THE INHERENT NATURAL REASONS OR SYMPATHETIC CAUSES WHICH SUSTAIN
A UNION, AND WHICH SUPPORT THE HISTORICAL GROWTH AND TENDENCY TO
THE SAME END EXAMINED
I RECUR again to the resolution of the Anglo-American League:
"_Considering that the people of the British Empire and of the
United States of America are closely allied in blood, inherit
the same literature and laws, hold the same principles of
self-government, recognise the same ideals of freedom and
humanity in the guidance of their national policy, and are drawn
together by strong common interests in many parts of the world_,
this meeting is of the opinion that every effort should be made
in the interest of civilisation and peace to secure the most
cordial and constant co-operation between the two nations."
An inquiry into the practicability of forming a more perfect
union between the English-speaking people involves the
consideration, first, of their _internal_ relations; and,
second, their _external_ relations to the other nations of the
world.
What are the motives, influences, and causes which operate to
induce the English-speaking {100} nations and colonies to form a
closer union than that which now exists between them?
Of what real advantage is interfusion-brotherhood--union?
I shall endeavour to take up the subjects in their natural
order:
I.--UNION NATURAL AS TO TIME AND PEOPLE
In the first place, then, the union is a _natural_ one, both as
to the time of its taking effect, and as to the people embraced
in it.
In respect to the _time_: the question of a union has not been
forced upon the race or dragged into public light at an unseemly
period by the artificial influences of diplomacy or official
negotiation. It has come before the people in a perfectly
natural way--unexpectedly, and unaccompanied by any strained or
superficial influence. It is the inevitable result of primary
and natural causes, which have been ripening and developing,
noiselessly and slowly, to this end. In a word, it is an
evolution.
Passing from the question of time, the union of the Anglo-Saxon
people is a _natural_ one. It is an alliance of nations of one
"clime, complexion, and degree,
Whereto we see in all things nature tends."
It is not a union between nations speaking different languages,
possessing different characteristics, laws, sympathies, or
religious, moral, or political institutions. It is not a union
between the English and {101} Chinese, or the American and
Japanese. It is not discordant, grating upon the senses or
feelings--unnatural. Nor is it an alliance for temporary
purposes and gains, or for purely selfish motives or interests,
or for offence or defence. Neither, on the other hand, is it a
union of mere sentiment, a dangerous quality except when under
the control of reason both in nations and individuals. It is a
union which has become necessary in order to fulfil the destiny
of the race--it is as natural as marriage between man and woman.
It consummates the purposes of the creation of the race.
II.--OF THE SAME NATIONAL FAMILY
What are the different elements which constitute, or make up a
natural alliance?
We belong to the same _national family_.
It is true that we do not live in the same land, but are more or
less scattered over the world.
It is also true that we do not exist under the same form of
political government. We are, nevertheless, one family,
descended from the same stock, and attached to each other by the
inseparable chain of political, religious, and moral sympathies.
We are inspired by the same conceptions of truth, justice, and
right. We are living separately, as families live apart who are
too great, or too numerous, to exist under the same roof; or who
have separated to extend or enlarge their wealth, influence, and
power; and we have scattered ourselves over the face of the
globe, faithfully carrying {102} with us all the original ideas
and sentiments which we imbibed from the mother bosom.
I give first place to this element of family nationality when
inquiring into the natural conditions which impel a union
between the English-speaking people. England is the mother
country; the United States, Canada, Australia, and the other
colonies are her legitimate offspring. We are direct descendants
of England. We, citizens of the United States, are her greatest
and most direct offspring. When we separated from her, we took
her language, her laws, her morals, her religion, her
literature, with us; in fact, we left nothing of value behind
us. In a word, we are so strongly marked with her lineaments,
that it is impossible, if we wished, to deny her maternity. No
matter whom our remote ancestors were previous thereto, it is
certain that since the time of Alfred, we have a direct and
uncontrovertible lineage. Our national pedigree from that epoch
can be clearly, even vividly traced. But however interesting in
other connections, I see no good or profit to be derived from
entering into ethnological or philological discussions as to who
constituted our direct or remote ancestors, or to spend time in
tracing the origin and course of our language. Neither is it
worth while to advert to the contention, that there can be no
English-American alliance while we have among us so large an
infusion of a nondescript foreign element. The same reasoning
could have been equally applied to the union between England and
Scotland. Such blending gives force to {103} the contention in
favour of the mission of the dominant stock race, abroad and at
home. The reasons for an alliance do not rest upon a correct or
technical decision of these points. It is an undeniable fact,
that previous to the reign of William the Conqueror, and for a
limited time thereafter, the English nation was composed of
heterogeneous elements, and that a great admixture of foreign
blood was injected into the veins of her people. In truth, the
vigour, character, and virtue of the English nation is largely
attributable to the influences which this admixture of outside
and alien blood has had upon it. To-day she opens her doors to
foreign immigration with fewer restrictions than we do. The
nations which have erected a barrier against the outside world,
refusing to mix or mingle with strangers and foreigners, have
sunk into final decay or ruin. Admixture of blood, within due
limits, is an indispensable element to a strong, lasting,
vigorous, national life. It is, besides, one of the duties
imposed upon the highest civilisation, and necessary to its
diffusion.
"The narrow policy of preserving, without any foreign mixture,
the pure blood of the ancient citizens, had checked the fortune
and hastened the ruin of Athens and Sparta. The aspiring genius
of Rome sacrificed vanity to ambition and deemed it more prudent
as well as honourable to adopt virtue and merit for her own,
wheresoever they were found, among slaves or strangers, enemies
or barbarians."[1]
In respect to the United States of America, it has been well and
often said that her population is {104} largely made up of
foreign elements, and that she is in this respect the most
heterogeneous of all nations. The remarkable fact, however, is
that this foreign element disappears, almost like magic, in the
bosom of American nationality, and assimilates itself almost
immediately with the laws, habits, manners, and conditions of
the country. The foreigners who have immigrated to this country,
and embraced, through the naturalisation laws, American
citizenship, have come here, for the most part, to make this
their permanent abode. In assuming this citizenship, their
foreign prejudices, thoughts, and habits have become absorbed in
their new political life and duties. As rain, falling upon banks
of sand, leaves no trace of its existence, so these foreigners,
swallowed up in the immense and busy life of this country, soon
pass unnoticed and undistinguished, into the walks of American
citizenship. This great faculty of absorbing and assimilating
the heterogeneous and foreign admixture of blood, contributes to
the wonderful success of the American Republic. All that remains
of the foreigner's country, after he becomes naturalised, is a
memory of the past. In one or another harmless form, through
social, fraternal, musical, and other societies, he keeps alive
the sentiments of his childhood and youth, and reproduces the
images of old homes and old friendships. But his new political
and social convictions are as fixed and immovable as rocks.
