The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-10-04
COURTESY AND GOOD MANNERS
LORD RosEBERY DECLARES THAT
GOOD MANNERS ARE BASED ON
CHARITY AND ARE A SIGN OF
SELF-RESPECT- DEPLORES
THE DECAY OF COURTESY ALL
OVER THE WORLD.

OVEH LIE WOnEDs
In distributing the prizes at the
Royal Grammar School, Guildford,
England, recently, Lord Rosebery gave
a characteristic speech on good man
ners to the boys.
After abiding to the studies pursued
at the school, and expressing regret
that it had been. found necessary to
drop German and shorthand most
valuable commercial commodity that
the boy could possess, he wanted, he
said, to refer to a point in the statutes
which were framed 200 years ago. 1t
was point which was rather left out
of sight on these occasions, but which,
he believed, required much more at
tention than was usually paid to it.
The statutes said absence from church
or like assemblies without just cause
must be punished. Honesty and clean
liness of life, genuinely decent speech,
humility, courtesy and good manners,
were to be established by all good
means. Now the point 1 wish to
elaborate for the moment" proceeded
Lord Rosebery, is that of courtesy
that has been seen by one of the great
saints of the educational calendar, Will
liam of Wykeham, the founder of Win
chester and of New College, Oxford.
But, at any rate, it is we'll for us in
this twentieth century to know the
emphasis laid by your founders on
courtesy and good manners.
'Why did these men of the early
seventeenth century emphasize courte-
sy and good manners? l take it for
two reasons-first, that they were
models of courtesy and good manners
themselves The men of the seven
teenth century were, l suspect, the
greatest breed of Englishmen that
England has ever produced, partly be-
cause they possessed good manners
themselves, and partly because they
realized the enormous Importance of
courtesy and good manners in the
common transactions of life. Now, we
English people, and, / am afraid, still
more, we Scotch people, have never
been famous for good manners.
think at one time there was sort of
John Bull feeling in England that
good manners were a device for dane
ing, frog-eating Frenchman, whom it
was our duty to despise and defeat
But that was a false view. Good man.
ners are the spirit of charity towards
your fellow-men, part of your duty
| to your neighbors, but also sign of
self-respect. A man who respects him.
self is always well-mannered to others
Now, I wish to say something to
you If / knew this school Familiarity,
should not say it, because might
be thought to be speaking at you
instead of speaking to you, but think
that we distributors, when we visit
schools, are very apt to judge the
character of school by the respect
the boys pay to their masters If you
go to school where the boys do not
touch their hats to their master when
they meet him, we form, perhaps err
roneously, poorer opinion of that
school Well, what is it we mean
ter? Don't we mean that he is the
head of the community, and that
therefore, as the head of our commun-
tty, we are paying ourselves a tribute
by exalting him? Take the case of
the king. When the king goes through
the streets, if we are fortunate enough
to see him, we take off our hats to
him. 1t is mark of respect to him
in the first place, but, in the second
place, it is mark of respect to our
selves. But that we show our ven
Grafton for the head of the community
to which we belong, and in that way
to the community itself of which we
are part.
Il think there has been decay of
manners in England and Scotland and
all over the world. 1t is not limited
to our own people by any means
You see it on the Continent just as
much. But depend upon it, it is a
bad sign. If people have not the spirit
of reverence themselves, even if it
be only an outward reverence, they
are not going the right way. but pos
sibly going the wrong.
Now, I would like to appeal to the
elders for q moment apart from the
boys, and ask them if they will not
corroborate what | am going to say.
Manners have an enormous CONNER