Journal de Genève
- The Retirement of Lord Oxford
- A Risky Thesis
- A Great Egyptologist: Edouard Naville
The Journal de Genève of 21 October 1926 led with a letter from its London correspondent on Lord Oxford's resignation as Liberal leader. The letter praised H. H. Asquith as the last great orator of the Commons and as the prime minister of the pre-war social insurance, pensions and House of Lords reforms. It traced the Liberal Party's unhealed split back to 1916, when Lloyd George took his place, and set out both camps' views of that episode. A column from Berne mocked Federal Councillor Schulthess for campaigning hard for the grain monopoly he had condemned in December 1924. A long obituary honoured the Genevan Egyptologist Edouard Naville. It described his training under Lepsius, his edition of the Edfu Horus texts and his 1886 edition of the Book of the Dead, prepared with his wife's drawings.
Translation
The Retirement of Lord Oxford
Six-point line: Fr. 0.60. Advertisements: seven-point line: Fr. 2.–
GENEVA, 20 October 1926
The retirement of Lord Oxford
Our London correspondent writes:
The resignation that Lord Oxford has tendered from his post as leader of the Liberal Party is a notable event in the political life of Great Britain. One could indeed almost say that Mr. Asquith, to call him by his former name, which remains more familiar, was the last great parliamentary figure. He was at any rate the last great parliamentary orator in the sense of the tradition established in the House of Commons, with its measured periods, its syntax sometimes at fault, and its classical quotations. Formerly one could quote Virgil, Horace or Homer with the certainty, which today is no more than a disappointing hope, that nine-tenths of the listeners would understand the Greek or the Latin as well as if it were English.
Changes are rapid on the political stage in every country, and it is not at all easy today to picture the Mr. Asquith of the pre-war years, head of a Liberal Party that had a crushing majority in the House of Commons and had passed radical reform measures one after another. For it was during the period when Mr. Asquith was Prime Minister that all the foundations of the present system of social insurance against sickness and unemployment were laid, that the House of Lords' right of veto over laws passed by the House of Commons was abolished, that old-age pensions were instituted, and that the system of licensed sale of alcoholic liquors was overturned. Lord Oxford pointed out in his most recent speech that he had been Prime Minister of Great Britain longer than any of his predecessors in the last hundred years. He might have added that throughout that period he had commanded the respect and sympathy of his opponents as much as of his colleagues. His honour and his loyalty were above all reproach. Whatever mistake a colleague might make, Asquith was always ready to take responsibility for it.
It was the war that broke his dominance over his party and over the House of Commons. Whether it is true that he lacked some of the essential qualities of a wartime minister remains a disputed question. But there is no doubt that his position had physically exhausted him, and that the death at the front of his eldest son, Captain Raymond Asquith, had dealt a hard blow to a man whose sensitivity was hidden beneath an austere and unemotional manner. Mr. Asquith's friends have stressed Ludendorff's statement that it was in 1916, while Asquith was still Prime Minister, that the war turned decisively against Germany. Whatever verdict the future may pass on the conduct of the war in its first years, the manoeuvres that cost Mr. Asquith his seat brought about complete and doubtless permanent disunity in his party.
The controversies arising today over the leadership of the Liberal Party, which Lord Oxford's retirement leaves vacant, go back to the year 1916, when Mr. Asquith was forced to resign as Prime Minister and was replaced by his lieutenant, Mr. Lloyd George. The latter was bluntly accused by most of his former colleagues of having worked hand in glove with his chief's most malicious enemy in the press, Lord Northcliffe, and of having played a leading part in a campaign meant to let him seize power himself. In truth, Mr. Lloyd George and his friends have presented the events of 1916 in quite another way. In their eyes, Mr. Lloyd George had only one concern, that of winning the war, and if he himself wished to become Prime Minister, it was because he was convinced that he could save the country and that Asquith could not. Mr. Lloyd George's motives at that moment matter little today. The fact in his conduct of that time which bears on the present political situation is that half of the Liberal Party believes he acted purely as a patriot, and the other half believes he was moved by ambitious motives and was a traitor to his chief. The breach opened in the Liberal Party nearly ten years ago has never been closed. Beau–
A Risky Thesis
…due to take place on 1 December next, it was decided to wait until that date to examine in detail the situation created by Lord Oxford's resignation.
