PASSING OF THE 'NATION'

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 120, 23 May 1931, Page 19

PASSING OF THE 'NATION'

MERGED IN 'NEW STATESMAN'

'HORROUR OF THE LAST

(By "Ajax.")

Not finding what I wanted iv (ho last number of tho "Rambler" (No. 208, Saturday, 14th March, 1752), I turned to the first (Tuesday, 20th March, 1749----50) and there found something that served equally well what I had in hand. .The difficulty of the first address on any iiaw occasion, says Johnsou as he makes liis bow, is Celt by every man in his transactions with the world and confessed by the settled and regular forms of salutation which necessity tins introduced into all languages. . . . Perhaps few authors have ■presented themselves before the publick without wishing that such ceremonial modes of entrance had beeu anciently established as might have freed them from those dangers which the desire of pleasing is certain to produce, and precluded the vain expedients of softening censure by apologies, or rousing attention by abruptness. ■ « «• * What I was wanting was a valedictory to fit the need expressed in tho farewell -paragraph of "Parliamentary Notes" in the last "Nation" (21at February, 1931). What I found was a passage, which fitted equally well tho iirst number of "The' New Statesman and Nation" which appeared a week later. "The difficulty of the first address" on tho appearance of this new paper was evaded by saying nothing at all, but that the strange omission had tho effect of "rousing attention by abruptness" seems highly improbable. Did ever a new paper appear before ■without a syllabic to indicato that this was its first appearance except the newness of the name and the "Vol. 1., isfo. 1 (New Series)" alongside of.the tlate on the first page, which -nine leaders out of leu would never see? It is surely a very unbusinesslike modesty that seeks to conceal from the reader of the new series that it is tho result of tho amalgamation of two going concerns which formerly issued_ the "NeW"Statesman" and the "Nation" respectively.' * * * There "vvas of course nothing to conceal and no motive for concealment. It ■was merply a lack _ of. historic sense, 'or, one might perhaps say, of liorse sense,- that failed to emphasise so • material a fact in . the proper place. The essentials had already, been anjiounccd in idontical paragraphs which appeared in both papers on : the olst January: — 'Odr readers' will probably ■ have, seen in the newspapers 'an- announcement of the ■ forthcoming. amalgamation of i lie Aew :' Statesman" and "The Nation and Athen'aeuni." .... A new company will be -•formed which will include on its board representatives of. both the existing papers, • and-will publish a weekly review under .the name of.■ VThe New Statesman and Nation." This does not mean a break with ■the old traditions; the policy of the new. • paper will -be- that ot.air independent, ■journal of'the Left without attachment to . any! political party, and it will continue .. io draw on the services oi the iaiwliar con- ■ "tributors of both-papers. The editor wil be Mr.Kingsley Martin, till recently, o the "Manchester Guardian,' and he .will Lave the help-of Mr. C. M. Lloyd, who lias been acting editor of thu ; JNew ouuesmaii" for the past year. •'■* : . * '* There can bo no ground lor questioning the independence of the new -paper, for, as tho "Nation" said m its last number, it is tho product ot thc-miion of an independent journal which has given a critical support to the Liberal Party with an independent journal which has given.a critical support to the Labour Party. ' 'wftV&r. H. W. Masslnghami who tad ■jnade^rhe ".Nation", during his long sncWiriiliant editorship (190 i-2o), turned3rem Liberalism, to' Labour .he loft .'• the -"Nation" "for the "New States■liian^'v^et -so discriminating has be-on ;the,-'iNcw Statesman's" support of "Labour, that I cannot recall a moro bit of political criticism than •that in7which- it -trounccd'Hr. Ramsay Macl%al.d for the morbid vanity that ■-.-wrecked the..first British Labour t-rov- .-■ ernment in. 1924. ~ : • :.:, ' ; * *• '' * ■ "On the ground that neither' paper - is swalltwing.-thc other," the "Nation" ■-forbore to write . its own obituary, declaring that our readers are invited to a marriage and ' c. christening, not -to a-'funeral. • -But- as tho-"New Statesman's" name was to s.tand- first in that of. the new paper,, and that paper was to be issued fronvits office?, it is natural that some members of the"Nation's" staff could not restrain the funereal note. ■ <'Erimus," its vivid, just, scholarly, and witty Parliamentary chronicler, •concluded his last notes as follows:— Mr. Belloc has written somewhere the sadness of Coming to an Lnd. That ''sadness is with the writer now. He gives the salute,- "La Nation esfc morte; vive •' ]a Nation!" ■ and'signs himselt, with a - change of tense, • .j, RA MUS. By the alteration oi; a single letter ho . had changed his pen-name from Vve shall be" to "We wore." ..*'. *■ * If, was on "ISrimus's" account —I prefer to think of him as not a thing. "of the past—that 1 had been looking in the ".Rambler" for tho valedictory on "Horrour of the Last," with which Johnson had actually brought tho "Idler" to a close. Uorc is a part oi .." it:— : • ■■ .There are few things not purely evil ■of which we can say without some emotion of uneasiness, "This is the last. Those who never could agree together shed tears when mutual discontent has ' determined .them to final separation; ot •;t place which has been frequently visited, though without pleasure, the last look is taken with a heavy heart; and the Idler, with all his chilness of tranquillity, is not wholly unaffected by the thought that Bis last essay is now before him. _ . - 'The secret1 horror of the last is inseparable from a thinking- being whose life is limited, and to whom death is dreadful. We always make a secret comparison between a part and.the-whole;. the termination of any period oi We reminds tis that life itself has likewise its termination; when we have clone any thing for the last time, we involuntarily, reflect that a-part of the.days allotted us.is past, and that as moro is past then; js loss remaining. *■ '.'- J* 'And then, as ho is writing in Easter •-week (sth April, 1760), Johnson passes on to still more solemn reflections: that an. end must in time be put to everything great as to everything., little;that" to life must come its last hour, and | to this system of being its last day, the ' hour .at which probation ceases and ' repentance will be vain; the clrfy in which i every work- of tho hand, and imagination ] of the heart, shall be brought to judgment,■ i and an everlasting future shall be deter- i . mined by the past. ! ;.■•• *■ • i The Oxford editor's note on this last , lumber of the "Idler" is:— , This most solemn and impressive impel1 1 may be profitably compared witli thu '

introduction of Bishop llcbcr's lirst j.anipLou Lecture. I should bo very glad to make tho comparison if a copy were available, but I cannot believe that cither Ilcbcr* or Mr. Bclloc would havo suited "Erimus's" purpose better, or that a newspaper ever took Jjarowcll of its readers with a moro majestic melancholy.

Even the brilliant rhymes of "Erimus's" companion in arms, the irrepressible "MaeFlceknoe," took on a sober colouring from tlio "horrour of the last," and announced in n touching valedictory their last appearance in tho old paper: — TAIL-PIECE. Hinging the curtain down —laying our .standards by— Closing the volume —rolling away the chart, Something of sadness creex)s in: as the • finish o£ things draws nigh, Even the jester's motley may hide a smart. Was it alone for the cheque, i'or the sakp ■of the monthly pay. That wo wrote our leaders, middles, "'events,", reviews?. 'No! but because it is good tohurtle into the fray . With chosen fellows-in-arms,. for a cause you choose. , . So, since the chapter ends, before. we open the new (Better perhaps than'the old/yet never the same), Standing, we raise our glass to "THE NATION," ourselves, and you— The friends unknowit who gave us heart I'or the game.