problems of profound significance affecting the interests, rights, and duties of races which are distinguished, respectively, as white and colored, dominant and subject, higher and lower, advanced and backward. But the awakening of Asia to the impact of Western civilization is doing more than anything else to force attention to these inter-racial problems.

"For East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet," sings our superficial poet of imperialism. No doubt history gives some specious support to the generalization. Western armies, from time immemorial, have traversed in conquering careers the great Asiatic plains, and their bloody tracks have speedily been covered, leaving not a trace. Western monarchs have, from time to time, established a brief reign of force and plunder in the fabled treasure-houses of the East. In recent generations, partly by compulsion, partly by insinuating enterprise, Western trade has penetrated far and wide, even into the most seIcluded corners of the Continent. But none of these happenings did more than ruffle faintly the surface of Oriental life. Even the more solid and lasting conquest of the great Indian Continent has only brought the superficial contacts of imposed political rule, roadmaking and such commerce and industrial interference as follow the facts and the finance of government. This formal and material contact has been accompanied by singularly little spiritual contact of any sort. best-meaning Anglo-Indians have been most outspoken in their confession that the inner life of India, the thoughts, feelings, and vital institutions of its peoples, remain a sealed book to its governors. Since all true government of self or others can only be based upon a sympathetic experience of the inner springs of action, this is really a terrible admission, carrying immeas

Our

urable certainties of wrong and suffering to both of those concerned in such unnatural intercourse. The need for such understanding of subject peoples as is possible, has, perhaps, even greater urgency for upholders than for opponents of imperialism. If our people is either to conduct itself with safety and with credit in the greatest and most formidable enterprise to which it has ever bent its energies, or to retire from an ultimately untenable position with safety and with honor, Briton and Indian must learn more of one another's motives, inner capabilities, and valuations than they have hitherto been able to do.

But for the Western world at large a far more tangled and swiftly maturing set of problems is presented by the rapid changes in the Far East. In a score of places China is beginning now to assimilate the wisdom of the West. In less than another generation her railroad, mining, and electrical equipment will have brought the greater part of this vast teeming country up to the standard of modern material civilization, and will have brought into world-intercourse, on some terms or other, the hugest fund of hidden economic and spiritual forces that the world contains.

Every sane reflective person, either of a Western or an Eastern race, must recognize the perils and the waste involved in drifting so rapidly into the new inter-racial and international external relations here indicated, without any serious attempt to lay foundations of mutual understanding and goodwill. For comparatively little will have been won for civilization by standardizing the arts of government and material good order for the inhabitants of advanced white countries, if the sea of this wider inter-racialism, with its incalculable tides, is allowed to break over the barriers, uncontrolled and uncontrollable. So obvious are these

risks to those who, either by habit of thought or actual experience, have been forced to consider differences of race, that an exceedingly wide support has been given to the Races Congress. Though issues of current political import were not, of course, excluded, they were subordinated to the larger purpose of the Congress, which was to afford a sober and reflective inquiry into the conditions of race-contact which make for the mutual understanding, goodwill, and peaceful co-operation of diverse races. The influential character of the Congress may be gathered

The Nation.

from the following statement in the final programme: "Among the supporters are over thirty Presidents of Parliament, the majority of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and of the Delegates to the Second Hague Conference, twelve Colonial Governors, and eight Colonial Prime Ministers, over forty Colonial Bishops, some one hundred-and-thirty Professors of International Law, the leading Anthropologists and Sociologists, and the officers and the majority of the Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union."

We understand that a suggestion has been recently made that a Central Bureau be established with a view to providing likely titles to distracted novelists. Not to be outdone in a cause the encouragement of literature -which we have always made our own, we beg to announce our intention of going one better. It is not, we believe, so much the lack of titles that has deprived the public of that great wealth of unwritten novels which might even now have been upon our bookstalls, as the difficulty which the writer experiences of getting under way-the icy and forbidding aspect of the blank white sheet that stonily repels the pen.

We have pleasure therefore in giving below a first instalment, by Our Own Expert, of Promising Beginnings.

FOR AN HISTORICAL NOVEL.

