THE FUTURE OF BRITAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 196, 19 August 1899, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE FUTURE OF BRITAIN.

CONAN DOYLE AND H. G. WELLS'S

ANTAGONISTIC OPINIONS

Writing in "The Young1 Man" for July, Dr. Conan Doyle says:—"As far as material greatness goes, I believe that the history of this country haa not yet begun. All that we have seen is an introduction to the part which, Great Britain is to play in the world. As tne central ganglion of the English-speaking races, she will be on a different footing to the unexpanded nations of the Continent. Morally I see no sign of decadence ( As education has increased, crime has decreased in a steady ratio. A friend of mine who superintends convict labour bewails the fact that his works LANGUISH FOR WANT OF WORKMEN. Political bribery was very common last century—it is practically unknown now. Drunkenness has greatly decreased. Duelling is extinct Gambling in its more moderate forms seems to me to be a very venial sin. If Cabby gets an outside interest into his life by putting half-a-crown on his fancy, .who is the worsts for that? Extreme cases are no doubtvery bad, but no one would call Australia a decaying community, and yet there is far more betting there than in Great Britain." Mr. G. H. Wells writes as follows:—■• "The advance in comfort and convenience due to scientific discovery has been so great c"hiring the last half-century that it may blind manyeyes to our steady decline in commercial morality, and, relative to Germany and America, in education and national efficiency. We are i gentler and less violently vicious and criminal than our fathers, possibly because we are more timid and more ACCUSTOMED TO THE ■ POLICEMAN; we are certainly far less honest and far less capable of generous political movements than they Avere in the 'sixties.' Our patriotism is mainly lyrical; the necessity for heavier taxation produces from each prosperous 'patriotic' class nothing but yelps for exemptions or suggestions for tariff jobbery. Our recent warfare in Uganda and South Africa has been distinguished by quite abominable atrocities. Our literature and science look dwarfish beside that of, the 'sixties,' and our press is less broad-minded than it was in those days, and becoming indeed quite stupidly vehement. The religious in* stinct is perverted by sectarian squabbles; religion becomes a mere vehicle for the spite of dull-witted Protestants against childish priests, and an excuse for the meaner ratepayers to block educational work. Occult religions, a sure sign of a decadent period, abound. But I am very doubtful if this is a real start upon the down grade, or whether these things are not a sort of swirl or backwash, a reaction following the "ENORMOUS ADVANCE IN CIVILISATION. that has distinguished the middle years of the century. Almost the worst thing of all is the permeation of business and labour by the gambling spirit. Far better for a man and the world that he should be a drunkard or given -to any form oi! honest vice, provided only that he work and keep his sense of a fair exchange, than that he should spend a futile life forever hoping and planning for the 'fluke' that shall open for him the glorious gates of wealth and witless expenditure. I take it that to give a fair equivalent for what we receive is the very root ideal of sane morality, as intelligent sympathy is its root feeling. I incline to think that as a nation we have become less fair and less sympathetic, more conceited, greedy and violent in the last dozen years."

j A new way of calling a pastor has been devised. One of the loading Presbyterian churches of Toronto recently empowered four Scotch and English divines to nominate a minister for the Toronto church. Their recommendation has been accepted, and a call extended to Rev. Armstrong Black, of Birkenhead, England, a brother of E. Charlton Black, now of Cambridge, Mass., who is well-known | as a lecturer on literature.