The loyalty of these new citizens to existing republican
institutions is fervid and genuine, and {105} once here, there
is no effort on their part to introduce or propagate the
political habits of thought, or the institutions, of their
mother country. They are not only content with the liberty and
political conditions which prevail; but they become the most
ardent supporters and advocates of our Democracy. In comparison
to the number of immigrants who reach our shores, few of them,
as I have said, ever permanently return to their own countries.
But notwithstanding the great mass of foreigners who help to
make up our population, it is very evident that the
predominating element of the country traces its ancestry back to
the British Isles; that there is more of her blood in the veins
of Americans than that of all other nations combined.
Illustrations of the strength of this remark can be found in all
the walks of the political, civic, military, naval, religious,
scientific, commercial, and literary life, of the people. What
is it but another triumph of the race and its civilisation? It
is not without interest to trace the ancestry of our Presidents,
and of some of our prominent statesmen, military and naval
officers, financiers, merchants, writers, and scholars. The
latter classes I have picked out at haphazard--without invidious
distinction.
PRESIDENTS
1. GEORGE WASHINGTON.....English.
2. JOHN ADAMS............English.
3. THOMAS JEFFERSON......English.
4. JAMES MADISON.........English.
5. JAMES MONROE..........Scotch.
6. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.....English.
{106}
7. ANDREW JACKSON........Irish, of probably Scotch descent.
8. MARTIN VAN BUREN......Dutch.
9. W. H. HARRISON........English.
10. JOHN TYLER...........English.
11. JAMES K. POLK........Irish.
12. ZACHARY TAYLOR.......English.
13. MILLARD FILLMORE.....English.
14. FRANKLIN PIERCE......English.
15. JAMES BUCHANAN.......Scotch-Irish.
16. ABRAHAM LINCOLN......English, probably.
17. ANDREW JOHNSON.......English, probably.
18. U. S. GRANT..........Scotch.
19. JAMES A. GARFIELD....English.
20. CHESTER A. ARTHUR....English.
21. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES..Scotch.
22. GROVER CLEVELAND.....English.
23. BENJAMIN HARRISON....English.
24. WILLIAM McKINLEY.....Scotch-Irish.
25. THEODORE ROOSEVELT...Dutch-Irish-Scotch.
STATESMEN
1. DANIEL WEBSTER........English.
2. HENRY CLAY............English.
3. JOHN C. CALHOUN.......Scotch-Irish
4. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.....English.
5. SAMUEL ADAMS..........English.
6. PATRICK HENRY.........Father-Scotch descent. Mother- English
descent.
7. JOHN RANDOLPH.........English (some accounts say Scotch).
8. SALMON P. CHASE.......English.
9. WILLIAM H. SEWARD.....Father--Welsh descent. Mother--Irish
descent.
10. CHARLES SUMNER.......English.
11. JEFFERSON DAVIS......Father--Welsh descent.
Mother--Scotch-Irish descent.
{107}
JURISTS
1. JOHN MARSHALL.........Welsh.
2. JOHN JAY..............Father--French descent.
3. OLIVER ELLSWORTH......English.
4. JAMES KENT............English.
5. JOSEPH STORY..........English.
6. ROGER BROOKE TANEY....English.
7. WILLIAM M. EVARTS.....English.
8. RUFUS CHOATE..........English.
9. SAMUEL J. TILDEN......English.
SOLDIERS
I. NATHANAEL GREENE......English.
2. WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN..English.
3. WINFIELD SCOTT........Scotch.
4. PHILIP H. SHERIDAN....Personal memoirs (autobiography) says
parents were born and reared in Ireland.
5. ROBERT EDWARD LEE.....English.
6. THOMAS JONATHAN JACKSON..Scotch-Irish. (STONEWALL)
7. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON....Scotch.
8. GEORGE HENRY THOMAS...Father--Welsh descent. Mother--French
Huguenot descent.
9. NELSON A. MILES.......Father--Welsh descent.
SAILORS
1. EDWARD PREBLE.........English.
2. OLIVER H. PERRY.......English.
3. ANDREW HULL FOOTE.....English.
4. WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE....English.
5. DAVID GLASCOE FARRAGUT..Father--Spanish descent.
Mother--Scotch descent.
6. STEPHEN H. DECATUR....French descent.
7. RAPHAEL SEMMES........French descent.
8. GEORGE DEWEY..........English descent.
{108}
FINANCIERS
1. ROBERT MORRIS.........English.
2. ALEXANDER HAMILTON....Scotch descent.
3. ALBERT GALLATIN.......He was descended from an ancient
patrician family of Switzerland.
4. J. PIERPONT MORGAN....Father--Welsh descent. Mother--English
descent.
WRITERS AND SCHOLARS
1. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL..His stock was distinctly of English
origin.
2. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES..Dutch and Puritan ancestry.
3. EDGAR ALLAN POE........From his father he inherited Italian,
French, and Irish blood. His mother, Elizabeth Arnold, was
purely English.
4. HENRY W. LONGFELLOW....English descent.
5. RALPH WALDO EMERSON....English descent.
6. JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER..He was of Quaker and Huguenot
descent.
7. WASHINGTON IRVING......Scotch descent.
8. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE....English descent.
III.--THE SAME LANGUAGE
I now come to consider the _third_ element which goes to make up
the _natural_ character of the alliance.
We have the same language. The inhabitants of the United States
of America, and of Great Britain, not only speak the same
language, but it is their _native_ tongue. How can we overrate
in this respect the enormous value of a common language--an
{109} influence which, according to the use made of it, may be
either healing and remedial, unifying and progressive--the
source of all that is most beneficial and delightful, or else
jarring, discordant, retroactive, and pernicious. Ought it ever
to be forgotten that to the mother country belongs the glory of
originating and forming this great language?
