The Evening Star SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 1922.

Evening Star, Issue 17922, 18 March 1922, Page 6

The Evening Star SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 1922.

Loso before. Mr Montagu added the last straw towards the precipitation of a •political crisis there had been speculation as to the course Mr Lloyd George was likely to follow to end or mend a very unstable position. In January the political correspondent of a prominent London weekly raid that were three courses open to him —immediate dissolution, dissolution some months hence, and resignation. When after the armistice the Coalition swept the polls there was an uneasy feeling that the victory was too overwhelming to ho thoroughly genuine; that the foundations were not solid enough to carry such a big superstructure. The traditions of party government are go strong in Britain that only a very strong and agile leader could have held them in abeyance for so many years. Mr Lloyd George was responsible for the inception of the Coalition and for its continuance through troublous times, and it appears as if it is going to bo loft to him to decide whether and how it shall end. It is among the Conservatives that the movement for the destruction of the Coalition has taken really definite shape. They have seen their Imperialist ideals crumble after the war, whoso binding effect it was hoped would hasten their consummation. Subject races arc striving for independence, the secession of Ireland has come nearer to actuality than any pre-war Liberal regime would have countenanced, and the danger to Ulster so inflamed the “diehards”! that their breach with the Coalition became as definite as that of tho “ Wco Frees.” Sir George Younger sounded the note of revolt, but it was not taken up by the Conservative leaders in Cabinet, nor by ex-leaders like Sir Arthur Balfour and Mr Bonar Law, nor by such an able, staunch, and brilliant Conservative as Lord Birkenhead. There appears to ho not only a personal attachment between tho Conservative leaders and Mr Lloyd George, but something like a belief on their part that ho is tho only capable leader of the country. Mr Austen Chamberlain, who as the official leader of tho House of Commons would seem to have the natural reversion to tho Premiership in tire ovent of a change, has subordinated personal ambition to higher considerations. Not long ago ho disclosed that, when Mr Asquith resigned to make way for the Coalition, Mr Lloyd George did not seek the Premiership, hut offered to servo under Mr Balfour or Mr Bonar Law. Mr Chamberlain added that now Mr Lloyd George had offered to retire if the Conservative leaders thought a return to party government was in the best .interests of the country. There can be little doubt that the Conservatives as a whole believe that a return to party government would be in the best interests of tho country, provided that they themselves were the party in power and that they were ably led. - On neither point do they appear at all certain. Tho disappearance of tho Coalition would mean tho three-party system, no party being able to command an ! absolute majority in the House. As to leadership, they seem to realise as clearly as the bulk of tho lookers-on that their •ranks do"not contain, a man who could replace Mr Lloyd George as a real leader of the nation. For such he has undoubtedly proved himself. The strain has jbee'i'l enormous, and of late months < there have been signs that his health is beginning to be unequal to meeting it. There «jems to have been among the Conservative loaders a genuine desire and attempt net to acid to that strain. For the present i; appears that Mr Lloyd George will b# able to go to Geneva to deal with International affairs freed from immediate anxiety over the state of the domestic political situation in his absence. It is a great tribute which has been paid to hint- but it is doubtful if it is more than a nrae postponement of yet another crisis in KY, remarkable career of the “Welsh Wiz&d‘ Jr -

British Politics.

As interesting centenary which befell last month, and was doubtless observed in older countries, was that of the father of eugenics, Sir Francis Gallon. Galton was a remarkable man in more ways than one. Besides being the first propoundor of eugenics, he had a main part in thei invention of the finger-print system which is need, now for the identification of criminals. It was noted by him that ridgea on the finger of a new-born infant wore absolutely identical to the day of death. He was a grandson of Dr Erasmus Darwin and cousin of the great teacher of evolution, and in early life made an important and ha/,ardour, journey of exploration into Damaraland. The., work of his which promises to have most value in the future, however, was that which is concerned with race culture. Darwin and others had shown that man, like all other living forms, is not stationary, but the product of ages of evolution in accordance with natural laws, Gallon’s mind was impressed with the idea that, by the application of a sufficient knowledge of those laws, man might mould his own development in the future, making an advance in comparatively few generations equal to that which Nature has accomplished in the course of millions of years. But, unlike some of his disciples, ho recognised that the knowledge that will be necessary for that achievement, supposing it to be practicable at all, is knowledge which man lias hardly begun to acquire. Ho began in the. right way by founding a laboratory for the study of the respective parts played by Nature and. nurture in the development of man.

A Notable Centenary*

To improve the human race by more rational mating is the object of the cugenists; but human mating is not easily controlled, and it is probable enough that, if the ideas of ardent engenists could bo fully tested, the results would bo widely different from their expectations. There is knowledge enough, however, to make it clear that some unions arc irrational and dangerous, and insistence mi the perils which should cause them to bo avoided is all in the interests of humanity". For the rest, eugenics has a great field of research before it. “Nature (that is, inherited nature) is five times to ten times as influential as nurture” (or environment and function) was a first conclusion of the science, which sounds very much, like nonsense; but hardly anything could 1 be more Important than the study which will show how mankind is truly moulded and how the present typo can bo improved upon. Statistics in sufficient number will go far to reveal what matings really are rational and irrational. Eugenics is no more than the beginning of a science, though the number of his disciples might astonish Galton. It is loss than eleven years since the first propouuder of the doctrine died, and most countries have to-day their eugenics societies. If many of them are as inactive as branches formed in New Zealand would appear to be, that may not mean much. The United States, however, has a Eugenics Record Office as well as a Galton Society, and in all the Scandinavian countries there are Statesupported institutes for the study of the incipient science.

In England there seems evidence of some waning of the first fine rapture of enthusiasm. There has -been, apparently, no revival of those engaging conferences, held) before the war, at which such subjects were discussed as whether it would he better to be born the child of a comsumptive bishop or a healthy burglar. But the times have been unfavorable to consideration of posterity, when this age finds it difficult enough to live. The Laboratory of National Eugenios which was bequeathed by Galton to the nation.— more particularly to Lorfdon University—■ languishes itself, for lack of funds, and oven in this centenary year of its founder the idea of an appeal to ''the public for subscriptions "which would place it on a sound financial basis has had to bo abandoned as impracticable. Even the results of later researches performed by the laboratory have not been able to be published. Dr Karl Pearson ha/s appealed for ■sufficient funds to he provided to allow those to see tho light. In view of tho importance of tho subject and tho sentiment that must be felt by ougenists in this year of the centenary of their master, that mast modest request should not bo disappointed.