men and women whose standards were of an earlier time he adapts his spirit and manner to theirs, and although an occasional phrase shows that he is perfectly acquainted with the later writers, he refrains from bringing his subjects to the bar of their judgment. He compares Dickens with Thackeray; he does not debate as to the influence of the time-spirit on Dickens, or as to Thackeray's understanding of divine discontent or any other shibboleth. To read him is like a return to the solid commonsense of Maga and the Quarterly in the days before the effort to imitate Carlyle had led too many writers to prefer sound to sense. places and classes his authors in such ways as to give the reader an agreeable sense of surveying the field of fiction and of taking refreshment from the prospect. Henry Holt & Co. He Mrs. Charles Alfred Post has a unique subject in her "The Life and Memoirs of Comte Regis de Trobriand, Major General in the Army of the United States" and if, through modesty she has not made the most of it, she has made so much that even 1909, year of great biographies, produced nothing more interesting and 1910, in which it leads off, is not likely to surpass it. Mrs. Post, "that should have been a boy," daughter to the first civilian of his race for hundreds of years, spent long hours of childhood and girlhood in happy conversation with her father, talking of war and deeds of valor, and in later life the two were so much together, and were such voluminous correspondents when separated that her mind is saturated with his memories. No fairy tale, she says, in her mind, equalled the adventures of her own people, and indeed, no fairy tale would need to go beyond them. Born in 1816, her father was in 1830 on the eve of taking up his duties as page to Charles Tenth, a position by the way, accorded only to those able to show sixteen quarterings of noble ancestors without plebeian strain on both the father's and mother's side. His father however resigned his own position as commander at Toulouse, and removed his son from. the Royal College at Rouen when Louis Philippe came to the throne, and went into private life. Mrs. Post tells the story of the years before he came to America in the most graphic fashion. and also the memories of many ancestors who lived during the Terror and in Napoleonic times; but in 1841, her father came to the United States and married Miss Mary Mason Jones of New York. Then came a year of travel in the old fashion with a private carriage at one's own command; a long sojourn in Venice followed, and then years of journalism and literary work in New York; of acting as bearer of despatches to France; of travelling with friends, each one an historic personage to-day, and so on until 1861 took the first civilian of his line into the Amer ican volunteer army to remain there until the end of the war, and to serve from 1866 to 1879 in the regular army. The closing eighteen years of his life were divided between France and his adopted land, and devoted to intercourse with a multitude of friends. Mrs. Post uses scores of her father's letters to fill her pages but leaves the reader hungry for more. A brave, tried soldier, a brilliant writer, a musician of skill and learning, a man of extraordinary social charm, a patriot as devoted to the United States as any native of the soil, a perfect citizen, he furnishes his daughter with a subject to be envied. The volume is packed with good stories and anecdotes covering a half century in this country, and quite good enough to bear comparison with the earlier family traditions. E P. Dutton & Co. SEVENTH SERIES) 1. No. 3424 February 19, 1910 FROM BEGINNING CONTENTS By Sir The Ito Legend. Personal Recollections of Prince Ito. NINETEENTH CENTURY AND AFTER 451 A Paupers' Restaurant and Home. By Edith Sellers CORNHILL MAGAZINE 463 471 483 v. As It Happened. Book VI. Crisis. Chapter II. The Sin that Hath NATIONAL REVIEW Some New Pen-Portraits of Carlyle. By A. Stodart Walker The Collector and the Tiger. By R. E. V. BLACK WOOD'S MAGAZINE 492 VI. VII. The Psychology of Conversion. By Harold Begbie, A. Caldecott, FOR SIX DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, THE LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage, to any part of the United States. To Canada the postage is 50 cents per annum. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office or express money order if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks, express and money orders should be made payable to the order of THE LIVING ACE Co. Single Copies of THE LIVING AGE, 15 cents. SONG OF THE GUNS AT SEA. O hear! O hear! Across the sullen tide, Across the echoing dome horizon-wide, What pulse of fear Beats with tremendous boom? What call of instant doom With thunderstroke of terror and of pride, The ships from Egypt, laden with the wheat With which the Mistress of the World was fed. But when at last, with every swelled sail spread, They hove in sight, there ran from street to street A sudden rumor that the longed-for fleet With urgency that may not be denied, Brought sand for Nero's circuses inReverberates upon the heart's own stead. THE ITO LEGEND. PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF PRINCE ITO.. It is difficult now to recall the views held by the world at large with regard to Japan twenty years ago; still more difficult to say what people thought of a man who took up an appointment under the Japanese Government, for indeed they were not very clear what manner of thing that was, nor how far it was associated with or dissociated from China. There was some vague knowledge of what was afoot in the country; a few of the clever ones knew that among other changes in the old order, changes caustically described as "apeing the ways of the West," a constitution was being prepared; but the information they imparted was received by some with amused indifference; by others, who found in it a useful topic for dinner conversation, it was described as "so very interesting." A few only took the matter seriously; but these had met some of those highly intelligent young men who were at that time