What is the

in

the World?

LONDON, April 1st, 1911. Queen Victoria achieved immense Most Valuable Thing popularity among all good people by her famous declaration that "the Bible was the secret of Britain's greatness." Her grandson, King George, in acknowledging the presentation made to him by the Bible Society on the Tercentenary of the publication of the Authorised Version, has qualified for similar grateful recognition in religious circles. His Majesty said :

During three hundred years the multiplying millions of the English-speaking races spreading ever more widely over the surface of the globe have turned in their need to the grand simplicity of the Authorised Version, and have drawn upon its inexhaustible springs of wisdom and courage and joy. It is my confident hope, confirmed by the widespread interest your movement has aroused, that my subjects may never cease to cherish the noble inheritance in the English Bible which, in a secular aspect, is the first of national treasures, and is, as you truly say, in its spiritual significance, the most valuable thing that this world affords.

"The first of national treasures" and "the most valuable thing in the world" are phrases which will probably rank with "the secret of Britain's greatness" as royal certificates for advertising purposes of the best book in the world.

A Revival of Bible-reading.

The celebration of the Tercentenary has led to a great outpouring of rhetoric in praise of the Authorised Version of the Old and the New Testaments. The British and Foreign Bible Society has spent nearly £16,000,000 in one hundred years in circulating this book. It has been translated into about seven or eight hundred languages and dialects. Last year the Society issued 6,600,000 volumes, and the annual increase of issue has been 90,000 per annum for the last fifty years. A Society which spends £700 per day in distributing a single book is a phenomenon in societies. But few societies are better employed. Of their penny New Testa

ment, issued at a loss, they sold 9,000,000 in fifteen years, losing 6,000,000 pence on the transaction. The Bible Society is making a vigorous effort to utilise this Tercentenary to revive interest in the Authorised Version. It is about time they did. The habit of Bible-reading is going out, greatly to the loss of our people. The daily newspaper is now the Scripture of the people; and morning and evening editions have superseded not only the morning and evening service prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer, but the practice of family worship, which at one time was almost universal among Christian folk. A great deal has been said, and justly said, concerning the literary merits of the Bible. But no book ever gets itself read morning and evening by a whole nation merely on its literary merits. It is because it is, and has proved itself to be by the testimony of millions of men and women for generation after generation, the best guide in life and the best stay in death that man has ever possessed.

and

Carlyle long ago declared that The Bible all English-speaking peoples were Anglo-Saxon Union. One in being subjects of King Shakespeare, who from his birthplace in Stratford-on-Avon ruled over all. It has been reserved for President Taft to "go one better" than Thomas Carlyle and to claim the Bible as the true Bond of Union between the British and American peoples. At the great demonstration held in the Albert Hall on March 29th, the American Ambassador read a message from President Taft which, even more than his Arbitration message, will endear him to the hearts of the dwellers in the Homeland. Speaking of the Authorised Version, the President said::

This Book of Books has not only reigned supreme in England for three centuries, but has bound together, as nothing else could, two great Anglo-Saxon nations, one in blood, in speech, and in a common religious life. Our laws, our litera.

ture, and our social life owe whatever excellence they possess largely to the influence of this our chief classic, acknowledged as such equally on both sides of the sea. Americans must, therefore, with unfeigned satisfaction join in thanksgiving to the God of the Bible, Who has thus bound together the Old and the New World by so precious a tie.

So the Old and the New Testaments are the nexus between the Old and the New Worlds.

The Event of the Month.

"Can any good come out of Nazareth?" is a familiar sneer which lost its point after the advent of the Son of the Carpenter, who hewed and sawed and planed planks in that village. In like manner the gibe "Did ever any pacificist motion for a reduction of armaments do anything for peace?" must be scrapped since the motion of Mr. Murray Macdonald bemoaning the increase in the cost of the Navy brought forth the memorable speech of Sir Edward Grey on international peace, the concluding passages of which I gote elsewhere. The Foreign Secretary has long

Photograph by]
A New Portrait of Sir Edward Grey.

been brooding over the possibility of making such a deliverance, but he could hardly have hoped for so good an opportunity of launching his manifesto. The fact that it incidentally extinguished a somewhat dangerous revolt in the left of his own Party against the Naval Estimates of the Government was one of the uncovenanted mercies which are sometimes vouchsafed to those who do well. It is well for Ministers to be reminded. that sometimes "Godliness is profitable for the life that now is as well as for that which is to come." Certainly Sir Edward Grey's unexpected declaration in favour of a policy of peace secured him an immediate Parliamentary advantage, converting suspicious critics into enthusiastic supporters without yielding a single penny to their well-meant but most foolish demands for the reduction of a Navy already in grave danger of falling below the indispensable standard of two keels to

one,

Two Objects.

