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RV 114 (SESSIONAL PAPER No. 41) (f) The Allied and Associated Powers who have adopted this Article and the Annex hereto may agree between themselves to apply them to their respective nationals established in their territory so far as regards matters between their nationals and German nationals. In this case the payments made by application of this provision will be subject to arrangements between the Allied and Associated Clearing Offices concerned.

Each of the High Contracting Parties will, within three months from the notification provided for in Article 296, paragraph (e), establish a Clearing Office for the collection and payment of enemy debts.

Local Clearing Offices may be established for any particular portion of the territories of the High Contracting Parties. Such local Clearing Offices may perform all the functions of a central Clearing Office in their respective districts, except that all transactions with the Clearing Office in the Opposing State must be effected through the central Clearing Office.

In this Annex the pecuniary obligations referred to in the first paragraph of Article 296 are described "as enemy debts," the persons from whom the same are due as "enemy debtors," the persons to whom they are due as "enemy creditors," the Clearing Office in the country of the creditor is called the "Creditor Clearing Office," and the Clearing Office in the country of the debtor is called the "Debtor Clearing Office."

The High Contracting Parties will subject contraventions of paragraph (a) of Article 296 to the same penalties as are at present provided by their legislation for trading with the enemy. They will similarly prohibit within their territory all legal process relating to payment of enemy debts, except in accordance with the provisions of this Annex.

The Government guarantee specified in paragraph (b) of Article 296 shall take effect whenever, for any reason, a debt shall not be recoverable, except in a case where at the date of the outbreak of the war the debt was barred by the laws of prescription in force in the country of the debtor, or where the debtor was at that time in a state of bankruptcy or failure or had given formal indication of insolvency, or where the debt was due by a company whose business has been liquidated under emergency legislation during the war. In such case the procedure specified by this Annex shall apply to payment of the dividends.

The terms "bankruptcy" and "failure" refer to the application of legislation providing for such juridical conditions. The expression "formal indication of insolvency" bears the same meaning as it has in English law.

Creditors shall give notice to the Creditor Clearing Office within six months of its establishments of debts due to them, and shall furnish the Clearing Office with any documents and information required of them.


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 inferior race; a Modern Utopia is under the hard logic of life, and it would have to exterminate such a race as quickly as it could. On the whole, the Fijian device seems the least cruel. But Utopia would do that without any clumsiness of race distinction, in exactly the same manner, and by the same machinery, as it exterminates all its own defective and inferior strains; that is to say, as we have already discussed in Chapter the Fifth, § 1, by its marriage laws, and by the laws of the minimum wage. That extinction need never be discriminatory. If any of the race did, after all, prove to be fit to survive, they would survive—they would be picked out with a sure and automatic justice from the over-ready condemnation of all their kind.

Is there, however, an all-round inferior race in the world? Even the Australian blackfellow is, perhaps, not quite so entirely eligible for extinction as a good, wholesome, horse-racing, sheep-farming Australian white may think. These queer little races, the black fellows, the Pygmies, the Bushmen, may have their gifts, a greater keenness, a greater fineness of this sense or that, a quaintness of the imagination or what not, that may serve as their little unique addition to the totality of our Utopian civilisation. We are supposing that every individual alive on earth is alive in Utopia, and so all the surviving "blackfellows" are there. Every one of them in Utopia has had what none has had on earth, a fair education and fair treatment, justice, and opportunity. Suppose that the common idea is right about the general inferiority of these people, then it would follow that in

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 10 The newspapers mentioned are ardent defenders of the Soviets. But certain more conservative organs, wholly opposed to Bolshevism, also found some way to take a position favorable to the Soviets. One of the leading Democratic newspapers of the country, reversing the view expressed by the above mentioned journals that the Hughes Note was to be praised because it was friendly to the Soviets, argued that it was to be blamed because it was too hostile. Wilson and Colby were hostile enough; Harding and Hughes go too far when they are more hostile still:

This conservative paper then proceeded to endorse the entire argument upon which the pro-Bolshevists now stake their agitation: Lenin, it appears, has surrendered to "peasant individualism." "The Communist autocracy has had to yield to rural public opinion backed by the physical power of the peasant. … What was called in the beginning a necessary but temporary dictatorship of the proletariat ran its course much more quickly than in the French Revolution." What truth there is in all this—if any—we shall show in later chapters. Undoubtedly something of this kind may happen if the Soviets are not further bolstered up by political recognition and financial aid from


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 Rh other countries. But nothing could delay the desirable event more effectively than to assume it has occurred when it has not. This newspaper continues:

Again the time element is all important. If it is wholly misleading to assume a momentous event that has not yet taken place, it is equally misleading to date in the present an event that has occurred long ago and so to attribute it to present causes—in this instance the yielding of the Soviets to the pressure of the peasants or of foreign capitalists. We shall show that the impossibility of applying communism to agriculture, far from being in Bolshevist minds (as it would be in the minds of the rest of humanity) an argument for abolishing the communist dictatorship, is precisely the one reason they have given from the first for establishing that dictatorship and the one reason why they urge that—in the face of rising peasant discontent—it is more than ever essential for them to maintain it now.

Such views as those just quoted are not confined to the conservative organs of the opposition party. One of the leading Republican papers, which had favored the trade agreement, continued to insist editorially that the question was whether "Lenin and Trotzky mean it when they say Bolshevism is dead"—though this imaginary statement is the very reverse of everything


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 12 Trotzky and Lenin have been saying. The Washington correspondent of another leading Republican organ declared that "the Russian Bolsheviki are ready to abandon the last vestiges of their program and to return to capitalism in industry as well as agriculture"—a statement for which he could produce no substantiation whatever from any quarter.

Several Republican and Democratic Senators were quoted in the press to similar" effect. One well-known Senator is reported as having said:

The word "conservative" as well as the word "moderate" is thus being freely applied to those advanced extremists and revolutionaries who are a shade or two less red than others in a scale of violent revolution that now shows half a hundred varieties! The statement here made that Lenin and Trotzky are abandoning their propaganda for world revolt, as we shall show, is negatived by the entire structure and functioning of the Communist-Soviet machine. In the meanwhile we may quote at this point—as fairly conclusive evidence—the official Soviet wireless reply to the Hughes Note, which contains also a smashing rejoinder to the gratuitous newspaper assumptions we have referred to:

The American Consul in Reval has given our plenipotentiary representative the reply sent by his Govern-


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 Rh ment to the last communication of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. The Note of the American Government points out that trade between Russia and America can only be resumed when the former recognizes private property, guarantees "free labor" and personal inviolability and has a market large enough for the export of stores of raw material. At the same time the American press states that hopes of trade with Russia are not lost, as Lenin will rapidly change from Communism to capitalism and all the hopes of the Americans will speedily be brought about by the Bolsheviks themselves. The shortsightedness of the tools of world capital is extraordinary. …

The hopes of world capital in the fall of Communism have not been fulfilled. And now that we have reverted to peaceful reconstruction and are introducing a practical policy in order to alleviate conditions for the peasants who have suffered from failure of the harvest, they regard this as a sign that we are reverting from Communism to capitalism. It goes without saying that all the hopes of the capitalists are doomed to failure.

Later the official organ of the Moscow Government, Izvestia, made still more clear the underlying idea of all Bolshevistic diplomatic negotiations, namely that the world of capitalistic governments is being forced to recognize and to compromise with Communism as embodied in the government of Soviet Russia. The mouthpiece of the Soviets repudiates as pure nonsense the supposition that they are surrendering any Communist principles whatever. At the same time it may be noted that the Soviets have reached a perfectly clear comprehension of the nature of the American reply—even if a number of American newspapers have attempted to disguise it. The Izvestia declares:


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 14

But neither this provocative response nor anything the Bolshevists can say or do—no matter how aggressively revolutionary—can put a stop to the claims made almost daily by their diplomatic agents, foreign propagandists and "liberal" admirers that they have reformed. Each minor change in their policy is held to demonstatedemonstrate [sic] once more that now at last they have not only thrown the entire Bolshevist system overboard but have become "moderates" and adopted capitalism and democracy. During recent months hardly a day has passed without some Russian dispatch that the final step has been taken and Communism abandoned. Here is the crux of a typical dispatch (dated Riga, May 2, 1921):

Now the original theory of the Russian Communist or Bolshevist Party was precisely that it is impossible to apply Communism to the dominating industry of Russia


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 Rh (agriculture) at the present time. This theory is not only the one reason for the dictatorship of the proletariat, as we have pointed out, but it is also the sole reason for the establishment of the Soviet form of government as opposed to the democratic Constitutional Assembly.

The advocates of friendly relations with the Soviets, approaching or actually amounting to their official recognition, have not been satisfied with hailing every petty advance of Bolshevism in the direction of more practical methods of oppression as a final abandonment of Communism. They have also seized upon every new theoretical formulation by Lenin as a surrender to capitalism—in spite of the fact that new encyclicals by the Bolshevist high priest have been handed down to his disciples several times each year ever since 1917. No close or persistent student of these pronouncements has missed or could miss the fact that all the essential foundations of Soviet rule, as interpreted by Lenin, remain now what they were in 1917. But journalists and others who are either totally ignorant of the Soviet leader's thought or know it only at second hand easily find in each new formulation phrases with which they are unfamiliar or expressions they do not understand. This is why it happens so frequently that some theory which is the strongest possible reaffirmation of Bolshevism is interpreted as a compromise or surrender.

