On Wednesday Lord Balfour celebrated his eightieth birthday. On Tuesday
he was entertained at luncheon after the opening of the British Academy's new rooms. The Prince of Wales, in a happy speech, wished his " very wise and charming friend " many happy returns of his birthday—a wish that is supported by the nation. One's chief feeling is thankfulness that a mind so philo- sophical, so alert, and so intensely interesting should have been ungrudgingly at the service of the Empire all these years. Nothing has been alien to that devouring intellect, which has judged its contemporaries for many years, but has never judged arrogantly. Lord Balfour has indeed never fallen out of step with a changing and advancing world. The magnanimous sympathy of his policy at the Washington Convention and his perfect formula at the last Imperial Conference to describe the status of the Do- minions were things alive with real imagination, and place Lord Balfour in the short list of those whose youth is perennial. On Wednesday he received a motor car from his friends headed by the Prime Minister, Mr. Clynes and Mr. Lloyd George.
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