A GERMAN'S APPRECIATION OF ENGLAND.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 26 May 1915, Page 5

A GERMAN'S APPRECIATION OF ENGLAND.

WISE HINTS" FOR OURSELVES.

A very interesting appreciation ef the qualities of the English people has, been published m Leipzig by Dr. Ernst - Scultze, ot Hamburg. Tne Times 3_S . that it would be difficult to find in tha same small compass a more illuminating treatment of the political spirit an <Ck tramu,g of the Englisb people. lir. Schultze is well known as at writer on public affairs in England He has qualified himself by a thorough: study of English writers in the fieicL of history and of political criticism, and he has lived in this "country spending a portion of his time, wit__ very fruitful results, as a resident inTpynbee Hall. PRACTISED IN POLITICAL LIFE. "The following passage on the second page gives a broad statement- of the subject under consideration: " "The Anglo-Saxon race is indisputably superior to the Latin in political insight, and still more to the Slavs. For a long time they have also left v» Germans behind. It is*no mere coincidence that in the same centuries during which the English brought their Constitution and national political lifer to so brilliant a development; they should also have built up one of tft _f mightiest world-empires of which history has to tell. Often have we had to complain-that British settlers ia distant lands, even when few in nam- -. ber, have in a short time assimilated, their German neighbors. This is precisely because :_hey were -more'_-"•" ._ tised in political life '—" " _^,- ■**£&■ German , _-» rMW. &*.©_§ && seem destroyed root and-branch-the faqu.tr fci- self-^overnmeat which they formerly manifested,^ Dr. Schultsse finds that a M . poetical training must be eased on five elements—political knowledge, Doliticat judgment, political capacity (Konnen), the sense of po.tieal duty, and political thought. These e'enients, as they appear in English life, are then separately discussed, and particular stress is laid on the development of the sense of dutf which has been fostered m English history by the constant association of personal r.espoosibilitv with personal liberty. "The result is that in Eng'and "a host of public duties of the most varied kinds are discharged by peopte holding unpaid- offices in innumerable voluntary organisations. Work of the most valuable kind is thus accomplished, for which no comoulsory measures ou the part of the State could ever have provided. This s.vstem has been the source of definite blessings to th© English people, and not least to its '■' pristocracv, which has th^s been redeemed from the sad fate of the French nobility. In spit« of the dissolution of feudalist, neither the higher nor the lower nristor-racy of England has ever sunk in+o the condition of } » class without public duties.

ENGLISH LACK OF LANGUAGES.

" "The English are often lacking even in the desire for a more accurate knowledge of foreign affairs. That few Englishmen now understand foreign languages is a matter of commonknowledge, and yet Elizabethan times, as we learn, for instance, from Shakespeare, the educated classes occupied themselves much with the language* and culture of foreign peoples. To-day, on the other hand, English export trade is threatened in various quarter* because English merchants will not be induced to concern themselves about the languages and customs, the weights, measures and particular needs of foreign customers. The officials themselves who are to rule other races in the Empire do not always receive> the necessary preparatory training— there is actually no such thing in England as an Institute for Oriental Studies!' OUR FUTURE SAFE IF "Allowing for all this, Dr. Schultze seems to think our future safe enough. if we stand by two great principles, which he believes have become ingrained in the character of our people. One of these is that 'great-heartedness-in misfortune' which, instead of yield-

ing to panic or seeking vindictively foxs a scapegoat, turns inward the light of* a merciless self-criticism and takes thought how to amend what has been, at fault.

"The other is the fixed habit oS moderation in internal administration —the resolve to avoid the use of force* where it is by any means possible to* do without it. And these principle* themselves, together with the whole. English political system, rest upon the conviction that politics are a concern, of the whole nation, that every man is bound to learn his rights and duties as a citizen, and so to yield na servile or mechanical obedience to tl_a authority of the State. The root of thei * whole matter, the special political '^difference' of the English people* Kesr there."