304 OUR HERITAGE THE SEA 



unbusinesslike form of government the world has ever 

 seen, trusting apparently, in all things, as a nation, 

 that we shall muddle through. And yet we pride 

 ourselves on our practicality, our freedom from excite- 

 ment, our businesslike qualities, our ability to teach 

 the rest of the world how to do it. We assist the best 

 of our manhood to leave the country and spend millions 

 upon the worthless and wastrel, treating them, indeed, 

 far more gently and liberally than we do the honest 

 hard-working folk whom we tax to keep them. We 

 almost literally fulfil the command, as regards our 

 foreign relations, " to love our enemies, and do good 

 to them that despitefully use us," but when our 

 philanthropy is called upon for our friends, we shake 

 our heads and refrain. We behave as a man might 

 who spent all his substance upon beggars, impostors, 

 and swindlers, leaving his own family to pine for the 

 necessaries of life. 



And yet, in spite of all these paradoxical qualities, 

 we have thriven, we do thrive, although there are not 

 wanting signs that we have nearly reached our zenith 

 of prosperity, if not quite, and that we shall soon begin 

 to descend the height climbed so painfully for many 

 generations. In nothing is this so manifest as in our 

 national treatment of the greatest of all our interests, 

 seafaring, which is, indeed, the very Cinderella of 

 our professions. The successful merchan t, great surgeon, 

 wealthy brewer or distiller, or astute lawyer, are frequent 

 recipients of those honours which flow from the throne, 

 but the greatest shipmaster, whose skill and per- 

 severance and courage has probably been greater than 

 that of any of the foregoing, is always unknown, and 

 retires into obscurity, often into poverty, especially 



