of Commons remains what it was even sixty years ago. The ornaments of debate, the stateliness, the grandiloquence, the formalities almost statuesque, which characterised the wordy duels of such late masters as Disraeli and Gladstone, are gone. Speeches seem to be no shorter nowadays than they were then; but they have lost the importance, the aplomb, the conscious dignity, the brilliance, the culture and finish which, from the time of Chatham to that of John Bright, made eloquence an art. Granted that often it was patently artificial, with devices ingenuously employed, it still was manners, and good manners. The opportunity, as well as the attention of the hearers, was respected; the aim of the argument was high; themes were thoughtfully studied and explored; and serious speeches received the attention due to quality of thought and phrasing. Of course, there were angers and hot denials then, repudiations sometimes so violent as to be rude; with animosities that often grew dangerous to the point of bloodshed, for such men as Wellington, Canning, and, of course, Daniel O'Connell were challenged to fight duels; but still the historic dignity of the Parliamentary occasion was never overlooked. What is the case now? Interruptions and shouted personalties, with a woeful want of wit; petty rudenesses, gutterboy disturbances, appear overfrequently; or so it seems from the reports of the popular daily press; and there, just there, is the cause. More than anything else the cheaper newspaper has brought the change to Parliament. Emphasising the mainly personal with paragraphs and pictures, they have led their readers away from the greater causes; and so it is that the mere politician, the sensational preacher, the actress and the actor, receive a notoriety, even a fame, enormously out of proportion to their human and artistic worth. In that department we live in a lesser day and move in a smaller world; and thereby has come what may prove to be more than a passing deterioration.

Even beyond that cause of failing there is another; the rapid growth of wealth, through commerce, putting much gold into pockets that have not learned how to carry it. Almost inevitably the newly-rich are bound to have bad manners; for where training and example

have been denied, experience is the only teacher, and that cannot come yet; while the possession of money, with its all but universal appeal, gives a dangerous confidence to the crude. Therefore, it is that wealthy vulgarity has no hindrance and grows blatant, and gilded vanity can go the pace, heedless of others and utterly selfish. I'm not rude, I'm rich,' said Hoggesheimer in a musical comedy; and the assertion was taken as its own full justification. After a while generally there is a softening and an improvement of manners through natural kindliness; but until that day of saving grace, how dreadful!

Things are on the mend. Even the war profiteers, whose open and loud extravagance in recent years was a condition hard to be borne by those whom duty had impoverished, are not so crude as formerly they were. The road-hog is less hoggish than he was; although the legendary slaughters done by the car of Juggernaut were as nothing compared with the blood-havoc of the modern motor-car as it rushes through towns and villages. But in respect to that also improvement has begun. The motorists, having had their way and secured concessions in the matter of by-passes and made roads, with others things deplorable to simple souls, will probably now prevent the destruction from continuing, and we can look to them to resist a further spoliation of the country-side. Already a brief time has brought a change for the good, mainly through the fact that a better spirit of consideration is abroad. It is seen, even by those who own it, that wealth is not everything, and that with all its power it is incapable of purchasing the most desirable possessions, happiness of mind and heart, contentment and good will, and the best enjoyment of lovely things.

At this hour people of all classes seem on the whole to be kinder in spirit and better mannered than ever before. A charming simplicity is growing; while the rules of fairplay are accepted and practised in all conditions and places. That a thing is not 'cricket,' that to do such-and-such is not playing the game,' are governing considerations; and the crudest—we had almost said the most degraded-of human beings in his worst moments generally recognises the iniquity of

hitting a man when he is down if it is clearly pointed out to him. In general behaviour, those blessed words 'Please' and 'Thank you' are effective talismans; and it is rare-as was not the case thirty years ago-for one not to be willing to take trouble and to go out of his way to assist another. The courtesy of the police, as of our other public servants, is recognised in countries abroad. Even when in the private yards of factories the injunction, Trespassers will be prosecuted,' may be seen, it is a threat seemingly never carried out, and infinitely better than the abrupt Outside! This means You!' of similar injunctions in America. The almighty dollar is a poor promoter of manners.

But why have we that recent improvement, for recent it is, coming well after the overturn of the War had brought chaos? Partly, the cause is general. The deprivations of those who in the War lost heavily, and more than their material possessions, induced a gentleness, which has persisted and slowly prevailed to sweeten the community; and, naturally, good manners, being the result of discipline and an unselfish kindness, must prevail over rudeness born of ignorance and the brute.