An excellent illustration is the long article in the Pravda of May 3d, in which Lenin explains to his followers the theoretical foundation of those widely discussed tactical changes made by the Bolshevists—for the purpose of strengthening their despotic power—at the


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 16 time of the Communist Party Congress held in March, 1921.

Lenin says in this article that it is nonsense to speak of these changes as "a renunciation of the proletarian dictatorship" and proves his point. But correspondents continue to insist upon the contrary interpretation, caught by Lenin's use of the expression "state capitalism" as applied to the present Soviet policy. Now moderate Socialists have always referred to this intermediate phase between capitalism and socialism by the apologetic term "state socialism," while ultra-revolutionists have known this identical thing under the derisive term "state-capitalism." To the latter this expression is derogatory, though non-socialists take it to represent a policy more friendly to capitalism, more reasonable than "state socialism," and a totally different thing. To every Bolshevist the expression, "state capitalism," means that the present policy, revolutionary and extreme as it may still seem to the rest of the world, is but the merest beginning of the thoroughgoing communism they have in view and is introduced solely as a means to further steps in the communist direction. Yet Lenin's clear statement on this point is interpreted by certain correspondents as a concession to capitalism.

Lenin's article above referred to is quoted by Michael Farbman in the New York World as follows:

"The way to State-socialism," he says, "lies through state capitalism. (German state capitalism.) We are unable and long will be unable to supply the peasants with all they need. This will be possible only after electrification of the whole country (!) has been accomplished.


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RV 115 (SESSIONAL PAPER No. 41) The High Contracting Parties will take all suitable measures to trace and punish collusion between enemy creditors and debtors. The Clearing Offices will communicate to one another any evidence and information which might help the discovery and punishment of such collusion.

The High Contracting Parties will facilitate as much as possible postal and telegraphic communication at the expense of the parties concerned and through the intervention of the Clearing Offices between debtors and creditors desirous of coming to an agreement as to the amount of their debt.

The Creditor Clearing Office will notify the Debtor Clearing Office of all debts declared to it. The Debtor Clearing Office will, in due course, inform the Creditor Clearing Office which debts are admitted and which debts are contested. In the latter case, the Debtor Clearing Office will give the grounds for the non-admission of debt.

When a debt has been admitted, in whole or in part, the Debtor Clearing Office will at once credit the Creditor Clearing Office with the amount admitted, and at the same time notify it of such credit.

The debt shall be deemed to be admitted in full and shall be credited forthwith to the Creditor Clearing Office unless within three months from the receipt of the notification or such longer time as may be agreed to by the Creditor Clearing Office notice has been given by the Debtor Clearing Office that it is not admitted.

When the whole or part of a debt is not admitted the two Clearing Offices will examine into the matter jointly and will endeavour to bring the parties to an agreement.

The Creditor Clearing Office will pay to the individual creditor the sums credited to it out of the funds placed at its disposal by the Government of its country and in accordance with the conditions fixed by the said Government, retaining any sums considered necessary to cover risks, expenses or commissions.

Any person having claimed payment of an enemy debt which is not admitted in whole or in part shall pay to the clearing office, by way of fine, interest at 5 per cent on the part not admitted. Any person having unduly refused to admit the whole or part of a debt claimed from him shall pay, by way of fine, interest at 5 per cent on the amount with regard to which his refusal shall be disallowed.

Such interest shall run from the date of expiration of the period provided for in paragraph 7 until the date on which the claim shall have been disallowed or the debt paid.

Each clearing Office shall in so far as it is concerned take steps to collect the fines above provided for, and will be responsible if such fines cannot be collected.

The fines will be credited to the other Clearing Office, which shall retain them as a contribution towards the cost of carrying out the present provisions.

The balance between the Clearing Offices shall be struck monthly and the credit balance paid in cash by the debtor State within a week.


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 Rh "At the present stage we must choose from two alternatives. Either we must prohibit every kind of private exchange of goods, otherwise capitalism. Such a policy is idiotic and would mean suicide for the party attempting to introduce it, for such policy is economically impossible. The other alternative is to aid the development of capitalism in Russia, while we are trying to transform it into state capitalism. This is economically possible and does not contradict the proletarian dictatorship. On the contrary state capitalism is one stage in the advance of free capitalism."

The pessimism prevailing in Communist circles Lenine explains by the mistake in comparing how much state capitalism is behind Socialism. One should compare how much state capitalism is in advance of petty bourgeois economy. "Only then," concludes the dictator, "will we see how great the progress is we have made. The chief problem now is to find the proper methods of how to turn the inevitable growth of capitalism in Russia into the form of state capitalism now and assist in securing speedy conversion of state capitalism into Socialism."

Another passage from the same speech (taken from the Bolshevist organ, Pravda, and reproduced in the German Socialist Press) explains even more clearly Lenin's motive in advocating the policy of state capitalism. As Lenin said, "the Communists did not need to fear the development of state capitalism as they can fix limits for it to suit themselves. Capitalism under the control of a state in which the proletariat held all the power in its hands, was not contradictory to the ideas of Communism."

Changes are taking place in Soviet Russia. But what is the nature of these changes? That is the question. It cannot be answered either by the Bolshevists


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RV 116 (SESSIONAL PAPER No. 41) Nevertheless any credit balances which may be due by one or more of the Allied and Associated Powers shall be retained until complete payment shall have been effected of the sums due to the Allied or Associated Powers or their nationals on account of the war.

To facilitate discussion between the Clearing Offices each of them shall have a representative at the place where the other is established.

Except for special reasons all discussions in regard to claims will, so far as possible, take place at the Debtor Clearing Office.

In conformity with Article 296, paragraph (b), the High Contracting Parties are responsible for the payment of the enemy debts owing by their nationals.

The debtor Clearing Office will therefore credit the Creditor Clearing Office with all debts admitted, even in case of inability to collect them from the individual debtor. The Governments concerned will, nevertheless, invest their respective Clearing Offices with all necessary powers for the recovery of debts which have been admitted.

As an exception, the admitted debts owing by persons having suffered injury from acts of war shall only be credited to the Creditor Clearing Office when the compensation due to the person concerned in respect of such injury shall have been paid.

Each Government will defray the expenses of the Clearing Office set up in its territory, including the salaries of the staff.

Where the two Clearing Offices are unable to agree whether a debt claimed is due, or in case of a difference between an enemy debtor and an enemy creditor or between the Clearing OfficsOffices [sic], the dispute shall either be referred to arbitration if the parties so agree under conditions fixed by agreement between them, or referred to the Mixed Arbitral Tribunal provided for in Section VI hereafter.

At the request of the Creditor Clearing Office the dispute may, however, be submitted to the jurisdiction of the Courts of the place of domicile of the debtor.

Recovery of sums found by the Mixed Arbitral Tribunal, the Court, or the Arbitration Tribunal to be due shall be effected through the Clearing Offices as if these sums were debts admitted by the Debtor Clearing Office.

Each of the Governments concerned shall appoint an agent who will be responsible for the presentation to the Mixed Arbitral Tribunal of the cases conducted on behalf of its Clearing Office. This agent will exercise a general control over the representatives or counsel employed by its nationals.

Decisions will be arrived at on documentary evidence, but it will be open to the Tribunal to hear the parties in person, or according to their preference by their representatives approved by the two Governments, or by the agent referred to above, who shall be competent to intervene along with the party or to re-open and maintain a claim abandoned by the same.


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 18 or by their friends and apologists. Only a careful examination of their own publications can afford an answer. Fortunately these are now at hand—in abundance. They bring the whole movement into the light, and answer every reasonable question.

In addition to the vast accumulation of documentary evidence from Russia and the weighty decisions of two American administrations, we have had adverse comment on Soviet Russia from practically every labor delegation that has visited that country in the last twelve months—from Germany, Italy, Sweden, Spain and other countries. Only the British report was ambiguous on certain points, but a large part of the delegation, including Turner, Shaw, Mrs. Snowden, Dr. Guest and Bertrand Russell, who accompanied the delegation, was overwhelmingly adverse—after having seen the Bolshevist régime with their own eyes. Influenced by the reports of Dittmann and Crispien, both of them radical Socialists, the German labor union movement is now lined up almost solidly against the Soviets.

What has been the effect of this avalanche of evidence and testimony on the pro-Bolshevist agitation in this country? Practically none at all. In May, 1921, the propaganda of falsification continues unabated. The position of the writers and speakers who are active in this campaign is similar to that of the American Socialist Party, which still remains with one foot in and one foot out of the Third Internationale. The Executive Committee of that body reports that the "Socialist Party of America has always given its unwavering support to the Soviet Government of Russia,"


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RV 117 (SESSIONAL PAPER No. 41)

The Clearing Offices concerned will lay before the Mixed Arbitral Tribunal all the information and documents in their possession, so as to enable the Tribunal to decide rapidly on the cases which are brought before it.

