Page images
PDF
EPUB

the highest judicial tribunal determined that the counties were not entitled to the compensation which they had been receiving for nineteen years, almost without question.

Parliament quickly came to the conclusion that if this was the interpretation of the Local Government Act, 1888, it had unwittingly inflicted a grievance on the counties, and in four cases it gave to counties by local legislation the compensation which was refused to them by the general Act. In 1911, a Select Committee of both Houses of Parliament considered the matter, and their conclusions were subsequently embodied in the Local Government (Adjustment) Act, 1913. That Act did not in so many terms give compensation for the loss of rateable value, but it produced very much the same result by providing that an area should be entitled to compensation in respect of increased burden, or the prospect of increased burden, arising out of a severance of territory. It departed, however, from the practice which had prevailed between 1888 and 1907 by recommending that the measure of that compensation should never exceed fifteen years' purchase of the increase and, subject to that maximum, should be so many years' purchase as the arbitrator should think proper in the particular case. Much time has been vainly spent in an attempt to discover the principle of the decision.

The subject is one to which it is not possible to apply any definite principle; and anyone who studies the tangled masses of evidence on this subject can come to only one conclusion, namely, that it is impossible to frame any definite rules for doing justice. The assessment of compensation lies so much in the field of conjecture and hypothesis, and depends so much on the incalculable course of future events, that the most learned and skilled arbitrator must be content with a faint hope that he has done rough justice, but can feel little confidence that time will support his conclusions. Perhaps the greatest of these arbitrators was Sir Hugh Owen, and the Royal Commission was told that at the date of his death he had a dozen or more arbitrations still unsettled, because he could not make up his mind about them. The greater the knowledge, the more difficult the decision. If we ask, then, the meaning of the Act of 1913, the answer probably is that Parliament was aiming at no scientific statement of principle, but at a rule which appeared likely to achieve rough justice, and would not be entirely unacceptable to the parties to the dispute.

The

On all important points except one, the Royal Commission is content to abide by the principles contained in the Act of 1913. The exception is the question of main roads, which is much affected by the extension of motoring, and by the enormous increase in recent years in the cost of maintenance. expenditure of the counties on roads in 1919-1920 represented 15 per cent. of the total expenditure; that has been multiplied by two or three in recent years. A case is quoted in which a county received £10,000 a year in respect of increase of burden on main roads, and found that the actual increase was £64,000 a year. The Commission therefore recommends that it should be possible to compensate counties for that increase of burden up to a maximum of twenty-one years' purchase. On the present value of money this would mean that a permanent payment would be available to meet a permanent charge.

The Royal Commission may claim to have devised a solution which would greatly reduce the occasions for conflict between town and county by providing machinery which is reasonably satisfactory to both parties for settling conflicts when they arise. Popular opinion is not yet ready for any more drastic steps. Sooner or later, however, it will be necessary to undo some of the mischief created by the Local Government Act, 1888, and to remove some of the grosser disparities which exist, in area, wealth and population, between local government bodies wielding the same powers. Some of the counties are obviously too small to discharge with efficiency the ever-increasing list of duties imposed on them by Parliament. Some are so large that they are almost beyond the capacity of a County Council. Wales needs a provincial council, and such a council is required, for some purposes, in areas of England larger than counties. The denudation of the rural districts by migration to the towns makes the problem of ministering to the rural area increasingly acute. The time when a wholesale revision of local government areas will be necessary is perhaps not remote. At that time the solution will probably be found in a reversion, with some modifications, to the original plan of the Bill of 1888, and local government will be based on a unit consisting of the large town together with the rural areas which fall within its sphere of influence.

W. R. BARKER

0

[ocr errors]

2

Π

RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOKS

DOSTOEVSKY. Translated from the French of André Gide. With an Introduction by ARNOLD Bennett. Dent. 6s.net. Mr. Arnold Bennett gives it as his opinion that this study of Dostoevsky, besides being the best analysis of its subject yet published, contains "the Confessions of André Gide," and as such should interest all students of modern French literature, of which M. Gide is an ornament. The vogue of Dostoevsky appears to be growing, and M. Gide may therefore be assured of an audience for his book in Great Britain. It is an extremely interesting study, and provocative to those whose "minds are still obdurately prejudiced against his (Dostoevsky's) work, admirable though it be." "The Brothers Karamazof seems to the reviewer to be merely a confused nightmare; but M. Gide's book has at least shown him some of its author's intention, if he cannot agree as to its effect.

[ocr errors]

WITCHCRAFT AND THE BLACK ART. By J. W. WICKWAR. Herbert Jenkins. 8s. 6d. net.

[ocr errors]

Intended as a popular work, in order to make the study of folk-lore the pursuit of the many, this volume is, within its limits, a very comprehensive study of the cult and paraphernalia of witchcraft. Here are poppy and mandragora," spells and incantations, were-wolves and vampires, together with a competent outline of the psychology of the witch-cult, and a full account of witch-huntings, witch-trials, etc., which must leave the present-day reader with the feeling that the emissaries of the devil had little to teach the emissaries of Christianity in cruelty and barbarism towards their opponents. Mr. Wickwar also quotes the Witchcraft Act of 1735 and part of the Rogues and Vagabonds Act of 1824, and adds a useful index.

LORD FIFE AND HIS FACTOR: Being the Correspondence of James, Second Lord Fife, 1729-1809. Edited by Alistair and Henrietta Tayler. Heinemann. 215. net.

