HOW THE ENGLISH REGARD THE AMERICANS.
LONDON, _July 10, 1902_.
There are many indications of a better understanding, and an increasing
confidence and regard between the two great English-speaking nations on
either side of the Atlantic. One such indication is the marked change
of tone on the part of English writers in their references to their
American cousins. The time was when, in British books and newspapers,
Americans were uniformly represented as coarse and loud. There are
still too many Americans, at home and abroad, who deserve to be so
described, but the old contemptuous tone towards Americans in general
is found only in an occasional writer who lives chiefly in the past.
For instance, Mr. Hare, the author of some of the best guide books for
reading people that have ever appeared, such as his _Walks in London_,
and his _Walks in Rome_, seems still to regard the average American
as the embodiment of bad taste and crass ignorance. In his book on
Florence, after speaking of various other hotels, and their picturesque
locations, he says, "Americans may possibly like the Savoy Hotel in the
horrible Piazza Vittorio Emanuele"; and in his book on Rome he says it
is depressing to hear Americans, when asked their opinion of the Venus
de Medici, say, "they guess they are not particularly gone on stone
gals." But Americans only smile as they read these things, remembering
that Hare is the same man who bewails the downfall of the papacy as a
temporal power, and who believes that the emancipation and unification
of Italy by Victor Immanuel was a calamity, notwithstanding the
steadily increasing prosperity of the people, and the steadily rising
financial credit of the nation, and notwithstanding the fact that every
unprejudiced observer acknowledges that the chief hindrance to still
more rapid progress is the swarm of fat priests and monks who still
infest Italy, and in the interest of the papacy oppose the new and
enlightened government at every turn.
[Sidenote: The English Admit that America Holds the Future.]
In short, Hare's view of the average American is now such an
anachronism as to entitle him fairly to be called a freak. He certainly
does not represent his countrymen of to-day in their view of the
spirit and culture of the American people. The usual tone of English
reference to them is not only not contemptuous, but respectful and
friendly, and in the case of the industrial and commercial enterprise
of the Americans there is even a tinge of fear in the tone in which
the English refer to them. For example, a very able and candid English
editor, in speaking of Mr. Andrew Carnegie's address as Rector of St.
Andrews University, last October, which he pronounces one of the most
remarkable addresses ever delivered in Great Britain, practically
admits that America has outstripped the mother country in this respect
at least. He says, "Mr. Carnegie is a personage. A man who has risen
from nothing to the summit of American finance is a man to be reckoned
with. Mr. Carnegie is also a Scotchman, and a devout lover of his
country. It is no pleasure to him to contemplate the decadence of
Great Britain. He is anxious to say the best he can for our country,
and yet the one thing to be noted in his address is his immense,
overpowering faith in America.... She has such resources, and is
increasing so rapidly that nothing can stand against her. Britain's
employers are wanting in energy and enterprise, and the employed think
too much of how little they need do, and too little of how much they
can do. Britain may maintain her present trade, but America will in
the lifetime of many people have a population equal to that of Europe
to-day, excluding Russia. America is not an armed camp, as Europe is.
It is one united whole at peace with itself, and enjoys immunity from
attack, while in machinery its position is far ahead of others....
That a man so shrewd, successful and experienced as Mr. Carnegie, and
so well disposed towards Britain, should have come reluctantly to the
conclusion that for Britain there is no future, and for America there
is the future of the world, is a fact of first-rate significance, and
we should like to see how he is to be answered." This is a remarkably
candid statement.
[Sidenote: English Candor and English Inconsistency.]
In my last letter I said that the English people now frankly
acknowledge that their forefathers were wrong in the war they waged
against the American colonies, and openly rejoice in the victory
achieved by Washington and his associates on behalf of the principle of
no taxation without representation, and I referred in closing to what
seems to be a strange inconsistency on the part of many of the English
people in upholding a policy at the present time, which involves a
violation of the same principle. The thing referred to was the new
Education Bill, perfidiously introduced into Parliament by the Tory
party, at the instigation of certain leaders of the Anglican Church,
at a time when that party had an overwhelming majority in the House of
Commons, a majority given it by the country for the specific purpose
of bringing the war in South Africa to a speedy and successful close,
and when the electors never dreamed of that majority being used to
promote sectarianism, and to oppress the consciences of a great body
of the people. The object of the bill is to tax the whole population
of England for the support of schools which are controlled, not by the
people, but by the ritualistic clergy of the Anglican Church, or, as an
evangelical clergyman of that church himself puts it, the intention of
the measure is "to hand the education of the coming generations over to
the Romanizing priesthood of the Anglican Church." The mere suggestion
of public support without public control ought to rouse the indignation
of a free people. But the bill proposes a worse thing even than this,
so far as the Nonconformists are concerned, for they are not only to be
asked to pay for the support of a religion they do not believe in, but
also to hand over their children to its teachers, in order that they
may be perverted. In other words, they are to be asked to pay for the
destruction of their own religion.
However apathetic some Englishmen may be in the face of such proposals,
that is the sort of thing that never fails to rouse liberty-loving
Scotland, and so, along with the earnest denunciations of the bill by
various organizations of English Free Churchmen, it has been heartily
condemned by all the great religious bodies of Scotland.
[Sidenote: Scotchmen and the Education Bill.]
_Saint Andrew_, as the weekly organ of the Church of Scotland is
called, says as to the origin, spirit and purpose of the measure,
"There is no real meaning in calling the party in the English Church,
which is at present the most indefatigable, the 'High Church' party.
The party is Romanist, pure and simple; and it is devoting itself to
the uprooting of the Protestantism of the young people of England....
Can we wonder at the intelligent Nonconformist revolting against
his children being brought under the fatally sinister influence
here referred to, and knowing the close connection between church
and school, resolving that he will resist, with all his might, the
perpetuation of a system in which general control of the public schools
shall be in the hands of men who openly inculcate the doctrine of the
corporeal presence, baptismal regeneration, prayers for the dead,
the duty of confession, adoration of the cross; and who beguile the
children of their schools to attend 'the sacrifice of the mass,' with
the incense and candles, and all the other paraphernalia under which
they have disguised the Lord's Supper?"
The folly of the Anglicans in this matter will hasten the fall of the
Established Church of England. And in any case the Nonconformists
will not have long to wait, for they are steadily and rapidly gaining
ground. In 1700 Dissenters were, in comparison with Churchmen, one
to twenty-two, in 1800, one to eight, and in 1900, one to one. That
shows that the day is not distant when real religious liberty shall
be established in England, and all such bigoted legislation as this
present Education Bill shall be swept from her statute books. Meantime,
it is certain that it will go on the books, notwithstanding its glaring
injustice. There is not a doubt that Mr. Balfour's government will push
the measure through, by means of the votes of its great war majority.
The consequence will be that thousands of Nonconformists will refuse
to pay the rates, then the King's officers will seize and sell some
of their property, and perhaps numbers of them will see the inside of
prison walls before all is over. But they will make history in England.
For, when men are sold out and imprisoned for the sake of conscience
and religious liberty and a historic English principle, viz., that of
public control of public funds--when these things occur, an idea will
begin to penetrate to the average English mind, the English sense of
fair play will be roused, and the English zeal for liberty kindled
anew, to say nothing of the English instinct of self-preservation--and
then the day of reckoning will have come.