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calls it, would be difficult to match.) Even so wellinformed a writer as Dr Inge, in his book on 'England,' states that the indigenous population (of Ireland) is mainly of neolithic or Mediterranean stock,' a first-class 'howler' which reveals an unsuspected ignorance of the elements of archæology.*

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Some of these books fall still-born from the press, others have a wide circulation. And herein lies the danger. The Bellman's adage becomes increasingly apt. 'What I tell you three times is true.' Mere repetition in the public press carries conviction. A controversial article by the leader of the self-styled 'historical' school even found its way into a recent volume of the • Encyclopædia Britannica' (s.v. Anthropology '), but a corrective was fortunately included in the next issue. A literary journalist, Mr H. J. Massingham, known for his charming studies of bird-life and metaphysical poets, in a new book, 'Downland Man,' introduced by Dr Elliot Smith and based on the theories of the Egyptian school, has written an 'imaginative reconstruction' of Avebury, built, of course, by Egyptian searchers for 'givers of life,' as 'the capital of England'—a view which displays as alarming a credulity as any of the instances referred to above. The somewhat flamboyant style (Avebury is 'The Serpent of Old Nile,' and there is much more of this sort) might have warned reviewers to be on their guard; but in several reputable journals enthusiastic columns have hailed this addition to our knowledge,' and proclaimed the discovery of 'our earliest capital' as a serious achievement. And stray allusions in the daily and weekly press by leader-writers and essayists show that the attractive idea of a Nile-born origin of all human culture is already taken for granted, in many quarters, as a 'scientific fact,' like Gravitation, or the Circulation of the Blood.

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A publisher has recently announced the forthcoming issue of a series of works, directed by Dr Elliot Smith and Mr Perry, in which the new theories are to be presented in a popular form. Mr Massingham is to contribute a volume on 'The Golden Age,' dealing with the time when war was not. It is hoped that the present article may supply something in the nature of an antidote to this intensive propaganda. H. ST L. B. Moss.

* P. 148.

Art. 11.-EMPIRE DEFENCE.

My Working Life. By Colonel Lord Sydenham of Combe. Murray, 1927.

LORD SYDENHAM was born in 1848. In 1927 he finds that, to those who pass the allotted three score years and ten, there comes a time when troubles, once easily thrown off, tend to become chronic, leading to growing disabilities. At the age of seventy-five he was compelled to sever his connexion with various public bodies because younger men could serve them better, and he thus lost touch with many of the valued colleagues with whom he had long worked. He has found the beginning of detachment from public life and comparative isolation to be the great trials of his old age. He should consider himself fortunate. The sweetest canticle,' wrote Francis Bacon as a consolation to those so situated, 'is Nunc Dimittis, when a man hath achieved worthy ends and expectations.' Lord Sydenham has achieved many worthy ends, and the life has yet to be written of the man who has achieved all his expectations.

Lord Sydenham's life has followed the right lines for one of his temperament. It has been a life of continuous and prolonged labour; not always congenial, it is true, but better than leisure for one who, by his own showing, has cultivated no hobby wherefrom to draw contentment at an age when congenial employment in the public service is no longer obtainable. There is no true rest,' wrote Charles Kingsley (a strenuous worker in another field for the good of his fellow-citizens), but in labour.' 'No true misery,' wrote Thomas Carlyle, 'but in that of not being able to work,' and, judged by such standards, Lord Sydenham is to be congratulated in having retained, to so advanced an age, his broad mental outlook and his amazing industry. He tells us that:

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'In the eight years since the Armistice, I find that I have written more than 1000 articles and about 300 letters in 24 London and 5 Provincial papers, in 10 foreign journals, mainly American, and in 32 magazines and other publications. There were also many speeches and interviews. These multitudinous efforts of my old age covered many subjects.'

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The subjects touched upon in 'My Working Life' are so diverse, that it is not possible to deal with one-tenth of them adequately in a short review. First and foremost amongst them stands Empire defence, and upon this it will be best to concentrate, because it was in this connexion that the author performed public services of the greatest permanent value to the Nation and Empire which he served so long and so faithfully, sometimes disregarding his own personal interest in fearless attacks upon systems and upon departments which had the power to wreck his career. Many years of hard work brought that career-as far as Empire defence was concerned to its zenith in the Secretaryship of the Committee of Imperial Defence in the years 1904-1907:

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'I look back upon my three and a half years of Secretaryship as among the most important in my career; because of the insight into Cabinet Government which I gained, while, thanks to the kindness of two Prime Ministers, I was permitted not only to express my views for what they were worth with complete freedom, but to raise any questions to which I attached Imperial importance. . . . In those years, I think that it may be said that the study of the questions involved in preparation for War in the complex conditions of an Empire like our own was begun; but much remained to be done by my able successors.'

