essive, and it brought recent agitations to a head. Hence the
manifesto of the libraries, in which they announce that all books must be
submitted in advance to a committee of hiring experts, and that the
submitted books will be divided into three classes. The first class will
be absolutely banned; the circulation of the second will be prevented so
far as it can be prevented without the ban absolute; and the circulation
of the third will be permitted without restrictions.

* * * * *

Of course, that even the suggestion of a censorship should spring from
such a personal and trifling cause is very scandalous. But I am fairly
sure that it might happen under any Government and under any form of
Government. All Governments must consist of individual members, and all
individual members have friends. Most of them are acquainted with women,
and with absurd women, who will utilize the acquaintanceship with all
their might for their own personal ends. And exceedingly few members of
any Government whatsoever would have the courage to tell a well-dressed
and arrogant woman to go to the devil, even when that answer happened to
be the sole correct answer to an impertinence. Wellington merely damned
the portly darlings, but then Wellington, though preposterous as a
politician, was a great man.

* * * * *

The menacing letter from the Libraries was received by the Publishers on
the very day of their Council meeting. This may or may not have been
accidental, but at any rate it put the Publishers at a disadvantage. The
Council meetings of the Publishers' Association, being dominated by
knights and other mandarins, are apt to be formal and majestic in
character. You can't blurt out whatever comes into your head at a Council
meeting of the Publishers' Association. And nearly everybody is afraid of
everybody else. No one had had time to think the matter over, much less to
decide whether surrender or defiance would pay best or look best.
Consequently the reply sent to the Libraries was a masterpiece of
futility. The mildly surprising thing is that, in the Council itself,
there was a strong pro-Library party. Among this party were Messrs.
Hutchinson and Mr. Heinemann. Messrs. Hutchinson, it is well known, have
consistently for many years tried to publish only novels for "family
reading." It is an ambition, like another. And one may admit that Messrs.
Hutchinson have fairly well s