These letters of Lord Fife, mostly written when he was in London on political business to his Scottish " doer," or factor, William Rose, are extremely entertaining. Lord Fife's blunt, downright opinions on men and affairs are expressed in forcible and racy language. One observes, for instance, that in 1783, as in 1925, elderly people were alarmed by the propensities of youth, for Lord Fife writes: "I wish to God all that dancing, Dressing, etc., was laid aside, and fathers and mothers bred up their children to be useful members of society. In the present country stile the boys are quite idle and the Misses do little but dress and walk about." Lord Fife had a long political feud with

the Duke and Duchess of Gordon, fomented, as he thinks, mainly by the Duchess, the famous Duchess Jane, who recruited the Gordon Highlanders. He refers to her as " this horrid violent woman,” and “ a perfect Divle," comments which are piquant in comparison with the usual portrait of her as a famous beauty and wit; but perhaps she had turned her wit on Lord Fife more often than he liked, for the letters show him as a man with a very good conceit of himself, always anxious to give advice to his friends, and thinking very poorly of those who were so foolish as to neglect his advice. The editors' notes are illuminating, and the volume is so interesting as to be well worth the editors' labours in making their selection from some 20,000 family letters of the period, still extant !

A NATION IN MAKING:
Years of Public Life.
Oxford University Press.

Being the Reminiscences of Fifty By Sir SURENDRANATH BANERJEA. 16s. net.

As one of the first Indians to qualify for the Indian Civil Service fifty years ago, as a great Indian journalist, and a great administrator, Sir Surendranath Banerjea was well qualified to write of the development of modern India, and his own life was very closely identified with all the constructive work for closer co-operation between Great Britain and India. As a member of the Moderate Party he was opposed to all the violent separatist movements in India; but he was ever foremost in standing for the legitimate rights of his countrymen within the shelter of the British Empire. In these pages we find the history of India for the past half-century, written by a cultured Indian, member of a Brahmin family, but with a wide sympathy for all castes, and a measured appreciation of all the good done by the British administrators in India.

He does not ignore the abuses to which the system is liable. He records the profound disappointment felt by moderate Indians when Lord Curzon, who had begun his rule as Viceroy with fair-sounding speeches, went on to apply a reactionary policy which resulted in the subversive movements of recent years. But Sir Surendranath saw hope for the future of full Dominion status for an India aroused to appreciation of the value of British co-operation, and in this hope we must all join.

HENRY MONTAGU BUTLER: Master of Trinity College,
Cambridge, 1886-1918; A Memoir by his son, J. R. M.
BUTLER; with some Poems and Three Addresses. With 8
Illustrations. Longmans. 12s. 6d. net.

"We all here loved him from the bottom of our hearts," wrote a
member of Trinity after the late Master's death, and that was the
universal feeling Dr. Butler inspired. During his long reign at
Trinity he filled his great office perfectly, and why he did so may be 0
found in this volume. Not outstanding as a scholar, he was none
the less widely read and of a dominating personality: an autocrat, but

t

surely the most amiable autocrat that ever lived. His study was not so much books as men, and to the problems of the lives around him he brought ripe wisdom and humorous tolerance. Truly a great man! This book is an adequate record of his life at Cambridge, written by one of his sons. It includes three of his addresses, many tributes from all kinds of people and some poems-grave and gay.

In some of his lighter verses we catch the note of humorous kindliness, which meant so much to those who knew him, and in the graver poems we come upon the staunch and simple patriotism which inspired him all his life. He had three loves-England, Harrow and Trinity-and this record of his later life shows how well he served the first and the third, as an earlier book showed how well he served Harrow.

OLD TIMES: Relics, Talismans, Forgotten Customs and Beliefs of the Past. By WALTER CLIFFORD MELLER. Illustrated. Werner Laurie. IOS. 6d. net.

The author of "A Knight's Life in the Days of Chivalry" in his new work deals with such largely forgotten subjects of antiquarian interest as "touching" for "The King's Evil"; the badges largely adopted in the Middle Ages and other Notitia Heraldica; the carvings on the "misericord" seats in churches; sanctuaries; English bells, and old stone crosses, to mention but a few. Mr. Meller has the fortunate capacity of transforming even apparently dull material into gold, by his light touch and store of quaint knowledge, and this book is a really fascinating introduction to the study of "old times," which should appeal to the lay reader as well as to the antiquary.

RELIGION, COMMERCE, LIBERTY: A Record of a Time of Storm and Change, 1683 to 1793. By J. W. JEUDWINE. Longmans. 10s. 6d. net.

Mr. Jeudwine has produced an exhaustive yet lively history of a century full of changes which were to have far-reaching effects on the modern world. The period opened with religious dissensions; in the middle of the century, commerce became all-important and had its effect in the War of American Independence; towards the close of the century the gradually growing theories of "Liberty and Equality" had their outcome in the French Revolution. All these movements Mr. Jeudwine discusses in detail, and provides admirable indices to help the modern reader if he be unlike the readers of the eighteenth century who, says the author, "read the books and not merely the preface." Sketch maps, also indexed, are included.

SOCIAL CLASSES IN POST-WAR EUROPE.

BY LOTHROP

STODDARD. Scribner's. 7s. 6d. net. One may suppose that this book will be more valuable to Americans than to us in this country, for in Mr. Stoddard's analysis of the changes in social status produced by the war in different European countries

« PreviousContinue »