SCOTTISH NATIONAL CHARACTER.

Evening Star, Issue 18051, 19 August 1922, Page 4

SCOTTISH NATIONAL CHARACTER.

The members of the Dunedin Burns Club must have felt gratified at their meeting this week to hear Dr Elder’s interpretation of the Scottish national, character. Sir Walter Scott, hot-headed 1 -, enthusiastic poet and antiquary, and at the same time dogged, persevering, hard-working novelist and man of letters, was held to be the true type of his race, as sharing in preeminent degree that combination of headstrong impetuosity and of persistent determination which has made the Scot prominent in the world’s affairs in a measure out of all proportion to the population of bis native land. Scott’s contemporaries, Burns and Byron—the latter was a Gordon on his mother’s side, and spent his early boyhood in Aberdeen—displayed all the characteristic fire of the race, and in poetic genius outrivalled the great novelist, but lacked his love of hard work and consistency of purpose, and therefore were far from being true to type. A consideration of the history of Scotland, and particularly of the part played in colonial effort and in the building of the Empire by -Scots, leads one to concede that there is much to be said lor this view, and that the proverbial “canniness” of the Scot is merely the expression of the natural indisposition of the adventurer, whose labor has raised him from poverty to comparative affluence, to surrender what has been gained with so much effort. The wild story of feudal Scotland—clan feuds and border forays, Highland incursion and Lowland vengeance—is that of -a land inhabited by a hot-beaded'. people of military instincts. As one comes to more modern times the same impetuous spirit finds its outlet in the restlessness of the Scot, which impels him to seek new spheres for bis energy far from his native village and glen. The key to the Scottish character is to be found in the poverty of Scotland in the Jong period prior to the union of the Parliaments, which gave a now impetus to Scottish industry and commerce and inaugurated a new ora fn the history of the country. The Scot of early days, finding Kttlo outlet for his energies in commerce or industry, was prone to betake himself to pursuits less peaceful and more congenial. When be sought to better his condition he usually took service on the Continent in the armies of France, Germany, Holland, 'Sweden, Russia. “ The contempt of commerce entertained by young men having some pretence to gentility,” says Sir Walter Scott in, the introduction to ‘A Legend of Montrose,’ "the poverty of the country, the national disposition to wandering and adventure, all conduced to lead the Scots abroad into the military service countries which

were, at war with ,each other.” Scott’s own ‘Quentin Durwardi’ lias rendered familiar the Scots Guardi of the French kings, a permanent body in France, in which many ambitious Scots gained! distinction, and which endured until the Reformation ended the ancient alliance by separating Protestant Scotland from Catholic France. The traditional tendency of tlie youth of Scotland to seek a career in Continental campaigning continued. The Scots Brigade of Holland now took the place in the imagination- of the Scottish youth of the Archer Guard of French, earning great distinction in the heroic struggle with Spain for the independence of the Netherlands, and taking precedence of all the troops in the service of the Dutch. The Dutch had scarcely achieved their independence when the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War ushered- in the golden age of the Scottish soldier of fortune. Scott’s Dugald Dalgetty is typical of the Scottish youth of the period, who fought with indifference for Gust-a-vus Adolphus or for Wallenstein as occasion offered, and who, when peace on the Continent ended his military career there, found a fresh sphere in the troubles which the Civil War brought upon Britain. Thus if the Englishman of the great age of Elizabeth achieved distinction as an adventurer and explorer by sea, the Scot no less sought adventure and romance in a military career, for the instinct of the Scot and long tradition made him rather soldier than sailor. The fact that Scotsmen entered the field of colonial enterprise so much later than England is to a considerable extent explained by this difference in- national tradition, and temperament. The English Puritan, vexed by religious persecution and seeking a more democratic state, carried out the exodus which founded the New England colonies, which were already flourishing at a time l when Scotsmen could point to only one small Presbyterian settlement in South Carolina, soon to be swept away by the Spaniards. The Scottish Covenantor, with' his national military tradition behind him, and animated by the memory of the heroic days of Wallace and Bruce, refused either to submit to the oppressor or to seek a refuge in other lauds', but set up that grim resistance which ended only with the downfall of the Stuarts. The military instinct of the Scot, again, bad much to do with the failure of Scotland’s first national colonial effort of importance, the Darien scheme. The soldier of fortune, who had achieved distinction in Continental armies, was ill-suited by training and temperament for the less romantic task of tiie colonist. It was reserved for Scotsmen of a later period, trained in those habits of perseverance demanded by the development, in the eighteenth century of commerce, industry, and agriculture, to bring to the work of colonial enterprise that combination of the spirit of enterprise and of prudent persistence which brought success to the Scottish colony of Otago.