almost approaching a conspiracy of silence on their part. From Barrie we had nothing new; from Pinero, likewise, nothing. Of Barrie's art, however, we had three old examples in revivals of "What Every Woman Knows," ," "The Little Minister" and, as already mentioned, 66 The Will;" while a Pinero revival gave us at His Majesty's, in "The Gay Lord Quex," a play once deemed brilliant and audacious, but now found hopelessly out of date. A curious feature of this ill-advised experiment was the appearance of George Grossmith, temporarily forsaking musical comedy, in the character created by the late Sir John Hare. Other "revivals " included "Magda" wherein, at the Playhouse, Gladys Cooper essayed with a very fair measure of success the part associated with the names of Duse and Mrs. Patrick Campbell, while Franklyn Dyall gave a powerful performance in the rôle of Magda's father; "The Prisoner of Zenda" at the Haymarket, with Robert Loraine and Fay Compton as Rudolf and Princess Flavia respectively; and at the same theatre "The Importance of Being Earnest," the performance of which lacked the air of distinction demanded by the frank artificialities of Wilde's famous comedy. As to authors of long-established prestige, the only one who contributed anything new to our stage was W. Somerset Maugham, whose mordantly-witty and somewhat daring comedy, "Our Betters," first produced in America, was brilliantly acted at the Globe by Margaret Bannerman, Constance Collier, Marion Terry, Reginald Owen, and Alfred Drayton. Nor, as coming from a veteran dramatist, should there be overlooked Henry Arthur Jones's "The Lie," originally staged some years ago in New York, and helped to considerable success at the New by the strongly-emotional acting of Sybil Thorndyke and Mary Merrall.

For the rest, one or two outstanding events of the theatrical year may be dealt with briefly. Pride of place belongs to John Drinkwater's "Oliver Cromwell" (His Majesty's), in which Henry Ainley assumed the title-part, and "Robert E. Lee" (The Regent), of which the interest was found to be episodical rather than sustained. It must be admitted that neither of these plays achieved anything like the success of the same author's "Abraham Lincoln." The Regent Theatre also supplied the public with a curious experiment in an English version by Nigel Playfair and Clifford Bax of the brothers Capek's symbolical "Insect Play." This production, however, met with considerably less success than Karel Capek's grim and fantastic melodrama, " R.U.R." (St. Martin, April 4), which, like the play previously mentioned, bore a symbolic interpretation. Of an entirely different calibre was the distinguished production at His Majesty's of the late James Elroy Flecker's "Hassan," in which poetry and drama went hand in hand. Other successes of the year were "Hubert Parsons's" melodramatic play, "The Dancers," which owed much of its popularity at Wyndham's to the personality of Gerald Du Maurier; "The Green Goddess," a clever and ingeniously wrought melodrama by the distinguished critic, William Archer, which at the St. James's fully justified the high credentials it brought from America; and the Drury Lane spectacular drama, "Good Luck" (Seymour Hicks and Ian Hay). Especially noteworthy among American importations were Eugene O'Neill's sombre, but intensely human, drama, "Anna Christie," in which Pauline Lord's acting in the title role was arrestingly_vivid ;

Arthur Richman's "Ambush," also sombre and sordid in atmosphere; "Merton of the Movies," which, as a skit on film producers and "artists," appealed less to the London public than it had to transatlantic playgoers, and "So This is London," which made legitimate and good-humoured fun out of Anglo-American prejudices. Another amusing light comedy— of native origin-was Frederick Lonsdale's "Aren't we All?" skilfully enacted at the Globe by Marie Löhr, Ellis Jeffreys, and others. Yet it failed somehow to appeal to the public: A comparatively short career fell also to Noel Coward's sometimes witty, but rather cheaply cynical, comedy "The Young Idea."

Of the year's musical productions the more notable were "Catherine (Gaiety, Sept. 22) and "Madame Pompadour" (Daly's, Dec. 20). In both of them history, greatly distorted, was drawn upon to provide the heroine, José Collins being the protagonist in the former, the music of which was adapted from some of Tchaikovsky's works, and Evelyn Laye greatly advancing her reputation in the title-part of the second-named operetta, the score of which was by Leo Fall. Earlier in the year there was a successful revival at Daly's of "The Merry Widow." Among revues, mention should be made of the Hippodrome's highly-successful "Brighter London " and, on a more or less intimate scale, of two Charlot productions—"Rats" at the Vaudeville and "London Calling" at the Duke of York's, to which, perhaps, one should add the merry "Little Revue," with music by Herman Finck, which enjoyed quite a vogue at the Little Theatre.

III. MUSIC.

It is probable that in the memory of living man there has not been so much music heard in our concert rooms in the space of one year as was heard in 1923; and equally probable that there was a vast deal more of quantity than of quality. Certainly the year brought to us nothing of outstanding merit. At Covent Garden the British National Opera Company gave a two months' season in the spring, which they opened with the production of a brand-new native opera, Gustav Holst's fantastic little work "The Perfect Fool." Further they played Dame Ethel Smyth's new opera "Fête Galante "and Holst's "Sávitri." The latter had been done elsewhere but twice before in far more appropriate and intimate surroundings than could possibly be provided at Covent Garden. But for the rest the changes were rung upon the established repertory, save only that "The Ring" was revived with an entirely new system of décor by Oliver Bernard which caused considerable controversy. The participants in the Operas were chiefly those associated with the former Beecham Company and with the British National Opera Company itself. But, as guests, there appeared a few times Melba, Joseph Hislop, a Scotsman of wide operatic experience in Sweden, Italy, and U.S.A., Charles Hackett and Edward Johnson, both Americans of established reputation. Though "Hassan is drama and not opera the fact that the beautiful incidental music was composed for it by Delius compels record here:

this music was possibly the most distinguished of that produced in the year by a native composer.

