TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13473, 13 July 1909, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Speaking at the anAn Irishman nual dinner of the on Irish Association in Irishmen. London in May, Lord

Charles Beresford, eschewed naval topics and devoted his attention to the lighter side of Irish life. The famous admiral told some capital stories. During an. election campaign in Ireland the roads of the district were being mended, and one of the stones lying about happened to hit him on the back of the head. "I wish I could get hold of the fellow who threw that stone," ho said to one of his supporters. "Och, not at all," replied the other, "for it was meself. Wasn't it a great stroke?" Ho onemet in the vestibule of a building a compatriot who, with true Irish exaggeration, said he had come 1500 miles to see him. "I told him," 6aid Lord Charles, "that I was very sorry I hadn't a minute to talk, but if he liked to. come up in the lift with mc we could exchange a word about tho Old Country en route to the next floor." One of the best stories he had ever heard was of the man who said of his own shooting: - 'The first bird I ever shot was a squirrel, and the first time I hit him I missed him altogether, and the next time I hit him I hit him in the same place, and after that I took a stone and dropped him from the tree, and he fell into the water and was shot, and that was the first bird I ever shot." Of Parliamentary stories Lord Charles has a choice selection "I bow to your ruling," said an Irish member to the Speaker, "as my words wero not germane to the debate; and now, Mr Speaker, I will reiterate the remarks I was about to observe." He also told a story of a member who compared certain whisky to "a torchlight procession proceeding down my throat," and recailed the comment of the Leader of the Opposition in the Irish Parliament when the Leader of the House sat down on his own hat: "No doubt that filled him with many regrets, but the* only regret I feel is that his silly old head was not inside of it." Lord Charles concluded by dedaring that he would rather deal with Irishmen than men of any other nation. When well handled, they were affectionate, kind, hospitable, plucky, energetic, and "tho cheeriest men under bad circumstances the Creator had ever made."

Now that Mr RooseMr velt is in the wilds of Roosevelt's Africa some of his eneEnemies. mies are busy with attacks on him. Before he went he issued a statement explaining that the animals he was going to shoot were for scientific purposes, and that his party would shoot no more than were necessary. He also stated that he desired no correspondents to follow him and report his doings. Judging from a message from the New York correspondent of tho "Daily Telegraph," exaggerated reports of his deeds are being" sent—tlie very thing Mr Roosevelt wanted to avoid. The Rev. William Long, the popular naturalist who was pilloried by Mr Roosevelt for alleged "Nature-faking," has accepted some of these reports as true, in spite of a denial from Mr Roosevelt, aud baa denounced the hunter as a "brutal butcher." "The worst feature of the whole business," says Mr Long, "is the brutalising influence which the reports from Africa are having on thousands of American boys,"

many of whom, he declares, fired by Mr Roosevelt's example, are going through woods "shooting everything in sight killing birds at a time when every dead mother means a nestful of young birds slowly starving to death." How can he convince these boys of their inhumanity when "the great American hero - ' is occupied at the same time with the same detestable business:' It was of Mr Long that Mr Roosevelt said, "Of all these Nature-fakers the mest reckless and the least responsible is Mr Long. I am dealing with deliberate < invention and deliberate perversion of facts." These are hard words, and it is not surprising that Mr Long should criticise his critic in strong language. Other enemies who have felt the weight- of the -big stick"' are opening broadsides on Mr Roosevelt, but the "Telegraph's"' correspondent reports that the net- result is to increase his popularity and strengthen the demand that he shall run for tho Presidency when Mr Taft's regime is over.

' It is a common belief Interesting that owing to the ''Finds.'' .energy of antiquaries,

most relics, literary and historical, have been unearthed, but it is noteworthy that from time to time important "finds" are reported, which add considerably to our knowledge of various historical personages and events. A most interesting ciscovery was that of the famous letters known as the Prince Rupert and Fairfax correspondence. They had been diligently collected by the Fairiax family of tho period and carefully placed in Leeds Castle, packed in an oaken chest along with other valuable historical document-. To make them secure from prying observation and to preserve them from the air, the artful hider had covered them with a lot of Dutch tiles. In 1822, however, the lord of the Castle, having occasion to alter the building, threw out a mass of useJess furniture, including the oaken chest, which came into the possession of a shoemaker. This man in due course camo across the MeSS., and being ignorant of their value threw them aside as so much "rubbish." Fortunately, a friend to whom they were shown suggested that he should endeavour to sell them, which he did, the sale at Sotheby's causing intense excitement. At the same place recently there was to be offered an entirely new correspondence between William Pitt and William Wyndham, his Secretary for W r ar. Some of the secret political history of the times is here unfolded, and certain of the letters are marked "most private." A few Byron letters in the sale are piquant, "tt _iting about criticisms of "Don Juan," ho 6ays: "If those illustrious personages, hot from kirk—and breathing nothing but piety and -whisky punch—continue to damn tho Don I shall grow fat." In another he refers to the "rogue Soutbey." Probably the gem of the collection, however, would be considered , the valuable fine Caxton volumes, bound together in one for some undeclared patron of literature. These are the "Mirror of the World," 1481; "Dictes or Sayings of the Philosophers,'' second edition, 1478; "Cicero, Cato on Old Age," 1_0; "Cicero de Amicitia,'" 1481; and "Cordyale Memorare Novissima," 1479. These were for the first time found bound together in an original Caxton -binding of oaken boards and leather. . Needless to say, a small fortune comes to the fortunate finder.