Cymro a'r Celt Llundain

LITERARY AND OTHER NOTES. BY NORICK. Mr. G. K. Chesterton is, as usual, quite right in saying that the General Election, through which we are just passing, is the greatest political event which has happened within living memory. It may prove later that it was the greatest test event in the history of English democracy. Whether that be so or not, this, at any rate, is certain, that never before in the history of this country, has pure Nationalism demonstrated its strength to the extent it has done on this occasion. The general reader will think with his usual hastiness that I am referring to the commanding position the Irish. Party holds in English politics to-day, while as a matter of fact, this is only one of the many considerations which have forced me to this conclusion. The Nation, in its political notes last Saturday, called attention to the geographical distribution of democratic opinion in Eng- land. The voice of the people has been heard in the big industrial cities, in Scot- land, in Wales, and in Ireland. That is the journalist's way of stating the deep, philos- ophical axiom of human history that de- mocracy is strong and coherent only at those times and in those places where it bears testimony to great spiritual truths. De- mocracy became a power in the West by confessing allegiance to the creed of a group of men who believed that a Man who had died in shame on a cross had actually con- quered and saved the world. The democracy of England is dead everywhere but in those places, where men still believe that, there is a city or a country whose fair name is of in- finitely greater importance than the whole of that Empire, on which," as it is boastfully said, the sun never sets." It is, of course, clear to everyone that this is true of Ireland, Wales, and Scotland but one of the features of the election has been the unanimous expression of democratic sentiment by the great industrial centres of Lancashire and the North, and by certain parts of London, and it may be difficult to comprehend how, in those centres, one finds a testimony to Nationalism. And yet it is so, as I shall show. The Khaki Election marked the end of English Nationalism. It was sacrificed there and then for the sake of the Empire." It is quite true that a wave of Imperialism played havoc with Wales and Scotland but after all, the Imperialism of these countries was purely secondary. There was a certain amount of independent tradition which saved them in the end. In England, however, Imperialism cleared the old hearth of its former occupant. Since than we have seen a miracle-the birth and growth of a new nationalism. The Londoner is beginning to talk of London very much as the Italian of the forties and fifties talked of Italy. The parochialism (which, after all, is Nationalism run wild) of the man from Lancashire is astounding. Imperialism has not come to stay everywhere. England is rapidly being broken up into a number of smaller nation- alities, and the new love of these smaller nations for their city or their own shore is to-day saving the soul of old England. The absolute proof of this is to be found in the case of London. There are huge wastes in this city, the inhabitants of which are migratory in character. They are here for a day, and to-morrow elsewhere. St. George's, Hanover Square, is one example, Holborn another, and there is no power in heaven or earth which will make these democratic. The men who live in Finsbury, on the other hand, always live in Finsbury, and their nationalism, limited though it may be, has saved them from the great curse of Imperialism with its Tariff Reform and its Navy scare. At first sight, there appears to be one exception to all this-Birmingham. Bir- mingham is the great tragedy of English history. Chamberlain, long before the days of his Imperialism, was a great Birmingham nationalist. He was then, by the way, a Nonconformist and a democrat. But the day dawned when he trafficked with an alien host-and Birmingham, ever loyal to its great maker, true to the man who gave it to know its own greatness, is paying the price of the great treason to-day. There is some- thing noble in the outlawry of this great city. In this way, it is a magnificent tribute to the great prophet of Birmingham nation- alism, who was stricken with a cruel blind- ness. To say that the two supreme personalities of the present political situation are Nation- alists is a mere platitude. There are some small men who would say that Mr. Lloyd George, who is the central figure in the fray, has thrown off the garb of nationalism for something else, but every true Welshman knows what idle nonsense that is. Mr. Lloyd George's political speeches are nation- alist in exactly the same sense as Mr. B. Yeats's poetry is nationalist. Were By the Shadowy Waters to be put on the stage in the Lyceum, it would not cease to be nation- alist in its character; and an essay on Ibsen by A. E. would in its way be as nationalist as an essay from the same pen on the Irish tinkers. It is quite true that Mr. Lloyd George is developing a very marked tendency to speak more often on the Budget than on Welsh Disestablishment, but he is none the less a Nationalist for that. Every speech he delivers, every illustration he draws, every touch of humour and of pathos in his utter- ances are Celtic through and through. He is a great enigma to all Englishmen-even to his admirers. I have never seen anything approaching an accurate estimation of his character from the pen of a Teuton. Many of them, are like Mommsen, happy in the thought that they have stated the whole truth when they have said that the Celt has destroyed almost all the Empires of the West, but has never built a state himself." All they know is this-that a new force has appeared in English politics, utterly regard- less of empty formalities and hoary conven- tions, and they are in a state of terror. At last, a Celt and a nationalist has risen to be managing director of the Finance Depart- ment of Saxon, Limited, and the old formalists are bewildered. Great changes have taken place already in the management. Then there is John Redmond. In his case, and in the case of his party, a sacri- ficing nationalism is reaping its reward. Of course the anti-nationalist and undemocratic party in England has a horror of the in- fluence of the Irish Party in English politics. To many of us, however, the balance of power in the hands of a nationalist party has no horror. The great betrayal of Nation- alism by England ten years ago led to the low water mark of English democracy. It may be that its re assertion by an English Government during the next five years may lead to a golden age of Democracy in England. It will interest our Newport and district readers to learn that Miss Thomas, who has had splendid experience as directress of Continental schools, has commenced evening lessons (private and class) in Italian, German, and French at Ystrad House School, Hill Street. Miss Thomas, we may add, is the daughter of the Rev. S. D. Thomas, a leading and well-known Congregational Minister. Owing to the stormy weather, the Lusi- tania was unable to land mails and passengers at Fishguard on Tuesday, so the steamer proceeded to Liverpool direct. The taunt of a Liverpool daily journal that Fishguard is only a fair weather port" was verified in this instance at any rate. An Eisteddfod was held the other day by Welshmen at Ponoka, Canada. It is surmised that no Eisteddfod has hitherto been held in a place so far North as Ponoka. An interest- ing feature of the gathering was the fact that it was conducted in Welsh throughout. Well done Ponoka