organisation and perseverance, might be made available for better purposes. How constantly in some English circles is music still spoken of as a kind of snare, likely to lead men who are its devotees into low company.' In all ranks it is true that men who possess any accomplishment by means of which they can amuse their fellows are generally popular, especially among idle people; and when a working-man sings his songs or plays his tunes to his companions in the public-house, no doubt the situation is fraught with some peril, to say nothing of the temptation to undue vanity in the performer ! But it would be strange indeed in Germany, where music is a serious thing, to hear such an allegation made against it.

From time to time information comes from various parts of the country, all tending to confirm the belief that such a movement as here has been vaguely shadowed forth is on foot, and slowly but surely making its way. Some facts with regard to the county of Fife in particular are so remarkable as to be worth quoting.

'Great interest is felt in music by the lower classes. There are musical associations in almost every town and village. A committee of gentlemen and others is formed in each such town to make arrangements with an Edinburgh conductor or local professor, and weekly practices are held under his leadership during the winter season. Through these associations the lower orders-fisher people, mill girls, foundry lads-have opportunities of cultivating their taste and developing their voices. In Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy, where the societies are very large, they engage a good Edinburgh orchestra for the public performance. In the fishing village of Anstruther the conductor and members of the orchestra are amateurs and tradespeople, the chorus-singers and soloists are chiefly fisher people. At Leven, in a population of 2,000, there are between seventy and eighty members in the Choral Union. These people read well, mostly from the old notation. Solos in the oratorios are invariably sung by amateurs of all classes. Many of the rank of dressmakers, milliners, and small tradesmen, spend much of their leisure time in getting up these solos and songs for the frequent amateur concerts. There are some very beautiful voices among them; and in some of the girls, and men also, the talent for singing is so great that without instruction they sing their Handelian "runs" with the required distinct vocalisation. Glee clubs, too, are formed, independently of the Choral Union. The Scotch precentor is often a good musician, competent to train a choir, to sing glees and part music, not only correctly but with taste.'

These details are interesting, both in themselves and as furnishing hints which may be widely useful. Here in Fifeshire natural capacity and universal co-operation have quietly and without any fuss established music, vocal music at any rate, on a firm popular footing, from which it may proceed to do great things in time.

It

needs not external support, it does not require to be preached as a crusade, it has become an indigenous, abiding, and elevating interest.

But the working-classes of London and our vast crowded cities, in the fierce struggle for existence, labour under social and physical disadvantages for such a pursuit unknown in remote counties, unknown even in quiet German towns. It is not to be wondered at if help, unnecessary there, is wanted here. But association is the only form of help that will be productive of permanent good. Unless this is attained, we might as well plant a garden by plucking flowers from another garden, sticking them in the ground and expecting them to grow, as go on calling to people to listen to what they cannot or do not share in.

Let nothing that has been said be understood as casting a slur on what has been described as practical philanthropy, nor as depreciating any one of the noble efforts of disinterested men and women to better the condition or raise the mental and moral standard of their suffering fellow-creatures. The purest art and the highest philanthropy are truly one. But, in these things, cause and effect do not follow each other in the anticipated, nor even in the desired, order. The selfdevotion of the philanthropist results in even greater good to himself than to those for whom he labours. The artist who has striven to give adequate expression to a grand thought knows how far his execution has fallen short of his conception, and is disappointed; the gainers by his work are those whom it inspires with his idea. The tendency of philanthropy is towards introspection in its subjects; it invites men to consider themselves with a view to improving themselves. Art points to something beyond and greater than themselves. In aspiring to the highest good men must become better, but only so long as they forget themselves in their object. Of all the great art creations which now serve the ends of philanthropy, not one could have resulted from any amount of calculation, or of conscience, or indeed of culture. The seer simply declares what he beholds, and the artist translates his idea, as best he may, into his own form of art; but the artist who looks away from his ideal to contemplate himself misses his mark, and the student who utilises art as a mere tool for self-improvement defeats his own object. All noble and ennobling art has been, and must be, followed for its own sake.

When we look back on the advance music has made in England since the beginning of the century, it seems wrong to take an unhopeful view. Only all our advance seems to be in the representation of the already presented. Not till music has become the speech of the people will it find anything fresh to say. Not till that has come about will the most heaven-born genius, should he appear among us, have much chance of recognition or appreciation unless first exported and returned to us with a foreign seal. It may well be that the

future of English music lies in the success and the spread of the movement which, in some of its phases, we have described. Till then we seem only to fashion a lovely statue, as Pygmalion did; we add grace after grace and finish after finish till it is all but life-like. We exclaim in delight as we recognise again and again the features and the smile that we have dreamed of-that we know. But in vain we kneel and worship and invoke-in vain, so far. The smiling statue is still a statue. It does not descend from its pedestal; it will, as yet, not live for us.