Sir Edward Grey rose late at

Sir Edward Grey's night on Monday, March 13th, to oppose the motion brought, forward by Mr. Murray Macdonald binding us to reduce our expenditure without reference to the expenditure of other States. He had, of course, no difficulty in disposing of the motion; but that was not the important part of his speech. After having dealt with the objections of the critics of the Government, he proceeded to lay down in memorable language the objects of the foreign policy of the Ministry. After maintaining existing friendships with France and Russia, Sir Edward Grey declared himself in favour of a good understanding with Germany on political and social questions, and in favour of an arbitration treaty with America on the broad basis suggested by President Taft. It was a declaration of principles and an avowal of aspirations with which readers of this REVIEW have been familiar since the publication of our first address to all English speaking folk. It is worth waiting twenty-one years to hear the echo of such a message pealing out from the minarets of the Foreign Office.

"England's Lost Leadership

in Peace."

It is only three months since I published a lament in the Contemporary Review on "England's Lost Leadership in the Cause of Peace." All that was left to us was to follow the American lead; but even that, I complained, was not being done. The Americans were forging ahead; we were hanging back. A twelvemonth had passed since President Taft's remarkable declaration in favour of arbitration without limitations, but no response had come from our side. The Foreign Office still seemed to be under the same malign influence which had stultified Sir Edward Grey's policy on armaments at the Hague Conference. Just at that time Lord Morley took temporary charge of the Foreign Office in the absence of its chief. It would seem as if the presence of his commanding personality had done something to cause a great light to shine among those who sit in the mephitic darkness of Downing Street, and in the strength of that new influence Sir Edward Grey ventured to assert himself once more. Anyhow, he suddenly seems to have waked up, and in March, 1911, he came down to the House of Commons to proclaim the importance of making a response to the speech which President Taft had made just twelve months before. Better late than never. When Rip van Winkle really opens his eyes it is unkind to refer to the length of his nap. And there is no doubt that Rip van Winkle Grey,

having wakened up at last, did his utmost to atone for his previous delay. If only he will live up to the March 13th standard all will be well.

Rejoice with Trembling!

We hope for the best, but it is well to prepare for the worst. For however admirable was Sir Edward Grey's speech on Arbitration last month, it was not more admirable than Sir Edward Grey's speech in favour of an international agreement for a mutual reduction of expenditure which was delivered before the last Hague Conference met. If the Arbitration manifesto is to have the same kind of sequel as the Armament declaration, the last state of the question will be worse than the first. If it is not to have the same sequel, the public opinion of the country must be clearly, emphatically, and continuously affirmed. If any difficulty arises it will have to be surmounted by the driving force of the national movement. Sir Edward Grey is willing enough; he is always full of good-will for all good causes, whether it is that of Disarmament, of Congo reforms, of Manchurian railways, of the rights of the Bosnians, or of the abolition of hereditary legislature. Yet somehow on one and all of these questions Sir Edward Grey jumped off well, but long before the winning post was reached there was a click in his gallop. As it has been, so it may be. As it has been, so it will be, unless public opinion expresses itself with unanimity and determination. Fortunately the need for this has presented itself simultaneously to both nations, and a series of demonstrations is in progress on both sides of the Atlantic which will, I trust, be strong enough to enable Sir Edward Grey to give effect to his own generous impulses.

Arbitration, not Alliance.

The only slip which Sir Edward Grey made was the speculation in which he indulged as to whether arbitration might not ultimately have alliance as its corollary. This was a natural vein of speculation for one who was approaching the question from the point of view of the demand for a reduction of armaments. As Mr. Balfour pointed out, no Arbitration Treaty between Britain and America would abate the necessity for armaments, because the two English-speaking peoples are not arming against each other. Hence, if Sir Edward Grey had to recommend his Arbitration Treaty to the advocates of a reduction of the Estimates, it was necessary to suggest some way in which AngloAmerican arbitration might help them to their goal. His suggestion that the parties to an Arbitration Treaty might supplement it by an agreement to pool