Elgar himself was silent as regards new works. His orchestral transscription of Handel's Overture in D-minor made a decided hit, and after much agitation in the Press, his two symphonies, long neglected, were revived. Beatrice Harrison introduced a violoncello concerto by Delius and his beautiful "Song before Sunrise" was played more than once, and Dame Ethel Smyth's "Four Choral Preludes" were introduced at a Promenade Concert. Vaughan Williams's Mass in G, first sung at Westminster Cathedral, was later repeated in Queen's Hall by the Wolverhampton Choral Society, and, it should be recorded, was given with remarkable success in the Thomaskirche-Bach's old Church, in Leipzig. Eugène Goossens's star was very much in the ascendant. His services were in great demand as conductor; in this capacity he accepted a three months' engagement at the recently founded Eastman Conservatorium at Rochester, N.Y., where his success was phenomenal: at the Opera and in the concert-room he conducted frequently. Of his music there were produced a Sinfonietta and a Fantasy Sextet, the latter of which is likely to endure the longer. A striking and brief Symphony by Arnold Bax was introduced by Albert Coates and repeated later by Sir Henry Wood: "The Happy Forest," an orchestral work of distinction and a fine String Quartet, also by Bax, were heard. Among other native works which were introduced or revived were Arthur Bliss's "Colour Symphony," Vaughan Williams's "London Symphony," Elgar's violoncello concerto superbly played by Mme. Suggia, J. B. McEwen's "Solway" Symphony, an extraordinarily ambitious "Requiem" by J. H. Foulds, Holst's "Ode to Death," Holbrooke's "Dramatic Choral Symphony," and Cyril Rootham's "Brown Earth."

A considerable amount of foreign music by composers of eminence was heard for the first time during the year. Possibly Richard Strauss's "Alpine Symphony" raised the highest hopes, but they remained unfulfilled, for the work seemed to show only too plainly that the well of Strauss's inspiration is no longer so full as before. Henry Eichheim's "Oriental Impressions" were interesting and Schönberg's "Pierrot Lunaire"-vastly discussed-was sung, by Marya Freund, at three concerts in two days. Franz Schreker's "Modernist " Chamber Symphony proved fairly attractive when introduced by Sir Henry Wood. No doubt Dohnanyi's "Variations on a Nursery Song," a wholly delightful composition, took pride of place among this new foreign music. Milhaud's Suite Symphonique and a new violoncello Sonata by Ildebrando Pizzetti were likewise heard.

Many distinguished foreign musicians visited England during the year, including the three last named. Paderewski's return filled London music-lovers with joy: he gave two recitals to a capacity audience in Queen's Hall. After many years Felix Weingartner conducted here again and was very warmly welcomed. Nikolai Sokoloff, from Cleveland, Oh'o, Kusewitzki, Maurice Ravel, Georges Enesco, also appeared as conductors. The present "leader" of Hungarian Music, Béla Bartok, paid us two visits, and amongst others who appeared were Moriz Rosenthal, Cortot, Ernest Schelling (a delightful pianist), Pouishnoff,

Prokofieff, Eugen D'Albert, Walter Gieseking (who met with a great success at his first visit), Mitja Nikisch, son of Arthur Nikisch, Ysaye, Kreisler, Mischa Elman, Anna Hegner, Casals; Chaliapin, Melba, Elena Gerhardt, Battistini, Frieda Hempel, Selma Kurz, Anna Pavlova, D'Alvarez and Sapellnikoff.

All the old-established societies, choral and instrumental, carried on their labours as often before. But it should be recorded that the Chappell Ballad Concerts have been replaced by concerts of a much higher grade which proved very popular; that Sir Landon Ronald instituted a series of Promenade Concerts in the Albert Hall on Saturday nights; that Sir Frederick Cowen conducted the Handel Festival at the Crystal Palace; and that tercentenary celebrations of two great English composers, William Byrd and Thomas Weelkes, aroused a surprisingly widespread interest.

FINANCE AND COMMERCE IN 1923.

THE year 1923 witnessed a decided improvement on 1922 in economic affairs, especially at home. The decline in sterling commodity prices which began in April, 1920, and continued throughout 1921, was checked in 1922, and was followed by a rise in 1923, amounting to over 6 per cent. By a curious coincidence overseas trade expanded by over 6 per cent., after allowing for the fact that since April, 1923, the trade of the Free State of Ireland was separated from the internal trade of the United Kingdom and is now reckoned as foreign trade. But it is not correct to draw the inference that the larger volume of trade was due to the rise in sterling prices. The average rise in monthly prices was only 2 per cent. Further, there was a decrease of unemployment during the year of over 23 per cent., making the total reduction from the highest peak of unemployment touched in the early summer of 1921 45 per cent. The amount of short-time working was very greatly reduced, and at the end of the year the decrease from the highest point was no less than 90 per cent. There are various indications that production has increased, an excellent sign in view of the great burden of debt, which can only be successfully carried provided that the national income in terms of commodities rises steadily. We reproduce below The Times index number of commodity prices since January, 1923, based on the prices of 60 commodities with the percentage change month by month, together with the number on April, 1920 (when the highest point was reached), and at the close of 1921 and 1922 :—

The prices of the commodities included in the calculations are shown in the next table, comparison being made with the quotations at the close of the two preceding years:—