There is another cause, a prime and actual cause, which after some hesitation and thought we are proud to assert. It is the example set by our Royal Family; and especially by their Majesties, the King and Queen. Without undue display, with a wonderful simplicity, they have fully expressed the qualities of very complete courtesy. They have never failed in their duty. Punctuality, cheerfulness, gentleness, modesty, kindness, an ever-practical sympathy, an undeviating earnestness and disinterestedness of service; in all those essentials of gentle personality and of splendid consideration they have excelled and shone. Never before has a sovereign so entirely expressed the highest purposes and best characteristics of his people than the King, whom God preserve. He is the very fount of courtesy, and the example he sets has proved to be greatly effectual.

OLIVER B. LLOYD.

Art. 3.-AMERICA'S 'SOVEREIGNTY.'

'OUR Admiralty '-as Lord Balfour reminds us-looked round to see how they could carry out the policy of the President of the United States-economy and security.' But the Geneva Conference broke down through the insistence of America's delegates upon greater ships and guns. That understanding of Britain's rôle which even Jefferson had, and which Lord Balfour himself sought to impress so vividly in Washington, as Mr Bridgeman did at Geneva-was apparently forgotten. The new American Empire must now have a Navy 'second to none'; she is arming by sea and land and air to protect her enormous wealth, and to ensure that far-flung 'sovereignty' of a whole Hemisphere which StateSecretary Olney asserted to Lord Salisbury in 1895, during the heated dispute over the Venezuelan Boundary. The Tyrant of France' was casting an ominous shadow upon the infant Republic when the veteran Jefferson wrote to Sir John Sinclair: 'We see with great concern the position in which Great Britain is placed, and should be sincerely afflicted were any disaster to deprive mankind of such a Bulwark against the torrent which has for some time been bearing down all before it. But Peace is our Passion.'

It remained America's passion until Woodrow Wilson's slow conversion to 'Free without stint or limit'! Over a hundred years intervene between these two Pacificist Presidents. In that interval it was often proposed to abolish the U.S. Navy and Army altogether. 'Have we not our Atlantic Moat?' asked Washington's exChancellor. And shortly afterwards enemy ships landed forces that burned the early White House and the Capitol itself! The same unmartial spirit showed in the invasion of Canada; in the War of 1812, in the Indian and Mexican campaigns; in the fierce Civil War of the 'sixties, in the War with Spain, and in the upheaval of 1917, which at long last put 2,000,000 Americans in France-with preliminary schooling in French and British trenches, which General John Pershing acknowledged with modesty and grace. Our passion is peace!' Elaborate checks had been put upon

'militarism' by the early Fathers in Council. America's foes in the field have always been negligible, from the Seminoles of Florida to the Spaniards in Cuba. In the 114 days of that war in 1898, the Americans had only 279 men killed! And vast expansion had been secured by purchase: Louisiana from France, Florida from Spain, Alaska from Russia, Panama from Colombia; and most recent of all, the strategic Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25,000,000.

The utopian polity at which the early assembly of gods' in Philadelphia aimed is well stated in the ninevolume opus of Henry Adams on Thomas Jefferson's two terms of office:

'He had hoped to make his country pure and free; to abolish War with its train of debt, extravagance, corruption and tyranny; to build up a Government devoted only to useful and moral objects; to bring about upon earth a new Era of Peace and Good-Will to men. Throughout the twistings and windings of his course as President, he clung to this main idea.'

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So also did President Wilson. Two days after the outrage of the 'Lusitania' he could declare that America was Too proud to fight'! And Johann von Bernstorff was offering him 1000l. a head for the 125 more or less distinguished American citizens who met a watery grave in that vessel alone. Yet we soon find the 'disillusioned' (his own word) President in Manchester, musing and wondering over the evil innate in man as a combative animal. How is it,' he asked our people, that you hang the lad's musket or sword above the mantelpiece, and you do not hang his yardstick?...' Yet yardstick or scales, factory and soil, had been mighty weapons in America's neutral armoury. Before the Victory Loan was issued over there, Secretary Glass of the Treasury was advised by public men of steady judgment and tested patriotism,' that the United States ought to approach all future issues from a commercial point of view'; 'on an investment basis,' and so on.

The American Chancellor's reply was a memorable. one, and must be recorded here for his high credit and our orientation :

'What is meant by the "sacrifice of war" for America?