Rivieto of RevifvjB, lllOjOS. 



History of the Month. 



325 



Red-Letter 

 Day. 



London, August 1906. 

 Wednesday, July 25th, will long 

 dwell in the memory as one of 

 the red-letter days of our time. 

 None who were privileged to be pre- 

 sent at the great International. Festival celebrated on 

 that day in Westminster Hall can ever forget the 

 memorable scene. In the morning the Inter-parlia- 

 mentary Conference had unanimously pledged its 

 groups to press their respe<:tive governments to un- 

 dertake at once the preliminary studies necessary to 

 secure an international limitation of the growth of 

 armaments, and had supplemented this by an equally 

 unanimous vote in favour of the institution of a 

 Budget of Peace pledging the Executive Government 

 to undert.Tke the active propaganda of international- 

 ism and of peace. After having thus affirmed the 

 two great principles upon which future progress must 

 be based, the Conference rose and marched in long 

 procession, with the Lord Chancellor at its head, tc 

 the ancient banqueting hall of our Norman Kings. 

 Westminster Hall has witnessed many famous scenes 

 in its chequered history, but none, not even the great 

 day of the sentencing of Charles Stuart, presented so 

 hopeful an augury for thefuture as this Feast of 

 Fraternity when the respresentatives of twenty na- 

 tions sat down in a great sacrament of international 

 ccmmunion. It was the Coronation Feast of Inter- 

 nationalism fitly celebrated beneath the lofty roof of 

 Westminster Hall. 



_. _ . After the luncheon came the toasts 



ine speakers ^^^ ^^^ speaking. The high- 



Westtnlnster Hair, pitched roof of Westminster Hall 

 and its wide expanse render it a 

 very- difficult place to speak in. Nothing is more 

 dteary and disheartening than for a vast assemblage 

 to listen in vain to inarticulate accents falling from 

 the lips of distant speakers. But at Westminster 

 Hall the speakers were men with good voices, con- 

 spicuous presence, and great oratorical gift. Th-:- 

 Lord Chancellor, much more at home in such a 

 gathering than on the Woolsack among the Tory 

 Peers, spoke pithily and well, praising arbitration 

 and laying significant stress upon the fact that in dis- 

 cussing the limitation of armaments an ounce of ex- 

 ample is worth a ton of precept. The orators of the 

 Union were Count Apponyi, the Hungarian Minister 

 of Education : Mr. W. J. Bryan, twice candidate for 

 the American Presidency ; and Baron DEstournelle> 

 de Constant, the President of the French group. It 

 was no small achievement to rise to the level of such 

 an occasion, to hold the attention of such a meeting, 

 and to say just what ought to be said in the right 

 way and in the right s]i.ice. But they achieved it. 

 Count Apponyi, a splendid figure, an ideal Magyar 

 noble, tall and graceful, revived reminiscences of the 

 eloquence of Kossuth by the skill with which he 

 handled our English sjieech. Mr, W. J. Bryan, not 

 less typical of the New World alike in features and 



in orators , thrilled his audience by the simple 

 directness with which he addressed himself to the 

 heart of things. M. D'Estournelles de Constant 

 spoke with the fervour and passion of the Gaul. 

 It was no easy task to follow such speakers as Count 

 Apponyi and Mr. Bryan, but he accomplished it 

 with success. 



From the speeches of Count Ap- 



Two Notable ponyi and Mr. Bryan two passages 

 Sayings. deserve quotation for remem 



brance : — 



Count Apponyi 



The uoljle ideal of patriotism waa often aet up agalns' 

 that iiitemationali.sm which they cultivated. But patnot- 

 iam waa love; why should it be allied with hate? Patriotism 

 was self-immolation; why should it be devoted to the im- 

 molation of others? Patriotism wa« devotion to ones coun- 

 trv why should it take shape in the exaggeration of 

 armaments and huge expenditure? Patriotism was a mis- 

 sion for one's nation; but why should that mission be the 

 rais'ion of the prize-fighter? Why should it not be devoted 

 to the great work of benefiting the whole human race? To 

 amii it up in one word, patriotism was a religion. They 

 knew that there were still some dark spots on the earth 

 in which religion took the form of human sacrifice. Was 

 it imii'on"- ^^'** i* t''" betrayal of religrion. that they liad 

 done away with those horrors and worshipped a God who 

 held bloodshed in abhorrence? 



Mr. W. J. BRYAN. 

 Tlie more he thonght about war. the more he marvelled 

 at the disregard which its advocates showed of the trans- 

 cendent importance of a human lite. He stood the other 

 day by Shakespeare's birthplace and he asked himself 

 what the world would have lost if, instead of devoting hia 

 eeniua to verse, Shakespeare had been a Tommy Atkins, 

 and had in the early bloom of youth died upon some 

 battlefield. Let them measure the influence of such a life 

 upon the world. He stood also by the birthplace of the 

 Scotch poet, and he asked what the world would have 

 lost if Burns had never sung hia immortal songs to the 

 world. But even the humblest human life may be of in- 

 finite importance- He read the other day that the great 

 Welsh Revival was begun by the courage and fidelity of 

 a young unknown Welsh girl whose heart burnt within 

 her until she stood up to testify to her Ix>rd. From that 

 utterance by that poor, humble girl sprang the great 

 spiritual .aw,akening which had changed so many lives and 

 transformed so many communities. Let them never under- 

 estimate the value of a single life. 



Fjom Westminster Hall to Windsor 



At Castle the transition was easy and 



Windsor. natural. It was a glorious smnmer 



day when the King welcomed the 

 representatives of the Parliaments of the world to 

 the Royal Palace of Windsor. Not only were the 

 thousand guests allowed to stroll through all the 

 State apartments, but they were made welcome to 

 the private rooms, where many heirlooms and trea- 

 sures of art are usually jealously concealed from the 

 public gaze. After leaving the Castle they had tea 

 in the Orangerie and music in the garden. Art and 

 Nature vied with each other to make the hospitality 

 of the King ideally perfect. Everybody knows the 

 splendid view over the Thames Valley from the 

 outer Terrace. Comparatively few save the guests 

 of the King ever see the beauties of the woodland 

 scene which stretches for miles unscarred by a single 

 building from the base of the inner Terrace. It is 

 like a scene in fairyland, one worthy of Shakes- 

 peare's England and the spacious days of Queen 

 Elizabeth. The King was absent — Royalty has not 



