Oii Monday the Prime Minister received the freedom of the
burgh of Kirkcaldy. Speaking of the British tradition of public service, he said :—" If this work is to reach its highest level, there are, I think you will agree with me, two conditions to success. In the first place, the best men and women in the community must be ready and willing to take their part in it. This has not always been the case. Many of us can remember times and places when the relatively humble and unadvertised labours of the Town Councillor or of the Poor Law adminis- trator were thought to be unworthy of men of intellect, and of what is called position. Happily, that is now an obsolete
opinion The other condition to which I would refer in a sound and strenuous municipal life is the maintenance of a vivid and, I may add, vigilant public interest. All the scandals which have disfigured the annals of municipal history in this and in other countries are due either to the absence or to the temporary withdrawal of these restraining, stimulating, and purifying influences." Mr. Asquith very justly condemned the easy habit of scoffing at those who think "the rustic cackle of their burgh the murmur of the world." In many senses the " cacklers " can hardly err by exaggeration. In large towns, at least, sound municipal work makes more difference to the pockets and comfort of the citizens than nearly all the Acts of Parliament in existence.
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