TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9605, 21 December 1896, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

TnR way of fcbo Sunday golfer Sunday in Scotland has been hard for Golfing hundreds of yeare. At first in his ardent devotion to the Scotland, game drew upon him merely the displeasuro of the military authorities, for it interfered with his archery practice and constituted, it was believed, a source of wefdkiie3S, in thie respect, to the kingdom. Therefore the Soots Parliament was moved to abolioh the game and passed a law ordaining that " Fute Ball and Golfe be utterly cryit downe and nocht usit," that a pair of butts be set up in each parish, and that " schutting be usit ilk Sunday." That was in 1557 and 150 years later we find the Magistrates of Edinburgh fulminating against the habit of playing golf on Sunday, so that if the custom had ever died out it had come into force again as strongly as ever. Then the Church took the Sunday golfer in hand and dealt with him severely, visiting him with the penalties of public repentance on. the '•' cutty stool." The chronicles of old kirk sessions contain frequent reference to the iniquities of the golfer, who seems to have pursued his way after the enthusiastic manner of his kind, despite the Church's displeasure. Latterly Sunday golf has been gaining ground oven in Scotland, but it will be well for the Parliamentary representative of a Scottish constituency to say nothing as to his views on •the matter. Mr Munro-Ferguson, member for Leith Burghs, incautiously admitted recently, in addressing a Young Men's Christian Association meeting, that lie did not objest to golf being played on Sunday, and in fact that he had done it himself. This made some of his constituents prick up their ears, and at a meeting which Mr MunroFerguson subsequently addressed at Musselburgh he was severely "heckled." ,The member was requested to' explain how he could justify his playing golf on Sunday, and he attempted to put the question by by saying that the meet, iug v/as a political one, and not one to lay down rules for Sunday or any other day. This was received by one of his audience with the remark " Am a caddie and wad carry yer clubs if a got the chance," but not all of those present were disposed to treat the matter so lightly. Mr MunroFergu<son went on to explain that " he did not advocate anyone playing golf on Sunday, and that in the speech to which exception had .been taken he was simply talking of the way in which persons should look at the acts of others. He admitted, however, that he hod played golf on Sunday—not in Musselburgh,- but elsewhere, and pleaded in extenuation of his offence that if they (his audience) had been accustomed to an outdoor life, and then went to London and lived indoors the whole week, they would be glad to play golf on Sunday.' , These remarks met with a mixed reception, and one elector took the opportunity of saying that it was a pity to place Mr MunroFergoson in London when he Would be co much better in Fife, adding with warmth "so long as a golf-player on Sunday is to represent mc in Parliament he will never get my vote in the world. , ' This sentiment was not so clearly expressed, perhap3, as it might have been, but it pleased the audience, who also cheered another elector for saying that he bad been a sound Liberal all his days, but; Mr Munro-Ferguson would never get his vote so long as he played golf on Sundays. The member appears to have expressed his determination to play golf when he liked, and it is the general impression that more will be heard about the matter when the next eleotion comes round.

Speaktno recently at Bel« England fast, on the occasion of a and hor banquet given in his honour, '• Neighbours, th«s Marquis of Dufibrin delivered one of those admirable addresses for which lie is so famous. Hβ has had a remarkably successful oaroer, and has filled some of \ho most important posts in the diplomatic and public service. When a man has been Governor* General of Canada, Viceroy of India, and Ambassador at St. I'etersburg, ConsUuti. nople, and Paris, ho must, perforce, have accumulated a large stock of experionco, and on the occasion under notice Lord Dutlerin gavo his hearers tho benefit of hia wide knowledge of tho continental world. As he had finally retired from public life they might, he said, expect that as an ex-Ambas-sador released from oflu-iul supervision, he would make a clean breast of everything and confide to them all tho diplomatic secrets of which he was possessed. " Unfortunately, inveterate habit and tho iron discipline of successive Secretaries of State have so saturated us diplomatists with the creosote of discretion that it is with the greatest regret that I find myaoif precluded from directing for your benefit a blaze ol Rontgen rays upon the closed doors of the several Cabinets of Europe, and exhibiting to you in turn the skeleton which eiv_<h sleek nation keeps in its private clipboard." But there wore one or two impressions whichhewag at liberty to convoy to them. One of them would probably cause as much surprise as regret. Hut hough t ho might say that as a nation the British wore a genial, kindly and benevolent community, whoso natural instinct was to regard other countries with a lazy kind of goodwill. Lord Duflerin then referred Iα , the various reasons why Englishmen, fronj community of tastes and other matters, appreciated the residents of the various Continental countries, and went on to say that it was, therefore, an astonishing fact that the Press of most of these countries was in the habit more or less of referring to England in terms of tho most uncompromising hostility. The cause for this state of? α-llaiva ho gave in the following eloquent! passage :—" We Englishmen, safe within the circuit of our tutelary sons, can form no conception of the haunting anxieties which embitter the existence of tho nations ol Central Euroiie, upon whose every frontier hangs—black and motionless—a threatening cloud of war, and whose citizens, even within the recesses of their innormosb chambers, mingling with the prattle of their childreu and tho tondor converse of the hearth, can hear the ominous tramp of alien armies, the rattling of thoir artillery, the thunder of their squadrons, as they periodically gather, march, and manoouvre J within, so to speak, a stone's throw of thoie unprotected fields aud villages and open towns." With auoli a sword of Danioolea hanging over each country's head, they could understand how angry all became at the thought of what they considered the incon> siderate action of au outsider like England precipitating tho risk of a universal disaster. The very circumstance of her being } out of danger herself was an additional subject of offenco and irritation. This feeling was accentuatod by the fact that each of the great European Confederacies, what might be called the Dual Alliance and tho Triple Alliance, was fully aware of tho effect which England's aid on either side might have upon the result of a struggle. All therefore united in abusing what they called England's selfish isolation, and failed to comprehend that her faoe was turnod seawards, and that she waa;, more concerned in her colonial interostg across the ocean than in the rivalries of her European neighbours. <