smile of the just, and his heart was full of happiness. A special messenger was dispatched to earth to thank the Very Reverend Hole for his recommendation, and to deliver to W. H. Smith's son the laconic telegram: "Persevere. Smith the father ".

Smith the son received the message at his club while sipping a brandy and soda. He drank to the health of the future Saint Smith. He read again and again the beautiful sentence in the good Dean's speech, which had caused such a stir, not only in the English Church, but also amongst the heavenly company:

"Assuredly is it the duty of these publishers and booksellers, library committees, parents and guardians, who profess and call themselves Christians, to follow the righteous example of those who have, thank God, the chief control in the circulation of books, Messrs. W. H. Smith and Son, and to reject such works as transgress the confines of decency, and encourage wickedness and vice. I repeat the words 'thank God,' because we owe a debt of gratitude to these gentlemen, the extent of which is only known to those who have purposely inspected, as I have, some of the books which they have placed on their Index Expurgatorius. I repeat 'Thank God for W. H. Smith and Son '."

Smith-the-Son vowed then and there never to swerve from the path of censorship, and three reasons confirmed him in this resolution; firstly, the undying gratitude of the Church; secondly, the palpable acknowledgment of the great services rendered to the Tory party; and, thirdly, the great financial success of ihe undertaking.

It was very kind indeed of the Very Reverend Dean Hole to call his, and the world's, attention to the books and literature, which ought to be placed on the English Index Expurgatorius. It saved much reading and trouble. Smith-the-Son's heart flowed over with gratitude towards his friends and allies, the Directors of the English railways, who had so generously invested his father with the power to suppress any literature which he chose to place on this Index Expurgatorius. Darwin, Huxley, and Tyndall, and his greatest adversary, Bradlaugh, whose works were excluded from the thousand bookstalls in the United Kingdom, were by this time in safe custody, and not likely to annoy Saint Smith any further. Herbert Spencer would soon

follow his predecessors to the place prepared for him, so no hitch could possibly occur in the process of beatification and subsequent sanctification of the greatest of all the Smiths, which was to take place through the unanimous vote of the members of the Church on earth and in heaven.

The old Cardinal, when reading the Very Reverend Dean Hole's speech, mused and soliloquised thus: "Indeed, this Smith has more power than the Holy Father at the eternal city. The Pope's veto increases the circulation of any book placed on the Index, while this blessed heretic can carry out his decrees to the letter. He can crush that pernicious literature which attacks Church and State and our holiest institutions, which corrupts the simple mind of our people, and tends to undo our work. I wonder if they will make him Pope? They want a Pope, and Smith would do just as well as the Archbishop of Canterbury. But, after all, the same spirit of gratitude permeates the Catholic Church, as we fight the common enemy, Liberalism."

As a result of the Very Reverend Dean Hole's speech, Parliament will be asked to incorporate an additional prayer in the English prayer book, "We thank thee God Almighty for W. H. Smith and Son"; and the Nonconformists will, like the Catholic community, follow suit.

In the meantime it will be interesting to further study the great organisation which so successfully regulates the thought, and moulds the political and religious opinion of the average Englishman. I have in a former article' described the plan on which the Censorship in England has been established, and have tried to show that this Censorship is much more effective than any State institution created with the same object in Russia, Austria or Germany, where press-censorship in different forms is in use. In those autocratic countries it is a burden and expense to the State, while in England the public pays with alacrity for the selection of the books which Saint Smith will allow the Briton to read, and the Censor enjoys a princely income from a source

FREE Review, vol. v, p. 337 (January, 1896).

which everywhere else is a loss and expense to the Government that endeavors to suppress adverse

criticism.

At the headquarters of the firm in the Strand little information can be gathered as to the working of the system which Dean Hole so much admires. The Index Expurgatorius cannot be obtained nor inspected, and the censorship is practically vested in two or three individuals who are proud of their power and fully convinced of the importance of their work, conscious also of the great service they render to the Tories and to the Established Church. There are two distinct departments, the railway bookstalls, about a thousand in number, whence the mind of the male Briton is formed, and the lending library where women obtain their mental food. Both are under the strictest surveillance. Some publishers are considered pretty safe, and their name on a book or magazine is almost sufficient guarantee that the same may pass into the hands of the British reader. But then there are others who occasionally try to smuggle in a work which would be classed as "highly dangerous ", like "Esther Waters", "The Woman who Did ", and "Jude the Obscure ".

As the inhabitants of these Islands are so "awfully moral", and at the time very proud of political and religious freedom, the authorities at the Censor's headquarters deem it prudent to label all the inconvenient literature Immoral. That satisfies the majority, and secures the applause of the masses, who see in Smith the preserver of national virtue and purity.

The writings of Charles Darwin and Professor Huxley are considered highly immoral, and so are the Westminster Review and Reynolds's Newspaper, and all philosophic and scientific publications. Balfour's pseudophilosophy is, however, exceedingly moral, and the thousands of novels dealing exclusively with forgery, murder, fraud, and perjury, are considered moral if the villain, after a fair success, is duly convicted and sentenced, and if virtue comes out triumphant. By men of Dean Hole's type independent science in every form is tabooed, but coupled with theology à la Balfour it may pass.

As I have already shown in my former article on the subject, it is most amusing to converse on these topics with Smith's numerous employees, the retail censors at the different bookstalls. I have taken the trouble to sound the view, and to study the practice of these missionaries of Tory morality all over England. After having sifted the collected material, I will give our readers a sketch of the work done at the different branches of this National Institution.

Another point of interest is the question, what amount the railway companies receive for the services rendered to Messers W. H. Smith and Son, and how far the system interferes with the employment of the thousands of disabled employees of the different railways.

The monopoly has almost crushed the once flourishing trade of the country bookseller, and like all similar monopolies causes thousands to suffer to benefit a few.

F. B. Powell.

THE BREAD QUESTION.

THE sudden rise in the price of wheat came as a surprise to all those not connected with the trade, while it was predicted and expected by the majority of speculators, merchants and millers. Although an unavoidable and natural consequence of the deficiency of the regular wheat supply to this country, the considerable advance in the price of bread startles the world and reminds us forcibly of the vital importance of the bread question which so many of our political economists try to overlook or to ignore in the vain hope that the means of communication and transport of our time are such that the failure of the wheat crop in any country of the world cannot seriously affect or endanger our supply. How far this optimistic view is justified in the case of war is a very doubtful point, and we should again and again call the attention of those responsible for the welfare of our country to the great danger which hangs like the sword of Damocles over our heads.

Compared with the prices of wheat prevailing at the beginning of the century, wheat is very cheap even at 40s. per quarter; but our economical conditions have undergone such a phenomenal change that prices considered as normal by Lord Liverpool's committee in 1814 would be considered almost as a National calamity in 1897. It is perfectly true that wheat cannot be grown in England with a profit if the price drops below 30s. per quarter; and that our farmers will benefit by a rise in the price of wheat, but only if this higher price can be maintained, thus relieving the uncertainty of the wheat markets. This desirable condition, however, seems almost impossible to those who study the question impartially.

It is no doubt a deficiency of supply at the present moment, and not speculation that has caused the sudden rise, and the reports from Australia and America are less hopeful than ever. In addition we have the