There is really a lot to be said for Babel,
particularly when all the exponents of their own tongues are exponents of the English language too. Quite the most interesting lecture school I have struck is in full swing at the moment at Cambridge, under the auspices of the Board of Extra-Mural Studies. The three hundred members, of both sexes, cover no fewer than twenty-eight 'different nations, and while in some cases these are represented by only one or two students,' countries like Sweden and Switzerland have sent something like fifty each. The course lasts for three weeks. Its purpose is to give the visitors some idea of almost all aspects of British life and institutions. University Professors or lecturers are the principal speakers, but Lord Schuster came down to address in particular a party of lawyers which forms a kind of inner core of the whole company. I was commandeered to talk about the British Press and the singularly variegated, interesting and, I should like to think, interested audience I found ranged in the Arts School amphitheatre before me gave every manifestation of comprehension and keenness. Questions at the end came in good volume, and I found they emanated, among others, from an Austrian, a Belgian, a Norwegian, a Dutchman, a Frenchman, a German and one or two others whom I failed to identify. • * * *
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