A risky thesis
Berne, 21 October.
Federal Councillor Schulthess is multiplying his demonstrations in favour of the monopoly. He speaks and writes with extreme abundance; he is seen turning up at numerous meetings, and his prose adorns the columns of several newspapers. This zeal is praiseworthy; it is true that it is necessary, for Mr. Schulthess must not only prove that the monopoly is an incomparable institution, but must also explain why, in December 1924, he had condemned it to disappear, declaring that it was by no means indispensable for solving the wheat problem. Today he brings very great ardour to adoring what he burned, so as to make people forget that he once burned what he now adores. He therefore seeks out every reason that may convince his audience; at the meeting of the Solothurn Radicals he dwelt at length on the purchases made by the grain administration and sought to show that its heads had acted like good businessmen. To that end he read a few extracts from the reports drawn up by two experts charged with auditing the grain administration. These experts, appointed in 1920 by the Department of Finance, are MM. Kesselring, of Romanshorn, and Liechti, of Zurich, both grain merchants of undisputed competence. Each year they wrote a secret report on the operations of the Grain Office. Now, in 1924, one could read in the Federal Council's management report that the department…
A Great Egyptologist: Edouard Naville
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A great Egyptologist: Edouard NAVILLE
Egyptology has just lost its universally respected doyen, Edouard Naville. Many students followed his courses in classical archaeology at the University of Geneva; but teaching was only one of the branches of his marvellous activity. It was above all on the excavation fields of ancient Egypt, and as editor of texts unearthed on temple walls or in papyrus rolls, that Naville established his solid renown: an ever-alert intelligence, deep erudition in every field, consummate experience, invincible tenacity. Thanks to these gifts of character and mind, Naville held a place of the first rank, alongside the illustrious Maspero, in that close of the nineteenth century which is still the heroic age of Egyptology: a period of confident enthusiasm and of great undertakings before which the present generation, enamoured of prudence, better armed with critical spirit and oriented toward specialization, would hesitate. Naville's generation, on the contrary, driven on by its own great discoveries, was obliged to tackle every subject at once. Thus Naville serenely undertook immense and complex tasks over the long years of life that were granted to him. It may be said that he wholly completed the great works he had set himself, carrying them through with as much good fortune as merit.
Edouard Naville, favoured by fortune, devoted himself by free choice to arduous scientific labour. From adolescence he was drawn to Egypt by biblical studies; he had a view over the whole of classical and oriental antiquity, and possessed a precious working tool in his perfect knowledge of foreign languages. It was in Berlin that he learned the technique of hieroglyphs, “under the kindly direction,” he tells us, “of a venerated master, Professor Lepsius,” the founder in Germany of Egyptological studies on the method of Champollion. Later it was in London that he found the support needed to carry out his vast excavation projects in Egypt.
At the end of 1868 Naville left for Egypt in order, he says, “to visit the grandiose monuments that the tireless zeal of Mariette, founder of the Antiquities Service, was bringing out of the ground.” The temple of Edfu, entirely cleared and intact, interested him above all; he stayed there seventeen days to copy the Texts relating to the myth of Horus, which he published at the end of 1869 with the publisher Georg, with the help of the draughtsman Edmond Reuter. It would be one of Naville's characteristic traits to make use, in this Egyptological field, of the many resources that his beloved Geneva offers. The edition, remarkably accurate and accompanied by brief but precise commentaries on these difficult texts, founded the young scholar's reputation.
In 1874, at the Second Congress of Orientalists in London, it was decided to publish “an edition of the Bible of the ancient Egyptians” (as the Book of the Dead was then called). The Berlin Academy supplied the funds, and Lepsius had his pupil Naville entrusted with the arduous task of gathering the materials, under the supervision of an international committee made up of the Frenchman Chabas, the Englishman Birch and the German Lepsius. Death dispersed this committee, an anticipation of the League of Nations, whose secretariat was already in Geneva. Naville, left alone, completed his interminable collations of texts and in 1886 published Das Aegyptische Totenbuch der 18. bis 20. Dynastie. For copying the texts and figures, the author had the rare good fortune to find in Mme Naville an artist capable of rendering the Egyptian style with as much fidelity as elegance. This collaboration with a woman as distinguished in heart as in intelligence created in Naville's life an atmosphere of tranquillity and charm, well suited to easing and stimulating his work.
