TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13596, 3 December 1909, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The platform characteristics Tho of some of the principals Budget in the great political drama Drama, now in full swing at Home are picturesquely described in an article in tho "Daily Mail.'' Lord Rosebery, in'ihis great Budget speech, played on his audience "as Pachmann plays on the piano," but there was lingering suspicion that it had all been foreseen, and that the emotions aroused were precisely those which the speaker intended to invoke—that, in short, for all its wonderful vividness it just missed the magnificent spontaneity of the old Gladstone days." The orator's solemn warning gave quite a religious atmosjphere to tho meeting; a Radical journalist said that he felt as if he were in church, and that it would be irreverent to cheer. Mr Asquith is seen at his best in tho House of Commons, where his intellect, his licidity. his wonderful debating 6kill, aro employed in the conditions most favourable to them. He is not the man to sway a great meeting. The nine thousand people who thronged Bingley Hall were the material for a huge bonfire, but the Prime Minister either could not, or would not, put a match to it. His mastery over the meeting was "a unsympathetic mastery; never a flash of the lightning which sends a Birmingham audience into delirium." Mr Balfour is no more successful as a popular orator. He is fluent, brilliant, and caustic, but he "just fails to give the great audience the thrill for which they long." Perhaps it is true, as a clever speaker once said, that no one can be a great platform orator without a touch of vulgarity. Mr Lloyd-George, on tho other hand, can get to the heart of Bis audience. His opponents would say ho had tho necessary touch of vulgarity; his friends would call it simplicity and, homeliness. He begins a speech with a jest or two. Then the voice rises to an emotional pitch. "A challenge brings out a cheer; and on the instant Mr Lloyd-George attacks enemies, covers them with vitriol, and . tramples on their remains. Forgotten are the conventionalities of party warfare. The reticence of a Cabinet Minister flies to the winds. All the stops are pulled out in turn —melodramatic pathos, class hatred, anger, contempt, defiance, every emotion that can stir the feelings of an audience. And then at last tne peroration, uttered in a voice quivering with emotion, eyes burning in an impassioned face; and finally the breathless collapse on a chair, while the hall fills with the thunder of applause."

It is interesting to contrast The this political warfare with Softer the amenities of public life Side. in the Old Country. There have, it is true, been many cases where political differences have resulted in personal estrangement. Did not the Duke of Westminster remove Mr Gladstone's portrait from his wall when that statesman brought in th* first Home Rule Bill? But speaking generally, English public life has been remarkable for the way in which political opponents meet as friends outside the arena. It is satisfactory to. know that the heat and dust of tho Budget battle is not killing this fine flower of gocdfellowship. For instance, Mr Balfour was the chief guest at the dinner of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion in London _he other day, and it fell to the lot of Mr LloydGeorge to propose his health. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, who on the platform rages furiously against "the Tories," paid an eloquent tribute to Mr Balfour's character and abilities. He mentioned his interest in art and science and his literary attainments, and dwelt on his success in the House of Commons,. "I say that the House of Commons has a special pride in Mr Balfour—a pride in his great gifts, a pride in his courage, a pride in his chivalrous bearing. There is no debate in the House of Commons in which he takes part which he does not enrich _y his contribution. He is one of the greatest assets of our House. If I may say so, he is one of its greatest luxuries, for many a weary hour whicn we perforce spend in that assembly is fully recompensed by one speech from the guest of the evening.'' He had had to listen to criticism from Mr Balfour, and he could assure his hearers that those who suffered most from Mr Balfour's blows in debate were those who admired most thoroughly the consummate skill with which they were delivered. In replying, Mr Balfour recalled that seven years before tho positions were reversed. He was defending the Education Bill, and Mr LloydGeorge was displaying in opposition these great Parliamentary qualities that he was now showing on a larger

stage. The same friendly tolerence was then extended to him as proposer of legislation, as was now shown to him in the position of critic. Mr Balfour concluded by saying that there was no country in the world where such a speech as Mr Lloyd-George's could have been made on such an occasion and on such a subject, except their own country, and perhaps it could have been made only by a Welshman.

It is not often that A Fortune stamr>-collectors show a in Stamps, devotion to the hobby __eh as that of the late Sir "William Avery, whose private collection has just been sold to a dealer for Out huge sum of £24,500. From the age of eight to the end of a long life, this zealous devotee gave 'himself to the task of collecting stamps, and now his collection is considered to bo the largest next to that in tho British Museum. It comprises from 90,000 to 100,000 specimens, and represents almost completely the postal systems of every country in the world. Among the varieties are unused Mauritius stamps, so valuable that the Prince of Wales is said to have paid £1450 at auction for the twopenny stamp unused. Only two conies of one penny stamp of this island are known. Unused copies of tho double Geneva stamp, of which there are several in tho collection, fetch £75 each. The collection also includes the unperforated ninepenny lilac-brown stamp of Ceylon, which is valued at £125, and a copy of the threo-lire stam_> of Tuscany unused, worth about £100. There are also two twenty-seven paras Moldavian stamps, which aro priceless. Sir William Avery is said to have had a penchant for the stamps of Moldavia, for one day he bought three complete sets, twelve stamps, for the record price of £2000. Another variety is a part sheet of twenty of tho scarce penny black V.R. stamp, worth about £10 singly. Some very interesting specimens' in the collection are the famous circular British Guiana stamps of 1850, somo of them being valued at over £100. Duplicates of many of these stamps can only be found in tho British Museum and in a French collection. Pre-postal days are represented by Parliamentary envelopes issued in January, 1840, and an experimental stamp showing the first attempts to perforate postage-stamps by Henry Archer.