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The Review of Reviews. 



we survey the struggles of contending parties from the 

 standpoint of a consistent body of doctrine, and steadily 

 seek to use all parties for the realisation of our ideals. 

 These ideals are unmistakably indicated by the 

 upward trend of human progress and our position in 

 the existing economy of the world. Among all the 

 agencies for the shaping of the future of the human 

 race none seem so potent now and still more hereafter 

 as the English-speaking man. Already he begins to 

 dominate the world. The Empire and the Republic 

 comprise within their limits almost all the territory 

 that remains empty for the overflow of the world. 

 Their citizens, with all their faults, are leading the van 

 of civilisation, and if any great improvements are to 

 be made in the condition of mankind, they will neces- 

 sarily be leading instruments in the work. Hence our 

 first starting-point will be a deep and almost awe- 

 struck regard for the destinies of the English-speaking 

 man. To use Milton's famous phrase, faith in " God's 

 Englishmen " will be our inspiring principle. To make 

 the Englishman worthy of his immense vocation, and 

 at the same time to hold together and strengthen the 

 political tics which at present link all English-speaking 

 communities save one in a union which banishes all 

 dread of internecine war, to promote by every means a 

 fraternal union with the American Republic, to work 

 for the Empire, to seek to strengthen it, to develop it, 

 and, when necessary, to extend it — these will be our 

 plainest duties. 



But how ? Not, it may be said at once, by any 

 attempts to interfere with the liberties already con- 

 ceded to our colonies, or by indulging any wild aspira- 

 tion after an impossible centralisation. We have to 

 move in the opposite direction. To save the English 

 Empire we must largely Americanise its constitution, 

 and the first step in the direction of this necessary 

 development is to compel the Irish to undertake the 

 rc^ponsibilitv of managing their own affairs under the 

 supreme authority of the Jnijjcrial Parliament. Home 

 Rule will open the door by which all the colonies may 

 yet enter into the pale of our Imperial Constitution. At 

 present they are outside. If the fatal clause excluding 

 the Irish Members from Westminster had been carried, 

 Ireland would have been thrust outside as well. The 

 defeat of that pernicious proposal will probably mark 

 the watershed in the history of our Empire. The next 

 Home Rule Hill will not exclude the Irish. It ought to 

 open the door for the admission of colonial representa- 

 tives to the House of Commons, pentling the inevitable 

 evolution of a true Imperial Senate. 



The existence of such an avowed ideal will contribute 

 powerfully to the realisation of that ideal. At present 



the columns of the Press supply that Impcrinl forum 

 in which, pending constitutional transformations, the 

 representatives of Greater Britain can discuss an;i 

 assist in deciding the policy of the Empire. The habit 

 of interrogating the colonies for their opinion on ques- 

 tions which are now decided over their heads should 

 be developed, and it will give a great stimulus to the 

 movement in favour of the enfranchisement of the 

 nascent commonwealths under the British flag. At 

 present they are disenfranchised by the Empire, and 

 yet they are bound by its policy. If not enfranchised 

 and brought within the pale by being allowed a voice 

 in deciding the policy of the government of the Empire, 

 they will inevitably seek enfranchisement in another 

 direction by severing themselves from the political 

 system over which they have no control. 



It follows from this fundamental conception of the 

 magnitude and importance of the work of the English- 

 speaking race in the world, that a resolute endeavour 

 should be made to equip tjie individual citizen more 

 adequately for his share in that work. For the ordinary 

 common Englishman, country yokel, or child ot the 

 slums is the seed of the Empire. That red-haired 

 hobbledehoy, smoking his short pipe at the corner of 

 Seven Dials, may two years hence be the red-coated 

 representative of the might and majesty of Britain in 

 the midst of a myriad of Africans or Asiatics. That 

 village girl, larking with the lads on her way to the 

 well, will in a few years be the mother of citizens of 

 new commonwealths — the founders of cities in the 

 Far West whose future destiny may be as famous as 

 that of ancient Rome. No one is too insignificant to 

 be overlooked. We send abroad our best and our 

 worst : all alike are seed-corn of the race. Hence the 

 importance of resolute endeavour to improve the 

 condition, moral and material, in which the ordinary 

 English-speaking man is bred and reared. To do this 

 is a work as worthy of national expenditure as the 

 defence of our shores from hostile fleets. The 

 amelioration of the conditions of life, the levelling up 

 of social inequalities, the securing for each individual 

 the possibility of a human life, and the development 

 to the uttermost by religious, moral and intellectual 

 agencies of the better side of our countrymen : these 

 objects follow as necessary corollaries from the recog- 

 nition of the providential sphere occupied by English- 

 speaking man in the history of the world. 



Another corollary is that we can no longer afford 

 to exclude one section of the English-speaking race 

 from all share in the education and moralising influences 

 which result from the direct exercise of responsible 

 functions in the State. The enfranchisement of women 