From then on Naville acquired unquestioned authority in the field of funerary texts; he was entrusted with the edition of the papyri recovered from the royal tombs, and he completed the translation of the Book of the Dead begun by the great English Egyptologist Lepage-Renouf. The Totenbuch would suffice to keep a scholar's name forever from oblivion; but meanwhile Naville had resumed his work as an active archaeologist: he was to reveal himself in Egypt as an excavation director without equal. The occupation of Egypt by the English in 1882 had given the Society of Biblical Archaeology the opportunity to resume research on the Exodus on the spot; a committee…
Context
Why Asquith stepped down in October 1926 and who took his place
The correspondent presents the resignation as the last act of a quarrel that began in 1916, but the immediate causes lay in 1926 itself. According to the Journal of Liberal History, the General Strike in May led to a public falling-out between Asquith and Lloyd George. A few days before the annual meeting of the National Liberal Federation, Asquith had a stroke that kept him out of action for three months, while Lloyd George attended the meeting and received a rapturous reception. Asquith announced his retirement in mid-October; reference lists date the change to 14 or 15 October. On the same page, the end of a report just before the Berne column says that a body due to meet on 1 December had decided to put off examining the situation until then, a sign that no settlement had yet been reached when the paper went to press. Lloyd George was already in a strong position: he had become Liberal leader in the House of Commons when Asquith entered the Lords in 1925, and after Asquith's retirement he became the leading figure in the party.
The pre-war reforms and the length of Asquith's premiership
The correspondent's list of achievements, from social insurance and old-age pensions to the end of the Lords' veto, corresponds to what historians call the Liberal reforms. Asquith's biography records that historians praise his role in the reforms of 1906–1911, which laid the foundations of the modern British welfare state. After the Lords rejected the People's Budget, Asquith secured the Parliament Act 1911. The biography describes that Act as greatly reducing the Lords' power to block legislation, a more measured description than the paper's word “abolished”. The article also repeats Asquith's own claim that he had been prime minister longer than any predecessor in a century, and the record bears this out: his was the longest continuous term as prime minister between 1827 and 1979, more than eight consecutive years.
How the change of government in 1916 divided the Liberals
The article reports the events of 1916 through the opposing accounts of Asquith's and Lloyd George's supporters, and the record shows how far apart the two camps were. Lloyd George replaced Asquith as prime minister in December 1916, and the two then fought for control of a declining Liberal Party. Lloyd George formed his coalition with the support of only a minority of Liberal MPs, while Asquith stayed on as party leader, so the two halves the correspondent describes were organised rival groups, not just differing opinions. Asquith later lost his own seat in the 1918 general election. The personal blow the correspondent mentions came shortly before his fall: Raymond Asquith, his eldest son, died on 15 September 1916. The charge of collusion with Lord Northcliffe and Ludendorff's remark about 1916 are given in the article as claims made by the opposing camps, and the paper itself declines to judge Lloyd George's motives.
Naville's excavations for the Egypt Exploration Fund
The obituary breaks off just as it turns to Naville's fieldwork, at the point where the British occupation of 1882 reopened research on the Exodus. In 1882 Naville was invited to work for the newly founded Egypt Exploration Fund, and the Griffith Institute's biographical entry calls him the Fund's first excavator, already a scholar with a European reputation. His dig at Tell el-Maskhuta in 1883 produced a report that set the format for later publications of its kind. In 1885–86 he explored the Wadi Tumilat, whose western end he identified as the biblical land of Goshen, which ties his digging directly to the Exodus questions raised in the obituary's last sentence. He then went to Upper Egypt to excavate Deir el-Bahari in 1893–96 with D. G. Hogarth, Somers Clarke and Howard Carter. The obituary's contrast between a confident heroic age and a more cautious, critical generation reflects a real dispute over method. The Griffith entry places Naville in the old-fashioned school of Mariette and Maspero, which preferred great temples and large monuments, unlike Petrie, and Petrie criticised his archaeological methods during his lifetime.
