last few months must have been particularly irritating. There has been, first of all, Dr. Grace's National Testimonial, to which with one accord high and low have contributed, bearing, at the same time, witness to the splendid work played by our national game in building up the physique and character of Englishmen. Then, to refer to the various championship gatherings, there is the victory of Private Hayhurst of Canada, in the Queen's Prize Competition, the presence of American and Canadian oarsmen at Henley, of South Africans and a New Zealander at the Amateur Athletic Championship, of the negotiations for a joint university athletic contest between representatives of Great Britain and America, of the furthering of arrangements for the revival of the Olympic games at Athens, of the visit of an American university baseball team to this country, with the prospect of another going to Australia. The visit of Stoddart's team to the Antipodes is a matter of history, as well as the West Indian cricket tour. We should have had an Australian rowing eight at Henley, and athletes at Stamford Bridge, if it had not been for the general depression. On every side there is evidence of the growing passion for athletics. Lohmann's enforced residence in South Africa, unfortunate as it has been for Surrey, has been of great benefit to the furtherance of cricket in that colony, and Mr. K. S. Ranjitsinhji, one of her Majesty's Indian subjects, whose batting average this season is second only to that of the champion, has recently assured the athletic representative of the Daily Chronicle that our national game is making strides towards popularity in his own country. The increased space given in the Daily Chronicle to all sporting matters of interest-I do not mean betting-is another instance of the demand of the people in this direction. Only the other day I was talking to the head of one of our great free libraries just outside London, and I remarked on the number of young men and boys who streamed in and out. I observed that they did not stay long. 'Oh, no,' he said, they only want to see the "latest score." Philosophic doubters may think and say what they like about athleticism being overdone, but a wholesome admiration for the exploits of Abel, of Grace, and a desire to emulate them, most people will, I think, admit is eminently desirable. Human nature demands some excitement and deviation from the jog trot of the monotony of ordinary business life which the majority of people have to endure in this country, and probably in most others, and if an open-air and healthy excitement is not encouraged, you may depend upon it that some other kind will be obtained. There is, indeed, no more hopeful sign for the future of the nation than the appearance of the free playing-grounds of London and of the other great cities of the country, as well as the crowded condition of our rivers, upon the holidays of the people. I do not see, I candidly confess, how any thoughtful man can declare, after consideration, that sport is overdone here, except, perhaps, in

the direction of what is called record-breaking among crack runners or by cyclists. That sort of thing is as mischievous as it is silly. However, you cannot prevent any man killing himself by overwork or overstrain if he chooses to do it. As for bicycles, in the general interests of the public, they should not be allowed to perambulate through the streets any more than horses or other means of traction are licensed to travel at a rate dangerous to the wayfarer. The growing brutality of professional football is much decried-but is there not a law of assault for flagrant instances of deliberate acts of disablement? There are many other features in modern athletics which I could mention as not desirable, but surely there is an abuse of other things beside athletics. There is an abuse of parliamentary institutions, of capital, of religion, of liberty, as well as an abuse of sport. Everything is liable to be overdone or have their evils, but I venture to say that if the uses of mankind were as generally free from reproach as are the athletic pursuits of our countrymen, we ought to be congratulated indeed. If the people who decry athletics knew more from practical experience of the benefits which the youth of our people derive from the exercise of their athletic instincts they would not be so severe.

Now I need hardly add that one of my aims has been to organise this passion for athletics right throughout our empire and the English-speaking world into a popular means and an excuse for bringing about a healthy gathering on which the eyes of all men shall be fixed. There was, and there is, no intention of making an attempt to supersede the work of the various championship meetings held here under amateur auspices; but the officers of those organisations, thinking there was some subtle design on foot to undermine them in public favour, hastened to make it known that they desired their gatherings to become as representative as possible of the excellence of the sporting world. The object of the agitation was firstly to bring about a more thorough representation than there had been in the past; and further, in order to avoid unnecessary expense, to have this thorough representation every fourth year. In order to give more importance to the gathering, I urged that the leading associations, such as the M.C.C., the A.R.A., the A.A.A., the N.C.U., and others, should amalgamate for that occasion, draw up a joint programme, and that a preliminary conference with this object should be held. The M.C.C. and the Amateur Swimming Association have expressed themselves in favour of this conference, while the A.A.A. and the A.R.A. are understood to negative it, the latter association tempering its letter of refusal by issuing a general invitation for the first time to colonial crews to come and compete at Henley. My committee,' wrote the secretary of the A.R.A., ' are anxious not to be misunderstood. If a crew of colonial amateurs ever come to this country, the members of this committee of English amateur oarsmen

generally will extend to them the right hand of fellowship, and will do everything they can to make their stay here as pleasant as possible.' Thus, not altogether in a friendly spirit, the governing bodies of sport in this country have forwarded our first object in endeavouring to make the periodic meetings here thoroughly representative of the best physique of the empire and of the race. I fear, however, if they do not amalgamate their forces and hold a joint gathering, that they will find the colonials will not come to meetings which, after all, are only local, on the ground that they have their own championship meetings. The presence of the South African athletes in England this year is the direct effect of the 'Pan-Britannic' movement which caused the founding of a South African athletic association, which has affiliated itself with the Amateur Athletic Association in London. Personally I do not care who carries the amalgamation idea out, as long as it is eventually carried out; but while the leading athletic associations. are divided among themselves as to the necessity or not of the proposals made by the secretary of the Pan-Britannic Conference in Australia, I do not see what advance can be made towards a united gathering, though they may do their utmost to make their individual gatherings as representative as possible. If a conference should be called together which would agree upon amalgamation, the present intermittent visits should gradually grow in the course of time into a periodic gathering, in which all the branches of the English-speaking race from three continents will be represented, acting as a stimulus to the health and physique and generous rivalry of the race. Why, the visit of Cornell, unfortunate as it was in some respects, has acted as an incentive to induce other American university men to declare their intention of coming over next year. And so I hope the representative character of these athletic contests will grow and grow until non-representation at them will be regarded much in the same light as if Cambridge or Oxford were to decline on some ground to compete in the annual boat-race one with the other. I have done my best to get my idea into the brains of the representatives of muscle in this country, and it remains to be seen what will be their future action now that the Americans have taken to the idea without reserve.