It is one thing to speak and understand a language; but it is
quite a different thing to have inherited it, to have been born
with it; or even to have acquired it, as a necessary concomitant
and auxiliary to citizenship. One may acquire a language as a
traveller, linguist, or as an accomplishment; or from the
temporary necessity of office, occupation, or livelihood; but
language acquired, for either of these latter purposes, no
matter how perfectly, is merely formal and incident to
education, and creates no sentiment of country, home,
patriotism, or national pride. An Englishman speaking French, or
a Frenchman speaking English, has no sympathy with the customs,
laws, manners, morals, legends, literature, or drama of the
foreign country beyond the acquired one of scholarship. The
range, influence, and effect of the native tongue, however, is
that of the air. We cannot see it or touch it. We cannot
transcribe, or limit, its scope or power. We only know that it
was born with us; that it is our constant, ever-present
companion. It is with us in our sleep, in our dreams. It is
omniscient, and omnipresent. It is a heritage that no time,
influence, or condition can take away {110} from us. He who
would describe the influence and importance of language upon
those who are born with it, must be able to encompass the air
which we breathe, and say what are its limits and effects upon
human life.
The intercommunication of ideas between people who use the same
native tongue is a source of pleasure and joy, of pain and
sorrow, of love and hatred. It brings to the surface from the
innermost depths of the soul, from the hidden recesses of the
mind, the sensations of home and country. It draws from the
perennial and inexhaustible fountains of memory, genius, and
inspiration the mysterious accumulations of thought harboured
there, and sends them floating through the world to distinguish
men from beasts. In some languages the same word expresses both
speech and reason, and therefore conveys the distinctive idea of
man.
The sands of the seashore, the drops of the ocean, are few when
compared to the mighty current of words which are poured into
the world by millions upon millions of human tongues. It is the
tie of a common language which indefinably and inexpressibly
knits together all those who have inherited it. "The tie of
language is perhaps the strongest and most desirable that can
unite mankind."[2] The English language is a synonym of English
thought, passion, pleasure, pain, suffering. It expresses all
our intimate and fundamental ideas of law, religion and
politics. It means home, {111} parents, relatives, and friends.
It conveys to the mind all the hopes, wishes, aspirations, and
emotions of the English-speaking races.
When an Englishman and an American meet, no matter how casually,
their common tongue furnishes, immediately, a means of
communication which makes them "Native to the manner born." A
few spoken words, a few lines of correspondence, open up, if
need be, the whole life of each nation: its politics, its forms
and principles of justice, its religion, its domestic interests
and feelings, its science, its drama, its literature, its past,
present, and future. It establishes a sympathy and bond in all
common things. If they discuss a question of municipal law, they
know without explanation the principles and proceedings
applicable to it. If literature, they immediately refer to some
common standard. Details are understood and employed without
comment or explanation. Their common sympathies, their common
methods of thought, their common judgments, are substantially
the same. They may differ in form of expression and thought, and
in other superficial outward methods, but ideas of the
principles of a free constitutional government, of justice,
right, truth, liberty, and religion, are cast in the same
uniform mould in English and American breasts. If confronted
with one of another race, their language in these respects would
at once evince their common origin. Despite individual prejudice
and personal dislikes, there is a substantial groundwork of
sympathy between an American and an Englishman as to what is
fundamentally {112} right and wrong, and as to how the right
should be asserted and the wrong redressed and punished, even to
the minutest degree of assimilation or repugnancy. And this is
so, even where there may be a difference of opinion as to the
merits of the immediate subject of controversy.
An Englishman and a Frenchman, meeting for the first time,
although capable of expressing themselves in one or both
languages, have no common ideas or sympathy in questions of law,
religion, politics, history, or literature. Such questions, even
among cultivated people, are only treated of in the abstract.
One word, which would open a fountain of sympathy between
Englishmen and Americans when speaking to each other; would be a
dry well of thought to a Frenchman, German, or Russian,
involving long and intricate explanations, even where there was
more than average intelligence and knowledge on both sides. That
indefinable and untranslatable perception of English and
American manners, customs, and tastes--which, Mr. Burke says,
are stronger than laws--can never be conveyed or understood
except by the native English tongue, to a native Englishman or
American.
It is impossible to enhance the importance of this uniformity of
language, in holding the race together and in rendering the
genius of its most favoured members available for the
civilisation of all.
As Mr. Grote says of the Greeks,[3] "Except in {113} the rarest
cases, the divergences of dialect were not such as to prevent
every Greek from understanding and being understood by every
other Greek." Language, therefore, made in all its widely spread
settlements the bond and badge of the Greek race. Without it,
other instrumentalities of co-operation, such as religion, would
not have been available.
It is due to their common language that all the Greeks come to
us as one people; yet Homer was Scian; Anacreon, Teian; Pindar,
Bœotian; Sappho and Alcreus, Lesbian; Herodotus, Carian;
Aristotle, Stageirean. Language dissolved all differences
between them. Notwithstanding the invincible political obstacles
which kept them apart, by virtue of language, they all gloried
in the name of Hellas, and eagerly disputed who was best
entitled to that name, and who had best illustrated its
greatness. A stimulating and fruitful rivalry!
The same thought is elaborated in other relations by Professor
Freeman.[4]
"Primarily, I say, as a rule, but a rule subject to exceptions,
as a prima facie standard, subject to special reasons to the
contrary, we _define the nation by language_. We may at least
apply the test negatively. It would be unsafe to rule that all
speakers of the same language must have a common nationality;
but we may safely say that when there is not community of
language there is no common nationality in the highest sense. It
is true that without community of language there may be an
artificial nationality, a nationality which may be good for
political purposes, and which may engender a common national
feeling. Still this is not quite the same thing as that {114}
fuller national unity which is felt where there is community of
language. In fact, mankind instinctively takes language as the
badge of nationality."
Pursuing the thought and reverting to the Greeks, I am tempted
to take an example from Herodotus of what Athens could do in her
nobler moods. Secretly dreading her power of resistance after
Marathon and Salamis, but after all Attica had been overrun and
devastated, Mardonius sought to detach her from the alliance of
those communities which still remained faithful to the common
cause. Fearful that the bribes and flatteries of the Persian
might prevail, Sparta sent her ambassadors who met at the same
moment with those of Mardonius, and their respective interests
were openly debated in the presence of Athenians. After hearing
both, the Athenians replied, first to the Persians, or their
representative ally, Alexander of Macedon:
"We know as well as thou dost that the power of the Mede is many
times greater than our own; we did not need to have that cast in
our teeth. Nevertheless we cling so to freedom that we shall
offer what resistance we may. Seek not to persuade us into
making terms with the barbarians; say what thou wilt, thou wilt
never gain our assent. Return rather at once and tell Mardonius
that our answer to him is this: So long as the sun keeps his
present course we will never join alliance with Xerxes. Nay, we
shall oppose him unceasingly, trusting in the aid of those gods
and heroes whom he has lightly esteemed, whose houses and whose
images he has burnt with fire. And come not thou again to us
with words like these, nor, thinking to do us a service,
persuade us to unholy actions. Thou art the guest and friend of
our nation; we would not that thou shouldst receive hurt at our
hands."[5]
{115}
And then, turning to the Spartans, they went on as follows:
"That the Lacedemonians should fear lest we should make terms
with the barbarian was very natural; yet, knowing as you do the
mind of Athenians, you appear to entertain an unworthy dread,
for there is neither so much gold anywhere in the world, nor a
country so pre-eminent in beauty and fertility by receiving
which we should be willing to side with the Mede and enslave
Greece. For there are many and powerful considerations that
forbid us to do so, even if we were inclined. First and chief,
the images and dwellings of the gods, burnt and laid in ruins:
this we must needs avenge to the utmost of our power rather than
make terms with the man who has perpetrated such deeds.
