New-York tribune., 1890-05-04
NOTES FROM LONDON.
MIR GLADSTONE on AMERICAN BARBARlSM
MIR. RUDYARD KIPLING-MRS. LINTON
ON MESSRS. HAGGARD AND LANG
MIR. JOHANNES WOLFF

ceases to oppress the country wrlteS MI' OI""-
stone ION a recent post card. we may nope .n"'
the present plan"-the pending CopyTlghC pni.
"will take a form worthy of SO great a Nalioh
1t is difficult to see what Mr.. Gladstone supPoSes
n he gained by these spurts of strong language.
They are. however. becoming more frequent WIZ"
him All the word-al the Civilized worlds
~o,y f,miI;ar with his use of such extreme terms
az baseness and blackguardsm to express the
means by which Pitt carried land beiouled-an-
other Gladstonisn) the Act of Union. Bar
barism applied to the settled policy of Nation
which he himself calls great, which is friendly 10
his own country and which has shown ltseli slil-
guary forgvng TO him, is hardly less beyond tle
pale Suppose any of us chooses TO talk apoul
the barbarism of Free Trade which oppresses Eng
Iandp Have we advanced step in the contro-
vcrsy? Is anybody convinced or converted'
Or suppose Mr. Blaine had adopted that tone
in his Duel article in The North American Re
view? II hc had. he might even then nave
pleaded Mr. Gladstones example. for the English
statesman thought it within the limits Of fair dis
cussion to suggest that American Protectoh was
an impostor and swinder. Other language
might be quoted were it worth while. MI Ulah-
stones tone is throughout in singular contrast 10
Mr.. Blaine. The American seems to me to have
the advantage in manner in substance, ana
there is a marked contrast between the grave
courtesy Of Mr.. Blaine and the violence OF MI.
Gladstone. Their controversy never attracted
much notice here. / asked many people when
came back what had been said about il, and the
answer was always the same that nothing had
been said because nothing was known. Nelther
in public nor in private was so remarkable an en-
counter thought important enough to De uhoer-
stood The explanation is that the minds OF Eng
lishmen in general, like Mr.. GladstoneS are not
open to argument on the subject of Free trade
They have given up in whole or in part, Moses
and the Pcntateuch hut they cling to Adam Smith
and the Wealth of Nations, and the Millennium
began for them with the repeal of the Corn Laws in
1876 Otherwise, it might have been interesting
10 see what rejoinder the Free Trader would have
made to Mr.. Blaine's answer TO Mr.. Gladstone, ard
whether he would have adraitted frankly thai
Mr.. Gladstone had the worst of it in argument.
be the merits of the what they might. And
if any Englishman could be induced to admit 10
himself that there is something TO be said for
Protection, he might see how clearly and strongly
Mr. Blaine has stated the the historical case. and
how admirably he has summed up the whole SUD-
ject from the American point of view.
The English public has of late discovered
new genius in literature or, to be more accurate,
a new writer has been strongly recommended I"
this public as a genius. The newcomer reJoices
in the name of Mr.. Rudyard, Kipling. lie IS
Young. he has lived in India he has written and
published Stories he has written and published
verses and Mr. Edmund Yates has immortalizcd
him in THE World a Celebrity at Home
If these be not sufficient titles 10 imperishabe
renown, others may be Forthcoming. Mr. Kip
ling is still writing away hard as he can, and
the monthly magazines competing for him;
this very month his handwOrk is visible in more
than one of them. 1t would be delightful to say
that the handiwork is really that of new genius.
but, on the whole, the judicious seem inclined TO
pause a while before making that remark. Mr
Kiplings stories are out Of the common run; he
has vigor, he has, if not precisely originality, a
certain unlikeness to the contributor who sup
plies the padding which makes up so large part
of the current English periodicals. and he has.
it appears, strong political feelings. He is the
author Of those energetic lines entitled Cleared
which the Unionist papers lately quoting;
lines in which Mr. Kipling's views of the Parnel
Commission report are expressed with more free
dom than is palatabe 10 Home Rule critics. The
poem il poem it be. is too long three stanzas OF
it are better than the whole thirteen and if you
read only these three you may feel some con
siderable curiosity as TO what Mr.. Rudyard Kip
ling will do next.
Mrs. Lynn Linton has a story to tell in one Of
her last literary lamentations; story Of curiOusy
intimate relations between a certain author and
a certain reviewer The author wrote book
and the reviewer wrote sixteen different reviews
of it in sixteen different periodicals. 1t is good
story as il stands, and it may be pity 10 spoil
it by asking whether is right in naming
Mr. Rider Haggard as the author and Mr.. Andrew
Lang as the reviewer. So many good stories are
spolt by pryrg into facts. However | give
you the rumor as it given TO me, and if Mr..
Andrew Lang will deny it, will print his denial
with far greater pleasure than do the anccdoie
in its present FORM Unhappiy, 1t cannot he de-
MED that Mr.. Lang is admircr Of Mr. Rider
Haggard, or that he has praised him and con-
tinues to praise him in reviews; whether they
be or be not to the number of sixteen; so dis
tributed as to convey TO the ingenious pubic
the notion that it is listening to sixteen different
voices, and not TO fifteen echoes of one and the
same voice Mr.. Lang carries his liking for Mr..
Rider Haggard so far to coliabOrate with him
in q new story of which the first, and hope
worst part appeared in the current number OF
Mr. Archibald Groves New Review" These
literary partnerships are seldom cXplicable on
purely literary grounds, and Mr.. Lang's admira-
ton of Mr. Rider IIaggard is ineXplcabe on any
ground often as he has himself cXpoInded II IN
print II there be any solution 10 such puzzle.
it is not literary but psychological. Possibly MI
Lang finds in his uncouth idol qualities in which
he feels himself deficient; grotesque invention
and some acquaintance with the ruder parts OF
life in the newer parts of the world The mys-
terry is how these should stand TO him in the place
of those literary gifts which he possesses in a very
high degree, and which Glr. Rider Haggard
hardly he said to possess in any degree whatever.
1t is probable that you may hear next autumn
in America another violinist, whose reputation in
Europe, though recent is already remarkable NJ.
IIo ho1o N a
ton than Herr Joachim Scnor Saraoate and is
by the competent musical critics put at the head
of that younger generation. The critic have in
mind is Frenchman, and / believe there is no
DISPUTE that the French critic, like the French
nnhlic is far more eXacting than the Engsh