WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 125, 19 July 1911, Page 5

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING.

(“Public Opinion,” June 9th.) “ARCHIVES OF SPEECH.” “The ‘archives of speech’ were inaugurated last Saturday,” says the “Morning Leader,” “at the Sorbonno by Mr. Steeg, Minister for Public Education. “The phonograph will be the backbone of the now institution, but its aim is not so much to supply a museum for satisfying the curiosity of future generations as to how France spoke and sang in the early part of the twentieth century, but rather to collect material for tho scientific study of language. The inagnration speeches were faithfully registered on the cylinders of a phonograph as they wore delivered.” THE KING AND THE SMART SET. Some very intimate facts about King George, written by a close friend, are to bo found in an article in “T.P.’s Magazine” for Juno;— “The Court to-day,” says this writer, “at Windsor is to an extraordinary extent a reproduction of the Court as it existed in the fifties. It is a Court which is primarily a family. Every morning the father and his children are out riding in tho Park.

“In tho evening the family party differs toto coelo from the parties of King Edward. After dinner they sit together for a time talking. At ten o’clock they separate, each one going to his or her room. There is no ‘bridge,’ nor any of the fashionable dissipation so dear to the Smart Sot. The King always retires at ten and devotes himself to business. He is a laborious worker. He has tho phenomenal memory of his grandmother. He reads every despatch on foreign affairs, and .whenever any important document comes before him he reads it aloud.”

“In European affairs the King is not likely to take any active part. Ho speaks French not very well. Ho speaks German not at all, although ho can read it with a bad accent. It is remarkable that King George is the first King of his dynasty who has ever spoken English like a native. King Edward had a certain German note in his voice which is entirely absent from that of King George.” THE KING’S CRITICS. “It, is easy to see how the two currents —the Smart Sot infuriated by their loss of the sunshine of Royalty, and the Tory faction, not Its* furious because it has to pay the penalty of the insanity which rejected the Budget—by combining their forces can produce in certain circles a semblance of unpopularity for the King. They are impotent to injure, but they can always fall back upon the tactics of Sir Benjamin Backbite and Lady Sneerwell. “The first are those who pride themselves on belonging to the ‘Smart Set,’ who basked for years in the tain of Edwardian Royalty, and who find themselves to-day out in Bio

cold. The King lias restored somewhat of the austerity of the Victorian Court. A certain laxity of manners and of morals which passed unnoticed in the late reign'is distasteful to him. Although personally one of tno most generous of men, and liberal with that line spirit of liberality which does rat let his left hand know what his right hand docth, he hate all his grandmother’s detestation oi waste and ostentatious luxury. THE ITALIAN* JUBILEE.

“Sunday and Monday were devoted I>v Italians to the memory of the first King of United Italy,” says “The Times.” “The immense national mon-

ument which towers over Home and perpetuates the name of \ ictor Emmanuel li. was declared open on Sunday with the simple but impressive ceremonial described by our Romo correspondent. Monday was the turn of the Victor Emmanuel Bridge across the Tiber—the line structure the erection of which has led to the demolition of a portion ot the venerable Archi-ospedale dr Santo Spirito, the groat foundation of Innocent HI. Today (Tuesday) it is fifty years since the death of the man without whom Victor Emmanuel would never have held his Court in the Quirinal, or Italy have attained her unity in the middle of the last century.” HOME RULE ON THE CREST. To re-issue of Mr Barry O’Brien’s hook, ‘A Hundred Years of Irish History,’ Mr Redmond contributes a brief introduction. He says; “In 1902 Home Rule was in the trough of the sea. It is now once more on the crest of tiro wave, and the haven for which Ireland has steered steadily in fair weather and in foul is at hand. The House of Lords has ever been the arch-enemy of Irish reform—-of our reform. There is now passing through Parliament a Bill—d "dl l> e law in a couple of months- curb the power of the Lords, and' to strengthen the authority of the people. When the measure takes its place on the Statute Book it will he no longer possible for an obsolete obligarchy to thwart the public will and to make representative government a sham.” s Mr Redmond quotes some words oi the late Mr Lccky crediting the Irish members with accelerating the democratic transformation of Irish politics and observes: “It is irapossble to think of the Liberal Ministry today and of the effective blow which in the name of the English democracy, and with the decisive help of a compact Irish party, they have been able to deal at the most obstructive institution tho world has ever seen without recalling those memorable words."' WESLEY’S AMPHITHEATRE. ’ “In glorious weather fully five thousand people attended an open-air service at Gwonnap Pit on Monday,” says the “Daily News.” “Inc Rev. George Hammond, of London, prcacued, and Wesley’s hymns were sung as only Cornish audiences can sing them. “Hundreds of people from outside the county were present to see what Wesley called his amphitheatre. Jolu. Wesley preached there 17 times, bni the place has boon reconstructed since that time. Wesley’s records state that he preached to 20,000 or 00,000, but the seating accommodation at the present time is for 3000, though large numbers stand on the slopes behind the seats.” WHO PROFITS ? , “If the Stool Trust makes rails for Australia at 2! dollars a ton, and for the United States at 23 dollars a ton. which of the two nations is the beneficiary of the American tariff?” askr Collier’s Weekly. GROWTH OF CO-OPERATION. The Chairman of tho Co-operative Congress says that the membership oi the movement at the close of 1910 wax 2,535,293, an increase of 70,506 ovei 1903; the sales for the same period were £111,582,779, an increase of £2,670,515; profits were £12,021,816 an increase of £13,693; indeed, increases had occurred all along the lino. A RELIGIOUS CENSUS. “According to the summaries fur nished by the enumerators, 3,238,656 of the population of Ireland are returned as Roman Catholics, tills number being 70,005, or 2.1 per cent., under the number so returned in 1901,” says the “Times.’ “575,489 are returned under the heading ‘Protestant Episcopalians,’ a decrease of 5600 or 1 per cent., as compared with 1901; 439,876 are returned as Presbyterians, a decrease of 3400, or 0.8 per cent., ns compared with 1901, and the number of Methodists returned is 61,806, a decrease oi 200, or 0.3 per cent., as compared with 1901. Of the total population 73.9 per cent, are returned as Roman Catholics, 13.1 per cent, as Protestant Episcopalians, 10 per cent, as Presbyterians, and 1.4 per cent, as Methodists.

“The number of families returned ia 1911 is 912,711, an increase since 1901 of 2155 or 0.3 per cent. Tnc number of families in 1911 represents an average of 4.8 persons to a family j in 1901 tho average was 4.9.”