Naville's Book of the Dead, the Edfu texts and his collaborator
The obituary's emphasis on Lepsius is borne out: Naville studied under him and later became his literary executor. Its account of the Edfu work, however, differs in date from reference works. They place his first visit to Egypt, when he copied the Horus texts at Edfu, in 1865, and list Textes relatifs au mythe d'Horus under 1870, whereas the paper has him leaving at the end of 1868 and publishing late in 1869. The Griffith entry describes the 1886 Totenbuch as a vast project involving hundreds of plates of drawings. The Mme Naville whom the obituary praises was Marguerite de Pourtalès, whom he married in 1873. She accompanied him on his 14 trips to Egypt and executed the plates for most of his publications. Naville also completed the translation and commentary of Renouf's Book of the Dead, as the obituary says. He died at Malagny near Geneva on 17 October 1926, four days before this issue appeared.
Original
La retraite de lord Oxford
La ligne de 6 points Fr. 0. 60 Réclames: la ligne de 7 points Fr. 2. - GENEVE, 20 octobre 1926 - La retraite de lord Oxford - Notre correspondant de Londres nous écrit: La démission que lord Oxford a donnée de sa charge de leader du parti libéral est un événement notable de la vie politique en Grande-Breteagne. On pourrait, en effet, presque dire que M. Asquith, pour l'appeler de son ancien nom qui reste plus familier, a été la dernière grande figure parlementaire. Il a été en tout cas le dernier grand orateur parlementaire dans le sens de la tradition établie à la Chambre des communes, avec ses périodes mesurées, sa syntaxe quelquefois en défaut et les citations classiques. Naguère on pouvait citer Virgile, Horace ou Homère avec la certitude, qui n'est plus aujourd'hui qu'un espoir décevant, que les neuf dixièmes des auditeurs comprendraient le grec ou le latin aussi bien que si c'était de l'anglais. Les changements sont rapides sur la scène politique dans tous les pays et il n'est pas du tout facile aujourd'hui de se représenter le M. Asquith des années d'avant-guerre, chef d'un parti libéral qui avait une majorité écrasante à la Chambre des communes et avait voté coup sur coup des mesures de réforme radicales. Car c'est pendant la période où M. Asquith fut premier ministre que toutes les fondations du système aujourd'hui existant d'assurances sociales contre la maladie et contre le chômage ont été établies, que le droit de veto de la Chambre des lords à l'égard des lois votées par la Chambre des communes a été aboli, que les pensions de retraites ont été instituées et que le système de vente sous licence des liqueurs alcooliques a été bouleversé. Lord Oxford a signalé dans son plus récent discours qu'il avait été premier ministre de Grande-Bretagne plus longtemps qu'aucun de ses prédécesseurs pendant les cent dernières années. Il aurait pu ajouter que pendant toute cette période il avait imposé le respect et la sympathie, aussi bien à ses adversaires qu'à ses collègues. Son honneur et sa loyauté ont été au-dessus de tout reproche. Quelque erreur que pût faire un collègue, Asquith était toujours prêt à en prendre la responsabilité. C'est la guerre qui a brisé sa domination sur son parti et sur la Chambre des communes. La question de savoir s'il est vrai que certaines des qualités essentielles d'un ministre en temps de guerre lui faisaient défaut reste une question controversée. Mais il n'est pas douteux que sa situation l'avait physiquement fatigué et que la mort au front de son fils aîné, le capitaine Raymond Asquith, avait porté un rude coup à un homme dont la sensibilité se dissimulait sous une attitude austère et sans émotion. Les amis de M. Asquith ont souligné la déclaration de Ludendorff que ce fut en 1916, alors qu'Asquith était encore premier ministre, que la guerre tourna définitivement contre l'Allemagne. Quoi qu'il en soit du verdict que l'avenir portera sur la conduite de la guerre au cours de ses premières années, les