HAPPINESS AND VALUE OF MUNICIPAL SERVICE

Evening Star, Issue 15073, 3 January 1913, Page 7

HAPPINESS AND VALUE OF MUNICIPAL SERVICE

The Earl of Rosebery, on November 8, attended at a scries of gatherings held in connection with the first meeting of the Corporation of Greater Glasgow, at which he presented to the municipality a silvergilt mace. i Lord Rosebery was afterwards enter- ' taincd at a banquet, at which his health was pledged. Lord Rosebery, in reply, said that it was quite impossible for him to admit that at any moment of mental aberration or of general rapacity such as was not uncommon in their Scottish history the University of St. Andrews should ever have become possessed of the mace of Glasgow. There was no doubt aboutthe plurality of maces at St. Andrews. Why should St. Andrews, because it was a collector of maces, just as people were collectors of pictures or plate, be supposed by any subterranean means to have become possessed of the mace of the second city of the. Empire? His own impression rather was that Glasgow had been so occupied in transforming itself from a small fishing village into the second city of the Empire that she had no time to think about the " baubles," as, the Lord Provost and Cromwell called thorn Sometimes, in thinking of the present and the future from the perfectly detached point of view, he thought it was not- impossible that somebody might some day again outer the House of Commons and renew the expression of Cromwell. He had no connection with any party politics, but if he ever joined ar./ jrlitical association or 'eague it would be one for the suspension of legislation for two or three years. He for one would welcome, as cue getting on in vests and requiring more tima for the assimilation of food, a short per'od in which they would be allowed to assimilate the legisla. tivo banquet to which they had been treated of late. I —Work for Peers.— After complimenting Glasgow upon her recent extension of boundaries, 'Lord Rosebery said that the municipality of Glasgow had in a thousand directions the power to electrify, to give life, to give shape to all the multitudinous forms of municipal activity. If they were to walk through a town they could "judge from the aspect of that town and the appearance of its citizens what was the value, of the municipality which governed it. He had often said that there, was no situation in the world which gave such immediate satisfaction to one as that of a town councillor. He sometimes wondered that the peers of the House of Lords, as their numbers and importance increased, did not take to municipal life. They had a very large number of peers in Lanarkshire and neighborhood who would find infinitely greater reward in mingling with the municipal life in Glasgow than going to assist Parliament. He asked Glasgow to induce some of them to come within their net. The happiest recollections of his life were connected with the London County Council, and it was from that experience that he ventured to urge all those who had any leisure or ability to take part in the work of governing their native city. Some allusion had been made to what were-known as "scenes." These were very exhilarating for the moment, and furnished excellent " copy" for the newspapers, but he was bound to say that the older he became tho more he was convinced that scenes, whether in public, private, or domestic life, never really led to anv tangible conclusion. Delightful as they might be *or the moment, scenes did not lend any dignity to the council or promote any 'useful end.