SYMBOL OF OBEDIENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 5 March 1912, Page 8

SYMBOL OF OBEDIENCE.

PROBABLE ORIGIN >-F THE MAR 111 AGE RING. A PROFESSOR'S AMUSING THEORY LONDON, January 16There were "some novel and amusing illustrations in the first of th e series of lectures on the Evolution of England deJivered last night at University College by Prof. A. F. Pollard. Alluding to t<he 'campaign directed against the omission of the word obey from the marriage service, he said he hfiieved there was something common in origin between the ring put through the | nose of the wild bull and the ring which was put on a certain finger of a lady'd hand. It implied originally a certain amount of control, a certain amount, perhaps, of captivity and obedience. (Laughter.) Now that wc- were getting rid of "obedience" there would perhaps be a campaign against th e ring as well. (Laughter.) The only objection to that was that the ring was quite a useful form of advertisement". (Laughter.) CHARLES I. and MR. LLOYD GEORGE.

Prof. Pollard had been speaking of evolution in history, and remarked that the particular point which led to what | was known as the "eleven years ct tvranny" was a difference between Charles the First and Parliament over the meaning of "subsidy." Latterly wu had had varving views as to the meaning of Finance Bill (Laughter.) That was something similar to the difference between the Crown and Parliament- to which he had alluded. Speaking of political intelligence, he said when they pot a small class that was politically intelligent they generally got an aristocracy. It was only as political intelligence 6pread that it became in any way possible to get anything like a real democracv. The Education Acts of 1870 and 1888 were indispensable preliminaries of any approach to real democracy at tho present time. "Whether w e shoulu ever get a Teal dem«, cracy depended upon the extent to which we could spread political intelligence. There was * time in English history when the English, people could not realise that there was any difference between murder and homicide. The people had it-, idea of motive. There ffes a time in English history when the English people cculd not realise that there was any difference between murder and homicide. The pcopl e had no idea of 'motive. , SURROUNDED BY SYMBOLS. Why when they saw a grocer's almanac bearing a picture of th e King was he "usually wearing a crown on his head'' Because th e people to whom that was supposed to appeal would not understand he was a- king otherwise. We were still surrounded by these material symbols. One of the most familiar was ths national flag. It was only a bit of bunting, yet it was the- symbol of something very great. They got the evolution not only ot man's political power, but his power :« other directions. He wondered hew far modern political development had depended upon such a thing as medical science. There seemed to be no necessary correction between the two at first, but the prospect of the development of wh?te civilisation in Central Africa, Cor instance, depended largely upon the capacity of the medical faculty to deal with sleeping sickness.