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C o m p a r a t i v e P o l i t i c s

O F T H E G l o b a l S o u t h

F I F T H E D I T I O N

C o m p a r a t i v e

P o l i t i c s

G l o b a l S o u t h O F T H E

L I N K I N G C O N C E P T S & C A S E S D E C E M B E R G R E E N L A U R A L U E H R M A N N

Published in the United States of America in 2022 by Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.

1800 30th Street, Suite 314, Boulder, Colorado 80301 www.rienner.com

and in the United Kingdom by Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.

Gray’s Inn House, 127 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1 5DB www.eurospanbookstore.com/rienner

© 2022 by Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Green, December, author. | Luehrmann, Laura, 1969– author. Title: Comparative politics of the Global South : linking concepts and cases / December Green, Laura Luehrmann.

Description: Fifth edition. | Boulder, Colorado : Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “An innovative blend of theory and empirical material that accessibly introduces the politics of what was once called the ‘third world’”— Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022000118 | ISBN 9781955055550 (paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: Developing countries—Politics and government—Case studies. | Developing countries—Economic policy—Case studies.

Classification: LCC JF60 .G74 2022 | DDC 320.9171/24—dc23/eng/20220318 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022000118

British Cataloguing in Publication Data

A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.

Printed and bound in the United States of America

The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1992.

5 4 3 2 1

To our students past, present, and future

You inspired this book and you motivate us to continue with it. Keep asking questions, and go change the world

2.1

Preface

T h e f i r s t e d i t i o n o f t h i s t e x t w a s p u b l i s h e d i n 2 0 0 3 . We w r o t e i t

in the wake of September 11, 2001, when the world was coming to grips with

one of the most audacious terrorist attacks ever, and the United States was on

the precipice of a new era of global engagement. HIV/AIDs was continuing to

ravage much of the world, the opaque nature of the emerging war on terrorism

was just beginning, and widespread awareness of greenhouse gas emissions and

the vast extent of human-made climate change was taking on new importance.

In the first edition, there was no discussion of social media, and, even though

w e d i s c u s s e d t h e t e r m i n o l o g i c a l d r a w b a c k s t o s u c h l a n g u a g e , o u r c a s e s w e r e

framed as members of the “third world ”

It’s simple, but true: much has changed in the twenty years since we began

w o r k i n g o n t h i s p r o j e c t T h e U S - l e d w a r i n A f g h a n i s t a n e n d e d i n d i s a p p o i n t -

m e n t a n d u n c e r t a i n t y ; a f t e r a n “ A m e r i c a F i r s t ” a d m i n i s t r a t i o n , m a n y o p e n l y

q u e s t i o n t h e U S c o m m i t m e n t t o g l o b a l l e a d e r s h i p ; C h i n a ’s i m p o r t a n c e i s n o

longer doubted; and the third wave of democracy despite the initial hopes for

a democratic windfall from the Arab Spring has decidedly crashed. Authori-

tarianism and populism touch politics in every part of the world, as strong lead-

ers combine the powerful forces of nationalism with technology. The digitiza-

t i o n o f s o m a n y a s p e c t s o f d a i l y l i f e f r o m s o c i a l m e d i a c o m m u n i c a t i o n t o

classroom instruction and even daily commerce may increase access to infor-

mation (although it exposes great gaps), but it also enables the easy surveillance

a n d t r a c k i n g o f e v e n t h e s i m p l e s t t r a n s a c t i o n s . A n d t h e n t h e r e ’s t h e C o v i d - 1 9

pandemic. As this book goes to press, yet another highly contagious variant is

s p r e a d i n g a r o u n d t h e g l o b e , a n d t h e w i d e i n e q u i t i e s t h a t a n i m a t e m a n y o f t h e

challenges we discuss in the pages ahead continue to impact countries’ abilities

to respond to the most significant public health crisis in our lifetimes

Ye t , we contended then, as we do even more strongly now, that the voices of people in what can be called the developing world, third world, majority world, or global south (fighting words that we address in Chapter 1) need to be heard We also argued then (and argue now) that attention must be paid to the socalled ordinary people the less visible, yet consequential individuals (somet i m e s o rg a n i z e d i n g r o u p s , o t h e r t i m e s n o t ) w h o r a l l y t o e i t h e r p r e s e r v e o r xi

change the status quo Whether it is an aggrieved fruit seller in Tunisia, univer-

sity students in Nigeria, or an inquisitive doctor in China, some of the people

who spark change within their societies never (or rarely) make the headlines or

rise to the trending-topic ranking on social media. Our hope is to spotlight some

of these agents of change their voices, experiences, struggles, and dreams to

provide a more complete picture of politics, economy, and society in the twenty-

first-century world.

Projects are never solitary; we are fortunate to have a supportive cast of char-

acters who have assisted us along the way Special thanks to Linda Caron, dean

of the College of Liberal Arts at Wright State University, for her support of this

p r o j e c t a n d o f o u r w o r k i n g e n e r a l O u r c o l l e a g u e s a t Wr i g h t S t a t e S c h o o l o f

Public and International Affairs, and later, the School of the Social Sciences and

International Studies have been particularly helpful in the formulation and com-

pletion of this book, as well as in creating a supportive environment that fuses

e x c e l l e n c e i n t h e c l a s s r o o m w i t h a c t i v e r e s e a r c h I t w a s e s p e c i a l l y h e l p f u l t o

have designated writing days with two of our colleagues Lee Hannah and Dan

Wa r s h a w s k y w i t h w h o m w e s h a r e d t h e t r i u m p h s a n d t r a v a i l s o f t h e w r i t i n g

process, as well as many laughs. We also give special thanks to Shirley Barber

for her assistance with many of the figures, as well as to her overall moral sup-

port. But it is to our students that we express our greatest admiration; their ques-

tions have motivated much of the shape of the book. Their insights, curiosities,

a n d f r u s t r a t i o n s h e l p e d c l a r i f y w h a t n e e d e d t o b e i n c l u d e d i n a n i n t r o d u c t o r y

text, and they continue to ins pire us to as k better ques tions and try to capture

an ever-changing world in terms that are meaningful.

We a r e a l s o g r a t e f u l t o a l l t h e w o n d e r f u l p e o p l e a t Ly n n e R i e n n e r P u b -

l i s h e r s , b u t p a r t i c u l a r l y t o Ly n n e h e r s e l f f o r u n d e r s t a n d i n g t h e n e e d f o r t h i s

b o o k a n d f o r g o i n g a b o v e a n d b e y o n d , u s i n g h e r e x p e r i e n c e a n d e x p e r t i s e t o

refine it Her support in carrying this project to a fifth edition is greatly appre-

ciated We clearly remember connecting with Lynne in the early months of the

C o v i d - 1 9 p a n d e m i c , w h e n w e w e r e s t i l l f a c i n g r a t h e r s t r i c t l o c k d o w n m e a s -

u r e s , t o d i s c u s s t h e t i m e t a b l e a n d s c o p e f o r t h e n e x t i t e r a t i o n o f t h i s p r o j e c t

S p e c i a l t h a n k s t o M o o r e a C o r r i g a n ; o u r p r o d u c t i o n e d i t o r, S h e n a R e d m o n d ;

a n d o u r e x c e l l e n t c o p y e d i t o r, w h o s e d i l i g e n c e h a s h e l p e d u s p r e s e n t a c l e a r e r,

m o r e a c c u r a t e p r o d u c t .

Between us, we’ ve had three sons grow up with the various editions of this

book, and both of our partners have learned to provide that delicate balance of

support, encouragement, humor, and distance. To Dave and Joe, we express our

love and profound appreciation.

December Green

Laura Luehrmann

1

Comparing and Defining an Interdependent World

No human culture is inaccessible to someone who makes the effort to understand, to learn, to inhabit another world. Henry Louis Gates1

I n p e r i o d s o f c r i s i s , s

PANDEMIC,* we all became acutely conscious of the ways in which even our day-today lives and most basic routines can be impacted by things that happen thousands o f m i l e s a w a y E

l i k e l y d u e f

West Africa), it is striking to consider the many ways, both dramatic and subtle, that our world, and our interactions with others, has changed since the March 11, 2020, declaration by the World Health Organization (WHO) that the novel coronavirus labeled Covid-19 was indeed a pandemic.2 Facing such upheaval, the entire world seemed to change. “Working from home” became the norm in nearly every part of the globe, as all but those deemed “essential” were instructed to “shelter in place” as much as possible to help stop the spread of this highly cont a g i o u s r e

learning” stood alongside concepts infused with new meanings, including “social distancing” and “Zoom,” as we all tried to figure out the best way to navigate a rapidly moving, seemingly ever-changing landscape At once, borders and geography seemed both crucial (as countries closed to all but the most essential traffic)3

global advance of the virus and its variants, even if they did slow the spread of the disease) 4 The events of recent years provide a vibrant laboratory from which we can analyze our engagement with the world

In this book we take a comparative approach to the study of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. How should we refer to this immense collection

*Terms appearing in SMALL CAPITAL LETTERS are defined in the Glossary, which begins on p 493

in a name In fact, it was only in the prior edition of this text that we changed the title from Comparative Politics of the Third World to Comparative Politics of t h e G l o b a l S o u t h Some may argue this change was long overdue. This shift in t

terminology, but also a heightened recognition by scholars, practitioners, citizens, and activists alike that, despite its drawbacks, the concept of the “global south” is the least offensive and most value-neutral label (despite some obvious g e o g

) . 5

with a short review of some of the terminology and disputes surrounding characterizations of the majority of the world’s population

There are numerous labels we may employ One of the most common (and, indeed, the most provocative), is “third world ” Why? The term “third world” (tiers monde) was coined by French demographer Alfred Sauvy In a 1952 article, Sauvy borrowed from eighteenth-century writer Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes to compare relatively poor countries of the world to the “third estate” (the people) at the time of the French Revolution Sieyes characterized the third estate as ignored, exploited, and scorned Sauvy characterized the third world similarly, but pointed out that it, like the third estate, has the power to overcome its status.6

So what’s so off-putting, then, about the term “third world”? First and foremost, it is objectionable for both logical and emotional reasons. Former WORLD BANK president and US deputy secretary of state Robert Zoellick once declared that there is no longer a third world.7 Not only do critics of the term disdain the concept as unwieldy and obsolete, but they also fault it as distorting reality in attempting to geopolitically and economically classify a diverse group of countries.