manœuvres qui ont eu pour effet de faire perdre son siège à M. Asquith ont provoqué la désunion complète et sans doute définitive dans son parti. Les controverses qui s'élèvent aujourd'hui au sujet de la direction du parti libéral, que la retraite de lord Oxford laisse vacante, remontent à l'année 1916, époque à laquelle M. Asquith fut contraint de donner sa démission de premier ministre et fut remplacé par son lieutenant, M. Lloyd George. Celui-ci fut carrément accusé par la plupart de ses anciens collègues d'avoir travaillé la main dans la main avec le plus méchant ennemi de son chef dans la presse, lord Northcliffe, et d'avoir joué un rôle de premier plan dans une campagne qui devait lui permettre de saisir lui-même le pouvoir. A vrai dire, M. Lloyd George et ses amis ont représenté les événements de 1916 de tout autre façon. A leurs yeux, M. Lloyd George n'avait qu'un souci, celui de gagner la guerre, et s'il désira lui-même devenir premier ministre, ce fut parce qu'il était convaincu qu'il pouvait sauver le pays et qu'Asquith ne le pouvait pas. Les motifs de M. Lloyd George à ce moment importent peu aujourd'hui. Le fait qui dans sa conduite d'alors influe sur la situation politique actuelle est que la moitié du parti libéral croit qu'il a agi uniquement en patriote et que l'autre moitié croit qu'il a été mû par des motifs ambitieux, et qu'il a été un traître à l'égard de son chef. La brèche ouverte dans le parti libéral voici près de dix ans n'a jamais été fermée. Beau -
Thèse risquée
vant avoir lieu le 1er décembre prochain, il a été décidé d'attendre jusqu'à cette date pour examiner en détail la situation créée par suite de la résignation de lord Oxford. Thèse risquée - Berne, 21 octobre. M. le conseiller fédéral Schulthess multiplie ses démonstrations en faveur du monopole. Il parle et il écrit avec une abondance extrême; on le voit surgir dans de nombreuses assemblées et sa prose orne les colonnes de plusieurs journaux. Ce zèle est digne d'éloges; il est vrai qu'il est nécessaire, car M. Schulthess doit non seulement prouver que le monopole est une institution incomparable, mais il doit encore expliquer pourquoi, en décembre 1924, il l'avait condamné à disparaître, en déclarant qu'il n'était point indispensable pour résoudre le problème du blé. Il apporte aujourd'hui une ardeur très grande à adorer ce qu'il a brûlé, pour faire oublier qu'il a brûlé jadis ce qu'il adore présentement. Aussi cherche-t-il toutes les raisons qui peuvent convaincre son auditoire; à l'assemblée des radicaux soleurois, il s'est longuement étendu sur les achats effectués par l'administration des blés et il a voulu montrer que ses chefs avaient agi comme de bons commerçants. Pour cela il a lu quelques extraits des rapports élaborés par deux experts chargés de contrôler la régie des céréales. Ces experts, désignés en 1920 par le Département des finances, sont MM. Kesselring, de Romanshorn, et Liechti, de Zurich, tous deux marchands de céréales d'une compétence indiscutée. Chaque année ils ont rédigé un rapport secret sur les opérations de l'Office des blés. Or, en 1924, on put lire dans le rapport de gestion du Conseil fédéral que le département
Un grand égyptologue : Edouard NAVILLE
Chèque postal I. 682 Etranger: S'adresser à notre Administration, les prix variant selon que les pays ont adhéré ou non à la Convention internationale pour l'abonnement postal. Un grand égyptologue: Edouard NAVILLE - L'égyptologie vient de perdre son doyen universellement respecté, Edouard Naville. Beaucoup d'étudiants ont suivi à l'Université de Genève ses cours d'archéologie classique; mais l'enseignement ne fut qu'une des branches de sa merveilleuse activité. C'est, avant tout, sur les champs de fouille de la vieille Egypte, et comme éditeur de textes exhumés sur les murs des temples, ou dans les rouleaux de papyrus, que Naville a établi sa solide renommée: intelligence toujours en éveil, érudition approfondie sur tous terrains, expérience consommée, ténacité