he Masterman matter must be dwelt on is
because it affords the best illustration of one curious fact in
connection with the _Eye_ and _New Witness_ campaign. When the _Life
of Masterman_ recently appeared I seized it eagerly that I might read
an authoritative defence of his position. I searched the Index under
_Eye Witness, New Witness, Cecil Chesterton_ and _League for Clean
Government_. No one of them was mentioned. At last I discovered under
_Belloc_ and _Scurr_ a faint allusion to their activities at a
by-election in which Belloc was coupled with the Protestant Alliance
leader Kensit as part of a contemptible opposition, and the unnamed
League for Clean Government described as "those working with Mr.
Scurr"! Clearly where it is possible to use against something
powerful the weapon of ignoring it as though it were something
obscure, that weapon is itself a powerful one. Against the _New
Witness_ it was used perpetually.

A paper which included among its contributors Hilaire Belloc, G. K.
Chesterton, J. S. Phillimore, E. C. Bentley, Wells, Shaw, Katharine
Tynan, Desmond McCarthy, F. Y. Eccles, G. S. Street--to name only
those who come first to mind--obviously stood high. Cecil
Chesterton's own editorials, Hugh O'Donnell's picturesque series
_Twenty Years After_, the high level of the reviewing and (oddly
enough, considering the paper's outlook) the financial articles of
Raymond Radclyffe, were all outstanding. The sales (at sixpence) were
never enormous but the readers were on a high cultural level. The
correspondence pages are always interesting.

The _Eye Witness_ group, besides courage, had high spirits and they
had wit. "Capulet's" rhymes; the series of ballades written by
Baring, Bentley, Phillimore, Belloc and G.K.C.; "Mrs. Markham's
History" written by Belloc; there was little of this quality in the
other weeklies. Side by side with the serious attacks was a line of
satire and of sheer fooling. The silver deal in India was being
attacked in the editorials, while Mrs. Markham explained to Tommy how
good, kind Lord Swaythling, really a Samuel, had lent money to his
brother Mr. Montague (another Samuel) for the benefit of the poor
people of India. The next week Tommy and Rachel grew enthusiastic
about the kindness of Lord Swaythling in _borrowing_ money that
the Indian Government could not use. Mrs. Markham too made Rachel
take a pencil and write out a list of Samuels including the
Postmaster-General, now so bu