1 2 -12 press the idea of excommunicating for a It is a very rough and inartistic method can be said to have injured the language. as the cultivated at large," just look at the mess they are making of their hunt for a short word to express the idea of electric traction, the atrocious barbarisms they are suggesting to us; the way they are spoiling useful old words-fancy stealing such a word as "to coil," and making it drive an electric launch!- and the complete way they are failing after all. Just look at this list of the suggested verbs sent to the Times on Tuesday : Volucer. Glance. Gleam. 512 Hie. Course. Jove. Whirl. Shoot. Launch. Flare. Eclair. Whirr. Thor. Blizz. guage of its beauty and utility at once. If no word had a definite meaning, we might as well be dumb, and every derogation in the meaning of a word is a direct injury done to language. Sometimes, indeed, the The "man in the street" will beat the cul- "man in the strest" positively degrades a tivated, we may be sure, in the end; and word by attaching to it, nobody knows we only want to protest just now against how, a dishonoring meaning. He has his mischievousness in degrading words. done this almost completely with the word It is his habit to take a good word, per- "mistress," which originally meant alceive its goodness, use it for everything, ways, and still means in poetry, the woman thereby destroying all its value as a sound loved by the man spoken of; and is doing intended to express a definite meaning, it now with such words as "financier and then to leave it in a condition so de- and " politician." The original sense has graded that it is of no use whatever. Who, not quite left them; but a "financier "may after the usage to which it has been sub- now mean an adept in State finance or a jected, is to employ the really beautiful dishonest speculator in money, while a and expressive word "elegant" for any "politician" is rapidly coming into use to purpose whatever; or what can any one do describe, not a man who is immersed in with the adjective "ghastly," with its deep politics, but a man who trades in them. suggestion of the awe and horror that any-We do not know that there is any comthing disembodied must strike into the soul still clothed in flesh, now that it is used by half the young in the sense of contemptible"? According to Dr. Murray, the astounding popular habit of using the word "bloody" is merely an instance of this practice. The "man in the street" takes a word like "blood," in its sense of "pedigree;" and because he thinks pedigree important, makes an intensive adjective of it, then gradually forgets its meaning altogether, and finally uses it as a part blasphemous, part brutal, and part meaningless equivalent for "very." That is an extreme instance, no doubt; but he is always doing it about some word or other, till he takes out of it its greatest value, its peculiar definiteness, - thus, in fact, doing all that he can to deprive lan-nated meaning. plete remedy against this practice, for not only is there no authoritative referee, but it is the English habit to declare that the value of a word depends on "usage; " but the collective body of journalists might, if they cared to do it, exercise a certain influence. If editors always cut out abominations like "stylist," "scientist," and "paragraphist," contributors would cease to use them; and as regards some at least of these expressions, contributors fill collectively the place of the "man in the street." It is quite hopeless to keep the language stationary, and not desirable either; but we might resist the introduction of useless and cacophonous barbarisms, and the degradation by too frequent use of words with a delicately discrimi A SERIES of regulations with regard to tional or not. Nothing whatever is said as to patents and designs has just been issued in the rights of a foreigner to patent an invenJapan. All inventors, whose discoveries are tion, but it is presumed that he will not be beneficial or are calculated to improve exist- able to do so. Nor has any provision been ing processes of manufacture, may apply for made for advertising applications for letters letters patent. No patents, however, will be patent. The Patents Bureau is to be the sole granted in the case of articles of food or drink, judge of all cases submitted to it, and from its or in case of medicines. Inventors who do decision there is no appeal; but in certain not receive letters patent are powerless to sue cases, two judges sit with the Bureau and in respect of piracy of their inventions. In assist in deciding whether a patent should be order to register an invention, application granted or not. The duration of a patent is must be made to the Patents Bureau, and if to be five, ten, or fifteen years, according to the officials are satisfied as to the genuineness the amount paid in fees. The patent, of of the invention, it is registered, on certain course, passes by assignment inter vivos, or to forms being complied with and certain fees the patentee's heir, but nothing is provided paid. A curious omission occurs in the regu- for the cases of bankruptcy or marriage. lations, but it is not plain whether it is inten Nature. For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks, and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & Co. Single Numbers of THE LIVING AGE, 18 cents. THE MOCKING-BIRD IN THE KLOOF. I. "Chick-a-wee-chick-a-wee!" The brown bird sang in the cedar-tree. The sunset smote the hills into flame, As down through the Kloof the Swazi came — And through the glare of each weary day And he sent for a token, unto his own, And a letter, whose tune was the old, old song, "Soon, love, soon — but ah! me—. how long. Kama the Swazi, true and