THE SOUL OF ENGLAND

Evening Star, Issue 17328, 16 April 1920, Page 6

THE SOUL OF ENGLAND

HEAICTS THAT BEAT TRUE UNDER INSULAR RESERVE. [By Eobfht Blatckpoed.] 6 Last week I set out to praise England, and lost myself amongst some queer company at, an> inn.

ihis week I shall write in praise of tha : English, and will try to stick more closely '■ to my text. Mr Ford Maddos Hueffer has ' made a (study of the English, and has published the results in three pleasing and useful volumes: The Soul of London;' Heart or the Country,' and 'The Spirit of the Peoply Of the latter book, containing a very intelligent and thoughtful appreciation of the English and the English tradition I have something to say, Mr Hueffer, who' is himself of mixed descent, he tells us, points out tljat the Jttiglkh are a very mixed race. with the faculty of assimilating foreign* strains and of Anglicising (or appropriating) foreign heroes and foreign achievements. He' says, far instanoo : " They (the English people) do not need in their own view to trouble their heads to keep the race pure. The climate. the tradition, the school will do that. The. children of any Wallachian will become as English as the ohildren of any Lincolnshire fanner, so that at times an uneasy wave passes acrcts the Kr-jlisu people." This is a fact of which many ot us have long been conscious. 'Xhe Englishman is not English bjheredity; he is English by environment. Itis not liis blood that- is English, hut his code, his training, his tradition. NO ENGLISH BLOOD. There _ is, strictly speaking, no such thing a* English blood. The neolithic race which lived in England before the ancient Britons only survives in a few atavisms. Thev are swarthy and dark-eyed, with ruddy cheeks «.r.d thick curling hair. I have seen many such amongst the country children of the southern and eastern counties. The Roman type, which is marvellously persistent, crops up hero and there. But- since the Romans went we have had great incursions of Saxons, Jutes, Angles, Danes, Nonnam?, Dutch, BdFrench, Jews, Poles, Italians, and Russians. The amalgamation of these immigrants has not bred an English race-, but it lias given us the English people. If I ask which of all the races is or was the English, Mr Hueffer will answer "All of them," and that is the riaht answer. Mr Hueffer tela? ui that he has the blood of threo races m his veins. My blood consists of unequal parts of Italian, Dutch, and Devonshire; I cannot say English, for there is no English blood.

What Mr Hueffer says about the cluldren of foreign parents born in England is c quito true. At a school kept by a friend of mino there were children troni English, Scottish. Welsh, and Irish families, and children of Russian, French, Belgian, and Dutch parents, and they were all English. No one could pick out a boy as Dutch or French, or Russian. They all spoke the same language and played the same games. The wickeikceper was a handsome French bov, one of the bowlers was Dutch, and we made a Belgian lad; into a decent batsman, in on© term. THE' TEST OF NATIONHOOD. a foreigner can speak English and think Enslish, and feel at home in" England, he is as English as most of us. Some of the most characteristically and patriotically English men I have known have been eocs or crandsons of foreigners. Mr Hueffer credits the English with docility to the laws and to each other and with a tender and humane regard for dumb animals. He savs: "It is, in fact, for anyone acquainted with the lien, crowd difficult to imagine them really violent inaction, and it is almost equally difficult to imagine their rulers violent in repression. . . . One imagines. I mean, that any British Ministry would -Ive in their demission rather than incur th-e responsibility of ordering soldiery to fire into an English crowd." All that, fits in with the general experience. The English people are not beli'cose, are not fractious. They love comfort, they respect law and custom, and they have- a savin-"-grace of humor. We saw this proved by the conduct of our sailors and soldiers during the war. We saw it proved by the conduct of the women at home. We saw it asain throughout tha recent railway strike. = We see it every time a constable on point duty raises his hand. It is part of the Englishman's cult to repress his emotions, to play tho ci-ame, a.r.d to accept the decision of the ■umpire as final. Taking- them in the lump, I should say the English are good-humored' peace-loving, sport-loving, and sensible. ' And this opinion fits in with Mr Hueffer's claim that the most valuable service which this country lias rendered to the world is as ne very clearly puts it: "It is not even for its poets that England must be thanked: it is certainly not for its love of the fine arts or its philosophies. It is for its evolution 01 a ride-of-thumb system by which men may live together in large masses. It ha* shown to all the world how- (Treat and teeming populations may inhabit a small island with a minimum of discomfort, preserving a decent measure of individual independence of thought, aud character, and enjoying a comparatively level standard of material comfort and sanitary precaution." That is true again, and I think there is no other countrv where the law is so lenient or the people so amenable to the law. Certainly in America, which is a republic and boasts of its democracy, things are not as comfortable or satisfactory.' Now there are some Eng-lishmen who consider it a misdemeanor to love Engl.-ir.d or to praise the ErtQ-liEh, ai.d many of these whose love for Ensland is lukewarm have never seen England. And it is true that those who belittle the, English do not know the English r.ever having given an hour's thought or study to the history and achievements of the English people. And. as I ventured last week to speak of somo of the beauties of our English towns and so I will a;ow"lav before our readers one~example of the nobility of certain Englishmen, and don't shru" your shoulders, brother pacifist, for I am not goine io .vaunt of 'England's prowess in the field nor to embellish anv hackneyed tale or krrrnd of St. George and"the Dragon cr Sir Richard Grc-m-illo and the Reveille. No. I am going to tell von of a naval exploit which I read about in the year before the war in a fine book called 'The Kind's Ships.*