And let’s face it, the term “third world” can be fighting words. The phrase carries a lot of negative baggage, and is viewed to be antiquated and offensive terminology 8 Many people cringe at hearing the term and avoid using it because, at the very least, it sounds condescending and quaintly racist It is not unusual f

the world, having no voice and little weight or relevance That is certainly not the case, as this book demonstrates

The geopolitical use of the term “third world” dates back to the COLD WAR, the period of US-Soviet rivalry from approximately 1947 to 1989, reflecting the ideological conflict that dominated international relations. For decades following World War II the rich, economically advanced, industrialized countries, also known as the “first world,” were pitted against the Soviet-led, communist “seco n d w o r l d . ” I n t h i s r i v a l r y, e a c h s i d e d e s c r i b e d w h a t i t w a s d o i n g a s s e l fdefense, and both the first and second worlds claimed to be fighting to “save” t h e p l a n e t f r o m t h

M u c h o f t h i s b a t t l

chess game Defined simply as the remainder of the planet being neither first n

bringing to mind countries that are poor, agricultural, and overpopulated

C o m p a r i n g a n d D e f i n i n g a n I n t e r d e p e n d e n t Wo r l d 3

Yet, consider the stunning diversity that exists among the countries of every region of the world: surely they cannot all be lumped into a single category and c h a r a c t e r i z e d a

world), but during the Cold War it viewed itself as the leader of the third world. What about Israel? Because of the dramatic disparities within it, the country can b e c

South, or Appalachia, and you will find the so-called third world, or what some even characterize as “fourth world.”9 With the Cold War long over, why aren’t t h

world? Certainly, the poorest of them are more third world than first

The fact is, many countries fall between the cracks when we use the threew o r l d s t y p o l o g y S o m e o f

others have been industrializing for so long that even the term “newly industrializing countries” (NICs) is dated (it is still used, but has largely been replaced by “emerging economies”) Therefore, in appreciation of the diversity contained w i t h i n t h e t h i r d w o r l d

ficity by adding more categories Under this schema, the emerging countries and a few others that are most appropriately termed “emerging and developing count r i e s ” a r e l a b e l e d “ t h i r d w o r l d ” ( e . g . , I n d i a , S o u

. “Fourth world” countries could include those states that are not industrializing, but have some resources to sell on the world market (e.g., Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Egypt), or some strategic value that wins them some foreign assistance. The label “less developed country” (LDC) is the best fit in most of these cases since it simply describes their situation and implies little in terms of their prospects for DEVELOPMENT. And finally, we have the “fifth world,” which Henry Kissinger o n c e c a l l

“

w o r l d ’s p o o r e s t c

tries” (LLDCs), they have been under-developed With little to sell on the world market, they are eclipsed by it The poorest in the world, with the worst ratings for virtually every marker of human development, these countries are marginalized and utterly dependent on what little foreign assistance they receive

To d a y, i t i s m

r e f e r r e d t o a s “ d

d c

n t r i e s , ” o r “ u n d e rdeveloped countries.” Currently in vogue are also the stripped-down, minimalist t e r m s “ l o w - i n c o m e c o u n t r i e s ” ( L I C s ) , “ h

i

” ( H I C

) , a n d even low- and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs). These are just a few of the labels used to refer to a huge expanse of territories and peoples, and none are entirely satisfactory. First, our subject comprising four major world regions is so vast and so heterogeneous that it is difficult to speak of it as a single entity. Second, each name has its own political implications and each insinuates a politi c a l m e s s a g e . F o r e x a m p l e , a l t h o u g h s o m e c o u n t r i e s c o n t a i n e d w i t h i n t h e s e r e g i o n s a r e b e t t e r o ff t h a n o t h e r s , o n l y a n o p t i m i s t w o u l d l a b e l a l l o f t h e m a s “developing countries ” It is a real stretch to say that some of the countries we’ll b e l o o k i n g a t a r e d e v e l o p i n g S o m e a r e u n d e r- d e v e l o p i n g l o s i n g g r o u n d , becoming worse off 10

support the idea that the capitalist path of free markets will eventually lead to peace and prosperity for all; it implies a hopeful notion of what is possible Cap-

i t a l i s

Korea and Mexico, but even in these countries huge numbers of people have yet t o s h a r e

answer, inevitably, is what we arbitrarily label “developed countries”: the rich, i

excludes most of the countries of the Western Hemisphere).

Although some are now more careful to say “economically advanced,” and p e o

oped” as a shorthand measure of economic advancement, often such names are resented because they imply that “less developed” countries are somehow lacking in other, broader measures of political, social, or cultural development Use of the term “developing,” or any of these terms for that matter, may sound optim i s t i c , b

comparatively “backward,” and that the most the citizens of the rest of the world can hope for is to “develop” using the West as a model. I n t h e 2 0 1

famed investors turned philanthropists contended that such terminology has outlived its utility. Why, for example, should Mozambique and Mexico be grouped together?11 Critics contend that the terminology is intellectually lazy, outdated, a n d j u d g m e n t a l . T h e Wo r l d B a n k g o t r i d o f t h e “ d e v e l o p i n g c o u n t r i e s ” t e r m inology in 2016, in part to highlight measures of economic success, and in part to point out the importance of differences existing within countries themselves 12

T h e y n o w c l a s s i f y c o u n t r i e s i n t o l o w - i n c o m e , l o w e r- m i d d l e - i n c o m e , u

( G N I ) p

focuses less on general characterization and more on the priority of promoting SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

If we look at the issues in terms of sheer numbers, focusing on the size of the populations of the countries we are analyzing, perhaps we should adopt the terminology of “majority world,” given that, according to the World Bank, more than 50 percent of the global population may be categorized as either poor (living on less than $1.90/day) or the higher poverty threshold ($3.20/day), with a significant increase in the so-called new poor being traced to the negative impacts of Covid.13 In fact, as we discuss throughout the book, Covid is reversing much of the progress that had been achieved in the years prior to 2020, especially in terms of the growth of the global middle class, most notably in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa; and the world is risking a “two-speed recovery” of diverging rates for rich, compared to poorer, countries 14 Demographically, the countries that are included in our “global south” category constitute more than 50 percent of the world’s population, lending some credence to this “majority world” label 15

that the West developed only at the expense of the rest of the world For these analysts, under-development is no natural event or coincidence Rather, it is the outcome of hundreds of years of active under-development by today’s developed countries. Some have captured this dynamic as the all-inclusive “non-Western world.” As others have demonstrated, it is probably more honest to speak of “the West and the rest” if we are to use this kind of term, since there are many nonWests rather than a single non-Western world.16 At least “the West and the rest” is blatantly straightforward in its Eurocentric center of reference, dismissing 75 percent of the world’s population and treating “the rest” as “other.” In the same manner that the term “nonwhite” is demeaning, “non-Western” implies that something is missing Our subject becomes defined only through its relationship to a more central “West ”

Resistance to such treatment, and efforts to change situations, is sometimes referred to as the “North-South conflict,” or the war between the haves and the have-nots of the world The names “North” and “South” are useful because they

“ We s t , ” since “North” refers to developed countries, which mostly fall north of the equator, and “South” is another name for less developed countries, which mostly fall south of the equator. Similar to any dichotomy, this terminology invites illusions o f s u p e r i o r i t y a n d “ o t h e r n e s s , ” h o m o g e n i z i n g d i ff e r e n c e s a n d e l e v a t i n g o n e ’s own culture or lifestyle.

S o , w h y h a s t h e p h r a s e o l o g y o f g l o b a l s o u t h s e e m i n g l y c o m e i n t o v o g u e ?

Some argue that it has long been the preferred term for what used to be called the third world, even if it must be “used elastically.”17 Used with increasing freq u e n c y w i t h i n t h e U N I T E D N AT I O N S i n t h e 1 9 7 0 s , “ g l o b a l s o u t h ” h a s , i n m a n y c i r c l e s , r e p l a c e d a t h r e e w o r l d s c o n s t r u c t t h a t b e c a m e i n c r e a s i n g l y i r r e l e v a n t after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 18 Even if today the metaphor is u s e d t o h i g h l i g h t b o t h t h e e m p o w e r m e n t a n d s h a r e d c i r c u m s t a n c e s o f m a n y

a r o u n d t h e w o r l d , i t s o r i g i n s , t r a c e d t o t h e B r a n d t C o m m i s s i o n r e p o r t s o f t h e

e a r l y 1 9 8 0 s , a r e n o w v i e w e d a s p a t r o n i z i n g i n t h e i r c a l l f o r t h e f i n a n c i a l s u p -

p o r t o f t h e “ n o r t h ” f o r m o d e r n i z a t i o n e ff o r t s u n d e r t a k e n w i t h i n t h e “ s o u t h ” 1 9

S i m i l a r t o e a c h o f t h e c o n s t r u c t s w e d i s c u s s e d a b o v e , i t s l i n e s a r e f u z z y, a n d w e m u s t r e c o g n i z e i t f o r t h e c r e a t e d c o n s t r u c t t h a t i t i s To t h e e x t e n t t h a t i t

h e l p s u s g r a s p s o m e o f t h e c o m m o n c h a l l e n g e s a n d i n n o v a t i o n s o f p e o p l e a n d

g o v e r n m e n t s , a n d h o w s o m e o f t h e s e i s s u e s a r e v i e w e d d i ff e r e n t l y t h a n f r o m

t h e v a n t a g e p o i n t o f t h e d e v e l o p e d n o r t h , t h e t e r m “ g l o b a l s o u t h ” m a y b e u s ef u l , a l b e i t i m p e r f e c t .