The two Prime Ministers referred to were Mr (now Earl) Balfour and Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, men differing widely in temperament and in outlook upon public affairs. It fell to Lord Sydenham's lot, as head of the permanent staff of the Committee, to justify its existence and to ensure its continuity at the most critical stage of its growth, at the time when the Liberal party came into power in 1906, and with it a Cabinet which, according to Mr Churchill, contained elements hostile to such of its members as Mr Asquith and Sir Edward Grey on account of their tendency to 'wander into patriotic pastures.'

In the period during which Lord Sydenham was Secretary, the Liberal Government held only sixteen meetings of the Defence Committee, as compared with eighty-two in the time of its predecessor; but useful work was done by many Sub-Committees. On July 19, Vol. 249.-No. 494.

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1907, Lord Sydenham was appointed Governor of Bombay. He had been specially bidden (by whom, he does not tell us) to try to accustom Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman to methods of procedure which he was believed to distrust, and success in that mission, which ensured the permanence of this new and important addition to the machinery of government, is proved by the author's quotation from a letter written by that Prime Minister in August 1907. I take the following extract:

'I should like to assure you how much I enjoyed our relations on the C.I.D., how greatly I valued your advice and suggestions, and how complete was the confidence which I had learned to place in your opinion and knowledge of affairs. I was, as you know, always sceptical as to the use and working of the Committee, but I am completely converted.'

The Committee of Imperial Defence, having thus been saved from extinction, was certain to grow, and the building of the edifice was continued. Sir Maurice Hankey, the present Secretary (who is also Clerk to the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet), recently dealt with the history and developments of the Committee in a public lecture that he delivered to the University of London; and Lord Balfour, who occupied the chair on that occasion, provided a lucid explanation of its functions, and of its great place in the conduct of public affairs:

'It is surely self-evident that you cannot possibly coordinate all the forces of a nation if you limit your co-ordinating machinery to the three fighting services. One of the immense advantages of the Committee of Imperial Defence is that it does deliberately and explicity include within the sphere of its consideration every department of the Government, and, in time of war, every national activity, which can be enlisted in support of the common cause. But although this is one of the greatest services which the Committee of Imperial Defence performs, it is not the only one. It has performed, and is performing, another duty which, for sheer want of proper machinery, was never adequately attempted before. It sets itself out to foresee the kind of strain which at the outbreak of war will suddenly be imposed upon the whole social system of a modern State, and, as far as possible, to prepare beforehand the means of mitigating its effects.'

That quotation furnishes us with a picture of the edifice, added to by others, of which Lord Balfour himself laid the foundation-stone in 1904. Here we can follow the analogy of the great buildings which are now springing up in various parts of London. We are told, and we have the evidence of our own eyes in support of the statement, that one-third of the work on those buildings is done below the ground, before the foundationstones are laid on the surface. Having been in a position in Whitehall to have an intimate knowledge of Lord Sydenham's work (as Captain G. S. Clarke, R.E.) in those days, I should call him not only the architect of the building, but also the excavator of the foundations upon which the Committee of Imperial Defence rests, and to which it owes its strength. It is to that cause that his memoirs owe their great value, both to the historian and to the general reader. The author gives them a good insight into the difficulties that must be faced by all pioneers in the public service when attempting to reform Government departments from within, and he gives them also some indications of where the power lies under our system of Government. It happens, not infrequently, that a policy is initiated, and carried to completion, by some public servant whose name may never appear in published documents. This point is familiar to many historians to whom archives, once secret,' have become accessible, and to whom the importance of extending their researches to private correspondence and documents has thus become apparent. To those who, in due course, turn their attention to the creation of our Government machinery for the conduct of warfare (just in time to enable us to face the great crisis of 1914), Lord Sydenham's life will be an indispensable historical 'source.'

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Considerations of space do not permit us to follow his early career from the time when, after a somewhat unconventional education at several schools, he served as an officer of the Royal Engineers at Chatham, Aldershot, Coopers Hill (as lecturer in practical geometry and engineering drawing), Bermuda, and Gibraltar; or his war services in Egypt in 1882 and in the Soudan up to 1885. During the years 1883-84 the point was first brought home to him that in matters pertaining to war

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