. William Blackwood and Sons. 215. net.

All the great names in the history of Scotland crowd the pages of this valuable history of "The Kingdom of Fife," and Mr. Wilkie, true to his often expressed admiration for Sir Walter Scott, succeeds in reviving the great scenes enacted there and the people, prominent or obscure, who took part in them.

Among this varied company are to be found Angus MacFergus, King of the Picts; Queen Margaret; Mary, Queen of Scots; her squire, Kirkaldy of Grange, and her opponent, John Knox; the later representatives of the "tragic" House of Stewart, with the great Montrose "who lived and died for loyaltye," and James Graham of Claverhouse, Bonny Dundee." Over against these last stand the dour figures of the Covenanters, while the murders of Cardinal Bethune and of Archbishop Sharp on Magus Moor remain as grim memories of the violence of religious wars in Fife.

Mr. Wilkie is not content, however, to recount only political history, for his book contains many references to the great literary figures who have been associated with Fife. He tells the story of Alexander Selkirk, who sailed away from Largo to be immortalised by Defoe, and he mentions the visits of Dr. Johnson, of Sir Walter Scott, of Thomas Carlyle and Robert Louis Stevenson.

He mentions also the legends of which such a land of ruined castles is bound to be productive. He tells of " Witches' Sabbaths "in lonely kirkyards; of Sir Patrick Spens pacing the white sands of Aberdour; of the haunted Tower of Balwearie; of the " White Lady "of Otterstone ; of " Green Jean "of Wemyss, and many another tale of romance or of horror, and he brings the record to a close with some mention of eminent sons of Fife in modern times.

It is a well-balanced history that is always vivid without undue striving for dramatic effect.

THE ROMANTIC STORY OF THE HIGHLAND GARB AND THE TARTAN. By J. G. Mackay, Portree. With an Appendix by Lieut.-Colonel Norman Macleod, C.M.G., D.S.O., dealing with the Kilt in the Great War. Stirling: Eneas Mackay. 42s. net.

This is a most interesting volume, well-documented, and illustrated with portraits of chieftains in Highland garb and with excellent reproductions in colour of a series of Macdonald tartans showing their

development from the "Lord of the Isles" tartan. A romantic chapter describes the history of the Clan Banners, such as the Green Banner of Macpherson, the "Fairy Flag of Dunvegan," and the White Banner of Mackay. There are full lists of clan slogans and pipe music, and an historical survey of the origins and development of the distinctive Highland dress, whilst the list of clan septs contains such surprising information as that Browns may belong to the Clan Macmillan, Wrights to the Macintyres, and Blacks to the Macgregors. The appendix places on record the proved success of the kilt by its serviceable qualities in the trenches.

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM COBBETT. By G. D. H. Cole. With a chapter on Rural Rides " by the late F. E. Green. Collins. 18s. net.

Politician, soldier, self-taught writer of terse, living English, self-taught French conversationalist, born lover of the English countryside, William Cobbett remains an outstanding figure in English life, and Mr. Cole, with the assistance of the late F. E. Green's vivid chapter on the "Rural Rides," has produced a living portrait of this remarkable

man.

This book might well be recommended to the intelligent foreigner as an explanation of certain apparent contradictions in the English character, for Cobbett was English of the English, if more strenuous than most of his fellows.

ON THE ROAD WITH WELLINGTON. By A. L. F. Schaumann, Deputy Assistant Commissary-General in the English Army. Edited and Translated by Anthony M. Ludovici. Heinemann. 25s. net.

As one of the officers without commissions responsible for the commissariat arrangements for the British army in the Peninsular, Schaumann was severely critical of the military arrangements and of the commissioned officers from Wellington downwards, but the main interest of these reminiscences lies in the details of life on the march, and in the character of the writer, which develops from his pages. Schaumann was a true German. He loved good food and plenty to drink, and continually surprised the Portuguese and Spanish peasants by the amount which he was able to consume. Above all he was a shrewd observer of the little incidents of the campaign which give life to the scenes he describes and, whether as bon viveur or apt commentator, he reminds the reader inevitably of Pepys. Mr. Ludovici's translation retains the graphic style of the original, without its coarseness.

ON THE EARTHQUAKE LINE. By Morley Roberts. With six Paintings by the Author. Arrowsmith (London), Ltd. 15s. net.

"This is a book," says its author, " without pretensions to authority. I am never sure that I am right, even when most positive." It is a