Clearly, none of the names we use to describe the countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East are satisfactory, and any generalization is g o i n g t o b e l i m i t e d . E v e n t h e t e r m s “ L a t i n A m e r i c a ” a n d “ M i d d l e E a s t ” a r e problematic. Not all of Latin America is “Latin” in the sense of being Spanisho r P o r t u g u e s e - s p e a k i n g Ye t w e w i l l u s e t h i s t e r m a s s h o r t h a n d f o r t h e e n t i r e region south of the US border, including the Caribbean And the idea of a region being “Middle East” only makes sense if one’s perspective is distinctly European o t h e r w i s e , w h a t i s i t “ m i d d l e ” t o ? T h e p o i n t i s t h a t m o s t o f o u r l a b e l s r e f l e c t C o m p a r i n g a n d D e f i n i n g a n I n t e r d e p e n d e n t Wo r l d 5

some bias, and none of them are fully satisfactory These names are all ideologi c a l l y l o a d

appropriate identifier available, we use each and all of them as markers of the varying worldviews presented in this text. Ultimately, we leave it to the reader t

which arguments and therefore which terminologies are most representative of the world and therefore most useful.

What’s to Compare?

In this introduction to the COMPARATIVE STUDIES of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, we take a different spin on the traditional approach to discuss much more than politics as it is often narrowly defined As one of the social sciences, political science has traditionally focused on the study of formal political institutions and behavior In this book, we choose not to put the spotlight on governments and voting patterns, party politics, and so on Rather, we turn our attention to all manner of political behavior, which we consider to include just about any aspect of life Of interest to us is not only how people are governed, but also how they live, how they govern themselves, and what they see as their most urgent concerns.

We

approach is also multidisciplinary. We divide our attention among history, polit i c s , s o c i e t y,

experience.20 Instead of artificially confining ourselves to one narrow discipline, we recognize that each discipline offers another layer or dimension, which adds immeasurably to our understanding of the “essence” of politics.21

Comparative politics, then, is much more than simply a subject of study it is also a means of study It employs what is known as the comparative method Through the use of the comparative method, we seek to describe, identify, and explain trends in some cases, even predict human behavior Those who adopt t h i

ships and patterns of behavior and interactions between individuals and groups Focusing on one or more countries, comparativists examine CASE STUDIES alongs i d e o n e a n o t h e r T h e y s e

among the elements selected for comparison. For example, one might compare patterns of female employment and fertility rates in one country in relation to those patterns in other countries. Using the comparative method, analysts make explicit or implicit comparisons, searching for common and contrasting features. S o m e d o a “

cases that appear to have a great deal in common (e.g., Canada and the United S t a t e s ) . O

between cases that appear diametrically opposed in experience (e.g., Bolivia and I n d i a ) 2 2 W

upon unexpected parallels between ostensibly different cases Just as satisfying is beginning to understand the significance and consequences of the differences that exist between cases assumed to have much in common

Most comparative studies textbooks take one of two roads Either they offer case studies, which provide loads of intricate detail on a handful of states (often the classics: Mexico, Nigeria, China, and India; curiously, the Middle East is frequently ignored), or they provide a CROSS-NATIONAL ANALYSIS that purports to generalize about much larger expanses of territory. Those who take the cross-national approach are interested in getting at the big picture. Texts that employ it focus on theory and concepts to broaden our scope of understanding beyond a handful of cases. They often end up making fairly sweeping generalizations. The authors of these books may reference any number of countries as illustration, but at the loss of detail and context that come only through the use of case studies.

We provide both cross-national analysis and case studies because we don’t want to lose the strengths of either approach We present broad themes and concepts, while including attention to the variations that exist in reality In adopting this hybrid approach, we have set for ourselves a more ambitious task However, as teachers, we recognize the need for both approaches to be presented We have worked hard to show how cross-national analysis and case studies can work in tandem, how each complements the other By looking at similar phenomena in several contexts (i e , histories, politics, societies, economics, and international relations of the global south, more generally), we can apply our cases and compare them, illustrating the similarities and differences experienced in different settings.

Therefore, in addition to the cross-national analysis that composes the bulk of each chapter, we offer eight case studies, two from each of the major regions of the third world. For each region, we include the “classics” offered in virtua l l y e v

that so many others see fit to include them. However, we go further. To temper t h e t e n d

e s e c a s e s a s s o m e h

w r e p r e s e n t a t i v e o f t h e i r r e g i o n s , a n d t o e n h a n c e t h e b a s i s f o r c o m p a r i s

n , w e s u b m i t a l o n g s i d e t h e c l a s s i c s other, less predictable case studies from each region These additional cases are e q u a l l

Zimbabwe, Egypt, and Indonesia (see the maps and country profiles in Figures 1 2 to 1 9 at the end of this chapter)

Through detailed case studies, we learn what is distinctive about the many peoples of the world, and get a chance to see the world from a perspective other than our own. We can begin to do comparative analysis by thinking about what makes the people of the world alike and what makes us different. We should ask ourselves how and why such differences exist, and consider the various constraints under which we all operate. We study comparative politics not only to understand the way other people view the world, but also to make better sense of our own understanding of it. We have much to learn from how similar problems are approached by different groups of people. To do this, we must consider the variety of factors that serve as context, to get a better idea of why things happen and why events unfold as they do.23 The better we get at this, the better idea we will have of what to expect in the future And we will get a better sense of what works and what doesn’t work so well in the cases under examination, but also in other countries You may be tempted to compare the cases under review

with the situation in your country And that’s to be encouraged, since the study of how others approach problems may offer us ideas on how to improve our own lives Comparativists argue that drawing from the experience of others is really the only way to understand our own systems. Seeing beyond the experience of developed countries and what is immediately familiar to us expands our minds, allows us to see the wider range of alternatives, and offers new insights into the challenges we face at the local, national, and international levels.

The greatest insight, however, comes with the inclusion of a larger circle of voices beyond those of the leaders and policymakers. Although you will cert a

hear the voices of those who are not often represented in texts such as this. You will hear stories of domination and the struggle against it You will hear not only how people have been oppressed, but also how they have liberated themselves 24 Throughout the following chapters, we have worked to include the standpoints and perspectives of the ostensibly “powerless”: the economically poor, youth, a n d w o m e n A

the U S government, hearing their voices is a neces s ity if w e are to fully comprehend the complexity of the challenges all of us face Until these populations are included and encouraged to participate to their fullest potential, development w i l l b e d i s

give attention to these groups and their interests within our discussions of history, economics, society, politics, and international relations.

Interdependence: Mutual Vulnerability

As mentioned earlier, we believe that any introductory study of the global south s

cross-national approach Throughout the chapters that follow, we follow a similar pattern: we introduce some of the dominant issues facing the global south, which are approached from a number of angles and serve as a basis for crossn

understand the differences in the experience of disease in Zimbabwe as opposed to Iran, it is just as important to understand how religion, poverty, and war may contribute to the perpetuation of public health challenges Additionally, in trying t o u n d

should be aware of its impact on economic development, how ordinary people are attempting to cope with it, and what they (with or without world leaders) are prepared to do to fight it. After the thematic and conceptual discussion in each unit, we apply these ideas within our eight case studies, as a way to more clearly illustrate these concepts in operation.

Ti m e a n d

I

P E N D E N C E . B y “interdependence,” we refer to a relationship of mutual (although not equal) vuln e r a b i l i t y

d interdependence has grown out of a rapidly expanding web of interactions that tie us closer together Most Americans understand that what we do as a nation o f t e n a ff e c t s o t h e r s f o r b e t t e r o r w o r s e O n t h e o t h e r h a n d , i t i s m o r e o f a stretch to get the average American to understand why we should care and why

Figure 1.1 Global Village of 1,000 People

There are approximately 7 8 billion people living in our world today It can be difficult to grasp a sense of comparison with this large size. So, instead, imagine that the world is a village of 1,000 people Who are its inhabitants?

600 Asians

172 Africans

100 Europeans

47 North Americans

81 Latin Americans and residents across the Caribbean

Within this population, a total of 67 have earned a college degree Within this village, 863 are able to read and write (90 percent of men and 83 percent of women); and 140 are considered illiterate Approximately half of the village owns or shares a computer, and 801 own a smartphone

The people of the village have considerable difficulty communicating:

123 speak Mandarin Chinese

60 speak Spanish

51 speak English

51 speak Arabic

35 speak Hindi

33 speak Bengali

30 speak Portuguese

21 speak Russian

17 speak Japanese

And 579 speak other languages as their first language. The six languages recognized as official languages by the United Nations (Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish) are the first or second language of approximately 45 percent of the world’s population, or about 450 of our village of 1,000 people

In this village of 1,000 there are

310 Christians

250 Muslims

150 Hindus

70 Buddhists

Approximately 60 people believe in other religions, and 160 are not religious or do not identify themselves as being aligned with a particular faith.

