Since the above lines were written, King Charles has made his second attempt to ascend the Hungarian Throne. In the circumstances outlined above it was doomed to failure. So was Louis Napoleon's second coup d'état-Putsch is the modern word-at Boulogne. Charles, as was Louis Napoleon, is now held in captivity. But in the world of the aeroplane, Madeira is not so very much further from the palace at Buda than Ham was from the Tuileries.

The interest of the second Putsch lies in the test which it has afforded of the cohesion of the Little Entente. As all the world knows now, Rumania at the critical moment refused to mobilise. The Big Entente was thus enabled to rentrer en scène, and (with suitable concessions to save the face of Prague and Belgrade) to dictate the terms to Hungary. The obedient Government of Admiral Horthy hastened to pass a law annulling the Pragmatic Sanction, and excluding the House of Hapsburg for ever from the Hungarian Throne. The enactment in itself of course is not worth the paper on which it is written; for, if ever there was a case of that most ancient (and sound) principle of Hungarian Constitutional Law, 'Vis maior non potest efficere validam legem,' it was this. There are those who believe that the Kossuthist anti-Hapsburg tradition in Hungary, which once again came strongly into the light during the Putsch, is strong enough to make a King, and establish a Dynasty, in the person of Admiral Horthy. That depends on the view which is taken of the policy, and still more of the personality, of Admiral Horthy. There is at any rate a precedent in History. Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?'

Vol. 237.-No. 470.

Art. 9.-DAVID HENDERSON.

In the long roll of Scottish arms there may be found most varieties of temper and endowment, and he would be a bold man who would dogmatise on the character of the Scottish soldier. But one figure appears with such regularity as almost to constitute a type-the man who to courage adds a peculiar gentleness, to military attainments a love of the humane arts, to the power of leadership the gift of winning affection. From the great Montrose onwards, conspicuous instances will occur to the student of history, and I have many such in my mind among the soldiers of to-day. It is the Happy Warrior out of whose strength comes forth sweetnessthe man who

'endued as with a sense

And faculty for storm and turbulence,

Is yet a soul whose master-bias leans

To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes.'

At first one may wonder at their choice of profession. Andrew Lang once said of David Henderson, after a conversation on some abstruse historical point, that 'He must be a very lonely man in the army.' But the judgment is hasty, for it is to the army that one looks especially for that rare union of fortitude and grace, like the quality of a tempered sword.

David Henderson was born in 1862 of a well-known family of Glasgow shipbuilders. On his mother's side he was of Highland descent; and, indeed, he always seemed to me to be the perfect combination of the two Scottish race-stocks, the lowland and the highland, the covenanting and the cavalier. He had the shrewdness and 'canniness' of the Lowlands, their long patience, their dislike of humbug, their sense of irony in life and character. And he had, too, something of the tough knuckle of obstinacy which goes with these endowments. A touch of the Shorter Catechist' was not wanting, for he had an austere sense of duty and a vigilant conscience. On the other side were imagination and a warm generosity of brain and heart. He was always extraordinarily susceptible to new ideas and quick to kindle. He had his countrymen's capacity for honest sentiment; tradition and romance played on his

mind like music; and behind his reserve lay something gay and adventurous and debonair. All this might be read in his face, one of the handsomest I have ever seen. In repose it was apt to be grave, wise, a little stern; but the deep eyes had always a boyish ardour and commonly some hint of whimsical humour. One could equally well picture him with the steel headpiece of an Ironside, singing Psalms by Oliver's elbow, or in a plumed hat riding with Montrose through the storms to Inverlochy.

He began life with an engineer's training, but his heart was in soldiering, and in 1883 he joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders through Sandhurst. In 1890 he became a captain, and seven years later joined the staff of the Intelligence Department. The following year he was in the Sudan Campaign, where he was mentioned in despatches and received a brevet majority. In 1899 he was in South Africa-before the outbreak of war, when he did valuable Intelligence work, often at great personal risk. He was shut up in Ladysmith and wounded during the siege, and afterwards was appointed by Lord Kitchener his Director of Intelligence, finishing the war with a D.S.O. and a lieutenant-colonelcy. The post was scarcely a bed of roses; and his particular duties called for the exertion of all his great qualities of tact, patience, and good humour. It was in South Africa that I first came to know him well; and I used to feel that his quiet evenness of temper was no easy achievement, but the consequence of a strong will dominating high-strung nerves and a most sensitive spirit.

