of Canterbury. Shortly afterwards he himself became Archbishop, Dr. Creighton succeeding him as Bishop of London. Nothing could have been more propitious, for Creighton, an eminent historian, was also cordially disposed toward America, having visited that country as delegate from Emmanuel College for the 250th anniversary of Harvard University. But good will alone was not sufficient: according to English habit a precedent had to be discovered; happily one existed in the case of

Napoleon I's will, and the way, therefore, being clear, the Bishop's chancellor was consulted, who decided, first, "that as the document contained a register of marriages, births, and deaths, it ought to be kept in the registry of the chancellor of the diocese. It was, therefore, given into the chancellor's keeping, who then held a consistory court, at which he made a formal order to hand over the manuscript to Mr. Bayard," America's first ambassador to the Court of St. James.'

sight,

Up above the stable,

Groans, knockings in the gloom The dancing table.

'Of demons in the dry well That cheep and mutter,

flower,

A bloom without stalk; and hour by

hour

The sharp cries of birds and the

shrieks of the slain

Are tearing the quiet with bright gashes of pain:

And that Flower bleeds out, wildly staining the sky;

And the lions roar to see the dayflower die

Blood, choking the gutter.

'Of lust, frightful, past belief, Lurking unforgotten, Unrestrainable, endless grief From breasts long rotten.

'A song? What laughter or what song Can this house remember?

Do flowers and butterflies belong
To a blind December?'
The Owl

I THANK YOU very much for the compliment which you have paid me, and the honor you have done me in asking me to come here this evening and join in one of these interesting dinners which I understand you hold at irregular intervals, and at which you discuss with the freedom of private intercourse the political issues and situations of the day. When I received your invitation, and as the time got nearer to the day when I should have the opportunity and duty of meeting you here, I naturally possessed myself of the details of your constitution. I have here the resolutions which, I understand, govern your political activities, and on reading them through, in order to ascertain entirely what you wish to stand for, I was very much struck by the close adherence which you have paid to the maxims of Napoleon. 'A constitution,' said Napoleon, 'must be short and obscure,' and it seems to me that you have followed very closely this maxim of the great master of the military art.

But if a constitution may be cryptic, the spirit which animates a group of men, or a body—a great body of human beings may be perfectly clear. The great thing is to have the union

VOL. 15-NO. 773

of consenting minds, to have the union of people who are aiming at the same objective and feel that however they may be divided by political origin or antecedents, however they may be divided by what they happened to say in the past or anything else like that, they still feel that the greatness and the glory of Great Britain and the happiness of her people have always been, and are still, the objective on which they are marching. Party spirit, party interests, party organization must necessarily play a great part in British political life. Do not let us underrate that. I understand that your idea is not to break with existing political parties, but to prevent existing political parties from breaking with each other.

I understand that you do not challenge the importance of party in British political life, and that you even vindicate it, but that you hold, in addition, that party spirit, party interests, party organization must in these very serious times be definitely subordinated to national spirit, national interests, and national organization. If these are your main views I am whole-heartedly in sympathy with them.