I am a plain, blunt man; and John my name. I have no trick of words. For I am ever more at home, as you shall see-else is my task ill donewith halberd and with musketoon and a score of stout fellows at my back than cramped and cabined at the toil of the scrivener. But as it hath SO

happened that false rumor is abroad and the memory of my dear lord is like to suffer for it, and none remains but I to tell the truth of this my tale, I needs must make the best on't. For I have played my part, albeit but an humble one, in great affairs; and yet plain John, am I, and blunt at that. It fell out, then, on a fair June morning that my lord rode forth

FOR A MID-VICTORIAN ROMANCE. 'That night in the cellars of the gentry through bin and bottle froze the ruddy wine; and on the humble doorstep of the poor the morning's milk was solid in the can. For such a frost struck at the heart of this old England as even old Bill Widdicombe, who has lived below the Dell these fifty years, could not call to mind the match of. And the first I heard of it

FOR A FEUILLETON.

Lady Martha Stanley curled herself up on the sofa, impatiently flicking the ash off her cigarette with the point of her scarlet slipper.

"There is not a word of truth in it." she said coldly. "I didn't."

The Vicomte Cordon de Val smiled indulgently.

“Oh, yes, you did," he observed. "I tell you I didn't." "Yes, you did."

"I never did." "You did." "Didn't." "Did."

There was a long pause. The room resounded to the snap of his steel-gray eyes as he gazed intently at her.

"And what if I did?" she said at last.

He had conquered.

FOR A STORY TO BE ENTITLED "FROM KAILYARD TO CABINET."

The whaups (see Glossary) were calling far and wide across the purple moor as Davie reached the brig (bridge) at the foot of the Lang Brae (long hill). There he paused and cast a last, sad, hungry look at the little clachan (see Glossary) far above, where -well he knew-a frail old woman in a doorway was watching, through her tears, the fast-retreating form of "her ain laddie." The whaups continued calling.

Punch.

As he shook the drops from his plaidie (shawl), Davie then and there, in his own dour, stubborn way, registered a solemn vow that he would never cross that brig again, upon his homeward journey, till he could do so as a Cabinet Minister, in a private motor-car. Far other were the thoughts of his old mither (mother), who was trying to calculate, with her native thrift, the postage on his weekly washing. It is the way of the world. And still the whaups were calling.

The purpose of this tale is to show how Davie kept his vow; but through all the stirring scenes of his career he will not be allowed-if we can help it -to lose sight of the homely background of the little clachan, the mither at the wash-tub-and the calling of the whaups.

GLOSSARY.

Whaup: A moor-bird, frequenting the graves of martyrs.

Clachan: A sort of small village where it is raining and they burn peat.

The maxim "one man one vote" has long been endorsed by democratic thinkers in this country, but the com plementary propositions "one vote one value and proportional representation of opinions" have not yet taken root. Historical causes have made our system of representation territorial, and members of Parliament are elected by people who inhabit, or are otherwise connected with, small geographical districts, each of which elects one or two members. This no doubt has always had the merit of simplicity, and may have been the only practicable scheme in past times; but the advantages are now much less than they used to be, and the system is increasingly unsatis

factory. For, with the development of transport facilities common interests, common sympathies and opinions may be spread over a wide area. The question where a man lives has a much smaller force in determining his opinions than in former times, and the separate representation of small electoral areas does not tend to produce an exact representation of the public opinion of the country in the legislative body. The man who lives in any locality has to vote in that place for one of several candidates each of whose views he may dislike. He might prefer to vote for a candidate in an adjoining constituency, or perhaps for a candidate at the other end of the coun

try, if he were permitted to do so. But he is not, and consequently he has to choose between not recording his vote at all, and voting for a candidate with whom he more or less disagrees. This is one good reason, at any rate, for lending a favorable ear to the advocates of proportional representation. Another is that men of high character and ability who fail to satisfy the Party Whips could find their way into the House of Commons. Discussing the problem in a recent book1 Mr. Humphreys, hon. secretary of the Proportional Representation Society, puts his case well. The question is one which Mr. Humphreys has thoroughly mastered; and it is one which, in view of the likelihood of large reforms, is of the first importance. Is the House of Commons fully representative? Or has the time come for adopting a better system in the election of our national representatives? Mr. Humphreys takes as his text the well-known definition of John Stuart Mill: "In a really equal democracy any and every section would be represented, not disproportionately, but proportionately. A majority of the electors would always have a majority of the representatives; but a minority of electors would always have a minority of the representatives." We learn by a careful analysis and by numerous examples the strange results to which our present system is liable, how these false impressions of public opinion are made the basis of legislation, and how thereby the authority of the House of Commons is weakened. Within the last few years the rise of a new party has produced fresh difficulties in representation, difficulties for which the second ballot, or the modified form of it known as the alternative vote, has been proposed as a solution. Mr. Humphreys shows

