and cats. They are not
specially spoken of as evil; they are enjoyed as witching and wonderful;
but they are not trusted as good. You do not say the wrong words or give
the wrong gifts to them; and there is a curious silence about what would
happen to you if you did. Now to me, Japan, the Japan of Art, was always
a fairyland. What trees as gay as flowers and peaks as white as
wedding cakes; what lanterns as large as houses and houses as frail as
lanterns!… but... but... the missionary explained (I read in the
paper) that the assertion and denial about the Japanese use of torture
was a mere matter of verbal translation. "The Japanese would not call
twisting the thumbs back 'torture.'"

THE CHARTERED LIBERTINE

I find myself in agreement with Mr. Robert Lynd for his most just remark
in connection with the Malatesta case, that the police are becoming
a peril to society. I have no attraction to that sort of atheist
asceticism to which the purer types of Anarchism tend; but both an
atheist and an ascetic are better men than a spy; and it is ignominious
to see one's country thus losing her special point of honour about
asylum and liberty. It will be quite a new departure if we begin to
protect and whitewash foreign policemen. I always understood it was
only English policemen who were absolutely spotless. A good many of us,
however, have begun to feel with Mr. Lynd, and on all sides authorities
and officials are being questioned. But there is one most graphic and
extraordinary fact, which it did not lie in Mr. Lynd's way to touch
upon, but which somebody really must seize and emphasise. It is
this: that at the very time when we are all beginning to doubt these
authorities, we are letting laws pass to increase their most capricious
powers. All our commissions, petitions, and letters to the papers
are asking whether these authorities can give an account of their
stewardship. And at the same moment all our laws are decreeing that they
shall not give any account of their stewardship, but shall become yet
more irresponsible stewards. Bills like the Feeble-Minded Bill and
the Inebriate Bill (very appropriate names for them) actually arm with
scorpions the hand that has chastised the Malatestas and Maleckas with
whips. The inspector, the doctor, the police sergeant, the well-paid
person who writes certificates and "passes" this, that, or the other;
this sort of man is being trusted with more authority, apparently
beca