New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-12-13

Students who took a practical view of their
careers and considered 1t waste of time and
energy 10 acquire superficial knowledge of
Greek The three days debate in the Senate
Houee was admirably conducted by the adyo-
Gates and opponents of the proposed changes In
the pass examinations, and cautious oppor-
tunists were heard with thankful hearts by the
conservatives when they urged the expediency
o. delay so that the cooperation of the two
great universities could be secured and Oxford
not allowed to obtain the distinction of becom-
ing the stronghold of classical literature while
Cambridge was "swamped" with science and
mathematics. This is the solution desired by
some of the best men in both universities. al
though the feeling in favor of making Greek a
voluntary and optional study rs much stronger
at Cambridge than at oxford.
Mrs. Jane Golden Unwin has Inherited not
only her fathers subtle and logical mind but
also his zeal organizer and agitator Not
content with the memories of her work on the
London Board Of Education and with her active
service as her husbands literary adviser. she
has retained hearty interest In Liberal politics.
ana Whenever she is convinced that the govern
ment of the day is wrong in imperial or foreign
policy, as she during the Boer war, she
exerts herself to the uttermost to obtain public
recognition of what she considers moral issues
and national principles. Reverencing the
memory of her father. she has been in a white
neat over what she has regarded Tory apos-
tasy to free trade; and she has gone about
the Sussex village. which was his home and is
also hers when she is in London, she has
talked with the old people who remembered
him and also the terrible sufferings Of the lean
and hungry years when bread was dear and
workers We're starving. These scraps OF
reminiscence she has pieced together as an In
PRODUCTION to The Hungry FortIes," a volume
OF letters and testimony relating to the hard
SHIPS Of that period, which her husband is pub
fishing. 1t is a series OF recitals OF hard times
when the narrators young; of bread IA
pence loaf, and children going to bed hun
cry; of cottagers keeping pigs and living
potatoes and examining pudding made of what
was left after the -four and bran taken
away; of the Tory tradition that "a red ERIN
and a 'tater good enufT for any workn'
man. of the Octogenarian cottagers reflections
on The bad old times when "a few got fat and
unnerds starved" and when IF Mr. Golden
adn't got EN- corn laws repealed there'd ave
bin reg lar civil In this yer country years
ago; Of the old Pridhurst pOstTnan's daily
tramp Of eight miles for three and six a week
of the reformer's friendly relations with the
villagers of Heyshott and his anxiety to have
them all get on and vote for the big in place
OF the little loaf; of Eleven to starve on
nine shiln a week and the children working
In the fields on "a swede turmut a-boild down."
with wages starting at a penny and rising to
'tuppence an up to sxpence" when they were
ten. These vivid accounts OF starvation In
rural England during the first half of the nine
teenth century Mr. Cobden's daughter puts to-
gether as "a practical and effective antidote to
the raging, tearing campaign Of those who
would by legislation bring England back to the
times OF the Hungry Fortes' The controver-
Slaiist may be in doubt whether Lord BeaCons-
fields "a good deal has happened since then"
does not answer the argument directed against
Dir. Chamberlains proposed duty of shillings
on corn. But there will be disposition on the
part Of renegade tariff reformers' 10 question
the affectionate devotion of Mrs Unwn to her
fathers memory and her zeal in doing what
she can TO convince her Countrymen that free
trade has converted the lean years into fat
years. Certainly the most hardened American
protectionist Will not do It. for while may
lack sympathy for free trade he cannot forget
Richard Golden a loyal. disinterested and
most useful champion of the union when there
were more enemies than friends in England
Mr.. Douglas sladen is a most industrious
writer, and he has a large stock of nforma-
ton about Japan in consequence of his long
sojourn in the country; but he could hardly
have published a second series of Queer
Things after the first one with
out assistance from several sources This he
frankly Acknowledges in his preface and then
includes four dishes for the sake of piouing
Jaded appetites. Perhaps the best Of these is
a Japanese life of Napoleon, written in the first
half of the nineteenth century, when the island
kingdom had been closed for two hundred years
to all intercourse with Europeans He came
upon copy of this book when he was in 4
Kyoto shop. He ransacking the second
hand stock in the stall for old Illustrated books
and, recognizing Napoleon's portrait in a pct-
ure of the coronation, bought this quaint
volume. This biography has been translated
by 4oshio Markino, and shorter sketches OF
Alexander the Great, Peter the Great and Aris-
totle are added. Before the doors of Japan
were opened to the Americans first and then to
Europeans, there a tiny window with a
cracked pane of glass. through which this un-
known native author looked out with PAIR
Of Dutch spectacles upon the great world; and
certainly he saw men as trees walking" These
memoirs, with material drawn from Holland
are quaint and eccentric; and the illustrations
reproduced from the Japanese drawings make
them still more interesting. Topsy turvydom
is itself COMPOUNDED when Napoleon is described
as the Pretender- Mikado of France In Europe
who burned the British Ambassador the Due
dEnghien, after the battle of the Nile and the
Siege of Jaffa. The Japanese author speaks OF
Napoleon with fine Oriental CondesCenston as a
good enough hero for Western countries whose
deeds and morals widely separated from
the heroes OF the Mikado's kingdom as the pig
from the lion.
Still. If the japanese readers have leisure TO |
waste during the winter evenings IT may be
worth while TO read the history of the greatest
hero ever known in Western countries That Is
notable example of nsular prejudice as
has ever inspired satire at John Bulls expense
The memoir itself is cOmical farrago of distor-
tionS and inventions; and the illustra tons are
freely JapaniZed and are most amusing NapO-
Icons coronation robes are made by JaDanese
costumeTs: his soldiers drilled on the Rhine
in Japanese exercises and the commander |
yields a fan; his marriage with Josephine is
staged for the Oriental islands, the bridegroom
drinking sake and the bride being attended by
a maid; an attempt is made TO assassinate him
with a Japanese blunderbus: the naked Due
d Enghien is tied TO four posts over a fire fed
Eastern 10