AX ODYSSEY FROM TEE SEA. Vv'ken we- wv>re at war with the Frenchit win*, in fact, a couple of years before Trafalgar—Captain, Sir Charles Paget, commanding the British frigate Endvmion, sighted off the coast of Spain a French three-decker. The French ship was in distress. There was a full gaie of wind and a heavy sea. She had lost hrr bowsprit and fnremant and was rolling hard and dragging her anchor does upon- a very dangerous and rocky lee shore. What did tho English, captain do? Did he open fire upon the hr'piess enemy, as would a modern Gfrman officer? Xo. Sir Charles Paget was English. He knew that to «o to the assistance of the French !me-of-batt!e ship would be to risk h-s own vessel and cvew. Ho also knew and reverenced the word seamanship and that line, gentiemaniy, and chivalrous rode known as iho tradition of the British Xaw. He hois'ed a flag of truce and hauled" in hie guns. The French captain replied by dipping his ensign. Then the adventure i'n sc-;>-manshin began. The Endymion's storm sails were blown out. She hoisted more, with th<> same result. She hoisted a third set, and went into the, laws of death—to rescue an o-«niy. Understand, plta.se. that the French ship was almost surrounded bv rocks, ovctv "ii "f_ which whs a deadly threat to the Hndyniion. In the toe.th of these dangers '■i e f' I "''''^! 1 *";P t-ore down to the assistance or the Frenchman, dropped, bis starboard s-ie'l. anchor on h'-s pert bow. buoved the cao'e with a 50-fathom buoy rope, and veered

a vawsrr, connee'ed M the cable across the French ship's bows. This hawser the French crew succeeded in gettinsr in. and, bv haulin? on the cable, gnt the weight of their snip on to the Endymion's sheet anchor and mads ali safe. By this time the Endvmion was herself in the most extreme danger, and the 700 Frenchmen she had saved crowded to the side of their ship and watched anriouglv her manoeuvre. they were rewarded bv an exhibition of cool bravery and splendid seamanship, which, beimr gallant Frenchmen and sailors, titev greeted with rousir.? cheers. First the Endymion hauled to the wind, then she let go her starboard bow anchor, slipped it. and so "club hauled" and stood out shore on the other tack, escaping, roeke and reefs, and making open water. Having achieved her purpose, her crew' led 'bv the Hop. Charles Paget, saluted the Frenchman witn three rimrino- British cheers.

There 13 the little story, and when I assert that it is a story of a de=d really Entrlkh. I think I have praised tho English—we-11, not too well. A MERCIFUL RACE. Mr Hueffer claims that the English are a nation of poets, r am not prepared to so that far, but I will fay they are a nation.' slow to an«:er and quick to forgive and that they have* as much as anv people ori the earth a genius for friendship. This last mav sound odd to foreign ears', for is not our :nsular reserve notorious? It is. But I shall claim for that English reserve that it is not due to pride, nor to indifference, nor to_ suspicion, but rather to respect for the privacy of others, and perhaps a little to a certain shy reticence of soul which bids the Englishman not to be conspicuous. A good many years ago—more than 20, to be ca.udid—l want as a military correspondent to Germany, I was away a week or so, and I did not Geimpan, bo that I

get very loueiy and absurdly homesick. But at last I got on board a ship at Flushing •en route for Dover. And -when I saw tbs English cliffs, like a streak of milk on the sea, I believe my heart beat faster and nw eyes were wet. At Dover I got into 4 first-class compartment of the London traia and took a corner seat, and opposite to me was my only fellow-passenger, an English clergyman, a fine, tall, manly chap, with a well-washed, healthy, pleasant face. He had a copy of 'The Times' on his knee, and I had some other p'aptr. And he looked tip, and we regarded each other coolly and frankly for some seconds. And then we read our papers. And ah the- way from Dover to London we never spoke to each other—not one little word—and I sighed happily, for I felt that this indeed was England. A CONTRAST FROM AMERICA. And "right here," by way of contrast, I must tell about my only American friend. She was a lady journalist from Chicago, and she had run the blockade of my London office and waylaid me at the head of tha stairs. I can see her now, a little dark lady, with bright*eyea, advancing rapidly, and saving with a pleasant eelf-uosseesion and all in a breath: "You are Mister Blatchford,. I "suppose. I'm glad to see you. I wonder how old you are. I'm not asking, but I'd like to know." She waß a perfect dear. She won my heart in the first over," and I loved her ever after; but imagine lan Englishwoman approaching and addressI ing an unknown: foreign editor with that I breezy candor! > [ This lady was surprised by our insula ; reserve. She said to mc: "I went to your National Gallery, and I said to a gentleman j-standing by me: "That's a nice picture.' j and he- looked at me as if ho thought I ; wanted to steal his watch." Still, as I pointed out to this lady, we became friends in a minute, and she loved England in a week; and I think that, shows that we are a. friendly people, though our peculiar courtesy constrains ufl, as it were, to expect - to j fire first." Now, once in an hotel at Or- | leans I met a French officer^—but I must not | tell any inn stories this week, or I shall ba j hearing from the Pussyfoots!