One-third of these 1,000 people in the world village are children, and only 100 are over the age of sixty-five More than half of the population (approximately 57 percent, or 570) lives in cities, with this rate increasing by nearly 2 percent each year Approximately 10 percent (100) of the village suffers from hunger Just over half of the women in the village would have access to and use modern contraceptives. With the birth rate outpacing the death rate, the population of the village next year will be 1,011

In this 1,000-person community, 523 people receive 10 percent of the world’s income; another 84 are in the bottom 50 percent share of the income Even though 900 people in the village have electricity, only 180 people own an automobile (although some of them own more than one automobile) Of the 1,000 people, 260 lack access to safe drinking water, nearly 300 lack basic soap and water, and 323 lack access to safe sanitation.

Of the earth’s surface, approximately 30 percent is land (with 71 percent of this being habitable), and just over 70 percent ocean. About 50 percent of the habitable land is used for agriculture, and only 1 percent is used for cities, town, roads, and other forms of infrastructure (despite increasing rates of urbanization)

Due in part to the increasing expansion of educational opportunities in the village, the ratio of students to faculty in our village has been declining; there is now 1 teacher for every 23 students enrolled in primary education. This is not evenly distributed across our global village, though, with 1 teacher for every 42 students in Africa, while there is 1 teacher for every 15 students in North America. Of these teachers, nearly two-thirds of them (64 percent) are women In our village of 1,000 citizens, there are only 2 doctors

Sources: Adapted from Donella H Meadows, “If the World Were a Village of One Thousand People,” Sustainability Institute, 2000 Updated using data from the CIA World Factbook, “World” category (www cia .gov/the-world-factbook/countries/world/) as well as “Our World in Data” (www.ourworldindata.org).

we need to understand what is happening in the world around us even in faroff “powerless” countries However, whether we choose to recognize it or not, it is becoming more and more difficult to escape the fact that our relationship with the world is a reciprocal one. What happens on the other side of the planet, even in seemingly less powerful countries, does affect us whether we like it or not. Some have used the image of a “butterfly effect” to capture these dynamics. They highlight the possibility of small, simple actions, like the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil, having complex and potentially huge effects far away, like creating a tornado in Texas.25 Others have taken this concept to apply it to p o l i t i c s , s h o w i n g h o w s

large, complex impacts.26 Given events of recent years, this interconnectedness seems to go without saying Climate change and the Covid pandemic are easily recognizable examples, but there are many others Perhaps you remember when a s i n g l e Ta i w

collided with the banks of the Suez Canal (the transit point for an estimated onetenth of world trade), blocking the channel for over a week, stranding hundreds of cargo vessels on either side of the blockage This singular mishap dealt a significant sucker punch to supply chains around the world 27 Of course, the Covid pandemic had already revealed the many ways in which component parts of criti

masks, and even computer chips, relied on the smooth operating of a complex web of just-in-time global supply chains that promote specialization and count o n t h e n o r m a l l y e ff i c i e n t w o r l d

duces unpredictable fragilities, and a combination of unforeseen events brought these weaknesses in stark relief.28

For example, most are aware that China is the world’s supplier for car parts, t

United States, as well as most acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and even vitamin C 29 India, the global leader in generic medicine production, depends on China for 80 p e r c e

motive industry and consumer goods (including washing machines and smartp h o n e s ) h

around the world found themselves re-evaluating even their most basic ways of conducting business, which had been based on the rapid “just in time” product i o n

monitors the status of democracy, political freedoms, and human rights around the world, speaks of the “long arm” of Covid. The global pandemic has exposed previously existing weaknesses in democracy and liberty around the world, irres p e c

Covid is not the cause of many of these challenges, it has magnified awareness o f m a n y s t r a i n s t h a t e x i

demanding our attention

Conclusions: It Depends on Whom You Ask

Let’s put it plainly: There will be no simple answers to many of the questions w e h a v e r a i s e d h e r e

can do is to present you with a wide range of thinking and alternative perspectives on many of the challenges faced to some degree by all of us. In this book, we look at a series of issues of interdependence, like migration, public health, and climate change, from a number of angles. Before you make up your mind a b o u t a n y o f t h e

each on its merits We firmly believe that reflecting on another ’s point of view a n d c o n

understand the complex social phenomena we now set out to discuss

Linking Concepts and Cases

The information in this section is provided as a primer for the case studies we discuss throughout the rest of the book Figures 1 2 through 1 9 should serve as a point of reference as you read about the histories, economies, and politics of the eight case studies introduced here Throughout the book, we will return to the same countries, applying the ideas introduced in the conceptual chapters to the reality of their experiences

Now It’s Your Turn

would you expect to be the key issue, or the most pressing problem each country faces? What can a sketch like this tell you about life in each of these eight countries? Which ones appear most similar, and in what ways? What are some of the most striking differences between these countries? What other information not included here do you consider deserving of attention? Why?

Notes

1 Henry Louis Gates, “‘Authenticity,’ or the Lesson of Little Tree,” New York Times Review of Books, November 24, 1991, p 30

2. On January 30, 2020, the WHO declared a “public health emergency of international concern,” after thousands of new cases were acknowledged within the People’s Republic of China On February 11, the WHO proposed the official name for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, Covid-19 See Derrick Bryson Taylor, “A Timeline of the Coronavirus Pandemic,” New York Times, March 17, 2021

3. According to the COVID Border Accountability Project, 189 of the world’s countries, totaling roughly 65 percent of the world’s population, closed all land, sea, and air ports of entry to their country; Europe, South Africa, and Asia saw the most closures See Covidborderaccountability org

4. “Border Closures, Pre-travel Tests of Little Use Against COVID-19 Spread: EU Agency,” Reuters, May 27, 2020; “Countries Slammed Their Borders Shut to Stop Coronavirus But Is It Doing Any Good?” NPR, May 15, 2020

5 For some examples of the lively terminological debate, see the special twentyfifth anniversary issue of the Third World Quarterly 25, no. 1 (2004); the special issue of The Global South 5, no. 1 (Spring 2011); Marc Silver, “If You Shouldn’t Call It the Third

Figure 1.2 Mexico: Profile and Map

Formal name: United Mexican States

Area, km2: 1.97 million

Comparative area: Slightly less than three times the size of Texas Capital: Mexico City

Establishment of present state: September 18, 1810

Population: 130 million

Age under 15 years: 26%

Population growth rate: 0 51%

Fertility rate (children per woman): 2.1

Infant mortality (per 1,000 births): 11

Life expectancy: 77

HIV prevalence (adult): 0 4%

Ethnic groups: Mestizo 62%, predominantly Amerindian 21%, Amerindian 7%, other 10%

Literacy rate: 95%

Religions: Roman Catholic 82%, Protestant 8%, other 5%, none 5%

GDP per capita (PPP): $17,900

GDP growth rate: –0 3% (2019)

Labor, major sectors: Services 62%, industrial 24%, agriculture 13%

Population in poverty: 42%

Unemployment rate: 3.5% (with extensive underemployment)

Export commodities: Cars and vehicle parts, computers, delivery trucks, crude petroleum

External debt: $456 billion

Source: CIA, World Factbook 2021

Figure 1.3 Per u: Profile and Map

Formal name: Republic of Peru

Area, km2: 1 28 million

Comparative area: Almost twice the size of Texas; slightly smaller than Alaska Capital: Lima

Establishment of present state: July 28, 1821

Population: 32 million

Age under 15 years: 25%

Population growth rate: 0 88%

Fertility rate (children per woman): 2

Infant mortality (per 1,000 births): 19

Life expectancy: 75

HIV prevalence (adult): 0.3%

Ethnic groups: Amerindian 26%, mestizo 60%, white 6%, African descent 4%, other 3.5%

Literacy rate: 95%

Religions: Roman Catholic 60%, Evangelical 11%, other Christian 3 5%, other 3 5%, none 4%

GDP per capita (PPP): $11,300

GDP growth rate: 2.1% (2019)

Labor, major sectors: Services 57%, agricultural 25%, industrial 17%

Population in poverty: 20%

Unemployment rate: 6 5% (data for metropolitan Lima; with extensive underemployment)

Export commodities: Copper, zinc, gold, refined petroleum, fishmeal, tropical fruits, lead, iron

External debt: $81 billion

Source: CIA, World Factbook 2021

Figure 1.4 Nigeria: Profile and Map

Formal name: Federal Republic of Nigeria

Area, km2: 923,768

Comparative area:

About six times the size of Georgia; slightly more than twice the size of California

Capital: Abuja

Establishment of present state: October 1, 1960

Population: 219 million

Age under 15 years: 41%

Population growth rate: 2 5%

Fertility rate (children per woman): 4 6

Infant

1,000

Ethnic groups:

More than 250 groups including Hausa and Fulani 36%, Yoruba 15%, Ibo 15%, Ijaw/Izon 1 8%, Kanuri 2 4%, Ibibio 1 8%, Tiv 2 4%, other 24 7%

Literacy rate: 62%

Religions: Muslim 53 5%, Christian 46%, other 0 6%

GDP per capita (PPP): $4,900

GDP growth rate: 0 8% (2017)

Labor, major sectors: Agriculture 70%, services 20%, industrial 10% (1999) Population in