Where one of the parties concerned appeals against the joint decision of the two Clearing Offices he shall make a deposit against the costs, which deposit shall only be refunded when the first judgment is modified in favour of the appellant and in proportion to the success he may attain, his opponent in case of such a refund being required to pay an equivalent proportion of the costs and expenses. Security accepted by the Tribunal may be substituted for a deposit.

A fee of 5 per cent of the amount in dispute shall be charged in respect of all cases brought before the Tribunal. This fee shall, unless the Tribunal directs otherwise, be borne by the unsuccessful party. Such fee shall be added to the deposit referred to. It is also independent of the security.

The Tribunal may award to one of the parties a sum in respect of the expenses of the proceedings.

Any sum payable under this paragraph shall be credited to the Clearing Office of the successful party as a separate item.

With a view to the rapid settlement of claims, due regard shall be paid in the appointment of all persons connected with the Clearing Offices or with the Mixed Arbitral Tribunal to their knowledge of the language of the other country concerned.

Each of the Clearing Offices will be at liberty to correspond with the other and to forward documents in its own language.

Subject to any special agreement to the contrary between the Governments concerned, debts shall carry interest in accordance with the following provisions:

Interest shall not be payable on sums of money due by way of dividend, interest or other periodical payments which themselves represent interest on capital.

The rate of interest shall be 5 per cent per annum except in cases where, by contract, law or custom, the creditor is entitled to payment of interest at a different rate. In such cases the rate to which he is entitled shall prevail.

Interest shall run from the date of commencement of hostilities (or, if the sum of money to be recovered fell due during the war, from the date at which it fell due) until the sum is credited to the Clearing Office of the creditor.

Sums due by way of interest shall be treated as debts admitted by the Clearing Offices and shall be credited to the Creditor Clearing Office in the same way as such debts.

Where by decision of the Clearing Offices or the Mixed Arbitral Tribunal a claim is held not to fall within Article 296, the creditor shall be at liberty to prosecute the claim before the Courts or to take other proceedings as may be open to him.

The presentation of a claim to the Clearing Office suspends the operation of any period of prescription.

The High Contracting Parties agree to regard the decision of the Mixed Arbitral Tribunal as final and conclusive, and to render them binding upon their nationals.


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 Rh while the resolution carried by the convention in September, 1920, and later by referendum reads in part 1as follows:

So also the pro-Bolshevist "liberals" in America, as well as their counterparts in Europe, and all the Socialist parties belonging to the Second Internationale, including the British Labor Party, have done everything in their power to aid the Soviet Government and recognize the Bolshevists either as "comrades" or—in the case of the so-called liberals—as democrats deserving support.

The American Socialist Party refuses to accept the principle of "the dictatorship of the Proletariat in the form of Soviets." It also refuses to conduct a revolution through orders issued from Moscow, but it has done and pledged itself to do everything in its power to aid that régime in Russia—and in so doing, it also aids the Soviet Government and the Third Internationale in their agitation in all countries—except the United States. So also the European Socialists in many countries of Europe are aiding the Soviet agitation in all countries except their own. Not only this but these same organizations, while refusing to accept Moscow rule, are supporting the Soviet agitation in their own countries in many points.


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 more.” Happily for the Leipzig boys he overcame his contempt for school-book compilation, and has left us a book which, apart from its educational merits at the time, is now invaluable as a record of the student manners and morals of the sixteenth century.

Of a different character are the Colloquies of Schottenius, published in 1535. Schottenius was a private schoolmaster at Cologne, and his dialogues, though written in poor Latin, are more natural than the somewhat stilted phraseology of Mosellanus. The subject-matter also is different. Mosellanus treats of the poor student at his wits’ end for food and lodging. The pupils of Schottenius are the sons of rich citizens of Cologne. They eat and drink, and talk about their food on all occasions, now and then lapsing into expressions of disgust at the spy who carries word to the master that they are not talking Latin, or at the flogging that they know will follow this breach of the rules.

The story of the Colloquies does not end here. Louvain supplies its quotum in the Dialogues of Barland. These were partly composed for a gentleman of position who wished to renew his acquaintance with the Latin language, but were doubtless used in schools as well. Not being written expressly for boys, they deal with scenes outside school life, and in their pages innkeepers, canons, and merchants figure more largely than pedagogues.

In short, with the exception of England, there is scarcely a country in Europe but made some addition to the library of scholastic conversation. Even in the newly-conquered Mexico, the Colloquies established themselves as an adjunct of polite learning. Francis Cervantes Salazar, Professor of Rhetoric in the University of Mexico, published an edition of Vives’ Exercitationes in 1554, and added to them seven


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 problem which he was afterwards to solve, still physicians needed the support of incorporation; and they gladly welcomed funds and patronage to establish their existence as a learned body, claiming a status in society. Those who are familiar with the character of Harvey, who know how true and noble was his spirit, how simple were his habits, and how ardent was his devotion in the cause of science, cannot wonder that he should follow the example of his predecessors in still more generous measure. Let us then call to mind his own acts of liberality. In 1653, he presented to the college his valuable museum and library; he built a noble hall for the accommodation of the Fellows, and bequeathed in trust his patrimonial estate in Kent, the rent to be appropriated to the payment of a librarian, and to provide monthly collations, as well as an annual feast to be given at the time of the Oration. It was not left to the destructive work of time to sweep away the noble hall—that perished, with all its contents, in the great fire of 1666; but change in custom has rendered the collations obso-


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 being designed to do honour to the memory of his friend Dr. Baly. It has been determined that the medal shall be awarded biennially, and that it shall be entitled the Baly Medal.

As two anniversaries only have been celebrated since the college has decided on abandoning the classic form of delivery, it may seem not inappropriate to consider the legitimate matter of the annual address. The orators on these two anniversaries have used the occasion to dilate on special subjects, and they have done it gracefully and profitably. Yet, though their example may be occasionally adopted to great advantage, it may occur to some, as it does to me, that, by establishing that method as a rule, we should be in danger of losing sight of Harvey's meaning; and that it would be more strictly in accordance with his wishes if we were to continue to commemorate the benefactors, and to make the progress and fresh achievements of medical science our prevailing theme. Both subjects can scarcely be completely handled in the time that an orator may reasonably command:


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 therefore, as I have alluded to some of Harvey's predecessors, I shall leave to future orators the ever-grateful theme of praise of those who followed him and imitated his generosity; whilst the present moment may be devoted to a short review of the existing state of science as it bears on our profession.

If we cast our thoughts back to the times of Harvey, we perceive that the study of medicine had already freed itself from a large portion of the ignorance and from nearly all the superstitious folly of the dark ages. The old cabalistic mysteries had disappeared; and astrology was beginning, but only beginning, to follow them as a delusion of the past. Frivolous tradition had altogether ceased to influence opinion as to the value of remedies and their proper mode of application; and, with the revival of letters, through which the system of Aristotle succeeded to the logic of the schoolmen, a legitimate course of philosophical study had decidedly set in. Natural facts were being sought out and accumulated; and rational deduction from these was opening out the way to a true, though, as yet,


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 Numb. 141.

Monsieur Cassini's Observation of the Lunar Eclips on the 29 Octob. 1678. Monsieur Gallet's Observation of the Solar Eclips on the 11 June, 1676''. Extract of a Letter from Monsieur Butterfield about the making of Microscopes, &c. Extract of a Letter from Mr. Conyers about his Improvement of Sir Samuel Moreland's speaking Trumpet. An Account of two Books: I. A Discourse of the State of Health in Jamaica, &c. by Dr. ''Thomas Trapham. II. Catalogus Stellarum Australium: by Mr. Edmund Halley.

nupera Lunæ Eclìpsis à nobis hîc in observatorio regso diligentissime fuerit observata, ejus exemplar ad te, Vir Clarissime, mittendum duxi regìæ Societatis Astronomis, imprimisque D. Flamstedio'', communicandum. Inserviet illa Meridianorum differentiæ Parisios inter & Londinum exactè definiendæ, si vobis par cœli serenitas ejusdem observandæ opportunitatem''


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 partial insight into the nature of disease. The shades of ignorance, however, still gathered thickly over the subjects of pathology and therapeutics, whilst physiology was merely struggling into light.

It is a curious speculation to realize what the state of medical knowledge must have been whilst the circulating system remained still unrevealed. The depth of obscurity in which all the functions of the body during health, and all the morbid changes which constitute disease, must have been then involved, is by us now barely to be conceived. Yet we ought to estimate it fully in order to do justice to the amazing intelligence of those who, gifted with an almost prophetic mind, were able to perceive that, on the explanation of that great mystery, the whole future existence of medicine as a science hung suspended.

One undaunted pioneer on the road to this discovery had been cut off. The fate of poor Vesalius, wrecked and starved to death, always demands a passing word of sympathy. Had he lived, the progress of inquiry would


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 have been materially advanced; but, by his untimely death, the work devolved upon our Harvey, and he had to labour all but destitute of assistance from collateral science.