Secondly, the Grecian race being of the _same blood and the same
language_ and the temples of the gods and sacrifices in common,
and our customs being similar--for the Athenians to become
betrayers of these would not be well. Know, therefore, if you
did not know it before, that so long as one Athenian is left
alive, we will never make terms with Xerxes. Your forethought,
however, which you manifest towards us, we admire, in that you
offer to provide for us whose property is thus ruined, so as to
be willing to support our families, and you have fulfilled the
duties of benevolence; we, however, will continue in the state
we are without being burdensome to you. Now, since matters stand
as they do, send out an army with all possible expedition; for,
as we conjecture, the barbarian will in no long time be here
again to invade our territories as soon as he shall hear our
message that we will do none of the things he required of us.
Therefore, before he has reached Attica, it is fitting that we
go out to meet him in Bœotia."[6]
The passage and its application need no comment. It thrills our
blood to-day, as it must have done those who spoke, and those
who listened, two thousand four hundred years ago. Would {116}
that Greece could have always remained true to her grander
instincts and motives!
IV.--THE SAME LITERATURE
In all the articles which we may examine upon the subject of
alliance, the existence of a common literature is ranked as one
of its main moving causes. I have not found that any of the
advocates of Anglo-Saxon co-operation have elaborated this
thought. They have rested with a mere statement of the
proposition. Strongly self-evident as this seems, I am not
satisfied to pass it over without some elaboration. I want to be
certain that we all understand and appreciate the nature and
degree of the influence of literature upon this proposed union.
Why is literature an important, _natural_ factor, in the
proposed alliance? As I take it, it is because we gather most of
our knowledge and mental training from the same intellectual
fountainhead. English literature tells us how the
English-American people think; it shows what their process and
basis of reasoning and feeling are, upon all subjects, small and
great. If we are the same in our ideas, we behold its reflection
in this vast mirror of thought and opinion; if we are divergent,
we know the reason; and as one of the most ordinary functions of
literature is to state, explain, examine, and discuss,
eventually we are brought to a closer basis of common thought.
Besides all this, our literature marks course of national
life--retrogressive or progressive. {117} It holds up in the
widest sense the "glass of fashion and the mould of form."
Certainly, if a proposition were made to establish an alliance
between France and the United States of America, or between
Germany or Russia and the United States, the literature of these
countries could not be appealed to, to establish a common tie or
natural bond of sympathy between them. The Americans, as a
people, know as little of French literature as the French,
German, or Russians know of English literature. The literature
of each of these countries is as a sealed book, except to those
who have the leisure and inclination for special studies.
Different causes and motives would therefore have to be sought
for, to support a proposition of union. In the case of the
Anglo-Saxon people, however, it is otherwise; they read the same
books, magazines, and papers; they feed on the same intellectual
food. Words perish as soon as they are spoken. Literature never
dies, but is transmitted from generation to generation without
end or limit. The literature of a country is the expression not
only of its actual knowledge, but also of its genius and natural
character; and this is diffused through all channels of
publication, by means of books, magazines, and papers. Whenever
this manifestation finds a lodgment in the minds of its readers,
it is again transmitted by language. Literature, therefore,
becomes a prolific source of instruction and education, and, as
we drink from the same fountain of knowledge and inspiration,
our tastes, habits, and modes of [118] thought necessarily
approximate to each other. An individual reads for pleasure or
instruction, and what he receives of either or both combined, he
again readily imparts by speech or pen to whomsoever he meets;
hence literature acts directly upon some, and indirectly upon
all. The Anglo-Saxon people, through the medium of literature,
are continuously _en rapport_ with each other. Everything
published in the English language becomes common property to the
whole English-speaking world; giving rise, according to its
degree of merit, to the same impressions; calling into exercise
the same faculties and sensibilities. The influence of
literature may be considered in direct connection with language,
of which it is the growth, and which in its turn it amplifies,
strengthens, and embellishes. But let us consider the matter a
little more closely.
In point of quantity, the publications in the English language
are said to exceed those of all the other nations of the earth
combined. In point of scholarship, art in writing, eloquence,
spirit, research, and knowledge, English literature is certainly
second to none. It may be natural partiality arising from the
native use of the language and more intimate acquaintance with
the originals, but it is a conviction deeply rooted in the mind
of the English reader, even the most scholarly, that his own
literature is, upon the whole, the greatest that the ages have
yet produced.
In its composite form, it is a link in the chain, binding
together the present and the past. I do {119} not now refer to
the past of our own race, when we were all participating in its
formation, but to what is properly known as antiquity. With many
of the words and phrases, and much of the syntax and prosody of
the ancient tongues, we have also imbibed much of their
spirit--of what is properly designated the "classic." I am not
one of those who belittle the classic; far from wishing to see
it eliminated, I would wish to see it cultivated. With all the
native strength of the "English," there was ample room for the
infusion of the graces and proprieties of the Greek and
Latin.[7]
Out of the development of the languages so blended sprung
variety, harmony, style, and, as a consequence, taste in
composition. In every epoch of our literature, in each of its
manifestations, from Gower and Chaucer to Tennyson and
Longfellow, we find the presence of this classic attribute,
first dim and struggling, then actual and triumphant, forming,
moulding, beautifying, and perfecting. The benefits which our
civilisation has derived from this process are incalculable. It
would be a sorry day for us on both sides of the Atlantic when
the common standards depending on taste in writing should be
lost. Those of speech would soon follow, and the language would
become a confused mass of barbarisms. The effects upon its
character would soon be traced. I believe, from certain
indications, that it will rest with us in the frequent
fluctuations of changing style, to vindicate our {120} title of
depositories of the permanent models of the literature and
language, by becoming also its preservers--in other words, to
oppose a barrier to evident tendencies towards overgrowth,
obscurity, and corruption. If so it be, the influence will be
felt as a reflex one, extending backward to the shores where the
language originated, and so again illustrating the invisible and
indivisible tie that binds us together, "Old Ocean" to the
contrary notwithstanding.
