AAA Coming of Age Dinner

with you. ' (Renewed laughter). There isa good deal of feeling in the House of Lords of that kind, but it is, as Lindley Murray says, 'not expressed but understood. ' We are all delighted that our Chairman to-night retains those three conditions of an athlete—weight , size and velocity. Now, he is an example of how great natural ability might be improved and strengthened by sensible training of an athletic character (hear, hear). Now, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I am not going to detain you any longer, but I thank you heartily on behalf of myself and. the other visitors for the privilege you have given us of being here to-night , and I am sensible, more than ever sensible, of the great work you are doing, not only amongst yourselves, biunt putting the sports and athletics of this country ona high plane, and sending them in the right direction. For it is quite possible for sports, without care, to degenerate into mere betting and not to have at all nice surroundingsO. ne of the principles this Association is doing, is, inmy mind, toprevent sports andathletics from descending into that arena. Gentlemen, I thank you very heartily on behalf of the visitorsfor the extremely pleasant anidnteresting Meeting we have had to-night , and I hope that the prosperity of this Associationwill be maintained and increased, and that when the time comes that you celebrate your fiftiethanniversary you will find yourselves as strong and flourishing as you arenow." (Loud cheers.) TOAST : " THE CHA I RMAN . " MR . GUY PYM : " Gentlemen, thegreat danger of a speaker at the end of the dinneirs that the Toast which hehas to proposehas been stolen by somebody else. Now, gentlemen, that applieesspecially to this dinner, because Inoticed to-night , andit was a very naturalconsequence of the old friend whomyou had in the chair, that everybody testifiemdore o r l e s s t o h i s e x c e l l e n c y . Wh e n my R t .Ho n . f r i e n d , Mr . J ESSECOLL I NGS , was making thatadmirable speech, Inoticed also with a tremor that he was beginning to trench on thgeround which it is my particular pleasure to-night to lay before you.But the subject is so largaen, d isso interesting to every athlete throughout thKeingdom,—that is, theToast ofthe Lord Chief Justice of Englandin connection with our athleticSocieties,—that I think there is agreat deal to be said even wief talked for twoor threehours on the subject (hear, hear). Now, what struckme to-night especiallywas the marvellous memory which our Chairman hHase. has hadnow some­ thing like thirty-five—we wont say forty, we limit ourselves thtiorty-five— years' experience andknowledge of athletics in England, andhe can go back to the inception of the AmateuArthletic Society; he can go back to the athletic movement in the Universities and the athletic movement in London, and he does not seemto have forgotten one singleincident which happened during that remote period. He told us, amongst other things, that he hoped someone would writea book describing those incidents in the early history ofthe athletic movementin England. Well , I think the person that should write thabtook is the LordChief Justice himself (hear, hear). I do not know anyone who would make a more interesting or a more