common informers in a country where a large section of the
community still believes that art of all kinds is inherently
sinful.


WHY THE GOVERNMENT INTERFERED

It may now be asked how a Liberal government had been persuaded
to meddle at all with a question in which so many conflicting
interests were involved, and which had probably no electoral
value whatever. Many simple simple souls believed that it was
because certain severely virtuous plays by Ibsen, by M. Brieux,
by Mr Granville Barker, and by me, were suppressed by the
censorship, whilst plays of a scandalous character were licensed
without demur. No doubt this influenced public opinion; but those
who imagine that it could influence British governments little
know how remote from public opinion and how full of their own
little family and party affairs British governments, both Liberal
and Unionist, still are. The censorship scandal had existed for
years without any parliamentary action being taken in the matter,
and might have existed for as many more had it not happened in
1906 that Mr Robert Vernon Harcourt entered parliament as a
member of the Liberal Party, of which his father had been one of
the leaders during the Gladstone era. Mr Harcourt was thus a
young man marked out for office both by his parentage and his
unquestionable social position as one of the governing class.
Also, and this was much less usual, he was brilliantly clever,
and was the author of a couple of plays of remarkable promise. Mr
Harcourt informed his leaders that he was going to take up the
subject of the censorship. The leaders, recognizing his