Our original Saxon tongue was not conquered by the Greek and
Roman, as were those of the nations of the South of Europe; _it
appropriated them_--leading them, as it were, in a kind of
magnificent triumph. Out of the interfusion, such as it was,
came a dialect and afterwards a literature, wholly _sui
generis_. We find the same characteristic in the assimilation of
the Roman civil law by our own common law. Our legal system did
not become Latinised--but whatever was good, sound, and relevant
in the civil law became incorporated and was Anglicised. In
dwelling upon our literature for a moment, I shall not, as is
usually done, glorify particular names--Spenser, Shakespeare,
the dramatists, Milton, Bacon, Hooker, Jeremy Taylor, Burke, the
classicists so-called. All the long array of great thinkers,
eloquent preachers, exquisite poets, and novelists will occur at
once to everyone. Let me rather dwell, as more germane to our
present purpose, upon certain traits common to all,
notwithstanding the diversities of styles and epochs. I would
mention, then, as one such {121} trait, a certain solidity of
thought--a something derived from the actual experience of life
and close experimental contact with nature. This is visible at
all times, and impresses one as quite in keeping with that other
something in the character of the people (if the two can be at
all separated), which has led to the creation and preservation
of their political institutions. It is certainly a native
quality, being equally characteristic of the very loftiest and
most fervent productions of English genius, and of those which
have no other claim upon us than sober good sense. Carrying the
thought a little farther, these observations of man and nature
become a positive force in the formation of individual
character, and, of course, of society. It is this sure,
well-grounded, _homelike_ quality which, among all the other
literatures of the world, peculiarly distinguishes the English,
united as it may be and has been in many instances, with the
utmost perfection of art. It is to detract from an almost
universal characteristic to cite instances, but what other
literature has productions like the _Pilgrim's Progress,
Robinson Crusoe_, or poetry in this respect like Cowper's
_Task?_ What is Shakespeare but a revelation of familiar thought
and feeling sublimed by genius? What is Milton, classicist as he
is, in the garden scenes of Paradise, but the painter of an
English home? The very flowers of _his_ Paradise seem made to
bloom there. Addison and all the essayists,--in what does their
charm consist, but in their communion with daily life and
thought? So, too, as to their legitimate successors, the great
{122} novelists. The new world they have given us--what is it
but an accurate representation of the men and women we have
known, and a delightful participation in all their experiences?
Truly we have a rich and ever-abiding inheritance in this
literature. The inheritance itself is a positive gift, but it is
more. It points out infallibly the direction our minds should
take in dealing with those from whom we have derived it. With
such a genuine emanation before us of the mental, moral,
political, and religious life of a people, shall we go amiss in
extending to them our sympathies and establishing a mutual
friendship? In this way we know them--know them as we can in no
other way--not through the obscuring haze of momentary passion,
and the disturbance of abnormal aberrations, but through a
medium deep as the life of nations and of universal binding
efficacy. If language and literature have made us one, by what
unhallowed process shall we be "put asunder"?
I have used the word "English" in reference to literature
following the common style; of course I include our own. In all
that is best, it shows the common origin. Franklin, the
Federalist; the great indigenous Webster, who knew so well "what
blood flowed in his veins";[8]
"I am happy to stand here to-day and to remember that, although
my ancestors, for several generations, lie buried beneath the
soil of the Western Continent, yet there has been a time when my
ancestors and your ancestors toiled in the same cities and
villages, cultivated adjacent fields, and worked together {123}
to build up that great structure of civil polity which has made
England what England is."
The refined and genial Irving--and all our later names are
classed together in thought;--a noble republic free from enmity
and faction, in which they march under one banner and shed a
single influence. An English boy recites _The Song of Marion's
Men_, with as much enthusiasm as an American. Longfellow is a
household name in England as with us; Emerson was received in
Oxford and Cambridge as a "new light" along with Newman and
Carlyle. The time is not far distant, if we will be true to
ourselves, when America will be classic ground to the
Englishman, as, long since, Irving declared, England was to
America. _I have not been able to perceive that there lingers in
the English mind one trace of the old-time disparagement of
American books, things, and manners_. Candid and just criticism
they may employ towards us, as to themselves; that right is
inalienable and it has its uses; but their praise is more
frequent than their censure, and being accompanied by
discernment, has more value. English criticism has sometimes
made a classic reputation for our authors--as in the case of Poe
and Hawthorne. Walt Whitman is more curiously and tolerantly
read there than among ourselves. As we have developed, the
disposition has grown to accord us a full appreciation. At no
time whatever, though half-serious, half-humorous badinage may
have existed, has there ever been a particle of envy.
{124}
I thus place before the English-American people some of the
influences of a common literature. Pursue the subject as we may,
through all its ramifications, the stronger becomes the
conviction of its power to unite us for good and noble
purposes.[9]
V.--THE SAME POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS
In the formation of the Constitution of the United States the
theory and spirit, substance and form, of the political
institutions of England were most strikingly followed. Here is
another natural bond of sympathy, fellowship, and nationality,
of the strongest nature between these countries.
A brief review of the cardinal points in the political
development of the English-speaking people seems an essential
feature of this aspect of the question.
More than eight centuries elapsed between the reign of Alfred
the Great, and the "Bill of Rights," in the reign of William and
Mary (875 to 1688), In all this time, the English people were
steadily and constantly engaged in building and perfecting their
present system of government.
It was a fabric of slow and often unconscious growth, and many
times when it seemed to be on {125} the verge of completion, the
storms of rebellion, of kingly usurpations, of foreign wars,
swept fiercely through its walls and blew them to the ground.
These very storms were instruments in regular and organic
development; and, nothing discouraged or disheartened, the
people bravely set to work, and commenced again the task of
rebuilding and finishing the great governmental edifice, which
they were to leave to the world as an imperishable monument of
their courage, hardihood, love of freedom and justice, and which
should, in all time, prove a refuge and an asylum for the
oppressed and liberty-loving people of the world.
The foundations of this government were not completed in the
reign of Alfred--when the different kingdoms which prevailed in
England were fast approaching consolidation.