If, on reviewing the relations which general science bore to physiology in Harvey's time, we contrast it with our own, how great we find the contrast. Then there was but one object, but one method, and but one chief worker the indefatigable anatomising, the tracing of the intricate system of the vessels, the ecstatic contemplation of the wonderful contrivance of the valves, the close and accurate process of inductive reasoning―these were all his own; but, whilst pushing onwards to his great victory, he was checked in his advance by want of aid from collateral science. Even the mode of depuration of the blood in its passage through the lungs. could not but remain to him a mystery, because chemistry had to start to life before that process could be understood. Now, our fellow-workers are innumerable; and every succeeding year brings with it speculations founded on treasures of new facts which we


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 can see and apply, by the light of our special knowledge, to explain disease or to essay remedial processes.

We must not seem to undervalue, though we pass quickly over, those modern sources of assistance afforded by microscopical examination or by those chemical discoveries which have explained many of the changes of the fluids of the body in a morbid state. These would have furnished revelations very surprising to the workers of the seventeenth century, and we cannot doubt that by the same means vast stores of knowledge will yet accrue to the students of the present and of succeeding times; but the intellect of this generation is pushing forward with still higher aim even to the discovery of the final law which governs morbid processes, which may by possibility reveal the nature and course of the action of remedies, and which will also explain the introduction and progressive spread of epidemics.

If we review the means which we have in hand to justify the belief that aims so lofty are not beyond our capacity to attain, nay,


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16 that we may discern that they are actually within our reach, we may instance, first, the almost newly invented sciences of electricity and galvanism, and of meteorology emanating from these two; all which bear especially on the last-named topic, viz., the nature and course of epidemics.

In this field of inquiry considerable vantage ground has already been established, and a luminous and succinct review of the present position of the question as to the true nature of light and electricity, has been drawn up by M. Saveney. He traces the course of investigation which has been pushed beyond the bare phenomenon of the electric spark, and of the appearances which that presents, even to the actual nature of the fluid of which the spark gives evidence.


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 leging, and trying to prove from nature and reason, that no man ever was guilty of a sinful action, who might not have declined it had he so chosen! "Wretched controvertist!" thought I to myself an hundred times, "shall not the sword of the Lord be moved from its place of peace for such presumtuous and absurd testimonies as these!"

When I began to tell the prince about these false doctrines, to my astonishment I found that he had been in the church himself, and had every argument that the old divine had used verbatim; and he remarked on them with great concern, that these were not the tenets that corresponded with his views in society, and that he had agents in every city, and every land, exerting their powers to put them down. I asked, with great simplicity, "Are all your subjects Christians, prince?"

"All my European subjects are, or deem themselves so," returned he; "and they are the most faithful and true subjects I have."

Who could doubt, after this, that he was the Czar of Russia? I have nevertheless had reasons to doubt of his identity since that period, and which of my conjectures is right, I believe the God of heaven only knows, for I do not. I shall go on to write


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 such things as I remember, and if any one shall ever take the trouble to read over these confessions, such a one will judge for himself. It will be observed, that since ever I fell in with this extraordinary person, I have written about him only, and I must continue to do so to the end of this memoir, as I have performed no great or interesting action in which he had not a principal share.

He came to me one day and said, "We must not linger thus in executing what we have resolved on. We have much before our hands to perform for the benefit of mankind, both civil as well as religious. Let us do what we have to do here, and then we must wend our way to other cities, and perhaps to other countries. Mr. Blanchard is to hold forth in the high church of Paisley on Sunday next, on some particularly great occasion: this must be defeated; he must not go there. As he will be busy arranging his discourses, we may expect him to be walking by himself in Finnieston Dell the greater part of Friday and Saturday. Let us go and cut him off. What is the life of a man more than the life of a lamb, or any guiltless animal? It is not half so much, especially when we consider the immensity of the mischief this old fellow is working


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Rh drizzling rain was falling, at the wood, at the bailiff's wet clothes, pondered, and said nothing.

"The whole summer has been the same," sighed Meliton. "A bad business for the peasants and no pleasure for the gentry."

The shepherd looked at the sky again, thought a moment, and said deliberately, as though chewing each word:

"It's all going the same way There is nothing good to be looked for."

"How are things with you here?" Meliton inquired, lighting his cigarette. "Haven't you seen any coveys of grouse in the Artamonovs' clearing?"

The shepherd did not answer at once. He looked again at the sky and to right and left, thought a little, blinked Apparently he attached no little significance to his words, and to increase their value tried to pronounce them with deliberation and a certain solemnity. The expression of his face had the sharpness and staidness of old age, and the fact that his nose had a saddle-shaped depression across the middle and his nostrils turned upwards gave him a sly and sarcastic look.

"No, I believe I haven't," he said. "Our huntsman Eryomka was saying that on Elijah's Day he started one covey near Pustoshye, but I dare say he was lying. There are very few birds."

"Yes, brother, very few Very few everywhere! The shooting here, if one is to look at it with common sense, is good for nothing and not worth having. There is no game at all, and what there is is not worth dirtying your hands over—it


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 among our fellow-creatures. Can there be any doubt that it is the duty of one consecrated to God, to cut off such a mildew?"

"I fear me, great sovereign," said I, "that your ideas of retribution are too sanguine, and too arbitrary for the laws of this country. I dispute not that your motives are great and high; but have you debated the consequences, and settled the result?"

"I have," returned he, "and hold myself amenable for the action, to the laws of God and of equity; as to the enactments of men I despise them. Fain would I see the weapon of the Lord of Hosts, begin the work of vengeance that awaits it to do!"

I could not help thinking, that I perceived a little derision of countenance on his face as he said this, nevertheless I sunk dumb before such a man, and aroused myself to the task, seeing he would not have it deferred. I approved of it in theory, but my spirit stood aloof from the practice. I saw and was convinced that the elect of God would be happier, and purer, were the wicked and unbelievers all cut off from troubling and misleading them, but if it had not been the instigations of this illustrious stranger, I should never have presumed


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104 is not full-grown. It is such poor stuff that one is ashamed to look at it."

Meliton gave a laugh and waved his hands.

"Things happen so queerly in this world that it is simply laughable and nothing else. Birds nowadays have become so unaccountable: they sit late on their eggs, and there are some, I declare, that have not hatched them by St. Peter's Day!"

"It's all going the same way," said the shepherd, turning his face upwards. "There was little game last year, this year there are fewer birds still, and in another five years, mark my words, there will be none at all. As far as I can see there will soon be not only no game, but no birds at all."

"Yes," Meliton assented, after a moment's thought. "That's true."

The shepherd gave a bitter smile and shook his head.

"It's a wonder," he said, "what has become of them all! I remember twenty years ago there used to be geese here, and cranes and ducks and grouse—clouds and clouds of them! The gentry used to meet together for shooting, and one heard nothing but pouf-pouf-pouf! pouf-pouf-pouf! There was no end to the woodcocks, the snipe, and the little teals, and the water-snipe were as common as starlings, or let us say sparrows—lots and lots of them! And what has become of them all? We don't even see the birds of prey. The eagles, the hawks, and the owls have all gone There are fewer of every sort of wild beast, too. Nowadays, brother, even the wolf and the fox have grown rare, let alone


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Rh the bear or the otter. And you know in old days there were even elks! For forty years I have been observing the works of God from year to year, and it is my opinion that everything is going the same way."

"What way?"

"To the bad, young man. To ruin, we must suppose The time has come for God's world to perish."

The old man put on his cap and began gazing at the sky.

"It's a pity," he sighed, after a brief silence. "O God, what a pity! Of course it is God's will; the world was not created by us, but yet it is a pity, brother. If a single tree withers away, or let us say a single cow dies, it makes one sorry, but what will it be, good man, if the whole world crumbles into dust? Such blessings, Lord Jesus! The sun, and the sky, and the forest, and the rivers, and the creatures—all these have been created, adapted, and adjusted to one another. Each has been put to its appointed task and knows its place. And all that must perish."

A mournful smile gleamed on the shepherd's face, and his eyelids quivered.

"You say—the world is perishing," said Meliton, pondering. "It may be that the end of the world is near at hand, but you can't judge by the birds. I don't think the birds can be taken as a sign."

"Not the birds only," said the shepherd. "It's the wild beasts, too, and the cattle, and the bees, and


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 to begin so great a work myself. Yet, though he often aroused my zeal to the highest pitch, still my heart at times shrunk from the shedding of lifeblood, and it was only at the earnest and unceasing instigations of my enlightened and voluntary patron, that I at length put my hand to the conclusive work. After I said all that I could say, and all had been overborne, (I remember my actions and words as well as it had been yesterday,) I turned round hesitatingly, and looked up to Heaven for direction; but there was a dimness came over my eyes that I could not see. The appearance was as if their had been a veil drawn over me, so nigh that I put up my hand to feel it; and then Gil-Martin (as this great sovereign was pleased to have himself called,) frowned, and asked me what I was grasping at? I knew not what to say, but answered, with fear and shame," I have no weapons, not one; nor know I where any are to be found."

"The God whom thou servest will provide these," said he; "if thou provest worthy of the trust committed to thee."

