CASH IN MANNERS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1861, 22 September 1913, Page 5

CASH IN MANNERS.

LORD ROSEBERY'S TALK TO , ' , BOYS. : The decay of manners was the subject of an address by Lord Rosobery to the boys of the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, ill presenting the prizes at Speech Day on July 28. He referred to a school statute framed 300 years ago that "courtesy and good manners were to be established by all go.od means," and proceeded: "The men of the 17th century were, I suspect, tho greatest breed of Englishmen eve? produced, partly because they possessed good manners themselves and partly bcause they realised the enormous importanoe of courtesy and good manners in the common transactions of life. Now wo English people and, I am afraid, still more we Scotcli people, had never been famous for good maniiers. (Laughter.) I think at one time there was a sort of John Bull feeling in England that good manners wero a device for the dancing, frog-eating Frenchman —(laughter)—-whom it was our duty to despise. „ , "If we see the King going through the streets wo take off,our hats to him as a mark of respect to him in the first place, but- in the second P'aco as a mark of respect to ourselves. \\o .show our veneration for the head of the community to which we belong and to tho community itself, of which we are a part. (Cheers.) "I think tliere has been a decay ot manners in England and Scotland and all over tho world. "Good appearance and good manners have an enormous comm©rcial \aluo in life. Good appearance, you may say, i.o not at our command. Ido not agreo. Good looks are not at our command. They are the gift of the gods, but a good, straightforward, manly appearance, an appearance without solr-eon-."ciousness, which is the most disagieeable feature, perhaps, of all appearance, is within the command of every boy. "Manners avo even more important than appearance. Say three boys are applying for the same situation. Une boy may not have tho abilities of either of'the'other two, but if ho has good manners, if, instead of grunting an answer liko tho first one, or giving only an inarticulate sound like tho second, he gives a clear, respectful—not cringing—answer to the question asked him, it is ton to ono against tho other two.