The germs of an executive power are faintly foreshadowed in the
personal influence of the reigning King, whose authority
vacillated as the King himself was strong or weak. But the war
with the Northmen raised Alfred and his sons from tribal leaders
to national kings, and the dying out of other royal stocks left
the house of Cerdic the one line of hereditary kingship.[10]
The seeds of parliamentary birth were steadily growing in the
form of a Witenagemote, in the "great meeting" of the Assembly
of the wise--which represented the whole English people, as the
wise moots of each kingdom represented the {126} separate
peoples of each, its powers being as supreme in the wider field
as theirs in the narrower, all developing from the people as
they were arranged in their local Assemblies or Hundreds.[11]
For to it belonged the higher justice, the power to impose
taxes, the making of laws, the conclusion of treaties, the
control of wars, the disposal of public lands, the appointment
of great officers of state, and, finally, it could elect or
depose a king.[12]
It is not within the limits or sphere of my purpose to go into
the details, but when Alfred died the fundamental principles of
a sound and substantial government existed, illustrated in an
executive, legislative, and judicial department clearly defined.
Besides this feature of his reign, a commercial activity began
to be developed, and literary tastes and education encouraged
and cultivated.
The free institutions of Alfred survived under the Norman
tyranny or conquest. No substantial change was made in law or
custom by William.[13]
The germs of the famous Magna Charta were laid in the reign of
Henry I., and almost one of the first acts of this monarch was
to grant a charter which was calculated to remedy many of the
grievous oppressions which had been committed during the reigns
of his father, William the Conqueror, and his brother, William
Rufus.
{127}
The example of Henry, in granting a charter favourable to the
liberties of the people, was followed by Stephen, who renewed
the grant, which was confirmed by Henry II. But the concessions
of these princes were one thing and their actions another. They
still continued to exercise the same unlimited authority.
The charter of John, Magna Charta, culminated the people's
expressions of their wrongs. That its provisions were not novel
or startling, that the people knew exactly what they wanted, is
strongly manifest from the asserted fact that this great and
famous _constitution_ was finally discussed and agreed to in a
_single_ day.[14]
I say "constitution," for the Magna Charta was in form and
substance as much a constitution as that which the thirteen
States of North America adopted in 1789. It defined and limited
the power of the Executive; it provided for the constitution and
assembling of a legislative body in a general council--a
Parliament; it regulated the general principles of judicial
power; and, finally, it was, from beginning _to_ end, a bill of
rights for the people of England high and low--of all classes.
It is interesting in this connection to draw a parallel:
_First_: The Charter names the _parties_ between whom it was
made. John, the party on the _one side_, and his Archbishops,
Bishops, Abbots, Earls, Barons, Justiciaries, Foresters,
Sheriffs, Governors, Officers, all Bailiffs, and his _faithful
subjects_, the parties on _the other side._
{128}
The Constitution of the United States with more brevity, but
with equal comprehensiveness, proclaims that its provisions are
for the _people_ of the United States.
_Second_: Magna Charta was a grant from a King--or, more
correctly, an acknowledgment ok deed of confirmation from a
King--clearly enumerating the rights of the people, and the
nature of the compact between them. It was accordingly sealed by
John, and attested by a cloud of attending witnesses. It was
coerced from him by an aroused people--at their risk, with arms
in their hands.
The Constitution of the United States was an agreement between
thirteen independent States, establishing a federative nation,
and duly signed by the representative of each State on behalf of
the people.
_Third_: The Charter of John deals with the rights to things and
the rights of persons. Many of these rights, being regulated by
the laws of the States of the Union, do not appear in the
Constitution of the United States, but are reserved by the
States.
_Fourth_: Article First of the Constitution of the United States
creates, apportions, and regulates the legislative power of the
Government with clearness and precision. A paragraph of Magna
Charta provides for the holding of the general Council
consisting of Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Earls, and greater
Barons of the realm to be summoned "singly by our letters."
This, however, as well as Alfred's Witenagemote, answered {129}
rather the idea of a great council--it was an aristocratic
body--the origin of the House of Lords: all that was possible at
that day.
It further provides for the summoning generally, by "our
sheriffs and bailiffs, all others who hold of us in chief
(tenants _in capite_) forty days" before their meeting at least,
and to a certain place, the cause of the summons being declared,
and the business to proceed on the day appointed.
Henry III., in 1258-59, called together the Barons in
Parliament, who in turn ordered that four Knights should be
chosen of each county; that they should make inquiry into
grievances of which their neighbourhood had reason to complain,
and should attend the ensuing Parliament, in order to give
information to that Assembly of the state of their particular
counties. This is a nearer approach to the present Parliament
than had been made by the Barons in the reign of King John, and
was the beginning of the House of Commons.[15]
By paragraph XII. of the Great Charter it was further provided
that no scutage or aid (in other words, taxation) should be
imposed, unless by the General Council of the Kingdom. This
principle was strongly reiterated in the Petition of Right
(1628).
_Fifth_: Magna Charta was a limitation of kingly power by the
aristocracy, but distinctively in favour of the people. The
"Barons' War" in Henry Third's reign, resulted in the full
establishment of the representative system of government,
_i.e._, the House of Commons.
{130}
The separation from the Church of Rome, as an instrument of
government, quite independent of any religious point of view,
secured laws, liberty, government, and freedom from foreign
domination.
The approach to a popular system under the House of Lancaster,
and the reaction towards despotism under the Tudors, growing out
of their peculiar historical situation, was again followed by a
powerful reaction towards liberty under the Stuarts. The
expulsion of the latter was followed by the establishment of a
constitutional system under William III., embracing, among other
things,
a. The declaration of rights.
b. Religious toleration (in the main).
c. The distinct recognition of the _habeas corpus_ act enacted
under Charles II.
d. The germ of a ministry responsible directly to parliament
and indirectly to the people.
e. Freedom of speech and the press.
From all which great and _wholly_ self-derived institutions were
created the instrumentalities of all political progress, both at
home and abroad. Holland, it is true, had tolerations, but they
were no less of native English growth.
Thus step by step can be traced the building of this great
political edifice, whose architecture was so closely followed by
our own American Constitution-builders.
The fundamental distinction between the English Government, as
portrayed and developed in Magna Charta, the Petition of Right,
and Bill of Rights, and the Constitution of the United States,
{131} is that the aim of the former instruments was to define
and limit the powers of the monarch; while the latter sought at
once to create, specify, and restrict the authority of the
Federal Government. Both attempted to define and preserve the
rights of the people. The main objects are one; the divergencies
are the natural result of the prevailing conditions of both
countries. The distinctive aim of English political development
has been to obtain its objects by enlarging the powers of
Parliament, while the fundamental purpose of the American people
was to make a general government so constituted as to preserve
both the rights of the States and people. These correlative
purposes are remarkably illustrated in the method of
construction, for by Magna Charta it is provided, "It is also
sworn as well on our part as on the part of the Barons that all
of the things aforesaid shall be observed in good faith and
without evil subtility"--and in the Constitution of the United
States it is set forth in effect that the Imperium is to be
created, and then that the "powers not delegated to the United
States by the Constitution--nor prohibited by it to the States,
are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people "; the
States being the reservoirs of all the free principles conferred
by them out of their abundance on the general government.