1 "Proportional Representation." A Study in Methods of Election. By John H. Humph

reys. With an Introduction by the Right

Hon. Lord Courtney of Penwith. (London) Methuen and Co. 5s net.

by examples drawn from countries in which either the second ballot or the alternative vote is in force that far from solving the problem of three parties seeking representation, this proposal may render the representation of each party more uncertain than under the present system. In what is called "proportional representation," Mr. Humphreys finds the remedy, and in this opinion he is supported by a greater authority, Lord Courtney, himself a disciple of Mill, who says in his introduction: "Among ourselves, every political writer and speaker has got some inkling of the central principle of proportional representation, and not a few feel, sometimes with reluctance, that it has come to stay, that it will indeed be worked up into our own system when the inevitable moment arrives for taking up again the reform of the House of Commons. They know and confess so much among themselves."

The first practical instance of proportional representation occurred in Denmark in 1855, when it was applied to the election of the Upper House; since then its use has been considerably extended. The Swiss Canton of Ticino adopted it in 1890 as a solution of political quarrels which had resulted in a revolution; and many other Cantons have followed her example, the most recent being St. Gall, which adopted a scheme last year. The movement towards proportional representation in Switzerland appears to be steadily gaining in favor. A complete system of proportional representation was introduced into Belgium in 1899, with satisfactory results; and among the kingdoms of Southern Germany Würtemberg has followed the example of the Swiss Cantons. Most important of all, it is probably about to be adopted in France, where Parliamentary reform is definitely promised. In Holland the principle has the

support of many of the leading statesmen; and in Finland and Sweden it has been adopted with success. During the last year an instalment of the system has found its way to Republican Portugal, for four large constituencies, each returning ten members. In the Union of South Africa proportional representation has been adopted in the election of the Senate, and in Tasmania, where the House of Representatives is elected on this principle, it is said to work very smoothly. Sir Elliott Lewis, speaking at the annual meeting of the Proportional Representation Society, said that the percentage of spoiled papers in that island was only 2.86. This goes to meet the objection so commonly urged against the proposal that it is too complicated for the elector to understand.

The scheme suggested for our adoption follows broadly that put forward by Thomas Hare in 1857. Its distinguishing feature was "the single transferable vote," and all later proposals in English-speaking countries have been associated with this idea. The working of the single transferable vote may be illustrated by one example. Birmingham is divided into seven singlemember constituencies, and the majority in each case secures a representative, while the minority is unrepresented. Supposing that there were in Birmingham 40,000 Unionists, 20,000 Liberal, and 10,000 Labor votes, it may easily happen that the Unionists will have a majority in each of the seven divisions, and if so, the 40,000 Unionists would obtain the seven seats and the remaining 30,000 voters none. The transferable vote would enable these 70,000 citizens to group themselves into seven sections of equal size, each returning one member, so that there The Economist.

would be four Unionist members, two Liberal, and one Labor-clearly a just representation.

The different meth

ods of applying this principle are explained by Mr. Humphreys with considerable detail and many useful illustrations, such as the model election organized by the Proportional Representation Society in 1908. This experiment showed that elections conducted on the principle of proportional representation were by no means so complicated, regarded either from the point of view of the voter, or of the counting agents, as was widely supposed. Of course, if the whole country were converted into a single electoral area the scheme might become unworkable, but with electoral areas of a moderate size, in which the electors can easily get to know the qualifications of the various candidates, the difficulties would not be overwhelming. It would be well to begin with London and a few large towns. The Royal Commission on Electoral Systems was rather dubious as to whether proportional representation is immediately desirable for the House of Commons. But Lord Courtney reminds us that .the Royal Commission of last spring, while declining to advise the adoption of the principle "here and now," were careful to show that they had no irresistible objection. The Commission, however, reported in favor of this method for selecting senators to sit in a Second Chamber of the Legislature. It would certainly, we think, be the best way of creating a Senate on the basis of popular election, such as is foreshadowed in the preamble of the Parliament Bill. But in that case Mr. Methuen's objection to the creation of two competing elective Chambers would have much weight.