I looked again up into the cloudy veil that covered us, and thought I beheld golden weapons of every description let down in it, but all with their


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106 the fish If you don't believe me ask the old people; every old man will tell you that the fish are not at all what they used to be. In the seas, in the lakes, and in the rivers, there are fewer fish from year to year. In our Pestchanka, I remember, pike used to be caught a yard long, and there were eel-pouts, and roach, and bream, and every fish had a presentable appearance; while nowadays, if you catch a wretched little pikelet or perch six inches long you have to be thankful. There are not any gudgeon even worth talking about. Every year it is worse and worse, and in a little while there will be no fish at all. And take the rivers now the rivers are drying up, for sure."

"It is true; they are drying up."

"To be sure, that's what I say. Every year they are shallower and shallower, and there are not the deep holes there used to be. And do you see the bushes yonder?" the old man asked, pointing to one side. "Beyond them is an old river-bed; it's called a backwater. In my father's time the Pestchanka flowed there, but now look; where have the evil spirits taken it to? It changes its course, and, mind you, it will go on changing till such time as it has dried up altogether. There used to be marshes and ponds beyond Kurgasovo, and where are they now? And what has become of the streams? Here in this very wood we used to have a stream flowing, and such a stream that the peasants used to set creels in it and caught pike; wild ducks used to spend the winter by it, and nowadays there is no water in it worth speaking of, even at the spring floods. Yes,


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Rh brother, look where you will, things are bad everywhere. Everywhere!"

A silence followed. Meliton sank into thought, with his eyes fixed on one spot. He wanted to think of some one part of nature as yet untouched by the all-embracing ruin. Spots of light glistened. on the mist and the slanting streaks of rain as though on opaque glass, and immediately died away again—it was the rising sun trying to break through the clouds and peep at the earth.

"Yes, the forests, too " Meliton muttered.

"The forests, too," the shepherd repeated. "They cut them down, and they catch fire, and they wither away, and no new ones are growing. Whatever does grow up is cut down at once; one day it shoots up and the next it has been cut down—and so on without end till nothing's left. I have kept the herds of the commune ever since the time of Freedom, good man; before the time of Freedom I was shepherd of the master's herds. I have watched them in this very spot, and I can't remember a summer day in all my life that I have not been here. And all the time I have been observing the works of God. I have looked at them in my time till I know them, and it is my opinion that all things growing are on the decline. Whether you take the rye, or the vegetables, or flowers of any sort, they are all going the same way."

"But people have grown better," observed the bailiff.

"In what way better?"

"Cleverer."


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RV 982 (Rh)


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 dialogues of his own composition treating of Mexico and its institutions. Though Colloquies in the strict sense were lacking, it must not be imagined that the English school-boy of the sixteenth century was without a convenient hand-book of phrases. The Vulgary of Stanbridg gives a list of useful sentences, and these the scholars were doubtless made to learn by heart with a view to using them in their daily conversation:—

It is difficult to imagine a boy eulogising one of his “chums” with the remark, “He is born to drink well, both on the faders side and moders side”; but Stanbridge duly provides for the emergency—“Ex utraque parentum parte aptus ad bibendum nascitur.” Even for the sententious scholar proverbial expressions are given—

Of a more pretentious though less practical nature was the Vulgary of William Horman, headmaster of Eton. Horman cannot be congratulated on the selection of his phrases, which are arranged under thirty-seven heads. “Put not your trust in a bunglar of printer’s craft,” “Mancipem libraria officinæ ne sequaris,” is not good material for the


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108 "Cleverer, maybe, that's true, young man; but what's the use of that? What earthly good is cleverness to people on the brink of ruin? One can perish without cleverness. What's the good of cleverness to a huntsman if there is no game? What I think is that God has given men brains and taken away their strength. People have grown weak, exceedingly weak. Take me, for instance I am not worth a halfpenny, I am the humblest peasant in the whole village, and yet, young man, I have strength. Mind you, I am in my seventies, and I tend my herd day in and day out, and keep the night watch, too, for twenty kopecks, and I don't sleep, and I don't feel the cold; my son is cleverer than I am, but put him in my place and he would ask for a rise next day, or would be going to the doctors. There it is. I eat nothing but bread, for 'Give us this day our daily bread,' and my father ate nothing but bread, and my grandfather; but the peasant nowadays must have tea and vodka and white loaves, and must sleep from sunset to dawn, and he goes to the doctor and pampers himself in all sorts of ways. And why is it? He has grown weak; he has not the strength to endure. If he wants to stay awake, his eyes close—there is no doing anything."

"That's true," Meliton agreed; "the peasant is good for nothing nowadays."

"It's no good hiding what is wrong; we get worse from year to year. And if you take the gentry into consideration, they've grown feebler even more than the peasants have. The gentleman nowadays has mastered everything; he knows what he ought not


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Rh to know, and what is the sense of it? It makes you feel pitiful to look at him He is a thin, puny little fellow, like some Hungarian or Frenchman; there is no dignity nor air about him; it's only in name he is a gentleman. There is no place for him, poor dear, and nothing for him to do, and there is no making out what he wants. Either he sits with a hook catching fish, or he lolls on his back reading, or trots about among the peasants saying all sorts of things to them, and those that are hungry go in for being clerks. So he spends his life in vain. And he has no notion of doing something real and useful. The gentry in old days were half of them generals, but nowadays they are—a poor lot."

"They are badly off nowadays," said Meliton.

"They are poorer because God has taken away their strength. You can't go against God."

Meliton stared at a fixed point again. After thinking a little he heaved a sigh as staid, reasonable people do sigh, shook his head, and said:

"And all because of what? We have sinned greatly, we have forgotten God and it seems that the time has come for all to end. And, after all, the world can't last for ever—it's time to know when to take leave."

The shepherd sighed and, as though wishing to cut short an unpleasant conversation, he walked away from the birch-tree and began silently reckoning over the cows.

"Hey-hey-hey!" he shouted. "Hey-hey-hey! Bother you, the plague take you! The devil has taken you into the thicket. Tu-lu-lu!"


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110 With an angry face he went into the bushes to collect his herd. Meliton got up and sauntered slowly along the edge of the wood. He looked at the ground at his feet and pondered; he still wanted to think of something which had not yet been touched by death. Patches of light crept upon the slanting streaks of rain again; they danced on the tops of the trees and died away among the wet leaves. Damka found a hedgehog under a bush, and wanting to attract her master's attention to it, barked and howled.

"Did you have an eclipse or not?" the shepherd called from the bushes.

"Yes, we had," answered Meliton.

"Ah! Folks are complaining all about that there was one. It shows there is disorder even in the heavens! It's not for nothing Hey-hey-hey! Hey!"

Driving his herd together to the edge of the wood, the shepherd leaned against the birch-tree, looked up at the sky, without haste took his pipe from his bosom and began playing. As before, he played mechanically and took no more than five or six notes; as though the pipe had come into his hands for the first time, the sounds floated from it uncertainly, with no regularity, not blending into a tune, but to Meliton, brooding on the destruction of the world, there was a sound in it of something very depressing and revolting which he would much rather not have heard. The highest, shrillest notes, which quivered and broke, seemed to be weeping discon-


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Rh solately, as though the pipe were sick and frightened, while the lowest notes for some reason reminded him of the mist, the dejected trees, the grey sky. Such music seemed in keeping with the weather, the old man and his sayings.

Meliton wanted to complain. He went up to the old man and, looking at his mournful, mocking face and at the pipe, muttered:

"And life has grown worse, grandfather. It is utterly impossible to live. Bad crops, want Cattle plague continually, diseases of all sorts We are crushed by poverty."

The bailiff's puffy face turned crimson and took a dejected, womanish expression. He twirled his fingers as though seeking words to convey his vague feeling and went on:

"Eight children, a wife and my mother still living, and my whole salary ten roubles a month and to board myself. My wife has become a Satan from poverty I go off drinking myself. I am a sensible, steady man; I have education. I ought to sit at home in peace, but I stray about all day with my gun like a dog because it is more than I can stand; my home is hateful to me!"

Feeling that his tongue was uttering something quite different from what he wanted to say, the bailiff waved his hand and said bitterly:

"If the world's going to end I wish it would make haste about it. There's no need to drag it out and make folks miserable for nothing"

The old man took the pipe from his lips and,


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112 screwing up one eye, looked into its little opening. His face was sad and covered with thick drops like tears. He smiled and said:

"It's a pity, my friend! My goodness, what a pity! The earth, the forest, the sky, the beasts of all sorts—all this has been created, you know, adapted; they all have their intelligence. It is all going to ruin. And most of all I am sorry for people."

There was the sound in the wood of heavy rain coming nearer. Meliton looked in the direction of the sound, did up all his buttons, and said:

"I am going to the village. Good-bye, grandfather. What is your name?"

"Luka the Poor."

"Well, good-bye, Luka! Thank you for your good words. Damka, ici!"