Substantially all the powers which were conceded to belong to
the monarch by these organic instruments, and by the political
records of England, were specifically conferred by the
Constitution of the United States upon the President.
{132}
Before the commencement of the War of 1776, the first volume of
Blackstone's _Commentaries_ was published and in the hands of
all the American lawyers. The chapters upon the powers of
Parliament and the prerogative of, and restrictions upon, kingly
authority, were fully and perspicuously set forth therein. Here
was the fountain from which much of the inspiration of the
American Constitution makers was drawn. The influence of
Blackstone and its predecessor, the _Spirit of Law_, by
Montesquieu, both before and after the Revolution, was very
great. Nor do I overlook the influence which arose from a study
of Grecian history by some of its framers--although their
studies were said to be somewhat superficial.[16]
Our Bill of Rights, which was not adopted until after the
Constitution had been inaugurated, but which appears as the
first ten amendments to that instrument, was almost literally
copied from the Petition of Right, presented in the reign of
Charles I., by Parliament (1628) and the Bill of Rights of 1689.
The Constitution of the United States contains new matter,
especially as regards the delicate relation of the States to
each other and to the newly constituted government, not to be
found in Magna Charta, or in the Petition, or Bill of' Rights,
growing as it did out of the necessity of providing for a new
condition of affairs, but in everything fundamental and
substantial relating to the legislative, judicial, and executive
branches of the {133} government, it has faithfully followed the
principles of the English Constitution.
With the American appropriation and assimilation of these
inherited political ideas, there exists language, literature,
and all the rest of the kindred sympathies, making a tie
stronger than blood, and culminating in the grand conception of
federation developed into government, _i.e._, the Constitution
of the United States.
Mr. Gladstone unites the view of the English and American
Constitutions in the oft-quoted words ''as the British
Constitution is the most subtle organism which has proceeded
from progressive history, so the American Constitution is the
most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain
and purpose of man."
Who should acknowledge the value of all this, and the sacrifices
which it has cost England, if not we, who have inherited it, fed
upon it, grown upon it, and to-day livingly embody and exemplify
it?
Is not sympathy and brotherhood between the two peoples, the
natural, necessary, and inevitable outcome? "Whom God hath
joined together let no man put asunder."
VI.--THE SAME LAWS, LEGAL CUSTOMS, AND GENERAL MODES OF JUDICIAL
PROCEDURE
Closely allied to, if not a part of their political
institutions, comes another natural feature of the alliance, an
element more powerful than steel to rivet the bonds between the
two nations, _i.e._, the {134} same laws, customs, and general
modes of legal procedure.
The phenomenal and colossal development of North America is
somewhat explained by the fact that we were not compelled to
create or originate our political institutions, laws, or
judicial modes of procedure; these were all ready for us when we
commenced the business of an independent government. The
materials were at hand with which we were to build the grand
structure of democracy. Whatever difficulty was experienced in
the design, whatever time was spent in the building, was
attributable to the jealousies, fears and anxieties of the
delegates who represented the thirteen original independent
States in the Constitutional Convention. The great and almost
insurmountable barrier to the creation of the Republic arose out
of an inability to agree to a common basis of association on
becoming members of the same family, and surrendering the
independent and supreme rights of sovereignty which each of the
contracting parties possessed. As colonies we knew no law but
the common law; we profited by its utility; we imbibed its
teachings; no study was more general among the people. After the
Union had become a _fait accompli_, in most of the States it was
solemnly adjudged to remain in force. A new field, corresponding
to the growth and importance of the country, was opened to its
influence, both here and in England. The two countries now
mutually profit by each other in this respect, finding a
never-failing source of legal illumination, not only in their
judicial {135} precedents and statutory enactments, but in the
many admirable text-books--critical, expository and historical,
which deal with almost every conceivable subject of private or
public rights and duties, in all their practical and ethical
relations. Thus that mighty instrumentality, the Law, remains
substantially the same in both countries.
We fought the battles of the Revolution to become an independent
nation, but when we were free we established New England; we
voluntarily adopted every important principle of public and
private jurisprudence of the Mother country, and clothed
ourselves anew with her legal and judicial garments. The
materials of which our governmental house was built, the legal
furniture which was used in its embellishment and decoration, we
took from the well-stored warehouse of English institutions, and
Gladstone's eulogy, which I have quoted above, is no less
deserved because the builders of this new government assimilated
the architecture and appropriated the materials of existing
political institutions and legal principles to their new
structure.
But we would be a strange people--wholly careless of history,
utterly indifferent to our own political genealogy, if we did
not realise and appreciate this splendid record which England
had been making through bloody sacrifices and internal struggles
for more than twelve centuries--from the reign of Alfred the
Great to that of William III., the fruits of which were so fully
utilised and enjoyed by us in the establishment of {136} our
government. I am not stopping to coin eulogies. I am simply
pointing out the facts--facts of supreme importance, but which
from their very obviousness have been too easily lost sight of.
But it is just to remark in this connection, that the framers of
our Constitution did not blindly, heedlessly, and mechanically
copy the English models. Every principle was submitted to the
test of severe and analytical argument, every plank that entered
into the construction of the Ship of State was thoroughly
examined and shown to be sound before it was put into its
appropriate place. As the artists and architects model from the
works of Angelo and Raphael so the men who fashioned our organic
law intelligently studied, assimilated, and applied the
principles of the English Constitution to our own government.
They showed an artistic, profound, and delicate exercise of
judgment, an almost divine perception of the purposes and
necessities of the people in the selection of the materials for
the laws of the country. These necessities were found to be
fully provided for in the legal archives of the old government,
which we were simply expanding.
In a few instances we did not adopt their laws.
For example, in the rule applicable to the descent of real
property, the Americans struck out the doctrine of
primogeniture, but substantially adopted the entire body of
English law appertaining to real estate. The law forms; the
procedure; the principles applicable to the rights of persons
and things; criminal law, equity jurisprudence, {137} were taken
_en bloc_, with exceptions too trifling to be mentioned.
