PRECAUTIONS AGAINST lab, STORM.
[To TIE EOM& OF TYl " Qrevr►roa."]
Sia,—A.s a life-member of the English-Speaking Union, I was pleased to read the kindly letter of Professor Jared S. Moore, of Western Reserve University, in your current issue. Will you be good enough to lot me add one word in praise of its quiet but very effective predecessor, the Atlantic Union? The Atlantic Union is now officially Incorporated with the English- Speaking Union, and a large percentage of its members passed to the new organization and are participating in its activities, on the various committees and in other ways.
The Union was formed by Sir Walter Resent in 1897, after a visit he paid to America, when he was impressed by the lack of what one may call inside or intimate knowledge of England displayed there. Those of your readers who have seen Sir Walter Besant's Autobiography may remember that a chapter in that book is devoted to the founding and progress of the Atlantic Union. For twenty years the Union worked steadily, increasing its membership not by advertisement but by the introduction of new members by old members, the soundest kind of increase possible. It always maintained the intimate nature upon 'which Sir Walter Besant had laid emphasis, and it gave its American members an entrole into English homes, which was quite unique. To give one or two instances only members were entertained personally by the late Marquis of Northampton at his beautiful home, Compton Winyates; the Dean of Winchester not only showed hie visitors round the Cathedral but gave them tea in his lovely English garden beneath its shadow, where, RS enthusiastic ladies exclaimed, they felt 'they must be characters in Trollope. And, all the year through, Members of Parliament who were also members of the Atlantic Union entertained parties, not so large as to be impersonal, on the Terrace or in the tea-rooms. Nor must it -be forgotten, Mr. Editor, that you yourself were amongst the earliest and most staunch supporters of this work, both as a member of the Council of the Union and as a kind and generous host.
In view of the anti-American prejudice which meets one 01. every side, and which is all the more appalling because in most cases it is so ill-informed, the years of quiet but influen- tial work effected by the Atlantic Union seem now to have been not only of interest and value but of vital importance, and in appreciating the work of the English-Speaking Union, it must be recognized that it has to some extent entered upon the labours of the older society.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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