Review Qf Revieics, 1/6/06. 



Leading Articles. 



491 



AS OTHERS SEE US. 



A Colonial View of the English. 



One of the most suggestive articles in the April 

 periodicals is that which Mr. Arthur H. Adams, of 

 New Zealand, contributes to the Nineteetith Century, 

 In it we have a frank and not unfriendly expression 

 of the opinions formed by an intelligent and observ- 

 ant Maorilandcr of the Old Countr\^ and its in- 

 habitants. He begins by telling us that: — 



Three yea.r3* careful investigation into the national ten- 

 dencies and prejuaicies of tlie present-day Englishman has 

 led to the w. iters conclusion that the Ensrlishman of the 

 centre a.nd the Englishman of the outside are sundered by 

 rapidly diverging racial instincts. 



He waited to write out his impressions until he 

 had time to reconsider under the sunny skies of Xew 

 Zealand, and this is the result: — 



I see the Englishman clear, distinct from us in outlook, 

 in aspirations, in soul; and in the final summing-up I see 

 the Euglishmnu as an obstacle — nav. the one great danger 

 — in the path of any possible scheme of Imperial alliance. 

 He has stayed too much at ho^ne. 



" ALL CART-HORSE.' 



Mr. Adams has another fault to find with the 

 English: — 



England has been inbreeding too long. And. to the 

 Colonial mind, it is to this racial isolation that is due 

 the general level of almost intolerable dulness that lies 

 like a fog over all England— dulness of outlook, dulness 

 of mind, dulness of life, dulness, even, of amusement and 

 immorality. 



An Englishman who has long lived in New Zea- 

 land 



suggests the analogv of a cart-horse mated with a mare 

 of" pedigree — the marriage of the Anglo-Saxon with the 

 Celts he had conquered, and with the Normans who con- 

 quered him. But afler all these centuries of inbreeding 

 the finer points of t'e pedigree mare have been submerged 

 in the imperturbable racial qualities of the stolid Anglo- 

 Saxon cart-horse. The English race is by now all cart- 

 horse. 



TOO INSULAR. 



He is di'^gusted with the insularitv of the British 

 islanders : — 



In this insular attitude of England we will find the sol© 

 harrier in the way of the final fetleration of the Empire. 

 This insularity shows itself in manv ways. A man prides 

 himself upon never goine out of his county. The limpet 

 type of servant is regarded with affection, almost with 

 admiration. In the Colonies for a man to remain a. life- 

 time in one enioloyer's service argues some flaw in ability 

 or enerey or nmbition. In the matter of speech, too, the 

 insularity of the English is most clearly appreciable. 

 Entrland. sm-ill ns it is. is a perfect hotch-potch of polv- 

 glottism. This survival of laggine dialects, even the per- 

 petuation, in out-of-the-way corners, of forgotten lan- 

 guaees. would be a thing that anv intelligent colonv would 

 discourage as a source of national weakness. But tlie 

 Englishman takes an absurd pride in the perpetuation of 

 such hindrances to communication. 



OXFORD AND INDIA. 



Mr. Adnms has studied Oxford, and he finds it 

 very unlike New Zealand Universities: — 



The fundamental difference, however, between the Ene:- 

 lishman who stayed at home and the Fnelishman who 

 didn't h'es in t^'e stupendous sretem bv which the Oxford 

 man is still r^r'^dnced. For the tvne the Colonies ^ecop'niHe 

 has b'lt a I'm'ted scone of usefulness. It has been evolved 

 for the p-overnin? of subiect rnre« : and the nations 

 within the loose ring of the British Empire have long out- 



grown tlie need of English governance. India, a conquered 

 country, is stiU ' run " by a thousand superbly garmented, 

 stolid, polo-playing Uxford young men; but there are no 

 more Indias, nor, in the general view of the Colonies, is 

 there much reason for the continued inclusion within the 

 bounds of a possible Imperial alliance of such a doubtful, 

 unworkable factor as a country of alien races held by the 

 sword. 



THE DXJI/NESS OF OUR GIRLS. 



If Mr. Adams scorns the English young man, he 

 is no betttr pleased with the English girl: — 



The amiable dulness of the English county girl ia pro- 

 bably due to her utter lack of education. The boy goes to 

 an expensive public school, a still more expensive univer- 

 sity; there is little money left over for the education of 

 his sister. And she does not wish it. The eager rush of 

 girls to Colonial universities has no parallel anywhere 

 save in America. The English ideal of a woman seems to 

 be a dull, placidly pretty, regular-featured, aignifiea piece 

 of ice. Intelligence, animation, individuality, knowledge 

 are not needed. Many county girls that 1 met in England 

 seemed to possess no individuality at all; even girls of 

 twenty held no opinions of their own. 



OTHER WEAKNESSES. 



Mr. Adams is very supercilious about our country- 

 squires and their sons : — 



The impression made upon the Colonial is that the army 

 and navy were thoughtiully given to England by a kinu 

 Providence tor the sole purpose of providing billets for 

 superfluous second sous. His island has made the English- 

 man a ruler, an administrator of subject races, a dis- 

 coverer, a. sailor, a conqueror. His island has forgrotten 

 to teach him to co-operate. 



This lack of education in co-operation renders it 

 difficult to him to imagine 



any Imperial alliance on which the Colonies enter, as 

 tliey must, on terms of partnership. In such an alliance 

 the' Colonies will insist, iu a degree proportionate to 

 their strength, on a share in tlie management of the 

 Empire, its business, its profits, its emoluments, its dig- 

 nities, its defences. 



I may perhaps be permitted to suggest that in the 

 Imperial co-operative alliance in which the Colonies 

 are to share management, business, profits, emolu- 

 merts, dignities and defences, Mr. Arthur H. Adams 

 significantly omits all reference to the possibility 

 that the poor old Mother Countrv might also ask the 

 co-operative Colonials to share the burdens and the 

 taxes of the Empire. 



The Anti=German Obsession. 



In the April yaiional the editor pleasantly refers 

 to the "event of that Anglo-German war for which 

 Wilhelm XL and his entire people prepare by dav 

 and of which they dream by night." Mr. H. W. 

 Wilson, in an article entitled '' Genuan Hunger for 

 Moroccan Pons," sounds a cry of alann lest Ger- 

 many might have secured at Algeciras either Mog- 

 hador or Casablanca. He says: — 



If she were given a new i>odition on the Central Atlantic, 

 her growing navy, which has at its back what the British 

 Navy hos not. a great army, would maVe her a peril for 

 the whole world. From the British standpoint, the results 

 of a Germnn occupation of a Morocco port might be 

 summed un thus; 



(1) Enormously increased danger to British commerce in 

 time of war. 



i2) The provision of alternative moves, which may be 

 difficult to meet and defeat in the war of squadrons, for 

 the r:enn''n battle-fleet. 



(J* The linking U" of the German p^Hsessions in the 

 Indian Ocean with German territory in Europe. 