The rules, principles, and forms of English jurisprudence were
so fitted to the spirit and genius of our people, that (with but
several trifling exceptions, such as a few small treatises on
Justices' Courts and Sheriffs), after the adoption of our
Constitution, there was not a single elementary treatise of
American Law published in the United States until 1826--at which
time Kent's _Commentaries_ made its appearance, and it is
remarkable that, as legal science has advanced in this country,
the prejudices of its professors have softened towards the
country from which its materials have been chiefly drawn.
VII.--THE SAME TENDENCY AND METHODS OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT AND
WORSHIP
In both the British Empire and the United States, there is an
official, and an almost universal, recognition of a superhuman
power to whom allegiance and service are regarded as justly due.
This is religion in a broad, comprehensive sense.
In each nation we find instances of cruel and unjustifiable
religious intolerance and persecution; but the tendency has
always been towards liberality and religious freedom.
In no other nation upon the globe does religion flourish in all
its forms and sects as in these countries.
Without agreement or imitation, we find the {138} march of
religious freedom keeping about the same pace in each nation.
What does this prove? The same religious impulses, thoughts,
freedom, education, and growth; a family physically disunited,
with one religious conception moulding their convictions in the
same groove of thought. In England and the United States, for
example, the Catholic religion flourishes and expands even more
than in those countries where it is the established and official
worship! Every branch of Protestantism is encouraged and grows
in this congenial soil of English liberty. Religious
independence and toleration are conspicuously planted in the
heart of every true Anglo-Saxon. We can point with pride, on the
one hand, to the toleration of rationalistic views upon
religious subjects; and, on the other, to the growth and
expansion of Christianity, and their joint influence upon our
progress and civilisation.
Anglo-Saxon unity, strength, and progress owe, perhaps, as much
to Christianity in all its forms, as to any other cause. It
ought to be one of the most potent influences towards the
unification of the Anglo-Saxon people. No nobler topic can
occupy the attention of the pulpit.
VIII.--INTERMARRIAGES
Following the growth of other influences is intermarriage. Every
day it becomes more frequent. It is not difficult for the
individuals of the one country to become members of the homes of
the other, and, as the Atlantic now only affords {139} the
opportunity of a pleasant excursion, whatever there was of
physical isolation in the past has almost disappeared. Female
influence is here seen performing its salutary work to the best
advantage in removing prejudice and harmonising opinions and
manners. Such all-important instrumentalities act with a sort of
geometrical aggregation, and constitute one of the surest means
of making us all members of one great household.
IX.--OTHER SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE TWO NATIONS, EXHIBITING THE
NATURAL FEATURES OF THE ALLIANCE, SUCH AS THE DRAMA, SPORTS,
PASTIMES, HABITS OF LIVING
From all these sources there flow influences which increase the
volume and strength of the movement towards unification.
Let us advert briefly to the drama. Besides its influence as
literature, it forms, in its visual representation, no
unimportant part in shaping the affinities of the two countries.
What more potent influence can be conceived in this respect than
the mighty Shakespeare? And so through the long list of his
contemporaries and successors. Whatever has been seen on the
stage becomes at once the common property of both peoples. The
interchange so afforded of the varying types of the same manners
and ideas--the very personalities of the performers--has been an
agency no less certain than subtle in moulding the two peoples
into one. And it may be noticed, in proof of this, how {140}
instantly we detect the stamp of foreign thought and manners,
when any play that is _not English_ is represented.
Why should I dwell upon this phase of the subject? Simply to
show that, do what we may, we cannot unfamiliarise ourselves--we
cannot escape from our natural tendencies. Suppose it were
suggested that the United States should establish a common and
perpetual relation with some foreign nation other than England?
Could we invoke any of these natural elements of sympathy and
bonds of relationship to support the movement? Suppose it were
proposed to consolidate France and England? Or France and the
United States? Or Russia and England? Or the United States and
Russia? Is it not evident, at least at this stage of their
development, that the union or coalition would be unnatural? In
sports, pastimes, drama, habits of living, how utterly
irreconcilable are the Russians and English? In all phases of
their individual and national life, in their moral, political,
and religious education and sentiments, there are constantly
cropping out all kinds of diversities and incongruities. Oil and
water will not commingle.
X.--RÉSUMÉ
Finally, to sum up and put these thoughts together; to aggregate
the _natural_ elements which would render a national marriage
between the United States and England justifiable, healthful,
and prosperous, we find that we are of the same {141} family; we
speak the same language; we have the same literature; we are
governed substantially by the same political institutions; we
possess similar laws, customs, and general modes of legal
procedure; we follow the same tendency and methods of religious
thought and practice; we have numerous inter-marriages and
innumerable similarities in our sports, pastimes, drama, and
habits of living--a natural community in everything important.
Pursue the English and Americans into their homes, into their
churches, into their courts, and political institutions; into
their business and commercial lives; into their theatres,
amusements, and pastimes, we shall discover that we all "live,
move, and have our being" according to the same general
principles and methods of thought.
Are not the foundations of an international relation, when made
of such materials, solid and secure? Is not a tree planted in
such congenial soil sure to grow and bear noble fruit?
[1] Vol. i., Gibbon's _Roman Empire_, p. 256.
[2] De Tocqueville, _Democracy in America_, p. 33.
[3] Grote's _Greece_, vol. ii., pp. 319 and 320 _et seq._
[4] _Race and Language_, p. 106.
[5] _Herodotus_, book viii., chap. cxliii. (Rawlinson).
[6] _Herodotus_, book viii., chap. cxliv. (Rawlinson).
[7] Read in this connection the address of Lord Brougham, when
elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, delivered
April 9. 1825.
[8] Speech at Oxford, _Works_, vol. i., p. 438.
[9] "England," says Mr. Carlyle, "before long, this Island of
ours, will hold but a small fraction of the English; in America,
in New Holland, east and west to the very Antipodes, there will
be a _Saxondom_ covering great spaces of the globe. And now,
what is it that can keep all these together into virtually one
Nation, so that they do not fall-out and fight, but live at
peace, in brother-like intercourse, helping one-another? . . .
Yes, this Shakspeare is ours; we produce him, we speak and think
by him; we are of one blood and one kind with him. The most
common-sense politician, too, if he pleases, may think of that."
[10] Green's _History of the English People_, vol. i., p. 91.
[11] Green's _History of the English People_, vol. i., p. 91.
[12] _Ibid_.
[13] Reeves's _History of the English Law_, by Finlason, p. 230.
Green's _English People_, vol. i., p. 116.
[14] Green's _English People_, vol. i., p. 244,
[15] Hume's _History of England_, vol. i., pp. 549-550.
[16] Freeman's _History of Federal Government in Greece and
Italy_, 2nd Edition, p. 249.
{142}