FLORENCE A. MARSHALL.

SOUTH AFRICA.

In the number of this Review for April 1879, I discussed the remoter causes of the Kaffir and Zulu wars of that and the preceding year. I traced these misfortunes to our having forced on the unwilling colonists of the Cape of Good Hope the system of what is called 'responsible government' as an excuse for withdrawing from them the protection it was our duty to afford. I endeavoured to show that responsible government' was utterly unsuited to the existing state of society in South Africa, and that this country had no right to abdicate its responsibility for protecting both the white inhabitants, and the native tribes in this part of Her Majesty's dominions. I argued that the British Government had failed, in what was its plain duty, by acting upon a policy which was morally certain to cause a succession of cruel and destructive wars between the white and coloured races in this part of Africa, and to which it would be practically impossible to adhere, since no British Government, when real danger arose, could leave subjects of the Queen to be slaughtered, and to have their property destroyed, without taking measures for their protection. I pointed out that the state of things which then existed demonstrated beyond all doubt, that the policy of leaving the white inhabitants of South Africa to manage their own affairs and to defend themselves had failed, and that it had become urgently necessary to decide upon some better policy and to act upon it vigorously. Such were the conclusions which the article I have referred to endeavoured to establish; a consideration of all that has happened since that article was written, and of the additional information laid before the public, tends to show that they were right, and also to prove the urgent necessity for a change of system.

Of this necessity all doubt is removed by the fact, now brought clearly into view, that under the existing arrangements the Cape ministers, without being subject to any real control from the servants of the Crown at home, or from Parliament, are allowed to govern the very large coloured population of Her Majesty's South African dominions, in a manner and in a spirit which, if the case were thoroughly understood, would certainly not be approved by the people of England, who are called upon to provide, and to pay for, a large part of the

military force by which this system of government is maintained. Both the spirit in which the coloured races have been, and still are, governed in the Cape Colony, under its present constitution, and also the powerlessness of the Home Government, are shown in a very striking manner by the account which appeared in the newspapers of an interview given by Lord Kimberley, at the end of May, to a deputation of gentlemen interested in the welfare of the native population of South Africa. Mr. Froude, on behalf of the deputation, complained to the Secretary of State of acts of cold-blooded cruelty which had been committed against helpless natives by certain colonists, who had escaped the punishment they deserved owing to the prevailing feeling of the whites in favour of men of their own colour as against the natives. It was also urged on the part of the deputation, that the Vagrant Act, passed by the Cape Parliament, was most unjust and oppressive to the natives. Their objections to this Act were unanswerable, and might have been made still stronger, since it might have been shown that the real aim of the measure was to place the coloured people under the necessity of working for the whites at low wages. Above all, the deputation remonstrated against the conduct of the Cape Government towards the Basutos, both in depriving them of land to which they consider themselves entitled, and also in requiring them to give up their arms. The reply of Lord Kimberley to the statement laid before him is most instructive. He did not, as it appears, deny that the atrocities described by Mr. Froude had really been committed, and had escaped the punishment they deserved, and could only plead that they had been perpetrated two years ago. With regard to the vagrant law, it contained,' he confessed, some startling clauses,' but he said it had been passed by the Cape Parliament, and he had no power to alter it. to the disarmament of the Basutos, he believed the Cape Government was proceeding with caution, and he expressed his opinion that—

This tribe deserved the highest consideration at our hands; they were singularly loyal, and had made considerable progress in the arts of peace. He added that he had a decided opinion that it would be imprudent if they were not allowed the enjoyment of their land; he had telegraphed to the Governor to take no decided steps until he received further communications from himself, and he had now pointed out very strongly the original understanding of the Basutos on the character of our relations with them, and the possible consequences of the allotment of their land to settlers, and he had advised the reconsideration of the question. More, it was not in his power to do. He hoped the colonists would see that that was an unwise step to take.

Such, according to the report of The Times, was the substance of the reply of the Secretary of State on May 27, to the deputation who pleaded before him the cause of the native tribes of Africa. It will be seen that this answer of Lord Kimberley amounted in fact to a mere confession of helplessness, and of his inability to prevent the Colonial authorities from acting towards the natives in a manner