The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-31

SlIi, OH ucl OWH, III I<ol- l&46lA don, wholly unknown and practically penniless, but with big ambitions to make the tongue and the literature of her native land better known and more widely appreciated in the land of her adoption, calmly deciding, one day, to found a French institute in the me- tropolis of the world,
 Then consider this Institute fin be- 1ng, and, after four years of always progressive history not only an insti- tute but institution and of such in- ternational importance as to be visited, as matter of course, by the President of the French republic, when he is on even the briefest of visits to London. It has a subsidy from the French government enjoys affiliation with one of the great est of French universities. has a princess of the royal blood as its chief patron, numbers among it's 50O-odd members soma of the greatest names in England, and commands the services of many of the most distinguished men and women in the literature. the science, the art, and the drama of France.
 In those two paragraphs you have the achievement of as remarkable woman her position demands the word though she still is on the more desirable side of 25-as could be found in London to- day, in the petite ana altogether charm lHS peTSOH or Mie. MdT1e U Ofl1aC, the original founder and today the vice prin- cipal of the Institute Francais du Roy aume-Uni, of which her Royal Highness Princess Christian of Schleswig- Holstein Is patron, and His Excellence M. Paul Cambon, ambassador of France, is presi- dent, and which inhabi,s Marble Arch House, a mansion that overlooks Hyde Park at the corner Of the Bayswater and the Edgware roads, and that despite the fact that it is considerably more extensive than most London residences, has become all too limited in space for the ,ever-growing institution which it houses.
 To the grande monde of the metropolis, Marble Arch House Is temple of French culture while to both the English stu- dent of French. and the humble French 'commercial'' in London. it represents scarcely less than an alma mater. but probably few out of the hundreds of thousands of Londoners who pass by in motor cars, in carriages in omnibuses and taxis and on foot have notion of how real "coin de France" is this now too small mansion of many rooms which is the property of one of the best known and most respected of British judges.
 Here daily lectures are given by ex. perts on various branches of French literature and thought which are at sSfiNSN py u HOSl or SOcletX gTand0 danes and here daily lessons in French are given and conversaziones and cau- series held which appeal. not only to the ordinary student but to the jeune files Of society who have lately returned from schools on the continent and are eager to keep up their French, and here. too training for French university degrees is given as we'll as instruction to young French men and women who have crossed the channel to enter the commercial life of London, and for whom homes are found here if they so desire. More im- portant still, the institute at regular in tervals. invites men ana women of world wide fame to lecture to it's members among those who have done so already being M Jean Richepin. the poet and dramatist; M. Bergson, the eminent phil. osopher; RerlA Bazin and MarceIle Tin ayre. the novelists. and Mile. Miropolsky. the renowned woman avocat, while an at- traction of the near future is Madame Maurice Maeterinck, the actress wife of the famous Belgian author. Twice by the bye. has death prevented a famous French leader of thought from address, ing the institutes members, for M. Call