After parting from the shepherd Meliton made his way along the edge of the wood, and then down hill to a meadow which by degrees turned into a marsh. There was a squelch of water under his feet, and the rusty marsh sedge, still green and juicy, drooped down to the earth as though afraid of being trampled underfoot. Beyond the marsh, on the bank of the Pestchanka, of which the old man had spoken, stood a row of willows, and beyond the willows a barn looked dark blue in the mist. One could feel the approach of that miserable, utterly inevitable season, when the fields grow dark and the earth is muddy and cold, when the weeping willow seems still more mournful and tears trickle down its stem, and only the cranes fly away from


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Rh the general misery, and even they, as though afraid of insulting dispirited nature by the expression of  their happiness, fill the air with their mournful, dreary notes.

Meliton plodded along to the river, and heard the sounds of the pipe gradually dying away behind him. He still wanted to complain. He looked dejectedly about him, and he felt insufferably sorry for the sky and the earth and the sun and the woods and his Damka, and when the highest drawn-out note of the pipe floated quivering in the air, like a voice weeping, he felt extremely bitter and resentful of the impropriety in the conduct of nature.

The high note quivered, broke off, and the pipe was silent.


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Rh The tramp blinked guiltily, wiped the tiny drops of sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, drew a deep breath as though he had just leapt out of a very hot bath, then wiped his forehead with the other sleeve and looked round fearfully.

"That's true; you won't get there!" Ptaha agreed. "You are not much of a walker! Look at you—nothing but skin and bone! You'll die, brother!"

"Of course he'll die! What could he do?" said Nikandr. "He's fit for the hospital now For sure!"

The man who had forgotten his name looked at the stern, unconcerned faces of his sinister companions, and without taking off his cap, hurriedly crossed himself, staring with wide-open eyes He trembled, his head shook, and he began twitching all over, like a caterpillar when it is stepped upon

"Well, it's time to go," said Nikandr, getting up; "we've had a rest."

A minute later they were stepping along the muddy road. The tramp was more bent than ever, and he thrust his hands further up his sleeves. Ptaha was silent.


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 daily conversation of a boy, and “Jacent hæc in caliganti vetustatis recessu” is but a clumsy translation of “These matters be out of my mynde.”

The foregoing pages give the reader some notion of the books that a good school might have possessed in the century preceding the publication of the Janua, and no commentary is necessary on the contrast that they bear to those of Comenius. Grammars are diffuse, complicated, and overburdened with unnecessary matter. Phrase-books are haphazard compilations often ill-suited to the end in view. In every case exclusive attention is paid to form; any actual information about the world in which he lives the scholar may pick up for himself. If he satisfies the spirit of pedantry by mastering the seven genders he is not prevented from using his powers of observation as much as he pleases; but he is not encouraged or helped to do so. The Colloquies, it is true, conveyed some definite information, but they were primarily intended as phrasebooks, and between them and the systematised exposition of nature in the Janua a very great gulf is fixed.

We should now wish to give a slight sketch, and it must necessarily be a very slight one, of the essays towards the creation and organisation of schools that form the historical background to the life efforts of Comenius. Ours will not be the received method of the comprehensive history of education. Of Rabelais, of Montaigne, of Erasmus, of Vives we shall make no mention. Like Ascham and Locke they dealt with the training of the “young gentleman,” and stand in no relation to schemes for the education of the people. For the same reason we shall pass over the great teaching corporation of the Jesuits. In many ways their methods of instruction have never been surpassed. For the organisation of boardingschools a body of priests starts with a very great advantage, and solves with comparative ease the grave questions of discipline that always confront the directors of such institutions. The usher, who is at the same time an acolyte, gains a degree of dignity to be obtained in no


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RV 983 (Rh)


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96 whether notions of a free life had been handed down to them with their flesh and blood from far-off free ancestors, God knows!

The first to break the silence was Nikandr Sapozhnikov, who had not till then let fall a single word. Whether he envied the tramp's transparent happiness, or whether he felt in his heart that dreams of happiness were out of keeping with the grey fog and the dirty brown mud—anyway, he looked sternly at the tramp and said:

"It's all very well, to be sure, only you won't reach those plenteous regions, brother. How could you? Before you'd gone two hundred miles you'd give up your soul to God. Just look what a weakling you are! Here you've hardly gone five miles and you can't get your breath."

The tramp turned slowly toward Nikandr, and the blissful smile vanished from his face. He looked with a scared and guilty air at the peasant's staid face, apparently remembered something, and bent his head. A silence followed again All three were pondering. The peasants were racking their brains in the effort to grasp in their imagination what can be grasped by none but God—that is, the vast expanse dividing them from the land of freedom. Into the tramp's mind thronged clear and distinct pictures more terrible than that expanse. Before him rose vividly the picture of the long legal delays and procrastinations, the temporary and permanent prisons, the convict boats, the wearisome stoppages on the way, the frozen winters, illnesses, deaths of companions


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Rh forests on the bank. The trees are so tall that if you look to the top it makes you dizzy. Every pine would be worth ten roubles by the prices here."

In the overwhelming rush of his fancies, of artistic images of the past and sweet presentiments of happiness in the future, the poor wretch sank into silence, merely moving his lips as though whispering to himself. The vacant, blissful smile never left his lips. The constables were silent. They were pondering with bent heads. In the autumn stillness, when the cold, sullen mist that rises from the earth lies like a weight on the heart, when it stands like a prison wall before the eyes, and reminds man of the limitation of his freedom, it is sweet to think of the broad, rapid rivers, with steep banks wild and luxuriant, of the impenetrable forests, of the boundless steppes. Slowly and quietly the fancy pictures how early in the morning, before the flush of dawn has left the sky, a man makes his way along the steep deserted bank like a tiny speck: the ancient, mast-like pines rise up in terraces on both sides of the torrent, gaze sternly at the free man and murmur menacingly; rocks, huge stones, and thorny bushes bar his way, but he is strong in body and bold in spirit, and has no fear of the pine-trees, nor stones, nor of his solitude, nor of the reverberating echo which repeats the sound of every footstep that he takes.

The peasants called up a picture of a free life such as they had never lived; whether they vaguely recalled the images of stories heard long ago or


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RV 984 (Rh)


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 THE MĚNTRA TRADITIONS.

HE following traditions were communicated to me by Bâtin, who claims to be the head of all the Bâtins of the Mĕntra tribes. He has resided in Johol for the last fifteen years or so. His original name was, and his native place was Tânah Tâseh in Jelĕbu.

Some of these legends somewhat resemble German stories on the same subjects.

made the earth, and lives beneath it; it is supported by an iron staff sustained by iron cross-bars; beneath these again is Tânah Nyâyek. which is inhabited by a sort of sêtan, who have children not born in the ordinary way, but pulled out of the pit of the stomach. They were visited by, the first Pogang, who brought back this account of them.

dwells beneath Tanah Nyâyek, and by his power supports all above him.

The earth was first peopled through, the first Pôgang, and his younger brother. Their mother was (a handful of earth) and their father  (a drop of water).

They came from Tânah Bangun in the sky, and returned to it, taking with them a house from Ulu Kenâboi, on the other side of Jelebu, which flows into the Pahang. died, and when he was buried, a mĕngkârong came towards the grave, and threw his pârang at it, and cut off his tail, and the měngkârong ran away leaving his tail behind him, and thereupon came to life again, and left his grave and returned to his house.


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 When took his house away with him to Tânah Bangun, a dog, the first of the species, appeared where the house had been, and was prevented by 's power from attacking mankind. Then had a dog at his house; from this dog came the tiger, which devours mankind and animals. When left the earth for Tanah Bangun, he flew away with his house in the air.

wout to Tânah Bangun by the sea on foot; he was so tall that the water only reached to his knees.

Originally the sky was very low, but raised it with his hands, because he found it in the way of his pestle when he raised it to pound his padi.

took his youngest sister to wife, and from them are descended the Mĕntra.

married the other sister, but they had no offspring.

In course of time the descendants of multiplied to such an extent that he went to  and represented the state of things, which remedied by turning half of mankind into trees.

In those days men did not die, but grew thin with the waning of the moon, and waxed fat as she neared the full, and when their numbers had again increased to an alarming extent,, the son of and the first Bâtin, brought the matter to his father's notice. The latter wished things to remain as they were, but said it was better they should die like the "pîsang," which leaves young shoots behind it, and leave children behind them when they died, and the matter was submitted to, who decided in favour of BELO's view, so that since then men have died leaving their children behind them.

In the earliest times there used to be three suns—husband, wife and child—and there was no night, there being always one sun left in the sky, if the others had set. In those days people slept as they fell inclined, and there were no divisions of time.

After a long time thought the heat was too great, and he devised a plan for reducing it, in pursuance of which, he went to the moon, which then gave no light, and told her to call her husband Bintang Tûnang, the evening star, and the stars their children, and to put them into her mouth, but not to swallow them, and to


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 await his return, when she had carried out his wishes, he went to the female sun, and by representing that the moon had swallowed her husband and children, induced her to swallow completely her hus- band and child—the other two suns. having thus gained his end, returned to the moon, and told her she could release her husband and children, which she did flinging them out into the sky again.

As soon as she discovered this deception practised on her, the solo remaining sun waxed very wrath, and withdrew in dudgeon to the other side of the heavens, declaring that when the moon came across her path she would devour her, a promise which she carries out at the time of eclipses.

