NEWS AMU NOTES

Grey River Argus, 25 April 1911, Page 8

NEWS AMU NOTES

East Anglia — the eastern counties of England — is one ot two localities in Europe where the plague >bacillus exists The apathy of the authorities and people in this matter has given rise to the suggestion that perhaps England feels that she owes a debt of gratitude to the plague, and that it would be indecorous to be obtrusively hostile. It was plague that put an end to serfdom in England by producing a scarcity of farm labourers. It was the plague that reduced the power of the monasteries and so paved the way for the revolution. It was an aid even to English literature, inasmuch as it nearly exterminated the classes that spoke French and Latin; and called into activity a new. body of educationists who spoke only English. The plague may be said . to be the father of hygiene, for not even ; the terror of smallpox was so great a stimulus to cleanliness as the plague. Some day a book will be written on the beneficence of _ catastrophes or a study of calamities as aids to human progress. The British suffrage'tite is peculiarly militant, but it would be a mistake to suppose that "the sex" is^ . unanimous. This is shown by a recent poll of women voters, who are on the register for municipal purposes, and who -were asked if they ■were favourably or unfavourably disposed on the parliamentary franchise. Fifteen of the larger constituencies were chosen, and 41,757 women were polled. Out of this number only 5579 were in favour of the franchise, 18,850 declared themselves as opposed to it, while the remainder were unaccountably and unprecedent- . ly silent. The celebrated Swiss Guard of the Vatican is to be reformed, but not out of existence, as has happened to some of the semi-military' bodies in attendance on the Pope. Its ancient traditions are to be restored, and the recruiting system placed upon its former basis. All its members (must •be drawn from tEe Swiss army, for it has been a common saying of late years that the guard is SViss only in name, and that a good many of the men never sa^v Switzerland in their lives. • The Swiss Guard dates from the fifteenth century, when Sixtus IV chose a regiment of Helvetians, 'becatfsfc of their' tanshakaWe loyalty., The regiment became a permanent institution under Julius 11., the della Rovere fighting Pope, who decided finally that the Swiss soldiers should be entrusted the duty of .guard ing the person of the pontiff. Their number has varied at different times, reaching as high as 3000, and falling to about 100 now. "The discovery how to manufacture "The discovery (how to manufacture gold) may be made to-morrow," says Edison. "It is just as likely to be made to-morrow as: at any other time. The discovery will surely be made some time, because the making r of gold is a question only of the proper combination and, treatment of matter. . I mean by this that all matter is al£ke. Silver ariti gold differ only because the matter in them was combined ,in different proportions and. treated in a . different manner... . Who knows but radium has the power to convert a cheap metal into a dear one."