The Days of a Man 1905 



Another laudatory tablet avers that "a higher 

 courage and a gentler disposition were never marry'd 

 together to make a ye most cheerfull and innocent 



conversation.' 



"Collect- On this and other trips my wife and I visited with 

 ing tl'.drai reat appreciation nearly all of England's august 

 fanes, but as far more skillful pens than mine have 

 failed to do them justice, I refrain from any attempt 

 of my own. Nevertheless, we were open to Hoover's 

 playful accusation that we "went about collecting 

 cathedrals!" 



While in London we spent a little time at the Inns 

 of Court, watching the operations of British law, 

 some features of which hardly commended themselves 

 to me, especially as the prisoner at the bar seemed to 

 get the worst of it. During the trial of certain British 

 colonels charged with selling, for only what they 

 could get, surplus hay and oats likely to be aban- 

 doned during the Boer War, our sympathy went out 

 to those weatherbeaten old warriors held up for 

 "wasting" government property when apparently 

 they had no alternative. 



In another case, which concerned a ship collision 

 on the Thames, the browbeating of witness and de- 

 fendants by the judge surprised me. Indeed, in 

 British courts the presiding officer assumes partly 

 judicial the attitude of prosecutor, his humorous sallies being 

 humor duly reported by the daily press. In England they do 

 many things better than we, but in the conduct of 

 the minor courts they do not always excel. 



During our stay, England and France "made up" 

 after the quarrel over Fashoda, and clasped hands in 

 eternal friendship. This reconciliation, largely the 

 work of the French diplomatist, Delcasse, had the 



C 162 ] 



