LITERATURE AND LORDS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1193, 31 July 1911, Page 11

LITERATURE AND LORDS.

How closely literature in England is concerned with the iiiu to limit me veto oi ine xlouso of Loras is pointed out by U. K. Snorter in tlie "spjiere." "Tiiinfc," no says, "of the pi-wages tnat mignt uave. been uropp&u into tne moutiis ot merarv* men Had mo Prime Minister reauy been uuucr the necessity ot peisuauing the Crown to bring togetner SUU auuitional Lorils ot Parliament. We should hariuy ever liavo been ab;e to enter 0110 of our HiShemian haunts without dropping across Lord Tms or Lord That. It is true that there are those who say that the robes of a Lord of Parliament cost about J;Ui)O, and among my literary friends there are many who assure mo that they iind it ilitiicult as it is to pay their tailor. What would they do to obtain thtse rooos? In any case you will see here that literature is greatly concerned in the iate of the Parliament Bill, because it would be iiupossiblo not to include'a certain number of literary men, and, indeed, I have noticed a certain stalwartness of Lberaiism in a number of these gentlemen , lately." In a list of three hundred possible peers, however," published in a penny newspaper. Mr. Shorter was able to find but five literary men. One of these was Barrie, who, as he has already refused a knighthood, would presumably decline the higher honour. A less remote held of conjecture is that of Coronation honours, in which, we shall soon know whom thoso who think for tho King havo decided to recognise. Mr. Shorter does not look with favour upon even so aristocratically named an organisation as the Royal Society- of Literature. "I have been for years denouncing . these various self-constituted bodies,"yhb lyyites,- "even including tho" British' Academy, which I assume is sck called becausa its president has a Dutch and its secretary a German name. . . . It is time that the public had it very clearly in their minds that tho -Royal Society of Literature might just as well adjudicate upon pickles as upon books, and probably has more qualifications for dealing with the former article." His comment upon the announcement that this body bas instituted a chair of English fiction, whose first incumbent is to be Mr. A. C. Benson, is sufficiently sarcastic; "That is a splendid arrangement. I know no one who can proclaim the obvious so skilfully, and I cannot imagine that the non-literary, crowd who ■ make up the Koyal Society of Literature can possibly want anything else but tho obv'ous" -