Export commodities: Crude petroleum, natural gas, scrap vessels, cocoa beans

Source: CIA, World Factbook 2021

Figure 1.5 Zimbabwe: Profile and Map

Formal name: Republic of Zimbabwe

Area, km2: 390,757

Comparative area: Slightly larger than Montana Capital: Harare

Establishment of present state: April 18, 1980

Population: 14 million

Age under 15 years: 38%

Population growth rate: 1 9%

Fertility rate (children per woman): 4

Infant mortality (per 1,000 births): 29

Life expectancy: 63

HIV prevalence (adult): 12%

Ethnic groups: African 99 4% (Shona and Ndebele), other 0.4%, unspecified 0.2% Literacy rate: 87%

Religions: Protestant 75%, Roman Catholic 7%, other Christian 5%, Muslim 0 5%, other 0 1%, none 10 5%

GDP per capita (PPP): $2,700

GDP growth rate: 3 7% (2017)

Labor, major sectors: Agriculture 66%, services 24%, industrial 10% (1996)

Population in poverty: 38%

Unemployment rate: 11%

Export commodities: Tobacco, gold, ferroalloys, diamonds

External debt: $9 3 billion

Source: CIA, World Factbook 2021

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body, and in the free and truly British tone which he gave to our policy abroad; with Mr. Canning I rejoiced in the opening he made towards the establishment of free commercial interchanges between nations; with Mr. Canning, and under the shadow of that great name, and under the shadow of the yet more venerable name of Burke, I grant my youthful mind and imagination were impressed with the same idle and futile fears which still bewilder and distract the mature mind of the right honourable gentleman. I had conceived that very same fear, that ungovernable alarm, at the first Reform Bill in the days of my undergraduate career at Oxford which the right honourable gentleman now feels; and the only difference between us is this—I thank him for bringing it into view by his quotation—that, having those views, I, as it would appear, moved the Oxford Union Debating Society to express them clearly, plainly, forcibly, in downright English, while the right honourable gentleman does not dare to tell the nation what it is that he really thinks, and is content to skulk under the meaningless amendment which is proposed by the noble Lord. And now, sir, I quit the right honourable gentleman; I leave him to his reflections, and I envy him not one particle of the polemical advantage which he has gained by his discreet reference to the proceedings of the Oxford Union Debating Society in the year of grace 1831....

I came among you [the Liberal party] an outcast from those with whom I associated, driven from them, I admit, by no arbitrary act, but by the slow and resistless forces of conviction. I came among you, to make use of the legal phraseology, in pauperis forma. I had nothing to offer you but faithful and honourable service. You received me as Dido received the shipwrecked Aeneas—

Ejectum littore egentem

Accepi

and I only trust you may not hereafter at any time have to complete the sentence in regard to me—

Et regni demens in parte locavi

You received me with kindness, indulgence, generosity, and I may even say with some measure of confidence. And the relation between us has assumed such a form that you can never be my debtors, but that I must for ever be in your debt.”

It was only in later years that I met Mr. Gladstone personally, on the occasion of his annual visits to the Grosvenor or the New Gallery, and it was always then interesting to watch the extraordinary diligence of observation with which he studied every picture upon the walls, all the while with pencil in hand carefully noting in the margin of his catalogue the impression which each separate work had made upon him.

It was in connection with the opening of the New Gallery in the year 1888 that a little incident recurs to my memory that bears witness to the constant alertness of his powers of observation.

After completing a survey of one of the larger rooms, he was about to take leave of me with the remark that he had seen as much as he could reasonably enjoy upon a single visit, and that he would return another day to complete his study of the remaining galleries. It happened that year that we had rather a remarkable piece of sculpture by a young artist who had suddenly died after the work had been sent in for exhibition, and I was anxious before he went to ascertain Mr Gladstone’s opinion of the statue.

“Before you go, Mr. Gladstone,” I said, “I should like to show you one of the sculptured works in the central hall which seems to me more than remarkable.”

“Stay!” he cried. “Let me first show it to you,” and then without a moment’s hesitation he set himself in front of the work I had in my mind.

“Is it this?” he said; and on my replying in the affirmative, “I was surprised,” he added, “when we passed through the hall that you did not direct my attention to so remarkable a work.”

It happened at the Grosvenor Gallery that it also fell to my lot to conduct Lord Beaconsfield round the exhibition of drawings by the old masters then arranged upon the walls. The contrast between the two men showed itself characteristically enough on the occasion to which I refer.

With sphinx-like face, and with hardly a spoken word, Lord Beaconsfield passed from the work of one great master to another, raising his eye-glass as he went, but displaying by no change of expression either criticism or appreciation, and at the finish he gracefully took his leave with a sentence that seemed to me, as he uttered it, to have been made ready for ultimate use even before he had entered the Gallery

The drawings of Titian and Giorgione, of Michael Angelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci, had apparently left him cold.

“I thank you,” he said, “for having been so good as to point out to me the examples of the great masters you admire, but I think for my part I prefer the eclectic school of the Caracci.”

In that one sentence he seemed to bring back the atmosphere of his earlier novels, and to image the taste of England at a time when connoisseurs made the grand tour.

His preference for the fashion of an earlier date in all matters appertaining to taste was, I suppose, deeply implanted in Disraeli’s nature, and I remember a story told me by Sir William Harcourt, which illustrates with what quiet and restrained sarcasm he could sometimes receive the announcement of a more modern development of thought.

It was during one of Sir William Harcourt’s visits to Hughenden that Disraeli turned to him after dinner and said, “Harcourt, I have had two young gentlemen from Oxford staying with me lately, and it seems from what I have learned from them that our judgments in all literary matters are sadly old-fashioned. These young gentlemen assured me that, according to the accepted canons of the present day, the late Lord Byron is to be admired, not so much for his qualities as a poet, as for the beauty of his moral character.”

Lord Beaconsfield’s appearance, as expressed in his dress, even at that later date when I first came in contact with him, still retained something of the florid taste that had characterised him as a youth. The bright colours he chose to affect stood in striking

contrast with the impassive pallor of a countenance that seemed, as it gazed out upon the world, like some insoluble riddle of the East. The racial characteristics of his face were sufficiently marked, but the sense of death-like stillness that pervaded it gave it something of historic remoteness and antique calm. He looked out upon the present as though from the recesses of a buried past, and of all the representatives of his nation whom I have known, he appeared to me the only one who possessed in any pre-eminent degree the quality of self-possession in manner and bearing.

These external attributes served as the index of that extraordinary power of intellectual detachment which enabled him to sway the passions of others and to control his own. Such unquestioned authority as he ultimately acquired over the Tory party could, perhaps, only have been achieved by one who used their prejudices without sharing them, and who could appeal to their deeply rooted convictions rather as an artist than as a partisan.

As a speaker, he affected more of florid grace than was quite congenial to the taste of the time or the sympathies of his hearers, and his choice of language, whether in his novels or in his speeches, was sometimes insecurely poised between a leaning towards ornament that was sometimes tawdry, and a genuine and convincing eloquence.

Here again the racial characteristics were apt to assert themselves, and such a phrase as he employed at the conclusion of the Abyssinian War—that we had set the standard of St. George upon the mountains of Rasselas—may be taken as an instance of an essay in the sublime that verges nearly upon the ridiculous.

I heard him for the first time when he introduced his great Reform Bill in 1867, and his gestures also struck me then as often bordering upon the grotesque.

I can recall his attitude now as he drew towards the close of his speech with his arms folded and his head sunk upon his breast, rolling out in a voice, that I confess had for me neither intrinsic beauty of tone nor perfect accent of sincerity, the carefully forged phrases which formed the close of his peroration.

“Those who take a larger and a nobler view of human affairs,” he said, “will, I think, recognise that, alone in the countries of Europe, England now, for almost countless generations, has—by her Parliament—established the fair exemplar of free government, and that, throughout the awful vicissitudes of her heroic history, she has—chiefly by this House of Commons—maintained and cherished that public spirit which is the soul of Commonwealth, without which Empire has no glory, and the wealth of nations is but the means of corruption and decay.”

Earlier passages of that same speech had been marked by brilliant flashes of humour and sarcasm, showing, here as always, his incomparable power of registering in a single sentence the characteristics of a cause he desired to condemn.

I remember in particular a reference to Professor Goldwin Smith which was very happily expressed.

“Why, the other day,” he said, “a rampant orator who goes about the country maligning men and things, went out of his way to assail me, saying, ‘Where now are the 4000 freeholders of Buckinghamshire?’ Why, sir, they are where you would naturally

expect to find them—they are in the county of Buckingham. I can pardon this wild man, who has probably lived in the cloisters of some abbey, making this mistake ...” etc.

There are orators who are not orators, and who yet, by some undefinable power of personality, exercise an extraordinary authority upon their hearers. In this class, and I should be disposed to think foremost in this class, must be set Mr. Parnell, whose acquaintance I made at the house of Sir George Lewis about the date of the publication of the famous letter in the Times.

To me that letter had seemed from the first a manifest forgery, and I had made several small bets in the Garrick Club that it would be so proved whenever it was made the subject of a judicial investigation.

Mr. Parnell’s comment when I told him of my confidence as to the result was tinged with a certain sadness that was, I think, a constant quality of his nature.

“You may make your mind quite easy upon that point,” he said. “I only wish I felt as sure that every incident, in what has been practically a revolution, would redound as surely to the credit of the Irish people. But it is inevitable,” he added, “that such a movement must of necessity call into being forces which it is beyond the power of any single individual to control.”

Through his chief whip Mr. Richard Power, a dear friend and companion of the Garrick Club, Mr. Parnell had offered me a seat as one of the Irish party, but although I had then, and still retain, complete sympathy with the principles of Home Rule, I felt it would be impossible for me as an Englishman to yield such complete surrender of my independent judgment as was demanded by the parliamentary tactics of the party

A little later I heard Mr. Parnell in the House of Commons on one of the few occasions when his rigid self-control yielded to a moment of almost uncontrollable passion.