On his return he became D.A.Q.M.G. at Aldershot, and rose steadily in his profession till, in 1912, he was Director of Military Training at the War Office. To this period belongs the only literary work of his which I can trace. Between 1905 and 1909 he contributed several articles to the 'Quarterly Review.' One of these,* a paper on the Territorial Force, in the number for January 1909, created something of a sensation in the Army, and earned the warm admiration of Lord Roberts. David Henderson was a master of clean unrhetorical

• The others were: The Price of Peace' (October 1905); 'The First Year of the Boer War' (July 1906); and 'Mr Haldane and the Army' (April 1907).

prose; and the curious prescience and detachment of this paper make one regret that he found so little leisure to write on matters connected with his profession. In it he notes unerringly the merits of the Haldane reconstruction and its defects. He concludes thus:

'Hampered by limited funds, obstructed by prejudice, responsible to a people which refuses to recognise its natural obligations, Mr Haldane has created order out of chaos. The thanks of the Volunteers are due to him for having granted them their chief desire-the power of being of use to their country. Still more does he deserve gratitude from those shameless ones who tremble at the thought of taking an active part in the defence of their homes. For a few years they are safe. While peace lasts, they may employ their leisure by crowding to see men play cricket or football; if war comes, they will be able to huddle under a white flag to see men die.'

Meantime he had found a new interest in life. As an old Intelligence officer, the possibilities of aircraft in war were obvious to him from the start; and, in face of the scepticism of the more conservative, he showed his belief in the new arm by qualifying as a pilot. In 1911, when he was Chief Staff Officer to Sir John French at the Horse Guards, he took his certificate at Brooklands, being then in his fiftieth year; and so created a double record, as the man who had taken his ticket' in the shortest time, and as the oldest man in the world who could fly. That so distinguished a senior officer should take an interest in flying was a fortunate thing for the new service; and it was natural that the new Air Battalion at Farnborough should be placed under the department of the Director of Military Training. David Henderson was the moving spirit in the group of men, appointed by the Imperial Defence Committee, who organised the Royal Flying Corps. In 1913 he became Director-General of Military Aeronautics, a post which he held till 1917. In this early organisation he steadfastly maintained one principle-that the Royal Flying Corps must be a single service with naval and military wings, and not two divergent and competing activities. Much waste and delay would have been saved if this system had been perpetuated; but within six months,

in spite of all his efforts, the Navy and Army had begun to draw apart, and it was not till 1918 that the idea of a single service was realised.

When war broke out, David Henderson-for some years now a General and a K.C.B.-went to France in command of the Royal Flying Corps, the three squadrons, containing practically every available machine, which had flown across the Channel in the first days of August. To the doings of that little band Lord French has borne witness.

'Their skill,' he said, 'energy and perseverance have been beyond all praise. They have furnished me with the most complete and accurate information, which has been of incalculable value in the conduct of the operations. Fired at constantly both by friend and foe, and not hesitating to fly in every kind of weather, they have remained undaunted throughout.'

Like every regimental officer, David Henderson's deepest ambition was to lead troops in the field, and he always hankered after the command of a division, which for a short time at the end of 1914 he obtained. But he acquiesced cheerfully when it was impressed upon him that his true work lay in the new service which he had created. In the late summer of 1915 the Royal Flying Corps was expanding with such amazing rapidity that his presence was required in London; and he resumed his old post of Director-General of Military Aeronautics and Air Member of the Army Council. For the next two years he led a crowded and anxious life. Here was a brand-new weapon, devised just before the opening of war, and developing feverishly under the impulse of daily necessities. To use it a brand-new service had been created, which had to find organisation, tone, tradition, and everything at the shortest notice. Moreover, supply had to be arranged for by means of brand-new factories; and there was bound to be trouble between the Royal Aircraft Factory and the private maker, who could only look to the Government for his market. Finally, the head-quarter organisation and its place in the hierarchy of Government were unsettled; and the Navy and the Army were in furious competition.

In any controversy as to the merits of the British