'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia: About 1889-1890' [‎687r] (1394/1486)

May 10 , i 88 <).]
JOURAAL OF THE SOCIE'IV OF ARTS.
57 1
The Chairman said the diplomatic question
which had been raised by the last speaker hardly
came within the scope of the discussion. He was
aware that some gentlemen entertained strong views
upon it, but, after all, Persia was intimately connected
with European politics, and if the Imperial Govern
ment decided that it should remain with the
Foreign Office, as it had since 180 G, it was no use
asking that it should be placed in communication
with the Indian Government. He had to move a vote
of thanks to Sir R. Murdoch Smith, whose paper
had elicited as interesting a discussion as any he had
ever heard. The country was much indebted to
public-spirited Englishmen like Mr. Lynch and
Mr. George Mackenzie, who carried the national flag
into foreign countries, and he hoped that the paper
and the interesting speeches which had followed
would not be idle words, ending in nothing. All
Governments, Liberal and Conservative alike, were
weak and cowardly, and unless compelled to take
action by public opinion and the trading interests,
would do nothing. The Shah was about to visit
England, and he thought some of the gentlemen
present, with others of influence in the City,
might form an association which should invite
the Government, by arguments it could under
stand, to press on his Highness the desirability
of granting England such further concessions in
Southern Persia as might be necessary, including
a railway line between Shushter and Ispahan. There
was no time to be lost, only there should be due de
liberation as to the exact course to be taken. He re
fused to believe that the commercial spirit of England
had declined ; and even the Government, in reply to
hostile criticism, might justly say that they were
annexing new regions, and acquiring new posses
sions every year; and he did not think the nation was
quite so effete as some of their friends supposed.
Mr. Hyde-Clarke seconded the vote of thanks,
which was carried unanimously.
TWENTIETH ORDINARY
MEETING.
Wednesday, May 8 th, 1889 ; Geokge
Bullen, LL.D., Keeper of the Printed Books,
&C., in the British Museum, in the chair.
The following candidates were proposed for
election as members of the Society : —
Burmester, J. W. Stanley, 36 , Great James-street,
Bedford-row, W.C.
Chapman, Albert Barnes, 2 , Delrow-terrace, Buxton,
Derbyshire.
Gardner, Samuel, B.A., Spring-hill, Upper Clapton,
E.
Griffin, Samuel, Kingston Ironworks, Bath.
Higgs, William, Gas Works, Basingstoke.
Kenyon, Lord, Gredington, Whitchurch, Salop.
Smythies, Frederic Kynnersley, 52 , Ravensdale-
road, Stamford-hill, N.
Spencer, Richard, Holker-street, Barrow-in-Furness.
Tredegar, Lord, Tredegar-park, Newport, Mon.
Viney, Rev. Josiah, Alleyne-house, Caterham-
valley, Surrey.
The following candidates were balloted for
and duly elected members of the Society : —
Corbett, Thomas, 70 , Camdcn-road, N.W.
Dunn, William Haynes, 9 , Brownswood-park, Green-
lanes, N.
Naylor, Robert Anderton, Cuerden-hall, Thelwall,
Warrington.
Ram, Raizada Bhagat, Jallundhur, Panjab, India,
and 14 , Harley-gardens, W.
Saraswatee, Swamee Bhaskara Nand, Jodhpore,
India, and 319 , Fulham-road, S.W.
The paper read was —
THE ORIGIN AND MANUFACTURE OF
PLAYING CARDS.
By George Clulow, F.R.G.S.
The title of the lecture which has been
announced for this evening is “ The Origin
and Manufacture of Playing Cards.” It is
well that the subject has been limited to these
two divisions, because, to do them justice,
either would require far more time than it
is usual to give on such occasions as the
present ; while to attempt to treat playing
cards under all their aspects would in effect be
a history of the art of engraving, of the
mechanical art of printing, and of the social
manners of the people of Europe for the past
500 years.
Playing cards are now spread all over the
world, and form the amusement of not only the
cultured but of the so-calledbarbarous people of
almost all countries, from the Apachelndians—
who, at this day, use strips of sheepskin on
which they paint rude imitations of the Spanish
playing cards of 200 years ago—to the wily
Hindoo with his circular cards, and their series
of representations of the avatars of Vishnu, and
suit signs in which with those of the western
“tarot” there is still to be traced a common
origin. Where are cards not played ?
Wherever the European has penetrated there
cards have followed—often may be in the
knapsack of the soldier, cards following con
quest; but in spite of their universal adoption
as a means of recreation they are probably
more obscure in their origin than any other of
the games of which we have any written know
ledge, and they are a most curious and attrac-