tried, In the shade of the ironstone boulder grim the space of a swift heart-beatHe lay in the dust before their feet. For at set of sun, when the dusk began, And for nigh a twelvemonth, far and wide, Then, to put the thing to the proof, But the sun had dipt, and the darkness grew, And a low sound shuddered the still air through. It moaned through the boughs of the cedar trees; The grey horse trembled between his knees. Out of the air, above, around Grew and deepened the wailing sound, And shaped into words its moaning low- And Dixon turned, drew not rein or breath, But they came and searched, by light of day, And found where the poor bones bleaching lay, And showed, as they whitened 'neath moon and sun, What the axe and the ironwood club had done. And Dixon muttered, under his breath, "I know, poor heart, thou wert true to death!" He turned, with his white face stern and set, May God forget me, if I forget! From The Contemporary Review. OUGHT THE REFERENDUM TO BE INTRODUCED INTO ENGLAND? BY PROFESSOR A. V. DICEY. It is a question for us Englishmen to consider whether it would be possible and advantageous to introduce the referendum at home. For instance, it might well be that such a vexatious question as Home Rule for Ireland could once for all be settled one way or the other, by a vote of the whole electoral body in the United Kingdom. We merely throw this out as a suggestion, but of course the conditions of Great Britain are very different from those of Switzerland, where the nation is so eminently democratic, and where the referendum has been habitually employed for a variety of local matters.* I. 515 THE referendum may be roughly defined as the reference to all vote-possessing citizens of the Confederation for their acceptance or rejection, of laws passed by their representatives in the Federal As sembly.* Under the Swiss Constitution as amended or re-enacted in 1874, all legislation of the Federal Parliament is or may be subject to the referendum,† but an important distinction is drawn between laws which do, and laws which do not, effect changes in the Constitution. In Switzerland, as in England, the Constitution can always be revised or altered by the National Parliament. But in Switzerland no law which revises the Constitution, either wholly or in part, can come into force until it has been regularly submitted by means of the referendum to the vote of the people, and has been ap proved both by a majority of the citizens who on the particular occasion give their votes, and also by a majority of the Cantons. With the elaborate provisions which secure that under certain circumstances a vote of the people shall be taken, not only on the question whether a particular amendment or revision of the Constitution approved by the Federal Assembly shall or shall not come into force, but also on the preliminary question whether any revision or reform of the Constitution shall take place at all, we need for our These are the words of the only Englishman who has treated of modern Swiss politics both with adequate knowledge and with perfect impartiality. They will not in the long run fall unheeded on the public ear. The British Constitution, while preserving its monarchical form, has for all intents and purposes become a Parliamentary democracy. When this fact with all its bearings is once clearly perceived by Englishmen, theorists and politicians will assuredly ask themselves what may be the effect, for good or bad, of transplanting to England the newest and the most popular among the institutions of the single European State where the experiment of democratic government has, though tested by every possible difficulty, turned out a striking, and, to all appear-present purpose hardly trouble ourselves. ance, a permanent, success. My aim in this article is (following out the line of thought suggested by Sir Francis Adams), to examine three questions: first, what is the nature of the Swiss referendum? secondly, whether it be possible to introduce the principle of the referendum into the world of English politics; and, thirdly, whether such introduction would be beneficial to the nation? † Adams, Swiss Confederation, p. 87. ↑ The referendum is throughout this article described only in its broadest outline, for Englishmen are much more concerned with the principle of the Swiss institution than with the particular constitutional mechanism by which effect is given to the principle in Switzerland. Whoever desires further information should consult, among other authorities, Adams's "Swiss Confederation," cap. vi.; Orelli's "Das Staaterecht der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft, pp. 79, 80, 83-88; Con What Englishmen should note is that when any law, or as we should say bill, amending the Constitution has passed the stitution Fédérale, arts. 89, 90, and 121; and also a notice of Adams's work in the LIVING AGE, No. 2384, this article treated of all but exclusively as a part of the p. 579. The referendum, it should also be noted, is in Swiss Federal or National Constitution. It exists, however, and flourishes as a local institution in all but one or two Cantons. A competent English observer who should report minutely upon the working of the referendum as a cantonal institution, and especially at Zurich, would render a service of inestimable value to all students of political science. See Adams, p. 76. † See Constitution Fédérale, arts. 89, 118-121. Swiss authorities do not apparently apply the term "referendum" to the popular sanction required for the validity of any revision of the Constitution under Const. Fed., art. 121. It is, however, clear that the popular assent which is required for all constitutional amendments partakes of the nature of a referendum. |