NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14453, 20 August 1910, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE KING'S DESCENT. \ ery few people who are not professed antiquaries realise how extraordinary are the various lines of descent combined in the person of George the Fifth. Through the family of Este it reaches back to princes that reigned upon the Italian side of the Alps long before the age of the Crusades. Through his Guelph lineage, again, King George represents a name that resounded through Europe from the Baltic to the Mediterranean wellnigh a thousand years ago, and which seemed destined at one time to a universal suzerainty within the bounds of Western Christendom. Another ramification of the origins of our Royal House leads back again to the creation of Normandy by 110110 and his vikings. Yet this is by no means all. In the veins of King George the Fifth still runs the blood of Alfred, greatest of Saxons, and one of the noblest of all sovereigns. Upon that side the pedigree of Royal rank is traced back well into the eighth century, beyond the age of Charlemagne and his peers. Nor are the authorities upon genealogy entirely agreed that this is the remotest of the many roots, for here come in the claims of the Scottish and Irish subjects of the Crown. Queen Victoria was especially proud, as everyone knows, of the Stuart ancestors of our Royal family. For that means something, perhaps, more remarkable still. The Stuarts inherited the Scottish Crown through Robert Bruce, and in the veins of

that hero ran the blood of the older Celtic dynasty of Northern Albion. Now before the Duncans of that race reigned over the Caledonian Scots, their ancestors had been originally monarchs among the Hibernian Gaels; and it is no heraldic fancy, but a matter of historical fact —of which all Ireland ought to be, and some wellread Irishmen are, inordinately proud that King George undoubtedly represents the now shadowy, yet in its tsme, veiy real, House of Nial, to wuich the " High Kings " of ancient Erin belonged in the smaller island centuries before Alfred reigned in Wessex. 'lhere have not been wanting hopeful scholars to maintain that a more vivid sense of this truth would yet have a beneficent effect upon the Irish question. Apart from all fantasy the genealogical record at which we have rapidly glanced shows that in one way or another the British monarchy represents descents from well-nigh all the greater dynasties and races that have held sway in Europe since the fall of Imperial Rome.

THE BORSTAL SYSTEM. Among the many social agencies which, in various ways, endeavour to turn some portion of the criminal population into useful citizens, none is more interesting or, within its present limitations, more promising than the Borstal Association, and the system with which it is connected. The need for a liberal addition to its resources is set forth in a pamphlet foi* warded by the hon. director, Mr. W. Grant-Wilson, who writes: "The Prevention of Crime Act, of 1908, which came into effect on August 1, 1909, established State reformatories for the first time, under the name of Borstal Institutions, adopting tlie work done for some yeais past at Borstal Prison and elsewhere, 'the Act also provided for expenditure, by the State on the after-car.e of boys and girls on their discharge from the new State reformatories. That work has been entrusted to the Borstal Association. In the pamphlet, an interesting account is given of the methods and aims of the Borstal system. In the critical years between the ages of 16 and 21 many young persons fall into criminal courses, not so much from evil dispositions as from inability to resist the rntluence of pernicious surroundings, or a sudden temptation which easily masters an undeveloped moral sense. 1* or these the ordinary prison discipline is no corrective. Means which are both more sympathetic and more searching are required, and it is these which the Borstal institutions seek to supply. The boy or girl, on being committed to one of these institutions, finds every encouragement to do well, but, as the pamphlet puts it, " no fond sentimentality for the rogue as such." A lad, for example, who knows anything of one of the trades practised at Borstal is at once put to it if he wishes. If not, he is put to some other job for which he seems best fitted, or into the laundry or cleaning or other domestic party, where he receives the necessary training in discipline and self-control. He has physical drill daily, gymnasium thrice a week, school for five hours a week, lantern lectures on interesting subjects, and a certain amount of time lor recreation. But there is no corner for the shirker, the whole scheme being .so arranged that the lad finds honest work gives him the best time."