Aug. looked was the fact that when buying in the open market! brokerage had to be paid, which' was not the case when purchasing the new loan. The fact] that ninety-nine was the correct! price of issue has now been shown by the rapidity with which applications have been received for the half million taels which has just been subscribed.
Although official information is not available on the subject, reported by stock" brokers that no conspicuously heavy parcels of this stock have been taken up on the present! occasion. it was the absorption RECENT home papers describe, in some detail, a pageant of old English history held near the site of Runnymede where the Magna Charta of England's liberties was signed on June 15, 1215. This passion for reviving the scenes of a proud past doubtless due to the impetus given to the reproduction of old English Morris dances by the late Cecil Sharp and to the revival of folk lore and country songs that were only just rescued from the limbo of forgetfulness by the researches of a few enthusiasts who were unwilling that the brave past should e forgotten. un prohibited without permission. these days we are accustomed?
those who a few decades knew no, government out imperialism and who, when they. first learned the principles of democracy, had to invent language [terms ta describe the new thing that had swum into their ken. Tt is good that we should cast our minds back and remember [with gratitude those who more than eight hund¥ed years ago won for us privileges which are now being tardily assimilated by those who criticize us for being devoid of those ve1 principles of liberty' which we were the first to teach the world.
Let us glance for a moment fat the stipulations laid down in the people's charter wrung [from the unwilling hands of King John so many centuries ago. It was written, and the words may still be read in the venerable document, preserved with such care in the Britis Museum, that "justice no longer to be sold, denied or delayed." That "life, liberty and property were to be protected from spoliation and none was to be condemned to forfeit these but by the judgment of his peers." The fective guarantee of these rights constitutes democracy and rhe absence of them constitutes "imperialism" in the sense in which the word is used by our detractors in China today, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" and many times since the days of King John our fathers have had to gird themselves for battle and fight for the rights so hardly won at Runnymede. But the point to be remembered is that though the rights thus gained were often trampled on, they were never wholly lost. 'The song of those who won these liberties were always willing, at the peril of their lives, to reassert their rights and' it was this bull-dog tenacity that made England the refuge for the oppressed nationalities of Europe and sent our young manhood to die in Flanders when Belgian liberty was trodden under the Kaiser's heel in 1914.
How little these principles are understood by those in China who fondly think themselves the advanced champions of freedom may be shown from two instances. In October, 1925, Feng Vu-hsiang's troops seized Peking, deposed and imprisoned 'Tsao Kun, the President of the Republic.' Many charges were laid against him and for long his life seemed imminent danger. But he was never impeached; never formally brought to. trial and when he' was released, after the retreat of the Kuominchun, his character was not vindicated. We hold no brief for Tsao Kun and we know nothing at I about his innocence 0 otherwise. But the very founda-ion principle of democracy, as it was set forth in Magna Charta 800 years ago, was that "justice should not be sold, denied or delayed." A man arrested in any land, where even the rudiments of liberty are known, must be immediately charged with the crime for which he has been seized. He must be publicly brought to trial and faced with his accusers, And this whether he be prince or peasant, for the equality of democracy is not the equality of place or position or wealth or intellect but equality before the law. Charles I of England ud Louis XVI of France were each beheaded for crimes against the state—rightly or wrongly is not the question here—but they were publicly tried and the records of their trials may still be read by those who care to know ithe evidence on which they were sentenced. But the Chief HBxecutive of the Republic of China was thrown into prison
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.