A PICTURESQUE SPEECH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20069, 8 April 1927, Page 6

A PICTURESQUE SPEECH.

EARL BALFOUR AND THE BRITISH EMPIRE. ‘The British Constitution is the only posiiblc Constitution for tho British Lmpiro ns it exists to-day, said the Lail of Balfour recently in tin address at Edinburgh University on the report ot the recent Imperial Conference. Healing with the power of sentiment as a binding force. Lord Balfour said an imaginary critic might say. “Remember that some of the memories of some of our great dominions are not entirely occupied with matters in which there has been no controversy between this country and their predecessors. If memory is to be the foundation of your future greatness, are your memories always so satisfactory that they will supply a solid foundation?" •'f am a Scotsman,” said Lord Balfour, “addressing Scotsmen, and I feel, therefore. peculiarly (uulilied to speak on this subject. I absolutely refuse to allow any man, be ho English or he he Scottish, to roh me of my share in Magna Charta or Shakespeare because of Bannockburn and Flodden. — (Laughter.) “What we have to do we can do. Wo can look back without shame; we can look forward with unbroken hope. All our greatest work had been, as it were, done unconsciously, not in tho spirit of systemmakers. but in the spirit of people dealing from moment to moment with the necessities of the moment. The English. without really knowing what they were doing, invented Parliaments. The Scots, without really knowing what a lead they were giving, were the first who allowed what democratic patriotism could do in the very height, of the Middle Ages and the feudal system.” _ I