It was from this time, this separation between the sun and moon, that the division between day and night, and the rule of the moon and the stars over the latter took place.

Till the time of Bâtin men used not to drink, no water was to be had, and the sensation of thirst was unknown. It came about in this way. One day shot a monkey with a blow- pipe, and made a fire, and cooked and ate the monkey, after which he became sensible of a desire to imbibe something, and went about in search of water, but could find none, not even an "akar" (water- giving liane, monkey-rope). The "akar" did not produce water then. At last he came upon an old jĕlôtong (a "gětah") stump, and through a hole in it heard the sound of water trickling down below; he fastened a "rôtan mânau” (a variety of rattan of which walking sticks are made) above outside, and then let himself down into the hole by it till he reached the water, and there he slaked his thirst. He then made his way out again by the "rôtan," and when leaving the spot he saw a large white lělâbi or lâbi-lâbi (a sort of turtle) issue from the hole with a vast body of water, and begin chasing him, he ran for his life, and called to the clephant for help, but they were driven away by the water; then met a tiger, whose help he likewise begged, the tiger accordingly attacked the head of the lělâbi, but could do it no harm.  continued his flight till he met a sělâdang, whom ho implored to come to his rescue, and the sělâdang (a sort of bison) trampled on the lělâbi, but to no purpose. He next begged the aid of the rhinoceros, but


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RV 985 (Rh)


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 equally without effect, and they had to fly before the lĕlâbi. At last he had to apply for the intervention of the kanchil (the smallest of all the deer kind, not so large as a hare); the kanchil said: "What can small creatures like us do?" said: "I have asked all the others, and they have been able to do nothing." Then said the kanchil: "Very well, we will try; you got to one side." And he called together an army of kanchil, the whole of the race, and said: "If we do not kill the lĕlâbi, we all perish, but if we kill him, all is well."

Then they all jumped on to the lĕlâbi, which was of great size, and stamped on him with their tiny hoofs, till they had driven holes in his head and neck and back and killed him.

But in the meantime the body of water which accompanied the lĕlâbi had increased to a vast extent, and formed what is now the sea.

After the destruction of the lĕlâbi, the kanchil asked what was to be his reward for the service he had performed, on which replied that he would take the root of the kledek (a sort of yam) and the kanchil could have the leaves for his share, and they have accordingly ever since been the food of the kanchil.

From Ûlu Kĕnâboi went to Pagar-rûyong (in Sumatra), and his son came across again thence and settled in Jĕlĕbu.

had eight sons—Batin, who settled in Kelang; Bâtin, who lived in Jĕlĕbu; Bâtin , who settled in Johor; Bâtin, who went across to Pagar-rûyong; Bâtin , who went to Siam; Bâlin , who crossed to Měnangkâbau; Bâtin, who settled in the country of that name; Bâtin , who went to Stambul; and Bâtin , who ruled over Moar.

Penghûlus were first made by, who placed one at Beruang in Kĕlang, the at Sungei Ujong,  in Jĕlĕbu, , a woman, at Kwâla Moar, and her husband he removed to Johol: hence, to preserve the memory of the first female ruler, the


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 Dato’ of Johol always wears his hair long, down to the waist.

The To’ Klâna Putrâ of Sungei Ujong established the States of Rĕmbau and Nâning, placing his sons over them.

Lûkut was also established by the To’ Klâna. The Dato’ of Johol made Těrâchi, Gunong Pâsir, Gĕmĕncheh, Jĕmpol and Âyĕr Kuning. Jěloi was originally part of Johol, but afterwards broke away.

After the death of, the succession passed to her nephews, and has since been held by males, but always passing through the female side, as in Nâning. After came (the poisonous snake), next, who was succeeded in turn by , ,  (pot-belly), and the present Pěnghûlu.

The first Râja was of Bukit Guntang Pĕnyâring, (Ûlu Mĕnangkâbau). Guntang Pĕnyâring is said to be derived from "guntang," the shaking of the "jâring" (net) used to catch the Kĕlâng (flying-fox) for the feast at which was proclaimed Râju. After the feast they descended the hill (Bukit Guntang Pĕnyâring) and cleared the settlement of Mĕnangkâbau for the Râja. The Bâtin previously mentioned remained in the jungle.

The "Kâbau" in "Měnangkâbau " is taken from hundreds of buffaloes which issued from a hole in the ground behind the Râja's house; the chief of them had his horns and hoofs covered with gold; on being chased by the people, they all returned to the hole before they could be caught, and disappeared, and were never seen again; hence the name, as they won in the race for the hole.

, the son of, came over to the Bukit Pĕrâja in Ûlu Jĕmpol with a pârang, a pâtil, a pahat, and a kâchip, in pursuit of a beautiful Princess, and after searching in vain for food, he went to sleep near an enormous bambu a fathom in diameter. During the night the Princess appeared and cooked him some food, and passed the night with him, but disap-


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 peared at dawn.

The Khatib tried in vain to cut the bambu, in which the Princess had told him he would find her, using in turn the pârang, pâtil, and pahat. Then he tried the kâchip on the point of the bambu with success, after which he was able to split it downwards, when the Princess fell out, and he secured her, and she did not disappear again; then she was conducted on horseback by many followers with her husband to Bukit Pěrâja, where they both disappeared; but there they both live invisible to this day; their horses in full trappings are occasionally to be seen in certain favourable seasons. If their aid is invoked with burning of kĕnniau, they will come and "běchâra" and then disappear. The Princess was quite fair in complexion and her hair white and seven fathoms in length.

All the different tribes of aborigines are said to be merely varieties of the original Mĕntra, who also exist in the Mĕnangkâbau country, but, says the Bâtin, perhaps they have turned Malay.

D. F. A. HERVEY.


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 other way; and in addition to this the priest-usher of one year developes with ease into the trained teacher of the next. But though we may grant the Jesuits these and other merits, we must yet recognise that their mansion stands far away from the high-road of true educational development. Leaving out of sight the carefully planned and narrowing onesidedness of the training they supplied, we shall only lay stress on the fact that they excluded the people from any participation in it. Among the upper classes the supremacy of Mother Church was to be promoted by the teacher armed with the methods of the Jesuit school; among the ranks of labour by the preacher, whose task was rendered easier by the prevalence of superstition and the limitation of knowledge. Very different was the ideal of Comenius. The day school open to children of every rank; the large class managed by a single teacher as the only means by which such schools were economically possible; the introduction of every subject of instruction that could free the understanding from sophistic habits and teach men to look facts squarely in the face—these were the goals towards which his efforts strove, and his historical antecedents are bound up with the great democratic movement of which the Reformation was the most striking manifestation, with the names of Luther, Sturm, Calvin, and Knox.

The conscience had been installed by the Reformers as guide, and its counsellor, the understanding, needed education. Good schools, and nothing else, could remove monkish ignorance from the land; and this truth Luther was not slow to enunciate. In his stirring letter to the Magistrates of Germany, he exhorts them to erect and maintain Christian schools. “Is it not evident,” he cries, “that it is now possible to educate a boy in three years so that when he is fifteen or eighteen years old he shall know more than the whole sum of knowledge of the high schools and monasteries up to this time? Hitherto, in the high schools, and monasteries, men have only learned to


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 be asses, blocks, and stones. They have studied for twenty and forty years and have learned neither Latin nor German.”

Schools must therefore be established for boys and girls, and these must be managed, not by the Church, but by the civil powers. As for the subjects taught, “Had I children,” says Luther, “I should make them learn not only languages and history, but also singing, music, and mathematics.” To the poor who objected that they needed the services of their children at home and could not afford to bring them up as gentlemen, he answers: “Let them go to school for one or two hours daily, and spend the rest of their time in learning a trade. These few hours they can easily spare; indeed, as it is, they waste far more time in playing at ball.” If parents refuse to send their children to school they must be made to do so; “I am of opinion that those in authority should compel their subjects to send their children to school.”

Luther did but formulate the charter of national education; its accomplishment he left to other hands, and it must be confessed that the schoolmasters of the Reformation carried out his recommendations in a very half-hearted way. In the then state of Europe, an approximation to the national school could scarcely have been expected, and we accordingly find that the leading reformed schools are of the “Grammar School” type, and intended for the middle class. It is their programme of instruction that is disappointing. A glance at the curriculum proposed by Sturm at Strasburg in 1539 will show that to read and speak Latin still remained the chief objects. It is not until a boy is sixteen and in the highest class that he commences such useful subjects as arithmetic, history, and geography.

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 to instil learning and piety, it is evident that learning is of little use unless we can express it fitly. Therefore, in their early youth children should be taught to speak well. Of the teachers no more is specified than that they should excel other men in learning and piety. Some corporal punishment is necessary, but masters who take actual pleasure in flogging must be removed from their office. Not all boys should be sent to school, but only those who are naturally fitted for the study of letters. A certain number of poor children should be educated, but these must be of exceptional ability, and are to be excluded from the school at once if they give any trouble. In each town there should be one school. In large cities such as Paris more are naturally required; but if possible the educational needs of a town should be met by one Gymnasium of the liberal arts.