The subject under debate was this same forged letter which had imposed upon the credulity of the Times, and it was Mr. Parnell’s natural desire that this imputation which so deeply affected his character should be made the subject of a separate and independent inquiry.

His opponents, not unwisely from their point of view, desired to merge the single issue in a general examination of the Home Rule movement, and this view had been, at an earlier period of the debate, strongly enforced by Mr Chamberlain in a speech of icy coldness that seemed to withhold the last particle of sympathy from a man who had been so grossly attacked.

The tone of Mr. Chamberlain’s speech, for it was a matter rather of tone than of substance, must have deeply incensed Mr Parnell, for as he rose, with the usual pallor of his face deepened to an ashen whiteness, the trembling tones of his voice were, it was obvious, scarcely under control.

I have not, sir, had an opportunity before this of thanking the right honourable gentleman the member for West Birmingham for his kind references to me, and for the unsolicited character he was kind enough to give me when he last addressed the House a few nights since. He spoke of me not long ago, when he said he entertained a better

opinion of me than he does to-day. I care very little for the opinion of the right honourable gentleman. I have never put forward men to do dangerous things which I shrank from doing myself, nor have I betrayed the secrets of my colleagues in Council. My principal recollection of the right honourable gentleman before he became a minister is that he was always most anxious to put me forward and my friends forward to do work which he was afraid to do himself. And after he became a minister my principal recollection of him is that he was always most anxious to betray to us the secrets and counsels of his colleagues in the Cabinet, and to endeavour, while sitting beside these colleagues and while in consultation with them, to undermine their counsels and their plans in our favour. If this inquiry is extended into these matters—and I see no reason why it should not—I shall be able to make good my words by documentary evidence that is not forged.

The withering scorn with which these final sentences were delivered, the tall slim figure visibly shaken by emotion, recall an unforgettable image of the man as he stood erect in his place below the gangway.

But a still more dramatic scene of that time occurred during the trial itself on the day when the forger Mr. Pigott was to be put into the box. I shall not easily forget the breathless interest of the Court when the Attorney-General called Mr. Inglis, the expert in hand-writing.

The witness was arranging his papers on the desk before him when Sir Charles Russell rose in his place and in strong but measured tones said, “My lords, I shall decline to crossexamine this witness until Mr. Pigott has been put into the box.”

This produced a quick protest from the Attorney-General, who, as he declared, was not to be dictated to by his learned friend as to the manner in which he should conduct his case.

But again Sir Charles Russell rose, and again in the same vibrating voice announced his determination as before.

There was a pause for a moment’s whispered interchange of opinion among the judges on the Bench, and then Mr. Justice Hannen, in a voice that was never loud but which even in its lowest tones could always command authority, conveyed to the Attorney-General the intimation that, without any intention of dictating to him the course he should take, they were all clearly of opinion that Mr. Pigott ought to be put into the box without delay.

Sir Richard Webster yielded, and Mr. Pigott was called; and then, when the examination-in-chief was complete, began that cross-examination by Sir Charles Russell which stands out as the main dramatic episode in that great historic trial.

The advocate was at his best, and when Sir Charles Russell was at his best his time knew no equal. As question followed question in quick pursuit, the unhappy witness seemed to crumble away beneath his hand.

But the hour of adjournment came before the wretched man, driven from point to point, had finally succumbed, and, as subsequent events proved, the brilliant crossexamination of Sir Charles Russell was destined to have no close.

On the next morning, when Pigott was again called, there was no answer; and after a sufficient pause to give time for his arrival, Sir Charles rose and applied for a warrant for

his arrest.

I went with Mr. Parnell and Sir George Lewis to Bow Street to obtain from the magistrate the issue of the warrant, and I remember, as a comic incident in our brief passage along the Strand, that a little street urchin vending newspapers, who, with the sharpness of the London boy, was already well informed of what had taken place, danced in front of the Irish statesman and bowing with mock gravity said, “Charlie, you’ve done it nice.”

At that time one of my brothers was staying in Madrid, and on the following night I was awakened about two o’clock by the arrival of a telegram which said: “A man whom I am sure is Pigott has committed suicide here in the hotel.”

And so ended this extraordinary episode which at one time had threatened to drive from public life one of the most remarkable men of his time. That he was finally hounded from the leadership of his party speaks, I think, but little for the reputation of those of his comrades who joined in the attack; and less still—as I have always felt—for Mr Gladstone, whose part in that unworthy transaction was not altogether consistent with the high courage that he usually exhibited in public affairs.

Parnell’s was undoubtedly a strange inscrutable character. He was imperfectly understood even by the party he so imperiously controlled: he had, I think, but little desire to be understood. Power used to tell me that on the occasion of an important debate his closest associates never knew with any certainty whether he would be present; and yet once present they knew beyond all question that his will would dominate them all.

It was indeed impossible to be in his company without being sensible of the strength of his personality. His reserve was impenetrable, and yet he could yield to sudden gusts of emotion which revealed as by a lightning flash the strong nervous tension by means of which his self-possession was held and preserved. I think he himself was always conscious of the degree of secrecy, almost, one might say, of mystery, that cloaked his life even in matters where secrecy could have no purpose or significance. He told me once that if he had occasion to consult a doctor, even for the most trifling ailment, he always withheld his name, and such was the habit of reserve that had grafted itself upon his life, that he seemed almost surprised the custom was not common to all the world.

Some of the American ambassadors sent to this country have been notable speakers, amongst them Mr. James Russell Lowell and Mr. Choate. Mr. Bayard also, though not perhaps possessed of an equal natural gift, could on occasion be deeply impressive.

I remember at a dinner of the Actors’ Benevolent Fund, in 1895, he extricated himself with considerable grace and tact from a somewhat awkward predicament. The dinner was held on the 18th of December, and it had been arranged that I should propose the toast of “Friends across the Sea,” to which Mr Bayard was to respond. But it so happened on that very day had come President Cleveland’s unhappy message to Congress about Venezuela, a message so entirely unexpected: and at the same time so warlike and menacing in its tone, that the tenor of it created something like consternation in the mind of the English public.

When I arrived Mr. Bayard was pacing alone, among the assembled guests in the anteroom, and I ventured to suggest to Sir Francis Jeune, who was to take the chair, that it might be wiser, in view of the circumstances, to omit this particular toast. Sir Francis Jeune, however, was firm in the opinion that the situation must be faced. As he observed to me, “I hear that as a speaker you can skate over thin ice, and to-night you have your opportunity.”

All the correspondents of the chief American newspapers were present, and all were in eager expectation to see how a difficult and delicate situation would be handled by the ambassador. I confess, for my own part, that I felt a little nervous in regard to the task assigned me, and I remember my dear friend, Sir Frank Lockwood, coming to me just before we sat down to dinner and imploring me to say something that might tend to soothe the irritated feeling which the unfortunate despatch had aroused.

I think I must have steered my course successfully, for at the end of my speech Mr. Bayard, rising to respond, was received with genuine enthusiasm by the assembled company. He was evidently deeply moved, for his words came slowly; but he contrived also to move and impress his audience. His opening sentences, earnestly delivered, seemed to still the menace of war and to relieve the feeling of tension that President Cleveland’s actions had created.

“To-night,” he said, “we stand upon common ground. Mr. Comyns Carr’s remarks have affected me deeply. There is no sea between us now.” And at the close he added, “There is a headline used by Mr Gladstone in the article, ‘Our Kith and Kin beyond the Seas,’ which I would gladly recall at this moment. In that article he used this couplet—

When love unites, wide space divides in vain, And hands may clasp across the spreading main.

I think it is time to repeat those words. No profession can speak them so well as yours, and none can speak them so well, in the name of your country or my country, as the profession that is domiciled in both countries, and I therefore ask you to join with me in wishing that ‘hands may clasp across the spreading main.’ ”

As Mr Bayard took his leave on that evening at the conclusion of the dinner he turned to me and said, “I think things will go our way”; and the event happily proved that he was right.

With some after-dinner speakers their task sits heavily upon them, and sets them in a state of trepidation from the commencement of the feast. I was sitting at a dinner, given to Edmund Yates after his liberation from prison on a charge of libel, by the side of a worthy alderman of the City of London who was also a member of Parliament. His name was entered upon the card in connection with the usual military toast, and before we were half way through the dinner he begged to be excused from further conversation in order that he might concentrate his thoughts upon the duty he had to discharge. It was only while he was covering the menu card with liberal pencil-notes that he realised the fact that I also was among the speakers of the evening. He turned to me suddenly with an expression of blank amazement on his face, and pointing to my name inquired with an air of incredulity

if it was true I was going to speak, and when I answered in the affirmative he said, “Well, you surprise me I notice that you have been drinking champagne. Now,” he said, “when I want to sway an audience I sway them on water.” And as he drank nothing but water that evening I was prepared to be swayed. But something must have gone wrong with the water on that occasion, and I tremble to think to what further depths of ineptitude he might have fallen if he had followed my pernicious habit of drinking champagne, for after a few halting sentences, fashioned in the usual mould, he sat down, evidently quite unconscious that he had delivered one of the feeblest addresses ever uttered by the lips of man.

From

To face page 193.

CHAPTER XIV

SOME VICTORIAN POETS

Among the great literary men of the time, Lord Tennyson was the first with whom I came into personal contact. When I was about seventeen I used to stay sometimes with Mrs. Cameron in her house at Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight, where her son Henry and I occupied ourselves very earnestly in private theatricals.

