NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18387, 1 May 1923, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE MAKER OF THE ENTENTE.

A maker of modem history, as well as one to whom his own country owed much, has passed away in Theophile Pelcasse, says the London Daily Telegraph. The making of the Entente Cordiale was., on the side of France, his own handiwork, carried on unflinchingly through years of pertinaceous effort in rooting out of his country's political soil the prejudice and suspicion which, looked askance at all intimacy • with Great Britain. M. Delcasse was always something of a political mystery, says the Morning Pof.t. Throughout his long career : as Foreign Minister silence and discretion were his watchwords, and his enemies' bitterest reproach against his _ foreign policy was that he held every string in his own hands and confided in no one. His life, like his death, was a tragedy. _ For many years he personified the spirit of France, since he had been sacrificed to _ German predominance in Europe. All his efforts had been' devoted to the foundation of the Entente Cordiale and to a diplomatic preparation for . -the inevitable life-and- . death struggle with Germany. Yet when friendship with England became an alliance on the fields of an almost universal war, M. Delcasse had lost his place in the imagination of France and the world. THE STIMULUS OF RECORDS. Records are indisputably interesting and' exciting in themselves says the London Times. They are widely described, discussed, and memorised. It may not seem much gain, by material standards, that a man has jumped an inch or two farther or higher than anyone else, or has produced two centuries in a match which boasted only one before, or even that he has climbed a few hundred feet higher up a barren peak, or has fought his way a few miles nearer to an inhospitable Pole. But each such record ex hypothesi marks something which has never been done before. It is one more forward step, however short, in the gram, progress of discovery of . what is possiblo to humankind. For the new standard irresistibly raises in its train the whole level of respectable _ performance. The mass of the undistinguished insensibly adjust themselves to the higher altitude tc which the new record leads them. The process is cumulative in effect. The prin ciple is of equal application, though with an important difference, in the realm of conduct. ; There, too, the man of outstanding example and performance raises the standard of the possible .and makes the hitherto unattained the goal, at first of - aspiration, and then of gradually widening accomplishment. ' ALIENS IN BRITAIN. . While approving migration -to • other parts of the Empire, Blackwood's Magazine recommends also .the rigid exclusion oi aliens from Britain.- It says —In all the large centres of population- where words excite to • murder and rapine, < ; ; you will always find that tho dangerous element is . foreign. • How should a mob which came into Great Britain merely for what it could get out of her be expected to understand the conventions of our life or the needs of our Empire? It gathers about it all the discontented and idle of our own countrymen, and makes itself a centre always of hatred and malice. The working classes are by far the worst sufferers by this stream of immigrants, who lower wages and snatch the jobs of our own compatriots. We are told that in 1911 the persons born in foreign countries amounted to no more than 373,516, while 34,364,059 were born in England and Wales. The figures are wholly irrelevant. The 300,000 odd- who 'were born abroad are merely the new-comers. We have no means of discovering how many of the 34,000,000 are of British blood. By a foolish habit we describe as "British" any man or woman who happens to be born upon British soil. In other words, "a mere accident is deemed more important than race and blood, which are the only things that matter. Nor is it merely the foreign proletariat that is a danger. There are far too many aliens to be found in high places, in the Houses of Parliament, and in the public services. These sad personages, who came hither merely to ensure their own profit and advantage, care nothing for the country which they have duped and which shelters them. And now we are carrying our complaisance one step further. We are allowing enemy aliens to come in without let or hindrance. However, we still have faith that ultimately our 'own blood will prevail, and , that even the Labour Party itself will at last open its eyes to the peril of a vain philanthropy. When our door is banged, bolted, and barred, not against our own kith -and kin, but against heretical aliens who bring their doctrines with them, when our emigrants pass freely to the yet uncultivated lands in our Dominions oversea, then we need not worry our heads about unemployment-, or fear that the Old Country will die of overcrowding. KEEPER OF STIRLING CASTLE. A Royal warrant has been issued appointing the Earl of Mar and Kellie and his heirs in succession, to the office of Hereditary Keeper of Stirling Castle. Thus this historic post is restored to the family with which, until the attainder of John, sixth Earl of Mar in 1715, it was almost continuously associated for some 350 years. There is evidence that the office of keeper of Stirling Castle (not then hereditary) was, if i,ot in 1345, as has been stated at least in 1370, vested in Sir Robert j Erskine, grandfather of the first Lord | Erskine, and direct ancestor of the Earl j of Mar and Kellie in the male line. There- ; after, for nearly 200 years, the office was held, though not without interruption, by successive heads of the Erskine family. In 1561 it was granted by Queen Mary to John, Lord Erskine, afterwards Earl of Mar of the Erskine family, during his lifetime. By gift under the Privy Seal, dated July 18, 1566, Queen Mary and King Henry (Lord Darnlev), on the narrative that the family of Erskine had oi long and bygone times had the custody of the principal forts and strengths of the kingdom, including the Castle of Stirling, and had always discharged their trust faithfully, gave and granted heritably and irredeemably to John Earl of Mar and his heirs the captaincy and custody of Stirling Castle, with the park, gardens, and Gallovrhills, and with all privileges pertainin" to the office of forestry of the said park! The office thus became hereditary in the family of Erskine, Earls of Mar. After j the attainder of the sixth c-url, for high J treason, the greater part of his Ir-nded j and other heritable estates, declared to be j forfeited to the King, w=re purchased by his brother, James Erskine (Lord i Grange) but the hereditary office of 1 s Keeper of the Castle of Stirling remained i i with the Crown. By an. Act of Parlia-i ! ment passed in 1824", John Francis Ers- ! j kine of Mar, grandson and lsnea] repre- i j sentative of John, sixth Earl of Mar. j and his • successors were restored: to fhf> j i honours, dignities. and titles forfeited' | under the Act of Attainder of 1725. Since j j 1715 eight successive? "Governors" of i Stirling Castle have been appointed by the! Crown. The fir it two were the eighth j and ninth Earls of Rothes. The eighth j was General Sir Martin Hunter, who was appointed in 1832 and died in 1846. *