To ALL English-Si'kaking Folk. 



455 



will not revolutionise the world, but it will at least 

 give those who rock our cradles a deeper sense of the 

 reality of the sceptre which their babies' hands may 

 grasp than would otherwise be possible. Our children 

 in future will be born of two parents, each politically 

 intelligent, instead of being the product of a union 

 between a political being and a creature whose mind 

 is politically blank. If at present we have to deplore 

 so widespread a lack of civic virtue among our men, 

 the cause may be found in the fact that the mothers 

 from whom men acquire whatever virtue they possess 

 have hitherto been studiously excluded from the only 

 school where civic virtue can Ix learnt — that of the 

 actual exercise of civic functions, the practical discharge 

 of civic responsibilities. 



However much we may place the English-speaking 

 world before us as the chief object of our attention, no 

 self-denying ordinance on the part of our statesmen 

 can prevent us having an influence on European affairs. 

 The shrinkage of the world and the development of 

 the colonial policy of Germany, France, and Italy 

 render a policy of non-intervention impossible, even 

 if it were desirable. But it is not desirable. The 

 pressure, pacific but constant, of a great federation of 

 English-speaking commonwealths would be very strong 

 in favour of the development of a similar federal 

 system in Europe. The Concert of Europe, steadily 

 developed, will result in the United .States of Europe ; 

 and to that goal the policy of England should be con- 

 stantly directed. All the old nonsense about the 

 maintaining the balance of power in Europe, of 

 sending armies to defend Constantinople, is now 

 pretty nearly exploded, even in Printing-House 

 Square. We have too much to do within our own 

 Empire to bolster up the Empire of the Turks ; and 

 it will be time enough to talk of sending an army on 

 to the Continent when our fleet is strong cnougli to 

 protect our commerce on the sea. 



With regard to the dark-skinned races and the yet 

 unoccupied regions of the world, our duty depends 

 upon our opportunities and our responsiliilities. We 

 have no business to breed rowdies and filibusters, and 

 let them loose with firearms and fire-water upon the 

 half-civilised or wholly savage races on our borders. 

 We must follow the rowdy by the policeman, and 

 endeavour to secure that the dispa.ssionate voice of 

 impartial justice should be heard and obeyed on the 

 frontiers of the Empire. Nor must we ignore the still 

 weightier duty of the just government of our grcrut 

 Indian dependency, with its three hundred millions of 

 human beings of every shade of colour, creed, rank 

 and culture. 



Imperialism within limits defined by common sense 

 and the Ten Commandments is a very different thing 

 from the blatant Jingoism which some years ago made 

 the very name of Empire stink in the nostrils of all 

 decent people. The sobering sense of the immense 

 responsibilities of an Imperial position is the best 

 prophylactic for the frenzies of Jingoism. And in like 

 manner the sense of the lamentable deficiencies and 

 imperfections of " God's Englishmen," which results 

 from a strenuous attempt to make them worthy of 

 their destinies, is the best preservative against that 

 odious combination of cant and arrogance which made 

 Heine declare that the Englishman was the most 

 odious handiwork of the Creator. To interpret to the 

 English-speaking race the best thought of the other 

 peoples is one among the many services which we 

 would seek to render to the Empire. 



We believe in God, in England, and in Humanity ! 

 The English-speaking race is one of the chief of God's 

 chosen agents for executing coming improvements in 

 the lot of mankind. If all those who see that could 

 be brought into hearty union to help all that tends to 

 make that race more fit to fulfil its providential mission 

 and to combat all that hinders or impairs that work, 

 such an association or secular order would constitute 

 a nucleus or rallying-point for all that is most vital 

 i 1 the English-speaking world, the ultimate influence 

 of which it would be difficult to overrate. 



This is the highest of all the functions to which we 

 aspire. Our supreme duty is the winnowing out by 

 a process of natural selection and enlisting for hearty 

 service for the common weal all those who possess 

 within their hearts the sacred fire of patriotic devotion 

 to their country. Carlylc did not believe much in 

 what he called " penny editors." Of the inspiration 

 of the morning papers he declared long ago we have 

 had enough, and by these means he thought we arrived 

 at the gates of death. But it will probably be through 

 the agency of the newspaper that Carlyle's great idea 

 will yet get itself realised in England. Whatever we 

 may make of democratic institutions, government of 

 majorities, and the like, the fact remains that the 

 leadership of democracies and the guidance of demo- 

 cracies lielong always to the few. The governing minds 

 arc never numerous. 



Carlyle put this inilh in the most ofTensive aspect, 

 but truth it is, and it will be well or ill for u.< in pro- 

 portion as we act upon it or the reverse. The wise arc 

 (cw. The whole problem is to discover the wise few, and 

 to place the sceptre in their hands, and loyally to 

 (oilow their leading. Hut how to find them out ? That 

 is the greatest of questions. Mr. Carlylc, in almost his 



