Home and Social Life 177 



tralia to understand how keenly the people 

 dislike the acceptance by one of their popular 

 politicians of the knighthood and decoration 

 sometimes proffered as an honour by the Im- 

 perial Government. The Australian politician 

 who refuses such honours, renews the trust of 

 the people in himself, and incidentally deprives 

 his wife of an attribute of a mean value in society. 

 The covert antipathy that exists between masses 

 and classes is illustrated by this society approval 

 of what the people condemns. The reasoned 

 objection to the bestowal of titles upon Aus- 

 tralians is that it is at once unnecessary, and 

 anti- Australian, and the most national in spirit 

 of all Australian papers wrote seriously of it that 

 " Australia took up the Cross of the Order of St. 

 Michael and St. George on its shoulders to march 

 towards the crucifixion of its national life. ' ' It 

 should be borne in mind that the whole of the 

 resentment excited by the bestowal of these 

 honours is directed against the recipient, and that 

 the offer of them is recognised in the spirit in 

 which it is made. 



Clubs in Australia are few, but, as a rule, they 

 are very good. Bach of the capital cities possesses 

 at least one club managed on lines as constitu- 

 tionally exclusive as any that L,ondon can boast. 

 An extreme conservatism is one of the products 

 of the ferment of an ultra democratic community, 

 and in his club, the Australian Conservative finds 

 a congenial atmosphere free from the Radicalism 



