NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11544, 1 December 1900, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

An English paper, in an interesting article on the platform methods of some of the leading statesmen, says:»— As a rule, Mr. Chamberlain speaks without notes of any kind, or. if he lias any about him, he keeps

them in his pocket, except, perhaps, when, dealing with some opponent's utterance, be has to look at and quote an extract from a speech. His voice is a firm and clear one, though not very musical, and there is .little variation of tone, but bis enunciation is so good, and he speaks With so much spirit, that even in the largest halls he can heard with the greatest ease. He rarely or never leans on a desk, or grasps a railing, like Sir William Harconrt or Mi. Balfour, and his gestures are scarcely gestures in the elocutionist's sense at all; yet his style is full of action, but it is the action which comes of being wholly absorbed for the time being in bis subject. He seems always to ; expect a few of his old Radigal friends among the audience, and almost the only transparent little device of the practised debater he indulges in is to compal his opponents to reveal themselves at once. This he generally does by some reference to a pet project of theirs, of which, likely enough, he was himself the originator. They jump at the bait and instantly remind him of 'Auld Lang Syne.' 'Master Joe,' looking at the quarter of the building from which the interruption came, darts a question or two suddenly at his enemies. Back like lightning comes the answer he anticipated, and then, having got them metaphorically in the hollow of his hand, he works the meeting up to a white heat of excitement, and friend and foe alike wait eagerly for every succeeding sentence. On and on he goes in swinging style to the close, and when he sits down, as he does almost suddenly and after a brief and telling peroration, the audience is taken in a measure unprepared. A few seconds' curious pause ensues, and then the pent-up feelings of the multitude find vent in a great roar of applause."

The long-neglected grave of Annie Laurie has just been brought to public notice in England, and the discovery that it has remained all these years without a tombstone is attracting attention. The St. James' Gazette remarks: "Many people are under the delusion that Annie Laurie was merely a figment of the poet's brain, but this was not so. She was the daughter of Sir Robert Laurie, and was born in Maxwelton House, which stands on the ' braes' immortalised in the song. Maxwelton House is still full of memories of this winsome girl, and in the long drawingroom there still hangs her portrait. Her lover and the author of the original song was young Douglas of Fingland, but whether he, as is common with lovers of poetic temperament, did not press his suit sufficiently or whether she wished a stabler husband, she gave her hand to a prosaic country laird, her cousin, Mr. Alexander Ferguson. They lived the rest of their lives at Craigdarrock House, five miles from Maxwelton, and when she died Annie was buried in the beautiful glen of the Cairn. Lady Scott Spottiswoode, who died early in the present year, was responsible for the modern version of the song."