Farringford, where Lord Tennyson dwelt, was near by, and the first time that I saw the poet was on the occasion of our performance of Tom Taylor’s play, Helping Hands, in which I enacted the part of a Jew dealer in musical instruments. As I came upon the little stage I felt almost startled by the great white dome of Tennyson’s head as he sat in the front row of the stalls.

I suppose there was no man of his time in any walk of life whose personal appearance was so striking and impressive. Watts has imaged him well, and Millais too. But there was something in the presence of the man himself that Art could not render, a mingled impression of beauty and dignity, of simplicity and power, which I cannot recall as being combined in equal measure in any other face I have known.

It is a singular fact, not I think generally recognised while they were both living, that there are many elements of resemblance in the features of Tennyson and Charles Dickens. I saw Dickens only once at a reading which he gave in St. James’s Hall, and I was then deeply impressed by the power exhibited in the upper part of the head. But it was not until I was looking one day at a beautiful pencil-drawing which Millais had made of Dickens after death that I perceived the striking resemblance between them—a resemblance that was recognised by Tennyson himself, for while this very drawing, now the property of Mrs. Perugini, was still in Millais’s studio, Tennyson, after he had gazed at it for some time, suddenly exclaimed, “This is the most extraordinary drawing. It is exactly like myself.”

During those early Isle of Wight days Mrs. Cameron would sometimes take us in the evening to Farringford, where Tennyson, if he were in the mood, would read some of his own poems. It was not reading in the ordinary sense, but may more truly be likened to a deep organ chant, and yet it was effective and impressive to an extraordinary degree.

I remember in particular, as he recited one of the songs from the Princess, the splendid cadence of his deep echoing voice as it rose and swelled and sank and fell in almost musical response to the changing mood of the verse:

HEAD OF CHARLES DICKENS

(Taken after death.)

From the pencil-drawing by Sir J. E. M, Bart., P.R.A., in the possession of Mrs. Perugini.

To face page 194.

O love, they die in yon rich sky, They faint on hill or field or river: Our echoes roll from soul to soul, And grow for ever and for ever. Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying

It is impossible to recapture by mere description the added beauty which he contrived to confer upon these lines as they came from his own lips, or even to suggest the strength and tenderness of feeling he could command as the tones of his great voice gradually sank and died at the close.

Many years later I heard him read again in his Surrey home, whither I had taken Mrs. Bernard Beere on the eve of the production of his play called The Promise of May.

He read it through to us himself, and here he adopted a more direct and dramatic style, giving admirable point to the humour of the rustic scenes. As we stood up to take our leave he put his hand on Mrs. Beere’s shoulder and said, “You are tall. I am tall too. Carlyle once said to me I ought to have been a grenadier.”

The Promise of May was not one of Tennyson’s successful essays in dramatic writing, and it may, I think, he doubted whether he possessed in any great degree the dramatic

quality. And yet, on two occasions at the Lyceum Theatre, under the guidance of Irving, a deep impression was made upon the public. Both The Cup and Becket have scenes that make a simple and dramatic appeal to the heart; and the latter, at any rate, served to supply the actor with the material for one of his greatest impersonations.

It was while Irving was rehearsing Becket that he told me a story of Tennyson that has both a pathetic and humorous significance. In the earlier days, when The Cup was in preparation, he had been to see Tennyson in the Isle of Wight to discuss his ideas for its presentation. After dinner, as he told me, the dessert and the wine were set out upon a separate table, and when they were seated the poet asked Irving if he would like a glass of port.

“Yes, I like a glass of port,” replied the actor.

Upon which Tennyson, taking him at his word, poured him out a glass of port, and all unconsciously finished the remainder of the bottle himself. At a later time, when Becket was to be presented, Tennyson was suffering from gout and was under a strict régime. But the same graceful little ceremony was observed, and again his host inquired of Irving whether he would like a glass of port, but on this occasion, as Irving related to me, the positions were reversed, for poor Lord Tennyson was only permitted a single glass, and Irving finished the bottle.

Next morning the actor had to leave early, and had therefore taken leave of his host overnight. But he had scarcely awakened when he saw Lord Tennyson sitting at the foot of his bed.

“How are you this morning, Irving?” he inquired anxiously “Very well indeed,” was his guest’s reply.

“Are you?” came the response, with just a tinge of doubt in the tones of the voice. “You drank a lot of port last night.”

I think Tennyson’s was essentially a simple nature. Certainly in his own home he gave me that impression. His high qualities as a poet, and the unerring refinement of taste that is stamped on almost every line of his verse, seemed never to have disturbed or effaced a primitive strength of character that had its roots deep in the soil. And yet he was quickly sensitive to criticism, and would sometimes take no pains to hide his wounds.

At our last meeting he openly expressed his vexation at an unfavourable article that had then recently appeared. He questioned me closely as to what I thought could have been the motive of the writer, who for the rest was not of such a rank that his censure need have disturbed the poet’s equanimity “What harm have I ever done to him?” he exclaimed, in tones that seemed to me at the time almost child-like in reproach. But it is, as I have come to think, a sure hall-mark of genius that its weakness is very often frankly avowed. It is a part of that inward candour that makes for greatness, the petty price that we have to pay for the larger and nobler revelation. Lesser spirits can often contrive to hide their littleness, but in the greatest it is nearly always carelessly confessed.

Tennyson’s simplicity would sometimes find vent in almost boyish frolic. One evening at Farringford he was suddenly seized with the idea that he would like to dress up one of Mrs. Cameron’s nieces in the garb of a man. He got one of his own long coats from

the hall, and with a burnt cork himself disfigured her pretty face, daubing upon it a heavy black moustache and imperial, and then retreating to the other side of the room to gaze with manifest delight upon the result of his own handiwork.

The primitive side of Tennyson’s nature was aptly mirrored in the person of his brother Horatio, who, by reason of certain well-considered peculiarities of dress, was often mistaken by visitors to Freshwater for the poet himself. The attention thus attracted to him he contrived to endure with complacency; indeed, I think he was partly conscious that he served in this way as a sort of buffer between his greater brother and the prying curiosity of the crowd which the poet himself deeply resented.

Horatio Tennyson would often accompany Harry Cameron and myself when we wandered over the downs with a gun in search of sea-gulls, or scoured the neighbouring farms for rabbits. His mind, I think, moved slowly, and there was sometimes a strong bucolic flavour in the stories he loved to relate.

Another constant companion on these rambling excursions was poor Lionel Tennyson, the poet’s younger son, who afterwards married Frederick Locker’s daughter. Locker himself I came to know later in the days of the Grosvenor Gallery I think few men have been endowed with a surer and more delicate taste in all matters pertaining to Art. We met in sympathy over the drawings by the old masters, of which he possessed a few of the very choicest examples. It was, indeed, his unfailing characteristic as a collector that all he had was of the best. And his personality, very winning in its simplicity and refinement, responded aptly enough to the qualities of his mind.

In conversation he would sometimes leap with quaint abruptness of thought from the most abstract to the most concrete things, from the appreciation of a drawing by Leonardo to the sudden consideration of the price of coals. Du Maurier’s pen-and-ink drawing of him may be said to rank as the most perfect of portraits—an exact image of the man himself in form and feature.

At the time when I first met Tennyson, I think Robert Browning had won my larger admiration. I thought him then the greater poet of the two—I no longer think so now; and the very qualities which so strongly attracted me as a youth have since proved in themselves to be the source of my altered judgment. It seems like a paradox, but I believe it to be none the less true, that it is the intellectual quality in verse that first most strongly attracts the younger student of poetry. So at least it was in my case. The complexity of thought, even the obscurity of expression which marks so much of Browning’s work, had for me then the strongest fascination. That half-rebel note in his style, with its defiant scorn of all accepted models of musical form and rhythmical expression, was in itself an added allurement to the poet’s untiring intellectual agility of which the rugged verse was but the chosen garment. And although the spell he then exercised over my imagination still in some degree survives, I find myself now asking of poetry less and less for any ordered philosophy of life, and more and more for life itself. The most nobly directed gospel that seeks an altered world counts for little in a poet’s equipment beside the passionate vision of the world as it is with its unchanging heritage of joy and pain. So at least it seems to me now and, with my modified judgment as to what rightly constitutes the substantive part of poetry, has come an ever-growing delight in the formal beauty of

its expression. The two elements are indeed indissolubly bound together. There is no high music in verse that is not linked with sense, no thought that is rightly a poet’s thought that may not find its fitting melody. And it is because Tennyson, despite his confessed limitations on the side of passion, more constantly than his fellows held fast to the true office of the poet, that he stands among them all as their undisputed master.

In every art the last word is simplicity There is no phase of thought or feeling rightly admissible into the domain of poetry that the might of genius may not force to simple utterance. It is this which constitutes the final triumph of all the greatest wizards of our tongue, of Shakespeare as of Milton; of Wordsworth no less than of Keats. All of them found a way to wed the subtlest music with the simplest speech, striving with everincreasing severity for that chastened perfection of form which stands as the last and the surest test of the presence of supreme poetic genius.

So much cannot be said of Browning. There is enough and to spare in the great body of his work to leave his position as a poet unassailed, but there is more to prove that, beside the purely poetic impulse, there were other forces working in his nature, which, in so far as they prevail, must tend to rob the result of that faultless music which alone

From the painting by G. F. W, R.A., in the National Portrait Gallery

To face page 201.

can give to verse its final right of survival. This is doubtless true also of Wordsworth, but in his case the good and the bad are easily separable, and the good at its best is flawless. But with Browning the conflicting elements of his genius are so closely locked together

that the task of selection is not so easy, and the triumph, even when it has to be acknowledged, is not so secure.

