itself, is a city of clean streets and admirable sidewalks, and
has an excellent water supply. One is at once struck by the number
of excellent and well-appointed motor cars that one sees on every
hand, the neatness of the shops and the cleanliness and cheerfulness
of the faces of the people. In short, as an English visitor said
of Peterborough, Ontario, there is a distinct note of optimism in
the air. I forget who it was who said this, but at any rate I have
been in Peterborough myself and I have seen it.

Contrary to my expectations and contrary to all our Transatlantic
precedents, I was not met at the depot by one of the leading
citizens, himself a member of the Municipal Council, driving his
own motor car. He did not tuck a fur rug about my knees, present
me with a really excellent cigar and proceed to drive me about the
town so as to show me the leading points of interest, the municipal
reservoir, the gas works and the municipal abattoir. In fact he
was not there. But I attribute his absence not to any lack of
hospitality but merely to a certain reserve in the English character.
They are as yet unused to the arrival of lecturers. When they get
to be more accustomed to their coming, they will learn to take them
straight to the municipal abattoir just as we do.

For lack of better guidance, therefore, I had to form my impressions
of London by myself. In the mere physical sense there is much to
attract the eye. The city is able to boast of many handsome public
buildings and offices which compare favourably with anything on the
other side of the Atlantic. On the bank of the Thames itself rises
the power house of the Westminster Electric Supply Corporation, a
handsome modern edifice in the later Japanese style. Close by are the
commodious premises of the Imperial Tobacco Company, while at no