invincible. Grâce à ces dons du caractère et de l'esprit, Naville a tenu une place de premier plan, à côté de l'illustre Maspero, dans cette fin du XIXe siècle qui est encore l'âge héroïque de l'égyptologie: période d'enthousiasme confiant, de grandes entreprises, devant lesquelles hésiterait la génération actuelle, éprise de prudence, mieux armée d'esprit critique, et orientée vers la spécialisation. Au contraire, la génération de Naville, poussée par ses propres grandes découvertes, a été obligée d'aborder à la fois tous les sujets. Ainsi Naville a-t-il entrepris avec sérénité des tâches immenses et complexes, au cours des longues années de vie qui lui ont été départies. On peut dire qu'il acheva totalement les grandes œuvres qu'il s'était assignées, les menant à bien, avec autant de bonheur que de mérite. Edouard Naville, favorisé par la fortune, s'adonna par libre choix aux âpres travaux scientifiques. Dès son adolescence, il fut attiré vers l'Egypte par les études bibliques; il avait des vues sur toute l'antiquité classique et orientale, et possédait un précieux instrument de travail dans sa parfaite connaissance des langues étrangères. C'est à Berlin qu'il apprit la technique des hiéroglyphes, «sous la direction bienveillante, nous dit-il, d'un maître vénéré, le professeur Lepsius», fondateur, en Allemagne, des études égyptologiques selon la méthode de Champollion. Plus tard, c'est à Londres qu'il trouva les concours nécessaires pour réaliser ses vastes projets de fouilles en Egypte. Dès la fin de 1868, Naville part pour l'Egypte, afin, dit-il, «de visiter les monuments grandioses que le zèle infatigable de Mariette, fondateur du Service des antiquités, faisait sortir de terre». Le temple d'Edfou, entièrement déblayé et intact, l'intéressa surtout; il y resta dix-sept jours pour copier les Textes relatifs au mythe d'Horus, qu'il publia à la fin de 1869, chez l'éditeur Georg, avec le concours du dessinateur Edmond Reuter. Ce sera un des traits caractéristiques de Naville que d'utiliser, dans ce domaine égyptologique, les ressources multiples qu'offre sa chère Genève. L'édition, remarquablement correcte, accompagnée de commentaires succincts, mais précis, de ces textes difficiles, fonda la réputation du jeune savant. En 1874, au Deuxième congrès des orientalistes, à Londres, on décida de publier «une édition de la Bible des anciens Egyptiens» (ainsi appelait-on le Livre des Morts). L'Académie de Berlin fournit les fonds, et Lepsius fit confier à son élève Naville la tâche ardue de rassembler les matériaux, sous le contrôle d'un comité international formé du Français Chabas, de l'Anglais Birch et de l'Allemand Lepsius. La mort dispersa ce comité, anticipé sur la Société des nations, et dont le secrétariat était déjà à Genève. Naville, resté seul, acheva ses interminables collations de textes et publia, en 1886, Das Aegyptische Totenbuch der 18. bis 20. Dynastie. Pour la copie des textes et des figures, l'auteur eut le rare bonheur de trouver en Mme Naville une artiste, capable d'interpréter le style égyptien avec autant de fidélité que d'élégance. Cette collaboration avec une femme, aussi distinguée par le cœur que par l'intelligence, a créé, dans la vie de Naville, une atmosphère de quiétude et de charme, propre à faciliter et à stimuler ses travaux. Dès lors, Naville acquit une autorité incontestable dans le domaine des textes funéraires; on lui confia l'édition des papyrus retrouvés dans les tombes royales, et il acheva la traduction du Book of the Dead, commencée par le grand égyptologue anglais Lepage-Renouf. Le Totenbuch suffirait pour garder à jamais de l'oubli le nom d'un savant, mais, sur ces entrefaites, Naville avait repris ses travaux d'archéologue militant: il allait se révéler, en Egypte, comme un directeur de fouilles hors de pair. L'occupation de l'Egypte par les Anglais, en 1882, avait fourni à la Society of biblical Archaeology l'occasion de reprendre in situ les recherches sur l'Exode; un comité