invading the country, ever asking questions, seeking explanations of our manners and customs-often difficult enough to account for satisfactorilyand who left, in token of gratitude for information received, a pair of Samurai swords of exquisite workmanship, and of temper as fine as their own, with the laughing apology "No use now." The trail of these busy inquisitors can be traced through the land by their legacies of steel. For those who had been SO initiated the matter appeared of serious moment: it was the sign of the "man's hand" upon the horizon of the East, and speculation was rife among them whether it was a portent of good or evil. Not so very many years before, Miss Harriet Martineau had begged the Rev. Sydney Smith to use his influence with Ministers to do to this little upstarting country what in that estimable lady's opinion ought to have been then already done with China-annex it. If this counsel of perfection had only been adopted in the case of that ancient empire, what a world of trouble an obstinate Ministry would have been spared! Now, here was another nation springing into existence she recked little of the "ages eternal" of the imperial dynasty-let Ministers be wise in time in this case, and take heed to her warning. Another "John Company" could easily be called into being, and all would be well. Not a little of the vagueness of the ideas which inspired these counsels lingered, even in 1887, in the minds of those who were so far on the way of knowledge as to appreciate the fact of Japan's exist ence. Equally difficult is it to call clearly to one's memory the attitude of the Europeans in Japan itself at that time. On the one hand, one's enthusiasms for the beautiful with which life in the country was surrounded were damped by those who vainly regretted les fleurs d'antan. On the other hand, one's intense sympathy for the Japan as she was then, the Japan who seemed to be crying from her every house-top-"Is it nothing to you who pass by?" was set down as unpatriotism; for in those days the "revision" of the treaties, which meant the abolition of consular jurisdiction, was for foreigners the burning question, overshadowing in importance the national question, of which revision was but a small part, the grant of constitutional government to the people. But throughout those days of diplomatic strife and upheaval of the national spirit, the discussions on every question, the attitude of Japan towards every question which affected her welfare, were permeated by the influence of one man who held the reins of State, unseen as well as seen, in his most capable fingers-Hirobumi Ito: Count Ito as he then was. The engagement of an English lawyer as adviser to the Cabinet, with a view specially to matters connected with the constitution, was at the time popularly set down to a desire on the part of the Japanese Government not to leave England out in the cold. The Powers were supposed to be contesting with one another the honor of having the preponderating influence over Japan in her adoption of western civilization; much as they are now eager to share in the pecuniary benefits to be derived from assisting China in her railway enterprises. England had stamped her personality upon the navy then coming into being; France was guiding the evolutions of the new battalions; Germany's influence was paramount in the doings of the Court; a veteran French lawyer was impressing the virtues of the Code Ciril, many Germans the logic of their Commercial Code, upon the drafters of the new Codes which were soon to regulate the civil and commercial conduct of the Japanese, who yet listened to the words of wisdom which fell from the mouths of common law Englishmen. So Japan was seen to be distributing her favors with a pretty equality, accepted as satisfacory by all concerned. But in the matter of the constitution, German influence appeared to be paramount; and, so men were pleased to say, England would be grievously affronted if her constitution, the constitution par excellence, were not in some measure drawn upon by the Japanese. It would seem to be contrary to the natural order of things if the British Constitution were to be ignored: and in this they found a satisfactory explanation of my appointment as legal ad viser to the Minister President of State, in other words, to Count Ito. The reason was quite different. The time had arrived for considering how far English principles would work into the frame of the constitution which had already been constructed. With these principles Ito was perfectly familiar: but the details of them required fuller exposition for the benefit of his subordinates, who would have the handling of them. Count Ito was not a man of many words; he spoke in short detached sentences, each prepared in the interval of smoking preceding it, which gave an appearance of hesitation to his speech. He had, however, a considerable capacity for thought and expression in English; and his exposition of the policy which had induced him to add an English adviser to his staff was singu larly lucid. The circumstances were so obviously different, the difficulty of reducing the British constitution into a series of concise articles manifestly so great. that in spite of his admiration for it, he realized that only the broadest principles could be adapted to the circumstances with which he had to deal. With those circumstances he dealt quite freely: the opposition that he foresaw, the difficulties already gathering round his path, which would gather thicker and thicker as he drew nearer and nearer to the goal. But he intended to overcome them, and he spoke as one who believed in the high destiny of his country, and in himself as the appointed agent to carry it to its fulfilment. Confidence and self-reliance, and a disbelief in the possibility of failure, were at that time, as ever afterwards, his chief characteristics; even then his attitude towards public life was that of a great man. and in the first minutes of my first interview with him it was clear to me that it would be most honorable and congenial to work under him. "I know you Eng |