LAND AND VV A r E R . 
NovemDer 13, 1915. 
THE SQUIRE'S POINT OF VIEW. 
Bv L. March Phillipps. 
IT may seem presumptuous for an individual to 
attempt to gauge the thoughts of his fellow- 
countrymen, but to many the deepening and 
growth of the sentiment of patriotism during the 
past year, and the gradual development into definite shape 
and relief of the idea of country, must seem a phenomenon 
not only interesting and striking, but with an important 
bearing on the future. A year ago patriotism was present 
among us, was indeed a very quickening incentive and 
insj)iration. b>it it was far from being the strong and sub- 
stantial thought which it is at present. It is true of all 
great ideas, certainly it is true of patriotism, that its full 
effect is not immediate, but cumulative and progressive. 
You do not get all the virtue out of patriotism by saying 
" England." any more than you get all the virtue out of 
religion by saying " God." Realisation comes by enduring, 
h\- persevering, by suffering, and is a matter of inward 
enlightenment and an enlarged understanding before it 
takes effect on conduct. 
Such a cumulative influence is operating to-day no 
doubt on many English minds and characters, and with 
especial force it seems to me to be operating on those 
country people whose lives are so closely knit to everything 
that is most English in our scenery. Perhaps at this 
season of the year especially, among the red and yellow 
woods and copses which so vividly recall the sports that 
English people used to be so fond of but now no longer 
regard, the development and growth of the deeper senti- 
ment I speak of is more apparent. It is so evident that 
some influence stronger even than love of sport broods 
over the country. The underwood that should rattle to 
the sticks of beaters is silent and deserted. Rags of 
orangc-colour9d leaves hang limp and dejected as if they 
shared in a melancholy which they cannot e.x plain. 
No sound is heard. No pheasant, itself a fragment of 
autumn colour, floats forward over the tops of (ho trees, 
no heavy monosyllables of guns fall like hammer- 
strokes on the October air. 
Concrete Patriotism. 
To one who recalls the usual aspect of these scenes the 
change may well seem more than a change in outward 
show and aspect. It goes indeed pretty deep into human 
nature. What are the thoughts which occupy the atten- 
tion of Enghsh squires to the entire exclusion of that 
intense reality, sport ? The war is in all minds, it will be 
said, and that no doubt is true ; moreover, besides that, 
they have too often to mourn the loss of those in whom 
not their affections only but all their hopes and forward- 
looking thoughts were centred. But it is not anxiety 
or grief which engrosses the minds of Englishmen to-day. 
It is not the sacrifice but the object for which the sacrifice 
was paid which chiefly concerns them. A concrete idea 
of patriotism is taking shape in their minds. England is 
fighting. England is in peril. Their thoughts, turned to 
a common object, no longer dwell exclusively on things 
personal to themselves. 
What is worth pointing out is that this idea of 
nationality, bringing with it the hope of national unity, 
which now, not indeed among politicians and pressmen, 
iMit in the hearts of, perhaps, a more truly representative 
British class, is strongly growing and taking shape, is of a 
real importance and likely to exert a practical and steadily 
increasing influence on national affairs. The English 
squire has not as a rule the literary habit, nor is he often 
loquacious, so that, in an epoch when so much of the 
business of life is carried on through the newspapers and in 
committee rooms, he remains perhaps the most silent as 
he still is the most influential of social classes. Never- 
theless his instinct is of the surest and has not failed in the 
present instance to disengage the essentials of the 
situation ; and it is of the surest, precisely because he is 
closely in touch with English life and more susceptible 
than most people to the promptings of national identity. 
Thus nurtured he possesses what (jne may call 
the national standard of vision, whence alo lie 
derives his talent for sticking to essentials and 
resting in them and not being led astray by super- 
ficial detail His views on politics are of a perfectly 
Doric simplicity. Out of the welter of the past year 
one or two permanent features remam ; to one of 
which the formation of the Coalition, he ascribes par- 
ticular importance because it appeared to realise the 
\-ision alwavs in his own mind of national sohdanty. 
A Natural Adaptation. 
1 he Squire for one saw from the first in the Coalition 
(Government nothing but the necessary and natural 
adaptation of the political machinery to existing circum- 
stances. A party is but a portion of the country, how- 
then can it govern and control an effort of the whole 
country ? That a national crisis must be dealt with by a 
national government struck his country intellect as an 
obvious truism. As to newspaper charges, that this or 
that (iovernment or group was " honeycombed with 
corruption," or " motheaten with intrigue," or that its 
individual members were animated by exclusively base 
ivnd sordid appetites, the squire, I believe, has never mucli 
regarded them. His instinct recognised the hackwork 
of politics the more readily that he held a positive 
explanation. It was the need, as his patriotic sense 
assured him, of a whole people to act in unison which 
brought the non-partv Government into existence. 
That moment for the Squire was one of intense 
significance. The machinery of unity was actually in 
being. It needed only for the country at large to do its 
part, to act up to the existing arrangement, and to support 
and strengthen the Government with the full tide of the 
national will. \\'e know, of course, what happened. We 
know how the controversial instinct which could no longer 
find a free outlet in Pariiament was, in defiance of all 
undertakings and honourable understandings, exploited 
by the press, and how in consequence every class and 
section of the community was penetrated ,by a furious 
spirit of dissension and discord. I say we all know this, 
but our knowledge is apt to be obscured by details con- 
nected with special charges and particular factions. 
The Squire's knowledge is not so obscured. He sees 
the political landscape with an extraordinary clearness, as 
you might see one or two bald hills rising into the sky. 
Like a bald hill he sees the fact that a national government 
was in being, claiming national support and dependent 
for strength to cope with the crisis entirely on that 
support. And like another bald hill, he sees the fact that, 
owing to a wanton indulgence in the spirit of faction, that 
support was denied and the national energy, instead of 
being wielded like a great battering ram against the foe,was 
diverted and frittered away in a long course of internecine 
squabbles and disputes. Beyond this the Squire does not 
examine. No other than these two gaunt facts — the Great 
Attempt, the Great Betrayal— dominate his political 
vision. But, after all, from the point of view of England, 
are not these the two facts that count ? 
The Spirit of Patriotism. 
To what extent other sections of society are adopting 
the same standpoint I know not, but I have little doubt 
that the spirit of patriotism, that is, the capacity to feel 
and think and act in union, is everywhere on the increase. 
Naturally, influences so profound must be veiled in 
a certain ob.scurity and will remain inarticulate until the 
work of transformation they are effecting is more or less 
complete. Until that time comes, therefore, 'we shall 
very likely go on as at present, tolerating the overt ex- 
pression in our midst of weakening and cowardly fears 
and condoning in our daily ];ress a course of criticism 
which inevitably makes for the disintegration of the 
national will. But what I would point out is that bentath 
these surface evils there is forming in the body of the 
nation an intense realisation of country, which in due 
course, by the unconsciously exerted effects of its influence, 
will silence the ill-omened voices among us and by securing 
unity will secure victory. 
The truth is, as 1 said to begin with, that the fullnesf 
of strength contained in the idea of nationality has no* 
yet come into bearing. It is easy to speak of patriotisn 
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