And yet, for all who then came under his influence, the charm can never quite be broken. He spoke to those of us who first learned to know him in our youth with a quickened authority that nothing can quite destroy. The faults which time now thrusts forward were hardly then matter for pardon. For those who come after they may indeed serve to set his fame in peril, but the message he had for us was so overwhelming in its appeal that we forgot the crabbed hand in which it was transcribed.

In one respect, and in one respect only, Browning the poet found an echo in Browning as he was known to his friends. That brave optimism of spirit, with its constant nobility of outlook on the facts of life which so finely distinguishes his writing, was also, I think, characteristic of the man. It was always a spiritual refreshment to meet him. The fact that he was a poet was, indeed, a secret he took some pains to conceal. In this respect, except for rare lapses of noble enthusiasm, he preferred to preserve a kind of austere incognito; but at the same time he contrived to convey even in the simplest converse with the most ordinary people a sense of personal detachment that nevertheless left them free to feel at their ease. And yet, often as I have seen him apparently content with associates who were manifestly his inferiors in intellect, and even in spirit, I cannot recall a time when his own personality ever seemed to suffer by the contact.

I suppose no man of his generation responded so readily to the call of hospitality. He was to be met everywhere, and so keen was his zest in the ordinary traffic of social life that he seemed at times to be indifferent to his choice of associates. There was something in his own power of drawing entertainment from an evening passed in the society of friends that no measure of dulness in his surroundings seemed capable of abating.

He preserved in all companies a constant alertness of spirit, an undiminished sense of self-reliant enjoyment, that was surprising to the onlooker. And yet, despite his unfailing courtesy even to those whom in his secret heart he must often have set in the category of bores, he never left the slightest impression of insincerity. By means, hardly definable, he contrived to keep his converse, even with the most commonplace of his acquaintance, on a certain high spiritual level, and when he took his leave of any party it was impossible not to feel that a considerable personage had quitted the room.

And yet the personal impression made by Browning was not commanding. Vigorous and strenuous he always seemed, and those characteristics stamped him on the first encounter. But they might have belonged equally to a leader in any other walk of life—to a successful man of affairs, or to a politician in the fulness of his fame.

To those who knew him well there were, however, many little sidelights that showed the poet. Something deeper and more passionate, something more chivalrous and more tender, lurked beneath the social armour that he chose to wear; and it was easy to perceive that even in his ripe age there were smouldering fires of a more passionate experience that a word might waken into flame.

He came often to our house in the years between 1880 and 1885. In our smaller circle we saw him as an intimate friend, and he was a kind and a true friend. I think he was not indifferent to good living, but he was always content with our simple fare—more than

content, certainly, if he was allowed his bottle of port wine, not to be sipped at dessert as others use it, but to be quaffed through dinner as an accompaniment to every course. His appreciation of wine, never immoderately indulged, must, I suppose, have been inherited, for he used to tell me a story of his father’s indignation on the occasion of his once asking for a glass of water.

“Water, Robert!” exclaimed the elder Browning in dismay “For washing purposes it is, I believe, often employed, and for navigable canals I admit it to be indispensable, but for drinking, Robert, God never intended it.”

Browning’s unfailing courtesy towards women could sometimes display itself in a partly humorous fashion. One day when he was calling upon my wife, an authoress whose high estimate of her own work was never quite confirmed by the public, was suddenly announced. The visit was somewhat embarrassing, for the lady had sent my wife one of her novels, with a request that, when she had read it, it might be submitted to me with a view to its being adapted for the stage. The book had not been read, had in fact been mislaid, but as this was the second occasion upon which the lady had applied for my verdict, my wife basely resorted to prevarication, and embarked upon general phrases of eulogy in regard to the high merit of the work in question. This subterfuge, however, only resulted in deeper disaster, for the flattered authoress at once plunged into baffling details that lay beyond the reach of my wife’s improvised mendacity It happened, however, that Browning had read the book, and, realising the situation, at once came to the rescue, and finally succeeded in persuading the unhappy authoress that the very merits of the novel were in themselves an insuperable obstacle to its production on the stage.

One thing remains vividly in my recollection of Browning, and that was his constant expression of loyal admiration for the genius of Tennyson. I have heard him bear witness to it again and again, and always with entire sincerity

There was about him in his outlook on life, in his high courtesy and in his unflagging faith in the beauty of the world, a quality that I sometimes find lacking in gifted men of a younger generation. I can only express what I feel in this sense by reference to a splendid survivor of the great race—George Meredith. To those who do not instinctively feel it, my reference may mean nothing, but to me, to whom the whole achievement of the Victorian Era, in art as in literature, stands high, it means everything. It is not my purpose in these pages of personal recollections to dwell upon my intimate association with men who are still living, but in Mr. Meredith I feel I may make an exception. And Browning has reminded me of him because there is in both a kindred quality—the quality of a superb reverence for life, an undying faith in its ultimate beauty. As literature has fallen since under the conduct of later hands, I find that it seems in some sense shattered in subdivision. There are, on the one hand, writers who seek to be artists and no more, men who pet and polish their rhythmic phrases till they may be said to have reached perfection, and on the other hand there are pamphleteers, eager and sincere, but still pamphleteers, who are content if they can coerce their readers into the belief that their chosen gospel for the regeneration of humanity is a fair equivalent for the larger vision of life itself. No man who is richly human can escape that yearning towards a brighter social ideal. Browning and Tennyson, Thackeray and Dickens, all had their hopes for the

bettering of the world as they found it; but with them all, whatever their original impulse, the beauty of the world, as it has been and as it is, outlived their humanitarian ambition, and left them at the last with an increasing sense of its enduring beauty and glory. And that is where George Meredith, still living, stands as a monument of strength, for worship as for example, to those who have still to come after him.

The hours that I have spent with George Meredith in and around his simple home at Box Hill count among the most delightful of my life. I met him first at the house of a dear friend of both, Frederick Jameson, in the year 1876, and it was, I think, about that time that I had published in the Saturday Review a criticism of his novel, Beauchamp’s Career, which I think must have pleased him, for I find a phrase of his in a letter written to me at that date in which he says, “Praise of yours comes from the right quarter.”

It was not long after that that we became intimate friends, and it was his hospitable custom to invite me to breakfast with him on the little lawn in front of his cottage, and then, after the repast, light and dainty after the fashion of the French dejeuner, we would start for a long ramble over Box Hill, returning often but just in time for dinner, to continue or to renew the talk that had made the afternoon memorable. Meredith could talk and walk after a fashion that I have known in no one else. Sometimes he would occupy the whole of our ramble in a purely invented biography of some one of our common friends, passing in rather burlesque rhapsody from incident to incident of a purely hypothetical career, but always preserving, even in the most extravagant of his fancies, a proper relevancy to the character he was seeking to exhibit.

On one occasion I remember he traced with inimitable humour, and with inexhaustible invention, a supposed disaster in love encountered by an amiable gentleman we both knew well; and as he rambled on with an eloquence that never halted, he became so in love with his theme that I think he himself was hardly conscious where the record of sober fact had ended and where the innocent mendacity of the novelist had begun. And then, at the immediate summons of some beauty in the landscape around us that arrested his imagination, he would pause in the wild riot of the imagined portrait and pass, in a moment, to discourse, as eloquent but more serious, on some deeper problem of Life or Art. Not that he ever sought, either in the lighter or the deeper vein, to talk so as to absorb the conversation. In single companionship there was no better talker, as, indeed, there was no better listener; and in either mood he was singularly stirring and inspiring.

One evening I remember that, after such a ramble and when dinner was over, we ascended the slope of his garden to the little chalet on its height, and there he read me till far into the night hours the whole of that wonderful series of sonnets on Modern Love.

This is not the place or the time to assert his claims either as a poet or as a writer of fiction. I have cited his name here and now, because both as an author and as a man he seems to me to possess in the highest degree that superb optimism of spirit which also characterised Browning: an optimism born of no shallow or sentimental survey of life, and yet of strength sufficient to survive all shocks of experience in virtue of its deeper hold upon those secrets of beauty that no personal disaster could efface or destroy.

Once when we were discussing the dramas of Ibsen he made, not in criticism but in comment, a remark that has always seemed to me memorable.

“There is no picture,” he said, “however overcast its subject, in which the painter, rightly endowed, cannot suggest that beyond the enclosing clouds there is room for a space of blue sky.”

He left the comment there without special application to this work or that of the author under discussion, but it dwells in my memory as highly and nobly characteristic of George Meredith the author and of George Meredith the man.

The later advent of Mr. Swinburne caused many of us in those days to reconsider the claims of Tennyson and Browning. It is difficult now to realise the sense almost of intoxication with which the new music of his verse was entertained. For a while it seemed to efface the simpler triumphs of Tennyson no less than Browning’s more impetuous but less ordered strains. Its overpowering wealth of rhythmic cadence struck a new note that it was impossible for the younger generation to resist.

But it was not Mr. Swinburne who first awakened in me a spirit of reaction against the elder masters of our generation. Before I read Atalanta in Calydon my imagination had been deeply stirred by that first volume of Mr. William Morris’s verse, entitled The Defence of Guinevere I had found there, though in a form perhaps deliberately archaic, that deeper note of passion which Tennyson’s poetry, even at its best, confessedly lacks; and its appeal

WILLIAM MORRIS

From the painting by G. F. W, R.A., in the National Portrait Gallery.

Hollyer

To face page 209.

was the more urgent because Morris too was attracted by the charm of mediæval romance —romance which in Tennyson’s hands had lost something of its primitive dramatic quality, and became, as he developed the Arthurian story, more and more material for setting forth a systematised body of ethical teaching.