Reviews
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1927.tb02299.x |
| Date | 01 July 1927 |
| Published date | 01 July 1927 |
Reviews
[It
will
be the object
of
the lieviews
of
Books
in
the JOURNAL
to
cover the
whole
ground
of
the literature produced in the preceding quarter which may have
a
bearing upon public administration.
By
this means, it
is
hoped, some assistance
will be given to the student and some direction to tlie general reader.
A
judgment
of
the value
of
the books will be attempted,
as
a
portion
of
the ordinary duty
of
criticism, but the particular
value
of
the
book
in
its
relation
to
the advance
of
the science
of
public administration will be regarded
as
the paramount criterion.]
HISTORY
AND
BIOGRAPHY
I
Viscount
Bryce
James Bryce, Viscount
Bryce
of
Dechmont,
0.M.
Ey
11.
A.
1,.
FISHER.
(J.oiidon
:
THE historical student
of
generations to come will find himself in the
happy position
of
being able to examine the events
of
our time from the
point of view of those who exercised considerable influence in their day.
The nineteenth century has been especially fortunate in the contributions
which have been made to biography, when they are regarded from this
angle. One can compile a list of biographies which not only are indis-
pensable to the student but which in themselves form an admirable and
a11
intimate history
of
the time. From Coupland’s
Wilberfovce
to Morley’s
Gladstone
(by the way, it might have been Bryce’s
Gladstoiir),
passing
through such books
as
Purcell’s
Mui~izi~g,
we
have
a
story which reaches
its culmination in Fisher’s
Bryce.
It is tlie story of freedom, the long
struggle of democracies, and,
as
I
have said, it seems as
if
Bryce mar-ked
the change. There is an inevitable note of sadness at the close
of
the
book.
We seem to have halted. Bryce’s studies were
of
developing
democracies which are coming to
a
change, and none of
us
is able to con-
jecture what that change may be. What we are sure of is that govern-
ment is coming to be too stupendous
a
task to be attempted by what we
have called
“
democratic
”
methods.
If,
for
example, on the day that this
is
written, we put the questions
of
the hour on
a
sheet of paper, and beside
them put the questions
as
raised or dmussed
in
the House of Commons,
we shall see not only that they bear
a
small relation, but that
as
time
goes on they bear
a
smaller relation. Something seems to be coming to
fill the gap. Mussolini’s
“
Corporative State
”
demands far more attention
than it is receiving in England, but even
so
I
doubt myself
if
such
a
structure is the alternative. Rather
I
think we
are
evolving towards a
machinery
of
administration, within the broad authority of democratic
Macmillan
&
Co.)
3x1
Public
Adminis
frat
ion
sanction, but not itself in each detail subject to such sanction.
I
put this
in the first place in
a
brief consideration of Bryce’s work, because
I
feel
that he marks the highest point reached
of
what
I
propose
to
call
“
pure
”
democracy.
Eut the man himself was fully deserving of all that Nr. Fisher says in
what
I
would regard
as
a
model biography. They were, indeed, giants
in those days. They
worked and played abundantly. Science attracted them and
“
Clio
”
was
their mistress. One of the most striking estimates of Bryce appears
from Dr. Randall Davidson. Bryce
was
the minister in attendance on
Queen Victoria at Florence.
Dr.
Davidson spent two hours in the Spanish
Chapel in Santa Maria Novella with Bryce, and was amazed at Bryce’s
detailed knowledge of the frescoes and of the skill with which he argued
the identity of the different persons represented. It was this thorough-
ness which characterized his work in every particular, and the young man
who wrote
The
Hol-y
Rotnaii Empire,
and who provided the text-book on
Tlic
Americaic
Coiisfitirtioit
for the universities and high schools of the
United States, was
a
scientist as well as
a
philosopher
;
and though his
knowledge
was
“
below the standard
of
the specialist
”
in certain directions,
yet in its cumulation, while it all bare upon his central aim,
it
was
a
complete
“
understanding
of
the world in which he lived.”
He followed his political aims with stem loyalty and yet with consider-
able claims for personal freedom. He shared unpopularity with the
“
pro-Boers
”
and his clear distinction between criticism of the govern-
ment of the time and loyalty
to
his country after the die had been cast
brought upon him some disfavour from his own side. He was rather
extreme in his condemnation of the
1902
Education Act, and Mr. Fisher‘s
analysis, with
a
more sober judgment of that Act, calls for special praise.
His Irish University proposals were made at
a
time when the federal
university idea was breaking down in England. He claimed for these
proposals that they were perfectly undenominational, though that was a
curious claim for two sternly denominational (possibly three) theological
faculties, side by side, in the expanded University of Dublin. At any
rate his thirteen months in Ireland did not enable him to see it through,
and Mr. Birrell’s very different scheme was accepted. Then began his
great work in America. In addition to the
Ambassadorial work, including some notable triumphs, he journeyed
about giving addresses, the ultimate moral value of which cannot yet be
estimated, for his letters during the Great War reveal how he held the best
American opinion subject to the impress of his mind and heart.
He could work amicably in Dublin with that brilliant but not very
pliable Civil Servant, Sir Anthony McDonnell, but to my thinking one of
the most tender passages in the book describes his relationship with the
members of the Embassy at Washington. The beauty
of
that relationship
3
rz
They had physical health in abounding measure.
It
was really great work.
To continue reading
Request your trial