NEWS ITEMS.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 684, 15 November 1921, Page 3

NEWS ITEMS.

'A WISE MAN. \ During the reign of Louis XV. of France, the light chaise came into 1 fashion, and great ladies of Paris' were accustomed to drive In them about the city. But beautiful hands are not always strong ones; accidents 1 began to occur more and more frequently in the streets. Consequently the King besought the Minister of Police to do something, since the lives of pedestrians were constantly in danger. “I will do whatever is in my power,” replied the Police Minister. “Your Majesty desires that these accidents cease entirely?”

The King replied, “Certainly.” The next day there appeared a 1 royal ordinance that ordered that, inj the future, ladies under thirty years; of age should not drive chaises, through the streets of Paris. That 1 seems a mild restriction; but it is said that scarcely a woman from that time on drove her own chaise. The Police Minister knew that few women would care to advertise the fact thati they were over thirty, and that the rest would probably be too old toj drive, anyway.

“LORD OF THE NARROW SEAS.” When did Britain first assert he supremacy on the Narrow Seas? It is possible that this may imYe'been first ■done in the time of the Edwards, when the English Kings, ruling possessions on both sides of the Channel,

would naturally claim sovereignty over the waters between England and France; and it is quite certain that, this right was admitted by both the, French and also the Flemish so early as 1330, for in a petition of certain Flemish tr.aders to the English King for the punishment of English pirates, he is distinctly alluded to as “Lord of the Narrow Seas” —in fact, they were commonly spoken of about this time' as the “English Seas.” Even earlier than this, however,] after the great battle of Damme, King! John caused it to be proclaimed that all foreign ships refusing to salute English men-of-war were to be treated as enemies, and either destroyed or confiscated, and instructions to this effect were actually issued to the fleet down to the end of the eighteenth century.

In the time of the Commonwealth this sovereignty of the seas was strongly resisted by the Dutch, but Admiral Blake’s great victory over Van Tromp and De Ruyter finally settled the matter, and since then every; ship of another nationality salutes a British one first. This, however, has now come to be regarded as merely a piece of naval etiquette, and does not convey any idea of inferiority or sub' mission.