Where does the amateur end, and where does the professional begin? is a question which has given me much trouble. I should only provoke animosity if I probed this matter too deeply, but I think it would be better, both materially and morally, if many of our so-called amateurs dropped their pretence and came out in their true colours as professionals. The amateur status is guarded very carefully by the authorities in England, not so carefully in the colonies, at least so the home authorities say, and less so in America; and therefore the moment you begin to deal with the question of competition between nations, as such, or between the colonies and the

mother country, there arises the problem that the distinction between amateur and professional will either be obliterated, or attempted to be obliterated, in any case in which a particular nation or colony desires to include some competitor who will not be recognised as a bonâ-fide amateur. And although most of the colonial associations are affiliated to the English A.A.A., that body absolutely set their faces against a scheme for competition by colonial representatives or teams. The Australians, on the other hand, maintain that the class of amateur athletes in their colonies is decidedly superior (apart from athletic ability) to that existing in the north of England, taking them in the gross, and that their associations, perhaps on account of smaller numbers, exercise a stricter control than the A.A.A. of England. In the matter of international or quasi-international competition between representatives of universities or other recognised bodies, team competitions can be carried out without difficulty, for in these cases you have the guarantee of the institution which is promoting the special competition, and it is quite open to the institution challenged to accept the challenge or decline to compete. It is therefore for this reason, after consulting with Sir Richard Webster, the president of the A.A.A., that I advocate the waiving of the amateur definition. for the proposed 'Pan-Britannic' gathering, and throw it open to professional and amateur alike; or to confine the competition in track contests to university men alone, which I think would be much more interesting to the general public. The elimination of the distinction between amateur and professional for an extraordinary occasion finds support among athletes of unblemished integrity, such as Mr. Monypenny and Mr. Rowe, both ex-university presidents; but knowing, as I do, the strong feeling which the A.A.A. and the A.R.A. entertain upon this point, it will be one of the greatest of modern achievements if they can be induced to rescind their rules upon this allimportant point, and they have a wider experience in sifting the status of an amateur than I pretend to possess. With a prospect of endless bickering being the result of an amateur team competition between Americans, colonists, and home representatives, and knowing full well the almost insuperable obstacles likely to be raised to the attempt of securing a contest open to amateur and professional alike, I have lately confined my efforts to encourage contests between the representatives of the English-speaking universities, both in track performances and in rowing. I advocated this from the very beginning, but there have been difficulties in the way, and it is only lately that the work is coming to fruition. The policy has been to get the managing men into direct communication one with the other, but, as with the various associations here, there has been a lack of enthusiasm among our university men, and it has only been by the strength of feeling displayed by the Americans that affairs have advanced as far as they have. In two articles which have appeared in

this Review, I urged contests between joint teams under the direction of Yale, Harvard, and Princeton in America, and Oxford and Cambridge here. A Yale graduate set the ball rolling by asking in the Pall Mall Gazette if some advances could not be made towards the American universities by representatives of Oxford and Cambridge, so that some arrangements might be made by which the opportunity might be afforded to the winning eights to meet for a test of the relative skill of the American and Englishman in the use of the oar? By Yale, at least, he said, I feel confident any advance would be met with the same spirit in which it was made. The same idea might be carried out with reference to foot races, to football, tennis, and all games that are played in common. We should then be beginning to realise, without the aid of quasi-amateurs, that athletes may be turned into a strong federalising force. Negotiations for this purpose have been off and on for the last two or three years, both by correspondence and personal interviews, and now there is a real probability that Yale will meet the winner of the Oxford and Cambridge boat-race next year on the Thames. This is all very well for a beginning, but what ought to be managed is a regular meeting between the winners of the American inter-university matches and the winners of those at home, and, as I urged to the English university authorities at the beginning of this year, the inclusion also of the inter-university winners in Australia, extending in time to South Africa and Canada, and other English-speaking provinces.

It may not be generally known to the public that an attempt was made to bring off a great athletic gathering in England this autumn between the British universities and the American universities. The negotiations were conducted by the representatives of the InterCollegiate Association in America, who sent a challenge to Oxford and Cambridge, but this challenge was not communicated to the authorities of Dublin, or Durham, or Glasgow, or Edinburgh, and the other British universities. The Americans complain that there was misrepresentation, and that the spirit of exclusiveness withheld the Oxford and Cambridge men from communicating this challenge to the other universities. Anyway, the whole thing seems to have ended in a muddle, and instead of seeing all the British universities competing with the American universities in England, we shall see instead Cambridge in contest with Yale on American soil. The whole thing was mismanaged, but the American inter-collegiate authorities. are going to try again next year. It will be seen, then, by this further example, that the movement is progressing, though perhaps not with that uniformity of plan which an originator would desire, but nevertheless strongly, and with promise. I have no fear now of university sport. not becoming a strong federalising force, whatever doubts I may hold as to the ultimate shape which it may take.

In addition to this question of amateur and professional which