This Gymnasium should be divided into nine classes, in each of which the boy remains one year. In this manner, if he goes to school in his sixth year, he will be able to proceed to a university course of five years at the age of sixteen. The removes from one class to another shall take place in October, and shall be made the occasion for an imposing ceremony at which the magistrates, clergymen, parents of boys and their friends should be present, and when prizes should be given to the first two boys in each class.

Sturm then proceeds to give a detailed programme for each class, commencing with the ninth or lowest.

In this class reading and writing are taught. Care must be taken that the pupils learn to form their letters as neatly as possible, and particular attention must be given to reading aloud. Boys must be shown how to moderate their voices and how to speak distinctly. If any time is


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Seventy-two years have gone by since the Communist Party of the world announced their programme in the form of a manifesto drawn up by the great teachers of the proletarian revolution, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Even at that time Communism, which had barely entered the arena of battle, was beset with the snares, lies, hatred and contempt of the possessing classes, who rightly judged it to be their deadly enemy. In the course of these seventy years the development of Communism has proceeded in a tortuous manner: there have been furious advances, but also epochs of depression; successes and severe defeats. At bottom the development has followed the lines laid down in the Manifesto of the Communist Party. The period of the last decisive struggle has come later than was expected and desired by the apostles of the Social Revolution. But it has set in. We Communists, the representatives of the revolutionary proletariat of the various countries of Europe, America and Asia, assembled in the Moscow Soviet, feel and regard ourselves as those who have inherited the Cause, the programme of which was announced 72 years ago, and who will bring it to fruition. Our tasks consist in the co-ordination of the revolutionary experience of the working class, the purging of the movement of the elements of opportunism and socialist-patriotism which have mingled in it, the gathering together of the strength of all really revolutionary parties of the world-proletariat, thereby facilitating and hastening the triumph of the Communist Revolution.

In the course of a long series of years Socialism has predicted the inevitability of the imperialist war, and, in particular, has descried the causes of this war in the insatiable ambition of the two chief groups of the possessing classes, as well as of those in all capitalist countries. Two years before the outbreak of war the responsible Socialist


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 leaders of all countries, at the Basle Congress, branded Imperialism as the author of the future war, and threatened the bourgeoisie with the Socialist Revolution as the retribution which the proletariat would visit on it for the crimes of Imperialism. Now, after the experience of five years, after history has discovered the robbery-lust of Germany, no less than it has revealed the criminal actions of the Entente countries, the State Socialists of the Entente countries continue, together with their Governments, to unmask the fallen German Emperor. And the social patriots of Germany, who in August, 1914, declared the White Book of the Hohenzollerns to be the holiest gospel of the people, now in vulgar flattery, together with the Socialists of the Entente countries, blame the fallen German monarchy, which formerly they served like slaves, as the chief culprit. In this way they hope to cause their own guilt to be forgotten, and to deserve the good will of the victors. But by the side of the fallen dynasties of the Romanoffs, the Hohenzollerns, and the Hapsburgs, and the capitalist cliques of these countries, the Governments of France, England, Italy and the United States appear, in the light of the unfolding events and the diplomatic revelations, in all their immeasurable vileness.

Up to the very outbreak of war, British diplomacy preserved a mysterious secrecy. Civil authorities were careful not to make it known that they intended to take part in the war on the side of the Entente, doubtless so as not to alarm the Berlin Government and put off the war. London wanted war; hence their action to make Berlin and Vienna build their hopes on England's neutrality, while Paris and Petrograd were sure of England's intervention.

The war, which had been prepared for decades, broke out through direct and conscious provocation on the part of Great Britain. The British Government reckoned on giving support to Russia and France until they were exhausted and at the same time had crushed Germany, their mortal enemy. But the strength of the German military machine proved too formidable, and called forth not only an apparent but an actual intervention in the war on the part of England. It was the military superiority of Germany that caused the Government at Washington to give up their apparent neutrality. The United States assumed, as regards Europe, the same part that England had played in former wars, and has tried to play to the last, namely, the plan of weakening the one side with the help of the


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 other, by joining in military operations for the sole purpose of securing for themselves all the advantages of the situation. Based on the American tombola method, Wilson's stake was not high, but it was the last, and he won.

By reason of the war the contradictions of the capitalist order have become for mankind the animal pangs of hunger and cold, and epidemics of moral savagery. The academic quarrel of Socialists over the theory of impoverishment, and the undermining of Capitalism by Socialism, has thereby been finally decided. Statisticians and pedants of the theory of the reconciling of contradictions have for some decades been at pains to collect from all parts of the world real and apparent facts which testify to the improvement in the welfare of various groups and categories of the working class. To-day the impoverishment faces us, not only of a social but also of a physiological kind, in all its frightful reality.

Finance capital, which mankind has thrown in the abyss of war, has itself suffered catastrophic changes in the course of the war. The dependence of paper money on the material basis of production is completely destroyed. While losing more and more its significance as means and regulator of the circulation of capitalist commodities, paper money is transformed into a means for requisition, for robbery, especially of social-military administration. The complete degeneration of paper money reflects the universal death throes of the capitalist exchange of commodities. If free competition as the regulator of production and distribution in the chief social spheres had been supplanted by the system of trusts and monopolies during the decades preceding the war, so the progress of the war snatched the direction of things from the hands of the economic associations and delivered it straight into the hands of the power of the military States. The distribution of raw materials, the utilisation of the petroleum of Baku or Roumania, of the coal of Donetz, of the wheat of Ukraine, the fate of the German locomotives, railways and automobiles, the provisioning of hungry Europe with bread and meat—all these vital questions of the social life of the world were not regulated by free competition, or by associations of national and international trusts, but by the direct employment of military power, in the interest of its continued existence. If the complete subjection of the State power to the power of finance capital has led mankind to the imperialist shambles, this gigantic massacre has not only militarised the State,


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 but also finance capital itself, which is no longer capable to fulfil its essential economic functions except by means of blood and iron.

The Opportunists, who, before the war, counselled the workers to moderation, in the name of the gradual transition to Socialism, who, during the war, demanded of them submission in the name of social peace and defence of the Fatherland, again ask the proletariat to practise self-denial to overcome the terrible consequences of the war. If these preachers find acceptance amongst the masses of workers, capitalist development will go on for several generations in new and more concentrated and fearful forms, with the prospect of a fresh and inescapable world-war. Fortunately for mankind this is no longer possible.

The State control of social life, against which capitalist Liberalism so strives, is become a reality. There is no turning back, either to free competition or to the domination of trusts, syndicates, and other kinds of social anomalies. The question consists solely in this: Who shall control State production in the future—the imperialist State or the State of the victorious proletariat? In other words: Is the whole of labouring humanity to become the bond slaves of the victorious bourgeoisie, who, in the name of the League of Nations, and with the aid of an "international" army, and an "international" fleet, here plunders and strangles, there throws some crumbs, but everywhere holds the proletariat in chains, with the sole object of preserving its dominance; or shall the working class take in hand the disordered and ruined society in order to ensure its reconstruction on Socialist lines?

It is only possible to shorten the duration of the present crisis by the means of proletarian dictatorship, which neither considers inherited privileges nor the rights of property, but proceeds from the necessity of saving the hungry masses, mobilises all means and strength to this end, introduces universal obligation to labour, establishes the regime of labour discipline, in order, by this means, in the course of a few years, not only to heal the gaping wounds which the war has inflicted, but also to lift mankind on to a new and unsuspected level.

The national State, to which capitalist development has given a powerful impulse, is become too narrow for the further development of the productive forces. All the more precarious will the situation of the small States scattered


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 amongst the great Powers of Europe and other parts of the world become.

These small States, which at various times have arisen as fragments of large States, as small change for the payment of various services rendered, and as strategical buffers, have their dynasties, their ruling sects, their imperialist pretensions, and their political machinery. Until the war their illusory independence had the same substance as the European balance of power, viz., the uninterrupted antagonism of the two imperialist camps.

The war has destroyed this balance of power. While in the beginning of the war Germany received a powerful preponderance, she obliged the small States to seek their welfare and salvation under the wings of German militarism. After Germany was defeated, the bourgeoisie of the small States, together with their patriotic "Socialists," turned to the victorious imperialism of the Allies, and began to look for security for their continued existence in the hypocritical points of the Wilson programme.

At the same time the number of the small States increased; from the constituent parts of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and from the portions of the Czarist Empire, new States separated themselves, which, scarcely born into the world, sprang at each other's throats over the question of boundaries.

Meanwhile, the allied imperialists prepared such combinations of new and old small States as would be bound to themselves through the hold of reciprocal hate and general impotence.

While manipulating the small and weak peoples, and giving them over to hunger and humiliation, the Entente imperialists do not cease, exactly as did quite recently the imperialists of the Central Powers, to talk of the right to self-determination of the peoples who by this time are as completely crushed in Europe as in the other parts of the world.

The small peoples can only be assured of the possibility of existence by the Proletarian Revolution, which will free the productive forces of all countries from the fetters of the national States, unite the peoples in the closest social co-operation on the basis of a universal social economy, and give to even the smallest and weakest people the possibility of guiding the affairs of its national civilisation, without harm to the united and centralised economy of Europe and of the whole world.