brilliant intellectual life of England. "There," he said, "is a
coterie of men, probably the most brilliant group East of
the Mississippi." (I think he said the Mississippi). "You will find
them," he said to me, "brilliant, witty, filled with repartee." He
suggested that I should send him back, as far as words could express
it, some of this brilliance. I was very glad to be able to do this,
although I fear that the results were not at all what he had
anticipated. Still, I held conversations with these people and I
gave him, in all truthfulness, the result. Sir James Barrie said,
"This is really very exceptional weather for this time of year."
Cyril Maude said, "And so a Martini cocktail is merely gin and
vermouth." Ian Hay said, "You'll find the underground ever so handy
once you understand it."

I have a lot more of these repartees that I could insert here if
it was necessary. But somehow I feel that it is not.



IV. -- A Clear View of the Government and Politics of England

A LOYAL British subject like myself in dealing with the government
of England should necessarily begin with a discussion of the
monarchy. I have never had the pleasure of meeting the King,--except
once on the G.T.R. platform in Orillia, Ontario, when he was the
Duke of York and I was one of the welcoming delegates of the town
council. No doubt he would recall it in a minute.

But in England the King is surrounded by formality and circumstance.
On many mornings I waited round the gates of Buckingham Palace but I